Life Walk to oppose right to abortion
In observance of Sanctity of Human Life Day, Warren County Right to Life will hold a “Life Walk” Saturday in opposition of abortion.
The candlelight procession will begin Saturday at Plaza Shopping Center at 6 p.m. and will wind its way south down the sidewalk of Chancery Street to end at the Pregnancy Care Center on Locust Street. The event will conclude with a time of prayer at Locust Street Church of God around 8 p.m.
Local Right to Life member Mike Burns said the purpose of the Life Walk, like the purpose of the Right to Life organization, is to raise awareness of the practice of abortion and the Right to Life movement.
Formed last year, the Warren County chapter of Right to Life, like the national and state Right to Life organizations, is a non-partisan group which does not advocate civil disobedience. In addition to the unborn, the group also supports the right to life of the more helpless among us including the handicapped, the elderly and the infirm.
Sanctity of Human Life Day, officially declared by President Bush for last Sunday, is being observed locally on Saturday to allow more people to participate, said Burns.
The day is held every year around the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, which declared on Jan. 22, 1973 that the relationship between a woman and her doctor was a private affair, not subject to government interference. This privacy, the court ruled, is “broad enough to encompass a woman’s decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy.”
Since the decision was handed down, abortion has become probably the most polarizing issue in American politics. While polls have consistently shown a majority of Americans to be opposed to the practice of abortion, the population is evenly split on whether women should have the right to have abortions.