Posted on 03/10/2012 2:24:45 PM PST by NYer
Dr. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale, president and dean of the Episcopal Divinity Church, testified at a House hearing on March 8, 2012 against a bill that would make it a federal crime to transport minor girls without parental consent across state lines to get an abortion. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)
(CNSNews.com) – Were Congress to outlaw the transporting of a minor without her parents’ permission across state lines to get an abortion, an abortion- and gay-rights activist testifying on Capitol Hill Thursday she would break the law to continue to help girls end their pregnancies.
Appearing as a Democratic Party witness at a hearing of the House Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution, Dr. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale, president and dean of the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass. recalled the time she took a 15-year-old girl she had never met before to get an abortion.
“Although New Hampshire was closer to that girl’s home than Boston, as it happened, I did not take her across state lines,” Ragsdale said. “Nor did I, to my knowledge, break any laws.
“But if either of those things had been necessary in order to help her, I would have done them,” she continued. “And if helping young women like her should be made illegal I will, nonetheless, continue to do it.”
Ragsdale cited her vows as an Episcopal priest as the reason why she would “have no choice” but to break the law.
Subcommittee chairman Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) said a bill introduced in the House last summer – the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act (H.R. 2299) – would make it an offense to “circumvent parental consent laws in a state by, without the parents’ knowledge, taking a minor girl across state lines for an abortion.”
He said he found it difficult to believe opposition to the law, like that expressed by the subcommittee’s ranking member Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), who called it an “assault to the reproductive rights of women.”
“I always find it a little unnerving when people tell me that to say that, you know, that someone taking a minor child of someone else’s across the state lines to perform – or having surgery performed upon them – that somehow, that it’s unconstitutional to recognize parents’ rights in that regard,” Franks said. “It just astonishes me beyond comprehension.”
Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), chairman of the House Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution, expressed disbelief that anyone could oppose parents’ right to know if their minor daughter was being taken to another state for a surgical procedure. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)
As for the witness Democrats picked to testify on the panel, Franks said that as the father of a three year-old daughter he hoped “she will never run into someone with the philosophy of Rev. Ragsdale.”
Ragsdale is well known for her activism for homosexual and abortion rights.
At a Jan. 24, 2010 event organized by the Jane Fund, a Massachusetts-based group that raises funds for abortions, Ragsdale delivered a speech in which she said she was “angry and fed up” at people who had spoken out again her sexuality – Ragsdale is a lesbian – and her radical stance on abortion.
In the speech Ragsdale defended previous remarks she has made stating that “abortion is a blessing.” A verbatim extract follows:
“When a woman gets pregnant against her will and wants an abortion – it’s the violence that is the tragedy; the abortion is a blessing.
“When a woman might want to bear and raise a child but fears she can’t afford to because she doesn't have access to healthcare or daycare or enough income to provide a home ---it’s the lack of justice that is the tragedy; the abortion is a blessing.
“When a woman has planned and provided for a pregnancy, decorated the nursery and chosen a name, and, in the last weeks, discovers that her fetus will not live to become a baby, that it has anomalies incompatible with life, and that preserving her own life and health, and sparing the fetus suffering, require a late-term abortion – it’s the loss of her hopes and dreams that is the tragedy; the abortion is a blessing.
“And, and here's one that really gets me in trouble, when a woman simply gets pregnant unintentionally and decides this is not a good time for her to bear and care for a child – there is no tragedy. The ability to enjoy healthy sexuality without risking a pregnancy that could derail her education or career, the development or exercise of the gifts God has given her, is a blessing.”
Ragsdale then added, “Now just in case there are any aspiring headline writers listening – let me be clear – motherhood also is a gift and a ministry and a blessing – but not for everyone, and not always right now.”
“Abortion is a blessing – sometimes a joyful relief; sometimes a painful choice – but a blessing still,” she added.
In that same speech, Ragsdale also said that Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, gave women “freedom from slavery to our reproductive systems.”
Excellent points, as usual. I have a neighbor who is an Episcopal priest(ess). On the Feast of St. Francis last year, she offered to bless our dogs. I graciously thanked her but never followed through. We have a strong community of Franciscan monks nearby who will bless animals, even ‘our of season’ ;-).
This is the kind of slob we are after. She represents what is wrong in america today. She is the person God would like to smoke.
This is a good place to pray the “Our Father”.
There are two versions of the Episcopal Church: The “God is doing a new thing” Episcopal Church led by the so-called Presiding Bishop Schori and other revisionist, and the traditional Episcopal Church that follows the tenets of the Bible. The former group rejects much of what the New Testament teaches because it conflicts with their self-centered perversions.
I find it strange that the good reverend (note lower case) thinks it’s okay to transport a minor across state lines with out consent. Any other person doing that would be brought up on charges. Too bad they don’t CORI people like her.
H
A “priestess” ..... how special.
I protest the picture of Robert Mitchum with the Episcopalian Priestess.
I am quite certain that Bob Mitchum was a”practicing and open” Republican during his Hollywood hey day.
Oink oink.
Evil is as evil does....
I was referring to the physical similarities, not politics.
If the federal penalty is severe enough, I truly doubt this priest of Moloch would continue to be so bold. Child sacrifice is among the worst of sins.
Leviticus 20:2-5:
Again, you shall say to the Sons of Israel: Whoever he be of the Sons of Israel or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that gives any of his seed Moloch; he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones.
And I will set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people; because he has given of his seed Moloch, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name.
And if the people of the land do at all hide their eyes from that man, when he gives of his seed Moloch, and do not kill him, then I will set my face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all that go astray after him, whoring Moloch from among the people.
Rev. Mother Superior has a better idea. Get the parents permission then drop the girls off at Mother Superior's convent to stay until they deliver the baby. Upon which the baby will be given up for adoption to a fine Catholic family and the girls may return home unharmed by planned barrenhood.
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If she was an open atheist, she would not be quite so evil. If she was merely doing her work for money, she would not be quite so evil. But she thinks she is a woman of God (she is dead wrong!!) and it's a mission with her. How absolutely vile she is and I hope they pass this law and if she tries one more time she is arrested, charged, judged guilty and put in federal prison for many years.
one of the uncovered news stories was the huge number of gays and gay activists among those in the “mainstream” churches studying to be priests and ministers.
then they wonder why the churches changed their dogma away from the bible?
The lesbian and feminist nuns tried the same thing, chasing out thousands of good women who decided they could be better Christians as laywomen.
What saved the Catholic church is that JP2 knew he couldn’t get rid of them (too many in the bureaucracy who would stop his attempts to get rid of them...and the danger was they would schism openly or covertly, as is happening in some European countries) so he did a “Hail Mary” pass and started world youth day and other visitations of the laity...the stronger bishops and new priests and sisters are the fruits of his policy.
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