If the Supreme Court becomes Brave Sir Robin instead, Roe Vs. Wade, Bolton vs. DoeAndCasey or Planned Parenthood?You will be there Dred ScottAnd Ferguson vs. PlessyIn the pit of disgraceful legal decisions. The leaked opinion by Justice Samuel Alito (“Politico Try to Pre-Game the Supreme Court by publishing a draft opinion overturning Roe”) shows that at least five justices favour the destruction of this entire pseudo-legal structure, which has resulted is 50 million American mothers being murdered in the womb.
This corrupt, and often horrific, jurisprudence was the catalyst for soul-searching. Pro-aborts are particularly vulnerable because they have lost all their souls. The things they seek are extremely small and difficult to find.
Some are concerned about what the future holds for the pro-life movement. They see it as an leftist lobbying group. This quote comes from an NY Times Op-Ed entitled If Roe is Overturned: Where Should The Pro-Life Movement Go Next. The author is Tish Harrison Warren, who describes herself as “An Anglican priest reflects on matters of faith in private life and public discourse.” (I confess that I’m firmly aligned with English playwright and essayist Samuel Johnson, who said, “Sir, a woman’s preaching is like a dog’s walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.”) I don’t know the author’s opinion on RoeShe seems to be a pro-lifer, even though she is opposed to abortion. She regards the struggle against abortion’s evil as a beginning point of the pro-life movement.
Pro-life activists have been working toward overturning the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision ever since it came down in 1973. The mood changed when I talked to people from the pro-life and whole life movements after I learned that a draft opinion had been leaked. It indicated that the court would overturn Roe. It was not a time of unalloyed joy and triumph.
People I spoke with expressed worry and optimism but also a cautious optimism. This was in part because they worried that the court’s draft opinion may shift in weeks to come. However, those taking a holistic view to abortion reduction feel that while legal restricting abortion may be a victory for justice and the voiceless, it isn’t enough to make a culture that is pro-life holistically and meets the needs of women and unborn babies.
My impression was that the Supreme Court’s decision on pro-life would be a beginning line for whole-life leaders and not a final one. It is not possible to roll the credits with a triumphant pro-life movement moving into the sunset. One activist told me, “I feel joy and relief, but it is kind of like the joy and relief one feels in getting into college, being cast in the school play or making the varsity team. The conditions for the possibility of achieving the goal have been met, but there’s so much more hard work to do.”
What does this “culture that is holistically pro-life and addresses the needs of both women and unborn children” look like? This is what Harrison Warren advocates.
Pay your employees first
…Paid family leave is the recognition of basic reality: New mothers need time to rest and heal; all parents and caregivers need time to care for and bond with children. Every baby, wanted or unexpected, should be welcomed; every parent’s labor You can be a parent should be recognized.
Take care of the elephant in your room
Economic realities, not abortion laws, are our true antagonists…To truly value life, we must pursue policies and community resources that support paid leave for parents, child care, equitable health care and education.
Consider affordable housing and child care.
…Now is the time to get to work and create a world that supports and protects not just the unborn person in the womb but also the equally human and valuable people carrying them. The place we should’ve been directing a majority of our efforts all along: housing, child care and transportation…
Serve women and children in creative ways
…The unifying factor all of us must care for, as the Bible puts it, “widows” (vulnerable women) and “orphans” (vulnerable children). Some will place an emphasis on sheltering abused women, as well as providing material support and training to economically disadvantaged women. Some will put an emphasis on caring for children while working moms. Some will be able to enlist Christians and other persons of goodwill in child care, or in emergency shelter placements. For others, that will mean reminding us all of how a commitment to respecting life and caring for the vulnerable will mean burden sharing, sometimes in ways we’ve never imagined.
Promote pregnancy prevention
Studies show that restricting abortion leads to increased use of contraception and a decrease in risky sexual behavior. These trends can be encouraged by the pro-life movement, which promotes effective methods for preventing pregnancy. That should include offering vasectomies for “bro-choice” men; after all, it takes two to tango.
Create a group of people who have different opinions on abortion
Communities of color are most affected by the urgency of this issue. Pro-choice and prolife activists share the burden of aid. Both must come together and put aside all differences. It is not a sign of our real intentions to help mother and baby if pro-lifers don’t respond.
Encourage economically-disadvantaged women to take control
Women who are economically poor get the double blow when it comes down to abortion. They are much more anti-abortion, on average, than those in more privileged classes. They are more vulnerable to interrelated structural forces that can lead to abortions, such as intimate partner violence and food insecurity.
This discussion seems premature and futile to me.
The first thing Roe disappearing does is allow the pro-life movement to continue fighting. The end of Roe means abortion will still be completely legal, in some form, in the whole country except for the 13 states with so-called “trigger bans.”
— streiff (@streiffredstate) May 9, 2022
We won’t be restricted by Roe or the fascists that support it. Instead, we can take on the 37 abortion-friendly states. I’m confident there is more than enough work to be done.
As to the specific things Harrison Warren advocates, they are primarily the same tired socialist proposals that were in vogue before LBJ’s Great Society; their objective is the infantilization of single mothers and the funding of a massive social service bureaucracy. We know that the government programs that attempt to implement these plans don’t produce anything but more poverty and more bureaucrats. What is more disturbing is that she is essentially pushing the same slander that we on the pro-life side have heard from the pro-aborts for years, that is, that we don’t care about the baby after it is born.
What is missing from Harrison Warren’s critique?
Families, for one. She does not encourage or bang on about marriage at any point. Our society is dominated by men. Their college education is less than half that of the rest.
These students are at greater risk of dropping out of school and participating in work, using drugs, or being involved in other serious crimes.
The focus on “empowering economically disadvantaged women” totally misses the cultural genocide being wrought on our young men. If it “take two to tango,” maybe being married to a man who has earning ability is a better solution for father, mother, and child than being enrolled in a government program that will penalize the woman through loss of entitlements, if she does get married or improves her economic status. A committed relationship can be better for you, your health, and your mental well-being than any hookup app. Perhaps addressing the “demand” part of the equation instead of monomaniacally focusing on the “supply” issue is in order.
Someone who professes that they are a priest might be doing the Great Commission, instead of preaching about the Gospel of Caesar. (While we’re at it, can we please stop redefining Scripture into whatever bullsh** we want to believe; widow means widow, it doesn’t mean “vulnerable women.”) When you have women bemoaning the end of the “hook up” culture because of restrictions on abortion (see The Darker Side of ‘Feminism’ Slithers out in TikTok Rants Fretting Over Roe v. Wade Future), that cultural sickness is more a problem than economics. Although it is difficult work to evangelize, the truth is that without a religious foundation and without changing hearts, any attempt at cultural change is futile. It was amazing to me that even an Anglican priest could not approach a topic so closely tied with Orthodox Christianity, such as abortion, and call for more churches’ involvement in helping pregnant women. My experience suggests that churches with strong pro-life ministries will be more likely to help pregnant women in every way.
It is possible that pro-aborts could make common cause. The Iron Law of Bureaucracy applies to social movements as well as government agencies. That law is “in any bureaucratic organization; there will be two kinds of people: those who work to further the actual goals of the organization, and those who work for the organization itself. The Iron Law states that in all cases, the second type of person will always gain control of the organization and will always write the rules under which the organization functions.” I don’t have to tell you in which category you’d find the pro-aborts and where those folks who’ve spent decades on the picket lines would be. Inviting pro-aborts into the pro-life movement, unless they’ve had an “Abby Johnson moment,” serves no useful purpose.
According to the proverbial “Every cause” it all starts as a movement. It then becomes a company and then finally a grift. With some exceptions to the rule, pro-life has maintained its vision of what it stood for since Roe. Although there is still much to do, it’s possible to see a day when all abortion will become illegal in many states. Normal people will shudder at the thought of having to kill a child because they find it inconvenient. It is something we should all be looking forward to when our work will have been completed. We’ve eradicated abortion and changed the culture so that families are stronger and single mothers have a safety net that does not involve a caseworker and a handout. Then, we need to lock the doors, turn off the lights, go home, church, or community, and continue what we’ve accomplished with our daily lives.
No, reversing Roe doesn’t mean the work of the pro-life movement is over; neither does it mean that we become campaigners and salesmen for the administrative state.
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