Pro-Life students will be trained to transform campus culture
CHICAGO.- Loyola University Students for Life will host the third annual Students for Life of Illinois statewide Leadership Summit, with the theme: “Leadership. Media. Activism.” At this event, students will develop the skills necessary for an active pro-life presence on their campuses.
“This summit will inspire and challenge students to effectively present the truth about human life issues on their campuses,” said John-Paul Deddens, Executive Director of Students for Life of Illinois.
The event will take place Saturday Oct. 24th at the Crown Center of Loyola University. Check-in begins at 9:00 a.m., and the event spans 9:45 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The registration is $30 and includes lunch and conference materials.
The conference features nationally known speakers David Bereit, the founder of 40 Days for Life; Kristan Hawkins, Executive Director of Students for Life of America; and Eric Scheidler, Communications Director of the Pro-Life Action League.
“The right to life is the human rights issue of our generation,” Deddens said. “Students must be involved in order to change our society. This conference will be a catalyst for that change.”
Gardasil, the vaccine given to girls to prevent a sexually transmitted disease that can cause cervical cancer, is continuing to be questioned on its safety and efficacy.
Representatives of the Population Research Institute attended an international conference on vaccination recently and listened to a presentation on Gardasil by an expert. One of the PRI representatives, Joan Robinson, noted the vaccine is designed for 9- to 13-year-old girls. She examined the research, and found that little to no impact would be made on cervical cancer rates.
"In 60 years of vaccination of at least 70 percent of the female population, [coupled] with all of those women also getting annual pap smears and monitoring as well as booster shots," Robinson explains, "they will only have reduced, at the most, a minimal decrease of cervical cancer."
Besides the usefulness of Gardasil, questions have arisen about its safety. In fact, 44 girls died after getting Gardasil shots while 15,000 reported adverse side effects -- and that figure could actually be higher because some countries do not gather or report the statistics. Now Merck, which manufactures Gardasil, is proposing to give the vaccinations to boys.
Robinson wonders at the logic of offering to boys now. "It's an interesting thing...since HPV is transmitted through the male carrier to a woman," she said. "I was actually curious why they didn't start with a vaccination for boys."
She suggests it may be because there is insufficient research. All in all, Robinson encourages people considering the vaccine for their children to be aware of the research and the difficulties with Gardasil before proceeding.
Today is the sixth annual Pro-Life Day of Silent Solidarity.
The pro-life observance is intended as a day of prayer and a day of solidarity with young people around the world who believe that life is precious. Students wear a piece of tape across their mouths and red armbands demonstrating their pro-life stance.
"Students around the world will be taking a vow of silence in solidarity with the almost 4,000 children who die from abortion every day," says Bryan Kemper of Stand True ministries. "We have students from over 4,700 schools in 25 countries who participated last year, and we expect even more this year."
Kemper, founder of the annual event, says they often hear stories of the effects the day of silence has on others. "Last year we heard back from 58 girls who cancelled their abortions that day," he explains. "That's 58 human beings that we know of who are alive today because of these students taking a stand."
The event website offers numerous resources for participants, including a letter written by the Alliance Defense Fund that explains to schools their students' right to stage such an event. The letter is designed to assist students if their school harasses them about participating in the Pro-Life Day of Silent Solidarity.
The pro-abortion woman who harassed pro-lifers in Fresno
Fresno, Calif. - A Latino pro-life advocate participating in the 40 Days for Life campaign outside a California abortion clinic was assaulted last Thursday by a pro-choice woman who cut his arm while going on an obscene tirade. Video of the attack has been posted on YouTube.
Victor Fierro, director of Latinos4Life, was outside the Planned Parenthood Mar Monte affiliate in Fresno, California when a woman passed by and shouted obscenities at him. She also called him a “fascist” who “hates women’s rights.”
According to audio of the off-camera incident posted on YouTube, one man chuckled in reply, saying “Thank you very much and God bless you.”
Soon after, the woman returned. She cut Fierro's arm with an unknown object, drawing blood, before returning to her car and fleeing the scene. The attacker’s face and license plate were captured on camera.
Asked by someone if these attacks happened often, a man replied, “That’s the first time this year.”
A police report was filed concerning the incident.
Right to Life of Central California (RLCC) condemned the attack and alleged there is a pattern of threats and intimidation against pro-life volunteers.
“We’re just trying to hold a peaceful prayer vigil out here. We’re law-abiding citizens, standing on a public sidewalk, with the full support of the Fresno Police Department, and yet several pro-abortion-choice people have been harassing us since day one. Now it’s turned physical,” said RLCC Education Director Josh Brahm.
RLCC said that another police report has been filed concerning another individual who has stolen signs and made threatening remarks.
Further, a man called the Fresno Right to Life office on Friday, trying to link the protesters with those who “go and shoot doctors.”
“Why don’t you just die,” he reportedly said, alongside several obscenities.
Brahm insisted that Fresno Right to Life has “a long and undeniable history of peaceful pro-life activism, which we will proudly continue even in the face of bullying and intimidation.”
RLCC charged that local media ignored the story of the assault. KMPH Fox 26 told Brahm that they would not cover the story because Fierro “wasn’t stabbed, just scratched.”
As health-care reform moves forward, pro-lifers aren’t backing down from their fight to exclude abortion funding from the bill.
The Senate Finance Committee has sent a health-care proposal to its colleagues, but the legislation includes language that would mean taxpayer funding for abortions.
The majority of Republicans are holding fast to their resolve to reject any bill that does not contain specific language denying abortion coverage.
Pro-life groups are also keeping up the pressure for exclusion of abortion from the final draft.
Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., held a town-hall meeting in Colorado Springs today and said a Hyde-type amendment needs to be added to the legislation.
The Hyde Amendment says no federal funding can pay for abortions through the Health and Human Services appropriations bill. Current health-care legislation falls outside of that budget.
“Abortion funding is going to be something that’s going to be outside the annual appropriations process,” Lamborn said, “so if that language isn’t in the bill, then it’s a disaster as far as abortion goes.”
Lamborn predicted it would come down to a few votes.
“Some of these Blue Dog Democrats, they’re going to have to face the choice of whether they follow the people of their district or whether they follow their leadership,” he said, “because they can’t really satisfy both.”
President Barack Obama told a joint session of Congress in September that there would be no federal funding of abortion in health-care reform.
David Bereit, national director of 40 Days for Life and co-founder of the Stop the Abortion Mandate Coalition, told LifeSiteNews.com the current law before the Senate violates that promise.
“Regrettably, abortion industry lobbyists have successfully hijacked the health-care reform debate,” he said, “convincing these bureaucrats to move one step closer to handing the abortion industry a multi-billion-dollar, government-subsidized bailout that could jeopardize the prospects of real health-care reform for the American people.”
The Rev. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, told LifeSiteNews.com a grassroots effort is the only way to stop the legislation.
“If people have already contacted their members of Congress, now’s the time to contact them again,” he said, “because what matters in government is the perseverance of the communication. Send another letter; make another phone call.”
South Bend, IN, - The Notre Dame Board of Trustees has re-elected Fr. John Jenkins to a second five-year term as president of the university, despite severe and widespread criticism of his role in inviting pro-abortion President Obama to speak and receive an award at Notre Dame's graduation this past year.
On the occasion of his election last Friday, both the Board of Trustees of Notre Dame and the Fellows of the University issued resolutions supporting Fr. Jenkins and praising him for his commitment to the Catholic faith.
The Board of Trustees lauded Fr. Jenkins for helping make Notre Dame a place where "the Catholic faith and intellectual tradition are celebrated and lived." Similarly, the Fellows of the University sung their appreciation of Fr. Jenkins' commitment to the "Catholic character of the University."
Despite such lavish praise from Notre Dame's own institutions, many continue to criticize Fr. Jenkins for his decision to allow President Obama to speak at Notre Dame's commencement on May 17th, despite the protestations of over eighty Catholic bishops who opposed the invitation. Many of those bishops argued that invitation ran contrary to the document "Catholics in Political Life," issued by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, which explicitly states that "Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions."
Patrick J. Reilly, president of the Cardinal Newman Society, said in a statement issued today: "Notre Dame has suffered terribly in recent years because of a lack of leadership and commitment to its Catholic identity. The Board of Trustees has once again neglected their responsibility to uphold Notre Dame's Catholic mission by reelecting a president who has displayed public disrespect for the bishops and has permitted repeated scandals including the honors to President Obama and performances of The Vagina Monologues."
"The Vagina Monologues," a play that many call pornographic, casts group masturbation, sex between a female adult and a minor, and lesbian activity in a positive light. Bishop John D'Arcy, whose diocese contains Notre Dame University, has criticized Fr. Jenkin's continuing refusal to prevent the showing of "The Vagina Monologues" at Notre Dame, which he called a "sad and immoral play, offensive to the dignity of women."
Bishop D'Arcy also opposed President Obama's appearance at Notre Dame, leading an evening rosary at Notre Dame the day before Commencement. He recently asked in a public letter if Notre Dame has given up its responsibility to "give public witness to the truths revealed by God and taught by the church?"
Shortly after the decision to have Obama speak and receive an award at Commencement was announced, a group of Notre Dame alumni launched a website devoted entirely to ensuring that Jenkins was replaced as the president of the University. The creators of the site, replacejenkins.com, said that, "Although we love Notre Dame, our conscience requires that we withhold all financial support from our University until such time as Father Jenkins is replaced as Notre Dame's President with someone who will be more loyal to the teaching of the Catholic Church."
After its launch, numerous pledges to withhold funding from the university until Fr. Jenkins was replaced poured in. The administrators of replacejenkins.com claimed to have personally verified many of the pledges with the would-be donors, and in April said that the amount of funding lost by the university over the Obama scandal added up to over $8.2 million.
However, Richard C. Notebaert, Chairman of the university's Board of Trustees, defended Fr. Jenkins' decision to invite President Obama as providing "an opening for dialogue on those issues on which the Catholic Church and our president are not in agreement."
Reacting to his re-election, Fr. Jenkins said that he was humbled to have the confidence of the board and said that he would ensure "that our Catholic character informs all that we do." Such statements echo the statement made at his first inauguration, on September 23, 2005, when he said that his presidency would "be driven by a wholehearted commitment to uniting and integrating these two indispensable ... strands of higher learning: academic excellence and religious faith."
Fr. Jenkins recently announced that he will establish a Task Force for Supporting the Choice for Life, and that he will attend the next March for Life in Washington, DC.
Many, however, have said that these words and deeds are empty gestures meant simply to pacify his critics, especially given Jenkins' continued unwillingness to seek leniency for the 88 pro-life protesters arrested on Notre Dame's campus on the day of Commencement. Thomas Brejcha, President & Chief Counsel of the pro-life law firm, the St. Thomas More Society, suggested that Jenkins' participation at the pro-life protest in Washington could be seen as ironical, given his attitude toward the 88 protesters and the fact that one of those arrested is Norma McCorvey, the "Roe" of Roe vs. Wade.
NEWS SHORTS FOR TUESDAY (Referral to Web sites not produced by The Illinois Federation for Right to LIfe is for informational purposes only and does not necessarily constitute an endorsement of the sites' content.)
On Friday, November 6, 2009, Wisconsin Right to Life presents Sarah Palin at the Wisconsin Exposition Center, Hall B, State Fair Park, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
People may be surprised to know abortion has been legal in Japan since 1949, more than a decade earlier than in other industrialized countries. In subsequent years, abortion became socially accepted to the point that Japan drew international criticism for attracting foreigners seeking to terminate their pregnancies. Since the turn of the 21st century, around 300,000 abortions have been conducted in Japan each year. Click here for the full article.
Florida health officials are drawing up guidelines that recommend barring patients with incurable cancer, end-stage multiple sclerosis and other conditions from being admitted to hospitals if the state is overwhelmed by flu cases. The plan, which would guide Florida hospitals on how to ration scarce medical care during a severe flu outbreak, also calls for doctors to remove patients with poor prognoses from ventilators to treat those who have better chances of surviving. That decision would be made by the hospital. Click here for the full article.
The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform had a display of anti-abortion images and pamphlets on Pedestrian Walkway outside of Hodges Library Oct. 14. The images showed first, second and third trimester aborted fetuses, as well as images of genocide and mass murders. Gene, a volunteer for Bio-Ethical Reform, said the goal in showing the abortion pictures on a college campus is to educate. "Abortion is an evil threaded into the fabric of society," Gene said. "My goal is to educate young people and help them see who this child is that is being aborted." Click here for the full article.
A federal judge approved an agreement Monday between the parent of a middle school student and the West Shore School District that will allow the student to wear an anti-abortion T-shirt to school. Officials at Crossroads Middle School told the student to turn inside out his homemade T-shirt, which read "Abortion is not Healthcare," the day President Barack Obama addressed students nationwide. Click here for the full article.
Both Republicans and Democrats have signed on to a resolution effectively outlawing abortion in Michigan. It is now going into a judiciary committee. It's a controversial topic that has both sides heated and others silent on the issue. The House Joint Resolution II (2009) includes language that says "With respect to the fundamental and inalienable right to life, the word "person" applies to all human beings, irrespective of age, race, gender, health, function, condition of dependency, including physical or mental dependency, or method of reproduction, from the beginning of their biological development, including fertilization." This "personhood" amendment would define life as beginning at conception and essentially ban abortion in Michigan. Click here for the full article.
The ACLU has filed another lawsuit to block Illinois' parental notification law for abortions performed on minors.
The law, passed in 1995, has never been implemented because of numerous lawsuits. Recently, a federal court ordered the law into effect by early November.
Tom Brechja of the Thomas More Society, who has been heavily involved in the litigation, says they are gathering their forces. The attorney argues it is just logical for parents to know about a child's request for an abortion, especially when a child just needing a tonsillectomy requires parental consent.
Tom Brechja (Thomas More Society)"The attorney general of Illinois would be the main counsel defending this case," Brechja says, "but frankly we don't trust him -- and we want to get in there and intervene on behalf of parents of minor girls and some of the states' attorneys of various counties in Illinois and fight this. It's ridiculous.”
He believes the court ought to bring a halt to the challenges and let the law go into effect. Brechja adds that 80 percent of Illinois parents -- whether pro-life or pro-abortion -- want the law to be implemented. He believes they just want to communicate with their children on such an important issue.
Brechja also finds it interesting that the American Civil Liberties Union claims to be all for free speech -- except for speech between parents and their children.
An estimated 1 million people participated in a rally in Madrid Saturday to protest a proposed new law that would expand permission for abortion.
The protest was called to denounce a bill that would allow unrestricted abortion at up to 14 weeks of pregnancy and let girls aged 16 and 17 have abortions without parental consent, a vivid and emotional show of how the issue remains sensitive 2 decades after abortion was legalized in this traditionally Roman Catholic country.
The overwhelmingly Catholic country currently allows only abortion in the cases of rape, fetal abnormality, or when the mother's physical or mental health is at risk....
While Madrid's regional government estimated the crowd to be about 1.2 million and a spokesman for 1 of the rally organizers said that 1.5 million people had attended, police said only 250,000 people participated, according to Agence France Presse.
Pro-lifers know America's "health" loophole allows abortion on demand, although old media never explains that. The Associated Press did admit truth when it came to abortions not so close to home:
Under the country's 1985 abortion law, the procedure is allowed in cases of rape or fetal malformation, or when doctors deem a pregnant woman's physical or mental health to be in danger - a clause that has allowed for abortions to be carried out more or less freely. Most of Spain's yearly 100,000 abortions come under that clause.
Someone on Twitter wondered, "What if we had protests against abortion like this in the US?"
March for Life Roe v. Wade abortion U.S. America
We do, every January, when pro-lifers gather for the March for Life heedless of the freezing weather on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade The photo, left, is of the 2009 March.
Our crowd size is always disputed, as was Spain's. It may or may not have ever reached 1 million, but it is always massive, with several hundred thousand.
Following was CNN's report from Spain's pro-life rally. Would that CNN gave 2:13 to America's annual March for Life.
Note it is Spain's socialist government that is attempting to eradicate abortion laws. Abortion is a child of the Left, pardon the pun.
Also note the incredible lie, which makes no sense even on its face, from the CNN report: "But the government says the reform is part of a broader national strategy on sexual and reproductive health aimed at preventing unwanted pregnancies." Yes, let's see whether the 100k statistic rises or falls if abortion is legalized on demand.
Pro-life leader Charmaine Yoest has charged that a compromise now being considered for health care reform legislation would mark a "radical departure" from the past by sidestepping pro-life funding provisions and requiring every area of the country to have at least one health insurance plan that covers abortions.
Yoest, President of Americans United for Life, on Wednesday wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion essay that provisions which would have explicitly prevented federal dollars from being used for elective abortions were "killed" by all five legislative committees that have handled health care reform bills.
"Instead, the abortion compromise in the works is a provision modeled on an amendment Rep. Lois Capps (D., Calif.) added to the House bill," she reported, calling the amendment a "radical departure from the status quo."
According to Yoest, at present the federal government does not pay into health care plans that cover elective abortions, nor are government health benefits used for such purposes.
Though 17 states presently pay for elective abortions, the Hyde Amendment prohibits states from using federal Medicaid matching funds to pay for abortions.
"The status quo now is that no dollar—federal or state—associated with Medicaid may pay for elective abortions," Yoest wrote in the Wall Street Journal.
She charged that the Capps Amendment would sidestep the Hyde Amendment and other federal laws.
"It would make abortion coverage a part of the public option, funnel tax dollars to private health plans that cover abortion, and ensure that every area of the country will have at least one health insurance plan that covers elective abortion," Yoest explained. "If this should happen, for the first time in more than 30 years the federal government would be in the business of funding the destruction of unborn human life."
She dismissed as "a dodge" the Capps Amendment's accounting mechanism that will supposedly ensure that federal dollars do not directly pay for elective abortions. She wrote that the amendment is being misrepresented to avoid the objections of Americans, only 13 percent of whom reportedly want health care reform legislation to fund abortions.
"The only honest way to maintain the status quo is to add a provision modeled after the Hyde Amendment to any health-care reform that becomes law," Yoest added.
"If Democrats really want to maintain the abortion status quo, they would drop the Capps Amendment and add a Hyde Amendment to explicitly exclude funding abortion," Yoest's column concluded. "The Capps Amendment takes us toward a new era of unprecedented federal abortion funding."
Video Explains Perils of Abortion in Health-Care Reform
Americans United for Life (AUL) has released a video explaining the inclusion of abortion funding in health-care reform.
"Don't Be Fooled: Abortion Is In Health Care" cites President Obama's promise while addressing a joint session of Congress.
"Under our plan," he said, "no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions."
Mary Harned, staff counsel with Americans United for Life, said the facts offer a different picture.
"These health-care reform bills that are being considered on the Hill still explicitly include abortion funding and coverage," she said, "and do not have language explicitly prohibiting such abortion funding and coverage."
Tomorrow morning students from thousands of schools around the world will refuse to speak as a protest against the killing innocent children. Every day in America almost 4000 human persons are killed by surgical abortion. The Pro-life Day of Silent Solidarity, a project of Stand True, Christ-Centered Pro-life is observed by hundreds of thousands of students who will lose their voice in solidarity with their brothers and sisters who will never have a voice. Last year Stand True heard back from participants about 59 girls who canceled their abortions on the day of the event due to the efforts of the students.
"By refusing to speak the students create a huge buzz and abortion will be the most talked about subject on campus," said Bryan Kemper, President of Stand True Ministries. "This generation is fed up with the senseless violence of abortion as is determined to bring an end the abortion holocaust."
Students will not only remain silent; they will also wear red armbands and/or red duct tape on their mouths, and distribute educational flyers to anyone who asks why they are silent. Many home-schooled students will also participate in the event by visiting local malls and other public areas to distribute flyers.
Students are instructed to be respectful to teachers and other officials and to speak with them when required.
"Thousands of American babies are permanently silenced every day by the violent act of abortion," said Kristan Hawkins, Executive Director of Students for Life. "This is a day for pro-life students to honor those children as they stay silent as an act of solidarity with these innocent victims."
Over the past few years many schools have tried to stop students from participating and have tried to quash their First Amendment rights. Every year, attorneys from the Alliance Defense Fund defend these students and file lawsuits to protect their rights.
Legal help for students involved is available from the Alliance Defense Fund (1-800-TELL-ADF) or click here for more information You can also download a flyer stating your rights by clicking here.
A new Center for Disease Control (CDC) report shows that the pregnancy rate in America dropped drastically between 1990 to 2009, by a margin of 11%.
(Editor's Note, except for the 115 Girls Are Pregnant At One Chicago Gov't High School) The CDC reports that in 2005 there were about 6.4 million pregnancies in the U.S., or 103.2 pregnancies per 1,000 women between the ages of 15-44, compared to 115.8 pregnancies per 1,000 women in the same age range in 1990.
In 2005, the pregnancy rate dropped to near the rate recorded for 1976 - the year the government branch began collecting pregnancy data. The drop in pregnancies was less steep among married women, who saw an 8% decrease in pregnancies between 1990-2005. Younger teens, between the ages of 15-17, saw a greater decline in pregnancy rate than older teens.
Abortion rates also fell during this time period, according to the CDC - with 7 out of 1,000 pregnant women aborting their child in 2005, as opposed to 11 out of 1,000 in 1990. Among unmarried pregnant women, 31 per 1,000 obtained an abortion in 2005 whereas 48 per 1,000 did so in 1990.
Of the 6.4 million U.S. pregnancies in 2005, the CDC report said 4.14 million ended in live births, 1.06 million in fetal losses, and 1.21 million in induced abortions.
A recent report by the Guttmacher Institute, the research arm of Planned Parenthood, also indicated a reduction in abortion rates across the world from 1995-2003. In 2003, the Institute reports that about 41.6 million children were killed by abortion across the globe, down from the mid-90s.
President Barack Obama spoke October 16 at a volunteerism forum hosted by former President George H. W. Bush at Texas A&M University.
During his remarks, Obama plugged his new government program, serve.gov:
And that's the point I want to emphasize today: that service isn't separate from our national priorities, or secondary to our national priorities - it's integral to achieving our national priorities. It's how we will meet the challenges of our time....
That's why this summer we launched United We Serve, a nationwide effort calling on all Americans to make service part of their daily lives. And we partnered with more than 400 organizations; made more than 250,000 service opportunities available on serve.gov; and watched as nonprofits, and foundations, and corporations, and individuals spent hundreds of thousands of hours serving their communities....
In Obama's world what service is "integral" to our "national priorities? And what is one organization has he at taxpayer expense linked volunteers to for "service opportunities"?
The answer to question #1 is abortion, and the answer to #2 is Planned Parenthood, the United States' largest abortion provider.
Earlier this week, Breitbart's BigGovernment site outed Serve.gov as promoting volunteer opportunities at the beleaguered ACORN. Those posts have since been scrubbed, but I wondered what other opportunities this administration might be promoting.
Typing in the keyword "health" and selecting "Houston" [on the serve.gov site] brought up Planned Parenthood's need for volunteers to protect clients from the 40 Days for Life prayer vigil participants [currently "C" on page 7 of the AllForGood website, which links back to serve.gov]. Their job? Make sure pro-life protesters don't speak or give any information to women seeking abortions at the clinic.
40 Days founder David Bereit, who alerted me of this, wrote, "So taxpayers are being forced to fund the abortion industry's recruitment efforts to counter 40 Days for Life. Amazing. Or should I say, SICK."
Here's a screen shot of the Planned Parenthood "Opportunity sign-up" to thwart 40 Days in Houston currently on serve.gov.
I also found a volunteer sign-up for Planned Parenthood of Central Ohio on serve.gov.
And this 1 sounds so pleasant! Sign up thru serve.gov to help Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin peddle abortions at the Madison Farmers Market!
I'm sure I'd find more if I kept looking but you get the drift. You're paying for Planned Parenthood to snag volunteers, sometimes to directly combat our pro-life efforts.
NEWS SHORTS FOR MONDAY (Referral to Web sites not produced by The Illinois Federation for Right to LIfe is for informational purposes only and does not necessarily constitute an endorsement of the sites' content.)
CHICAGO -- It is a Chicago public school full of energy and spirit. It has about 800 girls, and 115 of them have something in common. All those young ladies are moms at Paul Robeson High School. It's not a school for young mothers, it's a neighborhood school. And all of the pregnancies have happened, despite prevention talk??? Click here for the full article.
The elderly, the young, and the frequently exposed are being advised to get vaccinated against H1N1 flu virus this year, due to predictions of a possible influenza epidemic. A new law in New York requires nurses and doctors to receive the vaccination by the end of November. A band of four nurses in Albany, however, is taking a stand against mandated vaccination. Click here for the full article.
A couple of weeks ago Lucy Johnson wrote an excellent article in the Sunday Express on the Cervarix vaccine entitled HPV vaccine 'As deadly as the cancer'. In her article she wrote 'The cervical cancer vaccine may be riskier and more deadly than the cancer it is designed to prevent, a leading expert who developed the drug has warned' she preceeded to give the views of expert Diane Harper, who had been ,she wrote,'involved in the clinical trials of the controversial drug Cervarix', Dr Harper had said according the Express, 'the jab was being "over-marketed" and parents should be properly warned about the potential side effects. A few days later Ben Goldacre, a GP and journalist for the Guardian attacked her well written piece on his blog Bad Science and in a Guardian article. Click here for the full article.
Bishop Demetrio Fernandez of Tarazona, Spain, described the acceptance of abortion as "a true ecological disaster," and noted that the death of 50 million children in the womb has left Europe "prematurely aging and dying of sadness and despair." In a pastoral letter marking the March for Life in Spain this week, Bishop Fernandez said that the result of abortion is a "continent of death." Click here for the full article.
Access to food is "a concrete expression of the right to life," Pope Benedict XVI says in his annual message for World Food Day. The Pope goes on to say that this right, "though solemnly proclaimed, all too often fails to be fully implemented."
The Pope's message, addressed to Jacques Diouf, the director general of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, acknowledges that the current worldwide economic crisis has a particularly damaging effect on agricultural production, especially in impoverished societies. He argues that providing adequate food for all of the world's people "calls for a modification in lifestyles and ways of thinking." Click here for the full article.
The UK government has been ordered to publish data about the number of late abortions carried out because of disability. The ruling has been made by the Information Commissioner. Ministers have been told to release the data for England and Wales within the next month. This is the latest stage in a complex legal battle which began six years ago over a late abortion carried out because of a baby with a cleft palate. Click here for the full article.
Britain could move a step closer to the US-style targeting of doctors who carry out abortions after a ruling by the information tribunal that the government must publish data on late terminations, family planning groups warned today. They said the ruling could enable anti-abortion campaigners to identify and put pressure on women who seek late terminations, as well as their doctors, and urged the government to challenge the decision in the high court. Click here for the full article.
A new report by the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, entitled "Abortion Worldwide: A Decade of Uneven Progress," shows that over a billion abortions have been committed since 1970.
The report says that the annual number of abortions have declined over the period from 1995 to 2003. Nevertheless, in 2003 approximately 41.6 million abortions were committed worldwide.
On average, this works out to more than one death by abortion for each second of the year. Alternately, one might visualize the number of deaths occurring each year as a number significantly larger than the number of people who live in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, Philadelphia, San Antonio, San Diego, San Jose, Detroit and San Francisco.
"There simply isn't anything close," said Stephen Phelan of HLI. "Over the many years since this has become a practice, even legalized in many countries, you're over a billion."
"There's definitely nothing to compare," he continued. "The closest thing you'd get to it would be the atheist, socialist dictators of the 20th century; and even they, in their gruesome efficiency, were only able to kill somewhere between a hundred and a hundred-seventy million people. ... There's no comparison."
The Guttmacher Institute report also mentions the "high degree of safety" of abortions in communist China, but neglects to condemn China's one-child policy or the forced abortions that occur there. It nevertheless refers to the "woman's right to make her own childbearing decisions" and couches the report in the language of "choice." According to the report, 8.8 million "safe" abortions occur in China each year, approximately 1 in 5 of all abortions worldwide.
Georgia Froncek, a veteran pro-life sidewalk counselor from California, has agreed to publish her experiences with a cancer-stricken woman who was nearly coerced by her insurance company into aborting her child in order to obtain treatment.
When I pulled up to the Long Beach Family Planning Associates Abortion mill at on February 3, 2009 at 8:30 a.m., I saw my fellow street counselor Charlotte talking to an Hispanic man named Carlos, who was visibly very upset. As soon as I exited the car, Charlotte motioned me to come over to join the conversation.
Carlos explained to me that his wife and mother of five children, named Nereyda, was in the abortion mill because their H.M.O. insurance company would not treat her for her serious stage 4 sarcoma cancer - unless she aborted her 5-month-old unborn child. I replied in Spanish that this was illegal, and that we could help them obtain care without having an abortion.
He smiled and called his wife's cell phone inside the clinic and told her to come out immediately. She came out within thirty seconds, crying and very upset. She explained that the HMO had called her for fourteen days in a row, pressuring her into the appointment at the Long Beach Abortion mill. After consoling the couple, I called an adoption counselor to help us find a sympathetic social worker, who met the three of us for breakfast to discuss a plan to keep the baby.
Next, we called a Spanish speaking social worker who again insisted that Nereyda could not be treated for her aggressive stage-four cancer without getting an abortion before her consultation, ten days away. We told the social worker that Carlos and Nereyda had the right to medical treatment because she was paying for her insurance through her employment. I told the social worker that I would go with the couple to the consultation, which made Carlos and Nereyda feel better. I was happy to go with them.
At the consultation, there attended one thoracic surgeon, one internal medicine cancer specialist and one high risk obstetric doctor. The thoracic surgeon displayed Nereyda's MRI scan - revealing a huge tumor spreading tentacles around her heart, lungs, and other vital organs. I had never seen a tumor like that! I turned my head away from Carlos and Nereyda so they would not see that I was weeping.
I asked God for healing as I watched Nereyda holding her womb - concerned not at all for herself, but only for her unborn baby. The doctors said that this was one of the worst and fastest spreading cancers they had ever seen, and that without being able to shrink it with radiation and chemotherapy, it was inoperable, and Nereyda would die within two months. The high risk OB-GYN doctor us that Nereyda would have to abort the baby as soon as possible so she could begin the most aggressive therapy to prolong her life.
Carlos and Nereyda once again insisted they would not abort the unborn baby. With my background as a former pharmaceutical representative, I asked the doctors if they could use a drug called Adriamycin, which would not harm the baby in utero. The doctors said that they could use Adriamycin, although it would not provide the best or most aggressive therapy. I explained this to Carlos and Nereyda, who said that after the birth of the baby they would permit the use of stronger drugs. The doctors finally agreed, prescribing some very potent synthetic pre-natal vitamins, and reluctantly writing the couple's wishes in Nereyda's chart.
When the doctors asked us if we wanted the insurance company to provide us with an advanced health care directive, I answered that we would produce one. Later I explained to the couple that, had we not taken the initiative, the directive supplied by the HMO would have almost certainly reinforced the original decision to abort the child in case Nereyda took a turn for the worse. With the providential help of a doctor, a lawyer and a former corporate attorney - all strongly pro-life - I was able to draft a health care directive that ensured the baby would be safe from abortion.
Later that month, I sent emails out to many people requesting their prayers for Nereyda's health and for the birth of a healthy baby.
While Nereyda's cancer remains, she was able to deliver a boy by caesarian section on May 18, 2009 - three months after the doctors said she had two months to live. I was overjoyed to visit three days later to meet their new son, Angel Jesus Candalario.
Since then, the tumor has shrunk from chemotherapy - but Nereyda still needs our prayers.
This is a wonderful miracle and a touching testimony of one woman's faith and obedience to God, despite the consequences to herself. I know Nereyda is a living saint!
According to information gleaned from (where else?) the Internet, in the month of July 2009, almost 370 million people worldwide visited the social networking site Facebook, "up 155% from July 2008." Fred Wilson describes Facebook as the "fourth most popular web site in the world after Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo," so it's not surprising he calls it a "global juggernaut."
>From my correspondence, more and more pro-lifers of all ages have Facebook pages of their own for fun and for keeping in touch with friends.
But what they may not know is that Facebook may be the single most powerful new tool available to the pro-life movement. Other mediums (blogs, YouTube, Twitter, etc.) have considerable value, but Facebook has a key advantage--for lack of a better word, its personality.
To understand its enormous potential for pro-lifers, let me offer a little background for those unfamiliar with Facebook. Users register to create a profile page of themselves. They connect to other users by "friending" each other. You can actively seek out friends. You also get to decide when people contact you whether they are allowed on your friend list.
Profiles are customizable, complete with a picture of the user, and (if you wish) personal information such as educational/professional background, church affiliation, and character descriptions (favorite movies, music, books, hobbies, etc.).
Users interact with their online "friends" by sending messages (similar to e-mail), posting on each other's profile pages, and updating their status. That can be a short message displayed at the top of the user's profile page, anything from a funny anecdote, thought of the day, or what that person is doing at the moment. Users can also create or join group pages geared towards a specific issue or organization, or just for fun.
While an ever-greater number of people are using Facebook for business purposes, most people simply use it to communicate with friends, and share items that they find interesting. In other words, they use Facebook to discuss the same topics they would in person.
Why is all this enormously helpful to the pro-life movement? For starters, it is much easier to connect with other pro-lifers than ever before. The majority of users on Facebook interact with people they already know in real life, at least when they first begin.
Because they will be "friending" people they know, pro-lifers will be connecting with other pro-lifers on Facebook. Consider how many pro-lifers came into the Movement through the happenstance of a conversation with a friend or a casual perusal of a pro-life news article. One's Facebook profile significantly enhances the reach of the pro-life message.
In addition, each one of your friends has friends you don't know. When you allow these others in on your Facebook page as friends, it is almost always because of something you have in common, such as a mutual acquaintance or a mutual cause. As a result, Facebook fosters the spontaneous organization of like-minded individuals.
There's more. Posting links to news stories, videos, and notices about pro-life events provides a forum for the uneducated to learn the truth about abortion. Pro-lifers believe fervently that they can bring most people over to their side if given half a chance. Because Facebook profiles are customized and are designed to reflect the real world personality of the user, individuals will relate to each other person to person, not as faceless usernames in cyberspace.
When an interesting tidbit is posted to Facebook, other users will see that this person considers it important and worthy of attention. Just as you're more likely to take the advice of a close friend than a complete stranger, individuals on Facebook will be more likely to read an interesting article or compelling argument against abortion if it's someone they know trying to persuade them. Putting a human face behind the information can establish common ground with the uninformed or opposed. Facebook provides all that, and much more.
Pro-lifers work tirelessly to educate others about the beauty and complexity of the unborn and to explain how abortion is an unconscionable attack on an innocent passenger. Recruiting new individuals to our cause becomes second nature.
Facebook allows for that process to continue, simply in a new setting. By contrast, other social media such as blogs, YouTube, and Twitter are designed to streamline the sharing of pure information. Establishing a pro-life Facebook presence demonstrates our efforts to permeate the larger culture with an ongoing life-affirming message.
For pro-life chapters, a Facebook group can help with many activities. A group page can enable quick messaging to members and posting of events, photos, and video. It can even act as free advertising for individuals looking for a group in their area. Urging people to join the group on Facebook is easy, and because it requires only a small commitment on their part, is something people can readily agree to doing. Once they've joined the group, you have a record of them, contact info, and can send them messages, just as you would with a traditional e-mail or phone tree. Pro-lifers have preached the necessity of list growing and maintenance from the very beginning; a Facebook group is a contact list at your fingertips.
For all its potential Facebook is not some sort of magic cure-all for pro-lifers. Indeed, because you have the opportunity to have your information distributed far and wide, it is more important than ever that we check our facts rigorously and exhibit the kind of decorum we use in real life. We should always keep in mind that Facebook is a tool, not a wonder weapon, and that what is posted for the world to see is posted for the world to scrutinize.
At the end of the day, there is no substitute for the honest work of face-to-face meetings and events to spread our message. But that one-on-one interaction can be beautifully supplemented by social networking, particularly Facebook.
In a speech last week at Howard University Law School, United States (US) Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) Susan E. Rice recapped the Obama Administration's foreign policy departures from previous Bush Administration policy. Rice also subtly redefined terms used in UN documents to mark a substantive policy shift on abortion.
Reviewing the new Administration's first nine months in office, Rice touted Obama's reversal of the "Mexico City policy" that had prevented US funding of organizations engaged in abortion overseas and his decision to fund the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). The Bush Administration had cut aid to the UN population control agency after the US State Department under Colin Powell determined that the UNFPA was complicit in China's forced abortion policy.
Although in her Howard University speech Rice never uttered the word "abortion," she claimed that the Bush Administration's Mexico City policy had "barred U.S. assistance to programs that support family planning and reproductive health services," and that now members of Obama's UN team "no longer reflexively oppose mentions of reproductive health."
William Saunders, Senior Vice President of Legal Affairs for Americans United for Life, noted however that the Bush Administration "did not oppose family planning or reproductive health care" per se, but "only opposed terminology or practices that promoted abortion."
Addressing Rice's subtle semantic shift, Saunders called Rice's remarks "a return to euphemism" similar to what existed in the Clinton administration. He told C-Fam's Friday Fax that Ambassador Rice "appears to be saying that the Obama administration is determined to promote abortion, but will do so while hiding under euphemisms."
Administration watchers note that Rice's apparent equation of abortion with "reproductive health" follows that of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's redefinition of the term to include "access to abortion" when questioned by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) before the US House Foreign Affairs Committee. UN member states have never agreed to such a definition, however, although pro-abortion UN agencies and advocacy groups routinely use it that way.
The linguistic shift could impact debate on US ratification of the Disabilities Convention. Although the Disabilities Convention is the first binding treaty to mention "sexual and reproductive health," the official report of proceedings noted that inclusion of the term was "not intended to alter" pro-life policies of ratifying states, and at least 15 nations made statements in the General Assembly at the time interpreting "sexual and reproductive health" as excluding abortion. The Bush administration delegation affirmed that the phrase "cannot be interpreted to constitute support, endorsement, or promotion of abortion."
The linguistic shift by Rice and Clinton gives ammunition to pro-life critics wary of US ratification of new treaties such as the Disabilities Convention.
Before assuming her post, Ambassador Rice lacked an obvious paper trail on contentious social issues. Criticism centered instead on her approach to Rwanda's genocide while serving on Bill Clinton's National Security Council and then as Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs.
Conservatives note, however, that Rice previously worked closely with former US Senator Tim Wirth, who advocated population control policies while serving as Undersecretary for Global Affairs during the Clinton administration and heading the US delegation at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo.
Utah's legislature will be asked to deal with a loophole in homicide law that allowed a teenager to be set free after hiring someone to beat her to cause a miscarriage.
State Representative Carl Wimmer launched the move in the legislature after the law was used by a judge to release the 17-year-old. "[The judge] made a comparison to a medical procedure abortion," says the state lawmaker. "And [as far as] hiring this thug to beat her until the baby died, he said there's no difference -- which is absolutely absurd."
Wimmer is convinced the law was not interpreted correctly, but a bill is being filed to make sure that type of ruling is prohibited in the future. Currently law states that if a pregnant woman is beaten and loses her child, a homicide has occurred.
What is even more stunning, notes the lawmaker, is that the child was born alive -- and now, the teen has applied for custody of the baby.
"The fact that she wants to get custody now of this child who she tried to murder, it makes it that more absurd," he remarks. "...I don't even have the vocabulary to explain how sad of a situation it is and what an outrage it is that she is going free after doing such a barbaric thing."
A New York pro-life feminist organization filed suit last Friday in New York State Supreme Court (Albany) to block the use of taxpayer funds to pay women recruited to “donate” their eggs for embryonic stem cell research.
New York State is the first governmental entity anywhere in the U.S. to approve taxpayer money to pay women to undergo an invasive procedure to harvest eggs for embryonic stem cell research.
In 2007, the New York State Legislature enacted a new Title V-A to Article 2 of the Public Health Act, committing $600 million for stem cell research. On June 11, 2009, the Empire State Stem Cell Board (ESSCB), which was given the responsibility for administering the funds, passed a resolution authorizing significant taxpayer monies of up to $10,000 per donation to be used to compensate young women who donate their eggs for research.
Feminists Choosing Life of New York (FCLNY) Executive Director, Wendy McVeigh stated: “New York State has the responsibility to protect women. Instead, the state is using taxpayers’ dollars to entice young, economically vulnerable women to experiment in this medically risky procedure.”
The legal complaint was filed on October 9, 2009 in Feminists Choosing Life of New York v. Empire State Stem Cell Board. In part, the complaint states, “The Payment for Eggs Program provides significant monetary inducements to women to engage in this painful and risky procedure, which in part disproportionately appeals to economically vulnerable women.... (it)… fails to satisfactorily provide for informed consent and other safeguards to ensure adequate disclosure to women of the risks of egg harvesting.”
Egg stimulation and extraction carries significant health risks, including ovarian hyper-stimulation syndrome, clotting disorders, kidney damage, ovarian twisting, pulmonary embolism, damage to future reproductive ability, and stroke.
FCLNY also argues that research on adult stem cells, which are plentiful and don’t involve the ethical and medical concerns of embryonic stem cell research, have produced positive results that make the egg donation program funded by taxpayer monies excessive spending.
The National Institutes of Health does not permit federal dollars to be spent on stem cell research that uses embryos derived from procedures that "require women to donate oocytes [eggs]," due to the "health and ethical implications, including the health risk to the [egg] donor." The National Academies of Sciences agrees: “No cash or in kind payments should be provided for donating oocytes (eggs) for research purposes.”
