The Roe Leak Spotlights America’s Crisis of Credibility

Abortion and the lost trust in institutions are two parts of the same problem.

As I write this, pro-life Americans don’t know whether to celebrate, and pro-choice Americans don’t know how to protest. That’s because all of us are looking at the news—a leaked-but-not-yet delivered majority opinion from the United States Supreme Court overturning the Roe v. Wade decision from almost 50 years ago.

For years, many of us working in the pro-life space have anticipated the day that the Supreme Court would announce the repeal of Roe v. Wade. Years ago, when my team and I were working at the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), we planned a pro-life event called Roe50 to mark the anniversary of the decision. I was the one arguing that the branding team should prepare for the distinct possibility that Roe wouldn’t even make it to 50 years.

Those working in the opposite space, on the abortion rights side, were likewise prepared for such an announcement. None of us were prepared for an announcement quite like this, for an “announcement” that is no announcement at all.

This has never happened before—where a leak from inside the Supreme Court delivers internal memos revealing what the court is planning to do. The resulting confusion means that most people are about 98 percent certain of what the court now plans to do. But we cannot really act on it, because there is always a possibility that the majority could change their mind between now and the release of the opinion.

Behind the confusion, though, there’s a simmering outrage. Last night my phone started vibrating with message after message from lawyers and politicians—most of them pro-life—outraged by the way this alleged ruling was leaked. Some speculated that ...

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from Christianity Today Magazine
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