Pro-life movement can’t just be rooted in opposition to one law or legal ruling, Catholic correspondent says

CV NEWS FEED // The pro-life movement in the United States, which spent more than 40 years rallying around its protest of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, must now deepen its mission to create a culture that respects human life, a correspondent for the Rhode Island Catholic stated in a recent analysis. 

The annual March for Life in the nation’s capital started in 1974 to primarily oppose the landmark Supreme Court case ruling that claimed there was a constitutional “right” to abortion. The Court overturned Roe in 2022, but the March, which at its heart is a protest of abortion itself, continues.  

For this year’s gathering, organizers stated that the movement’s mission is rooted in the truth that “every human life…is beautiful, has unique dignity, and [is] worthy of protection”; the pro-life movement no longer centers around “a singular federal policy or court decision against which to protest,” and its members must respond accordingly, Cole DeSantis wrote in the March 6 article.

Pro-lifers must deepen their commitment and enthusiasm for the moral principles that guide the movement, DeSantis argued. 

“In the absence of a singular, clearly definable set of obstacles that can serve as the rallying call of the movement, defenders of life must now focus their attention on the broader cultural, political and economic trends that lead people to support abortion or feel that it is necessary,” DeSantis wrote.

According to some pro-lifers, the movement will be more successful in combating abortion if the focus is on grassroots efforts, he wrote. Further, the movement’s mission to create a culture that cherishes life requires legal efforts, as well as a spiritual and personal component. As many pro-life advocates have pointed out, efforts to help people understand Church teaching regarding abortion, and abortion’s devastating consequences, must accompany any legal efforts. 

He noted that Dennis Sousa, director of the Office of Family, Youth and Young Adult Ministry for the Diocese of Providence, said that creating a culture that respects life must start with individuals having personal relationships with Jesus Christ.  

Sousa explained, according to DeSantis, that when identity is based on anything other than God, choices become centered upon oneself, leading to a loss of respect for human life, a view that overlooks the “inestimable value” of each life “precisely because it belongs to God.”

DeSantis concluded, “The furtherance of the pro-life movement requires, therefore, not only political activism, but more specifically political activism born out of a renewed way of life and a way of viewing the world predicated upon the respect for life at all levels.”