The pope who would have been aborted

Staff Writer - October 2022

John Paul II’s mom chose life after her doctor advised an abortion.

Over one hundred years ago on May 18, Emilia Wojtyla gave birth to her second son, Karol, after a difficult and life-threatening pregnancy. The child would grow up to be St. John Paul II.

She had to choose between her own life and that of the baby she was carrying, but her deep faith did not allow Emilia to choose abortion. Deep in her heart, she had to be ready to make this sacrifice for the baby she was carrying.

Emilia Wojtyla was depressed by the insistence of her first doctor, Dr Jan Moskała, that she have an abortion.

Emilia and Karol Wojtyla made a bold decision that, regardless of everything, their conceived baby was to be born. And so they started looking for another doctor.

They ultimately chose Dr. Samuel Taub, a Jewish doctor from Krakow, who had moved to Wadowice after the First World War. The doctor confirmed that there was a risk of complications during childbirth, including Emilia's death. However, he did not suggest an abortion. Emilia had a bad pregnancy: she spent most of her time lying down. On the day of the birth, May 18, 1920, Emilia lay in her apartment in Kościelna street, in the living room … in the presence of a midwife.

At the same time Karol Sr. and their 13-year-old son Edmund had gone out around 5 p.m. to participate in the prayer of the Divine Office in the parish church across the street where they sang the Litany of Loreto. Emilia asked the midwife to open the window: she wanted the first sound her son could hear to be a song in honour of Mary. In short, Emilia Wojtyla gave birth to her son, listening to the song of the Litany of Loreto.

St. John Paul II also told his personal secretary Stanislaw Dziwisz that he was born to the litany in honor of the Mother of God, she said, adding that he was elected pope at the same time of day that he was born.

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