In her opening remarks to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday, Judge Amy Coney Barrett emphasized the importance of her family. Even as she is considered to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court, Barrett revealed that her husband and seven children are her priority. She said, “As I said when I was nominated to serve as a Justice, I am used to being in a group of nine—my family. Nothing is more important to me, and I am so proud to have them behind me.”
Since Pro-Life President Donald Trump announced his nomination of Judge Barrett, anti-Life radicals have viciously attacked her. Proving that nothing is beneath them, abortion activists went so far as to attack Barrett and her husband for adopting two children who were born in Haiti. Contrary to these baseless attacks, Barrett has shared about the severe challenges her adopted children faced early in life and what a blessing they have been to the family.
In her opening remarks, Barrett spoke briefly about each of her children, sharing, “Vivian came to us from Haiti. When she arrived, she was so weak that we were told she might never walk or talk normally. She now deadlifts as much as the male athletes at our gym, and I assure you that she has no trouble talking.” About her adopted son, Barrett said, “John Peter joined us shortly after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, and Jesse, who brought him home, still describes the shock on JP’s face when he got off the plane in wintertime Chicago. Once that shock wore off, JP assumed the happy-go-lucky attitude that is still his signature trait.”
Besides her family, one of the greatest influences on Barrett’s legal career was her mentor Justice Antonin Scalia. From him, Barrett came to understand the role of the judiciary and the importance of the rule of law. She said of Scalia, “His judicial philosophy was straightforward: A judge must apply the law as written, not as the judge wishes it were. Sometimes that approach meant reaching results that he did not like. But as he put it in one of his best known opinions, that is what it means to say we have a government of laws, not of men.”
Barrett condemned abortion activists’ preferred method of “legislating from the bench” through which activist judges interpret laws so radically and ambiguously that they expand the legal killing of the preborn and undermine the voices of Pro-Life citizens. Barrett explained, “Courts have a vital responsibility to enforce the rule of law, which is critical to a free society. But courts are not designed to solve every problem or right every wrong in our public life.” She added, “The policy decisions and value judgments of government must be made by the political branches elected by and accountable to the People.”
Barrett’s perspective is that of a strong Constitutionalist judge who does not seek to impose anti-Life, left-wing, radical feminist ideology from the bench. Instead, she, like Justice Scalia before her, seeks to interpret laws in light of the Constitution and the freedoms recognized therein. This judicial philosophy underpins Pro-Life activism. Pro-Lifers cannot wait idly for Roe v. Wade to be overturned in the hopes that then innocent human Life will be protected. Rather, Pro-Lifers must be working at every level of government to ensure that our laws recognize the Sanctity of Life at every stage from conception to natural death.
The grassroots activism of the Pro-Life movement will increase protections for preborn babies. Of course, the abortion industry will try to challenge these laws in court, and some of these cases will likely be appealed to the Supreme Court, eventually presenting a legal challenge to Roe v. Wade. But that is only one aspect of the fight for Life.
The more important work takes place in state legislative committee hearings and the offices of your state representatives. What happens in your city council and outside the local abortion mill have a far greater effect on the minds and hearts of your neighbors. When communities across Texas pass ordinances establishing Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn, Life is winning. Resources for pregnant mothers and families are more widely available and more Texans are speaking openly in defense of Life. This Culture of Life will be ready for the day when Roe v. Wade is overturned, ready to protect the preborn and assist mothers and families in crisis.