Free Republic

The Friday Filibuster: The one-stop-shop for everything you need to know about this week in politics.Closing Numbers: 50%- Obama’s job approval rating. 35– The number of people in a recent Pew survey that described Obama as a ‘good man.’33– The number of people in a recent Pew survey that described Obama as ‘incompetent.’59% - The percentage of Republicans who want to see Mitt Romney run again.SOTU:Republicans knew heading into Tuesday that the president was going to deliver a defiant State of the Union speech, and that he did. Among the litany of policy proposals were raising the death tax and a new tax credit...

S.C. lawmakers gave an early push to a bill Thursday that would ban abortions at 20 weeks of pregnancy – an effort the General Assembly came close to passing last year. A five-member state House panel unanimously OK’d the “Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.” That act would ban abortion at 20 weeks – based on pro-lifers’ claims, disputed by some in the medical community, that a fetus can feel pain at that point. If the House Judiciary Committee also approves, the bill will go to the House floor for a vote. A similar bill passed the House 81-22 last...

The “Director of Civil and Human Rights” for the United Methodist Church, Bill Mefford, posted a picture to Twitter yesterday mocking the pro-life marchers. Mefford, who works for the church’s lobby arm, the General Board of Church and Society, ridiculed the marchers by posting a picture of himself standing before them with a sign saying “I march for sandwiches.” TWEET ON LINK Here’s a thought. A great proportion of the pro-life marchers are young people. They are volunteers, unpaid and untrained. Mefford, on the other hand, is a grown man, one whose actual job is to represent Christians in the...

A while ago, I read a blog post over at First Things that was a blast from my past. The author, a Lutheran pastor, recently left the ELCA to become a member of the newly-formed North American Lutheran Church (NALC). He said, “My real disaffection with the ELCA didn’t start with sex. It began in earnest over the ELCA abortion statement and the subsequent decision by the national council to treat elective abortion for pastors and dependents as a reimbursable medical expense under the church health plan.” It was this exact issue that was my first step on the path...

CNN)One of my favorite things I do at work is fetal ultrasound. I'm a practicing radiologist, and the miracle of peeking into that intimate space and then looking up to catch the awe in the parents' faces never seems to get old. But a couple of months ago I got the call that all physicians dread. A fellow doctor called me, irate, saying, "You missed something!" My heart dropped and I waited to hear what I had overlooked or misdiagnosed. The OB-GYN went on. "I delivered a baby girl yesterday with a cleft lip and palate. You did not mention...

I will never forget the first ultrasound of my unborn child. Expecting an idle smudge on a grainy screen, my wife and I were greeted by a hyperactive baby, all four flailing limbs foiling the doctor’s attempt at accurate measurement. Our child was beautiful, and very much alive. This week marks the 42nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and across the country pro-lifers gather to profess the humanity of unborn children. However, as Brennan Manning noted in The Ragamuffin Gospel, “the danger of the pro-life position… is that it can be frighteningly selective.” Recent events provide repeated and disturbing evidence...

I know there are many angered by the title of this post, but the truth hurts. I cannot tell you the number of times I have been to political events where a politician kisses babies and talks Jesus so the pro-lifers in the crowd get thigh sweats and send the politician to Washington. When the politician takes up with his mistress or pays for an abortion or, as Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC) did, undermines the pro-life cause, they are just horrified. But still they return predictable to the GOP for more abuse and disappointment. Maybe it is time for a...

The history of human knowledge as it relates to the human body is a fascinating and terrible thing. In every age, the ability for physicians and other medical practitioners to effectively treat wounds or combat disease has been constrained by the technology – or lack thereof – available at the time. In the past, people often died from illnesses or injuries that are quite treatable today. Over the centuries, we’ve come a long way. Our understanding of human physiology and biology has enabled us to improve quality of life and extend life expectancy beyond anything our ancestors could have imagined.Despite...

In 2013, pro-abortion writer, Mary Elizabeth Williams penned an article titled, “So What if Abortion Ends Life?” Honestly, her article is probably the most outrageous piece of abortion propaganda I’ve every read. However, it was surprisingly refreshing because I don’t think I’ve ever heard an abortion advocate blatantly admit, “Yes, babies in the womb are human beings, but so what.”Williams starts by explaining that one of the most clever moves pro-lifers have ever pulled was our so-called “co-opting of the word “life.’” She writes, “Life! Who wants to argue with that? Who wants be on the side of … not-life?...

On a usually happy and even triumphant day, pro-life leaders found themselves angry at a vote in the U.S. House that never happened. Much of the talk today at the annual March for Life, that likely brought close to 500,000 mostly young people to Washington DC, was about how House leaders canned a bill that would have banned abortion after the 20th week of gestation, the point at which an unborn child is said to feel pain. Much of the anger was directed at Republican Congresswoman Renee Ellmers of North Carolina, who, as reported by Breitbart News, organized a group...

Who Gets Hurt? At Least 50 Million, and Then Some! By: Msgr. Charles PopeThere’s a common “moral” standard that many like to employ today, especially regarding sexual matters, that goes something like this: “Two consenting adults can do what they please, as long as no one gets hurt.” But of course the sinners who talk like this seem to think that they get to determine if anyone gets hurt. Generally their notions of “no one” are very egocentric. But even there they are often quite wrong.Today, I marched with many who tried to give a voice to the at...

The “Director of Civil and Human Rights” for the United Methodist Church, Bill Mefford, posted a picture to Twitter yesterday mocking the pro-life marchers. Mefford, who works for the Church’s lobby arm, the General Board of Church and Society, ridiculed the marchers by posting a picture of himself standing before them with a sign saying “I march for sandwiches.”[...]

Identity theft, the Rev. David Young says, is nothing new.Its been going on for hundreds years with African Americans as its target, according to the pastor of Prevailing Word World Outreach Center. And today, he adds, it is made manifest in a disproportionately high number of black abortions.Young spoke earlier this week at the Light a Candle for Life program that followed the lighting of 1,000 luminaries on Kennedy Square. The theme of the annual pro-life event was “Black Lives Matter — Every Life Matters,” and Young painted a picture of a centuries-long effort to marginalize and diminish American blacks.Since...

It's happening all across the country! Young People Marching for Life! #MarchforLife pic.twitter.com/G9f4FTGZeg — Markeece Young (@YoungBLKRepub) January 22, 2015 Every Life is a Gift. #marchforlife — Pope Francis (@Pontifex) January 22, 2015 Why my oldest daughter, Elizabeth, marches: "Because Pro-Life is Pro-Woman." #WhyWeMarch#ProLife#MarchforLifepic.twitter.com/Uabcqa1B2H — Rick Santorum (@RickSantorum) January 22, 2015 House Votes to End Taxpayer-Funded Abortions to Mark March for Life Rally Let us continue to march forward to shine the light on the work that still needs to be done. #MarchForLife https://t.co/wLtbzKf1i5 — Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) January 22, 2015 The House voted Thursday to permanently end taxpayer-funded abortions,...

Abortion activists opposing the 20-week abortion ban bill in Texas have drawn national attention for chanting “Hail Satan” while pro-life advocates sang Amazing Grace. Now, a Twitter account run by actual Satanists is distancing itself from the pro-abortion activists. You know the abortion proponents have gone too far when even lovers of the Devil himself are disclaiming the comments.

President Barack Obama gives his weekly address, May 5, 2012. Credit: White House. Washington D.C., Jun 18, 2013 / 05:22 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Despite passing the U.S. House of Representatives, a bill to prohibit abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy faces an uncertain future as President Obama's administration has suggested that he will veto it. “(S)cience is on our side,” Representative Marsha Blackburn, (R- Tenn.) told MSNBC in an interview. Blackburn joined other pro-life representatives, including Michelle Bachmann (R- Minn.) and Virginia Foxx (R- N.C.) in defending the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would ban abortions 20 weeks...

A federal judge has struck down an Idaho law prohibiting abortions after 20 weeks, ruling that the so-called fetal pain law violates U.S. Supreme Court prohibitions against unduly impeding a woman’s ability to seek an abortion before her fetus is able to live outside the womb. U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill in Boise declared the 2011 law -- similar to limits adopted in at least seven other states -- to be unconstitutional in a ruling that took the Idaho Legislature to task for acting against the advice of its own attorney general. “The Idaho Legislature’s enactment of the [fetal...

With both broad public support and rallying cries from an engaged conservative base for a 20-week abortion ban, some of the potential contenders for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination are taking the lead on new abortion restrictions. Texas Governor Rick Perry has been working to get the ban in place in his state as Rick Santorum, his former rival in the 2012 presidential contest, traveled to Austin to join rallies in support of the bill. Santorum is also helping to spread the word about the rallies in Texas through Patriot Voices, an advocacy organization he began after leaving the presidential...

Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) today agreed to be the lead sponsor of a Senate bill to ban abortion after an unborn child is 20 weeks old. A similar measure passed the House last month and a state version is now being debated in the Texas legislature, where it is likely to be approved. Marco Antonio Rubio With Rubio’s presence, the bill is certain to gain enormous media attention and thus more national visibility for the issue of limiting late term abortions. Right-to-life groups have urged Rubio to take the lead on the issue, believing he would be the strongest possible...

Louisiana House approves bill banning abortions after 20 weeksBy Kathy Finn Fri Jun 1, 2012 7:50pm EDT NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - The Louisiana state House of Representatives on Friday unanimously approved a bill that would prohibit abortion beyond 20 weeks after fertilization unless the mother's life is in danger. Georgia a month ago became the seventh state to ban most or all abortions after 20 weeks. Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska and North Carolina also have such restrictions. Under the Louisiana measure, doctors who violate the 20-week provision could face up to two years in prison.