If you haven’t already marked your calendar, you’re going to want to get right on it, because tomorrow is “National Day of Remembrance for Aborted Children,” at least according to anti-abortion advocates, who are setting up memorials, attending services, etc., all across America, to draw attention to the terrifying fact that women still have the right to choose in this country.
The movement approaches the question from an wholly rational viewpoint, making cogent and entirely new arguments for limiting a woman’s right to abortion.
… just kidding.
National Day of Remembrance for Aborted Children is all about trying to pack a punch to the feelz and hitting people in the emotions. The official site employs language like “broken bodies” and “society’s tiniest innocent victims” to describe aborted fetuses, and “graves of sorrow and graves of indictment on a nation that permitted the killing of the innocent” to describe the fetal burials they’ve facilitated. “We allow our hearts to be broken for them,” NDoRfAC’s press release declares (referring to aborted fetuses). Personhood is as absolutely presupposed as bodily autonomy is ignored. Apparently, people are supposed to bypass those trifling nothings and jump directly on the anti-abortion bandwagon at the sight of a grave marker. Because that’s the “reality of abortion.”
While the website doesn’t openly state that it is a Christian movement or reference any gods, its very banner gives a pretty good indication — what with the gravestone with a Bible verse, a reference to “Holy Innocents” & “preborn children of God,” and a funeral inside a church.
And a (very, very) little further digging reveals that, despite any half-hearted attempts at inclusivity, it’s most definitely the religious driving this peculiar day. (So, pro-life atheists? Looks like you’re still out in the cold.)
There are three sponsor groups for this anti-abortion day: Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, Priests for Life, and The Pro-Life Action League. Priests for Life speaks for itself, but the others are only a little less obviously religiously motivated. While the group’s director, Monica Miller, doesn’t reference God or religion in her statement on NDoRfAC’s page, on Citizens for a Pro-Life Society‘s website, she is more open. Phrases such as “God be praised!,” “God Bless You All!,” “God be praised and thanked,” “May the Christ Child, who lived under the heart of Mary, and was born in a stable, bless your Christmas with His Light,” “May the Blood of Christ triumph over all such places of death,” etc. is found in abundance.
The Pro-Life Action League is a little more reserved with its religiosity, but phrases like “Follow the Holy Father’s Lead and Join the National Day of Remembrance for Aborted Children” and calls to “prayer” campaigns against pro-choice advocates, etc. are found throughout.
So the motivation is clearly religious. And their efforts at inclusion are not long-lived. On the official website, organizers liken their work to that of early Christians countering “pagan” child “sacrifice” and encourage pro-lifers to carry on “the spiritual mission” of the day the rest of the year as well.
They also offer three pre-written prayers for the event. And, in case you’re wondering, they invoke: the “Father” and “Christ Our Lord”; the “Almighty Father” and “Our Lord Jesus”; and the “Lord,” “Christ,” and “Jesus the Lord.” All of which, in fairness, is really quite inclusive to religious people… as long as you pray to Jesus, and no other gods.
So, on second thought, you might as well cross National Day of Remembrance for Aborted Children off your calendar. Shucks.