Thirty-five years ago today the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a decision in the case of Roe v. Wade. Since that time approximately 50,000,000 abortions have been performed with full protection of the law. That figure is approximately 1/6th of the current total population of the United States.

The most recent statistics indicate more than 1.2 million abortions are performed each year, or 22% of all pregnancies. When you see four people, understand that a fifth person is missing.

Few are comfortable discussing abortion. But, ignoring what it is and what it says about us as people and a nation won’t change the facts. We abhor cruelty to a pet cat or dog. We take extreme measures to protect wildlife and our forests. A fish die-off in Denver lakes is a major news story. All of this makes sense in a civil, caring, compassionate society. One day we must reconcile how the same society can legally eliminate more than one-in-five pregnancies.