A Light of Hope for the Unborn

January 24, 2008

The following op-ed by Senator Brownback appeared in the Washington Times on January 22, 2008.

Today marks the 35th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade. It is both a sober occasion—given the untold suffering it has wrought—and at the same time a moment of hope for the future.

Some 45 million lives have been taken and an equal number of women have been damaged and exploited in mind and body since January 22, 1973. Far from bringing what the decision promised—liberation for women and an end to the contentious national debate—Roe v. Wade has further divided our land and enslaved us all to an ideology so aptly dubbed a “culture of death.”

The March for Life today is however an occasion of real hope. Once again hundreds of thousands of Americans will travel to Washington, D.C. to stand up for the dignity and beauty of every life.

Who could fail to be moved that so many will travel so far simply to stand for the worth of every life? Young and old alike will come to give voice to the voiceless, defend the defenseless, and affirm the dignity of each human person.

I am grateful today to our President and to the United States Senate for confirming John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court. Last April, the Court reversed a previous ruling and upheld the ban on partial birth abortion. We must work hard to ensure that such progress is not lost in 2008 and elect a pro-life President to end the night of wrong that is Roe v. Wade.

We now live in a majority pro-life country. More and more, our people have come to realize that America is better than abortion on demand. It promised liberty but has brought only slavery and death.

True respect for human life and dignity requires that we stand with women, particularly in difficult or unexpected pregnancies, and say that abortion is always violence and never the answer.

We have seen great progress of late in biotechnology, the latest front in the fight for the sanctity of life. Recent developments creating induced pluripotent stem cells reveal we can do the most promising research, respect human dignity, and seek cures that everyone can live with. We can still aim for a society where the strong protect the weak, and we cherish the youngest members of the human family, not research upon them.

I take it on good authority that “where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.” To my mind this has been so true in the struggle to promote a culture that values life. There are those who have worked tirelessly at crisis pregnancy centers, support groups, or in political action.

There are the so many young people—perhaps the majority at today’s March for Life—who give such hope to this movement and to me personally.

I think of the great heroes of the cause of life; Mother Teresa, Pope John Paul the Great, and the late Congressman Henry Hyde. How blessed have we been to have lived in the era of such giants in this monumental struggle? Even today God is raising up new saints to stand for the cause of life.

Despite our hope for a bright future of cultural renewal, we know that shadows remain. A nation that does not value the union of marriage from which life springs cannot fully affirm or value human life. A nation that does not see that love-making and life-making go together will be hard pressed to build a solid foundation for the culture of life.

Likewise, those who affirm life in the womb must be equally willing to fight for life outside it. I am convinced that the most solid basis for an ethic of human rights and human dignity is what I call being pro-life and whole-life.

This ethic suggests that every life, at every stage, in every place is a beautiful, precious, sacred child of a loving God. It applies of course to the child in the womb and to the child in Darfur. It includes the man in prison and the woman in poverty. It does not fail to cherish the child with Down syndrome or stand for the inherent dignity of the immigrant.

Being pro-life and whole-life is an expansive and inclusive view that is the future of this great movement. It is a cause that is just and a hope that springs eternal.

I believe that America’s best days are still ahead, for the cause of human dignity cannot be silenced. The strength of America’s people, particularly her young people, shines forth as a light that cannot be darkened. It is a light of hope that will not be overcome.

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