25,000 living babies.
That’s just the estimate of how many children have been saved from certain death in the last year.
Recent data show that somewhere between 24,000 and 26,000 children are alive today because the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade.
That was exactly one year ago today.
We will never forget that moment.
Because the Dobbs decision was a watershed moment in our nation’s history. After 50 years of a merciless federal abortion regime. After 63 million deaths. After the unseen labors of countless pro-life Americans – many of whom did not live to see their work fulfilled.
It was a moment to celebrate, to remember the lives lost, the great deeds done in the fight, and to anticipate the thousands, even millions of children who will now get a chance at life.
And so every year, we will celebrate June 24, the birthday of our post-Roe America.
But that’s not all that today is about.
Every year as we celebrate, we must strengthen our resolve.
While we won a great victory, the war is far from over.
Women and young girls are still facing unbelievable pressure every day to kill their unborn children. So many frightened and desperate mothers are in need of encouragement and support.
On top of that, the godless abortion forces in our country are angry. They are not backing down. They are furious that in so many states children are being protected under law.
That’s why the attacks on Catholic churches continue. That’s why pro-abort Democrats in Congress are demanding an end to religious freedom for healthcare workers, taxpayer-funded abortions, and the enshrining of abortion up to the moment of birth into federal law. And it’s why blue states are passing radical abortion laws that strip parents of their basic human right to help their own daughters in their most vulnerable moments.
So even as we celebrate today’s great victory, we also brace ourselves for a war not nearly over.
We will not rest until abortion is not only illegal but unthinkable in all 50 states.
We will not rest until every mother and father in America can receive a positive pregnancy test with joy in the confidence that they are loved and supported.
We will not rest until every human life is protected by the law from conception until natural death.
CatholicVote will continue to work as if everything depends on us.
And we will pray without ceasing, because we know that in the end the victory belongs to God.
Today is also the birthday of John the Baptist. What an amazing sign that the Dobbs decision will forever be tied to this saint, who Christ called “the greatest man born of woman.”
Let us also resolve to be, like him, the “voice crying the desert” and making straight the way of the Lord of Life.
This is the day that the Lord has made.
Let us rejoice.