Abortion--Commentary

Abortion is the holocaust of our day. Millions of unborn babies are aborted each year and seem to quickly forgotten. For an abundance of specious reasons, millions more will be aborted in the future. The vast majority of these unborn babies had beating hearts by the time they were aborted since the related pregnancy was undiscovered or the decision for abortion was not made until the heart was functioning. I am deeply puzzled how anyone can justify terminating the life of these unborn children. It is an incredible irony especially in the United States, the most affluent country in the world, that innocent, unborn children are so readily aborted. I believe that everyone will someday have to answer to God about how they acted in regard to abortion. I also believe that God is merciful to all who have been involved in abortion, ask forgiveness, and change their ways. I pray that this holocaust will come to an end. I support Right to Life organizations such as the local Sacramento Life Center. My wife and I walk each year in the Walk for Life demonstration in San Francisco. I encourage others to join in activities and programs which seek to end abortion.

My words lack the eloquence of Mother Teresa's. She makes a much better case against abortion in her speech to the United Nations (1985) which I quote in part below:

Yes, this is what you and I, today, if we really stand for why we have come here today, to begin that year of peace, we must begin at home, we must begin in our own family. Works of love begin at home and works of love are works of peace. We all want peace, and yet, and yet we are frightened of nuclear wars, we are frightened of this new disease. But we are not afraid to kill an innocent child, that little unborn child, who has been created for that same purpose: to love God and to love you and me.

This is what is such a contradiction, and today I feel that abortion has become the greatest destroyer of peace. We are afraid of the nuclear wars, because it is touching us, but we are not afraid, the mother is not afraid to commit that terrible murder. Even when God Himself speaks of that, He says “even if mother could forget her child, I will not forget you. I have carved you on the palm of my hand, you are precious to me, I love you.” These are God’s own words to you, to me, to that little unborn child. And this is why if we really want peace, if we are sincere in our hearts that we really want peace, today, let us make that strong resolution that in our countries, in our cities, we will not allow a single child to feel unwanted, to feel unloved, to throw away a society. And let us help each other to strengthen that. That in our countries that terrible law of killing the innocents, of destroying life, destroying the presence of God, be removed from our country, from our nation, from our people, from our families.

And so that today, when we are praying, let us bring again and again prayer in our life. For prayer will give us strength. Prayer is something that will help us to see God in each other, to help us to love one another as He loves each one of us. This is something that you and I must bring to the world. The whole world is looking up at you. You have gathered here, from all the nations to find the ways and means of peace. For sure, works of love are works of peace, and they begin in our family. Much suffering, much destruction has come from the home, from the family. By destroying the unborn child, we are destroying the presence of God. We have destroyed love. We have destroyed the most sacred thing that a human being can have: the joy of loving and joy of being loved.

And so today, when we have gathered here together, let us carry in our hearts one strong resolution: I will love. I will be a carrier of God’s love. For that is what Jesus came to teach us: How to love one another. And to bring Him to love at home, in our own family, in our own... to those that are unwanted. Maybe in our own family we have the lowly.

 Complete address at: http://www.piercedh earts.org/ purity_heart_ morality/ mother_teresa_ address_united_ nations.htm

I stand with Mother Teresa on this issue. We philosophize and theologize while innocent unborn children are aborted. She wanted to see all unborn children protected. I agree with those who are very concerned about related social issues: who will adopt, feed, care for these children once they are born. I have worked with Catholic social programs for unwed mothers who chose not to have abortions. We did not adopt their children but we helped house, feed, and clothe them. We also referred them to adoption agencies and job programs when needed. Sadly, as some have pointed out, many parishes do not offer these kinds of programs. They do exist in many dioceses if you search them out. I found several in the Sacramento diocese. Our talk about saving the unborn is truly meaningless unless we are willing, like Mother Teresa, to help them to eat once we have helped them to live. We are also called to care for those who hunger no matter what their position on abortion might be. I have found it easier to find programs for the hungry (soup kitchens and shelters for the homeless) than programs for helping those facing an abortion decision. Mother Teresa  also addressed the hunger issue in her speech the United Nations when she said:

We all speak of the terrible hunger. What I have seen in Ethiopia, what I have seen in other places, especially these days in terrible places like Ethiopia, but the people in hundreds and thousands are facing death just for a piece of bread, for a glass of water. People have died in my own hands. And yet we forget, why they and not we? Let us love again, so let us share, let us pray that this terrible suffering be removed from our people. Let us share with them the joy of loving, and where does love begin? Again I say in our family, in our home. Let us bring love, peace and joy through prayer. Let us bring prayer, pray together, for prayer will give you a clean heart. I will pray for you that you may grow in this love of God, by loving one another as He loves each one of you, and especially that through this love, you become holy. Holiness is not a luxury of the few. It’s a simple duty for each one of us. For holiness brings love, and love brings peace, and peace brings us together.

Mother's Teresa's combination of praying and getting involved at the grass roots level makes the most sense to me.

2017: I recently e-mailed Susan Money who organizes 40 Days for Life in Sacramento where Barbara and I prayed the rosary in front of an abortion clinic near Arden Way:

Great hearing from you. I read your story about the man whose mother was raped. I believe, like you, that no abortion is okay. But I understand why those who have been raped might resort to abortion compared to those who resort to it for mere convenience or some perverse form of birth control. It can also be said that the abortion issue would be a much smaller issue if it were only happening in cases of incest and rape. The issues of rape and incest have only been used as an excuse for out of control abortion on demand.

Ultimately, the Lord is the one to judge what is in the hearts of those who have an abortion. Our job is to provide a timely alternative, to pray for a change of heart, and to beg the Lord's mercy on all of us sinners in our daily struggles to follow His Way.   Jim