End abortion

Abortion is the deliberate killing of an innocent human life. It is intolerable. Sometimes an unborn baby dies as part of a procedure necessary to save a mother’s life, but that is not, morally speaking or according to most definitions of the word, an abortion. Justice requires us to eradicate abortion. It will be a long war, one we could not fight at all in legal terms until today.

The war ahead will be fought in state legislatures, but it will ultimately be fought in the hearts and minds of our countrymen. To win this war, laws will be necessary but not sufficient. Abortion will end when, through love, compassion, aid, and relentless assault on the lies that protect the grisly practice, we agree as a people that it is always wrong to kill an innocent person deliberately.

State governments ought to outlaw abortion (while allowing for any procedures needed to save a mother’s life). Most states will not go this far, but in general, we will see more and more babies protected every year and fewer and fewer babies aborted every year. Journalists, who overwhelmingly support liberal abortion laws, will be surprised by the state legislative victories that pro-lifers will rack up. Purple states such as Virginia will not go in the direction of California or Maryland and try to enshrine abortion as a right and a taxpayer-funded entitlement. They will, in coming years, bar abortions after the first trimester, with exceptions — maybe big exceptions, maybe small exceptions.

Democratic politicians outside of deep-blue states will quickly learn to compromise. They will, out of political self-interest, try to make abortion a nonissue. Pro-life politicians need to make abortion more and more a cultural issue.

Once the law protects the unborn, fewer of them will be killed. The civil law, a shaper of souls, needs to reflect the moral law. Expanding the circle of whose life is protected by the state will expand human hearts.

The fight to end abortion, after the coming flurry of laws, will be an incremental one. Pro-life laws will enhance a culture of life, and a growing culture of life will create the political ability to expand the protection of the unborn.

But although legal protection of the unborn is necessary, it’s not the strongest weapon in the fight to end abortion. The strongest weapon is love. Women who end their pregnancies usually do so for lack of help and support. American culture simply doesn’t support parents enough. Too many mothers are stuck trying to raise their children without a husband. Too many couples are stuck trying to raise their children without community support, with too much debt, and with societal expectations that they will “give their kids everything.” As a result, too many mothers and fathers decide, tragically, that they cannot let their child live.

The culture war needs to shift its direction today. The chief aim for now on must be building a pro-family culture. This will mean including the poor in our lives, strengthening community institutions, accommodating parental needs, and dedicating taxpayer funds to support families. Adoption needs to be easier and better. Every last pregnant woman in America needs to feel supported.

And pro-lifers need to lead the way on this cultural change.

I believe we will defeat abortion in the long run, just as the abolitionists defeated slavery. I believe that in our children’s lifetimes, American society will agree that abortion is an intolerable evil and American society will welcome every child, expected or unexpected.

What we get from Dobbs was simply the right to enter the battle. Now, armed with love, we have to win this war.