Jivin J’s Life Links 6-10-11
by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat
- The New York Times has a long article on the burgeoning pro-life movement in Russia:
… Sanctity of Motherhood [is] conducting a pilot program in Krasnoyarsk, an industrial city in Siberia, working with doctors and journalists to shift public opinion and women’s choice away from abortion. The abortion rate in Krasnoyarsk among women who had gone through the program dropped by 16%… which if applied to Russia as a whole would mean 200k more babies a year, based on the official figure of 1.3M annual abortions.
- Ross Douthat responds to Ezra Klein’s critique of his position on assisted suicide:It’s more like supplementary evidence for exactly the point I was trying to make – which is, once again, that rather than just providing an escape from unbearable pain in the last hours of life, both moral logic and practical experience (from Ezekiel’s study to Kevorkian’s depredations) suggest that recognizing a right to die will gradually encourage the use of assisted suicide as a kind of “treatment” for depression, chronic illness, and other, not-immediately-terminal conditions.
- Dominic Holt-Reid, the man who attempted to force his girlfriend to have an abortion at gunpoint has been sentenced to 13 years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted murder of his then unborn child.
- Gregory Nelson (pictured far left) could face the death penalty for killing his pregnant girlfriend and their unborn child:
Nelson was arrested in Kissimmee, FL, 4 days after [Susana] Cisneros’ bloody body was discovered by her family several yards from the restaurant in the early morning hours of March 9. Family members said she had gone to meet Nelson at the restaurant when they lost cell phone contact with the 24-year-old immigrant from Mexico.
Laws were passed in Virginia in 2004 that created offenses of capital murder and fetal homicide when someone attacks and kills a pregnant woman intentionally and also with the intent of taking the life of the fetus.
Cisneros [pictured above, immediate left], according to family members, expected to deliver Nelson’s child within a few weeks, but it is not clear what agreements, if any, existed between the two for the child’s care.
[Photo via Richmond Times Dispatch]
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
The Moscow priest, Fr. Dmitri, made a mistake: Goebbels actually did kill his own children just before he and his wife committed suicide.
The Orthodox Church has its work cut out for it in fighting back against the legacy of death, alcoholism, and despair left by communism. Fighting against abortion is the key to Russia’s future. Alleviating poverty and helping pregnant women prepare for motherhood will give Russia’s next generation a better start than the last.
They didn’t mention it in the article, but the past two primates of the Orthodox Church in America have both been devoted to the pro-life cause. The current OCA primate, Metropolitan Jonah, is very good friends with Patriarch Kirill and Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, both mentioned in the article, so it wouldn’t surprise me if he had something to do with this.