Free Republic

A triple homicide in Florida is suspected to be a “Wiccan ritual killing” related to the “blue” moon, police said Tuesday. The three victims, all from the same family, were found after a welfare check on Friday, July 31, said Escambia County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Sgt. Andrew Hobbes. “It appears that this might be connected to some type of Wiccan ritual killing and possibly tied to the blue moon,” Hobbes told NBC News. A “blue” moon is what it’s called when there are two full moons in the same calendar month. Voncile Smith, 77, and her two sons, Richard, 49,...

An 11-year-old albino girl from Swaziland was shot dead in front of her friends and then beheaded in what police believe was a ritual murder.The child had been washing clothes and bathing at a river with friends and was returning home when she was grabbed by a man wearing a balaclava. As her friends looked on, the man shot her in the back before dragging her away. Her headless body was found upriver a short time later. The murder is the latest in a series of albino killings in Sub-Saharan Africa, where sufferers of the rare skin pigmentation condition...

A six-year-old albino girl in Burundi has been found dead with her head and limbs removed, in the latest killing linked to ritual medicine. Albinos in the region have been targeted because of a belief peddled by witchdoctors that their body parts can be used for magic potions. The girl, who was attacked on Sunday, was the sixth person with albinism to be killed in Burundi since September. There have also been a number of attacks in neighbouring Tanzania. ...The head of the Burundi Albinos' Association, Kasim Kazungu, says people with albinism had not suffered any discrimination until other Burundians...

Conception — the point at which life begins. At least it is according to the fundamentalist community, anyway. The stance of Right to Life supporters is that abortion is outright murder and deprivation of life. I disagree. How can you kill something that is not yet living? Besides, banning abortion deprives the mother of her rights to property and to the pursuit of happiness. A fetus is not a living human, and the mother has the right to decide to abort it. During the first trimester of the pregnancy, the fetus is merely a wad of cells. A mere wad...

Those who seek to outlaw abortion often use the rhetoric of "protecting the most vulnerable and helpless" in our communities. Many of them are Christians who see their opposition to abortion rights as inextricably linked with their faith and their understanding of Christian ethics. After all, wouldn't a God of love and life want us to protect life wherever we found it? If only it were that simple. In practice, there are other questions we must ask. Does a God of love and life ever support war? Does such a God understand that some innocent civilians will die when we...

... Whenever I am out with Margaret, I'm conscious that she represents a group whose ranks are shrinking because of the wide availability of prenatal testing and abortion. I don't know how many pregnancies are terminated because of prenatal diagnoses of Down syndrome, but some studies estimate 80 to 90 percent. Imagine. As Margaret bounces through life, especially out here in the land of the perfect body, I see the way people look at her: curious, surprised, sometimes wary, occasionally disapproving or alarmed. I know that most women of childbearing age that we may encounter have judged her and her...

WORLD RELIGIONS ON ABORTION HINDUISM Vasu Murti and Mary Krane Derr write in the Fall 1998 issue of the Journal of Feminism and Non-Violence Studies that "Hinduism teaches that abortion, like any other act of violence, thwarts a soul in its progress toward God. Hindu scriptures and tradition have from the earliest of times condemned the practice of abortion, except when the life of the mother is in danger. Hinduism teaches that the fetus is a living, conscious person needing and deserving protection. Hindu scriptures refer to abortion as garha-batta (womb killing) and bhroona hathya (killing the undeveloped soul)." ISLAM...

A Kansas City abortionist is out of business after investigators discovered a grisly house of horrors at his clinic – with fetuses kept in Styrofoam cups in his refrigerator and one employee accusing him of microwaving one and stirring it into his lunch. The unsanitary conditions in Krishna Rajanna's clinic prompted legislative approval of new abortion regulations in Kansas, a bill that was vetoed by the governor. Rajanna's activities have reportedly been the subject of law-enforcement investigations for nearly two years. Rajanna first came to the attention of police in September 2003 when he called police to investigate alleged employee...

The pro-choice voice among religious groups has been silent for a long time, but now, at least in Collier County, that will be a thing of the past. About 100 people from five faith organizations in the community, their religious leaders, and supporters of Planned Parenthood of Collier County met Saturday for a conference about abortion and reproductive freedom, realizing a shared conviction for women's rights to choose and the need to be vocal. The intent of the three-hour workshop held at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in North Naples was to launch a coalition to fight the misconception that religious...

It is possible that the binding and throat-slashing of an entire Christian family in Jersey City was a Koran-instructed "ritual murder" by American jihadists against someone who dared to express an opinion about the Koran unacceptable to home-grown Islamic cell-operatives here in New Jersey. Hossan Armanious, a Coptic Christian, was threatened by participants in an internet chat room that if he continued to speak against Islamic practices: "We will hunt you down like a chicken and kill you." Radical Islam has shown that they are going to do here to "infidels" what they do back home. Unlike other communities, the...

  Surveys show a solid majority of Americans still support the right to abortion in some form, but the number of those who would impose conditions on that right is growing[1]             According to a year 2000 Gallup Poll: Most American adults (51%) currently believe that abortions should be legal under some circumstances.            28% believe that abortions should be legal under all circumstances.            19% believe that they should be always illegal -- apparently even to save the life of the woman. The same poll reveals that 50% of adults identify themselves as pro-choice; 40% as pro-life.[2Average ABC News...

--SNIP-- I found "The Cost of Choice," edited by Erika Bachiochi unpleasant and occasionally annoying — and I read every word. That's because, despite its rigorous pro-life stance, the book brings new observations and depth to a subject that is usually treated as black and white. Don't misunderstand: This is not an on-the-one-hand, on-the-other-hand book — it trumpets many of the classic hobbyhorses of pro-lifers — that the Roe decision itself was an abortion of responsibility and federalism, that its prominence in the agenda of womens' groups has itself "hijacked" feminism and that abortions themselves are an act against women....

A Supreme Court vacancy may soon ignite a controversy involving two entangled issues — abortion, and the role of courts in this constitutional democracy. Herewith a statement the president might usefully make sometime, somewhere, to disentangle the issues: "Because I think it is improper to ask how a prospective judicial nominee would vote on a specific question, I shall not know how my nominees would rule in the event — an unlikely event — that the court revisits the constitutional foundation of abortion rights established by Roe v. Wade in 1973. However, I will seek judicial nominees disinclined to concoct...

Listen beginning at 2:22:45 into the show. The talk lasts for about 15 minutes. Rabbi Yudin gives a radio commentary each week on the Torah portion that Jews around the world will read in synagogues on Saturday. This week we will read from the beginning of the book of Exodus (Shmos). Yudin's commentary begins with consideration of verse 16, "When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live," and then moves through a variety of Jewish writings to...

WASHINGTON — After long defining itself as an undisputed defender of abortion rights, the Democratic Party is suddenly locked in an internal struggle over whether to redefine its position to appeal to a broader array of voters. The fight is a central theme of the contest to head the Democratic National Committee, particularly between two leading candidates: former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who supports abortion rights, and former Indiana Rep. Tim Roemer, an abortion foe who argues that the party cannot rebound from its losses in the November election unless it shows more tolerance on one of society's most emotional...

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- A majority of voters want to know in advance how a nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court would rule on abortion and half want President Bush to nominate justices who would uphold the decision making abortion legal, a poll released Wednesday found.

Excuse me, I'm stupid. I'm trying to figure out what the word "conscience" might mean, in the mind of Paul Martin -- or to make it a little less personal, in the mind of any prominent post-modern political leader. John Kerry for instance. In the recent U.S. election, Mr. Kerry was at pains to affirm that he believed, as a good Catholic, that human life begins at conception. Now, that was an admirably plain statement. For if life begins at conception, the procurement of an abortion must be tantamount to murder. And, good Catholic that he is, Mr. Kerry would...

The Pro-Life Movement's Problem With Morality Exclusive commentary by Cathryn Crawford Jun 6, 2003 Making claim to being pro-life in America is like shouting, “I’m a conservative Christian Republican!” from your rooftop. This is partly due to the fact that a considerable number of conservative Christian Republicans are pro-life. It’s hardly true, however, to say that they are the only pro-life people in America. Surprisingly enough to some, there are many different divisions within the pro-life movement, including Democrats, gays, lesbians, feminists, and environmentalists. It is not a one-party or one-group or one-religion issue. The pro-life movement doesn’t act like...