There is one issue of human rights that people all too easily pass off as it’s victim’s cries are soundless. This issue is abortion. The victims it claims have no voice to cry out with, few of us have rallied and taken a stand to expose the silent screams of these dying children. Abortion allows us to freely end a person’s life without their consent and incredibly has been made a legal right according to Canadian law. This is a law made by man in total opposition to and defiance of God’s law. Abortion was first legalized in the modern world by Russia in 1920.¹ This happened just 3 years after our Lady appeared at Fatima warning us of the errors Russia would spread throughout the world. To this day our Lady’s requests and directions in order to stop this evil have gone unheeded. Society having since caved in on the issue, and with the Church not taking the aid our Lady has offered, this evil has been able to spread throughout the world. Many Pro-abortionists have promoted and defended it with such arguments as these:

• The fetus is just a part of the woman’s body, like an organ, and so is hers to manage.

• The unborn is simply a blob of tissue that can be terminated as any other.

• The fetus is a potential human being, not an actual one.
  
  
• Life begins at birth, therefore we celebrate birth days not conception days.

• A woman should have the right to control what happens to her body.

• An unborn person has no meaning to its life, it doesn’t really exist in the world.
  
  
• A fetus is less developed then even an animal and so cannot feel pain.
  
  
• It’s unfair to bring an unwanted child into the world.

• We are facing overpopulation and so aborting a fetus is OK for the common good of all.

• If a woman becomes pregnant either by rape or incest she should be able to refuse having the child.
  
  
• Science can benefit and gain advances from studying fetuses that would just be normally aborted.

These arguments are all pro-abortion and strive for abortion to remain legal, and even promoted, in our society and countries. This is unacceptable. The real deal is that abortion is wrong, it is the willful, premeditated murder of a person. It is an act against natural law and supernatural law. Granted a woman may be ignorant of this truth, and so she might not will it if she were more educated of this act. People are victims of the lies and ignorance that is spread about abortion, but it is their duty to seek out the truth for they shall be held accountable to God for their actions. However the doctors that perform abortions know exactly what they are doing. The Church stand is firm in total opposition to abortion: to have one is to incur the penalty of excommunication.² Despite this known stance of total opposition by the Church towards this issue, bishops and Catholics around the world have been slow and even indifferent towards abortion’s alarming presence in society and even of its practice among Catholics themselves! Each argument already listed above is going to be proven wrong with facts and truths that have been compiled by re- search. Not only that, but the types of abortion will be reviewed and their cruelty exposed. Abortion amounts to dead bodies, and is the ending of someone's life with intent and design. It is a rejection of God and His graces that He has generously bestowed upon us and of His gift of a child.

The fetus is not just a part of the woman's body as is an organ. An organ is defined by the common genetic code it shares with the rest of the body. The fetus has it's own, individual genetic code that is not the mother's.³ The unborn child is not just a blob of tissue, as from the moment of conception the unborn is, and always will be, a living human being with own defined DNA code in every single cell; and possessing an unique set of fingerprints.⁴ The fetus is not a potential human being, it is a human being at a certain stage of development such as a toddler or adolescent. Nothing ever becomes human by growing bigger and getting older, a human being is a human being from conception to death.⁵

Life begins at conception, not at birth. Scientists have found that all genetic characteristics of a person are present at conception making a new life within the womb. The cells that divide and construct the fetus are doing so not at the mother's body's command but at their own instinctive instructions given at conception.⁶ Birthdays are a cultural celebration, not a scientific statement. A woman should have the right of' control over her body but the fetus is not part of her body as already proved by DNA testing.^7. The fetus is dependent on the woman; it is the mother's responsibility to care for the child until such a time the mother's direct sup port is no longer needed. By choosing abortion the woman forever robs someone of a lifetime without consulting the victim. The baby's life is no ones to take away⁸ but God's.

Every stage of human life is meaningful and indeed pro-abortionists are allowed to get away with judging things by size, intelligence, and stage of life, other humans such as the disabled or elderly will be classified as 'lesser' humans. All life has meaning as God has decreed; if someone has a disadvantage to their mind or body it is not our right to judge that their life suddenly has no meaning as it is solely God's will that they exist and live.⁹

A human is infinitely more developed then an animal at all stages. Each human from the moment of conception is endowed with an eternal soul, something that separates us from all animals; there is no comparison. The fetus can feel pain as the nervous system has already begun developing by day 20. By the end of the second month the fetus responds to touch within the womb. After 20 weeks the fetus' pain system is totally functional and as acute as our own.

When a fetus is aborted we now know it can feel the pain of whatever barbaric way the abortionist decides to terminate the fetus' life.¹⁰ Since all human life is valuable and sacred, every human is wanted in God's plan.

However unwanted by the natural parents it is desired by God, notwithstanding the thousands of couples wanting to adopt a child. It is a fact that 2 million requests to adopt a child are rejected every year. That is a lot of love lost to abortions.¹¹ Aborting a fetus is never OK; also we here in Canada are not facing overpopulation.

Since the 1970's 1.6 million babies have been aborted in Canada, 35 million in the United States.¹² On average in the United States an abortion is done every 21 seconds.¹³

In Canada it has been found that 1 in every 5 children conceived are aborted. Also, in Canada currently only 17 babies are born for every 21 people.¹⁴ who die , that adds up over a while.

The only way our country's population continues to grow is by immigration. No human has the authority to decide who is to die and who is to live even if we were facing overpopulation A woman when victimized by rape and impregnated against her will indeed is presented with a tough situation. However this child is hers, despite the circumstances of it's conception. Having an abortion will kill the child and, in the long run hurt the victim herself. She cannot change what was done to her as terrible as it was but she should realize she has someone's life in her care. This person, although conceived in such a way, exists and does so at God's will. Adoption of the child after it is born is perfectly acceptable if the mother does not wish or is not able to keep the child.¹⁵ The destruction of a human life is never justified by the excuse of science. The most recent discovery to note is that it has been found that human embryonic stem cells found in the earliest developmental stages of an embryo can grow indefinitely in culture and seem able to spawn all the types of cells found in the body.

The applications of this are indeed incredible. However to gain these embryonic cells they must be taken from an embryo, a human embryo, and the process involves killing the embryo.¹⁶ The term "abandoned embryos"¹⁷ was used by science, which really means "aborted children." Human life is little more then a resource now to be mined and exploited in the name of science and medical advancement.

The ways to perform an abortion are numerous and are in fact as crude and crueler even than methods of torture applied throughout human history. The following seven methods are extremely disturbing when you remember this is being done to a defenseless, vulnerable baby.

Also keep in mind that the child is actually still alive and responsive as the doctor destroys it. The abortionists 'worst complications are either that the child.¹⁸ is born alive or that the mother dies, which does happen more frequently then we are made aware of. All the following procedures were found in one book. I have edited them for space.

SUCTION ASPIRATION

Used mainly in early pregnancy the abortionist inserts a hollow plastic tube into the dilated uterus. This tube is connected to a terrifically powerful suction apparatus, basically a high powered vacuum. When turned on the immense suction force tears the baby's body to pieces and sucks it up.

DILATION AND CURETTAGE (D and C)

Similar to the above method except this time the abortionist inserts a hoe-like instrument into the uterus instead of a vacuum. With this instrument he lacerates the baby's body into pieces which are then scraped out into a basin The result of this carnage is profuse bleeding of the baby's body.

DILATION AND EVACUATION (D and P)

This method is preferred after 12 weeks gestation .A plier-like instrument is used because the baby's bones have calcified making it harder to collapse the skeletal structure. Inserting the instrument into the uterus the abortionist grabs one of the baby's legs and with a quick twisting motion he rips it off. Ire/She then proceeds to snap the baby's spine and crush it's skull for easier removal.

SALINE INJECTION (salt poisoning)

Used after 16 weeks this method involves inserting a needle through the mother's abdomen and into the baby's protective sac. Some fluid is removed after which a concentrated salt solution is injected. This is absorbed by the helpless infant and slowly results in poisoning it. Meanwhile the baby jerks iolently from the pain. This pain can be imagined when upon receiving a cut you place it in salt water, like swimming in the sea with an open wound. Now imagine you have had your skin ripped off and have been totally submerged in a salt tank; this is the burning pain the baby is subject to.

HYSTEROTOMY or CAESAREAN SECTION

Mainly used in the last 3 months of pregnancy, this surgical method involves entering the womb through the woman's abdominal wall. The helpless baby is lifted out of his/her mother's womb and placed in the outside environment. The almost fuilydeveloped child dies then by neglect or by a direct act of the abortionist. The gruesome irony of this method is that `wanted' children (all children are wanted as explained in the defense) sometimes must be delivered this way. It is used for either welcoming a new life or to condemn to death upon demand.

PROSTAGLANDIN CHEMICAL ABORTION

This method involves chemials which cause the uterus to contract immensely, pushing out the still developing baby. The problem with this to the abortionist is if the baby is actually born alive This is a complication as the child has been "born" and so is now a human according to civil law.

DILATION AND EXTRACTION (D and X)

This method is used after completion of the first 3 months of pregnancy and is still used right up to a 9 month old baby. Over a two day period, the mother's cervix is dilated to 9 & 11 cm with mechanical dilators. An ultrasound is placed on the woman's abdomen as the abortionist tries to locate the baby's legs Finding one, he takes a pair of forceps and grasps one of the child's legs dragging the baby to a feet first position out the birth canal. All of the baby is then delivered except the child's head, for with the head still in the mother the child is not `born' and so is not a `human" and has no rights.

The abortionist then performs a full skull decompression' which is one of the most horrific acts against any of God's creatures. Taking a pair of blunt scissors the abortionist drives them through the base of the child's skull while it's still alive! The abortionist then forces the scissors open enlarging the fatal wound. The scissors are removed and the abortionist takes out a suction catheter, which is a kind of vacuum. Inserting this in the gaping wound the abortionist proceeds to vacuum out the infant's brain tissue. Collapsing the skull he pulls the corpse from the mother and vacuums out the uterus.

After reading these arguments to choose life for the child and seeing how in practice these abortions are carried out, it should be clear what abortion is. It is murder, the premeditated ending of someone's life down to the exact details, of how it shall be executed. We call that first degree murder, and morally wrong and against natural law. In all abortion cases the baby loses all it has, it's life. But the act doesn't end with the child's death, no not yet, not ever.

The mother after having an abortion finds she is increasingly exposed to several implications. She is now at increased risk to breast cancer, a growing trend that has not been seen until now. She is now twice as likely to suffer miscarriages or complications if she ever wishes another child. Physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual scars may stay with the mother hindering her for life. Flashbacks, nightmares, hallucinations, alcoholism, spontaneous weeping and even suicide plague roughly 64% of all women who have had an abortion.¹⁹

Now for the hard hitting facts; facts that took this country 30 years to compile and yet we still ignore our mistakes. Abortion is Canada's #1 killer, not heart disease and not cancer. Almost 50% of abortions are a result of parents wishing for a child of the opposite sex. As we keep killing off the unborn it is predicted that by 2010, 25% of the population of Canada will be over 65 years old. There is currently no law to protect unborn children, even if almost fully born.²⁰ Value for life has eroded and this continues as abortion leads into issues such as euthanasia. Abortions can be handed out to anyone who wants one; half the women who get them are teenagers who do not require parental permission for one and very few if any know the facts.

We have to stop abortion. The killing of a born, innocent child is seen as an appalling crime in our society but somehow people fail to recognize the unborn as people. We allow the abortionists to make a living off the living by piercing, ripping, crushing, poisoning, lacerating and exposing thousands of living infants. It is terribly wrong. It is a catastrophe of immense horror. This grisly deed is not only an act against nature but against God. It is by God's will that anything and anyone exists. Any child from the moment of Conception exists by the will of God. Man was created in God's own image by God the Creator of all things.²¹

No one ever has the right to disobey God's laws; least of all because they find it a convenient solution. It is time to stop and listen. Listen to the silence of millions of voices forever stilled. They cannot defend themselves, the government will not protect them, society refuses to recognize them, abortionists wallow in their blood, and their own mothers will not even find out how to sacrifice for them. Justice for these souls may not be found upon earth as man's delusions have led him to set his own civil laws above God's divine laws. However justice shall come to pass, if not in this life then in the next.²² People's killing of their own children is a sacrifice to the world of material idols, debauchery, the false rights of man and ultimately to the demonic forces that stand behind it all. It is the inevitable result of man's downward direction in a world that has abandoned God.

However the greatest tragedy of abortion is that these innocents are denied baptism. "Baptism is indispensably necessary to salvation. Hence children who die unbaptized cannot enter heaven,"²³For every child coming into the world has the taint of original sin, and has not sanctifying grace, without which no man can enter heaven. Yet, although infants dying without baptism are excluded from participation in celestial joys, the Divine Judge does not consign them to the torments of hell, because they have never committed actual sin; they enjoy a certain natural happiness without physical suffering or mental sadness; they are cheerful as those are with whom all goes well on earth. But the happiness which is their portion bears much the same relation to everlasting felicity as the feeble light of a candle does to the brilliance of the noonday sun."²⁴

Those who have a part in this killing; assisting in the destruction of unbaptized children, shall be held accountable and will have much to answer for on the day of judgment.²⁵ These innocents are not only robbed of their life on earth but also of the eternal life and happiness of heaven in the presence of the beatific vision.

The loss of heaven; not to experience the incredible rapture of knowing God, is something we on earth cannot fully comprehend as such a joy is beyond us. Right now it is up to us to tell the world to take a good look at abortion and to people to open their eyes to the alarming truth. It is up to us to make the mother's womb once again the safest place for a child.

1. Http://www.vand.org/pu bl ications/CF/ CF124.chap3. html

2. 1398., Code of Canon law, 1983.

3. Pg. 13., National Geographic Society. The Incred ible Machine. USA, 1986.

4. Pg. 15., National Geographic Society. The Incredible Machine. USA, 1986.

5. Pg. 4., Grant, Dirk. One Of Us. New York, 1995.

6. Pg. 15., National Geographic Society. The Incred- ible Machine. USA, 1986.

7. Pg. 15., National Geographic Society. The Incred- ible Machine. USA, 1986.

8. Pg. 2., Murray, Rachael, ProLife News. Winnipeg, Canada, 1995.

9. Pg. 25., Dobson, James. Breakaway. Focus on the Family, USA, 1998.

10. Pg. 8., Ranelli, Paul, ProLife News. Winnipeg, Canada, 1995.

11. Pg. 26., Dobson, James. Breakaway. Focus on the Family, 1998.

12. Pg. 14.. Maclean's. BeyondAbortion. Maclean's, Toronto; Canada, 1996.

13. Http://wwwpottersscbool.com/abortion/ rnain.html.

14. Pg. 14., Maclean's. BeyondAbortion. Maclean's, Toronto; Canada. 1996.

15. Pg. 26., Dobson, James. Breakaway Focus on the Family. USA, 1993.

16. Pg. 30., Beardsley, Tim "Stem Cells Come of Age" Scientific American. July, 1999.

17. Pg. 30., Beardsley, Tim ."Stem Cells Come of Age," Scientific American. July, 1999.

18. Pg. 10., Halton Prolife. Abortion Techniques. Halton Prolife. Halton County, Ontario; Canada, 1994.

19. Pg. 7., Statistics Canada. Informed Consent. Prolife News, Winnipeg, Canada; 1995.

20. Pg. 9., Halton ProLife. She's a Child. Human Life Alliance, USA. 1994.

21. Genesis 1:26-27.

22. St. Matthew 25:46.

23. Council of Trent, 7, 5.

24. Spirago, Rev. Francis, The Catechism Explained. ed. Clarke, Rev. Richard F (Rockford, Illinois: Tan Books and publishers, INC., 1993), p. 579.

25. Apoc. 20:12.