Thanks be to God. America has finally dispensed with a corrupt, dishonest and destructive ruling; the proverbial death of Roe v. Wade will allow for the actual preservation of life—for the protection unto birth of individuals yet to emerge from the womb, who previously may have been murdered with the permission of their parents and by the hands of doctors who betray their oaths because they underestimate the evil they commit. Surely the SCOTUS decision to recognize states in their lawful right to protect infants amounts to a historic moment which we ought to celebrate. And yet we must recognize that states have also a responsibility to exercise this right. In fact, to willfully allow murder is a catastrophic failure accounted not only to any government that does so, but any society that tolerates the same.

Now that the states have again the openly recognized right to prevent infant-murder (a right existent in truth, whether observed or not) the people must make our will known; must inform our legislators that an uncompromising stance against killing infants is the only ultimately acceptable standard for civilized society. If we can agree not to kill children once their heartbeat is detected, we recognize in effect that children should not be categorized as a lesser class of person. We ought not allow the murder of people who are clearly people for any reason, let alone the unreasonable excuse that they are still in the womb.

If we can accept this basic premise (thou shalt not kill) then it seems that we await not so much a moral awakening as the application of common sense, and the advancement of scientific understanding. If we agree not to kill children, we know by extension that we must protect them from the moment of conception. Anything less admits the possibility of murdering children simply because we do not know when they become persons and are satisfied to end human life so long as we pretend that such life is in some ambiguous or scientifically undifferentiated stage. The burden of proof lies with the executioner, and for too long we have been satisfied to let sleeping devils lie, and to believe such lies. For too long we have brushed aside the question of what exactly makes a human such that a human should not be murdered.

We accept the idea that human life must be protected on unarticulated principle, as well we should. But when the right to life is challenged on the margins (those who cannot defend themselves) we do not have an argument prepared. We take it on faith that people shouldn’t be slain without cause. But the modern men or women who stray into extremism desire exactly such an unrestrained liberty: to kill without justification.

And it is such a person we must answer in law.

This is obviously an urgent matter. These laws must be written and passed. Immediately.

Allow me to temper what may appear harsh with further clarification. I don’t harbor any hatred for the women who have long been misled by society and by foolish activism. We ought not to adopt haughty spirits or cruelty—the life of the mother is precious, and even the infanticidal activist is a human person, to be respected and protected as such. We must find a way to exist peaceably in a world where it is necessary to use the force of law in protecting children.

Should we not help mothers and fathers in need? Help consists of voluntary service, financial aid, workplace accommodation, adoption, etc.—but you will never convince me that killing their babies is helpful. We must be compassionate in seeing our society set free from the lies that have plagued us for 50 years, at the cost of millions of lives. May God have mercy on us all, for tolerating and perpetuating such evil for so long.

Elias Garvey is a lifetime Homerite, currently logging hours as an electrical apprentice and moonlighting tacos on the Spit—but his joy in life (under Christ) is poetry.