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Contents © 2001
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

NEWS
SEPTEMBER 2001

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CALIFORNIA RIGHT TO LIFE PUNISHED BY INSURERS. The office of California Right to Life in Pleasant Hill, near Concord, received a letter on August 10th from A-C Insurance Agency, informing them that their liability coverage expired on August 16th and that the rate would increase from $1,000 to $2,000 for the same coverage. Camille Giglio, director of California Right to Life said, "Contained in the letter was this statement: "I have searched for alternate coverage for you, but five different underwriters have declined to offer a quotation to you. It seems that your 'controversial' name is the problem."

According to Giglio, A-C Insurance Agencies, Inc. told her that this increase is not directed at California Right to Life specifically, but they admitted that the insurance industry would prefer not to insure small non-profit agencies such as theirs due to the potential for lawsuits because of abortion clinic picketing. Giglio denies organizing any picketing or demonstrations. According to Giglio, she was told that it doesn't matter if California Right to Life organized the picketing, if someone gets hurt during that time the organization would get sued. Giglio understood him to be saying that it would be pro lifers who would commit violence. However expensive it will be to get insured, Giglio sees a silver lining. "The one positive aspect in this is the realization that pro lifers are making a difference through their silent, respectful presence at abortion centers. That can be the only possible explanation for the heightened attempts to silence and discourage pro-lifers' first amendment rights of assembly and speech."


FRESNO ABORTIONIST SUED. A case was filed with the Fresno County Superior Court, accusing abortionist Kenneth Wright and Family Planning Associates Medical Group abortion facility in Fresno of a wrongful death charge. The week of August 13th, the lawsuit was brought against the medical group as a result of the death of Kimberly K. Neil, on the basis that she was not properly treated after she wet into respiratory arrest during the abortion. She slipped into a coma after the May 5, 2000 abortion and died on May 22.

Prior to the case filed by the family of Neil, a case was filed against Wright and the medical group in April, claiming that abortionist Kenneth Wright was negligent and "overlooked" an unborn baby while performing an abortion on Heather M. Shaw in 1999. Later Shaw reported severe cramping, hemorrhaging, nausea, and "borderline gangrene" requiring emergency surgery. Wright's lawyer, Donald Fischbach, denies that it was an unborn child but rather that they were "tissues", which had not been completely removed. He asserts that instead of going to the emergency room, Shaw should have returned to Wright's office to have the "tissues" removed. Fischbach maintains that Shaw signed a consent form making her aware of such complications.


HOLY REDEEMER PARISH SUPPORTS GAY PRIDE. Last year, 47 principal sponsors aided the gay pride parade in San Francisco, ranging from Bud Light and United Airlines to The San Francisco Chronicle and Noah's Bagels. For the last seven years, the corporate sponsors have been joined by San Francisco's Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, located on Diamond Street.

Holy Redeemer administrative assistant Michael Vargas calls their participation a "cutting edge" decision. They are planning to take part in the 2002 pride parade as well, marching down Market Street with the proponents and members of the homosexual community. Father Zachary Shore, the pastor of Holy Redeemer, stated that the reason the parish group has decided to march in the parade is to "Demonstrate how universal the Roman Catholic Church is." Furthermore, Holy Redeemer's support group "is an inclusive Catholic community which aids those with AIDS and HIV infection." The individual can be "gay or straight and be Catholic participating in the parade."

When asked for a response to the parish group at Holy Redeemer, the archdiocese stated that "this is this group's way to reach out" to the community. In no way "does it validate the lifestyle or the others participating" in the parade, but instead it is "a means of supporting."


SLICK WILLIE APPOINTS PRO-LIFE CATHOLIC TO CITY POST. Mayor Willie Brown appointed Mike DeNunzio to the San Francisco county commission on the aging and adult services. DeNunzio was sworn in at city hall on August 30. The commission oversees the city and county department of aging and adult services. It is charged with planning and providing community- based social, mental and long term care services for seniors. DeNunzio 63, is the former director of development of the archdiocese of San Francisco. He is a past president and trustee of the Sierra Club of San Francisco and a knight of the Holy Sepulchre.

When asked if he would rely on his Catholic identity on issues like euthanasia, DeNunzio responded, "I am 100% pro-life. I do not believe that any person or entity has the right to take a human life except in defense of another human life." DeNunzio is the vice chairman for finance of the Republican party of San Francisco and will be the only Republican on the seven-member commission. The appointment requires approval by the board of supervisors. "I thank Mayor Brown for this opportunity to assist our seniors, one of four San Franciscans are over 55; this number will increase by 50,000 in this decade, our city services must keep pace." DeNunzio said.


RESOLUTION HONORING BOYS SCOUTS SHOT DOWN IN ASSEMBLYAssemblyman Robert Pacheco (R-Walnut) introduced an assembly resolution which would have honored the 85th anniversary of the Boy Scouts. The resolution needed 41 votes in the Assembly but only received 37 on July 23rd. Pacheco said of the resolution's failure to pass, "Democrats sent a message to millions of our youth that the legislature condemns the positive influence the Boy Scouts have made to our society. Their failure to support the values learned in scouting is disheartening and a slap in the face to Boy Scouts everywhere." San Francisco Assemblymember Carol Migden (D) voted 'no'. Assemblyman Kevin Shelley (D-San Francisco) did not vote.


SUPREME COURT CLARIFIES LIFE SUPPORT REMOVAL. On August 9th, the supreme court ruled that a family can not end life support for an incapacitated loved one simply because he had said he would not want to live like a vegetable. The justices, ruling 6-0, noted that Robert Wendland in was not hospitalized in a vegetative state but instead was conscious, albeit with no means to care for himself following a 1993 auto accident. The man's wife, Rose Wendland of Stockton, sought to pull the feeding tubes that Wendland alive, citing his verbal wishes before his accident that he did not want to live like a vegetable. In July, Robert Wendland passed away in a Lodi hospital from pneumonia.


SISTER GRAMMICK SURFACES AGAIN. In an August 19 San Francisco Chronicle story last month, Sister Gramick announced she is joining a new community of sisters after the Vatican directed the School Sisters of Notre Dame to censure her after a 12-year investigation into her ministries. Grammick was quoted saying, "I lived in those wonderful days of Vatican II, and somehow people are now trying to shove it under the carpet. Our task is to resurrect the spirit of Vatican II." (Grammick is set to join the Sisters of Loreto, based in Denver.)


SHELLEY SAYS ABORTION "O.K." WITH GOD. A senate joint resolution commemorating Roe v. Wade, by Senator Better Karnette (D-Long Beach), is heading for the governor's desk after passing the assembly on September 4. The vote was 50 in favor and 23 against. After Assemblyman Dennis Mountjoy (R-Arcadia) gave an impassioned speech against abortion, Assemblyman Kevin Shelley (D-San Francisco) stood up in support of the resolution. He said, "Mr. Mountjoy, your God says abortion is not ok. My God says it is o.k."


COMMIE COFFEE CON. Richard Torre, an Italian American lawyer and believing Catholic, was walking in the Noe Valley neighborhood of San Francisco when he saw, in a display window for a Communist group, Global Exchange, a package of coffee. The label showed pictures of Holy Father, John Paul II, and Fidel Castro speaking together. The coffee, which is called "End the Embargo on Cuba Coffee" is not Cuban in origin. The receipt -- 12 ounces cost $10 -- is printed with a slogan identifying Global Exchange as a "Fair Trade Craft Store." The back label carries a diatribe against U.S. policy toward Castro, noting that 15 cents from the sale of each package sold will be donated "to sponsor educational and cultural exchange with Cuba." Torre believes the offense merits legal attention. "To begin with, there's the issue of use of Holy Father's picture to sell a consumer product, which is bad enough," he said. "But it's even worse considering that it's being used to promote a Communist regime, which is brutally antireligious. The church hierarchy should take action to stop it and to force them to surrender their profits."


FLAW IN ABORTION CRIME LINK. According to Informed Christian Digest, in research to be published in this month's Harvard Quarterly Journal of Economics, Stanford law professor John Donahue and a co-researcher claim legalized abortion may account for as much as half of the recent crime reduction. According to the study, the crime rate in America dropped 18 years after the U.S. supreme court legalized abortion, reducing the number of mothers whogave birth to unwanted children, and thus reducing the number of people alive today who would be in the peak age group and demographic for committing crimes. Informed Christian Digest reported that statistician David Murray said the drop in crime rate correlates with a number of different social and cultural developments during the same time period -- everything from the advent of the internet to the demise of disco music. The latter no more explain the drop in crime than legalized abortion does, he said.

Murray said young males between the ages of 17 and 25 do commit the majority of crimes. If abortion did reduce crime, crime rates would have dropped first among young people. They haven't. The number of crimes committed by older people dropped first. He said that while the rate of homicide committed by young men has dropped, the rate of aggravated assaults among the young has increased. And the rate of homicides committed by young females -- which should have been equally affected by abortion as males -- has not dropped.

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