Free Republic

Priest charged after praying outside abortion clinic decries criminalization of thoughtsHis lawyer calls the situation 'sinister'A U.K. priest charged after praying outside of an abortion clinic said free speech is being threatened in his country. "Nobody should be criminalized for the thoughts that they're having in their own head, and this is what I was threatened with arrest for," Father Sean Gough told "Tucker Carlson Tonight" on Wednesday. "I wasn't actually arrested, but I was interrogated for it and questioned about the thoughts that I was having in my own head, my prayers to God, and then I was charged...

Anabely Lopes wanted a child more than anything, so the 44-year-old was ecstatic when she became pregnant last year — and then devastated when doctors said her unborn child had a fatal abnormality... A new law restricting abortion access had gone into effect days earlier, and Lopes soon found herself on a plane, leaving South Florida to get an abortion at a clinic in Washington. On Tuesday, Lopes will return to Washington, this time accompanying U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address...

Even Abortion Freedom Has Become a Matter of Contention. Two Bishops in a DuelIt could very well come as a stunner that a bishop would see the need to speak out in defense of a doctrine that at first glance is beyond dispute, within the Church: the inviolability of every new human life from its conception. The bishop is Domenico Sorrentino (in the photo), age 74, head of the dioceses of Assisi, Nocera Umbra, Gualdo Tadino, and Foligno, former secretary of the Vatican’s congregation for divine worship. He has done so with a two-page article in the historic Catholic magazine...

The Minnesota state senate passed an abortion rights bill that guarantees a right to an abortion up to the time of birth. The bill, known as the Protect Reproductive Options (PRO) Act, passed by a vote of 34-33 and now goes to Gov. Bill Walz’s desk. He has indicated he will sign it. H.F. 1, authored by Sen. Jennifer McEwen, would create a “fundamental right” to abortion and would allow abortions for any reason, even late in pregnancy. Since a fetus can feel pain as young as 20 weeks into gestation and no later than 28-30 weeks, some states have...

United Church of Christ Pastor Sues to Legalize Killing Unborn BabiesA United Church of Christ leader is trying to overturn a Missouri law that protects unborn babies, claiming pro-life lawmakers “weaponized” their Christian faith to pass the abortion ban.Last week, 13 religious leaders, including four UCC pastors, filed a lawsuit challenging the Missouri abortion law as an alleged violation of their pro-abortion religious beliefs.One of them, the Rev. Traci Blackmon, is the associate general minister of justice and local church ministries for the denomination. Blackmon also is an abortion activist who toured the country with the pro-abortion “Nuns on the...

Anti-abortion activists will have multiple reasons to celebrate — and some reasons for unease — when they gather Friday in Washington for the annual March for Life. The march, which includes a rally drawing abortion opponents from across the nation, has been held annually since January 1974 — a year after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision established a nationwide right to abortion.

Inaction of the Bishops Has Allowed ‘Catholics’ to Lead the Pro-Abortion Movement for DecadesFifty years ago, in response to the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade, a group of radicals founded “Catholics for a Free Choice” in Washington, D.C. It was a fringe group at the time, but the sodomite-lesbian community was already powerful in the nation’s capital, and the two groups shared the fundamental principles of narcissism, rebellion, destruction of the family, and the annihilation of the Catholic Church, all of them propelled by the Sexual Revolution.The “pro-choice” movement had grown steadily among Catholics by September 1984, when...

[Catholic Caucus] March for Life 2023 -- a very different year On Friday, January 20, the annual March for Life will occur in Washington, D.C. In the past it was a rally of hundreds of thousands of pro-life people to the U.S. Supreme Court, commemorating the January 22, 1973 anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision. This time it will be a (peaceful) march to the U.S. Capitol.So many things have changed since last year's March for Life. On the positive side, Roe was overturned, with the Dobbs decision. On the negative side, D.C. Cardinal Wilton Gregory banned all traditional...

Government watchdog Judicial Watch says it has filed a Freedom of Information Action lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for "records" of communications involving the National Institute of Health.It regards the issue of harvesting the organs of unborn children.That issue erupted into the headlines in 2015 when the Center for Medical Progress released many videos, taken undercover, of abortionists discussing their profit motive for the harvesting, how much they got for the organs, and how much they wanted.One abortionist infamously said she wanted higher payments because she wanted a Lamborghini.The lawsuit involves communications from the NIH's...

When Ramesh Ponnuru in 2006 authored a book describing Democrats as “ The Party of Death ” (the book’s title), it was met with outraged howls from that party’s fellow travelers in the establishment media. On Jan. 11, every Democrat but one in the House of Representatives left no doubt that the moniker is morbidly, sickeningly appropriate. By a slim 220-210 margin, the House on Wednesday passed the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, with only one Democrat voting in favor. The point of the bill is straightforward and, in any morally-sane universe, would be so uncontroversial as to attract unanimous...

Bishops need to acknowledge collateral damage from Dobbs winJust war theory requires that combatants have not only a just cause, but also that they wage their war in a just way. Thus, Catholic teaching about conflict condemns direct attacks on civilians or even disproportionate killing of civilians as collateral damage in an attack on a military target. In other words, you cannot blow up a 10-story apartment building to kill a terrorist. The same is true of politics. You may have very good goals, but you also must look at the political muscle employed in attaining those goals and ask...

Pope Francis laicizes America’s best loved pro-life priest Fr. Frank PavoneAccording to the pope's U.S. representative, the order for dismissal from the priesthood was a result of 'blasphemous communications on social media' and 'persistent disobedience of the lawful instructions of his diocesan bishop,' but Pavone said he had no knowledge of the Vatican's decision. America’s best loved pro-life priest, Fr. Frank Pavone, the National Director of Priests for Life as well as the President of the National Pro-Life Religious Council, has apparently been laicized (dismissed from the priesthood) by order of Pope Francis.Catholic News Agency (CNA) reported that a December...

Catholic bishop blasts 'evil woman' Hillary Clinton for comparing pro-lifers to Taliban, Russian war crimesClinton referenced rapes committed during overseas wars while speaking about abortion access in the United StatesA Catholic bishop in Texas slammed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Twitter over a comment she made appearing to compare the abortion debate in the United States to rapes committed by soldiers in Russia’s war with Ukraine and Taliban rule."Please, please don’t listen to this evil woman," Bishop Joseph Strickland of the Diocese of Tyler, Texas, tweeted on Friday. "Her lies and immorality need to be silenced for the...

Free to Abort Up to the Fifth Month. A Bishop and a Theologian Explain WhyHe was the first to acknowledge that the thesis he supports goes so far as to “subvert the Church’s conception of abortion.” That is, the thesis that one is a “human person” only “after the fourth/fifth month” of pregnancy, and so before this stage abortion is no longer murder nor even a sin, if carried out for good reasons.This thesis is supported by a well-known and esteemed bishop, Luigi Bettazzi (in the photo), 99 years old, the last Italian bishop still alive who took part in...

Washington Archbishop, Court Dwarf to Pro-Abort Democrats, Cancels Pro-Life MassAccording to Lifesitenews:The annual Youth Rally and Mass for Life in Washington, D.C. has been cancelled for 2023.The Archdiocese of Washington announced the decision to cancel the event in an undated notice. The Youth Rally and Mass for Life have attracted thousands of young people over the past 25 years; they gathered in Washington D.C. to celebrate life and pray for an end to abortion as well as taking part in the National March for Life to the Supreme Court.…[Gregory said that he] would not refuse Holy Communion to pro-abortion House...

[Catholic Caucus] Washington Cardinal Cancels Pro-Life Youth Rally and EucharistHomosexualist Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory has cancelled the annual inter-diocesan youth rally and Eucharist for Life. This Eucharist has been presided over before every March for Life for over 25 years.Gregory hides behind a "consultation process" with other dioceses that wanted to focus on "local work" and "direct their efforts to the March for Life in their state."Tyler Bishop Joseph Strickland wrote on Twitter.com (November 15) that he “must protest” this cancelation: “We have an extremely anti-life President and we cancel our national voice? Yes to state efforts but we desperately...

Homosexualist Paglia Advocates the Murder of ChildrenHomosexualist Vincenzo Paglia, head of the Pontifical Academy against Life, has justified the appointment of the atheist and abortion activist Mariana Mazzucato as member of his academy (TheTablet.co.uk, November 10).With thousands dying of hunger, it is essential for Paglia to talk about economics ("an economist is indispensable"), as if there were no decent economists apart from the abortion activist Mazzucato.Using word cosmetics to fool the stupid he called Mazzucato “rather pro-choice [= pro-abortion] than pro-abortion [= pro-choice].”For Paglia, the term "pro-life" does not refer to abortion but to "war", "hunger", "poverty" or "suicide". His...

California has solidified its stance as one of the most radically pro-abortion states in America as voters there approved a ballot measure to allow killing babies in taxpayer-funded abortions up to birth. Unfortunately, with 37% of the vote calucated, Proposition 1 has an unsurprising lead of 69-31% in one of the most radically leftist states in the country. Leading pro-life advocates and the Catholic Church campaign against the proposal. San Jose Bishop Oscar Cantú, president of the California Catholic Conference, said the proposed state constitutional amendment is bad for women and children. “California’s political leadership has made it clear that...

Students at the University of Massachusetts will now have access to chemical abortion pills on campus from the University Health Services (UHS). This follows the passage of a new law, sponsored by Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa (D), which requires all UMass health centers to dispense abortion pills with financial assistance from taxpayers. The chemical abortion procedure is a two-step process that begins when the woman takes mifepristone, which blocks progesterone, starving the baby of the nutrients it needs to survive. Then she takes misoprostol, which triggers contractions and bleeding to expel the baby from her womb. Achsah Dorsey, an assistant anthropology...

Democratic strategist Donna Brazile said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that abortion was an economic issue. Co-host Martha Raddatz said, “The economy far and away the top issue. Our ABC News/Washington Post poll, 43% of Americans say they’re now worse off financially in the last two years, that is pretty astounding. Why has that not been the number one issue on the campaign?” Brazile said, “Well, you know, Martha, so you have to take a look at the entire country, because I do believe that whether you’re talking about abortion, which is an economic issue, and why? Because when you...