The scandal over Planned Parenthood’s harvesting and sale of baby body parts renews for so many people, particularly those who have had abortions, the question, “What happened to my baby? What was done with his or her body?”
One of the most striking of the many experiences I’ve had praying and counseling outside of killing centers across America was the day the truck pulled up on the side of the road right where we were standing, to pick up the body parts of the aborted babies. A man got out of the truck, went into the abortion mill, and came out a little later carrying two boxes. He opened the back of the truck and there were dozens of other boxes inside.
This truck was going to the various abortion mills in that city, picking up the bodies as “medical waste.” I stood there looking at the open truck, and conducted an impromptu wake service for those babies in the few moments that we had before the truck pulled away.
We can debate abortion from morning to night and bring up every argument there is. But nothing has the impact of being in the presence of the bodies. And that’s true no matter what one’s position is on the issue. Those who favor abortion are confronted again with a humanity that they deny; those who oppose abortion are renewed in their love of the humanity they defend.
That’s why this Saturday, the National Day of Remembrance, is so important. This event, sponsored by Priests for Life, Pro-life Action League, and Citizens for a Pro-life Society, will be the third annual observance, when simultaneous memorial services will be held at dozens of gravesites of aborted babies all across the nation, and at many more memorial stones set up to remember the unborn. (A list of locations, and details about the event, are at www.AbortionMemorials.com).
CLICK LIKE IF YOU’RE PRO-LIFE!
Indeed, what happens to the bodies? Most of the time they are discarded and incinerated as medical waste. Sometimes they are literally just thrown out in the trash, or flushed down the toilet or garbage disposal. And, of course, sometimes they are sold to researchers and universities, at a convenient price.
The bodies that are buried in the dozens of graves where people will gather to pray this Saturday were, in many instances, recovered from the trash dumpsters outside abortion clinics. Some of them were obtained from pathology labs. One burial I conducted was for aborted babies whose bodies were given to me by a pathologist, who had obtained them from an abortion mill. The bodies were intact, and at least one of these babies may have been born alive!
At the gravesite where I will pray and preach on Saturday, at the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Los Angeles, over 16,000 babies are buried. In fact, the service will mark the 30th anniversary of their burial. The babies were discovered in a locked storage container and were the subject of a three-year court battle between pro-lifers who wanted to honor them with a burial and abortion advocates who wanted them disposed as medical waste, thus further denying their humanity. The babies finally were buried in 1985.
The attempt thirty years ago to deny any semblance of humanity to these children flows from the same mindset on display just yesterday as the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing entitled, “Planned Parenthood Exposed: Examining the Horrific Abortion Practices at the Nation’s Largest Abortion Provider.” The Democratic members of the committee insulted both the intelligence and moral sensitivity of the American people as, one after another, all they could do was to call into question the evidence and object to the way it was obtained, rather than joining the Republican members who called into question how Planned Parenthood could allow the atrocities the evidence points to, and objected to the killing and selling of children.
As the National Day of Remembrance is observed this Saturday, a week-long national prayer campaign also begins for an end to abortion and the evils of Planned Parenthood. Churches are asked to have their members join in specific prayers and intentions that focus on the conversion of abortionists, the healing of those who have had abortions, and the strengthening of public officials. See www.PrayerCampaign.org.
So let’s mourn, let’s pray, and let’s restore protection to the unborn!
LifeNews.com Note: Father Frank Pavone is the national director for Priests for Life.
