WASHINGTON (OSV News) — A key national pro-life group said it plans to spend $160 million in the 2026 midterm elections and the 2028 presidential election cycles to elect its preferred candidates.
The pledge comes amid increasing challenges for Republican candidates in November. Republicans currently control both chambers of Congress, but a recent survey by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report found that Democrats hold a 6-point advantage over Republicans on a generic congressional ballot.
‘Our family meeting’
At the organization’s annual gala April 29, Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said the event “is our family meeting, and I think we can all feel what’s going on.”
“We’re at a pivotal point in the future of the pro-life movement, and the events of the next few years will determine whether we as a country recognize the dignity and humanity of the unborn child so fearfully and wonderfully and intentionally made, or whether we’re seeing abortion to continue to spread at the rate that it has since Dobbs,” Dannenfelser said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., acknowledged in a keynote address that “we really do have a truly unprecedented moment in the history of the pro-life cause, because it is not every day that you get unified government.”
One Big Beautiful Bill Act
He touted the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which enacted key items from President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda on issues including taxes and immigration, which also included a provision eliminating funds to health providers who also perform abortions.
“As you all know, for the first time ever, we got our big initiative done,” Johnson said. “We defunded big abortion.”
Without naming the organization, Johnson pointed to a report estimating that about 50 Planned Parenthood clinics closed in 2025 as the group lost its ability to bill Medicaid as a result.
However, that provision is set to expire on July 4, and it remains unclear whether it will be renewed in subsequent legislation.
Efforts to enact pro-life protections
Half a dozen Republican senators — Sens. Steve Daines, Montana; Cindy Hyde-Smith , Mississippi; Bill Cassidy, Louisiana; James Lankford, Oklahoma; Jim Banks, Indiana; and Ashley Moody, Florida — joined Dannenfelser on stage during the program, and each praised the group’s efforts to enact pro-life protections, with several also praising its efficacy in their own campaigns.
Daines pointed to the confirmation of three of the six Supreme Court justices who voted in favor of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision as proof of “the impact that you all have made by investing in these races.”
“We’re not here just to run races,” Daines said. “We’re here to win races. And SBA is on the doors, mobilizing voters, getting our people out, persuading on the doors, and making a tremendous difference.”
Challenges to eased restrictions on mifepristone
The gala also came as the group has sought to push the Trump administration to roll back Biden administration-era eased restrictions on mifepristone, a drug commonly, but not exclusively, used for first trimester abortion. However, the Trump administration has asked multiple judges to pause several state lawsuits challenging the FDA’s approval of that drug, prompting frustration from pro-life advocates who support those challenges.
Over a year into Trump’s second term, the Trump administration has thus far left in place the Biden administration’s eased restrictions on mifepristone that eliminated an in-person dispensing requirement.
In remarks at the gala, Cassidy said that as chair of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, he has sought to “hold the administration accountable” for approving a new generic form of mifepristone, a move also criticized by pro-life groups like SBA.
Dannenfelser said Cassidy, who is facing a Trump-backed primary challenger, Rep. Julia Letlow, R-La., “deserves all of our support” in his primary, which is scheduled for May 16.
A win for Alliance Defending Freedom
At a reception prior to the program, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., praised his wife, Erin Morrow Hawley, who serves as of counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, for a “unanimous victory judgment” earlier the same day in the U.S. Supreme Court.
The high court ruled April 29 that a group of faith-based pregnancy centers in New Jersey can challenge in federal court an investigation by that state’s attorney general alleging they misled people about their services and seeking information about their donors. Erin Halwy argued that case on their behalf.
In his comments, Josh Hawley also took aim at mifepristone as “inherently unsafe,” touting his legislation to revoke its FDA approval.
Opponents cite significant risks
Proponents of the drug argue it is statistically safe for a woman to take, and attempts to restrict it are an attempt to ban abortion outright. In contrast, opponents argue there are significant risks to those who take it, particularly outside of medical settings, in addition to ending the life of an unborn child.
The Catholic Church teaches that all human life is sacred from conception to natural death and, as such, opposes direct abortion. Church leaders have called for restricting mifepristone’s use in abortion, while noting that the drug’s more recent usage in medical protocols for miscarriage care, where an unborn child has passed away of natural causes, would be a morally legitimate scenario.
Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on X @kgscanlon.
