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This is a list of 50 names. I repeat, only 50 names. The World Health Organization tells us that every minute, 139 babies in the world die of abortion. I repeat, 139 babies die every minute.
These remain nameless statistics. But they are more than that. They are people who could have been named David or John or Anne or Ken.
Picture, if you will, 139 young people just having graduated from high school. They are off to college, jobs, marriage, life activities. Many homes feel the pain of separation and the joy of pride as these young people enter the next phase of life.
When we stop to think about the World Health statistics, it is mind blowing. A total of 73.3 million abortions per year. That can equal the population of Canada, Australia and Cuba. And that is in one year only.
We cannot forget that abortion is the cruel and violent death of a human being.We cannot get used to it and remain complacent. What can we do?
We can be informed. We can educate others. We can continue to carry the banners for Zelm, Keli, Kathlyn鈥� and all the unnamed victims of abortion. We can support our pro-life groups of choice in prayer and donations.
鈥淓very life, at every stage of development from conception to natural death and in all its circumstances, is sacred and beloved by God,鈥� said Cardinal Joseph Bernardin at a burial service for some 2,000 aborted fetuses laid to rest in two caskets at Queen of Heaven Catholic Cemetery in Hillside.听
We can concentrate on creating wonderful exceptions to this agenda of death. The mother of a fun-loving little boy named Major chose life for him five years ago by not having an abortion. The Continuum of Care program has helped this mother enjoy seeing Major put on his backpack and board the bus for his first day at school.
We can be encouraged by the miraculous. When Melissa Ohden was 14, she discovered that her mother had attempted to abort her. A nurse heard a baby鈥檚 cry among the medical waste at a U.S. hospital.
Melisa discovered that she should have been born dead from a toxic saline solution but was born alive. Her nineteen-year-old mother was forced into the abortion by Melissa鈥檚 grandmother. For 30 years Melissa鈥檚 mother thought her baby had been terminated.
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Both Melissa鈥檚 adoptive parents and her birth mother are now a happy part of her life. Joy has replaced regret, and the miracle of Melissa鈥檚 life goes on.
鈥淏efore I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.鈥� (Jeremiah 1:5).
At no point after the Immaculate Conception of Jesus in Mary鈥檚 womb was he not the Son of God and the redeemer of the world.
