Benjamin Watson, former tight end for the New England Patriots released a new book this week he hopes offers a “vision” for pro-life advocates in a “post Roe era” to expand the cause beyond politics and “focus on restoration for our communities and for people who haven’t had opportunities that are more vulnerable to abortion.”
Watson said that while his book, called “The New Fight for Life Roe, Race, and a Pro-Life Commitment to Justice,” deals with “heavy” and “emotional” topics, he wanted to encourage pro-life advocates “who are on the sidelines to get in the game and encourage those in the game to keep going,” a year after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
“My hope in the book was to encourage pro-lifers to get back in fight, to continue doing things that they’re doing, but also to widen our view on what might be a pro-life issue, meaning that it helps human flourishing as opposed to strictly legislation,” Watson said in an interview with Fox News Digital.
“Because legislation is important. Don’t get me wrong, but, serving and equipping people to live healthy and full lives is important as well,” he said.
“But also there was a sense of… trepidation a bit because I was wondering, ‘is the pro-life movement, are we ready for what this means?’ And what does this mean, like what’s next? What does pro-life advocacy look like in a post-Roe era?” he said.
New England Patriots NFL player Benjamin Watson, left, producer and host of “Divided Hearts of America” Kirsten Watson, and Louisiana State Representative and then-Senator-elect Katrina Jackson attend Stork Ball 2020 at the Ronald Reagan Building on Jan. 23, 2020 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for Save The Storks)
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“What we’ve seen obviously over the last several months is that it’s a state by state a patchwork of legislation,” Watson said, referencing the 15 states that have installed some sort of limitation on abortion since the Dobbs v. Whole Women’s Heath Supreme Court decision last summer that gave state the authority to legislate abortion access.
“I think that you know, those who were advocating before did a tremendous job, and they’re still doing it in the pregnancy resource centers, in legislation, churches, individuals, but at this point, there needs to be a focus on justice, there needs to be a focus on restoration for our communities and for people who haven’t had opportunities, that are more vulnerable to abortion.”
Watson said his goal is to make abortion “unthinkable and unnecessary,” and an aspect to achieving that is addressing a statistic his organization found that 76% of the women they say they would prefer to parent their child if their circumstances are different.
“At this point in this new fight for life, we have to engage that 76%.”
“There are a bunch of things that are important, and I’m involved with a bunch of different things. But you see sometimes how the Lord you know, gives you different opportunities to speak about certain things to be involved with certain things. And you just try to be faithful with that. And so that’s what I’m doing,” he said.