Free Republic

In an interview in 2006, Santorum said: "I vote and have supported birth control because it is not the taking of human life." But Valentines Day in Idaho Santorum said: Rick Santorum told the crowd he'll work to extend the definition of personhood to include unborn fetuses. "I do not believe life begins at conception," he said. "I know life begins at conception. Since many birth control methods are abortifacients, how does this stack up if Santorum is considered pro life?

The latest research into a way to destroy human sperm has been funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that could provide men effective contraception for six months.

Gingrich Restates Pro-Life Views, Says Life Begins at Conception Washington, DC -- After making headlines nationwide with curious comments in an interview in which many observers say he indicated he believes human life begins at implantation, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has restated his pro-life views. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/12/05/gingrich-restates-pro-life-views-says-life-begins-at-conception/

<p>ROCK HILL, S.C. - GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann has criticized rival Newt Gingrich over his comments about the beginning of life.</p>

In a new interview with Jake Tapper of ABC News, Gingrich said human life begins at implantation rather than conception, which science has established as the starting point for human life. Tapper asked him, “Abortion is a big issue here in Iowa among conservative Republican voters and Rick Santorum has said you are inconsistent. The big argument here is that you have supported in the past embryonic stem cell research and you made a comment about how these fertilized eggs, these embryos are not yet “pre-human” because they have not been implanted. This has upset conservatives in this state who...

In the Carpenter home, every meal begins with a prayer. Robin and his wife, Emily, are devout Christians. But they part ways with many other Christians over a measure that would expand the legal definition of human life. Their son, Luke, now 4 years old, was born through in vitro fertilization. The anti-abortion amendment being voted on this week in the state could restrict in vitro procedures, and the Carpenters are worried that if they wait too long to add to their family, they may end up breaking the law. "I don't really want or need anybody else getting involved...

Federal judge: life begins at conception by Kathleen Gilbert Tue Jun 28 1:04 PM EST INDIANAPOLIS, June 28, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Planned Parenthood’s request to block a provision of an Indiana law that requires doctors to tell women who are seeking abortions that “human physical life begins when a human ovum is fertilized by a human sperm,� was denied by U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt last week. “Plaintiffs contend that in the context of abortion, the meaning of these words, both individually and in combination, represent a plethora of opinions and beliefs about life and its inception. The...

Was Mary, Jesus' mother and wife of Joseph, immaculately conceived, i.e., free of original sin from conception? If we accept the teaching of the Scriptures we must answer, "No". The Bible is not ambiguous on this subject as the inspired writer, the apostle of Christ, Paul, wrote at Romans 5:12: "Well then, sin entered the world through one man (Adam), and through sin death, and thus death has spread through the whole human race because everyone has sinned".(JB) Mary was part of the human race and grew old and died just as Paul wrote. As The Catholic Encyclopedia, under the...

"Everything goes after the beginning." This statement of our Sages contains hidden depth. The moment of conception of anything which comes into existence must contain all the elements of the future of that thing. Just as all the genes of a human being are laid down at conception and thereafter all the physical features which manifest in the child as it develops are results of those genes, so too all phenomena in the world are a reflection of the elements contained, infinitely compressed, in their beginnings.

Artist Sculps Barack Obama’s Rear, Calls It “The Immaculate Conception” Famed Sculptor, Christopher Wanker, has had his hands on one rear or another for years now—sculpting a lifeless rear, and bringing it to the brink of artistic perfection. Until now, there has always been something missing, something that has left him empty inside, searching for the next creation of perfection. Now, however, the sculptor has created perfection personified. He has sculpted the rear of Barack Obama. It’s so perfect that Wanker is calling it “The Immaculate Conception.” Many argue that the art is in bad taste, but Wanker points out...

In the Parade Magazine interview he told the interviewer: “…we need fathers to step up, to realize that their job does not end at conception; that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child but the courage to raise one. As fathers, we need to be involved in our children’s lives not just when it’s convenient or easy, and not just when they’re doing well — but when it’s difficult and thankless, and they’re struggling. That is when they need us most.” At the Town Hall meeting following the White House Barbecue for young men...

Sunday, April 26, 2009 MATTERS OF LIFE AND DEATH WorldNetDaily Exclusive Vote protects unborn beginning at conception 'Victory serves as example to other nations' Posted: April 24, 2009 12:10 am Eastern By Bob Unruh WorldNetDaily The Dominican Republic Lawmakers working on a new constitution for the Dominican Republic have voted overwhelmingly to protect life, specifying in the document that "the right to life is inviolable from conception until death." The vote yesterday was 167-32 in the national legislature, which was responding to pressure from international pro-abortion groups seeking to expand their business operations into the Caribbean island nation. "A true...

Mexico City, Mexico, March 16, 2009 (CNA) -- The legislature of the Mexican state of Puebla has approved a change to the state’s constitution granting protection to human life from conception to natural death. The move is intended to ward off efforts to legalize abortion throughout the country. The change, led by the National Action Party (PAN), was approved by 29 votes out of 41, including votes by members of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), despite a commission of PRI federal lawmakers being sent to Puebla to try to stop the measure. The Puebla state legislature decided to modify...

Almost anyone with a high school education can correctly answer the question “When does human life begin?” by responding “at conception” or at “fertilization” of a human egg by a sperm cell. While we may not understand, or only vaguely recall, the precise process by which an egg and sperm combine to create a new unique human being, this basic truth about human life falls into the category of things we can’t not know. Yet today, many educated people who do know better assert that human life begins at some later stage of development.They arbitrarily push forward the starting point...

Regarding the Instruction Dignitas PersonaeAim In recent years, biomedical research has made great strides, opening new possibilities for the treatment of disease, but also giving rise to serious questions which had not been directly treated in the Instruction Donum vitae (22 February 1987).  A new Instruction, which is dated 8 September 2008, the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, seeks to provide some responses to these new bioethical questions, as these have been the focus of expectations and concerns in large sectors of society.  In this way, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith seeks both...

Today's feast day is more than Pope Pius IX's 1854 infallible proclamation, as important as that Dogma was and is. Today's feast day, which issues not only from the Papal Bull Ineffabilis Deus but its echo at the Grotto in Lourdes four years later, demonstrates that the Virgin Mary, with all Her wonderful titles, wants to be known by that name. And the reason is not so much that she was conceived without sin, but that through her humility before God She continued without sin until the day She was assumed into Heaven. It is for this reason Her...

  Mary, mother of Jesus, as the Immaculate Conception. Bartolomé Esteban Murillo. Museo del Prado.  Mary Immaculate:Patroness of the United StatesA patron is like a sponsor, someone who takes responsibility for another, who protectsanother. Catholics rely on our patron saints not only to inspire our lives by their examplebut also to pray for us and protect us in our life of grace. A patron looks out for us, sometimesin ways we don’t always recognize.  Mary Immaculate was officially declared thepatroness of the United States in 1847. A year earlier, the U.S. bishops had written to theCatholics of this country: We...

I've been arguing with a pro-choice relative of mine, and she made the following statement: "If life begins at conception, do identical twins only have half a soul?" I know the science of how "twinning" occurs. A single fertilized egg splits and then both halves implant in the uterus. But since conception involved one egg and one sperm only, if life began at that moment, wouldn't that indicate only one soul? I'm interested in any theological arguments that have been made in this area. Thanks

Below is what I transmitted to my Catholic priest. I urge all Catholics to pressure their priests to speak out against Nancy Pelosi.

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Barack Obama confessed over a week ago that he wasn't sure when life begins and worried the question may be a little "above my pay grade." However, a majority of Americans know when human life begins and they agree with John McCain, who said the starting point is conception.Zogby International conducted the poll for WorldNetDaily and it questioned 1,099 likely voters from August 22 to 24.The survey found 59 percent believe human life begins at conception, another 16.8 percent say it happens when an unborn child can survive outside her mother's womb with medical assistance,...

...The invention of the PCR techniques has led to further refinements of the DNA fingerprinting techniques, which has given science the ability to obtain a human being's DNA fingerprinting – and therefore his or her identity – from a single cell. There can no longer be any doubt that each human being is totally unique from the very beginning of his or her life at fertilization. (Mark, P. 19-21.) The significance of methylation of cytosine was unknown until 1985. It has a profound significance in understanding...that the human being is whole and complete at fertilization. A human being at an...

Exactly two days ago, in Israel’s Nahariya Hospital, a woman in her fifth month of pregnancy underwent an abortion when doctors discovered that she was suffering from internal bleeding and that her fetus no longer appeared to be alive. After a doctor pronounced the now extracted body dead, the 610-gram baby was placed in the hospital cooler. Five hours later, the baby’s father came to pick up his dead daughter’s body for burial. But, joyfully, when the baby was withdrawn from the cooler, she was breathing. Naturally, she was taken to the intensive care ward where doctors scrambled to keep...

On Fathers Day, June 14 Barack Obama gave a speech on fatherhood “We need fathers to recognize that responsibility doesn’t just end at conception. That doesn’t make you a father,” “What makes you a man is not the ability to have a child- any fool can have a child. That’s doesn’t make you father. It’s the courage to raise a child that makes you a father.”Two months later, on August 16 at the Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency, Rev. Rick Warren asked both candidates the question: At what point does a baby gets “human rights.” McCain’s answer was direct...

Four cups of coffee a day seriously damage a woman’s chances of having a baby, research suggests. The effect is almost as bad as the problems in pregnancy caused by alcohol, smoking or being overweight, a fertility conference heard. Women drinking that much caffeine were 26 per cent less likely to have a baby — adding to evidence that it can harm fertility and the health of an unborn baby. Earlier this year, it was claimed that just two cups of coffee a day could double the risk of miscarriage. Coffee has also been found to increase the risk of...

Washington DC, Jul 1, 2008 / 02:18 am (CNA).- A new advertisement from the Family Research Council’s lobbying arm, FRC Action, cites Sen. Barack Obama’s endorsement of fathers who “recognize that responsibility doesn’t just end at conception” to press the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee to defend his stand on abortion.The 30-second television ad begins with a clip of Obama’s Father’s Day speech at a Chicago church in which the Illinois senator discussed the problem of absent black fathers. “We need fathers to recognize that responsibility doesn't just end at conception,” he says in the clip.The ad then shows commentary...

GRANTHAM, Pa. - Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday that the potential for life begins at conception as she and presidential rival Sen. Barack Obama answered questions about faith and religion in both their personal lives and the public discourse. In a forum devoted to an issue rare on the campaign trail, the two White House hopefuls talked about the presence of God in their lives and how often they read the Bible as well as divisive issues such as abortion, abstinence and human rights within the context of faith. The two are reaching out to people of faith...

A year ago, Barack Obama addressed a group in Selma, AL commemorating the 1965 voting rights march. He credited the event with giving his parents the idea that they could have a child. The result was him--Barack Obama, Child of Destiny. The only problem is he was born in 1961. "What happened in Selma, Alabama and Birmingham also stirred the conscience of the nation...This young man named Barack Obama...came over to this country. He met this woman...(who) had a good idea there was some craziness going on because they looked at each other and they decided...it might...be possible for us...

United Families International fully recognizes the value of life during all stages and promotes the protection of human life from conception until natural death. Human life begins at fertilization, when the sperm and ovum meet to form a single cell and begin the human growth process. Reverence for life — including that of the unborn — is an essential part of the basis for peace in the world and goodwill among nations, and is part of the fabric of successful and happy families. Defenseless preborn children are full members of the human family and deserve legal protection. We oppose abortion...

by Steven ErteltLifeNews.com EditorOctober 8, 2007Des Moines, IA (LifeNews.com) -- Campaigning in Iowa over the weekend, pro-abortion presidential candidate Barack Obama attempted to moderate his views on abortion and abstinence education. However, he made it clear he has no interest in limiting or reducing abortions and his pro-abstinence stance is tempered by his backing of sexual education.Speaking in the northeast town of New Hampton late Friday, Obama responded to a question in a forum from a Denver resident in the first primary state for a family reunion.The questioner asked Obama to reconcile how society gets upset at someone like Michael...

Even a "Raving Atheist" Can Be Pro-Life - Interview Special to LifeSiteNews.com by Laura Freeburn Editor's Note: The following, until now unpublished, interview was conducted with the popular blog personality "the raving atheist".  The blogger, a lawyer who will not divulge his real name, has nonetheless acquired pseudonymous fame.  He is featured, as "the raving atheist" in the anti-Christian documentary film 'The God who wasn't there". His pro-life convictions are based solely on scientific evidence for the life of the unborn.  He is firmly opposed to belief in God.  The interview is published here as it provides interesting insights.Is it...

Go into any women's studies program on the campus of any major university and you will learn that women don't need men for economic provision, physical protection, or to even achieve sexual orgasm. Our daughters are being taught that to believe men are necessary for anything is not only pure bunk, but actually a sign of intellectual weakness. As a result women have shunned personal relationships and sky-rocketed to the top of the business world. Their incomes have increased as they have put off having children, not to mention the thought of getting married till far later in life. They've...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new study reported in a prestigious medical journal confirms that the morning after pill does not reduce either abortion or pregnancy rates. The survey, published this month in the Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, covers the use of the Plan B drug in 10 countries. Authors Elizabeth Raymond and James Trussell, advocates of the morning after pill, conducted a meta-analysis of studies conducted in 10 countries. They conclude that “increased access to emergency contraception pills enhance use but has not been shown to reduce unintended pregnancy rates." The authors note that “no study has shown...

This article reports on a 1993 lecture the late French geneticist and pro-life pioneer Dr. Jerome Lejeune delivered at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Washington, D.C. This story originally appeared in the January 1994 Columbia and is a companion article to the January 2007 "By Their Works" profile of Knight and pro-life entrepreneur Bill Schneeberger. Dr. Jerome Lejeune, the French geneticist, still marvels at the circumstances that caused him to travel from his laboratory in Paris to a Tennessee courtroom to give expert testimony about when life begins. The 1989 case involved...

December 8, 2006 Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary Psalm: Friday 48 Reading 1Gn 3:9-15, 20 After the man, Adam, had eaten of the tree,the LORD God called to the man and asked him, “Where are you?”He answered, “I heard you in the garden;but I was afraid, because I was naked,so I hid myself.”Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked?You have eaten, then,from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!”The man replied, “The woman whom you put here with me—she gave me fruit from the tree, and so I ate...

U.N. ignores pro-Life and anti-cloning references in its report on speech NEW YORK, September 24, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Costa Rican President Abel Pacheco gave a spirited defence of the right to life before the United Nations General Assembly Thursday. However, without an actual transcript of his talk the world would never know about it. The notable speech called for international protection for life "from the moment of conception." The United Nations press release covering Pacheco's remarks totally omitted this call as well as his call to join the comprehensive ban on human cloning. President Abel Pacheco told the UN, "As...

Vatican City, Apr. 20, 2006 (CNA) - Italian Vatican analyst Sandro Magister is releasing a long dialogue Cardinal  Martini sustained with Ignazio Marino, famous Italian bio-ethicist, and director of the Center of transplants of the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, about abortion, in-vitro fecundation and contraceptionAnd the answer is: “not immediatly with conception, but after” said Cardinal Martini, about when life starts, “with the consequences that derive from it,” added Magister. The long dialogue between the two men will be released in the next issue of the weekly “L’espresso,” a center-left weekly tomorrow,  it will be made available by Sandro...

POPE Benedict XVI said today that God makes no distinction between a human embryo and a child or adult. The Pope made his comments while hosting a Vatican-organised scientific conference on the status of the human embryo. "God's love doesn't make the distinction between the embryo inside its mother, the child, the youth, the mature adult or the elderly person," said the pope. The pontiff's statement reaffirmed the Catholic church's official position that "all human life is sacred and inviolable, from conception to its natural end". The Pontifical Academy for Life, an institute created in 1994 by the late John...

Human Embryo Is a Child, Says Bishop Sgreccia Promotes Bioethics Congress of Pontifical Academy for Life VATICAN CITY, FEB. 24, 2006 (Zenit.org).- The embryo, even if it is not being nurtured in a maternal uterus, is a child, said the president of the Pontifical Academy for Life. Bishop Elio Sgreccia said this in a press conference regarding the upcoming congress "The Human Embryo Prior to Implantation: Scientific Aspects and Bioethical Considerations," organized by the Pontifical organization in the Vatican on Feb. 27-28. "In any case, the embryo is a child: a boy or a girl, that has a special relationship...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- While some scientists, legislators and even some parents see the human embryo as material that can be studied, frozen or destroyed, for the Catholic Church an embryo is human and has "a special relationship with God," said Bishop Elio Sgreccia. The bishop, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, said that before allowing scientists to study the possibilities for manipulating human embryos, wider society should be asking itself when does life begin and when does life begin to have value. Bishop Sgreccia and other experts from the academy met the press Feb. 24 to introduce a...

One reason that Roe v. Wade is still with us is that legal scholars and jurists argue about the wrong issue. The question isn’t whether the Constitution contains any reference to a right to privacy. Let’s assume it does. Let’s assume that the Ninth Amendment, as argued in Griswold v. Connecticut and some other cases, implicitly refers to the right to privacy every human being has. Why would this be relevant? Some might argue that if one has the right to privacy, a woman who has an abortion is doing something private, something no one else has the authority to...

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Indiana women seeking an abortion would be told that life begins at conception under a proposal that would give the state one of the farthest-reaching abortion consent laws in the country. Only one state -- South Dakota -- has gone so far in what it orders doctors to tell women before they can get abortions, and a court has blocked that law. Supporters say the legislation would provide women key information before making an irreversible decision, but critics argue it blurs the line between church and state and could infringe on doctors' First Amendment rights. "To put...

Holy Days of Obligation, Or Holy Days of Opportunity Holy days are usually regarded in terms of obligation and imposition. But should they not be considered even more as graced times of opportunity to mark a special mystery of our faith? In recent years, holy days have come in for a good deal of discussion, evaluation and renewal. As early as the fourth century, St. John Chrysostom was concerned about the celebration of holy days in Constantinople. This Father and Doctor of the Church commented in a homily that "many people celebrate the holy days and know their names: but...

December 8, 2005Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary Psalm: Thursday 52 Reading IGn 3:9-15, 20 After the man, Adam, had eaten of the tree,the LORD God called to the man and asked him, “Where are you?”He answered, “I heard you in the garden;but I was afraid, because I was naked,so I hid myself.”Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked?You have eaten, then,from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!”The man replied, “The woman whom you put here with me—she gave me fruit from the tree, and so I ate it.”The...

VATICAN, November 21, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Pope Benedict XVI addressed participants in a Health Care conference at the Vatican Saturday, on the topic of the human genome.  An analysis of scientific data, he said, reveals the dignity of human life "from the first moment of fecundation."  The statement is significant since it answers, for Catholics, questions surrounding the beginning of a right to life.  Many, some Catholics included, have wondered about the stage at which the embryo deserves protection.  Some have proposed that the morning after pill would avert abortion since it acts prior a modern definition of 'conception' which...

Mammalian sperm must reside in the female reproductive tract before they are able to undergo the acrosome reaction. This maturation process is called capacitation. The mammalian egg is surrounded by an extracellular envelope called the zona pellucida, to which sperm must bind and penetrate before they can make contact with the surface of the egg itself. The zona pellucida of the mouse egg contains three glycoproteins called ZP-1, ZP-2 and ZP-3 that polymerize to form a gel. The zona of newly-ovulated eggs is also surrounded by a constellation of follicle cells in a matrix of hyaluronic acid. Figure 1 shows...

... David Boonin, though not responding to George, also discounts the pro-lifer’s claim that the newly conceived embryo is a distinct, living, and whole human organism. How can this be, he argues, when we don’t know the precise moment during the conception process at which the new zygotic human being comes into existence? Here Boonin is both right and wrong. True, we don’t know exactly when during the conception process that the zygote comes to be. Some embryologists argue that it happens when the sperm penetrates the ovum while others point to syngamy, when the maternal and parental chromosomes crossover...

...The book begins with a discussion of the medical use of embryonic tissue and the debate over whether a blastocyst (which is a ball of a few hundred cells) is a person. This section is thoughtful, clearheaded and informed by developmental neuroscience. One fallacy Gazzaniga exposes depends on the common idea that graded differences block principled legal distinctions. In the version referred to as the fallacy of the beard, the logic goes like this: If we cannot say how long a man's whiskers must be to qualify as a beard, we cannot distinguish between a bearded man and a clean-shaven...

A young Israeli company called Fertiligent has devised a way to improve the effectiveness of a treatment for infertility. The technique could enable many more couples to conceive without having to resort to costly and invasive in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment. Infertility has become a growing problem in the western world, as an older pool of potential mothers and fathers, as well as environmental factors have made conceiving a baby more challenging. The National Center for Health Statistics, in Maryland, estimates that about 10 percent of the American childbearing population (or 6 million couples) suffers from infertility. This has led to...

How donated sperm spawned a child -- as well as a likely landmark legal decision ___ On paper, their initial agreement had the markings of an unusual but successful partnership. He was gay. She was lesbian. They were both unmarried. According to her attorney, they did not know each other all that well and had met through a hairdresser. She wanted badly to conceive a child, and he was willing to oblige. So when Sharon Sullivan and Brian Keith Russell signed a "co-parenting agreement" in February 2003, these star-crossed nonlovers probably had good reason to hope for a scientifically engineered,...

OK, I'm going to stick my neck waaaaaaay out and explain why I think we are celebrating Christ's conception, and not his birth, on Christmas. Which will explain why I think life begins at conception.