After sustaining some setbacks in 2016, pro-lifers are optimistic about what 2016 has in store for their movement.
Pro-life advocates were disappointed when the U.S. Supreme Court handed down the decision in Whole Women’s Health v. Hellerstedt. This decision struck down safety measures that Texas lawmakers wanted to put into place in Texas abortion clinics. These measures would have made getting abortions more difficult.
In addition, pro-lifers were disappointed when, the very next day after the Hellerstedt decision, the Supreme Court refused to accept an appeal from a Washington state pharmacist who objected to providing abortion-inducing drugs due to his religious beliefs.
Many pro-life advocates also did not see much hope of a pro-life candidate winning the 2016 presidential election, but things began to look up when Donald Trump surprised many and won, according to WORLD News.
“With Hillary, we were looking at a pro-abortion Supreme Court for the next 30, 40 years; we wouldn’t get anything passed,” said Joe Scheidler, founder of the Pro-Life Action League and a pioneer in pro-life activism. “But [Donald Trump’s] strange election has electrified the movement.”
Pro-lifers are encouraged by Trump’s promises to work to defund Planned Parenthood, ban late-term abortions, and appoint conservative, pro-life Supreme Court justices. They are also encouraged to have strong pro-life advocate Mike Pence and others in Trump’s administration.
Family Research Council president Tony Perkins even went so far as to say, with Trump’s election, “God gave America a reprieve in 2016 from judgment.”
Now, pro-lifers are looking forward with optimism to what the new year 2017 will hold for the pro-life cause. The next major pro-life event will be the 44th annual March for Life, which will take place on January 27 in Washington D.C.
Photo courtesy: flickr.com
Publication date: December 30, 2016
