Just a few days before the one-year anniversary of the overturn of Roe v. Wade, former NFL player Benjamin Watson visited The Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. to speak about his pro-life convictions. In his interview with Heritage’s Research Fellow, Delano Squires, Watson explained why he was pro-life, what next steps are for the pro-life movement and even gave a nod of encouragement for pro-lifers who face persecution in today’s pro-abort society.
Watson explained the motto that his wife and he are inspired by daily, a phrase which actually hangs on a wall in the Watson family living room and reads, “Do justice, love mercy and walk humbly,” which comes directly from Micah 6:8.
Watson explained how this world should be focusing on reconciliation, pointing out that while some reconciliation won’t happen on this side of heaven, the goal should be to try to fix all the mistakes we as a society have made since the fall.
“We want people to remember us as a family of people, as a person, as a man who love justice, who loved kindness and who walked humbly before God because that’s where I believe we get the wisdom to do all those sorts of things,” Watson explained to the crowd who gathered at The Heritage Foundation on June 20.
Squires then asked Watson about his feelings and reaction directly following the Dobbs decision nearly a year ago.
“I was in a state of shock,” Watson said, explaining that he “didn’t know if that day would come.”
Using the very football-esq type approach of the “next move,” Watson then stated, “I couldn’t believe it and then my initial thoughts after that were, OK what’s next?...While the bans in states are good, I’m not saying they’re not, they are a positive movement, it does not mean that abortion is over.”
Watson is right. Abortion is still very legal in the vast majority of states, where babies are still being brutally murdered at the hands of violent doctors, moneywhores, and women who think infanticide is their only option. It’s a disgusting and heartbreaking reality and the Dobbs decision didn’t fix that. While the SCOTUS decision paved the way for some states to initiate more pro-life laws, it also fueled other states to expand abortion "rights" to any point in a pregnancy, at any time and for any reason. Watson's right that Roe being overtuned “does not mean that abortion is over,” and there's a lot that needs to happen next.
Another part of Watson’s presentation emphasized the need to recognize life from the “womb to the tomb” as he pointed out in his newest book release, “The New Fight for Life: Roe, Race and a Pro-Life Commitment to Justice” that was released June 20.
I value the life of the pre-born child. I also value the life of his or her mother. I value the life of the man who is the father. Whether he’s there or not. I value the two million children that are in the global sex trafficking trade. I’ll stand up for them. I value those who are incarcerated, even if they deserve to be there because they still have human dignity. I value the person that’s in end-of-life care, even though I have to help them up the steps, even though I have to feed them. Like many of us did with our grandparents or elderly who were at the end of their life and you had to actually sit there and feed them as if they were a child. Their value was still the same.
Watson seems to be the type of man that gets it. He understands that life is valued whether it’s at the moment an egg and sperm meet to form a new human, or when a person is about to die. And he hopes that's a torch the next generation will pick up and run with.
“The larger voices would try to say, ‘that’s not a popular opinion,’ and statistically, it may not be," he said. "But there are people who will come alongside you. And, kinda like a fire that starts with a little spark, understand that when you speak up, it will give other people courage.”
