Article – Dobbs Anniversary

This Saturday, June 24, the Solemnity of the Birth of St. John the Baptist, marks the one-year anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision of Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. This decision overruled Roe vs. Wade and Planned Parenthood of Pennsylvania vs. Casey which held that there was a constitutional right to abortion.

This was a great victory for the truth of the dignity of the human person, from conception to natural death.

Many accuse pro-lifers of trying to force their religion on people. The truth is there is a large overlap between what God has revealed and what we are able to know by reason. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist minister who heroically fought against racism. Nobody accuses him of trying to force Baptist doctrine on anyone. This is because we can know by reason and by faith in divine revelation that racism is evil.

Should rape, stealing and murder be legal because they are prohibited by the Bible and the Catholic Church? By insisting that these be prohibited by law are we trying to force Christianity on people? Obviously not. We are recognizing what our gift of reason makes clear. These are actions that are harmful and morally wrong. So also is killing an innocent child in their mother’s womb, which is what abortion is. We should add that it also violates our reason to deny the existence of God or His authority over us.

Let us do all we can to help mothers in crisis pregnancy situations, so that they will be able to choose life for their children and raise them, or offer them for adoption, in dignity and peace. And let us pray that our society we recognize the infinite value of the life of the child in the womb.

God bless you.

–Fr. Peter