Pro-lifers form new chapter of MCFL

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

Hoping to help unify pro-lifers throughout the Commonwealth to oppose abortion and physician assisted suicide and support each others’ work, people in Central Massachusetts have started a local chapter of Massachusetts Citizens for Life.
That chapter was officially chartered on Jan. 11, according to C.J. Williams, MCFL’s director of community engagement.
The idea is to get pro-lifers of any faith or no faith, who live in Central Massachusetts, to support MCFL, and MCFL to support them, said Dr. John W. Harding, the new chapter’s president, a retired pediatrician and a member of St. Mary Parish in Shrewsbury.
“This is going to be a back-and-forth relationship,” he said.
He said Central Massachusetts residents would financially support the statewide organization, which has central offices in Boston, by becoming members and paying the $25 annual membership fee. He would also like MCFL to support local pro-life efforts financially and by providing speakers and other resources as needed, he said.
Central Massachusetts residents would also respond to MCFL’s requests for help.
Of concern presently are efforts in the Commonwealth to expand abortion and legalize physician assisted suicide, Miss Williams said.
She said a larger push for action will be made in February, but right now MCFL is asking pro-lifers to contact their legislators and express opposition to the ROE Act (S. 1209 and H. 3320), which would expand abortion access. The state’s four bishops are also asking Catholics to contact legislators about the ROE Act legislation.
Miss Williams said MCFL also wants pro-lifers to express opposition to legalization of physician assisted suicide (S.1208 and H. 1926), which would target vulnerable populations.
Dr. Harding spoke of showing politicians that pro-lifers throughout the state oppose bills to destroy human life.
“We’re going to try to unify Central Massachusetts,” having people who will contact others when MCFL presents a call to action, he said.
Miss Williams said MCFL has 30 to 35 chapters, and is waiting to charter two more in Western Massachusetts. She said there was a Central Mass. chapter previously, but it had ceased to exist, although MCFL has members in the area.    
Dr. Harding said their chapter’s mission statement is MCFL’s mission statement: “In recognition of the fact that each human life is part of a continuum from conception to natural death, the mission … is to restore respect for human life and defend the right to life of all human beings, born and pre-born. We will influence public policy at the local, state and national levels through comprehensive educational, legislative, political and charitable activities.”
He said the idea of starting the chapter came up when he and fellow MCFL member Dustan Labreche met with MCFL’s president, Myrna Maloney Flynn, and board chairman, David Franks, last July.
Dr. Harding and Dr. Labreche, a retired clinical pharmacist and medical scientific liaison, and a member of St. Edward the Confessor Parish in Westminster, wanted to give them a DVD to use for educational purposes.
Dr. Labreche had had the DVD made from a videotape of Dr. Bernard Nathanson, an abortionist who became a pro-life advocate, speaking at UMass Medical Center in 1996.     
Dr. Harding said that as he and Dr. Labreche and MCFL leaders talked, the idea of starting a Central Massachusetts MCFL chapter surfaced. So, in November, Mrs. Maloney Flynn, Mr. Franks and Miss Williams talked with about 30 pro-lifers at a “meet and greet” that he and Dr. Labreche organized at St. Mary’s.
In December a core group of those people, including Miss Williams, met at St. Mary’s and elected Dr. Harding as president, Dr. Labreche as secretary and, as treasurer, Jan Bryan, from Indian Lake Church in Worcester, who supports the Clearway Clinic in Worcester to help pregnant women choose life instead of abortion.    
Dr. Harding said the core group also includes Rosalie Berquist, an MCFL board member; Corinne Kimball, who will represent the chapter at MCFL monthly meetings, and Marya Makuc, a College of the Holy Cross student, and Helena Petroff, a Worcester Polytechnic Institute student, both of whom are involved with pro-life groups at their schools.
“It’s going to be a lot of work,” Dr. Harding said. “With God’s help, we’ll get it done.”
– Those interested in more information can contact C.J. Williams at action@masscitizensforlife.org or 617-242-4199, ext. 221, then ext. 0.