An edifice memorializing the unborn prominently situated on the grounds of a Catholic church is vandalized with red paint, venom seemingly spewing with each drop.
An historic church in West Virginia that had stood for more than a century is burned to the ground, a loathing of life seemingly buried in the ashes.
Across the country, from the tony areas of New England through the Midwest, from the Deep South to the West Coast, churches of all denominations are in the crosshairs of individuals and groups who are using political ideologies as justification for their own animus acts of hatred.
Polarization was predictable in the wake of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade. But these heinous acts reveal that the targets of the violence are not a church, not a statue but unborn children, young voices who only wish to be heard, tiny hands who only one day want to carry a football across a goal line or play a trumpet or simply wave to their mother while hopping on the school bus.
The vitriol since the June 24 decision has been stunning despite the fact abortions have not been banned. Rather, the decision only allows each state to enact laws regarding abortions, similar to how each state mandates a legal drinking age or speed limits on its highways.
Abortion remains legal in much of the country but anti-life zealots are spreading misleading and false narratives, to the point of suggesting the days of coat hanger procedures, of women dying because of their inability to obtain an abortion, will return. Those are simply heretical statements being carelessly tossed about by people who believe that a baby’s life has, and is, of no value.
Even President Biden has joined the fray, threatening various tactics to restore Roe.
Some have even suggested the decision nullifies Title IX, an extraordinary piece of legislation mandating equal opportunities for women participating in college athletics.
Louisiana is fortunate because trigger laws were previously enacted banning abortion if the court were to overturn Roe, although a New Orleans judge has granted a temporary stay which has allowed abortion clinics to resume the taking of young lives.
However, that case seemingly does not pass the optics test, since it involved a Shreveport abortion clinic filing in a New Orleans courtroom, perhaps a not so subtle form of venue shopping. The good news is the ruling is likely on arrival in the state Supreme Court, which has traditionally ruled favorably on pro-life laws.
Pro-life supporters are cautiously grateful for the overturning of Roe but much work remains, with the paradigm shift of attempting to overturn a law to ensuring one is enforced. Paralleling those efforts must also include redoubling efforts to help women who might find themselves in unwanted pregnancies.
The protection of the unborn has made colossal strides in nearly five decades. But the lives of the unborn must continue to be protected, and it is up to lawmakers, judges and society as a whole to ensure those young voices will not fall victim to the coldness of a doctor’s scalpel before their first whimper.