Twice in the past few weeks, I have had a small group from the local Catholic Church, composed of mostly children, a few women and a young man or two - one carrying a bagpipe - and a couple of older folks. All apparently led by My New Best Friend, Holly. Who assures me she prays constantly for my wellbeing and my safety. MNBFH
Holly is a local attorney. She and her spouse, also a lawyer, are the parents of three adopted children. They have offered to counsel my patients seeking abortion care concerning adoption. So far, I have not taken them up on their "generous" offer. And after reading the material they wanted me to pass out to my patients, I suspect I won't be accepting their offer in the future.
During the first visit by Holly and her mob of screaming, hate filled children crying "Murderer," and "Don't kill your baby!" and "Abortion is murder!" in voices loud enough that they could be heard in the rooms where we counsel patients seeking abortion care and in one of the two rooms where we do the procedures, I went out to talk with group.
Several of the younger children, with blazing eyes, ganged around me and began to scream questions: "Why do you murder babies?" Easy enough to answer, "I don't murder babies." I offered the group a small handful of my essays, Why I Provide Abortion and Abortion: For Me? They immediately threw them on the ground. I picked them up and offered them to Holly, who not only seemed the leader of the group, but took the essays and a copy of my book, There Is A Bomb In Gilead and agreed to read them and give them to the other adults.
Holly informed me that they all loved me and the women who were coming into my office. I told her that they had an odd way of showing that love. She said they was trying to prevent the women and me and my staff from making awful mistakes that could endanger our immortal souls. (I am rarely able to prevent myself from laughing at such remarks, but I think I may have succeeded in this instance.) Holly told me that she had once been an atheist, but had become a convert to the ROman Catholic Chruch, RCC, and now she was doing her best to save us as well. She is praying every day for me and my staff and our families. My new best friend, Holly. MNBFH
MNBFH and I had a long conversation that day and the next day, Friday, my day off, I invited her to have lunch with me and discuss our differences. We met for lunch on the Univ of Ark campus in a beautiful new restaurant in one of the old restored dorms that has been converted into an oncampus hotel.
Her mother came with us to lunch and frequently entered into the conversation. We had a long and seemingly mutually respectful conversation; finally, I thought, agreeing to disagree.
By coincidence, I had been asked to give a 2 to 3 hour interview with a second year UofA Law School student for a class project. I asked MNBFH if she would like to attend the inteview with me on the stipulation that she was to remain quiet during the interview. She agreed, and came to my home the next week to watch and listen.
For the next few weeks, we emailed back and forth, her asking questions of me, I replying. During our online and telephone conversations, I had told her of the young people, like John Salvi, who had committed crimes against abortion providers and their facilities, who seemed to have had an ever increasing downward spiral in their/his understanding of reality. They all seemed to be very dedicated religious fundamentalists, getting ever more involved in "Pro-Life" movement activities, more and more aggressively involved in picketing in front of doctors offices and abortion clinics, becoming more and more aggressive in their acts towards the women who sought this care.
I thought that I had made a difference in MNBFH's efforts to involve her children in this movement. And then she offered the comment that "some people think you are possessed by a demon. Would you be willing to undergo an exorcism? I think I know someone who could do that for you." And then I really did laugh. An open mouth, belly grasping whoop! I didn't know there were supposedly educated, seemingly intelligent people, who took such ideas seriously in modern western societies. Well, obviously I was wrong. And MNBFH seemed a little less like my new best friend. In truth, no friend at all. Not to me, or my family, or my patients, or my staff. In fact, if I believed in demons, I should think that My Former NBFH might have been taken over by one - the same "demonic insanity" afflicting much of the Roman Catholic hierarchy and the "demon" who is the current Benedict XVI and once was the head master of the "Holy Inquisition!" How 'bout them apples! See Moiv's Feeding Moloch diary from 08/07/07 http://www.dailykos.com/...
And then, last Thursday, MFNBFH showed up in front of my office with approximately the same group of screamers, carrying their same shameful signs. These little hellions included her three adopted children, a boy about 14 down to a pretty little girl about 8 as I recall.
I was very ill last Thursday with a severe group of -itises, including bronchitis and laryngitis and a terribly painful tonsilitis. I could barely talk and cancelled all my patients for Thursday except those scheduled for abortions that day. One of those scheduled was a 27 year old woman, whom I will call Mary, accompanied by her husband and mother, all of whom had been thrilled to learn of her pregnancy. Thrilled, that is, until she and her family received the news that she was carrying a very abnormal appearing baby on her 12 week ultrasound.
"Mary" was referred by her oggyn for a series of very sophisticated high level ultrasounds and an amniocentesis which revealed that she was carrying a fetus with trisomy 13 with multiple anomalies, highly probable to be incompatible with life.
Mary eventually learned of my office, but only after having been referred by her obgyn to, and receiving "counseling" from, a hometown Crisis Pregnancy Center and by her "Ass. of God" pastor. And finally she came to my office for abortion care at 17 weeks. As she and her family were driving up to my little building in Fayetteville, a hundred miles from their home, they saw the small mob gathered outside, carrying signs of aborted fetuses and stillborn babies, screaming at passersby and arriving patients. MFNBFH's children were yelling, "Abortion is murder!" and "Don't kill your baby!" in voices loud enough to be heard in most of my office. Holly's kids were making the most noise, I was told.
(One of my office staff has a daughter, 37 weeks pregnant, who visited her mother Thursday morning. She was screamed at by the mob as she came in to see her mom. She commented to her mother and the staff that, while she had no intention of killing her baby, she was not at all sure she wouldn't consider it if she thought that child might turn out like those hellions screaming at her and the others. I laughed at that remark until I heard from the other young women who had been screamed at and verbally assaulted as they walked in.)
When I saw the young woman carrying her trisomy 13 baby, who felt that she was killing her baby without any coaxing from MFNBFH's gang - the baby she had already grown to love and whose birth she was joyously looking forward to for the weeks before she got the terrible news from the ultrasounds and the amnio. Now Mary was in despair. Made even more heart sick by what she had witnessed and heard on her way to the clinic, and by the lies she had been told by people from whom she had sought knowlegable counsel and advice - her "pastor" and the "counselors" at the local Crisis Pregnancy Center, the CPC, in her hometown. (While there are only a few hundred office and clinics providing abortion care around the country, there are thousands of CPCs dotting the landscape.)
When I first saw Mary, she was crying as only a grown woman afflicted with the loss of her children crys. Her mother and husband were trying to console her. And for the next few minutes, I did my best to make certain that Mary understood me and heard what I was saying to her over the screams of the children outside.
Finally, I had to take Mary and her family into my basement, away from the noises outside. And after a little while, Mary did begin to listen to my voice. She had a lot of questions about what she had been told at the CPC. After receiving the facts about fetal pain and the lack of a funtioning brain in her fetus, Mary said, "Dr. Harrison, why is it not against the law for places like that (CPC) to exist?" All I could say was, "that's a good question, Mary."
Later on Thursday afternoon, after we had provided the care Mary needed and sought, both she and her family were effusive in their praise of me and my staff. And then she asked her final question. "How do women who bring their children, children they supposedly love, to do those awful things and say those horrible words to women and families whose lives they know nothing about? How do they sleep at night?"
And again, I had no answer for Mary.
EXORCISM
Yesterday, I had my usual Wednesday lunch with a group of older, mostly retired, yellow dog Democrats I call "the curmudgeons." Two of the group are lifelong RCC members. (One even has a priest brother that he offered for the exorcist's job.) I told them about MFNBFH's offer to get me exorcised of my demon. They wanted to take a vote about my demonic possession, and I lost 11 to 1. We laughed and had a good time fanticizing about the demon that might have possessed my body, whether it might even be Satan himself. The vote concerning Satan's presence in my body was only 6 to 5 (I abstanded from this vote), most seeming to think I was much too small a fish to have been taken over by the Big Guy himself. Maybe someone like Beket or Moiv, sure Satan might have takne over their bodies, but not little old moi.
The curmudgeons and my staff want me to get exorcised. But only if they get to attend. And they get a finders fee. They all say they've know for years I had a demon in me, and they deserve that finders fee. And the staff says they want to see my head spin around and around like the little Blair girl's did in the movie, The Exocist.
If Holly and her gang shows up tomorrow I suppose that for the sake of my friends and staff I will have to offer myself to be exorcixed.
I sure hope she knows a good one, like the famous Frs. Thomas Euteneuer or Frank Pavone. I'd hate to loose a tooth or something to some jakeleg preacher.