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Contents © 1999
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

December 1999 LITTLE NOTES

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To get signatures, for several weeks Jenkins and CPLC assistant director Leanna Goldschmidt have been giving guest homilies at parishes throughout the San Diego diocese, including St. Gabriel in Poway, Guardian Angels in Santee, and St. Luke in El Cajon. "The priests are giving us their homily time, instead of having us make a brief announcement at the end of Mass, because they want to make sure nobody leaves without hearing about this initiative and signing the petition," said Jenkins.

"You'd be surprised how many people don't know that parents are not required to be notified of their teenager's pregnancy. When I tell congregations this, I see shocked looks on many faces. Even if people have not been directly involved in an abortion, they are sad that it goes on in our society." By having the petitions available to sign immediately after Mass, "it gives them an 'action item,' something they can do right on the spot to help fight abortion."

"Many of the priests have given their own heartfelt talks during the announcement period about why it is so important to support this initiative. They have talked about teenagers coming to confess their abortions and saying that they felt they could not tell their parents, and how it breaks their own hearts to hear these confessions." She added that oftentimes, while giving talks at schools, teenage girls will start to cry, "and you know those are the ones who have had abortions, and it is just so sad."

In addition to talking about the initiative, Jenkins and Goldschmidt share their personal abortion stories and offer God's healing to other aborted women through programs such as Rachel's Hope. "Many priests are afraid that if they preach on abortion, women who have had abortions will think they are being judged and leave the Church, when that's where they need to stay. By coming into a parish, as women, and telling our stories, we alleviate that problem for them, and they are grateful for our presence.

"The extra time we have to speak during the homily has also made a huge difference in people's involvement. We have always had a warm reception (from the local Catholic churches), but suddenly this year's it's turned into a passion."

Complimenting the priests, Jenkins said, "These guys really know what they need to be doing as ministers of God charged with caring for people's souls. I have been very impressed with their sensitivity to the needs of parishioners and their grasp of the importance of this issue." She also praised Bishop Brom, citing a recent Southern Cross article and photograph of him signing the petition. "It helps the priests promote this initiative when they see that it is supported from the very top."

700,000 valid signatures are needed by January 6 to qualify the initiative for the March 7 ballot. "That means we actually have to gather 1.1 million signatures," said Jenkins. "Any person who is participating in the drive needs to complete and mail in their petitions ASAP."


FATHER FRANK FELICE, father of 6 and former professor of biology at University of San Francisco, after his wife passed away was ordained and -- among other duties-- was asked to be confessor to Mother Teresa's nuns in San Francisco. He founded the Holy Family Oratory in a tough Tijuana neighborhood in the early 1990s, was called back to San Francisco in 1996 to serve as chaplain at the Veterans Administration hospital there. He will appear at the Wanderer Forum titled "Proud to Be Catholic in the New Age" on Saturday, January 15 in Carmel, California. Other forum speakers include Frank Shakespeare, former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican who is now a parishioner at La Jolla's Mary Star of the Sea, and former commissioner of baseball, Bowie Kuhn. Information, 805-927-3236.


WOMEN'S RESOURCE NETWORK, which has raised over $200,000 out of its $550,000 goal for pro-life television commercials in the San Diego area this Spring, has found someone to help buy the TV ads. In an early November update from the network: "Our [media] buyer happened to hear about the commercial campaign while sitting in church! He was so moved that he and his famiily contacted us to help with the research and media buy. That is a significant gift because putting together just the right buy is worse than putting together a puzzle with missing pieces! I continue to be impressed with him as he meets with the large stations and puts together sample media buys for us. We have had favorable response. However, when he made initial contacts for the Los Angeles crisis pregnancy centers and their efforts to put these ads on the air, NBC flatly refused to air the commercials. We need to keep this in our prayers. NBC has not been a problem for the other media markets in California so far."

For more information, call 760-741-4010.


FOLLOWING TWO E-MAILS were received forwarded from Scott Maxwell of Catholic Answers, who has been leading door-to-door evangelization in San Diego neighborhoods:

"On Saturday October 16th, we will be touching lives in the parish community of St. Gabriel's Catholic Church when we go door-to-door witnessing the awesomeness of Jesus Christ. We will meet at our house at 9:45 and begin our evangelizing at 10:15. We will conclude with a rosary @ noon for all those we met along our path.

"There have been a few questions about the approach we are taking. We are not taking people to task on passages from the Bible or quoting the Catechism. We simply want to meet people, let them know that the Catholic Church is alive and its people are on fire for Jesus Christ. As I have said before, they are shocked to see a Catholic at their door! We want to pray for anything in their lives and plant some seeds for their future investigation of the One True Church. It is not necessary to be a theologian or an "early church fathers" expert to be effective when talking with someone about their own life.

"So, if you are concerned about having to know certain Bible verses to explain to someone that asks about the true presence of Jesus Christ on the altar, or does not believe in the Papacy, RELAX! People will very rarely ask any questions, and if they do, we can get back to them at a later time with the answer. There is nothing wrong with saying "Rather than give you my opinion, it sounds like you need to see how the Catholic Church teaches on this. Let me get back to you with some solid references from the Catechism and Bible references to substantiate what we believe as Catholics." Then you are off the hook, for the moment, and you will probably learn something as we research the answer to their question.

"We will continue evangelizing every three to four weeks, but do not say "Maybe next week I'll join them", because you know you may never experience evangelization. I pray that the Holy Spirit will touch you as He has touched me and stirred something in me to do this for God's Kingdom. If you have any questions or comments regarding our mission, please email me or call me at 760-788-3166.

"Yours in Christ, Scott"

"Friends in Christ: We are called by our Holy Father Pope John Paul II to spread the Catholic faith to our Christian and non-Christian brethren. In preparing for the Jubilee, one way we have found to honor the words of our Pope is to go door to door in different parish communities simply witnessing our Catholic faith to others.

"On Saturday, Nov. 13th at 10:00 a.m. we will be visiting the parish community of St. Therese in La Mesa/Del Cerro. We are inviting all that would like to spread the word of Jesus Christ on our evangelizing mission. We will meet at the church promptly @ 9:30, concluding at noon with a rosary.

"This will be our 4th mission, and we have yet to come across anyone that has not been either surprised or grateful to see a Catholic witnessing to them. We have had only positive experiences--no heated debates with anyone opening their door to our evangelizers. The more of the faithful we have, the more seeds we can plant for the harvest. We have all the evangelizing tools necessary to make this effortless for those who choose to join us. You need not be an apologist nor theologian-Our Lord knows I'm not.

"If you have any questions please call Scott Maxwell @ 858-486-3416 for details regarding this mission. Eventually, we will be visiting every community in the county, so please let your family and friends know of our efforts. Please pray for our efforts as well. God Bless."


SIX SAN DIEGO AREA COLLEGE STUDENTS are now studying at Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula (one hour north of Los Angeles), according to a local source close to the college. Four of these students are graduates of Sierra Madre Academy in San Marcos, a non-diocesan Catholic school.


EL INFORMADOR San Diego County Hispanic Weekly not only informs its readers of news; it informs them of where they can have their unborn children "sucked into a sink," as radio personality Dr. Laura Schlessinger puts it. A full-page ad for Clinica Medica para la Mujer de Hoy in the local Spanish-language newspaper's October 9 edition touts "pregnancy options or alternatives (up to 24 weeks)," but nowhere mentions the word "abortion" or "termination." Clinica Medica's more benign services, according to the ad, are "ultrasound to detect the time of your pregnancy and your baby's sex," free pregnancy tests, prenatal care and pap smears. It also lists "all family planning methods," "eight-year IUD," "three-month shot" and sterilization, which are offered "free, if you qualify."

A $10 discount is offered with the ad, which is primarily for the Clinica Medica located at 335 H Street, Suite 205 in Chula Vista, which opened in 1997. Also listed are seven establishments of the same name, all of which are in Southern California areas with sizeable Latino communities. Clinica Medica para la Mujer de Hoy is a chain of abortion facilities operated by Nicholas Braemer. In a February 22, 1996 letter sent by Salvador Manzur, CPA to Orange National Bank, concerning Bugarin & Braemer Professional Management Corporation, Manzur explained to the bank, "The success of the [chain's] operation consists on [sic] the patients and on [sic] the concept which targets Hispanic women in certain key areas." The letter is included in an information packet on Braemer available from Operation Rescue West. Pro-lifers have long maintained that a major impetus behind the abortion industry is a racist and eugenicist agenda which, under the guise of helping less fortunate women, seeks to significantly reduce the size of the minority and disabled populations.

The January 1998 edition of La Cruz de California, reported that, in Los Angeles, most abortions are done on poor, black and Latina women, and "it is the Latina women who visit these clinics most when faced with a crisis pregnancy."

Sandra Guzman wrote in La Cruz ("Abortos a descuento" ["Discount Abortions"], March 1999) that "some pro-life activists accuse the abortion industry of launching a direct attack on Hispanic women, most of whom are Catholic, due to the high percentage of abortions performed on them. These same pro-life activists point out the frequent advertising in the Hispanic communications media such as television and other Latino media where abortion services are promoted by offering discounts to Hispanic women. However, the same discounts are not offered in the advertising on English-language television stations or in English-language newspapers." Reporting from Los Angeles, Guzman explained, "Not all abortion clinics have the economic means to advertise on television.... These clinics ... advertise in low-cost newspapers, such as La Guia, distributed free in Latino markets. In a past edition La Guia carried an advertisement for Clinica Medica para la Mujer de Hoy in which a $10 discount was offered." She described the advertising flyers often distributed by abortion clinics and indeed, Chula Vista's Clinica Medica also provides flyers which offer the $10 discount. "Rarely are these discount coupons seen in high class neighborhoods," Guzman observed. "Calls placed to the city halls of three exclusive, high-class cities ... confirmed that none of these cities permitted abortion clinic flyers to be distributed within their respective city limits."

Many clinics offering cheap abortions in low-income neighborhoods provide substandard service, many women have been injured by abortion in these clinics, and most California abortion clinics receive little supervision from the California Medical Board, according to Guzman. She interviewed Ed Hurlbutt, Fresno/Madera Right to Life director, who summarized the situation thus: "Abortion clinics are unregulated. There are doctors with suspended medical licenses who still do abortions, and their victims are always the poor and the vulnerable. In most cases, if a Latina woman undergoes an abortion and the doctor mutilates or kills her, the shame factor prevents her or her family from taking legal action against the doctor. But if the same thing happens in Beverly Hills, you can be sure that the doctor will be sued." Another inhibiting factor might be lack of legal U.S. residence in the case of undocumented patients. The Chula Vista facility's proximity to the U.S.-Mexican border means that it would also attract women living in Mexico.

Braemer was put on five years' probation in 1995 by the California Medical Board for a badly botched 1987 abortion, for which the board found him guilty of "gross negligence," "repeated negligent acts" and "incompetence." In June the state attorney general filed another accusation against him and a petition to revoke his probation. A hearing has not yet been held nor has Braemer yet been found guilty of this most recent charge. The business card for the Chula Vista facility lists Braemer, Mohamed Dia, MD and Laurence Reich, who is not a MD but a doctor of osteopathy. Dia has been charged with "gross negligence," "repeated negligent acts," "incompetence" and "commission of acts involving dishonesty or corruption" in connection with two 1996 cases, one in which he committed an abortion and the other involving a patient who came to him with complications from an abortion done by another doctor. Dia surrendered his medical license as of September 30. Reich is currently an osteopath in good standing, but completed a 10-year probation in 1994 for a botched abortion. Additionally, in 1982 28 criminal charges were brought against him, which included sexual abuse and sexual battery of female patients, prescribing drugs without a license, falsely representing himself as a medical doctor and attempting to coerce or persuade his victims into refusing to testify against him. In a 1984 plea bargain arrangement Reich pleaded "no contest" to two counts of battery and two misrepresentation counts. He was fined and the other charges were dropped.

The one doctor seen at the Chula Vista Clinica Medica so far is Dr. Philip Rand, formerly an abortionist for San Diego's now-closed Womancare. Rand has had at least 37 personal injury and malpractice lawsuits filed against him, some of which have resulted in large judgments against him, including one which was in the multi-millions. Rand declared bankruptcy in 1992." The Medical Board's website indicates that the state has taken an "enforcement action" against him and that he has received a "public reprimand."

Three calls were placed to El Informador's director, Xavier Corona, to ask him why El Informador runs abortion facility ads. Over a two-week period one return call was missed and two subsequent calls had not been returned by press time.


PRODIGAL DAUGHTERS, Catholic Women Come Home to the Church, a collection of stories edited by Donna Steichen (author of Ungodly Rage) is just out from Ignatius Press. Included in the collection is the story of Allyson Smith, from El Cajon, who writes for News Notes. At least part of Smith's story will run in the January issue of this paper. Copies of Prodigal Daughters are available for $14.95 from Ignatius; call 800-651-1531 or visit their website: www.ignatius.com.


MATT DRUDGE WALKS OFF CABLE TV. According to a November 15 Reuters report, "Internet gossip columnist Matt Drudge refused to appear on his weekly talk show on cable television's Fox News Channel Saturday after the network barred him from showing a picture of a fetus, a Fox News spokesman said Monday...

"A headline topping the Drudge Report Web site (www.drudgereport.com) declared: 'I WILL NOT BE CENSORED!'...

Fox News spokesman Brian Lewis said Drudge was told a day before his show was to air that he would not be permitted to show a photo of a 21-week-old fetus as 'jumping-off point' for a discussion of abortion. Lewis added that the photo, showing a tiny hand reaching out from the womb, was not of an abortion but from an emergency operation on a fetus suffering from spina bifida.

"'The picture was about one surgical procedure, and he wanted to talk about another, and we thought that was misleading,' Lewis said. 'It was an editorial decision. When Matt signed his contract, he signed over editorial control to the network. That was part of his contract.'"


UNHOLY ALLIANCE. On October 12, the day the United Nations claims the world's population reached 6 billion people, Planned Parenthood and the Sierra Club, an environmental organization also involved in population control, held a joint press conference in Hollywood, California, to announce they "are working together to slow population growth". Representatives of two pro-life organizations were also there to offer the news media an opposing view. "Instead of lamenting that there are too many people, we should be celebrating the fact that health care has increased the life span of people all over the world," said a spokesperson for Hispanics for Life and Human Rights. Experts, including Roger Revelle, former director of the Harvard Center for Population Studies, estimate that the world is capable of sustaining 40 billion people, although that number is not expected to ever be reached.

"Their own 1997-98 annual report indicates that Planned Parenthood performed 165,174 abortions in the United States in 1997 and recently they have been exposed for helping to distribute body parts (brains, hearts, livers, lungs, eyes, ears, bone marrow, etc.) of aborted babies to pharmaceutical companies and research labs," said J.T. Finn, director of Pro-Life America. (The full story can be found on the Internet at: www.prolife.com).

A lone picketer, a woman with a cane, carried a sign that read: "Planned Parenthood is the #1 executioner of babies." As the speakers bemoaned "the rate at which we are consuming natural resources" before the cameras, the picketer continually interjected comments like, "Planned Parenthood kills children," while Planned Parenthood representatives and their associates struggled to keep frozen smiles on their faces.

Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, honored The Mexican Federation of Private Health and Community Development Associations with the Sierra Club's Earthcare Award because of the organization's success in combining "...environmental conservation, community development, women's empowerment, and reproductive health care." Lucy F. West, executive director of the federation's foundation in El Paso, Texas, accepted the award.

The foundation was started in 1993 by Mrs. Adair Margo, the owner of a prominent art gallery in El Paso in order to provide financial assistance for the operations of the federation, which was founded 18 years earlier by Lupe Arizpe de la Vega as a family planning clinic in Juarez, Mexico. In the March 1997 issue of Philanthropy in Texas, the cover story, entitled "Border-Line Saints, Adair Margo and Lupe Arizpe de la Vega Spearhead Family Planning Clinics," cites numerous programs: Hospital de la Familia, AIDS Prevention Program to prostitutes, Nursing School, a brickmakers program, a safe-water program, community banks, housing programs -- and 47 family planning clinics. An article in the July/August 1999 issue of Sierra magazine about the success of population control programs in Mexico and Guatemala notes, "Twenty-five years ago the average Mexican family had 7 children. Today the average is 2.5 -- and planners are aiming for 2.1". In telling how to promote family planning, Dr. Karen Slowning, program officer for the United Nations Fund for Population explained, "Don't carry the message 'reduce population,' or your program dies; instead, you are there to improve the quality of life." The key to successful population control programs, according to the author of the Sierra Club article, was to "link (family) planning to other problem-solving activities."

In 1997 the foundation reported to have raised more than $600,000 to donate to the federation's efforts. Their list of financial supporters includes the Ford Foundation, the Honeywell Foundation, Johnson & Johnson, the Levi Strauss Foundation and Ronald McDonald House Charities. Laura Bush, the wife of Texas Gov. George Bush, is listed as a member of their advisory board.

In July 1998, a publication called El Paso Inc. published an interview with Mary Ann Dodson, an active volunteer. In describing how the successful 'Promotoras Comunitarias' program works, Dodson said, "They go into the barrio and they identify the women who are leaders in the barrio. Now, these women may not and probably do not either read or write, but they are the identified leaders in the community and they take them into headquarters and train them and then these women go back to the barrios and they help the women set up birth control procedures..." The group claims to have over 10,000 "promotoras" working throughout Mexico.

The federation's 1997 annual report is almost exclusively about their birth control programs. Under "Reproductive Health Program for Employees in Domestic Industries and Foreign-Owned Assembly Industries (Maquiladoras)," the report states, " This specific program is sold to industrial facilities based upon the benefits it provides: (a) access to reproductive health care services, (b) reduction of absenteeism and personnel turnover..."

The group is moving ahead with plans "to develop branches throughout the United States and to have each branch adopt one of [its] 55 affiliates."

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