By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK
The baby parts sale scandal at Planned Parenthood is being aided and abetted by another scandal: the refusal of vast portions of the mainstream media to cover the issue. The release of numerous videos that detail the brutal and criminal killing and dismembering even of babies outside of the womb in order to obtain body parts for sale has been routinely ignored for weeks by the big names in television and the press.
Catholic News Agency reported that “tens of thousands” protested federal funding of abortion at Planned Parenthood abortion mills across the country last week. Some bishops also took part in demonstrations planned in response to the videos detailing the sale of baby parts as part of the abortion business’ profit scheme.
According to CNA, Eric Scheidler, executive director of the Chicago-based Pro-Life Action League, said that “with 240 out of 342 cities reporting” over 58,000 people turned out to protest on August 22. This extraordinary outpouring of witness for the unborn who cannot speak for themselves is a beautiful gift of solidarity for our world. The Church has certainly played a big role together with others of good will by responding to this call to speak for Christ made known largely by individuals speaking out on social media.
CNA reported in the news item released on 23 August, “In the videos released by the citizen journalist group Center for Medical Progress, Planned Parenthood officials discussed the collection and transfer of body parts from aborted fetuses, compensation and itemization of the parts, and possible alteration of abortion procedures to obtain more intact specimens.” The organization receives more than $500 million yearly from the federal government, also as reported by CNA.
While we continue to pray for justice for both unborn babies and their parents, as well as the grace of conversion for all who reject the humanity of the pre-born child, we must continue to speak out, as here in my weekly column, or wherever we are able to be heard on social media, in homilies, on blogs, in parish bulletins, by letter and in contact with our elected representatives who have the power to act and stop federal funding of abortion on demand.
There is positive news beside the fact that so many individuals of good will are working together so well to get the news out and inform more people in regard to the facts about abortion and Planned Parenthood. “We are winning” is the way that the widely respected Professor Robert George recently described the battle on the ground for human life in our day.
In the January 2015 story, CNA reported following the March for Life on these and more encouraging remarks delivered by Professor Robert George to an estimated 2,300 high school and college students and chaperones gathered after the annual demonstration.
“Victory is in sight for the pro-life movement, as technology and rhetoric witness to the cause of life,” Princeton Professor Robert George told an audience of high school and college pro-life activists January 23.
“On the fundamental question of whether abortion is good or bad, liberation or killing, the argument has been won,” said George, the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University.
Drawing an analogy between the civil rights movement of the 1960s and the present-day pro-life movement, George invoked Dr. Martin Luther King who, on the night before he was assassinated, predicted victory for the movement. “I’ve been to the mountaintop and I’ve seen the Promised Land,” George quoted King.
“I feel in my own way,” he added, “ ‘I’ve been to the mountaintop’.”
“The reason for optimism in the pro-life movement, George said, is its ‘victory in the realm of ideas.’ For instance, he pointed to name-change of NARAL Pro-Choice America. While the group used to have ‘abortion rights’ in its name, the reference to abortion has now been removed.
“Abortion ‘was once a great cause for them,’ the professor said, but ‘now they have to hide it.’ This is because ‘the public is not with them, not on the argument.’
“The emergence of technology has also been key for the pro-life movement, he added, noting the proliferation of ultrasound machines that show an infant in the womb.
“ ‘You cannot sustain an argument for abortion over the long term with that reality starting you in the face,’ he said, emphasizing that while legal abortion remains, ‘we have won the argument.’ “ (Source CNA)
The battle for the recognition of the right to life of every child in the womb is not first a religious or faith issue but a matter of justice. The legalization of abortion and its funding by the federal government are violations of a fundamental principle of justice and are therefore incompatible with everything for which our nation stands: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for everyone. Without life there are no other rights.
Continue the fight for the sanctity of human life wherever the Lord of Life has placed you and with all the means He has entrusted to you. This is the most important struggle for justice of our time. Declare in every way the sacredness of every human life from conception to natural death in all its stages and conditions.
Thank you for reading. Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever.
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