Abortions in England

ChelseaAbortion, Contraception, SexLeave a Comment

Abortions were up 4% in England and Wales in 2006, especially among teenagers. What this suggests is that more women are using abortion as birth control since nearly one third of those who are having abortions have already had one before. The answer? Why, greater access to contraception, of course. That is the battle cry among so called “health professionals” and politicians everywhere. If only we would make contraception more readily available we wouldn’t have all of these unintended pregnancies and subsequent abortions.

Now, I don’t know about England, but here in America I don’t see how we can possibly make contraception more available than it already is! They’re in every Wal-Mart, drug and convenience store. Pop into any gas station bathroom and for a quarter you can take your pick from a wide variety of colors and flavors. Universities and even some elementary and high schools hand out free condoms to their students. Women cannot go to a doctor appointment without being hounded about getting on some form of birth control (some “family planning” clinics will even offer b/c for free). My middle sister went to her University health clinic for a head cold a few years ago and was asked about birth control. The following year she returned for antibiotics for a UTI. After informing them, again, that, no, she was not on birth control, stating her religious beliefs as the reason she was questioned at length about her period and the severity of her cramps and was scared into thinking that she could have some condition that would cause her to be sterile – but birth control could help. How much more available can we make it??

The question here is not, does contraception prevent abortion (to answer this question visit, No Room for Contraception), but rather, does contraception help create a culture of life? By using contraception a couple rejects the gift of life before it is given. So what happens when the birth control fails as it so often does? Interestingly this study doesn’t report how many of these abortions are the result of failed contraception – my guess is it’s pretty high.

In short, contraception = reject the child and does not perpetuate the culture of life. Besides, many types of birth control are themselves abortifacients.

I’m Back!

ChelseaAdult Stem Cell Research, PersonalLeave a Comment

I got back from South Dakota and my friends’ beautiful wedding yesterday evening. I did have free wireless but not a lot of blogging time.

In the news while I was gone:

A New Milestone in Stem Cell Research

In the first trial of its kind in the world, 60 patients who have recently suffered a major heart attack will be injected with selected stem cells from their own bone marrow during routine coronary bypass surgery.

The Bristol trial will test whether the stem cells will repair heart muscle cells damaged by the heart attack, by preventing late scar formation and hence impaired heart contraction…

In a heart attack, part of the heart muscle loses its blood supply (usually due to furring up of the arteries with fatty material) and cells in that part of the heart die, leaving a scar. This reduces the ability of the heart to pump blood around the body…

“Current treatments aim to keep the patient alive with a heart that is working less efficiently than before the heart attack. Cardiac stem cell therapy aims to repair the damaged heart as it has the potential to replace the damaged tissue.”

HT: Bioethics.com

I’m Off!

ChelseaEmbryonic Stem Cell Research, Politics2 Comments

I will be driving to South Dakota all day Thursday for my friends’ wedding on Friday and then driving back home Saturday. I’m not sure if I will have (free) internet access while I am away and/or if I will have any time to post – we shall see.

The news of the day:

President Bush vetoes stem cell funding bill – again. Some of his remarks:

America is also a nation founded on the principle that all human life is sacred. And our conscience calls us to pursue the possibilities of science in a manner that respects human dignity and upholds our moral values.

Destroying human life in the hopes of saving human life is not ethical. And it is not the only option before us.

Brownback on You Tube

Chelsea2008 Election, Politics, Pro Life, videoLeave a Comment

This is interesting. I was on You Tube just now and noticed their “You Choose ’08” banner said “spotlight on Sam Brownback” so I decided to check it out. Apparently You Tube has pages, similar to a my space, for the 2008 Presidential candidates. This is pretty cool because it’s all video. Here’s his video message to You Tube:

All life is sacred:

Sam Brownback’s You Tube page

Brownback for President

Stem Cells Help Primates with Parkinsons

ChelseaAdult Stem Cell Research, MiscellaneousLeave a Comment

NEW HAVEN, Conn., June 13 (UPI) — A U.S. study has demonstrated primates suffering severe Parkinson’s disease significantly improved after being injected with human neural stem cells.

Researchers from Yale, Harvard, the University of Colorado and the Burnham Institute said the primates were able to walk, move and eat better and exhibited diminished tremors after receiving the stem cells.

Although the results are promising, it will be years before it is known whether a similar procedure would have therapeutic value for humans, said Yale Professor D. Eugene Redmond Jr., lead author of the study.

Maybe it’s years away from therapeutic benefits for humans, but it’s years ahead of any research involving the destruction of human embryos. The stem cells were taken from human fetuses that were miscarried at 13 weeks. From what I have read these were in fact natural miscarriages, which is ok, as long as it doesn’t lead to the justification of abortion for stem cell research.

Right Said Fred

Chelsea2008 Election, Politics, Pro LifeLeave a Comment

I saw this a few days ago on another website but couldn’t find it on YouTube until now (thanks to plb). A video by Fred Thompson for National Right to Life:

Happy Father’s Day!

ChelseaFamily, Men, VocationLeave a Comment

Very late blessings for all you fathers out there! Fathers are often the forgotten heroes of the American family, yet none would be complete without them. Thank you to all fathers for the hard work you do to support, protect and be an example to your children and grandchildren. Thank you, above all, for accepting your role as father – a difficult task in our society which belittles the vocation and even deems it unnecessary or undesirable through contraception, abortion and radical feminism.

A Father’s Day Prayer
by Gaynell Bordes Cronin

Thank you, friend Jesus,
for my father who loves me,
for my grandfather who cares for me,
and for God, your father and mine,
who made me and is always with me.

How lucky I am!

It’s Mitt’s Turn

Chelsea2008 Election, Politics, Stem Cell ResearchLeave a Comment

romney.jpgLast week Sen. Sam Brownback discussed the issue of stem cell research with LifeNews.com. Now Mitt Romney takes his turn discussing the issue in a column on National Review Online. Speaking of his experience as Gov. of Massachusetts during their big stem cell debate:

Some advocates told me that only the creation of human embryos for purposes of experimentation, otherwise known as cloning, could help them better understand and perhaps someday treat a series of dreaded diseases. But they ignored the importance of protecting human equality, dignity, and life. Opposing advocates told me that the pluripotency of stem cells — their ability to become a very wide variety of different cell types — would not be of great therapeutic value, and that other sources of tissues and cells could serve the same purpose. But they ignored the unique role pluripotent cells could play in basic science…

I studied the issue for many months, and entered into conversation with experts from across the nation who were looking for consensus solutions, like Stanford’s Dr. William Hurlbut. In the end, I became persuaded that the stem-cell debate was grounded in a false premise, and that the way through it was around it: by the use of scientific techniques that could produce the equivalent of embryonic stem cells but without cloning, creating, harming, or destroying developing human lives.

A number of such techniques have begun to emerge in recent years, and as last week’s exciting scientific publications showed, some of the world’s best stem-cell scientists are hard at work bringing them to fruition. Moreover, two of these techniques, Altered Nuclear Transfer and Direct Reprogramming could produce patient-specific stem-cell lines for the study of diseases. Our government should encourage and support these scientific developments, rather than undermine the effort to find a solution. Finding cures to diseases using methods that uphold ethical principles and sustain social consensus should be the objective of America’s approach to stem-cell research…

Support for ethical biomedical research should be part of our collective identity as a noble society. Instead of turning the quest for cures into a partisan battle..

It is time to move beyond typical Washington politics, and offer support for stem-cell research techniques that bring science and ethics together to promote life, protect life, and save lives.

Read the entire article: A Stem-Cell Solution

ht: WJS

Unwilling to Be Selfless

ChelseaCloning, Family, Marriage, Sex, Vocation, WomenLeave a Comment

In a recent interview, singer Kelly Clarkson perfectly articulated the reason for the breakdown of the family in our society and therefore the breakdown of our society in general:

“My point of view is that I shouldn’t be a mother at all, because I’d be horrible,” she confessed to Elle magazine. “I’m not willing to be that selfless.”

We have lost our sense of self giving. It is easy to give money or to donate a portion of our time and talents to some charity or organization. But to be a parent, to be a spouse especially, means to give the gift of your entire being. This concept is completely lost on our highly individualistic society, but it’s what we were made to do.

Then the man said,

    “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”

Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife and they become one flesh. (Gen. 2:23-25)

Man can fully discover his true self only in a sincere giving of himself (Gaudium et Spes, 24). We are called to be one just as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one; three persons united in the complete giving of themselves in love to one another (Jn. 17:21-22). This is the amazing uniqueness of the human person! This is what it means to be made in the image and likeness of God; that we are able to love in such a way that we give our entire selves in love and service to others – not only to others, but also in service to God:

Then he said to all, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself? (Lk. 9:23-25)

Also check out:
Man and Woman: A Mutual Gift for Each Other and other General Audiences that make up JPII’s Theology of the Body

Back to the Garden: Theology of the Body from Eden to Today by Edward P. Sri

Life is a Gift

ChelseaAbortionLeave a Comment

the lennonsIn an interview with BBC radio program, Desert Island Discs, Yoko Ono, wife of late Beatle John Lennon, revealed that she had considered abortion when she became pregnant in 1975 with son Sean.

Yoko explained to Kirsty Young how, when she found that she was pregnant at the age of 42 in 1975, she considered having an abortion.

She and John Lennon had just become reconciled after an 18-month separation, and, as she explained on the programme, she “didn’t know if it was the right moment to have a child. I just didn’t want to burden him with something he didn’t want”.

Lennon’s response was, she said: “Of course we’re gonna keep it.” It was “like he was really upset with my remark. And, I thought, well, we’ll go ahead with this”.

How does she feel about the decision now?

She is, of course, eternally grateful now that between them they made that decision. Less than six years later John would be dead, shot down by a mad fan on the pavement outside their apartment. And Sean would, for Yoko, become a living, growing embodiment of his father.

It’s hard to tell right away, especially in the face of a so-called “crisis pregnancy”, God’s reason for granting the gift of life, but if we don’t give that life a chance we may never find out.

Beautiful Boy – John Lennon’s song about Sean

H/T: Mother May I Be Born