ARTICLES

Sharp Picketed

12 Abortionists on Staff

By Anne Knight

In observance of this year's Roe v. Wade anniversary about 50 pro-lifers held a candlelight vigil on the public sidewalk outside San Diego's Sharp Memorial Hospital on January 21. A California Life Coalition flyer advertising the event stated, "We will prayerfully be remembering the thousands of women who have died or been injured by so-called 'safe, legal abortion,' many of whom have been maimed at Sharp Hospital." Many vigil participants displayed Life Dynamics Incorporated's "tombstone posters" which list the names and year of death of 208 women who have died as a result of legal abortions through 1998. Life Dynamics explains, "Because the majority of deaths from legal abortion are not recorded as such, this is only a partial accounting.... All deaths contained here-- plus an additional 242 anonymous women who are confirmed as having died from legal abortions-- are documented.... Those documents are on file at Life Dynamics."

The event received extensive coverage by KOGO Radio, which emphasized the fact that some passersby were upset by several graphic, aborted baby posters displayed by picketers. Scant mention was made of the question of whether Sharp Hospital performs abortions or the protesters' dual focus on women injured or killed and the babies killed by abortion. Other local media seen covering the event included Channels 5, 19 and 51. Channel 19, a Spanish-language station, interviewed pro-life demonstrator Sylvia Sullivan in Spanish. Cheryl Sullenger, of the California Life Coalition, which organized the event, told a News Notes reporter, "I would say that people were probably a little hostile to our message in this area of town, but it's still good for them to hear the truth."

In a sermon delivered at the vigil's conclusion, Pastor Adlai Mack, of Mission Valley's Christians United in the Word of God Church, pulled no punches: "The Gospel is telling us that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church despite mathematics, despite science, despite the numbers. It will not prevail; we must believe that. I believe, for too long, we've been holding on to a theology of defeat. If we believe that Satan will conquer in history-- [that] the beast, the one-world government will prevail-- if you really believe that, you already believe you're going to lose and you're going to find ways to make it happen. It becomes ... a self-fulfilling prophecy. I don't fear a beast; I've never seen the beast; I've never seen a one-world government and I don't believe any of you have. And yet for 150 years the church has feared it, and Christians have hidden from something that doesn't exist! There is no beast, there is no 666, there is no one-world government! Why do Christians hide from a fear that is not alive?

"...God says that 'if you reject My law, if you don't pay attention to Me, you'll run when no one is pursuing you.' There is no one-world government; the last time there was a one-world government was in the days of Nimrod.... There has been no one-world government since. People have feared what does not exist and God says that's a curse. I believe that we ought to continue the struggle against abortion on every level .... I believe, most of all, our struggle must be centered in the church....

"God has brought this plague of abortion on our world because the church has rejected God and His law, and when we get back to faithfulness to carrying out the Great Commission-- to being serious ... disciples of Jesus Christ-- God will lift this plague, first from the church and then from the world. Greg Cunningham, of the Center for Bioethical Reform, said that Evangelicals and Catholics have abortions almost as much as pagans. It's got to begin at the house of God; we've got to clean house in the church! If our local churches are allowing people to practice abortion and still sing in the choir, still usher, still do all these other things, it's practically a farce when we go to the pagans and tell them, 'Don't abort your children' and the very churches that we go to allow abortion in the members! Why do we have it? It's because we've forgotten the law of our God....

"So let us remember to go back to the house of God ... and ask our churches to think through, scripturally, this whole issue. I believe it when I'm saying, in our church, if you get an abortion, you get excommunicated; end of discussion. Abortion-- you're excommunicated. We cannot tolerate it; if we do, people will not fear God. They will not take us seriously; they will not fear His judgment....

"I want to encourage you because I know you are in the front lines. There's a tendency to feel that you're so alone in this business, so alone in this ministry. There's not a lot of praise in it, but a lot of criticism.... God is with us.... God is blessing us, but what's happening with them? More and more women are choosing not to have an abortion.... Abortionists are getting old; some of them are quitting. Abortion clinics are shutting down. Don't be discouraged.... God is ... blessing us... because, through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have repented.... Christ is sovereign and He has promised that Satan and hell will not prevail, but that Christ's people will succeed. We must not give up; we must continue the struggle... as I know you will do, because you love the Lord.... May we remember that the Holy Spirit is greater than he who is in the world and ... He will not forsake us; He will not leave us."

The California Life Coalition distributed a list of twelve Sharp Memorial Hospital doctors, which it says it has confirmed as abortionists. On the list are Gary Blake, Hsien-Lin Huang, Thomas Moran, David Priver, William Quillin, Melissa Rankin, Feliciano Rios, Fred Schnepper, Myron Schonbrun, Alan Spector, Bruce Tarzy and Michael Wong. The group reports that, although it believes that these doctors have hospital privileges at Sharp Memorial, it could not say with certainty whether a particular doctor on the list performs abortions at Sharp Memorial. The group does state that it is certain abortions are performed at Sharp Memorial. They called on Sharp Hospital "to repent from the sin of child-killing and stop allowing abortions to be done at their facilities," requested that "Sharp deny hospital privileges to all abortionists currently associated with them," and encouraged the public "to contact Sharp's administrative office and urge them to stop performing abortions."

According to Sullenger, a KOGO Radio reporter told her that Sharp Hospital would neither confirm nor deny whether Sharp performs abortions when queried by KOGO. When the reporter asked Sullenger how prolifers knew that the hospital performs abortions, Sullenger replied that they had spoken to women who reported having undergone abortions at Sharp. A reporter for News Notes was told by the Sharp Health Care Corporate Communications office that it would try to provide a response to its question of whether abortions are performed at any Sharp medical facilities. However, by press time none had been provided in response to three calls placed over four business days.

Local Roe v. Wade anniversary events held on January 22 included pro-life pickets and sidewalk counseling at Family Planning Associates in La Mesa, followed by a picket of Dr. Robert Santella's home in San Diego. (Santella is an FPA abortionist whose home was also picketed during last year's Roe v. Wade observance.) On January 23 a pro-life Mass was held at the Diocesan Pastoral Center, which was followed by a pro-life fair and memorial service at the First Assembly of God Church on Phyllis Place in San Diego.

To contact Sharp Hospital's administrative office, call (858) 541-3700. For more information about Life Dynamics, Inc. write to P.O. Box 2226, Denton, Texas 76202 or call (940) 380-8800. For more information about the California Life Coalition, write P.O. Box 712772, Santee, CA 92072-2772 or call (619) 562-3519.

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