Courtney McGrailYoung people “are the most pro-life segment of the American people” according to Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley. Citing a Gallup poll that “declared pro-life is the new normal”, the cardinal said: “Congratulations, young people – you’re normal”.
The cardinal was speaking to a crowd of 11,000 at the vigil Mass for the United States’ annual March for Life, which this year saw more than 500,000 people, many of them young Catholics, marching through Washington, DC, on the 42nd anniversary of the Supreme Court’s legalisation of abortion throughout the US.
This year’s march focused on unborn children who had been diagnosed with such conditions as Downs syndrome and spina bifida, with March for Life president Jeanne Monahan saying that 90% of those so diagnosed are aborted.
Pointing out how polling consistently shows women as more pro-life than men and claiming that abortion allows men to “rationalise their irresponsibility”, Cardinal O’Malley cited Pope Francis’ dictum that “The Church cannot and must not remain on the sidelines in the fight for a better world”.
While the rally was taking place, the House of Representatives voted to bar federal funding for abortion, but the bill is not expected to become law, as in the unlikely event that it passes through US Senate, President Obama is expected to exercise his veto.