Pope Francis on the Right to Life

With the March for Life in Washington coming up on Wednesday, I offer these words from Pope Francis' Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (November 24, 2013)

Among the vulnerable for whom the Church wishes to care with particular love and concern are unborn children, the most defenseless and innocent among us. Nowadays efforts are made to deny them their human dignity and to do with them whatever one pleases, taking their lives and passing laws preventing anyone from standing in the way of this. . . .

Yet this defense of unborn life is closely linked to the defense of each and every other human right. It involves the conviction that a human being is always sacred and inviolable, in any situation and at every stage of development. . . . 

Reason alone is sufficient to recognize the inviolable value of each single life, but if we all look at the issue from the standpoint of faith, "every violation of the personal dignity of the human being cries out in vengeance to God and is an offense against the creator of the individual."