Pro-Life Organizations Rejoice: ‘Injustice of Roe Has Finally Ended’

Pro-life activists hug outside the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, on June 24, 2022. -
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
Katherine Hamilton

Pro-life organizations and advocates around the country rejoiced after the Supreme Court released a decision on Friday overturning its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and holding that the Constitution does not include a right to abortion.

“The injustice of Roe has finally come to an end, and the momentum to protect life in law is finally on the side of innocent preborn children and their mothers who deserve our help,” said Students for Life President Kristan Hawkins. “Roe v. Wade has been a cancer growing in our Constitution resulting in more than 63 million deaths. Today, the court has cut it out, and that’s a win. Now we get back to building up a healthy society, affirming life for women and their children, born and preborn.”   

President of SBA Pro-life America Marjorie Dannenfelser said the Supreme Court’s decision in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case marks a “bright pro-life future for our nation.” 

“Today the Supreme Court, in line with modern science and overwhelming public consensus, recognized the truth in every mother’s heart and that pro-life advocates have argued all along: unborn children are human beings, deserving of protection. Every legislature in the land, in every single state and Congress, is now free to allow the will of the people to make its way into the law through our elected representatives,” Dannenfelser said. 

Live Action President and Founder Lila Rose released a statement following the ruling, saying that the decision is “an important step forward for the protection of innocent life in our nation.” She also said the “work of the pro-life movement is just getting started.” 

“While overruling Roe is a necessary first step, giving states the prerogative to regulate abortion is not a final victory. While this decision will give states the right to protect their youngest citizens, many of our nation’s largest states, such as California, Illinois, and New York will still legalize and even subsidize the killing of our youngest children,” Rose said in part. “We will not have true justice until the Supreme Court acknowledges the truth that under our Constitution, every American – born or preborn – has an inherent right to life protected by the 14th Amendment.” 

March for Life celebrated the pro-life victory and reflected on the impacts of the court’s Roe decision.

“Today, the ability to determine whether & when to limit abortion was returned to the American people who have every right to enact laws like Mississippi’s which protect mothers & unborn babies after 15 weeks – when they have fully formed noses, can suck their thumb, & feel pain,” March for Life stated in a Twitter thread.

“We’re so grateful to the countless pro-life people of goodwill who contributed & sacrificed to make today possible – including the millions of those who have marched for life over the years,” the organization continued. “We recognize that this is just the beginning of our work to advance policies that protect life. We will continue to march until abortion is unthinkable because equality begins in the womb.”

CatholicVote also released a statement, calling the decision a “dawning of a new day in America.”

“…The humanity of children in the womb has become plain and undeniable thanks to the decades of technological advances since Roe was decided. Millions of women have been coerced, threatened, or forced into a decision they regret. They too are worthy of protection. A dark chapter in our nation’s history has finally been closed,” CatholicVote President Brian Burch said in part. 

“We urge state legislatures along with our federal representatives to move quickly to enact broad protections for women and children, and support for pregnancy centers, maternity homes, and programs that offer real choices for women to keep and love their children,” he continued. 

Countless other organizations and advocates, large and small, cheered the Supreme Court’s long-awaited decision, and similarly called for lawmakers to get to work on pro-life legislation.

Ultimately, the 5-4 decision, written by Justice Samuel Alito, returned the issue of abortion laws and regulations to state legislatures.

Alito wrote:

Abortion presents a profound moral question. The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion. Roe and Casey arrogated that authority. We now overrule those decisions and return the authority to the people and their elected representatives.

As Breitbart News reported, Roe was handed down in 1973 in a 7-2 decision, holding that the U.S. Constitution includes a constitutional right to abortion, “despite the fact that abortion is not found in the text, structure, or history of the Constitution, and the nation went more than 180 years without ever noticing it existed. It has been one of the most divisive legal issues in American history.”

The road to overturning Roe has been rocky, especially after an unknown source leaked a Dobbs draft opinion in May — an unprecedented breach of an institution crucial to upholding the United States Constitution. Following the leak, leftists violently protested, and extremists destroyed and vandalized pro-life centers around the countries. They also vandalized churches and participated in threatening protests at the home of conservative justices in violation of federal law.

These threats culminated in what was almost an assassination attempt of Justice Brett Kavanaugh — which went seemingly unnoticed by President Joe Biden, who did not speak out to condemn it – and has led to rapid action on a new federal law to protect the justices. The court majority evidently stood firm against the threats and public pressure, overruling Roe and the later revision of Roe in 1992, Planned Parenthood v. Casey. 

The case is Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, No. 19-1392 in the Supreme Court of the United States.

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