In Valdosta, Georgia, I told an NBC News reporter that we were against abortion.   During a talk at a Mass in St. Augustine, Florida, I said “abortion would end tomorrow” if we took to the streets en masse, flooded newspapers with letters to the editor, built tremendous safety nets for women in crisis pregnancy, took dramatic steps to end poverty… yet, well, we’re all too busy — to end the Holocaust. During a talk to a youth group in Valdosta, I said my “State of the Union Address” would include showing graphic slides of abortion to help move people off the dime.   Because it is, after all, a big (and horrific) part of  our “state of the union.”   During the question and answer period, a young woman said she would like to see abortion end, except when there’s physical  threat to the mother or baby.   Valdosta’s Paula Bickerstaff would disagree.   During an interview with Paula the day after the talk, she told me her fourth son, Patrick,  was diagnosed with Trysome 18, a rather rare chromosome disease that includes brain damage, extreme physical disabilities and virtually no chance of long term survival.   Patrick was in the womb at the time of the diagnosis.   Paula and her husband are Catholic and she said they would never consider abortion.   Patrick was  three pounds at birth,  had considerable  brain damage, extensive, internal  physical problems.   He lived six weeks with the parents and children loving him continually, people praying for him throughout the country….   “Patrick touched so many lives,” said Paula, showing me  his picture.   An ironic twist:   Paula said the day doctors told her about Patrick’s disease, she passed  a protest in front of an abortion clinic  on the way home.   People held signs with graphic pictures of aborted babies, she recalled.   She wondered how people could so cavalierly (and callously) take the life of a baby, while she was praying to God for every minute possible with her baby.   Note:   Our Pro-life platform is very much in line with Paula’s sentiments.