Pro-lifers’ work is not done. But it, as well as the work of originalists in the courts, has given us much to be thankful for.
Pro-lifers’ work is not done. But it, as well as the work of originalists in the courts, has given us much to be thankful for.
I t has been five months since the Supreme Court issued its historic decision overturning Roe v. Wade’s decades-long ruling on abortion. Dobbs restored our constitutional order and, in the process, created space to build a culture of life. Indeed, there is much for which to be thankful.
Understanding the important role of originalism — the method of judicial interpretation used by the Court in Dobbs to conclude definitively that there is no constitutional right to abortion — cannot be overstated. In the latest issue of the Notre Dame Law Review, Joel Alicea of Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law Professor offers an affirmative argument for originalism from within the natural-law tradition. Alicea is co-director of the Project on Constitutional Originalism and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition and a scholar at the Institute for Human Ecology at the Catholic University of America. He also served as a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, the author of the Dobbs decision.
Alicea explains that obeying the original meaning of the Constitution is necessary to “preserve the legitimate authority of the people, which is essential to achieving the common good.” His article is the first full-length response to the common-good constitutionalists’ critique of originalism and serves as a valuable reference to the new generation of law-school students and young conservative lawyers.
As for the rest of us, we can and must continue to celebrate that Dobbs cleared away Court-created hurdles that impeded the pro-life movement for decades. Of course, the effect of Dobbs was to restore the authority of the American people to enact laws that protect pregnant women and their unborn children from abortion. It didn’t automatically transform our culture into one that supports pregnant women and protects their unborn children. Indeed, the path to a culture of life in America is particularly steep because generations of men and women have grown up convinced that a “right” to abortion is good and protected by the Constitution.
That’s exactly why it is so important that Roe was overturned.
Henry Olsen sums things up perfectly, writing that “every movement for social change takes decades to triumph. Overturning Roe took nearly 50 years, and it was only the necessary first step.” Fortunately, the pro-life movement in America has never been focused just on the crucial legal battle to restore our constitutional order. It has been and will continue to be committed to changing the hearts and minds of many of our fellow Americans.
PHOTOS: Roe v. Wade Overturned
It is a movement, for example, that is made up of staff and volunteers at pregnancy resource centers who selflessly accompany women — all of them in need and many in great distress — during and after pregnancy. I submitted an amicus brief in the Supreme Court recounting the life-giving resources that women across the country receive at these centers. The women shared their stories in support of a challenge to California’s attempt to force pro-life pregnancy centers to advertise the state’s abortion services. While the pro-life pregnancy centers won their case, they continue to be targeted by vandals and maligned by some of our nation’s highest public officials.
The pro-life movement also includes sidewalk counselors who, consistent with their rights under the First Amendment, pray for and speak with women who mistakenly think that abortion is their only option. These persevering pro-lifers now find themselves persecuted by the Biden administration’s Department of Justice.
Being pro-life in America has never been easy, because our goal is so lofty: making abortion unthinkable. There still is much work to be done toward that goal. But thankfully, the legal philosophy of originalism has, with the overturning of Roe, opened the door to building an authentic culture of life.