Posted on 01/17/2009 1:22:28 PM PST by wagglebee
As Chuck Colson shared yesterday on BreakPoint, these are troubling times for human dignity and the pro-life movement. President-elect Obama has promised to pass the Freedom of Choice Act, which would eliminate every common-sense restriction passed on abortion at the state level and federal level in the past 20 years. The new administration is also encouraging embryonic stem cell research. And nowadays, 90 percent of babies diagnosed with Down syndrome prior to birth are aborted.
In times when many evangelicals are tempted to retreat from the front lines of the battle for human dignity, we need some modern-day heroes for life—people whose bold and countercultural stand for life can serve as inspiring role models.
So as the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade ominously approaches, I want to recognize a few people who have chosen to put life first—way outside the boundaries of what most of us would call our comfort zones.
For one Illinois woman, being pro-life cost her her job. As a nurse at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Illinois, Jill Stanek discovered that babies were being aborted alive and left to die in a utility room. When Jill publicized the atrocity, she was fired. That was seven years ago. Since then, she has fought relentlessly for the rights of the unborn, particularly for the passage of the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, which protects children who survive abortion.
A few states over in Michigan, Lucy Talbot, a mother of a daughter with Down syndrome, is fighting hard to combat the horrifying and rising trend of aborting babies with Down syndrome.
Lucy points out that no one congratulates the new parents of a Down syndrome baby. But she says, “It’s a baby first, and we have to congratulate” them.
Lucy has started a nonprofit organization to educate prospective parents about the joys and struggles of raising a child with Down syndrome—and to challenge obstetricians to offer a more positive perspective on Down syndrome to their patients. She even goes to hospitals during lunch to challenge the healthcare professionals to view Down syndrome differently.
In Ohio, a single woman named Anita White is making perhaps an even more unusual sacrifice. Anita always dreamed about getting married and starting a family. Although she has yet to marry, that didn’t stop her from making the heroic decision to adopt three “unwanted” children. One of her children survived a premature delivery and was born with cerebral palsy. She says, “I’m willing to take the children whom nobody else will take.”
In a culture that tells single people to live for themselves, Anita’s example is radically countercultural—and radically for life.
People like Jill, Lucy, and Anita remind me that there is still hope for those who can’t defend themselves. Life might be on the rocks across this country and in our courtrooms, but that doesn’t stop these remarkable individuals from continuing to champion human dignity one life at a time.
Their examples challenge me to think creatively about how I can fight for life. Maybe it’s challenging you too. To learn more about these courageous women and to find out how you can make a bold stand for life, visit us at BreakPoint.org.
We must always have hope and we must always continue to fight for life.
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His sentencing is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, February 19th, 2009 at 1:30 P.M.
Words of Encouragement from Fr. John Corapi, S.O.L.T.
As we prepare to enter a new era in politics and perhaps society in general, keep something in mind: WE WIN! No matter what political party is in power at a given point in time, in the end those that remain faithful to Jesus Christ win the war. We may have to fight many battles outnumbered and even despised and looked upon as criminals and outcasts by a society that is unraveling and degenerating into something no one could have imagined. What matters is that we run the race to the finish line and fight the good fight.
Don't "go with the flow," for as the great Archbishop Fulton Sheen reminds us, "Dead bodies float downstream." More than ever we shall have to be strong in the faith. Regular and worthy reception of the sacraments, constant prayer, and rigorous study of the faith is now essential, not merely a luxury.
The front line and primary battle is going to be the fight for life: the dignity of every human life from the moment of conception to the last moment of natural life. If we lose that one, every other battle space will be compromised. If the government succeeds in establishing abortion as an inalienable "right", then the elderly and sick will be next. It will then be a short and slippery step to the government deciding who lives and dies regardless of their inherent human dignity.
If you don't already pray the Rosary every day, please start at once. The prayer of the holy Rosary is the prayer of the holy Gospel, and that means it is the prayer of the Good News Who is Jesus Christ, the LIFE of the world. Many saints will be forged in the crucible of the coming years. Make sure you are among them.
God bless you,
Fr. John Corapi
Adoption is probably the single best thing that anyone can do to fight abortion. The adopted child will grow up in a loving environment that is in stark contrast to the society that had regarded their lives as worthless and disposable. As a result, they will know what love really is and will more likely grow up to fight against the evil culture of death.
Very true.
The pro-abortionists love to point out that adoption rates are rising; however, they ignore the facts. Nearly all adoptions in the United States are of foreign babies (generally from China and Eastern Europe); for all intents and purposes there aren’t any American babies to adopt, American women are either keeping their babies or killing them.
The single and simple thing that will change the culture of death is speaking out and non-equivocally identifying abortion as murder, and “mothers” who commit it, as murderers.
No one likes judging others and no murder is a greater sin than divine mercy. Thoase guilty of committing an abortion often have extenuating circumstance, chief among them is the lies they have been taught by the deathists. Moreover, politically one does not want to alienate a large segment of the population. But despite all that, the fundamental fact that what we oppose is murder — nothing short of it — and that the “mother” is the primary perpetrator cannot be fudged about.
Yes but what do you do when the left has successfully bred a generation of sociopaths? There are an astonishing number of people who “dislike” abortion and think it is “icky” but won’t bat an eyelash in allowing another to kill a 25 week unborn child. They just don’t want to get their own hands dirty.
You accurately describe what they do.
Heroes for Life: Countercultural Defenders of Human Dignity
Pro-life groups line up to oppose doctor-assisted suicide (Montana)
Italian clinic drops plans to let vegetative woman die (Eluana Englaro)
Chuck Colson: The March of Death - A Culture Commits Suicide
Wow, all three, most admirable and impressive indeed! : )
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