Let us Pray

Dear God:

Please help the extremist right of the Republican party realize their mistaken belief that trying to limit access to safe and legal abortions is not the same as preventing them.

Help them realize that jobs that pay a decent wage and access to quality health care plays a bigger role than Roe v. Wade.

Help them see and accept that the abortion rate was declining in America by 1.7% during President Clinton's administration, and has increased since President Bush's:

"I found three states that have posted multi-year statistics through 2003, and abortion rates have risen in all three: Kentucky's increased by 3.2% from 2000 to 2003. Michigan's increased by 11.3% from 2000 to 2003. Pennsylvania's increased by 1.9% from 1999 to 2002. I found 13 additional states that reported statistics for 2001 and 2002. Eight states saw an increase in abortion rates (14.6% average increase), and five saw a decrease (4.3% average decrease).

Under President Bush, the decade-long trend of declining abortion rates appears to have reversed. Given the trends of the 1990s, 52,000 more abortions occurred in the United States in 2002 than would have been expected before this change of direction.
"
- from The Sojourners website (Christians for Justice and Peace)

And please remind Richard Land (President of the Southern Baptist Convention) that bearing false witness against your neighbor is a sin, because he knows full well that it was not Senator Arlen Specter's intent to threaten the President by stating a political reality.

Amen