(Prolifer)ations 5-15-12

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.

• Coming Home outlines some technological and scientific advances of the 20th century – intended to make us happier, freer and more powerful – which have brought “catastrophic” consequences to society, and in particular, to women.
• Abstinence Clearinghouse spotlights Nigeria’s celebration of International Women’s Day by teaching that abstinence is vital to the health of the nation. We could learn something from them:
  
  In the United States, “International Women’s Day” may be celebrated by the distribution of free contraceptives, an old-fashioned bra-burning, and a rally chorus singing Aretha Franklin’s “Respect”. We mean no disrespect to the Queen of Soul, but the women in Nigeria really know how to throw an “International Women’s Day” party.

• Accepting Abundance points out the root cause behind the controversial breastfeeding mom on the cover of Time:
  
  Shockingly, Time Magazine’s May 2012 again takes issue with this idea featuring a young mother letting her three year old son stand on a stool and nurse himself from her fully exposed breast. The title challenges, “Are You Mom Enough?” The caption asks why attachment parenting drives mothers to extremes. Here’s a better question: Why is this twenty year old book [Dr. William Sears' The Baby Book] getting so much attention now?
  I think I know why. Children have actually become viewed as entitlements instead of gifts. Parenthood is now focused on adult desires, and on their image, rather than children. Parents want to appear successful, but when mothers view their children as accessories, it’s no wonder they feel imprisoned by the idea of constant attachment. It’s no wonder they go to extremes to look successful.
  
• ProWomanProLife discusses a sickening article “celebrating” Mother’s Day by promoting abortion access. A woman named Linda – “married for less than a year, got pregnant and decided to have an abortion in favour of quiet mornings spent in bed, jogging or gardening” – is profiled, and mention is made of her use of contraception:
  
  We admire people when they do brave things. And here’s the thing. You can’t have it both ways. Many abortion-rights activists want to claim making the abortion choice is ever so brave. But that’s not what Linda is saying. She’s saying it’s routine. That many women choose abortion for many different reasons. She asks me not to bat an eye. Fine. But don’t tell me next thing that your decision to abort was courageous in its own right.
  Commenters (understandably) seem offended by the inappropriate timing of such an article.
• Bryan Kemper posts a now-viral video about a mother’s love for her child, who was born with special needs. Tissue alert!

(Prolifer)ations 5-11-12

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.

• Secular Pro-Life responds to the charge from abortion defender Amanda Marcotte that informed consent laws assume “women are too stupid to understand abortion” and are misogynistic:
  
  Informed consent laws do not operate on the assumption that women are stupid. They do, however, assume that abortion facilities cannot be trusted to provide full and accurate information in the absence of legislation. I’m perfectly fine with that assumption. Planned Parenthood abortion centers have been caught on tape distributing incredible lies about prenatal development; one counselor even went so far as to claim that an eight-week-old fetus has “no arms, no legs, no heart, no head, no brain.”
  In short, women aren’t too stupid to understand abortion – but abortion facilities are too greedy to explain it properly.

• ProWomanProLife discusses billionaire Melinda Gates (pictured left), who has decided that despite her Catholic faith’s teaching on contraception, she finds it “morally necessary” to promote global contraception as she “tows the old population control issue.”
• At National Review, Michael New has an article on a recent study which showed pro-life parental involvement laws reduce female teen suicide rates.
• Wesley J. Smith shares thoughts on our culture’s “sense of entitlement” and the exploitation of women and children via IVF.
• Mommy Life posts a parody of The Life of Julia. Interestingly, in the Life of Julia, President Obama appears to be President for life. Has this brain child backfired on the administration?
• At the Center for Women of Faith in Culture, Sarah Flashing has an unfavorable review of author Rachel Held Evans’ soon-to-be-released book, A Year of Biblical Womanhood. In the book, Evans attempts to paint Christian bookstores and the evangelical community as misogynistic for not approving of her “edgy” work. Sarah Flashing urges readers to consider Evans’ previous interviews and work as examples of her “departure from orthodox Christianity”:
  
  I’m not sure what she has actually accomplished in all this other than a clear opportunity to be crass, to organize her readers to have further disdain for evangelicalism, to wear a Team Vagina t-shirt, or misrepresent biblical womanhood to unsuspecting readers. Until the book comes out, she hasn’t accomplished all this yet but RHE’s goals are well underway to meet her desired end.
• Stand for Life posts an excellent video by Fr. Frank Pavone, who discusses the differences between religious freedom and relativism in our culture today:

(Prolifer)ations 5-8-12

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.

• At Ethika Politika, Mandy Jade Kramer describes the “real war on women”:
  
  Femininity, not just femininity, but true femaleness, in its purest, most natural, genuine form, is being attacked. It is downright hated. Real life-giving, life-affirming, God given femaleness is being ragingly stamped out, and those who possess this trait (females) are punished and forced to change. Under the guise of equality with men, those who claim to advocate better, or equal, treatment for women, are actually not treating them equally to men at all. They are treating them worse.
• At National Review, Michael New debunks Guttmacher’s misleading claim that a decline in teen birth rate is the result of increased contraceptive use.
• Big Blue Wave examines the views of teens in the latest survey by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.
• In this election cycle where so many seem to think the economy and social issues are unrelated, American Life League describes how abortion actually impacts our economy.

• At The Leading Edge, Brendan Malone reviews and recommends a book by Australian feminist Melinda Tankard Reist entitled, Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls:
  
  What I really liked about this book was the fact that it went beyond just examining the actual problem of child sexualisation itself, and even included commentary which explored this problem as being a symptom of a much bigger problem of the cultural loss of an authentically human and virtuous sexual ethic.
• At the Washington Times, Anna Franzonello dissects Planned Parenthood’s position on sex-selection abortions:
  
  In the interest of ending gender-based killings, it is worth repeating: Planned Parenthood does not deny it is a willing participant in sex-selection abortions unless it becomes illegal. Planned Parenthood is case in point why laws against sex-selection abortions, which have been enacted in four states with bipartisan support, are important and effective.
  For anyone still inclined to believe Planned Parenthood genuinely cares about gender bias, and who is tempted to adopt its “strategy” of “nonjudgmental discussions” and wishful thinking to end gender-based killings: Remember, so long as it is legal, Planned Parenthood will take cash, check or credit card to abort the unwanted girls.
  
• Live Action says the OK Supreme Court’s decision to “invalidate the Oklahoma Personhood Act” may have put the personhood issue on the fast track to the U.S. Supreme Court.
• Abortion Recovery International plans to hold a Share Symposium from July 16-18 in California:
  
  The theme for 2012… sends a very personal message to: psychologists, therapists, counselors, pastoral caregivers, those leading recovery programs, to those providing awareness opportunities, to the church, resource centers, as well as other community agencies (celebrate recovery groups, rape and sexual abuse counselors, eating disorder specialists, nursing and medical staff etc.)
  Register here.

(Prolifer)ations 5-4-12

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.

• Moral Outcry comments on a Christianity Today article on a conference of young evangelicals who largely agreed that contraception should be promoted among Christian singles as a way to prevent abortions:
  
  Combating abortion in the church isn’t going to happen by endorsing abortifacient birth control with a weak justification that since singles might sin anyway, we should help “prevent” the problem. Acknowledging a sinful lifestyle is just “how it is now” is agreeing with the kingdom of darkness that sin can be relative to situations.
  Further, by trying to reduce the problem, we send a message that a baby is only a blessing if it’s a desired baby that comes through marriage and a couple’s want. Psalm 127:3 reminds us, “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, The fruit of the womb is a reward.”
  Shockingly enough, Jesus and the Apostle Paul advocated celibacy and purity.

• Pro-Life Action League recaps UnitedWomen.org’s attempt to copycat the successful Stand Up for Religious Freedom rallies recently held in 145 cities on a weekday with 63K in attendance. Though the copycat rallies were on a Saturday, attendance could only be described as “paltry.” Was it their muddled messaging, vulgar signage, B-rated speakers or just lack of commitment? PLAL is gearing up for another round of Stand Up rallies on June 8th.
• John Smeaton applauds citizen advocate and parent Emma Clarke, who spoke against a the use of graphic sex cartoons and videos in UK school sex education programs. Clarke organized a petition signed by 47,000 people calling for the banning of sex DVD’s in schools, which has resulted in a review of current programs:
  
  She said that her son’s behaviour changed radically for the worse after he was exposed to sex education at school. Mrs. Clarke, who also runs a charity for child sex abuse victims, said that sex education puts children in a vulnerable position because the material used is basically paedophilic.

• Wesley J. Smith comments on the story of George Will’s son, Jon, who has Down syndrome (family pictured right), and discusses the gift that the developmentally disabled are to us all:
  
  We should ponder that as our society conducts a search and destroy mission to wipe people like Jon Will off the face of the earth. And it won’t end with eugenic abortion. The odor of infanticide is on the wind too. Not only that, but people like my friend who become developmentally or cognitively disabled after birth could well also be targeted one day for mercy killing or refused necessary medical treatment toward the end that they die sooner rather than later. It has happened in history before. And with people like Terri Schiavo, it is happening here and now.
• Reflections of a Paralytic recommends the subtly pro-life movie, In America, about an Irish family who moves to NYC.
• Secular Pro-Life urges a boycott of the Earle Macke School of Law at Drexel University over their “promot[ion of] two pro-abortion pro bono projects.” See BoycottDrexel.com for more details.
• Right to Life of Michigan introduces the “Life After 40″ campaign:
  
  For 40 weeks, from April 17 until the 40th memorial of Roe on January 22, let’s celebrate the development of human life. Make a pledge to be a voice for the voiceless and share one fact each week about life in the womb… with your family and friends using email and social networks. After 40 weeks, a baby is born and after 40 years of Roe, life begins again.
  This video captures the idea very well:

(Prolifer)ations 5-1-12

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.

• 40 Days for Life celebrates the cumulative results of this year’s campaign. 8 abortion workers left their jobs, 3 abortion clinics closed, and at least 883 babies were saved this year alone, bringing the total to nearly 6,000 saved since the movement began less than 5 years ago.
• Big Blue Wave reports that Pepsi has decided to no longer contract with Senomyx to use aborted human fetal kidney cells in its flavor enhancer testing.

• At Live Action, Lucy LeFever hammers on pro-choice hypocrisy with regard to informed consent laws. One woman is campaigning to provide iPods with music to women who undergo required ultrasound procedures before abortion so they can drown out the sound of their preborn children’s heartbeats:
  
  This recent action, as well as the entire debate over ultrasound laws, has blatantly highlighted the pro-choice movement’s obsession with drowning out truth. Rather than providing women with honest medical information, pro-choice advocates opt to conceal the facts. They wish to silence massacre with melody, blood with ballads, slaughter with song….
  Women should know what they’re getting when they walk into a crisis pregnancy center, abortion advocates cry. But when it comes to a life-altering medical procedure, the calls for clear information disappear and are even condemned when they come from the other side. It seems as though the values of truth and honest information matter only when they are encouraging abortion.
  
• Fletcher Armstrong shares Center for Bio-Ethical Reform director Gregg Cunningham’s BBC radio interview. Cunningham had originally been booked for a second program, but British Pregnancy Advisory Service abortion providers scheduled for the debate bowed out, resulting in its cancellation. Cunningham concludes pro-lifers must make their case in the public square, thanks to media suppression.
• Abolitionist Society of OK has been posting its own non-graphic posters on the University of Oklahoma campus. Not surprisingly, they are usually removed within a day. Add this to the growing list of college campuses hostile to pro-life speech.
• After Abortion reposts an archived article recognizing how painful the celebration of Mother’s Day can be for post-abortive women.

• Down on the Pharm, though happy about the escape of blind forced abortion opponent Chen Guangcheng (pictured right), has concerns about the possible reaction of the Obama administration:
  
  The saddest difficulty is that he is unlikely to receive any aid or protection from the most pro abortion, U.S. government in history. Neither Obama nor Planned Parenthood oppose[s] forced abortion in China, or sex selective abortions enough to oppose either practice.
• Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life laments that the MN Medical Association “is going out of its way to oppose commonsense safety requirements… to protect an unfettered abortion industry.” The group opposes the requirement that abortion facilities be licensed as other ambulatory surgical treatment centers and that a physician be physically present when administering the RU-486 abortion pill. In the past they have also opposed informed consent requirements.
• Kansans for Life says that despite Kansas’ pro-choice media’s complaints about money being spent “on litigation to uphold pro-life laws enacted in 2011,” the real problem is that pro-choice attorneys are overbilling the taxpayers:
  
  At issue is a “windfall” for clinic attorneys – according to the State – including over $78,000 for ineligible legal work as well as using indefensible attorney rates of $400 per hour. All but one of the clinics’ attorneys lack ANY experience in this type of litigation, yet they charged nearly double what attorneys experienced in this specialty would charge – $225 per hour.
  State attorneys (including the office of Attorney General Derek Schmidt) demonstrated how the court is being wrongly asked to pay for over-billing at over-inflated rates, including 53.6 billable hours in one day and 22 hours to write a basic motion.
  
• Culture Campaign shares the reactions to Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant’s view on Democrats’ “one mission in life.” Abortion:

(Prolifer)ations 4-24-12

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.

• Fletcher Armstrong responds to a recent article by Erin McCann opposing a Genocide Awareness Project display:
  
  Ms. McCann’s piece actually illustrates some of the very points we make with our GAP display….
  She notes that, “Isn’t it interesting how the male can do whatever he pleases, but the female must live with the consequence? Only the female is left with the decision between ‘right and wrong.’” Sadly true. Reminds me of something Mark Crutcher often says, “Abortion is something done by men, to women, for the benefit of men.” So many males — I cannot use the term “men” to describe such people — want sex without responsibility….
  But when cancer-causing birth-control hormones are passed out, who gets to ingest those? When the worst symptoms of STDs show up, who bears that burden? When somebody gets pregnant, which one is it? It’s always the woman.
  His response is often to threaten abandonment. It can be an overt threat or a thinly veiled one, such as, “It’s not my decision, it’s yours … Whatever you want to do.” In other words, “The decision… and especially the guilt that goes with it… are yours alone; I’m going to go hide somewhere until you get it taken care of.
  

• Abortion in Washington highlights a LifeSiteNews article on a Seattle fertility clinic that advertises sex-selective services in conjunction with IVF. Their ad (pictured left) seems to target a certain population, featuring photos of children dressed in ethnic garb.
• Down on the Pharm exposes President Obama’s “slush fund” in Medicare Advantage. $8B will be used to assure the program continues… until just after the November election:
  
  The current regime understands that if seniors lose this particular Medicare plan, and get funneled back into the standard plan, they’ll get upset and vote Obama out.
• Abstinence Clearinghouse says Tennessee legislators recently approved a bill that will require abstinence education to be taught in public schools:
  
  The bill was introduced to address Tennessee’s high teen pregnancy rate.
  Abstinence education has continued to gain momentum in the past decade. With new strains of STDs and unplanned pregnancies becoming more and more common among teens, many law makers see the need to teach adolescents abstinence. “Safe sex” isn’t safe. Abstinence from sexual activity is the only 100% way not to get pregnant or contract an STD.
  
• Big Blue Wave believes there is a right way and a wrong way to debate abortion online:
  
  When you debate abortion online, your purpose is not to convince the person you`re talking to. So DON’T EXPECT ANY MOVEMENT ON THEIR PART and that will lessen your frustration. Abortion supporters will cling to their opinion even in the face of facts and logic because they have a strong emotional reason for doing so. It’s not your job to be their personal psychologist. Don’t play arm chair psychologist and try to get them to spill the beans about their reasons. That doesn’t convince anyone.
  Your purpose is to persuade anyone who might be reading. Because online debates often have silent readers, either at the time of posting or later on when people find your discussion through search engines.
  

[Image via lifesitenews.com]

Proliferations out takes.....

While blogger Pro Life Pro Woman is busy taking a course in Israel, readers are being a watch dog for her.

"But for now, enough of you have emailed me this link about six hospitals in Toronto hiding the knowledge of fetal sex.It’s amazing how slow people are to wake up to the fact that yes, this is happening in Canada. And it’s further amazing to me that some women defend it and claim they are “defenders of women’s rights.”

 
Priests for Life is excited to about  the  new  series call The New Catholic View for Women. " The idea for the show was conceived by host Janet Morana, executive director  of Priests for Life and co-founder of the Silent No More awareness campaign.
" I’m so upset with the lack of objectivity in the secular media; it’s  absolutely devastating to women,” said  [show's co-host Teresa] Tomeo. “The media can do so much good,  but, lately, they’ve been doing so much damage.

 Sara Flushing of Women of Faith in Culture  asks the question...is your faith a fraud as she reviews book “Saving Jesus from Those Who are Right” 

"And it seems that in the last two years or so there has been a fervent effort under the big tent of evangelicalism to usher in postmodern theologies with a clearly liberal feminist slant, seeking to normalize positions that undermine the authority of scripture."

 

Women's Rights  without Frontiers has a post that should wake up the conscience of all Americans who take their freedoms for granted.  It appears that  Broadcasting Board of Governors had planned to stop radio broadcasts  of Voice of America China in Tibetan and Cantonese. It is easy to make a budgetary decision but a letter from holocaust survivor Annette Lantos, wife of the late Congressman Tom Lantos, is urging them to  reconsider.

"Mrs. Lantos recounted the way that VOA broadcasts “fanned the fires of resistance in the brave underground fighters who sought to destroy the brutal Nazi totalitarianism from within.”  Her letter states:

“I well remember as a girl in Nazi-occupied Hungary, how every Sunday afternoon my family would draw the shades, close the curtains, and gather around the shortwave radio, pressing our ears close so that we could catch each precious word of freedom and hope that poured out of that radio receiver like manna from heaven . . . The VOA and BBC broadcasts were our one connection to freedom, our one connection to hope, and our lifeline that gave the resistance the courage to endure to the end. . . To cut off the VOA broadcasts would have been to cut off the very legs of the resistance.”

(Prolifer)ations 4-20-12

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.

• University of Michigan Students for Life share their experiences with the setting up of a Cemetery of Innocents display. In their interactions with people, some hearts were changed, but others were just plain confusing:
  
  I talked with an old couple who, at first, I believed to agree with me. They said they were Catholic and pro-life. But then they went on to say that they were proud supporters of Planned Parenthood. Then they went on to say they were pro-abortion because they “value all human life.”…
  They denied the truth of the footage of Live Action, and refused to even accept the challenge I gave them of reading pro-life literature.

• Star Studded Super Step discusses the power in the post-abortive man’s testimony by noting Alabama legislator Ed Henry’s (pictured left) recent public disclosure of his past involvement with abortion:
  
  [A]dvocates of legal abortion are just fine with men speaking up about abortion – when they’re in favor of it. It’s only when they seek to voice their opposition to the practice that the “prochoice” lobby attempts to shut them down.
  As Pro-Life in TN points out, this attempt to silence the message of abortion regret was plainly seen at RH Reality Check, which immediately ran a post denigrating Henry – and in their haste, RHRC got everything wrong, from the photo to the state he represents. Fact-checking took a back seat to the pro-abortion agenda, as it took three days for RHRC to correct its errors.
• Timmerie Millington discusses the HHS Mandate and whether it will unite people of faith:
  
  President Obama and the pro-abortion movement know they cannot defeat a unified Catholic church. They are scared of the Catholic church. Well, guess what? Not only are Catholics saying no to this mandate that directly assaults religious liberties, but people of all faith walks are saying “enough is enough!…
  The late Dr. Bernard Nathanson, one of the founding members of pro-abortion organization NARAL who led in legalizing abortion in the U.S. and later turned pro-life said, “We would never have gotten away with what we did if you (the clergy) had been united, purposeful, and strong.”
  

• Students for Life is reporting vandalism today to the display of crosses on the campus of Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green:
  
  Early this morning campus police at Western Kentucky University refused to stop vandals from draping condoms on the top of small crosses in the stadium – these crosses, 3,700 of them, symbolize how many unborn children die through abortion each day in the US and were installed by the Hilltoppers for Life group on campus. The vandals were art students who claimed the condoms were part of an art project.” The group had campus approval for this display. Campus police were called but refused to intervene and just stood and watched because the students claimed this was a part of an approved art project of which credit was given.
  SFL encourages readers to contact Dr. Dennis George to “demand the university apologize to WKU Hilltoppers for Life and to train the campus police that putting condoms on someone else’s crosses is not art or freedom of expression, it is desecration and vandalism.” If an art teacher did, indeed, approve this project, he or she should also be disciplined.
• John Smeaton reports that in the UK, women can now obtain morning after pills by courier after “fill[ing] out an online form to be assessed by a doctor, and the pills will be delivered within two hours.”
• Mommy Life lauds the Vatican for finally taking action against nuns who may embrace social justice but throw the sanctity of human life under the bus.
• Reflections of a Paralytic shares a beautiful Procter and Gamble commercial about Olympic moms, and says that not only are stay-at-home mothers denigrated by our society, sometimes working fathers are viewed in a poor light as well:
  
  Being a mother and a father is hard work, to be sure, but it’s more than just a “job”. It’s a vocation. It’s who they are. They don’t get paid for it and there’s certainly no “quitting time.”
  So, thanks to all you mothers and fathers for all you do and the sacrifices you make to shape our future, one immortal unrepeatable individual at a time!