This is an adaptation of remarks that William Benson gave at the Washington, D.C. 40 Days for Life Kickoff Rally on March 2, 2023. A video of the speech can be found here.
For decades, the pro-life movement has advocated for the unborn to have equal protection from violence. The Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade last summer leveled the playing field, but there is still more work to be done. Now, as Roe is no longer an obstacle, many in the pro-life movement are questioning where we go from here. Some believe work must be done on the state level, others at the federal level.
As a young adult who will be the first generation to live in a post-Roe world, I feel the need to describe how I became pro-life and contend for what I believe is the best way to defend it. Wherever the answer may lie to these proposed questions, however, a persistent commitment remains to defend life, but I think the way in which we frame this defense matters.
I became pro-life, like many other young individuals, through listening to the ideas of Daily Wire host Michael Knowles and academic figures like Dr. Chad Pecknold at Catholic University and his colleagues.
Rather than give what one may call a typical conservative defense of life argument, these figures articulated something different: an emphasis on obligation.
Because the “right to life” is so important, the way we frame this is essential. An emphasis on rights alone neglects the common good.
In many ways, a total emphasis on rights separates us from one another and makes the defense of life an isolated political issue. Instead, it must be integrated into the whole of our political community for the common good. In other words, we have an obligation to defend life in the context of the common good for the sake of human flourishing.
To paraphrase Dr. Pecknold, it will be difficult for the “right to life” to defeat the “right to abortion.” This is not to degrade the right to life but to realize they are of the same ideological extraction. Only a real vision of the common good is what is capable of forging a new path for life – recognizing the fundamental dignity of life in tandem with justice as a part of the common good.
This vision of the common good must lead to policies that conservative politicians in the past have hesitated to support, including maternal benefits, making birth free, and more pro-family policies that allow the flourishing of families and the broader community.
Ultimately, the common good is what solidified my pro-life beliefs. My faith as a Catholic, in particular, obliges me to use my political rights to defend life and aid in setting the common good as the basis of our community.
I have only been attending college in Washington, D.C. a short time, but seeing the youth at the vigil the night before the 2023 March for Life at the National Shrine at Catholic University was inspiring.
The next generation, our generation, will be the one to end abortion in the United States and articulate a proper vision of the common good.
That is why sidewalk counseling, prayer, and the 40 Days for Life initiative are so important – we need to see and understand the reality of abortion to truly address it at a governmental level.
Over the last fifty years, 60 million babies have been killed in abortions. That is millions of brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, and fathers and mothers – all equal in their worth, dignity, and right to life.
Our political community speaks of “rights” with ambiguity, but nothing is clearer than the right to life itself and our obligation to protect the most vulnerable among us.
Editor’s Note 3/21/2022: This article has been updated to clarify that the pro-life movement’s goal has not only been the reversal of Roe but to secure legal protections for the unborn. The Pro-Life Review understands that overturning Roe is but one major step that needed to happen if we were to move closer to a world where the unborn are equally protected from violence. We apologize if that was not clear in the original post.