NARAL-Baiting

Yesterday, on the day after the 32nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Boulder’s Sacred Heart of Mary Roman Catholic Church invited the press to a mass burial of the ashes of 300-500 fetuses which had been aborted at a nearby clinic. Since 1996, the church has collected the remains of aborted fetuses from a mortuary contracted to cremate and bury the them in its own plot, unbeknownst to both the clinic and the women whose fetuses were aborted. Anticipating the anger of abortion-rights advocates, anti-abortion organizers supporting the church pointed to Colorado law, which strictly regulates the burial of “human remains” but permits the interrment of “human medical waste” without legal obstacles. The church would likely be in violation of the law if the fetuses were declared “human.” See where this one’s going? But until someone takes the bait and sues to the detriment of their own foot, one Sacred Heart parishioner has broader hopes for the symbolic burials themselves, speculating that, though the p.r. event may have cost the church its supply of Colorado ashes, the publicity might bring more remains in “‘from out of state.'”