What About Alesha?

I finally succumbed to Twitter – I signed up a couple of days ago mainly to be kept informed of what is going on.  I am not a huge fan of Twitter because I think it has become a forum for online abuse and attack and, as I see from the Pope’s own Twitter account, many use it to attack the Catholic Church, articles of our faith and individual members of the Church.  Yet it is a great resource where we can keep in touch in real time and keep each other up to date on what’s happening, hence I signed up.  The Holy Father asked priests a few years ago to take on an online ministry, hence my decision to start this blog: I suppose Twitter, if used correctly, can assist that ministry.  My Twitter account is @jshocds.  I will tweet when I post, put up notices about the Fraternity and other things if I get a chance, so sign up as a follower and keep me sane. 

Actually it was thanks to Twitter that I was reminded of an important story a few years back which went virtually unnoticed by many in the media – the death of a 15 year old girl following an abortion at a Marie Stopes clinic in Leeds.  Alesha Thomas died of a heart attack caused by a bacterial toxin following her abortion in 2007.  Prior to the procedure, the girl was fit and healthy, however as she left the clinic she did not have the antibiotics needed to fight an infection which resulted from the abortion and a few days later she died.

Now if memory serves me right I do not remember candle-lit vigils for Alesha.  I did not hear pro-abortion lobby groups attack Marie Stopes Inc for allowing this young woman to die.  The only person who seemed to speak out was the coroner at her inquest in 2009 who berated Marie Stopes Inc. Given that Alesha joined thousands of women who die every year as a result of abortion (20,000 of them in India alone), surely those campaigning for the rights and health of women should be doing something about this.  But, as Bernadette Goulding of Women Hurt pointed out at the Pro-Life Vigil last Saturday, they do not care about women, they just want abortion. 

In related news, LifeSiteNews has posted what must be the strangest pro-abortion ad I have ever seen – they describe it as creepy, a friend of mine called it demonic, and both descriptions are apt.  It was issued by the Centre for Reproductive Rights to “celebrate” the 40th anniversary of the US Supreme Court’s judgment on the Roe v Wade case.   The video seems to taunt the pro-life movement, but in a most seedy way.  Watch it and see what you think.