Friday, June 22, 2012
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Breaking News
Today, Live Action released a new undercover video
showing a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Austin, TX encouraging a
woman to obtain a late-term abortion because she was purportedly
carrying a girl and wanted to have a boy. The video is first in a new
series titled “Gendercide: Sex-Selection in America,” exposing the
practice of sex-selective abortion in the United States and how Planned
Parenthood and the rest of the abortion industry facilitate the
selective elimination of baby girls in the womb.
“I see that you’re saying that you want to terminate if it’s a girl, so are you just wanting to continue the pregnancy in the meantime?” a counselor named “Rebecca” offers the woman, who is purportedly still in her first trimester and cannot be certain about the gender. “The abortion covers you up until 23 weeks,” explains Rebecca, “and usually at 5 months is usually (sic) when they detect, you know, whether or not it’s a boy or a girl.” Doctors agree that the later in term a doctor performs an abortion, the greater the risk of complications.
The Planned Parenthood staffer suggests that the woman get on Medicaid in order to pay for an ultrasound to determine the gender of her baby, even though she plans to use the knowledge for an elective abortion. She also tells the woman to “just continue and try again” for the desired gender after aborting a girl, and adds, “Good luck, and I hope that you do get your boy.”
“The search-and-destroy targeting of baby girls through prenatal testing and abortion is a pandemic that is spreading across the globe,” notes Lila Rose, founder and president of Live Action. “Research proves that sex-selective abortion has now come to America. The abortion industry, led by Planned Parenthood, is a willing participant.”
“I see that you’re saying that you want to terminate if it’s a girl, so are you just wanting to continue the pregnancy in the meantime?” a counselor named “Rebecca” offers the woman, who is purportedly still in her first trimester and cannot be certain about the gender. “The abortion covers you up until 23 weeks,” explains Rebecca, “and usually at 5 months is usually (sic) when they detect, you know, whether or not it’s a boy or a girl.” Doctors agree that the later in term a doctor performs an abortion, the greater the risk of complications.
The Planned Parenthood staffer suggests that the woman get on Medicaid in order to pay for an ultrasound to determine the gender of her baby, even though she plans to use the knowledge for an elective abortion. She also tells the woman to “just continue and try again” for the desired gender after aborting a girl, and adds, “Good luck, and I hope that you do get your boy.”
“The search-and-destroy targeting of baby girls through prenatal testing and abortion is a pandemic that is spreading across the globe,” notes Lila Rose, founder and president of Live Action. “Research proves that sex-selective abortion has now come to America. The abortion industry, led by Planned Parenthood, is a willing participant.”
Monday, May 28, 2012
Less is more
How has access to contraception and
abortion altered the way people think about sex and pregnancy? And in
what ways has the availability of abortion changed the way people think
about and use contraception?
The most common methods of contraception are barrier methods such as
condoms and diaphragms, hormonal contraceptives such as the pill, the
patch, and intrauterine devices (IUDs), as well as spermicides and
sterilization. Nearly 40 percent of the most common contraceptives are abortifacients.
These include IUDs, the pill, the patch, and emergency contraception.
All act to prevent implantation onto the uterine wall of some fertilized
eggs, distinct human beings. Contraceptives are widely and cheaply
available throughout the United States. The government has subsidized
contraceptives for low-income women for more than 50 years, through
programs such as Medicaid and Title X...
Among sexually active Americans who do not use contraception, only a
small percentage fails to do so because of lack of access to
contraceptives. In a 2001 study, the Guttmacher Institute (GI), a public
policy organization that analyzes reproductive trends, surveyed 10,000
women who had abortions. Of those who were not using contraception at
the time they conceived, 2 percent said they did not know where to
obtain contraception, and 8 percent said they could not afford it.
Despite the pervasiveness of contraception, nearly half of pregnancies
among American women are unintended, and four in 10 of those end in
abortion, according to GI and the CDC. Part of the problem is
contraceptive failure—all methods sometimes fail to prevent pregnancy.
But a more significant problem is that most sexually active people who
use contraception use it inconsistently. According to a GI study, a
majority of women (54 percent) who had abortions used a contraceptive
method (usually a condom or the pill) during the month they became
pregnant. Another GI analysis found that nearly half of women seeking to
avoid pregnancy had periods of nonuse of birth control (15 percent) or
used their method inconsistently or incorrectly (27 percent).
Erratic contraceptive use is often rooted in ambivalence about
pregnancy. Another GI study found that nearly one in four women who were
not trying to become pregnant said they would be very pleased if they
found out they were pregnant.
...As Rachel Jones, a GI senior research associate, put it to the New York Times,
“[T]he high rate of unwed pregnancy and abortion among poor women is a
sign of ambivalence. They are torn between the desire to have a baby and
the realization that it would be hard to bring up a child as a single
mother.”
Reproductive decision-making is complicated further by the availability
of induced abortion. Statistics suggest that though it is marketed as a
method of birth control used only when other measures fail, abortion has
become a method of birth control used in place of other measures.
Few people would admit to using abortion as birth control, but the evidence is in the data. After Roe v. Wade,
the US Supreme Court’s 1973 decision legalizing abortion nationally,
pregnancies grew by 30 percent even as births decreased by 6 percent.
After Roe, which suddenly made abortion much easier to obtain, many Americans began using contraceptives less consistently.
The results are seen in the number of women who have multiple abortions.
Consider that of the more than 1.3 million women who obtained abortions
in 2001, about half (650,000 women) had had at least one previous
abortion. About a quarter (325,000 women) had obtained at least two
previous abortions. And roughly 15 percent (195,000 women) had already
obtained at least three abortions.
Those numbers haven’t changed all that much. Of the 1.21 million
abortions performed in 2008, half were performed on women who had
already had at least one abortion. These disturbing statistics highlight
the moral hazard of abortion. The wide availability of
abortion diminishes the expected cost of sexual intercourse, because the
pregnancy can be aborted in the event of unwanted conception, thus
avoiding many of the costs associated with unwanted pregnancy.
So, by giving men and women a relatively safe and inexpensive way to
eliminate the unintended outcome of risky sexual behavior, liberal
abortion laws encourage more and riskier sexual behavior. In other
words, the wide availability of abortion discourages people from using
contraceptives.
...In 1979, Malcolm Potts, former medical
director of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, predicted,
“as people turn to contraception, there will be a rise, not a fall, in
the abortion rate.”
A couple that uses contraception establishes a “contraceptive mindset,”
so that even if a child is conceived that child is unintended and thus
unwelcome. The US Supreme Court came close to acknowledging this idea in
its 1992 decision upholding the right to abortion. In Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the
court stated, “In some critical respects abortion is of the same
character as the decision to use contraception. For two decades of
economic and social developments, people have organized intimate
relationships and made choices that define their views of themselves and
their places in society in reliance on the availability of abortion in
the event that contraception should fail.”
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Who are we shutting out?
While not every woman who uses contraception would have an abortion
or even necessarily supports the pro-choice movement, it became clear
that, on a society-wide level, the widespread acceptance of
contraception makes people feel like abortion is necessary.
When women are told to go ahead and participate in the act that creates
babies, even if they are certain that they are in no position to have a
child, babies become the enemy, and women begin to feel like the only way they can have real control over their bodies is through the services of their local abortion facility.
But that was only the beginning.
The more I studied the Theology of the Body and took a look at human sexuality through the lens of millenia-old Christian teaching, the more the problems of contraceptive culture came into relief. I noticed that with abstinence-based methods of child spacing like Natural Family Planning, there remains a mental and physical openness to the potential for new life. Couples may try to avoid pregnancy, and may even be able to do so with a high degree of accuracy, but there is always an acceptance that new life could be created, an ever-present understanding that an inherent part of this most sacred of human acts is a willingness to care for any new family members God may give you through it. And, because it involves abstinence, there is an inherent element of personal sacrifice. You live daily with the reminder that life isn't about doing whatever you want, whenever you want.
In contrast, I began to see that contraception tempts us to value human life according to how it impacts us. Contraceptive culture tells us that we're entitled to the pleasurable aspects of sexuality, even if we reject any new life that could be created. It tells married couples that we can and should exercise complete control over our fertility so that we only add children to our families when we are one-hundred percent certain that we want them -- in other words, to value other human beings according to how they impact our own lives. Columnist Mark Steyn summed up this mindset well when he wrote in a 2006 article:
But that was only the beginning.
The more I studied the Theology of the Body and took a look at human sexuality through the lens of millenia-old Christian teaching, the more the problems of contraceptive culture came into relief. I noticed that with abstinence-based methods of child spacing like Natural Family Planning, there remains a mental and physical openness to the potential for new life. Couples may try to avoid pregnancy, and may even be able to do so with a high degree of accuracy, but there is always an acceptance that new life could be created, an ever-present understanding that an inherent part of this most sacred of human acts is a willingness to care for any new family members God may give you through it. And, because it involves abstinence, there is an inherent element of personal sacrifice. You live daily with the reminder that life isn't about doing whatever you want, whenever you want.
In contrast, I began to see that contraception tempts us to value human life according to how it impacts us. Contraceptive culture tells us that we're entitled to the pleasurable aspects of sexuality, even if we reject any new life that could be created. It tells married couples that we can and should exercise complete control over our fertility so that we only add children to our families when we are one-hundred percent certain that we want them -- in other words, to value other human beings according to how they impact our own lives. Columnist Mark Steyn summed up this mindset well when he wrote in a 2006 article:
One consequence of abortion is that, in designating new life a matter of "choice," it made it easier to make judgments about which lives are worth it and which aren't...But it's foolish to think you can raise entire populations to make self-interested judgments about who lives and who doesn't and expect them to remain confined to three trimesters. The "right to choose" is now being extended beyond the womb: the step from convenience conception to convenience euthanasia is a short one, and the step from convenience euthanasia to compulsory euthanasia shorter still.Though he was speaking specifically about abortion, this mentality of "convenience conception" is rooted in the acceptance of contraception. And we only need to look at history to see where this line of thinking goes: Any time a society accepts it as true that it is okay to value other human beings according to how much we want to deal with them, there will always be death. At a minimum, it leads to spiritual death, when people begin to live their lives closed to deep connections with other humans, but there is usually also bodily death, as those who cramp the lifestyles of those who are more powerful are gotten out of the way once and for all. And thus we end up in a "culture of death."
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Ms. Nomer
But what is “reproductive justice”? To help answer that question,
perhaps we should first ask: Who is guilty of the injustice? For Fluke,
it’s her school that “creates untenable burdens that impede our academic
success.” But of course it’s unfair to say that an institution, by not
covering the cost of some product, implicitly creates burdens for its
female students. My employer, by not covering my preferred allergy
medicine, doesn’t create my burden of allergies. My allergy problems are
internal to myself. They are, so to speak, natural problems I live
with, ones I cannot label as someone else’s fault. Unless I were
futilely to blame, say, God or nature.
But I would argue that underneath it all, advocates of “reproductive justice” do blame nature. Nature is the true obstacle to these women’s idea of justice.
Fluke might not put it this way, but radical feminists who cling to terms like “reproductive justice” and “reproductive freedom” are really trying to beat the cards that nature dealt them. They want sexual license outside the scope of what nature provides as the healthiest course—sex with one person for a lifetime. They object to the reality that sex can naturally lead to babies, creating burdens that research shows they’d be best suited to bear with the help of a husband. Underneath sexual liberationists’ wish to overthrow patriarchal traditions of marriage and religious institutions’ principles of sexual ethics, there seems to be a wish to overthrow the most stubborn foundation of all—nature herself.
http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2012/04/5242
But I would argue that underneath it all, advocates of “reproductive justice” do blame nature. Nature is the true obstacle to these women’s idea of justice.
Fluke might not put it this way, but radical feminists who cling to terms like “reproductive justice” and “reproductive freedom” are really trying to beat the cards that nature dealt them. They want sexual license outside the scope of what nature provides as the healthiest course—sex with one person for a lifetime. They object to the reality that sex can naturally lead to babies, creating burdens that research shows they’d be best suited to bear with the help of a husband. Underneath sexual liberationists’ wish to overthrow patriarchal traditions of marriage and religious institutions’ principles of sexual ethics, there seems to be a wish to overthrow the most stubborn foundation of all—nature herself.
http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2012/04/5242
Monday, April 16, 2012
What speaks louder?
Ms. Johnson had worked for Planned Parenthood for years, eventually
becoming director of the clinic. One day, while helping during an
ultrasound-guided abortion, she witnessed the end of life. Witnessing
it with her own eyes was the day of her conversion. She quit her job
and joined the Coalition for Life. It’s an amazing and emotional
story. But what struck me most was that the Coalition for Life had, for years, loved and prayed for her.
It was this love and these prayers that guided her eventual change of
heart. Had they been angry, violently standing up for what was right,
she likely would have shut them out. But their love in the face of her
opposition was remarkable. True charity.
Charity doesn’t mean you don’t stand up for what is right. But we must be wise in the words we choose and the way we choose to say them. Those Coalition for Life volunteers praying at the abortion clinic— just praying, not debating, or arguing, or accusing— spoke clearly. They spoke not just opposition to abortion, but also love for all that walked through the clinic doors—love for the unborn child, women in crisis pregnancies, as well as and those that worked at the clinic. This surely is what Christ was speaking of in his call to love and prayer.
So here is Christ’s challenge to us all: Pray for those who persecute us. Say I love you anyway and will be there if you need help. Can we demonstrate the love of Christ in such a way that, in spite of opposition, our actions stop people in their tracks and make them wonder at our love? What feeds this love, what motivates this love? I have a feeling that this love will inspire more conversions of heart than anything else we can do.
http://www.crisismagazine.com/2012/charity-in-the-face-of-oposition
Charity doesn’t mean you don’t stand up for what is right. But we must be wise in the words we choose and the way we choose to say them. Those Coalition for Life volunteers praying at the abortion clinic— just praying, not debating, or arguing, or accusing— spoke clearly. They spoke not just opposition to abortion, but also love for all that walked through the clinic doors—love for the unborn child, women in crisis pregnancies, as well as and those that worked at the clinic. This surely is what Christ was speaking of in his call to love and prayer.
So here is Christ’s challenge to us all: Pray for those who persecute us. Say I love you anyway and will be there if you need help. Can we demonstrate the love of Christ in such a way that, in spite of opposition, our actions stop people in their tracks and make them wonder at our love? What feeds this love, what motivates this love? I have a feeling that this love will inspire more conversions of heart than anything else we can do.
http://www.crisismagazine.com/2012/charity-in-the-face-of-oposition
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Friday, April 6, 2012
Looking forward
"How long, Father, before we see an end to this great tragedy and have respect for life?"
As we face the ever-growing
obstacles of the Culture of Death and the powerful forces that support
it, let us remember the heart of the Easter message and the power Our
Lord offers us in His name. We do not know the day when life will once
again be protected from conception until natural death, but we know that
it will be.
- from Human Life Intl.
We can recall in Psalms 13
and 14 the plea of the psalmist and the difficulties he faced. He too
wondered how long, but within his lamentation was a deep and profound
trust in the power of the Almighty. We can also keep in mind the words
of Saint Paul, whose words of encouragement can strengthen us when we
feel overwhelmed by the immensity of the forces arrayed against life:
"Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things
not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). Our strength comes from our trust in the One
who can and will bring about victory, so our faith cannot be something
merely emotional or secondary if it is what Pope Benedict XVI calls
"performative" in our lives - if it is to truly motivate our action
along with hope and love.
The days of Lent remind us
of the sacrificial offering of Jesus, the innocent Lamb led to the
slaughter, who laid down His life for us and all who would follow Him.
He taught us to embrace the crosses of our life and not to be afraid. He
taught us to let our light shine and never turn back once we have
placed our hand upon the plow. We may confront an overwhelming foe as
Moses and King David did, but we remember Pharaoh and Goliath's fate. By
lifting a wooden staff, and with a single stone, two great and mighty
forces were defeated. Our strength does not originate in our abilities
alone but in the mighty power of God at work in us.
- from Human Life Intl.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Nationally recognized
We made it!
Day 40 reminds me of Augustine's famous advice: "Pray
as though everything depends on God; work as though
everything depends on you."
You have done just that. We've seen faithful
volunteers in 258 cities pray, fast, do community
outreach and hold peaceful vigils in front of 258
of the most hopeless places in our world.
Your prayers have brought one thing in particular to
the public right-of-way ... HOPE.
Hope is what the abortion industry is afraid of. Hope
is what makes women scheduled to have abortions turn
around. Hope is what leads abortion workers out of
that industry. Hope is what transforms our world.
It is amazing what can happen when you go to the
sidewalks and let the love of Christ be present in
places that thrive on hopelessness.
This could not be done without your faith, courage
and selflessness.
Let me be the first to say thank you for your efforts
these past 40 days. Your prayers sent a clear message.
Here's a great example from this campaign.
------------------------------
AUBURN HILLS, MICHIGAN
------------------------------
When Seth Peters heard that Planned Parenthood was
planning a 17,000 square foot abortion center in
Auburn Hills, "minutes away from my parents' house,
where I had been lovingly raised and where I still
call home, I was heartbroken and angry."
He signed up to bring a 40 Days for Life vigil to the
proposed location -- joining other community voices
speaking out against the abortion chain’s plans. He
received support from many local sources.
Adjacent property owners had previously filed suit,
noting that deed restrictions would not permit an
abortion facility there. Planned Parenthood may be
tied up in court -- but not about to give up.
"Planned Parenthood is hungry for this site," Seth
said, noting that it sits near a low-income
neighborhood, a college campus and a wealthy suburb
-- all prime targets for abortion.
He pushed ahead with vigil plans, even though a number
of people didn't see the need for prayer at a place
where abortions are not currently taking place. "That
is unfortunate," he said, "because it's a bit like
waiting until the hurricane hits before you board up
your windows."
Planned Parenthood got tired of waiting. They bought
an empty medical building in nearby Ferndale and plan
to open an office there tomorrow. That facility will
not offer abortions, but will refer women to other
locations that do.
"You can see how effective prayerful vigilance has
been thus far in keeping Planned Parenthood at bay
in Auburn Hills," Seth said. "The fact that they have
shifted to Ferndale can be considered a victory."
At the very least, he said, "this campaign was about
planting seeds and praying that abortion will end at
this Auburn Hills location before it ever has a chance
to begin."
Clearly, there’s a lot of work to be done ... and a lot
of praying to be done. But I know that with God's help,
we are witnessing the beginning of the end of abortion.
Day 40 reminds me of Augustine's famous advice: "Pray
as though everything depends on God; work as though
everything depends on you."
You have done just that. We've seen faithful
volunteers in 258 cities pray, fast, do community
outreach and hold peaceful vigils in front of 258
of the most hopeless places in our world.
Your prayers have brought one thing in particular to
the public right-of-way ... HOPE.
Hope is what the abortion industry is afraid of. Hope
is what makes women scheduled to have abortions turn
around. Hope is what leads abortion workers out of
that industry. Hope is what transforms our world.
It is amazing what can happen when you go to the
sidewalks and let the love of Christ be present in
places that thrive on hopelessness.
This could not be done without your faith, courage
and selflessness.
Let me be the first to say thank you for your efforts
these past 40 days. Your prayers sent a clear message.
Here's a great example from this campaign.
------------------------------
AUBURN HILLS, MICHIGAN
------------------------------
When Seth Peters heard that Planned Parenthood was
planning a 17,000 square foot abortion center in
Auburn Hills, "minutes away from my parents' house,
where I had been lovingly raised and where I still
call home, I was heartbroken and angry."
He signed up to bring a 40 Days for Life vigil to the
proposed location -- joining other community voices
speaking out against the abortion chain’s plans. He
received support from many local sources.
Adjacent property owners had previously filed suit,
noting that deed restrictions would not permit an
abortion facility there. Planned Parenthood may be
tied up in court -- but not about to give up.
"Planned Parenthood is hungry for this site," Seth
said, noting that it sits near a low-income
neighborhood, a college campus and a wealthy suburb
-- all prime targets for abortion.
He pushed ahead with vigil plans, even though a number
of people didn't see the need for prayer at a place
where abortions are not currently taking place. "That
is unfortunate," he said, "because it's a bit like
waiting until the hurricane hits before you board up
your windows."
Planned Parenthood got tired of waiting. They bought
an empty medical building in nearby Ferndale and plan
to open an office there tomorrow. That facility will
not offer abortions, but will refer women to other
locations that do.
"You can see how effective prayerful vigilance has
been thus far in keeping Planned Parenthood at bay
in Auburn Hills," Seth said. "The fact that they have
shifted to Ferndale can be considered a victory."
At the very least, he said, "this campaign was about
planting seeds and praying that abortion will end at
this Auburn Hills location before it ever has a chance
to begin."
Clearly, there’s a lot of work to be done ... and a lot
of praying to be done. But I know that with God's help,
we are witnessing the beginning of the end of abortion.
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Birth Control = Abortion
According to their own website, Planned Parenthood is all about birth control, access to birth control, funding for birth control, helping women by providing birth control.
Sanger is presented as a heroine, rather than as a successful proponent of eugenics, the belief that overpopulation among 'inferior races' must be reversed.
PP presents its founder as a liberator of women and The Pill as the tool that achieved that liberation. In this paradigm, making abortion illegal would mean reversing a century of work, the capstone of which freedom for women and the right to self-determination is the supposed right to abort.
We pray and fast for an end to abortion. It's clear to me from this presentation of history that abortion won't end until contraception does.
Planned Parenthood dates its beginnings to 1916 when Sanger, her sister, and a friend open America's first birth control clinic in Brooklyn, New York. In Sanger's America, women cannot vote, sign contracts, have bank accounts, or divorce abusive husbands. They cannot control the number of children they have or obtain information about birth control, because in the 1870s a series of draconian measures, called the Comstock laws, made contraception illegal and declared information about family planning and contraception "obscene."
Sanger knows the tragic toll of such ignorance. Her mother had 18 pregnancies, bore 11 children, and died in 1899 at the age of 40. Working as a nurse with immigrant families on New York's Lower East Side, Sanger witnesses the sickness, misery, and death that result from unwanted pregnancy and illegal abortion. The clinic she opens provides contraceptive advice to poor, immigrant women, some of whom line up hours before the doors open. Police raid the clinic and all three women are convicted of disseminating birth control information.
Undaunted, Sanger founds The Birth Control Review, the first scientific journal devoted to contraception. She also appeals her conviction, which leads to a new, liberalized interpretation of New York's anti-contraception statute. In 1923 Sanger opens the Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau in Manhattan to provide contraceptive devices to women and collect accurate statistics to prove their safety and long-term effectiveness.
That same year, Sanger incorporates the American Birth Control League, an ambitious new organization that embraces the global issues of world population growth, disarmament, and world famine. The two organizations subsequently merge, and later become Planned Parenthood® Federation of America, Inc. (PPFA®).
Two other early victories for women's health come one year later:
In 1948, Planned Parenthood had awarded a small grant to Gregory Pincus, a research biologist who undertook a series of tests leading to the development of the birth control pill. On May 9, 1960, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves the sale of oral pills for contraception. The pill is an instant hit and has enormous consequences in freeing women to control their lives. Finally women have an easy and reliable means to prevent unwanted pregnancies and plan their families.
Sanger is presented as a heroine, rather than as a successful proponent of eugenics, the belief that overpopulation among 'inferior races' must be reversed.
PP presents its founder as a liberator of women and The Pill as the tool that achieved that liberation. In this paradigm, making abortion illegal would mean reversing a century of work, the capstone of which freedom for women and the right to self-determination is the supposed right to abort.
We pray and fast for an end to abortion. It's clear to me from this presentation of history that abortion won't end until contraception does.
Planned Parenthood dates its beginnings to 1916 when Sanger, her sister, and a friend open America's first birth control clinic in Brooklyn, New York. In Sanger's America, women cannot vote, sign contracts, have bank accounts, or divorce abusive husbands. They cannot control the number of children they have or obtain information about birth control, because in the 1870s a series of draconian measures, called the Comstock laws, made contraception illegal and declared information about family planning and contraception "obscene."
Sanger knows the tragic toll of such ignorance. Her mother had 18 pregnancies, bore 11 children, and died in 1899 at the age of 40. Working as a nurse with immigrant families on New York's Lower East Side, Sanger witnesses the sickness, misery, and death that result from unwanted pregnancy and illegal abortion. The clinic she opens provides contraceptive advice to poor, immigrant women, some of whom line up hours before the doors open. Police raid the clinic and all three women are convicted of disseminating birth control information.
Undaunted, Sanger founds The Birth Control Review, the first scientific journal devoted to contraception. She also appeals her conviction, which leads to a new, liberalized interpretation of New York's anti-contraception statute. In 1923 Sanger opens the Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau in Manhattan to provide contraceptive devices to women and collect accurate statistics to prove their safety and long-term effectiveness.
That same year, Sanger incorporates the American Birth Control League, an ambitious new organization that embraces the global issues of world population growth, disarmament, and world famine. The two organizations subsequently merge, and later become Planned Parenthood® Federation of America, Inc. (PPFA®).
Early Triumphs
In 1936 Sanger and other birth control proponents win their first major judicial victory. Sanger is arrested after leaking information to postal authorities that she illegally ordered birth control products through the mail. Her case triggers a review of the issue by the courts. Judge Augustus Hand, writing for the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, orders a sweeping liberalization of federal Comstock laws, ruling that contemporary data on the damages of unplanned pregnancy and the benefits of contraception mean that contraceptive devices and birth control could no longer be classified as obscene. Because Judge Hand's decision applies only to New York, Connecticut, and Vermont, it is almost 30 years before married couples throughout the country have the right to obtain contraceptives from licensed physicians.Two other early victories for women's health come one year later:
- The American Medical Association officially recognizes birth control as an integral part of medical practice and education.
- North Carolina becomes the first state to recognize birth control as a public health measure and to provide contraceptive services to indigent mothers through its public health program.
THE 1960s: A NEW ERA FOR WOMEN
By the 1960s, Planned Parenthood is a respected and powerful voice in the movement for women's rights, fighting successfully for increased access to birth control, pushing for the creation and funding of domestic and international family planning programs, and playing a crucial role in the development of the pill and IUD (intrauterine device).In 1948, Planned Parenthood had awarded a small grant to Gregory Pincus, a research biologist who undertook a series of tests leading to the development of the birth control pill. On May 9, 1960, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves the sale of oral pills for contraception. The pill is an instant hit and has enormous consequences in freeing women to control their lives. Finally women have an easy and reliable means to prevent unwanted pregnancies and plan their families.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Love that knows no bounds
God seemed so distant, so cold. Why had he allowed me to be raped
in my own home as my babies slept in the next room? And why had he
allowed my third child to be conceived in this way, instead of within
the sanctity of marriage, as Steve and I had planned?
But God was there. Although sin had its run, God was there. We just
had to be reminded that He is not a God of easy fixes. Steve and I
became desperate, and sometimes it’s that human desperation that drives
us to God. We know Him; we love Him; we say we trust Him. But sometimes,
we do not cleave to Him as the lover of our souls until we find
ourselves completely helpless.
As for the fairness of being victimized, we have to realize that
ever since sin began there have been victims. Cain slew Abel (Gen.
4:1-8). Amnon raped Tamar (2 Sam. 13:1-22). But what should the victims
and their families do with their pain? Do they resort to their own
devices, or do they give it to God and His will?
An Innocent Life
Fallout
from the coming Demographic Winter has already begun to hit us.
Learn more.
Overpopulation is a myth.
Learn more.
Overpopulation is a myth.
Fertility Implosion
Already, nearly half the world’s population lives in countries with
birthrates below the replacement level. According to the Census Bureau,
the total increase in global manpower between 2010 and 2030 will be just
half the increase we experienced in the two decades that just ended. At
the same time, according to work by the International Institute of
Applied Systems Analysis, the growth in educational attainment around
the world is slowing.
This leads to what the writer Philip Longman has called the gray tsunami — a situation in which huge shares of the population are over 60 and small shares are under 30.
as reported in the NY Times
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Duplicity isn't the half of it
In his piece Riler demolishes the notion that Planned Parenthood
isn’t in the abortion business, and shows the duplicitousness of some
commonly-repeated defenses of the organization:
Perhaps, though, a corporate analogy is overly generous, for it says nothing about the morality of the firm’s goals. To that end, near the conclusion of the article, Riler makes a more accurate, unsettling analogy: “Planned Parenthood’s effective business model was pioneered by drug pushers–give away freebies in anticipation of bigger-ticket sales when the customer is desperate.”
found at First Things
o Planned Parenthood claims that abortion “constitutes 3%” of the company’s services. While technically true, an unorthodox calculation underlies that statistic. Planned Parenthood’s 3% calculation equally weights all products and services; for example, the calculation counts a condom, a pregnancy test and a $468 abortion the same. This is misleading and, as in any financial exercise, the correct assessment is a dollar-weighted one.While some of the report’s assertions seem more debatable than others, that last tidbit about repeat customers is particularly worth noting because it gets to Riler’s most important point: namely, that Planned Parenthood is a corporation, and one with a highly-refined business model at that. Though the organization likes to portray itself as the last refuge of single mothers and enlightener of the naive, it could not exist without a large amount of cynical acumen. Far from being a neutral observer or a Good Samaritan bystander, it has growth goals, well-tested methods, and a target audience.
o At an average of $468 a head, Planned Parenthood collected $155 million in abortion revenues in 2009, or 38.4% of its health centre income.
o In the face of nationally falling abortions, down to 92% in 2009 versus 2000 levels, Planned Parenthood succeeded in growing its abortions by 68%.
o Planned Parenthood’s 2009-2010 Annual Report describes 329,445 abortions as compared to 841 adoption referrals. (!)
o Planned Parenthood’s average customer repeated business four times in 2010. That customer bought contraception, disease testing, pregnancy tests and abortions. Four times a year is a repeat rate more characteristic of a high-end retail business than an annual well-woman exam.
Perhaps, though, a corporate analogy is overly generous, for it says nothing about the morality of the firm’s goals. To that end, near the conclusion of the article, Riler makes a more accurate, unsettling analogy: “Planned Parenthood’s effective business model was pioneered by drug pushers–give away freebies in anticipation of bigger-ticket sales when the customer is desperate.”
found at First Things
News from Natl.Right to Life
Temporarily thwarted in their efforts to build a clinic in Auburn
Hills, Planned Parenthood will be opening a clinic in a different
location in Oakland County, Michigan, one of the Detroit area’s northern
suburbs. Scheduled to open the first week of April, the new clinic in
Ferndale will not offer abortions at this time, although abortion minded
clients can be referred to the Planned Parenthood clinic in downtown
Detroit which does offer the abortion pill.
The clinic planned for Auburn Hills was to be somewhat of a joint venture between Planned Parenthood of Mid and South Michigan (PPMSM) and local, state, and federal governments (see April/May 2010 NRL News). The Auburn Hills City Council met in December of 2010 to discuss plans to direct $200,000 in state funds to open new 17,000 square foot Planned Parenthood facility in the area so that federal family planning dollars would not go elsewhere (Detroit News, 12/9/10).
Local opposition to the clinic ended up in court after owners of a hotel adjacent to the property who claimed that both city ordinances and a covenant signed prior to purchase of the land prohibited its use as a medical facility (Detroit Free Press, 6/24/11). Though a judge upheld Planned Parenthood’s right to build at the Auburn Hills location in January (Detroit Free Press, 1/11/12), the hotel owners have appealed the decision.
While the Auburn Hills project languished in legal limbo, PPMSM looked around for other “opportunities” in Oakland County. “It’s not either or,” Desiree Cooper, spokesperson for the local Planned Parenthood told the Ferndale Patch. “With Auburn Hills, we prefer to think of it as not happening yet. We just have to wait for the legal process to lend its way before we can go forward” (Ferndale Patch, 3/26/12).
City and county officials were very supportive of Planned Parenthood and the clinic’s opening. Craig Covey, Ferndale’s previous mayor and currently an Oakland County commissioner, said on his blog that Ferndale was “proud” to be the new location.
Covey said that “Political pressure from religious ultra-conservatives had kept Oakland County bereft of a formal Planned Parenthood presence for years.” Covey repeats the popular Planned Parenthood mantra that 97% of its services are for “essential life-saving cancer screenings, pap smears, breast health services, STD treatment, health counseling, and education, but neglects to tell people how abortion is the huge money maker that keeps Planned Parenthood in business. Covey says that “We are thankful that an organization like Planned Parenthood provides health care for so many people. The alternative is much higher health costs in emergency rooms and for advanced disease that would be borne by us all” (Ferndale Patch, 3/26/12)
Current Ferndale Mayor David Coulter says that the clinic’s opening is “good news,” pointing out that Ferncare, the free local clinic, has been overwhelmed, with a waiting list that is months long. That free clinic does not provide any ob-gyn care, says Ferncare board president Ann Heler, though she says that women ask for help with mammograms, Pap smears and birth control “all the time” (Detroit Free Press, 3/26/12)
That the new Ferndale clinic, like other Planned Parenthoods, will not actually offer mammograms, but only referrals for mammograms, that they will refer for abortions, that they will either charge clients for services or bill the state or federal government, so that taxpayers pay for the services, does not seem to trouble the clinic’s local allies.
What PPMSM saw in Ferndale, Auburn Hills, and Oakland County was an economic opportunity. Its clinics in surrounding communities were already seeing what the Free Press called “about 5,000 Oakland County residents” (3/26/12) PPMSM spokesperson Desiree Cooper told the Ferndale Palch that “Oakland County does have a particular reputation for (higher incomes),” but argued that there were many pockets of the community that “have really been suffering a really long time” (3/26/12).
According to a PPMSM factsheet, its clinics performed 1,333 surgical abortions and 991 chemical abortions in 2010, for a total of 2,324 (see www.plannedparenthood.org/midsouthmi/files/mid-south-michigan/FactSheet_PPMSM_v3.pdf).
Does anyone really expect that number to go down with a new Planned Parenthood clinic in the area referring (for now) for abortions and a new clinic slated to go up at the other end of the county as soon as the remaining legal hurdles are overcome?
--written by Randall K. O'Bannon
The clinic planned for Auburn Hills was to be somewhat of a joint venture between Planned Parenthood of Mid and South Michigan (PPMSM) and local, state, and federal governments (see April/May 2010 NRL News). The Auburn Hills City Council met in December of 2010 to discuss plans to direct $200,000 in state funds to open new 17,000 square foot Planned Parenthood facility in the area so that federal family planning dollars would not go elsewhere (Detroit News, 12/9/10).
Local opposition to the clinic ended up in court after owners of a hotel adjacent to the property who claimed that both city ordinances and a covenant signed prior to purchase of the land prohibited its use as a medical facility (Detroit Free Press, 6/24/11). Though a judge upheld Planned Parenthood’s right to build at the Auburn Hills location in January (Detroit Free Press, 1/11/12), the hotel owners have appealed the decision.
While the Auburn Hills project languished in legal limbo, PPMSM looked around for other “opportunities” in Oakland County. “It’s not either or,” Desiree Cooper, spokesperson for the local Planned Parenthood told the Ferndale Patch. “With Auburn Hills, we prefer to think of it as not happening yet. We just have to wait for the legal process to lend its way before we can go forward” (Ferndale Patch, 3/26/12).
City and county officials were very supportive of Planned Parenthood and the clinic’s opening. Craig Covey, Ferndale’s previous mayor and currently an Oakland County commissioner, said on his blog that Ferndale was “proud” to be the new location.
Covey said that “Political pressure from religious ultra-conservatives had kept Oakland County bereft of a formal Planned Parenthood presence for years.” Covey repeats the popular Planned Parenthood mantra that 97% of its services are for “essential life-saving cancer screenings, pap smears, breast health services, STD treatment, health counseling, and education, but neglects to tell people how abortion is the huge money maker that keeps Planned Parenthood in business. Covey says that “We are thankful that an organization like Planned Parenthood provides health care for so many people. The alternative is much higher health costs in emergency rooms and for advanced disease that would be borne by us all” (Ferndale Patch, 3/26/12)
Current Ferndale Mayor David Coulter says that the clinic’s opening is “good news,” pointing out that Ferncare, the free local clinic, has been overwhelmed, with a waiting list that is months long. That free clinic does not provide any ob-gyn care, says Ferncare board president Ann Heler, though she says that women ask for help with mammograms, Pap smears and birth control “all the time” (Detroit Free Press, 3/26/12)
That the new Ferndale clinic, like other Planned Parenthoods, will not actually offer mammograms, but only referrals for mammograms, that they will refer for abortions, that they will either charge clients for services or bill the state or federal government, so that taxpayers pay for the services, does not seem to trouble the clinic’s local allies.
What PPMSM saw in Ferndale, Auburn Hills, and Oakland County was an economic opportunity. Its clinics in surrounding communities were already seeing what the Free Press called “about 5,000 Oakland County residents” (3/26/12) PPMSM spokesperson Desiree Cooper told the Ferndale Palch that “Oakland County does have a particular reputation for (higher incomes),” but argued that there were many pockets of the community that “have really been suffering a really long time” (3/26/12).
According to a PPMSM factsheet, its clinics performed 1,333 surgical abortions and 991 chemical abortions in 2010, for a total of 2,324 (see www.plannedparenthood.org/midsouthmi/files/mid-south-michigan/FactSheet_PPMSM_v3.pdf).
Does anyone really expect that number to go down with a new Planned Parenthood clinic in the area referring (for now) for abortions and a new clinic slated to go up at the other end of the county as soon as the remaining legal hurdles are overcome?
--written by Randall K. O'Bannon
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
More than just abortions
The Planned Parenthood facility in Cedar Rapids does
not currently do surgical or RU-486 abortions. But the
40 Days for Life volunteers praying on the sidewalk
outside know they're making a difference.
"The response from people driving by has been very
positive lately," said Jim in Cedar Rapids, "and we've
seen some success."
When volunteers talk to clients about the things
Planned Parenthood does in other places, they start
to think about getting routine health services from
somewhere other than America's leading abortion chain.
They're also able to give information about local
pro-life resources to women who go there for
pregnancy tests.
They also heard from a teenager who had an appointment
to remove a contraceptive implant. "She said she would
rather be abstinent and not return as a client," Jim
said. "How often do you hear that from a teen that's
used Planned Parenthood's services for several years?"
Jim said with continued prayer, "we hope webcam (RU-486
distributed via the internet) and surgical abortions
never make it to Cedar Rapids -- or your community."
You can bet that once Planned Parenthood gets established in the largest facility in the state, they will be doing surgical, chemical, and webcam abortions. They will be infiltrating Lake Orion High School, Pontiac Northern, Adams, and Rochester High. And they will be talking to your teens without your consent!
not currently do surgical or RU-486 abortions. But the
40 Days for Life volunteers praying on the sidewalk
outside know they're making a difference.
"The response from people driving by has been very
positive lately," said Jim in Cedar Rapids, "and we've
seen some success."
When volunteers talk to clients about the things
Planned Parenthood does in other places, they start
to think about getting routine health services from
somewhere other than America's leading abortion chain.
They're also able to give information about local
pro-life resources to women who go there for
pregnancy tests.
They also heard from a teenager who had an appointment
to remove a contraceptive implant. "She said she would
rather be abstinent and not return as a client," Jim
said. "How often do you hear that from a teen that's
used Planned Parenthood's services for several years?"
Jim said with continued prayer, "we hope webcam (RU-486
distributed via the internet) and surgical abortions
never make it to Cedar Rapids -- or your community."
You can bet that once Planned Parenthood gets established in the largest facility in the state, they will be doing surgical, chemical, and webcam abortions. They will be infiltrating Lake Orion High School, Pontiac Northern, Adams, and Rochester High. And they will be talking to your teens without your consent!
Pro Life = Anti-Pill
"In 1969, as a second-year resident, I was sent for six months of
training to Cook County Hospital in Chicago. For six weeks of that time I
was assigned to a ward called the 'Infected Ob' ward. To my surprise
and shock, I found that the 15 to 25 women I admitted every night were
recent patrons of Chicago's back-alley abortion mills. They appeared at
our emergency room bleeding, running a fever, and were found upon
physical exam to have a tender, enlarged uterus. Every morning, my
intern and I would have to perform another dilation and curettage (D
& C) procedure on them (in which the cervix is dilated and the
uterus then vacuumed) to remove whatever infected tissue the abortionist
had left inside their uterus so they could get well and go home.
By the end of that six-week rotation, I was outraged. Looking at that experience as a secular humanist, I concluded that legalized abortion was the answer, and I wanted my medical profession to start offering safe 'procedures' to women 'in need.' So in 1973 when the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion in the entire U.S. was announced, I was delighted. I celebrated by going out and buying a suction D & C machine and began offering first-trimester abortions in my own office practice.
That was then
...
This is now:
After thirty years of virtually unlimited access to contraceptive and abortive technology, men and women are sensing the empty promises of 'free' sex and beginning to hope that they can form more meaningful relationships — even within marriage. I can honestly promise my patients a better marriage if they practice NFP. It offers efficacy, safety, and economy, and a remarkable single-digit divorce rate. Modern NFP, not to be confused with the old calendar rhythm, has an unplanned pregnancy rate superior to that of the birth control pill. In 1994 the British Medical Journal reported an unplanned pregnancy rate of 30 per 1,000 women for the pill, and 4 per 1,000 for NFP Billings method. Unlike oral contraception, NFP does not produce blood clotting, hypertension, migraine headaches, or liver tumors, and it is virtually free of cost. In addition, the mutual involvement of both husband and wife promotes the virtue of marital chastity, which is the strength of character to place our sexual energy at the service of genuine love. Yes, NFP involves periodic abstinence if children are to be spaced, but we all know that periodic abstinence is a reality in any marriage. Difficulties will come, but so will grace." -from the memoir of a pro-life obstetrician
Find a pro-life obstetrician near you.
By the end of that six-week rotation, I was outraged. Looking at that experience as a secular humanist, I concluded that legalized abortion was the answer, and I wanted my medical profession to start offering safe 'procedures' to women 'in need.' So in 1973 when the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion in the entire U.S. was announced, I was delighted. I celebrated by going out and buying a suction D & C machine and began offering first-trimester abortions in my own office practice.
That was then
...
This is now:
After thirty years of virtually unlimited access to contraceptive and abortive technology, men and women are sensing the empty promises of 'free' sex and beginning to hope that they can form more meaningful relationships — even within marriage. I can honestly promise my patients a better marriage if they practice NFP. It offers efficacy, safety, and economy, and a remarkable single-digit divorce rate. Modern NFP, not to be confused with the old calendar rhythm, has an unplanned pregnancy rate superior to that of the birth control pill. In 1994 the British Medical Journal reported an unplanned pregnancy rate of 30 per 1,000 women for the pill, and 4 per 1,000 for NFP Billings method. Unlike oral contraception, NFP does not produce blood clotting, hypertension, migraine headaches, or liver tumors, and it is virtually free of cost. In addition, the mutual involvement of both husband and wife promotes the virtue of marital chastity, which is the strength of character to place our sexual energy at the service of genuine love. Yes, NFP involves periodic abstinence if children are to be spaced, but we all know that periodic abstinence is a reality in any marriage. Difficulties will come, but so will grace." -from the memoir of a pro-life obstetrician
Find a pro-life obstetrician near you.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Prayer works
"Over the course of the next few months, I began
spending some time with a young Christian woman, and I began reading
the New Testament. Strangely enough, though I had no intellectual
arguments against abortion, I found it more and more difficult to
perform the abortion procedures at the clinic. What made it difficult
was having to identify the body parts after the suction D & C. My
training in suction abortions entailed confirming that the procedure was
complete. I would take the cotton trap out of the suction machine at
the end of the procedure, go to a sink and pick through the tissue with a
forceps. I would have to identify four extremities, plus a spine, a
skull, and the placenta. If anything was missing, I would again scrape
and suction until I found it, lest my patients return in 48 to 72 hours
with an infected, incomplete abortion, just like the women I'd cared for
at Cook County Hospital. Somehow, my new relationship with the Light of
the world allowed me to really see the humanity of the little bodies I
was looking at, and my stomach for performing the procedure was gone.
I continued overseeing the work at the abortion clinic for another year and a half, training other physicians to do the actual abortions. In 1978, three years after opening the facility, I had the grace to resign from the abortuary and join the Protestant church I was attending.
At that point I was personally anti-abortion, but was not supportive of the prolife philosophy or movement. Two years later I was invited to an organizational meeting of Jackson Right to Life with a group of other Christian physicians. There I was challenged in three ways: (1) look at the biblical arguments for the sanctity of human life, (2) begin working in the prolife movement, and (3) consider the abortifacient nature of the IUD (intrauterine device). This last challenge came from a family practice physician, and I remember blushing at having to be reminded of how the device worked — me, the specialist! For several weeks my conscience struggled with the nature of the IUD, but in the end I bit the bullet and announced to my office that I would no longer be inserting IUDs. In many ways this was harder to do than announcing I was giving up abortions. I was afraid I would appear to be some religious kook and that my practice would dry up. No such thing happened, but a pattern of God's dealings with me began to emerge.
First would come a challenge to my worldly mentality, then a struggle in my conscience followed by eventual obedience, and finally reassurance that my practice would continue to prosper."
Follow her story here.
61 abortionists or clinic staff have quit their jobs because of a 40DFL campaign. Pray that those preparing to unleash the tragedy of abortion at 1625 Opdyke will experience the kind of conversion described here, that they will respond to Christ calling them away from sin and death.
I continued overseeing the work at the abortion clinic for another year and a half, training other physicians to do the actual abortions. In 1978, three years after opening the facility, I had the grace to resign from the abortuary and join the Protestant church I was attending.
At that point I was personally anti-abortion, but was not supportive of the prolife philosophy or movement. Two years later I was invited to an organizational meeting of Jackson Right to Life with a group of other Christian physicians. There I was challenged in three ways: (1) look at the biblical arguments for the sanctity of human life, (2) begin working in the prolife movement, and (3) consider the abortifacient nature of the IUD (intrauterine device). This last challenge came from a family practice physician, and I remember blushing at having to be reminded of how the device worked — me, the specialist! For several weeks my conscience struggled with the nature of the IUD, but in the end I bit the bullet and announced to my office that I would no longer be inserting IUDs. In many ways this was harder to do than announcing I was giving up abortions. I was afraid I would appear to be some religious kook and that my practice would dry up. No such thing happened, but a pattern of God's dealings with me began to emerge.
First would come a challenge to my worldly mentality, then a struggle in my conscience followed by eventual obedience, and finally reassurance that my practice would continue to prosper."
Follow her story here.
61 abortionists or clinic staff have quit their jobs because of a 40DFL campaign. Pray that those preparing to unleash the tragedy of abortion at 1625 Opdyke will experience the kind of conversion described here, that they will respond to Christ calling them away from sin and death.
Monday, March 26, 2012
Announcing!
The Vatican has approved
the publication of the "Rite for the Blessing of a Child in the Womb," which
will be printed in English and Spanish in a combined booklet and should be
available for parishes by Mothers' Day. The U.S. bishops who collaborated on
the development of the blessing welcomed the announcement of the recognitio, or approval, by the
Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in Rome.
"I'm impressed with the beauty of this blessing for human life in the womb," said Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). "I can think of no better day to announce this news than on the feast of the Annunciation, when we remember Mary's 'yes' to God and the incarnation of that child in her the womb that saved the world."
"We wanted to make this announcement as soon as possible so that parishes might begin to look at how this blessing might be woven into the fabric of parish life," said Archbishop Gregory Aymond of New Orleans, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Divine Worship. "Eventually the new blessing will be included in the Book of Blessings whenthat text is revised."
The blessing was prepared to support parents awaiting the birth of their child, to encourage parish prayers for and recognition of the precious gift of the child in the womb, and to foster respect for human life within society. It can be offered within the context of the Mass as well as outside of Mass.
The blessing originated when then-Bishop Joseph Kurtz of Knoxville, Tennessee (now archbishop of Louisville, Kentucky) asked the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities to see if a blessing existed for a child in the womb. When none was found, the committee prepared a text and submitted it to the USCCB's Divine Worship committee in March of 2008. It was approved by the full body of bishops in November 2008, and then sent to Rome for editing and final approval.
"I'm impressed with the beauty of this blessing for human life in the womb," said Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). "I can think of no better day to announce this news than on the feast of the Annunciation, when we remember Mary's 'yes' to God and the incarnation of that child in her the womb that saved the world."
"We wanted to make this announcement as soon as possible so that parishes might begin to look at how this blessing might be woven into the fabric of parish life," said Archbishop Gregory Aymond of New Orleans, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Divine Worship. "Eventually the new blessing will be included in the Book of Blessings whenthat text is revised."
The blessing was prepared to support parents awaiting the birth of their child, to encourage parish prayers for and recognition of the precious gift of the child in the womb, and to foster respect for human life within society. It can be offered within the context of the Mass as well as outside of Mass.
The blessing originated when then-Bishop Joseph Kurtz of Knoxville, Tennessee (now archbishop of Louisville, Kentucky) asked the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities to see if a blessing existed for a child in the womb. When none was found, the committee prepared a text and submitted it to the USCCB's Divine Worship committee in March of 2008. It was approved by the full body of bishops in November 2008, and then sent to Rome for editing and final approval.
Patron of Life
Our sincere congratulations go out to Monica Miller, this year's recipient of the Patron of Life Award, given last night at the Mary's Mantle fundraiser in Ss.Peter & Paul Jesuit Church.
Monica has been a faithful defender & champion of life in the womb, especially after discovering what happens to babies after they are aborted, when they are treated as yesterday's trash. She is personally an inspiration for selfless dedication to the pro-life movement. Anyone who has spent five minutes with this courageous woman knows that she walks the talk.
Mary's Mantle could have found no worthier recipient for this recognition. As a residential home for women who are with-child and need tender loving support, Mary's Mantle knows that when they find a heart as big and as brave as Monica's, they have reason to take notice.
Monica testified last night that prayer works, as evidenced in the fact that Planned Parenthood has been detained in its efforts to build the largest abortion facility in the entire state of Michigan at 1625 Opdyke.
So, let's keep it up in these final days of our peaceful vigil!
Monica has been a faithful defender & champion of life in the womb, especially after discovering what happens to babies after they are aborted, when they are treated as yesterday's trash. She is personally an inspiration for selfless dedication to the pro-life movement. Anyone who has spent five minutes with this courageous woman knows that she walks the talk.
Mary's Mantle could have found no worthier recipient for this recognition. As a residential home for women who are with-child and need tender loving support, Mary's Mantle knows that when they find a heart as big and as brave as Monica's, they have reason to take notice.
Monica testified last night that prayer works, as evidenced in the fact that Planned Parenthood has been detained in its efforts to build the largest abortion facility in the entire state of Michigan at 1625 Opdyke.
So, let's keep it up in these final days of our peaceful vigil!
The importance of awe
One way pro-choice supporters “justify” abortion is to distinguish
between human beings and persons, arguing that only persons deserve
respect for their lives and then defining unborn children/fetuses out of
personhood and its protections. Dr Giubilini and Dr Minerva take this
approach, but claim that neither unborn nor newborn children are persons.
They propose, following in the footsteps of Princeton philosopher Peter Singer and some other prominent utilitarian bioethicists, that being a person requires being “capable of attributing to her own existence some (at least) basic value such that being deprived of this existence represents a loss to her” and having “aims”, and neither unborn nor newborn children have these capacities (as is also true of some other people).
Moreover, they characterize “post-birth abortion” as “unlike the case of death of an existing person, [because] failing to bring a new person into existence does not prevent anyone from accomplishing any of her future aims”. And, they say, this is not euthanasia, because it’s not the killing of an existing person or done for the benefit of the child. In short, for Dr Giubilini and Dr Minerva the unborn or newborn child does not exist, because a person does not exist, and the fact that the child is a living human being is irrelevant. Yet again, those are precisely the same arguments pro-choice advocates use to justify pre-birth abortion.
Outrage…
So what can the outrage that has greeted their article tell us?
First, the assessment of the ethics involved is radically different on the part of the general public, as compared with the authors’.
The authors’ proposal is radically utilitarian and seems to lack any influence of an emotional response to the thought of killing a young child or what the impact of doing so would be on important societal values, especially respect for every individual human life and human life, in general.
Some research suggests that people with a malfunction of the frontal lobes of their brains tend to make what the researchers called “overly utilitarian decisions”, which, as a result, are not good ethical decisions. We also know that people with damage to the emotional centres of their brains have impaired judgment about ethics. Might the contents of the article have been affected by such factors? Could Dr. Minerva’s explanation to the media that she was just theorizing in what was written indicate that?
Then there is the matter of perception: When we choose not to see or imagine what abortion involves, we can deny the reality of what we are doing, killing a child. When we do the same overtly in infanticide, we cannot.
When we can dis-identify from the human being who is harmed – we are no longer unborn children and never will be again – we can reassure ourselves that what we are doing to that human being would never be done to us. That is not true for the child who has been born.
The primary focus of our consideration of the morality and ethics of infanticide, as compared with abortion, can also affect our perceptions and conclusions in these regards. Unlike in infanticide, where the focus is solely on the child and the moral and ethical acceptability of taking the child’s life, in abortion the focus is most often just on the woman and her claims. This suppresses or eliminates our sensitivity to the ethics of doing the same to the child, from the child’s perspective, in abortion as in infanticide.
Moreover, probably, a cause of the enormous difference between the outrage at infanticide and the absence of that at abortion is that many people have so normalized abortion that they’ve lost their ethical sensitivity to what it involves, but that isn’t true with respect to infanticide.
I suggest that a more existential perception also differentiates those who accept abortion and possibly infanticide, from those who do not: this is whether the transmission of life, the coming-into-being of a unique new human being, involves a mystery that must be respected. If we perceive that mystery, we look at both the unborn child and the born one with amazement, wonder and awe just because they exist, and act accordingly. If we do not perceive it, we can make recommendations such as those outlined in Dr Giubilini and Dr Minerva’s article.
Read more of this response here.
They propose, following in the footsteps of Princeton philosopher Peter Singer and some other prominent utilitarian bioethicists, that being a person requires being “capable of attributing to her own existence some (at least) basic value such that being deprived of this existence represents a loss to her” and having “aims”, and neither unborn nor newborn children have these capacities (as is also true of some other people).
Moreover, they characterize “post-birth abortion” as “unlike the case of death of an existing person, [because] failing to bring a new person into existence does not prevent anyone from accomplishing any of her future aims”. And, they say, this is not euthanasia, because it’s not the killing of an existing person or done for the benefit of the child. In short, for Dr Giubilini and Dr Minerva the unborn or newborn child does not exist, because a person does not exist, and the fact that the child is a living human being is irrelevant. Yet again, those are precisely the same arguments pro-choice advocates use to justify pre-birth abortion.
Outrage…
So what can the outrage that has greeted their article tell us?
First, the assessment of the ethics involved is radically different on the part of the general public, as compared with the authors’.
The authors’ proposal is radically utilitarian and seems to lack any influence of an emotional response to the thought of killing a young child or what the impact of doing so would be on important societal values, especially respect for every individual human life and human life, in general.
Some research suggests that people with a malfunction of the frontal lobes of their brains tend to make what the researchers called “overly utilitarian decisions”, which, as a result, are not good ethical decisions. We also know that people with damage to the emotional centres of their brains have impaired judgment about ethics. Might the contents of the article have been affected by such factors? Could Dr. Minerva’s explanation to the media that she was just theorizing in what was written indicate that?
Then there is the matter of perception: When we choose not to see or imagine what abortion involves, we can deny the reality of what we are doing, killing a child. When we do the same overtly in infanticide, we cannot.
When we can dis-identify from the human being who is harmed – we are no longer unborn children and never will be again – we can reassure ourselves that what we are doing to that human being would never be done to us. That is not true for the child who has been born.
The primary focus of our consideration of the morality and ethics of infanticide, as compared with abortion, can also affect our perceptions and conclusions in these regards. Unlike in infanticide, where the focus is solely on the child and the moral and ethical acceptability of taking the child’s life, in abortion the focus is most often just on the woman and her claims. This suppresses or eliminates our sensitivity to the ethics of doing the same to the child, from the child’s perspective, in abortion as in infanticide.
Moreover, probably, a cause of the enormous difference between the outrage at infanticide and the absence of that at abortion is that many people have so normalized abortion that they’ve lost their ethical sensitivity to what it involves, but that isn’t true with respect to infanticide.
I suggest that a more existential perception also differentiates those who accept abortion and possibly infanticide, from those who do not: this is whether the transmission of life, the coming-into-being of a unique new human being, involves a mystery that must be respected. If we perceive that mystery, we look at both the unborn child and the born one with amazement, wonder and awe just because they exist, and act accordingly. If we do not perceive it, we can make recommendations such as those outlined in Dr Giubilini and Dr Minerva’s article.
Read more of this response here.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Planned Parenthood hates Families
"Around the world, parents and guardians play an influential role in the lives of adolescents and young people. This side-event will explore the crucial principles of autonomy, decision-making, privacy and consent, and the way parental consent requirements can undermine these. The experiences of young people and health professionals, alongside relevant human rights standards, will be introduced in the side-event, to illustrate concrete ways of tackling these issues from the perspectives of law, health, government and youth."
-from a memo of the Intl. Planned Parenthood Foundation
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Building a Culture of Life
"I had the joy of visiting a family recently where a Culture of
Life is being built and Christian values are being instilled. I
witnessed the love of husband and wife, and the joy of fatherhood and
motherhood. I also saw love, honor and respect afforded to children. We
prayed together, shared a meal and gathered around the family piano to
sing and laugh. It brought great joy to my heart to witness the
transforming power of a Culture of Life at work. In such a home,
children learn love, morality and faith and the values of service and
sacrifice. Their potential to positively impact our society is great
because they have been prepared for such a task. Their upbringing
transforms the mundane into something dynamic and vital. Their parents
are making an investment in their children, and society is the
beneficiary."- from Human Life Intl.
Make an investment in your children today.
Make an investment in your children today.
Friday, March 23, 2012
Why we must pray
Some demons can only be driven out by prayer and fasting. The level of self-deceipt the author who wrote these words is experiencing is nothing short of diabolical:
Please continue to fast as you pray. It's imperative that we humble ourselves and plead for mercy.
The alleged right of individuals (such as fetuses and newborns) to develop their potentiality, which someone defends,8 is over-ridden by the interests of actual people (parents, family, society) to pursue their own well-being because, as we have just argued, merely potential people cannot be harmed by not being brought into existence. Actual people's well-being could be threatened by the new (even if healthy) child requiring energy, money and care which the family might happen to be in short supply of. Sometimes this situation can be prevented through an abortion, but in some other cases this is not possible. In these cases, since non-persons have no moral rights to life, there are no reasons for banning after-birth abortions. We might still have moral duties towards future generations in spite of these future people not existing yet. But because we take it for granted that such people will exist (whoever they will be), we must treat them as actual persons of the future. This argument, however, does not apply to this particular newborn or infant, because we are not justified in taking it for granted that she will exist as a person in the future. Whether she will exist is exactly what our choice is about.
Please continue to fast as you pray. It's imperative that we humble ourselves and plead for mercy.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
What we're up against
Here is an excerpt from an article defining and defending what it calls after-birth abortion:
Euthanasia in infants has been proposed by philosophers3 for children with severe abnormalities whose lives can be expected to be not worth living and who are experiencing unbearable suffering.
Euthanasia in infants has been proposed by philosophers3 for children with severe abnormalities whose lives can be expected to be not worth living and who are experiencing unbearable suffering.
Also medical professionals
have recognised the need for guidelines about cases in which death seems
to be in the best interest
of the child. In The Netherlands, for
instance, the Groningen Protocol (2002) allows to actively terminate the
life of ‘infants
with a hopeless prognosis who
experience what parents and medical experts deem to be unbearable
suffering’.4
Although it is reasonable to
predict that living with a very severe condition is against the best
interest of the newborn,
it is hard to find definitive arguments
to the effect that life with certain pathologies is not worth living,
even when those
pathologies would constitute acceptable
reasons for abortion. It might be maintained that ‘even allowing for
the more optimistic
assessments of the potential of Down's
syndrome children, this potential cannot be said to be equal to that of a
normal child’.3 But, in fact, people with Down's syndrome, as well as people affected by many other severe disabilities, are often reported
to be happy.5
Nonetheless, to bring up such
children might be an unbearable burden on the family and on society as a
whole, when the state
economically provides for their care.
On these grounds, the fact that a fetus has the potential to become a
person who will
have an (at least) acceptable life is
no reason for prohibiting abortion. Therefore, we argue that, when
circumstances occur
after birth such that they would have justified abortion, what we call after-birth abortion should be permissible.
In spite of the oxymoron in
the expression, we propose to call this practice ‘after-birth abortion’,
rather than ‘infanticide’,
to emphasise that the moral status of
the individual killed is comparable with that of a fetus (on which
‘abortions’ in the
traditional sense are performed) rather
than to that of a child. Therefore, we claim that killing a newborn
could be ethically
permissible in all the circumstances
where abortion would be. Such circumstances include cases where the
newborn has the potential
to have an (at least) acceptable life,
but the well-being of the family is at risk. Accordingly, a second
terminological specification
is that we call such a practice
‘after-birth abortion’ rather than ‘euthanasia’ because the best
interest of the one who dies
is not necessarily the primary
criterion for the choice, contrary to what happens in the case of
euthanasia.
Failing to bring a new person
into existence cannot be compared with the wrong caused by procuring
the death of an existing
person. The reason is that, unlike the
case of death of an existing person, failing to bring a new person into
existence does
not prevent anyone from accomplishing
any of her future aims. However, this consideration entails a
much stronger idea than the one according to which severely handicapped
children should be euthanised. If the
death of a newborn is not wrongful to her on the grounds that she cannot
have formed
any aim that she is prevented from
accomplishing, then it should also be permissible to practise an
after-birth abortion on
a healthy newborn too, given that she
has not formed any aim yet.
-
The moral status of an infant is equivalent to that of a fetus, that is, neither can be considered a ‘person’ in a morally relevant sense.
-
It is not possible to damage a newborn by preventing her from developing the potentiality to become a person in the morally relevant sense.
We are going to justify these two points in the following two sections.
You can continue reading, if you have the stomach.
You can continue reading, if you have the stomach.
Held Hostage
While Planned Parenthood's target in the Komen case was new, its
tactics are not. In the past two years, we have seen the abortion giant
(and the politicians it funds) hold for ransom a diverse array of
hostages.
In 2010, President Obama and the Democrats in Congress risked and narrowly averted the rejection of their signature health-care law in order to block the inclusion of provisions (such as the 1970s Hyde Amendment) that prevent federal abortion funding. At the 11th hour, a handful of "pro-life" Democrats capitulated, giving Mr. Obama and Planned Parenthood their victory.
Last year, in April, Mr. Obama risked a government shutdown over language in a resolution that would have defunded Planned Parenthood at the federal level. At the last moment, congressional Republicans gave way and allowed the federal money to keep flowing.
Also in 2011, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services threatened to withhold billions of dollars in Medicaid funds from those states such as Indiana that prohibit state funding of Planned Parenthood and other entities that provide elective abortions. Planned Parenthood strongly opposed Indiana's attempt to cut off its funding and celebrated the federal government's intervention. Indiana is currently litigating the matter in federal court.
Most recently, after intense lobbying, the Department of Health and Human Services did the bidding of Planned Parenthood by imposing a mandate on virtually all employers to provide insurance coverage (without cost-sharing) for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilizations and contraceptives. This threatens to force many religiously affiliated charitable institutions out of the business of providing education, health care and social services to the poor.
Breast-cancer victims are only the latest hostages taken by Planned Parenthood. Unless the organization is finally held to account, they will surely not be the last.
-from a Wall Street Journal online article, the URL for which is unable to be pasted here
In 2010, President Obama and the Democrats in Congress risked and narrowly averted the rejection of their signature health-care law in order to block the inclusion of provisions (such as the 1970s Hyde Amendment) that prevent federal abortion funding. At the 11th hour, a handful of "pro-life" Democrats capitulated, giving Mr. Obama and Planned Parenthood their victory.
Last year, in April, Mr. Obama risked a government shutdown over language in a resolution that would have defunded Planned Parenthood at the federal level. At the last moment, congressional Republicans gave way and allowed the federal money to keep flowing.
Also in 2011, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services threatened to withhold billions of dollars in Medicaid funds from those states such as Indiana that prohibit state funding of Planned Parenthood and other entities that provide elective abortions. Planned Parenthood strongly opposed Indiana's attempt to cut off its funding and celebrated the federal government's intervention. Indiana is currently litigating the matter in federal court.
Most recently, after intense lobbying, the Department of Health and Human Services did the bidding of Planned Parenthood by imposing a mandate on virtually all employers to provide insurance coverage (without cost-sharing) for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilizations and contraceptives. This threatens to force many religiously affiliated charitable institutions out of the business of providing education, health care and social services to the poor.
Breast-cancer victims are only the latest hostages taken by Planned Parenthood. Unless the organization is finally held to account, they will surely not be the last.
-from a Wall Street Journal online article, the URL for which is unable to be pasted here
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Planned Parenthood hates Motherhood
As such, a woman’s physical body, which is designed to bear, nourish,
and nurture life, is a sign of a soul that is called to do the same.
The physical design speaks to the spiritual call, to the need for women
to cultivate our interior disposition to love everyone and everything
with a mother’s love, tending to the lost, the wounded, and the
forgotten, while nourishing and nurturing all who cross our path with
wisdom, compassion, and attention.
Motherhood truly is women’s genius. Motherhood is women’s call. And our broken, battered, bleeding world needs us ever so desperately to answer that call. It’s crying out for us. It’s longing for women, all women, to be who we’re called to be and to show the culture the face of God as only women can.
And that is what Planned Parenthood and its fellow travelers have set themselves dead against.
They don’t want women to understand the truth about our nature. They don’t want us to think of our fertility as the physical expression of a spiritual reality, an integral part of who we are, and a sign of who we’re called to be. Whether they know it or not, they don’t want us to be women at all.
What they do want is for us to think of our fertility as a problem to be managed and motherhood (as the commenter framed it) as a primitive biological urge inferior to higher ideological “urges” like being a doctor or a lawyer. Again, they want us to think of it as a choice, not as a divine task to be taken up by every woman according to her vocation and state in life. That’s why they’re all for the government or employers picking up the tab on the medical costs associated with preventing pregnancy, but not the medical costs associated with facilitating pregnancy.
Not to go all Rick Santorum on you, but I think it’s pretty safe to say that for almost 100 years, Planned Parenthood has been in bed with the devil. It has sought to destroy entire races. It has slaughtered the innocent. And it has relentlessly peddled a twisted ideology calculated to destroy the feminine genius, helping lead countless women down a path of self-destruction, a path where they are used, abused, and discarded like yesterday’s trash.
It hasn’t brought freedom. It hasn’t liberated women. It has enslaved them. And it’s done so wearing the mask of a benevolent health care provider.
by Emily Stimpson
Motherhood truly is women’s genius. Motherhood is women’s call. And our broken, battered, bleeding world needs us ever so desperately to answer that call. It’s crying out for us. It’s longing for women, all women, to be who we’re called to be and to show the culture the face of God as only women can.
And that is what Planned Parenthood and its fellow travelers have set themselves dead against.
They don’t want women to understand the truth about our nature. They don’t want us to think of our fertility as the physical expression of a spiritual reality, an integral part of who we are, and a sign of who we’re called to be. Whether they know it or not, they don’t want us to be women at all.
What they do want is for us to think of our fertility as a problem to be managed and motherhood (as the commenter framed it) as a primitive biological urge inferior to higher ideological “urges” like being a doctor or a lawyer. Again, they want us to think of it as a choice, not as a divine task to be taken up by every woman according to her vocation and state in life. That’s why they’re all for the government or employers picking up the tab on the medical costs associated with preventing pregnancy, but not the medical costs associated with facilitating pregnancy.
Not to go all Rick Santorum on you, but I think it’s pretty safe to say that for almost 100 years, Planned Parenthood has been in bed with the devil. It has sought to destroy entire races. It has slaughtered the innocent. And it has relentlessly peddled a twisted ideology calculated to destroy the feminine genius, helping lead countless women down a path of self-destruction, a path where they are used, abused, and discarded like yesterday’s trash.
It hasn’t brought freedom. It hasn’t liberated women. It has enslaved them. And it’s done so wearing the mask of a benevolent health care provider.
by Emily Stimpson
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Ready for battle
This was the great promise of the desert: that in solitude and quiet,
through prayer and fasting, a man could enter the depths of his heart
and there do the warfare that had been given to us to do...
The struggle in the desert does not ignore relationships with other human beings. But it recognizes that the trouble in those relationships does not lie in other human beings, but within my own heart. Christ did not suffer from trouble in His relationships with humanity. He was at peace with all. We cannot do more than be like Christ, who Himself began His ministry in the desert, defeating the enemy.
The struggle in the desert does not ignore relationships with other human beings. But it recognizes that the trouble in those relationships does not lie in other human beings, but within my own heart. Christ did not suffer from trouble in His relationships with humanity. He was at peace with all. We cannot do more than be like Christ, who Himself began His ministry in the desert, defeating the enemy.
Monday, March 19, 2012
T4 Revisited
Even if abortion were banned, that would not stop the abortion of
fetuses that test positive for Down syndrome. In Ireland and Uruguay,
where abortion is outlawed, half of all pregnancies diagnosed as
positive for Down syndrome are still terminated. Though abortion is
banned, transportation is not, and so Dublin mothers simply cross the
Irish Sea to England; those in Uruguay can travel to neighboring
countries where they can abort.
Similarly, in America, even if the pro-life agenda succeeded, the challenge would remain one of transportation. Should the Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade, then abortion would be regulated by the individual states. There already exist “springing” statutes in several states that would automatically allow abortion to continue. In some, such as Maryland, abortion would be unrestricted for the duration of the pregnancy in cases of “genetic conditions” such as Down syndrome. So, like in Ireland, mothers in pro-life states simply would need to travel to Illinois, or California, or New York, or any of the many other states where they could selectively abort their pregnancy because their child was prenatally diagnosed with Down syndrome.
...
Mothers who have terminated following a prenatal diagnosis overwhelmingly (97 percent) report that these are wanted pregnancies. Furthermore, they say that they consider themselves to be, in fact, mothers, and that their fetus is not simply a fetus, but their child. Yet they still go through with aborting their child.
The challenge is not convincing mothers that their child prenatally diagnosed with Down syndrome is in fact a child, having moral status, and therefore having the same right to life as any other human being. Consider why these mothers say they aborted: the burden on their other children; the burden on the child itself; fear that they could not care for the child; and fear that society would not support their child. One study found that “the lack of access to care was often given priority over strongly held ethical positions, such as those on abortion.”
read the entire article here.
Jill Stanek isn't the first person to liken this to the Nazi policy of selective breeding.
Similarly, in America, even if the pro-life agenda succeeded, the challenge would remain one of transportation. Should the Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade, then abortion would be regulated by the individual states. There already exist “springing” statutes in several states that would automatically allow abortion to continue. In some, such as Maryland, abortion would be unrestricted for the duration of the pregnancy in cases of “genetic conditions” such as Down syndrome. So, like in Ireland, mothers in pro-life states simply would need to travel to Illinois, or California, or New York, or any of the many other states where they could selectively abort their pregnancy because their child was prenatally diagnosed with Down syndrome.
...
Mothers who have terminated following a prenatal diagnosis overwhelmingly (97 percent) report that these are wanted pregnancies. Furthermore, they say that they consider themselves to be, in fact, mothers, and that their fetus is not simply a fetus, but their child. Yet they still go through with aborting their child.
The challenge is not convincing mothers that their child prenatally diagnosed with Down syndrome is in fact a child, having moral status, and therefore having the same right to life as any other human being. Consider why these mothers say they aborted: the burden on their other children; the burden on the child itself; fear that they could not care for the child; and fear that society would not support their child. One study found that “the lack of access to care was often given priority over strongly held ethical positions, such as those on abortion.”
read the entire article here.
Jill Stanek isn't the first person to liken this to the Nazi policy of selective breeding.
Leaves a bad taste in my mouth
A few weeks ago, Neuralstem announced it discovered a possible new
drug to treat depression. It tested several compounds using its
stem-cell line to see which chemical showed promise in increasing the
size of the hippocampus, a part of the brain that is shrunken in those
who suffer from depression. Neuralstem did not disclose if the stem-cell
line it used to develop this new drug came from an electively aborted
fetus. But in academic publications listed on its website, the stem
cells are described as “fetal.” The Food and Drug Administration has
given Neuralstem the go-ahead to test the new drug in depressed
patients.
There is also ReNeuron, an English company that has applied for clinical trials in the United States. ReNeuron wants to use stem cells from aborted fetuses to treat stroke victims. In an interview with Innovaro Pharmalicensing, the managing director of ReNeuron explained where the company gets its stem cells. He said, “We access human fetal-brain material from terminated pregnancies. They’re typically about 8-to-10-week fetuses.”
There is also Neocutis, a San Francisco company, which is selling cosmetic and dermatological products that have come from aborted fetal tissue. Neocutis openly admits that its PSP (Processed Skin Cell Proteins) products are derived from the cells of an electively aborted fetus. These PSP products are being marketed to treat “around-the-eye wrinkles and puffiness, to reduce fine lines and wrinkles, and provide long-lasting hydration for luminous skin.”
Then there are the vaccine makers like Merck and GlaxoSmithKline. Cell lines MRC-5 and WI-38 are common cell lines used by these companies to produce vaccines for rubella, polio, hepatitis A and chicken pox. MRC-5 was developed from lung cells from a 14-week-old male fetus that was electively aborted in 1966. The WI-38 line was derived from a female fetus that was aborted in 1964.
And there is Senomyx, the San Diego company that likely set Sen. Shortey in motion. Senomyx uses the cell line HEK 293 to test chemicals as possible flavor enhancers. Cell line HEK 293 was derived from the kidney tissue of a boy aborted in the 1970s. HEK stands for “Human Embryonic Kidney.” The HEK 293 line was subsequently genetically engineered with viral DNA and is now available for sale from a common chemical-supply company called SigmaAldrich. Senomyx is reported to have contracts with giants like PepsiCo, Kraft and Nestle to test flavor enhancers for their products.
There is also ReNeuron, an English company that has applied for clinical trials in the United States. ReNeuron wants to use stem cells from aborted fetuses to treat stroke victims. In an interview with Innovaro Pharmalicensing, the managing director of ReNeuron explained where the company gets its stem cells. He said, “We access human fetal-brain material from terminated pregnancies. They’re typically about 8-to-10-week fetuses.”
There is also Neocutis, a San Francisco company, which is selling cosmetic and dermatological products that have come from aborted fetal tissue. Neocutis openly admits that its PSP (Processed Skin Cell Proteins) products are derived from the cells of an electively aborted fetus. These PSP products are being marketed to treat “around-the-eye wrinkles and puffiness, to reduce fine lines and wrinkles, and provide long-lasting hydration for luminous skin.”
Then there are the vaccine makers like Merck and GlaxoSmithKline. Cell lines MRC-5 and WI-38 are common cell lines used by these companies to produce vaccines for rubella, polio, hepatitis A and chicken pox. MRC-5 was developed from lung cells from a 14-week-old male fetus that was electively aborted in 1966. The WI-38 line was derived from a female fetus that was aborted in 1964.
And there is Senomyx, the San Diego company that likely set Sen. Shortey in motion. Senomyx uses the cell line HEK 293 to test chemicals as possible flavor enhancers. Cell line HEK 293 was derived from the kidney tissue of a boy aborted in the 1970s. HEK stands for “Human Embryonic Kidney.” The HEK 293 line was subsequently genetically engineered with viral DNA and is now available for sale from a common chemical-supply company called SigmaAldrich. Senomyx is reported to have contracts with giants like PepsiCo, Kraft and Nestle to test flavor enhancers for their products.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Toxic Pill
"The world does not always recognize poison for what it is. In the early days
of its discovery, radiation was thought to be potentially beneficial.
Soft drinks made with radioactive water were sold as healthful, and
pills of radium were offered as cure-alls. Today contraception takes on a
role similar to the naïve imaginary benefits of radiation. It promises
sexual bliss and the power to “responsibly regulate” family life. Under
the promises of such high-sounding slogans, the promiscuity and
unnaturalness of contraception poisons the soul – and in many cases the
body – from within. With the widespread adoption of such damaging
behaviors, everyone suffers. The general breakdown of the family and
society by every measurable statistical standard – divorce,
illegitimacy, abuse, drugs, crime, etc. – has increased dramatically in
the decades since the widespread social acceptance of contraception." -excerpt from this article
Let's not forget the amount of estrogen in our water table and its effect on indicator species, such as frogs.
Let's not forget the amount of estrogen in our water table and its effect on indicator species, such as frogs.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Lorica of St. Patrick
I
arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through a belief in the Threeness,
Through confession of the Oneness
Of the Creator of creation.
I arise today
Through the strength of Christ's birth and His baptism,
Through the strength of His crucifixion and His burial,
Through the strength of His resurrection and His ascension,
Through the strength of His descent for the judgment of doom.
I arise today
Through the strength of the love of cherubim,
In obedience of angels,
In service of archangels,
In the hope of resurrection to meet with reward,
In the prayers of patriarchs,
In preachings of the apostles,
In faiths of confessors,
In innocence of virgins,
In deeds of righteous men.
I arise today
Through the strength of heaven;
Light of the sun,
Splendor of fire,
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of the wind,
Depth of the sea,
Stability of the earth,
Firmness of the rock.
I arise today
Through God's strength to pilot me;
God's might to uphold me,
God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look before me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me,
God's hand to guard me,
God's way to lie before me,
God's shield to protect me,
God's hosts to save me
From snares of the devil,
From temptations of vices,
From every one who desires me ill,
Afar and anear,
Alone or in a mulitude.
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through a belief in the Threeness,
Through confession of the Oneness
Of the Creator of creation.
I arise today
Through the strength of Christ's birth and His baptism,
Through the strength of His crucifixion and His burial,
Through the strength of His resurrection and His ascension,
Through the strength of His descent for the judgment of doom.
I arise today
Through the strength of the love of cherubim,
In obedience of angels,
In service of archangels,
In the hope of resurrection to meet with reward,
In the prayers of patriarchs,
In preachings of the apostles,
In faiths of confessors,
In innocence of virgins,
In deeds of righteous men.
I arise today
Through the strength of heaven;
Light of the sun,
Splendor of fire,
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of the wind,
Depth of the sea,
Stability of the earth,
Firmness of the rock.
I arise today
Through God's strength to pilot me;
God's might to uphold me,
God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look before me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me,
God's hand to guard me,
God's way to lie before me,
God's shield to protect me,
God's hosts to save me
From snares of the devil,
From temptations of vices,
From every one who desires me ill,
Afar and anear,
Alone or in a mulitude.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Bitter Pill
There is another unseemly aspect of the pill that is only now getting
attention: its strong causal link to abortion. In one respect,
“contraceptive” is a misnomer for the pill, because it sometimes does
its work after conception by preventing the fertilized egg from
implanting in the mother’s womb. In other words, it is an abortifacient.
But the link to abortion goes further. The essence of the contraceptive
mentality is to drive a wedge between sex and babies. Once a society
does this and goes on a spree of sterilized sex, it has to have abortion
as a backup in case a contraceptive fails or (as happens with
teenagers) isn’t pulled out of the pocket at the critical moment.
The Church’s insistence on the link between contraception and abortion occasionally gets support in surprising quarters. In Planned Parenthood v. Casey the U.S. Supreme Court, on its perennial search for the most plausible-sounding sophistries to uphold legalized abortion, stated:
Read the rest
The Church’s insistence on the link between contraception and abortion occasionally gets support in surprising quarters. In Planned Parenthood v. Casey the U.S. Supreme Court, on its perennial search for the most plausible-sounding sophistries to uphold legalized abortion, stated:
[F]or two decades of economic and social developments, people have organized intimate relationships and made choices that define their views of themselves and their places in society, in reliance on the availability of abortion in the event that contraception should fail.In other words, we need abortion so that people can continue their contraceptive lifestyles.
Read the rest
As many as half!
About 50 people gathered outside Planned Parenthood
recently for a special event during the Canton 40 Days
for Life campaign -- the Day of Mourning for African-
American Babies and All the Unborn.
About 12 percent of the total U.S. population is black.
But an estimated one third of all abortions involve
black mothers. Other estimates suggest that as many
as half of all black pregnancies end in abortion.
"The event, conducted by Pastors Walter and Darleen
Moss, was an hour of prayer, praise, sermons and
testimonies," said Linda in Canton. "Due to his stand
for all the unborn and his willingness to speak out
from the pulpit, his road has not been easy."
She thanked them for speaking the truth and spreading
the Word of God with the love and compassion of Jesus
Christ. "We are so blessed to have both of them leading
us to building a Culture of Life," she said.
recently for a special event during the Canton 40 Days
for Life campaign -- the Day of Mourning for African-
American Babies and All the Unborn.
About 12 percent of the total U.S. population is black.
But an estimated one third of all abortions involve
black mothers. Other estimates suggest that as many
as half of all black pregnancies end in abortion.
"The event, conducted by Pastors Walter and Darleen
Moss, was an hour of prayer, praise, sermons and
testimonies," said Linda in Canton. "Due to his stand
for all the unborn and his willingness to speak out
from the pulpit, his road has not been easy."
She thanked them for speaking the truth and spreading
the Word of God with the love and compassion of Jesus
Christ. "We are so blessed to have both of them leading
us to building a Culture of Life," she said.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
How is your 40 Days going?
Forty is in fact the symbolic number in which salient moments of the
experience of faith of the People of God are expressed. A figure that
expresses the time of waiting, purification, return to the Lord, the
awareness that God is faithful to his promises.
This number does not represent an exact chronological time, divided by the sum of the days. Rather it indicates a patient perseverance, a long trial, a sufficient period to see the works of God, a time within which we must make up our minds and to decide to accept our own responsibilities without additional references. It is the time for mature decisions.
The number forty first appears in the story of Noah. This just man because of the flood spends forty days and forty nights in the ark, along with his family and animals that God had told him to bring. He waits for another forty days, after the flood, before finding land, saved from destruction (Gen 7,4.12, 8.6).
Then, the next stop, Moses on Mount Sinai, in the presence of the Lord, for forty days and forty nights to receive the Law. He fasts throughout this period (Exodus 24:18).
Forty, the number of years the Jewish people journeyed from Egypt to the Promised Land, the right amount of time for them to experience the faithfulness of God: " Remember how for these forty years the LORD, your God, has directed all your journeying in the wilderness... The clothing did not fall from you in tatters, nor did your feet swell these forty years, "says Moses in Deuteronomy at the end of the forty years of migration (Dt 8,2.4).
The years of peace enjoyed by Israel under the Judges are forty (Judg. 3,11.30), but, once this time ended, forgetfulness of the gifts of God begins and a return to sin.
The prophet Elijah takes forty days to reach Horeb, the mountain where he meets God (1 Kings 19.8).
Forty are the days during which the people of Nineveh do penance for the forgiveness of God (Gen 3.4).
Forty were also the years of the reign of Saul (Acts 13:21), David (2 Sam 5:4-5) and Solomon (1 Kings 11:41), the first three kings of Israel.
Even the biblical Psalms reflect on the meaning of the forty years, such as Psalm 95 for example, of which we heard a passage: "If you would listen to his voice today! " Oh, that today you would hear his voice: Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as on the day of Massah in the desert. There your ancestors tested me; they tried me though they had seen my works. Forty years I loathed that generation; I said: “This people’s heart goes astray; they do not know my ways"(vv. 7c-10).
In the New Testament Jesus, before beginning of his public life, retires to the desert for forty days without food or drink (Matt. 4.2): he nourishes himself on the Word of God, which he uses as a weapon to conquer the devil. The temptations of Jesus recall those the Jewish people faced in the desert, but could not conquer.
Forty are the days during which the risen Jesus instructs his disciples, before ascending to heaven and sending the Holy Spirit (Acts 1.3).
A spiritual context is described by this recurring number forty, one that remains current and valid, and the Church, precisely through the days of Lent, intends to maintain its enduring value and make us aware of its efficacy.
-from a homily of Pope Benedict XVI
This number does not represent an exact chronological time, divided by the sum of the days. Rather it indicates a patient perseverance, a long trial, a sufficient period to see the works of God, a time within which we must make up our minds and to decide to accept our own responsibilities without additional references. It is the time for mature decisions.
The number forty first appears in the story of Noah. This just man because of the flood spends forty days and forty nights in the ark, along with his family and animals that God had told him to bring. He waits for another forty days, after the flood, before finding land, saved from destruction (Gen 7,4.12, 8.6).
Then, the next stop, Moses on Mount Sinai, in the presence of the Lord, for forty days and forty nights to receive the Law. He fasts throughout this period (Exodus 24:18).
Forty, the number of years the Jewish people journeyed from Egypt to the Promised Land, the right amount of time for them to experience the faithfulness of God: " Remember how for these forty years the LORD, your God, has directed all your journeying in the wilderness... The clothing did not fall from you in tatters, nor did your feet swell these forty years, "says Moses in Deuteronomy at the end of the forty years of migration (Dt 8,2.4).
The years of peace enjoyed by Israel under the Judges are forty (Judg. 3,11.30), but, once this time ended, forgetfulness of the gifts of God begins and a return to sin.
The prophet Elijah takes forty days to reach Horeb, the mountain where he meets God (1 Kings 19.8).
Forty are the days during which the people of Nineveh do penance for the forgiveness of God (Gen 3.4).
Forty were also the years of the reign of Saul (Acts 13:21), David (2 Sam 5:4-5) and Solomon (1 Kings 11:41), the first three kings of Israel.
Even the biblical Psalms reflect on the meaning of the forty years, such as Psalm 95 for example, of which we heard a passage: "If you would listen to his voice today! " Oh, that today you would hear his voice: Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as on the day of Massah in the desert. There your ancestors tested me; they tried me though they had seen my works. Forty years I loathed that generation; I said: “This people’s heart goes astray; they do not know my ways"(vv. 7c-10).
In the New Testament Jesus, before beginning of his public life, retires to the desert for forty days without food or drink (Matt. 4.2): he nourishes himself on the Word of God, which he uses as a weapon to conquer the devil. The temptations of Jesus recall those the Jewish people faced in the desert, but could not conquer.
Forty are the days during which the risen Jesus instructs his disciples, before ascending to heaven and sending the Holy Spirit (Acts 1.3).
A spiritual context is described by this recurring number forty, one that remains current and valid, and the Church, precisely through the days of Lent, intends to maintain its enduring value and make us aware of its efficacy.
-from a homily of Pope Benedict XVI
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Good News from RTL
Right to Life of Michigan applauds the passage of legislation in the
Michigan House of Representatives designed to prevent women from being
coerced to have an abortion against their will. Passing with strong,
bi-partisan votes of 72-37, the 5-bill package represents the most
comprehensive abortion anti-coercion policy in the country.
The lead bill in the package, the Coercive Abortion Prevention Act (HB
4799), creates criminal penalties for actions or threats of violence,
financial pressure, withdrawing housing support or employment
discrimination. Other bills in the package require that abortion
clinics screen for coercion and domestic violence, and then provide
appropriate referrals to facilitate an escape from the abusive
situation. All abortion clinics also must post a sign informing women
of their rights under this law.
Right to Life of Michigan President Barbara Listing thanked
legislators for their leadership in protecting vulnerable women. "We
are grateful House representatives have stepped forward to offer women
support and legal backing against this terrible form of coercion. No
woman deserves to be forced into aborting her unborn child," Listing
said.
As many as 64 percent of women who have abortions report feeling
pressured. This pressure often rises to the level of coercion, as
housing, university athletic scholarships, and other financial support
are used as leverage to force women to have abortions. Further studies
reveal that in an alarming number of cases, coercion escalates into
physical violence.
House approval of the bills caps 6 years of work to enact this
protection for pregnant women and a favorable reception of the bills
is expected in the Michigan Senate.
Michigan House of Representatives designed to prevent women from being
coerced to have an abortion against their will. Passing with strong,
bi-partisan votes of 72-37, the 5-bill package represents the most
comprehensive abortion anti-coercion policy in the country.
The lead bill in the package, the Coercive Abortion Prevention Act (HB
4799), creates criminal penalties for actions or threats of violence,
financial pressure, withdrawing housing support or employment
discrimination. Other bills in the package require that abortion
clinics screen for coercion and domestic violence, and then provide
appropriate referrals to facilitate an escape from the abusive
situation. All abortion clinics also must post a sign informing women
of their rights under this law.
Right to Life of Michigan President Barbara Listing thanked
legislators for their leadership in protecting vulnerable women. "We
are grateful House representatives have stepped forward to offer women
support and legal backing against this terrible form of coercion. No
woman deserves to be forced into aborting her unborn child," Listing
said.
As many as 64 percent of women who have abortions report feeling
pressured. This pressure often rises to the level of coercion, as
housing, university athletic scholarships, and other financial support
are used as leverage to force women to have abortions. Further studies
reveal that in an alarming number of cases, coercion escalates into
physical violence.
House approval of the bills caps 6 years of work to enact this
protection for pregnant women and a favorable reception of the bills
is expected in the Michigan Senate.
On Fasting
"If
our fast is not performed with humility, it will not be pleasing to
God… St. Paul in the epistle that he wrote to the Corinthians [1 Cot:
13]…declared the conditions necessary for disposing ourselves to fast
well during Lent. He says this to us: Lent is approaching. Prepare
yourselves to fast with charity, for if your fast is performed without
it, it will be vain and useless, since fasting, like all other good
works, is not pleasing to God unless it is done in charity and through
charity. When you discipline yourself, when you say long prayers, if you
have not charity, all that is nothing. Even though you should work
miracles, if you have not charity, they will not profit you at all.
Indeed, even if you should suffer martyrdom without charity, your
martyrdom is worth nothing and would not be meritorious in the eyes of
the Divine Majesty. For all works, small or great, however good they may
be in themselves, are of no value and profit us nothing if they are not
done in charity and through charity.
I say the same now: if your fast is without humility, it is worth nothing and cannot be pleasing to the Lord…"
-from the Sermons of St. Francis de Sales for Lent
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Save the Storks
The Save the Storks bus is slick, recognizable, welcoming, and —
horror of horrors — it sits in between a mother and the abortion clinic
doors. With a simple offer of no-strings-attached help — “Would you like
a free ultrasound?” — and a bright, comforting image, it appeals to the
desperate woman before she reaches the clinic.
She is not confronted. She is offered help. And while I firmly believe that virtually all sidewalk counselors and activists outside clinic are there for no other reason than to help women, the Storks are able to present help first. That is the key. The average clinic sidewalk approach is, of necessity, “Please don’t kill your baby. Here’s why. And here’s help.” Because they have their awesome bus, Save the Storks are able to say, “Here’s help. Now please don’t kill your baby. Here’s why.”
Because they don’t have to lead with agenda, there are no warning bells for a desperate and defensive mother. There is only a friendly face.
This new model will absolutely revolutionize the front lines of pro-life activism.
What is the battle cry of the pro-abortion movement? “Choice!” It is their mantra. What do you constantly hear from abortion advocates? “These desperate women feel like they are out of options.”
Right here, on four wheels, parked in front of the clinic, is another choice — one they might not even know they have. Inside that bus is an image of their baby waiting to be seen. Connected to that bus is a support system — in short, options.
Dave and the team have high hopes, and they should. The approach is breathtakingly simple and, if early tests are any indication, profoundly effective.
As mentioned, the Storks take to the streets of Dallas on March 13. Meanwhile their website is up and running at SaveTheStorks.com with the purpose of raising money to take the program national. A Save the Storks bus is not cheap, and it takes people to run it. While Dave and his team get things off the ground in Dallas, Joe is in charge of building a national movement.
The thought of a Stork bus in every major city in America should bring a smile to your face. Every one of these buses represents hundreds of lives saved every year.
Sounds great. Visit their website.
She is not confronted. She is offered help. And while I firmly believe that virtually all sidewalk counselors and activists outside clinic are there for no other reason than to help women, the Storks are able to present help first. That is the key. The average clinic sidewalk approach is, of necessity, “Please don’t kill your baby. Here’s why. And here’s help.” Because they have their awesome bus, Save the Storks are able to say, “Here’s help. Now please don’t kill your baby. Here’s why.”
Because they don’t have to lead with agenda, there are no warning bells for a desperate and defensive mother. There is only a friendly face.
This new model will absolutely revolutionize the front lines of pro-life activism.
What is the battle cry of the pro-abortion movement? “Choice!” It is their mantra. What do you constantly hear from abortion advocates? “These desperate women feel like they are out of options.”
Right here, on four wheels, parked in front of the clinic, is another choice — one they might not even know they have. Inside that bus is an image of their baby waiting to be seen. Connected to that bus is a support system — in short, options.
Dave and the team have high hopes, and they should. The approach is breathtakingly simple and, if early tests are any indication, profoundly effective.
As mentioned, the Storks take to the streets of Dallas on March 13. Meanwhile their website is up and running at SaveTheStorks.com with the purpose of raising money to take the program national. A Save the Storks bus is not cheap, and it takes people to run it. While Dave and his team get things off the ground in Dallas, Joe is in charge of building a national movement.
The thought of a Stork bus in every major city in America should bring a smile to your face. Every one of these buses represents hundreds of lives saved every year.
Sounds great. Visit their website.
Are you registered?
According to this website only half of the 60 million Christians in this country (I don't think they included Catholics in that numeration) are registered to vote.
Fast. Pray. Champion the Vote.
Fast. Pray. Champion the Vote.
Monday, March 12, 2012
More falsehoods
A widely cited study by Elizabeth Raymond and David Grimes published in the leading journal Obstetrics and Gynecology found that women were 14 times more likely to die during or after childbirth than from complications of an abortion.
That abortion is supposedly safer than childbirth is not a new argument. It played an important role in the Roe v Wade decision where the Court took as “established medical fact” that in the first 3 months of pregnancy “mortality in abortion is less than mortality in normal childbirth.”
Now, this argument is being rehashed to criticize state legislation that identifies abortions as high-risk procedures and to “dispel misinformation and lies” about abortion- related risks.
Independent researchers, however, find that the Raymond and Grimes study is the very source of such misinformation. It relies on “seriously incomplete data” and leads to faulty conclusions.
read the critical research here
That abortion is supposedly safer than childbirth is not a new argument. It played an important role in the Roe v Wade decision where the Court took as “established medical fact” that in the first 3 months of pregnancy “mortality in abortion is less than mortality in normal childbirth.”
Now, this argument is being rehashed to criticize state legislation that identifies abortions as high-risk procedures and to “dispel misinformation and lies” about abortion- related risks.
Independent researchers, however, find that the Raymond and Grimes study is the very source of such misinformation. It relies on “seriously incomplete data” and leads to faulty conclusions.
read the critical research here
Sunday, March 11, 2012
America the Beautiful
Yes,
America, you are beautiful indeed, and blessed in so many ways ... But
your greatest beauty and your richest blessing is found in the human
person: in each man, woman and child, in every immigrant, in every
native-born son and daughter. For this reason, America, your deepest
identity and truest character as a Nation is revealed in the position
you take towards the human person.The ultimate test of your greatness is
in the way you treat every human being, but especially the weakest and
most defenseless ones.
Blessed John Paul II spoke these words
during his apostolic visit to the United States on September 19, 1987.
Nearly twenty-five years later his words offer us opportunity for
reflection and observation: Sadly our nation has not heeded the late
Holy Father's words and has moved further away from an authentic Culture
of Life. Instead, our leaders have created policies that have only
accelerated our descent towards a Culture of Death in the name of sexual
freedom without responsibility, that have ultimately led to loss of
millions of innocent lives through abortion.
In his remarks, the late Holy Father reflected on America's place in history and referenced some of her identifying qualities:
Your
genius for invention and for splendid progress; in the power that you
use for service and in the wealth that you share with others; in what
you give to your own, and in what you do for others beyond your borders;
in how you serve, and in how you keep alive the flame of hope in many
hearts; in your quest for excellence and in your desire to right all
wrongs.
With these words, the Holy
Father was not only reminding Americans about our great accomplishments,
but he was reminding us of our responsibility as stewards of the great
gifts we've received. He continued by speaking about America's desire
for equality, justice, true freedom and lasting peace, adding that these
can only be realized if America defends life. A lasting prosperity and
just moral order are possible in America, but only to the extent that every human being is guaranteed the right to pursue happiness, liberty and justice.
How appropriate for us to
reflect on the challenging and prophetic words of Blessed John Paul as
our nation comes to this pivotal moment and decides its future. We have a
place in history, but how we are remembered is up to us. Will we take
an account of our actions and reconcile with our God and neighbor, or
will we continue to follow the path that will potentially lead to our
nation's demise? Will we be a nation of life or continue to be a nation
of death?
- words to ponder from Human Life International
- words to ponder from Human Life International
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Lessening of choice
Freedom is the ability to choose, but the choice to sin is actually a lessening of choice. Evil is not a positive reality, but is a deficiency, a tendency toward non-being. Thus, the sinfulness of an action is that action’s tendency toward non-existence and non-being. Further, the creature’s “ability” to sin is an expression of its tendency toward non-being.
Thus, it should be clear that the choice to sin is itself a movement toward non-existence. If that movement and tendency toward nothingness be taken away, then the creature becomes progressively more free. God is pure being, pure existence – and therefore, he is perfect goodness with no admixture of evil or of sin, nor even of the possibility of sin.
With that definition, found here, we can begin to wonder, "Who are the real pro-choicers?"
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