Our Lord Jesus Christ is true God and true Man: one Person having two natures (that is, divine and human). This is the authentic teaching of the Catholic Church. Jesus was born of the blessed Virgin Mary by the power of the holy Spirit. Being God, He is entirely without sin, like ‘a lamb without blemish or spot.’ See 1 Peter 1:19b (RSVCE).
The blessed Virgin Mary is fully human and not divine (notwithstanding all of the divine attributes that God has showered upon Her always, both as a preparation for and as an effect of her most excellent virtues). Mary is the immaculate Conception: She was conceived without original sin and has remained virginal and sinless at all times since then.
Jesus and Mary both began their earthly lives as we all have, as zygotes (that is, single cells). They grew by gestation for nine months and were born in the usual way. No-one could say that They were ‘a nothing’ at any time of their gestation: it would be an impious lie to say so. These Persons received their human soul (Mary) and human nature (Jesus) at the first moment of their earthly existence, as did we receive our soul. They grew to birth and came into the world to start a new phase of growth, just as we did.
The phenomenon of abortion, flourishing as it does in the world, depends entirely on a nine-month window of gestation, when the baby is hidden from view. Out of sight and very much in mind. But God sees everything: the embryo in his smallness, and people’s evil intentions. To pick on a tiny human, taking advantage of his obscurity and invisibility to do him harm, is ruthless, merciless and cowardly; a bully tactic. The Psalmist sheds light on the tiny human in this re-humanising passage:
‘Thou knowest me right well; my frame was not hidden from thee, when I was being made in secret, intricately wrought in the depths of the earth. Thy eyes beheld my unformed substance; in thy book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.’
Psalm 139[138]:14c–16 (RSVCE).
The nine-month window is one of death, an opportunity to kill; it is a construct both artificial and absurd. It is illogical and irrational. How about we leave the gestating babies alone and instead allow them to be killed at any time from birth, up to some other significant but arbitrary milestone; for example, when they can sit up? Can crawl? Can stand up? Can walk? Can talk? Can write? When they reach seven years of age? Undergo puberty? Reach the age of consent? The age of eighteen? Twenty-one?
Why exactly do we stop at just before birth? The proof of the absurdity is that the baby is not materially different just after birth than how he was just before birth. Now we can question the existence of this dirty, dark, broken death-window and say:
‘No! This zygote of a single cell, while not looking at all like a person whom we see walking in the street, is how you and I started, too. And the scientific proof of his humanity is the fact that he has 100 per cent of his new, unique, human DNA on board; and is growing steadily according to that design.’
This is a conclusion that should satisfy the scientist in us. The amazing thing is that not even scientific knowledge itself can impel and lead some to face up to such an immediate reality. In this, true science is actually being denied.
Let us make this moment the time when we think about the sex act that brought the baby about: was it holy and loving? Or selfish and immoral, shameful? The child will come about in either case. But Nature (or rather, God) does not measure the new life by the morality of the sex act. I am suggesting that we finally take responsibility for our sexual activity. I am highlighting the fact that it is not at all abnormal, nor is it changeable, that babies should spring forth from the sexual channel.
After the long preamble, why is it an offence to the Humanity of Jesus and Mary to kill a gestating child? Because this holiest, sinless Pair lived for the full nine months within, and also apart from, while still being connected to, their respective holy mothers. In doing this They have sanctified, or made holy, those full nine months. It is a beautiful, clear, shiny window. Mary now being united with the all-seeing Godhead in Heaven, and Jesus being reunited to the Godhead, They are able to perceive every tiny, little baby’s presence, even before a mother perceives his presence. God Himself, with the cooperation of the father and mother, instilled the soul. He and all of Heaven already love the new person with all their Heart.
We should also acknowledge the sorrow of the Saints in Heaven when they see an abortion happening, because they too were ‘made in secret, intricately wrought in the depths of the earth.’ It is devastating for the Guardian Angels, of whom we all have one, when a little life is cut short. The Angel had intended to guard and guide that soul to the end of a long life and into Heaven.
We have focused on the holy Humanity of Jesus and Mary, and their full and complete experience of human life (though being without sin), starting from conception. It is their nine months in the womb that gives dignity to our nine months in the womb. It is their nine months in the womb that stands for the protection of all those in the womb. It is their nine months in the womb that causes Them to be offended, and makes Them sorrow deeply, about the loss of little ones by abortion.
If abortion thus affects even heavenly beings—the whole of Heaven, in fact—it has ill effects in our sphere, too. Effects that go beyond the child, beyond the mother; to the father, grandparents; the uncles and aunts, cousins; to the whole of mankind: abortion tears at the very fabric of humanity. But all this being true, it is not reason to despair or lose hope. Indeed,
‘The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made.’
Psalm 145[144]:8–9 (RSVCE).
See also Right to Mercy.