Michael Gonidakis, president of the anti-abortion group Ohio Right to Life and a 2012 Kasich appointee to the state medical board, considers Ohio to be in a “golden era” for anti-abortion activism, with an anti-abortion supermajority in the state House and Senate. But he said the swift passage of new laws limiting abortion would not have been possible without Kasich’s leadership. “We’ve never had a governor in my lifetime that was laser-focused on the issue of life like John Kasich is today,” he said, later adding, “John Kasich deserves the credit for creating an environment and atmosphere here for the 65 [anti-abortion] members of the House and the 23 [anti-abortion] members of our Senate to pass a litany of pro-life bills.”
This jumped out at me. Even with an "anti-abortion supermajority" in all levels of government they didn't do much more than pass minor incremental laws. I searched for a few minutes and found evidence that Kasich has in fact
opposed the strongest pro-life legislation proposed in his tenure, a heartbeat bill that would prohibit abortion after around the sixth week.
Now Kasich said that his opposition was strategic, since the legislation was supposedly too radical and would open doors to litigation that might hurt the pro-life cause. His opposition was gutless but not entirely senseless. These judges have frightening power in the US.
There's a fundamental problem with an incremental, state-based approach, in that all this legislation recognizes the right to abortion, and merely seeks to limit it. In other words, a law which for instance bans the abortion of "viable" children thereby recognizes the right to abort non-viable children. If Roe vs. Wade were ever overturned at the federal level, all of the incrementalist state legislation recognizing abortion "rights" would still exist and would take forever to overturn.
Really, the pro-life movement is a catch-22. Every "success" it achieves actually entrenches the abortionist regime. The only efficient solution (other than a chastisement) is a pro-life dictatorship. That's why I think right wingers should welcome the transition of Western culture to a caesarist phase.