Pastoral Pro-Life Statement by Bishop Michael Pfeifer, OMI
Day by day abortion is indeed the worst moral evil in the USA because of the huge numbers of precious unborn children of God, true human persons, killed by this brutal cruel act. Sacred scripture makes several references of how God sees the sacredness of these tiny innocent baby in a mothers’ womb. For example, we hear, “you knit me in my mother’s womb.” Medical science has reaffirmed how God sees these precious little ones, pointing out that life indeed begins at conception. Each newly conceived tiny human being has his/her complete DNA. Both Pope St. John Paul II and Pope Francis have called abortion murder. Pope Francis has referred to the brutal killing of the unborn as an act of assassination.
Dr. Alveda King has clearly stated that abortion is the major social justice issue in our country. The over whelming sad reality about abortion and the disregard for the sanctity of life, is that last year over 2,800 tiny unborn children were destroyed via abortion each day in the U.S. Think about this for a moment the daily death toll of abortion is on a par with the 2,996 people killed on 9/11 — the worst terrorist attack in American history.
This tragic loss of life, is due to the apathy and lack of appreciation by many in our society for the preborn and the sanctity of life. How can our Nation be ok with this? How can seven states have voted recently to enshrine this kind of atrocity as a right in their state constitutions? And our grief is compounded many times over when we consider the huge number of precious unborn murdered at a universal level. Worldometer indicates that there were over 45 million abortions worldwide in 2024.
Each day as a Catholic Community we need to humbly fall on our knees before Jesus suffering on the Cross, begging His forgiveness for this massive murdering on a daily basis in our country and worldwide of God’s most precious and innocent children, and to recommit ourselves to overcome this brutal evil. How can we fully expect God’s blessings on our country if we do not do more to stop this horrible evil.
This shocking situation is a call to action for all involved and wanting to get involved in the Pro-Life movement. There is a huge need in national leaders, especially religious leaders, to defend life in their very own communities to empower and develop Life Teams that are involved in the war on abortion to save precious weak tiny lives.
As we grieve for the vast of number of precious little children of God, destroyed each day in abortion, we always must acknowledge a basic truth. The truth is that a preborn child, made in the very image and likeness of God, deserves upmost care and protection, and that abortion is cruel and intentional murder of a unique person. Sadly, these truths continue to go unrecognize by so many as the loss of human life grows greater.
Added to this sad reality is that Planned Parenthood, the abortion Goliath, in its most recent annual report proudly announced that they put 392,715 unborn babies to death while receiving $700 million in taxpayer funding. That’s an all-time high. Plan Parenthood, which already receives millions of taxpayer funding, is fighting both tooth and nail to expand its federal funding and cement the so-called right to abortion within the laws of more states. We must also recognize the gross fact provided by LifeSite of how Big Pharma uses tissue of aborted babies for vaccines and how some in the pharmaceutical industry uses cells from born-alive aborted babies for research. There is a huge paradox here. While they’re human enough to experiment on, they are not human beings to be protected from killing in the first place. We Pro-Lifers must also be aware, according to LiveAction, that 114 major corporations “care” about their female employees that they will help murder their children. LiveAction has a list of these corporations. These companies will pay the expenses to help fly women to Pro-Abortion states where abortionist will brutally kill their babies.
Adding to this sad reality of promoting abortions is the fact that there’s an ever increase in chemical abortions. A year ago, the FDA permanently removed the requirement for an in-person doctor’s visit to obtain an abortion drug. Now, the in-person prescribing would mean that a woman can go into a pharmacy and get a prescription and the abortion pill at once. If this program moves forward these pharmacies will become abortion clinics with only no doctors, no ultrasounds, no real medical care, just pills for cash. The recent Guttmacher report estimated that the abortion pill had accounted for 63% of death in 2022. As a result of this, more and more abortions happen in homes, apartments and dorms absent medical oversite. It is hoped that the new Presidential Administration will oblige the FDA to reinstate the commonsense protocol restrictions surrounding the abortion drug mifepristone, including a required in-person visit with a medical doctor. Sadly, there are many who want to distance chemical abortion from legitimate medical care.
We cannot abandon our preborn because the fight is tough. We must persist, doubling down and taking advantage of every opportunity, we are given to share with the hearts and minds of others the truth about the sacredness of human life and open their eyes to the evil of abortion. Abortion tragically rejects the truth that every life is good deserving protection. This violent practice ends the life of a tiny human being and horribly wounds all those involved.
Pro-Lifers carry on their Ministry because Christ came that we “might have life and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10), and Christ took on human life for the sake our redemption. May we work for a culture that experience God’s transforming love so that all eyes maybe open to the incredible beauty of every human life. All people of all religious backgrounds are called to take part to counteract this massive destruction of little preborn children of God, tiny persons.
We Bishops, along with our Priests and spiritual Pastoral leaders, working with our government leaders and courts are obliged to take more common action to overcome this massive evil of abortion. Based on our Biblical belief, affirmed by medical research, show that abortion is a national issue, not to be determined by each state, and demonstrate that abortion violates the 14th Amendment of our Constitution which grants to every person, the right to life, liberty and property. Also, with our government officials supported by all our people, we urgently need to pass the Life at Conception Act, that recognizes that the beautiful, God-given human life begins at conception. These two actions will bring an end to abortion.
In his first Homily of the year, Pope Francis condemns abortion and emphasize that respect for life stems from the humanity of Christ. The humanity of Christ calls humanity to care for all life. God’s choice to incarnate as “a tiny helpless child in need of his mother’s care and love obliges us” to protect life from it’s beginning to its natural end, “from conception to natural death”. Pope Francis stress his strong opposition to both abortion and euthanasia. In his final message of 2024, Francis stated “may we learn to care for every child born of a woman, and above all like Mary, to protect this precious gift of life in the womb, the lives of children, the lives of the suffering, the poor, the elderly, the lonely and dying”.
In their USCCB Respect Life Reflection, the US Catholic Bishops remind us that since the Dobbs decision many states have strong legal protection for preborn children. But tragically other states have expanded abortion. In the recent elections ten states featured ballot initiatives that would enshrine abortion in state constitutions, with seven of them voting in favor of abortion and overriding pro-life safeguards in the process. Abortion is currently legal in more states than not.
Continuing work is urgently needed to protect children, women and families from the tragedy of abortion. At this critical moment we are presented with opportunities and responsibilities to continue building a culture that welcomes and celebrates and protects human life. The Bishops point out that our prayer and action are essential to maintaining policies that protect life, where they exist, and preventing the spread of policies that lead to more abortions. May we recommit ourselves to the cause of life. In addition to our efforts to protect human life in law, we must redouble our efforts to serve women facing unexpected or difficult pregnancies, offering them the compassionate care they need to lovingly welcome the gift of their children. Every Parish should have designated prepared people who can assist them. We must do whatever we can in every sphere to ensure that life is welcomed, and mothers are supported.
We should strongly support States alternative to abortion programs and provide a variety of services to assist women with unplanned pregnancies to carry their unborn babies to term and keep the baby or place the baby for adoption. These services to help new mothers need to continue for at least three years after the birth of the child.
In all our pro-life efforts to overcome the evil of abortion and to support expectant mothers, prayer and personal presence are our most important means to conquer abortion. We pro-lifers have the God-given tools, guided by the Holy Spirit to end abortion in America and build a culture of life, but we need the help of the entire community and especially to reach more young people online before they fall for big abortion propaganda. This is a special Pro-Life moment to also support many national and local Pro-Life organizations with our personal and financial assistance. I mention just a few here – LiveAction, Students for Life, National Pro-Life Alliance. There are others especially at a Diocesan level. All our pro-life actions must be based on the solid clear Catholic teachings of the sacredness and beauty of the precious unborn and on the truth on the evil and brutality of abortion. In this regard I strongly recommend for all our people, especially young women, pregnant women and others to view and study very informative videos, like “Baby Olivia” and “Window to the Womb”, “Baby Oliver” which are lifelike and reveal the humanity of preborn children by showing in detail the different stages of fetal development. Another video “Face to Face”, features conversations on abortion. Countless people who have viewed these videos have changed their minds from Pro-Abortion to Pro-Life.
The basis for our pro-life teachings and Pastoral activities is based on constant prayer in all our parishes and a deep trust in Jesus, our good Shepherd, to lead us through this dark valley of abortion. We need many more weekly pro-life masses to be offered, many more Holy hours before the Blessed Sacrament, fasting, and pro-life prayer groups in all our communities and many more people, praying in front of Planned Parenthood and other abortion centers, for the unborn and God’s grace, light, wisdom, and direction for all our pro-life efforts. We Bishops with our Priests should organize all parishes to constantly rotate having people in peaceful, prayerful witness before these centers and supporting our pregnancy centers. Guided by the Holy Spirit, we then give new witness to our scriptural belief, confirmed by the latest true scientific research, that a new human being begins at conception.
Another vital political, social, spiritual means to overcome abortion is for us Bishops to encourage our Priests and lay pro-lifers, joined with other Christians, and those of other denominations, to advocate with our local officials to have more cities throughout the country to be declared as sanctuary communities for the unborn and not permitting abortion. Working with our good lay people from many church organizations we need to generate a tidal wave of nationwide pro-life support to keep our tax dollars from paying for abortions, especially to cancel the $700 million that our government gives to Planned Parenthood. We have learned from the recent Dobbs decision that we can accomplish anything we set our minds to. With a lot of hard work, courage, prayer, above all trust in God, we will create a culture where every life is valued and loved.
It needs to be mentioned here the words of Bishop Burbidge, as Chairman of the USCCB Committee of Pro-Life Activities, “While many are aware that the Church teaches that abortion is wrong, fewer know of the Church’s message that forgiveness and healing are available to every repentant heart. It is sobering that recent communications research tells us that many Catholics do not see this compassionate response and may be unaware of the Church’s help for those suffering from a past abortion. Instead, they see the Church as ‘harsh’ and ‘judgmental’. Encouragingly, those perceptions change when respondents are made aware of pastoral efforts like Project Rachel Ministry, the diocesan abortion healing ministry of the Church in the United States.” Bishop Burbidge also provides some very good Pastoral Homily recommendations for healing after abortion.
As we work to overcome the terrible evil of abortion, the killing of 2,800 of precious children of God each day we need to keep in mind the words of President Ronald Reagan who designated the first National Sanctity of Human Life Day (SOHL), January 1984, “Abortion on demand is not a right granted by the Constitution – We cannot diminish the value of one category of human life – the unborn – without diminishing the value of all human life.”
More than ever, we need to pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit to help us live each day the gospel, principles and values of Jesus supported by his and our dear mother Mary who simply tells us, “Do whatever He tells you”. We constantly encourage our President and Congressional leaders to show more concern for all women who are struggling with a pregnancy issue. Pope Francis stresses the closeness, the compassion, and tenderness we must have in all our parishes for all pregnant women and all those considering an abortion decision and offer them spiritual, human, emotional, health, legal and financial means to assist them with their many needs and to encourage them to save their babies. And we must work with our elected officials to provide the proper aid to families to cover the cost of the birth and the early and ongoing care and education of their children. God created the human person in the divine image and likeness as the pinnacle of all creation. Each of us, including the unborn, share in the image of God’s glory. Human life as a gift from God is sacred and inviolable.
Mailing Address: Oblate Missions 323 Oblate Dr., San Antonio, TX 782161
email address: mpfeifer@omiusa.org
