The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis held a prayer service for life on Jan. 22 at the Cathedral of St. Paul to mark the 49th anniversary of Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision.

In 1973, the Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. Constitution protects a pregnant woman’s liberty to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction.

“This prayer service commemorates the millions of lives lost to abortion and the many women and men wounded by abortion’s aftermath,” the archdiocese wrote on Facebook. “All are invited and welcome.”

The archdiocese added that Saint John Paul II Champions for Life honorees will be recognized during the prayer service, which is sponsored by the Office of Marriage, Family and Life.

According to the website Statista, there were at least 41,901,000 abortions performed in the U.S. between 1973 and 2019. The Catholic Church has adamantly opposed abortion on grounds that every human life is valuable from conception to natural death. Aleteia reported that the Second Vatican Council almost 60 years ago reinforced that stance instead of softening it.

The Church’s opposition to abortion is detailed in the document Gaudium et Spes.

“Whatever is opposed to life itself, such as any type of murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia or willful self-destruction, whatever violates the integrity of the human person … all these things and others of their like are infamies indeed,” according to Gaudium et Spes, 27, Aleteia reported. “They poison human society, but they do more harm to those who practice them than those who suffer from the injury.”

Teresa Collett, a professor of law at the University of St. Thomas, said that if the Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision, the legality of abortions would be up to each individual state.

Collett told Catholic Spirit that such an overturn wouldn’t impact Minnesota’s abortion practice.

“Unlike most states, Minnesota has no law that limits abortions after a child obtains viability — the ability to live outside the womb, albeit with medical support,” she said, according to Catholic Spirit. “This is because the state’s post-viability abortion ban was struck down by a federal court in 1974 and legislative attempts to pass new prohibitions have been vetoed. The state also is one of 15 states that pay for poor women’s abortions.”