We are Fighting for The People of the Womb

For decades, Alveda King, as a fulltime associate at Priests for Life, would have me as a guest at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Service on the federal holiday in his honor in January. The speeches were always inspiring, calling for inclusion, justice and nonviolence for all, welcoming every human being into the Beloved Community.

But what about the unborn?

When Pastor Sammy Rodriguez gave the keynote one year, he mentioned them. When I was invited to speak another year, I mentioned them as well.

And numerous times through those years, as people were cheering on their feet, Alveda would shout aloud, “And include the children! Don’t forget about the babies in the womb!”

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Both Alveda and Pastor Sammy Rodriguez mentioned the unborn again at the National Rededication of America to God that took place on May 17^th on the National Mall in Washington DC.

And pastors are now going to be invited in a new way to include the unborn.

Kurt Dillinger is an international pro-life leader who heads up Life International. As a result of a presentation prepared of the Jerusalem Council II held in Athens, Greece in August 2025, he has developed a paper called “The People of the Womb and the Great Commission: Calling the Church to Include the Preborn in the Church’s Great Commission Vision.”

The concept is simple and profound: the unborn are human beings. Jesus died and rose for every human being, and therefore the proclamation of the Gospel is directed to every human being. The unborn, therefore, are included in our mandate to bring the Gospel to all creation.

Obviously, to be able to preach to them, we have to preserve their lives, so that one day they will be able to hear, understand, and assent to the greatest news of human history.

As we know, the now discarded Roe vs. Wade decision said that “the word person… does not include the unborn.”

The prochoice movement is about exclusion. The pro-life movement is about inclusion. And the pro-life Church is about welcoming the unborn into the Kingdom.

At the recent NIFLA Leadership Summit, at which we were both speakers, Kurt and I discussed The People of the Womb in depth, and he presented it to the pregnancy center leaders gathered there from around the country.

Pastors, Churches, and pro-life activists around the globe will be hearing more about this in the months to come. But there are practical steps we can all take right now to raise awareness about the reality of the unborn child.

First, we have to adjust our language. Even very committed pro-life people often describe pregnancy as having a baby “on the way.” But on the way from where? The baby is already here, living and growing and fully a person from conception! The baby is not “on the way,” or “about to come into the world.” The baby is in the world already.

Abortion is not a decision about “whether to bring a child into the world,” but rather about whether to throw a child out of the world.

Second, we should name babies in the womb as early as possible. Before one knows the child’s gender, choosing two names is appropriate. Certainly, once the gender is known, naming the baby before birth is a simple, powerful way to remind everyone that the unborn is already one of us.

Third, when we observe Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, we should include those whose baby is still in the womb. Wish pregnant moms a Happy Mother’s Day. Wish the fathers of unborn babies a Happy Father’s Day. Send them a card.

Fourth, blessings in Church should be given to the unborn and their parents. The Catholic Church has a special ritual for blessing unborn children. It should be better known and used.

Fifth, when a child dies by miscarriage, the loss should be recognized for what it is, and the family helped to grieve with appropriate rituals. More and more ministries are arising based out of this need, such as Heaven’s Gain Ministries. To move society to recognize the unborn as a real baby in the context of abortion, we have to get society to recognize and treat them as such in every other context.

And sixth, we should name and mourn all the babies who have been aborted. It is bad enough that they were deprived of life, but most of them have also been deprived of a name. many healing programs, like Rachel’s Vineyard, involve naming the child as a key step in healing.

But we can all help heal the world of abortion by naming the rest of the children as well. Various projects have arisen to do precisely that (see www.NameTheChildren.org) and special days, like the National Day of Remembrance, are set aside to honor and grieve them.

The people of the womb are the ones we fight for, and the time of their greater recognition and protection is fast approaching. Let’s hasten it.

LifeNews.com Note:  Frank Pavone is the national director for Priests for Life.