
UPDATED: Mother who wrote apology to aborted baby accused of plagiarism
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A woman who wrote an apology letter to the child she aborted is now being accused of plagiarism, but despite the allegations, her sentiments resonate because they reflect an all-too common result of abortion. Abortions kills part of the mother too.
Highlights
Catholic Online (https://www.catholic.org)
2/11/2014 (1 decade ago)
Published in Living Faith
Keywords: abortion, plagiarism, Pro-Life,
LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - (From the Editor in Chief: We have received numerous serious concerns in writing about the issue which gave rise to this news report. It was written by a Catholic Online Reporter who expressed his opinion, choosing to emphasize the underlying evil of what occurs in every procured abortion - as well as the severe, lasting effects it has on the second victim, the mother. We invite your comments concerning the underlying issues which gave rise to the accusation of plagiarism. We do not take any such allegations lightly. We also welcome opposing points of view as to the seriousness of that charge.)
Hannah Rose Allen wrote a letter of apology to her aborted child Luke. She began writing the letter in February 2013 and has now admitted to "copying a few sentences" from a similar letter from which she drew inspiration. The original letter of apology was authored by Carla Stream in 2008 and Allen admitted to borrowing a few lines.
Allen said, "I'm genuinely sorry for my hurtful blunder," and she asked for her letter to be removed from news sources. Yet, the question remains, was her plagiarism of a few lines for a personal letter to Baby Luke really worthy of a full-scale assault on a traumatized woman without training as a journalist?
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While plagiarism is inexcusable, Allen wasn't writing news or a term paper. She was composing a letter of apology to her unborn child. She cannot be held to the same standard in writing a personal letter, overwhelmed by emotion.
What is evident is that Allen, much like Stream, is overcome by the guilt of her decision to abort her baby.
It is a scientific fact, often suppressed, and vehemently denied, but a fact nonetheless, that life begins at conception. A key component of the definition of life is the ability of organic matter to grow via cellular division. A woman's egg, once fertilized, immediately begins to grow, the cells rapidly dividing, right from that moment to the moment of natural death, typically many decades later.
The longer these children grow in their mother's wombs, the greater sense that mothers have they are carrying a baby, and not a soulless collection of cells. The womb is home to another human being, one with the same right to life as the mother.
Yet the seduction is thorough. It is sweet and sublime, ubiquitous and persuasive. It is easy to feel, especially in the early stages of a pregnancy, that an abortion is without consequence. Many women fall victim to the lies that are subtly whispered, and often shouted by the mongers of abortion.
Ultimately, many women who experience the trauma of abortion, in which their person is intimately violated, both physically and chemically, and their child gruesomely murdered, realize they have made a mistake.
No matter the relationship to the father, no matter the potential cost of a child, no woman has ever regretted giving birth to a baby. And women who keep their children, even amidst poverty and adversity, wouldn't trade their child for nothing.
No child is a mistake, just ask any mother holding her infant.
So, the unadvertised, long-term trauma of abortion impacts women for the rest of their lives. Hannah Rose Allen was trying to share that reality and to find some closure for herself. Sadly, she will never have that closure. Parents never really get past the loss of their child. It is a permanent trauma, a psychological scar.
While Allen regrets borrowing a few turns of phrase from Carla Stream, these women truly have demons to wrestle that are much greater than plagiarism. They have an emptiness in their hearts that we cannot fill for them.
We would do well to give voice to these mothers, the living victims of abortion.
Check out coverage from The Blaze on the letter.
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