jrtom

Shameless in Colorado

. . . unbeknownst to her, the ashes from her cremated fetus had been buried in a secret ceremony at the Sacred Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Boulder. The church had gotten the ashes from Crist Mortuary, which had contracted with Hern in 2001 to dispose of medical waste. Though their contract specified that the material would not be part of a religious ceremony, the mortuary company had given each of seven shipments of ashes received under the contract to the church, which had placed them near a "memorial wall for the unborn," while a church bell tolled to the rhythm of a beating heart. Crist also gave the church ashes from fetuses that were miscarried at Avista Adventist Hospital in nearby Louisville, Colorado.
On January 23, one day after the anniversary of Roe v. Wade decision establishing the right to abortion, the church went public, inviting press to its ritual service involving the ashes of these miscarried and aborted fetuses . . .

Although I do think that the wishes of the people involved ought to be respected, I can understand someone wanting to perform a religious ceremony for this sake. (Although I hope that regardless of how the suit goes, future potential customers of the mortuary realize that it violated its previous customers' wishes as well as their contracts.)

But this was clearly done for a political purpose, and regardless of how I might feel about this purpose, this kind of conduct is reprehensible.