This article by Suzan Sammons is exactly right! Covid Jabs Revealed Hidden Pro-life Heroes
There are so many heroes of the pro-life movement -- some we know well, some we do not know. My own dear husband, Phil Lawler, was arrested when we had five small children (I think it was five then... ) and became the object of a federal RICO suit.
Phil even wrote a book about the largest civil rights movement ever in our country, the one you never heard of (both the movement and the book): Operation Rescue, a Challenge to the Nation's Conscience.
Our friend Bill Cotter, Operation Rescue leader, spent 18 months in prison for a misdemeanor in his efforts for the unborn. That was so long ago that most pro-life activists today would hardly recognize his name. Joan Andrews spend that long in solitary confinement -- solitary confinement -- for her peaceful witness in saving the unborn.
But Suzan is correct when she says:
As much gratitude as I have for the pro-life leaders—the big names—who inspired me and guided me in my pro-life work, I am proudest of you hidden heroes. You were only revealed by the diabolical process that brought us the Covid vaccines, and few of us know your names. But when the moment of truth came, your convictions withstood the intense pressures of the regime that surrounds us. You stood by those truly nameless little ones whose only voice is ours.
Finally, after years and decades of some (but not all) pro-lifers trying to tell people that many vaccines use aborted fetal tissue in their development, testing, and production, the truth came out and people had the time -- were forced into having the time -- to read about it.
As Suzan explains, the extreme Covid lockdowns and unjust pressure to take the jab are to thank for the awakening of a solid portion of our population to the ugly reality of our medical system's reliance on the death of countless unborn babies.
Those who were awakened took a costly stand in many cases.
Everyone whose heart was truly with the unborn quickly realized the moral problem presented by the Covid vaccines. With their release coming at the same time as ever-increasing and horrifying revelations about the use of fetal tissue, many individuals had simply had enough.
Sure, they’d prayed for an end to abortion, they’d gone to the March for Life for years, they were dedicated to supporting their local pregnancy care centers, they’d voted pro-life, boycotted the right companies, and stood up for life in debates with their friends or family. But now their beliefs were going to really cost them. They were going to lose their jobs—or in some cases their whole careers. They were not going to be able to go to their chosen college. They would not be able to visit their aging parents. The rubber met the road.
And we passed the test. A pharmacist was fired because he refused to administer the vaccine…A hospital insurance processor took an entry level job in a new field to get out of the healthcare industry… A 30-year veteran teacher was forced out of her school system…A priest was willing to sign religious exemptions in spite of pressure not to do so…A breadwinner of a large family risked his job rather than comply with a vaccine mandate…A career military dad had to leave the Air Force without his benefits because of his refusal to take the jab…
And these real life examples? Multiply them by thousands.
Finally, many did what is the only thing one can do, when moderate theological arguments fail and hope for gradual change runs out, when bishops refuse to witness (with a few exceptions) and people lose interest or succumb to what they see as the exigencies of normal life (school and sports participation, for instance). In the lockdown shakeup of everyday life, in the midst of fear, with all normality vanished, it was the ultimatum of all the so-called experts to submit that made enough people say, "I'm just not going to go along with this any more. There is no way I will take that shot. It's just wrong."
I do give credit to and must name one clergyman (and husband and father, as he is a Melkite), who spoke out in a compelling way before the lockdowns, when the political pressure for mandated vaccines was looming, and that is Fr. Michael Copenhagen.
At a rally in 2019, in a brief but stirring speech, Fr. Copenhagen made the case that in conscience, one cannot go along with immorally derived medical products or the legalistic rationale for accepting them. I believe his clarifying words broke the ground for people to rise up against the Covid vaccines when they were pushed on us.
Fr. Copenhagen was able presciently and boldly to challenge* the prevailing line of acquiescence to immoral products comfortably offered by theologians and adopted by the hierarchy:
For those who argue that participation becomes licit if receiving the vaccine is looked at as a temporary solution to a significant public health danger, they should know that it is not temporary but expanding and that it will be forced regardless of whether it helps public health or not. Public authorities who support public murder cannot be taken seriously as guarantors of public health...
When [Tobit] was mocked by his kinsmen for adherence to these good works and told that his deeds were hopeless, he rebuked them: “Speak not so. For we are the children of saints, and look for that life which God will give to those that never changetheir faith from Him.”3 I remind all those who imitate Tobit’s naysayers and persecutors that the God of heaven and earth is very much alive and very much offended, that He loves each of these murdered and exploited children as His particular creatures, that He will restore life to their bodies in the Resurrection on the last day, rejoining body and soul in these innocents who were denied baptism and the chance to live based on the whim of tinkerers trying to extend our finite years, that He will restore this “biological material” to its rightful place and its rightful owner on that day, and we will all meet these children face to face.
Suzan says:
In the profound working of God’s unfathomable providence, Roe was overturned on June 24, when the feast of the Sacred Heart of our dear Lord converged with the feast of St. John the Baptist. Overflowing love meets unshakeable moral conviction in these two feasts, and this is no coincidence.
St. John the Baptist [on whose feast and that of the Sacred Heart Roe was overturned] refused to wink at the sin of Herod, and he publicly called him to repentance. He gave his life to uphold the moral law. You who were willing to sacrifice rather than accept a jab tainted by abortion did likewise. Perhaps you felt your stance was small in the grand scheme of things. I would say that our Lord has shown us otherwise. Your choice was rooted in sacrificial love like that of His own Sacred Heart. He honored that gift—those thousands of gifts from the lifeblood of American pro-lifers.
Do read Suzan Sammons' whole article -- it's outstanding.
It's never a waste to follow one's conscience. In fact, it's required of us. In this case, we were given the grace to see the outcome in a big way: the final toppling of the most deadly court case our nation has ever known.
