Like a Prayer: God & Abortion at the Pregnancy Support Center

At a $100-per-plate fundraiser on April 21 at the Hudson Valley Resort in Kerhonkson, guests were treated to chicken and cheesecake, along with the testimony of a man who had given up pornography for the greater glory of God.

"One way I tried to escape from the hurt and loneliness [of a tumultuous childhood] was in pornography, which found its way into my life in junior high school," WLNA/WBNR radio DJ Tom Michaels Zahradnik said with regret. "The pornography led to promiscuity in high school with one particular girl. Even though I was a 'good Catholic boy,' I justified my premarital sex by saying: 'If you love someone it is okay before marriage.' Through my irresponsibility and selfishness I got this girl pregnant. Neither of us could go to our parents, so I took her to an abortion clinic in a neighboring city. The emotional scars of pornography, pre-marital sex, and the abortion lasted several years. After I surrendered my life to Christ, I had to deal with the guilt and the shame of killing a human being. There are many things I can give my children, but I can't give them the testimony of a father who was sexually pure before marriage. I have since shared with my older two children about my poor sexual choices and about the abortion. As a father who has made a habit of sharing my shortcomings with my children, they listened, understood and are committed to remaining sexually pure. They are saving the best gift they have for their future spouses - their virginity."

Zahradnik's emotional speech was just a taste of the embers being quietly yet passionately fanned behind a benign-sounding agency, the Pregnancy Support Center (PSC), whose sponsors, according to the program, include the Kingston Freeman and Ulster Savings Bank. The benefit raised $16,000 for its New Paltz and Saugerties locations, said executive director Sharon La Rose, although the fundraising fell short of reaching its $20,000 goal.

In between prayers, La Rose, Ryan Dobson, and other speakers repeated a consistent mantra throughout the evening to describe abortion to over 350 guests: "Abortion is murder, plain and simple."

Dobson is the son of James C. Dobson, who founded Focus on the Family in 1977 with a goal to "cooperate with the Holy Spirit in disseminating the Gospel of Jesus Christ to as many people as possible, and, specifically, to accomplish that objective by helping to preserve traditional values and the institution of the family." Focus on the Family has been named by Planned Parenthood as one of the top anti-choice organizations in the country.

"You get jail time for tampering with abortion doctors about to kill an unborn baby. That's stupid," Dobson said just before dessert.

Copies of his book, Be Intolerant, were on sale in the hotel lobby.