The anti-abortion network behind the monument to the unborn

A grim move by Huckabee Sanders shows the networked nature of the anti-abortion movement's tactics

Sorry for my absence last week, I was travelling and by the time I got home I decided my afternoon was going to be spent watching re-runs of Modern Family, not writing about abortion rights. It was a slow and overcrowded train, I deserved it.

But here I am, back and writing to you today!

Just over a week ago a friend sent me a news story about a move in Arkansas to create a “monument to the unborn” outside the State Capitol. The excerpt he sent me went as follows:

“A controversial bill that provides for a “monument to the unborn” to be erected on the grounds of the Arkansas State Capitol has been signed into law by the state’s Republican governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders. The purpose of the memorial is, according to the bill, to commemorate “unborn children aborted during the era of Roe v. Wade”. That era came to an end last year, when the US supreme court struck down Roe v. Wade, thereby giving effect to a law Arkansas had approved in 2019 banning all abortions except those done to save the mother’s life. The new law requires state officials to oversee the selection of an artist and design for the memorial, with input from groups funding the project. However, even some anti-abortion Republicans have objected to the memorial, saying that it only serves to fuel the culture war.”

It goes without saying that such a monument is harmful in and of itself, particularly in a country where memorials are somewhat contested. The memorial taps into ideas that abortion is murder, and links to the grotesque comparisons made by some on the anti-abortion right of abortion to the Holocaust and other examples of genocide. The equating of women’s rights to bodily integrity with the mass murder of innocent people to gain power and control, and to enact deadly hate, is offensive on every level.

But what struck me about this memorial is how it is straight out of the Agenda Europe playbook. And I mean, straight out of it. Of the actual playbook.

The Agenda Europe manifesto explicitly states:

Make abortion visible, e.g. through films, posters, pro- live events, or through erecting monuments to the unborn (my emphasis)

For those of you who have not spent the last few years writing a book about anti-abortion networks, Agenda Europe is an organisation that gained influence in the 2010s by organising and networking the anti-abortion, Christian nationalist right through its manifesto (Restoring the Natural Order: An Agenda for Europe), its annual summits (attended by men linked to Russian oligarchs, Conservative Party-linked philosophers, CitizenGO, MEPs, Vatican Surrogates, US anti-abortion activists, and assets managers of Tory donors), and its strategies that helped to push anti-gender campaigns across Europe. You can read all about them in Neil Datta’s report.

Its manifesto is a 140-page mix of bizarre anti-feminism, anti-Marxism, and anti-LGBTQ+ conspiracy. Crucially, the document outlines Agenda Europe’s aims (ban abortion, restore the ‘natural order’, end LGBTQ+ rights, ban contraception except in cases of rape as a weapon of war - gee thanks) and offers practical applications for how to achieve those aims.

The suggestion to erect monuments to the unborn comes under the Abortion section, which states that Agenda Europe’s long-term target is a ‘Legal ban on abortion in all jurisdictions’ and an ‘Explicit legal ban on abortion in international law’.

Its interim targets focus on restricting access to abortion. This includes by introducing mandatory counselling, cooling-off periods, parental consent for minors, conscientious objection clauses, the introduction of draconian hygiene (TRAP) laws on clinics, the ‘prohibition of pro-abortion propaganda’, a ban on international aid for abortion care, a ban on nationally funded abortions (e.g. abortions through the NHS), the use of anti-abortion propaganda (it writes: ‘good example, Hungary’) and more.

I use these examples because across Europe and the US, all these restrictions on abortion exist. Agenda Europe’s goals are not hypothetical (although some of its aims are not in place). Instead, its agenda for abortion is active in countries across the Global North, restricting women’s access to safe reproductive healthcare right now.

The manifesto then goes on to state that one possible strategy to achieve these aims is to erect monuments to the unborn – just as Huckabee Sanders has signed off on in Arkansas, where abortion is banned except in cases of threat to the pregnant woman’s life.

Of course, I do not know if those who proposed the Arkansas monument are well-versed in Agenda Europe’s manifesto. What I do know is that Agenda Europe counted among its network men from the US anti-abortion organisations that helped end the nationwide right to safe and legal abortion in the country – representatives from Alliance Defending Freedom, for example, as well as Brian Brown from the World Congress of Families; Lila Rose from LiveAction, and Marie Smith of Priests for Life.

Rose, it should be noted, trained at the Leadership Institute, which counts Mike Pence among its alumni. Pence proposed having funerals for aborted foetuses which aligns with Agenda Europe’s strategy of creating ‘special places of remembrance for unborn children (e.g. a specific monument on each cemetery).’

It’s important to understand that the global anti-abortion movement is networked, sharing strategies and tactics, language and contacts, and, crucially, funding, in order to get its aims into national and international law. Whether the architect of the unborn monument was in the Agenda Europe room is beside the point – what we need to understand is that these seemingly bizarre and grotesque stunts don’t come from nowhere. They are part of a long-term set of tactics and aims that are shared across borders in order to inhibit women’s rights.

Obligatory book plug

This week I went to Cambridge University to talk about my book research which was great!

The book comes out in two months and six days. My first book event is planned for the 17 May, at Bath Literary Festival – you can book your ticket here.

You can book your tickets for the launch on 7 June, and book tickets for a panel with myself, Paul Mason, Nick Lowles and Prof Madhu Krishnan on 12 June.

I’m just kind of waiting for it to happen now. It’s such a weird feeling, you work on something so intensely for so long and now it’s out of my hands. It’s getting printed. Soon it will be out in the world and other people will have their own experience of it.

Pre-order your copy of Bodies Under Siege

What I loved

Annie Kelly at the Guardian is one of my favourite reporters and her podcast following the story of a Ukrainian woman who was trafficked is a good example as to why.

Listen here.

What I’m writing

Since losing my job I have been so lucky that a lot of my commercial copywriting clients have been in touch and giving me lots of work. It’s such a relief! Less incidents of lying awake at 3am panicking that I am going to lose my house.

This week I had a feature published in The I about going undercover in the anti-abortion movement and on incel forums. It was a lot of fun to write, and you can read more about my adventures in these dark spaces in my book.

Inside Britain’s anti-abortion training camps

I’ve got some really exciting commissions and a lot of FOIs floating around so more of my writing hopefully coming soon…

What I’m reading

This week I had the pleasure of chairing an event with Dr Marieke Bigg about her new book This Won’t Hurt, where we talked about women’s health, the health gap, sex, silencing, shame, female ejaculation, fem-tech, reproduction… it was great.

I finished The Disenchantment by Celia Bell which was good in a lot of ways, very sensual description so that I really felt there in the room. But I wanted more of Victoire, she never felt fully developed to me.

I’ve started 4:50 From Paddington by Agatha Christie, having finally finished The Singing Sands by Josephine Tey which I didn’t love, if I’m honest.

Do Not Disturb by Michela Wrong is fantastic and a must-read for anyone interested in Rwanda and the human rights implications of the UK/Rwanda Economic and Migration Partnership.

And I have The Biography of X by Catherine Lacey next on my list.

What I’m watching

So I bought Series 4 of Babylon Berlin but I decided to start from the beginning of Series 1 on account of how much I love it.

Have a little Lotte Lenya, featured on the soundtrack of S3:

“Chuck all the men out of the Reichstag, and chuck all the men out of the courthouse. Men are the problem with humanity! They’re blinded by their vanity!”

That’s all from me this week. Having been working since 9.30am, I am now going to retire to my sofa with a book and a cuppa… and yeah I’ll probably end up watching re-runs of Modern Family on E4.

Until next time!

Sian