What to Expect When You Are Forced to Be Expecting — that was “the new pregnancy guide” Stephen Colbert joked Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett was issuing after oral arguments in the Dobbs case, which ultimately ended Roe v. Wade’s half century of unjust rule by the Court.
So forgive me if I’m not lamenting the end of Colbert’s late-night tenure.
I often get accused of seeing the world through the lens of abortion. And here, I’m going to add to the case.
In some religious publications, he’s heralded as a late-night evangelist.
And, yes, all I can keep thinking is: What about abortion?
If you got your news from The Late Show, it would seem that we are in league with Afghanistan and Iran when it comes to women’s rights in the United States. (See an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour for one memorable example.) And I guess the BBC didn’t consider the inconvenient timing of their ode to fathers who sell their daughters to family members as child brides in keeping with the narrative. (In case you missed it.)
Of course, the outlets grieving the Colbert exit tend to share his politics. They’ll miss his brand of Catholicism. And it’s actually the passing of an era they are really marking — the Mario Cuomo “personally opposed” to abortion kinda’ Catholic having the same tortured sway it once did. It morphed into a confused Biden and Pelosi approach — which, perhaps, jumped the shark when Cuomo’s son, Andrew, expanded abortion in New York to excessive, perverse fanfare (lighting the bridge he named after his father and the Freedom Tower, previously a symbol of resurrection, in celebration), just before being ousted for being a Neanderthal with women on staff.
Colbert’s made-up pregnancy guide, by the way, makes about as much sense as when a young woman once accosted me outside Manhattan’s former flagship Planned Parenthood declaring that that particular Saturday morning was a good one for her because no one was forcing her to give birth. It didn’t require an extensive investigation to realize that was not unlike the day before and the day after in her life. There is real suffering that occurs in unplanned pregnancies — some of them caused by and surrounded by domestic violence. The ridiculous — and crass — overreach from street fighters and late-night “comics” helps no one.
Who Cares About Women? Cosmo or Mike Pence?
For the moment, according to the Supreme Court, all is well when it comes to sending abortion pills across state borders.
But Cosmopolitan wants women to know not to worry. If mifepristone, the main pill under debate, is restricted, get ready for another way to end your pregnancy. Here’s from “Your Complete Guide to Misoprostol-Only Abortions”:
While mifepristone definitely cuts down on the time and symptoms involved in a medication-induced abortion (keep reading for the full deets on that later), it’s not a necessary part of the equation — aka you *can* safely and successfully end a pregnancy just with misoprostol, the other drug in the two-step abortion pill process.
Cosmo continues:
Unlike all the turmoil mifepristone went through, misoprostol doesn’t have really any risk of becoming restricted right now, says Dana Johnson, PhD, a senior research scientist at nonprofit organization Ibis Reproductive Health, where she studies abortion pills. That’s because misoprostol has been used for decades for a bunch of different things, says Dr. Perritt, like managing pregnancy loss, inducing labor, and treating certain types of ulcers. So even if there is a restriction or ban on mifepristone through the mail — or even outright — medication abortion wouldn’t become extinct. Keep reading below on why that is.
Or read this instead. The Cosmo approach is more likely to lead to a botched abortion and complications. Mifepristone has not only been known to be harmful for more than the dead baby but has been subject to politically motivated advancement with diluted scrutiny (at best).
Consider J. Marc Wheat’s piece in the Wall Street Journal:
As required by law, the Biden FDA was supposed to release the mifepristone records in June 2024 to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Advancing American Freedom. It refused to do so.
Only after a change in administration and a successful lawsuit did the FDA finally acknowledge the existence of these documents. But even now, agency bureaucrats could slow-walk their release to a few hundred pages per month, meaning it would take decades to reach full disclosure.
Enough is enough. For the sake of women’s health, it’s time for transparency.
Wheat is general counsel for Mike Pence’s Advancing American Freedom.
When all is said and done, the likes of Pence will wind up being the heroes of the story when it comes to who has the best interests of women in mind in the disastrous abortion debate in America. Now if we only had a purportedly pro-life administration to care. We know the Democrats have handed over that credibility to the abortion industry. Have the Republicans, too? It sure appears right now they couldn’t care less, at best.
Clarence Thomas, by the way, not for the first time, was memorable as he dissented as the Court let pills continue going through the mail across states:
Applicants are not entitled to a stay of an adverse court order based on lost profits from their criminal enterprise. They cannot, in any legally relevant sense, be irreparably harmed by a court order that makes it more difficult for them to commit crimes.
Other Things
Becket: Catholic ministries urge appeals court to block abortion-accommodation mandate
A coroner’s report shows that 18-year-old Alexis “Lexi” Arguello died in February 2025 following complications from an abortion at 22 weeks at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado.
Matthew Hennessey is writing and editing up a storm at the Wall Street Journal’s new “Free Expression” section. He wrote this earlier this month:
As the father of five children, I am sometimes asked for advice about family stuff. Not often, but sometimes. When people tell me they’re having kids, or thinking about it, my standard response is: “Good. Do it. Have as many as you can. You won’t regret it.”
What else can you say? Raising kids isn’t easy or cheap. Kids are people, and people cause problems that need solutions. When you become a parent, your life totally changes. You get no sleep, you have to give up a lot of fun and enjoyable things that you used to do, you never have any time to yourself — and, yet, nothing in life comes close to giving you as much joy and satisfaction.
That’s a cliché because it’s true. Nothing comes close. Not friends. Not romance. Not career success. Not financial security. Not even the Grand Canyon. Nothing.
Over at Reason, Liz Wolfe remembers her recently departed son, Solomon:
He was diagnosed with clubfoot and muscle contractures in utero, with suspected trisomy 18 or neuromuscular issues. We chose to carry him to term regardless, to love him through whatever challenges he’d been made with. When he was born, he had several minor disabilities (including clubfoot and muscle contractures in his hands and knees) but he mostly struggled with breathing — a struggle that continued for 70 days, 61 in the NICU and 9 on the outside — and one that ultimately led to his death. It was a harrowing experience, serving as his caretaker, hunting for a diagnosis that never came, memorizing his chart to ensure continuity between doctors and hospitals. When he was discharged from the hospital, the thought was not that he would die at home but rather that our normal life would begin. But he stopped breathing one night, out of nowhere.[end blockquote]
She emphasizes:
None of this has shaken my faith. I regret nothing. I loved him very well and still do. I mention the details because I believe in choosing life and I hope others do the same if forced to contend with something similar. Life has more color and texture, not less, having walked through sorrow. I’m not sure what else we’re here to do other than to serve our children and spouses and parents, summoning supernatural love.
New Acting FDA Commissioner Is Courting the Pro-Life Cause
Ohio Mom Goes Cold on Ice-Cream Friendliness to Abortion
Gratitude Coalition
In this section, a revival of a tradition: taking a moment to give thanks for something surprising. Something that might otherwise be a thankless task. Something that is good. I give thanks and encourage others to do the same.
This time, it’s a profile by the Harvard Law alumni magazine of Jennie Bradley Lichter. It shouldn’t be a surprise, because she’s a brilliant, successful graduate of the school. But it is a surprise. She is president of the March for Life, after all.
When she was a freshman at the University of Notre Dame, Jennie Bradley Lichter (’09) took a long bus ride to Washington, D.C., to participate for the first time in the March for Life, an annual gathering of the pro-life movement. She would attend many more times, but during last year’s event, nearly 20 years later, she was no longer in the crowd. She stood onstage to deliver remarks as the incoming president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund.
The first time she attended the March was formative, she recalls, remembering being among thousands of young people “who all share your fundamental belief in the dignity of the human person.” Now as president, she embraces her role as the public face of an organization she has been committed to for her entire adult life, driven by her belief that abortion is morally wrong because, she says, it involves deliberately ending an innocent human life.
“I’m very aware in this job of the way that I now have an opportunity to embody this beautiful organization and this incredible history of a social movement that has had the persistence to continue to show up in person in January in huge numbers for over 50 years,” Lichter says.
Of course, you are likely aware that the March for Life barely even registered as an event for the better part of a half century in the Washington Post and other mainstream coverage of the nation’s capital, despite a long-standing annual event involving bus rides and sleeping in churches for vigils for life, in prayer for an end to abortion.
My hope is always that those responsible for the good thing do get pleasantly surprised by the feedback. And, yes, that it might lead to some more of the same — more of the good. But we also don’t want to get greedy. Good is good, and we give thanks for that good!
Write a “thank you” to the Harvard Law Bulletin at bulletin@law.harvard.edu
Around National Review
Robert P. George: Jürgen Habermas: A Serious Man
Andrew C. McCarthy: The Supreme Court Green-Lights Abortion-by-Mail
Dan McLaughlin: The Supreme Court, Like Trump, Goes Wobbly on the Abortion Pill
Wesley J. Smith: Would New Jersey Bill Authorize Slow-Motion Euthanasia of Dementia Patients?
Hector Chapa: The Power of ‘Baby’
Michael J. New: No, Strong Pro-Life Laws Have Not Worsened Miscarriage Care
John Gerardi: Trump’s Conflicted Views Are Complicating Abortion Policy
John Gerardi: Will Planned Parenthood Stay Defunded?
Me: The Callousness of Abortion Pills
Me: A New National Push for Innovation — and Objectivity — for Children in Foster Care
Upcoming
You’ve got a close deadline for this one: A call for papers for the University of Notre Dame’s de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture’s 26th Fall Conference. The theme is “But Where Can She Be Found? Wisdom from Age to Age,” and the dates are October 1–3.
Christian Alliance for Orphans Summit (Atlanta), September 23–25
Heartbeat International Conference 2027 (Atlanta), March 31–April 2
More to Come
I’m just back on the beat from a necessary medical leave. If we don’t have life, the rest of it isn’t going to amount to anything — it is all, in fact, passing. What are we making of the time? How are we stewarding the gift of life?
One of the first things I got to do once back was visit a new pregnancy center in Yonkers. It has been long desired. And one parish in the suburbs of Manhattan is stepping up to the plate in meeting real, practical needs.
For now, keep in touch with your news and ideas and feedback: klopez@nationalreview.com