The Sanctity of Human Life

More than 40,000,000 lives have been lost to abortion since 1973's Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling.

Tonight, I heard a number of startling statistics -- both good and bad at the pro-life rally from a variety of speakers.

Sondra McEnroe, a board member for Central Illinois Right to Life as well as a Registered Nurse involved with Birthright from it's inception, reported that 53% of people in the United States currently believe that abortion is wrong, while only 34% are still defending the pro-death view.

She attributed this positive change to the "Roe effect" -- that is, while the pro-death population continue to murder their babies, the pro-life population continue to procreate and multiply. Our babies outnumber theirs! (Sondra herself is the mother of eight children and grandmother to forty-one grandchildren.)

The key note speaker was a the Reverend Ceasar Irwin LeFlore III, the founder and President of Powerlight Ministries, Inc. of Chicago, IL and the Midwest Regional Director of the Life Education and Resources Network (LEARN). He is an ordained minister who presently serves as chairman of Adult Bible Education at Lorimer Baptist Church in Dalton, IL. Rev. LeFlore sits on the board of several pro-life organizations, including the Pro-life/Pro-Family Coalition, the Illinois Federation of Right to Life and the Illinois Freedom Project. He is a published author and speaker. He is a husband and father.

Reverend LeFlore, a dynamic and powerful speaker and well - seasoned preacher, who preferred "amens" to applause, gave new insight into the Black Pro-life Movement in the United States and the plight of the Black population today.

He compared the Dred-Scott Case* to Roe V. Wade, but he pointed out the one distinction between the Dred Scott case and the Roe v. Wade case is that we can hear the voices of the victims of the slaves, but we cannot hear the voices or the cries of the unborn.

Sadly, when politicians speak on behalf of the minorities or when minority concerns are raised, there is never any mention of the pro-life movement or the rights of the unborn He reported that one political party in this country talks about the rights of every minority group with the exception of the unborn.

LeFlore compared the way the Black man was viewed in the Dred - Scott case with the way the unborn baby is viewed by those who uphold pro-death views today. The Dred- Scott perception of the Black man was: "He may have a heart and a brain, but he is not a person." The pro-death view of the unborn baby is: He only becomes a person when he is born." Whereas the Black person was viewed as a slave -- a possession---under Dred-Scott, the unborn baby is a possession whose destiny is determined by the mother who wants "control over" her own body. In Dred - Scott, the comment raised by its supporters were "Isn't slavery something merciful?" Abortion supporters also ask, "Isn't abortion merciful?"

He spoke about the trials that the Black race has endured for many generations and their survival of their race through all of this as a special blessing. "Black people are blessed. God appointed for us to survive. When we were unfairly locked away -- we were free. Though hatred touched our bodies, it could not touch our souls." In a style reminiscent of the late Reverend Martin Luther King, Le Flore spoke strong words of encouragement, "We are proud. We are survivors. We shall overcome."

"In the next 72 hours, more Blacks will be lynched in the womb than killed any other way." He went on to say that unless something is done to reverse the trend, that it is possible that there will be no Blacks by the end of this century.

Le Flore related that there are Black men who are "wolves in sheep's clothing" and are claiming to support the rights of others of their race, while at the same time, denying their fellow Blacks self-existence. "Social justice has been hijacked."

Some Black women today perceive abortion as "a civil right" which has been available to White women for a period of time, which is now a viable option for them, as well.

Today, the life threats to Blacks include poverty, crime and violence, substance abuse, AIDS, and infant mortality. Since 1973, abortion has taken the lives of more Blacks than crime and violence, heart disease, and accidents combined. Abortion takes over 4,000 lives of Blacks each day or 1.3 billion per year. 36% of all the abortions performed are on Black women. Black women have triple the rate of abortions that White women do. Since the passage of Roe v. Wade, 13 million Black babies have died.

What Can We As a Pro-life People Do?

DeFlore recommends the following:

1. Pray always.
2. Promote the preciousness of pregnancy.
3. Educate society.
4. Promote abstinence.



~ Jean M. Heimann


* In 1846, Dred Scott and his wife Harriet filed suit for their freedom in the St. Louis Circuit Court. This suit began an eleven-year legal fight that ended in the U.S. Supreme Court, which issued a landmark decision declaring that Scott remain a slave. This decision contributed to rising tensions between the free and slave states just before the American Civil War.

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