Rachel's Hope, 858-581-3022. Rachel's Hope is especially designed for Catholic women.
website at http://www.rachelshope.org.
What is a laminaria?
This is a small bit of dehydrated material inserted into the cervix one day in advance. If you have had a laminaria inserted, please go immediatly to a hospital for removal by a physician.
How does the pill work?
There are two types of birth control pills on the market today. The type most commonly used are called combined pills because they contain a combination of two horomoes (a synthetic estrogen and progestin). The other type, which is much less commonly used, contains only progestion.
Combined pills work the following ways:
- They usually, but not always, prevent ovulation
- They cause changes in the cervical mucous making it difficult for sperm to reach an egg
- They change the lining of the uterus in such a way that if the conception occurs, implantation of the newly-conceived human being is hindered
The primary purose of the combined pill is to prevent conception. However, if conception occurs, then an early abortion is very likely to take place.
Most women who use the combined pill are probably not aware of its abortive potential. Surely some women would not want to use the Pill if they knew that it can at times, work by causing a very early abortion.
Does the progestin-only pill work the same way?
Pills that contain only progestin (often called "mini-pills") are nto very effective in preventing ovulation. Therefore, they hunder sperm from reaching an egg (contraceptive action), and hinder implantation of a newly conceived human being (abortive action).
What about IUD?
There is little doubt that intrauterine devices (IUD's) work most of the time by causing early abortions. The IUD's primary purpose is to prevent a newly-conceived human being from implanting or remaining implanted in the uterus.
What is Natural Family Planning?
"Natural Family Planning" (NFP) relies upon the wife's understanding of her body's natural functions to determine when during her monthly cycle, she is fertile. Abstinence would be required during this fertile perious to avoide pregnancy. NFP requires no drugs or devices and unlike the Pill and IUS, is 100% medically safe. It is morally acceptable to major religious faiths. Instruction in the use of NFP is available in the Rochester area.
Studies have shown the Sympto-Thermal Method (one form of NFP) to be 99% effective in avoiding pregnancy for those who are motivated and properly instructed. Since NFP involves knowing when the fertile period occurs, it has been used by married couples not only to space their children, but also to help in concieving a child.
What is Chastity?
Chastity is a beautiful virtue in which sexual intimacy is reserved for marriage. Yet it is more than that. it is an attitude and a way of living. Chastity influences the way you dress, look at, talk about, and treat members of the opposite sex.
There are many good and practical reasons for reserving sexual intercourse for marriage: e.g. avoiding the worry of pregnancy, feeling guilty, being used, and contracting sexually transmitted diseases. Most of all, God wants us to reserve sexual intimacy for marriage. We know from the Bible that chastity and modesty are value that God wants us to practice in our lives.
Surley, in our sexually permissive society, practicing chastity may be difficult, but absolutely safe and rewarding.
Pro-Life America Saving babies and families from abortion! Speakers · TV · Radio · Videos · Literature
Abortion Methods Described
(Plus, Misleading Claims about Abortion)
Suction Abortion:
Used during the first three months of pregnancy - A suction tube (27 times stronger than a home vacuum cleaner) is inserted into the womb. The powerful suction tears the baby apart limb from limb and sucks it from the womb along with the placenta. The baby's remains are deposited into an attached waste bottle.
Dilation and Curettage (D&C):
Used at the end of the third month of pregnancy (approximately 12 weeks) - The cervix is dialated, ring forceps are inserted into the womb and the baby is extracted piece by piece. Then a curette (a sharp knife in a loop shape) is inserted and used to scrape away any of the baby or the placenta that remains. Profuse bleeding follows.
Dilation and Extraction (D&E):
Used after 13 weeks - The cervix is dialated and the unborn child is dismembered with plier-like forceps. Force is needed to pull the baby apart. The instrument is used to seize a leg or other part of the body and then, with a twisting motion, tear it from the baby's body. The baby's spine is snapped and the skull crushed. After the baby parts are removed, they are reassembled outside the womb to be sure all are removed. Frequently baby parts are left inside the mother's womb. This can cause serious complications and sometimes death.
Help is available for women who have been injured by abortion or for the families of women who have died from abortion. You can read about tragic abortion injury cases and find out who to call for legal help by clicking: Abortion Injuries or Deaths? Call: 1-800-U-CAN-SUE.
Partial-Birth Abortion:
Partial-Birth Abortions are used from the 4th month through the end of the 9th month of pregnancy. These late-term abortions are regularly used to kill healthy babies that pose no danger or threat to their mother.
For this abortion, the abortionist uses ultrasound to locate the unborn baby's legs. Forceps are then used to pull the baby's legs through the birth canal, delivering the baby feet first, except for the head. Scissors are then used to puncture the base of the back of the head. A suction device is then inserted to suction out the baby's brain so the skull will easily collapse. The dead baby is then removed.
Congress and the Senate voted twice to outlaw these gruesome abortions. Unfortunately, President Clinton wants them to remain legal and he vetoed the bill both times the legislation was sent to him for his signature. Because of President Clinton's two vetoes, this horrifying method of child-killing remains legal today.
Why would Clinton veto a ban on Partial-Birth Abortion when so many doctors and medical professionals were recommending that they be outlawed? The American medical Association's Council on Legislation voted UNANIMOUSLY to recommend to the AMA Board of Trustees to endorse the Ban on Partial-Birth Abortions.
Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, along with hundreds of physicians and the Physicians' Ad Hoc Coalition for Truth (PHACT) said that this "procedure" is never necessary to save the life of the mother.
Dr. Nancy Romer, FACOG, Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Miami Valley Hospital in Ohio said, "People deserve to know that the partial-birth abortion is never medically indicated either to save the health of a woman or preserve her future fertility."
Dr. Martin Haskell, an abortionist who specializes in these late-term abortions, has admitted to performing over 1,000 of these abortions. He stated in a recorded interview with the American Medical News (the official newspaper of the AMA) that: "In my particular case, probably 20% (of these procedures) are for genetic reasons. And the other 80% are purely elective." That means in 80% (that's over 800 babies) there was no health risk for the mother and the baby had no handicaps.
It has been documented that thousands of these abortions are performed each year. A New Jersey newspaper reporter with the Bergen County Record discovered and reported that 1,500 babies are killed each year by partial-birth abortion at one New Jersey "Hospital" alone.
It's hard to know exactly how many of these abortions are performed each year, but we do know that the Centers for Disease Control reported there are over 17,000 abortions performed each year on babies older than 4 1/2 months gestation. Whether it's partial-birth abortion, or some other barbaric method, it's a tragic holocaust.
If you would like to voice your outrage over these late-term abortions, please call the abortion telephone poll at 1-900-PRO-LIFE. You can find information about the telephone poll on our website by clicking 1-900-PRO-LIFE telephone poll.
Saline amniocentesis:
Used after 16 weeks - A concentrated salt solution is injected with an amniocenteses needle into the amniotic fluid. The baby breathes and swallows it and dies over an hour later of acute salt poisoning. The mother then delivers a dead burned baby. Use has declined because of dangers for the mother and sometimes the baby survives.
Prostaglandin:
Used late-term - Prostaglandin is injected into the amniotic sac causing premature labor and delivery of a dead baby
Inter-cardiac injections:
Poison is injected into the chest or heart of the fetus via a long needle inserted through the mother’s abdomen. The dead baby is absorbed. Sometimes this results in the loss of all the babies when using this method for "pregnancy reduction" with multi-fetal pregnancies.
Chemical Abortions: The Pill, RU486, methotrexate, Norplant, IUD’s, prostaglandin’s, and Depo Provera all cause early abortions. You may not be aware of the fact that the Pill has a "back up" abortifacient action that works to kill a baby very early in its development if ovulation occurs and conception takes place. With some of the new "mini-pills," scientific research shows that ovulation takes place in 67-81% of the women who use these "birth control pills."
Dr. Ronald Chez, a scientist at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), publicly stated that the new Pills of today, with their lower estrogen dose, allow ovulation up to 50% of the time! It is estimated that Chemical "Contraceptives" cause between 7 to 12 million early abortions each year in America (Source: Study of Abortion Deaths Ad Hoc Commission 1995). Most women using the Pill (and other "birth control" methods listed above) do not know they can become pregnant and have early abortions.
To find out more about the Pill and other chemicals that cause early abortions, click on: "Birth Control Abortions".
Misleading Claims about Abortion . . .
Claim: "It's my body."
Answer: A woman's body does not have two beating hearts, two blood types, two heads, four eyes, four arms, and four legs. A pregnant woman and her baby have all this and more. And what about when she's pregnant with a male baby? That's not her body . . . it's a unique, baby boy growing in her womb.
Claim: "It's only a fetus."
Answer: FACT: A fetus is a human being..... Fetus -- literally meaning "little one" in Latin -- refers to the pre-born baby after eight week's gestation. Webster's Dictionary says a fetus has, "passed the early stages of development and attained the basic final form prior to parturition (birth)." Some people seem to have forgotten they once lived and grew in the womb as a "fetus." Would it have been okay if they had been aborted when they were "only a fetus?"
Claim: "Abortion is legal, therefore, it must be right."
Answer: The U.S. Supreme Court has been wrong on many major decisions and then overturned itself. Remember the Dred Scott case on slavery? If the Supreme Court suddenly declared child abuse or rape legal, would that make them right? Would we ignore such injustices and do nothing to protect the innocent?
Claim: "Freedom of Choice" - It's a woman's "right to choose!"
Answer: How can anyone claim they have the "freedom" or "right" to kill an innocent baby? The only "choice" in abortion is between a dead baby and a live baby. Furthermore, advocates who defend this "choice" are not consistent. Why is it only in the case of abortion they argue that "choice" should be absolute? Using the same rationale, wouldn't people have the right to "choose" to use drugs ("it's my body") or the right to "choose" to practice prostitution? Humane societies don't tell people they have a "Freedom of Choice" to kill their own children. There are right choices and wrong choices. In recent history, millions of innocent people died because of terribly wrong choices which slave owners and Nazis thought they had a "right" to make. Terrible choices have led to dead slaves, dead Jews, and dead babies.
Claim: "The government shouldn't interfere."
Answer: Our Declaration of Independence declares that each of us has an "inalienable right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness." Thomas Jefferson defined government's role, "The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government." Government should protect all of us, especially before we are born, when we are most vulnerable.
Claim: "Poor women need public funds (your tax money) to pay for abortions so they're not be discriminated against."
Answer: The rich can readily afford cocaine and prostitutes. Should taxpayers also be forced to buy these for the poor? The bottom line is that abortion is the worst form of child abuse. It kills a baby and wounds the mother for life. If the poor cannot afford abortions, they and their children are blessed not to become victims of this bloody holocaust.
Claim: "I'm personally opposed to abortion, but I would not impose my morality on others."
Answer: What about other moral issues like rape, robbery, child abuse, arson and murder? What if politicians said, "I'm personally opposed, but . .. ." They'd be kicked out of office on the spot! What about slavery? If abolitionists had bought this "personally opposed, but" argument, some states could still be saddled with slavery today. Every law ever passed sets standards which reflect someone's (or a body of lawmakers') morality. A politician who won't vote against something he/she is morally opposed to doesn't have an ounce of honesty in his/her blood.
Claim: Privacy - "In 1973, The Supreme Court said women have a "constitutional right" to privacy on abortion."
Answer: The Court has been wrong before and it is wrong on this decision. Nobody has a right to injure or kill another person "privately." Does a "right to privacy" also protect parents who abuse, molest or kill their born children in the "privacy" of their home? Why not? What about their "privacy?" How is it that Roe v. Wade determined that unborn children are not "persons" even though they have the right to inherit property, the right to be protected from a drug-addicted mother, the right not to be killed by a drunk driver, and many other rights. Some states have entire sections of law outlining Crimes Against Unborn Children in which they are protected from negligent or willful harm or death from conception on.
Claim: "Dred Scott and Roe v. Wade aren't comparable."
Answer: Yes, they are comparable in that the Supreme Court was wrong to deny inalienable rights in both cases. The Dred Scott decision of 1857 upheld slavery as legal. That was wrong. It decreed that black people are the private property of the slave owners. This was a grave error made by the Supreme Court, denying African-Americans one of their most fundamental human rights -- the right to Liberty. In Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court erred again by denying a whole class of human beings (pre-born babies) the most fundamental right -- the right to Life.
Claim: "If legal abortions are banned, women will resort to dangerous back alley abortions."
Answer: In 1972, the year before the Supreme Court legalized abortion, a total of 39 women died from illegal abortions, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Dr. Bernard Nathanson, co-founder of NARAL (National Abortion Rights Action League), admits his group lied and inflated the number of women who died from illegal abortion when testifying before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972: "We spoke of 5,000 - 10,000 deaths a year. I confess that I knew the figures were totally false . . . it was a useful figure, widely accepted, so why go out of our way to correct it with honest statistics?" Claims that abortion became safer for women after it was legalized fail to acknowledge that large numbers of women are physically injured or killed by so-called "safe and legal" abortions every year. The book "Lime 5" documents 230 cases of women injured or killed by abortion or sexually assaulted by their abortionists (see page 18 and www.prolife.com for details). Former abortion provider Carol Everett states, "In the last 18 months I was in business (Everett ran four abortion centers in Texas in 1982), we were completing 500 abortions monthly and killing or maiming one woman out of 500."
Claim: Rape & incest - "Abortion should be legal to end a pregnancy resulting from rape or incest."
Answer: It's important to remember that the child conceived in rape, or incest, is no less human than any other child. Dr. David Reardon (http://www.afterabortion.com) points out that abortion is the very worst "solution" that can be offered to the pregnant woman at this crisis time in her life. Abortion compounds her problems. Abortion makes her an aggressor against her own innocent child and it never makes the painful memories of rape go away. If a small child were killed in the street by a negligent driver and it was later determined that the child had been conceived in rape, would the driver be held less responsible? Is that child's death less tragic?
Claim: "It's a woman's issue. Men should have no say."
Answer: Every baby has a mother and a father. Why should fathers be denied their parental rights? Men have a natural instinct to defend the innocent and the weak. More than half of America's pro-life movement is made up of women who want men to join their cause. Many women became pro-life after discovering their abortion was a terrible mistake. They know how painful abortion is from first hand experience and many ask men to get involved so fewer women and babies will become victims of abortion.
Also check out:
Chemical Abortions
http://www.lifesite.net/abortiontypes/chabortion_types.html
Abortifacient Contraceptives
http://www.lifesite.net/abortiontypes/pillabortion_types.html
Surgical Abortions
There are many methods of abortion. The procedure used depends largely upon the stage of pregnancy and the size of the unborn child. Dr. J.C. Willke, in his book, Abortion Questions and Answers (Hayes Publishing Co. Inc, Cincinnati, 1985), has divided the methods of abortion into three main categories: those that invade the uterus and kill the child by instruments which enter the uterus through the cervix; those that kill the preborn child by administration of drugs and then induce labour and the delivery of a dead baby; and, those that invade the uterus by abdominal surgery.
Dilation of the uterus is required in cervical methods of abortion. The usual method of dilation is to insert a series of instruments of increasing size into the cervix. A set of dilators, metallic curved instruments, are used to open the cervix sufficiently to accommodate the instruments of abortion. In contrast with a normal birth, where the dilation occurs slowly over a period of many hours, the forceful stretching by the abortionist to open the cervix takes a matter of seconds. This premature and unnatural stretching of the cervix can result in permanent physical injury to the mother.
Laminaria (dehydrated material, usually seaweed) is sometimes used to reduce damage to the cervix. Inserted into the cervix the day before the scheduled abortion, it absorbs water and swells, gradually pushing open the cervix in the process.
Eight-week pre-born baby
At eight to nine weeks the eyelids have begun forming and hair appears. By the ninth and tenth weeks the preborn child sucks her thumb, turns somersaults, jumps, can squint to close out light, frown, swallow, and move her tongue.
At this early stage of development, suction abortions are performed using a smaller tube, requiring little dilation of the cervix. This is called "menstrual extraction." However, if all the fetal remains are not removed, infection results, requiring full dilation of the cervix and a scraping out of the womb.
Suction Aspiration
This is the most common method of abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. General or local anaesthesia is given to the mother and her cervix is quickly dilated. A suction curette (hollow tube with a knife-edged tip) is inserted into the womb. This instrument is then connected to a vacuum machine by a transparent tube. The vacuum suction, 29 times more powerful than a household vacuum cleaner, tears the fetus and placenta into small pieces which are sucked through the tube into a bottle and discarded.
Dilation and Curettage (D&C)
This method is similar to the suction method with the added insertion of a hook shaped knife (curette) which cuts the baby into pieces. The pieces are scraped out through the cervix and discarded [Note: This abortion method should not be confused with a therapeutic D&C done for reasons other than pregancy.]
Twelve-week pre-born baby
By the end of the third month all arteries are present, including the coronary vessels of the heart. Blood is circulating through these vessels to all body parts.
The heart beat ranges during this fetal period from 110 to 160 beats per minute. All blood cells are produced by the liver and spleen, a job soon taken over by the bone marrow. White blood cells, important for immunity, are formed in the lymph nodes and thymus.
Vocal chords are complete, and the child can and does sometimes cry (silently). The brain is fully formed, and the child can feel pain. The fetus may even suck his thumb. The eyelids now cover the eyes, and will remain shut until the seventh month to protect the delicate optical nerve fibers.
14 weeks - Muscles lenghten and become organized. The mother will soon start feeling the first flutters of the baby kicking and moving inside.
15 weeks - The fetus has an adult's taste buds and may be able to savor the mother's meals.
16 weeks - Five and a half inches tall and only six ounces in weight, eyebrows, eyelashes and fine hair appear. The child can grasp with his hands, kick, or even somersault.
Eighteen week pre-born baby
The fetus is now about 5 inches long. The child blinks, grasps, and moves her mouth. Hair grows on the head and body.
20 weeks - The child can hear and recognize mother's voice. Though still small and fragile, the baby is growing rapidly and could possibly survive if born at this stage. Fingernails and fingerprints appear. Sex organs are visible. Using an ultrasound device, the doctor can tell if the child is a girl or a boy. The one on the left is a baby girl.
Dilation and Evacuation (D&E)
This method is used up to 18 weeks' gestation. Instead of the loop-shaped knife used in D&C abortions, a pair of forceps is inserted into the womb to grasp part of the fetus. The teeth of the forceps twist and tear the bones of the unborn child. This process is repeated until the fetus is totally dismembered and removed. Usually the spine must be snapped and the skull crushed in order to remove them.
Salt Poisoning (Saline Injection):
Used after 16 weeks (four months) when enough fluid has accumulated. A long needle injects a strong salt solution through the mother's abdomen into the baby's sac. The baby swallows this fluid and is poisoned by it. It also acts as a corrosive, burning off the outer layer of skin. It normally takes somewhat over an hour for the baby to die from this. Within 24 hours, labor will usually set in and the mother will give birth to a dead or dying baby. (There have been many cases of these babies being born alive. They are usually left unattended to die. However, a few have survived and later been adopted.)
Six month pre-born baby
Seen here at six months, the unborn child is covered with a fine, downy hair called lanugo. Its tender skin is protected by a waxy substance called vernix. Some of this substance may still be on the child's skin at birth at which time it will be quickly absorbed. The child practices breathing by inhaling amnionic fluid into developing lungs.
Prostaglandin Chemical Abortion:
This form of abortion uses chemicals developed by the Upjohn Pharmaceutical Co. which cause the uterus to contract intensely, pushing out the developing baby. The contractions are more violent than normal, natural contractions, so the unborn baby is frequently killed by them -- some have even been decapitated. Many, however, have also been born alive.
Hysterotomy or Caesarean Section:
Used mainly in the last three months of pregnancy, the womb is entered by surgery through the wall of the abdomen. The technique is similar to a Caesarean delivery, except that the umbilical cord is usually cut while the baby is still in the womb, thus cutting off his oxygen supply and causing him to suffocate. Sometimes the baby is removed alive and simply left in a corner to die of neglect or exposure.
30 weeks - For several months, the umbilical cord has been the baby's lifeline to the mother. Nourishment is transferred from the mother's blood, through the placenta, and into the umbilical cord to the fetus. If the mother ingests any toxic substances, such as drugs or alcohol, the baby receives these as well.
32 weeks - The fetus sleeps 90-95% of the day, and sometimes experiences REM sleep, an indication of dreaming.
Five steps to a partial birth abortion:
1) Guided by ultrasound, the abortionist grabs the baby's legs with forceps.
2) The baby's leg is pulled out into the birth canal.
3) The abortionist delivers the baby's entire body, except for the head
4) The abortionist jams scissors into the baby's skull. The scissors are then opened to enlarge the skull.
5) The scissors are removed and a suction catheter is inserted. The child's brains are sucked out, causing the skull to collapse. The dead baby is then removed.
40 weeks - The baby, now approximately seven and a half pounds, is ready for life outside its mother's womb. At birth the placenta will detach from the side of the uterus and the umbilical cord will cease working as the child takes his first breaths of air. The child's breathing will trigger changes in the structure of the heart and bypass arteries which will force all blood to now travel through the lungs.
The Demonic Abortion Industry
http://www.hli.org/sl_2007-07-27.html
The Edge
Pete Vere
Abortion and Contraception: Old Lies
July 10, 2007
Growing up Catholic, I knew theologically that my church forbade abortion and contraception. Although the church's stand on abortion was self-evident in my opinion, I didn't really understand why she took such a hard line on contraception until I found myself judging annulment cases on a Catholic marriage tribunal. With few exceptions, I could trace every marital breakdown to the couple saying "no" to the fertility with which God had blessed them.
Shocked, I began to research the history of abortion and contraception in my spare time. I was interested, both as a canon lawyer and a pro-family journalist, in discovering how modern society had fallen for such a grand lie. Yet, the deeper I researched, the darker were the conclusions.
Contraception and abortion were nothing new. Rather, they were old lies that were often tied to sorcery and witchcraft in the ancient and medieval worlds. This is the context in which I found myself reading two books by Dr. John M. Riddle, a professor of history at North Carolina State University, published by Harvard University Press. The first was Contraception and Abortion from the Ancient World to the Renaissance (1992) and the second was Eve's Herbs: A History of Contraception and Abortion in the West (2002).
Contraception and Abortion from the Ancient World to the Renaissance
To begin, Riddle's thesis in this work is simple: contraception, abortifacients and abortion-inducing substances are not modern inventions. Both the ancient and medieval worlds had knowledge of herbs and other plants that, when administered in a certain ways, prevented conception or caused women to abort. That being said, I did not find this work as interesting as Eve's Herbs. While Riddle does an excellent job detailing the various formulas used throughout history to prevent conception and induce abortion, Contraception and Abortion often reads like a cookbook or a pharmacist's manual. Thus, I would find it tedious reading, since my interest lay more with the why than the how.
Nevertheless, I am glad I read Contraception and Abortion for three reasons:
1) the book confirms, in great detail, that abortion and contraception have been practised for as long as man has kept written records;
2) the book admits that abortion and contraception are often linked to pagan gods (or more commonly, goddesses); and
3) the book corroborates — from a secular, scholarly and historical perspective — that the Christian church has struggled against abortion and contraception for centuries, and thus, our present-day struggle as right-to-life activists is nothing new.
Eve's Herbs: A History of Contraception and Abortion in the West
I found Eve's Herbs the more compelling of Riddle's two books. While it was not without its weaknesses, it answered a question that had long troubled me: I had often wondered why Holy Scripture appeared to say so little about the grave evils of abortion and contraception. As a pro-life Christian, it troubled me that the Bible never mentioned the words "abortion" or "contraception." Eve's Herbs provided me with a startling realization: in ancient and medieval times, contraception and abortion were often considered a form of sorcery and witchcraft, rather than a form of medicine.
Thus, Holy Scripture may never use the words abortion and contraception; however, the Bible is not silent on the issue. It simply condemns these practices under a different name. For example, Riddle notes the following while discussing the medieval witch: "The magic associated with women was often connected to their use of herbs." He then cites a number of modern studies corroborating the effectiveness of the anti-fertility herbs used by witches and midwives during the Middle Ages. "In other words, the deeds described in the 15th century as the sevenfold traits of witchcraft are all creditable, according to modern medicine," Riddle states. "Midwives and witches, whether one and the same, knew the drugs to take to reduce fertility."
The author quotes modern historian Richard Trexler: "Infanticide was far and away the most common social crime imputed to the aged witches of Europe by the demonologists." While sometimes prone to accepting the allegations of anti-Catholic historians, Riddle disputes one of their more common claims; namely, that midwives were often singled out for accusations of witchcraft because they were women of prominence and influence. "More likely," he writes, "the primary reason witches were persecuted was the same as that for which a woman in Hamburg was burnt to death in 1477: 'because she had instructed young females how to use abortion medicines.'" He had already noted that "Sexual offences were, by far, the leading offences of which witches were accused in three Essex villages between 1560 and 1599."
Eve's Herbs is an excellent expose of the wide availability of contraception and abortion in the ancient and medieval times. It also does a fairly good job, from a secular and scholarly perspective, of showing the historical link between contraception, abortion and witchcraft.
Pete Vere is a canon lawyer and a Catholic author. He recently co-authored Surprised by Canon Law: 150 Questions Catholics Ask About Canon Law (Servant Books) with Michael Trueman and More Catholic Than the Pope (Our Sunday Visitor) with Patrick Madrid. He lives in Sault Ste. Marie, Canada.
This article originally appeared in Interim, Canada's pro-life newpaper online, and is used by permission of the author.
Spirit & Life®
"The words I spoke to you are spirit and life." (Jn 6:63
Human Life International e-Newsletter
Volume 01, Number 79 | August, 10, 2007
........................http://www.hli.org
The "Sacrament" of Abortion
The standard Catholic description of a real Sacrament is that it is an "efficacious sign instituted by Christ to give grace." The "sign" is whatever the particular Sacrament is meant to convey: Baptism - cleansing from sin, Eucharist - union with Christ, Penance - forgiveness of sins, etc. "Efficacious" means that it actually produces the effect it signifies, and it "gives grace" as sort of a conduit of divine life into our souls. A Catholic Sacrament is holy in itself and does not need a holy person to administer it, and on the basis of the Sacrament's innate holiness, the children of the Church are sanctified and in turn sanctify the world in which we live.
The demonic "sacrament" of abortion has the same characteristics as a real Sacrament except that it reverses any concept of holiness and perverts its meaning. This is because the devil always mimics God's plan to communicate His life to us and does everything he can to draw us away from that life. In this case, abortion is a "sign" that points to death; it is "efficacious" in that it brings death through bodily destruction; it "destroys grace" in that each act of abortion is a mortal sin that seduces and corrupts all of those who take part in it.
Furthermore, abortionists, witches and Satanists put their "faith" in the "sacrament" of abortion. Don't take my word for it. In a 1999 LifeSite interview, retired abortionist Patricia Baird-Windle, self-professed wiccan (witch), actually said, "Abortion is a major blessing, and a sacrament in the hands of women. ... At the very crucible of the sacrament of abortion work is that some women have an abortion out of love for the baby, [some] out of love for the children they already have and are having a hard time feeding." Rarely am I shocked by what abortion apologists say, but this perverse logic leaves me utterly speechless. It shouldn't surprise me, though; Ms. Baird-Windle claims responsibility for 65,000 abortions in the three death centers that she owned.
There's more. An Episcopal "priestess," Carter Hayward said, "Abortion would be a sacrament if women were in charge. Abortion should be a sacrament even today. I suspect that for many women today, and for their spouses, lovers, families and communities, abortion is celebrated as such, an occasion of deep and serious and sacred meaning." No comment is really necessary here.
Let us never pretend that abortion is just a social or political phenomenon that has to be voted out of office to be defeated. We must do everything we can to restore legal protection to our most innocent citizens, but our battle against the devil will not be won at the polls. It will be won on our knees before the Lord and on our feet before the centers of death. More than ever we need men and women of tested holiness who are willing to fight the spiritual battle for the lives of God's precious babies and the souls of their mothers and fathers. Even abortionists like Baird-Windle are caught up in a demonic religion which can be challenged and defeated by those of us who belong to the true Church of Christ, the only spiritual power strong enough to defeat the "sacrament" of abortion.
(Please see sidebar for a page of numerous "abortion as sacrament" quotes from those who justify this demonic practice. If you want to see how corrupt the extreme feminist establishment with regard to their "sacrament" please look at the publication of a 1975 book called "Abortion is a Blessing" on the "Freedom From Religion Foundation" website. http://ffrf.org/books/AIAB/.)
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Sincerely Yours in Christ,
Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, President, Human Life International
Copyright 2007 - Human Life International Permission granted for unlimited use. Credit required.
Human Life International 4 Family Life Lane – Front Royal, VA 22630 U.S.A. Phone: 1-800-549-LIFE Fax: 540-622-6247 E-mail: hli@hli.org Website: www.hli.org
Permission given to copy material. MJ
Abortion in America: Legal & Unsafe
http://www.catholicculture.org/library/view.cfm?RecNum=2951
On Child Abuse and Abortion
http://www.seghea.com/pat/life/onchildabuse.html
Why rights must start in the Womb
DONNA NICHOLSON
http://news.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=1729972007