There are many needs in the battle for life, and many heroes of the Church who have dedicated themselves to human dignity.
The fight to protect the unborn is a multifaceted one, with some pro-lifers counseling women in crisis pregnancies, others fighting for changes in the law, and others working for affordable healthcare and housing. As we seek to make abortion not just illegal but unthinkable, there are many holy men and women whose lives can inspire us as they continue to intercede.
Servant of God Jérôme Lejeune (1926-1994) was a brilliant geneticist, the scientist who discovered that Down syndrome is a result of trisomy 21. He was celebrated by the medical community until he realized that his work was being used to encourage parents to abort their children. At that, he spoke out, begging people to defend the unborn. It was career suicide and he knew it. On the night he won a prestigious award, he asked his audience to question the morality of abortion. Returning home, he told his wife, “Tonight I lost my Nobel prize.”
Servant of God Dorothy Day (1897-1980) was a convert to Catholicism and the founder of the Catholic Worker movement, an international movement of solidarity with the poor. Before that, she was a single mother. Before that, she had an abortion. She’s a beautiful witness of the healing that parents can find after abortion and the way God can work in them to make them great saints.
