Bible In A Year Podcast Host Fr. Mike Schmitz, main speaker for March For Life 2022 held on Friday in Washington D.C., gave a powerful testimony urging "every person matters" including the unborn.
Catholic News Agency reported that 47-year-old Schmitz, who was born the year after Roe v. Wade, gave a "passionate speech" that "headlined" the March For Life event. Schmitz received "a rousing, rock-star reception from the crowd" due to his popularity for the "Bible In A Year," which is the most-listened podcast in America. Schmitz shared that his first speech was in grade school and it was for the dignity of human life.
"The first speech I ever gave in my entire life was in eighth grade. We got a chance to choose any topic, any argument, any position. I chose to talk about the dignity of human life from natural conception to natural death and the evil of abortion and euthanasia," Schmitz said.
He narrated that this decision was greatly influenced by his mother who had three images on their refrigerator while they were growing up, which included that of a baby's who died of an ectopic pregnancy. Schmitz pointed out that despite being miniscule, the baby nonetheless showed that it was very human.
"You can see so clearly that the child--which was conceived weeks--so clearly that this is a human person. This is a human person that mattered," he stressed.
Schmitz went on to say that the other image on their ref was of a cartoon on being "pro-choice." The third image was of a garbage bag that was "wide open" with the "remains of babies who were aborted" and thrown in the trash.
"The prolifers rescued the remains of those babies and treat them like people. Those babies matter because people mattered," he emphasized.
Schmitz then disclosed that the images were there out of the influence of then 50-year-old Helen Amazon to her mother. Amazon in 1973 was the Head Nurse of the Mount Sinai Hospital in Twin Cities, Minnesota and was being forced to participate in abortion and to dispose the remains of abortion.
Amazon stood up against the hospital because she believed "every person matters." She told the hospital to stop conducting the abortions or she would leave. The hospital told her to go and that devastated her, such that "if not because of her faith, she would have ended her life" because she never got to practice nursing again.
"But she stood and she walked. That matters because every person matters. Every life matters. But that broke her heart. I think that's why we're here, too, right? I think we're here because abortion, what it's done is broken our hearts. And I know so many people here, you're standing here because you know the dignity of human life. And so many people are among us because this story is part of your story, because you found yourself at one point in a place where it seemed like life was an impossible choice," Schmitz underscored.
"And so I know that we're surrounded by men and women who have chosen abortion. Listen, you need to know you're supposed to be here. You matter, you belong here. No matter what your past is, you are still loved. You need to know this. You are still loved and you still matter," he stressed.
Schmitz recounted an encounter he had with a woman who was undergoing crisis for an unwanted pregnancy and was thinking of an abortion because she "don't want to be a mom." He helped the woman realize that she is already a mother and that she "mattered." He also helped her realize that she did not hate her baby but the circumstances she is in. The woman continued with her pregnancy, sent her son for adoption, and the child now is twelve years old.
Schmitz then disclosed that he would not be able to have advised that woman to decide as such and for that child to live had it not for the influence of Amazon in his life. Schmitz disclosed that Amazon happened to be his grandmother. He highlighted that people's good actions mattered and it has domino effects in the future-no matter if the effects could not be seen instantly.
"When my grandma Helen left Sinai Hospital in 1973, it didn't change the hospital, it didn't change the culture, it didn't change the law, it didn't change the country. But when she walked, it changed her. When she stood, it changed her, and it changed her sons and it changed her daughter, my mom. And that willingness to stand, that willingness to walk, it has echoed into my life. It's echoed in the life of this young woman. It is incarnate in the life of this 12-year-old boy, who wouldn't be here if my grandma Helen hadn't stood, if my grandma Helen hadn't walked," Schmitz pointed out.
"Every child matters. Every woman matters. Every person matters. And no matter what this (march) does, no matter what this changes, your being here, standing, your being here, walking, it changes you, and you matter," he reiterated.
