Rejoice, Roe Is Overturned

Roe is overturned. Christians should rejoice and celebrate. No “if,” “and,” or “but” required.

I saw the news: Walking out from our South Lake Tahoe cabin rental to our minivan, pulling out my phone. I saw the good, joyous news: Roe v Wade has been overturned. I felt nothing but surreal, unqualified joy and relief. I felt like, “Bad things can come untrue.” So many babies will live and not die. I thought of the dollars we’ve donated over years to crisis pregnancy ministries. I thought of my wife’s serving as the director of a crisis pregnancy ministry. Pure joy. Pure celebration. No “if.” No “and.” No “but.”

Social justice has triumphed in our nation, again. Bad things have unwound and become righteous things, again. In 1954, Brown v Board of Education overturned the 58 year precedent of Plessy v Ferguson, which had legalized segregation in 1896. In 2022, Dobbs v Jackson overturned the 49 year precedent of Roe v Wade, which had nationalized legal abortion in 1973.

Nothing but justice and joy—for a moment.

Until the hot takes heated up.

Hot take number one: Now, the real work begins.

In a sense this is true. We must work for just laws that protect life in every one of these United States. We must be ready to receive and love mothers and children at scale. In another sense, though, the real work has been ongoing for decades. Christians (and others) have been adopting and fostering non-aborted children, and caring for moms who chose life. We need to continue, and increase, but we don’t have to start from scratch. We have a template, forged by faithful Christians—mostly women—over decades. Actually, over millennia.

Hot take number two: So many women and children are at so much more risk, now. We can’t just celebrate.

I agree that we must love and care for those children who will now live. We must love and care for women who will now be mothers. Yet no child’s or mother’s situation legitimates taking the life of a human person. We should feel deep compassion and act with tangible care. But this is the truth: the complexities and potential dangers of a situation never outweigh the worth of a human person’s life. A human person is incalculably valuable. If we lament, we should lament a culture in which the taking of the life of a human person is seen as a viable option. We should lament the ways in which potentially or actually difficult circumstances are seen as justification for killing a person.

The late Pope John Paul II talked about the “culture of death.” This culture of death has poisoned our minds. Abortion is killing a human person. Ending a human person’s life is never an issue of nuance or choice. An ectopic pregnancy is a situation in which the baby is certain to die and so will the mother without intervention.  That’s not what we’re talking about. That isn’t a choice, but an inevitability. We’re taking instead about the 99%+ of the time that abortions are on-demand or elective. In other words, babies are aborted for the sake of any number of factors—none of which amounts to a hill of beans in light of the sacred pricelessness of a human person.

So many responses to the overturning of Roe along these lines are like those who responded with “all lives matter” to the numerous “black lives matter” moments of recent years. I rejected the “all lives matter” response to “black lives matter.” Not because “all lives matter” isn’t true, but because the moment required pointing out the value of black lives. Typically the “all lives matter” response to “black lives matter” came from conservatives and often mirrored right-wing political talking points. In the current “unborn lives matter” moment, more progressively minded voices are lamenting or at least not celebrating the overturning of Roe. Quite a few fellow Christians are saying, “Whoa, let’s slow the roll here. What about underserved moms? What about children who will be abused?” These responses unfortunately mirror a left-wing political narrative. They amount to an “all lives matter” response to an “unborn lives matter” moment, influenced by more left leaning political and cultural narratives. Instead, this moment calls for celebrating and affirming without apology that “unborn lives matter.” So we rejoice that justice will shine more brightly from sea to sea in our nation.

In short, I believe a consistent Christian ethic can think with both sides of the brain and love with both sides of the heart. When the moment calls we can affirm the uniquely beautiful value of both black persons and unborn persons. The cultural and political teams want us to pick sides, but Christians don’t play by the rules of the world’s game. We follow Jesus.

So yes, I’m celebrating.

So yes, I’m rejoicing.

No nuance. No qualification.

Roe is overturned. A five-decades long cosmic wrong has been bent toward justice. Christians should rejoice and celebrate. No “if,” “and,” or “but” required.