In the April 29th edition of the Florida Catholic, the Editorial was a commentary on the so called "March for Women's Lives", which took place recently in Washington D.C.. I believe the editorial is worth reprinting for those of you who did not read it. (If you are not on our Florida Catholic mailing list and would like to be, please call the parish office and we will add your name. The April 29th Florida Catholic editorial writes:

More than a million people gathered in Washington D.C., last weekend for what was billed as "The March for Women's Lives." Abortion rights advocates sponsored the rally to call attention to what they say are lives being put in danger by lack of access to abortion.

Anti-abortion activists, some of whom staged counter-protests, turned the words around a bit, and called it "The Death March," pointing out that every abortion ends up with at least one victim dead-and often wounds the pregnant mother physically or emotionally.

What the "March for Women's Lives" promoters didn't say was that very, very, very few pregnancies threaten the life of the mother. They claim always that exceptions for "health" includes anxiety over the pregnancy.

And while the march claimed to be about women's lives, clearly the entire pro-abortion agenda is on the table. Here's what Gloria Feldt, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, had to say at the march: "My friends-make no mistake. There is a war on choice. We didn't start it, but we are going to win it!"

The hypocrisy: They did start it, by convincing two women to be the test cases for abortion on demand, resulting in the Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton decisions in 1973. Norma McCorvey, the "Jane Roe" in Roe v. Wade, has since realized the mistake, recanted her advocacy for abortion and pointed out that the case was never about her rights, but about the agenda of those organizations that "helped" her file the lawsuit.

More from Feldt: "They're not just after abortion rights. This is a full-throttle war on your very health-on your access to real sex education, birth control, medical privacy and life-saving research."

The hypocrisy: Pro-abortion organizations attempt to deny the link between abortion and a higher onset of breast cancer, despite more than 30 studies pointing to a link. If abortion rights advocates truly want to promote "life-saving research," why don't they tell women about this link and these studies? (For more information, see www.abortionbreastcancer.com or www.bcpinstitute.org.)

Also at the march, Kate Michelman, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said, "My greatest wish is that there would never be another political debate about the right to choose."

The hypocrisy: Michelman and her allies lost the partial-birth abortion debate, but want to open it again. Most Americans favored it and it was passed by Congress and finally signed by President George W. Bush, after the previous president consistently vetoed the legislation. But, abortion supporters want this debate to continue, and they have sued to block enactment of the legislation. It may turn your stomach, but if you think it is important to know what abortion providers have to say about their procedures, under oath, check out some of the testimony from these court challenges at www.usccb.org/prolife/indes.htm.

In the California challenge to the partial-birth abortion ban, one abortionist, who would only testify under a pseudonym (Dr. Doe), was asked what happens when he tries to deliver a fetus but the mother's body is not ready, so the cervix is not dilated enough for the head (in medical terms, the "calvarium") to pass through the birth canal. The doctor talked about separating the head from the rest of the body, and crushing the skull. The doctor was asked: "Could there potentially be risks to the cervix when you are opening the forceps wide enough to get around the calvarium?" The doctor answered "Yes." He also admitted the risk of a perforation or a laceration of the cervix or the lower uterine segment.

The hypocrisy: Most doctors don't tell the patients about these risks.

Another march participant, Silvia Henriquez, executive director of the National Latina Institute of Reproductive Health, said, "We demand an end to coercive and punitive policies that prevent us from making informed decisions about our health, our lives and our futures!"

The hypocrisy: Abortion advocates block every possible attempt at informed consent legislation that would require doctors to provide the same kind of information to abortion patients that every other surgical patient must receive. They block every attempt to regulate abortion clinics in similar manners to other medical facilities. They block every attempt to inform and involve parents in medical decisions affecting their minor children.

The March for Women's Lives was a travesty. It would have been better called the March of Hypocrisy.