Intrusion

I will be the first to admit that my own views on abortion are very conflicted. I think that there’s a lot of “magical thinking” on the part of extremists on both sides of the issue, and can in the end only use Bill Clinton’s formulation that abortion should be “safe, legal, and rare.”

That’s why, when there’s grandstanding going on in the abortion arena, from any wing, it severely torques me off, because it’s usually grandstanding taking place at the expense of the very individuals that folks claim to want to protect or nurture.

And here’s an example. An abortion clinic in the Denver area speciales in late-term abortions due to fetal defects, usually fatal ones. State law requires, should the mother not choose to dispose of any fetal remains themselves, the clinics should be “disposed of by incineration or interment.” So the clinic contracts with a local mortuary to provide cremation services.

This is where it gets dicey, because a local Catholic parish, learning of this, requested that the mortuary turn over the ashes to them for burial, which, since 2001, it’s been doing, not letting the clinic know. The parish, in turn, created a memorial wall at their cemetary, and conducted funeral services over the remains, burying them there.

On the parish grounds in Boulder, a pale white statue of a risen Christ towers over a mass burial of ashes from Hern’s clinic from the late 1990s. The memorial wall is emblazoned with plaques with messages such as “My beautiful baby, I’m sorry.”

Now, at this point, I can understand the parish’s position. If one posit that (a) these are human remains, and that (b) human dignity and such demands a funeral service, then their actions make sense. One can argue at the arrogance of writing memorial messages in the first person perspective of the mother, but I’d even be willing to let that slide.

But things have gone further. Because the parish has gone public with their activities.

LaVelle, 53, said she conferred with the parish priest and they agreed it was time to let more people know about the memorial, even if it means the end of receiving the fetuses. “I do think this is right,” she said. “What was going to happen to those ashes if we didn’t pick them up? Would they be thrown away? I hope my words would never harm someone. My message is one of healing.”

Sergio Gutierrez, spokesman for the Denver archdiocese, said the burial at Sacred Heart “is something the parish is doing to honor the dignity of these children.”

“Anything that does that, obviously we support,” he said.

And yet, if this is to “honor” their “dignity,” then why take the risk of ending the process? Certainly they knew that the clinic would object, and move to prevent such a thing from happening again.

The answer, so far as I can tell, is that making a public “statement” seems to trump “honoring dignity.” It’s that simple. And that’s just wrong.

The director the clinic isn’t pulling any punches:

“I am appalled that the Catholic Church again has shown its willingness to exploit the private grief and pain of women seeking legal abortions in order to advance its political goals.” He had similarly harsh words for Crist Mortuary, which he said “performs important work requiring the public trust in its confidential treatment of those who have sought its services.” He called its actions and statements unconscionable and ethically questionable.

“Anti-abortion zealots, Catholic or otherwise, have shown that they will stop at nothing to inflict guilt and to compound the grief, sadness and sense of loss that these women experience,” Hern’s statement said. “These fanatics simply cannot leave other people alone with their most intimate sorrow.”

Or, as the head of the local Planned Parenthood says:

“These women are devastated. To discover that an entity is essentially taking it upon themselves to create a religious service that may not be acceptable to the family is probably really painful.”

Indeed. Though what is “acceptable” to the family seems to be pretty low on their list, despite statements like this from a local Right to Life board member:

“I find it odd they have ethical concerns over that when they’re the ones that are initiating that whole process (of abortion),” Hendrix said. “Fortunately, the church and others are trying to deal with the aftermath of what the abortion clinics are involved in that is helping people put their lives together.”

How this practice — or, more directly, how making this practice public — is going to “help people put their lives together” is left, evidently, as an exercise for the reader.