STATEMENT ON

THE 23rd ANNIVERSARY OF

THE SUPREME COURT ABORTION DECISION

January 22, 1996

     This is the twenty-third anniversary of one of the most unfortunate and disastrous decisions of the United States Supreme Court, that of Roe v. Wade. This decision stripped away from unborn children the protection that had been theirs throughout history and established abortion on demand as the norm within the law of this country. We have regularly spoken out and acted against that decision and its results. We have also pointed to the hopeful and positive reactions to it that have occurred, both in the Church and elsewhere.

     As we recently said with our fellow bishops of this country:

     Years ago in our nation, African Americans were declared "property" and "not a portion of this people" (Dred Scott v. Sandford, 1857). So their servitude, their enslavement, was then elevated to the stature of a constitutional right. More recently, the Nazis classified the mentally ill and physically disabled as "useless eaters," and Jews, Slavs, and Gypsies were called "subhuman." So they were exterminated. Is it any different today when the law treats unborn children as "non-persons" and those who are senile are seen as possessing insufficient "quality of life" to go on living? How can we not hear in our time echoes of those other times, never to be forgotten, when some were considered less than human and others said to have lives "not worth living"? Faithful For Life, A Moral Reflection, A Statement of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, October 1, 1995.

     On this occasion we are releasing with this statement portions of our anniversary statements of the 1990's. They remain applicable and deal with many aspects of the issue. We once again urge our Catholic people and all people of good will to continue to pray and collaborate in order to reverse this tragic decision.

John C. Favalora
Archbishop of Miami

John J. Snyder
Bishop of St. Augustine

Norbert M. Dorsey
Bishop of Orlando

J. Keith Symons
Bishop of Palm Beach

John M. Smith
Bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee

John J. Nevins
Bishop of Venice

Agustin A. Roman
Auxiliary Bishop of Miami