Kagan’s deception to defend partial-birth abortions

National Review’s Shannen Coffin discovers one of the reasons why the Clinton Library seemed determined to keep records of Elena Kagan's previous work quiet. The issue of partial-birth abortion had raged during the Clinton years, with the President ultimately vetoing a measure by Congress to ban the procedure, but Nebraska banned it on their own. In order to defeat that law, Kagan manipulated a report by a panel from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists to fool the Supreme Court into thinking that doctors had supported the idea that it was a medically necessary procedure, when in fact ACOG couldn’t specify a single set of circumstances where it would save the life of the mother. HotAir

Who are the pro-life candidates in your area?

Every vote counts and making your vote count for life has never been more important. All human life has value and to make this a reality in Michigan and in the United States, we need to vote in the August 5th primary election for candidates who are pro-life. Generate your own personalized prolife ballot from Michigan Right to Life for the Tuesday, August 3, primary election. It has never been easier to identify the prolife candidates in your area.

Kagan Testimony: Extreme on Abortion

Responding to a line of questions from Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA), Elana Kagan confirmed her belief that “Roe (v. Wade) and Doe (v. Bolton) require” that any state “regulation” of abortion protect the “health” of women seeking abortion. AUL

Are we to blame for global warming?

Based on typical news reports, you would assume that the cause of global warming is obvious—coal and burning gasoline. But we should look closer at a more obvious source of fluctuation. What about the sun? AiG

Kagan 'Not Kosher'

Speaking on behalf of over 850 members of the Rabbinical Alliance of America, Rabbi Yehuda Levin said, "While any number of our co-religionists would represent the undeniable, historic Torah values shared by Orthodox and traditional Jews, we are devastated and broken-hearted by the choice of Elena Kagan." "According to the Torah perspective adhered to by our 850-plus member Rabbis, as well as hundreds of thousands of Orthodox and traditional Jews, Ms. Kagan is non-kosher - not fit to serve - on the Supreme Court or any other court." LifeSiteNews

Immortality Explored In 'Long For This World'

This Talk of the Nation interview discusses scientific evidences of immortality and the biblical implications of death. Listen to the audio for the complete discussion.

Parents Outraged at Planned Parenthood Class

Parents in Southwest Iowa have reacted in horror after learning that Planned Parenthood's co-ed sex education course not only used pornographic teaching materials but also taught children sexual positions. Colleen Dostal told Fox News Radio, after discovering that her 14-year-old son had been taught sexual positions using stuffed animals meant to represent STDs, that the class was "horribly inappropriate."

Parents said the school's principal was "mortified" when told the content of the class and apologized. Speaking for Planned Parenthood, Jennifer Horner defended the curriculum as giving children "accurate" information. LifeSiteNews

Related: Condoms, secrecy for Provincetown pupils

BeautifulPeople.com Launches Virtual Sperm Bank

BeautifulPeople.com, the dating site with a strict ban on ugly people, has launched a virtual sperm and egg bank for people who want to have beautiful babies. Founder Robert Hintze added: "Initially, we hesitated to widen the offering to non-beautiful people. But everyone - including ugly people - would like to bring good looking children in to the world, and we can't be selfish with our attractive gene pool."

BeautifulPeople.com is the largest network of attractive people in the world. Entry to BeautifulPeople.com is only possible after passing a democratic rating process, where members of the opposite sex vote 'yes definitely,' 'hmm yes, O.K.,' 'hmm no, not really' and 'NO Definitely NOT' based on photographs and a brief profile submitted by new applicants. PR Newswire

Editor: The question is, will they succeed where The Nobel Prize Sperm Bank failed?

Bork's revenge

How did the court become so partisan? It was an unintended consequence of Roe v. Wade.

Roe itself was not decided along party lines. Its author, Justice Harry Blackmun, was a Nixon appointee; of the six justices who concurred with Blackmun, four were nominated by GOP presidents and two by Republicans. The dissenters, White and Nixon appointee William Rehnquist, were a bipartisan pair too.

The current politicization of the courts did not begin with Roe v. Wade; a Democratic Senate had already blocked two Nixon appointees, Clement Haynsworth and Harrold Carswell, for being too conservative, and Democratic senators later made an unsuccessful effort to block Rehnquist's appointment.

But by intervening so heavy-handedly in a matter that over which there was not yet a political consensus, the Roe court prompted a powerful backlash, the rise of the antiabortion movement, which became a key part of the Republican constituency. The pro-abortion side in turn became ever more immoderate and powerful within the Democratic Party.

Since 1980, each party's position on abortion has been so extreme as to be out of step with the vast majority of Americans. Since the court has left very little room for legislation on the matter, the practical consequences of this have been minimal--except when there is a Supreme Court vacancy.

By finding a right to abort in the Constitution's mystical emanations and penumbras, the court federalized what had previously been a state matter. Rather than remove it from politics, as the justices must have thought they were doing, this heightened the politics around it, almost all now focused on the court itself. WSJ

What Is Darwin’s Dilemma?

“Darwin’s dilemma” refers to Charles Darwin’s bafflement that the fossil record contradicted what his theory of evolution predicted. In his classic book On the Origin of Species, Darwin declared that if his theory of evolution were true “it is indisputable that before the lowest Cambrian stratum was deposited… the world swarmed with living creatures.” Yet Darwin admitted that the fossil record below the Cambrian strata seemed to be bereft of such creatures. Instead “species belonging to several of the main divisions of the animal kingdom suddenly appear in the lowest known fossiliferous rocks”—without any evidence of prior ancestral forms. Darwin frankly acknowledged that this lack of ancestral forms was “a valid argument” against his theory. But he hoped that time—and more research—would provide the evidence that was lacking. Some 150 years later, the documentary Darwin’s Dilemma probes how Darwin’s dilemma has been aggravated—not resolved—by the last century of fossil discoveries, starting with the strange and wonderful creatures uncovered a century ago in the Burgess shale in British Columbia, Canada.

Let’s Analyze the Cost of Raising Children

Last week the US Department of Agriculture released its 2009 report on the cost of raising children. It says the average cost of raising a child to the age of 18 is $222,360, the biggest increase being in child care and education, and most of that is child care. You need to take these numbers with a grain of salt (at $2.99 per pound). If you read the entire USDA report you learn that many factors are at play in trying to figure out what it actually costs to have a child — or two or three. Or — to take my son Eric’s family as an example — eight. Pro-Life Action League

Cohabitation and Children Outside Marriage Linked to Higher Probability of Breakups

Second marriages are more than 90% more likely to break up than first marriages, according to a new study by Australian researchers. The researchers also found that cohabiting, having children before marrying, and an imbalance between partners in the desire for children are all correlated with marital breakup. The study, titled “What’s Love Got to do With It?” by researchers from the Australian National University, found that 20% of couples who had children before marriage, either from a previous relationship or the same relationship, were separated compared to just 9% of couples without children born before marriage. LifeSiteNews

Predicting an end to Roe v. Wade

Former acting Solicitor General Walter Dellinger predicted Tuesday night that the Supreme Court will overturn Roe vs. Wade, the landmark decision that gives women abortion rights. The noted liberal scholar said the 1973 decision has become a “trophy” that the court’s conservative bloc could overturn if a Republican president chooses a replacement for Justice Anthony Kennedy. “I absolutely believe it,” Dellinger said. “For a while I thought that one could simply chip away at a lot more and more regulations that sort of protected access (to abortions) for the most affluent women but really made it impossible for women who were vulnerable to geography, poverty (and) youth. But now I think that, actually, it is such a symbol of a kind of jurisprudence that conservatives have set themselves in opposition to.” Politico

Land warns of 'social experiments'

Ungodly views of human life as well as dangerous social experiments are threatening America's future and clouding the legacy of the Gospel handed down from giants of the faith, Richard Land told messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting June 15 in Orlando, Fla.

He lamented the continuing slaughter of the country's unborn citizens through abortion and the impact the mindset behind the killing of the innocent has had on the nation. "I can't think of a deeper and more basic ethical issue that any society can face than who and what is a human being," Land said.

It is not news for Bible-believing Christians that life begins at conception, he said, citing Scripture passages as evidence of God's personal involvement in the creation of each human being. He noted that among the early civilizations in the Mediterranean basin, only the Jews did not practice abortion and infanticide, a position stemming from their belief in the teachings of the one true God.

He said church leaders early in the second century A.D., who were overwhelmingly Gentile and had come out of the Greco-Roman societies where abortion was commonplace, abhorred the "killing of human life in the womb."

"They bore eloquent testimony against abortion and eventually caused abortion to be put into the dark corners of the Roman Empire and there it stayed in Western civilization until the fall of the Christian consensus in Europe in the first half of the 20th century and in North America in the second half of the 20th century. There is no question where God is on this issue; God is, has been and will forever be pro-life," he said to sustained applause. Baptist Press

Students for Life Launches Outreach for Pro-Life Medical Students

Students for Life of America is launching their Medical Students for Life program designed to give support to pro-life medical students in a manner they've never experienced. Kristan Hawkins, the director of Students for Life of America, says Medical Students for Life aims to unite pro-life students at medical schools around the country at a time when many are facing pressure to learn abortions. The program is designed to give them the resources they need to spread the pro-life message to their peers. LifeNews

The compassion of truth

Our response to persons involved in homosexuality must be marked by genuine compassion. But a central task of genuine compassion is telling the truth, and the Bible reveals a true message we must convey. Those seeking to contort and subvert the Bible's message are not responding to homosexuals with compassion. To lie is never compassionate--and their lie leads unto death. CBMW

Sperm donation: The US regulatory vacuum and its ethical ramifications

In the US, anonymous donation is the prevailing norm. With no central registry and no federal or state regulation requiring long-term record keeping, information about donors is kept by individual sperm banks and fertility clinics according to various standards and for different lengths of time. The outcome of the current situation is that many US donor offspring will never have potential access to information about their donors (either non-identifying or identifying information subject to donor's consent to disclosure). BioNews

More news:

• Woman from India gives birth to triplets at 66
• Gynaecologists in Holland can now refuse access to IVF treatment to women deemed unsuitable
• Lesbian ruled not child's legal parent

Tea Party Movement Shouldn't Focus Only on Fiscal Conservatism

The Tea Party movement and its grassroots political activists are defined by loyalty to the U.S. Constitution, limited government and individual liberty -- not social issues such as abortion. That's what journalist and author Jonah Goldberg argued at a gathering of conservatives in Washington on Wednesday. Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), however, disagreed.

The chairman of the House Republican Conference, said people are also drawn to the Tea Party movement because it embraces traditional American morality, including the sanctity of life and the traditional definition of marriage as the union of a man and a woman. "What’s animating this authentic American movement is that our present crisis is not just economic and fiscal. It’s moral in nature. At the root of these times, I believe there are millions of Americans who see, in Washington, D.C., and on Wall Street, people in positions of authority walking away from the timeless principles of honesty, integrity, an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay. . . . [P]ublic policy alone will not cure what ails this country.” CNSNews

The world in revolt

God’s gentleness in judging the rebels at Babel is a lesson for us today. God did not let man’s rebellion run its full course, as He had before Noah’s Flood. He nipped the rebellion in its early stages so that humans would not hurt themselves too much. By this simple act, God forced humanity to proceed down His chosen path—to resettle the earth by families. God’s first judgment after the Flood proved that He would continue to superintend the events of human history. AiG

DISCLOSE Act Condemned by Pro-Life, Pro-Family Groups

The Democrat-controlled U.S. Congress is preparing to vote on a new campaign finance bill, the so-called “Democracy is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections (DISCLOSE) Act.” Pro-life and pro-family groups are feverishly campaigning against the act, saying it will have a chilling effect on political free speech, especially with mid-term elections just around the corner. LifeSiteNews

Related: Battle intensifies over campaign finance reform

Surrogate Pregnancy Goes Global

“Google Baby” is a compelling documentary Wednesday on HBO2 that shows us how provincial the standard in-vitro fertilization procedure has become. NY Times

NIH Committee Recommends Withholding Federal Support For 47 Stem Cell Lines

The NIH Advisory Committee to Director Francis Collins recommended that the agency reject federal research funding for 47 embryonic stem cell lines because of a sentence of legal language in a contract signed by embryo donors. RGI, "one of the world's leading performers of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis," received the stem cells from clients who donated unwanted embryos for research, USA Today reports. Members of the advisory committee objected to a sentence in RGI's donation contracts that they said creates "exculpatory" language barring patients from subsequently filing lawsuits for negligence or harm -- language forbidden under federal research rules. MedNewsToday

A Decade Later, Genetic Map Yields Few New Cures

For biologists, the genome has yielded one insightful surprise after another. But the primary goal of the $3 billion Human Genome Project — to ferret out the genetic roots of common diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s and then generate treatments — remains largely elusive. Indeed, after 10 years of effort, geneticists are almost back to square one in knowing where to look for the roots of common disease. NY Times

We create them and then we destroy them

The advances we are making with all our scientific and medical knowledge is far outstripping any moral and ethical progress. The new medical technologies may open up all sort of dazzling possibilities, but without an informed moral framework with which to judge and assess them, they simply lead to more dehumanisation and depersonalisation. Christianity Today

Editor: This is another response to the news out of Britain about IVF pregnancies being electively aborted. We should keep in mind that IVF has always created embryos only to destroy many if not most of them. The success of the procedure has always relied upon selecting the "best" and discarding the rest . . . or leaving them to languish in frozen limbo. We really shouldn't be so shocked or appalled over the loss of life that has made it to the uterus, when loss of life in the test tube has been so trivialized.

First Ever GAO Report on Federal Funding for Abortion Advocates

This morning at a Capitol Hill news conference, Family Research Council joined members of Congress including Rep. Pete Olson (R-TX), and Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) as well as other pro-life leaders to discuss the Government Accountability Office's first ever report on federal funding for abortion advocates. The report was requested by Rep. Pete Olson (R-TX) and other key members of Congress.

The report revealed that six organizations connected to the abortion agenda received over a billion dollars in federal funds between 2002 and 2009. The six organizations are Planned Parenthood Federation of America, International Planned Parenthood Federation, Population Council of the United States, Guttmacher Institute, Advocates for Youth and Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States.

Today is Proudly Prolife Social Networking Day

All you prolife social networkers, join Right to Life of Michigan Wednesday, June 16, at 11 a.m. EDT for Proudly Prolife Social Networking Day. They'll be online spreading the message "I am proudly prolife" throughout Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, LinkedIn, etc. The goal is to make a significant buzz on Wednesday, inspire other people to get more involved and encourage those in the middle or on the sidelines with the message that being prolife is, as Gallup put it, the "new normal."

How can you participate?

•Change your status messages and tweets to say "I am proudly prolife"

•Change your profile picture to a prolife message. Copy this profile picture.

•Promote a link to the "It's Easy To Be Prolife" web page for ideas on how to get involved

•Invite friends and family to connect with Right to Life of Michigan's social networking pages: http://twitter.com/Right_to_Life, http://www.facebook.com/righttolifeofmichigan

•Comment in groups or start discussions on prolife issues

•Add links on your profile to a prolife news story, music video, YouTube video, local prolife pregnancy center website, picture, political cartoon, or other online content.

Renewed Allegations of Forced Abortion in Church of Scientology

The Church of Scientology is facing renewed allegations that the organization has psychologically coerced members into having abortions. The St. Petersburg Times reported on Sunday that their investigation uncovered over a dozen women who, in the words of the newspaper, “said the culture in the Sea Org pushed them or women they knew to have abortions, in many cases, abortions they did not want.” The elite Sea Org is composed of the most devoted Scientologists; there are about 6 thousand Sea Org members worldwide. Members receive very little rest, wear uniforms, march, salute, and act in other ways as if it were a military organization. Notably, members are not allowed to have children. LifeSiteNews

Morality affects our economy

Poverty and crime are the direct results of broken families and broken values of responsibility, work, marriage, and respect of others. Prisons are overflowing and government “relief” programs get traction often because of the breakdown of our social structure. If we don’t respect the value of each individual life whether in the womb or the classroom or the living room, we devalue property and intangible qualities of life. It gets expensive. The issue of life and traditional marriage are not bargaining chips nor or they political issues. They are moral issues. Mike Huckabee

French Study: Assisted Reproductive Technology Doubles Risk of Deformity

According to the largest study to date on the subject, children conceived by assisted reproductive technology (ART) are almost twice as likely to suffer birth defects compared to children conceived naturally. Over 4% of children born through ART had some form of congenital deformity, compared to the rate for children conceived naturally of between 2% and 3%. Congenital malformation rates from ART as high as 11% have been reported by some studies. The French study results are believed to be more accurate due to the size of the inquiry. The researchers identified heart problems and malformed reproductive systems as the most common form of major malformation. LifeSiteNews

The Secret: A Fatal Attraction

America's most influential "pastor" and spiritual guide, Oprah Winfrey, has used her bully pulpit to preach "The Secret" of the Law of Attraction to her 22-million-person congregation. Included in Oprah's fold is a multitude of Christians who believe that this New Age deception, found in Rhonda Byrne's bestselling book The Secret, is consistent with Christianity.

In this illuminating new presentation, Greg Koukl sketches out the worldview of Christianity--that is, how Jesus understood the world--and then shows how The Secret trades on a completely different view of reality. In the process, the real secret of Byrne's book is exposed: that "The Secret" is not the deep wisdom of the universe, but is rather the oldest lie ever told. Stand to Reason

Long Road to Adulthood Is Growing Even Longer

Marriage and parenthood — once seen as prerequisites for adulthood — are now viewed more as lifestyle choices, according to a new report released by Princeton University and the Brookings Institution. The stretched-out walk to independence is rooted in social and economic shifts that started in the 1970s, including a change from a manufacturing to a service-based economy that sent many more people to college, and the women’s movement, which opened up educational and professional opportunities. NY Times

Abortion in context

There is no scandal of post-IVF abortion that requires an inquiry or investigation. . . . For some women, the fact that a pregnancy is intended and wanted at conception, does not mean that it will remain wanted as the weeks progress. Just as unintended pregnancies can, and do, become wanted. So planned, carefully-conceived pregnancies can become unwanted. The use of a technology to assist the conception does not protect it from this. . . . For some women, it is only when they find out they can conceive that they can consider whether a baby is what they want. BioNews (note that the author is the CEO of a British agency that provides abortions)

Related:
Assisted reproduction could lead to increased risks of congenital malformations
Is IVF good value for the money?

House Minority Leader Asks President Obama for Progress Report on Implementation of Executive Order on Taxpayer-Funded Abortion

House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH), in a meeting with President Obama and Congressional leaders at the White House today, asked President Obama to provide the American people with a progress report on the implementation of his Executive Order which purports to ban taxpayer-funding of abortions. Leader Boehner noted that in her recent “progress report” to Congress on the implementation of ObamaCare, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius did not make any mention of efforts by the administration to implement the president’s Executive Order.

Were angels created in the image of God?

What sets us apart from animals and plants is that we have a spiritual aspect. Plants have a “body” or at least a physical aspect but no soul. This is why creationists often point out that plants are not living in the biblical sense. Animals, on the other hand, were created with a body and a soul (Hebrew: nephesh) according to such passages as Genesis 1:24–25. Unlike animals, humanity has a spiritual aspect as well. What about angels? One may quickly dismiss such an intriguing question without much thought by claiming that the Bible doesn’t say angels were created with the “image of God.” However, a quick dismissal may be unwise. AiG

Pro-choice group offers spiritual counseling

Faith Aloud promotes "reproductive justice through the moral power of religious and ethical communities." Through an online video, Rev. Rebecca Turner offers comfort to women choosing abortion: "God is with you in the abortion clinic."

Well, yes, if you are His child. Jesus confronted the sin of the woman at the well, and told the woman caught in adultery, "Go and sin no more." The "pastor" conveniently overlooked those parts of the biblical accounts.

Wouldn't it be better for a Christian minister to advise a woman contemplating abortion to have faith that God will be with her in the pregnancy? That He'll provide a way of escape out of the temptation to abort? That if you persist in sin, and you are His child, there will be chastening? But that if you have faith and obey Him, there will be reward?

For more, see Will God Forgive Me If I Have an Abortion?

New Barna research on abortion attitudes

The Barna study revealed five insights about abortion-related public opinion.

• Abortion continues to split the nation.
• Most Americans take a moderate, rather than hard-line, stance.
• Faith remains a significant dividing line of opinions.
• Young born again Christians retain similar abortion views to older Christians.
• Keeping abortion legal elicits more demographic pockets of support than resistance.

Analysis
David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group and the director of the study, commented: “As Americans appear ready to rethink many different issues, it is important to consider new ways of communicating about and addressing the issues of abortion, life and choice. Within that context, it is worth recognizing that a slight plurality of most population groups has settled into the idea that abortion should be kept legal, but that it should be only available selectively. Yet, one of the intriguing counter-trends to public support for legalized abortion is the fact that younger born again Christians specifically and 18- to 25-year-olds in general seem to be embracing, or at least retaining, a conservative viewpoint on abortion.”

Plan Would Allow Abortions at Military Hospitals

The fight to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell” is obscuring a little-noticed amendment that takes on another emotionally charged issue: making abortion easier for military women in war zones. In a vote that advocates of abortion rights sought beforehand to keep quiet, the Senate Armed Services Committee passed a provision on May 27 to allow privately financed abortions at military hospitals and bases. Current law bans abortions in most cases at military facilities, even if women pay themselves. NY Times

New Adult Stem-Cell Treatments Advance

In California, researchers at the University of California in Irvine say they have discovered the method and mechanisms by which adult stem-cells can repair and replace damaged tissue in the brain. The discovery could lead to treatments for individuals with multiple sclerosis and other brain inflammation diseases. LifeSiteNews

No Truce on Abortion. Not Now. Not Ever.

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels told Andy Ferguson of The Weekly Standard that as president “would have to call a truce on the so-called social issues. We're going to just have to agree to get along for a little while” until the current economic crisis is resolved. He is willing to sacrifice human life in order to appease abortion supporters. It signals to all pro-lifers that he wants us to stop fighting for the rights of the unborn and to start waving our white flags of defeat.

A truce cannot be called until the unborn are safe, and our government ceases to endorse the brutal destruction of the unborn in the womb. When a nation looses its moral compass and gives tacit approval to legalized abortion, abandoning the focus on protecting innocent human life, that nation, our nation, has more serious issues than the current financial crisis. LifeNews

Abortion and Maternal Mortality

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, “You cannot have maternal health without reproductive health.” Then, as if to remove all doubt of what she meant, she added, “And reproductive health includes contraception and family planning and access to legal . . . abortion.” It follows an unmistakable strategy of making reduced maternal mortality rates and access to legal abortion inseparable, all in the name of protecting women’s lives. They should research the facts before embarking on this methodology. Life Issues Connector

Related: UN Leadership in Disarray as Scientific Dispute Shatters Consensus on Maternal Health and Women's Conference Fails to Deliver

The gift of conception

Ruth 4 tells how Boaz and Ruth were married and came together as God intended to create a child. Theirs wasn’t an unusual situation. Ruth wasn’t beyond childbearing years like Sarah or Elizabeth. She wasn’t a virgin like Mary. While God’s Word tells us that Ruth and Boaz went through the biological process necessary to create a child, “The Lord gave her conception” (Ruth 4:13b). LifeDate, page 12

Induced abortion and bank robbery

Bank robbery is a sin and should be rare. But by the logic of choice, because some of us are in tragic circumstances and desperately need money, it should be made safe and legal. LifeWatch, page 3

Gallup's Pro-Life America

Just once, however, wouldn't it be interesting to see a leading newspaper write something like, "Nancy Pelosi, who opposes any restrictions on abortion, even in cases where a pregnant minor is taken across state lines without a parent's permission or where the fetus is halfway out the mother"?

If there is one extraordinary fact here, it is this: Notwithstanding a pro-choice orthodoxy that dominates our film, our television, our press and our colleges and universities, strong moral qualms about abortion have not gone away. Gallup's findings about Americans and abortion reflect less a political prescription than a sensibility. Apart from talk radio or the religious media, however, it's a sensibility almost entirely lacking in our news and entertainment world. WSJ

The Message in the Meltdown

Bombarded by headlines during the past fifteen months announcing the failure of this or that bank, investment firm, or manufacturer, Americans may have missed reports of one downturn that comes as good news. For the first time in a long time, divorce lawyers are apparently experiencing a significant decline in business. The Family in America

Windows Phone 7 to Ban Suggestive Apps

Following Apple's lead in trying to keep pornography off its iPad and iPhone products, Microsoft has announced a new set of policies for the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace that will not allow sexually suggestive content. The application certification requirements for Windows Phone 7 program developers states that Microsoft will no longer allow content such as "Images that are sexually suggestive or provocative, Content that generally falls under the category of pornography, or Content that a reasonable person would consider to be adult or borderline adult content." LifeSiteNews

Defending Life

Each year, AUL publishes Defending Life: A State-by-State Legal Guide to Abortion, Bioethics, and the End of Life. This annual resource manual combines our model legislation, expert analysis, and 50 state report cards into a single nonpartisan guide for legislators, policy makers, the media, and interested Americans. It comprehensively addresses abortion, protection of the unborn (in contexts outside of abortion), bioethics, the end-of-life, and health care freedom of conscience, expertly tackles legal and policy challenges for the pro-life movement, and reports on recent legislative and courtroom victories, continuing progress toward protecting life in each of the 50 states, and emerging issues and trends.

‘Why Not Sterilize the Human Race and Party into Extinction?’

Princeton philosopher Peter Singer is one of the world’s foremost contemporary utilitarian philosophers, infamous for his advocacy of infanticide. In a blog post for the New York Times entitled “Should this be the last generation?” he would like readers to consider this question: would sterilizing the human race to spare future generations the pain of existence be a good idea? LifeSiteNews

Busting the abortion myths

It's an oft-repeated truism in ethics: "Good facts are essential for good ethics." So surely we need the facts about an issue as ethically fraught as abortion. Yet not only do we not have them, but they are intentionally not gathered or, if some are or might be available, access to them is denied. That allows two myths that favour the pro-choice stance on abortion to be propagated: That late-term abortion is rare and that there is a consensus in Canada on the public-policy regime that should govern abortion (which, at present, is the complete absence of any law). Montreal Gazette

A look back on the impact of PCCs

Many children are alive today -- and many women have come to Christ -- because of the selflessness and generosity of pro-life individuals. In "Are We Really So Bad," Life Matters outlined the impact of pregnancy care centers.

The article was published 10 years ago. The statistics will be different -- which would be interesting to update someday when I have time. Nevertheless, the following is still true:

"Many PCCs struggle to survive month to month. They may have a thousand people on a mailing list, but only half or one-third actually send in support on a regular basis. Centers desperately need volunteers, especially during the summer months. There may be one nearby that needs your help."

"We want to get started before the Lord comes back!”

This was the response of one pastors to a tentative timeline for starting a pregnancy care center in Odessa, Ukraine. As missionary Holly Friesen reports, "This was of course spoken in jest so you can ignore the theological implications of that statement – however, it does express the excitement that was present in the room today as we presented our desire to see this type of ministry started here."

At this meeting with pastors in early May, Holly shared with them from her experience with this type of ministry in Peru and another missionary presented the steps that should be taken if they were interested in seeing this type of ministry started. "My expectation was that we would have some convincing to do. Quite the contrary! We practically had to convince them not to try to open a center next week! God has obviously been preparing hearts." Please join them in prayer that they'll have wisdom in knowing how to channel the excitement and keep the momentum going while at the same time taking the proper steps to make sure this ministry has a great foundation.

The Top Ten Myths About Homosexuality

The homosexual activist movement is now over forty years old. Conservatives sometimes refer to the array of goals this movement has pursued -- hate crime laws, employment "non-discrimination" laws, same-sex "marriage," etc. -- as "the homosexual agenda." Free download from FRC

Memos Show Kagan’s Hand in Clinton-Era Abortion, Assisted Suicide Policy Decisions

A number of memos have come to the fore with information about the views of President Barack Obama’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, Elena Kagan, on abortion and assisted suicide. The memos show that Kagan opined against a federal ban on assisted suicide, and demonstrated political savvy in keeping the Clinton administration from endangering already liberal abortion laws by antagonizing a Republican-led Congress. LifeSiteNews

One man's story: 'That day ripped my gut out'

My role in two abortions has been long-lasting. I can tell you that the mental and emotional effects on a man are real and devastating. I really don't let anyone get close to me because I don't want to let them down. I've had a divorce, no current relationship with my two living sons, countless unfinished projects, and several jobs left before true success--mainly because I never felt I deserved it. Where am I today? After hearing [a woman's] personal story in our church of how abortion affected her, I felt like a hammer hit me between the eyes. I knew then it was time to start dealing with my past. Jesus Christ has forgiven my past and continues to strengthen me. The UnChoice

More on men and abortion:
AbortionRisks.org
Post-abortion trauma in men still overlooked
Impact of abortion on men
Study shows impact of abortion on relationships for men, women
Forgotten fathers and their unforgettable children

Human embryonic stem cells cultured

Researchers have developed a method of creating large amounts of human embryonic stem cells using a new technique, which could help to treat a variety of diseases, according to new research published in the journal Nature Biology. The new method has been created by using chemically controlled conditions: the cells are cultured on a matrix of a single human protein, laminin-511. Previously, human ES cells could only be cultivated using other cells or animal substances. This development will make way for harvesting large quantities of stem cells. BioNews

My daddy's name is donor . . . and I miss him

A report released this week by the Institute for American Values, My Daddy's Name is Donor, is the first-ever representative, comparative attempt to learn about the identity, kinship, well-being, and social justice experiences of these adults. The study reveals that young adults conceived through sperm donation are hurting more, are more confused, and feel more isolated from their families. They fare worse than their peers raised by biological parents on important outcomes such as depression, delinquency, and substance abuse. The report also claims that donor conception is not “just like” adoption. BioEdge, NY Times

Related stories
Women having abortions after IVF
S. Korea: Court rules embryos are not humans
20-year IVF quest leads to depression, murder
Resignations plague Canada's fertility watchdog
Will adoption have to compete with surrogacy?
Donor-assisted conceptions sparks disclosure dilemmas
Fertile ground for waste and futility
Economic crisis: Danish gov't cuts funding for IVF

Documents Show Kagan's Liberal Opinion on Social Issues

Elena Kagan has kept her cards so close to the vest that in the days after President Obama nominated her to the Supreme Court, some on the left worried she was too moderate to replace liberal Justice John Paul Stevens. But in documents obtained by CBS News, Kagan -- while working as a law clerk to the late Justice Thurgood Marshall -- made her positions clear on some of the nation's most contentious social issues.

Costa Rica shuts stem cell clinic

Costa Rica has ordered the country's largest stem cell clinic to stop offering treatment, saying there is no proof it is effective. About 400 patients, mostly foreigners from the United States, have been treated at the Institute of Cellular Medicine in San Jose for multiple sclerosis, arthritis, spinal injuries and other illnesses. The clinic had used stem cells extracted from patients and reinjected them into their bodies. It has a permit to store the stem cells extracted from patients' own fat tissue, bone marrow and donated umbilical cords, but is not authorized to perform the treatment. Reuters

Abortion Foes Advance Cause at State Level

At least 11 states have passed laws this year regulating or restricting abortion, giving opponents of abortion what partisans on both sides of the issue say is an unusually high number of victories. In four additional states, bills have passed at least one house of the legislature. NY Times

Is there such a thing as a "fertilized egg"?

In normal fertilization, many sperm penetrate the corona radiata of the ovum (a layer of follicle cells surrounding the ovum). Then, typically only one sperm will penetrate the zona pellucida (a film of glycoproteins surrounding the oocyte) and reach the oocyte. The sperm’s membrane then fuses with the actual membrane of the oocyte. This fusion triggers changes in the oocyte (or rather, what was the oocyte) so that (a) the membrane of this new cell undergoes a rapid polarization, and (b) a calcium wave is produced throughout the new cell’s cytoplasm so that the zona pellucida hardens over approximately 30 minutes and repels penetration by sperm. These facts indicate that what is living at this point is not an ovum.

With the fusion of the sperm and the ovum, the tail of the sperm is lost, and the membrane surrounding the head of what was the sperm joins the surface membrane of the former oocyte, creating a single, continuous membrane. This allows cytoplasmic factors derived from the ovum to affect the nuclear contents derived from the sperm — for example, new types of histones begin to be associated with those chromosomes, modifying the behavior and interaction of the molecules in these chromosomes. This shows that the sperm has ceased to be.

At this point, the genetic material from the ovum (the female pronucleus) and the genetic material from the sperm (the male pronucleus) are both contained within a single new cell, are being moved toward each other, and will eventually intermingle. This is the point just after the fusion of the membranes of the sperm and the ovum, when the ovum and the sperm cease to be, and a new organism — a whole human organism — comes to be. National Review

Creating Headlines, Artificial Life, Ethical Concerns, and Ontological Perplexity

Synthetic biology has been catapulted into the public sphere after an article in Science reported that Craig Venter and his collaborators had managed to make a synthetic cell by inserting a fabricated genome into a bacterium. The achievement made headlines and was widely presented as a case of creating artificial life. Already there has been debate about what impact it may be expected to have on future biotechnological research and about what ethical concerns arise in relation to synthetic biology. Unsurprisingly a third issue has been whether the scientists at the J. Craig Venter Institute have really created artificial life. With regard to the latter question, the debate has not focused on whether the synthetic cell is really alive, but whether it is properly artificial. Practical Ethics

"America and the Pill" traces the pill's influence on women

Margaret Sanger is one of the heroes of America and the Pill, a new cultural history of the birth control pill written by Elaine Tyler May. From its inception the pill was shrouded in controversy and in some senses doomed to fail. May argues succinctly that expectations for it were too high. "When the oral contraceptive arrived on the market, its champions claimed that the tiny pill promised to end human misery and eradicate the causes of war by controlling population." This ambition led to the messy business of separating humanitarians who were truly concerned about world poverty from politicians and corporations (and, shamefully, Sanger herself to an extent) who wanted to use eugenics to weed out "undesirables." Washington Post

SFLA Wilberforce Leadership Fellowship

• Are you a leader or officer in your campus pro-life group?
• Do you aspire to work in the pro-life movement full-time?
• Do you want to be mentored by a national pro-life leader?

If you answered “Yes” to all of these questions, then you should consider applying for the SFLA Wilberforce Leadership Fellowship! The mission of the Students for Life of America Wilberforce Leadership Fellowship is to raise up the next generation of pro-life leaders. We want to train student pro-life activists is how to be leaders on campus and beyond and network those student leaders with their counterparts in the national pro-life movement to help further develop their skills.

Assisted suicide: why now?

A hundred years ago when people did die in agony from such illnesses as a burst appendix, there was little talk of legalizing euthanasia. But now, when pain and other forms of suffering are readily alleviated and the hospice movement has created truly compassionate methods to care for the dying, suddenly we hear the battle cry “death with dignity” as “the ultimate civil liberty.”

I’ve found two answers: First, the perceived overriding purpose of society has shifted to the benefit of assisted suicide advocacy, and second, our public policies are driven and defined by a media increasingly addicted to slinging emotional narratives rather than reporting about rational discourse and engaging in principled analysis. Add in a popular culture enamored with social outlaws, and the potential exists for a perfect euthanasia storm.

Social commentator Yuval Levin, a protégé of ethicist Leon Kass, described the new societal zeitgeist in his recent book Imagining the Future: Science and American Democracy. While not about assisted suicide per se, Levin hit the nail on the head when he described society as no longer being concerned primarily with helping citizens to lead “the virtuous life.” Rather, he wrote, “relief and preservation from disease and pain, from misery and necessity” have “become the defining ends of human action, and therefore of human societies.” In other words, preventing suffering and virtually all difficulty is now paramount. In such a cultural milieu, eliminating suffering easily mutates into eliminating the sufferer.

The prevent-suffering-at-all-costs agenda is harnessed by assisted suicide advocates through publicizing heart-rending stories of seriously ill or disabled patients who want to die. Illustrating how potent this emotional narrative has become, even the ghoulish Jack Kevorkian is being remade into a big softy concerned solely with relieving suffering. Indeed, none other than Al Pacino sympathetically portrayed Kevorkian in the recent HBO movie, You Don’t Know Jack.

Ignored by the script writers and the media, the real Kevorkian was the mirror opposite of compassionate. In his 1993 book Prescription Medicide: The Goodness of Planned Death, Kevorkian made his ultimate purpose chillingly clear, calling assisted suicide “a first step, an early distasteful professional obligation” toward obtaining a license to engage in human experimentation. Wesley Smith

What happens when we don't speak out against abortion?

1. We strengthen evildoers (Jeremiah 23:14)
2. We show we haven't communed with God (23:22)

Conversely, how do we know that a spiritual leader has "stood in God's counsel"?

1. He causes God's people to hear God's word, and
2. Turns them from their evil ways (23:22)

Russia must slow rate of abortion

Russia must enact pro-life laws or face demographic disaster, a leader in the Russian Orthodox Church said last week. “In Soviet times we got used to abortion and we got used to considering it an unavoidable part of our legal reality and that there is no way to the turn back the page,” said Orthodox Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin. “But we see today that it is possible to turn back a great deal.”

Health Ministry figures showed 1.2 million Russian abortions last year compared to 1.7 million live births. Between 1992 and 2008, Russia’s population dropped by more than 12 million. UN statistics for 2007 show that the Russian Federation has 53.7 abortions per 1000 women aged 15 to 44, the highest rate in the world. Russia's rate is followed by 35 abortions per 1000 women in Kazakhstan, 33.3 in Estonia, 31.7 in Belarus, and 24.2 in China. LifeSiteNews

Editor: Kazakhstan and Estonia were part of the former Soviet Union.

Move that sign!

Abortion is the tip of the spear for key issues of our day and indeed it is legal and free to operate by the permission of the Church. This may seem like a harsh judgment on the Church but the evidence definitely leans that way. Let us be a voice that states boldly, “Not here, not now, not ever, not by my permission!” His4Life

IT'S EASY TO BE PROLIFE: When critical thinking is applied to the abortion issue

Recent polling data indicates that people who say they're prolife don't feel comfortable engaging others on the issue of abortion. Right to Life of Michigan offers a PDF flyer that answers some of the most common arguments. Pass it on!

Using critical thinking allows people to form opinions on issues facing us today. When applying this thought process to the issue of abortion and arguments put forth in the name of being “pro-choice,” the natural intellectual conclusion is the prolife perspective. RTL-MI

Pew Study Finds Children of Divorced Parents More Likely to Remain at Bottom of Income Ladder as Adults

Family structure has an impact on a child’s economic mobility prospects, according to the Pew Economic Policy Group’s report "Family Structure and the Economic Mobility of Children." The group’s Economic Mobility Project found that only 26 percent of children of divorced parents who start in the bottom third of the income ladder move to the middle or top third as adults. This compares to 42 percent of children who are born to unmarried mothers and 50 percent of children with continuously married parents in the same income category.

Scientists: Synthetic cell is not a new form of life

Last week Dr Craig Venter, a multi-millionaire maverick scientist, announced he had manufactured a synthetic cell using man-made DNA. But now a number of scientists have warned that the creation of a synthetic cell is not the same as creating life.

Dr Donald Bruce, an ethicist and theologian, insisted that Dr Venter has not created synthetic life because “life was already there.” He also urged caution for future research, saying: “Humans are only finite and we are far from perfect. The real ‘playing God’ question is: do we pass over either any moral barrier, or exceed our finite and imperfect abilities, in doing this?” Christian Institute

Poll: Americans not consistently pro-life

The latest national poll of thousands of Americans from Gallup finds people believe abortion is morally wrong, are split on assisted suicide, and believe research involving the destruction of human embryos is okay. The results show pro-life advocates have more educational work to do on bioethics issues. LifeNews

Senate Committee OKs Amdt to Allow Abortions at US Military Hospitals

The Senate Armed Services Committee voted 15-12 to approve an amendment to a bill that would turn U.S. military base hospitals into abortion centers. The amendment, sponsored by pro-abortion Sen. Rolland Burris of Illinois, would have the military break with current longstanding policy. The Burris amendment is more expansive than a 2006 effort because it allows abortion on both domestic and overseas military bases. All Republicans and Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson voting against it while all other Democrats voting for it. LifeNews

Pro-Life Group Opposes Disclose Act Campaign Finance Bill Over Free Speech

The National Right to Life Committee is asking members of Congress to oppose the DISCLOSE Act (H.R. 5175), on free speech concerns. The pro-life group called the legislation a "bullying political power grab," which is "not a curb on corruption, but itself a type of corruption. In a bit of humor, NRLC suggests the bill be amended to clarify that "DISCLOSE" actually stands for "Deterring Independent Speech about Congress except by Labor Organizations and Selected Elites." LifeNews

Pro-Life Group Opposes Disclose Act Campaign Finance Bill Over Free Speech

The National Right to Life Committee is asking members of Congress to oppose the DISCLOSE Act (H.R. 5175), on free speech concerns. The pro-life group called the legislation a "bullying political power grab," which is "not a curb on corruption, but itself a type of corruption. In a bit of humor, NRLC suggests the bill be amended to clarify that "DISCLOSE" actually stands for "Deterring Independent Speech about Congress except by Labor Organizations and Selected Elites." LifeNews