Posted on 05/04/2005 2:49:20 PM PDT by BenLurkin
PALMDALE - While "Everybody Loves Raymond" character Debra Barone will live on in television reruns, a generous gift from actress Patricia Heaton will live on in the lives of babies born to Antelope Valley women who were considering having abortions. Heaton, who has won two Emmy awards for her role in the hit sitcom, was honored Tuesday for donating a $25,000 high-tech ultrasound machine to the AV Pregnancy Counseling Center, which was renamed Women's Clinic of the Antelope Valley.
Ultrasound machines offer pregnant women a detailed view of their unborn children, even at only a couple of months along, and have helped convince many women leaning toward abortion to change their minds, center director Marc Boileau said.
"We needed a miracle, and we got one in Patricia Heaton," Boileau said.
"Since opening with the ultrasound machine, our clients have tripled. This ultrasound machine has really, really made a difference … and is saving lives."
Heaton, who is honorary chairwoman for Feminists for Life, offered to donate money for several machines at a fund-raising dinner for the Right to Life League of Southern California.
Heaton's donation purchased four machines, and the organization Focus on the Family provided funds for a fifth, said former Right to Life League leader Bernadette Gonzalez. Besides Palmdale, pro-life medical centers in Monrovia, Santa Monica, San Gabriel and Ridgecrest received the machines.
Heaton said the pro-life perspective is perfectly compatible with feminism, saying she believes women should be able to choose to have their babies without risking their educations, their employment or their relationships.
"Women deserve better, and should be able to have children, have an education and have their jobs," Heaton said.
"This has enabled me to be in Hollywood … and challenge people if they are pro-choice to help people have a choice."
Heaton recently traveled to Washington to meet with members of Congress on pro-life issues, something the actress has more time to do now that "Raymond," in its ninth and final season, has finished filming.
Heaton said Feminists for Life is hitting college campuses with the message of changing society to become more supportive of parenting and children, so women who didn't plan to be pregnant feel supported in having their babies.
To use the ultrasound machine, the center applied for and received medical clinic status from the California Department of Health Services and began offering ultrasounds in June.
On Tuesday, the name change was celebrated with a second grand opening and a ribbon-cutting by Heaton.
Doctors Christine Cambridge and Beatrice Lauria are the center's medical directors; other medical staffers and volunteer counselors also help run the facility.
Women who decide to go through with their pregnancies are offered baby supplies, cribs, formula, maternity clothes and more, while counseling is offered to women who will give birth as well as to those who have had abortions.
Boileau said in the first four months of 2004, six women decided to give birth after leaning toward having an abortion; in the same time span this year, 36 women have made the same decision.
The center is on pace to see 130 women give birth after planning to have abortions, he said, compared to a previous high of 46 women changing their minds in one year.
Here's an excerpt from prolife.com
"I practiced my belief at great cost to myself," the actress told the American Feminist, a publication of Feminists for Life. Mulgrew had become pregnant at an early age and decided to place her baby girl for adoption. They were reunited two years ago.
She said that though "adoption or abortion almost always promises the mother a legacy of shame and regret, I have to be frank about my experience, I survived it. Women often don't believe that they can survive nine months of pregnancy and place the child with an adoptive family. Life is not always easy."
Kate Mulgrew went on to say, "Life is sacred to me on all levels. Abortion does not compute with my philosophy."
Dear Patricia Heaton: BLESS YOU, woman!
From prolife.com... "Brooke Shields, Actress and Supermodel: "Too many people use abortion as a form of birth control. And that's very wrong. I could never, ever have an abortion." (Source: Redbook Magazine, 8/91)"
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.