Fil Ams join pro-life summit amid abortion debate
By Rodney J. Jaleco, ABS-CBN North America News Bureau | 07/09/2009 10:57 AM
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BALTIMORE, MARYLAND - The pro-life movement is on the offensive, buoyed by indications that they now have the edge over the often contentious abortion debate in America.
“We would like to keep the momentum of the pro-life movement especially now that the Gallup poll registered a nine-point lead for pro-lifers over the pro-choice,” said Adolfo Paglinawan, chairman of the Association of Ecclesial Movements & New Communities (AEMNC) in the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington DC.
He said the last time they held the edge in American public opinion was 1995. The survey conducted last May revealed 51% counted themselves as pro-life and 42% as pro-choice. The Gallup poll showed an increase in the number of Catholics (up 7 points) and Protestants (8-point gain), particularly women, who’ve shifted from pro-choice to pro-life.
A significant number of Republicans also reportedly backed away from their pro-choice position and shifted to pro-life.
Over a thousand people, mostly Filipinos and Fil-Ams from as far away as California, Texas, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York and the Metro DC region, joined the Pro-Life Summit at the BWI Airport Marriott Hotel.
Paglinawan explained the Couples for Christ USA usually holds its annual conference sometime during the Independence Day weekend.
“Why are we here? Because we trust in Jesus and this is our conference,” declared Ed Fuentes of New Jersey.
Missionary zeal
Inday Matayabas works as a teacher in Dallas, Texas. But she considers that job a “side line” compared to her missionary work.
“We can feel the spirit of family here,” she tells ABS-CBN North America News Bureau, adding that she was pleasantly surprised to discover other Couples for Christ (CFC) members aboard a connecting flight from Chicago. They were all headed for the summit.
She has been a CFC member since 1992, while still in Manila. Mantayabas said that when she accepted a teaching job in Texas, she never realized she’d be able to pursue her missionary zeal in America.
“We decided that teaching would be only our second job because our main job is to bring more people to God,” she stressed. That “main job” would take Mantayabas and her husband as far away as Oklahoma and Kansas.
May Lacson and her friends took a little longer getting here from their home in Jersey City, NJ. They decided to visit the more famous Catholic churches along the way.
Among the speakers in the three-day event were Philadelphia Archbishop Justin Francis Cardinal Rigali, the chairman of the Prolife Committee of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops; David Bereit, executive director of the Coalition for Life; and Christa Lopiccolo, Prolife executive director of the Archdiocese of Washington DC.
“The Filipinos in the United States have been very active. We are predominantly a Catholic and Christian country and the Couples for Christ is happily predominantly Filipino,” Paglinawan said.
“We are being pro-active, we are joining advocacies that affect our faith,” he added.
But he admitted the Fil-Am community is divided, much like most of America, between the pro-life and pro-choice camps.
He said he will speak only for their group. “We will continue to show the world, as Filipinos are showing the world wherever they may be, that they are very pro-life and very pro-family,” Paglinawan said.
“No common ground”
The abortion debate has thrust Fil-Ams into the political arena as well, mainly because of President Obama’s pro-choice stand.
The summit criticized President Obama’s decision last January to overturn the so-called Mexico City policy that had previously blocked tax dollars for programs, they say, promote or provide abortions in Third World countries.
His continuing support for the Freedom of Choice Act has also earned the ire of pro-life advocates.
“Recently, he proposed in Notre Dame a common ground for pro-lifers and pro-choice as it if were all possible,” Paglinawan declared.
“They are diametrically opposed, they can not go together. We’re on one side and it seems the current administration is promoting the other side,” he alleged.
The CFC and allied organizations are set to mount a “40 days for life” campaign. “We hope to bring this to the parish level and that’s why it’s most opportune that delegates from all over the United States are here today. We would like them to echo what transpires in this summit to their own places,” he explained.
They are joining TEA – Taxed Enough Already – “parties” held nationwide. The tax protest, partly inspired by the Republican Party’s aversion to raising taxes to pay off massive budget deficits, stems instead on US support for programs that promote abortion overseas.
“American taxpayers’ money is being spent by this administration to promote abortion abroad. So if we say no to abortion, then we also say no to taxes for abortion, whether here or abroad,” Paglinawan averred.
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