The valiant struggle to end the evil of abortion can, at times, seem as fruitless as that quest for Christian Unity highlighted during this octave of prayer for the fragmented Body of Christ. And yet, even without this noble goal being reached, the very struggle to safeguard the life of the unborn serves as a bulwark against humanity’s descent into barbarism and the collapse of civilization as we know it. For when ends begin to justify means (the rights of the mother trumping those of the unborn) then the likelihood of all things becoming permissible increases, and we risk becoming indistinguishable from those species (rare even in the animal world) that destroy their offspring. And any assault on our humanity is inseparable from an attack on all that ennobles our life and imbues it with purpose and meaning. So let us not grow weary in this struggle; but let us also ensure that in our struggle to safeguard the life of the unborn we will never resort to means (or even attitudes) that will undermine and diminish our own humanity created in the image and likeness of God the Author of all Life.