Roe v. Wade overturned, but struggle goes on

By PAUL BINZ

The Valley Catholic

SAN JUAN  — The fallout has not yet settled on the overturning of Roe v. Wade as the number of states outlawing abortion changes by the day – sometimes by the hour – with statewide bans, trigger laws, and court challenges and counter actions.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s June 24 ruling also spawned massive demonstrations across the country with protesters demanding a return to abortion access, even as pro-life activists celebrated the long-awaited action.

While many might have hoped that the ruling would mean a quick nationwide end to abortion, the immediate effect was far more complicated. As of mid-July, abortions were banned in 17 states, many of which already had trigger laws in place ready to conform to the expected ruling. Another five states appeared poised to enact new bans.

Meanwhile, abortion stayed legal, available and likely to remain so in 20 states, mostly on the West Coast and in the Northeast; and abortions remained legal at least for now in another eight states.

Nonetheless, Bishop Daniel E. Flores hailed the Supreme Court ruling as “a welcome step forward toward building a society that truly values and honors human life.”

“The simple fact is that abortion is not primarily a religious issue, though it is an issue that rightly afflicts a religious conscience. It is a human dignity, human rights and social justice issue,” Bishop Flores said in a June 24 statement. “The child in the womb deserves to be protected under law because the child conceived is already a member of the human family.

“A society cannot turn against its own and hope to survive,” he said. “It is a matter of justice that the civil order work to promote the viability and flourishing of all human lives, be they in the womb, recently born, in school, in poverty, in danger of violence, in prison, or elderly and in need of medical care.”

The 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling opened the door to legalized abortion throughout the United States, and nearly 65 million abortions followed during the ensuing 49 years leading up to the June 24 reversal.

The Catholic Church in the Diocese of Brownsville has stepped back from the current legislative and legal maelstrom with a calm and practical course of action outlined by Bishop Flores.

“I think we have to look to the future. And I think we have to work as a church, but also with the whole community, to do everything we can to help expectant mothers so that they have the resources and the support they need,” Bishop Flores said in a July 7 interview. “There are a lot of mothers especially in poverty here who don’t have family support that need us to be with them.

“I think that’s the main focus of the Church going into the future. But I also think it’s something that the whole community can join in on.”

Bishop Flores reiterated this course of action July 9 at the Pro-Life Conference held at Our Lady of Sorrows School in McAllen.

“It’s always been more than about the law,” he told those gathered at OLS. “The law certainly makes it possible now for us to move forward in the recognition of the voice of the voiceless, the child, in recognition of the help that is owed to the mother.”

Bishop Flores said that Roe v. Wade had “basically stopped the conversation about the dignity of a child.”

“… The reversal … basically opens up a much wider conversation, in the country, on the state level, where at least we can talk about the way our system works; honestly participate in the process to make sure that the dignity of the child, that the dignity of the mother, and the good of our future is part of the conversation, which has been prohibited up to this point,” he said.

“In the last few weeks, most of the rhetoric I’ve heard has hardly mentioned the child at all,” Bishop Flores said. “I’ve only heard a lot of rhetoric about individual rights, as opposed to saying, ‘What can we do together to make it better?’ which is what we should be asking. What could we do together to make it better – better for the mother; better for the child; better for the family.

“We can’t do everything, but we can’t be indifferent. We have to do something,” Bishop Flores told the crowd. “So it’s not primarily about a political argument or a political victory. It’s about the law has changed; we must redouble our efforts across the Valley to accompany, and to assist, before the child is born, when the child is born, and after the child is born. Without rancor, resentment, anger.”

With a complete end of abortion in the United States still unattained, Bishop Flores is urging the faithful to stay on course with their priorities.

“The legal questions now will be played out at the state level. I mean, that’s a legal reality. So the different states in the country will come to some sense of how are they going to address the issue of unborn life and the possibility of abortion,” Bishop Flores said July 7. “That’s the political side of things, and I’m sure that Catholics will have things to say about that.

“But as a church right now, I think we have to particularly be aware that the human mystery of the mother and the child are what we have been focused on, and what we want to continue to be focused on.”