• Aprill Brandon •
• Originally published January 21, 2009 at 7:08 p.m., updated January 21, 2009 at 7:08 p.m.

"Abortion: Try a Different Viewpoint" by Rawley Brown (Advocate Viewpoints Jan. 18) invites readers to see abortion from an entirely different focal point. However, his glaring inconsistencies in logic and outright falsehoods about the pro-life movement prohibit this reader from trying Mr. Brown's point of view.

The pro-abortion columnist advocates not legislating morals. Yet Mr. Brown turns around and peddles his own morally relativistic platform, specifically using fetal body parts in medical procedures that were obtained from abortions. Over the years, laws have been passed to ban fetal body trafficking and then to lift the bans, yet he would like the pro-lifers to be silent while the pro-"choice" crowd have their way.

This is a common tactic - tell the pro-lifers to stop legislating morality while they push their pro-death moral relativism and enact laws based upon it.

Also, Mr. Brown writes, "The supposed business of the church is souls." Then he goes on to chastise the Catholic Church for not taking care of the bodies of its flock. Which is it Mr. Brown? If you really think the sole business of the Church is souls, then you don't have a point.

Also, Mr. Brown would have everyone think that it's only the Catholic Church that is pro-life and an enemy of abortion. What a back-handed compliment, but I'll take it.

One last inconsistency which Mr. Brown couples with a glaring falsehood. The columnist states, "It must be stated that the Catholic Church is the single biggest doer of good in the world. It spends more on social ills than any other group anywhere!" So far so good.

Then he contradicts himself with this fabrication: "With abortion, the church fights for the baby and then abandons it up to the state to rear it up." Which is it, the world's largest charitable institution, or a group of pro-life zealots that forget about the mother and baby after birth?

That's one huge leap in logic from doing the most good in the world yet somehow excluding mothers, babies, and children.

Mr. Brown is old enough to know of the countless orphanages and schools manned by Catholic religious organizations throughout the world. Many Catholic parents willingly pay for a parochial education, yet thousands of children each year in inner-city schools and others receive an education gratis because of scholarships and the selflessness of nuns, clergy and lay people who volunteer their help or receive pay much below the standard.

Locally, children are not abandoned up to the state for rearing because of such groups as the Gabriel Project. The Gabriel Project, sponsored by the Catholic Diocese of Victoria, is much like a Good Samaritan group. They are trained volunteers who help women and girls before and after they give birth. They help financially, as well as provide clothing, food and a vast array of baby items. Home assistance programs are offered with help given to women who have experienced domestic abuse, problems with child support, even help with breast feeding.

After calling in, the mom-to-be is given an "Angel," or a trained volunteer, who helps throughout and after the pregnancy. The local number is 1-866-627-9243, or one can visit www.gabrielproject.com.

Finally, the Perpetual Help Home, a home which helps women recently released from jail, has also been taking in homeless women, including their children. This non-profit institution was founded by Catholics Barbara Wilcox and Sister Perpetua Hawes, Incarnate Word-Blessed Sacrament.

It is not simply a Catholic institution now, as people from different faiths join in helping the vulnerable among us.

Yet it's a shining example of what Catholic Christians initiate to help those around us.

Already, a few pro-life letters to the editor have appeared countering Rawley Brown's call for the killing of unborn human life.

Hopefully, the Victoria area can remain a place that where sin increases, grace abounds all the more.

Mary Ann Wenske is a resident of Moulton and frequent letter writer.

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