Bishop Says Finding Body of Aborted Baby in Sink Made Him Pro-Life

Life News ^ | January 23, 2013 | Steven Ertelt

[NYer]

Millions of Americans have their own stories about how they arrived at the pro-life position on abortion, but Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila of Denver has a unique one. He experienced the reality of abortion in a way most people never have.

In a new interview with the National Catholic Register, he talked about the experience of seeing the body of a baby who had been victimized by abortion in a sink. It left such an indelible impression on him that he said he will forever be pro-life.

From the interview:

“Today is a day to repent,” Archbishop Aquila said in his Jan. 22 letter “40 Years of the Culture of Death.”

He said that the 40 years since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion nationwide have “given the culture of death a firm footing and foundation in our nation.”

“The 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade is a day to commit to a culture of life,” he urged. “Today the Lord is calling us to stand up.”

Archbishop Aquila’s letter began with a grim story of his experiences with two abortions.

“I witnessed the death of two small people who never had the chance to take a breath. I can never forget that,” he said. “I learned what human dignity was when I saw it callously disregarded. I know, without a doubt, that abortion is a violent act of murder and exploitation. And I know that our responsibility is to work and pray without ceasing for its end.”

The archbishop said he had arrived at college in 1968 intending to become a doctor at a time when he was not consistently practicing his faith. He spent his first three summers of college as a hospital orderly in California, where laws had begun to protect abortion.

His first encounter with the procedure was in an outer room of a hospital’s surgical unit, where he was “stunned” when he found in the sink the body of “a small unborn child who had been aborted.”

His second exposure to abortion, however, was “more shocking.”

He recalled how a young woman came into the emergency room screaming, saying she had had an abortion already and the doctor had told her she would pass the remains naturally. She was bleeding, and the medical staff, including the future Archbishop Aquila, put her on the table.

“I held a basin as the doctor retrieved a tiny arm, a tiny leg and then the rest of the broken body of a tiny unborn child,” Archbishop Aquila said. “I was shocked. I was saddened for the mother and child, for the doctor and the nurse.”

“I witnessed a tiny human being destroyed by violence,” he said. The experience made him pro-life, and he eventually returned to his Catholic faith.

[NYer]

Pro-life, ping!

[GeronL]

BUMP

[Salvation]

Sad, but priceless testimonies. God bless Archbishop Aquila.

[exit82]

Blessed are they that have not seen but have believed.

[Fido969]

I’d hope being Catholic had somthing to do with it, too.

[Salvation]

Did you read the article? He was in college studying in the medical field...and momentarily not practicing his faith wholeheartedly.

[Parmy]

Why does one have to see something is wrong in order to believe that something is wrong? The murder of babies goes to the very heart of ‘right and wrong’.

[ArrogantBustard]

I have no doubt that those who have not seen, but have believed, are very special people. So special that they have the right to snark at those who have seen. I'm sure that their snarks will earn them the very best seats in Heaven.

But then, there are those who have seen.

And what has been seen, cannot be unseen. And it cannot but affect those who have seen. Should they shut up about it? Is that what the very special folks who have not seen, but have believed, want? Or is it better, perhaps, that some things seen in secret should be shouted from the rooftops?

[exit82]

I don’t know how snarkiness enters into this.

The point is, one does not have to physically view an unborn child to be prolife and to know that abortion is against God’s will.

Conversely,there are many doctors and nurses every day who see the products of the abortions they perform and remain unfazed in the least about it.

What very special folks do you refer to?

[hinckley buzzard]

Yuh. "Blessed are those who do not see, and yet believe." Some things the human soul cannot help but know, but for extreme self-deception.

[ArrogantBustard]

I don’t know how snarkiness enters into this.

That doesn't surprise me.

Those who have not seen, should be grateful.

[momtothree]

“Those who have not seen, should be grateful”.

I’ll add my two cents and be done with it. When I was in college, I worked Security at a local hospital. I knew abortion was wrong; however, I didn’t completely understand the complete evilness of it. Of course, people are told, “It is just a blob of tissue”, right? Well, one evening.. I was locking up the daytime OR and there were “lab samples” waiting on the counter. I guess curiosity got the best of me and I looked at them. Intellectually analyzing abortion and knowing it is wrong is one thing. SEEING a tiny, lifeless body floating around in a secured cup is another. I saw the little hands, little fingers, little toes. No tissue.. a dead, small human being being disposed of like it was a tumor. A lot of people object when someone will post a picture of an aborted child... it is “gruesome” or “disturbing”. However, I fully believe when one sees something like I did.. all the liberal rhetoric in the world cannot sway you. Although I was pro-life before my encounter with that poor child, I became much more strong in my views. Just a thought....

[Morgana]

The old saying..”seeing is believing”

Plus the fact that up until seeing they were told it was a clump of cells. Now they know it is a clump of cells...a clump of fully formed cells that are in the shape of a human baby.

[Morgana]

momofthree I know what you mean.

I had my moment down at the Kentucky State Fair one year. My Mum and I went by a pro life table and for the first time I saw the body of a baby who was the result of a partial birth abortion. I freaked at the table and my Mum said “You mean you did not know?” and I said “I have never seen THIS before” I will never forget the image of that dead baby in a 5 gallon industrial bucket.

[NYer]

Why does one have to see something is wrong in order to believe that something is wrong?

You are being judgmental. At the time, Aquila was a college student and, like so many other youth, was still trying to identify himself beyond the family. Those college experiences made an impression that not only remained with him for the rest of his life but also catapulted him into a definitive position on life.

[ArrogantBustard]

Thank you for posting that.

[ArrogantBustard]

Thank you.

[vladimir998]

You wrote:

“The point is, one does not have to physically view an unborn child to be prolife and to know that abortion is against God’s will.”

Except that hasn’t been the case with some people. I know hardcore pro-aborts who suddently changed their minds - or at the very least admitted pro-lifers might have a point after all - ONLY when they first took in a pro-life pictorial display. Many pro-aborts are shocked at how human (sic) aborted babies look. I can barely keep from slapping them in the head when they say that, but they honestly expect the aborted baby to look like a clump of something rather than a little human being.

[Last Dakotan]

Wow

[momtothree]

It is definitely one of those moments in life you will always remember. For a long time, if I saw a woman with a newborn... I saw that little baby in that cup. Perhaps... if people really saw abortion up close and personal.. it would decrease dramatically. The left’s rhetoric has always been to de-humanize the baby. “It” is called “product of conception”, tissue, zygote, embryo, fetus. Cold, clinical words that mean nothing. Seeing a little BABY... callously murdered is life changing (at least to us). Hugs, Mom

[Mrs. Don-o]

December 22, 1986, I was with 4 other prolifers retrieving garbage bags from the back of an abortion clinic in the Washington, DC area. We were not dumpster-diving for aborted babies. Actually, we were looking for records --- paperwork --- that might help us document fraud: either non-reporting of the number of abortions (a discrepancy between appointments and reported abortions), or Medicaid fraud.

But just tossed in with everything else in the Hefty bag -- half-eated hamburgers, newspapers, Christmas cards (yes!)--- there were damp wads of gauze. And when we examined those wads, we found the bodies. I reemember one arm and hand, strecthed out the length of my little finger. Livers, legs, heads with little blue eyeballs.

Maybe I should say I was shocked, but I was not. I was numb. I kept thinking, "Lord, have mercy." Yeah, 26 years ago and I now I've got tears in my eyes.

[Mrs. Don-o]

December 22, 1986, I was with 4 other prolifers retrieving garbage bags from the back of an abortion clinic in the Washington, DC area. We were not dumpster-diving for aborted babies. Actually, we were looking for records --- paperwork --- that might help us document fraud: either non-reporting of the number of abortions (a discrepancy between appointments and reported abortions), or Medicaid fraud.

But just tossed in with everything else in the Hefty bag -- half-eated hamburgers, newspapers, Christmas cards (yes!)--- there were damp wads of gauze. And when we examined those wads, we found the bodies. I reemember one arm and hand, strecthed out the length of my little finger. Livers, legs, heads with little blue eyeballs.

Maybe I should say I was shocked, but I was not. I was numb. I kept thinking, "Lord, have mercy." Yeah, 26 years ago and I now I've got tears in my eyes.

[DBeers]

Why does one have to see something is wrong in order to believe that something is wrong? The murder of babies goes to the very heart of ‘right and wrong’.

I think there is the matter of perspective that you seem to miss -this in addition to the knowledge that men are imperfect.

I would agree with you IF all men possessed a well formed conscience and were not susceptible to the lies and temptations that evil presents.

However, the reality, as evidenced by the many abortion advocates strongly implies your assertion false.

One can not oppose and eradicate the evil in men unless one appreciates what evil does to men -in some cases, blinding them in thought until in sight evil is recognized for what it is.

[wonkowasright]

Because before the image/event many truly do not think of it as a baby. That is when you are raised hearing that its ok for the 1st trimester, so so for the second and bad for the third, as I was, you believe what you are told in the home.

Its very nebulous and you don’t think of it truly as a baby, the “mass-o-cells” logic holds sway. And there is reason and debate.

Then, if you are like me, one day on a business trip to CA you see a protestor holding a gruesome sign showing precisely what it is we are talking about.

In that moment all the BS you were told growing up vanishes, and is unable to return.

[Parmy]

Well, I guess that when one is a person who has seen dogs breed and then sees the end result is puppies; Or, when one has a pregnant female cat and then sees the kittens being born; Or, when one see a bull impregnate a cow or sees it done artificially and then sees the end result is a calf; Or, when one see a stud breed a mare and then watches the colt being born, then one has a different perspective.

But, a simple lesson in biology could also do the same. A sperm meets an egg. Immediately there is cell division and a multitude of chemical reactions that proceed for nine months in the case of humans and the end result is a baby.

Interrupt that process at any point and there is no baby.

Furthermore, most individuals, from their earliest days, have an innate sense of right and wrong. This has been psychologically proven through experiments time and again.

[onedoug]

Back when I was stupid I came here trying to push the “pro-choice” position. But Freepers came back cordially and shot down every argument I knew, reducing them to tatters.

I thank them and I thank God I saw the light.

Somehow, we must end this scourge on life.

No capitulation, ever!

[NYer]

Thank you for sharing such a personal story and its impact on your life. One of my family's friends is an OB/GYN. As a part of his medical training, Dr. Levatino was taught to do abortions. He provided abortions for his patients in his office for eight years. In 1985 he quit doing abortions and is now in private practice as an obstetrician gynecologist. He not only became pro-life but spoke before the US Congress in defense of life. You can read his story here.

Perhaps the one story that continues to amaze me, however, is that of Serbian abortionist, Stojan Adasevic.

In describing his conversion, Adasevic said he "dreamed about a beautiful field full of children and young people who were playing and laughing, from 4 to 24 years of age, but who ran away from him in fear. A man dressed in a black and white habit stared at him in silence. The dream was repeated each night and he would wake up in a cold sweat. One night he asked the man in black and white who he was. ‘My name is Thomas Aquinas,’ the man in his dream responded. Adasevic, educated in communist schools, had never heard of the Dominican genius saint. He didn’t recognize the name."

Serbian Abortionist Who Aborted 48,000 Babies Becomes Pro-Life Activist

When we think of Thomas Aquinas, we normally associate him with his Summa. It is intriguing to see his intervention on abortion.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Thomas Aquinas taught (as the Church still teaches) that abortion is gravely wrong, and would be whether the early embryo had a soul or not.

In Aquinas' time (13th century) even the best scientists had little knowledge of prenatal development, and were completly unaware that the body derives its form from its genome (DNA structure).

Aquinas said that the willful killing of a being identifiably human and alive (by the best scientific knowledge at the time) is always murder; and that even IF the "form" of the body were incomplete (and therefore the hypothesis of "delayed ensoulment"), abortion would still be a grave moral evil because it violates Natural Law which reveals that a person is coming into being.

I'm mentioning this in detail, because some people (erroneously) think that Aquinas OK'd early abortions because of a delayed ensoulment hypothesis. This is false. They lacked diagnostic tools to observe that an embryo is identifiably human AND alive as soon a fertilization takes place. The moral doctrine--- that killing this entity is gravely morally wrong at any stage --- was never in doubt.

This still makes a difference, because scientists toss around the possibility of designing "artificial human life forms, partly-biologial android robots, human-chimp hybrids or other horrors. (No joke, they're talking about trying to recover Neanderthal DNA and impregnate a woman volunteer with it, for the sake of scientific research!) (Truly despicable.) Even if there were any hypothetical doubt about whether the resulting entity were truly human, it would still be murder to kill it.

Says Aquinas.

[ardara]

Remember tomorrow will be the March on Washington protesting abortion and the killing of innocents.Hundreds of thousands will march in spite of the weather.You can watch the whole March on EWTN.Please pray for the success of the March.

[ArrogantBustard]

I thank them and I thank God I saw the light. Somehow, we must end this scourge on life. No capitulation, ever!

Amen, Brother!

[NYer]

Thank you for that historical perspective on St. Thomas Aquinas. Now the Life Site article makes total sense.