Women, life, and conscience

I’ve noticed that everybody that is for abortion has already been born.

Ronald Wilson Reagan, New York Times, September 22, 1980Attributed in the original GADEL collection

This plague of abortion is the mark of a society that has lost its way; it treats children like garbage.

Dorothy E. McBride, Abortion in the United StatesAttributed in the original GADEL collection

Abortion is inherently different from other medical procedures because no other procedure involves the purposeful termination of a potential life.

Potter Stewart, judicial opinion, Jun. 30, 1980Attributed in the original GADEL collection

Somebody who should have been born is gone.

Anne Sexton, The AbortionAttributed in the original GADEL collection

Abortion is the insurance against that fate worse than death which is called a family.

Peter Kreeft, Three Approaches to AbortionAttributed in the original GADEL collection

I was trained by a professional marketing director in how to sell abortions over the telephone.

Nina Whitten, chief secretary at a Dallas abortion clinic under Dr. Curtis BoydAttributed in the original GADEL collection

If a woman we were counseling expressed doubts about having an abortion, we would say whatever was necessary to persuade her to abort immediately.

Judy W., former office manager of the second largest abortion clinic in El Paso, TexasAttributed in the original GADEL collection

Sometimes we lied.

Kathy Sparks told in “The Conversion of Kathy Sparks” by Gloria Williamson, Christian Herald Jan 1986 p 28Attributed in the original GADEL collection

The counselor at our clinic would cry with the girls at the drop of a hat.

Debra Harry, former abortion worker quoted in the film “Meet the Abortion Providers” 1989Attributed in the original GADEL collection

The way of light, then, is as follows.

Letter of Barnabas 19 (A.D. 74)Attributed in the original GADEL collection

What man of sound mind, therefore, will affirm, while such is our character, that we are murderers?

Athenagoras, A Plea for the Christians 35 (A.D. 177)Attributed in the original GADEL collection

Wherefore I beseech you flee fornication, and the mother of it, drunkenness.

John Chrysostom, Homilies on Romans 24 (A.D. 391)Attributed in the original GADEL collection

You shall not use magic.

The Apostolic Constitutions 7:3 (A.D. 400)Attributed in the original GADEL collection

For God, the Lord of life, has conferred on men the surpassing ministry of safeguarding life in a manner which is worthy of man.

Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, 51 (December 7, 1965)Attributed in the original GADEL collection

Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion.

Catechism of the Catholic Church §2271Attributed in the original GADEL collection

The inalienable right to life of every innocent human individual is a constitutive element of a civil society and its legislation.

Catechism of the Catholic Church §2273Attributed in the original GADEL collection

However, the inalienable rights of the person must be recognized and respected by civil society and the political authority.

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Donum Vitae III (February 22, 1987).Attributed in the original GADEL collection

How can one morally accept laws that permit the killing of a human being not yet born, but already alive in the mother’s womb?

Letter to Families , John Paul II, 21 (February 2, 1994)Attributed in the original GADEL collection

It has sown violence and discord at the heart of the most intimate human relationships.

Notable and Quotable, Wall Street Journal, 2/25/94, p. A14Attributed in the original GADEL collection

Original collection & source

Original title: Women and Abortion

Only short selections are republished here. The archived original may include longer passages and unverified attributions.

A question or a correction? Email GADEL.