I remember an immensely popular game show entitled “To Tell the Truth.” It began its long television tenure in 1969 and my mother loved to watch it. For those unfamiliar with the show, there were three contestants who attempted to deceive a four member panel of celebrities as to their true identity. One of them was the actual person associated with the events which were told to the contestants in a sworn affidavit read on the air. It recounted the story of the real person. Some of the stories were humorous, others inspirational and still others quite serious. All of the stories gripped the viewers and the celebrity panelists who would then attempt, through a series of questions, to find the truth by exposing the liars. After the questions, the panelists would vote as to whom they believed was telling the truth and the viewers at home, long before the potential for actual audience participation, would also make their own choice. Finally, the real person would stand. Usually, it was quite a surprise to both the celebrity panelists as well as the viewers.
I was reminded of the show this morning when I read a newspaper report out of California indicating that “abortion rights” activists were defacing advertisements appearing in trains and buses that contained messages they did not like. The Respect Life Ministry of the Oakland Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church paid for the ads. They are tasteful, true and extremely effective. They all ask the question "Abortion: Have we gone too far?" My readers can find these excellent ads at an equally effective web site developed by the “Second Look Project”. (www.secondlookproject.org/)
A vocal and angry group of activists, many associated with an organization called “Code Pink”, have besieged the Bay Area Rapid Transit demanding that the ads be removed. Hundreds of the ads have been ripped down and/or defaced with profanity; including direct, blatant anti-Catholic slurs. In some instances they have been covered over with propaganda espousing abortion on demand as a “right.” Proponents of abortion on demand, throughout all nine months of pregnancy, who call such feticide a “choice” and who want it protected as a “right” by the police power of the State do not like to hear this truth. Worse yet, they now want to conceal it from the public. These ads simply tell the truth, free of emotionally charged rhetoric. They present facts - scientific, medical, sociological and statistical truth.
In the last month, news accounts have been filled with horrible stories out of India confirming the practice of prenatal selection and selective abortions that are being performed on girl children. This practice involves the use of ultrasounds to locate these girls in the first home of the womb and then their killing through various abortion procedures. These same procedures are used in the United States. Universally, this practice has been decried. It is routinely referred to as “Feticide” in the news reports. Well, I have decided to use that same term from now on when discussing all procured abortion.
It is time to tell the truth. Procured abortions are Feticide.
Opponents of this advertising campaign insist that the ads are “misleading.” I simply ask my readers to go to the web site and view them. You will find that they are factual, dispassionate and - most importantly - they are true. That is why they are being opposed with such a fury. Some opponents insisted that the Transit officials should have rejected the ads. In the words of Suzanne Joi , a member of “Code Pink” which promotes itself as being in favor of social justice and anti-war stated: "At the very least they should have made sure both sides were represented… I think every woman has noticed them…I couldn't believe BART would allow something like this. Why are they doing this?''
The Transit authorities distributed a passenger bulletin before the first of the year detailing their advertising policy. They are now being pressured to reconsider this policy by those who do not want passengers to read these ads - because they do not like their content. In effect, these folks are the new censors of a new cultural revolution. Claiming to be tolerant, they are anything but. They do not want those who disagree with them to have the Right to Free Speech, a right guaranteed by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Do they fear the implications of the truth? I believe they do.
I practiced constitutional law for twenty five years. Many of those years were spent defending those whose free speech, free association and free exercise rights were being threatened by others, precisely because of their viewpoint. Now, sadly, a group that purports to promote “social justice” is leading a move to censor the truth. However, they are doing it under cover, like the two imposters on “To Tell the Truth”. They insist that their position, the one that calls feticide a “right”, is the truth. It is not.
After reading this story I went to the web site of this group. It saddened me deeply. I have opposed the U.S. incursion into Iraq from its inception. I am a pro-life, pro-marriage and family, pro-freedom, pro-peace, pro-poor Catholic. I have rejected the political labels of “liberal” or “conservative.” I have dedicated my life’s work to social justice. There are some positions on their web site with which I agree. However, there is a glaring contradiction in their claims to support social justice for all people. A belief in social justice is what motivates me and other pro-life people to defend the most vulnerable, those with no voice, those whom Blessed Teresa of Calcutta called “the poorest of the poor”, the ones living in the once safe refuge of the womb - from those like this group who promote feticide. Now, these folks seek to suppress their opponents from being heard in the public square. It is time to sound the “Code Red” on “Code Pink.”
One more note on this particular group. Though, at least in my opinion, they rightly opposed the War in Iraq, they promote the great lie of our age - that children in the womb are property to be used or discarded at whim. In so doing they actually promote a war on the womb while claiming to be peacemakers. By opposing these advertisements in California they have sent a signal. They support, aid and abet another war, one that is being waged on women and children. Make no mistake that is precisely what unrestricted abortion on demand - through all nine months, with no restrictions - truly is. This war has turned mothers into battlefields. Women are being lied to and deluded by those who are the ministers of propaganda in a new cultural revolution, those who promote the use of familiar weapons of modern warfare as “surgical strikes” and “chemical warfare” on pre-born children.
It is time to tell the truth.
It is time to sound the Code Red on Code Pink.