by James L. Lambert and Rusty Pugh
(AgapePress) – In a story reminiscent of Nazi Germany, a representative of Operation Rescue West officially made public this week pictures of a bizarre “baptismal ceremony” featuring a dead, partial-birth-aborted baby and her parents.
In an exclusive interview, Troy Newman, director of ORW, explained that the mother of the aborted baby agreed to tell her story. The mother, Margaret (last name withheld by her request), decided to come forward and give her account of her late-term abortion and the eerie ceremony that was to follow. The mother has given Newman the original negatives of the pictures and also granted him an interview on August 15, detailing her story.
View pictures [ WARNING! These pictures are very graphic and are not suitable for children to view. WARNING! ]
Margaret alleges that in 1999 she had a late-term abortion performed by abortionist George Tiller, who operates the Woman's Health Care Services in Wichita, Kansas. She was seven-and-a-half months pregnant at the time of the abortion. The mother also confirmed that her child had been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis.
In a written statement, the young woman laments her position, asking “What kind of a mother am I? I let that butcher slash her up [and] I was supposed to protect her.”
According to Tiller's own website, Women's Health Care Services promotes and offers a baptismal ceremony as an additional service to late-term abortion customers. The so-called “remembrance ceremonies” mentioned on the website all of which involve a dead, aborted baby offer such things as “baptism of your baby, with or without a certificate,” “certificate of premature miscarriage,” and “footprints and handprints of your baby.” A representative from Tiller's office pointed out, by phone, that these remembrance services are for babies with a fetal anomaly.
The website also makes the following claim in reference to the aborted baby: “We are grateful to allow her to pass from our lives without pain.” The phrase “without pain” contradicts the testimony of Dr. Bernard Nathanson, former co-founder of the National Abortion Rights Action League. The former abortionist told this reporter in January that many late-term abortions which includes partial-birth abortions or dilation and extraction procedures are particularly gruesome. In the procedure, the abortionist uses forceps to deliver the entire baby, except for the head. Then the abortionist inserts an instrument, such as forceps or blunt surgical scissors, into the base of the baby's skull. A vacuum tube is then inserted into the skull to suck out the brain, the skull is collapsed, and the dead baby is then extracted.
Dr. Nathanson said that of the late-term procedures he performed, contrary to the opinion evoked by Tiller's abortion clinic, and according to his research, many late-term abortions are not without pain. Members of the medical community, including the American Society of Anesthesiologists, support Nathanson's assertion.
Newman calls the “baptismal ceremony” a two-fold tragedy. First, he says, is the tragedy depicted in the photographs, which he describes as “physical, photographic evidence that children are being murdered in the third trimester, simply for convenience.” The second, he says, is probably even more important.
“This is now an indictment against the Church of Jesus Christ,” Newman says. “These children are being murdered with the permission of the Church and then given the sacred ceremonies and sacraments … of baptism. I mean, what's next? It seems like we're in the throngs of Old Testament Israel where we have Baal worship in the middle of the Holy Temple.”
Newman says this is akin to what Manasseh did when he killed his children within the temple and said that he did it unto the Lord.
While late-term abortions are legal in the United States, considerable controversy has arisen over the procedure known as “partial-birth abortion.” Advocates for the abortion industry have reluctantly admitted that there are as many as 15,000 partial-birth abortions performed in America each year. Newman is hopeful these pictures will demonstrate that the abortion industry is extreme in its lust for making money and he is hopeful that public sentiment will force politicians to courageously ban late-term abortions.
One of the more notable politicians who has led the charge to outlaw the procedure during the last four years is Republican Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, who twice has sponsored legislation to outlaw partial-birth abortion. Both times, President Bill Clinton vetoed Santorum's legislation.
Senator Santorum says “the practice of partial-birth abortion is a heinous procedure that amounts to infanticide, pure and simple. The American Medical Association has called this grotesque procedure 'bad medicine,' and thousands of physicians who specialize in high-risk pregnancies have said it is 'never medically necessary.'”
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia adds by saying that the dilation and extraction procedure “is so horrible that the most clinical description of it evokes a shudder of revulsion.”
Newman is convinced that people of faith and their leaders must actively defend the defenseless from the horrors of the approximately 3,400 abortion deaths that occur each day in the United States.
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(This update courtesy of Agape Press.)