By M.A. Student Erica Lizza

“Your child will be a blessing, and you will be the perfect mom!” Like a modern-day Annunciation, I heard these words spoken, or more accurately, exclaimed, by Casey Gunning, a young woman with Down Syndrome who was one of the final speakers at the 2023 National March for Life. Casey’s joyful exclamation was in response to a question her twin sister, a member of the Sisters of Life, had posed to her: “What do you want to tell women who find out their baby has Down Syndrome?” Casey was confident in her answer, because as she had previously stated while introducing herself to the crowd, “I have Down Syndrome, but Down Syndrome does not define me. I am defined by God.” Her speech neatly summed up the underlying foundation of the March for Life’s advocacy against abortion: the inherent dignity of each individual human person, dignity that cannot be diminished or advanced by any biological or societal characteristic a human being may possess, because that dignity comes from God. The imago dei, the image of God which is present on each person from the moment of conception, is just as present in Casey as it is in any person without Down Syndrome. It is this image which endows human beings with their indelible worth and dignity, which Casey’s speech reflected. 

Casey also urged the March for Life attendees to remember that the flourishing of people with Down Syndrome and people without Down Syndrome is inherently connected when she shouted, “America, we need you, and you need us!” While the concept of solidarity is often interpreted as the necessity of empathizing with our brothers and sisters who are suffering, in reality it is a call for a greater understanding and expression of the interconnected nature of the Body of Christ. As Pope Benedict XVI articulated in his encyclical “Deus Caritas Est”, each Christian is not a solitary individual but part of the body of Christ and the Church. If one applies this framework outside of the Church, it is clear that human persons are not simply rights-bearing individuals, but individuals ensconced in their larger communities and societies. If solidarity, a genuine expression of connectedness and cooperation, is not present within the community, no individual can truly flourish. Furthermore, solidarity allows a person to better understand the inherent vulnerability of the human condition and his or her own vulnerability and limitations.

In other speeches prior to the beginning of the March, speakers emphasized not the political nature of the abortion debate, but the protection of unborn human lives as a human right. While pro-life advocates have often used the language of a “right to life” to describe abortion’s violence against the human person, abortion has not been as frequently associated with the concept of human rights. Perhaps this is because the concept of human rights, as currently articulated through the United Nations paradigm, is less widely accepted in the United States. Alternatively, abortion may not immediately be conceived of as human rights issue because it has been perhaps the most highly contested political question of the past several decades and thus appears to belong squarely to the realm of politics and policy-making. This refocusing on the human rights, and most importantly, the human impact, of abortion, has the potential to make inroads with observers to the pro-life cause who may have previously considered it the domain of religious or political arguments.

At this year’s March for Life, I heard and saw more explicit references to abortion as a human rights issue than I have in previous years. The majority of marchers were joyful in expressing a message that affirmed the human rights and dignity of the unborn. Because of last year’s Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, protestors this year could center their attention on this affirming message rather than dividing their focus between this message and the necessity of judicial action. This human rights-oriented approach has the potential to expand the common perception of the unborn, who have for too long been considered either not fully human or human beings who are not legal persons deserving of rights and the protection of the law. Only with this enhanced understanding of what it means to be human and what humans deserve due to their inherent dignity can further progress toward legal protection of the unborn occur.