What happens to aborted babies?

For many years a Dr. Warren Hern has been operating an abortion clinic in Boulder, Colorado, right across from the hospital in North Boulder. He and the clinic have been protested on and off for many years, but the abortion clinic is still in operation.

Hern gives the discarded babies (fetuses, tissue, or whatever you want to call them) to Crist Mortuary, who cremates them. Hern and Crist have had this arrangement for 6 years. That part was public but not very well known. However, other news came out this weekend . . .

Crist Mortuary, for 6 years, has been giving the remaining ashes to Sacred Heart of Mary Catholic church, a church in the open space along South Boulder Road (without Hern's knowledge). Sacred Heart has been giving the ashes a proper Christian burial, and they have a "Memorial Wall" stating that the ashes buried here are from aborted babies. Sacred Heart is not really a public place, but any visitor can drive in and look around. That's where local residents vote.

Anyway, Sacred Heart "went public" this weekend with the information that they are burying the aborted fetuses from Hern's clinic after Crist cremates them. Going public may have been a mistake. Of course there was an uproar, and Dr. Hern denounced the "cynical exploitation of private grief for political purposes." I don't know why Sacred Heart went public after 6 years, but they did. There was also a report in the Boulder Daily Camera saying that Sacred Heart's practice had been described in the Daily Camera about 4 years ago. I don't know if the connection to Hern's clinic through Crist Mortuary was made clear, though.

Here is the story on CNN.com (January 24, 2005):
http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/01/24/abortion.ap/index.html

Dr. Hern will probably stop sending the aborted babies to Crist Mortuary at this point. I don't know what he will do with them.

The CNN article states that Hern had a contract with Crist, which contradicts the story that I heard saying that Crist was doing the cremations free of charge. A legally valid contract specifies that both parties contribute something. If Crist was doing the cremations free of charge, then Hern is without a valid contract and has no reason to complain.

I fail to see why Dr. Hern is complaining, anyway. According to him, the aborted babies are "just tissue", right? If somebody wants to bury them a certain way, what is that to him? He doesn't own every landfill in Colorado. Sacred Heart is not a grave robber, they're a landfill robber if anything. If some flake wanted to give my empty milk cartons a "proper burial", I would go on record as saying they're stupid and wasting their time. Then I would set out the milk cartons for collection. I might even rinse them out!

Lots of things to think about.

A lot of people like to dump on Boulder as this immoral town full of decadent hippies and evil oppression and strange cults and so on, but the picture on CNN.com shows 250 parishioners gathering to pray for the aborted babies. At least 250 people in Boulder County care very much what happens to what they believe is a very young human being, even in death. 250 people revere what they believe to be human life, and go to a lot of effort to respect that life. Maybe Boulder is somewhat weird and fitness-crazed, but some Boulderites also believe in things eternal.