Liam and Colin Gralton holding the banner at the March for Life held Jan. 29 at the Park and Ride in the Village of Monroe. Photos provided by Rich Strobel, Respect Life coordinator for Sacred Heart in Monroe and St. Anastasia in Harriman.
Pictured from left to right are Rich Strobel, the Respect Life coordinator for Sacred Heart and St. Anastasia churches, the Rev. David Rider, the pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Monroe, and Assemblyman Colin Schmitt at the March for Life held Jan. 29 at the Park and Ride in the Village of Monroe.
About 70 pilgrims from all over Orange County and a few from Rockland marched in really cold conditions.
On January 29th, a group of prolife pilgrims who would normally be in Washington D.C. decided to bring the March for Life here to Monroe as the march in the District of Columbia was cancelled and went virtual.
So about 70 brave pilgrims from all over Orange County and a few from Rockland marched in really cold conditions. They were from Sacred Heart in Monroe, St. Anastasia in Harriman, Holy Rosary in Greenwood Lake, the Knights of Columbus from Monroe and Middletown and St. Therese Classical Academy in Chester. The temperature was 19 degrees with the wind blowing out of the NW at 20 mph. The wind chill was minus three degrees. To say is was cold would be an understatement.
This brave group met at the Park and Ride in the Village of Monroe at noon and prayerfully walked a mile around the Mill Pond. All this to bring attention to the plight of the unborn who are being killed in what is supposed to be the safest place for them, their mother’s womb.
This tragedy plays out 3,000 times a day, every day. A million babies a year. This is more than twice the number of people who have died from the corona virus.
How come we don’t keep count of these unborn babies like we do for the victims on the virus? And where is BLM? Of those 3,000 unborn babies killed each day, one-third or 1,000 of them are Black. That when the Black population in this country is only 12 percent. Where is the outrage? When you look at the numbers in like NYC, a Black unborn baby has a one in three chance of being born, because the other two-thirds are killed in abortions. Did you ever equate the locations of Planned Parenthood abortion facilities to the proximity of the Black and poor populations?
The reason we march and speak out is to bring attention to the genocide that is taking place here in this country and willingness of our government to export this around the world with us citizens paying the bill. It’s time that we all stand up and say no more. If Roe vs. Wade is overturned it will lift the federal so-called right to abortion but states like New York have passed laws guaranteeing this tragedy will continue even up to birth and beyond should a baby happen to survive the abortion.
Other states like Alabama are protecting the unborn, having banned all abortions except if the mother’s health is in danger. Georgia and South Carolina have banned abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected with the health of the mother exception. Louisiana and Ohio have banned abortions after six weeks with the exception for rape or incest. Even more states have restrictions of 12 weeks, 20 weeks and 24 weeks. Some of these are making their way through the court system with the outcome being a ruling in the end from the U.S. Supreme Court. This ruling hopefully will declare that the unborn baby is a person at the moment of conception and entitled to all the rights and protections entitled to every citizen of this country. Then maybe we can finally live up to what the signers of the Declaration of Independence wrote “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
The first right being the right to life. We all pray for these rights be extended to the unborn as well as the newborn.
Rich Strobel
Respect Life coordinator for Sacred Heart in Monroe and St. Anastasia in Harriman