1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion in all US states, an estimated 50 million unborn children have had their lives terminated before they were even given a chance at life outside the womb.
Fifty million.
Think about that number for a second and let it sink in...
Make no mistake: there is life before birth. It is different than life outside the womb. Sounds and voices are muffled. Oxygen and nutrients are received in a different manner. And the comforting warmth of the womb becomes increasingly restrictive as both body and awareness grow in the unborn child.
The fact that there is a separate human life growing and developing inside the expectant mother's body is not in question in any way: physiologically, biologically or genetically. We're not talking about a facet of religious faith here, either. We're talking about science and human reason which both clearly show that elective abortion ends a human life.
But in the polite company of a post-Roe America, we're supposed to get over that fact, right? To ignore it. To act as though it isn't the fact that innocent unborn children are killed every single day in America at an average of one every 26 seconds is... fine; as though the ending of around 1.2 million individual human lives each year in our country is just... okay.
It's not ok.
Thousands of marchers braved frigid temperatures and snowdrifts to gather in Washington today to say the same thing: the ability to take innocent human life should not be protected by law in any civilized society. American law should do what law is supposed to do: protect the weak and defenseless--those without a voice of their own.Please take be sure to pray today for the souls of children who were never given a chance at life. Please pray for mothers who feel hopeless and find themselves in such dire circumstances that they feel as though abortion is their only option. Please also pray for our society that still largely accepts elective abortion as a morally neutral choice, that a sense of justice may change hearts and minds in this debate.
And please do your part to promote and defend the fundamental right to life. In class, in late-night discussions, with your friends and with your family--whenever and wherever.
Blessed Pope John Paul II put it best when he issued this challenge to our nation, a nation whose laws and very sense of purpose are firmly embedded on the fundamental principle of human equality and human dignity: "America ... the ultimate test of your greatness is the way you treat every human being, but especially the weakest and most defenseless. If you want equal justice for all and true freedom and lasting peace, then America, defend life."
