Free beer? Massages? Where have I been? No wonder I'm the first one to arrive every morning. From the Mercury News, today:
Think of it as Animal House, but with a corporate sponsor. The free beer starts at 1:p.m. The couches are comfy. And the words flow from the Big Tent day and night.Some 500 bloggers from Berkeley's Daily Kos to Susan "the Neon Nurse" from Lamar, CO (pop. 9,062), are crammed into what, it turns out, is a not-quite-big-enough tent to meet the crush of bloggers descending on Denver this week.
The two-story, 8,000-square-foot tent, a few blocks from the convention center where traditional media types are holed up, is advertised as new media central for the convention.
With sponsors including Google, YouTube and Digg, the Big Tent also underscores how the blogging community is going mainstream....
While the tent has become a handy marketing tool for hot-tech companies, it also is providing an outlet for diverse blogging voices.
Jill Stanek is a conservative, anti-abortion blogger from Chicago. The Democratic convention organizers had turned down her credential request, but "I'm being treated cordially here," she said...
I told you I was an anomaly. But you already knew that.
August 22, 2008
by JivinJ
The shocking extremism of that position - giving infanticide the nod over compassion and life - is profoundly embarrassing to him now.So he has lied about what he did. He has offered various conflicting explanations, ranging from the assertion that he didn't oppose the anti-infanticide legislation (he did), to the assertion that he opposed it because it didn't contain a superfluous clause reaffirming abortion rights (it did), to the assertion that it was unnecessary because IL law already protected the children of botched abortions (it didn't - and even if it arguably did, why oppose a clarification?).
What Obama hasn't offered, however, is the rationalization he vigorously posited during the 2002 IL senate debate....
August 13, 2008
by JivinJ
This party has the temerity to pretend it is inclusive and wants to reduce abortions yet bans any dissent on the issue! It doesn't even want pro-life people in the party - unless they stay in the closet.
August 8, 2008
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First, I'm sad (for us) to announce this will be intern Colleen W.'s last (Prolifer)ations post.
Colleen is a graduate student and is heading back to school after a summer immersed in pro-life work in DC at Students for Life of America and Feminists for Life, among others. We'll sure miss her. She found great posts to spotlight. Thanks for your work here, Colleen!
If you - as a reader or a college student wanting an internship - are interesting in writing (Prolifer)ations - please contact me for more information. The task requires 4-6 hours a week.
And now, from the world of pro-life blogs...
During the surgery, doctors entered the amniotic sack using a kind of miniature "telescope." Occasionally, to their surprise, a fetus will actually grab on to the scope in the middle of the procedure."The fetus will reach up and wonder what this scope is," Moise said. "And even though his or her eyes are fused so they can't really see the scope, they'll grab the scope sometimes because it's an object in their cavity."
Suzanne comments: "Can you just imagine what happens during an abortion, when a syringe of potassium chloride heads for their heart?"
[Photo of prenatal surgery courtesy of discoveriesinmedicine.com]
by JivinJ
According to a report released by The Humane Society in May, 3,656 cloned embryos, 319 egg donors and 214 surrogates were used to produce just five cloned dogs and 11 cloned cats who were able to survive 30 days past birth....

Most of the time, the twin goals of protecting the unborn and building a culture of life reinforce one another. On occasion, though, they appear to contradict each other.
[Photo of Pfupajema courtesy of CA Catholic Daily]
August 1, 2008
by Colleen W.
From the blogs and elsewhere today...
Denny at VitalSigns posted a speech Congressman Mike Pence (R-IN) gave July 30 on the House floor....
The bill Pence supported, HR 1370, was a "Resolution calling on the Government of the People's Republic of China to immediately end abuses of the human rights of its citizens, to cease repression of Tibetan and Uighur people, and to end its support for the Governments of Sudan and Burma to ensure that the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games take place in an atmosphere that honors the Olympic traditions of freedom and openness."
One of the abuses of human rights in China that Pence cited was "the horror of forced abortion." He stated:

In the committee we heard the most horrific stories of these so-called family planning technical service workers literally breaking into homes, dragging women in the ninth month of pregnancy off to clinics, forcing abortions on them and in one case after another, going to horrific means to ensure that the newly born child's life had been completely snuffed out.
The resolution passed 419-1 with only "Dr. No," Ron Paul opposing it.
Read the speech in its entirety here.
In a lengthy preamble entitled "The Problem," the draft argues that state laws too often coerce health-care workers into providing services they find immoral....Even if the draft is never implemented, activists on both sides consider it a potential momentum shift.
"[P]remature babies - babies born too soon and too small - accounted for a growing proportion of infant deaths. When linked with previous studies that have shown that abortion increases a woman's chance of having a baby prematurely, the conclusion is that women who have had abortions are more likely to bear children who die as infants or suffer from severe health issues."
She also points to a Catholic News Agency article reporting that 90% of Down syndrome babies in Spain are aborted.
[Beijing Olympic illustration courtesy of Family Research Council]
July 31, 2008
by JivinJ
But researchers argue that a shortage of eggs fueled by the payment ban is what's kept them from making the advances that prove their technique's real potential."You need to have enough eggs to make this thing work, and when you have enough eggs it does work," said Dr. Sam Wood, chief executive of La Jolla-based Stemagen Corp....
"If these guidelines weren't in place, we'd already have many [stem cell] lines and be much closer to a treatment for devastating illnesses for which these are so well suited," Wood said.
Yeah. Right. You just have to forget that the technique is highly inefficient (remember Hwang Woo-Suk got his hands on approximately 2,000 human eggs and produced no cloned human embryos) and a complete waste of time and resources and then realize that if scientists got whatever they wanted then these treatments from the cells of cloned human embryos would magically be within our reach.
"I drank [the pregnancy] to death under the basketball hoop," she said. "I nearly drank me dead, too. I had to find that balance between it dying and me dying, you know?"
Why is "the pregnancy" in [ ]? My guess is the woman in question used different words, like "the baby" or "my child" to describe what she was drinking to death.
[Illustration courtesy of Jackson Hole Planet]
July 30, 2008
by Colleen W.
From the blogs and elsewhere today...
But, because TakeCareDownThere is a taxpayer-funded site that targets children, I believe it is important to have an idea of just what Planned Parenthood is promoting. The site's pro-promiscuity agenda is truly degrading to human beings in general and children in particular. It presents the pedophile's dream of an omnisexual kiddie "cuddle puddle" as though such activities were normative teen behavior.
The APA [American Psychological Association] abortion and mental health task force was charged with conducting a fair review of research regarding the potential mental health consequences of abortion.Is this possible? Read this post, which quotes from an APA newsletter about what is science and what is ideology. I think this probably signals the tone of the upcoming report (August 18 unless the APA Council of Representatives rejects it).
Sunday's post was particularly troubling; it relates the story of a woman who decided to go through with an abortion because she thought Planned Parenthood's staff was compassionate and kind to her. In response to this woman's story, the abortion worker blogger posts:
So here's our promise to all the anti-abortion folks out there, who think that it's horrifying to try to imagine good care through an abortion decision: We promise to continue to care for the women in your life when they need abortions and we will do it with compassion and dignity. When they can't talk to you, we will make sure that they are safe, respected and loved, through whatever decisions they make.
This blogger is absolutely right that these women need to be treated with love and compassion. No one disagrees with that. But it is not compassionate to use kindness in order to lure women into killing their children. And what about when these women are mourning or regretting these decisions later in life? I don't think any number of warm cookies from PP will be enough to comfort these women then and help them heal. How is it compassionate to hold a woman's hand and tell her that it's okay to kill her child and mislead her into thinking that she's not hurting herself?
by JivinJ
to deal with numerous illegal abortionists:
Dr. Kato, who at first said he did not do abortions and referred The Herald to other "doctors," later admitted to offering the service, saying it would cost R600 for someone who was 5 months pregnant.He promised the procedure was safe and quick.
"They call it safe abortion. You won't feel any pain and you won't see any blood."...

OR doesn't cover life-prolonging treatment unless there is better than a 5% chance it will help the patients live for 5 more years - but it covers doctor-assisted suicide, defining it as a means of providing comfort, no different from hospice care or pain medication."It's chilling when you think about it," said Dr. William Toffler, a professor of family medicine at OR Health & Science University. "It absolutely conveys to the patient that continued living isn't worthwhile."
Q: If embryonic stem cells do turn out to be best, will it be because they are the best at differentiating - that is, turning into other kinds of cells?
A: Exactly right. That's the theoretical reason they should be best, and there are stats that back that up. An embryonic stem cell is at a state that it can make a whole organism. You can make a whole mouse out of an embryonic stem cell. There are 220 cells in the human body, and embryonic stem cells can make each and every one of them.The issue I've always worried about is do you want to make every cell in the body. That could increase the risk of cancer. What I like about our approach is that it is targeted. We're trying to heal the heart.
[Suicide "choice" photo courtesy of MSNBC; photo of leukemia cells courtesy of CherryLaurel.com]
July 29, 2008
by JivinJ
[JLS note: I'm so glad Denny and JivinJ spotted this. I received an email about this radio show but couldn't locate the source. Tony Campolo is a Democrat evangelical pastor. On this show he proposed a tax-and-spend strategy to reduce abortion by up to 50%, he thought. My email friend reported: "The moderator made a brilliant comparison. He asked if this strategy was similar to someone leading a group of white supremecists to reduce the number of lynchings of the slaves. Campolo became enraged at this. Truth hurts."]...
While Hadden says financial considerations have played no role in whether to keep her on life support, her family contends Rivera might not be in this situation if she had more money or better health-care coverage. Rivera's medical bills are being paid by Medi-Cal, the state-federal insurance program for low-income families.
While I have no clue if this tabloid's claim is true or not, if it is true, I wonder if there were any embryos who were not implanted and then frozen and if there are frozen embryos, what Pitt and Jolie plan on doing with those embryos.
Pitt has been an outspoken advocate of embryonic stem cell research, including working to help pass CA's Proposition 71 in 2004. He was even on the Today Show promoting it.
July 25, 2008
by Colleen W.
News from the pro-life blogs today....
Mark laments both Johnson's atheism and that in her article she "missed a wonderful opportunity to help the New York Times' vast audience see that people with disabilities are equal and important members of society." Pickup shares the essay he wrote in response to Johnson, entitled "Unspeakable Conversations for Good Atheists."
Most importantly, though, countless hearts were changed, and in some cases, scheduled abortions were cancelled.

[Photo of Maria Benedita and miracle son Valdir Gabriel courtesy of Catholic News Agency]
July 23, 2008
by Colleen W.
News from the pro-life blogs today....
The Department of Health and Human Services draft proposal, which began circulating around Capitol Hill last week, would require hospitals receiving federal funds to certify that, in their hiring, they do not discriminate against people who refuse to provide forms of contraception, such as birth control pills, due to personal religious beliefs.
This will be an interesting fight to follow, a topic Jill brought to our attention last week.
When a bishop asked the women if they were open to Christian values formation, [Susanah] Reyes [research director of the Asian Social Institute] said the women readily agreed to it.Many of women who underwent abortion were desperate and treated abortion as the last option, she noted.
"They lacked information on family planning and how it is to become a better Christian," Reyes said.
It's not clear to me what Reyes means by "family planning," whether it's artificial birth control or natural family planning. However, the concerns the group of rural women raise are significant. These mothers who are aborting their children seem to think that they have no choice, and clearly more needs to be done to provide them adequate support and care.
July 22, 2008
by JivinJ
Times Online concludes that the nurse, Ann Downer, "was cautioned but allowed to continue practising."
Baby Boy Johnson was found unresponsive in the back seat of a vehicle at 708 W. 103rd St., according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office. The baby was pronounced dead at the scene at 6:20 a.m.An autopsy Sunday revealed the boy died from asphyxia, the medical examiner's office said. His death has been ruled a homicide.
Authorities say a slain pregnant woman may have been alive and was possibly drugged when a baby was ripped from her womb, allegedly by a woman who tried to pass the infant off as her own.
The eviscerated body of 18-year-old Kia Johnson of McKeesport was found bound at the wrists and ankles with duct tape, and wrapped in a comforter and garbage bags.Her partially decomposed remains were in the master bedroom of Andrea Curry-Demus, 38, who was charged Sunday with homicide, unlawful restraint and kidnapping, officials said.
The suspect was previously involved in attempts to steal newborns.
[Photo of Curry-Demus courtesy of the Associated Press/KDKA-TV]
July 16, 2008
by Colleen W.
On the blogs today...
Just imagine if this institution used its voice and resources to ensure that, beside all those Planned Parenthood clinics located in our minority neighborhoods, African-American women could find another kind of place. A place not unlike Good Counsel - where a scared young pregnant woman could carry her baby to term, complete her education, train for a new job, and be treated with the love and respect that a mother needs and deserves.
Read more about the Cincinnati NAACP protest here.
Women's Advisory aborted babies video has been remounted!
You Tube never responded to our inquiries. So CPS has taken the initiative and opened a new account with YouTube. We slightly altered the original Abortion Dumpster Scandal-Women's Advisory video that YouTube took off their site last week.Hopefully this alteration will comply with their "rules" even though we were never told WHY the original video was deleted from YouTube! The new video is called Abortion Exposed. If you haven't seen it, it certainly is a unique, rare, and disturbing look at the abortion industry!
When we remounted this new video we lost all 7000 original hits that were generated on the original video and all the comments that it generated too! So we are back to zero starting today! (The Hodari Dumpster Scandal video is still available. )
Also, a companion video is available on YouTube, Fr. Pavone's YouTube video. It is a recording of CPS's June 27th burial of the Women's Advisory babies. Take a look...
July 11, 2008
by Colleen W.
On the blogs and elsewhere today...
[Baptist Pastor Carlton W.] Veazey said he disagrees with statistics cited by black church leaders who oppose abortion, which say that African-Americans represent 13% of the U.S. population, but 36% of the abortions performed annually.
Rejecting these statistics, Veazy is apparently exercising his right to choose to ignore truth?
Back in 2007, this facility stopped committing medical and surgical abortions, and now it is completely closed. This leaves AL with only two PP facilities.PP claims that there wasn't enough public funding to keep it open....
Last year, it received $336,700,000 from taxpayers, but what else would PP say about a clinic closure? It certainly wouldn't give any credit to the active pro-lifers who were out in front of the clinic protesting and witnessing every week!
Today I received notice... that our video of... abortion clinic bio-hazard waste and the remains of the aborted babies found in their trash dumpster has been removed from YouTube!
This was a movie CPLS took on the evening of April 12, 2008, as we searched through the trash dumpster of the Women's Advisory abortion clinic located in Livonia, MI. This is a very important pro-life video because it showed the TRUTH about abortion in a way no other abortion-related video has ever done.YouTube said the video was removed because it violated their "community guidelines." No other explanation was given. I emailed You Tube and requested an explanation. My hunch is that the video was removed because it shows the actual remains of the aborted babies (just as we took them out of the trash dumpster bags!) or pro-abortionists complained and You Tube complied with their wishes. I await a reply!! For now, our Hodari Dumpster Scandal video is still mounted!
July 9, 2008
by Colleen W.
In situations where ignorance and confusion are the main obstacles that have to be overcome, a prudential publication of information (as OSV has done) is the best path to a speedy solution. May that hold true now.
I find Suzanne's post extremely interesting, especially since yesterday I saw a very offensive ad calling for "Young Asian Female Egg Donors" on Facebook. (Is it just me, or is that racist?) How are personal images of stillborn babies offensive and egg donor ads (an unethical, dangerous, degrading practice) not offensive?

July 8, 2008
by JivinJ
In a speech before Planned Parenthood last year, Barack Obama said that he was well-equipped to defend a right to abortion because "I put Roe at the center of my lesson plan on reproductive freedom when I taught Constitutional law." But during the past week, Obama has proven to be woefully ignorant of abortion law, or he has been deceiving voters about the legality of abortion, as well as his own position on the issue.
But if Obama is saying that "mental distress" is already not a legal exception for abortion bans, then what was the point of what he told Relevant?
If Obama's position is that late-term abortion shouldn't be allowed for women who are "feeling blue," and he believes that late-term abortions currently aren't legal for women who are "feeling blue," then why did he say it was appropriate for states to prohibit late-term abortion as long as there is a well-defined health of the mother exception which shouldn't include "mental distress?"
Downes was being investigated because she encourages women considering abortion to consider other options, and a pro-choice doctor involved in the pro-choice movement filed a complaint against her.
[Photo courtesy of The Daily Mail]
July 2, 2008
by JivinJ
Before printing a letter like this, one would hope the editors of the Augusta Chronicle would ask Byars for some evidence to back up her statements, especially considering a minute on Google would have led them to discover the American Life League (not NRLC) was the group behind the June 7 birth control pill protests, NRLC has clearly spoken out against violence and NRLC has opposed amendments to SCHIP programs which might have led to rationing Medicare.
["Web grab" graphic courtesy of Times Online; human pig graphic courtesy of cracked.com]
June 30, 2008
by Colleen W.
"Welcome" to Colleen, a graduate student interning for Students for Life who director Kristan Hawkins is graciously "lending" me a couple of hours a day. Colleen will compose (Prolifer)ations for the summer. JivinJ will still also contribute his valuable posts, but we just need to think of a new name. Suggestions welcome!
On the pro-life blogs...
Think about the women you know who have suffered from breast cancer. Would the world be a better place if they never had existed?
June 20, 2008
Pro-aborts are lambasting ProChoice.com because it presents the other options to unplanned pregnancies.
Since when do pro-aborts own the term? They push one choice, abortion, and we push the 2 other choices, parenthood and adoption. We're 1/3 more pro-choice than they are.
But writes our high strung friend Jessica at Feministing.com...
Before today, I never visited prochoice.com. And I'm sincerely hoping others haven't either. Because the site, rife with rhetoric about 'choice', is actually an anti-choice website that contains gems such as "[abortion is] the death of another less developed human being" and "the dirty little secret is that Abortion providers are interested in their bottom line YOUR MONEY."The bull**** goes on and on, in all of their sections on adoption, abortion and parenthood. The kicker? There's a little "Under Development" icon of a waving (yes, waving) fetus.
Consider my day ruined.
Is Jessica (nice logo, btw) saying abortion is not the death of another less developed human being?
What then does abortion do, Jessica?
And these money-making abortion mills are in it for humanity's sake?
Then why aren't they free charities, say, like, pregnancy resource centers? No pregnant mother is ever charged for any service at a prc, but it costs ~$1k from beginning to end to serve every client and baby, way more than most abortions cost.
And Jessica, have you not read about Planned Parenthood's "bottom line" last year - a cool $1 billion? Explain, please?
Pro-abort blogger meanjean at thatmakesmenervous also flipped:
I just picked up this information from Feministing.com and it totally disgusts me: It seems that the website prochoice.com is actually an ANTI-CHOICE site. That's right, by masquerading as a safe place to visit by women who actually are seeking help it promotes its anti-choice stance....For a lot of women, in different situations, abortion is an option. Its subversive, manipulative people like whoever put up this site that are trying to cheat women out of their own right to choose what they do with their bodies. Just disgusting.
We get it, meanjean is disgusted. But what's "subversive and manipulative" about explaining all the options, meanjean?
And Joshua at Emancipate Yourselves from Mental Slavery fumed:
It's a blatant show the conservative leanings of website [sic] and ignores all of the medical information to jump right into the conservative doctine. It ignores medical procedure and jumps straight to this bull****....
Oh, really, Joshua? ProChoice.com "ignores all of the medical information" and "medical procedure"? Joshua, can you read? Did you not spot this information on "descriptions of abortion options"? Precisely tell me where it erred?![]()
Perhaps Joshua can't read, only write. I find lots of liberals suffer from that strange affliction.
Joshua, would pictures of abortion help? ProChoice.com links to them, too, like the 1 on the right here.
June 19, 2008
Jill at Feministe took a swipe at me June 17 for my post, "Obama: 'Responsibility doesn't end at conception.'"
According to Jill I am a "nutbag... total nutbag... [and] crazy racist," and she filed her piece under the tags "A**holes, Crazy Conservatives... Racism... [and] Stupidity."...
About Obama's strange line in a Father's Day speech this past Sunday, "We need fathers to realize that responsibility does not end at conception," I wrote...
Obama admitted once again that conception launches fatherhood. One cannot be a father without a child. Hence, childhood commences at conception.
... to which Jill responded:
Something tells me that Stanek failed Logical Reasoning 101.
I also wrote that Obama failed to mention how to prevent absentee fathers, single mothers, and illegitimate children:
Men can avoid being absentee fathers and women can avoid being single mothers if both will respect themselves and each other enough not to have sex like animals, driven purely by sexual urges. Obama neglected to mention that.
... to which Jill responded:
Silly Obama. Why in the world would he not mention that black people should just stop having sex like animals - apparently a big problem in "black culture"?
All this was standard liberal fare sans debate that I'm used to and typically ignore. But the responses to Jill's piece by some of her readers surprised me. Tekanji commented:
I agree that what Stanek said was both ridiculous and vile, but the sheer number of times you casually threw around ableist slurs like "crazy" and "nutbag" really doesn't sit right with me. Whether or not Stanek actually has a mental illness, it's still not cool to use slurs degrading people with mental illnesses to attack her. I would recommend reading the quotes and visiting the links in this post: Yes, it is offensive to the targeted group
tql wrote:
...i think you are reaching. her statement wasn't racist. a bit over the top to use the f***ing like animals imagery, yes. but, i think she was using that illustration generally speaking.is it problematic for children growing up without a consistent presence of a father in their life a problem in the black community? yes...
is a way to avoid that problem to think about who you have sex with, and perhaps do it in either the context of a loving, mutually supportive, relationship - preferably marriage? yes...
so, what exaclty is the problem?
Emma wrote:
Just because you don't like her... you've literally PULLED a meaning out of her statement, that I pretty much have to be searching for to find. Her simple point was, a lot of people are careless and have sex indiscriminately and wildly. I REALLY doubt she was calling black people animals. I've heard that phrase used tons of times, and in reference to both black AND whites....I think you sometimes need to be a bit more objective in the way you report stories. All i could read here was an angry person tearing down what was actually a sensible statement.
(Indeed, I am an equal opportunity user of that phraseology, for instance here.)
And Raving Atheist added:
... Stanek's conclusion follows perfectly from the premise previously announced by Obama: "We need fathers to realize that responsibility does not end at conception." If a man is a father at the time of conception, then the product of conception is a child.
You may, of course, disagree with employing the word "father" to refer to the man responsible for pregnancy.... But Stanek was merely pointing out that Obama does use the word "father" to describe the relationship between the impregnator and the fetus.There is nothing remotely racist with Stanek's post. Obama identified what he perceives as a problem in the African-American community, and Stanek faulted him for not suggesting pre-marital abstinence as a solution. Her use of the phrase "sex like animals" refered to premarital sex generally, not sex as practiced by African-Americans.
But if you are going to fault Stanek, you should fault Obama as well. He said "They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men", thus refering to black men as "boys." He also said that those who "commit crime" are a problem in the African-American community, thus implying that "blacks are criminals." At least one commentator has noted that Obama's speech represented a "right turn" aimed at winning the general election by demonizing black men. Why did he single out any community at all, when he could have just limited his criticism to the class consisting of irresponsible fathers?
I am heartened by the maturity displayed by people who may disagree with my position but are willing and able to discuss it. I am also heartened by the self-policing.
June 18, 2008
by JivinJ
Federal authorities are investigating the actions of a Catholic charity in Richmond which helped a 16-year-old Guatemalan girl to receive an abortion in January, in possible violation of VA law....
The unnamed girl, who already had one child, had been fitted with a contraceptive device provided by CCR two months earlier, the letter said. CCR members signed the consent form necessary for a minor to have an abortion and had someone drive her to and from the abortion clinic.It is illegal in VA for a social worker to sign a parental consent form for an abortion. The state's notification law stipulates that at least one parent, grandparent or adult sibling must give consent.
[Photo of Richmond Bishop Francis DiLorenzo, with Bishops John Wester and Michael Driscoll, is courtesy of the AP. The 3 wrote a secret letter, later intercepted and made public, detailing events leading up to the abortion.]
June 17, 2008
by JivinJ
Second, some claim that the embryo in his or her first week of development is too small, immature, or undeveloped to be considered a "human life." Yet the human embryo, from conception onward, is as much a living member of the human species as any of us. As a matter of biological fact, this new living organism has the full complement of human genes and is actively expressing those genes to live and develop in a way that is unique to human beings, setting the essential foundation for further development....
Though dependent in many ways, the embryo is a complete and distinct member of the species Homo sapiens, who develops toward maturity by directing his or her own integrated organic functioning. All later stages of life are steps in the history of a human being already in existence. Just as each of us was once an adolescent, a child, a newborn infant, and a child in the womb, each of us was once an embryo.Others, while acknowledging the scientific fact that the embryo is a living member of the human species, claim that life at this earliest stage is too weak or undeveloped, too lacking in mental or physical abilities, to have full human worth or human rights. But to claim that our rights depend on such factors is to deny that human beings have human dignity, that we have inherent value simply by being members of the human family.
If fundamental rights such as the right to life are based on abilities or qualities that can appear or disappear, grow or diminish, and be greater or lesser in different human beings, then there are no inherent human rights, no true human equality, only privileges for the strong.
In other words, all of those assurances about protecting women are nothing more than temporary expedients that will be swept away as soon as it is deemed politically feasible. And if the assurances made in this area are nothing but cow manure, so too are the equally oleaginous promises to limit the lives of cloned embryos to 14 days, and to never engage in fetal farming, and to never want reproductive cloning.
June 13, 2008
by JivinJ
From the beginning of the abortion debate, those favoring abortion have pointed to the social costs of "unwanted" children who simply won't get the attention of "wanted" ones. But there is a trade-off that has long been neglected. Abortion may eliminate "unwanted" children, but it increases out-of-wedlock births and single parenthood. Unfortunately, the social consequences of illegitimacy dominated.
June 9, 2008
by JivinJ
"Highly religious audiences are different from less religious audiences. They are looking for different things, bringing different things to the table," explains Scheufele. "It is not about providing religious audiences with more scientific information. In fact, many of them are already highly informed about stem cell research, so more information makes little difference in terms of influencing public support. And that's not good or bad. That's just what the data show."
So everyone opposed to killing human embryos for research isn't ignorant about the research. Who knew? Here's the study's abstract.
However, as a longtime reporter on disability rights, I have discovered that many fetuses so diagnosed have been aborted by parents who have been advised by their doctors to end the pregnancies because of the future "imperfect quality of life" of such children.Palin's first reaction to the diagnosis (her youngest child was diagnosed with Down Syndrome while in the womb) was to research the facts about the condition, since "I've never had problems with my other pregnancies." As a result, she and her husband, Todd, never had any doubt they would have the child.....
And her presence could highlight Barack Obama's extremist abortion views on whether certain lives are worth living, even a child born after a botched abortion.
[Photo of Sarah and Todd Palin and baby boy Trig courtesy of