Free Republic

PENNS CREEK — The lawyer who battled for two years to keep Terri Schiavo alive plans to speak at a Snyder County church on Friday. David Gibbs III will discuss why Schiavo’s 2005 death is still relevant during a scheduled appearance in Penns Creek at the G.I. Straub Memorial Tabernacle, according to Jeremy Fuller, Duncannon God’s Missionary Church pastor and event co-organizer. At the request of Schiavo’s parents, Gibbs took the fight to keep the brain-damaged woman’s feeding tube in all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Schiavo had been in a persistent vegetative state for 15 years before...

US Bishops Issue Fact Sheet WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPT. 4, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Here is a fact sheet issued by the U.S. episcopal conference's Committee on Pro-Life Activities, which clarifies the Church's constant teaching on abortion. The fact sheet responds to a misrepresentation of Church teaching made in remarks by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi during an Aug. 24 interview on national TV. * * * The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: "Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is...

One of the dirty little secrets of the abortion business is that some babies survive efforts to kill them in utero and are born alive. In the past these abortion survivors have been callously thrown into trash cans, where they died of suffocation or dehydration. Nancy Creger, a former nurse from Atlanta and a longtime friend of PRI’s, was the first to uncover the practice in the early eighties. She discovered that 14 infants had been born alive and subsequently “allowed” to die in Atlanta’s notorious “abortion-only” Midtown Hospital in the early 1980’s. Creger was horrified by the information, writing...

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is being invited by her hometown archbishop to discuss her erroneous views on the Catholic Church's teaching on abortion. In a statement released today, Archbishop George Niederauer of San Francisco joined the list of bishops who have responded to Pelosi's misrepresentation of Church teaching, which she expressed during an interview Aug. 24 on NBC-TV's "Meet the Press." Catholic San Francisco, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, published Archbishop Niederauer's text.Pelosi, when asked to comment on when life begins, said that as a Catholic, she had studied the issue for "a long...

Campaign 2008: The Catholic Church in the Crosshairs September 5th, 2008 by David J. Hartline This fall’s Presidential Campaign will more than likely feature a new wrinkle. The Catholic Church will be in the crosshairs. Once again there will be a professed Catholic who supports abortion on a major party’s ticket — this time on the number two slot. You might ask why the Church would be in the crosshairs since a “pro-choice” Catholic on the ticket is nothing new. True, it happened in 2004 and 1984. However, that was before some bishops began to take a much tougher line...

WASHINGTON, September 5, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has released four new print ads, two addressing stem cell research and two focusing on abortion.   The ads were initially published in the Capitol Hill newspaper, Roll Call, and were distributed at the Democratic Convention in Denver and at the Republican Convention in Minneapolis/St. Paul, by pro-life groups. The stem cell research ads highlight scientific advances using adult stem cells that are making embryonic stem cells obsolete. One ad shows a commuter running for a train, and asks: "Science is moving...

Contact: Jerry Horn, Rachel's Vineyard, 540-220-0095 STATEN ISLAND, Ny., Sept. 5 /Christian Newswire/ -- Kevin Burke, co-founder of the post-abortion healing ministry Rachel's Vineyard, said today that anger directed at Sarah Palin and her family may stem from the repressed grief and pain of those who have had or been involved in an abortion. "When someone publicly opposes abortion, this rejection can strike at a deeply repressed wound in the woman who has had an abortion or the man who has encouraged a woman to abort," said Mr. Burke. "We at Rachel's Vineyard know from our work with thousands of...

You MUST see this video. It is hilarious. The people in it are actually serious. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ed0_1220618296

ST. PAUL, Minn. - The wife of Republican presidential nominee John McCain doesn't agree with vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's opposition to abortion in cases of rape and incest. ADVERTISEMENT Cindy McCain also parts ways with her husband's running mate on sex education. Palin opposes abortion and rejects the view that pregnancies caused by rape and incest should be exceptions. Cindy McCain tells ABC's "Good Morning America" that "I don't agree with that aspect, but I do respect her for her views." Palin has opposed funding sex-education programs in Alaska. Cindy McCain tells ABC that she advocated abstinence as a...

The book is: Author: Chaput, Charles J. (OFMcap -- Archbishop of Denver)Title: Render Unto Caesar: Serving the Nation by Living our Catholic Beliefs in Political LifeISBN: 0385522282 I was killing time in my public library, and I thought I would see if there were any books by Charles J. Chaput. I was pleasantly surprised to see the book has been ordered by my Public Library, and there are already two requests for the book. The liberals have gotten, in my opinion, a lot of junk in our libraries by various tactics. I honestly think every public library, as well as...

There are reasonable criticisms that can be made of Sarah Palin, both as governor and a vice presidential selection. Yet little of what we have seen in the last six days has been either reasonable or critical (in the traditional sense of the word). Instead, much of the left and many in the media simply lashed out at Palin, particularly at her family. And not only the fringiest parts of the political fringe: A writer at the Washington Post attacked Palin for the fact that her seventeen-year-old daughter was going to have a baby. A writer for The Atlantic openly...

LifeNews.com Note: Wesley J. Smith is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, an attorney for the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, and a leading monitor of bioethics issues such as assisted suicide, euthanasia and human cloning. File this in the “As If We Don't Already Have Enough to Worry About” file: Leading members of the organ transplantation community—backed by some bioethicists—have been waging a quiet campaign for more than ten years to do away with the “dead donor rule,” a crucial ethical protection that requires donors of non paired vital organs to have died before their...

BALTIMORE, September 4, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Alliance Defense Fund and allied attorneys filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Harford County, the town of Bel Air, and seven police officials on behalf of three young, pro-life women. At least a dozen police officers arrived in more than seven marked vehicles and then arrested, jailed, shackled, and/or strip searched 18 pro-life advocates, including the three women, after they held signs and shared their message along a public street."The state shouldn't persecute Christians for expressing their beliefs on important social issues, nor deny them their constitutional rights," said ADF Senior Counsel Kevin Theriot. "This...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A pro-abortion group claiming to be Catholic is accusing the nation’s Catholic bishops of playing politics by virtue of their condemnation of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s misrepresenting Catholic teaching on abortion and the beginning of human life. Catholics for Choice says the bishops were wrong to release a factsheet correcting her. Jon O'Brien, president of the pro-abortion group told LifeNews.com, that it is Catholic leaders who are wrong on abortion, not Pelosi. He accused the Catholic bishops of a “desire to place themselves at the center of the political discussion on abortion” and not representing...

Feminists for Life's Honorary Chair and two-time Emmy winner Patricia Heaton and FFL president Serrin M. Foster are available to discuss the selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin by presidential nominee Senator John McCain as his running mate. Governor Palin became a member of Feminists for Life in 2006. Feminists for Life of America is a nonsectarian, nonpartisan, grassroots organization that seeks real solutions to the challenges women face.

Age (years) Frequency of Fetuses with DownSyndrome to Normal Fetusesat 16 weeks of pregnancy Frequency of Live Births ofBabies with Down Syndrometo Normal Births 15 - 19 ---- 1 / 1250 20 - 24 ---- 1 / 1400 25 - 29 ---- 1 / 1100 30 - 31 ---- 1 / 900 32 ---- 1 / 750 33 1 / 420 1 / 625 34 1 / 325 1 / 500 35 1 / 250 1 / 350 36 1 / 200 1 / 275 37 1 / 150 1 / 225 38 1 / 120 1 / 175...

I now know what Barack Obama was thinking when he said he wouldn't want his daughters "punished with a baby" if they "ma[d]e a mistake" and had premarital sex.How pathetic that Obama obviously had his own tribe, liberals, in mind, who sure know how to mete out punishment with vicious aplomb at such times.Thanks to a Daily Kos blogger, who falsely accused Sarah Palin of faking her pregnancy with now 4-month-old son Trig to cover for his real mother, her 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, the Palin family was forced to announce Sept. 1 that unmarried Bristol is five months pregnant.Besides the...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Weeks ago, pro-abortion presidential candidate Barack Obama infamously said the question of when human life begins is “above my pay grade” as a seeker of the White House. Judging from Obama’s evasive answer on the question of assisted suicide, it appears euthanasia was above his pay grade as well.In a March interview with the Mail Tribune, Obama wouldn’t give a clear answer about whether he supports assisted suicide or Oregon’s first-in-the-nation decision to legalize the grisly practice. “I am in favor of palliative medicine in circumstances where someone is terminally ill,” he said. “… I'm mindful...

Bristol Palin is accepting the call to motherhood with class and honor. However, the fury of criticism and exploitation leveled against her by the media is despicable. Several pundits have asserted that her pregnancy reflects the hypocrisy of the Christian right. Some have even suggested that her pregnancy is the fault of inattentive parents. Such charges are appalling. Bristol Palin is 17-years-old. She made a mistake. As a private citizen and a minor, the media should butt out of her life. She has enough things to think about; she shouldn't have to worry about the media assaulting her reputation. Being...

Reading the words carries an impact, but nothing compared to when you listen to them: It happened when a Planned Parenthood worker is asked to accept a donation specifically to abort a black child, and her response is: "Understandable, understandable." Now, however, those interested in the controversy over Planned Parenthood's large role in the nation's abortion industry may have to settle for seeing those words, since YouTube has decided to censor several audio recordings that had been posted by pro-life activists documenting the corporation's willingness to accept donations on the basis of race.

VATICAN, September 3, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Only a few weeks after a prominent article appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine noting that 'brain death' does not constitute true death, the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano has carried a front-page article noting that a declaration of 'brain death' cannot be considered the end of life in light of new scientific research. Such a determination would prohibit single vital organ donation, such as heart transplants, for Catholics or Catholic institutions, since Catholic teaching requires such organ donors to be truly dead.  If potential donors cannot be said with certainty to be...

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 3, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Obama campaign threw their vehemently pro-abortion stance into relief by investing in radio ads attacking pro-life Sen. McCain for threatening to take away women's "right to choose."The ads feature the voice of a "nurse-practitioner with Planned Parenthood" warning her listeners that McCain will seek to have Roe v. Wade overturned and ban abortion.  "I know abortion is one of most difficult decisions a woman will ever make," says the woman's voice.  "Let me tell you - if Roe v Wade is overturned, the lives and health of women will be put at...

Teenage mom Jamie Lynn Spears has sent a gift to Bristol Palin, the pregnant 17-year-old daughter of John McCain’s vice presidential pick Sarah Palin, a source close to the Beverly Hills baby store Petit Tresor told CelebTV.com. An insider told the Web site it was actually Lynne Spears, Jamie Lynn’s mother, who called about the gift, and requested the gift come from her daughter. “It was ordered by phone, and they asked what could be done for under $100. They spent $60 on pink burp cloths,” the source said. Jamie Lynn Spears, Britney Spears' younger sister and the former star...

Hello, I’m going to go against what a very nice, well-meaning freeper warned me NOT to do just after joining FR and start an abortion discussion thread. Why? Because I’ve been thinking about these things, and my views on the issue are changing. I would like people’s input and hope that that input can help me shape my thinking(as I wrote in my introduction thread, I’m a 25 year old who is in this election for the first time going to vote republican)… Anyways, this isn’t a troll thread. I’m finding my views on this issue are morphing the more...

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Change Basis for Allowing Abortions to Slavery Amdt Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- In an amazing admission, pro-abortion Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told a feminist group that the basis for legalized abortion should be changed from the so-called right to privacy to the anti-slavery provisions found in the Constitution.

Barack Obama has launched a broadside against John McCain’s opposition to abortion rights and moved one of the most divisive issues in modern American politics to the airwaves on a large scale for the first time in this presidential campaign. “Barack Obama voted against a bill that would have protected infants born alive having survived an abortion attempt," said Diaz. "He has offered misleading statements on the issue and is now trying to confuse voters by attacking Senator McCain."“

Most of my Chinese friends as is the case with many Americans, know very little about Governor Sarah Palin, John Mcain's choice for running mate in the 2008 Presidential Election. When they do learn more about her, there is one aspect of her life that will undoubtedly catch the attention of many people here. Earlier this year, Governor Palin gave birth to a baby boy despite the fact that doctors told her that he would have Down syndrome. Making the same choice in China is nearly unheard of. If a Chinese mother finds out that her unborn baby is afflicted...

Fred Thompson will forcefully defend the selection of Sarah Palin tonight in a speech Republicans are characterizing as "red meat." He will argue that the feeding frenzy over Palin's is the result of "panic" from the Democrat-friendly mainstream media. "What a breath of fresh air Governor Sarah Palin is. She is from a small town, with small town values, but that's not good enough for those folks who are attacking her and her family. Let's be clear, the selection of Governor Palin has the other side and their friends in the media in a state of panic. She is a...

LifeNews.com Note: Maria Vitale is an editorial opinion columnist for LifeNews.com.Back in 1984, I was a college student excited about casting my first vote in a Presidential election. I was doing an internship in the GovernorÂ’s Mansion in Ohio, which allowed me the opportunity to attend an event featuring then Democratic Vice-Presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro. Someone I knew from the GovernorÂ’s office ushered my Dad and me up to the front of a receiving line, and I had the chance to shake hands with candidate Ferraro. As soon as it happened, I turned around and hugged my Dad. I was...

LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News, a publication of the National Right to Life Committe.I confess that as the father of three daughters and the uncle of a child with profound disabilities, I was going to respond with more anger and indignation than perhaps most people would to the cheap shot, all-out assault on the family of pro-life Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. But I don't think you have to have any more qualifications than to be a human being to be enraged at the guttersnipe attacks on pro-life Sen. John McCain's choice as...

LONDON, September 2, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com ) - Marie Stopes, the notorious early 20th century contraception campaigner, eugenicist and anti-Semite, did for Britain what Margaret Sanger did for the US:  preached the doctrines of eugenics and promoted contraception and sterilisation to achieve "racial hygiene." So successful was she at altering British society in favour of her eugenics doctrines, the British government has chosen her to be included in a "Women of Distinction" line of stamps. The Royal Mail announced this weekend that the face of Marie Stopes, who advocated the sterilisation of poor women to promote the "welfare of the...

Jayne Jones, 38, saw at a routine ultra-sound scan when she was 27 weeks' pregnant that her baby was growing in her abdomen, on the omentum – the layers of fat that cover the bowel. Almost all such fetuses die within weeks, even days, of conception and only one similar case has ever been reported in Britain. Ten days after the scan Mrs Jones was rushed to Derriford Hospital, Plymouth by her husband Graham because she had collapsed in pain. She had to have ground-breaking surgery that had never been done before in Britain and involved 36 NHS staff. Billy...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Barack Obama is drawing gasps from pro-life advocates today over comments he made during a campaign stop in Pennsylvania over the weekend. The leading Democratic presidential candidate appeared to back a potential decision by his daughters to seek an abortion saying he wouldn't "punish" them with a baby.

Governor Palin Solves John McCain's Religion Problem by Deal W. Hudson 9/01/08 "I've gotten more phone calls in the last two days than I received the entire two months I've been working for McCain." J. R. Sanchez, head of McCain's Catholic outreach in Florida, isn't the only one experiencing this among religious and social conservatives. One Catholic activist from San Francisco told me she was offering to organize all the pro-life women in the area for a Palin fundraiser. "This changes everything," she said, "my phone hasn't stopped ringing since she was announced." Neither she nor her friends had much...

There seems to be a view that teenage births are somehow a bad thing. But it seems to us that it's not the births that are the problem. It's the environment that marginalizes teen motherhood, encourages our youth to delay marriage, provides too few incentives for family-building, and too few jobs for the fathers and mothers. What is needed is not scolding from the government but lower taxes, fewer regulations, and overall pro-growth policies. ... We're happy to have women and men decide for themselves when to have children. But when a trend develops like the drop in the birth...

Scranton native Sen. Joe Biden would likely feel at home any day of the week in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Well, any day except possibly Sunday. The Most Rev. Joseph F. Martino, bishop of Scranton, has strongly supported refusal of Holy Communion for politicians who campaign for or vote in favor of abortion rights. When asked whether the Democratic vice presidential candidate would be refused Communion should he tour the region, the diocese held firm to its past statements. “I will not tolerate any politician who claims to be a faithful Catholic who is not genuinely pro-life,” Martino said in a pastoral...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Thomas Glessner is a constitutional attorney and the president of the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates, a public interest law firm that provides legal services to more than 1,100 pro-life pregnancy resource centers in all fifty states. His new books tackles key bioetics issues the pro-life community is increasingly confronting. In his provocative new book, Glessner discusses the ongoing cultural battle between the traditional sanctity of life ethic -- the foundation of Western Civilization and American culture -- and the modern quality-of-life ethic, which is increasingly gaining control over the hearts and minds of...

This segment was originally broadcast on Nov. 25, 2007. It was updated on Aug. 28, 2008. Three years ago, Terri Schiavo sparked a nationwide debate when she was removed from a feeding tube. Schiavo was in a permanent vegetative state with no chance of recovery. But there are as many as 300,000 other Americans who have survived brain injuries, only to be trapped in what's called a "minimally conscious state." They can't talk, walk, or eat, but they retain more mental awareness than vegetative patients. For decades now, minimally conscious people have been all but written off by the medical...

Dr. James C. Dobson of Focus on the Family issued the following statement: "In the 32-year history of Focus on the Family, we have offered prayer, counseling and resource assistance to tens of thousands of parents and children in the same situation the Palins are now facing. We have always encouraged the parents to love and support their children and always advised the girls to see their pregnancies through, even though there will of course be challenges along the way. That is what the Palins are doing, and they should be commended once again for not just talking about their...

As the election progresses, I will attempt to present the positions of the candidates on issues germane to human exceptionalism, assisted suicide, animal rights, health care rationing, in short, all of the grist we grind here at SHS. This morning, I did a quick search on Obama and assisted suicide and found this interview. It is a complete straddle, which is a disappointment given the import of the issue. In a March newspaper interview he was asked about assisted suicide. His answer from the interview: I am in favor of palliative medicine in circumstances where someone is terminally ill....

Mary, unwed mother, did not abort the baby Jesus. She did the right thing. Joseph had his concerns, but he came around when God spoke to his heart about what he really believed.

Values, That’s Where Political Differences Are Conceived. [An oped, #6 in a series for the political season] So VP selection, Sarah Palin, announces that her beautiful daughter, Bristol, is pregnant, and she is not yet married. Interesting, especially for how FreeRepublic, the premier conservative news discussion site on the Internet, will respond! The following can be found on the initial thread discussing this news: “Actually, this is not a good thing. It is a statement that some of those familly values that Sarah is advancing could not even be passed along to her own kid. … I still like Palin,...

I would guess that many of us who are pro-choice (loathe the tired “choice-life” terminology) were nonetheless moved by Sarah Palin’s heartfelt and principled decision not to abort her Down’s syndrome child, revealed to the world yesterday during her initial campaign appearance. It reminded me of something about which I have been ruminating for some time: The preeminent social issues – gay marriage and abortion – are quite separate. Lumping them together, as is often done by the media and by ideologues on both sides, is insulting to our intelligence....

[This article was originally posted on May 6, 2008. In it, I offer the remark that Gov. Sarah Palin "is often mentioned as a potential running mate for Sen. John McCain." What seemed merely a possibility in May has become reality in August, and the world saw Trig Paxson Van Palin in his eldest sister's arms as his mother was announced as Sen. McCain's choice for the vice presidential nomination of the Republican Party. Thus, the event became a great testimony for the sanctity of all human life. The article is reprinted due to requests and interest.]A little boy with...

This is a good time to let me know if you want on or off this list. I had a small technical problem this morning that caused at least one name to get mangled beyond repair. I was also asked to remove the cartoon below from pings (which I have done). Please let me know if you want on or off this list. Thanks!

I wonder to myself how people can read the Bible, believe in God, love Jesus and or sit in church every Sunday and think it is okay to be Pro-Choice instead of Pro-Life. I have tried not to be tunnel visioned about this. And, as the elections heat up every cycle, I come back to this same head scratcher. People who know me know that I truly do not understand this. I have never gotten a reasonable answer.

The leader of the American Life League says Catholic bishops in America missed a golden opportunity to enforce the law of the Catholic Church when it comes to abortion.  Cardinals and bishops continue to rebuke House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for attempting a theological defense of her support for abortion. Pelosi, a Catholic school graduate who has expressed pride in her religious heritage, said last Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press that "doctors of the church" have not been able to define when life begins. Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik says Pelosi "completely misrepresented the teaching of the Catholic Church in regard...

BRUSSELS, August 29, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Population statistics and projections were released yesterday showing that European countries are dying out, even with immigration, their populations aging and shrinking.  A report released this week by Eurostat, the European Union's statistical service, showed that by 2015, the number of deaths in Europe will have outstripped the number of births.  By 2060, the ratio of people of working age to those over age 65 will be two to one. None of the countries of Europe currently have a general fertility rate above replacement level and it is predicted that what is being called...

Brendan Daly, a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, issued the following statement yesterday from Denver, where the Democratic National Convention is under way.) “Her views on when life begins were informed by the views of Saint Augustine, who said: ‘... the law does not provide that [abortion] pertains to homicide, for there cannot yet be said to be a live soul in a body that lacks sensation.’” “While Catholic teaching is clear that life begins at conception, many Catholics do not ascribe to that view. The Speaker agrees with the church that we should reduce the number...

The Alaskan governor’s family life and political views press the right’s buttons Sarah Baxter When Sarah Palin stepped into the spotlight as John McCain’s running mate in Dayton, Ohio, and promised that women could “shatter that glass ceiling once and for all”, it was an electrifying moment in a presidential election that had already produced its share of upsets and surprises. History was on the march again the morning after Barack Obama became the first African-American to accept his party’s White House nomination. After the fireworks, the 80,000-strong crowd who had cheered Obama to the skies at the Mile High...