Friends, I have a very important message for you today, but I’m not going to be the one to convey it. Instead, I’m going to let my good friend, Nicole Collins, a wonderful pro-life warrior, deliver it in my stead. Please consider contributing to this very worthy cause, and if you are unable to contribute financially, your prayers are always appreciated. Our Lady of Good Remedy, pray for us!
Introduction
Hello, my name is Nicole Collins. Some of you know me. Most of you don’t. I would like to interrupt your Bad Lip Reading videos, your reddit snark and your all-purpose interwebs fun and bring you a bold display of blatant desperation.
Would you like to participate in a viral mission of hope?
One that is guaranteed to chap Planned Parenthood’s Hide?
You don’t have to be Catholic to participate. You just have to hold to this equal care principle: In an unwanted pregnancy, both the pregnant woman AND her unborn child deserve equal respect and care.
Here’s The Effort
Between now and the first day of Advent – Sunday, November 30 – we will pool our resources and fund a SINGLE mobile pregnancy center unit equipped with ultrasound!
- This mobile unit will be beautifully appointed and staffed by professionals; it will park outside of abortion clinics in Delaware and offer FREE ULTRASOUND, FREE PREGNANCY TESTING and FREE COUNSELING to women in crisis.
- This mobile unit will also park at fairs, church festivals, and other happy community events, educating the public to the marvels of ultrasound technology and what it shows of intrauterine development.
- All we want to build this mobile unit (aka Stork Bus) and put it on the road is $120,000 in capital expenses. We will get the operating expenses on our own! (there’s a reason for that).
Save the Stork Mission
You may have heard of Save the Storks, the national organization founded by Joe Baker in 2011. Save the Storks is taking the country by storm. Their mission statement reads:
Our mission is to empower abortion-minded mothers all over America to choose life. We’re accomplishing this by partnering with local pregnancy centers that will own and operate our vehicles outside of abortion clinics to reach women who feel like they only have one choice. By doing this, more women will be saved from the pain and heartbreak of abortion.
Two months ago, an eclectic group representing two of the three counties of Delaware founded the Delaware Stork Bus, Inc. Our intention is to carry out the Save the Storks vision in Delaware. We have signed a contract with Joe and Co. We are ready to rumble. And we want your help.
GoFundMe Campaign
We have put together a crowd sourcing campaign on GoFundMe with a goal of $120,000.
Ah, but you have questions.
- “Why should I help you? Aren’t there other groups in the country trying to get a Stork Bus off the ground?”
- “I live in Kokomo, Indiana, home of the Kokomo Mantis. Why should I care about little Delaware?”
Those are fair questions. I do live in Delaware, and I d0 want to pull out all the stops to get this Stork Bus up and running in my community. I freely admit that it is self-serving.
But here’s the twist. If this effort is successful, we could scare the pants off of Planned Parenthood and fund more than just one little Delaware bus! We might also inspire similar campaigns in other states.
To our knowledge, no Stork Bus project has used crowd funding, and we hope to establish a precedent. The secular world has been a lot quicker to harness the power of crowd sourcing than us. Witness the success of the ALS Bucket challenge. In two weeks’ time, it made four million dollars for the ALS Association and its 38 chapters. It did this by harnessing the power of social media and the fun of seeing people (especially celebrities) have buckets of ice dumped on them.
However, the ALS Association supports using human embryos for stem cell research, and so Catholics, and other sanctity of life supporters were not able to embrace this campaign as readily as some.
Stork Overflow?
If 4,800 donors gave $25 dollars each, the $120,000 goal could be met quickly. So, what happens if the Catholic/Mommy/Pro-life blogosphere gives more?
Not to worry. We have thought of that. Here is the deal, and it’s a good one:
If we raise more than $120,000 between now and the end of November, we will give 100% of all additional monies collected to the national Save the Storks project! That’s right! We are not greedy. This is our first fundraiser, and we are targeting our capital expenses only. We will trust in our fundraising acumen to raise the first three year’s operating expenses on our own. We came up with this concept not just for Delaware Stork Bus, but for all of us. We want to show the abortion industry that we can get a fully-outfitted Stork Bus on the road in a little more than two-months time. That will have them shaking in their stylish yet affordable boots!
But we don’t want this to be a Zero Sum Game. If YOU give to US, we don’t want you to worry that other Stork Buses will suffer. Save the Storks gives grant money as part of its mission. So if our little stunt goes anywhere, and we collect any extra funds above our capital goal of $120,000, we will give the rest to Joe and his good people to give in grants as they see fit.
Now, most of you don’t know me from Eve. I am not Father Frank Pavone. I’m not Jill Stanek. I’m not Troy or Abby or Mark or Joe or any of the people you know and trust. I can vouch for myself, and I’ve got a solid circle of blogger friends on the Internet. Look me up.
Look up all of us! You’ll find some surprises! Yes, you will find that we have paid our dues. We are trustworthy.
Thank you for your time and prayerful consideration in joining our mission and this campaign.
Sincerely yours,
Nicole Collins, with the Delaware Stork Bus Board of Directors:
Evelyn Baldwin
Susan Bullock
Rae Stabosz
Jayne Mitchell-Werbrich
Ed Taubert
Tim Werbrich
13 thoughts on “Save the Storks in Delaware”
Thanks JoAnna for getting the word out there! Wonderful!
“One that is guaranteed to chap Planned Parenthood’s Hide?”
“it will park outside of abortion clinics in Delaware”
You are exercising your constitutional right of free speech. With this I have no issue. You will park your van at churches, libraries, parks, etc. With this I have no issue. Planned Parenthood’s hide being chapped, parking outside abortion clinics (while also constitutionally protected) is vile. PP’s abortion services encompass 3% of their care for women’s reproductive health care. Early abortion is also a constitutionally protected right based upon the “right to privacy.”
Your strategy would be similar to parking a SNAP (Survivor’s Network for those Abused by Priests) van filled with lawyers, counselors, law enforcement figures and agencies for child protective services outside every Catholic Church since 5% of priests are abusers (or have been). These vans would encouraged victims to come out in force, sue perps and the Church, identify clergy involved in coverups, etc. Would this upset Catholics? Probably as much as Stork Vans in front of Planned Parenthood or other abortion centers.
50% of Catholics outright reject the Church position on abortion. That could explain why your crowdfunding program has achieved 1% of its goal in 2 months. I’ll give my 1000.00 to PP who provide reproductive health services to poor, penniless women or those on Medicaid.
“While Planned Parenthood officials claim that abortions constitute only 3% percent of their services, this figure is misleading. Out of the 10.5 million individual services they provided in 2006, 289,750 were abortions—roughly 3%. But this figure fails to account for the fact that a woman visiting Planned Parenthood for an abortion will receive several services—from a pregnancy test to some manner of counseling to the abortion itself—each of which is counted separately. A closer look at Planned Parenthood’s client and income numbers shows that the abortion figure is actually three times what they claim. Of 3.1 million Planned Parenthood clients in 2006, 9% got abortions. Moreover, abortion accounts for at least a third of Planned Parenthood’s total income from clinic services. Source: http://www.plannedparenthood.org/files/AR_2007_vFinal.pdf” (from http://www.whyprolife.com/planned-parenthood/)
Your analogy to the Church is interesting, but also illogical, as the Catholic Church does not advocate for the right to abuse children (in fact, the Church strongly condemns abusing children, and Her teachings are clear that priests who abuse children are guilty of grave sin).
A better one would be this: If Catholics tried to brush off abuse claims by saying that only 5% of priests abuse kids, so it doesn’t really matter, would that be acceptable to you? If not, why do you think we should not be outraged that Planned Parenthood (allegedly) only kills innocent children 3% of the time? I think even one child dying at the hands of an abortionist is one too many.
Furthermore, if PP’s abortion business only constitutes 3% as they claim, why did so many Texas clinics close once abortion was banned prior to 20 weeks? Seems odd that such a small part of their business would comprise such a large portion of their revenue, that losing that business rendered the clinics unsustainable, isn’t it?
And what about the repeated failure of Planned Parenthood to report the rape and abuse of minors? If they only fail 3% of the time, is that okay with you? http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2014/05/14/planned-parenthood-covers-up-rapeagain-n1837994
One of the Delaware Stork Bus Board Members used to work for Delaware Planned Parenthood (see here: http://www.jillstanek.com/2013/05/planned-parenthood-of-delaware-abortionist-ogled-slapped-played-peek-a-boo-with-patients/), so I think she knows better than you just how much they depend on abortion for revenue.
I’m also confused as to why you are so opposed to offering women abortion alternatives, Phil (because you can bet that they won’t be coming from Planned Parenthood). You must be pro-abortion and not pro-choice — because if you truly were pro-choice, you would have no objection to women being offered choices.
I am pro-choice in some instances; I am not pro-choice (personally) in cases of sex selection or avoidance of a child with disabilities, ie. Down Syn.
Reference a blog I wrote on this issue in 2012.
http://healingandempowerment.blogspot.com/2012/02/designer-childrenselective-abortion-and.html
My entire argument and objection was about parking the vans at abortion clinics, period! I was clear that this project had a first amendment right and perceived moral responsibility to be in any other location.
I don’t think it really matters that you support killing innocent children in some cases but not in others, as illogical as that belief is.
But again, why do you object to giving women choices when it comes to abortion?
You are playing a game. I believe in choice. Placing a pro life van in front of an abortion clinic is emotional blackmail and akin to depriving a woman of rational choice. Your agenda is not about choice….
No, Phil, it’s called “reality.” How is offering a woman an alternative to abortion — letting her know that there are alternatives to killing her child — “emotional blackmail”?
I believe that abortion only perpetuates violence on a rape victim. Why do you believe that an innocent child deserves to be executed for the crime of his or her biological father? How is that just?
Yes, I do think that unborn children with terminal diagnoses should be considered human beings with inherent worth and value, and treated with dignity — instead of your view, which is that they should be put down like dogs. Please read the story of my dear friend Stephanie, whose son Peter had anacephaly. They chose to bring him to term and love him as long as he lived, and his life was a blessing to them and all of us: http://www.catholicreview.org/article/home/st-ursula-couple-chose-life-though-it-also-meant-death
Also see http://www.benotafraid.net/
Also, diagnoses can be wrong, as doctors are not infallible. My friend Sarah’s son was diagnosed with spina bifida, and she was encouraged to abort him — she was told he would be paralyzed for life, would suffer constantly, etc. She defied the doctors, and a week later they saw him kicking his legs on the ultrasound. Today he is crawling and climbing and is a typical toddler. http://wifeytini.blogspot.com/2013/05/what-to-expect-when-you-totally-werent.html
JoAnna
“No, Phil, it’s called “reality.” How is offering a woman an alternative to abortion — letting her know that there are alternatives to killing her child — “emotional blackmail”?”
Reality? 1. Women do not lightly decide on terminating a pregnancy; it’s not a snap judgement, it’s not a wanton act….it’s an agonizing decision. Anyone who tells a woman who is exercising a constitutionally protected civil right that they are killing is “emotional blackmail.” 2. Catholic women know clearly the position of the Church on abortion and they know what fetus looks like…57% of Catholics do not accept the Church position on abortion and approve in certain cases. As for non-Catholics they are responsible for their own belief systems.
The case of a 12 year old who is raped by her father (incest) and forced to carry to term and deliver will result in biological injury to the child and a lifetime of horrid psychological problems to both the child and product of the incest. Talk to any reputable psychologist or psychiatrist. What you would do is condemn a 12 year old and a fetus to a lifetime of psychological scars….how is that just?
Lastly, please spare me stories about spina bifida, etc. You obviously did not take the time to read my blog post on “designer children.” My wife and I have and are caring for a son who cannot speak, move, or perform any bodily function on his own for the past 16 years and hopefully many more. I don’t need disability vignettes as I live this this life very happily.
1. ” Women do not lightly decide on terminating a pregnancy; it’s not a snap judgement, it’s not a wanton act….it’s an agonizing decision.”
If you truly believe this, why are you opposed to giving women information about abortion alternatives? If it’s “agonizing,” then Save The Storks (et al) can help them remove or mitigate the crisis portion of the crisis pregnancy!
“Anyone who tells a woman who is exercising a constitutionally protected civil right that they are killing is “emotional blackmail.””
Really. So, in 1835, it was wrong for abolitionists to tell slaveowners that slavery was wrong and immoral? By your logic, that is also “emotional blackmail.” To quote GK Chesterton, “Having a right to do a thing is not at all the same as being right in doing it.”
2. I dispute your statistics. It should be “57% of people who identify as Catholic but don’t hold to the tenets of their faith support killing innocent children.” 100% of Catholics who hold to the tenets of their faith oppose abortion.
Also, please visit http://secularprolife.org – because abortion is a human rights issue, not a religious issue.
In the case of the 12-year-old raped by her father, why do you support executing one of the innocent victims in that case? Is there any other context in which you support executing the innocent victims of a crime in order to punish the perpetrator? Why not give the 12-year-old AND her baby love, support, and medical care throughout the process? Why are you opposed to that?
And trauma? Did you know that the rate of suicide among those who have had abortions is more than triple that of those who miscarried or suffered a stillbirth? http://liveactionnews.org/abortion-suicide-grim-statistics-2/
You say you love your son yet you think people should be allowed to kill others like him. I don’t understand that logic. If you don’t think your son is a worthless, valueless, disposable human being, why do you think that other children with the same condition *are*? It makes no sense.
By the way, my fifth child was born with a congenital birth defect (although, happily, a treatable one – you can read our story here: http://blog.secularprolife.org/2014/03/what-wendy-davis-political-doublespeak.html) I don’t think that women should have the right to kill children who have birth defects, just as I don’t think I should have been allowed to kill my son if I didn’t want to deal with his birth defect.
JoAnna..one final thought as we come from two differing worlds and I must leave this discussion, by choice:
“The other is the self-absorbed promethean neopelagianism of those who ultimately trust only in their own powers and feel superior to others because they observe certain rules or remain intransigently faithful to a particular Catholic style from the past. A supposed soundness of doctrine or discipline leads instead to a narcissistic and authoritarian elitism, whereby instead of evangelizing, one analyzes and classifies others, and instead of opening the door to grace, one exhausts his or her energies in inspecting and verifying. In neither case is one really concerned about Jesus Christ or others. These are manifestations of an anthropocentric immanentism. It is impossible to think that a genuine evangelizing thrust could emerge from these adulterated forms of Christianity.” (#94) Gaudium Evangelii, P. Francis
I fully agree with Pope Francis! I wish you did too, especially considering that he is a strong advocate against abortion, unlike yourself.
I want a world where all human beings have inherent worth and dignity regardless of their age, size, location, level of development, health, or manner of conception. I’m so sorry that you do not.
Thank you, JoAnna, for the opportunity! 🙂
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