The Flowering of the Rose: A History of the Pro-Life Movement, 1966-2024 (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781977285492)

Do we need another book on abortion? The Flowering of the Rose is much more than that. Long overdue--this book is the first comprehensive history of the pro-life movement's 60 years as one of America's longest-lasting social movements. Fair and balanced, Robert N. Karrer's first book is an honest appraisal of the movement's past, from humble beginnings in 1966 to partial victory in 2022 when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health decision. The book is current, including the 2024 election and the pro-choice movement's response to Dobbs by launching state referendums to enshrine abortion rights in many state constitutions.

In this narrative, Karrer includes the key players from both pro-life and pro-choice camps. He details that while pro-life groups emerged prior to the Roe decision (primarily affiliated with the National Right to Life Committee), and the movement had its own pre-Roe organizational structure, the dramatic increase in groups, participants, and activities in the mid-1970s was due to Roe. Evangelicals put aside theological differences and joined Catholics in 1979 thanks to the influence of Christian author Francis Schaeffer and Pastor Jerry Falwell who founded the multi-issue Moral Majority. The 1980s witnessed the arrival of ultrasound, used effectively by Dr. Bernard Nathanson's 1985 The Silent Scream. While the new technology allowed the public to see the unborn child's humanity as never before, Americans recoiled in the 1980s and 1990s as "pro-life terrorists" engaged in violence, arsons, and even murder at abortion clinics. Karrer discusses key Supreme Court decisions from 1976 to 2007 that shaped abortion policy for a generation. He describes the movement's effort to ban partial-birth abortion and how Bill Clinton's vetoes blocked pivotal legislation. The Flowering of the Rose includes pro-life strategies through the decades, political engagements (campaigns and elections), and pro-life legislation. Dobbs is presented in some detail as is the 2024 presidential election in one of the most momentous years in American history.

The average American...the inquisitive reader, should ask one central question. Why has the pro-life movement's unfiltered full story been so neglected in academic circles? All we hear is crickets. Many scholars lean to the political left as do the mainstream media, feminists, and the scientific and legal communities. Adherence to the pro-choice position is pervasive among these groups to the point of being sacrosanct. Opposition or disagreement with the prevailing narrative is rejected wholesale, a betrayal to women's reproductive rights. It's no wonder that the pro-life movement's history remains assigned to political and societal irrelevance. The Flowering of the Rose remedies this problem with a timely, factual account of pro-life history. Its past 60 years deserve to be told.