Why State Marches Are More Important Now Than Ever
“The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives.” Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health. I will never forget the fateful day on June 24, 2022, at 10:10 am when I read those words out loud to a room of our interns. It forever changed the landscape in the fight for the preborn. For forty-nine long years, Roe and Casey served as a barrier, a threat, and a prohibition to protect unborn children from the barbaric practice of abortion. Yet pro-lifers were ceaseless in their efforts to do anything to put guardrails and protections in the law to save even just one child.
One way in which countless Americans from across the nation joined the fight for the unborn was to march together, creating one of the biggest gatherings in history every year in our Nation’s Capital. This served as a reminder to our Supreme Court and elected representatives that we will never stop fighting and never be silent on abortion. Just five years ago, we began marching in Virginia’s capital, reminding our own state lawmakers that the right to life, as early as conception, is fundamental. Now, in just a few short days we have the honor and privilege of gathering for our first Post-Roe March in Virginia. The March will remind them of the words scribed by Justice Alito, “…the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives.”
In Virginia, we face a deadlocked legislature and radical abortion laws. Currently, it is legal to kill your unborn child as late as the third trimester. In 2020, when the pro-abortion Left held the majority of the Virginia legislature, they struck down 20 years’ worth of pro-life laws. No more 24-hour wait periods, no more right for a mother to see her ultrasound, no more informed consent, and abortion clinics are no longer licensed and inspected. As if this wasn’t bad enough, pro-abortion legislators have attempted to legalize abortion up till birth, broke committee protocol last year to ensure that babies who survive abortions are not given life-saving care, and are now attempting to create a right to abortion in our state constitution.
This is the battle we are up against in Virginia. The overturning of Roe v. Wade is one of the greatest victories of our generation. Yet now our work is just beginning. After nearly fifty years of legalized abortion and the relentless efforts of the pro-abortion Left, our culture has begun to normalize and accept abortion as a regular practice. Changing Virginia from an “abortion destination” or “abortion safe haven” to a place where preborn children are not only protected, but cherished, is going to be an uphill battle, but one we have a duty to fight.
Virginia lawmakers need to see that a majority of Virginians are for life. We cannot allow the pro-abortion activists and extremists to be the loudest voice in the room. They will intimidate, lie, and manipulate. Our presence at the March reminds pro-life legislators that the people who voted to put them into office to fight for life stand behind them. Post-Roe, many legislators are scared to have even a conversation about life. This past week six House Republicans refused to make a motion to move a bill out of subcommittee that would have required schools to show an ultrasound video in the Family Life Education curriculum. By being present in Richmond and having conversations with your legislators, you show them that the people of Virginia stand behind them and elected them to fight for the preborn, which includes fighting to build a culture of life. The voice of the people matters to legislators. You are their vote, and if they don’t hear from you, they will think this is a losing issue and shrink back while the Left moves forward with their radical pro-death agenda.
It is up to us to change Virginia and save the next generation. We’ll see you on Wednesday! “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8
