3 minute read
A Look at Our Parish's Right to Life Ministry
Maureen Guth was driving home from work when she heard on the radio that people were working to pass legislation that would legalize abortion in the United States. Deeply disturbed by this news, Maureen rushed home to discuss the matter with her husband, John, who at that time was studying law.
“I just couldn’t believe they would try to legalize such a thing, and I went home to discuss it,” says Maureen, a member of our parish's Right to Life Ministry. “But my husband went on to say, ‘Maureen, you know I wouldn’t want you or our girls to have an abortion, and I know we’re Catholic, but I just don’t know. Maybe a woman should have the right to choose.’ Well, we went on to have the biggest fight of our then-short marriage. And after that experience, I sort of just stuffed it. We wouldn’t bring up the topic. I struggled because he was the one in law school and was smarter than me, but I just knew in my heart that he was wrong.”
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This continued to be an unresolved wound in Maureen’s heart until about seven years later, when the couple moved to Yuba City. Not long after, a person they didn’t even know invited them to attend a pro-life presentation in her home, and the Guths agreed. During that presentation, they were shown video footage of both fetal development and an abortion. The result was life-changing.
“My husband looked at me and said, ‘Wait a minute, this is wrong!’” Maureen says. “He finally saw the light — he saw for himself the reality of what I already knew. So when this lady, Carla, came up afterward and asked if there was anyone in the room who might be willing to give similar presentations, without looking at each other, our arms went up at the same time. It was truly a Holy Spirit moment and I knew that He had something for us to do.”
The couple went on to become active advocates for life, helping to form the Yuba Sutter Right to Life Committee in 1978, a 501 C-3 Non-profit organization, and coordinators of our St. Isidore’s Right to Life Ministry. For more than 40 years, they’ve worked diligently to educate people on pro-life matters so as to change minds and hearts, to support and advocate for women in crisis pregnancy situations, to pray in front of local abortion facilities — particularly the Planned Parenthood located just blocks from Yuba City High School — and to assist post-abortive mothers and fathers in finding counseling and healing.
“Many conversations occur on the sidewalk,” Maureen says. “Women and men share of their abortion or their involvement in one — regret and guilt for what they have done. We listen and offer them help, too. We encourage them to attend a post-abortion Bible study through A Woman’s Friend or a Rachel’s Vineyard retreat weekend, which is a Catholic experience open to anyone regardless of their faith.
“Over the years, we’ve been blessed to witness many abortionminded women choose life because of the prayerful presence at Planned Parenthood,” she adds. “We are caring individuals who share information with them and offer the help of A Women’s Friend, a local pregnancy resource center. The community’s response to our presence on the sidewalk is 95-percent positive — we stay within the boundaries of rightful freedom of speech.”
Maureen says that the annual 40 Days for Life campaign has been a particularly impactful part of this process. This national movement helps unite pro-lifers across the country so that they may provide a consistent presence of prayer at designated abortion facilities for a total of 40 consecutive days.
“In fall of 2019 and spring of 2020 alone, we know of eight babies that were saved from abortion,” Maureen says. “We know that the presence of people praying and the positive signs we hold have caused women to cancel their appointments. Only God knows the true numbers saved.”
St. Isidore’s Right to Life Ministry also coordinates baby showers for mothers in need, helps educate parishioners on pro-life matters, and offers training for volunteers interested in becoming sidewalk counselors. Working together with many dedicated parishioners, their goal is to continue spreading the pro-life message.
“As I look back at our beginning and what the Lord has accomplished through these efforts, I am humbled to have been called to do His work,” Maureen says. “I have learned so much. Pro-Life work is not necessarily a social ministry, but one of evangelizing others with Christ’s truth and love in this mixed-up world.”
