Free Republic

A well-backed Democrat candidate who ran for a position on the board of a top beltway-area school system has been found guilty of assault for ramming a pro-lifer with her car during this year’s national March for Life on January 24, LifeSiteNews has learned. Charisse Espy Glassman, the niece of former U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy, withdrew her candidacy for the Fairfax County Public School board after the charges were revealed by the Washington Post this summer. Glassman was convicted of one charge of simple assault, and found not guilty of a second charge of possession of a prohibited weapon....

During a September 2002 meeting with NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts Willard Romney made this implied promise, “You need someone like me in Washington.” Both Willard and the baby killing ghouls of NARAL knew what was being discussed. He was running for Governor of Massachusetts and clearly looking past his anticipated victory to a day when he could stop pretending he cared about pro-life issues and show his true devotion to their “cause” from the White House. Romney made it quite clear that NARAL would have a friend in the State House and eventually in the White House if they helped elect...

A National Association of Evangelicals board member is calling on African-Americans to vote for their conservative convictions in the 2012 election, describing President Barack Obama as a theologically liberal candidate. Bishop Harry R. Jackson. Jr., senior pastor of Hope Christian Church outside of Washington, D.C., asked blacks to re-evaluate their tendency to “flock the polls” in support of Democratic leaders in an opinion piece published Friday in The Wall Street Journal. Blacks, he noted, espouse traditional, conservative beliefs on social issues rooted in their faith. Yet, they often vote for Democratic leaders with liberal leanings. “Most blacks have looked the...

President Obama’s re-election campaign has been hammering Mitt Romney from many angles in recent weeks. And now Democrats are beginning a new push against him, this time using the issue of reproductive rights in a bid to raise doubts about Mr. Romney among women. The Democratic National Committee has scheduled a conference call for Thursday with Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, the party chairwoman, who, according to the committee’s press release, will “slam G.O.P. presidential candidate Mitt Romney for voicing support for such efforts which could endanger women’s lives.” The Democratic offensive is built around Mr. Romney’s statements on...

Two former employees of late-term abortionist Kermit Gosnell have pled guilty to 3rd degree murder charges for their roles in the deaths of an abortion patient and one baby born alive during a failed late-term abortion. This is reportedly the first time that an abortion worker has been found guilty of murder for killing a baby. ..Gosnell, who ran an abortion facility in Philadelphia that has been dubbed a “House of Horrors,” has been charged with eight counts of murder, including of seven newborn babies and one client, and is awaiting trial. Moton and West may testify against his as...

Russia’s national parliament, the Federal Assembly, has voted to restrict abortion for the first time in decades, in the face of a demographic decline that has reduced the population by 2.9% since 1992. The new law, which is expected to be signed by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, prohibits abortions beyond the 12th week of pregnancy, and imposes a mandatory waiting period of between two and seven days. Exceptions are permitted for economic hardship, which allows abortions up to the point 22 weeks of gestation. Join a Facebook page to end abortion here. Legislators discarded proposals by the Orthodox Church to...

Today the former House Speaker gave a press conference and annouced that republicans who voted for the Protect Life Act, a bill that strips the funding of abortion out of ObamaCare, want women to "die on the floor." Not quite Pelosi, republicans simply believe helpless babies shouldn't be killed in the womb. Pelosi: Republicans Want Women To "Die On The Floor!"LifeNews has more on the legislation: The House approved a bill, the Protect Life Act, to stop abortion funding in Obamacare. Senate Democrats are not expected to approve the bill and, pro-abortion President Barack Obama is expected to veto the...

This is my favorite story of the day because on the one hand it's wonderfully pro-life and Catholic but on the other hand it annoys the heck out of all the right people and that always gives me such tingly good feelings. Is that bad? A small Catholic elementary school in Canada has announced that students who take part in anti-abortion vigils outside abortion clinics will receive community service credit. How awesome is that? I literally think I just heard heads exploding up in Canada. It's a brilliant and wonderful way to exhibit the school's Catholic identity. What is more...

ROME, October 10, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – There is no such thing as a “right” to abortion, Lord Nicholas Windsor has said in this weekend’s Daily Telegraph. Lord Windsor, the youngest son of the Duke of Kent and the first cousin once removed to Queen Elizabeth II, is becoming noted not only as among the rare members of Britain’s Royal Family to convert to Catholicism, but more recently for his outspoken opposition to legalized abortion, which he compares with eugenics. The cost of abortion, Lord Windsor said, “is too high because the cost is paid in innocent life.” In a statement,...

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius (Pic by US Mission Geneva, via Flickr) At a luncheon hosted by NARAL Pro-Choice America yesterday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius criticized the recent pushback from anti-abortion advocates against a recent decision requiring insurance plans to cover birth control without co-pays.Sebelius has been a key player in the recent decision by the Obama administration to make it easier for women to afford birth control. The new requirement would be implemented through the Affordable Care Act. Sebelius asked that birth control be included in a list of preventative care services to be...

September 27, 2011 (HLIWorldWatch.org) - Senator Barbara Boxer is in a tough situation: she thinks there are too many children in the developing world, she thinks abortion and contraception are the answer to this problem, and she has to try to convince the majority of Americans who are deeply offended by her views that she actually wants something good and just. So what’s a busy, far-left California Democrat supposed to do? It’s not as if she can just come out and say that the mothers of Asia, Africa and Latin America are having more children then she would prefer. There...

Monty Patterson with his daughter Holly, and son Cody. This picture was taken just weeks after the abortion drug was approved in 2000. LIVERMORE, CA, September 29, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The father of an 18-year-old casualty of a drug-induced abortion has mourned the 11th anniversary of RU-486 legalization by launching a website and video to help women learn about the health risks of the abortion drug. Monty Patterson, whose daughter Holly died in 2003, said that it is critical that a patient be fully informed of the procedures, administration, and risks involved with the chemical abortion. “The website isn’t about...

I was wondering something tonight in light of the news that Congress will be investigating Planned Parenthood. Are there really Catholics who are personally pro-life and publicly pro-choice? Is that an honest opinion? The answer, if you can call it that, came to me in the form of a question. Have I ever seen or heard of personally pro-life Catholics praying in front of abortion clinics? Nope. Have I seen personally pro-life Catholics pushing to hold Planned Parenthood or other abortionists to higher safety standards? Nope. But the truth is that to be pro-anything it can not be a passive...

ORETTO, PA, September 26, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A Catholic University in Pennsylvania has cancelled a scheduled appearance by prominent feminist journalist Ellen Goodman after the Cardinal Newman Society (CNS) drew attention to the conflict between Goodman’s work and Catholic Church teaching on key issues. The Catholic watchdog group reported in a blog entry that Goodman was scheduled to speak October 12th at St. Francis University in Loretto on the topic of civility in public discourse. The lecture was part of the school’s annual Furlong Lecture Series. The blog entry detailed the history of Goodman’s outspoken support for abortion, including opposing...

An elderly priest on the Acadian Peninsula has been barred from performing church services in the Bathurst diocese after he made remarks about homosexuals and women who have had an abortion. Rev. Donat Gionet, 85, gave the sermon at the Roman Catholic church in Saint-Léolin while replacing the regular parish priest late last month. He stands by the comments he made in Saint-Léolin, a village of about 730 people located about 50 kilometres east of Bathurst. Reached in Caraquet on Wednesday, Gionet declined an interview but did provide a written statement. In a letter written in French that he provided...

Prenatal testing for Down syndrome should not be considered preventive medicine. Such tests cannot prevent the presence of Down syndrome in a child; but they can decrease the likelihood of a child with Down syndrome surviving beyond the womb. Expectant parents need accurate information, including the many positive outcomes, about life raising a child with Down syndrome. Last month, my daughter Juliet began second grade, where her mother and I expect her to maintain her B+ average on spelling tests and straight A’s in Chinese. In addition to being a loving daughter and big sister, Juliet also is endowed...

Note: Jewels Green is a former abortion clinic worker who also had an abortion herself. She recently spoke out about her experiences as an abortion clinic worker for the first time. September 20, 2011 (LiveAction.org) - After supporting abortion my entire life and working in an abortion clinic for years, my Ah-HA moment seemed to come from an unlikely place. I did not have a profound, sudden shift in my worldview. After years of ignoring the little voice inside me questioning the death around me—the nightmares and the regret—the truth snuck up on me. I was involved in an online...

The abortion debate has raged since 1973, when the Supreme Court gave abortion constitutional protection, but the basic law of the land has proved immutable. Abortion is legal, and it's going to remain legal for a long time. Laws often alter attitudes, inducing people to accept things -- such as racial integration -- they once rejected. But sometimes, attitudes move in the opposite direction, as people see the consequences of the change. That's the case with abortion. The news that the abortion rate has fallen to its lowest level in 30 years elicits various explanations, from increased use of contraceptives...

HHS's Plans To Contracept Conscience Rights The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops urges faithful Catholics, friends of conscience rights, enemies of government tyranny, and people of good will to protest the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services proposed diktat that private health plans cover contraception (including abortifacients) as preventive services for women. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has issued interim final rules mandating this outcome pursuant to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, i.e., ObamaCare. There's no doubt that these "preventive services" prevent fecundation or implantation in the women who avail themselves of them. In the case of...

An elderly priest on the Acadian Peninsula has been barred from performing church services in the Bathurst diocese after he made remarks about homosexuals and women who have had an abortion. Rev. Donat Gionet, 85, gave the sermon at the Roman Catholic church in Saint-Léolin while replacing the regular parish priest late last month. He stands by the comments he made in Saint-Léolin, a village of about 730 people located about 50 kilometres east of Bathurst. Reached in Caraquet on Wednesday, Gionet declined an interview but did provide a written statement. In a letter written in French that he provided...