"Abortion Abolitionism": Christian Nationalism, Male Supremacy and Motherhood Penalties in Post-Dobbs America

• In Event: Social Movements and Criminal Justice: Movement Impacts and Perspectives on Advocacy

Abstract

After Dobbs, the far-right wing of anti-abortion activists, mobilizing under the heading "abortion abolitionism" (AA) and openly embracing Christian nationalist rhetoric, has gained momentum, calling for the revision of existing criminal homicide codes to include abortion. If movement leaders were to achieve their goals, what we have seen historically as positive economic motherhood penalties (economic losses for women who become mothers) could emerge in an inversion: negative criminal motherhood penalties (incarceration for women who choose to avoid motherhood via pregnancy termination). In order to investigate the reach of AA, I attended the January 2025 March for Life and National Pro-Life Summit in Washington D.C. as a participant observer. I compared March for Life marchers' discourse from homemade posters and Pro-Life Summit conference breakout session discourse with the emergent themes from a qualitative content analysis of the online content of four abortion abolitionist organizations designated in 2024 by the Southern Poverty Law Center as male supremacist hate groups. While the mainstream pro-life movement maintains its explicit objections to abortion criminalization, implicit in activists' and organizers' messages is an ultimate desire to align with AA. I outline the implications of the rise of AA and of pro-life activists' future orientation towards AA.

Author

• Darci Kathleen Schmidgall, University of Oklahoma