Since Roe v. Wade legislated abortion and nullified the democratic will of Americans in the majority of the states, American life has been nearly torn apart by increasingly ferocious disagreements about what life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness really mean.
Our ethical and philosophical debates about when human beings deserve human rights remain unresolved.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court has taught since Planned Parenthood v. Casey that abortion must be preserved as a public good, ultimately because it believes that women rely on abortion in order to succeed in American life. This is what attorneys know as the “reliance interest” in abortion.
It’s true that success in American life requires reliance, but not in the way that we think. Reliance, solidarity, and interdependence all describe the same basic truth: we cannot succeed in this life on our own. We walk hand-in-hand with others in our journey through life, or else we walk a lonely road. But if the U.S. Supreme Court’s vision of reliance was wrong, what does true reliance look like?
These are questions Advocates for Life exists to unpack. We’ll dive deep into the law and policy questions central to these issues.
We report from the front lines of law and policy battles at the White House and on Capitol Hill. And we report the latest from state capitals on the law and policy initiatives that will eventually find their way into the culture and the courts.
There’s no other way to build a better future—one that rejects a culture of violence and self-harm and instead raises up and empowers every member of the human family.
Let’s walk alongside one another and rise above the divisiveness of these times.
