WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — Pro-lifers descended upon the U.S. Capitol on June 24 to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the overthrow of Roe v. Wade and pray for God’s grace in the ongoing battle to protect the unborn nationwide.
LifeSiteNews reported on the ground at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., where pro-life men, women, and young children gathered in prayer and celebration of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson that ended nearly 50 years of federal abortion precedent last year.
“Roe v. Wade is on the ash heap of history and there is so much to celebrate,” LifeSiteNews senior correspondent Jim Hale said in a video report with videographer John-Paul Gutschke spotlighting the event.
READ: Pro-lifers have a lot to celebrate one year after the reversal of Roe v. Wade
Noting that the number of abortions committed in the U.S. has fallen since the overthrow of Roe v. Wade, Hale shared the sentiments of many in attendance by pointing out that the real battle for life is just getting started.
“We have to steward this moment in history very wisely,” Stanton Healthcare founder and CEO Brandi Swindell told LifeSite. “A year ago today it was a day to celebrate and rejoice. Here we are a year later thanking God for that historic Dobbs decision. But we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Bryan Kemper, president of Stand True Ministries, said “we’re not even close to being done,” noting that commemorating the first anniversary of the Dobbs decision provides “a time to truly pour our hearts out to God, and to ask for revival.”
Swindell said the current post-Roe landscape puts the nation in “a critical moment” in which the abortion issue “could go either way.”
“There’s states like Michigan where their abortion laws are worse now, after Dobbs, than they were before Dobbs,” she said. “So there’s many states where babies have less protection.”
Swindell explained that babies in the womb aren’t even necessarily safe in states that have passed pro-life legislation since abortion facilities in neighboring states are actively encouraging women to travel for abortions.
“A very aggressive abortion industry is luring women across state lines,” she said, arguing the phenomenon amounts to “abortion trafficking.”
Some of the event participants spoke directly to some of the demographic groups most directly affected by the abortion industry: young women and racial minorities.
“We’re here to add our voices to the new opportunity that there is to promote life in every community,” said Elaine Petty of She Leads America, pointing out that racial and ethnic minority groups “have been decimated by abortion” over the decades.
Roma Vrslius of Stanton Healthcare urged young people like herself to “use our voices” and recognize that they are not “powerless” in the fight for life, “the most fundamental human right.”
Since the fall of Roe v. Wade last year, 14 states have enacted or implemented expansive pro-life laws that ban nearly all abortions statewide, while 11 pro-abortion states have moved in the opposite direction. Other Republican-led states have passed narrower restrictions and regulations, and many states’ pro-life laws are temporarily on hold due to court challenges.
Following the victory over Roe v. Wade, pro-life advocates are emphasizing the need to not only establish tough pro-life state laws, but also to work toward a national recognition of the personhood of unborn babies under the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
In her comments to LifeSite, Swindell urged pro-lifers not to “rest on our laurels” or “be naive.”
Instead, she encouraged those in the movement to defend life to bring their “A-game” in this post-Roe America by being “serious,” “focused,” and “prayerful,” since “lives depend on it.”