Sanctity of Human Life Sunday

President Bush has declared today, January 21 to be Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. It is a day to reflect on the tragic cost legalized abortion has visited upon our society in the form of innocent lives ended. The tremendous potential that has been destroyed is dwarfed only by the moral stain on our nation's bloody hands.

Ronald Reagan, the president who originally founded this day of remembrance spoke these moving words on the first Sanctity of Human Life Sunday in 1983:

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?

Thanks to Motte Brown at the Boundless Line for the heads up and quotation. As an aside, if you've noticed that I've been getting a lot of good stuff from Boundless, I really recommend to check them out. I certainly get a lot out of their articles.