When killing babies is good

The September 13, 2012 online issue of the New England Journal of Medicine included a "Perspective" article by Dr. Lisa Harris, entitled, "Recognizing Conscience in Abortion Provision¹". In it Dr. Harris attempts to persuade that the desire to kill unborn children can be a noble impulse, prompted by one's conscience in the same way that another person might be urged by conscience not to kill unborn children. Yes, we live in a time when physicians can be found who believe that healing a sick person can be morally equivalent to killing a healthy one.

I submitted a brief response to the NEJM, which was rejected. So I'll post it here:

Conscience and the desire to provide induced abortion

Dear Editor,

Dr. Lisa Harris argues that physicians urged by conscience to refuse to induce abortions, and those urged by conscience to provide induced abortions, equally deserve legal accommodation and respect for their "core moral beliefs".

Yet while all persons are worthy of respectful tolerance, not so all personal acts. Just laws placing limits on elective abortion reflect a social awareness that these acts, while presently legal in many cases, inflict a tragic human cost. A large segment of society believes justice is better served by limiting these acts than by promoting them. Those whose conscience urges them beyond the limits of law must expect from society not license but resistance.

Dr. Harris attempts to erase from memory the Hippocratic tradition prohibiting induced abortion, and to persuade us that for a physician it can be equally noble to kill, as to refuse to kill. Yet is it not the duty of society to stand firm against the demands of a conscience that fails to respect the good of both pregnant mother and child?

¹N Engl J Med 2012; 367:981-983. September 13, 2012. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1206253

Pro-aborts censor pro-life message

Q: Why can't the anonymous vandals pay for their own billboard and express their own message, like the pro-lifers did?

True Answer #1: Because these pro-abortionists apparently don't respect free speech or tolerate diverse viewpoints any more than they respect the lives of the unborn who neither speak, vote, nor pay taxes.

True Answer #2: Because what they defend -the legally tolerated killing of unborn children by parents and physicians- is so barbaric and inhuman that any discussion of its reality tends to be an intolerable outrage to pro-aborts.

True Answer #3: Unlike the pro-lifers, who openly identified themselves and peacefully attempted to advance public discouse on the abortion issue, these pro-aborts -perhaps at heart ashamed of the reality of their position- resorted to anonymously trespassing, defacing private property, and censoring their opponents. They'll use the law to protect their own position, but happily disregard private property laws when it's to their advantage.

Pro-life billboard ignites controversy

We'll see how long it is before the billboards and their sponsors are attacked by individuals provoked to teeth-clenching fury by this peaceful exercise of civil discourse and free speech.


After all, suggesting openly that it might not be good for parents to kill their children is an outrageous thought. And observing that the epidemic of elective abortion is a plague particularly in the black community is an offense sure to enflame the righteous indignation of those who, well, profit handsomely from killing the unborn.

Mother and baby dead: abortion clinic says everything went "well"

Queens clinic A1 Medicine probed after Alexandra Nunez is fatally injured while undergoing abortion

Detectives are investigating a Queens clinic where a 37-year-old woman was fatally injured while undergoing an abortion, officials said Tuesday.

Alexandra Nuñez began bleeding heavily during the procedure at A1 Medicine in Jackson Heights on Monday, officials said.

One of Nuñez's arteries was inadvertently severed and she went into cardiac arrest, according to police sources.

She was taken to Elmhurst Hospital Center, where she died a short time later.
...
An employee at the clinic - a one-stop gynecology and plastic surgery clinic that was still seeing patients yesterday - insisted that everything had gone well at the second-floor medical facility.

"The patient was transferred to the hospital, she didn't die at the clinic," said the woman, who refused to give her name. "Nothing happened here."

And what is the clinic's concern after evidently causing the death of a patient? ...that they're not to blame. "Nothing happened here."

Illinois bureaucrats above the law

Abortion foes upset over delay in parental notice law - Chicago Breaking News

What authority does the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation have to "delay the enforcement" of a law that has been upheld in federal court?

This law has been on the books for 14 years. Hasn't it been delayed enough?

Offended by Life, Death strikes a blow

Michigan Gunman Was Offended by Victim’s Pro-life Message -EWTN.com

A clash of world views:

1) A man peacefully holds a pro-life sign, advocating the right of each person to be permitted to live.

2) Another man, "offended" by the sign, shoots him dead, advocating a "right" to kill someone who offends or inconveniences him.

Why do I oppose the current Obama health care plan?

A few thoughts...

The "reforms" being pressed by the president and ruling party are very unpopular with the public... so much so that thousands of citizens who have never before been involved in political demonstrations are seeking out their congressmen to express their concerns, indignation, and anger. It's amazing to see the reaction of the public.

The democrats' plan is increasingly unpopular not because the plan is being widely misrepresented, but because people are increasingly realizing what the current proposals would bring. The plan is getting more public scrutiny than Congress and the president want, and the better people understand the plan the more they oppose it.

Public anger is increasing also because people who raise concerns or objections to the democrats' plan find they frequently are dismissed by elected officials and the media as misinformed freaks, lobbyists, or even racists. But the town hall videos I've seen recently show meetings attended mostly by intelligent, passionate, middle-aged and older citizens expressing their own concerns, not pawns operated by mustache-twirling lobbyists intent on putting down the poor.

Why are people so agitated about the "reforms"? Several big reasons:

• The democrats would like to provide health care coverage as a "right" to an additional 47 million individuals, and claim they will do so without increasing public debt. Does anyone believe this isn't a lie?
  
• Where are all the new doctors who will care for those 47 million individuals? Congress can't manufacture them.
  
• Many believe that under the proposed plan, their access to medical care and the quality of that care will decrease: millions more recipients will stretch thin the existing pool of medical providers.
  
• The so-called "public option" is hardly an "option". It would be the ONLY option permitted to people who don't already have coverage. They would be legally barred from buying private coverage.
  
• Who really believes that the government plan will not ultimately destroy the existing private providers, resulting in total government domination of health care? People increasingly view our federal government as insatiable in its appetite to nationalize one industry after another, and the medical industry is currently in the crosshairs.
  
• Does anyone really believe that the government can do a better job of providing health care than the private sector? In which countries has this been the case? Cuba? England? Canada?
  
• Many people do not believe it is just or fair to grant comprehensive medical benefits to illegal aliens -many of whom pay no taxes- and expect taxpaying citizens to pay the cost, especially when so many citizens are already struggling to provide for their own families.
  
• The American medical industry is the greatest in the world, despite its flaws. Who thinks that a government takeover really will improve it?
  
• Many people -myself included- deeply mistrust the federal government's ability to administer medical benefits fairly without violating the basic human rights of the unborn, the disabled, and the elderly. The danger is that government will have a strong financial motivation to make medical decisions not to benefit individuals, but according to some other criteria.
  
• And why have the president and Congress been pressing for such rapid passage of such a monumental bill? If it's so important to get it right, why did they press so hard to pass it before the August recess, even before many members had had a chance to read it?
  

These are a few of the big concerns I have about the democrats' plan for the federal government to take over the health care industry, and they are reasons why I oppose the current plan. I'm persuaded that there are some things government should do to improve the health care system, but a massive take-over, a government-run "public option" would badly damage our system of health care which is second to none in the world.

Slain Kansas abortion provider's clinic to close

Slain Kansas abortion provider's clinic to close

The Christian Taliban gets its way.

They hate our laws. They hate our freedoms. And just like their Islamic brethren, they are willing to commit acts of terror if their bleating is ignored.

-Comment by simkatu

"Christian Taliban"? Doesn't make a lot of sense. Christians strongly oppose killing the innocent, and most oppose killing the guilty, except in extreme situations such as those demanding lethal military action. Many are opposed to capital punishment even for the most heinous crimes. And they overwhelmingly condemn premeditated murder as a means of accomplishing their goals.

It is rather the pro-abort forces which might better be labeled as a sort of Taliban. For them, no amount of killing is enough -it's their right!- and they want the "freedom" to kill the innocent and defenseless for any reason or no reason at all. Although neither right reason nor any just law could ever justify such carnage, they have conjured from the "penumbra" of the Constitution a dark right to murder their own offspring.

And it's not enough to kill within in their own national borders: the Pro-Abort Taliban demand public money to export death around the world, funding coercive abortion "services" overseas through governments and private agencies.

Their sense of self-righteousness seems limitless, their contempt and religious indignation boundless, toward those who object to the killing. But they can not tolerate to have their acts discussed openly or brought into the light. All who insist upon speaking the obvious truth are labeled "hateful", "oppressive", "fundamentalist", "anti-choice".

In their wake lies a bloody path strewn with 50 million corpses.

Notorious abortionist murdered in church

Kan. abortion doc killed in church; suspect held - Yahoo! News

May God have mercy on George Tiller, the serial killer who personally murdered thousands of children for profit through gruesome late term abortions. Yesterday he himself was murdered, in an unjust and evil act that violated his own right to life.

His murder, an illegal and despicable act, did nothing to advance either the peaceful pro-life movement or the Culture of Life generally. Such lawless violence deserves the unreserved condemnation of all persons. The inalienable right to life can not be upheld or defended by vigilante killing, not even by the killing of one of the abortion industry's most committed practitioners.

The murder of this abortionist will be used by some to try to demonize those committed to non-violently ending the evil of legalized abortion. Yet this murder serves to show the tragic consequences of denying another's inalienable rights in order to achieve a personal or political gain... which is exactly what happens when a mother kills her child to be rid of a problem.

Storm over embryo 'bank' which could be used as a body repair kit

Storm over embryo 'bank' which could be used as a body repair kit - Mail Online

Using one human being -in this case an embryonic child- as a source of "spare parts" for the benefit of another human being is an inhuman barbarism. This is not a matter of personal choice, for the most basic duty of government is to prevent the violation of inalienable human rights. The first among these is the right to life.
In earlier centuries defenders of slavery in Britain and the U.S. argued that black persons were not persons, and therefore did not possess rights demanding protection.

The same vile argument is used today to justify the exploitation of embryonic human beings as fodder for every sort of abomination.

Francis Cardinal George urges opposition to Illinois "Reproductive Health and Access Act"

Office of the Archbishop
Post Office Box 1979 Phone: (312) 534-8230
Chicago, Illinois 60690-1979 Fax: (312) 534-6379


Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

In the midst of Lent, with its drama of sin and grace, of evil and good, I write about a threat to our freedom to practice our religion in our State.

Before the Illinois General Assembly there is a proposal (HB 2354, the “Reproductive Health and Access Act”) that would remove the right to conscientious objection to abortion and related procedures for all health care workers. Thirty years ago, we were told that abortion is a rare but necessary tragedy and that abortion providers should not be legally punished. Today we are being told that abortion is a human right and that those who qualify it in any manner or who will not provide it should be legally punished.

This proposed law will drive Catholic doctors and nurses from health care and will make it impossible for Catholic hospitals to continue to be places where life is always respected, where no one is deliberately killed. In our country, we recognize conscientious objection to war, even though defending one’s country is a noble and moral act. We recognize the conscientious objection of those doctors who will not cooperate in administering the death penalty, even for terrible crimes. Why do some Illinois legislators want to take away conscientious objection to abortion?

The enemies of human life and religious freedom in Illinois are well funded. Pressure on legislators is great and is increasing. I ask you to contact your Representative this week to express your dismay that the Illinois legislature, elected democratically, would debate a bill that removes freedom of conscientious decision-making for health care workers as a condition of their employment. If, as we are told, the State should not come between a doctor and a mother, then surely all can agree that the State should not come between a health care worker and God.

We have, unfortunately, had to get used to the fact that our laws no longer protect unborn human life; now we are to get used to the fact that our laws will no longer protect conscience. In 1844, Abraham Lincoln broke with his own party, the often anti-Catholic Whigs, and proposed: “Resolved, that the guarantee of the rights of conscience, as found in our Constitution, is most sacred and inviolable, and one that belongs no less to the Catholic, than to the Protestant; and that all attempts to abridge or interfere with these rights, either of Catholic or Protestant, directly or indirectly, have our decided disapprobation, and shall ever have our most effective opposition.” Illinois HB 2354 betrays the legacy of Lincoln in his home State.

This proposed law will rend the already fragile garment of our civic unity and further alienate many from our government. Catholics and all people of good will should work to ensure its defeat. I also ask you to thank those legislators who are courageously opposing HB 2354 and to pray for those who are supporting it. To contact your legislator, please go to www.ilga.gov, or call 312-368-1066. Thank you and God bless you.

Francis Cardinal George, OMI
Archbishop of Chicago

Feminist Susan B. Anthony on elective abortion

Susan B. Anthony on Womens Suffrage and Other Ills

"I deplore the horrible crime of child-murder... No matter what the motive, love of ease, or a desire to save from suffering the unborn innocent, the woman is awfully guilty who commits the deed. It will burden her conscience in life, it will burden her soul in death; but oh! Thrice guilty is he who... drove her to the desperation which impels her to the crime."
-The Revolution, July 1869, Susan B. Anthony

Which one is a real baby?

(Answer: Both, of course.)

Oppose the Illinois State "Freedom of Choice Act"

Catholic Conference of Illinois ACTION ALERT

Illinois House Bill HB 2354 seeks to:

• make abortion a fundamental right, preventing any common-sense regulation such as parental notification;
  
• expand public funding of abortion through Medicaid during a time when the state cannot meet its current fiscal obligations;
  
• invalidate the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act protecting health care professionals and employers; and,
  
• mandate comprehensive sex education for all children in public schools.
  

Making the killing of one's unborn child a "fundamental right" is a radical attack on the truly fundamental rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, rights that belong to "all men", as affirmed in the Declaration of Independence.

Today, living, unborn children lack legal protection of these rights, much as Native Americans and negro slaves in this country 150 years ago did not enjoy a legal recognition of their human rights on par with white citizens.

Should the state of Illinois not only ignore, but march against the best currents of history, by enshrining as a "fundamental right" a legal right to kill one's offspring? And should the state go further still, denying medical professionals the right of conscience, the right to refuse to perform abortions or other procedures that believe immoral, and imposing harsh penalties on those unwilling to carry out such acts? The result will be to make even late term, partial birth abortion, a "fundamental right", and to compel those who reject the practice for profound personal reasons to carry it out.

These are powerful reasons to stop the State "Freedom of Choice Act", reasons strong enough to call for our prompt action...

Please, contact Your Illinois legislators and urge them to vote NO to HB 2354.

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
-Edmund Burke

President Obama appoints Abortion Czar

Obama grants abortion advocates’ wish, creates ambassador for "women's issues"

After receiving a letter from several abortion "rights" organizations, President Obama has created a position to address women’s concerns around the globe. On Friday the White House announced that he would nominate Melanne Verveer, an abortion supporter, to fill the new position of Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues.

Just days after expanding his attack on the unborn by authorizing federal funds to mutilate and destroy human embryos, Obama has created the new position of "ambassador at large for global women's issues" and nominated the pro-abortion Melanne Verveer to be the first Abortion Czar.

Let the unborn die to benefit the privileged

Obama lifts Bush restrictions on stem cell research - Reuters

President Obama

Chancellor Hitler

President Barack Obama is not the first national leader to promote a sacrificial holocaust of the weak, the "useless", the unwanted, for the benefit of the privileged. Like Adolf Hitler before him, President Obama regards certain classes of human beings as something subhuman, life unworthy of life.

But what if human embryos really are persons? Doesn't this very plausible possibility -even if not self-evident to all- mean that they deserve protection from federally funded programs that treat them as objects fit for exploitation and lethal experimentation? Obama sees no ethical problem here, because, as he has explained, "answering that question with specificity is above my pay grade."

Therefore, with head held high he pronounces human embryos legitimate fodder for dissection, manipulation, and destruction.

Just as many of Hitler's German contemporaries accepted -even supported- his policies, so too does much of the American public -morally numbed by decades of legalized abortion- accept and applaud as "scientific progress" Obama's expanding, statist attack on the defenseless.

History repeats itself ...and often history's tragedies, when repeated, do so on a larger scale.

"Pro-Choice"? Have You seen what You defend?

Priests for Life

"America Will Not Reject Abortion Until America Sees Abortion"

Is Governor Kathleen Sebelius insane?

Abortion foes go after Sebelius - 2008 Presidential Campaign Blog - Political Intelligence - Boston.com

The most basic duty of government is to defend the inalienable, intrinsic rights of human beings at every stage of life. The foundation of all human rights is the right to life, a right our founding fathers proclaimed "self-evident". Any person who does not understand, respect, or is unwilling to defend this right can not be trusted to understand, respect, or defend any other human right, and is unfit for any public office where human rights are at stake.

Governor Sebelius now has been nominated by President Obama to be our next health and human services secretary. She claims to be Roman Catholic. But any Catholic, like her, who claims to be 'personally opposed' to abortion but who denies their duty to oppose abortion is either profoundly ignorant of the truth, insane, or a dangerous liar.

NBC trashes pro-life ad featuring Obama

NBC trashes pro-life ad featuring Obama -World Net Daily

To: Victoria Morgan, vice president of advertising standards at NBC Universal

Dear Ms. Morgan,

NBC's decision to reject the CatholicVote.org ad, "Life -imagine the potential", is most disappointing and reflects badly on NBC.

I've seen this ad and was impressed by its positive message.

NBC's explanation that it would "not allow advocacy ads" rings duplicitous in light of its position toward PETA's ad. It invites people to conclude that NBC's advertising policies are really subject to a political agenda.

Shame on NBC. Two thumbs down.

Life -imagine the potential

Here's the video so shocking that NBC refused to play it during the SuperBowl.



For more information: CatholicVote.org