Again, this January 22, hundreds of thousands of pro-life Americans will converge on Washington for the March for Life. The March has taken place every year since 1974 to protest the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision on January 22, 1973, which legalized abortion.
Good news for pro-lifers is that 2009 showed evidence of turnaround in national sentiment toward tolerance for abortion. Two Gallup polls, one done in May and one done in August, showed higher percentages identifying as "pro-life" than "pro-choice." The opposite had been true in all previous years since Gallup first started doing this survey in 1995.
But the bad news is that another year has gone by as our nation allowed more than a million innocent unborn children to be brutally murdered -- some fifty million since the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973.
It somehow doesn't compute that we are horrified watching the bloodbath that has occurred in Haiti, the result of the cold, inscrutable hand of nature. Yet we are willing to tolerate the ongoing holocaust that takes place in our own country -- a holocaust perpetrated by conscious human choice.
When I wrote about this last year, President Obama was only a few days past his inauguration. He declined the invitation of March for Lifers to address them, an invitation which his predecessor accepted each year.
He only issued a statement noting the Roe v. Wade decision, saying: "... We are reminded that this decision not only protects women's health and reproductive freedom, but stands for a broader principle: that government should not intrude on our most private family matters."
So, let's not for a minute lose perspective that this President sees abortion as health care.
And let's appreciate the irony that under this President's leadership, we are close to enacting health care legislation that will "intrude on our most private family matters" perhaps more than any legislation in this nation's history. Every American family, and every unmarried American, will be forced to purchase a government designed health insurance policy or pay a fine or go to jail.
Constitutional scholars and state attorney generals nationwide are lining up challenging the constitutionality of this legislation.
Meanwhile, as Mr. Obama and his Democrat cohorts on Capitol Hill -- alleged champions of "choice" -- engineer this massive government intrusion on how every American chooses to conduct his or her private affairs, they have pushed open the door for federal dollars to pay for abortion.
As Dr. Jane Orient, a physician in private practice, and also the Executive Director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons writes: "The bills passed by the House and the Senate eliminate a vast array of choices that many Americans prefer, such as low-cost insurance. But the most precious choice they destroy is the right to choose life: the right to choose not to support abortion in any way. Not financially, with taxes or premiums. And not by providing hands, facilities, referrals, prescriptions, or permission to perform or enable this "procedure."
Democrats are pushing us in a perverse direction. They want to deny our personal freedoms while expanding our capability to murder our unborn children.
When Barack Obama read his Roe v. Wade declaration last January, his approval ratings stood at 70 percent. Today they are barely 50 percent. A new CNN poll shows 48 percent saying that Obama's first year was a failure, 47 percent saying it was a success.
Obama is presiding over a deeply divided nation. As Lincoln said, "A House divided against itself cannot stand."
Americans have choices to make.
On this week of the March for Life, let's recall the words of Deuteronomy: ".....I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live."
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