Jenna Tosh returned home from a walk with her family Saturday morning  to an unwelcome surprise: 28 pro-life activists conducting an awareness campaign in front of her home.

Jenna promptly burst into tears.

This spring 28-yr-old Jenna was promoted to the position of CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando in Florida. One of the two clinics Jenna oversees commits abortion.

Jenna lives on a busy street in Winter Park.  Why did she start crying Saturday? She could have been humiliated by the exposure. She could have been upset that her young son saw graphic photos of how she makes her living. She could have been shocked at the realization her home was no longer a respite. The best hope is Jenna’s heart was pierced, and she’s on the road to a conversion. I do know a lot of people were praying for Jenna Saturday and continue to pray.

Here’s the short version of Jenna’s response to the pro-lifers…

Pro-lifers  conducted their awareness campaign for 1-1/2 hours. During that time Jenna’s husband turned on the sprinkler system, and they also called the police.

Police told one of the pro-lifers they were called to the home under false pretenses. Whoever called them claimed the pro-lifers were playing loud music, yelling at cars passing by, and blocking the road and sidewalk, none of which turned out to be true, as he noted. “He observed only people in cars yelling at us,” wrote the pro-lifer.

As Michele Herzog, one of the pro-lifers, told me, the goal of pro-life protests at the homes of abortion providers is “‘to speak up for those who have no voice’ (Proverbs 31:8) and ‘to have nothing to do with the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but to rather expose them’ (Ephesians 5:11).”

In the past these awareness campaigns have borne fruit, the most recent example being just a couple months ago, also in Florida, when abortionist Scott Hye saw the light and quit the trade. We pray Jenna also sees the light. Jenna, you have a PhD, for heaven sakes. You could do so much better.

Here is the long version of the Saturday protest at Jenna’s home, prepared by Jay Rogers, who also wrote a detailed post about it…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvB4E9__FAU[/youtube]

According to CRS, its membership in the CORE Group is a “means of demonstrating our faithfulness to church teaching.” This defense, however, will be hard to use with MEDiCAM.

Membership in such an organization, because of its deep involvement in the expansion of abortion in Cambodia, would be comparable to membership in the International Planned Parenthood Federation.

~ Societas Restituo Catholicam blog exposing, with visual evidence, the involvement of Catholic Relief Services with organizations that openly support abortion and contraception overseas, August 16

[HT: Jill]

Here were my top five favorite political cartoons this week on Joe Biden’s incredibly degrading gaffe (and why is no one in the media questioning this man’s ability to be president?)…

by Eric Allie at Townhall.com…

 by Henry Payne at Townhall.com…

 by Chip Bok at GoComics.com…

 by (liberal) Mike Luckovich at GoComics.com…

 by Steve Kelley at Townhall.com…

 And I close this segment with a fitting trip down memory lane. I give you Aretha…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StScwYJiImQ[/youtube]

Ironically, the same four words became a rallying cry for both women. The same simple words are spoken from opposite ends of the universe, with meanings directly contrary to each other.

“This is my body” describes the pro-choice, pro-abortion rights mentality in the most succinct way possible. I own this body and all its potential. I decide whether the child occupying space in my womb lives or dies. I answer to no one but myself.

“This is My Body” meant something entirely different to Gray, and to everyone involved in the anti-abortion work and advocacy. Those were the sacrificial words spoken by Jesus Christ.

But you don’t have to be Christian to understand Jesus’ message about love and selflessness. Christ teaches the meaning of love: I sacrifice myself for the good of the other person. Abortion teaches the opposite of love: I sacrifice the other person for the good of myself. Christ gives his body away so others might live; abortion-rights supporters cling to their own bodies so others might die.

~ Fr. Frank Pavone, national director for Priests for Life, on the basic ideological differences between “Cosmo Girl” Helen Gurley Brown and March for Life founder Nellie Gray, who both died August 13. Brown was 90 and Gray was 88.

From rolereboot.com comes a piece written by a clearly depressed woman also suffering from feelings of low self-worth.

Here’s an excerpt from the sad article entitled, “I Wish My Mother Had Aborted Me”:

An abortion would have been best for me because there is no way that my love-starved trauma-addled mother could have ever put me up for adoption. It was either abortion or raising me herself, and she was in no position to raise a child. She had suffered a traumatic brain injury, witnessed and experienced severe domestic violence, and while she was in grade school she was raped by a stranger and her mother committed suicide. She was severely depressed and suicidal, had an extremely poor support system, was experiencing an unplanned pregnancy that resulted from coercive sex, and she was so young that her brain was still undeveloped.

With that constellation of factors, there was a very high statistical probability that my mother would be an abusive parent, that we would spend the rest of our lives in crushing poverty, and that we would both be highly vulnerable to predatory organizations and men. And that is exactly what happened. She abused me, beating me viciously and often. We lived in bone-crushing poverty, and our little family became a magnet for predatory men and organizations. My mother found minimal support in a small church, and became involved with the pastor who was undeniably schizophrenic, narcissistic, and sadistic. The abuse I endured was compounded by deprivation. Before the age of 14, I had never been to a sleep-over, been allowed to talk to a friend on the phone, eaten in a restaurant, watched a television show, listened to the radio, read a non-Christian book, or even worn a pair of jeans.

If this were an anti-choice story, this is the part where I would tell you how I overcame great odds and my life now has special meaning. I would ask you to affirm that, of course, you are happy I was born, and that the world would be a darker, poorer place without me.

It is true that in the past 12 years, I have been able to rise above the circumstances of my birth and build a life that I truly love. But no one should have to make such a Herculean struggle for simple normalcy. Even given the happiness and success I now enjoy, if I could go back in time and make the choice for my mother, it would be abortion.

The world would not be a darker or poorer place without me. Actually, in terms of contributions to the world, I am a net loss. Everything that I have done – including parenting, teaching, researching, and being a loving partner – could have been done as well if not better by other people. Any positive contributions that I have made are completely offset by what it has cost society to help me overcome the disadvantages and injuries of my childhood to become a functional and contributing member of society.

It is not easy to say, “I wish my mother had aborted me.” The Right would have us see abortion as women acting out of cowardice, selfishness, or convenience. But for many women, like my mother, abortion would be an inconvenient act of courage and selflessness. I am sad for both of us that she could not find the courage and selflessness. But my attitude is that as long as I am already here, I might as well do all I can to make the world a better place, to ease the suffering of others, and to experience love and life to its fullest.

Thoughts? How do you respond?

Surely trying to ensure that your children have the best, or a good enough, opportunity for a great life is responsible parenting?

So where genetic selection aims to bring out a trait that clearly benefits an individual and society, we should allow parents the choice.

To do otherwise is to consign those who come after us to the ball and chain of our squeamishness and irrationality.

Indeed, when it comes to screening out personality flaws, such as potential alcoholism, psychopathy and disposition to violence, you could argue that people have a moral obligation to select ethically better children.

They are, after all, less likely to harm themselves and others.

If we have the power to intervene in the nature of our offspring – rather than consigning them to the natural lottery – then we should.

~ Oxford Professor Julian Savulescu, also the editor-in-chief of Journal of Medical Ethics, explaining the pluses of creating designer babies as science increasingly identifies personality markers, as quoted in The Telegraph, August 16

[HT: Kelli]

Abortion proponents are growing ever more uncivil as they sense the downfall of their deadly cause and beloved storefront, Planned Parenthood. From PostCrescent.com, August 17:

[Read the rest of this entry…]

This isn’t a new daily feature (unless someone wants to take it on!), but I had to post this awesome photo, via The Tennessean, to start our weekend on a high note (click to enlarge)…

Reported The Tennessean, August 17:

A longtime Knoxville abortion provider closed its doors, blaming a newly enacted Tennessee law that requires doctors performing abortions to hold admitting privileges at local hospitals.

The Volunteer Women’s Medical Clinic had two physicians providing abortions. One died after suffering a stroke within days of obtaining hospital privileges, said clinic director Deb Walsh. Another retired physician working with the clinic has not obtained privileges.

“I’ve been able to keep the doors open and the phone staff working up until this week,” Walsh wrote in a public letter titled, “End of an Era.”

And good riddance.

One more bit of good news from the article:

The clinic’s closure drops to eight the number of abortion clinics operating in the state, down from 16 a decade ago.

[HT: Pro-Life Action League on Facebook]