Those people braving the weather on the bluff at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday aren’t there for the fresh air. They are gathered there because of what occurred two generations ago, how they feel about it and their determination to do something about it.

Maybe you belong there, too. Read on.

Forty years ago, the unthinkable happened. On Jan. 22, 1973, the United States Supreme Court decided that any woman in all of the 50 states has the constitutional right to take the life of an innocent helpless human being for no reason at all. She can’t destroy the life of just anybody though, only the child she is carrying in her womb.

This ruling, which many considered criminal 40 years ago, has become accepted by some today as “settled law.” They call it “reproductive rights,” an oxymoron if there ever was one!

They are wrong; of course, Roe vs. Wade was by no means settled law because it won’t be settled until it is overturned. One reason is because, as one of the Supreme Court justices admitted in later years, the law was wrongly decided.

It was based on the premise that we were not sure when human life begins. Today, because of advances in medical knowledge and modern technology, the entire respected scientific community recognizes that human life begins at conception as an irrefutable fact, and that the unborn child is a distinct individual with its own DNA from the moment of its conception.

You can be confident that Roe vs. Wade must ultimately be defeated because it was based on a false assumption, and truth always prevails in the end.

Another reason the ruling cannot stand is for the same reason that the infamous 1857 Supreme Court Dred Scott v. Sanford decision is no longer in force. That preposterous decision ruled that people of African descent, whether slave or free, were not citizens and had no rights under the constitution.

Both this case and the aforementioned one, because of complete disregard for the sacredness of human life, argued that a certain class of human beings was excluded from the constitutional definition of citizen or person, an opinion which defines natural law as well as moral law.

As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, a bad law is not settled law.

In a 1983 essay, President Ronald Reagan noted that Roe vs. Wade will eventually be overturned, whether by a Supreme Court ruling or a constitutional amendment. Let’s make it happen.

You can be a visible and vocal part of the effort to restore respect for life in our community and our country by joining us for the annual candlelight vigil for the unborn.

As always, the program will be brief, but packed full of information, plans and announcements surrounding the opening of the Caring Hearts Pregnancy Resource Center and more.

Come to the gazebo on the bluff at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday and take your stand for the right to life for every precious unborn child.

Virginia O’Beirne is a co-chairman of Pro-Life Natchez-Adams County.