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Today, Pope Francis beatified Pope Paul VI, who served the Catholic Church as the bishop of Rome 1963-1978. (“Beatification” is one step below being canonized a saint.) Paul VI had a jam-packed papacy, including finishing the Second Vatican Council, traveling to all six inhabited continents (a first for popes), and historic ecumenical break-throughs. But today he’s probably most remembered for his 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, which confirmed the Catholic Church’s long-standing teaching against contraception, abortion, and sterilization. Outside of the Catholic Church (and, unfortunately, by a large number of people within the Church as well), the teaching of Humanae Vitae...

Carol Everett owned two abortion clinics and was the director of four. She eventually became pro-life and now speaks about her experiences. Like nearly all abortion clinics, Everett’s clinics had “recovery rooms” where women could stay after their abortions until the anesthesia wore off or they felt well enough to leave. Everett says there were two main reactions among women right after their abortions: …[T]here are two reactions in the recovery room. The first one is: I’ve killed my baby. And even then, it amazed me that that was the first time they called it a baby and the first...

The Catholic Church has always condemned abortion as a grave evil. Christian writers from the first-century author of the Didache to Pope John Paul II in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae ("The Gospel of Life") have maintained that the Bible forbids abortion, just as it forbids murder. This tract will provide some examples of this consistent witness from the writings of the Fathers of the Church. As the early Christian writer Tertullian pointed out, the law of Moses ordered strict penalties for causing an abortion. We read, "If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely...

Hello, everybody. I’m 19 years old, and %100 pro-life. I’m also an atheist. But before you decide to stop reading this, you deserve to know a few things about me. I was born and raised in a Catholic family. I was baptized a month old, went to Sunday school, and went to church every Sunday. Okay, I went most Sundays. I also know that there are other divisions of Christianity, as well as other religions, and I respect your spirituality, what ever it may be. I stopped breathing twice the day I was born. They doctor didn’t think I would...

Alaska draws hunters from around the world. In fact, Planned Parenthood is hunting there right now; their target is GOP senate candidate Dan Sullivan. Sullivan is trying to unseat the Democratic incumbent, Mark Begich, and that’s put him in Planned Parenthood’s crosshairs. The Planned Parenthood Action Fund has launched attack ads against Sullivan, including one that says, “Dan Sullivan would let the government control what you do with your body.” I can see why the folks at Planned Parenthood would run an ad about trying to control women. After all, they’ve been helping abusive men do that for years. Planned...

Wisconsin has made huge strides in the protection of unborn babies and mothers in our state. In just 2013 alone, our new lifesaving laws gave mothers more information about their unborn children and helped save 465 babies, who now sleep peacefully in their beds. But we still have far more work to do. maryburkeThat’s why so many Wisconsinites are concerned by Mary Burke’s recent statement in a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel interview about her position on legislation that would protect unborn babies who are capable of feeling pain. When asked what she would do with legislation that would “ban abortions after...

nurse joked about throwing a severely ill baby suffering from cerebral palsy out of the window, a hearing was told. Louise Hull admitted losing her temper with the tot when it repeatedly pulled its blood saturation monitor and feeding tube off. During the incident at Southend University Hospital, Essex, on May 27, 2010, she said: ‘If you don’t stop pulling your tubes out and if these bloody alarms keep going off I’m going to have to throw you out the window.’ On another occasion when talking about premature babies, she said: ‘It would be alright if these babies had some...

The head of the nation’s biggest abortion business disclosed today that she herself had an abortion and apparently it was no big deal to take the life of her unborn child. Planned Parenthood does over 330,000 abortions on an annual basis and Richards opened up about her own abortion in an essay published in Elle on Friday, writing that she thinks of more women share their abortion decisions it will stop the “stigma” surrounding abortion. cecilerichards23“I had an abortion. It was the right decision for me and my husband, and it wasn’t a difficult decision,” Richards writes. “Before becoming president...

Thanks to the indispensable John McCormack of The Weekly Standard for not allowing pro-abortion Iowa Democratic senatorial candidate Bruce Braley to run away from his record. In yesterday’s debate with pro-life Republican senatorial candidate Joni Ernst, Braley claimed “I have always stated, contrary to what Senator Ernst said, that I oppose all late-term abortions that aren’t necessary to save the life or health of a mother.” McCormack patiently explained how that is not accurate. brucebraleyFirst, as a member of the House of Representatives Braley voted against the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. H.R. 1797 would provide nationwide protection for unborn...

"It is [] our collective responsibility as healthcare providers to decrease maternal mortality throughout the world, and ensuring access to ‘safe’ abortion is a critical step in achieving that goal,” proclaimed Jody Steinauer, associate professor at the San Francisco General Hospital (1). Sure, the first half of that statement is good and true, preventing loss of life is elementary to sound medical practice, but is eliminating maternity itself really a prudent action to take in order to minimize mortality? Certainly the killing of a growing preborn human, the fetus, is not an ethical or reasonable solution to minimize death of...

Recently on the website In These Times, writer Sady Doyle comes right out and says it: “I like abortion.” Lest anyone think Doyle is being taken out of context, consider that the title of her article is, “Abortion Isn’t a Necessary Evil. It’s Great,” and the subtitle is, “Progressives should admit it: We like abortion.” This comes on the heels of Janet Harris’ widely shared Washington Post column, “Stop Calling Abortion a Difficult Decision.” To no one’s surprise, Slate (“My Year As an Abortion Doula”) and HuffPo have also recently had their own Let’s-present-abortion-as-sympathetically-as-we-possibly-can articles. And, very revealingly, America’s leading How to Get Used by...

On Wednesday, Lila Rose and other pro-life leaders expressed their concern about Planned Parenthood’s increasingly negative impact on American culture. Lila Rose pointed out that, as a woman, she finds Planned Parenthood’s complicity with the rapes of underage girls offensive. At precisely this moment, a male heckler sabotaged the podium to shout insults at Rose and the pro-lifers showing their support Stop interfering with women’s private healthcare decisions. This is a sham. This is a ridiculous protest. It’s a totally legal procedure. Stop messing with women’s lives. Shame on you. What the heckler failed to intuit before opening his mouth...

What scares me about what is happening in the mid-terms in Tennessee is that the amendment that’s on the ballot would actually not provide for abortion in the case of rape or the potential death of the mother. That is extreme…. I got some really quite ugly hate mail, but to me country music has been about adults and real life and the problems they face and I have a responsibility to stand up for the issues I believe in. ~ Country singer Gretchen Peters on the reaction from fans regarding her pro-choice stance in light of the upcoming mid-term...

98 years ago, on October 16th, Margaret Sanger opened the first clinic that would eventually grow into the abortion behemoth that is Planned Parenthood. And they chose to celebrate in a rather odd way… by tweeting out a picture of baby carriages. Kind of an odd choice of imagery, don’t you think? After all, neither Margaret Sanger nor Planned Parenthood are fans of babies. Recent footage found of Sanger showed her proclaiming no more babies, in her push to make women stop procreating, whether they agreed or not. This is in addition to her racist, eugenicist tendencies, in which she...

In the cola-dominated soft drink market, 7-up enjoyed great success after it labeled itself the “UN-cola”. And for the last 2 months, a multi-millionaire without public service experience, Greg Orman, has gotten some good poll numbers portraying himself as an independent “UN-politician” running against incumbent Kansas U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts. But in the candidate debate last night, Roberts charged that Orman’s attitude about abortion is “UNconcionable.” Here’s how it developed: more than halfway into the debate, the sole “life issue” question was posed: Kansas abortion law requires a mandatory ultrasound, should that be a federal law? (By the way, no...

Arizona gubernatorial candidate Fred DuVal is coming under fire for saying he doesn’t think a 14-year-old should get parental consent before having an abortion. Here’s what he said during an interview: Host: “Notarized parental consent? Parental notification?” Fred DuvalDuVal: “[sigh] Uh, consent, no. Because I believe that then gives the choice of reproductive freedom to the parents and not to the expectant mother and I believe the expectant mother has that…” Host: “And she’s 14…” DuVal: “Yeah.” Responding to the comments, Gail Gitcho, communications director for the Republican Governor’s Association, said she found DuVal’s remarks off-putting. “It is both disturbing...

I read a lot of terrible abortion stories for my job, but some break my heart more than others.A few weeks ago, I came across a column in the New York Magazine written by an abortion doula. Curious, I clicked on the story and read about the young woman, who provides emotional support for women as they have abortions.I began to feel more and more horrified as I read about her work and her attempts to justify really terrible things. She writes: “A year ago, when I was just starting out, Mitchell met with me and the other trainees to...

This column is a continuation of my last, which can be accessed in my column archive. It is simply an expression of gratitude towards the ten people who have most influenced my life as I approach the fifty-year mark. The purpose of writing this two part series is twofold. First, it is to remind people of the importance of stopping every now and then to express gratitude towards others (see the previous installment). Second, it is to highlight the way these important people have provided encouragement to me – in the hopes that this will give the reader ideas about...

Tom tells of the ignorance they faced, and the incredible moments they shared while bringing up Rosie… ‘The pregnancy was unplanned, so I’d already been through the standard worry, mainly about our financial situation. Then when we went for our 12-week scan, everything seemed fine and I felt happier. It was then my wife, Karen, now 39, decided to have the Bart’s screening test, which can indicate conditions such as Down’s syndrome. The test is offered to all mums-to-be, but it’s not compulsory. I think it was instinct on her part – we’d declined it with our other kids, Harry,...

The Obama Administration has chosen to back Ebola vaccines made using cell lines cultivated from aborted babies, despite the fact that the government itself acknowledged that moral alternatives could also be used, according to a pro-life organization that specializes in advocating for morally produced vaccines.  Children of God for Life says it has discovered that several Ebola vaccines in development for use worldwide are being made using the aborted fetal cell lines.The proof of the use of the controversial cell lines in the manufacture of the vaccines is found in the patents. According to the patents, Glaxo SmithKline (GSK) and NIAID...