Gone But Not Forgotten

January 22, 1973. A date that forever changed history. The day that the US Supreme Court ruled that a woman had a right to choose.

My mother was two months along in her first pregnancy, which ultimately ended in my birth. She had been married a few years and had dreams of a big family. I was wanted and loved from the beginning.

But what if she had been a single, unmarried woman. What if I had been the result of a one night stand. What if she had been a teenager. What if I had been unplanned. Unwanted. Would my life had mattered any less?

As I watch the footage of the devastating earthquake in Haiti, I am deeply saddened by the trucks that are dumping bodies along with the wreckage. Thousands of bodies in unmarked graves. Thousands of bodies buried along with cinder block. Human remains tangled up with garbage. Our hearts break because we know that these people who died so tragically now suffer another tragedy. They do not even have the opportunity to be buried with dignity. They will be mourned by loved ones who will never have the chance to see them. To visit their graves. Who among us can see those images and not be moved?

Yet this tragedy is not a new one. For 37 years now we have been doing the same thing to millions - no, TENS of millions - of unborn babies. Not only were their lives cut short tragically through abortion, but they were not even given the right to be laid to rest. Over forty million babies whose bodies were thrown away with medical waste. Bodies tangled up with garbage.

Just as we mourn the death of the tens of thousands of lives lost in Haiti, so we mourn the deaths of the forty million babies whose lives have been lost these last 37 years.

Their lives will not be forgotten.