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faith - Prayer, Fasting
& Alms Giving will
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1. Age Of Consent Climbs To Fight Predators – May 4, 2008
By THE CANADIAN PRESS
Canada's age of sexual consent will be bumped up two years to 16 beginning today.
The change means adults who have sex with boys or girls aged 14 and 15 years old could face criminal charges.
Canada's age of consent has been 14 since 1892.
The legislation was brought in by the government in part to deal with older Internet predators who troll the Web looking for young victims.
Canada's age of consent will now be in line with other countries, such as Britain, and most U.S. states.
The intent of the new law is not to criminalize teenage sex, but to crack down on adults who prey on youth; former justice minister Vic Toews said when the bill making the change was introduced.
The law includes a "close-in-age" provision of five years, which means it would be legal for a 15-year-old to have relations with a 19-year-old provided the relationship is not exploitive and the older party is not in a position of authority or trust.
2. Christian Government Bi-Weekly E-Letter - May 3, 2008
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3. Equal Parenting
Vellacott Introduces Private Member’s Motion To Promote Equal Parenting
4. European Institutions Pushing Radical Social Agenda – May 1, 2008
Friday Fax
May 1, 2008 | Volume 11, Number 20
Dear Colleague,
This is an all-EU edition of the Friday Fax. As you may know, we at C-FAM have determined that if we are too successful at the UN, then we must challenge the primary engine of radicalism there and that is the European Union.
Samantha Singson reports today on a new White Paper on the European Institutions by our own Maciej Golubiewski. Maciej has his own Friday Fax today about efforts to impose homosexual adoption on EU member states.
Spread the word.
Yours sincerely, Austin Ruse; President
New Paper Warns Against EU ‘Moral Regulation’ of Abortion and Family Policies
By Samantha Singson
(NEW YORK – C-FAM) In a recently released research paper on the European Union (EU) social agenda, scholar Maciej Golubiewski argues that the EU has overstepped its mandate by pursing a regime of ‘moral regulation’ by funding controversial social policy initiatives on the family and the beginning and end-of-life issues. The European Institutions are doing this despite the frequent objections of individual EU member states.
In ‘Europe’s Social Agenda: Why is the European Union Regulating Morality’, http://www.c-fam.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=534&Itemid=120Golubiewski uses the term ‘moral regulation’ to encompass all EU social and human rights policies and initiatives that intrude or potentially intrude on democratic national jurisdiction over moral matters.
He argues that the ‘moral regulation’ agenda in the EU is the result of a confluence of several social, political, and legal trends over the last three decades, including an ascendant influence of powerful non-governmental organizations (NGOs), increasing numbers of EU bureaucracies concerning themselves with moral and social issues, and the diversification of legal and bureaucratic venues for promoting social schemes under the label ‘human rights,’ among other trends.
The paper catalogues controversial programs and policies that are sponsored by the EU such as: competitions and publicity campaigns aimed at ‘influencing national norms surrounding the notions of family, appropriate sexual behaviour, and even church-state relations,’ bureaucratic promotion of reproductive rights encompassing abortion, criticism of pro-life views, anti-religious educational programs aimed at youth, and funding of NGOs that explicitly advocate the legalization of abortion.
Golubiewski outlines the EU’s legal and institutional structure and argues that over the last twenty years, treaty revisions have enabled NGOs to influence the policymaking process with little accountability. Coupled with an erosion of influence of national parliaments, he argues that the ‘moral regulation’ agenda has been able to take hold because of states’ misplaced assumption that state sovereignty is protected by the current EU framework and treaty provisions.
Golubiewski points what he calls the ‘weak letter of the subsidiarity principle’ that was supposed to guarantee respect for localized self-government and he argues that ‘sovereignty serves as a much better principle of democratic control... because the locus of control remains closer to the more transparent and accountable institutions of the democratic state.’
Golubiewski offers several recommendations to combat the growing ‘moral regulation’ agenda in Europe. Golubiewski urges national governments to scrutinize programs that fund controversial initiatives; seek greater transparency and control over the funding of NGOs; eliminate largely unaccountable advisory expert networks; and demand greater transparency and accountability of the European Parliament to member states.
The author concludes that ‘Only timely and effective action by national capitals to assert their rights can protect and preserve national traditions of marriage, family, and human life’ arguably the most important issues of our time.
Golubiewski is a Polish national working on a doctorate in international relations at Johns Hopkins University and serves as C-FAM's analyst of European affairs. Golubiewski's paper is the latest in the White Paper Series from the International Organizations Research Group, the research arm of the C-FAM (Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute), publisher of the Friday Fax.
Council of Europe to Allow Adoption by Homosexual Couples
By Maciej Golubiewski
(WASHINGTON, DC – C-FAM) A committee connected to the Council of Europe next week will consider signing the European Convention on the Adoption of Children, which would allow for the adoption of children by homosexuals.
The drafters of the convention claim that the convention currently in force is outdated "due to social and legal changes which have occurred in Europe since the late 1960s." Specifically, the drafters of the report say the new convention is necessary because of pressures from countries such as Sweden that have recently allowed homosexual couples to adopt children.
The convention that is to be replaced was drafted in 1967 and has been ratified by nearly a half of the member states of the Council of Europe permits adoption only "by two persons married to each other – or by one person." Article 7 of the new convention, on the other hand, allows adoption "by two persons of different sex who are married to each other, or – have entered into a registered partnership together; [or] by one person." The new convention also contains a special clause that allows member states "to extend the scope of this convention to same-sex couples; [and] different-sex couples and same-sex couples who are living together in a stable relationship."
The Committee of Ministers will also consider disallowing member states to express reservations to the controversial aspects of the new convention. This would eliminate the ability of more traditional countries, like Poland, to ignore these new and controversial policies.
Isabel Hillestad of the Institute for Family Policies in Norway believes that "such radical views do not represent what the majority of Europeans think – and will put further pressure on all other countries to accept [same-sex marriage], first in Europe, later in the rest of the world." Hillestad expressed dismay that a convention, which should guard the interest of a child to have a stable family, would allow adoption by unmarried heterosexual and homosexual couples. She says in Norway "the risk for break-up is 2-3 times higher for cohabiting couples." She also pointed out that registered homosexual couples have much higher break-up rate than married heterosexual couples in Norway.
Pat Fagan of the US-based Family Research Council has shown through social science data that remains consistent through out the world that children thrive best in a stable environment with both a mother and a father, an environment that two men or two women cannot provide by definition. Fagan further argues that children have a human right to the married love of their parents.
If signed by the Committee of Ministers, the new convention will replace the original convention of 1967, and will be sent to the parliaments of the member states of the Council of Europe for ratification. It will become binding law only in countries that ratify it.
The Council of Europe is distinct from the bodies around the European Union; it is larger with 47 Member States and also older. The Council of Europe is considered the chief protector and promoter of human rights in Europe.
For more news visit us at: www.c-fam.org
Copyright 2008 Permission granted for unlimited use. Credit required.
5. Evangelical And Catholic Groups Call For Curbs On Human Rights Commission After Anti-Christian Ruling – April 30, 2008
By John-Henry Westen
TORONTO, April 30, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The editor of Canada's national Catholic magazine of news, opinion and analysis, Father Alphonse de Valk, has renewed his call for the federal government to rein in the far-reaching powers of human rights commissions in Canada.
The move comes in light of the recent ruling by the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) in the case of Christian Horizons, a service organization for the disabled. De Valk called the decision, "a brazen attack on the rights of religious associations and individuals to conduct their activities without having to check their religious principles at the workplace door."
The OHRC on April 15 decided that, because Christian Horizons required a former employee to sign a Lifestyle and Morality Statement that prohibited homosexual relationships, Christian Horizons must: pay lesbian Connie Heintz two years' wages and $23,000; no longer require its employees to sign a lifestyle and morality statement; develop 'anti-discrimination' policies; provide 'training' to all employees and managers; and review all of its employment policies to ensure they are in compliance with the Ontario Human Rights Code.
De Valk, the editor of Catholic Insight magazine, originally issued a call for the powers of the Human Rights Commissions to be curtailed when a human rights complaint was filed against his magazine in February 2007.
Brian Rushfeldt of the Canada Family Action Coalition was outraged by the ruling saying, "The ethos of immorality reigns in the Human Rights Commission at least in Ontario." The Commission, he explained, "by the very fact it orders an agency not to require employees to sign a statement regarding unbecoming conduct and behaviour is endorsing immorality."
"This decision is further reason citizens who have rights, hold to religious beliefs and have a sense of morality must force governments to rescind the Human Rights Acts that interfere with normal functions of a civilized society and democracy," said Rushfeldt. "The empowerment of a few appointed people to act as dictators is a dangerous deception of democracy. Governments must be held to account as they are the perpetrators of this authoritarian arm of government."
Don Hutchinson, General Legal Counsel for the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, was also incensed with the decision. He told LifeSiteNews.com that the ruling was "the decision of a single adjudicator functioning as a human right tribunal." He added: "It is unreasonable for any tribunal to make a decision which assumes that faith and practice can be severed and in this case the capacity for practice in the type of ministry that Christian Horizons exhibits is dependent on a shared faith commitment amongst its staff."
Referencing the many cases where Human Rights Commissions across Canada have threatened the freedom of religion of Christians and Christian businesses, Hutchinson said, "I think there is general knowledge in Canada right now in regard to the decision-making capacity of Human Rights Tribunals across the country."
De Valk quoted Pope Benedict XVI in noting that, "Human rights must include the right to religious freedom, understood at once (as) individual and communitarian? It is inconceivable, then, that believers should have to suppress a part of themselves – their faith – in order to be active citizens. It should never be necessary to deny God in order to enjoy one's rights."
De Valk says workplaces must indeed be free of harassment or poisoned environments. However, the OHRC decision violates the rights of evangelical Christians, even though Christian Horizons was offering its services to all without discrimination. "No complaint appears to have been filed by any client of Christian Horizons or by the developmentally disabled people they serve," said de Valk. "In addition to disrupting the fine work being undertaken by the organization's employees, the OHRC decision ominously threatens the rights of other faith-based institutions, as well as their employees and volunteers, in Ontario."
Rushfeldt concluded, "Canadians – wake up – next election, both federally and provincially we must demand of those who want to govern that they will resolve these authoritarian hate based actions by Human Rights Commissions."
A call to action
6. Girl In Persistive Vegetative State Revives – May 1, 2008
Click here for full story in PDF format7. Great Legislation To Make Canada Better – May 7, 2008
ACTION ALERT - GREAT LEGISLATION to make Canada better
I have never seen so many "good" Bills and Motions in one session of Parliament. In the past few months Canadians are seeing better legislation being proposed than we have had for 20 years.
The Bills and Motions listed below are all movement to a better Canada. Some are not yet introduced but need support. We hope that political partisanship will not get in the way of good law and good government.
Some Bills/ Motions proposed by the opposition are good and need support.
Some Bills/Motions by Conservative private members are good and also need support.
Bill C10, an omnibus tax Bill that allows government to stop the misuse of tax dollars to fund undesirable movies and TV shows needs to pass. The Senate is "studying" the clause that would give Ministerial control over tax dollars flowing to "arts" (between $2 and 7 BILLION dollars).
If we cannot insist the government control tax spending who should? The industry that gets the money is in conflict if they think they should set the rules.
Ask Senators to pass this Bill C10 now. See their contact info at:
http://www.parl.gc.ca/common/senmemb/senate/isenator.asp?Language=E.
Sign our petition at http://www.gopetition.com/online/17601.html.
Bill C506 by Liberal Karen Redman
Internet child rape and abuse images are blights on a civilized society. Today this "industry" is a billion dollar blight. Internet Service providers like Bell, Telus, Shaw, Cogeco, Sasktel, in fact ALL providers, have a responsibility to do all they can to STOP this child abuse industry. But they are not doing it.
They fail to block sites, report perpetrators, and cut the accounts of those who are committing criminal acts. Are ISPs contributing to criminal acts?
C506 is a great start to require action. Read it at:
http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=3282232&Language=e&Mode=1&File=24.
E-mail her at Redman.K@parl.gc.ca to show your support. Sign our petition at:
http://familyaction.org/Articles/child-safe-internet.htm .
Bill C484 by Conservative MP Ken Epp – Unborn Victims of Crime
Did you know that a perpetrator can harm or kill a pregnant woman and not be charged with the death of the unborn child. If the woman survived and the child died there would be no murder charges. Sound civilized to you? Not to us!
This legislation is narrow enough to be applied only in cases where an attack on a pregnant woman resulted in the death of the child. Some abortionists argue it would criminalize abortion. What a foolish argument. Don't believe them. They are deceived and being dishonest in their arguments.
The Bill passed second reading and now ALL MPs must be held to account to do the just thing and pass it at third reading.
Support this Bill
Call your MP and Justice Minister Nicholson (contact info at:
http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Parlinfo/Compilations/HouseOfCommons/MemberByPostalCode.aspx?Menu=HOC)
Print and sign the petition at http://www.kenepp.com/issues/insidepage.asp?ID=84.
Motion M446 by Liberal MP Keith Martin.
Its purpose is to remove a section from the federal Human Rights Act, which allows dangerous actions to be taken by the commission. Actions based upon what someone said or wrote, that might, possibly, perhaps or vaguely may cause someone to have hurt feelings, or may incite someone to do something.
Does this sound like logical basis for LAW? It is an atrocious misuse of codified law to persecute and prosecute innocent people for exercising their freedom of speech and expression.
Section 13 (1) must be removed from the Act. Support Keith Martin's motion by contacting your MP and the Justice and Human Rights Committee at:
http://cmte.parl.gc.ca/cmte/CommitteeList.aspx?Lang=1&PARLSES=392&JNT=0&SELID=e18_&COM=13192.
Motion M483 by Conservative MP Maurice Vellacott.
Equal parenting is good for children and society. Divorce harms two parenting families. Divorce law and courts have compounded this harm, even unfairly preventing involvement of both parents in some cases.
See a motion to have this changed in the MS Word document entitled "Equal parenting". (Item #3).
E-mail Vellacott.M@parl.gc.ca to voice your support.
C486 by Joy Smith Conservative MP - Human Trafficking
The RCMP estimates that in Canada - yes I said Canada - about 800 women are being trafficked for prostitution each year. Advocacy groups say that total may be more like 15,000. In February 2007 Parliament unanimously passed a motion recommending a comprehensive strategy to curb it. Now Ms. Smith wants that to be put into law.
Bill 486 needs to be brought forward and passed.
Read C486 at http://www.joysmith.ca/index.asp?ID=75&cat_ID=1&sub_ID=356. See her work at: http://www.joysmith.ca/index.asp?ID=75&cat_ID=1&sub_ID=356.
Print and Sign the petition titled "Human Trafficking Petition" (Item #8).
C537 by Maurice Vellacott
Purpose is to protect the conscience rights of health care personnel. Doctors, nurses and even pharmacists who are guided by principles of do no harm and faith based values and virtues and who want to refuse doing abortions, providing birth control solutions or referring patients to those who will do harm, are facing criticism, ostracism and threats. Some doctors have said they fear being stigmatized if they are vocal about their faith. Conducting oneself based upon one’s faith should not be grounds for reprisal.
E-mail Mr. Vellacott and support him on this legislation : Vellacott.M@parl.gc.ca.
Bill C17 by Immigration Minister Finlay Nov 1, 2007
An Act to amend the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to allow immigration officers to refuse to authorize foreign nationals to work in Canada if they are judged to be at risk of exploitation attempts to stop immigration of sex workers who will be exploited by organized crime. She has received threats from gangs for this. Trafficking of humans for sex purposes must stop. The approval of such a "visa program" came from the Martin Liberal government. Now legislation to prevent sexual exploitation and trafficking of foreign workers via "exotic dancer visas" comes from the Conservatives.
E-mail Minister Diane Finlay (finlay.d@parl.gc.ca) and cc Justice Minister Rob Nicholson (nicholson.r@parl.gc.ca) to say push this one through.
Pray for Ms. Finlay's safety.
Other good moves and news!
Parents of a 14-year-old girl are thankful for the law that raised the age of consent from 14 to 16. Their 14-year-old daughter was about to be lured away by a 41-year-old pervert from Ontario when the police arrested him. Just three months ago the police would have been helpless - the pervert would have argued she consented. She may be the first benefactor of the better law.
April 28, 2008: The Conservative Government announced $111 million grant to be directed to drug prevention. This is money properly spent unlike the millions given to the BC safe injection scam where needles and drugs are provided (by your tax money) to keep addicts - addicts. Let us hope the recipients of the new grant money use it powerfully and wisely in drug prevention.
8. Human Trafficking Petition (Please Obtain Signatures For Us - May 7, 2008
Printable MS Word Document on Human Trafficking
9. Lifeissues.Net Newsletter #369 – May 04, 2008
Greetings from LifeIssues.net (www.lifeissues.net)
Dear Friends for Life,
[Morning After Pills Increase Pregnancies.] Despite government aid in giving morning after pills to young people in Wales, more fifteen to seventeen year olds than ever are aborting their babies. In 2005, it was 894, in 2006, 1,004. Second abortions have also risen in number.
[Rotary Club Pro-abortion] A new report by Life Decisions International (LDI) details Rotary's ties with groups that promote both abortion and population control. It has ties with the UN Children's Fund and the UNFPA. It has created a Rotarian Fellowship for Population and Development to "support Rotary Club projects." It provides grants to Rotary Clubs for population issues. LDI President Douglas Scott said, "This is no different than a hospital that commits abortion on one floor and has a pre-natal unit on other. On the one hand, Rotary works with population control agencies and on the other it inoculates children against polio."
[English Babies Killed for Minor Abnormalities] The Daily Telegraph reports on eugenic abortions in its South West Congenital Anomaly Register. This shows that in three years abortion was used to kill 54 babies with clubfoot, 37 with cleft palate, and 26 with extra or webbed fingers or toes.
[Premature Birth from Abortion] The November issue of The Journal of Reproductive Medicine links premature births and cerebral palsy to prior abortion. This is the result of their examination of data from over 4 million births. Dr. Brian Calhoun of University of the West Virginia states that about one-third of babies who are considered very pre-term result from a woman's prior abortion. Babies born before 32 weeks almost always have very low birth weight, and 8% of these develop cerebral palsy.
[A Catholic Ruling on the Pill] Bishop Elio Sgreccia, President of the Pontifical Academy of Life has said that the morning-after pill cannot be used even in cases of rape, thus absolutely prohibiting its use. This appears to be a response to several bishops' conferences, which have permitted the use of such drugs in Catholic hospitals after assault rape. The Bishop stated, "The position of the Church is the same. The morning-after pill is dangerous and is an abortifacient when there is a conception, and so it is illicit to be used."
God Bless, Jerry Novotny, OMI
Thought: "What I do you cannot do / but what you do, I cannot do. / The needs are great, and none of us, / including me, ever do great things. / But we can all do small things, with great love, / and together we can do something wonderful." - Mother Teresa
Lifeissues.net NEWSLETTER #369 – May 04, 2008
Table Of Contents:
1. Faith Put Into Practice (Catholic Doctors)
2. Unseen Rise Of 'Body Shopping'
3. Emerging Human Embryo Market Poses Moral And Ethical Dilemmas
4. Lake Elmo Woman Makes Miracle Recovery From "Brain Dead"
5. Artificial Reproduction Could Soon Take Place With Pill In Women's Bodies
6. Producer Of Demographic Winter Says USA Today Wrong On Population Data
7. Extreme Pro-Abortion Resolution Rushed Through Council Of Europe
8. India Government Will Increase Penalties For Sex-Selection Abortions
9. Faith Put Into Practice
10. New Booklet Outlines Frightening Facts About Contraception
11. Democracy Betrayed
Focus On Asia: "Hunger in a world of plenty" - The world faces serious shortages of food. Markets are failing and people are starving. Despite historical levels of wealth, unequalled access to technology and unparalleled communications, experts now forecast a structural shift in global demand that will keep prices high and people hungry. This is shameful. Steps can and must be taken.
http://www.worldpress.org/link.cfm?http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/japantimes/~3/279628826/ed20080429a1.html
Item #1. Faith Put Into Practice
For Rene Leiva, a family physician in Ottawa, there is no question about where his Roman Catholic beliefs fit into his medical practice. In his office there is a sign informing potential patients that there are certain things his practice will not do: He will not prescribe birth control pills, though he will talk about natural family planning; and no patient should expect him to give a referral for an abortion because that, he said, would be akin to "co-operating with evil."
View full article at National Post: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=472559
Item #2. Unseen Rise Of 'Body Shopping'
It's not just the technology that's changed since the 1980s; it's also the economic environment in which science and medicine have to operate. We are living in an age when human organs, genes, eggs and other body parts are fast becoming commodities bought and sold on international markets: what I call "body shopping". Our law lags behind: once tissue is taken from your body, it doesn't legally belong to you. Instead, our common law views it as "no one's thing", or mere waste.
View full article at The Sunday Times:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article3779820.ece
Item #3. Emerging Human Embryo Market Poses Moral And Ethical Dilemmas
What is a human life worth? For centuries, that question has been asked in the context of the cost of keeping people alive. In recent years, however, it has expanded to include the value of creating people in other than the natural manner-the "businesses" of sperm donation, artificial insemination, in-vitro fertilization, and cloning. Now the issue has broadened yet again. What about the "business"-now a $3 billion per year trade-of women selling their eggs?
View full text at Health Care News: http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=23042
Item #4. Lake Elmo Woman Makes Miracle Recovery From "Brain Dead"
Comment: Here's another story showing that the "all-knowing" docs are quite often wrong when the pronounce some patient as "brain-dead," which is just a convenient label created so that patient's organs could be harvested. Death is death, meaning no heart beating, no breathing, no signs of life at all. While it is true that the brain can be damaged severely, if the patient is alive, they are disabled, brain-injured, but not "dead."
If people contemplate and really see the sanctity of life, their "quality of life" arguments fall away and they will understand that we are here to care for each other, not to kill each other. Caring, and not convenience, is the sign of a civilized and just society!
Ron Panzer for Hospice Patients Alliance: http://www.hospicepatients.org
View full article at Kare 11:
http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=498009
Item #5. Artificial Reproduction Could Soon Take Place With Pill In Women's Bodies
A new report indicates artificial reproduction could take place with a capsule inside a woman's body rather than using traditional treatment at a fertility clinic. Pro-life groups are concerned that the "progress" in fertility treatment continues to commodify human life.
To learn more see LifeNews.com: http://lifeissues.net/control_panel/news_info.php
Item #6. Producer Of Demographic Winter Says USA Today Wrong On Population Data
The producer of a new documentary that focuses on the under-population crisis around the world says a Monday editorial in USA Today misses the mark. Barry McLerran, the producer of Demographic Winter, tells LifeNews.com the USA Today commentary is "sensationalistic and just plain wrong."
See the full article at LifeNews.com: http://www.lifenews.com/int707.html
Item #7. Extreme Pro-Abortion Resolution Rushed Through Council Of Europe
The Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly has approved a report from its equal opportunities committee, which calls on 47 European states to allow unrestricted access to legal abortion and to make sex education for young people compulsory. SPUC's Patrick Buckley said: "This report, which is in favour of even more killing of unborn children, was rushed through. It represents an attack on the sovereignty of member states, by attempting to impose a policy on abortion, something for which the assembly has no legal or legitimate justification. Permissive abortion regimes do not protect the health of women. Countries where abortion is not permitted actually show substantially better healthcare for mothers and children." Mr Nigel Dodds, MP and MLA for Belfast North, deputy leader of the Democratic Unionist Party and a minister in the Northern Ireland executive, said: "It's a sad day for the unborn child in Europe, but the fight goes on."
Full article at SPUC: http://www.spuc.org.uk/news/releases/2008/april16
Item #8. India Government Will Increase Penalties For Sex-Selection Abortions
The India government is increasing the penalties again for doctors who do illegal sex-selection abortions in an effort to stamp out the widespread practice. The Asian nation has worked hard to try to end the controversial abortions and infanticides targeting girls but has had only moderate success.
Full Article at LifeNews.com: http://www.lifenews.com/int713.html
Item #9. Faith Put Into Practice
For Rene Leiva, a family physician in Ottawa, there is no question about where his Roman Catholic beliefs fit into his medical practice. In his office there is a sign informing potential patients that there are certain things his practice will not do: He will not prescribe birth control pills, though he will talk about natural family planning; and no patient should expect him to give a referral for an abortion because that, he said, would be akin to "co-operating with evil."
View entire text at National Post: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=472559
Item #10. New Booklet Outlines Frightening Facts About Contraception
Without a single reference to a Church document or a passage of Scripture, a new booklet from author Victor Claveau demonstrates that popular contraceptives, considered hallmarks of our modern culture and signs of civilized man's technological conquest of nature, kill at least 6 million US children a year, subject women to a host of harmful side effects, subvert the meaning of sex and family life, and have played a key role in a black genocide.
Comment: This science has been known and documented in research studies and even biology textbooks for years. About time someone published this for the lay public. The term "pill" here does not refer to the abortifacient RU-486, but to the common daily birth control pill.
View entire text at LifeSiteNews.com:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/apr/08042904.html
Item #11. Democracy Betrayed
Powerful quote: "How is it still possible to speak of the dignity of every human person when the killing of the weakest and most innocent is permitted? In the name of what justice is the most unjust of discrimination practiced: some individuals are held to be deserving of defence and others are denied that dignity?"
View entire text from Madonna House:
http://www.madonnahouse.org/restoration/2008/04/democracy_betrayed.html
You Can Change Society:
1. Be Informed: "My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge." Hosea 4:6. Visit Lifeissues.net Website for insights into current Life Issues www.lifeissues.net.
2. Pray Daily: for the courage to be God's presence in society and to strongly support those who are deemed "unworthy of life". "If My people who are called by My Name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14.
3. Become Involved: "Journey for Life into the Heart of Asia" is a project, which appeals for donations to help finance plane travel for lectures and seminars to developing countries in Asia. Strong focus is placed on reaching Asian Catholic Major Seminaries, Universities, Parishes, Hospitals and Family/Pro Life related groups. The lectures place emphasis on "The Asian Family at Crossroads: Trends and Challenges". For inquires about no-cost Pro Life Talks to your group in Asia: contact Fr. Jerry at jerry@shirt.ocn.ne.jp . To become a supportive Missionary participant for this project in Asia, kindly send your donations directly to: Fr. Jerry Novotny, OMI; LifeIssues.net, Editor; Akebono-cho 1-15-9; Kochi City, Japan, 780-8072; (or transfer donation directly to ProLife bank account: Jerome Novotny, Shikoku Bank, Asakura Branch, No. 102-1-0080824)
Contact Editor: Jerry Novotny, OMI; Akebono-cho 1-15-9; Kochi City, Japan, 780-8072; Tel/Fax: 088-843-0406; E-Mail:jerry@lifeissues.net
Websites by Editor:
English LifeIssues Site:http://www.lifeissues.net,
Japanese LifeIssues Site:http://www.japan-lifeissues.net,
OMI Site: http://www.omijapankorea.net/index.html.
10. Lifeissues.Net Newsletter #369 Sample – May 04, 2008
Table Of Contents:
1. Faith Put Into Practice (Catholic Doctors)
2. Unseen Rise Of 'Body Shopping'
3. Emerging Human Embryo Market Poses Moral And Ethical Dilemmas
4. Lake Elmo Woman Makes Miracle Recovery From "Brain Dead"
5. Artificial Reproduction Could Soon Take Place With Pill In Women's Bodies
6. Producer Of Demographic Winter Says USA Today Wrong On Population Data
7. Extreme Pro-Abortion Resolution Rushed Through Council Of Europe
8. India Government Will Increase Penalties For Sex-Selection Abortions
9. Faith Put Into Practice
10. New Booklet Outlines Frightening Facts About Contraception
11. Democracy Betrayed
11. LifesiteNews.Com – Friday May 2, 2008
Australian Bishops Urge Government to Ban Pornography, "One of the Most Evil Uses of the Internet"
Furious Britons Give Brown and Labour Worst Electoral Pummelling in Forty Years
Grand Theft Culture: The Entertainment Industry Goes for the Jugular
Lesbian Break-in and Riot During College Speech on "Born-Gay Hoax" Forces Cancellation
Washington Pharmacists May Refuse to Fill Plan Prescriptions B-For Now
Australian Prime Minister Explains Why He Opposes Euthanasia
12. Message From Jerusalem – May 4, 2008
Dear Lewis,
I am writing you from Jerusalem. I flew all night without any sleep for emergency meetings with the nation of Israel. After arriving in Jerusalem I first met with Minister Tzipi Livini. At 6:00 pm I met with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Following that I was able to meet with former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then my evening ended after spending time with Mayor Ron Nachman.
Catastrophic events are happening over here. Sirens are wailing every day this week as young children to the elderly are being trained on where to go.
We must continue to show our support to Israel and let President Bush and Prime Minister Olmert know that we do not support the division of Jerusalem. Please, get one friend today to sign the Save Jerusalem Petition
http://tool.donation-net.net/CTBF/AnnapolisVote.cfm?dn=1032&commID=80516323&ID=166239.
This will double the number. Our ultimate goal is one million, but our goal right now is to reach 200,000. Please send it out to everyone today.
Your Ambassador to Jerusalem, Dr. Michael Evans
Your Jerusalem World News: http://www.myjwn.com
Your Save Jerusalem Site: http://www.savejerusalem.org
Join the Jerusalem Prayer Team Now!
http://tool.donation-net.net/ctbf/register.cfm?dn=1032&commID=80516323&ID=166239
Do not reply to this email. Please address email inquiries to jpteam@sbcglobal.net
Jerusalem Prayer Team
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Dr. Tim LaHaye, Mrs. Anne Graham Lotz, Mr. Pat Boone, Mr. Bill McCartney, Ms. Kay Arthur, Rev. Tommy Tenney, Dr. A.R. Bernard, and Dr. Jay Sekulow are just a few of the more than 300 Christian Leaders who are part of the Jerusalem Prayer Team.
The Jerusalem Prayer Team is a non-profit organization with 501c3 tax-exempt status. The Jerusalem Prayer Team is the largest prayer movement of people around the world with members in over 200 nations. It is a non-denominational organization. It receives no support from the Nation of Israel. Donations are tax deductible.
The mission of the Jerusalem Prayer Team: To guard, defend and protect the Jewish people and Eretz Yisrael until Israel is secure, and until the Redeemer comes to Zion.
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13. No Ordinary Funeral – May 3, 2008
On Saturday, May 3, a funeral is schedule in Michigan. Bishop John Quinn of Detroit will offer the Mass for twenty-five babies who were murdered in nearby abortion mills, and their burial will follow. The bodies of these babies were retrieved in February and March from the garbage dumpsters behind "Woman Care" abortion mills, owned and operated by abortionist Alberto Hodari. Citizens for a Pro-life Society, headed up by my friend Monica Miller, oversaw the proper retrieval and care for the babies' bodies and organized the funeral.
This is no ordinary funeral. There are still too many of our fellow citizens who don't even acknowledge that the people who will be buried this Saturday are people at all. To mourn their deaths publicly, therefore, is not just to honour them, but to sound a wake-up call to our nation that we are living amidst the biggest holocaust of all time. That is why I have called upon my brother priests nationwide to bring to the attention of their congregations this weekend that children are being buried who were brutally, legally killed, and that the killing has to end.
Providentially, the Church observes the Feast of the Ascension this weekend. Jesus, in ascending into heaven forty days after his resurrection, takes our human nature to the heights of heaven. That is the hope we present to humanity. We will sit on the throne with Christ (see Rev. 3:21). It is impossible, therefore, for us to ignore the fact that those who share that same human nature are being thrown in the garbage.
Abortion has become too abstract. The word has lost its meaning. The conceptual knowledge that children are being killed is no longer enough to awaken many people to action. We need the funerals, we need to see the bodies, we need to hear the disgusting details of the abortions in order to be roused out of our moral slumber and end this killing once and for all.
Abortionist Hodari, when he disposed of these babies, also threw into the dumpster the patient records. Sadly, that is the only issue on which he may get into trouble. Of course, carelessness with patient records should be punished. But when society will punish a man for the pieces of paper he threw in the garbage but excuse him for throwing babies into that same garbage, we have become guilty of straining the gnat and swallowing the camel. We have become far worse than the Pharisees of Jesus' day.
Two weeks after this funeral, the pro-life community of Dallas will pray at another grave, for the 25^th year in a row, to honour aborted babies who are buried there...1300 of them! As my friend Monica said, "This tomb will be a place of refuge especially for grieving mothers and dads who regret that they made the decision to abort their children - a place of reconciliation." Indeed, let the healing begin; but that can happen only when we first mourn the dead.
14. OHRC Decision An Attack On Religious Rights – April 29, 2008
Newsletter No 8
This newsletter is a superior version of a Press Release issued on the same day, April 29, 2008
OHRC decision an attack on religious rights.
Catholic Insight Magazine finds unacceptable the April 15 Ontario Human Rights (OHRC) decision released on April 24, ordering Christian Horizons, a large Christian service organization for the disabled (1,400 people in 180 homes with 2,500 employees) to:
He went on to say: “Removing human rights from this context would mean – yielding to a relativistic conception, according to which the meaning and interpretation of rights could vary – in the name of different cultural, political, social – outlooks.” But true rights are universal.
Father Alphonse de Valk, editor of Catholic Insight, contends that the Canadian legalization of the right to so-called same-sex ‘marriage’ in June 2005 was divorced from ethical and rational dimensions and natural law. From that perspective, Fr de Valk denies that the claim to equality is a true human right. Above all, he denies that this claimed equality has any binding moral force, and least of all that it should now be imposed as an article of secular faith on Evangelicals, Catholics, Orthodox, Jews, Muslims, and others.
The Holy Father touches even more directly upon the issue raised by the OHRC, de Valk says, when he notes:
”Human rights must include the right to religious freedom, understood at once [as] individual and communitarian – a vision that brings out the unity of the person while clearly distinguishing between the dimension of the citizen and that of the believer – It is inconceivable, then, that believers should have to suppress a part of themselves ‘their faith’ in order to be active citizens. It should never be necessary to deny God in order to enjoy one’s rights.”
Father de Valk contends that the workplace should be free of harassment and/or a poisoned environment. However, the OHRC Tribunal’s decision sets aside previous contractual undertakings of a Christian Horizons employee. This now serves to deny the right of all Evangelical Christians to conduct activities within their own private institutions, with public monies for all citizens without discrimination, unless they first check their religious faculties at the workplace door.
No complaint appears to have been filed by any client of Christian Horizons, or by the developmentally disabled people they serve. The decision now serves to interrupt all other contractual undertakings of Christian Horizon employees.
15. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd Of Australia Has Stated That He Opposes Voluntary Euthanasia – May 2, 2008
Rudd explains why he opposes euthanasia:
http://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2008/05/rudd-explains-why-he-opposes-euthanasia.html
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of Australia has stated that he opposes voluntary euthanasia but would allow a free-vote in parliament on the issue.
The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Prime Minister Rudd as stating "It's just my own personal view ... that if you changed the laws in this area, I do become concerned about the way in which these things can drift over time," he said.
"Particularly in the attitude taken by older people themselves, or people with terminal illnesses, who then conclude that they are being an increasing burden to their families and then conclude that it's in other people's interests, not their own best interests, to seek euthanasia."
On the question of the free vote in parliament Prime Minister Rudd stated "If it becomes a matter for vote in the federal parliament, people exercise their conscience differently."
Green party Senator Bob Brown has introduced legislation in Australia to restore the law that legalized euthanasia in the northern territory of Australia in 1995.
For more information, go to: http://news.smh.com.au/rudd-explains-why-he-opposes-euthanasia/20080502-2a5z.html
The Sydney Morning Herald – May 2, 2008
Posted by Alex Schadenberg at 10:02 AM
http://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2008/05/rudd-explains-why-he-opposes-euthanasia.html
16. Pro-Life Countries Back Away From Unborn At UN – April 30, 2008
Friday Fax often stands alone.
Your help is desperately needed.
Dear Friend,
It is a sorrowful state of affairs but even pro-life countries have backed away from protecting the unborn child at the UN. I will tell you why in a minute. I will not name names because we do not want to embarrass our friends who are under terrible pressure. But if you have seen what I have seen, you would weep.
The anti-life forces at the UN are many and rich and powerful. They include:
They are threatened with losing millions and billions in financial aid from UN agencies and the development agencies of the European Union.
They are under pressure from rich foundations who hire lawyers to sue them in international courts and in their own domestic courts.
They are under pressure by the New York Times and the London Times and the international chattering classes who mock them and hold them up to ridicule.
There are some in the UN community who just want this issue to go away. They would rather work on popular issues like poverty reduction and conflict resolution. These are the popular issues that make you a lot of friends and praise from the New York Times.
They would prefer that we and the unborn would just go away. We won't. Ever.
What all this means though is that C-FAM, the Friday Fax and our excellent coalition partners have to work doubly and triply hard to defend the unborn and the family from these rapacious radicals and from the complacency of governmental delegations who have surrendered the fight.
But it takes cold hard cash to do it.
At the center of this fight is the Friday Fax and you are needed more than even to keep this it going.
The Friday Fax has broken more stories about the anti-life and anti-family machinations of UN radicals than any publication in the world. Period.
The Friday Fax is read by 100,000 people all over the world; in the US State Department, in the UN Secretariat (a mere hundred yards from where I type this message), in the heart of the Vatican, in the foreign ministries of dozens of countries friend and foe alike.
The Friday Fax is expensive. It costs us upwards of $100,000 to put it out. This includes research, writing, printing, postage, rent, salaries, everything. That sounds like a lot and it is, but it is next to nothing compared to the fight we are in and to those for whom we fight, God's precious unborn.
Can you help us raise $50,000 for the next six months of the Friday Fax?
Can you write a check right now for $1000? $500? $100? $50?
Your donation will be ploughed right into the most important fight in the world right now; the fight to advance freedom from international coercion and to protect the unborn and the family.
Here is how to give. Click right HEREand you will be taken to our secure server where you are can give by credit card, wire transfer, and also by check.
The address to give by check is:
C-FAM
666 11th Street NW
Suite 450
Washington DC 20001
Friend, we need you. At a time when we are expanding, we need your help now more than ever. You might have noticed we have gone to two stories a week. This is a response to the increased pressure from the radicals. At a time we must expand it is also a time that we need you the most.
Please dig down deep and give as much as you can. Go HEREand give right now.
Yours sincerely,
Austin Ruse, President, C-FAM
PS Please know that we have many friends in the UN Secretariat and in the various UN delegations but they are small in number and surrounded and they, too, need the Friday Fax. Give to help them!
PPS C-FAM and the Friday Fax are not supported by big foundations. We are not supported by government grants. We do not a group of wealthy individuals taking care of us. We are supported almost exclusively by donors just like you.
Visit us at www.c-fam.org C-FAM
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17. Sex Education As Risk Management – 29 April 2008
29 April 2008 Vol. 10 / No. 17 http://www.pop.org/
Dear Colleague,
Instead of teaching about the perfection of love in a lifelong monogamous relationship (marriage), sex education has been reduced, Pope Benedict says, to risk management. We reflect on these words.
Steven W. Mosher, President
Sex Education As Risk Management: Benedict XVI and the Lies of the Pro-Choice Movement – by Colin Mason
On 17 April 2008, Pope Benedict XVI addressed a crowd of Catholic educators gathered at the Catholic University of America. After congratulating them on their efforts against a "crisis of faith" and a "crisis of truth," he went on to tell them why American education was failing.
"We observe today a timidity in the face of the category of the good and an aimless pursuit of novelty parading as the realization of freedom," the Pope said, seated in a wooden throne designed by CUA students. "We witness an assumption that every experience is of equal worth and a reluctance to admit imperfection and mistakes. And particularly disturbing, is the reduction of the precious and delicate area of education in sexuality to management of 'risk,' bereft of any reference to the beauty of conjugal love."
While these words were primarily intended for Catholic educators across the country, they hold a special meaning for the pro-life movement. They describe, in a beautifully succinct way, what we fight against every day: a sexual culture of lies, misrepresentations and illusions that results in an epidemic of contraception, sterilization, and abortion.
The modern pro-choice movement is the spawn of the "sexual revolution" of the 1960's, in which a few million angry college students abandoned traditional norms of decency and the marriage bond. In its place they proposed a culture of what they termed "free love," which turned out to be a euphemism for unbridled lust; sex without responsibility or commitment.
As the world has since seen, sex without responsibility is sex without love. The "free love" of these sexual revolutionaries turned out to be not so free at all, but rather was emotionally and physically destructive on a rand scale.
The sex education establishment denies all this. With typically modern schizophrenia, they aggressively advertise sexuality as a no-strings-attached recreational activity, while at the same time spending all of their time warning against the risks of this behaviour. Having never known the wonder of committed, life-giving conjugal love, its adherents are passing on the only knowledge of sexuality that they do know: sex as a momentarily diverting activity with an alarming collection of risks.
Consequently, says Benedict, sex is taught as risk management. The wonder and beauty of conjugal love is reduced to a series of don'ts: Don't get a sexually transmitted disease, don't get overly attached to your temporary "partner," and, above all, don't get pregnant.
Never mind that these dangers, real and imagined, vanish when sexual activity is relegated to its proper place; i.e., marriage. For the "children of the revolution," the traditional route is not an option.
Alone among his peers, Pope Benedict reminds us that sex is a beautiful act of love, not simply risky amusement.
They justify their program by claiming that, once children are taught the "safeguards" against sex's inherent "risks," they will be free to make "informed decisions" about when and how to engage in sexual activity. This is nonsense. How can children make informed decisions when they are deliberately left uninformed about the positive purpose and true beauty of the sexual act, as well as its rightful place as the consummation of marriage?
The "freeing" of sex from the marriage bond has instead resulted in the opposite of informed choice: There is a pervasive and fundamental ignorance not only of the true purpose of the sexual act, but the true meaning of conjugal love.
Sex education leads, through the treacherous sexual pragmatism of politicians and social "experts," directly to contraception, sterilization and abortion. If kids must ride their skateboards, they say, then society must mandate helmets and kneepads. In the same way, if they must experiment with sexuality, society will provide them with convenient contraception and abortion. In other words, the "culture of death"--a term coined by Benedict's monumental predecessor, John Paul II--really began as a culture of lies.
This mentality is easily the greatest boon to the pro-abortion movement. Now that lovemaking has been robbed of love, the fruits turn into liabilities. Children become symptoms, yet another disease that follows upon "risky sex." Abortion becomes the antidote, and the new generation flocks to it because they have never known anything else.
Sex education must be replaced by education in marriage and family; love and truth must replace statistics and risks. Children beg for guidance. It is the duty of pro-life teachers to give it to them, and explain to them why true love is never free of commitment-in the best way possible.
Colin Mason is Director of Media Production at Population Research Institute.
Sign up for the Weekly Briefing Here http://www.pop.org/subscribe-weekly.cfm
Media Contact: Colin Mason
Email: colin@pop.org
(540) 622-5240, ext. 209
(c) 2007 Population Research Institute. Permission to reprint granted. Redistribute widely. Credit required.
PRI is a 501(c)(3) educational organization. If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to PRI, please go to our Donations Page.
All donations (of any size) are welcomed and appreciated.
The pro-life Population Research Institute is dedicated to ending human rights abuses committed in the name of "family planning," and to ending counter-productive social and economic paradigms premised on the myth of "overpopulation." Find us at www.pop.org.
18. Turning The Tide – May 4, 2008
Turning the Tide, the powerful DVD on euthanasia and assisted suicide is celebrating its first year of distribution. The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition has sold more than 1400 copies of Turning the Tide since its release and it has received positive reviews from people across Canada and the United States.
Turning the Tide was produced by the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition and Salt and Light media foundation.
Turning the Tide was designed to change the way secular society perceives the issues of euthanasia and assisted suicide. Secular society views the issue of euthanasia and assisted suicide as related to autonomy whereas Turning the Tide shifts the focus of the issue.
Turning the Tide presents personal stories that focus on the vulnerability of the person who is living with disability, depression or symptoms related to degenerative and/or end of life conditions. It also focuses on issues related to pain and symptom management and proper end-of-life care.
Catherine Frazee, disability studies professor at Ryerson University comments in Turning the Tide that "People like to frame this debate in the language of autonomy, or individual choice. They’ll say to me that it’s all right, you can say no, but other people will want to say yes, but I don’t think individual autonomy should ever be permitted to trump the safety and well-being of the community."
Wesley Smith comments in Turning the Tide that "You have a situation in Canada and certainly in the United States, where people are having difficulty getting access to ... good pain control, good psychiatric involvement and good social services. Are we going to say that the answer for these problems is assisted suicide?"
Senator Sharon Carstairs, former chair of the Special Senate Committee on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide answers the question on why people want euthanasia and assisted suicide by stating "The other reason (people ask for euthanasia) is they want their personal dignity. Well that says something pretty awful about each and every one of us. Why have they lost their sense of dignity? Is it because we have made them feel less than dignified?"
Jean Echlin, awarded the Dorothy Lea award for excellence in palliative care in 2004 comments in Turning the Tide that "I could never advocate for someone to suicide when I can offer them pain management and symptom management right where they are."
Turning the Tide features Bobby Schindler (Terri Schiavo's brother), Wesley Smith (Attorney, International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide), Catherine Frazee (former chair of the Ontario Human Rights Committee), Adrian Dieleman (counsellor, rehabilitation clinic for spinal cord injuries), Jean Echlin (palliative care nursing consultant), Senator Sharon Carstairs (Canadian Senator), Alex Schadenberg (executive director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition), Reg Hancock (spinal cord injury survivor) and more.
A Discussion Guide for small group or classroom presentations is included within the DVD package. The discussion guide enables groups and individuals to organize effective presentations on the issues.
The Turning the Tide DVD package includes the DVD, the Discussion Guide, a recorder sheet and other resources that are necessary for making a presentation on euthanasia and assisted suicide.
The Turning the Tide DVD package can be ordered from the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition for: $50.00 for 1 package, $70.00 for 2 packs, or $100.00 for 4 packs by contacting the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition at: Box 25033, London ON, N6C 6A8, email: info@epcc.ca, website: http://www.epcc.ca/, or calling: 1-877-439-3348. Further bulk rates exist upon request.
19. Twenty Years After Court Ruling, Pro-Life Advocates As Vocal As Ever – May 1, 2008
From EFC news
State of the debate
Twenty years after court ruling, pro-life advocates as vocal as ever – By Emily Wierenga
Special to ChristianWeek
PHOTO: ISTOCK
Twenty years after Canada decriminalized abortion, the debate is still very much alive. While some Christians focus on ensuring the pro-life voice isn't silenced, others are quietly working among the women who face difficult decisions of life and death.
Universities, fertile ground for political debate, are the setting of recent clashes over freedom of speech. York University's cancellation of a public debate, organized by a campus pro-life group on the grounds that debating abortion is comparable to debating a man's right to beat his wife, is only the most recent. After some bad press the university intervened, allowing the debate to proceed.
The Canadian Federation of Students recently compared pro-life student groups to the Ku Klux Klan. “Such comparisons are incredibly ignorant and, quite frankly, hurtful,” says Margaret Fung, president of Students for Bioethical Awareness.
Andrea Mrozek, manager of research and communications at the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada, believes that abortion needs to be debated for the health and well-being of women everywhere.
In recognition of the 20th anniversary of the decriminalization of abortion in Canada, Mrozek founded Pro-Woman Pro-Life, a group that believes strong, confident women are pro-woman when they're pro-life. In other words, being pro-life is a compassionate, pro-woman stance.
Mrozek's goal is to have the conversation from the ground up. “Top-heavy legislation... gets us nowhere with a culture of women who believe abortion to be anything from a necessary evil, to a compassionate act, to completely neutral,” says Mrozek. “We must be able to discuss the issue with complete and total freedom, and to highlight how uncompassionate abortion actually is, from a woman's perspective.”
Denise Mountenay of Canada Silent No More (CSNM) agrees. After never fully recovering from her own abortion, she founded CSNM in order to spark debate and urge support for those broken by the procedure.
At 16, Mountenay decided to have an abortion. “I thought, if my mom thinks it's okay and the government thinks it's okay, then it must be... I was dead wrong,” she says. “The doctor told me that it was just a 'clump of tissue'-another lie. My baby had a beating heart, vital organs and perfect tiny arms, legs, fingers and toes at nine weeks.”
As a result of her abortion, Mountenay suffered an infection, a damaged cervix and a badly scarred uterus. “For years I fought depression, guilt and unresolved grief,” she recalls.
Today, says Andrea O'Reilly, director of the Association for Research on Mothering at York University, 50 per cent of teenage pregnancies end in abortion. She may be pro-choice, but O'Reilly believes society can do more to encourage young mothers to keep their children.
“Our culture still punishes and penalizes young people for getting pregnant,” she says. “Teen moms are wrongly judged. They need respect, support and compassion. They need to know their lives are not over, and they can continue on with their own dreams.”
This February Jessica Ronan, an 18-year-old high-school dropout from Edmonton, gave birth to a healthy, seven-pound baby. Formerly a promiscuous drug-addict, Ronan cleaned up her life after discovering she was pregnant. Despite pressure to abort from the baby's father-a drug dealer-and Ronan's own mother who said she'd refuse to let Ronan live at home if she kept the baby, Ronan chose to keep her child.
“I just kept picturing my baby as being me,” she says. “I couldn't imagine ending his life and his future.”
Today Ronan is extremely thankful for little Joey-as are his father and grandmother. “You don't even know how much I love him,” Ronan said two days following the delivery. “I never thought I could feel this way. Every time he cries, I bawl my eyes out. I love him so much.”
“Motherhood is self-defining,” says O'Reilly, who believes women are natural creators and nurturers. “No matter a woman's choice, it will stay with her the rest of her life. Unfortunately, for those who choose abortion, this can mean a lifetime of reoccurring nightmares.”
Mountenay recounts the story of Maria, who used abortion as a form of birth control. “Later she tried to commit suicide; [when] she was blessed to have children, she couldn't accept gifts from them. On Mother's Day she would hide in her bedroom in the dark and cry,” she says.
“Every day, young women are being lied to and going into clinics, many pressured by boyfriends and parents. Over two million women in Canada have had an abortion in the last 20 years; many suffer in silence. It's time to break that silence,” Mountenay says.
Rachel's Vineyard is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping men and women talk about their abortion experiences and find healing.
Founded 13 years ago in the U.S. by Theresa Burke, the grassroots initiative has grown from 18 retreats in 1999 to more than 600 in 2007, including many in Canada.
Burke says “the unhealed trauma of an abortion experience can create a living hell for those who suffer. The quest for true healing, therefore, frequently becomes a spiritual journey.”
Rachel's Vineyard provides a place for women and men to gather and mourn the loss of their infants. “Death transfuses our veins with blood-throbbing heartache, anguish and intense yearning for someone who cannot be retrieved,” says Burke. “We weep. We recall regrets-our role in what has happened, and the child we will miss.”
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