On this 50th annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) celebrates the overturning of the infamous Roe v. Wade decision with all the pro-life multitudes nationwide.
After so many years of marching, we have the joy of seeing the impossible made possible. God has blessed our efforts, and this first goal has been achieved. The Dobbs decision energized the pro-life movement and demoralized pro-abortionists worldwide.
As the euphoria over the overturning of Roe v. Wade fades, the reality of the fight ahead is sinking in. The defeat of Roe was a huge step forward. However, it was only a step—many more are needed if America is to be abortion-free and return to a moral order.
Indeed, the results of the mid-term elections show that just because the Supreme Court finally overturned Roe v. Wade, public opinion has not significantly changed. The stalemate between the ardent partisans of the two sides continues with a decisive center between them. Any further developments must involve the grueling battle to persuade this middle to oppose the slaughter of innocents.
Now is the time to press the attack, not to pursue compromise or complacency. The way to additional victories calls for a new phase in the pro-life struggle that will completely undermine the pro-abortion position.
The Three Lessons of the Dobbs Victory
The Dobbs victory prepared the way for the next phase with three valuable lessons from the long struggle to overturn Roe.
The first lesson is the undeniable proof that things deemed impossible can be done. The efforts and, above all, the prayers proved that with God, all is possible. We must not doubt that if Roe was overturned, then so can all procured abortion be eliminated in our times.
Indeed, the overturning of Roe v. Wade showed that no human rule is “settled” law. Regarding abortion, only one law can never be changed. It reads, “Thou shall not kill.”
The second lesson is that the adversary is vulnerable and weak. The pro-abortion side still has an overwhelming advantage in terms of money, media and establishment support. Its media do everything possible to promote the dominant yet false narratives of “reproductive freedom” and “women’s rights.” However, these advantages were erased by the hideousness of abortion that pro-abortionists try so hard to hide. The aging pro-abortionist activists failed to attract enough new radical recruits to its cause. The Dobbs decision showed the weakness of the pro-abortion establishment when confronted by an ardent and dedicated adversary.
A final lesson shows that perseverance and tenacity are vital to this fight. The SCOTUS tragic 1973 ruling was meant to settle the abortion issue definitively, with resistance expected to fade away. Most thought abortion would be gradually accepted, as happened in many European countries.
However, the persistent efforts and prayers of pro-life forces (mostly women) turned the tide. The movement changed the terms of the debate from a women’s health issue to a moral dilemma. Countless people changed their minds. The pro-life movement assembles hundreds of thousands of protesters (many of them young people) in the nation’s capital annually at the March for Life. It mobilizes activists nationwide. This vibrant American model inspires pro-lifers worldwide.
In every field, pro-lifers outmaneuvered the complacent left so that after 49 years, Roe v. Wade was rightly consigned to the trash bin of history. In the minds of countless pro-abortionists, there is the sensation of an unimaginable defeat.
Pro-life 2.0
The next phase of the pro-life struggle proposes another “impossible” task that prayers and efforts must make possible again. It consists of relentlessly attacking the root cause of abortion—the sexual revolution.
This revolutionary event turned American morality upside down and prepared the ground for the infamous 1973 abortion decision. It created apocalyptic social destruction by brutally eliminating the consequences of the sexual act—slaughtering the unborn, unwanted American baby. Thus, the floodgates for all kinds of sensuality and sexual deviation were opened.
As long as these gates remain open, procured abortion will not be defeated. It is not enough to pump out the water from a fast-sinking ship. We must plug the holes allowing in the ocean water. Those holes are the devastations of the sexual revolution.
The pro-life movement must take the offensive in the great culture wars that still rage across America. It is not a matter of abandoning the abortion issue but only broadening its scope. The cause of America’s unborn dovetails naturally with an expansive moral worldview to oppose that of the adversary.
Learning From the Unity of the Opposition
The Dobbs decision makes it apparent that the debate is not only about abortion. Leftists erupted in rage over the ruling. Dobbs finds its way into so many discussions that have nothing to do with abortion specifically. Thus, we must be convinced that these adversaries share a common materialistic and secular worldview that extends beyond the abortion issue.
Indeed, the diverse ideologies of the left all eventually come together as one. Catholic thinker and man of action, Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, likens the unity of this liberal worldview to that formed by a thousand individual burning trees coming together into the inferno unity of a forest fire. Accordingly, the abortion cause naturally melds into the LGBTQ+ agenda governing all things immoral and sexual. This further explains why abortion finds radical support from all shades of the political left. The religious left rallies behind abortion, as do even Satanists, who see it as a “sacrament.”
In the face of the left’s unity, the pro-life movement must naturally unite to engage all culture war issues. Holding firm and consistent on pro-life principles, we are well-positioned to attack the root problem, thus helping plug the holes in the ship of American society.
What It Will Take
Thus, a post-Roe America must reject the entire sexual revolution. From contraception and no-fault divorce to the present LGBTQ+ agenda in all its moral horror. Just as pro-life Americans cannot rest while procured abortion remains legal in any part of the country, a post-Roe America must not rest until every last moral destruction wrought by the sexual revolution has been reversed.
We must recognize that procured abortion is the effect of a profound revolt against God’s moral law. Society will have no true peace or order until this rebellion is quelled. We must expose the folly of this revolution that ruined innumerable lives, broke untold families and shattered whole communities.
We must especially reject the proposal that the next phase of the pro-life fight must consist solely in providing economic benefits to struggling single mothers. Important as this work is, it will not solve the underlying moral problems. Instead, it shifts focus and attention away from the moral counter-revolution that must take place.
A Moral Counter-Revolution
Our challenge is to imagine a moral counter-revolution that will ensure each child has a father and mother and grows up in a healthy family atmosphere. It will insist upon Christian morals and reject sins of impurity. Such a society is the best guarantee of an abortion-free world.
Thus, we must not only oppose but also propose. Our plan cannot merely eliminate procured abortion but must build a free society based upon Christian principles that will facilitate the restoration of families and communities.
This involves upholding the natural relationships that have inspired Christian civilization. We must reward modesty and purity. We must uphold, praise, and reward true marriage (the lifelong union of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others) and the mutual fidelity of the spouses. We must restore the noble enthusiasm for purity and virginity in young men and women. All these measures conform to human nature and bring out the best in individuals.
With the same dogged determination that led to the defeat of Roe, the pro-life movement must pursue these lofty goals that undermine the unity of the left in its promotion of abortion. We must propose these sublime ideals anew to the younger generations laid waste by abortion and the sexual revolution. Indeed, they yearn for them.
With God’s Help, It Can Be Done
Some say this cannot be done. Such a counter-revolution is beyond the reach of a world so enslaved to promiscuity and impurity.
We faced similar claims in 1973 after Roe v. Wade. To those who say it cannot be done, we can reply that it was already done once and can thus be done again . . . and quickly.
However, as we redouble our efforts, we would be foolish if we did not call upon God and His Blessed Mother to level the playing field and compensate for our disproportion with the adversary. God and His Grace have sustained us over the years. He will continue to do so, but only if we ask Him.
The effort is made easier because the entire liberal order that gave us Roe is crumbling. Suffering the consequences of living in a sinful society without God, people are looking for solutions outside the liberal box.
As we march this year, let us thank God for the victorious overturning of Roe v. Wade. Let it catapult us to the next phase of the pro-life crusade. May God use our legal and peaceful action to change hearts and minds, and may this moral counter-revolution, through the merciful intercession of Mary Most Holy, emerge triumphant.
January 20, 2023
The American TFP