LifeNet

Georgetown Law School to honor pro-abortion Jesuit

Fr. Thomas Euteneur is the President of Human Life International (HLI) and he has a weekly email column entitled "Spirit and Life."

Here are excerpts from his column on the announcement that Fr. Robert Drinan will have an endowed chair named for him at Georgetown University Law School.

You can find the full column here: Human Life International - Home

Father Drinan and Attila the Hun

One of the plagues of the Catholic Church in modern America is the barely-disguised faith abuse of many of our so-called Catholic universities. The actions of some of these universities are just intolerable from the viewpoint of authentic Catholicism, and they should be exposed and rebuked for the heresy, apostasy or the just plain pathetic Catholicism that they advocate. This week saw one of the most egregious slaps in the face to the Catholic Church that has been seen in a long time: an award for an abortion-advocating priest. The culprit? Georgetown - again...

The shenanigans of the Georgetown University Law Center this week, however, top them all. Georgetown Law established an endowed chair for "human rights" in the name of Fr. Robert Drinan, the Jesuit priest who unwaveringly supported abortion while he was in Congress (1971-1981) and even defended the despicable partial birth abortion. Why this scandal of a priest was not summarily run out of the priesthood by his superiors or at very least silenced for his shameless blessing of abortion is beyond me. But what inevitably happens when heretics are not disciplined by their superiors is that they end up being celebrated and honored with silly awards like this. Well, if Fr. Drinan is a human rights hero then Attila the Hun was a diplomat. Maybe Georgetown Law should name a chair of humanitarian law after Atilla just to be consistent.

This incident, of course, touches upon the open, gaping wound in Catholic higher education these days. Western culture owes the very concept of the university to Roman Catholicism, which brought this institution to society for the purpose of evangelizing culture and saving souls through intellectual pursuit and formation in virtue. What passes for Catholic universities today is sometimes a pure mockery of that great tradition...

We can lay the blame at the feet of bishops who don't supervise the Catholic credentials of these places, religious superiors who allow their subordinates to get away with heresy and school administrators who just don't seem to care about the mission of Christ. Parents would do well to stop investing upwards of $40,000 a year in Georgetown and other formerly Catholic universities just to have their kids lose the Faith and very possibly their souls.

Former Planned Parenthood abortionist does pro-life ad in South Dakota

All indications are that the referendum in South dakota to ban all abortions will be very close. Here is a commercial by a (former) Planned Parenthood abortionist coming out for the ban

Patti - voteyesforlife.com, abortion, south, dakota, pro-life - Dailymotion Share Your Videos

College student exposes Planned Parenthood in University newspaper

Emily Byers, a student at Louisiana State University, has a phenomenal article in the University newspaper.

Print it, read it, and pass it around - especially to high school and college students. The excerpt below doesn't do justice to this well constructed and written essay. And it's only a couple of pages long.

Daily Reveille - PPFA hiding from ideas of its roots

This assertion originated in Sanger's writing, but a shocking distinction must be made between her claim and PPFA's: Sanger's hope that contraception could end abortion was futile but sincere; conversely, Planned Parenthood is simply paying lip service to contraception advocates made uncomfortable by the moral questions abortion raises.

Sanger called abortion a "humiliating," "repulsive" and "painful" ordeal in her book, "Woman and the New Race." She acknowledged that it is unmistakably the "killing of babies in the womb."

PPFA says nothing negative about abortion. To counter persistent allegations that abortion harms women, it repeatedly calls abortion a "very safe" practice, even arguing that "abortion after the first trimester is as safe as or safer than carrying a pregnancy to term."

Pregnancy and childbirth are risky but natural processes. Under normal circumstances, a woman's body is well equipped to recover from any stress or strain triggered by pregnancy or childbirth. Abortion is a risky and unnatural procedure. Its safety can never be guaranteed, no matter what PPFA's spin doctors might say.

PPFA's misinformation and consistent opposition to laws mandating precautionary measures such as the twenty-four-hour waiting period or parental consent for minors having abortions dispel any remaining doubt about its absolute approval of abortion.

Population Group Says 300 Million Americans Is Not Enough

FRONT ROYAL, Va.—Contradicting what many experts have been saying, the
Population Research Institute (PRI) believes that the United States is
suffering from insufficient population growth even though the U.S. Census
Bureau says the American population will reach 300 million tomorrow.
“When you look at the projections that show our population aging rapidly
over the next few decades, when you see our economy and government
programs such as Social Security risking bankruptcy, you can see that the
United States’ annual 0.9% population growth rate is not enough,” said
Steven Mosher, President of PRI.  “America’s baby boomers didn’t have many
children on average, and as a result, our country faces a gray dawn.  Even
our currently high immigration levels haven’t made up the difference.”

“According to United Nations figures, the percentage of the American
population 65 or over will rise from 12.3% today to 20.6% by 2050.  The
proportion of Americans 80 or over will rise from 3.6% to 7.3% of the
population,” said Joseph A. D’Agostino, Vice President for Communications
at PRI.  “Our worker-to-retiree ratio is already at a dangerous 3-to-1.
By 2050, it will be 2-to-1.  And those retirees will be living much longer
than they do today thanks to beneficial improvements in health care.
We’ve been trying to make up for our low birthrate though lots of
immigration, which has created its own problems.  But if Americans won’t
create the next generation, then it must be imported.”

The birthrate of the United States is 2.0 children per woman, slightly
less than the replacement rate of 2.1.  Without immigrants, the birthrate
would be even lower.  As we have noted previously, the United States’
population density is 31 people per square kilometer, well below the world
average of 48 and far below those of most Western European nations.
Americans continue to leave rural areas for large metropolitan areas,
creating the illusion that America is becoming overpopulated.  Yet only
4.7% of American land is built up.

For more information including an audio clip, go to www.pop.org.  To
schedule an interview, call Joseph D’Agostino at 540-622-5240 ext. 204.
E-mail: [email protected]

Population Research Institute, 1190 Progress Dr.-Suite 2D, P.O. Box 1559,
Front Royal, Va. 22630 USA

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Susan B. Anthony and the Right to Life

An October 13th op ed in the NY Times tried to muddy the waters about the commitment of Susan B. Anthony, and other early feminists and suffragettes, to solving problems without recourse to killing unborn babies.

Here is a very good discussion of the article, as well as a response by Serrin Foster, Director of Feminists for Life of America:

open book: Susan B. Anthony - prolife or not?

Here's part of Serrin Foster's comments -

Our feminist foremothers sought to consistently defend human beings through their efforts for suffrage and for abolition of slavery. The basic tenets of feminism, which we have received from the early feminists, are nondiscrimination, nonviolence, and justice for all. Abortion violates all three.

The spirit of FFL’s mission to create holistic solutions to the challenges faced by pregnant women and parents is perhaps best expressed in Anthony’s own words: “Sweeter even than to have had the joy of caring for children of my own has it been to me to help bring about a better state of things for mothers generally, so their unborn little ones could not be willed away from them." (Susan B. Anthony, quoted in Frances Willard’s Glimpses of Fifty Years: The Autobiography of an American Woman, Chicago: Women’s Temperance Pub. Assoc., 1889, 598)

A "hard decision" that's the only right choice

Dawn Eden, a recent convert to Catholicism, maintains a very fine weblog. She frequently writes on pro-life issues.

Here's a great posting about a Down's syndrome toddler. Either link should get you there.

The Dawn Patrol

http://www.dawneden.com/2006/10/staring-hard-decision-in-faceby.html

Dot is one in a million — actually, about 1 in 14, because that's how many Down Syndrome children are born in this country every day. And that's only because, every day, about 126 Down Syndrome children are aborted.

Silent No More Takes Manhattan

Catholic Pro-life groups and the Catholic Alliance voter guide

Catholic Pro-Life Groups Condemn Phony Voter Guide From Abortion Activist

Here is the first half of the article, the link contains the rest of it:

Catholic pro-life groups are condemning what they call a phony voter guide put out by a Catholic organization with ties to abortion advocates. They say the guide from Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good (CACG) incorrectly suggests that support for pro-abortion politicians can be justified.

Joseph Cella, the president of Fidelis, a national Catholic-based advocacy group, told LifeNews.com that CACG is headed by Alexia Kelley, a former advisor to the John Kerry presidential campaign.

Kerry, a pro-abortion Massachusetts senator, lost to pro-life President George W. Bush in the 2004 elections.

"Following the 2004 elections, pro-abortion politicians recognized their vulnerability with Catholic voters and have been searching for ways to shrewdly package a convincing arguments that would appeal to morally conscious voters," Cella says about the mindset behind the voter's guide.

The CACG booklet argues “we often must vote for candidates who hold the ‘wrong’ Catholic positions on some issues in order to maximize the good our vote achieves in other areas.”

But the nation's Catholic bishops disagree, Cella explains, saying they made it clear that candidates who are wrong on abortion but hold Catholic views on other political issues don't deserve the votes of faithful Catholics.

In their 1998 document entitled Living the Gospel of Life: A Challenge to American Catholics, the United States Catholic Bishops said, “Being ‘right’ in such matters can never excuse a wrong choice regarding direct attacks on innocent human life."

"Indeed, the failure to protect and defend life in its most vulnerable stages renders suspect any claims to the ‘rightness’ of positions in other matters affecting the poorest and least powerful of the human community," the Catholic leaders wrote.

UPDATE 10-6-06: Here's a press release from the Catholic League about the voter guide -CATHOLIC LEAGUE for Religious and Civil Rights

September 29, 2006

CATHOLIC DEMS STUCK WITH ABORTION ALBATROSS

        A new Catholic activist organization, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, has issued a voter guide that will be distributed to Catholics between now and election day. Commenting on the 12-page booklet is Catholic League president Bill Donohue:

        “The voter guide is a slick attempt to get the abortion albatross off the necks of Catholic Democrats, but it’s a failed effort—the noose is still there. Instead of listening to James Carville and Paul Begala, who have counseled Democrats to drop their opposition to parental notification laws and their support for keeping partial-birth abortion legal, the best Catholics in Alliance can do is say it is opposed to abortion. But it makes it painfully clear that it will never join any effort to ban any abortions, including partial-birth. Alexia Kelley heads the new group, and in 2004 she worked as a religion advisor to John Kerry in the closing weeks of his campaign. Kerry is an advocate of keeping partial-birth abortion legal.

        “On p. 9 of the booklet, it criticizes many pro-life candidates (it puts the term pro-life in quotes, as in so-called pro-life candidates) who are nothing but talk. ‘On the other hand,’ it says, there are pro-abortion politicians who ‘support effective measures to promote healthy families and reduce abortions by providing help to pregnant women and young children.’ There’s the moral equivalency: it’s okay for a Catholic politician to give a green light to a practice that kills a baby who is 80-percent born, just so long as he’s against trans fats.

        “On August 2, 2006, Catholics in Alliance issued a news release urging the Senate to raise the minimum wage, an issue which the Catholic Church has no official position on, one way or the other. But the group has no statement urging anyone to vote against partial-birth abortion, an issue which the Catholic Church officially opposes. The best it can do is say it opposes the ‘root causes’ of abortion.

        “Despite what Catholics in Alliance says, there is a moral hierarchy of issues, and as important as ending poverty is, it does not rival the right of a child to be born.”

MS magazine publishing it's "We Had an Abortion" petition campaign

MS magaziner has been publicizing  and promoting it's "We Had Abortions" campaign.

BREITBART.COM - Women Sign 'We Had Abortions' Petition

At a pivotal time in the abortion debate, Ms. magazine is releasing its fall issue next week with a cover story titled "We Had Abortions," accompanied by the names of thousands of women nationwide who signed a petition making that declaration.

The publication coincides with what the abortion-rights movement considers a watershed moment for its cause. Abortion access in many states is being curtailed, activists are uncertain about the stance of the U.S. Supreme Court, and South Dakotans vote Nov. 7 on a measure that would ban virtually all abortions in their state, even in cases of rape and incest.

"All this seems very dire," said Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, which publishes Ms.

"We have to get away from what the politicians are saying," she said, "and get women's lives back in the picture."

Here are some websites responding to this:

The Dawn Patrol

Go here for post-abortive woman who have written to MS Magazine and to see the magazine's response.

Operation Outcry

UPDATE 10-6-06: The following has been sent to several media outlets

To the Editor:

       MS. Magazine just does not get it. They believe that by issuing a cover story with the names of 5ooo women who are “unashamed of the choice they made” they are going to “get women’s lives back into the picture” of abortion.

        Women’s lives are in the picture of abortion, now more than ever; as they finally are speaking out about the damage abortion does, not only by killing their unborn children but to themselves. They are crushing the myths of “safe” legal abortion as they share their stories of the psychological, emotional, spiritual , and physical damage abortion has caused them. Some of these women had been imprisioned in despair for years because magazines like MS. continue to deny their pain, leaving them feeling isolated and crazy.

       Abortion has not become unpopular in the general public because of politics, it is unpopular because people have learned the truth and have seen firsthand the suffering it has caused to women they love. Every month in our center, up to 25 women seek post abortion help.

       In our country there have been over 48 million abortions since its legalization 1973. Where are all the rest of the women? Some are speaking out in groups like Silent No More or Operation Outcry proclaiming the damage abortion did to them. Others are participating confidentially in groups and post abortion ministries to help them heal from the pain. Most however, are sitting in our homes, our workplaces, our churches and communities living with the pain in silence and fear that someone will find out.

        It is not our society which has proclaimed abortion safe, legal and a wonderful women’s right that has made women live in silence and shame, and it is organizations such as MS. who deny their feelings, and it is their instinctive, natural role as a mom who made the decision to abort, most times because they felt they had no choice. They are devastated by what they now know inside of them to be true after experiencing abortion, it does not solve problems, and it only causes more.

Wake up MS. You cannot make abortion a normal act, women are smarter than that. They know what they experience. They want and deserve to know the truth and they are finding it out, that is why abortion is losing ground.

Theresa Bonopartis

Lumina/Hope & Healing after Abortion

www.postabortionhelp.org

[email protected]

1-877-586-4621