Midterm Election Results: Two Pro-Life Victories

Voters in West Virginia chose to protect the unborn by declaring that the so-called right to an abortion or funding for an abortion isn’t secured or protected in the state constitution. Amendment 1 passed with 51.67 percent of the vote. Taxpayers fund elective abortions in West Virginia through Medicaid.

Voters in Alabama passed a similar measure. Amendment 2, which passed with 59 percent of the vote, essentially declares that Alabama is a pro-life state. The measure recognizes the rights of the unborn, and like West Virginia’s, would bar funding for abortions, and it recognizes that the unborn has rights.

Republicans had a chance to permanently defund Planned Parenthood but squandered it. The new Democratic-majority House of Representatives would never pass such a measure.

Naturally, abortion advocates believe these amendments will make it easier for states to ban abortion outright if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade and sends the issue back to the states. If that happens, some states will keep abortion legal, and others won’t. But like everything else, as the demographic make-up of the electorate changes, laws will change.