A new agenda for the world’s women

Carolyn Moynihan

What’s behind the discovery that women are the world’s greatest unexploited resource for fighting poverty and terrorism?

If you think the world is going to hell in a handcart, stop worrying; there are plenty of would-be saviours around. Philosopher Peter Singer, as we noted on this site last week, says a voluntary transfer of cash from the rich to the poor would save the world from poverty. New Scientist is working on a “Blueprint for a better world” starting with such bright ideas as scepticism about common sense, legalising drugs, and entrusting everyone’s DNA to the police. And The New York Times believes that “Saving the World’s Women” is the way to go. It probably is, so let’s see what’s new on the women’s agenda.

Admittedly, we hear a lot about saving the women of the developing world. Usually, it is from the “sexual and reproductive health” crowd, whose answer to dangerous childbirth, infant mortality, hunger, disease the abuse of women -- and practically everything else -- is contraception, sterilisation and abortion. Just this month they gathered in Berlin to complain about lack of progress on that front in many countries and to call for “universal access to sexual and reproductive health information and services by 2015”.

http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/a_new_agenda_for_the_worlds_women/

HR 3200 provides taxpayer-funded abortions

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow -

The healthcare reform bill puts taxpayers in the position of paying for abortions. The House version of H.R. 3200 would drastically change long-standing federal policy, according to Susan Muskett, senior legislative counsel at the National Right to Life Committee. "It creates a nationwide insurance plan run by the federal government that is explicitly authorized to cover all abortions," she explains. "The federal government would be running a nationwide abortion plan."

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=675732

ObamaCare circumvents confession of abortion funding

Pete Chagnon and Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow -

Three pro-life leaders are voicing concern over President Obama's healthcare plan. They believe President Obama may not be telling the truth about taxpayer-funded abortion as it pertains to his healthcare reform plan.

For the twenty-ninth time, Obama has tried to drum up support for his healthcare reform proposal. In a speech delivered on Wednesday evening, Obama tried to quell division over his plan concerning taxpayer-funded abortion.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=677860

How informed the choice?

Sheila Liaugminas

The legal wrangling over South Dakota’s informed consent law hasbeen both bizarre and revealing. At core, it’s a battle between thepowerful abortion movement which operates under the mantle of ‘choice’,and the pro-life movement which is working mightily to give womenenough information to make an informed choice.

When South Dakota legislators passed a law requiring abortionproviders to inform women that they are carrying not a blob of tissue,but an already existing human being, among other highly relevant factsand the possiblerisks ass ociated with the procedure. PlannedParenthood got an injunction to prevent that law’s enactment byconvincing judge Karen Schreier that such disclosure violates theabortionists’ rights of free speech. Schreier decided that outweighedthe women’s right to information.

http://www.mercatornet.com/sheila_liaugminas/view/how_informed_the_choice/q

The fight to enforce parental notification laws

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow -

Officials from a Christian legal society in Chicago are urging the Illinois Supreme Court to implement parental notification when a child is seeking an abortion. A parental notification law was passed in Illinois nearly 15 years ago, but court challenges and other maneuvering has prevented implementation. Most recently, a state medical board gave abortion doctors a reprieve from a court order for 90 days before they will be required to comply.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=662340

NEA reveals true stance on homosexual marriage

Pete Chagnon - OneNewsNow -

Does the NEA support same-sex marriage?

In early July, OneNewsNow was contacted by the Conservative Educators Caucus, an organization within the National Education Association (NEA) made up of conservative teachers. They claimed that the NEA threw their full support behind the homosexual marriage during their annual meeting in California. Concerned teachers within the NEA contacted their local officials, who denied any such support. However, Jeralee Smith of the Conservative Educators Caucus says those officials are playing "liberal word games." She directs concerned teachers to the NEA's website, which has posted the resolution.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Education/Default.aspx?id=661894

Abortion, breast cancer link confirmed again

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow -

Another study confirms a link between abortion and breast cancer. The latest research was done in Turkey and is widely available on the Internet, according to Karen Malec of the Coalition on Abortion-Breast Cancer. "This study found that...Turkish women who have abortions...have a statistically significant 66-percent increase in breast cancer risk," she notes.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=657946

Abortion 'explicitly' covered under ObamaCare

Pete Chagnon - OneNewsNow -

FactCheck.org says the National Right to Life Committee is correct concerning abortion provisions in ObamaCare. According to FactCheck.org, President Barack Obama was right to a "limited extent" when he stated that his healthcare reform plan does not allow for "government-funded abortion." Although FactCheck.org states that under H.R. 3200 federal money is not used to fund abortion, under the public insurance option there is a provision for abortion coverage -- as well as provisions for government-subsidized public and private insurance plans that cover what are described as "reproductive services."

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=657860

Will court enforce rules about RU-486?

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow -

An Ohio law dealing with the abortion drug RU-486 will see even more court action. The law simply requires abortion facilities administering the drug to do so according to federal guidelines, rather misusing it. An abortion business filed a lawsuit in 2004, saying the statute was ambiguous. The case has been in the courts since then, but Mark Lally of Ohio Right to Life tells OneNewsNow the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=651832

Abortionist Carhart denied hospital privileges

Butts - OneNewsNow -

A request to open a late-term abortion clinic has been shot down in Wichita, Kansas. Operation Rescue's Troy Newman launched an online petition drive to convince a local hospital not to grant hospital privileges to well-known abortionist LeRoy Carhart. The answer came just a few hours later.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=648614

Personhood amendment making inroads in Colorado

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow -

Personhood Colorado is preparing for a major effort to get a proposed pro-life amendment on an upcoming ballot. The amendment would declare that personhood starts at "the beginning of biological development of a human being," which changes the previous amendment's wording from "the moment of fertilization." Personhood Colorado campaign co-chairman Gualberto Garcia Jones says 75,000 petition signatures are needed to get the issue on the 2010 ballot. He is optimistic because his group did well taking the issue to voters last year.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=638268

UN Disabilities Treaty does not create abortion rights

Austin Ruse and Piero A. Tozzi

Abortion has not been smuggled into international law by hiding under the banner of "sexual and reproductive health". Late week, United States signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities – the first binding United Nations treaty to mention "sexual and reproductive health." The term has provoked concern among pro-lifers, who worry that it creates an implicit right to abortion. Let us emphatically state: It does not.

http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/un_disabilities_treaty_does_not_create_abortion_rights/

Pro-aborts clouding issue of healthcare reform, abortion

Brown - OneNewsNow -

National Right to Life accuses the pro-abortion lobby of "creating smokescreens" intended to prevent Americans from finding out that their tax dollars will be used to fund abortion in the Democrats' government-run healthcare plan. Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards claimed earlier this week in a piece for the Huffington Post that taxpayers would not be forced to fund abortions in the government health insurance plan advocated by President Obama. "The public health insurance plan...would operate like any private insurance plan would," she wrote. "Therefore, there is no reason to treat any coverage issue, including abortion coverage, differently in the public health insurance plan than in private plans...."

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=633186

China’s abortion surge blamed on young, single women

Carolyn Moynihan

A report in the official Chinese newspaper China Daily reveals some shocking figures on abortion in that country: 13 million surgical abortions a year performed in hospitals, 10 million abortion pills sold every year, and unknown number of abortions done in unregistered rural hospitals. “Family planning” statistics are usually considered state secrets, so why this sudden revelation?
Apparently, nobody knows, but the original report -- picked up by media around the world -- highlighted the information that nearly two thirds of the hospital abortions were done on single women aged between 20 and 29. A government official quoted in the report said nearly half of those having abortions reported using no contraception when they conceived. A sex therapist blamed it all on a lack of sex education (and doesn’t that sound familiar?).

http://www.mercatornet.com/family_edge/view/chinas_abortion_surge_blamed_on_young_single_women/

The Grail Searchers

Despite endless efforts to prove the contrary, science shows that an embryo is a human being.

By Maureen Condic, Patrick Lee, and Robert P. George

“The development of a human being begins with fertilization, a process by which the spermatozoon from the male and the oocyte from the female unite to give rise to a new organism, the zygote.” — Langman’s Medical Embryology, 7th edition, 1995
For people who advocate the killing of embryonic human beings in the cause of biomedical research, the Holy Grail is an argument that would definitively establish that the human embryo, at least early in its development, is not a living human organism and therefore not a human being at all. The problem for these advocates is that all the scientific evidence points in precisely the opposite direction. Modern human embryology and developmental biology have shown that fertilization produces a new and distinct organism: a living individual of the human species in the embryonic stage of his or her development.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZDFkM2ZiOGEwOWVkY2Y2ZTlhNDk2MjdkMWQ3NzZhNmY

Abortion unbound

Sheila Liaugminas
If passed as written, health care ‘reform’ in America would expand abortion more radically than anything since Roe. Abortion activists first introduced the misnamed ‘Freedom of Choice Act’ (FOCA) with the help of Senate sympathizers in 1989 to create a fundamental right to abortion for all women, spread its access, and limit any government regulation, including any that even Roe v. Wade allowed. Twenty years and countless successes since then, the abortion movement put a sympathizer in the White House who had promised them he would sign that sweeping and radical legislation into law if elected.
http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/abortion_unbound/

Teachers flocking to Christian alternative to NEA

Pete Chagnon - OneNewsNow -
The Christian Educators Association International says it has seen an increase in enrollment due to some developments in the National Education Association. About one month ago, the National Education Association (NEA) voted to throw its full support behind homosexual "marriage," and members voted down a resolution calling for the NEA to take a "no-position" stance on abortion. Furthermore, NEA top lawyer Bob Chanin recently berated those within the NEA who hold to traditional conservative values, accusing them of trying to take down the union.
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Education/Default.aspx?id=616046

Hear about the legal breakthrough in abortion law?

Sheila Liaugminas

Overhwhelming odds are that you didn’t, even if you live in the state of Illinois, where the landmark decision came down last week. The story, a small piece, was buried on page 11 of the Chicago Tribune the next day. A federal appeals court in Chicago on Tuesday breathed new life into a long-dormant Illinois law that requires physicians to notify the parents of teenage girls before performing abortions. Attorneys on both sides of the issue said the law — which was passed in 1984 and updated in 1995 — would take effect within weeks unless its critics ask for a stay and the three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agrees to put its order on hold pending a rehearing.

http://www.mercatornet.com/sheila_liaugminas/view/hear_about_the_legal_breakthrough_in_abortion_law/

Abortion industry bailout

Sheila Liaugminas

Besides the surprise revelation about restrictions on private health insurance (below), what else is in that 1,018 page health care bill that’s just coming to light?
Mandated taxpayer funding of abortion. FOCA has returned, under the cover of this bill. Pro-life groups and lawmakers are continuing to raise the alarm over the healthcare reform package President Obama is aggressively pushing through both the House and the Senate. The groups are urging Americans to oppose the healthcare overhaul, as pro-abortion lawmakers are insisting that abortion must be included in the basic healthcare package that all public and private insurers will eventually be required to cover. But they’re using stealth language.

http://www.mercatornet.com/sheila_liaugminas/view/abortion_industry_bailout/

Mike Pence taking on Planned Parenthood

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow -

Pro-life Congressman Mike Pence (R-Indiana) has drafted an amendment to defund Planned Parenthood. Pence's amendment is attached to a Department of Health and Human Services funding bill that, in part, throws federal tax dollars Planned Parenthood's way. Justin Aquila of the Susan B. Anthony List tells OneNewsNow the abortion provider receives a sizeable part of the appropriation. "In the past two years, Planned Parenthood has received $350 million [in taxpayer funding]," he notes.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=612196

District Attorney Seeks Life Time Ban For Walter Hoye

Union City, CA (ISSUES4LIFE FOUNDATION) Thursday, July 30th, 2009 – At a hearing Monday before Alameda County Superior Court Judge Stuart Hing, deputy district attorney Masanao Morimoto revealed that the District Attorney is seeking to ban Walter Hoye from ever returning to the Family Planning Specialists clinic in Oakland, California. Hoye was arrested last year for violating Oakland's "Mother May I" law. Following his conviction, he was sentenced to 30 days in jail and an $1100 fine, plus three years' probation during which time he was ordered to stay 100 yards from the clinic. Hoye exercised his right to turn down probation, but the judge proceeded to fill out a probation order anyway. Hoye served his time in jail, and the fine was paid. Both the conviction and the probation order are on appeal.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/search/ci_12939639?nclick_check=1

Smuggling abortion agenda into healthcare reform

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow -
If passed, two healthcare reform bills could mean more abortions at taxpayers' expense.The two primary measures -- the Kennedy bill and the House Democratic leadership bill -- contain provisions that would represent the greatest expansion of abortion since the Supreme Court legalized it in 1973, according to Douglas Johnson of the National Right to Life Committee.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=602360

More abortion, fewer ‘undesirables’

Sheila Liaugminas
It’s not a stretch to see Justice Ginsburg’s remarks in the New York Time’s interview as saying that. In fact, she did say that. Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of.
http://www.mercatornet.com/sheila_liaugminas/view/more_abortion_fewer_undesirables/

Obama's Science Czar: Traditional family is obsolete, punish large families

By: David Freddoso
President Obama's Science Czar, John Holdren, took a controversial and amoral approach to the science of population by recommending mass compulsory sterilization and even forced abortion (and/or forced marriages) under certain circumstances. His 1977 tome, Ecoscience, which he co-authored with Paul and Anne Ehrlich, also displays a revealing disregard for the institution of the traditional human family.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/More-Holdren-Traditional-family-is-obsolete-50807107.html

Pope’s letter calls for openness to human life

Carolyn Moynihan
Pope Benedict XVI’s new encyclical letter, “On Integral Human Development in Charity and Truth”, discusses a wide spectrum of social realities, among them the need for openness to new human life, which, he says, “is at the centre of true development”, and protection of the family founded on “marriage between a man and a woman, the primary vital cell of society”.

http://www.mercatornet.com/family_edge/view/popes_letter_calls_for_openness_to_human_life/

When color trumps Christianity

Star Parker -

President Obama hosted a reception at the White House celebrating LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) Pride month. Black Christians should take note and learn a few things about our black president. As they say, we are what we do.
It tells us something that Mr. Obama had no time to host an event for the National Day of Prayer. Nor did he have time to accept the invitation to convey greetings and a few remarks to the couple hundred thousand who came to Washington, as they do every January, for the March for Life. However, the LGBT Pride event did make it onto the president's busy schedule.

Here are parts of his remarks I think noteworthy for black Christians:

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Perspectives/Default.aspx?id=592920

'Personhood' pushers at it again in Colorado

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow -
Two Colorado organizations have launched another petition drive to put a personhood amendment on the 2010 ballot. Colorado Right to Life and Personhood Colorado are joining forces to gather the signatures for the 2010 Colorado Personhood Initiative. Right to Life spokeswoman Leslie Hanks says they are energized for the campaign.
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=589262

Korea’s population crisis

Choi Seon-jeong

Korea is suffering from a national crisis of super-low fertility. The head of the Korean affiliate of Planned Parenthood explains why. The head of the Korean affiliate of the International Planned Parenthood Federation recently pleaded with his countrymen and women to have more children. Choi Seon-jeong, president of the Planned Population Federation of Korea, warned in the JoongAng Daily that his government must combat a "national crisis of super-low fertility", or Korea will disappear. MercatorNet asked him to explain how this has happened and how he proposes to increase birth rates. MercatorNet: The latest statistics show that the fertility rate in the Republic of Korea is one of the lowest in the world. You have described this as a "national crisis of super-low fertility". What do you fear will happen?

http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/koreas_population_crisis/

Teachers' union to consider abortion issue

Pete Chagnon - OneNewsNow -

Conservative teachers within the NEA will call for the union to drop its support of abortion. The National Education Association will convene for their national meeting in San Diego July 1-6. Jeralee Smith, one of the co-founders of the NEA Conservative Educators Caucus, says one of the items her group has placed on the agenda is abortion. "The union contributes to candidates who will maintain the current Roe v. Wade decision and make sure that the abortion industry is alive and well," she explains. "And this supposedly is done with the portion of union dues that...is optional. But a lot of times we found sneaky ways that the union supports things that we don't believe in."

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Education/Default.aspx?id=585014

Catholic hospital halts merger with pro-abortion group

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow -

A Catholic hospital chain in Massachusetts has bowed to public pressure. Jim Sedlak of American Life League (ALL) points out a pending merger between the hospital and a pro-abortion healthcare network sparked an outrage among pro-life supporters. "The Catholic hospital system in Boston, known as Caritas Christi, had already signed papers to enter into an agreement with a secular organization to provide a healthcare network that would cover abortions, contraception, and other things that are against Catholic teaching," he notes. The contract with pro-abortion Centene Corp would have gone into effect July 1, according to an ALL press release. ALL members and others around the country urged Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley to halt the contract.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=584754

The jarring disconnect

Sheila Liaugminas
How can people not see the obvious? Amnesty International has lost its credibility as a human rights advocate as it aggressively promotes.....demands.....the right to abortion.
http://www.mercatornet.com/sheila_liaugminas/view/the_jarring_disconnect/

Is the Abortion Debate Over?

by Micah Watson
The philosophical debate about abortion has reached a welcome level of clarity. The pro-life movement must capitalize on recent gains in public policy and opinion by equipping their grass-roots supporters with winsome arguments and effective strategies to continue to cultivate a culture of life. The lines of disagreement in the philosophical debate over abortion have never been clearer. While the politics of abortion remain as tumultuous and contested as they have ever been, the underlying philosophical, ethical, and scientific issues have been clarified to the extent that any careful person can examine the arguments of both sides and come to a principled and informed position.
http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/viewarticle.php?selectedarticle=2009.06.23.001.pdart

How many mothers die from ‘unsafe abortion’?

Donna J Harrison
Nobody knows, and current definitions are designed with political ends in mind.

Maternal deaths during pregnancy or childbirth, the vast majority in developing countries, constitute one of the world’s greatest hidden epidemics. The death toll is estimated at more than half a million mothers a year.

http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/how_many_mothers_die_from_unsafe_abortion/

Think again

Sheila Liaugminas

Culture wars and political battles are about ideas. Media and marketing help shape public thinking about the issues. So changing hearts and minds requires reaching people with facts and inviting them to a conversation. A quiet and classy new campaign has started in the Washington area that’s designed to do just that.

http://www.mercatornet.com/sheila_liaugminas/view/think_again/

'An embryo property case'

Sheila Liaugminas

That’s lawyer-speak in a lively debate over a bizarre case of implantation gone wrong in a UK clinic. “There really has to be a legal line on when life begins…” snapped the Fox News anchor who sometime during this debate corrected herself from calling an embryo a baby. So though cases like this are stunning, they are probably logical extensions of the pervasive abortion culture. An invitro fertilization clinic in Wales implanted the wrong woman with the last embryo of another couple. The woman wrongly implanted then had an abortion.

http://www.mercatornet.com/sheila_liaugminas/view/an_embryo_property_case/

Another late-term abortionist revives Tiller's mission

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow -
A late-term abortionist has said he will perform limited late-term abortions in Nebraska and plans to open a Kansas facility, too. His announcement comes on the heels of the murder of Wichita abortionist George Tiller.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=567674

Catholic diocese -- set to partner with abortion services?

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow -
American Life League (ALL) is sounding an alarm over a potential abortion scandal involving the Archdiocese of Boston.Celticare is a joint venture partnering the archdiocesan Caritas Christi Health Care network with another corporation, which will join Massachusetts' subsidized health program July 1 -- a program that mandates abortion. ALL spokesperson Katie Walker says the archdiocese is using an odd approach.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Church/Default.aspx?id=563720

ND Prez Jenkins Has "No Interest" in Asking for Leniency for ND Protesters Despite Calls for “Dialogue”

By Kathleen Gilbert
SOUTH BEND, Indiana, June 10, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The president of the University of Notre Dame has "no interest" in interfering with the fates of over 80 peaceful pro-life protesters arrested on campus while protesting President Obama's May 17 commencement speech, says the pro-lifers' attorney. One of the arrestees, Lambs of Christ founder Fr. Norman Weslin, issued a statement Monday calling on University president Fr. John Jenkins to heed the arrested group's requests to meet, which Weslin says Fr. Jenkins has ignored.

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jun/09061007.html

Closing of Tiller's clinic was on the horizon

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

The family of murdered late-term abortionist George Tiller has announced that the Wichita clinic where he practiced will close permanently. On Tuesday, Tiller's family said in a statement that Women's Health Care Services, Inc. -- the abortuary operated by the slain abortionist -- will be "permanently closed." While the clinic was operational, literally tens of thousands of unborn children were killed under Tiller's guidance and participation. Headquarters for the pro-life group Operation Rescue are located next door to the clinic. OR president Troy Newman labels the announcement a "bittersweet moment," pointing out that his group is always jubilant when a notorious abortion facility closes its doors.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=560808

"Stop Funding Pro-Abortion Groups in Our Country": Peru Bishops to Canadian Bishops

By John-Henry Westen
LIMA, June 9, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a May 28 letter, the Bishops Conference of Peru has “formally” requested that the bishops of Canada cease funding pro-abortion groups in Peru via the Canadian Catholic Organization of Development & Peace (D&P). “It is very disturbing to have groups which work against the Bishops of Peru by attempting to undermine legal protection for the right to life of unborn children, be funded by our brother bishops in Canada,” says the letter.

The letter marks a major breakthrough in the D&P scandal that was first exposed by LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) in March with revelations of $140,000 in D&P funding for five Mexican groups that promote abortion.
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jun/09060911.html

Thoughts from an ex-fetus

George Jonas, National Post

George Tiller, the 67-year-old physician shot last week in Wichita, Kan., was an abortionist. His suspected killer, identified by the press as Scott Roeder, 51, also felt entitled to decide whose life to terminate and when. To this extent at least, killers of abortionists resemble their victims.

Some people might object that there is a fundamental difference. Abortion is legal, while killing abortionists isn't. This is true -- at least, it's true today, although not long ago a medically unnecessary abortion was every bit as illegal as a medically unnecessary assassination. Killers of fetuses stayed behind bars for shorter periods than killers of physicians, but the law viewed both as felons.

http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=1656750&p=1

Abortion vs. Homosexuality: The Evangelical Age Gap

Steven Waldman

When talking about social issues of interest to evangelicals, we tend to lump abortion and homosexuality together. But the politics are actually different, especially among young evangelicals. I asked John Green of the Pew Forum to do one additional slice of the data from their Religious Landscape Survey. Here's what he reports:62.3% of white evangelicals overall are pro-life 69.2% of white evangelicals under the age of 30 are pro-life Young evangelicals are even more pro-life than their parents.However, on homosexuality, the pattern is reversed.

http://blog.beliefnet.com/stevenwaldman/2008/07/abortion-vs-homosexuality-the.html

What "Church" Does Notre Dame belong to?

By George Weigel

Of all the commentary I’ve read on Notre Dame’s decision to invite President Obama to receive an honorary doctorate of laws as the university’s 2009 commencement speaker, the most disturbing came from Father Kenneth Himes of the Boston College theology department. In a Boston Globe story about Professor Mary Ann Glendon’s courageous (and correct) decision to decline Notre Dame’s Laetare Medal because the university had defied the U.S. bishops’s policy barring honors for pro-abortion politicians at Catholic events, Father Himes said this:

"There are some well-meaning people who think Notre Dame has given away its Catholic identity, because they have been caught up in the gamesmanship of American higher education, bringing in a star commencement speaker even if that means sacrificing their values, and that accounts for some of this...But one also has to say that there is a political game going on here, and part of that is that you demonize the people who disagree with you, you question their integrity, you challenge their character, and you brand these people as moral poison. Some people have simply reduced Catholicism to the abortion issue, and, consequently, they have simply launched a crusade to bar anything from Catholic institutions that smacks of any sort of open conversation."

http://www.eppc.org/publications/pubID.3836/pub_detail.asp

The murderer-martyr syndrome

Allie Martin - OneNewsNow

...Scott Roeder has been charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Tiller in a Wichita, Kansas, church Sunday morning. The 51-year-old Roeder was charged Tuesday and appeared in court via video from jail. He is accused of killing Tiller as the doctor served as an usher at Reformation Lutheran church.

The president of the Kansas Coalition for Life, Mark Gietzen, says Roeder was "incredibly stupid" if he thought killing Tiller would be "a pro-life act." Geitzen says the slaying has instead turned Tiller "into a martyr" while doing nothing to stop abortion.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=552806

“Every life has to be protected”

Sheila Liaugminas

No exceptions. That’s been the message of the pro-life world: that no class of human beings can be considered ‘unworthy’ of life or the full protection of the law, from conception to natural death. At its core, the movement is about the dignity and sanctity of every human being, no matter what stage of life, no matter what condition of strength or weakness, no matter what ideology or practice.

http://www.mercatornet.com/sheila_liaugminas/view/every_life_has_to_be_protected/

The wrongness of taking human life

Sheila Liaugminas

You cannot teach the inviolability of every life by violating it in some cases. Some seriously disordered person did violate the sanctity of life in the murder of abortionist George Tiller. If this dreadful crime teaches us anything, let it be that.

http://www.mercatornet.com/sheila_liaugminas/view/the_wrongness_of_taking_human_life/

Like abortion, Tiller's murder 'senseless act of violence'

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

The pro-life community continues to reject any reason as legitimate for the slaying of late-term abortionist George Tiller on Sunday morning in Wichita, Kansas. Tiller's family calls his slaying "particularly heart-wrenching" because he was "shot down in his house of worship." The 67-year-old abortionist, one of the few U.S. doctors to perform late-term abortions, was killed as he served as an usher during Sunday morning services at Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita. (See earlier article)

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=549886

Pro-Lifers Condemn Tiller Killing

Posted by Tom Hoopes

Pro-lifers rushed to the transom to condemn the killing of abortionist George Tiller by a gunman at his Kansas church.UPDATED with more comment.
Statements from: U.S. bishops, Priests for Life, American Life League, Kansas Bishops, CatholicVote.org and Susan B. Anthony List.

Speaking on behalf of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, chairman of the bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, expressed profound regret upon learning of the shooting death of abortion doctor George Tiller.

http://www.ncregister.com/daily/pro-lifers_condemn_tiller_killer/

Gravely Wicked

[Robert P. George]

Whoever murdered George Tiller has done a gravely wicked thing. The evil of this action is in no way diminished by the blood George Tiller had on his own hands. No private individual had the right to execute judgment against him. We are a nation of laws. Lawless violence breeds only more lawless violence. Rightly or wrongly, George Tilller was acquitted by a jury of his peers. "Vengeance is mine, says the Lord." For the sake of justice and right, the perpetrator of this evil deed must be prosecuted, convicted, and punished. By word and deed, let us teach that violence against abortionists is not the answer to the violence of abortion. Every human life is precious. George Tiller's life was precious. We do not teach the wrongness of taking human life by wrongfully taking a human life. Let our "weapons" in the fight to defend the lives of abortion's tiny victims, be chaste weapons of the spirit.

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDM5NGYyYWMxZDY3NWFmYjhjZmJiNTI2YmRjZmRlYWE

NATIONAL RIGHT TO LIFE CONDEMNS THE KILLING

WASHINGTON – The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the nation's largest pro-life group, today condemned the killing of Dr. George Tiller. The following statement may be attributed to NRLC Executive Director, David N. O'Steen, Ph.D.: National Right to Life extends its sympathies to Dr. Tiller's family over this loss of life.
Further, the National Right to Life Committee unequivocally condemns any such acts of violence regardless of motivation. The pro-life movement works to protect the right to life and increase respect for human life. The unlawful use of violence is directly contrary to that goal.

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NjIzYmQ0ZGY3NTUyNGRjOTI1ZTliOWUyZDc1ZTVlNjI

The Wrong Release

Kathryn Jean Lopez

This press release arrived in my inbox shortly after the news of George Tiller’s murder.
Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue, led protests against George Tiller's late-term abortion clinic in Wichita in 1991.Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue states, "George Tiller was a mass-murderer. We grieve for him that he did not have time to properly prepare his soul to face God. I am more concerned that the Obama Administration will use Tiller's killing to intimidate pro-lifers into surrendering our most effective rhetoric and actions. Abortion is still murder. And we still must call abortion by its proper name; murder...

What George Tiller did was evil and that should not be glossed over or sugarcoated. But here Randall Terry is doing exactly what CAIR does. When someone dies at the hands of a Muslim, CAIR rushes to warn the rest of us not to use it as an excuse to scapegoat Islam.

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MmE3OWQ5ODkzZmE3MmVhNDExZDZhYTMyNGYxNTIzMGQ

Suspect jailed in Kansas abortion doctor's killing

By ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press Writer

WICHITA, Kan. – A man suspected of fatally shooting abortion doctor George Tiller in church was in jail Monday while investigators sought to learn more about his background, including his possible connections to anti-abortion groups.

Tiller, 67, was serving as an usher during morning services Sunday when he was shot in the foyer of Reformation Lutheran Church, police said. The gunman fired one shot at Tiller and threatened two other people who tried to stop him.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_tiller_shooting

Pro-Life Group Condemns Recent Secret Meeting of Pro-Abortion Billionaires Club

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor

New York, NY (LifeNews.com) -- A top pro-life group that focuses on international issues is condemning a recent meeting of some of the richest people in the world. The groups of billionaires met secretly in New York and agreed to promote population control as their collective charitable cause in the coming years.

http://www.lifenews.com/int1209.html

Billionaires agree to overcome religious obstacles to controlling population

Times Online: “SOME of America’s leading billionaires have met secretly to consider how their wealth could be used to slow the growth of the world’s population and speed up improvements in health and education . . . convened on the initiative of Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder, discussed joining forces to overcome political and religious obstacles to change. Described as the Good Club by one insider it included David Rockefeller Jr, the patriarch of America’s wealthiest dynasty, Warren Buffett and George Soros, the financiers, Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York, and the media moguls Ted Turner and Oprah Winfrey.”

http://www.alliancealert.org/2009/05/27/billionaires-agree-to-overcome-religious-obstacles-to-controlling-population/

Spain's "Disastrous" Contraceptive Policies have Resulted in the Oldest European Population

Why are the most Catholic countries the ones with the lowest population growth? Good question. I don’t have a good answer. But in any case, how is liberalizing abortion laws the solution? It simply can’t be.

By Hilary White
A report by Spain's Institute for Family Policy says that Spain, with one of the western world's lowest birth rates and a high average life expectancy, is now the most rapidly aging country in the European Union. The Institute's head, Eduardo Hertfelder, told media that the government's "dreadful" contraceptive policies are having a "catastrophic effect." The report says that the Spanish youth population has dropped from 10 million in 1981 to 6.6 million in 2008. The process of population aging follows Spain's precipitous drop in birth rates. In 2000, a UN report found that the Spanish birth rate was the lowest in the world with 1.07 children per woman.
Hertfelder stressed that the Spanish population is being bolstered now only by increases in immigration. In Spain, the median age of women is 42.5 years; most physicians say that conception becomes increasingly less likely after age 35.

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/may/09052202.html

Posted by Jennifer

World’s Most Powerful Population Lobby Targets Dominican Pro-Life Reforms

The Dominican Republic is a sovereign nation. They are entitled to make their own domestic policy without the interference of foreign countries and international busybody organizations.

By Susan Yoshihara, Ph.D. (NEW YORK – C-FAM) The Dominican Republic has come under fire from some of the world’s most powerful abortion advocates, aiming to block a proposed constitutional amendment that would enshrine legal protection of the country’s unborn.

The International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC), backed by European nations, major foundations and the UN Population Fund, has launched an aggressive campaign to thwart proposed Article 30, which would protect human life “from conception.” The country’s national assembly approved the amendment in a first reading by an overwhelming majority of 167-32 on April 21st, but it must go through a second reading before final promulgation by the President.

http://www.c-fam.org/publications/id.1173/pub_detail.asp

Posted by Jennifer

Opposing an abortion industry bailout

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow -

A campaign against tax-supported abortions is in the works. Several pro-life organizations are rallying support to fight against the move. Operation Rescue is one of them, and Cheryl Sullinger is a spokesperson.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=536424

Pro-lifer senses growing opposition to Obama's agenda

Pete Chagnon - OneNewsNow -

The president of Operation Rescue is comparing Barack Obama to the "emperor with no clothes."

During President Obama's controversial commencement speech at Notre Dame on Sunday, he called for "fair-minded words" to be used in the abortion debate and urged both sides to find common ground. Troy Newman of Operation Rescue adds that Obama stated science and medicine should also be allowed to speak into the issue. "I completely agree -- Operation Rescue completely agrees with this statement," says Newman, "because in the last 36 years, every single piece of scientific and medical [evidence] and technology advance has proven the fact that human life begins at the moment the seed and egg unite and ought to continue all the way through natural birth."

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=535192

The class got calculus

Sheila Liaugminas

Notre Dame’s 2009 class of graduates heard some moral calculus in President Obama’s address at their commencement. His words were, indeed, eloquent and often sounded so ‘fair-minded’, which he made his theme as he hit his stride. Like when he said… So let us work together to reduce the number of women seeking abortions…

Nobody could argue that we need to do that, and many fervently work to reduce it to zero. If something is a good, why try to reduce it? If it’s an evil, why not try to eliminate it, the reasoning goes. Some commentators pointed out that since abortion is the taking of human life, talk like this blurs the line between what’s right and wrong to do.

http://www.mercatornet.com/sheila_liaugminas/view/the_class_got_calculus/

Obama and the ‘Real’ Catholics

The president inserts himself into a religious debate.

By George Weigel
Passionate debates over doctrine, identity, and the boundaries of “communion” have been a staple of the American religious landscape for centuries: Trinitarians vs. Unitarians in 19th-century New England; Modernists vs. Fundamentalists in early-20th-century Presbyterianism; Missouri Synod Lutherans vs. Wisconsin Synod Lutherans vs. Other Sorts of Lutherans down to today. Yet never in our history has a president of the United States, in the exercise of his public office, intervened in such disputes in order to secure a political advantage.

Until yesterday, at the University of Notre Dame.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YzNhZDI1MDAyMjcwNTFhMDM3NDZkOGQ5ZWZhOGUzNWI=&w=MA==

ND Response - Official Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KUBdrrbF6o

Moral relativism and Obama at Notre Dame

Star Parker - Syndicated Columnist -

In a letter to the 2009 graduating class of Notre Dame, Father John Jenkins, the university's president, explains why he is "proud" to have had President Barack Obama speak and be honored at his university. Let's put aside momentarily the appropriateness of a Catholic university honoring a man who aggressively supports legal abortion, including partial-birth abortion, and has supported a procedure that permits the destruction of a living child after birth. Someone who says that the question regarding the rights of the unborn is "above my pay grade."

And consider that Father Jenkins says that, aside from honoring the nation's president, the university must be "a crossroads through which pass people of many different perspectives, backgrounds, faiths, and cultures." In other words, it must entertain diversity of opinion. I maintain an active speaking tour at universities across this country.

Over the years, I have spoken at over 180 universities of all kinds. And one thing I can report is that American universities are uniformly liberal.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Perspectives/Default.aspx?id=533404

Obama, Notre Dame, and the character thing

Dr. Paul Kengor - Guest Columnist -

In May 1995, his first year as Pennsylvania governor, Tom Ridge was invited by Gannon University, a Catholic college in Erie, Pa., to give the commencement address and receive an honorary degree. But the distinguished Republican and native son had a problem: he was a pro-choice Catholic. Erie Bishop Donald Trautman expressed his "concerns." Governor Ridge declined the degree.

"The last thing I would want is for those differences to distract in any way from this wonderful day of recognition for Gannon's class of 1995," said Ridge. His spokesman explained that the decision "came from the governor." Ridge did the right thing. He did the character thing.

That wasn't the only case. As far back as June 1974, shortly after Roe v. Wade became law, the famous Cardinal Joseph Mindszenty refused an invitation and honorary degree from the University of Santa Clara because of an abortion controversy involving the university. Mindszenty did the character thing.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Perspectives/Default.aspx?id=530882

For the first time the majority of Americans consider themselves pro-life

Elijah Friedeman, the Millennial Perspective

With respect to the abortion issue, would you consider yourself to be pro-choice or pro-life? That was the question that was posed to more than a thousand adults in a recent Gallup poll. The results are encouraging. For the first time since Gallup started asking this question in 1995, more adults responded that they were pro-life rather than pro-choice.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Blog/Default.aspx?id=530708

Sweden rules 'gender-based' abortion legal

Swedish health authorities have ruled that gender-based abortion is not illegal according to current law and can not therefore be stopped, according to a report by Sveriges Television.

The Local reported in February that a woman from Eskilstuna in southern Sweden had twice had abortions after finding out the gender of the child. The woman, who already had two daughters, requested an amniocentesis in order to allay concerns about possible chromosome abnormalities. At the same time, she also asked to know the foetus's gender.

Doctors at Mälaren Hospital expressed concern and asked Sweden’s National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) to draw up guidelines on how to handle requests in the future in which they "feel pressured to examine the foetus’s gender" without having a medically compelling reason to do so.

http://www.thelocal.se/19392.html

Save the baby animals

Sheila Liaugminas

But by all means, keep it legal and easy to kill baby human beings. Or so says the abortion culture.
Years ago, I heard Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life talk about seeing a sign posted on the beach warning that it’s a federal offense to kill baby sea turtles. And yet he’s devoted much of his adult life and his ministry to saving pre-born children from abortion. That came to mind when I saw a question in my inbox from my friend Linda asking if anyone could explain this.

http://www.mercatornet.com/sheila_liaugminas/view/save_the_baby_animals/

One small ceremony for a Midwest town

Sheila Liaugminas

One major leap for universal human dignity.
Participants in this ceremony to honor Baby Theresa probably thought it would go unnoticed.
Found dead in a garbage bag April 29 near the Theresa Marsh in northeastern Dodge County, the newborn was buried here Monday in a 24-inch-long white casket, dressed in a pink, one-piece outfit and a white sweater.
In such degradation, they redeemed this child’s humanity.

http://www.mercatornet.com/sheila_liaugminas/view/one_small_ceremony_for_a_midwest_town/

Archbishop Burke's Keynote Address

So much of Archbishop Burke's address at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast was fantastic, but here is just a piece of it:

"6. Over the past several months, our nation has chosen a path which more completely denies any legal guarantee of the most fundamental human right, the right to life, to the innocent and defenseless unborn. Our nation, which had its beginning in the commitment to safeguard and promote the inalienable right to “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” for all, without boundary, is more and more setting arbitrary limits to her commitment (cf. The Declaration of Independence: Action of Second Continental Congress, 4 July 1776, in The Constitution of the United States with the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation, New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 2002, p. 81). Those in power now determine who will or will not be accorded the legal protection of the most fundamental right to life. First the legal protection of the right to life is denied to the unborn and, then, to those whose lives have become burdened by advanced years, special needs or serious illness, or whose lives are somehow judged to be unprofitable or unworthy.

7. What is more, those in power propose to force physicians and other healthcare professionals, in other words, those with a particular responsibility to protect and foster human life, to participate, contrary to what their conscience requires, in the destruction of unborn human lives, from the first or embryonic stage of development to the moment of birth. Our laws may soon force those who have dedicated themselves to the care of the sick and the promotion of good health to give up their noble life work, in order to be true to the most sacred dictate of their consciences. What is more, if our nation continues down the path it has taken, healthcare institutions operating in accord with the natural moral law, which teaches us that innocent human life is to be protected and fostered at all times and that it is always and everywhere evil to destroy an innocent human life, will be forced to close their doors.

8. At the same time, the fundamental society, that is, the family, upon which the life of our nation is founded and depends, is under attack by legislation which redefines marriage to include a relationship between two persons of the same sex and permits them to adopt children. In the same line, it is proposed to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. At the root of the confusion and error about marriage is the contraceptive mentality – which would have us believe that the inherently procreative nature of the conjugal union can, in practice, be mechanically or chemically eliminated, while the marital act remains unitive. It cannot be so. With unparalleled arrogance, our nation is choosing to renounce its foundation upon the faithful, indissoluble, and inherently procreative love of a man and a woman in marriage, and, in violation of what nature itself teaches us, to replace it with a so-called marital relationship, according to the definition of those who exercise the greatest power in our society."

Sorry that's a lot, but it lays out the major crises to the Culture of Life we are facing now.
Read the full speech here. (Click the banner near the top.)

KS lawmakers want to defund abortion chain

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow -

The Kansas legislature has voted to defund Planned Parenthood.

The decision was based, in part, because of investigations of Planned Parenthood by former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline. State Senator Tim Huelskamp led the drive for defunding. "They were charged in the last year with 107 counts of violations of our late-term abortion laws," he points out.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=522584

Texas House 'chooses life'

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow -

Texas residents are one step closer having a "Choose Life" license plate. The Texas House recently voted to pass the "Choose Life" plate. Jonathan Saenz of the Free Market Foundation says it took some work on strategy to get it through. "We put this language on a different bill because, unfortunately, the House version of this bill was not moving because the chair of the committee did not want it to move," he notes.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=520876

Pro-life funeral procession offers closure

This is a cool idea.

Pete Chagnon - OneNewsNow -

A pro-life protest of a different sort will take place today -- the day before Mother's Day.

The protestors will not be carrying signs or chanting slogans. Instead, only the sound of car engines will be heard as participants take place in the second annual Procession of Healing. Event founder Aaron Jones, worship arts pastor at Trinity Chapel in Knoxville, Tennessee, explains the event further.

"People who have abortions or were involved in an abortion [are] very traumatized by it and [feel it's] something they can't be forgiven for," says Jones. "So we decided to do...what we call the 'Procession of Healing,' which is a funeral procession through our downtown area. Last year we had about 300 cars going through the downtown area with black flags."

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=522302

No-family planning

Sheila Liaugminas

The semantic engineering going on between the United Nations and International Planned Parenthood is just amazing. They want the public to think they’re all about rights and family health. But look more closely…. The UN Population Fund is about reducing population by either preventing or eliminating people. And claiming that as a ‘right’.

http://www.mercatornet.com/sheila_liaugminas/view/no_family_planning/

Fr. Corapi on Notre Dame Scandal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?fc_c=1416004x3044189x153050158&v=X89_XLYbpxU

Harpooning the whale

Omar O'Shaughnessey

Notre Dame’s obsessive pursuit of prestige could send it down to Davey Jones. The University of Notre Dame is one of the oldest and most prestigious Catholic universities in the US. Even non-Americans have heard of the Fighting Irish, its legendary football team which inspired a famous film featuring a young Ronald Reagan. The team’s dismal record in 2007 -- the most losses in a single year – sparked anger and anguish amongst the university’s 120,000 alumni. It was arguably the biggest controversy of the university’s existence.

Until now.

http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/harpooning_the_whale/

A common sense argument against abortion

Elijah Friedeman, the Millennial Perspective

Sometimes current events are perfect for making a case against abortion as Mike Huckabee shows in this video. Mike Huckabee, while talking about the swine flu during his show on the FOX news channel, outlines a great rationale for Obama to make this nation safer. Not through stopping the swine flu, but by stopping abortion.

Watch the video: http://www.onenewsnow.com/Blog/Default.aspx?id=515156

Pro-life Group Blasts Notre Dame on Billboard

The Pro-Life Action League has put up two large billboards near the Notre Dame campus in South Bend, Indiana. See LifeSite News. The billboards are scheduled to go up today on the Indiana Toll Road, Interstate 80/90, and will read:

NOTRE DAME: Obama is pro abortion choice. How dare you honor him," along with a picture of a baby in utero sucking its thumb. They also will list a Web address, NotreDameProtest.com, where visitors can get information on the protests planned during the graduation weekend at Notre Dame.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Blog/Default.aspx?id=515710

Purse strings to Planned Parenthood - snip, snip

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow -

Orange County, California, will stick with its move to not use money from a tobacco lawsuit settlement for abortion. Some of the funds had been sent the way of Planned Parenthood, but the Orange County Board of Supervisors decided recently to rescind the contract. In its most recent meeting, supervisors voted to reinstate the funds for the final two months of the contract, but then adopted a policy to not spend the money with any abortion-related group in the future.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=513272

Pro-lifers granted chance to defend themselves in court

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow -

The Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a federal judge's decision against two pro-life advocates.

Randall Wenger of the Independence Law Center and Alliance Defense Fund tells OneNewsNow his two clients -- Edward Snell and John McTernan -- simply wanted to peacefully picket and hand out literature to women entering a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in York, Pennsylvania. "But the police officers outside of the clinic, who are paid for by Planned Parenthood, gave the pro-life counselors a really hard time, arrested one of them for entering the alley to try to talk to the women who were entering the alley, and another one was threatened with arrest," he explains.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=511258

Forcing the Poor to Stop Having Children

by Daniel Patrick Moloney

“Family planning services reduce costs.” That’s what Speaker Nancy Pelosi told George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week. She was defending a provision in the original stimulus bill that would have spent hundreds of millions of dollars for birth control. Republicans had criticized this provision, and so the Speaker responded that promoting contraception among poor people would both stimulate the economy and save the government money on welfare payments.

As the video clip shot around the web, public reaction was intense, and overwhelmingly negative—how could anybody think that preventing poor people from being born was the moral way to help poor people out of poverty? It had the air of eugenics about it, as if she were saying that one generation of poor people is enough. Even the liberal partisan Chris Matthews thought Pelosi’s position resembled China’s one-child policy. In response to the backlash, the President told Pelosi to remove the contraception funding from the stimulus bill.

http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/viewarticle.php?selectedarticle=2009.05.01.002.pdart

It’s one thing to defend Notre Dame’s decision

Sheila Liaugminas

It’s another to do so with sophomoric arguments.
Like this, from someone who ought to know better.

Former President’s Council on Bioethics member and Harvard Law Professor, Mary Ann Glendon, has told the University of Notre Dame to take the honor it wished to bestow upon her and kindly have it back. Why? Evidently, she doesn’t think that President Obama shares the same notions of social justice as the she and the Roman Catholic Church…http://www.mercatornet.com/sheila_liaugminas/view/its_one_thing_to_defend_notre_dames/

Caribbean island criminalizes abortion

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow -

The Dominican Republic has enshrined the right to life for preborn babies by rewriting the constitution. Christian Newswire reports a bill was passed in Santo Domingo by a vote of 167-to-32 that said "the right to life is inviolable from conception until death."

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=509648

Forcing the Poor to Stop Having Children

by Daniel Patrick Moloney

“Family planning services reduce costs.” That’s what Speaker Nancy Pelosi told George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week. She was defending a provision in the original stimulus bill that would have spent hundreds of millions of dollars for birth control. Republicans had criticized this provision, and so the Speaker responded that promoting contraception among poor people would both stimulate the economy and save the government money on welfare payments.

As the video clip shot around the web, public reaction was intense, and overwhelmingly negative—how could anybody think that preventing poor people from being born was the moral way to help poor people out of poverty? It had the air of eugenics about it, as if she were saying that one generation of poor people is enough. Even the liberal partisan Chris Matthews thought Pelosi’s position resembled China’s one-child policy. In response to the backlash, the President told Pelosi to remove the contraception funding from the stimulus bill.

http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/viewarticle.php?selectedarticle=2009.05.01.002.pdart

Glendon for ambassador

Sheila Liaugminas

With the Obama administration having trouble finding an appropriate ambassador to the Vatican, I’ve been saying for the past few weeks he should return Mary Ann Glendon to that post. Looks like that suggestion is more apt….and more unlikely….than ever.
Here’s the White House response to Glendon’s decision to decline the Laetare Medal and the ND commencement ceremony:

http://www.mercatornet.com/sheila_liaugminas/view/glendon_for_ambassador/

It’s one thing to defend Notre Dame’s decision

Sheila Liaugminas

It’s another to do so with sophomoric arguments.

Like this, from someone who ought to know better.
Former President’s Council on Bioethics member and Harvard Law Professor, Mary Ann Glendon, has told the University of Notre Dame to take the honor it wished to bestow upon her and kindly have it back. Why? Evidently, she doesn’t think that President Obama shares the same notions of social justice as the she and the Roman Catholic Church…

http://www.mercatornet.com/sheila_liaugminas/view/its_one_thing_to_defend_notre_dames/

Notre Dame Loses $8.2 Million in Withheld Donations over Obama Scandal

DEARBORN, MI, April 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - On the same day that former Vatican ambassador Mary Ann Glendon announced that she has decided to refuse Notre Dame's Laetare Medal due to the university's invitation of Obama to receive an honorary degree at this year's commencement ceremony, a group protesting the decision has announced that the university has also lost millions in donations because of the scandal. (See: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/apr/09042702.html)

Organizers of ReplaceJenkins.com, an online effort urging alumni and donors to the University of Notre Dame to withhold donations, announced Monday that they have personally confirmed over $8.2 million in withheld donations. The URL of the website - ReplaceJenkins.com - is a reference to the main demand of the group - that Notre Dame president Fr. John Jenkins, who has firmly stood by the university's decision to honor Obama, be replaced with someone who will uphold the Catholic identity of the university.

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/apr/09042704

The Profitable Nonprofit

By David N. Bass

Left-wing activists are indignant at obscene oil company profits, hefty CEO bonuses, and sweet golden parachutes -- but what about expansion of the No. 1 violator of human rights in the United States?

No, it's not Dick Cheney and the CIA. It's Planned Parenthood. The abortion giant took home $85 million in "excess of revenue over expenses" (a nifty way of saying profits) and had an operating budget of over $1 billion for the 2007-2008 fiscal year, according to its latest annual report. Included in that budget was $350 million in "government grants and contracts" (an equally nifty way of saying your tax dollars). An increase in the number of abortions performed helped fuel the profits.

http://spectator.org/archives/2009/04/27/the-profitable-nonprofit

Glendon Declines ND Honor

Mary Ann Glendon has declined Notre Dame’s Laetare Medal over the plans to honor pro-abortion president Barack Obama.

by Father Raymond J. de SouzaFather John Jenkins likely thought himself very clever. Professor Mary Ann Glendon just took him to school.

In declining to receive the Laetare Medal alongside President Barack Obama’s honorary doctorate of laws at next month’s commencement, Glendon has refused to participate in the shabby manipulation Father Jenkins attempted to engineer. It is a rare personage who could ennoble an award by refusing to receive it, but Glendon has done just that. The Laetare Medal will now be known best for the year in which it was declined. Glendon chose, to use the apt words of Bishop John D’Arcy in this regard, truth over prestige.

http://www.ncregister.com/daily/glendon_declines_nd_honor

Former U.S. Ambassador to Vatican Says No to Prestigious Notre Dame Award...and President Obama

David Brody

You know the famous saying, “Houston. We have a problem.” Well, how about a new slogan: “Notre Dame. We have a problem.” The speech by pro-choice President Obama at the Catholic Notre Dame has caused all sorts of trouble.

It now turns out that Mary Ann Glendon, the former U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican, will NOT speak at the Notre dame Graduation because of the controversy. The pro-life, Harvard professor was set to receive the Laetare Medal which is the annual award given in recognition of outstanding service to the Roman Catholic church and society. She was to speak to the students on the same day as President Obama. But President Obama’s appearance was just too much. She just posted the following letter to the university here.

http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/589636.aspx

Openly "Pro-Choice" Priest Asks Catholics to Stop Funding LifeSiteNews Over Development and Peace

By John-Henry Westen

MONTREAL, April 21, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - An article in the Quebec daily Le Devoir, covering the LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) exposé on the fact that the official international development arm of the Canadian bishops is supporting numerous abortion advocacy groups has caused Quebec's most controversial priest to defend the agency.

Fr. Raymond Gravel, who was forced out of federal politics by the Vatican and has frequently criticized the Catholic Church's stands against abortion and homosexuality, called on Catholics to quit funding LSN over the issue.

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/apr/09042101.html

"We are at War!": Bishop Finn Delivers Rousing Clarion Call to the "Fight for Life" in America

By Kathleen Gilbert

OVERLAND PARK, Kansas, April 21, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Bishop Robert Finn of the diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph issued a powerful call to action to pro-lifers at the 2009 Gospel of Life Convention on Saturday. In his speech, Finn heavily criticized pro-abortion Catholic politicians who claim a "personal opposition" to abortion, stating that such persons are "warriors of death" who "have abandoned their place in the citizenship of the Church."

"As I speak a word of encouragement today I also want to tell you soberly, dear friends, 'We are at war!'" began Finn, who said that today's issues bring "an intensity and urgency to our efforts that may rival any time in the past."

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/apr/09042113.html

Rep. Fortenberry challenges Hillary Clinton on taxpayer supported abortions internationally

Watch video: http://www.onenewsnow.com/Blog/Default.aspx?id=500996

Pro-Abortion Joe Biden Says There’s ‘No Excuse’ For Violence Against a Child

Josh Friedeman, the Millennial Perspective

From CNSNews: Appearing at the Georgetown University Law Center yesterday to receive an award from a self-described “pro-choice” non-profit group, pro-abortion Vice President Joe Biden said that there is “no excuse” for violence against a child....At the event, Biden received the Legal Momentum Hero Award for his sponsorship of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which passed Congress 15 years ago....In his speech accepting the Legal Momentum Hero Award, Biden said: “You know there is no excuse for violence against a woman or child. There is no excuse.”

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Blog/Default.aspx?id=501854

Hillary Clinton clarifies what ‘reproductive health’ includes

Just like “family planning”, “reproductive health” is an innocent sounding term fraught with (deliberate) ambiguity. The things it includes tend to be in the fine print of NGO and UN documents where “maternal mortality” and “unsafe abortion” are juxtaposed to imply a need to legalise abortion. Those who do not see abortion as a health or family planning measure are left to ask the hard questions about the meaning of draft UN documents and the like. Does “reproductive health/services/rights” include abortion, or doesn’t it?

http://www.mercatornet.com/family_edge/view/hillary_clinton_clarifies_what_reproductive_health_includes/

Memphis abortion clinic exposed for hiding statutory rape

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

Live Action has completed a fifth undercover investigation of a Planned Parenthood abortion facility. Twenty-year-old Live Action president Lila Rose entered a Memphis Planned Parenthood abortion clinic posing as a 14-year-old girl impregnated by a 31-year-old boyfriend. All of the conversation was captured on video. "Planned Parenthood had told that vulnerable young girl that, first of all, she wasn't going to tell anyone even though that she was supposed to, to lie about the age of the 31-year-old supposed boyfriend and say he was only 17 years old to a judge so that little girl could qualify for a parental consent waiver," Rose recounts.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=496928

Sebelius has 'integrity issue'

Jim Brown - OneNewsNow

BREAKING NEWS... Kansas Gov. Kathleen Seblelius has won approval from a divided Senate panel to become secretary of Health and Human Services in the Obama administration ... The head of the Family Research Council says he hopes the latest revelation about the "blood money" Health and Human Services secretary nominee Kathleen Sebelius received from Kansas abortionist George Tiller will cause senators like Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts to reconsider their support for her appointment.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=496614

Homeschoolers release 'Roe v. Wade' movie

Pete Chagnon - OneNewsNow

A new movie is highlighting an important aspect of a conservative liberal arts college based in the Washington, DC, area. Come What May was recently released on DVD and follows two students at Patrick Henry College who seek to overturn Roe v. Wade in the school's moot court competition. Mike Farris, chancellor at PHC, says the movie is based on an actual event.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Education/Default.aspx?id=496434

Texas takes aim at Planned Parenthood

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

The state of Texas has shut down four Planned Parenthood abortion facilities in San Antonio that were operating without licenses. Clinic officials say it is a matter of miscommunication, claiming that they were told no licenses were needed because they do not conduct surgical abortions. Jonathon Saenz of Free Market Foundation does not accept that.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=493780

Palin says deciding when life begins 'isn't above her pay grade'

Ken Kusmer - Associated Press Writer

EVANSVILLE, IN - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, speaking at a pro-lfe group's dinner, criticized President Barack Obama for supporting abortion rights and challenged the idea that unplanned pregnancies are a nuisance that can be solved by abortion.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=493472

Chinese policies at root of gender imbalance

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

China now has 32 million more males than females. There are reasons for the gender disparity. One of the reasons, according to Steven Mosher of the Population Research Institute (PRI), is due to sex-selection abortion. "[T]he parents will go in at 18-weeks gestation and have an ultrasound done -- and if the ultrasound reveals that they're carrying a little boy, they'll continue the pregnancy," Mosher remarks. "If it reveals they're carrying a little girl, they'll schedule an abortion."

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Business/Default.aspx?id=493640

Obama's 'common ground' on abortion nowhere to be found

Jim Brown - OneNewsNow

A member of President Obama's faith-based advisory council says President Obama has yet to show any signs that he plans to follow through on his pledge to find "common ground" on the issue of abortion. Dr. Frank Page, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, says he is disturbed that President Barack Obama is "moving quickly" to remove the few pro-life protections that remain in the U.S. He notes the president has done more than just rescind the "Mexico City policy" and President Bush's restrictions on federal funding of human embryonic stem-cell research.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=492556