Why We March

By 

ACLJ.org

|
January 21, 2016

4 min read

Pro Life

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This week marks the 43rd anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark opinion in Roe v. Wade.

Prior to this Supreme Court opinion, abortion was illegal in all 50 states or only allowed in very rare circumstances.  Yet in Roe, the Court found a fundamental right to an abortion, claiming that it stemmed from a mother’s right to privacy. 

In the 43 years since Roe was decided, over 58 MILLION unborn children have been killed in the one place where they should be the safest – their own mother’s womb. 

Every year on the anniversary of this devastating Supreme Court opinion, hundreds of thousands of Americans gather in peaceful protest, to be the voice for those precious lives whose voices have been silenced by the legacy of Roe.

So after 43 years, why are we still marching for life?

Because we believe abortion is one of the most heartbreaking and horrifying human rights crises today. But instead of disparaging or dehumanizing those who disagree with us, we want to stand proudly for all life, no matter how small.  So we peacefully march, because there is reason to believe we can not only make abortion illegal, but we can make it unthinkable.

The tide is changing.  More Americans than ever before are recognizing the dignity of all human life and identifying as pro-life, with millennials being more pro-life than their parents’ generation.

While Roe v. Wade and its lesser-known companion case Doe v. Bolton handed down the same day are still the law of the land, pro-life legislators in states and in Congress are making great strides to pass common-sense abortion regulations that protect the health and well being of women and children. 

Yes, Roe and Doe allow abortions for a wide variety of reasons long into the pregnancy as long as a woman and her doctor agree to perform the abortion.  But legislation protecting life is picking up steam.  This past year for the first time, Congress sent legislation to President Obama’s desk defunding Planned Parenthood and shifting those tax-dollars to community health clinics that truly help women.  The House of Representatives passed the late-term abortion ban and forced every U.S. Senator to go on record concerning whether abortions should be performed after 20 weeks, when science proves babies can feel pain.

States like Texas have passed common sense protections to ensure more abortionists like Kermit Gosnell don’t endanger the lives of women and children.  The abortion industry is taking their challenge of these laws to the Supreme Court in what is one of the biggest abortion cases in a quarter century.  You can add your name to the critical pro-life brief we are preparing to file at the Supreme Court in this case.

We march because the tide is turning and innocent lives are being saved.

For far too long, pro-abortion advocates have pushed the narrative that to be pro-life is to be anti-women.  They have rolled out ad campaigns featuring Hollywood elites claiming that to be pro-life is to declare a “war on women.” 

But this false narrative is slowly unraveling.  With the exposure of the Kermit Gosnell’s of the world and the undercover reporting that documented Planned Parenthood’s sale of aborted babies’ body parts, the truth about big abortion is coming to light.

The theme of the March for Life this year is “Pro-Life and Pro-Women Go Hand-In-Hand,” highlighting that to truly be pro-women is to be pro-life.  As prominent suffragist and women’s rights activist Alice Paul is quoted as saying “Abortion is the ultimate exploitation of women.”

There is nothing more disempowering to women than to pit them against the very children they carry in their wombs.  Women in America deserve better than the message of defeat and death brought to them by the pro-abortion lobby.

And so this week, we march – for the unborn babies who deserve a voice and for the precious mothers who carry them and deserve a message of hope.