Dr. Tom Messe’s Firsthand Account of the March.

Dr. Tom Messe is a Navy physician who was recently threatened with discharge and loss of his career in both the Navy and as a physician, all because he is pro-life and his medical knowledge and moral conscience prevent him from dispensing birth control to Navy-base patients in Groton, Connecticut. He has given me permission to post his account of his experiences at the march, when he was with Group 3 of our Silent No More gathering.

Tom is also a member of The Truth Squad, a group giving talks for several years in Connecticut and elsewhere about the medical, personal and legal aspects of abortion and post-abortion trauma, consisting of an OB/GYN doctor (Tom), a post-abortive woman (Nicole Taylor), and an attorney (Bert Hilburger).

Tom’s wife and our friend, Charnette, was diagnosed in 2002 at age 31 with Stage 3 breast cancer as a result of her abortion in 1990 before meeting Dr. Messe (Stage 4 is the worst/highest). She has told her story on OPRAHand in ROSIE Magazine. She found out about her cancer the day before learning she was pregnant with her little boy. While Charnette is not free of the cancer completely yet, there is hope.

Last June at one of our Silent No More press conferences, local reporters were amazed to hear this African-American woman’s haunting, convicting words as she spoke of her fight against both breast cancer and the horror of her abortion. Her picture and story were front page news the next day.

Charnette’s unborn daughter’s name is Sarah Eve Messe, and Charnette and Tom have two children, Gabby and Christian, all of whom need our prayers.

The great majority of women used to never get this cancer at the early age of 31. That started to change in the 1970s. Research has found that breast cancer rates, among younger women especially, started jumping up between 1973 and 1987: “First, in their study of women aged 25 to 44 years old, White et al [White E, Daling J {who is pro-choice} , et al. Rising incidence of breast cancer among young women in Washington State. J Natl Cancer Inst. 1987; 79: 239-243] found that although their model predicted that the increase in breast cancer incidence due to greater mammography should be 12%, in actuality the incidence of breast cancer grew by 29% between the early 1970s and late 1980s. Thus, mammography accounted for less than half the reason for rising breast cancer rates.”

Here is Dr. Messe's account:

“On Apr 25, 2004 I attended the Pro-abortion rally in Washington DC as a pro-life witness. Our small group met at the Holiday Inn on C St. before the March. I joined Silent No More and Priests for Life to show that women and men often regret abortion. On my back I displayed a small sign that read, ‘Abortion gave my wife Breast Cancer.’ I held in my hand a large sign that read, ‘Women need Love, Not Abortion.’ I also held a 12 inch crucifix. Before we left the Hotel, they warned us to be silent. ‘Do not engage these people.’ ‘Be strong, this is not for the faint of heart.’

“To get into our position on 7th St, we had to cross through the Mall, right through the pro-abortion crowd. I was naive coming down to Washington, I did not think they would have that many. But they did have a large crowd. Our group of one hundred or so walked silently, single file. The barrage of insults and screaming in our faces was hard to take.

“When we arrived in position on the curb, we had an hour before the march began. Some of us prayed a silent rosary and I offered Holy Water to my fellow witnesses to protect us for the spiritual war that was about to begin. A group of one hundred young pro-abortion supporters decided to leave the rally on the Mall and march in front of us and scream. Their banner read, ‘We're Pro-choice and we RIOT.’ [photo here] [Also, this looks like Tom's actual group, being confronted by these people.] They played drums and chanted in our face. They were heavily tattooed and dressed in scanty black clothing. They rubbed their genitals and made pelvic gestures upon each other. ‘Masturbation, Procreation,’ they shouted over and over again. The police held them back and after twenty minutes finally made them continue down the street.

“When the marchers came by, we were assailed by the usual comments, to which our group did not respond. They said:

“‘If men could get an abortion, it would be a sacrament!’

“‘Shove that crucifix up your A__!’

“‘Jesus was black, not White!’

“‘Jesus was Pro-choice!’

“‘How many babies have you adopted?’

“‘F - - - You!’…while they pointed the middle finger at the crucifix.

“Their signs were equally vulgar: ‘F - - K Bush!’ Many had a black and white poster of a photo of a woman’s genitals with the pubic hair removed. A hand with the ‘Peace’ sign was right in front of the most private anatomy. The sign read: ‘Get the Bush out of our lives.’

“As a physician, I was particularly saddened to see several medical students marching with signs that read, ‘Tomorrow’s abortion providers.’ I must pray for them in particular.

“One woman saw my sign about my wife’s cancer and shouted, ‘If your wife would have breast fed, she would not have gotten breast cancer.’ Little did she know that she breast-fed our daughter for 2 years. She was diagnosed with breast cancer while pregnant with our second child and could not breast-feed him on account of having chemotherapy and a mastectomy. She cried night after night when the doctors told her she could not breast-feed him. That woman’s comment was particularly painful. My wife and I are convinced that it was her abortion at age 20 that gave her breast cancer at age 31.

“Several people attacked us with stickers that read, ‘Pro-choice’. They stuck them to our clothes and our signs. They put one over the small sign about my wife. A gentlemen who owns a truck with pro-life slogans on it was driving around the Mall and by the end it was covered in hundreds of stickers that people had attacked him with. The Mall was like a War Zone. The garbage and piles of signs were everywhere. They desecrated our Nation’s most respected monuments. There were people announcing the need to help clean up, but no one was.

“As I stood in prayer and looked up at the dark cloud cover, I could not help thinking about the movie ‘The Passion.’ God darkened the sky when Jesus hung on the cross. He would not let the sun shine that day either. It was peculiar how dark the sky was, but yet it did not rain. For anyone who doubts the existence of Satan, you should have been there. I do not claim that the people were Satan, but they were caught in his trap.

“I also could not help thinking about St. Luke’s words in the Acts of The Apostles. ‘We told you not to preach in that Name.’ The Pharisees warned the apostles not to speak in the Name of Jesus, and scourged them. They felt joy that they were found worthy of suffering for the Name. The pro-abortion supporters were telling us not to mention that Name!

“Over two thousand years later, the same spiritual war continues....”