Defund Maria Talks
by Fr. Roger Landry - May 6, 2011
"What kind of person pays for a Web site that makes abortion seem cool?," Boston Herald columnist Michael Graham asked in an April 21 article. "Who would use the Internet to target teen girls with the message that abortions are 'easy,' 'common' and no big deal? What sicko would spend money showing underage girls how to secretly get an abortion behind their parents' backs?" He then answered his provocative queries: "That 'sicko' would be you."
As our front page article this week describes, since 2008, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health has been giving $100,000 of taxpayer money annually to fund a website by the Aids Action Committee of Massachusetts called MariaTalks.com. The site has a fictional teenager named "Maria" who introduces herself as an 18-year-old who put together the site with friends to pass along the advice of her Aunt Lucia — "a doctor and she's totally cool" — about "sexual health" and "making choices." In addition to the information offered on the site, those with questions are urged to email "Maria" or call a highly official looking number, (877) MA-SEX-ED, to get answers and advice.
A quick perusal of the website shows the type of advice our tax dollars are underwriting. In the section on abortion, "Maria," begins by undermining the credibility of those who might try to help a pregnant teenager properly form her conscience in accordance with the truth about the good. "Some believe it is wrong while others believe that it can be a good and responsible choice. While everyone is entitled to their [sic] opinion, it can sometimes be hard to get truthful information because some people may try to get you to think the same way they do." After intimating that abortion is a "good and responsible choice" and suggesting that "some" — obviously not "Maria" and the Aids Action Committee! — might be obstructing a pregnant teenager's getting truthful information and trying to get her to think "the same way they do," "Maria" says that "what's important is how you feel about it" — not whether it's right or wrong — and describes how one of her friends had an abortion and "felt it was the best choice she could make for herself, her boyfriend, her family, and her future." "Maria" apparently doesn't have any friends who had an abortion and regretted it.
The misinformation continues in how "Maria" mentions what happens in an abortion: "The contents of the womb (uterus) are removed so that the uterus goes back to how it was before a woman got pregnant." For someone who purports to want to give "truthful information," perhaps "Maria" should relate how all of us were once vague "contents of the womb" as well. After indicating how common abortion is (if everybody's doing it, it must be okay) and how safe it is ("My Aunt Lucia says that abortions are safe and effective," although we know that it's lethal for one of the participants), "Maria" gets to the most outrageous section of all.
In response to the question, "Can I get an abortion in Massachusetts if I'm under 18?," "Maria" responds: "I promise you the reality of getting an abortion is much easier than it sounds. It may be really hard for you to imagine talking to either your parents or a judge about getting an abortion, but there are people who can help you through it. Young women do this all the time here in Massachusetts." Once again, everyone's doing it, so the frightened young girl has nothing to fear: there are people who will "help" her to eliminate the "contents" that are growing within her. Who are these putative Good Samaritans? The folks at Planned Parenthood, of course.
"If you are under 18 and have decided that abortion is right for you, you can call the Planned Parenthood Counseling and Referral Hotline." As the debate in the nation's capital is now describing, Planned Parenthood likewise receives our federal tax dollars to provide this "help." What does our money buy? "They can either help you talk to your parents, or if you decide that you can't or don't want to do that, they will provide you a free lawyer who will help you go to court and talk to a judge." So if a girl doesn't want to tell her parents that she's pregnant and have a surgical abortion without their knowledge or consent — even though schools couldn't give her an aspirin without her consent — a "free" lawyer, funded by our tax dollars, would assist her before the judge. Notice that "Maria" doesn't say that Planned Parenthood would do the abortion for free, because Planned Parenthood wants its money and federal dough won't pay directly for abortions. The "free" lawyer is provided so that Planned Parenthood may be able to make some money off of vulnerable pregnant teen. "Maria" also suggests that the process is basically automatic: "These hearings are scheduled quickly, are kept completely confidential and so far, no minor who's gone through this process has ever been denied access to an abortion by a judge." If the Aids Action Committee is actually providing "truthful information" here, then we have just discovered that the judicial bypass is nothing more than a mock court in which the judges apparently don't "judge" facts of particular situations at all. Taxpayers should note that what's taken out of our paychecks is also funding the salaries of these high-paid judicial rubber stamps.
There are many other objectionable areas to the site. It promotes self-masturbation as a "healthy, safe way to learn what feels good to you, in private" and describes with no ethical evaluation whatsoever masturbating others, oral sex and anal sex. It talks about why to have sex: "to feel closer to their partner, to take what may be the next step in their relationship and because it feels good" as well as when to have sex: "when you feel ready and safe." It does talk about abstinence, only to say, "it is not a realistic option for everyone," and warning that those who practice abstinence "then find themselves unprepared when they do decide to have sex."
It's important also to note the name of the site. Of all possible names, why "Maria"? It's not because Maria is a very popular and generic name; Maria has now dropped to the 71st most popular female name in the United States. But it remains, nevertheless, both a very suggestive name that is predominantly found among those of Christian heritage. A look at the illustrations of "Maria" on the website shows a girl with a thoroughly Hispanic-American look. Is it much of a stretch to suggest that the Aids Action Network chose this name and ethnicity in order to gain credibility with a certain subsection of the culture whom they were targeting? Specifically those who come from immigrant Catholic or Pentecostal families that would "try to get [her] to think the same way they do" and who, rather than bringing them to end their grandchild's or great-grandchild's life through abortion, would try to help her to choose life?
The four Massachusetts bishops last Friday released a statement, saying, "We strongly support and join with those in the public policy arena who urge the state to eliminate funding for the website and who are asking the state to assist in its removal." They were clearly alluding to efforts by a bipartisan group of 63 state legislators — both pro-life and pro-choice — who sent a letter to Governor Deval Patrick on April 28 vigorously recommending that the Governor "make immediate, substantive content changes to the website or to eliminate funding and assist in [its] removal from the internet." Governor Patrick has not yet acted on the letter.
Anchor readers are urged to buttress the bishops' and legislators' efforts by calling Governor Patrick's office (888.870.7770) and urging him to eliminate funding for the website immediately. No matter the economic struggles of the Commonwealth, taxpayers should never be paying for a website that promotes abortions and instructs underage girls how to obtain them without their parental knowledge and consent. As we mark Mother's Day, we should rather be helping young girls to respond as a mother and woman should to a child in her womb — with love.
Father Roger J. Landry is pastor of St. Anthony of Padua in New Bedford, MA and Executive Editor of The Anchor, the weekly newspaper of the Diocese of Fall River.
