"It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish" - Mother Teresa

Yesterday was the 40th March for Life since Roe v. Wade and I braved the cold and snow to march for those who never had the chance. Thursday morning I kicked off the weekend of fighting for life by praying in front of an abortion clinic in Charlotte, North Carolina with a group of students from Belmont Abbey. Before we headed over to the clinic one of the students who helped organize the group gave a little reflection on the monstrosity of abortion to fire us up and encourage us to truly take a stand in this movement. He pointed out that the civil rights movement took twelve years to reverse the laws but it's been forty years of millions of babies being striped of their right to life.
I've been thinking all weekend about why it's been a forty years war and why our fight wasn't over twenty eight years ago. Of course those involved in the civil rights movement were more ambitious in their fight for rights because they were living the injustice, experiencing the laws themselves day in and day out - the hatred, the prejudice, the cruelty and violence. But these babies never have the chance to voice their pain, voice the injustice they experience, or stand up for their right to live. We have to be their voice. We have to stand.
I reflected this weekend on what my stance in the pro-life movement has been my whole life, having been born and raised Catholic and pro-life. I've been to close to half of the life marches ...but with a different point of view. I liked the adventure of going to DC for the day with my friends and family and taking a stroll down Constitution Avenue surrounded by millions of people. I joined in the chants, occasionally prayed a Rosary as I marched, tried to evoke an emotional response to the pictures of what abortion really is. I've prayed in front of numerous abortion clinics and even written and given a pro-life speech in high school. I have a passion for it and I know the truth but I haven't care enough. I had been careless because it's been going on my whole life.
We've all grown careless because abortion has been legal in the United States for forty years. If we want to win this battle we have to stop accepting it as just a injustice that does not effect us. It does effect us. One third of my generation is not here. We have to stand for what we believe, we have to stand for truth, and we have to - we must be a voice for those who can't speak and who suffer from this cruelty and violence.
It's time to fight with the enthusiasm as Martin Luther King, Jr..
We must have courage to stand for TRUTH. The declaration of independence says "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienble Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness." Why did Jefferson use the words "Self-evident"? Because these rights, the right for life, doesn't need to be explained. We don't need science to prove that a baby is a human at the moment of conception - we know. Religion and laws don't define life as precious - we know it is. We are all human, each of us would fight for our lives and the lives of our loved ones because it just makes sense. It is naturally written on our hearts to preserve our lives and we even consider those who take their own lives to be mentally ill and those who lay down their lives for another like soldiers do it courageously so that another can live. So how did it ever become acceptable to kill innocent babies?
In order for this cause to be heard and for this fight to be victorious we all have to stand for life. We can no longer be silent like they are forced to be.

Mother of Our Savior, Pray for us.

Food for thought: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart." Jeremiah 1:5