On December 1, 2021, 23 highway overpasses across America will display large blue banners bearing the message, “Abortion takes a human life.” Meanwhile, cries of “Overturn Roe” will echo in front federal buildings, courthouses, and abortion facilities in 34 states, at 103 locations, as the United States Supreme Court hears arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson.
The case has gathered substantial attention from both life advocates and abortion backers because it is the most significant challenge to Roe v. Wade to rise up in the courts in more than a decade. OverturnRoe.org, a pro-life coalition, is taking the battle over abortion to the streets on December 1 to voice their encouragement for upending the 1973 decision that legalized abortion in the United States.
The distinctive bright blue banners that will be visible to drivers throughout the country during the national OverturnRoe.org initiative on December 1, are the direct result of a grass roots effort that began in the Chicago area. Chris Iverson began displaying the banners across bridges and overpasses with the simple statement, “Abortion takes a human life.”
“That is exactly the message that’s missing in most of the news coverage around the Dobbs case,” shares Iverson, now a board member of the Pro-Life Action League, a key component of the OverturnRoe.org coalition. “That’s why the banner displays on overpasses are important. The more that truth is emphasized—that abortion takes a human life, the more reasonable it seems that the Supreme Court should reverse Roe.”
Iverson began the banner project, known as “pro-life bridges,” in 2016, because he was interested in getting the message out to the general public, not just to other pro-life people. After researching many different options, Iverson identified overpass banners as an efficient way to reach the general public in large numbers over relatively short periods of time.
Each year since the project began, Iverson has been able to document reaching over one million people with the message. In 2018, the Pro-Life Action League took the project national, distributing almost 150 sets of banners across the United States.
In addition to the national banner display, thousands of pro-life citizens are expected to gather in Washington, DC, in front of the United States Supreme Court on Wednesday morning, December 1. Rallying outside of the court, they will speak, pray, and display signs and banners that advocate life and decry the destruction of children by abortion.
The scene will be repeated all over the nation as throughout the day, Americans gather to urge the repeal of the 1973 Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision, which along with Doe v. Bolton, legalized abortion in the United States.
“This is first legal opportunity in over a decade the nine Justices of the Supreme Court have had to overturn the outdated Roe v. Wade decision,” explained Eric Scheidler, Executive Director of the Pro-Life Action League and a key coordinator with the OverturnRoe.org coalition. “Roe v. Wade is outdated, it’s bad law, and it’s been responsible for the ‘legal’ murder of more than sixty-two million children.”
“In fact,” explained Scheidler, “If the Supreme Court upholds the Mississippi law in full or in part, without overturning Roe v. Wade, they will have to replace the legal reasoning of Roe v. Wade and the later Planned Parenthood v. Casey rulings with another foundation for legal abortion. Will the conservative justices really be willing to do that?”
The organizers of OverturnRoe.org are hoping that the Supreme Court will instead overturn Roe v. Wade, returning this issue of abortion to the individual states. If that happens, Mississippi’s law would go into effect, and other states would be free to limit abortion more broadly or even ban it.
Mark Harrington, President and Founder of Created Equal, noted, “We need to overturn abortion not just overturn Roe v. Wade. That process begins by educating Americans on what abortion does to an unborn child. Our National Day of Action will be a big step in that direction.”
As part of the OverturnRoe.org coalition, Harrington has joined Scheidler and Citizens for a Pro-Life Society Director Monica Miller, in organizing the rallies, protests, prayer vigils, and highway overpass banner campaigns in Washington, DC, and across America on December 1, 2021.
Miller, commended the joint efforts, stating, “Pro-life groups working together will show the nation that abortion is unjust killing of the innocent and thus why the Supreme Court must uphold the Mississippi law that seeks to defend the most vulnerable among us.”
“December 1, 2021, could be the day that turns this country around. It could be the beginning of the path that draws Americans away from legalized, unrestricted, abortion-on-demand, at any time, for any reason,” added Scheidler. “It could be the day that the high court starts to put the power over America’s future back where it belongs: in the hands of the people. OverturnRoe.org is taking this historic moment to underscore that vital truth.”
A final ruling in the case is expected in Spring 2022. {eoa}
OverturnRoe.org is a is a coalition of pro-life American devoted to restoring legal protection to unborn human beings. The coalition is led by three organizations: Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, Created Equal, and the Pro-Life Action League. OverturnRoe.org is organizing prayer vigils, rallies, and protests around the December 1 United State Supreme Court hearing date in the Dobbs v. Jackson case. For more information, visit overturnroe.org.
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