Hillary’s “Religious Devotion” to Abortion Rights

Chelsea2008 Election, Abortion, PoliticsLeave a Comment

nullVia Life Site News: In a new biography, God and Hillary Clinton: a Spiritual Life, historian Paul Kengor sets out to answer the question: What does Hillary Clinton believe? What did he discover? A friend and colleague of Kengor, Warren Throckmorton, read through the press information on the book and says that we can expect to find out that:

There is no issue closer to Mrs. Clinton’s heart than abortion rights—to which she holds a nearly religious devotion—so much so that it has become a kind of political theology to the senator, equipped with its own set of apologetics.

– On the abortion issue, Kengor has provided unprecedented information on Mrs. Clinton and the root causes of her position. Interviewed several times for this book is Mrs. Clinton’s close friend and one-time OB-GYN, William F. Harrison, the nationally known Fayetteville, Arkansas abortion doctor. Harrison was very candid, and provided telling insights into Hillary’s sudden deep devotion to the cause of abortion rights by the time of Roe v. Wade, a marked moment on her political-religious path from Park Ridge Methodist to the White House.

Scary.

Interestingly she says Jesus is the motivation behind her mission to provide government-based health care for children because:

“We know so well what Jesus said to his disciples, holding a small child in his arms, that whoever welcomes one such child in my name, welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me, welcomes not me, but the one who sends me (Mt. 9:37)…Taking that face and transposing it onto the face of every child we see, then we would ask ourselves, ‘Would I turn that child away from the health care that child needs?’”

Apparently she doesn’t see that passage’s significance to the whole abortion issue with regards to the child in the womb. Also interesting, it turns out it was Bill’s pro-life pastor who talked him into a pro-choice position on abortion. Huh?

I think I’ll probably pass on purchasing this book, though I might go in to Barnes and Noble and browse through it a little bit. I really enjoyed, and recommend, Kengor’s book, God and Ronald Reagan, which I finished reading the day Reagan died a little over three years ago.

Other books by Kengor:
God and George W. Bush
The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism
The Reagan Presidency: Assessing the Man and His Legacy

Excellent Responses to a Misguided Letter to the Editor

ChelseaCloningLeave a Comment

A man I am fairly acquainted with from Columbia Missouri, who is paralyzed from the shoulders down, wrote a very misguided letter to the editor in the Kansas City Star last week saying:

Opponents of stem-cell research are now masquerading as being “pro-cures.” The truth is that not only do they seek to repeal the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of Missouri doctors to use the new frontier of stem-cell research to find cures, but they seek to repeal the freedom that people suffering from disease now have to decide their own medical care.

I have lived with a spinal-cord injury that has left me paralyzed from the shoulders down since 1989. I believe people should have the right to use their own DNA such as from cheek cells, and an unfertilized egg to make a genetically matched stem-cell treatment to cure the disease that afflicts them.

I truly respect that other people may have a different point of view. I support those who would choose to refuse a cure for themselves using this procedure, but I also believe they do not have the right to make that personal choice for others.

Research is like a tree. When planted, we do not know what shape the tree will take and what it’ll look like. We do not know which branch of the limb will bear fruit. If the limb is cut off, all of the future branches from that limb are lost forever. We should protect the tree of research and give people the choice to use the cures that come from it.

One astute stem cell commenter (bmmg39 (also known as Brian), who frequently comments on this blog), dutifully pointed out to Pund that the research he is talking about involves the intentional creation and destruction of embryonic human life. Other people accurately, and creatively, pointed out the wastefulness of spending so much money on such ineffective research, when effective and ethical alternatives are clearly available:

–Instead of wasting money on something that has consistently shown nothing to justify continued funding, use that money on the lines of research that ARE showing results. If a few believe that putting tin foil on top of their heads is going to cure cancer, should we set up billions of tax dollars for continuing research? How much is enough before it’s finally defined as wasted research funds? How much must be wasted pouring it down that hole?…

–Picture two mining operations. The first is worked by willing participants, the second by powerless slaves. The former consistently discovers gold, the latter only fool’s gold(mutations). Which one would you fund? The pharmaceutical companies long ago realized that Embryonic(also disguised as Early)Stem Cell Research was a dead end. They weren’t going to keep shoveling their money down that bottomless pit. But they don’t have any qualms of throwing your’s and my money down that pit as long as it’s given to them on an endless supply of silver platters…

–The cruelest lie of all is making people like Mr. Pund believe that cures for chronic injuries such as his through embryonic stem cell research and human cloning are imminent.

Meanwhile, promising human clinical trials on spinal cord repair are already underway in Portugal using a patient’s own adult stem cells.

Sadly, Bob is just one example of the many people who are easily persuaded by the deceit of those pushing for the advancement of this unethical area of science. It is good and noble to want to ease so much suffering here on earth. But it does not justify unrestricted scientific research which involves the deliberate creation and destruction of human life.

Oh, and I Love the Pope, Too

ChelseaPro LifeLeave a Comment

pope-benedict-xviedit.jpgIn a speech addressed to the members of the Democratic International of the Centre and the Christian Democrats Pope Benedict said (my emphasis added):

‘There are those who legitimize the elimination of the human life in its pre-birth and terminal phases. The crisis of the family is also worrying, it is the fundamental cell of society founded on indissoluble marriage by man or woman. The central role of the person and respect for human rights, the commitment to peace and the promotion of justice for everyone are the values and the ideals that should lead the political commitment of the Catholics.’

I Really Love Sam Brownback

Chelsea2008 Election, AbortionLeave a Comment

nullHe’s introduced yet another pro-life bill in the Senate:

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Sam Brownback, the Kansas senator and Republican presidential candidate, has introduced a new bill that would require abortion practitioners to perform an ultrasound and allow women contemplating an abortion to see the pictures of their unborn child. The hope is that it will persuade many women to keep their baby.

Says Brownback:

“I am hopeful that this bill will inform women and will cause a deeper reflection on the humanity of unborn children. It is important to promote a culture that values life in all stages”

I’m not certain, but I think Brownback is the only one I’ve heard talk about promoting and building a whole “culture of life.” The other candidates did have to weigh in, of course:

Mike Huckabee: “I’m pro-life and my attitude has always been if we’re going to take a position, take it on the side of preserving life,” he said. “Anytime we can help to highlight what an abortion is, that would be a good thing.”

John McCain: “Given the profound nature of a decision to end the life of an unborn child,” he said. “I believe the more information that can be provided to a woman struggling with the decision of whether or not to have an abortion, the better.”

Mitt Romney’s spokesperson: “Gov. Romney is pro-life…(He) believes that states should be free to place restrictions on abortion, and favors measures that protect the sanctity of life.”

And then there’s Rudy Giuliani: “The ultrasound proposal currently under consideration is a good example of a matter best left to the states to decide.”

Stem Cells Treat Heart Attack Patient

ChelseaAdult Stem Cell Research, Pro LifeLeave a Comment

Oh how I love to post this stuff!

Cardiologists at Düsseldorf University Hospital said they have been the first in the world to use stem cell therapy to save a patient who suffered from a severe heart attack…

Bodo-Eckehard Stauer, the director of the cardiology department at Düsseldorf University Hospital, told the Rheinische Post that the patient was “on the verge of dying” after having suffered a severe heart attack. The man spent seven weeks in the intensive care unit with no sign of improvement.

Stauer decided to apply stem cell therapy on the patient…The therapy involved extracting adult stem cells from the patient’s bone marrow and then inserting them, with the help of a balloon catheter, into the artery damaged by the infarction.

After nine days of treatments the patient was quickly moved out of ICU and into a rehabilitation center.

Of course the author had to lament Germany’s “restrictive” embryonic stem cell research policy using the media’s usual deceptive language:

Since 2002, the production of embryonic cells from pre-existing stem cell lines is prohibited in Germany. Scientists are also not permitted to research on any lines produced after Jan. 1, 2002 to ensure that foreign laboratories do not create new lines for the German market.

Those pre-existing “stem cell lines” are actually human embryos that must be destroyed for the research they’re talking about.

Preserving America’s Freedom

Chelsea2008 Election, Abortion, Right to Life1 Comment

For me, no cause more important than the right of every human being to have life. It is a universal human right which is endowed to us by our creator and ensured by our constitution, yet has been taken away in our country by a handful of Supreme Court justices and a successful campaign of rhetoric that parallels the rationalization of eugenics in Nazi Germany and slavery in the early South.

Oh yes, I remember September 11. I see the deranged dictators, sympathetic to terrorists and openly hostile to our country and our way of life. And I am increasingly concerned about the nuclear threat we could face (if we don’t already) should one of these maniacs actually succeed in building up their weapons arsenal and putting one of them into the hands of an eager terrorist. But that does not change the fact that we are still legally murdering over 1 million of our own children in this country every year. Here, I am more concerned about the words of Christ, “Depart from me you accursed [for]…Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me” (Mt. 25:41, 45)

It is important that we stand up to the enemies who threaten our freedom from abroad but we may not be able to succeed unless we also stand up for those whose very lives are threatened right here in our own country. nullIn his article, Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation, Ronald Reagan said,

“Abraham Lincoln recognized that we could not survive as a free land when some men could decide that others were not fit to be free and should therefore be slaves. Likewise, we cannot survive as a free nation when some men decide that others are not fit to live and should be abandoned to abortion or infanticide…there is no cause more important for preserving that freedom (America as a free land) than affirming the transcendent right to life of all human beings, the right without which no other rights have any meaning.”

A nation- especially one who boasts of being “One Nation, Under God” – that nulllegally sanctions the murder of the most vulnerable members of its society inevitably grows weaker from within and, I believe, more vulnerable to the threat of outside forces. My insistence on voting for pro-life candidates does not mean that it is the “single” or only issue I look at when determining who I will support, but it is criteria number one and it’s non-negotiable. Abortion is the murder of the most defenseless human beings and any politician who supports it is not fit for office – that means Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani – no matter what their position is on homeland security. Without a right to life, liberty does not mean a whole lot.

If we stand firm in our support of the inviolable right of every innocent being to have life our nation will grow stronger and thus better able to preserve our freedom.

Doing What’s Right for Our Patients

ChelseaCloning, Stem Cell ResearchLeave a Comment

nullI am very blessed to have Dr. Acuff as my spinal cord doctor. Last year he was outspoken in his field against Amendment 2. Now he is a member of Cures Without Cloning and speaking out in support of the CWC initiative to ban human cloning. For Dr. Acuff it’s all about the patients, about giving them hope in something real, not just a fantasy:

As a spinal-cord injury specialist, I have dedicated my career to improving the lives of my patients. Over the years, as medical research has progressed, one of the biggest challenges for physicians like me has been to bridge the gap between providing hope and providing false hope.

The new Cures Without Cloning initiative, which would amend the Missouri Constitution to prohibit human cloning and taxpayer funding of human cloning, is about hope.

It is about allowing us to focus our medical research on promising, safe methods to find lifesaving cures and treatments, but doing it without human cloning, which is dangerous, unproven and outside the mainstream of society.

Those who allege human cloning is necessary in the pursuit of these cures and treatments are providing false hope.

The Cures Without Cloning initiative would only prohibit research involving human cloning – nothing more, nothing less. There are plenty of promising research methods, including many forms of stem-cell research, that do not involve human cloning…

This isn’t a religious issue; this isn’t an economic-development issue. It’s an issue of doing what’s right for our patients; it’s about allowing medical researchers to focus on safe, proven research techniques, rather than throwing away our tax dollars.

Read more

Last week I joined Dr. Acuff in Columbia for an interview with KOMU-TV who was doing a two-sided piece on cloning and the new initiative.

More on the Values Voter Debate

Chelsea2008 Election, Politics, Pro LifeLeave a Comment

Yes Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, John McCain and Fred Thompson all skipped the debate citing “scheduling conflicts”. However, Giuliani was in Ft. Lauderdale (where the debate was held) just hours before the debate and Thompson was in Florida over the weekend and is due back Tuesday. Now scheduling conflicts can be a legitimate excuse, but when they didn’t even answer questions that were sent to them ahead of time to at least act like they cared about this group of voters, that ought to tell us something. It’s not like this debate was just about abortion and gay marriage. They were also asked questions about combating radical Islam and their positions on free trade and open borders between Mexico and Canada. No, I think, “scheduling conflicts” aside, it was the audience that kept the top candidates away from the Values Voter Debate.

Jan Folger, president of Faith2Action said,

“They will regret the decision…Because they snubbed us, they will not win, because we will not follow their lead.”

Them’s fightin’ words!

Alan Keyes is Running Again!!

Chelsea2008 Election, Politics, Pro Life2 Comments

nullI know his campaign never goes anywhere, but the man is just fantastic. I have had the privilege of hearing him speak a few times and I can’t even describe to you what an amazing experience it is just to listen to him. This pic is from one of the anti-cloning rallies in Missouri last year against Amendment 2.

Apparently he participated in the Values Voter Debate this evening that I completely forgot about. The American Family Association had live video of it and it completely slipped my mind. I tuned into it a few minutes ago and a few commentators, including Dr. Rich Scarborough and Phillis Schlafly, were discussing the debate which every top ranked candidate skipped out on, including Fred Thompson. It seems that Mike Huckabee won by a very large margin. I’m sure more information about this will be available in the near future.

Exploiting Women and Families for Cloning/ESCR

ChelseaCloning, Egg Harvesting, Embryonic Stem Cell Research, IVFLeave a Comment

A little late getting this one in, but this is despicable. In the UK women will be offered discounted IVF treatments if they will donate extra eggs for cloning research.

I’m not sure what’s worse, that, or the morally bankrupt StemLifeLine which encourages parents to destroy their own offspring by allowing the company to “develop” and “transform” their unwanted IVF embryos into “useful” personalized stem cell lines.

Fr. Thomas Berg recently wrote an excellent article on the shameful and deceptive tactics of StemLifeLine, concluding:

The very existence of this company — however gimmicky and deceptive in its advertising — is a new and powerful indicator that the age of embryo-based science, medicine and commercial emporiums is now upon us. New enterprises like StemLifeLine will continue to appear. Most, if not all, will fly under the banner of “cures” and of “benefiting you and your family.”

Those cures may never come; but all the while, these enterprises will be the conduits for a steady supply of fresh human embryos for the basic scientific research that thousands of developmental biologists are so anxious to engage in, much or most of which will have little or nothing to do with cures. We urgently need Congress to produce legislation prohibiting the deliberate creation of human embryos ex vivo — by in vitro fertilization, cloning or any other technique — for research or purely therapeutic purposes.

If the present generation of Americans simply blinks at the existence of enterprises like StemLifeLine, then we will have become mere spectators of Brave New World at its ugliest, and have guaranteed a horrific and monumental defeat for humanity.

Indeed.