More on Ron Paul and Life

Chelsea2008 Election, Abortion, Politics3 Comments

Ron PaulRepublican presidential candidate Ron Paul has been pretty popular on this blog. I did one post last month on his pro-life position and was impressed with the positive feedback I got from it – more than anything I’ve done on another candidate, including Brownback. So I thought those readers would appreciate this video of Paul speaking at this years National Right to Life Convention in Kansas City (I am kicking myself for not going since it was only about 3 hours from my house, but I just never made the time). Anyway, it’s a great vid. As a defender of all liberties, Paul recognizes that unless the issue of life is resolved, liberty doesn’t mean a whole lot – life comes first, libery comes afterward. As a man who has helped deliver more than 4,000 babies, he may be the most qualified candidate to talk about the great miracle of life.

He has apparently written a book, Challenge to Liberty, Coming to Grips With the Abortion Issue. It’s unavailable at amazon right now and I can’t seem to find it anywhere. I would love to know how to get ahold of it if anyone knows how. I really enjoyed Reagan’s Abortion and the Conscience of a Nation, check it out if you haven’t already.

H/T: Driving Out the Snakes

Adult Stem Cell Treatments Better Than Dying

ChelseaAdult Stem Cell ResearchLeave a Comment

Here is a PR Newswire release about Thailand’s stem cell company, Theravitae, using adult stem cells in heart disease patients – a better alternative, they say, to death or transplant.

More stem cell news:

Amyloidosis Patients who received stem cell transplants have been found to be surviving long term:

The findings appear pre-published in the first edition of Blood. BUMC was the first to begin using this treatment in 1994 and is the only center to publish these long-term outcome results.

AL amyloidosis occurs when plasma cells in bone marrow produce proteins that misfold and deposit in tissues, leading to organ failure and death. Between 1,200 and 3,200 new cases are reported each year in the United States, although researchers believe the disease is highly underdiagnosed.

The researchers reviewed the records of 80 patients who received high-dose chemotherapy and blood stem cell transplantation from July 1994 through July 1997. The median survival for all 80 patients was 57 months. Eighteen of these patients, (23 percent) are still alive today, 10 or more years after undergoing the treatment. By comparison, only two percent of patients treated with oral melphalan and prednisone have survived more than 10 years.


India sees its first successful case of unrelated umbilical cord blood transplantation.

The patient, an eight year old boy, lost a brother to a rare blood disease years earlier. When Howard was also diagnosed with Fanconi anemia last year his mother was determined not to lose another son. So they went ahead with the unrelated transplantation and, so far, doctors are satisfied with the results. Howard has been back home to Uganda.

You just gotta love all these happy, successful, ethically sound stem cell stories. These success stories also point out the major difference between the campaign for ASC research vs. ESC research. On the one hand you have those touting ESC research saying look at this person dying from cancer, here see the poor paraplegic who will never walk again, don’t you want to give them “hope” and “promise.” On the other hand ACS supporters say, look at this person no longer dying from heart disease, see how this paraplegic is has gained feeling and movement and is able to stand and walk for the first time in years, don’t you want to help treat more people like them? One side is full of emotion and heart break, while the other offers healing and joy.

See:
Adult Stem Cell Research archive

Giuliani and Adoption

Chelsea2008 Election, Adoption, Politics2 Comments

Rudy GiulianiWhen asked about abortion in yesterday’s Presidential debate Rudy Giuliani referred to, as he frequently does, the need to emphasize adoption as an abortion alternative. This is something that pro-lifers have always supported, but many of Rudy’s adoption claims leave questions that need to be answered.

First is his claim that adoption number rose during his time as mayor of New York City:

When I was mayor of New York City, I encouraged adoptions. Adoptions went up 65 to 70 percent; abortions went down 16 percent.

But that may be a bit of an exaggeration. This claim by Giuliani lead the nonpartisan political watchdog, FactCheck.org, to investigate the actual numbers and found that:

* Adoptions more than doubled in the five years prior to Giuliani.
* Adoptions had already increased by 257 percent in the seven years prior to creation of ACS [Administration for Children’s Services, which Giuliani created in 1996 to protect children and encourage adoption], the agency Giuliani credits with increasing adoptions.
* Adoptions initially peaked, then declined by 26 percent between
the time ACS was created and the end of Giuliani’s tenure.
* Adoptions declined in five of the mayor’s last six years.
* Adoptions have continued to decline thereafter, and in the most recent fiscal year were half what they were when ACS was created.

You can see by the chart below (from factcheck) that adoptions were sharply rising for several years before Giuliani took office, peaked in his third year and declined in each of his last five years. In his last year adoptions were only 17% higher than they were the year before his first budget took effect – and over 20% lower than they were when the ACS was created – and they have been declining ever since.

By pointing out the inaccuracies of the former mayor’s claims, Fact Check is not saying that either Giuliani or the agency he started are responsible for this downward trend. Rather, “What we are saying is that Giuliani persists in using statistical trickery.”

Rudy Giuliani has also defended his past support for Planned Parenthood because:

“Planned Parenthood makes [adoption] information available,” Giuliani told Ingraham on her radio show. “It’s consistent with my position.”

“I think it’s wrong [but] I think there should be a choice. If there is going to be a choice, there are organizations that are going to give people information about that choice.”

“I just as strongly support the idea that a woman should have information about adoption at that time,” he added.

To truly be consistent with his position, PP would have to promote adoption as a way of reducing abortion numbers, but this type of promotion is not reflected in their annual reports. In the latest report, for 2005, PP reported 264,943 abortion procedures up from 2004 by 9,928. In 2004 PP reported only 1,414 adoption referrals, but adoption referrals were not even mentioned in the 2005 report. If they do promote or offer adoption information it is not very effective.

These are, I think, attempts on Giuliani’s part to assure pro-lifers that, while he respects a woman’s right to choose to kill her unborn child, he still thinks that abortion is “bad” and its numbers should be reduced, and we should not fall for it.

Pro-Life Republicans Beware

Family Welcomes 17th Child

ChelseaFamilyLeave a Comment

Duggar FamilySpeaking of large families, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar of Arkansas have welcomed child no. 17 into the world yesterday and they see no reason to stop there.

“We’d love to have more,” Michelle said, referring to baby girls. “We love the ruffles and lace.”…

“We are just so grateful to God for another gift from him,” said Jim Bob Duggar, a former state representative. “We are just so thankful to him that everything went just very well.”

Jennifer Danielle joins 10 brothers and 6 sisters ages 19-almost 2. They have been featured on the Discovery Health Channel twice. DH even has a page devoted to the family with video clips, information on each child and fun facts. The most amazing of the fun facts is that the Duggar’s are, get ready for this…debt free. Jim is a former state representative and a, obviously very successful, real estate agent, owning several commercial properties in his area (source, Wiki’s Jim Bob Duggar page).

These people really took God seriously when he said “be fruitful and multiply,” God love ’em!

The Duggar family will have a third special on Discovery Health Channel, the Duggar Family Album, set air next month. I tried to look up their website, www.duggarfamily.com, but it’s not connecting for me, maybe it’s not there anymore?

Post “Roe” Policy

ChelseaAbortion, Women2 Comments

Just the other day I raised the question of jail time for abortive women in a post Roe world on my own little blog and today I come to find out that it has recently been a pretty heavy topic of conversation nationally. This is largely due to Anna Quindlen’s Newsweek article, How Much Jail Time?, in which she addresses the dilemma pro-lifers would face if Roe was ever over-turned – what would be the penalty for procuring an illegal abortion? She claims that:

there are only two logical choices: hold women accountable for a criminal act by sending them to prison, or refuse to criminalize the act in the first place.

This lead to an NRO symposium of pro-life experts tackling that very question. Many of the contributers are operating under the assumption that the women would be seeking the services of an abortion provider, like they do today. In which case the provider would be the main culprit subject to punishment, which is fine. But, if the person who actually performs the procedure deserves punishment, they don’t then consider what happens when the woman performs the abortion herself. I did enjoy a couple of the answers, however. Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, writes:

The fact of the matter is that compassion for women before abortion was legal and compassion for them after unborn protections are enforced will drive the law. The focus of such laws is on protection, not punishment. Women were not punished by the legal system before 1973’s Roe v. Wade decision and there is absolutely no drive to punish her now. While the position may be counterintuitive to some, it is clearly a uniquely American case of handling a delicate and tragic situation with sensitivity.

Party of Death author, Ramesh Ponnuru, says:

For now, let me just say this in defense of this conclusion: The crucial legal goal of the pro-life movement is not any particular set of punishments. It is that unborn children be protected in law. We could, for example, eventually secure laws that prohibited most abortions, that removed the medical licenses of doctors who committed illegal abortions, and that imposed fines on people who committed them without medical licenses. If that legal regime sufficed to protect unborn children, there would be no need to go further.

Criminalizing abortion is not about punishment, it is about the protection of women (from the harmful effects of abortion) and unborn children (from being murdered in the womb).

HT: Jivin J

Becoming Better People, One Child at a Time

ChelseaFamily, Pro LifeLeave a Comment

I was so tickled Sunday morning to see an article in our newspaper highlighting large families – in a positive way! In a world where children are often seen as a burden to parents and couples are encouraged to keep their family size down, this article is a breath of fresh air. I was also delighted to see that two of the three families mentioned are very good friends of mine (Komaromis and the Galbraiths). They represent two of the home schooling families whose children help me out with the pro-life table every 4th of July. It’s just a great article about the importance of faith and family:
july4edit.jpg
That’s me with the kids on the 4th of July last year, which includes 2 of the 7 Komaromis and 3 out of 8 Galbraiths, the rest of the children come from three other home schooling families in our area. See some pictures from this year

Not your typical family

Raising this large family in contrast to today’s world may be more difficult due to society’s expectations, but it also may be easier thanks to technology.

“It’s been hard for my family to make sacrifices financially, like a second income,” Claudia said. “We live very simply, compared to many.”

The Galbraiths seldom go out to eat, used cloth diapers, eat healthy and cook from scratch, and hand down clothes.

The children participate in few sports and community activities.

But in addition to homeschooling, they read together, play in a musical band with other home-school families and share responsibilities around the house.

“We don’t feel we’re depriving them but prioritizing and making certain choices,” Claudia said.

Becoming better people

Being patient when someone else’s needs takes precedence, taking responsibility when a younger sibling needs correcting or practicing love and kindness in the midst of frustration – virtues of large family living.

“People ask about socialization,” because of home-schooling, said Susie Komaromi. “In a large family, you have to get along. “If you don’t like someone at school, you can avoid them. Here you (can’t and) must be kind and respectful to each other.”…

“They say family is a school of virtue,” Claudia said. “I have always thought that was for children, but it’s equally true for parents.”

Each child has his or her own personality.

“Parenting is a challenge whether you have one or 10, especially when their personalities are in contrast with your own,” Claudia said. “You appreciate their gifts and strengths and work with their weaknesses to bring them along.”…

Family devotions offer a quiet, safe place for the children to share their faith and thoughts and grow closer to each other…

Listening takes time. So these families invest time to make sure they know their children and their needs.

“With every child, we become better people,” Susie said…

“Having a big family isn’t for everyone – it takes a lot of faith, trust in the Lord, courage and most of the time it is just the grace of God that gets us through,” Susie said. “I pray all the time that God fills in what we lack as parents and educators.”

“I hope the kids have a good faith in God and openness to life.

“We live in a culture that does not (seem to) value that.”

A large family teaches children early that the world doesn’t revolve around them, Susie said. Growing up in a close-knit, interdependent family grounds them in fundamental virtues.

Anna Komaromi, 17, said she enjoys helping take care of her siblings and appreciates the choices her parents have made in rearing them.

“I’ve learned to put God first above all else,” she said.

Full Article

Also check out, How Can There Be Too Many Children? and Society’s View of Large Families

Woman Charged With Murder of 26 Week Old Fetus

ChelseaAbortionLeave a Comment

Police are investigating the remains of four tiny humans found dead at the home of a Maryland woman yesterday. None of the bodies are said to have been full term, which means they must have died before birth or shortly after a premature birth. Exact cause of death is still uncertain, but the mother, Christy Freeman, is being held on first-degree murder and other charges in the most recent death, a baby boy whose body was found wrapped in a towel under her bathroom sink. It is believed that she caused the infant’s death because of “something she said” in an interview with authorities. According to Vance Row, spokesman for the Ocean City police, “she could have taken an action that could have caused her to deliver a stillborn baby.” Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that also called a late-term abortion?

Well, that’s exactly what it is. So I found it very interesting that she was being charged because of a 2005 law which establishes that a prosecution may be instituted for murder, manslaughter, or unlawful homicide under certain conditions for an act or failure to act that causes the death of a viable fetus. I was under the impression that those so called “fetal homicide” laws existed primarily for unborn children that died as the result of an assault on the mother. Apparently I was correct there as well for the Maryland law is supposed to contain a paragraph exempting, “an act or failure to act of a pregnant woman with regard to her own fetus.” If that is true and the mother did, indeed cause the death of her son prior to his birth, this murder charge will most likely not stick.

So, what is my point on all of this? I am not advocating arresting and charging women for having abortions (Mark Pickup has a post on that matter, the sentiments of which I agree whole heartedly). But this example is where the “fetal homicide” laws get a little fuzzy for me. On the one hand we acknowledge the person hood of a child developing in the womb in certain situations and at the same time say that those rights don’t apply if the child is unwanted by its own mother. I understand that it is ultimately because of Roe v. Wade (and Doe v. Bolton) that these exemptions must be put in place, otherwise the law could and would be challenged to be unconstitutional, but, legally, the whole thing gets a bit confusing in these situations, doesn’t it? Unborn life is protected here, but not there. And wouldn’t these investigators get a big surprise if they sent cadaver dogs to abortion clinics?

On the issue of prosecuting women for procuring abortions, it’s not something I’ve thought a lot about. But it seems that many would consider that, too, to be a bit tricky in a situation where abortion is illegal. Pickup addresses the instance of woman procuring abortions from another source, but what if she performs the “procedure” on her own and of her own free will? He is right, and the pro-life movement knows that women are just as much a victim as the baby – I love the slogan “Abortion: One Dead, One Wounded” – often forced into the decision by another party (a boyfriend or parent). Of course we will always have pregnancy centers open to help women find counseling and other resources to help in a crisis pregnancy situation. But if abortion is illegal, the child is acknowledged as an equal person under the law and the mother kills her unborn child on her own, what then? We prosecute women like Susan Smith and Andrea Yates. Would this be different? If so, what should we do?

Regarding Freeman, however, investigations are underway into bruises found on her body, which could indicate domestic violence and a possible motive for the alleged self-induced abortion(s) – or proof that they were not self induced after all.

Woman Gives Birth to Her Own Grandchildren

ChelseaIVFLeave a Comment

It doesn’t get much creepier than this. In Florida a young woman was diagnosed with cancer two years ago and underwent a hysterectomy. Doctors harvested some of her eggs which were fertilized by her husbands sperm and later implanted into the womb of her 59 year old mother, who recently gave birth to the twins. I am sorry but that just gives me the willies all over. Though I don’t know what’s worse, this or the Canadian mother freezing her own eggs for her infertile daughter to use.

Infertility is often a very devastating and grievous experience for couples, but it is not an excuse to take fertility, to take life, into one’s own hands. It is good and right to desire to have a child, but having children is not a right. Just as it is never good for the marital act to be dissociated from the procreative act (contraception), likewise the procreative act must never be dissociated from the marital act (artificial reproductive technology). Other methods may be employed to help couples overcome their sterility, provided it does not violate human dignity or treat human life as an object of gain. In such a case where sterility is permanent, like the one’s cited above, Archbishop Charles Chaput offers this advice:

No prayers go unanswered, and all suffering given over to the Lord bears fruit in some form of new life. I encourage them to consider adoption, and I appeal to them to remember that a good end can never justify a wrong means. Whether to prevent a pregnancy or achieve one, all techniques which separate the unitive and procreative dimensions of marriage are always wrong. Procreative techniques which turn embryos into objects and mechanically substitute for the loving embrace of husband and wife violate human dignity and treat life as a product. No matter how positive their intentions, these techniques advance the dangerous tendency to reduce human life to material which can be manipulated.

Children are a gift, not a right. The focus of marriage should be the husband and wife giving and receiving the total gift self while loving God and trusting Him for the timing of children – if they should ever come.

Other sources
Kimberly Hahn’s fabulous book, Life Giving Love: Embracing God’s Beautiful Design for Marriage

Donum Vitae: Instruction on Respect for Human Life in Its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation – Heterologous Artificial Fertilization; Homologous Artificial Fertilization

Also, my HP post is up on Path to Holiness.

A Pro-Life Harry Potter?

ChelseaFamily, Pro Life1 Comment

You’ll have to forgive me, I am still in HP mode. I’m in the middle of writing a post about HP on Path to Holiness (I will put up a link to it when I am finished) and I remembered that I was going to relay a few of my favorite spots from the Deathly Hallows.

First, there has always been an emphasis on the importance of parents and family throughout the novels – the Weasleys, with 6 children and a doting mother, present the greatest example,HP and the Deathly Hallows and all of the main characters have parents who are still together (orphaned, Harry does go to live with his married aunt and uncle, however they treat him). But the greatest moment for me came in the 11th chapter of Deathly Hallows when Lupin (a werewolf and member of the Order of Phoenix) insists on leaving his pregnant wife to help Harry and Harry objects saying “I’m pretty sure my father would have wanted to know why you aren’t sticking with your own kid,” (p.212) and later, “Parents shouldn’t leave their kids” (p.215). This was great because the “kid” is a few months old still inside the womb.

The other part I liked was when, in an underground radio broadcast, a member of the Order of Phoenix urges his magically gifted listeners to also protect their non-magical friends and neighbors from dying at the hands of Voldemort and his followers saying: “We’re all human, aren’t we? Every human life is worth the same, and worth saving” (p. 440).

I don’t know if this reveals any deeply held pro-life beliefs of Rowlings but it sounds like she is saying – All life is sacred!

Other themes I enjoyed:

Love your enemy: Harry and Ron saved Draco’s life twice
Repentance: Snape
Laying down/risking your life to save others, self sacrifice, love: there are too many examples to list, but Harry and Lily would be the most obvious

Mission Accomplished

ChelseaAbortion, Women3 Comments

Yes, I finished the Deathly Hollows today and I greatly enjoyed it. So hopefully it’s back to normal posting from now on. Speaking of which – check out Colleen Carroll Campbell’s column in the St. Louis Post on the new breed of feminists:

For decades, the feminist establishment has declared the question a no-brainer. The right to abortion is the premier women’s right, feminist leaders argue, so support for unfettered abortion access is the litmus test for concern for women. And restrictions on abortion or abortion providers — such as the new provision in Missouri law that holds abortion clinics to the same health and safety standards as other outpatient surgical centers — are, by definition, anti-woman.

This simplistic logic permeates much press coverage of abortion. The terms “women’s rights” and “abortion rights” are used interchangeably. Pro-choice politicians are presumed to have a lock on the women’s vote. And pro-lifers are depicted as fanatical about babies but indifferent to their mothers.

Like most conventional wisdom, these assumptions have grown stale. The claim that pro-choice advocates have a corner on compassion is belied by the reality of pro-life crisis pregnancy centers that offer women food, shelter, clothing and emotional support. These centers, for which state support was solidified under the new law, serve women abandoned by a society that considers pregnancy a woman’s choice — and a woman’s problem.

Full Column