If in Doubt, Shoot the Bear

If in Doubt, Shoot the Bear » Secondhand Smoke | A First Things Blog: Jeremy Hill shot and killed a 2-year-old male grizzly that entered his yard with a mother and her cub–while his children were outside playing there too (and then self-reported). A federal criminal charge was filed against Hill on Aug. 8, as the grizzly bear is a threatened species, and he now faces up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $50,000.

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Shotgun Weddings vs. Cohabitating Parents

Shotgun Weddings vs. Cohabitating Parents - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com: "The number of Americans who have children and live together without marrying has increased twelvefold since 1970," Sabrina Tavernise wrote in The New York Times recently, adding that "children now are more likely to have unmarried parents than divorced ones." Is that cause for concern? Does marriage contribute to a stable environment, or is it simply a sign that a family was already stable?

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Billboard turns heads

A billboard along a Grand Rapids, MI, highway is promoting the message that it is possible to live a fulfilling life without God. The sign on the northbound side of 131 south of Hall Street says, "You don't need God - to hope, to care, to love, to live." It will be there throughout September. It is sponsored by the Center for Inquiry. 

Editor: You don't need to know God to live, but you wouldn't be alive if not for Him.

Acts 17:24-28 -- "The God who made the world and all things in it . . . He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things . . . for in Him we live and move and exist."

A Plea to Atheists: Pedophilia is next on the Slippery Slope; Let us turn back before it's too late

A Plea to Atheists: Pedophilia is next on the Slippery Slope; Let us turn back before it's too late: It becomes obvious that these values will shift and metamorphose to accommodate changing needs, attitudes, and preferences. In my own lifetime I have witnessed radical societal swings in moral behavior and attitudes regarding marriage and sexuality, homosexuality, the killing of unborn children, euthanasia, and the use of illicit drugs.

One can reasonably predict that as the infatuation with skepticism and atheism grows among the influential "intellectual elite" of our society, so too will their readiness to embrace more radical changes in moral values. Religious believers expressing dismay and horror at the ominous moral storm clouds looming on the horizon are met with smug derision, hysterical counter-accusations, or utter indifference. There is nothing that atheistic societies are incapable of rationalizing and accepting -- including the sexual molestation of children.

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Possible Treatment for Down Syndrome Raises Ethical Questions

Possible Treatment for Down Syndrome Raises Ethics Questions | LifeNews.com: Dr. Alberto Costa thinks he’s on the verge of a drug that can significantly boost the I.Q. of people with Down Syndrome with early intervention. Is this good?

Related article: A father's search for a drug to treat Down syndrome

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The Unholy Alliance Between Some Adoption Agencies and Abortion

The Unholy Alliance Between Some Adoption Agencies and Abortion | LifeNews.com: New York-based Spence-Chapin specializes in newborn adoptions while staunchly supporting the nation’s largest abortion chain. They agree with Planned Parenthood’s warped philosophy that “unintended” equals “unwanted” equals “unloved.”

Spence-Chapin recently launched the Adoption Access Network, a coalition of pro-abortion adoption agencies. The Adoption Access Network gives death by abortion and adoption moral equivalence. A child’s chances of survival are just a lot better with agencies like Bethany that fully support life. The Child Welfare League of America also operates in an unholy alliance of abortion and adoption.

Related: A missionary couple's experience with a "pro-choice" agency

Editor: The Adoption Access Network is very up-front about its partnerships: "The Adoption Access Network is a national coalition of adoption agencies that work in close partnership with Planned Parenthood affiliates and independent abortion and family planning providers to introduce the possibility of adoption to clinics across the country." They appear to want to legitimize PP in light of pro-life claims they don't offer women all their options. Pay attention to their partners. 

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Bishop ‘continues to be silent’ in face of abortions at Barcelona area hospitals

Bishop ‘continues to be silent’ in face of abortions at Barcelona area hospitals, says priest | LifeSiteNews.com: The bishop of Terrassa, in the Catalonia region of Spain, is maintaining his silence in the face of the pro-abortion and pro-contraceptive policies of Catholic hospitals in his diocese.

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Live-in couples split after marriage

Live-in couples split after marriage - The Times of India: The UK-based Christian think-tank Jubilee Centre said that living together had become 'a more fragile state of relationship than ever before'. It said that couples who cohabited before marriage were 45 per cent more likely to split than those who waited until after the wedding. The think-tank also discovered that more couples are cohabiting than ever before - with the average time living together before tying the knot doubling to three-and-a-half years in the past four decades.

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Direct Conversion of Skin to Nerve and Other Tissues, Without Stem Cells

FRC Blog » Direct Conversion of Skin to Nerve and Other Tissues, Without Stem Cells: A passel of scientific papers have recently reported the direct conversion of skin cells to nerve cells, without going through an intervening stem cell step.

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BBC documentary shows why UK DonorLink is needed

BioNews - BBC documentary shows why we need UK DonorLink: A BBC1 documentary 'Donor Mum: The children I've never met' tells the extraordinary story of a woman - herself the single mother, by choice, of a donor insemination-conceived adult son – meeting with the twins born from her egg donation nineteen years ago.

The contact was made with the help of UK DonorLink, the UK voluntary information exchange and contact register for adults genetically related through donor conception prior to August 1991. Yet UKDL is facing closure at the end of October unless the public health minister acts to save it.

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The anti-science smear

Rich Lowry: Science is often just an adjunct to the left's faith commitments. A Richard Dawkins takes evolutionary science beyond its competence and argues that it dictates atheism. An Al Gore makes it sound as if there is no scientific alternative to his policy preferences. They are believers wrapping themselves in the rhetoric of science while lacking all the care and dispassionate reasoning we associate with the practice of it.

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5 Ways the Church Can Serve Single Moms

5 Ways the Church Can Serve Single Moms | Evangelism.net: Jennifer Maggio was a single, unwed mom at 15 years old. Now, years later, she’s married, has three children, a successful career, and a middle-class income. But she remembers the shame, walking away from the church as a teen, needing parenting advice, financial instruction, spiritual growth opportunities, and emotional support. In a moving portrait, Jennifer describes the life experienced by as many as 13 million single moms, 27% of whom live in poverty and 24% living on government assistance, and calls the church to action to reverse the national “epidemic” of single parent homes.

Related: Sheltering Church Ministry

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The personhood debate: myopic vision v. recklessness, or pragmatism v. principle?

The personhood debate: myopic vision v. recklessness, or pragmatism v. principle? | LifeSiteNews.com: "Time for a family discussion. The personhood debate has been a searing one, and I must confess that I tend to come down on the side of the personhood amendments. Folks have written to me from both sides of the aisle on this one, and I feel somewhat like a dazed and confused fish out of water. I’ll throw out my observations and take my lumps like a big boy. I ask but one favor…I ask that we stick to the facts and keep the tone civil."

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Huntsman Warned of One-Child Policy Problem in China Last Year

Huntsman Warned of One-Child Policy Problem in China Last Year | LifeNews.com: Last week, pro-abortion Vice President Joe Biden faced significant criticism for failing to criticize the forced abortions and other human rights abuses associated with the one-child policy in China. Jon Huntsman, the former Utah governor and ambassador to China who is seeking the Republican nomination, was one of those detractors.

“As an adoptive father, whose daughter was abandoned by her parents in China, Governor Huntsman is intimately familiar with the impact of China’s “one-child” policy,” Huntsman campaign spokesman Tim Miller told LifeNews. “As someone who is firmly pro-life, he feels the policy runs counter to the fundamental value of human life and is heartbroken by the destructive nature of the policy that has cost millions of lives.”

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Where Do The Candidates Stand on Life?

» Where Do The Candidates Stand on Life?: The National Right to Life Committee has published a brand new comparison piece of announced candidates for the office of President of the United States who have scored a minimum of 3% in a national poll.

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"I was hungry and you gave me food . . ." (Mt 25:33-36)

Colleen Tronson, director of Metro Women's Center in Crystal, MN, writes: "The message I seem to be hearing a lot lately is that as believers it is our job to commit ourselves to God, get to know Him through His Word, share His resources with others, obey Him, and He will provide the strength and ability for the tasks at hand. What a relief!

"Here are some special feet that were rescued from abortion!

"A tank of gas and some groceries - you would not think that providing a pregnant woman with these two common needs could save her baby's life; however, that was indeed the case at MWC this week. A woman called looking for an abortion but ended up coming into the office for more conversation. After our time together, she said, "I called looking for an abortion and I found hope instead." (shared with permission)

"While we recognize that gas and groceries are but a drop in the bucket in terms of what this woman needs physically, at that particular moment in time, she needed to be ministered to in a tangible and practical way. Her baby's life was spared, she knows that someone cares, and we were blessed with a new friend! Additionally, we were able to pray with her and to invite her to a local church for ongoing support!

"This woman and others call or come to our Center often, saying things like: 'I have been so sick because of this pregnancy that I have not been able to work. I have no money for groceries for my other kids or gas for my car. I have to have an abortion - this pregnancy is ruining my life.' While we know that the pregnancy is not really 'ruining' her life, it can pose challenges that make continuing on seem hopeless. Through MWC's Acacia Fund, a woman's immediate needs can be met thereby relieving the pressure she feels to make a permanent decision based on temporary circumstances."

Report Proves Planned Parenthood Targets Blacks, Hispanics

Report Proves Planned Parenthood Targets Blacks, Hispanics | LifeNews.com: A new reported issued by the pro-life group Life Dynamics proves that Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry in the United States target black and Hispanic Americans by placing abortion facilities in communities with high minority populations.

“Racial Targeting and Population Control” validates the claims pro-life advocates have made for years — and that Life Dynamics made in its groundbreaking Maafa21 video released two years ago — showing that abortion advocates have purposefully placed abortion centers in urban areas with high percentages of black and Hispanic residents.

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I Commit: Youth speak up for lifelong committed love in powerful new video

I Commit: Youth speak up for lifelong committed love in powerful new video | LifeSiteNews.com: Through a variety of interviews, the video, a project of The Emerging Leaders program, highlights the intense desire that people in the youngest generations have for self-sacrificial, unconditional and lifelong love – and the hope that they have that they will be able to find it.

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55% Say Abortion Morally Wrong Most of the Time

55% Say Abortion Morally Wrong Most of the Time - Rasmussen Reports™: Slightly more voters continue to classify themselves as pro-choice rather than pro-life when it comes to abortion, but a majority still believes it is morally wrong. Pro-choice voters have slightly outnumbered pro-lifers in surveys for several years. Still, 55% believe abortion is morally wrong most of the time, a finding that shows little change since April 2007. 30% think abortion is morally acceptable in the majority of cases, while 15% are undecided.

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What cloning advocates don't say about human cloning

Discussing cloning in animals is easy. No one seems to have a problem accurately describing the process of cloning, somatic cell nuclear transfer or SCNT, for a sheep or a cow. Egg + somatic cell nucleus = cloned embryo. But no so for humans. In humans, many people argue that SCNT is an entirely different process. In humans, it does not create a cloned embryo like in animals. Instead SCNT in humans only makes “a clump of cells.” LifeNews

President Barack Obama's Record on Abortion

President Barack Obama's Pro-Abortion Record: A Pro-Life Compilation | LifeNews.com: With recent updates.

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Mercy Killing Defense Claim Will Be Tested

Mercy Killing Defense Claim Will Be Tested - WSJ.com: Lawyers for a Manhattan executive charged with murdering her 8-year-old son are attempting an unusual defense: They claim Gigi Jordan had no choice but to kill the boy, and was completely in her right mind when she did it. Ms. Jordan's team has asked a judge to let it proceed with an "altruistic filicide" defense against charges she fed her son, Jude, a fatal cocktail of pills in a $2,300-a-night Midtown hotel room in February 2010.

Related: Mercy killing to prevent child abuse

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Michigan (and more) Abortion Facts

Michigan Abortion Facts | Abort73.com: State abortion stats by rate, rank, total, age, gestation, and procedure type. Data from both the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and the Guttmacher Institute.

Editor: Information for all states is available from this site.

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Euthanasia Pushes Belgium Into Abyss as Numbers Rise

Euthanasia Pushes Belgium Into Abyss as Numbers Rise | LifeNews.com: Since 2002, and the implementation of a law that partially depenalises the practice, there have never been more cases of euthanasia. With more than 85 declared cases per month since the start of this year, there will be more than 1,000 deaths by euthanasia in 2011, as opposed to 954 in 2010.

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Population Controllers Want Smaller Humans to Save the Planet

Population Controllers Want Smaller Humans to Save the Planet | LifeNews.com: An MIT review called “The Shrinkage Solution” is about a decades-old proposal that we should consider engineering humans to be smaller. In 1967, at the same time the Western world was fearful of overpopulation, civil engineers Robert Hansen and Myle Holley suggested that we use technology to make people shrink with the idea that smaller people consume less and take up less space.

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PRI President: Biden 'Fully Understands' China Policy Because I Explained it to Him

PRI President: Biden 'Fully Understands' China Policy Because I Explained it to Him - Christian Newswire: Some people believe that Vice President Biden is ignorant of the way that the one-child policy relies upon forced abortions, forced sterilizations, and other coercive measures. Steven Mosher, an eyewitness to forced abortions in China, disagrees. "While serving as a Commissioner of the U.S. Commission on Broadcasting to China, I briefed then-Senator Biden on population control, Chinese style."

Mosher, who serves as PRI's President, continued, "I know that Joe Biden 'fully understands' how women are arrested for the 'crime' of being pregnant, how they are incarcerated and browbeaten for this 'crime,' and how they are forced to undergo abortions and sterilizations. I know because I told him so. The Vice President was clearly pandering to his Chinese hosts," said Mosher.

Related: Biden's moral obtuseness

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The Immorality of Nice Fornication

The Immorality of Nice Fornication: The strongest case that Nice Fornicators make for themselves is that they are “committed” to one another in love, and that this commitment carries sufficient moral weight to justify their actions. But this case cannot be taken seriously. For the couple either are committed to one another forever, or they are not. If they are, what prevents them from marrying?

Related: The Cohabitation Revolution

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If You Really, Really Wanted a Girl ...

If You Really, Really Wanted a Girl ... - NYTimes.com: DNA tests to determine a fetus’s sex raise ethical questions: whether couples will abort fetuses of an unwanted sex — as has happened in China and India, where boys now outnumber girls. The possibility discomfits many, and is also providing fuel for anti-abortion politics.

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VP Biden on one-child policy in China

The Cloakroom » VP Biden on one-child policy in China: It is so repugnant we only send them $50 million a year to do it: It is so repugnant we only send them $50 million a year to do it.

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Protect the Weak and Vulnerable: The Primacy of the Life Issue

Protect the Weak and Vulnerable: The Primacy of the Life Issue « Public Discourse: Why should it matter whether the 2012 candidates for president are pro-life, especially given the vast array of other pressing issues facing the United States, including (though certainly not limited to) crushing national debt, widespread unemployment, existential fiscal strains on the social safety net, multiple wars, and the continuing menace of terrorism?

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40 Years Later: How to Undo the Autonomy Argument for Abortion Rights

40 Years Later: How to Undo the Autonomy Argument for Abortion Rights « Public Discourse: The philosophical argument underlying pro-choice appeals to bodily autonomy is not a new one; indeed, the original version cast by moral philosopher Judith Jarvis Thomson is old enough to commemorate its 40th anniversary this year. Forty years later, the autonomy argument is still wildly popular among supporters of abortion and especially among pro-choice academics.

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Missing Children: How Falling Birthrates Turn Everything Upside Down

Sometime around 1969 a turning point occurred in the history of the human race. Then and still today, most people had no idea that it had occurred, much less grasped its consequences for the twenty-first century. Even among the very few professional demographers who noticed the first data point, most regarded it as a mere measurement error

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Women Increasingly Sexually Exploited By Media

FRC Blog » Women Increasingly Sexually Exploited By Media: “Opportunity Objectification? The Sexualization of Men and Women on the Cover of Rolling Stone” reveals that women have become increasingly overly-sexualized by the media over the last few decades whereas men are not increasingly viewed in this demeaning and harmful way.

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Things We Control

Things We Control - By Nancy French - The Home Front - National Review Online: “Why don’t you just adopt?” This is the rudest question you can ask a woman struggling through infertility, according to most magazines, etiquette experts, and common sense. Although it is incredibly rude . . . I feel compelled to ask women who are going through all of this infertility treatment to please consider adoption.

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Answers in Genesis Conference

Answers in Genesis Conference | Answers Outreach: Sunday, September 11, 2011 to Monday, September 12, 2011
Dr. Tommy Mitchell

Free admission

Sunday, September 11, 2011
9 a.m. Are You Intimidated?
10:30 a.m. Why Genesis Matters
6 p.m. Why Can`t A Day Mean A Day?
7:20 p.m. Noah`s Ark and the Global Flood

Monday, September 12, 2011
9 a.m. After Their Kind (Grades 9-12)
6:30 p.m. Jurassic Prank: A Dinosaur Tale
7:50 p.m. Worshipping the Creator God

Berean Baptist Church
7813 South 12 Street
Portage , MI 49024

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Does “Worldview-Neutral” Science Exist? Part One

Does “Worldview-Neutral” Science Exist? Part One | Dr. Georgia Purdom's Blog: Evidence (e.g., fossils, rocks, DNA) doesn’t talk! And while science may be objective, scientists are not—especially in the area of historical science (i.e., evolution and creation). The presuppositions of the scientists play a major role in determining how they interpret the evidence. If the presuppositions are based on the truth, that will lead to the truth about the past, and vice versa if the presuppositions are false. There is only one truth source for the past as it concerns the beginnings of the universe, earth, and life—and that is the eyewitness account of God given to us in the Bible. Everything else is merely man’s opinions, imaginations, and ideas.

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Sexual anarchy: The Kinsey legacy

Sexual anarchy: The Kinsey legacy | LifeSiteNews.com: Fifty-five years after his death, Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey continues to profoundly affect American culture. Two of his most ardent supporters, Dr. Carol Vance, Columbia University anthropologist and lesbian activist, and Dr. John Money, an “out” pedophile advocate and pioneer of transgender surgery at Johns Hopkins, have cogently summed up Dr. Kinsey’s legacy – a legacy they consider sexual “progress” but is in reality sexual anarchy.

Related: Yesterday's taboos

“Fixed” – new documentary on transhumanism and disability

“Fixed” – new documentary on transhumanism and disability: Fixed: The Science/Fiction of Human Enhancement focuses on the difficult relationship between transhumanists and disability advocates.

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Chinese surrogates relocate to US

Chinese surrogates relocate to US: A Californian lawyer is facing jail for brokering 12 illegal surrogacies. But this is small change for Lu Jinfeng, a Chinese man who claims that he has brokered about 3,000 surrogate babies since 2004 -- even though the practice is illegal in China. According to the Global Times, a tabloid version of the official People’s Daily, surrogacy agencies used to be secretive and underground but today there are hundreds of them.

Editor: Should we be glad this is one industry China is willing to export?

Margaret Sanger laid the groundwork for China's one child policy

You can readily feel Margaret Sanger's contempt for the poor in the words of this speech the founder of Planned Parenthood gave at Carnegie Hall in 1922:

China, the mysterious fountainhead of art, philosophy and the deepest wisdom of the world, has been brought down by the breeding and multiplication of the worst elements of the yellow race.

Here are masses of humans who live below the level of animals. They eat, sleep, and breed in the crowded streets and sunless alleys. Go through the reeking labyrinth of one of these native Chinese cities. Go on a day when a hot sun brings out all of these wretched incurably diseased specimens of what we dignify by the name of human.

California Couple Sue Fertility Doctor Over 'Lost' Embryos

California Couple Sue Fertility Doctor Over 'Lost' Embryos - ABC News: A married couple conceived their 3-year-old son through in vitro fertilization and hoped to get pregnant again with one of the remaining frozen embryos. But when they returned in 2011, the clinic told them the fertilized embryos were gone. Their fear is that the three remaining embryos were "most likely" implanted in another woman's womb.

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Resist Discrimination

Resist Discrimination: In recent weeks, online political activists have engaged in a misinformation campaign that bullies retailers into discriminating against customers and charities based on their religious beliefs, specifically the traditional and biblical view of marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

The online activists are targeting CGBG, a charity support group with a mission and partner network that includes more than 170,000 charities representing a range of religious, non-religious, educational and other groups. The online service helps users support their favorite charities by shopping on the web. However, in recent months online activists opposed to a traditional and biblical view of marriage have pressured retailers to end their participation with the charity support group.

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Pro-pedophilia conference described as 'evil'

‘Evil’: Attendees at prominent pro-pedophilia conference horrified by sessions | LifeSiteNews.com: Pro-family advocates who attended a controversial pro-pedophilia conference in Baltimore last week say they were profoundly shaken by what they saw and heard.

Obama Admin Pushes Sex on Kids

Obama Admin Pushes Sex on Kids, Children are "Sexual Beings" | LifeNews.com: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services posted new information located on a “Questions and Answers About Sex” link on the “Quick Guide to Healthy Living” portion of the HHS Web site, which describes children as “sexual beings.”

Legislators Find Roe v. Wade Loophole

Legislators Find Roe v. Wade Loophole: Dubbed the Life at Conception Act, 105 members of the U.S. Congress co-sponsored the pro-life legislation. The bill aims to leverage the fact that the Supreme Court never actually declared abortion itself to be a constitutional right. In its 1973 abortion decision, the Supreme Court invented a policy that effectively stops any regulation of abortion during the full nine months of pregnancy.

But the Supreme Court also said: "We need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins ... the judiciary at this point in the development of man’s knowledge is not in a position to speculate as to the answer." However, the High Court made a key admission in its decision: "If this suggestion of personhood is established, the appellant’s case [i.e., "Roe" who sought an abortion], of course, collapses, for the fetus’ right to life is then guaranteed specifically by the [14th] Amendment." The bottom line: a majority vote is all that is needed to pass a Life at Conception Act to establish personhood beginning at conception.

Six Days & the Eisegesis Problem - Free Video Download

Six Days & the Eisegesis Problem - Video Download - Answers Bookstore: Eisegesis? Ken Ham gets to the heart of the debate about the six days of creation. If we read from what the biblical text says (exegesis), it allows only one interpretation—six 24-hour days. Any other interpretation is eisegesis (“reading into” the Bible).

Embryonic Stem Cells Don't Work as Well as Adult Cells

Study: Embryonic Stem Cells Don't Work as Well as Adult Cells | LifeNews.com: Scientists at UCLA have found that cells derived from pluripotent stem cells are developmentally very immature, and do not resemble the adult cell types that they would theoretically replace in a transplant. The immaturity was seen in cell derivatives from both embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. The data indicate that pluripotent stem cells such as embryonic stem cells are inappropriate substitutes for adult stem cells in patient treatments.

Reasoned Pro-Life Apologetics Meets Raving Atheist

Life Training Institute Blog: Reasoned Pro-Life Apologetics Meets Raving Atheist [Bob]: He began to notice that "pro-choice Christians did not employ scientific or rational arguments but relied on a confused set of 'spiritual' platitudes. More significantly, the pro-choice atheistic blogosphere also fell short in its analysis of abortion. The supposedly 'reality-based' community either dismissed abortion as a 'religious issue' or paradoxically claimed that pro-life principles were contrary to religious doctrine. Having formerly equated atheism with reason, I was slowly growing uncertain of the value of godlessness in the search for truth."

Graphic abortion posters on Christian campuses?

The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform's GAP group is about to visit Liberty University, the largest Christian university in the world. Why Liberty University? Aren’t they already pro-life? Yes, in the same way that the pro-life church is pro-life. But the sad fact is that 18% of all abortions are performed on women who are "born again" or "evangelical" Christians. According to the most recent data, about 15% of evangelical or born again Christian women will have at least one abortion during her childbearing years. Born again and evangelical men are just as involved.

On the other hand, when Christians see the horror of abortion, they are more likely to obey God’s command not to kill their own children (Mark 10:19), obey God’s command to protect and defend the defenseless (Proverbs 24:11-12), and fulfill their duty as Christian leaders to teach other believers to do the same (Matthew 28:20).

Here’s what one Liberty student wrote after I recently showed him what abortion really is:

Since I became a Christian 12 years ago, I have just said I was pro-life because that is what Christians are supposed to be. But after I saw your presentation, being pro-life means a lot more to me than ever before. Seeing all those graphic photos and that video brought me to tears and showed me [abortion] is murder; it is wrong. I want to now fight for their lives—not just tell people I’m pro-life, but actually be pro-life in every way.

Mohler: This isn’t meddling — it’s murder

This isn’t meddling — it’s murder | LifeSiteNews.com: Euphemisms are the refuge of moral cowardice, and no euphemism is so cowardly or so deadly as "reduction." The Two-Minus-One Pregnancy is one of the most significant articles of recent years. With chilling and unflinching candor, Ruth Padawer virtually forces her readers to see the twisted thinking that justifies the killing of the unborn, and then she tries to evade moral responsibility by calling the procedure a “reduction.”

The case against Rick Perry

The case against Rick Perry - pro-life and pro-family concerns | LifeSiteNews.com: While he has been enthusiastically welcomed by many social conservatives due to his very public stance against abortion and same-sex “marriage,” others have expressed concern about some aspects of Perry’s past that they say call into question Perry’s social conservative credentials, and may even indicate a degree of hypocrisy.

Related: Perry sign pro-life pledge

A reason to celebrate: 80+ pro-life laws passed this year

A reason to celebrate: 80+ pro-life laws passed this year | LifeSiteNews.com: The battle for life continues, however, so long as 1.2 million abortions are being performed annually. We celebrate our gains, but let’s keep the momentum going. A pro-life party is appropriate — but not a vacation.

Gulf between young and older Christians on major issues

Gulf between young and older Christians on major issues : News :: Inspire Magazine: Euthanasia and abortion are bigger issues of concern for young Christians in the UK than for older believers, whereas youth related issues concern older Christians more than the younger group, according to a new poll

The poll surveyed Christians of all ages and denominations, asking them to rate the issues in terms of how important they are. It revealed a staggering gulf between what young and older generations of believers regard as issues of importance. Surprisingly, pro-life and end of life issues were of greater concern to young people aged between 18-34 years compared with those over the age of 65.

Sherley that's not ethical? A review of US law on embryo research

BioNews - Sherley that's not ethical? A review of US law on embryo research: Should human embryonic stem cell research be deemed unethical for its embryo destruction? The US court decision in Sherley v Sebelius on 27 July 2011 to allow federal funding of this research set a global precedent. The meaning of research was divided into two categories: that which directly involves embryo destruction and that which does not.

Yet it misses the point. Research does not cause embryo destruction; these unwanted IVF embryos would be destroyed even if research using their cells was prevented. The plaintiffs - in effect - were always going to lose.

Protect the Weak and Vulnerable: The Primacy of the Life Issue

Protect the Weak and Vulnerable: The Primacy of the Life Issue « Public Discourse: Why should it matter whether the 2012 candidates for president are pro-life, especially given the vast array of other pressing issues facing the United States, including crushing national debt, widespread unemployment, existential fiscal strains on the social safety net, multiple wars, and the continuing menace of terrorism?

Fertility treatment in Germany

BioNews - Fertility treatment in Germany: Germany is said to have one of the most restrictive legislation in the area of assisted reproductive technology treatments. Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) has only become permissible as of July this year – it can now be carried out if the child will be born with a severe genetic disease, or if the embryo is so severely impaired that the pregnancy will result in a miscarriage or stillbirth.

Editor: PGD is not a "fertility treatment" but is the means by which diseases and impairments are detected in embryos before they are implanted into a mother's uterus. Also, PGD cannot determine the severity of a disability. 


You would think a bionews resource would be more accurate. It constantly amazes me how fuzzy and fudge-y journalists are on these issues, after years of covering this beat and on a website dedicated to science and ethics. Why is it so hard?

Better and better? Or worse and worse?

BioNews - UK IVF errors treble in three years: Some 564 errors, including losing embryos and sperm, occurred between April 2010 and March 2011, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority said. This compares to 182 incidents between April 2007 and March 2008.

Austerity measures threaten UK DonorLink

BioNews - UK DonorLink closes its doors to new registrants: UK DonorLink - the voluntary contact register for adults conceived with or who donated sperm or eggs before August 1991 - is threatened with closure. The UK Government will stop funding the service in October this year pending a decision expected in September by public health minister Anne Milton.

After Miscarriage, Missing The Luxury Of Grieving

After Miscarriage, Missing The Luxury Of Grieving : NPR: A miscarriage is tragic enough by itself. What makes it worse is the fact that no social custom has evolved to help us through the loss. There is no ceremony, no coming together, no ritualized support. Annmarie and I suffered alone, in silence. Most of our friends had no idea we were grieving. It took me two weeks to tell my own mom.

And it's not as if life stopped, or even slowed down to allow us a moment to reflect. We had jobs to get to, kids to take care of. Real sadness seemed an indulgence we could not afford.

For 2012, an Unconventional Approach

For 2012, an Unconventional Approach: The GOP's National Convention in Tampa may be more than a year away but, sources inside the gay community say activists are already plotting to overthrow the Republicans' pro-life, pro-family platform.

BioTime Receives NIH Approval for Four Human Embryonic Stem Cell Lines

BioTime Receives NIH Approval for Four GMP Human Embryonic Stem Cell Lines - MarketWatch: Four human embryonic stem cell lines (ESI-035, ESI-049, ESI-051 and ESI-053), developed by a BioTime subsidiary have been approved by the National Institutes of Health for inclusion in the NIH Human Embryonic Stem Cell Registry. This approval opens the door to the use of these cell lines in federally funded research.

The Abject Poverty of the Unborn, Unwanted Child

Opinion: If the religious leaders who met with the president to advocate for the poor didn’t use the opportunity to speak on behalf of another endangered population, unborn children – and I’ve seen no report that they did – they missed an important opportunity to instruct and challenge the president on the most substantive moral issue of our time, abortion. The religious leaders had a chance to be courageous prophets, to speak moral truth to secular power. And that opportunity was critical because President Obama is the most ardent pro-abortion advocate we’ve had. It is an evil agenda he pursues aggressively at every turn.

The Failure of Liberal Bioethics

The Failure of Liberal Bioethics - NYTimes.com: There are three broad camps in contemporary debates over bioethics. In the name of human rights and human dignity, “bio-conservatives” tend to support restricting, regulating and stigmatizing the technologies that allow us to create, manipulate and destroy embryonic life. In the name of scientific progress and human freedom, “bio-libertarians” tend to oppose any restrictions on what individuals, doctors and researchers are allowed to do. Then somewhere in between are the anguished liberals, who are uncomfortable with what they see as the absolutism of both sides, and who tend to argue that society needs to decide where to draw its bioethical lines not based on some general ideal (like “life” or “choice”), but rather case by case by case — accepting this kind of abortion but not that kind; this use of embryos but not that use; existing developments in genetic engineering but not, perhaps, the developments that await us in the future.

The latest crusade

Can the Christian crusade against pornography bear fruit? – CNN Belief Blog - CNN.com Blogs: Not long ago, it was unheard of for a pastor to talk about sex from the pulpit. Today, clergy are talking about porn.

Many evangelical pastors say they don’t have a choice. The Internet has made porn unavoidable; it’s everywhere. And porn, they say, leads to a lack of intimacy in marriage, threatening the biblical mandate to get and stay married.

The Human Cost of ‘Selective Reduction’

The Human Cost of ‘Selective Reduction’ - By Janet Morana - The Corner - National Review Online: Maybe our lives would have been easier had I “reduced” my pregnancy, but we would have missed the crazy magic of those early years.

I can’t put myself in the shoes of a woman who decided for a selective reduction, but I can imagine that her decision stays with her always, perhaps evoking one emotion one day, another the next. Decisions made out of personal powerlessness and lack of support are the decisions that no one wants to make. And they’re the decisions that refuse to let you rest, the puzzles that you try to solve and resolve for the rest of your life.

These decisions born of fear and powerlessness will probably always exist in one form or another, but does that mean we should all simply raise the white flag on this issue? That physicians should abandon their vow “to do no harm” because twins cost more money to raise?

I propose that all of us — the medical profession as well as society at large — make a collective decision to fight the fear. Let’s not abandon these women in the cynical belief that there’s not enough support for all of them.

Is Abortion Ever Justified?

Bringing an End to Abortion: Is Abortion Ever Justified?: Of all the circumstantial variables you can attach to the abortion question, none is more ethically challenging than when the life of the mother is threatened by continued pregnancy. Is abortion justified when the mother's life is in danger?

Black market baby scam

Black market babies may be brothers and sisters as blondes are priced higher | Mail Online: The pricey 'designer babies' being offered to the wealthy may all be full biological siblings, as new details emerge in a sick black market baby-selling saga. Lawyer Andy Vorzimer, who's representing three surrogates who 'delivered' babies for $180,000 each, said that embryos implanted in them were from the same egg and sperm donor. 'Presumably, they were carrying the brothers and sisters of each other.' The new development comes days after details of a black-market baby ring was broken up by the FBI.

Australian sperm donor loses fight

BBC News - Australian sperm donor loses fight with lesbian couple: An Australian man who donated sperm to a lesbian couple has been told by a court that his name must be removed from the child's birth certificate.

The Almighty as an Idol: The Tragedy of the Religious

The Almighty as an Idol: The Tragedy of the Religious: Many of us are religious because we believe it is the best insurance policy and will guarantee a relatively easy life with not too many bumps along the way. To achieve this goal we make a deal with the Almighty: I will observe Your commandments, and You will do what I want You to do for me. We assume this is the way to avoid calamities and ensure a content and beautiful life. Instead of serving the Lord because He is God, we are attempting to manipulate God to serve us, making Him our servant. It is nothing less than idol worship.

Setting the Record Straight: Michele Bachmann, Francis Schaeffer and the Christian Right

The Rutherford Institute: Setting the Record Straight: Michele Bachmann, Francis Schaeffer and the Christian Right: This distinction between Rushdoony and Schaeffer may seem like a minor point, but to rational individuals who understand, as [the Washington Post's Lisa] Miller does, that "Evangelical [Christians] do not generally want to take over the world," there is a world of difference between those who subscribe to Rushdoony's Christian Reconstructionist views and those who fall more into Schaeffer's camp.

. . . the Christian Right has made big gains politically in the past several decades, the Christian involvement in politics has produced little in terms of definable positive results spiritually. After all, political action as a cure-all is an illusion. Although it is a valued part of the process in a democracy, the ballot box is not the answer to humankind's ills. And, in fact, Christians who place their hope in a political answer to the world's ills often become nothing more than another tool in the politician's toolbox.

Francis Schaeffer understood this. As he advised in A Christian Manifesto, Christians must avoid joining forces with the government and arguing a theocratic position. "We must not confuse the Kingdom of God with our country," Schaeffer writes in A Christian Manifesto. "To say it another way, 'We should not wrap Christianity in our national flag.'" As history makes clear, fusing Christianity with politics cheapens it, robs it of its spiritual vitality and thus destroys true Christianity.

The founder of Christianity understood this. Jesus did not seek political power, and He did not teach Christians to seek it either. Jesus spoke truth to power and it cost him his life. If Christians really want to follow Jesus, this will necessarily mean that they will often be forced to stand against the governmental and political establishment in speaking truth to power, as well.

Get to Know: Justice For All

Justice For All: Justice For All trains thousands to make abortion unthinkable for millions, one person at a time. Justice For All promotes respect for people with differing views and condemns all abortion-related violence.

A biblical defense of childbearing

Cornwall Alliance :: Newsletter :: Special Newsletter (August 19, 2011): At the heart of all idolatry is disobedience to the first commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Environmentalists who worship the earth are yet another example of those who, as the Apostle Paul said, “exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen” (Romans 1:25).

The Biology of Prenatal Development: Must Viewing

The Biology of Prenatal Development: Must Viewing |: “Biologically speaking, human development begins at fertilization, when a woman and a man each combine 23 of their own chromosomes through the union of their reproductive cells.” —Opening of “The Biology of Prenatal Development.”

Rising Restrictions on Religion

Rising Restrictions on Religion - Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life: According to Rising Restrictions on Religion, a recent report by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life, several countries with increasing restrictions on religion are very populous, however, the increases affect a much larger share of people than of states. More than 2.2 billion people – nearly a third (32%) of the world’s total population of 6.9 billion – live in countries where either government restrictions on religion or social hostilities involving religion rose substantially over the three-year period studied.

Pregnancy services and adoption referral in Michigan

Right to Life of Michigan: If you or someone you know is experiencing an unplanned or crisis pregnancy or would like information about adoption or post-abortion assistance, you do have options. For help, please call 800-57WOMAN, a toll-free hotline, any time, day or night, to be connected to a caring, confidential help agencies (para español, llamar 1-866-767-2466).

Response to Mississippi 'Personhood' Initiative

Irving Response to Mississippi 'Personhood' Initiative | ALL.org: Pro-life [advocates] deserve to know that formal legal definitions, such as those proposed here, are usually legally required to be interpreted by the courts as “exclusionary”—that is, only precisely what is included in the definition is covered by the law; anything not precisely included in that definition is not covered by the law. This “personhood” initiative, like so many others, will NOT protect “all unborn human beings.”

Will Boehner's House Fund Group That Kills 910 Babies Per Day?

Will Boehner's House Fund Group That Kills 910 Babies Per Day - Terry Jeffrey - Townhall Conservative: By the end of September, when fiscal 2011 ends, House Speaker John Boehner must answer a simple yet profound question: Will he lead a Republican-controlled House of Representatives in enacting government funding bills for fiscal 2012 that allow tax dollars to flow to a group that kills an average of 910 unborn babies per day? Boehner ought to say: No way. Case closed.

If you can get to Madrid for World Youth Day, you get freebie forgiveness for your abortion.

If you can get to Madrid for World Youth Day, you get freebie forgiveness for your abortion. Editor: Apparently the Vatican is promising exemption from excommunication for women who've had abortions on the basis of their attendance at this conference. I apologize for a reference to a rather crude article, but it points up the need for dealing with abortion on the basis of Christ's work on the cross. The best tool I know for that purpose is Sandra Day's book, Living in His Forgiveness.

Twin saved her sister's life

At 20 weeks pregnant with twins, Andrea Goodrich was given the heartbreaking news that losing both babies seemed inevitable. Yesterday, however, she was cradling two healthy daughters after one saved the other’s life before they were born.

Scans had revealed that one of the girls, Kiki, had a heart problem and fluid was leaking from the placenta. But miraculously her sister Nico positioned herself so low in the womb that she acted as a plug, preventing a miscarriage or an infection. Daily Mail

Abortion rights or civil rights? We can't have it both ways

Abortion rights or civil rights? We can't have it both ways | The News-Sentinel - Fort Wayne IN: If terminating a “fetus” has no more moral and medical significance than removing an appendix or lifting a sagging body part, why should anybody think twice about who is being aborted, or why? Why should anybody care that early prenatal gender tests have already led to increased abortions of girls in places like India and China? For that matter, why should anybody care that African-American infants are being aborted at a rate that far exceeds the percentage of blacks in the general population?

Having to choose between supporting abortion on demand and defending the rights of women and minorities presents a moral paradox for the more politically correct among us.

Academic conference seeks to normalize pedophilia

Academic conference seeks to normalize pedophilia | LifeSiteNews.com: Researchers from several prominent U.S. universities will participate tomorrow in a Baltimore conference reportedly aiming to normalize pedophilia. According to the sponsoring organization’s website, the event will examine ways in which “minor-attracted persons” can be involved in a revision of the American Psychological Association (APA) classification of pedophilia.

Increased cohabitation rates mean more instability for children

Increased cohabitation rates mean more instability for children :: Catholic News Agency (CNA): Family instability continues to grow in the U.S. despite falling divorce rates for families with children. Researchers say an increase in cohabitation is part of the problem, adding that society’s “retreat from marriage” harms children and has particularly hurt poor and working-class communities.

National Black Prolife Coalition pushes ‘Personhood’ amendment

National Black Prolife Coalition pushes ‘Personhood’ amendment | Florida Independent: In a new video, the National Black Prolife Coalition’s Dr. Alveda King advocates the “Personhood” movement, which has become increasingly popular in recent months. King compares aborting a fertilized egg to tampering with the eggs of a bald eagle or California condor, which can result in both jail time and hefty fines, and says that “Personhood” is “not extreme,” but “the truth.”

Green agenda has parallels with excesses of communism

Green agenda has parallels with excesses of communism | Herald Sun: Czech President Vaclav Klaus, an economist who fought against communism, was warning of the new threats to our freedom he recognises in the doctrine of global warming. "Twenty years ago we still felt threatened by the remnants of communism. This is really over. I feel threatened now, not by global warming -- I don't see any -- (but) by the global warming doctrine, which I consider a new dangerous attempt to control and mastermind my life and our lives, in the name of controlling the climate or temperature."

Activists Demand 'Abstinence Only' Be Option In New York City Schools Sex Education Curriculum

Activists Demand 'Abstinence Only' Be Option In New York City Schools Sex Education Curriculum « CBS New York: There is a curriculum controversy over New York City’s plan to teach sex education at all middle and high schools. Activists are demanding the Department of Education offer an “abstinence only” option. “Just don’t do it” — that’s the heart of the abstinence message and it’s one some activists want city schools to send loud and clear. “Abstinence is 100 percent. Abstinence works 100 percent of the time!” said Rev. Bill Faulkner of New Horizon Church.  A program that combines abstinence and contraception confuses young people.

Seven Scenarios for the Decline of Transhumanism

Futurisms: Seven Scenarios for the Decline of Transhumanism: Many of the things that transhumanism aspires to, like greatly extended life or special abilities, are not really new; expressing dissatisfaction with the human condition by rejecting some of its limits seems to be a perennial human possibility. So it is possible that something like transhumanism at least will never die, so long as there are people in the world who can imagine things being different from what they are. However, in its current manifestation it may be subject to just the sort of decline into quaint obscurity that has been the fate of previous versions of its ideas.

Twin reduction abortions: Why do they trouble pro-choicers?

Twin reduction abortions: Why do they trouble pro-choicers? - By William Saletan - Slate Magazine: To pro-lifers and hardcore pro-choicers, this queasiness [about pregnancy "reduction"] seems odd. After all, a reduction is an abortion. If anything, reduction should be less problematic than ordinary abortion, since one life is deliberately being spared. Why, then, does reduction unsettle so many pro-choicers?

For some, the issue seems to be a consumer mentality in assisted reproduction. For others, it's the deliberateness of getting pregnant, especially by IVF, without being prepared to accept the consequences. But the main problem with reduction is that it breaches a wall at the center of pro-choice psychology. It exposes the equality between the offspring we raise and the offspring we abort.


. . . Reduction destroys this distinction. It combines, in a single pregnancy, a wanted and an unwanted fetus. In the case of identical twins, even their genomes are indistinguishable. You can't pretend that one is precious and the other is just tissue. You're killing the same creature to which you're dedicating your life.

Related:
Times article shows IVF is not about the children
In defense of IVF twins
Aborting one healthy twin

Millions May Die … Or Not

Millions May Die … Or Not. - By David Rieff | Foreign Policy: Hyperbole is not just a morally questionable strategy; it's practically unsustainable. By continually upping the rhetorical ante, relief agencies, whatever their intentions, are sowing the seeds of future cynicism, raising the bar of compassion to the point where any disaster in which the death toll cannot be counted in the hundreds of thousands, that cannot be described as the worst since World War II or as being of biblical proportions, is almost certainly condemned to seem not all that bad by comparison.

What is the cost of abortion to Americans?

First in Print: What is the cost of abortion to Americans? - Coldwater, MI - The Daily Reporter: In 1973 there were 744,000 abortions of babies who would be 38 years old, if they were alive today. If about half had married and had an average of 2.1 children, another 390,000 babies would have been born.
On the assumption that people marry at age 24, About 10 million of those invisible infants would have married and would have had 10.8 million children of their own. Perhaps another 2 million babies would have been born out-of-wedlock.

Consequently, America is missing about 65.5 million people. That is more people than live in New York, Los Angeles, and an additional 127 of America’s largest cities.

The economic consequences of these missing people are staggering. One spreadsheet estimates that these people would have earned $5.7 trillion (assuming an average per capita income of $26,000 according to Census). They would have paid $1.4 trillion in taxes!

Few replicas as first cloned cat nears 10

Few replicas as first cloned cat nears 10 - Life & Style - The Independent: Nearly 10 years after scientists cloned the first cat, predictions of a vast commercial market for the 'resurrection' of beloved pets through cloning have fallen flat. The leading US pet cloning company halted operations in 2009 and the livestock cloning business remains relatively small with only a few hundred pigs and cows cloned every year worldwide. But CC's doting owners still consider her a great success.

Planned Parenthood Chaplain Vincent Lachina: Not a Minister at a Southern Baptist Church

Planned Parenthood Chaplain Vincent Lachina: Not a Minister at a Southern Baptist Church: A Planned Parenthood Chaplain traveled from Washington State to Mississippi and made false religious claims to influence Mississippi voters against a pro-life ballot measure. His PP profile says Vincent Lachina is now aligned with the American Baptist Conference and the United Church of Christ. He was in Mississippi to oppose the personhood amendment.

Related: ‘Intellectually dishonest’: Baptist Convention repudiates Planned Parenthood pastor’s claim

Editor: How does 'intellectual dishonesty' differ from plain old dishonesty?

Southern Baptist minister shills for Planned Parenthood

Rev. Vincent Lachina is an advocate for abortion and homosexual rights. YouTube video

Friends With Benefits

Friends With Benefits « Go Beyond • Live Adventurously for God: The movie “Friends With Benefits” depicts Dylan and Jamie agreeing to a friendship with the added benefit of sex and nothing more. Most disturbing is the scene where they seal their agreement by placing their hands on Jamie's iPad. Jamie attests, "I'm a good girl," apparently alluding to the fact she's loaded a Bible app on it.

Pastor Omar Garcia points out the irony of making a commitment to a sex-and-nothing-else relationship by swearing on the Bible. Maybe Hollywood thinks a digital version of scripture renders its principle of purity moot. But, as Luke 18:19 says, “No one is good but God alone.” Pastor Garcia reminds us, "Good is grounded in the very nature of God and the God of the Bible declares that immorality is not good for us."

Gender Selection and Abortion: Making an Ethical Decision

Rabbi David A. Teutsch: Gender Selection and Abortion: Making an Ethical Decision: "My forthcoming book -- 'A Guide to Jewish Practice: Everyday Living' -- deals with bioethics and family ethics, spiritual practices and speech ethics, methods of decision making, business ethics and social justice. A major impetus for my new Guide is to spur the kind of thinking that will help women and their partners make sound decisions about abortion."

Editor: Moses isn't enough. The Huffington Post writer must parse morality for a new age.

My Brother’s Birth Trumps Her Mother’s Abortion

My Brother’s Birth Trumps Her Mother’s Abortion |: "Thank God my parents didn’t see a third child as a familial yoke. How thankful am I that they didn’t do a budget analysis with his life; that my mother trusted my father to provide for one more little one; and that they didn’t see the next two decades of raising him as a burden."

Related: How a D.C. area family with 11 children, ages 12 through 1, makes it work

Lessons from London in flames

Mark Steyn: Big Government debauches not only a nation's finances but its human capital, too. When William Beveridge laid out his blueprint for the British welfare regime in 1942, his goal was the 'abolition of want' to be accomplished by 'co-operation between the State and the individual.' . . . Sir William succeeded beyond his wildest dreams.

Want has been all but abolished. Today, fewer and fewer Britons want to work, want to marry, want to raise children, want to lead a life of any purpose or dignity. The United Kingdom has the highest drug use in Europe, the highest incidence of sexually transmitted disease, the highest number of single mothers, the highest abortion rate. Big Government means small citizens: it corrodes the integrity of a people, catastrophically.

‘One violence is enough’: Santorum

‘One violence is enough’: Santorum cheered for defending children conceived-in-rape from abortion | LifeSiteNews.com: During the Iowa debate, candidate Rick Santorum was asked whether his no-exceptions abortion stance was "too much, even for many conservatives to support?”

“You know, the Supreme Court of the United States in a recent case said that a man who committed rape could not be killed, would not be subjected to the death penalty, yet the child conceived as a result of that rape could be,” replied the former senator. “That sounds to me like a country that doesn’t have its morals correct. That child did nothing wrong. That child is an innocent victim. We in America should be big enough to try to surround ourselves and help women in those terrible situations who have been traumatized already. To put them through another trauma of an abortion is enough. And so I would absolutely stand and say, one violence is enough.”

Related: Bachmann misrepresents Pawlenty's view on abortion

Yearning for a baby: why developing countries say they need IVF too

Yearning for a baby: why developing countries say they need IVF too: India is home to 1 billion people, a third of whom are among the world's poorest. Kenya is in the grip of drought, with tens of thousands facing starvation. Nigeria is so racked with political corruption that 92 per cent of its population is forced to exist on less than $2 a day. All have desperate problems, with multiple charities trying to address them. Now a new charity is hoping to provide what seems to be a surprising need in such populous, poverty-stricken nations: affordable IVF.

Surrogate Mother 'Tricked' Into Pregnancy

Surrogate Mother 'Tricked' Into Pregnancy | NBC San Diego: A surrogate mother who helped expose a baby-selling attorney in North County believes she was “tricked” into breaking the law. She and other women eventually found out there weren't any prior arrangements with intended parents. Prosecutors say it is against the law to implant an embryo before an arrangement is made with intended parents. Lawyers targeted in the suit were shopping the babies around to get the highest price, as much as $150,000 for each newborn.

Related: Baby-sellers plead guilty

IVF clinic blunders: 10 mistakes a week bring heartbreak to couples

IVF clinic blunders: 10 mistakes a week bring heartbreak to couples | Mail Online: Childless couples are having their hopes of a baby wrecked by soaring numbers of mistakes at fertility clinics. Some 564 serious errors or ‘near misses’ occurred at centres in Britain last year – more than ten every week.

The figures have trebled since 2007, raising concerns over the standards of clinics. There is also suspicion that the Government watchdog – the Human Fertility and Embryology Association – is not properly regulating the industry and forcing failing centres to close.

One-child policy a surprising boon for China girls

One-child policy a surprising boon for China girls | Asian Correspondent: Since 1979, China’s family planning rules have barred nearly all urban families from having a second child in a bid to stem population growth. With no male heir competing for resources, parents have spent more on their daughters’ education and well-being, a groundbreaking shift after centuries of discrimination.

. . . Crediting the one-child policy with improving the lives of women is jarring, given its history and how it's harmed women in other ways.

Editor: A boon? At what cost? The benefit is hardly universal. Here's another view:

The paucity of marriageable females has diminished, not enhanced, women’s status: bride buying, with little or no consent, abounds. . . . [G]irls [are] abducted in their early teens and forced to have sex with 17 men a day for three months in order to initiate them into prostitution. LifeSiteNews

Related: Abortion Activists in India Resist Efforts to Stop Gendercide

Casual, Consensual Sex Has Hurt America

Casual, Consensual Sex Has Hurt America, Greg Laurie Says, Christian News: Greg Laurie, the lead pastor at Harvest Church in Riverside, Calif., told the thousands of people who came to listen to him on the second of a three-day event, “I was conceived out of wedlock. My mom, married and divorced seven times with lots of boyfriends in between, had a little fling down a long beach and I was conceived. I was not planned. I was, what you call, an illegitimate child.”

Laurie said thankfully his mom did not abort him. “But I was planned… by God, as is every child.” He added that there could be illegitimate parents, but there were no illegitimate children.

Dominionism: Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry’s Dangerous Religious Bond

Dominionism: Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry’s Dangerous Religious Bond - The Daily Beast: Dominionism is more a political phenomenon than a theological one. It cuts across Christian denominations, from stern, austere sects to the signs-and-wonders culture of modern megachurches. Think of it like political Islamism, which shapes the activism of a number of antagonistic fundamentalist movements, from Sunni Wahabis in the Arab world to Shiite fundamentalists in Iran.

Rebuttal: Secular leaps of faith

See also: Setting the record straight -- Michele Bachmann, Francis Schaeffer, and the Christian Right

In a “Choice Revolution” There Are No “Ethical Boundaries”

Selective reduction doesn’t turn triplets into twins. It kills one of the three siblings. The remaining two are still triplets, only one is dead. And if they ever find out, they will know that but for the luck of where the abortionist chose to put his tools, they might never have been born. . . . It isn’t really “abortion,” we are told, because the entire pregnancy isn’t terminated. Tell that to the dead fetuses. Secondhand Smoke

Counseling for Change

Counseling for Change: Nouthetic counseling is composed of three elements — concern, confrontation, and change. It involves sitting down with a client and, with loving concern for them, confronting unbiblical behavior in order to bring about life changes. Turning to Scripture and pointing out truths therein will bring about repentance and obedience to God's Word. That has become the No. 1 focus at our center.

Obamacare ruled unconstitutional

Obamacare ruled unconstitutional by Clinton-appointed appeals court judge | LifeSiteNews.com: An appeals court on Friday sided with 26 U.S. attorneys general who say the president’s health care law is unconstitutional for forcing U.S. citizens to purchase health insurance. The decision came from a 3-judge panel of the Atlanta, Ga.-based 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, and was split 2-1 against the mandate.

“This economic mandate represents a wholly novel and potentially unbounded assertion of congressional authority: the ability to compel Americans to purchase an expensive health insurance product they have elected not to buy, and to make them re-purchase that insurance product every month for their entire lives,” stated the opinion as quoted by Reuters.

Not 'pro-choice,' but 'pro-abortion'

Daily Kos: It Feels Bitter Here: "I'm socially liberal on a lot of things. . . . I believe in a woman's right to choose. In fact, I often describe myself as 'Not Pro-Choice, Pro-Abortion. There are too many . . . people already.' And while this is meant to be facetious, nevertheless there is a seed of truth in it, because I believe that the world is wildly overpopulated and that we must take steps as a society to reduce it. This will undoubtedly be met with accusations of callousness, but we would could really use is a global superplague. The Black Death may have been horrible, but without it there would never have been a Renaissance."

Sayings of John Stott on abortion

MCCL Blog: The late John Stott on abortion: "The Bible has much to say about God's concern for the defenseless. And the most defenseless of all people are unborn children. They are speechless to plead their own cause and helpless to protect their own lives. So it is our responsibility to do for them what they cannot do for themselves."

Academic Advisors: A New Threat to the Pro-Life Movement?

Academic Advisors: A New Threat to the Pro-Life Movement? | LifeNews.com: Advisors of student-run groups are a necessity at most colleges and universities in the U.S., since they, theoretically, help with administrative logistics, resources, and almost always help get your group “official” recognition by the university administration. But the growing number of student pro-life groups who are unable to find a sponsor are shining a light on a whole new injustice.

The Fading “Bright Line” of Consciousness In Life & Death Decisions

www.culture-of-life.org - The Fading “Bright Line” of Consciousness In Life & Death Decisions: The question, “What can M get out of life?” is misguided. It is true that most of life’s meaning is wrapped up in the conscious pursuit of human goods, in friendship and knowledge, inner peace and harmony with God. But life’s meaning is not exhausted by the purposeful pursuit of conscious goals. Even when consciousness has been lost, one great human good still remains: life. Traditional morality calls it the “intrinsic goodness of human bodily life.” And that goodness stands as a moral barrier between every person and every intention to harm or kill him or her.

Related: How's the following for a definition of personhood (from Notre Dame sociologist Christian Smith)?

By my account, a person is “a conscious, reflexive, embodied, self-transcending center of subjective experience, durable identity, moral commitment, and social communication who — as the efficient cause of his or her own responsible actions and interactions — exercises complex capacities for agency and inter-subjectivity in order to develop and sustain his or her own incommunicable self in loving relationships with other personal selves and with the non-personal world.” Persons are thus centers with purpose. Big Questions Online

What science tells us about the unborn

National Right to Life: Four features of the unborn (i.e., the human zygote, embryo or fetus) are relevant to his or her status as a human being. First, the unborn is living. Second, the unborn is human. Third, the unborn is genetically and functionally distinct from (though dependent on and resting inside of) the pregnant woman. Fourth, the unborn is a whole or complete (though immature) organism.

The real history and nature of population control

C-Fam: Mara Hvistendahl’s findings in Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls and the Consequences of a World Full of Men buck conventional wisdom. She refutes the idea that sex selection is about poverty. It is the wealthy—like Delhi’s most prestigious hospitals and clientele—who initiate the practice, while the general population sadly follows suit. 

. . . Son preference, per se, is not the main cause. Rather, the rise of abortion and fertility control—in countries of diverse cultural practices from Azerbaijan to China—are the common thread.

Hvistendahl draws from Matthew Connelly’s 2008 history of population control to show how population advocates saw compound benefits of culling the number of potential mothers. In one example, she painstakingly tracks money, medical technology, and Malthusian ideas from the West to India, where the Army and elite government-backed physicians inculcated the rest of the nation’s doctors. The Rockefeller Foundation, International Planned Parenthood Federation, Population Council, and most of all the Ford Foundation, invested in spreading sex selection.

She also indicts the Republican establishment as well. US Army general William Draper . . . saw too little time for a “sustained educational effort” about family planning and found abortion more practical anyway: it was easier for operatives to spot a pregnant woman than one considering conception.

. . . The paucity of marriageable females has diminished, not enhanced, women’s status. . . . Hvistendahl shatters the myth that feminists defend women against such abuse. To the contrary, she finds a conspiracy of silence.

Court unshackles AZ Abortion Consent Act

Planned Parenthood Arizona v. Horne resource page - Alliance Defense Fund: The Arizona Abortion Consent Act prohibits non-physicians from performing surgical abortions, provides for women to receive full and accurate information at least 24 hours before an abortion, protects health care workers who object to performing or facilitating abortions, and requires notarized parental consent for minors seeking abortions. The legislation also ensures that women receive information on abortion alternatives, long-term medical risks, and the probable gestational age of the preborn child at the time of the requested abortion.

Americans don’t know Roe

Right to Life of Michigan's Blog: Opinion poll results show Americans don’t know Roe: How can 71 percent of Americans favor a policy which can’t happen because of ruling 58 percent of Americans think was good? The answer is Americans don’t know Roe.

The reason no state has banned abortion in the second trimester is because Roe v. Wade prevents them from doing so. While many state legislatures would likely have the votes to ban abortion after the first 3 months of pregnancy, no such ban has passed because legislators know such legislation would run afoul with Roe v. Wade and would quickly be ruled unconstitutional.

Largest 40 Days for Life EVER!

Largest 40 Days for Life EVER! | 40 Days for Life: The largest 40 Days for Life campaign yet will be conducted from September 28 to November 6.

Activists Seek to "Reconceptualize" the Stigma of Abortion

Activists Seek to "Reconceptualize" the Stigma of Abortion | LifeNews.com: A team of researchers will study ways of reducing the stigmatization of abortion in society. It follows on the heels of a journal article titled “Abortion Stigma: A Reconceptualization of Constituents, Causes, and Consequences.”

China’s New Lucrative Business: Dead Babies Turn into Stamina Booster Pills

China’s New Lucrative Business: Dead Babies Turn into Stamina Booster Pills - International Business Times: A South Korean SBS TV documentary team accuses Chinese pharmaceutical companies of selling dead baby pills as stamina boosters. The team reveals that the truth behind the dead baby pill is horrific and disturbing. Chinese hospitals and abortion clinics that are connected to the business immediately notify pharmaceutical companies when a baby dies, mostly because of a still birth or an abortion.

Sex Economics 101

Sex Economics 101 | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction: "Optimally we wouldn't be talking about who has more power in relationships and why. That's not how relationships were intended to be. As a couple becomes more in love, self-sacrifice generally emerges. That's good. But when the conditions in which relationships develop change—as they have—it's foolish to expect that relationships won't change with them."

Fighting for innocence

Baptist Press - FIRST-PERSON: Fighting for innocence from sin - News with a Christian Perspective: Why are we ashamed of or eager to get rid of our innocence of sin? Why don't we praise innocence in those around us? Jesus calls His bride to be like Himself -- pure (Ephesians 5:25-27). No one would call our wise, all-knowing Savior naïve, but He is completely innocent of sin (Hebrews 4:15).

Survival of stage-4 breast cancer patients improves with stem cell treatment

Survival of stage-4 breast cancer patients improves with stem cell treatment, study finds - Office of Communications & Public Affairs - Stanford University School of Medicine: Researchers found that a greater proportion of patients who received the aggressive treatment 12 to 14 years ago, followed by a rescue with their own, specially purified blood stem cells that had been purged of cancer, survived compared with those who were rescued with unmanipulated blood grafts.

Modern Science in the Bible

Book Reviews from an Avid Reader: Modern Science in the Bible by Ben Hobrink: Former high school biology teacher Ben Hobrink has taken note of the objective and verifiable facts about history and science in the Bible. Only in this century, he says, are we able to establish how scientifically correct these facts are.

Has the Abortion Debate Ever Really Happened?

Abortion has been legal for decades. But, despite many valiant efforts, an informed national discussion has never really occurred. We have neither lost nor won the debate. Rather, it hasn’t ever happened. Created Equal seeks to change this by equipping students to know what to say and how to say it in today’s culture.

Abortion Backers Seek Pro-Life Group's Membership List

Abortion Backers Want Pro-Life Group to Divulge Membership List | LifeNews.com: As part of their lawsuit seeking to overturn a new pro-life law in Oklahoma, the abortion industry has sent its high-priced lawyers after Oklahomans For Life with an invasive court subpoena which would require them to divulge countless internal documents, communications, email lists, and mailing lists.

Pro-Life Candidates Win Victories in Wisconsin Recall Race | LifeNews.com

Pro-Life Candidates Win Victories in Wisconsin Recall Race | LifeNews.com: Despite pro-abortion and liberal groups spending tens of millions of dollars to support pro-abortion candidates in a bid to take over the Wisconsin state Senate from pro-life lawmakers, pro-life legislators won.

The 2-minus-1 pregnancy

NY Times: As Jenny lay on the obstetrician’s examination table, she was grateful that the ultrasound tech had turned off the overhead screen. She didn’t want to see the two shadows floating inside her. . . . She was 45 and pregnant after six years of fertility bills, ovulation injections, donor eggs and disappointment — and yet here she was, 14 weeks into her pregnancy, choosing to extinguish one of two healthy fetuses, almost as if having half an abortion. As the doctor inserted the needle into Jenny’s abdomen, aiming at one of the fetuses, Jenny tried not to flinch, caught between intense relief and intense guilt.

. . . [S]he said later, “If I had conceived these twins naturally, I wouldn’t have reduced this pregnancy, because you feel like if there’s a natural order, then you don’t want to disturb it. But we created this child in such an artificial manner — in a test tube, choosing an egg donor, having the embryo placed in me — and somehow, making a decision about how many to carry seemed to be just another choice. The pregnancy was all so consumerish to begin with, and this became yet another thing we could control.”

For all its successes, reproductive medicine has produced a paradox: in creating life where none seemed possible, doctors often generate more fetuses than they intend.

. . . No agency tracks how many reductions occur in the United States, but those who offer the procedure report that demand for reduction to a singleton, while still fairly rare, is rising.

. . . Dr. Richard Berkowitz, a perinatologist at Columbia University Medical Center . . . insists that there is no clear medical benefit to reducing below twins, he will do it at a patient’s request. “In a society where women can terminate a single pregnancy for any reason — financial, social, emotional — if we have a way to reduce a twin pregnancy with very little risk, isn’t it legitimate to offer that service to women with twins who want to reduce to a singleton?”

. . . Who doesn’t want to create a more certain and comfortable future for themselves and their children? The more that science makes that possible, the more it has inflated our expectations of what family life should be. We’ve come to believe that the improvements are not only our due but also our responsibility.

. . . Consider the choice of which fetus to eliminate: if both appear healthy (which is typical with twins), doctors aim for whichever one is easier to reach. If both are equally accessible, the decision of who lives and who dies is random. To the relief of patients, it’s the doctor who chooses — with one exception. If the fetuses are different sexes, some doctors ask the parents which one they want to keep.

. . . Even if parents work hard to conceal it, the [surviving] child may discover the full story of his or her origins, and we don’t know what feelings of guilt or vulnerability or loss this discovery might summon.

. . . In some ways, the reasons for reducing to a singleton are not so different from the decision to abort a pregnancy because prenatal tests reveal anomalies. In both cases, the pregnancies are wanted, but not when they entail unwanted complications — complications for the parents as much as the child. Many studies show the vast majority of patients abort fetuses after prenatal tests reveal genetic conditions like Down syndrome that are not life-threatening. What drives that decision is not just concern over the quality of life for the future child but also the emotional, financial or social difficulty for parents of having a child with extra needs. As with reducing two healthy fetuses to one, the underlying premise is the same: this is not what I want for my life.

. . . There’s no doubt that life with twins and a third child so close in age has often felt all-consuming and out of control. And yet the thought of not having any one of them is unbearable now, because they are no longer shadowy fetuses but full-fledged human beings whom I love in a huge and aching way.

Editor: (Emphasis added.) Abortion by any other name is still abortion. Isn't this what we warned about, but nobody wanted to listen? They're not listening now. And then there's the story toward the end of the lesbian couple who both became pregnant with twins at the same time!