by Kelli

Superior Court Judge Sohail Mohammed said all patients — and pregnant women especially — enjoy strong privacy protections that let them decide who can be at their hospital bedside.

Fathers, on the other hand, have no established legal right to be present at the birth of their children, the judge wrote.

“Any interest a father has before the child’s birth is subordinate to the mother’s interests,” Mohammed wrote. “Even when there is no doubt that a father has shown deep and proper concern and interest in the growth and development of the fetus, the mother is the one who must carry it to term.”…

The mother’s privacy rights won the day, the judge wrote, because of a pair of landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions on abortion — Roe v. Wade from 1973 and Planned Parenthood v. Casey from 1992. The high court established in those rulings that an expectant mother has a stronger right over her body and over her unborn child than the father. A court majority in Casey ruled that women are not even required to tell their spouses about abortions, Mohammed noted….

~ Salvador Rizzo, The Star-Ledger, March 12

[HT: Laura Loo; graphic via zazzle.com]

UPDATE 3/13, 7:10a: Police have returned video a Survivors member took of UCSB Professor Mireille Miller-Young stealing one of their signs (of abortion victims) and assaulting 16-year-old Thrin Short.

And it gets even worse. Turns out the professor enticed a student to break the law and steal the sign showing abortion victims. Video shows Miller-Young physically blocked Thrin and her sister Joan from entering an elevator, pushed and scratched Thrin.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/sLemX9QtUa4[/youtube]

The Survivors say they plan to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law, which includes getting this out-of-control professor fired. Survivors representative Kristina Garza wrote in a follow-up email this morning:

[W]isdom can be garnered from this incident about the effectiveness of the signs.  The Campus Outreach Team went back to UCSB this week to capitalize on students’ hyper-awareness of the issue, and it went really well.  Besides people changing their minds, we saw the pro-abortion protesters become more and more outlandish.  Students couldn’t take them seriously anymore.

Please pray for this terribly wayward professor’s conversion.

3/12, 2:24p: There is one visual a University of California, Santa Barbara, professor who teaches porn can’t handle: photos of abortion victims.

You would think Mireille Miller-Young, pictured right, who also teaches queer theory and sex work at UCSB, would have a hardened brain and eyes by now, but apparently the reality of abortion shown via photos of abortion victims overcomes her. From The College Fix, March 12:
[Read the rest of this entry…]

by Hans Johnson

One amusing sidelight to the recent Winter Olympics in Sochi was a tweet referring to an NBC article touting David Wise’s “alternative lifestyle” of having a wife and child at the age of 23. He won the first gold in the freestyle halfpipe skiing competiton.

Though this was just a tongue-in-cheek contrast with the care-free, “gonzo” personality of a Shaun White, the Twittersphere reacted with outrage that “settling down” while young is seen to have gone out of fashion.

Wise, with his wife Lexi and daughter Nayeli, was interviewed by Gretchen Carlson:

The cast of Fox & Friends also weighed in.

Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.

Click all images to enlarge.

Abortion proponents have been known to try to censor pro-lifers from showing the reality of abortion depicted in photos of the victims. 

But there has been a recent surge.

It’s interesting to me that showing abortion victim imagery generates so much negative energy from the other side. What’s the problem with owning what they support?

On March 4 abortion proponents “erected a wall of censorship” around a Justice For All display at the University of Georgia according to The Daily Caller:

To prevent members of the campus community from actually seeing the images, students from two pro-choice groups – the Women’s Studies Student Organization and Sexual Health Advocacy Group – stood around the display holding up sheets.

They also held vulgar signs, so becoming.

To be clear, the pro-abortion effort was not simply to counter one expression of free speech with another view. It was to suppress the other’s view. Their rationale? Again quoting The Daily Caller:

Danielle Duncan, one of the pro-choice activists, said the pro-life display constituted “hate speech,” because it could trigger negative emotions to people who saw it.

If this is how hate speech is defined, then there is pretty much no such thing as acceptable speech. But the First Amendment wasn’t written to protect speech everyone agrees with. That sort of speech needs no protection. It was written to protect speech people might disagree with, find offensive.

At any rate, it’s hateful to show what they support? Do they realize how ridiculous and hypocritical they are?

At Norman High School in Norman, Oklahoma, abortion zealots took a different tactic, mockery, when faced with abortion victim imagery displayed by Abolish Human Abortion’s Project Frontlines. According to okcfox.com, February 28:

“Talk to your family, not these yahoos!”

“Know your audience!”

“May the fetus you save be gay!”

These signs of protest aren’t for the passersby at Norman High School. They’re signs protesting the protestors right across the street….

“It’s ridiculous, they shouldn’t be doing this at a school,” said Ryan Steinmeyer, a Senior at Norman High. “If they want to voice their First Amendment rights, I am too. And my First Amendment protects that.”

Steinmeyer says his fellow students are trying to run them off and confuse them with satire.  The message he chose is simple.

“I want everyone to know that the Star Trek sequel wasn’t really that great!”

Others are following suit.  One student held up a sign stating he misses the TV show Firefly.  Another student held up a sign stating he needed a dollar for a bus ticket.

Actually, showing the reality of abortion is perfectly suited for a high school, because high school students get abortions. They should know who they’re aborting. It’s called education.

At Paschal High School in Ft. Worth, Texas, pro-choicers took yet a different tack to oppose the display of abortion victim photos by Project Frontline. According to the Star-Telegram on February 28:

Iris Hayes, a 17-year-old Paschal senior, stood nearby Thursday with a poster bearing images of puppies.

“I don’t agree with the posters,” she said.

She and two Texas Christian University students stood next to anti-abortion activist James Lewis, 25, with their own signs showing both kittens and puppies. They said they brought out pleasant images to make their point: They said they don’t believe a high school campus is the appropriate place for graphic images of abortions.

“Iris,” an interesting name for someone who doesn’t want others to use theirs. And accompanied by two students for a Christian university? Shame on these abortion enablers. Do they also oppose the crucifix? It’s graphic, too.

And countering abortion with puppies? How utterly offensive and degrading to these poor dismembered children.

School officials appear to respect constitutional rights:

[W]rites principal Terri Mossige in a Feb. 26 letter to the Paschal High School community… “As United States citizens, we have the chance to see our rights in action every day. Paschal High School is a microcosm of our society and is not exempt from these situations. However, we can take positive steps to mitigate the distractions and discomfort that might result from these experiences.”

Students who said they were bothered by the exhibitions were referred to school counselors or intervention specialists, Mossige said.

[Top photo via thefire.org; second photo via georgiatipsheet.com; third photo via okcfox.com; bottom photo via star-telegram.com]

by Carder

My becoming a father has changed absolutely everything in my life, period…. I am more and more wanting to be a part of things that [are] playful and more the things I see my son really responding to and enjoying.

~ Actor Josh Lucas (pictured with son Noah Rev and estranged wife Jessica Ciencin Henriquez), People, March 10

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.

• Big Blue Wave says a new study acknowledges that “widespread and increased availability of oral emergency contraception over the past 10-14 years has made little difference to rates of unintended pregnancy, abortion and repeat abortion amongst teenagers.” However, the conclusion from this is that teens must now try another form of birth control – the IUD.

• Culture Campaign reports that “in his 2015 budget proposal to Congress, President Obama has eliminated grants for abstinence education funding.” And who would applaud this action more than the “non-partisan” abortion pimp Planned Parenthood, which benefits heavily from taxpayer dollars? The group’s president, Cecile Richards reacted, saying, “We are pleased that the budget eliminates funding for abstinence-only sex education…. We look forward to working with Congress to see [the president’s alternative sex education] investments protected.”

  Yes, Cecile. We have no doubt that you do.

• The Leading Edge has a good article about why parents should be the providers of sex education for their children – not schools:
  

  Late last week the issue of sex education made national headlines after it was revealed that a New Zealand primary school had held a sex education class for “eleven, 12 and 13 year olds where students were told about oral and anal sex, flavoured condoms, and pleasure points” – despite parents being told in writing beforehand that pupils would only be taught the basics.

  These are the basics?

• Josh Brahm describes the human atrocities – including forced abortion and infantide – occurring in North Korea, and challenges pro-lifers to use these stories in the right way:
  

  How would I use this story in a conversation with a pro-abortion-choice advocate?… If a moral relativist says he doesn’t like this story, I’m going to ask…: “When you say you don’t like the sound of infanticide being performed that way, are you describing your personal feelings about it or are you describing the act itself?” Those are not the same thing. When I say that “rape is wrong,” I’m describing the act itself, not just how I feel about rape.

  I’ve found that, while it can be very difficult to make headway with some relativists, telling stories about horrific atrocities like this can shock them out of that apathy, so that their conscience can trigger them into seeing what they should have seen all along: Some things are objectively wrong.

• At Life Training Institute, Clinton Wilcox challenges an article written by Jon Speed of Babies Are Murdered Here documentary fame, in which he criticizes 40 Days for Life, claiming it opposes the preaching of the Gospel at its events and is therefore not a Christian organization:
  

  The pro-life movement will never succeed as long as there are extremists who are trying to drive a wedge into the pro-life movement, dividing us, and playing into the hands of the pro-choice movement by embodying all of their stereotypes (that pro-life people are only interested in condemning women for having abortions, that they are just belligerent loudmouths, and that abortion is a religious issue). We need a better way to operate, and we need to be united.

• Clinic Quotes shares a quote which states “amniocentesis is frequently done to identify Down syndrome children so parents have the option of abortion. The risk of miscarriage as a result of amniocentesis is almost exactly the same as the risk for Down syndrome.”
• At Live Action, Isaac Latterell notes an animal protection bill that passed the South Dakota Senate without opposition, and wonders why humans can’t seem to extend such protections to preborn humans:
  

  Last week, SB 46 passed unanimously…. It is a bill that would make it a felony to “intentionally, willfully, and maliciously inflict gross physical abuse on an animal that causes prolonged pain, that causes serious physical injury, or that results in the death of the animal.”…

  It saddens me to have to write about this. But I will not sit silently by as our children’s lives are devalued to a place lower than dogs. As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

[Photos via engagefamilyminute.com and airocross.com]

by LauraLoo

The eldest of the Duggar daughters on TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting recently revealed that they avoid spending time with men in order to not fall prey to sin and have sex before marriage. They were interviewed about this on Good Morning America today.

Their book, Growing Up Duggar, authored by Jana (24), Jill (22), Jessa (21) and Jinger (20), described the pitfalls that can happen when people rush to put themselves into physical and moral compromising situations that only bring temporary fulfillment.

The girls also say they “control” what’s going on internally. ”By censoring our thoughts through the filter of God’s Word, we will be able to recant any wrong thoughts or temptations that try to sneak in.”

Their mom, Michelle Duggar, posted a video just prior to the release of their book and explains it is her belief for children to not date prior to marriage, but definitely at least weekly after marriage.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzjd4-E1SoU[/youtube]

Your thoughts on such a counter-cultural way to live?  Is it repressive to refrain from developing soul ties and bonds with people you won’t end up marrying? Or is it smart?

Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.

UPDATE 3/21 4:35p: The school has backed down.

3/11 9:32a: Another week, another case of censorship of student pro-lifers.

Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, from the long view. Battles like this get the abortion issue much more attention than were they never waged. And they give students real life lessons in the First Amendment right of free speech, which isn’t needed for pleasant topics we all agree on.

But I know it’s hard on the personal level, and I give pro-life students all the kudos in the world for sticking to their guns in the face of adversity on behalf of the babies.

So this time the censor is the administration of Branford High School in Branford, Connecticut, the mission of which is ironically, “to prepare students to be independent and collaborative learners who are responsible, informed, and contributing members of society.”

The backstory, according to Students for Life of America:

Since February of last year, the Branford High School administration has attempted to censor and limit the effectiveness of the Students for Life club at their public school, telling them they could not have life-like fetal models on their education table and making it difficult for them to form and sustain the club.

This February, the administration denied the pro-life club the ability to invite others to join the group in the form of clip boarding and handing out literature to students during lunch. The school has also told the Branford High School Students for Life club that they can only host events after school, a restriction not imposed on other student groups.

Last week, Alliance Defending Freedom sent a letter to Branford High School and Branford Public Schools on behalf of Branford High School Students for Life requesting that they end their discriminatory behavior against the group. The letter asked for written confirmation by March 12th notifying Sam that her club’s rights will be respected.

“Sam” would be Sam Bailey-Loomis, the pro-life group’s president, and coincidentally the editor of the school newspaper this year. Sam displayed her journalist prowess by giving a sterling interview to NBC News yesterday.

Students for Life has action items for us:

Students for Life of America is asking all pro-life activists to contact the Superintendent of Branford Public Schools, Mr. Hamlet Hernandez by email at hhernandez@branfordschools.org, or phone at (203) 488-7276, to express their support for Branford High School Students for Life and ask that Branford Public Schools resolve this situation immediately by assuring Sam and Branford High School Students for Life that their constitutional rights will be respected.

Other recent issues of school censorship that were quickly resolved in our favor once the public was alerted include Wilson High School in Tacoma, Washington, and the University of Alabama.