(OSV News) ─ As the nation's Catholics are set to remember unborn children in prayer, a U.S. bishop is stressing that amid several positive developments in safeguarding human life, "many challenges remain" in making abortion "unthinkable."
"Our united prayers, sacrifices and efforts to protect human life and heal the wounds inflicted by abortion remain as important as ever," said Bishop Daniel E. Thomas of Toledo, Ohio, who serves as chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities.
Bishop Thomas shared his thoughts in a Jan. 13 statement released by the USCCB, ahead of a number of national and local pro-life initiatives held throughout the month.
Those include the annual Jan. 22 Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children, and the national March for Life, which will take place Jan. 23 in Washington.
The date of the annual day of prayer recalls that of the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decisions in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, which legalized abortion. Those rulings were overturned by the Supreme Court's 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which returned the issue of abortion from the federal to the state level.
Since 2013, the U.S. Catholic bishops have also invited the faithful to join in the "9 Days for Life" novena ahead of the day of prayer, with the goal of ending abortion. Novena prayers and reflections can be found at https://www.respectlife.org/9-....
In his statement, Bishop Thomas lamented that the "tragic" Roe v. Wade decision "led to the loss of over 65 million children and immeasurable harm to their parents and family members."
The day of prayer is a time for "prayer, penance, and our personal recommitment to the cause of life," he said.
Bishop Thomas pointed to "several pro-life victories" in the wake of the Dobbs ruling.
"Most recently, at the national level, Congress acted heroically last year in largely defunding Planned Parenthood of federal taxpayer dollars," he said, while the current administration under President Donald Trump "has reversed several of its predecessor's pro-abortion policies."
Yet, he warned, "despite these successes, human life is still gravely threatened by legalized abortion as it continues to be aggressively promoted at the state and federal level."
Among the "many challenges" to be met are "pro-abortion ballot initiatives" and "the increased use and availability of abortion pills."
According to data from the Guttmacher Institute and the Society for Family Planning, both of which support legalized abortion, an estimated 1,126,970 abortions were performed in the U.S. in 2024, up from 1,060,880 in the previous year.
Guttmacher noted an increase in the number of clinician-provided abortions since 2020, despite the Dobbs decision. The institute also found that chemical abortion "accounts for the majority of abortions provided in most U.S states without total abortion bans," representing "63% of all clinician-provided abortions in 2023."
"Despite the Dobbs decision overturning the federal right to abortion in June 2022, Guttmacher data continue to show an increase in the number of clinician-provided abortions as compared to 2020,” says Isaac Maddow-Zimet, Guttmacher Institute data scientist and Monthly Abortion Provision Study project lead
Bishop Thomas also underscored "the need to protect the Hyde Amendment to keep taxpayer funded abortion out of national health care bills."
The amendment, named for its congressional sponsor, Rep. Henry J. Hyde of Illinois, has since 1977 banned the use of federal funds for abortion with limited exceptions in the cases of rape, incest and pregnancies where the life of the mother is endangered.
Recently, Trump advised fellow Republicans they "have to be a little flexible on Hyde" in addressing health care costs to edge out Democrats in the upcoming midterm elections.
"We must continue to support pregnant and parenting mothers in need and offer spiritual and emotional help to all who have participated in abortion," said Bishop Thomas.
"As our Holy Father Pope Leo XIV has said, 'God's mercy calls us to protect every life, especially those society overlooks -- the child yet to be born and the elderly nearing their journey's end -- because each bears Christ's face,'" the bishop noted.
In conclusion, Bishop Thomas said, "May we see the face of Christ in every single person, in every pregnant mother, and every child in the womb. Let us remain steadfast in our commitment to ensure that every human life may be protected in law and welcomed in love, and that abortion may be unthinkable."
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Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X @GinaJesseReina
