Pro Life: January 2009 Archives

Our nation is at a critical point in the fight to protect the unborn. The latest proposed legislation, the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), calls for a significant increase in unlimited amount of abortions in this country. But FOCA goes far beyond that - it seeks to force hospitals and health care providers to violate their own consciences by requiring that abortions and abortion referrals be made available to clients seeking such services. This legislation seeks to eliminate the choice for those whose beliefs would preclude their participation in the acts of death which the proposed law would require.

The impact on the lives of those who practice medicine and those, such as the Catholic Church, who provide hospitals and health care facilities, would be profound. This is on top of the "rights" which the bill purports to protect that virtually eliminates any restrictions on abortion and removes parental rights of notice when abortions are performed for minors.

The Bishops of the United States have asked all Catholic organizations to support a campaign that will also be rolled out through parishes throughout the country - it is being called the National Pro-Life Postcard Campaign to Congress. Cardinal Justin Rigali referenced this campaign in his homily at the Pro-Life vigil on Wednesday at the National Basilica of the Immaculate Conception.

Every person who believes that abortion is wrong, that "Freedom of Choice" actually denies choice to those whose conscience would be violated by the legislation's requirements, needs to take action. As the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) have said, "FOCA goes far beyond the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion decision. No other piece of legislation would have such a destructive impact on society's ability to limit or regulate abortion... The national postcard campaign will send a timely message to Congress that abortion advocates are out of step with mainstream America, and that their agenda should not become part of our nation's laws in any way."

Please link to the USCCB's website by using the URL here - it will conveniently allow you to send electronic postcards to your Senators and your Congressional delegate, expressing your strong opinion in opposition to FOCA. As Edmund Burke is so often quoted, "All that is necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world is for enough good men to do nothing." Place your cursor on the URL and press Ctrl & click or paste the URL in your internet browser.

http://actions.nchla.org/Core.aspx?Screen=compose2&SessionID=$AID=970:SITEID=-1:VV_CULTURE=en-us:APP=GAC:ISSUEID=15856$

We cannot do nothing - this postcard campaign is not enough, but it is something - a small but important step to insure that the voices of those who support the pro-life movement are heard, loud and clear. Please take the few moments required to send the electronic postcards.

AND we have to be even more vigilant in a variety of areas legislation which threatens the unborn and the conscience, e.g., foreign policy.

Happy the peacemakers; they shall be called sons of God. (Mt 5:9)

 

God our Father, you reveal that those who work for peace will be called your sons. Help us to work without ceasing for that justice which brings true and lasting peace.

 

 

The days leading up to today have made me more concerned than ever for the rights of the unborn. It is clearer to me that with the new presidential administration and the confirmation of Mrs. Clinton as the Secretary of State, abortion will become more accepted and more ingrained in the political machinery here in the USA and it will be a significant agenda item in foreign policy. The abortion politic may not be so "in your face" as it has been but the architects of our governmental social and foreign policies will slip the matter of abortion into the fray as a human right wherever possible. For example, I can foresee that an African country who has traditionally been against abortion will be pressured to change their laws and health care policies to make abortion available and fully funded. The Clinton crowd has already worked in organizations like the UN and USAID to foster pro-abortion policies. Also dangerous to human life is how it will be introduced in health care reforms through riders to the existing laws, counseling, foreign aid and various other humanitarian projects in our own land. So, it is likely that FOCA will not be the most significant piece of legislation to advocate for abortion rights here in the USA. Planned Parenthood has an elaborate plan to move their agenda ahead.  What is the Pro-Life? What is our plan at the local and state levels? Who are our spokespeople, now that Richard Neuhaus is dead?

Let's reflect on the last pro-life essay written by the late Father Richard John Neuhaus in the January 2009 essay in First Things, "The Pro-Life Movement as the Politics of the 1960s" where he wrote:

"Whatever else it is, the pro-life movement of the last thirty-plus years is one of the most massive and sustained expressions of citizen participation in the history of the United States. Since the 1960s, citizen participation and the remoralizing of politics have been central goals of the left."

And further Neuhaus wrote: "the pro-choice proponents are the defenders of the status quo. They routinely cite data indicating that a majority of Americans do not want to see Roe overturned. As has often been pointed out, these same Americans believe that Roe created a restrictive abortion policy. In what sociologist James Hunter calls "mass legal illiteracy," it is widely believed that Roe permits abortion in the first trimester, allows it for serious reasons in the second, and forbids it in the third. But, of course, as Roe and companion decisions make clear, the law as presently imposed by the Supreme Court allows abortion at any time for any reason and up through the fully formed baby emerging halfway out of the birth canal. As Harvard law professor Mary Ann Glendon has written, it is the most permissive abortion regime in the Western world. When those same Americans are asked about the circumstances in which abortion should be permitted, a great majority says that abortion should not be permitted for the reasons that 90 percent of abortions are procured. It is understandable, however, that pro-choice advocates trumpet popular support for Roe, dependent as they are on the ignorance of "the silent majority."

Therefore, oursis the work of "welcoming unborn children into life and protecting them under law," as Fr Neuhaus once said.

Dear Sara, "Little Princess"
(the meaning of your name),
How fitting you should have it-
Too soon your glory came.

Your little heart was broken
When Mommy let you go.
But angel, please remember
She really didn't know.

Some said it wasn't beating,
Your tiny little heart,
And so it didn't matter
They tore you all apart.

They said you couldn't feel it.
How Satan can deceive!
The agony you suffered
So many disbelieve.

No grave to mark your passing,
And few to mourn or pray,
But Grandma will remember
That awful, tragic day.

My arms will never hold you.
My rocking chair is still.
But Grandma's heart is full of love
That death can never kill.

Sweet Angel pray for Mommy,
And pray for Daddy too,
And say a prayer for Grandma
And I will pray for you.

And you and I together
Will pray for all your friends
Who never had a birthday!
We'll pray abortion ends!

Love,

Grandma

 

Written by Mary Kathryn Johnson

Prescott Valley, AZ

Today begins the Novena for the Protection of the Unborn. The Novena is available in English and Spanish at Women for Faith & Family. Share this site with family and friends.

It is clearly an understatement to say that this is a crucial era in our lives as persons and as Catholics (not to be separated, of course). How we protect and care for those on the margins of our society is critical as our actions say volumes about who are as thinking and praying persons. Of course, who is more vulnerable than the unborn? The importance of this moment in history has little to do with the Obama ascendency, though his presidency will mark a significant change in direction in matters pertaining to matters of life, as much as it is a recognition that the act of aborting persons before birth is an act of evil, one that has cost 45 million lives. Think of the populations of countries that have roughly 33-45 million people: Tanzania, Argentina, Sudan, Poland, Kenya, Algeria, and Canada. If you did simple addition you the list of combined countries would be numerous. The point really is that one soul is lost to abortion is a sin and a crime. Our prayer is multifaceted: for the peaceful repose of the abortion souls, for the overturn of Roe v. Wade, for the new president not to repeal the Bush policies and enacting more liberal ones and for the healing of the women and men who have aborted their sons and daughters.

We should be united in this work of prayer and peaceful protest. Liturgically, the Church has asked that January 22^nd be a day of penance. Therefore, the US bishops have said that the Sacrifice of the Mass on this day celebrated using the votive Mass for Peace and Justice and the vestments be purple. The intention is "Day of Penance for violations to the Dignity of the Human Person committed through acts of abortion, and of prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarantee of the right to life."

 

Articles to read

The Pro-Life Movement as the Politics of the 1960s

We Shall Worry, We Shall Not Rest

Abortion after Obama

On Abortion and the African American Family

Current Statistics

USCCB Pro-Library

National Right to Life

 

Prayer Resources

USCCB Pro-Life Office

 

Activities

The March for Life (Washington, DC)

Walk for Life West Coast (San Francisco, CA)

World Meeting of the Families 2009

The family, teacher of human and Christian values

January 13-18

Mexico City

 

Our God, indivisible Trinity, you created the human being "in your image" and You admirably formed him as male and female that so together, united and in reciprocal collaboration with love, they fulfilled Your project of "being fecund and dominate the Earth"; We pray to You for all our families that so, finding in You their initial inspiration and model, that is fully expressed in the Holy Family of Nazareth, can live the human and Christian values that are necessary to consolidate and sustain the love experience and to be the foundations of a more human and Christian construction of our society.

We pray to You for the intercession of Mary, our Mother, and Saint Joseph. For Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

A video about the Pope's participation in this magnificent event is seen here.

In the Wall Street Journal (January 1, 2009) there is an informative article about the Kennedy family's support of abortion. This interesting information comes at a time in NY politics when Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the late President Kennedy, is looking to become senator who replaces Senator Clinton. To purposely accept abortion and the contraceptive culture as acceptable is morally wrong. This is yet another example of someone claiming to be a "good" Catholic and not closely following Christ. Read Anne Henderschott's article. It's distressing.