Page 11 - Michael 2024 May

The horrible crime of abortion

On March 4, 2024, France became the first coun- stunned and incredulous. I saw this child dismem-
try in the world to explicitly enshrine in its Constitu- bered in its mother’s womb. I’ll never forget what
tion the right to abortion—in other words, the right to the doctor said next, “Beam me up Scotty.” The last
kill a defenceless human being—after a vote of 780 thing I saw was a spine twirling around in the moth-
parliamentarians (deputies and senators) in favour er’s womb before succumbing to the force of the
and 72 against. On this occasion, French President suction.
Emmanuel Macron declared: “France has today be- “The screen went black, and I knew the abortion
come the only country in the world whose Constitu- was over. I had just witnessed a death. I had just
tion explicitly protects abortion (or the ‘right to volun- witnessed a human response, that survival reflex
tary termination of pregnancy,’ as they say in France) that exists in all of us. I realised at that moment that
in all circumstances, and we will not rest until this Planned Parenthood had lied to me (by letting me
promise is fulfilled everywhere in the world.” believe that the unborn child was not a human be-
Today, abortion is trivialised, as if it were a sim- ing, but just a mass of cells, and that abortion was
ple, benign surgical operation. And yet... In the eyes therefore not the murder of an innocent child).”
of God, to declare the freedom to These were the words of
kill one’s child as a right is certain- Saint Teresa of Calcutta in Oslo,
ly a crime that cries out to Heaven Norway, on December 10, 1979,
for vengeance, and entails great when she accepted the Nobel
punishments for countries that al- Peace Prize:
low it. “The greatest destroyer of
For those who still have peace today is the cry of the
doubts about the violence and innocent unborn child. For if
horrific crime that is abortion, a mother can murder her own
here is the testimony of Abby child in her womb, what is left
Johnson, the former director of for you and for me to kill each
a Planned Parenthood clinic in other? Even in the Scripture it is
Texas for eight years, who left her written: “Even if a mother could
job in 2009 and became a pro-life forget her child, I will not forget
activist after seeing how an abor- you, I have carved you in the
tion was carried out. Her memoir, palm of my hand.” (Isaiah 49:15-
Unplanned, has been adapted 16.)
into a film in 2019: “But today millions of unborn
On September 26, 2009, Abby Aborted babies are the new children are being killed. And we
was asked by a doctor to attend martyrs of our age say nothing. In the newspapers
an ultrasound-monitored abor- you read numbers of this one and
tion. The procedure was performed on a woman that one being killed, this being destroyed, but no-
who was 13 weeks pregnant. Abby watched the body speaks of the millions of little ones who have
screen as the baby fought for its life and tried to been conceived to the same life as you and I, to the
move away from the instruments used by the doc- life of God, and we say nothing; we allow it…
tor. At that moment, she knew she could no longer
“And so today, let us here make a strong resolu-
pretend that this was not a human life. tion: we are going to save every little child, every un-
“When the doctor came in, he told me, to my born child, give them a chance to be born. And what
great surprise, that it would be safer if he could see we are doing, we are fighting abortion by adoption,
what he was doing when he performed an operation. and the good God has blessed the work so beauti-
He said he would show me what an ultrasound-guid- fully that we have saved thousands of children, and
ed abortion looked like. My job would be to hold the thousands of children have found a home where
probe over the woman’s abdomen so that the doc- they are loved, they are wanted, they are cared…
tor could, in his words, “visualize his target”. Today, I ask His Majesties here before you, all who
“The doctor began the procedure. He inserted come from different countries, let us all pray that we
the suction tube, which had not yet been switched have the courage to stand by the unborn child, and
on. When he touched the baby, the baby gasped; give the child an opportunity to love and to be loved,
it began to move and gesticulate its arms and legs, and I think with God’s grace we will be able to bring
trying to move away from the suction. I stood there, peace in the world.” v

www.michaeljournal.org MICHAEL May/June/July 2024 11