What I Saw at the Pro Life Rally
Hope, love, and a renewed sense of victory
Hours after a huge pro-abortion rally at the Idaho State Capitol this morning, a smaller group of pro-life activists and politicians took to the steps to celebrate the upcoming end of Roe v. Wade. The clouds, which had been dark and ominous all day, cleared briefly, letting a few rays of sunshine filter through.
The contrast between the two rallies today was stark. This morning was full of anger, while this afternoon was full of cheer. The morning speakers preached outrage, while the afternoon speakers preached love. The only overt religious symbolism this morning came from a couple of overweight satanists, while this afternoon was all about the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Most of all, the morning’s protesters proudly displayed their bitter and ugly personalities, while the afternoon rally was full of energized happy warriors who knew they were on the side of truth.
The first speaker this afternoon was Megan Wold, former clerk for Justice Samuel Alito, whose leaked draft opinion in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson was what set these events into motion. Mrs. Wold shared her experience working with Justice Alito as well as the way in which his opinion deftly dismantled the supposed constitutional legitimacy of abortion altogether. Wold explained how Roe v. Wade usurped the role of the people and their representatives in debating when life begins, and how this decision once again makes that question our responsibility, not Supreme Court justices. (She made a similar argument in this piece for RealClearPolitics last year.)
All the while, a handful of pro-abortion protestors who stayed behind to disrupt the rally chanted slogans and screamed obscenities. The contrast could not be more clear:
Mrs. Wold was calm and collected, while the protestors were unhinged.
Mrs. Wold spoke with intelligence, while the protestors mindlessly shrieked.
Mrs. Wold is an attractive young woman, while the protestors were… otherwise.
Former congressman and attorney general candidate Raúl Labrador spoke briefly and was followed by activists from several pro-life organizations. Several exhorted churches, communities, and even the government to provide more services for women and babies. While that is admirable, at least on the private charity side, I do not believe that expanding welfare will solve the problem of abortion. The speaker who pointed out that once Roe is overturned women who want abortion will simply cross state lines is correct, however her solution - more welfare, more education for pregnant mothers - misses a key point.
There is a tendency in the pro-life movement to avoid holding women to account for their choice to get an abortion. Many pro-life leaders will talk about the women who abort their babies as victims, as if they were coerced, or felt they had no choice, without recognizing that many women routinely use abortion as birth control and feel no guilt for it. Some even revel in it. The angry women who shouted vulgarities at us this afternoon would disagree with the notion that they are victims.
Megan Basham, a Christian woman who writes for the Daily Wire, tweeted a thread this morning about women’s responsibility for abortion:
We need to acknowledge that some women are victims of abortion industry. They are trafficked, they are abused, they don’t understand the action they are taking as a result of being lied to. But other women know exactly what they are doing and they are not innocent victims.
There is strong tendency I have seen to minimize women’s culpability for their own sin. That infantilizes us & does not hold us to account in way our spiritual leaders should. It doesn’t do women any favors to treat us like innocent babes incapable of sinning of our own volition.
When American men routinely drank themselves to excess in the 19th century, activists and lawmakers did not wring their hands and wonder why the system drove some men to alcoholism. Rather, they passed laws against drunkenness, and even banned alcohol completely with the 18th Amendment before repealing it a few years later. If abortion is the destruction of a human life, as we believe that it is, then we should ban it and create legal consequences for those who engage in it.
There are many factors playing into how we arrived at a point where angry young women scream expletives at people who stand up for life:
Our public schools teach Marxist propaganda rather than traditional values
Our entertainment is increasingly deviant and nihilistic
The nuclear family has been utterly ravaged, with too many children growing up in broken and dysfunctional homes.
Fixing the root causes of abortion requires fixing many of the other problems in society as well. It requires a holistic approach, not just throwing money at one issue or legislation at another.
Megan Wold’s argument that Roe stifled debate is born out in how out-of-date the pro-abortion rhetoric was today. My body, my choice is incongruous with an idealogy that wants to force you to take certain vaccines and no church, no state, will decide my fate not only ignores the foundation of our entire moral and legal system, but also the fact that for these people, abortion itself has become a religion. Also, their statement that men should have no say in the abortion debate because we do not bear children is out of step with progressive dogma that has trouble defining exactly what men and women are.
The pro-life movement has been on the defensive for half a century, but those days are almost over. For decades we have been trying to chip away at abortion, winning small victories in between suffering larger defeats. With Roe almost gone, the time has come to fight. Consider that we can actually ban abortion in Idaho. We can start placing restrictions on companies that provide money for abortions in other states. We can proclaim the sanctity of life from a place of strength, from a state that has declared itself a sanctuary for life.
Today’s rally felt different from the many Marche For Life that have happened since Roe. Those often felt like a rearguard action in a losing battle, while today felt like we have just breached the gates of the city. The pro-abortion protesters heckling us today were angry, but impotent. The Life After Roe rally was a victory party, and those who were screaming at us do not realize that they have already lost.
The starkest judgment of a society is how they treat the most helpless among them, and there is no human being more helpless and innocent than an unborn child. It was gratifying to see politicians, activists, and regular people on the Capitol steps today who are together working to restore the sanctity of human life in Idaho.
Obviously there is a lot of work to be done. As several speakers said, this is just the beginning. National media, big corporations, and pro-abortion activists will be pushing us to compromise, to water down our bans, and so we and our elected leaders must stand strong. Remember that we have truth on our side, and the wind is at our backs.