| Politics

The movement to end legal abortion and recognize the right to life, at every age and stage, will not go away.

CHESAPEAKE, Va. (Catholic Online) - I began my day as did millions of Americans; standing in a very long line at the local High School to cast my ballot for the candidate I wanted to be the next President of the United States. I knew upon arrival to a full parking lot that something different was happening. I had never seen a line of people that long in all of the years that I have voted. It stretched for over a mile! I waited for three and a half hours to cast my ballot.

People stood in the chilly and damp Virginia air without complaint. Young families had even brought their small children, sensing that this was an historic day. They were correct. It was. At 9:15 p.m. the major news networks began to project that the “Buckeye State”, Ohio, had been won by Senator Barack Obama, the first term Senator from Illinois whose meteoric rise to becoming the Democratic nominee and now, the President elect, has earned a place in history.

The projection of an Ohio win for Senator Obama came upon the heels of the projection of a similar Obama win in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The trends were clear and the numbers irrefutable. The evening was over, at least as it related to wondering who was going to win this Presidential election. The hours of television programming will now be filled with the countless hordes of talking heads, each seeking to secure their place in the pundit class. One of the longest and most interesting Presidential contests in American history is over and people will move on to other subjects. The pundits will dissect, parse, predict and pontificate till the wee hours of the morning.

Finally, a little after 11:00 p.m. EST, the election was called. President Elect Barack Obama will address the thousands gathered in Chicago. I will pray and go to sleep.

The United States of America has crossed an amazing threshold, electing its first African American President. May that fact alone help to bring healing to our Nation and bear witness to the world of what is good about our American ideal, “out of many, one”. President Elect Barack Obama ran an extraordinary campaign which has altered the political landscape. Riding a wave of utter disappointment in the current administration, deep disappointment over America’s foreign policy, but most especially, a complete lack of confidence in the collapsing economic state of the Nation, America sent a strong message today, they wanted a change.

Americans overwhelmingly bought the version of the call to Change offered by Barack Obama and one of the best run campaigns I have ever seen. They elected the candidate who persuaded them that he was able to bring this change about. As I said all along, the new President elect is one of the finest political orators I have heard.It was his ideas on fundamental human rights issues which I disagreed with so strongly. I will now redouble my opposition, in the morning.

I have been an outspoken critic of Senator Obama’s support of the so called “Abortion Right” which was created out of whole cloth, pulled from a “penumbra” of the Constitution by unelected Justices in the infamous decisions of Roe and Doe. I have sounded the alarm concerning his pledge to sign the Freedom of Choice Act which, if passed, will undo 35 years of hard work of millions of Pro-Life Americans. Like all truly Pro-Life people I am absolutely convinced that children in the first home of the whole human race are human persons, our neighbors, and that killing them at will is insidiously evil and must be stopped.

I have written extensively concerning my unalterable conviction that the dignity of every human life must be recognized in positive law as the first fundamental human right. I have taken the position that President elect Obama’s failure to recognize that right made him an unacceptable candidate. Obviously, the majority of Americans saw it differently.

What is clear is that Barack Obama will now be my President as well as the President of all those who voted for him. I will pray for him and respect his office. I will do all that I can to influence him and his administration concerning the truth of this fundamental human right to life. I will also do something else. I will join with others in building a new movement which recognizes the failures of both major political parties and seeks to build a new alliance of Americans. This alliance will insist upon the primacy of the fundamental human right to life - not as a single issue - but as the very framework and foundation of a truly just society.

The movement to end legal abortion and recognize the right to life, at every age and stage, will not go away. In fact, I predict that the election of this new President with such an extreme approach to this fundamental human rights issue assures a new birth of a new movement unlike this Nation has ever seen.

So to my fellow Pro-life Americans who are tired, disappointed, distraught and dismayed, I say never lose hope. Our position concerning the humanity of children in the womb is revealed in the Natural Law and confirmed by medical science. It is true. It will be recognized and prevail as certainly as the truth concerning the intrinsic evil of slavery came to be recognized and prevailed in this Nation.

There is a lot to analyze in this election which will, if honestly assessed,help us to learn from our failure and become more effective in our work. In the next few months, let us do just that.

As for this evening, President Elect Barack Obama Makes History. Tomorrow let the work to build a true Culture of Life begin again.