It's alarming to me how nonchalant this thing is. Roland Park, the area of Baltimore City that St. Mary's is in, is a pretty nice part of town and this abortion clinic is right in the middle of it... I mean post office across the street, dentist office and pharmacy in the same building, Northern Parkway running alongside of it... nobody knows its there.
Usually clinics are established in minority neighborhoods and poor parts of town mostly to target the African American community. The few but fervant pro-lifers in Maryland always protest the clinic downtown but nobody does anything about this one in Roland Park... Nobody! I guess I'm used to back home in Louisville where you can count on pro-lifers praying and protesting in front of the abortion clinic downtown every Saturday, and often during the week. Now, I must clarify, there is a pro-life group at one of the local parishes that has prayed at the Roland Park clinic several times over the years. But they like to plan their prayer vigils around the seminarians here at St. Mary's and our schedules are so off and on. I really want to make this a more regular thing though so I've agreed to take over the prayer vigil part of St. Mary's Pro-Life subcommittee activities. I hope we can rally the community to become more regularly involved.
Again, I found it alarming how few people know that this abortion clinic even exists right under their noses in their community. Since they only perform abortions every other Saturday, we happen to be there when they were closed. We could tell because the escorts they ususally have weren't there. But, that didn't stop us from praying anyway for an end to abortion and the closing of the clinic. Cookie Harris, wife of pro-life State Senator Andy Harris joined us and brought a young lady from her parish. One guy approached us this morning and told us he was unaware that there was a clinic there and that he supported our cause... so that was cool.
I was sad to hear from her that this clinic, Seneca Women's "Health Care," was under new managment, Whole Woman's Health, that owns four abortion clinics in Texas. They're dedicated to bolstering its business and making it a stronger clinic: They've hired four new "doctors" since coming under new management. They also now offer second trimester abortions and student discounts... how nice of them...
Anyway, below is a picture of our little group: I'm on the far right
And here's an article about our last visit that I mentioned here from the Defend Life Jan-Feb '06 Newsletter:
SEMINARIANS PRAY AT ABORTION MILL
Seven enthusiastic young men from St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore braved frigid temperatures to pray the rosary and demonstrate outside an abortion mill on Northern Parkway December 10.
The gravity of their purpose did not preclude them from exuding good cheer and poking a little fun at the two “pro-choice escorts” who had retreated inside the glass-enclosed lobby of the professional building housing the abortion mill to keep warm.
“We talked to them one time,” Max Pawlowski, a third-year theology student from Erie, Pa., confided with a grin.
“We said, ‘Why can’t we just forget all about this and go out to lunch together? After all, you don’t want to be involved with this – it’s killing babies!’ But they wouldn’t do it.”
Seminarians belonging to a pro-life subcommittee that is part of the seminary’s peace and justice committee have been coming to the prayer vigils at the abortion mill for over a year.
John Brian Rendfrey is chairman of the pro-life group, which meets every other Wednesday, prays the rosary for pro-life intentions every first Friday, and has mustered 50 seminarians to go to the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C.
On December 8 State Senator Andy Harris gave a talk to the group on embryonic stem cell research.
The Respect Life group of St. Joseph’s Church in Cockeysville began the prayer vigils at Seneca Women’s Health Care in December 2003.
The mill has since changed its name to Whole Woman’s Health of Baltimore, and is affiliated with Whole Woman’s Health, which has four abortion mills in Texas.
According to its website, Whole Woman’s Health affiliates perform second trimester abortions and offer student discounts. The Northern Parkway mill is located 1 ½ blocks from Mercy High School.
Cookie Harris, chairperson of St. Joseph’s Respect Life, said that the prayer vigils have a two-fold purpose.
One aim is “to be a presence to the community”: to inform passers--by and the people entering the offices within the professional building of the abortion mill’s existence.
The second purpose, said Harris, is “to be a prayer force to close it.”
The prayer vigils are held every other Saturday from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m.
For more information call Cookie Harris, 410-666-9411.
St. Gianna Beretta Molla, pray for us!
4 comments:
Nope, sorry, I'm still just a baby seminarian!
That's cool Matt. You know it's funny you mention how most abortion clinics are in the ghetto to target the minority but it is just the opposite around here. I had no idea there was one right across the street from my pediatrician's office.. go figure. There is another one not more than five miles away in a shopping center tucked behind a stairwell but still visible from the street if you know where to look.
There's an abortion mill down near the end of my street...and that's pretty much the ghetto (at least, as ghetto as you get in Maine). I've protested in front of it before...and pretty much feared for my life. Not good.
I think what disturbs me most is that this mill offers stuent discounts...like it's a bank account or something. *refrains from going on a long and superfluous rant*
Rock on, Matty. Rock on.
Just as becoming of someone who is considering to become a "priest" as to have so little compassion in their heart that they could humiliate and harass some poor lady on her way to act upon what has to be the hardest and probably most heart wrenching decision of her life. Are we the pot or the kettle today? Because it is hard to tell.
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