January 2005

In an update to the story about the funerals being conducted for the remains of aborted children.

The man lifted out a plastic bag about the size of a square box of tissues, opened it and poured the contents into the soil.

In an instant, the earth swallowed the ashes of fetal material that formerly was property of the Boulder Abortion Clinic.

More evidence of the comparison between slavery and abortion. Besides the use of language to change the status of a human being (fetal material) in this case the ashes are referred to directly as property.

…On Sunday, an altar server carrying a crucifix led a procession from the church to the cemetery. The ashes from Hern’s clinic were put at the foot of a white statue of Christ, along with seven smaller bags holding ashes from miscarriages given to the parish by a local hospital, LaVelle said.

Prayers were offered for aborted children, their parents and abortion providers "that by the power of God, they may be enlightened."

After some silence, the crowd sang "Amazing Grace."

…"To me, these are God’s children, and we are responsible for giving them the respect they deserve," said Bonnie Vanni, 52, a parishioner. "I’m not here to judge anyone. I want them to know God forgives them."

Outside the parish entrance, eight protesters held signs with messages such as "Don’t Exploit a Mother’s Tragedy" and "Respect Our Privacy."

Again there own rhetoric betrays them. Abortion supporters calling abortion a mother’s tragedy at least tells the truth that abortion is a tragedy. Usually the language for abortion support is stated as a choice and that the choice is neutral. If they say that one side of a choice is a tragedy then do they consider a child to be born a greater tragedy if it interferes with someone plan?

…But the practice has come under criticism from abortion- rights supporters who call it an invasion of privacy that causes more pain to Hern’s patients, many of whom undergo late-term abortions because their fetuses have potentially fatal disorders.

Now since many abortion supporter support abortion throughout the whole pregnancy then why bring up possibly fatal defects? They are not willing to reduce abortions to only these occasions so they bring this up only to obfuscate the situation. We all have more than just a potentially fatal disorder. We all will die at some point.

…State Rep. Debbie Stafford, R-Aurora, said she came to Sunday’s service because she was concerned the parish might be breaking a new state law requiring mortuaries to hold unclaimed human remains for one year before burying them.

"I’m pro-life and I respect life and I support what this group has done," said Stafford, a Protestant pastor. "I actually drove up here this morning to alert the folks here that they may be in violation (of the new law)."

She said she later learned, however, that a statute governing medical waste applies.

Hi my name is Johnny, what is yours? I usually go by "Medical waste", by my good friends call me "fetal material."

…Hern said Sunday his staff asked for Crist to return all ashes that had not been buried at the parish, but the mortuary retrieved just one box.

"They betrayed our trust again once more, in spite of all this controversy," said Hern, who did not disclose what would happen to the remains the clinic claimed.

Finally some good
news on the UN front for UNESCO with a new appointment to replace
Abortion zealot Bellamy

Veneman, at least from her comments at the press conference
introducing her in her new capacity, seems a breath of fresh air. Her comments
indicate a back
to
basics approach of concentrating on “issues that no child — no human
being — should have to confront: malnutrition and hunger, illiteracy and disease,
especially the scourge of HIV/AIDS, exploitation and suffering, wars and natural
disasters.”

When asked specifically about the
reproductive health (read abortion) agenda which has become a hallmark of
UNICEF under Bellamy, Veneman responded, “I
don’t come with any agenda with regard to those or any other social issues.
I come with an agenda of helping children, particularly in the areas of education
and health and to address the issues of hunger and malnutrition. I don’t believe
that these issues are relevant to the missions of UNICEF."

Another sign of hope to pro-life leaders, the incoming
UNICEF chief quoted Mother Teresa in her remarks. "The humanitarian, Mother Teresa, once said,
‘If you can’t feed 100 people, then feed just one. Never worry about numbers.
Help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest you,’" she
said.

We will just have to wait and see if UNICEF can return to its
original mission without the taint of support for abortion.

A reader sent me a link to this story from th Denver Post.

Special / Matthew Staver The Memorial Wall for the Unborn outside of Sacred Heart of Mary Church in Boulder honors the fetuses buried there since the late 1990s. The Boulder Abortion Clinic didn’t know the parish had been getting the ashes until the church announced a Sunday burial service.

A Boulder Roman Catholic church’s plan to bury the remains of fetuses from a local abortion clinic was assailed Thursday by the clinic’s director, who called it "a cynical exploitation of private grief for political purposes" by the Catholic Church and the mortuary that gave the ashes to the parish.

Dr. Warren Hern, director of the Boulder Abortion Clinic, issued a scathing statement in response to Sacred Heart of Mary Church’s announcement that it would stage a ceremony Sunday morning to bury the ashes of what Hern describes as surgical tissue from abortions and what the church describes as babies. The event marks the 32nd anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.

…A state health official said the arrangement between the church and Crist Mortuary doesn’t violate state laws.

The mortuary, which says it has an agreement to retrieve the tissue from the abortion clinic and cremate it, has been delivering the ashes to the parish without Hern’s knowledge since 2001.

The mortuary director, Chuck Myers, provided the same service from 1996 to 1998 when he directed a funeral home in Lafayette, said Susan LaVelle, a parish volunteer long involved in the practice. The church has quietly been burying the ashes in front of a red granite "Memorial Wall for the Unborn" in its cemetery.

In his statement, Hern said, "I am appalled that the Catholic Church again has shown its willingness to exploit the private grief and pain of women seeking legal abortions in order to advance its political goals."

More schizophrenia from abortion supporters. They said the ashes were "surgical tissue." Why would anyone grieve over "surgical tissue?" Why would you have "surgical tissue" cremated in the first place? This just shows that even their own beliefs and rhetoric are not one, though in this case at least I am glad their hypocrisy leads to some form of care for the remains of the unborn. They might be appalled at what the Church is doing, but it is much more appalling that they would ignore the private grief and pain of women and then profit by the abortions they perform.

"I do think this is right," she said. "What was going to happen to those ashes if we didn’t pick them up? Would they be thrown away? I hope my words would never harm someone. My message is one of healing."

Sergio Gutierrez, spokesman for the Denver archdiocese, said the burial at Sacred Heart "is something the parish is doing to honor the dignity of these children."

"Anything that does that, obviously we support," he said.

Update: Dale Price takes at the same story with his unique and brilliant style.

Dawn Eden also looks at the mixed messages and the semantics used.

In an article about a March for Life in San Francisco.

"We couldn’t believe that they had the nerve to come to San Francisco," said Dian Harrison, president of the Golden Gate chapter of Planned Parenthood. "They’ve been so emboldened that they believe that their message would be tolerated here. Sure, they can come here, but San Francisco will be ready to show them that they don’t believe in their message."

The pure arrogance of this statement is amazing even by Planned Parenthood’s standards. The nerve to come to San Francisco as if a whole city if off limits to those who oppose abortion. Saying that their message [pro-life] won’t be tolerated here. So much for the tolerance of the left.

"People are a little shook up that their (abortion rights) are being questioned," said San Francisco Supervisor Tom Ammiano, who is scheduled to speak at the counterprotest. "In many ways, this shows how the religious right is arrogant and secure with the messages they’re hearing that this federal government is behind them."

We have been marching year after year since Roe v. Wade in and out of season. Whether the powers to be were for us or against us. I don’t think I have heard one pro-life person say "If Bush is with us, who can be against us." While it is nice to have a President sympathetic to the pro-life message, most marchers would be there anyway. I really wish the monolithic Federal Government was as firmly behind the pro-life movement as pro-abortion supporters say it is.

And of course what editorial disguised as a story would fail to include a quote from Francis Kissling from Catholics for a Free Choice.

"The abortion debate is so stale and so polarized," Kissling said. "And besides, demonstrations are not the place for a nuanced argument."

Of course CFFC participated in the March for Women’s Lives pro-abortion march in Washington D.C. and then held a rally the next day in front of the Vatican embassy . I guess only their demonstrations set forth a nuanced argument.

This is one very nuanced argument from CFFC.

And it is really hard to argue with this nuanced argument from the same march.