By Joe Bukuras
Louisville, Ky., Apr 17, 2021 / 17:03 pm
Kentucky pro-life groups responded this week to a billboard campaign in the state seeking to reconcile religious faith with abortion.
The billboards, which will go up next week and remain for two months, feature phrases like, “Good people have abortions” and “Abortion: a personal decision between you and God,” the Sentinel Echo reported. The campaign is being funded by the Kentucky Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.
In a statement sent to CNA, Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville stressed that “the Catholic Church has a deep and cherished commitment to give voice to the child in the womb and to support mothers in choosing life for their unborn children.”
“Our commitment to life from conception to natural death extends from our conviction in honoring the dignity of all persons, born and unborn, and we join with individuals of many faiths or no faith at all in upholding the value of human life,” the archbishop said.
He urged “all people of good will to join us in supporting women as they care for themselves and their unborn child and to work together to build a culture of life in our Commonwealth.”
Addia Wuchner, executive director at Kentucky Right to Life, added, “We believe one cannot love the woman without loving the child.”
“God is the author of life and our mission and pro-life work reflect God's love,” Wuchner said, according to the Sentinel Echo. “We bear witness to God’s love, recognizing the dignity and the intrinsic value of every life from conception to natural death.”
The pro-life movement in Kentucky has made several recent legislative advances, after previous pro-life bills were vetoed by Democratic Governor Andy Bashear.
On January 22, a bill requiring appropriate medical care for babies surviving attempted abortions became law after Bashear neither signed nor vetoed it. The “Born-Alive” bill had received support from members of both political parties and was passed 76-18 in the state house and 32-4 in the state senate.
In March of this year, the Kentucky General Assembly passed House Bill 91, a proposal to amend the state constitution to say, “To protect human life, nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to secure or protect a right to abortion or require the funding of abortion.”
The measure will now go before voters in 2022.
