Life Reflections™

A Disturbing Trend

Are you aware that studies show a negative trend for innocent life in Maryland? Yes, Maryland statistics show and The Washington Post reports this Holiday Season that "slightly more than 10 percent of all homicides among women ages 14 to 44 happened to a pregnant or postpartum woman in the past decade." Further, the Post reports that the American Medical Association—in a 2001 report—documented that (in Maryland) "a pregnant or recently pregnant woman is more likely to be a victim of homicide than to die of any other cause."

A woman who makes room in her womb for new life—and honors God's plan of generations—at the same time also makes herself vulnerable to others. Intuitively we all know this...in fact, Maryland employment laws already provide special protection for pregnant women. These protective laws carry the weight of our state's Commission on Human Relations and the free legal services it provides to assist pregnant women, among others, prosecute their grievances. These protections for pregnant women in the workplace are good for the safety of the vulnerable.

If we provide substantial protection for pregnant women in the workplace including the safeguarding of a woman's right- to-work while pregnant, why do we NOT provide this level of effective protection outside the workplace? Doesn't this well-documented priority of "business over home" speak volumes about our upsidedownness in priority of protection?

What if we established effective protection for pregnant women other than in the workplace? Doing so, wouldn't we be sending the right messages about life, its priority, its preciousness, and the critical need to protect our vulnerable and our innocent? Wouldn't this additional focus send the right messages to Maryland citizens and other Americans about the critical societal importance of authentic openness to the other and the concern for the God-embedded potential of the other as foundations for protection of the vulnerable and the innocent?

Legislation addressing this issue can be passed in Maryland...but not without your help.

Please join with us now.

• Your $35 yearly membership to support Pro-Life Maryland Join Now.

• Bless us with your time and energy, talent, and/or resources. Start by visiting us online at www.prolifemaryland.org.

• Read past issues of Life Reflections™ to keep abreast of our efforts.

Prayer of the Faithful
Almighty God, all of us working for and with Pro-Life Maryland ask for your divine help in the urgent and enormous task of changing the current culture in Maryland to a Culture of Life. Please illuminate our minds and strengthen our wills to achieve our mission. Please help us accomplish our critical and urgent work with purity of heart and intellectual integrity as we pursue truth—in communion with others—to provide paths, to the Road-to-Jericho Continuum, for protecting and saving innocent human life by softening hearts. Amen.

Anthony R. Souza, MTS
President & CEO