The mourning after: Roe v. Wade after four decades

    Driving around the other day, running errands and listening to music in between stops, I happened to listen to a live version of rock group U2’s song “Sunday, Bloody Sunday.”
    There should be a similar anthem for Jan. 22, 1973: “Monday, Bloody Monday.”
But there were no violent clashes that day, no wave of protesters in the streets, no evidence of the judicial earthquake that enshrined violence in our society.  For many Americans, Jan. 22, 1973, was just another Monday. The forces that began this societal transformation had now fundamentally altered, through Roe v. Wade, what should have been sacred territory: the relational stance, sacred obligations, and beliefs of a woman regarding her unborn child.
    And how did Roe v. Wade catch and solidify a cultural shift that was already taking place? From the stance of a so-called “right” to privacy, it gave credibility to the notion that the dependent unborn child in the womb was the enemy, the penultimate symbol of the oppression of women. Unborn babies in the womb became the American scapegoat as their deceived mothers were encouraged to lay blame for their status in society on their unborn children. The unborn baby became something to marginalize and then to dump in the trash.
    As unborn children became disposable, the women who participate in God’s creation became devalued and diminished and deeply wounded. It turns out that Jan. 22, 1973, was not a day of liberation for women; it was a day that began an ominous oppression of women.
    What kind of a world would we be living in if the social revolutions of the late 1950s and 1960s had called for the full participation of women in the workplace, in academia and in other sectors of society – while also upholding and respecting the sacredness of unborn human life and a woman’s vocation to nurture that unborn life?
    Can you imagine a culture that could hold both in its hands, valuing both? Can we ever have a world that teaches young girls and women that becoming the fullness of who they are meant to be includes, for most of them, openness to biological motherhood?
    And what if we brought young men into this discussion, forming them early for fatherhood and teaching them what it truly means to partner with, care for and respect women amidst the noisy implications of co-creating?
    We could have a stance of accommodating women according to the phases of their lives and in relation to the needs of children. This stance could be reflected more deeply in the workplace, in economic approaches, legislation and in many other areas of life.
    Instead we have an “either-or” mentality when it comes to a woman’s personal and career development and raising children. Employers that seek to accommodate working mothers should be praised. But post-Roe, these efforts exist in a “new normal” based on lies about the essential nature of woman … lies that lead to their betrayal.
    A so-called freedom that requires the death of an innocent person is not freedom at all, but cleverly disguised evil. The advances of women in society are tainted with the deaths of unborn children. Perhaps one day Americans will wake up and realize that the anniversary of Roe v. Wade is not a day to celebrate but a day to mourn.
    Sunrise on Jan. 23, 1973, began this “mourning after.”
    For those of us who have awakened from our spiritual blindness, the mourning and the work for change continues to this day.
    Secular media outlets and pundits recognize the anniversary of Roe v. Wade as liberation for women, a revolution of sorts. I think it’s time for a new revolution. It’s not too late for a “sea change,” a positive transformation that fully respects both unborn children and women.
    Today, let’s be profoundly and peacefully countercultural and continue to pray, asking God for healing for women and men so deeply hurt and deceived by abortion, and asking for the intercession of the little ones who lost their lives and now stand as silent witnesses to the God who is the author of all human life.
    Susan Mire is the founder and development director of the Woman’s New Life Center in Metairie. She can be reached at [email protected].