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HERALD Columnist |
The sad tragedy of killings in Colorado recently makes many wonder, "Why are children killing children? What has gone wrong?"
Without pretending to probe the personalities, families, or other details of the actual incident that has recently occurred, there is a serious question that deserves consideration.
An increasing amount of psychological evidence points to a connection between violence committed by young people and being an "abortion survivor."
The International Institute for Pregnancy Loss
and Child Abuse Research and Recovery has, for years now, pointed out the
devastating effects of growing up in a culture which says that "the
word person, as used in the Fourteenth
Amendment, does not include the unborn" (Roe v Wade). This
culture of abortion says that "every child must be a wanted child."
For those born since 1973, when the Supreme Court struck down the laws against abortion in all 50 states, that Court decision is a personal insult. "I was not a person when I was in the womb," they are being taught. "I could have been destroyed, and nobody would have complained. I am alive now because someone else wanted me.
I could have died, but for the fact that my parents chose me to live." At first glance, being "wanted" might appear to be a psychological benefit. But think again.
People who are "wanted" are in a position of fulfilling the desires (or plans or expectations or agendas) of another. In distinction to this, being "welcomed" means that one is accepted for his or her inherent value, just as he/she is, with no strings attached. Being "welcomed" is much more healthy than being "wanted." There are many types of "abortion survivors." Just living in a country when there is a statistically high probability that you could have been aborted makes you a survivor. Another type of survivor are those whose siblings have been aborted. Yet another type are those whose parents, in a moment of anger, say things like
"I could have/should have aborted you!"
A child who is a survivor experiences a number of identified symptoms, such as survivor guilt, existential anxiety and anxious attachment. One dynamic works like this: "I am alive because I was wanted; if I cease to be wanted, perhaps I can still be destroyed. I better do everything possible to stay accepted."
After a while, this extreme effort to be wanted becomes wearisome, and the individual can rebel by senseless acts of violence. The violence becomes an expression of their anger at being dangled on the tenuous thread of "wantedness."
Other factors, such as a sense of meaninglessness that cause one to flirt with death, can be survivor symptoms.
Without engaging in superficial or gratuitous psychotherapy, it is necessary for us to give serious consideration to the psychological dynamics that have been unleashed by the abortion culture. Nobody who is really serious about ending violence in our society can afford to leave any stone unturned in that effort. Those who can least afford it, of course, are the children themselves.
Father Pavone is the International Director of Priests for Life
and an official at the Vatican’s Council for the Family.
Contact Priests for Life at P.O. Box 141172, Staten Island, N.Y. 10314, Tel. 888 1PFL-3448, fax 718-980-6515, email pfl@priestsforlife.org, web site http://www.priestsforlife.org/.
Copyright ©1999 Arlington Catholic Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
This article was published in the Arlington
Catholic Herald,
200 N. Glebe Rd., Suite 607, Arlington, VA 22203; Vol 24, No 18,
dated May 6, 1999, on page 5.
.
E-mail:
letters@catholicherald.com
Fax: 703/524-2782;
Editorial: 703/841-2590;
Advertising: 703/841-2594;
Circulation: 703/841-2565
A note from the Web Master:
It is noteworthy and honorable that some folks are willing to stand up for a ban on Partial-Birth Abortion. Let us not forget that ordinary everyday run of the mill abortion is also murder. We must understand that murder is murder no matter the method. Because one method of abortion seems to be horrible does not make the other methods less so. We should be horrified and sickened by any abortion regardless of the method. The Fifth Commandment spells it out clearly:
"Thou shalt not kill."
A fetus is a person, a human being with a God given soul. Imagine the pain the Lord must feel when any abortion occurs. Please contact both of your Senators and Representative, via letter or phone, to let them know how horrified you are that abortions are legal and to stop Partial-Birth abortions and all other abortions as soon as possible.
(It has become apparent that they do not respond to
email therefore you will have more of an impact by writing or telephoning.)
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