🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
Most viewers of the NFL might not realize how short halftime actually is.
As a former player let me tell you, at just 13 minutes you have only enough time to run up the tunnel to the locker room, where coaches make some quick in-game adjustments, and run right back out on the field to start the second half. It's a blur.
When it comes to the pro-life movement, I've compared the overturning of Roe v. Wade to halftime. We've achieved a watershed first-half victory, yes, but abortion remains very much a contested issue at the state level.
Fortunately, we in the pro-life movement have more than 13 minutes to make some adjustments.
So much is at stake right now. Two full years after Dobbs v. Jackson, nearly a dozen states could vote to override pro-life laws this fall through ballot initiatives. Abortions have actually increased since the Dobbs ruling. And abortion pills, easier than ever to order online and ship to residences, now account for nearly two-thirds of abortions nationwide.
The reality is that Dobbs didn't change the underlying drivers of abortion. Women are still seeking abortions for the same reasons they did before. At Human Coalition, 76 percent of the women we see who are considering abortion tell us they would prefer to parent if their circumstances were different. They are often enduring a combination of economic or employment challenges and social pressures from friends, family, or partners, making them feel like abortion is a necessity.
The good news is that we already have a network in place to care for these women—more than 2,700 pregnancy centers all around the country, which served nearly one million new clients in 2022. These centers provide critical assistance like diapers and formula, but they also provide counseling, parenting and nutrition classes, and financial and social support.
Yet it's not enough to have this network in place if women don't know about it. According to the latest CDC data, more than 90 percent of abortions occur in the first 13 weeks of pregnancy. That means we have just a few precious weeks to reach most of these women and inform them of local life-affirming alternatives before they make an irrevocable abortion decision.
Thus, expanding telecare and increasing digital advertising have to be top priorities for the pro-life movement to reach these women online and connect them to local care.
Second, it's safe to say that while we as a movement have accomplished much, we have gained little ground in the hearts of Americans. And that must change immediately, as public support for abortion is polling at an all-time high.
The heart is the core of our belief system; it's where our emotions, desires, and worldview converge. We often say that it's not enough for someone to "know about" a spouse, or "know about" a mission—we say that their heart has to be "in the mission" or "one with their spouse."
The same is true of our society writ large. Yes, we need pro-life laws to protect lives, but laws are not enough to change hearts. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said that "the law cannot make a man love me...but it can restrain him from lynching me." He correctly recognized that just laws are necessary to restrict harmful, evil practices, but they can never fully reform someone's heart.
Hearts are changed not by statutory prohibitions, but by individual encounters of unselfish service, compassionate conversations, and uncompromising principle clothed in humility.
Finally, I want to issue a challenge to men in particular. We as a country are suffering our wounds of abortion in large part due to dereliction or outright abuse caused by men. Many women seeking abortion are victims of domestic violence or are unsupported by their male partner. Some men secretly want to stand up for their child in the womb but are too passive to protect their partner and child from the abortion industry. Others have been influenced by social trends and clever slogans, believing they can't speak out on this issue because they aren't women. While others simply feel ill equipped and unprepared to be a father or husband.
Meanwhile, for better or worse, men in public roles have made and continue to make decisions that affect the rest of the country, whether they be in the halls of Congress, in the White House, in a corporate boardroom, or with a major medical organization. Don't forget that it was a group of men who decided Roe v. Wade. Men like Alan Guttmacher played key roles in the eugenics movement and the abortion movement during the 20th century.
So to all conflicted men out there, just know that if you forfeit your sacred duty to protect your child or advocate for life because you don't want to "speak for" women, just know that other men will gladly take your place—and they may possess values diametrically opposed to yours. Your silence is their gift.
So there you have it. The stage is now set for the "second half" of the fight for life. We can either adapt our approach to the circumstances of the moment, or we can watch as the abortion industry strengthens its grip on our political, social, and moral institutions and continues convincing women that abortion is their only option for the next 50 years.
It's a new half. Let's fight like it.
Benjamin Watson is a former NFL player, VP of Strategic Relationships for the national pro-life organization Human Coalition, and author of The New Fight for Life: Roe, Race and a Pro-Life Commitment to Justice.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
