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Federal jury clears anti-abortion activist (Federal jury finds ProLife Priest Not Guilty)
Omaha World-Herald ^ | April 6, 2007 | Kevin Cole

Posted on 04/06/2007 7:38:37 PM PDT by victim soul

Federal jury clears anti-abortion activist

A U.S. District Court jury deliberated for just over two hours before finding the Rev. Norman Weslin not guilty Thursday of blocking the entrance to an abortion clinic in violation of a federal law.

Weslin, 76, was arrested April 24, 2006, when he entered the Bellevue abortion clinic run by Dr. LeRoy Carhart.[Infamous Partial Birth Abortion specialist]

The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act forbids the use of "force, threat of force or physical obstruction" to prevent someone from providing or receiving reproductive health services.

Weslin had faced 18 months in a federal prison, three years of probation and a $25,000 fine if convicted.

Weslin's defense attorney, Martin A. Cannon, said that in the Bellevue incident, the priest had knelt in prayer inside a security vestibule and never entered the clinic's office. While inside he occasionally spoke to women "asking them not to kill their baby," Cannon said.

"He also spoke to clinic workers telling them not to work at the clinic and that he would help them find other jobs," Cannon said. "He actually is a kind man, who wouldn't hurt anyone."

Weslin, who was not available for comment, became teary-eyed after hearing the verdict and began singing "Ave Maria" with his supporters, Cannon said.

full story at http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=2360591

(Excerpt) Read more at omaha.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: abortion; carhart; catholicpriest; faceact
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Father thanks all who have prayed for our Twelve Star General's Victory!!

Father says: "Happy Easter!! And never forget: 'We win!'"

1 posted on 04/06/2007 7:38:38 PM PDT by victim soul
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To: victim soul

If Rudy Giuliani were still a federal prosecutor, he would have had NO problem in putting Reverend Weslin on trial, and would have done his best to send him up the river.

Fortunately in this trial, God had other plans.


2 posted on 04/06/2007 7:45:21 PM PDT by mkjessup (If Reagan were still with us, he'd ask us to "win one more for the Gipper, vote for Duncan Hunter!")
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To: victim soul
the priest had knelt in prayer inside a security vestibule and never entered the clinic's office. While inside he occasionally spoke to women "asking them not to kill their baby,"

A Christian terrorist?

3 posted on 04/06/2007 7:46:51 PM PDT by A. Pole (Warm is bad, cold is good! We should bring Ice Age back so polar bears can multiply!)
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To: victim soul
U.S. Attorney Joseph Stecher did not return a call seeking comment.


4 posted on 04/06/2007 8:23:26 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: BlackElk

A Father Weslin ping...


5 posted on 04/06/2007 8:57:13 PM PDT by PalestrinaGal0317 (I wasn't born in Texas; I just got here as fast as I could.)
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To: A. Pole

According to the democrats, DUers and Daily Kos readers, this good man is more of a threat to America than islamic terrorism.


6 posted on 04/06/2007 8:58:28 PM PDT by Pete98 (After his defeat by the Son of God, Satan changed his name to Allah and started over.)
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To: Cicero

Is it just me or does he look a lot like a much younger Justice Kennedy?


7 posted on 04/06/2007 8:59:56 PM PDT by Clump (Your family may not be safe, but at least their library records will be.)
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To: victim soul

Praise God Most High!


8 posted on 04/06/2007 9:02:42 PM PDT by skr (Freedom is one of the deepest and noblest aspirations of the human spirit. -- Ronald Reagan)
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To: victim soul
Fr. Norman Weslin, a Roman Catholic priest who
retired from the U.S. Army with the rank of lieutenant
colonel.



HERO
9 posted on 04/06/2007 9:31:52 PM PDT by DaveTesla (You can fool some of the people some of the time......)
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Why would a prosecutor waste government time and money in an attempt to jail a 76 year old man who had done nothing more than kneel, pray and talk to people? And why, if the AG is firing prosecutors, is this totalitarian bigot prosecutor not on top of the list?


10 posted on 04/06/2007 9:32:56 PM PDT by Godwin1
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To: Godwin1
Not just a man but a Catholic Priest and a U.S. Army retired Lt. Colonel.
11 posted on 04/06/2007 9:37:49 PM PDT by DaveTesla (You can fool some of the people some of the time......)
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To: Cicero

Hagel Recommends Joe Stecher for U.S. Attorney

http://www.swnebr.net/newspaper/cgi-bin/articles/articlearchiver.pl?159409


12 posted on 04/06/2007 9:44:50 PM PDT by DaveTesla (You can fool some of the people some of the time......)
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To: Cicero

The Carhart Testimony:
Death - Omaha Style

MTTU News - Omaha, Nebraska

http://mttu.com/Articles/The%20Abortionist%20Speaks.htm

In early December it was discovered that the University of Nebraska Medical Center was conducting experiments using brain tissue from pre-born children killed by the notorious partial birth abortionist Leroy Carhart.

What follows is court testimony from July ’97 where abortionist Carhart explains how he commits abortions.

When Larry Donlan of Rescue The Heartland attempted to read this statement at a N.U. Regents board meeting on Saturday December 11th, Regent Drew Miller tried to stop him claiming Carhart didn’t use this “procedure” for UNMC.”

Carhart is a specialist and the D&X is his specialty, which just so happens to be perfectly suited for collecting live brain tissue, so why wouldn’t he use it?” Donlan responded.

“Do you normally seek the services of a specialist and then tell him not to use his specialty? And if you insist he doesn’t use this method then tell us what method he does use?”

Mr. Miller had no answer to these questions so Donlan continued reading.

It was taped and played on a local radio program, the Steve Brown Show, the following Monday. It became a topic on that show for the next couple of days.

As Donlan read, a baby could be heard crying in the background.

Under oath in July 1997, abortionist Carhart comments on how he performs abortions. Here he is questioned by his attorney:

Question: Are there times when you don’t remove the fetus intact?

Carhart: Yes, sir.

Question: Can you tell me about that, when that occurs?

Carhart: That occurs when the tissue fragments, or frequently when you rupture the membranes, an arm will spontaneously prolapse through the oz. I think most...statistically the most common presentation, we talk about the forehead or the skull being first. We talked about the feet being first, but I think in probably the great majority of terminations, it’s what they world call a transverse lie, so really you’re looking at a side profile of a curved fetus. When the patient...the uterus is already starting to contract and they are starting to miscarry, when you rupture the waters, usually something prolapses through the uterine, through the cervical os, not always, but very often an extremity will.

Question: What do you do then?

Carhart: My normal course would be to dismember that extremity and then go back and try to take the fetus out either foot or skull first, whatever end I can get to first.

Question: How do you go about dismembering that extremity?

Carhart: Just traction and rotation, grasping the portion that you can get a hold of which would be usually somewhere up the shaft of the exposed portion of the fetus, pulling down on it through the os, using the internal os as your counter-traction and rotating to dismember the shoulder or the hip or whatever it would be. Sometimes you will get one leg and you can’t get the other leg out.

Question: In that situation, are you, when you pull on the arm and remove it, is the fetus still alive?

Carhart: Yes.

Question: In that situation, are you, when you pull on the arm and remove it, is the fetus still alive?

Carhart: Yes

Question: Do you consider an arm, for example, to be a substantial portion of the fetus?

Carhart: In the way I read it, I think if I lost my arm, that would be a substantial loss to me. I think I would have to interpret it that way.

Question: And then what happens next after you remove the arm? You then try to remove the rest of the fetus?

Carhart: Then I would go back and attempt to either bring the feet down or bring the skull down, or even sometimes you bring the other arm down and remove that also and then get the feet down.

Question: At what point is the fetus...does the fetus die during that process?

Carhart: I don’t really know. I know that the fetus is alive during the process most of the time because I can see fetal heartbeat on the ultrasound.

The Court: Counsel, for what it’s worth, it still is unclear to me with regard to the intact D&E when fetal demise occurs.

Question: Okay, I will try to clarify that. In the procedure of an intact D&E where you would start foot first, with the situation where the fetus is presented feet first, tell me how you are able to get the feet out first.

Carhart: Under ultrasound, you can see the extremities. You know what is what. You know what the foot is, you know, what the arm is, you know, what the skull is. By grabbing the feet and pulling down on it or by grabbing a knee and pulling down on it, usually you can get one leg out, get the other leg out and bring the fetus out. I don’t know where this...all the controversy about rotating the fetus comes from. I don’t attempt to do that. I just attempt to bring out whatever is the proximal portion of the fetus.

Question: At the time that you bring out the feet in this example, is the fetus still alive?

Carhart: Yes.

Question: Then what’s the next step you do?

Carhart: I didn’t mention it. I should. I usually attempt to grasp the cord first and divide the cord, if I can do that.

Question: What is the cord?

Carhart: The cord is the structure that transports the blood, both arterial and venous, from the fetus to the back to the fetus, and it gives the fetus its only source of oxygen, so that if you can divide the cord, the fetus will eventually die, but whether this takes five minutes or fifteen minutes and when that occurs, I don’t think anyone really knows.

Question: Are there situations where you don’t divide the cord?

Carhart: There are situations when I can’t.

Question: What are those?

Carhart: I just can’t get to the cord. It’s either high above the fetus and structures where you can’t reach up that far. The instruments are only 11 inches long.

Question: Let’s take the situation where you haven’t divided the cord because you couldn’t, and you have begun to remove a living fetus feet first. What happens next after you have gotten the feet removed?

Carhart: We remove the feet and continue with traction on the feet until the abdomen and the thorax came through the cavity. At that point, I would try ... you have to bring the shoulders down, but you can get enough of them outside, you can do this with your finger outside of the uterus, and then at that point the fetal ... the base of the fetal skull is usually in the cervical canal.

Question: What do you do next?

Carhart: And you can reach that, and that’s where you would rupture the fetal skull to some extent and aspirate the contents out.

Question: At what point in that process does fetal demise occur between initial remove...removal of the feet or legs and the crushing of the skull, or I’m sorry, the decompressing of the skull?

Carhart: Well, you know, again, this is where I’m not sure what fetal demise is. I mean, I honestly have to share your concern, your Honor. You can remove the cranial contents and the fetus will still have a heartbeat for several seconds or several minutes, so is the fetus alive? I would have to say probably, although I don’t think it has any brain function, so it’s brain dead at that point.

Question: So the brain death might occur when you begin suctioning out of the cranium?

Carhart: I think brain death would occur because the suctioning to remove contents is only two or three seconds, so somewhere in that period of time, obviously not when you penetrate the skull, because people get shot in the head and the don’t die immediately from that, if they are going to die at all, so that probably is not sufficient to kill the fetus, but I think removing the brain contents eventually will.

Later under cross examination from the AG’S counsel, Carhart stated:

“My intent in every abortion I have ever done is to kill the fetus and terminate the pregnancy.”


13 posted on 04/06/2007 10:59:00 PM PDT by victim soul
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To: Clump

If nothing else, he looks out to lunch.


14 posted on 04/07/2007 10:24:52 AM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: DaveTesla

So this S.O.B. was just appointed to the US Attorney slot, and this case must have been one of his first pieces of business. Bush is such a patsy. What has Chuck Hagel done lately that should earn him Bush’s respect?


15 posted on 04/07/2007 10:27:36 AM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: victim soul; 2ndMostConservativeBrdMember; afraidfortherepublic; Alas; al_c; american colleen; ...
Priest on trial tomorrow for entering abortion clinic

16 posted on 04/07/2007 10:31:20 AM PDT by Coleus (What were Ted Kennedy his son & nephew doing on Good Friday, 1991? Getting drunk and raping women?)
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To: victim soul; newbie 10-21-00; Bloc8406; Ransomed; AliVeritas; The Klingon; dcnd9; fishhound; ...
+

Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic Ping List:

Add me / Remove me

Please ping me to all note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of interest.

17 posted on 04/07/2007 10:46:58 AM PDT by narses ("Freedom is about authority." - Rudolph Giuliani)
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To: Godwin1
Why would a prosecutor waste government time and money in an attempt to jail a 76 year old man who had done nothing more than kneel, pray and talk to people? And why, if the AG is firing prosecutors, is this totalitarian bigot prosecutor not on top of the list?

************

Good questions.

18 posted on 04/07/2007 10:49:14 AM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: DaveTesla

God Bless Father Weslin...he is a true hero!


19 posted on 04/07/2007 10:50:33 AM PDT by Palladin (Jordin will be the AI this year.)
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To: victim soul; Coleus; nickcarraway; narses; Mr. Silverback; Canticle_of_Deborah; ...
Fr. Weslin is one of the great champions of life. He is a great friend of the founder of the NATIONAL AMERICAN HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL in Baton Rouge.

For years he comes down the week after Christmas and leads a 72 hour prayer vigil in front of the local mill.

March 2004: Fr. Weslin celebrating Holy Mass directly across the street from Tiller the Killer's murder mill in Wichita.

20 posted on 04/07/2007 11:04:43 AM PDT by cpforlife.org (A Catholic Respect Life Curriculum is available at KnightsForLife.org)
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