Hope for the Pro-Life Movement After the Midterm Election

The pro-life movement is somber at the moment, if not downright devastated, after the 2022 midterm election results. Radical abortion amendments have now taken root in California and Michigan. In Montana, voters decided babies who survive abortion should not be required to have medical care. I’ve talked to people who are angry and some who cannot stop crying. I understand. I do. But I’m merely disappointed, not shaken.

I keep reflecting on Frederick Douglass and his speech after the Supreme Court issued one of the worst decisions in its history, Dred Scott v. Sandford. The highest court in the land decided when the Declaration of Independence said, “All men are created equal,” they weren’t talking about the negro. They said, “it is too clear for dispute, that the enslaved African race were not intended to be included.”

Douglass addressed the naysayers who believed emancipation was “a wild, delusive idea.” He noted “the price of human flesh was never higher than now,” and how slavery was so deeply intertwined within the hearts of the South. He addressed their ideas that opposition to slavery was on the rise forty or fifty years ago, but too many people were satisfied and even prosperous in the “system of wickedness.”

“I own myself not insensible to the many difficulties and discouragements, that beset us on every hand. They fling their broad and gloomy shadows across the pathway of every thoughtful colored man in this country. For one, I see them clearly, and feel them sadly.”

Douglass went on to note the slaveholders had the advantage: of power, organization, and the government on their side. He even called out southern churches dedicated to the service of slavery.

But he said that was only one view, and there was a brighter perspective. “David, you know, looked small and insignificant when going to meet Goliath, but looked larger when he had slain his foe.”

The abolition movement was resilient. It faced setbacks and had long battles, certainly not unique to America. Abolition giants like William Wilberforce had tremendous struggles, yet he would not concede his fight either. As Pastor John Newton reminded him, like Queen Esther, Wilberforce was called for such a time as this, and so are you.

Frederick Douglass said, “Slavery lives in this country not because of any paper Constitution, but in the moral blindness of the American people, who persuade themselves that they are safe, though the rights of others may be struck down.”

There’s a reason why the abortion lobby says it’s a “private matter.” It’s certainly not because they believe the issue is between a woman and her doctor. The backers of Prop 3 in Michigan literally tried to remove barriers from taxpayer dollars funding abortion in 2019 and 2021. We’ve also seen Planned Parenthood petition the government to try and force Christian organizations to pay for abortion. Democrats like President Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders also want to get rid of the Hyde Amendment. They clearly believe everyone should participate in the sacrament of abortion. They claim it’s a private matter because abortion cannot survive in the light of truth. When addressed with biological facts about fetal development, the mental and physical harm it causes women, and the immoral practices of the abortion industry, they will lose. That is why you see Senator Elizabeth Warren, Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer attacking pregnancy crisis centers. It’s probably why the DOJ has spent time targeting peaceful pro-life protesters and has done very little against pro-abortion terrorists who have vandalized Catholic churches and pregnancy crisis centers. Planned Parenthood is against informed consent laws because they want desperate, afraid, and even coerced women to wander into their clinics without time and knowledge to make a different choice. We cannot allow them to have dominion over our future.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin was a breakthrough in the American Civil War because even Northerners were not properly informed of the true plight of the negro. This book opened the eyes of many, especially when it was adapted into a stage play. It broke up the fallow ground of their hearts and planted a resolve to end the evil of slavery.

We must continue to show the humanity of the unborn, expose the insidious practices of the abortion lobby, and highlight the toll of abortion on women and our society. People need to know the astronomical number of abortions the US has yearly and how many babies are brutally ripped apart through D&Es.

We cannot allow these predators free reign to devour our women and children. David’s victory was not only Goliath. He defended his father’s flock against the lion and the bear. We have to be just as vigilant and willing to fight every battle. Our road to defeating Goliath doesn’t begin at a ballot box, and it won’t end there either.

We must continue saving the sidewalk stragglers and debating on college campuses, amongst our friends, and in the streets. We need to invest in commercials throughout the year, not merely during the campaign season. We need to raise awareness and better fund pregnancy crisis centers, along with any other group that uplifts families in need. We must challenge pro-choice churches, just as Douglass challenged the churches in the South, which are not representing the gospel.

Douglass was not discouraged by the Supreme Court’s decision. As a matter of fact, he thought the future had never been brighter. They were not the final authority of good and evil, and he had no doubt the “national conscience” would glaringly see slavery for the abomination it was.

Today, we have such revulsion for America’s past sins, yet we have our own to atone for today. One day, Americans will wake up to the horror of abortion. One day, we will honor our Declaration of Independence, acknowledge the inalienable right to life, and apply it equally to every human being when they begin their life in the womb.

That day may be far off, or it may be in the very near future, but that day is coming. We are resilient, and we are on the right side of history. Rise up, shake the dust off your boots, and continue marching.