More than 1,000 pro-life people attended a funeral for seventeen aborted babies whose remains were discovered earlier this year in a trash dumpster used by the Woman’s Choice abortion center.
Members of the Citizens for Pro-Life Society organization discovered the allegedly illegal dumping of fetal remains in dumpsters outside the Woman’s Choice abortion clinics in Lansing and Saginaw.
They also found patient documents including the names of women who obtained abortions at the facilities and bloody instruments.
At least 1000 people in a public display of grief and mourning, packed St. Mary’s Cathedral on Saturday and paid their respects to the babies victimized by abortion. The aborted babies, whose bodies once laid at the bottom of a garbage container, were brought before the sanctuary in a simple white infant’s coffin for a funeral Mass celebrated by Lansing bishop Earl Boyea.
Boyea also presided over the aborted babies’ funeral rite at St. Joseph’s Cemetery where 500 of those present for the Mass attended.
Monica Migliorino Miller, director of CPLS, told LifeNews.com, “It was clear that, for many, the funeral rites were a very moving experience. Even women who had had abortions were present.”
Pro-life activist Chris Veneklase discovered the remains of the aborted babies on February 26 after searching the Womans Choice dumpster after the clinic had completed its abortions for the day. The bags holding the babies’ remains were marked with the names of the mothers and dates of the abortions.
Their discoveries prompted a seven-month-long investigation involving the Michigan Attorney General’s Office as well as the Eaton and Saginaw County Sheriff’s Departments. The Attorney General’s office has not yet completed its findings in connection with the Woman’s Choice clinics.
“The Michigan Attorney General’s Office is still investigating the patient records issue, contrary to earlier reports that this investigation was concluded,” Miller said. “However, according to current Michigan law, it is not illegal to toss the remains of aborted babies or medical waste into a common trash dumpster if fixed in formalin solution.”
The discovery led to passage of a bill in the Michigan state House concerning the proper burial of babies who are victimized by abortions.
Miller said pro-life advocates intend to file complaints against Womans Choice clinics for violations of the federal HIPAA law — regarding breaches of patient confidentiality.
“In the meantime however, the 17 unborn babies killed are laid to rest. They are part of the very tiny minority of the over fifty million children killed by abortion to ever find their way into a human cemetery,” Miller said.
“The abortion clinic treated these human beings as if they were trash,” she added. “Pro-lifers buried them—and treated them with dignity and respect.” [related]
Miller sees a larger point for the abortion debate related to how the babies were treated.
She concluded: “In this we see the clash of two cultures—and it matters which one shall prevail. This grave is a place of justice and healing—healing for all the mothers and fathers who grieve the loss of their aborted child. But this grave is also an indictment—an indictment against a nation that allows this sort of atrocity. The voices of these unborn children cry out to us from the ground that covers them now. Let us hear their plea and end the injustice of abortion.”
