Reading Nietzsche taught me one thing: People can talk about values and really be interested only in getting their way. Case in point: All the talk about political “civility” is more about power than good manners. Specifically, it’s about marginalizing everyone who finds it necessary and appropriate to speak passionately on the subject of abortion. … Read more
I doubt there are many readers here who are pro-choice. Why, then, do I write an argument against abortion? Why preach to the choir? Â Preaching to the choir is a legitimate enterprise. Scripture calls it “edification,” or “building up.” It is what priests, ministers, rabbis, and mullahs try to do once every week. We … Read more
Parliamentary Network for Critical Issues (PNCI) reports that Ireland’s Fine Gael party has won the largest number of seats in the Irish National Parliament’s lower house, the Dáil Éireann: Prior to the election, Fine Gael had pledged to uphold the nation’s pro-life protections: “Fine Gael is opposed to the legalisation of abortion” and “Fine Gael … Read more
Eager not to miss any detail about the flaming ball of crazy that is Charlie Sheen, I recently spent a little time reading about his father, actor and TV-world president emeritus Martin Sheen. In some circles, you may know, Martin is recognized as one of Hollywood’s stalwart Catholics, having famously chosen his stage name after … Read more
Dr. Bernard Nathanson, once the foremost abortionist in the United States and then perhaps abortion’s most effective opponent, died on Tuesday at age 84. The Washington Post obituary mentioned that his 28-minute film, The Silent Scream, released in 1985, “became a sensation, widely distributed by antiabortion groups and screened at the White House by President … Read more
Bernard Nathanson, an obstetrician who led the charge for abortion rights before having a change of heart and becoming a staunch pro-life activist, has passed away at 84 after a battle with cancer. The National Catholic Register remembers his life and dramatic conversion: He often admitted that he and other abortion advocates in the 1960s … Read more
It’s Friday morning, so it must be time for links: Mark Levin doesn’t understand the conservative support of Chris Christie for president. Citing Ann Coulter’s push to get Christie in the race for 2012, he writes: Does she support his positions on: gun control, amnesty, the appointment of an Islamist to the bench, the green … Read more
As a 30-year veteran fighting in the trenches of the abortion war, I found Abby Johnson’s book unPlanned — a story published only 18 months after she quit her job as head of a Bryan, Texas, Planned Parenthood abortion clinic — remarkable. The book is commendable on a number of levels. First, Johnson’s conversion from … Read more
Over the past week, there has been a lot of disagreement in the Catholic blogosphere about the tactics pro-life group Live Action used to obtain sting videos of Planned Parenthood. The organization, run by student activist Lila Rose, released its first video showing a Planned Parenthood staffer who appears to give aide and advice to a sex … Read more
From the Boston Globe: A Massachusetts antiabortion group has unveiled a bill that would let individual taxpayers opt out of paying for publicly funded abortions. Under the measure, a taxpayer could choose to have whatever portion of their state taxes pays for abortion coverage directed instead to the Baby Safe Haven Law. That law allows … Read more
A reader recently sent me the following: Somebody I know wrote: This following is about abortion, but not “is it right or wrong” or “what does the Church teach,” but “How on earth would you deal with this pastorally?” A friend of mine has a married cousin. She and her husband had a healthy child … Read more
Great news for the city of Baltimore: A federal judge has struck down a law that would require crisis pregnancy centers to post signs saying that they don’t provide abortions, or pay a fine. Steven Ertelt reports: Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, the former city council president who is now the mayor, sponsored the measure that the city council … Read more
Last week Creative Minority published a story about Ralph McCloud, the director of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, revealing that he served as the treasurer of a political campaign during his first year on the job at the USCCB. The candidate, as it turns out, was an abortion supporter. McCloud has responded, and Creative … Read more
The story about President Obama’s support for infanticide as an Illinois state senator came immediately to mind last week when a Philadelphia abortionist was arrested on eight counts of murder. One of the counts faced by Dr. Kermit Gosnell includes the death of a woman following an abortion at his office. The other seven were … Read more
A new story from the Creative Minority Report says that CCHD director Ralph McCloud worked as treasurer for a pro-abortion politician during his first year at the USCCB. Ralph McCloud was named head of the CCHD in November 2007. In his first year as head of the CCHD, according to public records, McCloud also worked as … Read more
With the March for Life just around the corner, it’s hard not to be aware of the cultural contradictions inherent in our attitudes toward life, specifically unborn life. Ross Douthat calls it the Unborn Paradox, pointing to the high rate of abortion on one hand and the unprecedented number of couples coping with infertility on … Read more
Some discouraging news: After more than 20 years of a slow but steady decline in both the rate and number of abortions performed in the U.S., the Guttmacher Institute is reporting a slight increase in its latest survey. The increase was just 1%, to 19.6 abortions per 1,000 women of child-bearing age in 2008, from … Read more
CBS reports that almost 40 percent of pregnancies in New York City ended in abortion in 2009, according to the city’s health department. Out of 225,667 recorded pregnancies there were 126,774 live births and 87,273 abortions. Archbishop Timothy Dolan joined with other religious leaders yesterday calling for efforts to make abortions “rare:” “I re-affirm Cardinal … Read more
I’m a lifelong Democrat who is now badly disillusioned with the Democratic Party. Why? Because the party has become America’s anti-Christian party, a party that is dominated not just by atheists and agnostics (the agnostics being of that species whose skepticism is the virtual equivalent of atheism), but by atheists and agnostics having an anti-religion … Read more
2010 was a horrible year for health care — that is, if you believe abortion is not “health care.” The ObamaCare health legislation, if not amended by the next Congress, will result in hundreds of thousands of federally funded abortions that would not happen without that funding. But Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix, who is a … Read more