Even when the Supreme Court itself ordered pro-lifers to disappear, millions said no — and we along with them.
When Malcolm Gladwell worked for the Washington Post, he quipped that the newspaper needed a rule banning its employees from joining a pro-choice march, if for no other reason than because someone had to be left to staff the newsdesk. When National Review decided to put together a special issue on ending Roe v. Wade last fall, we had the opposite problem: So many of our writers wanted to contribute, or had ideas for essays, that we had to cull ruthlessly.
Roe is the site of the Left’s simultaneous assault on justice, morality, self-government, and simple truth. It is therefore no surprise that overturning it has long been a cause dear to our hearts. That’s why we wanted to assemble an all-star team of writers to make a thorough, reasoned, and powerful case against Roe as the Supreme Court prepared to hear arguments about it. Our special issue covered everything from Roe’s obsolete science to its shaky status as a precedent to its destructive assumptions about human flourishing.
With your help, we have been making the case against Roe and the abortion license for decades, in and out of season — even as powerful voices in our culture kept insisting that this matter was closed, this argument over. The day after Roe came down in 1973, the New York Times called it “a historic resolution of a fiercely controversial issue.” In 1992, the Supreme Court itself ordered pro-lifers to disappear: It was time for “the contending sides of a national controversy to end their national division by accepting” its edicts.
Millions of pro-lifers said no, and we along with them. If a magazine can be said to march, we’ve marched. When Republicans said it was time to move on from this issue, we argued it would be a moral and political disaster. When the press claimed that America’s women want abortion on demand, we pointed to the evidence that they don’t. When Democrats said that late-term abortion is “rare,” we explained that late-term abortions are roughly as common as gun murders.
The Court may finally undo the evil of 1973 this summer. But the argument over abortion – and related attacks on the sanctity of human life — won’t be over even if it does. And either way, we’ll keep making the case that unborn children should be protected in law and welcomed in life.
Over the years, many of our readers have told us that they have taken heart from our stand on life, and we in turn have taken heart from theirs. We couldn’t do this important work without your support and encouragement. And we will appreciate any donation you can give to help us keep a great cause alive.
