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CV NEWS FEED // The Archbishop of Kansas City, Missouri, recently denounced pro-abortion propaganda that “journalists” have circulated in the media for a long time.
“Abortion advocates and their propagandists, who masquerade as journalists, have utilized doublespeak and lies for decades,” Archbishop Joseph Naumann began in an October 11 article for the Archdiocesan newspaper, The Leaven.
“In recent years,” he wrote, “abortion propagandists and the secular media prefer to refer to abortion as part of reproductive or preventive health care.”
Both of these claims are false, he contended. In addition to killing the unborn child, “abortion always scars emotionally, psychologically, spiritually and too often physically the second patient, the mother,” he wrote.
The Archbishop also pointed to two recent instances of the truth being misconstrued by pro-abortion advocates: the tragic deaths of Georgia residents Candi Miller and Amber Thurman, which occurred due to chemical abortion complications.
“A compliant press” joined the abortion industry in blaming a pro-life Georgia law for the women’s deaths, in a narrative distortion that is unsurprising, Archbishop Naumann wrote.
“Abortion advocates and their propagandists in the secular press supported making abortion pills accessible to women through the mail with no medical supervision,” he explained.
According to the Archbishop, employees who worked in the abortion industry have told him that abortion clinic staff advise women taking chemical abortion pills to go to an emergency hospital and say that they had a miscarriage — rather than that they were undergoing a chemical abortion — in the event that they have complications.
“Of course, this is malpractice to instruct a patient not to accurately inform emergency room personnel of the actual cause for their problems,” Archbishop Naumann wrote. “It also helps the abortion industry distort the actual number of serious complications from chemical abortions.”
A report published in August found that compared with women who have a surgical abortion or who carry their unborn children to term, women who have a chemical abortion are at significantly higher risk of ending up in the ER with severe complications.
CatholicVote previously reported:
In the group who had taken abortion pills, ER visits went up 2,649.7% [from 2004 to 2015], compared to 280.4% of women who had surgical abortions, 42.8% of those who had never been pregnant, and 9.2% of women who gave birth.
The Archbishop also wrote on the impact of pro-abortion acceptance in society, public policy, and the culture. There are many challenges expectant mothers face that may contribute to their decision to have an abortion. Further, pressure from people in their lives, including the unborn child’s father, can be a factor.
Archbishop Naumann also emphasized that there can be healing and forgiveness after an abortion, through ministry resources such as Project Rachel, and through turning to God’s mercy.
“No sin is greater than God’s mercy,” the Archbishop wrote, later adding: “On Calvary, Jesus revealed the depth of God’s love for us and made accessible his mercy.”
He also decried the effects of the sexual revolution, arguing that the culture doesn’t tell young people that they are capable of living chastely, and that society “fails to protect them from the pornography industry,” he wrote.
Christianity, however, has the ability to transform cultures for the better, the Archbishop emphasized.
“Christianity was born in a world dominated by a pagan culture that not only allowed for abortion but supported the abandonment of children with disabilities,” he wrote. “It was a culture that required women of nobility to be chaste but had no similar expectation for men.”
Christianity changed that culture, the Archbishop wrote. Early Christians witnessed authentic love through their unique joy, view of marriage and family life, and concern for even their enemies.
“Living our Catholic faith with fidelity, heroism and joy can transform the woke, pagan culture of our time,” he concluded: “Authentic love and abiding joy are so much more attractive than ideology that believes the solution to societal problems is to kill our own children.”
