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DISCOURSE 62
and bring them up with affection and if they instil into them noble ideas, culture and traditions.
The father and mother deserve adoration and worship only when they carry out their duties properly towards their children. They can carry out their duties properly only when special virtues arise and dwell in them. If they do not have more virtues, they should at least possess these four virtues; the first virtue is patience or tolerance; the second virtue is affection or cordiality; the third virtue is generosity and the fourth virtue is seriousness. If the father and mother possess noble character and lofty virtues, those virtues make them venerable and adorable. Children must adore and worship their parents only if they possess virtues and noble character. The parents who desert their children in a desolate place or leave them in an orphanage are not fit to be adored and honoured. The parents who cruelly and inhumanly kill the child in the womb like butchers are not fit to be honoured. From the time the government legalized abortion, lakhs of people have been taking recourse to it. Can we call that woman 'a mother' when she kills the child in her womb ? Such a woman is not a mother but a monster.
FORCED ABORTION AND CRUELTY
COMBINES HEARTLESSNESS
181
Recently, I read an authentic report. The honourable Minister for Health at the centre proudly announced a few months ago, in Parliament: "At the government level during 1978-79, two lakh and thirteen thousand abortions have been carried out. Now-a-days, abortions are becoming acceptable in India." He further said, "Tamilnadu and Maharashtra are leading in this respect". The honourable Minister for Health commended these two states, and desired the other states to follow the steps of these two states.
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Probably, the representatives of the people sitting in Parliament might have heard these pronouncements with cool minds.
Do you know how cruel abortion is? Do those who speak
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