The Catholic Woman, the Imposter, and the Heresy of 'Abortion Rights'

Karen Santorum is the true reflection of feminism and motherhood that our anti-life culture desperately needs to see

A tale of two women...While Elfriede Harth preaches the heretical gospel of "Self first", Karen Santorum humbly lives the Gospel of Life, even through the valley of death. So much like our Blessed Mother, who bore the agony of her Son's death with tender love and humility, surrendered to God's will. Karen also lives with a heart pierced by a sword, yet overflowing with love and grace, with a faith purified in sorrow.  She is a true hero of the faith. Karen Santorum is the true reflection of feminism and motherhood that our anti-life culture desperately needs to see.

WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - A tale of two women...and life, love and faith.One preaches the "obligation to self" The other preaches the call to give ourselves away in love to the other, out of love for the Lord who gave Himself away in love for each one of us. One preaches a false "gospel", the other preaches the true Gospel which alone brings life and freedom.

Once again last week the Church was maligned by a false "feminist" who believes that a woman has the right to kill her unborn child if she chooses and such a "choice" is not contrary to Catholic teaching. Elfriede Harth is the Secretariat of European Parliament Study Group on Religion and Secularity, and a Spanish member of Catholics for the Right to Decide (their counterpart in the U.S. is Catholics for Choice).  She made her insane remarks at the Women Deliver conference in Washington, D.C. this month.

She aims to promote what passes for "liberal" or "progressive" doctrines within the Church these days. They do not liberate and they do not promote true progress. However, they are being promoted by the media as somehow reflective of a "Catholic" position. They are anything but. They are heretical and anti-life.There are no 'abortion rights', only human persons have rights. In fact, every intentional abortion KILLS a human person. There is only the Right to Life and Harth fails to recognize this preeminent and fundamental right upon which all other rights rest. .

Harth says, "Religious feminists play a crucial role in organizing resistance to religious fundamentalism."  Her mission, in my opinion, is to redesign the Church to suit the pro-abortion, anti-male, anti-tradition, anti-calling-anything-sinful philosophy she preaches.  In short, she is working to destroy the Church from within.She is an advocate of the "Dictatorship of Relativism" the Holy father warned of.

She knows the Church doesn't approve of her endorsement of baby-killing while calling herself Catholic, but naturally, she says the problem isn't her total misunderstanding of Church teaching or her errant definition of being Catholic - it's the Magisterium that's all screwed up. 

"They're always trying to say we're not real Catholics, which is wrong, because the criterion to say you're Catholic is that you're baptized.  That's all." she said.  "And I don't accept that other people pretend that they define what is Catholicism.  You know?  The way the Vatican presents Catholicism is incomplete."

Thousands of years of Church leaders, starting with the Apostles, are simply "other people" to Ms. Harth, and since she doesn't like what they say about abortion and her other favorite liberal "feminist" doctrines, well, it just means the faith is incomplete.  All this time, we've been waiting for Ms. Harth to fill in the holes those "other people" left behind!

Harth insisted that a woman has the right to abort because she "has a right to have a good life" and she does not have "the right to ruin it."  "And if a pregnancy is going to ruin her life in any way, she has a right to get the abortion.  She has the right.  She has an obligation to protect her life from being ruined... Because you owe this respect to yourself because you're a child of God.  You should feel guilty if you don't." she said.

Read that again:  Catholic women should feel guilty if they do not abort a child they feel might "ruin their lives."  To not do so would be disrespectful toward themselves as a child of God. 

And what about the baby, Ms. Harth?  Is the baby also a child of God?  "If you have an abortion, there is a fetus that will be killed.  This is true.  But... for us, death is not the end of the story.  And this unborn child or fetus or whatever you want to call it is... well, we don't know what God is going to do with this creature.  God has a lot of mercy, maybe... we don't know."

Incredibly, Harth is actually justifying the murder of the child in the womb by pointing to our belief in eternal life!?!  Hey, death is not the end of the story!  So, really, abortion's not a bad thing.  It's just sending the baby on to Gloryland a little early - no harm done!  This, according to pro-abort heretic Elfriede Harth is real, complete Catholic teaching.  Wrong.

The tragedy only grows worse as Harth collects more confused, uncatechized souls and leads them astray.  She'll scowl at me for saying this, but Ms. Harth - you're not really Catholic.  Not even close.

The other lives the Gospel of life and love

The day after reading about Ms. Harth and her scandalous speech, I was graced to receive a copy of Letters to Gabriel, the book written by Karen Santorum to her baby boy, who was born prematurely and lived only two hours.  In 1996, while the drama of the partial-birth abortion ban debate was playing out in the Senate - with her husband, Senator Rick Santorum leading the charge to ban the brutal procedure - Karen and Rick were told their son would die in the womb due to a rare and fatal defect.  This was precisely the kind of crisis pregnancy the pro-aborts said necessitated the "option" of partial-birth infanticide.

Karen writes so honestly and compellingly about their fight to save Gabriel's life; their grief and fear, but also their steadfast faith in the goodness and mercy of God.  Their love and commitment to this newest member of the family never wavered.  Healthy or not, he was a blessing and a gift from God.  There was a miraculously successful in-utero surgery followed quickly by a deadly infection and suddenly, Gabriel was gone. 

Through it all, never for one moment did Karen choose to ease her own pain at Gabriel's expense.  She chose life for her son at every turn and was willing to lay down her own.
 
Ten years later... Rick and Karen welcomed their 8th child, Bella, and discovered upon her birth that she has Trisomy 18, a very serious genetic defect that is usually fatal before birth, and always fatal after birth, the only variable being time.  Most babies with Trisomy 18 live only a few days or weeks.

I can almost hear Ms. Harth chiding Karen for not making use of diagnostic tests during pregnancy - she could have found out about Bella's condition and fulfilled her "obligation to protect her life from being ruined."  Poor Ms. Harth... she does not understand the love of a mother.  Karen could not possibly do violence to her daughter in order to spare herself the trouble of caring for her. 

Little Bella is now 2 years old and the angel of the family.  It doesn't surprise me at all that after Gabriel, Karen and Rick were blessed once more with a child whose health is fragile, whose life will be all too brief.  Yes, you read me right - I said blessed.  For they have been tested and found worthy of the gift.
 
That's not to be flippant or minimize their suffering, but after reading Karen's heart so eloquently in her Letters to Gabriel, I am certain she would not trade the valley and the fire she must walk through for one second if it meant never receiving the gifts of Bella and Gabriel.

So much like our Blessed Mother, who bore the agony of her Son's death with tender love and humility, surrendered to God's will, Karen also lives with a heart pierced by a sword, yet overflowing with love and grace, with a faith purified in sorrow.  She is a true hero of the faith to me.

What a striking contrast to Ms. Harth's selfish and wicked idea that an inconvenient child should be killed in order to spare the mother any trouble or "ruin."  Ms. Harth knows not what it means to be a mother, nor does she have the faintest idea what it means to be Catholic.  She would do well to read the catechism of Karen Santorum's life and learn what it means to be a faithful Catholic woman.

Karen Santorum is the true reflection of feminism and motherhood that our anti-life culture desperately needs to see.  Ms. Harth preaches self-preservation at any cost, including executing one's own child.  Karen testifies that life is a gift to be welcomed and protected.  She shows us by her life that love is selfless and demanding; it asks for everything and gives everything in return.

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Jennifer Hartline is a grateful Catholic, a proud Army wife and mother of four precious children (one in Heaven).  She is a contributing writer for Catholic Online.  She is also a serious chocoholic.  Visit her at My Chocolate Heart.

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