Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
History and Religion
Thoughts on Roe Being Overturned

Thoughts on Roe Being Overturned

Last updated on: June 24, 2022 at 1:44 pm by Dave Armstrong

Thoughts on Roe Being Overturned 2022-06-24T13:44:55-04:00 Dave Armstrong

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I have personally been hoping and praying for this result since I became pro-life in early 1982, after attending a conference on the topic at the evangelical church I was attending then. For about a dozen years prior, I was one of the ignorant masses who wasn’t sure what to believe about it, up till then. Once I learned the facts (especially legalized murder through all nine months, and lots of facts about fetal development), I immediately changed my mind.

I have been very firmly and actively pro-life ever since, including participating in about 25 rescues, from 1988-1990, where we blocked the doors of abortuaries, as an act of civil disobedience and biblical obedience, five arrests, three trials, and a little bit of jail time (just overnight at a “nice” jail for the one time I was convicted of trespassing). Human beings are literally alive and walking around today (more than thirty years old) because of what we did then. I was honored, humbled, and privileged to have been a part of that. As it is, we had to wait another 32 years (my age in 1990) to see this result we have so longed for.

Apart from my ecstatic joy over this decision, I have two main thoughts.

The first is that we still have a long ways to go. Despite this being a wonderful victory for life (the greatest in over fifty years), after the long battle (akin to the battle against slavery), all we have accomplished is letting states decide if they will be ‘life” or “death” states. This is scarcely better than what we had in the 1850s in the United States, with slave states and free states. We figured out (slowly) that slavery was wrong, after a bloody civil war, and passed a constitutional amendment getting rid of it forever. State governments to not determine if life is valuable or not. God does that. We’re all made in His image.

Even after we figured out that slavery was wrong (why did it take so long!?), we know the subsequent sad history of race relations in America. Institutionally sanctioned racism was pretty much wiped out in 1964 with the Civil Rights Act (which passed with proportionately more Republican votes than Democrat), but we still had a long ways to go. Things were getting much better, until our beloved Democrats decided to race-bait in every single election, make absolutely everything a racial issue, and stoke the fires of strained race relations, making things much worse than they would have been. They decided to push the notion that the vast majority of cops are overtly racist, and to endorse the violence and far-left agenda of Black Lives Matter: all of these things have greatly exacerbated existing social problems.

The analogy to the 1850s is obvious. We have to pass a constitutional amendment that protects the life of human beings from conception to natural death (preventing euthanasia as well as childkilling). That’s when we will rise to the level of civilization again, and leave our present state of semi-barbarity. But at least we are now “semi-“. About half the states (immediately) will outlaw abortion or have relatively strong prohibitions, or abortion illegal at a fairly early stage.

That’s great; hundreds of thousands of lives will be saved. But it’s not nearly good enough, and it’s nowhere near the Christian view that all lives are sacred and created by God (with our assistance in procreation). A question of murder shouldn’t be left up to each state to decide. That’s a ludicrous notion. Nevertheless, at least states can decide whether they will protect the lives of babies in the womb or not. They have been able to do so to an extent, due to subsequent rulings after Roe, but now they will have the full legal prerogative and right to do so, with legal and moral monstrosity of Roe overturned at last.

And that means that the truly progressive, consistently Christian and “enlightened” states will be almost wholly the opposite of what was the case in the 1850s. The least progressive states now are — generally speaking, on the east coast, upper midwest, and west coast. New England was the heart of abolitionist country. Now it’s rabidly pro-death and bloodthirsty. Oh, the ironies . . . The South, which was so pro-slavery, now is the most progressive, consistently Christian, and pro-life region of the country.

It will take a spiritual revival to complete the legal work of enshrining the value of all lives in the Constitution (I’ve been saying this for probably over thirty years). We need the vast majority of people to be pro-life to accomplish that goal, not just 53% or whatever it is now: or partially pro-life (in the case of later-term abortions). Pro-lifers will have to keep doing what they have been doing, to “prepare the soil” for such an amendment. But revival comes through prayer and profoundly Christian lives that bear witness to the surrounding dying and rapidly secularizing culture. Do you want to transform your culture and help bring about revival? Then live your life in total dedication to God (and especially, have lots of children and raise them as committed disciples of Jesus Christ).

The second thing that is in my mind on this great day is to reflect upon how we got here, and who made it possible and who didn’t. I hate to sound any sort of “negative” tone on this day, but if we don’t learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it. There are two main immediate reasons for why Roe was overturned in a 5-4 decision:

President Donald Trump,

and

The decision of the GOP-led Senate in February 2016, led by Sen. Mitch McConnell, to hold up the nomination of a new Supreme Court Justice, after the great Justice Scalia died.

Let it be remembered that all the RINOs, moderates, independents, swing voters, leftist “new pro-lifers”, third-party types, and Never-Trumpers who hated President Trump’s guts: largely for irrational and falsehood-based reasons, would have prevented this result, had they gotten their way. I can understand skepticism against him at first (I was among the skeptics, and he was initially my next-to-last choice in the primaries), but once Trump made it clear that he was committed to pro-life and to nominating Justices that would uphold pro-life, this skepticism should have stopped: seeing that the life issue is the number one, highest priority in importance (akin to slavery).

President Trump proved to be the most pro-life President since Reagan, and nominated three pro-life Justices: 60% of the Justices who just voted to overturn Roe (Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett). We can also thank both Presidents Bush for the nomination of Justices Thomas and Alito: the other two pro-life votes). Needless to say, no Democrat-appointed Justice voted for life. But the Never-Trumpers still hate and despise him. They never learn. They refuse to give up their foolish pride, even though they were clearly on the wrong side. They appear to not understand cause-and-effect. Votes change and affect things.

Otherwise orthodox Catholics like Mark Shea and Scott Eric Alt and Simcha Fisher voted for Hillary Clinton and/or Joe Biden, and justified these atrocious voting decisions with ridiculous rationales that they would be more pro-life than Donald Trump, and that there was no difference between the two parties. May history record how utterly wrong they were. I would cite some of the words they said, but I wish to be at least as charitable as I can on this day, and don’t wish to “pile on”. I heartily thank all of you who have voted Republican, and especially if you voted for Donald Trump. You had a direct role in making this possible. Kudos! I thank you on behalf of all the children in the womb who will now be allowed to leave those wombs and have a life in this world.

We see how voting for Congress also made it possible. Had the Republicans not held the leadership of the Senate in 2016, we would have had another pro-death Justice instead of Justice Gorsuch, and Roe would have been upheld 5-4, instead of overruled. Votes mean things. Republicans are pro-life; Democrats are not. It’s almost the case to a person now (if we are talking about politicians). I don’t always agree with Mitch McConnell: a sort of “moderate conservative” (and he himself is now an enemy of President Trump). But on this issue, he was dead-on, and he played a crucial role in making this result possible. So the deep thanks of all pro-lifers ought to go out to him, too. Thank you, Senator McConnell, and THANK YOU, President Trump, as well as the five pro-life Justices (Roberts being wishy-washy as usual, and half pro-life, half not), and elder and younger Presidents Bush.

Praise God for all the lives that will now be saved; while at the same time we have a long ways to go to achieve complete victory for life: a constitutional amendment putting an end to this monstrosity and ruthless, heartless barbarity of legal childkilling anywhere in the United States. So keep praying, keep voting Republican, keep participating in or funding things like pro-life crisis pregnancy centers and other aids for women considering abortion, and keep being a witness to the God Who creates life and gives all life its inherent infinite value.

I’m very proud of my country today, in a way that hasn’t been possible since 1973. We’ve done the right thing. We’ve fought the good fight. But it’s the first steps of a still very long journey to come. So we must continue to “press on”: as the Apostle Paul wrote.

***

Photo credit: Official White House portrait of President Donald J. Trump taken by Shealah Craighead on October 6, 2017 in Washington, D.C. [public domain / Wikimedia Commons]

***

Summary: I express my joy and two main thoughts about Roe being overturned and the individual states again being able to determine if they will be progressive or barbaric.

partial birth abortion

Vote for Pro-Abortionists

Previous Post

June 22, 2022

Justification: A Catholic Perspective (vs. Francisco Tourinho)

Next Post

July 17, 2022 Reply to Francisco Tourinho on Justification: Round 2 (Pt. 1)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category & Last Things About Me Anti-Catholicism Atheism & Agnosticism Baptism and Sacramentalism Bible and Tradition Blessed Virgin Mary Books by Dave Armstrong C. S. Lewis Calvinism & General Protestantism Catholic Apologetics Catholic Apologists Catholic conversion Catholic converts Christmas Church (Ecclesiology) Church History Conversion and Converts Development of Doctrine Eastern Orthodoxy Ecumenism & Christian Unity Eucharist & Liturgy Fathers of the Church French Translations G. K. Chesterton Hell Hell & Satan Hell & Satan & Last Things Heresies & Comparative Religion Holistic Health Inquisition & Crusades & Scandals James White Jews & Judaism & Old Testament John Calvin John Henry Newman Liberal / Modernist Theology Life Issues Literary Resume Lutheranism Mariology Martin Luther Music Orthodoxy Papacy & Infallibility Personal Page Philosophy & Science Political & Ethical & Moral Issues Protestant Persecution & Intolerance Protestantism Purgatory Purgatory & Penance Romantic & Imaginative Theology Saints & Purgatory & Penance Salvation Salvation & Justification Satan & Last Things Sexuality and Gender Issues Spanish Translations Traditionalism vs. Radical Catholic Reactionaries Traducciones al español / tradução para português Trinitarianism & Christology Uncategorized Videos

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 April 2010 March 2010 December 2009 October 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 March 2009 February 2009 October 2008 September 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 May 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 October 2005 June 2005 April 2005 February 2005 July 2004 May 2004 April 2004

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz