This past Saturday I had the honor of speaking at the Dobbs Rally and March held in downtown Chicago. Illinois Right to Life was proud to partner with March for Life Chicago in helping to host this event.
At the rally, I shared what I’ve been thinking since the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade was handed down on June 24: The truth always wins.
It may take a while, and we may not see the victory in our lifetimes, but fundamental truths will always win the day.
Despite the fact that the abortion industry has had a grip on the media, academia, and Hollywood since the early 1970s, the quiet truths of life defeated the forces of death. When my parents joined the pro-life movement back in the early 1980s, it seemed like Roe v. Wade was here to stay. People thought my parents were nuts for fighting for the rights of the preborn. I’m sure most of you reading this had a similar experience.
But something happened. Those ultrasound pictures we put on our refrigerators – our first pictures of our babies – spoke to the value we place on new life. Stories about premature babies surviving from earlier and earlier ages spoke to the humanity of the preborn. Advances in fetal surgery, including the now-famous picture of a tiny fetus’s hand grasping the finger of his surgeon, made it impossible to deny that women were pregnant with babies. And, as more and more people saw the reality of abortion for themselves, they came to realize that women deserve better than abortion. The quiet truth of life defeated the very loud voice of death.
Back in the 1980s, it would have been so easy for our parents and grandparents to listen to all of the voices saying that Roe was here to stay, that abortion would always be legal, and that they should just give up. Now that Roe is gone, we can all look to our pro-life heroes and say, thank goodness they didn’t give up!
It would be very easy for the pro-life people of Illinois to want to give up looking at the abortion landscape in our state right now. We have a pro-abortion governor and pro-abortion super-majorities in both our state House and Senate. We have powerful, well-funded organizations, Personal PAC and Planned Parenthood, which wield tremendous power.
Our predecessors across America stood firm in the face of tremendous opposition and now Roe is history. I have no doubt that, if the pro-life citizens of Illinois work hard and stand firm, we can win Illinois for life! One day, our children and grandchildren will say of us, thank goodness they didn’t give up!
In the past few weeks, we have seen Governor Pritzker as well as President Biden working to ensure abortion is as accessible as possible. We have seen angry mobs vandalizing pregnancy resource centers, marching outside the homes of our Supreme Court justices, and promising to create more mayhem. I say don’t be afraid and don’t be dismayed. To use Shakespeare’s phrase, the pro-abortion tantrums are ultimately, “sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
The abortion industry was built on lies to cover its brutal truth. I believe what we’re witnessing from abortion advocates today is the final death throes of an industry that was doomed to fail from the start. Because the truth always wins, life will win, even in Illinois.
At Illinois Right to Life, we have a plan to win Illinois for life. Please join us. Babies deserve to live and women deserve better than abortion. We can and we will win Illinois for life!
-Amy Gehrke