Now you are from another land and you are going to talk about the United States of America?
Watch out! TT quotes some wiki! Now that has to be something he learned up in Canada! You called our government a Democracy, which its NOT! So you know tigger, wiki can be changed by anyone with an email. No other criteria is necessary. Your following post is gibberish and I refuse to hold your hand down the path, after these points are addressed.
So you have nothing. If I said that was odd, I would be lying.
With a Republic system, America is the longest lasting government, in the world. Let me clarify, in the history of the world.
Again you have nothing? Couldn’t be a coincidence, could it?
I am done with tigger now. Seriously TT, spend your time in some some sort of structural environment. I know many children come from the north to join the educational ranks here in the states, but I’m sure Canada has something for an education system in their lands.
[quote]TigerTime wrote:
Absolutely absurd. This is an especially foolish thing to say in the U.S. given that it is an electoral college. Here, I’ve found you a video on the flaws with an electoral college. It uses lots of colours and large fonts, so I’m certain you’ll understand it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wC42HgLA4k&feature=plcp
That’s not even an argument.
Ironic, as this is actually my least speculative argument. It’s a universally observed phenomenon that, given enough time all FPTP voting systems result in a two party system.
I have no idea WTF you’re talking about here.[/quote]
What the reasons cited by the Retiring NARAL President unintentionally tell us about the future of the abortion debate
By Dave Andrusko May 12, 2012
It would be difficult to overstate the importance what out-going NARAL President Nancy Keenan said to the Washington Post in a story that appeared Thursday announcing that the 60-year-old Keenan would be leaving at the end of the year.
Keenan gave the exclusive to Post reporter Sarah Kliff, the same reporter to whom in 2010 she revealed for the first time publicly her worries about a growing â??intensity gap.â?? (See what we wrote about that Newsweek interview at â??Even NARAL Admits There is an â??Intensity Gapâ?? Among Pro-Life and Pro-Abortion Youth.â??)
Keenan tells Kliff that sheâ??s leaving out of concern she might be holding the â??pro-choiceâ?? movement back. If pro-life youth make abortion a much higher priority than do pro-abortion youth, than for the pro-choice movement â??to successfully defend abortion rights, Keenan contends, it needs more young people in leadership roles, including hers.â?? Fair enough. Letâ??s look at this rationale and the backdrop.
I take her at her word. Keenanâ??s been at her post at NARAL for eight years and she has often poked gentle fun at the baby-boomer leadership of many pro-abortion groups as a â??postmenopausal militia.â?? And it certainly understandable that if young people are the futureâ??â??Millennials will make up 40 percent of the electorate by 2020,â?? Kliff writesâ??cranking up intensity among young people is a must.
â??Keenan questions whether sheâ??s the right leader to reach these new groups,â?? Kliff notes. â??â??This issue has got to be a voting issue for them,â?? Keenan said. â??If we want to continue protecting abortion rights in this country, this is so clearly the case.â??â??
But will a younger face change anything? There are two separate questions: numbers as well as intensity. Letâ??s take the latter first.
NARAL talks about an intensity gap in a poll taken of 700 young Americans in 2010. â??Most antiabortion voters under 30 (51 percent) considered it a â??very importantâ?? voting issue,â?? Kliff writes. â??Among abortion-rights millennials, that number stood at 26 percent.â??
Thatâ??s obviously almost exactly a 2-1 difference. That will get your attention.
Their all-purpose explanation is that younger women, assume the â??rightâ?? to abortion, and therefore are not as motivated as the activists of the 1960s and 70s were. That is why they continually cry that the sky is falling every time the most modest, commonsense piece of legislation is proposed in order to stimulate synthetic hysteria.
Now itâ??s true that in the very short-term by making even something as commonplace as ultrasounds part of a â??war on women,â?? you can rally the troops and commander an already-compliant media. But over time, you lose credibility. Charging that the requirement that abortionists use an ultrasoundâ??which they virtually all already doâ??is equivalent to â??rapeâ?? insults the intelligence of younger women, not to mention the rest of us.
And a point missed entirely in the interview. Pro-life young people are not just found in the age range of millennialsâ??roughly ages 18-30. Look around at rallies, at oratory contests, at the March for Life, at internship programs sponsored by NRLC affiliates, and, most of all, at pro-life camps, you will see there is entire generation of pro-life youth younger than 18!
If you have twice the intensity and lots more pro-life youth â??in the pipeline,â?? well, no wonder Keenan hopes somebody younger can stem the tide.
There are two other points from the interview that need a comment.
First, Kliff brags up NARALâ??s electoral successes in 2008. That was the year that pro-abortion Democrats did very well. However, were you to analyze the results for 2010, you would find that pro-life Republicans did exceptionally well.
In addition, EMILYâ??s List is the best â??funded pro-abortion PAC. In 2010, National Right to Life Political Action Committee was actively involved in 130 federal races nationwide, winning 88. Of those, twenty candidates were in highly competitive races against candidates supported by EMILYâ??s List.
In fourteen of the twenty head-to-head races (or 70%), the candidate supported by National Right to Life PAC won even though EMILYâ??s List is notorious for raising and spending huge amounts of money in their elections.
Second, according to Kliff, â??States passed a record 92 abortion restrictions in 2011, more than any other year since Roe. The lesson that Keenan took away then, was that elections matter. So do the voters who will soon dominate them.â??
Although NRLâ??s Department of State Legislation has a different and more accurate total, it is quite true that 2010 and 2011 were very good years for pro-lifers in the states. Why? Because of the enormous wave of pro-life state legislators swept into office in November 2010. Elections DO matter.
Keenan tells Kliff that NARAL has lots of ideas in mind for next year when Roe v. Wade turns 40. Fine, so do we. More important, weâ??re reminded in the story that NARAL was founded in 1969.
What is not mentionedâ??but highly relevantâ??is that one of the masterminds of the creation of NARAL was the late Dr. Bernard Nathanson.
Like the plaintiff in Roe v. Wade (Norma McCorvey was the â??Roeâ??), Nathanson became passionately pro-life. The truth conveyed by ultrasounds won over this initially very reluctant convert.
That is why pro-abortionists react so hysterically to ultrasound laws: they bring the truth home in an unmistakable way.
Just as, unintentionally, Keenan does in her interview with Kliff.
Iconic NARAL President Announces Her Intention to Step Down
by Sarah Vrba May 11, 2012
Nancy Keenan was not always known as the strong-willed and determined leader of NARAL. She was once a Montana state legislator and grew up in a small copper-smelting town in Montana before taking her place as the leader of NARAL Pro-Choice America for the last eight years.
NARAL, which was originally founded in 1969, has been at the front of controversial debates about abortion rights in the United States throughout its existence and especially in recent years as new state restrictions on abortions have skyrocketed throughout the country.
Keenan was a central figure in most of these debates, advising President Obamaâ??s deputy chief of staff, Jim Messina, during the healthcare legislation debates a few years ago, defending the pro-choice stance throughout those tense months. Now, Keenan has definitively announced her intention to leave her post as the president of NARAL at the beginning of 2013 when her contract will expire.
As the Washington Post puts it, â??If the pro-choice movement is to successfully defend abortion rights, Keenan contends, it needs more young people in leadership roles, including hers.â?? So Keenan has decided that her effectiveness as president has run its course and she hopes that voters and leaders in their 20s and 30s will take the helm in an effort to create new strategies to strengthen NARALâ??s stance and message.
NARAL, which once served as an acronym for National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, but which is now known as NARAL Pro-Choice America, aims to lobby Congress in order to get representatives elected who support reproductive choice. They also work to elect lawmakers who align with the pro-choice stance, according to their website.
Under Keenanâ??s leadership, the organizationâ??s focus shifted to gaining traction with young voters and activists. As Sarah Kliff puts it, â??Using surveys and focus groups, the organization researched how those who have grown up in an era of legal abortion think about womenâ??s right to choose.â?? It has been a struggle to keep interest intense in issues of reproductive health and choice despite the heated atmosphere surrounding reproductive rights legislation and talking points in this election year.
Many states, such as Arizona, have introduced controversial legislation that limits a womanâ??s access to contraception and abortion options. In the early part of the year, Arizona legislators passed a bill that allows any employer to drop contraceptive coverage for female employees due to religious or moral beliefs, rather than just religious employers. Arizona also banned all abortions after 20 weeks. Virginia was wracked by the controversial transvaginal ultrasound bill, that would have required women wanting an abortion to go through the invasive procedure before getting an abortion. Although that bill was eventually modified, it still brought up questions of female bodily integrity and privacy.
With the departure of the charismatic and determined Keegan, the NARAL website states that, â??The board chairs have appointed a search committee, made up of board members from across the country, to begin the process of identifying a new president.â?? Keenan will remain in her post through the election cycle before relinquishing her leadership role at the end of the year.
She had served as a guest on such shows as the Rachel Maddow Show and spoke out about female reproductive rights and privacy throughout her tenure at NARAL Pro-Choice America.
Planned Parenthood Secretly Breaks Ground On Late Term Ft. Worth Clinic Next To Adoption Center; Contractors Pull Out
Posted by kwalker on May 7, 2012 in Texas for Life, link provided below is the original article.
Some Ft. Worth residents believe this is what happens when Planned Parenthood can’t get their way in Dallas. Others think the location was chosen for other reasons. No matter the strategy, one thing is certain: Planned Parenthood is building a late-term abortion clinic in Ft. Worth - next to a nationally recognized adoption agency.
It began with a simple transaction.
Cerine Management, LLC, formed in 2009, bought a parcel of land in southwest Ft. Worth. The company’s records were vague, showing an association with a defunct but once prestigious architectural firm, Omniplan, via Gray “Tuck” Henry. Elizabeth Solender of Solender Hall Commercial Real Estate, a broker representing Cerine, purchased land from a Ft. Worth man named Dan McDonald, who was told it would be used for an ambulatory surgical center. Solender, an influential League of Women Voters type known among North Texas power politics players and non-profit feminists, specializes in transferring real estate from companies to non-profits.
Rumors began to spread around the Ft. Worth area when a former Planned Parenthood executive converted to Christianity in Denison and told her pastor PP was planning something horrible in Ft. Worth. Pastors, like the rest of us, talk. Her pastor told another pastor, Dr. Michael Dean of Travis Avenue Baptist Church, in the fall of 2011.
Not yet knowing what PP had up their sleeve, or where their big idea might land, Dean contacted The Edna Gladney Center, and together they formed Life Advisory Team to explore the sinister possibility of Planned Parenthood making inroads in southwest Ft. Worth. Unfortunately, PP was too secretive. Before any action was taken, ground was broken.
The general contractor on the 19,377 square foot, two-story job is The DeMoss Co. With long-term ties to Ft. Worth, Jim DeMoss also has ties to Planned Parenthood. His wife Margaret’s name was associated with the 2010 annual PP budget report; she was a fundraiser for their $21 million North Texas campaign, and the Ft. Worth co-chair.
Sources say DeMoss failed to inform his employees what kind of facility they were building. When they found out, he allowed Planned Parenthood to warn them of violent extremists, angry protesters, and the threat of bodily harm, leaving them shaken but committed to staying on the job.
DeMoss has reportedly built many churches in Ft. Worth and surrounding areas for about fifteen years, many of which were featured on his website, including Travis Avenue Baptist. At last look they had been removed from the page, some say at the churches’ request.
Texans for Life has also been told there was no identification anywhere on the plans filed with the municipality that the end result would be a Planned Parenthood center, and not just a center but an ambulatory surgery where late-term abortions can be committed next door to The Edna Gladney Center, a well-known adoption agency. Planned Parenthood has denied any deception and claimed they are forced to operate in secret for fear of violent activism. They have also, according to peaceful boycott members and protesters, installed an alarm triggered to go off if anyone gets too near the curb (for prayer, parking, etc.) that blasts directly into the dormitory wing of the Gladney adoption center, where expectant mothers are housed.
It wasn’t until he was given the address of the new Planned Parenthood site that Tim Pulliam of Pulliam Concrete realized he was on that very job, and scheduled to pour in the morning. He immediately pulled his men and walked away, followed by Tri-Dal, Phillips Electric (saying “We’d rather walk than have anything to do with a job like that”) and other subcontractors. Rone Engineers, founded and run by a Catholic, will do no additional work on the site.
While many, like Pulliam, got involved against their will and want nothing to do with publicity, others are happy to be involved, showing up daily to pray and protest. Pro-life activist Chris Danze is leading the boycott, with help from Texans for Life Coalition and other organizations. A protester holding a sign bearing the face of an aborted fetus last Wednesday reported that a worker leaving the site pointed to it and asked, “Is that what we’re building?” When she replied that it was, he said, “I’m done, I’m not coming back. I’m pro-life so I won’t be working this job anymore.”
Abortions up 24 weeks gestation will be committed at this surgical center once it is completed. Meanwhile, TLC and all of pro-life North Texas ask for your support. If enough outrage and concern is expressed to the DeMoss Co. and whoever steps up to replace them, we can keep this abomination from opening its doors in our community.
Ottawa March for Life photos: On the Hill
by Steve Jalsevac Mon May 14, 2012
OTTAWA, May 14, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) â?? Last Thursdayâ??s March for life was an inspiring event with its record crowd and enthusiastic participants. Here are 48 photos taken on Parliament Hill before and after the march. These photos will be followed by other sets of photos of the March itself and other events during the two days of March for Life activities. See the website version of this story for all the photos.
Photos were taken by Steve Jalsevac, Robert and Sarah Du Broy and Patrick Craine.
Methodist pro-life leader blasts UMC Conference’s continued ties to pro-abortion religious group
by Calvin Freiburger Mon May 14, 2012
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, May 14, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) - The United Methodist Church General Conference 2012 ended May 4 with no change to the church’s association with a pro-abortion religious group, earning a sharp rebuke from Lifewatch president and editor Rev. Paul T. Stallsworth.
The 12 million-member church is currently a member of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, a self-described “leading religious voice for reproductive justice” founded in 1973 to “safeguard the newly-won” legal right to abortion. The RCRC trains and educates abortion advocates from many religious backgrounds. The United Methodists do not donate money to the organization, but their affiliation lends support to its mission statement, and several of the church’s board members attend RCRC meetings.
A petition to end the church’s membership in the coalition passed a legislative committee and sub-committee, but was not given a floor vote.
In a phone interview with LifeSiteNews.com, Rev. Stallsworth said he and other members of his pro-life, pro-family organization “have every reason to believe” pro-life delegates would have won a floor vote, citing the narrow 12-11 subcommittee vote and the wider full committee vote of 42-33 in favor of the petition. He believes conference leaders repeatedly rejected bringing it to the floor out of awareness that popular support for RCRC was lacking.
He predicted that new revelations about who made those decisions would be revealed in the weeks to come.
The abortion fight took a backseat to the contentious issue of same-sex unions. Despite intense lobbying efforts, the convention passed a resolution stating that homosexuality is “incompatible with Christian teaching.”
In a statement , Stallsworth questioned why justice for the unborn was ignored yet the Conference found time to take up debate over church teaching on homosexuality. He also lamented that delegates were not allowed the opportunity to decide for themselves on the measure. Instead, Methodists must wait another four years to change their churchâ??s official stance on abortion.
“During that time, church members and friends will be harmed by the practice of abortion, and others will leave our denomination out of the discouragement that affiliation with RCRC brings many United Methodists,” Stallsworth said. “The Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice will continue to use and abuse our church’s name to advance its pro-choice political agenda. And our denomination’s blank-check endorsement of RCRC’s false and harmful teaching-that the abortion of unborn children, who are created in God’s image, is ‘God’s work’ and ‘holy work’-will remain.”
Stallsworth told LifeSiteNews that he attributes the greater attention given to homosexuality to the “vigorous and aggressive nature of the witness of those who are advancing the revisionist agenda,” who were more likely to be “in-your-face” with traditionalists than pro-life activists.
He also cited the general exhaustion and frustration of attendees, who had spent the rest of the conference working and arguing over other issues.
RCRC has a long history with the United Methodist Church; its first meeting place was the United Methodist Building in Washington, D.C.
Currently, the church favors “the legal option of abortion under proper medical procedures’ and advises the choice to be made - after thoughtful and prayerful consideration by the parties involved, with medical, pastoral, and other appropriate counsel.”
caption for picture ^ “Are we serious about saving unborn lives, ro not?”
We could end abortion ‘overnight’ - if we really wanted to
by Rolley Haggard Mon May 14, 2012
(Breakpoint.org ) - I believe we could end abortion virtually overnight-if we really wanted to.
But much as I hate to say it, it appears we don’t really want to. At least, not badly enough. Permit me to explain.
Going Viral
We live in “the viral generation.” When an idea with universal appeal hits YouTube, practically the whole world knows about it overnight. It’s like a trumpet blast, rallying everyone together all at once.
“Yeah,” you say, “I think I see where you’re headed with this. Problem is, there isn’t ‘universal appeal’ for this issue yet.”
Exactly. But we can fix that.
“Who’s ‘we’” you ask.
The evangelical church, that’s who.
“Yeah? And just how?”
I was afraid you’d never ask. It’s so simple it makes a body ache to think it hasn’t been done yet. Stay with me while I set this up just a little bit more.
A Matter of Priorities
In great measure, we march to the loudest drumbeat. We fall in step with the worldview that commands the most deference and respectability amongst our 70-80 million American evangelical friends and leaders. We give ourselves to what we perceive as God’s highest priorities. So the question becomes, “Do we perceive the battle for the unborn among God’s highest priorities?”
In my opinion, we do not. Because if we did we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
The zeitgeist, the shared consensus, the thread of common consciousness and call to mission that unites and excites and incites most evangelicals to heroic prayer and jackhammer preaching and the kind of sacrificial action from which legends are spawned, is not pro-life activism. It is missions and evangelism and church-planting and other respectable work that, to be sure, is exceedingly high among the great list of kingdom priorities. But it is not the highest.
The Great Commission and the Greater Commission
The aforementioned ministries, important as they are, are not supreme. They conform to the Great Commission, but there is, if you will, a Greater Commission. It is what Christ called “the great and foremost commandment” (Matthew 22:38). It’s called love.
Echoing the words of Christ, the apostle Paul said, “Love is the fulfillment of the law” (Romans 13:10), and “he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law” (v. 8), and “the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, ‘you shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Galatians 5:14)
Important as the Great Commission is, it is not to be performed to the dilution, neglect, or negation of the Greater Commission. If a neighbor’s house is burning down around him, God’s will, God’s priority, is clear: You risk all to save the precious life.
Who among us can’t see the holocaust engulfing the unborn? The house is burning down around our little neighbor and we consider it merely “important.”
But the pro-life cause is not “important.” It is crucial. You’ve heard of “damning with faint praise.” Well, what we’ve been doing is “damning with half-hearted action.”
You don’t tell a patient, “It is ‘important’ for you to keep breathing.” If you don’t breathe, you die. It is crucial that we do every lawful (and I stress the word lawful) thing possible to end abortion. If we don’t, they die. And you know what? For all practical purposes, so do we (see Revelation 3:1).
Over 50 million children have been aborted in America under sanction of federal law since Roe v. Wade. Fifty million.
If we honored each of those 50 million human beings with a single minute of silence, we would remain speechless for over 95 years. How about instead of remaining speechless as, to our everlasting shame we have done now for 39 years, we open our mouths and blow the trumpet?
If I Have All Faith, but Have Not Love . . .
Too many of us are preoccupied with “ministry.” The entire law, the whole duty of Christians, is summarized in one word: love. “Ministry,” if it is not the incarnation of love for people, is unlikely to be able to look straight into the eyes of Love Incarnate on the Coming Day and survive the realization that to do everything else in life well but fail in this one, all-important point, is to fail in all. Read Matthew 25:31ff again-“for the first time.”
Let’s quit “straddling both sides of the fence” on this. Where do we stand? The all-revealing test is easy to perform. Just ask yourself, “If it were my child they were going to put to death, what would I do?”
Preacher, missionary, Christian worker-if it was your child they were going to put to death under sanction of a perverse and evil law, what would you do?
Bottom Line
Well, enough browbeating. And no, I’m not apologizing for it. As someone said, if the truth hurts, it should. But we need to move on to the “how to.” I said we could end abortion virtually overnight. Here’s how we can “go viral” with this.
If every Sunday, in every pulpit, in every evangelical church across America, ministers would devote one minute-one minute-to decrying the evil of abortion on demand, such universal solidarity within the ranks of Christian leadership would accomplish two things, maybe three.
First, it would dispel ambiguity and send a clear signal to every pew-sitting believer that this is a top-line priority with God, not a fine-print codicil, not “one more good thing that Christians ought to do when they have time.”
Second, it would foster unanimity amongst all believers-at least on this one all-important issue-and enable us together to render unto God what is God’s (i.e., sufficient advocacy at the ballot box to get Roe overturned) while at the same time rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar’s-which, don’t forget, includes the advice and consent of “the governed.”
And third, maybe, just maybe the voice of conscience would become less easily ignored by those outside the church and we would see abortion on demand outlawed, not only in America, but around the world-“overnight.”
But it’s a big “if.” After all, how many ministers can spare a whole minute?
When we talk about being “pro-life,” it’s not just about a political issue. It’s a worldview . . . it’s a life-view.
It’s a way of looking at each human life that transcends culture, class, race, age and opinion, knowing that we are all uniquely created in the image of God.
The sanctity of human life speaks to ancient questions that span all of time, and every culture – questions like, “Who is God? Who am I? Who is my neighbor?”
When we begin to see others as God sees them, we’re moved to care more deeply about those created in His image.
Sex exhibition aimed at teens set to open in Ottawa museum
by Thaddeus Baklinski Tue May 15, 2012
OTTAWA, May 15, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A sex exhibit opening this week at the Canada Science and Technology Museum is receiving heat from conservative commentators, who say that, despite its claims of being “scientific” and objective, it is disturbingly explicit and promotes a vision of sexuality that is anything but moral.
Conservative journalist Patrick Meagher, who recently attended a preview of “Sex: A Tell-All Exhibition,” told LifeSiteNews that included in it are graphic presentations of masturbation, nudity, and condom use.
“The exhibit includes nude images and an animated video of masturbation. Other videos include a woman who says she approves of multiple partners, a young woman who shares sexual favours among friends, and a video on sexual orientation in which not one of the 12 people interviewed are heterosexual,” Meagher said.
“Another station answers questions on what to do about an unwanted pregnancy. The option of adoption or keeping the child is not mentioned. The advice is to have an abortion as soon as possible.”
According to Meagher, when asked why such a heavy focus on sex for children, the museum’s director of public affairs, Yves St.-Onges, said that experts have found that the earlier you tell children about sex the later they will engage in sex.
“When immediately told that his conclusion was not true and that research says the opposite,” Meagher observed, “St.-Onges had nothing to say.”
The exhibit was created by Louise Bertrand at the Montreal Science Centre in 2010 and had a short stint in Regina before moving to Ottawa. While the Montreal Museum opened the exhibit without restrictions to adolescents 12 and older, according to its website the Ottawa museum will require that youth under 16 be accompanied by an adult. The exhibit is scheduled to remain at the museum until January 2013.
Bertrand was quoted by the Ottawa Citizen to say the reason behind the creation of the exhibit was that children do not get correct sex information.
(Watch an introductory video about the exhibit here .)
“We felt we had to give them the right information, because what they have access to is the web or the schoolyard” with information “that is maybe a bit doubtful. So the science centre is a safe place to learn about sex,” Bertrand said.
A Q&A on the museum’s website says the exhibit “imparts what science has to say on the topic, conveys a positive image of sexuality and, ultimately, helps young people hone their judgment skills so they can make responsible and informed decisions.”
But Barbara Kay of the National Post said she has “no idea why this exhibition was thought to be necessary. Our children are bombarded by sexual content in their lives from a too-early age. Some of it is informative and appropriate; much of it is intrusive and unwholesome. The last thing students need is more sexual graphics, more full-frontal life-size nudity, another invitation to early experimentation.”
Kay observed, “Unlike animal sex, human sex is a private activity. When it goes public, it is always a trigger to the prurient side of our natures. Please, Mr. Sophisticated Curator, don’t tell us this is ‘educational.’ Where I come from, that’s soft porn.”
Conservative blogger John Pacheco of Socon or Bust is urging concerned people to call or email the museum’s acting director, Luc Fournier.
“As a scientific exhibit, the museum has irresponsibly represented moral issues as scientific fact,” Pacheco wrote. “Nowhere does this exhibit express a Christian perspective of sexuality, that of procreation within marriage, never mind the fact that many of us find contraception, masturbation and homosexuality to be gravely, morally offensive, - topics which are highlighted in this exhibit.”
“We urge you to send an email to Luc Fournier at lfournier@technomuses.ca to file a complaint about this exhibit and forward this email to friends and family. The museum needs to hear that we don’t want our children exposed to this!”
Contact Information:
Canada Science and Technology Museum
P.O. Box 9724, Station T
Ottawa, Ontario K1G 5A3
Phone: 613 991-6090
Fax: 613 990-3636
Luc Fournier, Acting Director
Email: lfournier@technomuses.ca
Denise Amyot, President and CEO
Email: damyot@technomuses.ca
James Moore, Canadian Heritage Minister
(responsible for the Canada Science and Technology Museum Corporation)
Email: min.moore@pch.gc.ca
This story is from Australia. I feel sympathy for these women having contracted a disease, yet in all honesty they had their own children torn apart. The gestational age of the child or time of the abortion is rather irrelevant, they have done something heinous. However I will never be their Judge.
50 women who contracted hepatitis C at late-term abortion facility launch class action suit
by Jason Rushton, Australia correspondent Wed May 16, 2012
MELBOURNE, Australia, May 16, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Fifty women who contracted the hepatitis C virus or are carrying the hepatitis C antibody after undergoing a procedure at the notorious Croydon Day Surgery in Melbourne have launched a class action in the Supreme Court of Victoria.
Law firm Slater & Gordon filed the lawsuit against anesthetist Dr James Latham Peters, the director of the former Croydon Day Surgery Dr. Mark Schulberg, and the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency.
It is believed to be the first time that a personal injury class action has been lodged against a medical practitioner regulator in Australia.
The 50 women in the class action had all been diagnosed with the virus or the antibody after attending the Croydon Day Surgery between January 2008 and December 2009.
Dr. Peters was the anesthetist for all 50 women when they attended the clinic.
Peters was suspended by the Medical Practitioners Board of Victoria (MPBV) in February 2010 after he was placed under police investigation.
Slater & Gordon practice group leader Julie Clayton said: “It is extraordinary that these 50 women contracted the hepatitis C virus or hepatitis C antibody over a period of almost 2 years as a result of procedures performed in the one clinic. We can’t see how this could occur if reasonable infection control procedures were followed.”
“These women have been infected with the same strain of hepatitis C as that of the performing anaesthetist. We believe that this demonstrates that there has been a very serious breach of basic medical standards,” Ms. Clayton said.
Ms. Clayton said the MPBV (now assumed into the Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency) was responsible for overseeing Dr. Peters’ medical registration and failed in its duty to minimize the community’s exposure to health risks.
Peters, 62, who now works as a courier, is separately facing 162 criminal charges related to the infections. His committal hearing will resume on Monday.
A court heard last year that the prosecution would allege that Peters used needles to inject himself before using them on his patients. He is also alleged to have been aware that he had the virus for more than 10 years previously.
Peters had treated around 3500 women since he began work at the surgery in 2006, nearly all of whom were tested by the Victorian Health Department by May last year. Peters had also worked at the Fertility Control Clinic in East Melbourne, St Albans Endoscopy Centre and the Western Day Surgery. None of his patients at these other clinics tested positive to hepatitis C that could be linked to him.
Peters had a history of illicitly injecting himself with painkillers, and in 1996 he was convicted and given a suspended jail term for forging prescriptions for an opioid for himself and his wife. In 2009 Peters was charged with possessing child pornography.
The class action is not expected to be heard for another twelve months.
The lead plaintiff and all women involved in the class action litigation will remain anonymous.
Ms. Clayton said compensation was being sought for pain and suffering, medical expenses, and any loss of income.
The Croydon Day Surgery was set up in Melbourne in 1998 by David Grundmann and Mark Schulberg - the only two Australian doctors known to perform late-term abortions. It originally performed abortions up to 19 weeks. Sometime before 2004, the clinic started performing abortions after 20 weeks. A woman died after having “a procedure” there last December. On Australia Day this year (January 26) the clinic announced it would no longer perform late-term abortions.
In August 2011, a 40-year-old woman was left fighting for her life in a nearby hospital after Dr. Schulberg performed a late-term abortion on her.
In 2010, Dr Schulberg was found guilty of inappropriately prescribing painkillers. In 2009 he was found guilty of unprofessional conduct for failing to gain legal consent to perform a late-term abortion on an intellectually disabled woman. The abortion was organized by the woman’s father, who was later jailed for her rape.
In 2008, it was reported that Schulberg performed 2000 abortions per year. However, despite his sordid history, Schulberg continues to practice as a GP at a in Hawthorne East.
Meanwhile, a nurse at the Croydon clinic, Carol Ann Richards, 68, has faced court after allegedly disclosing information about the police investigation to a person under investigation at the centre.
Abortion Regret / 1393 Personal testimonies from women (and men) who have gone through an abortion.
I was 29 years old, and had just moved across country for a new job. I was scared, and alone. And I knew the minute I landed in my new city, the decision to move had been a huge mistake. But I was there, and had no money to move back home. I’d have to just make it work. As time wore on, I felt increasingly alone and depressed. Nights were spent at home, alone, usually with a bottle of wine. I was living in a two story building with windows overlooking the apartments next door. I had been there about 2 months and had noticed a very nice looking guy next door. We had spoken a couple of times in the parking lot and he seemed nice enough. One night, I decided to take the bold step of introducing myself. Encouraged by the half bottle of wine I had consumed, I grabbed an unopened bottle and headed next door. It didn’t take long for us to go through with it. He was nice and warm and, needless to say, very willing to relieve me of my loneliness. Trouble was, because of my move, my prescription for my pills had run out about a month earlier, and I hadn’t bothered to get a new one. But I wouldn’t worry about that, it’d be OK. About 4 weeks later, I knew something wasn’t right. I was out of town on a business trip and couldn’t keep anything down, especially in the morning. Sure enough, I got back home, went to the doctor, and he confirmed my suspicions. Funny thing is, I remember how happy I was. I remember smiling, and thinking, “I’m going to have a baby!” The next thing the doctor said was, “We can set up an appointment for you next week; we’ll take care of everything.” That’s when the reality set in. Of course he was right, he was “the doctor.” I was unmarried, couldn’t even remember the name of the “father,” and there was no way I was going to try to explain this to my mother, 1400 miles away. I couldn’t lay this at her feet and expect her forgiveness.
I remember driving up to the building to keep “my appointment”. Somehow, I managed to get through the whole thing. I was by myself, no one went with me. I’m strong, I knew I could do it, and then everything would be OK, back to normal. When the doctor was done, he came into the room, smiling, to announce everything went just fine… “Oh and, by the way, it was a boy”. That was the moment I realize I had just aborted my son. I had just killed the little boy that was to have been my son. That was 30 years ago. I still hear the doctor’s voice. I still see myself driving home, stunned by what I had just done. I still remember the irony of calling my mother later that same day just to hear her voice. And I still remember that two days after “my procedure” was Mother’s Day. I am a Christian, and have been all of my life. I take full responsibility for my actions 30 years ago. No one made that decision but me. I have prayed for forgiveness, and know that it has been granted by my Heavenly Father. But, I can’t find it in my heart to forgive myself. I probably never will. Know this… if you are considering abortion, the consequences of the decision you make today will be with you your entire life. You don’t get a do over. Know that you are aborting a living being, a child, no matter how young the fetus is. You may be strong enough to go through the procedure, but the pain you will live with the rest of your life will drive you to your knees. You’d think after 30 years I would have dealt with it. I keep trying.
Former abortionist now head of one of the largest pro-life medical practices in the U.S.
by Patrick B. Craine Fri Mar 04, 2011
FAIRFAX, Virginia, March 3, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - This week the pro-life community celebrated the life of the great Dr. Bernard Nathanson, famed for his dramatic conversion from a leading abortionist to a stalwart and outspoken advocate for children in the womb.
Dr. Nathansonâ??s passing reminds us of the powerful testimony of the dozens of doctors who have left the squalor of their abortion facilities and committed themselves to life-giving and authentic health care.
Dr. John Bruchalski is one of these doctors. A former abortionist in his ob/gyn residency, the 50-year-old Virginia native has now become a leading light in pro-life medicine. Through his unique Tepeyac Family Center, one of the largest free-standing pro-life medical practices in the country, Dr. Bruchalskiâ??s team offers a safe haven for women in crisis pregnancies, spreading hope through authentic health care that respects the natural processes of the womanâ??s body, the right to life of the unborn child, and the eternal end of the motherâ??s soul.
â??How do you combine the best of modern medicine with the healing presence of Jesus Christ? Thatâ??s what weâ??re about,â?? he told LifeSiteNews.
â??More abortion, more destructionâ??
Though raised in a devout Catholic family, Bruchalski says he began his exit from the faith when he left for Catholic college. There, he was taken in by professors and friends who claimed that the Catholic Church can change with the culture - that its teachings on divorce, homosexual marriage, abortion, and contraception would eventually conform to the pervading cultural values.
â??It became a non-issue - you could still be a great Catholic and choose to dissent from particular Church teachings,â?? he said.
By the time he entered medical school in 1983 at the University of South Alabama, contraception and abortion seemed to him â??the way to promote health and happiness and wholeness in a womanâ??s reproductive life.â?? Aiming to be the best gynecologist he could, he learned the different methods for abortion, sterilization, and artificial reproduction, and began providing them during residency.
But he began to have doubts. â??I didnâ??t see happiness or joy in my clinics,â?? he explained. â??Wherever I had more abortion, more contraception, there were more broken relationships, more infections, more destruction, more brokenness.â??
â??I didnâ??t know what to do because the professors were saying â??Well, we just need more education, more contraception, more abortion to answer these questions,â??â?? he added.
â??A better way to practice medicineâ??
Bruchalski first felt the call back to the faith of his childhood right before beginning his residency, when a friend convinced him to take a trip to Guadalupe in Mexico City. He says there he heard Our Lady of Guadalupe - whom Catholics revere as the patroness of the unborn - ask him, â??Why are you hurting me?â??
Yet he wasnâ??t ready to respond. â??I kind of put that in the back of my mind,â?? he said.
Then two years later, between the 2nd and 3rd year of residency, his mother took him on a pilgrimage to Medjugorje in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where many Catholics believe Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, has been appearing since 1981.
He says the pilgrimage reawakened the great love for Christ and Mary that his parents had nurtured in him during his childhood. â??It was the simplicity of the messages of getting back to conversion,â?? he explained. â??And then I had an experience there with a young woman from Belgium who was there praying for the pro-life cause. She told me she had a message for me about Our Lady and began telling me things about my life.â??
â??It was life changing for me.â??
When he got home, he told his professor that he could no longer commit abortions or sterilizations, though he expressed shame to LifeSiteNews that it took him a year to fully extricate himself from these anti-life procedures.
He began reading the works of Pope John Paul II, particularly the popeâ??s landmark addresses on the theology of the body. He learned about natural family planning under the mentoring of Dr. Thomas Hilgers, the Couple to Couple League, Mercedes Wilson and Family of the Americas, and Dr. Hannah Klaus. And he studied the exciting advances in natural reproductive technology pioneered by Dr. Hilgers, who founded the Pope Paul VI Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction in Omaha, Nebraska.
â??When I came home, I was given the grace not only to see myself as I really was - you know, my whole life passed before me - but I actually saw that … there was a better way to practice medicine,â?? he explained. â??The approach to reproductive health was the polar opposite to what Planned Parenthood was saying. Thatâ??s what Our Lady told me my role was going to be.â??
Creating a loving atmosphere where abortion becomes unthinkable
He put that vision of medicine into practice in 1994 when he founded the Tepeyac Family Center with his wife in the basement of his house. The obstetric and gynecological medical facility now boasts six pro-life physicians and one nurse practitioner.
Based on a Catholic vision of health care, the Center promotes health practices that respect the natural rhythm of the womanâ??s cycle and the sanctity of human life. They advocate natural family planning as opposed to contraceptives, and in cases of infertility they focus on treating the underlying causes rather than using assisted reproductive technologies like in vitro fertilization.
â??We believe that health is based on the relationships found in community, and we believe that if we love enough in medicine we can create a loving atmosphere where abortion becomes unthinkable,â?? he said. â??Almost like an abortion-free zone.â??
â??Our approach is that we hate the disease but love the patient, especially the weakest of our brothers and sisters,â?? he added.
They are the only practice in the country offering full obstetrical care for patients from crisis pregnancy centers, and they have a special dedication to welcoming the poor. Of the over 700 babies they delivered in 2009, 30% of the mothers did not have commercial insurance.
â??As we tried to be a for-profit practice, … the Blessed Mother kept saying, â??You must see the poor in your daily life to be rewarded,â??â?? Dr. Bruchalski said. â??Itâ??s one thing to try to be a pro-life practice, itâ??s another thing to try to see the poor in your pro-life practice.â??
â??The renewal of medicine is going to involve both social justice - seeing the poor - and the Gospel of life. Itâ??s both/and, not either/or,â?? he said. â??You canâ??t be an NFP-only doctor. You must serve the underserved. And if you serve the underserved, in order to provide excellent cooperative medicine that treats the disease but loves the patient you have to have the basis for natural family planning in your practice.â??
The Tepeyac Family Center now operates under an umbrella organization called Divine Mercy Care, which raises funds and heightens awareness through educational programs. Their network of services includes a perinatal hospice, and in coming years they hope to offer a family practice, pediatric care, and a mental health program.
â??Ideally, we would like to be a city on a hill, where you have a multi-specialty group that is dedicated to the healing and the wholeness and the healthiness of the human person in body, soul, and spirit,â?? he explained. â??A medical facility and a medical system where the human person is respected as heâ??s made in the image and likeness of our God.â??
Though their services are available to people of any creed or culture, he said they believe that through medicine they can offer patients â??the happiness, and wholeness, and healthiness that comes with coming to a deeper sense of the sacred in their own life.â??
Offering hope for life with a child
Dr. Bruchalski said his experience working with abortion-minded women has shown him the need to focus on offering women hope for life with their child, rather than emphasizing adoption or images of fetal development.
â??You can show women fetal development and many of them it doesnâ??t phase,â?? he said. â??Remember the fetus, the baby, the unborn child is an adversary to the woman, itâ??s going to cramp her life.â??
Abortion-minded women see adoption, on the other hand, as a â??double negative,â?? he says. â??Not only are you not qualified to be a mother and care for the child, but you have to give the child up,â?? he explained. â??They hate that choice, so for them the abortion becomes the best alternative, the least terrible of those options.â??
â??You really have to focus on [the fact] that there is life after having a child, that there is a way out of your predicament,â?? he said. â??Just meeting women where they are by being able to listen to their pain and their agony and their suffering, and then love them so much that we walk them through this.â??
Practicing the theology of the body
The Center has a special focus on implementing John Paul IIâ??s theology of the body, which Dr. Bruchalski says was â??revolutionary for relationships, for medicine, and for families.â??
He said oneâ??s approach to medicine is profoundly impacted â??if you believe that the story in Genesis is real and that we were created in the image and likeness of God, and that men and women are complementary - that we were not meant to be alone - and that our bodies speak a language to us, our actions, and that to love God and to love neighbor is what weâ??ve been called to do.â??
â??The theology of the body in medicine means that you cooperate with the body, you donâ??t repress it,â?? he explained. â??You focus on health, not disease. You donâ??t treat desires, you treat the disease. You donâ??t treat people like products. … You donâ??t try to go to the best doctor who creates the healthiest babies with the best techniques. Because weâ??re more than products, weâ??re people.â??
â??We are just now developing the wording and the language of translating [the theology of the body] from the religious and the anthropological to the medical and the scientific,â?? he added.
Spreading the Gospel of life in medicine
Divine Mercy Care hopes to inspire and mentor other health care professionals to take up the Gospel of life in their practice. In February and March Bruchalskiâ??s spending two weeks on a speaking tour to 22 medical schools in 19 states with Medical Students for Life.
â??At the heart, abortion is a medical procedure,â?? he said. â??We need to inspire doctors to step out in faith and become the men and women that Godâ??s called them to be.â??
His conversion experience shows that â??no one is beyond Godâ??s mercy, no one, no one,â?? he said. â??I was doing the abortions because I believed it was the lesser of two evils, … yet I realized that people were just more broken after the procedure. There might have been a brief respite from the stress and strain, but most relationships broke up after the abortion.â??
â??The mercy of God was what truly penetrated my heart.â??
This video was posted here last week. Things are changing in the world as people see the true actions and lives of those effected with the horrendous nature of abortion. Included are the types of “people” who support the supposed choices.
Video of mom who refused abortion for disabled son approaches staggering [u]10 million views[/u]
by Peter Baklinski
WOODBURY, Tennessee, May 16, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A video of a young mom who says she did the right thing by choosing life for her severely disfigured son has been viewed by almost 10 million people around the world. The viewer count is shared between YouTube, where the video has been watched 1.5 million times, GodVine, which has recorded 8 million views, and GodTube, where the video has 76,000 views.
In her video Lacey Buchanan from Woodbury, Tennessee chronicles the story of her baby Christian, who was born with an extremely rare condition known as Tessier cleft that caused severe deformity of his mouth, soft palate, and bony elements of his face. He was also born blind with soft fleshy spots covering his eye sockets.
“This video is about my son Christian, and the decision I made to give him life, when others were telling me to abort him. He is an amazing little boy who has God all over him and I want to share him with the world!,” she writes in the description of the video.
In the low-key video made using her iphone, Lacey holds up written messages to the camera. Christian is resting on his mother’s chest with his back to the camera. At the end of the video, a beaming Lacey turns the sleeping Christian around for the viewer to see him for the first time.
Lacey wrote on her blog that she was inspired to make the video after watching a similar video on YouTube about a young woman named Lizzie, who had a rare syndrome that distorted her facial features and interfered with her ability to gain weight. Lizzie used flashcards to cover her face during the video and only revealed her face at the end.
“This video inspired me so much because I can relate to knowing how it feels to look different,” wrote Lacey on her blog. “It may not be me that looks different, but the stares at my son hurt no less than if they were at me. I thought about how devastated I would be if someone said something to my Christian like they said to Lizzie, that the world would be better without him in it.”
The judgmental comments and stares that Lacey and her son received when they travelled together in public is what convinced the mom to make a video that showed people how seeing through the eyes of love can change everything.
“So I decided that I have a story to tell, too,” she wrote.
One day during her lunch break at work, Lacey sat down and wrote out the messages on pieces of paper cut from a notebook.
“The plan rolled around in my head for the rest of the day, and when I got home that night, I sat down at my computer and ran through a practice video once. Then I grabbed my Christian and we made the video that I posted.”
Lacey first posted the video on YouTube where it reached 600 views the first night. Then, after a friend’s suggestion, she uploaded the video to GodTube where it received 20,000 hits before midnight.
In the next four days the hits doubled to 40,000 hits.
Last Saturday, the video had received over 6 million hits.
“When I was sitting at Vanderbilt Children’s 14 months ago, I thought my life was over,” wrote Lacey. “Little did I know that it was only just the beginning.”
"I was so wrapped up in my own problems that I couldn’t see what God was unfolding. Now that it is unfolding, I am just sitting back and being in awe of everything.
“I don’t think I’ve done anything special, and I am definitely not special. It is Christ in me that is so special. He is the one who gives me my joy, my happiness, my love, my peace. Without Christ, I’m positive that I would not have been able to handle everything I’ve been through this past year. I give all the credit and honor to God! He has sustained me for the last 2 years through the pregnancy, birth, and raising of Christian. How awesome is that God we serve that He has not only seen me through this, He has made us victorious.”
Lacey says that she has received messages from people around the world who say that they will now choose life if ever faced with a decision similar to hers.
“God is using Christian to save people!,” she wrote.
“I have had people tell me that they felt sorry for themselves until they saw the video, and now they are thankful that their life was brought into prospective. God is using Christian to bring true joy to people and show them to throw off self pity!”
Lacey wrote about how she used to worry about bringing Christian out in public. She worried about putting him into a baby show. But now with her son in the spotlight, her worries have vanished.
“You better believe now that I will walk Christian out on that stage with the biggest smile on my face and be the proudest mama you’ve ever seen. God is using Christian to show what true beauty is!”
Lacey believes that God his using her son to spread the message of the Gospel across the entire world.
“I have had national news media contact me for interviews, one station planning to follow me around next week to film a day in the life of me and Christian, we are on multiple online news outlets, and our video has been watched over 6 million times. God has shown me that if I will listen to Him, He will do exceedingly more than I could imagine!”
“I am absolutely blown away by the response that the video has had,” she wrote. “I never imagined it would be this big, but I have definitely learned a lesson in not underestimating God’s ability to use people.”
“I am humbled and awestruck with the fact that God is using my son to fulfill His purpose! I just can’t wait to see how He uses Christian in the future!”
Maine defunds Planned Parenthood
by Ben Johnson Fri May 18, 2012
AUGUSTA, MAINE, May 18, 2012, - The state of Maine has defunded family planning services, depriving an organization affiliated with Planned Parenthood of $400,000.
Governor Paul LePage, a Republican, signed a budget Wednesday morning designed to erase the state’s $83 million shortfall. One of the structural changes deprived Family Planning Association of Maine of $400,000 in taxpayer revenues.
Maine Right to Life Committee was enthusiastic about the change. In an alert posted on its website Wednesday, MRTLC stated , “In final votes last night, the Senate passed the budget 19-14 and the House approved it 75-61. Governor Paul LePage signed the budget this morning. As you know, the Governor’s 2013 budget defunds Family Planning Association of Maine and Planned Parenthood in the amount of $400,000.”
Planned Parenthood of Northern New England’s website explained the difference between PPNNE and Maine FPA. “Think of us as a family tree with different branches and leaves,” its website states . “In Maine, the Family Planning Association of Maine (Maine FPA) provides technical assistance, statewide lobbying, performs grants management functions, trains physicians to provide abortions, and provides family planning services in Augusta.”
“This is a great day for Maine’s unborn and their mothers, who are better served by providers not compromised by the wholesale destruction of innocent human life. Abortion is not healthcare,” Maine Right to Life stated. “We believe Maine women and their children deserve better.”
Governor LePage also approved the budget. His spokeswoman,Adrienne Bennett, stated, “The governor’s encouraged the Republicans are making some of these structural changes that will move Maine forward.”
The state’s liberal and feminist forces disagreed.
Eliza Townsend of the Maine Women’s Lobby said , “The programs that were slashed today are effective, proven strategies that improve public health, reduce unwanted pregnancies, prepare young children to learn, allow low-income parents to earn a living, and support our most fragile elderly. Cutting spending in these areas is shortsighted and fiscally irresponsible.”
â??What the debate demonstrates is the difference between the parties,â?? said Sen. Philip Bartlett II, D-Gorham, a critic of the move.
In addition to the defunding Maine PFA, the new budget would take 19- and 20-year-olds off the state’s Medicaid rolls, and shrink its Head Start and prescription drug budget.
The state’s fiscal year ends June 30. Because of the vote margin, these reforms will not take place until mid-August.
Maine Right to Life Committee is asking all readers to send Governor LePage a note of appreciation:
Governor Paul LePage
The Blaine House
192 State St.
Augusta, ME 04330
I thought I was pro-life but God told me I had the ‘spirit of abortion’
by Peter Baklinski Fri May 18, 2012
PUEBLO, Colorado, May 18, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Sarah Nelson, 22, was going through a challenging chapter in her faith journey in 2001 as she served in leadership at a successful megachurch in Denver, Colorado. She and her fiancee Brennon loved their church and the fellowship it provided, but Sarah could not shake off the feeling there was something missing.
At her Christian church, one thing that was impressed upon her was that abortion was wrong. For as long as she can remember, Sarah had always considered herself “very pro-life and absolutely against abortion.”
One day, while praying for an end to abortion on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade which legalized the killing of babies in the womb in 1973, Sarah suddenly experienced the voice of God saying to her:
You have the spirit of abortion.
The young woman remembers being stunned. “How could this accusation be true,” she remembers reasoning vehemently with God, when she was clearly against the horrible crime of ending an innocent life in a mother’s womb?
Again, Sarah experienced the convicting voice of God:
You have the spirit of abortion in you because you do not value children as you ought. You see them as a burden and something that would inconvenience your life.
As Sarah pondered the word she had received, it dawned on her that God was entirely right. She had believed that it was wrong to kill children through abortion, but she now realized that a deeply rooted contraceptive mentality within her had prejudiced her to not really value children or to even desire them.
“Up to that point, I had had no exposure to the perspective of contraception as a moral evil,” Sarah told LifeSiteNews. Growing up, I was extremely familiar with the fact that as couples were counseled for marriage in church, it was the assumption across the board that to be a ‘prudent newly wed couple’, you must contracept, and preferably for at least two years in order to establish a ‘stable marriage’."
“Rarely were children talked about in terms of ‘abundance and overflowing joy’. In some circles it was strongly suggested that couples limit their family size for the good of God. Many couples saw two children as plenty.”
“I was not really open to having children, nor had I been encouraged to be so from my church leadership. From this flowed the natural conclusion that contraception was fine. And if contraception was fine, then I could see how the logic worked that allowed abortion (God forbid) to be fine because it got rid of an ‘inconvenience.’”
“I was horrified as I suddenly and instantly knew the horrible truth: being closed to life through contraception actually leads to the reality and horror of abortion.”
It was with sadness that Sarah realized that she had become a victim of the logic of contraception without even realizing it. “And sadly, this was where I had been up till that day,” she recounted.
As a consequence of her humbling experience with God, Sarah turned to the Catholic Church for answers and eventually became Catholic along with her now-husband Brennon. They now have two children and are hoping for more.
To this day, over a decade later, it fills Sarah with sadness that many of her friends cannot see what she calls the “real beauty of sexual union and the beauty of being totally open to the gift of life”. Nonetheless, she and her husband will hardly let an opportunity pass by to challenge their friends to think about the dimension of gift that is inherent in sexual union and that entails an openness to life.
“The gift God has given us, the ability to procreate with him, why would we not want to be part of that?,” the couple often asks their friends.
Sarah says that she will be forever grateful for the day that “God opened my eyes wide to this truth and I truly became pro-life. I’ll never forget that day. It is very much seared into my memory.”
