Optimism High for Pro-Life Advocates

The wait has begun for a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court that ultimately would overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that legalized abortions nationwide. 

On Dec. 1 legal arguments were presented in Dobbs v. Jackson, a Mississippi law restricting most abortions after 15 weeks and centering on the question of whether all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortions are unconstitutional or whether states can ban abortion before a fetus can survive outside the womb. 

Louisiana has a similar law currently working its way through the judicial process.

“While there are multiple legal and constitutional issues that were debated, for people of faith, the main issue is not a legal but a moral question,” said Darryl Ducote, director of the Office of Marriage and Family Life for the Diocese of Baton Rouge. “In dealing with the moral issues involved in the abortion debate, there seems to be a clash of absolutes.”

He said pro-choice advocates claim that a woman has an absolute right to determine when and how many children she may bear. Thus, by virtue of that right, she has a right to abortion.

On the other hand, he said people of faith claim that human life is a sacred gift from the creator and therefore, every human being, once conceived, has an absolute right to life.

“Interestingly, the church has always acknowledged a woman’s right to determine the timing and size of her family,” Ducote said. “The question then becomes how a woman may morally exercise that right. 

“The church has always recognized the appropriate means of regulating the size of one’s family is through chastity, if one is single, and through Natural Family Planning if one is married, in accord with God’s design for marriage and family life.”

In the case of an unplanned pregnancy, he said the church adamantly professes that the right of the fetus to experience life overrides the women’s right to determine the timing and number of children she may bear.

Ducote said since life is a divine gift, it must always be respected and protected.

“Given that life is a divine gift, people of faith can also exercise their faith by trusting that God will provide the necessary strength, resources and support to sustain that life,” he said.

Pro-life groups are hoping the court, where conservative appointees have a 6-3 majority, will strike down Roe v. Wade. A number of questions from the justices focused on the principle of “stare decisis,” a Latin phrase roughly meaning “to stand by things that have been decided” and understood to mean that the court generally stands by its own precedent.

The justices’ questions and comments were made in response to the three lawyers who gave oral arguments in the case on Dec. 1. They are: Scott G. Stewart, the solicitor general of Mississippi; Julie Rikelman, litigation director of the Center for Reproductive Rights, who was representing the Jackson Women’s Health abortion clinic in Mississippi, and U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar, who was representing the Biden administration in opposition to Mississippi’s law.

“(The oral arguments) confirm our excitement that the Supreme Court is considering a decision that will allow Louisiana to protect more babies from abortion,” Benjamin Clapper, executive director of Louisiana Right to Life, said.

“I am hopeful that the court will take the opportunity in Dobbs to correct the grievous error of Roe v. Wade, and get the court out of our nation’s abortion politics,” Carrie Severino, president of the Judicial Crisis Network, told Catholic News Agency. “The court did a great job articulating its constitutional role: not to pick winners and losers on divisive issues like abortion, but to remain ‘scrupulously neutral,’ ” Severino tweeted just hours after the arguments. “The way it works out will look different in different states, but the court should let the people decide.”

The court’s ruling could potentially allow individual states to determine the legality of abortion.

“I am very encouraged by oral arguments and the prospect of a favorable decision this summer, but we should keep up our prayers for the justices,” legal scholar Erika Bachiochi told CNA.

Bachiochi serves as a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and a senior fellow at the Abigail Adams Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she founded and directs the Wollstonecraft Project.

Although the arguments were held in December, the Supreme Court generally releases decisions in high-profile cases, such as this one, at the end of its term in June. 

Catholic News Agency contributed to this report.