22 February 2010
Feast of Saint Peter’s Chair
Excellencies,
It seems that during this season of Lent, and especially on this Feast of Saint Peter’s Chair when we celebrate the institution of our first Pope and the one whom Jesus promised to make a “fisher of men”, that we contemplate a renewed strategy to net some who are regarded as most lost among us, those who have sunk to the level of killing children to earn their living. The abortionists.
At a meeting in Washington D.C. before this year’s March for Life, Troy Newman of Operation Rescue spoke of his organization’s past successes and ongoing efforts at shutting down abortuaries by going after the medical licenses of abortionists when they inevitably harm women beyond he normal harms inflicted by abortion. This has proven to be an effective strategy.
To counter this strategy at shutting down individually owned and operated abortion ‘clinics’, Planned Parenthood has begun to open a series of abortion megacenters staffed by several abortionists. The loss of any one or two will not be enough to shutter these places. A new strategy is therefore necessary, and I propose the following proactive strategy.
The key to most abortionists is the understanding that most feel trapped: trapped spiritually, trapped emotionally, trapped professionally. Freeing the captives is where we shine.
Rather than waiting for these people to do harm to the extent that they lose their licenses, we as a Church should approach these physicians with a comprehensive program of professional, personal and spiritual rehabilitation, leaving the flock and aggressively seeking them out as Jesus tells us He does as the Good Shepherd.
Within the Church’s extensive network of teaching hospitals, surely we can make room for a discrete program of retraining these physicians in OB/Gyn. Such a program would not impose the indignity of throwing these physicians in with the normal resident physicians, but would welcome them as attending physicians or post-doctoral fellows with a salary and benefits package that is sufficient economic inducement so as to not present financial hurdles to making the decision to walk away from abortion.
In this regard, certainly the Church has enough benefactors who would leap at the opportunity to rob the abortion wildfire of its oxygen.
Beyond the clinical retraining, we know enough former abortionists who could provide peer support and mentoring through the difficult readjustment. Then we have our excellent Priests, Deacons, Religious and Laity to assist in their spiritual and personal growth and development.
As I’m sure you are aware, Most Reverend Fathers, a key to success in a program of this sort would be the assurance of complete discretion, and that these men and women would never be held up publicly as converts. I suspect that grace would motivate many to step forward of their own accord, in their own good time.
Such a program is desperately needed on behalf of the innocent unborn who today stand in harm’s way. It is desperately needed by our nation and the Civilization of Love which we would have as this nation’s defining quality.
Most importantly, it is a comprehensive way out for men and women who are desperately trapped in sin, self-loathing, and professional alienation from their peers.
No one body is better equipped to institute such a sweeping program of reconciliation and rehabilitation as the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Troy Newman and Operation Rescue have done a fine job to date in shutting down abortuaries. Now it’s our turn to innovate an effective strategy in targeting the physicians. Through the loving embrace of abortionists themselves, we demonstrate to them that we are not merely anti-abortion, but truly pro-life.
With deepest gratitude to you and respect for your Holy Office, I remain,
Sincerely,
Gerard M. Nadal, Ph.D.
Coming Home 
Although I do not sympathize with either the motivation or the purpose of this proposal, I would like to say that it is a perfectly legitimate means to advance a goal that you fervently and sincerely believe in. If, despite my reservations, and those of many others, it is objectively true that abortion is inherently evil, that must be known on some level, conscious or unconscious, by those who perform abortions on a regular basis. No approach could better offer them a way out, nor more graciously restore then to the legitimate practice of their profession. If there is indeed some legitimate scope for the practice of abortion, that will be reflected in new doctors continuing to fill that need, in response to patients seeking such services from them.
In any event, the matter will be determined by thousands of quiet, individual, conscientious decisions, which will of course have a cumulative impact on the entire community, rather than in loud confrontations which only harden an unproductive mutual hostility. Frankly, I expect that a doctor who found themselves SPECIALIZING in abortions, rather than occasionally performing one when an individual patient required one, would weary of it and welcome a program such as this. I wish you the best in obtaining the resources to make this offer to those who are ready to hear it.
I am struck by the deep care and concern that you have toward the doctors who perform abortions. It is a refreshing contrast to those who only view them as evil persons. Christ died on the cross for sinners. Those who consider themselves “righteous” should remember that Christ died even for the doctors who perform abortions. Any attempt at diverting them away from performing abortions in the loving manner you describe has merit.
Unfortunately, I also understand the harsh realities of “supply and demand”. As long as women want to have abortions, there will be doctors somewhere willing to perform those abortions. We also must continue to work towards changing the hearts of those who seek abortions, and offer loving options for them too.
This issue spans all of Christianity. I happen to be a Southern Baptist minister, but I am willing to join with others across denominational lines to promote ideas that will reduce and one day (God willing) eliminate abortion. Thank you for maintaining your Christian witness in the face of such a difficult issue. God Bless!
Reverend Kennedy and SJ,
Thank you both for your kind words. Yes Reverend, I am very aware of Christ having died for the sins of the abortionists as well. For those such as Dr. Bernard Nathanson, who performed scores of thousands of abortions, their conversions bear powerful witness to the fact that God’s love and mercy is infinitely greater than the worst of our sins.
To believe otherwise is the sin of pride.
I also understand your point about women who really want abortions finding someone who will perform them.
However, we should do all that we can to reduce the pool of abortionists through rehabilitating them. Young medical students don’t aspire to the field. In creating a dearth of abortionists, and simultaneously growing the number of crisis pregnancy centers, perhaps we will be able to begin to turn the tide by saving women from the disillusioning isolation many feel when they walk into an abortuary. Perhaps many will question the dearth and what it means.
Despite denominational differences which pale in comparison to the weight of the one single issue, I will proudly stand shoulder to shoulder with you as brothers in Christ.
We’ll have eternity to laugh at the other stuff.
God Bless
Wow… what a bold and amazing concept! I pray it garners support and action. The Divine Mercy of Jesus is available to all repentant sinners…including abortionists. What a blessing it would be if they knew that.
I believe that what you suggest is a loving and viable alternative to simply shutting down the abortion clinics. Christ came to infuse us with life and when abortionists see pro-lifers who care about them too, many hearts will change. I believe abortion is an issue of self-worth, not only the worth of the child, but also the worth of the mother and father. So many women become pregnant seeking ‘love’ from men. If more women felt loved and understood their worth in God’s eyes, i beleive the sexual revolution would die a quiet death and every child would be a wanted child.
“The key to most abortionists is the understanding that most feel trapped: trapped spiritually, trapped emotionally, trapped professionally. Freeing the captives is where we shine.”
Do you have proof for this statement, Dr. G?
My feeling is that most of these doctors are in this for the money. There is no way that a Catholic hospital can compete with this aspect.
Many also genuinely feel that they are helping women.
I also believe that most doctors these days are not much different from most people, in that they have very poorly developed consciences. They see little wrong with abortion and are of the opinion (like SJ) that a baby is a “hollow vessel” to be filled.
“Within the Church’s extensive network of teaching hospitals, surely we can make room for a discrete program of retraining these physicians in OB/Gyn. Such a program would not impose the indignity of throwing these physicians in with the normal resident physicians, but would welcome them as attending physicians or post-doctoral fellows with a salary and benefits package that is sufficient economic inducement so as to not present financial hurdles to making the decision to walk away from abortion.”
I can’t speak for all Catholic hospitals but I know that the ones I’m familiar with are far from Catholic. Many perform abortions. Many perform what can only be termed late abortions under the guise of induced labor and then allowing the baby to expire “naturally”. This is sometimes done for babies who are given no prognosis of survival.
Most prescribe the morning after pill and other contraceptives in violation of their “Catholic” label.
I think just cleaning up these hospitals will be a major undertaking in the next 50 years, never mind trying to convert abortionists. Most abortionists will not leave their jobs because of money – they will leave only if they have a change of heart.
“Young medical students don’t aspire to the field.”
And while most medical students don’t want to be abortionists, there are some who are willing to train. The most important thing I think here, is to make sure that med students are not forced into having to do abortions as part of their medical training.
My understanding is that residents are pretty much coerced in to helping with abortions. If they don’t sign on, they are seen as slackers, making other doctors take on more of this undesirable work.
Finally, we need to tap into the large pool of homeschoolers who are coming of age but are shunning specific occupations because they mean direct confrontation with secular atheistic beliefs.
Not one of my friends who home school has a child in a regular university.
No one will graduate as a doctor, nurse or a lawyer. How will we confront these evils if there are few practicing Catholic doctors, nurses or lawyers?
Mary Catherine, this is a season for humility and mutual respect, although our differences are vast. I am impressed that you recognize that some of the doctors performing abortions genuinely believe they are helping women. I will acknowledge without reservation that there are also some who are in it for the money. I have seen public statements by more than one doctor who is conscientiously opposed to ever performing an abortion. There is a lot for them all to wrestle with, within their profession.
Rev. Kennedy and Dr. Nadal, we will certainly have eternity to laugh at the small stuff. I recall that a member of one Protestant denomination made a study of another denomination, concluding “I think we will see them in heaven, but boy, will they be surprised to see us.” The biggest laugh will be finding out what it was that God knew all along — and for God, the laugh will be watching our expressions when we find out.
“Mary Catherine, this is a season for humility and mutual respect, although our differences are vast.”
It is definitely humility for people to admit that perhaps without quite understanding all the biology they are willing to accept that a new human being exists from the moment of conception.
Can you do this?
great idea.
Mary Catherine, you’re missing the spirit entirely. You couldn’t wait to spit a snide twist back. Nobody arrives at the truth with that kind of presumptuous arrogance. I’m not even sure it takes humility to accept the assertion you pose. It takes humility to recognize that none of us can make every decision for every other person on the planet — even though they, like we, will sometimes make mistakes.
“It takes humility to recognize that none of us can make every decision for every other person on the planet — even though they, like we, will sometimes make mistakes.”
exactly! which is why a woman shouldn’t make the decision for ANOTHER human being – the unborn human being in her womb as to whether he/she lives or dies. 😦
it is YOU who miss the point entirely, Mr. Jenkins.
so sorry you’re sore about my attitude towards you.
It’s difficult to take you with any degree of seriousness when you blow off basic high school biology and then turn around and use terms like “quickening”. 😉
Dr. Nadal,
A few points.
This won’t solve ALL our problems, but if an abortionist is weary of his work and only in it for the money, why doesn’t a wealthy pro-lifer (there must be a few) offer to buy their facility, demolish it, and offer a cash payment to the abortionist that he can live off of if he promises to never perform abortions again? Babies lives will be saved….
It is heartening, Dr. Nadal, to see your advocating that the medical profession take more responsibility in helping to reduce elective abortions. I’m sure there are probably secular hospitals, as well as religious ones, that might be willing to get involved in the type of program you propose. Possibly OB/GYNS in private practice as well.
IMHO, (Medical) language is (almost) everything in the division between pro-lifers and pro-choicers, in my opinion. I believe there is still confusion among the average pro-choice population as to what constitutes “abortion. They need to understand that there is a difference between elective abortion and other necessary medical care for the pregnant woman which may indirectly take the life of a baby, such as removing an ectopic pregnancy. As I understand it, valid, legal medical procedures that may indirectly,medically, terminate a life, is not what the law Roe v. Wade was meant to guarantee; therefore the illegality of Roe v. Wade would not endanger the life of the mother. Am, I correct?
Janet,
You said it well!
As an informed citizen who studies law, I have to try to clarify what Roe v. Wade would and would not do. To refer to “the illegality” of Roe v. Wade does not described ways it might be superseded. Right now, it is the law, for better or for worse. It could be over-ruled by a decision of the same tribunal that decided it, the United States Supreme Court. They do that now and then, but very seldom. There is a principle called stare decisis — the law should not be capriciously changed, once set, because people come to rely on it. Also, a constitution has no meaning at all if it means one thing this year and another thing next year.
A constitutional amendment could effectively nullify the law, be setting a new constitutional principal. For instance, the Supreme Court never over-ruled Dred Scott v. Sanford, but the Thirteenth and Fourteenth amendments swept away the legal foundation for both slavery and racial inequality. As a West Virginia legislator once remarked, a constitutional amendment is by definition constitutional. That is also why the California Supreme Court, which had found a state constitutional right for same-sex citizens to marry, properly refused to overturn Proposition 8, because it amended the state constitution itself.
If Roe v. Wade were either over-ruled, or superseded by constitutional amendment, the immediate effect would be to withdraw a restraint against state authority to legislate. What states might legislate is open to speculation. Some states might vote to have no laws about abortion at all. There might be no legal standard preventing a state from criminalizing any procedure which destroyed a fetus, even removing an ectopic pregnancy. We can expect legislators would not be so foolish. There are other conditions which might be more borderline — e.g., if a doctor though there was a significant risk of fatal hemmorhage, but the law was vague enough to put him in fear he MIGHT be prosecuted by a district attorney who didn’t believe the danger to the mother was real. Prosecutors have wide latitude on when to bring a case.
So we really don’t know. Legislation would become a vigorous battleground for competing viewpoints, and various compromises would be struck. Some people believe the legislature is a better arena than the courts to settle these debates. We would all be surprised by what various legislatures might do. Right now, they can grand-stand in whatever way seems expedient, because they know the laws they pass will not be given effect, except late in pregnancy.
the most important thing about Roe being struck down is that likely the PEOPLE would have a say this time,
instead of a liberal judiciary….
The founders of our republic were no more willing to let legislative majorities infringe the liberties of the people than to allow absolute monarchs to do so.
And in 1973, there were only two liberals on the court.
that may be but the reasoning in Roe vs Wade was in gravely erroneous, even from a point of law….
Even proabort lawyers consider Roe to be a legal nightmare.
Even proabort lawyers can make mistakes. After all, one thing we agree on is that Planned Parenthood and NARAL are incredibly paranoid and spend money on the most ridiculously off the wall commercials. The one thing I might let them hire me for is to clean up their publicity, IF they give me a free hand to do what I see needs to be done, and refrain from what I see they need to remain silent about. Fat chance.
I don’t find Roe to be a legal nightmare at all. I know that Ruth Bader Ginsburg has made some noises along that line, but I find HER reasoning a legal nightmare. I’ve already laid out my view of Roe, so I won’t take up space doing so again. Try this link if you want to know how my mind works:
http://siarlysjenkins.blogspot.com/2007/03/what-abortion-campaign.html