This Saturday marks the 49th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision. The 7-2 Supreme Court ruling in January 1973 has colored so much of our culture and discourse in the decades that have followed. The legalization of abortion has led to the end of more than 62 million unborn lives, according to the most recent Guttmacher Institute figures. That legacy is one that the public can’t turn away from, no matter their political stripe.

It’s clear that the old phrase of “safe, legal, rare” used by Democrats of the 1990s is gone forever. In its place is an extremism that views abortion as a medical procedure similar to any other gynecological need. This is pure nonsense. Abortion isn’t a Pap smear or a mammogram. It is the targeted killing of an innocent life. It should never be seen as anything else. That feminists demand the “stigma” of abortion be removed doesn’t mean those in the pro-life camp should acquiesce.