June 24, 2022
Roe is over. We remember — and march forth.
The U.S. Supreme Court has decided in a 5-to-3 vote — with one concurrence — in Dobbs v. Jackson to uphold the Mississippi law to protect women and unborn children from abortion after 15 weeks. This effectively confirms the unconstitutionality of Roe v. Wade, guts it, and returns the issue to state legislators to decide.
Many states already have laws restricting abortion in various ways (by baby’s age or development, such as first prenatal heartbeat, six weeks, 15 weeks, etc.; parental notification or consent; women’s right to know; method of termination; potential lawsuits against abortion practitioners; etc.), or have trigger laws that will be activated including a total ban on abortion. And many of those states have established programs offering alternatives to abortion.
No state law criminalizes the teen or woman who has an abortion.
At this historic moment, we pause to remember the 63 million unborn children, generations that were never born. Some may wonder how many people who could have cured diseases or solved other world crises are missing. I wonder how many soulmates were never born.
We also mourn the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of teenage girls and women who were also killed in botched abortions — and think of the families they left behind.
We stand in solidarity with the millions of women who mourn their decision and wonder, “What if.” What if her school had resources? What if she had a supportive boss? What if the guy who said he loved her had loved her enough to love them both?
What if she didn’t think those around her would consider a baby inconvenient? What if she believed in herself?
And we can’t forget the siblings. The grandparents. The fathers who didn’t choose abortion — or regret participating in one years ago.
While we celebrate the many hundreds of thousands of lives that will be saved, sadly, there still is no “Right to Life” in America. Abortion has not been ended. Instead, companies like Amazon, Apple, Citigroup, Disney, Lyft, Mastercard, Salesforce, Starbucks, Tesla, T-Mobile, Uber, and Yelp will now pay travel expenses, putting more pressure on women to suffer an abortion. If only they were fully dedicated to supporting pregnant women, parents, and birthmothers.
As I have said many times, Women Deserve Better® than Abortion means more than saying “no” to abortion. It means saying “yes” to life. It means women-centered solutions.
Now is the time to redouble our efforts to lovingly, peacefully reach past the angry voices to those who need help, who may not believe in themselves, who don’t yet know about WomenDeserveBetter.com, our helpsite — or that there are thousands of pregnancy resource centers who won’t take a dime, but give everything they can. It is a labor of love.
It has been an immense effort to get to this point. From pregnancy resource centers who have done much of the heavy lifting, to the advocacy and education efforts led by a myriad of pro-life groups and churches, lawyers, and advocates, including Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch and her staff — all will remember this day as achieving an enormous milestone.
But the closer we got to it, many pro-lifers realized it will not stop abortion. It is one important step. But ending Roe will not achieve the ultimate goal to make abortion unthinkable.
As advocates of peace and justice for all, as Feminists for Life, we will never accept violence. Despite intimidation, vandalism, and violence against those in the movement — and even an assassination attempt against a sitting Supreme Court justice — we will persevere.
At this time, we pause to remember, and gather our strength, rededicated to our mission of resources and support for women and their children — born and unborn. We refuse to choose.
In the coming months and years, we will make and take every strategic opportunity to advance solutions that address the unmet needs of women at the federal and increasingly the state level — as well as with parents and their daughters, school administrators, and employers.
We rededicate ourselves to work harder to reach those most vulnerable to help them embrace the dignity and strength of women and the value of every human being.
We will educate more people about our rich pro-life feminist history. And we will empower girls and women, raising those in need from a poverty of spirit and circumstances.
This is our pledge. And we will do this with you.
On behalf of the FFL Board of Directors, I thank you for helping us get so far as we celebrate our 50th Birthday — so that mothers and fathers will know the joy, planned or unplanned, of meeting their precious children.
Today we enter a new era: LIFE after Roe. March forth.
Because women — and girls — deserve better,
Serrin M. Foster
President
Feminists for Life of America
Editor-in-Chief
Women Deserve Better
& The American Feminist
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