Beautiful article by Father Shenan J. Boquet at Human Life International - please, please see www.hli.org.

Skip to content Human Life International: empowering you to build a pro-life world Mission Resources Free Ebooks News Search DONATE Free Ebook: Which Cosmetics Use Fetal Cells? Abortion and the 2024 Election Written by Fr. Shenan J. Boquet ｜ Updated on July 1, 2024 Last week, I urged my readers to recognize that overturning Roe v. Wade was only the beginning of the fight to end abortion and its mindset in America. Numerous states have passed total or near-total abortion bans since Dobbs overturned Roe. This is a resounding affirmation of the importance of scrapping Roe. However, overturning Roe does not end abortion. All it does is leave it up to the individual states. Inevitably, pro-abortion forces will react to this new situation in the same way as pro-life activists. Except pro-abortion forces will first turn their attention to shoring up pro-abortion laws at the state level. Then, they will prepare the ground for some sort of federal measure that might protect legal child-killing nationwide. And indeed, as if to underline the ongoing urgency of the fight over abortion, Politico ran an article this week titled, “Inside the $100 million plan to restore abortion rights in America.” The opening sentence says it all: “A new coalition of abortion-rights groups is marking the second anniversary of the fall of Roe v. Wade with a pledge to spend $100 million to restore federal protections for the procedure and make it more accessible than ever before.” The groups that are involved in the new coalition include Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and Reproductive Freedom for All. The group is calling the coalition “Abortion Access Now.” Celebration and Expectations after the Dobbs Decision The plan, as described by Politico, is to create a framework for the next time that Democrats control the Senate, the House, and the Presidency. In such a situation, abortion activists know that they will have to move fast, to pass as many laws as they possibly can to protect child-killing moving forward. They plan on being fully prepared. The Pro-Abortion Plan At least in public, pro-abortion activists are projecting a sense of confidence that they can turn the momentum back in their direction. “Dobbs was a really devastating outcome,” said Mini Timmaraju, president and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All, “but we’re going to win back our rights much faster than they think.” Certainly, this isn’t just idle talk. As the article makes clear, pro-abortion forces are mustering the money and power to make this happen. Their goal? To pass federal laws that will protect (and fund!) abortion across the entire country, regardless of what individual states might say or do. Indeed, in a staggering display of the deep radicalism of America’s pro-abortion forces, some of the groups involved in the project are arguing that returning to the situation under Roe would not go far enough. As Haydee Morales, interim president of the National Institute for Reproductive Health, put it, the coalition must be willing to “explicitly affirm the right to abortion without limitations.” “Without limitations!” In other words, such groups are aiming to pass laws to protect the right to kill a preborn child all the way up until birth, for any reason or no reason, and with federal funding. This is the radicalism that we are up against. We are David vs. Goliath Reading the Politico article should be a wakeup call for pro-life activists in America. The pro-life movement has often described itself as being engaged in a David vs. Goliath fight. So many of the massive gains that we have made in the past few decades have been due to humble efforts undertaken in great faith. Whereas the pro-abortion movement often has the enthusiastic support of the rich and the powerful, it is often ordinary pro-life Americans undertaking local projects that have resulted in changed laws and saved lives. Some mothers choose abortion because they lack basic necessities like clothes and baby wipes. With the help from our generous donors, our affiliates are working to meet that need. As Politico points out, the pro-abortion side has massively outspent the pro-life side in every ballot initiative that has been put forward since the downfall of Roe. Already, Planned Parenthood has committed to spending $40 million in the upcoming election. “It feels like we’re David and they’re Goliath,” Kristi Hamrick, chief policy strategist for Students for Life of America, told Politico. “There’s a glut of spending to sell all abortion and someone has to tell the other side of the story.” However, the reality is that pro-life activists have always managed to accomplish far more with far less. While pro-abortion groups like Planned Parenthood have depended upon billions of dollars in government funding, pro-life activists successfully set up a vast network of pro-life pregnancy care centers entirely using private funds and volunteer labor. This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t have our own, well-funded political campaigns. There are indeed some groups, like the Susan B. Anthony List, that are engaged in meaningful spending on political campaigns to elect pro-life politicians. However, it does mean that we shouldn’t rely so exclusively on such slick, well-funded campaigns. The scrappy, can-do attitude of the pro-life movement, bolstered by an unshakeable trust in Divine assistance and the knowledge that we are on the right side of history, is what has enabled this movement to do what many thought was impossible. We have kept the abortion issue front and center for decades, long after pro-abortion activists thought it would become a “settled” issue. Meet Fire with Fire However, if we are to succeed on the legislative side of things, we are going to need powerful politicians to advocate our cause in state and federal legislatures. Unfortunately, since Dobbs, many Republican politicians have taken a weak and self-defeating approach to the abortion issue. Sadly, this includes President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly indicated his belief that abortion should simply be left to the states. President Trump does hold many pro-life positions, like opposing the use of taxpayer dollars to pay for abortions, opposing the Women’s Health Protection Act that would enshrine unlimited abortion in federal law and policies and eliminate existing state-level protections for preborn children and their mothers (which President Joe Biden endorses), and supports the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. However, unfortunately, he has actively criticized several pro-life laws, including the heartbeat abortion ban passed in Florida, for being too extreme. As I have stated before in this column, we owe President Trump much gratitude. Certainly, no one would dispute that he is partly responsible for the overturning of Roe. While many Republican presidents in recent decades promised to nominate U.S. Supreme Court justices that would overturn Roe, he was the first to actually do so. The fact that pro-life forces have lost several ballot initiatives since Dobbs has spooked many federal Republican politicians, who are worried that being pro-life is politically costly and who are openly charting a course of political expediency by passing off the issue to the states. However, a sober analysis of the pro-abortion strategy reveals that this “hands-off” approach is not only morally confused, but it is almost certainly going to backfire politically in the long term. As Jesse Southerland, the federal policy director of Americans United for Life, put it recently: “This near-term utilitarian, means-to-an-end, political-expediency type of stance that many in the Republican Party have taken, marginalizes the unborn and undermines this cause of justice. We don’t get to choose who lives and dies. Human rights for women and the unborn shouldn’t be up for a vote.” Our affiliates around the world are working hard to ensure women have the resources and support they need to raise their children. As the Politico article makes clear, pro-abortion forces are keenly aware that while the fight is at the state level for now, it will eventually reach the federal level. And they are determined to get ahead of the pro-life strategists in preparing for the moment when sufficient power is in Democrat hands to consolidate a pro-abortion regime at the federal level. President Joe Biden and his progressive administration tirelessly work to enshrine this agenda by proposing, endorsing, and advancing some of the most radical anti-life and anti-family immoral positions to the entire nation, all while Biden is presenting himself as a Catholic in good standing. During last week’s presidential debate, President Biden made perfectly clear his position on abortion, criticizing the overturning of Roe and promised that if re-elected, he would “restore Roe v. Wade.” Every day that pro-life strategists and lawmakers stick to the idea that abortion is now inherently a state issue, is a day lost in terms of strategizing and preparing. The problem with Roe is not that it dealt with the issue at the federal level. It is that the U.S. Supreme Court seized to itself powers that it does not have and unilaterally imposed, at the federal level, a “right” that is nowhere to be found in the Constitution. It was a naked act of judicial activism. However, given that abortion has to do with the most fundamental right that there is – the right to life – there is no reason why Congress can’t and shouldn’t take this issue up in a way that defends a threatened right. Indeed, there is no compelling reason that the pro-life movement shouldn’t dream of a day when a Constitutional amendment makes clear that preborn human children possess all the rights that other U.S. citizens do. Such a day is very far from becoming a reality. However, long before we get to that point, we will need to move the needle on this issue at the federal level, before the pro-abortion movement does. As history shows, momentum usually belongs to the side that claims the high ground earliest. It is far more difficult to undo one law and replace it with a new law than it is to set the legislative agenda from the get-go. If the pro-life movement succeeds in passing a federal ban on abortion, this will seriously stymie the pro-abortion movement’s agenda to introduce a new framework that is even more liberal than Roe. However, in order to get to the point where any federal pro-life law is possible, the GOP needs to continue building on the momentum created by Dobbs. That means that GOP politicians must be unapologetic in defending Dobbs and the whole pro-life cause. This is not the moment to project moral and political weakness by standing behind an ultimately unconvincing “states-rights” position. If abortion is indeed murder, as the pro-life movement has long (and rightly) claimed, then clearly this is not an issue that by right belongs to the states, even if it is currently a state issue. Protecting the innocent from murder is a federal issue, if there ever was one. As such, we must encourage GOP politicians to be bold in standing up for life. Given the onslaught that the pro-abortion movement is preparing for us, we must meet fire with fire. Bold, courageous, proactive leadership is needed now more than ever. Share this post 4 Comments Luis on July 1, 2024 at 3:20 PM Thank you. Reply Javier San Agustín on July 1, 2024 at 3:08 PM Gracias por compartir, siempre recordando a Nanci Tosi. Es un placer poder leer el articulo. Reply Ed Harpring on July 1, 2024 at 3:02 PM Thanks Fr. Boquet for your informative and straightforward analysis of the current state of the fight for Life. Sadly, as you indicated, many pro-life politicians are falling by the wayside, instead of confronting the culture of death. In season or out of season, Catholics and all people of faith are called to defend the most vulnerable among us – the unborn. God bless you! Reply Arlene Taber on July 1, 2024 at 2:51 PM Have to keep ahead of PP, ACLU and all baby killers. Reply Leave a Comment Comment Name (required) Email (will not be published) (required) Free ebook: Which Cosmetics Use Fetal Cells? Our Programs: Leadership Training Legal Activism Pregnancy Centers Chastity Education human-life-international-white-logo Human Life International is a Catholic, pro-life non-profit. Through us, pro-lifers like you sponsor life-saving missions in over 100 countries. 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