Sister Esther Marie and I had the privilege of attending the Vigil for Life Mass and the March for Life which occurred in Washington, D.C. on January 21- 22, 2015. At the Vigil Mass at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception I counted more than 40 Bishops in the opening procession. The procession itself, which also included hundreds of seminarians, deacons, and priests, took more than half an hour. Prior to the Mass we had attended the March for Life Conference and Expo and the Culture of Life Seminar which were held at the DC Renaissance Hotel. The purpose of these events was to educate the participants regarding the March for Life theme which this year was “Every Life is a Gift.”
The following morning prior to the actual March we attended the Youth Rally and Mass for Life which took place at the Verizon Center. There are so many young people who attend this Mass each year that the archdiocese of Washington has had to present it in two locations—another Mass was held at the DC Armory at the same time. Many of the young people attending these events had traveled for more than ten hours by bus to offer their witness to the beauty of life. The actual March for Life began at about 1:00 pm (after various representatives had given pro-life speeches near the Washington Monument). I have attended several Marches but this year’s was the most crowded in which I have ever participated! At one point we came to a standstill for quite a while since there was no room to walk forward! I saw only about 15 people who were advocating for abortion. Later I read in a newspaper that “thousands marched for life.” Having been there I can assure you that it would have been much more accurate to say that “hundreds of thousands marched for life.”
Although the secular media tends to ignore the significance of these events which take place each January in our nation’s capital, it is critically important that we all know that they are occurring because is it the dawn of the culture of life! With the help of God, Life is beginning to overcome the grim and disturbing culture of death which has become so noxiously pervasive in our country and throughout the world!
Shortly after returning from the March for Life I read a very misleading editorial in our local newspaper which is an example of the deceptiveness of the culture of death. It was written by Kate Murray and entitled “Banning information won’t reduce abortions.” The main premise of this editorial was that “education about contraception is a pretty good way to reduce unwanted pregnancies that may end in abortion.” The fact is that education about contraception would be useful if people were taught that oral contraceptives sometimes act as abortifacients and that they have been linked to increase risk of: cervical and breast cancers, heart attack and stroke, migraines, higher blood pressure, gall bladder disease, infertility, benign liver tumors, decreased bone density, yeast overgrowth and infection, and increased risk of blood clotting. http://bodyecology.com/articles/dangers_birth_control_pill.php#.VMzs7c85C1s
Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood clinic director, would dispute the naïve opinion promoted in this editorial that “everyone involved in women’s health care works to limit the number of necessary abortions.” In her book, Unplanned, she states, “I no longer saw Planned Parenthood as a benevolent charitable organization with the goal of decreasing unwanted pregnancies. I was now convinced that it was an abortion machine in the business of killing unborn babies and meeting revenue goals.” (pg. 130)
The third fallacy in this editorial was the assumption that killing unborn babies is ever necessary! For every baby that is killed by abortion in the United States there are 36 infertile couples who have a great desire to adopt a baby. Any one of these couples would adopt that baby in a heartbeat! http://liveactionnews.org/abortion-vs-adoption-why-so-many-choose-the-first-and-what-we-can-do/
Few people realize the magnitude of the crisis that has occurred through abortion. At this date we in the United States have killed more than 57.5 million of our children through abortion. This is equivalent to more than 18% of the current population which in 2013 was estimated at 316.1 million.
Education about the beautiful gift of human sexuality and procreation would be much more beneficial than teaching people, through the use of contraception and abortion, to treat one another as objects to be manipulated and exploited for sexual pleasure. People should be respected as unique personal subjects whose masculinity or femininity deserves to be respected for its awesome inseparable powers of unity and procreation.