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For half a century, it has felt like America is on a relentless march away from traditional and conservative values into a future of progressive relativism. Mainly the response from the right has been to stand, as William F. Buckley once put it, athwart history yelling, stop.
But for one movement, the stalemate wasn’t good enough; losing more slowly was unacceptable. The pro-life movement wanted to win, and on June 25, 2022, it did.
This movement, born just days after Roe v Wade was decided in 1973, can now be spoken of in the same breath as abolition, suffrage, and civil rights. Put plainly; it is now among the most significant and successful social and political movements in the history of the United States of America.
RIP ROE: SUPREME COURT ABORTION RULING SETS STAGE FOR WHAT PRO-LIFE GROUPS DO NEXT
Millions of Americans, including many who did not live to see this day, refused to accept that the unborn could be killed at our whim. A decades-long project has been completed, which seemed impossible for much of that time. Millions of future Americans will enjoy the simple right to live because of it.
Pro-life demonstrators protested in front of the Supreme Court building when arguments were heard in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Washington on Dec. 1, 2021.
(Reuters/Jonathan Ernst)
In the fullness of time, we may see Friday’s Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v Wade as inevitable, as we now do the end of slavery and votes for women. But just as those great leaps forward for America were forged, not preordained, so was this one.
Great women, men, and organizations are responsible for this victory, but none are as important as the small activist. Every young person marching joyfully at the hope of life, rosary, and vigil. Each quiet prayer outside a small town abortion clinic, powerless to stop the carnage within, asking for the Lord’s help, yes, but also to be His help. The invisible but awesome power of lives lived in a commitment to the common good, to life.
This victory was won by every American who held fast to the sane, simple truth that if we mourn the miscarried child, we must mourn the aborted child. That there is no moral algebra that can render them unequal.
Maria Peña holds a rosary and signs out outside a building housing an abortion provider in Dallas, Oct. 7, 2021.
(AP Photo/LM Otero)
This fight to protect the unborn has taught us that we do not have to accept the widening gyre of a progressive society that cannot identify good or evil. Rather, we can bring our community back closer to the center, to dignity, to the recognition of the beauty and sanctity of all human life. We can do more than stem the tide; we can part the seas.
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This is an age of hyperbole in which every news cycle supposedly bristles with several chapters of future history books. That makes it hard to fully comprehend what a change in American life the end of Roe v Wade is. No issue has been battled as closely in American politics. No triumph gained so quickly after fear it would never happen.
Somewhere today, in the wild, vast expanse of great America, a child who otherwise would have died will live. Somewhere in our tomorrows, cries of life that otherwise would have sat silent will pierce the air. And from those lives more.
Jim Snively, of Huntsville, waves to passing cars while standing in front of the Alabama Women’s Wellness Center, May 17, 2019. (AP Photo/Eric Schultz)
The pro-life movement is not over. It must shift from the courts to the people, bringing to their hearts a will to save unborn lives now that abortion may be ended. But in a very real way, the pro-life movement is complete. Its founding mission has been accomplished. It has done the impossible, turned back time.
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In the final moments of Puccini’s aria Nessun Dorma, there is a crescendo to glorious beauty. In these words, we find something akin to the deliverance of this profound moment. The fight against abortion has often had dark times, feeling the weight of 63 million lives snuffed out since the battle was joined. But today, we can say with confidence,
“Vanish, o night! Set, stars! Set, stars! At dawn, I will win! I will win!|I will win!”
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David Marcus is a columnist living in New York City and the author of “Charade: The Covid Lies That Crushed A Nation.”
