The Minnesota Catholic Conference concurred with Friday’s Supreme Court ruling on abortion and mentioned a nationwide initiative, Walking with Moms in Need, which will provide additional support for expectant mothers.

“We are grateful that the Supreme Court has returned to state legislatures and federal officials the ability to protect preborn children and save mothers and fathers from the untold pain of abortion,” the group said in on online statement.

"To further support our work, the Catholic bishops of the United States have launched a nationwide initiative, Walking with Moms in Need (walkingwithmoms.com), to create additional avenues of support for mothers in our communities by way of Catholic parishes, ministries, and crisis pregnancy centers,” the Minnesota Catholic Conference said. “We also pledge that our Catholic churches will be a sanctuary for women in crisis pregnancies.”

That program will exist alongside the work that Catholic Charities does. Catholic Charities and other groups provide free support and resources for pregnant women. Catholic Charities offers counseling and guidance for mothers, helping them come up with plans for parenting or for adoption. The organization helps the mothers not only through birth but offers support for the rest of their lives.

The Supreme Court on Friday announced its 6-3 decision to overturn Roe v Wade, returning power to the states to determine the legality of abortion.

CNBC cited a quote from Justice Samuel Alito’s legal opinion: “The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one on which the defenders of Roe and Casey now chiefly rely — the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment… It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”

With the decision now resting in the hands of state legislatures, abortion remains unrestricted in Minnesota, CBS reported.

“Abortion advocates want people to believe that abortion promises liberation, but instead, it leads to sadness, pain and the death of a human being,” the Minnesota Catholic Conference said in its statement. “We ask all Minnesotans to join our efforts to combat a throwaway culture, foster prenatal justice and create a state where love prevails.”

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issued a response, too, thanking pro-life advocates for their tireless work over the past decades.

“We share their joy today and we are grateful to them,” the USCCB said. “Their work for the cause of life reflects all that is good in our democracy, and the pro-life movement deserves to be numbered among the great movements for social change and civil rights in our nation’s history.”

The bishops said the nation’s citizens need to put their differences aside and live together in peace, rather than carrying out the violence that has been threatened after the ruling.

“Now is the time to begin the work of building a post-Roe America,” the bishops said. “It is a time for healing wounds and repairing social divisions; it is a time for reasoned reflection and civil dialogue, and for coming together to build a society and economy that supports marriages and families, and where every woman has the support and resources she needs to bring her child into this world in love.”

Since Roe v Wade went into effect about 50 years ago, more than 63,000,000 American babies have been aborted, according to data from the Guttmacher Institute.