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

• Suzy B agrees with pro-choice forces on a lawsuit against the alleged discrimination against pregnant employees in the workplace:
  

  Both pro-life and pro-choice groups have filed amicus briefs on behalf of Peggy Young. The Women’s Law Project and Legal Momentum argued that the previous ruling in favor of UPS was incorrect on the basis of “misconceiving gender stereotypes in pregnancy discrimination.” Americans United for Life has filed an amicus brief, which the Susan B. Anthony List, among other pro-life groups have signed on to, coming from a different approach, standing up for the unborn and women. The brief argues that in creating the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, Congress was trying to “protect women from economic pressure to abort their children because of pregnancy discrimination.”

• Wesley J. Smith notes how swiftly the culture is accepting the policies of Jack Kevorkian, which were rejected in the 1990’s. People tend to respond to emotion as opposed to “facts and analysis,” as was seen in the case of Brittany Maynard, a woman with terminal brain cancer.

• Right to Life of Michigan shares an excerpt of an article by Ed Rivet on why death is not a treatment for disease. In the full story, Ed writes:
  

  Suicide in response to terminal illness is by far the exception, not the rule. It is often a fear-based request and driven by underlying treatable depression. In 2012, the voters of Massachusetts also rejected legalized assisted-suicide. The widow of Sen. Edward “Teddy” Kennedy (pictured left, at bottom), after he died of the same cancer Brittany [Maynard] (pictured top left) had, spoke out strongly against the ballot measure. Vicki Kennedy said that the proposal “turns his [Teddy’s] vision of health care for all on its head by asking us to endorse patient suicide — not patient care — as our public policy for dealing with pain and the financial burdens of care at the end of life. We’re better than that.”

• Secular Pro-Life examines the apparent connection between being pro-abortion and being an atheist.
• At The Vine, Breeanne Howe highlights some of the past week’s biggest pro-life headlines, such as the scandalous government-backed study of premature newborns in which their parents were not informed of the potential risks of blindness and neurological damage.
• Pro Life Blogs features an article from Where the Rubber Meets the Road on the increasing acceptance of the idea of infanticide for newborns with terminal illness or disabilities.

• ProWomanProLife gives a thumbs up review of The Birth of the Pill by Jonathan Eric, who writes in his book the following:
  

  The cardinal tenet of the Contraceptive Regime is that The Pill safely sterilizes the sexual act. As a result of this belief, we accept the idea that we can have sex with anyone we want, without regard for potential consequences.

  We think we can have sex with a person who would be a disaster to parent with. And when the inevitable pregnancy actually occurs, we act surprised every time. Women are then faced with the choice of becoming a single mother, having an abortion or placing the baby for adoption. None of these choices is particularly good for the child, nor in the end, for the woman.

• Saynsumthn’s Blog says an “abortion abolitionist” recently showed abortion victim images at a children’s holiday parade in Tampa:
  

  Being attacked for showing babies that have been horrifically aborted is not new. There is much debate among pro-lifers on this tactic. Yet, today, many groups within the pro-life movement advocate the use of these images in public venues.

  The wisdom of using such images intentionally where there are children around is an entirely different matter. Some believe that exposing children to the horrors of abortion at an early age cements their opposition to child killing for the rest of their lives. Others think that doing such a thing without parental permission is harmful.

  What do you think? Do you believe this abolitionist was out of line in her activism at this children’s parade or do you support her?

[Photos via laprensanews.blogspot.com, salon.com, and startribune.com]

by Hans Johnson

Jencita Vargas discovered her soon-to-be-born daughter was just as much a “Swiftie” as she was. Watch her baby move to Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space”:

[youtube]http://youtu.be/ZR4AzPKnWSY[/youtube]

Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.

Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards disclosed in Elle in October that she had had an abortion:

I had an abortion. It was the right decision for me and my husband, and it wasn’t a difficult decision. Before becoming president of Planned Parenthood eight years ago, I hadn’t really talked about it beyond family and close friends. But I’m here to say, when politicians argue and shout about abortion, they’re talking about me—and millions of other women around the country.

At the time I thought the “it wasn’t a difficult decision” line was terribly insensitive to Richards’ three surviving children. They certainly know it could have been any one of them who was snuffed, in which case so what, according to their mother?

But we know why Richards had to act blasé. There is a new campaign underway to destigmatize abortion, and to do that abortion has to be portrayed as nothing earth shattering to a woman and not necessarily done for awful reasons, like rape, or a handicapped baby. Explained post-abortive Merritt Tierce in a recent New York Times op ed:

By repeating only the gut-wrenching, heartbreaking, terrifying abortion stories, we protect a lie: that abortion isn’t normal. We have learned to think of abortion with shame and fear. We have accepted the damaging idea that a person who wants an abortion must grovel before the consciences of others…. We have to stop categorizing abortions as justified or unjustified.

Thus, Richards reiterated her abortion was no biggie in a video she made for the “1 in 3” campaign a couple weeks ago, adding, “[t]oday, I’m telling my story”:

But Richards didn’t tell her story. She gave absolutely no details other than she and her husband were indifferent about killing their baby.

Which leaves so many unanswered questions. How can it be that the premier leader of the abortion/contraception industry got pregnant by mistake? Was she using birth control? What kind of birth control?  When did she get her abortion, before or after she was married? Why? Before, after, or between which child? Did she get her abortion at a Planned Parenthood or go to a private doctor? Did she do it for her career (which would be incredibly ironic)?

And how could Richards travel the country promoting Planned Parenthood and abortion for eight whole years as president and not disclose her own abortion? Wasn’t that living one huge, stinking lie?

The mundaneness by which Richards claimed to have procured her abortion began to show itself differently in an interview she gave to Cosmopolitan, published yesterday, in which she said:

I just talked to my kids the other day, and they knew I’d had an abortion, and they were sort of like, “Mom, it was no big deal,” but I could also tell it was important to them that we talked about it.

That sentence makes no sense. If their mother’s abortion was “no big deal,” it should have not been “important” for the kids to talk about. Clipping one’s fingernails would fall under the category of ”no big deal,” in which case kids wouldn’t think it important to discuss.

So what exactly was “important” for Richards and her surviving children to hash through? That they are missing a sibling? That there’s someone to mourn? That they are special to their parents, even if by the luck of the draw they could have been so unspecial as to have been killed – without a second thought?

The problem with Cecile Richards’ abortion is if it truly “wasn’t a difficult decision,” then she is showing heartlessness not just about the death of a child created with the man she loved, then killed in cooperation with him, but also toward their surviving children.

But we know Richards is lying, because it turns out she needed to somehow smooth things over with her children, I’m guessing during the Thanksgiving holiday. She needed to thread a needle of displaying callousness toward the offspring she killed but love toward the offspring she didn’t kill but easily could have – quite a feat, and good luck with that.

[tweet_box]How can @CecileRichards show apathy toward the child she killed but love to those she didn’t?[/tweet_box]

Which makes the latest pro-abortion campaign another impossibility to pull off. If even the president of Planned Parenthood cant do it, no one can.

If Richards were to ever show compassion in any way toward her aborted baby, she would be unlocking a compartment in her consciousness that would begin to unravel everything she stands for.

The thing is, I think Richards already knows all that.

by Kelli

Often the message she hears is: Have an abortion or drop out of school….

The pressure on a pregnant student to abort her child is enormous — she could be getting pressure from her family, her friends, her partner, her professors. She absolutely needs to know that abortion is not her only option and that there are caring people on campus who really want to help her.

~ Students for Life of America president Kristan Hawkins, discussing the group’s new Pregnant on Campus initiative, as quoted by National Review Online, December 8

[HT: Hans Johnson; photo via SFLA.org]

by Kelli

Life Site News columnist and speaker Jonathon Van Maren took heat from both Christians and non-Christians when he voiced his opposition to Fifty Shades of Grey, a book that romanticizes domination, bondage, and sadomasochism. Planned Parenthood was even caught on tape encouraging teens to read the book and to view pornography in order to engage in BDSM.

Van Maren was interviewed about the increased mainstreaming of sexual violence on Canada’s Sun News:

by Carder

It’s rarely a straightforward pro-choice or pro-life anthem. The best songs that take on the subject explore the painful decision. But subtle or direct, be warned. These aren’t songs for your commute if you’re not into public crying.

~ Ashley Hoffman introducing the “Ten Most Powerful Songs About Abortion,” including Nicki Minaj’s single, “All Things Go,” Stylite, December 5

[Photo via Good Music, Good Life]

Good morning, and Happy Sunday! Here were my top five favorite political cartoons for the week. Be sure to vote for your fav in the poll at the bottom of this post!

by Michael Ramirez at Townhall.com…

 by Glenn McCoy at Townhall.com…

 by Gary Varvel at Townhall.com…

 by Steve Kelley at Townhall.com…

 by Lisa Benson at Townhall.com…

The abolitionist story behind treasured Christmas hymns, Wk 1 of 4…

“Go Tell It on the Mountain”

John Wesley Work, Jr., an African-American professor at Fisk University in Nashville, first published the lyrics and music to this slave spiritual in 1907.

Writes Ace Collins in his book, Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas:

The song had come from the fields of the South, born from the inspiration of a slave’s Christmas, and it was unique in that, in the hundreds of Negro spirituals the work family saved from extinction, few had been written about Christmas. Most, as would seem only natural, centered on earthly pain and suffering, and the joy and happiness that only heaven seemed to offer.

Yet here, standing against the backdrop of such haunting spirituals as, “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child,” was “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” a triumphant piece that embraced the wonder of lowly shepherds touched by God at the very first Christmas.

Chorus and verse 3...

Go, tell it on the mountain
Over the hills and everywhere
Go, tell it on the mountain
That Jesus Christ is born.

Down in a lowly manger
Our humble Christ was born;
And God sent us salvation
That blessed Christmas morn.

“Go Tell It on the Mountain” was also an anthem of the 1960s Civil Rights movement. Peter, Paul, and Mary adapted the words to refer to the Israelites’ exodus from slavery. The Pro-Life movement could clearly adapt the words today…

Also read the abolitionist history behind “O Holy Night” and “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.”