dezembrum:
I’ve been reading Joan Andrews’ prison letters. She was a great pro-life activist who was jailed literally hundreds of times for participating in rescue missions at abortion clinics. This has almost completely stopped (I mean rescue missions) in the past decade or so because of more stringent laws regarding blocking access to abortion mills.
Anyway, my question is: despite the potential consequences (jail time of say 6 months) who here would participate in such a rescue mission?
People like Joan Andrews are my heros. She is from the same mold as that other Joan from France.
Here’s some information on her:
“For Joan Andrews, abortion is not an issue. It is, instead - literally - a matter of life and death. If necessary, her life and death. It is a test of faith. It is perhaps the ultimate test of faith in these difficult and complex times. And thus, it demands uncompromising, unwavering, and unhesitating faithful action”, writes Richard Cowden Guido.
From 1979, when Joan organized her first rescue in St. Louis, MO, until 1986 when she was sentenced to four years in prison for trying to save the preborn in Florida, she responded to this “test of faith” with greater and greater resignation. She was denied bail when she refused not to engage even in legal actions against abortion. “I couldn’t promise not to try to save a child’s life”, she told the judge.
In July, 1986, she wrote in a letter, “The closer we are to the preborn children, the more faithful we are, then the more identically we become aligned we become with them. This is our aim…to wipe out the line of distinction between the preborn and their born friends, becoming ourselves discriminated against. I don’t want to be treated any differently than my brother, my sister, You reject them, you reject me.”
Then in 1991, at age 43, she married Christopher Bell, 33, a coordinator for the Respect Life Office in the Archdiocese of New York. The pair met while he was bringing her Communion in a Delaware state prison.
She immediately became pregnant and had a daughter, Mary Louise. The girl was delivered by Dr. Bernard Nathanson, a founder of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, who became a pro-lifer in the 1970s. He is a former abortionist and well known for his films “The Silent Scream” and “The Eclipse of Reason.”)
In December 1993, the Bells adopted a handicapped Mexican boy, Emiliano, who has arthrograposis, also known as “frozen joint disease.” After four operations and physical therapy, the boy now is able to walk. Joan and Chris have also adopted several other small children. In addition, Chris Bell is Executive Director of Good Counsel Inc., which operates five homes in New York for pregnant mothers and their babies and has affiliated facilities in New Jersey and Connecticut.
goodcounselhomes
prolifepac.com/html/who20andrews.htm
beat.
