Data from the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute suggest that the number of abortions increased in America over the first six months of 2023 relative to the first six months of 2020. The U.S. is on track for 1.2 million abortions by year’s end.

This gloomy statistic puts a number on the pro-life movement’s failure to articulate any kind of positive program following last year’s Dobbs decision. A rush of badly-worded state referenda is not a program; nor is holding your breath and hoping the judges will back you. 

Dobbs was a victory, but not of the final sort; rather it gave us a space in which to maneuver. If we fail to use it, there is a number on our failure.