Planned Parenthood's 40 Days of Prayer 1 - 10

Thanks to Kate Cann, who posted the link to the entire sickening thing at the RealChoice Facebook group.

Here is it -- but get some soul bleach -- the Planned Parenthood / Humbolt County Clergy for Choice "40 Days of Prayer Supporting Women Everywhere." Some of these prayers might seem innocent, unless you know the way the abortion lobby uses language.

Day 1: Today we pray for women for whom pregnancy is not good news, that they know they have choices.

At first this might seem to be a prayer for women to know that they can get WIC and medical assistance, help enforcing child support, etc. You have to understand what the abortion lobby means by "choices" to understand how nasty this prayer is. "Choice" means abortion. This is a prayer of thanksgiving for abortion, and that women distressed by that positive pregnancy test will turn to Planned Parenthood or another abortion purveyor rather than to anybody who will help her to address the reasons she considers that positive pregnancy test to be "not good news."

Doubt that? Consider Planned Parenthood's unrelenting campaign to stamp out any organization that helps women with any choice other than abortion, resorting to a hoax when all other efforts don't pan out.

Day 2: Today we pray for compassionate religious voices to speak out for the dignity and autonomy of women.

This seems to be a prayer that would stand in solidarity with truly oppressed women who are forbidden to get an education, to drive a car, to go out in public without doing it under a tent and accompanied by approved chaperons. It's not. In the language of the abortion lobby, the only way women exercise "dignity and autonomy" is to climb on the abortion table. So this is in essence a prayer that clergy and other people who profess faith will encourage abortion at every opportunity.

Day 3: Today we pray for our daughters and granddaughters, that they will always know the power of making their own good decisions.

Again, innocuous and even noble on its face. Who could object to our daughters and granddaughters making good decisions? Don't we want our daughters and granddaughters to make wise choices about dating, education, family life, and career?

Well, just take a moment to look at the choices that are ridiculed by supporters of abortion:

• Sarah Palin's decision to continue her pregnancy after a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome.
• Ann Romney's decision to forgo a high-status career and instead be a full-time mom to her five boys.
• Anybody's decision to embrace chastity, especially the decisions made by teen girls to wear "purity rings."
• The decisions of millions of Catholic and Evangelical women to use NFP rather than artificial contraception.

In short, any decision that does not follow their "enlightened" path is not, in their world, a "good decision." They are, in essence, praying that our daughters and granddaughters embrace early sexual experimentation, and then avail themselves of Planned Parenthood's services to deal with the inevitable STDs and pregnancy risks. They're praying that our daughters and granddaughters choose abortion in any challenging circumstance, including a prenatal diagnosis of a child that doesn't meet their standards. They're praying that our daughters and granddaughters overcome any maternal desire to stay home and nurture their children, and instead pursue work outside the home. This prayer is deplorable and is praying for the opposite of making good choices.

Day 4: Today we give thanks for the doctors who provide quality abortion care, and pray that they may be kept safe.

Notice the careful choice of the words "provide quality abortion care." This doesn't mean that they're not thanking God for Steve Lichtenberg, who sent a 13-year-old girl to an early grave with a massive overdose of Brevitol. This means that they're lumping even quacks like Lichtenberg into the category of "doctors who provide quality abortion care." It's a way of pretending that any "abortion care" is quality "abortion care." In other words, this is a way of thanking God for anybody who chooses to destroy unborn life.

The addition of the prayer "that they may be kept safe" is one it's hard to disagree with. But it's also a jab at prolifers, implying that they have to pray that abortionists will be kept safe from us. Note that there is no prayer that abortionists will run clean, safe facilities. That's being treated as a given.

Day 5: Today we pray for medical students who want to include abortion care in their practice. May they receive good training and good mentors.

I have to give them credit here for at least praying for "good training and good mentors" for the medical students who actually want to include abortion in their practices. They're not praying that all medical students embrace abortion. And I catch a hint of the admission on some level that they need good training and good mentors so that they don't become like Kermit Gosnell.

Day 6: Today we ask for blessings upon the women who pass through hostile protesters on the way into an abortion clinic. May they be shielded from physical and emotional harm from those who do not know them.

Note the presumption that the "protesters" are "hostile." There is no prayer that last minute help will be available for women who are being pressured or feeling trapped.

As for the prayer that the women walking into the abortion facilities "be shielded from physical and emotional harm from those who do not know them" -- that's the very prayer that the prolifers are praying themselves. That's the reason the prolifers are out there: to help shield the women from physical and emotional harm from those who do not know them, for whom they are nothing but political points and dollar signs.

Day 7: Today we pray for the 45 million American women who have and safe, legal abortions. May they stand tall and refuse shame.

This is not a prayer: it's political and social propaganda. They're trying to normalize abortion. It's the same ploy advertisers use when they point out how many people purchase their product. It's an urge to jump on the bandwagon, to choose abortion, to support abortion.

It also includes the presumption that legal abortion is safe. Why are they not praying for the women who have endured unsafe legal abortions? Why are they not praying that those who have suffered, who have ended up with hysterectomies or colostomies, who are not unable to have children, who are now at high risk with every wanted pregnancy? Are those women not also women? Do they not matter?

They're also praying that women embrace their abortions after the fact, no matter how they're feeling afterward.

Day 8: Today we pray for elected officials, that they may always support a woman's right to make her own medical decisions.

Another prayer that seems innocuous, unless you understand that the abortion lobby means "undergo abortions" when they say "make medical decisions." Lest you doubt this consider these little facts:

You never hear abortion advocates arguing for informed consent. Anything that might lead to a decision that isn't abortion is actively fought against, not embraced or supported.
You never hear abortion advocates arguing for easier access to tubal ligations, even though individual prochoice women often lament how difficult it is to get their tubes tied. They are told they're too young, that they don't have enough children yet, that they might regret it later. They run into roadblock after roadblock. There's even a page of advice about how to overcome the barriers. But where is the abortion lobby when it comes to standing up for those women who want to chose tubal ligation rather than abortion after abortion?

Day 9: Today we pray for women who are afraid of their lovers. May they find the confidence to turn away from abuse and take care of themselves.

Finally! It took them nine days to get to an actual pressing need!

This has been one of my pet peeves. I listened to a tape of a meeting of National Abortion Federation nurses trying to figure out how to help abused women. The focus was not, as this prayer is, on finding confidence, turning away from abuse, and taking care of themselves. The focus was on trying to get abusive men to at least use a condom when raping women who are recovering from abortions.

Yes, you read that right.

These nurses were upset about how many of their patients were in relationships where the man would not allow the woman to abstain from sex until she was healed. Not allowing a woman to abstain from sex is rape, and it's particularly deplorable when the woman is trying to abstain so that she does not contract a life-threatening infection.

These nurses were also upset about what walking petri dishes of STDs these men are, because they don't just force themselves on the woman they've gotten pregnant; they're out having unprotected sex with multiple other partners.

Not once in the entire session did anybody suggest helping these women to contact services that would help them to escape the nightmare of abuse. It was all, "Can we at least get the abusers to wear condoms for a couple of weeks?"

So I have to applaud the prayer for Day 9, and add to it a prayer that people working in abortion clinics will actually help the women to find confidence, turn away from abuse, and take care of themselves, rather than just scrape them out and return them to their abusers.

Day 10: Today we pray for women who were joyfully expecting a child, but have learned that the pregnancy is not sustainable.

We can all join in prayer for these women. However, I'd not pray this prayer side by side or in any way in concert with the people putting out this list. Why?

Consider the attacks endured by Myah Walker, who blogged her journey after a prenatal diagnoses of anencephaly:

Myah Walker and her "baby" -- The writer refers to Faith Walker as "a living vegetable," and puts the words "baby" and "daughter" in quotes when referring to her. She dismisses Myah's love for faith as being "more in denial as time passed on." She criticized Myah for "wanting it to 'live.'" Yes, this writer called Faith "it," and denied that she was even living. The writer notes that many have dubbed Faith "the zombaby." Commenters said things like "choosing to bring such a disabled baby to full term seems even selfish to me."

Urban Dictionary: Zombaby -- "Definition: A baby literally born without a brain. It twitches and spasms like a zombie. Example: Have you seen that article about Myah Walker and her zombaby?

The pinnacle of nastiness is at Encyclopedia Dramatica --

An innocent post on Something Awful about the love of a psycho for her brainless child brought out strange feelings of sympathy and disgust among Goons in regards to the story of poor Myah Walker, 23-year-old single mom of a special needs kid with anencephaly. Goons, being a compassionate lot, decided to dig a little deeper into this fabulous, tawdry soap opera of a fundie pro-life girl and her meatsack. ....

A normal person would have aborted that shit with quickness, but our girl Myah decided to use the Zombaby as a tool of pro-life propaganda, going on speaking tours, creating blogs, and asking for prayers, drugs, brains, strollers and whatever else she could grub to appease the world's tiniest zombie.

Try to tell me with a straight face that people who gather to thank God for abortion aren't also praying that any baby that doesn't live up to their standards gets aborted.