PhotoCardinal O'Connor's Viewpoint




March for Life, 2000

By CARDINAL JOHN J. O'CONNOR

There is no such thing as a merely "annual" March for Life. Every march is unique, with its own excitement. Every marcher, while one with every other, is unique; sometimes one has plowed through ice, snow or bitter rains for countless numbers of years; others are on their first adventure in the march. All are thrilled.

I must confess to a certain bittersweetness about the March for Life in Washington this year, because I was confined by illness and unable to make the trip. Perhaps I was more effective, however, since I prayed that much more fervently for those physically able to be on hand. Every year their enthusiasm and their numbers astonished me all over again. They not only never give up, they increase. I am not sure they know how to spell discourage.

Here in the year 2000, the term Roe vs. Wade is undoubtedly meaningless to millions. If they are conscious of having heard the term, it is unlikely that they relate it to one of the true horrors of this century. Some 35 or more millions of unborn babies have been lawfully killed in their mothers' wombs courtesy of Roe vs. Wade, a devastating 1973 Supreme Court decision.

It was on Jan. 22, 1973, that the United States Supreme Court issued its sweeping abortion decisions Roe vs. Wade, and Doe vs. Bolton, striking down the abortion laws of Texas and Georgia. These decisions asserted that abortion is a medical procedure and that a woman's right to privacy in deciding to abort takes precedence over the life of the unborn child who is not considered a person entitled to the customary constitutional protections. Moreover, the court denied the states any power to establish laws protecting the unborn during the first six months of pregnancy and allowed regulations during the final three months only to the degree that they did not override health concerns of the mother. The health of the mother was defined broadly so as to include socioeconomic concerns and matters of personal convenience, so that, in effect, the unborn child was deprived of any protection throughout the entire course of pregnancy.

Perhaps as the number of abortions increased astronomically, they simply became too many for anyone to fathom. So quickly it was all accepted, indeed absorbed as taken for granted in our national culture. That we put more than a million babies to death in a year in the United States alone is not only taken for granted, our laws are stretched further every day to loosen even those fractional restraints still in place. What would once have been a nightmare for anyone in public office, to support or to advance abortion, not only no longer needs defense, but any one committed to the Pro-Life Movement can be looked upon as "anti-patriotic."

So has our culture changed dramatically in these nearly 30 years. Death has become life, life death. And it is death of which we are speaking, although abortion can make it sound life-giving. Yet we tear an unborn baby to pieces, bit by bit or limb by limb. And now we are given the latest horrifying gift, "partial-birth abortion."

What is a partial-birth abortion? The child trying to be born is no longer even hidden from view as are the million and more babies being destroyed in their mothers' wombs. This child may be halfway or more out of its mother. The "right to kill it" is a right suddenly given by civil law. So God creates and we destroy.

Those who struggle on in the pro-life movement, those who annually participate in the pro-life Mass, are heroic figures, indeed, but never think of themselves as such. Nor do they use the march to condemn or to ridicule abortionists. On the contrary, the dominant theme is one of mercy and understanding, in the belief that not every abortionist is fully aware that he or she is actually putting a human person to death. We have been so deadened by our culture over those many years.

Not all consciences have been dulled, however. Since 1984, the Archdiocese of New York has offered any woman of any race, color, creed or other diversity the opportunity for free counseling, free medical care, free hospitalization, free adoption of her baby or assistance in keeping the baby should she so desire. All of this on an as-needed basis. Thousands of babies have thus been born who might otherwise have been aborted, and thousands of mothers are today living in peace of conscience.

Thank God that today there are veritable armies who each year march the pro-life march in Washington, many having traveled the length and breadth of our land to get there. One dauntless woman, however, has led every march. Her very name, Nellie Gray, might well have appeared as one of the great patriots of the 1700s, or as an anti-slavery champion of the 1800s. She is now the fearless, never compromising champion of our day. Nellie Gray, we thank you. We love you. God bless you.

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