Being Human: Abortion and the Church

The philia and agape action of the Church essentially curbed abortion and infanticide up to our own era, more or less to the early 1960s. During the late twentieth century, a humanistic worldview and situational ethics eroded the Judeo-Christian base for moral absolutes. Out went the sacredness (the intrinsic value) of human life. Today, preborn infants, babies born with infirmities, people frail and aged, are again seen as expendable and disposable. Grievously, the devaluation of females is also a recurring reality with our postmodern world. 

Girls at risk

Mother Teresa taught that abortion undeniably is anti-female: “Three-quarters of its victims are women: Half the babies and all the mothers.” The Nobel Peace Prize recipient famously explained:

The so-called right to abortion has pitted mothers against their children and women against men. It has sown violence and discord at the heart of the most intimate human relationships. It has aggravated the derogation of the father’s role in an increasingly fatherless society. It has portrayed the greatest of gifts – a child – as a competitor, an intrusion, and an inconvenience.

The diminishing and erasing of girls is unabated. As in the pre-Judeo-Christian world, female fetuses are particularly targeted. Today, there are between 80 million to 100 million “missing girls” from sex-selective abortion and infanticide. All discarded for simply being female. In Canada, abortion-induced gendercide is permitted and takes place.

Imperfections

Termination of pregnancy for fetal abnormality (TOPFA) is legal in 113 countries. Canada, the most permissive Western nation for TOPFA, permits such abortion for any serious and non-serious reason. Or for no reason at all. 

Today, the most devalued babies (in addition to females) are those with Down syndrome, or Trisomy 21. Fetuses known or suspected to have Down syndrome are routinely terminated. In some Canadian provinces, nearly 85 percent of preborn children having Down syndrome are aborted. In the UK, almost 90 percent. Denmark, 98 percent. Iceland, virtually 100 percent. As actress Patricia Heaton, Honorary Chair of Feminists for Life, deplores, “Iceland isn’t actually eliminating Down syndrome. They’re just killing everybody that has it.”

Infants are not persons

Some years ago, I had the opportunity to meet with human rights speaker, Melissa Ohden. Ogden had been born alive during a failed saline abortion and left for dead among discarded medical waste at a hospital in Ohio. She was later rescued by a nurse who heard her whimpers.

According to many prominent atheists, all babies, even after their birth, have “no moral right” to life. These physicians and ethicists are arguing for the legalization of infanticide for newborns with a disability, morbidity, or having survived an intended abortion. They include Drs. Michael Tooley, Jerry Coyne, Francesco Minerva, Alberto Giubilini, Peter Singer, and Helga Kuhse. This proposed practice – by means of exposure or euthanizing – is termed an “after-birth abortion” or “fourth-trimester abortion.” 

Our contemporary West has moved decidedly away from baseline moral absolutes (inherent with Judeo-Christian belief) to postmodern moral relativism. Christian ethicist Peter Kreeft observes that this worldview says that “only some humans are persons, for those who are given rights by others (that is, by those in power).”

An example of this ever-increasing, non-inviolability belief is reflected in a recent 2020 poll. This survey revealed that 9 out of 10 Belgian nurses and physicians believe it to be morally permissible to perform infanticide on newly born infants having a serious but non-lethal neonatal condition.

Australian bioethicists Francesca Minerva and Alberto Giubilini go further. That is, to be able to legally euthanize perfectly healthy infants, since “newborns do not have the same moral status as actual persons.” Renowned American ethicist Peter Singer agrees, “Since neither a newborn infant nor a fish is a person, the wrongness of killing such beings is not as great as the wrongness of killing a person.”

We are back to the many past lived realities of the pre-Judeo-Christian world. Abortion is again commonplace. At particular risk again are preborn baby girls and infants with imperfections. In fact, any unwanted preborn baby is at risk for a host of explanations.

Excerpt from Being Human: Abortion and the Church. This recently released publication is designed for people of faith who are pro-choice, or uncertain about the Christian legacy and beliefs  on abortion. It examines the views and practices of the universal church, epoch and present day, on the morality of abortion and the pastoral call for helping women experiencing pregnancies. Being Human is available from Amazon Books.