Free Republic

This is my favorite story of the day because on the one hand it's wonderfully pro-life and Catholic but on the other hand it annoys the heck out of all the right people and that always gives me such tingly good feelings. Is that bad? A small Catholic elementary school in Canada has announced that students who take part in anti-abortion vigils outside abortion clinics will receive community service credit. How awesome is that? I literally think I just heard heads exploding up in Canada. It's a brilliant and wonderful way to exhibit the school's Catholic identity. What is more...

ROME, October 10, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – There is no such thing as a “right” to abortion, Lord Nicholas Windsor has said in this weekend’s Daily Telegraph. Lord Windsor, the youngest son of the Duke of Kent and the first cousin once removed to Queen Elizabeth II, is becoming noted not only as among the rare members of Britain’s Royal Family to convert to Catholicism, but more recently for his outspoken opposition to legalized abortion, which he compares with eugenics. The cost of abortion, Lord Windsor said, “is too high because the cost is paid in innocent life.” In a statement,...

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius (Pic by US Mission Geneva, via Flickr) At a luncheon hosted by NARAL Pro-Choice America yesterday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius criticized the recent pushback from anti-abortion advocates against a recent decision requiring insurance plans to cover birth control without co-pays.Sebelius has been a key player in the recent decision by the Obama administration to make it easier for women to afford birth control. The new requirement would be implemented through the Affordable Care Act. Sebelius asked that birth control be included in a list of preventative care services to be...

September 27, 2011 (HLIWorldWatch.org) - Senator Barbara Boxer is in a tough situation: she thinks there are too many children in the developing world, she thinks abortion and contraception are the answer to this problem, and she has to try to convince the majority of Americans who are deeply offended by her views that she actually wants something good and just. So what’s a busy, far-left California Democrat supposed to do? It’s not as if she can just come out and say that the mothers of Asia, Africa and Latin America are having more children then she would prefer. There...

Monty Patterson with his daughter Holly, and son Cody. This picture was taken just weeks after the abortion drug was approved in 2000. LIVERMORE, CA, September 29, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The father of an 18-year-old casualty of a drug-induced abortion has mourned the 11th anniversary of RU-486 legalization by launching a website and video to help women learn about the health risks of the abortion drug. Monty Patterson, whose daughter Holly died in 2003, said that it is critical that a patient be fully informed of the procedures, administration, and risks involved with the chemical abortion. “The website isn’t about...

I was wondering something tonight in light of the news that Congress will be investigating Planned Parenthood. Are there really Catholics who are personally pro-life and publicly pro-choice? Is that an honest opinion? The answer, if you can call it that, came to me in the form of a question. Have I ever seen or heard of personally pro-life Catholics praying in front of abortion clinics? Nope. Have I seen personally pro-life Catholics pushing to hold Planned Parenthood or other abortionists to higher safety standards? Nope. But the truth is that to be pro-anything it can not be a passive...

ORETTO, PA, September 26, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A Catholic University in Pennsylvania has cancelled a scheduled appearance by prominent feminist journalist Ellen Goodman after the Cardinal Newman Society (CNS) drew attention to the conflict between Goodman’s work and Catholic Church teaching on key issues. The Catholic watchdog group reported in a blog entry that Goodman was scheduled to speak October 12th at St. Francis University in Loretto on the topic of civility in public discourse. The lecture was part of the school’s annual Furlong Lecture Series. The blog entry detailed the history of Goodman’s outspoken support for abortion, including opposing...

An elderly priest on the Acadian Peninsula has been barred from performing church services in the Bathurst diocese after he made remarks about homosexuals and women who have had an abortion. Rev. Donat Gionet, 85, gave the sermon at the Roman Catholic church in Saint-Léolin while replacing the regular parish priest late last month. He stands by the comments he made in Saint-Léolin, a village of about 730 people located about 50 kilometres east of Bathurst. Reached in Caraquet on Wednesday, Gionet declined an interview but did provide a written statement. In a letter written in French that he provided...

Prenatal testing for Down syndrome should not be considered preventive medicine. Such tests cannot prevent the presence of Down syndrome in a child; but they can decrease the likelihood of a child with Down syndrome surviving beyond the womb. Expectant parents need accurate information, including the many positive outcomes, about life raising a child with Down syndrome. Last month, my daughter Juliet began second grade, where her mother and I expect her to maintain her B+ average on spelling tests and straight A’s in Chinese. In addition to being a loving daughter and big sister, Juliet also is endowed...

Note: Jewels Green is a former abortion clinic worker who also had an abortion herself. She recently spoke out about her experiences as an abortion clinic worker for the first time. September 20, 2011 (LiveAction.org) - After supporting abortion my entire life and working in an abortion clinic for years, my Ah-HA moment seemed to come from an unlikely place. I did not have a profound, sudden shift in my worldview. After years of ignoring the little voice inside me questioning the death around me—the nightmares and the regret—the truth snuck up on me. I was involved in an online...

The abortion debate has raged since 1973, when the Supreme Court gave abortion constitutional protection, but the basic law of the land has proved immutable. Abortion is legal, and it's going to remain legal for a long time. Laws often alter attitudes, inducing people to accept things -- such as racial integration -- they once rejected. But sometimes, attitudes move in the opposite direction, as people see the consequences of the change. That's the case with abortion. The news that the abortion rate has fallen to its lowest level in 30 years elicits various explanations, from increased use of contraceptives...

HHS's Plans To Contracept Conscience Rights The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops urges faithful Catholics, friends of conscience rights, enemies of government tyranny, and people of good will to protest the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services proposed diktat that private health plans cover contraception (including abortifacients) as preventive services for women. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has issued interim final rules mandating this outcome pursuant to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, i.e., ObamaCare. There's no doubt that these "preventive services" prevent fecundation or implantation in the women who avail themselves of them. In the case of...

An elderly priest on the Acadian Peninsula has been barred from performing church services in the Bathurst diocese after he made remarks about homosexuals and women who have had an abortion. Rev. Donat Gionet, 85, gave the sermon at the Roman Catholic church in Saint-Léolin while replacing the regular parish priest late last month. He stands by the comments he made in Saint-Léolin, a village of about 730 people located about 50 kilometres east of Bathurst. Reached in Caraquet on Wednesday, Gionet declined an interview but did provide a written statement. In a letter written in French that he provided...

President Barack Obama’s top health official, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, will host a massive fundraiser for one of the nation’s biggest pro-abortion organizations next month.With Obama’s polling numbers looking grim, the Obama administration is already cozying up to pro-abortion groups to raise the financial and grassroots support he needs from liberal Democrats in order for the president to have a shot at winning his re-election bid next year. Earlier this week, the chief of staff to First Lady Michelle Obama was the keynote speaker at a NARAL event. Now, Sebelius is headlining a fundraiser for the...

In January of last year, I appeared on Global Television talking about the blatant conflict of interest arising from the recent election of 21-year old Paul Marai, given that he was also an openly gay, homosexual activist, and his newly appointed Catholic School Board Trustee position. A few seconds (literally) after the interview was shown, I received an e-mail via Facebook entitled “F*%&$ Yourself”. “Gain some rationality”, the author said. “You’re embarassing (yes, he spelled it that way) your intellect on TV. Learn a thing or two in school before you call homosexuality a disorder. You’re officially the joke of...

The evangelist producer of an online documentary to be released this upcoming Sunday has high hopes that the film showing eight pro-abortion young adults change to a pro-life stance in just moments after being asked a question goes viral. The 33-minute documentary called “180” is produced by Ray Comfort and his ministry, Living Waters. Even after watching the film’s trailer on it’s website, viewers are left with no clues as to what question was asked or what exactly prompted eight people to change their views on abortion. Comfort told The Christian Post that in the process of making the film...

To President Barack Obama and many other Democrats, Europe continues to exercise something of a fatal attraction. The “European dream” embraced by these politicians — as well as by many pundits, academics and policy analysts — usually consists of an America governed by an expanded bureaucracy, connected by high-speed trains and following a tough green energy policy. One hopes that the current crisis gripping the E.U. will give even the most devoted Europhiles pause about the wisdom of such mimicry. Yet the deadliest European disease the U.S. must avoid is that of persistent demographic decline. The gravity of Europe’s demographic...

New Hampshire has an Executive Council, with “the authority and responsibility, together with the Governor, over the administration of the affairs of the State as defined in the New Hampshire Constitution, the New Hampshire statutes, and the advisory opinions of the New Hampshire Supreme Court and the Attorney General,” as explained by its website. However, no matter what any statutes might say, it does not have the power to override the imperial judgment of Barack Obama… and neither do you, taxpayer. The Executive Council recently decided not to renew New Hampshire’s contract with Planned Parenthood, an eighteen-month contract worth a...

Imagine yourself, a senior in college, sitting in the middle of your dream medical-school interview. Because you have done your homework, the interview is going exceedingly well. You seem to have established a rapport with the interviewer, and your answers are crisp, clear and intelligent. It’s going so well that you are starting to feel confident regarding your chances of gaining admission. That is, until the interviewer hits you with this question: “Suppose a young pregnant woman and her boyfriend come to you seeking an abortion. What would you do?” What would you do? How would you answer? For pro-life...

September 12, 2011 (UnmaskingChoice.ca) - On April 13, 2005, 19 year old Katrina Effert secretly gave birth to a baby boy in her parent’s home. She then strangled the child with her underwear, and tossed the corpse over the fence into the yard of one of the neighbours. On September 9, 2011, CBC reported that Ms. Effert’s conviction for this murder had been ‘downgraded’ by an Edmonton Court of Queen’s Bench judge to infanticide, and in lieu of jail time she will merely serve a suspended sentence. In her argument, the judge stated that “while many Canadians undoubtedly view abortion...