By Judie Brown
California was once known as literally the land of the fruits and nuts, according to my parents, who knew a great deal about the state that became my family’s home. And it was indeed a state where all sorts of fruits and nuts could be purchased with buyer assurance that they had been locally grown. It was truly an awesome place for a family, but that was nearly 85 years ago, and things have changed.
Additionally, some suggest that the term is derogatory and also applies to the type of people who gravitate to the state, but that topic is for another day. Today’s insights deal with the state’s new identity as of the deadliest in our nation.
For example, we are well aware that the abortion pill is a pessary employed to target and kill innocent persons prior to birth. But the latest wrinkle in the tale is that state lawmakers have passed a bill that provides anonymity to those who prescribe the deadly pill. Yes, you read that right. The time has come when California doctors can pretend to be nameless in their quest to ensure that their patients get the chemical cocktail needed to kill their babies.
According to one report, “Should Newsom sign the bill, it would make it harder for states with abortion bans to develop evidence to make legal cases against doctors and others operating under shield laws, which were adopted to protect abortion pill prescribers after the Supreme Court revoked the national right to abortion.”
California would join 21 other states and DC in an attempt to protect doctors from the acts that end the lives of the innocent.
In plain English, this means that killing is now a marketable practice that provides cover for the killers rather than legally safeguarding the lives of innocent preborn victims.
In addition, the University of California San Diego has a program known as Last Gift. This program is seeking tissue donations after death from people with “life-shortening” illnesses “who also have HIV to be experimented on—not to find cures or ways to extend their lives, but to better understand the virus.” In its quest to find altruistic people to participate in the study, the university goes into detail about how the autopsies performed on participants in the study, if done in a timely manner, can help determine better ways to treat HIV in the future.
Imagine what could be done to enhance life and affirm the gift of life if only researchers were committed to that goal instead of experimenting on the dead.
We would be remiss if we did not conclude our examination of the state of things in California by mentioning that California’s 2024 assisted suicide report is also inaccurate. An article about this report states: “California uses a self-reporting system, meaning the medical professional who prescribed the poison prescription [is the] same person who is obligated to submit the assisted suicide death report. It is impossible to know that a person died by assisted suicide when the medical professional fails to submit the assisted suicide report and there is no oversight that uncovers unreported assisted suicide deaths.”
Such lack of consistency is nothing new for the state that distributes deadly abortion pills anonymously prescribed and that uses the dying as guinea pigs, but it is troubling. We see these situations as part of a burgeoning homicidal complex devoted to eliminating people rather than aiding them in their hour of need.
It may well be that California is on the cutting edge of this trend, but we see it as a fundamental reason for doing much more to raise awareness regarding the simple truth that every human being is precious.
Bishop Robert Barron spoke of the sanctity of life as he pondered the senseless murder of Charlie Kirk, closing his commentary “He Died with a Microphone in His Hand” with these words: “We sense that something basic to our civilization, something axiomatic and fundamental, is teetering—and that truly fetid cultural influences have found their way into our institutions and the minds of our kids. My sincere hope and prayer is that we can take renewed inspiration from a courageous and religious man who died, not with a gun in his hand, but rather an instrument of communication.”
While California may be the den of death today, where will we find it—and the rest of our country—tomorrow?