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As the nation approaches the first anniversary of the Supreme Court decision returning abortion to democratic control, national leaders celebrated the birth of tens, or hundreds, of thousands of unborn children saved by pro-life laws.

Although precise estimates vary, “the best guess that we have is about 200,000 children were born this year that would not have been born” apart from the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, said Senator James Lankford (R-Okla.) at a news conference Tuesday.

“That’s 200,000 kids. That’s 200,000 smiling faces on playgrounds. That’s 200,000 silly songs, starting in kindergarten. That’s 200,000 families that will be blessed with looking in the eyes of a child.”

Renewal of Democracy

The Dobbs decision, which took the shackles off voters and lawmakers to enact life-saving protections for the unborn, eliminated 96% of abortions in the 13 states that enacted pro-life protections between the June 24 decision and year’s end, The Daily Caller found.

Although abortion rates had risen early in 2022, state pro-life laws prevented 32,260 abortions in the first six months following the ruling, according to the WeCount report from the Society of Family Planning released in April.

A total of 25 states have since enacted some pro-life protections, since they “now have an opportunity in the United States to see this message in the hands of lawmakers and the people,” Family Research Council President Tony Perkins told Newsmax on Friday.

Saving 200,000 babies — the upper end of an estimate analysis from Susan B. Anthony Pro-life America — would be enough people to fill a city the size of Grand Rapids, Michigan; Vancouver, Washington; or Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Rejoicing

Republicans and Democrats had starkly different reactions to the one-year anniversary, much as they did to the landmark pro-life ruling.

Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) led 20 fellow Republican senators in introducing a resolution praising the Dobbs decision. “[M]odern science has illuminated our understanding of the humanity of unborn life,” the resolution reads. Their motion “celebrates the millions of lives that will be saved as a result of the ruling in Dobbs” and “commits to proclaiming the humanity of the unborn, consistent with the findings of modern science and the unswerving demands of justice.”

“Thank God Almighty for the Dobbs decision!” Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.) told the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s “Road to Majority” conference Friday. In an online ad, Scott highlighted Biden administration Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen saying the Dobbs decision would prove “very damaging” for the US economy. “That’s unconscionable,” Scott replies in the 60-second spot.

“As a black man born to a woman living at the poverty line, I’m so thankful my mama chose life.”

The “Gospel truth” is “the foundation of this nation,” he says.

Wrath

By contrast, Democrats seethed, cursed, and vowed to remove the voters’ newfound right of democratic consultation in the life-or-death issue.

“I’m really f—ing angry,” an otherwise emotionless Chelsea Clinton told the Aspen Ideas: Health summit this week.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) quoted the Bible to give Democrats hope they will again remove all pro-life protections from unborn children. “Scripture says that suffering may endure during the long night, but joy, joy will cometh [sic] in the morning,” said Jeffries on Friday.

He branded Dobbs “one of the most egregious and offensive decisions the Supreme Court has ever rendered” in its history. “Unlike other enlightened decisions,” like Brown v. the Board of Education, Dobbs belongs “in the Supreme Court ‘Hall of Shame.’”

“We are not going to stop until Roe v. Wade is the law of the land once again,” vowed Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), perhaps referring to sweeping top-down legislation such as H.R. 8296, the so-called “Women’s Health Protection” Act, which passed the House of Representatives last summer.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called the decision “cataclysmic” before saying “loud and clear: Democrats will never, never stop fighting to protect” abortion-on-demand.

Terrible Toll

An estimated 64,443,118 abortions were carried out during the 50 years after Roe v. Wade, according to National Right to Life. The abortion toll became so high that some men of the cloth found political action saving lives a second career. Roe v. Wade “led me out of the pastorate, kind of like a Jonah initially,” Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) told “Washington Watch” guest host and his former House colleague Jody Hice. Walberg, a former pastor who represents a district in the southeastern portion of Michigan, said he “found a new mission field on the issue of life.”

“Jane’s Revenge vandalised my campaign office, as well as the [Jackson] Right to Life office above us, in an attempt to try to quell pro-life attitude” last year, said Walberg. “Well, we’re going to fight back.”

Differing Developments

The two parties’ reactions produced glaringly different results in red and blue states over the last year, as well. While states which favour legalised abortion suffered 2,100 additional abortions each month between June and December 2022, pro-life states experienced 7,300 fewer abortions monthly, according to a New York Times analysis.

Although the legacy media attributed the additional blue-state abortions to women fleeing Republican-controlled areas to exercise “reproductive health care,” experts say abortions were already on the rise due to cultural issues and policy changes. “In recent years, pro-life parental-involvement laws were repealed in Illinois and weakened in Massachusetts,” wrote Michael New, an associate scholar at the Charlotte Lozier Institute, in National Review. “Also, state Medicaid programs in Illinois and Maine have started covering elective abortions.”

On the other hand, March for Life president Jeanne Mancini noted in a statement to The Washington Stand that “25 states have taken strong and courageous steps to enact pro-life protections that respect the inherent dignity of the unborn and women.

“For example, 16 states now offer alternatives to abortion funding (A2A) to strengthen and support adoption agencies, as well as the nearly 3,000 pregnancy resource centres and maternity homes that exist around the nation to provide resources, care, and support to pregnant women in need.”

But to win the cultural moment, said Lankford, Republicans need a sustained message driving home their commitment to building “a culture of life as a country — that we value every single person, whether it is a single adult in a very vulnerable moment or a child in the womb.”

“In a very vulnerable moment, we value life.”