Newspapers in my city frequently carry reports: teenage girls collapse at home after abortions and must be rushed to hospitals by ambulances; some kill their newborn babies and discard the bodies; others hurl their infants from buildings twenty to thirty stories high. Such acts are utterly outrageous. The root cause lies in the corrupted social atmosphere today. As you can see, immoral advertisements pervade every corner of society. Even wristwatch commercials feature women in revealing low-cut outfits, paired with slogans like “Don’t care for everlasting love, only cherish the moment.” Ads for lingerie and weight-loss products are even more indecent. Countless images and video commercials indulge carnal desires to numb people’s minds. Meanwhile, media outlets constantly expose celebrities’ promiscuous private lives, rampant sexual indulgence and extramarital affairs, dragging down public moral standards. These vulgar, sensationalized ads mislead young people, making them believe indulgence and extravagance represent fashion. As a result, adolescents lack proper sexual education yet act recklessly and promiscuously, which is essentially the degeneration of spiritual nature.
Fueled by such negative media content, abortions grow increasingly prevalent and spawn numerous social troubles, unrecognized and ignored by most people. It is known that Japan houses no fewer than two thousand temples built exclusively to shelter infant souls, evidence of its staggering abortion figures. In Taiwan, an estimated three hundred thousand abortions occurred in 1997, four hundred thousand in 1999, and five hundred thousand in 2000. These figures are merely extrapolated from sampling, and the actual numbers remain undisclosed to the public.
Studies conducted in Minnesota, USA show that teenage girls who have abortions are ten times more likely to commit suicide within six months than those who do not. Other relevant research also indicates that teenage girls with a history of multiple abortions face higher risks of suicide and mental disorders within half a year after an abortion.
Let us turn to the karmic retributions of killing as recorded in Buddhist sutras, which are documented in numerous texts. The Upasaka Precept Sutra states: “All sentient beings who commit killing suffer present-life karmic fruits: an ugly appearance, weak vitality, ill repute, a short lifespan, dwindling wealth, separation from family and kin, reproach by virtuous sages, distrust from others, and undeserved misfortunes brought on by others’ wrongdoings. These are the adverse karmic fruits endured in the current lifetime. Furthermore, after shedding their human bodies, those who take lives fall into the hell realms to endure immense torment. They suffer unending hunger and thirst yet linger for extremely long ages, cursed with hideous forms, feeble strength and shameful renown. These are the evil karmic retributions awaiting them in the afterlife. Should such killers attain a human rebirth in the future, they will again receive ugly features, short lives and poverty as karmic consequences. Through the karmic force of this single evil person’s deeds, all grains, fruits and melons across the land will grow scarce, and misfortune shall spread to the entire under-heaven.”
Let us read what the Buddha taught in the Brahmajala Sutra: “All men have been my fathers, and all women have been my mothers. In every lifetime, I have received rebirth through them.”
The Buddha said: “Disciples of the Buddha, you must not take life deliberately in any way—whether you kill personally, incite others to kill, facilitate killing, praise killing, rejoice upon seeing others kill, or slay beings through mantras; this encompasses the cause of killing, the condition of killing, the method of killing and the karma of killing. Never intentionally slay any sentient being endowed with life. Bodhisattvas ought to produce the permanently dwelling mind of kindness and compassion, together with the mind of filial piety and obedience, devising all manner of expedient means to rescue and protect every sentient being. Should there be people who indulge their unrestrained minds and take delight in killing, they commit the Bodhisattva Parajika offense.” The Buddha has expounded at length upon the hellish karmic retributions for killing in numerous sutras. Now I journeyed to the Netherworld to ask the Magistrate what punishment awaits doctors who perform abortions for others.
“May the Buddha’s power shelter me!” I set forth riding on the white lotus flower.
“Amitabha!” I, Ayù, pressed my palms together in greeting to the Magistrate. Today I wish to ask the Magistrate about the karmic retribution for doctors who perform abortions for others.
The Magistrate replied, “Seventy years ago, physicians who performed abortions would be confined for 1000 years in each of the following hells: the Howling Hell, Sword Leaf Hell, Heart Piercing Hell, Ice Hell, and Eye Piercing Hell. They could not escape hellish torment until every harmed infant soul successfully attained human rebirth. The state of their spiritual recovery would then determine when they could be reborn as humans. Upon being reborn as humans, such doctors would have short lives and often fall ill. Common afflictions included numbness in the shoulders, neck, limbs and hands, nervous disorders, headaches, lower back soreness, epilepsy, chronic rhinitis, all manner of gynecological ailments, inability to consummate marriage, breast cancer, uterine cancer, nocturia, and countless other illnesses too many to list. In short, every agony the doctor had inflicted on infant souls would return to them as bodily suffering in their human reincarnation. No medicine in the human realm could cure these ailments; they would only fade once the corresponding karmic debt was erased. Such was the retribution for abortion doctors seventy years ago.
“Nowadays, abortion doctors in the mortal world suffer a depletion of blessings and lifespan in this lifetime. Their family fortune, career prospects and financial luck all diminish. The earliest symptoms they develop include headaches, lower back pain, shoulder pain and hand pain. After they pass away, they will first endure karmic punishment in the Shattering Hell for one hundred thousand years, and then undergo punishment in each of the aforementioned hells. Modern abortion practitioners take many lives every day. Furthermore, the surgical tools they use inflict greater harm and lasting trauma on infant spirits than those caused by older instruments, and hence the evil karma created by modern abortion doctors is heavier.