Thousands of pro-life advocates gathered Saturday outside the Colorado state capitol to call for human rights for unborn babies.
The annual Celebrate Life Rally drew approximately 8,000 people to Denver near the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that led to more than 61 million unborn babies’ abortion deaths, The Blaze reports.
Colorado is one of several states that allows unborn babies to be aborted for any reason up to birth, but pro-life leaders are working on a ballot initiative to change that. Initiative 120 would prohibit abortions after 22 weeks, except if the mother’s life is at risk. To qualify for the November ballot, pro-lifers must collect 124,632 valid signatures by March 4, according to the report.
“No matter what culture of death we live in, no matter what words of hate are spoken to us, no matter what persecution we experience…have the courage to proclaim the dignity of life from the moment of conception until natural death,” said Catholic Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila of the Archdiocese of Denver, Colorado Politics reports.
Speaking at the rally, Aquila said his eyes were opened to the horrors of abortion when he was in college working at a hospital. He said he saw the bodies of aborted babies and mothers’ heartbroken faces.
“It is tragic and I remember being stunned,” he said. “Only persons whose consciousnesses are dead, who have no conscience, can participate in such things.”
Here’s more from The Blaze:
Referring to Initiative 120, the Catholic archbishop assured attendees of the rally that it does not amount to an endorsement of abortion during earlier stages of a pregnancy.
“But we also desire to protect, even in increments, the gift of given life. We are not voting for abortion, nor are we saying we agree with abortion up to 22 weeks. What we are saying, is that we respect life, and we respect it for all the pregnancy,” Aquila said.
“We hope in November 2020 you and the citizens of Colorado will have the chance to protect unborn children, mothers, and fathers,” he added.
The Coalition for Women and Children (Initiative 120 Committee) had a booth at the rally and had 16 Petition gatherers working the crowd. It collected about 450 packets (18,000 signatures) from statewide signature gatherers at the rally. To date they have distributed 5300 petition packets having 212,000 signature lines.”
Colorado Archbishop Aquila implored the crowd to support the Initiative. This follows his strongly-worded article in the Denver Catholic. He has been instrumental in coalescing the support of Catholics statewide.
A multitude of churches are collecting signatures on Sanctity of Life Sunday. Many collection events are taking place and are listed on the website, duedatetoolate.com
