Voices for Life

By The Time You Finish Reading This ...

2012-01-28T09:14:00.001-05:00

"There are two abortions every minute in the United States. Maybe slightly more, maybe slightly less: The gathering of medical statistics has been corrupted by the politics of abortion, in the same way that everything abortion touches gets clouded by falsity. But call it two abortions a minute. Two abortions a minute. Two abortions a minute . . .

An unborn child has been killed, probably, while you were reading this. Another will die, almost certainly, before you’re done. We are slaughtering by the seconds, and the relentless motion of that murderous clock — tick, tock, tick, tock — can drive you mad, if you start listening to it."

-- Joseph Bottum, Editor of http://www.firstthings.com/

Obama Administration to Catholics: 'To Hell With You!'

2012-01-27T14:29:00.003-05:00

By Bishop David A. Zubik

It is really hard to believe that it happened. It comes like a slap in the face. The Obama administration has just told the Catholics of the United States, “To Hell with you!” There is no other way to put it.

In early August, the Department for Health and Human Services in the Obama administration released guidelines as part of the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The guidelines mandated that by Summer 2012 all individual and group health insurance plans, including self-insured plans, cover all FDA-approved contraception, sterilization procedures and pharmaceuticals that even result in abortion.

A million things are wrong with this: equating pregnancy with disease; mandating that every employer pay for contraception procedures including alleged contraceptives that are actually abortion-inducing drugs; forcing American citizens to chose between violating their consciences or providing health care services; mandating such coverage on every individual woman without allowing her to even choose not to have it; forcing every person to pay for that coverage no matter the dictates of their conscience.

Let’s be blunt. This whole process of mandating these guidelines undermines the democratic process itself. In this instance, the mandate declares pregnancy a disease, forces a culture of contraception and abortion on society, all while completely bypassing the legislative process.

This is government by fiat that attacks the rights of everyone – not only Catholics; not only people of all religion. At no other time in memory or history has there been such a governmental intrusion on freedom not only with regard to religion, but even across-the-board with all citizens. It forces every employer to subsidize an ideology or pay a penalty while searching for alternatives to health care coverage. It undermines the whole concept and hope for health care reform by inextricably linking it to the zealotry of pro-abortion bureaucrats.

For our Church this mandate would apply in virtually every instance where the Catholic Church serves as an employer. The mandate would require the Catholic Church as an employer to violate its fundamental beliefs concerning human life and human dignity by forcing Catholic entities to provide contraceptive, sterilization coverage and even pharmaceuticals that result in abortion.

There was a so-called “religious exemption” to the mandate, but it was so narrowly drawn that, as critics charged, Jesus Christ and his Apostles would not fit the exemption. The so-called exemption would only apply to the vast array of Catholic institutions where the following applied:

Only Catholics are employed;

The primary purpose of the institution or service provided is the direct instruction in Catholic belief;

The only persons served by the institution are those that share Catholic religious tenets. (Try to fit this in with our local Catholic Charities that serve 80,000 every year without discrimination according to faith. It would be impossible!)

Practically speaking under the proposed mandate there would be no “religious exemption” for Catholic hospitals universities, colleges, nursing homes and numerous Catholic social service agencies such as Catholic Charities. It could easily be determined that the “religious exemption” would not apply as well to Catholic high schools, elementary schools and Catholic parishes since many employ non-Catholics and serve both students and, through social outreach, many who do not share Catholic religious beliefs. Such a narrow “religious exemption” is simply unprecedented in federal law.

Last September I asked you to protest those guidelines to Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the U.S. Department for Health and Human Services, and contact your political leadership in the federal government. I asked that you request that this flawed mandate be withdrawn because of its unprecedented interference in the religious liberty and freedom of conscience of the Catholic community, and our basic democratic process.

You did. And you were joined by Catholics throughout the country (and many others as well) who raised their voices against the mandate, raised their voices against a meaningless religious exemption.

On January 20, 2012, the Obama administration answered you and me. The response was very simple: “To Hell with You.”

Kathleen Sebelius announced that the mandate would not be withdrawn and the religious exemption would not be expanded. Instead, she stated that nonprofit groups – which include the Catholic Church – will get a year “to adapt to this new rule.” She simply dismissed Catholic concerns as standing in the way of allegedly respecting the health concerns and choices of women.

Could Catholics be insulted any more, suggesting that we have no concern for women’s health issues? The Catholic Church and the Catholic people have erected health care facilities that are recognized worldwide for their compassionate care for everyone regardless of their creed, their economic circumstances and, most certainly, their gender. In so many parts of the globe – the United States included – the Church is health care.

Kathleen Sebelius and through her, the Obama administration, have said “To Hell with You” to the Catholic faithful of the United States.

To Hell with your religious beliefs,

To Hell with your religious liberty,

To Hell with your freedom of conscience.

We’ll give you a year, they are saying, and then you have to knuckle under. As Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops responded, “in effect, the president is saying that we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences.”

As I wrote to you last September, with this mandate the democratic process is being ignored while we are being ordered to ignore our religious beliefs. And we are being told not only to violate our beliefs, but to pay directly for that violation; to subsidize the imposition of a contraceptive and abortion culture on every person in the United States.

It is time to go back to work. They have given us a year to adapt to this rule. We can’t! We simply cannot!

Write to the president.

Write to Secretary Sebelius.

Write to our Senators.

Write to those in Congress.

Here’s what you can write:

"Dear (Representative):

“In early August, the Department for Health and Human Services released guidelines that would force Catholic institutions to subsidize through their health care plans contraception, sterilization procedures and pharmaceuticals that even result in abortion.

“It was announced on January 20thby Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the U.S. Department for Health and Human Services, that this mandate is affirmed and that non-profit institutions, including the Catholic Church, have one year to adapt to the mandate.

“This is a direct threat to the religious liberty of Catholics, freedom of conscience and the social service ministry of the Catholic Church. The so-called ‘religious exemption’ in the mandate is no exemption at all as it would require any Catholic institution (that serves non-Catholics or employs non-Catholics) to violate Catholic belief, discontinue to provide health care, or close its doors.

“I ask that you do all possible to rescind the ‘Preventive Service Mandate’ as an unprecedented federal interference in the right of Catholics to serve their community without violating their fundamental moral beliefs.”

This mandate can be changed by Congressional pressure. The only way that action will happen is if you and I take action.

Let them know that you and I will not allow ourselves to be pushed around (or worse yet) be dismissed because of our Catholic faith.

Let them know that you and I will not allow our religious freedom to be compromised.

Let them know that you and I will not allow our religious liberty to be rescinded.

Nobody, not even the president of the United States or anyone who represents him, has the right to say to you and to me as U.S. citizens, as Catholics, or as both: “To Hell with You.”

The president and our elected leaders need to hear from you and me and to listen to us NOW.

http://www.diopitt.org/hhs-delays-rule-contraceptive-coverage

Abortion Safer Than Childbirth? Study's Results Do Not Support Claim!

2012-01-27T12:38:00.007-05:00

A new study claims to demonstrate that abortion is safer than childbirth.

The study obviously concentrates solely on the medical risks for the mother, since an abortion always destroys the unborn child. So the study is based on a faulty premise, comparing two medical procedures that have different goals. In an abortion, one life is deliberately sacrificed. In childbirth, medical personnel do their utmost to preserve two healthy lives. It is not surprising that the latter operation is more challenging.

Since time immemorial, it has been generally understood that pregnancy and childbirth place serious strains on the mother. Most abortions are performed early in pregnancy, when those strains are not yet severe. So again, the comparison between abortion and childbirth is inappropriate from the outset. A Reuters news report on the study, however, stretches the application of the new study even further beyond what the facts actually bear. The Reuters story (which does not identify the source of the study until the 10th paragraph) acknowledges the strains of a full-term pregnancy with the remarkably awkward admission that “women are pregnant for a lot longer when they decide to have a baby and so have more time to develop complications.” That is true, certainly. But women who “decide to have a baby”—that is, decide not to destroy their unborn child—also have a better chance of giving birth to a healthy son or daughter.

In citing the results of the study, however, Reuters claims to find meaning that the data do not, and cannot, show. The story cites unnamed “experts” who “say the findings, though not unexpected, contradict some state laws that suggest abortions are high-risk procedures.” And later the Reuters report refers to one researcher who “said previous studies have also shown the safety of legal abortions.” Both statements are inaccurate.

The claim that abortion is safer than childbirth (for the mother) does not mean that abortion is a safe procedure. We know that childbirth entails some medical risks. Even if the risks of abortion are lesser, they are not negligible. Some state laws, designed to protect pregnant women, have required abortionists to provide accurate information about the health risks involved in the procedure. Those risks remain, even if other medical options involve their own risks. The study, published in Obstetrics & Gynecology, compared only the deaths from complications of childbirths and abortions. It apparently did not look into the lingering effects of abortion. Studies have shown that women who procure abortions suffer higher rates of breast cancer, depression, drug abuse, and suicide. Also, women who procure abortions may encounter complications when they eventually seek to bear children--and thus contribute to the elevated rates of death in childbirth.

http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=13084

It Steals Hope

2012-01-27T07:49:00.001-05:00

"Abortion kills a child; it wounds a precious part of a woman’s own dignity and identity; and it steals hope.
That’s why it’s wrong.
That’s why it needs to end."
...
-- Archbishop Charles J. Chaput

Photo Credit: Matt K. Cassens, author of http://stblogustine.blogspot.com/2012/01/2012-march-for-life-in-washington.html

This Foot Was Not a Part of Her Body

2012-01-26T15:40:00.003-05:00

In 1973, when the Supreme Court legalized abortion with its Roe vs. Wade decision, I was a young nurse working in an operating room in Boston. There were no abortion clinics in Massachusetts at that time, since abortion had not previously been legal in that state, so the procedure known as a “D and E” — for dilatation and evacuation — would soon be performed at my hospital in the O.R. When this was announced to the nursing staff, I was horrified at the thought that I would be required to participate in abortions. I considered myself to be liberal and supportive of the women's movement, but abortion gave me pause.

This news was largely met with approval by my co-workers, who considered Roe vs. Wade to be a monumental victory for women's rights. The feminist movement was in full force in those days, and I knew I was in a minority of people who would object to abortion. I really did not want to be the one to have to say anything. Fortunately, there was a one nursing supervisor who was a Catholic who spoke up and took a stand for the rest of us. Catholic nurses would not be required to be involved in any abortions. This came as a huge relief to me because I loved my job and would have hated to leave it. And although I was not exactly the poster child for the good Catholic life at that time, I was glad to be able to hide behind my religion and not have to confront militant feminists.

One night, though, I was called into work for an emergency “D and C” (dilatation and curettage) on a woman who had had an abortion and was now hemorrhaging. This case presented no moral dilemma for me as there was no longer a living fetus and the woman could have bled to death. As the scrub nurse, I was collecting the bits of tissue that were being scraped out of the uterus to be sent to the pathology lab, as was required with any surgical procedure. I was not expecting to see anything recognizable on the surgical sponges and instruments when I suddenly came upon something solid; a bit of firm, white, waxy -looking substance. Upon closer inspection I was shocked to see that it was a tiny, perfectly formed right foot. So much for an unrecognizable clump of cells! I stared in amazement at the sight of such a tiny foot. It was like an exquisite, miniature sculpture with delicate curves, detailed bone structure, translucent skin, tiny toes, minuscule toenails. Its perfection, delicacy and beauty were so grotesquely incongruous with its position on a bloody surgical sponge lying in the palm of my hand. It broke my heart.

There are those who claim a fetus is not a person, but there is only one creature with a foot that looks just like that, just like my foot: It's called a human being. I started to wonder about the person who owned this foot. It certainly did not belong to the woman on the O.R. table; she already had two. This foot was not a part of her body, that she had a right to control, as abortion proponents would say. It must belong to someone else; to a separate and unique individual who had been denied the most basic of human rights, the right to life; to an infant who would never be held; to a little boy or little girl who would never kick a ball; to a baby who was dead now, who now belonged to God.

Thirty nine years ago I had the choice, as a Catholic nurse, not to participate in abortions where I worked. I don't know if I would have that option in today's frightening political climate of health care mandates. Thirty-nine years ago I was glad I didn't have to say anything about my position on abortion and I have been mostly silent ever since. Today I am speaking for the child whose foot I held in my hand. Abortion has killed too many of our most innocent, most vulnerable and most precious human beings. There are alternatives. Let's stop this!

-- Rita Sandberg Silverthorne
http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20120126/LETTER/120129876/1078&ParentProfile=1055

Obama Sends a Chill Up My Spine

2012-01-26T09:50:00.008-05:00

“'Part of what 2012 is about is both reminding the American people of how far we’ve traveled and the concrete effects that some of our work … but part of it is also framing this larger debate about what kind of country are we going to leave for our children and our grandchildren,' he [Obama] said.

I don't know. I just always find it so disturbing when pro-aborts say 'do it for the children.' Kinda' creeps me out a bit. Especially Obama.

This is a guy who said that babies born alive don't deserve protection. This is a guy who said that the question of when life begins is above his pay grade but supports killing them just in case. This is a guy who's doing everything he can to use taxpayer money to kill more children in the womb.

So when he says elect me for the children's sake, it just sends a chill up my spine."

-- Matthew Archbold, author of http://www.creativeminorityreport.com

Jennie Responds to Erin's Gripe About "Until Abortion Ends" Campaign

2012-01-25T12:22:00.004-05:00

Visit UntilAbortionEnds.com

h/t Brian Hudon

Note To Obama: KILLING BABIES IS NOT AN AMERICAN VALUE!

2012-01-25T07:02:00.002-05:00

"... President Obama will issue a call to 'return to American values' in his state of the union address. I remind him: Mr. President, the violent destruction of children in the womb —killing babies— is not an American value. Mr. President, Americans by an overwhelming majority oppose abortion on demand and value the lives of women and unborn children. Mr. President, stop imposing abortion policies on American institutions and religious organizations. America values religious freedom. Mr. President, abortion is not, never was, and never will be an American value. Stop forcing abortion on America and the world! The past three years of abortion extremism by President Obama is a mere foretaste — a mere foreshadowing—of what will be if he is reelected. Mr. Obama’s abortion extremism will significantly worsen in a second term. Given four more years, Mr. Obama will further pack the courts — including and especially the US Supreme Court — with litmus-tested pro-abortion judges perched to retain the infamous holdings of Roe. Unhindered and unfettered by any concern over a future election, Mr. Obama will aggressively use the coercive power of the state to compel abortion conformity and complicity. The predictable consequence: more dead babies, more wounded moms."

-- U.S. Congressman Chris Smith [in an excerpt of his address during the Rally at the 2012 March For Life in Washington D.C.]

America's Silent Holocaust

2012-01-22T09:01:00.001-05:00

May God Forgive the Mainstream Media

2012-01-22T08:56:00.001-05:00

"On Monday, when tens of thousands march on Washington, they will mostly be ignored by the mainstream media. They ignore the silent voices of the little ones in the womb and will try to suppress the voices of those who speak for them, the voices of a modern abolition movement who have nothing to gain from their efforts except derision and calumny. May God forgive the media for their hypocritical betrayal, not only of the babies, but of their own duty as journalists."

-- Mary Ann Kreitzer

Abortion is Celebrated as a Basic Human Right

2012-01-21T09:11:00.003-05:00

Jan. 18, 2012 - We live in confusing, and confused, times.

We live in an era where reason has given way to sentiment. Where, at the highest levels of society, emotion, self-interest and uncertainty have taken the place of logic.
We live in a time where culture and policy seem to be governed by what Pope Benedict XVI has so often called “the dictatorship of relativism.”

Consider the issue of abortion. For 39 years now, since the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, abortion has been a legal procedure in every corner of the United States. Make no mistake about it—abortion is the killing of tiny human beings in the womb. But for nearly 40 years in the United States, abortion has been a legally protected right by the Supreme Court.
Abortion is not just tolerated in America. It is no longer viewed even as a tragedy. Instead, abortion—the killing of tiny and not so tiny human beings—has become celebrated as a basic human right.

Perversely, abortion is increasingly understood as a safeguard to preserving freedom. As John Paul II pointed out, in his encyclical “Evangelium Vitae”: “A new cultural climate is developing and taking hold, which gives crime against life a new and—if possible—even more sinister character ... broad sectors of public opinion justify crimes against life in the name of the rights of individual freedom.”

Consider the comments of President Obama last year, on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Abortion, said President Obama, helps ensure that “our daughters have the same rights, the same freedoms and the same opportunities as our sons to fulfill their dreams.”
What a tragically confused perspective. In order to protect the rights of our sons and daughters, President Obama, and many more, believe that we must deny the most fundamental, inalienable and God-given right—the right to life.

Relativism has tried to convince us that abortion is a fundamental right, and that life itself is not.
Despite this tragic circumstance, we have reason for hope—namely, the work of Jesus Christ in our lives, in our families and in our country.

By God’s grace, young people are taking seriously the rights of the unborn and are working to preserve them. The annual March for Life has seen record crowds in recent years and youth pro-life events for are more popular than ever before.

Furthermore, the charitable work of Christians is increasingly effective in helping to prevent abortions. In the Archdiocese of Denver, the work of Catholic Charities in providing support to families and the work of Gabriel House in providing resources to women in crisis is impacting many women and families who might consider abortion.

We are also renewing our efforts to reach out to women and men who have been traumatized by the experience of an abortion through Project Rachel, a post-abortion ministry of healing and reconciliation. The most recent statistics indicate that one-third of women under the age of 40 have had an abortion. And, for every abortion, there is a mother, father and other family members and friends who are seriously impacted.

In an effort to more effectively extend the healing mercy of Jesus Christ to those impacted by abortion, Regina Caeli Clinical Services of Catholic Charities will be sponsoring Project Rachel training in February for priests, deacons, spiritual directors, mental health providers and other select lay apostolates in the archdiocese.

Finally, across the country, Catholics and other Christians are committed to prayer for an end to abortion. In adoration chapels and churches in our archdiocese, prayer for life is a regular occurrence. So, too, peaceful and prayerful witness outside abortion facilities is taking place. Prayer will make the difference—“The fervent prayer of a righteous person,” says the epistle of James, “accomplishes much.”

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta in a famous speech given in 1994 at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., hosted by both houses of the U.S. Congress spoke these words: “Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.”

Each of us is called to witness to the dignity of all human life. As uncomfortable as it might be, we are called to share our pro-life convictions with our neighbors, friends and families. We can counter the influence of relativism by speaking the truth with love—convincingly, clearly and without compromise. We need not be combative or polemical—but to be serious Christians, we need to be honest. And honesty means telling the truth, in love, about abortion.

Beyond that, each of us can join in the charitable work of the Church to end abortion. Some of us may be called to work with Catholic Charities or to join the Angel program at Gabriel House. Others may be called to other ways of opening our lives to women and families in crisis. If we are serious about ending abortion, we should also be serious about helping those who might consider this tragic choice.

Finally, each of us, at all times, is called to prayer. Please join me at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception 10 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 21 for a special “Mass for Giving Thanks to God for Human Life” followed by a “Rosary for Life” in the Marian Garden to the east of the cathedral.

Without a doubt, we live in deeply troubled times. The ongoing presence of abortion in America witnesses that. But we do not live alone—we live in Christ. And in Christ, each of us can work together to end “the dictatorship of relativism.” Together, we can hope, we can work and we can pray, for the flowering of a culture of life.

Bishop James D. Conley is apostolic administrator of the Denver Archdiocese.

http://www.archden.org/index.cfm/ID/7462

Speak The Truth, In Love, About Abortion

2012-01-21T09:06:00.003-05:00

"Each of us is called to witness to the dignity of all human life. As uncomfortable as it might be, we are called to share our pro-life convictions with our neighbors, friends and families. We can counter the influence of relativism by speaking the truth with love — convincingly, clearly and without compromise. We need not be combative or polemical — but to be serious Christians, we need to be honest. And honesty means telling the truth, in love, about abortion."

-- Bishop James D. Conley

The Greatest Mistake of the Pro-Life Movement

2012-01-20T07:40:00.000-05:00

"A major factor in the Way Back [to the Truth about Love and Life] is the pro-life movement. As Dr. Charles Rice, professor of Notre Dame, said twenty years ago, the greatest mistake of the pro-life movement was to more or less ignore the contraceptive mentality. All the marches, conferences, books and articles of the pro-life apostolate are barren exercises unless the evil of contraception is confronted and overcome. This is not to say that the attack on abortion is to be neglected but that the cause of abortion be clearly recognized. This does not mean that non-Catholics are to be excluded from the pro-life movement .... It does mean that all pro-life fruitful members be opposed to contraception and sterilization. It must be recognized that contraception is not a Catholic evil but a universal evil, an intrinsic evil, and a violation of divine natural law to which all owe obedience. Abortion is a death-dealing symptom, the contraception mentality the cause. Death from the Pill or scalpel is the ultimate contraception. We note that Humanae Vitae is not addressed only to Catholics but to all of good will."

-- Msgr. Vincent Foy

Abstinence & Adoption: 2 Cures For the # 1 Killer in America

2012-01-19T14:21:00.003-05:00

"Do you know the #1 killer in our nation? It's not cancer. It's not heart disease. It is abortion! And it is curable! Abstinence and adoption are the two recommended treatments."

-- William P. Beckman, Executive Director of Illinois Right To Life Committee http://www.illinoisrighttolife.org/

Become Truly Wise

2012-01-18T07:38:00.000-05:00

"So often people say that we should look to the elderly, learn from their wisdom, their many years. I disagree, I say we should look to the young: untarnished, without stereotypes implanted in their minds, no poison, no hatred in their hearts. When we learn to see life through the eyes of a child, that is when we become truly wise."

-- Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Contraception is a Grave Sin

2012-01-17T07:27:00.002-05:00

"I do not believe the pro-life movement will succeed unless those who are strongly pro-life are also defending the teaching of the Church from the first century - that contraception is a grave sin. For many years I have taught a course on the history of contraception. Now over 5,000 years of recorded history, all contraceptive societies became abortive societies. Contraception leads inevitably to abortion and abortion always leads to the destruction of society."

- Fr. John Hardon, S.J.

Our Culture Has Been Brainwashed

2012-01-16T11:20:00.003-05:00

"I believe that our culture has been brainwashed into thinking that we are completely in control of our lives, and indeed, of our own destinies. This is perhaps most evident in the sexual sphere, where we've all but divorced the procreative from the unitive.

Contraception is perhaps the greatest long con in the whole of human history, and it's nothing new. It's the fundamental refusal to submit to reality, to Him. In our protests of 'no, it's my body, my choice' ... we reject the very essence of our humanity: our creation in His image and likeness. He who is Love itself, poured out and eternally creating, is sterilized within us by our rejection and refusal of His grand plan.

But religion aside, it's still a bum deal. The skyrocketing divorce rate and the scourges of abortion, of reproductive cancers and of deadly and devastating STI's should be telling us something... but we have become deaf.

Deafened by our own choosing. And in refusing to choose life, we have embraced death... and have been greatly deceived."

-- Jenny, author of http://agreatdeception.blogspot.com/

Stand Stark and Strange: Being Pro-Life in a Culture of Death

2012-01-15T12:24:00.004-05:00

Chris Sparks
From the Jan/Feb 2012 Issue of Lay Witness Magazine

Every Friday during my undergraduate years at Gonzaga University, a group would get together, walk the few blocks to the nearby Planned Parenthood outlet, and pray a rosary in front of it for an end to abortion. When I became president of the club that organized the prayers, I started going along. It was a strange experience—I suddenly came to realize how very alone pro-lifers can be in modern culture, and what a stark witness this really was.

Like a Sore Thumb

We’d be there in front of this place of business, outside the nice looking iron fence, the standard issue parking lot, all tucked in between some other businesses and a children’s center across the street (oh, subtle ironies!). Depending on the season, we’d be kneeling in leaves or deciding if we’d kneel in snow. I followed the lead of the old hands and the very dedicated seminarians who helped keep the practice alive. Sometimes someone brought an image of Our Lady. Sometimes, we’d shift our spot to put some distance between our prayer and the folks who’d bring the really graphic aborted baby images—not our preferred method of pro-life presence. But each time I went, as I had my eyes shut to pray, I’d alternate between focusing on the mysteries and becoming hyperaware of every change in sound around me.

You get nervous, you see. You wonder, “What might someone do to me?” And then you realize that it was a serious thought. This is an issue over which people have killed. Heck, this is an issue that’s all about caring and killing, life and death, blessings or curses, prayers or profanity. I don’t recall hearing anyone actually yell something foul—I suspect that tells you more about my memory than it does about what actually went on. But we got honked at (Support? Disdain? Dunno . . . ), we got yelled at, we were asked if we’d take our grotesque signs and leave (we weren’t part of that group, we explained), someone tried to argue we weren’t allowed to be doing this on that particular patch of ground (we were on public grass, we told them, not private property), and so forth.

I wasn’t one of the truly dedicated, though I should have been. I didn’t go for the late night and early morning shifts for 40 Days for Life as my stoic housemate so faithfully would. But I was there, and I was praying, and I did a little bit, the tiniest of bits to try to witness, to try to bring an end to the slaughterhouse which is the culture of death.

Intolerable Light

But our efforts, like similar efforts everywhere, seemed to be the most provocative thing imaginable to many people. “How dare you politicize prayer?” demanded fellow students in the school newspaper. “How dare you attack women making a very difficult choice?”

We represented a sign of contradiction by doing a very simple thing: kneeling in prayer outside the site of a hidden holocaust, one of many such sites in our country and around the world. We were there, bearing witness to the reality within, and some people could not bear the smallest glimpse.

Prayer sheds light, you see, as does the presence of the Body of Christ. We go, and God goes with us, joined to us by covenant and creed, by sacrament and self-donation. Even the sinners in the Church bear that light within, those marks of baptism and confirmation, the name of God and the Sign of the Cross upon us.

So, of course, our war was not with flesh and blood, but with the powers and principalities of this present darkness—hence the prayers. Hence the pro-life movement. Pro-life, not anti-woman, not anything other than a group of people saying, “It is the most unnatural thing in the world, in human history, for the womb to be the deadliest place on earth, for mothers to pay for the killing of their children, for fathers to insist the women bearing their children seek to destroy the fruits of their wombs.”

Yes, point to the iniquities of pagan days, the worship of Moloch, the service of bloody mouthed gods, the enlightened culture of death in other lands and other ages. Point to these and decry the Christian intolerance of similar sacrifices—you do us honor by such polemic.

The Loneliest Number

“One is the loneliest number,” wrote Harry Nilsson. Almost. The loneliest number is two minus one—the mother bereft of her child by the hand of a person she’s paid for the privilege. Or the father who someday recalls, someday regrets, and weeps.

They are the lucky ones, though. What of the men who never know, who’ve fathered multitudes who’ll never see the light of day because the father went away and the mother just couldn’t handle a kid on their own? What of the women for whom abortion is merely a convenience, the fast food of contraception?

There’s a YouTube video making the rounds online in which a Planned Parenthood supporter hopes for the day when a Planned Parenthood waits on every corner, like Starbucks. An odd image. Grab your coffee, have your kid killed, and get on with your day. Easy!

What’s Next?

Pray for them. As Abby Johnson has repeatedly asked, pray for the doctors, the nurses, the clinic workers, all the Planned Parenthood apparatchiks and wandering children of God. Pray for the children, and for an end to the hideous plague. Go for a walk, wander by one of the clinics, and pray for a while. Prepare a defense for the hope that is in you so when someone asks, you can say, “I am pro-life,” and tell them why. There are reasons, not just arguments from Scripture and tradition. You’ll need the philosophy for the people of other faiths or no faith at all. Write to your elected representatives, write to the President, vote your conscience, organize and work, rally and fight in the ballot boxes and debating forums! Be a lay witness to the Gospel of Life, and to the natural law of life, as well.

And above all else, love. Love the woman in need of a home because a child shall be born, if only she has shelter. The Mother of us all was one such woman—see her face in the faces of her many daughters, and say, “I will love you, I will shelter you, I will aid you and your child.” Love as Mother Theresa loved, and try to end abortion by adopting. Let it be known that you and your husband, you and your wife, will help the women and men who conceive children before they’re ready, or who simply don’t want to raise children. Say, “I will take that image and likeness of God, I will love them for the Christ Child’s sake, for their own sake. I will love them, I will care.”

Above all, love—not hate. We are forbidden to hate them, doctor and clinic worker, mothers and fathers made barren for convenience sake. No—we must love, going down into the depths after them, standing firm in the boat captained by Peter’s heir, capable of sailing beneath the waves without sinking, without drowning, drawing on the lifeline of grace from the sacraments. Out of the depths we can cry to God, and draw Him down there with us, with them, to all the forces of the culture of death, to raise them back up to light and life, to love.

Love, and grace, and prayer—politics, and preparing the ground with reason, and Peter Maurin’s “roundtable discussions for the clarification of thought.” Let us prepare well for this fight, which has been going on far too long, and let us return to the field renewed, refreshed, and ready to press home the advantage of standing for the person, for the truth, for all that is right and good.

Chris Sparks recently received his MA in theology from Franciscan University of Steubenville.

From Catholics United For the Faith
http://www.cuf.org/Laywitness/Online_view.asp?lwID=2112

EVERY Person is the Image of God

2012-01-15T11:18:00.003-05:00

“Every person – no matter how vulnerable or helpless, no matter how young or how old, no matter how healthy, handicapped or sick, no matter how useful or productive for society – is a being of inestimable worth created in the image of God. This is the dignity of America, the reason she exists, the condition for her survival – yes, the ultimate test of her greatness; to respect every person, especially the weakest and the most defenseless ones, those as yet unborn.”

-- Blessed John Paul II - Address at Detroit Airport, September 19, 1987

Photo credit: Natalie Falls and her adorable son, Elias
Natalie blogs here: http://nataliefalls.com/ and here:
http://www.thebettermom.com/author/nfalls/

Wise Voting Advice From the Year 1868

2012-01-14T15:34:00.002-05:00

[T]he time has come that Christians must vote for honest men and take consistent ground in politics or the Lord will curse them. . . . Christians have been exceedingly guilty in this matter. But the time has come when they must act differently. . . . Christians seem to act as if they thought God did not see what they do in politics. But I tell you He does see it - and He will bless or curse this nation according to the course they [Christians] take [in politics].

[Charles G. Finney, Lectures on Revivals of Religion (New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1868), Lecture XV, pp. 281-282.]

Did You Vote For Obama?

2012-01-14T15:21:00.003-05:00

From COURAGEOUS PRIEST Blog:

Father John Cihak is the director of the Respect Life Office in the Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon and Pastor of Sacred Heart-St. Louis in Gervais. He is also responsible for a discernment weekend at Quo Vadis Days.

This was posted in this Church Bulletin after the election of Obama. His following prophetic letter includes the prediction of the disaster for the poor, closing of Catholic Hospitals, increased euthanasia and more innocent life lost. A special thank you to Mary Locke, a faithful subscriber, for finding this article.

Pastor’s Corner 11-9-08

Brothers and Sisters,

For most people this week, the presidential election was first and foremost in mind. As the pastor of the souls of this parish, for whom I will have to give an account to the good God, it is important to put before you a few observations. Voting in a democracy is very serious business. It is a sacred duty and the exercise of power that can have far reaching consequences for our lives and the lives of others.

A majority of Americans, including those who identify themselves as Catholic (54% if the exit polls are correct), chose to elect our new President. The election of this candidate to the presidency will have far reaching consequences. Our Lord Jesus tells us to judge a tree by its fruit. A good tree produces good fruit, a bad tree bad fruit. I would urge us a rational persons to look beyond the smile and mesmerizing words and pay attention to the deeds – these will show what kind of president we will have.

In my view as a priest, scholar and professor, never before has the Culture of Death been given so much power in this country. Our new president is committed to promoting and protecting with law intrinsically evil acts, acts that are never justified and should never be done by a rational person. The fruit of this conviction is that he is committed to creating and ratifying unjust laws. The clearest deed that will reveal this truth is when he signs the ‘Freedom of Choice Act’ into law, which was one of his campaign promises. This legislation will virtually abolish ANY restrictions on abortion that exist now. This legislation will result in the killing of tens of thousands of innocent children. The killing of the innocent is a sin that cries out to Heaven for justice (Gen. 4:10). Those who voted for this president will now share in the indirect responsibility and guilt for these killings. Such is the serious nature of voting.

But I Voted For Social Justice Issues

Those who voted for him may respond that their vote was not based on his pro-abortion stance but other social issues. The response I gave in a previous homily is that clearly and logically this election did not involve a situation of ‘proportionate reason’ mentioned in the USCCB’s Faithful Citizenship. The issues of quality of life come into play only when candidates vying for office are equal on the issues dealing with life itself.

My Predictions

The ‘Freedom of Choice Act’, and other unjust legislation like it that will likely be proposed, also has the potential to force the Church out of health care. The Church, as the bearer of the Gospel of Life, will refuse to take part in committing intrinsically evil acts. The names like Providence, St. Vincent, Sacred Heart may remain on the outside of the hospitals, but their internal policies may no longer meaningfully reflect the teachings of Christ and His Church. Thus the legislation would spell disaster for the poor and will create a huge societal problem since the Church is one of the major providers of health care in the country, especially to the poor. Moreover, if the Church is not providing health care, then those with terminal illness and those who do not seem to have a sufficient ‘quality of life’ will lose their last protection from those who will want to kill them to save health care dollars – still more innocent lives lost.

Some may be reading this thinking that I’m being overly dramatic, that I’m over reacting. I would ask you to pay attention to the fruit; pay attention to actions and deeds and not the smile or soothing words. Beneath the smile and words is one who has already identified himself through his actions that he is against Christ and His Church on fundamental, non-negotiable issues.

The Coming Tribulation

For those followers of Christ who are serious about following Him understand that we may be entering a very difficult and trying period of history. The Church has had such times in the past and will again have them in the future. In the late 1990s, then Cardinal Ratzinger commented that he thought the Church was entering a period of trial, a time when the Church was to be more of a persecuted Church, a time when it would be most costly to follow Jesus, and thus a time when many of those who identify themselves as Catholic will fall away. Now he is Pope Benedict XVI, the successor of St. Peter and our chief Shepherd. It will become increasingly evident as the years pass whether he is a prophet. Personally, I believe him to be right. In my prayer over the past few years, I have sensed the same thing. It may take many years for it to come into full view, but with this ascendency of the Culture of Death we may see the beginnings of it in the next few years.

Be Prepared! Seek Mercy!

And so as the pastor of your souls and as your spiritual father, I urge you to prepare yourselves spiritually, through prayer, fasting, virtuous living and most of all faith, hope and love, for what is to come. Let us recommit ourselves in joy to protect and cherish the weak and vulnerable among us. If you are one who cast your vote for our new president, I urge you to seek the mercy of Jesus through the Sacrament of Confession that you may be absolved from the great evil this president says he will do. Jesus Christ has already definitively broken the power of evil and death. He will never abandon us or the world. He may be asking the members of His Body to have a deeper share with Him in the Cross, that the world might be saved.

Be A Saint!

We do not have to be afraid. We did not choose to live in these times, but He chose us to live in these times (In. 15:16) – that is a comforting truth. It is in times of trial that the members of Christ shine more brightly. St. Paul tells us as he told the Philippians, ‘Do everything without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine like lights in the world” (Phil. 2:14). Now is the time for saints! We stand with Our Lord Jesus and His angels and saints and will bring down the Culture of Death through the might of the divine love because with St. Paul we can say, “I can do all things in him who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:13).

Sincerely in Christ,

Fr. John Cihak
http://www.courageouspriest.com/warning-did-you-vote-for-obama

Pro-Abortion Catholic in Name Only Politicians Mislead the Faithful

2012-01-14T14:27:00.004-05:00

"The Church should seek the conversion of pro-abortion politicians, but if they remain obstinate they should be expelled from the Church. Catholics are called to defend human life, particularly that of the unborn. The Church’s teaching is clear.
If we don’t challenge public officials who reject this teaching, we leave them in their sins and confuse the faithful.”

-- Bishop Samuel Aquila of Fargo

cartoon from www.drawfortruth.com

Reverse the Insanity

2012-01-13T10:58:00.001-05:00

"If we are to reverse the insanity [of abortion], this may be most crucial election ever. Another Supreme Court seat will probably open after the election. The President nominates; the Senate confirms. Both are pro-abortion. But that can change come November. Our cause is just: life. With God’s help and our efforts, this chapter of history will end in triumph.”

- Paul V. Esposito

Abortion is Forever

2012-01-13T07:18:00.001-05:00

"I read a newspaper editorial arguing that abortion is just another surgery, no different from a root canal or appendectomy. But why don't people remember the anniversary of their appendectomy twenty years later? Why don't they find themselves weeping uncontrollably, grieving the loss of their appendix? And where are all the support groups and counseling for those who've had root canals?"

-- Randy Alcorn

For Us There is Only the Trying - The Rest is God's Business

2012-01-12T07:16:00.002-05:00

“And will we overcome? Will we prevail? We have overcome and have prevailed ultimately because He has overcome and He has prevailed. There are days in which you and I get discouraged. On those days I tell myself — I suppose almost every day I tell myself, sometimes several times a day — those marvelous lines from T. S. Eliot's 'East Coker,' where Eliot says, ‘For us there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.’

For us there is only the trying. The rest is not our business. Some people read those lines as lines of resignation, kind of shrugging your shoulders and saying, 'What can you do?' But I read them as lines of vibrant hope. The rest is not our business. The rest is God's business.

Thank God, we are not God. Thank God, God is God.”

-- Fr. Richard John Neuhaus

Free Pro-Life Images

2012-01-11T16:24:00.005-05:00

Please visit our sister blog www.freeprolifeimages.net
Many more unique and incredibly powerful images have just been posted.

Don't Support Abortion With Your Vote

2012-01-11T07:04:00.002-05:00

"At present in our country, abortion takes the lives of over 4,000 unborn children every day and over 1.5 million each year. When we stand before God, will we want to say that we took any part in that? Think about it when you go to vote."

-- Grace D. MacKinnon

Embrace the Cross

2012-01-10T11:17:00.002-05:00

"Christians venerate the Cross, not because Jesus is still on it, but because it is the instrument by which He saved the world and by which we take hold of that salvation. This means that the Cross is also the instrument for ending abortion and building the culture of life. Practically, that means that it is silly to seek to escape controversy and criticism. When we plan pro-life projects, let’s plan to embrace the Cross."

- Fr. Frank Pavone

Fighting Powers and Principalities

2012-01-10T11:08:00.000-05:00

"When we take a pro-life stance, we will be fighting the devil, like it or not. Although his kingdom has been defeated and his power is limited, he still 'prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour' (1 Peter 5:8). The devil will try to discourage and distract us. His favorite approach with good people is not to tempt them to do wicked things, but to tempt them to do good things, which, while good in themselves, distract us from the necessary things."

- Fr. Frank Pavone

Responses to Alberta Judge Letting Woman Who Strangled Newborn Walk Free

2012-01-10T11:02:00.002-05:00

In response to the news that an Alberta judge has let a woman who strangled her newborn son walk free by arguing that Canada’s absence of a law on abortion signals that Canadians “sympathize” with the mother:

"Katrina Effert simply engaged in a really, really late-term abortion. Given that we don’t, under Canadian law, value human life a few minutes before birth, why a few minutes after?" "... while Ms. Effert will not spend any time in jail for strangling her son, she may have to spend sixteen days behind bars for disposing of his corpse by tossing it over a fence. Killing a child? Meh. Improper disposal of the victim’s body? Outrageous!"

-- Jonathon Van Maren

"Abortion inside the womb, and now outside of the womb. It’s about time that these (extreme) pro-choicers admitted that are fully accepting of infanticide. It’s just a matter of location of the child. Lefties laugh when 'the slippery slope' is mentioned — here it is in living colour for all to see."

-- laurav

"I wonder when it'll be ok to kill two or three year olds as they are completely dependent upon adults and cannot survive 'on their own.' The Pro-Deathers really have opened up Pandora's box. I await with GREAT anticipation their arguments justifying this murder."

-- Tweety58

"This verdict might be enough to awaken the mercy of the general public for the unborn and the pro-life perspective."

-- Curious

International Wombs for Rent

2012-01-10T10:47:00.001-05:00

by Rebecca Taylor, author of "Mary Meets Dolly" blog

It has become more common place that infertile couples are using IVF to create embryos and then hiring surrogate mothers to carry those embryos. Most surrogacy agreements require payment to the surrogate mother which can cost anywhere from $30,000 to $100,000 USD. Western couples are looking for cheaper options. Many are now turning to women from third world countries to carry their IVF embryos. A new book by Scott Carney called the The Red Market: On the Trail of the World's Organ Brokers, Bone Thieves, Blood Farmers, and Child Traffickers takes a critical look at international surrogacy especially in India. After Oprah did a whole show on a Western couple's use of an Indian surrogate through Dr. Nayna Patel's surrogacy service at the Akanksha Fertility Clinic in Anand, India, the waiting list for Dr. Patel's services is now in the hundreds. The Oprah show painted the surrogacy arrangement as a win-win for both the Indian woman and the Western couple. The couple gets a baby and the Indian surrogate gets more money that she could earn in a lifetime.

International surrogacy may look all sparklely and clean on the outside but Carney looks closer at Patel's clinic. He reports that surrogates there are kept under lock and key for the entire pregnancy. They are often forced to deliver by C-section even though C-sections carry a double to quadruple risk of death during childbirth. Indian surrogates are paid much less than their Western counterparts. While an American surrogate would get 50-75% of the total fees, and Indian surrogate receives only 25%.

Carney points out that due to the lure of easy money, some surrogates are pressured into it by their families. He recounts the story of a young woman named Easwari, who died after giving birth at a surrogacy clinic in Coimbatore in 2009. She was pressured by her husband Murugan to make the family extra money after he had seen ads in the local newspaper calling for surrogates.

Carney also discusses the practice of "selective reduction" that goes on in Patel's clinic. Selective reduction is a euphemistic term referring to the killing of one or more multiple fetuses in the womb. He reports that Patel's clinic often implants as many as five embryos at a time and writes:

Several of the surrogates I met in Anand were pregnant with twins. In cases where three or more embryos take, the Askanska clinic selectively aborts specific embryos to bring the total down to a more manageable levels. They do this often without asking permission of the intended parents or the surrogates.

Carney's coverage of international surrogacy illustrates how children and their production has become more of a commercial enterprise than a gift from God. Using international surrogates is not just about getting a baby on the cheap, it is also about quality control. Quality control of the woman and her uterus. Carney recounts the words of Ester Cohen, an American woman who decided to use an Indian surrogate instead of an American one because an Indian woman is easier to control. Cohen said:

When I was told by my doctor they could get someone in Stockton, I don't know what they are eating, what they are doing. Their physical environment would have been a concern for me. The way they have things set up [in India] is that the surrogate's sole purpose is to carry a healthy baby for someone.

Maybe that is a surrogate's "sole purpose" in Ms. Cohen's estimation, but I am certain these women's live have much more purpose than just to be rented by a wealthy Westerner. There is no doubt that these woman are being exploited and their beings reduced to a womb for hire. Even though they are being paid, they are profoundly affected emotionally having to give up a child they carried and nurtured in their bodies. Cohen recounts the experience when she got her daughter Daniella from the surrogate Saroj:

There was an intensity in her eyes. It was hard for her, and you could see how much she cared for Daniella.

One surrogate on Oprah's show expressed her pain as quoted by Biopolitical Times:

Another says that she will find it difficult to give up the baby she is carrying. “It is up to the child to remember us,” she says. “We will remember the child for the rest of our lives.”

The Catholic Church rejects all surrogacy because it reduces procreation to a contractual business. Surrogacy is immoral because it denies the child the right to be conceived by an act of love between its genetic father and mother and gestated by its genetic mother. The child is treated like a commodity that the surrogate is paid to gestate and deliver. The surrogate mother is also treated as a biological commodity, as a place to gestate a child for money. It is naturally exploitive to both the child and the surrogate no matter how much money changes hands. I would say the more money, the more exploitive surrogacy gets.

Carney quotes Usha Smerdon who runs Ethica, an adoption reform group:

Surrogacy is a form of labor. But its an exploitative one, similar to child labor and sweat shops driven by Western consumerism.... I challenge the notion...that hospitals are operating above board when driven by a profit motive.

by Rebecca Taylor, author of "Mary Meets Dolly" blog
A Catholic's Guide to Genetics, Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology
http://www.marymeetsdolly.com/blog/index.php?%2Farchives%2F1068-International-Wombs-for-Rent.html

Wrapped in Euphemism

2012-01-10T10:34:00.001-05:00

"Imagine, for a second, that you are going in for surgery to have your appendix removed, and nobody actually says the word "appendix" or mentions that the goal is to take it out of you; instead, the whole thing is so wrapped in euphemism that you can't quite tell what it is the doctors plan to remove, or why. Would someone choosing an appendectomy under those circumstances really be making a free choice? Why, then, do we insist that the only way a woman can make a free choice to have an abortion is if we never actually talk about what she's having removed and killed?"

"But the truth is, most people who support abortion think women should be able to choose to kill their unborn offspring without ever having to contemplate what it is they are actually doing. If women began to seen the unborn human inside them for the unique, alive, child he or she is, it would be a lot harder to give the kill order. And that would have repercussions on our society's mad addiction to sex without consequences. To protect that obsession, we're perfectly willing to keep women in the dark about what they're actually doing when they enter an abortion clinic pregnant, and come out the mother of a dead child."

- Erin Manning, author of http://redcardigan.blogspot.com/

It's Ironic

2012-01-10T10:31:00.001-05:00

"Obama is cracking down on peaceful protesters using the unconstitutional FACE (Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances) ACT. This man has one overriding goal -- to protect the murder of children and advance it as much as possible. It's ironic since abortionists target minority babies."

- Mary Ann Kreitzer, author of http://lesfemmes-thetruth.blogspot.com/

If They Don't Believe What the Church Teaches, They're Not Really Catholic

2012-01-10T10:22:00.002-05:00

Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput doesn't want the Roman Catholic church to lose members.

But he says it's not the place for so-called "cafeteria Catholics" who don't accept all of its teachings.

Chaput has condemned the University of Notre Dame for bestowing an award on President Obama, who supports abortion rights, and thinks Catholic politicians with the same beliefs should not take Holy Communion.

"If they don't believe what the church teaches, they're not really Catholic," Chaput told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday, two days before his installation at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul.

Read more here: http://www.chron.com/news/article/New-Philly-archbishop-to-focus-on-abuse-cases-2157664.php

Planned Parenthood Will Have to Start Killing the Elderly

2012-01-10T07:49:00.002-05:00

"Because fertility levels are unlikely to rise again to the high levels common in the past, population ageing is irreversible and the young populations that were common until recently are likely to become rare over the course of the twenty-first century.

Pretty soon, the world will not have enough young people to sustain viable economies as the population continues to age. I guess in a few years, Planned Parenthood will have to turn from destroying babies to killing off the elderly … God help us."

-- Susan, author of http://avoiceintothevoid.wordpress.com/

Unfit To Govern

2012-01-10T07:47:00.001-05:00

“No one, man or women, is fit to govern other human beings when he or she supports the murder of the most helpless and innocent in our society, the unborn …”

-- Joe Scheidler

“My Body, My Choice,” Betrays a Tragic Misunderstanding

2012-01-09T12:05:00.002-05:00

The slogan, “My Body, My Choice,” betrays a tragic misunderstanding of what is taking place inside the womb. At no point in pregnancy is the developing embryo or fetus simply a part of the mother’s body.

There are a number of clear biological facts, and all sorts of legal precedents, that easily refute the claim that the embryo or fetus is simply part of the mother’s body.

1) An individual’s body parts all share the same genetic code. If the unborn child were actually a part of the mother’s body, the unborn’s cells would have the same genetic code as the cells of the mother. This is not the case. Every cell of the unborn’s body is genetically distinct from every cell in the mother’s body.

2) In many cases, the blood type of the unborn child is different than the blood type of the mother. Since one body cannot function with two different blood types, this is clearly not the mother’s blood.

3) In half of all pregnancies, the unborn child is a male, meaning that even the sex of the child is different from the mother.

4) As Randy Alcorn states in his book Pro-Life Answers to Pro-Choice Arguments, “A Chinese zygote implanted in a Swedish woman will always be Chinese, not Swedish, because his identity is based on his genetic code, not on that of the body in which he resides.”

5) It is possible for a fetus to die while the mother lives, and it is possible for the mother to die while the fetus lives. This could not be true if the mother and child were simply one person.

6) When the embryo implants in the lining of the uterus, it emits chemical substances which weaken the woman’s immune system within the uterus so that this tiny “foreign” body is not rejected by the woman’s body. Were this tiny embryo simply “part of the woman’s body” there would be no need to locally disable the woman’s immunities.

7) It is illegal to execute a pregnant woman on death row because the fetus living inside her is a distinct human being who cannot be executed for the crimes of the mother (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: Article 6.5).

8) When Scott Peterson killed his pregnant wife, Laci, he was convicted on two counts of murder.

9) Sir Albert Lilley (the “Father of Fetology”) made this observation in a 1970 speech entitled “The Termination of Pregnancy or the Extermination of the Fetus?”

Physiologically, we must accept that the conceptus is, in a very large measure, in charge of the pregnancy…. Biologically, at no stage can we subscribe to the view that the fetus is a mere appendage of the mother…. It is the embryo who stops his mother’s periods and makes her womb habitable by developing a placenta and a protective capsule of fluid for himself. He regulates his own amniotic fluid volume and although women speak of their waters breaking or their membranes rupturing, these structures belong to the fetus. And finally, it is the fetus, not the mother, who decides when labor should be initiated.

To put it simply, women don’t have four arms and four legs when they’re pregnant. Those extra appendages belong to the tiny human being(s) living inside of them. At no point in pregnancy is the developing embryo or fetus simply a part of the mother’s body.

http://www.abort73.com/abortion/mothers_body/

Planned Parenthood Lies to You

2012-01-09T11:58:00.002-05:00

“A woman sued a Chicago clinic of Planned Parenthood for malpractice in 2006, two years after having an abortion, claiming she didn’t make the right decision because the clinic’s counselor didn’t properly inform her about what she was doing. An Illinois appellate court recently dismissed the lawsuit. Apparently, it’s the first case ruling like this in Illinois, but there have been others around the country.
According to a Chicago Daily Law Bulletin article, the woman asked a counselor at Planned Parenthood if she was terminating the life of a human being in a biological sense, and she was told that she was not. She claimed that the clinic owed her a duty to inform her that she was, in fact, terminating the life of a human being in the biological sense, and had the counselor done so, that she would not have had the abortion.

The lawsuit was based on the legal concept of informed consent, also known as ‘right to know’ laws. The law basically says that without all relevant facts, there is not informed consent. Doctors, for example, have a duty to patients to give them all relevant facts before they can consent to something like a surgery for example.
So the appellate court ruled that the abortion clinic had no duty to tell the woman that she was ending the life of a human being in a biological sense. This isn’t really a surprise. If the court had said the woman needed to be told she was ending the life of a human being, then the court would be essentially concluding that an abortion does end the life of a human being which would be a prelude to overturning Roe v. Wade.”

- Michael Helfand

Abortion Perpetuates a Mentality Which Treats Children Like Commodities

2012-01-09T11:47:00.002-05:00

"Right now, the statistics for the unborn disabled are disturbing: over 90% of those children who are identified as having Down's Syndrome while they're still in the womb will be aborted, and the statistics aren't much better for a number of other mental or physical disabilities. What message, exactly, does this send (on behalf of both parents and society) to those children who are born with Down's Syndrome, or to those physically- and emotionally-healthy children who suffer some sort of childhood accident, and become disabled? If you're aware that your sibling was killed by abortion for being disabled, and then you become disabled, who wouldn't feel like an 'unwanted child'?

The fact is, abortion perpetuates a mentality which treats children like commodities. If you don't like the hand you've been dealt, get an abortion and try again. It's this mentality which creates a culture increasingly hostile to children, and it's no mystery why, even as society has become more economically enriched and technologically advanced, we've become increasingly barbaric towards the vulnerable. If we could just eliminate the undesirable members of our society, every citizen would be a wanted citizen, right?"

-- Joe Heschmeyer, author of http://catholicdefense.blogspot.com/

The Slavery of the Modern Age

2012-01-09T11:40:00.003-05:00

"In the slavery of the modern age, we buy and sell children as our property. We 'own' them in the way that gives us absolute power over their very lives. We do not receive them anymore as gifts; instead we manufacture them at will and afford them no greater value than any other expensive trinket we buy for our momentary craving.

We pay to bring them into existence for our own purposes and then when they become inconvenient, we arrange for their demise with barely a second thought. When the ethicality of their deaths becomes a bit muddled for us, we employ clever terms like 'reduction', 'choice' and 'reproductive rights'.

We assuage our guilt (what little we feel) by insisting that the baby isn't human, isn't a person yet, but merely a 'fetus' (a term which now has a pejorative cast) and that makes it all better. Never mind that it's absolute bull. We want to believe it because we need to believe it in order to prop up the illusion that we're not really exterminating our own kids with less compassion and concern than the pest control guy has for the cockroaches in our homes."

- Jennifer Hartline

Planned Parenthood Destroyed 329,455 Babies in 2010

2012-01-09T07:34:00.001-05:00

The Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) received $487.4 million in tax dollars over the last 12-month period for which the data is all in.

During that same 12-month period, Planned Parenthood destroyed 329,455 preborn boys and girls by surgical abortion — and that number is increasing every year.

Post-Abortion Syndrome is Real

2012-01-09T07:30:00.002-05:00

"As a nurse I can tell you personally of the pain and anguish that I have seen in women that made a decision to kill a child and then suffered immensely afterwards. The post-abortion syndrome gets little attention and study and yet has tremendous impact on so many women. Speaking with psychologists, the second reason for seeking counseling is the anguish from having an abortion. There really are no winners with abortion despite the celebrations of those that are pro-abortion (I stopped using the term pro-choice long ago as the baby was not given a choice). There is nothing more heartbreaking (and destructive) than seeing a 19 year old coming in the ER with post-abortion hemorrhage. As she is prepped for surgery, the consent includes the potential for hysterectomy if the damage is not repairable. I have seen a 15 year old end up with a hysterectomy secondary to a perforated and infected uterus that was not repairable. This is the true face of abortion. The myriad of unintended consequences do have a horrific impact on a woman despite the levity and dismissiveness and of the pro-abortion fem-ogyists. The life-long guilt and pain cannot be glossed over or delegitimized."

-- Peachey

Everything Was Programmed at That Moment

2012-01-09T07:18:00.003-05:00

“… at the moment of fertilization two separate cells form one new life, genetically distinct in every way from every other human being on earth. The color of our eyes, the shape of our hands, even where we put on weight and when we will go bald was programmed into that one tiny cell that we all began our lives as.”

-- National Right to Life

The De profundis of The Unborn Child

2012-01-08T20:35:00.007-05:00

I am the human being

denied the right to breathe,

And I cry not for myself

but the legacy they leave.

I am the voice in your conscience

that cries from the bleak.

I am the words that the world

is not willing to speak.

I am the gaze you will never see,

For I am the child who will never be.

I am the memory you cannot forsake,

I am the life they had no right to take.

But I am the error, the unfortunate mistake

I am the cold shiver that keeps you awake.

I am the touch that you will not feel.

I am the spirit that you cannot conceal.

They may tear me away,

And tear me apart,

But I had a right to life

from before the start.

I am the heart that will not cease to beat.

I am the footprints without any feet.

I am the innocent you can’t put to sleep.

For I am the tears that the fallen will weep.

Dignity is reserved for those with a name.

But heed this my people -

So is the blame.

— Anonymous

H/T Robert Colquhoun author of http://loveundefiled.blogspot.com/#!/2011/12/de-profundis-of-unborn-child.html"

The Child Who was Never Born" by Martin Hudáčeka:

H/T Suzanne Fortin author of http://www.bigbluewave.ca/2011/12/monument-to-unborn-dedicated-in.html

When We All Began

2012-01-08T20:00:00.002-05:00

"The life of every single one of us started at fertilization. Neither you nor I were ever anything other than a human being, from that very instant that sperm and egg joined together. And our law will continue to be absurd and unjust until it recognizes that fact."

-- Edward Mechmann

4,000 Babies Trashed Daily

2012-01-08T19:57:00.001-05:00

"Legalized abortion will not continue forever in America. Only what is built on love and truth can stand the test of time. Abortion is the opposite of both. It directly violates the command of God, 'Thou shalt not kill.' For this reason, each of us must do our part to hand on the good news of God’s commandments, to stand strong against a culture of death and to build a culture of life."

-- Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted

The Cult of Moloch is Alive and Well

2012-01-08T19:29:00.001-05:00

"It is a mistake to think that what goes on inside a sanitized and insured abortion mill is more civilized than what took place on the altars of human sacrifice 3000 years ago. The cult of Moloch is indeed alive and well, just under a new name. It even has a logo."

-- Denys Powlett-Jones

I'm Pro-Life Because ...

2012-01-08T19:23:00.001-05:00

The Facts do not Support the Theory

2011-12-24T09:54:00.002-05:00

"It seems that researchers with an agenda have a hard time coming to terms with the data when it doesn’t support their assumed or desired outcome. Here’s a little fact: When contraceptive use goes up, so do unwanted pregnancies and abortion. Hmmm … Planned Parenthood is always telling us that we need to use more contraceptives to lower the rate of abortion. The facts do not support the theory. But then again, why would they want to reduce unwanted pregnancies? It’s where they make all their profit."

- Susan, author of http://avoiceintothevoid.wordpress.com/

Lord Jesus, as we Celebrate Your Birth

2011-12-24T09:45:00.001-05:00

Lord Jesus, as we celebrate your birth, we proclaim the right of every child to be born. As we pray for peace on earth, we proclaim peace to children in the womb. May our Christmas gift be a Culture of Life, for you are Lord forever and ever.

Amen!

Nobody is a Nobody

2011-12-24T09:37:00.000-05:00

"Nobody is a nobody; nobody is unwanted. All are wanted by God, and therefore to be respected, protected, and cherished by us."

- Fr. Richard Neuhaus

Human life is sacred. Sexuality is sacred, conception, gestation, and birth are all sacred.

2011-12-21T13:00:00.001-05:00

"At Christmas we celebrate the glory of conception, birth and the dignity of human life joined to divine life. God is the author of every human life. Not just the ones we we like, find acceptable, useful, pretty or perfect. All life comes from Him and belongs to Him. Jesus came to us miraculously from the Virgin Mary. And this is a solemn reminder that the initiative is always God’s. It is He who acts.

And though most all of us have been conceived in the more usual way, we too miraculously stir forth from the mind, the heart, the love of God. Human life is sacred. Sexuality is sacred, conception, gestation, and birth are all sacred. The great feast of the incarnation affirms all of this."

- Msgr. Charles Pope

None of Us are Here by Accident

2011-12-21T12:57:00.005-05:00

"As we approach Christmas we ought to ponder the magnificence of human conception, gestation, birth and life. Even as we extoll the birth of Jesus, we also do well to acknowledge the awesome and mysterious truth that every human person emerges not merely from a biological process, but from the very mind and heart of God, from His will and as an act of His love. None of us are here by accident."

- Monsignor Charles Pope

Good News Indeed!

2011-12-21T12:55:00.000-05:00

"Nothing transforms a life more than the birth of a baby. A woman becomes a mom, a man a dad, a boy or girl becomes a brother or sister. Their lives are never the same. No one has transformed history more than the one conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary."

"Good news indeed! She’s pregnant! His birthday is right around the corner! Get the baby’s room — our hearts — ready! Life will never be the same."

- Archbishop Timothy Dolan

Do Something

2011-12-21T12:52:00.002-05:00

"I think that we have to face the fact, that if we're ever going to make headway with this issue (abortion), it's not going to be an easy thing to do. We have to get out of our comfort zones and DO SOMETHING."

- Liz Preston

Let Each Citizen Remember

2011-12-16T10:59:00.002-05:00

“Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote… that
he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country.”

- Founding Father Samuel Adams

One of the Spiritual Works of Mercy, Admonishing the Sinner

2011-12-16T10:53:00.002-05:00

“The prophet Ezekiel tells us that we are to be watchmen for each other, warning the sinner to turn away from his wicked ways, that he may live. Ezekiel says that if the sinner converts, we share the reward, but that even if he does not convert, we will save ourselves by warning him. This is especially true when it comes to dissuading people from abortion. Abortion supporters tell us we should mind our own business, but the Word of God tells us that warning the sinner is our business. This is also called fraternal correction, and is one of the spiritual works of mercy, admonishing the sinner. John Paul the Second wrote in The Gospel of Life, ‘God has entrusted the life of every individual to his or her fellow human beings.’”

- Fr. Frank Pavone

We Manufacture Babies Now, and Business is Booming...

2011-12-16T10:47:00.002-05:00

"The Republican presidential candidates have agreed lately that one of America’s big problems is that we don’t manufacture things here anymore. That’s not entirely accurate. We manufacture babies now, and business is booming, both for the makers and the destroyers. One of the women featured in that hideous NY Times magazine story, 'The Two-Minus-One Pregnancy' articulated it perfectly:

'If I had conceived these twins naturally, I wouldn’t have reduced this pregnancy, because you feel like if there’s a natural order, then you don’t want to disturb it. But we created this child in such an artificial manner – in a test tube, choosing an egg donor, having the embryo placed in me – and somehow, making a decision about how many to carry seemed to be just another choice. The pregnancy was all so consumerish to begin with, and this became yet another thing we could control.'

We kill our babies, but we add unthinkable insult to unimaginable injury by denying them their humanity. We call them blobs of insentient tissue; parasites; invaders. But worst of all, we call them unwanted, even after we've gone to ridiculous lengths to manufacture them. We order 'em up, and we order 'em killed."

- Jennifer Hartline

I Used to be Pro-Choice

2011-12-16T10:29:00.001-05:00

“I used to be pro-choice.”

"As God is famous for doing, I opened the door an 1/8 of an inch; He blew it off the hinges. I forced myself to read through the Catechism and Evangelium Vitae. All the while, I prayed that if I was missing something, I would see it. There was so very much to see. I prayed for a well-formed conscience. That prayer softened my heart. After much soul searching and many hours spent in prayer and reflection, I saw the beautiful truth of these words:

'As far as the right to life is concerned, every innocent human being is absolutely equal to all others. This equality is the basis of all authentic social relationships which, to be truly such, can only be founded on truth and justice, recognizing and protecting every man and woman as a person and not as an object to be used.' (EV, 57)

This is the kind of statement that either is true, or is not true. It finally became that clear to me. It was the beginning of a fundamental shift in my attitude about the purpose of the human person, and the primacy of the social teaching of the Church as the thing that forms and guides my beliefs, choices, and attitudes."

- Sarah Babbs

A Front for Misogyny

2011-12-16T10:23:00.002-05:00

"Has anyone else noticed that the newspeak about 'empowering women' that just is code for devaluing and controlling women's lives? Liberals talk a good game about giving women 'reproductive rights' and 'education' but it is really a front for misogyny. Case in point, abortion. What is championed as the liberator of women is now estimated to have killed 163 million girls all over the world just because they were female.

To put that in perspective 163 million girls is more than the entire populations of California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Ohio combined. There is no greater deliberate killer of women these days than the abortion that is supposed to liberate us. And with a decrease in the ratio of women to men comes a decrease in women's value. The more men and less women, the more women are at risk for forced marriage and forced prostitution. Sex selective abortion is the ultimate in degrading and devaluing women. Worldwide abortion is 'empowering' women straight into becoming commodities to be bought and sold."

- Rebecca Taylor, author of http://www.marymeetsdolly.com/

Komen for the Cure Supports Abortion

2011-12-16T10:16:00.001-05:00

New figures directly from the Komen for the Cure foundation show 18 affiliates of the breast cancer charity gave a total of more than $569,000 to the Planned Parenthood abortion business in 2010.

The donations will certainly prompt the continued boycott of the Komen breast cancer group by millions of pro-life Americans who find it disingenuous that the women’s organization would partner with an abortion business when abortions are linked to an increase in breast cancer and when Planned Parenthood has been proven to mislead the public by falsely claiming it performs mammograms.

To read more go here: http://www.lifenews.com/2011/08/25/komen-gave-569k-to-planned-parenthood-abortion-biz-in-2010/

Charitable Organizations and their Positions on the Life Issues

2011-12-16T10:06:00.002-05:00

Charitable Organizations and their Positions on the Life Issues
by American Life League
Released August 25, 2011

American Life League researched organizations to learn their current positions on the following:

- Fetal tissue, cell or organ use when that tissue is acquired from direct abortion done at any time during nine months of pregnancy
- Human embryo research and/or experimentation
- Human embryonic stem cell research and/or experimentation
- Human cloning

http://www.all.org/charities/

I’ll Never Deny That We Have More Issues Than Abortion to Solve in America

2011-12-01T10:19:00.002-05:00

"Yes, we have incredible problems facing our economy. Yes, we have international issues to resolve. Yes, government spending is out of control. I’ll never deny that we have more issues than abortion to solve in America. But, if the candidate we choose cannot take a simple stand for innocent life, how can we trust him or her to make the best decisions on behalf of those of us who are already living, walking, and breathing outside our mothers’ wombs?"

- Kristi Burton Brown, author of http://thelostgenerations.wordpress.com/

A 'Molotov Cocktail' for Breast Cancer

2011-12-01T10:14:00.001-05:00

"The U.S. Department of Health and Human Service disclosed that the new guidelines, drafted by the Institute of Medicine, will take effect on or after August 1, 2012, and they are expected to apply to both individual and employer-based insurance plans.

Seriously?

Oral Contraceptives (OCs) are Class 1 Carcinogens designated by the World Health Organization.

According to breast surgeon, Dr. Angela Lanfranchi, OCs are, a 'molotov cocktail' for breast cancer!

The 'abortifacient action' in hormonal contraceptives is documented by pharmaceutical manufacturers themselves in package inserts.

Is it really that much a stretch to think that a government that can force taxpayers to pay to poison American women and kill their children could take another leap and require all women to take oral contraceptives?"

- Leslie, author of http://lesforlife.blogspot.com/

Common Sense Tells us That Not Every Issue is of the Same Importance

2011-12-01T10:09:00.002-05:00

"Our own common sense tells us that not every issue is of the same importance. At various times in history, a people or nation is confronted with an issue that transcends others in importance and that demands a courageous response. The transcending issue of our day is the intentional destruction of innocent human life, as in abortion."

- Cardinal Justin Francis Rigali

54% of Women Who Have Abortions Had Used a Contraceptive Method

2011-12-01T10:05:00.002-05:00

"In all my years of pro-life work, one of the most common canards I have heard is 'No matter where you stand on legalized abortion, we can all agree that we should increase access to contraception in order to lower the abortion rate.' Pro-abortion advocates trying to appear reconciliatory will promote this idea, and sadly, many pro-life advocates will agree with it. But it is simply nonsense, and common sense should tell anyone that. If you encourage people who don’t want to have kids to have sex, then what happens when their 'protection' doesn’t work or is not immediately available? It doesn’t take an Einstein or Plato to know: abortion."

- Eric Sammons

Fifty-four percent of women who have abortions had used a contraceptive method (usually the condom or the pill) during the month they became pregnant.

This statistic comes directly from Planned Parenthood: http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.html

We Live in a Culture of Me

2011-12-01T09:40:00.001-05:00

"Those of us in the pro-life movement often claim that we live in a 'culture of death.' But most of us don't believe it. Not really. We may use the phrase as a rhetorical tool, but deep in our hearts we think that our family, friends, and neighbors wouldn't knowingly kill another human being.

We convince ourselves that they simply don't realize what they're doing. If only they could see—and honestly look at—the ultrasound pictures of an unborn child. If only we could convince them that what they consider a 'clump of cells' is a person. If only they knew it was a human life they were destroying. If they only knew, they wouldn’t—they couldn’t—continue to support abortion.

But they do know. And the abortions continue. Not because we live in a culture of death but because we live in a culture of me."

- Joe Carter

Christian Faith is Always Personal but Never Private.

2011-11-23T08:47:00.001-05:00

"We can't claim to be a faithful husband or wife and then cheat on our spouse. And we can't claim to love God and be a 'good Catholic,' but then ignore what it means to be Catholic in our business dealings, our social policies and in our political choices. Christian faith is always personal but never private. It either guides our behavior all the time, both in public and in private, or it's phony. And if it's phony, we should stop trying to fool ourselves. We need to be faithful Catholics first. If we're good at that, then every other quality of fruitful citizenship will follow."

- Archbishop Charles J. Chaput

"There's No Way We Can End the Persecution of the Unborn..."

2011-11-23T08:39:00.001-05:00

"There’s no way we can end the persecution of the unborn as long as so many Catholics are voting for candidates who support the killing of the innocent through abortion."

- Fr. Frank Pavone

The Gene for Downs Syndrome

2011-10-27T01:27:00.001-04:00

"The gene for Downs Syndrome was discovered by a man who thought it would help us to prepare for Downs babies and improve their lives. Instead, it's being used to commit a form of pre-birth genocide on some of the most innocent, loving and beautiful people on Earth."

- Michael Coren

Fact: 90% of babies prenatally diagnosed with Down sydnrome are aborted

The Problem With Most People’s Response to Abortion

2011-10-27T01:23:00.002-04:00

"The problem with most people’s response to abortion is not that they are insufficiently horrified about millions of abortion. The problem is that most people are insufficiently horrified about every single abortion." "Many Christians think it’s just another 'cause' or 'mission activity' among many, all of which cry out for their attention. Until this changes, we have no hope of winning."

"What would happen if these 'pro-life' churches started acting like they believe abortion really is killing a baby? What if they were horrified? What if they assembled as many people to pray in front of the abortion clinics every week as they assemble for choir practice? They will never do this until they are sufficiently horrified about every single abortion that takes place. Pictures are more important than statistics."

"I can tell you that if the average 'pro-life' church were as dedicated to stopping abortion as they are to promoting their church choir, this would have been over long ago. That is why it is so important to force Christians and others to look at a picture of a single abortion. When people get a grasp of how horrifying each single abortion truly is, only then will the statistics start to mean anything."

- Fletcher Armstrong

An Obviously Pregnant Woman

2011-10-27T01:20:00.001-04:00

"If ... an obviously pregnant women sat in a bar smoking heavily and drinking profusely, the reaction would be one of disgust. If the same woman told friends that she wanted an abortion, the reaction would often be entirely supportive."

- Michael Coren

Planned Parenthood CEO Says It's Cheaper to Kill 'Em

2011-10-27T01:16:00.002-04:00

Planned Parenthood CEO says it's cheaper to kill 'em

"It's cheaper to terminate an unwanted pregnancy rather than taking it to term."

The statement was made by Planned Parenthood of Maryland CEO John Nugent in January of 2010 in connection with the House attempt to exclude abortion from new government-funded health insurance plans.

Quoting the Forbes article:
Health Care Blue Book confirms the price difference. An abortion performed in a physician's office typically costs $397. (These are estimates based on the site's database of in-network charges negotiated by insurers.)

A vaginal delivery costs $5,992, while a c-section is $8,558.

Don't expect the money arguments to get much airtime in Washington, even if the insurance companies have a financial stake in the outcome. "They won't talk about it," Nugent says.

The insurance companies won't talk about it, but Planned Parenthood will. Planned Parenthood has killed more than 1.5 million preborn babies over the past five years, raking in an estimated $691 million in blood money, based on the Guttmacher Institute's stated cost of an abortion.

Planned Parenthood will talk about the "financial benefits" of abortion only when it thinks it will further it's financial bottom line, as it prowls inner cities, satisfying its lust for money by killing the most innocent and helpless among us - the preborn. It is a psychopathic organization that knows no shame.

Surely, any person with eyes can see that Planned Parenthood has a vested interest in killing preborn babies, and in having government-funded insurance policies pay for it.

http://www.stopp.org/

"The Commitment to Serve Those in Need...Intrinsic to Catholicism"

2011-10-27T01:11:00.001-04:00

"Catholic hospitals, charities and educational institutions provide about $30 billion worth of service annually in this country. No one presents a baptismal certificate at the emergency room. The hungry do not recite the Creed to get groceries at the food pantry. Students can pursue learning at The Catholic University of America, Villanova or any other Catholic college without passing a catechism admissions test. The commitment to serve those in need, the sick, the hungry, the uneducated, is intrinsic to Catholicism. No federal rule (except now HHS’s) says the church must limit its service to Catholics if it is to be true to its teaching. HHS doesn’t get the parable of the Good Samaritan, who helped the stranger simply because he was in need."

- Sister Mary Ann Walsh, director of Media Relations at the USCCB

And Then There Was One: Children as Commodity

2011-10-20T10:17:00.005-04:00

"... we created this child in such an artificial manner — in a test tube, choosing an egg donor, having the embryo placed in me — and somehow, making a decision about how many to carry seemed to be just another choice. The pregnancy was all so consumerish to begin with, and this became yet another thing we could control.”

Read the full article here.

Action Alert - Email Your Rep to Reject the HHS Mandate

2011-09-29T18:20:00.006-04:00

Tomorrow, September 30th, is the last day to express dissatisfaction with Health & Human Services mandating all insurance policies to cover contraception. This mandate is to start Aug 2012. Is has a very narrow conscience clause for religious reasons. The NCCB has told faithful to let them know of dissatisfaction.

Link to email HHS within article. Also available is email to your representatives:

http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/bishops-speak-out-against-hhs-mandate-and-urge-faithful-to-do-likewise?utm_source=NCRegister.com&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=e8fd588efd-RSS_DAILY_EMAIL#When:2011-09-27

(h/t Richard Westrick)

Tolerance is Not a Christian Virtue

2011-09-29T17:51:00.002-04:00

"We need to remember that tolerance is not a Christian virtue, and it's never an end in itself. In fact, tolerating grave evil within a society is itself a form of evil."

- Archbishop Charles J. Chaput

Positively Punished

2011-09-29T17:49:00.001-04:00

Reduce the Number of Deaths Induced by Planned Parenthood

2011-09-29T17:44:00.002-04:00

"The more taxpayer funding Planned Parenthood receives, the more abortions they perform. In ten years, Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer funding has increased by 94 percent. The result? The number of abortions Planned Parenthood performs has increased by 69 percent.

Yet, incredibly, Planned Parenthood and its allies like to claim that taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood actually reduces the number of abortions. I am not quite sure how they can say it with a straight face.

If we want to reduce the number of deaths induced by Planned Parenthood, we need to end its life line: taxpayer funding."

- Marjorie Dannenfelser, President, Susan B. Anthony List

Boycott: Kenneth Cole Promotes Abortion

2011-09-29T17:30:00.003-04:00

Kenneth Cole has been running "pro-choice" ads for years. Please see this from his own website, in his own words: http://site.kennethcole.com/archive/popup_barefoot_pregnant.swf

Read more: http://www.thebody.com/content/art12018.html

Read more: http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Kenneth-Cole-Productions-Inc-Company-History.html

Read more: http://wheredoyoustand.com/ (click pro-choice)

There Was a Time When Every Faith-Filled American Rejected Contraception

2011-09-29T17:13:00.003-04:00

"Over 90% of Catholics today reject Church teaching on contraception. Is it any wonder dissent is so widespread? Most people believe contraception is a 'Catholic issue.' They are ignorant of its history. Up until the Anglicans' Lambeth Conference in 1930 EVERY PROTESTANT CHURCH opposed contraception. The Comstock Laws in the U.S. that banned the sale of contraceptives were passed by a Protestant Congress. Yes, there was a time when every faith-filled American rejected contraception. It is an evil that not only kills children (all the chemical methods operate, at least part of the time, by preventing implantation of the baby), but also destroys marriages and leads to the mentality that man can control life and death. It is a poison that kills the conscience."

- Mary Ann Kreitzer, author of http://lesfemmes-thetruth.blogspot.com/

The Message Behind The Pill Mandate

2011-09-29T17:03:00.002-04:00

Government says where religious freedoms begin and end

Like the president for whom it was named, Obamacare has not just been a bust, it has been a debacle. Health insurance premiums have skyrocketed, employer based plans terminated, no help for the uninsured and the only company not entitled to an exemption for the asking must be FOX News.

But healthcare “reform” never had anything to do with insurance costs or the well being of the American people. It was all about government control.

On Monday government flexed its muscle when HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced “historic new guidelines” which require all health insurance plans to cover the entire costs of “contraception methods and contraceptive counseling”.

This is what Obamacare finally gives us. Not vitamins or supplements for pregnant women, children or seniors. Not childhood immunizations. Not antibiotics. Just mandatory free contraception – including abortion-inducing drugs and elective sterilizations.

Barack Obama and Kathleen Sebelius could care less about anyone’s cost of birth control per se. There is a two fold purpose to “the pill” mandate. First a windfall for the president’s beleaguered benefactor Planned Parenthood. Second, and equally as important, the president is sending a message to conservative Christians, particularly the Catholic church.

Government decides where religious freedoms begin and end. Get used to it.

Like all socialist ideologues President Obama views Christianity as an enemy. And he’s right. Christianity and socialism are diametrically opposed on the concepts of freedom and human rights.

In their Declaration Of Independence our founders acknowledged that freedom and human rights are inalienably bestowed upon all men by God. The primary function of government is to protect those freedoms and human rights for all citizens.

In Barack Obama’s eyes, however, all freedoms and rights are dispensed by government, as government sees fit, and only to those to who are deemed worthy in government’s eyes.

This was the essence of Obamacare. Government decides who warrants treatment and how much treatment. As our president so beautifully put it “Maybe you’re better off not having the surgery, but taking the pain killer” and “we are God’s partners in life and death”.

The president bristled over the the US Conference Of Catholic Bishops outspoken opposition to his abortion promulgating healthcare “reform” bill. He views the Catholic Church’s outspoken view that all life is to be held sacred, from conception until the moment of natural death, as some sort of religious anarchy. And the president’s “pill mandate” is designed to put the Catholic Church, which opposes artificial contraception, abortion and sterilization, in their place.

Every Catholic who pays health insurance premiums will now be forced to fund contraception across America. And the oh how sweet it is icing on the cake for Barack Obama and Planned Parenthood is that this includes employees for every Catholic Diocese with a healthcare plan.

Past presidents and administrations had always respected the principle of religious freedom in areas in which state and church disagreed. “Conscience clauses” exempted healthcare workers from participating in abortions and sterilizations, dispensing contraceptives and even going to war.

The “pill” mandate signals a fundamental change in the relationship between the federal government under Barack Obama and every religious institution in America. Religion will be tolerated, but is to have no voice on public policy. The dictates of the state will now take precedence over the religious precepts of the individual.

History has shown us where that road leads, and every religious leader in America who remains silent on President Obama’s mandate to force Catholics to fund contraception will be helping to pave the way.

http://radiantcross.org/Right-To-Life/2011/08/03/the-message-behind-the-pill-mandate/

She Looked Down to Heaven

2011-09-29T16:55:00.002-04:00

”Every mother, when she picks up the young life that has been born to her, looks up to the heavens to thank God for the gift which made the world young again. But here was a mother, a madonna, who did not look up. She looked down to Heaven, for this was Heaven in her arms.”

- Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

[image credit: anovaoo on tumblr]

'Every Child a Wanted Child'...'and if not wanted, kill!'

2011-09-29T16:48:00.001-04:00

"Since when does anyone’s right to live depend upon someone else wanting them?

'Every Child a Wanted Child' should be completed with 'and if not wanted, kill!' for that is exactly what that Planned Parenthood slogan means. To thus complete the sentence removes the mask from this misleading slogan and reveals it for the monstrous evil that it is."

- Dr. J.C. Willke

And Baby Makes Four

2011-09-29T16:43:00.002-04:00

Stand for What is Right, Even if You Stand Alone

2011-09-29T10:01:00.002-04:00

Planned Parenthood's "huge, wonderful, important" Birth Control Victory

2011-09-29T09:54:00.003-04:00

Planned Parenthood's "huge, wonderful, important" Birth Control Victory

A jubilant Cecile Richards, Planned Parenthood Federation of America's CEO, trumpeted to supporters on Monday:

"Huge, wonderful, important news: Today, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that it will require all new insurance plans to cover birth control without co-pays under the new health reform law.
This is one of the biggest victories for women's health in a generation-and you helped make it happen. It took years for us to get to this point."

The free birth control she rightfully claims as a huge victory for Planned Parenthood is, in fact, a huge assault on women's health and the conscience rights of millions of Americans.

The HHS ruling requires provision of free Group 1 carcinogens for women in the form of oral contraceptives. The International Agency for Research on Cancer, an arm of the World Health Organization, lists estrogen-progestogen oral contraceptives among 106 other deadly substances like arsenic, asbestos, and tobacco on its most dangerous list of substances-those classified as "carcinogenic to humans."

The deadly effects of contraception on babies, women, the environment, and marriages are well documented. See our website www.thepillkills.com for more information.

As predicted by American Life League, the vehicle used to require the coverage of abortifacient birth control-and eventually surgical abortion-under the guise of preventive medicine is a Trojan horse. Obamacare provided the Trojan horse in the form of a health benefits advisory committee established in the Affordable Care Act. The Institute of Medicine's (IOM) Committee on the Determination of Essential Health Benefits is today charged with making recommendations to the secretary of HHS, Kathleen Sebelius, on the criteria for determining what constitutes essential health benefits for insurance plans sold in exchanges.

Secretary Sebelius, former governor of Kansas, gives credit to Planned Parenthood for raising substantial funds for her gubernatorial bid. And Planned Parenthood's encroachment upon the rights of individuals and religious institutions multiplies under her watch as secretary of HHS.

The religious exemption crafted in connection with the mandate is so narrow that it applies only to nonprofit organizations, and limits the definition of a religious employer to "one that: (1) has the inculcation of religious values as its purpose; (2) primarily employs persons who share its religious tenets; (3) primarily serves persons who share its religious tenets; and (4) is a nonprofit organization."

Thus, millions of Catholics would be required to provide and/or participate in insurance plans with free birth control coverage. It also appears it would force Catholic health care institutions to either provide the coverage, or cease employing and serving non-Catholics.

Source: http://www.stopp.org/article.php?id=9112

Video: Adamantly Pro-Abortion, to Being Pro-Life, in Seconds.

2011-09-28T17:59:00.000-04:00

No Place to Hide, No Place to Flee

2011-09-11T10:07:00.002-04:00

Msgr. Philip Reilly, the founder of Helpers of God’s Precious Infants, who has devoted most of his 50-year-long priestly ministry to the pro-life cause, recounted his experiences of the horrific September 11, 2001 terrorist attack from the perspective of a native New Yorker.

“On the morning of 9/11 I was praying and counseling outside of a large abortion clinic in Brooklyn,” said Msgr. Reilly. “The abortion mill is located a few blocks from New York Harbor, at a point where you could look across the Harbor and easily see the Twin Towers.”

“The wind was blowing that day from Manhattan to Brooklyn,” recalled the veteran pro-life leader. “So when the Towers came down, an incredible black cloud came over our heads. Outside the abortion mill, it became midnight at midday.”

Committed as he is to praying for the women contemplating abortion and the abortionists themselves, Msgr. Reilly refused to abandon them even on that day, when he wanted to go to Ground Zero. Reilly noted that due to the disaster all businesses stopped but, he said, “There was a bizarre exception, namely the killing of unborn babies continued, especially at the mill where I was counseling. Inside the abortion mill, they were actually watching the events unfold on TV, yet the killing of the babies inside continued.”

“Thus I could not leave the mill at that time to go to Ground Zero,” he said. “I didn’t get to Ground Zero until it was midnight.”

Msgr Reilly described how helpless he felt standing at Ground Zero at midnight. He noted that he then decided to pray the rosary and described his vision:

As I prayed the rosary, I closed my eyes and with my eyes closed, I suddenly saw the people in the Tower getting ready for work at 9 a.m. Some were getting a drink of water, others a cup of coffee, all feeling safe and secure inside their office. Then I saw the terrorist plane breaking into their secure quarters and exploding like a great bomb with the people in the office having no place to hide, no place to flee. Then still standing at midnight at Ground Zero, I saw not the people in the Towers, but I saw a womb with an unborn child inside, feeling so safe and secure and suddenly breaking through the wall of the womb was this terrorist object, the instrument of the abortionist, with the child having no place to hide, no place to flee from this terrorist instrument.

Msgr. Reilly concluded, “it became absolutely clear to me that Ground Zero is ongoing. Be not afraid then to go Golgotha, to the abortion clinic, to Ground Zero near you, to rescue the unborn children.”

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/archive/ldn/2010/oct/10101802

9-11

2011-09-11T10:01:00.003-04:00

The Embryo or Fetus is Simply NOT Part of the Mother’s Body

2011-09-08T17:18:00.002-04:00

Webcast Replay: Exposing Planned Parenthood's Weak Link

2011-08-24T07:52:00.005-04:00

Click the link to listen to the recorded live webcast given by Abby Johnson last evening.

http://instantteleseminar.com/?eventID=22044234

With the Stroke of a Presidential Pen Human Embryonic Persons Became Property

2011-08-23T09:42:00.002-04:00

"We were all once human embryonic persons. We all lived in the first home of the whole human race, our mother’s womb. For the Christian, we further profess that the Son of God, the Incarnate Word, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, was a human being, who, in the embryonic stage, lived in his mother’s womb."

"On Monday, March 9, 2009, President Barrack Obama removed all restraints from extracting stem cells from human embryonic life for experimentation. Make no mistake; every 'extraction' of embryonic stem cells kills a living human embryonic person. Research has demonstrated that adult stem cells, which can be extracted with the consent of the donor and do not kill, have produced great promise and results while embryonic stem cell research has produced nothing. However, with the stroke of a Presidential pen human embryonic persons became property, capable of being 'manufactured' like a commodity and used as spare parts in experimentation."

- Deacon Keith Fournier

[Last August, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that Obama executive order likely violates that law against federal funding of embryo destruction. But, in April, a federal appeals court ruled Obama can force taxpayers to fund embryonic stem cell research that has never helped any patients.]
http://www.lifenews.com/2011/07/27/judge-dismisses-suit-against-obama-embryonic-stem-cell-funding/

Who’s Pro-Choice? Dems like to allow women to have abortions, but not much else.

2011-08-23T09:06:00.003-04:00

Democrats like to allow women to have abortions, but not much else.
by Deroy Murdock

Almost unanimously, Washington Democrats call themselves “pro-choice.” “I support a woman’s right to choose!” they thunder into any open microphone. “Choice,” of course, means abortion, though they rarely yell that word as loudly.

Being able to have abortions is where the Democrats’ passion for choice starts and stops. Elsewhere, Democrats sabotage a woman’s right to choose. Instead, they demand to make that choice for her, as they do for men.

• I support a woman’s right to choose not to perform an abortion. Democrats disagree. While they rally early and often for the freedom to receive abortions, many Democrats oppose the same freedom for those who prefer not to give abortions. Due to religious, ethical, aesthetic, and other personal reasons, some medical workers prefer not to perform abortions. Democrats actively deny them that choice.

President Obama overturned a George W. Bush–era rule that protected the right of medical professionals to refuse to do abortions because of reasons of conscience. Obama’s Feb. 18, 2011, executive order strips this right from medical professionals other than doctors and nurses.

Read the rest of the article here.

The Current Economic Crisis Flows from a Moral Crisis

2011-08-23T08:35:00.002-04:00

"At the root of most issues which threaten the United States as a free society is her failure to recognize the inherent dignity of every human life from conception till natural death. Even the current economic crisis flows from a moral crisis, a crisis of values. In the words of another prophetic voice of the last century, the late Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, recorded in his now famous Templeton address of 1983, 'Men have forgotten God.'”

- Deacon Keith Fournier

The Root Cause of Abortion is Contraception

2011-08-23T08:16:00.003-04:00

"Those of us who work in the pro-life movement have come to an understanding that the root cause of abortion is contraception. The root cause of contraception is lack of chastity. The root cause of lack of chastity is a lack of understanding of the action of the Holy Spirit and the life of grace. The moment that one says to God 'I do not want your plan for life. I have my own contraceptive plan,' there is a fall from grace; a certain blindness to the truth sets in. Then, when one uses a technological means to prevent conception, it becomes much easier to 'slide down the slippery slope' and use a technological means to end the results of conception, which is abortion. Abortion mills hand out contraceptives for free. They know that it is good for business. They know that there will be failures."

- Brian Murphy

Video: God Lives in You

2011-08-17T20:47:00.001-04:00

Where Do the Candidates Stand on Life?

2011-08-17T12:45:00.008-04:00

Click the image to see a larger version.

Which One is Human?

2011-08-16T14:27:00.001-04:00

Abortion: What are they REALLY selling?

2011-08-16T13:57:00.001-04:00

"Abortion is the only business in the world that doesn't show you a picture of the product they're selling."

- Beth Britz