Every pro-life activist should have on his or her desk the book by abortionist Warren M. Hern called Abortion Practice.  It is a medical textbook on how to do abortions, and it provides us with the educational material necessary to win the war on abortion - namely, the  descriptions of the abortion procedures. So many argue about abortion, having never heard a description of what it is. 

Take, for example, the abortion  procedure called Dilatation and Evacuation (D&E). Through this procedure, the child is dismembered within the womb. Hern describes the procedure at various stages of pregnancy, starting at 13 weeks. I quote here from the section "21 to 24 Weeks Fetal Age".  "The procedure changes significantly at 21 weeks because the fetal tissues become much more cohesive and difficult to dismember. This problem is accentuated by the fact that the fetal pelvis may be as much as 5cm in width. The calvaria [head] is no longer the principal problem; it can be collapsed. Other structures, such as the pelvis, present more difficulty....A long curved Mayo scissors may be necessary to decapitate and dismember the fetus."(p.154). 

Another abortionist, Martin Haskell, describes the same procedure. The following words are from court testimony. Please note that he was testifying as an expert witness about legal activity. "Let's just say for instance we took a different view, a different tack and we left the leg in the uterus just to dismember it. Well, we'd probably have to dismember it at several different levels because we don't have firm control over it, so we would attack the lower part of the lower extremity first, remove, you know, possibly a foot, then the lower leg at the knee and then finally we get to the hip." 

"When the abortion procedure is started we typically know that the fetus is still alive because either we can feel it move ...or... we actually see a heartbeat as we're starting the procedure. It's not unusual at the start of D&E procedures that a limb is  acquired first and that that limb is brought through the cervix ...prior to disarticulation and prior to anything having been done that would have caused the fetal demise." 

"When you're doing a dismemberment D&E usually the last part to be removed is the skull itself and it's floating free inside the uterine cavity...like a ping-pong ball floating around ... Finally ... a nip is made out of some area of the skull that  allows it to start to decompress. And then once that happens typically the skull is brought out in fragments rather than as a unified piece, the result being that sharp bony edges of the skull are exposed" (US District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, Case No. 98-C-0305-S). 

Some people are tired of the abortion controversy in our nation. Frankly, I often wonder whether it has even begun. Maybe when it becomes more widely known that things like what I quoted above are legally occurring every day -- maybe then the debate can begin.

A Community for Life

 In the Church there are all kinds of missions, ministries, and charisms. Many communities have sprung up throughout the centuries, in which Christians have come together to grow in holiness, and to carry out a particular service to others. Some communities teach, some feed the poor, some tend to the sick in hospitals, some minister to youth. Each has a unique charism, and yet each charism accents something that belongs to the life and calling of every Christian.  

In our day, there is nothing more antithetical to the Gospel, and more destructive of human life, than abortion. No disease claims as many victims, no war takes as many lives, and no act of terrorism comes near to creating as much devastation as abortion brings to the human family. That is why the US bishops have declared, "Among important issues involving the dignity of human life with which the Church is concerned, abortion necessarily plays a central role. … It is imperative that those who are called to serve the least among us give urgent attention and priority to this issue of justice." (US Bishops’ Pastoral Plan for Pro-life Activities, 2001). 

It makes sense, then, that there should be a community focused on saving the unborn and ending abortion. Hence, in 1991, Cardinal John O’Connor started the Sisters of Life. They are a flourishing religious community in New York. (Find more information at www.SistersOfLife.org). 

What about a similar community for priests, deacons, and lay men? Such a community now exists, based on the mission and spirit of Priests for Life. Last year I was privileged to become the founder and first Moderator General of the Missionaries of the Gospel of Life. We have several priests and seminarians in formation in our first group.  

This community is a Society of Apostolic Life, which means that the focus is more on the  mission than on the community. It is based in Amarillo, Texas, but its mission is the entire nation. Members receive a full immersion in all facets of pro-life work, and travel the country preaching, teaching, and ministering to the entire pro-life movement. We counsel those tempted to abort, heal those who have aborted, challenge and educate government officials, train clergy, and utilize mass media. As the Constitutions state, "The Society seeks to give witness before the Church and the world to the priority of the right to life as the foundation of all other rights, and to the absolute claims to respect and protection that this right makes upon every individual and community in the human family" (n.4.1).

The pro-life movement is the greatest human rights movement of our time. Combining pro-life activism with the grace of priesthood is a powerful formula. All are called to do something about abortion. Some are called to make it their life’s vocation. We need your help to get the word about this new community out to those who might be called. If you or someone you know may be interested in pursuing such a vocation, come and visit us!

www.MissionariesoftheGospelofLife.org, or email vocations@priestsforlife.org.