Over 100 years ago, Winston Churchill questioned, “What is the use of living, if it be not to strive for noble causes and to make this muddled world a better place for those who will live in it after we are gone?”
As Millennials, we know deep in our souls that we have not been given the great gift of life to squander it on selfishness. No, we have life so that we can give life. This is one of the many reasons that abortion is the defining issue of our day.
Abortion is the Millennials’ great “do or die” moment. We have lost countless siblings, friends, and co-workers to the scourge of abortion. One-third of our generation is missing; one-third of us were killed before birth. And yet, we who live were blessed with survival.
Survival compels us to do more than walk through life in personal comfort. Survival compels us to act, to do, to speak, and to stand so that others may live, too.
Abortion is the greatest human rights issue of our generation. Over 58 million babies in the U.S. alone have been lost – killed – since 1973. Did our grandparents know such bloodshed would come from Roe v. Wade, from one Supreme Court decision?
We have seen it happen with our own eyes. We, the techie generation, the information generation, we have been witnesses to the horrors of Planned Parenthood, of Douglas Karpen, of Kermit Gosnell. Some of us have carried our own children in our wombs as we saw pictures of the baby boy who Gosnell nearly decapitated after he was born alive from a botched abortion.
Others of us picked up a book in our parents’ library, and came face to face with the pieces of a baby who did not survive her abortion. Some of us have wept with a friend who felt abortion was the only choice. Perhaps we were able to persuade her that there are other options, and that help is all around. Or maybe our hearts were broken as we realized we didn’t know what to say and how to save the new life that cried out to us. (Here are some ideas for next time.)
Human rights issues are tragic and magnificent all at once. They are tragic and unimaginable in their magnitude. How do we, how can we, imagine the 58 million already gone? How can we possibly comprehend the horror of another baby being aborted every 30 seconds?
We are the most pro-life generation since Roe v. Wade. Hearts and minds are changing every day, recognizing the right to life of preborn children and the injustice of abortion.
Posted by Live Action on Tuesday, January 19, 2016
But these issues are also magnificent because they call out to those of us who believe that hope is real, and that victorious change is possible. They beg us for a willingness to dedicate our lives to a cause much greater than ourselves. They give us a reason to press forward in the fight.
As Lila Rose explained, we are blessed to be the generation who can see the tiny humans we fight for:
There’s a window into the womb with ultrasound. Just having the look into the womb you can see, even in the first trimester, the early development of the child — you can see the humanity of the child…Now that we have that imagery and it’s more prevalent, people are having that personal encounter with the child, so it’s easier to recognize their human rights.
Millions of lives depend on us. Their heartbeats rest in the balance of our decisions. Will we stand by, silently? Will we attempt to drown out the cries of the innocent by living a life that dismisses their humanity? Or will we rise up, as a compassionate, committed generation, and say that death has no place on our watch.
On our watch, life is precious.
On our watch, life will be saved.
On our watch, life will be valued.
On our watch, life will take her first breath.
On our watch, life is beautiful.
On our watch, life will blossom, and on our watch, abortion will die its final death.
Millennials, now is our time. A peaceful revolution is needed to save our innocent, vulnerable, preborn brothers and sisters.
Sophie Scholl, a leader of the Resistance against Hitler, described the choice that each of us must make in our own time, when abortion is taking the lives of millions around us:
The real damage is done by those millions who want to ‘survive.’ The honest men who just want to be left in peace. Those who don’t want their little lives disturbed by anything bigger than themselves. Those with no sides and no causes. Those who won’t take measure of their own strength, for fear of antagonizing their own weakness. Those who don’t like to make waves—or enemies. Those for whom freedom, honour, truth, and principles are only literature. … But it’s all an illusion, because they die too, those people who roll up their spirits into tiny little balls so as to be safe. Safe?! From what? Life is always on the edge of death; narrow streets lead to the same place as wide avenues, and a little candle burns itself out just like a flaming torch does.
I choose my own way to burn.
