The Holy Innocents and Abortion

On December 28^th we celebrated the Holy Innocents, the boys who were killed by Herodes in his attempt to kill Jesus. They are the first martys, because even not knowing, they died because of Jesus.

Fr. Léo once said that this army of the Holy Innocents keep growing each day in Heaven, because the aborted children are also martyrs, even not knowing, they died because of the original sin, by selfishness, cowardness and even ignorance of their own parents. If they die in consequence of the sin of the world, they die in Jesus place. And the most amazing thing is that this child who was aborted, a Holy Innocent, in Heaven, intercede for his parents, so they can find the way of God´s mercy.

Many things have been said here in Brazil about abortion in these past weeks, because, unfortunately, they are trying to legalize this practice here. The pro choice advocates say that their intention is to “protect” women who already do abortions illegally, so they can have more “safety” in abortion. However, none of them speaks about the huge traumas that these women suffer when they abort, and that the best for them is to give conditions so they could carry on the pregnancy and have their babies.

If abortion is legalized, many women will be coerced to abort, by the baby´s father, by her family or even the doctor, who would profit with it. The fact is that because abortion is illegal, the woman thinks twice before submitting herself to a risky procedure and she has the law beside her to dissuade those who might pressure her into an abortion.

When I was pregnant with Julia, my fourth child who had a genetic problem and probably wouldn have survived birth (full story you can read here), I suffered huge pressure by the geneticist doctor to abort her. Even being illegal, he said he “could work things out”. He even said I could die if I carried on with the pregnancy and would leave my other three children orphans. If abortion had been legal and I had a slight doubt about to whether to abort or not, he could have convinced me. And I wouldn´t have had the immense privilege of being Julia´s mother and have my heart in peace, because we loved her above all and did all we could while she was here with us. This peace is stolen from each mother who aborts and causes great psychological damages for all her life.

During my life I knew three women who thought about aborting when they discovered their pregnancies. With the grace of God, I was able to convince all three to have their babies. I´m still in touch with two of them, and they thank me for having supported them in such a delicate moment of their lives, and today they can see their children growing healthy. Today they can not imagine their lives without their children.

But what can we do in such a grave situation that is the possibility of the legalization of abortion? First, we can pray, fast and make sacrifices so the politicians may be convinced that the life should always prevail. We can also get information about the arguments that the pro choice people have, so we can rebate each one of them. Many Catholic sites already have this material available.

And last, a practice that I got to know in the beginning of the year is the spiritual adoption of babies who are in danger of abortion. It is very simple to make this adoption: 1) choose a name for the baby you are spiritual adopting; 2) write the day you are beginning this adoption; 3) write the probably date of the birth, that will be 9 months after the day you began the adoption; 4) pray every day this prayer “Jesus, Mary and Joseph I love you very much. I beg you to spare the life of (baby´s name) the unborn baby that I have spiritually adopted who is in danger of abortion”. [Prayer of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen]

If you want more information about this spiritual adoption, you can check it here. I end this post with a prayer for the Holy Innocents:

Oh Holy Innocents, intercede before God in favor of so many babies who are continually in danger of abortion. Open the heart of those mothers and fathers, so they accept the great gift they´ve received, that is to take care of an immortal soul. Intercede before God so we can be spared of the approval of a law legalizing abortion in our country. Intercede also for all the doctors and nurses who make abortions, so their conscience shows the evil they are doing. Oh Holy Innocents, intercede for us so we can always have the strength to fight against abortion, knowing that is a spiritual war against the demon, coating us with the armor of God. Amen.