Key Upcoming Culture-of-Life Gatherings/Projects

On a related note:
Dateline NBC investigation on Internet sex predators
The full report will air on 'Dateline' on February 3, Friday, 9 p.m.
This is a 3rd in a series.  This segment concentrates on southern California.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9878187/



 

e-link Advocacy REPORTBACK

Web and e-mail-based Resources

Please visit the Californians Against Assisted Suicide web site

Californians Against Assisted Suicide (CAAS) was established to defeat legislation that would legalize assisted suicide in California.

CAAS is a coalition of health care, disability rights, and grassroots advocacy organizations united in strong opposition to the legalization of assisted suicide.

This web site will be a powerful tool in the struggle to protect human life... please visit and use this resource!
 

New Local/Regional Events and Gatherings 

If you are planning an event that falls within the mission of social ministry, send the particulars four to five weeks in advance to the Office for Social Ministry via e-mail, osmelink@diocese-sdiego.org.  The OSM reserves the right to publish or not to publish any proposed event information.  We hope this will assist your local efforts to re-build a culture of life.

1. Prayerful witness for life at two locations (Sixth and Palm in San Diego and Pomerado Road in Poway) in San Diego County

Each Saturday of the month:  20 decades of the Rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet are prayed at Family Planning Associates, Sixth and Palm, San Diego, 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m.  For more information, call 858-748-2109.
 
2nd Saturday of the month:  20 decades of the Rosary are prayed in procession past 4 clinics following the 7:30 a.m. Mass, 15546 Pomerado Road, Poway.  For more information, call 858-748-2109.

2. St. Dismas Guild sponsors two weekly hours of prayer for the unborn in North County

Join members of St. Dismas Guild for a rosary picket at Womancare, 120 S. Craven Way, San Marcos, (across from Cal State San Marcos), Tuesdays, 9-10 a.m.

The Guild also sponsors prayer (the rosary) in front of PayLess at Mission Avenue and Escondido Blvd. 347 W. Mission on Thursdays, 10:30-11:30 a.m.  For information on these prayer vigils, call 760-751-8541.
 

3. St. Rose of Lima sponsors a regular Thursday Pro-Life Prayer Vigil in Chula Vista

Please join St. Rose of Lima parishioners every Thursday after the 8 a.m. Mass at St. Rose of Lima, Chula Vista, for a pro-life prayer vigil at the clinic located at 261 Church Street, Chula Vista.   For more information, call Evangely Aliangan, 619-427-0230.

4. St. John the Evangelist Parish in Encinitas Pro-Life Mass and Rosary held on the first Monday of each month.

The first Monday of every month is designated Pro-Life Monday at St. John the Evangelist Church, 1001 Encinitas Blvd, Encinitas.  The 8:00 a.m. Mass will be followed by a Rosary for Life.  For more information, please call Helene McIlhon at 858-756-0622.

5. Most Precious Blood Parish Rosary Prayer Vigils held on Wednesdays and Saturdays each week

The Pro-Life Prayer Group from Most Precious Blood sponsors a Rosary Prayer Vigil in front of the Clinica Medica abortion facility at 1550 Broadway, Chula Vista every Wednesday and Saturday at 8:45 a.m.  For more information, please call Shirley Henry at 619-420-7096 or Luis Mendoza at 619-300-5563. 

Watch for OSM e-link bulletin #46 around Wednesday, February 22, 2006  
 

Article/Statement for January 27, 2006

This Article/Statement section almost always features opinion pieces or reflections on Church teaching.  In this issue, however, we highlight a journalist's report, from the New York Times no less.  I hope you enjoy what reporting is really all about, revealing the truth.  You will notice, however, a slight bit of bias against changing current law.


Some Abortion Foes Forgo Politics for Quiet Talk
January 16, 2006

By JOHN LELAND

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The eight women sat in a semicircle facing a wooden cross, reflecting on the abortions they said they had never gotten over.

Though they now opposed abortion, they criticized the demonstrators who protest outside clinics.

"They think they're helping these women," said Mendy Mason, 34, who described being suicidal and depressed after her abortion. For women like her, she said, the demonstrators only inflict more pain.

"The pro-life movement wants to demonize the mother and concentrate on protecting the innocent child," Ms. Mason said. "But you can't rip a baby from a woman's womb without ripping out her heart. My babies are in a much better place than I am."

The women in this Bible study, a postabortion recovery group, are far from the public battles over abortion laws and the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. But in their quiet way, they represent a dimension of the anti-abortion movement that is just as passionate and far-reaching, consisting not of protesters or political activists but of Christian therapy groups, crisis pregnancy centers, adoption ministries, and support programs for single mothers and their children.

"The media attention has all gone to the political wing," said James R. Kelly, a professor of sociology at Fordham University in New York who has written about the history of abortion in America. "But the first national organizations in the movement were not political; they were service groups that provided direct aid to women so they would not abort. These are low-key and hidden, but they were always there and had more volunteers than the political side."

The group here in Louisville - eight women gathered on a Saturday morning, each with her own box of tissues - suggests the breadth of this part of the movement. The group, called Free Indeed, is part of A Woman's Choice Resource Center, which says it has an annual budget of $900,000 and provides free ultrasound and other services, including counseling, diapers, baby clothes and adoption referrals, to more than 4,000 women a year.

Estimates of the number of such places, often called crisis pregnancy centers, range from 2,300 to 3,500 nationwide, compared with about 1,800 abortion providers.

A Woman's Choice is an offshoot of the largest church in Kentucky, Southeast Christian Church, an independent evangelical congregation with weekly attendance of 18,000 and an annual budget of $25 million. The center is a separate nonprofit corporation but was founded by the church and shares board members with it. The church started the center after deciding not to join the political fray with Operation Rescue, a confrontational anti-abortion group.

Over a two-day period at the center, the message to women was consistent: abortion was psychologically and physically damaging, and God would help provide for their children, however difficult the women's straits, and in the short term, the center would supply some necessities.

Nicole Embry, 21, said her boyfriend wanted her to have an abortion, but she was already having nightmares about it. A counselor, Theresa Skeeters, recorded her information on a clipboard. "The decision you make is going to affect your entire life," Mrs. Skeeters told Ms. Embry. "I know from experience from someone dear to my heart who made a choice for abortion, I know the pain she's going through, and I wouldn't wish that on anyone. I can testify, it doesn't go away."

Danielle, 18, said her boyfriend and her mother wanted her to have an abortion, but she did not want to. She said that if her boyfriend insisted, she might give in, although abortion was against her values. Danielle and several other women interviewed did not want their last names to be used for privacy reasons.

"How would you feel toward him if you did abort?" asked Hollie Colwick, a registered diagnostic medical sonographer, showing Danielle an ultrasound image of her uterus on a television screen, and playing the fetal heartbeat on an audio speaker. "Would you feel you killed your baby because of him?"

Along with the pregnancy center, Southeast Christian Church also maintains an extensive overseas adoption ministry that members consider part of the church's "pro-life" mission. "When you're taking children out of Ukraine, that's choosing life," said Kathy Drane, who started the Ukraine program after adopting a daughter from an orphanage there.

A Woman's Choice links the church to a national network of crisis pregnancy centers and postabortion groups that share marketing strategies, legal advice and literature emphasizing what they say are the harmful effects of abortion - including increased risk of breast cancer and a psychological condition called postabortion syndrome, which are considered scientifically unsupported by the National Cancer Institute and the American Psychological Association.

Like many crisis pregnancy centers, A Woman's Choice is designed to look and feel like a medical center, not a religion-based organization with an agenda. Becky Edmondson, the executive director, said the center chose the look and name to reach women who were bombarded with pressures to abort and might think they had no other choice.

If callers ask how much the center charges to perform an abortion, Lisa Arnold, a counselor and leader of the postabortion group, said: "I say, 'It changes, but why don't you come in for an ultrasound and we'll talk about it.' You don't want to deceive them, but you want a chance to talk to them." Once women come to the center, staff members - who oppose abortion even in cases involving rape and incest - encourage them to make further appointments, and refer them to doctors who share the center's views on abortion.

Anne Ahola, the counseling director of EMW Women's Surgical Center, the abortion provider across the street, dismissed A Woman's Choice as a "fake" health clinic that tricks women into coming in to have abortions then provides inaccurate information about abortion and about their pregnancies. Crisis pregnancy centers have long been criticized for such practices, and courts have limited the terms they can use to pitch their services.

Over two days, women came to A Woman's Choice with a variety of needs and interests. Some wanted the free diapers or maternity clothes. Some needed official confirmation of their pregnancy so they could receive state aid. A 20-year-old who asked not to be identified said she was not considering an abortion but wanted to see an ultrasound to help her accept her unwanted pregnancy.

Though the center has a medical doctor and nurse practitioner on staff, the main function of the free ultrasound sessions is persuasive, not diagnostic, said Dr. Bill Cutrer, the center's medical director. "The primary purpose is to show them that it's not a clump of tissues but a human being," Dr. Cutrer said.

Jessie, 18, came in with her mother after visiting Planned Parenthood, because they needed someone else to talk to. Jessie wanted to have the baby; her mother thought she was too young. On the ultrasound table, Mrs. Colwick did not mention abortion, but told Jessie, "Well, congratulations, this is super exciting." Jessie left with a bag containing a knit bonnet and blanket, an appointment to return and a referral to a doctor who works closely with the center. Like other visitors to the pregnancy center, she received a brochure for the postabortion group - "because we want them to know we're here for them, even if they decide to walk through those doors," Mrs. Edmondson said, referring to the surgical center.

For the postabortion group, Nov. 12 was the final day of a five-week program. Mrs. Arnold, who has a degree in pastoral counseling from Trinity Theological Seminary, an accredited online school, led the group in a memorial service for their unborn children, presenting each woman with a "certificate of life."

The women recited poems or letters to their unborn children and brought gifts for them, which the center will pass to others who chose to carry their pregnancies to term. Each took a turn at the lectern, addressing her aborted child by name.

"Dearest Travis, I know you have forgiven me for terminating your life," said Kathy, a business owner who cried as she placed a baby's baseball outfit under the cross, saying she bought it because she knew Travis would have been an athlete.

Surveys of postabortive women about their experiences have produced mixed and inconclusive results, allowing advocates on either side of the abortion issue to claim support for their view of whether abortion leaves regrets or psychological damage. Two analyses published in the same peer-reviewed medical journal, using the same data, came to opposite conclusions about whether women who have abortions suffer more depression than women who give birth after unwanted pregnancies.

Several women in the postabortion group said that they did not favor a ban on abortion, for fear of back-alley procedures, but said that women should have more information about abortion's psychological impact - perhaps a video of women like themselves. Seven of the eight women said they had considered suicide over their abortion.

Brooke, 30, said she had been raped twice and married four times, and only recently found stability in her life by acknowledging her responsibility to the children she chose not to bear. She addressed her unborn children as Scarlet and Jacob. "I can now allow myself to think of you and miss you," she said. "I no longer pretend that you don't exist."

Missy Reigel, 30, read from a text she had found in a Christian bookstore, written in the voice of an unborn child. "I was safe in my mother's womb, then a doctor found me and ripped me apart," Mrs. Reigel read.

She said she had gone to a secular therapist after her abortion, but he ascribed her problems to her alcoholism, not to the abortion. But Mrs. Reigel said she had not felt healed until she went through the postabortion program.

"I wanted to hold onto the grief because it was all that I had of my baby," she said. "This has healed me of a pain I didn't know was there."

[Last weekend, A Woman's Choice expanded its services, with a 7,200-square-foot, $600,000 community center for single mothers and children, with G.E.D. classes, an exercise center, a free clothing boutique and courses in parenting, anger management and home finances.]

For Mrs. Edmondson, the center's executive director, these services are as important to the anti-abortion movement as the political battles over abortion laws. "In the early days, I did the political thing a little bit, but that wasn't for me," she said. "We're concerned, we read, we vote, but we're busy taking care of the families that come in. When these girls hear protesters say, 'You're killing your baby,' they say, 'You're not thinking about me, it's just the baby.' Whether they abort or have their children, we love them."