Postcard campaign coming to parishes

Pro-lifers working hard to keep pro-abortion legislation from being enacted.

ANNE DIBERNARDO | FLORIDA CATHOLIC CORRESPONDENT

Posted: 01.16.09

ANNE DIBERNARDO | FC
Martha Valladares, her face covered by a “Keep Abortion Legal” sign, prays a rosary for life despite harassment from pro–choice demonstrators outside the abortion facility on SW 117th Ave. and Sunset Drive in Miami Nov. 22.

MIAMI | Though many abortion opponents were discouraged at first by the results of the Nov. 4 election, pro-life supporters in Florida are regrouping and focusing their efforts on making sure the Freedom of Choice Act is not signed into law by President-elect Barack Obama.

“Now is the time to come together,” said Father Alfred Cioffi, a Miami priest with doctorate degrees in moral theology and genetics who works with the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia. “If there is a silver lining in all of this, it is that this should drive us even more.”

Floridians are being asked to send postcards to their senators and congressional representatives urging them not to vote for FOCA “or other pro-abortion bills” that might be introduced in the upcoming session of Congress. The postcard campaign will take place the weekend of Jan. 24-25 in all parishes.

According to announcements being placed in parish bulletins throughout the state this month, if FOCA is passed “abortion would become an entitlement the government must fund and promote. … (I)t will put at risk all the widely supported laws that for 35 years have promoted women’s health, ensured informed consent, protected minors, ensured parental involvement, safeguarded rights of conscience, and respected the desire of most citizens to not support abortion with their tax dollars.”

At a July 2007 address to Planned Parenthood, President-elect Obama said signing FOCA into law would be “the first thing I’d do as president.” The possibility that FOCA or similar legislation will be considered has brought a special urgency to this year’s Jan. 22 March for Life in Washington. (Please see story, Page A?)

However, the bill has languished in Congress for 20 years, having been introduced only once – in 1993, when Democrats controlled the House, Senate and White House. At the time, the judiciary committee moved the bill to the floor but it never came up for debate in either the House or Senate.

Pro-lifers want to keep it that way. Some also fear President-elect Obama will use his executive powers to reverse the ban on federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research; repeal the Hyde amendment, which bars federal funding of abortions; and reject the Mexico City policy, which prohibits foreign-aid money from going to family planning programs that promote and offer abortion.

The U.S. bishops, in a congratulatory message to President-elect Obama immediately after his election, said they looked forward to working with the new administration at “this moment of historic transition.” And many Catholics are among the president-elect’s supporters. (Please see story, Page A?)

But the bishops reminded the newly elected president that “the recent election was principally decided out of concern for the economy, for the loss of jobs and homes and financial security for families. … If the election is misinterpreted ideologically as a referendum on abortion, the unity desired by President-elect Obama and all Americans at this moment of crisis will be impossible to achieve.”

Barbara Groeber, director of education for the Archdiocese of Miami’s respect life ministry, agreed that “the forces against us were insurmountable.”

After the election, she said she “had a sinking feeling. Where was God? I felt a sense of being abandoned.” Later she came to realize that, like the apostles after the crucifixion, “we were seeing things through the finite vision of our human minds.”

“In this amazing time in American history,” she said, “we can trust that not only has God not forsaken us, but he is orchestrating a plan for his faithful. We need not be afraid.”

She recommends that people join respect life groups in order to stay emotionally charged and keep the face of abortion in the forefront.

“The only way to keep from feeling negative and hopeless is by praying and surrounding yourself with other pro-lifers who get it,” Groeber said.

Some people are doing just that.

Diana Gonzalez, who organizes a weekly prayer vigil outside an abortion facility in southern Miami-Dade County, said, “The first Saturday after the election we didn’t know what to expect, but about 100 people showed up. … It was so uplifting and it just goes to show that, no matter what, God is with us and we’re going to continue to fight. We are more emboldened by this than anything. Evil does not prevail. It’s just a setback.”

Adriana and Ernesto Sosa, who attend Blessed Trinity Parish in Miami Springs, said they were very concerned about the outcome of the election and the direction the new administration will take with pro-life issues. So they volunteered to take over as respect life representatives for their parish.

“We have always been very passionate about pro-life issues and now we would like to play a more direct role and help educate people about the sanctity of human life,” Adriana Sosa said.

Father Cioffi encourages pro-life supporters to engage in legislative action, prayer, education and assistance to women who are expecting. He is also urging members of the pro-life community to write letters to the 19 members of the judiciary committee, who have the power to introduce FOCA during the legislative session.

Gonzalez has typed up 19 letters which are available by e-mail. They only need to be printed and mailed. “The Senate needs to be flooded with letters,” she said.

Father Cioffi also composed a petition – “May our President-elect come to the realization that the life of the unborn is worth as much as his own life” – which he encourages pro-life supporters to pray.

Gonzalez glued them onto every prayer book and her group is now praying it between each decade of their rosary vigil outside the abortion clinic.

Chris Wills, general director of God Squad Communications, a youth ministry that capitalizes on the power of Internet to evangelize, has designed a pro-life Web site – www.joinlifeguards.org.

“FOCA is a reminder that elections have consequences,” Wills said. “If we in the respect life movement stand up and oppose FOCA, our congressmen have a duty to represent us.”

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