Free Republic

Disappointing progressives yet again, Pope Francis has now condemned contemporary gender theory as denying “the order of creation.” In an interview published in a new book, Pope Francis: This Economy Kills, by Andrea Tornielli and Giacomo Galeazzi, (portions of which were also published last month in the Italian daily La Stampa), Pope Francis appears to reject the postmodern conceptualization of gender as a moveable point along a spectrum that is fluid and changeable. He does not accept the progressive claim that gender is socially constructed rather than God-given and instead appears to embrace gender in a traditional “binary” category of...

February 24, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- On Friday, February 20, 2015, I went to the New Mexico Roundhouse to speak out in support of HB 390 Late-term Abortion Ban -- without the rape exception.  My family and I got there early, and I was excited, but nervous! This was a big step for me on so many levels.  While I have shared my story with more people than I can count, I had never spoken in front of a legislative committee with opposition around me.  Why would I go before the committee and share how I was conceived in incest/rape? Because the lives of the rape/incest-conceived...

February 24, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- While the Ontario Liberal government under lesbian Premier Kathleen Wynne would have parents believe its newly unveiled sex-ed program is an unbiased presentation of fact, a detailed look at what kids in grades 1-8 are expected to learn reveals something entirely different.Passing the baton of the 1960s sexual revolt to today’s up-and-coming generations of youngsters, the 2015 Health and Physical Education program states in its earliest pages that sexual health “is more than simply teaching young people about the anatomy and physiology of reproduction,” but includes the relatively recent inventions of “sexual orientation, gender identity...

(CNSNews.com) – The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) is advancing federal regulations that require federally funded organizations caring for illegal alien minors who are in the United States without their parents (Unaccompanied Children or UC) and who may have been sexually abused access to “emergency contraception” services. “Emergency contraception” includes abortion-inducing drugs. These care providers currently include Catholic and other faith-based organizations that oppose abortion, according to the Center for Family and Human Rights or C-FAM, a Catholic advocacy group. The Interim Final Rule was published in the Federal Register on Dec. 24,...

February 23, 2015 (BreakPoint.org) -- During a recent appearance on CNN, Roy Moore, the chief judge of Alabama’s Supreme Court, debated the issue of same-sex marriage with CNN’s Chris Cuomo, the son of the late New York governor Mario Cuomo and the brother of New York’s current governor, Andrew Cuomo.During the discussion, Moore said that “Our rights, contained in the Bill of Rights, do not come from the Constitution. They come from God. That’s clearly stated in the Declaration of Independence.” Cuomo then responded “Our rights do not come from God, your honor, and you know that. They come from...

* In October the Wisconsin governor pledged to support legislation focused on 'safety' during abortions * 'The bill leaves the final decision to a woman and her doctor,' he said in a campaign ad * This month he's telling potential donors that he supports a 'personhood' amendment, which insists that life begins at conception * He boasted in January that he had 'defunded Planned Parenthood,' America's wealthiest and most politically savvy chain of abortion clinics * Walker is busy beefing up his conservative bona fides in advance of a brusiing GOP presidential primary that may not favor blue-state moderates Wisconsin...

RICHLAND, WA, February 20, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Washington State Superior Court judge ruled this week that politicians have the power to restrict religious actions and expression.Benton County Superior Court Judge Alexander Ekstrom ruled that while the religious beliefs of florist Barronelle Stutzman related to marriage is protected by the U.S. Constitution, living her life in accordance with her faith is not.Stutzman is the owner of Arlene’s Flowers and Gifts in Richland, Washington. A business owner for nearly 40 years, she was sued twice for allegedly violating the state's "Consumer Protection Act," because she refused to furnish flowers for a...

Can we just be honest? The reason our society accepts killing unborn babies with Down syndrome is because we don’t want so-called “imperfect” children. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of hearing supporters of this awful practice claim they’re aborting for the benefit of the child. That’s just ridiculous.In a recent article in Yahoo Parenting, another mother explains her rationale for choosing abortion after finding out she was carrying a baby with Down syndrome.Sophie Horan was 42-years-old when she conceived naturally after two failed rounds of IVF and a failed IUI. She writes, “Eight weeks on, we were...

I’ve been on campus at the University of Central Florida this week with a team of volunteers, debating university students on the issue of abortion. One mark of our generation seems to come up in many of my conversations: An ignorance of history. “He who does not know the past,” John G. Diefenbaker once noted, “can never understand the present, and he certainly can do nothing for the future.” A prescient statement—in regards to abortion, we are destroying the future, child by butchered child.Time and time again, students bring up the same tired arguments to support abortion. Once you’ve established...

February 18, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- Pro-life advocates are urging Catholic hospitals to reconsider their use of the Plan B “morning-after pill” in light of a new meta-review of past studies claiming that despite its being marketed as “emergency contraception,” it is statistically more likely to cause early abortion than prevent pregnancy.According to the drug’s manufacturers, Plan B’s primary method of action is to suppress ovulation, thereby making conception impossible.Some Catholic hospitals authorize the use of the pills by rape victims if it can be proven that the woman has not yet ovulated.But according to Dr. Christopher Kahlenborn, who co-authored the...

WASHINGTON, D.C., February 18, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has called state laws protecting the unborn in the U.S. a “crying shame.”Ginsburg argued in an MSNBC interview Monday that abortion helps women, specifically poor women, and said that the prospect of overturning Roe v. Wade is “the worst case” scenario.Granting her status as “a champion of reproductive freedom,” the NBC network asked Ginsburg how “it feels” for her to look across the country, seeing “states passing restrictions that make it inaccessible if not technically illegal.”“Inaccessible to poor women,” Ginsburg responded with a clarification. “It’s not true...

PIERRE, SD, February 18, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Planned Parenthood beheads more Americans in a month than ISIS has in its entire existence, and that should end, a South Dakota lawmaker has said.State Representative Isaac Latterell, R-Sioux Falls, has taken a step toward outlawing the beheading of the unborn in his state.Earlier this year, he introduced the Preborn Infant Beheading Ban of 2015 (H.B. 1230), which states, “No licensed physician may knowingly behead a living unborn child with the intent of endangering the life or health of the child.”The state House Health and Human Services Committee passed the bill yesterday by...

Rob Bell believes the Bible is irrelevant. The Bible says Rob Bell is irrelevant. Transcript: At some level, I’m happy when this happens, it’s not that unusual. We have someone who makes a splash in our little world, the evangelical world. And he typically makes that splash because he’s quite effective at gathering large numbers. But after a while we begin to doubt his loyalty to the core convictions of evangelicals. Well, it’s not unusual when this happens that about this same time, our hero with the wide reach determines to turn on we evangelicals and embrace the broader world....

February 17, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- Public opinion has nothing to do with whether something is good or moral, but it’s worth noting how so-called same-sex marriage came to Alabama. It was imposed on Alabama the same way it’s been imposed on the majority of the American people—by activist judges.It’s no surprise that progressives and liberal media are going bananas over Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore’s refusal to give in to judicial tyranny or ignore the Alabama Constitution’s marriage amendment before the Supreme Court weighs in.  They are incensed that one man has the intestinal fortitude to stand for the rule...

The British government’s health program is under fire from pro-life advocates who are uspet that it is handing out condoms and lubricant to kids.The contraceptive credit card scheme is available to students as young as 13 and the card allows the youngsters to make multiple purchases of condoms and lubricant. The children can sign up for the card without even seeing a doctor or a nurse and without parental notification or permission.The program is coming under heavy criticism from pro-life groups: Entitling them to a pack of six contraceptives, the card can be used up to six times before it...

Abortion has consequences.The Italian health minister gave a recent interview in which she said Italy is a “dying country.” Why? Because abortion has depleted the European nation of its next generations and caused a massive baby shortage.While some abortion advocates decry overpopulation, Italy’s birth rate has fallen to its lowest level – 8.4 per 1,000 people — since 1861.Beatrice Lorenzin, the minister of health, said: “We are at the threshold where people who die are not being replaced by newborns. That means we are a dying country. This situation has enormous implications for every sector: the economy, society, health, pensions,...

February 17, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- In 2010 my unborn daughter was diagnosed with a lethal birth anomaly. We continued our pregnancy, much to the consternation of our physicians, and she lived for almost two hours after birth. As the mother of a child who was diagnosed in the womb with a life limiting condition, I take a keen interest in abortion legislation that seeks to destroy protections for the most vulnerable members of our society like my daughter Beatrix. This includes international legislation like that which was roundly defeated in The Republic of Ireland earlier this week. Socialist politician Clare Daly...

New York City, N.Y., Feb 13, 2015 / 04:02 am (CNA).- Questions are being raised over two U.S. foundations that have poured more than three million dollars into abortion rights, LGBT activist, and legal groups to push the message that exemptions based on religious beliefs are “un-American” and an abuse of liberty. The Arcus Foundation and the Ford Foundation have spent over $3 million in combined spending against religious liberty exemptions since 2013, according to a CNA review of tax forms and grant listings. John Lomperis of the Institute for Religion and Democracy – a D.C.-based ecumenical Christian think tank...

According to a media report out of New Jersey, a third doctor–the others are Shewmon and Calixto–has signed a declaration stating Jahi McMath is not brain dead. The family attorney Chris Dolan says he will petition the California Secretary of State to rescind the death certificate. From the N.J.com story: Dolan provided NJ Advance Media with signed declarations from four doctors, including Charles J. Prestigiacomo, director of Cerebrovascular and Endovascular Neurosurgery at University Hospital in Newark and chair of the neurological surgery department at Rutgers, stating that McMath isn’t brain dead.“The brain structure evidenced in the MRI is not consistent...

TORONTO, February 13, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- Since its introduction in 2007 in the U.S. and Canada, the Gardasil vaccine against Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), the main cause of cervical cancer and genital warts, has been injected in more than 50 million people in more than 130 countries, mostly young women. But concern over serious side effects and deaths following inoculations has grown enough for the Toronto Star to mount a lengthy investigation. It found more than 50 Canadian girls who developed serious medical conditions after their injections with Merck’s Gardasil (15 hospitalized) and in the U.S, more than 100 deaths...