Pro-Life
United Nations Takes Good Ideas From Catholics, Uses Them to Promote Abortion
by Colin Mason
August 19, 2010
LifeNews.com Note: Colin Mason is the director of media production for the Population Research Institute, an organization that tracks population issues and monitors abortion and demographics on an international scale.
The United Nations must love Catholics, we give them their best ideas.
Take, for instance, the UN’s latest initiative, aimed at the world’s youth. The International Year of Youth was initiated by the United Nations at the end of last year, and officially began on August 12, 2010. According to the UN, the Year was initiated for the purposes of promoting “peace, freedom, progress and solidarity towards the promotion of youth development and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.”
And the year will be started off with a conference in Mexico City, from August 24th-27th, called the World Youth Conference.
Hmmm. This conference, and its related International Year of Youth, bear an uncanny resemblance to a certain tradition that the Catholic Church has been practicing since 1986: World Youth Day.
World Youth Day, started by Pope John Paul II, was designed to be an event where youth from all over the world could come together and celebrate their Catholic identity. Like so much of Pope John Paul II’s pontificate, the emphasis was on solidarity and a sense of Catholic unity. It was this unity that brought legions of youth together, from disparate backgrounds and widely separate countries, and it was this sense of unity that strengthened them to be faithful Catholics in an often hostile world. Young people leave World Youth Day invigorated, encouraged, and full of love of their faith, and for their fellow humans.
The United Nations has obviously seen the effectiveness of having such a powerful youth focus, and it would seem that the events of the International Year of Youth, particularly this World Youth Conference, were inspired directly by the Catholic event.
However, unlike World Youth Day, the UN’s approach is a false one, one that violates the very idea of a youth-centered event.
Here’s why. The Catholic event is a natural gathering, voluntarily attended by hundreds of thousands of youth who are filled, to varying degrees, with the same powerful faith. They come, uncajoled, unpaid, on their own initiative, out of the desire for grace and solidarity. Throughout the years, the event has never had fewer than 300,000 attendees; and has occasionally reached numbers as high as 4 million.
Thank you to @Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com Editor for sending us the article.
Catholic Xavier University to Host Speech From Pro-Abortion President Obama
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
August 17, 2010
New Orleans, LA (LifeNews.com) – Xavier University, a Catholic college, will host a speech on August 29 by pro-abortion President Barack Obama. The speech will mark the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina but the college is coming under fire because it violates a request from the nation’s Catholic bishops.
“We are pleased and grateful that the President has decided to include a visit to the Xavier University campus as part of his visit to New Orleans on August 29 to commemorate the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina,” Xavier President Dr. Norman Francis said, according to WDSU.
“Obama will get to see firsthand why we are so proud of the progress we have made here at Xavier during the five years since Katrina, not only restoring our campus but expanding our facilities and services since then in order to fulfill our mission established 85 years ago,” he added.
But the Cardinal Newman Society, a watchdog for Catholic colleges and universities, is not pleased.
“U.S. bishops’ policy is clear,” it said in a statement to LifeSite. “No Catholic institution should provide an honor or platform to a public opponent of fundamental Catholic teachings. This is most important at a university that is dedicated to seeking and teaching the truth, and which embraces the Catholic faith.”
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops adopted a policy in June 2004 that addresses pro-abortion politicians as well as colleges giving a platform to pro-abortion speakers.
The statement makes it clear that Catholic colleges should not allow abortion advocates to have a platform to speak to students or be honored with special awards and degrees.
“Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions,” the bishops say.
But that didn’t stop the University of Notre Dame from inviting Obama to give the college’s commencement address and bestowing an honorary degree upon him.
“Last year President Obama used his platform at the University of Notre Dame to reiterate his support for abortion and embryonic stem cell research. Xavier University is willingly inviting the same scandal,” CNS said.
Xavier University already hosted Obama in 2006 and gave him an honorary degree and allowed him to give its commencement address.
ACTION: Contact the college with your protests at http://www.xula.edu/about-xavier/contactus.php
Related web sites:
Cardinal Newman Society – http://www.cardinalnewmansociety.org
Will Pro-Lifers Forgive Santorum?
by Matthew Archbold Sunday, August 15, 2010
Say the words “Santorum for President” to a pro-lifer. I dare you. Try it. Chances are they’ll say a few good things about the former Pennsylvania Senator about being a Catholic father of seven children or a strong defender of family values but then they’ll say the word no politician wants to hear.
“But…”
Many pro-lifers haven’t gotten over their disillusionment and disappointment of his 2004 endorsement of pro-choice Senator Arlen Specter over pro-life Pat Toomey in the 2004 Pennsylvania Republican primary.
It’s easy to look back on that decision now, especially since Specter’s party switch, and say Santorum did the wrong thing. I am one of them. I was bitterly disappointed in Santorum when I heard about the endorsement. I believe it was the wrong thing to do.
But in a recent interview with the Spectator Santorum admitted the endorsement was a mistake
“In retrospect, it was a mistake,” he said. “I’ve admitted that. But you’ve gotta understand what my thinking was at the time. We had a 51-49 majority in the Senate. George W. Bush was up for a tough re-election fight. My sole focus was, how do we secure our majority, related most importantly to how could we confirm up to three Bush nominees to the Supreme Court.
Some say that we should take into account that at the time of the endorsement Democrats were filibustering conservative federal judicial nominees and paying little or no political price. Republicans wanted to keep their slim majority and were afraid that Toomey, who didn’t have the name recognition he has now, wouldn’t win against a good campaigner in Democrat Congressman Joe Hoeffel.
Matt & Pat Archbold blog for the NationalCatholicRegister and are authors of their own blog, CreativeMinorityReport featured on Guest Bloggers at AlwaysCatholicBlog.
Protest to be Held at Catholic Hospital that Employs Planned Parenthood Abortionist
DURANGO, Colorado, July 28, 2010 (LifeSiteNew.com) — On July 29, the pro-life organization LifeGuard will hold a press conference and protest in front of Mercy Regional Medical Center (MRMC), a Catholic hospital that has a Planned Parenthood abortionist on its staff.
“A Catholic Hospital that grants full privileges to a Doctor who brutally murders babies every week is NOT a Catholic Hospital,” stated Joe Scheidler, National Director of the Pro-Life Action League in a press release. “Mercy Regional can no longer ignore this issue. We hope to send a clear message – we want Dr. Grossman out of there.”
In addition to Joe Scheidler, speakers will include Father Fessio, founder of Ignatius Press, Walter Hoye, Founder of the California Civil Rights Foundation, Gualberto Garcia-Jones of Personhood Colorado, and Dan Anguis, LifeGuard Director.
Gualberto Garcia-Jones has previously pointed out that Dr. Grossman would be unable to support himself on what he makes killing children one day a week. This means that money from MRMC enables him to continue as an abortionist in the Durango Planned Parenthood.
Dr. Grossman also publicly pushes contraception and a population control ideology in his “Population Matters” blog, which is also published in the Durango Herald.
“Catholic parents who come to Mercy Regional have a right to expect that their child will be received by the hands of a physician who holds all life sacred – not the hands that earlier that week held the instruments of abortion to destroy the life of some other innocent baby,” said Scheidler.
“The presence of an abortion provider on the staff of a Catholic hospital is contrary to Catholic social teaching and Catholic moral values. We plead with Mercy to exhort abortionist Grossman to give up his abortion career or resign from the hospital staff.”
H3>The protest will be held at 1010 Three Springs Blvd., Durango, CO 81301, on July 29, at 2:00 p.m.
Archbishop: Can’t Be Pro-Abortion Catholic, No Communion for Abortion Backers
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
July 28, 2010
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — The head of the Archdiocese of St. Louis says it is “clear and unambiguous” that Catholics who want to remain in good standing with the Church can’t support abortion. Archbishop Robert J. Carlson also says those who support legalized abortion should voluntarily opt out of receiving community.
In an opinion column he wrote for the St. Louis Review, Carlson says the Catholic Church takes very seriously violations of the Fifth Commandment, and that abortion is a violation of it.
“Since the first century, the Church has addressed the moral evil of abortion and the killing of a defenseless baby in the womb. People who are casual about the sin of abortion and who choose to view it as a political issue rather than the serious moral issue that it is are guilty of violating the Fifth Commandment,” he says.
“You cannot be ‘pro-choice’ (pro-abortion) and remain a Catholic in good standing,” he added. “That’s why the Church asks those who maintain this position not to receive holy Communion.”
Carlson says that request of abortion backers to refrain from receiving the sacrament is not “mean or judgmental” but the Catholic Church is “simply acknowledging the fact that such a stance is objectively and seriously sinful and is radically inconsistent with the Christian way of life. More…
Catholics United to Spend $500K for Pro-Life Democrats Backing Pro-Abortion HCR
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
July 22, 2010
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — The organization Catholics United, which has been much maligned in the pro-life community for warping and twisting pro-life Catholic principles, says it plans to spend $500,000 this election cycle supporting the pro-life Democrats in Congress who voted for the pro-abortion health care bill.
The half a million in campaign expenditures will go towards paying for advertising and staffers who will focus on turning out the vote for the Democrats, who have come under heavy criticism from pro-life groups.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper indicates Catholics United will spend money supporting two of those members of the Stupak coalition in Ohio, Democratic Reps. John Boccieri and Steve Driehaus.
Democrat Kathy Dahlkemper in Pennsylvania and Tom Perriello in Virginia will also benefit from its support.
Catholics United spokesman James Salt told the newspaper his organization won’t be supporting any pro-life Republican members of Congress because they all voted against the health care bill, which was condemned by every pro-life group because it contains massive abortion funding. More….
Do The Right Thing
Never doubt that abortion is Demonic!
RealCatholicTV | July 19, 2010
Surgeon General Koop Urges No Vote on Kagan Based on Abortion Manipulation
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
July 19, 2010
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop has written an extensive letter to members of the Senate calling for a no vote on the Supreme Court nomination of Elena Kagan. The letter focuses attention on the Clinton administration memos Kagan authored showing her attempting to manipulate abortion opinion.
Specifically, Koop refers to the ways in which Kagan influenced the language of a 1997 statement by American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists on partial-birth abortions.
Whereas ACOG found no occasion in which the three-day-long abortion procedure is medically necessary for women, Kagan pressured ACOG to include language saying there may be instances where it is and the Supreme Court eventually relied on that language to overturn state bans on the abortion procedure.
That eventually kept partial-birth abortions legal for several years longer until the Supreme Court reversed itself when considering a national ban Congress approved with medical findings that partial-birth abortions are medically unnecessary.
In his letter, Koop calls “unethical” and “disgraceful” Kagan’s effort to persuade the medical group to change its expert opinion to conform to her political demands.
“She was willing to replace a medical statement with a political statement that was not supported by any existing medical data,” writes Koop.
“Kagan’s political language, a direct result of the amendment she made to ACOG’s Policy Statement, made its way into American jurisprudence and misled federal courts for the next decade,” he said.
He condemns Kagan for having “manipulated the medical policy statement on partial-birth abortion of a major medical organization.”
“In my many decades of service as a medical doctor, I have never known of a case where partial-birth abortion was necessary in place of a more humane and ethical alternative,” the 93-year-old doctor continued. “I urge the Senate to reject the politicization of medical science and vote no on the Kagan nomination.”
Charmaine Yoest, the president of the pro-life group Americans United for Life, is heading to the Senate today to draw attention to Koop’s letter and raising concerns about Kagan’s “apparent willingness to distort the record” to obtain “the political outcome she wanted.”
In her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Kagan rejected the notion that she pressured any medical group.
“There was no way in which I would have or could have intervened with ACOG, which is a respected bodies of physicians, to get it to change its medical views on the question. The only question that we were talking about was whether this statement that they were going to issue accurately reflected the views that they had expressed to the president, to the president’s staff, to Congress and to the American public,” she said.
During questioning at the hearings, lawmakers questioned Kagan on memos she wrote during the Clinton administration “manipulating” the opinions of two medical groups that had said partial-birth abortions are never medically necessary for women.
Kagan also sought to influence the American Medical Association and get the AMA to revise its opinion that partial-birth abortions provide no medical benefit for women.
Senators asked Kagan about the memos during Judiciary Committee hearings and she explained her actions away by saying she wanted to help ACOG form a more accurate opinion.
The memos are important because the Supreme Court initially relied on the opinion of the medical groups to overturn a state ban on partial-birth abortions that had no health exception.
Later, the Supreme Court reversed itself and said a national partial-birth abortion ban was constitutional and no health exception is necessary. More…
Catholic Pelosi to Receive Planned Parenthood Award for Stopping Stupak Abortion Funding Ban
By John Jalsevac
July 15, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a self-professed devout Catholic, will receive an award from abortion giant Planned Parenthood at a reception Thursday evening. The award will be given in recognition of her efforts in passing the federal health care legislation, and, in particular, for her help in ensuring that the Stupak abortion funding ban was not inserted in the bill.
A spokesperson for Planned Parenthood confirmed with LifeSiteNews.com that Pelosi would be receiving the Champion for Women’s Health award, which recognizes “efforts to support women and their reproductive health.”
Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), and Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) will also receive the award.
In a statement, PP lauds Pelosi for having been “instrumental” in the passage of the federal health care bill, which was strenuously opposed by every major pro-life organization in the U.S., as well as the U.S. Catholic bishops, because of its abortion mandate. The statment also praises Pelosi for having “led her female colleagues in Congress as they stood strong against attempts to insert the Stupak abortion ban into the bill.”
“With their steadfast commitment to passing health care reform and making sure that women will be able to get the health care they need, the women leaders we honor today set the course to change the lives of millions of women for generations to come,” said PP President Cecile Richards.
While Pelosi and the Obama administration have repeatedly claimed that the health care law would not fund abortion, pro-life groups have warned that such claims are clearly contradicted by the facts. They have also warned that the last-minute Executive Order (EO) issued by Obama in exchange for the votes of the few remaining “pro-life” Democrats led by Bart Stupak does little more than “reiterate” what is already in the bill.
Immediately after the bill was passed in March Richards issued a statement dismissing the EO as a “symbolic” gesture, and announcing that “monumental progress” had been made in strengthening “women’s health.”
“The award is Planned Parenthood’s way of saying thank you for elevating the abortion machine that is Planned Parenthood to a level of government funding never before imagined, through the passage of the government health care takeover pushed so relentlessly by Pelosi,” Rita Diller, National Director of American Life League’s STOPP Planned Parenthood project, told LifeSiteNews.com.
“And she did it all while mocking God, claiming to be a devout Roman Catholic. Pelosi’s final award will await her at the end of her life, when the blood of millions of innocent babies will rise up from the ground to testify against her.” More….
A Critical Distinction: What the Catholic Church Says on Abortion and Hard Cases
by Tom Grenchik
July 9, 2010
On June 23, 2010, the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine released a clarification entitled: The Distinction between Direct Abortion and Legitimate Medical Procedures. Since most folks don’t read every new posting on the vast USCCB web-site, this helpful statement could be overlooked.
The statement notes that “On November 5, 2009, medical personnel at the St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona, performed a procedure that caused the death of an unborn child. Most Reverend Thomas Olmsted, the Bishop of Phoenix, has judged that this procedure was in fact a direct abortion and so morally wrong….”
When Bishop Olmsted spoke, many a commentator became a self-appointed expert on the Church’s moral teaching overnight. The national media certainly caused confusion among Catholics and the general public as to what the Church teaches regarding illegitimate and legitimate medical procedures for addressing the risk to a mother’s health or even life during a pregnancy.
The Committee on Doctrine reminded us that “…. abortion (that is, the directly intended termination of pregnancy before viability or the directly intended destruction of a viable fetus) is never permitted… One may never directly kill an innocent human being, no matter what the reason… By contrast, in some situations, it may be permissible to perform a medical procedure on a pregnant woman that directly treats a serious health problem but that also has a secondary effect that leads to the death of the developing child… The difference can be seen in two different scenarios in which the unborn child is not yet old enough to survive outside the womb.”
“In the first scenario, a pregnant woman is experiencing problems with one or more of her organs, apparently as a result of the added burden of pregnancy. The doctor recommends an abortion to protect the health of the woman… The surgery directly targets the life of the unborn child. It is the surgical instrument in the hands of the doctor that causes the child’s death. The surgery does not directly address the health problem of the woman, for example, by repairing the organ that is malfunctioning… The abortion is the means by which a reduced strain upon the organ or organs is achieved. As the Church has said many times, direct abortion is never permissible because a good end cannot justify an evil means….” More…
Thank you to Steven Ertelt from LifeNews.com. Steven can be followed on Twitter at: @StevenErtelt and at LifeNews.com.
National Catholic Reporter Misleads Readers on Embryonic Stem Cell Research
by Jack Smith
July 6, 2010
LifeNews.com Note: This opinion column was written by Jack Smith of the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Jospeh and first appeared on the Catholic Key blog. It is reprinted with permission.
Bill Tammeus has written a column over at NCR titled “It’s easy to be misled on stem cell research,” and he proves the point pretty well himself. It’s hard to tell though whether he’s misled or intending to mislead. At any rate, certainly his editors know he’s factually incorrect.
Tammeus is a Presbyterian who is concerned that the Catholic church has an imprecise understanding of Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT) or cloning as it is known throughout the entire world except for the Greater Kansas City media market. This imprecise understanding has led to an unjustified moral condemnation of SCNT by the Catholic church, according to Tammeus. So he endeavors to explain the science for us poorly informed Catholics. This is so bad, I have to go line by line.
Tammeus explains that SCNT produces something he calls “early stem cells”. These are cells “which unfortunately, imprecisely and thus misleadingly are usually called embryonic stem cells,” he says. Let’s consult the National Institutes of Health stem cell information center:
Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT)—A technique that combines an enucleated egg and the nucleus of a somatic cell to make an embryo.
Strike one.
Tammeus again:
I’ve been writing about stem cell research for much of the last decade, so I know that research using adult stem cells has been going on for more than 50 years. By contrast, the first report of early human stem cells produced by somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) was not published until 2004.
That study would be “Evidence of a pluripotent human embryonic stem cell line derived from a cloned blastocyst” by Woo Suk Hwang, et. al. Notice that the scientist does not think it imprecise or misleading to use the term “embryonic stem cells” to describe what he’s working on, nor does he flinch from saying such cells were derived from a cloned (SCNT) blastocyst, i.e., a “preimplantation embryo of about 150 cells,” again as defined by the National Institutes of Health’s stem cell page.
But now the irony of Tammeus’ referencing this study gets even deeper. That study and a subsequent study in which Hwang claimed to have derived stem cell lines from cloned blastocysts were both retracted by Science magazine and Hwang was dismissed from Seoul National University. Reviews of his work found that Hwang had not in fact derived any stem cell lines from cloned blastocysts.
Tammeus continues following immediately on the last quote:
So it’s not surprising that some effective therapies that use adult stem cells exist while many therapies using early SCNT stem cells still are in development.
Let’s look at the words “some” and “many” – because the words to substitute if Tammeus’ quote were to be factual are “many” and “zero”. There are more than 70 treatments and therapies for diseases derived from adult stem cell research. There are absolutely ZERO therapies or treatments in development using stem cells derived from SCNT. That’s because to date there have been no stem cells lines derived from human SCNT for anybody to be working on.
Furthermore, SCNT for therapeutic purposes has been virtually abandoned as a research model because of newer discoveries like Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells which are derived from somatic cells without the need for an egg. More…
Woman Dies From Botched Abortion at Marie Stopes Clinic as British Ads Run
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 24, 2010
She died at the MSI facility located in Damak Municipality-15 of Jhapa district on Sunday night.
The abortion death comes as MSI is running new abortion commercials on Channel 4, despite criticism from pro-life groups and a potential legal challenge.
The Britain-based abortion business Marie Stopes International announced earlier this year that it did 920,000 abortions in 43 countries in 2009. MSI indicated most of its work takes place in developing countries and in rural areas or urban slums where is says the “need” for abortion is at its greatest.
The 920,000 medical and surgical abortions represented a 56% increase on the previous year’s figures.
Ironically, MSI officials claim they are able to avert maternal deaths by doing the abortions.
“MSI family planning and reproductive health services across 43 countries averted … nearly 35,000 maternal deaths, reducing global maternal mortality by about six percent,” the abortion business claimed.
That comes even as research data continues to show that nations where women and children are protected from abortions see the lowest maternal mortality rates.
In January, an India doctor was arrested in a newly-reported case of a botched abortion that killed a woman. The Times of India indicated the Vikhroli police recently registered a case of medical malpractice against Dr. Vinod Ganpati Prabhu.
Prabhu did an abortion on a woman who was three months pregnant in April 2006 at the Priya Maternity Home.
The newspaper indicates a panel of five doctors from JJ Hospital investigated the failed abortion and submitted their report to police on December 30, asking that Prabhu be charged. More…
Coalition of Catholics Backing Pro-Abortion Barack Obama Meets in Washington
by Deal Hudson and Matt Smith
May 10, 2010
LifeNews.com Note: Deal Hudson chaired the Catholic Coalition for the RNC and President George W. Bush. Matt Smith was the Catholic liaison for President George W. Bush in the White House Office of Public Liaison. Both are with the pro-life group Catholic Advocate.
In the wake of the 2004 defeat of John Kerry, leftwing Catholics, aligned with the Democratic Party, got down to serious work. The result was a coalition of organizations, publications, writers, academics, and activists that helped convince a majority of self-identified Catholic voters to vote for the most pro-abortion presidential candidate in history, Barack Obama.
That same coalition met late last week at a Washington Briefing hosted by the National Catholic Reporter.
Coming on the heels of their victory in passing the abortion-funded health care bill, the standing ovation given to Sr. Carol Keehan comes as no surprise.
The recipient of personal attention from the President, Keehan used her Catholic Health Association, a trade association of Catholic hospitals, to pronounce the health care legislation acceptable for Catholics. Her role was aptly rewarded when she was given one of the pens used by President Obama to sign the pro-abortion health care law.
Prior to the election, the media accurately reported that Sr. Keehan’s support of the health care bill was in opposition to that of the Catholic bishops. The bishops explained repeatedly they would not support a bill containing federal funding for abortion. Sr. Keehan refused to admit the presence of the funding along with her other differences with the bishops. Indeed, at the briefing she reiterated that she was in agreement with the bishops on the bill and on the non-presence of abortion funding.
Other leaders of the health care revolt against the bishops spoke at the briefing, including Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of NETWORK, who organized the religious order letter supporting the health care bill praised by Nancy Pelosi; Morna Murray, President of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good; Patrick Whelan, President of Catholic Democrats; and Speaker Pelosi herself who was there to rally her Catholic troops to help deliver on immigration.
It’s no surprise that Trinity University in D.C., a private, all girls, progressive Catholic University would host a forum of this nature with the liberal and Democrat-aligned National Catholic Reporter. It’s the alma mater of Nancy Pelosi and Kathleen Sebelius, both of whom are featured prominently on the Trinity University website.More…
Yeah, right, Trinity is a Catholic university. Trust me lived two blocks from Trinity for a few years, nothing Catholic about it. Shouldn’t even be allowed to use the title, Bishops Conference where are u? Absent, as usual. Not happy with this for sure, Sophia
Obama May Name Supreme Court Pick Monday, Likely Pro-Abortion Elena Kagan
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 7, 2010
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) – The buzz around Washington today is that President Barack Obama will likely announce his Supreme Court nomination on Monday. When he does, several news reports citing White House officials indicate he will select pro-abortion Solicitor General Elena Kagan.
If nominated, Kagan, a former Harvard Law dean, would replace retiring pro-abortion Justice John Paul Stevens.
Kagan is an ardent abortion advocate who, at 50, would leave a pro-abortion legacy for Obama on the Supreme Court for decades to come. She would confirm the suspicion of many political observers that Obama decided to go with a radical left-wing nominee while Democrats control the Senate with a huge advantage that is expected to deteriorate after the November elections.
Senate Republicans have already promised a tough fight against Kagan.
“Our nation deserves a Supreme Court nominee who is committed to deciding cases impartially based on the law, not on personal politics, preferences, or what’s in the nominee’s ‘heart,’” Sen. John Cornyn, a pro-life Texas Republican who is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said last month.
However, the lack of a legal record makes it difficult for Republicans to criticize her on specific cases that constitute the legal records of other potential nominees who have served as lower court judges.
The current high court has a 5-4 split in favor of unlimited abortions via Roe v. Wade and Kagan would be expected to continue that.
Kagan was the dean of Harvard Law school and has spent most of her career in academia and government — in part as a legal counsel in the administration of pro-abortion President Bill Clinton –and prior to becoming the attorney for the Obama administration before the Supreme Court.
LifeNews.com spoke with Wendy Wright, the president of Concerned Women for America, who previously said Kagan was Associate Counsel to President Bill Clinton and Deputy Assistant to him for domestic policy — which, under Clinton, advocated abortion.
Kagan was credited by the ACLU with “shaping Clinton’s policy on hate crimes,” Wright noted.
“The Clinton Administration treated pro-life activists like violent criminals, creating a task force in the Department of Justice and a grand jury to investigate peaceful pro-lifers. This raises serious concerns that she shares the hostile view that religious beliefs are a form of ‘hate,’” she said.
Kagan may be sympathetic to the views of internationalists, those who would impose international norms on Americans, including an unlimited abortion right. More…
Poll: Americans Wanting Roe Abortion Ruling Overturned Reaches New High
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 4, 2010
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) – A new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds the percentage of Americans saying they want the Roe v. Wade ruling that allowed abortion on demand overturned has reached a new high. Meanwhile, Americans say the current Supreme Court, which has a 5-4 pro-abortion majority, is too liberal.
The Post-ABC poll has been asking a question about overturning Roe since 2005 and, this year, 60 percent said no while a new high of 38 percent said the favor reversing the case.
The poll found 60 percent of Republicans want roe reversed, up from 54 percent last year.
The percentage of Americans wanting Roe overturned may be higher had the Post and ABC News properly explained the Supreme Court case.
The question respondents were asked read: “The Supreme Court legalized abortion 37 years ago in the ruling known as Roe versus Wade. If that case came before the court again, would you want the next justice to vote to (uphold) Roe versus Wade, or vote to (overturn) it?”
That doesn’t describe how Roe, and its companion Doe v. Bolton case, essentially allowed unlimited abortions for any reason throughout the entirety of pregnancy. Polling data consistently shows a large majority of Americans oppose that kind of unlimited abortion scheme.
Ed Whelan, wrote about the poll, released late last week, in National Review and agreed the question is poorly worded.
“The Left might try to find hope in the report [that 60% favor Roe],” he writes. “But even apart from the fact that the 38% figure is apparently a high, the Roe question is drafted in a way that predictably understates support for overturning Roe.”
“The phrase ‘legalized abortion’ could easily lead respondents to believe that the effect of overturning Roe would be to make abortion illegal, when it would in fact be to restore abortion policy to the democratic processes,” the legal scholar continues. “Nor, of course, does the question reveal how extreme the Roe/Casey regime is and how it prevents implementation of measures that Americans overwhelmingly support.”
He post to questions in a prior poll that provided a more accurate description of Roe and found “with even a brief education about what Roe really means, public opinion on overturning Roe swung a full 16 points in the direction favoring the reversal of Roe.”
Also, an August 2009 HarrisPoll found Americans moving away from supporting Roe v. Wade. More…
Thanks to Pewsitter.com for the story!
Mexican leader says pregnant girls should be cared for, not pushed into abortion
Mexico City, Mexico, Apr 30, 2010 / 10:06 pm (CNA).- President of the Red Pro Yucatan Network, Ivette Laviada, called for the protection of a 11-year-old pregnant girl from Quintana Roo, Mexico, saying that abortion would only bring more tragedy to her life. The girl is currently receiving care and assistance from pro-life groups. The young girl was sexually abused by her stepfather, and became pregnant at the age of 10. “For those of us who support life, the termination of a pregnancy is not the solution, as it would add more tragedy to the situation: the death of the most defenseless human being in the mother’s womb! An innocent life, just as innocent as the girl who carries it in her womb,” Laviada said in an article. She warned that this is not the only case of a girl who has become pregnant through rape in Quintana Roo, as some 16 underage girls have reported similar situations so far this year. More…
From: CNA Catholic News Agency
Remembering Cardinal John O’Connor’s Pro-Life Activism 10 Years Later
by Father Frank Pavone April 29, 2010
LifeNews.com Note: Father Frank Pavone is the national director of Priests for Life.
It has been ten years since the death of New York’s archbishop, Cardinal John O’Connor. He died of a brain tumor on May 3, 2000, but had he not become ill, his sister Mary Ward has her own conviction of when and how he would have died.
“He would have died in the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, along with Fr. Mychal Judge,” Mary said to me. Fr. Judge was the first officially recorded victim of the September 11 terrorist attack, killed as he ministered to people in the lobby of the World Trade Center north tower after the initial attack. Cardinal O’Connor would have rushed to the scene as soon as he heard of the attack. The Cardinal was an exemplary priest and bishop, teacher and leader. Catholics rightly take pride in how he gave witness to the Faith and to what the Church is all about. Priests and bishops drew strength for their ministry by following his example. But his appeal, much like that of his friends Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II, reaches far beyond the Catholic world. He was a witness to humanity, to its meaning and its dignity. His ecclesiastical motto was “There can be no love without justice,” and he was committed to promoting both. He eased racial tensions, helped resolve labor disputes, held starving children in Ethiopia, intervened in crises in Cuba and Central America, and much more. Yet his motivations were not secular; they were rooted in Christ. That accounts for what the world sees as the paradox of a man whose compassion was as strong as his orthodoxy.
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Obama’s Pro-Abortion Policies Empower Catholic Dissidents Against Pro-Lifers
by Deal Hudson April 28, 2010
LifeNews.com
Note: Deal W. Hudson is the director of InsideCatholic.com, president of Catholic Advocate, and author of Onward, Christian Soldiers: The Growing Political Power of Catholics and Evangelicals in the United States (Simon and Schuster). 
The present White House is having a huge impact on the Church in America. It’s typical to hear talk about the influence of the Church on politics, but at the present moment the influence is definitely in the other direction. The pro-abortion forces in this country and the “social justice/seamless garment” crowd in the Church have been empowered by the new Congress and presidency. The reason the Church is so weak right now is the sudden power of groups like the Catholic Health Association, Catholics United, and Catholics In Alliance for the Common Good. These groups, and their leadership, have straight lines of communication throughout the Church, through the USCCB, chanceries, parishes, and various Catholic associations. This is the network that drove the twisted interpretation of “Faithful Citizenship” through parishes nationwide in 2008. They plan to do an even better job in 2012, unless we do something about it, unless we stop them. Obama’s leadership, along with that of Pelosi, has strengthened the hand of the most anti-Catholic, anti-life elements of our culture, both here and in Europe, at the EU and the UN. The threat of arresting our Holy Father on his upcoming trip to the UK should be a huge wake-up call for what we are up against. More…
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