When the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization which by a 5-4 majority overruled Roe v Wade, the 1973 decision that held that abortion was a protected right in the US constitution, I fell to my knees in both joy and disbelief. A draft opinion overturning Roe had been leaked some weeks earlier, but even so I didn’t dare believe that the legal and moral wrong of Roe would finally be corrected. We should not underestimate what a momentous decision this is.
It is only right to acknowledge the role Catholics have played in keeping the abortion issue on the agenda in the US, and continuing to oppose it. This included faithful Catholics being silent witnesses to the violence of abortion outside abortion clinics, to Catholic prayer to end abortion, and groups who give real assistance to women with unplanned pregnancies. It also includes the Church hierarchy who condemned abortion in the strongest terms. In a voting guide in 2019, produced by the U.S. bishops, that guide stated that "the threat of abortion remains our pre-eminent priority because it directly attacks life itself, because it takes place within the sanctuary of the family and because of the number of lives destroyed."
