NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE A s I was leaving church services on Sunday, a local faith-based-school principal asked me which March for Life would be more important for his students to attend — the state march or the national march for life. My answer: Both! The work to enact pro-life policies is really only just beginning at the state and federal level, now that the power to protect the unborn has been returned to the American people post-Dobbs.
Nationally elected officials take note: Pro-life Americans are eager and ready to continue fighting for life, but they are looking for strong leaders who will show them where is most important to go. We need our members of Congress more than ever to lead by example and show Americans the necessity of both state and federal protections against extreme, life-threatening pro-abortion legislation that contradicts not only popular opinion and science, but also the laws of the majority of the civilized world.
Pro-life Americans were overjoyed when the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization allowed for states around the country to enact commonsense protections for life — such as at six weeks, when babies have a heartbeat, or at 15 weeks, when babies can feel the excruciating pain of abortion. Many states have done just that and made huge gains toward creating a culture of life. Still, the role of the federal legislature remains critically important.
Since Roe’s overturn, some pro-life advocates and leaders have turned their focus exclusively to the states when it comes to advancing pro-life policies. But now that deciding pro-life protections belongs to the people once again, our efforts must also be directed toward federal policies that protect the inherent dignity of the unborn person. So much happens at the national level — whether proactively with appropriations oversight or defensively fighting against pro-abortion bills and administrative actions that pop up regularly.
If we avoid engaging at the federal level, we will lose much ground in our work to build a culture that protects and cherishes moms and babies. Pro-abortion leaders in Congress and the Biden administration have repeatedly expressed their determination to go beyond even Roe’s barbaric abortion policies at the federal level. Their agenda to pass the so-called “Women’s Health Protection Act,” which allows for painful abortions up to delivery nationwide, has made that abundantly clear. The deceptively named bill would also effectively nullify virtually every state pro-life law on the books, thereby eliminating essentially any legal protection or possibility of legal protections for the unborn throughout the nation. Additionally, the Hyde amendment, which is responsible for saving nearly 2.5 million lives — and is arguably the most impactful pro-life policy to date — is under constant attack from pro-abortion politicians and needs pro-life leaders and advocates to defend and preserve it.
Consider that nearly one year post-Roe, far too many states — such as New York and California — leave unborn children totally unprotected, allowing for painful abortion on demand up until the time of birth. Such states also use taxpayer dollars to pay for women from out of state to travel for abortions, funding in essence “abortion tourism” and in doing so prioritizing abortion access over policies that support and strengthen vulnerable women and babies.
These are some of the reasons why March for Life has joined other leading pro-life organizations and legislators in advocating federal minimum protections for unborn children who are conceived in states that fail to protect them.
Not only that, extreme policies such as the “Women’s Health Protection Act” would make the U.S. a global outlier on abortion policy, on par with horrific human-rights abusers such as China and North Korea. Moreover, such policies contradict the views of the majority of Americans who support commonsense protections for the unborn.
Forty-seven out of 50 European nations have protections for the unborn in their laws. Perhaps that is because they, like we, have seen the facts and science regarding preborn development, which demand greater protections for unborn children — such as the fact that at six weeks the preborn child’s heart starts beating and has formed all four chambers, and he or she can be seen hiccupping on ultrasounds. At 15 weeks, preborn children possess all their major organs and begin sucking their thumbs. Their little brains are rapidly creating hundreds of thousands of neurons a minute, and in addition to possessing proficient taste buds, they can feel pain. Federal minimum protections for the unborn would enable the U.S. to join the ranks of most of the civilized world in safeguarding these unique and irreplaceable human lives.
The stakes for a culture of life are incredibly high, and we can’t forsake these children by abandoning the federal fight to protect them.