Here’s a letter to our liberal local newspaper, and below it is my response. They were quick to publish a pro-abortion letter. Let’s see if they will publish the response.
Defends Planned Parenthood against genocide allegations
Published: 12:51 p.m., Friday, December 24, 2010
Regarding Darlene Senete’s letter of Dec. 10, I was appalled at the distortions, outright falsehoods, and slander used to promote her anti-choice agenda. The film she discusses was produced by Life Dynamics, a virulent anti-choice organization.
She writes of the emancipated slaves as an “economic liability of the wealthy elite.” Nonsense. The wealthy elite seized upon the opportunity to continue keeping black people as virtual slaves, as sharecroppers, etc. The larger the slave or sharecropper family, the more no- or low-cost labor for the wealthy. Black women were allowed no choice.
Today, of black women who choose abortion, three quarters cite economic problems as the reason. Therefore, to reduce black abortion rates, Senete might consider supporting better jobs and pay, rather than victimizing black women once again.
As for taxpayer-funded abortions, federal funds are specifically forbidden to be used for that purpose, either in the United States or abroad. The law that Senete cites as having been banned or rescinded by various administrations is the “gag rule.” It has to do with freedom of speech, as to whether a woman can be told of the full options available to her when confronted with a problem pregnancy. It has nothing to do with tax money.
I can’t end this letter without expressing my disdain for anyone who would slander Planned Parenthood, an exemplary organization that provides education and planning to help women avoid problem pregnancies and their consequent abortions. According to the Guttmacher Institute, abortions have declined each year since records have been kept.
In 1973 there were a million and a half abortions, in 2005 there were 820,000. As for weapons of mass destruction, WHO (World Health Organization) cites illegal and unsafe abortions as causing 78,000 deaths and 600,000 pregnancy-related injuries each year.
It’s not Planned Parenthood, it’s the coat hanger, the crochet hook, the caustic fluids, the slivers of wood, the dung, the people who want to make abortion illegal — these are the weapons of mass destruction:
Shirley Bernard
Redding
TO THE EDITOR:
Shirley Bernard (Dec. 24) expressed her disdain for anyone, like Doreen Senete (Dec. 10) who would “slander” an “exemplary” organization like Planned Parenthood. Does she not know that PP is the foremost abortion provider in our country? For Planned Parenthood, killing unborn babies is a business. They do not help women become parents as their name might imply. Unlike the workers in Crisis Pregnancy Centers, PP employees are PAID to do what they do. And they specialize in killing unborn boys and girls.
Look up “Crisis Pregnancy Centers” on your computer and learn what CPCs have to offer the pregnant woman who needs help — and these people are volunteers, helping out on their own time, with their own dime. Then look on Youtube for “Planned Parenthood exposed” and watch what happens on undercover visits to various PP clinics. Also on Youtube look up “Abby Johnson” who was Director of a PP in Texas until she was so convicted by what she saw on an ultrasound that she left her job and became pro-life. Her book,unPLANNED, comes out this month.
Finally, I urge you to take Ms. Senete’s advice to go to Maafa21.com. The video she recommends is well documented. Alveda King, niece of Martin Luther King, has said that “Planned Parenthood is carrying out black genocide right under our very noses.” Even though Blacks make up less than 12% of the population, they account for more than 37% of abortions. Approximately 50% of black babies are aborted.
Don’t be deceived. ALL babies (even black ones) are precious in the sight of God. As Rev. Hunter (a black pastor) writes: “I have to wonder, how many of the politicians tolerate abortion because they think the right babies are being killed.”
“Natural” is in! The pristine forest! Pure uncontaminated water! In many ways people believe that “natural” is best. There is, for example, a strong movement to return to “organic” foods. Also, after years of bottle-feeding for babies, the return to breastfeeding is thriving. I have been writing for fifty years about the reasons why “breast is best” and am heartened to see prime-time commercials by WIC and WHO urging women to nurse their babies for better health. The once strong move toward natural childbirth, however, seems to be flagging. A few women are on that bandwagon, having babies with midwives and doulas, but many more seem to opt for births with injections and medications to relieve pain or strengthen contractions, and often even have Cesareans which are not of medical necessity.
On the other hand, who nowadays goes around saying that natural sex is best? Hardly anyone.* Methods of “having sex” abound. Only one of them can be considered natural. Sex is only natural when the sperm ends up in a woman’s vagina. By analogy, eating would not be considered natural if food were placed in ear or rectum! The mouth is obviously designed for eating, witness the taste buds, teeth, tongue, saliva, swallowing mechanism, and tube to the stomach. Food in inappropriate places only wreaks distress and causes disease. Likewise, only in heterosexual intercourse can sperm achieve their purpose. A vagina is marvelously accommodating and lubricated, resistant to infection, and heterosexual intercourse provides pleasure as a bonus to both parties!
How can it be imagined that natural sex would result in sperm in a baggie? How can it be imagined that natural sex can occur when a woman’s hormones are so deranged by contraceptives that she does not ovulate, that she does not emit the “come hither” pheromones of a “natural woman”? A woman on “the pill” has been rendered biologically sterile and then wonders why she has no desire, and does not arouse desire in men.
Years ago Herbert Ratner, MD, wrote about the two fluids that are produced by human beings which are not for themselves but for “the other.” The first, obviously, is the milk produced by a woman after she has given birth. Common sense decrees that it is for the baby. Science has demonstrated that it contains many chemicals that foster growth, reduce disease, enhance immunity, and so on, as well as providing that wonderful skin-to-skin closeness with its psychological benefits.
The second fluid produced for “the other” is the seminal fluid of a man. No one doubts that those little sperm swimming around with their 23 chromosomes are designed to meet up with an egg, also with 23 chromosomes, to produce a new human, with the proper complement of 46 chromosomes and an entirely different genome.
Less recognized, however, and just recently coming into its own, are the properties of the seminal fluid that carries the sperm. Does it do anything for “the other” — that is, the woman — besides provide a little lubrication?
Dear readers: I have come upon a secret treasure, a heretofore-unknown bounty of facts only recently unearthed by a team of evolutionary psychologists. A vital forewarning, though: although the data and information I am about to share oozes with the promise of dramatically improving virtually every aspect of your wellbeing, it can also be abused with tragic—even fatal—consequences. This is so much the case, in fact, that I debated the merits of popularizing this material and do so here only with great circumspection and caution. So please be wise in digesting this semen-related knowledge, and be wiser still in applying it to your own sex lives
Bering explains that only 1-5% of the male ejaculate consists of sperm cells. The fluid bearing the sperm is called the seminal plasma. “In fact, semen has a very complicated chemical profile, containing over 50 different compounds (including hormones, neurotransmitters, endorphins and immunosuppressants) each with a special function and occurring in different concentrations within the seminal plasma. Perhaps the most striking of these compounds is the bundle of mood-enhancing chemicals in semen. There is good in this goo. Such anxiolytic chemicals include, but are by no means limited to, cortisol (known to increase affection), estrone (which elevates mood), prolactin (a natural antidepressant), oxytocin (also elevates mood), thyrotropin-releasing hormone (another antidepressant), melatonin (a sleep-inducing agent) and even serotonin (perhaps the most well-known antidepressant neurotransmitter).”
It is not surprising in our current culture that in googling “beneficial effects of semen” we come up with reputed benefits from ingesting the semen! However, should the semen go to its intended destination, knowing that the vagina readily absorbs chemicals introduced into it, it is only logical to expect that the above mood-enhancing, anxiolytic, antidepressant results would be experienced by the female partner. Recent studies have indeed shown that semen has an antidepressant effect on a woman. Likewise, the female hormones present in the semen (follicle-stimulating hormone – FSH – and luteinizing hormone – LH) are presumed to hasten the ripening and release of eggs from the ovary following intercourse.
As we learn more and more about the constituents of the fluids intended for “the other” it seems a shame to pass up the benefits they offer. While natural breastfeeding is now popular, natural sex is hard to find in our society. Either the men are condom-clad or the women have their hormones synthetically altered, or both. We know pheromones are operative in the lower mammals. A bitch in heat will attract male dogs from miles around. It is believed that similar come-hither scents are operative in humans — there’s good money in selling colognes laced with pheromones – and it is also known that female monkeys cease to be sexually attractive to the males when they are given contraceptive pills. My post THE PHEROMONE CONNECTION goes into this in more detail.
While sex without a condom, with a woman fully hormonized (and harmonized), seems ideal, many would protest that natural sex would result in babies all over the place. Really? We have demographers complaining about a birth dearth. We have nations losing their identity because the natives are not having children but the Muslim immigrants are. It is said that France will be a Muslim nation in a decade or two. Germany cries “Where have all the children gone!”
Mr. Bering is seriously mistaken if he thinks learning about the benefits of semen is like discovering “a secret treasure.” As long ago as the 1980’s the previously mentioned Dr. Herbert Ratner wrote ….
— let us observe that the nursling’s gastrointestinal tract is physiologically, biochemically, and anatomically attuned to the digestion of breast milk, just as the vagina is attuned to coitus and the absorption of semen. Of immediate interest is the immunosuppressive effect of seminal plasma (the carrier of the sperm). This plasma contains very powerful prostaglandins, stronger than those to be found in any other biological tissue fluids…..The sturdy, muscular, multi-layered vaginal wall is so constituted that it absorbs the seminal plasma at a slow, modulated rate in order to produce mild immunosuppression sufficient to protect the sperm and embryo from maternal antibodies.
I dare say that Dr. Ratner, believing that humans are designed by a master designer, knew a priori there where would be “good in that goo” as Bering writes, and the science only confirmed it.
The natural, sensible, healthy alternative to make-believe sex has been slowly gaining ground – NATURAL FAMILY PLANNING. NFP is as effective as contraceptive pills or condoms with none of the expense, side-effects, or overriding of the woman’s hormonal harmony with synthetic hormones to shut her down and turn her off. Truly natural sex uses reason and self-discipline instead of artificial drugs and rubbers which make a mockery of the whole encounter.
Someone named Michael G. posted this comment on someone else’s blog. It says so well what I want to get across.
When we try to do life our own way, according to our own instruction manual, we get so frustrated, because we aren’t being used for the purpose for which we were designed. It’s like using a paintbrush to change a diaper, or a hammer to eat dinner. When something is serving its designer’s intent, effectiveness, impact, peace, and fulfillment are plentiful.
*Here I must add a plug for Patrick Coffin’s recent book, Sex Au Naturel, which is so well recommended by such well-qualified persons that I do not hesitate to second the recommendation. I was sorely tempted to use that title for this blog post because it says exactly what the whole thing is about. In due time I shall read Sex Au Naturel and there shall follow a post with that title.
A powerful video about a couple, not ready for the baby they had conceived — and a dream. Please watch Don’t Kill The Butterfly
When I find myself in times of trouble
Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be
And in my hour of darkness
She is standing right in front of me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be
Let it be, let it be
Let it be, let it be
Whisper words of wisdom
Let it be
~~~
He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God. — Micah 6:4
A few days ago I was struck by the headline in our local paper which said breast milk was “Like liquid gold” and I thought to myself, “How things have changed.” At the time that I nursed my babies, way back in the fifties and sixties, the swing was to bottle feeding. Bottle feeding was supposed to free mothers from being tied down to hungry babies, daddy could get up in the middle of the night and do “his part” in the feeding schedule, and you could see by the ounce markings on the bottle exactly how much the baby had taken. However, it soon became apparent that no amount of doctoring of cow’s milk (or goat or soy or whatever) could make it as good as mother’s milk.
When I learned that grandson Jason was expecting his first baby, the best thing I could think of to send for a shower gift to the mommy was the latest edition (7th) of The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, published by La Leche League. It is now fifty years since the first edition (1958) in which I wrote a chapter on The Father’s Role, which has long since been replaced. The founding doctors and nursing mothers who started LLL have a permanent place in my heart. Theirs was a ministry of love and encouraging mothers to breastfeed their babies is still a ministry of love. As the cover of the current edition says, “Babies are born to be breastfed” Who in their right mind could doubt it?
As I browse through my third edition of The Womanly Art I find on page 71 the words of psychiatrist Dr. Marilyn Bonham: “The outflow of [a mother’s] love and affection for the very young child is pure gold in the bank.” I’ve written about breastfeeding before, not only the benefits to the baby but to the mother. The baby, of course, gets a made-to-order food that changes appropriately with the age, supplying exactly what is needed at each stage — colostrum for the newborn, antibodies to afford immunity, the special nutrients need for the rapid growth of a baby’s brain in early months. A breastfed baby is sweet smelling (with sweet-smelling stools), doesn’t become constipated, and the pros go on and on. Nursing helps the mother’s internal organs to quickly return to normal and you might say she is forced by nature to provide what both mother and child need most at this time – skin-to-skin closeness, face-to-face enjoyment, and the knowledge that to this one person she is all-in-all for the time being. This is the baby’s first experience of love and the importance of the bonding cannot be overestimated.
No person or group knows more about breastfeeding than La Leche League. Their book now reflects fifty years of nursing experience from thousands of mothers world-wide.
And a new study, just published in the American Journal of Pediatrics (see link) says that the lives of nearly 900 babies would be saved each year, along with billions of dollars, if 90 percent of U.S. women breast-fed their babies for the first six months of life.
Ben Stein, host of the documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, actor, writer, economist, commentator, writes in September 2009 NewsMax:
Ben Stein
Once you have found yourself in a place you want to be, praise God. Don’t think you did it yourself. God put you there and deserves the praise. Plus, praising God is probably the single best use of your time and energy.
As for me, I have to get on my knees now and thank the God who let me earn a living yesterday by playing make-believe. And, as always, the men and women of the military who keep me free in a free country with their blood and their lives. They are not playing make-believe.
No wonder Mr. Stein writes things worth reading!
~~~
When I wrote about my MagicJack back in January, it was all new to me. Now, half a year later, I should report how happy I am to have it. In the past couple of days I have had nice long conversations with daughters in Indiana and New Mexico without having to think of mounting long distance charges or cell phone minutes accumulating. While perhaps not as clear as a telephone line, it is for my purposes quite satisfactory. NB: This is not a paid, or even a solicited advertisement!
~~~
Garden Report: On another front, my mole seems to be permanently gone from my garden. I cannot blame it for feeling unwelcome — after doses of Mint Moleblaster (with and without habanero peppers), after having its hole filled with rocks, etc., etc., it has vacated the premises. I wish I could say the garden did well but it rained almost every day this summer and something went dreadfully wrong with my tomatoes. The leaves just turned yellowish-gray and wilted away and the fruit had big brown spots. Less than a dozen were edible. For the first time in 40 years I will have no tomatoes frozen in my freezer for the coming winter. The (senior lapse here*) is deliriously happy and potatoes are yet to be harvested. Peppers are so-so. The weatherman reports that summer is over – we will have no more days over 90, he says. Actually, this is the summer that wasn’t. It just rained and rained and rarely was really hot. We did have plenty of humidity!
*Basil. It took me hours to come up with that word! I had ‘balsam’ in my mind and it wouldn’t move over and let the basil in. I was about to go out to the garden, pick some, and ask what its name was, when ‘basil’ came to mind. For someone who has always had plenty of words on the tip of my tongue, this is a humbling experience.
~~~
(From Marion via Barbara) As I was nursing my baby, my cousin’s six-year-old daughter, Krissy, came into the room. Never having seen anyone breast feed before, she was intrigued and full of all kinds of questions about what I was doing. After mulling over my answers, she remarked, ‘My mom has some of those, but I don’t think she knows how to use them.’
The Lord gives and the Lord takes away [harvests and memories]. Blessed be the name of the Lord. — Job 1:21
Many things arrive in my e-mail — some funny, some strange, others stupid, helpful, or cute. Occasionally one arrives that I consider worth sharing with the world. One such follows:
Recently, I overheard a mother and daughter in their last moments together at the airport. They had announced the departure. Standing near the security gate, they hugged, and the mother said, ‘I love you, and I pray you enough.’
The daughter replied, ‘ Mom, our life together has been more than enough. Your love is all I ever needed. I pray you enough, too, Mom ..’
They kissed, and the daughter left. The mother walked over to the window where I was seated. Standing there, I could see she wanted and needed to cry. I tried not to intrude on her privacy, but she welcomed me in by asking, ‘Did you ever say good-bye to someone knowing it would be forever?’
Yes, I have,’ I replied. ‘Forgive me for asking, but why is this a forever good-bye?’
‘Well…I’m not as young as I once was, she lives so far away & has her own busy life. I have some challenges ahead, and the reality is – her next trip back will be for my funeral,’ she said.
‘When you were saying good-bye, I heard you say, ‘I pray you enough.’ May I ask what that means?’
She began to smile. ‘That’s a prayer that has been handed down from other generations. My parents used to say it to everyone. She paused a moment and looked up as if trying to remember it in detail, and she smiled even more. ‘When we said, ‘I pray you enough,’ we wanted the other person to have a life filled with just enough good things to sustain them.’
Then, turning toward me, she shared the following as if she were reciting it from memory.
I pray you enough sun to keep your attitude bright no matter how gray the day may appear.
I pray you enough rain to appreciate the sun even more.
I pray you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive and everlasting.
I pray you enough pain so that even the smallest of joys in life may appear bigger.
I pray you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.
I pray you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.
I pray you enough hellos to get you through the final good-bye.
Then, she began to cry, and walked away.
To all who may read this, especially to my children and their loved ones,
I PRAY YOU ENOUGH…….
To those who would like to celebrate Mother’s Day by vicariously experiencing the water-birth of a baby, click here.
~~~
Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD your God gives you. — Exodus 20:12
There she is. Celebrate the child! The amazing gift. The baby. Her name is Kaylin. The gift of her father to her mother. The gift of the mother to the father. The gift of God to them both.
KAYLIN
Her greatgrandma says: “Went for her 2 week checkup and she had gained 1 lb 1oz and grew an inch. That breast milk is good stuff ….”
Kaylin and Greatgrandma
Once upon a time greatgrandma was my baby sister, Dolly. Another gift.
Kaylin and Greatgrandpop Dwight
Kaylin and her Mommy
~~~
For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:11.
When this article as published way back in 1955, breast-feeding was a lost art. Most babies were bottle-fed and I knew of no woman who nursed her baby. Breastfeeding was at that time counter-cultural. The first La Leche League group was formed in l958 and their The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding was written to fill a very real need. Is is not amazing that a normal, natural, motherly action could be so supplanted by a contrived, bothersome, inferior method of baby feeding? It makes one wonder about the common sense of womankind.
The swing is back to normal mothering but individual mothers still need encouragement to persevere, especially when they know there is a workable alternative if they run into problems. If you, like me, have no friend, relative, or mother to cheer you on, I think the following should be helpful. Reading it over some fifty years later, there are some sentences that I might want to tweak a bit, but human nature and human physiology do not change significantly in a mere half-century. Much is written nowadays about the importance of finding time for one-on-one relationships. Much is said about the need for busy mothers to find a little time to relax so that they don’t get so overwhelmed. Just settle down, with a baby at the breast, and let the oxytocin flow — it’s like a little oasis!
YOU CAN NURSE YOUR BABY
I once heard of a woman who filled up so much after her baby was born that she couldn’t buy a bra big enough to fit her. But she couldn’t nurse her baby. She had “that blue milk, you know.” And every time I think of her I grieve a little for the baby that would have thrived on that abundance of blue milk — for it cannot be disputed that human milk is the best baby food. True, it is bluer than cow’s milk — and for good reason. It has less protein, less fat, and more sugar than cow’s milk. Its composition is different because it is intended for a baby, not a calf. By the time cow’s milk is properly doctored up with a formula (water and some form of sugar are added to cow’s milk for no other reason than to make it more like breast milk) it, too, has a bluish-white color. Read the rest of this entry »
Because I am sure that there are new nursing mothers in this day and age who are just as clueless as I was back in the l940’s, I offer the following for whatever insights it may present.
Before La Leche League came into being, I was a nursing mother. And if that doesn’t sufficiently date me, consider the fact that the babies I was nursing at that time now have nursed their own babies. La Leche League, in the meantime, has grown from two groups to over thousands of groups internationally, and the swing back to breastfeeding is heartening to behold.
Studies have shown that the percentage of nursing mothers among college graduates is higher than among women with less education. It is the well-informed woman who is most aware of the physical and psychological advantages of breastfeeding. It is the smart woman who is in the vanguard of the movement back to breastfeeding.
But the nursing mother is not content to be smart; she wants to look smart! In the “olden days” when I decided to nurse my first baby I thought I was, as the same time, consigning myself to a monotonous succession of button-front or zipper-front dresses. I owned only one such dress, plus a couple of blouses that buttoned, so you can see how much I was prepared to suffer style-wise for the sake of my child. When I ordered the one variety of nursing bra that was offered in the Sears catalog, my nursing wardrobe was complete. Read the rest of this entry »
“I think Pinky is going to have babies,” I remarked casually one day. “I think she is, too,” said six-year-old Terry. “Her tummy is fat like yours was before you got John.”
“…And Katy and Peggy and you and me,” added Wendy, from her eight years of experience.
When Pinky had come to us the previous fall as a young cat, we had not been enthusiastic. Living in small quarters with a fairly large family, we figured if there was one thing we didn’t need, it was a cat. We gave her a saucer of milk and figured she would disappear as had the other cats the children had brought home before her. But Pinky was different. She decided we were her family, despite tail-pulling by toddlers, eating only table scraps, and spending most of the winter outdoors. She was gentle, very affectionate, and smart, as cats go — smart enough to keep out of sight until the smaller tots became used to her and ignored her presence.
However, when spring brought evidence of Pinky’s approaching motherhood, she was no longer persona non grata–in spite of the fact that if there is one thing we figured we didn’t need it was more cats. The whole family looked forward to her approaching accouchement. Read the rest of this entry »
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