I want to thank Judy Colbert, leader of the Pitt County Right to Life, for organizing the vigil on Jan. 22 in honor of the rights of the unborn. As a true servant, Colbert speaks for those who can’t speak for themselves. Pro-life groups believe in the sanctity of all life. They believe, as former President Ronald Reagan wrote so eloquently in 1983, that to diminish the value of one category of human life — the unborn — diminishes the value of all human life. They believe that God is the giver of life. They believe that the embryo or fetus is alive and thus abortion is tantamount to murder. To them the question is not when human life begins, but rather “What is the value of human life?’”

“The abortionist who reassembles the arms and legs of a tiny baby to make sure all its parts have been torn from its mother’s body can hardly doubt whether it is a human being. The real question for him and for all of us is whether that tiny human life has a God-given right to be protected by the law — the same right we have,” Reagan said.

Pro-choice groups, on the other hand, believe that a woman should have complete control over her own body and her fertility and should have access to whatever health care she needs. Of course, as Reagan once commented, “I’ve noticed that everyone who is for abortion is already born.”

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