In the mid 1970's, Fulton J Sheen of the Catholic Church released his philosophy behind abortion called The Approach of Midnight. 

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In this sobering talk, Archbishop Fulton Sheen examines our death-oriented society, from the advent of abortion to the midnight of our headlong rush to self-extinction.

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“The philosophy behind the destruction of life is a misunderstanding of freedom and the misunderstanding of love.”

 

The first step is that people “understand freedom as the right to do whatever you please… there's an absolute denial of limits. The selfish ego denies all limits in regards any law as a restriction of freedom.

 

Once you admit freedom is the right to do whatever you please, then look at the consequences… Once that philosophy is proclaimed that the ego is supreme, there are no limits. Then abortion follows.”

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Prior to this, people recognised limits. Boundaries. He gave examples which are simple to understand and still valid today. The boundary lines that identify each state in the country. Boundary lines in sports, such as foul lines.

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“How do we know our own identity? By limit, by boundaries, by law, by order,” he said, adding with sadness, “and I think we lost all of these 8:15 in the morning, August the 6th, 1945, when we dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. That bomb blotted out boundaries of life and death… and trust among nations. And so abortion from that point on is defended on the ground that one may do whatever he pleases.”

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Sheen was already voicing what has become clearly apparent in today’s outright push and insistence upon abortion any time.

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Sheen said this relativistic idea of freedom, an upside-down one, is the first false philosophy. The second is seeing “love as an experience. Love is sex. And it doesn't make very much difference who the other person is. The person does not count.” It’s rampant everywhere, from movies to TV to college and school campuses. “You drink the water, you forget the glass,” Bishop Sheen continued, then turned to the true meaning of love that’s being lost.

 

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“The problem is not when human life begins.

The problem is who made it. Who produced it.”

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“Love is reciprocal. It involves persons. And love also involves responsibility.” Lack of it fuels the abortion culture as he saw over 40 years ago saying that “the principal reason why there is abortion today is women are saying, ‘Well, I don't want to have myself disturbed. I don't want to care. I want no burden. I want to do whatever I please. I want to love myself.’ This is the philosophy.”

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The result? He saw people of America, and the world, dividing into two classes — those who love life and those who love death. The former believe “God is the originator of life.” Sheen cut through the latter side’s arguments, simply stating, “The problem is not when human life begins. The problem is who made it. Who produced it.”

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"Escapism from reality." 

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“Today it is said that a mother has a fetus. Who ever heard of a mother having a fetus?

 

The mother is always with child. That is just the kind of a verbal escape from admitting that there is life within — that brings me to the rapid progress toward death in our American culture.” Fetus was soon joined by euthanasia as the "verbal escape" progressed. The words mask the real intent behind them.

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"The Ominous Ticking Clock"

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“I want you to picture a great and gigantic Clock of Life,” Sheen continued, pointing out where falls different times from dawn, noon, dusk, evening, to finally midnight. He observed, “the killing of human persons in the womb — that's the first stroke of the clock.” Then come “new lives in middle-age” where, he said, “we've already had this strike. Six million Jews burned by Hitler… Life in the evening. Now euthanasia is recommended… the killing of the old.” Sheen saw the implications because these were the early stages of the next steps.

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“Now what's going to happen to a world that takes life at dawn, life at noon, life at dusk?” Sheen asked. “We're eventually going to come to midnight.” Reminding that the United States and Russia had enough nuclear armaments at that time to drop tons of equivalent TNT on every man, woman, and child around the world, Sheen concluded, “That's the midnight of necrophilia.”

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“So you see, my good people,” the bishop said, weighing his words thoughtfully and pausing between each, “it's not just life at dawn we're protecting. It’s life at noon. It’s life at dusk. It’s life at midnight. And those who have lived closest to life, understand this.”

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“Then she would have killed — Beethoven.”

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The good bishop didn’t leave the situation as utterly hopeless, though, concerning the Clock of Life inching closer to midnight. He turned to dissuade people from accepting that turning point of abortion. He read the story of one among many poor girls who aborted their child and the horror she continued to feel, and gave two cases about the destruction of life if that had been the road of choice.

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One concerned a mother who was tubercular, a father syphilitic. Their first child was born and lived. The next died soon after birth. The third was deaf and dumb. The next, tubercular. The woman was pregnant. “Should she have aborted? This is a real case,” Sheen reminded, paused, only to emphasize, “Then she would have killed — Beethoven.”

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"And if they ever come to him who was on that cross, they will find their forgiveness."

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Sheen ended by saying, " And from that cross Divine Life said, ‘Father forgive them, they know not what they do.' Forgive who?” And Sheen lists the doctors who take life, the hospitals, the nurses sickened by the sight, doctors who get the money for the deed, women who cooperated with the deaths. And the men.

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“And if they ever come to him who was on that cross, they will find their forgiveness, but they must come. And they must ask,” he said as an invitation to them.