Pro-life news brief 4-10-13
by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat
- As Jill reported, Johns Hopkins has agreed to fully recognize a pro-life student group. According to the Baltimore Sun, Voice for Life, a pro-life group at the university, will be fully recognized by the campus after a student judiciary unanimously overturned a decision by student legislators which would have prevented the group from doing certain activities:
The Judiciary Committee called for its decision to be effective immediately. As a sanctioned club, Voice for Life will be listed in all university publications and websites, be able to raise money on campus and publicize its events, among other privileges. The decision to recognize the group as a club does not guarantee that Voice for Life will receive university funding, which is approved in a separate process.
- A Louisiana man named Jeffery Reynolds who cut open his wife’s abdomen and removed her unborn child has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity after being charged with killing the child and attempting to kill his wife. Paula Reynolds survived the attack:
Reynolds is charged with first-degree homicide, attempted second-degree homicide and battery on a police officer.Police allege he stabbed his pregnant wife, Paula, in October, cut the fetus from her, called 911 and fought officers when they arrived.
- The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit upheld a school’s decision to prevent a pro-life student group from distributing rubber fetal models inside the school because of the disruption following the distribution. Sounds like the students at the school have some issues:
At Goddard High, court documents say, some 300 dolls were given to students before administrators shut down the distribution. Meanwhile, some students tore the small heads off the dolls and bounced them around classrooms like rubber balls. Some students used the dolls to plug toilets, while a few of the dolls were covered in hand sanitizer and lighted on fire. And other students found lewd uses for the rubber dolls.
Teachers complained of the substantial disruption caused by the items themselves, while at least one class was disrupted, with a scheduled test requiring postponement, because students became embroiled in name-calling over abortion, court papers say.
[Image via Heritage House ’76]
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.
Wow, if a high school has that much trouble with it’s students, it has a MUCH larger problem than people passing out rubber fetal dolls. And it speaks volumes to what is being ‘taught’ in such a place of ‘education’.
Jespren, I had the same thoughts. That’s some unacceptable behavior, no matter what.
in order to discourage teen pregnancies, some schools invite the kids — boys as well as girls — to wear devices that simulate advanced pregnancy. The discomfort and pain of the devices is believed to promote abstinence.
the pregnancy models also have a negative effect..they teach girls to “seek” abortions so they won’t have to go through with an uncomfortable pregnancy! They also teach girls that having babies is a bad thing instead of a good thing. (Children are a gift no matter how they are conceived.)
the only way to stop teenage pregnancy is for schools and families to teach morality and the damage that premarital sex does to lives and the young children who never get to live. But, there’s no way that is going to happen as long as PP does sex ed in schools and parents abandon their roles as parents. The tiny rubber babies only work if you show it to someone who is pregnant..there is no point in passing them out at a school when most of the teens could care less about the child in the womb b/c society teaches them it’s not a baby worth protecting. The high school students’ actions teaches us volumes about what is happening with our youth and our culture. It is sad indeed.
these kids’ actions are totally inexcusable. that said, i did find during my time in pro life in college that the fetal models didn’t often help students’ perception of the issue or the movement as a whole. even thoughtful, reasoned students–even some pro life students–found them strange and uncomfortable. i don’t feel that way myself, but if we’re talking changing hearts and minds, maybe these are best used carefully, as a teaching tool, and not passed out like Smarties.
Which school was this, St. Brutus’ for the Criminally Insane?
“Which school was this, St. Brutus’ for the Criminally Insane?”
Ah…in one sentence a kindred spirit is identified. Love it.
Ah, darn it, should have checked my book first. The proper name is “St. Brutus’s Secure Centre for Incurably Criminal Boys.”
We must revive practices such as chaperoned dating to decrease destructive sexual activity. This is a legitimate societal goal as such activity results not only in problem pregnancies but in the epidemic of STDs sweeping through this world. Finally, females are psychologically at risk from partnered sexual activity.
Chaperoned dating is only one necessary step. Another is strict and vigorous enforcement of the statutory rape laws.
DeniseNoe,
Or we could just teach kids to have enough invested in themselves that risky sexual behavior becomes unappealing by comparison to their hopes and dreams for the future, enough integrity to stand up for themselves and know they’re not obligated to peers to provide sexual fulfillment for them, enough wisdom to carry on responsible sexual congress in the context of an appropriate relationship once they are adults if they wish to delay procreation, and enough respect for human life and their children in particular to remove the will to shed innocent blood simply to facilitate their wishes for the future.
But yeah, holding a 19 year old’s hand while they make a potty is a legitimate course of action, too. 9_9
@ xalisae: It is perfectly arguable that we should attempt to minimize temptations that will lead to social disaster. 1 million and 1/2 abortions per year + STDs spreading at a pandemic rate amount to social disaster.
Chaperoned dating and rigorous enforcement of the statutory rape laws are only a start — but they are a good start.
No, it’s not. Because if you bothered to actually LOOK at the MAJORITY of women obtaining abortions, you’d find they’re not CHILDREN, but YOUNG ADULTS actually aborting. Are you going to follow your 19 year old around making sure they don’t behave themselves like animals in private? Are you even legally allowed to do so if they didn’t want you to or allow you to do so?!
Geez, lady! Get your head screwed on properly for a second and think about this: do most parents need to watch their children and instruct their children better when they are still children? YES! But you will find that this alone will lower abortion rates because those children will grow into young adults who are more likely to avoid engaging in risky sexual behaviors and seeking abortions-SINCE THEY ARE THE MAJORITY DOING SO NOW.
I’m sorry some creeper adult dude came sniffing around you when you were 15. If you had been my daughter, I’d have found the guy and relieved him of the burden of his testicles. But AFTERWARDS, I would’ve sat you down and spoken to you like the young PERSON you were and told you how to handle that sort of situation and asked you how you felt about it at the time and why, because that’s information about the situation and yourself that you can use even when I as a parent am not around, because I know I as a parent can’t ALWAYS be around! I’m sorry your “friend” who “just wasn’t going to sustain [her] pregnancy to term” felt like she was no more in control of herself while alone with a boy her age than a cat in heat, and I’m sorry she was subjected to the whims of a boy with the self-control of a stag in rut. I’m also sorry that in the aftermath, she had ZERO respect for the life of her child, as well. Her parents failed her, and not just because they weren’t around to constantly hold her hand as she was raised up through her teens.
But you’re formulating your opinions on the grounds of faulty parental situations, and that’s wrong. Get a grip.
@ xalisae: That 24-year-old man wasn’t just “sniffing around.” He actually sunk so low as to try to enlist the help of my little brother, about 7 years old at the time, to deliver the message that “somebody wants you at” the house next door. Of course, I didn’t go there but it stuck in my mind as a low trick.
okay. Well, that doesn’t change anything about what I said. Except that I’d probably take my time with the sick-o.
xalisae says:
April 11, 2013 at 1:58 pm
okay. Well, that doesn’t change anything about what I said. Except that I’d probably take my time with the sick-o.
(Denise) I don’t know how I could have forgotten. AFTER he tried and failed to get his visit, AFTER he asked a 7-year-old boy, “Please tell your sister someone wants to see her here,” and AFTER his offer of a “ride,” this man knocked on the door of our home. He was obviously intoxicated on something and slurring his words when he asked my Mother, “You got any empty pop bottles I can have so I can turn them in for change?”
My Mother said, “No. Why don’t you try working for your money?”
“Yeah,” he said and stumbled off.
Back to my main point: We have to do more of a practical nature to decrease partnered sexual activity. This isn’t just to prevent abortions. This isn’t even just to prevent unplanned pregnancies. STDs are spreading at a pandemic rate.
I am really sick of the insanity plea. Insanity doesn’t mean a person is not guilty of committing a crime, even if there is actual insanity involved. Too often “insanity” is just an excuse and a cover for evil. Insane or not, crimes must be punished and criminals must be kept from repeating their offenses and continuing to endanger others.
It seems like everything is insanity or illness or a syndrome or anything but just plain evil.
If we’re going to talk about insanity, how about the insanity of rightly calling the death of this unborn child a murder, yet not calling the abortion of an unborn child murder?
That just doesn’t make sense. But then, political correctness and greed don’t make much sense anyway.
We have to do more of a practical nature to decrease partnered sexual activity.
Great. Let me know when you come up with something of a practical nature. 9_9
@ Victor Galipi: I wrote this article on the “irresistible impulse” case made (in)famous by Otto Preminger’s “Anatomy of a Murder” — http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/blog/article/irresistible-impulse-coleman-petersons-killing-of-maurice-chenoweth/index.html
Interesting Denise. Not much to say about it, and who knows what actually happened. Still don’t like the insanity plea. People need to take responsibility for, and be held responsible for, their actions.
Victor Galipi says:
April 12, 2013 at 10:33 pm
Interesting Denise. Not much to say about it, and who knows what actually happened. Still don’t like the insanity plea. People need to take responsibility for, and be held responsible for, their actions.
(Denise) Some have suggested the insanity plea is the exception that proves the rule that the vast majority of criminals ARE responsible for their actions. Only those suffering from an extremely debilitating mental condition (whether temporary or long-term) that impairs the ability to know what one is doing or to control one’s actions renders a small minority exempt from legal responsibility.
I asked to work on the Coleman Peterson case for TruTV.com’s Crime Library. Like the movie it inspired, “Anatomy of a Murder,” the case is tantalizingly murky. However, it does strike me as reasonable that the rape and beating of a man’s wife could unhinge his mind.
Denise I’ll put it this way. I think that man had a lot more justification for what he did than anyone I’ve yet seen use the insanity plea, not that I’ve seen them all. But Jeffery Reynolds is not insane, he is evil. He was sane enough to do all that he did including calling the police there and attacking them. He’s sane enough to pay for his crimes. And if he’s not he’s still a danger to society and needs to be put away.