Catholic Replies
Q. We often hear that some new law will compel Catholic hospitals or schools to adopt practices contrary to faith and morals. Could such a hospital or school accept NO government money (i.e., taxpayers’ money) and thereafter be free from any immoral demands? — C.E., via e-mail.
A. They could try, and some colleges have done so, but unfortunately many Catholic institutions are entangled with the government through such things as loan guarantees or Medicare reimbursements and would be hard pressed to continue functioning without these federal funds. The problem, as the U.S. Supreme Court ruled many years ago, is that whatever the government subsidizes it may control.
A further problem is that the government does not hesitate to impose its gender and “equity” rules even on private businesses which are not accepting government funds. The increasingly tyrannical reach of the federal government over all American citizens is truly frightening, and the problem will not go away until we elect freedom-loving Americans to all positions of political power, from the federal to the state to the local level.
Q. The latest ploy of those in favor of abortion is to say that Jesus never condemned abortion or that abortion is justified by the commandment to love our neighbor. How can we respond to this attempted justification for killing babies in the womb? — W.R., via e-mail.
A. The question refers to two statements. One was by MSNBC Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough, who described himself as a “back-sliding Baptist” who knows the Bible and said that “Jesus never once talked about abortion.” It’s true that Jesus never mentioned the word “abortion,” but just because something is not specifically mentioned in the Bible does not mean that it’s morally okay.
The word “pornography” does not appear in the Bible, nor the words “human trafficking” or “homosexuality” or “drunken driving,” but no one would attempt to excuse those evils by saying that they are not in the Bible.
It would be interesting to see how many of those who defend abortion on the grounds that the word is not in Scripture at the same time excuse or even practice evils that are specifically condemned in the Bible, such as adultery, fornication, sodomy, and divorce. In any case, here are some Bible passages that celebrate life in the womb and imply that abortion is wrong:
“The Lord called me from birth, / from my mother’s womb he gave me my name” (Isaiah 49:1).
“You formed my inmost being; / you knit me in my mother’s womb. / I praise you, so wonderfully you made me; / wonderful are your works! / My very self you knew; / my bones were not hidden from you, / When I was being made in secret, / fashioned as in the depths of the earth” (Psalm 139:13-15).
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, / before you were born I dedicated you” (Jer. 1:5).
At the visit of Mary, her elderly relative Elizabeth said: “For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy” (Luke 1:44).
While the Bible was still being compiled in the first century, a collection of apostolic writings called the Didache stated: “You shall not procure abortion. You shall not destroy a newborn child.” Bear in mind, too, that one does not have to be a Bible believer to know that abortion is evil. There are atheists who oppose abortion because it is contrary to nature and to a well-ordered society to allow the murder of innocent members of that society.
The responsibility to protect the most vulnerable members of the human family from a barbaric method of execution should be obvious to all reasonable people, especially since five decades of genocide against the unborn have led to the killing of persons along the whole spectrum of life, from the womb to the tomb. We have reached the point where no one’s life is safe if someone wants to end your life for social or political or selfish reasons.
The other statement came from Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, who has made California a “sanctuary” state for women who are seeking an abortion. His re-election campaign is paying for billboards in seven pro-life states (Texas, Indiana, Mississippi, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Oklahoma), saying that these states don’t “own your body” and directing women to California’s website: www.abortion.CA.gov.
The signs also contain a quote from the Gospel of Mark, verse 12:31, that says, “Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no greater commandment than these.” Using the plural “these” means that there must be another commandment besides love of neighbor. Jesus indicated as much in the previous verse, which reads: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” Jesus called this the first of all the commandments and love of neighbor the second.
But by what bizarre thinking does Newsom believe that killing millions of innocent unborn children demonstrates love of neighbor? Aren’t the unborn our neighbor? Aren’t our neighbors the mothers who are so terribly scarred, physically and mentally, by the killing of their babies? And what about the Commandment that says, “You shall not kill”? And what about the command of Jesus to “let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” (Matt. 19:14).
Newsom has said that he will “fight like hell to protect our rights and our values.” The choice of words is appropriate since the “values” he espouses are those of Hell and of Satan, whom Jesus called “a murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44). Gavin Newsom and Joe Scarborough are in need of the same prayers that converted abortion champion Dr. Bernard Nathanson.
Q. The dissenters in the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade claimed that women are “14 times more likely to die by carrying a pregnancy to term than by having an abortion.” That can’t be true. — R.V., via e-mail.
A. No, it’s not true. In the words of Dr. James Studnicki of the Charlotte Lozier Institute:
“Anyone who takes that figure seriously has never looked at a statistics book in his or her life. U.S. maternal mortality data is seriously flawed. Several states don’t report abortion statistics at all, and in many of the states which do report, the data are inconsistent.
“In countries with comprehensive data on all pregnancy outcomes, study after study has shown that women who get abortions have much higher mortality rates than women who give birth. In some of these studies based on comprehensive, real-world data, each abortion is linked to a 50 percent increase in the risk of a woman’s premature death.”
Dr. Ingrid Skop, a board-certified OB/GYN, also questioned the justices’ statement that “abortions are medically necessary to prevent harm.” She said that “the reality is that medical care in America is now so advanced, even in high-risk pregnancies, that the usual result is the safe delivery of a healthy baby alongside a healthy mother. There are rare cases where it is necessary to deliver a baby pre-term to save the life of the mother, and sometimes the baby does not survive. But that’s not an abortion, where the intent is to take the life of the baby. What I’m talking about is compassionate medical care that seeks to save both mother and baby and, if the baby doesn’t survive, to at least treat mother and baby with dignity and respect.”
