(The Lion) — A Catholic leader in Portland, Oregon, has condemned the state’s governor for celebrating abortion.
Portland Archbishop Alexander Sample spoke out against Gov. Tina Kotek after she proclaimed March 10 “Abortion Provider Appreciation Day.”
In his “Pastoral Teaching on the Sanctity of Life,” Sample said the proclamation represents “a return to humanity’s oldest, darkest impulse.”
His message is posted on the Archdiocese of Portland’s website, which also includes statistics about the record number of abortions performed in the state in 2023, including a 165% increase in late-term abortions – at or after 23 weeks – and a 60% increase in women traveling to the state for abortions.
Sample invited those who celebrate abortion to repent and ask Christ for forgiveness. He added that celebrating abortion goes further than merely being misguided.
“It’s something deeper,” he wrote. “A kind of spiritual blindness so thick that what should be self-evident – the sheer wonder and worth of a human life – is obscured entirely.”
The archbishop explained that he sees abortion as a trade between life and a power pursuit.
“If a baby is inconvenient, it must go,” he said. “If it interferes with autonomy, it must be sacrificed. A life is no longer a gift. It is an obstacle, a burden, a problem to be solved.”
The church leader also said people’s lives have value, regardless of their circumstances.
“Blessed are the poor,” he said, quoting Jesus’ Beatitudes from Matthew 5. “Blessed are the meek. Blessed are the ones with no power at all.
“Because life – every life – is a gift,” he later added. “And a world that forgets that is a world that has lost its soul.”
Sample’s actions come as Republican U.S. senators reintroduced legislation to ban the trafficking of aborted babies’ body parts and to prevent the federal government from promoting research on fetal tissue from abortions.
Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana and Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi filed the Protecting Life and Integrity in Research Act last week.
“There are ethical and scientifically valid ways to conduct fetal tissue research without relying on the body parts of aborted babies,” Hyde-Smith said in a press release. “Yet, the federal government currently spends millions of our taxpayer dollars each year funding research that uses tissue from abortions, furthering the dehumanizing practice of fetal tissue trafficking.”
The measure would not ban stem cell research on non-fetal stem cells. Instead, it would encourage the use of blood from umbilical cords and adult stem cells.
Hyde-Smith says the National Institutes of Health (NIH) spent $53 million on human fetal tissue research.
Rep. Bob Onder, R-Missouri, introduced similar legislation in the House.
“The creation of a taxpayer-funded marketplace for babies lost to abortion is a monstrous, barbaric practice from the start,” he said in a release. “Every baby, even those lost to abortion, deserves to be treated with human decency and respect – not like science experiments. I’m proud to introduce this legislation to put that practice to an end.”
Although encouraging, the measure could have a hard time receiving the 60 votes necessary to clear the filibuster in the U.S. Senate, as most Democrats have opposed efforts to restrict fetal tissue research in recent years, according to Science.org.
