With Mary At The Foot Of The Cross

J.M.J.+
I am emailing in regards to our next peaceful prayer vigil which will take place on Saturday, the 7th of June outside Planned Parenthood (345 Whitney Avenue New Haven) from 8am until 12 pm noon, the hours which the babies are scheduled to be killed by abortion.


I have included an article which quotes the Community Organizer of Planned Parenthood New Haven, Gretchen Raffa, who is responsible for recruiting college students as escorts. I thought all of those who come out to pray might find her perception of us very interesting. Her quote is in response to those of us who come out to pray each week as well as how PP has decided to try to counteract our prayerful presence which has brought peace to women and saved infants lives. The one thing I found uncharacteristic of her description of us was her label. We do not seek to be protesters, only prayers and Helpers of God’s precious infants and their mothers. We seek this through the powerful intercession of Our Blessed Mother while standing along with her at the foot of her Son’s Cross.

May God bless you,
Mike and Kerry



Planned Parenthood seeks to forge Yale alliance
BY LAURA YAO
On any given Saturday morning, there are a couple of people milling about the corner of Whitney and Edwards streets. They’re not unruly, though they’re generally quite conspicuous as they hand out fliers to women passing through the gate to Planned Parenthood. A few—the less well-mannered ones—hold signs with pictures of mangled fetuses. On Saturday mornings, Planned Parenthood provides abortions.
This is the scene that greets patients and volunteers alike as they walk up the path to the clinic’s entrance. Gretchen Raffa, a community organizer who has worked at Planned Parenthood for seven years, called the protestors a “thoughtful, prayerful” group of people. “This is not the anti-choice movement of the early ’80s and ’90s where they believed in violence, wanted to harm patients, wanted to kill doctors,” she said. “They’re actually very nice, welcoming protestors.” But still, their polite entreaties and their suggestions that a woman entering the clinic to get an abortion might go to hell were, to say the least, unwelcome.
And since protestor presence has increased inexplicably over the past seven months or so—from one or two people a day to as many as 20 during religiously significant times of the year—Raffa thought to look to Yale for more volunteers, because more friendly faces inside the clinic might make patients less anxious about the less friendly ones outside.
Last Tuesday night, a group of nearly 20 students gathered in the Women’s Center to hear Raffa speak about ways to support the Planned Parenthood volunteer program. Since only one Yale undergraduate currently volunteers in the health center this year, the turnout surpassed everyone’s expectations, said Sara Rahman, TC ’09, co-president of the Reproductive Rights Action League of Yale (RALY). Raffa spoke about the possibility of assembling a “welcome crew” of volunteers, who would serve to “keep an eye on protestors, keep them quiet, and make sure they’re not breaking the rules.”
“When there aren’t volunteers out there, the protestors might get a little more comfortable,” Raffa said. “They won’t cross the line—we have security cameras out there and they know that, they aren’t stupid—but they might knock on a couple of extra windows.”
But there was no gender diversity among the group, which Alice Buttrick, JE ’10, identified as a reason many pro-choice people, both male and female, don’t take action. “The fact that we’re lumped into ‘feminism’ is very frustrating to me, because feminism has this kind of man-hating connotation,” said Buttrick, who is the other president of RALY and an intern at Planned Parenthood. “But it’s not true, because if we hated men, we wouldn’t need reproductive rights. It’s not a women’s issue, it’s just an issue—the whole idea of reproductive rights requires two genders, or there would be no reproducing.”
And the fact that RALY meetings take place in the Women’s Center, she said, might discourage males from coming out. “Often people ask me ‘Are boys allowed?’ And of course they are, but there are paintings of the board members’ vaginas on the back wall, so I understand the hesitation.”
While Buttrick is involved with administrative aspects like organizing events and demonstrations, Kenya Lyons, JE ’08, took an entirely different route. The only Yale undergraduate volunteering in the actual health center, Lyons said her time at the clinic was an enjoyable way to further her medical training as an obstetrician/gynecologist. She interacts with patients by preparing procedure rooms, taking blood pressures, and often holding their hands afterward. “It’s the best part of my week,” she said. “It’s very hands-on, it’s a great opportunity. I’d expect dozens of volunteers, but I may be the only undergraduate here, which makes me sad.”
A possible rationale for the lack of participation and activism amongst Yale students is that “once you get to a certain point of privilege and education, people tend to ignore this issue, and that’s damaging,” Buttrick said. “There’s a very pro-choice feeling here, so nobody feels like they need to do anything about it. All these issues are neglected after a certain point of acceptance, and I think it’s somewhat offensive.”
Lyons would like to see more student involvement on the health side. “If you’re pro-choice and interested in medicine, it’s a good idea to see an abortion being performed. A lot of people don’t have a good idea of what it involves,” she said. “There are a lot of misconceptions: They think of women who are very young, who have no kids. They also tend to think they’re irresponsible, or that they are making a split-second decision. But actually a lot of the women we see are married, in their thirties, and can’t have more kids for health or financial reasons.”
But she also echoed the need for volunteers to keep the protestors quiet. “I walk to the clinic, and even though I’ve been volunteering for a couple of months they still think I’m a patient, they still give me flyers, which makes me very sensitive to what patients go through,” she said. “I understand abortion is very controversial, but it comes down to the fact that an abortion is a medical procedure, and it’s no one else’s business. It’s just inappropriate to ask about someone else’s medical procedure.”
http://www.yaleherald.com/article.php?Article=6363