By REY FLORES
Once again, over half a million people will gather in Washington, D.C., for the annual March for Life. Since 1974 when founder Nellie Gray took that first courageous step toward Capitol Hill, millions upon millions of people from all over the world have gathered to collectively denounce the worst tragedy of our time.
Abortion may be the law of the land, but the land is wrong, and even though abortion has been legal in America for over four decades, we must do all we can to end this human genocide.
I realize that I may be preaching to the choir here, but there are still many Catholics who practice contraception and who even see abortion as a form of contraception. It is very sad that so many of us are so poorly catechized or are so basically ignorant of the plain fact that killing is wrong, especially killing an innocent preborn person.
According to a statistic reported from the Centers for Disease Control, in 2012, over 85 percent of women who had an abortion were unmarried. My first question after reading that statistic was: Why are so many unmarried people having sex?
Only in an overtly sexualized society can these numbers exist. What are we not teaching our young people when it comes to marriage and sex? Oh sure, in the public schools, Planned Parenthood has a monopoly on teaching kids how to have unmarried sex, not how to abstain from it.
The next question is: What are we as parents, families, and as parish communities doing to teach our young people to save sexual relations until marriage? Are you teaching your children the value of their self-worth and how their bodies are truly a temple of the Holy Ghost?
One of the things that I have really liked about the March for Life is its success in engaging so many young people in increasing numbers each year. As a matter of fact, by simply engaging young people in a march like this, I am certain that many, many young people have gone on to make better decisions about abstinence and chastity.
So when we get frustrated at the headlines that keep telling us how Planned Parenthood continues to receive millions of our tax dollars, let’s ask ourselves what we can do to stop the systemic killing of so many innocent lives.
The March for Life will take place this Friday, January 22, 2016 in Washington, D.C., and the expectation is that it will be the largest turnout in its 42-year history. I recommend that those of you planning to make the trek to our nation’s capital visit the official website at: www.marchfor
life.org.
There you will find a map of the march route and details about the March for Life Conference and the Rose Dinner, as well as directions to the rally at the Mall.
Because not everyone can make it to the March for Life in Washington, D.C., there are other marches around the country. For example, there is also the One Life L.A. walk which is on its second year and has drawn a pretty good crowd thus far. This event is scheduled to take place on Saturday, January 23, 2016. I would also recommend that those of you planning to attend this event visit their website at: www.onelifela.org.
Not to be left out, the San Francisco Bay area will be hosting its 12th annual Walk for Life West Coast as part of ever-growing efforts to bring a strong pro-life presence to a state where Planned Parenthood maintains a stronghold against life. This event is scheduled on Saturday, January 23, 2016 (see www.walkforlifewc.com).
Several national and local pro-life organizations and crisis pregnancy centers will be represented at all of these events. Since pro-life efforts don’t receive any tax-dollar funding from our pro-abortion government the way that Planned Parenthood does, I ask that you meet some of these folks in person and if you can, make a generous donation to the organization of your choice.
Many of these groups, especially the crisis pregnancy centers, are run on shoestring budgets and count on volunteers to provide their much-needed services, so any help you can provide is certainly appreciated.
Since the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) undercover Planned Parenthood videos were released last year, there is a renewed energy in the pro-life movement. We must make every effort to maintain that energy and momentum and keep sharing these videos.
The government and pro-abortion news media and Planned Parenthood themselves can continue to dismiss these videos as edited, altered, or whatever, but the fact of the matter is that David Daleiden and the folks at CMP did a lot to expose Planned Parenthood for the baby-killing, woman-exploiting racket that it truly is.
Let us use these opportunities to shout in a collective voice that abortion is wrong and that it must be stopped. I hope to see you out on the streets this year, and don’t forget — this isn’t once a year that we fight against abortion, but it is a once in a year opportunity for us to gather together and recharge our batteries knowing that we are not one, but many, across the land.
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(Rey Flores is a Catholic writer and speaker. Contact Rey at reyfloresusa@gmail.com.)
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