Pro-life advocates pray at grave of 47 babies killed by abortionist Gosnell, but ‘not forgotten’
Catholics and pro-life advocates gathered in Philadelphia on All Souls’ Day for a memorial Mass and graveside prayers for 47 babies found at abortionist Kermit Gosnell’s clinic in 2010. Participants placed 47 roses at the children’s unmarked grave in Laurel Hill East Cemetery and prayed for the children, their families, and women who have had abortions. Auxiliary Bishop Joseph L. Coffey and retired detective James Wood attended; Wood had discovered the babies’ bodies at Gosnell’s clinic. The gathering was part of commemorations for the National Day of Remembrance for Aborted Children, with local observances scheduled to suit participants.
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On All Souls’ Day, Catholic and pro-life advocates gathered in Philadelphia to remember 47 babies whose remains were found at Kermit Gosnell’s clinic in 2010. Their observance included Mass, prayers at the children’s grave, and a wreath of 47 roses.
The Nov. 2 Mass was celebrated at St. Bridget Church by retired Philadelphia priest Father Rayford Emmons. Participants then went in procession to Laurel Hill East Cemetery, where the children are buried in an unmarked grave.
Auxiliary Bishop Joseph L. Coffey of the Archdiocese for the Military Services said the gathering was intended to make clear that the babies “are not forgotten.” The group observed a moment of silence and prayed for the children, their families, and women who have had abortions.
Laura Gies, a local pro-life advocate who organized the event, said it continued earlier memorial efforts and was at least the fifth commemoration she had organized. The gathering was part of observances connected to the National Day of Remembrance for Aborted Children; local events may be held on different dates to fit participants’ schedules.
Retired Philadelphia Detective James Wood attended the graveside service for the first time. He had discovered the remains in a freezer while investigating a pill operation at Gosnell’s West Philadelphia clinic in 2010.
Gosnell was convicted in 2013 of first-degree murder in the deaths of three babies, involuntary manslaughter in the death of patient Karnamaya Mongar, and 229 violations of Pennsylvania abortion regulations. Mongar, a 41-year-old Bhutanese refugee, died after receiving a fatal dose of Demerol at the clinic.
The article reports that Gosnell performed late-term abortions and often severed babies’ spinal cords with scissors, a procedure he called “snipping.” Authorities found partial and intact infant remains stored around the clinic; after the convictions, the Philadelphia medical examiner’s office buried the remains at Laurel Hill.
Wood described the discovery as difficult to comprehend and said seeing Mongar’s baby in a plastic bag affected him deeply. He said he wished the children’s parents had made a different decision and hoped the children could “help us as angels to change things in this world.”
Participants also prayed for Gosnell, who died March 1, 2026, at age 85 while serving his sentences in a Pennsylvania correctional facility. Father Emmons recalled that pro-life groups had raised concerns about the clinic before the crimes became widely known and said the revelations prompted him to wonder how many other facilities operated similarly.
The dignity of unborn life and communal remembrance
The Catholic understanding of unborn life and communal remembrance rests on a single conviction: human dignity does not depend on age, development, social recognition, or the circumstances of death. If an unborn child possesses that dignity, then the community’s treatment of the child’s remains matters too. Respectful care and remembrance do not erase the grief or complexity surrounding abortion; they witness that a human life is never merely disposable material.
The Church’s case for the dignity of unborn life is not based on a child’s ability to speak, think, or live independently. It begins from the conviction that the human being is to be respected as a person from conception, and that the right to life belongs to every innocent human being from that first moment. John Paul II restates this principle in addressing the status of the human embryo and the dignity of the fetus.
This teaching also has a theological dimension. The Pontifical Academy for Life describes each human being, from conception, as a unity of body and soul whose dignity remains intact irrespective of the practical circumstances in which life begins. That dignity, it says, calls for recognition and defence by individuals and society. Benedict XVI connects the dignity of unborn life with the Incarnation: Christ entered human life in the womb of Mary and experienced human existence “from the very beginning.” In this light, the Incarnation reveals the extraordinary worth of every human life and deepens the responsibility to attend to the most vulnerable.
The point is not that every question about pregnancy, loss, or responsibility is simple. It is that the child’s worth cannot be made conditional on those circumstances. Dignitas Infinita states that human dignity is intrinsic and valid from conception until natural death; it also presents the protection of unborn life as connected to the defence of human rights generally.
Communal remembrance expresses, in visible and shared ways, what the Church teaches about human worth. The US bishops’ letter on the treatment of fetal remains argues that cultures and religious traditions have practices for caring for the dead, and that Catholics understand burial of the dead as a corporal work of mercy. It also recalls that the human body shares in the dignity of the image of God and points toward the hope of bodily resurrection.
On this account, respectful care for fetal remains is not merely a private matter. It concerns how a society treats vulnerable human beings, including those who cannot claim recognition for themselves. The bishops’ letter presents burial or cremation as a way to reject wanton disposal and to accord human remains a basic dignity. Such treatment does not depend on whether a person agrees with every policy proposal discussed in that letter. Its underlying moral claim is broader: the remains of a human body should not be handled as though they had no human significance.
Remembrance can therefore serve as a form of communal witness. It acknowledges that a life existed and that this life mattered, even when that life was brief and even when its circumstances are painful or contested. This is a reasonable theological implication of the Church’s teaching on human dignity and the respectful treatment of the dead; the supplied texts, however, do not prescribe one universal public ceremony or memorial practice for unborn children.
Remembrance must be humane toward everyone affected. A memorial or act of burial should not become a means of shaming women who have experienced abortion, miscarriage, or other pregnancy loss. The bishops’ letter notes that learning of disrespectful treatment of fetal remains has been traumatic for some women who have experienced abortion. That observation supports a careful pastoral approach: the dignity of the child and compassionate concern for the woman are not rival commitments.
Nor does respectful treatment of remains, by itself, settle every moral or political question related to abortion. It does, however, make a claim about how the dead should be treated. The bishops frame this as a possible point of shared civic concern even among people who disagree about abortion law: human remains should not be wantonly discarded or preserved at another’s whim. That appeal to common respect is distinct from, though consistent with, the Church’s broader teaching that abortion is a grave violation of unborn life.
The Church’s concern for unborn children belongs within its wider care for the vulnerable. Pope Francis describes unborn children as among those who need particular love and concern, and links their protection to the principle that every human being is sacred and inviolable at every stage of development. Benedict XVI likewise argues that sincere love tends toward special attention to the weakest and poorest, and identifies the unborn as especially vulnerable to the choices and interests of adults.
Communal remembrance can make that responsibility tangible. It can affirm that vulnerability does not erase belonging, and that a person’s human worth is not conferred by public recognition. In Catholic perspective, then, remembrance is more than a gesture directed backward. It is a present commitment to treat human life, including life at its earliest stage, with reverence and to build a community in which the weak are not forgotten.