Marjorie Dannenfelser, SBA List's president, chaired Trump's pro-life coalition in 2016 after, months before, signing a letter with other women leaders urging Iowa Republicans in advance of the state's caucus to "support anyone but Donald Trump."
In September 2016, however, Trump the GOP nominee made specific promises to the pro-life movement including that he would nominate pro-life justices to the Supreme Court, sign a 20-week "pain-capable" abortion ban, defund Planned Parenthood, and codify the Hyde Amendment.
Although Trump has not signed a "pain-capable" bill-one has not cleared both chambers of Congress to reach his desk-he has appointed two justices to the Supreme Court and more than a quarter of federal appeals court judges. In addition, his administration has started stripping abortion providers or promoters, both in the U.S. and overseas, of federal funding.
"President Trump's been the first president to have an impact on Planned Parenthood's taxpayer funding," Quigley said. "They gave up $60 million when he issued the Protect Life Rule concerning Title X."
Key Senate races-among them, the re-election of Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and the race of John James in Michigan-will form most of the rest of the 2020 campaign by SBA List and Women Speak Out.
While pro-abortion Democrats currently hold a clear majority in the House-the group Democrats for Life in 2018 only endorsed two sitting members of the House-pro-lifers hold a slim majority in the Senate.
SBA List has already begun knocking on doors in Arizona, Florida, and North Carolina, where the organization has been active for multiple years, reaching 460,000 voters.
The group plans to expand its efforts to Iowa, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin, battleground states where the organization says it "could reach four million voters before election day" with its war chest.
For House and state-level races, the group will try to assist in states where it is already active on other campaigns, Quigley said, but Senate races and the presidential election will be the main focus of attention and spending.
As far as whether resources will be devoted to any pro-life Democratic candidates, Quigley said: "What we've announced today is what we've announced today. It's our plan to re-elect the President and safeguard our pro-life majority in the U.S. Senate."
In a Jan. 10 interview with CNA, Quigley highlighted the group's 2018 support for Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.), a pro-life eight-term Catholic congressman who faced a primary challenge centered on his pro-life commitment. SBA List said it had mobilized 70 canvassers to visit 17,000 "pro-life Democrat households" in Lipinski's Illinois third district, and the group spent more than $100,000 supporting his 2018 candidacy.
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Earlier this month, SBA List told CNA that it would again support Lipinski's campaign.
Although Lipinski again faces a primary challenge from pro-abortion candidate Marie Newman, Quigley said Friday that SBA plans to help bundle funds for Lipinski, but not to spend money from its war chest on his campaign.
Bundling is the practice of organizing candidate support from a network or donor pool.
Support for particular campaigns has not yet been announced because, with ten months until election day, "this is still very early," Quigley said. "A lot of these Senate races, we're still in the primary."
Matt Hadro was the political editor at Catholic News Agency through October 2021. He previously worked as CNA senior D.C. correspondent and as a press secretary for U.S. Congressman Chris Smith.