Today is the anniversary of the 1973 Supreme Court decision on Roe v. Wade. Nearly one million people will be marching in Washington, D.C. today to show their disagreement with the decision. There will be thousands of signs protesting the murder of the victims of this law, posters of cherubic babies asking that their brothers and sisters in the womb be spared, tiny gold and silver feet pinned to lapels, and banners stating “I survived Roe v. Wade.”

I don’t like that last one. I was born in 1974, so I am part of the group that supposedly “survived Roe v. Wade.” It seems to me, by stating you survived Roe v. Wade, there was a chance you wouldn’t have survived, that your mother considered aborting you. My mother did not consider aborting me.

By following the Blessed Mother’s lead in putting herself aside, by allowing God’s will to be done, by saying “I will,” my mother gave me life, she gave me the opportunity to participate in the fight against this grave evil, and she gave me the occasion to be a witness of God’s love in the world. My mother’s fiat–and every other mother’s fiat since 1973–is what must be echoed by every woman if we are ever to overturn the atrocity of Roe v. Wade.

I did not survive Roe v. Wade. I triumphed over Roe v. Wade.

Saints Gianna and Gerard Majella and Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us!