STOP NYC BILL 371 & Save the Life Centers

STOP NYC BILL 371 & Save the Life Centers

March 8th Yonkers Almost Aborted Speak Out at Rory Doaln's

YOU'RE INVITED TO ATTEND
8 "Almost Aborted" Survivors Speak Out
---All Conceived in Rape or Incest--

Monday, March 8th, 6PM-9PM

Rory Dolan's, 890 McLean Ave.
Yonkers, NY 10704
Map: http://tinyurl.com/yjw4znc

With Special Guest Jerry O'Sullivan on Uileann Pipes with Irish Music Interludes

No Cover Charge, Food and Drink Available for Purchase
Donations to Be Requested for Expectant Mother Care-EMC FrontLine Pregnancy Centers

RSVP HERE ON FACEBOOK EVENT OR CONTACT Chris Slattery by Email SlatteryNY@gmail.com or phone at (914) 224-5773, or (718) 884-9210 FOR FURTHER INFORMATION.

NEED A DRIVE FROM THE NY METRO-NORTH WOODLAWN TRAIN STATION OR SUBWAY STATION TO THE RESTAURANT??? LET US KNOW!

SPEAKERS:

Rebecca Kiessling from Michigan -- an adoptee who was conceived in rape when her birthmother was abducted at knife-point by a serial rapist, and then nearly aborted at two-back alley abortionists. Rebecca is a family law attorney, home school mother of 5 (2 are adopted), international pro-life speaker, and author of the Heritage House '76's pamphlet, "Conceived in Rape: A Story of Hope," http://www.rebeccakiessling.com

Juda Myers from Texas -- an adoptee who was conceived when her birthmother was abducted and gang-raped by 8 men. Juda is now a singer/songwriter, author, pro-life speaker, mother and grandmother. http://www.juda4praise.com

Tony Kiessling from Pennsylvania -- conceived when his mom was abducted and raped by an acquaintance who frequented the diner where she waited tables, and then she was left in a park and later found by police. Believing abortion would be killing an innocent child, she raised him as a single mom. Tony is a university science professor and father. (No relation to Rebecca Kiessling)
http://www.rebeccakiessling.com/Othersconceivedinrape.html

'DON'T MISS MAR.8TH 6-9PM "THE ALMOST ABORTED 8"-SURVIVORS SPEAK OUT'

'DON'T MISS MAR.8TH 6-9PM "THE ALMOST ABORTED 8"-SURVIVORS SPEAK OUT'

Notes from the Front: Manhattan Rally: In the Belly of the Beast

"And it was not enough for them to err about the knowledge of God, but whereas they lived in a great war of ignorance, they call so many and so great evils peace. For either they sacrifice their own children, or use hidden sacrifices, or keep watches full of madness.

So that now they neither keep life, nor marriage undefiled, but one killeth another through envy, or grieveth him by adultery: and all things are mingled together: blood, murder, theft and dissimulation, corruption and unfaithfulness, tumults and perjury, disquieting of the good, forgetfulness of God, defiling of souls, changing of nature, disorder in marriage, and the irregularity of audultery and uncleanliness. For the worship of abominable idols is the cause, and the beginning and end of all evil."

-Wisdom 14: 21-27

Notes from the Front; The Other Demographic: Notes from the Fringe

Editor's Note: Today's post is a series of notes and reflections taken by the author during a "Men and Abortion" seminar earlier this month. He is currently on special assignment in the southern tip of Brooklyn, and he has demanded "total radio silence, lest I disturb the natural habitat." We apologize for the scattered nature of this post.

From the fifth floor of the small Salisbury Hotel-

Chris has taken our group into Manhattan today to attend a seminar on Men and Abortion. There are a number of directors and staff from other New York crisis pregnancy centers, and the small conference room is crowded with about sixty people. The low-ceiling sprinkler pipes and folding chairs give the place a hint of the industrial/basement look, despite the small windows that peer out over 57th Street, but the rest of the hotel seems as elegant and refined as is expected of a moderate downtown hotel.

The group running the conference is the Calvary Baptist Church, which has a house of worship next door to the hotel and runs offices for administration, resource distribution, a small bible school, and even a little chapel on the fifth floor of the Salisbury. I am not sure whether the Salisbury Hotel has cut a deal with Calvary Baptist to give them the run of the fifth floor, or whether Calvary owns the building and makes money from the Hotel, or some other kind of symbiotic deal holds the place together.

Our room is filled with pro-lifers of all types. The chairs are mostly filled with black women from all parts of the City, and in one corner a knot of no-nonsense matriarchs are chattering together in rapid Spanish behind a row of white-veiled nuns, who are looking over the lecture flyer. A priest still wearing his roman collar just took a seat across the aisle from me. No hint of partisan politics this morning.

The subject for today is "Men and Abortion," the token-issue in the pro-life movement. The real energy of the whole movement is directed towards young women, and rightly so, but there is a growing realization that men play a very prominent Supporting Role in the decision to have an abortion - and are prone to problems very similar to post-abortion syndrome. Men are, for obvious reasons, a very small target demographic, but as pro-life leaders recognize the influence they can have on abortion-minded wives and girlfriends, much more stress will be laid on men and abortion.... which is why we're here today.

I am going to apologize in advance for the scattered nature of this post. My plan is to take notes as the lecture is going on, jotting down the more interesting points and my own meandering reflections as the seminar progresses. We'll see what we can come up with in the end, but at the moment there is a white-haired man in a plaid shirt and glasses asking for silence, and the lights are dimming.

Speaker Kevin Burke is not quite a young man; he has the look of a man on the event horizon that marks the beginning of the downward spiral into old age. He is dressed like an MBA-grad type, clean-cut with a white shirt and thin striped tie. His Powerpoint presentation is nothing to write home about - basic graphics and stock transitions - but his voice carries, and he speaks well.

Abortion is touted as a "private personal decision between woman & her doctor," but the Elliot (?) Institute reports that men play a central role 95% of abortion decisions. Experience indicates (and the crisis pregnancy workers agree) that a tremendous amount of abortion decisions are result of woman afraid of "losing the man." But when the time comes, men are required to stay outside the clinic, in the parking lot, in the car, the waiting room, wherever. This can be a dangerous situation, particularly for a man who is still on the fence about the abortion, because he is left alone with his own brain, to sit and stew on the situation. In many cases there is a necessary mental shutdown in which the personhood (and the subsequent son- or daughterhood) of the fetus is rationalized away. The reality of the death-event requires suppression.... and so for a man who has to sit alone and wait, the conflict between the urge to abort and the urge to keep the child can cause serious damage. And if he is against the abortion in the first place, the simple reality that she is in the clinic can break a man's mind.

Men are strong, but they are also weak, and frequently at the same time. If women are afraid of losing their men, the same can certainly be true in reverse. So many couples muddle their way into an abortion clinic because they are afraid of losing one another, without ever having an open and honest discussion about it. With this kind of central lack of communication, it's no wonder that some studies reveal post-abortion breakups at over 50%.

Now Burke is jumping on a biblical tack, discussing Genesis, the relationship between Adam and Eve, the serpent, etc. All of this is well and good, and it makes for excellent personal reflection - not particularly practical in crisis counseling, but food for thought. He points out that although in the Genesis story, Eve takes the apple and dooms the human race - but the primary responsibility for the sin, in terms of vocation, falls on Adam. Genesis has virtually nothing when it comes to stage direction, but it does not take too much imagination to see Adam watching from behind a broad-leafed bush, waiting for his beloved to make her choice, and unwilling to interrupt her, unwilling to challenge her, despite that small nagging sense that something very wrong is about to happen.

So many men (says Burke) in an abortion situation equate silence with support.

Burke is not so stupid as to think that all men experience some kind of post-abortion trauma, but there are enough cases on the books to suggest that this is a legitimate psycho-socio/medical/spiritual concern. It is akin to the trauma undergone by a couple after a miscarriage, and although it is very different in a few crucial respects, it is still Serious Business, which requires healing, assistance, and in some cases, therapy.

Men remain the token demographic in the post-abortion ministry of the pro-life movement, but this is due to the single central reason that men can be ridiculously stupid. In many cases, couples who go in for an abortion are completely unaware of the fetal development process. They have been fed the "blood clot" or "clump of tissue" Planned Parenthood bullshit, or just simply don't know - either way, many do not relate to the pregnancy as involving another human being. Anyone who has done crisis counseling for any serious length of time will tell you how the attitude towards pregnancy has shifted from it being a celebratory occasion to something that has to be "cured." However, even if the couple will admit the existence of a baby - and call it just that - the man will go along with his wife or partner for whatever reason du jour: financial situation, fear of parental rejection, "she's just not ready," "it's her body,"... all of which in fact imply an unwillingness to make good on the natural responsibility that belongs to any man that gets a woman pregnant. Financial situation? The breadwinner role belongs to the man. (And if she exercises her Choice in favor of keeping the baby? Ok, Bubba. No more Easy Way Out. Do what you need to do to bring home the bacon.) Fear of parental rejection? If you love her enough to have sex with her - to go through the motions of procreation, contraceptives notwithstanding - you have to be willing to support her. If her parents drop her, that doesn't negate your responsibility. (And if you "don't" love her, and still have sex with her, you are an Idiot of the worst degree, an arrogant sexist without enough blood to use your brains and your balls at the same time.) "She isn't ready?" She might not be. So why would you put her in a situation where she might get pregnant if you know she's not ready - if you know "you're" not ready? Irresponsibility in the extreme. "It's her body?" It is - as far as it goes. But her body ends where the body of the fetus begins. That body is part of her - and part of you. Silence is not support. Silence is weakness.

Men who have experienced post-abortion trauma and gone through the healing process are never silent, and they have become one of the strongest voices in the pro-life movement today. Monks muttering rosaries and kneeling in front of abortion clinics may be an object of ridicule to the pro-choice forces, but an eloquent young man or woman who has undergone an abortion experience and speaks out against it strikes a jabbering fear into the NOW and NARAL pushers. It is sort of expected for pro-life activists who have had abortions to use their own experiences to speak out against it, but a man who will stand up to let the world know how much he was hurt by abortion completely smashes the drooling pig/beast thug perception that the feminist abortion-pushers won't admit in public. Pro-life spies, who have worked in the belly of the snake, can attest to the blind white panic frenzy that these victim activists inspire - because no matter how deep it is hidden, every human being knows that the truth cannot be hidden forever. The brass horns are calling for the pro-aborts, and they are like ants beneath a black cloud.

Burke mentions some stats from the Shostak study, and takes pains to point out that Shostak isn't a pro-life propaganda stooge - he actually doesn't oppose abortion, but that fact doesn't change his findings, and actually legitimizes them to a degree.

• one in four consider abortion murder
• over 80% think about the child that might have been born
• 30% think of child frequently
• complicated grief

The men who have undergone abortion-related trauma - a proportionally small but vital demographic - can manifest that in a variety of ways: depression, abusive behavior, escapism (usually involving alcohol or drugs). Burke gets a few chuckles by noting that sexual side effects were listed in a male post-abortion syndrome symptom chart drawn up by TV medevangelist Dr. Phil. The biggest victim of post-abortion syndrome is relationships. If one or both parties experience abortion-related trauma, they sustain a wound deep in the sexual core of their relationship. That is a massive fault line, and the aftershocks can rip even a marriage apart. Burke is emphatic - the loss of abortion must be dealt with.

Burke seems to be winding down now, and his talk has shifted into biblical discussion and Christ-oriented counseling, which is valuable and not overwhelming. Burke does not advocate a religious perspective in dealing with a post-abortive man unless that man indicates an openness to it. He recognizes that religious counseling is only as effective as the level of willingness to receive it. It makes good material for personal reflection, in any case.

Burke closes with a short prayer - people are ready for the big platters of sandwiches and salad that the caterers have brought in during the talk. I'll probably stay back and wait until everybody else is done - people tend to complain less if they're already eating when you take the last sandwich. Burke has left his Powerpoint up, and study it briefly as I walk out to stretch my limbs. The last slide shows a poison-green viper ready to spring out and bury its giant fangs into something soft and vulnerable and untutored in the ways of snakes.

Every time a couple walks towards the doors of an abortion clinic, they are right back there in the tall primordial peace of the Garden. And every time a man walks out, to sit in the car, or smoke a cigarette, the Serpent has succeeded again; he has divided and he has conquered, and Adam stays behind the broad-leafed bush, and he watches, and he is silent.

Notes from the Front; In the Valley of the Shadow of Trump: Press Conference in Atlantic City

"Who are these people, these faces? Where do they come from? They look like caricatures of used car dealers from Dallas, and sweet Jesus, there are a hell of a lot of them at 4:30 on a Sunday morning, still humping the American Dream, that vision of the big winner somehow emerging from the last minute pre-dawn chaos of a stale... casino."

- Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas


A vacation is never a vacation when you're a full-time pro-lifer.

We have just returned from Atlantic City, the "playground of the Atlantic," with beaches, boardwalks, resort hotels, and the occasional flurry of pro-life street-activism. Gambling is the main fix here, and the night skyline is full of red neon, usually spelling out TRUMP over the dark ocean surf. It is definitely a different scene from the Abortion Capital of America. For one thing, it's quiet at night, when the action has mainly moved indoors and no amount of spinning and flashing bulbs can drown out the overwhelming tide of Atlantic night.

We were quartered on the very edge of the shore, on the 19th floor of the elegant Atlantic Palace, smack in the middle of Casino Alley. The view was immense; at our height we could see the sand stretching away to both horizons, and the boardwalk following at a safe distance. And on the long highway far to the north, we could see the tour busses bringing new cash to the town. Outbound busses left by a different route, away to the south.

Chris had come to set up a press conference outside the heavily debated Alternatives clinic on Pacific Avenue, about three blocks away from the beaches. For the time being it is closed due to financial problems and health violations, and no abortions have been carried out there for months, but that could change in a hurry. The infamous Dr. Steven Chase Brigham is an abortionist with what might be politely termed a "checkered past," and impolitely termed "butchery." Brigham graduated from Columbia University with no special training in obstetrics or gynecology, but within five years had begun his career in the abortion industry. Since 1990, Brigham has been forced out of an office because of failure to disclose his intent to perform abortions there, received personal property as a fee for abortions, forced to leave another office after a judge ruled that "general medicine" does not include abortions, agreed to retire his medical license permanently in Pennsylvania after botching a procedure and injuring a patient, and injured a New York woman resulting in an emergency hysterectomy. In 1994 Brigham was forced to close another clinic because of alleged Medicaid fraud, and again failed to disclose the purpose of his clinic to his landlord at a site where seventeen fetuses were found stored illegally. He has been indicted on multiple counts of tax evasion and fraud, and had his medical license terminated in the states of New York and Florida.

That's one hell of a laundry list.

Now Brigham wants to buy the Alternatives clinic on Pacific Avenue. This is bad news, and because bad news sells, we thought a press conference would be just the thing to stir up awareness. If a veterinarian had that kind of record, the PETA would be after him with melon knives. Our press conference, we hoped, would be not just a witness against the atrocity of abortion, but an opportunity to bring to the public eye the kind of stooge that will stoop so low as to work in this business. This guy stands in the face of all the smiling rhetoric whooped up by the Planned Parenthood and NARAL types that claims abortion is a healthy choice for women. I wouldn’t let this guy check a rat for plague.

We spent the morning drafting signs and slogans. Chris had made his contacts with the Atlantic City pro-life groups, and we had about twenty people lined up to be a part of our conference. The night before I had walked about the city, trying to find an adequate soap box, but since there was none to be found I spent my time crafting white masking tape onto a deep blue posterboard - KEEP QUACK DOC OUT OF ATLANTIC CITY. I wanted to put ATLANTIC CITY ALREADY HAS ENOUGH OF A SLEAZY REPUTATION, BRIGHAM IS THE LAST THING YOU NEED HERE, but it wouldn’t fit on the sign.

We walked down the few blocks from the hotel to the clinic entrance. A crowd had already begun to form, and a reporter with a white paper pad had begun taking names while a photographer with a long-barreled camera was snapping from all angles. A few die-hard protesters from the local St. Nicholas of Tolentine parish had shown up to lend their support, as well as a few souls Chris had contacted the night before. Chris immediately zeroed in on the reporter, and we all took our places along the narrow sidewalk. It didn’t last very long - maybe half an hour - but it created some vital ripples across the press wires. The Press of Atlantic City had the story online with pictures within six hours, and the next morning we saw ourselves staring back at us from the front page. The bloggers started commenting next, and even the Associated Press picked up the story:

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) - Anti-abortion protesters have begun picketing an abortion clinic that's currently closed.
They don't want the Alternatives clinic to be sold to a doctor who has had his license terminated in New York and Florida.
Dr. Steven Chase Brigham has said he intends to buy the clinic, which was closed due to health violations on June 22. He told The Press of Atlantic City that he began performing abortions at the center and paying its employees before the clinic was shuttered.
But a spokesman for its current owner, Dr. Alan Kline, said he's not selling to Brigham. And state officials say they have not received an application for a sale.
Still, the prospect of seeing Brigham run the clinic is particularly troubling for anti-abortion groups.
In 1994, New Jersey restricted him from performing second-trimester abortions after receiving allegations of gross negligence. That year, the state appointed Kline to monitor his work and the restrictions were overturned two years later.
"Our main focus is to block this Brigham sale," Chris Slattery, president of Expectant Mother Care, a New York-based group with pregnancy centers in New Jersey, told The Press for Tuesday's newspapers. "He has clearly shown a contempt for women's health."

That‘s an understatement. In the earliest days of the pro-life movement, there was such shock over the treatment of the fetus - the first images of the broken bodies were just coming out - that a great deal of energy was focused on the protection of the fetus. We got over our collective shock pretty quickly, and dodgy unprofessionals like Brigham have alerted us to the fact that abortion is mentally and physically dangerous, and that the abortion industry draws the scum of the medical world.

After our closing prayer, the group went its own ways, and Chris gave the interns the rest of the day off to see the sights and relax on the shore. I had no interest in shopping, and the heat of the afternoon was prohibitive to wandering through the circus attractions on the boardwalk pier. I waited until the sun was just beginning to set behind the tall resort skyline before heading out to do some quiet thinking, and to get to know the city.
Atlantic City is a city of extremes. There is no middle class to be found anywhere, save for the tourists, who are housed at upwards of $200+ per night in the moderate shoreline suites. The only residents of Atlantic City are the uber-rich, who have the means to shell out $44,000 every year in property taxes, and the poorest of the poor, who stare out of dirty windows in the permanent shade of a massive hotel, and who line the boardwalk after dark, hoping for a handout. There is a total lack of middle ground; dingy pizza joints and ninety-nine cent stores fill the toothless gaps along the boardwalk between Bally's, Caesar's, and the Tropicana. Half a mile from the shore, moving west into the city, the money disappears, leaving blocks of dilapidated shacks, sullen convenience stores, and a scattered chain of adult theaters offering 25-cent peep shows in private booths. Charles Darrow wouldn't even stop for gas in this town.

After all, who could blame him? Certainly not me... His idea of hotels on Boardwalk are an idyllic archaic non sequitur in the Atlantic City of today. If you walk in the right places you suddenly find yourself stumbling down the corridors of a dream - not in the Disney rabbit-hole sense, but something bordering on the grotesque. Sometime around midnight I decided to go over to Caesar's, away from the late-night-carnival disconsolate atmosphere of the boardwalk and into the hazy cool of the casino. I wandered for a while along the avenues that wind between the rows of slot machines, watching the faces and the hair and the shoes of the people feeding the shiny silver coins into the clicking machines.

There are two kinds of faces in these casinos. The first looks like a grim interest, a sort of blend of disillusionment and fascination, sagging heavily at the corners of the lips and the nose, hair in a tight mushroom. It is intent, intense, almost a meditation. Perhaps it is what C.S. Lewis was talking about when he wrote that thing about Temptation - the best demons are the ones who can lure you into a sin you don't even enjoy. The other kind of face is a lost virginity, eyes darting about madly in search of promised happiness foundering in a sea of garish lights, while the alcohol fills out the corners of the face so that if you look long enough the edges seem disproportionate, bloated. Maybe the two kinds of faces are related; an effect-and-cause thing. I don't much feel like finding out, and I avoid their eyes.

It was the lights that finally drove me to seek shelter. There is something eerily disturbing about the blinking and the wheeling and the flashing, because your brain expects a corresponding level of noise. But late at night, when people start to drift away from the slot machines and congregate at the tables, a hush settles on the ranks upon ranks of slots, and the creeping silence over the constantly-shifting artificial lights stirs up a horrible urge to bolt screaming, if only to reassure yourself that you are not going deaf.

I did not scream. That would have led to a lot of interesting questions behind a locked door guarded by a thick bald suit named Boris. Instead I found a stairway and walked slowly up it, out of the surreal buzz of the Caesar's main floor, towards the top tier, and the Bacchanal.

The Bacchanal is a large restaurant on the third level of the casino. For a $65 flat rate you are admitted into a long room done up in the style of Rome as it was teetering on the fall of its Empire. The walls are covered in plants and deep-hued hangings, and the marble tables are long and thin. There is a fountain in the center of the hall with a slender statue rising out of it, staring about with sightless eyes. Musicians wander between the tables, and women with tall thin flagons wait to refill your glass. It is almost cheesy in its opulence, but the Bacchanal actually seems to believe its own weird pitch, and the result is decidedly unique to the East Coast, but I wouldn't want to be in there alone.

I slipped out of the hallway and located the men's room. Drinking clean water seemed particularly important in Atlantic City for some reason, and it produced the expected results. I noticed nothing unusual until I went to wash my hands. There were three choices of soap, two choices of lotion, a small bottle of mouthwash, a tube of toothpicks, a toll of dental floss, shoe shine, and a fingernail trimmer, all lying neatly on a swivel tray near the sink. I turned to look for some paper towels, or at least a air dryer, but there was nothing mounted on the marble walls. I turned back toward the stalls, and almost bumped into a sober man in a tuxedo, who was holding out a linen finger towel for my use. I was so unbalanced that I even forgot to tip him. It was time to leave. I walked quickly to the gold tube-elevator and back out onto the boardwalk, into the thick night air.


Dr. Brigham’s offenses are a matter of public record, but a concise list can be found at http://www.constitutional.net/Luksik/abortion.html

Notes from the Front; Why We Fight: For Schindler to Weep

The following list was taken from an Illinois consultative and diagnostic pathology laborotory in 2003.

• Unprocessed Specimen ( > 8 weeks) $70
• Unprocessed Specimen ( < 8 weeks) $50
• Livers ( < 8 weeks) $150
• Livers ( > 8 weeks) $125
• Spleens ( < 8 weeks) $75
• Spleens ( > 8 weeks) $50
• Pancreas ( < 8 weeks) $100
• Pancreas ( > 8 weeks) $75
• Thymus ( < 8 weeks) $100
• Thymus ( > 8 weeks) $75
• Intestines & Mesentery $50
• Mesentery ( < 8 weeks) $125
• Mesentery ( > 8 weeks) $100
• Kidney with/without adrenal ( < 8 weeks) $125
• Kidney with/without adrenal ( > 8 weeks) $100
• Limbs (at least 2) $150
• BRAIN ( < 8 weeks) $999
• BRAIN ( > 8 weeks) $150
• Pituitary Gland ( > 8 weeks) $300
• Bone Marrow ( < 8 weeks) $350
• Bone Marrow ( > 8 weeks) $250
• Ears ( < 8 weeks) $75
• Ears ( > 8 weeks) $50
• Eyes ( < 8 weeks) $75
• Eyes ( > 8 weeks) $50
• Skin ( > 8 weeks) $100
• Lungs & Heart Block $150
• Intact Embryonic Cadaver ( < 8 weeks) $400
• Intact Embryonic Cadaver ( > 8 weeks) $600
• Intact Caldarium $125
• Intact Trunk (with/without limbs) $500
• Gonads $550
• Cord Blood (snap frozen LN2) $120
• Spinal Column $150
• Spinal Cord $320