How to damn souls by abortion: An intercepted ‘Screwtape’ Email
[Editor’s note: In the following fictional letter, based on C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters, the author imagines the strategy demons use to ensnare souls through abortion.]
Note: The following TOP SECRET email from headquarters in the depths of hell was intercepted on its way to abortion centres in the English-speaking world.
From: Blood-Murder<[email protected]>
Subject: IMPORTANT: How to damn souls by abortion
Date: April 6, 2026 at 6:66 PM EDT
To: Snake-hiss <[email protected]>
My dear Snake-hiss,
Concerning your thoughts on Abortion, I note with grave displeasure the amateurish suggestions you brought to my attention in your last text about your patient’s pregnancy. Really, what do they teach young devils at school these days? I am afraid old Screwtape and Slubgob (1) have both filled your mind with inaccurate and outdated strategies.
Abortion, I must point out, is one of the surest ways of damning the mother's and father’s souls and destroying countless human relationships (which can result in further damnations). Every Abortion is also a delicious sacrifice to the most ancient of those here, who have an unquenchable thirst for human blood, especially of the innocent, that is shed in the name of “freedom” and “choice.”
Of course, such “freedom” and “choice” only bring death, just like what happened to the first human animals, Adam and Eve, when we tempted them in a similar way in the garden. Therefore, it is to our greatest benefit that we promote abortion as far and wide as we can.
When a woman conceives a child, it is in her nature to tenderly protect and nurture that new life within her (curse the Enemy for that stroke against us). However, in the last couple of hundred years or so, through our endless research in our sexual department, we have undermined motherhood and brought about a clever way (if I do say so myself) to get these human animals to sacrifice their offspring to us as they did of old at my beloved’s Baal’s altars. I’ll tell you briefly how it works.
You tell me this woman is young, and is frightened of being a single mother without the father’s support—that she is pursuing a career, and already doesn’t want this child? Perfect! When you talk to her, make sure you emphasize that she will only be a “mother” at birth. It doesn’t matter what she does with “her body” now. Make her believe that the “thing” inside of her is only a “clump of cells.” Tell her that it’s not alive and not growing. Get her to doubt that she is already a mother when the “thing” is less than the size of a pea.
Build on her fears, and present them in a worse light than they actually are. You will soon see how effective this is in twisting her mind and making her procure an abortion as early as possible.
Also important to note: when talking to your patient about her pregnancy, make very sure never to use the word “child” or “baby.” More than once, I have known these simple words to change a patient’s mind as she was about to kill her offspring. When talking with your patient, make sure you always use impersonal terminology such as “fetus,” “embryo,” “zygote,” etc. These terms dehumanize her offspring and build a wall against the new life in the woman’s mind.
From her youth, your patient’s mind has subconsciously been fed on phrases such as “bodily autonomy,” “woman’s choice,” “reproductive freedom,” etc. She’s been told that it’s “her body, her choice.” You must convince her that she can choose to do with it whatsoever she pleases, including killing her child—I beg your pardon, I mean “exercising her reproductive freedom.” You must convince her that her rights trump everyone else’s, and that nobody has the right to “use” her body.
Convince your patient that, as a woman, she has a “right” to abortion—even though we both know that no such right exists anywhere in human international law or human rights codes in a majority of Western countries.
If all else fails, fill her mind with doubts about her being a good mother. Tell her she is a failure and is incapable of doing anything worthwhile for her offspring. Focus on her faults, highlighting her selfishness, her overindulgence, and her problems with anger. Convince her that someone with these faults is in no place to raise a child—excuse me, a fetus.
Above all, do not let your patient emotionally connect with the new life. If she sees the child inside of her, she will see the detestable image of the Enemy in her child and will respond with—I hate to say this word—love and even hope for a future together. It may even escalate to her—may this never happen—reaching out to the Enemy for help. Because of this, DO NOT (I underline this) let her near an ultrasound machine or a machine that may let her hear the heartbeat.
I fear, though, that my advice is too late, since you told me a friend brought her to a Catholic priest (ugh, the very word makes me convulse) within the last week. I am highly displeased to hear how he reminded her of the Enemy’s words at that infamous Last Supper when he said, “This is My Body given for you.” If she takes these words to heart and gives herself to her baby in this way, all will be lost. Do you hear? LOST! This pathetic priest undoes so much of our work with this one little, but so powerful, phrase.
To drown out this inkling of the Enemy’s horrible Light coming into her soul, make sure your patient has her fill of sensual hit music, the most recent films that contain our messages, and fill her social media feeds with lots of mindless “cat” videos. All of these will distract her and blunt any truthful words that she has received from the priest.
You must work harder, my dear Snake-hiss, and prevent her from connecting with those who would steer her away from us, especially those detestable pro-life — I have to spit that word out — organizations.
If you fail me, I shall feast on you personally.
Your affectionate tutor,
BLOODMURDER
1. See C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters, 1942.