Have you been following the Kermit Gosnell trial at all?
The details coming out are, in a word, horrific. How can someone do such things to small children? What leads a person to forfeit reason and human decency to such a degree that they engage in these acts? On a regular basis, no less? I suppose these are the same questions we always ask in the face of senseless violence, and I suspect the answers are roughly the same too.
It's interesting because while the doctor himself exhibits particularly disturbing (and psychopathic) behavior, the only real difference (as far as abortion goes) between him at his nightmarish clinic, and the abortionist at Planned Parenthood, is a mere technicality. Because life is life. Abortion is abortion. Earthly justice is only being pursued on behalf of vulnerable children in this instance because Gosnell has broken some arbitrarily-decided-upon rules--had he succeeded in killing the babies before they exited the womb, that would somehow have been okay. It makes little sense to those of us who hold firmly to the belief that life begins at the moment of conception.
And that is part of why this trial is so very important, and why we must not ignore it--especially in the face of predictably-limited media coverage. These heinous acts are, ultimately, being exposed for what they are. And I hope that this spectacle, in addition to shutting his horrible clinic down, makes people think--really think--about what makes this fellow so very different from his legally-practicing and lauded-by-society colleagues.
Yesterday I happened to see a photo of one of the babies from his clinic. It showed the back of the deceased baby's head and neck, where there was a large hole. And while I've seen images of aborted babies before (most of them much gorier than this one), the horror of it all really struck me for some reason. I wanted to cry and I wanted to scream. I wanted to pretend it wasn't real, that it wasn't an actual photo of an actual newborn with a hole in his or her neck. Maybe it's because my one-month-old daughter Alice has a little birthmark in that very spot that I love to look at and touch. Maybe it's because it seemed such a cold and calculated way to kill a child. Whatever the reason, I'm pretty sure I got some sort of glimpse of Hell when I saw that photograph.
Satan may of course use willing people to destroy the beautiful bodies of these children, but he cannot destroy their souls. As for the people party to these killings, that is (sadly) another story. Adult lives are being torn apart, dignity sacrificed, humanity eclipsed, souls crushed. People are being deceived. And dragged off into the darkness to a place where, in Gosnell's case, he eventually found himself keeping small feet in jars as "trophies" of his victims. And that sounds shocking to us--and it should--but we must also keep in mind that when someone is in the business of abortion, it becomes (to some degree) natural for them to think in rather morbid terms about it all. He has become devoid of much of what makes us human.
So really, Kermit Gosnell may actually be luckier than most in his profession--his actions are on trial and being exposed for what they are. No airline CEOs are fundraising for him and no feminists are calling him a champion of women's issues. No presidents are heralding him a hero of reproductive rights. And maybe, just maybe, this will save his soul. We must pray to that end, that not only will earthly justice be served, but that God will have mercy upon this man, that he will see the light and be freed from the dark and evil lifestyle that has slowly twisted him into a monster.
May God bless and keep each of this man's tiny victims.
May God bless and keep each of their respective mothers and fathers.
Blessed Mother Mary and Holy Innoncents, pray for us.
