While the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Supreme Court decision stopped activist federal judges from blocking pro-life laws, it could not stop state judges from doing the same.

In many states, pro-life leaders and legislators are passing protections for innocent preborn children, only to find themselves stopped by judges who are finding new rights to abortion. In other states, longstanding protections for preborn children are being overturned at the urging of Democratic officials.

For example, a Wyoming judge recently blocked a law that protects preborn babies from abortion when a heartbeat can be detected.

In January, the state’s supreme court also created a new “right” to abortion by misinterpreting a 2012 constitutional amendment meant to stop federal interference in the health insurance market through Obamacare. The amendment created a “state constitutional right [for] adults to make their own healthcare decisions,” according to BallotPedia. All five of the judges were appointed by a Republican governor from a list provided by a judicial nominating commission.

Rogue judges in other states are also doing what they can to override the will of the people.

A judge in Marion County, Indiana, ruled in favor of a group of women claiming they have a religious right to kill preborn babies. That ruling misapplied the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which allows for religious exemptions to laws unless the state can prove a compelling interest (such as protecting human life) and prove it used the least restrictive means possible.

And last year, the Montana Supreme Court ruled that a law simply requiring women to be given an opportunity to see an ultrasound of their baby “impermissibly infringed on Montana’s constitutional right to privacy,” according to the Montana Free Press. The same court struck down a 2021 law that prohibited abortions after 20 weeks of gestation.

Pennsylvania pro-lifers also saw the consequences of judicial activism when their own top court overturned a longstanding prohibition on Medicaid funding for abortion.

The law, in place since 1982, faced opposition from Governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat. He of course could have used the legislature to repeal the law but evidently did not have enough votes.

Instead, leaders turned to the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court, which ruled “the law violates the Equal Rights Amendment of the Pennsylvania Constitution,” according to WHYY.

“The Commonwealth Court today recognizes that the guarantees of equality in our state Constitution would be a hollow promise if women and birthing people did not possess the ability to control their destiny,” the director of the Women’s Law Project said.

The rulings illustrate the reason why the pro-life movement must push for federal protections, ideally through a Constitutional amendment, to protect preborn babies.

At the state level, pro-lifers must pass not just state laws, but Constitutional amendments, which explicitly protect the rights of preborn children from the moment of conception.

Voters and legislators cannot trust judges, even those appointed by Republican leaders, to uphold the rule of law.