“A defender of the church,” proclaimed the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel headline for an extensive story about the new Archbishop-designate, Jerome Listecki. The subtitle for the article was: “Archbishop designate Listecki vows collaboration, but unafraid of debate.” The subtitle was probably derived from the bishop’s description of how he planned to participate in the political process. He said: “If we don’t challenge one another’s statements, then we’re relinquishing our responsibility to the common good.”
The following month, young Catholics for Choice (yCFC – a Washington D.C. based organization) and Family Planning Health Services (FPHS – an agency with family planning clinics in eight Wisconsin counties) formed a unique sectarian-secular advertising partnership, produced informational ads for broadcast, and then embarked on a two-day Wisconsin “road-trip” to draw media attention to their campaign and to build public (including the Catholic public) awareness and knowledge about emergency contraception.
The purpose of the joint media campaign was two-fold; 1) to inform the public about how Plan B works so they would have it on hand in advance of need and, 2) to inform Catholic women of reproductive age that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops health care directives permit the use of emergency contraception to prevent pregnancies resulting from rape.
In the January 2010 issue of the Journal of the Catholic Health Association of the United States, Ron Hamel, Ph.D., makes it very clear that the ethics of access to emergency contraception for Catholics needs to be fully examined and explained. Professor Hamel’s article and the YCFC/FPHS EC campaign are an effort to fulfill that responsibility when there is significant resistance.
The campaign succeeded in getting a response from the Archbishop-designate and thus succeeded in its secondary purpose. The headline on the Christmas Eve edition of the La Crosse Diocesan newspaper is: “Bishop Rejects Young Catholics for Choice Message.” The front page column ran adjacent to the departing bishop’s message. But what he rejected so prominently: “ . . . that Catholics can disregard Church teaching on contraception, abortion, and human sexuality in general and remain Catholics in good standing,” was only weakly connected to the message that yCFC and Family Planning Health Services (FPHS) were promoting.
Bishop Listecki, like most of the Catholic protestors in front of the FPHS clinic, will allow “no room for interpretation,” once the bishop’s authority has been invoked. Many within the church see the bishop’s pattern of authoritarian rebukes, condemnations, and admonitions as futile efforts to suppress dissent and they understand they are not the views of other Catholics or even the other American bishops. Just as importantly, the denials and condemnations are not solely inflicted on the faithful. The prayer vigil protestors’ and Bishop Listecki’s efforts to eliminate access to emergency contraception, if they succeed, would apply to women regardless of their faith.
Erik Cieslewicz and Brooke Sperry have produced a documentary about the joint campaign that will be released February 17th, 2010. The web-posting will occur on the same day that another Lenten prayer vigil outside an FPHS clinic (which does not provide abortion services) begins in central Wisconsin. The video shows the challenge as well as the fun of the effort to educate the public in the face of consistent efforts to suppress and to misinform. Earlier, “40 Days for Life” prayer vigils played a large part in motivating FPHS and yCFC to cooperate in the advertising effort to correct misinformation being spread by their opponents.
Wisconsin has taken steps to advance the scope of the sex education our students will receive with the recently passed Healthy Youth Act. Wisconsin State Representative Donna Seidel talks with Dino Corvino in the attached podcast outlining the reasons behind this legislation. Across the nation, the rates of teen pregnancy have increased. The accompanying article from the Washington Post, January 1-26-2010, outlines what has happened and the increases in teen pregnancies in the last few years. Representative Seidel clarifies just why that is a concern for all of us
It appears Baltimore has found a solution to an issue that affects women seeking reproductive care across the United States. A disclaimer law would be a start at reducing the number of women who are unable to get the care they seek at a CPC. Service agencies should not dupe the people who come to them seeking comprehensive care. This law would address just that issue.
Imagine a friend of yours, a pregnant woman, walks into an office seeking information about her pregnancy. Only, it’s not a doctor’s office and they’re not going to tell her the truth. Unfortunately, this happens every day across the United States.
O would some power the giftie gie us to see ourselves as others see us.
(O would some power the gift to give us to see ourselves as others see us.)
Robert Burns, Poem “To a Louse” – verse 8
Scottish national poet (1759 – 1796)
For almost a year now, Pro-Life Wisconsin (PLW) has maintained a protest campaign at our family planning and WIC clinics in Central Wisconsin. PLW activities have included a ‘verbal hijacking’ of our Raising Women’s Voices “Speak Out” on women’s health care so that those who wished to speak on issues unrelated to abortion or contraception were by-and-large unheard in the auditorium. Over the Lenten season, PLW and its local supporters participated in the “40 Days for Life” national campaign — conducting a ‘continuous’ prayer vigil outside our clinic offices. When asked by local reporters why they were participating in this effort, they said it was to stop abortion. We do not perform abortions at any of our facilities. As the 40 Days effort has come to an end, we want to share what we have learned.
Patrick McIlheran, a conservative columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, startled me with a ‘quick hit’ that was printed in the Easter Sunday edition. The columnist trumpets a letter to the Washington Post by Harvard School of Public Health HIV/Aids researcher, Edward Green, where, according to McIlheran, Green said: “The pope is correct.” Katherine Kersten, blogging for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune also is amplifying Green’s assertion that current evidence on condom use in Africa supports the Pope’s position. My thoughts are: “Get ready, there’s a whole lot more where that came from and there will be a lot more for a long time.”
On Friday, April 3, at the conclusion of the annual meeting of the United Nations Commission on Population and Development, the international community pledged to ramp up efforts to improve women’s health and reduce poverty in the developing world. And for the first time in eight years, the United States was front and center in advocating an increased global commitment to reproductive health and rights.
My friend Anne, who is a family planning educator in Oneida County, sent me this article. We at FPHS were already noting a request for long-term, low maintenance methods. This was a post on the Huffington Post on Friday, March 27th, written by Christina Page the author of How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America.
For the President and Congress to achieve solid reproductive health care policy as a part of health care reform, the Obama administration will need to sideline a few of the professional wrestlers and sports announcers in the abortion rights contest. The ongoing face-off between the “Medical Right” and my pro-choice colleagues over access to contraception, comprehensive sex education, and legal access to abortion provides a dramatized competition that does not reflect the real lives of Americans. In their personal choices, citizens have accepted and embraced the right to informed consent on reproductive health issues. In this case, public policy should reflect private behavior.
Today we had to ask one of the protesters to move his truck out of our parking lot. I understand that it’s inconvenient to have to walk a few blocks, but I’d rather inconvenience him than the parents coming into our WIC clinic who need to negotiate strollers and car carriers. This time of year, you never know when the temperature is going to change and the sidewalks will suddenly turn into skating rinks. I’m very grateful that to date this is the largest inconvenience we’ve encountered. I’m hopeful things will continue to be respectful.
It is somewhat surprising the number of families we’ve seen praying outside the clinic. Prior to the campaign, we saw one family on a regular basis, but now there are a few. I’m a little challenged when it comes to the issue of the kids. This summer one of the children was quite adamant about not wanting to be protesting (praying) because it was boring. These kids seem to be praying, but I have to repress the desire to bring them some hot tea and a basketball.
