Free Republic

The abortion-friendly media are having a heyday challenging Carly Fiorina’s assertion during Wednesday’s debate that on the Planned Parenthood videos you can: “Watch a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking, while someone says ‘We have to keep it alive to harvest its brain.’” Planned Parenthood calls her a liar. Politico adds, “…at no point do they include footage of an entire aborted fetus.” Huffington Post said, “That footage doesn’t exist…” Vox said Fiorina’s claims are “pure fiction.” George Stephanopoulos told Fiorina to her face “…the harrowing scene you describe isn’t actually in those tapes.”...

A man I know was a top executive at a major American media company, one of the biggest and most influential in the world. A young man came into his office one day asking to display a rainbow sticker with the words “safe space.” This was a decade ago and this man, a faithful Catholic, felt confident he could demur without reprisal though he could see the veiled threat of being “outed” as less than gay friendly, as a homophobe.But, in these post-Brendan Eich days, it is doubtful my friend would feel as safe to say no because things...

The clean sweep at the Komen Foundation is finally complete. A few days ago Komen founder Nancy Brinker finally lost her job as CEO. It took a while but they finally got rid of her, the woman who watched her sister suffer and die from breast cancer, who dedicated her life to eradicating the disease, who created one of the most successful global health charities in the world. They removed her for the crime of trying to defund Planned Parenthood. She’s being replaced by a woman some say had a hand in developing Obamacare and who has never run a...

My great-great-great-great-great-grandfather was Aaron Ruse Sr. who was born in Virginia circa 1764. I know the name of his son and his son and his son and so on down to my own father. I know the names of their brothers and sisters. I know the names of their children. I know where most of these family members were born and where most of them died.There is a house in Loudon County, Virginia that is called the John Ruse House, where Aaron Ruse’s grandson John—my great-great-grandfather—lived. I have seen this house.With a little effort, I could find the name...

In Making Gay Okay, Robert Reilly says the ascendancy of men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM) started with Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s victory over Aristotle and that once philosophy fell the triumphant march through the institutions was quick and maybe even inevitable.Reilly explains that the debate centers on the question of what is natural and not, and how to distinguish between right and wrong. He describes how the Greeks fell in love with reality when they discovered nature and that the purpose of things was knowable and unchangeable even by the whim of gods.The author writes, “A dog wagged his tail because that was the...

I made a stupid gaffe on the radio last week. While hosting a national radio show, I said that, in general, the liberal professors who have turned higher education into the toxic stew that produced porn star “Belle Knox” needed to be “taken out and shot.” This was a figure of speech; I certainly did not mean it literally. It is a figure of speech, I suspect, that everyone reading this has used, and everyone who clamored for my ruination has used also. The reaction was swift, massive, and unforgiving – first playing itself out on Twitter but then...

Using artificial contraception to avoid pregnancy is a mortal sin, according to the teachings of the Catholic Church.While only the Catholic Church maintains this teaching on contraception, it would be a better world if everyone did.Paul VI was a prophet when he told the world that great societal evils would follow upon the widespread use of contraception: a loosening of morals, an objectification of women, family breakdown and all the rest of the pathologies that have visited us like furies.Many of us also hold that contraception also leads inevitably to abortion. After all, according to national statistics, 94 percent...

Ron Belgau delivers lectures, publishes essays and letters and generally enters into very public debates supporting the Biblical injunction against homosexual acts. In fact, he studied ancient Greek for two years in college to better understand his faith but also so he could better understand a single Greek word, arsenokoitai.There are two lists in the New Testament that prohibit homosexual acts. 1 Corinthians and 1 Timothy both provide a list of prohibited behaviors including what the original Greek calls arsenokoitai. Most Bible translations make it clear this refers to homosexual acts. Belgau points to his New Testament Greek lexicon:...

[Prefatory notes] † Defining and using terms in this debate is fraught with difficulties. Gay can be a political term of the sexual left. Many consider homosexual to be pejorative. Then there is “same-sex attracted.” I am using “gay” out of deference to the good people I am writing about. †† Homophile was the term used for gay groups in the 1950s and 60s, prior to the birth of the modern gay rights movement. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -...

Not caring about what happens to gay men is like not caring about prison rape. Prisoners are our brothers, too, and so are gay men. We must care deeply about the abuse of our brothers in prison and we must care deeply about the lives led by our gay brothers. Prison rape seems a world away from us, a subject we try not to think about, yet it is rampant, dehumanizing and deadly dangerous. In the same way, we avert our gaze from the lives led by gay men. Certainly ignoring the lives of gay men is what the paladins...

WebToday-- Under the cover of a warm fuzzy, tagged by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon as an event to “promote peace, human rights, solidarity, progress and development,” pro-abortion U.N. agencies plan to execute a startling tactic to advance their agenda. This is according to Susan Yoshihara, international relations expert and VP for Research at the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM), an organization that has maintained a pro-family presence at the U.N. for more than a decade, and one with an undeniable inside track on U.N. developments. The event is the World Conference on Youth in Mexico, slated...

Document gives U.N. committee authority to dictate family policy. Senate Democrats may be on the verge of resurrecting a treaty that could be used to require U.S. compliance with liberal policies, such as a right to abortion and legalization of prostitution.  The treaty -- the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women  (CEDAW)  -- was signed by President Carter in 1980, but was never ratified by the U.S. Senate and has been in limbo ever since.  More than 180 countries have ratified the treaty, which established a United Nations committee to monitor participation in CEDAW ....

Lancet Calls For Caution In Touting Potential For Embryonic Stem Cells      A prestigious British medical journal calls recent headlines that claim research using embryonic stem cells will lead to cures for an almost unending number of diseases to be "sensationalist" and "hype" even though the journal favors embryo-destructive research. In an editorial in the June 4 edition titled "Stem cell research: hope and hype," The Lancet noted the findings of a recent meeting of researchers in London, also supportive of embryonic stem cell research, who found that, "no safe and effective stem cell therapy will be widely available for...

Dear Colleague, What do radical feminists, supporters of euthanasia, and the proponents of special rights for homosexuals have in common? They tend not to have many children. That's good news for those of us fighting for life and family and a new report from Foreign Policy magazine says that adherents to traditional morality are increasing their numbers across the globe.Spread the Word.  Yours sincerely, Austin Ruse President Action Item: Read the article here.  Demographer Says Religious, Cultural Conservatives on the Rise        "Conservatives will inherit the earth" according to the cover story of the current edition of Foreign...

Dear Colleague, One of the old chestnuts of the pro-abortion movement has turned rotten. They say laws against abortion result in higher maternal mortality. New statistics direct from the UN indicate they couldn't be more wrong. In fact, it seems pro-life nations actually have lower maternal mortality rates. This information must be used immediately by everyone concerned about this issue but particularly by those in countries where abortion is against the law: Ireland and Poland especially. Spread the word far and wide. Yours sincerely, Austin Ruse President Action Item: Read the report here.UN Data Show Banning Abortion Doesn't Increase...

Dear Colleague, The UN is set to hold a major conference on June 2 to explore UN efforts to halt the spread of AIDS. Of course, the only successful strategy is the one that the UN rejects but that has been successful in Uganda; abstinence before marriage, fidelity within marriage. The UN's solution is to toss around condoms and to expand access to abortion. Go figure. Spread the word. Yours sincerely, Austin Ruse President UN AIDS conference may push for more abortionOn June 2, the UN will host a high-level conference to evaluate the progress achieved in combating HIV/AIDS since...

UNFPA Elusive About Abortion Aid for Tsunami Victims The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) describes itself as the "largest international public sector supplier of contraceptives, condoms and other reproductive health essentials," and states that such supplies are "critical to protecting reproductive health in emergency situations." Yet in press releases on its tsunami relief activities, UNFPA steers clear of directly stating that it provides contraceptives or abortion aids. UNFPA may be responding to past public criticism after disclosures that it was providing such supplies. In its January 6 press release, the latest and most explicit to date, UNFPA has requested $28 million...

The cult of the condom is failing us in America where the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports the incidents of HIV/AIDS is increasing among the group that knows the most about condoms --- gay men. Yet, policy makers continue to insist that condoms are the answer to AIDs in Africa. We report today on the new CDC numbers and statements by policy makers on World AIDs Day in support of condoms.Spread the word. Yours sincerely,Austin RusePresident Action item:  You may access a copy of the CDC report by going tohttp://www.cdc.gov/hiv/stats/hasr1402/2002SurveillanceReport.pdf ___________________________________________________________________________ CULTURE & COSMOS December 2, 2003...

As the Supreme Court ruling on Texas' sodomy law continues to generate controversy, Austin Ruse of the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute reveals a disturbing new element. The US Supreme Court used foreign precedents in formulating their decision. In the majority opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy referred to a "Friend of the Court" brief submitted by former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson. "This Court should not decide in a vacuum whether criminalization of same-sex sodomy between consenting adults violates constitutional guarantees of privacy and equal protection. Other nations with similar histories, legal systems, and political cultures have...