December 2008 Archives

Charmaine Yoest, the President and CEO of Americans United for Life (AUL), had some encouraging words in a recent email sent out to supporters. Here are some excerpts:

Many people have been asking me how things stand, and what our strategy will be, with an incoming presidential administration that has taken such a radical stance supporting abortion. The short answer: I am, frankly, heartened by the tremendous response of our AUL supporters each time we've asked you to stand for life. First, we saw the remarkable response to AUL Action's FightFOCA petition. Pro-lifers are not giving in! The signatures have continued rising, even over the Christmas holiday, and now stand at over 350,000! If you haven't signed yet, take a minute and add your voice at: www.FightFOCA.com. I am also heartened by the response of AUL supporters to the 55-page Wish List pro-abortion forces sent to President-elect Obama. We asked you to enter comments on the document and now there are nearly 3,000 comments, mostly pro-life, on the site. You can read them here: http://change.gov/open_government/entry/advancing_reproductive_rights_and_health_in_a_new_administration. US News and World Report noted the surge in comments and observed that:

"But the volume of comments also shows that the pro-life movement is very much engaged right now and can be quickly activated."

That's encouraging! ... I have on my fireplace mantle a copy of the classic work, Streams in the Desert, which belonged to my grandparents. The entry to be read each January 6th, addresses the perennial question of uncertainty and recounts the example of the self-opening gate: There is a self-opening gate which is sometimes used in country roads. It stands fast and firm across the road as a traveler approaches it. If he stops before he gets to it, it will not open. But if he will drive right at it, his wagon wheels press the springs below the roadway, and the gate swings back to let him through. He must push right on at the closed gate, or it will continue to be closed. Then the author, Lettie Cowman, sums up by saying, "This illustrates the way to pass every barrier on the road of duty." Duty is an old-fashioned word, rarely heard today. But the AUL team believes that it is indeed our duty, and a high calling, to stand against those who would promote the Culture of Death with every last resource that God grants us, regardless of the barriers that block the road ahead. We will pray for wisdom, direction, and discernment. And then, we intend to run straight at the gate. These are difficult times. I've talked with so many of you recently who have told me that you are standing with us, despite financial challenges. We are humbled -- and emboldened -- by your commitment. Thank you for your faithful support which enables us to "press on and step out boldly."

I am so thankful for groups like AUL and for their untiring efforts to create a culture of life in America. I am also thankful for the many who regularly contribute to sites like ProLifeBlogs.

May the Lord bless you and your family as we approach the new year.

Recently, there have been a few very revealing studies about the effects of abortion on women and men. Of course, if one's source of news is the mainstream media, it's doubtful they have heard about them.

A nationwide study by the Elliott Institute questioned a total of 626 respondents, and 84% of those believed that the negative emotional reactions to those involved in having an abortion are moderate to very severe. Even 60 percent of those who identified themselves as very pro-choice said they think emotional pain is common. Of those 47 respondents who said they've had an abortion, 76.6 percent reported a negative emotional reaction. Of the 25 males who said they were involved in an abortion, 60% also experienced negative emotional consequences. Reference: Emotional pain follows abortion, October 30, 2008, WorldNetDaily

WorldNetDaily also reports:

In a two-year study cited on The Reclaiming Fatherhood website, (www.menandabortion.com), 142 men responded to an online survey about their personal abortion experiences. Forty-five percent said their partner chose to abort against their wishes. Sixty-six percent indicated their relationships failed after the abortion. When asked about incidents of post-abortion problems, 128 male respondents reported grief, sadness and persistent thoughts about the baby. More than 100 cited feelings of helplessness, relationship problems, anger, guilt, isolation, difficulty concentrating and anxiety. Reference: Post-abortion grief very real, experts say. September 11, 2008. By Chelsea Schilling, WorldNetDaily

A few years ago, psychotherapist Theresa Burke, led a support group for women with eating disorders and learned that six out of the eight had undergone abortions. The other two had been sexually abused as children. Whenever the subject of abortion came up, Burke noted that it aroused intense emotions among the women, even as they strongly dismissed its potential impact on them.

Dear Friends,

"The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned... For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end... with judgment and justice." Isaiah 9:2

Christmas Ideas From Stand For Life

This Christmas:

Light a candle for all the aborted children who never saw the light of day.

Place an ornament on the Christmas tree in memory of all those who died from abortion.

Wrap a box with nothing in it to symbolize the unborn who never will have the joy of Christmas.

Vow to tell at least one person about the millions of aborted children that never got to open one present, never heard a Christmas song, or never learned the story of baby Jesus in the manger.

Pray for all of the women and men who have gone through abortion and are hurting. May they advise others not to go through the same pain that they have endured.

Pray for everyone fighting for the unborn. Pray that because of their efforts, babies will see their first Christmas next year who otherwise will not.

Pray that people involved with the abortion industry will realize the evil they are committing and leave the field.

Pray for all in 2009 that will face the abortion decision.

Make a pledge for the upcoming year to do as much as possible to alleviate this horror.

This Christmas - Remember the aborted.

Merry Christmas - Stand For Life
www.standforlife.net

I live in IL and have always functioned as a pro-life activist on the wrong side of the politically corrupt government, and not just Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

But Blagojevich in particular has expressed not just hostility to pro-life measures but hostility to preborn life.

I hope U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald will someday expose the theres I know are there and the whys behind Blagojevich's extraordinary impositions of anti-life laws and expenditures on the state.

The list is long, but there was one in which I was involved....

All eyes are now focused on Democrats to launch impeachment proceedings; and note they are being slow about it. They really, really want Blagojevich to quit. I wanted him to at first, but I'm now laughing that he doesn't. If they're forced to impeach him, they indict themselves. They're all guilty. They all have skeletons just like his. They all are worrying: What does Fitzgerald have on us?

But I digress....

Meet Rev. Walter Hoye.

He's been criminally charged by the District Attorney in Oakland, California. His crime? He holds a sign outside an abortion clinic that reads, "Jesus Loves You and Your Baby. Let Us Help." Terrible stuff, isn't it? What could drive a man to be so full of such unmitigated hatred? Sarcasm aside, clearly there is nothing about this man or his message that is hateful. And according to the Life Legal Defense Foundation, no clinic patient has filed any complaint with the police regarding Hoye. Still, the D.A. persists. More in a moment on how in Oakland, free speech isn't free.

I was curious to learn more about Mr. Hoye's personal story and why he is an active pro-lifer and I came across this short video on his organization's website.

The store is up at Pro-Life Unity! Not only are we selling the amazing Pro-Life movie, Volition, we are also offering many other items we believe you will like to own, like original photographs, coffee mugs, clocks, calendars and more.

Click here to go to the Pro-Life Unity store and remember to watch the movie Volition free, online! Then you can buy it at a discount for your church or other group.

The March for Life is one of the biggest annual gatherings of Pro-Life people in the world. Are you going? The March for Life website is marchforlife.org.

Four times in four years Wichita late-term abortionist George Tiller or Planned Parenthood of KS has sued KS Attorney General Phill Kline or Johnson Co. District Attorney Phill Kline for investigating them. They have also filed hundreds of pages of ethics complaints, which continue nonstop to this day.

But... nothing has stuck to Kline....

Despite every attempted roadblock, the criminal investigations against PP and Tiller continue....

In this latest round, PP bizarrely asked the KS Supreme Court to let it sue its prosecutor, Kline, in a secret hearing, and the Supremes more bizarrely said sure....

But PP lost its latest lawsuit last week on all merits....

The justice writing the majority opinion, Carol Beier, an appointee of pro-abort Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, was clearly angry she couldn't find a way to stop the decision....

Beier closed by warning that while they had nothing on Kline now, be ready for something, anything, to pop up in the future to cause the suspension of his license.

"I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too," Brier would have written had she not feared accusations of plagiarism....

Now all eyes are on....

Continue reading my column, "Pro-aborts lose another round to Phill Kline," on WorldNetDaily.com.

We co-bloggers here don't have time to read all comments, never mind to moderate and determine if they're worth saving, editing or banning. It's a fair amount of extra work for any of us to monitor the comments that way, and in some cases, we'll delete comments and/or ban people altogether to save ourselves the extra work.

This is done solely to safeguard our comboxes for visitors. We, like any blog, reserve the right to moderate the recent kind of nonsense out of our community. This is our prerogative, to make this a safe place for people to have intelligent discussions and to learn something, even if they disagree with us.

To those who know we're speaking to you: Clean up your acts, come with intelligent, informed, fact-backed and educated debate and have some respect. Especially if you expect any of that--most importantly, respect--in return.

We've seen your test posts to see what kind of moderation goes on here. We know who the trolls and trouble-makers are.

If you wish to keep professing stupidity, obscenity, poor education, misinformation and/or ignorance, if you want to keep posting baseless insults, attacks and derision, you've earned your own ticket to the exits.

It would be a pity, because at the AfterAbortion blog, we have several pro-choice friends and have learned to be a community even if we disagree on some things.

Several commenters lately have proven they have no intention of learning anything or of partaking in a community with anyone but diehard, rabid abortion and Obama supporters.

This blog is not for the frivolous enjoyment of anyone looking to harm, insult, ridicule or foment misinformation and/or hatred. Even those no longer welcome would agree that "free speech" is not right to include those kinds of speech.

Several of us have tried to address many of the claims and issues some of you have posted. It is only met with complete denial of the facts and more of the same derision and completely misinformed ranting.

We're sure you can find obscenity-riddled, liberal, abortion-supporting, disrespectful, Obama-idolizing, media-believing blogs and chatboxes elsewhere on the web. This surely isn't one of them.

If you wish to spend time here again, you may petition Timothy, the founder of PLB (see the CONTACT page), for your request to be considered. Bear in mind that we all have day jobs and the decision to leave the ban in place may still be made without response, again only to save ourselves the extra work.

UPDATE: As one of the now-banned trolls threatened Annie personally, in writing, in December 2008, the commenting system was adjusted to allow only authenticated commenters. Most of our regular commenters are already authenticated, and it is an easy and free process to become so, if you aren't already. You can still comment anonymously, but must submit a valid e-mail address for such comments. However if that is abused by the offenders, this may have to be modified as well.

Should the troll problems continue we may have to modify this further to allow only trusted commenters, which is still easy to do and only takes a little more set-up work on our (the co-bloggers') part. The following describes the differences and advantages between "authentication" and "trustedness".

For any commenter who would like to comment respectfully, intelligently, factually, without malice, threat or insult, and you find yourself unable to submit such comments, please contact the PLB blog's founder (SEE THE "CONTACT" page) with the details. The best effort will be made to try to respond.

A few months ago, I was sitting in the food court at a local mall when a young man jumped six floors to his death about 50 yards from where I sat. More on this in a bit.

In Greek mythology, Herakles (Heracles) and his family were traveling when they came to a river and encountered Nessos, a centaur. Nessos offered to carry Deianeira, Herakles' wife, across the river, while Herakles waded across while carrying his son. After Nessos carried Deianeira across, he tried to rape her. Herakles crossed the river shortly thereafter and, seeing what was happening, attacked Nessos, leaving him bleeding by the river to die. Before he died, Nessos whispered to Deianeira that his blood was a powerful love potion and if she put it on Herakles, it would bind him to her forever. Inexplicably, she believed him and put his blood on Herakles' cloak, only to discover that the blood was, in fact, poison and burned her husband like acid. So when people refer to something as "a cloak of Nessos," they are saying that something may at first seem like a good idea but it will greatly harm you in the end.

So it is with the "death with dignity" argument. At first, "death with dignity" sounds compassionate and noble, doesn't it? At least, until I remember that there is nothing compassionate or noble about helping someone die. As a Christian, I also realize that my life is not mine to take. Life is a precious gift and must be jealously guarded at all stages of development and in good health or bad.

We must be especially vigilant to defend the defenseless, where attacks against a person come from within his own mind. A friend of mine worked for a psychiatric emergency program and he would be the first to tell you that people who suffer from mental illness are hardly in a position to make even routine health decisions, much less those involving life or death.

This leads me back to the young man who jumped to his death. He suffered from depression so acute that the only rational choice in his mind was to commit an entirely irrational act. Imagine this scenario: What if as he slowly lifted his legs over the railing, passersby noticed but said nothing and kept walking? What if, as he leaned out, his hands still clinging to the railing, they still said nothing and continued on? What if one person finally stopped, only to softly say, "It's okay, you deserve to end your life on your terms. It's okay if you feel it's no longer worth the pain and struggle. You can let go if you want to."? My friends, that is what advocates of "death with dignity" do when they help others die, particularly those who suffer from mental illness or who are severely depressed due to a serious illness. And sometimes, these people "escape" the pain of this world only to fall straight into an abyss where the pain of this world pales in comparison. But that's not all. You and I are the passersby who say nothing, because, after all, it is such a "personal" decision. It is a decision affecting a person's life -- there can BE no more personal of a decision -- and it is for this reason that we must speak up and we must speak out against the culture of death.

Christians must avoid this cloak of Nessos at all costs. We must challenge those who have the audacity to proclaim that another person's life is no longer of value. Human life has intrinsic value regardless of situation or circumstance.

(For a press release from Americans United for Life regarding a court's recent decision on euthanasia, go here.)

When the so-called experts say there is no proof that abortion harms women, I think of this famous scene from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off":

Does abortion harm women? The answer is a resounding YES! But instead of the figurative classroom being unresponsive as in the clip above, a growing number of studies clamor for attention, yet they are unrecognized by the establishment. Why? Because they show a link between abortion and depression (h/t: Alliance Alert). And of course, the link between abortion and breast cancer is already well-documented (here, here, here, here, here). But in both instances, the "experts" maintain that there is no evidence challenging their established (and politically driven) positions. It sort of reminds me of this scene from "The Emperor's New Groove":

As you read through the list of Barack Obama's Cabinet and agency head picks, recall that Planned Parenthood, NARAL and EMILY's List promised to spend $30 million combined to defeat John McCain.

It's payback time, and the pro-abort chickens are coming home to roost.

Wait - bad cliché choice. Liberal feminist chicks make their living by anti-roosting.

The pro-abort chickens are coming home to loot. That's better.

There's Ellen Moran, who will be leaving her job as executive director of EMILY's List to serve as Obama's communications director.

And there's NARAL's former legal director, Dawn Johnsen, who Obama nabbed for his Department of Justice review team.

On Monday, Obama named....

Continue reading my column, "Abortion industry picks Obama's staff," on WorldNetDaily.com.

Each year we've witness an increasing exploitation of Christmas, the holiday marking the birth of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God and Savior of mankind. However, no marketing scheme is as appalling as that of Planned Parenthood which is now offering gift certificates that can be used to kill an unborn child.

  American Life League issued the following news release:

Jim Sedlak, vice president of American Life League, issued the following statement regarding Planned Parenthood of Indiana's Christmas gift certificates. PPIN will sell the certificates in $25 increments that can be used as cash in any of their 35 Indiana clinics.

This is an outrage and every Christian should be appalled. Christmas, perhaps more than any other time of the year, is dedicated to the miracle of life and Divine Love, which is under attack in our relativist society. Chief among the assailants is and has always been the twisted philosophy Planned Parenthood promotes - a philosophy that enshrines selfishness, devalues human life and degrades human sexuality.

Planned Parenthood "gift" certificates would be more accurately described as death certificates. A gift from the nation's chief purveyor of abortions amounts to such for thousands of children each year.

Others are talking:

Slice of Laodecia:  That's right. The Baby Butchers of America want to celebrate Christmas by helping you kill your own children in the womb.

George Grant:  Merry Christmas Planned Parenthood Style

Jill Stanek:  Planned Parenthood, this generation's King Herod, you know, the guy who ordered the mass slaughter of babies when Jesus was born.

LoneStarTimes:  Planned Parenthood of Indiana is celebrating the most important crisis pregnancy of all time ... [how grimly ironic]

CitizenLink:  The fact that they would be offering gift certificates that could even pay for the destruction of innocent human life is blasphemous.

While we're on the topic of Planned Parenthood, consider this educational video of notorious eugenic proponent Margaret Sanger, the organization's founder: