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Who’s playing God on Bellevue abortions?

   In the June 13 article regarding activists urging lawmakers to keep Bellevue hospital open, Marcia Pappas, the president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), stated that “When Catholic hospitals play God, the results are devastating to women’s health.” As a Roman Catholic, I must stand up and tell her she is wrong and far from the real truth.
   Catholic hospitals are not the ones playing God. Those who, through support and/or participation in abortions, artificial contraception, euthanasia, etc., decide who should live and who should die, are the ones playing God. One of the most basic tenets of the Catholic faith is to protect and defend life from conception to natural death. We believe that life should be given and taken away only by God. Once life has been created, we, as human beings, have no right to take it away from someone.
   Attacking Catholic hospitals for upholding one of the faith’s most basic beliefs in pathetic. If the most compelling reason supporters of Bellevue can think of to keep it in business is access to abortions, then perhaps its mission is not as lofty and important to “women’s health” and the community as they would like us to believe.
   ANDREA SALAZAR
   Niskayuna  

  
  
  

In medicine---if there is something that is "bothering" us or making us have to adjust to live differently, do things differently(even if for a short time), we go to the doctor....the doctor may or may not see the "thing" that is bothering us,,,but will attempt in earnest, to rid us of this "pathogen"(virus, bacteria, broken bone, clot, fat in the arteries, spider veins, acne, small breasts, large breasts, cancer etc).....

I'm not too sure what category a 'pregnancy' falls into......(terminate pregnancy, abort the baby, abort the fetus, terminate the fetus,induce labor, etc)???

http://www.dailygazette.com

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SCHENECTADY
Activists settle in for 2-week protest
Demonstrations affect businesses
BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter

   The Rev. Philip “Flip” Benham of North Carolina stood on the corner of Union and North Jay streets Tuesday afternoon.
   In one hand, he gripped a wellworn Bible; in the other he held a 4-foot-tall sign graphically depicting the aborted remains of 21-weekold fetus.
   Every so often, he would raise his Bible like a sword and steady the sign before him like a shield.
   “I’m not protesting,” Benham said, his deeply lined face red from the sun. “All I can claim is that Jesus is Lord at the gates of hell and this is a manifestation of hell.”
   For Benham, hell occupies a small brick building at 414 Union St., headquarters of Planned Parenthood Mohawk Hudson, the area’s largest provider of abortions. Planned Parenthood performed more than 3,000 abortions in 2006, said spokeswoman Linda Scharf, but added that abortions represent less than 10 percent of the services it provides in 12 counties ranging from Madison and Essex to Washington and Schoharie.
   It also provides HIV pre-testing and counseling, pregnancy tests and testing of sexually transmitted diseases, as well as nutritional counseling. Last year, its centers saw 22,825 patients during 45,434 visits. “We have more pre-natal visits than abortion services,” Scharf said.
   Benham, pastor of Temple Truth, a Free Methodist church in Charlotte, N.C., is among 30 activists from around the country staging a two-week demonstration downtown against Planned Parenthood.
   He also is head of Operation Save America and baptized Norma Mc-Corvey as an adult. McCorvey was known as Jane Roe in the landmark 1973 Roe V. Wade decision that legalized abortion in the United States. In that case, McCorvey successfully challenged a prohibition on abortion. She later regretted that success and now campaigns against abortion.
   The activists plan to make the 400 block of Union Street their ground zero for at least six hours per day every day through next Friday. Their base is the nearby building housing the headquarters of Schenectady County Right to Life. The two-week demonstration is the activists’ most concerted effort in years, said the Rev. Francis McCloskey. They also plan to visit high schools in Albany, Schenectady and Troy next week to present students with anti-abortion literature.
   McCloskey’s organization, “Oh Saratoga!”, is organizing the twoweek protest. In past years, he and others staged one-day protests against local Planned Parenthood centers.
   Anti-abortion activist Beth Lynch of Illion said the one-day protests became so commonplace that people ignored them. Hence, the two-week demonstration this year. “It shows we are here and are a presence that is not going away,” she said.
   When not protesting, they will stay at a nearby Christian campground, McCloskey said.
AGENCY PREPARED
   Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Linda Scharf said the agency is prepared. “This center will stay open,” she said.
   Patients with appointments have been notified about the activists, and Planned Parenthood is providing volunteer escorts for visitors, who have to walk a gauntlet of the activists to reach the front door. Its new facility at 1040 State St., to open Sept. 18, will offer visitors a private entrance, which activists will not be allowed to approach, Scharf said.
   She said the demonstrators have a right to voice their opinions, but they should not try to intimidate other people or impose their views on them.
   “Planned Parenthood has been a trusted partner in the community for more than 70 years,” Scharf said.
   Planned Parenthood also expects to make money on the two-week demonstration, Scharf said. In campaign called “Making lemonade out of lemons,” the organization collects donations from supporters who pay a fee every time a demonstrator appears at a center. In 2006, Planned Parenthood raised $14,948 through the fundraising effort, she said.
   Police barricades prevent activists from approaching within 10 feet of Planned Parenthood’s only entrance, a front door off a public sidewalk. Activists could still address and present literature to visitors walking to and from the clinic, however. Two women paced the barricade, quietly telling visitors: “Turn to God. You don’t believe in God, but he believes in you.” An activist near Planned Parenthood’s parking lot shouted to visitors they were “going to hell” and were “killing babies.”
   The two-week protest is also causing headaches at City Hall. Corporation Counsel L. John Van Norden must deal with complaints from the protesters — who want to get closer to the Planned Parenthood entrance — and nearby store owners who want the protesters to leave.
   “It’s the protesters that were really being difficult,” Van Norden said. “They didn’t like the way the barriers were set up. They were standing in the street one day — somebody’s going to hit them.”
   When he went out to explain where they could safely stand, the response wasn’t quite what he expected.
   “He said, ‘If you were a real man, you’d be out here protecting these babies,’ ” Van Norden related. “I was like, ‘Come on! You don’t know me! For all you know I could be a rabid right-to-lifer. But let’s stick to the subject here.’ ”
   But while the protesters think he’s being too harsh, some local business owners feel he’s being too lenient. One local restaurateur threatened to sue the city if Van Norden wouldn’t stop the protest because it was ruining his business.
   “He called me up screaming, just screaming. ‘People have to drive by these sickening pictures to have lunch,’” Van Norden said. “Emotions run high with this sort of thing.”
   He declined to identify the business. There are several restaurants near Planned Parenthood.
PUBLIC MIXED
   An activist approached Lucinda Maya of Troy after she left Planned Parenthood. She politely dismissed the woman. “In this free country each woman has a right to chose whether or not to continue a pregnancy,” Maya said. “It’s a private matter.”
   Activists lined both sides of the street near Planned Parenthood and stood on several corners Tuesday. Their children played on sidewalks, sometimes interrupting their activities to shout anti-abortion messages. Full-color, graphic posters of aborted fetuses were everywhere.
   One poster was enough for Nicki Sitterly to stop. She approached Benham with the intent of chastising him for promoting abortion. But after she saw the sign was against abortion, she asked: “How can I get involved?”
   Sitterly said she wants to get involved because, “I love my kids and I am against abortion.”
   Lynch said she hoped the posters shock people while McCloskey added: “It’s more important if it’s true rather than shocking.”
   Scharf said the activists’ posters are distortions. They show abortions performed at or after 21 weeks, which account for less than 2 percent of all abortions in the United States, she said.
   The federal Centers for Disease Control received reports in 2003 of 848,163 legal induced abortions from 49 reporting areas. This total represents a 0.7 percent decrease from the 854,122 abortions reported for 2002. More than half (61 percent) of the reported legal induced abortions were performed during the first eight weeks of gestation; 88 percent were performed within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, according to the CDC.
   McCloskey said the two-week event was tied to the 230th anniversary of the American victory at Saratoga. “That was a turning point in the war. We believe this will be a turning point in the process of saving the unborn. It combines the best of everything, patriotism, evangelism and Catholicism.”
   The religious aspect of the event was apparent in other ways. Several activists wore T-shirts that read: “Islam is a false religion. Evolution is a delusion. Liberalism is a false God. Homosexuality is a sin. Feminism is rebellion against God.” Benham called Islam “a religion from the pits of Hell.” Others distributed prayer beads and slips of paper that read “God bless you!” One activist asked Scharf her religion; Scharf did not respond.
   Benham said “the battle is being fought in the streets, and we’re winning.” He said the number of freestanding abortion clinics, which he termed “abortion mills,” has declined from more than 2,000 in 1991 to fewer than 760 today, that abortions have declined 41 percent and that the number of doctors who perform abortions has decreased by 40 percent since 1991.

PETER R. BARBER/GAZETTE PHOTOGRAPHER
Anti-abortion activists attempt to hand pamphlets to passengers in a truck leaving the Planned Parenthood office Wednesday on Union Street in Schenectady.

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Planned Parenthood performed more than 3,000 abortions in 2006, said spokeswoman Linda Scharf, but added that abortions represent less than 10 percent of the services it provides in 12 counties ranging from Madison and Essex to Washington and Schoharie.
   It also provides HIV pre-testing and counseling, pregnancy tests and testing of sexually transmitted diseases, as well as nutritional counseling. Last year, its centers saw 22,825 patients during 45,434 visits. “We have more pre-natal visits than abortion services,” Scharf said.

OK, let's figure this.  If a woman is going to have an abortion, I assume that this is how it's going to go.  She's going to come in for a counseling session to "decide" if it's the right thing to do and she can physically handle this "procedure."  She then has a visit to have "the procedure."  She will then have a follow-up to make sure that there were no complications.  So, if that sounds adequate for this "procedure," that means that each abortion would entail 3 visits. 3 visits x 3000 abortions = 9000 visits.  9000 visits out of 45,434.  My calculator puts that at 19.8% (give or take, considering there will be some with more visits considering complications).  So, if 19.8% is a MINIMUM of the percentage, how do they get off saying that abortions represent less than 10%?  Somebody better check their numbers.

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He also is head of Operation Save America and baptized Norma Mc-Corvey as an adult. McCorvey was known as Jane Roe in the landmark 1973 Roe V. Wade decision that legalized abortion in the United States. In that case, McCorvey successfully challenged a prohibition on abortion. She later regretted that success and now campaigns against abortion.

Interesting!

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“He said, ‘If you were a real man, you’d be out here protecting these babies,’ ” Van Norden related. “I was like, ‘Come on! You don’t know me! For all you know I could be a rabid right-to-lifer. But let’s stick to the subject here.’ ”

Oh my, it sounds like Van Norden was having a bad day, huh?

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One local restaurateur threatened to sue the city if Van Norden wouldn’t stop the protest because it was ruining his business.

Oh like the drug dealers, prostitutes and 'grafitti artists' and bumbs are a plus to his business, huh?

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“He called me up screaming, just screaming. ‘People have to drive by these sickening pictures to have lunch,’”

Ahhhh, 'sickening picture, huh? However these are 'actual' pictures! And yes they are sickening...that's the point here.....get it?

Passions run high on both sides!

Where is the counselling for the penis....or I mean man.....? Do the men....oh....I mean boys get counselling---other than being told how to be supportive to their 'toy'/I mean partner/I mean one night stand--(oh I dont know what they are called), put down the video games and change a diaper and feed the baby and make sure you have a job???

Planned Parenthood needs to stop touting women's health, change it's name and disappear into the recessess of society.......there is no such thing as 'planned parenthood' after sex.......even if a couple decides to procreate there is no direction book that follows the afterbirth----Dr.Spock/Dr.Phil/Oprah or otherwise......

I think I have an answer on this, but I want to check to see if I should go as far as posting it here.

That's not what I had in mind for counselling---but, it is a start to a long life of learning.....I just hope it doesn't happen over and over and over and over..........

OOPS, didn't actually realize I did post it.

Sorry if any are offended...

You are right BigK. When you post an attachment, you really don't see it until it is actually posted.
As for me, there was no offense taken.

Another of the, no doubt, many dangers of using a cell phone.

That's almost as bad as when my grandson dropped the toilet seat on his privates.

anyhow........let's not get the county legislature going,,,,and hope that creep from California doesn't show up......well,,,,if he does maybe there would be a special bow hunting season for him.....