The politics of life issues had begun to shift during this period, and the USCCB’s own polling revealed that many Americans knew almost nothing about Roe v. Wade.
“We realized that what we needed was not only basic education but someone to go on talk shows and television and write op-eds to explain what Roe actually meant,” Doerflinger said. “Helen was a brilliant attorney who was fast on her feet and had a knack for presenting complicated matters in an appealing and easily understandable way.”
“Her personality mitigated backlash,” he added. And her sense of humor and sense of style “tended to confound people’s stereotypes” about how pro-life women should dress, speak, or behave.
The result, he said, was that Alvaré often disarmed her opponents while also inspiring young pro-life women to get more involved in the battle over legal abortion.
Theresa Notare, who serves as assistant director of the Natural Family Planning Program at the USCCB and has known Alvaré for more than 30 years, singled out her ability to diffuse political polarization. “I have listened to many of her talks and never saw her lose her cool or treat another person in a debate with less than the dignity they are owed as a child of God,” Notare told the Register.
“She is also one of the hardest workers I know: Her love language is getting the job done — whether it’s making a meal for her family and friends, writing an article, or training other women to speak publicly [on social issues].”
Alvaré continued with her pro-life speaking and legal activities after she took up her new duties as a law professor at George Mason University, where she has taught for almost 24 years.
Henry Butler, the Manne Professor of Law and Economics at George Mason, who previously served as dean of the university’s law school, told the Register that Alvaré was a draw for applicants who closely followed her legal scholarship and related initiatives.
“When I was dean, I recruited students to come to George Mason, and I found out what they were interested in,” Butler said. “Those who shared Helen’s objectives already knew who she was and wanted to be a student of hers.”
Some of those future lawyers most likely had read and possibly signed a 2012 open letter Alvaré co-authored, “Catholic Women Speak for Themselves,” which challenged efforts by the Democratic Party to frame the U.S. bishops’ opposition to President Barack Obama’s contraceptive mandate as a “war on women.” The letter, which reflected Alvaré’s ongoing campaign to help Catholic women challenge false political narratives, garnered tens of thousands of signatures.
Alvaré has published widely in scholarly journals, and for the Dobbs case before the Supreme Court, she co-authored a high-profile amicus brief that sought to dismantle claims that the overthrow of Roe v. Wade would stall women’s economic and social progress.
“[G]iven the wide array of other possible factors fostering women’s success, it is impossible to show that abortion is the cause of women’s economic and social success,” concluded the brief, written by Alvaré, the Abigail Adams Institute’s Erika Bachiochi, and University of St. Thomas law professor Teresa Collett, who deployed a trove of data to upend a central argument of abortion-rights advocates. “It is more likely, in fact, that widely available abortion harmed women in the realms of personal relationships as well as in the development of law and policy accommodating women’s childbearing and parenting.”
The 2022 Dobbs ruling marked a breakthrough for abortion politics in the U.S. However, the ensuing pushback has led Alvaré to drill deeper into the relationship between the law and religion in her legal writings.
At the same time, her husband’s sudden passing has made her more aware of the radical demands of her vocation as a Catholic mother and scholar.
And these days she spends more time in prayer and reflection and has “intensified her dedication” to her students and her adult children.
“Jesuit Walter Ciszek, in his famous book, ‘He Leadeth Me,’ wrote that he stopped asking about the big questions all the time, and just said, ‘Your will is here in the room with me. It’s the next thing I’ve been asked to do,’” she noted. “This has become more evident to me.”
‘Make the case for Christ’
And yet, the “big questions” have always been central to Alvaré’s public outreach. Indeed, during her interview with the Register, she spoke passionately about the need to counter the aggressive promotion of abortion following the Dobbs decision.
“It is important to remind people of what is at stake in this wealthy, powerful nation that is losing its way in many areas,” she said. “Will we make room for new life, value childbearing, the role of women, the role of fathers, the role of sacrifice?”
“But to share this truth,” she concluded, “we have to learn to speak to people who are almost unchurched, including Catholics who were raised in a Catholic home and attended Catholic school.”
Today, as before, she is urging fellow Catholics to “make the case for Christ” and show what is beautiful and distinctive about the Christian vision of life.
“To reflect on these questions,” she said, “is to understand how attractive, how brilliant, how consoling, how challenging the Catholic faith is.”
This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and is reprinted here on CNA with permission.
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