It is alive! It is not tissue. It is a child, alive, breathing, heart beating, swimming, sucking the thumb with its little fingers, hiccupping, eyes, and lips – a being with a separate but interdependent existence with the mother.

Abortion depersonalises this baby and makes it into a thing. Once this baby is called tissue, it can be killed without conscience. Still, the baby lives, breathes, eats, swims, plays in the womb of the mother, intimately bound up with the flesh of the mother in a closeness that cannot escape the ‘lifebeat’, heartbeat, moods and feelings of one another. The mother knows that this is a child, that there is life, independent and real, moving within her, yet dependent on her for existence.

In the Charter of Rights just promulgated by the Government, it is stated that there is “the right of every child to such measures of protection as are required by virtue of the status of being a minor”. Also, the child has “a right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived (of it)”. Therefore, the Government must condemn abortion, otherwise it would be Pharisaical.

The fundamental question is, “Is the child in the womb a baby?” If it is not a baby, if it has no life, it can be eliminated. But if it is a baby, if it is alive, killing the child would be murder. It is as straightforward as that. Either the baby is alive or it is dead tissue. To abort it is to kill the baby; it is to commit murder. This must be prohibited by the Government under the Charter of Rights quoted above.

Miracle of life

Very often, people make things more obscure and complicated than they are. This is to create confusion and to rationalise wrong. Recently, Missionaries of the Poor checked, in one day, 16 pregnant mothers of all ages and in all stages of pregnancy using an ultrasound machine. I watched the babies move in the womb; it was nothing short of a miracle! There were the features of little human beings enjoying existence in their mothers’ wombs. The women knew then that this was not mere tissue in their wombs. Some wept to see the miracle of life within their own flesh.

On the other hand, I met a few women who were frenetic after having aborted. They were tormented women, unable to endure the nightmares suffered two years, or one year, after the abortion. They were emotionally unstable, angry and upset, full of regret. Those who advised or pressured them into abortion were regarded as their enemies: the doctors, the parents, relatives, boyfriends, and even teachers.

Better to have borne the difficulties of rearing a child in poverty than to kill the baby in the womb. Better to live with a free conscience than to live with regret of having taken the life of the child of your womb.

Father Richard Ho Lung is founder of Missionaries of the Poor. Email feedback to [email protected] and [email protected]. The mission welcomes calls to 948-6173 or 948-2280. Ask for Sister Joanne and Sister Melanie, who will help persons in their time of trial.