What sorrow awaits those who try to hide their plans from the Lord,
who do their evil deeds in the dark!
“The Lord can’t see us,” they say.
“He doesn’t know what’s going on!”
How foolish can you be?
You have everything backward!
You treat the potter as a lump of clay.
Does a book say to its author,
“He didn’t write a word of me”?
Does a meal say to the woman who cooked it,
“She had nothing to do with this”?

Isaiah 29:15-16, New International Version and
The Message translation

Planned Parenthood, through its political action affiliates, has spent more on this election than any in the past – more than $12 million, with about half the money going for TV ads in Florida, Virginia, Ohio and other battleground states.

~ Wall Street Journal, October 19. Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards also just announced she has “taken a break from my day job in order to volunteer full-time in order to reelect President Barack Obama.”

The question is, why all the fuss?

[HT: reader Jeanne]

A tragic story about a terrible man from thebraiser.com, October 18:

Yesterday, Joshua Woodward (pictured right),  a former New York City restaurateur and partner of chef Govind Armstrong, was arraigned on charges of attempted murder after he secretly administered an abortion drug to his pregnant girlfriend, who soon miscarried their 13-week-old fetus.

Woodward, who opened Table 8 in the East Village with Armstrong back in 2008, pled not guilty, though he has a really bad case against him. As the NYDN recaps the 2009 case:

“The devastated lover told police Woodward didn’t want the baby from the moment he learned of the pregnancy and immediately asked her to get an abortion.

He became clearly upset when she told him she wanted to keep the baby, leading to a “bitter” breakup, the affidavit states.

Woodward eventually claimed he wanted to be involved, the girlfriend told police, and the pair resumed an intimate relationship.

But on multiple occasions, Woodward dipped his hand into his backpack before touching her sexually, the police affidavit states. Hours after an encounter on Oct. 18, the girlfriend felt severe cramping and miscarried the fetus, according to the affidavit.

After she noticed a “powdery white substance” in her underwear, she contacted the police, who later determined it was misoprostol, an early-stage abortion drug. It happened to be the same drug that Woodward was found carrying on him (and rubbing on the crotch of his pants) when he was subsequently arrested in a sting operation.

Table 8 closed soon after Woodward’s arrest, and Armstrong’s publicist says that they are no longer partners.

So the question is, if a preborn baby has no right to life, how can a man be charged with attempted murder after committing a wrongful abortion?

[HT: reader Frances]

by Susie Allen, host of the blog, Pro-Life in TN and Kelli

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

• At National Review, Michael New remarks on President Obama’s frequent mentions of Planned Parenthood during the second Presidential debate, stating, “The fact that federal funding for Planned Parenthood is now a salient issue during Presidential debates is good evidence of pro-life progress.”

• Our newest addition to Top Blogs, Voice of Hope, notes the unfortunate editing of the televised premiere of October Baby, in which a pivotal scene was omitted (spoiler alert at link).

GMC has since apologizedand plans to run the movie in its entirety in the future.

• Wesley J. Smith says Obamacare, modeled after the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), would practice age discrimination as a “consequence of centralized health care, global budgets, and top-down management”:
  

  The United Kingdom’s National Health Service rations care and, evidence shows, discriminates against the elderly. Now, the Royal College of Surgeons finds that elderly patients are being denied life-saving surgery based on age rather than fitness.

• The Road to Roe has links to audio and transcripts of the oral arguments in Roe v. Wade, which had “no evidentiary record in either Roe or Doe,” therefore, “the oral arguments are essential to understanding the Justices’ thinking and the mistakes they made in reaching such unprecedented and sweeping decisions that have sparked 40 years of social, medical, constitutional and political controversy.”
• Moral Outcry tells us why we should avoid MacHeist, a company that offers drastically reduced prices on Mac software bundles. While the company claims to give 25% of the purchase price to 10 charities, “at least two of the ten charities getting the software money are fully pro-abortion agencies: The Global Fund for Women and Save the Children.”
• Mommy Life shares video of a father whose heart was changed by his daughter, Paisley, who has Down syndrome:

  [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4foXehDmWs[/youtube][Photo via upcomingmovies.com]

by LauraLoo

Report from The Huffington Post:

Victoria Jackson, the former SNL star who hadn’t made headlines in years until she vocally embraced the Tea Party, recently weighed in on the Todd Akin “legitimate rape” controversy.

In the October 2 episode of The Victoria Jackson Show she stated, “If I was raped, I would have the baby and think of it as God making a blessing out of something bad.”  The statement was part of an intro to an interview with Rebecca Kiessling, a woman who says she was conceived as a result of her mother’s rape and now advocates for Personhood Mississippi on their “Conceived In Rape” tour.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC8Q1OEeiOk[/youtube]

Rebecca’s life is certainly a testimony both to the grace of God, as well as her undeniable calling for the pro-life movement.

Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.

[HT: Jill]

I had never heard of the Al Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner before the flak that arose over President Obama being invited this year.

According to Wiki the event is “is an annual white tie charity fundraiser for [local] Catholic charities, held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York on the third Thursday of October… in honor of former NY Governor Al Smith, the first Catholic presidential candidate. The first dinner was in 1945, the year after Al Smith’s death.”

Last night’s event raised $5 million.

Wiki goes on to explain the Al Smith Dinner’s foray into presidential abortion politics:

Since 1960 (when Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy were speakers), it has been a stop for the two main presidential candidates during several U.S. election years….

Since 1945, only two presidents have not spoken at the dinner: Harry Truman and Bill Clinton. Candidates have traditionally given humorous speeches poking fun at themselves and their opponents, making the event similar to a roast. It is generally the last event at which the two candidates share a stage before the election.

Since 1980 this custom has been affected by friction between the Democratic Party and the Catholic Church over abortion. During the 1980 dinner Democratic incumbent Jimmy Carter was booed. In 1984, Ronald Reagan spoke, but his opponent, Walter Mondale, opted out, saying he needed time to prepare for an upcoming presidential debate. Amy Sullivan suggests Mondale’s decision was motivated by “tensions between the Catholic Church and the Democratic Party.”

In 1996 and 2004, the Archdiocese of New York chose not to invite the presidential candidates. In 1996, this was reportedly because Cardinal John Joseph O’Connor was angry at Democratic nominee Bill Clinton for vetoing a bill outlawing some late-term abortions…. In 2004… some speculated that the decision was due to Democratic nominee (and Roman Catholic) John Kerry’s pro-choice stance on abortion.

Which brings us to 2012, a year when Obama is not only viewed as pro-abortion but also hostile to the Catholic Church via Obamacare’s contraception mandate.

And so I understand the view that Obama should not have been invited to speak, that to give him the podium could be viewed as giving him tacit approval. I held that view before watching the speeches on t.v. and catching the vibe. I may still hold that view; I’m persuadable.

But there was something nice about seeing even abortion supporters, like Katie Couric and (Catholic) Chris Matthews [shown in the photo on either side of the speaker] being welcomed and shown compassion at a Christian gathering.

I remember mentioning to my pastor in 2008 that I became angry when spotting Obama bumper stickers in my church parking lot. He told me he liked seeing those bumper stickers, because they meant we were reaching the lost. (I don’t see any of those bumper stickers in the church parking lot this year, btw.)

Anyway, that was a long dissertation that brings me to the reason I started to write this post, and it is that Romney was hilarious. My husband doesn’t hoot and holler very often, but he was in shouting with laughter pretty much Romney’s whole speech, in which Romney shot some awesome zingers at Obama and Biden. Romney showed he has great comedic timing. He also mentioned pro-life hot buttons: the mandate, conscience protections, and the preborn (beginning at 8:34 on the video):

In our country, you can oppose someone in politics and make a confident case against their policies without any ill will and that’s how it is for me. There’s more to life than politics.

At the Al Smith Foundation and the Archdiocese of New York, you show this in the work you do, in causes that run deeper than allegiance to party or to any contest at the moment. No matter which way the political winds are blowing, what work goes on, day in day out by this organization and you. You answer with calm and willing hearts and service to the poor and care for the sick, in defense and the rights of conscience and in solidarity with the innocent child waiting to be born. You strive to bring God’s love and every – in every life.

(APPLAUSE)

I don’t presume to have all your support and on a night like this, I’m certainly not going ask for it, but you can be certain that in the great causes of compassion that you come together to embrace that I stand proudly with you as an ally and friend.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSznL29JyhQ[/youtube]

I thought Obama was ok but not great…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw5pJ8wG5JM[/youtube]

[Top photo via the New York Times; middle photo via New York Daily News; bottom photo via capitalnewyork.com]

I see being a doula as a political act and I believe that abortion, pregnancy, and childbirth can be a radical act of love and resistance. I’ve held the hands of thousands of people during their abortions and the compassion and love that I’ve witnessed while supporting someone during their abortion has shaped the kind of birth doula that I am today.

Being queer and actively choosing to work with queer and trans folks makes me a little different than the traditional doula (and I love that!).

~ Feminist activist, former intern for late-term abortionist George Tiller, and full-spectrum doula Kate Palmer, Radical Doula, October 11