Maybe This Will Be the Year

This past weekend was the annual March for Life in Washington, DC. There’s a different air this year. There’s hope, almost anticipation, that this might be the last year that the March goes on with Roe v. Wade as the law of the land.

March for Life 2022
Getty image found here

Marjorie Jackson, at the beginning of the prolifecon.org broadcast of the Family Research Council, done parallel to the March for Life, gave this introduction:

Today is the 17th Annual ProLifeCon Digital Action Summit here at Family Research Council. As well as the somber anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion on demand through nine months of pregnancy. Thank you for joining us as we fight for the unborn. This year the March for Life feels a little different. This could possibly be our last year under Roe v. Wade legalized. Hope is in the air.

Kirk Cameron, actor and Christian, was at the March for Life and gave an interview to Fox News,which was passed along by The Daily Wire.  He said, “I think that we’re at a tipping point. I think that the tide is turning, science is making it more and more difficult for us to pretend like it’s not a baby in the womb. We know that it is.” Cameron's wife was adopted. Their first four children were adopted. They’ve been on the side of life a long time. As he put it, his wife—and each of those first four children—were “one doctor appointment away from not existing.” He adds, about his wife, “She was not a mistake; she was a miracle.” His whole family exists because mothers chose life.

He also thinks there’s a sea change happening in the culture. He says, “Even in Hollywood, there are more and more people who are embracing the idea that life is a gift from God.”

Some of the optimism this particular year stems from the oral arguments before the Supreme Court in early December. We went through some of the details then. But as Mary Zach, co-host on the ProLifeCon broadcast, summed it up: “It is about changing hearts and minds as well.” Maybe the law is ready to change now, because the people are ready to change. Not all people, but a growing majority.

Katherine Beck Johnson, Fellow for Legal and Policy Studies at FRC, was given time on that broadcast to offer an overview of what Dobbs v. Jackson was all about.

Katherine Beck Johnson, ProLifeCon broadcast
screenshot from here

KBJ: Dobbs is an incredibly consequential case. It is the biggest abortion case of our generation, the biggest abortion case since Casey in 1992.

Mississippi passed a 15-week abortion ban. This is by no means a radical pro-life law. But it was struck down as it is unconstitutional under Roe, which prevents any sort of pre-viability ban on abortion. And this was struck down at the district court and the 5^th Circuit as unconstitutional. Mississippi then petitioned the Supreme Court to take the case.

Now, the Supreme Court could have just issued a statement saying, "This is clearly unconstitutional under Roe. We agree with the 5^th Circuit.” But they took the case, signaling they might be willing to do something to alter abortion jurisprudence in America.

It was then taken up another notch when Mississippi filed their briefs, and they didn’t just simply ask the Court to uphold their 15-week ban. They went after Roe. They called Roe out for what it is, a disgrace to our nation and to our constitutional law. And they requested that the Court overturn Roe. So, therefore, the case now really before the Supreme Court is whether or not Roe should be overturned and abortion should return to the states. So, like I said, this is a hugely consequential case, and we look forward to the decision that comes down in, hopefully, June.

Later in the discussion, she covered more details of the justices’ questions, and why we have reason to be so hopeful:

KBJ: While it’s hard to always read the tea leaves of what the justices will do from oral arguments, we took a lot of encouragement from the questions being asked, especially from Justice Roberts, who has become quite the swing vote. He really talked about and probed, well, isn’t America an outlier in our abortion jurisprudence? Why are we just in the camp of North Korea and China in our protections of the unborn?

Justice Kavanaugh, who’s also become another swing vote, said himself, "Well, shouldn’t this just be left up to the states?" He said that in response to a growing movement within the pro-life movement that the unborn are actually protected under the 14th Amendment, and that the Constitution forbids abortion, and this should not be left up to the states…. So, we really particularly look to the swing voters on the Court and what they were saying.

And then Justice Alito, who basically closed it out, talking to the United States Solicitor General, Elizabeth [Prelogar], who is of course advocating that the Mississippi law be struck down, and as she was continuously talking about the rights of the woman, he said boldly, “Well, doesn’t the fetus have an interest in living?” And I thought that was just so profound, that here we had a justice willing to say, “What about the rights of the unborn child?”

Another guest on that broadcast was pro-life activist Alyson Centofonte, who had MC-ed the event in front of the Supreme Court during oral arguments. She described some differences in the crowds:

Alyson Centofonte, ProLifeCon
broadcast, screenshot from here

No one [on the pro-abortion side] actually had a very empowering message of supporting women and moms and families. There were no children there that I saw. There were no dads that I saw.

On our rally we had female legislators with their husbands and babies in tow. It’s very empowering to see.

So, I think the shift that is taking place is that the pro-life movement has been so successful at having a consistent message that women and families should be supported in law and society. And that’s really refreshing to a young woman who’s in an unplanned pregnancy and scared. Because, we need to hear, we all need to hear that, “You can do this; we will be with you; we’ll stand with you.” That’s what the pro-life movement says: “We will stand with you.” The other side says, “You’re on your own. Take care of this, and get back to work, or get back to whatever you’re doing.” We want to walk women through pregnancy and motherhood. And you saw that. You saw that at the Court, and you’re seeing it in the pro-life movement now.

If Roe gets reversed, it doesn’t abolish abortion; it returns the jurisprudence surrounding abortion to the states. During the intervening years, the rationale for recognizing the fetus as a living human being has only grown. So in many states that will mean real progress for life.

In South Dakota on Friday, in concert with people gathering in Washington, DC, for the March for Life, Governor Kristi Noem announced two pro-life bills. One would ban abortions after the detection of a heartbeat (similar to the Texas law). The other would prohibit telemedicine abortions in the state. She said, 

We hope that this year’s March for Life will be the last and that the Supreme Court will finally protect every unborn life. But until that comes to pass, these bills will ensure that both unborn children and their mothers are protected in South Dakota.

Governor Kristi Noem's tweet on January 21, 2022
image found here

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, in a letter attached to their fundraising, describes much of the progress: 

FRC’s influence with state legislators this past year has been unprecedented. During the week of the Dobbs case hearing in early December, FRC leaders and experts hosted more than 120 state legislators from 39 states at our largest-ever summit designed to advance pro-life protections to the states.

Such mobilization is essential right now. In the event Mississippi’s pro-life law is upheld, it likely means states will have greater flexibility to set policies to protect pre-born lives.

Our experts are equipping frontline conservative legislators with scientific facts regarding life in the womb—along with moral and ethical reasoning that can inform every policy battle.

In recent months, our team launched an interactive tracking website titled “America’s Direct Deposit to Planned Parenthood,” revealing the outrageous amount of US Taxpayer dollars the abortion industry giant receives every year.

From our detailed policy research to our “friend of the court briefs”—including one we filed in support of Mississippi in the Dobbs case—these resources are informing policymakers at all levels.

He adds a request for prayer,

As this new year begins, I hope and trust you will commit to pray for our leaders—particularly those making life-or-death decisions on the Supreme Court….

God calls us to be intercessors in this hour. Intercession means to intervene on behalf of another, or to put it another way, to stand in the gap.

Will you commit to stand in the gap for our nation?

Let us never neglect to start and end the day on our knees, crying out to God for truth to prevail, for innocent lives to be saved, and for the Kingdom of God to advance.

Being an intercessor starts with prayer…but, in my experience, it doesn’t end there. That’s why our effective strategies including mobilizing Americans like you and informing policymakers—to shape the future of America and save lives in the womb.

That’s their organization’s goal. And it’s a good one. The call for the rest of us, besides prayer, is to inform, teach, help, support, and make it easier for individual women in distress to choose life in a world that has been trying to convince them not to.

I listened to a podcast the other night [Y Religion, episode 48, “The Complementary Nature of Mothers and Fathers” with Dr. Jenet Erickson], about research surrounding motherhood. Worth a listen. One detail was that, biologically, the growing baby and mother interact in ways we never knew. They share health support for one another. They exchange cells. They are forever part of one another. Once the baby is born he seeks his mother; he knows her voice and recognizes her. She is his preferred human for probably the first eighteen months, when he’s ready to turn outward toward father and others. It’s a profound honor to be so significant to another human being. If a woman truly knows that child within her, knows he is alive and interacting with her already, would she ever choose anything but life? The more we learn, the more life makes sense.

This year just might be the year we can more freely help all women choose life.