Joy and Celebration at the United States Supreme Court
Battista Dossi, Justitia, 1814–1892.
I joined several thousand pro-life citizens and a small and largely dejected group of abortion supporters who rallied outside the United States Supreme Court as the petitioner’s oral arguments were made to the nine Justices: the Roe v. Wade ruling should be cast onto the great scrap heap of wrongly decided cases. Decades of tireless efforts by millions of pro-life Americans led to this historic hearing on the first day of December 2021 of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Over 62 million preborn American children have tragically paid with their lives for the unleashing of abortion by an arrogant Supreme Court in 1973. The error was monumental but so were the actions of many courageous people standing for life in the decades that followed.
Our nation has overwhelmingly pushed back against the violence of “pregnancy termination.” Abortion centers have steadily closed their doors across the country, and annual abortions are now down to less than half of what they were at their peak in 1990. Pregnancy resource centers, at the same time, have multiplied and offer compassionate and positive choices to expecting mothers.
Nevertheless, over the years, lower courts and the Supreme Court have relentlessly struck down great numbers of state and federal laws trying to restrict or ban abortion. Pro-life citizens will not and cannot accept that our nation should break its promise of “equal justice under law.” The words are carved in marble above the entrance to the Supreme Court. Democracy and human rights have been cruelly mocked by the legal fictions that judges have invented to unilaterally decree and maintain abortion on demand in the USA.
As a Catholic bioethicist, it fills my heart with joy to see what is true and good, the fundamental right to life, defended. Our prayers are urgently needed that the Justices in Washington will see and proclaim the truth that sets us free. The traditional statues of justice show a woman wearing a blindfold that is meant to symbolize impartiality and objectivity. One is tempted to think it points to the terrible ideological blindness that afflicts so many judges. They fail to see the violation of justice for the baby, for the mother and father, and for the medical profession that is charged with protecting and preserving life and not becoming death-dealers.
It was my high honor to stand as president of The National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC) among dozens of medical doctors from the Catholic Medical Association (CMA), the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG), The Christian Medical and Dental Association (CMDA), and other groups at the Supreme Court rally. People saw their white coats and were reminded of the purity of the high calling of physicians and other health professionals. Yes, one of the worst evils of the culture of death has been to turn healers into killers. Our civilization cannot endure such morally corrosive contradictions.
After the rally, I was so elated that I took an extended stroll down Constitution and Pennsylvania avenues and happened by the Department of Justice. Carved on the side of that structure was the weighty phrase “Where law ends tyranny begins.” We have indeed endured a form of judicial tyranny on abortion, and several other social issues, where the democratic will of the people and their representatives has been defied and rejected by unelected activist judges. It is so refreshing to see the imposition of abortion by judicial fiat slowly falling apart. Earlier, the Supreme Court refused to block the Texas Heartbeat Law. Now they are to rule on a case in which the State of Mississippi demands that Roe v. Wade be reversed.
It was a privilege that evening to attend the appreciation dinner for groups and individuals who contributed to the Dobbs case hosted by ADF-Alliance Defending Freedom, a longtime friend and partner of the NCBC. Through our ethicist and senior fellow, Dr. Marie Hilliard, we were involved in three amicus curiae, or friend of the court briefs, submitted to the Supreme Court for the Dobbs case. These legal briefs supported the reversal of Roe v. Wade through many pertinent arguments.
ADF brought together the Mississippi Attorney General, Lynn Fitch, and Solicitor General Scott Stewart to discuss the case they had just pleaded before the highest US court. The atmosphere was electric and the applause frequent as they related how the Justices are now backed into a corner on reaffirming or rejecting the Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey decisions. The three Supreme Court appointments by President Trump could be the decisive factor in that body, finally recognizing there is emphatically no “constitutional right to abortion.”
I grew up in a family and a community that would not accept the proposition that killing preborn children is the ethical solution to any problem. It was an incredible blessing to see the last abortion center close in Corpus Christi. It was an even greater blessing to witness what could be the case that ends Roe v. Wade and decades of abortion which has been forced on states that want to protect innocent preborn babies. We must now wait several months until at least June for the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Please join me in praying that the Justices will have the courage to do what they know to be right.
I for one will be so grateful if the annual March for Life is moved to June in the future to celebrate the Dobbs case. The frigid January 22nd anniversary of Roe will no longer be the most relevant US abortion ruling!
