Thursday – 2nd Week in Ordinary Time – A – Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children

My dear brothers and sisters, in whatever country we live, we know that the numbers are very saddening. In terms of worldwide annual abortions, 73 million induced abortions occur each year. We can compare this number to all deaths from major causes worldwide. Abortion alone has been cited as the leading cause of human death globally, exceeding deaths from communicable diseases, cancer, traffic accidents, and other causes. Estimates suggest that hundreds of millions to more than a billion abortions have occurred over the last century, a figure that far surpasses the total combat and civilian deaths of all major wars combined.

In the United States alone, my brothers and sisters, direct legal abortions since 1973—the year of my birth—greatly exceed U.S. military fatalities in major conflicts, including the Civil War and the World Wars. One comparison estimated more than 64 million abortions, versus combined American war dead numbering in the hundreds of thousands. Some pro-life commentators note that even in small countries, cumulative abortion numbers can exceed deaths from genocides such as the Holocaust in terms of sheer count. These comparisons are not intended to minimize other historic atrocities, each of which involved unique persons and contexts, but to help illustrate the scale of human lives lost through abortion, something that is often misunderstood in public discourse.

There is also the other side of the coin: unsafe abortions performed throughout the world and the maternal harm that occurs to mothers who opt to terminate the life within their womb. Approximately 22,000 to 29,000 women die each year due to complications from unsafe abortions, and 2 to 7 million women suffer long-term health consequences.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church presents abortion as a grave moral evil, on the basis that human life is sacred from conception and that the intentional termination of a pregnancy unjustly takes innocent human life. In paragraph 2271 we read: “Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or as a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law” (CCC 2271). This teaching is unchangeable and grounded in the Church’s understanding of the Fifth Commandment: “You shall not kill” (Ex 20:13).

From the moment of conception, human life must be respected and protected absolutely (CCC 2270), because each human being, even in the womb, is a person with inherent dignity. While the Catechism focuses primarily on the moral status of the act itself (CCC 2270–2275), authoritative Catholic teaching also recognizes the devastating spiritual, emotional, and physical effects that abortion can have on mothers, fathers, families, and society as a whole. The Church acknowledges the deep wounds of guilt, sorrow, and loss that many carry, and she offers God’s mercy and healing through confession and pastoral care. Both Saint John Paul II and Pope Francis have repeatedly stressed this reality. While canonical discipline notes that a person who procures a completed abortion incurs automatic excommunication, the Church simultaneously proclaims mercy, forgiveness, and reconciliation for all who seek it with a contrite heart.

My brothers and sisters, let us keep the Word of God before our eyes and in our hearts as we face this traumatic reality. The Lord says: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you” (Jer 1:5). In the Psalms we read: “You knit me together in my mother’s womb… I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Ps 139:13–14). From the beginning of Scripture we hear: “God created humankind in his image” (Gen 1:27). Through the prophet Isaiah the Lord assures us: “Can a woman forget her nursing child? Even if these forget, I will not forget you” (Is 49:15).

We remember that even the unborn respond to grace. “The child leaped in her womb” when Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting (Lk 1:41). We must never think of the tiny life growing in the womb as insignificant simply because it is small. Christ identifies himself with the smallest and the least: “As you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me” (Mt 25:40). When we protect these tiny ones, we protect Christ himself. “He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world” (Eph 1:4).

My brothers and sisters, let us pray today for the children in the womb, for mothers and fathers facing fear, pressure, or isolation, for those wounded by a past abortion, and for the conversion of hearts. Let us also pray for medical professionals, counsellors, legislators, judges, and voters, both for those who have contributed to a culture of death and for those who courageously defend life. Above all, we pray: Jesus, protect the unborn, strengthen mothers, convert hearts, and heal our wounds. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.