Free Republic

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Brown University police forcibly removed a man attending a panel discussion about the politics of health care this afternoon after the man told Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy: ``You're not Catholic if you force Catholics into funding abortion.'' Kennedy was one of four panelists at the discussion. After each panelist made brief introductory remarks, the 200 people in the audience were allowed to ask questions. Christopher Young, a perpetual candidate for several public offices in Rhode Island, was the second person to take the microphone. As he made a loud and rambling statement about public funds being...

Pro-Life Group Files Complaint Against Alberto Hodari in Forced Abortion Case Flint, MI -- Michigan-based abortion practitioner Alberto Hodari is already the subject of a lawsuit from a woman who says he subjected her to a forced abortion. Now, a pro-life group that monitors the illegal and unethical actions of abortion practitioners has filed a formal complaint with the state attorney general. http://www.lifenews.com/state4605.html

Less than two months after the gunning down of pro-life activist Jim Pouillon in September, a young pro-life activist has had a knife put to her throat by a woman entering an abortion facility in Duluth, Minnesota. 21-year-old pro-life activist Leah Winandy, her mother Sarah and the director of a local pro-life group, spoke with LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) about the harrowing incident which took place early Tuesday morning.... When a woman approached, Leah was set to speak to her, but says that the woman then snapped out a long-bladed folding pink-camouflage knife and ordered Leah to not to move or to...

Here is video of Pastor Rick Warren on Meet the Press today, where he said candidly that he believes abortion has been a "holocaust" in America since the Roe vs. Wade decision, a "holocaust" that has resulted in in "46 million Americans not being here" and voting today. Warren engaged in a wide-ranging discussion with moderator David Gregory. Warren said he is "not pro-Life" but is "whole life," believing we need to not only protect the unborn, but be concerned about the poor and disadvantaged of our society as well. Warren refused to grade President Obama's performance in office, but...

For nearly two decades, obstetrician Shim Sang-duk aborted as many babies as he delivered -- on average, one a day, month after month. "Over time, I became emotionless," the physician said. "I came to see the results of my work as just a chunk of blood. During the operation, I felt the same as though I was treating scars or curing diseases." Shim, 42, eventually came to despise himself, despite the money he earned from the procedures. So, two months ago, he founded an activist group of physicians who refuse to perform abortions and advocate prosecution for doctors who continue...

Unless I misunderstand, the socialized medicine plan from hell would not only bilk other patients to provide elective abortions for those who want them, but require all enrollees – even those who view those abortions as murder – to finance them! Sure, this may be in the Constitution, but … on what planet?

I would like to thank all of you for coming back over the last several months to read my story (God’s Story)…My Secret Sin. I didn’t share my story to shock anyone but my intention was to show God’s grace, and how we can trust in His Word.

It took a while, we're talking decades, but finally some American religious leaders say they are fed up. A few days ago, a faith-based group including Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York issued a scathing indictment of secularism in the USA entitled "The Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience." The document, which includes input from Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox Christians, basically says that Christian values are under siege in America and people of faith need to act aggressively to stem the tide. The declaration goes so far as to encourage civil disobedience and uses Dr. Martin Luther King Jr....

Pro-life forces are preparing for a court battle to decide whether voters can decide on a Personhood amendment in Missouri. The measure would declare that a human is a person at the biological beginning of life. Personhood Missouri went through all the obstacles in order to launch a petition drive and get a slot on a future election ballot. Personhood Missouri spokesman Dr. Gregory Thompson tells OneNewsNow that a lawsuit has brought the effort to a halt. "Planned Parenthood is the number-one murderer of babies in our country and is being represented by the ACLU, which takes on every perversion that's against...

OTTAWA, November 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Despite the fact that Canada has one of the most liberal abortion laws in the world and that recent polls show that most Canadians would prefer to have some restrictions on abortion, the political pressure to keep the status quo on the issue is so firm that it is rare for a Canadian politician to even mention the issue, let alone critically.But one Conservative MP has bucked the trend of silence and recently issued a salvo against Canada's "abortion regime" that he argued is directly and seriously harmful to mothers, as well as their unborn children."As...

Sarah Palin and I have little in common politically. I disagree with her on foreign policy, economic policy and Roe v. Wade—I am a pro-choice Democrat. But one thing Mrs. Palin and I share is that we're both parents of beautiful children who happen to have intellectual disabilities. And much as I disagree with Mrs. Palin on various political issues, I was struck when she talked about the cruel attacks on her son Trig in a TV interview last week. What separates me from many other pro-choicers I encounter is that I strongly believe we need to make abortion rare....

The Changing Faces of FeminismDAVID REARDONMany people assume that feminism and the movement to legalize abortion are virtually synonymous. Susan B. Anthony 1820-1906 Some equate feminism with a virulent leftist political philosophy that advocates abortion, lesbianism, pornography, witchcraft, and goddess worship. In fact, however, this "neofeminism" is far removed from the ideals and goals of the 19th-century feminists, who were strongly rooted in the Judeo-Christian concepts of morality and justice. For most early feminists, Christian idealism was the motivating force behind their demands for the reform of attitudes and laws that allowed the suppression of the weak. Besides pleading...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new report from the Centers for Disease Control claims the number of abortions has rose during 2006, the last year for which it has national data available. However, a January 2008 report from a pro-abortion group that is considered more effective in tabulating abortions shows abortions declining.Each year, the CDC requests abortion data from 52 reporting areas, including New York City and the District of Columbia. However, just 49 areas gave the CDC abortion stats and only 46 have reported consistently over the last 10 years.California, Louisiana, and New Hampshire are not included in the...

Bryan, TX (LifeNews.com) -- After losing its initial battle in court in its attempt to silence its former director, a Texas Planned Parenthood has dropped its lawsuit. The abortion business targeted former director Abby Johnson, who recently quit and became pro-life, and the local pro-life group that helped her conversion.Johnson had been the director of the Planned Parenthood center in this southeast Texas city but turned in her resignation on October 6 after years of a local pro-life group helping her see the problem with abortion. Johnson quit after seeing an ultrasound of an abortion. Planned Parenthood officials hit both...

SEOUL, November 25, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Republic of Korea has signaled its willingness to work to reverse a heavily pro-abortion culture through various measures, including beginning to enforce an abortion ban that has technically existed in the country for decades, in order to address the severe demographic implosion that threatens the country's economic stability, Korean sources report.The pro-birth effort was announced on Wednesday by the Presidential Council for Future and Vision, and includes proposals to expand benefits for single mothers and provide greater benefits to families with more than two children. "We have been a society that promoted abortion," Kwak...

Bishop Thomas Tobin of Rhode Island clarified his reasons for denying pro-abortion politicians Communion on Tuesday, noting that such politicians are not forced to be Catholic - but if they choose to, they must then “understand what the Church teaches, accept those teachings, and live that faith.�“The most important commitment we can make is our faith, because that defines our relationship with God. Nothing is more important than that. And if your job, your profession, your vocation gets in the way of that, you have to quit your job and save your soul,� said Tobin in an appearance on the...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- When Americans gather around their dinner tables with friends and family tomorrow to celebrate Thanksgiving, they will catch up on the latest family chatter and probably talk about sports and the weather. But, Planned Parenthood's president has a suggestion for those who need a topic for discussion. In an email today to supporters of the abortion business, Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards unveiled her own Thanksgiving dinner conversation guide. "I don't know how things are at your Thanksgiving table, but in my house we don't just make small talk," she writes, saying she is "committed to...

We are Orthodox, Catholic, and evangelical Christians who have united at this hour to reaffirm fundamental truths about justice and the common good, and to call upon our fellow citizens, believers and non-believers alike, to join us in defending them. These truths are: 1.the sanctity of human life 2.the dignity of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife 3.the rights of conscience and religious liberty. Inasmuch as these truths are foundational to human dignity and the well-being of society, they are inviolable and non-negotiable. Because they are increasingly under assault from powerful forces in our culture, we are...

LifeSiteNews.com) -- "It's light years beyond ultrasound and will make you practically fall off your chair when you see it." So says Father Frank Pavone about the breakthrough video Priests for Life is now distributing and promoting, called The Biology of Prenatal Development.By using embryoscopy, a rare technique involving a tiny camera the size of a pen tip, scientists were able to get breathtaking, real footage of the unborn, which shows how preborn babies have a heartbeat at three weeks, make spontaneous movements at six weeks, and have 90% of the anatomical structures found in adults at eight weeks.A section of the movie...

Woman Heading for Abortion Faces Assault Charges, Pulled Knife on Pro-Lifer Duluth, MN -- A Minnesota woman faces assault charges after she allegedly pulled a knife on a pro-life advocate who encouraged her not to have an abortion. The assault follows a shooting that took place in September in Michigan that saw local pro-life advocate Jim Pouillon shot and killed as he protested abortion. http://www.LifeNews.com/state4600.html

Crisis pregnancy centers in Baltimore must display signs stating they do not provide abortions or birth-control referrals under a measure approved by the City Council Monday night and thought to be the first of its kind in the nation. Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, a Democrat who was lead sponsor of the initiative, called the measure a victory for women's well-being. (snip) But abortion opponents say the bill unfairly targets centers that they say provide accurate information and much-needed assistance to poor women. "The thing that's most disappointing about it is not the particular signs that are put up or the...

Pro-Darwin consensus doesn't rule out intelligent design --snip-- (CNN) -- While we officially celebrate the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" on November 24, celebrations of Darwin's legacy have actually been building in intensity for several years. Darwin is not just an important 19th century scientific thinker. Increasingly, he is a cultural icon. Darwin is the subject of adulation that teeters on the edge of hero worship, expressed in everything from scholarly seminars and lecture series to best-selling new atheist tracts like those by Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. The atheists claim that...

Chris Matthews / Bishop Thomas Tobin Washington D.C., Nov 24, 2009 / 03:06 pm (CNA).- On Monday Bishop Thomas Tobin tangled with television pundit Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s “Hardball” about the relation between religion and politics as well as the legal status of abortion. Matthews’ comments, which charged that the bishop has overstepped his authority, were criticized as a “rant” and an “extended lecture.”Bishop Tobin, of the Diocese of Providence has been critical of Rhode Island U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy’s attacks on the Church for opposing abortion. Rep. Kennedy recently revealed that the bishop had asked him to refrain...

The Best Videos in the world of our Unborn Neighbors   Fr. Frank Pavone       It's light years beyond ultrasound and will make you practically fall off your chair when you see it.We at Priests for Life are now promoting and distributing to every sector of the Church and the pro-life movement the most vivid, powerful, and striking videography of the unborn child that exists. Obtained through a rarely used technique called embryoscopy, in which a video camera the size of a pen-point is inserted abdominally or cervically, this video footage has been incorporated into a 42-minute...

MEDIA ADVISORY, Nov. 24 /Christian Newswire/ -- On Saturday the U.S. Senate voted to send a health care bill to the floor for debate that directly threatens human life and dignity. Eighteen Catholic Democrat senators voted for the bill that includes federal funding for abortion -- without their votes it would have failed. The Catholic bishops have made the Church's teaching abundantly clear -- Catholic lawmakers "have a grave and clear obligation to oppose any law that contradicts humanity's fundamental right to life." The pending Senate bill is fundamentally flawed. The U.S. Bishops Conference reports that not only does the...

Today, November 24, it is exactly 150 years since Charles Darwin published his On the Origin of Species. The world has been gearing up for this “second echelon” of celebrations for this international “Year of Darwin”, following on from the 200th anniversary of his birth this last February. Atheists and humanist groups in particular have seemed to be relishing the thought of giving further prominence to the ideas of their patron saint. Their adulation is heightened by their knowledge that...

Victim of Forced Abortion: Practitioner "Ripped the Life" Out of Her Flint, MI (LifeNews.com) -- Caitlin Bruce is the victim of a forced abortion that saw abortion practitioner Alberto Hodari and a staffer forcibly restrain her as she screamed no. Now, Bruce has given an interview to a local television station where she describes how Hodari and his associate "ripped the life" out of her. http://www.LifeNews.com/state4594.html

MSNBC Attacks Catholic Bishop Tobin in Pat Kennedy-Abortion-Communion Row Washington, DC -- MSNBC is coming under fire from pro-life Catholics upset about the way two of its show hosts treated Bishop Thomas Tobin. The Rhode Island bishop received national attention the last few days as pro-abortion Congressman Patrick Kennedy made public a private letter admonishing him on abortion. http://www.LifeNews.com/state4593.html

A pro-abortion Catholic congressman from Pennsylvania has come to the defense of Rep. Patrick Kennedy in his dispute with Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence. “We don't legislate at the orders of the Vatican, we legislate what is in our conscience and what we think is good for our country,” said Rep. Patrick Murphy as he received an award at Harvard University from Caroline Kennedy, who is Rep. Kennedy’s cousin. “I'm reaching out to Patrick Kennedy and also to my local priests and bishops to make sure they know that we agree on 99 percent of the issues.” More harsh were...

In an effort that has produced heated public feuds as well as significant changes in proposed health care legislation, religious leaders are zeroing in on followers of their faith in Congress to make sure that taxpayer money will not be used to fund abortions.  The latest confrontation comes between Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., an abortion-rights supporter, and Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin, who asked Kennedy not to receive Holy Communion if he maintained his position.  The tension is palpable as senators prepare to take up a version of legislation that pro-life leaders say does not provide the same assurances as...

I know there are a lot of reasons, really. But the thing that makes it visceral is that she had the audacity to have a baby with Down syndrome. . . The Internet is rife with brutal caricatures of Trig and hateful invective against Sarah - simply for opting her "right to choose" - but choosing life over death. That grown-up men and women would attack a vulnerable and defenseless baby is unbelievable - except that we live in a culture where Democrat daughters are treated with dignity and Republican daughters prompt jokes about rape and incest. There is something...

King Solomon said in the Book of Ecclesiastes there’s nothing new under the sun. Women have killed or attempted to kill their unborn babies throughout human history, way before 1973, when the Supreme Court found a long-hidden, deeply buried “right of privacy” in the U.S. Constitution to have abortions. Roe v. Wade made the act legal and culturally acceptable. This Generation X-er can’t recall a time when abortion was as high-profile as it’s been in 2009. This year, a nut murdered George Tiller, a man nationally known for performing partial-birth abortions. Several months later, another nut murdered pro-life activist Jim...

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) said on Fox News Sunday that the U.S. House bill containing the pro-life Stupak Amendment changes long-established law. Sen. Stabenow is referring to the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits Medicaid from funding abortions, and is a provision that Americans United for Life successfully defended before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1980. The “settled policy” is that the American public does not want federal funds paying for abortions or for insurance plans that cover abortions; however, in the current U.S. Senate health bill, the abortion lobby has snuck in abortion funding and coverage through accounting schemes and deceptive...

Rep. Patrick Kennedy’s dispute with Rhode Island Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin attracted national attention on Sunday when Kennedy said that Tobin had asked him to refrain from receiving communion because of his pro-abortion views. MSNBC television talk show host Chris Matthews debated Bishop Tobin today about abortion, law and Rep. Kennedy’s Holy Communion:

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – A Pennsylvania lawmaker defended Rep. Patrick Kennedy on Monday against a bishop who has acknowledged asking the Rhode Island congressman not to receive Holy Communion because of his support for abortion rights. "We don't legislate at the orders of the Vatican, we legislate what is in our conscience and what we think is good for our country," said Rep. Patrick Murphy, a pro-choice Democrat and Catholic like Kennedy. Murphy spoke at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., where he received a John F. Kennedy New Frontier Award from the late president's daughter, Caroline Kennedy. *** "It's been disheartening...

When I discovered that Chris Matthews of the program Hardball was going to interview Bishop Thomas Tobin on the continuing saga of Congressman Patrick Kennedy, I knew I had to watch. Bishop Tobin has courageously - and with a Pastor’s heart - tried to help Congressman Patrick Kennedy to see the dangerous error of his failure to defend the fundamental Right to Life. I should have known from the “tease” to the segment which I was awaiting where this arrogant, self centered commentator intended to take this alleged “interview”. He repeatedly “teased” to the segment by incessantly repeating the term...

I think of killing-womb-babies champion Joy Behar cackling away on The View. She gets absolutely evangelistic about preaching on behalf of the abortion evil.

STRASBOURG, France, November 23, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A new draft resolution from the Council of Europe aimed at legally limiting the freedom of medical doctors and health care providers who object to abortion has life and family defenders in Europe deeply concerned.  The new draft Resolution is the latest initiative undertaken by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to promote abortion and restrict freedom of religion and conscience. The resolution, sponsored by Sweden's Carina Hägg, is entitled "Women's access to lawful medical care: the problem of unregulated use of conscientious objection."The resolution has two main objectives: the...

EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. – A bitter dispute over abortion that prompted Rhode Island's Roman Catholic bishop to ask Rep. Patrick Kennedy not to receive Holy Communion has revealed the depth of the divide among Catholics over how politicians should reconcile their faith with their public duties.

Bishop: Patrick Kennedy Misrepresenting Letter on Communion, Abortion Washington, DC -- Congressman Patrick Kennedy, a pro-abortion member from Rhode Island, says Bishop Thomas Tobin has asked him to stop receiving communion because of his pro-abortion views. However, Tobin says the demand was merely a voluntary request that was issued two years ago and meant to be private. http://www.lifenews.com/state4590.html

On today's Morning Joe, Larry O'Donnell called the Roman Catholic bishop who barred Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) from taking communion a "political hack." Interestingly, Mika Brzezinski had a totally different take, arguing the controversy was not about the Church but about Kennedy publicizing the matter in a play to his base. Though Bishop Thomas Tobin sent his letter to Kennedy more than two years ago, its contents didn't come to light until Kennedy recently revealed them to a Rhode Island newspaper. View video here.

More than 150 Christian leaders, most of them conservative evangelicals and traditionalist Roman Catholics, issued a joint declaration Friday reaffirming their opposition to abortion and gay marriage and pledging to protect religious freedoms. The 4,700-word document, called "The Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience," sounds familiar themes from political and social debates over the health care overhaul and gay marriage battles. While acknowledging that "Christians and our institutions have too often scandalously failed to uphold the institution of marriage," the group rejects same-sex marriage. The declaration states that opening a legal door for gay marriage would do the same...

Yesterday, the Helpers of God's Precious Infants of Michigan held it's fourth and final prayer vigil of 2009. Holy Mass It began with 7:30am Mass at St. Joan of Arc in St. Clair Shores, celebrated by Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron of the Archdiocese of Detroit. The parish children's choir had practiced for weeks to provide the music.  On this Feast of the Presentation of Mary, the archbishop told the roughly 650-700 in attendance that Mary, "stands with us in our work to serve the gospel of life".  At the conclusion of Mass, Archbishop Vigneron told the crowd how proud...

A formidable coalition of 150 Catholic, Orthodox and evangelical leaders are calling on Christians in a new manifesto to reject secular authority – and even engage in civil disobedience – if laws force them to accept abortion, same-sex marriage and other ideas that betray their religious beliefs. On Friday, these leaders released a 4,700-word document – called the "The Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience." The document was signed by leaders ranging from evangelical leader Chuck Colson to two of the leading Catholic prelates in the U.S., Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C. and Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New...

WASHINGTON — Providence Bishop Thomas J. Tobin has forbidden Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy to receive the Roman Catholic sacrament of Holy Communion because of his advocacy of abortion rights, the Rhode Island Democrat said Friday. “The bishop instructed me not to take Communion and said that he has instructed the diocesan priests not to give me Communion,” Kennedy said in a telephone interview. Kennedy said the bishop had explained the penalty by telling him “that I am not a good practicing Catholic because of the positions that I’ve taken as a public official,” particularly on abortion. He declined to say...

One of the leaders of the nation’s influential Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) tells Newsmax that President Obama is “very dangerous” in his economic policies and his foreign policy is causing “severe damage” to U.S. standing in the world. Dr. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and author of the book “The Divided State of America: What Liberals and Conservatives Are Missing In The God And Country Shouting Match”, told Newsmax.TV that the cultural war is heating up. Christians must remember that God is not partisan. “And on many of the most important issues...

The outcome of the health care reform legislation in the House demonstrates that while the Republicans don't have the votes to stop it, the Catholic Church has the votes to pass it. Could the same thing happen in the Senate? On Nov. 7, Catholic lobbyists working for the church's bishops finalized a deal with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. An anti-abortion amendment by Rep. Bart Stupak, a Catholic Democrat, was offered and passed. The bishops then came down officially in favor of a bureaucratic plan that could spell the end to freedom of choice in health care. The turn of events...

The Roman Catholic bishop of Rhode Island says he asked Rep. Patrick Kennedy to stop receiving Holy Communion in 2007 because of the lawmaker's stand on what he called moral issues. Kennedy told The Providence Journal in a story published Sunday that Bishop Thomas Tobin "instructed" him not to receive Communion because of his abortion rights stance. Kennedy said diocesan priests have been told not to give him Communion, but he did not explain how he knew that. Tobin said in a statement Sunday that he "has never addressed matters relative to public officials receiving Holy Communion with pastors of...

Congressman Patrick Kennedy has been barred from receiving Communion by his Bishop in Rhode Island. Bishop Thomas Tobin has barred Patrick, the son of the late Senator Edward Kennedy, because of his position on abortion rights.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin has banned Rep. Patrick Kennedy from receiving Communion, the central sacrament of the church, in Rhode Island because of the congressman's support for abortion rights, Kennedy said in a newspaper interview published Sunday.