“I’m a volunteer, not an employee; I’m supporting the people with terminal illnesses that are in here, not the hospital in general. I don’t have anything to do with whatever else they do,” Jobran said.
The man’s face turned hard, and he said, “By volunteering your services, you are supporting this evil institution. You allow them to save money, that they can use to kill more babies, as well as other nefarious services!”
Jobran shrugged, and said, “Whatever. Look, I’ve got to get going…”
Passionately, the man pleaded, “Don’t you know what they’re doing in there? There is a real holocaust going on in there, every day.”
“I’m afraid that I don’t equate the abortion of a fetus with murder. Since the fetus isn’t able to live outside of the mother until fairly late during the course of pregnancy, I think it’s stretching it to call one a ‘baby.’”
This caused a frown to appear on the man’s face, and he said, “I thought you said you were a Catholic.”
Jobran blushed. With a chastened voice, he said, “Well, I am; or, I’m in the process of converting. I’m kind of new.”
“Don’t you know that each unborn baby has a unique genetic identity and potential? All it needs is time to develop,” the man said insistently. “Don’t you realize that we all were once babies such as they are aborting here? Haven’t you ever had children?”
Jobran was silent for a moment, then said slowly, “I…I don’t have any children myself. But I think there can be valid reasons for abortions in the early stages, such as when the life of the mother is at stake, and…”
With assurance, the man said, “As soon as fertilization of the ova has taken place, God creates an eternal soul for the baby.”
Skeptically, Jobran said, “You can’t prove that; no one can prove that.”
“It says in Jeremiah, ‘While you were in the womb, I knew thee.’”
Jobran wrinkled his brow, trying to remember, then said, “Actually, I think the quote is, ‘Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee.’ (Jer 1:5) That seems to imply that God gave us our identity before the physical process of fertilization takes place—so I think there are other ways of interpreting that verse.” Making a gesture to cut off further discussion, he turned to walk away and said, “Anyway, I’ve got to go now; I’ll be late for my shift.”
From behind him, Jobran heard the man said in a loud voice, “I will issue you one last prophetic word of warning.” This caused Jobran to stop and turn back to look at the man, who said in a theatrical voice, “Stay away from that abortion clinic today. You have been warned.”
“Like I told you, I don’t work in that area,” Jobran said. As he started to walk away again, he saw that two vans labeled “Security” were racing to intercept the group of protesters. Finally, Jobran thought.
As he entered through the automatic sliding doors, Jobran saw Dr. Secrist standing there, apparently watching the scene outside. Recognizing and waving at Jobran, he said, “I see that you ran into our ‘friends’ outside.”
Jobran watched the Security staff placing the protesters into their vans. “They’re persistent, I’ll give them that.”
“That’s a different group from the ones we’ve had before; we’ve had Operation Rescue before, for example, but they were very peaceful and almost ‘professional’ in their protests. This group seems a lot less well-organized, and less numerous.”
“I thought they looked kind of like a motley crew,” Jobran replied. “Isn’t abortion legal in California until the third trimester? Why can’t they just accept that? Or if they don’t like the laws, they can try and get them changed.”
“Well, unlike most of my colleagues, I have some sympathy with where the protesters are coming from. I used to be an evangelical Christian myself.”
Jobran said, “I remember you told me that. But now, you don’t think that ‘abortion is murder,’ do you?”
Dr. Secrist gave a small smile, and said, “Let’s say that I think there is a considerable difference between, say, a gangster killing an adult during an attempted robbery, and a medical doctor performing an abortion during the first trimester, at the request of both parents.” With a thoughtful expression, he added, “I was struck by the feminist writer Naomi Wolf—who herself once had an abortion— she wrote that abortion, while it should remain legal, is a real death, and is morally equivalent to a sin, since the fetus clearly is a ‘child.’ As with other sins, however—including social ones—there is the possibility of grief, redemption, and repentance; and further actions can be taken so that the ‘sin’ need not be continually perpetuated. She also agrees that our high rate of abortion—one quarter of all pregnancies in this country are aborted—but she believes that the decision to have or not have an abortion should be left between the woman and God. But I think she may have changed her perspective even more, now that she has become a mother herself. The ultrasound tests on her child moved her greatly, I’ve heard.” He dug in his pocket and removed his pack of cigarettes; after glancing at his watch, however, he replaced the pack in his pocket, and said, “You’ve never read
Ms. Wolf? I thought you were the one who read everything?”
“Politics, I don’t have time for,” Jobran replied, with a smile.
“A lot of people agree that having 1.5 million abortions in America each year is a horrifying statistic. But the problem is, for a given situation, that is sometimes what it comes down to, and there’s no getting around it.” He motioned for them to head to the Hospice Ward, so they talked as they walked.
“I can see the need for considerable regulation of abortions, so that fetuses aren’t just dumped in trash cans, for example,” Jobran said. “Then there’s the issue of so-called ‘partial birth’ abortions, or abortions during the last trimester— when the baby may be able to survive outside of the mother’s womb.”
Dr. Secrist shook his head, and said, “The reason this is such a damned difficult issue is that there really isn’t much difference between a partial-birth abortion, or a third trimester abortion, and any other. There is a complete continuum of development of the fetus, so that deciding that abortion at one stage is ‘acceptable,’ while abortion at another stage is ‘unacceptable,’ is arbitrary. That’s why it isn’t possible to find any ‘compromise’ that will satisfy all parties on this issue: For those who think that the fetus is an eternal soul from conception, abortion for any reason is wrong, because you are taking a life that God has given—it makes no difference when or how you do it. And for those who reject the notion of an eternal soul, since infants are obviously not able to take care of themselves until many years after birth, many of the arguments that are used against the ‘humanity’ of the fetus could equally well be used against the newborn baby—or against a newborn that is born with severe birth defects.” He looked grim, and said, “Once you have made the decision that allows you to terminate the fetus, you logically may just as well terminate it after it is born.”
Jobran looked shocked, but after looking at the doctor, saw that he was just making a logical point, and not expressing his own view. “I don’t think I could go that far. To me, at birth, a distinctive event has taken place, which gives us a clear ‘objective’ reason to start making a legal and practical point of differentiation. Once a baby is actually born, you know its gender, you can see some of its distinct physical characteristics, and you begin teaching the baby who is ‘Mommy,’ and so on.” He wrinkled his brow, and added, “But as regards how far back before birth abortion should be allowed, that’s a tough question.”
Dr. Sechrist looked at Jobran with a curious expression, and said, “Didn’t you tell me once that you were a Roman Catholic?”
Jobran nodded glumly. “Well, I’m taking my RCIA classes; but I’m afraid that I’m not a very good one, yet. I’m still possessed by most of the ideas from my liberal Protestant backgr
ound.”
Dr. Secrist said, “From my standpoint, since the fetus is not viable outside the mother’s womb, and is in fact dependent entirely on her for its sustenance, I feel that it should be the woman’s right to choose—after suitable consultation with her doctor, spiritual advisor, and whoever else she wants—whether or not she wants an abortion. I don’t feel that any of the rest of us have any right to deny her that privilege.” He added, in a quiet voice, “And I would personally even extend that privilege to parents of babies born with severe birth defects, that would prevent them from living a reasonably normal life.”
Suddenly, there is the sound of a tremendous explosion behind them, which knocks them off their feet, and sends them crashing to the floor. They both realized that the explosion came from the direction of the Abortion Clinic at the hospital. Alarms go off furiously in the hospital. Without thinking, they both ran down the hall in the direction of the explosion. But by the time they arrived, the security forces were arriving, and had cordoned the area off.
Jobran asked in a concerned voice, “Should we try and help them?”
Dr. Secrist walked up to one of the Security officers, and spoke with him briefly. Then he came back to Jobran, and said, “No, I think we’d better get back to the Hospice; they’ll be wanting to know what happened, and we can help reassure them.” He continued, “It looks like no one was injured; the people that set off the bomb must have only wanted to destroy the facilities, since they set it off in a corner, and at a time when few people were around.”
* * *
Later that day, while making his rounds from room to room before leaving for the day, Jobran saw Dr. Secrist out on the patio having a smoke, so he went to join him.
“How’s it going?” Jobran asked.
“The day started out with a bang,” the doctor said, smiling, as he took a drag on his cigarette, “But it’s been pretty normal since then.”
Jobran sat on the bench next to him. “Do you think those protesters this morning set off the bomb?” The doctor nodded, then said, “Maybe by a timer, since they were being taken into custody when it went off. There are lots of ways to detonate bombs, unfortunately.”
Jobran said, “Something the leader of that group said to me seems rather eerie, now; he warned me not to go into the abortion clinic today.” He laughed, without humor. “Guess he knew what he was talking about.” He added, “But it makes me wonder, if these are supposedly ‘religious’ protesters, how can they justify killing in order to stop killing?”
“Actually, no one was killed,” Dr. Secrist replied. “So I think they just wanted to shut down the clinic itself, which makes them some of the less extreme people in the movement, I guess.” He shrugged, and added, “Since 1977, in this country there have been lots of bombings and arson at abortion clinics, Planned Parenthood offices, and similar pro-choice places, but people were by and large not physically hurt. Then in 1991, the first shooting at a clinic took place, which fortunately was not fatal. But then in 1993 Michael Griffin killed an abortion doctor; he’s now serving a life sentence. In 1994 Paul J. Hill—a former Presbyterian minister—shot and killed an abortionist doctor and his bodyguard, and wounded the bodyguard’s wife; he was executed back in 2003. Also in 1994, John Salvi III shot and killed two female receptionists outside an abortion clinic; he committed suicide in prison. In 1998 James Kopp killed an abortionist doctor outside his home and is serving a life sentence. Eric Rudolph, after a 5-year manhunt, was captured in 2003, and charged for a 1998 bombing that killed an off-duty police officer and wounded a nurse at a Women’s Health Care clinic; he is also a suspect in the 1996 Olympic bombing in Atlanta.” He inhaled deeply on his cigarette, and sighed as he exhaled, saying, “Makes me long for the good old days of nonviolent protest by Joan Andrews-Bell and Randall Terry’s Operation Rescue.”
“You think this group was associated with Operation Rescue, or a group like that?” Jobran asked.
The doctor snorted, “Hell, no! They’d never do something that could hurt someone. They just have sit-ins, protest marches, try to talk to people going into the clinics, and so on, and get themselves thrown in jail a lot.”
“I thought that supposedly religious people were supposed to obey the laws of the land, according to Romans 13,” Jobran said. “It’s also curious that the same people that oppose abortion, and euthanasia, usually approve of capital punishment.”
“Well, I still remember how they think,” Dr. Secrist said, a faraway look in his eyes. “They usually claim to be following a ‘higher’ law, in the sense of Acts 5:29, ‘We must obey God rather than men.’ To them, there is no contradiction: ‘murder’ is unlawful or unjustified taking of life, not the mere taking of life itself. From their standpoint, this is similar to a police officer that kills someone who was about to shoot into a crowd of people; you are not only trading the life of one individual for many others, you are also punishing a transgressor. In the eyes of these people, it is those people that perform abortions—not to mention those that support their actions—who are guilty of murder, since the fetus is an innocent human being. By their standards, if they shut down our clinic for one day, it will save…let’s see, I have no idea how many abortions are done here each day…”
“More than twenty, the leader told me,” Jobran interjected, and the doctor nodded.
“They think of their actions as comparable to the ‘Just War’ concept, which many sects will extend even to preemptive wars, such as against terrorist nations.” He stopped, and looked at Jobran, and asked, “Didn’t the guy who was Pope during the Second World War—Pious somebody—catch heck afterwards because the Romanists didn’t do anything to help the Jews when the Nazis were killing them? Well, in the eyes of these groups, what is going on in here is no different; in fact, anti-abortionists often call legalized abortion ‘The New Holocaust.’”
“I’m not sure that I agree that the Church ‘didn’t do anything’; they did a lot of things behind the scenes to rescue Jews, get them to other countries, and so on,” Jobran replied. “But I see your point: If instead of performing an abortion on a willing woman, our clinic doctors were killing a Jewish person or someone with mental retardation, we would all be outraged if the major religions didn’t actively oppose it,” he said. “Still, I can’t think that blowing up a clinic is an acceptable form of social protest. Plus, you are risking injuring or even killing innocent people—who, according to the anti-abortionists’ own beliefs, will probably go to Hell, without even a chance to repent.”
“That’s an interesting point, theologically,” the doctor replied. “The Romanists teach that unbaptized babies can’t be saved, right? They go to some nebulous place called Limbo, right?”
“Umm…well, it’s a little bit more complicated than what they taught back in the ‘50s.”
“Well anyway, I guess I can understand why Romanists wouldn’t want aborted fetuses to end up in Limbo or wherever, but it’s always seemed strange to me that evangelicals—who think that all infants, including unborn ones, and unbaptized ones, will go to Heaven—would be so opposed to it.” He laughed, and said, “Whereas if the abortions were stopped and all these babies had lived, they would probably have less than a 50% chance of making it to Heaven!” He shook his head, and said, “That’s why I gave up religion in favor of science: too many contradictions.”
Jobran thought for a moment, than said, “For Christians and Jews, since the commandment against murder is an ‘absolute,’ people that equate abortion to murder are understandably ‘extreme’ in their opposition to it. Even the groups that don’t blow up abortion clinics—and I think this group today was an aberration—are more extreme than they would be on almost any other issue; they are willing to be arrested, even when they would normally advise everyone to obey the laws scrupulously. And I noticed that with the leader this morning, he wasn’t even attempting to hide his responsibility—he was probably p
roud of it.” He gave a humorless laugh. “Hopefully, they won’t start bombing grocery stores, just because an abortionist doctor happens to shop there.”
Dr. Secrist laughed. Then, in a serious tone, he said, “Unfortunately, since opposition to abortion of one group is based on the religious values, the dilemma is insoluble, from a political standpoint. It deals with fundamental values, ones that the participants are not going to give up.”
Jobran shook his head, and said, “So then, how do we conduct a society when we have such contradictions within it?”
Dr. Secrist shrugged, and said, “All that we can really hope to find is some sort of political compromise that, while it may not satisfy all parties, will at least keep people from blowing up abortion clinics, in favor of spending their time lobbying lawmakers into changing the laws.” He looked puzzled, and added, “Although I just wish these Christian groups would put more time and effort into providing better alternatives to abortion, such as care programs for unwed mothers, adoption programs for the infants, and less effort into picketing.” His cigarette was burning his fingers, so he dropped it to the sidewalk, and ground it out with his foot.
“Actually, I think that some do,” Jobran said. “I remember now that our church supports a ministry that provides help for unwed mothers who choose to have their babies, instead of having an abortion.”
“That’s what I mean,” the doctor said, nodding his head. “The secularist groups need to do some of that too. If they really want to be ‘pro-Choice,’ they need to make sure that these young ladies get as many viable ‘choices’ as possible!” He yawned, and stood up. “Oh, well; that’s my philosophizing for the day. Time for me to get back to some real issues of life and death.” He nodded at Jobran, and started to head back inside.
“Oh, wait!” Jobran called after him, and the doctor stopped, and turned toward Jobran. Jobran moved close to him, and said in a quiet voice, “I just wanted to tell you: I don’t know if you had anything to do with Mr. Kramer, well…his demise, but I just want to say that I think—Catholic or no Catholic— that it was the right thing that happened, and that Mr. Kramer is grateful.”
Beyond Heaven and Earth Page 79
