What will it take to change attitudes towards abortion?

[Wosbald]

+JMJ+

Argentina's bishops call for prayer for life as government seeks to legalize abortion [In-Depth]

Pro-life advocates react in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Aug. 9 after lawmakers voted against a bill that would have legalized abortion. Argentina's Senate voted against the bill in the early hours of Aug. 9, dashing the hopes of supporters of legal abortion in the predominantly Catholic country, homeland of Pope Francis. (Credit: CNS photo/Agustin Marcarian, Reuters)


ROME -- As the Argentinian government prepares a bill to decriminalize abortion and make it "safe, legal and available to all women," the bishops' conference launched a campaign titled "Yes to women, yes to life," the focal point of which will be a Mass on March 8, International Women's Day.

The Mass will be celebrated in the national shrine of Our Lady of Lujan, patroness of Argentina. The central intention of the liturgy will be to "ask for the protection of human life until natural death."

The convocation is led by the Executive Commission of the Argentinian bishops' conference, and after mostly staying in the background during the discussions of a similar bill in 2018, the bishops are now taking a more clear, direct stance in opposing the measure, instead of asking the laity to lead the Church's campaign.

"Within the framework of the celebration of International Women's Day and seeing the announced legislative treatment of the legalization of abortion," the leadership of the bishops' conference invited every prelate in Argentina, along with the whole Church, to come together and pray for the protection of human life.

"We invite all the People of God, and all men and women willing to join in this common prayer for life, to the Virgin of Lujan, Patroness of the Argentine People," said Wednesday's statement.

The statement is signed by the president of the bishops' conference, Bishop Oscar Ojea; Cardinal Mario Poli, who succeeded Jorge Mario Bergoglio -- today Pope Francis -- as archbishop of Buenos Aires; Archbishop Marcelo Colombo; and the secretary general of the conference, Bishop Carlos Malfa.

[...]

Among other things, the "abortion protocol" makes it possible for a girl as young as 13 to have an abortion without her parents' consent. It also eliminates conscientious objection for medical institutions, which must provide the procedure when legally allowed, and could force doctors and nurses to terminate a pregnancy.

In addition, if the baby was the result of a rape, there is no obligation to take the case to civil authorities, a measure pro-life groups denounced as providing protection for the rapist, since he won't face criminal charges.

The protocol also allows for what Pope Francis has denounced as "eugenic abortion," the termination of a pregnancy because the unborn baby is diagnosed with a disability.

"The protocol will be used as a guide, especially in cases where the law clearly allows for the interruption of pregnancies," Gonzalez Garcia told a news conference at the time, two days after being sworn in.

"We are respectful of conscientious objection, but conscientious objection cannot be used as an institutional alibi for not complying with the law," Gonzalez Garcia added.

The protocol signed by Gonzalez Garcia was very similar to one revoked by then-President Mauricio Macri in October.

[...]

[Wosbald]

+JMJ+

Abortion, assisted suicide, death penalty issues unite Florida Catholics [In-Depth]

Participants in Catholic Days at the Capitol, organized by Florida's bishops, listen to Chair Coordinator John Bellamy discuss the legislation process in the Florida Senate in Tallahassee Jan. 29, 2020. (Credit: Maurice Beaulieu/Florida Catholic via CNS)


TALLAHASSEE, Florida -- The basement floor of the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center in downtown Tallahassee saw two days of heavy Catholic advocacy for the upcoming legislation.

Organized by the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops, Catholic Days at the Capitol Jan. 28 and 29 brought some 200 pro-life advocates representing the Miami Archdiocese and the state's six dioceses.

Participants -- who included members of Councils of Catholic Women, clergy, religious, seminarians, Knights, laity and teens -- filled the massive auditorium, sitting at their designated tables, enjoying lectures from priests, bishops and members of Catholic Charities.

[...]

Before meeting with their representatives, the conference held a legislative briefing with participants that outlined three specific topics of discussion with legislators: parental consent for a minor getting an abortion; physician-assisted suicide; and the death penalty.

"Florida law currently requires parental notification prior to a minor's abortion, but that one might not be sufficiently strong to ensure that a parent is actually notified," said Ingrid Delgado, the conference's associate director for social concerns/respect life. "The abortion facility only has to mail the notice but not confirm its receipt (by the parent)."

In many instances, then, the parent is not aware the minor has had an abortion.

[...]

Overall, Florida has seen a dramatic drop in abortions during the last decade. According to the Agency for Healthcare Administration, in 2010, Florida abortions hit 79,843. In 2018, the number declined to 70,239. As of December 2019, abortions plummeted further to 62,731.

It seems efforts to end abortion in Florida are growing, but on other life issues, Catholics still have much work ahead of them.

Regarding physician-assisted suicide, a Senate bill -- S.B. 1800 -- would allow any Floridian to legally purchase drugs for the purpose of ending one's own life.

Several states, including California and Oregon, have allowed assisted suicide for years, and now advocates for legalizing this are setting their sights on Florida, according to Ken Kniepmann, the Catholic conference's associate for health.

[...]

Advocates at Capitol Days also called for repealing capital punishment and urged that lawmakers' support S.B. 938 and H.B. 6045, though the bills have a difficult road ahead.

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the death penalty now is no longer admissible under any circumstances.

"Florida is a national outlier when it comes to the death penalty," Delgado said. Florida is one of 30 states that have the death penalty, but it ranks pretty high on the list of states that carry out the most executions.

[...]

[Rawedge Rim]

I certainly wish the catholic church had adopted this "we must protect life" point of view back when they were butchering Protestants in Europe and natives in the New World. Unfortunately, they loved their secular power far too much for that.

and what, Calvinists, Anabaptists, Lutherans, Angelicans, etc. were models of behavior back then?

[Hashi Lebwohl]

Nobody was, but those groups are not trying to portray themsleves as being moral pagaons whom everyone else should follow.

[Obi-Wan Nihilo]

Nobody was, but those groups are not trying to portray themsleves as being moral pagaons whom everyone else should follow.

Nor is one of their followers blindly copying and pasting their propaganda here.

[Rawedge Rim]

Nobody was, but those groups are not trying to portray themsleves as being moral pagaons whom everyone else should follow.

well, yes, during that period they were saying that, and telling everyone that "Papist" were going straight to hell, meanwhile shipping slaves and indentured servants, convicts, etc. overseas to work the fields.

Not that I'm saying that the Catholic Church wasn't in the mix, but I'm not trying to single them out for special treatment either.

[Wosbald]

+JMJ+


David Gibson @GibsonWrites | Twitter [Video: < 1 min]

[Avatar]

Government vows to act against US-linked anti-abortion clinics

Thousands of 'crisis pregnancy centres' worldwide affiliated to conservative American Christian organisations are using fear and misinformation to persuade women not to have abortions...

...In South Africa, the 1996 Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act clearly stipulates that counselling of pregnant women must be "non-directive". This means that counsellors cannot push women to make certain decisions.

"By offering directive counselling, they are violating the law and the national guidelines and we will take action," says Dr Yogan Pillay, the deputy director-general at the Department of Health, responsible for maternal, child and women's health.

--A

[Wosbald]

+JMJ+


Sarah Pulliam Bailey @spulliam | Twitter

[Hashi Lebwohl]

Klobuchar will never get the nomination. It is also likely that the Democrat leadership will reign her in once it becomes apparent that she won't win.

[Wosbald]

+JMJ+


Crux @Crux | Twitter

[sgt.null]

Klobuchar will never get the nomination. It is also likely that the Democrat leadership will reign her in once it becomes apparent that she won't win.

I'm assuming that Klobuchar is trying for veep?

[Hashi Lebwohl]

Klobuchar will never get the nomination. It is also likely that the Democrat leadership will reign her in once it becomes apparent that she won't win.

I'm assuming that Klobuchar is trying for veep?

Yes. At this stage of the game the ones who know that they are also-rans are jockeying for a Cabinet post.

[Wosbald]

+JMJ+

Sasse bill is about providing care for abortion survivors, say supporters

U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., is the lead co-sponsor of the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which he has reintroduced for 2020. (Credit: Joshua Roberts/Reuters via CNS)


WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Former nurse Jill Stanek recalls 20 years ago holding "a precious child who had been abandoned to die alone in the hospital's soiled utility room after surviving an abortion."

Today "we are still fighting for the basic care these little ones deserve," she said.

Stanek, who is national campaign chair for the Susan B. Anthony List pro-life organization, made the comments ahead of her testimony at a Feb. 11 hearing on Capitol Hill sponsored by the Senate Committee on the Judiciary on the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act.

[...]

In an opening statement at the hearing, titled hearing "The Infant Patient: Ensuring Appropriate Medical Care for Children Born Alive," Sasse said the hearing was not "about limiting access to abortion."

"I want to say that I am proudly pro-life, but I am not here to get my pro-abortion rights colleagues to join me at next year's March for Life," he said. "That's not what this hearing is about. This hearing is not about overturning Roe v. Wade. ... This hearing isn't a debate about third-trimester, or second-trimester, or first-trimester abortion.

"This hearing is about making sure that every newborn baby has a fighting chance -- whether she's born in a labor and delivery ward or whether she's born in an abortion clinic," he continued. "That's what the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection act does. That's all it does."

Sasse noted that in 2002, Republicans and Democrats worked together to ensure that children born alive are recognized as persons under federal law. "But, unfortunately, federal law does not criminalize the denial of care to babies who survive an abortion."

The senator is hoping for bipartisan support of the newly reintroduced measure. When it came up for a vote in the Senate a year ago, three Senate Democrats supported it, but the final 53-44 tally on the bill fell short of the 60 votes required to break filibusters and advance the legislation.

[...]

[Avatar]

Of course, once they're born, they better hurry up and start working to make sure they can have medical care etc.

--A

[sgt.null]

Of course, once they're born, they better hurry up and start working to make sure they can have medical care etc.

--A

That job is usually assigned to the parents.

[Gaius Octavius]

IDK, I chose my own healthcare plan when I was 5. Don't your kids even know what an HMO is?

[Wosbald]

+JMJ+

Will the real pro-life political party please stand up? [Opinion]

A sign held during the 2017 March for Life in Washington. (Creative Commons/James McNellis)


The presidential election is shaping up to be a tough one for those who see it literally as a matter of life and death.

The Democrats running for the White House all vow to take action on gun violence and police misconduct, health care, the environment and abolishing the death penalty. At the same time they consider the idea of an anti-abortion progressive an absurdity.

[...]

Meanwhile the Republican Party, which calls itself pro-life, has become an obstacle to life on any issue but abortion. Its current leader, Donald Trump, has become best known for putting children in cages or letting them die in detention while apart from their parents. His social welfare policies have put the more than 140 million Americans who live in poverty at risk.

But purely from a political viewpoint, it's the Democrats who are the bigger puzzle. They seem to be doing everything they can to lose independent voters (like me) and Republican refugees -- those voters Buttigieg calls "future former Republicans," not to mention the 29% of Democrats -- some 20 million people by some estimates -- who call themselves pro-life. (Another 59% support at least some restrictions on abortion, according to Gallup.)

[...]

Pro-life voters are not just white evangelicals but a diverse demographic slice of the American population. Abortion weighs heavily on how many Catholics, Latinx, African American and Asian Christians as well as Jewish and Muslim voters decide on a candidate. And even in their advocacy for life, they are moderates: Many pro-lifers do not want to overturn Roe v. Wade but want to see the number of abortions reduced, in part by providing adequate healthcare and other services to people facing the somber decision.

We don't hear about this in part because of the partisan dualism of pro-choice versus pro-life. Trump is better than perhaps any other recent president at exploiting single-issue voters, convincing them that his appointment of federal judges is enough reason to turn a blind eye to everything else he does.

Religious pundits like Franklin Graham and Robert Jeffress abet him by hailing Trump as the most pro-life president in American history, even as he assassinates a foreign leader days before speaking at the March for Life and celebrates countries like China who execute citizens for drug offenses just a day after speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast.

Liberals and conservatives who care about life need to overcome the politicization of life issues to find common ground. All of us who are pro-life should continue to care about abortion, but we should care just as passionately about all the other issues that are destroying the lives and squashing the dignity of children whom God created and loves so deeply. It's not enough to make the womb a safe place if the child is in deeper trouble as soon as it is born.

Wouldn't it be beautiful to have a pro-life movement that worked to reduce abortions but also stood just as passionately against the death penalty, gun violence, militarism and war, the degradation of creation, police brutality and all other things that destroy life? That would truly be a pro-life movement. To be pro-life is not only about protecting the unborn but also about supporting folks after they are born.

[...]

[Hashi Lebwohl]

the more than 140 million Americans who live in poverty at risk.

That number is pure bullshit. In 2017 the poverty rate was 12.3% and the number of people in poverty was 39.7 million. That makes everything else that author was saying quite suspect.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_i ... o_2017.png

[Obi-Wan Nihilo]

It's from NCR, therefore it's irrelevant. It's the thrashing propaganda arm of a dying cult.