Today, 39 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court legalized the direct killing of innocent human persons. The infamous Roe v. Wade decision was a turning point for this nation. We lost our innocence that year. Not only had we given ourselves over to the fornications of the sexual revolution, but in 1973 we declared ourselves willing to destroy any children accidentally conceived by our infidelities. Unlawful sex — any intercourse outside of the marriage covenant — is always violent, and it leads to greater violence. The decay of our social fabric began with the contraceptive pill in the 1940s, but it jolted violently forward with the legalization of abortion in 1973.
  Roe v. Wade seemed to catch us off-guard in 1973; but America, who has championed the “culture of death” to all the world, also had led the world in prolife activism. I can remember marching down Pennsylvania Avenue as a kid, in January’s bitter cold.  We gathered in the snow at the Ellipse near the White House, and then made our way slowly toward the U.S. Capitol. We waved to legislators along the way who peered from their congressional office building windows. Washington’s March for Life has grown every year since 1974. Now hundreds of thousands march from the White House to the Capitol. And now there are marches in all the major cities, most notably in our own beloved San Francisco, where 40,000 walked yesterday. Five busloads came from St. Joseph’s, and another 20 busses from around our Diocese. Now there are pro-life marches in Paris, London and Madrid. Over these 40 years, the sheer numbers and tenacity of this civil rights movement dwarfs past civil rights movements. Because, indeed, the Pro-life Movement is the civil rights movement of our time. The unborn person is a distinct individual (“if it’s not a baby, she’s not pregnant”) and has rights. We will not stop marching until these rights are recognized in law. We are well on our way.