By Dr. Bill Blanke
Catholic Healthcare
January 22 is a Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children. This day commemorates the date in 1973 that established elective abortion as a constitutional right in the infamous Roe v. Wade decision. This article is in honor of those lives lost in the last 51 years. I wish to share three recent experiences.
First, at a November ethics conference at the University of Southern Indiana, a pro-abortion OB/GYN (pray for her conversion) shared current statistics about elective abortion. Most readers are likely aware that the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson (released in June 2022) reversed a constitutional right and returned abortion law decision-making to each state.
Indiana passed laws not long after, and after more than a year of court challenges, these laws are being enforced. The number of abortions in Indiana have plummeted. Praise Jesus! On the other hand, there are many states that are “abortion friendly.” I was startled to learn that since June 2022, the number of abortions in America has actually increased rather than decreased. Currently, more than half of abortions are from RU-486, the combination of medications commonly referred to as “the abortion pill.” A woman in any state is able to be “seen” by a virtual clinic in an abortion-friendly state and receive RU-486 by mail. One such website I visited to verify this information states, “At-home medication abortion care is safer than Tylenol.” Really? The website forgot to include “except if you are the baby about to be aborted.”
Secondly, during Advent, a young woman took RU-486 to abort her pregnancy but then regretted her decision. She contacted the Abortion Pill Reversal Network who got her in touch with me. With RU-486 more commonly used, it is important to know that there is a medication protocol to attempt to reverse the effects of RU-486. The Abortion Pill Reversal Network has a nationwide listing of medical providers who are willing to prescribe progesterone. The mechanism of action of RU-486 and reversal with progesterone is beyond the scope of this article, I just want you to be aware that this network exists. At the time of this writing, the effect of progesterone has been effective and this young mom had an ultrasound earlier this month that showed a healthy baby’s heartbeat. Again, praise Jesus! Please pray for both this mom and her baby.
Finally, in preparation for a Jan. 11 Theology on Tap discussion in Evansville, I read a new book by Stephanie Gray Connors, “My Body For You,” published by Emmaus Road. Stephanie is a seasoned and international speaker who began presenting at the age of 18. She has given over 1,000 pro-life presentations over two decades. Her perspective has broadened as she recently married, has given birth to one daughter, has lost four children by miscarriage, and is pregnant with her sixth child.
She acknowledges that Dobbs v. Jackson was a step in the right direction of defending life in the womb, but “the culture war is far from over. A new declaration from a court or a change in law does not, by itself, change the hearts of the people. There's still much work to be done to convince the public that preborn children are worth protecting.”
The part of the book that blew me away, however, is directly linked to our Diocese’s fantastic Eucharistic Congress held on Jan. 13. Dobbs v. Jackson was released on June 24, 2022. Any guesses what began five days before that? The three-year Eucharistic Revival started on June 19, 2022, on the Feast of Corpus Christi.
Stephanie shares this quote from Catholic apologist and philosophy professor Peter Kreeft: “Abortion is the antichrist's demonic parody of the Eucharist. That is why it uses the same words, ‘this is my body’ with the blasphemously opposite meaning.”
Let us pray and assist the continued efforts of the culture of life, pray for the conversion of those involved in the culture of death, and ask Jesus that we all grow in understanding and awe of He who said, "This is my body which is given for you.”