WASHINGTON, D.C. (Catholic Online) - President Obama,

I have been one of your most severe critics for the last five years, and I make no apologies for it.  But today I wanted to tell you in all sincerity that your speech to the community of Newtown on Sunday, December 16th was quite moving, heartfelt, thoughtful, and most of all, amazingly ironic.

I wonder if you yourself have even grasped the irony, and the profound meaning of your own words.

I pray with sincere pleading to God that this horrific, unimaginable slaughter of innocents in Newtown will prick your conscience and convict your heart of the other horrific slaughter of innocents that happens every single day in the United States; one in which you are an active participant and tireless advocate:  the killing of children in the womb by abortion.

You said in your speech:

"This is our first task, caring for our children. It's our first job. If we don't get that right, we don't get anything right. That's how, as a society, we will be judged.
And by that measure, can we truly say, as a nation, that we're meeting our obligations?
Can we honestly say that we're doing enough to keep our children, all of them, safe from harm?"

Well, Mr. Obama, the answer is an unequivocal "NO."  We most certainly are not doing enough to keep our children, ALL OF THEM, safe from harm.  And yes, as a society, we most certainly ARE being judged by God.

You are quite right to say that if we don't get our first job -- caring for our children -- right, we don't get anything right.  I couldn't have said it better myself.  And we're not getting our first job right by a long shot.

In fact, we're sacrificing our babies on a daily basis, and spilling their blood in the name of our "choice" and "freedom."  We've decided that our children must pay for our wants, our conveniences, our progress, our success, our liberation with their very own lives.  They must die so that we can live as we wish.

Last Friday, a very disturbed man with a rifle gunned down 26 souls in cold blood.  Do not deceive yourself into thinking that such reprehensible violence is truly shocking to us in America, or that we haven't the ability to stomach it, look the other way, and even justify it.  We can, and we do it every day.

We simply prefer our violence cloaked in the disguise of "rights" and "reproductive freedom".  Call it something other than what it really is, and suddenly it's not an abhorrent crime -- it's a thing worthy of celebration and defense.

Every one of those 26 souls murdered in Newtown began their human life in the womb.  The deaths of every tiny soul murdered in the womb are just as tragic as the little ones killed in Newtown.  It's just that their deaths don't make the headlines, and the photos of their tiny faces aren't showered with affectionate tears. 

Yet they are human beings, ALL.  They are our children, ALL.  Not only do we not protect them from harm, we gladly send them to be slaughtered and inflict the harm ourselves.

If we want to discover the root of our society's sickness, and find the cure for the rage and violence that is rearing its putrid head all over the nation, we are wasting our time if we do not honestly acknowledge the actual, literal blood on our own hands. 

We have not only invited the beast of violence to feast on our children, we prepare the meal every single day.

We will never have peace again in the United States until we stop slaughtering our own babies.  We will never be free of violence and rampage and horrific scenes like the one in Newtown until we decide that every child -- including the child in the womb -- is OUR child and we must do our first job and care for them all.

Mr. Obama, I am praying that you will decide today that what you said in your speech is absolutely true.  We're not doing right by our children, all of them.  We have to do better.  It must start with the child in the womb. 

If you continue to deny the humanity of that child, then there is no value to the life of any child.  There cannot be.  Once a person is devalued at his or her weakest and most vulnerable moment, then all respect for life is lost.  We need you to see the illogic and the insanity of your support for abortion, and to cease in advocating for the legalized child-killing we call "choice."

The blood of our children cries out from the ground, Mr. Obama, and not only in Newtown.  It is on your own hands.  Whether that changes it entirely up to you.  Let your heart be changed.  I pray that your mind and your spirit will be pierced with the Light of Truth, especially this coming week as we celebrate the birth of Emmanuel, God With Us.

He came and shattered the barrier between mortal and Immortal; between Heaven and earth.  He took on human flesh, and that means He began His human journey as that 'clump of cells" we like to dismiss and destroy in our obsession with "rights."  His Majesty was hidden in a zygote.  Was He any less God?  Any less human?  Are you willing to say His humanity was only realized upon His birth in Bethlehem? 

Now is the time for you to stop and truly think.  Stop denying the truth.  Open your eyes, Mr. Obama.  Our children -- ALL OF THEM -- are waiting for you to take action to protect them from harm. 

What kind of nation requires its babies to die for the sake of the adults?  That is what America has become, and if that is what we choose to remain, then we no longer deserve any freedom at all.  Indeed, we no longer deserve the blessing of God.

Peace be with you and your family this Christmas.  I pray that in 2013 you will work to restore peace to our nation by hastening the day when we will no longer slaughter our own children.  The child in the womb is counting on your protection.

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Jennifer Hartline is a grateful Catholic, a proud Army wife and homeschooling mother of three children.  She is a contributing writer for Catholic Online.  Visit her online at Wake Up, Deborah!