April 30 marks the anniversary of the 1863 observance of the Day of National Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer, as called for by President Abraham Lincoln a month earlier. The Civil War had ravaged the divided nation for two years, and the possibility of preserving the Union looked increasingly dim in light of recent setbacks such as resistance to a national conscription, widespread desertions from the army, and a failed attempt to take Vicksburg.
At that critical time, President Lincoln proclaimed, “We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power…. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own…. It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.”
On April 27, 2020, Princeton Professor Robert George reminded the world of President Lincoln’s proclamation and suggested that this April 30 would be an opportune time for another day of prayer, fasting, and repentance. He was speaking in a webinar hosted by the Heritage Foundation on “Faith and Hope in Crisis,” whose other guests concurred. It is a time for repentance, urged both Villanova Professor Daniel Mark and Bishop Vincent Matthews, the latter adding that we must get back to the basics, back to family.
Such clarion calls to strengthen faith and family stand in sharp contrast to the brazen attempt by purveyors of “sexual and reproductive rights” to exploit the COVID-19 crisis for their own ends, utilizing the strategy once articulated by Rahm Emanuel, White House Chief of Staff under Barack Obama: “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.” So it is with one of the most influential NGOs in the United Nations, International Planned Parenthood Federation, whose Director General, Alvaro Bermejo, recently lamented that the worldwide pandemic has diminished his organization’s ability to provide abortion on demand.
“The COVID-19 pandemic is a health crisis across every setting,” said Bermejo, “and that includes sexual and reproductive healthcare.” The statement was published on April 9 by OpenDemocracy, the propaganda vehicle of George Soros, in an article titled “Millions may struggle to access contraception and abortion amidst COVID-19.” The party line continues to be repeated, as on April 26 when UN Resident Coordinator to Kenya, Siddharth Chatterjee, bemoaned that “women’s sexual reproductive health and rights just took several steps backward in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The International Organization for the Family applauds Professor George’s call for a day of prayer, fasting, and repentance, and we hope it will open the eyes of those who have chosen to ignore foundational truths recognized by the United Nations: “the child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth” (Preamble to the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, and quoted in the Preamble to the Convention on the Rights of the Child); and, “The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State” (Article 16(3) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights). Meanwhile, please join us as we continue the work that Soros continues to denounce—the work to protect family, faith, and the unborn.