24 Jun 2022 Court’s Abortion Decision Means “All Lives Matter”

“We’ve won this fight in the courtroom. But those who support the unborn can’t rest.”

That was the initial comment of Project 21 Co-chairman Horace Cooper, released just minutes after the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its landmark ruling on abortion in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

While three other Project 21 members commented on that same release, more of the organization’s black conservatives are speaking out about the abortion decision and its impact.

“Finally, all lives matter!” exclaimed Project 21 member Michael Austin, who added:

For decades, the U.S. Supreme Court held there is a right to an abortion despite the word no mention of it anywhere in the Constitution. I shed tears of joy to see the Court return to our Framers’ intent. The first human right is the right to live.

Project 21 member Emery McClendon pointed out the good government aspects of the Dobbs decision:

Abortion has been one of the hottest topics in America for years. Roe v. Wade was long overdue for review by the Court. It was treated as sacred law beyond reproach, but it was actually a bad old decision that should have been left up to the states. Following this new ruling, it will be.

The citizens of our 50 states need to be active in making sure that each legislative branch hears and considers the will of the people regarding abortion and vote accordingly.

Project 21 member Adrian Norman noted how the majority of the justices used the Dobbs decision to bring the Court back into line with its constitutional intentions:

Abortion was never a constitutional right. This decision by the U.S. Supreme Court corrects an act of judicial activism from 1973, when the justices acted as a legislature and legalized abortion nationally through the Roe v. Wade decision.

And we have seen with other rulings, the Court is not immune from error. In Plessy v. Ferguson, the Court ruled that racial segregation laws against blacks did not violate the Constitution. But the Court later issued a series of rulings – starting with Brown v. Board of Education – to correct its mistake and outlaw racial segregation.

The Court’s ruling in Dobbs once again enshrines it as a body that interprets law, rather than one that engages in policymaking.

Project 21 member Dr. Day Gardner, who is also the president of the National Black Pro-Life Union, said:

I’m praising God because Roe is gone! I’m giving thanks for the Supreme Court finally righting their wrongly-decided law. We truly believe that all life matters.

And I’m also praising God for each and every person and organization that has worked and lobbied for almost 50 years to stop the bloody slaughter of innocent children.

History has been made today, and now our attention must be focused on the individual states. Overturning Roe was every bit as important as it was to rid our beautiful country of the institution of slavery. If we stand united against this horrific practice, we shall overcome this, too!

To that end, Project 21 member Mike Hill, a former state representative in Florida, noted:

Now the real battle begins at the state level, where it should have always been. Each state can decide if they will continue to sacrifice their children or celebrate life.

For an elected official to occupy a seat, two things must happen. First, they must earn more votes than their opponent, and they must say an oath of office. That oath begins with, “I do solemnly swear that I will support, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States…” Remembering that the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence are inextricably tied to one another – and the Declaration calls for the “unalienable rights [of] Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” – any elected official who does not respect life has effectively violated their oath of office and committed perjury.

Hold your state elected officials accountable according to their oaths of office. It is great to be alive!

Additionally, in a new commentary, Horace wrote about the left already trying to call the legitimacy of the Dobbs decision into question:

Already, many on the left are saying that because the Court overturned Roe, it is “delegitimized” as it acted “against the spirit of democracy.” But this could not be further from the truth…

In this week’s ruling, Justice Samuel Alito asserted that the Court never had the right nor the power to uphold Roe. Both Roe and [Planned Parenthood v. Casey] are longstanding violations of the Tenth Amendment that should have never been breached.

Despite what the left insists, overturning constitutionally-protected abortion on demand is not a “violation of fundamental rights” nor an “attack on women;” it’s a return to the democratic process. The power is now back in the hands of the people, and the process that follows will be one that unfolds through discourse. That means the question of abortion policy will debated and determined by our elected representatives…

The left only praises and respects our democratic norms when they are favorable to its agenda. But when they are not, our system and its norms must go down with them. Leftists believe that the ends justify the means, and if they have to sacrifice sanity, the rule of law, democracy, judicial precedent and the legitimacy of the court… “so be it.”

All of Horace’s commentary is available here.

Banner photo taken by American Life League on January 22, 2015 and used under Creative Commons rules described by Flikr.