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What a sight! Over 25 times from the top of Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., I have seen a sea of people marching to proclaim the dignity of unborn human life and how death-dealing abortion sends the unholy message that some human beings are disposable.
As I write, I plan to march with and view that sea of people once again during the 42nd annual March for Life on January 22. It’s always a moral and spiritual shot-in-the-arm for me.
We have to do more
But good as they are, the Washington March for Life and the Walk for Life West Coast in San Francisco, as well as dozens of similar events at state capitols throughout the U.S., are simply not enough.
While significant progress has been made to lessen the number of abortions, nonetheless, according to the National Right to Life Committee approximately one million unborn brothers and sisters are brutally dismembered by abortion each year.And globally, according to the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, over 40 million unborn babies are killed annually by abortion.
Throughout the year, believers in the God of life need to pray, educate, peacefully protest, donate, and lobby on behalf of the unborn. They can’t do it for themselves.
Support proposed legislation
Therefore, please email and call your two U.S. senators (Capitol switchboard: 202-224-3121) urging them to cosponsor and actively support the “Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act” which would ban most abortions after 20 weeks of unborn life.
There is solid medical evidence that unborn babies feel pain by at least 20 weeks after fertilization (www.nrlc.org/abortion/fetalpain). And abortion is brutally painful.
According to the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the abortion technique known as “dilation and evacuation” uses forceps with sharp metal jaws to grasp parts of the developing baby, which are then twisted and torn away.
Human life is sacred
In a 2013, address to a gathering of Catholic gynecologists, Pope Francis affirmed the sacredness of unborn human life and connected it to the work of social justice. He said, “In all its phases and at every age, human life is always sacred and always of quality.”
The Holy Father said abortion is a product of a “widespread mentality of profit, the ‘throwaway culture,’ which today enslaves the hearts and intelligences of so many.”
Taking a consistent ethic of life position, the pope linked together unborn babies, the aged, and the poor as among the most vulnerable human beings whom Christians are called to especially love.
Tony Magliano is an internationally syndicated social justice and peace columnist.