Everyone reading this newspaper escaped death by abortion. The question is, will we escape death by euthanasia? As the killing of unborn children becomes acceptable in so many "advanced" cultures, the pressure to take the lives of the elderly, or injured, or very ill, or the simply inconvenient (in terms of effort and money required to assist their daily living) grows. Once the right to life is violated in its beginning, it is only logical that the right to life will be violated towards its end. Put another way, if you can kill people when they are very young, why can't you kill them when they are very old? This dynamic is already present in the Netherlands, where citizens who don't want to be killed when they are in the hospital can hire individuals to help protect them from hospital staff.
When we protect the lives of the unborn, we protect everyone's lives-including our own. Let us build a culture of life, where everyone's life is respected from conception to natural death.
Rudy Poglitsh
rpoglitsh@live.com
more letters at http://letterstotheTOS.blogspot.com
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Monday, January 23, 2012
Abortion and Coercion
"I don’t think women make these [abortion] decisions casually. I think they — they wrestle with these things in profound ways, in consultation with their pastors or their spouses or their doctors or their family members."
These are the words of a USA presidential hopeful during his election campaign in 2008. This man was half right; many women deliberate seriously about having an abortion. But far too often, the individuals closest to these internally-conflicted women do not offer supportive consultation.
One would hope and expect that the facilities performing abortions-ultimately the most important people in a woman's decision to abort-would sympathetically and supportively consult with such women in this life-changing decision. Former abortion clinic employees report that they do not. From Catherine Anthony Adair: "In 1997, I began working at a Boston Planned Parenthood clinic as a young, idealistic college student who strongly believed in what I had been told about the organization, that I would be helping other young women access safe and affordable health care. My time there was not spent providing prenatal care to pregnant women, providing counseling or basic health care services or educating women about reproductive health. Instead, I spent my days urging women to terminate their pregnancies. My superiors constantly reminded me of our abortion-centered business model: abortion first, everything else came second. I began to recognize their emphasis on performing abortions each time a woman would express concern or have second thoughts about having an abortion. When I notified management, though, they told me not to worry and encourage her decision to move ahead with the procedure." Adair continues: "In fact, clinic workers would purposefully avoid providing information on fetal development, what the child looked like, the child's anatomical development and the pain he or she could feel...There is no counseling, no care, no waiting and no discussion. Once a pregnancy is confirmed, it is off to termination."
Says Carol Everett, once an owner of several abortion clinics: "I'm sure you're seen those [telephone] numbers advertised which say 'Problem Pregnancy' , 'Abortion Information', or 'Pregnant'? When a young girl finds out she is pregnant, she may not want an abortion, she may just want information. But when she calls that number that's paid for by abortion money, what kind of information do you think she's going to get? Remember, they sell abortions. They don't sell keeping the baby. They don't sell giving the baby up [for adoption]. They don't sell delivering the baby in any form. They only sell abortions."
Laurel Guymer, former abortion clinic worker from Australia, recalls co-workers telling her "this is a business" when Guymer tried to help women who changed their mind and didn't want the abortion: "What if they said 'no' when entering the operating room? In this instance I felt compelled to reassure them that they don't have to go through with it and walked them back to the changing room. This was not welcomed by my colleagues at the clinic. I was reminded that this is a business and that any slowing in the production line costs money."
The clinics directly responsible for performing abortions would, hopefully, take a woman's abortion decision so seriously that they would help these women "wrestle with it in profound ways". Instead, the clinics see abortions as a money maker, and the more money (and abortions) the better. We have every reason to believe that, should abortion become as acceptable in Swaziland as it is in so-called advanced western countries, women here will suffer the same strong pressures to abort.
Women already confused and uncertain about their next step due to unexpected pregnancies should not suffer pressure to abort, yet widespread legalized abortion will bring such pressure. The solution? Save sex for marriage, keep sex in marriage only, and parents cherish and protect the natural result of their marital embrace. In this way we build a culture of life and love. No to abortion; yes to love and life.
Rudy Poglitsh
rpoglitsh@live.com
more letters at http://letterstotheTOS.blogspot.com
These are the words of a USA presidential hopeful during his election campaign in 2008. This man was half right; many women deliberate seriously about having an abortion. But far too often, the individuals closest to these internally-conflicted women do not offer supportive consultation.
One would hope and expect that the facilities performing abortions-ultimately the most important people in a woman's decision to abort-would sympathetically and supportively consult with such women in this life-changing decision. Former abortion clinic employees report that they do not. From Catherine Anthony Adair: "In 1997, I began working at a Boston Planned Parenthood clinic as a young, idealistic college student who strongly believed in what I had been told about the organization, that I would be helping other young women access safe and affordable health care. My time there was not spent providing prenatal care to pregnant women, providing counseling or basic health care services or educating women about reproductive health. Instead, I spent my days urging women to terminate their pregnancies. My superiors constantly reminded me of our abortion-centered business model: abortion first, everything else came second. I began to recognize their emphasis on performing abortions each time a woman would express concern or have second thoughts about having an abortion. When I notified management, though, they told me not to worry and encourage her decision to move ahead with the procedure." Adair continues: "In fact, clinic workers would purposefully avoid providing information on fetal development, what the child looked like, the child's anatomical development and the pain he or she could feel...There is no counseling, no care, no waiting and no discussion. Once a pregnancy is confirmed, it is off to termination."
Says Carol Everett, once an owner of several abortion clinics: "I'm sure you're seen those [telephone] numbers advertised which say 'Problem Pregnancy' , 'Abortion Information', or 'Pregnant'? When a young girl finds out she is pregnant, she may not want an abortion, she may just want information. But when she calls that number that's paid for by abortion money, what kind of information do you think she's going to get? Remember, they sell abortions. They don't sell keeping the baby. They don't sell giving the baby up [for adoption]. They don't sell delivering the baby in any form. They only sell abortions."
Laurel Guymer, former abortion clinic worker from Australia, recalls co-workers telling her "this is a business" when Guymer tried to help women who changed their mind and didn't want the abortion: "What if they said 'no' when entering the operating room? In this instance I felt compelled to reassure them that they don't have to go through with it and walked them back to the changing room. This was not welcomed by my colleagues at the clinic. I was reminded that this is a business and that any slowing in the production line costs money."
The clinics directly responsible for performing abortions would, hopefully, take a woman's abortion decision so seriously that they would help these women "wrestle with it in profound ways". Instead, the clinics see abortions as a money maker, and the more money (and abortions) the better. We have every reason to believe that, should abortion become as acceptable in Swaziland as it is in so-called advanced western countries, women here will suffer the same strong pressures to abort.
Women already confused and uncertain about their next step due to unexpected pregnancies should not suffer pressure to abort, yet widespread legalized abortion will bring such pressure. The solution? Save sex for marriage, keep sex in marriage only, and parents cherish and protect the natural result of their marital embrace. In this way we build a culture of life and love. No to abortion; yes to love and life.
Rudy Poglitsh
rpoglitsh@live.com
more letters at http://letterstotheTOS.blogspot.com
Ubuntu
Children are conceived through the intimate togetherness of a man and a woman. Each of us spent the first 9 months of our lives in intimate connection with our mother as we developed in her womb. These two profound connections-father with mother, and mother with child-are the fountainheads of human life. Without these connectons, civilization perishes.
Abortion violently shatters the mother-to-child connection. In contemplating abortion, one or both parents view the unborn child as an obstacle blocking their progress, and decide the death of the child is the way to remove the obstacle. According to current research, some 64% of abortions involve coercion-meaning the mom really didn't want the abortion, but others forced her decision. Neither the view of a child as an obstacle, nor the (often coerced) decision to abort a child, coincide with the spirit of "ubuntu"-a Xhosa/Zulu word defined by the Oxford Dictionary of English as "a quality that includes the essential human virtues; compassion and humanity." "Abortion", says Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life, "rests on enmity where there should be welcome." Father Pavone continues:"We end abortion when we help mom and dad to trust that the child is not an obstacle to their fulfillment. Rather, both child and parents find their fulfillment in giving themselves to each other in love."
Swazis are known as friendly, welcoming people. May Swazis preserve this reputation by extending kindness, compassion, and hospitality-ubuntu-to all members of society. Let us lavish special care on those moms with unplanned or difficult pregnancies, that they may extend ubuntu to the children still developing within them. No to abortion; yes to ubuntu, yes to life.
Rudy Poglitsh
rpoglitsh@live.com
more letters at http://letterstotheTOS.blogspot.com
Abortion violently shatters the mother-to-child connection. In contemplating abortion, one or both parents view the unborn child as an obstacle blocking their progress, and decide the death of the child is the way to remove the obstacle. According to current research, some 64% of abortions involve coercion-meaning the mom really didn't want the abortion, but others forced her decision. Neither the view of a child as an obstacle, nor the (often coerced) decision to abort a child, coincide with the spirit of "ubuntu"-a Xhosa/Zulu word defined by the Oxford Dictionary of English as "a quality that includes the essential human virtues; compassion and humanity." "Abortion", says Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life, "rests on enmity where there should be welcome." Father Pavone continues:"We end abortion when we help mom and dad to trust that the child is not an obstacle to their fulfillment. Rather, both child and parents find their fulfillment in giving themselves to each other in love."
Swazis are known as friendly, welcoming people. May Swazis preserve this reputation by extending kindness, compassion, and hospitality-ubuntu-to all members of society. Let us lavish special care on those moms with unplanned or difficult pregnancies, that they may extend ubuntu to the children still developing within them. No to abortion; yes to ubuntu, yes to life.
Rudy Poglitsh
rpoglitsh@live.com
more letters at http://letterstotheTOS.blogspot.com
Friday, December 23, 2011
A Christmas Story
Professor Pete Tigchelaar at Calvin College (USA) has a story relevant to the Christmas season. For many years, Tigchelaar used a three-month old pre-born baby encased in plastic to explain pre-natal development in his biology class. One day a young female student asked if he still had the model. Tigchelaar said he did, and the student told him an interesting tale.
She said that many years before, her mother had been a student in the professor's biology class. Tigchelaar did not know it, but this student was three months pregnant at the time. The student had already been to a pregnancy clinic, where workers told her about the "products of conception" and the "contents of her uterus." She had made an appointment for an abortion the next day. But when she saw the foetus-with its fingers, eyes, outline of a liver, and other features-she declined the abortion and six months later delivered a girl. "I am that girl", explained the student. "Thank you for my life".
Tigchelaar still gets emotional when he tells the story. "In this season when we celebrate the birth of someone who came to give each of us eternal life," Tigchelaar says, "I am reminded that the unwed Mary would have been the perfect candidate for a similar procedure. I am thankful that her response was, 'I am the Lord's handmaid. Be it to me as you say.'"
In this Christmas season, let us remember and emulate the heroism of Mary in giving her unplanned baby the gift of life. Let us also remember and emulate the heroism of Joseph, who protected and nurtured mother and child through those difficult nine months and beyond. The heroism of these two individuals helped make the world a much richer place. No to abortion; yes to life.
Story from Calvin News, 18 December 2008
Rudy Poglitsh
rpoglitsh@live.com
more letters at www.letterstotheTOS.blogspot.com
Saturday, December 17, 2011
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
This space has spent nearly 88,000 words defending human life from conception to natural death. But as the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. Some pro-life advocates believe that people will thoroughly reject abortion when they see what the procedure really does. With that principle in mind, Father Frank Pavone posted numerous photographs of aborted children on his website. View them at www.priestsforlife.org/images. Be warned that these are graphic photos. If you find these photos upsetting, consider whether the procedure that produced them really advances a society. No to abortion, yes to life.
Rudy Poglitsh
rpoglitsh@live.com
more letters at http://letterstotheTOS.blogspot.com
Rudy Poglitsh
rpoglitsh@live.com
more letters at http://letterstotheTOS.blogspot.com
Friday, December 2, 2011
The Poverty of Abortion
Mother Teresa spent much of her life helping the poorest of the poor in Calcutta, India. Mother Teresa's concern for the weak and poor extended to unborn children. Father Frank Pavone, director of Priests for Life, has this to say about her:
Reflections on the life and work of Mother Teresa characteristically focuses on her "love for the poor." She did love the poor. But her understanding of what poverty is was much deeper than that of most observers. To understand it, we need to appreciate her message about what human beings are called to do. We were made to love and be loved, she would often remark. To give and receive love is the calling and greatness of human beings.
The fundamental poverty, then, is to fail to give and receive love. That is why a society which throws away its children by abortion is poorer than one which does not have many material resources. The society that permits abortion fails in its calling to give love, to welcome the inconvenient person. To fail to love is poverty. To fail to love to the point where the other person is not even recognized as a person, and is legally destroyed, is poverty to the extreme. Abortion is this extreme poverty in action.
Mother Teresa picked up the dying from the streets of Calcutta with the same love with which she pulled women away from abortion facilities. Love is indivisible. It means making room for the other person, whether that person is in the street or in the womb. It means feeding that person, not just with food for the body, but with the recognition, attention, and compassion that their personal dignity demands.
May Swaziland never fall into the deepest poverty, a poverty which discounts the life of a child as a disposable burden. May the nation protect her greatest resource-human beings-from conception to natural death.
Rudy Poglitsh
rpoglitsh@live.com
more letters at http://letterstotheTOS.blogspot.com
Reflections on the life and work of Mother Teresa characteristically focuses on her "love for the poor." She did love the poor. But her understanding of what poverty is was much deeper than that of most observers. To understand it, we need to appreciate her message about what human beings are called to do. We were made to love and be loved, she would often remark. To give and receive love is the calling and greatness of human beings.
The fundamental poverty, then, is to fail to give and receive love. That is why a society which throws away its children by abortion is poorer than one which does not have many material resources. The society that permits abortion fails in its calling to give love, to welcome the inconvenient person. To fail to love is poverty. To fail to love to the point where the other person is not even recognized as a person, and is legally destroyed, is poverty to the extreme. Abortion is this extreme poverty in action.
Mother Teresa picked up the dying from the streets of Calcutta with the same love with which she pulled women away from abortion facilities. Love is indivisible. It means making room for the other person, whether that person is in the street or in the womb. It means feeding that person, not just with food for the body, but with the recognition, attention, and compassion that their personal dignity demands.
May Swaziland never fall into the deepest poverty, a poverty which discounts the life of a child as a disposable burden. May the nation protect her greatest resource-human beings-from conception to natural death.
Rudy Poglitsh
rpoglitsh@live.com
more letters at http://letterstotheTOS.blogspot.com
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Homosexuality
Recently the Times has run news stories and opinion pieces about homosexuality. Before people decide that being gay is just another lifestyle choice that should be regarded as normal, they might consider these findings:
*According to the Gay Community News, "The statistics do point to the gay community, particularly gay men, as being most at risk of becoming alcoholics."
*The Archives of Sexual Behavior says "The levels of depression and anxiety in our homosexual subjects, whether HIV positive or HIV negative, are substantially higher than those found in representative general population samples."
*A 1978 study by Alan Bell and Martin Weinberg, 18% of white gay men reported trying to kill themselves at least once; 3% of white heterosexual men said they had tried to commit suicide.
Significantly, the publications and individuals reporting these data are very much in favor of the societal normalization of homosexuality.
Mary Eberstadt wrote the following in a short article to First Things magazine in February 2004: "None of that evidence, of course, will suprise those who actually minister to homosexual persons from a traditionalist perspective. But this same evidence is almost entirely unknown, because culturally verboten [forbidden] throughout the secular world and particularly among our secular elites".
No one wishes gay men and women to suffer the afflictions documented above and elsewhere. Nevertheless, the push to normalize gay behaviour is rampant throughout what is commonly called the "mainstream media". Before we confirm that way of life for individuals, however, we would do well to consider if it is good for them. The statistics indicate that it is not.
Rudy Poglitsh
rpoglitsh@live.com
more letters at http://letterstotheTOS.blogspot.com
*According to the Gay Community News, "The statistics do point to the gay community, particularly gay men, as being most at risk of becoming alcoholics."
*The Archives of Sexual Behavior says "The levels of depression and anxiety in our homosexual subjects, whether HIV positive or HIV negative, are substantially higher than those found in representative general population samples."
*A 1978 study by Alan Bell and Martin Weinberg, 18% of white gay men reported trying to kill themselves at least once; 3% of white heterosexual men said they had tried to commit suicide.
Significantly, the publications and individuals reporting these data are very much in favor of the societal normalization of homosexuality.
Mary Eberstadt wrote the following in a short article to First Things magazine in February 2004: "None of that evidence, of course, will suprise those who actually minister to homosexual persons from a traditionalist perspective. But this same evidence is almost entirely unknown, because culturally verboten [forbidden] throughout the secular world and particularly among our secular elites".
No one wishes gay men and women to suffer the afflictions documented above and elsewhere. Nevertheless, the push to normalize gay behaviour is rampant throughout what is commonly called the "mainstream media". Before we confirm that way of life for individuals, however, we would do well to consider if it is good for them. The statistics indicate that it is not.
Rudy Poglitsh
rpoglitsh@live.com
more letters at http://letterstotheTOS.blogspot.com
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