On May 2, 2022, the American political scene erupted into an inferno of controversy with the unprecedented leak of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. If enacted as written, the ruling would strike down the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion throughout the United States and set aside the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision. Most observers believe the draft was leaked to Politico to pressure a Supreme Court justice to change his or her vote on Dobbs and “save” abortion rights.

At this time, an investigation ordered by Chief Justice John Roberts has yet to determine the source of the leak. If a leaker is identified, he or she will face stiff legal and professional penalties for perpetrating such an “egregious breach of trust.”

Alito’s opinion, written in February, is an early draft of the Court’s majority opinion on the Dobbs case, which would overturn Roe. The Court’s process calls for analyzing, debating, and editing multiple draft opinions before a final, official opinion is signed and released by the Court. The draft opinion, then, may not represent the final word of the Court majority. Until the Court releases its official document, Roe v. Wade is still the law of the land.

The pro-abortion side of the political spectrum erupted in protest as soon as the leaked document became public. The Supreme Court building itself had to be protected immediately with barricades and later a more substantial fence from protesters who began to converge on it. Since then, protests and counter-protests have occurred across the nation. Some protesters took their agitation directly to the Court’s conservative justices, lining the streets in front of their homes, a clear violation of federal law.

Some left-wing groups promise a nationwide “summer of rage” against the ruling. One pro-abortion leader, Rachel O’Leary Carmona, executive director of the Women’s March on the National Mall, told activists at the Bans Off Our Bodies Rally on May 14, “We will be ungovernable until this government starts working for us.” Several members of the House of Representatives and delegates from progressive religious groups appeared at the rally to show their support for abortion rights and the coming surge of pro-Roe protests.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D) of New York rushed to codify abortion rights into law. However, the Women’s Health Protection Act failed in the Senate on May 11, 49-51, with West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin (D) siding with Republicans against the bill. The act, sponsored by Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal (D), would have made access to abortion a matter of federal law and guaranteed the right of health care providers to perform abortion services. Republicans argued that the act assailed the Constitutional rights of free exercise of religion and conscience and “would overturn modest and overwhelmingly popular safeguards like waiting periods, informed consent laws, and possibly even parental notification,” according to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) of Kentucky.

While a majority (about two-thirds) of Americans tell pollsters they support a woman’s right to choose, legal experts on both sides of the spectrum admit that Roe is a poorly reasoned decision. Even the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, an icon of the left and a strong supporter of abortion rights, felt Roe was “too sweeping and vulnerable to attacks.” She believed it would have been better if the 1973 opinion, written by Justice Harry Blackmun, had been based on the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment rather than its Due Process Clause. As it stands, she said, the ruling is “unstable.”

Noted Yale law professor Akhil Amar, a self-described pro-choice liberal, concludes in a recent Wall Street Journal article:

I am a Democrat who supports abortion rights but opposes Roe. The Court’s ruling in the case was simply not grounded either in what the Constitution says or in the long-standing, widely embraced mores and practices of the country. Perhaps I’m wrong in thinking that, and perhaps the Dobbs draft is wrong too. But there is nothing radical, illegitimate or improperly political in what Justice Alito has written.

A recent Rasmussen poll reveals just how clueless the American people are on this issue. More than three-quarters of respondents (77%) believe that overturning Roe would make abortion illegal. It will not. According to the Tenth Amendment, all it will do is return abortion law to individual states. The people’s local representatives would be able to vote on the issue, which is what most people (65%) want, according to Rasmussen. The Alito draft opinion, vilified by a politicized media with dire warnings about the Court taking away precious rights, would give Americans what two-thirds of them say they want.

As God says through Hosea, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6; see Isaiah 5:13). The simple truth is that, on the abortion issue, Americans are allowing themselves to be led by political hucksters across the spectrum rather than doing the hard work of thinking the matter through. Instead of championing the lives of society’s weakest members, they believe without question the venal personal-freedom arguments that they see on television and the Internet. They fail to consider the effects of murder in the womb on the mother, child, and society at large. When heightened emotions enter the mix—as they almost always do—serious thought about what is true and right disappears.

On the other hand, Almighty God desires His people to understand His thoughts about the issues that confront them. He provides specific laws, well-defined principles, and logical arguments for what is good and against evil. His Word is clear that our Creator and Life-Giver is for life and family and against murder and sexual activity outside of marriage.

It was not long ago that most Americans understood these things. Events have given the nation a chance to rectify the monstrous, half-century abortion curse. It is time to remember God’s thoughts on the matter—or real destruction will soon fall on a once-Bible-believing people.