Jill Stanek: Moving On After Barack Obama, How a Disabled Boy Restored My Pro-Life Fire

LifeNews.com Note: Jill Stanek fought to stop "live birth abortions" after witnessing one as an RN at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Illinois. Her speaking out led to the Born Alive Infants Protection Act legislation, signed by President Bush, that would ensure that proper medical care be given to unborn children who survive botched abortion attempts.

It was the Sunday after the election, and everywhere I looked I could only see impending doom.

There is no way God would have allowed Barack Obama to become president were He not finally turning America over to judgment, to whatever great or lesser extent that will be.

I sat in my mother's church and was surprised to feel anger when the worship leader smiled and sang the same songs as ever, as if life hadn't drastically changed the week before, as if the Church itself wasn't indicted by Obama's election.

Then my eye caught a teen with Down syndrome coming late to service with his mother, sitting down the row from me.

He immediately began to sing with all his ecstatic might, smiling heavenward and air-playing guitar with the band, all for God.

And I began to cry ... pretty hard, shoulder-shaking hard. I hadn't done that yet, but pent up sorrow was no excuse; this was ridiculous. I got a grip and dialed it down to rolling tears throughout the song service, and then got distracted by a very good sermon on listening for God to speak.

But I started up all over again when running after the boy after service to meet him and tell him how much his worship had uplifted me.

His Mom thanked me, saying she always worried Eric might be a distraction. It was so opposite of that for me. Eric reminded me of Jesus and the coming joy and why I fight abortion and why I was so sad, all rolled up into one kid.

I could only murmur, "Oh, no," and restart the crying, leaving Mom with a slightly puzzled expression. It was too long a story.

I described that incident on my blog Monday and got enough notes of sympathy I decided I'd better get a grip. Pity is pathetic.

Enough of this, I said to myself. Barack Obama is only a man. The fight against abortion does not start and stop with the president. He can help, and he can hurt. But if this president tries to hurt, he's in for a fight.

Yesterday during my devotion, I read Psalm 66:7. "He rules forever with his might. He watches every movement of the nations. Rebels will not be able to oppose him."

juliet36 has been banned or suspended.

And she’s wrong about Americans. Americans want moral absolutes. It’s the lack thereof which causes Americans so much harm. They’re called “The Ten Commandments” for a reason. They’re not suggestions for when you “feel” like it. One of the reasons the Liberals are so confused is because they are fighting against what they know in their heart of hearts is right and true and good.

Take my brother (please) for instance. He sends me this long rambling email. All I wanted him to do was to take a Poll over at Congress dot Org.

Please don’t hit the abuse button, this is NOT what I think.
My Brother’s reply:
You might want to investigate if there’s some way you could refrain from trying to tell everyone else how to think, what to do and where to go.

Everyone is different thank God, and deserves the serenity provided by the peace afforded by others who understand and respect their views...even (or especially) over their own.

And best, by those who allow them the latitude to live without constant irritation in a vein attempt to sway their opinion based upon someone else’s ideology. This is senseless.

You do not sit in judgment, neither was William O. Douglas, again, thank God.

I have my views as directed by the experiences of my life.

And I will keep them, regardless.

Third party views and comments don’t change me.

Actions and events do.

So please do not send me any more political grand-stands. These may make you feel better as they support your views, but they cannot change me. It’s rhetoric and spin which already agrees with you. You’ll notice I don’t send anything to support my views to you.

That’s because I already know I can’t change your mind, and in fact it’s wrong that I should try. Things I bring to the table don’t support your views.

Little minds of stalwarts who think their existence is a mandate from God about how they are the chosen are the fruits of a closed mind.

Mine is not, and so I heartily support programs which share, and help, and promote others. I enjoy my taxes - really. I understand the community and how it’s funded. “Give unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s.” Especially when those taxes pay for things which benefit the collective known as our society.

We are all the collective of God’s creation, and we owe the best to everyone. No exceptions. Period.

And I cannot sit in judgment. I can only control how I think, how I live my life, and the good I can do for others - even for those who are selfish and self-centered, as I am that too.

God let’s me live so I might help others, and transmit His Love to them. So I’m busy doing that the best I know how. Negativity is not part of that.

I truly believe this, and also believe Barack Obama will have an extremely difficult job ahead of him, and I pray for him and those in power who he will need to affect the kind of changes needed to fix or heal the ever crumbling economy and governmental oversight. It’s so mucked up, I’m glad I’m not in charge.

He has the right credentials. He is calm, and assertive. He never casts aspersions on character. He does not demean or denigrate others or even himself and I think he actually cares for all people. That’s certainly a lot better than what’s been going on in, and behind the Whitehouse over the past eight years.

I pray that you and others like you, that you may become tender to everyone, and express your love through positive thoughts and actions rather than attempting to stir up and promote disgust, dis-information and negative thoughts.

What we’re in for over the next few years to get this economy under control, repair our businesses and industry, and to tame the greed is going to be brutal enough, and is going to require a lot of togetherness.

Barack’s actions will require the complete cooperation of all of the Congress. He doesn’t have a “mandate” and he knows it.

He’s only one person, not the entire government.

Don’t be afraid. It’ll turn out to be better than you think.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All I did was ask him to take a poll. He got all caught up in HIMSELF (ya think?) as a “target” for my ‘signature line’ which read:
Obama cannot end democracy in America and he probably cannot impose a melancholy quasi-official censorship. Obama can only assume total responsibility for what happens to us over the next two years. Liberty cannot be crushed.
A Hiker, Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas (1939-1975) said, “The right to be left alone is indeed the beginning of all freedom.”
“Oh, say does that Star Spangled Banner still wave O’er the land of the free, and the home of the brave?” Francis Scott Key, like George Washington, were models of what conservative leaders must be. We had these men once, and we shall have them again.

ANY ADVICE on how to respond to this? FReepmail me please.

Now comes the hate I am sure! You loving christians, you!!

Not hate, truth. If you saw a man beating a homeless guy up and told him to stop because he was committing a crime, would that be hate speech or truth?

Some of what I'm about to write will sound harsh, but I mean it in love. I'm trying to show you the right path, just as Frederick Douglass showed people the path away from slavery by telling them things about the lives of slaves that they would rather have ignored.

I know this is only going to cause me to beat my head against a wall because the people on here are beyond reason, but you people are so frightening. Obama and millions of Americans (which outnumber the prolife people) believe in CHOICE!!!

The choice you say you believe in is the choice to carve a small child into pieces and throw her in the trash.

That is the reality of the situation. Calling it something else will not change that.

We don't think small children should have their limbs ripped off and thrown in the trash. That view is frightening to you?

Do you think it's just choice when a gang does a drive-by, or a husband beats his wife to death? Was it just choice when the KKK lynched black men or when Matthew Sheppard was beaten to death?

You know what's frightening to me? Dumpsters full of dead little kids...our nation pretending it's all right and that women should feel good about it and fight for it...and God's wrath. That wrath frightened Thomas Jefferson, too. "I tremble for my nation when I reflect that God is just."

Do you really believe we can kill a million children a year and remain worthy of freedom?

We don’t like imposing our values or beliefs on other people

Of course you do. In spades!

First, you impose death on a small child, an expression of the belief that she should not be born.

Second, pro-choice lawmakers (such as the governor of Illinois) have forced pharmacists to dispense the morning after pill and other drugs that they believe kill innocent humans.

Third, whenever a state passes a law requiring women to get even the most basic information about the abortion procedure before obtaining one, pro -"choice" organizations fight to keep women in the dark about the risks and scientific facts. Don't bother the poor little dears with the truth!

Fourth, the president-elect you're so proud of has promised to sign a law that will force me and other taxpayers to pay for abortions. Would you like to be forced to fund an anti-abortion outfit like Operation Rescue with your tax dollars? Would you like to be forced to help kill human beings that you believe are innocent?

Fifth, the law Obama has promised to sign (the "Freedom of Choice Act," look it up) also removes the conscience protections for medical professionals who don't want to perform abortions. In other words, they will be forced to either perform abortions or lose their job and/or license to practice. And he promised to sign it as his first act in office.

You don't impose your values? Puleeze.

we believe history shows choice is the American way

The right to choose, circa 1911.

We aren’t interested in the “Handmaid’s Tale” scenerio.

Oh. Well, neither are we. Hey, what scenarios from goofy novels with science fiction elements are you interested in using as a guide for our national life by? Maybe one of the Star Wars novels or 2001: A Space Odyssey?

In all seriousness, do you really think your views on this issue are credible if you think the only reason someone would oppose cutting a kid to pieces is because they want to have a fundamentalist theocracy where fertile women are forced to hump Robert Duvall? Really?

The reason prolifers are so insane about this issue is because of their religion. They believe to them that as soon as it is conceived it is crying and wearing diapers, and that it is murder.

We believe it's human. Show me the religious content in this:

"Human development is the process of growing to maturity. In biological terms, this entails growth from a one-celled zygote to an adult human being."

That's from the Wikipedia entry for "Human Development."

Now, either you believe that (and the widely accepted scientific view that a zygote is the start of human life) is a load of crap, or you believe in killing humans below a certain age or size for the convenience of other humans. Which is it?

But I see their point only as a choice for themselves.

Well, the problem with that is that science says otherwise:

"Conception, defined as the union of a single egg and sperm, marks the beginning of a pregnancy."--"Maternal Child Nursing Care" by Wong, Perry and Hockenberry, page 133.

If conception using a woman's egg and a man's sperm marks the beginning of a pregnancy, what is she pregnant with? A fish? A chimp? A basketball?

If I see what science sees, and you see something that can be thrown in the trash, who is "choosing" to see something for him or herself? I think that would be you, Juliet.

but don’t impose your beliefs on others,

Shall we repeal the laws against drive-by shootings? If not, why not? Aren't we imposing our views on these people who believe that kiling another person can solve their problems?

put all that energy in teaching contraception to teens, or being mentors to children to work towards being a good example in their lives.

So, you really believe that pro-lifers do nothing to help the lives of women and children? Ever heard of the 1,050 ministries of Carenet just for starters? My local CareNet prgnancy center helps poor women with bills and finding jobs, offers parental training, mentors young people, teaching women how to avoid unwanted pregnancies...everything you have challenged us to do and more.

Oh, and then there's this pregnancy/HIV prevention and youth mentoring program. That same organization has been helping victims of war in Sudan for about two decades, IIRC.

Now, could you please point me to a soup kitchen run by Planned Parenthood?

If you think teens will stop having sex because abortion is made illegal,

Juliet, I suspect you are young and not finished with your education, so here's a free lesson in rhetoric. (See, I'm mentoring a young woman, ain't I great?) What you've presented here is called a strawman argument. No one in the pro-life movement believes what you've just said is one of our core beliefs.

Let me ask, Juliet: Inner city kids didn't stop joining gangs just because shooting a guy in a fellow gang is illegal. Should we make murder legal because laws against it failed to stop gang violence, or should we keep murder illegal?

If you really believe in Jesus, then you would let people be judged by Him only.

So,if I found out that a group of people was planning to kill 1 million children next year, I should just sit at home, not worry about it and let Jesus judge them? Or should I take action to stop it?

But hey, a million is such a hard number to comprehend. What about just one person?

If you saw a man raping a woman, would you try to stop it, or walk past and let Jesus judge him?

If your next door neighbor was abusing his son, beating him mercilessly every Saturday night, would you call your state's chld abuse hotline, or just let Jesus judge him?

If I went to your bank and drained all your accounts and spent it on really cool stuff for myself, would you report me to the police or just let Jesus judge me? And, if you chose to forgive me and let it go the first time, what would you do when I took your money the next week, and the next week after that?

Should the people who fought slavery have just left the whole thing alone and let Jesus judge the slaveholders? How about the folks who fought Jim Crow?

And have you lived by what you preach? Aren't you judging us right now? And do you really make it a habit to remain totally neutral on all human behaviors, letting Jesus Christ sort out which ones are good or bad? You've never called anyone a bitch, or a jerk, or said they were doing something wrong? You've never tried to reverse something you thought was an injustice? If someone used the N word in front of you, what would you do?

If you want more babies in dumpsters, more women dying in back alley abortion clinics, then impose your beliefs

Can you provide any evidence that more women died from botched abortions before Roe vs. Wade than after? I know you can't respond here, but why don't you look into those statistics? I think you'll be surprised.

And Juliet...why is any number of babies thrown in dumpsters acceptable to you?

Would you be OK with throwing, say, 50,000 dead black toddlers in dumpsters a year? I'm sure you wouldn't be, but if you were, what would people call you? Wouldn't they say you were racist and in favor of genocide? Yet approximately 300,000 black infants are thrown in dumpsters every year, and you say those of us who want it to stop are some sort of fascist haters. Does that make sense to you? Really?

You wouldn’t want me doing that [telling us what to do] to you!

You're doing it right now.

Don’t believe me that we outnumber you? Look at the results of the election.

In 1852, the number of people who voted for a pro-slavery candidate for President was much greater than the number who voted for the anti-slavery candidate. The older, more experienced war hero only won the electoral votes of 4 states and the younger (only a year older than Barack Obama is now), handsome Northern Democrat surged to victory. The people who liked slavery (or at least didn't care) outnumbered those who hated the evil of one man owning another.Should the abolitionists have given up? And do we have slavery anymore?

In 1952, segregation wasn't a big presidential campaign issue, but we can be sure that more Americans were OK with segregation (or at least, didn't care much) than not. Heck, the Democrats even felt safe running a segregationist vice presidential candidate on their ticket. Should Rosa Parks have stayed in her seat because she was outnumbered? Should Martin Luther King Jr. have stuck to preaching in his Baptist church and let segregation stand? Do we have "Colored" and "white" water fountains and bus stations anymore?

Are we outnumbered? Maybe, maybe not. Are we right? Yes. Will we fight? You bet.

but everyone values life!

You are defending laws that allow someone to kill a child, and you say you value life? Isn't that kind of like Jerry Springer saying he enjoys TV shows where people have quiet, friendly intellectual conversations about the themes in Sahkespear's sonnets? Isn't that like Richard Simmons saying he hates exercise?

Pro-choice people value all life, from victims of war to the starving poor, not only a fetus.

1. Where is the Planned Parenthood soup kitchen, again?

2. What have you, personally, done to help someone displaced or wounded by war?

3. If pro-choice people care more about the poor as pro-lifers (or even as much), why does study after study show that conservatives give more to charity than liberals at every income level?

4. Do you really believe that the local charities, churches and government agencies that help the poor in your town are staffed solely by pro-choicers? That none of us have the capacity to care for a small, defenseless child and a woman down on her luck? If you do believe that, doesn't that mean you have a pretty bigoted view of us? (BTW, in my town the homeless shelter is run by a pro-lifer and the churches that donate the most money and food to it are all Catholic or evangelical. In other words, pro-lifers.)

And yes we value the fetus, which is why we are prochoice, at least the fetus is terminated in a hospital room under the care of a doctor, not thrown in a dumpster after the birth (to die of exposure, or whatever horrible thing would happen to it) because the teenager was too afraid to tell their parents they were pregnant.

1. Do you really think that's the only choice that a young mother has, killing her child one way or another? You mean there are no charities, no adoption agencies, no welfare safety net, no safe haven laws? Only death by dismemberment or death by freezing? Really?

2. If someone told you that you were going to be ripped limb from limb and thrown in a garbage pile, would you care how qualified the person ripping you apart was? Would you care if the room it was done in was clean and well-lit? Would you be happy that you were being ripped apart so that you could avoid some other form of death, or would you rather live?

And that brings us back to...

Now comes the hate I am sure! You loving christians, you!!

I do love you, which is why I speak truth to you. That's because love is a choice. Sure, sometimes it's a wonderful emotion, but real love is a choice to do what's right for another even if it costs you something. I have a daughter on the way, and I've chosen to love her even if she has a disability, or it's hard to make ends meet.

And I love you enough to tell you this: the Jesus you say judges all people really does do so. And he loves you, enough to be tortured to death for you. He's loved you since before you began as one cell invading another. Right now you're pushing child killing as a freedom, a valuable right, a solution to many terrible problems. This may be because you were involved in an abortion, and that must, deep down, make you weary and afraid. Or maybe you're doing it because you don't know any better, but some day you will, and the realization of what you've supported will make you weary and afraid.

But I have good news: Jesus is ready for your weariness and fear. He said, ""Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."--Matthew 11:28-29

Think carefully before you choose death as your life's work...and turn to Him when the day comes that you realize you're on the wrong path. but please let it be soon. You'll never regret choosing Him. Lay down that burden, and choose love.

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