By Vernon Khelawan

The murder toll from gang warfare in Trinidad and Tobago is frightening, and is even more so because the statistics are shoved in our faces on a daily basis. But there is an even more frightening scenario haunting the land – the lives of innocent babies taken on a regular basis, but which fails to stir the public conscience because they are all done in a clandestine manner. But the toll is probably higher than gang-related murders.

Abortion clinics in this country today outnumber the public and private hospitals and nursing homes and there is the scourge of the ever-increasing “backyard clinics”, whose principals not only commit murder every time they perform an abortion, but endanger the lives of teenagers and other young women.

In an effort to sensitise the population to the wanton taking of lives, either by the gun or the abortion knife, the Emmanuel Community, together with several other Christian and faith-based communities, has planned a “March for Life” on Sunday, March 29, starting off at the Brian Lara Promenade near the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception at 9 a.m. and ending at the Queen’s Park Savannah, with a rally at that venue beginning at 10 a.m.

This inter-faith event is one way of demonstrating the unity among the faith-based communities in the call to respect life, from the moment of conception to natural death. The Emmanuel Community recognises this as a social justice issue, but our faith further informs us of the dignity and value of all human life.

The Catholic Commission for Social Justice views the march as an important strategy for implementing some of the resolutions under the Archdiocesan third pastoral priority – Regenerating the moral and spiritual values of our society – and achieving the goal of this pastoral priority.

Pope John Paul II, in his 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life) urged Christians to reject the culture of violence and death that is so prevalent in our world and to build instead, a culture of life. He specifically mentioned abortion as being part of the culture of death. Not much has changed in the 14 years since this Papal advice was first broached.

Keynote speaker at the rally will be Dr Alveda King, niece of the famous US civil right activist, Dr Martin Luther King Jnr. She is the founder of King for America Inc, an organisation which “assists people in enriching their lives spiritually, personally, mentally and economically.”

There is a call to join in the “March for Life” in an effort to raise the consciousness of the country as disrespect for life in Trinidad and Tobago continues unabated.