Free Republic

Someone once asked me whether I would abort Adolf Hitler if I knew in advance he would try to launch a Holocaust against millions of Jews. I said I would not. That is because aborting Hitler would not have prevented the Holocaust. It would have justified it. The killing of millions of innocents does not begin with the killing of one innocent. It begins with the idea that in the larger scheme of things it is permissible to kill one innocent person. The movie Judgment in Nuremburg (1961) shows that, even in Hollywood, Americans once appreciated this important principle. The...

With the nation embroiled in intense debate over spending and the economy, social issues have taken a backseat to fiscal battles. However, despite the lack of visibility, numerous abortion related campaigns are ongoing around the nation. After decades of futile attempts to stack the Supreme Court with anti-abortion judges, opponents of abortion have switched tactics and are pursuing a variety of legislative strategies at the state level. Common strategies are the limiting of the time period when an abortion can be performed, and attempts to influence the mother to keep the fetus. South Dakota has just passed a law that...

Tomorrow, St Joseph the Worker Parish, my home parish, will be taking a busload of us including our pastor to Washington DC for the Annual March for Life. Just one of the reasons  I love this march is that we get to see the Church at its best. Young high school and college students, families with small children and nuns and priests from every order marching for life. The Franciscans in their moccasins without socks in 29 degrees, Mother Teresa's Missionary's of Charity  with their white and blue striped saris, you name them, they will be there.    Many different...

The use of birth control has been an issue debated by ethicists in the United States for over a century. Until now, it’s been a moral issue, and few mainstream voices ever advocated the use of birth control for environmental reasons. On Scientific American’s website, an Oct. 11 article by David Biello argues that if we were able to lower the growth of the world’s population, the amount of carbon that is expected to be emitted into the atmosphere would significantly diminish. He cited a study from the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research that explained demographic ties to the...

The big news today is the aftermath of General McChrystal’s insolent comments to Rolling Stone Magazine. The media, legislators and some brass were scolding McChrystal and calling for his resignation. He’s been humbled, has apologized, but is now bound for a stint in the woodshed. In the interview, McChrystal criticized President Obama and ridiculed Vice President Biden and Richard Holbrooke. An aide described National Security Adviser Jim Jones as a “clown” mired in 1985.

As the new year began, The New York Times offered a 780-word article to a protest for illegal immigrants – with four marchers walking from Miami to Washington. But on Saturday, tens of thousands of Americans gathering in Washington for Friday's annual March for Life received – part of a sentence. In the Saturday paper on January 23, an article on the trial facing the killer of late-term abortionist George Tiller on page A-11 featured this note in paragraph 9 of a 12-paragraph dispatch by Monica Davey: Testimony began the same day that abortion rights groups celebrated, and abortion opponents...

As usual, ABC, CBS, and NBC ignored Friday’s March for Life protest. (Even the Associated Press skipped over the tens of thousands marching.) But the PBS NewsHour at least offered a brief from news anchor Hari Sreenivasan: Thousands rallied in Washington in the annual March For Life. It was the 37th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision of Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion. The anti-abortion crowd rallied at the White House, and then moved on to the Supreme Court. A handful of abortion rights supporters were also present. NPR covered the trial on the murder of late-term abortionist George...

Chief Justice John Roberts last week made it clear that the Supreme Court over which he presides will not hesitate to sweep away its own major constitutional rulings when doing so is necessary to defend America’s bedrock governing document. The announcement of that guiding core principle means two very big things. First, Roberts and his fellow strict constructionists on the court are now armed and ready with a powerful rationale for overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion ruling if Justice Anthony Kennedy or a future justice becomes the fifth vote against Roe. Secondly, successfully placing Roberts atop the high...

The right to life is essential.. This is an important cause. I’d like to extend an invitation to everyone to join me and thousands more in the Virtual March for Life.

Now, I did a little bit of digging, and here's what I came up with. According to our president: Obama Statement on 35th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade Decision =========="Thirty-five years after the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade, it's never been more important to protect a woman's right to choose. Last year, the Supreme Court decided by a vote of 5-4 to uphold the Federal Abortion Ban, and in doing so undermined an important principle of Roe v. Wade: that we must always protect women's health. With one more vacancy on the Supreme Court, we could be looking at...

Catholic League president Bill Donohue says U.S. Supreme Court Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg needs to explain her recent comment on abortion and eugenics: Excerpts of a New York Times Magazine interview with Ruth Bader Ginsburg, which will appear on July 12, include the following quote by the Supreme Court Justice about the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion: “Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of.” By contrast, consider what Margaret Sanger, the founder of...

In an astonishing admission, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says she was under the impression that legalizing abortion with the 1973 Roe. v. Wade case would eliminate undesirable members of the populace, or as she put it "populations that we don't want to have too many of." Question: Are you talking about the distances women have to travel because in parts of the country, abortion is essentially unavailable, because there are so few doctors and clinics that do the procedure? And also, the lack of Medicaid for abortions for poor women? Ginsburg: Yes, the ruling about that surprised...

by Tina Grazier When the everyday practice of abortion ends I think it will have happened because women, not legislators or the courts, choose to end it as a matter of conscience. I've believed this for a long time. It's the only outcome that makes any sense when you consider that women are naturally the givers of life, that women are nurturers at heart and that it was women who demanded the "right" to abort through Roe v. Wade.We have spent the years since Roe v Wade stuck in a fight. Something that once made us a sisterhood now...

WASHINGTON – GOP national chairman Michael Steele said Thursday that he's opposed to abortion and that Roe v. Wade should be repealed, commenting a day after a magazine quoted him as saying abortion was "an individual choice." Steele clarified his stance in a written statement after online publication of the interview with GQ magazine. Steele, who is adopted, said in the interview that his mother had the option of getting an abortion or giving birth. He said: "You can choose life, or you can choose abortion." He said his mother chose life. Asked whether he thought women had the right...

...After a brief slide show featuring Bush and other anti-abortion politicians, during which the crowd booed and hissed, Judd remarked, “It’s so nice to live in America again.”...

WASHINGTON – "22 Weeks" has the images and sound effects of a horror flick, but it isn't one. Instead, it's based on a true account of a woman who sought a late-term abortion but found herself living a nightmare. In the 25-minute featurette, Angela, played by Natalie Wenninger, wakes up in her motel room covered in blood. She rushes to the clinic where she had been injected with a needle the day before to abort her baby 22 weeks into her pregnancy. She’s bleeding profusely and is having contractions but is left alone in a dirty room at the clinic....

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- "Our faith requires us to oppose abortion on demand and to provide help to mothers facing challenging pregnancies," Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia and Bishop William Murphy of Rockville Centre, N.Y., said in an Oct. 21 statement. The bishops urged Catholics to study the teaching of the Church, rather than rely on statements and materials from outside groups and individuals. [[BishopMurphy102308.jpg]]Cardinal Rigali and Bishop Murphy made the joint statement in response to arguments that the Church should accept the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision on abortion as a "permanent fixture of constitutional law" and should concede...

This past Tuesday marked the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Since that fateful decision, over 48.5 million children have perished at the hands of abortionists. One out of every four children conceived in America will be killed by an abortionist. In 2003 alone, more children died from abortion than the total number of Americans who died in the Revolutionary War, Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, and Gulf War combined. Two-thirds of all abortions are performed on single women. Statistically, the womb has become the most dangerous place in America. This war against...

In January of 1973, the abortion debate became a centerpiece in American political campaigns for many years to come. The landmark ruling of the Supreme Court in Roe vs. Wade has sparked more debate and controversy than any other political issue over the ensuing 35 years. The Court in it’s decision not only gave women the “right to choose”, but also declared themselves part of the legislative branch of government by making laws and superseding the rights and powers of the individual states. January 22 marked the 35-year anniversary of the decision and activists from both sides of the debate...

The next U.S. president could reshape the Supreme Court, where the two oldest members are liberals and volatile decisions like abortion now hinge on a single swing vote. The possible sea change has already surfaced 18 months before the November 2008 election and could develop into a major campaign issue for Democrats who want to move the court to the left and Republicans who hope to plant it firmly in the conservative camp. The U.S. high court is now evenly split between conservative and liberal justices, who have been divided by 5-4 votes on abortion rights, the death penalty and...

As the plaintiff in that infamous Supreme Court case Roe vs. Wade, my life has been inextricably tied to the abortion issue. I once told a reporter, "This issue is the only thing I live for. I live, eat, breathe, think everything about abortion." Thirty-four years later, I am 100% pro-life. The Supreme Court's recent decision to uphold the federal ban on partial-birth abortion is the first step in overturning Roe vs. Wade. Banning the procedure - an act of infanticide where a scissors is jammed into the base of the infant's skull, a tube inserted and its brain sucked...

"Democrats For Life of America applauds the Supreme Court for the landmark ruling that upheld the ban on partial birth abortion. The decision closes the book on partial birth abortions in America and finally puts this deplorable procedure in the history books where it belongs. That said, we are of the opinion that just banning partial birth abortions does not do enough to prevent abortion in America. That's why we are proud to be leading the fight to reduce the abortion rate in America by 95 percent over the next 10 years by endorsing the 'Pregnant Woman Support Act'. This...

[JURIST] The North Dakota Legislative Assembly [official website] passed a bill [PDF text] Monday prohibiting abortion [JURIST news archive] in the state if the US Supreme Court [official website] ever declares that such a move would be constitutional. The measure, which Governor John Hoeven [official website] is expected to sign, passed the state House 68-24 and the Senate 29-16. In the event that the US Supreme Court overturns the 1973 Roe v. Wade [LII backgrounder; opinion] decision, the bill would subject anyone performing an abortion to a prison sentence of up to 5 years, a $5,000 fine, or possibly both....

Often a speech is significant for what it leaves out. In his State of the Union address, President Bush never mentioned the word "abortion," even though the 34th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision was only days away. What a relief. For many years, the abortion issue has taken up far more time and energy than it deserves. And the blame rests with the purists on both sides, who have insisted on establishing litmus tests for political candidates and judicial nominees that one, highly polarizing issue. We understand their sincerity. For those who believe that abortion is murder, there's...

Every year since 1973, millions of Americans have paused to remember the day when new words entered the American vocabulary. Words fraught with ambiguity, like "the right of personal privacy". Euphemisms, like "terminate one's pregnancy." Obscure phrases, like "the penumbras of the Bill of Rights." January after January we take time to remember these words, and the carnage they have caused. In an act of breathtaking judicial arrogance, the Supreme Court of the United States on January 23, 1973, "discovered" a right to abortion in the Constitution which had, theretofore, been overlooked by lawyers, judges and scholars for almost 200...

Europe's abortion rules AUSTRIA Availability: On request Gestational limit: First three months - in practice often before 12 weeks Conditions: Must have medical consultation. May be performed after 12 weeks if necessary to avoid serious danger to the woman's physical or mental health; if the child is at risk of being born with a serious physical or mental defect; or if the woman is under 14 years of age. In practice, the ability of a woman to pay for an abortion is an important factor. It is difficult for women to get an abortion outside Vienna and other big...

Abortion 101 at Yale By Michelle Malkin   ·   January 25, 2007 06:25 AM Dawn Eden reports that Yale medical students are celebrating "Roe v. Wade week" by holding a seminar, open to non-medical students, on how to perform abortions. --- Yale 'Roe vs. Wade Week' teaches non-medical students how to make a baby go (Whiffen)poof Good morning! I'm exhausted after taking two trains and a cab back from New Haven, so I'll leave it to Stephen of  For God, for Country, and for Yale to offer details (and, I hope, photos) of my Theology on Tap talk. I can tell...

The aftermath of legalized abortionChuck Norris On Jan. 22, 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court decided (via Roe v. Wade) existing laws against abortion (at both federal and state levels) violated a constitutional right to privacy and due process under the Fourteenth Amendment. As a result all national laws prohibiting or limiting abortion were reverted. The primacy of a woman's rights prevailed and the rights of the unborn were not only abandoned, but their nature legally reduced to nonhuman. A history of justificationsBoth Justices Byron White and William Rehnquist strongly dissented the 7-2 majority decision on that winter day 34 years...

Last week Myrna Blyth wrote that Hillary Clinton is essentially facing the Second Coming of Bill Clinton in Barack Obama — it’s “Clinton vs. Clinton” in some sense. That hit home this week as I was flipping through Barack Obama’s #1 New York Times bestseller, The Audacity of Hope. In one section, Senator Obama makes mention of a Time magazine essay he was commissioned to write in a special issue on Lincoln. In it — a speech he adapted quickly, he tells us — he wrote: “In Lincoln’s rise from poverty, his ultimate mastery of language and law, his capacity...

Hundreds of abortion rights supporters were expected this afternoon at a Capitol rally. Gov. Jennifer Granholm was to address the group as part of the Michigan March for Choice Day of Action. "Her message is that extreme legislative measures that seek to overturn Roe v. Wade will not happen on her watch," spokeswoman Liz Boyd said. The rally begins at 3:30 p.m. Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, also was scheduled to speak. The event comes the day before Right to Life of Michigan holds its annual legislative day in Lansing. A large majority of state lawmakers oppose abortion....

Real men -- good men -- take responsibility for the children they father. If they get a woman pregnant, they do the right thing: They stand by her. They support their child. They don't try to weasel out of a situation they co-authored. They shoulder the obligations of fatherhood, even if they hadn't planned on becoming a father. Once upon a time, men confronted with news of an unintended pregnancy knew what was expected of them. More often than not, they married the woman who was carrying their child; for those tempted to behave irresponsibly, society devised the shotgun wedding....

This is one of those moments when you want to grab liberals by the lapels and demand, "Well, what did you expect?" A group called the National Center for Men has filed a lawsuit they are calling "Roe v. Wade for Men." Here are the facts: A 25-year-old computer programmer named Matt Dubay of Saginaw, Mich., was ordered by a judge to pay $500 per month in child support for a daughter he fathered with his ex-girlfriend. His contention -- and that of the National Center for Men -- is that this requirement is unconstitutional because it violates the equal...

State lawmakers voted Friday to ban nearly all abortions in South Dakota and sent the measure to the governor, who said he is inclined to sign it. Under the legislation, doctors in South Dakota would face up to five years in prison for performing an abortion unless it was necessary to save the woman's life. The bill directly targets Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. State lawmakers believe the nation's highest court is now more likely to reverse itself on the abortion issue because of the recent appointments of Justices John Roberts and Samuel...

A Polish woman who was refused an abortion despite warnings that having a baby could make her blind is taking her case to Europe's human rights court. Alicja Tysiac's eyesight worsened drastically after she had her third baby, and she fears she will go blind (...) The head of a group that is fighting to change Poland's abortion laws has told the BBC very few women are able to terminate their pregnancies. "The practice of the Polish abortion law is even stricter than the law itself," Wanda Nowiska from the Polish Federation for Women and Family Planning said. "So in...

Some Kentucky lawmakers are trying to ban abortion, even though such a prohibition would probably conflict with federal law and the 1973 case, Roe vs. Wade, that gave the procedure its current legal status. Nearly 40 House members have tagged their names to the plan, sponsored by Rep. Addia Wuchner, R-Burlington. Wuchner acknowledged that if the General Assembly passed the ban, Kentucky would be at odds with the federal government. But it would "create a challenge" to federal law, Wuchner said. "That is how change begins, and it begins right here at the state level," she said. Under her plan,...

Ellen Ratner stated the new Democtat talking point on the confirmation of Judge Alito. The strident voice told us that if Roe was overturned, the Republican party was in deep trouble and out of power. Her threat was strongly stated

Of course, what I see as common sense will probably infuriate some who disagree. I have already disappointed and angered some of my conservative friends because, although I will work tirelessly to reverse Roe vs. Wade, I favor no restrictions on first-trimester abortion. Some see this as a contradictory position, but perhaps they do not realize what the Roe vs. Wade decision opened up in this country, nor do they really understand what was in store for many women before abortion became legal.

Abortion might be the single most divisive issue in America today judging by the recent Alito confirmation hearings, second only to the war effort in Iraq. That’s because both are the political campaign tools of choice for a beleaguered secular socialist Democratic Party currently struggling to regain any form of political power by any special interest opportunities available. The so-called pro-choice crowd has their polling data which of course suggests that most Americans support the notion of private choice on the matter. But the pro-life crowd has their set of polling results too, which of course indicate just the opposite....

To: National Desk Contact: Amaya Smith of the Democratic National Committee, Office of Communications, 202-863-8148 WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean issued the following statement recognizing the 33rd Anniversary of the landmark Roe vs. Wade decision: "The landmark Roe v. Wade decision served to ensure the personal freedoms and rights of women all over the country to make decisions about their own health care and reproductive rights. "As a physician and former Planned Parenthood board member, I understand that the decision to have an abortion is one of the most difficult a woman can...

Standing Between the Butcher and the Baby: A Criticism on the “legality” of Abortion and the Rights of the States to Interpose Themselves Between their Citizens and Federal “Law” by Scott T. Whiteman, Esq. Abort Abortion The pro-life movement estimates that 4000 children each day are either poisoned or butchered while still in the womb. That is, in the thirty years since Roe v. Wade, over 43 million children have been murdered and have received no protection from their civil governments. In these thirty years, reports indicate that the mood of the culture has changed, with teens being more likely...

The mainstream media tell us that the Supreme Court legalized abortion with its Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. The media also tell us that there is nothing we can do about it because Roe v. Wade is the “law of the land.”

While the US Senate is currently discussing Samuel Alito, George Bush’s pick for the Supreme Court, conservative European politicians are concerned about attempts by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to usurp legislative powers. Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel’s recent criticism of the ECJ, the European Union's top court, was backed on Wednesday by Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Prime Minister of Denmark. Like Schüssel, Rasmussen wants the European Constitution to include an explicit restriction of the powers of the ECJ.

The issue of Roe vs. Wade vis-à-vis the Samuel Alito confirmation begs a telling question which I thought worthy of a vanity posting today. The question is simply this "If so many of our leaders specifically stipulate Roe vs. Wade as the litmus test for suitability to the Supreme Court, then doesn't that indicate that this specific law is, for them, the most important law of the land?" If this were not the case, then these leaders would be preoccupied with Alito's positions on any number of other important questions. Were a fetus a living human being, then I could...

As far as anyone yet knows, Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. has not made any public declaration calling for the overruling of Roe v. Wade , the 1973 Supreme Court decision that recognized a constitutional right to abortion. At least on the surface, Alito's record as an appeals court judge contains something for everyone. In 1991, he voted to uphold a Pennsylvania law that would have required married women to notify their husbands before getting an abortion. In 1995, however, he cast a deciding vote on a three-judge panel to strike down what abortion rights advocates saw as Pennsylvania's onerous...

The White House decided to employ a politically-palatable, pundit-prescribed exit strategy with the withdrawal of Harriet Miers. Because of that, Miss Miers is no longer a nominee to the United States Supreme Court, and much of America may believe the Bush Administration's contention that she withdrew over a request for documents. In actuality, she withdrew because her 1993 pro-abortion speech came to light, and that was the straw that broke the camel's back for the great Dr. James Dobson, Senator Sam Brownback, Senator John Thune, and any members of the conservative base who had reserved judgment up to that point....

In an undated speech given in the spring of 1993 to the Executive Women of Dallas, Miers appeared to offer a libertarian view of several topics in which the law and religious beliefs were colliding in court. "The ongoing debate continues surrounding the attempt to once again criminalize abortions or to once and for all guarantee the freedom of the individual women's [sic] right to decide for herself whether she will have an abortion," Miers said. Those seeking to resolve such disputes would do well to remember that "we gave up" a long time ago on "legislating religion or morality,"...

Two days after President Bush announced Harriet Miers's Supreme Court nomination, James Dobson of Focus on the Family raised some eyebrows by declaring on his radio program: "When you know some of the things that I know--that I probably shouldn't know--you will understand why I have said, with fear and trepidation, that I believe Harriet Miers will be a good justice." Mr. Dobson quelled the controversy by saying that Karl Rove, the White House's deputy chief of staff, had not given him assurances about how a Justice Miers would vote. "I would have loved to have known how Harriet Miers...

'Roe' of Roe vs. Wade addresses pro-life event for L.A. Hispanics Norma McCorvey, the 'Roe' of the Roe vs. Wade 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, addressed an audience at Resurrection Church in East L.A. Oct. 8. By Paula Doyle 10/14/2005 OS ANGELES (CNS) -- More than 100 parishioners from a dozen East Los Angeles parishes turned out Oct. 8 at Resurrection Church for a Spanish-language respect life program featuring Norma McCorvey, the "Roe" of the Roe vs. Wade 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. "I think the archdiocese (of Los Angeles) is trying to light a spark in...

After the conference, it looked as if there was a 5-4 opinion to uphold the statute in its entirety, which would have effectively gutted Roe. Thus, on April 24, 1992, it appeared to the Justices that Roe v. Wade would finally be overruled.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Friday opposed John Roberts' nomination to be U.S. Supreme Court chief justice, making him the first noted Republican to break with the Bush administration over who should lead America's top court. Bloomberg, a former Democrat seeking re-election in a heavily Democratic city, said Roberts had failed to show a commitment to upholding the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision establishing a right to abortion. "I am unconvinced that Judge Roberts accepts the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling as settled law," Bloomberg said. Roberts' answers to questions in Senate confirmation...