A Texas man arrested for the 2019 death of his pregnant and unwed sister pled guilty to her murder last week and was sentenced to 40 years in prison. Eduardo Arevalo, who was 19-years old when he committed the murder, said he killed his sister Viridiana Arevalo because her pregnancy was an “embarrassment” to the family.
His sister was eight months pregnant with a baby girl who did not survive.
Arevalo’s family was shocked, saying they could never have imagined him committing such a heinous crime. And though he accepted a deal for the murder of his sister, we cannot overlook the fact that he took another life that day as well. That baby girl lost her life before she had a chance to be born. In one horrific moment, that family lost two members.
Evil acts such as this happen all too often in our world because many people are of the mindset that a baby is a threat—to their way of life, to finances, to a relationship, to their image, or to their health. They don’t understand, or knowingly reject, the truth that all babies are a blessing and that it’s wrong to take the life of an innocent person.
Regardless of the circumstances behind how a baby is created—be it unplanned, out of love, as a result of a one-night-stand, or even as a result of rape—every baby is special and unique. A baby created by rape has no less value than a baby created by a couple who has been trying to conceive for years.
This tiny human being—whom science proves was created when the sperm fertilized the egg—begins growing at that very moment. In fact, at that moment of creation, he has all the DNA he will ever get; he is an unrepeatable person deserving of the same protection that you and I have. We should rejoice in this beautiful miracle, not be embarrassed or angered by it.
Stories like the murders of Viridiana Arevalo and her unborn baby suggest how society so often gets pregnancy all wrong. Society seems to have forgotten the baby.
Women scream for “reproductive rights.” They falsely claim that it’s their body, when in reality they have another whole and complete person living inside them. And they fail to look at the most obvious fact—that every pregnancy involves a mom and at least one baby. That baby is a unique human being who, if allowed to, will grow to be an infant, then a toddler, a teenager, an adult, and an elderly person. These are all simply stages of development—stages that begin at that first moment, on that first day.
If we want a society that values this baby from the first moment of creation, we must not only educate people—especially children—about the uniqueness of the baby and stop stigmatizing the moms. We must stop dreading and hating the babies.
This responsibility falls upon each one of us, for when we help perpetuate the belief that a baby is a burden and that we can discard a baby at will, we contribute to a society overcome with loathing. We see this disdain for babies and for human beings at all stages on a daily basis in the news.
We can lament that society has lost its way. We can become angry when we hear stories like Eduardo Arevalo’s. We can shake our heads and move on to the next story. But none of that does any good. We must do something to show our love. This hatred for babies will only be resolved by love for both moms and babies—no matter their circumstance.
Babies are not an embarrassment. A pregnant mom who has chosen life for her baby should never be treated as a pariah. She should be supported, cared for, and cherished, just as her baby should be. That is why there are so many pregnancy resource centers available to help moms. And that is why we must work every day to care for moms and babies and to teach our children, our friends, and our family members that all babies have value. Failure to stand up for the babies will only result in more dead babies.
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Neither Arevalo nor her unborn child deserved to die, but this cultural acceptance of having a child out of wedlock needs to be addressed by the the pro-life community.
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One of the disdain for babies that so many share is likely due to the understanding that innocent, but “fatherless,” babies become “fatherless” teens and adults, who are much more likely (than their “fathered” counterparts) to become not so innocent. The stats are not good, and there are many articles on the internet to that point. Here is but one:
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https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/01/09/america-has-pandemic-fatherlessness-contributing-gender-confusion-suicide-author-says/)
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A culture gets what it promotes. The Pro-life Community has been championing babies, and mothers and babies, and the need to support “vulnerable mothers and babies.” Rare is the article that champions Fathers and babies, and the need to reconcile the father with his offspring.
Good comment MrsHess. I totally support pregnancy care centers. But we also need to address some of the underlying issues.
These women are often portrayed as victims. However, the abortion industries own statistics say that 40% of women getting abortions are repeats – 2nd, 3rd, and 4th abortions. Hardly victims. They are using abortion as birth control. Also, 87% are single women. There are obviously underlying moral issues – adultery and fornication, and I do not see this being addressed by the Church – certainly not during homilies.
While praying in front of our local abortion facility this morning I saw what looked to be a woman near 40 years old drive into the facility with what appeared to be a girl of 15 – 16 years old in the passenger seat. There were definitely two victims there. Very sad.
Several years back our local pregnancy help center had a 15-year-old come in with her mother for a pregnancy test. It turned out the mother was trafficking her own daughter to men. And a pregnant girl earns less money for her trafficker.
“A baby created by rape has no less value than a baby created by a couple who has been trying to conceive for years”. This is something I had not thought of and I love that you brought this to our attention. You’re so right and that a baby has no choice on how he or she was conceived. They all deserve to live and be loved.
everyone started out at the end of a lifeline
Amen, Jennifer.
I remember a politician once making a tone-deaf remark about children conceived through sexual assault. He stated that many of us here only because of something like that having occurred in the past. If I remember, his point was factually correct, but it sounded as though he was attempting to justify rape. Which I doubt was his intention.
But yes, the circumstances of our conception no matter how tragic do not define who we are nor make us less valuable. And as that politician was trying in a clumsy way to say, we’re all here today most likely because of some unfortunate assault in the distant past.
I agree with Pastor Kris Vallotton’s analysis of the loss of fatherhood and its relationship to the many problems among those living that reality. I wonder if the good pastor would be willing to explore the correlation of the loss of fatherhood with the rampant acceptance of birth control starting in the 1960s (and the subsequent sexual revolution.)
These are the fruits of L.B. Johnson’s ‘Great Society’. The pro-“choice” community needs to educate these “vulnerable mothers” about making better “choices” regarding who they mate with.
I think women in fact do need to do a better job upholding their dignity & moral standards, but we shouldn’t assume every mother going through a crisis pregnancy made a choice on her own. Coercion can be a real factor both in pregnancies & feticides committed.
Just as pro-life pertains to everyone, so too the matter of having children outside of marriage. Pro-lifers are doing their part on all fronts, the idea that they are too focused is unfounded. There is indeed a general laxity in society towards illicit sexual relations that EVERYONE should be concerned about, irrespective of the abortion scene and irrespective of pro-lifers’ activities; and yet pro-lifers’ witness speaks to all of it even when they merely confront the abortion dimension. Why detract anything from pro-lifers! Foster them and every good they do with praise.
I agree! Just because the article doesn’t mention one aspect of a multifaceted problem doesn’t mean a thing. It’s like the old mother who gives her son two shirts. He wears one and she complains, “You don’t like the other?” Articles can only focus on so much at one time. Otherwise, it would be called a book. Yes, women make bad choices. Men make bad choices. But stigmatizing people is also a bad choice. We have to start fixing our country somewhere.
Hear! Hear! Well stated, Elias.
The emphasis on criticizing what pro-lifers apparently do not do that a critic believes must also be done or the moral strength of their pro-life actions is diminished reminds me of another hideous declaration made by an occasional representative of CWR not too long ago. Once again, a flawed premise is set forth that, in this case, unjustly attacks White Catholics en masse for allegedly not doing something in accordance with a bogus Leftist narrative:
“As long as White Catholics, including White clergy, continue to minimize and ignore important moral issues like racism, we will continue to have no credibility when we speak out about the crime of abortion.”
Also to be noticed is that each of these kinds of flawed criticisms also has an air of the discredited seamless garment BS courtesy of Cardinal Bernardin.
And in all of these criticisms/declarations, what is involved is a deliberate attempt to play the ‘let’s make what we subjectively perceive to be the perfect (or ideal) the enemy of the good.’ Alas, whether intended or not, the result of this approach is to undermine and diminish the good if it does not include additional elements unjustly deemed necessary by a critic or group of critics.
But you, Elias, have it exactly right when you write that
“pro-lifers’ witness speaks to all of it even when they merely confront the abortion dimension. Why detract anything from pro-lifers! Foster them and every good they do with praise.”
AMEN TO THAT!
Even Monica Miller has expressed some . . . dissatisfaction . . . with what might be called the “greater pro-life community” (my words, not hers. Hers are below).
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“However, here’s the bad news. The pro-life Protestant churches, the pro-life Jewish congregations, the Catholic Church, and the pro-life movement must all recognize and address the primary cause that has led to sixty-two million murders of the innocent unborn. It is one thing to outlaw abortion. But we must face, in practical terms, the major cause of abortion—children being conceived outside the bond of marriage.”
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2022/06/08/end-roe-and-then-fight-the-primary-cause-of-abortion/
She does not really address in her article the impact that fatherlessness has on the very infants who were not aborted, although she must certainly know them. (And even children of married couples are being impacted but societal decay.)
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What ought to happen is that law enforcement arrest every public servant that supports abortion in the slightest. Granted they would likely need to arrest most of themselves first.
My understanding is that there are around 750,000 criminals (i.e. complicity with attempted murder) in Ohio who – with the support of outside money and paid signature collectors from outside the state – signed an unlawful initiative petition to attempt to “amend” the Ohio Constitution by “removing” abortion restrictions under color of law.
While it is important to rail against abortion, it is also important that people know that fornication is EVIL. This is a problem that can and must be solved.
A big issue is with EVIL “divorce” (i.e. with the purported right to “remarriage” before the death of one’s spouse) under color of law and contrary to the jurisdiction of the Catholic Church over all marriages with at least one baptized person.
For the better part of a century Catholic “thinkers” have been poisoned by delusions of their superior intellects to the point of taking Hegelian evolutionary truth for granted. And this includes the presupposition that there are no moral propositions that are demonstrably true always and everywhere. Thus, a vast majority of Catholics had no difficulty rejecting Humanae Vitae. Thus, in due course of accepting the contraceptive mentality, most Catholics have had no moral fortitude in confronting a culture that treats life as a utilitarian commodity of convenience.
“Even Monica Miller”…Yowza!
Monica Miller is indeed a very fine pro-life leader among many pro-life leaders, but what she claims is the major cause of abortion based on the statistics she cites begs a few serious questions which I don’t believe she has answered, certainly not in the CWR article you reference, though she does touch on many related problems that should have given her pause in making her claim, which is as follows:
The primary cause of abortion is becoming/being pregnant while also being unwed.
To bolster this claim, Miller cites statistics that show some 85.5% of all abortions are performed on women who are unmarried. This is certainly a very high and troubling correlation, but the conclusion drawn by Miller could run into the “correlation does not imply causation” fallacy that she partially overcomes via her interviews with many unwed mothers who state that being unwed is their primary reason for their abortions. But does their rationale apply to all of the others who make up the 85.5% as Miller concludes? In order to demonstrate that the 85.5% number reflects that being unwed is their primary rationale for the unwed mothers obtaining their abortions, she or others would have to interview all of them to determine if “being unwed” was in fact what they claim is their primary reason for getting abortions.
Alas, it will likely turn out that many of the 85.5% actually chose abortions for a similar reason they chose to have non-marital intercourse that brought about their pregnancies. Namely, purposely rejecting and not practicing a traditional moral code that prohibits such intercourse as well as abortion. Indeed, it is actually a lack of sound morality in the vast majority of cases wherein unwed mothers willingly decide to have intercourse with their equally immoral male partners that is the more fundamental underlying reason that persuades any of them that having an abortion which murders the innocent is just fine. And this leads to the next question begged by Miller’s conclusion based on statistical correlation.
What is the primary reason why some 14.5% of married women choose to get an abortion? Since being unwed is not involved, it would be silly to claim that “being unwed is the primary cause of abortion” as Miller broadly asserts, so what are we left with as the fundamental underlying reason for the married women? Once again, and regardless of any secondary rationale that may be cited, it always boils down to the immoral acceptance of abortion as a justifiable act if so chosen.
Now consider the following:
If unwed mothers believed it firmly in their hearts and minds that having an abortion was indeed wrong and tantamount to or another form of murder they are completely opposed to, how many of them would still likely go ahead and have an abortion anyway? Probably not too many, but perhaps still enough to warrant concern, yet what if the laws once again adopted a proper natural law foundation as promoted by pro-lifers so that there were significant penalties for having an abortion and performing an abortion? How many unwed and wed mothers would still likely go ahead and have an abortion anyway? How many doctors would perform abortions if they faced stiff penalties for doing so? Indeed, how many unwed women would engage in immoral intercourse knowing that even if they used contraception, it could and does fail to prevent pregnancy all of the time?
So when we go a little bit deeper than what a most troubling statistic reveals, we find that the somewhat maligned pro-lifers have it exactly right by focusing the vast majority of their efforts on educating more and more people on the immorality of abortion, and also working to eradicate the evil of abortion in and of itself. Yes, being unwed does sadly persuade too many women to have an abortion, but the primary and fundamental reason behind all abortions for both wed and unwed pregnant women is the immoral belief which claims that the innocent unborn child in the womb can legitimately have its life snuffed out. Eliminate this hideous belief, which is the pro-life community’s primary focus, and if a pregnant woman is married or unmarried, the innocent child in the womb lives.