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Despite a rush of headlines claiming Pope Francis is softening the Church's stance on contraception. A closer look at his recent remarks could suggest otherwise. During an in-flight press conference on his way back from Mexico, Pope Francis was asked by a reporter about the threat of Zika virus in many Latin American countries. Noting that the virus may be linked to birth defects when transmitted from a pregnant woman to her unborn baby, the reporter asked the Holy Father about proposals involving "abortion, or else avoiding pregnancy" in areas where Zika virus is prevalent. The Pope responded by emphatically...

Pope Francis has suggested it is acceptable to use artificial contraception methods in countries affected by the Zika virus. "Avoiding pregnancy is not an absolute evil," he told reporters en route to Rome following his five-day trip to Mexico. He cited Pope Paul VI's decree in the 1960s that allowed nuns serving in Africa to use contraception due to the threat of rape. He said, "In certain cases, as in this one, such as the one I mentioned of Blessed Paul VI, it was clear." But he maintained the church's stance against abortion calling it "an absolute evil". CDC's advice...

With the mosquito-borne Zika virus continuing to spread through Central and South America, Pope Francis said today that contraception could be seen as "the lesser of two evils" if women are concerned about having children with the birth defect microcephaly. The Zika virus is usually mild, but has been associated with a rise of the alarming birth defect, characterized by an abnormally small head and brain, often leading to significant developmental delays. The pope compared the situation to a decree issued by Pope Paul VI, which said nuns in Africa could use contraception due to the threat of rape.

The death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was more than a tragedy for his family and American jurisprudence. It was a calamity for religious liberty. The Court will soon hear Little Sisters of the Poor v. Burwell, which challenges the Obamacare contraception mandate. Because the loss of Scalia reduces the number of justices to eight, the spectre of a tie vote now looms over the case. If the remaining justices vote as they did in the Hobby Lobby case, the result will be a per curiam decision whereby a prior miscarriage of justice by the Tenth Circuit Court of...

December 18, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – One of the most influential evangelical Christian leaders in the United States says the sexual revolution began with the widespread availability of birth control. Dr. Albert Mohler, the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, made the remarks Saturday on David Wheaton's "The Christian Worldview" radio show. “We are clearly at a very important turning point, but you have to go back to the early twentieth century when sexual revolutionaries largely funded an effort to separate sex and procreation, and that was birth control," Dr. Mohler said. "Most Christians seem to think today...

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 16, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- New research from a Midwestern hospital suggests a wide majority of teen girls and young women fail to get information about contraceptives when they take medications that could cause birth defects. At issue are so-called "teratogenic" medications, used for conditions ranging from acne to anxiety, that boost the risk of birth defects when taken during pregnancy. Physicians often tell sexually active women to take birth control while they're on the drugs to avoid becoming pregnant, but it's unclear whether younger females routinely get the same kind of guidance. In the new study, researchers...

It Is the Only Road to Race-Improvement, But - May It Mean Retrogression? - What Is Your Own Relation to It?By Albert Edward WiggamPRESIDENT HARDING recently wrote, a letter which ought to have attracted international attention. The letter was addressed to a citizen of the United States, whose name would never otherwise have gotten before the public, congratulating him upon the fact that he had achieved a family of sixteen children. I naturally supposed upon reading President Harding’s laudatory comments that the parents of these children were persons of exceptional distinction in some field of science, commerce, art or public...

The Supreme Court decision to hear Little Sisters of the Poor v. Burwell means that another group of Christians bedeviled by Beltway bureaucrats must beg permission from nine unelected government officials to practice their faith unmolested. This is not about women’s health or reproductive rights. It is just another battle in the war on religious liberty waged by various manifestations of the state for two millennia. Whether it is President Obama ordering his HHS secretary to bring intransigent nuns to heel or the Emperor Trajan advising a provincial governor on the proper punishment of unrepentant Christians, it is all about...

For the fourth time, Obamacare is going before the Supreme Court, this time to decide if forcing religious nonprofit groups to provide contraception against their beliefs is constitutional. Politico: The case represents yet another trip for the Affordable Care Act before the justices since the law's passage more than five years ago — and this one could represent another Obamacare-Supreme Court flash point in an election year. But unlike some of the earlier Obamacare challenges, a ruling against the administration would not cripple the legislation. The law's major provisions, such as the health insurance exchanges, the subsidies and Medicaid...

HARTFORD, Connecticut, October 26, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – Melanie and Floyd Foster's baby died, they say, because their doctor, OB/GYN Corinne de Cholnoky, ruptured the baby's membrane while trying to remove an IUD. As a direct result, they say, their premature baby was later born alive but died after two hours. Because the baby was only 22 weeks along, Dr. de Cholnoky says the baby was not viable and therefore not a person, and no wrongful death occurred. Because the baby was born alive, the Fosters – and the judge presiding over the case – say the baby was a person,...

One of America’s leading scientists has dismissed as “raving nonsense” the pope’s call for action on climate change – so long as the leader of the world’s 1 billion Catholics rejects the need for population control. In a commentary in the journal Nature Climate Change, Paul Ehrlich, a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, argues that Pope Francis is simply wrong in trying to fight climate change without also addressing the additional strain on global resources from population rise. “That’s raving nonsense,” Ehrlich told the Guardian. “He is right on some things but he is just...

Pope Francis’ unexpected and unscheduled visit to the Little Sisters of the Poor, a convent of elderly nuns fighting ObamaCare’s contraception mandate in the courts, is a clear message shot across the Obama administration’s bow that such religious persecution is not acceptable, backing up the American Catholic Church’s mantra: we will not comply While the lamestream media focuses on the Pope’s seeming alignment on issues such as climate change and immigration reform, the chattering class ignores this ongoing battle over religious liberty.

ROME, September 14, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) — As many as 60 highly distinguished Catholic moral theologians and philosophers are appealing to Pope Francis to delete a controversial paragraph from the preparatory document for the Synod of the Family that they say “contradicts” Catholic teaching against the “intrinsically evil act” of using contraception. They say if the text is approved during the Synod next month in Rome, it could have “devastating consequences for the faithful.” “As Catholic moral theologians and philosophers, we feel morally obligated to speak out against the distortion of Catholic teaching implicit in paragraph 137,” state authors David Crawford...

In a stunning decision, a federal judge permanently barred the Department of Health and Human Services from enforcing the contraception mandate under ObamaCare against an employer for moral rather than explicitly religious grounds. Judge Richard Leon, the same DC district court judge that ruled the NSA phone collection program unconstitutional (and was reversed last week), rebuked the federal government for violating the Equal Protection clause by only allowing religious groups a waiver for objections to contraception and other products and services. Ruling in favor of March for Life, Leon said that the 14th Amendment demands equal protection for similarly...

The preparatory document for the Catholic Church’s Family Synod “poses a very real danger to the family”, says Voice of the Family http://voiceofthefamily.info , an international coalition of pro-life and pro-family organisations. The document, known as the Instrumentum Laboris (Latin for “working tool”), will be discussed by bishops from around the world, when the second round of the Church’s Synod on the Family is held in the Vatican this October. Matthew McCusker of Voice of the Family has authored an in-depth analysis (executive summary and full text) of the document. John Smeaton, co-founder of Voice of the Family, said: “The...

I have to admit that my first reaction to the Planned Parenthood videos was to cringe and try to avoid the topic. Even for those who support abortion rights, there is a stomach-churning aspect to the surreptitiously taped conversations with Planned Parenthood officials - the cold-blooded discussion, between bites of salad and sips of red wine, of "less crunchy" techniques to obtain specimens, and the precise placement of "graspers" to avoid having to "crush" a valuable body part. If you hear this and fail to squirm, there is something wrong with you. That response is, of course, what the anti-abortion...

A Catholic politician sued the Obama administration, arguing that as a Catholic he has a right to be able to purchase health insurance that doesn't cover contraceptives, sterilization procedures, and abortifacients. Paul Wieland serves in the Missouri House. He is a member of the Knights of Columbus. He has three daughters, who, because of the actions of the Obama administration, will have access to free contraceptives. “As a parent, it is disturbing,” said Wieland in an older news report. “We value our faith and make a sacrifice to teach our children the faith, to send them to Catholic schools. We...

I see the liberal, secular feminist and the homosexual/transgender ideologies running smack into each other like bulls. The losers in this bloody clash? There will be many, but let’s talk about the most ironic losers: women. Neither ideology respects true femininity and the beauty of womanhood. Both want to empty it of its gift and uniqueness. Both have created a caricature of woman. Both exploit what they find useful about the female body and shun the rest. Both have reduced womanhood to only the parts that serve their agenda. Both the modern, perpetually-contracepting woman and the transgender “woman” are sterile....

An appeals court has ruled against a Catholic order of nuns in their lawsuit against the Obama administration's birth control mandate. The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday against the Little Sisters of the Poor, concluding that having to fill out a form requesting that an another party provide insurance for contraceptives does not violate the order's religious liberty. "Although we recognize and respect the sincerity of Plaintiffs' beliefs and arguments, we conclude the accommodation scheme relieves Plaintiffs of their obligations under the Mandate and does not substantially burden their religious exercise under RFRA or infringe upon their First...

Guess which ObamaCare case will be headed to the Supreme Court next? At least, that’s the option open for the Little Sisters of the Poor and their defense team at The Becket Fund for the restoration of a temporary injunction against compliance with the HHS mandate. The 10th Circuit handed the nuns a defeat this morning, vacating the earlier temporary injunction ordered by a lower court: Moments ago, in a departure from the U.S. Supreme Court’s protection of the Little Sisters of the Poorlast year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ruled that the Little Sisters...