Over 2,000 years ago, a very tragic event occurred in the land of Judea. King Herod the Great, in response to an announcement by the magi that the "King of the Jews" had been born, ordered that all male infants in Bethlehem be executed. This event came to be known as the "Massacre of the Innocents," and the children who were killed came to be known as the "Holy Innocents." They are considered to be the first Christian martyrs, and were eventually canonized as saints by the Roman Catholic Church. Every year we celebrate their feast day on December 28th. I have developed a devotion to them over the course of my life, and often ask for their intercession, especially during trying times.
In this day and age, a new group of holy innocents has emerged. They are the many children who have been slaughtered through the horrific, but legal, act of abortion over the course of the last 38 years here in America. For it was on January 22, 1973, that the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion in the case of Roe vs. Wade. It was a controversial decision that dramatically changed the landscape of our country.
By now, we've all heard the arguments on both sides. The "pro-choice" activists (who I will more accurately refer to as "anti-life") claim that life does not begin until the moment we are born. A fetus is not a human being. "It" has no rights. "It" can be discarded like yesterday's trash. "It" is not entitled to life, liberty, and happiness like all other Americans. To the anti-life movement, abortion is not a social issue. It is a personal issue, one to be decided by a woman in consultation with her doctor. It's her body, and thus her choice.
For the life of me, I have never understood how someone can possibly believe this argument. When you see the graphic images of those children who have been murdered through abortions, how can someone deny that they are human beings? The anti-life movement would rather us not be able to view these images, or for pro-lifers to display them during peaceful protests. Why? Because ignorance is bliss.
Those of us who are pro-life know full well that life begins at conception. We need not say why, because God has already said it for us:
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations." (Jeremiah 1:5).
Thus Sacred Scripture tells us that God has a plan for us even before we are born. To destroy that life is to destroy God's plan, and to intentionally destroy God's plan is an evil act. Nothing can be more straightforward.
The anti-life argument that abortion is not a social issue is extremely short-sighted. To say that it doesn't have a direct effect on the moral compass of our nation is to deny the truth. To argue this point, I turn to two future saints: Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
Pope John Paul II called our culture a "culture of death." To him, nothing epitomized this characterization more than the legalization of abortion. If we allow the most innocent human beings to be directly attacked and brutally murdered, then what message are we sending? Mother Teresa backed up the pope's argument by stating that a society which allows abortion will always be plagued by violent crime. How can you tell people not to kill each other in the streets when you are permitting them to kill innocent babies? Mother Teresa said that society will never be able to fully recover unless it first recognizes the grave evil that results from the acceptance of abortions.
There has been some progress in reversing this travesty, but not nearly enough to get to where we as a civilized society need to be. The ban on partial-birth abortions (abortions in the last trimester of pregnancy) is a small step, but it merely implies that life doesn't begin until a fetus reaches the age of six months. How can someone arbitrarily say that life begins at six months in the womb, or five months, or four months? It is completely illogical. Life is life, and it begins at the moment of conception.
What really upsets me about this issue is how the anti-life movement has managed to place the burden of proof on pro-lifers. Here's what I mean. The anti-lifers have basically said, "If you believe that life begins at conception, then prove it. Prove it beyond the shadow of a doubt." But why is that acceptable? Why is the burden of proof not on the anti-life movement, who should have been forced to prove beyond any doubts that life does not begin at conception? After all, they are the ones who are committing, or at least supporting, an act. When you act, you must be able to justify your actions. You must be able to give a legitimate reason for why you're doing what you're doing. But they have never been forced to do so, and that is a massive miscarriage of justice.
I have argued in previous blog posts that as America has drifted further and further away from God, and religion has become less and less a factor in our lives, the evil we see on a daily basis increases in both frequency and severity. Abortion is yet another perfect example of this. Look at what has led up to it. Is the lack of sexual morality not the major reason why abortion is so commonplace? When children were better instructed in faith and morals, unwanted pregnancies were extremely rare. As religion became less relevant and sexual morality less prevalent, the number of unwanted pregnancies exploded. Common sense should tell us that there would be no need for abortions if this casual attitude toward sex never developed.
One thing I want to make clear is that I am fully aware that having an abortion is rarely an easy decision for a woman. It must be especially hard if the woman is an innocent victim of rape or incest. But another fact that the anti-life movement has tried to sweep under the rug is that having an abortion can lead to extreme psychological and emotional distress. Many a woman has fallen into deep depression and suffered irreparable damage by going through with the decision to have an abortion. So while the decision itself can be excruciating, the act is often far more devastating than the woman could have ever imagined.
Several years ago, I did volunteer work at St. Joseph's Social Center in Elizabeth, New Jersey. They had a soup kitchen, collected clothes for the needy, and offered counseling services for substance abuse and women who were considering having an abortion. One day, I sat in on one of the counseling sessions and marveled at how one of the counselors convinced a young woman to carry her pregnancy to term. When the young woman left, I complimented the counselor and praised her for her uncanny insight. Only then did she tell me that she once had an abortion herself, and that the guilt was so overwhelming that it nearly drove her to commit suicide. Thus she had decided to dedicate her life to educating young women and preventing them from making the same mistake she did. I could never forget her story and how her voice resonated with the determination to help others make the right moral choice.
I still truly believe that one day, America will look back and realize the mistakes that led to her decline. Our leaders will save the ship before it sinks, by leading people back to God and back to having faith and morals. Once we get there, we as a nation will realize how horrible abortion is, and what a grave mistake it was to legalize it all the way back in 1973. The plaintiff in that case, Ms. Norma Jean McCorvey, has come full circle and now realizes that what she did was wrong. Just as she herself has realized the error of her ways and become a staunch pro-life advocate, so I believe that our entire country can one day do the same.
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