The Supreme Court inaugurated half a century of unprecedented legal latitude for the killing of unborn children in America, when it handed-down its decision in Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973).
On June 24, 2022 — just short of the 50-year anniversary — the Court ended Roe’s horrific reign with the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, returning the matter of abortion regulation to state legislatures for deliberation.
It’s important to remember and celebrate the fact that the Dobbs decision didn’t emerge come out of from thin air.
The anti-abortion movement’s concerted opposition to Roe and political strategy helped reverse the deadly 1973 decision.
Over the last 50 years, the movement banded together to help develop a national network of pregnancy centers and informal resources for women facing unplanned pregnancies.
In 1973, Americans concerned with the preservation of unborn life began a movement that spanned multiple generations, an entire nation, and countless legal and political efforts.
The anti-abortion voter arguably helped produce the overturn of Roe.
For 50 long years, the anti-abortion goal to end abortion was abundantly specific, all while tens of millions of babies were aborted. Considerable collective will, work, prayer, and resources were expended toward achieving the goal of eradicating Roe.
What was once considered unthinkable at last culminated in the end of federal-level sanctioned protection for elective abortion.
In the year since the ink has dried on the Dobbs decision, not much has changed.
The majority of states still have abundant provision for abortion on demand.
Even where bans exist, they largely fail to address the source of 92% of all abortions (those procured prior to 13 weeks of pregnancy).
While certainly the accomplishment of Dobbs should be lauded and celebrated, anti-abortion America should neither be satisfied nor content.
The anti-abortion movement wasn’t ever merely about ending Roe. It was about protecting human life and fighting for the preservation of human dignity and flourishing.
The moral vision underpinning the anti-abortion movement is much broader than the end of Roe because it is a complete and holistic vision.
The overarching personal responsibility of each member of pro-life America was, is, and will continue to be the care and protection of unborn children and the women who carry them.
A shift in understanding is essential in the next chapter for anti-abortion America, but it's seemingly slow to catch on.
Take, for instance, the fact that most of those anti-abortion consider the commitment to the anti-abortion cause and child welfare ministry to be distinct, morally and politically.
Yet, the movement can never divorce the clarion, moral and Biblically-rooted idea of human flourishing from the center of the mission.
One organization, Lifeline Children’s Services, ministers to vulnerable families, children, and women with just this in mind.
Partnerships are developed with local churches to help uplift women who might have sought abortion without community support.
Training resources are abundantly provided for would-be foster or adoptive parents, as well as biological parents seeking to make an adoption plan.
Lifeline doesn’t go at this alone, as the anti-abortion movement is home to some of the most tireless and selfless men and women on the planet:
- They run pregnancy centers.
- They volunteer to cook or clean for women with newborns.
- They work to alter policy in favor of the unborn child and vulnerable mother.
- They love and support broken families in need of help.
- They listen to and aid those who suffer.
- They foster.
- They adopt. They build firm foundations for their own children in loving homes. They minister to life at every stage, in every way.
These myriad post-birth interventions sustain long-term flourishing rather than mere survival:
- They help build stronger relationships and stronger families.
- They help foster healthier and safer children. This intervention is too often overlooked, but must be the crucial backbone of a holistic anti-abortion vision.
Remember, the work doesn’t end when a frightened mother chooses life — it begins there.
Importantly, too, this most important work requires passionate women and men who, specifically and personally, minister to those who are the most vulnerable.
Ending abortion isn’t chiefly a strategy issue.
Abortion is not ended by scribbling the right ideas on whiteboards across America, but it is functionally ended when the hearts and minds of the culture begin to embrace a whole life, anti-abortion ethic.
Abortion is ended by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick, tending to the poor. And abortion is ended by building or supporting community networks that actually support mothers who have no other resources available to them.
The fight for life is more than just a battle against the death of the unborn.
It's a battle to protect and cultivate the gift of every life and of every life’s future.
There are now millions of American children who’ve been born into a post-Roe world, and thousands of them would likely have died under Roe.
The work begins as their lives begin: in hope.
Herbie Newell is the president and executive director of Lifeline Children’s Services, the largest Evangelical Christian adoption agency in America, host of The Defender Podcast and author of "Image Bearers: Shifting from Pro-Birth to Pro-Life."
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