Although the overturning of Roe will be a great victory, it will not be the end of abortion in America. We must continue praying and fighting.

From Desiring God. Suppose the leaked draft is accurate, and the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the two rulings that legally sustain the abortion license in the United States. What then?

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While pro-lifers should not declare victory until there is an official decision, this much is true: According to many legal experts, both cases are on life support…

Win for Pro-Lifers?

If Roe and Casey are struck, it will be a truly historical moment, and pro-lifers should indeed celebrate….

However, if you think overturning Roe and Casey ends the abortion debate, you are misinformed. Overturning these cases is just the beginning of the fight to save unborn lives, not the end….

Political Realities

If Roe and Casey go, abortion remains legal in a majority of states. The best estimates conclude that roughly 22 states will move to restrict abortion access while 24 states will retain abortion access or strengthen it by codifying abortion rights into their state constitutions. Four other states (Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, and North Carolina) are considered battlegrounds, with the outcome uncertain….

Meanwhile, reversing Roe and Casey does not guarantee that abortion remains a state-by-state issue. A pro-abortion president working with a pro-abortion congress can still pass a federal abortion license similar to the provisions of both cases…

Cultural Landscape

Should Roe and Casey go, the good news (and it is good news indeed) is that pro-life advocates — working through their elected representatives — can legally protect unborn humans in ways Roe and Casey do not allow. The bad news is that the worldview assumptions that make abortion plausible to millions of our fellow citizens are deeply entrenched in American culture, and they won’t go away without a fight.

Reversing Roe and Casey, though necessary, is insufficient to fix that problem. Moreover, the situation on the ground is much different than it was in 1973, the year Roe became law. For starters, the country is far less religious than it was then….

Popular culture has changed as well. Students, in particular, often learn about abortion from media that promote the practice as normal and desirable….

Steps to Pro-Life Influence

Put simply, pro-lifers in 2022 have problems beyond activist judges. We have idea problems. … [The] situation calls for reengaging the public with a convincing case for life that addresses abortion at the worldview level. Here are five essential steps for doing that.

1. Challenge phony dismissals.

With distortions and lies flying about, clarity is essential. Pro-life advocates argue that it’s wrong to intentionally kill innocent human beings. Abortion does that. Therefore, abortion is wrong. Pro-lifers defend that argument with science and philosophy. We argue from science that the unborn are distinct, living, and whole human beings. … We argue from philosophy that there is no relevant difference between the embryo you once were and the adult you now are that justifies killing you at that earlier stage of development….

Instead of refuting that argument, critics dismiss it with phony appeals to tolerance and the differing experiences of men and women. For example, we’re told that only a woman’s perspective counts, that men lack the standpoint to speak on the issue. The troubling question is, Which women get to speak?…

Indeed, even feminists, let alone women in general, do not share a single perspective on the issue. This is true even for feminists who support abortion. … While female perspectives on abortion help us understand personal experience, they are no substitute for rational inquiry.

Rather, arguments must be advanced and defended, and those arguments will stand or fall on their merits, not on the sex of those espousing them….

You’ll also hear that the pro-life argument is religious and therefore not valid. Reject this intellectually lazy dismissal….

Finally, you’ll hear the state should be neutral on abortion. That’s impossible….

The abortion debate is not about choice, privacy, trusting women, or empowering women. It’s about a serious foundational question: Who counts as one of us? Either you believe that each and every human being has an equal right to life, or you don’t.

2. Puncture misconceptions.

Some Americans act as if Roe and Casey go, society will unravel, and our fundamental rights will be trashed. They’ve bought one or more of the following myths.

Myth: The federal government shouldn’t be involved in abortion.

Ask, “Do you mean the federal courts?” Indeed, the federal government is already involved in abortion. With Roe, one branch of the federal government, the courts, co-opted the abortion issue from the other two branches (the executive and legislative), leaving the people no voice on the issue. Reversing Roe gives the people back their voice.

Myth: Roe is “settled law.”

So was Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court case that affirmed racial segregation….

Myth: Reversing Roe and Casey is unfair to poor women, who can’t afford to travel from states that restrict abortion to others that allow it.

Notice the argument makes two question-begging assumptions — that is, it assumes the very conclusions it is trying to prove.

First, it assumes that abortion is a moral good that poor women will be denied. … Second, it assumes the unborn are not human….

Myth: Roe restricts abortion at viability.

No, it doesn’t. Roe says that states may protect “potential life” at viability (24 weeks), but if and only if those protections do not interfere with the mother’s “health….”

Myth: Instead of restricting abortion, pro-lifers should work to reduce abortion by addressing its underlying causes.

I find this an odd claim for several reasons. First, why should we worry about reducing abortion in the first place? If the unborn aren’t human, who cares how many abortions there are? But if abortion unjustly takes the life of an innocent human being, that’s an excellent reason to legislate against it.

Second, what’s wrong with a law that says you can’t intentionally kill innocent human beings? The goal of the pro-life movement is not merely to reduce abortion, but to legally protect unborn humans from being butchered….

Myth: If Roe and Casey go, women will die from illegal abortions.

Note how the objection assumes, again, that the unborn are not human. Otherwise, the argument is saying that because some people die attempting to kill others, the state should make such killing safe and legal….

Myth: Laws don’t work.

Yes, they do. In Texas, the abortion rate fell 60 percent one month after passage of the state’s heartbeat bill….

3. Teach pro-life apologetics to those predisposed to accept our view.

Here’s a challenge: name one major Christian conference that equips our students to make a convincing case for life so they can convey that case to non-Christian friends. Now ask if your church does. If you think the abortion debate has been heated before, just wait till Roe and Casey are gutted….

4. Establish pro-life churches that carry out four essential tasks.

Pastors don’t have to choose between pushing moral behaviors or lifting up Christ. They can preach truthfully on abortion and do so within the context of a biblical worldview.

First, pro-life churches teach a biblical view of human value — namely, that although we differ greatly in terms of gifting and abilities, we share a human nature that bears the image of our Maker.

Second, churches can preach, teach, and counsel that abortion is a sin….

Third, churches can minister to those wounded by abortion and need healing….

Fourth, churches can equip the faithful to engage critics with a compelling case for life that can compete in the marketplace of ideas.

5. Engage professionally and politically.

Christians aim to apply biblical truth in all areas of our lives, including the voting booth. Why would we be in the habit of sitting out elections? True, politics is messy and involves sinful human beings who typically do not line up with biblical truth. But Christians can seek to act with wisdom to promote the good and limit the evil insofar as possible given current political realities….

Finally, in a post-Roe world, we need more Christians pursuing pro-life work as a vocation….

The post-Roe world may get ugly. The hour calls for pro-life Christians to move from attitudinal opposition to behavioral opposition to abortion. We will be hated for it. We may even lose friends and jobs. But apathy in the face of child sacrifice is not an option for biblically grounded Christians….

How are you fighting and praying for the end of abortion? Share your thoughts and prayers in the comments.

(Excerpt from Desiring God. Photo Credit: Getty Images)