Pro-life advocates will gather at 12:30 p.m. Saturday at Pike Place in Crawfordsville for a rally to celebrate the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case.
The ruling, released last week overturns the 1973 case Roe v. Wade which replaced state laws protecting the lives of unborn children. Under the new ruling, abortion policy will be set by the citizens of each state through their elected representatives. The rally in Crawfordsville is one of more than 100 such rallies being held throughout the country by the OverturnRoe.org coalition.
“Roe v. Wade has been an open wound in our body politic ever since the day it was decided more than 49 years ago,” said Father Alex Miller, Spiritual Director of Orthodox Christians for Life - Indiana. “But today the healing can finally begin, starting with state laws that protect human life in the womb and provide help and hope for their mothers ... We’re eager to create a new future in Indiana, in which every unborn child is welcomed, every family is supported by the community, and no woman is told she must abort her own child as a condition for achieving her dreams.”
“Until today, the United States was one of only a handful of countries which allow abortion on demand, for any reason or no reason, through all of pregnancy,” said Eric Scheidler, executive director of the Pro-Life Action League and a key coordinator with the OverturnRoe.org coalition. “The Mississippi law just upheld in the Dobbs ruling limits elective abortion to 15 weeks, which actually makes it more permissive than the laws of nearly every European country.”
Scheidler expressed his gratification at the role the Pro-Life Action League and the “activist wing” of the pro-life movement played in bringing about today’s victory. “For nearly 50 years, we’ve kept abortion on the front page,” Scheidler said. “We’ve never let America forget about the violence being done to unborn children. We’ve never let the American conscience become comfortable with abortion. Today we see the impact of such diligence.”
For nearly 25 years Miller, also pastor of Holy Transfiguration church west of Crawfordsville, has been organizing an event on the anniversary of the Roe Decision, January 22, 1973. It has included a baby shower at the Women’s Resource Center, a prayer march to the intersection of Washington and Market and a chili cook-off fundraiser.
“We no longer have to pray for the overturn of the regrettable court decision, but now we must do the work on the ground to see that the Hoosier state outlaws the sin of aborition,” he said. “More prayer, more vigilance is still needed.”
The rally will feature a cross procession which is a common way for communities to celebrate in Ukraine and other Orthodox Christian countries.
