As we come to the end of another dysfunctional year – a silent invasion of our borders, unexplained increases in fatalities, economic instability, the wanton destruction of Ukraine – it is important to focus some serious time on the most extraordinary development this year: the overturning of Roe.
For some 50 years, the pro-Life movement has beseeched the Lord to deliver us from the injustice and horror that is abortion. Innocents slaughtered without regard, without apology. Babies sacrificed on the Altar of Self.
Prayers, marches, letters … more prayer. As the decades passed, hope faded for many that we would ever see the injustice corrected. The Supreme Court over many decades repeatedly declared that abortion law was “settled”; that Roe was an inviolable precedent. It was nearly unthinkable that the Supreme Court would ever find the humility to admit that it had been wrong.
Still the pro-Life community persisted. It refused to accept that abortion was a “right”. It refused to accept an America in which the slaughter of innocents was normal or right.
In 2022, the Lord answered the prayers of the faithful. Suddenly the Supreme Court found the integrity to admit that it had perpetrated a great fraud upon the American people. Honestly, it is sometimes hard to really grasp that we have been freed from the bondage that was Roe. It has cast such a large and dark shadow on the land for so long.
Idaho suddenly became a national epicenter of the struggle to end abortion. Dozens of states joined the Biden Administration in seeking to minimize the impact of our Trigger Law (The Defense of Life Act).
Amazingly, our law has largely been allowed to go into effect. The impact has been nothing short of miraculous. We believe that over 500 babies have already been spared death at the hands of Planned Parenthood since August 25th. Essentially, abortion has been stopped in Idaho. Isn’t that amazing?
Please pause to ponder that number: That represents a large elementary school full of laughing, learning, growing children in less than half a year. Glory to God.
But we are a long way from victory. The forces of darkness have been preparing for months to storm the 2023 Legislature – which convenes in just a couple of weeks. They intend to gut, amend or otherwise destroy the progress we have made through the Trigger Law. Many will present themselves as helpful angels of light. Others, like Planned Parenthood, will be more direct about their agenda. You are vital to our hopes for 2023.
We have a few days here, as we close out 2022, to give thanks, to rest with our families and to count our blessings. But the People of God must also be in prayer for the intense struggle which will take place at the Statehouse this winter. We must gird our loins for battle. The lives of thousands depend upon it. The soul of Idaho will be tested.