Why We March

We recently made the front page of the local section of our paper. I want Julia to look back on her first newspaper appearance and know why she was there.  Why we choose to march for life.

If you look carefully, you can see Aaron and me carrying Julia.

As I looked down at Julia sleeping peacefully in my arms at mass on Sunday before the March for Life, my heart was full. Full of deep, burning, consuming love for the child in my arms. Full of sadness for the millions of children who never had the chance to be born, to be held, to live, because they were aborted. Full of sympathy for the women, and men, whose arms will never hold their children, who suffer from the consequences of abortion. Full of regret for a decision, made by the Supreme Court almost forty years ago, that has allowed for so much destruction and pain.

I realized anew how vulnerable my sweet baby is. How some of the arguments people make in favor of abortion in trying to deny the unborn child's personhood still hold true for Julia: she's small, she can't communicate well yet, she's helpless, she's dependent on others, she's fairly defenseless. Do those things make her life somehow less valuable? Did anything about Julia really change in that moment she exited the womb? Did she gain her value by making the passage from one place to another? Is her life now worth protecting by law, but wasn't before her birth?

No.

She, and all babies, was made in the image and likeness of God. All human life is sacred. All babies have a right to life. 

"The word of the LORD came to me: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you." - Jeremiah 1:4-5

"You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb. I praise you, because I am wonderfully made; wonderful are your works! My very self you know. My bones are not hidden from you, When I was being made in secret, fashioned in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw me unformed; in your book all are written down; my days were shaped, before one came to be." - Psalm 139:13-16

But it's not just about babies. Abortion hurts women too, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. The scars of abortion are not ones any woman should have to carry.

Julia, we march because we care. We care about babies, about mothers, about fathers. We care about life. Life is precious.

And when you care about something, you take a stand. If you believe that all life is worth fighting for, you march. This is the civil rights movement of our generation, and we need to take part. We have to be a voice for those with no voice.

"Defend the lowly and fatherless; render justice to the afflicted and needy. Rescue the lowly and poor" -Psalm 82:3-4b

And most especially, we need to pray. For changed hearts and minds. For healing for those women and men who have been hurt. For laws to change to protect the lowly and defenseless. For more children to have birthdays. For more mothers and fathers, birth and adoptive, to be able to receive their children, to hold them and look down on them with a burning love. With the love that God already has for these children, His beautiful creation.