"Called to Eternal Life": Babies and Rights

Fr. James V. Schall, S.J.

Dr. J's favorite quote:

Our culture rejects, for the most part, the best and most exalted way in which
children should come among us. Thus, we have a society filled with
people who have not known what was naturally due to them. That is, each
child is to be born in a home in which each child has a father and a mother who
begot him and accepted him in love and generosity as a gift they did not plan or
devise. The actual child was not even in the thoughts of parents, whose
attention was on each other. Yet, they were prepared and happy to accept that
their relation naturally led to something beyond themselves, something seen in
the faces of their own children.

http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2009/schall_rightsbabies_sept09.asp

American Mistra: Putting the Culture Back in the Culture Wars

by Matthew J. Milliner

The urgency of protecting the sanctity of life, the dignity of the human person, and the institution of marriage goes hand-in-hand with cultivation of the arts.

John Witherspoon (the man after whom Public Discourse’s sponsoring institute is named) was faced with a choice. His eighteenth-century Scotch-Presbyterian milieu was divided between two parties. The Popular party, which today might be called the conservative wing, displayed the rigorous thought that accompanied Calvinist orthodoxy. The Moderate party, the more liberal branch, was doctrinally compromising, but peppered sermons with generous helpings of poetry, drama and literature. Faced with these alternatives, the young Witherspoon picked a definite side and became the champion of the Popular party. Witherspoon perceived that the Moderate penchant for poetry was not a supplement to classical doctrine, but an attempt to replace it. He penned a widely read satire of the Moderates, wherein they recited an “Athenian Creed” which began, “I believe in beauty and comely proportions of Dame Nature…,” and ended with, “I believe in the divinity of Lord Shaftesbury, the saintship of Marcus Antonius,” and so on. Witherspoon was a serious man who chose hard thinking over sponsorship of the arts. On the matter of Christians attending the theatre he was clear: “Where [amusement] is not necessary, it must be sinful.”

http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2009/08/798

Abortionist Carhart denied hospital privileges

Butts - OneNewsNow -
A request to open a late-term abortion clinic has been shot down in Wichita, Kansas.

Operation Rescue's Troy Newman launched an online petition drive to convince a local hospital not to grant hospital privileges to well-known abortionist LeRoy Carhart. The answer came just a few hours later.

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

Personhood amendment making inroads in Colorado

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow -

Personhood Colorado is preparing for a major effort to get a proposed pro-life amendment on an upcoming ballot.

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

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

Call them extremists and book 'em

Sheila Liaugminas

There’s a bill stealthily moving through Congress that would allow the nation’s Attorney General to classify pro-life Americans as terrorists. It was backed by impeached Florida judge — now a Democrat Party member of the House of Representatives — Rep. Alcee Hastings.
Even Republican congressmen willing to back the general idea of protecting citizens against “hate crimes” raised concerns about the language of this bill. Thank God they’re reading some of the things they’re voting on in there.
http://www.mercatornet.com/sheila_liaugminas/view/call_them_extremists_and_book_em/

“Every life has to be protected”

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

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

The wrongness of taking human life

Sheila Liaugminas

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

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

Pro-lifer senses growing opposition to Obama's agenda

Pete Chagnon - OneNewsNow -

The president of Operation Rescue is comparing Barack Obama to the "emperor with no clothes." During President Obama's controversial commencement speech at Notre Dame on Sunday, he called for "fair-minded words" to be used in the abortion debate and urged both sides to find common ground. Troy Newman of Operation Rescue adds that Obama stated science and medicine should also be allowed to speak into the issue. "I completely agree -- Operation Rescue completely agrees with this statement," says Newman, "because in the last 36 years, every single piece of scientific and medical [evidence] and technology advance has proven the fact that human life begins at the moment the seed and egg unite and ought to continue all the way through natural birth."

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

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

Elijah Friedeman, the Millennial Perspective

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

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

Save the baby animals

Sheila Liaugminas

But by all means, keep it legal and easy to kill baby human beings. Or so says the abortion culture.

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

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

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

Josh Friedeman, the Millennial Perspective

From CNSNews:

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

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

2009 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning

We're proud that Steve Breen, a good friend of the Ruth Institute won this, his second Pulitzer Prize. Steve is pro-life, even though none of his pro-life cartoons are in this portfolio.

http://googlemail.com/attachment?ui=2&ik=d2efd4ae4b&view=att&th=120c97520638943c&attid=0.1&disp=safe&realattid=0.1&zw&saduie=1egnamapddgklq3u2u6v0tksk7spd93&sadet=1240351393127&sads=c09eabed1b8569f6ef9c6cb46bab558b

Virginia Governor Approves Choose Life Plates

Blog: http://www.onenewsnow.com/Blog/Default.aspx?id=471698

Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, a Democrat and Obama's hand-picked choice as the Democratic National Committee head, approved new legislation that has upset pro-abortion groups. The legislation approves a new option for license plates in that state - the plates will display the phrase "Choose Life."

Pro-lifers plan protest for Obama's visit to Notre Dame

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow
The outrage over Notre Dame inviting President Obama as commencement speaker has not abated.

Last week, pro-lifers strongly voiced their anger about a pro-abortion president being invited to speak at a prominent Catholic university, which supposedly upholds church doctrines such as the sanctity of life. But they also are objecting to the school's plan to give Obama an honorary Doctor of Law degree. Notre Dame has been flooded with complaints, but university President John Jenkins will not be deterred.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Education/Default.aspx?id=468006

Utah defends pro-life proposals

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

Alliance Defense Fund is ready to defend pro-life measures approved in Utah.

One of the laws prohibits abortions after the baby becomes viable, except when the physical health of the mother is in danger or to save the mother's life. The second measure would require that full information on abortion be given to a woman seeking one, including the fact that the unborn child will feel pain after 20 weeks gestation. Steven Aden is with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF).

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=467872

Pro-life pastor spends week in jail

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

Pastor Walter Hoye has spent a week in a California jail on charges related to his ministry at a Berkeley abortion clinic. Hoye was ordered to serve 30 days in jail and pay a $1,000 fine after refusing the court's offer of probation. Catie Short of the Life Legal Defense Foundation explains that Hoye declined probation because the court ordered him not to help women.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=467038

The Super Bowl Commercial You Won't See

by Marcia Segelstein

That wonderful pro-life Obama commercial you may have seen here recently was supposed to run during the Super Bowl on Sunday. After first accepting it, NBC apparently changed its collective mind, saying it wasn't going to run advocacy ads during the big game.

Continue here to watch the ad.

'Obstacle course' restricts pro-life speech, access

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow - 1/30/2009
Pro-life counselors are not always extended free-speech rights -- and that's why one has taken the city of Pittsburgh to court.

The Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is considering arguments in a Pittsburgh "bubble zone" case that deals with a 2005 ordinance that restricts access to and speech within the public areas surrounding abortion clinics.

Continue...

Pro-life doctors protected by law...for now

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow - 1/30/2009

Medical professionals who don't want to perform abortions or fill prescriptions that are contrary to their religious or ethical beliefs now have some help.

A federal law called 45 CFR Part 88 is already on the books to protect people in the profession on the basis of conscience, and former President George W. Bush implemented rules to enforce the law. Matt Bowman of Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) notes that Planned Parenthood and the ACLU have filed suit to block enforcement.

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A life rich in significance

by Francis Phillips

A father’s struggle to understand the point of his daughter’s short, totally dependent life.

Kent Gilges’ oldest daughter, Elizabeth, was born in 1993. She seemed to be progressing well, but then developed a tumour on the brain. At eight months she underwent major surgery to remove it. During this process she suffered a stroke; from then until her death in 2004, she was never able to walk, talk, feed herself or even smile. In this poignant memoir her father pays tribute to a “tiny, insignificant, monumental life”.

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