Pro-Life Advocates Urged to Renew Efforts Against Abortion After Election Loss

Life News ^ | 11/5/08 | Steven Ertelt

[wagglebee]

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Several pro-life leaders are hoping the majority of Americans who take a pro-life position on abortion will re-charge and re-energize following Tuesday night's election defeats. They say the pro-life movement must prepare themselves to take on a pro-abortion president and renew educational efforts.

"We have long known that the work of advancing a culture of life is not a short-term project," Americans United for Life president Charmaine Yoest told LifeNews.com.

"Recall that William Wilberforce fought against the slave trade for 45 years before he ultimately prevailed in his defense of life," she said.

"In 2008, it is clear that, despite the challenges still remaining, the pro-life message is steadily gaining ground," Yoest contends. "Momentum in the states has enabled us to make significant gains in protecting women and unborn children. Young people today self-report as pro life at a higher rate than their parents' generation."

After the elections, Father Frank Pavone spoke of a "great mistake" but an "abiding hope."

"Americans have made a grave mistake in electing Barack Obama to the presidency," he said. "Yet America herself remains great and is not a mistake, which is why so many of her citizens will continue, with even greater energy and determination, to defend her founding principles."

Pavone urged the pro-life community to rally together to oppose the coming Obama administration's efforts to roll back pro-life laws.

"The pro-life movement has made significant gains in the courts and in the law in these last eight years. For the next four, the movement will work to prevent the erosion of that progress," he said.

Bradley Mattes, the director of Life Issues Institute, encouraged pro-life groups and advocates to focus on education with the reality that legislative goals of ending abortion are now stalled.

“With federal legislation no longer an option for a minimum of two years, pro-life education is absolutely central and critical to our future efforts of ending abortion," he told LifeNews.com.

"The key to countering this devastating political loss is to change the hearts and minds of Americans on abortion and related life issues. That can only be done through effective pro-life education," he added.

Troy Newman, the president of Operation Rescue said he thinks the pro-life movement will ultimately prevail.

"Yesterday's losses are just a speed bump on the road to victory for the innocent," he told LifeNews.com. "Overall, Americans are more pro-life than ever before. Election cycles tend to be cyclical, and we are confident that we will once again have our day."

"These setbacks will only energize us. The fight is on," Newman explained. "We will continue to work though every available legal means to stop abortion. The person occupying the White House will not diminish that work."

"Now is not the time for discouragement, but a time to roll up our sleeves and continue the fight, having peace knowing that the results in God's hands and, ultimately, victory is assured," he concluded.

[wagglebee]

Planned Barrenhood will NEVER understand that most people do not derive pleasure from the slaughter of innocent life.

Thread by me.

Planned Parenthood Prez Falsely Says Election Means Catholics Pro-Abortion

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The president of Planned Parenthood claims the election results showing a majority of Catholics supported pro-abortion candidate Barack Obama means Catholics now support abortion. However, Cecille Richards' contention doesn't square with the most recent polling results showing Catholics pro-life...

[Sun]

Thanx for notifying your ping list.

Father West has a great blog, and some of you might want to visit it from time to time:

http://frwest.blogspot.com/

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[wagglebee]

Lauren Richardson Update

This is some of the best news I've heard in a long time!

Potential Euthanasia Victim Lauren Richardson Saved, Parents Reconcile

Dover, DE (LifeNews.com) -- Delaware resident Lauren Richardson nearly became a euthanasia victim this summer as her mother and father feuded over her life that reminded observers of the debate over Terri Schiavo. Richardson is a 24-year-old woman who overdosed on heroin in August 2006 while she was three months pregnant with a baby girl.

Doctors kept Lauren on life support until she delivered her baby in February 2007. Shortly thereafter, her parents began a fight over whether she should live or die.

Randy Richardson is battling Edith Towers, Lauren's mother, who wants to remove her feeding tube and starve and dehydrate her to death in the same manner that Michael Schiavo subjected Terri.

However, on Wednesday, attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund, a pro-life law firm, told LifeNews.com they reached a favorable settlement.

Because of religious conviction and heartfelt interaction with her ex-husband’s family, Towers decided to join cooperatively with Richardson’s father to care for their daughter and to drop her court request to remove Richardson’s feeding tube and water.

“Everyone deserves a chance to recover. Life should be protected—not destroyed,” ADF attorney Matt Bowman told LifeNews.com. “This change of heart and settlement has profoundly affected everyone involved. The miracle of life is not something that should be taken lightly.”

ADF indicates that a reconciliation between the parents ensued in September 2008 and they have now decided to settle the case, share joint guardianship of their daughter, and to care for Lauren at Randy Richardson’s Maryland home.

Bowman told LifeNews.com that Lauren is responsive enough to have cried over the news that her parents were getting back together.

"Lauren Richardson wept emotionally when her mother informed her of the settlement and the reconciliation of her parents, confirming to the mother that her daughter was aware and responsive," he said. "Both parents and their families continue to interact with her daily."

...

[wagglebee]

This is one of the most touching things I've ever seen, true love in action.

Man and Wife Attends to Paralyzed Ex-Girlfriend for 34 Years

Thread by RGPII.

“We will be here for you,” said Han Huimin to his paralyzed ex girlfriend, Wu Yueying. “We will take care of you as long as we are alive.” Han’s wife, Xu Minfang, also standing by Wu’s sick bed, nodded reassuringly at Wu.

This is the 34th year since Wu was paralyzed after a traffic accident back in 1974. At that time, Wu was Han’s first girlfriend. Han attended to her since then, and refused to consider another girlfriend. He was determined to take care of Wu all his life, even at the cost of his own marriage.

Three years later Han finally agreed to find a girlfriend, only at the earnest pleads of Wu’s parents. But Han made it clear that his future wife must promise to help him take care of Wu. Soon he met Xu Minfang, who, deeply moved by his dedication, later became his wife in 1980 and shared his responsibilities for Wu.

On November 8, Han, now 55, went to the drugstore for Wu’s medicine while his wife chatted with Wu at her bedside. For the past 34 years, the couple has worked together like this to take care of Wu.

Xu has been a very attentive nurse to Wu. She carefully keeps Wu warm because coughs and having mucous may become dangerous for paralyzed patients.

The couple also prepared two sets of televisions in Wu’s bedroom so that she is able to watch TV whichever side she turns her head. Han also had Wu’s bed specially made for her convenience. Their meticulous care has been the only reason Wu survived all those years.

The past 34 have tied Han and Wu’s families closely together. Now they are like one family, and are always there for each other."

[wagglebee]

As many lives are at stake in this war as any America has ever fought.

Thread by me.

The Coming "War" Between the Obama Administration and the Catholic Church

WASHINGTON, November 19, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The possible signing of the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) by President-Elect Barack Obama would be "the equivalent of a war" an unnamed senior Vatican official recently told TIME magazine. 

The startling comments make the second time this week that a Vatican official has forthrightly and in the strongest language condemned Obama's extreme policies on abortion.  Speaking at the Catholic University of America a few days ago, Vatican Cardinal James Stafford labeled Obama's anti-life policies as "aggressive, disruptive, and apocalyptic," also noting that, "On November 4, 2008, America suffered a cultural earthquake" (see coverage: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/nov/08111703.html).
 
With Catholic, but outspokenly pro-abortion individuals occupying two prominent positions (Joseph Biden as vice president and Tom Daschle as Health and Human Services Secretary) the specter of public excommunication or denial of communion for prominent members of the Obama Administration has arisen. 
 
The focus of the Vatican’s concern, FOCA, is a bill that would do away with state laws on abortion, including laws mandating parental involvement, or banning partial birth abortion. FOCA would also compel taxpayer funding of abortions, and, of greatest concern to Bishops, would force faith-based hospitals and healthcare facilities to perform abortions.

Obama has in the past said that he would make signing FOCA one of the highest priorities of his presidency.
 
Last week at the meeting of US Bishops in Baltimore, Cybercast News Service asked Chicago Cardinal Francis George, the current president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, if voting for FOCA would bring a penalty of automatic excommunication for Catholic politicians. The Cardinal did not rule it out...

[wagglebee]

A fitting title.

Thread by JohnHuang2

The abortion president

During a July 17, 2007, speech before the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, then Sen. Barack Obama pledged: "The first thing I'd do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act." That is a bizarre way "to bring us together," another goal of his as president. When Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., reintroduced the FOCA in 2007, her press release triumphantly explained that this draconian definition of "Freedom of Choice" would mean:

"Women would have the absolute right to choose whether to continue or terminate their pregnancies before fetal viability, and that right would be protected by this legislation. The Freedom of Choice Act also supersedes any law, regulation or local ordinance that impinges on a woman's right to choose."

With regard to "fetal viability" – the ability to survive on his or her own – the ardent supporters of FOCA slide over the language in the surviving 2007 version of FOCA bill that, as Douglas Johnson of the National Right to Life Committee points out: "Contains no objective criteria for 'viability,' but rather, requires that the judgment regarding 'viability' be left entirely in the hands of 'the attending physician.'"

Guess who that would be? The abortionist!

[BykrBayb]

This is wonderful. I love good news.

[wagglebee]

I forgot to say that it was a thread I posted, but the link is there.

[tuckrdout]

Praise the Lord! But, I can not help but think about how self centered this mother is! Geez, if she is divorced, she wants to kill her daughter, but if she and her husband get back together, and she is happy, the daughte gets to live. Kind of disgusting.

[wagglebee]

We prayed, Lauren’s mother changed her mind and Lauren gets to live, the reasons behind it really don’t matter.

Also, I think the reconciliation is as friends and not romantic.

[Dante3]

I am just glad she gets to live.

[wagglebee]

Exactly, that is the ONLY thing that matters right now.

[Sun]

“We prayed, Lauren’s mother changed her mind and Lauren gets to live, “

That is such wonderful news.

Thank you dear God.

[Sun]

I was reading that FOCA would force pro-life doctors and nurses to perform abortions, which could also lead to closing Catholic hospitals.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[wagglebee]

Jill Stanek always tells it like it is.

Thread by cpforlife.org

Pro-life movement: Both ends against the middle

I regret to report it was pro-life dissidents who caused the defeat of the South Dakota abortion ban initiative and worsened the lopsided trouncing of the Colorado personhood amendment. According to Medical News Today:

The defeat of abortion ballot measures across the country… may have been the result of divisions among anti-abortion groups. …

Opposition to the measure in South Dakota came from the anti-abortion groups American Life League and South Dakota Right to Life. The groups did not support the measure because of its exceptions to the abortion ban – cases of rape or incest or in narrowly defined instances "to preserve the health or life of the woman." ...

[wagglebee]

We have a lot more nightmares in store for us.

Thread by tcg.

A Pro-Life Nightmare: Daschle Appointed as the new Secretary of Health and Human Services

It wasn’t that many years ago that Tom Daschle was the pro-life movement’s worst congressional nightmare. Over the years, as a Senator and Senate Minority Leader, he constantly supported pro-choice legislation and initiatives.

In 1997, for example, Daschle proposed what he called a "compromise" regarding partial-birth abortion, banning the procedure while allowing exemptions for any woman who claimed mental or physical health reasons for having such a late-term procedure. Most saw this tactic as a smokescreen to guarantee the option to abort children by this grisly procedure akin to infanticide.

[wagglebee]

We will NEVER back down!

Thread by me.

Election Results Don't Mean Pro-Life Movement to Stop, Limit Abortions is Dead

Chicago, IL (LifeNews.com) -- One of the most respected attorneys involved in the battle to pass pro-life legislation at the state level says the presidential election results are a setback for the pro-life movement. But Clarke Forsythe, senior counsel for Americans United for Life, says those who say the pro-life movement is dead are exaggerating.

Forsythe talked with the Zenit news service about the results and said Americans aren't less pro-life because Barack Obama was elected.

Instead, he believes the election was about the economy and, in no way, a repudiation of pro-life principles...

[wagglebee]

This idiot couldn't be more wrong.

Thread by me.

Planned Parenthood CEO Claims Cardinal O'Malley Out of Step With Catholics

Boston, MA (LifeNews.com) -- It's no surprise that Catholic Church officials take pro-abortion politicians or groups to task for saying they are out of step with pro-life Catholic teachings. Now, a Planned parenthood CEO in Massachusetts is turning the tables and claiming Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston is out of step with his membership...