Here we go! I am going to list three bad news items, all reported on the same day, and all equally representative of the culture of death. I bring these to your attention not to demoralize you but to let you know that our mission is now more urgent than it was yesterday:

• Battle Creek, Michigan United Way is funding a program to help uninsured teels (12-19 years of age) pay for prescription contraceptives.
• North Carolina doctors are asserting opposition to participating in the executions of condemned criminals. This same medical board will not object to the removal of feeding tubes from patients who are ill but not dying.   

  As one pro-lifer opined upon reading this report, "Is a doctor's duty to preserve life conditioned on whether or not it's an execution by lethal injection or a denial of food and fluids? If the latter, perhaps it would be okay to dehydrate those condemned to death by a judge and jury."

• Massachusetts state senators have voted in support of a bill that would establish a 35-foot no-protest zone around clinics where abortions are performed.

  One supporter of this outrageous bill told the Boston Globe, "The Grim Reaper has been there for almost 25 years reminding women every single time that they go into a clinic how serious this issue is, which they already know."

  To which I would say, it's better to face the Grim Reaper now rather than when there is no turning back.

Pro-lifers must be vigilant, diligent and dedicated in prayer and effort like never before.

Responses

Judi it is safe to say the term "woman's right to choose"only applies to abortion which is why in the abortion's R Us state Massachusetts wants a 35 ft no protest buffer zone. The Boston Herald in their October 25th editorial "A clinic on free speech"
they write "Abridging the public's right to assemble and protest because you disagree with their message is simply offensive." taking a strong position on this and the Partial-birth ban act yet they endorsed pro-abortion Niki Tsongas for Congress in my district!
The pro-abortionist's want to make all pro-lifers John Salvi's in Massachusetts!
Mike Hassett
October 28th

Mike Hassett | October 28, 2007

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No 35 foot barrier can keep out prayer...so let them do what they want. I have been participating in Norwich, CT. in a silent, prayerful vigil outside Planned Parenthood's abortion facility...the strength and dignity of this prayerful action is awesome. Pro-abortionists were down on the main corner shrieking like demons every time a driver responded to their 'beep your horn to keep abortion legal' signs...our people remained quiet and determined, never flinching at the sounds of those screams, but walking back and forth in solidarity, praying the rosary and singing hymns...that is why prayer, united with the Source of all prayer, our Lord, is more powerful than any weapon demons can devise...thanks for your courage Judie
Florence | October 28, 2007

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Dear Florence

Serving the Lord is the best way to end abortion, Florence! You are on the front lines and you know! Thanks,

Judie Brown

Judie Brown | November 1, 2007

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Dear Mike

First of all, the editorial staff at the Boston Herald is suffering from a bad case of disjointed moral vision. But what should we expect from Massachusetts' media?

I happen to think, however, that the prayer warriors and the peaceful protesters are humiliating the abortionists into their fanatical ways because the power of God is stronger than any pro-death agenda. It will overcome all barriers and all we to do is remain faithful.

Judie Brown
Judie Brown | November 1, 2007

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I just heard from my good friends at the Thomas More Law Center. It seems that our best pro-life law firm is going to sue Oregon's secretary of state and attorney general. The reason will astound you.

The charge is that these state officials  improperly denied a citizen's request to circulate a state initiative petition that would amend the Oregon constitution to end abortion in that state.

The proposed human life amendment would extend constitutional rights, including the right to life, to all human beings from the moment of fertilization. If this proposal had been adopted by the citizens of Oregon, the amendment would provide a direct challenge to the central holding of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton by establishing personhood for the preborn child as a matter of constitutional law.

As you may know, this has been the goal of American Life League since our first day in business, April 1, 1979. We have repeatedly sought unanimity among our peers in the pro-life movement to seek this goal because it is the only goal that will ever end the killing of the innocent preborn, once and for all.

I have echoed the words of the Thomas More Law Center's Dick Thompson on more occasions than I can remember, for as he said, "Frustrated by lack of action to confront Roe head-on at the national level, there is increasing pressure by grassroots, pro-life activists to initiate such action state by state."

I agree and join him and countless others in calling for a national debate within the pro-life movement on this pivotal question:

WHY ISN'T THERE UNITY REGARDING PERSONHOOD?

The babies have everything to gain and nothing to lose, and that is why we are all involved in the first place, isn't it?

Responses

The reason there isn't unity regarding personhood is because pro-lifers don't know that there's such a thing as a state-level personhood-at-conception amendment or a federal-level personhood-at-conception statute. Even those who know about these don?t know how they can take action to pass these in their own states. There?s no website showing pro-lifers how they can collect petitions for a state-level personhood amendment, or at least how to lobby the state-level pro-life groups to lobby it through the legislature. There?s also no website showing how pro-lifers can lobby their U.S. Reps. and Senators to officially sign their names to a federal personhood statute.
Daniel | October 23, 2007

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The reasoning against pusuing state-level personhood constitutional amendments (whether you agree with it or not) is that it may lose at the Supreme Court. If one is not confident that the Roberts court could muster the votes to overturn Roe, then the Roe precedent would only become more entrenched. I don't agree that such a loss at this Supreme Court would deter a later court with the proper philosphy from overturning an earlier decision, but neither can the caution be summarily dismissed.
Petra Spahr | October 23, 2007

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Dear Petra

the fact is that over the past 34 years the Court has repeatedly affirmed Roe and Doe in its rulings including the most recent partial birth abortion disaster.

However many arguments those in favor of incrementalism want to toss up, they all fall flat. What I do know is that not a single national pro-life group other than American Life League, Human Life International and the Pro-life Action League that is even pretending to set the goal at personhood. It's time to change course.

Judie Brown
Judie Brown | October 24, 2007

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Dear Daniel

Many pro-lifers across America do know there are personhood pro-life state initiatives that can be pursued, including Michigan, Virginia, Montana, Georgia, Colorado and so forth.

There are plenty of resources available to these pro-lifers including the Georgia Right to Life website, and others. We need to stop tossing roadblocks in the way and begin moving forward.

If something is missing, let's take care of that and move toward personhood.

Judie Brown
Judie Brown | October 24, 2007

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I am always so impressed with local news reports on Life Chain, which in my opinion is one of the most powerful pro-life witnessing events we have in our nation today. It is a family affair, and that's why I like reading about it, not to mention joining in.

There is one incredible news story that I simply have to tell you about because if a picture is truly worth a thousand words, this picture is a front runner. 

When you read the story in the Kane County Chronicle reporting on the Life Chain in St. Charles, Illinois, it will take your breath away. What a tremendous image of precisely what our pro-life work is all about--children reminding adults that  "abortion kills children."

This particular Life Chain was bittersweet for the participants since the opening of the Planned Parenthood abortion center in Aurora, Illinois inspired many to take part this year who might never have done so in the past. As Irene Hollenbech, one of the local residents, told the paper, "That abortion mill ... does not belong here. It does not belong anywhere in our country."

I have to say that for as long as we must, we will encourage all families to take part in Life Chain Sunday, hoping that the day will come when that chain reaches from one corner of America to the other, surrounding a nation that no longer condones the killing of her youngest citizens.

Many parents in Westchester, New York are rightfully furious over the explicit sex brochures that were part of a Wellness Fair run by the Westchester County Department of Health and attended by their pre-teens.

Children as young as 11 were "mistakenly" given brochures that were meant for adults.  One such brochure entitled "Lesbians & HIV: Are You At Risk?" offered lesbians tips on how to "prevent themselves from being infected with HIV. Another provided graphic symptoms of sexually transmitted diseases for men, including suspicious growths."

Well I guess you get the picture. And what was most disturbing to me as the grandmother of four children in that age group was the comments one mother made about her son, an 8th grader, who saw the lewd material.

She said, "He was hopped up; he tought it was funny."

And we want to know why our children are so saturated in this immoral garbage? When a parent can look a reporter in the eye and make a statement like that, our families in America are in an enormous amount of trouble.

Are we robbing young children of every sensitivity to which they are entitled, and then making light of it if asked? I know this mother is not typical, or at least I hope she isn't, but for heaven's sake, this is disgusting.

In all fairness the news report also says that some parents are so upset by this "error" that they are going to complain to the school board. But I wonder. Will they?  Time will tell.

In the meantime I must confess that I never thought in my entire life that a time would come when I would be blogging about this sort of thing. 

Responses

We might as well call this kind of wellness national terrorism! Same old banners of radical secularism, same old filth, same old paganism only neatly produced to make children laugh, become infected with laziness, and become shall we say dead in the soul. Parents will have answer to our Lord come judgment day when Jesus will ask them, "What did you do to spread my gospel?" Some of us will be embarrassed when we have no good works to show for our deeds before the coming of the Lord! He say will to those on the left, "depart from me you evil doers!" I never thought I'd see the state in which our nation is in right now. Really, I didn't. But lo and behold it's come true. Stuff like this was thought to be laughable 50 yrs ago, is now slowly coming true.
Nick | October 22, 2007

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Dear Nick

You are correct, and that is why we must, each of us, work harder than ever in our service to God, the innocent and the innocence of our children.

Judie Brown
Judie Brown | October 24, 2007

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Every day something seems to crop up in the news that makes me so grateful to be 63 years old instead of a young mother or father. 

More than twenty years ago American Life League established a task force to oppose school-based health clinics, and what you are about to read is but another example of our failure to capture the attention of the American public.

The latest news from Maine reminded me once again that big brother has not only invaded the family in an attempt to usurp parental authority unto itself, but is robbing our children of their innocence in oh so many ways.

Middle school students ages 11-13 are in for a bit more brainwashing in the coming years if Maine's health depatment gets its way. According to a news report, the 11-13 year old students have been receiving condoms as part of the reproductive health program in force in the middle schools around the state.

And now they want to add birth control pills to the mix. The supporters of this proposal, according to news reports, say that "a small number of King students are sexually active, but those who are need better access to birth control."

One of the wives of a city council member told the media she was fine with the plan but realized that some parents would not be. While that sounds very open minded, it also smacks of perhaps the biggest problem young children have today in our society ... their parents -- the ones who do not pay attention, do not care and simply assign the task of raising their children to anyone who happens to be with them.

While I would hope that Maine parents would rise up and stop this by nipping it in the bud, these are perhaps many of the same parents who knew seven years ago that the reproductive health program in middle schools was going to hand out condoms and did nothing about it. If they had, such a program would have already been tossed out.

Oh yes, and in case you wondered, the high schools in the area have been preparing prescriptions for birth control pills since 1973. Now what might this have to do with the ongoing decline of moralit in our society?

It is a sad time in which to be living, and as I read news reports like this one I praise God for my own three children and their ten children because I never worry about a single one of my grandchildren becoming a statistic like the ones I have been reporting to you. After all, when parents care enough to be totally immersed in the lives of their children, protecting them from all manner of social ills to the best of their ability, the children actually do survive as fine, upstanding human beings.

And that would be no thanks at all to any public school system, and sadly many private schools as well.

If you are reading this today and you live in Maine or have family there, please alert them to this latest attack on parental authority. 

Responses

Unfortunately, you deliberately mislead your readers by leaving out the fact that this plan will only be available to students whose parents sign a consent form. That's hardly attacking parental authority. Just silly details, though, right?
Amanda | October 17, 2007

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Does Amanda really think that parents are going to be able to differentiate the type of "service" they are able to give permission for? That is, can a parent give the school clinic permission to distribute aspirin but not birth control?

Are the staff in those school clinics going to abide by the guidelines submitted by the parents? Don't count on it!

The one thing so many people seem to loose sight of here in this situation is that sexual contact with anyone under the age of 14 in the state of Maine (and many other states, mind you) is ILLEGAL!

This school district is allowing students, even encouraging, illegal activity.

Parents ought to be suing, not quarreling over how "permission" is going to be given or not.
Donna | October 19, 2007

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Dear Amanda

The detail you mention makes my case even stronger than it was. You see when an unsuspecting parent signs his child up for the health center, that is the end of his parental rights. If that child then requests the birth control pill (which is untested on children) the parent will not be advised prior to the pill being given.

So you see, thee are many details that we need to consider. Thank you, Amanda for strengthening my argument.

Judie Brown
Judie Brown | October 20, 2007

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Thanks for the heads up. The devil likes to get his foot in the door and sex is a great tool. Keep up the good work and keep telling it like it is. Remember, in this life we might lose, but God has the last word! Amen
Duane Berreth | October 21, 2007

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Duane

Thank you so much for this encouraging message. You are so very right.

Judie Brown
Judie Brown | October 22, 2007

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Dear Donna

The parental approval for use of the health clinic is a one time only, and to my knowledge, a parent may not specify which services the child can or cannot have.

The key point, however, is what you have said about school clinics paying attention to parents; they will not.

I am with you one hudnred percent and do not understand why a lawsuit has not already been filed. Sometimes I fear the apathy is overwhelming in these situations.

Judie Brown
Judie Brown | October 22, 2007

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I recently read an excellent column by Charlotte Allen on the forays of certain presidential candidates with their favorite, charity, Planned Parenthood.

I need not make note of who they were for that is really irrelevant to what made me sick to my stomach. Planned Parenthood, an organization that deals in millions of our tax dollars in addition to all sorts of other income, has grown more and more sleazy by the minute. Each time Jim Sedlak of American Life League's Stop Planned Parenthood International or a member of his staff uncovers another fact, it blows us away. 

We cannot figure out how it is that they stay in business, let alone continue to have the credibility they clearly do among the nation's elitists. Their activities are anything but noteworthy; in fact many of them would be chargeable criminal offenses if done by an entity that did not near the name Planned Parenthood.

The most recent example was noted in Allen's article, and I did a little reading in the Boston Globe to confirm the facts.

This past August, Adam Gault, a 41-year-old accused sexual predator, was charged in the disappearance of a teenage runaway who was found locked in a hidden room in his house. DNA from the body of the girl's aborted baby revealed to police the identity of the father, and that is how the man and the 15-year-old girl were located.

The young girl had her abortion at Planned Parenthood.  And it was Gault's attorney who said in a media interview, "I thought that when a woman had a termination of pregnancy, that that was the end of it, so to speak. But, apparently, they [the police] have the fetus."

In case you are not yet sick to the very depths of your being, allow me to add something else. This man had two other women living with him and actually moved the young teenager from state to state during the time he had her with him.

Not only was Planned Parenthood apparently a willing accomplice in all this but it did nothing to report the matter to the police. It was good investigative work by the police that uncovered this despicable event.

Further it is hard for me to believe that Planned Parenthood would not ask the 15-year-old girl how she became pregnant and at least do something to protect her, find her parents or in some way provide for her safety.

This is but one example of the reasons why I have to say, in all honesty and with every bit of self-control I can muster, that any politician who finds it beneficial to rub elbows with the Planned Parenthood crowd is not only part of the evil being spread but an inherent reason why it continues to exist.

Many columnists and reporters are very upset with the governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger. They claim that his recent action in signing a bill ordering, among other things, public schools to allow boys to use girls rest rooms, is a sign that he has "blatantly attacked tradition family values."

The same bill also bans "anything in public schools that could be interpreted as negative toward homosexuality, bisexuality and other alternative lifestyle choices."

Now, let's see what this  might really mean, shall we? During the time when Arnold was running for governor we called upon the California bishops to make it clear that as a pro-abortion Catholic, Arnold could not receive the body and blood of Christ in Holy Eucharist. We were roundly ignored.

We watched other quasi-Catholics like Sean Hannity interview Arnold and defend him because, as Hannity said on one program, "the governor of a state doesn't have all that much to do with abortion anyway."

So now that California is reaping the fruit of this man's deal with the devil, which is precisely what Schwarzenegger has been doing for some time now, everybody's upset. Screaming all over the place that the governor has betrayed the family.

Well, you see he has been doing that, and denying that preborn children have a right to life, for as long as I can remember. Therefore I say to all those who are now up in arms, "get real!" Where were you when he was running for office? Why didn't you expose his hypocrisy then, when it might have done some good?

Nobody in the pro-life movement embraced the man when he was running for governor, but nobody adamantly opposed him and exposed his flawed thinking either. It seemed at the time as though people were claiming, "Yes, Schwarzenegger's bad but Angiledes is worse." And you know, sometimes you simply get what you ask for! 

While it is a sad day for the parents of California whose children will now be brainwashed in the public school system of that state, it is surely not a shock.

Two years ago Christian writers and news analysts were telling us that Schwarzenegger signed into law liberalized abortion bills and a bill that claims that all speech against homosexuality, including preaching the Biblical passages against it, are hate speech. But did they work against his election?

My guess is that perhaps the worst is yet to come in California, but maybe it will be a wake up call for Christians. There is no such thing as the lesser of two evils; evil is what it is, period.

We need solid Christian men and women in positions of influence, be it politics, media or education. But until Catholics start standing up for truth -- beginning with our bishops (!!!) -- and our Protestant brothers join us by making it clear that nobody deserves to be elected who will not stand up for the rights of every single preborn child without exception, bad stuff is going to keep happening. 

Pragmatism -- no! Loyalty to Christ -- yes!

Responses

If conservatives truly believe there's a lesser of the two evils then we are big trouble! Seriously. It seems that the GOP is more interested in fighting the war on terrorism than they are in fighting against abortion. Abortion is a far greater evil. I have to laugh when Republicans say "we are preventing a problem from getting worse by fighting in Iraq". But, the Republicans are also on the other hand are letting the abortion problem grow! The Republicans therefore are talking out of both sides of their mouth. I believe the war in Iraq and on terrorism to be God's way of punishing us for our sins of abortion, homosexuality, and so forth. At least that's how I see it. War causes destruction, famine, poverty disease. Our sins of abortion cause those four things!

Nick | October 16, 2007

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Dear Nick

Indeed, you are on to something. For as wel know the greatest destroyer of peace on earth is the aborting of innocent preborn children, to rob a thought from Mother Teresa.

As long as there is abortion there will be no peace.

Judie Brown
Judie Brown | October 20, 2007

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