This article was originally published on July 20, 2021. We feel that it’s vital to remember as we March for Life today and remember the millions of babies killed by abortion.
By Judie Brown
When we published “If Preborn Babies Had Voices”, Allen Ptack—one of ALL’s staff members—recommended a follow-up that would address what the victims of abortion might say if these aborted babies had voices.
He emphasized that these babies are “innocent martyrs who were aborted, now pleading with all of us who still have life, to never grow too weary” lest we give up the fight to end abortion. Indeed, we must persist, striving to promote and expand life-affirming options for expectant mothers.
Ptack envisioned each of their little voices “begging us to use our own voices, our own prayers, our own peaceful activism to represent their murders as a tragedy that must be ended and not repeated.” And frankly, each of us who has been fighting this struggle can not only imagine their voices, but we know from what we have learned that mothers who abort their babies hear those voices as well.
One such mother, Carol, wrote:
Thirty years later, in church, I begged forgiveness for my sin—but did not feel forgiven. The priest I spoke to told me to ask forgiveness of my child. Over and over, I asked my child to forgive me. In a vision, I saw three babies playing in the clouds. One turned to me and said “Hi Mommy.” It was at this moment I knew I had been forgiven.
If I’d only known how I’d feel afterwards, longing for my lost baby. I now want to tell others considering abortion, “Don’t do it!” If I had someone telling me, “God has a plan for this child, give her/him a chance!” I would not have done it. It’s as simple as that!
These mothers of aborted children are giving voice to their babies through their grief, tears, and anxiety in the hope that others will hear them and be advocates for both babies and their mothers. So much suffering could be avoided if only the truth were told.
And today, more than ever, our combined voices of love and truth are needed, especially as there are bodies of aborted babies being found in the garbage and in dumpsters. The horror of abortion continues as the babies cry out in anguish for someone to stop the madness.
Furthermore, there is still a market for aborted baby body parts. In fact, under the Biden administration, any rules regarding the use of aborted baby tissue and organs have been lifted, thus giving a green light to the ghoulish research we thought had been stopped.
As people of life who are ever aware of these atrocities, Ptack stresses that we need to listen to the voices of the aborted children, as “their voices would express sympathy and love for their mothers,” not the vilification of those who despise life, abort the innocent, and maim the expectant mother in the process. Their voices inspire us to be missionaries, using our voices and our actions to witness to the truth and beauty of every human being—born and preborn—and his right to life.
In the words of Allen Ptack: “The voices of the aborted babies would plead with all of us, and their mothers, to become voices for replacing the culture of death with a culture of life that treats every preborn baby as a gift from God to be loved.”
Ultimately our work is about love. As St. John Paul II told young people in 1999: “Let yourselves be ‘formed’ in the school of Jesus. In the Church and in the various environments of your daily existence, become credible witnesses to the Father’s love! Make it visible in your choices and attitudes, in your way of receiving people and placing yourselves at their service, in faithfully respecting God’s will and his Commandments.”
Let us place ourselves at the service of every expectant mother, her preborn child, and her family. If we listen to the voices of aborted children, we will love others into affirming, not rejecting, life.