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October 11, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Fearful that it’s only a matter of time before the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade and allows Americans to vote directly on abortion, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund (PPAF) unveiled a new plan Wednesday to facilitate abortions across the United States.
The abortion lobby is still reeling from Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s narrow confirmation to the nation’s highest court last weekend. Donald Trump’s second Supreme Court pick replaces notorious liberal swing vote Anthony Kennedy, leading pro-lifers to hope the new conservative majority will finally be enough to overturn Roe.
How Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, and John Roberts would rule on the question remains to be seen, but PPAF isn’t taking any chances. Nine states never repealed their unenforced, pre-Roe abortion bans, while another four have enacted bans that would immediately take effect upon Roe’s fall. The pro-abortion Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) estimates that 22 states could ban abortion outright.
In response, PPAF’s so-called “Care for All” plan lays out a three-part contingency plan for a post-Roe USA. At Salon, pro-abortion activist Amanda Marcotte calls the plan an “underground railroad,” comparing the pro-abortion scheme to the 19th-century network that helped fugitive slaves escape to free states in the North.
The first part is to expand facilities in abortion-friendly states like California or Illinois so they can form a “Regional Access Network” that would financially assist women traveling to them from pro-life states. This network would also expand telemed abortions and “leverage technology and innovation to ensure patients, no matter what state they live in, can connect to resources and determine how and where they can access abortion.”
Pro-lifers argue that telemed or “webcam” abortions, in which a patient listens to a doctor on a video screen while abortion pills are dispensed, expose women to additional risks without proper medical supervision.
The second part consists of lobbying legislatures to pass their favored bills and defeat pro-life measures, and “determine how we can use state policies to ensure there’s an ironclad network of states across the country where abortion will still be legal.” It’s unclear from their examples – statutory codification of a “right” to abortion, taxpayer funding – how this push differs from PPAF’s normal lobbying; presumably it will also redouble efforts to let adults take unrelated minors across state lines for abortions.
The plan’s third and final component consists of fighting cultural “stigma” against abortion. PPAF teases collaborations on positive depictions of abortion through movies and TV shows; websites, videos, and other “resources” to “educate” people about abortion; and general public awareness campaigns to normalize the killing of preborn babies.
“We began working on this plan before Trump and Pence took office, and we’re kicking it into high gear today,” PPAF executive vice president Dawn Laguens declared. “We demand a world where who you are or how much money you make doesn’t determine your access to health care or access to safe, legal abortion. We demand a world where your personal health care decisions aren’t affected by stigma, shame, or silence.”
Earlier this summer, the pro-abortion group NARAL launched a more direct approach to compensating for the loss of Roe, by lobbying House candidates to pledge that they would support federal legislation forcing all fifty states to allow abortion.
Pro-abortion groups aggressively tried to derail Kavanaugh’s confirmation from the beginning. Planned Parenthood lobbied senators to block him within days of his announcement, attacked him during his confirmation hearings for accurately stating that legal scholars disagree about Roe and that some contraceptives are abortifacients, and threatened to be “LOUD” and “NOISY” while “coming for” senators who voted “yes.”
After the final Senate vote, Laguens and former Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards called on their followers to “unleash your rage […] every day,” and to “stay angry” because “you will need all your anger now.”