A normal, regular activity is turned into a nightmare and a call to prayer. I am waiting in line to pick up a prescription for my heart when my eyes catch sight of a “medicine” in direct line of sight on a shelf behind the counter. It is one of the “morning after” pills. My heart skips a beat. I swallow sadly, unable to believe what I see.

I am asked to wait for my heart prescription to be filled. I sit down and look at the mirrors providing security in the pharmacy by showing all of the store aisles at a glance. If “that pill” is so visibly made available to all, dear God, who are the women walking down these drug store aisles to get it? Dear Lord, do I know any of them? I have seen the statistics published about the rise in the number of abortions performed. Can I safely assume that there are none from even my own parish coming to purchase “that pill?”

I pray silently as I wait. In my heart, I blame my generation for not doing more to remove the root causes of a woman being so desperate that she feels forced to take the life of her unborn child. Do we really appreciate the costs of raising a child, particularly when poor and alone? Is there more I can do as a Midwestern Catholic to share my belief that Christ is with us even in the most desperate of circumstances? Have I shared how immoral and senseless it is to use contraception, a trap that can put many women rushing down these pharmacy aisles?

I was raised in a Christian nation. Nellie Gray has long passed away. We’re told that there are many, many young Americans who are pro-life. But who is there publicly and politically to defend our cause no matter what? Why is “that pill” up front and center at the prescription pick-up line?

Something is terribly wrong in this country I love so much. Dear God, what about the babies destroyed by chemicals, not in a war zone, but with a drink from a glass of water? Let’s find the women who walk down these drug store aisles to purchase that one thing from Hell they increasingly must have so immediately.