Today’s Washington Post reports that the annual March for Life in Washington began today with a huge youth Mass at the Verizon Center. This will be the 38th annual March for Life.
According to the article:
“More than 27,000 young people secured tickets for the morning concert, pep rally and Mass, according to the Archdiocese of Washington. For the first time, a parallel event was held at the D.C. Armory to handle the overflow crowd.”
On Friday, CNS News reported that Representative Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.) will be the keynote speaker at its Rose Dinner event that marks the end of a weekend of protests and ceremonies focused on ending abortion.
The CNS News article cites two recent news stories regarding abortion:
“One report noted that 41 percent of pregnancies in New York City end in an abortion. That figure, twice the national average, was called “chilling” by New York Catholic Archbishop Timothy Dolan, who said he was “embarrassed” for the city over the high rate of abortions.
“The second major abortion story concerns a Philadelphia abortionist, Dr. Kermit Gosnell, who was charged with eight counts of murder after investigators discovered that one woman and seven babies died during botched abortion procedures that he reportedly performed.”
The CNS News story reminds us that:
“According to the liberal Guttmacher Institute, 1.2 million abortions take place in the United states each year. Since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, a little over 52 million children have been killed by abortion in America.”
There are two things to remember here. I have heard it commented that the reason there is still debate on abortion is that the American people never actually got to vote on it. Up until Roe v. Wade, each state had established its own rules covering abortion rights. Roe v. Wade simply said that the federal government controlled abortion policies–not the states. If Roe v. Wade is overturned, abortion will not be illegal–it will become a state issue rather than a federal issue. At that point, each state will set up its own standards and rules regarding abortion.