Dominik’s Blog

At the March for Life earlier today, we had the occasion to walk past the handful (no more than 10 or 20) of protesters. One of them held up a sign that read, “If you don’t like abortion, then don’t have one.” Another — ironically a man –held up a sign that read “My Body, My Choice”

I internally pondered on what would be an succinct reply, but nothing eloquent came to mind.

Just now, I was reading Theology of the Body Explained and came across this on page 182:

A Jewish proverb recounts the story of a man on a boat drilling a hole beneath his seat. When the man sitting next to him protests, he replies, “Why should you care what I’m doing? It’s under my seat.”

Parts of what follows may be paraphrased or directly quoted from the speakers present at the Blogs4Life Conference.

This was the first ever Blogs4Life Conference, squeezed into 2 hours between 9:30 and 11:30 in the morning, with a several speakers and a panel discussion lined up. It was hosted at the headquarters of the Family Research Council.

First up was Charmaine Yoest. She introduced the conference and spoke briefly of the rise of blogs, of how they are the “digital bucket brigade” of the 21^st century. In days now long gone by, if a fire broke out in town, citizens would band together and form a bucket brigade to put it out. Similarly, in the digital era, citizens band together online and spread news, information and memes, passing them around between one another.

As an example, she presented this poignant 911 call made from an abortion clinic:
Actual Audio (MP3)

Next, Kathryn Lopez spoke via telephone. She had originally been scheduled to attend, but had fallen ill with the flu and thus could only telecommute. She took a few questions:
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These are my notes from Jennifer O’Neill’s speech at the Cardinal O’Connor Conference. Parts are paraphrased or directly quoted from her words.

I had an abortion.

My autobiography, Surviving Myself, tells the story.

I wanted to tell the story of a life that looked so good on the outside and hurt so bad on the inside. I was at fifteen years old I was in Paris modeling for Vogue; I did over 30 movies and television shows. I had all the fame and fortune that that life could bring.

I almost died three times, I was shot. I had nine miscarriages along the way of having three children. I suffered from domestic violence, shock therapy. I had a lot of messy marriages.

I was looking for love in all the wrong places. My approach to relationships back then could be summed up in a sentence: “If you ever leave me, I’m going with you.”

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These are my notes from Jessica O’Connor-Petts’ speech at the Cardinal O’Connor Conference. Parts are paraphrased or directly quoted from her words.

Jessica recounted her tale of her own unplanned pregnancy, how she gave birth and gave up her son for open adoption. She told of how she is still in contact with her birth son and has spoken with him. She spoke of how Catholic charities helped her through both pregnancy and post-birth.

She then took questions from the audience on a wide variety of topics, including the careful emotional balance between the birth mother and the adoptive parents in the critical time after birth.

These are my notes from Mother Agnes’ speech at the Cardinal O’Connor Conference. Parts are paraphrased or directly quoted from her words.

Annie found herself pregnant and ended up staying the Sisters of Life. She made a deal with God, that she’d give Him a year of her life, but that she would want it back. She adjusted to the life in the convent, but then ran away. But afterwards, she returned, saying that “Here are people who love me.” When her delivery date came, she went to the hospital and gave birth. She declined to hold the child, generous to a fault, so that the adoptive mother would have that privilege.

Eight months later, she returned to the convent for the first year anniversary celebration. She told her story, recounting the tapestry of grace that she saw in her life. She said, “I have my life back, and it’s even better.” I tell you this story for it reveals much about God’s ways, and about the joys that one can find when one is faithful to grace.

Here in Washington, a common purpose draws us together. We have come to proclaim that every human life is sacred. We have come to witness to the Supreme Court, the Congress and the President that we will never be satisfied with the codification of abortion in our nation’s laws. Your presence today here suggests that you contest the Great Lie of the West: that there is no such thing as truth. We believe that there is truth, and that truth can be known, and that the Truth is a person, Jesus the Christ. This belief is simultaneously a summons; to fulfill the demands of this summons will require that we pioneer the last frontier: the interior life of the soul.

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The ACL conference is now over. It was the last one of its name, as the organization is now known as Students for Life of America. The conference, with almost 500 attendees from over 90 schools, can be deemd a success. It brought together students from all around the nation, united by the pro-life cause, and introduced them to each other. Perhaps most importantly, it urgently reminded them that they are not alone, that there are others who think akin, and others who feel passionately about these causes.

The fight continues. It will soon be 33 years since Roe v. Wade was decided, and we as a nation have, in some regard, made progress in undoing the damage caused. But our culture can be said to have fallen even further, as is evidenced by the rampant objectification of human life. And if our cause has strengthened, so too have our opponnents’ resolve. Yet evidence points to the fact the tide is turning; our generation is more pro-life than their parents, perhaps by virtue of the fact that we are survivors. This survivors perspective struck me as interesting; I had not hear it prior to attending. The story goes as such: our generation was the first that was born after Roe v. Wade, we were the first to have faced a threat to our very existence before our birth. Every other generation could rest secure that the State did not endorse its destruction in the womb, but not ours. We were under attack from the moment we were conceived, and it is only because of our parents’ resolve and love that we survived and made it out of the womb.

It is scary to consider the raw numbers of the situation. Forty million abortions. That means 40 million members of our generation were never given the chance to be born. I am reminded of the quote by Mother Teresa that the conference closed with:
“How can there be too many children? That is like saying there are too many flowers!”movie free adult clipmovies azamovie deep throatfree movies full pornmovie bum fightmuscle gay moviessex movies pureshot movies free cumhq movieslesbians moviescanyon tournament american winners casino andrewsmissouri casino hotel ameristarlouis casino st ameristar mocasino hote and aladdinstrategy wynn diamond 5 casinogambling casino account merchant internet offshorebank casino account card credit merchantalladin casino vegas Map

These are my notes from Marie Smith’s speech at the ACL Conference. Parts are paraphrased or directly quoted from her words.

True feminism is non-violent, non-discriminatory and seeks justice for all. Today, thirty-three years after Roe v. Wade, we survey over 40 million abortions. Truly, women deserve better.

The original feminists did not see children as the enemy. Lack of financial resources and emotional support are the reason women resort to abortion. Abortion is not a solution to these problems.

Abortion does not empower a woman. It does not give job skills or safe sanitary conditions for the healthy delivery for a baby.

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These are my notes from Dr. Michael New’s speech at the ACL Conference. Parts are paraphrased or directly quoted from his words.

The main objective of the pro-life movement should be to minimize the number of abortions happening in the United States.

Bill Clinton was not a pro-life President, why then did the abortion rate go down during his presidency? Does this mean that we should elect pro-abortion presidents in the hope the abortion rate will go down? No! Correlation is not causation. Instead, evidence suggests there was the strong economy and the election of pro-life representatives and senators, along with the pro-life judges appointed by Reagan and Bush.

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These are my notes from Paul Mulligan’s speech at the ACL Conference. Parts are paraphrased or directly quoted from his words.

Paul Mulligan is director of the Gabriel Project.

During his time in the Navy, he was stationed at Guam. There he found out that the island went on a yearly March for Life, but sadly that was all they did. There were three abortion clinics but not a single pregnancy care center. Working together with the local pro-life forces and his wife, he built a support network for pregnant women. He also adopted two girls, both of whom would have been aborted had it not been for the support network.

The fruit of abortion is nuclear war, said Mother Teresa. The best way to combat abortion is through prayer. It’s easy to be caught up in a cycle of doing, doing and forgetting about prayer. It’s necessary as a grounding point. The number of abortion reversals brought about by prayers in front of abortion clinics is rising; even if the abortion happens, in the recovery process the mother will know that even though she didn’t necessary love her unborn child at the time, members of the faithful were there, praying and loving; her child did not die alone.

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These are my notes from Ashley Horne’s speech at the ACL Conference. Parts are paraphrased or directly quoted from her words.

Every 24 seconds, an abortion happens.

There have been 1.3 million abortions in the United States; 50% of those are repeat abortions and 18% are third-time abortion. Planned Parenthood will undertake 180 abortions for every single adoption referral. One out of three women will have an abortion by the time they are 45.

Most of her talk concentrated on the efforts of the SBA List, both in identifying pro-life candidates and funding female pro-life candidates. Ms. Horne also covered current legislative issues in the 109^th Congress.