in this issue:
hot button issues: BOB DORNAN / JUDIE BROWN’S BOOK / MASS INTENTIONS / POLITICS OF ABORTION
abortion: CHARGE TILLER / IDAHO / NEW JERSEY / PRO-LIFE RESPONSE / SOUTH CAROLINA
culture of death: GREETING CARDS / MUSEUM / PLANNED PARENTHOOD
hpv vaccine: CONGRESS
reminders: BISHOPS PETITION / NATIONAL PRO-LIFE T-SHIRT DAY / ULTRASOUND VIDEO
reflection for prayer: PSALM 34:14-15
hot button issues
BOB DORNAN: The former congressman writes about pro-abortion Catholic political figures in American Life League’s Celebrate Life magazine: “I call Americans to a national prayer and education campaign…. I also urge my fellow Catholic patriots to write brief letters of distress about the bishops who essentially let ‘Catholic’ politicians get away with murder to His Holiness Benedict XVI.”
(Reading: “Bob Dornan delivers strong message to Congress,” American Life League news release, 3/16/07; “Nancy Pelosi’s faith in the culture of death,” Celebrate Life, 3-4/07)
JUDIE BROWN’S BOOK: Of Saving Those Damned Catholics, Fr. Thomas Euteneuer of Human Life International writes, “Judie Brown has never been one to sit back and let the devil have his way. Her great new work, Saving Those Damned Catholics, tells it like it is. I thank Judie for her forthright analysis of the state of the Church. She is not just telling us what is wrong – she is giving us our marching orders.”
TO ORDER: “Saving Those Damned Catholics” is available from ALL in hardcover or paperback. Call 866-LET-LIVE or purchase online.
MASS INTENTIONS: A special Mass for preborn babies will be offered Monday, March 26, for the Feast of the Annunciation. Learn all about this pro-life feast day, and leave your special prayer requests for mothers and their preborn children.
POLITICS OF ABORTION: Judie Brown writes, “Somehow the system we call democracy has failed the most defenseless citizens in the land. It has relegated an act of murder to nothing more than an ‘issue.’ It has relegated the genuinely pro-life candidate who will not condone a single act of abortion to the category of loser.”
(Reading: “The pickle and the fickle,” American Life League, 3/14/07)
abortion
CHARGE TILLER: Please check out a new web site dedicated to encouraging state officials in Kansas to follow up on criminal charges filed against late-term abortionist George Tiller by former attorney general Phill Kline.
IDAHO: State house members have okayed a parental consent bill that has loopholes for rape, incest, medical emergency and judicial bypass. Backers explained that was the best they could do to regulate abortions for minors, based upon federal court rulings that have thus far upheld a similar law in Arizona.
(Reading: “Abortion consent bill passes House in Idaho,” Spokane Spokesman-Review, 3/18/07)
NEW JERSEY: Investigators have disclosed a litany of unsanitary conditions that led them to close an Englewood abortion facility. Among other things, surgical instruments were kept in the same drawer as light bulbs.
(Reading: “Filthy conditions cited at abortion clinic,” Bergen Record, 3/14/07)
PRO-LIFE RESPONSE: Chris Slattery of Expectant Mother Care, an American Life League associate group, continues to garner media attention for his pregnancy center’s mobile ultrasound unit, which is parked outside abortion facilities and offers free screenings to women contemplating abortion.
(Reading: “Abortion foes plan to go high-tech outside Englewood clinic,” Bergen Record, 3/16/07)
SOUTH CAROLINA: Proposed legislation would require women to view ultrasound images of their preborn children before an abortion could take place. Of this first-in-the-nation possibility, NARAL’s Nancy Keenan said, “This is not a place for interference by politicians.”
(Reading: “S.C. lawmakers weigh abortion bill,” Associated Press, 3/16/07)
culture of death
GREETING CARDS: An organization called Exhale is offering electronic cards to send to women who’ve just aborted their babies. One offers encouragement to one who “did the right thing.” Another e-card notes that “God will never leave you or forsake you.”
COMMENT: The latter is true, of course; but to insinuate that God approves of abortion? Despicable.
(Reading: “Group launches post abortion e-cards,” Associated Press, 3/13/07)
MUSEUM: An Austrian abortionist has opened a museum in Vienna dedicated to contraception and abortion. Among Christian Fiala’s contentions: “that just forbidding abortions will not actually reduce the number which take place, but rather will only lead to women waiting until their fourth or fifth month to get an abortion, and that is much more dangerous.”
(Reading: “Museum of contraception and abortion opens to controversy,” Deutsche Welle, 3/18/07)
PLANNED PARENTHOOD: The abortion chain is using online podcasts to reach a youthful audience with its philosophy that sex is nothing more than a leisure time activity in which everyone should participate. Warning! The topics list is not recommended for young eyes.
(Reading: “Speaking of sex,” Planned Parenthood)
ACTION: Please sign American Life League’s petition to cut all taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood.
hpv vaccine
CONGRESS: Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.), an ob/gyn, proposes a ban on using federal funds to carry out mandatory HPV vaccine programs. Some states plan to require young girls to receive the vaccination. But Gingrey says, “Mandating the HPV vaccination is both unprecedented and unacceptable. Whether or not girls get vaccinated against HPV is a decision for parents and physicians, not state governments.”
(Reading: “Proposal blocks funding for HPV vaccine,” Washington Times, 3/16/07)
reminders
BISHOPS PETITION: An American Life League petition asks Catholic bishops to address the scandal caused by political figures who claim the Catholic faith but support abortion. Church law states that those “who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to communion.”
ACTION: All Catholics are invited to sign the petition that will be delivered to U.S. bishops in June.
NATIONAL PRO-LIFE T-SHIRT DAY: April 24 is the date for ALL’s fifth annual National Pro-life T-shirt Day. The day provides an opportunity for all pro-life people, especially students, to make a public stand on behalf of preborn children.
TO ORDER: The official shirt of ALL’s National Pro-life T-shirt Day is available for $6 plus shipping and handling. Call 866-LET-LIVE or order online. Additional information is available at NationalProLifeTshirtDay.com.
ULTRASOUND VIDEO: “Baby Steps: Live from the womb, 16 stages of pre-birth development,” is an amazing new video from American Life League that many in the pregnancy center movement say is certain to save lives. The video features dramatic 4-D ultrasound images of preborn babies from 8 to 34 weeks development.
TO ORDER: The “Baby Steps” DVD is available from ALL for $9.95 plus shipping and handling. Call 866-LET-LIVE toll-free, or purchase online.
reflection for prayer
PSALM 34:14-15: Keep your tongue from evil, your lips from speaking lies. Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.