Dr. Bob Onder for Congress!!!

Chelsea2008 Election, Pro Life1 Comment

The presidential race may look grim, but there is still hope for many State and Congressional elections, especially here in Missouri. I just found out yesterday that the exceptionally pro-life State Rep. Bob Onder is running to replace our pro-life Congressman, Kenny Hulshof, who is running to be our next Governor. This is great news!
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As I said, Bob is exceptionally pro-life. Elected in 2006, the very first bill he filed was the Unborn Child Pain Prevention Act which came up briefly on the House floor last year, but was never voted on. He also co-sponsored a bill that would prohibit abortions in the state (except to save the life of the mother) and a resolution to allow voters the opportunity to truly ban human cloning (neither went anywhere). This year he is the sponsor of HB 1831, which I mentioned yesterday, creating the crime of coerced abortions. He also sponsors HB 2419, excluding vaccination against the human papillomavirus from the list of required immunizations for school children. This one is significant since the MO Senate recently third read SB 778, a bill requiring the Department of Health and Senior Services to aggressively promote the HPV vaccine. Read an article Dr. Onder wrote about the HPV vaccine: HPV Vaccine Mandates: Just Say ‘No’ to the “Great eat Big Public Health Experiment”. He is also on the boards of Missouri Right to Life – eastern region, the Center for Bioethics and Culture Missouri, and the Catholic Medical Association. And because of his impeccable knowledge and understanding of life science, last year he was appointed to serve on Missouri’s Life Sciences Research Board.

Onder’s pro-life dedication no doubt stems from the fact that he is wonderfully faith and family oriented. When the House is in session he brings his whole family (his wife and six children) from St. Louis to stay with him in Jefferson City and I often see them all together at daily Mass.

Needless to say, Dr. Onder would be a tremendous and badly needed asset to the cause of life in Washington. Not only will he support pro-life legislation, but he will author it himself and push for its passage. He would be a great influence for other pro-life legislators who are more reluctant to really stand up for these important issues.

Since we may have little to hope for as far as our next President is concerned, it is vitally important that we work to help elect good, principled leaders on the local, state and congressional levels. Visit Dr. Onder’s website

Also, a reader recently asked if Kenny Hulshof has a website up for his campaign for Governor. I had to do a little searching – it certainly doesn’t come up right away – but I finally found it here: Hulshof for Governor.

Previous posts:
Kenny Hulshof for Governor!!!!
Congratulations Dr. Onder!

Exposing Forced Abortions in Missouri

ChelseaPro Life1 Comment

Life News did a story last week about today’s pro-life action day at Missouri’s State Capitol and a bill proposed in the MO General Assembly this year to help prevent coerced abortions. They highlighted an actual coerced abortion case that took place at the St. Louis Planned Parenthood a few weeks ago:

According to the group [Missouri Right to Life], a 16 year-old girl was the victim of an attempted coerced abortion by her mother and aunt.

The three were at the Planned Parenthood abortion center when the teen apparently called police by dialing 911 on her cell phone.

“The police went into the facility and arrested the aunt. The mother then realized that it wasn’t so simple to force her will upon her daughter,” the group said.

An MRL rep. asked the question, “How many more times might this be happening across the state of Missouri?” Indeed. How many women who would otherwise love to raise the child conceived in their womb, make a final decision to abort after heavy pressure – even threats – from family members or significant others? There have been some cases where reluctant grandparents have literally kidnapped their pregnant daughters in order to drive them to an abortion clinic. And we know from Tiller’s death camp in Kansas that very young girls have had their situation “taken care of”, probably against their will, by the older men who have been sexually abusing them.

In light of this new legislation to criminalize these forced or “coerced” abortions, pro-abortion forces are suddenly concerned about the private decision making conversations between pregnant women and their spouses/boyfriends/friends/family members eventhough the pro-choice, feminist movement traditionally touts abortion as the right of a woman to control her own body, independent of what others may suggest, or how they feel about it. It’s often defended as a “private decision between a woman and her doctor.” Men certainly should have no say in the matter, let alone parents or other family members – especially if they suggest going through with the pregnancy.

Missouri’s proposed bill focuses solely on those who personally threaten women to have an abortion, or else, but it’s not just individuals who pressure women to choose death. Today’s society still sends the message that for ordinary women motherhood is no longer desirable and is certainly not seen as a “successful” use of a woman’s talents.

Read more about HB 1831

Adult Stem Cell Awareness

ChelseaAdult Stem Cell ResearchLeave a Comment

ASCA has some encouraging stories up:

First find out about two diabetic brothers whose hope for a cure does not include treatments that may someday result from research using human embryos, and a Michigan woman who has had successful stem cell treatments for her spinal cord injury.

Also, bone marrow transplants may be able to treat those with the painful genetic skin disease called epidermolysis bullosa (EB).

Previous posts:
Last May I posted on Jeni Rummelt, the Michigan woman who was treated for her spinal cord injury with her own stem cells.

A Perfect Pro-Life Prayer

ChelseaPrayer, Pro Life, Right to LifeLeave a Comment

Last week’s Our Sunday Visitor had an excellent article (subscribers only) nullon the Angelus prayer and its possible contribution to the “pro-life arsenal.” The Angelus is a prayer typically repeated three times a day – 6 a.m., noon, and 6 p.m. – recalling the conception and birth of Jesus Christ. Says OSV:

As people pray the Angelus, perhaps they will come to understand better the value of any human conception as they remember and honor the greatest conception of all time.

JP II’s favorite passage from Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes 22, says that, “only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light.” Indeed, as the document goes on to explain, by His incarnation, Christ has united himself with every man and therefore fully reveals man to himself. Christ not only became man, but chose to identify totally with all humankind, even in its weakest and most vulnerable state. The more we meditate on the profound mystery of the Word made flesh, the more we come to understand and appreciate the dignity of every human person, born and unborn.

nullThe words of the prayer:

    Leader: The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary.
    Response: And she conceived of the Holy Spirit.
    Hail Mary . . .
    Leader: Behold the handmaid of the Lord.
    Response: Be it done unto me according to your word.
    Hail Mary
    Leader: And the Word was made flesh,
    Response: And dwelt among us.
    Hail Mary . . .
    Leader: Pray for us, O holy Mother of God.
    Response: That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
    Leader: Let us pray.
    Response: Pour forth, we beseech you, O Lord, your grace into our hearts, that we, to whom the incarnation of Christ your Son was made known by the message of an angel, may by his passion and cross be brought to the glory of his resurrection, through the same Christ Our Lord.
    Amen.

Note: during Easter the Regina Caeli is said in place of the Angelus.

It’s Official

Chelsea2008 Election, Politics, Pro Life1 Comment

John McCain is now officially the Republican nominee (as if that outcome was ever really in doubt) and the last remaining even vaguely pro-life candidates in the race. Obviously Obama and Clinton have no pro-life credentials, and in fact frequently argue over who is more pro-abortion. But is John McCain altogether much better? We all know that he is committed to increasing the amount of money taxpayers are already spending on embryo destructive stem cell research. But how about abortion, which is the only reason for his “pro-life” voting record? Is he seriously committed to changing abortion laws or is it just one of a host of other issues that he will simply deal with as it comes across his desk? Many still need convincing. As Tony Perkins pointed out in a recent FRC email:

A poll released last month by George Barna revealed that if the election were held then, only 45 percent of Evangelicals would vote for a Republican candidate. That number is down from 85 percent of Evangelicals who voted for George W. Bush in 2004. John McCain will have to convince social conservatives that their issues matter and that he can talk about them as a candidate and act upon them as president.

Granted that poll was conducted a full nine months before the general election, and I have a feeling that those numbers will go up once those voters are seriously faced with the extreme pro-death attitude of whichever Democrat wins the nomination. But I think it shows the growing frustration among social conservatives over the status quo of pro-life politics. We want a leader who understands the severity of the issue and is willing to use his position to encourage real change.

While this election cycle is fairly disappointing, we are still a government of the people (for now) and have the right and the privilege to make our own changes by always supporting serious pro-life candidates nationally as well as state/locally, even when it is not the most popular or “electable” thing to do. If no one else will be, we at least must remain faithful.

“God has not called me to be successful. He called me to be faithful” (Mother Teresa0.

“Are You Crazy, Or Just Plain Stupid?”

ChelseaAbortion, ScienceLeave a Comment

Mama says stupid is as stupid does. But stupid is as stupid says as well. Mexico’s former attorney general and human rights commission chairman says that early stage unborn children could really be chimpanzees:

Dr. Jorge Carpizo McGregor claims that “for the topic of abortion, there are very important scientific advances that prove that the DNA of chimpanzees is 99 percent identical to that of a human being. The difference between ourselves and chimpanzees is one percent, this quantity that makes the difference is the central nervous system.”

“Before twelve weeks of gestation, there is no cerebral cortex, that is to say, there is no human being, the cortex is formed around the 25th week. This is a very important piece of information because those who attack abortion say that a human being is being killed and it isn’t true.”

That’s just the height of stupidity. This brilliant man is also planning on putting these thoughts into a book called “Human Rights: Abortion and Euthanasia”. Based on his above statements I’m sure it will be rich with accurate scientific insight.

Fact: from the moment of conception a the embryo inside a woman’s uterus contains a complete genome of the species Homosapien and is in fact human.

(H/T Dawkinswatch’s Weblog

21-year-old Fathers Seventh Child

ChelseaAbortion, Sex, SexualityLeave a Comment

From BBC News:

A 21-year-old who fathered his first child at 13 is about to become a dad for the seventh time.

This is why pro-lifers must do more than just promote birth over abortion. Just because someone chooses life in an unintended pregnancy does not mean that they have changed their outlook on the circumstances (sexual immorality) that got them there in the first place. These days teenage pregnancy and out of wedlock births are not exactly the taboos that they once were. Many unwed men and women (or women themselves) are supported and welcome the birth of a new child with the same love and excitement of a married couple (thank God) and they don’t tend think of it as a reason to change their sexual habits, except that they might get more serious about birth control. Which then leads to more out of wedlock births and more abortions. The 2005 Guttmacher Institute study on induced abortions revealed that 60% of abortions are obtained by women with one or more children.

“Sex education” is necessary. And I’m not talking about giving kids condoms and encouraging them to “be safe” if they decide to have sex. I’m also not talking about “abstinance education” and strictly telling kids to wait until marriage. I mean teaching the truth and meaning of human sexuality – Who we came from, who we are, who we are meant to be and how that relates to our sexuality. This is the brilliance of John Paul II’s theology of the body. And it is key to promoting family (not to mention religious vocations) and turning around the culture of death. As sex goes, so goes the family and thus society as a whole.

It is an illusion to think that we can build a true culture of human life if we do not help the young to accept and experience sexuality and love and the whole of life according to their true meaning and in their close interconnection (Evangelium Vitae, n. 97)

For a very broad overview of TOB see my previous post, Reclaiming the Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality

View more TOB resources, and this curriculum designed specifically for teens.
See also Christopher West’s article What is Theology of the Body and Why is it Changing So Many Lives – which includes links to his other articles on TOB, including how it relates to the celibate vocation.

Obama Facts

Chelsea2008 Election, Abortion, Infanticide, Stem Cell Research4 Comments

nullMonica posted these facts about Barack Obama on ASA:

Fact: Mr. Obama sponsored the misleadingly named Ronald Reagan Biomedical Act of Illinois and the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act in DC – both promoting extravagent funding for embryonic stem cell research. Mr. Obama appears to have a slightly more sophisticated knowledge of the stem cell world than many of our politicians, which unfortunately makes it less excusable that he stood before President Bush and said:

    All over the country, exciting progress is being made in the area of embryonic stem cell research. At the University of Illinois, they’re finding that stem cells have the potential to treat blood disorders, lung diseases, and heart damage. . .

without so much as even nodding to the fact that adult and amniotic fluid stem cells are not potentially treating these problems . . . but in fact, already are. Thankfully, President Bush was not impressed.

In his own bid for the Oval Office, 2008, Mr. Obama reaffirms his commitment to federal funding for embryonic stem cell research:

    “This is about a commitment to medical research, under strict federal guidelines. … [We must] expand the current policy on embryonic stem cell research so that we can begin finding the cures of tomorrow today.”

Change? Folks, this isn’t pocket change. We are talking billions of dollars to be spent on research that is morally reprehensible to many Americans.

Fact: Mr. Obama opposed the Supreme Court’s recent ban on Partial Birth Abortion.

Fact: Mr. Obama opposed the Born Alive Infant Protection Act – a stance that put him even left-field of NARAL. Scary.

On top of all that he now states that his “biggest mistake” was agreeing to the federal law that tried to save Terri Schiavo’s life (Wesley Smith has more).

There is no doubt that anyone who cares about having any hope of ever seeing a culture of life cannot vote for this man so disturbingly committed to the culture of death.

For more on Obama and the Infant Protection Act, see my previous posts:
Previous post:
Obama and Infanticide
Barack’s Disturbing Defense of Infanticide

Vote “NO” Now!

ChelseaCloningLeave a Comment

The St. Louis Business Journal has a poll up asking whether Missouri’s “stem cell amendment” should stand as is. The answer is NO. The current amendment, narrowly passed by voters in 2006, is not just about “stem cell research”, but also human cloning. Though it bans the implantation of an already cloned human embryo into a woman’s uterus, but did not ban the process of human cloning altogether. For more on Missouri’s cloning amendment see Missouri Roundtable for Life, which has a word by word critique of the amendment (click here for PDF).

Some think that the issue has been “resolved” because a very slim majority of Missourians passed the amendment 2 years ago (nevermind the fact that many of those people mistakingly thought they were voting to ban all human cloning). But as citizens we always have a right and a duty to prohibit unwanted research in our state, especially when it violates human dignity.

Cloning ban update: Last week I told you that the judge ruled in our favor, overturning the SOS’s disastrous ballot language. Not surprisingly the other side has appealed and it looks like it will be late March (a hearing is set for the 26th) before anything gets done with that…

“A Cellular Approach”

ChelseaAdult Stem Cell Research2 Comments

Shhh…don’t tell the drug companies! Here is a news clip from the Journal of the American Medical Association about patients with auto immune diseases and cardiovascular disorders being treated with their own stem cells. From Dr. Richard Burt from Northwestern University Feinburg School of Medicine on the JAMA Report:

“It’s a whole new approach to these diseases, rather than just surgery or drugs. You can use a cellular approach that seems, in many different studies, to be benefiting the patient.”

The review of these treatments appears in this weeks publication of JAMA.

(a friend of mine emailed me this story after seeing it on Vital Signs)