The Casualties of Abortion
by Fr. Joseph Menezes SJ
Which mother does not celebrate with joy the birth
days of her children! But there is one unusual mother
Mrs. Ingrid Trobisch who revealed at an international
conference that she celebrates secretly in her
heart with gratitude the dates of conception of all her children
although they are all grown up! Why? Because she never
wants to forget that it is from the moment of conception that
life — the greatest gift from God — begins!
From that dramatic moment of conception till birth, the
development of that tiny precious human life is entirely in
God’s hands, exclusively His work! The expectant mother’s
duty is just to have adequate nourishment. This divine role is
well brought out in Psalm 139: “For Thou didst form my
inwards parts. Thou didst knit me together in my mother’s
womb... Thy eyes beheld my unformed substance as I was
being made in secret!”
In God’s plan, the mother’s womb is the safest and best place
for the unborn child to live and grow. But alas, today man is
defying God, because abortion has been legalised in most
countries; and so the womb has become a tomb - the most
unsafe place for the unborn child to grow. In U.S.A. alone
over a million and a half abortions occur annually and the
same number takes place in Japan. India’s figure is estimated
at a staggering 12 million plus. The conservative estimate for
the whole world is 60-80 million abortions, and this does not
include the very early “microscopic” abortions that are due to
the use of the oral contraceptive pill, specially the mini-pill.
Most countries by legalising abortion have signed the death
warrant on innocent unborn human lives. It is no exaggeration
to say that this constitutes a war on the unborn
on a scale unprecedented in human history!
The casualties
The first casualty is the violent death of the
unborn child. Its death is virtually 100% certain,
as the purpose of the procedure is to deliberately
and directly kill the child – who is, let us never
forget, totally defenceless and completely
innocent.
The second casualty is the woman who undergoes
the abortion. She not only suffers the great
possibility of physical complications e.g.
bleeding, infection and the probable inability to
have full-term normal children later, but also
frequent psychological problems that fall under
the term “post abortion syndrome” that
overwhelms her like a tidal wave within 6 months
to 2 years after her abortion. These are: growing
grief and sadness, uncontrolled weeping, she
re-experiences the death-scene of her unborn
child, a sense of worthlessness, depression,
despair and finally the desire for and often
attempts at suicide.
The third casualty are the family members: the
children, father of the aborted child and even
the grand parents are often devastated by the
destruction of the child that would have been part of the family!
Lastly, the abortionist and his team often suffer depression
and even a mental breakdown.
Some reflections
Abortion is not a “catholic” but a human issue. We enjoy
various natural “rights” e.g. the right to vote, etc. But the right
to life is the most fundamental right that each human being
both born and unborn enjoys since “life” (existence) is the
first gift we receive and is the gateway to all the other gifts.
This right does not come from any human source to the unborn
baby, but from God Himself! Hence aborting a child is a
violent “No” to God!
Secondly, abortion is anti-woman. Far from “liberating” her,
the woman who has had an abortion is trapped in a sea of
physical and mental suffering (mentioned above).
Thirdly, abortion leads mankind down the path of self
destruction as terrible consequences follow the infanticide and
child abuse e.g. the battered baby syndrome that has almost
reached epidemic proportions in the U.S.A.
Fourthly, it is significant that most countries that have legalised
abortion are now clamouring for the legalisation of euthanasia.
The Church’s Stand on Abortion
“We must allude to another very serious crime, that which attacks
the life of the child while yet hidden in the womb of its mother...
Can any reason ever avail to excuse the direct killing of the
innocent? The infliction of death whether upon the mother or
upon the (unborn) child is against the commandment of God
and nature viz. “Thou shall not kill!” The lives of both are
equally sacred and no one, even any public authority, can ever
have the right to destroy them.” (Pope Pius XII).
More recently the Second Vatican Council has labelled abortion
as an “unspeakable crime” and rightly so since a totally innocent
and defenceless human being is killed! That is why the Church,
to remind us of the seriousness of the crime of abortion, has
placed the penalty of automatic excommunication on any
Catholic woman who has an abortion, and also on those who
have co-operated or forced her to have it.
However it must be said that every sin can be forgiven. So if
such a woman/couple truly repent, both the sin of abortion
and the penalty of excommunication can be removed in the
sacrament of reconciliation.
The major cause of widespread abortion is
widespread contraception.
Prof. D. DeMarco (in his book “The Contraceptive Mentality”)
states that the regular use of artificial family planning methods
hardens the heart and should these fail, couples
more easily abort the child; e.g. in the U.S.A.
women using contraceptives seek abortion twice
as often when the method failed, as compared
to those who did not use contraceptives; in Japan
this figure was six times more and in the U.K.
it was 8.7 times more as compared to women
who had unplanned pregnancies without the use
of artificial methods. Thus, it can be safely
concluded that the habitual use of contraceptives
leads couples from an anti-conception attitude
to an anti-life attitude.
How can we counter the war on the
unborn?
Very briefly these means are:
- unceasing prayer and penance;
- value-based sex education; stressing that sex
is a beautiful gift for the expression of
committed love between married persons. Such
value-based sex education should preferably be
given in the home, by parents;
- not to condemn the unwed mother and her
family but offer both true moral - and if needed
financial - support;
- since contraception is the tree from which
the bitter fruit of abortion grows, fight
contraception by offering couples a safe, reliable
moral alternative viz. natural family planning
(NFP). It is important for the reader to be made
aware that modern NFP besides being truly
reliable, its use (unlike contraception) has the
outstanding advantage of promoting happier
marriages as shown by the very low divorce
rate among NFP users, as compared to non-NFP
users!
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Article courtesy JeevOtsav published by the Diocesan Human Life Committee, Archdiocese of Bombay. Originally printed as Abortion: Direct deliberate destruction of human life. Copyright © 2004 Fr. Joseph Menezes. All rights reserved.
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