Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to reflect that author Erwin Lutzer did not live in Nazi Germany. He quoted a Christian who lived in Nazi Germany in his book When a Nation Forgets God (2016).

Rosie the Riveter graced the cover of The Economist recently. She was pictured with her sleeves rolled up, a voting card in her hand, the raised-fist symbol of feminism on her collar, and “My Body, My Choice” tattooed on her arm underneath the headline, “Meet America’s most dynamic political movement.”

Women are lied to en masse and told that the only way they can be truly free or “empowered” like the Rosie the Riveter is having the “right” to kill their offspring.

Abortion has always been the lead topic of a “dynamic political movement,” but in the two years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the battle surrounding it has only intensified. Not only is abortion the most dynamic political issue possibly ever to exist, it’s certainly the most consequential.

The fall of Roe two years ago struck a nerve in the Republican Party. True colors and inconsistencies were revealed as many in the GOP abandoned the life issue for silence and compromise. While Democrats run on the abortion issue, many Republicans run from it in retreat.

The same is sadly true for many churches and Christians who attempt to dismiss abortion as a partisan issue that just stirs up division. But the fact is that abortion is not a political issue that can be ignored; it’s a moral and spiritual issue of utmost importance.

Burying Our Heads in the Sand  

A Christian who lived in Nazi Germany during World War II recalled the way German Christians tried to distance themselves from the stories they heard about the Holocaust by shrugging and saying, “What could anyone do to stop it?” Those “believers” believed themselves to be powerless against the forces of evil.

The small church he attended would sing hymns at the top of their lungs when they heard the train on tracks outside coming by to drown out the cries of Jews being shipped to death camps.

He shared this chilling story that author Erwin Lutzer retold in his book When a Nation Forgets God (2016): 

We dreaded to hear the sound of those wheels because we knew that we would hear the cries of the Jews en route to a death camp. Their screams tormented us. … We knew the time the train was coming, and when we heard the whistle blow we began singing hymns. By the time the train came past our church, we were singing at the top of our voices. If we heard the screams, we sang more loudly and soon we heard them no more. Years have passed, and no one talks about it anymore. But I still hear that train whistle in my sleep. God forgive me; forgive all of us who called ourselves Christians yet did nothing to intervene.

The German Christians’ silence during the Holocaust is the same as American Christians’ silence regarding abortion — a crime against humanity that has killed more than 63 million children in our nation alone since 1973.

Like Christians in Nazi Germany, much of the American Church (and certainly the Republican party) is simply singing a little louder and sticking their heads in the sand to drown out the reality of the million-plus children abortion kills each year in the U.S. Are we content to remain silent as innocent children are being ushered to death?

Swinging the Pendulum in Post-Roe America 

Dobbs v. Jackson was the starting point, not the finish line, in the new chapter of the fight for life — and now that the power has been put back into the hands of the duly elected representatives of each state’s citizens, the pendulum can swing toward either life or death.

Many of us optimistically — and perhaps naïvely — believed a pro-life shift would sweep across policy and culture after Roe was declared “egregiously wrongly decided from the start.” We’ve been encouraged by headlines reporting that the total number of abortions in Arkansas dropped from more than 3,000 in 2022 to zero in 2023, believing them to be the new normal.

But they aren’t.

On the whole, abortion rates have increased in a post-Roe America. Chemical abortion pills flow freely through the mail, and some states have removed virtually all restrictions on abortion.

In 2023, the Guttmacher Institute reports that 171,300 women traveled across state lines to get abortions. Meanwhile, pro-abortion organizations are lobbying even harder for unfettered access to be enshrined into state constitutions, such as in Florida, through ballot measures this November.

Waking Up an Apathetic Church 

In a culture obsessed with convenience — which includes killing unwanted children — a spiritual shift and a change of hearts and minds is vital. This starts with waking up an apathetic church to the gruesome reality of abortion and the call to “rescue those being led away to death” (Proverbs 24:11).

Human beings at every stage of development are made in God’s image and deserve equal protection under the law. Whether a human baby has the right to live or be murdered is the most consequential issue not only of this election cycle but of our time. Therefore, we must be addressed with Christian conviction, not cowardly compromise.

Some Christians are responding to that call, however. For example, Mercy Culture — a five-year-old nondenominational church with six campuses across Texas — celebrated the Dobbs anniversary by holding a Citizens for Life March in Dallas, Fort Worth, and Waco last night. Thousands participated. Rather than resting, they are taking the fight to the enemy in the spiritual space in order to bring transformation to the earthly realm. On its registration page for the event, organizers wrote:

Even though Roe v Wade was overturned on June 24, 2022, a day of celebration, the majority of states still allow abortion,” the church said in inviting people to register for the event. “THE WAR ISN’T OVER, babies are still being murdered, and the door was opened in Dallas, TX almost 50 years ago.” [Norma McCorvey, better known as Jane Roe, lived in Dallas when she became pregnant for the third time and sued the state at the behest of pro-abortion advocates.]

So we are calling the body of Christ — every church, all sons and daughters — to meet on June 23, to march and pray for every state to turn towards LIFE!

Mercy Culture puts feet to its faith — not only by marching for life, but by training Christians how to run for political office.

It takes not only prayer, but persistence and practice to shift a society from death to life. May this be the beginning of the shift our nation so desperately needs.

Liberty Counsel is a nationwide legal ministry dedicated to protecting the sanctity of human life, advancing religious liberty, and upholding God’s design for family.

Since its inception in 1989, Liberty Counsel has worked strategically to defend the preborn and overturn the flawed Supreme Court abortion opinions of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. In 2022’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Court cited Liberty Counsel’s amicus brief that exposed the racist and eugenic history of abortion. 

As the battle has shifted post-Roe, Liberty Counsel remains committed to protecting the sanctity of human life in all 50 states.