by Robert Klitzkie, Guam Daily Post, Apr. 27, 2022
They’ll flood the media with sophistry, strawman, false dilemma, faulty equivalence, et tu quoque and appeal to authority but no matter what logical fallacy, cheap shot, legislative legerdemain, deflection or mischaracterization the pro-abortion gang employs, it doesn’t change the answer to the fundamental question:
When is it OK to take the life of a helpless, innocent human?
Never!
Letter from Tim Rohr to Speaker Therese Terlaje, Apr. 26, 2022 (PDF)
Dear Madam Speaker,
I write to you in regards to the Apr. 21 “release” by Guam People for Choice calling on the Legislature to forego a public hearing until “legal scholars, medical providers, social workers, and survivors of sexual assault (can) provide their expertise and first-hand knowledge of the dangers of Bill 291” under cover of what appear to be non-public hearings.
Pro or con on this issue, and on this bill in particular, the last thing this August Body needs is another secret meeting fiasco. Meanwhile, there is nothing prohibiting concerned parties on either side of the issue from arranging personal meetings with any lawmaker and expressing his/her/or their views.
Outside of said personal meetings between concerned constituents and individual lawmakers, the Legislative Public Hearing already provides the proper forum for what Guam People for Choice are calling for.
Please protect the integrity of the legislative process.
Respectfully,
Timothy J. Rohr
Resident of Agat
By Peter R. Sgro Jr.
An open letter to Bureau of Women’s Affairs Director Jayne Flores,
Since the initial drafting of “The Guam Heartbeat Act of 2022,” I have been fortunate to meet various stakeholders, including those that are pro-choice. All our conversations were reasonable and rational absent of any finger-pointing. Unfortunately, an April 8 press release you issued as director of the Bureau of Woman’s Affairs was riddled with personal attacks, statements that are not factually based or legally based and even contrary to the enabling legislation that created the bureau.
The Republican Party of Guam's statement in support of the Heartbeat Act is a solid statement and does not shy away from attacking the lies of the "usual suspects."
Arguments against abortion bill not supported by facts
By: Tim Rohr for Pacific Daily News
In “Copycat abortion bill is ‘dangerous, outrageous’” (Pacific Daily News, Apr. 11, 2022), Anita Arriola began her letter “It’s like clockwork: you can count on it. Virtually every election year one or more senators copy an anti-abortion bill…slap their names on it, and introduce it in the Guam Legislature.”
There is no medical justification for abortion
by: Marjorie DeBenedictis, M.D.
It disappoints me that some members of the Guam’s medical community taint the profession by supporting the deliberate killing of unborn children – in blunt language, that is what "termination of pregnancy" means. Whenever a pregnant woman presents herself to a doctor, the physician is responsible for treating two patients — and this does not include fulfilling the wish of the woman (or her male partner) to rid herself of an unwanted child.
Criticism of anti-abortion bill really misses the mark
by Tim Rohr
In “Health, not politics, should drive medical decisions” (The Guam Daily Post, Letter to the Editor, Apr. 11, 2022), the authors, Anita Arriola and 12 other women, began their letter with: “It’s like clockwork: you can count on it. Virtually every election year one or more senators copy an anti-abortion bill, ... slap their names on it, and introduce it in the Guam Legislature.”
As the saying goes: you are welcome to your own opinion but not your own facts.
The last “anti-abortion bill” introduced by a Guam lawmaker was in 2016, an election year, but given it was introduced in January, nearly a year before the election, it hardly qualifies as a campaign move.
According to the report, one of the reasons for the decision is that: “GovGuam’s 'argument is completely detached from the reality that there is no abortion provider in Guam since the last one retired in 2018.’”
The question is: Why is that? Why are none of the more than 300 doctors on Guam willing to provide abortions?
ALSO SEE: Who is really behind the ACLU Lawsuit.
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case concerning Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban on December 1, the court announced Monday, potentially paving the way for abortion rights in the U.S. to be severely restricted as the case could result in Roe v. Wade being significantly weakened or overturned. CONTINUED
2018 was when the last abortion clinic closed. No doctor on Guam has been willing to perform abortions since then.
Official Guam Abortion Reports for 2008 to 2020 can be accessed here.
*
When it comes to abortion, the pro-abortion side usually attempts to cast the anti-abortion position as "religious." It then moves to discard the anti-abortion position under the false banner of "separation of church and state." See: "The Wall of Separation" at TheMassNeverEnds.com
There is no such banner but it has become a mantra that works for "them." So the pro-aborts use it. And since most of the well-intentioned people on the anti-abortion side don't know how to respond, they revert to religious arguments such as "sanctity of life, etc."
It never works, which is why half a century later, we are still arguing about Roe while babies are being slaughtered - even with the help of our tax dollars - by the millions.
The sad fact is that almost every "church" which bears the label "christian" or the name of "Christ" permits abortion under certain circumstances.
As an example, consider this statement on the morality of abortion from the "American Baptists" - perhaps the most conservative of all Christian denominations in the United States.
Read the statement in full here otherwise here is the key "doctrine:"
We also recognize that we are divided as to the proper witness of the church to the state regarding abortion. Many of our membership seek legal safeguards to protect unborn life. Many others advocate for and support family planning legislation, including legalized abortion as in the best interest of women in particular and society in general. Again, we have many points of view between these two positions. Consequently, we acknowledge the freedom of each individual to advocate for a public policy on abortion that reflects his or her beliefs.
In other words: "It's up to you" - whether or not it's moral to kill an innocent, helpless, defenseless human being.
Compare the Baptist statement to the hard doctrine of the Catholic Church (even though few pastors are courageous enough to still teach it):
2271 Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law..."
In other words, pursuant to Catholic teaching, there is NEVER an exception and Catholics DO NOT get to make up their own "policy on abortion that reflects his or her beliefs." You are in or you're out. (And sadly, as polls demonstrate, many "Catholics" are OUT. See Pew Research: "Like U.S. adults overall, the majority of U.S. Catholics say abortion should be legal – at least in some cases."
There is nothing surprising about this. All non-Catholic "christian" traditions can trace their foundations to Martin Luther, who protested (thus "Protestantism") against the abuses of the Catholic Church hierarchy at the time. And while Luther was correct about those abuses, Luther did not work to resolve them.
Rather, Luther worked to create a new hierarchy of which he was the head, thus opening the door to create new "heads" for anyone who disagreed with anyone, and thus propagated tens of thousands of "christian" churches, of whose leadership essentially makes it up as they go along; and, as in the present case, fundamentally have no way to define doctrine other than to turn everything over to personal interpretation supposedly guided by the "holy spirit" - since that is exactly what "they" did.
So the pro-aborts win.
For now.
Our recommendation, i.e. The Esperansa Project, and especially given the confused leadership of even the Catholic Church, is to stay away from religious "leadership" altogether, and to fight for the rights of the unborn on a purely natural-law level:
The "thing" in the womb of the mother is alive. It is growing. The "thing" is not an ear of corn, an elephant, or a fetal horse. The "thing" is a human being. And the essential question is:
I did not like the April 4 news article, “Governor supports women’s reproductive rights.” I think the language used was misleading to the point of deceit.
The abortion debate is not about reproductive health care or even reproduction. The abortion debate revolves around one question: “Does an unborn baby have a right to life?”
Since abortion involves killing the unborn baby to deny reproduction, the words used should be “women’s non-reproductive rights” and “non-reproductive health care.”
The abortion debate is not going to be resolved by linguistic trickery designed to evade the central moral issue: “Does an unborn baby have a right to life?” Please avoid misleading euphemisms when reporting on this topic. Thank you.
Paul Zerzan is a resident of Barrigada.
Arizona is one of several states this spring that is considering legislation to completely ban abortions.
The State Press reports Rep. Walter Blackman, R-Snowflake, introduced a bill in January to declare that unborn babies are “persons” with legal rights from the moment of conception.
His pro-life bill, House Bill 2650, recognizes that a unique, living human being comes into existence at the moment of conception, and that human being deserves the same rights, guaranteed under the 14th Amendment, as any other person. It would ban abortions and allow abortionists who kill unborn babies to be charged with homicide. CONTINUED
A CNMI federal magistrate Judge will preside over the pre-trial proceedings in the abortion lawsuit filed in the Guam District Court.
In an order issued last week, Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood found "that an emergency necessitates the assignment of this case to Magistrate Judge Heather Kennedy." Guam federal magistrate judge Michael Bordallo has recused himself, and the court is unable to find an alternate.
Judge Bordallo is the brother of Dr. Annie Bordallo, who is a defendant in the case in her capacity as the medical director of the Guam Memorial Hospital. The ACLU filed a challenge to Guam's abortion law on behalf of two Hawaii-based OB/GYN's who say it prohibits them from treating abortion patients via telemedicine.
According to the order, Judge Kennedy will preside over the case until the trial commences or a judgment is entered, whichever comes first. - KUAM NEWS
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.
At the center of Archbishop Byrnes instruction in regards to the vaccine, is guidance published by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF)
"Based on the criteria, the congregation held that “it is morally acceptable” to receive Covid-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses “when ethically irreproachable Covid-19 vaccines are not available.”
In Archbishop Byrnes instruction, the quote from the CDF is followed by the superscript number "3" and the footnote notes that the quote is actually from a publication issued by the Pontifical Academy for Life.
For us Catholics, once upon a time, anything with the adjective "pontifical" meant you could trust it. But not any more.
In 2017, Pope Francis appointed a noted pro-abortion theologian to the Pontifical Academy for Life, a certain Nigel Biggar, an Anglican professor of moral and pastoral theology at the University of Oxford, who has in the past supported legalized abortion up to 18 weeks and has expressed qualified support for euthanasia.
So while Archbishop Byrnes can hardly be faulted for falling in line with the Vatican, conscientious Catholics are forced to look beyond not just a letter from their bishop, but beyond stuff employing the word "pontifical," and even "Vatican!"
To make the point, let's rephrase the instruction from the Pontifical Academy for Life as copied by the CDF and thereafter copied by Archbishop Byrnes and distributed to the lay faithful of Guam:
"Based on the criteria, the congregation held that “it is morally acceptable” to receive Covid-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from Jews murdered by the Nazis “when ethically irreproachable Covid-19 vaccines are not available.”
Earlier in the instruction from Archbishop Byrnes, Byrnes quotes the Chairman of the US Catholic Conference of Bishops Committee on Doctrine who writes:
"Neither the Pfizer nor the Moderna vaccine involved the use of cell lines that originated in fetal tissue taken from the body of an aborted baby at any level of design, development or productions. They are not completely free from any connection to abortion, however, as both Pfizer and Moderna made use of a tainted cell line for one of the confirmatory lab tests of their products. This is thus a connection, but it is relatively remote. The burden of this important battle cannot and must not fall on innocent children and on the health situation of the population."
You can be forgiven if you are left with a big "HUH?"
First we are told that Pfizer and Moderna did not have any connection to abortion "at any level of design, development or production." And then we are told, "oh wait, well, cell lines from an aborted child were used in a lab test.
So that means Pfizer and Moderna DO have a connection to abortion. And the chairman goes on to actually say: "this is thus a connection" (to abortion). But it's okay because it is "relatively remote."
So it's okay to use the cell lines of a dead Jew murdered by the Nazis in a World War II concentration camp because, well, it was so long ago and the murder of that Jew is "relatively remote."
Increasing evidence continues to point to the Governor of Guam as the wizard behind the curtain in the ACLU lawsuit. Esperansa recently acquired copies of letters authorizing Drs. Kaneshiro and Raidoo, the two Plaintiffs in the suit, to practice medicine on Guam for an odd amount of time, suggesting that the reason for the acquisition of their medical licenses was for the purpose of filing the suit. Follow the tell-tale timeline.
SEE RELATED POST HERE
*****
On January 28, 2021, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), filed a lawsuit in in the U.S. District Court of Guam on behalf of two Hawaii-based doctors. The suit claimed that two Guam laws prohibited Guam women form procuring abortions locally and named Guam's Attorney General and others as Defendants.
Coming as it did after Governor Leon Guerrero very publicly failed to find a doctor willing to come to Guam to do abortions after two years of searching, there is reason to believe that the Governor, via Jayne Flores, Leon Guerrero's director of the Bureau of Women's Affairs, had something to do with initiating the suit. Recently procured documents certainly point in that direction.
In June of 2019, Jayne Flores and Dr. Bliss Kaneshiro, one of the two Hawaii-based doctors named as a Plaintiffs in the suit, engaged in a series of email communications aimed at bringing an abortion provider to Guam:
Jun. 24, 2019 at 10:17 AM. Situation on Guam. Jayne Flores to Dr. Bliss Kaneshiro. Hafa Adai Dr. Kaneshiro, I am the director of the Bureau of Women’s Affairs and am coordinating the effort to bring a doctor (or doctors on a rotational basis) to Guam willing to help our women (and unfortunately some girls) who have a choice to make. Can you please give me a call at your earliest convenience. I hope to hear from you soon. Si Yu’os Ma’ase. Jayne Flores
Jun. 25, 2019 at 1:10 PM. Situation on Guam. Bliss Kaneshiro to Jayne Flores. Forgot to give you my cell phone, it’s (redacted). Bliss. Bliss Kaneshiro MD, MPH, FACOG, Professor, Director of the Family Planning Fellowship and Family Planning Division, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Women’s Health, University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine
NOTE: Apparently Kaneshiro and Flores had a phone conversation. The following email communication gives us a hint as to what that phone conversation was about.
Jun. 25, 2019 at 1:19 PM. Connecting you to Planned Parenthood. Bliss Kaneshiro to Deborah Nucatola and Jayne Flores. Jayne, I’m connecting you to Deb Nucatola, the medical director of the PP clinics in Hawaii. She is cc’ed on this email and is aware of the lack of an abortion provider in Guam. Bliss.
Jun. 25, 2019 at 1:23PM. Deborah Nucatola to Bliss Kaneshiro, Jayne Flores, and Deighton Kavarne. Hi Jayne! Nice to meet you virtually! I do believe you have been in contact with staff at our Patient Access Center. Our Area Service Director, Deighton Kavarne, was planning to reach out to you by phone. I’m not sure if you have already spoke but to close the loop I’m cc’ing him on this email. And FYI, we have been discussing the need in Guam for several months now and are eager to speak with you to see how we might be able to meet the need. Deborah Nucatola, MD, Medical Director, Hawaii, Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and the Hawaiian Islands, Medical Director, Indiana and Kentucky, Planned Parenthood of Indian and Kentucky.
NOTE: Apparently Jayne Flores had made contact with Planned Parenthood several months before Flores contacted Kaneshiro in June 2019: "...we have been discussing the need in Guam for several months now and are eager to speak with you to see how we might be able to meet the need."
Jun. 25, 2019 at 2:49 PM. Connecting you to Planned Parenthood. Jayne Flores to Deborah Nucatola, Bliss Kaneshiro, Deighton Kavarne, Anita Arriola, Dr. Ellen Bez. Hafa Adai Deborah (and Deighton)! Thank you for reaching out to us here on Guam. Yes, we are in need of abortion services for our women (and unfortunately some pre-teens). We are also in great need of the other services Planned Parenthood provides (free birth control, STD/HIV testing. HPV vaccines, cancer screening, family planning, etc.) We are currently trying to quietly survey clinics on Guam that would allow visiting physicians to perform surgical abortions. Another option if PP wanted to open a clinic here, is that we do have a medical clinic that recently closed. Would there be a possibility that PP would be interested in leasing this space to set up its own clinic? I would describe the atmosphere on our island, with its 1650,000 population that is majority Catholics, as initially hostile toward this issue. However, over half of the voting public cast ballots in favor our our first female governor, Maga’haga Lourdes Leon Guerrero, in November 2018 despite her openly pro-choice stance. So there is hope.Please let us know if you have suggestions, or options for us. We are grateful for your help and any advice you can give us. Si Yu’os Ma’ase. Jayne Flores
NOTE: Flores copies Attorney Anita Arriola and Dr. Ellen Bez. Both Arriola and Bez are open pro-aborts. The both testified against a bill in 2013 that would mandate providing normal medical care for children who survive a failed abortion. And Bez recently volunteered a long letter to the editor about her support of the ACLU suit.
Jun. 25, 2019 at 2:50pm. Situation on Guam. Jayne Flores to Bliss Kaneshiro. Thank you Dr. Bliss. I really appreciate your reaching out to me. I just sent an email to Deborah and Deighton. Thank you for connecting us. I look forward to speaking with you at our meeting later this week. Jayne.
NOTE: There is no record of the "meeting later this week." Seven (7) months pass by.
Feb. 6, 2020 at 1:40pm. Possible UOG collaboration with UH research project. Jayne Flores to Shandhini Raidoo, Bliss Kaneshiro, and Dr. John Rivera. Hafa Adai Drs. Shandhini and Bliss from UH, and Dr. John from UOG. Dr. Shandhini and Dr. Bliss, allow me to introduce, through email. Dr. John Rivera, Program Chair of the Public Administration program at the University of Guam. His Master of Public Administration students often assist with research issues. I think his UOG program would be a great partner for your research project on abortion attitudes on Guam. I spoke briefly with Dr. Rivera about your intent to find a local partner for the project, his email address is cc:d above. Good luck with the project! Si Yu’os Ma’ase, Jayne Flores.
NOTE: This is the first communication showing the name "Shandhini Raidoo," who, in January 2021, will become of the two Plaintiff's in the ACLU suit.
Feb. 17, 2020 at 10:15 AM. Possible UOG collaboration with UH research project. Shandhini Raidoo to Mr. John Rivera, Jayne Flores, Bliss Kaneshiro, Mr. Jesse Quenga. Hi Dr. Rivera. Thank you for your email. We have just submitted our proposal for this project. We are very excited about it and will definitely be in touch with you once we know more about the next steps. Thank you Jayne for this introduction! Thanks, Shandhini. Shandhini Raido, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor, Division of Family Planning, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health, University of Hawaii John A Burns School of Medicine
SMOKING GUN?
NOTE: All goes quiet for nearly five (5) months. And then suddenly, Drs. Raidoo and Kaneshiro are granted licenses to practice "medicine and surgery" on Guam:
Jul. 15, 2020. Dr. Shandhini Raidoo's application to practice "medicine and surgery" in Guam is approved by the Guam Board of Medical Examiners. Date of expiration of license is Dec. 31, 2021.
Nov. 18, 2020. Dr. Bliss Kaneshiro's application to practice "medicine and surgery" in Guam is approved by the Guam Board of Medical Examiners. Date of expiration of license is Dec. 31, 2021.
NOTE: Even though both Raidoo and Kaneshiro apply for licenses to practice "medicine and surgery" in Guam and are granted those licenses four months apart, both licenses expire exactly on the same day: Dec. 31, 2021. Now why is that?
Pursuant to the Instructions for Application for Medical Licensure, it appears that a license is good for two years (See: CME requirements for renewing a full medical license). That the expiration date of both licenses is Dec. 31, 2021 appears to suggest that the date of expiration was something both doctors asked for, otherwise their licenses would have been up for renewal within two years from the date they were issued.
Jan. 28, 2021. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Vanessa L. Williams on behalf of two Guam-licensed physicians, Drs. Bliss Kaneshiro and Shandhini Raidoo, file suit in the U.S. District Court of Guam against the the Attorney General of Guam and others.
NOTE: The dots aren't hard to connect.
- Upon assuming office, Governor Leon Guerrero, via Jayne Flores, begins a well-publicized search for doctors to come to Guam to perform abortions...since none of Guam's 300-plus doctors are willing to do it.
- Pursuant to this search, Jayne Flores makes contact with Planned Parenthood in Hawaii and apparently attempts to entice PP to come to Guam and set up shop. PP did not appear to be interested (and still doesn't).
- In June of 2019, Flores begins communications with Dr. Bliss Kaneshiro who eventually puts Flores in contact with Dr. Shandhini Raidoo.
- Then everything goes dark until the ACLU lawsuit is filed in January 2021.
- The suit names Kaneshiro and Raidoo as the Plaintiffs, two doctors who apparently have never been to Guam and just as apparently have no interest in coming to Guam and both of whom applied for licenses to practice in Guam for an abbreviated time - perhaps just long enough to see the lawsuit through and provide cover for the person who is actually pulling the levers behind the curtain.
Defendants named in the suit:
LEEVIN TAITANO CAMACHO, in his official capacity as Attorney General of Guam
NATHANIEL BERG, M.D., in his official capacities as Chair of the Guam Board of Medical Examiners and member of the Commission on the Healing Arts of Guam
PHILIP FLORES, in his official capacity as Vice-Chair of the Guam Board of Medical Examiners
ARANIA ADOLPHSON, M.D., in her official capacity as member of the Guam Board of Medical Examiners
ANNETTE DAVID, M.D., M.P.H., in her official capacity as member of the Guam Board of Medical Examiners
ANNIE BORDALLO, M.D., in her official capacity as member of the Guam Board of Medical Examiners
ARTHUR SAN AGUSTIN, Director of Public Health and Social Services in his official capacity as member of the Commission on the Healing, Arts of Guam
BERNADETTE S. SANTOS, M.P.A., B.S.N, R.N., Chair of the Board of Nurse Examiners in her official capacity as member of the Commission on the Healing Arts of Guam
ANTONIO RAPADAS, D.D.S., Chair of the Board of Examiners for Dentistry, the Commission on the Healing Arts of Guam
THOMAS J. CARUSO, B.S.P., Chair of the Board of Examiners for Pharmacy in his official capacity as member of the Commission on the Healing Arts of Guam
MAMIE BALAJADIA, ED.D., Chair of the Guam Board of Allied Health Examiners in her official capacity as member of the Commission on the Healing Arts of Guam
MARLENE R. SAN NICOLAS, O.D.,her official capacity as member of the Commission on the Healing Arts of Guam,
JENNETH QUIAMBAO, Chair of the Board of Cosmetology in her official capacity as member of the Commission on the Healing Arts of Guam,
DUSTIN PRINS, D.P.M., the Chief Medical Officer of the Guam Memorial Hospital Authority in his official capacity as member of the Commission on the Healing Arts of Guam
THERESA C. ARRIOLA, M.B.A., Director of the Guam Behavioral Health and Wellness Center in her official capacity as member of the Commission on the Healing Arts of Guam,
DOE 1, a representative from the Mayors Council of Guam in their official capacity as member o the Commission on the Healing Arts of Guam
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. The video will start at where Bob begins this part of his broadcast.
