On January 23, 2017, on  Facebook, LMU’s Department of Sociology issued a statement  claiming, “OB-GYNs have never heard of babies being ripped ‘out of the womb in the 9th month on the final day’ unless a Cesarean section is being performed (the rare terminations that occur at or after 21 weeks are due mostly to serious fetal abnormalities).”

Here is a small sampling of OB-GYNs and abortionists who have heard of babies being ripped out of the womb on their last day in utero, not for the purpose of saving their lives in Cesarean section but for the purpose of killing them.  Let’s start with this footage in which abortionist Laura Mercer indicates what takes place in late term abortion.

In this video, OB-GYN Dr. Anthony Levatino who has performed thousands of abortions describes how abortions take place in the last trimester of pregnancy.

The evidence indicates that late-term abortion does involve ripping the human being in utero from the womb piece by piece.

In the United States, drunk driving accidents take the lives of more than 9,000  human beings per year. Such deaths are far too common and so can hardly be said to be rare. In the United States, late term abortions take the lives of more than 12,000  human beings per year, hardly rare.

Nor is LMU’s Sociology Department accurate in claiming that these second and third trimester abortions are mostly performed because serious fetal abnormalities.

In her article “Why do women get late-term abortions?” Sarah Terzo notes:

A study in 2006 in Perspectives of Sexual and Reproductive Health, a publication of the Alan Guttmacher institute, which has been affiliated with Planned Parenthood throughout its history, conducted a study of hundreds of women who had second-trimester abortions (the second trimester ends at 27 weeks). It came up with the following results:

68% had no pregnancy symptoms

58% Didn’t confirm the pregnancy until the second trimester

45% had trouble finding abortion provider

37% unsure of date of last menstrual period

30% had difficulty deciding on abortion

The study sample did not contain a single case of abortion for health reasons.

We applaud LMU’s Department of Sociology for its opposition to “ableist discrimination” against human beings with disabilities. But we call on the Department to be consistent in this opposition rather than engage in selective moral outrage.  If all human beings deserve respect regardless of disability,  human beings in utero with abnormalities deserve respect.

LMU’s Department of Sociology Statement continues, “Worth noting is that women’s indisposable contributions to the global and US work force and to higher education would not be possible without full control of their reproductive and other forms of health.”

The new-speak euphemism “reproductive rights” attempts to conceal the reality of abortion. Once a human being is actively self-developing towards maturity in utero, reproduction has already successfully taken place. Abortion is not about reproduction, but about killing the human being who has been reproduced.  Abortion, particularly late term abortion, endangers the woman’s health (for example, by increasing the likelihood of ectopic pregnancy) and always destroys the health of her son or daughter.

Is LMU’s Department of Sociology correct that abortion, particularly late term abortion, is necessary for women to flourish? In Ireland, abortion is almost entirely illegal. As Ross Douthat noted in The New York Times, “Meanwhile, international rankings offer few indications that Ireland’s abortion laws are holding Irish women back. The country ranks first for gender parity in health care in a recent European Union index. It was in the middle of the pack in The Economist’s recent “glass-ceiling index” for working women. It came in fifth out of 135 countries in the World Economic Forum’s “Global Gender Gap” report. (The United States was 22nd.)” Indeed, Ireland has already had its first female president, but the United States (with its radical abortion laws) is still waiting.

Alternative facts, falsehoods, ignoring peer reviewed evidence in scholarly journals, concealing euphemisms are not bad ways of describing the defense late-term abortion provided by LMU’s Department of Sociology.

Below, you can find the full text of the Department’s statement as found on Facebook.

Great kudos to LMU for inviting Bishop Robert Barron to give the annual Cassasa Lecture. Bishop Barron will deliver a free, public lecture on “Beauty and Evangelization” on Tuesday, January 24, 2017, at 7:00 p.m. in Roski Dining Commons, University Hall. 

The Most Reverend Robert E. Barron is the Episcopal Vicar of the Santa Barbara Pastoral Region in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.  Bishop Barron received a M.A. in Philosophy from The Catholic University of America in 1982 and a Doctorate in Sacred Theology from the Institut Catholique de Paris in 1992. He is the founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries and the host of “The Pivotal Players” and “CATHOLICISM,” a groundbreaking, award-winning documentary about the Catholic faith which aired on PBS. A #1 Amazon bestselling author, Bishop Barron has published numerous books, essays, and articles on theology and the spiritual life. He has also appeared on several media outlets including NBC, PBS, FOX News, CNN, and EWTN.  Bishop Barron’s website, WordOnFire.org, reaches millions of people each year. Next to Pope Francis, he is the most-followed Catholic leader on social media. His regular YouTube videos have been viewed over 18 million times. Bishop Barron’s pioneering work in evangelizing through the new media led Francis Cardinal George to describe him as “one of the Church’s best messengers.”