To lament the upcoming 32nd anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade abortion decision, a Roman Catholic parish in Boulder says it plans to bury the cremated remains of hundreds of aborted fetuses, most of which came from a prominent local abortion clinic without the clinic's knowledge, according to interviews with the parties involved.
The parish received the ashes in boxes from Crist Mortuary in Boulder, which picks up fetal remains from the Boulder Abortion Clinic and cremates them for no charge "as a community service," said Michael Greenwood, the mortuary's general manager. He said there is no contract.
The owner of the business, disturbed by what he found in the shipments, has been quietly passing the remains along to the parish since 2001, and also did so from 1996 to 1998 when he worked at another Boulder County mortuary, said Susan LaVelle, former Respect Life coordinator at Sacred Heart of Mary parish in Boulder.
This has been going on since 2001 but never publicized before because of the controversy the Church and Mortuary knew it would engender.
LaVelle said the remains of between 600 and 1,000 fetuses from abortions conducted between November 2003 and November 2004 would be laid to rest....The church has staged similar burials twice a year since 2001, but LaVelle said organizers have been hesitant to publicize them because the parish's arrangement with the mortuary was unknown to the abortion clinic and almost certainly would be halted once it came to light.
The director of the abortion clinic was shocked to learn of the misappropriation and burial plan:
There's been no interruption of the harassment...And I consider this press release (announcing the parish events) harassment."
If, as these anti-choice extremists believe, the discarded fetal tissue is a human being, then perhaps the Church and the mortuary owner should be charged under the Colorado statute with abuse of a corpse.
18-13-101. Abuse of a corpse
(1) A person commits abuse of a corpse if, without lawful authority, he:
(a) Removes the body or remains of any person from a grave or other place of sepulcher without the consent of surviving relatives or surviving intimate friends; or
(b) Treats the body or remains of any person in a way that would outrage normal family sensibilities.
I suspect that anti-choice people will read this post and want to leave comments here supporting the action of the mortuary and church. Since I will have to wade through their comments and delete those that do not conform to TalkLeft's commenting rules, prominently displayed on the home page, I've come up with a solution: All comments supporting the action will be deleted unless a $2.00 paypal donation to TalkLeft to cover my time to read them is made. (Long quotes, especially those from the Bible, and comments that violate TalkLeft's commenting policy will be deleted regardless of payment.)
In anticpation of freedom of speech complaints, remember, TalkLeft is a personal site, I am not the Government, and I am not obligated to host comments. If the thread gets hijacked or too many responses supporting the action are made without payment, I'll shut down the comments.
