The United States Catholic bishops reasserted Thursday that fighting abortion is the “pre-eminent priority” for Catholic voters, since protecting human life is the first duty of the law.
“Abortion directly attacks life itself, takes place within the sanctuary of the family, and destroys over a million lives annually in the United States,” states the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities as part of its “9 Days for Life” campaign.
The prelates go on to note that the Declaration of Independence “boldly affirms that first among our inalienable rights is the right to life, given to us by the Creator.”
But despite being so solemnly proclaimed, “the right to life is today threatened and often denied, particularly at the moments when life is most fragile,” they observe.
“Our laws should — first and foremost — protect life,” they declare, and yet even with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, “many states still do not recognize children in their mothers’ wombs as persons and still claim that abortion is a right.”
Moreover, many political leaders “work actively to increase access to abortion,” with some falsely describing it as “health care” or even as “a basic human right,” they lament, but laws and policies that “legalize or promote an intrinsic evil like abortion violate the virtue of justice.”
Citing Pope John Paul II, the bishops assert that “there can be no true democracy without a recognition of every person’s dignity and without respect for his or her rights.”
The U.S. Bishops have set aside January 22nd — the anniversary of the iniquitous Roe v. Wade decision — as an annual “day of prayer and penance,” when Catholics are asked to “spiritually join together in prayer for human life to be protected in law and unite in penance for abortion.”
As Breitbart News reported, abortion was the leading cause of death globally in 2024, with a record 45 million unborn babies intentionally killed in the womb.
In the course of the year, 8.2 million people died from cancer, 5 million from smoking, 1.7 million of HIV/AIDS, 1.35 million from traffic fatalities, and 1.1 million from suicide, while 45.1 million died from abortion.
