American Values - Gary L. Bauer, President

Op/Ed Article Article

What hath Roe wrought in the intervening years?

The Washington Times

01/22/1998

This first month of the new year brings with it a milestone that pro-lifers across America dread: The 25th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe vs. Wade decision. Like the court's infamous Dred Scott decision, which said that enslaved black men and women were not persons under our Constitution, Roe has removed the protection of our Constitution from an entire group of our fellow human beings, and in the past quarter of a century, it has led to the deaths of more than 35 million innocent children.

Such an enormous number is hard to comprehend, and it's easy for us to let it slip into the backs of our minds with so many other statistics. But the implications of such bloodshed to a nation are horrifying. When I think of what 25 years of Roe could cost our country, I'm haunted by Abraham Lincoln's second Inaugural Address: "Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

When we think of what price our nation may have to pay for the blood of more than 35 million children, it should drive us to our knees in prayer for God's mercy. We should be under no illusion that such massive carnage will have no impact on our nation. Indeed, we're already paying a terrible price for legalized abortion.

A big part of that price is the devaluing of human life that seems to besweeping our culture. This is painfully obvious in tragic newspaper headlines that we see all too often telling us awful stories of babies killed and left in trash cans, literally thrown away like styrofoam cups. Cases like these have been on the rise since the court gave us the Roe decision. In fact, since 1973, there has been a staggering 92 percent increase in newborn homicides.

Women, who are the supposed beneficiaries of Roe, are actually some of its most frequent victims. Before Roe, women had a greater chance of relying on men to take responsibility in crisis pregnancies. Today, that assurance has largely disappeared as more and more men are telling these women to solve the problem by getting abortions. Despite the promises of feminist rhetoric about the increased freedom and equality that legalized abortion would supposedly bring women, it seems the real freedom has been given to men: Freedom to skip out on the women they impregnate. Is it any wonder that the strongest supporters of so-called abortion rights are young men?

Shattered lives and broken hearts are only part of Roe's dreadful legacy. Because of Roe, we now live in a society that can no longer protect the inalienable right to life. We see this in the drive to expand not only abortion but also euthanasia. This slippery slope also opens the door to radical notions of the definition of life. In a recent New York Times Magazine article, Professor Steven Pinker of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology actually argued that infant children could not truly be considered people, because they have not yet had a "unique sequence of experiences that defines us as individuals." Amazingly, Mr. Pinker argued that killing a newborn should be treated differently from the killing of an adult because the infant isn't a full-fledged person.

On the brighter side, even as Roe has wreaked havoc on our culture for the past 25 years, it's also brought out some of our better angels. As the slave trade produced the underground railroad, the abortion industry has fueled the growth of crisis pregnancy centers in America. These centers, which now outnumber abortion clinics nationwide, have saved countless lives and have given hope to women and families in times of despair.

Another sign of light at the end of the tunnel is the public's changing attitudes regarding abortion. Regardless of abortion supporters' claims of broad support for "a woman's right to choose," few people believe in abortion on demand through all nine months of pregnancy, which is exactly what Roe gave us. Moreover, we're seeing that the first post-Roe generation is less likely than their parents to support unrestricted abortion.

In addition to changing attitudes, we're also seeing a welcome trend toward uncovering the truth about abortion. The debate over partial-birth abortion in particular has gone a long way toward exposing the lies that the abortion industry has relied upon for years.

Twenty-five years of Roe vs. Wade is a tragedy. Pro-lifers will mark the anniversary this year with sadness as we reflect on what this terrible decision has done to millions of innocent children and their mothers and to the culture in which we live. The challenge for us will be to use the occasion to redouble our efforts to renew the Constitution's protections for all our citizens. In doing so, we can look forward to celebrating the end of this dark chapter in America•s history.