You have probably heard about this horribly sad story: A woman, Emma Beck, committed suicide shortly after aborting her twin babies, leaving a note explaining her actions.
She wrote:
I should never have had an abortion. I see now I would have been a good mum. I told everyone I didn’t want to do it, even at the hospital. I was frightened, now it is to late. I died when my babies died. I want to be with my babies: they need me, no one else does.
This is so sad on every level, and to me it shows the real story of abortion: sadness, grief, and sometimes despair. I do not believe that God wanted her to despair after she aborted her twins, but rather, he wanted her to find forgiveness and healing in Christ’s love–nothing is too much for God to forgive and heal.
Apparently, Ms. Beck’s boyfriend, the children’s father, “reacted badly” when he heard she was pregnant. This young man failed to be a true man, who would have protected his girlfriend and his children rather than turning his back on them.
And the doctor at the hospital who performed the abortion: Ms. Beck told “everyone” at the hospital she didn’t want to do it, that she was scared, and yet they also failed to help her, even though she was clearly crying out for help.
And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love and we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts. Jesus gave even His life to love us. So, the mother who is thinking of abortion, should be helped to love, that is, to give until it hurts her plans, or her free time, to respect the life of her child. The father of that child, whoever he is, must also give until it hurts.
By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems.
And, by abortion, the father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world. That father is likely to put other women into the same trouble. So abortion just leads to more abortion.
Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.
She continued:
We [her order, the Missionaries of Charity] have sent word to the clinics, to the hospitals and police stations: “Please don’t destroy the child; we will take the child.” So we always have someone tell the mothers in trouble: “Come, we will take care of you, we will get a home for your child.” And we have a tremendous demand from couples who cannot have a child – but I never give a child to a couple who have done something not to have a child. Jesus said. “Anyone who receives a child in my name, receives me.” By adopting a child, these couples receive Jesus but, by aborting a child, a couple refuses to receive Jesus.
Please don’t kill the child. I want the child. Please give me the child. I am willing to accept any child who would be aborted and to give that child to a married couple who will love the child and be loved by the child.
May our Lord have mercy on this woman’s soul and bring her to eternal life in Heaven with her twins.
