When John Roberts was nominated for the Supreme Court, he was attacked by the left for being a man. He was replacing Sandra Day O’Connor, so the seat was supposedly owed to womankind.

That was, of course, ridiculous and insulting — to democracy, to intelligence.

This week, Amy Coney Barrett is being attacked by people who disagree with her ruling on birthright citizenship. We are told by some that it is evidence that women should never be nominated to the Court. It’s only because she has adopted children from Haiti, others say.

Interestingly, she’s been attacked by people on both the right and the left for having adopted from Haiti.

It seems like it requires a remarkable reservoir of hate to attack a Christian family for doing the hard work of the Gospel. Of course, some of the earliest criticisms of Barrett, even before she was eventually nominated for the Court, were that she dared to participate in Christian community, presumably to help keep her and her family accompanied on the Beatitudinal ways of radical love.

We actually call that exercising our religious freedom. It’s a good thing. A healthy America wants more of it.

In a sane world, Amy Coney Barrett would be an example of trying to live the Christian life with excellence. It’s not quite “having it all,” but finding one’s personal vocation and how it looks in God’s unique plan for you.

I worry that we forget what the point of the three branches of government is: We don’t populate the nation’s capital with only lawmakers. She wasn’t nominated to make policy.

“May the Dogma live loudly within me” is the prayer some of us adopted as a reminder, after a pre-SCOTUS Barrett Senate confirmation hearing had the now-late Senator Dianne Feinstein grilling Barrett for taking her Catholic faith seriously. May it always.

And the Notre Dame Republican Party should be ashamed of its X feed, which said this week: “Barrett is an absolute disgrace to the Notre Dame name. We apologize on her behalf to all who will suffer the devastating consequences of infinity third-world migration.”

Notre Dame and the rest of us are blessed by her presence in the public square. Or are we really so misogynistic to believe that a woman shouldn’t have a voice unless it always agrees with ours?

Meanwhile, on the left, people continue to protest outside her family’s house, pretending she is a character from a dystopian novel who has come to take away women’s rights.

How about she’s a woman who has earned her job as a judge, not a politician or pop culture personality? She is some of the best of America. See more about ACB Derangement Syndrome, as they say, in our editorial.

Conscience Matters

“If conscience is not secure in society, then the security of all other rights is threatened.”

Pope John Paul II said this while speaking at Battery Park in 1979.

I was reminded of this when I tripped over an exhibit in Washington, D.C. I happened to go to a midday Mass at the John Paul II Shrine in “Little Rome,” over by the Catholic University of America. Just until Labor Day, there is a tour of some of the highlights of John Paul II’s seven trips to the United States as pontiff. The crown jewel of “A New Birth of Freedom: Saint John Paul II and the United States of America” may be the photo of a young Father Robert Prevost — now Pope Leo XIV — with JPII in Chicago.

After reviewing the U.S. trips, I went downstairs to a permanent exhibit there, which opens with a moving introductory video in which we hear JPII, in English, refer to conscience in the words of Vatican Council II — as “the most secret core and sanctuary of a man, where he is alone with God, whose voice echoes in his depths.”

When we think of conscience as our very relationship with God, we realize that celebrating America’s 250th is not an abstract academic exercise, but at the very core of our identity — as individuals, and as a country.

Abortion Changes You

That’s the original name of a project out of California that helps women acknowledge the pain that is real surrounding an abortion (now The Institute for Reproductive Grief Care). I was introduced to it over 20 years ago, when some of us were trying to get the word out — so that women could reach out to a resource that might seem less intimidating than post-abortion healing work with, say, Catholic nuns (the Sisters of Life and their post-abortion-healing work, I’m thinking of).

Now it’s 2026, and there’s a reflection in Psychology Today that admits that abortion hurts. This isn’t some Catholics trying to be clever about getting the word out in an under-the-radar kind of way. This is a mainstream, secular psychotherapist admitting the reality that women are often pressured to deny, often leading to more pain and unhealthy coping behavior to soothe the misery.

The reflection talks about the need for a woman to find an opportunity to “surrender to her pain,” She needs to find a place, Margo Lowy says, “where things don’t need to be fixed. A place of comfort, not cure. A sacred place that belongs to her and that she can claim. A place where complicated and inconsistent human feelings abound and are welcome. A valuable place for her own self-realization and struggle.”

This is not a new discovery for the pro-life movement, which has been offering post-abortion healing resources for decades. But it is a sign of a culture coming out of denial.

Other Things

An Army captain has been sentenced to twelve years in prison. He pled guilty to intentionally killing his unborn child, lacing the drink of his girlfriend, a junior enlisted soldier, with Mifepristone, which he ordered online.

SBA List Pro-Life America is urging Americans to sign a Declaration of Independence for the Unborn. It says, in part:

A “states-only” strategy on abortion doesn’t just fail, it is unjust. Where our people live does not determine whether or not they have the right to live.

Washington State Congresswoman Marie Gluesenkamp Perez recently talked about the physical pain of her recent miscarriage, insisting that women’s reproductive health care be better, specifically on more serious pain management.

And good for CNN’s Pamela Brown for pointing out during her interview with Gluesenkamp Perez: “You don’t just bounce right back from miscarriage. Even if the pain is managed in that moment, it can really take a toll on you physically, mentally, emotionally.”

MGP responded gratefully, and as the conversation continued to possible time off after a miscarriage, she added: “Tangibly, what do pro-family policies look like?”

This is one of those places where people should be able to work beyond party lines. It’s human stuff, at the core of civilization, honestly. It’s life and family. Things don’t get more fundamental.

Emma Waters: Birthright Citizenship and . . . Surrogacy?

Jamie Bryan Hall: No, JAMA Didn’t Just Prove That Pro-Life Laws Lead to Worse Miscarriage Care

Chloe Cole: Planned Parenthood’s One-Way Pipeline Destroys American Children. “Systems can be changed, but people cannot,” she told reporters. “I cannot become a man.”

Shoko Kawata is the mayor of Yawata, “a spiritual oasis of 68,000 people in western Japan known for its traditional tea culture and cherry blossoms,” according to the New York Times. She is pregnant with her first child and is set to become the first mayor in Japan to take maternity leave.

From the New York Times write-up:

A heated debate erupted online. One of the loudest voices was Toshio Tamogami, a retired general and nationalist politician, who wrote on X that he felt “a great sense of discomfort about someone in public office taking such a long vacation.”

In an interview, Mr. Tamogami said he felt that women who plan to have children or take maternity leave should avoid running for office.

“Unlike people in ordinary jobs, a mayor is, so to speak, irreplaceable,” he said. “To say, ‘It’s my right, so I’m running regardless’ — I feel it would be better if they refrained from doing so.”

The U.S. Catholic Bishops Respect Life office recommends praying in July that “our nation uphold the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” It offers this prayer guide and reflection:

This July we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America. In anticipation of this milestone, last month, the U.S. bishops consecrated our nation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Declaration of Independence boldly affirms that first among our inalienable rights is the right to life, given to us by the Creator. Yet despite being so solemnly proclaimed, the right to life is today threatened and often denied, particularly at the moments when life is most fragile. The laws of our nation should—first and foremost—protect life. For “there can be no true democracy without a recognition of every person’s dignity and without respect for his or her rights” (Evangelium vitae, 101).

In the Gospel, Jesus tells us that we are “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world” (Mt. 5:13-14). As Catholics, we have a duty to pursue the common good and a profound obligation to safeguard this most fundamental right to life. Each of us is called to live out our faith publicly, witnessing to the Gospel. For, “if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot” (Mt. 5:13). Nor can we hide our faith under the “bushel basket,” rather, our “light must shine before others” (Mt. 5:15-16).

Through our own prayer, witness, and civic participation, we can help our nation to answer the call to protect the lives of all people. We pray that Catholics will faithfully embrace their Christian responsibility and be strengthened when they encounter resistance or persecution. Together, may we help build a culture of life and civilization of love in our nation.

Catherine Ruth Pakaluk in the New York Times: Life Is Better With Siblings

People: Micropreemie, Who Was Given a 10% Chance of Survival at Birth, Is Thriving as He Celebrates His First Birthday with NICU Care Team

Around National Review

• Michael J. New: Pro-Lifers Receive Good News from the Fifth Circuit

• Bay Area Pro-Life Activist Wins Legal Victory

• Wesley J. Smith: The Anglican Church of Canada Publishes Pastoral Liturgies Blessing Euthanasia

• New York Times Story Features ‘Tree Rights’

• John Gerardi: A Golden Opportunity to Destabilize Planned Parenthood

• Me: How About a Declaration of Charity?

One More Thing

Last weekend, a small Baptist congregation in Prince George’s County, Md., hosted a baby shower for 2,500 families.

According to a local announcement of the event:

Every family attending the event will receive free diapers and wipes while supplies last and will be entered into drawings for essential baby items, including car seats, Pack ’n Plays, strollers and themed gift baskets.

And here’s something you don’t see every day, even in pro-life circles:

New this year is the “Dad Den,” a dedicated space to connect fathers and father figures with resources, support and one another. The area will also feature blood pressure and glucose screenings, car seat safety inspections and fresh produce giveaways.

The March for Life national office even sent some volunteers.

More of this, please!

What more can you and your church/school/community/family/office do?