Pro-life blog buzz 1-22-13

from Jill Stanek.com

by Susie Allen, host of the blog, Pro-Life in TN, and Kelli
We welcome your suggestions for additions to our Top Blogs (see tab on right side of home page)! Email Susie@jillstanek.com.

• Fr. Frank Pavone publishes an open letter to President Obama on Inauguration Day, protesting Obama’s “unwillingness to recognize [preborn children's] equal dignity” and his “unrelenting attack on religious freedom and on the institution of marriage.”
• Kansas for Life has more information on plans to reopen George Tiller’s infamous abortion clinic in Wichita.

• Accepting Abundance points out that in the audio of oral arguments from the 1973 Roe v. Wade case, there is nervous laughter (listen here) from pro-Roe attorney Sarah Weddington (pictured left, in 1973 and in more recent years), when she acknowledged that if the preborn child were to be declared a person, her argument would fail:
  
  Justice Potter Stewart pressed further, “Well, if it were established that an unborn fetus is a person within the protection of the Fourteenth Amendment, you would have almost an impossible case here, would you not?” Mrs. Weddington replied, “I would have a very difficult case.” And then she laughed nervously. Justice Stewart, not laughing at all, continued that this is akin to ruling that if a “mother thought that it bothered her health having the child around, she could have it killed.” Mrs. Weddington said, “That’s correct,” and declined any further response.
• Judie Brown of American Life League has strong words for Cardinal Dolan, who “needs to set aside the politics as well as his love affair with the media and begin being the apostle he is called to be” on the issue of dealing with “Catholic” politicians who support abortion.
• Americans United for Life has an upcoming legal conference this week on “The Future of Roe: Women, Health and Law in the Obama Era” – a great opportunity for anyone who is in Washington, D.C. for the March for Life.
• The Guiding Star Project shares a sobering memorial to the unborn, available for Sanctity of Human Life Sunday programs or for publishing in local newspapers.

• Family Research Council is again sponsoring the ProLifeCon, which will feature Rep. Trent Franks, along with other excellent speakers. The conference will also be available online.
• Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life believe Roe v. Wade will eventually fall thanks to reason, democracy and human rights.
• Albert Mohler lists five reasons why the conflict over abortion will not go away as many hoped it would after Roe:
  
  First… the judicial imposition of abortion on demand, virtually without restriction until the third trimester, produced both shock and outrage among those who believe that the unborn child has an inalienable right to life… [and] an organized pro-life movement came into shape….
  Second, Roe also had the effect, surely unforeseen by the Supreme Court, of bringing millions of evangelical Christians into the fight on behalf of the unborn. Prior to Roe, even many evangelicals believed that abortion was a Roman Catholic issue….
  Third, the death spiral of abortion simply defies adequate calculation. Over a million abortions are performed in America each year. Reports last year indicated that over 40% of all pregnancies in New York end in abortion, a rate that increases to almost 60% of pregnancies among African-American women.
  The sheer scale of the death toll sears the pro-life conscience. Young people can now see that millions are missing from their own generation.
  Fourth, abortion has proved to be exactly what pro-life activists warned it would be: a deadly threat to human dignity that would target specific populations. Prenatal testing has produced a deadly reality for unborn babies considered less than acceptable by their parents.
  The vast majority (90%) of unborn children diagnosed with Down syndrome are now aborted. Sex-selection abortions are legal in the wide-open “right” to abortion declared by the court. Prenatal testing of other characteristics means that parents can now abort a baby that does not meet their specifications and try again.
  Fifth, powerful imaging technologies now allow a look inside the womb, a privilege unknown to previous generations. That window has transformed the equation, as millions of parents have seen their unborn children and witnessed the miracle of life.
  

[Weddington photo via wweek.com; Franks photo via govfaces.com]