Life is Beautiful: Standing for Life and Protesting the HHS Mandate

We are amazed to be living in a time when our faith is openly attacked. We hear the issues misrepresented or openly lied about. We see the ignorance of the masses. We see the apathy and distraction, and the majority of persons who care not. We see too from history that we have front row seats watching the destruction of a civilization. The foundation that has made Americans great: the institution of the family, of marriage, of government built on natural law, and the freedom of religion, and respect for weak and innocent-- is being quickly destroyed. These institutions are what has made us as individuals strong, and then as a nation prosperous. First in our culture they were mocked, then they were misrepresented or undermined. Now we see these institutions attacked viciously and few are left to defend, and fewer are left who seem to care or even see what is happening.

This is a season when we are forced to watch our basic freedoms being taken. We must learn from history, because it repeats itself. The next steps will not get easier. We will face open religious persecution, like so many Catholics and Christians in other countries do today. So in our family we pray, we educate, and we attended the Rally to Stand Up for Religious Freedom and oppose the HHS mandate. "Religious Freedom" is not only the "Freedom of Worship." Religious freedom is a second amendment right. Freedom of worship a new catchphrase to cover up the secularization and removal of religion from the public arena. Never before has the government in America redefined what it means to be a religious institution. Never before has a president been so in favor of the destruction of life at any cost. The cost comes at the expense of taxpayers, many of whom are just trying to get by. Never before has the Church in America had to sue the government to try to maintain who she is.

The lies abound, the "exemptions" don't exist. The definition in the HHS mandate is so narrow and insidious that if one cares for a person beyond the walls of a Church no exemptions can apply. Likewise the Church organizations are not exempt if who they serve happens to be the general population, not only Catholics. Every Catholic hospital, nursing home, daycare, school, religious congregation - they all help people beyond the walls of the Church and now they are all required to fund the destruction of life. No one is exempted. We are forced to do and be what we cannot. That isn't choice, that isn't freedom. A culture that does this will be destroyed.

In the absence of these private charitable or religious based organizations will be secular government institutions. Government operates on motives of budget, power and/or individual goals. These are not the same as religious institutions which value and protect the weak or vulnerable and their human dignity and honor. With government institutions we will see people hurting others in the name of progress. The weak will be eliminated. The problem is we are all weak at some time. We start off in this world weak and if we are so fortunate to live a very long life we surely end weak. Most of us can count on being ill too, and undergoing at least one season of weakness.

Christ calls us to love others regardless of their beliefs, and give to the weak and poor regardless of their beliefs. That's what Catholics have done in this country. We are called to love all at different times when needed. Catholic institutions were built on this ethic and they must do this. They do this despite the often weak imperfect persons who serve in them. My husband is one such person who provided free medical care to prisoners, poor of all ages, drug abusers, and people from every walk for years at the Catholic hospital where he worked. The system is broken and payment needs to be overhauled for the middle class to survive. But the ethic of caring for others rather than harming them protects our entire culture while loving individuals. The Catholic hospital is opposed to providing abortions or funding them because it goes against everything taught and believed by the Church. It also goes against natural law for non-Christians, many of whom agree with this. Forcing people to do an evil, isn't choice or freedom, and it's not simply personal. It's societal oppression. It's the glorification of the sexual revolution to any end. It hurts women, and men, and destroys the future, and now it's a billion dollar business lobbying for our election.

Here's Elena starting off small and helpless...and inconvenient...and adorable.

I spend my days caring for the future. I serve little people who are the future. I stay up at night, I nurse at all hours, I comfort, cook, clean, wash, and give in all manner of ways to the future, without pay and sometimes even respect. I do even more because my husband is a physician for others who are hurting at all hours and isn't able to be home. Then when he comes home exhausted from the broken system, I serve and love him with what is left. That is serving life. That is what mothers do, good wives do, and Catholic health care workers do. Love has never been convenient, easy or cheap. Being there for others comes at a great cost. Our faith isn't cheap-it was bought by a precious price. Love is hard, and needs sacrifice, and that's what families, and strong societies are built on. These institutions built America. Love is also wonderful, it's what makes everything worthwhile and it provides rewards beyond what can be communicated in words. If you love and give all of yourself, you know that. We were made for love, to give and receive it fully. Material pursuits, cultural trends, fleeting moments of superficiality do not leave one satisfied. Living for oneself ends in one generation, one generation of unhappiness and superficiality. Motherhood and the opportunity to give to another has been taken from women by abortion and contraception, and the culture that devalues the child. Today we are all hurting because of it.

We tell our politician to love the weak, but children know and honor the smallest without being told.

The Constitution doesn't give us Freedom to Worship but Freedom of Religion, the freedom to act on our beliefs, and to have and live our beliefs. Everyone has beliefs, and wants the ability to behave consistent with them. Catholics have done this and cared without counting the cost. To have a belief which you cannot uphold, discuss openly, or be faithful to is to be bound. The HHS mandate does this, and it IS oppression. This mandate makes us behave as if we have no conscience. Our government was built on having a people with conscience. We have seen this in China, in former USSR, and many countries, so we know what it looks like. We shake our head when we see other countries stuck in this barbarianism and we may feel sad for them. But now we are the new mission county, in the land where people don't know what they had or what they are losing. My children know. They were born into this time and will have to. I know they will ask what happened and what did we did about it. I know at the end of this life I will have to answer for what we didn't do.

Religion and philosophy drives culture. We see that throughout all of history. Every culture reflects the beliefs of the people and their values. The hostile secularists with their religion: the cult of self and living for the moment seeks to now impose itself on everyone. It indoctrinates in the name of choice and progress and liberation. It seeks to destroy that which lives beyond oneself and for others. Pleasure, health, beauty, etc. are glorified and the cost is something no one wants to talk about.

We must see, we must stay awake, and be informed and answer back. We must know what matters to have any chance to hold onto our freedom. The latest book, movie, or gaming system doesn't matter. The professional game score of the week, the latest song, movie, tech gadget, or whatever the culture is promoting doesn't have lasting importance. We may enjoy them now, but next year we won't care. They don't impact us deeply and should not be what we live for or spend all our time on.

The ability to live a life following the natural law, to work a day's wage and not harm my neighbor with those wages matters. Living in a land where I can be free and my children are free matters. The ability of my husband to be a physician and follow the Hippocratic Oath matters. He will leave medicine before harming a single person intentionally or cooperating with evil. Protecting life matters.

So we will fight, and we will stand up, because each life is worth it. My fellow women, whether I know them or not are worth and deserve so much more than this. I don't want to see women coerced and we are tired of the lies. We are tired of the coverups and misinformation about what is 'good' and what is healthcare. No one I have ever heard of is glad they had an abortion. They may find them convenient and their only solution at the time. But they were usually hurting or coerced, feeling trapped, and without options, and they are not proud of the choice. No one deserves to be put through this when they are hurting. A pregnancy is not a disease, fertility is not a disease. Women deserve love, care, help, support, and options when they are expecting. That's what a real civilization does. That's what every woman deserves. Today there are options given by people of faith, people who ask for nothing in return. There could and should be more options, more support and more resources. That's what needs to be promoted, the ethic of love. Taking life for profit isn't a good option. It's destruction and it's evil, and we see the pain in women and the absence of a generation.

My adopted son would have been exterminated by the philosophy in our culture that life is to be embraced only when planned. His birth mothers' heart would carry a wound that would not heal, a life of what ifs, and a risk for breast cancer up 400% because of the teenage abortion of a first born. Her family would mourn too. She might have had trouble conceiving or carrying other children. That isn't freedom, or healthcare, or a real choice. Instead she chose life, and we admire her courage immensely. We were blessed by a child from her generosity. My son would never have a brother, and our family would never know the love and joy of the life that this child is. That decision is not only personal, it affects families, it affects our society, and it ripples through the generations.
I wonder often what our land would be like if the other children were here. If the other women were loved, and the countless infertile couples could have found a child to love and a life to heal their hearts.

My fourth child last year was born to parents of 'advanced maternal' and paternal age by the books. She officially has never been convenient, planned, or easy. Not in 14 months after birth or through the tough pregnancy. So should we have not welcomed her? Now that she is so healthy, cute and smart one can say no, don't be silly. But the suggestions that we are imprudent were there, even from good people during the pregnancy and first year. She is a gift beyond words, a blessing we only dreamed of, to have a sister for the kids, and another daughter to cherish. While I am pondering this, came the waves of comments that we should have been more careful, implying she is a mistake (which stems from a contraceptive culture). Should she have been ill or carrying a genetic defect we would have been encouraged to be "responsible" and take care of this personal issue by eliminating her. My children, my dearest, most amazing treasures, exist as endangered species in a time when so many children didn't even get a chance to be here. We know because of our faith that everyone deserves a chance to be here. Today we came to a rally to be present, and hopefully to give a voice to the voiceless. There are so many who are not here...

To be a Catholic is to honor life at all stages, and love those who are weak or hurting. Everyone needs help, and resources so their life is better, and so they know the love and dignity that is theirs and comes from God. Dignity doesn't come from government. Laws need to be for the good of others. The opportunity to eliminate the unborn shouldn't have become a billion dollar industry fueled by women who lie to women about healthcare. Women who tell you your value lies in the ability to be free from the constrains of having to give to another or be responsible. Freedom with emptiness, does not equal happiness. Does no one consider that unlike adoption, and women's support groups, no one believes in abortion enough to do it for free, it's simply big business at the cost of the weak. People who believe in women help them on a voluntary basis because of their faith. They give without taking. Abortion takes without giving. Adoption is all about giving. I know - I have lived it. And in the midst of giving all you have, you are receiving the intangible - the beauty of life and love.

Everyone who is pro-abortion I've noticed is already here- said Ronald Reagan. Pro-choice institutions like planned parenthood offer one choice and it's not mammograms. Although they don't want to admit it, it always hurts the weak: both the Mom who is feeling trapped and the child who simply wants to live and be welcomed. It is always expensive, because it's about making money, and getting in and out of the clinic. Like so many contraceptives the consequences to a woman's body physically and emotionally aren't honestly addressed. We don't want to fund hacks who do as many abortions in a day or year that they can. We know they lie about the consequences and when women come forth with their stories they refuse to allow them a platform. The billion dollar business has a strong arm and a dark side.

Because of our faith, and our reason, we want our money to go toward caring for society rather than harming others. We give to pro-life causes, and people, and we try to love women who are hurting and show there's another way. So many couples like my husband and I ached to adopt for years. Many couples face infertility and so many wait with empty and sad hearts that yearn for a child. They wait and hope and wish to help, and would gladly adopt, but there aren't enough children, as they have been eliminated. So today women weep for the babies they lost and the hearts that are broken while other women weep for the children they can't conceive or can't adopt. We are told we are empowered and that this is what liberated feels like. I know better. I have lived through the sadness of infertility and the joy of adoption, and the heartache of losses. I lost four souls, not to an abortionist, but the loss of life through miscarriage and the emptiness of infertility is real just the same.

To be forced to pay for abortion and contraception (which is usually abortifacient in nature) goes against everything we Catholic women believe and who we are. We are people who love life, because life is a gift, the first freedom, before liberty. The freedom to live our convictions should not be taken away from us. There will be consequences people do not realize now. So my family spent the day, standing instead on the steps of the City Hall. We stood in the cold air, as a reminder of the new fight for freedom and we stood as a voice for those who cannot speak. Now we pray, and we speak, and we pray more, and we vote wisely. May we as a nation find a way to repeal the evil which is called good, and protect the freedom to be faithful Americans.