In December 2011, before SB 1338 was even introduced by Senator Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego), there was buzz in the Capitol about pending legislation to “increase access” to abortion.

In March 2012, after its formal introduction, Planned Parenthood, the sponsor of the bill, began a public relations campaign to bemoan the fact that more than half of California’s counties have no abortion clinic, that women have to travel and/or wait for an appointment and that women’s “choice” in our state was in jeopardy.

Claiming resounding success in a pilot study in which midlevel clinicians performed first trimester aspiration abortions at UC San Francisco, the author proposed expanding abortion “access” by training thousands of physician’s assistants, nurse practitioners and certified nurse midwives to become abortionists. The four year study—to be concluded in September 2012—involved 41 practitioners who together performed nearly 8,000 abortions with a reported 1.6 percent complication rate.

In May we celebrate the month of Mary, Mother’s Day and the liturgical Feast of the Visitation. Now that’s plenty to inspire contemplation for 31 days!

The Visitation always captures my imagination. According to St. Luke’s Gospel account, the young Mary, fresh with the awesome realization that she is miraculously to be the mother of the Messiah, makes her way from Nazareth in Galilee to visit her older cousin Elizabeth, who though thought to be barren, is now pregnant with John the Baptist. Can you imagine the talks these two women had? Imagine the wonderment they expressed to one another, the wisdom they shared, and the quiet, homely tasks they worked at together, preparing for the births of their sons.

They were humble, simple women. They lived in obscurity in a backwater of the Roman Empire. With great faith they remained completely open to the workings of God’s will in their lives. Who would have imagined then that because they lived out God’s will even when it seemed incomprehensible, two thousand years later their names would still be spoken with reverence around the world and that millions of people would call Mary “Mother.”

I just read that Sandra Fluke (the Georgetown University students who wants contraception covered in the student health plan) just spoke at Georgetown University. I grew up during the sexual revolution and know well the rebellious culture of that time. Still, I am shocked by the brazenness of Ms. Flukes' demands and I'm trying to figure out why.

During the 60's and 70's we knew we were rebelling against the mores of a Judeo-Christian society and the hierarchies that had for so many centuries told people what to do, what to think and how to act. Right or wrong, we chose to step outside the mainstream and forge our own path. Many who did so were quite aware that the new sexual ethic was wrong, but didn't care. We did it anyhow. If parents or professors or the Church didn't like what we were doing, they could just take it or leave it. I think therein lies the difference.

In several recent interviews Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, has expressed that the public square is impoverished when the voices of religious bodies and people of faith are silenced—in his words, “duct taped”.  

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