California grandmother aims for 10,000 signatures on petition against second-trimester abortions

Mary Waldorf didn’t know anything about organizing petitions, but when a hospital worker and fellow parishioner told her that staff were forced to participate in second-trimester abortions, she felt called to do something.

Enloe Medical Center in Chico, California, about 80 miles north of Sacramento, is the primary hospital in the area.

“It’s the only hospital in a huge county. We all have to use it,” Waldorf told “EWTN Pro-Life Weekly.”

Waldorf still remembers how she felt the day she found out about the abortions being performed there.

“I spent the rest of the day just bawling because I know what a second-trimester abortion is,” she said.

“Everybody was shocked,” she added.

Waldorf went with a small group to peacefully protest in front of the hospital, holding signs. Hospital staff approached, asking why they were there.

“They didn’t even know” about the later-term abortions being performed at the facility, Waldorf said.

Waldorf claimed that local media will not cover the controversy. She said she has sent several letters to the editor of local papers but described the situation as a “media blackout.”

A pediatrician at the hospital told her the hospital administration might reconsider if there was enough concern. “Why she told me, God only knows,” Waldorf said. “But I thought, well, if that’s the case, then what if we do a petition?”

“I’m just somebody who goes to church, has grandkids, goes to work — I don’t know how to do [a petition],” she told “EWTN Pro-Life Weekly.”

“I am not a media [figure]. But when God gives you an opportunity, you got to go for it.”

The petition had about 800 signatures as of March 27. Waldorf is aiming for 10,000 — 10% of the size of the town.

Waldorf said staff members have told her that the hospital allegedly has refused to allow some medical workers to opt out of assisting with abortion procedures.

“They were told that the pre-op and the post-op nurses and personnel could not opt out,” Waldorf said.

Waldorf runs a local chapter of 40 Days for Life, a nationwide effort aimed at praying for women seeking abortions and for their children, usually in front of abortion clinics during Lent. She says she wants women to have “true choice.”

“If the mindset of people is about death, they don’t consider the child — and you have to consider both,” Waldorf said. “They’re not counseling these women. What about giving them true choice?”

“The dignity of the human person is so paramount,” Waldorf added. “And I think that that is what’s being lost here completely.”

Source: https://www.ewtnnews.com/world/us/it-shocked-us-locals-petition-second-trimester-abortions-at-california-hospital