The Gospel of Life...part 2

"The moral gravity of procured abortion is apparent in all its truth if we recognize that we are dealing with murder and, in particular, when we consider the specific elements involved. The one eliminated is a human being at the very beginning of life. No one more absolutely innocentcould be imagined. In no way could this human being ever be considered an aggressor, much less an unjust aggressor! He or she is weak,defenseless, even to the point of lacking that minimal form of defense consisting in the poignant power of a newborn baby's cries and tears. The unborn child is totally entrusted to the protection and care of the woman carrying him or her in the womb. And yet sometimes it is precisely the mother herself who makes the decision and asks for the child to be eliminated, and who then goes about having it done.
It is true that the decision to have an abortion is often tragic and painful for the mother, insofar as the decision to rid herself of the fruit of conception is not made for purely selfish reasons or out of convenience, but out of a desire to protect certain important values such as her own health or a decent standard of living for the other members of the family. Sometimes it is feared that the child to be born would live in such conditions that it would be better if the birth did not take place. Nevertheless, these reasons and others like them, however serious and tragic can never justify the deliberate killing of an innocent human being."
--Evangelium Vitae [The Gospel of Life], Pope John Paul II (1995, pp.95-99).

The Apostolic Constitution ca. 380 AD
"Thou shalt not slay thy child by causing abortion, nor kill that which is begotten. For everything that is shaped, and has received a soul from God, if slain, it shall be avenged, as being unjustly destroyed."
--Apostolic Constitutions, 7:3 (The Early Church Speaks for Life).

Prayer
"Lord, You have blessed human conscience with the ability to perceive that killing children is wrong. Increase the moral strength of Your people, that this evil may end."
Pro-life Reflections for Every Day, p. 89.
Fr. Frank Pavone (2009)
www.priestsforlife.org