June 19, 2023
With days until the one year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision concluding that there is no constitutional right to abortion, Students for Life Action (SFLAction) and Students for Life of America (SFLA) President Kristan Hawkins wrote an op-ed at Newsweek, covering the pro-life protections afforded in this new, Post-Roe America and where the movement can go from here. She writes:
“Pro-abortion language and ideas — often laden with insults, distortions, and barely concealed prejudices — aim to intimidate pro-life champions into abandoning the courage of their convictions just as opportunities for significant pro-life protections have become possible for the first time in more than 50 years.
“No one expected all of society to be remade in that short time. We didn’t have a Black president the day after Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. We haven’t solved all the issues of race, but the party of Lincoln cannot give up that good fight for equality.
“In the same way, the pro-life movement still has its work cut out for it, beginning with rejecting the false assumptions and prejudices that went unchallenged during Roe’s dictatorial reign.”
Hawkins is right – Roe once stood as a roadblock and often times an excuse for some legislators to avoid tackling hard issues such as exceptions rooted in prejudice. Now, we’re having these discussions and crafting policies to protect all life, regardless of how it was conceived. But as Hawkins notes, there’s still much work to be done.
“As we look at abortion policy proposals and their impact on real people, we need to at least discuss the implications of “exceptions” for rape and incest, which automatically allow for the ending of lives based on how they came to be. These are too often accepted in the same breath as a separate category—intervention to protect the life of the mother—that is not an act of abortion, which always involves the intent to end life, not save it. In abortion, intent matters.
“Conception-based prejudice once led to laws blocking the legal rights and opportunities of people born out of wedlock—now, not an issue at all. Does American society, having once rejected second-class citizenship based on conception by married or unmarried parents, really want to curtail the right to life of those conceived in tragic circumstances? Do we really want to regress?”
Making the case for all preborn lives, Hawkins shares the point that the science behind when life begins is often thrown to the side when a rare, yet horrific tragedy occurs such as rape, resulting in pregnancy.
To continue reading the op-ed for Hawkins’ advice to pro-life politicians on discussing this important yet difficult topic, CLICK HERE.