January 22 marks a tragic and somber milestone as millions of Americans across the nation observe the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which opened the door to legalized abortion and has resulted in the deaths of nearly 50 million pre-born babies over the last 37 years.

With government-controlled healthcare looming on the national horizon, this year’s observances have taken added significance as debate rages over the extent to which abortion will be funded under a federalized health system.

In the days leading up to marches planned to observe the Roe v. Wade decision, pro-life leaders and activists gathered in key cities around the nation to spotlight the issue and to focus on the massive expansion of abortion and other anti-life measures that would come with a full-blown federal healthcare plan.

“America’s March for Life is now the world’s March for Life,” said Joseph Meaney, a spokesman for Human Life International (HLI), at a rally in Virginia. “It has become the world’s pro-life protest because of the aggressive promotion of abortion and population control that is now official policy of the United States, thanks to the administration of President Barack Obama.”

In Houston, pro-life supporters gathered on January 18 (Martin Luther King Jr. Day) outside the construction site of a Planned Parenthood facility that is slated to become one of the largest abortion clinics in the world. Lou Engle, president of a pro-life effort known as The Call, noted that the six-story abortion “super center” is located in the center of a Houston neighborhood that is predominantly Hispanic and African-American — two racial minorities that have been heavily targeted by the abortion industry.

“As Martin Luther King Jr. would proclaim it,” said Engle, “it is time to ‘subpoena the conscience’ of the nation” concerning the tragedy of abortion. “Maybe Houston could become the Birmingham of our day to let the unborn go free and spare the pregnant mother the agony of guilt.”

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, noted that the Houston clinic will likely serve as a “prototype for so-called ‘preventative care’” called for in President Obama’s healthcare blueprint. “Already, Planned Parenthood is counting the millions, if not billions, of dollars the organization will receive under the current Obama plan.”

The official January 22 Walk for Life in Washington D.C., which has taken place annually since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, is expected to draw participants from around the nation and world. As an expected 250,000 pro-life supporters gather before the U.S. Supreme Court Building, similar rallies will be conducted in such locales as Chicago, New York City, Minneapolis, and Los Angeles.

March for Life President Nellie J. Gray told a reporter for Charisma magazine that this year’s participants are making a bold call for America’s public servants to “Stand Up” for life. She noted that Congress and the Supreme Court “must understand that by allowing abortion in America they are responsible for about 3,000 pre-born boys and girls being killed every day.”

She added that President Obama “should understand that in the first year of his Administration approximately one million pre-born boys and girls have been killed.”

In addition to nationwide pro-life rallies, a “Viritual March for Life” will be hosted January 22 by the group Americans United for Life (AUL). Participants can go to the organization’s website and register to join such national leaders as Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, and James Dobson in a “virtual” rally for life on Capitol Hill.

AUL’s president Charmaine Yoest noted that the present healthcare bill before Congress makes participating in this year’s observance of Roe v. Wade important for all who value life. “We created the Virtual March for Life to encourage people to be here tomorrow and to give voice to countless Americans who can't be in Washington but wish they could,” she said. “We are encouraging everyone to click and be heard.”

Dr. Patti Giebink, a South Dakota physician who during the mid-1990s worked for Planned Parenthood as the state’s only abortion doctor, told The New American that pro-life individuals should keep in mind the important role compassion and mercy can play in reaching out to those working in the abortion industry. She said that those elements will do more than all the rhetoric they can muster to change minds and hearts.
 
“It’s not difficult for me to have compassion for people performing abortions,” she pointed out. “I understand the motivation they have to do what they do,” she said. “I was there once myself.”
 
Asked how pro-life individuals can be most effective in reaching out to abortion providers, Dr. Giebink said, “Love them and pray for them. Any language that communicates hate or judgment is just not going to work. Remember, most of those performing abortions think what they are doing is right. I know I did. My change came as God worked on my heart, and as others prayed for me.”
 
Reflecting back on the abortions she performed, Dr. Giebink said, “My heart grieves for the lives left unlived. I cannot bring back the lives I ended. But I know God has forgiven me. Now I know the truth, and I can speak it to others in love.”

Photo by John Stephen Dwyer

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Another day of evil, Lowly rated comment [Show]

Justin said:

Why do we care Why are we worried what others do? Can we not just worry about our selves and not what the other is doing? If you do not agree with abortion then do not get an abortion.

January 22, 2010

RealityCheck said:

RvW was a good thing. Give me a break. No one has the right to tell a woman what she can do with her body. Abortions are unhappy things, but they are sometimes necessary to prevent greater misery. And "government-controlled healthcare?!" Since when? Fear of change does no one any good. "Be fruitful and multiply" doesn't mean "over-populate and destroy what we were given."

January 22, 2010

Republicans -vs- Democrats in an endless battle between bad and worse., Lowly rated comment [Show]

Allison said:

Watch the March For Life on EWTN Watch the March For Life on EWTN, either on TV or Internet Streaming on their website www.ewtn.com Stand Up Now (for LIFE)

January 22, 2010 | url

Lee Gonzales said:

Utopian nonsense John Eustor,you are wasting your time trying to convince peope at this site to go along with your utopian nonsense.

January 22, 2010

Lee Gonzales said:

justin needs a "reality check" Justin, if you don't care about an unborn child and you can't even fathom what life is all about, then trying to explain that a child, even an unborn child, has rights the moment that child is conceived, you'll never grasp the issue. You are just an individual who has been reduced to spouting off meaningless cliches and slogans as your monkey see monkey do knee jerk answer to the article above: "if you don't believe in abortion don't have one." justin writes: "Why do we care Why are we worried what others do? Can we not just worry about our selves and not what the other is doing?" No justin, you are wrong. Number one, your grammar teacher cares about your atrocious grammar. Number two, your answer is the same answer given by those who watch their brothers and sisters suffer but who offer "why do I care" answers when our brothers and sisters are thrown into the garbage dumpster in a dozen pieces. Justin, is like the other "I don't care about what others do" types who occassionaly visit this site to stir up controversy and offer cliches and meaningless drivel.

January 22, 2010

Nick Jesch said:

why care? Justin and Reality Check: you have a point, that no one should place limits on the choice a woman has regarding HER body. But one detail you leave out of the equation: no matter what decision the woman makes concerning HER body, once she has conceived a child that decision also affects SOMEONE ELSE... her unborn child. And so far, NONE of your sort have ever given a suitable reason why the right to choose can be denied a person who has committed no crime. Sorry, that "clump of cells" or "blob of tissue" within her womb is no different than YOU, right this very moment. Do I have the right to decide YOU should die today? No? Why not? Oh, because YOU don't like that? Well, the ONLY difference here is that now, I get to ASK YOU whether you'd like for me to terminate your life right now. No one ever asked the fifty million American children this question before they had the chance to answer. No, they are tried, convicted, sentenced, and executed with NO OPPORTUNITY to choose, or even say a word in their defense. Is this "justice"? Is this "good for America"? Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil. The blood of those fifty millions WILL be avenged. God is not mocked. HE ordains life, and HE calls it forth, and HE numbers the days of each one of us.

January 22, 2010

Lee Gonzales said:

Thanks Nick Jesch I doubt if your well reasoned response will move these idiots- the ones who would rather see the entire world turned into a pile of cut up tiny bodies than to admit their error. They could watch hours of documentary army film footage of the halocaust - the dead, emaciated bodies being flung into trenches and still not get the picture. Those people were killed because Germany's government got too big. Our own halocaust in America happened due to the central government growing too big. The object of government is to protect life and property. Germany cared not one whit for human life and they showed their contempt for humans by slaughtering anyone the Nazis didn't like. The abortionist doctors in America are cowards in that they pick on tiny infants. Big government protects the abortionist doctors as does big media. they aren't bigger than God! God will avenge the tiny defenseless humans. We must do our part to end this dirty rotten business of killing. One way is to use Congress' power to take away the Courts' jurisdiction in ruling on abortion.

January 22, 2010

Bonnie said:

I am fearfully and wonderfully made 13 For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. 15 My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. - Psalm 139:13-16 But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven. - Matthew 19:14 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. - Matthew 25:40 Those who take the lives of unborn children should tremble, for lest they repent they shall stand in judgment before the Almighty King.

January 22, 2010