Abortion activists today argue that the preborn child is human. But, they say, it’s OK to kill “unwanted” children. We can’t reconcile this view with our history. America defends the oppressed. She was crucial in the abolition movement, which made slavery unthinkable for the first time in history.

America holds pro-life core values, but we’ve lost our way. With legal abortion, America wounded her pro-life identity. For generations, America provided a beacon of hope for oppressed people worldwide. And that beacon of hope served as her purpose.

A Pro-Life History

The Declaration of Independence states: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” The document says that human rights include the right to life. Today, no American’s right to life is honored while he or she is in the womb.

Declaration signer John Witherspoon said, “Some nations have given parents the power of life and death over their children, but here in America we have denied the power of life and death to parents.” British jurist William Blackstone was influential to the founders. He held that life “is the immediate gift of God.”

Judicial Activism

At some point, many judges took up the habit of making laws instead of judging their legal merits. These judicial activists interpret the Constitution as a living document whose mores change with the culture. Originalist judges maintain that the Constitution means today what it meant when the founders wrote it.

The worst ruling by Supreme Court activists was Roe v. Wade. The 1973 decision created a right to abortion out of thin air. The activist majority argued that women had a right to privacy. Then they argued that “privacy” included a right to kill the preborn child in the womb. Seven justices decided Roe. These justices chose immoral cultural preferences over the Constitution.

The Supreme Court bench is now a split of justices who stand by the Constitution’s text, and activists who don’t. The Brett Kavanaugh debacle centered on judicial activism and its power over abortion. Abortion advocates object to Kavanaugh because they do not trust him to defend the so-called “right” to abortion.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Since Roe, America has sanctioned the deaths of nearly 61 million preborn children in abortion. But defending life is not a lost cause. The abortion rate is the lowest today it’s ever been since Roe. Public opinion on abortion continues to trend pro-life.

However, we won’t cross the finish line until abortion, like slavery, is unthinkable and unavailable in our nation. This will require more engagement and funding than the pro-life movement now has. So, let’s get to work.

In 1987, Pope John Paul II said that “the dignity of America, the reason she exists, the condition for her survival” is “to respect every human person, especially the weakest and most defenseless ones, those as yet unborn.” We need to return to core truth as a nation.

Lauren Enriquez is public relations manager of the Human Coalition. Founded in 2009, Human Coalition fuses technology, best practices, and tangible help to compassionately serve the unreached, abortion-determined woman. Hear more about this topic on our weekly broadcast, The Human Element.