Shockingly, some of us have yet to ask ourselves why Planned Parenthood, NARAL, ACLU, NOW and other rabidly pro-abortion groups are adamantly, fiercely opposed to any law that would require women planning to abort to watch the ultrasound of the baby growing inside them. Well, Jesus, who is Truth, gives us the answer in John 3:20-21:
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed. But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.
It is our sacrosanct duty to heed Christ’s call and come to the Light. Failing to do all in our power to fight for the life of every single baby is not in any way drawing close to the Light who is Christ Jesus. It is a deliberate choice to stay in the penumbra to allow those who choose to walk in darkness to continue to destroy budding new human lives in ways that are so barbaric and inhumane that if they were used on an animal, criminal charges would be issued.
To claim to be personally opposed to abortion while not being committed to fight for laws that defend life from conception to natural death is a choice to remain cowardly in the shadow. Past all the raucous noise, insults, charges levelled against those with whom one disagrees; past even the hatred that so many harbor towards those who have authority over us, including presidents and governors for whom we are actually ordered by God to pray (cf. 1 Timothy 2:1-3) and past the refined excuses that allow some to pay just lip service to the duty of protecting life, what will these people reply to Jesus on Judgment Day when He will answer them “what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.” (Matthew 25:45)
I cannot think of anyone more “least” than a preborn baby!
They will fall silent because they would have been fooled by those who claim that fighting for human life in the womb is just one of the many life issues that should concern every single Catholic. They would have refused to see the obvious as spelled out repeatedly by the Popes, including Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis: if every single life in the womb is not protected, any other life issue becomes moot and pointless. The culture of death will have won. In other words, if on one plate of the ethical scale we place the life of a preborn child and all the other rights he or she would have if allowed to live on the other plate, the plate of the child’s life should be heavier.
At a pro-life rally last year on May 26, Pope Francis stated that to be actively involved in an abortion is the equivalent of hiring a hitman to murder an innocent person. The teaching of the Catholic Church is very clear and has been so since her inception. Just read the Didache, a teaching treatise from the time of the Apostles, written even prior to some of the books in the New Testament and see what it says about it! 2:2 … thou shalt not kill a child by abortion, neither shalt thou slay it when born;…The Catechism of the Catholic Church (Second Edition) in #2270 through #2275 states that human life must be protected absolutely from the moment of conception. The word “absolutely” means that no direct abortion is allowed, not even to save the life of the mother. This teaching has not changed over the first 20 centuries of the Church’s history and remains unchangeable.
Recently, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops stated that our fight against all abortions is preeminent among our calls to action. That means that, before we get involved in other worthy causes, we have to have done our share to protect all human lives ever conceived.
From reading the Holy Scripture we gather that no child is “unwanted.” Our Creator God has a plan for each child in the womb. This should give us goosebumps thinking that the destruction of preborn human life is an attack on God’s plan and yet it is, by some, called “healthcare.” Such cynicism and callousness have to spur us to action. We should see right through the euphemisms adopted by those who have selective disregard for some preborn babies. Those euphemisms like healthcare and reproductive rights are not only oxymorons (it is not healthcare for the baby destroyed, and it is clearly unproductive as the “product” of the womb is concerned), but they also rob those babies of their dignity as creatures made in the image of God.
Yet, of course, those who do not see any problem in making truth and reality subjective, hold that it is up to the woman to decide if she brings a child into this world at the end of her gestation or if she has some “unwanted tissue” removed. Reality and truth must not be determined by personal choices. They are absolutes. When all is said and done, we are confronted by fundamental choices: on one side we can cherish and fight for religious freedom as taught by the Catholic Church, the pillar and foundation of truth also on issues of life and death (cf. 1 Timothy 3:15) or we let the culture of death also take from us our heartfelt adherence to the Lord who is the Way, the Truth and the Life and who came among us so that we may have life in abundance. “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10)
