Tag Archives: prolife

Andrea Bocelli: Almost Aborted, Devout Catholic

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Award-winning  pro-life blogger Jill Stanek has posted a great piece “Almost Aborted: Tenor Andrea Bocelli .” Her story links to video of the esteemed opera singer sharing his personal connection to abortion, which is both moving and beautiful:

 This is a powerful reminder that every life truly is special and worth fighting for despite difficulty, pain, risk and even “expert” opinion. I’m inspired by Mrs. Bocelli having the courage to continue with her pregnancy even while knowing her child may have a severe disability. Only God could have foreseen that her child would bring so much joy – to her and to millions of people around the globe – through the gift of his voice.

It’s sad to think of how many people like Andrea we are missing today because parents feared a disability for their child and thought it was better to abort. There are so many friends, colleagues and family members we should have in our lives, but don’t. Let Andrea’s story  inspire those facing difficult pregnancies, and remind us to encourage and support those who parent children with disabilities.  God blesses each child with gifts, talents and the ability to touch so many lives regardless of their ability or disability.

This isn’t the first time Bocelli has publicly stood for what he believes in. As a devout Catholic, he declined the invitation from friends Tom Cruise and Katie Holms to sing in their wedding ceremony in 2007 because of his faith. He attended the post-ceremony festivities, but did not join them for the Scientology wedding “because I’m Catholic. I didn’t think it was respectful for my religion to be there.”

What a class act.  Bocelli follows his faith and his heart in a respectful yet assertive way. Hollywood could stand to benefit from a whole lot more than singing lessons from him.

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Ignorance of Thinking Only of the Practical

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The Catholic philosophical tradition has long recognized a basic distinction (that the Greeks had already discerned) between speculative and practical orders of knowledge. Simply put, rational processes are “speculative” when their goal is to know reality in and of itself. Distinctly, “practical” kinds of reasoning are ordered toward making or doing something in particular. Similarly, we distinguish between “theoretical” and “applied” divisions of some sciences.

The speculative philosopher seeks to know what the human is. What makes all humans be what they are, always and everywhere? What is the raison d’être of the human creature? Classically, the answer is something like the following: All “human beings” are animals that possess the capacity for moral freedom. All human life is personal. To be pro-life is, more accurately, to be pro-person. Those of us who recognize this say “pro-life” because pro-abortion activists do not admit that all human life is sufficiently personal: the pro-abortionist generally believes that only those who can exercise choice are worthy of having their lives preserved.

Most of us are not habitually speculative thinkers. But each of us is routinely practical, ordered, as we are, for the exercise of moral freedom. And even if we don’t know this in a speculative way – in a clear, definitional sort of way – we know it from our concrete experience: The goodness of our lives depends on ordering our understanding and hopes into particular acts of doing this thing or that, whether life-changing or mundane. Each of us, to be sure, has an agenda.

The difficulty is that the subject of morality, and more specifically, of politics and public policy, melds these two categories together. Those whose prerogative it is to judge what is beneficial for a particular society of persons must know what makes it a society “of persons” to begin with.

 Government, then, must be thoughtful in a speculatively practical kind of way.

 But this distinction between “speculative” and “practical” is rejected by the modern world. Karl Marx proclaimed that reason’s reason is not to understand the world but to change it. The American philosopher (and impresario of predominant educational theories), John Dewey, said, “Truth is what works.” In our own day, we are encouraged to “Just do it” … as the motto’s own icons evidently do.

 And a Constitution manifestly conceived as based upon essential truths is claimed to be “living.”

 So what’s the problem? Well, if a society is unable to believe, much less converse in speculative truth, its practical judgments can only be based on other practical judgments. And if practical judgments are not moored to speculative truths, the only thing that can make one practical judgment more convincing than another is the influence of power. This play of suasion and power is what we pejoratively mean by “politics.”

“Pro-choice” activists for abortion-rights are pragmatists. They “defend” the rights of those who are actively capable of exercising choice. They dismiss the radical continuity between the relative ability to exercise choice (in the competent adult) and the radical capacity to exercise choice that begins when human life is identifiable, both by modern science and classical philosophy. But it is this capacity to exercise choice that remains throughout human development, even when a competent adult is sleeping, or when senility renders him or her no longer actively able to make free decisions.

Our government and media certainly need to become more speculative; but we the people actually need to become even more practical, and fight the good fight against our culture’s murderous ignorance.

Rev. Bruno M. Shah, O.P.

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Welcome Hadley Arkes to the Catholic Church!

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Political philosopher, constitutional theorist, professor at Amherst College and contributor to First Things, Hadley Arkes was welcomed into the Catholic Church on Saturday in Washington, DC.

Mr. Arkes is widely known for his efforts to protect the unborn and was one of the chief architects of the Born Alive Infant Protection Act – the one that then-Senator Obama voted against 4 times.

Francis Beckwith, an author and professor of Philosophy at Baylor University, was at the Mass where Hadley was baptized, confirmed and received his First Communion. His account is here.

 Robert George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University, writes in his blog about Hadley’s conversion and entry into the Catholic Church:

 In remarks after the service yesterday, [Hadley] explained that his faith in Christ had come through the Church.  The Church’s moral witness, especially on the sanctity of human life and on marriage and sexual morality—a witness that has in our time made the Church a “sign of contradiction” to the most powerful and influential elements of the elite sector of contemporary western culture—persuaded him that the Church is, despite the failings of so many of its members and leaders, fundamentally “a truth-teaching institution.”  In teachings that many find to be impediments, Hadley found decisive evidence that the Church is, indeed, what she claims to be.

Hadley Arkes is Jewish and said this of his conversion:

Speaking of his Jewish identity, Hadley said that he neither would nor could ever leave the Jewish people.  His entry into the Church was for him, he stated, a fulfillment of his Jewish faith, and in no way a repudiation of it.  Invoking the testimony and authority of the late Cardinal Lustiger of Paris, he declared that he was and would always remain a Jew, though a Jew who, like the earliest Christians, had come to accept Jesus as ”the Christ, the Son of the living God.

He is right that the first Christians were Jewish and Catholics today retain quite a lot of the Jewish rites, rituals and traditions because of those early believers who were Jewish but were trying to incorporate their newfound faith in Christ into their Jewish faith.

So congratulations to Hadley Arkes and welcome home!

(h/t CatholicVoteAction)

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2nd Undercover Planned Parenthood Video Catches Staff Giving Out Medical Misinformation

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Community Health Centers got an $11 billion infusion when President Obama signed the healthcare legislation. CHCs are centers that provide basic healthcare but aren’t prohibited from doing abortions. Planned Parenthood clinics that have a wide range of health services, including abortions, could fit the definition of a CHC.

Besides covering up child rape and abuse and urging teens to keep their abortions a secret from their parents, Planned Parenthood staff are also deliberately giving out medical misinformation to women seeking abortions, as this latest undercover video from Live Action indicates.

In the video, a Planned Parenthood employee tells a woman who is reportedly 6-8 weeks pregnant that her unborn child has “no arms, no legs, no heart no head, no brain” despite medical and scientific facts of fetal development.

Take a look:

Elections have consequences. By electing pro-choice politicians and the most pro-abortion politician in history as President of the United States, this is what taxpayers will be funding.

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Need a Cool Pro-Life Graduation Gift?

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Need a cool gift for a grad?  Consider helping them spread their pro-life message during their own graduation with a pro-life graduation cap sticker.

As you know, so many college graduation speakers are adamantly pro-choice and unfortunately, after working so hard for years on their degrees, graduates who disagree with the speakers either have to sit through the speeches or opt not to attend graduation ceremonies.

Almost a year ago, the University of Notre Dame caused an uproar when they not only invited the most pro-abortion president in our nation’s history to speak at commencement, but also awarded President Obama an honorary degree.

Here’s one very inexpensive gift that would have come in handy then and can help pro-life graduates get their message across to their university, administration, commencement speakers and fellow graduates.

It’s a Pro-Life sticker that is designed to go on top of the graduation cap, complete with a hole in the middle to slide the tassel through:

You can purchase the sticker from Students for Life for only $2 here: http://www.studentsforlife.org/index.php/gradsticker/.

 

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Bart Stupak’s Betrayal

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For the Editors of St Michael Society, the shock over Bart Stupak’s betrayal this weekend has begun to turn into anger and grief. Its one thing to cave to pressures and intimidation but Stupak’s speech on the House floor sheds new light on the man. This was not a man who changed his vote because he was worn down by attacks. Bart Stupak’s speech on the House floor revealed a man, who in the end, decided to put the Democratic Party ahead the life of the unborn, the lives of women who will suffer from abortion, obedience to the bishops and sadly his faith. We need to pray for him and we must work to undo the damage he has done.

Here are the writings of respected voices on the topic:

Kathryn Jean Lopez:  

Unfortunately, if Bart Stupak truly wanted to ensure that human dignity was respected in this legislation, he wouldn’t have surrendered. But surrender he did — and then some, declaring the Democratic party the protectors of the unborn on the House floor last night.

The Democratic party is nothing of the sort — which is another reason no one who wanted to defeat the taxpayer funding of abortion in Obamacare should have expected a Stupak-led victory in this Washington environment. It’s the party that will never offend the abortion industry. It’s the party that owns partial-birth abortion.

William McGurn

By caving at the last hour, he discredited all who stood with him. (What does it say about Ohio’s Marcy Kaptur and Pennsylvania’s Chris Carney that they had already agreed to vote yes even before the fig leaf of the executive order had come through?) In addition to undermining an encouraging partnership with pro-lifers across the congressional aisle, Mr. Stupak signaled that, in the end, you can’t count on pro-life Democrats.

Susan B. Anthony List

Let me be clear: any representative, including Rep. Stupak, who votes for this healthcare bill can no longer call themselves ‘pro-life.’ The Susan B. Anthony List Candidate Fund will not endorse, or support in any capacity, any Member of Congress who votes for this bill in any future election. Now through Election Day 2010, these representatives will learn that votes have consequences. The SBA List Candidate Fund will work tirelessly to help defeat Members who support this legislation and make sure their constituents know exactly how they voted.

CWA

…in the 11th hour, he caved. He succumbed to the pressures of the most pro-abortion Administration in history just because they said they would write on a piece of paper that the federal government won’t fund abortion. It’s not even a law the President wrote. It’s not worth the Post-It note he wrote it on.

 Shame on you Bart Stupak. Shame on all the other Members who walked the plank with you. You all sold out and scorned millions of voters who trusted you and believed in you. 

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Pro-Life Leaders Comments on Stupak Caving

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Congressman Bart Stupak (D-MI), a Catholic, self-proclaimed pro-lifer who we have praised time and again on this blog, caved to the pressure today from Nancy Pelosi and President Obama. He struck a deal on healthcare reform that says the President will sign an executive order that upholds current law regarding federal funding of abortion and protects conscience rights. HERE is the text of the executive order.

Many pro-life groups, including the Family Research Council, Americans United for Life and the Susan B. Anthony List, have all shot down the authenticity of the executive order, declaring it essentially not worth the paper it’s printed on. And lest one forget, one of the first executive orders signed by President Obama during his first week in office was to send money overseas for abortion.

Below are statements from pro-life leaders on this most recent news:

Penny Nance, Concerned Women for America

“The deal made includes an illusory promise from the President that after his health care bill passes, he will sign an executive order to ensure that the Hyde Amendment is applied to the bill. However, it is the height of absurdity to trust the most pro-abortion President in history, especially in a back room deal he is surely using to scrape a few more votes from the bottom of the barrel.

“Our members know that under the Constitution of this country, Congress makes the laws of the country and not the President. This executive order is not worth the paper on which it’s written. An executive order from the President can be just as easily undone. The fact that Rep. Stupak says this is a strong statement by President Obama outlining his intent is utterly astounding especially since President Obama is the one who ensured that the Stupak-Pitts pro-life amendment was not included in the Senate bill.”

Doug Johnson, National Right to Life Committee
“A lawmaker who votes for this bill is voting to require federal agencies to subsidize and administer health plans that will pay for elective abortion, and voting to undermine longstanding pro-life policies in other ways as well. Pro-life citizens nationwide know that this is a pro-abortion bill. Pro-life citizens know, and they will be reminded again and again, which lawmakers deserve their gratitude for voting against this pro-abortion legislation.

“The executive order promised by President Obama was issued for political effect. It changes nothing. It does not correct any of the serious pro-abortion provisions in the bill. The president cannot amend a bill by issuing an order, and the federal courts will enforce what the law says.”

Charmaine Yoest, Americans United for Life Action
“This deal to pass the largest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade is a tragedy for America. We believe that Mr. Stupak’s choice to succumb to the intense pressure of the last week has resulted in his endorsement of a charade that does not even begin to address the anti-life provisions in this legislation. The American people do not support taxpayer funding of abortion and Speaker Pelosi and the President have undermined representative democracy by working to pass this legislation with this unprecedented contortion of the legislative process.”

Kristan Hawkins, Students for Life of America
“I am extremely disappointed to hear that Con. Stupak and other Democrats who call themselves ‘pro-life’ have caved to a promise President Obama made to them. Why would he trust him when in his first week as President one of his first actions was to fund abortions overseas with tax-payer dollars. Legal scholars agree that an Executive Order will not be strong enough to prevent tax-payer money from funding abortions in the new healthcare take over. Further, Con. Stupak and his other Democrats with them have sold out millions of Americans with disabilities and expensive-to-treat diseases. Make no mistake about it: healthcare rationing will take place with those who need it most and now the 72% of Americans who disagree with tax-payer funded abortions will pay for the slaughter of innocent life.”

Lila Rose, Live Action
“We are dismayed that Congressman Stupak has made a backroom deal with pro-abortion forces. Stupak and his colleagues have appointed President Obama to do their job for them, making the President the sole guardian of pro-life integrity in the health care plan. The chickens have elected the fox to guard the henhouse. It is absurd to trust that Obama, the most pro-abortion president in our history, will stop taxes from paying for abortions. We can only imagine the foul pressures brought upon Congressman Stupak by Obama’s Administration and Pelosi’s Majority. If this bill is not stopped, the consequences of Stupak’s deal with pro-abortion forces will lead to the deaths of countless more defenseless, unborn Americans. With this bill, the IRS will be Planned Parenthood’s cashier as Americans are forced to fund this horrific human rights abuse.”

Bradley Mattes, Life Issues Institute

“Bart Stupak and other so-called pro-life Democrats in the House have sold out America’s unborn babies on a promise made by the most pro-abortion president in our nation’s history.

Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com

“Barack Obama spent less than one week in office before issuing an executive order making Americans fund abortion performance and promotion aboard. Anyone who thinks he and his administration won’t seek ways to fund abortion via this health care bill hasn’t been paying attention.”

Brian Burch, CatholicVote.org
“The decision by Rep. Stupak to accept an Executive Order to solve the abortion issues in the health care legislation is unconscionable. The Executive Order fix is a band-aid solution that fails to solve the fundamental problems in this bill, and can be repealed at any time, for any reason, by the President or future presidents. The Order is likely to be challenged by pro-abortion groups, and could be struck down by the courts.

“Regrettably, Rep. Stupak has abandoned those who have stood by him during the recent weeks and months. The Catholic Bishops along with CatholicVote.org and every major pro-life organization oppose this ‘fix.’ We have defended Rep. Stupak for months, but today we stand in protest of his decision.

“The Stupak-Obama purported fix also sets the stage for a new front in presidential politics that will further politicize the abortion issue. The decision over taxpayer funding for abortion and critical conscience protections now rests with President Obama, Kathleen Sebelius, and future presidents.

“Catholics have worked hard to make the protection of unborn life a two-party effort. Pro-life members of the Democratic Party encouraged these efforts over the last year. But today’s decision by Rep. Stupak and his colleagues, coming only months after the phony compromise of Sen. Nelson will be difficult to overcome.

“We are convinced Rep. Stupak will come to deeply regret today’s decision.”

Day Gardner, National Black Pro-Life Union

“Polls have consistently shown that America does not want this healthcare monster for many reasons, yet, apparently it is being shoved down our throats anyway. any Americans put so much trust in Rep. Bart Stupak and the other Democrats who stood with him when they promised that they would stand firm–no matter what–to insure there would be NO taxpayer funded abortion.

“President Obama is a staunch abortion supporter. He doesn’t care about the 50 million children (including 17 million black babies) that have been butchered by abortionists since 1973. He will say whatever it takes to get this horrible bill passed including issuing an ‘executive order’ to do so.

“It’s amazing that after saying over and over that there was no tax payer funding for abortion in the 2700 page monster—he issued an order about tax payer funding in abortion. President Obama lied…again. And Rep. Bart Stupak is just another member of Congress who promised so much, yet delivered so little.”

Jennifer Giroux, Women Influencing the Nation
“All one needs to know in order to understand this new government healthcare and supposed ban on federal funding of abortions is the order which directs the Secretary of Health and Human services (Kathleen Sebelius) to develop within 180 days a ‘model set of segregation guidelines’ for compliance…….no doubt these guidelines will mirror the respect and compliance she showed for the late term abortion laws in Kansas under her watch as Governor – that would be NONE. God have mercy on our nation”.

Bobby Schindler, The Terri Schiavo Foundation
“The passage of government controlled health care will further reveal the truth of futile care theory (death panels), forcing countless families to watch their loved ones die the same inhumane death we watched my sister Terri die”

 Dr. David Stevens, Christian Medical Association
“Millions of poor patients and those in medically underserved areas currently depend on care from faith-based hospitals, clinics and physicians who follow life-affirming ethical standards such as those found in the Hippocratic oath and the Judeo-Christian Scriptures.

“National polling reveals that 95 percent of faith-based physicians say they will be forced to leave medicine without conscience protections. The last-minute deal for an Executive Order relating to abortion and conscience—the deal that changed the ‘No’ votes of pro-life Democrats to ‘Yes’–was like trading a birthright for a mess of pottage. The executive order, which added no additional conscience protections whatsoever, can be changed tomorrow by this President, or later by any subsequent President, with the stroke of a pen. The healthcare bill, meanwhile, becomes permanent law.”

 Dorinda Bordlee, Bioethics Defense Fund  
“The language of the Executive Order reveals that it was a meaningless sham designed to induce the Stupak Democrats to vote ‘yes’ on the Senate bill that provides federal subsidies and direct funding of abortion. The Obama administration knows full well that statutory law overrides executive orders. The President acting alone cannot “extend” the Hyde Amendment policy to new programs as the Executive Order vaguely purports to do – only the Congress can do that.  A court challenge (i.e. by Planned Parenthood) would immediately invalidate the null promises of the Executive Order.  Bioethics Defense Fund is deeply disappointed that the Stupak Democrats allowed empty words and an obvious political ploy to trump the sanctity of life principle that they claimed to defend.”

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Healthcare Update and Photos

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UPDATE1: The Executive Order will NOT work to stop government-funded abortion. Charmaine Yoest, president of Americans United for Life says:

“Once again, the proposal to address the problem of abortion funding in the health care bill through use of an executive order is a tacit acknowledgement that the bill as it stands is pro-abortion legislation. Both the President and the Speaker have repeatedly denied this stark fact.

Furthermore, the AUL legal team has concluded that an executive order is not an adequate fix to mitigate the Senate bill’s establishment of taxpayer-funded abortion.  For example, an executive order cannot prevent insurance companies that pay for abortions in the exchanges from receiving federal subsidies.

In addition, executive orders can be undone or modified as quickly as they are created. President Obama revoked the Mexico City Policy, through the use of an executive order, and thereby allowed federal tax dollars to finance organizations that provide abortions internationally for the first time in years.

This fact, coupled with the Administration’s repeated endorsement of the pro-abortion lobby’s agenda, force any reasonable person to conclude that this bill will clearly create the largest expansion of taxpayer-funded abortion in American history.”

A lot has happened in the past 24 hours on the healthcare front. The abortion talks collapsed in the House. “Deem and Pass” has been shelved.  Obama floated the idea of using an executive order to say that the Senate bill doesn’t fund abortion (a bad idea). One key Democrat stated that the House “makes up rules as they go along”.

SMS editors covered the giant Code Red tea party rally where there were tons of people wearing “Abortion is Not Healthcare” stickers and holding up signs indicating they don’t support the government funding abortion. One protester (photo below) even had a sign about Pelosi invoking the intercession of St. Joseph.
Philip Klein has a good summary of what happened today, especially in the abortion area here: http://tinyurl.com/yjrrejw.

Pictures from the tea party rally are here and some favorites are below:

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Oh No She Didn’t!

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Today is a big feast day in the Catholic Church, so much so that we get a day off from fasting and abstinence on this Friday in Lent.

It’s the feast day of St. Joseph, the husband of Mary and the foster father of Jesus himself. We could write a lot on how awesome St. Joseph is, as we’re sure many of you know, but suffice to say, the Church wouldn’t give us a day off in Lent if there wasn’t a good reason.

Feast days of saints are great opportunities to ask them for their intercession and prayers as well. St. Joseph is the patron saint of workers (although St. Joseph the Worker feast day is on May 1st – today we celebrate the role of St. Joseph as husband and father) so we’re sure many requests are going up to him today asking for help with their jobs or in help finding or keeping a job.

But one person has called on the intercession of St. Joseph in a very public forum to “benefit the workers of America, which is exactly what our healthcare bill will do.” Want to guess who said it?

Watch till the end – Madame Speaker, a self-proclaimed Catholic, talks about the misleading letter from the nuns supporting the pro-abortion healthcare bill and says that two of the sisters who taught her signed it. Figures.

St. Joseph, pray for of us.

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