41 Years of Roe v. Wade

- JD

That Awkward Moment When An Abortion Clinic's Website Has Malware

My other favorite abortion provider seems to have a malware problem for their website...

Kind of awkward.

Give me safe, legal websites! I don't want a clump of malware!

Thank you Google Chrome for keeping me safe.

You just got Obamacare'd!
- JD

Because of Eli

A little over a month ago, I blogged about this Catholic Answer's radio show featuring Chad Judice as the guest. If you recall, his son, Eli, was diagnosed with spina bifida and wasn't expected to live or have good quality of life. As I heard Chad talk about this story regarding on his son on the radio, I was inspired to hopefully read Chad's books regarding Eli someday.

Well, I didn't mention it after I had written that blog post, but literally the following week I found out my parish's Respect Life Committee would be hosting Chad Judice at our parish in the month of November to kick off their new series of events entitled, "Fridays for Life", where they will invite someone every quarter to talk about pro-lifey things. Like, I had no idea that they were planning on inviting him! So when I found out he would be coming to my parish to come speak, I couldn't pass up that opportunity. 

And that happened the other day!

What did he talk about?

Even though I had heard the basic gist of Eli's story via that radio show and a little bit from Chad's EWTN appearance on The World Over, it was definitely more gripping to listen to him speak in person. He shared with us the state of his life prior to Eli and how normal it was. He's a history teacher and coach, and one time one of his students asked Chad before he got married what his greatest fear was, and he answered with having a child with special needs. Before Eli, Chad's faith was meh.

After giving us this background, he began to recount the process of how he and his wife found out about Eli's condition with spina bifida. Their doctor recommended abortion and for a moment, she considered it. But something stirred within them to decide to keep the baby.

The parts of the entirety of the story that stood out to me were those seemingly miraculous (or coincidental) moments. Chad teaches at a Catholic high school, and it was miraculous to him that hundreds of teenagers genuinely prayed for Eli's healing. This was miraculous to him because our culture today doesn't make it conducive for the average teenager to care about this sort of thing, AND the fact that they prayed showed him that they acknowledged that Eli is in fact a human being in his mother's womb and not just a clump of cells with deformities.

What I also found quite interesting is how the Daily or Sunday Gospel readings over the course of this process seem to fit soooooo well with whatever Chad was dealing with at the time. He shared with us those readings that were cause of hope and inspiration for him at major milestones throughout this process.

Chad also detailed how his life of prayer increased in dealing with all the emotional and spiritual challenges in accepting the fact that his son isn't going to live a normal life. He provided more seemingly miraculous moments when praying at the grave of Charlene Richard, who is on her way to beatification. Chad and his wife went to a "healing priest". His wife received a rose after praying a novena for St. Therese of Lisieux's intercession, which for every knowledgeable Catholic, that's a real deal. And he listed many more instances of how God seemed to have offered him and his wife consolations in their decision to have Eli, but not without challenges.

Eli was born in 2009. Despite spinal and neuro problems from his condition, he's doing pretty good. He cannot walk. He cannot go to the bathroom on his own--someone else has to manually empty his bladder or induce a bowel movement. He's on medications to prevent epilepsy and urinary tract infection. He loves to swim. He loves baseball. He's pretty cognitive despite brain problems. He's in pre-3K. It takes full effort from everyone around him to take care of him. Chad mentioned that his in-laws and his own parents are pretty involved in taking care of him and are on rotation for weekends.

How did this affect me?

I think spent 75% of the time reminding myself not to cry. In my head, I kept saying to myself "Don't cry don't cry don't cry don't cry don't cry!" I guess I was just moved by Chad's inner strength at dealing with all this because I realized that if I were in his shoes, I don't think I could handle it. But that's where his story is inspiring. Chad couldn't handle all this on his own. He realized he had to surrender to God's will, and in doing so, he found the strength to endure this. He also realized that he can longer live for himself. That whole idea of agape love (self-sacrificial love) made manifest in caring for Eli, because without the love and care of others, he would die. But to care for him demands so much time and effort, even if it's inconvenient or unpleasant. Chad said, "love isn't about feelings--it's a decision." And I see in the Judice's lives that self-sacrificial decision to will the good of each other and the good of Eli, which is authentic, profound love. Inspiring!

But yeah, I began to start reflecting on my own prayer life and thinking about my own inner strength while listening to Chad's story. I realized that I have a lot to improve on. Haha sometimes I feel like I'm too Catholic in a group of Catholics, but I'm glad that I had the opportunity to listen to Chad to help me realize that I'm not Catholic enough...that I'm not trusting enough of God's will for my life.

After his talk and taking some questions, I definitely went and bought his two books. The first one, Waiting for Eli, is the story about Eli. The second one, Eli's Reach, is about other people whose lives were affected by learning about Eli's story. Like, seriously--stories of conversion and hope because they've read Chad's first book. He gave us a preview at the end of the talk (ie. shameless plug, but that's understandable). Fascinating! I hope to start these books sometime after I finish some of the current books I'm currently reading!

Anyway, what a cool opportunity to hear him speak. Please pray for him and his family, especially for Eli!

You can follow Chad Judice at www.chadjudice.com, which has links to his social medias and books.

We need stories of hope and inspiration, and be reminded that there's only so much we can do and control. The rest is up to God. And I'm glad I had the opportunity to hear Chad tell this story in person.

Because of Eli.

- JD

Daddy-Daughter Time

I was just standing there outside, and it was really hot. It was really hard to focus. But out of the corner of my eye, I saw him, his wife, and a stroller.

Double-take.

Whoa! It was one of my co-workers! I didn't expect him to be out here with me considering our company is like...80 miles away...from where we were standing and he lives halfway to work compared to me.  I didn't immediately go over to say hi to him because we weren't done yet, but I kept watch from a short distance away.

During this time, I would look over his way and and every now and then, he'd check on his daughter in the stroller.  And what really struck me about this was seeing his face light up with such joy peeking in on the stroller seeing his daughter. Like, full on "play with baby" mode. Like, he even playfully dangled his Rosary for his daughter. Meanwhile, his wife was standing there deep in prayer.

I don't know. I thought that was really cool to see these moments of joy between a father being with his daughter. I just really appreciated seeing this scene standing out there in the heat.

After we all finished praying the full Rosary, I went over to say hi. He introduced me to his beautiful wife and just as beautiful and adorably cute daughter. Apparently today was his first time being out here!

Well, well. Being pro-life unites us all.

We were praying at an abortion clinic. Turns out his wife is hardcore for the pro-life cause and frequently helps out at a familiar pregnancy center in the city that they live in.

And ...how...interesting is to see this love that a father has for his baby daughter in front of an abortion clinic.

Awesome! What a marvelous witness that is to see this happen at a place that doesn't make it conducive to see the love a father has for his daughter. I saw a couple walk in and thought to myself that if they are considering an abortion, and go through with it, he'd be missing out on moments like this.

But! Praise God for randomly seeing one of my co-workers in this way at this place. Beautiful.
- JD

Dad and Daughter // Baltimore Times

Being Patriotic

From everyone's favorite brand-name in all things women's health:

from @PPAct

Yes, because the proper care of our citizens is totally American! And patriotic! :-)

Oh oh wait! Supporting women's health is patriotic.

Perhaps patriotism, according to PP, is wide-access to women's health so that its clinics can make lots and lots of money off of women's need for birth control and abortion and use that money to promote more and more birth control and abortion because women need even more birth control and abortion to pay PP to give them those services. Because those things are healthy for women.  And let's not forget that PP offers a wide variety of other women's health services (but not mammograms) And these things must be supported by everyone lest they be chastised for being totally un-American! Because anti-women's health is NOT patriotic!

If supporting women's health is patriotic, what does actual women's health fall under? Is that patriotic? What does actual women's health even look like?

Women's health ought to be the services necessary to make women truly healthy via medical professionals or properly self-informed women bringing about their total well-being and dignity without compromising other aspects of their health. Right? I mean, it's not entirely far-fetched that this is what actual women's health should be?  This might get awkward because I think this gets more into a Catholic definition and understanding of what women's health is.  And heaven forbid...Catholicness is NOT patriotic. In the meantime, let poor Catholic women do totally unpatriotic things because they're Catholic.

Anyway, supporting women's health is patriotic.  Actual women's health is probably not patriotic. Because it tends towards Catholicism.

It is more patriotic to support women's health through delaying pro-life legislation via filibuster even though such legislation would make clinics who offer abortion services and doctors safer for women so as not to have a repeat Gosnell.

from CNN.com

It is more patriotic to support women's health by making signs...especially signs that place more priority on women now than future women (who, by some miracle of science...start out as embryos and grow into fetuses...but they aren't really women, so it's okay to kill them, apparently).

from LifeNews.com

It is more patriotic to support women's health by yelling and screaming at others...and yes, even utter "Hail Satan!" at the camera.

To be truly patriotic is to express one's undying love and devotion to one's country with vigor.  So much so that we should almost be willing to die for our country. But this is America! Since we like convenience and the pursuit of only happiness, we must give up the lives of future generations (and future women) so that we can live as we wish because future generations are too burdensome and sometimes unwanted.  All in the name of women's health! Because supporting women's health is patriotic!

//endsatire

So, it's been an interesting week in Texas.  I think PP is quite on the defensive because things aren't working out in their favor.  I see that they've been tweeting about other pro-life legislation going on around the country and their opposition to it (or least you can infer). They have to resort to calling the support of women's health as patriotic in order to garner support while patriotic emotions are running high this 4th of July.  As they celebrate having hundreds of PP supporters at various capitols, I can't help but remember the half million of pro-life supporters that no one talks about.

Don't get me wrong...patriotism is a good thing! Women's health is a good thing! But...striving for these two very good things doesn't mean that we compromise the dignity of our country and woman.  This past week got ugly.

-raises glass-  But! Despite all her faults and blemishes, she still has beautiful spacious skies from sea to shining sea! I'm still proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free enough.  To the United States! Happy birthday!

Faith. Hope. Love.
Life. Liberty. Pursuit of happiness.
- JD

3 Happenings Regarding Abortion

Apparently this past week has been pretty active in terms of important things going on pertaining to abortion. Or maybe it just comes up a lot on Catholic radio...and blogs...which I listen to and follow...

First, the horrific.

Kermit The Abortionist
"Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 72, is charged with seven counts of first-degree murder as well as multiple counts of conspiracy, criminal solicitation and violation of a state law that forbids abortions after the 24th week of pregnancy." (NY Times).  He recently came under fire because a pregnant woman died from a medicinal drug overdose administered by him.  Worst of all, these seven counts of first-degree murder is for allegedly "snipping" the necks and spinal cords of viable fetuses (ie. babies).

It doesn't take much Googling or Binging to come up with news coverage...but...it's not getting much mass media coverage, if at all.  I find this interesting because we're American--we immediately react and passionately spread word about the injustices happening in our country, especially if it's about rape and/or marriage.

Unless of course...it has anything to do with abortion.

Let's pray for the conversion of his soul and for all involved.

Here are some articles:
Abortion Doctor's Murder Trial Opens - NY Times
Abortion doctor on trial, but media not interested; pro-lifers see bias in Philadelphia case - WA Times

'Fetuses and blood all over the place': Medic's graphic account of 'be-heading live babies' at abortion 'House of Horrors' in Philadelphia - Daily Mail (UK)

Gosnell employee recants ‘guilty’ plea during tearful, gruesome testimony - LifeSite News

Planned Parenthood Lobbyist

There's a video floating around (viral, maybe?) of Florida legislators asking questions of a Planned Parenthood lobbyist.  Essentially, she speaks on behalf of Planned Parenthood stating that a baby born alive from a botched abortion ...well, it's still the mother's choice whether that baby gets medical attention or not.

See for yourself:

She seemed to be thrown off guard...lacking full confidence...

But still...are you kidding me? It's cool to just leave that baby there on the table left to die? :-(

Ms. Alisa Lapolt Snow apparently served on a board for Catholic Charities before Planned Parenthood.  Umm...clearly she is out of communion with the Catholic Church if she is publicly not-really-defending life and advocating for abortion through her actions.

I think she needs a green scapular.  And let us offer our prayers for her conversion as well.

Lastly...

And Then There Were None

Abby Johnson, author of Unplanned and fellow Aggie, started a ministry last year to help abortion clinic workers get out of the abortion industry.  In the past year, her ministry has helped 45 workers leave.

This past Monday was their Day of Exodus for 2013, a designated day whereby abortion clinic workers desiring to leave were encouraged to do so.  In the weeks prior, ATTWN hit up a bunch of abortion clinics in the country to spread word about Day of Exodus.

This is an intriguing concept to me...helping abortion clinic workers get out of the industry by providing the spiritual and material help and support they need to get out.  It is no surprise, because that is exactly how the Coalition of Life helped out Abby.

Let us also pray for Abby and her ministry...especially for abortion clinic workers and their conversion of heart towards a culture of life. 

- JD