Concerning contraceptive mentality

I recently attended the closing prayer vigil for the 40 Days for Life campaign in La Mesa, and there was a reception afterwards at a friend's house.  There was talk about how today's contraceptive mentality has paradoxically contributed to the abortion tragedy.  This may or may not be the case, but focusing on this concern can alienate those who see abortion as the taking of a human life, but happen to use birth control methods as part of their sex lives.  There has been concern about whether some contraceptive methods can be abortive at times, which I've discussed elsewhere in my blog.

40 minutes for Life, plus other things.

I took part in the 40 minutes for Life vigil at the Planned Parenthood clinic at the corner of Twin Oaks and Craven in San Marcos.  It just happens to be across the street from San Marcos State University.  I had to leave early, but I'll try to stay longer next time.  This activity was inspired by the 40 Days for Life vigils that take place twice a year, and takes place the last Sunday of the month.

This has been a rotten month.  On May 2, our cat was unexpectedly run over.  It was in a mobile home park, not the busy street.   A week later, my mom succumbed to angiosarcoma, which was drowning her lungs with fluid.  After we took her home from the hospital we had hospice care set up for her at home, where the hospice nurse had my sister Elizabeth give her the pain and sedative medications.  That was very hard on Elizabeth, and she was wondering if she was doing the right thing.  I asked on a Facebook support group for rare diseases if it was normal in hospice for the nurse to have the family members give these medications.  Someone on that group replied that it wasn't, but things developed too quickly for that answer to do any good.  My mom died the next day.  We had the funeral at St. Kieran's Church on the 18th, and a get-together afterwards.  We'll be having a private ceremony in a couple weeks where we'll place her ashes next to my dad's.

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"Love can be seen as the answer, but nobody bleeds for the dancer"--Ronnie James Dio (July 10, 1942 – May 16, 2010)

Some news

Mom will see her doctor tomorrow morning because she had some bleeding from her breast.   She has had a rare form of angiosarcoma that sometimes affects women with a history of breast cancer.   We were going to take her to the emergency room, but my sister Elizabeth cleaned her up and found the bleeding didn't seem as extensive as we first thought, so she'll be seeing her doctor in the morning around 8.  I'll try to keep everyone posted.
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"Love can be seen as the answer, but nobody bleeds for the dancer"--Ronnie James Dio (July 10, 1942 – May 16, 2010)

More on the need for pro-life unity

I attended the 40th anniversary for Roe v. Wade vigil at the corner of Grape and Harbor again this year. There weren’t quite as many people as there have been the past few years, possibly because there was a Walk for Life a few days earlier, which I unfortunately didn’t feel I could attend. As usual, people driving by honked, in some cases as a show of support, others as hostility. We had a few people screaming “pro-choice” and from one car they shouted obscenities.

This makes it all the more reprehensible when pro-lifers belittle one of their own, but this has happened, and both liberal and conservative pro-lifers are guilty of this.

In an earlier post I mentioned having run into a couple of friends, Sue and Tim House. They were at this rally, and I thought I saw someone else there, someone who treated me rather badly many years ago. (at the time, it didn't help that I'd just read literature that the Pill might be abortive.)  There were others like her, and I eventually left pro-life for a few years because of people like that. For better or worse during my absence the movement became much more reactionary.

Re: Protest Event Thursday evening

We took part in a vigil to protest Planned Parenthood's 49^th annual fundraising dinner at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel on Park and Harbor Drive by the bay.  There were a bit more people this time than the last time I was there (though not as many as had been at the "Cocktails for Choice" dinner near 30^th and Upas).  Roger Lopez, Pat Hansen, and Elena di Ventra were there along with about forty others.  Sue and Tim Houze, who I knew years ago, were there, I'd last run into them at USD a few months ago.  We held up a lot of the graphic signs.  One of my favorite signs is the "Abortion Kills Children" sign, which has no pictures.  Here's an interesting picture I saw on Facebook. 

Mom will be getting back the results of her biopsy next Monday to see if her angiosarcoma has returned.  They had earlier checked for masses with ultrasound, but they still want to do this.

In the news, Chinese human rights activist Chen Guangcheng has told the Associated Press that his situation is dangerous and American officials and friends have been blocked from seeing him, and even beaten up when they tried to visit him.  Chen is the blind activist who has called attention to China's forced abortion policy, where pregnant women who already have a child are arrested, restrained, and forced to undergo mandatory abortions, regardless of how far along they are. I wonder if we shouldn't go back to calling that country "Red China".

The screening of "October Baby"

I attended a screening of October Baby at USD earlier tonight.  Sarah Rigby, one of the actresses in the movie, told us about her role in the movie and an abortion she had years ago.  Claire Culwell, a woman who survived an abortion attempt, also spoke.  Unfortunately I felt I had to leave because I was getting kind of tired, and I had to drive back to El Cajon at night.

Mom was at the doctor having some of her old surgery wounds cleared up (seems like she's always doing that).  She'll have a biopsy done soon to see if there's a recurrence of her angiosarcoma.  Earlier an ultrasound hadn't detected anything unusual, but they're doing this procedure to further check on things.

Some news items: Westchester legislators are considering creating a 25-foot buffer zone around clinics.

 In Boise, Idaho a crisis pregnancy clinic is operating right next to a Planned Parenthood clinic.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health has ordered closed two abortion facilities that had a history of public safety violations.

LifeNews has posted an editorial about sex-selection abortions.

The 40 Days for Life Closing Ceremony

I attended the closing ceremony for the 40 Days for Life program.  Roger Lopez and Gene Villinski ran the ceremony along with Vicki Whitmire, Trippy Seelig, and Bishop Flores.  I also saw Elena di Ventra and Timmerie Millington, both of whom have worked on the project in the past.  Timmerie has a few blogs on pro-life activities.  I also saw Pat Hansen, Barbara Sheddy, and a few others from the vigils.  A post-abortive woman from Silent No More spoke of how many women aren't able to forgive themselves after an abortion; it hits close to home, but not for the reason the reader might think.  When I was younger my dad and I were close, but as we grew older a number of things went terribly wrong.  Now my mom has had a recurrence of angiosarcoma; they may know in April whether the gleevec has helped.

The next pro-life activity will be the Pro-Life Stations of the Cross, which I also did last year.

Other news:  Planned Parenthood is building a $6.5 million facility in Fort Worth, Texas.  A contractor walked out after learning the project was for a Planned Parenthood building.

A Florida dad relates that he wanted his then-girlfriend to have an abortion in 1964 when he was 19, and now thanks his lucky stars that it was illegal at the time.

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"Love can be seen as the answer, but nobody bleeds for the dancer"--Ronnie James Dio (July 10, 1942 – May 16, 2010)