Abortion emerged as a momentous and defining issue in the early days of the health-reform debate and yet, at the end, it was deemed hardly worth mentioning.
The Monday-morning quarterbacks can chalk it up to politics as usual, but for those of us whose lives revolve around overturning Roe v. Wade, this morning after opened a dark day indeed.
But no one should celebrate: Even with the passage of this abortion-friendly bill, reform is far from certain, and certainly a long way off.
The abortion debate is bigger and more important than the health-care reform debate, and the apparent inability of our nation to avoid wrestling with the abortion issue is another sign that until we resolve it the right way, we will not be able to make the progress we need to make on health care or any other matter of social justice or human rights.
Despite the views of some in political office, abortion is not an aspect of health care. In fact, this destructive and violent act does not even deserve the name “medical procedure.”
As I told members of Congress during a prayer service prior to Sunday’s vote, a medical procedure is supposed to help the body to do what it is trying to do but is having trouble doing. Abortion is just the opposite: It stops the body from doing what it is supposed to do and is doing very well. And in stopping the life of the child within by an unnatural and cruel method, it introduces numerous complications for the health of the mother.
Last year, the World Economic Forum’s “Global Gender Gap Report” found that nations with the most restrictive abortion laws have the lowest rates of maternal mortality. While the report itself did not make that connection, Samantha Singson of the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute did, and her analysis held up as she hop-scotched around the globe. Abortion hurts women.
If it is our goal as Americans to make abortion safe, legal and rare, we are failing catastrophically on two fronts. Thousands of babies are murdered in the womb every day, adding up to more than a million a year. No one can argue that this procedure is rare; in fact, it is one of the most frequently performed elective surgeries.
And safe? Ask the patients of Dr. Kermit Gosnell in Philadelphia, whose license to operate his house of horrors was suspended last month and whose résumé includes the death of at least two women.
Ask the four children of Alexandra Nunez who thought their mother was having a cyst removed in January, when instead she made an appointment with death at a Queens, N.Y., abortion facility.
Ask the woman in Englewood, N.J., who in December was left in a coma and later required a hysterectomy following an abortion in a clinic where dirty forceps and a quarter inch of dirt and debris were found under an examining table.
Ask the 9,000 women who have registered their regret with the Silent No More Awareness Campaign. Abortion hurts women.
Because the “right to choose” has been elevated to a sacrament in our prevailing culture of death, abortion is allowed to remain the most unregulated of medical procedures, particularly in low-income neighborhoods. How many physicians have become millionaires with the blood of the unborn forever staining their hands — and their souls? Too many to count.
Abortion is not health care, it is not respectable, and it deserves the same kind of rejection by society as slavery, segregation and terrorism. And yet, 219 U.S. representatives have bought into the lie that abortion is a vital aspect of health care for women. But now the ball is back in our court.
This law due to be signed with much fanfare by the most pro-abortion president this nation has ever elected will be challenged in many ways. Officials in three states already are planning to sue on the grounds that it is unconstitutional.
Perhaps more importantly, Republicans have vowed to repeal the bill once they are back in the majority. That means every pro-life voter, and everyone still sitting on the fence, must go to the polls to ensure that November’s elections will bring about the changes the American people want to see.
At Sunday’s prayer service in the Capitol, I spoke about the fact that authority and power mean service and that the people whom the legislators serve are not their people, but God’s people.
We govern ourselves; our voices matter. Thank God that, when legislators take public policy the wrong way, there are ways to remedy that. Let’s get started.
Father Frank Pavone is national director of Priests for Life.
Edward Pentin: Pope Francis, the Mafia, and Pro-Abortion Politicians
Comments
Post a Comment
Is there a way for us as a fallen race to ever accomplish something great? I suppose all of the works of our hands will always be imperfect… but do they have to be THIS imperfect?
Fr Frank has a good point; what happened in Massachusetts was the voice of what America wants - in a place most people never thought it would happen in that way! Obviously, Obama really wanted this thing, but I don’t think he thought it would be this much of a fight, nor that Ted Kennedy’s seat would go to a no-to-ObamaCare candidate (and a Republican). Massachusetts, just like Concord in the American Revolution, will be likely only the beginning of things to come. If we want good things to happen, November is at least one way to get them started.
Don’t forget, this isn’t Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia; there is a lot of good we have, and obviously a lot more freedom to defend it than those places. Reagan was a good example of the triumph of the truth; evil will have it’s day, but not more than that! If we are Christians, things will change, like in the Roman world. Let’s do that, and evil will fall.
“Despite the views of some in political office, abortion is not an aspect of health care. In fact, this destructive and violent act does not even deserve the name “medical procedure.’”
Right on, Father Frank! For me, the ObamaCare bill (not “health care” bill) was almost an excuse to get money for abortions. FOCA couldn’t do it, so he had to dress it up under some other cause. As Father said, this is far from over - America’s voice will be heard, even if this wasn’t the occasion.
Said beautifully Father! Amen. How thankful we should be to have you in this world.
I so agree . I’m so in mourning and disappointed in what the political part of our nation has become . God will judge the wicked He let get put in office too . Thank Him that they only will be here temporarily . I sure won’t vote for anyone for abortion . Not even again for those . Who seem to confess pro-life but turn around like Judas’ against us . For when the righteous rule , people rejoice .When the wicked rule , people mourn .
What does MA have to do with it? That state already has health care for all of its citizens.
I think that the Republicans claim to be pro-life, and talked about how a society is judged by how it treats the most vulnerable. However I found them to be hypocritical on this issue. The most vulnerable in our society are the unborn, the special needs, AND the sick who have no health insurance and are dying at the rate of 45 thousand per year. Their lives are important, too. I know from experience that insurance companies often act as % panels” They deny treatment, they raise rates until no average family can afford it, they care only about profits, and don’t care who dies. If the Republicans had done something about this when they were in power, this bill would not have happened. They never gave the 31 million uninsured people more than a passing. obligatory mention, and only when shamed into it by the Democrats. Then they claimed to have a health care plan, but they had nothing really. I don’t know if this health care bill will increase abortion, I hope that it does not. I do think a woman is more likely to get an abortion if she has no health insurance for herself and her baby.
To Mary: Can you tell me how many people WITH healthcare insurance die each year? Think about it!
The 45 thousand per year who die because they have no health insurance refers to people who put off going to the doctor (because they have no insurance) until their condition worsens and it is too late. These are preventable deaths. So, who cares, say the Republicans. Maybe they would have died anyway, people die for all kinds of reasons. Remember the Good Samaritan. We we must be neighbor to our brother. Jesus cared for the sick, devoting a large part of His ministry to them, obviously they are important to Him. I have seen first hand the way health insurance companies work. When my husband was younger we had the best insurance you could buy, and didn’t use it much. The insurance companies made huge profits on us. Now that he is a bit older and has a medical condition, the premiums went up so high even someone with a successful job like him had to struggle to pay it. Then he was denied coverage due to a pre existing condtion. MY children were hospitalized and the insurance company used every trick they could think of to attempt to avoid paying the bills. It was a full time job just arguing with them. This is what they do to people who are ill and at their most vulnerable. I would trust my health care much more to something like Medicare than to a profit oriented insurance company. If we want to win the pro life battle we cannot ignore other vulnerable members of our society.
To Mary: Don’t give me a sob story on why we should support this blood-soaked bill. No defender of innocent life would support expanding abortion in any way, shape or form would, especially if it’s going to send me to prison for not buying into it and soaking my hands with baby blood.
I refuse to comply with it.
No man or woman can serve 2 masters. In this case, the masters are heath care benfits for risking more lives of the inborn. 50,000,000 plus in 37 years. And now the elderly, a huge block called the baby-boomers, set to retire beginning in 2011, are at risk. Should Uncle Joe receive an extension for cancer treatments at age 75? Or, is it time to tell Joe no way. Such decisions will likley fall to someone Joe or his family do not know. Joe will not have a face to those making these “logical” financial decisions.
It is never right to support those who seek to play God. This bill literally throws the baby out with the bath water. Jesus expects us to defend all life. Will He accept arguments that one group or party does not care when we don’t know for certain, just to try to justify our position? What about the wreckless disrespect for life by the other group? Will He ask if we supported or defended the unborn with our thoughts, prayers, and words?
Those who truly know think about what abortion is and therby understand how wrong it is know that they can’t support this bill. Or benefit from it in any way. It is not blessed by God. For only God is the giver of life. Visit the Blessed Sacrament with a sincere heart, or Mass & Confession, or read the Diary of St. Faustina. In there, you will read about the pain that Our Lord suffered because of abortion during His Passion. He does not cast the murder of the unborn aside as easily as we like to. He wants us to think about how this offends His Father, and feel sorrow. So that we take our prayers and sincere pennance to Him. As St. Faustina found out.
God Bless.
There once was a man who proclaimed he did not believe in God. “God could never love anyone and if he existed, I would insist that he prove it to me”, he often proclaimed to friends. “God takes lives all the time and the poor and down-trodden are first on the menu”, he would say further. Even though the man was often kind to people all throughout his life, he believed that one should live life to the fullest in every way. He also believed strongly that a woman had every right to an abortion, and if she chose to do so, it was her business only.
One day the man found himself in front of an abortion clinic watching women walk in as protestors were praying and begging the pregnant women not to go in the clinic. A woman who was protesting began talking loudly to a young pregnant woman who was walking into the clinic. This immediately enraged the man and he began yelling at and cursing the woman who was protesting and others began to join in.
The young woman walking into the clinic became scared and upset at both the woman protesting and the man, and immediately turned and ran away from the clinic. This enraged the man and others even more and they escalated their yelling and insults toward the woman protestor. The woman protestor cried and left the scene.
Many, many years later the man was in a serious car accident and was thrown from the car. As he lay dying, many people consoled him as an ambulance rushed to the scene. A young priest who had also been called to the scene began to perform last rites. The man, although in terrible pain and very terrified, gruffly said to the priest, “Don’t waste your breath with that prayer, Father, I’m not a Catholic and even if I was, God has never gone out of his way to help me – take a good look”.
The priest gently smiled at the man and stopped saying the last rites. After a few seconds, the priest began to softly recite the Divine Chaplet of Mercy. “For the sake of His Sorrowful Passion, have Mercy on us and the whole world”, he recited over and over. The man peacefully passed into darkness.
Suddenly, a great light engulfed the man along with great love. The man was more afraid than ever as he knew he was in the presence of God. He asked what was happening and who it was that he was speaking to. He asked this because he could only see one form but felt there were others in the area as well.
“I am Jesus, Son of the Living God, and you have been born to a new life.
We are here to judge your life on earth”. Immediately, as in a video, the man began to see his entire life in review. The good and the bad.
Many times when he helped the poor, other times when he freely partook in sins of the flesh. Times when he helped the elderly, and times when he intentionally hurt other people. The life review seemed to stop as quickly as it had started and the man felt ashamed.
Quickly, however, the man recovered, and recalled what he had said to friends during his life. “What chance did I have when my creator never showed any effort to reach out to me with love?” “Why did you not even try a little to help save me from myself?”.
The Lord looked lovingly at the man and played back the life scene in front of the abortion clinic. The man was mortified as he watched himself become enraged. He was overcome with resign and asked the Lord what happened to the woman protestor who had left the scene those many years ago.
The Lord responded, “She was called to me a few days later, she had accomplished her mission”.
“And what of the woman that decided not to have an abortion that day?”, he asked.
“She bore a healthy son and passed to me after childbirth, she had accomplished her mission”.
The man looked down and felt very sad. He slowly looked up and softly said to the Lord, “I wish I would have met her son; that I could know what he looks like and see how he turned out in life”. But, I never did, and yet you show me these images anyway.” Lord, can you not show me one instance in my life where you went out of your way even a little bit to show the extent of your love for me”?.
“You met her son at the twilight of your life”, said the Lord, “He will be joining us soon – he has accomplished his mission”. “Come, let us go to heaven”.
The man felt happy, relieved, and curious all at once, and felt compelled to ask Jesus two final questions. “Who was this woman’s son and what was his mission?” , asked the man.
“He was a simple priest who believed in God’s Mercy, and you were his mission”, responded three voices.
Mary, Pardon me a moment, but are you trying to compare 45,000 people to the 1.2-1.3 million children who are slaughtered each year by abortion. They are indeed the most vulnerable of society, and I am certain that Jesus would not want them to be a sacrifice so that others could have an easier life; rather, we are all expected to embrace some type of hardship on our journey to sainthood. Now, we may say that reform was necessary for the healthcare system, but this was not the reform that would be considered in acceptable in the Catholic mindset, as would we suffer our innocent to die so that we could have healthcare. It seems like a sacrifice to Moloch more than anything else. There are certainly other things that could have been done to reach a positive result and not suffer our most innocent to a horrific death. As far as insurance and debts, I understand them quite well. I am a veteran of the armed forces and returned back ill. I have struggled with my health and with visiting the VA Hospital, private clinics, attempting to get insurance, etc. and ran myself into debt, but saying that I still would not sacrifice one innocent soul to make my life easier. Change needs to be accomplished but what we see before our eyes is an illusion of the devil. Serving our fellow man is an admirable thing, but we must remember the ends do not justify the means.
Of course I’m not comparing the 1.2 million lives lost in abortion to the 45,000 lost due to no health care. Are you saying that if this bill did not pass those 1.2 million abortions will stop? Will this bill increase abortion, and if so, how? Right now, a woman can get an insurance policy that covers abortion. Under the new bill, unfortunately, a woman can still get an insurance policy that covers abortion if she writes a separate check for the coverage. What has changed? How will that alone increase abortion? If so, by how much? Is that really a factor in such a decision? How so? It is more expensive to pay for insurance coverage for abortion than it is to pay out of pocket for an abortion, in the long run, since an abortion is a few hundred dollars. I think that a much bigger factor is that a woman will be more tempted to have an abortion if she has no health care for herself or her baby. ( but I know, who cares about anything like that?) When people feel economically distressed, abortions increase. Look at the economic crisis, caused in large part by greedy Republicans. Abortions started increasing when the crisis hit, after dropping for years. Our current state of health care was well on the road to bankrupting our country. If you really study the statistics, you will see that. No Republicans did anything about it in all the years they were in power, even thought they were warned it had reached a terrible crisis. If our economy falls apart, abortions will surely increase. The idea that the health care bill will bankrupt our country is propaganda put out by profit hungry insurance companies and their Republican cronies. Insurance companies have no morals, yet how trusting So many are of them. I was not giving you a sob story, I was explaining that I have personally observed that they have no morals whatsoever. The path we were on was unsustainable, health care is one sixth of our economy, soon to be one fourth, and no economy can sustain that. It is impossible.
Jesus spent a large part of his ministry caring for the sick, he didn’t say to them “You are already born, don’t give me your sob story” That is for typical unempathetic Republicans to do, not the Lord. He cared about sick people. He spent a large part of His ministry caring for the sick. People were important to Him, not “only unborn” and no one else. We need a society that reflects that if we want to win the pro-life battle.
If we live in a society that says only unborn people matter, and other people don’t matter, abortions will increase in the long run.
Firstly, republicans are not the sole issue here, but the inherant greed of people for money and power. Secondly, this bill will expand abortion, as it does not prohibit federal monies being used for it. We may comment on the executive order that was written; however, an executive order is not law. Rather, it is used as an instrument for the executive branch to execute functions to enforce the law and no where in the bill is there anything that prohibits federal funding for abortion; therefore, we may see the executive order struck down by this president, a future president, or thrown out when challenged in court. Saying that, this current administration has done little to curtail the abortion culture and this feeble attempt to hide their chicanery is no exeception. Abortions will increase not only because of the support Planned Parenthood and others like them find in this current administration, but also because of sexual education programmes that are part of this growing monstrosity. As a result, it is highly likely that abortions will continue to increase if not by medical procedure, then by abortifacient drugs. I once again reiterate we are to care for our fellow man, but this reform, as it was done, was not the proper way. Had the language of protection been included in the bill, it would be a completely different story, but that is not the case.
I have a question… would someone do me a favor and type up the exact language in the new health care bill that describes everything about the abortion issue? I am pro-life, but I feel like many people in the pro-life movement are exaggerating what the health care bill actually says about abortion. I’m not saying that the bill is in the right when it comes to the abortion issue, because it probably isn’t, but I find it difficult to trust a source that says that a doctor “operate[d] his house of horrors” because even though it’s true that abortion is really awful, that kind of phrasing is used to get an emotional reaction out of people and I don’t think that people who feel like they have to use that language are hiding important details… Thank you.
Post a Comment
By submitting this form, you give The National Catholic Register permission to publish this comment. Comments will be published at our discretion, and may be edited for clarity and length. For best formatting, please limit your response to one paragraph and don't hit "enter" to force line breaks.