Coalition of leaders alarmed that pro-lifers unaware of what is at stake with Obamacare
A coalition of prominent pro-life leaders has arranged a giant, Stop The Abortion Mandate live webcast for the public this coming Thursday, July 23, to alert Americans about the great dangers of the Democrat-proposed health care bill. David Bereit, a coalition member and leader of 40 Days for Life, told LifeSiteNews that he is temporarily de-emphasizing his current 40 Days for Life tasks to concentrate on this issue because of its extreme importance. He is concerned that pro-lifers are not aware of what is at stake with the health care bill. Connie Marshner, a well-known Washington pro-life political organizer, warned today that "this is the biggest issue since Roe v Wade. This is not just about funding. Everyone will be forced to have abortion coverage." Further, she warned, the effect of successful passage of the Health Care bill will dramatically change the pro-life movement as we know it "because every doctor and health care worker will be forced to be involved in abortion."
The pro-life webcast's promotional material states that "Powerful abortion industry lobbyists and Washington, D.C. bureaucrats have just launched a massive effort to mandate taxpayer-funded abortions as part of their proposed trillion-dollar healthcare takeover." They list four main results of what they call "this abortion industry power-grab":
* Impose one of the cornerstones of the "Freedom of Choice Act" (FOCA) by stealth * Force taxpayers to fund a huge abortion industry bailout -- something the majority of Americans oppose, and certainly cannot afford in these tough economic times * Mandate that virtually every American be forced into a health plan that includes abortion coverage * Require honorable medical providers to violate their consciences and perform abortions -- or risk losing their jobs
The one-time-only LIVE webcast event will take place this Thursday, July 23, at 9 PM Eastern (6 PM Pacific, 7 PM Mountain, 8 PM Central.) The live webcast, for which there is no charge, will be approximately 70 minutes long and will be accessible even to Internet users with only a dial-up connection. Participants who register for the event will be able to listen in on the live audio and submit questions. During the event, the following nationally known leaders will be heard:
* MIKE HUCKABEE, Former Governor and Presidential Candidate * DR. CHARMAINE YOEST, Americans United for Life * TONY PERKINS, Family Research Council * FR. FRANK PAVONE, Priests for Life * MARJORIE DANNENFELSER, Susan B. Anthony List * DOUGLAS JOHNSON, National Right to Life Committee * TOM MINNERY, Focus on the Family * CONGRESSMAN CHRIS SMITH, U.S. House of Representatives * KRISTIN HAWKINS, Students for Life of America * CONGRESSMAN JOE PITTS, U.S. House of Representatives * DR. RICHARD LAND, Southern Baptist Convention * CARMEN PATE, Point of View Radio Show * DAVID BEREIT, 40 Days for Life
The Webcast organizers state that those who join the webcast will discover:
* The shocking facts about the sweeping legislation that the political power brokers are trying to ram through before Congress goes on summer recess... * The devastating implications of the proposed mandates -- facts the abortion industry doesn't want Americans to hear... * Why respected leaders, national organizations, and pro-life people are joining together in record numbers to challenge this attempted power-grab... * The exact action steps YOU can take to make a difference at this crucial moment...
Registration for the event is accessed at http://www.stoptheabortionmandate.com. Registration also allows those who are unable to be online at the time of the webcast to later access a recording of the webcast audio.
Organizers are hoping that 100,000 people will participate in this very urgent and unique education and action event.
When they get sick in Canada they don't call a doctor, they call a travel agent. Canadian Rick Baker of Timely Medical, knows it well as he discussed on my radio program yesterday. Baker is running a "Freedom Train for Health Care" to accommodate those running for their lives from the Canadian socialist system that's killing them.
One of Baker's clients was an 8-year-old little girl who was losing her hearing because of an infection. The Canadian system told her parents they had to wait for treatment from January to July. She was to go the whole school year without being able to hear her teacher. Then the wait was until September. And then, they said the wait would be until the following April. That was when the parents of this little girl turned to Timely Medical who took her for treatment in the U.S. within a matter of days.
But the American doctor wasn't as concerned about saving her hearing as he was about ... saving her life. That's because the infection had spread to her brain and, while she lost all her hearing in one ear and half the hearing in the other, waiting any longer would have cost her her life. Thankfully, she escaped the socialist system that would have left her dead.
Another client was Lin Gilbert, who had chronic back pain for three years awaiting an operation that would allow her to walk, to work and to care for her young children. Gilbert, whose condition worsened to the point where she had to wear diapers, and became hooked on morphine because of the pain, was told that she "hadn't waited long enough" and that she "hadn't suffered enough."
She was featured on "Huckabee," on Fox last Sunday, and on Neil Cavuto's program yesterday. And now that her teenage son has been diagnosed with the same condition, she's fleeing socialized medicine for the country with the best health care in the world: the United States.
Canadians hanging by a thread of life are boarding the freedom train as fast as they can. But here's the downside: If Barack Obama and this Congress ram socialized medicine through here, there will be nowhere for us to run. In fact, the plan would make it illegal to do so.
But now Obama's at it again – ramming through another government takeover – only this time it's not just our free market and our freedoms of speech and religion that are on the line, but our very lives. Armed with the only thing in his arsenal – rhetoric – Obama said: "We can't afford the politics of delay and defeat when it comes to health care – not this time, not now."
His health care plan would be the politics of delay and of death, and I'm not just talking about those babies without names. For those who don't care about the millions of innocent babies awaiting their birthdays whom Obama aggressively seeks to kill through abortion and infanticide with your tax dollars, take note: This time the crosshairs are aimed at you and your family.
Obamacare's prescription for disaster includes:
* a price tag that exceeds a trillion dollars; * much higher taxes to cover these costs; * medical professionals forced to perform abortions; * health care rationing; * life-saving treatment denied; * jail sentences for those who seek treatment outside the socialized health care system; * and after a decade, 15 to 20 million Americans would still remain uninsured.
But this socialized system of denial and death Obama is so anxious to pass won't affect him or those in Congress who are voting these versions out of committee like their August vacations depended on it.
They need to stop long enough to actually read this bill for a change, and listen to what Americans are saying. They also need to listen to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which put the price tag at more than a trillion. If you add another trillion we don't have to the 3.5 trillion-dollar "stimulus" plan (we also don't have), we are really, really bankrupt.
Even the Mayo Clinic, which Obama touted as the health care model, said, "… the proposed legislation misses the opportunity to help create higher-quality, more affordable health care for patients. In fact, it will do the opposite."
Duh.
But we in America are standing up and saying "no" to Obama and his cohorts. Not this time. Not ever.
There's a reason why his opinion polls are in a free fall. U.S. News & World Report suggested the "O" in "Obama" may stand for "One Term." That may be true, but first we have to survive the summer. If we don't stop this insanity now, there won't be a train for us to board to get the life-saving health care we need.
After several weeks of uncertainty about Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's commitment to abortion, NARAL announced today it was convinced from Sotomayor's statements during the confirmation process that the judge is adequately in favor of abortion.
"President Obama made a sound choice in nominating Judge Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court," reads the joint statement from two NARAL leaders.
The group says that the nomination "reflects the president's commitment to ensuring that justices have strong legal credentials and understand how the law affects everyday people's lives, including the need to keep politicians from interfering in our personal, private medical decisions."
"In addition," say the leaders, "we took into consideration the significant and strong support her nomination has garnered from some of our most committed pro-choice allies in the Senate as well as President Obama's consistent record of support for Roe v. Wade and his established record of nominating to key posts individuals who share his principles."
While some abortion groups were wary of the candidate due to her lack of any abortion-related decisions, Planned Parenthood expressed confidence early on that Sotomayor would uphold the interests of the abortion lobby and President Obama.
"This historic nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court sends a strong signal that President Obama understands the importance of ensuring that our Supreme Court justices respect precedent while also protecting our civil liberties," stated Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards in May.
In confirmation hearings this month, Sotomayor repeatedly assured Judiciary Committee senators that she would uphold Roe v. Wade, a point she also made clear in private meetings with senators. But while she repeatedly referred to Roe v. Wade as the Supreme Court's "settled law," she admitted that she did not perceive the court's decision to uphold the partial-birth abortion ban as equally sacred precedent.
"The health and welfare of a woman must be a compelling consideration," Sotomayor admitted, indicating that she would not necessarily uphold the unequivocal nature of the ban.
Another pro-choice group, the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, also expressed support for Sotomayor today.
"NLIRH stands in solidarity with Judge Sotomayor as she moves one step closer to becoming the first Hispanic judge on the Supreme Court," said executive director Silvia Henriquez in a statement.
If iPSCs work, they will be better than ESCs because they will be made from the patient's own cells, and hence, no tissue rejection. They will also be better than using cloned ES cells because they will be easier and less expensive to derive. They will be better than both therapeutic cloning and ESCR because they will be ethically unproblematic. Thus, it is very good news that in mice, iPSCs are proving useful in heart repair. From the story:
Ordinary cells reprogrammed to act like embryonic stem cells can help repair damaged heart tissue in mice, researchers reported on Monday in a study that shows a potential practical use for the experimental cells. When injected into mice whose hearts had been damaged by a heart attack, the new cells helped improve both the structure and function of the heart. Eventually the hope would be to patch up seriously ill heart patients using their own cells. "It was obvious to the observer which animals had been treated and which ones hadn't," said Dr Timothy Nelson of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, whose study appears in the journal Circulation…
Instead of coaxing the iPS cells into a specific type of heart tissue, they used the iPS cells in their most embryonic-like state. Nelson said two weeks after they had transplanted the cells, they started making different types of heart tissue, including heart muscle, blood vessels and the cells that line blood vessels. "They were able to respond to this damaged environment and spontaneously give rise to the appropriate tissues and create new tissues within that diseased heart," he said. "That is a key wow factor of this paper." Nelson said heart cells continued to grow for four weeks, and the mice that got the iPS cells got better. Both the structure and the function of their hearts improved compared to animals injected with cells that form scar tissue, he said.
This doesn't cure the tumor problem associated with all pluripotent stem cells–whether ESCs or iPSCs–of course. But ethical research is sure transforming the field.
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.
That taxpayer support goes to a non-profit organization that reports a sizeable profit each year, generates annual revenues in excess of one billion dollars (according to its most recent annual report), and performs many of the abortions done in the U.S. Aquila points to the abortion figures for last year.
Planned Parenthood"[They performed] 290,000 abortions, which is 25,000 more than the previous year -- and approximately one in every five abortions occurs at a Planned Parenthood facility," he adds.
People can encourage their elected representatives to vote for the amendment by going to the Susan B. Anthony website. "To flood the House all week would be great," says the pro-life activist.
Otherwise, notes the pro-life group, Congress will continue to "pump millions of your tax dollars" into the abortion industry each year. Surveys have indicated the public does not want their taxes used to fund abortions.
President Obama's universal healthcare plan may move him one step closer to his goal of allowing unlimited access to abortion-on-demand.
White House budget director Peter Orszag was asked by host Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday if he would rule out including taxpayer funding of abortions in the president's government-run healthcare plan.
Orszag: "Uh, I, I think that that will wind up being part of the debate. I'm not prepared to say explicitly that right now. It's obviously a controversial issue, and it's one of the questions that is playing out in this debate."
Wallace: "So you're not prepared to rule [it] out."
Orszag: "I'm not prepared to rule it out."
Douglas Johnson of National Right to Life says if the bill the White House is backing were enacted in its current form, it would result in the greatest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade.
"These bills that President Obama is pushing would result in federally funded abortion, but they would also result in federally mandated coverage of abortion by nearly all health Douglas Johnson (NRLC)plans -- not only the government plan, but also private health plans. They would require that local health networks recruit abortionists and set up abortion clinics. They would nullify many state abortion laws," he notes. "The pro-abortion groups understand these effects very well, and they are fighting amendments that we are supporting to clean up these bills."
During a 2007 campaign speech to Planned Parenthood, Barack Obama said the first thing he would do as president "is sign the Freedom of Choice Act" -- a bill that would eliminate all state and federal restrictions on abortion.
When United States citizens reach the age of 65 they are forced into Medicare and out of any private insurance option for coverage of their healthcare. The government sets the dollar amount doctors, other healthcare providers, and hospitals will be paid for the treatments of a Medicare patient. When a Medicare payment is decided, often the fee is based on which special interest group lobbies the federal government most effectively. No efficacy research for a particular treatment and no market forces enter into this entirely arbitrary decision made in Washington, D.C. Once a fee is established, Medicare pays 80% of the allowable charge. Twenty per cent may be covered by supplemental insurance or patient out of pocket payment. The patient cannot pay his own money for care above and beyond the Medicare allowable–it is against the law. Click here for the full article.
Almost 5,000 women gave Irish addresses at abortion clinics in the UK and Netherlands last year, new figures reveal. The Crisis Pregnancy Agency revealed a 31% drop in the numbers travelling to Britain for a termination over the last seven years. However, data showed a 12.6% rise in women undergoing free post-abortion medical check-ups funded by the agency in 2008. The organisation launched a major campaign to highlight groups it claims seek to manipulate women into making decisions by providing disingenuous counselling. Click here for the full article.
King's niece fights this era's civil rights battle
Abortion has taken a gruesome toll on the black community, killing more than AIDS and crime combined. Some 14 million black babies have been aborted since the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion in all stages in all 50 states. That's equal to one-third of the number of blacks living today. By the abortion industry's own statistics, black women are 4.8 times more likely to abort than are non-Hispanic white women. Blacks comprise about 13 percent of the population, yet have 37 percent of all abortions. Click here for the full article.
IPPF declaration seeks to force radical "sexual rights" agenda on all people. "International Planned Parenthood Federation has launched an extremely dangerous campaign that is even more bizarre, broader in scope and more aggressive than the standard fare we have come to expect from the sex-crazed, abortion-peddling giant. IPPF plans to force all nations to adopt and abide by its perverse "sexual rights" declaration. "The document, titled Sexual rights: an IPPF declaration, draws a bleak picture of a heathen world entitled to self-destruction through self-centered sexual pleasure, with no regard for the consequences of that behavior. Click here for the full article.
Swiss prosecutors in the region of Zurich have instituted stricter regulations that are intended to curb the growing problem of "suicide tourism," reports The Telegraph.
Numerous high-profile cases over the last several years of foreigners traveling to Switzerland to commit suicide - including the recent case of a renowned U.K. conductor and his wife - have brought the country's macabre suicide trade into the limelight, and appear to have triggered concerns by Swiss officials that their country is becoming famous largely for being the premiere spot in the world to kill oneself. As of late last year approximately 100 U.K. residents had committed suicide with the help of the Swiss group Dignitas, although individuals from numerous other countries have also used Dignitas' "services."
Prosecutors in Zurich have now announced arrangements with the country's second largest assisted suicide group, EXIT, that will see significant restrictions placed upon the process of obtaining the group's help in committing suicide, reports the Telegraph. Click here for the full article.
In a censorship that appears politically motivated, the popular video-sharing site YouTube has blocked a video critical of Planned Parenthood made by the student-led nonprofit Live Action. The video shows a Planned Parenthood clinic in Birmingham offering to "bend the rules" of Alabama's parental consent and mandatory reporting laws in order to cover up statutory rape with a secret abortion, and has opened an investigation by the state Attorney General's Office into the nation's largest abortion provider.
YouTube offered no prior warning or specific explanation for removing the video, which contains no apparent violations of YouTube's "community guidelines." After remaining up for ten days, the video had several thousand views and had been linked to by many news organizations. YouTube has previously censored Live Action videos, and the latest removal casts further doubt on the video-sharing site's professed regard for free speech and political neutrality. Click here to listen to the full audio from the Alabama investigation. Click here for the full article.
A Rockford, Illinois, pro-life group is waiting to see if charges will be lodged in an alleged assault on one of their demonstrators earlier this month.
A homeless man, Scott Griffin, joined other protesters in prayer at an abortion clinic in Rockford. He was walking across the clinic driveway when an employee approached in her car.
"And she did not slow down, did not make any attempt to avoid him, just missed him by a fraction of an inch with her front fender, but hit him extremely hard with the mirror on the passenger side and sent him flying," says Kevin Rilott of the Rockford Pro-Life Initiative.
Rilott adds that the employee did not stop but parked the car and walked into the clinic. He stresses it is not an isolated incident.
"We've had two other cases in the past where pro-lifers have been hit at the driveway, and we've tried to get charges filed and the city would not file it," he adds.
But since a Christian mayor has been elected, Rilott says the city is more responsive to the pro-lifers rights and their safety. He hopes the city might be more inclined to follow through on the latest incident.
Griffin was bruised in the incident but has recovered.
Step away from the teleprompter and just be honest with us.
The Christian Defense Coalition calls for candor and transparency by President Obama concerning public monies being used to pay for abortions.
The faith organization called for this openness after White House budget chief Peter Orszag was asked on "Fox News Sunday" if federal funds would be used to pay for abortions in the Obama health care plan.
His response, "I am not prepared to say explicitly that right now. It's obviously a controversial issue. I'm not prepared to rule it out."
It is clear the President is not leveling with the American people because if they knew their tax dollars would be paying for abortions they would never support Mr. Obama's health care initiative.
The Christian Defense Coalition along with other pro-life and human rights organizations is beginning a campaign called "Abortion is Not Health Care" on July 26.
They have already secured permits for the week on Capitol Hill.
Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, Director of the Christian Defense Coalition, states,
"President Obama ran on a campaign on transparency and openness in government. He promised his Administration would be different than past Administrations. Sadly, this is just another broken promise by the President.
"When it comes to being open, candid and honest with the American public on taxpayer funded abortions the White House is being manipulative and vague. They know if the American public discovered that President Obama wants public monies to be used to pay for abortions they would never support his health care reform plan.
"During the Presidential campaign, Mr. Obama made it clear he wanted taxpayer funded abortions to be a major part of health care. Now he is trying to downplay these policies.
"We call upon President Obama to stop playing games and manipulating the American public and come clean. Are taxpayer funded abortions a part of your health care initiative? It is a simple and straight forward question that deserves a straight forward answer.
"Please Mr. President step away from the teleprompter and just be honest with us."
The pro-life view has been presented to the Senate Judiciary Committee considering confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor for Supreme Court Justice.
Dr. Charmaine Yoest, president of Americans United for Life, testified before the Committee earlier this week during Sotomayor's hearings. Yoest calls it a myth that information is lacking on the nominee's record on life issues.
"What the Americans United for Life legal team has found is that during her time serving as a board member on the Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund, she was involved with six cases that went before the Supreme Court with amicus briefs in which they argued very radical pro-abortion views," she points out, "and so we're extremely concerned about her approach to the bench."
Charmaine Yoest (AUL)Yoest fears possible hostility toward regulation of abortion. "We absolutely believe that we should be emphasizing equal justice under the law; that a judge on the Supreme Court should be an impartial observer," she concludes.
She believes Sotomayor could be extremely interventionist and an activist for certain causes while on the Supreme Court.
During her hearings this week, Sotomayor was asked how she felt about Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion in the U.S. She said she considers the question of abortion rights "settled" law, and that there is a constitutional right to privacy. She declined to say if she agreed with the high court's precedent on the issue of abortion.
Kansas Rep. Todd Tiahrt touched off a controversy last Thursday when he urged Congress not to fund abortions in D.C., pointing out that had such funding existed years ago it could have snuffed out the African-American luminaries of today before they were born. The children aborted in Washington, D.C., correlating to the city's community of poor on a whole, are disproportionately African-American.
During his remarks the Kansas congressman called for an up-or-down vote in the House of Representatives on the abortion funding in the Financial Services Appropriations bill. The bill had adopted a suggestion by President Obama to eliminate a ban on federal funds for abortions in the city.
"If you think of it in human terms, there is a financial incentive that would be put in place, paid for by tax dollars, that would encourage women who are single parents, living below the poverty level, to have the opportunity for a free abortion," said Tiahrt.
"If you take that scenario and apply it to many of the great minds we have today, who would we have been deprived of?" Rep. Tiahrt asked. "Our president grew up in those similar circumstances. If that financial incentive was in place, is it possible that his mother may have taken advantage of it?"
He added: "Clarence Thomas, Supreme Court justice - if those circumstances were in place, is it possible that we would be denied his great mind?" Thomas was born in an impoverished African American community in Georgia.
Tiahrt's argument drew upon the fact, supported by research from Planned Parenthood's Guttmacher Institute, that abortion disproportionately targets African-American mothers and their children. Today, the abortion rate for black women is five times higher than the abortion rate for white women.
In a report released earlier this month, the Guttmacher Institute also concluded that taxpayer funding for abortion leads to the death of approximately 33% more unborn children than if it were not publicly funded.
Tiahrt's bid for a separate vote on the issue was denied, and despite stiff opposition from Washington pro-life leaders, the abortion funding was voted through in the House Thursday evening 219-208.
The comments immediately drew fire from liberal media, where the remarks were widely decried as divisive and disrespectful. The Kansas Democratic Party (KDP) launched an online petition the next day demanding Tiahrt to apologize.
"No matter where you stand on abortion, we can all agree this is a disgusting, divisive comment and deserves to be rebuked," wrote Mike Nellis of the KDP on the Daily Kos blog Friday. "President Obama deserves better, the U.S. House of Representatives deserves betters, and the people of Kansas deserve better. It's time that we demand it!"
KDP Executive Director Kenny Johnston said in an email to constituents that the comments "are proof that he is unfit to serve the people of Kansas as a U.S. Senator."
Washburn University political science professor Bob Beatty suggested to the Wichita Eagle that Tiahrt made a misstep in making personalized comments on the House floor. "The idea, not just in politics but in American culture, is you stay away from people's mothers," he said.
Operation Rescue President Troy Newman, however, applauded Tiahrt for opposing the D.C. funding that would "further target vulnerable black women for abortions," saying it is "racist at its core."
"After 50 million abortions on all races, it is clear that we have been denied those who would have enriched us as a people," Newman argued. "Have we aborted the one who would have had the intellect and inspiration to find a cure for cancer, or find ways new to feed the hungry?
"It is a legitimate question that needs to be asked, because the societal impact of abortion is deep and devastating, and affects us all. The last thing abortion promoters want is dialog on this subject."
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg - a staunch abortion supporter - caused a stir earlier this month when, in discussing her expectations for Roe v. Wade, she echoed the original eugenic aspirations of Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger.
"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," said Ginsburg in a New York Times interview published July 7.
Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life Friday condemned Congress' refusal to vote on the D.C. abortion funding.
"The House leadership knows that the public does not want to pay for abortions so they refuse to allow a separate vote on the question," said Fr. Pavone. "Their pure political cowardice, however, will not shield supporters of the DC appropriations bill from pro-life scrutiny."
Over 20,000 people gathered in the southern Cameroon city of Douala last Saturday to stage a peaceful protest march against the country's ratification of the Maputo Protocol, which led to the legalization of abortion throughout much of Africa "in cases of rape, incest or when the pregnancy is determined to put the mother's physical or psychological health in danger."
The march was led Cardinal Christian Wiyghan Tumi, Archbishop of Douala, on the sixth anniversary of the adoption of the Protocol by the second Ordinary Session of the African Union in Maputo, Mozambique, on July 11, 2003, the Fides news agency reported.
The marchers, some carrying placards which read "abortion is an abomination," and "do not legalise sin," marched for almost two hours and converged on Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral where a special Mass was said.
An interreligious delegation of Catholics, Protestants and Muslims also handed a letter and petition to the Governor, to be presented to the President of the Republic, Paul Biya, with 30,000 signatures, petitioning an end to legal abortion.
The Cameroon Bishops' Conference published a declaration in January of this year in which it expressed its opposition to the legalization of abortion called for by the Protocol.
The coadjutor Archbishop of the Douala Archdiocese, Samuel Kleda said in the homily during the Mass, "We are in agreement with this praiseworthy project (of protecting women). Who can remain indifferent to the suffering of a woman? At the same time, we cannot pretend to defend women by proposing that they have an abortion and use contraception, which threatens their dignity and nuclear family. No reason can be used to justify abortion or infanticide."
Talking to the press after the Mass, Cardinal Tumi said abortion was an abomination.
"The Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI already spoke on this agreement. The association of the African conferences of Bishops and the one in Madagascar had spoken and quite a number of dioceses have already spoken.
"That is the reason why we organized this march and we ended with a Mass to pray for those who are involved in these practices for God to forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing," Cardinal Tumi said in an AfricaNews report.
Chief A.S. Ngwana, leader of the Cardinal Democratic Party (CDP), a politician who has been very vocal against the Maputo Protocol and who joined in the march, said issues like abortion and homosexuality transcend politics since they concern the well being of future Cameroonians.
Chief Ngwana told a press conference that he would not hesitate to undertake a nationwide campaign against the Maputo Protocol until the Head of State withdrew Cameroon from it. He said legalizing abortion was "a ploy from the West to check the African population."
The communist government of Viet Nam is punishing couples with more than two children, a local Catholic news agency reports. Catholic villagers in Thua Thien-Hue province told the Union of Catholic Asian News they are being fined for having more than two children under a revived government two-child policy.
Catherine Pham Thi Thanh, 44, told the service that since 1996, she has been fined a total of 3,800 kilograms of rice for having six children. This represents a significant loss for the family which makes an annual profit of only 700 kilograms of rice from their 1,000 square-meter farm.
Despite the fact that Viet Nam now has a below-replacement rate of fertility - 1.83 children born per woman - the communist government in the early 1960s imposed a 2-child limit for couples. The UN's leading population control group, the UNFPA, has been active in contraception and abortion campaigns in the country since 1997.
In 2000, the BBC lauded the policy for having reduced the overall fertility rate from 3.8 children per woman to 2.3, but admitted that a "degree of coercion" was used to ensure compliance. This included fines, expulsion from the communist party and confiscation of land. The original policy was scrapped in 2003 but revived in 2008 after a 10 percent spike in the birth rate alarmed officials who never stopped "encouraging" couples to have only small families.
But even the UNFPA was reportedly "puzzled" by the revival. "In Vietnam now life expectancy is rising, the fertility rate is decreasing and in the next 20 years many people will be in the senior group," said Tran Thi Van, of UNFPA. "If there's not a sufficient labor force as the population is ageing, the country will face a lot of problems."
Viet Nam is following China and India on the path of demographic imbalance. The combination of ultrasound tests to determine the sex of the child plus abortion to favor boys, has forced the male to female ratio of the population to climb to 112-100 in 2007.
The Union of Catholic Asian News spoke to the local parish priest, Fr Joseph Nguyen Van Chanh, who confirmed that 90 percent of his 1,200 parishioners have agreed to pay fines as a way to be faithful to Church teaching and said that Catholics are taught natural family planning methods during marriage preparation courses.
Some local Catholics, said Father Chanh, are asking for donations from benefactors to support local people with large families.
The Pro-Life Action League will gather at Planned Parenthood in Aurora today to raise awareness about abortion. This marks the culmination of the group's eight-day Face the Truth tour, which kicked off July 10 in Joliet. Anti-abortion activists will hold graphic pictures of unborn and aborted babies, while handing out pamphlets to people passing by. "The power of signs is undeniable," said Eric Scheidler, the League's executive director, in a press release. Click here for the full article.
Abortion activists are working to rebuild a coalition in Kansas following the death of one of the nation's few late-term abortion providers and the closure of his political action committee. Dr. George Tiller was shot and killed May 31 at his church, and his family has since closed his Wichita clinic. ProKanDo, the political action committee he founded and funded, was closed in mid-June upon the request of the Tiller family, its former director, Julie Burkhart said. But even before his closure of the ProKanDo, the political action committee had been struggling to find someone in Kansas willing to take it over after Burkhart left the job in April. The Kansas chapter of the National Organization for Women is working has since formed its own political action committee to fill the void left by ProKanDo. Click here for the full article.
A decision is expected soon about what doctors may tell South Dakota women who seek abortions, which could finally bring an end to a hotly debated case that reached a federal appeals court. U.S. District Judge Karen Schreier also could decide to send the case to a trial. At issue is the state's informed consent for abortions law, which requires doctors to tell women that abortion ends a human life. About three dozen people packed the gallery of the federal courthouse in Sioux Falls as the four-year-old case returned to court for oral arguments. Planned Parenthood, which operates the state's only abortion clinic, asked a judge to rule that provisions of the law aimed at providing women with factual information before an abortion are too vague or simply inaccurate. Click here for the full article.
A proposed constitutional amendment that would protect the rights of embryos is advancing. On Thursday, the personhood amendment proposal got the approval of legislative staffers assigned to review and make recommendations on all ballot measures. Next it must be reviewed by the state title board, which makes sure that all voter initiatives only address a single topic. The proposed amendment says the term "person" would apply to every human being "from the beginning of the biological development of that human being." Click here for the full article.
Now that Barack Hussein Obama has undermined free enterprise by nationalizing major financial and manufacturing sectors of our economy, he has set his sights on the health care sector, which comprises almost 18 percent of the U.S. economy. This shouldn't surprise us. After all, he did promise a "fundamental transformation of the United States of America," and his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, did cite the current economic crisis as the means for doing so. "Rule 1: Never allow a crisis to go to waste," Emanuel said. "They are opportunities to do big things." Click here for the full article.
Abortions could be paid for at taxpayers' expense if two healthcare reform bills get passed by congress. According to OneNewsNow, the two primary measures -- the Kennedy bill and the House Democrat leadership bill -- contain provisions that would represent the greatest expansion of abortion since the Supreme Court legalized it in 1973. "These two bills contain multiple provisions that would result in federally mandated insurance coverage of abortion on demand, result in massive federal subsidies for abortion, result even in mandated creation of many new abortion clinics across the country," said Douglas Johnson of the National Right to Life Committee. Click here for the full article.
Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains (PPRM), along with the national organization Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), today hosted a Capitol Hill day. PPRM representatives joined more than 300 other Planned Parenthood staff, board members and volunteers from across the country to discuss with members of Congress the importance of making women's health a priority in health care reform. Today's lobby day was a huge success. Planned Parenthood staff, board members and volunteers made nearly 250 visits to members of Congress and delivered two main messages: any health care reform effort must include access to comprehensive reproductive health care, and women's access to essential community providers must be protected. This ensures that basic prevention care, such as contraception, Pap tests, and other cancer screenings are covered and that women are able to access trusted health care providers in the communities where they live. Click here for the full article.
I've always been pro-choice -- for the baby. The baby is the one who should get to choose. The fact of the matter is: Abortion is the torture murder of an unborn child. The reason that abortion is legal [sic] in this country is that unborn children don't vote, and they don't make campaign contributions, so they don't have the political clout to get their safety protected. That's the same reason why there in no law requiring seat belts on school buses in Illinois and most other states. Another reason why abortion remains legal is that the murder is committed in secret. Nobody is allowed to see the baby writhing in excrutiating, searing pain and mind-blowing agony during the heinous act. Nobody hears its desperate, silent screams. Click here for the full article.
As you know, a lot of energy was expended to stop the "Freedom of Choice Act" (FOCA) from being introduced.
And it wasn't introduced. But we warned that its provisions of expanding abortion and forcing us to pay for it would be snuck in under another bill.
Well now it's here, and we have to act quickly to stop it.
The health care reform bills now being finalized in Congress are going to end up mandating the federal funding of abortion.
Unless Congress explicitly excludes abortion. And that's what I'm asking you to urge them to do.
Please take these steps today:
a) Click here and read more about this and then fill out the form at the bottom to send a message to your representatives in Congress.
b) Call the offices of your Representative and two Senators at 202-224-3121 and tell them that you want abortion to be explicitly excluded in any health care reform bill.
If we don't do this, we will end up with a health care reform bill that will expand abortion more radically than anything since Roe vs. Wade, and we will find ourselves under a law requiring abortion funding. The other side wants to sneak this in and wants to do so in the next few weeks.
Here is an explanatory guest message from retired astronaut Dr. Joseph Kerwin...
Dear fellow CatholicVote.org member,
In just a few days our nation will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the historic mission of Apollo 11 to the moon. While I never personally made it to the moon, I was privileged to serve as the first American doctor in space with Skylab 2.
Today I am honored to announce the launch of a new ad from CatholicVote.org....
As you read this, I am appearing alongside other retired astronauts along with CatholicVote.org President Brian Burch at a press conference in Houston. The reason for the media event is that the new CatholicVote.org ad (thanks to you!) will be running regularly on local Houston television stations for the next several weeks.
Joining me today at the press conference are retired astronaut Dr. Bill Thornton, and Mr. Gene Kranz - the Flight Director at Mission Control during the Apollo program, including the famous Apollo 13 mission. Mr. Kranz was played by Ed Harris in the 1995 Oscar award winning film.
Like you, I am a big fan of CatholicVote.org. Their new ad is already creating buzz in Houston, and I can't wait for the rest of the country to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Apollo 11 with this new ad.
Next Monday, media outlets around the world will commemorate the historic achievement of Apollo 11. The courage and dedication of the astronauts aboard Apollo 11, and hundreds of others involved in our nation's space program make me proud of our great country.
But most importantly, the achievements of the space program remind me of the potential of every human life.
In anticipation of the 40th Anniversary this Monday, CatholicVote.org is preparing to launch web ads across the Internet to promote their new commercial. This historic anniversary is a perfect opportunity to show America, and the world, the power of every human life.
CatholicVote.org needs your help to saturate the Internet next week. They have reserved ad space with the intent of promoting their new ad to millions of our fellow Americans. Please consider helping them out now.
This is a historic date, and an opportunity we can't afford to miss. Watch the new ad and be sure help my friends at CatholicVote.org.
Thank you for your prayers and support of CatholicVote.org.
May God bless you and your families.
A proud member of CatholicVote.org,
Dr. Joseph Kerwin
Astronaut-Scientist, Skylab 2
P.S. While Monday July 20 marks the 40th Anniversary of Apollo 11, during my service at NASA I also had the privilege of participating in the effort to save Apollo 13. One of my responsibilities was to explain to imperiled Astronaut Jack Swigert how to construct a make shift carbon-dioxide scrubber that allowed the crew to continue to breathe.
Not everyone will get to walk on the moon. The creativity and resourcefulness that helped save Apollo 13 is a reflection of what happens throughout our world everyday. May we never cease to marvel at the gift, and potential of every human life.
The Americans United for Life blog has a new post entitled, "Sotomayor contradicted herself on what she knew about PRLDEF abortion advocacy." This includes a statement made by Sotomayor only yesterday morning during the Senate hearings on her Supreme Court confirmation explaining her involvement with the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund that directly contradicted with her testimony in the afternoon expressing ignorance about 6 radical pro-abortion briefs PRLDEF filed.
In her testimony yesterday, Americans United for Life's Charmaine Yoest made the case that Sonia Sotomayor would be a pro-abortion radical on the Supreme Court.
Yoest detailed radical pro-abortion briefs submitted by the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, of which Sotomayor was a board member...
During the 12 years that Judge Sotomayor served as a governing board member of the PRLDEF, the organization filed 6 amicus briefs in 5 abortion-related cases before the Supreme Court....
Sotomayor served the PRLDEF "at various points" as a member and vice president of the Board of Directors, and as Chairperson of the Education and Litigation Committees. Judge Sotomayor was described in The New York Times as "frequently meeting with the legal staff to review the status of cases... [and] play[ing] an active role as the defense fund staked out aggressive stances on issues.... The board monitored all litigation undertaken by the fund's lawyers, and a number of those lawyers said Ms. Sotomayor was an involved and ardent supporter of their various legal efforts during her time with the group."
It is difficult to imagine that a member of the Board of a legal organization that has staked out a pro-abortion advocacy agenda, who was "an ardent supporter of their legal efforts," would not agree with the organization's decision to sign onto amicus briefs in major Supreme Court cases....
In those briefs PRLDEF opposed the Partial Birth Abortion Ban, opposed informed consent before abortion, opposed waiting periods before abortion, opposed parental involvement, supported mandatory taxpayer funding of abortion at both the state and federal levels, opposed record keeping and reporting requirements as "harrass[ment]," and compared abortion to a First Amendment right.
Which brings us to Sotomayor's potential perjury yesterday, as blogged by AUL's Dawn Eden:
Hatch brings up the PRLDEF briefs and notes Sotomayor served on a dozen different leadership positions during her 12 years on the fund's board. Says he wants to ask questions regarding abortion cases in which the fund filed briefs....
Brings up amicus brief comparing refusing to use Medicaid funds for abortion to the Dred Scott case. "Did you know the fund was filing this brief?"
soto hands away.jpg
Sotomayor: "No sir."
Asks if she knew the fund was making its Dred Scott argument.
Sotomayor: "No."
He runs down a line of questions asking if she ever made any objections to the arguments made in the brief. She responds: "I was not a lawyer on the fund. ... I was a board member." Says it was not her practice to review the briefs.
He cites the fund's Ohio brief [in which PRLDEF argued against parental involvement laws] and begins running down the same list of questions. Did she know the fund was filing this brief?
Sotomayor: "No." Says she knew generally that they were filing briefs but didn't know of the brief until after the fact.
He brings up the Planned Parenthood vs. Casey brief [in which PRLDEF argued against informed consent and waiting periods] and asks the same questions.
Sotomayor: "For the same reason, no."
She may have just perjured herself. The Judicary Committee has the minutes of the PRLDEF litigation committee's meetings, showing that Sotomayor was briefed on pending litigation. It would be interesting to compare the dates of the briefings with the dates of those briefs Sotomayor claims she never saw in advance.
Eden then referred to the Republican Senate Leader Board blog that evaluated the meeting notes:
PRLDEF Committee minutes show deeper involvement than acknowledged....
PRLDEF Litigation Committee minutes confirm that board members including Judge Sotomayor were routinely briefed on litigation status....
When Sotomayor was chairperson of the Litigation Committee, she briefed the board on current litigation....
The Leader Board blog reposted the leadership positions Sotomayor held at PRLDEF, per her response to a questionnaire to Sen. Jeff Sessions:
• Member of the Board of Directors: 1980-1992 • Education and Professional Development Committee: 1980 • Nominations Committee: 1980, 1981, 1982, 1985, 1986, 1987, and 1990 • Litigation Committee: 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, and 1991 • Chairperson of the Litigation Committee: 1983, 1984, 1987, and 1988 • Executive Committee: 1982, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988 • Treasurer: 1982 • Special Vice Chair of the Board: 1984, 1985 • Second Vice Chair of the Board: 1986 • First Vice Chair of the Board: 1987, 1988 • Finance Committee: 1986, 1987, 1988 • Personnel Committee: 1988
Here are the dates PRLDEF submitted its amicus briefs on these abortion-related cases before the Supreme Court:
• Williams v. Zbaraz, 1980 • Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, 1989 • Ohio v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health,1990 • Rust v. Sullivan, 1991 • Planned Parenthood v. Casey , 1992
And Sotomayor was completely oblivious to every single one? She had nothing to do with any other them? I find this very hard to believe. I expect Republican staffers have been scouring PRLDEF committee meeting notes all night.
This information is important because it not only shows Sotomayor may have perjured herself yesterday, but it shows she as a Supreme Court justice would oppose common sense legislation passed by the people that even David Souter most often supported.
30-week-old babies in the womb already have short-term memory capabilities, a new study from the Netherlands, published in the July/August 2009 issue of the journal Child Development, has found.
Researchers at Maastricht University Medical Centre and the University Medical Centre St. Radboud examined 93 healthy pregnant Dutch women and their unborn children, measuring changes in how the child responds to repeated stimulation. The children were tested at 30, 32, 34, and 36 weeks, and again at 38 weeks gestation.
The study showed that the unborn children would initially respond to a "vibroacoustic" stimulus. The stimulus would then be repeated every 30 seconds until "habituation" occured, and the children no longer reacted, evidently accepting the sound as safe. Ultrasonography showed that in a second session ten minutes after the first, the children apparently "remembered" the stimulus and the number of stimuli needed for habituation grew much smaller.
The scientists found that at thirty weeks, the child in the womb has a short-term memory of about ten minutes. At 34 weeks, the child can store information and retrieve it up to four weeks later. The younger children who had been tested at 34 and 36 weeks were later able to habituate much faster than children at 38 weeks who had never been tested.
"This is the next step into a better insight in the development of the foetal central nervous system," said study co-author Dr. Jan G. Nijhuis, director of the Centre for Genetics, Reproduction and Child Health at Maastricht University Medical Centre in the Netherlands. "We aim to develop an 'intra-uterine neurologic examination,' which could then be used in foetuses at risk."
Researchers at the Guttmacher Institute earlier this month issued a report that found that about 1/4 of the women who would have aborted their child if the government had provided the funds decided to keep their children.
The Guttmacher Institute, Planned Parenthood's research arm, concluded from a survey of 38 studies that women unable to pay for abortions on their own were frequently "forced to carry their pregnancy to term."
Stanley Hershaw, a Guttmacher Institute senior fellow and the study's lead author, commented that "Antiabortion advocates are using these restrictions in a misguided attempt to reduce the nation's abortion rate," and that they should instead address the "underlying cause" by promoting the use of contraceptives.
Obama pledged to Pope Benedict XVI earlier this month his "commitment to reducing the numbers of abortion" in the words of one Vatican spokesman. However, the healthcare package President Obama is aggressively pushing through both chambers of Congress is being widely decried by a growing group of conservatives and pro-lifers as bound to force virtually all Americans to pay for abortion as "essential healthcare." Should the health bill include coverage for abortion, it is highly likely that the abortion rate will spike dramatically, according to the Guttmacher study.
In his budget recommendations to Congress, Obama also urged lawmakers to remove the ban on taxpayer-funded abortion in Washington, D.C. - thereby causing taxpayer dollars from across America to foot the bill for abortions in the capital.
According to Concerned Women for America president Wendy Wright, one Obama official presiding over an abortion task force meeting corrected Wright when she stated that Obama's goal was to reduce abortions. Melody Barnes, the Director of Domestic Policy Council, insisted that the President only wished to reduce the "need" for abortions, and not the number of abortions themselves.
A Swedish liberal party MP and feminist activist has launched a campaign that, if successful, could see abortion enshrined as a "human right" across the EU - potentially forcing Ireland, as well as Malta and Poland, to abolish their protections for the unborn.
Birgitta Ohlsson, an extreme left member of Sweden's Liberal People's Party, has founded the group "Make Noise for Free Choice" that hopes to obtain the one million petition signatures necessary for a "citizens' initiative" to force acceptance of abortion as a "human right" under the new Lisbon Treaty. According to the Treaty, a proposal which gains one million signatures from a sufficient number of countries must be considered by the European commission. According to the Times Online the number of countries necessary has yet to be determined.
The website for the initiative specifically targets Ireland, Malta and Poland, saying: "All around the world, women are denied their right to free, legal and safe abortions. ... It is the everyday reality facing women in Ireland, Poland and Malta."
Patricia Casey, a professor of psychiatry at University College Dublin, reacted strongly to the effort, telling the Times Online, "It's ironic for a country like Sweden, with such a track record of protecting human rights, that campaigners from there are campaigning for the killing of unborn children. There is certainly a contradiction."
Pat Buckley, the representative at Brussels of Britain's Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) that the chance of success for the initiative depends upon how much support the group has in the European Parliament. He was not optimistic that the initiative would certainly fail, however, since he pointed out that MEPs have already voted several times for "reproductive rights and choice" in recent years. "There is a very strong support in the Parliament for the concept of abortion as a human right," he added.
The group, he said, assume they have the right to dictate to a sovereign nation. "Their attitude is that they're the experts on human rights, and abortion is a human right, therefore Ireland must change its laws."
So far, however, the petition has only been signed by 3489 people, although organizers intend to continue the campaign until October of 2010.
The Ohlsson initiative highlights the concerns of Irish pro-life campaigners who have long warned that the attempt to force Ireland to accept the Lisbon Treaty is a direct threat to the country's pro-life laws and to its sovereignty. Life and family issues were found to be prominent among the Irish voters' reasons for rejecting the Treaty in a referendum a year ago.
Since the failure of the 2008 referendum, Irish politicians have obtained what they claim are "cast-iron guarantees" from the EU on key areas of discontent including abortion law, taxation and neutrality. These, they said, would provide an opt-out for Ireland, to be voted on by all member states, at the time of the next accession treaty to bring in new member states to the EU.
But Buckley said that promises obtained by the government mean little because it is the European Court of Justice who interprets the Lisbon Treaty. The danger of these "guarantees," he said, is that "heads of government are not in any position to make a commitment on behalf of the EU Court of Justice."
The guarantees, he said, do not change the Lisbon Treaty itself "one iota." "It will be precisely the same treaty that we voted down last year."
"When the Court of Justice is called upon to interpret the Treaty with regard to abortion, they could interpret it to mean that there is a right to abortion. Ireland will then be bound to that because they would already have voted to ratify Lisbon."
Abortion activists have long known the clout of the European courts to force a change in law. Three women are currently taking the Irish government to the European Court of Human Rights to attempt to overthrow the Irish law.
Buckley said that the only "clear way" to deal with the threat "would be a protocol, attached to the Lisbon Treaty itself, to give Ireland a direct opt out. This would be a message to the Court of Justice who would then be obliged to interpret the Treaty according to that protocol."
Another factor in the possible success of the Ohlsson initiative is what Buckley calls "competence creep" in EU institutions. He explained that ostensibly there are certain issues over which the EU has no competence, including social areas like family and abortion. But slowly over the years, "competence creep" has eroded that principle under different ideological agendas such as that of so-called "equality rights."
These activists, he said, introduce legislation related to "equality" which include issues like abortion and marriage in the sections on definitions. "In theory they're not supposed to have any competence whatsoever in these areas, but in practice, because of competence creep, they continually expand their remit to include areas which should not be part of their brief."
"I'd like to think that [the Ohlsson initiative] hadn't a hope, but knowing how the system works in Brussels, it is likely they will have the support they need. It would be difficult for them acting alone to do it - it depends upon what sort of assistance they get - there's certainly a possibility this could happen."
Supporting the initiative are MEPs and community leaders from Britain, Denmark and the Netherlands, including Baroness Sarah Ludford, a Liberal Democrat MEP who sits on Euro-Parliament's committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and Vice-Chairwoman of the European Parliament's Human Rights Sub-Committee. Also listed as supporting are Sophie in 't Veld, a Dutch Member of the European Parliament for the social liberal party Democrats 66, and Lone Dybkjµr, a member of the Danish Parliament for the Radikale Venstre party.
