Election after election after election, pro-lifers have intoned the stakes of voting: “Lives are on the line,” we’ve said.
And we were right. Over 60 million innocent unborn lives have been lost since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973.
For nearly half a century, Roe seemed to have a stranglehold on American society, denying the basic right to life to millions of unborn children and stealing the gift of motherhood from millions of women. But this summer, Roe’s grip finally loosened as the Supreme Court overturned that fateful decision and returned the authority to determine abortion policy back to the states.
It was a long-sought victory, and surely the result of pro-life Americans electing a president who appointed three pro-life justices to the Supreme Court of the United States. But this summer’s victory is only the beginning of a much longer effort to ensure the protection of the first human right: the right to life.
Following the Dobbs decision in June, Indiana worked quickly to become the first state in the nation to enact legislation outlawing most abortions. Just as quickly, Planned Parenthood joined ranks with the ACLU to sue the state of Indiana. To the frustration of pro-life Hoosiers across our state, Judge Kelsey Hanlon blocked our law, just 7 days after it went into effect.
As a result, 116 innocent unborn babies have continued to die every week in Indiana abortion facilities.
Roe might be gone, but its effects still linger. Its poor logic still haunts our legal system and its inhumanity still hurts our women and snuffs out our children’s lives. Its false promises still mislead our culture.
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Roe was never a dragon that could be defeated in one fell swoop. It was a monster that has left destruction and tragedy in its wake. The pro-life movement is still putting out its fires and probably will be for years to come.
Especially at the local level.
After all, our movement always knew that once Roe was overturned and authority on abortion was returned to the states, the real work would begin. The heartfelt charity of local pregnancy help centers would increase as more mothers turn to them in times of hardship. And the importance of local elections would intensify as states regained the ability to protect the youngest of unborn babies.
We have strong hope that Indiana’s recent abortion restrictions will eventually be upheld. But we cannot sit back on that hope come election day. Sadly, since June, we’ve witnessed too many politicians sprinting to resurrect Roe. Indiana Democrats fought hard against protections for the unborn this past summer. States like California have hurried to expand abortion-on-demand, and corporations have joined in by pledging travel funds for employees who venture to another state for an abortion. The federal government is also finding ways to keep the abortion industry thriving, recently announcing that the Pentagon will pay the travel expenses for military members seeking abortions.
The abortion lobby isn’t letting up. Pro-abortion activists aren’t either. Over the summer, there were about 75 attacks on pregnancy centers and pro-life offices, in retaliation against the Dobbs decision.
The era of Roe is over, yes. Thank God.
But the era of Dobbs is just beginning. And we need to work harder than the abortion lobby to ensure it’s a life-affirming one. One that offers mercy and hope to the woman facing an unexpected pregnancy. One that affirms the lives of unborn babies, regardless of their ability, sex, race, socio-economic status, or circumstance of conception. One that defends the most basic and fundamental right we all share: the right to exist. The right to life.
That starts at the ballot box this November. So vote. Vote pro-life. Lives are still on the line.
LifeNews Note: Mike Fichter is the president of Indiana Right to Life.
