Free Republic

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...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The Thanksgiving proclamation the White House issued on behalf of President Barack Obama is creating a bit of a controversy. The dustup doesn't concern what the traditional holiday message from the president says, but rather what it doesn't say.

"The First Sunday of Advent, November 29th, 2009 I: Jer 33:14-16; II: 1 Thes 3:12-4:2 Gospel: Lk 21:25-28, 34-36" "Beware! Stay awake! These admonitions are the first trumpet blasts of the Advent season, and they echo in every way the call to be prepared for the magnificent mystery of Christ Who is coming into the world. The prophet Jeremiah tells us that God is fulfilling the centuries-old promises that He made to the house of Israel for a Savior, and the Gospel cautions us not to let the great and glorious day of Christ's arrival catch us unprepared. We can't...

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...

LifeNews.com: Burke Balch is a pro-life attorney who is the director of the Robert Powell Center for Ethics at the National Right to Life Committee. He is considered one of the foremost experts on health care, euthanasia and bioethics issues. The U.S. Senate is poised to begin debate on the 2,074-page health care bill, crafted by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nv.), when senators return to Washington next week. In a release last week, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of right-to-life organizations in all 50 states, noted that Senator Reid's bill would authorize the federal government...

Brussels, Belgium (LifeNews.com) -- No sooner did Rom Houben make international headlines than skeptics and euthanasia advocates attempt to discredit the story of a man who says he was falsely tagged as being in a coma for 23 years. Houben has been embraced by those who say physicians are too quick to label patients as in a vegetative state. As LifeNews.com noted, Houben shared his story this week of how he is now able to talk with the world now that a scientists retested him, found his brain to be functioning normally, and provided him with therapy allowing him...

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...

An emergency court case apparently has prompted a hospital in Tennessee to continue to provide treatment to a sick baby officials had threatened to disconnect from a respirator even though attorneys for his mother described him as "alert, active and responsive." "Baby Gabriel" is being treated at East Tennessee Children's Hospital for vascular problems he developed after procedures the hospital performed on him in October. According to the Alliance Defense Fund, the child was born prematurely in January with a genetic abnormality, clubfoot and narrow airway, but he flourished after he went home in June. His mother, Catherine Palmer, took...

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...

ROME, November 24, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The father of Eluana Englaro (known in the press as "Italy's Terri Shiavo"), Beppino Englaro, is making a name for himself as a euthanasia activist, and is continuing to claim justification for his successful decade-long court battle to have his daughter's food and hydration removed last year.  At the same time, according to a report commissioned by the prosecutor of Udine, the town in which she died, Eluana was in an "irreversible coma" at the time of her death.Eluana Englaro was an Italian woman from Lecco in northern Italy, who was diagnosed as being...

By Alex Schadenberg, Chairman, Euthanasia Prevention CoalitionNovember 24, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Many people will have read the story of Rom Houben, the Belgium man who was diagnosed as being in a permanent vegetative state (PVS) for 23 years, but who in fact had a condition known as Locked-in Syndrome. A person in locked-in syndrome is fully aware of all of their surroundings and they hear and remember the conversations that take place around them, but due to their cognitive disability they are unable to respond.The case of Rom Houben is significant given that many bioethicists are attempting to redefine...

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...

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...

City Council expected to approve rules for offices that don't provide abortion, birth control By Matthew Hay Brown | matthew.brown@baltsun.com November 23, 2009 Both sides of the abortion debate will be focusing on Baltimore today, when the City Council is expected to approve a first-in-the-nation law imposing new regulations on faith-based organizations that try to steer women away from the procedure. The measure, introduced by council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake at the behest of Planned Parenthood of Maryland, would require that crisis pregnancy centers that do not provide abortions or birth control post signs saying so. Proponents frame the effort...

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...

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...

WASHINGTON - Lobbying over abortion was turning into a sleepy business. But the health care debate has brought a new boom, and both sides are exploiting it with fund-raising appeals. “The reaction has been phenomenal, like a match dropped on dry kindling,” said Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Abortion opponents have been blanketing their supporters with solicitations and alarms since House Democrats laid out their health care proposals three months ago. “The largest expansion of abortion since Roe vs. Wade,” warns the Web site for Stop the Abortion Mandate, which directs visitors to sign up...

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:

LifeNews.com Note: The following is an excerpt from Sarah Palin's new book, Going Rogue: An American Life. © Sarah Palin 2009. The book is published by HarperCollins and available at online booksellers and most retail outlets.A couple of years ago I began to notice some peculiar yet familiar physical symptoms, like the smell of cigarettes making me feel more nauseated than usual. For a few weeks, I brushed these aside. Then I began to suspect something. There was no way I could buy a home pregnancy test in Alaska. I was the state governor. The supermarket cashiers would know, the...

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...

<p>The Alliance Defense Fund just filed an emergency injunction and restraining order in response to the decision a couple hours ago by an "ethics panel" at East Tennessee Children's Hospital to discontinue care of 9-month-old Gabriel Palmer.</p> <p>Baby Gabriel was born prematurely with a genetic abnormality, club foot, and narrow airway, but he flourished when he went home from the hospital in June, where he grew, played, and received physical therapy while going to regular doctor visits. He was fed through a tube and received some oxygen and medications.</p>

A car crash victim has spoken of the horror he endured for 23 years after he was misdiagnosed as being in a coma when he was conscious the whole time.Rom Houben, trapped in his paralysed body after a car crash, described his real-life nightmare as he screamed to doctors that he could hear them - but could make no sound. 'I screamed, but there was nothing to hear,' said Mr Houben, now 46, who doctors thought was in a persistent vegatative state.'I dreamed myself away,' he added, tapping his tale out with the aid of a computer. Doctors used a...

A man thought by doctors to be in a vegetative state for 23 years was actually conscious the whole time, it was revealed last night. Student Rom Houben was misdiagnosed after a car crash left him totally paralysed. He had no way of letting experts, family or friends know he could hear every word they said. Rom Houben was trapped in a coma for 23 years and had no way of letting anyone know he could hear what they were saying (pictured posed by model) 'I screamed, but there was nothing to hear,' said Mr Houben, now 46.

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...

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...

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...

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...

My friends, I ran into Sarah Palin a week or so ago. Well, not the Sarah Palin — and not comedian Tina Fey, either. Temporarily away from my mission work and visiting old friends at an Irish parish, I was enjoying the (rare) sunshine after Mass, greeting parishioners as they left church, when I noticed a young mother pushing her daughter in a baby carriage. Her child — like all children — was radiant to me, with a shock of orange hair and a smile of beautiful wonderment at just about everything. Her head rolled back and forth as if...

Sarah Palin is back, using her book, Going Rogue, as a prop. From all indications she ain't going away -- which may be why passions, pro and con, are so intense about her. There seems no middle ground when it comes to Palin -- some of it understandable, most of it puzzling. If she's a ditz, an airhead as some insist, someone without the depth or substance to be president, why worry about her? The electorate will catch on. So why do Democrats slag her at every opportunity? If she's a genuine threat to be a contender for power on...

A proposal to limit embryonic stem cell research at the University of Nebraska failed to win the approval of the NU Board of Regents Friday, a critical verdict that came after one regent broke ranks with his pro-life colleagues to cast the deciding vote. Lincoln Regent Jim McClurg's about-face split the regents' vote 4-4, stalling the proposal and opening the door to expanded research at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Supporters of embryonic stem cell research hailed the vote as a hallmark opportunity for NU to play a key role in lifesaving work. The vote also helps counter a...

We are taking a BIG TRIP - 13 Cities! - Please pray for us. (See List of Cities Below.) Beginning on Sunday, November 22, we are taking a seven state, 13-city tour, to do press conferences, protests, and lobbying against this damnable "healthcare" legislation. Please pray for us, and help us if you can. We need funds for the trip! (If you want to contribute on line, go to here! and click the donate button.) I am pleased that the Stupak Amendment passed in the House, but I'm sure you understand that the end result of the Stupak Amendment may...

We recently wrote to you, telling you about the Catholic Campaign for Human Development and their historic support for pro-abortion, anti-life, pro-homosexual and pro-prostitution groups. The collection for this fund is this Sunday. Well, it seems as if the news about the CCHD is worse than we suspected. Please, take a few moments to visit this website, and watch the videos and read the articles available there: http://www.RealCatholicTV.net/defundcchd/We will be placing more videos and information on this webpage as they become available, so please check back often and tell your friends about this horror. God Bless -- Michael Voris,...

Alberto Hodari performs abortions as casually as others pick their teeth, and with just as much thought. He has bragged about being involved in tens of thousands of abortions. Tens of thousands! He has wiped out literally several small towns in terms of population. And he's proud of it. But Hodari's past doesn't just include tens of thousands of dead babies. Probably due to his proclivity of lying to his potential patients to steer them towards an abortion, something he freely admitted to college students at Wayne State University, saying that he has a "license to lie, he's killed 4...

www.catholicnewsagency.com Unprecedented coalition of religious leaders call Americans to stand for sanctity of life, marriage, and religious freedom Washington D.C., Nov 20, 2009 / 06:21 am (CNA).- An unprecedented coalition of prominent Christian clergy, ministry leaders, and scholars has crafted a 4,700-word declaration addressing the sanctity of life, traditional marriage, and religious liberty. The declaration issues “a clarion call” to Christians to adhere to their convictions and informs civil authorities that the signers will not “under any circumstance” abandon their Christian consciences. The statement,  called “the Manhattan Declaration,” has been signed by more than 125 Catholic, Evangelical Christian, and Orthodox...

I was recently delighted to learn that Ave Maria University was the recipient of a Four Million dollar ($4,000,000.) gift from a man named Tom Golisano. The first words which came into my heart upon reading the news were from St. Paul, “Rejoice with those who rejoice…” (Romans 12:15) I am convinced that the most important work being done in this new missionary age is the preparation of the next generation of faithful, well educated young Catholic men and women, prepared to respond to the call to every Christian vocation and to participate in the mission of the Church. It...

Posted by GOP Leader (John Boehner) Press Office on November 19th, 2009 Just like the original 2,032-page, government-run health care plan from Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) massive, 2,074-page bill would levy a new “abortion premium” fee on Americans in the government-run plan.

A 12-year-old girl is prohibited from bringing aspirin to California public schools without a note from her mother or father – but in many California districts she may sign herself out of classes, leave her junior-high campus without parental permission, secretly have an abortion and return to school before the end of the day – and her own family may be none the wiser. Parents and educators across the state have been in heated debate over school policies allowing children to be excused during class time without parental notification for "confidential medical services" such as abortions, birth control, and drug...

For the Denver-based American Right to Life, when it comes to abortion, Palin is as impure as any godless feminist. “[H]er words and actions prove that she is officially pro-choice and stands against the God-given right to life of the unborn,” they write in a new report. ARTL members plan to educate reporters about Palin’s many alleged failings as a true believer, particularly her March nomination of a former Planned Parenthood board member to the Alaska Supreme Court and her refusal to call for a ban on the morning-after pill.

A Reality Check from the Discipleship Front November 19th, 2009 by Archbishop Charles Chaput What the hell don’t you understand about the term separation of Church and State. Keep your evil hands off of our Health Care Bill. Mind your own business. We don’t care about your beliefs, and if you want to meddle in our affairs, we will be coming for you. If that’s how you want to play, we will come for your pedophile priests, your ill-gotten money you stole for decades. The Catholic church is just another organized crime syndicate that should be put out of business....

Facial Placenta facial: The treatment involves an ordinary-smelling cosmetic cream with a rather special ingredient (File pic) Between pre-match rituals and nights on the town, footballers get up to some pretty weird stuff. But the latest revelation, from Arsenal striker Robin van Persie, has stupified even the most credulous of fans. The Dutch player, who is suffering from ruptured ankle ligaments, flew out to Belgrade yesterday to meet a Serbian housewife who will rub his leg with fluid from a horse's placenta. Mariana Kovacevic has apparently already treated two of Van Persie's former Dutch teammates, one of whom recovered in...

SOUTH BEND, IN - Notre Dame Greets a New Pro-life Bishop While Father Jenkins Continues to Serve on a Pro-abortion Board. Father Jenkins declared that Notre Dame “engaged with” President Obama because “we care so much” about abortion and embryonic stem cell research. We will from time to time examine the nature and degree of this professed concern. We recently recounted Father Jenkins’s refusal to suggest the dropping of the trespass charges against the so-called “Notre Dame 88,” as well as the reasons for skepticism about his action in setting up a task force on life issues. Here, we...

WASHINGTON -- Resorting to a tactic he once denounced, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Mobile, unsuccessfully sought today to block the nomination of a federal appeals court candidate through the parliamentary technique known as the filibuster. In a Senate floor speech this afternoon, Sessions, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, acknowledged his past opposition to filibusters of judicial nominees, but said that David Hamilton's record "indicates a lack of commitment to following the law." Hamilton, currently a federal trial judge from Indiana, has been tapped by President Barack Obama for a seat on the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of...

To mark their 23rd anniversary, the French pro-life group SOS Tout-Petits held their annual National Rosary for Life on Saturday, sparking heated protests from the country's pro-abortion activists. Catholics gathered to pray outside cathedrals and churches in at least 28 cities throughout France, as well as in Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Philippines. In many of these cities, the peaceful event attracted large anti-Catholic counter-demonstrations. For example, at the St. André Cathedral in Bordeaux, police were called to the scene as a large crowd opposed the 150 people gathered to pray. The crowd carried pro-abortion signs and shouted "Caca Catholic," "Mary,...

Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Monday he plans to filibuster President Obama’s first judicial pick, Judge David F. Hamilton. Sessions told reporters in a briefing that he will vote “not to consider” the nomination. “I think I intend not to support going forward (with) Hamilton’s vote,” Sessions said, adding that each senator has to vote his own conscience. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has called for a cloture vote on the nomination Tuesday, which would force the Republican filibuster of Hamilton, whom Obama indicated is the kind of nominee he...