Free Republic

Give him points for cleverness. President Obama’s birth control “accommodation” was as politically successful as it was morally meaningless. It was nothing but an accounting trick that still forces Catholic (and other religious) institutions to provide medical insurance that guarantees free birth control, tubal ligation and morning-after abortifacients — all of which violate church doctrine on the sanctity of life. The trick is that these birth control/abortion services will supposedly be provided independently and free of charge by the religious institution’s insurance company. But this changes none of the moral calculus. Holy Cross Hospital, for example, is still required by...

In an article titled "The Eugenic Value of Birth Control Propaganda" in the Birth Control Review, Margaret Sanger wrote the following:(Page 43) The eugenic and civilizational value of Birth Control is becoming apparent to the enlightened and the intelligent. In the limited space of the present paper, I have time only to touch upon some of the fundamental convictions that form the basis of our Birth Control propaganda, and which, as I think you must agree, indicate that the campaign for Birth Control is not merely of eugenic value, but is practically identical in ideal with the final aims of...

Earlier today I was sent a link to a blog of a woman named “Ashley” who is acting as a surrogate mother. She says she is around 20 weeks pregnant with the child of another couple, and recently found out that the child suffers from some abnormalities. What those abnormalities are Ashley herself did not say, but the person who forwarded the link to me said it was cleft lip and palate – a minor condition that can be surgically remedied after birth. But now the parents of the child have demanded that Ashley abort the child. In a heartrending...

Six pro-life activists, including one Catholic priest, were arrested this morning in front of the White House while holding a peaceful prayer vigil in protest against the Obama administration’s birth control mandate. They were released shortly thereafter, after paying a $100 fine. Fr. Denis Wilde, the Associate Director of Priests for Life, told LifeSiteNews that by their arrests the protesters hoped to send a “wake-up call” to President Obama that opposition to his mandate is not going away. The six were arrested on a charge of “disobeying a lawful order.” The priest explained that while it is legal to hold...

February 16, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Sisters of Life, a group of Catholic nuns who take a sacred vow to “protect and enhance the sacredness of human life,” say they don’t fall under the narrow religious exemption under the Obama administration’s new insurance mandate, meaning the rule would force them to break their promises to God. “This mandate will gravely violate the individual and collective religious liberties of the Sisters of Life and millions of others by forcing us to pay for abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and artificial contraception against our conscience,” said the sisters in a statement Thursday. The religious...

When I was a teenager I was extremely lucky, landing in the middle of a cultural and social revolution. Driving into assembly on the back of a motorbike, having a fling with an unsuspecting English teacher and being desperate to get myself laid at 15 gave me immediate membership to the only club worth joining - the club that was 'the 60s'. Apart from occasional doses of teenage angst, I was what you might call very, ‘alive and kicking’; anything I could kick against, I did. And therein lays the problem - the one about being alive. Consider the figures...

LUFKIN, TEXAS, February 15, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Congressional investigation into Planned Parenthood that touched off the controversy over Susan G. Komen’s funding of the abortion giant may soon expand into a series of national hearings in the nation’s capital and court cases around the country that could expose hundreds of millions of dollars of financial impropriety, critics say. Karen Reynolds, a decade-long employee of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast (PPGC) in Texas, has filed a lawsuit claiming 12 Planned Parenthood mills in Texas and Louisiana bilked the government by billing medical agencies for services that were unnecessary or that were...

Of all the hubbub rightly surrounding the healthcare mandate handed down from the imperial throne of Barack Obama, one aspect of this issue has not been sufficiently discussed: the disturbing fact that sex has now made its way into nearly all aspects of American life. Many have written of the clash between First Amendment rights and those who would seek to curb them, while others have debated the moral evils of abortion, but few have sought to plumb the cause of it all: our national descent into the sexual gutter. Without doubt or question, sex rules our airwaves, satellites and...

On the measure's first day in the Senate after it cleared the House on Tuesday, abortion opponents rallied at the state Capitol to support House Bill 1, which would define life as beginning at conception. Nearly 100 people gathered Wednesday at Capitol Square's Bell Tower to advocate for the measure, wearing yellow scarves and carrying yellow balloons, along with "Support HB1" posters that depicted a fetus. The bill would impart the rights of "personhood" to a human embryo at the moment of conception, creating a civil cause of action for the wrongful death of an unborn child killed by the...

Imagine that you’re a politician. You know that a story is going to come out, and you know that the story will be damaging to your interests. You can’t control that. But you can control when the story comes out. How should you plan it?That’s easy. Arrange for the story to come out Friday evening. People don’t spend much time with the news on Saturday mornings. Many people won’t even notice the story; you may be able to bury it.OK, now imagine that you’re working in the Obama White House. You want a bit of a favorable “bump� when you...

Agency name Virginia Department of Health Virginia Administrative Code (VAC) citation 12VAC5-412 Regulation title Regulations for Licensure of Abortion Facilities Action title Establishes minimum standards for facilities performing five or more first trimester abortions per month.

Agency name Virginia Department of Health Virginia Administrative Code (VAC) citation 12VAC5-412 Regulation title Regulations for Licensure of Abortion Facilities Action title Establishes minimum standards for facilities performing five or more first trimester abortions per month.

SANTA ANA, California, February 15, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The young woman staggered out the back door of the abortion clinic. She barely managed to make her way to her car before she collapsed on the curb, sobbing uncontrollably. The year was 1980. Kathleen, in her early 20’s, had recently separated from her husband and had just aborted another man’s baby. In her time of crisis, Kathleen had turned for help to the only organizations she knew, Planned Parenthood and Family Planning Associates. The first gave her a pregnancy test, the other aborted her baby. As Kathleen doubled up from pain...

February 15, 2012 (Bound4Life.com) - One thing we learned from the Komen/Planned Parenthood fiasco is that it may be easier to say no to the mob than Planned Parenthood. We saw it again recently in Green Bay, Wisconsin. This one didn’t make much news, but created a local social network bully fest. Planned Parenthood called Paul’s Pantry, part of the St. Vincent de Paul Society and the biggest food pantry in Wisconsin, and asked them to come and pick up donations, which may have been noble, but wasn’t something the Catholic organization felt comfortable doing — sending a truck over...

Today is the LAST DAY for public comment on the Clinic Safety bill, signed by Gov. McDonnell, to provide SOME level of regulation. Planned Parenthood has been sending emails to their minions and right now, the comments are 20 to 1 for the pro-abortion view. Please go to this site and enter CLINIC SAFETY STANDARDS as the subject, leave a message SUPPORTING the clinic safety bill that Gov. McDonnell signed. http://townhall.virginia.gov/L/Comments.cfm?stageid=6006 Prior to this, abortion clinics had very little regulation, the same as vet offices. Women have died in Virginia abortion clinics, when there is an emergency in the past,...

RICHMOND, Va. — A Republican supermajority has muscled two of the most restrictive anti-abortion bills in years through the Virginia House, despite bitter yet futile objections from Democrats, with one GOP delegate deriding most of the procedures as “matters of lifestyle convenience.” Del. Bob Marshall’s House Bill 1 would effectively outlaw all Virginia abortions by declaring that the rights of persons apply from the moment sperm and egg unite. It passed on a 66-32 vote. And on a 63-36 vote, the House passed a bill that requires women to have a “transvaginal ultrasound” before undergoing abortions.

Criminal charges against pro-life activist Peter D'Attilio thrown out by judge. Berates prosecutor for pursuing false charges! Civil Rights lawsuit coming up? ALSO: D'Attilio followed through courthouse by apparent government agent -- even listened to his conversations with lawyer. POSTED: February 13, 2012 A district court judge threw out the Franklin, MA police department's case against pro-life activist Peter D'Attilio, after sharply challenging the prosecutor regarding validity of the charges. At the hearing on Thursday, Feb. 9, in Wrentham District Court, Judge Stephen Ostrach berated the prosecutor for pursuing what were clearly false charges.

A new video expose and report from a pro-life group shows how the Planned Parenthood abortion business exposes children to sexual material in order to seed a generation of sex addicts who will become future customers for the abortion giant. The new American Life League report exposes Planned Parenthood’s sex programs using graphic imagery from Planned Parenthood’s own websites, materials, and events.

As politicians in both political parties debate Mitt Romney’s role in implementing a 2005 statute requiring Catholic hospitals in Massachusetts to dispense Plan B - an “emergency contraceptive” that studies and the pill’s manufacturer have suggested can cause early abortions - a leader in the state’s pro-life movement puts the blame squarely on the former governor.

RUSH: I want to move on to this Dick Morris business and the attack on the Catholic Church last week by Obama. I want to ask you, if you remember back in January there was a presidential debate, a Republican debate in Manchester. Do you remember -- 'cause this is a setup for what's coming -- do you remember, we were all perplexed here. George Stephanopoulos kept hounding Romney on contraception. It had not come up, nobody had said anything about it, and we were all confused, as was Romney, what the deal was. Well, it is Dick Morris' theorem...

February 14, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - After a person posing as a pro-choice leader thanked her for defending reproductive rights against the U.S. Catholic bishops, Sr. Carol Keehan of the Catholic Health Association thanked the individual and encouraged her group to take a proposed donation to CHA and instead use it to benefit a “poor woman” in CHA’s honor. The pro-life activist behind the e-mail says Keehan didn’t respond to e-mails with an overt pro-life point of view sent from several e-mail addresses, but got a very different response when posing as a pro-choice leader praising her for defending birth control....

Thanks to an NYT story this weekend, this bit of old news has been resurrected, showcased yesterday in a Peter Robinson post at Ricochet and then picked up by Rush Limbaugh this afternoon. The key quote is six years old and appeared in a story in National Review so it’s been on the right’s radar since well before Romney’s first presidential run. And yet, much like the mandate, somehow he didn’t get much grief over it last time when he was running as the conservative in the race. Mr. Romney’s transformation on abortion is, in some respects, the story of...

WASHINGTON, D.C., February 14, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Almost immediately after President Obama announced the details of his “accommodation” on Friday morning, Catholic Health Association (CHA) President Sr. Carol Keehan registered her support, long before any other Catholic organizations had the opportunity to analyze the White House’s statement, let alone to issue a statement for or against. Some in the Catholic Church are calling Keehan’s close working relationship with the administration in drafting a measure that still violates their common religious beliefs a “scandal.” The Wall Street Journal reported that the president called three people before delivering his speech on the...

WASHINGTON, D.C., February 13, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Within weeks, the top lawyers in a dozen states may file a federal lawsuit against the Obama administration’s controversial requirement that all insurance plans include access to abortion-inducing drugs, contraception, and sterilization, the attorney general of Nebraska told LifeSiteNews. Jon Bruning told LifeSiteNews.com that 12 states had signed onto a scathing critique of the mandate and were preparing to take more serious action. Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning On Friday, ten state attorneys general addressed a scathing letter to President Obama, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis....

February 14, 2012 (PriestsforLife.org) - Many have asked me whether I think that the President’s announced “accommodation” regarding the HHS mandate for health insurance coverage of abortion-inducing drugs, contraceptives, and sterilization is acceptable. Absolutely not. As many Catholics and non-Catholics point out, the principal problem is that the mandate is still in place. The President’s February 10 announcement changed none of that. What remains is that all employers — not just religious ones — have to provide health insurance for their employees, and all health insurance plans have to cover abortion-inducing drugs, contraceptives, and sterilization. It’s a fiction to say...

A district court judge threw out the Franklin, MA police department's case against pro-life activist Peter D'Attilio, after sharply challenging the prosecutor regarding validity of the charges. At the hearing on Thursday, Feb. 9, in Wrentham District Court, Judge Stephen Ostrach berated the prosecutor for pursuing what were clearly false charges. Peter D'Attilio was handing out pro-life bookmarks at a Catholic town fair on August 11, 2011 when police stopped him, arrested him, and beat him up so badly that he had a large black eye. He was then charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. Peter strongly denies that...

President Barack Obama’s right hand man said over the weekend that the revised mandate the administration put into place requiring insurance companies to distribute birth control and abortion-causing drugs to women at no cost is here to stay.The Obama administration has revised its controversial mandate that had forced religious employers to pay for health insurance coverage that includes birth control and drugs like Plan B, the morning after pill, and ella that can cause abortions. The revised Obama mandate will make religious groups contract with insurers to offer birth control and the potentially abortion-causing drugs to women at no cost....

“I never said I was pro-choice, but my position was effectively pro-choice...I changed my position.” [Romney] answered a Planned Parenthood questionnaire by saying he backed “state funding of abortion services.” “It was made clear to him by advisers early on in his gubernatorial race that he had to be pro-choice...” “...my mother and my family have been committed to the belief that we can believe as we want, but we will not force our beliefs on others...And you will not see me wavering on that.” Mr. Romney promised [Naral Pro-Choice America] to maintain the status quo...he surprised its leaders by...

February 13, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Opponents of the Obama Administration’s birth control mandate are rallying behind another White House petition that rejects the President’s recent revision and calls for a complete rescinding of the rule. A previous petition to abolish the rule, created in late January, had accused the Administration of attempting “to represent ‘transcendental truth’ on matters of conscience,” by forcing all employers, including Catholics and members of other pro-life denominations, to cover birth control and abortion-inducing drugs on their employee’s health plans. “That in itself is unprecedented, which is also why it is unconstitutional,” the petition charged. The...

Warning: The video below contains graphic illustrations that are not suitable for children or teens. While the information the video contains is critical for parents and educators to know, viewers are strongly cautioned that some of the material is disturbing. STAFFORD, VA, February 13, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - As Planned Parenthood kicks off National Condom Week tomorrow, it will also be actively engaged in selling sex to children as young as those in grade school with graphic videos and books. The American Life League has compiled a video exposing some of Planned Parenthood’s disturbing materials that are presented to school-age children...

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, February 13, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – As politicians in both political parties debate Mitt Romney’s role in implementing a 2005 statute requiring Catholic hospitals in Massachusetts to dispense Plan B - an “emergency contraceptive” that studies and the pill’s manufacturer have suggested can cause early abortions - a leader in the state’s pro-life movement puts the blame squarely on the former governor. “The injury to the conscience rights of Catholic hospitals was not done so much so much by the church’s ideological enemies on the Left but by the Romney administration,” C.J. Doyle, executive director of the Catholic Action...

Twenty-five Notre Dame faculty members--led by the university’s top ethics expert, and including some of the school’s most eminent scholars--have signed a statement declaring that President Barack Obama’s latest version of his administration’s mandate that all health insurance plans in the United States must cover sterilizations and all FDA-approved contraceptives, including those that cause abortions, is “a grave violation of religious freedom and cannot stand." The statement—put out on the letterhead of the University of Notre Dame Law School--is also signed by leading scholars from other major American colleges and universities, including Princeton, Harvard, Stanford, Georgetown, Brigham Young, Yeshiva and...

It is common knowledge that more books have been written about Abraham Lincoln, our 16th President, than any other figure except Jesus Christ. With so much archeological attention directed toward him it is unlikely that much new factual material will surface about Mr. Lincoln. When taken as a whole, the in-depth forensic examinations of his writings, relationships, lineage, marriage, religion (or supposed lack thereof), evidence a complex and brilliant identity. An interesting phenomenon of the last twenty years, however, has been to place a contemporary lens over Lincoln. In recent writings, Lincoln has been gay, depressed, and now even a...

US Bishops: Obama's 'Compromise' Has No Clear Protection for Key Stakeholders "Today's Proposal Continues to Involve Needless Government Intrusion" WASHINGTON, D.C., FEB. 10, 2012 (Zenit.org).- The U.S. bishops say the proposal made today by President Barack Obama's administration regarding the mandate to cover abortifacients, sterilization and contraception "continues to involve needless government intrusion in the internal governance of religious institutions, and to threaten government coercion of religious people and groups to violate their most deeply held convictions."Obama's proposal came after widespread and energetic condemnation of the Jan. 20 announcement that employers must include abortifacients in the health care plans offered...

Protests Continue Over Insurance for Contraception, Abortifacients US Federal Government Under Increasing Pressure By Father John Flynn, LCWASHINGTON, D.C., FEB. 8, 2012 (Zenit.org).- Opposition to the U.S. federal government's decision to oblige Church affiliated institutions to cover contraceptives, abortifacients and sterilization in their health plans continues to gather strength.According to one recent count by the Catholic Vote blog, out of the 183 dioceses in the U.S. who have a bishop currently serving as its head, 169 of them have issued statements protesting the new regulations issued by the Health and Human Services department. In many cases these statements have been...

If you want to see where our culture may next go off the rails, read professional journals. There, in often eye-crossing and passive arcane prose of the medical intelligentsia, you will discover an astonishing level of antipathy to the sanctity of human life — to the point now that some advocate killing the profoundly disabled for their organs.Case in point: “What Makes Killing Wrong?” an article published in the January 19, 2012 edition of the Journal of Medical Ethics. The authors argue that death and total disability are morally indistinguishable, and therefore harvesting organs from living disabled patients is not...

The pro-life movement has long argued the inextricable link between the right to life and the other two rights affirmed in our Declaration of Independence.  There is a reason, we have argued, the Founding Fathers intentionally wed “life� to “liberty� and “the pursuit of happiness.�  The “unalienable rights� of the Declaration are derived from our being “created equal� by a “Creator� who “endowed� us with “certain unalienable rights.� Without the first of these rights, there is no basis for the second and third.  Our liberty as Americans is based upon our identity as human persons.  We have been given...

SANTA PAULA, California, February 10, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a strongly-worded letter addressed to California’s two U.S. senators, Thomas Aquinas College President Michael McLean expressed “strong disapproval” over Obama’s mandate that would require the school’s employee health plan to include coverage for sterilization, abortifacients, and contraception. “Voluntary sterilization, abortion, and artificial contraception are all directly contrary to Catholic teaching and cannot, in any way, be supported by individual Catholics or Catholic institutions desiring to live in accordance with the teachings of the Catholic Church,” McLean stated in the letter. Thomas Aquinas College, located in southern California, is a prominent Catholic...

Joining other ultra-liberals like Tosh.O’s star Daniel Tosh, is the Huffington Post’s Gavin Schulman. Apparently, making light of abortion and viewing it as comedy is now the cool thing to do. This morning, I was appalled to find an article defending abortion on Huff Post’s comedy page. Cause yeah, people, abortion really is comedy central. Mr. Schulman’s favorite line in his oh-so-funny article appears to be “who cares?” Who cares about abortion? It’s not a big deal. I mean, come on, Americans…stop giving a rip about anyone else’s baby besides your own! Those babies who are starving to death in...

KIRKWOOD, Missouri, February 9, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The President of the Missouri Lutheran Synod added his voice to the growing chorus of religious leaders from across denominational lines who are objecting to the HHS mandate requiring employers to cover sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs in their healthcare plans. “The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod objects to the use of drugs and procedures that are used to take the lives of unborn children, who are persons in the sight of God from the time of conception,” wrote Rev. Dr. Matthew Harrison, in a statement issued February 3rd. “Increasingly we are suffering overzealous...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: The story here is 2007. I've had a number of people tell me they didn't know --- they hadn't heard --- about this link between abortion and breast cancer. Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons. This is 2007. "The Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons published a study yesterday entitled, 'The Breast Cancer Epidemic.' It showed that, among seven risk factors, abortion is the 'best predictor of breast cancer,' and fertility is also a useful predictor. The study by Patrick Carroll of PAPRI in London showed that countries with higher abortion rates, such as England & Wales,...

February 10, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The following statement was just released in response to the Obama adminstration’s announcement this morning that it is putting in place an “accommodation” to take into account religious liberty on their birth control mandate: The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) sees initial opportunities in preserving the principle of religious freedom after President Obama’s announcement today. But the Conference continues to express concerns. “While there may be an openness to respond to some of our concerns, we reserve judgment on the details until we have them,” said Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, president of the United...

WASHINGTON, February 10, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - President Obama’s defense of his deceptive rephrasing of the birth control mandate on Friday - suggesting that insurers can provide the drugs for free because fewer children means less overall health costs - lays the groundwork for a future abortion mandate, the National Right to Life Committee has warned. In order to assuage outrage from Catholic groups, President Obama on Friday afternoon essentially claimed that religious employers wouldn’t really pay for the birth control their employees receive in health care plans because insurers would chalk up the drugs as balancing out the potential costs...

February 10, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Spanish Down syndrome association “Down Spain” (Down España) is petitioning the government to eliminate provisions in the current abortion law allowing children to be killed in the womb up til birth because of “serious abnormalities in the fetus.” Currently Spain’s abortion law allows women to abort their unborn babies up until 14 weeks on demand, but provides the sweeping exception for babies who suffer from an “extremely grave and incurable illness.” Noting that Spain is a party to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which it ratified in 2008, Down Spain...

What Obama just said on Friday afternoon was extremely confusing. But once you get to the truth of it, it’s also extremely frightening. The president was facing down a conundrum: trying to assuage religious groups appalled at being forced to cover birth control under an impending federal mandate, while making it clear to his base that he wouldn’t back away one bit from the “core principle” (his words) of giving women free birth control pills. The best way to achieve this goal is to find a funny way to reword what you already said. So the way he rephrased was...

WASHINGTON, D.C., February 10, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Evangelical and pro-family leaders have denounced the Obama administration’s new “accommodation” on the HHS mandate forcing religious institutions to provide birth control and abortifacients as an accounting gimmick that still compels people of faith to violate their deeply held principles or face legal penalty. “Mr. President, mere accounting tricks will not suffice,” Dr. Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission wrote in a statement e-mailed to LifeSiteNews.com. “You have given your fellow citizens’ cry of conscience the dismissive back of your hand by offering them not a solution.”...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Think about how far we've come, folks, in just three years. Just three years. We've gone from, "Birth control and abortion is a matter of conscience that we cannot impose on anyone," to, "Birth control and abortion is a human right that everybody must get for free if they want it." Now, what other benefits are we entitled to for free, even if we have the means to pay for them? Let me tell you... (interruption) Cell phones? That's true. But this just shows what the sacrament to the religion of the Democrat Party is. It's abortion....

20 Catholic (and Christian) Institutions Opposing Obama/HHS Mandate by Thomas Peters10 hours ago (February 9, 2012) My list of bishops who have publicly condemned the Obama/HHS mandate is now at 171 (representing almost 95% of Catholic dioceses). Only 4 bishops have yet to issue statements — and I expect they will shortly!Now I’d like to begin compiling a list of Catholic (and Christian) institutions who have said publicly they will fight or oppose the mandate.A few ground-rules: I’m only going to include institutions that have issued public statements online or a statement to the press which is available online....

A Planned Parenthood affiliate’s newest president and CEO said in an official statement that she regards her work for the biggest abortion business in America to be a holy profession.Melaney Linton, who will now oversee Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, is determined to further the Life-ending work of Planned Parenthood:“I am honored and humbled to be entrusted with such a sacred duty…I pledge to do everything in my power to fight back against the ideological attacks on Planned Parenthood and women, so that no teen will ever say she didn’t know how she got pregnant, no one will ever be denied...