The strongest sermon on abortion I’ve heard came from Father Robert Ewing, a Catholic priest in Memphis who died in 1996. “I want to tell you a story of a 16-year-old girl who found herself in love and, eventually, in trouble,” the priest began. “It was a wonderful feeling for her when she and her boyfriend became so close. They had talked about marriage…” Then the 16-year-old girl became pregnant. Her boyfriend dropped out of the picture. Her family told her that they could not afford to raise her child.

“That young woman made the hardest decision…She decided not to abort but to give the baby up for adoption.” Father Ewing made a long pause, and then added: “If this 16-year-old girl had not made that decision, if she had opted for an abortion, then someone else would be preaching this…For I am the birth child of that 16-year-old who loved so much that she was willing to give life.”

My faith highlights that we’re talking here about human life which, ultimately, must be protected. The mother–and others in the picture–often face painful dilemmas, and she must be supported. The state, however, must protect this unborn life and ensure her/his proper growth after birth, too.