I would like to review some of the principles to keep in mind as you approach the voting booth to complete your ballot. The first is the set of non-negotiables. These are areas that are “intrinsically evil” and cannot be supported by anyone who is a believer in God or the common good or the dignity of the human person.

They are:

1. abortion

2. euthanasia

3. embryonic stem cell research

4. human cloning

5. homosexual “marriage”

… Some candidates and one party have even chosen some of these as their party’s or their personal political platform. To vote for someone in favor of these positions means that you could be morally “complicit” with these choices which are intrinsically evil.

This could put your own soul in jeopardy.

The other position to keep in mind is the protection of religious liberty. The recent aggressive moves by the government to impose the HHS mandate, especially the move to redefine religion so that religion is confined more and more to the four walls of the Church, is a dangerous precedent. This will certainly hurt the many health care services to the poor given by our Catholic hospitals. Our Catholic hospitals in the Diocese give millions of dollars per year in donated services to the poor. In the new plan, only Catholic people can be treated by Catholic institutions.

~ Bishop David Ricken of the Catholic Diocese in Green Bay, Wisconsin, in an October 24 letter to parishioners, as reported by greenbaypressgazette.com, October 26

[Photo via fox6now.com]

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

• Texas’ Women’s Health Program doesn’t need to fund abortion providers and their affiliates now that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has denied an appeal to reconsider their early decision. Planned Parenthood’s lawyers apparently can’t understand that no one is taking away their free speech rights if a state chooses not to fund abortion providers:
  In a statement issued Thursday, Gov. Rick Perry said Texas will immediately “defund” the health organization’s affiliates. “Today’s ruling affirms yet again that in Texas the Women’s Health Program has no obligation to fund Planned Parenthood and other organizations that perform or promote abortion. In Texas we choose life, and we will immediately begin defunding all abortion affiliates to honor and uphold that choice.”

• President Obama has lied so many times about Planned Parenthood providing mammograms (the latest this week on the Tonight Show) that even the liberal Washington Post is fact checking him on it:
  The problem here is that Planned Parenthood does not perform mammograms or even possess the necessary equipment to do so. As such, the organization certainly does not “provide” mammograms in the strict sense.
• Louisiana authorities have arrested a man who allegedly cut his child out of his pregnant wife’s womb. The wife is in critical condition and the child died:
  Deputies continued to interview people at the home in Walker a day after they arrested Jeffrey Reynolds, 31. He is accused of slashing his wife’s throat and cutting their unborn child out of her abdomen with a kitchen knife. Deputies found the baby dead inside the home with a large laceration to the head.Paula Reynolds, 28, was seven and a half months pregnant. At last check, she was in critical condition.
• A woman named Rebecca Edmonds is suing the Air Force after her scholarship was revoked because she was pregnant. The Air Force has policy which prohibits single parents from enlisting:
  Edmonds said she asked the officer who informed her that she was being ejected from the Air Force, “Had I terminated the pregnancy before my commissioning, would I have been able to commission at that point?” And, according to Edmonds, “He said, ‘Well. Technically, yes.’ That was the hardest part of all of this. Someone telling me to my face that had I gotten an abortion, then I would be eligible for service.”

[Photo by Kevin Lamarque/Reuters, via WashPo]

by Kelli

We welcome your suggestions for additions to our Top Blogs (see tab on right side of home page)! Email Susie@jillstanek.com.

• Reflections of a Paralytic comments on “the petty concerns of American feminists” compared to the concerns of women in other countries:
  

  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 American feminists want to make a big deal about anything “oppressive” in our country, they should really be focusing their attention to our pornified culture and its sexualization of young girls.

• John Smeaton discusses the Children’s Referendum being proposed in Ireland, which has similar objectives to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child being promoted in the U.S. Congress. Both proposals, while seemingly beneficial on the surface, would undermine parental authority on issues like abortion and religion.
• Real Choice points out some stark differences in information on “prenatal care” on Planned Parenthood’s website vs. WomensHealth.gov:
  

  On the [WomensHealth.gov] web site, none of the main points about prenatal care is aimed at finding anything wrong with the baby. On the Planned Parenthood site, five of 11 are geared toward finding something wrong with the baby.

• Right to Life of Michigan shares the story of a mother who converted from pro-choice to pro-life after she gave birth to a daughter with Down syndrome.
• Stand for Life presents both sides of the debate on whether pro-lifers should vote for Republican Mitt Romney for President.
• Wesley J. Smith explains why he believes “consumerist” egg freezing and IVF should not be covered by insurance.

• At ProLife NZ, a human rights lawyer gives evidence that eugenics, while never really having disappeared, is being publicly promoted in the UK and NZ – “not by latter-day Hitlers but by sober professors”:
  

  On the eve of the Paralympics, BBC Newsnight ran a segment called “Eugenics, Helping or Eradicating Disability?” The show began with the question “is it a noble aim to rid the world of mental and physical disability”? As if for the sake of completeness, the piece then described how “the most heinous crimes of the 20th century, the holocaust, the mass murder of the disabled, the enforced sterilisation of anyone considered inferior, all took place in the name of eugenics”.

  It continued: “Many of the Paralympians we’ll be celebrating in London have the same disabilities as those whose rights have been violated. But does this mean we should write off eugenics in its totality?… Should the prospect of designer babies be ignored just because of its associations with Nazism?”

[Image via barnardos.ie; photo via ProLife NZ]

by LauraLoo

The Agenda Project Action Fund presents My Country, My Choice, a video which once again attempts to paint pro-life politicians as “anti-woman.”

The 28 naked women in this video ask American politicians ”If you don’t trust me with my body, why should I trust you with my country?”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeY6gGQZ5_E[/youtube]

Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.

[HT: Jill]

Read backdrop and view Obama’s “voting virgin” ad here.

Click to enlarge…

You certainly wouldn’t want to be punished with a baby now, would you?

Also see the Examiner article, “Would Obama show his daughters ‘Your first time’?”

[Graphic via Pro Life Artists Unite]

Encouraging to see the atrocity of China’s one-child forced abortion/sterilization policy spotlighted at a New York social gala….

Press release from Reggie Littlejohn, President, Women’s Rights Without Frontiers:

New York: On Thursday actor Christian Bale presented blind forced abortion opponent Chen Guangcheng with an award at the annual gala of Human Rights First.

In December 2011, while Chen was still in China under house arrest, Bale attempted to visit Chen but was roughed up by thugs, who prevented him from visiting Chen’s village.   Bale said at that time, “What I really wanted to do was shake the man’s hand and say ‘thank you,’ and tell him what an inspiration he is.”

Chen dramatically escaped house arrest and arrived in the United States in May 2012.  The two men met for the first time tonight, when Bale presented Chen with the award.

Bale praised Chen for his bravery and for symbolizing the hopes of the people of China to live in freedom.  Significantly, Bale also highlighted Chen’s fight against forced abortion in China.  Bale stated,

“He [Chen] had exposed a program of forced abortion and sterilization in Shandong.  A program of forced abortion means that women are being dragged from their homes against their will.   They are being forced to have abortions, sometimes late-term – imagine that – with some women reportedly dying in the process.  Now this is true horror.  And in this insane world, this man, Chen, who was helping these women – who was living by some of the most simple, brave and universally admired values – values that we teach our children every day, and helping our fellow man – for this, this man was imprisoned and beaten for over four years.”…

“At the same time,” Littlejohn added, “Christian Bale has become a human rights champion in his own right.  He risked his safety to visit Chen last December.  His attack by Chinese thugs brought visibility to Chen’s case.  This visibility greatly helped the international effort to free Chen.  And Bale is brave to condemn the practice of forced abortion in China.  Women’s Rights Without Frontiers salutes both men.”

Video here:

More from Wall Street Journal:

The annual dinner sponsored by Human Rights First was held at Pier Sixty, Chelsea Piers in New York City and hosted by Meredith Vieira….

The star of the night was Mr. Chen, a self-taught lawyer who has drawn attention to human rights abuses in China, in one case bringing a class action lawsuit against officials in the Shandong Province for brutal enforcement of the one-child policy. Consequently, he and his family have been subjected to torture and imprisonment by the Chinese government.

Mr.  Bale had the honor of introducing Mr. Chen and presenting his award. The actor played a clip from his attempt to visit Mr. Chen in December, during which he brought along members of the press. At the time, Mr. Chen was under house arrest and Mr. Bale and the crew were forcibly turned away. Even though they knew they were unlikely to meet Mr. Chen, Mr. Bale hoped to draw attention to Mr. Chen’s story. Mr. Bale joked that his efforts were successful to some, while others just enjoyed seeing a “stupid actor get roughed up.”

Chen Guangcheng embraced Mr. Bale and was moved to tears when accepting the award.

[Photo via WSJ]

Lizzy: ‘Artificial birth control is unnatural and immoral.’
 
Jason: Hmm. That’s why I use natural birth control.
 
Lizzy: What is a natural birth control?
 
Jason: I just show up.

~ Celebrities Lizzy Caplan and Jason Alexander (pictured above), lampooning pro-life statements for This Is Personal campaign, via RH Reality Check, October 25. View video here.

UPDATE: 10/26, 7:15a: From Erick Erickson:

The reason Barack Obama is running this ad is because he is done trying to get independent voters. He’s given up. Despite campaign rhetoric about fighting for evangelicals, he’s given up there. He’s given up on Catholic voters. He’s given up on the South. He’s given up on men who have daughters. He’s given up on moms. He’s given up on everyone expect his core base of singles, gays, and minorities, including college kids he is desperate to get back to the polls.

10/25, 8:22: How low will they go? The Obama people apparently just can’t keep their minds off of lady parts…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6G3nwhPuR4&sns=em[/youtube]

These people are just plain sex-obsessed.  This is an ad from the President of the United States?