Reflection on the Day of Prayer for the Unborn

January 22 is recognized by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops as the Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children because on January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court legalized abortion throughout the United States in its companion decisions Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton. At the Apostolate for Marital Intimacy, we join the Catholic Church in the United States on this day of prayer, and we also want to take this opportunity to remind you that our mission is central to the pro-life cause and to reflect on this more deeply. 

Since those Supreme Court decisions in 1973, millions of children have lost their lives, and millions of women and families have been wounded as well. How many abortions take place in the context of loving and faithful Catholic marriages? The answer, of course, is zero because no individual or couple who is living out their Catholic faith would seek an abortion. But the reality is that many women who choose abortion are not married. We live in a world now where far too many people see conjugal relations as something that can be experienced apart from their procreative and unitive purposes within marriage. Our mission however, is not merely the promotion of chastity and waiting until marriage, although this is part of it and it is a message we endorse. Our mission, however, is to help the Church and the world see married life as a life of holiness as well as a life filled with happiness and joy. The quality of a couple’s conjugal connection has much to contribute to the happiness of a marriage, because the pleasure of the marital act serves to bond the couple more closely together. A married couple that is happy and holy has a ripple effect on their children as well as others who know them. James, our president and senior coach, has spoken of a couple he coached who were grandparents, and the improvements in their marriage were noticeable to both their children and their grandchildren. 

When you work on your own marriage, and live it out with faith and joy, you help other people see married life as a joyful life worth pursuing. When you support our mission at the Apostolate for Marital Intimacy, whether through your prayers, financial contributions, or telling others about us, you support the cause of marriage and family and therefore the cause of life. It is our mission for every Catholic couple to experience a faithful and fulfilling marriage, and that those couples can help other people see that married life is a life worth pursuing. Pope Leo XIV reminds us of the connection between the cause of life and the cause of marriage and family. In a recent address, he said, “Life, in fact, is a priceless gift which develops within a committed relationship based on mutual self-giving and service. In light of this profound vision of life as a gift to be cherished, and of the family as its responsible guardian, we categorically reject any practice that denies or exploits the origin of life and its development. Among these is abortion.” The cause of life requires fighting for civil laws that conform with God’s laws, but we also must change hearts. It is our goal to change hearts in this way. Fr. Mike Schmitz has said that people will be won for Christ through family and through friendship. By helping as many marriages and families as we can be households of joy, and by inspiring people not just to wait until marriage, but to pursue marriage and make the best of it, we hope that within marriage will be the most common place that children are conceived, born, and raised, and in this way reduce the desire and demand for abortion and in that way advance the cause of life. We are grateful to those who support our mission, and if you do not already, please support us and let us be a resource for the marriage and family of you and those you know, and let’s keep working to advance the cause of marriage, family, and life together.