Abortionists and their allies are attacking a recent pro-life law in Ohio that requires the dignified treatment of the remains of babies who have been killed by abortion. This law draws attention to the reality of abortion by affirming the humanity of unborn children - it’s no wonder abortionists want to see it overturned. Because all humans are created in the image of God, the human body ought to be treated with dignity and respect, even after death, regardless of how that person died. This means that aborted babies should never be thrown away, but should be given a proper burial or cremation.
When considering the staggering human cost of abortion, one question that is sometimes overlooked is what happens to those babies after they are aborted. As one pro-lifer asked, “What do you do with 65 million bodies?” In some cases, abortionists like Kermit Gosnell and Ulrich Klopfer have hoarded the bodies of their victims as trophies, or, as the 2015 undercover investigation of Planned Parenthood revealed, body parts are illegally sold for profit. In many cases, though, the bodies of babies who have been killed in abortion are thrown away as “medical waste.” Several states have moved to change that, passing laws requiring that abortion victims’ remains be either buried or cremated.
Ohio’s law is the most recent to be challenged in court, with ACLU representing several abortion clinics who claim that this creates an undue burden. Minnesota’s fetal remains law is one of several pro-life laws being targeted by the radical pro-abortion campaign, Unrestrict Minnesota.
Under Ohio’s law, which passed earlier this year and is currently scheduled to go into effect in early April, abortion facilities may not treat an aborted baby’s remains as medical waste, but must instead arrange for burial or cremation. This law recognizes the reality that what is treated as “medical waste” after an abortion is, in fact, a human body.
Before the passage of Ohio’s law, one post-abortive mother testified before an Ohio House Committee, sharing the grief she felt after her abortion and her path to healing. She told the committee,
In my healing I realized that there comes a time in the post-abortive healing process where a grieving mother wishes she had been given the option to choose what happens with her baby’s remains. I wish I was given at least that choice, so that in my painful memories of my abortion I could look back and say [that] even in my pain and ignorance at that time, at least I made the decision to act with dignity.
She then asked the committee, “Do you know what separates humans from animals? We bury our dead. I respectfully ask you [legislators], as dignified persons, to bury our dead.”
We must continue working to make abortion illegal and unthinkable. Part of that effort is passing laws that affirm the dignity and humanity of babies who are killed in abortion. The abortion industry must not be allowed to treat its victims as disposable. Our laws should not reinforce the abortion industry’s lies that deny the humanity of the unborn. Treating the bodies of abortion victims with dignity is an important part of fighting those lies.
(Image: Janko Ferlič, Unsplash)
