Just two years ago, leading anti-abortion activists were euphoric as the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, ending the nationwide right to abortion.

Now, with a presidential election fast approaching, their movement is disunited and worried.

Within their own ranks, there is second-guessing, finger-pointing and trepidation that Election Day might provide new proof that their cause is broadly unpopular.

Michael New, an abortion opponent who teaches social research at The Catholic University of America, offered an overview of how the movement fared since Roe was overturned in June 2022.

β€œThings have not necessarily unfolded as we would hope,” he wrote in an email. β€œThere is certainly a sense among pro-life leaders that we should have had a stronger post-Roe game plan in place.”

The anti-abortion movement recently saw a losing streak on abortion-related ballot measures in seven states, including conservative Kansas and Kentucky.

Nine more states will consider constitutional amendments enshrining abortion rights in the Nov. 5 election: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada and South Dakota. In several of them, abortion opponents’ attempts to block the measures were unsuccessful.

Anti-abortion signs lean against a fence outside a recently opened Planned Parenthood clinic Sept. 10 in Pittsburg, Kan.

β€œPro-life people don’t wear rose-colored glasses; we know we have a huge task ahead of us,” Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life, said. β€œBecause of the massive amounts of money being dumped into the ballot measures from those allied with the abortion industry and the Democratic Party, it’s an uphill battle.”

Still, she added she has β€œnot seen flagging energy or any loss of determination among pro-life people.”

Republican former President Donald Trump nominated Supreme Court justices who were crucial to overturning Roe and called it β€œa beautiful thing to watch” as various states took different directions.

Texas is among the Republican-governed states that enacted near-total abortion bans. Yet nationally, Texas Right to Life president John Seago said, the anti-abortion movement β€œis in a critical chapter right now.”

He added, β€œwe have realized that while we had enjoyed massive legislative and legal victories in the last decade, public opinion had not followed the same trajectory.”

Troy Newman, who heads the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, recently published an online opinion piece assailing the movement he’s been a part of for 25 years.

β€œThe tide has turned, and the pro-life message is now considered a political liability that could prevent President Trump’s victorious return to the White House,” Newman wrote.

β€œAfter evaluating the terrible mistakes of the pro-life movement over the last several years, I can only conclude that it is our fault,” Newman wrote. β€œWe have had over 50 years to change the culture’s position on abortion only to have failed miserably.”

In an interview, Newman blamed those in his own ranks for the predicament β€” saying some anti-abortion leaders should have been more adamant in their positions. β€œWe lose the minute we stop focusing on the babies,” he said.

Kristan Hawkins, leader of Students for Life of America, suggested via email that Newman’s views were ill-suited to the post-Roe era. She said the students in her organization embraced the challenges of a state-by-state playing field.

But, β€œI actually believe the biggest threat is ourselves β€” our mindsets β€” which will lead to decreased recruitment, training, and mobilization of our grassroots army of love,” she wrote recently in the conservative outlet Townhall.

β€œLook at the struggles we face this fall with several late-term abortion ballot referendums,” she added. β€œMost will likely be a political loss for our movement because, in most states, a politically sophisticated, organized, and well-funded state-wide movement is not present.”

Hawkins also acknowledged anger among some anti-abortion activists over the inconsistent rhetoric on abortion coming from the Republican presidential ticket of Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance.

Trump has been evasive on whether he would veto a federal abortion ban if reelected and Congress were to approve one; his β€œleave it to the states” approach conveys acceptance that abortion is widely available in at least half the states.

Trump’s support for a state-by-state solution was a factor in the decision of Charles Camosy, an anti-abortion Catholic academic, to declare he now feels politically estranged.

β€œThe Republican Party has rejected our point of view. Democrats are running a candidate (Vice President Kamala Harris) who has made abortion rights a centerpiece of her campaign,” Camosy, a medical humanities professor at Creighton University School of Medicine, wrote recently in The Atlantic.

β€œPro-lifers β€” those who believe that protecting vulnerable and unborn life should be a primary policy priority β€” now do not fit in either major political party,” he wrote.

In an interview, Camosy said abortion-rights supporters were better prepared for the post-Roe era than their adversaries, while some Republican-controlled legislatures β€” in his view β€” went too far with stringent abortion bans.

β€œI see this moment as an opportunity,” Camosy wrote in The Atlantic. β€œPro-life 3.0 must welcome people from multiple political and policy perspectives, working for both prenatal justice and social support for women and families.”

Some other anti-abortion activists forcefully renounced Trump, including leaders of End Abortion Ohio.

β€œWe call on God-fearing American voters to withhold their votes from Trump until he evidences genuine repentance for his pro-abortion stance,” said the group’s executive director, Nicholas Kallis.

However, others β€” like Ohio Right to Life President Mike Gonidakis β€” encourage support for Trump.

β€œA vast majority of our statewide membership absolutely support President Trump and believe he would advance the protection of life at the federal level … more than a Kamala administration would,” Gonidakis said. β€œIt is not even close.”

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