Our Judeo/Christian heritage insists upon the virtue of chastity, which requires abstinence from sexual acts prior to marriage.  Chastity demands that all sexual intimacies -- including passionate embracing -- be confined exclusively to marriage.  Within marriage husband and wife must be faithful to each other and their marital acts must be open to the conception of new human life.  Homosexual acts, sexual acts committed alone and contraception are always forbidden.  Holy Scriptures stress that God wills chastity.  "No fornicator, no unclean or lustful person...has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God...These are sins that bring God's wrath down on the disobedient" (Ephesians 5:5-6).  Chastity has always been embraced by God's people.

A conflicting philosophy asserts that our bodies belong to us, that we have complete authority -- sovereign inalienable rights -- over the use of our bodies and that we should be able to choose whatever sexual practices we please while evading pregnancy at all costs.  This complete authority or ownership over the body in regards to sexual practices is usually referred to as REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS or reproductive freedom.  This idea evolved as a result of the availability of birth control pills (1960) and of legal abortion (1973).

What rights does ownership actually bring?  Let's consider anything we may own: a car, a stereo, a shoe, a pen.  Each item was invented with a specific purpose.  Because of our rights of ownership, we may use each item as it was intended, or we may not use it at all.  We may choose to use (or abuse) our belongings for other purposes, reasonable or unreasonable.  We may, for example, hang our shoes on the wall as decorations or use a pen to open a can of soda.  Because of our rights over belongings, we can sell or make gifts of them.  Although it isn't wise, we can even break or throw away what belongs to us.

Do the same rights over material possessions also apply to our bodies?  Obviously the answer to this question is a simple but unequivocal "NO"!!!  Abuses of the body are morally wrong and sometimes deadly.  We may not, for example, intentionally disfigure or dismember our bodies.  We cannot give or sell our bodies in prostitution or slavery.  Certainly, (with the exception of kidney, bone marrow or blood donation) we cannot disassemble our bodies and distribute the parts.  Clearly, rights of ownership do not extend to our bodies, as they do to material possessions.

Why don't the same rights of possession apply to our bodies?  When God created the world, the roaring seas, the towering mountains, the fertile valleys, the dense forests and all the animals, God simply willed each creation into existence.  Of all God's creations only man has an immortal soul that lives on after the body dies.  "The Lord God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being" (Genesis 2:7).  Imagine it!  God fashioned man, His greatest creation, with His own hands and when He was satisfied with what He had made, God breathed His own life into man, eternal life.

After God created the world, He gave man dominion over the things of the world.  "Fill the earth and subdue it.  Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that move on the earth" (Genesis 2:28).  God did not give man dominion over himself.  Rather, God instructed man to obey Him in all things.  Undeniably, we belong entirely to God and must take great care to please and obey Him.

But isn't the body a gift from God?  Isn't a gift a possession that we can use as we please?  Certainly, the body is a tremendous gift, as are health, beauty, intelligence, talents and sexuality.  But because God gave them to us that we may serve and glorify Him, we don't have the same rights over these gifts that we do over material possessions.  Remember that God breathes life, an immortal soul made in His Divine Image, into each of us at the moment of our conception.  Everything that God creates is good, but because of God's life within him, man is the only earthly creation that is holy.  We must not do whatever we want with our bodies or with our sexuality because they are holy.

Holy things must be approached with REVERENCE.  We may not do whatever we want with them.  Consider, for example, the Holy Eucharist.  We must not take the Consecrated Hosts from the tabernacle and eat as many as we want.  We must not toss the Sacred Hosts for frisbee practice.  We must not drink the Sacred Blood at dinner or at parties.  Rather, we approach the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ with reverence.  We genuflect before the tabernacle and when we enter and leave the Church to revere the real presence of Jesus.  We must meet certain conditions before we partake of the Holy Eucharist.  We must be in the state of grace, we must attend the entire Mass, and we must fast at least one hour prior to receiving our Lord.  All holy things require reverence and special treatment.

The human body is HOLY.  The body is a living tabernacle for Jesus.  "Are you not aware that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?  If anyone destroy God's temple, God will destroy him.  For the temple of God is holy, and you are that temple" (1 Corinthians 3:16-17).  Any sin that we commit defiles God's temple, which we are.  When we sin, we turn away from God, we reject His life within us.  We must be obedient to God in all things.  We must avoid all sin.  We must obey God's laws regarding chastity.

Sexual Intimacy is HOLY and requires REVERENCE.  Because it is holy, to partake rightfully of sexual intimacy, we must meet certain conditions.  We must be married!  The complete, faithful love shared by husband and wife reflect God's perfect and faithful love for His Church.  When husband and wife conceive a child, they actually act as co-creators with God.  Out of marriage, God's plan for sexual intimacy is frustrated and defiled.  Sexual acts outside of Marriage are MORTAL SINS!

God gave us our bodies, sexuality, talents and abilities to serve Him, and to glorify Him.  We demonstrate our love for Him by our obedience.  We know that if we avoid sin and keep God's commands, we will be rewarded with eternal life.

We have already established that we have certain rights over our earthly possessions. But are these rights absolute, or do they have limits?  Let's consider again a very simple, commonplace possession: a pen. Morally speaking, can we use a pen to scratch up the paint on a friend's car?  Can we use a pen to scribble on someone else's books or wall locker?  Can we use a pen to gouge out somebody's eyes?  Without a doubt, our answer to all of these questions is "NO"!!!  Our rights over any thing end the moment the rights of another person begin.  We cannot morally use our rights to violate the rights of another.

So what about ABORTION?  Isn't an unborn child a part of the mother's body?  The notion that the unborn child is simply a part of the mother's body is one of the most unfounded arguments used to justify abortion.  Since when can any part of the body, after just a few months of residence within the body, actually leave and continue to live and grow independently outside of the body?  Has anybody's arm, liver or lung simply left the body and survived on its own?

The idea is absolutely preposterous.  For any organism to live independently of the body, it must be (and always was!) a separate, individual organism.

Has a woman ever existed, who for only several months of her life, had four arms, four legs, two hearts, two sets of reproductive organs (perhaps of two different genders) and two heads?  Any clear-thinking individual can easily understand that an unborn child cannot be a part of the mother's body, but is rather a separate human being already developing an unique personality.

Science agrees.  Evidence from DNA studies reveal that at the moment of conception, when a baby's body is just a single cell, a separate, unique individual exists.  With ultrasound we can actually see the unborn child growing, developing and moving within the womb.  Any mother who has seen the ultrasound image can tell how amazing it is to see her tiny baby making faces, sucking a tiny thumb, kicking and turning somersaults.  She has no doubt that this baby, who acts independent of her will, is a separate person, a welcome guest who resides within her for a few months.  Most abortion-minded women change their minds and welcome their babies after seeing the ultrasound because they bond with their babies and can't help but acknowledge they are real people.

Consider the unborn baby within the womb.  Just 18 days after conception the baby's heart is beating and pumping blood that may be a different type from the mother's.  Only five weeks after fertilization, the baby already has arms, legs, hands, feet, eyes, ears, a mouth and a tiny nose.  If we could bring a feather into the womb and tickle that little nose, the baby would make a face and pull away just as we would.  If an unborn child is able to feel a soft feather's tickle, can't the baby also feel the pain inflicted by the abortionist's knife?  The baby feels the excruciating pain of forceful dismemberment limb by limb.                 Six weeks after conception the baby can move about freely in the womb and brain waves are readable.  Scientists and physicians agree that an unborn baby definitely feels pain by this point of development.  By eight weeks, motor skills are so highly developed that the baby can suck a thumb.  Ten weeks after conception, all body systems are present and functioning and the baby even has finger and toe prints!  Except for the lack of hair and immature lungs, the unborn child is just as complete as any person reading this pamphlet!

It is an undeniable fact that an unborn baby is a human being with the right to life and protection.  Who will speak for our unborn brother and sisters if we will not?  Who will protect them, as well as their mothers, if we do not?  Who will put an end to abortion if we remain silent?

Since the beginning of history, God has breathed life into each individual conceived.  Why?  So that each person may know Him, love Him and serve Him.  What right does anyone have to deny another human being God's gift of life?  What right can anyone have to deny an unborn child the opportunity to know God, to love God and to Serve God in this life?

Pray every day for the lives of the unborn.  Pray that the hearts of their mothers melt with love.  If we know people who are considering abortion, we must do everything we can to discourage them.  Abortion is a mortal sin.  A baby, killed by abortion, is lost forever.  The aborted baby's mother will never again be able to give life to that particular child.  The aftereffects of abortion emotionally devastate and physically injure women.  Help can be found by checking ABORTION ALTERNATIVES in most telephone directory yellow pages.

The truth is obvious.  We know that REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS don't even exist.  We do not have the right to defile our bodies with sexual sin!  We do not have the right to destroy life by abortion!

"I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse.  Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the Lord, your God, heeding His voice, and holding fast to Him" (Deuteronomy 30:19,20).