In a “State of the Unborn” speech given hours before President Donald Trump’s Feb. 24 State of the Union address, Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, outlined the pro-life movement’s priorities and warned Republicans against sidelining their pro-life base.
Dannenfelser opened her speech by touting historic pro-life victories in recent decades, including the election of “a pro-life president” and the confirmation of Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. That ruling, she said, restored states’ authority to protect unborn children.
“The handcuffs are off,” Dannenfelser said. “We are free to protect the human rights of people. We live in a new, fresh moment filled with hope for our children.”
But she argued that the post-Roe landscape has exposed weaknesses in the GOP’s pro-life efforts – and particularly in the party’s state-by-state strategy.
Despite the Supreme Court ruling, Dannenfelser said there are at least 1.1 million abortions each year. Chemical abortions account for more than 60% of those deaths — surpassing combined deaths from fentanyl, cocaine, and heroin.
“The current GOP strategy of leaving this issue to the states clearly does not work,” she said, pointing to the widespread availability of abortion drugs by mail.
“Twenty pro-life states can't even enforce their laws because of mail-order abortion drugs,” Dannenfelser pointed out. “In accordance with Biden's COVID policy, California, New York, and foreign nations are mailing drugs to anyone — men or women — into states, determining policy for every state, even those with strong pro-life protections.”
Since the Biden administration lifted the in-person dispensing requirement for abortion pills in 2023, providers have been allowed to prescribe the deadly drugs via telemedicine and ship them by mail.
Now, more than half a dozen states are in court “fighting for justice for women and children who are poisoned and coerced by pimps, abusers, traffickers, boyfriends, and exes buying drugs online,” Dannenfelser said. Zeale News has reported on multiple criminal cases in which individuals have been accused of administering abortion drugs to women without their knowledge or consent.
Dannenfelser called on the Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to reinstate safeguards against abortion drugs and remove them from mail distribution. She said the administration could change those policies “easily.”
The FDA began reviewing the drug’s safety requirements in September 2025. The administration said in January 2026 that the review may take a year or more to complete.
She also addressed the fact that Trump recently told House Republicans to be “flexible” on the Hyde Amendment, which protects taxpayer dollars from funding abortion in most cases. Dannenfelser described the amendment as a “bedrock principle that has been around for 50 years” and insisted that taxpayers “should never be forced to fund abortion.”
“The reality is that federal policy is at odds with culture,” she argued.
Dannenfelser pointed to polling data as evidence of growing support for the pro-life movement. Pro-life identification among adults ages 18 to 29 has increased by 11 points since Roe was overturned, she noted. Meanwhile, support for abortion “on demand with no limits” has dropped 19 points. She added that a majority of liberal voters, 57%, also support in-person doctor requirements for abortion drugs.
“To the Trump-Vance administration, we insist: please act,” Dannenfelser said. “Restore the in-person doctor visit requirement for the abortion drug. Stand by no taxpayer funding of abortion and the Hyde policy. Hundreds of thousands of lives will be saved.”
Dannenfelser warned GOP politicians against a potential “self-inflicted loss” in the 2026 midterms if they distance themselves from pro-life priorities.
Recent federal actions have drawn criticism from pro-life leaders. In September 2025, the FDA quietly approved a new generic version of a chemical abortion drug, and in January, the Department of Justice asked a federal judge to delay or dismiss a pro-life Louisiana lawsuit seeking to restore in-person dispensing requirements for abortion drugs.
“This is our challenge today,” she said, speaking to Republicans. “With renewed unity, keep our promise to protect the right to life in this most important human rights movement of our day.
In her conclusion, Dannenfelser offered hope and encouragement, saying the pro-life movement continues to grow and has “great days ahead,” especially as Americans prepare to celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday this year.
“We have everything we need to accomplish victory for women and children,” she said: “Strong and convincing leaders, faith in God's goodness, inspiration and lessons from history to guide us, the tools of democracy that give us voice and power, and, most of all, the riveting vision of the one child — precious, irreplaceable, so very needed, and with rights to protect.”
Dannenfelser did not address the practice of in-vitro fertilization (IVF), which has recently sparked debate within Republican circles. Trump signed an executive order in February 2025 to expand access to IVF and has since implemented follow-up measures. In his State of the Union address, he praised his “Most Favored Nation” drug-pricing policy for lowering the cost of IVF.
Several pro-life leaders, including CatholicVote President and CEO Kelsey Reinhardt, have opposed Trump’s promotion of IVF. The Catholic Church opposes IVF because it violates human dignity by separating procreation from the marital act and often destroys human life.