Torture evokes for most of us feelings of dread, anger and loathing, responses based at least in part on the fear that it could happen to us or to someone dear to us. Because of today’s headlines, the word “torture” itself calls up images of an Abu Ghraib prison, or the beheading of a Nick Berg, or the “necklacing” of some unnamed victim of Africa’s internecine wars. For some people the term brings back acutely painful memories of childhood abuse at the hands of a demented parent or some satanic cult.
There is another form of torture, sanctioned by this country’s legislation, which receives far less attention, because to speak of it is politically incorrect. Yet it is the most widespread form of torture used in this country, and it needs to be recognized and named for what it is. I’m speaking about the torture associated with various forms of mid- to late-term abortions.
More than thirty years ago, Justice Harry Blackmun of the U.S. Supreme Court declared: “the word person as used in the 14th Amendment does not include the unborn.” This opinion, enshrined as law by Roe v. Wade, greatly facilitated the rush toward convenience abortions by the subtle message it conveyed. If a “fetus” (as distinct from a “child”) is not a “person,” then presumably that fetus is devoid of personal characteristics, including the capacity to feel pain.
Pro-life people tried to sensitize the public to the truth of the matter by a variety of means, such as the film “The Silent Scream,” and graphic descriptions of saline abortions. It was all to no avail. The American public has accepted abortion as a normal feature of its cultural life, including the procedure known as “partial-birth” abortion. As we must all certainly know by now, this involves rotating the pre-born, full-term infant; drawing the body, feet first, out of the birth canal so that only a portion of the head remains “unborn”; then stabbing the back of the child’s head to make an opening, so that the brain can be vacuumed out and the skull crushed. In this way thousands of babies are killed each year, although reputable witnesses, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, have declared that there is never any medical need for such procedures. It is nothing other than a legally sanctioned means to rid oneself of an unwanted child. In other words, legally sanctioned infanticide.
At the beginning of June, the media reported the decision of U.S. District Court Judge Phyllis Hamilton, holding that the congressional ban on partial-birth abortions was unconstitutional. She argued, against prevailing medical opinion, that there is no clear evidence that a child experiences pain as a result of the procedure. And she added that the question of pain is “irrelevant,” presumably because the laws allowing it give no consideration to the issue of pain, but focus entirely on the “rights” of the mother to end the life of the child growing within her.
One pro-life media source, www.lifenews.com, noted what can only be regarded as an appalling irony: “Hamilton said the issue of fetal pain is also not germane because unborn children may feel greater pain in other abortion procedures such as ‘disarticulation abortions’—where the baby is dismembered.”
Does a newborn infant feel pain? Does a child in the womb feel pain? The answer should be self-evident, if for no other reason than the fact that a pregnant woman often feels the child’s reaction to her own stress. And the monitoring of children who are being aborted shows undeniably that they experience acute pain throughout the procedure, that is, until they are dead. Imagine yourself (or your child) being torn literally limb from limb, until some vital organ is destroyed and the agony finally ends.
This is ugly stuff, I realize. It is bound to provoke a hostile response on the part of pro-choice people and some bitter anguish on the part of women who have undergone an abortion. I very much regret adding any distress to the many women who are suffering what is known as “post-abortion syndrome.” And I readily acknowledge that there are times when a woman simply cannot bring a conceived child to term, when her only recourse is to abort. (As has often been remarked, many “pro-choice” women in fact have no real choice whatever in deciding to end their pregnancy.)
But for too long we have kept silent about this entire question. During the past three years or so, pro-life concern has focused almost entirely on embryos, primarily because of the dispute over harvesting embryonic stem cells for therapeutic purposes. Embryonic life is certainly human life, and it needs to be respected and protected to the fullest extent. Yet the nervous system is not integrated before about the eighth week after fertilization. This means that the embryo feels no pain.
This is not the case with a developing “fetus”: a child growing in the womb. The principle of protecting embryonic life must unquestionably be preserved and defended. But still more important is protection extended to a sentient being, in this case a child who can feel pain, who can fully experience the consequences of being torn apart or having scissors thrust into the back of his or her skull.
The moral standing of a society is measured by the way it treats its most vulnerable members, particularly the very young and the very old. If American society considers the pain suffered by a child during an abortion to be “irrelevant,” then we have sunk to the level of barbarism. It may be irrelevant given the laws we allow on the books, and it may be irrelevant to those who profit most from the abortion industry. But it cannot be considered irrelevant by anyone with a moral conscience.
It is time, then, that we broaden our attention and speak out loudly and clearly to legislators, medical professionals and others who shape public opinion. It’s time we look reality in the face, acknowledge what we are doing to 1.3 million unborn children each year, and—while we beg God’s forgiveness and healing for our moral blindness—work in our parishes, in our homes, through pro-life organizations and in our legislatures, to end what has rightly been called the “abortion holocaust.” It’s time we hear the Gospel command to offer our “little ones” to Christ: not as victimized cadavers, but as living, prosperous, secure and cherished bearers of His divine image.