Food for Thought

From Catholic Culture
By Diogenes

Imagine that a group of Americans began systematically destroying church buildings.

Now imagine that a leading political figure announced that, while he did not approve of the destruction, he would defend the right of individuals to destroy churches if they wanted to do so.

Two questions:

1. Do you suppose that politician would receive an honorary degree from Notre Dame?

2. Are we only concerned with protecting the temples made by human hands?

Notre Dame, My Mother

From First Things
By Lacy Dodd

For many members of the Notre Dame Class of 2009, the uproar surrounding the university’s decision to honor Barack Obama with this year’s commencement address, and to bestow on him a doctorate of laws, has provoked strong feelings about what the ensuing conflict will mean for their graduation.

I know how they feel. Ten years ago, my heart was filled with similar conflicts as we came closer to the day of my own Notre Dame commencement and my commissioning as an officer in the United States Army.

You see, I was three months pregnant.

That March, I had gone—alone—to a local woman’s clinic to take a test. The results were positive, and I was so numb I almost didn’t grasp what the nurse was getting at when she assured me I had “other options.” What did “other options” mean? And what kind of world is it that defines compassion as telling a young woman who has just learned she is carrying life inside her that she has the option to destroy it?

Read the rest of this entry >>

Percentage of Americans Approving Abortion Dropped 8% since August: Pew Poll

From LifeSiteNews
By Tim Waggoner

Despite President Barack Obama's strong promotion of abortion in his first 100 days as president, a new study has revealed an overall increase in the number of Americans believing abortion should be illegal in most cases.

The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press was conducted from March 31-April 21, among 1,521 adults.

The survey found that the overall support for legal abortion dropped from 54% last August to 46% this month, with the number of people supporting the illegalization of abortion rising 3% to 44%.

The slide in abortion support is due mainly to a change in the persuasion of men, with the percentage of males believing abortion should be legal falling 10% to 43% and the proportion feeling it should be illegal rising 4% to 46%.

The greatest change among religious groups was found among white mainline Protestants, with 54% believing abortion should be legal, compared with 69% in August. Only 23% of Evangelical Protestants thought abortion should be legal, making them the most pro-life religious group.

Support for abortion also declined by 24% among moderate and liberal Republicans. The Center reported that 67% of liberal and moderate Republicans said abortion should be legal in August 2008. In this month's survey, that number had fallen to only 43%.

Support for abortion declined by 11% among independents. The Center reported 55% of independents said abortion should be legal in August 2008. In this month's survey, that number had fallen to 44%.

See the full Pew Research report here:
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1212/abortion-gun-control-opinion-gender-gap

Homeland Security Targets Abortion Opposition as Warning Sign of "Rightwing Extremism"

. . . Department document authored under virulent pro-abort Janet Napolitano

From LifeSiteNews
By Kathleen Gilbert


A report summary issued by the Department of Homeland Security to local law enforcement officials across the country targets abortion opposition, among other normative conservative viewpoints, as symptomatic of a potentially violent "rightwing extremism."

(To view the full document: http://88.80.13.160.nyud.net/leak/us-dhs-right-wing-extremis...)

The nine-page document entitled "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment," includes a footnote explaining that the term "rightwing extremism" in the U.S. "may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration," as well as groups that reject "federal authority in favor of state or local authority."

The document also warns that "rightwing extremists are harnessing this historical election as a recruitment tool," and as such are "antagonistic toward the new presidential administration and its perceived stance on a range of issues."

The document claims that such groups have "exploited a variety of social issues and political themes to increase group visibility and recruit new members," including "white supremacists' longstanding exploitation of social issues such as abortion, inter-racial crimes, and same-sex marriage."

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, prior to joining the Obama administration, was known to both sides of the abortion debate as an extreme abortion supporter. As Arizona's governor, Napolitano had vetoed several anti-abortion bills, including a partial birth abortion ban and a bill protecting pharmacists' conscience rights.

Numerous conservative and pro-life voices across the country expressed outrage at the federal document's assertions.

"Even though we were kind of concerned that this might happen, I would say this report was still pretty shocking," Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women of America (CWA), told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) today.

Wright said the document was "deja vu" of the Clinton-era taskforce known as VAAPCON - Violence Against Abortion Providers Conspiracy - which had targeted pro-life groups as potential domestic terrorists. VAAPCON investigated groups including CWA, the Christian Coalition, the National Right to Life Committee, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, and even the late Catholic Cardinal John O'Connor of New York.

Wright wrote a letter to U.S. senators late last month to voice concern that a repeat of the VAAPCON affair could result from the return of several former Clinton administration officials in the Obama administration.

“It’s disturbing that the writers of the report consider people who want to protect innocent life from violent deaths as potential terrorists," said Wright. "It shows a dangerous bias and incompetence from people who are tasked with keeping our country safe and free.

"They clearly did not do a professional job because they failed to learn who we are and what motivates us," she continued. "Instead they projected and exposed their irrational prejudices. If pro-lifers are blindly labeled a ‘suspect group’ then DHS may be setting the stage for more serious actions against us.”

Steven Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute (PRI), objected to the document, saying, "The pro-life movement is the largest, most peaceful movement in the history of the United States."

"To group tens of millions of loving pro-life activists with a handful of hateful neo-Nazis and white supremacist groups, as the report does, libels a large segment of the American population," said Mosher. "It is deeply troubling that the government agency in charge of our nation's domestic security would resort to such guilt-by-association tactics."

Mosher also challenged the conflation of the pro-life movement with white supremacism. "Pro-lifers categorically reject this thinly veiled charge of racism," Mosher said. "In fact, the pro-life movement has long been particularly concerned with the high rate of abortion among black women, and has sought to reduce it by providing alternatives to abortion, including privately supported homes for unwed mothers."

Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel for the conservative constitutional law group American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), says the ACLJ is preparing a legal analysis and will be launching a nationwide campaign in the days ahead to demand that the DHS remove the reference from its warning.

"This is an outrageous characterization that raises serious questions about the leadership and direction of the agency charged with protecting Americans in the ongoing battle against terrorism," said Sekulow.

"This characterization is not only offensive to millions of Americans who hold constitutionally-protected views opposing abortion - but also raises serious concerns about the political agenda of an agency with a mandate to protect America."

Obama: The First 50 Days

Father Alphonse de Valk of Catholic Insight Magazine has documented the policies and appointments that constitute the most demonic and ambitious assault on human life and the family ever waged in the United States. That assault, by Obama and his appointees, is gaining momentum. With permission, we are pleased to reprint Father de Valk's documentation of the first fifty days of Obama's campaign for a culture of death.

From Catholic Insight
By Father Alphonse de Valk

Obama has appointed one vice-president, 13 secretaries, four directors, five legal counsels and 13 White House staff for a total of 36 people. Of these, 23 are known to be pro-abortion. Of the remaining 13, only one is known to be pro-life (the secretary of transportation); the views of the others are unknown to us. Of the White House staff, none are known to be pro-life.

In addition, the vice-president, five secretaries and one director (that of the CIA) are Catholics. All of them, however, disown the Church’s teaching on the dignity and protection of all human life, from conception to natural death.

We would appreciate receiving notices of any documentable errors and omissions in this tabulation, so that it may be corrected as need be.

The anti-life assault begins

The election of Barack Obama as president, Catholic Insight stated in a November 3, 2008 press release, would turn out to be a disaster for the advance of a pro-life culture.

On the most important cultural issue of all, the equality and dignity of all human beings before God, he represents the greatest threat today, even more so than the notorious Marxist revolution of 1917 with its attack on the family. That revolution was rejected by the Western world. On the other hand, Obama's leadership is being hailed as a sign of hope across the world and welcomed with open arms. Obama has a 100 per cent approval rating from NARAL Pro-Choice America, the U.S.’s leading pro-abortion organization. That rating is based on a record of consistently voting against the unborn.

Obama has told Planned Parenthood he regards so-called choice as “a fundamental issue” on which he will not yield. He voted against an Induced Infant Liability Act in the Illinois legislature in 2002; this would have given legal protection and medical assistance to babies born from botched abortions. He also voted against banning partial-birth abortion in the Senate in October 2007.

On another key issue, the integrity of the traditional family, in 2004 Obama called the Defence of Marriage Act an “abhorrent law” and added: “The repeal of DOMA is essential ... For the record, I opposed DOMA in 1996. It should be repealed and I will vote for its repeal on the Senate floor. I will also oppose any proposal to amend the U.S. Constitution to ban gays and lesbians from ‘marrying.’”

“We must be careful to keep our eyes on the prize – equal rights for every American,” he has told homosexual activists. “We must continue to fight for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). We must vigorously expand hate-crime legislation and be vigilant about how these laws are enforced. We must continue to expand adoption rights to make them consistent and seamless throughout all 50 states and we must repeal the ‘don't ask, don't tell’ military policy.”

Apart from issues of human life and the family, there are numerous other question marks surrounding Obama, many of which are covered by Dr. Jerome Corsi in his New York Times bestselling book, The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality (see the review on page 32 of the April 2009 edition of Catholic Insight).

Inauguration

January 20, 2009: Barack Obama is sworn in as president of the United States of America. His original birth certificate is not available. He calls himself a “person of faith,” without specifying what faith he means. It is not Christianity as founded by Jesus and entrusted to his Apostles.

In his inaugural address, Obama neglects to mention the American founders’ emphasis on life and liberty as the first of the inalienable rights in the Declaration of Independence. Five minutes after Obama becomes president, the White House website changes from pro-life to pro-abortion.

Policies

January 21: The president is at work selecting members of his staff and cabinet while Congress, where Democrats have a majority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, sets to work developing policies and legislation to advance the agnostic-atheist attack on the Judeo-Christian foundations of law and order.

In Congress, Obama receives assistance from numerous Catholic politicians who have scuttled Catholic moral teaching in favour of “political correctness,” i.e., various aspects of modern hedonism and the culture of death. While the overriding focus of attention during the first 50 days is the economy, the bailout of banks, various “stimulus” packages and the housing credit and unemployment crises, the anti-life agenda was set in motion from the beginning.

January 21-22: Obama signs executive orders calling for the closure of Guantanamo Bay (January 22), a ban on torture (January 22) and new rules regarding transparency and lobbyists (January 21). This is what draws the attention of the world.

January 21: Meanwhile, the White House website is updated — under the title “Civil Rights,” for the LGBT activists, it reads:

• SSM (same-sex “marriage”)
• Repeal the Defence of Marriage Act (DOMA)
• Repeal the army’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy
• Pass “hate crime” legislation granting “transgendered” homosexual activists and crossdressers equal rights
• Pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA)
• Promote “gay adoption” (i.e., motherless or fatherless homes for children)

January 22: Buried in the House Stimulus Bill, in Section 5004, is the “State Eligibility Option for Family Planning.” This would make national Medicaid a money machine to the tune of $87 billion for family planning clinics in the United States. (Family planning in the U.S., as well as in Canada and elsewhere, means: “Planning not to have families,” i.e., promote contraception, sterilization and abortion.) The U.S. already spends more than $400 million on overseas “family planning” assistance each year.

• The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves a guide for the use of embryonic stem cells for human trial. (To this point in time, embryonic stem cell research has never cured or helped any patient; on the other hand, the use of adult stem cells already has some 80 medical achievements on its roster.)

• Two hundred thousand people walk in the March for Life in Washington, marking the 36th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision establishing abortion throughout the U.S.

• Obama issues a written statement that he backs a woman’s “right to choose.”

January 23: Obama overturns, by executive order, the Mexico City Policy of previous presidents that forbade the funding of abortions and abortion groups outside U.S. boundaries. (No TV cameras or press were present for the signing on a late Friday afternoon when news services were shut down. Hundreds of millions of dollars will go to support abortions in poor countries, especially in Asia, Africa and South America.)

• Appended to the statement announcing the end of the Mexico City Policy, Obama declared: “In addition, I look forward to working with Congress to restore U.S. financial support for the UN Population Fund.” (That funding was halted in 2002 when a State Department investigation showed the Fund supported China’s coercive one-child-per- family policy through forced abortions and sterilizations.)

January 25: House of Representatives majority leader Nancy Pelosi (a pro-abortion, pro-same-sex “marriage” Catholic) declares that contraception is now part of the U.S. economy.

January 26: Obama calls upon Democratic leaders to remove the “family planning” provisions supported by Pelosi from the $825-billion stimulus bill, after Americans and media outlets, such as the Drudge Report, ridicule the items as non-starters in stimulating the economy and creating more jobs. Senate Republicans threaten a filibuster.

January 27: A Congressional committee debates the Prevention First Act (PFA), which, if passed, would hand over millions for “family planning” methods, attack freedom of conscience rights for health providers and financially pave the way for the proposed Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), which would strip all states of the ability to restrict abortions and homosexual activism. The Prevention First Act was introduced by Senate majority leader Harry Reid (a pro-abortion Mormon) on January 6, 2009. The act claims to reduce unintended pregnancies and abortion and is based on the premise that contraception prevents abortion. (In reality, contraception is the gateway to abortion.)

• Susan Rice, Obama’s new ambassador to the UN, pledges support for the convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Already, the CEDAW committee has tried to bully 93 countries into making abortion legal.

• The administrator of the USAID foreign assistance program, pro-lifer Kent Hill, is replaced with Alonzo Fulgham, the CEO of the agency, who announces that the reversal of the Mexico City Policy is being implemented immediately. Fulgham issues a formal notice informing field offices worldwide.

• The director of the UN Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), pro-abortion Thoraya Obaid (Saudi Arabia), welcomes Obama’s restoration of $50 million to the UNFPA’s coffers and its coercive population control plans. “Access to reproductive health (a code word for contraception, sterilization and abortion) is the core of equality for women and girls,” she says. The funding had been suspended since 2002.

January 28: Obama tells Democrats to remove a bailout for the Planned Parenthood abortion business ($200 million for 295 abortuaries and 850 consultation centres) from the economic stimulus bill after vigorous pro-life protests, for fear that it might jeopardize the bill’s passage. It is dropped on January 30.

• The Senate defeats an amendment to restore the Mexico City Policy, 60-37. (Eighteen of 24 Catholic Senators voted to defeat it.)

• Pro-life groups continue their massive protests and opposition to the FOCA bill, which has been filed with Congress. The act would outlaw every abortion restriction passed by Congress, state legislatures or local communities. Obama has repeatedly expressed his support for FOCA, the last time on January 22, 2008, the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. FOCA’s sponsor is Senator Barbara Boxer (a pro-abortion Jew).

January 29: The UN children’s agency UNICEF launches its annual report, stating: “Having a child remains one of the biggest health risks for women worldwide.” It recommends global financing for “family planning” and “reproductive health services” as the primary way to reduce maternal deaths. It then admits that the statistics on worldwide annual deaths are subject “to a high degree of uncertainty.”

• The Senate, by a 59-39 vote, rejects national medical coverage in the SCHIP program for unborn children and their pregnant mothers. This, pro-life sources say, will lead to more abortions, supposedly against the president’s intention of reducing abortions.

February 5: Obama’s new group of 24 faith-based advisors includes Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Washington-based Religious Action Centre of Reform Judaism, which was a sponsor of a 2004 pro-abortion march by Planned Parenthood and NARAL. Other pro-abortion members are added later.

February 6: The Senate refuses to remove a discrimination clause against the religious use of university facilities benefiting from the stimulus bill.

February 19: The federal government is drafting guidelines that will be put in place once Obama approves federal funds for embryonic stem cell research.

February 25: As feared by pro-life groups, the Omnibus Appropriations Bill cuts funding for abstinence education by $54 million, while giving more money to Planned Parenthood programs. This leaves only $95 million for national programs. This money disappears later on.

• Time magazine, in attacking opponents of the FOCA bill, is accused of many inaccuracies, non-sequiturs and misrepresentations. Time has described the bill as “mythical.” Yet, Obama announced his intentions to sign such a bill in 2006, again in a July 2007 speech to Planned Parenthood and once more on January 22, 2008 on the Roe v. Wade anniversary.

February 27: • The Obama administration prepares to rescind conscience rules for health care workers. Obama officials tell the Chicago Tribune that, for the Provider Conscience Law and other regulations protecting medical personnel against involvement in abortions, they are opening a 30-day public comment period, after which they will rescind the law. Pro-abortion groups have long desired to coerce all medical personnel and hospitals into providing contraception and sterilizations and committing abortions. As one writer put it, “This is a declaration of war on all who oppose the killing of the unborn.”

March 5: The Senate, by a 55-39 vote, rejects an amendment to stop funds from going to the United Nations Population Fund.

March 6: Obama shuts out pro-life groups from attending today’s White House health care summit, called to discuss how health care reform should be implemented. Pro-abortion groups like Planned Parenthood, however, are invited to attend.

March 9: Obama eliminates eight-year-old limits on federal money for the use of embryonic stem cells for research — which kills newly conceived embryos — by presidential decree, in a room packed with scientists.

• The health secretary announces the intention to abolish the “final rule” (protection of conscience for health workers opposed to abortion, contraception, IVF, etc).

March 10: The end of the first 50 days. Except for publicity about the new financing of stem cell research and a mention of the overturning of the Mexico City Policy, adoring liberal daily newspapers have not mentioned Obama’s new Death Culture.

March 12: The Senate stimulus bill contains a bailout package for Planned Parenthood.

• The Senate rejects by a 55-39 vote an amendment to stop U.S. taxpayer funding of the UNFPA. The UNFPA backs policies of forced abortion and sterilizations, as in China.

Appointments

During the first 50 days, Obama selected the most anti-life, anti-family radicals he could find for his administration.

• Vice-President Joseph Biden (senator, Catholic, pro-abortion, pro-same-sex “marriage”)
• Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (Methodist, feminist, extremely pro-abortion). Clinton controls the American UN delegation
• Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano (former governor of Arizona, Catholic, strongly pro-abortion and pro-SSM)
• Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar (senator from Colorado, Catholic, pro-abortion)
• Secretary of Defence Robert Gates, a holdover from the Bush administration
• Secretary of Veterans Affairs Ken Shinseki (retired four-star general, Medical Corps; disagreed with former secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld)
• National Security advisor Retired Marine General James Jones
• Labour Secretary Thida (Hilda) Solis (California congresswoman, Catholic, pro-abortion)
• Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood (Rep Congressman, pro-life)
• Secretary of Education Arne Duncan (favours separate schools for homosexuals)
• Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner (president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, a Bill Clinton holdover)
• Secretary of Energy Steven Chu (1997 Nobel prize in physics)
• Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan (New York Housing
Commissioner)
• Central Intelligence Agency director Leon Panetta (former congressman; Bill Clinton’s chief of staff, a pro-abortion Catholic)
• Food and Drug Administration director Margaret Hamburger (New York City health commissioner under Mayor Rudy Giuliani, pro-abortion). An earlier appointment was listed as Jane Henney (headed the FDA under Clinton; professor at the University of Cincinnati, approved abortion drug RU 486 (mifepristone))
• Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack (governor of Iowa, 1999-2007; Catholic, pro-abortion)

Legal Counsel

• Attorney-General Eric Holder. The first African-American to hold this office (was deputy attorney-general under Janet Reno during the Clinton years)
• Deputy Attorney-General David Ogden (denies negative effects of abortion; considers pregnancy a form of slavery; was a lawyer for Playboy and other pornographic interests)
• Office of Legal Counsel, White House (assists attorney-general in her role as legal adviser to the president). Dawn Johnsen (pro-abortion, lawyer and legal director for NARAL Pro-Choice America, 1988-1933, professor at Indiana University School of Law)
• Assistant Deputy Attorney-General Thomas Perrelli (lawyer, pro-euthanasia, represented Terry Schiavo’s husband in his successful quest to have his wife starved and dehydrated to death)
• Solicitor-General Elena Kagan (strong abortion supporter. The solicitor-general represents the government before the Supreme Court)

Health

• Health Secretary and Health Services (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius (former governor of Kansas, Catholic, pro-abortion, including support for late term abortions (Ontario and Quebec send late-term abortions to Kansas, paying an average of $5,000 (US) for each.) HHS would play a role in getting abortion coverage in the new health program and make it mandatory that hospitals or insurance companies cover abortion.)
• Health Care Office, White House. Nancy-Ann De Parle, political advisor (pro-abortion)
• Deputy health care director Jeanne Lambow (pro-abortion)

Other Clinton Holdovers and Washington Lobbyists for White House Appointments (Do Not Require Congressional Approval)

• Chief of Staff, White House. Rahm Emanuel (congressman from Illinois, Jewish, pro-abortion — has a 100 per cent NARAL “pro-choice” rating; pro-SSM)
• White House political advisor David Axelrod (Jewish, pro-abortion). Axelrod was Obama’s main election strategist during the two-year-long campaign for office
• Director of communications Ellen Moran (former CEO of Emily’s List, a major and wealthy pro-abortion political action committee)
• Director of domestic policy Melody Barnes (former board member of Emily’s List and Planned Parenthood staff member)
• Director for foreign women’s issues (a new office to re-affirm the population and development goals of the Beijing 1995 UN conference; i.e., to promote abortions and overturn pro-life laws in foreign countries) Melanne Verveer (former chief of staff to Hillary Clinton; a pro-abortion Catholic). Holds rank of ambassador-at-large
• White House Council on Women and Girls (new office) director Tina Tchen (Chicago Lawyer, vice-president of NOW, feminist, pro-abortion. She has a mandate to examine all federal laws and agencies pertaining to women)

• Council on Environment Quality Nancy Sutley (lesbian).
• Director of the Environmental Protection Agency Lisa Jackson
• Climate “czarina,” White House Carol Browner
• Director for the Office of Management and Budget Peter Orszag (former economic advisor to Clinton)
• Head of the National Economic Council, White House. Lawrence Summers (former Clinton advisor)
• Chairman of the Democratic party Tim Kayne (governor of Virginia, Catholic, pro-abortion)

Summary

The facts of the first 50 days of the Obama presidency seem overwhelming. According to the 55-page pro-abortion document, “Advancing Reproductive Rights and Health in a New Administration,” $4.5 billion in federal funding will be disbursed at home and abroad to “advance reproductive rights.” This document is posted on www.change.org, Obama’s official website for his transition team.

Obama’s Steps for the First 100 Days projects the end of the Mexico City Policy, the Hyde Amendment, the Kemp-Kasten amendment, the Weldon Amendment, restrictions on emergency contraception (Plan B), the termination of all abstinence-only programs and a reversal of the recent HHS regulation protecting pro-life physicians and institutions. By Day 50, many of these had been accomplished already. Any present obstacles to so-called abortion rights not covered by removing these restrictions, such as the ban on partial birth abortion and state laws requiring parental notification, will be covered by the passage of the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA).

We draw the attention of our readers especially to the coercion which is built into many of these measures. A combined United States-United Nations assault on the freedom of poor countries to determine their own domestic policies on population will soon be underway.

At home, the Obama regime will take on more abusive, tyrannical features as it seeks to destroy the rights of people to disagree and dissent. All along, this has been the implication of the new legislated rights to kill and to overthrow the natural moral law in family and sexual matters introduced 40 years ago.

The president and his advisors will be making some 7,000 appointments that will influence policy; they will be pro-abortion ones, said one commentator, with the exception being the ambassador to the Vatican. What resistance the Christian community will be able to offer remains to be discussed in a future article.

That time now is not to surrender, but to fight back with all our might. The grace of Christ is stronger than the power of evil.


Sources: Americans for Truth; the American Life League; the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute; the Culture of Life Foundation; LifeNews.com; LifeSiteNews.com; the National Post; the Population Research Institute; Time; United Families.org; The Wanderer;WorldNetDaily.com, Zenit.org.

Family of Irving 'Bud' Feldkamp, Owner of the Nation's Largest Privately Owned Abortion Chain, Dies in Montana Plane Crash

From ChristianNewsWire
By Gingi Edmonds

Some of you may have seen the major news story of the private plane that crashed into a Montana cemetery, killing 7 children and 7 adults.

But what the news sources fail to mention is that the Catholic Holy Cross Cemetery owned by Resurrection Cemetery Association in Butte- contains a memorial for local residents to pray the rosary, at the 'Tomb of the Unborn'. This memorial, located a short distance west of the church, was erected as a dedication to all babies who have died because of abortion.

What else is the mainstream news not telling you? The family who died in the crash near the location of the abortion victim's memorial, is the family of Irving'Bud' Feldkamp, owner of the largest for-profit abortion chain in the nation.

Family Planning Associates was purchased four years ago by Irving Moore "Bud" Feldkamp III, owner of Allcare and Hospitality Dental Associates and CEO of Glen Helen Raceway Park in San Bernardino. The 17 California Family Planning clinics perform more abortions in the state than any other abortion provider - Planned Parenthood included - and they perform abortions through the first five months of pregnancy.

Although Feldkamp is not an abortionist, he reaps profits of blood money from the tens of thousands of babies that are killed through abortions performed every year at the clinics he owns. His business in the abortion industry was what enabled him to afford the private plane that was carrying his family to their week-long vacation at The Yellowstone Club, a millionaires-only ski resort.

The plane went down on Sunday, killing two of Feldkamp's daughters, two sons-in-law and five grandchildren along with the pilot and four family friends. The plane, a single-engine turboprop flown by Bud Summerfield of Highland, crashed into the Catholic cemetery and burst into flames, only 500 ft. from its landing destination. All aboard were killed.

The cause of the crash is a mystery. The pilot, who was a former military flier who logged over 2,000 miles, gave no indication to air traffic controllers that the aircraft was experiencing difficulty when he asked to divert to an airport in Butte. Witnesses report that the plane suddenly nosedived toward the ground with no apparent signs of a struggle. There was neither a cockpit voice recorder nor a flight data recorder onboard, and no radar clues into the planes final moments because the Butteairport is not equipped with a radar facility. Some speculate that the crash was due to ice on the wings, but this particular plane model has been tested for icy weather and experts have stated that ice being the cause is unlikely.

In my time working for Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust, I helped organize and conduct a weekly campaign where youth activists stood outside of Feldkamp's mini-mansion in Redlandsholding fetal development signs and raising community awareness regarding Feldkamp's dealings in child murder for profit. Every Thursday afternoon we called upon Bud and his wife Pam to repent, seek God's blessing and separate themselves from the practice of child killing.

We warned him, for his children's sake, to wash his hands of the innocent blood he assisted in spilling because, as Scripture warns, if "you did not hate bloodshed, bloodshed will pursue you". (Ezekiel 35:6)

A news source states that Bud Feldkamp visited the site of the crash with his wife and their two surviving children on Monday. As they stood near the twisted and charred debris talking with investigators, light snow fell on the tarps that covered the remains of their children.

I don't want to turn this tragic event into some creepy spiritual 'I told you so' moment, but I think of the time spent outside of Feldkamp's - Pam Feldkamp laughing at the fetal development signs, Bud Feldkamp trying not to make eye contact as he got into his car with a small child in tow - and I think of the haunting words, 'Think of your children.' I wonder if those words were haunting Feldkamp as well as he stood in the snow among the remains of loved ones, just feet from the 'Tomb of the Unborn'?

I only hope and pray that in the face of this tragedy, Feldkamp recognizes his need for repentance and reformation. I pray that God will use this unfortunate catastrophe to soften the hearts of Bud and Pam and that they will draw close to the Lord and wash their hands of the blood of thousands of innocent children, each as precious and irreplaceable as their own.

"I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then." (Deut. 30:19)


Gingi Edmonds is a freelance pro-life activist, writer and photographer based out of Hanford, California . Gingi writes a bi-monthly ProLife Opinion Column and is available for pro-life presentations and speaking engagements. Visit www.gingiedmonds.com for more information.

He Threw It All Away

From First Things
By Robert P. George

In the early 1970s, Lutheran pastor Richard John Neuhaus was poised to become the nation’s next great liberal public intellectual—the Reinhold Niebuhr of his generation. He had going for him everything he needed to be not merely accepted but lionized by the liberal establishment. First, of course, there were his natural gifts as a thinker, writer, and speaker. Then there was a set of left-liberal credentials that were second to none. He had been an outspoken and prominent civil rights campaigner, indeed, someone who had marched literally arm-in-arm with his friend Martin Luther King. He had founded one of the most visible anti-Vietnam war organizations. He moved easily in elite circles and was regarded by everyone as a “right-thinking” (i.e., left-thinking) intellectual-activist operating within the world of mainline Protestant religion.

Then something happened: Abortion. It became something it had never been before, namely, a contentious issue in American culture and politics. Neuhaus opposed abortion for the same reasons he had fought for civil rights and against the Vietnam War. At the root of his thinking was the conviction that human beings, as creatures fashioned in the image and likeness of God, possess a profound, inherent, and equal dignity. This dignity must be respected by all and protected by law. That, so far as Neuhaus was concerned, was not only a biblical mandate but also the bedrock principle of the American constitutional order. Respect for the dignity of human beings meant, among other things, not subjecting them to a system of racial oppression; not wasting their lives in futile wars; not slaughtering them in the womb.

Read the rest of this entry >>

Baptist Leader Speaks Out Against Obama's Pro-Death Moves

A Southern Baptist leader who serves on President Barack Obama's Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships opposes Obama's move to fund embryonic stem-cell research.

Rev. Frank Page, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, says he told the White House that he is alarmed at Obama's "consistent pattern of removing any pro-life protections." Page says he wonders sometimes if the president is really listening to his advice and says he is conscious of being a Baptist and evangelical voice on the president's advisory council.

Read the rest of this entry >>

Catholics Demand Vatican Action on Their Bishops

A group of Catholics met with church hierarchs in Rome to demand that the Vatican re-assign Archbishop Wuerl of Washington D.C. and Bishop Loverde of Virginia.

From Spero News

Randall Terry, Operation Rescue Founder, led a delegation of nine pro-life leaders in an unprecedented series of meetings with Vatican officials from March 2-6 in Rome.

The purpose was to ask Vatican officials to intervene decisively in the Catholic Church in the United States. Vatican officials were presented with evidence that Randal and his group claim would tend to show that a majority of US bishops refuse to uphold key teachings of their Church.

The entire document -- Oves Sine Pastore (Sheep Without a Shepherd) -- is at www.humbleplea.com.

Terry stated that "Our first request was that the Holy See relocate Archbishop Donald Wuerl (D.C.) and Bishop Paul Loverde (Arlington V.A.), and to replace them with bishops who will uphold the laws of the Church -- namely, bishops who refuse to serve Communion to any politician who supports the killing of children by abortion.

"Recent headlines proved our point. Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann, Kansas, recently excommunicated Governor Kathleen Sebelius. President Obama selected her to head Health and Human Services, where she will promote abortion. When she comes to DC, Archbishop Naumann will be scoffed at, she will receive Communion with Archbishop Wuerl's or Bishop Loverde's tacit approval, and American Catholics will descend further into scandal and confusion.

"If these two bishops are relocated, and Bishops of the caliber of Naumann are put in the D.C. area dioceses -- which are watched by the whole world -- it will show all humanity that the Holy See is serious about defending innocent life, and that the Eucharist is not to be profaned or scandalized. It will also tell all U.S. Bishops that the days of fear, equivocation, and outright disobedience are coming to an end."

The delegation met with:

His Excellency, Archbishop Raymond L. Burke, Prefect, Apostolic Signatura;

His Eminence, Antonio Cañizares Llovera, Cardinal, Prefect, Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments;

His Eminence, James Francis Stafford, Cardinal, Major Penitentiary, Apostolic Penitentiary;

Father Thomas Powers, Congregation for Bishops;

His Excellency, Rino Fisichella, Titular Archbishop of Voghenza, President, Pontifical Academy for Life;

Father Kevin Lixey, Pontifical Council for the Laity;

Father Victor Ghillo, Pontifical Council for the Family;

Monsignor Anthony R. Frontiero, Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace; and

Monsignor Richard Soseman, the Congregation for Clergy.

Terry's delegation included Sue and Tom Cyr, Sandra and Mario Paveglio, and Joseph Landry.

Time to Say Goodbye, Michael Steele

Michael Steele clearly doesn't understand that his role is not to espouse policy, but to rebuild the Republican Party, raise funds, and repair a state primary sysytem that permits Democrats to choose Republican nominees. We thought his days were numbered with his stupid comments about Rush Limbaugh. The following story only points up the urgency to fill the RNC chair with a media-wise, party professional. Besides, these gaffes divert too much attention away from the nation's Gaffemaster, Joe Biden.

From LifeNews.com

New national Republican Party chairman Michael Steele has gotten himself in hot water with pro-life advocates for softening his pro-life views and then issuing a statement saying he hasn't backed down on abortion. The misstep is the latest Steele gaffe that has some calling for his resignation. Steele has taken a pro-life position in the past and has been endorsed by pro-life groups for his various political races -- including running for the U.S. Senate in Maryland. However, in an interview with GQ, Steele said he thought women have, according to the interviewer, a "right to choose abortion." "Yeah. I mean, again, I think that’s an individual choice," he said. "Yeah. Absolutely." In comments to the news web site Politico, Steele reaffirmed his pro-life views, and said his comments to GQ don't take back from his position supporting a Human Life Amendment. "I am pro-life, always have been, always will be," he said. Steele said his comments were awkward and that he "tried to present why I am pro life while recognizing that my mother had a 'choice' before deciding to put me up for adoption."

Full story at LifeNews.com

Planned Parenthood Targets Poland for Abortion with US Funds, Courtesy of Obama

From LifeSiteNews
By Tim Waggoner

The International Planned Parenthood Foundation (IPPF) has wasted little time in putting to use the millions of taxpayer dollars that have been made available to it by President Obama's decision to rescind the Mexico City Policy, which forbade U.S. funds from going to organizations that promote or perform abortions overseas.

In a letter advocating a series of Women's Day marches in Poland which took place yesterday and which were advertised with the words "Come and Join Us Because ... Poland is Ill," the IPPF urged support for the pro-contraception, pro-abortion and pro-homosexual agenda of the marchers.

The Women's Day event "has become a grassroots democratic movement," the "biggest demonstration of women's rights supporters," says the IPPF. According to the organization, last year Women's Day marches in cities around the country attracted some 4,000 participants.

"Among the demands, they make are: easy access to contraception; abolishing the gender role stereotypes that people are socialized into; right to decide about oneself and one's body; no more treating women as sexual objects; proper sex education in schools; and treating equally women who are elderly, poor, homosexual, of different ethnicity, of low social standing or handicapped."

In the letter IPPF also denounced a law being drawn-up by a bioethics committee aimed at protecting human life. According to the IPPF, the proposal seeks to ban certain in vitro procedures and some abortifacient contraceptives such as the morning after pill, as well as reverse the current law that forces doctors to refer patients to an abortionist even if doing so violates their conscience.

While abortion in Poland is illegal in many circumstances, it is permitted in cases where the mother's health or life is endangered by the pregnancy, where the pregnancy is the result of a criminal act, or where the fetus is seriously malformed. Poland has long been a target of anti-life forces due to its comparatively conservative abortion laws, traditional understanding of the family, and strong Catholic identity.

John Smeaton, the director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) and one of Europe's most prominent pro-life and pro-family activists, responded that in his view that the IPPF is just "patronizing" women of a country who know better than to trust the world's largest abortion provider.

In the Women's Day statement IPPF "blatantly and falsely claim to represent all Polish women in calling for easy access to contraceptives, including abortifacient contraceptive drugs and devices, attacking the Catholic Church, and opposing doctors' right to conscientious objection to abortion," said Smeaton.

"Armed with millions of US dollars promised by Barack Obama to fund the killing of unborn children overseas, they are now concentrating their anti-life propaganda on Poland.

Man Driving to Abortion Clinic Runs Over Pro-Lifer, then Persuaded by Victim's Wife Not to Abort

From LifeSiteNews
By Kathleen Gilbert

A lone sidewalk counselor at a Cherry Hill abortion center is suffering from serious injuries after a young man driving his pregnant wife to the abortion facility reportedly struck the counselor and ran him over. But the victim's wife says that the event probably saved a life, as she believes she was able to persuade the man afterwards not to have his unborn child killed.

The incident took place Saturday morning at the South Jersey Women's Center on Haddonfield Road. George Krail was walking toward the clinic's driveway to offer literature as a car approached, when the driver ran into and over Krail, crushing and twisting his leg. The initial impact was so severe it may have broken several of Krail's ribs.

Krail was taken to Cooper Hospital in Camden, where he is stable but continues to await surgery as of Saturday evening.

When asked George's condition, his wife Tina told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) that "George is fine spiritually. His leg's really messed up ... his leg is pointing backwards."

Mrs. Krail, who is a veteran pro-life protester along with her husband, went on to say that the bizarre event "was orchestrated by the Lord."

Krail says her husband was suddenly prompted to witness at the local abortion facility Saturday morning after she showed him the testimony of an abortion survivor she found on a pro-life blog.

Some time after George left, Mrs. Krail received a call from him asking for help. "Tina, I'm hurt - someone ran me over. My leg's turned around Tina, come right away," George reportedly told his wife.

Police arrived following George's 911 call and were able to question the driver. No one witnessed the incident. However, the abortion facility's surveillance camera did capture the incident, and the footage is now in police custody. The driver is not currently held by police.

Mrs. Krail, who was badly shaken when she arrived on the scene, said she then had a chance to confront the man along with his pregnant wife.

"I thought, 'What would Jesus do?" she told LSN. "So I walked over and I said, 'Hon, I'd like to talk to you. I forgive you for hitting my husband.' And he said, 'Oh, I'm so sorry,' and his whole face just changed.

"Then I said: 'I want you to look at me in the eyes. I've been where you're at, and I can tell you my husband also forgives you, and he probably wants me to tell you that if one broken leg would save your child, he would do it over again.

"You should know that God has something in store mighty for you, and you should take this as a sign from God.' And he said, 'I know, I know. And they never went in [the abortion centre]."

She recalled that she embraced both and exhorted them to "think about this child now."

"This is how important this child is,'" she said.

Asked by LifeSiteNews how long they'd been particpating in pro-life witness, Tina replied cheerfully, "We've done it [pro-life activism] for the last twenty years. Yeah, it's been our life - and this'll probably be our death too. What's our life worth anyway?"

“The Cult of Moloch Lives on Today”

From California Catholic Daily
By Father Richard Perozich

(Fr. Richard Perozich, pastor of St. Mary's Church in Escondido, published the following commentary in the Sunday, Feb. 1, parish bulletin.)

“100 DAYS OR END OF DAYS”

The "governator" Arnold Schwarzenegger starred in a 1999 movie called "End of Days" where the devil was to come to take over the world. In the story line the devil must mate with a certain mortal if he is to escape hell and begin his reign of dominance over human hearts and freedom, to oppress people with death, pride, avarice, greed, sloth, ire, gluttony and lust. Arnold plays a man wounded spiritually and emotionally who ultimately opposes the devil who is defeated and reconsigned to hell for another 1,000 years. In real life, however, his legislation works for Satan.

The first 100 days of a new presidency is the time when legislation desired by the new leader is rammed through the congress without much discussion and over the objections of the minority party. It often is not good legislation, has been brewing in the hearts of special interest groups for years, who now have a vehicle to impose their will on the American people.

If the special interest groups have their way, it will spell the end of days for the American nation as we have known it since 1776. Abominations will be forced on us by the new government, such as which our founders never had intended, and certainly opposed to the Christian life: abortion on demand, homogenital sex, lust in all its forms, euthanasia, oppression of opportunity and entrepreneurs, silencing of faith and free speech among many.

In the old testament, God's chosen people abandoned Him and sacrificed their own innocent children to a demon god called Moloch in hopes of a good harvest to feed themselves. The cult of Moloch lives on today, but just not under the god's formal name, but in the name of abortion, or rightly put, murder of children in the womb to promote false promises, ruined lives, and degraded humanity.

Abortion is our god and Obama, Pelosi, Kennedy are his prophets. His sacrifice is the life of infants and the souls of mothers. His priests are doctors who perform abortions. His church is Planned Parenthood and FOCA, (freedom of choice act). His covenant promises rights and freedom for women. It delivers death of infants, permanent damage to the souls of women, of men, of politicians.

Homosexual lust is our god and Obama, Bishop Gene Robinson, and democratic politicians are his prophets. The sacrifice is personal integrity and corruption of the body and spirit. Its priests and priestesses are men who have sex with men (MSM) and women who have sex with women (WSW). Its church is the Human Rights Campaign and other activist organizations, Pride clubs and "gay" and "lesbian" centers. Its covenant offers false promises of equality with those who have normal sexual relations and inner peace. It delivers disease, prolonged adolescent immaturity, and oppression of the church and good people who live upright moral lives.

Money is our god, and the wealthy and the welfare are its prophets. Its sacrifice is hard earned savings and retirement. Its priests are those taking obscene profits by defrauding investors, and those who choose government money over honest work. Its church is a non vigilant Securities and Exchange Commission and congress. Its covenant promises self reliance and security in wealth. It delivers collapse of the economy, unfair distribution of wealth, and a drain on the tax system.

Socialism is our god, and Obama is his prophet. Its sacrifice is personal freedom. Its priests are politicians and communist ideological organizations. Its church are legislatures and executive branches in government. Its covenant promises fairness and sameness for all. It delivers power and wealth those who already possess it and takes away opportunity for those out of power and destroys of the economy and future for others.

Liberalism is our god and the Democratic party is his prophet. Its sacrifice is freedom, integrity, opportunity, and wholeness. Its priests are the fascist elites in government, education, and bureaucracies, who wish to control others' thoughts and actions. Its churches are political parties, universities, and corrupt professional organizations. Its covenant promises unbridled freedom for perversion of the natural law and oppression for all who disagree with it. It delivers the breakdown of society, constitutional government, and true freedom for morally minded people, especially faithful Christians.

For us Christians, these are abominations, and the people who promote them are truly overcome by evil. 2 Peter 2:19-20 "They promise them freedom, though they themselves are slaves of corruption, for a person is a slave of whatever overcomes him. For if they, having escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of (our) Lord and savior Jesus Christ, again become entangled and overcome by them, their last condition is worse than their first."

This may not be the change you wanted when you voted for new government, but it is the change you voted for if you did not clearly listen to the evil promises of the new priests of the new churches and ignored the warnings about the new evils that this government clearly promised to impose on America.

The Father is our God, and Jesus Christ is His prophet. His sacrifice is the life of His Son Jesus celebrated at Mass. His priests are those ordained and faithful clergy who teach fully the Catholic faith from the Bible and magisterium, and who celebrate the sacraments of the church faithfully according to its tradition and rites. Its Church is the Holy Catholic Church in which salvation is found in Jesus, the only name in heaven or on earth by which man can be saved, through Jesus, the only mediator between God and man who saves us by grace through faith in Him and not in abortion, homosexual lust, money's greed, socialism, or liberalism. He delivers forgiveness of sin and eternal life.

Jesus came to save us from abortion, homosexual lust, socialism, liberalism, and greed of money. He begins by gathering us into His Holy Catholic Church in baptism, giving us faith in HIM rather than the perversions and evil legacies of the world and worldly people. He fills us with His Holy Spirit in confirmation to give us the gifts of HIS wisdom, knowledge, understanding, counsel, courage, piety, and fear of the Lord, so that we are formed to conquer the world. He nourishes us with His Body and Blood to fortify our Spirit to hear the counsel of the Holy Spirit to reject not only for ourselves the evil legacies, but to fight for others who are under evil's influence.

So we pray each day, and worship on Sunday. Renewed in Spirit, we begin the fight for the faith and the souls of all in our country and world. We march, telephone, fax, write, protest, inform all those in power of our beliefs and interests to show them we will resist their impositions, remove them from office and employment if they pervert our nation. We began with the passage of Proposition 8. We continue the fight there, which is far from over.

Please, take the time to sign your pledge card to urge all senators and congressmen to vote against the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) which would enshrine into law the killing of infants in the womb and make it a crime to oppose it, and use your money to promote it through taxes.

Jesus has called you out of the darkness of abortion, lust, greed, socialism, and liberalism into His marvelous light of freedom. Fight for that freedom now, so that you will not be oppressed like the Christians of the first centuries. Evil has acceded to power in this administration. We must pray as if it all depends on God, and work as if it all depends on us.

Miami Abortion Clinic Owner Threw Newborn Away, Prosecutors Say

MIAMI - An abortion clinic owner is accused of delivering a live baby during a botched procedure and then throwing the infant away.

Belkis Gonzalez, 42, was arrested Tuesday and charged with practicing medicine without a license and tampering with evidence, both felonies, said Ed Griffith, a spokesman for the Miami-Dade State Attorney's office. If found guilty, Gonzalez would face at least a year in prison and up to 15 years.

The teenage mother, Sycloria Williams, has filed a lawsuit alleging that Gonzalez knocked the infant off the chair where she had given birth, and then scooped the baby, placenta and afterbirth into a red plastic biohazard bag, and threw it out.

Read the rest of this entry >>

Preteen's Pro-Life Speech Goes Viral

The mother of a 12-year-old girl whose pro-life speech has become a hit YouTube video says her daughter's passion for the unborn is genuine.

From OneNewsNow
By Pete Chagnon

Lia is a preteen from Canada who decided to speak out against abortion in her school's speech contest, despite teachers and school officials who encouraged her to pick a different topic.

"What if I told you that right now someone was choosing if you were going to live or die? What if I told you that this choice wasn't based on what you could or couldn't do, what you had done in the past, or what you would do in the future? And what if I told you [that] you could nothing about it? Fellow students and teachers, thousands of children are right now in that very situation," she says in her speech.

Kimberly, Lia's mother, says Lia was told by school officials that if she chose the topic of abortion, she would not be allowed to participate in the speech contest. But both were surprised when Lia's pro-choice teacher had a change of heart.

"Her teacher was really impressed by this speech and perhaps moved by it, and therefore her teacher kind of was a real supporter of [Lia] winning for the class," Kimberly notes. "And she had to go through a couple of hoops and get clearance from a couple of other teachers before she could be declared winner of the class."

Another controversy erupted when the panel of judges had a supposed big disagreement and one stepped down. Initially Lia was disqualified, but later the panel declared her the winner. She was asked to take out this portion of her speech: "[F]etuses are definitely humans knit together in their mother's womb by their wonderful Creator who knows them all by name."

Kimberly says after Lia was told to remove that portion of her speech, she took time to think about her decision and ultimately decided to leave it in. Lia also competed in a regional speech competition but did not win. However, her speech has been viewed by over 200,000 people on YouTube.

Pope Gently Rebukes Pelosi

There is considerable discussion about Church excommunications these days. Many conservatives and orthodox Catholics advocate the excommunication of Catholic legislators who are "personally opposed, but" are willing to permit the slaughter of innocent babies. Frequently, excommunication is portrayed in the secular media as a harsh, un-Christian shunning, causing permanent division, hurt and alienation. It is, in fact, something quite different and in most cases it is a condition that one imposes on oneself.

Among many theological considerations, the Catechism of the Catholic Church calls the Eucharist "the source and summit of the Christian life." Among many attributes, "the Eucharist is the efficacious sign and sublime cause of that communion in the divine life and that unity of the People of God by which the Church is kept in being." Thus, reception of Holy Communion is an affirmation that one is fully united with all that the Church believes and teaches. And unity of belief is essential to the Church's very being. If one does not fully believe those teachings, their reception of Holy Communion is a sham and a lie. This is the reason the Church does not permit inter-communion with other faiths.

When the Church excommunicates a member, it does so to impress upon the individual that their salvation is in jeopardy. The act of excommunication is not meant to be a permanent action. It is an act of charity intended as a sharp warning that one has veered seriously off the path that leads to salvation. It is always hoped that the one excommunicated will recognize their error and return. The path to return is as simple as a sincere, heartfelt confession, the Sacrament of Reconciliation, which is always available from any priest.

As a good and loving shepherd, Pope Benedict XVI gently informed Speaker Nancy Pelosi today that her pontifications on Sunday news shows, suggesting that the Church has been ambivalent on questions of life and death, are just plain wrong. She has been clearly told by the highest authority in the Church of which she claims to be an "ardent" member, that she has a responsibility to protect human life at all stages of its development.

Having been clearly warned by the Vicar of Christ, if she persists in her support of the culture of death, she will be excommunicated by her own action, if not officially by the Church itself.

Saint Thomas More, patron saint of statesmen, politicians and lawyers wrote:

“Because the soul has such deep roots in personal and social life and its values run so contrary to modern concerns, caring for the soul may well turn out to be a radical act, a challenge to accepted norms.”

Mrs. Pelosi has the opportunity to be truly radical, counter-cultural, and to save her own soul in the process. The choice is hers.

The Holy See Press Office released the following communique at midday today:

"Following the general audience the Holy Father briefly greeted Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, together with her entourage.

"His Holiness took the opportunity to speak of the requirements of the natural moral law and the Church's consistent teaching on the dignity of human life from conception to natural death which enjoin all Catholics, and especially legislators, jurists and those responsible for the common good of society, to work in co-operation with all men and women of good will in creating a just system of laws capable of protecting human life at all stages of its development".

Pro-Life Leaders Warn of New Strategy to Pass Freedom of Choice Act

Abortion Advocates Not Backing Away, They Say

From The Elliot Institute

Abortion advocates in Congress may try to pass the Freedom of Choice Act in pieces rather than risk the controversy of trying to pass the legislation as a single bill, some pro-life leaders are warning.

The Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), which would enshrine abortion as a national law and invalidate state and federal laws regulating or restricting abortion -- such as informed consent and parental notification laws -- has attracted particular controversy since President Obama promised during his presidential campaign to sign such legislation if it were passed.

According to LifeNews.com, some abortion advocates, including Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards, have said they are not that interested in passing FOCA. Charmaine Yoest of Americans United for Life and Brad Mattes of Life Issues Institute say that their backing away from this legislation is merely a ruse and that Congress could instead try to pass the legislation through a series of bills, hoping pro-life advocates and the public won't notice.

"We are now seeing the abortion forces waging an incremental battle — working to pass what we have termed 'FOCA-by-Stealth,'" Yoest was quoted as saying. "They think that if they take FOCA and repackage it and pass it in pieces and under different names . . . that we won't notice."

Obama has already the Mexico City Policy, which prevented millions of dollars from flowing to groups that promote abortions overseas. He is also likely to restore funding to the United Nations Population Fund, which was denied funding by the Bush Administration after being linked to China's program of coerced and forced abortions.

Such laws will not only likely increase the number of abortions around the world, but also subject more women and girls to unwanted, coerced or forced abortions and increased physical and psychological harm associated with abortion.