The March for Life is a strange combination of sorrow and joy. The sorrow
comes because we commemorate a Court decision that, although it lacks all
authentic validity, continues to allow the destruction of over a million
children a year. Yet the joy comes because we gather with thousands of other
pro-life activists, proudly taking part in the greatest human rights cause of
our day, and we know that our cause will prevail.
This year the March for Life will be held on Monday, January 24 rather than
the 22nd (the date of the
Roe vs. Wade decision), because the 22nd is on a Saturday.
While it is important to March, we should also understand that the March for
Life is, at its core, an educational effort about the "Life Principles." Miss
Nellie Gray, Founder and President of March for Life, has always stressed this
point, and I want to re-echo it. The Life Principles express, in a succinct way,
the absolute inviolability of every physical human life, and the fact that such
a life has a right to protection regardless of the circumstances of its
conception. The Life Principles are about equality -- the equality of the born
with the unborn, the healthy with the sick, the strong with the weak, the adult
with the embryo.
One of the Life Principles states, "The life of each human being shall be
preserved and protected from that human being's biological beginning when the
father's sperm fertilizes the mother's ovum." This formulation protects us
from the linguistic tricks some play when they re-define "conception" or speak
in abstract terms about their philosophy of when a human being becomes a person.
The fact is that every biological, living human being is a human person.
The March for Life, as an educational effort, has a theme every year, and
this year's theme emphasizes that it is the duty of each American to uphold the
Life Principles without exception or compromise.
Our duty to these children is absolute, and admits of no exceptions. Although
it is legitimate to work step by step, incrementally, toward the protection of
every life, it is equally necessary to clearly and frequently articulate where
we want to go: to the protection of every life, without exception. The
children conceived in rape and incest must have equal protection. The
children of mothers with medically complicated pregnancies must have equal
protection.
In an excellent analysis of the legitimacy of the incremental approach, Angel
Rodriguez Luno, Professor of Moral Theology at Rome's Pontifical University of
the Holy Cross, writes, "the absolute personal opposition to abortion on the
part of the lawmaker [must be made] known to all, thus preventing any confusion
or scandal" (see
www.priestsforlife.org/articles/02-09-18evangeliumvitae73.htm). Leaders in
the pro-life movement must, with even greater reason, avoid the scandal that can
unintentionally arise if people think that we are granting moral legitimacy to
even a single abortion.
We are not; we never can. The sad commemoration that comes every January is a
good time to reaffirm that fact.
