LifeNet

At the "Health Summit" Today: Nancy Pelosi lies about abortion and taxpayer funding

This was in response to Republican Minority leader John Boehner's earlier comment, which you can see here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAuzY5mzxjw

Here's the Speaker of the House, the self-proclaimed "Devout Catholic"

The Speaker knows full well that she is being dishonest. See our post here .  

And here's Representative Boehner's own blog posting on Pelosi's statement - we excerpt from his posting below the link -  

 FACT CHECK: Madame Speaker, Republicans & Democrats Agree President Obama’s Bill Authorizes Taxpayer-Funded Abortion

Here are the facts: President Obama’s “new” health care proposal would still levy a new “abortion premium” fee and use government funds to subsidize elective abortion.  Just like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) 2,074-page health care “manager’s amendment,” that passed the Senate in December, and just like the original 2,032-page, government-run health care plan from Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA), the President’s “new” proposal levies an abortion premium and does not fix the problem of government funds being used to subsidize elective abortions.

Under the President’s proposal - released Monday and modeled after Senator Reid’s plan that passed the Senate, according to ABC News - there is no prohibition on abortion coverage in federally subsidized plans participating in the Exchange.  Instead the proposal includes layers of accounting gimmicks that demand that plans participating in the Exchange or the new government-run plan that will be managed by the Office of Personnel Management must establish “allocation accounts” when elective abortion is a covered benefit (p. 2073-2074).  Everyone enrolled in these plans must pay a monthly abortion premium (p. 2072, lines 18-21), and these funds will be used to pay for the elective abortion services.  The Obama proposal directs insurance companies to assess the cost of elective abortion coverage (p. 2074-2075), and charge a minimum of $1 per enrollee per month (p. 2075, lines 8-10).

In short, the President’s proposal continues to defy the will of the American people and contradict longstanding federal policy by providing federal subsidies to private health plans that cover elective abortions.  The proposal does include a “state opt-out” provision if a state passes a law to prohibit insurance coverage of abortion, but it’s a sham because it does nothing to prevent one state’s tax dollars from paying for elective abortions in other states.

Today is the fifth anniversary of Terry Schiavo's death by dehydration and starvation

Terri’s Day to be marked by memorial Mass and advocacy for disabled

Schiavo, a victim of severe brain damage, was barred from receiving nutrition and hydration by a Florida court order after a long legal fight between her husband and her family.

The National Mass for Terri’s Day will be celebrated at the Ave Maria Oratory at Ave Maria University near Naples, Florida.

Two years ago Priests for Life and Terri’s Foundation established Terri’s Day, formally known as the “International Day of Prayer and Remembrance for Terri Schindler Schiavo, and All of Our Vulnerable Brothers and Sisters.”

The day is intended to encourage prayer, education and advocacy about discrimination against the disabled and about those in situations similar to Terri Schiavo’s last days.

Obama healthcare proposal would deny senior citizens right to spend their own money

National Right to Life Committee presss release yesterday on potential rationing of healthcare. We posted NRTL analysis of tax funded abortion under the President's proposal here - Obama healthcare initiative will further expand tax funding of abortion beyond the Senate plan

Please do your best to publicize these "plans", especialy to clergy and community leaders.

Here is the link to the NRTL PR on healthcare rationing for seniors, with the full text below the link:

OBAMA PROPOSAL THREATENS TO DENY SENIOR CITIZENS ABILITY TO USE OWN MONEY TO SAVE THEIR OWN LIVES

WASHINGTON -- The following statement may be attributed to Burke Balch, J.D., director of the National Right to Life Committee’s Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics.

The Obama health care proposal issued this morning would take away from America’s senior citizens their current right to add their own money on top of the government Medicare contribution to get health insurance less likely to deny treatment through tightly controlled managed care. (See http://www.nrlc.org/MedEthics/PLPositionMedicare.html) It would do so even as it cuts the government contribution to Medicare by hundreds of billions of dollars.

Under “Title III . . . Guaranteeing Benefits for Seniors by Ending Overpayments to Insurance Companies,” the Obama proposal states that Medicare Advantage plans – the alternative that now allows older Americans, if they wish, to pay more to get insurance less likely to ration treatment –  will “be prohibited from charging seniors more than they would pay for services delivered under the traditional Medicare program.”

Thus, older Americans would be prohibited by law from making up the Medicare shortfall by using their own money to save their own lives. (See http://www.nrlc.org/MedEthics/JusticeArgument.html)

This means that, even as more and more doctors and other health care providers are leaving the Medicare program because of low government reimbursement rates – rates that under the Obama bill will decline still more in comparison to medical inflation – senior citizens will have nowhere to turn.  Their only option will be tightly managed plans that provide less and less treatment.

In a case of genuine chutzpah, the Obama proposal then goes on to claim that “all ideas that ration care...will be banned” – even as it imposes what will be ever-increasing rationing on senior citizens.

A separate release issued earlier today describes the National Right to Life Committee’s abortion-related concerns with the Obama health care proposal.

Burke Balch, J.D. is available to provide comment and analysis on the Obama proposal.  Please contact the NRLC Communications Department at (202) 626-8825 to arrange an interview.

Obama healthcare initiative will further expand tax funding of abortion beyond the Senate plan

Contact Senators and Representatives. Pass this on to friends and clergy. Link plus full text of National right to Life Committee press release below the link -

SENATE HEALTH BILL WOULD BECOME EVEN MORE EXPANSIVELY PRO-ABORTION IF MODIFIED BY NEW OBAMA PROPOSALS

WASHINGTON -- The following statement may be attributed to Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of right-to-life affiliates in all 50 states.

Any member of Congress who votes for the final legislation proposed by President Obama will be voting for direct federal funding of elective abortion through Community Health Centers, and also an array of other pro-abortion federal subsidies and mandates.

The health bill passed by the Senate in December (H.R. 3590) had become, by the conclusion of the Senate amendment process, the most expansively pro-abortion bill ever brought to the floor of either house of Congress since Roe v. Wade.  The Senate bill, as passed, contained seven distinct problems pertaining to abortion policies.  (The bill passed earlier by the House, H.R. 3962, contained none of these pro-abortion components, thanks to adoption of the Stupak-Pitts Amendment on the House floor on November 7, 2009, by a vote of 240-194.)  President Obama today proposed "a targeted set of changes to" the Senate-passed bill.  None of President Obama's proposed changes diminish any of the sweeping pro-abortion problems in the Senate bill, and he actually proposes to increase the funds that would be available to directly subsidize abortion procedures (through Community Health Centers) and to subsidize private health insurance that covers abortion (through the premium-subsidy tax credits program). 

If all of the President's changes were made, the resulting legislation would allow direct federal funding of abortion on demand through Community Health Centers, would institute federal subsidies for private health plans that cover abortion on demand (including some federally administered plans), and would authorize federal mandates that would require even non-subsidized private plans to cover elective abortion. 

Here is one problem, offered for illustration:  The Senate bill, due to a last-minute amendment, provides $7 billion for the nation's 1,250 Community Health Centers, without any restriction whatever on the use of these federal funds to pay directly for abortion on demand.  (These funds are entirely untouched by the "Hyde Amendment" that currently covers Medicaid.)  Obama today proposed to increase that figure to $11 billion, but without adding a prohibition on the use of the funds for abortion.  (The House-passed bill would provide $12 billion, but in the House bill the funds would be covered by the Stupak-Pitts Amendment.)  Two pro-abortion groups, the Reproductive Health Access Project and the Abortion Access Project, are already actively campaigning for Community Health Centers to perform elective abortions.  In short, the Senate bill would allow direct federal funding of abortion on demand through Community Health Centers.  A memorandum documenting this issue in further detail is posted here:  http://www.nrlc.org/AHC/NRLCmemoCommHealth.pdf

The abortion-related differences between the House-passed and Senate-passed bills are far, far greater than one would gather from reading superficial summaries such as those published repeatedly in the mainstream news media.  These thumbnail sketches have tended to focus exclusively and superficially on certain provisions associated with Senator Ben Nelson.  NRLC believes that the Nelson provisions are unacceptable, but the pro-abortion problems in the Senate bill go far beyond the flawed Nelson provisions.  A letter from NRLC to U.S. House members, explaining the multiple pro-abortion components of the Senate-passed bill, is posted here:  http://www.nrlc.org/AHC/HouseLetteronAbortionProvisions.html

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)  produced a 13-page memorandum that throws the many unacceptable provisions of the Senate bill into stark relief, which is posted here:  http://www.usccb.org/healthcare/life_conscience.pdf

A substantial number of pro-life Democrats in the House, including some lawmakers whose names have not been mentioned on the various published lists, have told their constituents that they are not going to vote for the Senate-passed bill because of the abortion problems.  For pro-life Democrats, President Obama's proposal only makes matters worse. The only thing that would fix the Senate bill on abortion is permanent, bill-wide language that is functionally identical to the Stupak-Pitts Amendment adopted in the House on November 7, 2009.

The Obama proposal also would force rationing of lifesaving medical treatment, a matter that will be the subject of separate comment by the National Right to Life Committee.

NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson and Senior Legislative Counsel Susan Muskett are available to provide comment and analysis on the Obama proposals.  Please contact the NRLC Communications Department at (202) 626-8825 to arrange an interview.

Rockland County - 40 Days for Life begins!

Appropriately on Ash Wednesday, at Planned Parenthood in Spring Valley.

Thanks to Eileen Peterson for the photos and commentary.

Ash Wednesday, February 17, 2010   11:15 am

A cold day in Spring Valley, New York and God sent His people from all faiths to witness for LIFE with love. Monsignor Weber prayed for God's Blessing upon the people as we fast and pray for the conversion of hardened hearts.  Pastor Marc Eccher prayed for Divine Intervention during this prayer witness that takes place in 167 places (yes, we are official   check out    http://www.40daysforlife.com/springvalley/    )

 

 

Planned Parenthood never wants to talk money with the public.  $327,000,000.00 of our tax dollars is in the proposed budget for Planned Parenthood for 2011.  The CEO of this Spring Valley Office, Reina Schiffrin makes over $300,000.00 a year.   P.P. really stands for Profitable Predators

 

 

Planned Parenthood's agenda is very simple.  Increased customer base will increase profits.  That is why it is so necessary to be given access in schools.

 

Two Rabbis did come to the site after I had left.

 

Special thanks to Rabbi Weiss and Rabbi Feldman for representing the Jewish faith.

 

For Life,

Eileen Peterson

 

The expression "Planned Parenthood stands for profitable predators" is new to us - but hits the bullseye. We'll be using the term ourselves in the future.

 

And if you live in the general area of Spring Valley - Westchester, Putnam, the Bronx - it's a short hop across the Tappan Zee or Bear Mountain bridges.

 

"Can you pray with me one hour?"

 

 

United Nations disses prolife Women's Group

Not a surprise.

From March 1-12th, "The Commission on the Status of Women" will be taking place at the United Nations. Molly White from "Women for life International" will be leading a group of women to counter the extreme pro abortion agenda.

The UN has not given WFLI any workshop room in or near the UN but instead has banished them to the basement of the Salvation Army blocks away, however as you can see Planned Parenthood,  
The Guttmacher Institute, and other pro aboriton group have prime space.

We are working on trying to get them a space in a church nearby. In the meantime, please check out the workshops they have given preference to.

It is enough to make you sick.

Please pray and remember these women during their time at the UN. I am hoping to make it over for a day or 2 as we testify to the harm of abortion.

http://www.ngocsw.org/en/events/csw54/parallel-events/search

God have mercy!

Quebec doctors: Time for euthanasia has arrived

From the Montreal Gazette -

Barrette told the committee the issue of euthanasia could not be discussed in Quebec 50 years ago, comparing it with the evolution in thinking about abortion.

"Doctors are ready to debate euthanasia," Barrette said. And like abortion, he said, limits must be established. Not every patient will want euthanasia and not all doctors will agree to perform the procedure.

Barrette explained that a patient who is lucid consults with a doctor, friends and family members before requesting euthanasia.

For patients who are not lucid, a biological will can guide relatives who must decide.

The patient could have a terminal disease, like cancer. And patients at the "end of life" could be babies born with serious medical difficulties or seniors whose bodies are shutting down, one system after another.

"It's a cascade," Barrette said. "We can't invent it. We see it. There are safeguards."

Barrette said palliative care, using opiates to ease the pain, is also an important facet of end-of-life care.

"The choice of the patient is his choice,"

It's all about choice. Sound familiar?

Franciscan University of Steubenville video at the March for Life

Wouldn't it be nice if this became an ad in next year's Super Bowl!

The last comment by Most Reverend John D'Arcy, bishop emeritus of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend - the bishop who said Notre Dame was choosing 'Prestige over truth" in awarding an honorary degree to President Obama at their commencement in May, 2009. LifeNet: USCCB press release - Bishops show support for Bishop D'Arcy in Notre Dame/Obama controversy

Organizer of Yonkers Respect Life Week responds to pro-abortion critic

Here is the text of Tony Felicissimo's letter to the Journal News today, and go  here Respect life Week in Yonkers begins for the Rally referenced below - 

Many Came Together to Respect Life

Re "When does Yonkers get 'Choice Week'?" Feb. 5 letter criticizing the government's role in the recent kickoff of Respect Life Week in Yonkers:

The letter writer gives no indication that she attended the event. Had she done so, she would have noticed 600 attendees celebrating the intrinsic value and dignity of all human beings from the moment of their conception until natural death. Among the exhibitors, she would have witnessed organizations that provide help so that women might choose life for their unborn children, assistance to women who have given birth and help for women and men seeking healing after an abortion. Moving further along the exhibit tables she would have come across organizations detailing services available for handicapped children and senior citizens.

On Jan. 24, people young, old and in-between, those from various political, racial and religious backgrounds — including those who profess no faith — came together to celebrate human life in all its stages and to proclaim that the only appropriate response to the mystery and beauty of human life is to respect it! Mayor Phil Amicone, Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, state Sen. Ruben Diaz, D-Bronx, and other public officials present at this event recognize the truth that the most fundamental obligation of government is to protect and nurture human life during all its stages against forces that would "choose" to destroy innocent human life!

Anthony Felicissimo

Yonkers

The writer is president of Advocates of Life.

 

What's going on with the "Notre Dame 88"?

That is, the 88 wonderful souls who were arrested for trespassing at Notre Dame as they rallied against President Obama's May 17th speech and award at the University graduation.

Here's a little on one of the defendants, Brigid Faranda, at the March for Life with her son Tim -

A Little Johnny Cash as we are still waiting for the resolution of Brigid's Notre Dame arrest

The Abstinence Debate

We want to remind you that Christians and Orthodox Jews are NOT only  in favor of abstinence. We are in favor of CHASTITY. Chastity is a virtue going far beyond simply abstaining from pre-marital sexual relations. Are abstinence and chastity the same?

Nevertheless, it is heartening that the latest studies indicate abstinence education in public schools is more effective then the Planned Parenthood approach to sexuality.

Abstinence Debate?

The backlash is particularly noteworthy considering that the subjects of the study, nearly 700 black middle-schoolers in inner-city Philadelphia schools, are considered “at-risk” and therefore especially impervious to abstinence-only education. 

Some longtime advocates of comprehensive sex education have heralded the findings. But others dismissed it outright. In a letter to the editor in The New York Times, Cecile Richards, the president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, continued to insist that abstinence-only programs are ineffective (and teach “misleading and inaccurate” information). 

Of course, ignoring science that doesn’t fit with one’s ideology is precisely the charge that Richards and others make against the Catholic Church and its teachings on human sexuality. 

Case in point: A new report by the International Planned Parenthood Federation of America singles out the Catholic Church and Islam as “impos[ing] tremendous barriers that prevent young people, particularly, from obtaining information and services related to sex and reproduction. Currently, many religious teachings deny the pleasurable and positive aspects of sex.” The report recommends that governments require “comprehensive sexuality education” for children from the age of 10. 

Putting aside for a moment the ridiculous allegation that Catholic moral teaching takes a negative view of sex, the sex ed policy articulated by groups like Planned Parenthood seems clear to increase only a demand for condoms and the “reproductive health services” that they offer — in other words, they have a significant financial stake in this policy debate. 

As one commentator pointed out, nobody makes any money by advocating abstinence. 

While this study will make the case for abstinence education easier, it also reveals what we’ve been reduced to taking for “success” in sex education programs. Consider this: The research was directed at sixth- and seventh-graders. Yes, 12-year-olds. Success was that a mere 30 percent of the students reported engaging in sexual activity by the time they were about 14. For those who received “comprehensive” sex ed, the sexual activity rate was 42 percent. For those with only general health education, that rate was 50 percent. 

Clearly, there’s a much bigger problem afoot, starting with parents’ abdicating their own responsibility toward their children. But there’s also our increasingly sexualized culture, whose message of sex as self-expression and consequence-free pleasure is aimed at younger and younger ages — and has much more influence than any eight-hour school program could.

Both candidates for Obama's old Senate seat in Illinois are pro-abortion

Kirk won the Republican primary yesterday.

Mark Kirk

Kirk was one of over 150 co-sponsors on H.R. 810, the Stem Cell bill, which passed the House in 2005 but never became law.

Kirk is co-chair of the "Tuesday Group", a coalition of 40 centrist Republican Member of Congress.^[9] Kirk is a member of some moderate to liberal Republican groups such as the Republican Main Street Partnership, the Republican Majority for Choice, Republicans for Choice, the Republican Leadership Council, and Republicans for Environmental Protection.

 So, Kirk was a co-sponsor of a bill promoting the dissection of human embryos, as well as being a member of a Republican group favoring abortion.

Alexi Giannoulias  won the Democratic primary. He is endorsed by Planned Parenthood.

A bad day for Illinois prolifers.

Funeral held for Catholic professor, author, and outspoken prolife advocate, Ralph McInerny

UPDATE: From the journal First Things - Ralph McInerny

Not mentioned in the following report from the Catholic news service ZENIT is that McInerny was a very active and outspoken proponent for the right to life.

Funeral Held for Ralph McInerny

Catholic Scholar Died at Age 80

SOUTH BEND, Indiana, FEB. 1, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Ralph McInerny, the Michael P. Grace Professor of Medieval Studies and retired professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, was buried today at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Notre Dame.

The Thomist scholar and prolific author died Friday at Our Lady of Peace Hospital in Mishawaka. He had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer, and would have turned 81 on Feb. 24.

Ralph McInerny was a native of Minneapolis, Minnesota. He held degrees from St. Paul Seminary, University of Minnesota and Laval University, and had taught at the University of Notre Dame since 1955. He directed the Jacques Maritain Center from 1979 to 2006.

He was an acknowledged expert on the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas, and a prolific author. He penned over two dozen scholarly books, many more scholarly essays, and over 80 novels.

He wrote the popular book series Father Dowling Mysteries, which became a successful television program starring Tom Bosley and Tracy Nelson.

In 1982, he co-founded Crisis Magazine with Michael Novak. The publication is now known as InsideCatholic.

In 2006, he published his autobiography titled "I Alone Have Escaped to Tell You: My Life and Pastimes."

John Crosby, the chairman of the philosophy department at Franciscan University of Steubenville, commented to ZENIT that McInerny "was first and last a devoted son of the Catholic Church."

"He was also an eminent representative of the Catholic intellectual tradition," he continued. "He helped to articulate this tradition in our time by his vast literary output, ranging from polemical pieces to novels to learned philosophical studies on the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas.  

"His wise voice, speaking with a certain lightness of heart in genial and urbane tones, will be missed, but not forgotten. A major Catholic thinker and witness has passed away."
 
McInerny's wife, Connie, died in 2002. They had seven children and 17 grandchildren.