The Petty Concerns of American Feminists

ChelseaPro Life, Women1 Comment

Regarding the recent attempted murder of a 14 year old girl in Pakistan for daring to promote the rights of all girls to become educated, Ken Connor writes:
Yousafzai.jpg

This is the terrifying reality facing women across the Muslim world, yet amidst the hubbub of Election 2012 this story is barely making the news cycle. Planned Parenthood is too busy ginning up panic over the prospect of a Romney-Ryan victory in November, and Code Pink is preoccupied with their campaign to “wage peace, not war” with a despotic and dangerous Iran. For some strange reason, American feminists don’t seem all that bothered by the fact that in many countries Muslim women are treated as second class citizens – mere chattels in a male dominated society. They are divorced with impunity, routinely abused, killed for breaches of honor, beaten for being in the company of men who are not their husbands, and in some cases subjected to excruciatingly painful and humiliating genital mutilation. They are shot on their school buses while their friends and classmates look on in fear and horror.

By comparison, American women are the freest, most empowered women on the face of the planet. They are CEOs, professional athletes, government officials, political pundits. They are also snarky bloggettes who make a living fabricating misogynistic bogies out of thin air. Instead of directing their time and energy to issues that could use their support and attention – like the plight of women suffering under the boot of Muslim extremism – the majority of American feminists choose to focus on comparatively petty concerns. They want Uncle Sam to force their employer to pay for their birth control. They want abortion on demand and subsidized by the U.S. taxpayer.

I wasn’t going to bring this whole thing up again, but Connor’s column really spoke to my frustration with these women and the media’s love affair with them. It’s bad enough that women to want to deny their femininity in the first place by suppressing their fertility and killing their unborn children, but to insist that the public must pay for these things otherwise it’s some kind of violation of our “rights” is, quite frankly, embarrassing to me as a fellow American woman and insulting to women who really are victims of oppressive and inhumane regimes.

If anything even remotely resembles a “war on women” in this country, it’s our pornified culture (which contraception and abortion help advance, by the way) and its sexualization of young girls. That’s where the efforts of American feminists should primarily be focused. (warning: brief nudity)

Happy Feast Day, Papa!

ChelseaPro LifeLeave a Comment

blessed-jpii.jpg
Blessed JP II, pray for us!

Over at Catholic Lane I revisit John Paul II’s contribution to building a culture of life.

Vote With Your Lady Smarts, Not Your Lady Parts

Chelsea2012 Election, WomenLeave a Comment

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I don’t know who made this image, but it reminds of Michelle Malkin’s column this week responding to a ridiculous ad for Obama from some Hollywood feminists.

Schedule Your Imaginary Mammogram at Planned Parenthood Today!

Chelsea2012 Election, Women2 Comments



free-mammogram.jpg

I can’t believe Planned Parenthood supporters still peddle this nonsense. During Tuesday night’s debate Obama said:

“Millions of women all across the country who rely on Planned Parenthood for not just contraceptive care. They rely on it for mammograms, for cervical cancer screenings. That’s a pocketbook issue for women and families all across the country.”

Repeat after me: Planned Parenthood does not provide mammograms – anywhere!

In response to yet another of these false claims, Abby Johnson and others decided to have a little fun. They put together the Call Planned Parenthood to Schedule Your Imaginary Mammogram Day event on Facebook. Please join the group and participate in the fun!

While we’re on the subject, can we stop pretending that anyone is honestly talking about shutting down Planned Parenthood or preventing women from getting basic health care? Honestly. The fear mongering Obama campaign ads would be laughable if they weren’t so pathetic.

What are we really talking about here, ladies? We’re talking about whether you should get free birth control and whether taxpayers should continue to fund a private company that not only does not do mammograms as its supporters keep falsely claiming, but is not the comprehensive health care facility for women that it’s also often touted as.

Meanwhile, in Pakistan, a 14 year old girl was shot in the head by terrorists for daring to promote the rights of all girls to become educated.

Please. I do not want to hear another American feminist say that there is a ‘war on women’ in this country. Ever.

Perfect Paisley

ChelseaAbortion, Disabled, videoLeave a Comment

Although skeptical and scared at first, it didn’t take long after the birth of his daughter Paisley for Heath White to discover that the abortion he originally wanted for her would not have prevented anyone any suffering or embarrassment. Instead, it would have deprived the both of them of a beautiful and happy life together.

Thank God for his wife’s determination:

There’s really nothing I can add to this video. I wish every parent who gets a prenatal diagnosis positive for Down syndrome could watch it. Hell, I wish every doctor who does prenatal genetic testing would, for that matter, since they are often the ones who push for abortion.

Let’s face it, every expecting parent hopes that their unborn child is “perfectly” healthy. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work out according to our plans. Be not afraid.

Embryo Adoption Revisited

ChelseaPro Life2 Comments

ivf-embryo.jpgLast year I brought up the debate over the ethics of embryo adoption in the Catholic Church. Something that I was not even aware was a debate at all. For most people, if the choice is between destroying these embryos and giving them a chance to be born and live regular lives, this seems pretty cut and dried. But, as Catholics, we know there is more to consider.

Over at Ignitum Today, Leah Jacobson examines the debate through the eyes of a “New Feminist”:

As a New Feminist I subscribe to the belief that God created women’s bodies to cooperate with the Divine in the very natural physical acts of nourishing new human life through conceiving, gestating, and lactating for the benefit of our offspring. Suppressing or altering these natural female abilities for matters of convenience is unethical in that it violates the natural order and diminishes the great contribution of women to our world. So it would seem that based upon these preliminary tenants of New Feminism that the natural process of reproduction is grossly altered in creating these embryos, thus the resulting practice of embryo adoption is immoral.

However, New Feminism also emphasizes the contribution of women as “mothers of humanity”. We see motherhood, either physical or spiritual, as the ultimate fulfillment of woman’s purpose. Our bodies were made to mother; as were our spirits created to be in tune to those in need. No matter where a woman is called vocationally (the home, the office, the convent), she is equivocally called to infuse her environment with her feminine gifts. She is called to bring the unconditional love, acceptance, and hospitality towards others that physical mothers offer their own children.

Read the whole thing.

There is still no official teaching on embryo adoption from the Catholic Church, so the debate goes on. Last year Dr. Gerard Nadal tackled the debate from a pro-adoption stance in three parts:

Part I: A Case for Embryo Adoption
Part II: Open or Shut by Rome?
Part III: Violence Against Conjugal Union?

Ethan’s Witness

ChelseaAbortion, Disabled, Prenatal Genetic Testing2 Comments

ethan3.pngI introduced you guys to Ethan back in April when his mother, a friend of mine from college, posted this picture of him on her Facebook page with the caption:

This Easter pic is dedicated to all the doctors and so called specialists who suggested we terminate our pregnancy as it was “incompatible with life.” He looks pretty good to me.

When Kaitlyn was 18 weeks pregnant they found she had next to no amniotic fluid and she and her husband James were told that little Ethan had “no chance.” Lucky for Ethan his parents refused to listen to the doctors who did not value their son’s precious life.

Below is a video that she uploaded last month commemorating the first anniversary of the day doctors told her that the baby boy she was carrying was incompatible with life:

Naturally, it’s difficult to watch a loved one struggle and fight for life, especially one so tiny and helpless, but that doesn’t mean that their life is not worth living – and loving – for however long that turns out to be. Be not afraid.

A Missing Voice in Hollywood’s Assisted Reproductive Technology Advocacy

ChelseaReproductive Technology1 Comment



Last month NBC premiered a new sitcom about a young, single mother who agrees to become a gay couple’s surrogate mother. The pilot episode opens with a sweet video in which one of the main characters, Bryan, talks to his future child, explaining how badly he/she is wanted. It’s an appealing sentiment, and yet, that’s precisely the problem with assisted reproductive technology (ART), isn’t it? People so blinded by their own desire for a baby that they don’t stop to consider whether the this is really good for the children they so desperately long for.

While Hollywood offers light-hearted, feel-good narratives about egg/sperm donation, IVF and surrogacy, the reality is not always so rosy, especially for the children born of this technology who have half of their identity deliberately withheld from them.

Giving voice to many of these donor conceived sons and daughters (some of whom may also unknowingly be brothers and sisters) is Alana S. Newman, founder of the Anonymous Us Project, a support group for the children of anonymous sperm donors.

Recently Alana took her message to a charity fundraising event in New York City to raise money for Gay men to have babies via reproductive technology and surrogacy. Unable to get in to the event (not that really wanted to give money to this misguided charity, anyway) she stood outside and handed attendees a letter she drafted as they entered the event.

Alana’s letter read:
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Hi, my name is Alana.

I was conceived using an anonymous sperm donor. Not having my father in my life has been extremely painful. I miss him every time I look in the mirror and think of him every day. It is especially painful that this absence was deliberate and money was involved. If you are thinking about using a donor to conceive a child, please reconsider — or at the very least, please welcome this person into your life as an important member of your child’s family and avoid anonymous donors at all costs.

And for those of you consider using a surrogate . . . Please know that women still die from giving birth. Six months ago I went into labor with my daughter; unexpectedly, we had to undergo an emergency c-section. I was nearly dead on the operating table. I spent the next 6 weeks in excruciating pain from recovery. Child bearing is still risky and life-threatening.

Learn more about 3PR at:
www.AnonymousUs.org
www.Eggsploitation.com

In an interview with the CBC’s Jennifer Lahl, Newman said that, for the most part, people took the flyer and read it peacefully as they went inside, but she did get a few negative reactions. Something that, unfortunately, she has become accustomed to since she started her advocacy.

“People are extremely vicious,” she said in the documentary Anonymous Father’s Day. “[t]here is a huge monster of money and people desperate for children, who don’t want me to make it harder for them to buy and sell children.”

And, yet, when asked if she felt like her work was getting any traction, Newman told Lahl:

I do, I really do. People see the truth in what we’re saying. Parents fear their donor-conceived child will end up like me, but they know its a possibility when they initiate the process. It’s the most natural thing in the world to want to know who your parents are, which is why the UN Human Rights Convention asserts that every child has a right to be raised by their natural parents. Nearly everyone recognizes the truth and reason in what I have to say after I get an hour or two with them. The problem is that the infertility industry has cultivated a language full of euphemisms and lies that cloud the truth and confuse people.

We all know it’s wrong to buy and sell people. We all know it’s wrong to ask people to abandon their children for money.

I hope and pray that she is right. If anyone’s voice deserves to be heard on this issue it’s people like Alana — and Lindsay and Katrina and Narelle and Damian and Barry, etc… — especially considering their millions of lost and perpetually frozen brothers and sisters don’t have one.

Hear from more at AnonymousUs.org.

There Isn’t One ‘Right’ Answer Here

Chelsea2012 Election, Egg Harvesting, IVF, Reproductive Technology, Sperm Donation, Surrogacy2 Comments

Dammit, Mitt. You don’t make it easy for me to want to vote for you as opposed to just voting against Obama.

tagg.pngI knew that Mitt Romney’s son Tagg had used IVF and a surrogate mother twice to give birth to three of his six children. I didn’t hold his son’s actions against Mitt himself, though. That was, of course, until I found out that he actually paid for part of this transaction. Specifically, he helped pay for some of the expenses for the surrogacy agreement that each party had to sign.

Some will look at this and wonder why it’s such a big deal when his opponent supports infanticide. Ok, sure. I will grant you that Romney’s not quite the avowed merchant of death that our dear president is. But that doesn’t mean that we should be silent about his own…less that pro-life views. As life issues goes, this is a pretty major one. One that doesn’t get discussed nearly enough, even among pro-lifers.

IVF and surrogacy are the total commodification of human life — born and unborn. Children are bought and sold in a business transaction rather than conceived in an act of love between a mother and father. Men and women are used as banks for spare baby making parts and human incubators. Then there are the millions of nascent human lives lost, destroyed or ‘frozen in time’. Lives that many scientists want to get their hands on in order to cannibalize them for their stem cells.

Seriously. You know it’s bad when even the children born of this technology question aspects of their conception.

Assuming the TMZ report is correct (and I haven’t seen it denied or disputed anywhere, yet), Mitt Romney helped pay for this.

Not surprisingly, when I posted this story on Facebook last week some friends of mine immediately got into a discussion about whether or not it was right to refuse to vote for Mitt Romney (as well as Barack Obama, obviously). Personally, I don’t blame anyone else who decides that they cannot vote for him in good conscience. Mitt Romney’s pro-life views are questionable, at least and this latest bit of information certainly doesn’t help matters any.

I’m not saying that I’m not voting for him. I understand that the perfect should never be the enemy of the good (indeed I don’t believe that there could ever be a perfect candidate). And, as I mentioned earlier, Romney certainly is not as committed to the culture of death as his opponent. However, I also agree with Archbishop Chaput who wrote concerning two “crappy”, as one of my friends put it, choices:

“There isn’t one “right” answer here. Committed Catholics can make very different but equally valid choices: to vote for the major candidate who most closely fits the moral ideal, to vote for an acceptable third-party candidate who is unlikely to win, or to not vote at all. All these choices can be legitimate. This is a matter for personal decision…”

It’s one thing to refuse to vote out of sheer laziness or apathy. It’s quite another to seriously look into each candidate’s positions and policies and decide that your conscience won’t let you vote for either. It is, as Archbishop Chaput said, a personal decision.

Better to Enter Into Life Paralyzed

ChelseaDisabled2 Comments

During the Gospel reading at Mass this past Sunday (Mk 9:38-43, 45, 47-48) we heard:

And if your foot causes you to sin, cut if off.
It is better for you to enter into life crippled
than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna.

chiara.jpgAs I listened to this I couldn’t help thinking of a quote I came across a few years ago from Blessed Chiara Luce Badano:

“If I had to choose between walking or going to heaven, I would choose going to heaven.”

No doubt this statement confuses many, especially the 52% of Americans who say they’d rather be dead than disabled. But after the journey I’ve been on for the past nearly 13 years, I understand and appreciate how she feels.

I may have lost my legs, but I didn’t lose my life. And for that, I am forever grateful. In fact, I think it’s fair to say that it took this life altering trauma to wake up the sleeping saint within me.

Not that I think that I’m anywhere near sanctity, mind you. Far from it. But I am now at least more aware that that’s what I was created for and actually have a desire to persevere in pursuing that holiness. Something I was totally not on track for prior to my injury.

During a talk I gave to a group of seventh graders a few years ago, I was asked: if I had my whole life to live over again, would I still want to end up in a wheelchair. Let me put it this way: as difficult and inconvenient as it is to live with a spinal cord injury sometimes, if that’s what it takes, I’d rather enter into life paralyzed than with two good legs to be thrown into Gehenna.