Lufkin priests team up to help organize abortion protests
By ASHLEY COOK
The Lufkin Daily News
Monday, April 02, 2007
LUFKIN — Two hundred and eight white wooden crosses dot the green lawn of St. Andrew Catholic Church along busy Feagin Drive in Lufkin.
The "Cemetery of the Innocents" display memorializes what the church says are 208 unborn Texans killed every day through abortion.
 Ashley Cook/The Lufkin Daily News The Rev. Joe Kannampuzha, left, of St. Andrew Church and the Rev. Bill Slight of St. Patrick Church, stand amid 208 white wooden crosses representing the number of unborn Texas children they say are killed by abortion every day. The priests are forming a team of two right-to-life committees to organize efforts to fight abortion and support pregnancy centers in Lufkin.  Ashley Cook/The Lufkin Daily News Members of the St. Patrick Catholic Church youth confirmation class join Deacon Billy Mitchell to picket outside the Planned Parenthood clinic in Lufkin on Frank Avenue last week as part of a service project. The youth members are: (left to right) Kaitlin Smith, Kelly Smith, Jordan Brunner and Roselia Juan. |
The Rev. Joe Kannampuzha, of St. Andrew Church, and the Rev. Bill Slight, of St. Patrick Church, met at the display to talk last week about teaming up in what they say is a new effort to fight for the lives of unborn children.
Both priests will head committees at their churches organizing protests and volunteerism with the goal of preventing abortions, encouraging pregnancy assistance centers and offering support to mothers. The committees, including Spanish- and English-speaking groups — will collaborate with both churches and local anti-abortion efforts, Slight said.
"Because we support life, and we stand for life. Life is God's gift — therefore, it is to be protected, from conception through natural death," the Rev. Joe Kannampuzha, priest at St. Andrew Church, said Thursday.
The committee at St. Andrew is already up and running, meeting the second week of each month, and the St. Patrick committee is in the process of forming. Both will try to help local pregnancy centers by developing goods and facilities while helping counsel and advise new or expectant mothers, in addition to promoting adoption services for mothers unable to keep their children, Slight said.
With the coming expansion of the Planned Parenthood clinic on Frank Avenue, the fear is that Lufkin will have an abortion clinic, Slight said.
"And so that is why we're trying to organize and to get help also to provide the alternative — proper counseling, advice to those having an unexpected pregnancy," Slight said.
The clinic, in operation since 1977, does not perform abortions, and the new center under construction does not include facilities to provide abortion services, Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Michelle Green said in an e-mail last week.
"If a client were seeking an abortion, she would be referred to either our Bryan or our Houston health center. The decision to have or not to have an abortion is a very personal and private decision that should be made by a woman with her doctor and family, without political or ideological intrusion," Green said.
The Catholic church opposes artificial contraception for married couples in favor of natural family planning, such as having intercourse during non-fertile times, Slight said.
Known as the "rhythm method," planned on calendar calculations of previous menstrual cycles, that type of natural planning can be ineffective because it does not allow for normal changes in the menstrual cycle, and is not generally recommended, Green said.
The church also believes the "morning after" pill is an abortive method, acting after contraception takes place, according to Slight.
Known as Emergency Contraception, the pill uses a higher than normal birth control dose to delay or stop ovulation, or prevent fertilization. It does not harm or interrupt an established pregnancy, according to Green. It should not be confused with RU-486, the abortion pill, Green said.
Teenage boys and girls, members of the St. Patrick confirmation class, picketed outside the clinic last week as part of a service project.
"For the young people it means becoming aware of this important life issue. They need to be prepared to defend life and not get trapped into what the wider society is teaching or promoting," Slight said.
Jeffin James, 14, said he was picketing to try to make a difference.
"I know it's going to take more than this, but every little thing does count. I hope this will be resolved peacefully," he said.
"Today, we're speaking out for those who can't," 16-year-old Kaitlin Smith said.
"We're not here to attack Planned Parenthood. It's more about standing up for the unborn. That's what Christ asked us to do," said adult sponsor Rosie Pool.
"People are not aware of how rampant (abortion) is," sponsor Lorraine Lambert said.
Ninety-four percent of clinic services are to prevent unintended pregnancies and to reduce the need for abortion, Green said. Access to comprehensive health care and medically accurate sex education and information prevents more pregnancies, she said.
"We believe in prevention first because prevention works," she said.
With the right-to-life debate continuing, today is the second anniversary of the death of Terry Schiavo. She was the 41-year-old brain-damaged Florida woman whose death after supportive care was removed following a legal battle sparked a national debate on issues of human right to life and death.
"Every being on earth has the right to live. That right should not be violated by human hands. I believe ultimately God is the force of all life," Kannampuzha said.
