May 15, 2009

Faithful Lines / Shirley Vogler Meister

Pro-life writer and advocate shares sad story

Shirley Vogler MeisterRemember a news report in March about a plane crash in Montana that killed 14 persons, including the pilot?

If so, most readers probably don’t know that these passengers were family members and friends of Irving Moore “Bud” Feldkamp III, who operates the nation’s largest privately owned abortion chain.

The plane went down in Holy Cross Cemetery, owned by Resurrection Cemetery Association in Butte, Mont. The sad irony is that the Catholic cemetery contains a memorial for local residents to pray the rosary at a Tomb of the Unborn.

Although I am not sharing every detail that I read in a Christian Newswire report (www.christiannewswire.com), I must add that the crash victims included Feldkamp’s two daughters, two sons-in-law, five grandchildren, four family friends and the pilot.

The plane, which was headed for a millionaires-only ski resort, the Yellowstone Club, crashed 500 feet from its landing destination.

As a pro-life advocate, freelance journalist Gingi Edmonds sent this report to Christian Newswire. She is a writer and photographer based in Hanford, Calif., and writes a bimonthly pro-life column. For more information about her work, which includes speaking engagements, log on to www.gingiedmonds.com.

Edmonds also reported that Feldkamp had purchased Family Planning Associates in California, owns Allcare and Hospitality Dental Associates, and is chief executive officer of Glen Helen Raceway Park in San Bernadino, Calif.

She wrote, “The 17 California Family Planning clinics perform more abortions than any other abortion provider—Planned Parenthood included—and they perform abortions through the first five months of pregnancy. … His business in the abortion industry was what enabled him to afford the private place that was carrying his family to their weeklong vacation.”

Edmonds also noted that, “In my time working for Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust, I helped organize and conduct a weekly campaign where youth activists stood outside of Feldkamp’s mini-mansion in Redlands, [Calif.], holding fetal development signs and raising community awareness regarding [his] dealings in child murder for profit. Every Thursday afternoon, we called upon Bud and his wife, Pam, to repent, seek God’s blessing, and separate themselves from the practice of child killing.”

She added, “Another source states that Bud Feldkamp visited the site of the crash with his wife and their two surviving children. … As they stood near the twisted and charred debris, talking with investigators, light snow fell on the tarps that covered the remains of their children. The crash was near the site of the Tomb of the Unborn.”

Perhaps the shock of the crash will soften the Feldkamps’ hearts as Edmonds also suggested in the Christian Newswire piece. I am grateful that she gave me permission to share her story.

Please prayerfully follow her lead by learning more about Right to Life of Indianapolis by logging on to www.rtlindy.org or calling 317-582-1526.

(Shirley Vogler Meister, a member of Christ the King Parish in Indianapolis, is a regular columnist for The Criterion.)

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