By Judie Brown
In the wake of the 53rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade/Doe v. Bolton, we revisit what it means to be pro-life in 2026. It’s a good exercise, not just for the mind but especially for the soul. Our commitment should be unwavering despite the ill winds of politics, public opinion, and deceptive media coverage.
Some indications suggest that the pro-life movement is headed in the wrong direction. Are we making the choice to pursue total protection for every innocent human being, or are we enamored by today’s political incrementalism?
This is the pro-life movement’s sticky wicket. For example, let’s think about the abortion pill, a chemical called mifepristone that will end the life of a preborn child during her first 70 days of existence within her mother’s body. It has been receiving a lot of attention from politicians, but for all the wrong reasons.
One headline focuses on the absurdity, asking “Can men get pregnant?” Apparently, this silliness is designed to convince everyone that only women are involved in pregnancy and should thus have the final word, even though we know that it takes a man and a woman to procreate a child.
Into this discussion centered around false ideas comes so-called pro-life politicians and others who want to see limitations put on this deadly pill. This recent turn of events goes directly to the point of our question regarding what it means to be pro-life.
Either the pro-life movement is committed to ending the slaughter by focusing on ways to stop the killing, such as banning the abortion pill, or we are satisfied to work within the status quo by doing “what we can” given the political climate of the day.
To put it another way, is the pro-life movement interested in chopping off the head of the abortion hydra, or do we wish to merely shoot arrows at the monster with the intent of harming but not killing it? This question goes to the heart of the problem, exemplified in the headline “GOP Turns Up the Heat on Trump to Clamp Down on Wildly Unsafe Abortion Drug.” Does this mean that even though an FDA-approved drug has been proven to be “wildly unsafe,” not to mention deadly for babies prior to birth, elected pro-life officials are striving to put a clamp on the abortion pill manufacturer’s business model rather than shutting it down completely? When does “wildly unsafe” become unacceptable in our nation?
Turning to another topic, let’s consider Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer funding. The story goes that the Trump administration was “forced” to restore funding to Planned Parenthood, and according to Brigitte Amiri, deputy director of the Reproductive Freedom Project at the ACLU, “When the Trump administration withheld critical Title X family planning funding, it blatantly violated federal law and left hundreds of sites unable to provide Title X-funded services.”
Here we go again. Rather than standing on principle and completely defunding Planned Parenthood because taxpayers should not be paying for services that result in dead children, the government has chosen to placate the status quo.
And while those who read this and disagree will say that “Judie Brown does not understand that these situations are complicated,” the truth is that she does understand one very simple truth: Compromise leads to dead babies.
You may recall that at one point in his political career, former president Bill Clinton said that abortion should be “safe, legal, and rare.”
Today, in 2026, Catholic writer Mark Bradford opines, “I suggest we till the soil of a culture that supports life throughout the span of life, one in which the decision to abort becomes a rare and regrettable last alternative.”
Note that neither Clinton nor Bradford acknowledges that one abortion is deadly for one person. This is so because to acknowledge that fact is to admit that not a single abortion should be protected by law in any way, if indeed we are a people who value the sacredness of a single human being’s life.
Recently one of our heroes, Cardinal John O’Connor, was remembered in an article in which we read these words: “As we look back on the just-concluded Jubilee Year of Hope, Cardinal O’Connor continues to be an example for us all. His episcopal motto, ‘There Can Be No Love Without Justice,’ continues to challenge us to live our faith as missionary disciples of Christ.”
It is that justice that inspires our work, because until our fellow citizens—especially pro-life people—come to understand that justice does not condone a single act of abortion, there will be no love of life in our nation. That’s what pro-life means.