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Is Abortion Really Only One Issue?
As we draw near to Election Day in this very contentious campaign, some Christian voters say that abortion is only one issue. They believe it is fine to vote for a candidate who has vowed both to expand abortion coverage and to choose Supreme Court justices who likewise favor the expansion of this gruesome practice. These voters consider other issues such as immigration reform, gun control, or environmental issues to be more important than ending legal abortion in the United States. It is undeniable that all of these issues and many others are important, but do any of them really matter as much as the right to life does? Consider these facts:
The estimated total of abortions in the United States since 1973 exceeds 58.5 million (Life News 2016/1/14). The US Census Bureau estimates the current population of the United States to be over 324.7 million. (www.census.gov). This means that in the United States since 1973 we have aborted the equivalent of more than 18% of the current population!
The combined population of the 26 lowest populated states of the United States (as tabulated by the US Census Bureau’s 2015 estimates) is less than the number of babies who have died by abortion in our country since 1973! You could eliminate the total populations of: Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming; and you still would not equal the number of babies who have died by abortion in the United States since the Supreme Court’s January 22, 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.
Before you vote for a candidate who has promised to expand abortion coverage please ask yourself, “If I had lived in Germany during World War II would I have supported Adolf Hitler if I had known he was promoting the slaughter of more than 6 million innocent Jewish people?” If your answer is no, then please don’t vote for a candidate who is favoring a practice that has already caused the death of NINE TIMES more innocent people than the Nazis murdered.
If you have had an abortion, supported abortion rights, or voted pro-abortion in the past, then please turn back to Jesus– Who is infinitely Merciful– and Who prayed for us all as He was dying, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).
Sister Mary Rose, DMML
Black Lives Matter from Conception Until Natural Death
Hillary Clinton, speaking in a Baptist church in Columbia, South Carolina on Tuesday, February 23, 2016, courted black voters as she sympathized with five black mothers whose children had died by gun violence. Does Clinton really think that too many blacks have died violently? How then is it that in receiving the Margaret Sanger award at the 2009 Planned Parenthood Honors Gala in Houston, Clinton said, “I admire Margaret Sanger enormously, her courage, her tenacity, her vision; I am really in awe of her, there are a lot of lessons we can learn from her life.”?
Margaret Sanger (1879-1966), the founder of Planned Parenthood, was a racist eugenicist. She worked closely with the theorists who put together Nazi Germany’s “race purification” program and she sought the elimination of races whom she considered to be inferior. Sanger once wrote: “The most successful educational approach to the Negro, is through a religious appeal. We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population and the Minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.”
Now consider that the organization that Margaret Sanger founded, Planned Parenthood, is the largest provider of abortions in the United States and that 79% of its clinics are in minority neighborhoods. Statistics from the Center for Disease Control indicate that in 2010 alone more than 81% of the abortions done in New York City were done on black or Hispanic women. Six out of ten black babies are currently being aborted in New York City. In 2014 blacks were estimated to account for 13.2% of the total U.S. population of 318,857,056 which would be 42,089,131. Since the notorious 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion it is estimated that 15,500,000 black babies have died by abortion. Isn’t it odd that Hillary Clinton who said of young blacks dying by violence, “That’s too many deaths. Too many young lives cut short,” does not consider it contradictory to ardently support Sanger’s brainchild which has contributed to the equivalent of more than 36.8% of the current black population in the United States being slain in the womb?
The Old Man and Marriage Before the Fall
In 1805 explorers of Franconia Notch in NH were amazed to see an outcropping of rock formation on the side of a mountain that resembled the profile of an old man. This “old man of the mountain” became the icon of New Hampshire, appearing on license plates, toll tokens, and road signs. Suddenly in the middle of the stormy night of May 3, 2003 the tons of rock forming the icon collapsed. The resulting ruins left the state’s icon unrecognizable!
Committees met to discuss what could be done about the calamity. Restoring the rocks to their original appearance seemed impossible. Eventually a brilliant solution was proposed. The state created a viewing area at the base of the mountain and designed six steel profilers. These poles were installed on May 11, 2011. By standing on a marked stone and looking through one eye at the side of a steel profiler a person can now see a restored view of the Old Man on the Mountain!
The recovery of an icon is a great gift. In our society the icon value of marriage has been devastated by the vast increase in divorce and the skewed view of marriage propagated by such entities as the United States Supreme Court. Marriage between man and woman is intended by God to be an icon of the marriage of Divinity with humanity that occurred through the Incarnation, Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ (cf. Eph 5:31-32). How can we once again begin to recognize the beauty of this icon?
When the Pharisees asked Jesus why Moses had allowed a man to divorce his wife and marry another Jesus said, “For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so” (Mt 19:8). The first 23 Theology of the Body talks that Pope St. John Paul II gave beginning in 1979 focused on what Jesus meant by saying “from the beginning it was not so.” It was John Paul II’s goal to restore in the minds of the people a perspective on the icon of marriage as an expression of mankind’s call to eternal communion with God. Through being created male and female in His image and likeness and called to self-giving love and fruitfulness man and woman were called to establish the family as a communion of loving persons reflecting the Triune God. John Paul II went on in his subsequent 106 talks to explain how Jesus Christ, Redeemer, has come as Bridegroom and united through Baptism and Eucharist His Bride, the Church to Himself as One Body. Jesus has given us His own Spirit and allowed us to call God “Father.” He has made His Bride, the Church exceedingly fruitful. Marriage between man and woman continues to be the icon of this reality.
If a person looks only at the ruins of the current culture’s view of marriage it is difficult to imagine how beautiful was the gift of marriage in God’s original creation before the fall. The icon value of marriage has been shattered by original sin and centuries of subsequent sin—but not beyond redemption. In his brilliant presentation of the Theology of the Body which can be found in the book Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body, St. John Paul II has given humanity a renewed perspective on God’s original plan for man and woman before the fall and on God’s re-establishment of the integrity of marriage through Jesus Christ the Redeemer. The icon of earthly marriage is meant to lead us toward the deeper Reality which alone can satisfy our hearts forever. It is the invitation to eternal communion with the Blessed Trinity and the whole communion of saints. It’s all a matter of getting the right perspective!
Cottontails versus Babies
posted in: Pro-Life
In light of the recent horrific revelations regarding Planned Parenthood I wrote to US Senator Jeanne Shaheen requesting that she work for the defunding of this eugenic, racist organization. Yesterday, not surprisingly, she emailed back a letter to me filled with glowing praise for all that Planned Parenthood supposedly does to help women. Today (9-12-15) Jeanne Shaheen’s picture was on the front cover of the Foster’s Daily Democrat under the headline “Cottontail No Longer Endangered.” The picture shows her releasing cottontails into the wild.
What could be more ironic than a “Catholic” Senator who promotes abortion being praised for taking care of cottontails? Where is Shaheen’s concern for the millions of babies who are being brutally murdered and then sold for parts by Planned Parenthood? Even if Jeanne Shaheen did a tiny bit of research she would learn that Margaret Sanger who founded Planned Parenthood was a racist eugenicist. She was an associate of Hitler and she commissioned Dr. Ernst Rudin, the director of the Nazi Medical Experimentation Program to write an article in her magazine, The Birth Control Review. In her book entitled The Pivot of Civilization, Sanger argued for the elimination of “the Negro race” and for the sterilization of “genetically inferior races.” Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, more than 13 million African American babies have died by abortion (http://www.blackgenocide.org/black.html). That is equivalent to approximately 29% of the current African American population in the United States!
One would have to be seriously deluded or extremely naïve to think that Planned Parenthood is actually helping women. Ask Abby Johnson or any of the millions of grieving post-abortive women what they now think of Planned Parenthood. Nothing against cottontails!
Are Your Tax Dollars Funding Racism?
posted in: Pro-Life
Are your tax dollars funding racism?
In the 2012-2013 fiscal year Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the United States, reported that it had received $540.6 million dollars in taxpayer funded government grants.
Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, worked closely with the scientists who devised Hitler’s “race purification” program. She commissioned Dr. Ernst Rudin, director of the Nazi Medical Experimentation Program, to write for the magazine she was publishing, The Birth Control Review. In her book, Women and the New Race, Sanger wrote that “the most merciful thing a large family can do to one of its infant members is to kill it.” In her newspaper, The Woman Rebel, Sanger wrote, “I look forward to seeing humanity free someday from the tyranny of Christianity no less than Capitalism.” Sanger, like Hitler, believed in eliminating races whom she considered to be inferior. In 1939 Sanger devised the “Negro Project” whereby she enlisted black ministers to propagandize for birth control. She said, “The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population and the Minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.” (Grand Illusions; The Legacy of Planned Parenthood by George Grant)
Since January 22, 1973 when the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision legalized abortion in the United States, more than 16,000,000 African American babies have been killed by abortion (about 25% of the African American population). Although African Americans comprise only 11 % of the national population, more than 43% of all abortions done in the United States are done on African American women. (www.priestsforlife.org)
In 2010, Dr. Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote, “The most obvious practitioner of racism in the United States today is Planned Parenthood, an organization founded by the eugenicist Margaret Sanger and recently documented as ready to accept money to eliminate black babies. The most positive step we can take to fight racism is to end the hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies given to an organization that fulfills the dreams of the Ku Klux Klan – a group Planned Parenthood’s founder once addressed.” (www.priestsforlife.org)
Perhaps of more concern than her secret e-mails as Secretary of State is Hillary Rodham Clinton’s remarks upon receiving Planned Parenthood’s “prestigious” 2009 Margaret Sanger award: “I admire Margaret Sanger enormously, her courage, her tenacity, her vision. I am really in awe of her; there are a lot of lessons we can learn from her life.” (www.priestsforlife.org)
The Dawn of the Culture of Life
posted in: Pro-Life
Sister Esther Marie and I had the privilege of attending the Vigil for Life Mass and the March for Life which occurred in Washington, D.C. on January 21- 22, 2015. At the Vigil Mass at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception I counted more than 40 Bishops in the opening procession. The procession itself, which also included hundreds of seminarians, deacons, and priests, took more than half an hour. Prior to the Mass we had attended the March for Life Conference and Expo and the Culture of Life Seminar which were held at the DC Renaissance Hotel. The purpose of these events was to educate the participants regarding the March for Life theme which this year was “Every Life is a Gift.”
The following morning prior to the actual March we attended the Youth Rally and Mass for Life which took place at the Verizon Center. There are so many young people who attend this Mass each year that the archdiocese of Washington has had to present it in two locations—another Mass was held at the DC Armory at the same time. Many of the young people attending these events had traveled for more than ten hours by bus to offer their witness to the beauty of life. The actual March for Life began at about 1:00 pm (after various representatives had given pro-life speeches near the Washington Monument). I have attended several Marches but this year’s was the most crowded in which I have ever participated! At one point we came to a standstill for quite a while since there was no room to walk forward! I saw only about 15 people who were advocating for abortion. Later I read in a newspaper that “thousands marched for life.” Having been there I can assure you that it would have been much more accurate to say that “hundreds of thousands marched for life.”
Although the secular media tends to ignore the significance of these events which take place each January in our nation’s capital, it is critically important that we all know that they are occurring because is it the dawn of the culture of life! With the help of God, Life is beginning to overcome the grim and disturbing culture of death which has become so noxiously pervasive in our country and throughout the world!
Shortly after returning from the March for Life I read a very misleading editorial in our local newspaper which is an example of the deceptiveness of the culture of death. It was written by Kate Murray and entitled “Banning information won’t reduce abortions.” The main premise of this editorial was that “education about contraception is a pretty good way to reduce unwanted pregnancies that may end in abortion.” The fact is that education about contraception would be useful if people were taught that oral contraceptives sometimes act as abortifacients and that they have been linked to increase risk of: cervical and breast cancers, heart attack and stroke, migraines, higher blood pressure, gall bladder disease, infertility, benign liver tumors, decreased bone density, yeast overgrowth and infection, and increased risk of blood clotting. http://bodyecology.com/articles/dangers_birth_control_pill.php#.VMzs7c85C1s
Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood clinic director, would dispute the naïve opinion promoted in this editorial that “everyone involved in women’s health care works to limit the number of necessary abortions.” In her book, Unplanned, she states, “I no longer saw Planned Parenthood as a benevolent charitable organization with the goal of decreasing unwanted pregnancies. I was now convinced that it was an abortion machine in the business of killing unborn babies and meeting revenue goals.” (pg. 130)
The third fallacy in this editorial was the assumption that killing unborn babies is ever necessary! For every baby that is killed by abortion in the United States there are 36 infertile couples who have a great desire to adopt a baby. Any one of these couples would adopt that baby in a heartbeat! http://liveactionnews.org/abortion-vs-adoption-why-so-many-choose-the-first-and-what-we-can-do/
Few people realize the magnitude of the crisis that has occurred through abortion. At this date we in the United States have killed more than 57.5 million of our children through abortion. This is equivalent to more than 18% of the current population which in 2013 was estimated at 316.1 million.
Education about the beautiful gift of human sexuality and procreation would be much more beneficial than teaching people, through the use of contraception and abortion, to treat one another as objects to be manipulated and exploited for sexual pleasure. People should be respected as unique personal subjects whose masculinity or femininity deserves to be respected for its awesome inseparable powers of unity and procreation.
One Woman’s Choice and the 40 Days for Life
posted in: Pro-Life
I heard David Bereit (appropriately pronounced “Be Right”) speak at the NH Right to Life Banquet in 2012. He riveted the audience’s attention as he told how he and three others launched the first 40 Days for Life campaign in Bryan/College Station, Texas in 2004. The idea for the campaign came after acknowledging the futility of their efforts to fight against abortion and deciding to set aside an hour to intensely pray and ask the Lord for direction. It was during that hour that the idea came to spend 40 days in prayer and fasting with a nonstop peaceful vigil outside the abortion clinic that would include educational outreach to the local community. Although more than 100 babies’ lives were spared during that first Texas campaign, David and his friends had no idea what a mighty tree was about to sprout from the small seed they had planted!
At first a few nearby towns began to use the 40 Days for Life model. As the success of these campaigns became more widely known, more and more cities became involved. Now ten years later there are 559 cities in all 50 states of the United States participating at 3,336 vigil sites in the September 24- November 2, 2014 campaign. Pro-life people in 26 other countries have likewise begun 40 Days for Life campaigns.
During the ten years since 40 Days for Life began there have been 9,012 babies saved from abortion, 101 abortion workers have been converted, 57 abortion facilities have closed, and more than 625,000 people of all denominations have joined together to pray for an end to the very worst form of child abuse—abortion!
In the Book of Exodus we read how God saved a whole nation from slavery because one infant boy sentenced to be killed by the Pharaoh’s evil law was rescued from death through the wisdom of his mother. It may be that our whole nation will be saved from the slavery to sin to which abortion has reduced us by the decision of another mother who not so long ago decided to rescue her son from death.
You see, David Bereit told us about another David, a friend of his, who came to his house for dinner one night several months before the first 40 Days for Life campaign. This David said to David Bereit, “If we really believed that babies were being killed in that abortion clinic we would be there praying day and night.”
This thought was on David Bereit’s mind on the night they prayed for the Lord’s guidance. After their plans were made, David Bereit called his friend David and said, “Well, we decided to have a prayer vigil outside the abortion clinic for 40 days and nights nonstop. What is going to be your prayer commitment?” The other David replied, “Put me down for every night from 11:00 pm to 7:00 am.” This David, despite being a family man and working full time, faithfully kept this prayer commitment.
Later on David Bereit asked him why he had prayed so many hours. He said that when his father was dying he used to go to visit him every day. The father would always begin their visit by saying, “Let’s pray a Rosary for an end to abortion.” Finally one day the son said, “Why do we always have to pray a Rosary for this intention?” The father said, “When I was a teenager I got a girl pregnant and I told her that she would have to abort the baby. I set up an appointment for her at the abortion clinic and I waited for her to come. She never came. I was very angry that she had stood me up. Now I am dying and you are the only one who comes to visit me. What would I have done if your mother had kept that appointment and aborted you?”