By Maria V. Gallagher, Legislative Director, Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation
It is his eyes that I will never forget.
They carried a darkness, a sadness that gripped my heart.
He was a bystander, someone who was just passing through on his way elsewhere. He stopped and lingered beside me—just long enough to thank me.
I was among those gathered for an outdoor pro-life event. I was not a leader, just someone who believed strongly in the cause of life and wanted to support it. But, for some reason, he singled me out for his thanks.
The reason? He had lost a child to abortion, and did not want anyone else to experience the pain that he had had to endure.
His eyes, so full of longing for his deceased child, haunt me to this day.
I believe that it is one of the reasons that I carry on the struggle against legal abortion. I do not want any other father to feel that kind of heartbreak.
This Father’s Day, I am reminded once again of that young man and his dashed hopes for his child’s future. I hope that he has found healing through a post-abortion outreach program, that he has found a way to carry on despite his overwhelming grief.
And I pause a moment to pray for all those men who have been robbed of their fatherhood by the abortion industry. In their sadness, may they find the strength to speak out against this atrocity that takes the lives of over 862,000 American boys and girls a year.