January 2006 Archives

Second Circuit Judge Chester Straub was the lone dissenter, and he objected strongly to the decision. According to LifeNews, Straub wrote, "Allowing a physician to destroy a child as long as one toe remains within the mother would place society on the path towards condoning infanticide." The NY Times reports,

He wrote that he does not believe a woman's right to end her pregnancy under Roe v. Wade in 1973 "extends to the destruction of a child that is substantially outside her body."

Tuesday also brought a similar but unanimous ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Jay at StoptheACLU writes, "Brutally killing babies by partially removing them from the womb, puncturing their skulls, and sucking their brains out is protected by the Constitution?"

Resources: A Distant Thunder, Partial Birth Abortion Archive

During his State of the Union Address, President George W. Bush described the characteristics of a “hopeful society”, including institutions of science and medicine that recognize “recognize the matchless value of every life”:

BUSH: A hopeful society has institutions of science and medicine that do not cut ethical corners and that recognize the matchless value of every life.

Tonight I ask you to pass legislation to prohibit the most egregious abuses of medical research: human cloning in all its forms; creating or implanting embryos for experiments; creating human-animal hybrids; and buying, selling or patenting human embryos.

Human life is a gift from our Creator, and that gift should never be discarded, devalued or put up for sale.

And equal justice under the law, also a characteristic of the “hopeful society”, ought to extend to unborn human individuals who are immature but still possess “matchless value”.

In an address to the leaders of the Christian Associations of Italian Workers Friday, Pope Benedict XVI warned, "As history demonstrates, a democracy without values easily turns into open or thinly disguised totalitarianism."

Benedict XVI highlighted how, in our time, science and technology "present huge possibilities for improving everyone's lives," but warned that "the misguided use of such power can provoke grave and irreparable threats to the future of life itself."

"The defense of life - from conception to natural end - wherever it is threatened, offended or trampled underfoot, is the primary duty of an authentic ethic of responsibility, and this may be coherently extended to all other forms of poverty, injustice and exclusion," he said.

In addition to laws offending life, the Church sees the potential for totalitarianism wherever natural law is rejected, such as in the case of homosexual unions.

This Friday, the 3rd of February is the next Call for Life Day. At MarchTogether.com we encourage all Pro-Life individuals and organizations to call, email and/or march once a month on the first Friday to let our representatives know that we will not just fade away and accept legal abortion as the law of the land.

Can we stop abortion with phone calls and emails?

Here's a link to the 9th Circuit Court's decision on the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003. They declared it unconstitutional.

How sad is that Supreme Court precedent says something like this is constitutionally protected? An excerpt from the ruling is below.

Coretta Scott King died today at the age of 78. She was a powerful speaker for those who were condemned to death, unfortunately she did not speak for the unborn.

Strangely, King and most other vocal capital punishment opponents are very pro-abortion.

... according to the Family Research Council

Washington, D.C. - Today the U.S. Senate voted with bipartisan support to confirm Judge Samuel Anthony Alito, Jr. as the 110th Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Tony Perkins, President of Family Research Council, issued the following statement:

"Today Justice Alito will take his place on our nation's Supreme Court and contribute to a hopeful legacy of change in American law. The hope resides within the American people, whose weariness over the Court's embrace of judicial activism rallied voters across the country in pursuit of a new course, a course true to our founders' intent. Justice Alito is a reflection of that intent.

Washington, DC – Abortion supporters were dealt a crucial blow when the U.S. Senate voted 58-42 to confirm judge Samuel Alito to the United Stated Supreme Court, increasing their fears that abortion may soon be declared unconstitutional.

The first loss to the abortion lobby came in the Senate on Tuesday night when it failed to muster the required 41 votes to block the confirmation vote of Judge Alito.

Alito faced stiffer opposition because, unlike Chief Justice John Roberts, he never admitted that Roe is “settled law.”

Today, just before President George W. Bush’s State of the Union address, the United States Senate voted 58-42 to confirm Judge Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court. Michigan’s U.S. Senators, Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow both voted “No” on Judge Alito’s nomination despite widespread public support for conformation.

David Bereit, executive director of American Life
League, issued the following statement regarding the confirmation of Samuel Alito as justice to the U.S. Supreme Court:

"We are extremely hopeful that the confirmation of Samuel Alito will
lead to a greater protection of all human life including innocent
children at risk of losing their lives to abortion. Justice Alito's
confirmation to the nation's highest court offers pro-life Americans
reason for hope and optimism about the future. His record suggests
that he will help to ensure justice for all Americans – born and
pre-born.

"Justice Alito's confirmation was not an easy victory, but pro-lifers
worked tirelessly to ensure that the tragedy of abortion was a focal
point throughout the confirmation process. Prior to the vote in the
Senate Judiciary Committee, ALL representatives delivered thousands of
petitions signed by citizens across the country calling for the
approval of Judge Alito. Efforts like this were crucial in helping to
assure Justice Alito's confirmation.

"Pro-life Americans are praying that Justice Alito will live up to his
promise, and uphold a strict interpretation of constitutional law –
not legislate from the bench. There is nothing in the United States
Constitution that gives anyone a right to kill an innocent human
person, by abortion or any other means, and we are hopeful that
Justice Alito will recognize that reality in all abortion related
decisions that come before him on our nation's highest court."

Through our determined efforts and Pro-Life votes we are making a difference. Across the country abortion mills are losing business or closing because of Pro-Life legislation and pickets.

For those of you who have been reading this lengthy article by Albert from Defend Life, you have no doubt learned a few things about the Catholic Church, chastity, contraception and the value of human life.

Click here for part I

Click here for part II

The last piece of the article shows us that if we don't take seriously the need to understand what can happen to us if we lose our humanity and our connection with God, we will head down a long dark road.

It is official. Following a 58-42 vote in the U.S. Senate, Judge Samuel Alito has been confirmed to be the next associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. We can thank God for the active involvement of the rank and file who have stayed ever vigilant through this process.

Yesterday’s cloture vote to end debate on the nomination of Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court and to allow this confirmation vote today signals the end to the major media’s dominance of national affairs and its ability to shape public opinion.

Saving a life can sometimes be an amazingly simple thing. Just ask Ray, the older gentleman I met last Saturday at the Walk for Life down in Lincoln, Nebraska. Ray had strolled by the Vital Signs Ministries information booth that we had set up there in the UNL Student Union following the Walk and he was really taken by our realistic (to the eye and even to the touch) fetal models. He looked up at me with a wink and a smile, "These are grand but you know I carry a baby in my pocket! In fact, I carry twins!" He reached inside his coat and showed me the plastic models of two preborn children, representations that suggest a gestational age of 8-10 weeks. "See? I carry these babies with me all the time."

From the North Country Gazette:

Some Catholics are calling it premeditated murder.

Many are calling for the removal of St. Petersburg Diocese Bishop Robert N. Lynch for allowing the ceremony to occur in the diocese.

It could be the latest scandal in the Catholic church---at least in the Diocese of St. Petersburg.

Michael Schiavo and Jodi Centonze were married in the Espiritu Santo Catholic Church in Safety Harbor in a private ceremony Saturday, Jan. 21.

Church law specifically states that you cannot kill your wife in order to marry another woman.

There is absolutely no doubt that Michael Schiavo was responsible for the death of his wife, Terri Schindler-Schiavo and that he intended long before her death that he was going to marry Jodi Centonze, the mother of his two illegitimate children.

That constitutes criminal behavior in the Catholic church.

The word viable has been tossed about for many years. It has been used a determination point from which life begins in order to allow the murder of innocent human beings. Dictionary.com describes it like this:

Thursday, Arizona Right to Life's Shane Wikfors noted (click here) along with prolifeblogs the obvious bias presented in the Arizona Republic over coverage of an extreme pro-death group spearheaded by "End of Life Choices" and Representative Linda Lopez. Last Friday he pointed out another puff piece by reporter Casey Newton who is obviously in love with the pro-death folks down at the capitol. Actually, it appears that Newton and Lopez have teamed up in an attempt to get a hearing in the Arizona House Health Committee.

Yesterday we brought you an article written by Albert from Defend Life which was written in response to a challenge by a D.C. area radio talk show host. Chris Core asked, besides abortion, does a culture of death really exist?

In part one of his response, Albert showed up the many glaring ways the culture of death is overwhelming us. In part II, we continue with a piece by David Prentis which helps us inderstand how the "Contracepted Society" is also one which affects us negatively, probably as much as abortion.

Albert, the Activist Director for Defend Life in Maryland responded recently to a question asked by a local radio talk show host named Chris Core. Here is what he had to say.

Researchers who studied descendants of Abraham Lincoln's family have discovered a genetic defect that may have been the cause of Lincoln's gait. The dominant genetic mutation causes spinocerebellar ataxia type 5, a degenerative neurological disorder that affects coordination, including walking, speaking and swallowing. It was previously thought that Lincoln may have had Marfan's Syndrome. Here is the article.

While this is an interesting study of the past, it has some haunting implications for our future. I can sum it up with this question:

If Lincoln, one of the greatest Presidents in U.S history, was conceived in our age of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) and pre-natal genetic testing, would he have been aborted or tossed out as a "defective" embryo?

From The Boston Globe

The 11-year-old Westfield girl who was close to being removed from life support after allegedly being beaten into a coma by her adoptive mother and stepfather has been moved to a rehabilitation hospital in Boston.

Haleigh Poutre was discharged Thursday from Baystate Medical Center in Springfield and admitted to the Franciscan Hospital for Children. She has been hospitalized since September, when authorities say she was beaten into a coma.

More at Marlowe's Shade

During the March for Life Convention the motion picture A Distant Thunder was shown prior to a panel discussion involving Fr. Frank Pavone (Priests for Life), Nellie Gray (March for Life), and Jonathan and Deborah Flora.

Jonathan, an award-winning producer with Disney's Buena Vista Home Entertainment, took on the project after coming to terms his own with post-abortive experience and the discovery a few years ago that he and his wife were unable to have children. Flora struggled with the paradox. “Here we are praying fervently for a baby while America is treating unwanted pregnancies like a common cold at the rate of more than 4,500 abortions a day. 95% of them elective,” said Flora.

His wife Deborah is a professional actress and played the lead role in the movie. "We created this film in what many of those in the pro-life movement consider the belly of the beast – Hollywood. God knows it wasn’t made to further our careers or make money" , says Deborah Flora. "We made it so that through our craft, a terrible truth could be told so lives could be saved."

In addition to the Convention, the Floras spoke at a Capitol Hill reception, premiering the movie to members of Congress and their staff and answered questions at the Blogs4Life Conference following a short clip.

The movie itself is designed to be a supernatural thriller with provocative symbolism and a suspenseful surprise ending. It unmasks the horror of partial-birth abortion in a gripping court room setting by recounting the procedural steps from a medical perspective. After identifying with the main character, it becomes difficult not to accept the personhood and humanity of the unborn and question the morality of all abortion.

Covenant News pointed to an article about a woman who was fired because she didn't want to sell morning-after pills, which many Pro-Lifers know is an abortifacient (kills unborn people).

Boy, the Kansas City Star has an agenda. Without fail, everytime I read one of their articles it has errors. Here is another one for Clone the Truth. Here is my letter:

Dear Mr. Kraske,

I am writing to inform you of errors in terminology in your article "McCaskill backs stem-cell proposal" dated 1/26/06 as seen on KansasCity.com.

First, you wrote, "The stem-cell ballot initiative, sponsored by a group called the Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures, would amend the Missouri Constitution to protect laboratory techniques for cloning human cells to treat disease...The proposal includes criminal penalties for any attempt to implant cloned cells into a woman’s uterus."

Actually, researchers clone EMBRYOS from which embryonic stem cells are extracted to treat disease. Also, it is not "cloned cells" that would be implanted into a women's uterus, it would be a cloned EMBRYO.

Defend Life's Warriors for Life will be conducting a Mini Gap stop TODAY, Friday, January 27, from 3-5PM at Connecticut and K Street (across from Washington Metro's Farragut North & West stops)

For more information: contact Missy Smith at 202-337-1966 after 5PM

MarchTogether.com

United we stand - Divided they die - Pass it on

Haleigh Poutre was given a death sentence by doctors who said she was “virtually brain dead” and in a “hopeless” state of “persistent vegetation”.

The eleven year-old was hospitalized after her stepfather allegedly burned her and beat her unconscious with a baseball bat. Less than three weeks later, the Massachusetts Department of Social Services pushed to remove Haleigh's feeding tube and respirator and won approval from the State Supreme Court to so.

Well, the young girl fought, and she lived. Today, two weeks later, Haleigh was moved to a rehabilitation facility.

It has been less than 10 months after Terri's barbaric death by "starvation and dehydration over 13 grueling days with the whole world watching."

During Terri's struggle for life, the Diocese of St. Petersburg did little if nothing and now her husband, Michael Schiavo, has been re-married by the Roman Catholic Church of Espiritu Santo, Florida.

LifeNews reports,

It was the ultimate slap in the face to Terri Schiavo's parents. While they were spending years in a heart-wrenching battle to save their daughter's life, her estranged husband was having an affair with a woman and eventually had two children with her. The couple got married on Saturday.

Following the January 23 March for Life in Washington DC, which included a telecom with the President, speeches by numerous Congressmen and Senators, an appearance by the Schindler family and at least 100,000 participants, the Republic printed an obscure article totaling two inches of text.

On January 26, an article appeared on the front page of Section B (Valley and State), reporting an 100 person protest at the State Capitol. The participants were Senior Citizens who were "rallying" in support of legislation that would legalize assisted suicide.

The pro-suicide coverage included an 8 by 5 color picture of three protesters and 22 inches of text. Taking into account both the picture, titles and the text, the assisted suicide article received 18 times more area than the March for Life Article.

Update: in a city dominated by retired snow birds it is revealing that assisted suicide proponents found only 100 Seniors to promote their cause.

As a respected pro-life leader and a dynamic speaker, John has added blogging to his pro-life activities. Regarding the March, he writes,

While I may be a little tired and mention only the highlights of the trip, the same cannot be said for the grass roots pro-life movement as evidenced by the over 200,000 people who came from all over the country and the world to march on the nation's capitol.

While the rain came down the crowd gathered on the Washington mall where they heard music, prayers and reminders of why they were there. Thankfully the rain let up just before the march began. Led by the banners and the hundreds of women carrying the "Silent No More" and "Women do regret their abortions" banners, the marchers began their assent to Capitol Hill.

... The energy level from the people was amazing and they all conveyed their intention to continue the work when they returned home.

Ann Coulter shows us how the Democrats are reluctantly bailing out from the abortion issue.

Article

Obviously they don't want to be known only as the party of death anymore.

During her recent State of the State address to the citizens of Michigan, Governor Jennifer Granholm called on Michigan's legislature to pass a bill that would not only legalize non-therapeutic research on human embryos but would also legalize human cloning in the state of Michigan.

Read the rest at JivinJehoshaphat.

Jewels of the Jungle, one of the many bloggers who attended Blogs4Life, has published a remarkable gallery of March for Life images. Although it was literally impossible to capture all of the March participants on one photo, Jewels did an excellent job representing the massive and diverse crowd: click here.

From LifeNews

Steve Ertelt has been getting some great guest columnists lately such as Jill Stanek and Wesley Smith. Today Michelle Malkin has called for the same celebrities who wrung their hands over the execution of convicted murderer Tookie Williams to come out in support of another person currently under a death sentence. However, Haleigh Poutre never harmed a soul.

I have a question for the hordes of bleeding-heart Hollywood stars who joined the "Save Tookie" brigade, who bowed their heads in prayer with ex-Crip gangster Snoop Dogg and the Rev. Jesse Jackson and pleaded to protect convicted Death Row murderer Stanley "Tookie" Williams, and who lobbied so hard for the government to err on the side of life. Where are you now?

Read the rest at Marlowe's Shade

Bobby Schindler, Terri Schiavo's brother, and Brother Paul O’Donnell spoke at the Jan. 23, 2006 annual March for Life, a gathering of over 150,000 pro-life Americans. Their comments, although brief, reflect their passion for the future and dedication to fighting the rise of euthanasia in America. Look for more from the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation in the near future.

Video: click here to download (9 meg)

Prominently represented at the March for Life Convention and Rally were women hurt by the 1973 judicial fiat that decriminalized abortion. Some revealed that they were quite conscious that their abortion was a decision which claimed the life of their unborn child. Others, while sensing their "choice" was wrong, were mislead, exploited or intimidated. The common theme among those who testified was pain, sorrow, repentance, forgiveness, and healing – a powerful message of hope for those whose lives have been devastated by abortion.

"Femimints abortionists should listen to us women. They are not representing any of us women. Femists abortionists do not represent any of us women in America," Nellie Gray, March for Life’s Founder and President, cried out. "They are hurting women... we must understand when we say there is brutality in abortion listen to these women."

Testifying on behalf of women were Luana Stoltenberg, representing Operation Outcry and Georgette Forney, President of NOEL (A Life-Affirming Ministry in the Worldwide Anglican Communion) and co-Founder of Silent No More Awareness Campaign.

Video: click here to download

It would seem to be the greatest irony of abortion, that the foremost tool feminists say will facilitate women's equality with men is actually the foremost weapon used to kill them.

The crisis of female feticide is growing to such an extent in Third World countries that by 2020 there will be more unmarried Chinese men than the total population of females in Taiwan and South Korea combined.

Yet the National Organzation for Women and Planned Parenthood are silent.

That's because there's money to be made by harvesting eggs from aborted girls.

Meanwhile researchers note that one way the Chinese government has dealt with male-female disparities in the past was to send the testosterone-laden, aggressive, single men off to foreign wars that the government created to give them something to do....

Read my column today, "The upside of female feticide," on WorldNetDaily.com.

From LifeNews

Governor Mitt Romney yesterday announced that he will put together an independent panel to investigate the case of Haleigh Poutre, an 11 year-old Massachusetts girl who is at the center of a euthanasia battle similar to that of Terri Schiavo.

Poutre was beaten into a coma by her adoptive parents and was placed into state custody. State officials pressed for and won a case, over her stepfather's objections, to have Poutre euthanized.

Continued at Marlowe's Shade

Patrick Lee and Robert George have provided a priceless gift to prolifers regarding human embryo research and abortion.

Singer voices here perhaps the most popular argument in favor of embryo-destructive research and abortion. Few who accept this argument have followed it to its logical conclusion, however, as Singer has: If self-awareness is the ground of general immunity of being killed right not to be killed, not only abortion but also infanticide, and the killing of many helpless adults, are morally legitimate (see Singer's popular textbook, Practical Ethics, Chapters 2 and 4). In fact that conclusion is inescapable once one accepts Singer's premise. But one has decisive reasons to reject that premise as fatally flawed. It is true that an embryo or fetus (or infant) lacks the immediately exercisable capacity for self-awareness, rationality, or free choice. Yet, the embryo or fetus does have the basic, natural capacity for such actions as consequent to its nature, that is, as entailed by the kind of entity it is. The embryo or fetus, precisely in virtue of the kind of entity he or she is, has the capacity to develop himself or herself to the point where he will perform such actions. And no one has been able to give an intelligible reason why we should base full moral rights on immediately exercisable capacities — which can come and go — rather than on the basic, natural capacities that a human being at any stage of development has in virtue of the kind of entity it is.

Read the whole thing here.

March For Life 2006

United we stand - Divided they Die - Pass it on

Michael J. New, Ph.D., just released a new study which makes the case
that Pro-Life legislation at the state level has been one of the
biggest factors contributing to the reduction of abortions in America.

This study looks at data from almost every state for every year fro