Free Republic

Church leaders are upset after a recent article in The New York Times revealed that the Internal Revenue Service can use undercover agents disguised as members of the clergy as a means to gather privileged information. Following the Times' report last weekend that over 40 federal agencies use undercover agents disguised as attorneys, doctors, news media and other positions to gain access to privileged information, church leaders are appalled to find out that IRS agents are also allowed to pose as clergy, even though the agency doesn't have a crime-fighting function that warrants such a use of undercover tactics. In...

Kenya’s Catholic bishops are charging two United Nations organizations with sterilizing millions of girls and women under cover of an anti-tetanus inoculation program sponsored by the Kenyan government. According to a statement released Tuesday by the Kenya Catholic Doctors Association, the organization has found an antigen that causes miscarriages in a vaccine being administered to 2.3 million girls and women by the World Health Organization and UNICEF. Priests throughout Kenya reportedly are advising their congregations to refuse the vaccine. “We sent six samples from around Kenya to laboratories in South Africa. They tested positive for the HCG antigen,” Dr. Muhame...

Over the last few months, pro-life candidates have been accused of many ridiculous things. But, hands down, the most outrageous accusation has been that they want to take away everyone’s birth control. According to NARAL, pro-life Cory Gardner of Colorado wants to strip Coloradans of birth control– including condoms. As LifeNews previously reported, the pro-abortion group and its Colorado affiliate launched radio, television and digital ads telling viewers that, “if Cory Gardner gets his way, you better stock up on condoms.” hysterialwomanThis is very fascinating considering the fact Gardner said he believes birth control pills should be sold over the...

Why Did God Kill Onan? Luther, Calvin, Wesley, C.S. Lewis, & Others on Contraception Genesis 38:9-10: “But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so when he went in to his brother’s wife he spilled the semen on the ground, lest he should give offspring to his brother. 10 And what he did was displeasing in the sight of the Lord, and he slew him also.” It is an historical fact that no Christian communion sanctioned contraception until the Anglican Lambeth Conference in 1930. Protestant historian Roland Bainton states casually that the Church “very early forbade contraception”...

Hopelessly confused about how the Catholic Church and leaders at Jesuit universities view birth control, and blissfully unaware that a 36-count pack of Trojan-enz lubricated, latex condoms can be purchased at Amazon.com for just $13.97, student activists at Fordham University are demanding that the school provide free condoms on campus.The activists at Fordham, which bills itself as “the Jesuit University of New York,” belong to a group called S.A.G.E.S. (The acronym stands for Sex and Gender Equity and Safety.) On its Twitter page, SAGES has an image of an erect condom.In a Change.org petition, the group proclaims that a lack...

We previously wrote about the deer sterilization program run by the Village of Cayuga Heights, NY, which borders the Cornell University campus and has large deer and faculty populations. After years of bitter debate, Cayuga Heights decided that the deer population would be controlled through sterilization at enormous expense: NY Town spends $2,984 per deer in sterilization programBecause Reproductive Health Care Is A Cervine Right The Cayuga Heights deer control was mostly a failure because, you know, deer move around, so sterilizing deer in Cayuga Heights didn’t prevent new deer from coming into the area. And so on. As far...

The obesity epidemic in men could be fueled by the female sex hormone estrogen, scientists claim. Experts believe the hormone could also be causing the well-documented drop in sperm count among Western men. They said men in affluent countries are becoming “feminized” as they come into contact with products containing the female sex hormone. Compounds found in some plastic items, including drain pipes, and soy food products can mimic the effects of estrogen, scientists said. Secreted by the ovaries in premenstrual women, estrogen is known to cause weight gain, inhibiting the thyroid gland and affecting other areas of the brain....

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has updated their policy guidelines (PDF) concerning contraceptives for children under 18, recommending that the first line of defense against pregnancy for adolescent girls should be implantable contraception such as an IUD or a sub-dermal hormonal implant. The AAP says that because young girls cannot be trusted to remain abstinent, reliably take a daily birth control pill, or use condoms, the best way to ensure they do not become pregnant is to fit them with a “long-acting reversible contraceptive” – a device that, once installed, will either provide a continuous dose of hormones designed...

The phony "war against women" has taken a strange and unexpected turn. Republican candidates are promoting expanded access to birth control, with contraceptives available over the counter. Democrats in varying shades of blue dismiss something they've always wanted as mere Republican politics. You would think Democrats would be grateful for enhanced access for women, a dream come true. This is the catch 22 of the 2014 campaign. Democrats and Planned Parenthood are obviously afraid that if Republicans get credit for this pip of an idea, they'll fall into the diminishing gender gap and never be heard again. The latest polls...

A leading reformist Cardinal close to Pope Francis has hinted at the possibility of a reinterpretation of the Roman Catholic Church’s blanket ban on artificial contraception. Cardinal Walter Kasper said it was “the responsibility of the parents” to decide how many children they should have. He also said that so-called natural family planning, which is promoted by the Church as an alternative to contraception, also has an “artificial” element. His comments in an interview with The Tablet, the Catholic weekly, are likely to reopen debate about one of the most contentious areas of Catholic teaching just weeks before a special...

The University of Notre Dame will provide for contraceptives and abortifacient drugs in its student health-care program, the National Catholic Register reports. Notre Dame had joined other Catholic institutions in filing suit against the contraceptive mandate in the federal health-care program. In that lawsuit, Notre Dame said that the mandate would "require Notre Dame to commit scandal." But after preliminary court rulings against the university-- which Notre Dame is now appealing-- the university administration has chosen to cover contraceptive costs.

Painting the Catholic Church as "out of touch" is like shooting fish in a barrel, what with the funny hats and gilded churches. And nothing makes it easier than the Church's stance against contraception. Many people, (including our editor) are wondering why the Catholic Church doesn't just ditch this requirement. They note that most Catholics ignore it, and that most everyone else finds it divisive, or "out-dated." C'mon! It's the 21st century, they say! Don't they SEE that it's STUPID, they scream. Here's the thing, though: the Catholic Church is the world's biggest and oldest organization. It has buried all...

Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Weston, the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, stopped at a Hobby Lobby store in her district on Wednesday – not to pick up some craft supplies for one of her kid’s school projects, but to alert people to the store’s existence and urge people not to shop there. “I want people to know that this Hobby Lobby is here and they should vote with their purses and their pocketbooks, and women should not shop here. If you didn’t know this Hobby Lobby was here before, know it now and don’t shop here. They don’t...

[...]The constitutional right to be free from unlawful search and seizure is based on the psychological need to maintain control over personal information and behavior. The involuntary loss of privacy and dignity regarding sex is a central aspect of the psychopathology of American sex totalitarianism. And it has been inflicting itself on the American mind from the highest offices of government. Sexually oriented feminists can be divided into two generations. The central purpose of the first generation was to legalize abortion and normalize sex outside marriage. Gloria Steinem is still the leader of that generation. She, who is often seen...

Recent reports announcing the era of remote-control contraception herald the very real but slightly horrifying prospects for the future for those who believe that man can literally transform himself into a machine. This phenomenon is known as the cult of transhumanism. One news report calls the remote dispensation of contraception “creepy.” Another explains how this may come to fruition: “A challenge from Bill Gates two years ago has put science on the cusp of a revolutionary, remote-controlled method of birth control.” Technology Review says the wireless implant, if approved for safety and efficacy, could make it possible for a woman to turn her birth control on and...

Human smugglers in Mexico routinely give young illegal immigrant girls birth control for their trip through Mexico. The odds are they will be raped.

The bogus lies about contraception bans and limits on access to birth control are here to stay folks, just as I predicted in my new book Assault and Flattery: The Truth About the Left and Their War on Women. It's past time to push back with force. The Not My Boss’ Business Act, a bill developed by Democrats to combat the Supreme Court’s recent Hobby Lobby decision, has failed in the Senate. As a result, mass panic among government control freaks has commenced. Who's panicking this time? DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz. She just can't believe women might have to...

This video is supposed to be satire about the liberal reaction to the Hobby Lobby decision but it sounds almost like an accurate depiction.

Americans should live in fear of the Supreme Court, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday. Hammering a pair of recent rulings related to birth control access, the House minority leader suggested the conservative-leaning court is stealing women's freedoms when it comes to making healthcare choices. “We should be afraid of this court. That five guys should start determining what contraceptions are legal or not. … It is so stunning,” Pelosi said during a press briefing in the Capitol. Pelosi said last week's Supreme Court ruling that the birth control mandate under President Obama's healthcare reform law is a violation of...

Sahil Kapur, TPMJuly 8, 2014 Senate Democrats are poised to introduce legislation as early as Tuesday to reverse the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby ruling which exempted for-profit corporations with religious owners from the Obamacare mandate to cover emergency contraceptives in their insurance plans. The legislation will be sponsored by Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Mark Udall (D-CO). According to a summary reviewed by TPM, it prohibits employers from refusing to provide health services, including contraception, to their employees if required by federal law. It clarifies that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the basis for the Supreme Court's ruling against the...