Note: On Tuesdays and some Sundays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
And so we pray, today and every day, for the legal protection of unborn children. Many have prayed that prayer daily for forty-six years; for some people, that’s a lifetime.
I know women who had abortions. I can only think of one who, at least publicly at the time, didn’t seem to regard it as her only option, who 
treated it as nothing more than getting a tooth filled. Every single other women I know still remembers the day and the place and how she felt, physically, spiritually, and emotionally. Most have said they wouldn’t wish those feelings on anyone else. Eleven years after Roe v. Wade, a woman who would later become a friend, Vicki Thorn, started Project Rachel, a ministry to help women find healing after abortions.
I think we’d all agree that legal protection won’t eradicate abortion. But many of us believe it would help. So would not shunning or judging women who become pregnant, and instead helping them through the pregnancy and beyond. So would encouraging women to believe in the love the Lord has for them and their children, unborn or born.
The U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops’ National Prayer Events for Life webpage has a beautiful quote from Cardinal Timothy Dolan: “Our prayers matter. Every prayer matters, and if you can’t start at the beginning, jump in when you can!” That’s good advice when it comes to praying for legal protection of the unborn—and anything else.
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