“What are you going to do now that Roe is gone?”
If you’re like me and you work in or with the pro-life movement, you hear this question a lot. Unfortunately, many people don’t realize that the only thing the fall of Roe did was push abortion back on the states, creating 50 individual, complicated, and very messy battles for so-called women’s rights.
The reality is that the last year has seen a lot of change within the focus of the pro-life movement. I was able to see this change firsthand at the Bringing America Back to Life Conference hosted in mid-March.
The conference, hosted by Cleveland Right to Life, can be best described as a “family reunion” for the pro-life movement. Which means that for the first time in what has truly felt like a lifetime, the pro-life movement was coming together in Ohio to agree on one thing: The only way to eradicate abortion violence in our nation is to do so without exception and without compromise.
For American Life League (which has been solely no exceptions, no compromise since day one), being in a room of people and organizations who align with the ALL’s mission felt quite unique.
Keynote speakers like Pam Stenzel, who was conceived in rape, pointed out the lunacy in supporting “pro-life” bills that place arbitrary restrictions on which babies can avoid the death penalty and which cannot.
As Stenzel asked, who are we to decide that a baby conceived in rape is disposable? An abortion will not undo a rape; as she stated, “Trauma does not erase trauma.”
Stenzel is living proof of this. Conceived in rape, she was able to be adopted by a family who gave her what her birth mother could not. And, with this gift, Pam has dedicated her life to saving babies and ministering to young moms who mirror her birthmother’s exact situation all those years ago.
Put simply: God wastes nothing.
The conference’s headline speaker, Seth Dillon, CEO of the satirical site The Babylon Bee, recounted for the audience his time on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, where Rogan pressed him on his solid defense of pre-born life.
Rogan battled Dillon with the most extreme examples, like a 14-year-old rape victim who would be forced to carry her rapist’s baby. Calmly, Dillon stood firm in stating that an abortion does not fix a rape and that the taking of an innocent human life is always wrong.
Taking aim at the left’s attempt to brand abortion violence as healthcare, Dillon stated, “Abortion is healthcare the way rape is lovemaking.”
With the ease only someone with a great sense of humor can conjure, Dillon was able to have a “mic-drop” moment both for Rogan and the conference attendees.
What Stenzel and Dillon, along with the rest of the conference speakers, drove home was that we are not in a position to place value markers on human life.
This means that a child with a detectable heartbeat is no less valuable than one who does not yet have one.
A child conceived in rape or incest is no less valuable than one conceived in wedlock. A child conceived with a possible health condition or disability is no less valuable than a perfectly healthy child.
Humanity is not responsible for determining who is worthy of life and who is not. Only the Creator Himself is.
This has been the driving principle behind American Life League’s no exceptions, no compromise stance on abortion since 1979. And while we cannot speak for the whole movement, it certainly felt like we were not alone at this conference in Ohio.
So, no, the fall of Roe did not eradicate abortion. Far from it. But in moving forward with a pro-life community that shares a common goal—like the total protection of human life without exception and compromise—we are certainly getting a lot closer.
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Interesting comment about how He wastes nothing.
Tudor Dixon in MI ran on this no exceptions (remember the tape in the restaurant?) and she got clobbered and Prop 3 got propelled to a win.
Gretchen Whitmer wants to market our abortion on demand status to other states residents to steal women workers – some sick thinking and depressing to those of us Pro Life. Of course, Newsom’s billboards linking Jesus to abortions was shocking, but not surprising. He recently dissed Walgreens over their refusal to sell the abortion pill if it was illegal in a state.
What’s being done with Catholic Joe Biden and Catholic Nancy Pelosi and thousands of other good Catholics who are unabashedly, arrogantly vocal about the right to kill a helpless baby? Why are there so many different factions within your church? Can you imagine if all the priests, cardinals, bishops etc. were sincere about your faith as you are? All fake talk but no action……..they’re supposed to make a difference in the world, not blend in and be apart of it. Someone needs to cut their puppet strings.
Why are there so many factions anywhere? The Catholic Church is comprised of people suffering the from effects of Original Sin just like the rest of humanity. It’s been that way from the very beginning.
“Unfortunately, many people don’t realize that the only thing the fall of Roe did was push abortion back on the states, creating 50 individual, complicated, and very messy battles for so-called women’s rights.”
The “fall of Roe” just help sustain a heretical delusion that has been stealthily promulgated for an indeterminate (AFAIK) time period. It was 1958 (Cooper v. Aaron), when the US Supreme Court usurped for itself the sole, exclusive, and arguably infallible (i.e. “infallible”) power to interpret the Constitution.
It is the media which has been complicit with this heresy. It ought to have exposed the error through coverage of dissent. But they are controlled by TPTB.
I use the word heresy even though the topic is with regards to the Constitution. This is because the real heresy is that humans make law. If one looks back, it was determined that judges find or discover – NOT make – law (i.e. justice). For a judge to go along with an unjust “law” passed by any legislature is complicity with the injustice.
With the heresy of legal positivism (i.e. humans make law) injustice was enabled under color of law. Only/Largely the Catholic Church has pushed back against this heresy. As a good source see: “The Natural Law A Study in Legal and Social History and Philosophy.” Rommen, Heinrich A.
“So, no, the fall of Roe did not eradicate abortion. Far from it. But in moving forward with a pro-life community that shares a common goal—like the total protection of human life without exception and compromise—we are certainly getting a lot closer.”
The key is to get the executive branch on board. With evil legislators and evil judges serving their jail time – or at least losing their office – for complicity with murder, the battle would be quickly won. The fact that this hasn’t happened is due to the above-mentioned heresy.
The fact is that the right to life is recognized in probably all constitutions. As such, the executive officers have taken an oath to uphold the state and federal constitutions. It is “law,” heresy, and probably corruption of their leadership (mayors/governors?) that has tied their hands.
The end of abortion means the beginning of a new life. It is my hope that the “Pro-life” movement will expend as much energy on the support of infant life after birth as it does before. It is one thing to be against something; it is a better thing to be for something.
There are countless Catholic and other Christian charities, groups, churches, etc. that offer all sorts of support to mothers of newborns. There are over 8,000 faith-based adoption agencies in the United States. There are millions of Christians who adopt and foster children, and have been doing so for decades. So, what exactly are you looking for?
This is mostly true but prolife people of goodwill can legitimately hold differing views on who has primary responsibility for raising children & what role the state, church, extended family or community has in providing to families in need. And which of those agencies is the most cost effective. It’s not an either/ or question.
The USDA’s budget is largely food stamps related (percentage wise), including WIC etc…
I think distributing surplus commodities to those who can benefit from them is a good thing, but the trouble lies in the cost & inefficiency of the huge bureaucracy behind that process.
Katie raises a valid point concerning the incoherence of being Pro-Life yet advocating for policy initiatives which include exceptions. As a state legislator in a purple state, i.e., Pennsylvania, where Pro-Life wins are few and hard fought, Pro-Life policy makers confront this dilemma regularly. If we adopt a Pro-Life strategy which acknowledges that incrementalism provides the best path to success, including exceptions is the best means of making any headway on Life issues. On the other hand, exceptions inherently undermine the broader Pro-Life message, which is that the unborn child is a person with equal dignity to any other person regardless of the circumstance of their conception or condition of their health.
As with all policy making, those creating and advocating for Pro-Life legislation have to weigh what their conscience and the political reality of their respective state dictate is best. The answers are not easy, but recognizing this challenge and praying for God’s wisdom for policymakers who share a love for the unborn is something that we can and should all do.
One tool we have is the ultrasound machine; we didn’t have these easy pictures back in the 1970s.
The left always talks about ‘follow the science’ here ya go
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In common law abortion is criminal homicide. Negligent homicide of the baby in utero is not DELIBERATE abortion; but it can have criminal consequences depending on the extent of negligence. I usually make an effort to be brief but I’d like to go into this. Outlaw abortion – make it criminal, for that’s is what it is: CRIME.
Quickening was the evidential standard used for determining the mens rea and actus reus, in those days when that was the available evidence. That is the sense in which the law in the past “recognized abortion” -the basis on which it could legally be proved. In law, it’s NOT that “before quickening it wasn’t seen as being a person”.
Things are different now, you can know before quickening that you are pregnant; where in law you therefore can criminally commit the crime of abortion in intentionally terminating the pregnancy.
You offend natural law too by using chemical contraception, because you set up conditions that can harm the child if conception occurs. In common law this comes to a type of criminal negligence, even criminal intention.
This is the position that reflects natural law. The baby is to be protected as from conception. Natural law would also insist on being responsible for ensuring that the conditions at the time of conceiving should not be poisonous to the conception, eg., through contraception or even ordinary medicine. Common law has room to express this as well. Isn’t it only natural you would see to it to procure a nurturing environment, when you go to conceive, for the eventual results?
The common law-criminal law standpoint removes all the debate about exceptions. Exceptions 1. kill the innocent, 2. corrupt people, 3. pervert the course of medicine and the administration of justice and 4. corrupt the law. Exceptions are deviant and extremely unnatural. Exceptions add worse deviancy and unnaturalness to the underlying cause eg., rape -because they kill and distort.
Ectopic pregnancy is its own type of case and its issues are handled according to their own contexts. Briefly, when it is possible to save the baby’s life in an ectopic, terminating the pregnancy can be criminal.
While the entire US body of laws can not reach to this within the next hour, it’s good to have it in mind as it can contribute to the acceleration of achieving the outlawing of abortion/deliberate terminating of pregnancy. In addition it helps bring too-far-ranging discussions, back down to their base points. So here goes. …..
Look at it more closely, it outlines the reality of the dimensions it is reflecting: there is a strange deficiency in the medical and legal world when it comes to shielding early life and a lot of wrangling going on to preserve it that way. First it is unjust and second left unchecked it will spread and implicate and catch more and more people in its ravages while yet keep yielding up deranged ethics/obligations about different situations.
Pro-life is about advancing the cause of the life of each unborn person and of all unborn persons, in the present but then too in such an effect as to be all-the-time. It isn’t going to go away when abortion is outlawed, it will continue to inform the society and the institutions that uphold what it projects and what it demands that professionals make come to pass, for each and every type of question. It is the purposeful sound practice of obligation and the accruing of effective methods on life.
Please understand the meaning of “common law”. Judges are bound by the common law. I am not asking for a statute against abortion, but the enforcement of the common law.
A few points would help to elucidate this.
At common law, the punishment for murder is the death penalty. There can be alleviating circumstances. In abortion, a teen mother, say, might not get a sentence of death; however, typically, it would be very hard, near impossible, for the doctor to avoid getting capital punishment.
Now that there is in the US no protected right to abortion, what applies is the common law. It is up to the judges to carry out its precepts. This is not a strange idea, it is the meaning of the originating jurisdiction of the courts of law in every land.
Courts can not avoid their originating jurisdiction.
In Canada, when the Morgentaler case cancelled the Criminal Code in respect to abortion, the reality was that the statutory control was removed and the legal matter reverted to the common law position in the hands of judges. And judges have no power to permit abortion or abstain from its prosecution as crime.
After Morgentaler the lower court judges completely failed their stations, by assuming there was no common law. This mentality persists today but, nonetheless, the lower courts are free to enforce the common law and can do it.
Law is prohibitive and facilitative and these 2 work in a supportive unity. Abortion being criminal means that medical practices can only be positive in the direction of securing life. There is no room to fudge. This is what it means to be “unapologetically” pro-life.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/new-documentary-to-examine-how-canada-can-achieve-a-pro-life-victory-like-dobbs/?utm_source=top_news&utm_campaign=usa