It is apparent that nothing short of contraceptives can put an end to the horrors of abortion and infanticide.
I support efforts to encourage a calm and respectful discussion about abortion law reform in Canada, as Canadians have passionately differing views over whether our existing abortion law, which declares that a child is not a human being until fully born, should be reformed.
Many Canadians have decided that this question is too unpleasant to think about, much less talk about. This is because people on both sides have made it unpleasant with heated rhetoric. Until we convince Canadians that it's not a burden to deal with this issue, people will continue to recoil from what is really a healthy discussion. There is plenty of medical and scientific evidence that can help us to answer the question whether or not our law is correct to say that a child is not a human being before birth, and therefore not deserving of human rights. There are modern principles of human rights which can be brought to bear. Difficult truths can always be tempered with sensitivity.
The alternative is to perpetuate a chill on national dialogue that will serve to perpetuate the status quo. Whose goal is that?
OTTAWA. On October 27, Carleton Administration threatened pro-life students with charges of non-academic misconduct when they stood with hand-held signs of aborted fetuses on their campus. See video here: http://www.carletonlifeline.wordpress.com
The University subsequently sent the students’ club, Carleton Lifeline, correspondence threatening them with arrest and disciplinary action. They said these could be consequences if the students did not comply with a strict set of rules which only applied to them; these provisions surround a designated zone created for Lifeline where few students travel in the winter, where they are not able to offer pamphlets or initiate conversations with students, and not being permitted to move if protestors block the signs.
Not to oppose error is to approve it; and not to defend truth is to suppress it; and indeed to neglect to confound evil men, when we can do it, is no less a sin than to encourage them."
--Pope St. Felix III
After all, the lobby groups that support gay adoption talk about it being a ‘right’ to adopt a child, but what right is left to the biological mother? Does she not have the right firstly to freedom of speech where she can say that she does not want her child to go to a homosexual couple? And secondly, does she not have the right to decide that her child who is her flesh and blood ought not to go to a homosexual couple? This talk and bluster about so-called ‘rights’ is very selective –so much so that the rights of ‘the mother of origin’ aka the biological mother are often forgotten altogether.
Finally I learned the truth of what happened. It began when Father Prieur decided that children like my daughter are not worthy to even be born let alone to receive any care to prolong their lives. Father Prieur, and all of the priests that followed in his ideas, effectively set a standard in Ontario (and likely beyond) that certain children were not worthy of life. The doctors, hospital and medical system at large was merely responding to that standard set by the stalwarts of the sanctity of life.
The members of Development and Peace of the diocese of Montreal, committed to the issues of social justice and international co-operation, held on October 23rd a day of reflection on their movement, their options, the present-day ecclesial and social context and the challenges they present. For some time, a number of actions and stances of the Harper government have concerned not only members of Development and Peace, but also a large number of people working in the field of international cooperation. The Conservative government's decisions to cut funding for Kairos and Alternatives, as well as changes in orientation within the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), signal that social justice and human rights issues are no longer a priority. Add to all that the virulent attacks to which Development and Peace has been subjected by a certain ecclésial current close to the Conservatives-- a minority, but one which has been able to make itself heard.
Does Saletan not get it that heterosexual women spend almost 30 years of their life trying to avoid unintended pregnancies? The fact that only 1/3 of them will have an abortion speaks to the enormous success of women’s contraceptive use.
As a society, we don’t judge diabetics who sometimes miss medications, or vehicle owners who sometimes run late and get the occasional parking ticket.
It is unrealistic and unfair to demand that women do something right every day of their life for 30 years.
The struggle for freedom, then, is waged not alone by the athletes of battles in wars. Rather, it is also waged in banquets, in bed, and in the tribunals by those who are anointed by the Word—who are ashamed to become captives of pleasure.
--St. Clement of Alexandria.
Just wanted to let you know that Mary was arrested this morning in Toronto. She was counseling at an abortion clinic (handing out flowers and talking to women), when she was taken away to jail by Toronto police. I talked with her there (the police were kind enough to patch me through to her), and she seemed okay. She told me that one of the women she spoke with got up and left the clinic after talking to her, and that she was engaged in speaking with another when she was dragged away. She hopes she made a difference for them and their babies.
She will likely be transferred to prison after she goes before the judge tomorrow morning. Please keep her in your prayers.
I can't agree or disagree with a question that doesn't even make grammatical sense. I've stated over and over that I agree with the tautological claim that a human embryo can taxonomically be classified as homo sapien.
|'ve also pointed out the difference between that and being a "human being".
Physicians examining the tissue from an early pregnancy likely see a pinkish oblong sac with no recognizable anatomical features.
No organization in Canada keeps count of physicians who perform abortions. But in interviews with more than two dozen providers, physician groups and advocacy organizations, the Star learned that there is a shortage of abortion doctors in this country.
The State which would provide everything, absorbing everything into itself, would ultimately become a mere bureaucracy incapable of guaranteeing the very thing which the suffering person—every person—needs: namely, loving personal concern. We do not need a State which regulates and controls everything, but a State which, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, generously acknowledges and supports initiatives arising from the different social forces and combines spontaneity with closeness to those in need.
Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est #28
While I would agree that women need more safe spaces to discuss all of their emotions following an abortion, I would also challenge that there is no organization out there with ready-made sandwich boards stating "I regret choosing to parent"
There may be a basis in the case of some individuals, as perhaps when a male prostitute uses a condom, where this can be a first step in the direction of a moralization, a first assumption of responsibility, on the way toward recovering an awareness that not everything is allowed and that one cannot do whatever one wants. But it is not really the way to deal with the evil of HIV infection. That can really lie only in a humanization of sexuality.
I’ve answered this already: a human embryo. That's the term that biologists use (when appropriate) and why they don't use "human being".
“Traditional ways of classifying catalog animals according to their adult structure. But, as J. T. Bonner (1965) pointed out, this is a very artificial method, because what we consider an individual is usually just a brief slice of its life cycle. When we consider a dog, for instance, we usually picture an adult. But the dog is a “dog” from the moment of fertilization of a dog egg by a dog sperm. It remains a dog even as a senescent dying hound. Therefore, the dog is actually the entire life cycle of the animal, from fertilization through death.”So a dog is a dog from the moment of fertilization.
Maybe people are led to think, the Church will change its position on this or that or the other thing. The "maybes" of conditionality produce conditional Catholics, and conditional Catholics are deprived of the joy of unqualified discipleship.
--Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, 'To Propose The Truth'
Abortion is a very ancient practice, but in our materialist world, we try to trivialize it and make it seem morally acceptable. We proclaim that it is a woman’s right, and, if there does seem to be a guilty party, it’s the physician who refuses to perform abortions for reasons of conscience. This attempt to trivialize abortion ends up pervading people’s minds, and we risk forgetting the gravity that brutally ends a life already begun, even if this life is still in utero.
However, the facts contradict the dishonest declarations, and a significant number of women never get over having undergone an abortion. Their tormented conscience hounds them to the point that some physicians in the United States are specialized in post-abortion syndrome.
The pope therefore invites us to prayer, to pray that our consciences remain vigilant, and that they refuse to be abused by the sophistries of the culture of death, that we have the courage to bear witness to our convictions and defend life. Pray also that the Holy Spirit enlightens our consciences and that life is more and more respected.
NATIONAL – A new survey by the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada (ARCC) reveals that 64% of abortion clinics in Canada clinics currently experience protest activity, while a further 15% have had protesters in the past. But 73% of clinics have no legal protection from picketing.
Seventeen clinics (52%) reported that the measures they took to protect providers and staff from protesters were effective or mostly effective. Four clinics (12%) said measures were not effective or only sometimes effective.
I stood there, an American citizen, a mom traveling with a baby with special needs formula, sexually assaulted by a government official. I began shaking and felt completely violated, abused and assaulted by the TSA agent. I shook for several hours, and woke up the next day shaking.
Here is why I was sexually assaulted. She never told me the new body search policy. She never told me that she was going to touch my private parts. She never told me when or where she was going to touch me. She did not inform me that a private screening was available. She did not inform me of my rights that were a part of these new enhanced patdown procedures.
When I booked my ticket, I was given no information that the TSA had changed their wand and unintrusive patdown procedures to “enhanced” patdown procedures that involved the touching of all parts of your body, including breasts and vagina on women and testicles and penis on men. I was not informed by any signs on the front side of security about the new procedures. I had not seen any media coverage about the issue, so I had no idea that this was a new government sanctioned policy.
He who believes that God is true, and that this is His word, which he has committed to man, has no doubt at all. He is as certain that the doctrine taught is true, as that God is true; and he is certain, because God is true, because God has spoken, not because he sees its truth or can prove its truth.
--Cardinal Newman, Faith and Private Judgment
Someone asked if I had heard about the doctor in Orlando who has been in a lot of trouble, and when I searched for news about it, I realized it was James Pendergraft, the doctor who did my abortions. He has now had his medical license suspended for the FOURTH time, this time for performing late term abortions past the time when they are legal.
When I saw a picture of the clinic, I crumbled. When I saw a picture of the doctor, I began weeping and I couldn’t stop.
It is an illusion to think that faith, tied to weak reasoning, might be more penetrating; on the contrary, faith then runs the grave risk of withering into myth or superstition. By the same token, reason which is unrelated to an adult faith is not prompted to turn its gaze to the newness and radicality of being.
--Pope John Paul II, Fides et Ratio
Be convinced that justice alone is never enough to solve the great problems of mankind. When justice alone is done, do not be surprised if people are hurt: the dignity of man, who is a son of God, requires much more. Charity must penetrate and accompany justice because it sweetens and deifies everything.
--Bl. Jose Escriva, Friends of God
What I can’t seem to figure out is the logic behind highlighting a case like this one. This has nothing to do with abortion rights (except for, thank you Canada, recognizing the rights of the mother over the “rights” of the fetus). What does this one woman’s situation have to do with the right to abort an embryo or a fetus? What does almost any fetus story have to do with abortion rights?
This seems to have to do with highlighting the “crazy.” It seems to be the same thread, over and over. “Women are not sane enough to make decisions about their bodies. See? Look at this psychotic woman. Just look at her. How can you trust someone like her to make a decision about having a baby? Honestly. How?” I can see absolutely no other reason to use this case to argue against abortion.
(...)
When anti’s use cases like this one to argue against safe access to abortion, I always wonder: if women aren’t sane enough to decide whether or not they want to have a baby, how can you trust them to raise one?
The problem they have is not really the fact that a comparison is being made to one of these horrific tragedies; after all, we build museums, memorials and reminders of what happened to make sure something like the Jewish Holocaust will never happen again. The problem really is that we have elevated what they consider to be a blob of tissue to personhood status.
If comparison in and of itself were the problem, then we would not go to such great lengths to educate society about what happened. The reason places like Auschwitz are open for the public is to guarantee that we understand the horror of what took place in the death camps.
This is precisely the reason we use such imagery. We want to the world to understand that what makes us so sick about Jewish Holocaust is precisely what makes us sick about the Abortion Holocaust. We talk about the Dred Scott Supreme Court Decision because we want people to see that Roe v. Wade is just as despicable.
The same reason these people are so upset about pro-lifers using these comparisons is the very reason we use them: personhood.
InSite has been shown to be a successful public health initiative in more than 30 scientific research reports published in peer-reviewed medical journals. Such reports demonstrate that InSite users are more likely to seek long-term addiction treatment and to stay off the street, than users who choose to inject outside. The HIV rates in the DTES are on par with many African nations. Such blood-borne diseases are spread by sharing needles—something that is banned at InSite. And instead of using puddle water from urine-soaked alleys, participants are provided with sterile water, which reduces various kinds of horrific infection.
The most important of these departures from feminist orthodoxy is her recognition that pay differentials can be explained in part by the different choices that men and women make when it comes to fields of study and work and that it's unreasonable to expect women who study humanities to end up being paid as much as men who take on more economically oriented, technical vocations.
The Minister for Women announced that a focus of her politics in future will be the advancement of boys, because they had fallen behind the scholastic achievement of girls for some time.
Politics has culpably neglected boys and men's issues. It was not only necessary that more men should work in the future as teachers in primary schools. The educational content also ought to change. "Do we write enough dictation with football stories? Boys are interested in that. Or is it always about butterflies and ponies?"
