Today marks the 40th anniversary of  the ever-controversial Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. Polls consistently show Americans divided evenly on identifying as “pro-life” or “pro-choice” and several states have passed or introduced laws restricting abortion. Even so, the editors at the conservative National Review take an all-or-nothing approach on the issue.

They write:

No matter how many times pro-lifers have been authoritatively invited to put down their placards and accept the slaughter of innocent unborn children as one of our founding ideals, they have refused — sometimes patiently and politely, sometimes angrily, always firmly. …

Now 40 years have passed since Roe, and nobody pretends that our division is ending. Time just ran a cover story declaring that “abortion-rights activists” have “been losing ever since” 1973. …

Pro-lifers are not winning: The suggestion is obscene. Nearly 56 million human beings have been killed in the womb since Roe, a toll that rises another million each year. The pro-life movement’s achievement is a witness, not a victory. We have maintained resistance to an injustice rather than vanquished it.