Of course, Wheeler-Smith and her lap-dog of a son do not even attempt to play the "I'm-for-abortion-rights-but-I'm-personally-opposed" card, like, say, Governor Jennifer Granholm does.  Rather, Alma and Conan are in love with abortion itself.  They revel in promoting such a heinous act upon innocent unborn children and have long disparaged the Catholic Church's teaching on the sanctity of human life.  

In fact, Alma Wheeler Smith's latest outburst against the Church she pretends to belong to (when it suits her, like at Christmas time?) may, in fact, be a long delayed "pay-back."  

In February 2004, as a professional career politician, Alma was in-between jobs due to term limits, which forced her out of the state Senate at the end of 2002.   Nonetheless, Alma had already declared her intentions to seek an open state House seat in the 54th District.  As part of her public relations campaign, Alma got herself invited to St. Mary Student Parish in Ann Arbor thanks to the so-called "Peace and Justice" Committee, which pulled a fast-one on the pastor.  

Alma's scheduled talk at St. Mary's was ostensibly about "voting rights."  The pastor would not disinvite her after I, and other members of the Life Issues Taskforce (a "rebel" subgroup of the parish's Peace and Justice outfit), asked him to cancel the event due to the fact that Alma was a well-known radical, unrepentant pro-abortion zealot.        

However, the pastor was very stubborn and would not budge.  

Not uncharacteristically, Alma then over-played her hand.  As it turned-out, just days before her scheduled appearance at St. Mary's, Alma also was set to introduce the-then-long-time president of the National Abortion Rights Action League, Kate Michelman, at an pro-abortion event at the University of Michigan Law School, which was entitled, "Hey George...Get Out of My Bush!"

I, and the rest of the Life Issues Task Force at St. Mary's, sprang into action once we learned of Alma's scheduled appearance at the pro-abortion event.  After spreading the word far and wide, St. Mary's was inundated with hundreds of e-mails and phone calls, ultimately forcing the pastor to cancel Alma's "voting rights" talk and dismantle the Peace and Justice Committee.  

In a subsequent Ann Arbor News article on the "controversy," Ms. Wheeler-Dealer said, "It was really off-the-wall and really an unfortunate situation."   The article also noted that Wheeler-Smith "was quick to point out that she and her family made significant financial contributions to the construction to the parish's Newman Center, where the talk was to be held."

Sorry, Alma, your blood money won't buy you a ticket to heaven - or grant you legitimacy in the Roman Catholic Church.  

I predict that Alma Wheeler-Smith and her family's "payback" attack on the Catholic grassroots, and, in particular good Catholic pharmacists, will not succeed.      

Although HB 6049 has just passed the House Judiciary Committee, Michigan Catholic grassroots organizations, like Marlene Elwell's Catholics in the Public Square and Dr. Monica Migliorino Miller's Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, are mobilizing their supporters in combination with the Michigan Catholic Conference.    

Please contact your legislator in both the state House and state Senate and tell him or her that you oppose Rep. Alma Wheeler-Smith's HB 6049, which would enshrine anti-Catholic bigotry into law.  

Alma Wheeler-Smith is nothing more than a pretend Catholic, hell-bent on shoving her wicked love of abortion down the throats of real Catholics of conscience.  

It's time for the Catholic grassroots in this state to rise-up and once again force the early cancellation of Alma Wheeler-Smith's latest endeavor.  

About the author: Andrew Shirvell, Esq., is a pro-life citizen activist who writes a weekly column that is published every Thursday for RightMichigan.com in which he focuses upon Michigan pro-life issues. Shirvell attended Ave Maria School of Law - Ann Arbor, where he served as president of the school's Bioethics Society, from 2004-2005.  He also served as president of Students for Life at the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, from 2000-2002.