Gloomy Gus would be in tears!

By Judie Brown

The 1904 comic strip character Gloomy Gus (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gloomy%20gus) was habitually depressed or, one could say, without hope. So too are those who dabble in the dreary business of violating our most vulnerable brothers and sisters' rights.

This past week, it was once again perfectly clear that those who make it their life's work to interfere with human dignity are doing all they can to make everyone else as miserable as they are:

• We learned that Louisiana state Representative John LaBruzzo (http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/09/labruzzo_sterilization_plan_fi.html), a Republican, is so concerned about poverty that he has made a startling recommendation: He wants to pay poor women $1,000 to have their tubes tied, though he did admit that his plan might be a hard sell in the state legislature. Perhaps it is no coincidence that he hails from the same district as white supremacist David Duke.
  
  
• John Mashek of U.S. News and World Report (http://www.usnews.com/articles/opinion/mashek/2008/09/23/abortion-catholic-sex-scandals-the-bishop-of-scranton-and-joe-bidens-communion.html) took a cheap shot at Bishop Joseph Martino (http://www.dioceseofscranton.org/Bishops'%20Office/Bishop%20Martino's%20Bio.asp), the bishop of Scranton, Pennsylvania, without deigning to even mention his name. It seems that Mashek feels that Senator Joseph Biden and others of his ilk are being treated harshly by Bishop Martino, who has publicly indicated that he would deny the body of Christ to Biden due to his support for abortion. http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/sep/08090212.html
  
  Mashek tells his readers, "As a Catholic since birth and one raised by a devout Irish Catholic mother, I have serious problems with my church on this matter." Then he exposes what is really sticking in his craw when he writes,
  
  
  I admit it relates in large part to the pedophilia scandals that have ripped the church [sic] in recent years. Many priests (roughly 5,000 were accused) have been found to have abused young males and young girls, some of them altar boys. For years, the problem was hidden from public view, with priests routinely sent to other parishes without warning the new church — and certainly without informing the authorities. Some cardinals were even involved, and they were, in my view, committing criminal acts as conspirators.
  
  For the record, rape and child molestation are crimes. Covering it up is a crime. Abortion is not a crime because of the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade.
  
  
  One pro-abortion Catholic defending another pro-abortion Catholic by attempting to smear the bishop! Tragic, but all too frequent in these days of politically correct "news speak."
  
  
• Further evidence of this miserable frame of mind comes from 13 state attorneys general, 12 of whom signed on to Connecticut AG Richard Blumenthal's letter telling the Department of Health and Human Services that its proposal for protecting pro-life medical workers' conscience rights is a danger to women. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26870648/)
  
  Blumenthal told the media that the regulation "threatens to drastically discourage and even deter a woman's right to choose. This proposed rule unconscionably puts personal agendas before patient care ... failing even to acknowledge the rights of rape victims and others to access birth control and related vital health services."
  
  In other words, because certain healthcare workers hold a moral conviction consistent with scientific truth and the natural law, they have put their "personal agendas" ahead of the type of patient care that results in the death of one of every two patients. How cruel can you get!
  
  In case you wondered, the 12 states that signed on to this pro-death screed are Arizona, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah and Vermont.
  
  
• Planned Parenthood, however, takes the cake as the nation's leading disciple of all things hopeless and decadent. In the latest issue of Stop Planned Parenthood International's (http://www.stopp.org) Wednesday STOPP Report, we find out the following:
  
  
  • Planned Parenthood is offering free birth control in Binghamton, New York. PP spokeswoman Ingrid Husisian (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26747683/) admits that the reason for the Plan B free giveaway is to draw regular customers: "When people come in for their free emergency contraception, one of the things we'll encourage is would you like to book an appointment on your way out so you can get on a regular method of birth control."
    
    
  • In Delaware, Planned Parenthood will host its "Fourth Annual Chocolate Festival and Silent Auction." As the WSR editor asks, what do chocolate, wine, a silent auction and birth control have in common? Well, according to the WSR,
    
    
    Marion Hamermesh, a PPDE board member and the event's chairwoman, said, "The chocolate and auction items are a great draw, but the nicest part of the event is that supporters show up to help PPDE protect reproductive rights and continue to provide quality, confidential reproductive care to Delawareans. It turns out to be a wonderful evening for everyone."
    
    
    Well, Marion, not for everyone, since preborn babies will die as a direct result of your promotion of the very chemicals and surgical procedures that put them at risk daily.
    
    
• But perhaps the most sordid news item I saw this week dealt with Down syndrome children and the now-confirmed fact that very few Down's babies ever make it to birth. Father John Flynn, LC, writing for Zenit News Agency, reports (http://www.zenit.org/article-23672?l=english), "An article in the Washington Post on Sept. 10 by opinion columnist Michael Gerson noted that when tests reveal Down syndrome in an unborn child, around 90% are aborted."
  
  Indeed, when I read the Gerson report, entitled "Trig's Breakthrough," http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/09/AR2008090902519.html I was astounded to learn that
  
  
  unlike what is accorded African Americans and women, civil rights protections for people with Down syndrome have rapidly eroded over the past few decades. Of the cases of Down syndrome diagnosed by prenatal testing each year, about 90 percent are eliminated by abortion. Last year the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommended universal, early testing for Down syndrome — not just for older pregnant women. Some expect this increased screening to reduce the number of Down syndrome births to something far lower than the 5,500 we see today, perhaps to fewer than 1,000.
  
  

This has not been a good week for human dignity, if one measures it in terms of respect for the human person and his innate right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I am confident that even in his most dour moments, Gloomy Gus would never have wanted to find himself mentioned in the same breath as people who use murder and malicious personal attacks to satisfy their own desire to remain in the darkness, where the only thing that counts is maximizing self-gratification.

God save us from these hopeless individuals! Let us pray for each of them and for those who are their victims, unwittingly or otherwise.

© Judie Brown