In its quest to outlaw abortion across the country, the antiabortion movement has been largely unified around a core idea: Women who get the procedure should be spared punishment, while doctors and others who make it available should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

But a growing number of conservative leaders are starting to argue that the only way to stop women from ending their pregnancies could be to arrest them.

The shift is coming as activists express frustration that the number of abortions happening now is higher than when Roe v. Wade was overturned, largely because of the growing availability of abortion pills even in states where the procedure is banned.

Today, the fourth anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe, a group of more than 60 conservative influencers, antiabortion leaders, and pastors signed a petition to remove the “legal immunities” that have protected women who get abortions from prosecution.

That follows a vote earlier this month by delegates to the Texas Republican Party’s state convention to endorse repealing the legal protections that exempt women who get abortions from criminal penalties, a move solidified by a thunderous voice vote on the convention floor.

At the same time, the largest antiabortion group in Texas is formulating an idea to test the political waters on the issue. It is proposing to target a narrow slice of women, those with medical licenses, by threatening to revoke their licenses if they are caught taking abortion pills.

“In the last four years, our attitude has lightened a little bit because we are looking at the scope of the problem,” said John Seago, the president of Texas Right to Life, the group floating the idea to target patients with medical licenses. “I want for it not to be taboo to ask, ‘What is the accountability for these women?’”

So far, the shift has been mostly rhetorical, with few indications that Republican leaders in any of the roughly two dozen states that have banned all or most abortions are prepared to roll back provisions that protect women from prosecution. Recent legislative efforts to impose criminal penalties for women have failed to advance in multiple states, including Texas.

Nonetheless, the brewing debate is exposing divisions among conservatives and creating a dilemma for some G.O.P. candidates in this year’s midterms. Many Republicans are under pressure from antiabortion activists to address the issue of abortion pills, but supporting the prosecution of women who get abortions could stir a backlash from the broader electorate.

In Texas, Ken Paxton, the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate who has long made his opposition to abortion a core part of his political identity, has been silent on the issue, even as he broke with another position adopted by the state party last week condemning in vitro fertilization. Mr. Paxton did not respond to a request for comment.

Shifting attitudes among conservatives on criminalization could add to the pressure on the Trump administration, which has already faced criticism from some on the right for not doing more to halt the flow of abortion pills.

The rise in the number of women ending their pregnancies, including in states where abortion has been illegal since Roe fell, was highlighted in a report published this month by the Society of Family Planning. In states with abortion bans, nearly all abortions were provided via telehealth under “shield laws” passed in Democrat-led states, which provide protections for doctors who mail abortion pills.

Vice President JD Vance mentioned during a podcast appearance last week that he had been hearing from the “abortion abolition movement,” using the label adopted by some activists pushing for women to be prosecuted for having abortions. Mr. Vance hinted at the potential peril for Republicans in expressing opposition to the idea, saying that “we can’t be immune to the realities of modern politics.”

Some leaders in the national antiabortion movement are working behind the scenes to build a coalition willing to support the idea of criminally charging women who get abortions. A group called “The White Rose Resistance,” led by the antiabortion activist Seth Gruber, has been circulating the petition toward that end. The list of signatories published today includes prominent influencers and podcast hosts such as Allie Beth Stuckey, Riley Gaines and Alex Clark.

“We call upon lawmakers to remove legal immunities that allow the intentional killing of preborn children to continue, and to enact laws that provide full and equal protection under the law from violence and destruction, from the moment of fertilization,” reads the petition.

Mr. Gruber said he believed the statement would “unify a lot of people” in the antiabortion movement. The number of people who support this position, he said, is “much larger than people realize.”

Within the antiabortion movement, some who want to retain protections for women are sounding the alarm. Leaders of pregnancy centers, antiabortion organizations that counsel women who are considering abortion, have been among the most vocal.

“Every single one of the women we see has been abused and hurt and wounded, and they are victims,” said Jana Pinson, the executive director of a Texas pregnancy center who spoke out against criminal penalties for women at the Texas Republican Convention. “And now this guy has just walked away from them, and they’re going to be a single mom. And you’re going to put them in prison? Really?”

Abortion rights advocates warned that imposing criminal penalties for abortions could put women’s lives at risk, noting that women who have abortions or miscarriages will be scared to get medical care when they need it.

“It’s terrifying to imagine what this would do if passed,” said Amy Hagstrom Miller, the president of Whole Woman’s Health, a national network of abortion clinics that had several locations in Texas before Roe fell. “We already are seeing people afraid to present at an ER or doctor’s office because they’re worried about being surveilled or prosecuted.”

Long before Roe was overturned, the antiabortion movement stayed far away from the idea of putting women in jail for ending their pregnancies. When President Trump was asked about the issue on the campaign trail in 2016, he said he supported “some form of punishment” for women who had the procedure — but then quickly backtracked, emphasizing that “the woman is a victim.”

Two of the most prominent leaders in the antiabortion movement jointly wrote a Fox News opinion essay in 2022 arguing that the antiabortion movement had wholly rejected the idea of prosecuting women for having abortions.

“As leaders of two national organizations operating in all 50 states and working to pass life-affirming legislation, we state again emphatically that we oppose prosecuting women for abortion,” wrote Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life, and Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.

Kelsey Pritchard, the communications director for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said in a statement that the group’s position had not changed.

“We do not support legislation to attach criminal penalties to women and qualify them for the death penalty. No state pro-life law does this and that’s not changing, as not a single one of these bills has passed out of a state legislature.”

Ms. Hawkins said that her position also remained unchanged, but added that it could change decades in the future.

“My message is, ‘not now,’ but I’m not saying ‘not ever,’” said Ms. Hawkins, who emphasized that culture would have to undergo a major shift before she would seriously entertain a law that puts abortion patients in jail. “You have to make abortion unthinkable before you get to that point when you ask, how are you going to prosecute?”

Other antiabortion activists are striking a similar tone. Asked whether Texas Right to Life now supports putting women in jail for abortions, Mr. Seago declined to answer.

“We want to have a conversation to talk about what is the proper approach,” he said. “By answering yes or no, it shortcuts a discussion.”

The issue came up earlier this month at the Texas Republican Party convention in Houston, where party activists had gathered in part to decide what issues they wanted their state legislators to prioritize when the legislature convenes for its next session early next year.

A group of activists pushed forcefully for the party to prioritize repealing the laws that protect women who get abortions from prosecution. In committee meetings and floor speeches, they spoke of how babies in the womb deserved “equal protection” under the law, a concept widely appealing to those who oppose abortion, and pointed to studies showing that tens of thousands of abortion pills had flooded into Texas last year.

Several speakers asked Republican delegates to consider an extreme hypothetical scenario in which an abortion rights activist took abortion pills on the steps of the Texas Capitol — noting that she would face no penalties under Texas law.

At the end of the convention, delegates selected the abortion provision — which included a list of several abortion-related policies — as one of their top priorities.

Two Republican state representatives voiced their public support for the “abolitionist” movement in prerecorded videos.

“For years, Texas pro-life leaders have been declaring victories while tens of thousands of babies are still being legally murdered in our state,” Representative David Lowe said in the video. “It’s time to stop patting ourselves on the back.”

Representative Brent Money, who sponsored an unsuccessful bill last year to roll back criminal protections for women, said in a statement that imposing criminal penalties on those who get abortions is “the most logically and morally consistent pro-life position.”

Bradley Pierce, the president of a prominent pro-criminalization group, the Foundation to Abolish Abortion, said the movement had never had more momentum than it does at this moment. He said he expected a swell of support for his position when the Texas legislature convenes next year — earning new converts among those who “see that the standard anti-abortion strategy is not working.” He said he and his colleagues planned to spend the next few months rallying politicians across the state, including Mr. Paxton.

As attorney general of Texas, Mr. Paxton positioned himself as a fierce defender of antiabortion laws, filing novel lawsuits against pill distributors and out-of-state abortion providers. He declared June 24, the day Roe was overturned, an annual holiday for the attorney general’s office. He is locked in a competitive race against State Representative James Talarico, a Democrat who has made his support for abortion rights a prominent part of his message.

“We’d love to talk to him and get his support behind it,” Mr. Pierce said of Mr. Paxton.

“This is where we need to be spending the most political capital,” he added. “This is the hill we need to be willing to die on.”

Julie Tate contributed research.