One year ago tomorrow, millions of Americans rejoiced as Roe v. Wade was sent to the ash heap of history where it belongs. The Supreme Court issued its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization on June 24, and with it overturned the horrendous Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey travesties, which since 1973 resulted in an estimated 63 million abortions.

Since then, many thousands of babies have been saved from premature death and given a shot at Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

And Democrats couldn’t be more outraged.

The Dobbs decision was leaked last May in an obvious attempt to intimidate a justice or two into changing his or her vote. It didn’t work. Almost laughably, that leaker has still not been identified — at least not publicly.

The leak and then the ruling itself led to angry protests, including illegal ones in front of the homes of conservative justices. One unhinged “pro-choice” loon even attempted to assassinate Brett Kavanaugh. Other thugs spent months vandalizing churches and pro-life centers.

Though the Biden administration issued a perfunctory statement of mild rebuke for violence, Joe Biden’s Justice Department responded with a collective yawn. The president himself, devout Catholic though he claims to be, regularly joined in with irate heckling and denunciations of the Court. His party whipped up women into a frenzy to help blunt the expected red wave in the midterm elections.

Nevertheless, those of us who prize the life given us by our Creator, and the true meaning of the Constitution that was so distorted by Roe, will henceforth celebrate every June 24.

We’ll also continue the work of saving lives. Most often, that’s going to mean the one-on-one care provided by organizations like our local Choices Pregnancy Resource Center. Compassionate attention and help provided to each woman in a crisis pregnancy is always going to be the best way forward. If she doesn’t feel loved or helped, there are plenty of well-funded predators ready to offer their “services.”

That said, laws also matter. The Washington Examiner has an excellent summary of the status of laws in all 50 states. We’ll paint with a broader brush here.

Many states had “trigger laws” variously banning abortion that took effect when Roe fell. Other states — all controlled by pro-life Republicans — set to work passing new laws. Some have been upheld in court, some have been blocked. That fight will continue, but in our humble estimation, Republicans should be mindful that saving some lives with a compromise is better than saving none with a law that’s struck down. See the paragraph above for our rationale.

In Democrat-controlled states, the trend went the opposite direction, as states rushed to “protect abortion rights” by ensuring that preborn babies can be killed right up until birth.

Congressional Democrats want to foist that policy on the entire nation. They claim they just want to codify Roe, but their legislation goes so far as to guarantee full-term abortion, as well as eviscerate parental rights when a minor seeks an abortion and the conscience rights of healthcare providers who do not wish to participate in murdering babies.

Just seven nations on earth allow this barbaric practice all the way through pregnancy, and most of the rest are communist.

That harsh truth notwithstanding, Leftmedia outlets reporting on this anniversary wring their hands over “lost rights.” The Associated Press frets about the “25 million women [who] live in states with abortion bans or tighter restrictions.”

Then there’s the polling. NBC News assures us that “61% of voters disapprove” of the Court’s Dobbs ruling, which NBC falsely asserts “remov[ed] federal protection of the right to abortion.” Fact-check: The Court said no such right ever existed in the Constitution. Lies like NBC’s might have something to do with public perception of the ruling.

Moreover, NBC adds, “53% say abortion access nationwide has become too difficult.” Again, pollaganda works.

Clearly, we have a long way to go before abortion is as universally loathed as slavery.

The cultural changes over the last century that have made abortion a hot political topic are too numerous to fully recount here. Yet there is one overriding truth: We are talking about a human life in the womb, a genuine person with a soul and a future. “On the first anniversary of Dobbs,” write the editors of National Review, “it is worth taking a moment to be thankful for the tens of thousands of human beings who will get to see their own first birthday, and many more, because of it.”