Much work needed to rebuild our culture of Life

The constitutional right to abortion has never been as fragile as it is heading into 2022. The United States Supreme Court is considering Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a case which could potentially weaken or even overturn the 1973 landmark decision in Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion in our land.  A decision is expected sometime in June. Currently, the United States is one of only four countries, including China and North Korea, which allows the abortion of a child at any time during a woman’s pregnancy.

Thankfully, according to the Guttmacher Institute, state lawmakers across the country enacted 108 abortion restrictions in the last year alone. In fact, recent polls show that most Americans are in favor of at least some restrictions on abortion.

Sadly, lawmakers in New Jersey paid little attention to the will of the people earlier this month as it passed S49/A6260, the so-called “Freedom of Reproductive Choice Act.” This bill, a pared-back version of the Reproductive Freedom Act, codifies into state law an individual’s right to an abortion, including late-term abortions.  Regrettably, the bill was rushed through, introduced on a Thursday evening and voted on in both chambers just four days later, leaving little time for debate, discussion or input from the public.

New Jersey already has the most permissive abortion laws in the nation as well as the highest per capita abortion rate, with the most recent data recorded in 2017 at 48,000 abortions.  Yet passage of this measure is being celebrated and hailed as “crucial legislation.”

Unfortunately, abortion, a choice made in despair, is a common experience in our country. It is estimated that nearly one in four women will have at least one abortion by the age of 45.  It makes sense to say then, that abortion has touched the lives of millions in deeply personal ways. No one in our society has escaped unscathed; everyone is affected by the hardening of the heart which comes when a culture tolerates killing. Abortion denies that human life is sacred and there are many victims. Accepting and even promoting abortion on demand is a symptom of what Pope Francis repeatedly decries as a “throw-away culture.”

Just last week, we collectively gasped as the surveillance video of a New Mexico teen went viral. In the video, the 18-year old high school student is seen tossing her newborn baby in a black garbage bag into a dumpster, leaving him to die. Thankfully, the baby was found and, thanks to rescue workers, is doing well.  The teen is being charged with attempted first degree murder. One might ask, why are we not equally disturbed by the concept of abortion in which a baby is deliberately terminated and discarded?

Much work is needed to rebuild our culture. As pro-life, people of faith, we are convinced of the boundless mercy of God. That is the light we must bring to the world: the truth about God’s love, about His forgiveness, about the beauty of human life in all of its stages and all of its conditions.

We must be God’s rescue workers and we must broadcast to all — 24/7 even if the media won’t — that each uman life is sacred. We must raise awareness, educate others and promote pro-life public policy.  We must pull those faced with crisis pregnancies out of the wreckage of their despair and help them to choose life! We must help heal those who are buried under the guilt and shame of a past abortion and let them know that they can be comforted by God’s infinite mercy.

Most importantly, we must pray unceasingly. May the Lord have mercy on those who may never leave the womb alive. May the Lord have mercy on doctors who are destroying human lives. May He give our lawmakers the eyes to see that all life is a miracle - whether in the womb, newly born, frail and elderly or poor and down-trodden.  And May the Lord give us generous hearts and the graces needed to rebuild a culture of Life in these United States and around the world.  We can do it, because, with God, anything is possible.