March for Life

RICHARD A. SOKERKA

The 49th annual national March for Life — with a rally on the National Mall and a march to the Supreme Court on Friday, Jan. 21 — will go on as scheduled this year despite the surge in the omicron variant in the nation’s capital. This year’s theme is “Equality Begins in the Womb.”

This year’s march is as important as the first march, which was held Jan. 22, 1974, a year to the day after the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion. Nellie Gray, a government lawyer, and the Knights of Columbus organized it. The idea was to form a “circle of life” around the Capitol and the Supreme Court. Jeanne Mancini assumed leadership of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund after Gray died in 2012.

March organizers are hopeful that attendance for the march will top pre-pandemic levels when more than 100,000 marched up Constitution Avenue.

There is hope that this year’s march could be the last one because of cases challenging Roe v. Wade before the courts

Marchers hopes have been buoyed by the Texas Heartbeat Act that bans abortion after the detection of an unborn child’s heartbeat, which normally occurs after about six weeks of pregnancy.

In addition, later this year, the Supreme Court will announce its decision in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organiza­tion, an appeal by Mississippi to remove a lower court’s injunction on its law banning most abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy.

If the court rules in favor of the state law, it will effectively overturn Roe v. Wade and send abortion laws back to the states.

Despite all the good news for pro-lifers in the past months, the pro-life movement cannot ignore the actions of President Biden, who has signed executive orders to extend abortion rights even further.

In lockstep with Biden’s desire to also codify abortion as the law of the land is New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s desire to do the same in our state. Murphy and his Democratic cronies in the current lame duck legislature’s last days passed by party lines S49/A6260, legislation similar to the proposed S3030/A4848, known as the Repro­ductive Freedom Act. This new legislation will codify in state law the right to abortion through all nine months of pregnancy. It explicitly guarantees to every individual the right to reproductive autonomy, effectively declaring that children in the womb have no rights under New Jersey law. This horrific legislation allows abortions at any time and for any reason, up until the moment of the birth of a child. It also prohibits future enactment of laws and regulations that attempt to restrict abortions or do not conform to the provisions and purposes of S49/A6260.

This is why the March for Life is so important. It gives a voice to the voiceless in the womb who have no one but us to save them from death.

Let these pro-abortion politicians who have no respect for life in the womb heed the words of St. Mother Teresa: “Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use violence to get what they want. That is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.”