LifeNet

Journal News "Community View" on Spitzer's promotion of partial birth abortion

This was published today in the Journal News - the Gannett daily newspaper of Westchester, Putnam and Rockland counties. the headline was written by the Journal News editors. Besides being Program Coordinator for Lumina, the author is a co-director of the Hudson Valley Coalition for Life.

Spitzer's partial-birth abortion legislation must include all voices

Spitzer's partial-birth abortion legislation must include all voices

By THERESA BONOPARTIS

(Original publication: May 30, 2007)

For the first time in April the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a nationwide ban on so-called partial-birth abortions. In response, Gov. Eliot Spitzer has proposed updating the state's abortion statute to specifically allow late-term abortions to protect the health of the mother. Here is a reply from an opponent of the governor's initiative.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer has proposed legislation in response to last month's U.S. Supreme Court opinion upholding a nationwide ban on partial-birth abortions. This legislation coincides with the extreme pro-abortion agenda purporting to "guarantee a woman's right to make decisions related to her personal reproductive health."

In a press release relating to the legislation, members of Planned Parenthood, The Center for Reproductive Rights, NARAL Pro-Choice New York and other pro-abortion organizations are quoted, praising the governor for his attempt. We are now told they will lobby for a bill they think is necessary because of the last month's ban of partial-birth abortion. One voice that continues to be ignored, however, by all these organizations and the governor himself, is that of women suffering as a result of a past abortion.

Pro-abortion groups continue to deny post-abortion trauma, and although they claim to speak for all women, they go out of their way to silence those not in agreement with their views. In addition to their attempts at silencing these women, and denying their experiences, they do all within their power to block legislation that would reduce abortion and give women the entire truth about its risks, both psychologically and physically.

These people, in order to keep all abortion legal at any time for any reason, at the expense of the health of countless women, even object to the banning of partial-birth abortion which has been proven to have no medical reason to be performed, even for the health of the mother. In the recent Supreme Court decision, thousands of affidavits were submitted attesting to abortion's harm by women who have experienced them. These pro-abortion extremists do not want you to hear their voices.

The high court's Gonzalez vs. Carhart decision upholding a ban on partial-birth abortion gives credence to these women when it states "The state has an interest in ensuring so grave a choice is well informed. It is self-evident that a mother who comes to regret her choice to abort must struggle with grief more anguished and sorrow more profound when she learns, only after the event, what she once did not know: that she allowed a doctor to pierce the skull and vacuum the fast-developing brain of her unborn child, a child assuming the human form."

I invite Spitzer, if he truly is concerned about the health of all women, to introduce legislation that would ensure women know all facts and risks of abortion. I invite him to have some of us who have experienced the devastation it has caused in our lives into his office to discuss our concerns. I challenge him to introduce a "Women's Right To Know" bill that may save countless numbers of women from becoming sterile, receiving cervical injuries, perforated uteruses, and developing endometriosis from abortion or suffering psychological consequences.

Enough is enough - it is time to call these pro-abortion extremists to task with the truth, which is finally beginning to come forward, as evidenced by the banning of partial-birth abortion and by the voices of those who have been there.

The writer, who lives in Harrison, is program coordinator of Lumina/Hope & Healing after Abortion in the Bronx.

AMERICAN IDOL WINNER IS PRO LIFE!

Jordin Sparks, 17-year old daughter of former New York Giant football player Phillipi Sparks and winner of the 2007 American Idol contest, is a proud pro life activist.

American Idol Winner Jordin Sparks a Pro-Life Advocate, Opposes Abortion

Sparks, the daughter of Phillipi Sparks who played professional football for the New York Giants, sang at Arizona's Right to Life 2005 conference. The New York Giants were formerly owned by the late Wellington Mara who founded the pro-life group Life Athletes and was known for his strong pro-life beliefs.

She attended the conference with Dr. Alveda King, who was the keynote speaker at the event.

Sparks hasn't been shy about her pro-life beliefs either.

She appears on Fox & Friends this week with Brian Kilmeade who asked her questions based on emails from viewers. Sparks was asked about a ring she wears on her wedding ring finger even though she is 17 year-old and unmarried.

She said, without hesitation, that it was her Purity Ring, and that it says she waiting until she is married, and saving herself for true love.

FIGHT GOV. SPITZER'S ABORTION PROGRAM BILL

Kathleen M. Gallagher, Director of the Catholic Advocacy Network for the NYS Catholic Conference in Albany sent a fact sheet they developed in analyzing the Governor's extreme abortion plans for our State. They suggest everyone copy and distribute the sheet, along with information on how to contact your state representatives to oppose this legislation. For more information on this proposed bill contact the NYS Catholic Conference at 518-434-6195; fax 518-434-9796; or use this link New York State Catholic Conference - The Official Public Policy Voice of the Catholic Conference of the Empire State.

Sometimes bills like this are "loaded", i.e., they have a fair share of outrageous proposals, hoping that compromise leaves them with much of what they want anyway. Everyone will agree there is nothing in this bill that is good for women or for the child in the womb or for people of faith or for victims of violence or for the medical profession or the criminal justice system or for citizens of New York.

Do the research and activate those telephone and email lists! Compose a letter to your state representatives for distibution. Go to www.nyscatholic.org.

ADOPTION - A BEAUTIFUL CHOICE

Downey Side Families for Youth, a full-service, non-profit adoption agency for children ages 7 through 17 throughout the United States is seeking interested single and married adults to become adoptive parents. We are celebrating 40 years of service and the opening of our Northeast Bronx office. Application fees are minimal and include training, support and searching for your child. Subsidies and income tax incentives are available for adoptive parents. For more information call Sr. Liz Engel, OP or Anna McNamara at 718-822-2343 or email [email protected]

Former head of "Catholics for Free Choice" thumbs nose at Pope and Church

Francis Kissling:

Former Head of "Catholic" Pro-Abortion Group Challenges Excommunication

Taking the pontiff head on, Kissling has written an article on the web site Salon challenging that notion and claiming that no one from the Catholic leadership has excommunicated her despite decades of promoting abortion worldwide.

"Catholic officials keep threatening to excommunicate pro-choice politicians and activists like me. I think they're bluffing, and canon law is on my side," Kissing says in the lead-in to the article.

"Right-wing Catholics have been pleading with the Vatican to excommunicate me along with Mario Cuomo, Patrick Leahy, Ted Kennedy and Ellie Smeal for about 20 years," Kissling explains.

"They frequently announce that I have excommunicated myself because of my pro-choice views, but as is true for 99.9 percent of pro-choice Catholics, no one who could actually excommunicate me has ever done so," she added.

Kissing writes that she hopes to be excommunicated so she can get a book contract and go on a speaking tour and make money from it.

Kissling started her abortion advocacy before the Supreme Court handed down Roe v. Wade and she directed one of the nation's first abortion businesses in New York City in 1970. She later went on to found and head the National Abortion Federation, a trade group for abortion centers.

But Kissling became the most well known for her time as the director of the "anti-Catholic" Catholic group and spearheaded a fight to get the Vatican kicked out of the United Nations.

West Virginia "Right to Know" law cuts abortion rate

Since West Virginia passed it's Right to Know law in 2003, the abortion rate has dropped 14%. Pretty important if you are one of the one babies in seven not killed.

West Virginia Abortions Fall by 14 Percent After Right to Know Law Passed

The Right to Know law requires abortion facilities to provide the information to women considering abortions at least 24 hours in advance. The information also includes fetal development information and telling women that their partner is obligated to pay child support if the baby is born.

Letter to the Wall Street Journal on why abortion is indeed a key issue

The Journal editorialized on May 13th that the Republicans shouldn't get too worked up about Rudy Giuliani's pro-abortion position. After all (they say), it's divisive and is something for the courts anyway.

The Journal then published in full a letter by Professor Hadley Arkes taking an opposite opinion. The letter is re-printed in full, in First Things. The link will take you to the full letter; we have excerpted the last paragraph:

FIRST THINGS: On the Square » Blog Archive » The Friday Potpourri

Those are some of the things a president would be in a position to direct, quite modestly, without much exertion. You have taken the line for years that this matter of abortion cannot be the central issue in our politics. I’d simply offer this plea for a certain exercise of imagination: If some of us look out on the world, informed by the textbooks on embryology and obstetric gynecology, we think we have firm reason to know that these are nothing less than human lives that are destroyed in abortions. With a minor flexing of moral reasoning, we think that the justifications needed to take the lives of these small humans must be as compelling as the justifications that are needed to take other human lives. Anyone who looks out on the landscape with that lens sees 1.3 million lives taken in this country each year without the need to render a justification. Therefore, understanding that, where would you place this matter in the overall rank of our public business? Would it be just behind the question of interest rates or the level of taxes? Would you really be surprised that those of us who see things in this way cannot quite put this matter of the “life issues” at the periphery of our politics? Where then is the rigidity or the touch of fanaticism—on the part of those who see what is there, and seek moderate steps to address it, or on the part of those who somehow cannot acknowledge that real human beings are killed in these surgeries?

Hadley Arkes
Professor of Jurisprudence
Amherst College
Amherst, Mass.

More on Planned Parenthood and their covering up for statutory rape

Michelle Malkin has a great piece - about a five minute video - Must see!

Michelle Malkin: The predators of Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood caught in BIG lie on tape

The "Nation's leading reproductive health care advocate" suggests a girl lie about her age to protect her boyfriend from statutory rape charges. But it was an investigative reporter!

Michelle Malkin: Undercover at Planned Parenthood

Where are the rest of the wimmin's groups to lambaste Planned Parenthood's apparent willingness to encourage a female minor to evade statutory rape laws?

Pope warns in no uncertain terms of excommunication for Catholic politicians who support abortion

Pope Benedict spoke to reporters on the plane while flying to Brazil.

Pope warns Catholic politicians who back abortion | International | Reuters

The Pope was asked whether he supported Mexican Church leaders threatening to excommunicate leftist parliamentarians who last month voted to legalize abortion in Mexico City.

"Yes, this excommunication was not an arbitrary one but is allowed by Canon (church) law which says that the killing of an innocent child is incompatible with receiving communion, which is receiving the body of Christ," he said.

"They (Mexican Church leaders) did nothing new, surprising or arbitrary. They simply announced publicly what is contained in the law of the Church... which expresses our appreciation for life and that human individuality, human personality is present from the first moment (of life)".

Under Church law, someone who knowingly does or backs something which the Church considers a grave sin, such as abortion, inflicts what is known as "automatic excommunication" on themselves.

The Pope said parliamentarians who vote in favor of abortion have "doubts about the value of life and the beauty of life and even a doubt about the future".

"Selfishness and fear are at the root of (pro-abortion) legislation," he said. "We in the Church have a great struggle to defend life...life is a gift not a threat."

UPDATE: Clarification of remarks

Top News- Pope Arrives for Five-Day Latin America Visit - AOL News

"Since excommunication hasn't been declared by the Mexican bishops, the pope has no intention himself of declaring it," Lombardi said in a statement approved by the pope.

But Lombardi added that politicians who vote in favor of abortion should not receive the sacrament of Holy Communion. "Legislative action in favor of abortion is incompatible with participation in the Eucharist. ... Politicians exclude themselves from Communion," he said.

Pressed again to say whether the lawmakers had been excommunicated, Lombardi reiterated: "No, they exclude themselves from Communion."

Annual Center for Life Breakfast Memorable Event

Sorry for the delay in getting this to you online. It is important nonetheless. The Center for Life annual Educational Trust fundraising breakfast on April 21st at the Holiday Inn in Mount Kisco was an unquestionable success. Keynote speaker Christopher Bell of Good Counsel attended with his wife, well-known pro-life advocate Joan Andrews Bell, and all their children but one. Breakfast was superb and the attendees were in high spirits for this yearly gathering affirming the dignity of life.   

 

Chris Bell spoke about "Women in Crisis" and his personal journey towards understanding the devastating emotional impact that unexpected pregnancy and abortion has on women. Good Counsel pregnancy care centers reach out to women in need and the need is great. He spoke of remembering one pregnant woman he spoke with about their residence in Harrison especially for drug addicted and mentally challenged mothers. This woman said she never had a reason to stop drugs until now, and she thanked Good Counsel for giving her and her unborn child new lives. Chris's work through the years has been inspiring and always breaking new ground. Remember Good Counsel Homes when making donations. It is always pro-life money well spent.

The morning began with Msgr. Dermott Brennan offering the opening prayer reflection. Alan Mehldau spoke in memory of the wonderful Milvia Cacich and Tom Divine, whose names were placed on the plaque dedicated to deceased pro-life friends and advocates. The day's honorees included Patricia Vasta from Holy Name of Mary's Respect Life Society in Croton-on-Hudson, and Philomena Poli of St. Patrick's Gabriel Pregnancy Resource Center in Yorktown. Maria Litrenta of Project Gabriel presented Phil Poli's well-deserved award and spoke of her tireless work and dedication through the years.

Patricia Vasta, recipient of the Maureen Terilli Memorial Award, was introduced by Brigid Faranda. Pat is mother of nine and many of her children were on hand to honor her with heartfelt messages of the impact her motherhood and pro-life dedication has had on their lives. Here's Pat (L) with New York State Assemblyman Greg Ball and fellow honoree Philomena Poli from St. Patrick's Gabriel Project.

Recognition was also given to the beloved (and omnipresent in our area!) Sister Mary Martin of the Franciscan Sisters of the Atonement at Graymoor who was stunned when recognized by Pam Mehldau. Her Irish eyes were surely smiling and we all enjoyed her surprise and gentle words of thanks.

Alan Mehldau was also taken by surprise when thanked by all through Maria Litrenta who gratefully spoke of his years of multi-faceted pro-life work and advocacy.

Alan's Center for Life is celebrating its 10th anniversary year and these breakfasts have been educational events and an affirmation of the efforts of dedicated pro-lifers each year.

Among other notable attendees was Kieran Lalor and his family (shown below). Kieran is a Marine veteran (Iraq) and law student. Kieran is considering a run against John Hall for his Congressional seat. Also below, a friend greets Joan Andrews Bell, here in a pensive listening mood. A chapter of her pro-life activism is chronicled in her very influential biography, You Reject Them You Reject Me.

Amnesty International opting for abortion

After months of "studying" the issue, it appears that Amnesty International has now opted for the pro-abortion agenda.

This has been brewing for quite a while. Here is a post from LifeNet, almost a year ago. LifeNet: Amnesty International to support the "right to abortion?" 

There was evidently no groundswell from AI members to change their policy from no position on abortion to pro-abortion. For example, when members of the Amnesty Iternational affiliate in the United Kingdom were polled by the organization, more members wanted to leave the policy unchanged, then adopt pro-abortion language. Despite that, the British Board of Directors for the arriliate voted for the change!

Consistent Life (formerly the Seamless Garment Network) has been following this issue closely. The following link will get you to a posting on their website, written by Rachel McNair, the former president of Feminists for Life of America.

Amnesty International and Abortion

...AI has stated that abortion should be decriminalized and the governments should see that there is access to it in particular cases. While it maintains its previous stand against blatantly forced abortions, the pressures that coerce and abandon women to abortion have been ignored. AI decision-makers appear unaware that women who have had abortions make up one of the largest constituency groups of the anti-abortion movement.

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A registry of AI supporters who pled with AI not to take this step is available at http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/consistentlife. Signers include Fr. Daniel Berrigan, who commented: “My moral conviction on abortion and the rights of the unborn are more serious than 'a point of view' . . . It's as close to my conscience as war and the death penalty.” Other signers include Jim Forest, Founder of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation; Prisoner of Conscience Tom Cordero; and Cecilia Brown, noted for her international gay-rights activism. Shelley Douglass, known for her leadership in anti-nuclear weapons activism, states, “as time passes, we will come to understand the violence of abortion.”

Pro-abortion clergy group lobbying Albany for "sex education"

This from today's Journal News. The usual suspects.

Clergy push for sex-education law

ALBANY - Members of Concerned Clergy for Choice and the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, who said they believe in Scripture but also science, asked lawmakers yesterday to support legislation for "age-appropriate, medically accurate" sex education.

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"As a member of the clergy and a person of faith I believe in Scripture, but I also believe in science," Ross said.

The bill passed the Assembly 130-11 on March 27. It is sponsored by Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, D-Manhattan, and Sen. George Winner, R-Elmira. The bipartisan Assembly vote will help the bill in the Senate, Winner said, but much work has to be done to gauge the support it will receive.

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Dennis Poust of the New York State Catholic Conference said his group opposed the bill.

"We believe in science, too, and science tells us that no girl or woman will get pregnant if she doesn't have sex," he said. "Science tells us that contraception frequently fails. Science tells us abstinence is the only sure way to avoid a pregnancy."

It's too soon to say whether abstinence-only education doesn't work, Poust said. Teaching kids about contraception gives them a message that having sex is OK, he said.