This story is close to home

This story is quite close to home.   I lost my dad a couple of years ago to multiple system atrophy, a very severe form of Parkinson's disease that doesn't respond to the medication that Parkinson's disease normally responds to, and I've often had questions about the quality of care he was given near the end.

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"Love can be seen as the answer, but nobody bleeds for the dancer"--Ronnie James Dio (1942-2010)

Another Planned Parenthood worker becomes pro-life

It has just been reported in Live Action and Lifesitenews that another Planned Parenthood worker has crossed the lines into the pro-life movement.  Clinic manager Romona Trevino follows Abby Johnson and Jewels Green--and before them the late Dr. Nathanson--away from the death clinics into a culture of life.  Abby Johnson has stated that this may very well be the Achilles's heel for Planned Parenthood, which performed more than a quarter of all abortions from mid-2008 to mid-2009.

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"Love can be seen as the answer, but nobody bleeds for the dancer"--Ronnie James Dio (1942-2010)

No good deed goes unpunished.

File this one under "No good deed goes unpunished."

It has just been reported in Live Action that the Department of Justice is prosecuting a 79-year-old man who has saved nearly 350 babies from abortion through sidewalk counseling.  Ironically this could drive pro-life to a more extreme stance, and at this moment I'm wondering if that isn't the objective.

About ten years ago the pro-life pickets near San Diego area clinics involved holding graphic pictures of aborted babies.  A devout Christian named Sue Lopez changed this, insisting that vigils should take the form of quiet prayer, and that harassing the women was counterproductive. While her views on matters other than abortion were at odds with some of the pro-lifers I've come to know on Facebook, she was quite helpful in helping me get back into pro-life after far too long an absence. Whether it's the administration's intention or not, it's the legacy of Sue and others that's being threatened by its actions against Retta.

Life Report links to this entry.

An update--someone from Atheist/Agnostic Pro Life League has provided a link to a court document on this case.  If this is accurate, the man may have been harassing the women who went into the clinic.
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"Love can be seen as the answer, but nobody bleeds for the dancer"--Ronnie James Dio (1942-2010)

Today's Mother-of-Life conference

I managed to get to the Mother of Life Conference today.  They had a number of speakers, among them Alveda King, niece of slain civil-rights leader Martin Luther King.  I didn't attend any of the lectures, partly because the seats looked uncomfortable, partly because I didn't think I could stay for the whole day anyway.  I did see a number of booths from various pro-life groups there; it was like a giant version of the Del Mar fair booths.   Life Perspectives, the people I do the Life walk with, was there.    I'd gotten a sponsor pledge form the day before and was able to secure a few pledges from people I know there.  One of the people I ran into was Tim Houze, someone I knew from San Diego State's pro-life group more than thirty years ago.  He updated me on how others in the group were doing, and I got him to sign the pledge.  His wife had rheumatoid arthritis more than thirty years ago, and over the years has gotten worse, now apparently in a wheelchair.

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"Love can be seen as the answer, but nobody bleeds for the dancer"--Ronnie James Dio (1942-2010)

Abortion as birth control

In an earlier post I spoke of Russia's huge abortion rate, and how it tends to be used as a substitute for contraception when it's legalized.  Now there comes a report out of Minnesota that sixteen women there had their tenth or more abortion just last year.  That same report also shows that the number of abortions per live birth in black Americans is almost four times that in whites. It also showed that most of the women had used contraceptives in the past, but were not using them at the time of conception, and that the method most often used was the condom, followed by the Pill. 

The report also showed that the vast majority of abortions were done because women "don't want children at this time," followed by economic reasons.  Other studies have shown that women living below the poverty level are four times more likely to have abortions than those whose income is three times the poverty level. 

See also Wikipedia article on teenage pregnancy

Remembering a couple of pro-life leaders from many years ago.

Pro-life just lost a great supporter a few days ago, but many younger people may not remember him.  He was Mark Hatfield, a Republican senator from Oregon, who, unlike many pro-lifers and many Republicans, was a liberal on social issues such as war and programs to fight poverty.  Another liberal pro-lifer from his time period was Democratic senator Tom Eagleton, whom presidential candidate George McGovern dumped as his running mate in 1972.  Interestingly, while Hatfield was senator his state’s other senator was a conservative pro-choicer named Rob Packwood.

A couple of upcoming events

I drove down to Life Perspectives in La Mesa today to get some information on the Lifewalk kickoff brunch, which they serve while teaching us about LP's activities and the upcoming Lifewalk, scheduled at Point Loma for around the end of October.  I also drove down to USD,  where they will be having the Mother-of-Life Conference Aug. 13.