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Is It Time To Reevaluate Pro-Life Strategy?
CNSNews.com ^ | January 08, 2003 | Paul M. Weyrich

Posted on 01/20/2003 6:51:27 PM PST by Remedy

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To: Ahban

"Putting all of our eggs in one basket" is not merely putting it in politics, but putting our eggs in the flawed basket of one party that does not mean it, and is not willing to expend any political capital to get the job done.

There is unimaginable evil in the Democratic Party:

  1. Our Secularist Democratic Party (Long, Important Analysis)
  2. Fascism, corruption and my 'Democratic' Party
  3. The Hillary Project - AmeriPAC A brief look at the history of Hillary Clinton will confirm what columnist Camille Paglia said in a recent article in Women's Quarterly: "That woman should not be anywhere near our government . . . That woman is an authoritarian who should be kept out of government. She's a tyrant who thinks she knows what's best for the people. She's Orwellian in her attitude toward the rest of humanity." One should not, and need not, judge her by her husband's actions- she is a corrupt radical in her own right.

The evil in the Republican Party is mitigated and could be reduced. Republicans can't afford to lose any votes to THIRD parties that don't stand a chance. You cannot give the Democrats any more power than they already have and expect to recover.

Ñ Ñ Ñ

[W]e have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. . . . Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. (Source: John Adams, The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States, Charles Francis Adams, editor (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co. 1854), Vol. IX, p. 229, October 11, 1798.)

You lack a moral and religious people to elect an Alan Keyes or Howard Phillips. Until you can convert, inform and inspire an amoral, ignorant, apathetic and dependent populace-Bush & like-minded Republicans will be the very best you can expect.

It will take many miracles of Exodus proportions to restore this country.Why Abortion Isn’t Important

21 posted on 01/20/2003 10:10:30 PM PST by Remedy
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To: WFTR

The short version is that she accidently made me an opponent of legalized abortion because she made me realize that the unborn child is a person.

Are unborn children human beings? Are they persons? No doubt about it. The following essays argue the pro-life case...

Some abortion advocates are willing to concede that unborn children are human beings. Surprisingly enough, they claim that they would still be able to justify abortion. According to their argument, no person-no unborn child-has a right to access the bodily resources of an unwilling host. Unborn children may have a right to life, but that right to life ends where it encroaches upon a mother's right to bodily autonomy. The argument is called the bodyright argument, and it is refuted in the following essays...

Why would it be wrong to kill an adult? Why would it be wrong to kill a baby after it has been born? Questions like these seems trivial, but their answers are extremely important to the abortion debate. What many people fail to realize is that most of the arguments used to justify killing unborn children could be used with just as much force to justify killing newborn children and, in some cases, even full-grown adults. The wrongness of killing is discussed in the following essays...


22 posted on 01/20/2003 10:11:27 PM PST by Remedy
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To: MHGinTN

I would contend that establishing the notion of 'life support' over 'death expedience' is the key here.

8. A Woman's Right over her Body?


23 posted on 01/20/2003 10:12:18 PM PST by Remedy
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To: Torie

This issue is all about influencing public opinion and SCOTUS appointees

If they refuse to Senate Is to Advise And Consent, Not Obstruct and Delay then Impeaching Federal Judges:A Covenantal And Constitutional Response To Judicial Tyranny.

24 posted on 01/20/2003 10:13:14 PM PST by Remedy
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To: Antoninus; toenail

Paul Weyrich lost a lot of respect from many of us when he "surrendered" a few years ago.

I remember this. He had been in the fight a very long time and was very frustrated. He is a great man who happens to be human.J

navel-gazing when serious pro-life gains are being made and re-outlawing abortion is no longer such a distant dot on the horizon

winning

18 posted on 01/20/2003 10:55 PM CST by toenail

Maybe they need a little navel-gazing to see the obvious?

25 posted on 01/20/2003 10:15:12 PM PST by Remedy
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To: Deepest South

stop and turn around when they were told that abortion could hurt them.

Abortion Survivors ...Sadly enough, statistically speaking and I have to say this very carefully, statistically speaking women who have had abortions are less likely to bond to their children, and therefore these children are more likely to be abused and neglected. Also, women who were abused and neglected as children are more likely to have abortions. And I can tell you that wherever I have said this, in whatever kind of an audience, people have become really quite upset, sometimes very angry. But I think I can say that having done the research now over a number of years and published a number of papers, that that is a statistically significant connection. That is not to say that every mother who has an abortion is a bad mother, just not true. But it does say that this is something we had better look into, because people are very concerned about rising rates of child abuse, neglect. So that is one area. And that is how it got started.

Best Reference Book on Abortion Complications Updated and ...Detrimental Effects of Abortion: An Annotated Bibliography with Commentary (3rd Edition). This expanded and newly updated edition is the most complete summary available of statistically significant studies on abortion. Compiled by attorney and post-abortion expert Thomas W. Strahan.

Elliot Institute director, David C. Reardon, Ph.D., one of the nation's leading experts on post-abortion issues is asking pro-life advocates around the country to donate copies of Detrimental Effects of Abortion to their local public, high school, and university libraries.

Though Reardon works full time on post-abortion research, he says Strahan's earlier bibliographies have always been his first reference source whenever he begins a new research project.

"Tom Strahan has performed a great service in tracking down all the best studies and organizing their finding in a way that is easily accessible to the average reader," Dr. Reardon said. "Without it, the task of searching for this material on the Internet or in a reference library would be overwhelming. Many of the best studies are simply not indexed under the keywords you would normally expect to find abortion complications."

Strahan edits The Research Bulletin for the Association for Interdisciplinary Research in Values and Social Change and has written numerous articles on abortion. He hopes this revised and expanded reference book will help people to better understand the range of risks associated with abortion.

"Most people think that because abortion is legal, it's safe for women, period," Strahan said. "They think that as long as the government says it's okay, then it must be good for our society. They don't realize that many researchers and scholars studying this issue have found that just the opposite is true."

The Effects of Abortion Including Known Complications.

26 posted on 01/20/2003 10:17:46 PM PST by Remedy
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To: For the Unborn
Yep, you're part of the reason why abortion will remain legal.

First, I'm very aware that a baby is a person unto him or herself. If I weren't aware of that fact, I wouldn't oppose legalized abortion. Are you aware that I oppose legalized abortion? Did you bother to read my post? I doubt that you did. Your type is more interested in your stupid posturing than in doing anything effective.

Secondly, I have been very careful not to create any children. I am aware that my strong preference not to create children is a reason to be careful in my actions, and I have been very careful. I clearly said that not being ready for parenthood is no excuse for abortion. Again, I doubt that you bothered to pay attention to that part of my post.

Again, the biggest impediment to banning abortion is that most people don't understand that the unborn child is really a person. One reason that they never consider that argument is that so many in the pro-life movement either oppose abortion simply as a way to harass those who don't want kids or they leave people with that impression. I'm sorry that you have such a big problem with people who don't want to live their lives the way that you want them to live. It's sad that you see the issue as a way to use the government to harass people who aren't like you. Unfortunately, your selfishness is a big part of the reason that we can't sway opinion in opposition to abortion.

One reason that the pro-life movement hasn't had more legislative victories is that groups within the movement itself refuse to accept people who aren't perfectly aligned with them. Therefore, they can never build a coalition to do anything effective.

WFTR
Bill

27 posted on 01/20/2003 10:28:43 PM PST by WFTR
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To: Remedy
"Maybe they need a little navel-gazing to see the obvious?"

I'm always reminded of Hannibal Lecter's words to Clarice Starling:

"First principles, Clarice. Read Marcus Aurelius. Of each particular thing ask: what is it in itself? What is its nature? What does he do, this man you seek?"

Who commits abortions? Mexico med-school refugees. The losers of medicine. Abortionists are the drippings below the barrel. Incompetent. "Good doctors don't rise to abortion; bad doctors sink to it."

They're going to mess up. Sue them for the malpractice we know they're going to commit. Lacerated cervixes. Over-anesthetizing. Yanking the bowel through the uterus. Reusing laminaria. Not sterilizing equipment. It's a no-brainer. They are incompetent doctors, which is why the commit abortions.

They take the lives of defenseless, innocent babies. They are devoid of morals, ethics, scruples, and standards. If they can rip a baby girl apart, what would dissuade them from sexually assaulting the girl's mother? If they can steal someone's whole life, why wouldn't they steal via Medicaid fraud? Abortionists can't be cold-blooded killers and then change psyches when they leave the clinic. It can't be done. Convict them of the other crimes that they, by inclination and training, can't help but commit.

And anyone who thinks that the Republican party is going to try to stop abortion is deluded. Republicans will play up to the white suburbanites with completely assinine diversions like pro-life license plates (how much energy is wasted! in such stupid pursuits), but as long as abortionists are adept at trimming the black population, the GOP isn't interested in shutting them down.

28 posted on 01/20/2003 11:23:57 PM PST by toenail
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To: toenail
I'm sorry to see this under your posting: ... but as long as abortionists are adept at trimming the black population, the GOP isn't interested in shutting them down. postedby toenail I am part of the GOP. I cannot in any7 way ascribe to that assertion. I know my heart, toenail. I doubt that you know the hearts of the majority of the GOP.
29 posted on 01/20/2003 11:41:45 PM PST by MHGinTN (Manama na, meep meep maneemie, manama na, meep mee menie ...)
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To: MHGinTN
When was the last time you heard a GOP congresscritter bemoan the destruction that abortionists have caused America's blacks?
30 posted on 01/20/2003 11:50:35 PM PST by toenail
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To: toenail
I happen to have letters from more than one, responding to my entreaties over the last several years, not the least of which are Ed Bryant and Lindsey Graham. I am insulted for their sake that you would make such a specious comment.
31 posted on 01/20/2003 11:55:26 PM PST by MHGinTN (Manama na, meep meep maneemie, manama na, meep mee menie ...)
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To: Antoninus; Remedy
I've seen some polls that have shown as many as 70% nationwide now oppose abortion on demand.

The sad fact seems to be that when there is an unwanted pregnancy, it doesn't matter how devoutly religious and conservative that person is (mother or father), abortion is the way they take to solve it. Father and mother do not want the extra work, time, and money. They lay aside their principles just for the few minutes it takes to have the abortion, and then pick them up again. I suspect that soon more than 50% of American women will have had abortions!

32 posted on 01/21/2003 12:21:36 AM PST by LPStar
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To: Ahban
The main thing wrong with the political aspect of the Right to Life movement is that they continue to believe that the Republican party means what they say in their platform. They don't.

Of course they don't. It's clear what Laura Bush and Barbara Bush have stated about this issue, and their husbands are deferring to them.

33 posted on 01/21/2003 12:23:01 AM PST by LPStar
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To: WFTR; For the Unborn

Again, the biggest impediment to banning abortion is that most people don't understand that the unborn child is really a person.

Antonin Scalia and His Critics: The Church, the Courts, and the Death Penalty What the "pro-choice" American does not believe is that a human fetus is as fully a human life as Uncle Charlie.

34 posted on 01/21/2003 7:58:01 AM PST by Remedy
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To: WFTR

I was amazed at the inconsistency of her believing that a child remembered something from a time when she would not acknowledge that the child was a person with basic human rights. I was amazed that she would support another's right to kill a child at a stage of development where she admitted that her own child had memories and self-awareness.

This single piece of evidence from a proponent of legalized abortion opened my eyes to the fact that the unborn child is a person. How can someone have memories from a time when he/she was not a person? Anyone who is building memories is alive and thinking and responding to the world. In other words, he/she is a living person.

Realizing that the unborn child is a person, I could no longer be ambivalent to allowing someone to kill an unborn child without facing punishment.

Fetal Psychology

Behaviorally speaking, there's little difference between a newborn baby and a 32-week-old fetus. A new wave of research suggests that the fetus can feel, dream, even enjoy The Cat in the Hat. The abortion debate may never be the same.

As if overturning the common conception of infancy weren't enough, scientists are creating a startling new picture of intelligent life in the womb. Among the revelations:


35 posted on 01/21/2003 8:11:11 AM PST by Remedy
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To: WFTR
I think you make some very good points; I esp. agree with you that some people are happier preaching their own moral righteousness than actually trying to change minds. However, I disagree that most pro-abortion advocates don't understand that the unborn human is human. In recent years, I think they've moved the argument from the all-too-silly (and easily disproved) contention that "it's not human" to something more insidious: that is, okay so it's human, but the mother is more human and counts for more. That's a much easier sell in our Me culture because 1) it doesn't contradict the obvious scientific fact that the unborn child is biologically human, 2) it fosters the ever-popular notion that "what I want is more important that anything else", and 3) it implies concern for the mother (and her "rights") and makes it easier to paint anti-abortioners as meddling and uncaring ("they would force you to be pregnant").
36 posted on 01/21/2003 8:18:08 AM PST by workerbee
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To: Ashamed Democrat

Take "reproductive health" next. That must be instead called "sexual irresponsibility".

Fogel says the Christian Coalition Could Dominate American Politics for 50-60 Years

The Fourth Great Awakening and the Future of Egalitarianism. Robert W. Fogel Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.

Robert Fogel is a Nobel prize winning economist from the University of Chicago.

Fogel's argument is that American history has seen several Great Awakenings driven by religion and based on the notion of EGALITARIANISM and that we are in the middle of the Fourth Great Awakening.

FIRST GREAT AWAKENING. Lasted from 1730 to 1800 and led directly to the American Revolution. Movement was driven by anger over corruption and immorality of British administration.

SECOND GREAT AWAKENING. Lasted from 1800 to 1880 and focused on the egalitarian concept of EQUAL OPPORTUNITY and stress on INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY. This movement led to Indians rights, temperance (against alcohol), universal education, abolition of slavery and voting rights for all adults.

THIRD GREAT AWAKENING. Lasted from 1890 to 1960 but was based on the egalitarian concept of EQUALITY OF CONDITION. Basic human problems were taken to be the failure of society, not the individual. Poverty was taken to be not the wages of sin, but caused by society. Led to the welfare state, diversity, income tax, regulation of big business, unions, and immigration restrictions.

FOURTH GREAT AWAKENING. Started in 1960 to present. Major shift from THIRD to FOURTH GREAT AWAKENING is the return to egalitarian concept of EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY and stress on INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY. This change in direction runs counter to the entire Liberal agenda based on idea that society is responsible and not the individual.

What brought about the crisis that has led to the FOURTH GREAT AWAKENING? As Fogel points out, between 1890 and 1990, the increase in available wealth to the top 10% of w age earners in this country increased by a factor of four, that is, their actual wealth was multiplied four times. At the same time, the increase in available wealth to the bottom 10% of wage earners actually increased by a factor of 20! But while the multiplication of wealth has been astounding, problems such as crime, drugs, teen pregnancy, and single-parent households all INCREASED! Obviously material resources have not and will not solve the problems.

Enter the FOURTH GREAT AWAKENING. While church membership in the U.S. actually grew in the 1940s and 1950s, it fell off afterwards. Between 1970-2000, church membership in established denominations actually DECREASED by 25%. At the same time the enthusiastic religions more than doubled in the U.S. (and grew by an astounding 250,000,000 in South America and Asia).

The Moral Majority initiated the current religious awakening but was found to be too narrow in focus and intolerant. The CHRISTIAN COALITION has proven to be more flexible and political in nature, and therefore more successful. In Fogel's opinion, the Christian Coalition will dominate American politics for the next 50-60 years if they:

(1) understand they are a POLITICAL MOVEMENT~

(2) can form coalitions on key issues to move their agenda~

(3) can produce real gains for their adherents based on the concept of personal responsibility.

The LIBERALS (Fogel calls them Social Gosplers of the THIRD AWAKENING) will fight a rear guard action, especially in public education and the universities,

37 posted on 01/21/2003 8:32:05 AM PST by Remedy
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To: Antoninus
I'll have to read the book first, but I do think we need a better plan. There must be better ways to educate the public
http://cpforlife.org/pro_life_education28.htm
http://cpforlife.org/pro_life_education.htm

Better ways of handling the press, the cultivation of better candidates, Forrester was a joke for pro-life issues, better letter to the editor writing campaigns and so on. We need to identify all of the abortion providers for organized street counseling and crisis pregnancy centers for referrals and financial help. For instance there is no organized lists of abortion mills and crisis pregnancy centers for NJ. I've been on National. crisis pregnancy center websites and some in NJ aren't even listed. My county right to life committee didn't even know there were two Planned parenthood centers in their county and didn't know whether they were just offices or conducted medical procedures. There is a lot which has to be done.
38 posted on 01/21/2003 8:39:18 AM PST by Coleus (RU 486 Kills Babies)
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To: Coleus
All 706 abortion clinics in the U.S. (Basically, a third of what there was ten years ago)

New Jersey has 23.

39 posted on 01/21/2003 8:47:28 AM PST by toenail
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To: toenail

And anyone who thinks that the Republican party is going to try to stop abortion is deluded. Republicans will play up to the white suburbanites with completely assinine diversions like pro-life license plates (how much energy is wasted! in such stupid pursuits), but as long as abortionists are adept at trimming the black population, the GOP isn't interested in shutting them down.

Until you can convert, inform and inspire an amoral, ignorant, apathetic and dependent populace-Bush & like-minded Republicans will be the very best you can expect.

40 posted on 01/21/2003 8:57:20 AM PST by Remedy
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