Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America

Founding

The formation of the SBA List was catalyzed in March 1992 when Rachel MacNair, head of Feminists for Life, watched a 60 Minutes television documentary profiling IBM heiress Ellen Malcolm and the successful campaign-funding activities of her Democratic abortion-rights group EMILY's List. MacNair, a peace activist and anti-abortion activist, was motivated to organize the Susan B. Anthony List for the purpose of countering EMILY's List by providing early campaign funds to anti-abortion women candidates. Led by FFL and MacNair, 15 anti-abortion groups formed an umbrella organization, the National Women's Coalition for Life (NWCL), which adopted a joint anti-abortion statement on April 3, 1992.

Also inspired by EMILY's List, in 1992, the WISH List was formed to promote Republican candidates who favored abortion rights. In November 1992, after many of the candidates who favored abortion rights won their races to create what was termed the "Year of the Woman", MacNair announced the formation of the SBA List, describing its purpose as endorsing and supporting women who held anti-abortion beliefs without regard to party affiliation. MacNair determined to challenge the EMILY's List and the WISH List notion that the top female politicians primarily supported abortion rights. She said the SBA List would not support right-wing political candidates. "We want good records on women's rights – probably not Phyllis Schlafly". The NWCL sponsored the SBA List with $2,485 to create it as a political action committee (PAC) on February 4, 1993, listing MacNair as the first secretary; the group operated out of MacNair's office inside a crisis pregnancy center on East 47th Street in Kansas City, Missouri. The first SBA List public event was held the same month at the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the National Woman's Party. Organized by founding board member Susan Gibbs, the "kickoff" event raised "more than $9000".

Susan B. Anthony and early feminist connection

MacNair named the SBA List after the famous suffragist. The leaders of the SBA List say that Anthony was "passionately pro-life". The portrayal of Anthony as a passionate opponent of abortion has been subject to a modern-day dispute. The National Susan B. Anthony Museum and House said, "The List's assertions about Susan B. Anthony's position on abortion are historically inaccurate." Anthony scholar Ann D. Gordon and Anthony biographer Lynn Sherr said that "Anthony spent no time on the politics of abortion. It was of no interest to her." According to Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the SBA List, Anthony "referred to abortion as 'the horrible crime of child murder'". Gordon and Sherr said the "child-murder" quote attributed to Anthony actually appeared in an article written anonymously by someone else and that other quotes attributed to Anthony have been misattributed or taken out of context. Gordon said that Anthony "never voiced an opinion about the sanctity of fetal life ... and she never voiced an opinion about using the power of the state to require that pregnancies be brought to term". The Anthony Museum and House provided evidence for the idea that the author of the "child-murder" article was a man.

History

Early activities and re-organization

Founding board member Susan Gibbs, later the communications director for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, said, of the early years for the SBA List, "None of us had political experience. None of us had PAC experience. We just had a passion for being pro-life." Shortly after its founding, experienced political activists Marjorie Dannenfelser and then Jane Abraham were brought on board — Dannenfelser served as executive director, leading the organization from her home in Arlington, Virginia. In 1994, the SBA List was successful in helping 8 of its 15 selected candidates gain office. In 1996, only two challengers who were financially backed were elected, while five SBA-List-supported incumbents retained their positions, a disappointing election for the group.

In 1997, the SBA List was re-organized by Dannenfelser and Abraham into its current form as a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization with a connected PAC, the SBA List Candidate Fund. Abraham became president and Dannenfelser held the position of chairwoman of the board. The rules for endorsing and financially supporting candidates were tightened: in addition to the politician having to be female, she must have demonstrated an anti-abortion record (a simple declaration was not enough), and she must be seen as likely to win her race.

In 1998, the SBA List began backing male anti-abortion candidates as well, endorsing three men in a pilot program. One of the three won election to office: Republican Peter Fitzgerald who received $2,910 from the SBA List to assist him in his $12.3 million win over Democrat Carol Moseley Braun in a battle for the U.S. Senate seat in Illinois. Abraham served as president from 1997 until 2006 when Dannenfelser became president. In 2000, the SBA List contributed $25,995 to its favored candidates, in contrast to the WISH List and EMILY's List, which contributed $608,273 and $20 million, respectively, to their favored candidates.

21st-century history

Contributions from supporters grew by 50% from 2007 to 2009. As of December 2009, the SBA List had outspent the National Organization for Women in every election cycle since 1996. Former Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave joined the SBA List in March 2009 and works as a project director and spokesperson. The organization tried to keep abortion coverage out of any health care reform legislation in 2009 and 2010. It had targeted Senator Bob Casey to ensure abortion was not covered in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), and lobbied for the Stupak-Pitts Amendment to H.R. 3962. The group criticized Senator Ben Nelson for what it called a "fake compromise" on abortion in the PPACA and condemned the Christmas Eve passage of the Senate bill.

The group had planned to honor Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) at its March gala, but after Stupak's deal with President Obama, in which Obama would issue an executive order banning federal funding for abortion under the bill, Stupak was stripped of his "Defender of Life Award" three days before the gala because of the SBA List's doubts, shared by the most prominent anti-abortion groups, about the effectiveness of the Executive Order. Stupak had told Dannenfelser, "They [the Democratic leadership] know I won't fold. There is no way." On the day of the vote, Dannenfelser said she promised Stupak that the SBA List was "going to be involved in your defeat". In a statement, Dannenfelser said, "We were planning to honor Congressman Stupak for his efforts to keep abortion-funding out of health care reform. We will no longer be doing so...Let me be clear: any representative, including Rep. Stupak, who votes for this health care bill can no longer call themselves 'pro-life.'" No one received the award in his place, and Dannenfelser instead used the occasion to condemn Stupak. The group dropped its plans to help Stupak fend off a primary challenge from Connie Saltonstall, who decided to challenge Stupak on the basis of his anti-abortion views. Stupak later dropped out of the race, announcing his retirement from Congress.

In 2010, the SBA List hosted events featuring prominent anti-abortion political figures as speakers, including Sarah Palin, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty and Rep. Michele Bachmann. In August 2010, to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote, the SBA List held a colloquium with five scholars at the Yale Club of New York City, billed as "A Conversation on Pro-Life Feminism". An SBA List project, "Votes Have Consequences", was headed by former Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave and was aimed at defeating vulnerable candidates in 2010 whom they considered insufficiently anti-abortion, for instance those who supported health care reform. In January 2011, along with Americans for Tax Reform and The Daily Caller, the organization sponsored a debate between candidates for chair of the Republican National Committee.

Strategies

The SBA List employs many strategies in order to attract the public to its mission. Lawyer and Scholar Tali Leinwand explains that the SBA List encourages Republicans not to endorse personhood amendments, and attempts to link the anti-abortion movement to less controversial causes like opposition to the Affordable Care Act. These strategies, Leinwand argues, attempt to de-stigmatize the anti-abortion movement.

Charlotte Lozier Institute

Founded in 2011, the Charlotte Lozier Institute (sometimes shortened to the Lozier Institute or CLI) is SBA List's research and education arm. Named after Charlotte Denman Lozier, it is based in Arlington, Virginia. Charles Donovan serves as its president, while James Studnicki is its director of data analytics.

In 2021, the group filed an amicus brief in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, a Supreme Court case over a 2018 Mississippi state law banning most abortions after 15 weeks. CLI argued that research has shown fetuses can feel pain as early as the second trimester of pregnancy, and states have legitimate interests in "preventing the infliction of great pain and even death on a conscious human being," and so the Mississippi law should be found constitutional. The Supreme Court ultimately ruled that the Constitution does not guarantee a right to abortion.

In 2023, research from CLI was cited in Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk's ruling in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA, a lawsuit challenging the Food and Drug Administration's approval of mifepristone, a drug used in medication abortions. The now-retracted study, authored by James Studnicki, claimed that more than one-fourth of women on Medicaid who were prescribed abortion medication between 1999 and 2015 went to an emergency room within 30 days. The study was retracted in 2024 based on several factors, including unsupported assumptions, misleading presentation of data, and lack of scientific rigor. In addition, the retraction cited undisclosed conflicts of interest, as one of the peer reviewers was affiliated with CLI and all but one of the authors had undeclared affiliations with CLI or other anti-abortion advocacy organizations. As part of the investigation, two other studies by Studnicki from 2021 and 2022 were also retracted over fundamental errors in study design, analysis, and data presentation, and an undisclosed conflict of interest from the same peer reviewer.

Elections

2006 elections

The 2006 midterm elections were moderately successful for the SBA list. Twenty-one out of 38 endorsed candidates won their contests, for a success rate of 55%

2008 presidential election

The SBA List gained renewed attention during the 2008 United States presidential election following Sarah Palin's nomination for Vice President. In 2008, the SBA List also started a social networking service and blog called "Team Sarah", which is "dedicated to advancing the values that Sarah Palin represents in the political process". Palin headlined the organization's 2010 "Celebration of Life" breakfast fundraiser, an event which got extensive media coverage and in which she coined the term "mama grizzly". According to Politico, Palin's criteria for endorsing candidates is whether they have the support of the Tea Party movement and whether they have the support of the SBA List.

2009 elections

In the 2009 special election to fill the vacant House seat for the New York's 23rd congressional district in upstate New York, the group endorsed Doug Hoffman, the candidate of the Conservative Party of New York, over the Republican candidate, Dede Scozzafava, who favors abortion rights. The SBA List spent over $100,000 on Hoffman's behalf, joining with the National Organization for Marriage and other socially conservative groups in supporting Hoffman's campaign.

2010 elections

For the 2010 elections, the SBA List planned to spend $6 million, (including $3 million solely on U.S. Senate races, and endorsed several dozen candidates. The SBA List spent nearly $1.7 million on independent expenditure campaigns for or against 50 candidates. The SBA List conducted a 23-city bus tour to the Congressional districts of self-described "pro-life" Democrats in Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania who voted for the health care reform bill and to rally supporters to vote them out. The bus tour attracted counterprotests at some stops, such as one in Pennsylvania where a group called Catholics United accused the SBA List of lying about health care reform.

The organization launched a "Life Speaking Out" petition to urge the Republican Party to include opposition to abortion in its Pledge to America. The petition was sent with over 20,000 signatures on it. In the California Senate race, the group endorsed Carly Fiorina against incumbent Senator Barbara Boxer, and spent slightly under $235,000 in independent expenditures in support of Fiorina. The SBA List partnered with the National Organization for Marriage to air Spanish-language TV commercials attacking Boxer's positions on abortion and gay marriage. However, Boxer prevailed over Fiorina in the November 2010 election.

Other notable endorsements included Sharron Angle, who unsuccessfully challenged incumbent Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in Nevada; the SBA List endorsed Angle despite having previously endorsed Angle's primary opponent, Sue Lowden. In September 2010, the SBA List launched a $150,000 campaign on behalf of New Hampshire Senate candidate Kelly Ayotte for the Republican primary. Ayotte won the primary to become the nominee, and later prevailed in the general election. In October 2010, the SBA List endorsed Joe Miller, Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in Alaska. The SBA List endorsed Miller after Sen. Lisa Murkowski decided to stage a write-in campaign after losing the Republican primary to Miller, and they launched a $10,000 radio campaign to air ads attacking Murkowski for turning a "deaf ear" to the will of voters who voted her out in the primary. Murkowski defeated Miller, who conceded after two months of court battles over contested ballots.

In the 2010 campaign, the organization purchased billboard advertisements in the district of Rep. Steve Driehaus of Ohio that showed a photo of Driehaus and intoned, "Shame on Steve Driehaus! Driehaus voted FOR taxpayer-funded abortion" The advertisement referred to Driehaus's vote in favor of the health care overhaul bill. The SBA List has taken the position that the legislation in question allows for taxpayer-funded abortion, a claim which was ruled by a judge to be factually incorrect.

2011 elections

In October 2011, the SBA List announced it would involve itself in the 2011 Virginia state Senate elections, endorsing challengers Bryce Reeves against Edd Houck, Caren Merrick against Barbara Favola for an open seat, Patricia Phillips against Mark Herring, and incumbent Sen. Jill Vogel in an effort to flip control of the state Senate, which the group described as a "graveyard for pro-life legislation". It also announced it was spending $25,000 against Sen. Edd Houck to expose his "extreme record on abortion". Merrick and Phillips lost, but Vogel won re-election and Reeves defeated Houck by just 222 votes.

2012 presidential election

In 2011, the SBA List began to ask 2012 Republican presidential candidates to sign a pledge to appointing only anti-abortion judicial nominees and cabinet members, preventing taxpayer funding of abortion, and supporting legislation to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy based on the fetal pain concept. Candidates Rick Perry, Tim Pawlenty, Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Thaddeus McCotter, Herman Cain, and Ron Paul all signed the pledge, but Mitt Romney, Jon Huntsman, Jr., and Gary Johnson declined. Romney's refusal (he said the pledge might have "unintended consequences") sparked heated criticism from the SBA List, some of the other candidates, and political observers given Romney's past support for legalized abortion. Huntsman said he would not sign any pledges from political groups during the campaign, and was criticized by the SBA List as well. Cain initially said he agreed with the first three parts, but objected to the wording in the pledge which said he would have to "advance" the fetal pain bill; he said he would sign it but Congress would have to advance it. Cain later signed the pledge in November 2011. Johnson, who supports abortion rights, declined.

In August 2011, the SBA List, along with the Family Research Council and National Organization for Marriage, conducted a "Values Voter Bus Tour" in Iowa ahead of the Iowa Straw Poll. Candidates Pawlenty, Bachmann, and Santorum and other Republican elected officials, including Iowa Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds and Reps. Steve King and Louie Gohmert, joined. The SBA List endorsed Rick Santorum for the nomination, spending $512,000 on his behalf. After Romney became the presumptive nominee for the Republican Party, the SBA List declared that former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was unqualified for vice president due to her describing herself as "mildly pro-choice". In August, SBA released an ad featuring anti-abortion activist Melissa Ohden who says she survived an abortion in 1977. The ad criticized Barack Obama, saying that while serving in the Illinois Senate, he voted four times to deny medical care to infants born alive during failed abortion procedures. In a 2008 analysis, FactCheck drew a mixed conclusion overall, finding both the SBA List and Obama had made misleading and/or inaccurate comments regarding Obama's voting record on the topic in question while he served in the United States Senate.

2013 Virginia gubernatorial election

The SBA List made the 2013 Virginia gubernatorial election a priority for 2013, endorsing Ken Cuccinelli and pledging to spend $1.5 million in the election through its Virginia PAC, Women Speak Out. Cuccinelli was defeated narrowly in the general election by Democratic nominee Terry McAuliffe.

2014 elections

The SBA List sought to spend $8 million to $10 million on elections in 2014.

2016 elections

The SBA List spent $18 million in the 2016 elections.

2017 elections

SBAL endorsed Karen Handel in the June 2017 special election for Georgia's 6th congressional district, spending $90,000 to support Handel.

2018 elections

The SBA List typically endorses Republicans, but in 2018 they endorsed Democrat Dan Lipinski in a primary election against his challenger, Marie Newman, who favors abortion rights. The SBA List spent six figures on direct mail and other advertising for Lipinski in his primary, and sent a 70-person canvassing team to turn out voters for Lipinski. Lipinski is one of the few Democrats left that the group considers an ally, and Dannenfelser called him "a pro-life hero of legendary courage and integrity". After Lipinski voted against the Affordable Care Act due to concerns over taxpayer funding of abortion, the group told him "that they would always be there to fight for him if he ever came under fire". Lipinski won the primary by roughly 2,000 votes, and the SBA List, which knocked on 17,000 doors in the district to support Lipinski, was credited with helping him win.

2022 rebranding

In June 2022, the group rebranded as Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. The new name is intended to parallel the name of NARAL Pro-Choice America.

2024 elections

According to a Reuters report from July 2024, Marjorie Dannenfelser, President of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, warned the Republican National Committee and Donald Trump to not weaken language on the party's platform referring to the federal government's role in restricting abortion access. Specifically, she warned that "it would be a miscalculation that would hurt party unity and destroy pro-life enthusiasm" before the 2024 election. According to a Fox News report published October 30, 2024, the Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America engaged more than 1,000 students, as well as other canvassers of various ages and backgrounds, to reach out to persuadable voters in battleground states. The report also states that the non-profit raised $92 million and engaged canvassers to knock on more than 4 million doors in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Montana, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. One million of these door knocking visits were made by student canvassers. Their messaging was centered on the grounds that "Vice President Kamala Harris is too extreme on abortion."