BOULDER, January 21, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Catholic parish in Boulder Co. has raised the fury of local abortionist, Dr. Warren Hern, for giving a Christian burial to the babies he aborts in his late-term abortion mill.
The Church, Sacred Heart of Mary, has been burying the cremated remains of aborted babies since 1998. A local mortuary collects and cremates the remains and the Church buries them in front of a red granite Memorial Wall on which can be found notes from grieved mothers saying, “My beautiful baby, I’m sorry.”
Hern wrote the first medical textbook on abortion procedures after the Roe v. Wade decision legalized abortion in the US. He dismisses the charge that he is killing babies and astonishingly asserts that remains of the late-term unborn children are nothing but “surgical tissue.” At the same time, however, he accuses the Church of exploiting the “pain and grief” of mothers for political reasons.
“Anti-abortion zealots, Catholic or otherwise, have shown that they will stop at nothing to inflict guilt and to compound the grief, sadness and sense of loss that these women experience,” Hern’s statement said.
A Colorado State health official said that no laws were being violated. State regulations governing hazardous-waste disposal say, “Infectious waste consisting of recognizable human anatomical remains shall not be disposed of by burial at a landfill disposal facility, but shall be disposed of by incineration or internment.”
Susan LaVelle, a parish volunteer long involved in the practice, said that the parish priest had decided the time had come to make public the fact that the burials were taking place even if it means Hern will find a way to stop it. “I do think this is right,” she said. “What was going to happen to those ashes if we didn’t pick them up? Would they be thrown away? I hope my words would never harm someone. My message is one of healing.”
The parish has the full support of the archdiocese of Denver. Sergio Gutierrez, spokesman for the archdiocese said the burials are “something the parish is doing to honor the dignity of these children. Anything that does that, obviously we support.”