The elections this November will mark a critical turning point for pro-lifers.
Motivated as never before, defenders of the unborn will be active nationwide.
For the first time in 50 years, candidates who win will be responsible for exercising the rights of States and of the People - rights guaranteed by the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution.
In the case of abortion, those rights and responsibilities have been arbitrarily denied by the Court's lethal 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, a decision which Justice Samuel Alito's draft decision has now found to be unconstitutional.
The Dobbs decision offers us a historic opportunity. It represents a wake-up call that millions of us have been praying for since 1973.
Generations of Americans have worked in countless ways to protect the unborn since Roe v. Wade. Those efforts included developing legislation at the state level, much of it focusing on the increasingly clear evidence that life begins at conception.
Most of those proposals were either defeated by state legislative bodies or, if they were signed into law, they were found by courts at various levels to violate the "precedent" of Roe v. Wade.
The veracity of the leaked version of Justice Alito's majority opinion in Dobbs has been confirmed by Chief Justice John Roberts. With that emphatic affirmation, the landscape has changed profoundly. And while the door is now open for states to exercise their rights protected by the Constitution, the path will not be clear sailing for supporters of life.
We have a lot of work to do.
Earlier this month, the Guttmacher Institute, a major research arm for the pro-abortion movement, identified twenty-six states that are "certain or likely" to pass legislation banning abortion, once Roe v. Wade is overturned.
Pro-abortion forces in every state are already in high gear, acting with laser-beam focus to advance their cause in every possible way. And we should take their threats seriously: in their view, the Supreme Court would "break the law" if it overturned Roe. Why should they follow the law in their efforts to restore it?
The specter of pro-abortion violence resonates with the threat leveled by Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer of New York on March 4, 2020: "I want to tell you Neil Gorsuch, and you Brett Kavanaugh," Schumer shouted in front of the Supreme Court at a pro-abortion demonstration there. "You have unleashed a whirlwind, and you will pay the price," he continued, referring to the abortion cases being considered by the Court.
"You won't know what hit you, if you go forward with these awful decisions," he added.
When the Alito draft of the Dobbs decision appeared, the whirlwind began.
Immediately, Schumer demanded an up-or-down vote on legislation designed to "nationalize Roe v. Wade in federal law." While his measure fell far short of the sixty votes required for cloture (it lost 51-49), its contents went far beyond abortion:
"Reproductive Justice seeks to address restrictions on reproductive health, including abortion, that perpetuate systems of oppression, lack of bodily autonomy, white supremacy, and anti-Black racism," the text reads. "This violent legacy has manifested in policies including enslavement, rape, and experimentation on Black women; forced sterilizations; medical experimentation on low-income women's reproductive systems; and the forcible removal of Indigenous children."
And to top it off, the proposed legislation states that "abortion-specific restrictions are a tool of gender oppression."
The pro-abortion "Women's March" has threatened a "Summer of Rage" across America if the U.S. Supreme Court's final opinion in Dobbs overturns Roe v. Wade and allows states to protect unborn babies from abortion once more.
The threat of violence recalls the massive riots, violence, and destruction during the summer of 2020. Activists led by the anti-family, pro-abortion Black Lives Matter group declared that law enforcement was the enemy - and thousands of violent criminals nationwide escaped arrest and punishment.
"Raise Hell, No Sweat" - that was 2020's message for today's pro-abortion radicals.
It didn't take long.
Five days after the release of Justice Alito's draft, a group calling itself "Ruth Sent Us" threatened Catholics, especially Churches:
"Stuff your rosaries and your weaponized prayer. We will remain outraged after this weekend, so keep praying. We'll be burning the Eucharist to show our disgust for the abuse Catholic Churches have condoned for centuries."
"Ruth Sent Us" chose its name to imply an endorsement from the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. The group has continued its agitation, encouraging demonstrations in front of the homes of the Justices associated with Alito's opinion, as well as in metropolitan areas throughout the country. "The times require persistent outrage," the group later tweeted, and its Twitter "feed" continues to foment it.
Well, the "rage" has already begun - and much of it has been directed at Catholic churches and shrines, including at least three in Texas alone. Abortion advocates also targeted a number of crisis pregnancy centers, several in Maryland and Virginia near the District of Columbia.
Andy Ngo, known for his groundbreaking work exposing the Antifa terrorist network, reported a case of arson in Madison, Wisconsin conducted earlier this month by Jane's Revenge, a terrorist group that attacked Wisconsin Family Action's office in the state's capital. LifeNews reports that Molotov cocktails were thrown into the building's interior, where they exploded and caused significant damage. Madison police reported that the offices were unoccupied at the time, and no one was injured.
Messages left on Wisconsin Family Action's office voicemail indicate that the outrage is thriving. "I hope you all burn with it...that's what you deserve," one caller said. "Whoever set that fire is a true American patriot.," said another, "you people are just utter filth of the planet, and it's too bad your whore mothers didn't abort each and every last one of you. Hopefully you all get cancer...for the betterment of all humanity."
Another caller was more succinct: "Burn, little Jesus freaks, burn, burn, burn!"
Students of leftist violence know that such actions are not mere outbursts of frustration: those generally subside when things "return to normal."
Rest assured, for the Left, chaos is the "normal." Their threats and the accompanying violence are designed to intimidate, to attract new recruits, and to create and perpetuate chaos. All of these factors are designed to discredit and weaken revered institutions like the Catholic Church and the Supreme Court while intimidating those who defend them.
Ultimately, the goal is to destroy them.
The leak of Justice Alito's Dobbs opinion was designed to play such a role. A radical source stole the draft opinion and leaked it to a radical Washington rag. The unprecedented theft and disclosure were a signal of defiance and destruction: if the Left can't control the Court, they will destroy it.
Immediately the talk of "court-packing," FDR style, was resuscitated.
And the intended intimidation was confirmed by one of the signatories of the Alito draft, Justice Clarence Thomas. "When you lose that trust, especially in the institution that I'm in, it changes the institution fundamentally. You begin to look over your shoulder. It's like kind of an infidelity that you can explain it, but you can't undo it," he told a group in Dallas on May 13th.
Yes, sacred institutions are under attack, and one of the most sacred to the survival of our Republic is the integrity of free and fair elections.
Earlier this month, the Guttmacher Institute, a major research arm for the pro-abortion movement, identified twenty-six states that are "certain or likely" to pass legislation banning abortion, once Roe v. Wade is overturned.
In November, elections will be held in 46 states to choose members of 88 state legislative chambers. Over 6000 seats will be in play.
Will pro-life candidates across the country be targets of pro-abortion radicals?
We recall that, when demonstrators gathered illegally at the family residences of several Justices supporting the draft of the Court's majority opinion in Dobbs, Attorney General Merrick Garland allowed several days to pass before providing protection by Federal Marshalls around those homes.
If Supreme Court Justices can't be sure they will be protected, can over 10,000 legislative candidates for state offices across the country expect to be protected by law enforcement?
PRI President Steven Mosher argues that "election integrity is a pro-life issue." That means that the erosion - and, if possible, the destruction - of election integrity is a pro-abortion issue.
During the coming campaign, the pro-abortion movement wants the words of Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer to ring in the ears of every pro-life candidate in America. "You won't know what hit you,"
We'd better be ready.