by Hans Johnson
This time-lapse video shows the construction of the new One World Trade Center from October 2004 to the present.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/Nn11DWH_LEA[/youtube]
Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.
[HT: The Blaze]
There probably isn’t a pro-life activist alive who didn’t think what I thought when watching President Obama give his speech about Syria this week. To garner support for his plan to attack that country, Obama implored the American people to view the images of innocent children who had been poisoned to death by their own president. It was clear Obama wanted us to emotionally invest in their tortured deaths:
The images from this massacre are sickening: Men, women, children lying in rows, killed by poison gas. Others foaming at the mouth, gasping for breath. A father clutching his dead children, imploring them to get up and walk. On that terrible night, the world saw in gruesome detail the terrible nature of chemical weapons….
Indeed, I’d ask every member of Congress, and those of you watching at home tonight, to view those videos of the attack, and then ask: What kind of world will we live in if the United States of America sees a dictator brazenly violate international law with poison gas, and we choose to look the other way?
I thought, So President Obama endorses the use of graphic images of murdered children? Does he not hear what he is saying? Does he not think of the graphic images of aborted babies?
Furthermore, as Francis Beckwith noted on Facebook about another line in Obama’s speech:
Sounds like the President has changed his mind about supporting the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act: “To my friends on the left, I ask you to reconcile your belief in freedom and dignity for all people with those images of children writhing in pain and going still on a cold hospital floor.”
It is becoming more difficult to understand how President Obama could so wholeheartedly support all forms of abortion, to the moment of birth and beyond, while thinking he has the moral superiority to condemn other countries that kill children – on a much smaller scale.
Sometimes I have thought Obama must simply compartmentalize abortion in his mind; he has a purposeful blind spot.
But I read something this week, II Thessalonians 2:10-11, and it hit me a new way:
They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie.
We know the destruction of the wicked begins in this life (I Corinthians 1:18) and ends in the beyond, and at a certain point God allows the lusts of evil people to control them (Romans 1:24). As the quoted verse indicates, as part of His judgment God either makes these people delusional or removes His holy protection, any semblance of His counsel, so they become delusional.
So I have come to wonder if Barack Obama is delusional? I have always given him credit for being an intelligent person who was just purposefully ignoring the reality that preborns are human, and that abortion murders them.
But in actuality, Obama may have come to a point where he is delusional. He really may not see it.
Your thoughts?
[Bottom image (click to enlarge) via Created Equal]
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.
The fact that so many people fail to consider the moral implications of IVF suggests that in the age of fertility treatments, surrogates, and modern family-building via parenting partnerships, a woman’s womb has come to be seen as a somewhat arbitrary location. NBC’s The New Normal quips that women are “Easy-Bake Ovens” and children are “cupcakes.”
It appears the judge sentenced her more harshly based on a personal bias against her: “She has indicated no remorse to the court,” [Madam Justice Feroza] Bhabha said angrily. “She believes in the rightness of her cause… (but) abortions are legal. Miss Gibbons does not appreciate that it’s a legal right.”
Obviously Gibbons honors a higher authority than the local judge.
Your claims that the money spent on travel to the Annual March on Washington could be better spent by serving the actual needs of women in crisis pregnancies is so far beyond the pale that you should blush for having said so. Certainly in your scholarly research for the article you looked at the 3,000+ pregnancy centers in this nation whose daily work includes getting housing, prenatal care, delivery services, food, clothing, diapers, supplies, employment, etc for women in crisis pregnancies….
It takes money to keep the maternity homes and pregnancy centers open. Millions and millions of dollars are needed.
The March each year continues to grow, and with that growth comes the great enthusiasm, the great fervor that drives the raising of far more money than is spent on the March. Beyond that utilitarian analysis there is something more fundamental that you missed in your hit piece.
Published so close to the fiftieth anniversary of Martin Luther King’s March on Washington and “I have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial, your article misses the fact that sometimes it just doesn’t matter the cost of calling attention to fundamental injustice and inhumanity. There have been some 57 million babies slaughtered in my lifetime in this country. You would have 600,000 marchers stay home? Really?
[youtube]http://youtu.be/F7aAO5VpN6o[/youtube]
by Kelli
“Pregnant man” Thomas Beatie, who is seeking a divorce from partner Nancy, introduced new girlfriend Amber to CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Anderson Live. Beatie also answered questions about how he would explain to his three children the circumstances of their birth:
Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.
[HT: Daily Mail]
I joined Haven because I am Jewish, and I embrace the tradition of social justice. I wanted to act with ometz, the courage to take risks in pursuing a just cause, and fulfill my obligation of tikkun olam, the call to repair a world rife with inequity.
One member of Haven, Rabbi David Adelson, dedicated a Rosh Hashanah sermon to Haven’s work. He told his congregation that we are created equally in the image of God — b’tselem elohim — and it is our responsibility to ensure that all people are treated equally as well. “Rights are rights only if they apply to all,” he said. “Otherwise they are simply privilege.
Our Jewish tradition demands that we disperse privilege evenly, and work to defend the rights of every member of society.” These concepts formed my core beliefs.
I could not expect others to do what I myself would not.
~ Suzanne Reisman, explaining why she provides occasional free shelter, food, and transportation for women seeking abortions in New York City as a volunteer with a pro-abortion group, Zeek, September 12
by Hans Johnson
On June 3, pro-life Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA) made a concerning report on her Facebook page:
Friends,
A few weeks ago Daniel and I excitedly announced that we are expecting our first baby later this fall. This post is to let you know about a sharp turn our journey has taken.
At a recent, routine ultrasound appointment we received the difficult news that our baby has a serious medical condition called Potter’s Syndrome. Potter’s Syndrome (or Potter’s Sequence) is abnormally low amniotic fluid caused by impaired kidney function which inhibits normal lung development and is often fatal. We have had a second opinion and the medical diagnosis was consistent with the initial news: there is no medical solution available to us. We are praying for a miracle.
We don’t know what the future holds for our family, but we ask for your prayers and appreciate the privacy a family needs in such circumstances.
The early diagnosis was grim: “The options we were offered were termination or ‘expectant management,’ that is, waiting for her to die. Instead, we chose to pray earnestly for a miracle. Many of you joined us.”
The prayers were answered. Abigail Rose was born prematurely on July 15 at 28 weeks, weighing 2 lbs, 12 oz. Read their birth announcement here.
A report on ABC’s This Week::
[youtube]http://youtu.be/aTzF1zcdBVM[/youtube]
Also see interviews from NBC’s Today and FoxNews’ America Live.
Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.
[HT: xalisae]
Justice Anthony M. Kennedy… [is] the author of the 5-to-4 opinion that upheld the federal ban on so-called partial birth abortion back in 2007, and abortion-rights advocates have viewed with something close to dread the prospect that he could play a similarly decisive role in the Supreme Court’s next abortion case.
That case has arrived….
Cline v. Oklahoma Coalition for Reproductive Justice… is an appeal by the state of Oklahoma from a ruling by its Supreme Court striking down a law that limits doctors’ ability to prescribe [RU-486]… [It] requires doctors to follow the dosage and other instructions on the F.D.A. label. Viewed outside its context in the battle over abortion, the law looks perfectly sensible, a routine state regulation of medical practice. (Spoiler alert: it isn’t.)…
Planned Parenthood v. Casey was the 1992 decision that reaffirmed the basic right to abortion while also permitting states to adopt new restrictions. In its opinion, which Justice Kennedy joined, the court said it would permit restrictions that did not impose an “undue burden,” defined in the opinion as “a state regulation that has the purpose or effect of placing a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion of a nonviable fetus.” More than two decades later, all the important words in that definition of undue burden remain contested….
~ Excerpt from op ed, “THe next abortion case is here,” by Linda Greenhouse in the New York Times, September 4
Along with Justice Kennedy, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was also a member of the five-justice majority in 1992. With Justice O’Connor replaced by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., there may no longer be a majority on the court to strike down any burden on access to abortion, even one that is obviously and purposefully “undue.” All that binds the current court to the Casey standard – whatever that standard can be said to mean today – is stare decisis, respect for precedent. As the Roberts court begins Year 9, that may not count for much.
The growing number of abortion clinic closures in recent years has apparently reached critical mass. Liberals and the mainstream media are taking notice with alarm.
And either the clinics are closing at such a fast pace abortion supporters can’t keep up, or there have been so many they can’t count them all.
Either way, They can’t get the numbers straight. And it’s all good.
Think Progress, August 26:
According to a Huffington Post analysis, at least 52 abortion clinics across 26 states have shut down since 2010.
Whoops, that’s not what HuffPo reported, or perhaps it did a recount:
At least 54 abortion providers across 27 states have shut down or ended their abortion services in the past three years….
But on September 3, Bloomberg reported:
At least 58 U.S. abortion clinics — almost 1 in 10 — have shut or stopped providing the procedure since 2011.
This appears to be the most reliable figure at the moment, because the Bloomberg journalist did a fair amount of research, giving props to a website run by Operation Rescue:
… www.abortiondocs.org [lists] the addresses of current and former clinics are listed beside photos of doctors and owners.
It’s one of most comprehensive tallies, referenced by supporters and opponents of abortion rights alike. Using it as a starting point, Bloomberg verified at least 58 clinics that closed or ceased providing abortions in 24 states through phone calls to current and former area providers, information from state health officials and local news reports.
Love this quote by Elizabeth Nash, state issues manager at Guttmacher Institute:
This kind of change is incredibly dramatic. What we’ve been seeing since 1982 was a slow decline, but this kind of change … [is] so different from what’s happened in the past.
The other side blames (again quoting Bloomberg):
A wave of regulations that makes it too expensive or logistically impossible for facilities to remain in business drove at least a third of the closings. Demographic changes, declining demand, industry consolidation, doctor retirements and crackdowns on unfit providers were also behind the drop.
I’ll add that a few of the so-called “retirements” are by abortionists who saw what happened to Kermit Gosnell and want to creep off into the sunset without one last clinic inspection, hoping along the way former employees will forget what they know.
While we are on the topic of abortion clinic numerology, here are some more. From the Associated Press, September 5:
DALLAS - Four abortion clinics are preparing to shutter in the coming months as a result of stricter requirements imposed by a new state law regulating abortion….
Two others closed earlier this year. Amy Hagstrom Miller, founder and CEO of Whole Woman’s Health, said she’s heard of three additional clinics that are planning to close….
If all nine clinics end up closing, that would be about a quarter of all the facilities in Texas.
LifeNews.com, September 3:
An abortion clinic in Michigan where a woman was forced to have an abortion has closed down, according to… Life Dynamics… [which] says 10 abortion clinics in Michigan have closed down since November 2011.
And from an email from 40 Days for Life, September 9:
We were all set to announce the list of cities taking part in the upcoming 40 Days for Life campaign … when something happened. Planned Parenthood shut down another abortion center! Faithful volunteers in Midland, Texas were ready to start their FIFTH 40 Days for Life vigil outside that facility… but their prayers have been answered.
Plans were also in the works for a SEVENTH campaign in Toledo, Ohio. But there, too, God responded to the prayers of His faithful. The abortion center CLOSED!
And, as you probably know, volunteers in Bryan/College Station, Texas – the place where 40 Days for Life started – were getting ready for an unprecedented FOURTEENTH 40 Days for Life vigil outside the local Planned Parenthood facility. But God answered years of consistent prayer. The abortion center CLOSED!
This has now happened 40 TIMES. These latest closures bring the number of closed abortion facilities – where 40 Days for Life prayer vigils have been held – to 40!
Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue, says pro-lifers are simply overturning Roe v. Wade in a different way.
“For 40 years we focused on overturning Roe v. Wade in Washington, D.C.,” Newman told me in a phone interview. “But the baby saved by a sidewalk counselor today has overturned Roe. When we run abortionists out of clinics, we overturn Roe. When we close a clinic, we save babies, and Roe is overturned. All of this makes Roe irrelevant and outdated.”
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.
