How to Retake Ground for Life
We want to introduce you to a powerful young voice in the abortion conversation. Riley Acre helps lead an important organization, Voices for the Voiceless. Their messaging is fresh and gets right to the heart of the confusion that often motivates women to decide on abortion. It’s a new message of hope and empowerment reframing motherhood as a “pathway to success”, and ensuring “no one faces unplanned pregnancy alone”.
Especially now, with the pending abortion up-to-birth amendment in Arizona, this topic will determine hope or despair for so many lives of both mothers and babies. Decline to Sign those petitions (see below action item), pray, and share this blog and newsletter. ~ Kim
Voices for the Voiceless
By Riley Akre
Just last week, the Arizona Supreme Court began hearing oral arguments for a case that could potentially reinstate Arizona’s pre-Roe law protecting preborn life from the moment of conception. Choosing to uphold the pre-Roe law would be an incredible victory for our state, but one that would lead to a challenging election in Arizona come November.
The oral arguments come weeks after a shocking and devastating defeat in conservative-leaning Ohio, where state residents voted to “codify unlimited abortion rights through all nine months of pregnancy, [and opened] the door to public funding of abortion and may foreclose the possibility of legally requiring minors to obtain parental consent before obtaining an abortion.” The abortion industry won by twelve points in a red state that two years ago elected a pro-life governor by a margin of 25 points.
In its wake, many are searching for answers, contending that the solution is to better unify around strategies and institutions that have worked for us before, with updated messaging. But I think people underestimate how much has changed and overestimate how pro-life our culture actually is. Tweaking pre-Roe strategies won’t work in a world where Roe doesn’t exist. After devastating losses in Michigan, Ohio, Kansas, and Kentucky, we have to ask: What will it take for the cause of life to take ground in a post-Roe world?
We’ve long known that our opponents have far more resources and allies available for the political fight, but I don’t think this is why they continue to win. Their greatest asset is that they listen to women and offer a vision for the future: have an abortion so you can live your best life. Granted, it is a false and defeatist vision born of a scarcity mindset: only mother or child—not both—can have a bright future. But for women facing unplanned pregnancy alone, it’s an incredibly compelling and empowering message.
Part of the problem is that Roe has changed our politics, our workplaces, our institutions, even countless and seemingly unrelated basic moral assumptions. It’s changed the way we think about women, children, and the role of the family altogether. As a young woman living in this cultural moment, Roe taught me and every woman in my generation to believe:
Everyone has an opinion, but I’m most empowered when I'm making decisions alone. ·
I'm valuable for my sexuality but should limit my fertility at all costs.
It’s normal for men to leave when responsibility is required.
To be a mother is to be a second-class citizen.
Unplanned pregnancy is a zero-sum game where only the mother or the child can emerge unharmed—not both.
Further, we’re not just in a post-Roe world, we’re in a post-Covid world. You’ll find countless opinion pieces in elite media, for example, about America’s loneliness problem, but the abortion industry is embracing and accelerating this alarming trend. Their business model requires it. They have a very clear-eyed view of where things stand, which makes their destructive solution so compelling to women who are isolated and feel backed into a corner.
The abortion pill already accounts for the majority (54%) of abortions. This is due, in large part, to the FDA removing common-sense restrictions such as requiring women to see a healthcare professional in person in order to be prescribed the pills. In one move, the FDA elevated a new industry of companies marketing the abortion pill online and shipping it to doors nationwide. No longer do you have to walk into a brick-and-mortar clinic. You can have an abortion without ever leaving your room and without ever talking to anyone about it—at a fraction of the price.
The role of the medical professional is now played by anonymous posters on Reddit who tell any woman who hesitates with the pills in front of her that she’ll be happier when it’s over. The sooner the better. And so she takes them. An industry that billed itself as concerned with “women’s rights and health” now conspires to keep women facing unexpected pregnancy isolated from personal and medical support.
What we need is a radically different call to action for the pro-life movement.
The winning pro-life argument won’t necessarily be an argument at all—it will be a hopeful and redemptive message that embraces mother and child. It will be new organizations and platforms that replace decaying institutions built upon Roe-soaked systemic beliefs about women, children, and family. And as the corruption underlying the abortion industry’s strategy of curated isolation becomes more apparent, those who fully embrace the restorative vision and build new things to provide genuine, life-giving solutions will have the upper hand.
It’s a long-term vision to be sure. But I believe that the next version of the pro-life movement must be built by those who show women that:
We are most empowered when we make decisions out of love, not fear.
Our value comes from simply being human, not from what we produce.
It’s not normal or honorable for men to leave and abandon their family.
To be a mother is to be highly favored.
Complete restoration is available for all who feel heavy burdened by the weight of unplanned pregnancy and past abortions.
With every passing day, we’re seeing the further decay of a culture that is becoming more isolated and more depressed. There is an opportunity here to actively invite people to consider a more restorative and hopeful message for women post-Roe, one that challenges the zero-sum game of abortion and facilitates support and community for a generation that deserves to be seen, known, and loved.
It’s time for all of us to realistically assess the cultural and legal landscape—which is more bleak than most realize—and consider what strategies will actually take back ground for life in Arizona post-Roe.