A late-term abortion clinic in Maryland offers mothers the opportunity to cuddle with their deceased “baby” after the abortion is over, according to a brochure from the clinic. When I first read about this at The Federalist, I thought it too ghoulish to be true. And then I tracked down the source myself, and it turns out that it is true. And it is indeed ghoulish.
On page 7 of the brochure, this is what you will read. And I quote:
Remembrances & Special Requests
Many patients request a remembrance of their baby to take home with them. The following lists items and services that some of our patients have found helpful in their emotional recovery. Every family approaches this experience with their own unique emotional, spiritual, and cultural background. There is no right or wrong way, just “your way”. Once the process of healing has begun, you may want to consider a token of the precious time with you and your baby had together. All of these features of our program will be discussed with you while you are with us.
Services after your delivery
- Viewing your baby after the delivery
- Holding your baby after the delivery
- Photographs of your baby
- Cremation services referral
- Funeral arrangements referral
- Footprints
- Spiritual and ceremonial accommodations
- Remembrance certificate
This is worse than ghoulish. It has the smell of hell all over it. Notice that the brochure acknowledges that the woman is in fact a “mother” and that the child is in fact her “baby.” The clinic offers the mother the opportunity to cuddle with her baby and even to take photographs and footprints.
What does this reveal? It reveals that anyone who would take advantage of these “services” knows that this isn’t merely a clump of cells. They know that they have taken the life of a human child. Why would a clinic offer such “services” unless they had been requested and utilized in the past? They know what they are doing. Let that sink in. They know what they are doing.
Reading this brings to mind a sermon on abortion that I heard from John Piper 17 years ago titled, “Father forgive, for we know what we are doing.” In that message, Piper says this:
If we claim to be ignorant that we are killing human beings and that therefore we are innocent, Jesus prays for us, “Father, forgive them, for . . .” But here I have to stop. I don’t know if I can say, “They don’t know what they are doing.” Maybe some don’t. But many do. But the important point is this: Whether we know what we are doing or don’t know what we are doing, we are guilty and need forgiveness, because we should know what we are doing. Indeed, we do know what we are doing.
So hear me loud and clear at the outset: Jesus offers you forgiveness this morning for aborting your child, or encouraging your girlfriend or your daughter to abort your child, or for working in an abortion clinic, or for being apathetic and doing nothing about this great evil and injustice in our society. And in offering forgiveness, Jesus declares that we are guilty. Our ignorance is guilty ignorance. We should know what we are doing even if we don’t. And we do know!
“If you say, ‘Behold, we did not know this,’ does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?” (Prov. 24:12). We may trick ourselves into believing our own self-justification, but we won’t trick God. He knows better, and so should we.
There is hope and a future for those who have been through the hell of a late-term abortion. There really is. But that can only come on the other side of moral clarity about the great evil that abortion really is. It is the taking of the life of an innocent human being, and the offense is only exacerbated by the fact that mothers are included in the conspiracy.
If this doesn’t motivate you to act and to speak up for unborn children, I don’t know what will. But for now, what is there to do but to weep and to pray, “Father forgive, for we know what we are doing”?