Today in Washington, D.C. was the March for Life. The reason for the March is because of the anniversary of Roe v Wade, 35 years ago today. This March has taken place every year on the anniversary of the decision that has allowed an entire generation of children to be killed. The first March for Life was on the first anniversary in 1974. I was born in 1974 and the more I learn about the pro-life movement the more I realize that there is a huge number of unborn children who would be about my age now if it were not for abortion being made legal in this country.
I was not always pro-life. It took me a long time to come to understand how wrong abortion is. This was one issue that, as I came back more fully into the Catholic church about 7 years ago, I really had to work hard to understand. Now I can't imagine that difficulty, it is just so obvious. To think that somewhere around 50 million children who would all be around 35 years old and younger now never got a chance to experience life is just sad. Being pro-life is speaking up for those who are unable to speak for themselves.
That hundreds of thousands of people, many of them young people, would gather yearly to peacefully protest this decision is remarkable. It speaks very highly of the fact that many more Americans are pro-life than our politicians realize. And do you know what happened to "Roe," the woman who was the main part of the Supreme Court case in 1973. She has since regretted what she did, converted to the Catholic faith, and become a leader in the pro-life movement. What an amazing story!
Life begins at the moment of conception. There is no disputing that. Abortion kills a life already formed, regardless of how old the child is. This is also why my husband and I have chosen to follow the church teaching regarding contraception. This seems very radical to some, but when you look into all the whys, it makes perfect sense and we can't imagine doing anything different.
I wanted to also use this post to provide some links to some other resources. There are tons of websites on pro-life issues on the Internet. Here are some worth checking out:
First, this is a commentary on today's March for Life at Catholic.org: http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=26523. It's kind of long, but go read the whole thing!!
Also, Priests for Life is an organization that promotes life for all people. There website has a ton of other links on it. Scroll down to the list of links on the left side of the main page and find the link "Links to other Sites" for a huge list!!
Another site worth pointing to is the 40 Days for Life site. This is an awesome campaign of forty days of prayer nationwide in support of life. A very cool thing to check out.
And most importantly, in 1968 Pope Paul VI wrote a papal encyclical that now looks prophetic. His Humanae Vitae is so very important for understanding the Church's pro-life stance on all life issues form conception to natural death. Read it!!
Finally, in my post yesterday, I alluded to a project I have been thinking about taking on. It has been on my mind for some time that I want to do something to help people who choose not to have an abortion when faced with a crisis pregnancy. For these brave people who choose to give life to another human created by God and either keep the baby or give the baby up for adoption, there are crisis pregnancy centers out there who help these girls/women/couples. One of them is Birthrite and we have an office here in Lexington. At the beginning of December, Chris and I were out at a church dinner. The dinner always has a "split the pot" lottery (you put in a dollar and get a ticket and if your ticket wins you get half the money and the other half goes to help continue funding the dinner). Well, at the last one of these I actually won!! I got $98 and I haven't used any of it for anything yet. Do you see where this is going?
Birthrite of Lexington (as well as other chapters around the country) is in need of donations. I went looking on their website to see what donations they needed specifically. So, specifically, they need donations of maternity and baby clothes as well as monetary donations. I plan on calling them and finding out if they have other particular needs, such as other baby items (bottles, diapers, etc.). I plan on using the $98 I won in December to buy some things they need. I also want to collect donations of items or money from anyone else interested in helping with this. I need to call them first, but I wanted to let everyone know what I am planning on. If you're in the area (or even if you're not) and want to help, let me know. Email me or leave a note in the "comments" link below.
Thanks for reading!!
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