I read a short notice from Rachel's Vineyard in my parish bulletin this week that infuriated me. It probably appeared in bulletins all over the diocese. I don't know if I am being fair or not but when I read the words, " Mother’s Day can be difficult for women who have lost children
to abortion...." my ears drums pounded and my cheeks began to burn, I felt a quick wave of nausea and my throat closed up. For a few seconds it felt like I had subjected to a physical blow.
God bless and protect the women who have turned to Rachel's Vineyard because they are sad and sorry about what they have done but with the exception of the one's who were threatened with violence or whose parents threatened them with being thrown out on the street, they chose at the time to pay an assassin to kill their child. This is not the same as lying in a hospital bed and being told that once again your body has failed you and your child is dead. I lost my child. An unknown number of women in my diocese can say the same. To put this plainly and yes, forgive me, crudely, the post abortive woman was not minding her own business when she was suddenly set upon by a team of killers from Planned Parenthood. If I knew which Rachel's Vineyard staffer wrote that notice I would probably tell her or him what I think in the most blistering words I could think of. I object to the use of the word, "lost," in the Rachel's Vineyard context. It puts a polite gauzy veil over the hideousness of abortion and it demeans the pain of those women who suffered from infertility, stillbirth, or the pre-birth death of an infant.