Our endless and exhausting culture war entered a new phase of insanity with the leaked draft of an opinion that would — if it actually emerges as the official opinion of the Supreme Court — overturn the Roe and Casey opinions, which asserted a right to abortion based on a legally implausible reading of the 14th amendment.
Such a decision — again, if it actually becomes the official decision of the court — would not ban abortion, but would simply return the question of abortion to the elected representatives in the various states whose job it is to, you know, pass laws on important questions of the day.
It is imperative that the right to life for all be defended, including in our laws precisely because a country that denies basic rights to the innocent is undermining any other rights claims. But that makes the legal protection of unborn children necessary but not sufficient in our goal of promoting the dignity of all human life.
The response of those who have been working for decades for this day — if it has in fact arrived — must not be strutting but digging into the trenches to provide all the material and spiritual support women need in order to choose life for their children.