Pro-life movement: It's slow progress, but still progress

Five years ago, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of legalized abortion in the United States, we outlined the then-current state of the pro-life movement: struggling against long odds but refusing to be beaten down by a society that often seems blindly determined to become totally anti-life.

The evidence we gave for that characterization of society was three-fold: support for Dr. Jack Kevorkian and his “suicide machine”; firm backing for capital punishment; and the election of a president, Bill Clinton, who favored partial-birth abortion.

This week, as the 30th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision approaches, it is reassuring to see how much the wheel of life has turned: Dr. Kevorkian has been in jail; the governor of Illinois just commuted the sentences of everyone on death row because he found the death penalty system so fundamentally flawed (see page 5); President Bush has taken pro-life steps regarding cloning and other matters, and Congress seems poised to outlaw partial-birth abortion. Just released this week are statistics on abortion for 2000 from the New York State Department of Health, indicating that the number of abortions fell from the previous year. That finding is one more indication that Americans are recognizing the reality of abortion.

All progress in this arena is encouraging, but so much remains to be done. Support for capital punishment remains high among the public, for example, and Mr. Bush’s push toward war with Iraq has been again and again criticized by Church leaders, including Pope John Paul II (see page 1). As heartening as the falling numbers of abortions in New York State are, there were still more than 125,000 of them in 2000. That’s one dead unborn child every five minutes of every hour of every day of the year. Nationwide, the lives of 1/3 million unborn children are taken annually.

Five years ago, we wrote in this space: “The best causes in American history - establishing democracy, ending slavery, giving women the vote, providing civil rights for all - have taken decades to achieve.” Turning what the pope has called a “culture of death” into one of life will not be accomplished overnight. Ending abortion and capital punishment, showing how to love and comfort those with terminal illnesses, and finding peaceful ways to change the world rank among the best causes. To attain them requires good people who are willing to commit to the long haul.

(01-16-03) [[In-content Ad]]