By Helen Alvare
Catholics who voted for Obama (a disproportionately non-Church-going, self-professed- Catholic group) are very likely not thinking (like most Americans) about abortion at all.  It would be incorrect, therefore, to claim that the election of this man is an accurate evaluation of the status of the pro-life movement.  An accurate picture of the pro-life movement over the last 45 years, would rather have to acknowledge that the movement has both succeeded and failed. It has succeeded in surviving — visibly, proudly and robustly — against herculean odds. These include a Supreme Court decision which arbitrarily and instantaneously wiped out 50 states' protections for the unborn in one day.   They also include hostile media and entertainment environments, institutions with the kind of power that led John Paul II to call them our chief opponent in the culture-struggle for life. There is also the hostile "intelligentsia" at universities and within some of the most monied institutions and families in the United States. Still, the pro-life movement continues to win many hearts and minds, with particular recent success among the young.  It also wins various legislative struggles, and remains a power in elections around the country.  Moreover, the movement has very successfully operated on two tracks. It has worked to change the law and public opinion, at the same time operating thousands of charitable “help centers” for pregnant women and their children.  Finally, for those who understand that victory is not always measured by numbers, I would also offer that the movement can be judged a success by the lives and actions of groups like the Sisters of Life, whose joy and love of life communicates to anyone who sees or hears them, what is the truth, and what are the happy consequences of living in its light.  

The movement has failed to gain sufficient public — and perhaps de facto even more crucially important — legislative and judicial support, to get our way legally.  We have also failed to make it possible for the vulnerable — poor and minority Americans who get the lion's share of abortions — to choose life, in accord with their own aspirations. This latter struggle is won or lost in the streets, person by person, mother to daughter, friend to friend, priest to parishioner, or not at all.  With the election of Barack Obama and a majority-abortion-supporting, Democratic Congress, perhaps we should take the opportunity to step up this very personal campaign.

Indeed, the combination of a pro-abortion president and congress is frightening. The White House and congressional offices are also as we speak, being staffed with many representatives from extreme pro-abortion organizations. The president-elect has promised to do all he can to make abortion — of all kinds, at any time during the pregnancy, and for the very young —  increasingly easy to access.  But the pro-life movement has experience operating shrewdly in “resistance.” Humbly asking for God’s wisdom, we will carry on with ultimate confidence during the coming months and years.

Helen Alvare, J.D. is Senior Fellow in Law at the Culture of Life Foundation and is an Associate Professor of Law at the George Mason University School of Law in Arlington, Virginia.