The spectre of the terror attacks perpetrated on US soil nineteen years ago still haunts the world’s collective memory. For members of the pro-life community, there is extra significance, for a few reasons that are listed below. Abortion providers also saw a connection, but not one that most would make: they used the tragedy to garner sympathy for themselves. One spokesman at the time claimed that, "Planned Parenthood have lived and worked for many years with the threat of terrorism. Sadly this is now a bond we share with the entire nation."

That sentiment is not shared among those who care about the plight of pre-born babies. Instead, the obvious and glaring contrast can be made between a single, dreadful event which claimed thousands of civilian lives and the ongoing scourge of abortion which claims thousands of innocent lives on a daily basis. In fact, it’s  estimated that there were close to 4000 babies aborted across the United States on the day that the World Trade Centre was attacked. As one commentator said, “Planned Parenthood does every day what foreign terrorists only dream of and has wiped out millions of future U.S. citizens in the process.”

Significantly, the American Life League has calculated that from October 2016 to September 2017, Planned Parenthood aborted 911 babies every single day.

Far from trivialising the terror attacks, drawing attention to abortion’s huge death toll should remind us of our common humanity, and of the love we should have even for strangers.  But that kind of compassion which was so evident in the aftermath of 9/11 is surprisingly rare when it comes to empathising with the pre-born.

Free abortions

Planned Parenthood drew criticism from even some of its supporters when, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the abortion giant advertised that it would kill babies for free. Planned Parenthood of NYC offered “free reproductive health care” for five days, from September 18th to 22nd. Their ad ran:

“Planned Parenthood of New York City (PPNYC) extends our sympathies to all who have suffered a loss in the tragic events of last week ….

“Any woman who has been unable to obtain care can visit any of our three centers for free comprehensive reproductive health services during this week, including GYN care, birth control, emergency contraception, and STD and HIV testing and counseling, among others …. We will do our best to accommodate walk-ins.”

Planned Parenthood has since offered similar ‘deals’ in times of disaster, notably after Hurricane Katrina and in the wake of a mining accident in West Virginia. After that tragedy, a Planned Parenthood spokesman claimed that some pregnancies would be “economically unfeasible” it would be unfair to show its pregnant patients ultrasounds of their babies since women “might imagine a resemblance to a departed spouse in an ultrasound of a second trimester fetus.”

Good for business

Disturbingly, unplanned pregnancy rates increased sharply around ten months after 9/11. This was said to be due to an increase in promiscuity following the attacks, as men and women looked for solace in casual sexual encounters. 

As one woman said at the time:

 “Maybe it is because on some subconscious level you do it because you want to ensure the survival of the species, but all of us are probably on birth control. It may be a way to experience humanity and be connected.”

However, when contraception fails, is it the pre-born babies who are the losers in these ill-fated arrangements, and Planned Parenthood undoubtedly recouped anything it had lost when it gave away all those free abortions. 

Monsignor Reilly’s famous vision

Msgr. Reilly, founder of the Helpers of God’s Precious Infants, has recounted his experiences of 9/11 many times during the past nineteen years. He has drawn the connection between the terror attack and the taking of human life through abortion into a memorable lesson for the pro-life community.

On the morning of the attack, Msgr Reilly was outside a Brooklyn abortion mill, counselling women and praying, as he does even now. That particular facility was only a few blocks from New York Harbour, where there is a clear view across the water to the World Trade Centre.

When the Towers fell, a huge black cloud blew over the area, and as Msgr. Reilly says, “it became midnight at midday.”

Msgr. Reilly wanted to go to the site of the attack, but felt he should stay at the mill, since, unlike the businesses all around him that stopped work, that one stayed open. Abortion businesses didn’t ease up on killing New York’s most vulnerable citizens, even on that dramatic day. He said, “Inside the abortion mill, they were actually watching the events unfold on TV, yet the killing of the babies inside continued.”

By the time Msgr. Reilly arrived at Ground Zero, it was midnight. Feeling helpless, he began to pray the rosary. This is his memory of that moment:

“As I prayed the rosary, I closed my eyes and with my eyes closed, I suddenly saw the people in the Tower getting ready for work at 9 a.m. Some were getting a drink of water, others a cup of coffee, all feeling safe and secure inside their office. Then I saw the terrorist plane breaking into their secure quarters and exploding like a great bomb with the people in the office having no place to hide, no place to flee. Then still standing at midnight at Ground  Zero, I saw not the people in the Towers, but I saw a womb with an unborn child inside, feeling so safe and secure and suddenly breaking through the wall of the womb was this terrorist object, the instrument of the abortionist, with the child having no place to hide, no place to flee from this terrorist instrument.”

When Msgr. Reilly opened his eyes, he had this overwhelming thought:

“Ground Zero is ongoing. Be not afraid then to go Golgotha, to the abortion clinic, to Ground Zero near you, to rescue the unborn children.”

A couple of years later, Msgr Reilly had this to add to his story:

“Accompany these little souls in spirit as they are so brutally evicted from their earthly home by their own mother's choice….. These babies are safe with God. These women are "mothers forever," who emerge from abortion centers wounded and needing unconditional love and forgiveness.”

The connection between terrorism and abortion is immediately evident to the pro-life community, especially after reading Msgr Reilly’s vision. However, the majority choose to remain willfully blind to this. Instead of acknowledging that sins like abortion have very real consequences for the nation that embraces them, it suits the bulk of society to nods heads occasionally, murmuring, “Never again”, while simultaneously shouting, “Never again” to a world without legal abortion.

This article first appeared at Family Life International