Is Thompson a Better Choice Than Giuliani?

ChelseaPolitics, Pro LifeLeave a Comment

ThompsonThere is a major grassroots effort to encourage Fred Thompson to run for President next year. This, I think, is by many who see him as more electable than other “second and third string” candidates and more conservative than front runners like Giuliani and McCain (but Giuliani in particular). It is no secret that I am an avid supporter of Sen. Sam Brownback, but as I looked at the positions of former Sen. Thompson I thought, ok, at least he’s another candidate that I could possibly support if I had to (i.e. if he were to be Republican nominee).

In this interview on Fox News Sunday he calls himself “pro-life” and considers Roe v. Wade “bad law and bad medical science” which should be addressed with “good judges”. His voting record, according to On The Issues, Thompson has a pro-life voting record – even voting to ban partial birth abortion and human cloning.

But today I got a little confused. On a 1994 National Political Awareness Test from Project Vote Smart it appears that he checked that abortions “should be legal in all circumstances as long as the procedure is completed within the first trimester of the pregnancy.” Hmm… His answers to all of the other questions were pro-life. So what was that – a typo or something? If anyone knows what that was about I would be interested to hear because everything else indicates that he is consistently pro-life and, therefore, loads better than Giuliani (but I will still be supporting Brownback thus far).

Pro-Life Advocates Say Fred Thompson Close to Announcing Presidential Bid

SMILE! Your Mom Chose Life!

ChelseaFamily, Pro Life, Right to Life, video, Vocation, WomenLeave a Comment

This Mother’s Day be sure to thank your mother, among other things, for choosing to give you the gift of life – especially if you were born in or after 1973! Thanks, mom, for life!

These babies are VERY happy their moms chose life:

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!

Don’t forget to thank Our Lady who, by saying yes to God’s gift of life, became the Mother of God and the Mother of Eternal Life. At the foot of the cross became our own Mother as well (Jn. 19:26-27).

Mary, our Mother, the Queen of all mothers, we love you! Pray for us!

Congratulations Dr. Onder!

ChelseaPolitics, Pro Life1 Comment

Bob OnderA good friend of mine, Rep. Bob Onder, was approved yesterday to serve on the Life Sciences Research Board here in Missouri. I just found out yesterday, as I was listening to the Senate floor debate at work, that he was even nominated. Dr. Onder is a new edition to the MO House of Representatives and a great friend for life. From his website:

Dr. Onder has a long history of pro-life leadership, and he speaks and writes frequently about life issues. He serves on the board of Missouri Right to Life – Eastern Region, the Catholic Medical Association, and the Center for Bioethics and Culture. He is the host of a radio series dedicated to life issues on WRYT/KHOJ entitled Renewing the Culture of Life. He supports continued efforts to limit abortion including partial birth abortion. He opposes allowing abortion providers to provide sex education to children in Missouri schools.

With the death of a cloning ban in 2005, the passage of amendment 2 in 2006 and the defeat of HJR II this year – not to mention the Governor’s and other top Republican’s support for cloning and embryonic stem cell research – I have been very concerned about the future of the biotech industry in Missouri and the potential for it to become a mecca for tax payer funded life destroying medical research. So I am very encouraged by Dr. Onder’s nomination. I already feel that his presence has been a great asset to the Missouri House and I think he will make an even greater addition to the Missouri Life Sciences Board.

A doctor, Rep. Onder has a private medical practice, Allergy and Asthma Consultants. He lives with his wife and six children in Lake St. Louis, Missouri.

Check out Rep. Onder’s Unborn Child Pain Prevention Act. It was laid over earlier this week on the House floor. With one week left during session, I hope there is still time to get it passed. We have not passed any pro-life legislation yet this year.

Giuliani Makes it Official

ChelseaAbortion, PoliticsLeave a Comment

According to his campaign the Republican candidate plans to offer “unambiguous support” for abortion rights in the near future. He is hoping that he can cash in on the blue state primary voters, who may not be too concerned with his stance on life issues, enough for it to offset the support he may lose in more socially conservative states like Iowa and South Carolina. This is likely due to the fact that the first Republican primary debate did not go well for him as he was still trying to dance around the abortion issue and therefore looked as if he could not handle questions on difficult issues. Since he has a long history of supporting abortion rights, the only option for him to overcome this weakness is to embrace his pro-choice views in order to finally have a solid position on the issue. So there you have it, no more word games or silly promises about judicial nominations, now Giuliani will officially campaign as a pro-abortion candidate. Of course he was going to have to do this eventually, it was only a matter of time.

Dedication

ChelseaFamily, Right to Life, Suffering, videoLeave a Comment

The following video is a breath of fresh air in light of the recent news stories about parents who want to screen their embryos in order to weed out those who might be born with some disability, disease or other undesirable trait. It beautifully shows one couple’s dedication to preserving the short life of their son and the great joy they shared in accepting him and loving him as he was given to them from God.

Related stories:
Doctors: Let Us Kill Disabled Babies

HT: Alive and Young, Cosmos~Liturgy~Sex

No No No No NO!

ChelseaAbortion, PoliticsLeave a Comment

Rudy GiulianiRudy Giuliani’s views on abortion are NOT acceptable. But some GOP leaders seem to think so. Fellow GOP vying for the Presidential nomination next year, Rep. Tom Tancredo, told the Associated Press: God knows we don’t want the alternative, being whoever the Democrats have in place. I repeat: a pro-abortion Republican is NOT better, and in fact is worse, than a pro-abortion Democrat. Remember that Giuliani, who “hates” abortion, also wants you, the taxpayer, to fund abortions.

Rich Lowry has a piece on National Review Online about the insincerity of Giuliani’s abortion position:

Giuliani apparently thinks that saying he hates abortion is enough. But pro-lifers will want to know why he hates abortion. Because it’s taken the lives of 48 million unborn babies since Roe? Giuliani’s “hate” line rings so false because, temperamentally, he is not one to hate something without outlawing or attempting to discourage it.

So far what Rudy has most effectively communicated is his distaste for people who actually hate abortion. He says pro-lifers want to throw women in jail, the canard that pro-choicers always throw at them, and he has implied that pro-lifers hurt the GOP.

No, his abortion position is not acceptable and he should not win the GOP nomination. If he does, the Republican party will have effectively lost its soul.

“I’m pro-choice. I’m pro-gay rights,” Giuliani said. He was then asked whether he supports a ban on what critics call partial-birth abortions. “No, I have not supported that, and I don’t see my position on that changing,” he responded.
Source: CNN.com, “Inside Politics” Dec 2, 1999

brownback

Another IVF Ethical Dilemma

ChelseaAbortion, Embryo Screening, IVFLeave a Comment

What if your only hope of giving birth meant possibly having to kill one or more of your children in the process? Would you go through with it? Many couples do. You see, not only does IVF create excess embryos in petri dishes, but there is also the possibility of creating excess fetuses in the womb. When this happens, some are willing and able to carry all of them to term. Others, sadly, opt to reduce the number of children in the womb through abortion. Patrick at Driving Out the Snakes highlights this couple who decided to abort two of their four children after “too many embryos took hold” following IVF treatments and it was causing serious health complications for the mother. The saddest part about their story is that they were told, prior to implantation, that “reduction” could be a necessary possibility and they went ahead with it anyway. Why, you might (and should) ask, would a couple go through with this procedure knowing that they could possibly end up killing some of their children in the process? Patrick offers this analysis:

It is truly sad that many people who want to have children find themselves physically unable to do so in the normal way. Is IVF really the answer? If your ultimate goal is to have children, why go to all the expense and risks of IVF when thousands of kids wait for years to be adopted?

The answer, of course, is selfishness. Parents like these want their own children. They want to be pregnant, have baby showers, go to the hospital, and have kids that are genetically “theirs.” These things are so important to them that they will wait years, spend thousands of dollars, and possibly still remain barren, before they will consider adopting a child who is not “theirs.”

The couple used genetic testing to determine which of the babies would be more likely to be born with genetic abnormalities. The outcome was the death of the two boys who, because the father was well into his forties, were four times more likely to be autistic. This is just further evidence of the ethical problems surrounding IVF.

Another Embryo Screening Nightmare

ChelseaEmbryo Screening, IVFLeave a Comment

Now doctors in the UK have been given permission to weed out embryos that would be born with a genetic disorder that may cause it to have a squinting problem. This is only going to get worse…

HT: LTI Blog

Previous posts:
Cancer Free Children?
Lives Not Worth Living II

Wonderful Pro-Life Tools!

ChelseaAbortion, Pro Life, UltrasoundLeave a Comment

4-D Ultrasound ImageThe National Geographic Society recently released a brilliant book, In the Womb, depicting the wonder of fetal development with the help of some 3-D and 4-D ultrasound images. From the website: In the Womb is a week-by-week chronicle of the mysterious, magical progress from embryo to fetus to full-term infant. It was released sometime last year, but this is the first I’ve heard of it (thanks to LifeNews.com). It is based on National Geographic’s television program of the same name. I have that program on DVD and it is fabulous! The little details scientists are learning about human development in the womb are amazing. These would made excellent pro-life tools. I was planning on using the DVD for our pro-life table downtown on the 4th of July and now I am going to have to get the book too. The kids always love the fetal development models, so I think these pictures will be even better!

In the Womb book
In the Womb DVD

*A little heads up if you plan on watching the DVD with young children – they do conclude with a video of the birth, which naturally involves a certain level of nudity. Just so you’re not surprised by it…

Cancer Free Children?

ChelseaDisabled, Embryo Screening, IVF, Right to Life, Science, SufferingLeave a Comment

In the UK, two couples, whose families have a history of breast cancer, will be the first to be assured that the children they have will never suffer from the ravages of that disease. This is because, after creating embryos through IVF, they will have each embryo tested for a defective BRCA1 gene, which raises the risk of cancer in adulthood. Once screened, only the unaffected embryos will be implanted. One can sympathize with the sentiments of these two couples. They have been devastated by this disease, most likely they have had to watch their family members suffer greatly as a result, only to have the cancer finally take over in the end. But is this the answer?

There are so many questions that arise from this situation. What will happen if their designed child develops some other disease or suffers some traumatic injury from which they may never fully recover? Will they, then, wish that that child had never been born in the first place? What if it turns out that the “cancer positive” embryo would not actually see the effects of the disease for a number of decades (if ever)? Didn’t they love and cherish their relatives before the cancer finally took their lives? Is the relief of a child’s future suffering worth never knowing and loving them at all?

This is where the future of reproductive technology is headed. Our culture is so afraid of suffering and disease that many advancements in science and technology that would be otherwise harmless and even beneficial to us are turned into instruments of evil. Take this genetic testing for pre-born infants for example – in and of itself it is not a bad thing. There is nothing wrong with wanting to know about and prepare for possible health problems in the future. But when this is used to ensure that certain children are not allowed to be born it becomes a problem. We are increasingly moving away from being co-creators to becoming outright manufacturers of human life.

Yes, we should do what we can to comfort and heal those who are afflicted, but it should always be kept in line with preserving the dignity of all human life. Screening embryos for specific diseases in order to prevent the “defective” ones from being born crosses the line. Every child has a right to life, even if that life must endure tremendous hardships. Suffering in this life is inevitable, no amount of embryo screening will change that, but it is not the end of the world. Our response to the difficulties we face in life helps shape our character. Moreover, when we unite our sufferings to Christ on the cross they become the very instruments which lead to our sanctification.

“If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Mt. 16:24-25)

Related items:
Wesley Smith – The New Eugenics: Eventually No Babies Will Be Allowed to be Born
Test can determine gender at 6 weeks
My Seven Year Itch
Lives Not Worth Living