in this issue:
hot button issues: POPE BENEDICT / SAVING THOSE DAMNED CATHOLICS / SIGN THE PETITION
abortion: KILLING 2 / PARTIAL BIRTH DEBACLE
birth control pills: FISHY? / SEASONALE
brain injury: STATISTICS
breast cancer: FACT SHEET
catholic colleges: PRO-ABORTION SPEAKERS
culture of death: ARIZONA / HUMAN WEEDS
euthanasia: COST SAVING
fatherhood: BECOMING OBSOLETE?
planned parenthood: COLORADO / EFFECTIVE FIGHTING / INVESTIGATING / SUING
prenatal testing: DOWN SYNDROME
rhetoric: WORDKILL
wisdom: CONTRACEPTIVE SOCIETY
zinger: MISSOURI
reflection for prayer: CHRIST’S PEACE
hot button issues
POPE BENEDICT: The pontiff told reporters that according to the Catholic Church’s canon law, “the killing of an innocent child is incompatible with receiving Communion, which is receiving the body of Christ.” ALL’s Judie Brown notes, “Pope Benedict’s comments on pro-abortion politicians are simply a reflection of the longstanding Catholic truth that we’ve been pointing out for years. The long and short of it is quite simple: You can’t be Catholic and pro-abortion.”
Reading: “Pope warns Catholic politicians who back abortion,” Reuters, 5/9/07 / “Pope says no Communion for pro-abortion politicians,” American Life League, 5/9/07
SAVING THOSE DAMNED CATHOLICS: Of Saving Those Damned Catholics, one reader writes, “The book mentions many things that bother me about the polarizing of the bishops over abortion and other life issues and their silence on these issues. Glad to know I’m not imagining it. Thank you for talking about it and exposing it!”
TO ORDER: “Saving Those Damned Catholics” is available from ALL in hardcover or paperback. Call 866-LET-LIVE or purchase online.
SIGN THE PETITION: An American Life League petition asks American 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.
abortion
KILLING 2: Dan Neil wrote recently that when he and his wife discovered that they were expecting four children, two boys and two girls, they chose to have two of them–the boys–aborted.
Reading: “The abortion debate brought home,” Los Angeles Times, 5/6/07
PARTIAL BIRTH DEBACLE: The latest news on why pro-life Americans are getting it right when they say the Gonzales v. Carhart Supreme Court decision was anything but pro-life can be found from Bob Enyart, a Christian minister with courage who sets the record straight.
COMMENT: You won’t believe it!
Reading: “Dobson’s staff: 3rd trimester abortion banned,” Bob Enyart Live, 5/7/07
birth control pills
FISHY? The April 17 Scientific American reports on a study indicating that there are warning signs that some fish may be carrying enough chemicals “that mimic the female hormone estrogen to cause breast cancer cells to grow.” The reason given is that “millions of women in the United States ingest excess estrogen every day in the form of birth control pills. Within 24 hours, the effluent from those 12 million doses ends up in our sewage systems.”
Reading: “Estrogen overload,” California Catholic Daily, 4/29/07
SEASONALE: An American writes in the British Medical Journal that no long term studies have been done on this pill that reduces menstruation from once a month to once every three months. She claims there is no evidence that this pill is safe and effective and “the argument that menstruation is obsolete is illogical and unscientific.”
Reading: “Should menstrual suppression be a lifestyle choice?” MediLexicon, 5/4/07
brain injury
STATISTICS: The Centers for Disease Control reports that of the 1.4 million people who have traumatic brain injury, 50,000 die; 235,000 are hospitalized and 1.1 million are treated and released from the emergency room.
QUESTION: Of the 235,000 who are hospitalized, how many will be defined as “vegetative” and subsequently euthanized?
Reading: “What is traumatic brain injury,” Centers for Disease Control, 9/19/06
breast cancer
FACT SHEET: The Breast Cancer Prevention Institute produces excellent fact sheets complete with diagrams. The most impressive is “Reproductive breast cancer risks and breast lobule maturation.”
catholic colleges
PRO ABORTION SPEAKERS: The Cardinal Newman Society has revealed a list of 12 Catholic colleges that featured pro-abortion speakers at commencement exercises, a number that is down from previous years.
Reading: “Naming names–12 Catholic colleges have pro-abortion commencement speakers for 2007,” Life Site News, 5/7/07
culture of death
ARIZONA: A mother of three gave birth to her fourth baby and immediate waited until the baby had drowned before packing the body into a garbage bag, putting her three living children in the car, and driving off to dispose of the infant’s remains.
Reading: “Roberts: Newborn was just 6 miles from safety,” Scottsdale Republic, 5/2/07
HUMAN WEEDS: Following in the footsteps of Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society writes, “We need to radically and intelligently reduce human populations to fewer than one billion.”
Reading: “The beginning of the end for life as we know it on planet earth,” Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, 5/4/07
euthanasia
COST SAVING: In a special commentary, Richard Pretorius writes of his mother’s death and tells the reader, “The story of my mother’s death is a cautionary tale of modern medicine. It’s a story of profits placed ahead of patients, of medical professionals protecting their own and of the dying elderly being treated as if they were already dead. Unless something changes in our medical system, I fear that what happened to my mother will happen again and again.”
Reading: “How not to die,” Salt Lake Tribune, 5/4/07
fatherhood
BECOMING OBSOLETE? The cultural and legal consequences of artificial insemination which results in begetting children without fathers who are present in their lives is analyzed by Kay S. Hymowitz.
Reading: “The incredible shrinking father,” City Journal, Spring 2007
planned parenthood
COLORADO: Colorado Right to Life’s new banner exposing Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger’s racial bias can be seen online
EFFECTIVE FIGHTING: If you are not receiving the STOPP Report every Wednesday via e-mail, you are missing the best tool around for fighting against Planned Parenthood. To get on that list, e-mail ?subject=Subscribe”>STOPP and include “subscribe” in the subject line.
INVESTIGATING: Rev. Clenard Childress of Life Education and Resource Network (LEARN) is calling for an investigation of Planned Parenthood of Southeast Michigan’s apparent refusal to report cases of sexual abuse when underage girls come to their offices as patients.
Reading: “LEARN demands full investigation of Planned Parenthood abortions,” LEARN news release, 5/9/07
SUING: A Warren County, Ohio teen is suing Planned Parenthood of Cincinnati for failing to report sexual abuse.
Reading: “Abused girl sues abortion provider,” Cincinnati Enquirer, 5/9/07
prenatal testing
DOWN SYNDROME: Parents who believe that their Down syndrome children are priceless and precious are working to focus on the positive perspectives of choosing life for babies diagnosed prior to birth with Down syndrome.
Reading: “Prenatal test puts down syndrome in hard focus,” New York Times, 5/9/07
rhetoric
WORDKILL: Nancy Valko, R.N., has written an analysis of how language can be used to change perception.
Reading: “Wordkill,” Women for Faith and Family, 5/07
wisdom
CONTRACEPTIVE SOCIETY: “The contraceptive society cannot deny legitimacy to homosexual activity without denying itself. If it is entirely man’s decision whether sex will have any relation to reproduction, if no one can really know what is right and if God’s law is excluded, then the objections to allowing two men or two women to marry each other are reduced to the aesthetic and arbitrary.”
Reading: “Same Sex Marriage,” Charles Rice, p. 42
zinger
MISSOURI: A recent report states that “the issue of ‘fetal personhood’ is seen by some as an attack on a woman’s right to privacy.”
COMMENT: The preborn child is a person and the very idea scares the pro-abortion crowd to death. Perhaps if they become frightened enough they will cease putting the preborn to death.
Reading: “Stage set for fetal-rights debate,” St. Joseph [Missouri] News Press, 5/6/07
reflection for prayer
CHRIST’S PEACE: Have no fear for what tomorrow may bring. The same loving God who cares for you today will take care of you tomorrow and everyday. God will either shield you from suffering or give you unfailing strength to bear it. So then, be at peace, and put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginations.
Reading: St. Francis de Sales, quoted in “The Apostolic Crusade“