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Hidden Slaughter – by Deacon Marty McIndoe

Community, Death and Dying, Ethics, Family, Fatherhood, Pro-Life, Relationships, Women,

The Hidden Slaughter – by Deacon Marty McIndoe

All of us are aware of those things that can kill us.  Heart disease, cancer, accidents, chronic respiratory disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, influenza and pneumonia are listed by Google (in that order) as the leading causes of death in the United States.  The World Health Organization lists the world wide death causes that are about the same as the US but with the addition of diarrheal diseases and Tuberculosis.  Neither list mentions THE LEADING cause of death worldwide in that list.  It seems to be a word that no one wants to mention, a word that everyone wants to hide.  But the Breitbart News Agency did expose it to the public using statistics from the World Health Agency.

On 31 December 2018, the Breitbart.com website reported under the headline “Abortion Leading Cause of Death in 2018 with 41 Million Killed” that “there have been some 41.9 million abortions performed in the course of the year,” making abortion “the number one cause of death worldwide in 2018, with more than 41 million children killed before birth.”  They also said that the World Health Organization indicated that between the years 2010 and 2014 WORLDWIDE abortions averaged 56 million per year.  Here in the United States our abortion rates have dropped from a high of about 1.6 million per year to about 900,000 per year.  Since the 1973 Supreme Court decision, we have had over 60 million abortions in the United States.  Certainly there are often discrepancies with statistics and who reports them, but even the CDC reports over 600,000 thousand annual abortions in the US.  These are medically produced and don’t include chemically induced.   Whatever way you look at it, abortion is killing off a huge amount of our babies.  Here in the United States we kill about 2,000 babies every day through abortion.   Worldwide we kill about 125,000 to 150,000 per day.  This is most definitely a hidden slaughter.

Statistics can help us to better understand what we are doing.  When we read the statistics on abortion, we have a tendency to be numbed by the figures and really don’t think about it.  We don’t see the abortions happening (thankfully) and they aren’t real to us.  Whenever we are at war the news broadcasters give us all of the news about the war, often including pictures.  We are horrified by the casualties of our soldiers, as we should be.  If you look at the statistics of war in comparison to abortion, you can start to realize the horrors that are there.  In 18 years of war in Afghanistan we lost about 2,216 soldiers.  That equals the number of deaths in about one day of abortions in the United States, and 30 minutes worth worldwide.  In the 14 years of the Vietnam War we lost about 58,000 soldiers.  It takes only about one month of US abortions to reach the same number, and one half day worldwide.

The number of babies that are killed before they are given the chance to be born is staggering.  I can’t help but to think of that loss to our society.   How many geniuses did we kill?   How many musical virtuosos did we kill?  How many researchers that could help us rid the world of cancer and disease and hunger did we kill?  We will never know because they are gone.  Every life, whether it be from a developed country like the USA, or a developing country, is important.  Every unborn baby, whether wanted or unwanted by his or her parents, is a gift from God who deserves the chance to become the person that God calls them to be.  Society has the responsibility of protecting its weakest members and helping them to reach their potential.  We, as a human family, have to protect the unborn and have to help them grow.  Our Declaration of Independence so rightly says, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”  The first of the listed unalienable right is LIFE.  The government must protect this right given to us from God.

Unfortunately our government, and many others, has turned away from being held responsible for preserving the right of Life.  They have turned instead to preserving the right to choice and convenience.  This is not what God intended.  The most important gift given to us is our Life.  The scriptures are so clear about our God being a God of Life and how precious life is, even in the womb.  God tells us in scripture, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”  Yet today in many abortions we reach up in to that sacred life giving womb and tear apart our own babies limb by limb and crush their heads to kill them, all because they are an inconvenience.   This is a barbaric slaughter often instituted by those who are called to be protectors.   What kind of society do we have where we allow this, and often encourage this?

As a Catholic deacon, I personally have come in to contact with several women who have had abortions.  Their life circumstances seemed to dictate to them at the time that they had to have the abortion.  Sadly, even many years or decades after the abortion they are very troubled by what they did.  The abortion not only killed their child, but it also put a very dark hole within them that is hard to climb out of.  I really feel for these women.  I have also counseled several men who had this same dark hole because their baby had been aborted by the mother.  Some of them were part of the decision and some of them fought the decision.  Either way, they were troubled for many years by the abortion.

We as a society need to protect the unborn.  We need to pass laws that prohibit abortion.  We also need to find ways to make changes to the life circumstances that cause a mother to even consider an abortion.  We also need to set up programs to help women raise their children, especially when they live in poverty.  There is no doubt that this is a costly and difficult thing to do, but it is well worth the cost and the difficulty.   Our society can only benefit from doing this.  We can benefit from seeing the sacredness of Life and the sacredness of helping children grow in to what God calls them to be.

I need to add one more factor that leads towards the high abortion rates.  In the USA we have a very powerful entity called Planned Parenthood.  They have considerable political power and have even been embraced by one of our major political parties.  They have many wealthy friends and many influential friends in Hollywood and in the major networks and publications.  They promote abortion.  Their 2019 report (years 2017-2018) shows that abortion is their core mission.  Planned Parenthood performed 332,757 abortions during the reported year, the most the abortion giant has reported since 2011-2012.  In contrast, non-abortion services have declined.  The report also showed record-high numbers in national office and affiliate financial income for 2018.

  • Almost $1.9 billion in net assets, up from $1.6 billion in 2017.
  • $563.8 million in taxpayer funding, up from $543.7 billion in 2017.
  • $1.67 billion in total revenue, up from $1.46 billion in 2017.
  • Almost $245 million in excess of revenue over expenses, more than double the $98.5 million reported in 2017.
  • $630.8 million in private contributions (including grants, individual contributors, bequests, and corporate contributors), up from $532.7 million in 2017.

In spite of increased income and $245 million dollars in excess of revenue over expenses, they keep getting our taxpayer money.

The founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger, was a racist who wanted “the gradual suppression, elimination and eventual extinction, of defective stock”.  She said, “We don’t want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population…” ( Letter to Dr. Clarence J. Gamble, December 10, 1939, p. 2).  They are doing a great job of that.  Even though blacks make up about 12 percent of our population, 36 percent of PP abortions are from black women.  In NYC this jumps to over 46 per cent.  If you want to learn more about Margaret Sanger, look up “Margaret Sanger Quotes” on google.com.  For obvious reasons, Planned Parenthood likes to distance themselves from their founder.

Pope John Paul II referred to us as being in a “Culture of Death”.   Our sobering statistics tell us that he was correct.  We, no matter what our religion, should see Life as an important gift to be preserved and cherished.  This means saying no to abortion but it also means saying yes to social programs that help families to become the best they can be.  It also means saying no to Euthanasia.  Life is important and precious from conception to Natural Death.  We in the United States should work on promoting Life here, but we also must work on promoting it worldwide.  We need to develop a “Culture of Life” and get rid of this hidden slaughter that plagues our world.

From Selling Abortions to Sidewalk Counseling – by Doug Johnson

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From Selling Abortions To Sidewalk Counseling – by Doug Johnson

For the entire 8 years my wife was involved with Planned Parenthood, her primary job was to sell an abortion to every pregnant woman who walked into the clinic. Even as a volunteer, Abby’s job was to make women feel safe and comfortable as they walked through the doors of Planned Parenthood for their abortion. No matter what her title was, the push was always for abortion, because that is where the money is. When she was an escort, get them in the door. When she was working the front counter, smile, tell them the protesters are nuts, and get the money. When she was in charge of community outreach, Abby was passing out condoms to coeds, giving “sex ed” talks that resulted in new customers, and doing everything she could to normalize abortion. Finally, when she became the clinic director, here’s your abortion quota, Abby!!!

Abby’s first priority and passion project when she left the abortion industry was praying outside of clinics and sidewalk counseling. It wasn’t speaking or writing a book. It wasn’t her movie or starting a ministry to help other clinic workers leave the abortion industry. All that came later. What really motivated her was the opportunity to come face to face with women and sharing the truth about abortion. To tell them what really happens behind the doors of an abortion clinic. She racked up a lot of hours in that first year. I’m not sure why, but it was well over a year before I ever even got to see her live and in action outside of a clinic. The first time I saw Abby get a save… I was in awe. I was inspired. I couldn’t have prepared for how powerful that moment would be and the impact it would have on me supporting my wife moving forward.

It was going to be a normal Saturday with my wife. We were headed to the Austin area in Texas for some reason or another. Who knows? Probably to see friends and maybe do some house hunting. Before we could get to the fun stuff, we needed to stop and drop some materials off with volunteers outside of the Whole Women’s Health in Austin. There were a couple of familiar faces outside the clinic praying, and they told Abby that they were performing abortions that day. Whelp, our leisurely day was going to have to take a pause. It was go time for Abby.

“Ok. Then we are staying until the last customer leaves.”

Now, I had zero experience in this department. I could pray, but I wasn’t about to try my hand at sidewalk counseling. I stood back by the road and watched Abby go to work. The CONFIDENCE she had to call out to everyone that walked in? I was blown away. She knew what to say, how to say it, and how to respond to anything that came her way. I mean, I have always known Abby is a bad-ass, but this was just a cool moment.

We had only been there for about 30 minutes when a couple pulled into the lot and parked right behind the fence facing the sidewalk. A woman stepped out of the passenger side and made a b-line for the building. Her head down and she was clinching her purse. My wife didn’t have an opportunity to say anything to her because just as she was scurrying off, her husband was pointing a finger at us and the first words out of his mouth where…

“You know what? You guys are assholes! You are wasting you’re time and you can’t change my mind!!” 

At first, I took this as a personal affront to my wife. How dare this dude address my wife and the other women like that?! Fortunately, I had seen my bride handle confrontation before.  Still,  I positioned myself just close enough to hear the conversation, but not close enough to escalate things. Besides, I could tell that he was only being protective of his wife. I’m sure he told his wife to hurry in while he distracted us. He didn’t actually want to get into a fight with anyone. Either way, if he was just running interference, he chose the wrong gal to wag his finger at, because it was Abby’s turn to talk.

I don’t remember any exact words. I don’t even remember if Abby started with her experiences in the abortion industry, or if she asked if that was his wife, or if she asked him why he automatically assumed that she’s an “asshole.” She may have started out asking what year his Camero was.  My memory picks up somewhere in the middle. Abby managed to keep him engaged in idle conversation and it didn’t take long for his aggressive tone to fade. I remember him saying that the woman was his wife, this wasn’t their first abortion, and that he was a professional MMA fighter. Then I remember Abby asking him about the medallions he wore around his neck. They were saints and they were given to him by his aunt. Abby asked him what his aunt would think about him being here for an abortion, and he said she would be pretty disappointed. I’ll never forget the next thing that came out of his mouth…

“I actually DON’T want her to have an abortion, but it’s up to her, right?” 

In my brain, there were thousands of voices yelling, NO!!! It is not just up to her!!! That is your wife and child in there. That is your family. If you’re a fighter, then why don’t you go in there and fight for your family. I bet she is in there waiting for you to man up and lead. Tell her you want a family. Tell her you’re committed . Just say something. Anything!! Don’t just leave her alone to figure this out.

Abby handled it much better than I would have. She asked him if he had told her about his objection to her getting an abortion. He said, no. Abby told him, “You need to share your feelings with her. She is your WIFE and this is a conversation you need to have before it’s too late. Go be her husband. She needs you.”

They didn’t say much more before he went in to talk to his wife. About an hour later, they walked out holding hands and looking very at ease. She still didn’t say anything to us, but she smiled at Abby as she got into the car. He looked like he was going to get into the car without saying anything, but he paused. He told us that they were going to lunch and they weren’t coming back. They had decided AGAINST getting an abortion. Abby just smiled and congratulated them. He nodded at us and got in the car. They drove away, and we never saw them again.

I was in such awe of what I had just seen. My wife, a woman that had spent so many years selling abortions had just saved a life. So this is what conversion and change of heart looks like. So this is what it looks like when God recruits you and you accept. You get to save lives.

On a side note: I HATE that even in an equal partnership, men feel silenced about abortion. I guess that’s why I remember this story so well. Men should have a say on the issue of abortion. Not just pro-abortion men. Not just anti-abortion men. ALL MEN!!! Maybe if we stepped up our game, women would feel more supported and never even consider abortion if they knew we were committed. I believe women should lead the conversation, but that doesn’t exclude men in their responsibilities regarding families and abortion.

Check out Doug’s blog at: https://www.dougontap.com/