Woman Injured After Failed Abortion at Planned Parenthood in StL MO

ChelseaAbortion, Planned Parenthood2 Comments


Planned-parentood-emergency.jpgAwful news from my home state:

ST. LOUIS, Feb. 14, 2011 /Christian Newswire/ — Emergency responders removed a patient from a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in St. Louis, Missouri, on Saturday morning and rushed her to the emergency room at Barnes-Jewish-Christian Hospital.

Photo: A patient is removed from Planned Parenthood in St. Louis and transported to a hospital by ambulance. Her head was covered and she was motionless, raising concerns that she might not survive.

A witness, pro-life sidewalk counselor Marty Bennet, took over a dozen photos of the dramatic incident as the woman was wheeled out the clinic and into an awaiting ambulance. Photos showed that the woman’s head was covered and that there was no IV bag or any other sign of ongoing emergency care. There was no evidence that any Planned Parenthood staff member accompanied her to the hospital.

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Valentine’s Day Advice for Singles

ChelseaChastity, LoveLeave a Comment

valentine.pngAs if there wasn’t enough pressure from our society to “couple up” – at least temporarily – we also have an entire day solely dedicated to celebrating romantic love. As a single person myself, I don’t really get worked up over the whole Valentine’s Day “thing” (although, these days, being in my late 20s with most of my friends settling down and starting families, I can tell you, my biological clock sometimes sounds more like a ticking time bomb). But for those who do feel a little left out or alone today These Benedictines have some advice:

[I]f today you are alone and feeling that there is no one very much to care about you, and no one in particular for you to love in return, consider this: by virtue of your baptism you are espoused to him before whom the sun and moon bow down. Jesus is not your boyfriend, but he loves you more than you could ever possibly imagine.

Blessed Marcel Callo also has good advice for those looking for love:

I am not one to amuse myself with the heart of a lady, since my love is pure and noble. If I have waited until I was 20 years old to go out with a young lady, it is because I knew that I wanted to find real love. One must master his heart before he can give it to the one that is chosen for him by Christ.

Finding real love can take quite some time, but we should never let ourselves settle for less. Nor should we give our hearts (and our bodies) too freely or foolishly in search of that love. God alone is the One who satisfies our every desire. Establish a relationship with Christ first and build on that relationship so that He may a.) create in you a clean heart and guard you against impurity and b.) lead you to a worthy, suitable companion. Then, remember to keep God as the “third party” in your relationship to be your glue, your bond, your wingman.

Also recommended:
Single Living in a Couple’s World
Valentine’s Day and the Feeling of Loving

7 Quick Takes

ChelseaPro Life3 Comments

7 quick takes1. If you haven’t read it yet, check out my column at the Patheos Catholic Portal: Refusing to Suffer is Refusing to Live

2. Nancy Pelosi is at it again.

3. A great article at the Daily Caller: Our media is fearless and intrepid — except when it comes to abortion

4. Josh at Just West of Crunchy writes: Thank you for menstruating. Keep it up. bonus: watch this hilarious SNL skit for “Annuale”

5. A Catholic hospital in Chicago has become one of the nation’s first to adopt a practice of halting second-trimester abortions for women who change their minds after the procedure has begun.

6. Kathryn Jean Lopez writes at Townhall: Living in Misery With Abortion

null7. Here’s a personal story for you: today is the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. My mother and I went to Lourdes in 2003 with the Knights of Malta. I wish I could say it was a wonderful, life changing experience, but I don’t even remember half of it…literally. About five days into the trip I got really sick and ended up having four grand mal seizures and spending five more days in a French hospital on very heavy medication. And, yes, this was after I had taken the “bath!” FWIW, I’m pretty sure I enjoyed the first five days (though I could have done without being stuck in this voiture, pictured here, during most of the time we spent away from the hotel).

Can We Stop With the “Donation” Nonsense Already?

ChelseaEgg Harvesting, IVF, Reproductive Technology, videoLeave a Comment

Here is a CBS Early Show segment aimed at “answering” the ethical and safety concerns about egg donation. Their panel of “specialists” consists of an out-of-work 23 yr. old actress who has decided to “donate” her eggs (but hasn’t done so, yet), Kathy Bernardo of the Northeast Assisted Fertility Group and Dr. Ezekiel Emmanuel, an oncologist and the Head of the Department of Bioethics at The Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health.

Notice that right off the bat, when first asked why she decided to “donate” her eggs, the unemployed actress gave finances as her main reason, getting the idea from a friend of hers who had done it six times already with nothing but great things to say about the “money you earn” and the fact that it was “non invasive.” Only when she was asked what she thought when critics say this kind of thing exploits poor, cash-strapped women did she talk about how “more rewarding” it is to her to the “gift of giving life.”

Can we just stop it with the “donation” nonsense already, please? I don’t care who you are, if someone gives you upwards of $10,000 after you provide some good or service, you did not “donate” anything.

Another note: it is obvious that Emmanuel was just a prop to say that they showed “both sides” of the debate as his points were largely dismissed. It would have been more interesting to see them put on one of the women from this documentary.

Refusing to Suffer is Refusing to Live

ChelseaCulture of Death, Suffering1 Comment

Because it has been my observation that one of the supporting pillars of the culture of death (those kneejerk proponents of abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, cloning/ESCR) is a desire to avoid or alleviate human suffering at all cost (a woman with an unwanted pregnancy doesn’t want the “burden” of a child; sick people want cures for what ails them or they want to be put out of their misery altogether, etc…), more than once on this blog I have said that: A culture that respects human life must have a joyful acceptance of human suffering.

This expressed sentiment prompted Jen at Conversion Diary to ask, among other things, why? Said Jen:

Ever since I first came across these thoughts, over and over again I see that respect for human life and hatred of any kind of suffering are inversely proportional: as one increases, the other decreases. But I don’t know how to articulate the situation any further than that….

Why is it that fear of suffering leads to decreased respect for human life?

At the time she asked that, I wasn’t quite sure how to respond and for the past two and a half years it’s been sitting in the back of my mind. Finally, I think I might have an answer, which I wrote in a column for the Patheos Catholic Portal: Refusing to Suffer is Refusing to Live:

Though I had come up with the connection between the culture of death and society’s disdain for suffering, I couldn’t exactly explain why the two were so connected. Then, nearly two years later, I came across a section in Fr. Jacques Philippe’s book Interior Freedom entitled “Refusing to Suffer Means Refusing to Live”:

Suffering should be remedied whenever possible, but it is a part of life, and attempting to get rid of it completely means suppressing life, refusing to live, and ultimately rejecting the beauty and goodness that life can bring us.

Why does hatred of suffering lead to decreased respect for human life? Because refusing to suffer is refusing the totality of living. It is a rejection of life itself.

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Martin Link Knows the Day and the Hour

ChelseaDeath8 Comments

Martin LinkThough many, due to some illness or disease, may be aware that their death is very near, by and large, I suspect they still are not sure of the exact day or hour when the Son of Man will come for them (Mt. 25:13). Here in my home state of Missouri, 47 year old Martin Link knows the day and the hour, but he’s not sick. In a little over an hour he will be put to death for the kidnapping, rape and murder of 11-year-old girl in 1991.

I can’t imagine what goes through the mind of a person who is not just facing certain death, but knows the exact day and hour when he will meet his maker – especially one who has committed such an unspeakable crime. So tonight my little votive candle is lit for Martin Link, for the conversion of all criminals, rapists and murderers and that we all may learn to overcome evil with love.

This, of course, also has me contemplating the hour of my own death and praying that I may be like the wise virgins (Mt. 25:1-13) and appear before Jesus with my lamp filled with the oil of faith and hope and burning with the pure flame of charity. Fr. Kenneth Baker has a beautiful editorial on the importance of thinking about death each day.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church on capitol punishment:

2267 Assuming that the guilty party’s identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.

If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people’s safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity to the dignity of the human person.

Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm – without definitely taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself – the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity “are very rare, if not practically non-existent.”

The New Theological Movement has the excerpt from her autobiography in which St. Therese of Lisieux recounts how prayed for the soul of a condemned rapist and murderer who was sentenced to death – one of her first apostolic endeavors when she was just fourteen years old.

Related: Pro-Life is Whole-Life

TOB Tues. Bonus: Life-Long Married Love is Possible

ChelseaLove, Marriage, TOB TuesdayLeave a Comment

In honor of Valentine’s Day coming up next Monday, this is a nice reminder that life-long married love is still possible, despite what our culture tells us:

Worldwide Marriage Encounter has announced that Marshall and Winnie Kuykendall of Lordsburg, New Mexico, are the national winners of its “Longest Married Couple” contest. The couple will celebrate their 82nd wedding anniversary on February 14, 2011.

Scott and Karen Seaborn, who serve as the United States Ecclesial Team for Worldwide Marriage Encounter, expressed their congratulations to the couple on Feb. 7, concluding the nationwide search that drew more than 300 total applicants, including nominees from every U.S. state.

“What a privilege and honor it is to recognize the Kuykendalls for their commitment to marriage,” they reflected. “They made a commitment to each other 82 years ago, and they have kept that commitment over these many years. They truly are a sign of hope to us all.”

Read more and see related TOB Tues post: Faithfulness Forever

TOB Tuesday: TOB for Dummies :)

ChelseaTheology of the Body, TOB TuesdayLeave a Comment

TOB-book picFor the average person, the idea of reading about or studying the Theology of the Body can seem like a daunting task, even if they really want to know more about it. If this describes you, Creative Minority Report‘s Matthew Archibold has a suggestion:

I read Marcel Lejeune’s book Set Free to Love and it’s great.

I’m an idiot so I tend to stay away from heavy duty theology books but I read this, enjoyed the heck out of it, and I understood everything (I think.) Marcel has a real gift for making grand concepts into easily understandable and relate-able real life stories.

Now, I’ve seen all the debate and arguments about the Theology of the Body but always stayed out of it because I know there’s a lot of stuff I didn’t know. Marcel’s book is really pretty awesome because it’s not only an interesting read it’s beautiful to read how TOB changes peoples lives.

Order: Set Free to Love

A similar book: Freedom: 12 Lives Transformed by the Theology of the Body

Baby Vader and Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week

ChelseaPro LifeLeave a Comment

My relatively new friend in the social network/blogging world, Monica Rafie, wrote on her Facebook page today:
chd.png

Today begins CHD (Congenital Heart Defect) Awareness week. What expectant parents should be “aware” of is that the 20 wk ultrasound is not just for your refrigerator photos, but a look at your baby’s heart (and other things). If something is discovered, please know, you are not alone . . . 1 in 100 have some type of heart defect, and there is lots of support, hope, and help for you and your baby.

Monica is the founder of BeNotAfraid.net, a network of concerned parents, professionals, and laypersons offering hope and help to families after a poor prenatal diagnosis – something that frequently leads to abortion.
vader.png
Incidentally, the little boy who has been stealing millions of hearts over the past few days for his role as “Darth Vader” in what I believe was the best and indeed is the most talked about Super Bowl commercial this year, is himself a CHD survivor. He is six-year-old Max Page and he had his first surgery when he was just 3 months old for the heart defect Tetralogy of Fallot. His mother, Jennifer Page, told The Today Show this morning:
vader.png

“They saved his life and gave him back to us about a week after his first surgery. He had to have a pacemaker put in, so he has maintenance on that.

“He’s still routinely at the hospital, but we try to make it fun; we have blankets and bears and we try to make it not so scary.”

Watch Max and Jennifer’s Today Show interview and the commercial (which has been viewed over 18 MILLION times in just six days!) if you haven’t already and get more information about CHD and other common prenatally diagnosed diseases at BeNotAfraid.net.

7 Quick Takes

ChelseaPro Life1 Comment

7 quick takes1. Commercialized Sex and Human Bondage – Ellyn Arevalo and Mark Regnerus write at the Public Discourse about how “[t]he American sex trade—strip clubs, prostitution, and the booming pornography business—feeds on and fuels modern-day slavery.”

2. Sex Gone Wrong – again at the Public Discourse, R.J. Snell writes about “the dualism of degrading desire.”

3. “Within my lifetime, single parenthood has been transformed from shame to saintliness.” – thoughts on hoe the welfare state and modern public “education” have “destroyed the family unit, done away with the institution of marriage, largely eradicated any sense of morality,” etc…

4. We Need To Stop Glorifying Single Mothers – from John Hawkins at Right Wing News.

5. Obama Administration Covering Up Abortion Data? – last year the CDC offered no annual abortion report on their website as it has been doing for several years now and told RedState that they “will not have stats available at any time in the near future” and there “are no plans for them to come out any time soon.” Hmmm…

6. Saving Ava – a nice little story about a 911 dispatcher who helped a mother save her baby from choking to death.

7. Eggsploitation won best documentary at the California Independent Film Festival!

Bonus: If you’re looking for a good Super Bowl party meal check out this jambalaya recipe – I made it last weekend, served with rice and some corn mixed in at the last minute…DELISH!! Plus, it never sucks to get this song stuck in your head for a while 🙂