January 22, 1973.  This is a day that we look on and shake our heads.  "Why?"  We ask ourselves and say a prayer for the 55 million little children who did not get to see this world.  Let's look at some aspects of abortion, how it affects us, and what we need to do about it. 

In a recent magazine article I read, this guy was saying how he doesn't like the attitude of those who participate in the March for Life in DC.  He says they'll do the march, pray, and at the end, turn to the person next to them, smile, and say "See you next year!"  Why are we happy about abortion being legal for another year?  It is because we have settled for abortion, and now think that it will always be legal and we might as well face it.  Don't.  Look at our nations history!  Almost exactly 150 years ago, slavery was legal in the United States.  Less than a hundred years ago, it was legal to have separate bathrooms for African-Americans and Caucasians.  In the time period in which they occurred, and even looking back on it today, these must have seemed like impossible causes.  Hundreds of thousands of people died to make slavery illegal.  Many died in the civil rights movement.

Every 26 seconds, a baby is killed in what used to be the safest place on earth - his mother's womb.  Where are the hundreds of thousands of people standing up and saying that this is wrong?  That we are going to do something about it?  Marching for life is one thing, but what about financially supporting your local pregnancy crisis center?  What about being there to talk to your friend who just found out she's a teen and she's going to have a baby?  What about standing up for life when you are in a conversation that turns towards justifying abortions? 

Perhaps you a personally opposed to abortion, but you don't want to enforce your beliefs on someone else.  This is like saying that you know abortion is wrong because it kills babies, but you don't care if other people kill babies.  It is a contradiction to support a woman's right to choose an abortion and then say you support a child's right to live.  The two are opposites. 

We need to make it clear that we not only love babies, but we love their mothers, too.  This isn't being felt by women though since 28% of abortions are obtained by Catholic women, and that one in every three women will have had at least one abortion by the time they reach their 45th birthday.  (guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.html).  It seems that there are lot hard decisions to be made regarding hard situations.  What about rape? Incest? Poverty? Health of the mother?  Yes these are tough situations, but we have to see that in each situation, the innocent child who takes the shot for the situation is never to blame.  He/she is a victim of rape, incest, or poverty, but is never to blame for those situations.  If the man who is convicted of rape cannot be legally killed while waiting for a trial, how come the baby who was conceived as an outcome of the rape can be legally killed while waiting to be born?  And in the case of the mother's health, we still are not allowed to deliberately and directly take innocent human life, no matter what the circumstances

If an unborn is not a human being, than an abortion is nothing more worse than taking out our wisdom teeth.  But if an unborn is a child, created in the image of God, with a soul and a body and a right to live,  then we have no right to kill them simply because it is inconvenient.  And if a baby is not a baby, then why do abortion "doctors" have to re-assemble the body of the child after the abortion to make sure they removed all the parts?  This can easily be answered by pictures, video and sound bites.  Pictures of a baby before and after an abortion adds to the reality of what abortion really is.   Catholic Answers points out that an "ardent pro-choice woman became as pale as a ghost after she agreed to test her beliefs and watch a recording of an abortion in progress."  Sometimes we don't realize how evil something is until we see it with our own eyes.

David Bereit, founder of 40 days for Life says, "Each abortion clinic should hang a sign on their door that says, 'Open with permission of the Christian Church."  What if every day, at an abortion clinic in your state, Catholics surrounded the clinic and peacefully prayed for the conversion of the workers, the souls of the mother and the child, and the stopping of abortion?  Instead of yelling out that they want abortion to stop, we must come together on our knees.  Catholic Answers says, "Just as the walls of Jericho fellas the Israelites marched around them, so too can abortion facilities close their doors as pro-lifers peacefully, patiently, and prayerfully make a public stand for life. 

Will it be easy?  No.  But JPII says that we must "Be not afraid."  We must show with love and prayers that we oppose abortion, but that we love babies and their moms.  Steps to take to accomplish this task can be:

   -  Giving of your time, talent and treasure to support local pregnancy support centers and post-
      abortive care centers

   -  Model a life of purity that shows children should be conceived in a relationship between a man
       and a woman who are committed to each other and life in a marriage

   -  Working to pass laws that will restrict abortions

   -  Showing all we know that abortion should not be tolerated in a God-centered civilized nation.

Since 1991, over 1,500 abortion facilities have closed, which is a 70 percent decrease in facilities nationwide.  God's is the victory, but this does not mean that we are to give up and let God do all the work.  As St. Augustine said, "Pray as though everything depended on God, and act as if everything depended on you." 

God bless you all and strengthen us in this fight against abortion,

Chloe M.