Protest the Protester

As I promised, here is my position on both choice and the clinic:

As I promised to do, I am writing this to clarify my position on choice. I believe the argument has been marketed with titles that are false. It is not an argument between being pro-choice and pro-life, one is either pro-choice or anti-choice. Pro-choice does not mean pro-abortion. That is just propaganda that the alleged pro-life movement has spread and far too many people swallowed hook, line, and sinker. Pro-choice simply means you believe a woman should be able to keep her right to choose what to do with her body.
I do not like the title of pro-life being used by people who have never made the choice to keep a child from an unplanned pregnancy, never adopted a child, never assisted a woman who has chosen life, and has never made a positively motivated effort toward life. These people are not pro-life, they are anti-choice.
I resent those that claim to be pro-life, but stand between a woman and birth control, therefore increasing unwanted pregnancies and increasing abortions; those that gossip about women who have chosen life; and those that have in any other way acted in a manner that would increase the likelihood that someone else would choose abortion. Actions speak louder than words and some of the actions I have seen are reprehensible. These people are not pro-life, they are pro-abortion.
To those adamant pro-lifers, that I have known since childhood, who were pro-life all the way to the doctor’s office and then were again adamant pro-lifers afterwards, I say you are hypocrites.
I was raised by devout Catholics that are self-proclaimed pro-lifers. I cannot remember an age in my childhood when our family vacation was not a Knights of Columbus convention, where we did not do some type of pro-life movement activity. I can remember the one rose, one life campaign and being the cute little kid my mother sent to ask for donations for the fake flower. I was a pawn for the pro-life movement from the time I was born. I remember a time when the pro-life movement had moved to a positive motivation and asked women to choose life. That campaign was something in which the movement could be proud.
The negative motivation of the 5’ grotesque photos endanger children and diminish the quality of life in South City and anywhere they are posted, no one should have to see that. The locals that are supporting this man give out a flier that states they don’t want a clinic near their school because it’s too close to children, but they support the use of those signs in public near the school. This campaign is reprehensible and the movement should be ashamed of themselves for supporting it.
Politically, I am pro-choice and my personal choice has been life.
I chose life. His name is John and he is 10 years old.
I have an adopted daughter, who came to me as a teen. She was an at-risk youth, raised in South City. She has had her own trials and tribulation to deal with over the years, but despite the choices she made while she was young, she has turned her life around and is a wonderful young woman. She is mine and I love her very much.
While my choice has been life, I have known women whose circumstances were not the same as mine and their choices were not the same either. I cannot fault a woman for choices that are different than mine, as I do not know her situation nor do I know what is in her heart. That is a matter between her and her maker. God gave us free-will. I want the alleged pro-lifers to tell me when God died and left them the authority to take that away.
So there you have my position on the subject of choice.

My opinion on the subject of Planned Parenthood on Grand Ave: We need it. I used Planned Parenthood when I was a teen as did my friends. There is no way I would’ve considered asking my gynecologist for birth control. He was also my mother’s gynecologist. Planned Parenthood explained sexual relations and the risks associated with it, both emotional and physical, and provided me with birth control.
This clinic will not be providing any services that are not available at Seton Center. There will be no surgical abortions. And for those that naively believe that doctors at Seton Center don’t write prescriptions for abortion pills, think again. Shortly after the “abortion pill” came to the US from France, back in the 80’s, I knew a girl who was raped in LA while on vacation. Her parents received that prescription for her a week later at Mary’s Help which is now named Seton. The current after the fact birth control is also available at most any pharmacy. The controversy over this clinic is strictly a dislike of the brand name Planned Parenthood by people who are unfamiliar of the breadth of services provided there, such as instruction in natural family planning and health services.
Point of fact, in the early 90’s, right after having my first son, I went to the natural family planning class at the local catholic church in Alabama, where my husband was stationed at the time. The nun told me to not rely on this method of contraception and to go get the pill, because the church was not going to pay to raise a baby I wasn’t ready to have. That was great advice and I pass that along to those that need to hear it.