I was not alone recently in unloading on an innocent priest friend. It was the first time we had been together to break bread since the end of Roe v. Wade. He must have thought we would have a moment of thanksgiving to God that an unjust Supreme Court decision is no more. Instead, we vented.
I need to quickly say: I am grateful to God that Roe is no more. It was bad law, bad history, bad science. Wrong.
At the same time: People are hurting and confused. For almost 50 years, the law has been lying. And according to polls, most Americans don’t fully realize that Roe v. Wade made abortion legal in all three trimesters of pregnancy.
I should also say that the dinner was in New York. Two of us live here and two are in Washington, D.C. In New York, nothing even makes sense. At least three people were physically assaulted at the last First Saturday Witness for Life at the Planned Parenthood in lower Manhattan, which used to be named after Planned Parenthood founder and eugenicist Margaret Sanger.
Most of us really need to live differently. Every time I visit a different city, I visit ministries that serve pregnant women and mothers. Every single time, my thought is the same: Thanks be to God. But they need more support. I was in a mobile unit in Nashville recently and wanted to gather every pro-lifer in our vicinity to join us.
That’s the thing: With the end of Roe v. Wade, we have to think differently. There has to be a sense of urgency. Women get pregnant, and what are we going to do for them? What do we have to say for them? It has to be something ubiquitously merciful. And that’s so different than what the culture we live in has to offer.
Lord Jesus Christ, save us from any sense of celebration in the wake of the end of Roe, those of us who are pro-life. Instead, help us grow in mercy. Help us see the pain and unite our love for life with the suffering that the culture of death has inflicted on women and men.
When we unloaded on our dear priest friend, we were thinking about how hard life is for women who have been inundated with the concept that health care includes abortion. Young girls are pressured into abortion amid a culture that seems to insist that their sexual aggression is the only route to freedom.
You and I, we have to live differently post-Roe. We have to radiate love. We have to show a new kind of mercy that lets women know that we would walk with them and do anything for them.
When Cardinal John O’Connor was alive, he had a vision while visiting the concentration camp at Dachau. He said: If you are pregnant and in need, come to the Catholic Church. Each and every one of us should be prepared to answer that need. For his part, he asked women if they would be willing to answer the call to be women religious who would help women in need.
We live in a different time now. We need to prioritize loving women who don’t know what to do. It’s hard to be a mother, and all the pressures in the world encourage abortion.
It’s so hard to say yes to life. When we think of the Annunciation of Mary, it’s a miracle to reflect that a human being was capable to say yes to God in all the mystery that entailed.
With the end of Roe, we must pray for miracles. We must pray for God to overwhelm us with the grace that will show the mercy of Jesus that heals. Often, mercy seems foreign. May it be the greatest gift that presents itself as a welcome friend.
So many have been hurt by abortion. Pray for healing. And do more to pray for miracles.
Kathryn Jean Lopez is a senior fellow at the National Review Institute and editor-at-large of National Review.
