Part two in our two-part series on how America was affected by the infamous Supreme Court decision concerning abortion, and what is being done to return America to a culture of life.
January 22 will come and go this year with most Americans hardly noticing. Yet pro-life Americans undoubtedly feel anguish as they ponder the 30th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Thirty years of legalized killing. More than 40 million tiny lives extinguished before they even took their first breath. Fully one quarter of all pregnancies now end in abortion. For 30 years advocates of life have been trying to overturn Roe v. Wade, and so far they have met only defeat.
Despite the terrible horror abortion has been for America, there are reasons for hope among those who support life. The annual number of abortions, which peaked in 1990, is now lower than it has been in years. On almost every front -- courts, Congress and culture -- the pro-life mindset is gaining ground.
The Political Front
Politically, the pro-life community is beginning to rally around a strategy that sets out more moderate goals than the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Last year’s key success was the passing of the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act. Not only does the new law require proper medical care for any infant who survives an abortion, but according to Amherst College Professor Hadley Arkes, it may result in the withholding of all federal funding to any clinic that violates the Act.
The Susan B. Anthony List, a pro-life political action committee, showed enormous success in 2002’s midterm elections, raising $2.8 million for 32 pro-life candidates in the House of Representatives. Twenty-two of them won. Meanwhile, pro-abortion advocates were less successful for the $33.3 million they raised: Emily’s List, a political network that raises money for pro-abortion candidates, elected only two new women to Congress.
Fighting in the Courts
The prospect of the Bush Administration nominating pro-life justices to the Supreme Court has certainly shaken the formerly confident pro-abortion rank and file. Greeting newcomers to Planned Parenthood "Save Roe" website is this message, "Roe v. Wade … is in grave danger. Influential anti-choice forces are already working to fill the next vacancy on the court with a like-minded justice. We must act now to save Roe."
"The other side is fretting and sounding the alarms and preparing a scorched-earth policy for every nominee sent up by Mr. Bush…," says Professor Arkes. "These people do have something to worry about."
"Roe is in grave peril," says Betsy Cavendish, legal director for NARAL Pro-Choice America, formerly known as the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League. "A switch in one vote [on the Supreme Court] could ban some abortion procedures and possibly ban second-trimester abortions. With a switch in two justices, Roe could be overturned entirely."
