"...life will always triumph over death..."from the Governor's Easter greeting.
"...She [the Governor] said abortion is an essential part of a woman's choice for reproductive health,..."from the front page of today's [April 4, Easter] Daily News.
Governor
supports women's reproductive rights, advocates for access to abortion
Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero expressed her
continued support for women's reproductive rights during a talk with Famalo'an
Rights this week.
The governor spoke to Kiana
Yabut, Famaloa'an Rights' chief development officer, on Instagram Monday
as the group's last Famala'on Talks speaker for Women's Month.
addressing
the lack of reproductive health care within the island community;
de-stigmatizing
discussions surrounding abortion, contraception and sexual
education; and
ensuring
accurate, fact-based and data-driven information is being shared
regarding social, economic and other implications on the lack of
accessible abortion services within the island community.
The governor expressed her thanks to
the group for being courageous and moving forward in addressing the rights of
women for their reproductive health including access to abortion.
"It's just encouraging for me that
more people are involved," she said.
Long
history
Leon Guerrero shared her long history
of fighting for women's reproductive rights on Guam after coming back from the
states from college. She said when she left for college in the 1970s and became
a nurse, she was stricken at the women coming into the emergency room
hemorrhaging because of a self-inflicted abortions or botched
underground abortions.
Leon Guerrero said at the time access
to safe abortions wasn't available. She said abortion is an essential part of a
woman's choice for reproductive health, that women have choices including
adoption and contraception, but abortion also should be another choice.
"We keep it legal, we keep it
safe, and that we make sure it's done under a very good hygienic
environment," she said.
The governor said being pro-choice
doesn't mean being pro-abortion, but allowing women the right to choose what is
best for their reproductive health.
When she came back to Guam, a law was
passed that severely restricted access to abortions on Guam, which was later
deemed unconstitutional. She and other local women created People for
Choice, a group that fought for reproductive rights. Leon Guerrero said
there was a lot of support for the organization and she was grateful to be part
of a group of courageous women who fought to make sure women had their right to
choose.
Silent
advocacy
She encourages other women to be
courageous but understands the fear and anxiety of being public about being
pro-choice. She said silent advocacy — talking to their children, friends and
husbands about the importance of reproductive health — also helps.
"It's a big risk to be publicly
known, but it's something I truly believe we women have to fight for. No one
else will, but ourselves," Leon Guerrero said.
Since the last doctor who provided
abortions on the island retired in mid-2018 there haven't been any
doctors who provide the service. There have been no abortions reported to
the government of Guam since then.
A lawsuit was filed by the
American Civil Liberties Union and Vanessa L. Williams on behalf of two
Guam-licensed physicians who are based in Hawaii. They sued government of Guam
officials, challenging the part of Guam’s abortion law that requires
information about abortions be provided in person. The ACLU
said doctors can give that information to patients through live video
conference.
The doctors, Shandhini Raidoo and Bliss
Kaneshiro, said in their complaint they are authorized to provide other
patients telemedicine medication abortion and could provide that service to
patients in Guam if it weren’t for the “in person” requirement in the law.
A medication abortion generally
involves a person taking two pills, prescribed by a doctor, to end a pregnancy
up to 10 weeks into the pregnancy, according to the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration. Raidoo and Kaneshiro said they are authorized by the FDA to
prescribe the medications through the TelAbortion project.
Leon Guerrero said a short-term hope
for her is that the community allow medicated abortion and allow it through
telemedicine, or train doctors on the island to be certified to prescribe the
medication.
Long-term
hope
A long-term hope is to have a
reproductive health center to support women and provide them needed services
that include abortion, she said. The center can be a place where women could
get pregnancy tests, counseling, pap smears and other beneficial
services for the island community, she said.
Leon Guerrero said the island needs to
do better at talking about sex and contraception. She said many parents tell
their kids not to have sex and avoid talking about contraception, but they
shouldn't.
Parents should recognize their teenage
children could be having sex and they need to be educated about what could
happen. Parents should give their kids the means to prevent pregnancy with
contraception, she said.
Open communication helps prevent the
need to terminate a pregnancy, she added.
Leon Guerrero thanked Famalao'an Rights
for helping educate the communicate and help correct misconceptions.
"I'm very much encouraged with the
work that you do," she said.
Famalao’an Rights is focused on de-stigmatizing discussions surrounding abortion and embraces terms like women's reproductive rights, reproductive health, reproductive justice and pro-choice.
When the question is posed as, "When is it alright to take the life of an innocent, helpless human being?" no amount of sophistry a laFamalao’an Rights provides any answer except NEVER.
In an addendum released shortly before the author’s death in 1963 – Screwtape Proposes a Toast – Lewis pivots from dispensing universal wisdom to directly criticizing social trends of his day, trends which have gone from mere whispers on college campuses 60 years ago to become orthodoxy with the power of law today. Reading it today, it feels like the author was more prophet than professor.
Following is a comment from an astute observer of the Apuron affair:
Apuron will resort to any means to get his case stayed and perhaps dismissed. Piggy backing on another child sex case before the superior court that seeks to dismiss the case as inorganic and unconstitutional, Apuron is hoping that a favorable ruling will also benefit him. This other case involved former police officer, AJ Balajadia, who is challenging the 2016 law that removed the statute of limitations for child sex abuse allegations thus allowing for about 300 civil cases to be filed. If Mr. Balajadia should prevail which is highly unlikely, then the 9 or 10 cases against Apuron could be dismissed.
Balajadia, however, rather than stand firm and pursue his case in court. he chose to flee the island and probably not agree to voluntarily return to island.
Apuron, on the other hand, has always maintained his innocence saying “As God is my witnesses, I am innocent.” If he is so innocent you think that he would happily want to prove it. I’m sure allowances can probably be made for him to return to Guam to appear in court. However, as long as he is banned by the Vatican, he will use this as the reason for not being able to defend himself.
Meanwhile, another commenter in another forum suggested that while Apuron may have made a mistake (i.e. what he is accused of), he should be forgiven, and further implied that the local culture is very forgiving.
I replied that, indeed, Apuron would have not only been forgiven, but may even still be forgiven and welcomed back with open arms as Archbishop of Agana. I further noted though that Apuron has never asked to be forgiven.
If Apuron did not do what he was accused of then all he had to do was say "I'm sorry, I did not do what you are accusing me of, but please come in and let's talk about it." Or, if Apuron did do what he was accused of, all Apuron had to do was say "I'm sorry, please forgive me."
I say this because after meeting and speaking with the Apuron's initial accusers (Roy, Walter, & Roland), I can testify to the fact that none of them wanted to sue Apuron or go public with their stories. They only wanted to meet with Apuron and confront him about what they believed were egregious acts against their persons when they were in their teens.
Instead, Apuron threatened to both civilly and canonically sue his accusers, slammed the door in their faces, threatened to call the police if any one of his accusers set foot on chancery grounds, and then ran off to Rome and has remained in hiding every since.
Meanwhile, we need to remember that Apuron was already physically "out of here" by the time the threats to sue and call the police came out. That stuff was orchestrated by then-Fr. Adrian Cristobal and Fr. Edivaldo - who took over the chancery upon Apuron's flight.
Cristobal has since been "defrocked" and who knows what happened to Edivaldo. But bottom line was that Apuron ran. Innocent people don't do that.
It was on March 17, 2018 (Guam Time) that we got the news that Pope Francis had removed Archbishop Anthony Apuron of Guam from office and "barred him from living in the Pacific territory, saying a church tribunal had found the cleric guilty of 'certain of the accusations' made against him."
Recently, our Archbishop Byrnes was drug back into the local news, first to solicit his comments relative to the ACLU lawsuit which seeks to get rid of certain Guam laws regulating abortion, and next, in regards to his published guidance regarding the morality of Covid-19 vaccinations.
Bob spends the better part of his show today exposing several matters relative to our own governor's role (in the person of Jayne Flores) in the ACLU lawsuit, including what appears to be a scam cooked up between Jayne and the Plaintiffs to sue Guam.
Recently, the Pacific Daily News reported that a settlement in the ACLU abortion suit “will restore abortion access” and further reported an ACLU attorney claiming the settlement to be a “victory for reproductive freedom in Guam.”
However, the court order tells a different story. CONTINUED
Question: Why would two Hawaii-based doctors go through the trouble and expense of applying for and acquiring licenses to practice medicine in Guam when neither doctor apparently has ever been to Guam or intends to come to Guam?
The ACLU lawsuit is not about a couple of doctors in Hawaii wanting to make a couple extra bucks doing telemedicine abortions on Guam. Read more at The Esperansa Project Blog.
