January 20 is Sanctity of Human Life Sunday

Thus says the LORD, “A voice is heard in Ramah, Lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; She refuses to be comforted for her children, Because they are no more.”

Jeremiah 31:14-16

Sanctity of Human Life Sunday is held on the Sunday in January that falls closest to the day on which the Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton decisions were handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court on January 22, 1973.

Sanctity of Life Sunday began in 1983 when the Christian Action Council (now known as Care Net), founded with the help of Francis Schaeffer and former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, "asked President Ronald Reagan to create a special day to focus on the intrinsic value of human life." [Source]

President Reagan issued this proclamation:

Since 1973, however, more than 15 million unborn children have died in legalized abortions -- a tragedy of stunning dimensions that stands in sad contrast to our belief that each life is sacred. These children, over tenfold the number of Americans lost in all our Nation's wars, will never laugh, never sing, never experience the joy of human love; nor will they strive to heal the sick, or feed the poor, or make peace among nations. Abortion has denied them the first and most basic of human rights, and we are infinitely poorer for their loss.

We are poorer not simply for lives not led and for contributions not made, but also for the erosion of our sense of the worth and dignity of every individual. To diminish the value of one category of human life is to diminish us all. Slavery, which treated Blacks as something less than human, to be bought and sold if convenient, cheapened human life and mocked our dedication to the freedom and equality of all men and women. Can we say that abortion -- which treats the unborn as something less than human, to be destroyed if convenient -- will be less corrosive to the values we hold dear?

It has now been 40 years since the Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision that made abortion on demand legal in all 50 states. Since that time, the 15 million babies referred to by President Reagan has become 55 million babies.

Abortion is the greatest evil in American history and dwarfs the genocide of many other nations throughout history.

And served their idols,
Which became a snare to them.
They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons,
And shed innocent blood,
The blood of their sons and their daughters,
Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan;
And the land was polluted with the blood.
Psalm 106:36–38

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, Richmond Bible Examiner

Michael Fletcher is a freelance writer and editor living in Richmond, Virginia. He has been actively blogging since 2004 and spends a lot of time in conservative politics. But faith defines who Michael is. He holds a Certificate in Christian Eduation from Asbury Theological Seminary, has...

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