Many conservatives still treat the fall of Roe v. Wade as a decisive victory. The four years since have looked more like a warning.

States passed more pro-life laws. Abortion numbers still climbed as chemical abortions expanded. Republicans hold Congress and the White House, yet their best legislative win amounted to defunding Planned Parenthood for a single year — while Washington toys with expanding IVF mandates and even hints at becoming more “flexible” on the Hyde Amendment.

When the pro-life movement treats its own argument as too radioactive to say plainly, moderates still aren’t convinced — and the base stops listening.

The biggest losses didn’t come from legislatures. They came from voters.

Across the country, abortion-rights activists have used ballot initiatives to write a “right to abortion” into state constitutions. Once voters approve those amendments, courts use them to bulldoze state pro-life laws. The trend will continue unless the anti-abortion movement rethinks its messaging — fast.

Blue states predictably enshrined abortion rights. Red and purple states did too. Voters in Missouri, Montana, and Arizona backed abortion amendments. Colorado, New York, and Maryland did as well.

In 2024, abortion ballot measures passed in seven states and failed in three. Florida stopped an amendment only because state law requires a 60% supermajority. Nebraska rejected one by 51%. South Dakota defeated its measure with 59%. All three states backed President Donald Trump by larger margins than that.

Another wave of initiatives is coming this year. Nevada voters will decide whether to provide the second affirmative vote needed to add an abortion amendment they approved in 2024. Virginia, where Democrats control state government, will vote on an abortion amendment as well. Idaho voters may consider an abortion statute that lawmakers can later amend or repeal. Arkansas could vote on a measure to make the state constitution easier to amend, which would almost certainly tee up an abortion amendment fight soon after.

The pro-life movement keeps walking into these battles with a losing playbook.

Many pro-life groups center their messaging on women who get abortions rather than the babies murdered by abortion. They assume the issue primarily drives Democratic turnout. They want to “compete” by shifting to softer language about women’s health, hoping to win moderates on neutral ground.

That approach doesn’t persuade moderates, and it often fails to mobilize the pro-life base.

Take Arizona. The pro-life coalition opposing Proposition 139 called itself “It Goes Too Far.” One of its yard signs read: “Protect Women’s Health.” It didn’t even mention abortion.

Arizona voters re-elected Trump with 52% of the vote. They also approved Proposition 139 with nearly 62%. That’s the same margin New York voters gave their own abortion amendment.

RELATED: MAHA is sick: RFK’s FDA is drifting the wrong way

Jordan Vonderhaar/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Ohio followed the same pattern. Pro-life groups launched “Protect Women Ohio” to oppose Issue 1, which passed with nearly 57% of the vote in 2023. The messaging leaned on parental rights and transgender issues — as if linking Issue 1 to other debates would broaden the opposition.

Instead, the coalition blurred the point. Issue 1 appeared in an off-year election, one year after Roe fell. Progressive voters turned out. Conservatives stayed home.

Afterward, activists who knocked doors against Issue 1 told the same story: Pro-life voters felt confused. The campaign avoided the central issue, then wondered why the people most likely to vote against abortion never felt compelled to show up.

Abortion amendments raise other policy questions. They touch parental consent, conscience protections, and medical regulation. But the core reason to oppose them remains simple: Abortion murders babies. Pro-life messaging that refuses to say that out loud shouldn’t expect to win.

A blunt moral argument does two things that “women’s health” slogans don’t. It keeps the debate centered on what abortion is. It also activates the voters needed to defeat these measures — voters who will turn out when they understand their ballot could save lives.

Conservatives face a familiar temptation in a culture that punishes conviction: soften the message for short-term gains. Electoral politics requires prudence. It doesn’t require self-censorship. When the pro-life movement treats its own argument as too radioactive to say plainly, moderates still aren’t convinced — and the base stops listening.

If Republicans want to win ballot fights and build lasting cultural renewal, they need to speak with moral clarity. Until they do, they’ll keep losing these amendments — and babies will keep dying because of it.

​Abortion, Roe v wade, Abortion laws, Ivf, Pro choice, Right to choose, Right to life, State abortion laws, Opinion & analysis, Ballot initiative, The courts, Pro-life, Ohio issue 1, Proposition 139, Arizona, Messaging, Red states, Blue states 

President Donald Trump made it clear that oil prices were one of his top concerns as the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran enters into an 11th day.

The president threatened Iran on Monday after it was reported that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had reportedly begun laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz.

‘We are using the same Technology and Missile capabilities deployed against Drug Traffickers to permanently eliminate any boat or ship attempting to mine the Hormuz Strait.’

“If Iran has put out any mines in the Hormuz Strait, and we have no reports of them doing so, we want them removed, IMMEDIATELY! If for any reason mines were placed, and they are not removed forthwith, the Military consequences to Iran will be at a level never seen before,” he wrote on Truth Social.

It is estimated that about 20% of the world’s oil moves through the strait, and any interruption leads to a spike in oil prices. Those prices skyrocketed over the weekend but have since dropped somewhat.

“If, on the other hand, they remove what may have been placed, it will be a giant step in the right direction! Additionally, we are using the same Technology and Missile capabilities deployed against Drug Traffickers to permanently eliminate any boat or ship attempting to mine the Hormuz Strait,” he continued.

“They will be dealt with quickly and violently. BEWARE!” the president added.

Very soon after, he followed up with another post applauding the military for destroying “10 inactive mine laying boats and/or ships.”

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said that Tuesday would include the “most intense day of strikes” in the war.

“We’re crushing the enemy in an overwhelming display of technical skill and military force,” Hegseth said at a media briefing. “We will not relent until the enemy is totally and decisively defeated.”

RELATED: Rubio warns Iran against ‘suicidal’ closing of Strait of Hormuz; Vance says retaliation will be met with ‘overwhelming force’

State Sec. Marco Rubio had warned Iran before the strikes that the entire world would turn against the country if it mined the Strait of Hormuz.

“If they mine the Straits of Hormuz, the Chinese are going to pay a huge price,” Rubio said in June. “And every other country in the world is going to pay a huge price. We will too. It will have some impact on us. It will have a lot more impact on the rest of the world, a lot more impact on the rest of the world.”

He added: “That would be a suicidal move on their part because I think the whole world would come against them if they did that.”

Oil prices are up about 40% over the last month, which includes the beginning of the strikes on Iran.

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An 11-year-old boy shot to death his mother’s boyfriend after the couple’s argument last week allegedly became physical.

The shooting occurred around 11:30 p.m. Thursday inside a home in the 1100 block of South Peach Street in Philadelphia, WCAU-TV reported.

‘It’s disturbing and sad.’

Police told the station a 30-year-old man — identified as Jaimeer Jones-Walker of Lansdowne, Pennsylvania — was arguing with his girlfriend inside the bedroom of her home.

Police said Jones-Walker didn’t live at the home and double-parked on the street before entering his girlfriend’s house, WCAU noted.

The woman told police that Jones-Walker attacked her during their argument, the station said.

“It was verbal and possibly turned into a physical altercation,” Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small told WCAU.

With that, the woman’s 11-year-old son grabbed a handgun and fired one shot, which hit Jones-Walker in the face, investigators told the station.

Police and paramedics arrived at the scene and found Jones-Walker unresponsive inside the second-floor bedroom, WCAU reported.

Jones-Walker was pronounced dead at 11:59 p.m., the station said.

RELATED: Boy, 11, bashes intruder in head with machete while home alone: ‘You’re better off to get a job than breaking into other people’s houses’

Police said the woman and her son remained at the scene and were cooperating with the investigation, WCAU reported.

Officials said the gun fired amid the incident is legally registered to the woman, the station said.

Shyreea Blocker, a neighborhood resident, told WCAU she heard the argument that preceded the fatal shooting. She also told the station that the couple often argued.

“Like, arguing and fighting, but that’s nothing new with them,” Blocker explained to the station. “It’s a shame. It shouldn’t be like that.”

Another neighborhood resident, Gilbert Blocker, added to WCAU that he was concerned over how the shooting might impact the boy.

“The things he’s going to suffer in his heart if he has any feelings [are] going to last him not just now but for the rest of his life,” Gilbert Blocker noted to the station.

Sources told WCAU the boy is staying with another family member.

“It’s disturbing and sad. And I feel apprehension about what is going to happen with this child, what is going to happen with his mother,” Philadelphia’s Office of Domestic Violence Strategies Director Azucena Ugarte noted to the station. “Experiencing violence in the home has long-term effects, but we know that children are resilient.”

No arrests have been made in connection with the shooting, WCAU said, and no charges have been filed.

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​Physical attack, Philadelphia, Son, Mother, Mother’s boyfriend, Argument, Physical altercation, Fatal shooting, Defending family, Police investigation, 2nd amend., Crime 

The Los Angeles Police Dept. was able to capture a woman they believe fired seven gunshots into the home of pop star Rihanna while 10 people were inside.

Police were called to Rihanna’s home in the Beverly Crest neighborhood on Sunday at about 1:15 p.m. on a report of gunshots being fired.

‘Are you there? … Say something to me directly instead of sneaking around like you talking to me where I’m not at.’

Chief Jim McDonnell said Tuesday that 35-year-old Ivanna Ortiz was arrested and booked for attempted murder. Ortiz was initially held on a bail of $10.225 million, but it was later reduced to $1.875 million.

LA County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said Ortiz was charged with one count of attempted murder, 10 counts of assault with a semi-automatic firearm, and three counts of shooting at an inhabited dwelling or camper.

McDonnell did not indicate whether the singer, her rapper partner ASAP Rocky, or their three children were present at the home during the shooting.

He said a witness gave a description of the car that the woman fired from. Automated license plate readers and an LAPD helicopter helped police trace the car 8 miles away to the Sherman Oaks Galleria shopping center.

The woman was taken into custody without incident.

The LAPD said officers were able to recover the weapon as well as seven casings from an “assault rifle.”

They also found bizarre posts on social media allegedly from the woman accusing Rihanna of wanting to kill her.

“Are you there? … Say something to me directly instead of sneaking around like you talking to me where I’m not at,” one post reads. Another one said she was doing “her little music thing so she can do witchcraft.”

RELATED: Rihanna to headline Super Bowl halftime show after she refused to ‘sell out’ to the NFL in 2019 over Kaepernick post

No one was harmed in the gunshot attack.

McDonnell said the bail was set at a very high level because there had been 10 people inside the home during the shooting, and they were all considered victims.

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