(LifeSiteNews) — Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser delivered a “State of the Unborn” speech this week to coincide with President Donald Trump’s State of the Union Address, crediting the ability of states to directly ban abortion but warning that federal inaction has proven to be unsustainable.
The speech (full video, transcript), which clocks in at just under nine minutes, acknowledges the “great battles the pro-life movement has won after over half a century of struggle: electing a pro-life president, confirming the Supreme Court justices who would reverse Roe v. Wade with the Dobbs decision and restore the right to uphold the 14th Amendment equal protection promise in the law. The handcuffs are off. We are free to protect the human rights of people. We live in a new, fresh moment filled with hope for our children.”
The nation is watching. The actions we take today will determine the fate of countless lives.
Will we safeguard mothers and save our children?
State of the Unborn 2026 is NOW pic.twitter.com/ktTBnxUYLX
— SBA Pro-Life America (@sbaprolife) February 24, 2026
However, abortion numbers have actually increased since Dobbs, to 1.1 million a year, thanks to the proliferation of abortion drugs that now account for 60 percent of abortions.
“The current GOP strategy of leaving this issue to the states clearly does not work. Twenty pro-life states can’t even enforce their laws because of mail-order abortion drugs,” Dannenfelser says. “This abortion drug atrocity denies the Dobbs victory and other historic victories like the first-ever defunding of the Big Abortion lobby by Congress last year.”
Further, she warns, “some Republicans, including the president, think it’s time to be ‘flexible’ on the Hyde Amendment. That’s the bedrock principle that’s been around for fifty years that taxpayers should never be forced to fund the violence of abortion. Incredibly popular, consensus opinion. Leader John Thune, Speaker Mike Johnson, and Senator Bill Cassidy, among others, say, ‘Absolutely not. No flexibility here.”
“Our movement is strong. There is a flourishing of new, courageous and convincing voices at all levels: our churches, local communities, digital influencers, strong advocates in state and federal government – and this is all very good,” she adds. “But there is still a reality that we must acknowledge. The other side is never going to give up. As long as they have a grip on institutions, on power, on funds, on political officials, much of the media, we must – and our pro-life elected officials must – keep working and fighting and speaking. Never silent.”
Dannenfelser calls on the Trump administration to “Restore the in-person doctor visit requirement for the abortion drug” and “Stand by no taxpayer funding of abortion and Hyde policy,” warning that “What Republicans should fear is self-inflicted loss of their most passionate base,” referring to polling SBA recently commissioned finding that 34 percent of likely GOP primary voters say Republicans weakening or abandoning pro-life policies would make them feel less enthusiastic about voting in the midterms and less willing to volunteer for candidates or campaigns, which would be more than enough to make the difference in close congressional races.
Trump established a consistently pro-life record in his first term, which ended with a hotly-disputed loss to Joe Biden in 2020, but began to turn after the 2022 midterm elections, in which he attempted to blame the abortion issue for GOP underperformance. During his 2024 run, he changed further still, ruling out a federal abortion ban in favor of leaving the issue to the states, and changing the Republican Party platform’s longstanding pro-life language to reflect that preference.
This change was justified by invoking federalism, the conservative principle that America’s system of government intends for most matters to be decided at the state level, only imposing a national standard on select fundamental issues identified by the Constitution.
Pro-life critics stressed that the so-called “federalist” solution was wrong on principle, as preborn babies have an unalienable right to life that the Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment charges Congress with giving equal protection, and that, as a practical matter, it would be unsustainable because the abortion lobby would never be content with only some states being “pro-choice.”
The latter point has been demonstrated with the rise of mail-order abortion pills, which make it effectively impossible to keep even pro-life states abortion-free, undermining their pro-life laws by enabling pills to be distributed and taken in complete privacy, regardless of the added risk to the women from cutting out supervision.
Yet Trump also declared he would not reverse former President Biden’s refusal to enforce federal law against mailing abortion pills across state lines. Pro-lifers were given hope in May 2025 that the White House’s position might change when Health & Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (another formerly pro-abortion figure who “moderated” during his own presidential bid) promised a “complete review” of the medical risks of abortion pills, though no conclusions or timetable have since been announced, leading some senators to question if it’s even happening.
The abortion industry has increasingly relied on abortion pills since the fall of Roe v. Wade, despite the risks they pose to women. An April 2025 analysis by the Ethics & Public Policy Center (EPPC) concluded that almost 11 percent of women suffer sepsis, infection, hemorrhaging, or other major conditions after taking mifepristone, according to insurance data. That and similar findings by the Restoration of America Foundation are part of a “growing body of evidence indicating that the health risks associated with mifepristone abortions are severe, widespread, and significantly underreported.”
