The Visibility of the Fetus
by Abbot Joseph
I read recently that some pro-abortion activists were getting all bent out of shape over the advances in technology—specifically ultrasound imaging of unborn babies—that make it easy to see that an unborn baby is in fact an unborn baby. So they lamented that the most formidable obstacle to their deadly agenda is the “visibility of the fetus.” Let us be glad that some states are enacting laws that will force Planned Parenthood and other baby-killers to offer ultrasound imaging as part of the decision-making process for pregnant women. This has wrought havoc in the unholy halls of “reproductive health.”
But let’s look at the dishonest attitudes and approaches of those who should have finally seen the light. One would think that if abortion providers and promoters really were honest and sincere in their assertions that a pregnant woman was just carrying a “blob of tissue” in her womb that was in no way a child (though for that they would have to ignore decades of scientific research and, for some, their own gruesome experience—as well as common sense: “if you’re pregnant, it’s a baby!”), one would expect a different response at the ultrasound image. An honest response would be: “Look, we’ve been wrong all along! It really is a baby, even at very early stages of development! We’ve got to get the news out because babies are being killed and we have been a part of it. What can we do to make up for what we’ve done?”
That would be the normal, ethical reaction when one is presented with such clear evidence—unless one isn’t interested in truth. The actual reaction was: “It really is a baby, even at very early stages of development! Damn! Now what do we do? We have to keep this information from the public. We can’t let anyone see this. Why, they won’t want to have abortions anymore if they know they are really killing their children, and our lucrative positions will simply disappear!”
All the rhetoric about women’s rights and women’s health is pure baloney. If they cared about women they wouldn’t profit off their vulnerability and be so aloof to the physical and psychological (not to mention spiritual) damage they heedlessly inflict on them. They’re not concerned about women or children. They are concerned about money and political power. Period.
Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, who is viciously pro-death (Obama is just as bad), is making abortion one of her key rallying points. Here are a few things she has said about the necessity of promoting abortion (from Catholic World Report, March 2008). People who think unborn children have a right to life are, in her words, “anti-choice forces.” She says: “We should be careful about our complacency. Many of these policies [like making it a crime against two persons when a pregnant woman is harmed] sound perfectly reasonable to the untrained ear. But they are not reasonable when you realize the true intention… These policies are meant to chip away at all reproductive rights” [emphasis in original].
So one has to be properly “trained” to realize the intentions of pro-lifers. One needs special training to dislodge one’s common sense, high moral standards and willingness to follow the evidence where it leads. And the pro-abortion people like Clinton are not interested in looking at any particular cases or any particular level of abortion practice. They’re not even willing to say: this should be legal but that shouldn’t. That is because, again, they are not interested in truth but in a particular agenda. The argument she gave above is the same one given for people who promote partial-birth abortion, even when they themselves find it barbaric: we have to allow this because if we don’t, they’ll come after our other “rights.”
Then her spiritual blindness becomes obvious. I quote from the article: “As a Methodist, Hillary Clinton sees no incompatibility between her position on abortion and her views of a loving Jesus… [Clinton’s gynecologist and friend William F. Harrison] estimates that he has conducted at least 20,000 abortions since the 1970s. He candidly calls himself an ‘abortionist’ and concedes, ‘I am destroying life.’ He believes he is giving life by saving women from botched abortions, and thus declares his patients ‘born again.’” Such language is blasphemous; he is not even allowing children to be born at all, yet he speaks in Christian terms about the blessings he’s bestowing upon the women whose children he slaughters. That’s what “born again” means to this machete messiah.
There is a distinct possibility that soon our country will be led by someone who will push abortion “rights” to the maximum and enact legislation to firmly entrench it in our society. We haven’t fared very well in the present administration either, for despite the rhetoric and a few token vetoes, the abortion business goes on as usual. But at least now the veils are lifted, for anyone who cares to see. Gone are the arguments that the unborn child somehow isn’t a child. That has been scientifically proven beyond a shadow of a doubt (not to mention that it has already been known everywhere and by everyone for millennia). Now the argument is no better than: we want to do this so we are going to, and just try to stop us! Money talks, power drives, and the altars of convenience are set up everywhere for human sacrifice.
God help America. He has been patient with us for a long time, but who knows when He will finally pronounce judgment on a country that routinely slaughters its young—and this not only without lamentation but with triumph and banners of freedom and prosperity. How shall we pray, for they do know what they do?
Yet even in the midst of all this, “the fetus is visible”—for those who will see, for those who still have a shred of conscience left. The little person on the sonogram says, “I am human; I am a person; I am created in the image of God. And I will see you on Judgment Day.” The more eyes that are finally opened, the better chance we have, as a nation, to say NO to those who think they have a right to kill children. Not the White House for such, but the jailhouse.
Abbot Joseph is the Abbot of Mt Tabor Monastery (officially called Holy Transfiguration Monastery) in Redwood Valley, California.
Permission is granted to copy or quote from his posts for use elsewhere under two conditions: you don't alter the text and you acknowledge the source.
More articles by Abbot Joseph
by Abbot Joseph
I read recently that some pro-abortion activists were getting all bent out of shape over the advances in technology—specifically ultrasound imaging of unborn babies—that make it easy to see that an unborn baby is in fact an unborn baby. So they lamented that the most formidable obstacle to their deadly agenda is the “visibility of the fetus.” Let us be glad that some states are enacting laws that will force Planned Parenthood and other baby-killers to offer ultrasound imaging as part of the decision-making process for pregnant women. This has wrought havoc in the unholy halls of “reproductive health.”
But let’s look at the dishonest attitudes and approaches of those who should have finally seen the light. One would think that if abortion providers and promoters really were honest and sincere in their assertions that a pregnant woman was just carrying a “blob of tissue” in her womb that was in no way a child (though for that they would have to ignore decades of scientific research and, for some, their own gruesome experience—as well as common sense: “if you’re pregnant, it’s a baby!”), one would expect a different response at the ultrasound image. An honest response would be: “Look, we’ve been wrong all along! It really is a baby, even at very early stages of development! We’ve got to get the news out because babies are being killed and we have been a part of it. What can we do to make up for what we’ve done?”
That would be the normal, ethical reaction when one is presented with such clear evidence—unless one isn’t interested in truth. The actual reaction was: “It really is a baby, even at very early stages of development! Damn! Now what do we do? We have to keep this information from the public. We can’t let anyone see this. Why, they won’t want to have abortions anymore if they know they are really killing their children, and our lucrative positions will simply disappear!”
All the rhetoric about women’s rights and women’s health is pure baloney. If they cared about women they wouldn’t profit off their vulnerability and be so aloof to the physical and psychological (not to mention spiritual) damage they heedlessly inflict on them. They’re not concerned about women or children. They are concerned about money and political power. Period.
Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, who is viciously pro-death (Obama is just as bad), is making abortion one of her key rallying points. Here are a few things she has said about the necessity of promoting abortion (from Catholic World Report, March 2008). People who think unborn children have a right to life are, in her words, “anti-choice forces.” She says: “We should be careful about our complacency. Many of these policies [like making it a crime against two persons when a pregnant woman is harmed] sound perfectly reasonable to the untrained ear. But they are not reasonable when you realize the true intention… These policies are meant to chip away at all reproductive rights” [emphasis in original].
So one has to be properly “trained” to realize the intentions of pro-lifers. One needs special training to dislodge one’s common sense, high moral standards and willingness to follow the evidence where it leads. And the pro-abortion people like Clinton are not interested in looking at any particular cases or any particular level of abortion practice. They’re not even willing to say: this should be legal but that shouldn’t. That is because, again, they are not interested in truth but in a particular agenda. The argument she gave above is the same one given for people who promote partial-birth abortion, even when they themselves find it barbaric: we have to allow this because if we don’t, they’ll come after our other “rights.”
Then her spiritual blindness becomes obvious. I quote from the article: “As a Methodist, Hillary Clinton sees no incompatibility between her position on abortion and her views of a loving Jesus… [Clinton’s gynecologist and friend William F. Harrison] estimates that he has conducted at least 20,000 abortions since the 1970s. He candidly calls himself an ‘abortionist’ and concedes, ‘I am destroying life.’ He believes he is giving life by saving women from botched abortions, and thus declares his patients ‘born again.’” Such language is blasphemous; he is not even allowing children to be born at all, yet he speaks in Christian terms about the blessings he’s bestowing upon the women whose children he slaughters. That’s what “born again” means to this machete messiah.
There is a distinct possibility that soon our country will be led by someone who will push abortion “rights” to the maximum and enact legislation to firmly entrench it in our society. We haven’t fared very well in the present administration either, for despite the rhetoric and a few token vetoes, the abortion business goes on as usual. But at least now the veils are lifted, for anyone who cares to see. Gone are the arguments that the unborn child somehow isn’t a child. That has been scientifically proven beyond a shadow of a doubt (not to mention that it has already been known everywhere and by everyone for millennia). Now the argument is no better than: we want to do this so we are going to, and just try to stop us! Money talks, power drives, and the altars of convenience are set up everywhere for human sacrifice.
God help America. He has been patient with us for a long time, but who knows when He will finally pronounce judgment on a country that routinely slaughters its young—and this not only without lamentation but with triumph and banners of freedom and prosperity. How shall we pray, for they do know what they do?
Yet even in the midst of all this, “the fetus is visible”—for those who will see, for those who still have a shred of conscience left. The little person on the sonogram says, “I am human; I am a person; I am created in the image of God. And I will see you on Judgment Day.” The more eyes that are finally opened, the better chance we have, as a nation, to say NO to those who think they have a right to kill children. Not the White House for such, but the jailhouse.
Abbot Joseph is the Abbot of Mt Tabor Monastery (officially called Holy Transfiguration Monastery) in Redwood Valley, California.
Permission is granted to copy or quote from his posts for use elsewhere under two conditions: you don't alter the text and you acknowledge the source.
More articles by Abbot Joseph
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