A statement yesterday from President Obama:
As we mark the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, we must remember that this Supreme Court decision not only protects a woman’s health and reproductive freedom, but also affirms a broader principle: that government should not intrude on private family matters. I remain committed to protecting a woman’s right to choose and this fundamental constitutional right. While this is a sensitive and often divisive issue- no matter what our views, we must stay united in our determination to prevent unintended pregnancies, support pregnant woman and mothers, reduce the need for abortion, encourage healthy relationships, and promote adoption. And as we remember this historic anniversary, we must also continue our efforts to ensure that our daughters have the same rights, freedoms, and opportunities as our sons to fulfill their dreams.
It’s sad that so many Roman Catholics in America have cast aside the issue of abortion in favor of other social issues. If Americans were dying at the reate of 3,000 daily from any other influence, whether illness, or war, or natural disaster, you bet that would be a political priority. Are these children not important enough because they are silent? Thanks, Kathy – I love your blog!
Reason #1 of 50.
This is a man aligned against the human spirit.
Survive the abortionist’s vacuum and then get assigned to an inferior public school that treats you as an object.
Make it out of the public schools intact then work half your life to pay taxes that pay for more abortions and more inferior public schools.
Abortion is not just about the destruction of life within the womb. Our society which now legally destroys nearly a million tiny infants per year in abortion clinics and hospitals across the country (official records indicate over 50 million since Roe vs. Wade) has in effect redefined human life.
Life in the womb now is not much different than a filet minion in the grocery keepers’ meat case. It’s something you can have if you feel like steak for dinner so take it home. If you decide later that you don’t want it and would rather have pizza you can just throw the steak out. That may sound crazy and one would think that you could/should give the steak to someone else who would love to have it. Forget about it! It’s yours; you can do with it as you please.
The facts are today a new human life in the womb is no longer recognized as a gift from heaven or the procreated fruit of true love. Our president has even described its presence as a “punishment” for making a poor choice. Life in the womb is not treasured by society as its most valuable asset and our hope for the future.
This society has decided womb life is no life and deserves little consideration and no protection under the law. Some, like our president have “personally” and “legally” determined that even when out of its home in the womb on an abortionist operating table having survived an attempt to be destroyed it must be ignored and left to die since it was “unwanted”. Unlike the unwanted and homeless on our streets these little souls currently have no tin cup or neighborhood shelter or government assistance to turn to for help. When they arrive on the scene or sonogram they aren’t received like illegal aliens and given the benefits of citizenship like the thousands crossing our borders daily. In short, the most helpless of all “life” in our country are the least served by us. They have been disenfranchised, sold if you will, by society edict and left on their own since ownership has been transferred to the womb keeper along with all “rights” for disposal much like the unwanted and discarded filet minion from the meat case at the grocery.
We need to ask ourselves:
Do we ever want to get to the point where all men may consider behaving as human “gentle” men, spouse protectors, family providers and not a domesticated form of reproductive animal?
Do we ever want to see an end to women being treated by some men as if society had given them a license to use women as a depository for their male sexual passions?
Do we ever want all women to someday have enough self pride and dignity to understand and admit their bodies were designed to be the very sanctuaries of human society and their wombs are and always have been the wellsprings of mankind?
Do we ever want both men and women to understand that within this concept and the knowledge they are “pro-creators” that children are more than simply a product of physical activity between lovers?
Do we ever someday want all children to grow up to realize and understand they were begotten out of more than blind passion?
When ever we have answered yes to these questions we will have begun to know the true meaning of human love and “life” and when it begins
“It’s sad that so many Roman Catholics in America have cast aside the issue of abortion in favor of other social issues.”
Unfortunately in part because our shephards so teach us. At today’s Mass (which is offered in the Missal for the legal protection of the unborn) the priest only talked about respecting all life from conception to natural death. No mention specifically about what this day meant. Thus he ignored the number of abortions that routinely occur and intentionally or not equated the contingent nature of judgments about other social issues and legitimate means to end poverty etc with outright killing.
But it isn’t just this priest. This is now the constant theme that I have heard from other priests and bishops. It was the theme at this weekend’s March for Life in our capital. They seek to equate all social issues (and unfortunately their chosen solutions) with abortion.
Prudential solutions about problems of homelessness, immigration and poverty do not equal the intrinsic evil of abortion. The fact that some clergy have courted this line is coming home to roost in the attack on conscience.
Just because the supreme court voted in favor of roe vs wade does not make it right. The supreme court also voted in the horrible “Jim Crow” laws. PLEASE vote that man out if office!!!!
Newt Gingrich’s message to the March for Life:
Thank you for bearing witness today to the incomparable dignity of every human life, born and unborn.
And thank you for your commitment to change hearts and minds and laws in defense of the unborn.
I join you in this commitment.
It is a testament to the American spirit and the vision of our founding fathers that almost forty years after Roe. v.Wade, millions of Americans have grown stronger and not weaker in their conviction that the words of the Declaration of Independence are in fact true, that all are created with unalienable rights, including the unborn.
Our American history represents an ongoing effort to fulfill the vision of the Declaration.
It is important to pause today to consider why the pro-life cause is winning and why we will one day see an end to abortion in America.
Americans know in the core of their souls that the idea that we can say one class of humanity — whether the sick, the poor, the elderly, or the unborn — is less valuable than others, is fundamentally opposed to every value that we cherish and that makes us who we are.
The truth that every person is created equal in the eyes of God, with equal value and worth and equal right to life, liberty, and the pursuit his or her own future and destiny, is at the root of our system of law and government. Americans know this, and slowly but surely they are coming to terms with the irreconcilable reality of legalized abortion in our nation.
A prominent commentator recently wrote, “That the pro-life movement is bigger is a given. It’s also younger, increasingly entrepreneurial, more strategic in its thinking, better organized, tougher in dealing with allies and enemies alike, almost wildly ambitious, and more relentless than ever.”
Your marching today is evidence of that relentlessness.
My commitment to you is twofold: first, to continue supporting your work to defend the rights of the unborn, and second, if elected President, to advance pro-life legislation, appoint judges who will stay true to the meaning of the Constitution, work to bring about an end to judicial tyranny, defend religious freedom, and work with allies in Congress and throughout the country who desire to bring about a day in which America restores legal protection to all unborn human life.
Specifically, on day one of my administration, I will sign an executive order reinstating Ronald Reagan’s Mexico City policy that prevents taxpayer dollars from being used to fund abortions overseas.
I will also oppose federal funding of any research that destroys a human embryo.
I will work with Congress to repeal Obamacare, and will defund Planned Parenthood so that no taxpayer dollars are being used to fund abortions– but rather use that money to promote adoption and other pro-family policies.
I will also support Congress enacting pro-life legislation that would grant protections under the 14th Amendment to the unborn, including legislation that would define personhood as beginning at conception.
There was once a similar battle waged in America over whether the rights in our Constitution applied to all Americans, or only those selected or favored by the political class. It was during the battle to overturn the deeply engrained institution of slavery, something considered universally repugnant to us all today, that Abraham Lincoln said the following:
We will make converts day by day… We will grow strong by the violence and injustice of our adversaries. And unless truth be a mockery and justice a hollow lie, we will be in the majority after a while. This battle … [will] be fought out on principle.
Together, let us continue to work for the day when there will be no abortions for any reason, and that every unborn child will be welcomed into life and protected by law — from conception until natural death. May God bless each of you in your efforts to bring about this day.
Thank You.
Mitt Romney’s message to the March for Life:
In great number, men and women from across our country are gathered today on the Mall in Washington in the cause of defending the rights of the unborn. In their ranks are many who remember the day when Roe v. Wade was announced. Also among them are thousands of young Americans born after 1973 whose idealism and good hearts will continue to represent the passion and resolve of the pro-life movement. All of them are marching today in the spirit of compassion and mercy, and I share their commitment to laws that protect the innocent and uphold a culture of life. We take heart that we are winning this issue step by step, and I look forward to working arm and arm with the pro-life movement until the wrong of Roe v. Wade has been set right.
Rick Santorum’s op ed attacking Roe in the Wall Street Journal today:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203718504577176641699224320.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Ron Paul has attended the March for Life before, but I can’t find out whether he is there this year. His son Rand was to be one of the speakers until he was detained by the TSA. (I wonder what genius thought in the TSA that it would be a good idea to detain a US Senator because he would not consent to a pat down?)
Speaker of the House Boehner is at the march as one of the featured speakers, leading a contingent of pro-life members of Congress:
It’s an honor to serve with men and women committed to protecting the sanctity of life. We may disagree in other areas, sometimes starkly, but we are one and the same on this. Because human life is not a political or economic commodity. And defending life is not a matter of party … it’s about standing on principle.
In that spirit, I think it’s important we take a moment to reflect on the first principles that bring us all here today.
We’re blessed to gather on this National Mall, hallowed ground kept hallowed by footsteps and echoes. Here, half a century ago, John F. Kennedy let the world know Americans would ‘pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship’ to keep freedom alive and well.
Like many of you, my family of Kennedy Democrats was moved by those words. I’m from what you might call a big family … I’ve got 11 brothers and sisters. It wasn’t easy for my mother to have 12 children. But I’m sure glad she did.”
Respect for life, at every stage, was instilled in us early on. My heart still grows restless at the story in Scripture that says ‘whatever you do to the least of my people you do unto me.’ No life is an island … we’re all taught that. We’re taught to extend a helping hand, especially to those in need.
So I’ve never considered ‘pro-life’ to be a label or a position. It’s just who I am. It’s who I am, and it’s who we are as a people. If you’re like me, when you climb the steps on the other side of the Tidal Basin, you’re awed by Jefferson’s immortal words: ‘God who gave us life gave us liberty.”
These two founding principles, life and liberty, are intertwined. Together, they form the core of our national character. They comprise the standard by which the world looks to us. When we affirm the dignity of life, we affirm our commitment to freedom. When we don’t affirm life … when life is cheapened or weakened, here or abroad, freedom itself is diminished.
Here on this Mall, many solemn vows have been made in the long fight for freedom. America is an idea, and our duty is to preserve its blessings, the first and dearest of which is life.
That is why Nellie Gray marches on. Let us rise to Nellie’s example and raise our voices together in defense of life. Let us pray that more of our countrymen, whether you belong to one party or no party, will join this noble cause.
God go with all of you, and God bless the United States of America.
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/288934/speaker-march-life-kathryn-jean-lopez
The press release from the White House states in part: “but also affirms a broader principle: that government should not intrude on private family matters”.
Yet just last week the HHS rule regarding contraception coverage for all regardless of religious convictions was mandated (rather shoved down our throat).
We must defeat this man and pray that our country is still salvageable.
God Bless America – please.
[…] Reason Number One to Defeat Obama in November – Donald R. McClarey, The Amrcn Cthlc […]
To Phillip’s comment: At my parish yesterday we had a very powerful sermon, primarily about abortion. The deacon did talk about broader issues, specifically care for the needy, but then brought it back around to abortion – in our area, Catholic charitable organizations have seen their aid cut because they don’t provide their employees with “family planning services”.
Life is the wellspring of freedom
Pinky,
Good to hear. What diocese are you in? Obviously not all clergy have a disordered sense of moral issues. Unfortunately for me, I have not heard a homily about abortion without being equated to other issues in an exceptionally long time.
Washington DC. I think that as the host diocese for the March for Life, we’ve become more articulate on the subject than a lot of other dioceses. Now, the deacon did also talk about the death penalty (which may be overturned in Maryland) and other issues. But the subject of abortion is taken seriously, and not just as a once-a-year topic either.
I did read a blog post from a priest of the D.C. diocese recently that noted the issues involved in political judgments, allocating scarce resources, legitimate differences in solving problems etc. Much more balanced than the simple “life issues” theme.
We need to spread such intelligent thought throughout the clergy.
Seems those people believe it’s licit to vote for the 365/24/7 abortion candidate because he/she promises to justly and pacifically confiscate/tax other people’s money and hand it over to the virtuous victims of rich men’s universal larceny.
They don’t think much past the propaganda. To start, there is no way to steal gently or kill with honor.
St. Robin Hood, pray for us.
I am so depressed reading hours of pro-life blogs and comments. After each one I emit an unconsciously led audible sigh. I am trying to understand why. Maybe at 62, I don’t feel I will live long enough to see abortion disappear. Do any other people get these feelings of hopelessness even when they are reading words whose intentions are to be uplifting?
Bill,
I’m 61 years old. It’s all uphill beginning with rolling out of bed and verifying everything is properly functioning.
I think [shudder] depression is a sin against Hope. Trust in God and do what is possible (talent, time) in this vale of tears. Besides, I need to be up because I want to help my family.
I get feelings of rage.
Plato [?] said, “Only the dead have seen the end of war.”
Pray for the conversion of sinners and America.
He will not nominate a pro-life Federal judge. His policies are ruining working people. Obama must go.
No Democrat senator will accept a pro-life Federal Judge. I never vote Democrat only GOP pro-lifers or RTL.
“Maybe at 62, I don’t feel I will live long enough to see abortion disappear.”
I can’t promise you Bill that you will live to see it, but each day we are one day closer to the ban on abortion. Opinion is shifting on abortion and time is on our side. We all need to keep slugging away until the goal is reached: recognition under law of the right to life of the unborn. On slavery Thomas Jefferson said: “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.” Precisely the same law of divine justice is at work on the issue of abortion. Be of good cheer, and keep up the fight!
@Pinky @3:43 Capital punishment is the temporal punishment due to capital one homicide. Capital punishment has been banned often and must be reinstated because the murder of innocent people is a crime that flourishes in its absence, especially of little children, when the murderer KNOWS that he will be spared the very same death that he is inflicting upon an innocent person. It has been said that life in prison is worse…than being denied freedom and civil rights by rigor mortis in a six by three foot box six feet underground? Unhappily, abortion is touted as “saving” the aborted person from suffering. The child comes into being (existence) through the will of God, lives through the will of God and returns to God at the will of God.
First off– thank you for a picture that gets the point across without giving me nightmares right off the bat. So many folks can’t manage that; I understand that abortion is destroying a tiny human, like the one asleep on my lap right now– that doesn’t make seeing their shredded corpse any easier!
Growing up, the only time I ever heard about abortion was in “sex ed” in school.
(Class of 2001, Spokane dioceses.) Came back five or so years later, and even our “let’s put him where he’ll do the least damage” run of priests mentioned abortion being bad a few times. Moved to a population center, it got mentioned during the sermon , and they even had a drive for baby supplies expressly to help remove one of the pressures for abortion. With the new bishop there’s been serious focus on fighting abortion, both in the supportive and the resistant manners– even knowing that location mattered a lot, there’s a LOT more action going on!
Before I read all the Responses I feel an urgent need to respond to Phillip…..Philip, if every Catholic in your country was faithful to God and ready to obey Him, they would not need their Priests or the Bishops to be hollering at them at every Mass that abortion is the greatest Insult to God and the worst Sin…..killing an innocent, defenseless person in the very place they should be safest – their mothers’ womb. Let us be honest….every Catholic and any person of goodwill – knows the Teachings of the Catholic Church and the Divine Law – written by God in their very hearts – and what offends God. Let us just pray to God to give us His Grace so that we can do the right thing – prove our love for Him by striving to live our Faith in fidelity.
Also, thanks for the picture.
Our daughter-in-law is expecting our grandchild in July.
I pray for that little baby, growing, every day.
Thank you Foxfier and T.Shaw. I thought the picture was an eloquent rejoinder to the boiler plate defense of the indefensible that Obama issued. Abortion is evil at its most graphic and Obama’s words, as usual, were banal. In his defense of this crime, one of the few consistent stances in his political career, Obama is the living embodiment of Hannah Arendt’s phrase: “The banality of evil.”
Mary@42,
I don’t disagree. The ultimate path to all justice, including social justice, is the personal holiness of all the members of society.
That being stated, my point was to address the cover that is being given to ignore the evil of abortion by equating it with other social issues which are not intrinsic evils. (See Don’s post on Brother Dan above.)
At St. Patricks in DC yesterday morning the church was filled to the brim with high schoolers, mostly male who a Dominican priest give an amazing homily on Maximilian Kolbe and how we are to be prepared to die for Christ.There was not a sound made by the kids during the homily. It was a war call. Then we hit the streets and mother nature was not kind, but it did not matter. We are on the side of life; these kids know it. They are the future. God will win in the end.
Lord, give us holy priests. Priests who can inspire and direct souls toward heaven and towards a love of humanity, even in the smallest form.
My favorite sweatshirt yesterday was worn by a large group I think from Christendom U. It said: “Death roe survivor.”
The picture … there was one on a screen in the center of the route of a quarter standing on its edge with two little hands near the bottom kind of holding on to it or balancing it, definitely showing us dimensions in a heartstopping, dramatic way. And only God knows whose hands they were or whose feet are up there – I was lucky or blessed enough at that moment to focus on the voice of a Priest ahead beginning the third sorrowful mystery and think from behind he looked like Mr. Gingrich …
(I just had to go back to see the title.) A vote to stop the reason for the subject and photography isn’t a lot to ask when you think of the purpose those two unknown lives had. Heard some young people saying they wanted to tell Obama that his mother was pro-life and wondered what she thought of him. Bill, there’s hope. Your sighs could be prayers, like in the Psalms. Listen to TShaw, Don, Foxfier, elm, and the Marys. Your prayer adds to it. Maybe our salvation depends on remembering the little ones to God. Some on them could be very young grandparents by now since that law.
When did “our sons” have the “rights, freedoms, and opportunities” to kill someone they found inconveniently in the way of “fulfill(ing) their dreams”? Scott Peterson, call your attorney!
Thank you, Philip, for seeing my point on the vital role for us the Faithful to push this campaign to its logical conclusion – i.e. the end of abortion and all the other bestialities the Obama man is ramming down the throats of Americans and to all the other countries where America holds a vice-like control. @T. Shaw, I am 73 heading to 74 and I am determined to be around to America abolish abortion and same-sex pervesions, embryonic stem-cell experiments and euthanasia…..I pray to God every day for this. And to think this man – whose philandering father is my countryman – was the perfect subject for abortion but for the human love and compassion of his betrayed mother….it makes me want to cry.