Life After Roe
By Jack Wyman
It went off like a fire alarm in the night.
It thundered across the legal, political and cultural landscape of an already deeply divided nation. For many, it was the death-knell of women’s rights; for others, a liberty bell of life.
Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion on the Roe v. Wade abortion decision registered a 10.5 on the political Richter Scale. It was a categorical, unequivocal, no-holds-barred denunciation of the controversial Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion nearly a half-century ago.
The draft opinion, not yet having the force of law, had been mysteriously leaked to the press, adding to the furor.
Justice Alito, one of the high court’s conservatives, boldly threw down the gauntlet of legal interpretation at the feet of judicial precedent. If concurred with by a majority of his colleagues on the court the change would be seismic.
Arguing that “the Constitution makes no reference to abortion,” Alito wrote that Roe “must be overruled.”
“Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” he wrote. “Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences.” Justice Alito maintained that, far from resolving the question of abortion, the 1973 decision has “enflamed debate and deepened division.” Concluded the justice:
“It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.” They alone must decide “how abortion should be regulated.”
If adopted formally by a majority of the Supreme Court, this language would be some of the strongest, clearest, boldest, and most confident ever pronounced by the court on a major issue in American history.
Alito’s opinion is expressed with moral conviction and legal persuasiveness. It possesses the eloquence of courage born of certitude. Agree with him or not, Justice Alito made it crystal clear he is not undecided on this question.
The country is another matter.
Regardless of its constitutional merits, millions of Americans have come to accept the unfettered right to abortion as a fundamental human right, afforded to all women. Millions more call abortion murder of the innocent unborn, and a cruel betrayal of the nation’s founding principle of “the right to life.” For both sides, this is a matter of freedom and justice. Both sides are absolutely sincere.
On no public issue in our lifetimes have the American people been more profoundly, viscerally divided. Nor have five decades of raging debate, protests, and a tide of legislation brought us any closer to reconciliation. Roe v. Wade is the best known and most controversial Supreme Court decision since Dred Scott v. Sanford in 1857.
It’s what happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object. It’s what happens when the law of the land cleaves the conscience of a people. Americans will never agree on Roe. Sooner we broad-jump the Grand Canyon. It took 100 years of unjust Supreme Court rulings to finally put the United States on the noble road toward full racial equality. So much for the invincibility of bad precedent.
It appears that soon America will once again re-ignite its emotional debate over a woman’s right to choose and the sanctity of all human life. Christians will be part of that debate. Given that we don’t always handle emotional subjects in the public square very well, is there some way for followers of Jesus Christ to be both thoughtful and convicted; principled and persuasive; courageous and compassionate?
In 1991, when it seemed that Roe v. Wade might be overturned, I authored a white paper entitled, Better Choices: A Post-Roe Agenda. I argued that rather than continuing to yell, scream and name-call, both sides in the abortion debate should re-direct their energies to seek common ground in a united effort to end abortion by working to change the circumstances that lead women to choose abortion.
Now is the time and opportunity to make this our positive focus. As Christians and as Americans.
Pro-life author and lecturer Frederica Mathewes-Green wrote:
“No woman wants an abortion as she wants an ice cream cone or a Porsche. She wants an abortion as an animal caught in a trap wants to gnaw off its own leg . . . Abortion is not a sign that women are free, but a sign that they are desperate.”
Every Christian church in America should be supporting a crisis pregnancy center near them. There are thousands of pro-life centers offering hope and help to women with unexpected pregnancies. Let’s send money and volunteers. We must also make adoption and foster care easier and more accessible. We must expand these opportunities for love, compassion and care.
We must teach and promote sexual abstinence to our children—in the school, the church and in the home. We must also make it possible for unmarried teenage mothers to finish their education, get a job, and care for their babies. We must encourage young men to own up to their responsibilities, as fathers and providers. Any healthy man can help make a child; it takes a real man to help raise one.
The state, the church, and private agencies must work together to ensure that girls and young women have real choices in their lives. This is what it means to be pro-life. This must be our positive message and our ministry. This must be our post-Roe agenda.
The Christian church must have no part of an American inquisition when it comes to abortion. We must not hate. We must not judge. We must not condemn. We must offer hope.
We must promote and provide better choices. We must not simply curse the darkness, we must light the candles of compassion and a better life. For unborn children and for their mothers.
Above all, we must show love.
The overturn of Roe is not the end of Christian responsibility, it is only the beginning. All of us who truly value life must be concerned not only for life during nine months in the womb but for the quality and opportunity of life after birth.
The God who loves us all, the God of second chances and new beginnings, has, in this challenging hour, summoned us to help make life after Roe worth living.
To order Jack Wyman’s book, “Everything Else: Stories of Life, Faith and Our World”, go to amazon.com, Christian Book Distributors or barnesandnoble.com. It is also available on Kindle and eBooks.
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