LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Tuesday, November 22, 2010
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Current Headlines
Top Stories
• Pope Benedict Not Changing Catholic Teaching on Condoms
• Obama Admin Okays Second Trial of Embryonic-Like Stem Cells in Humans
• Obama Ties GOP Candidates, Voters Don t Want Him Back
• Vote Shifts Towards Telling Couple to Have Abortion, Possible Vote Fraud
• Media Misreports Pope s Statements on Condom Usage
More Pro-Life News
• A Vote For Bristol Palin on Dancing With the Stars is Pro-Life
• Funeral for Babies Found in Abortion Dumpster Attracts 1,000
• New Jersey Senator Won t Let Post-Abortive Woman Testify
• We Must Help Pro-Life Students Facing Arrest, Discrimination
• Louisiana Abortion Law Protecting Women Gets New Lawsuit
• Pro-Life News: ObamaCare, Iowa, Israel, Texas, Cincinnati
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Pope Benedict Not Changing Catholic Teaching on Condoms
A forthcoming book Light of the World: the Pope, the Church and the Signs of the Times by Peter Seewald is generating significant buzz because it reportedly has the Pope significantly changing Church teaching on the usage of condoms.
In the book, Pope Benedict XVI says the Catholic Church of course does not regard condom usage as the real or moral solution to the problem of AIDS.
But book says the Pope indicates there may be an exceptional situation when using condoms may be appropriate, such as cases of sexual intercourse that may threaten the life of another person because of a transmission of a potentially deadline sexual disease. That might justify their usage in instances such as male prostitutes using them to stop the spread of HIV.
There may be a basis in the case of some individuals, as perhaps when a male prostitute uses a condom, where this can be a first step in the direction of a moralization, a first assumption of responsibility, on the way toward discovering an awareness that not everything is allowed and that one cannot do whatever one wants, the Pontiff said.
But it is not really the way to deal with the evil of HIV infection. That can really lie only in a humanization of sexuality, Benedict added. Full story at LifeNews.com
Obama Admin Okays Second Trial of Embryonic-Like Stem Cells in Humans
The Obama administration today approved the second trial involving the use of human embryonic-derived stem cells on patients despite significant problems in animal studies.
Advanced Cell Technology, a cloning and stem cell research firm, received approval from the Food and Drug Administration to use derivatives of embryonic stem cells in patients with Stargardt disease, a rare eye disease than can lead to blindness.
The approval for the California firm to move forward comes one month after the FDA approved a request from Geron Corporation to try embryonic-like cells in patients with spinal cord injuries.
The new trials will also involve healthy scavenger cells, created in a laboratory from human embryonic stem cells but that are not embryonic stem cells. Embryonic stem cells still can t be used because they cause significant problems such as tumor formation and are rejected by the immune system when injected into animals in studies. ACT indicates 12 patients will receive the treatments.
We re also hoping to see some improvement in visual acuity, but that s a bonus, said Dr. Robert Lanza, ACT s chief scientific officer.
Dr. David Prentice, a former Indiana State University biology professor who is a fellow at the Family Research Council, emailed LifeNews.com in response to the news. Full story at LifeNews.com
Obama Ties GOP Candidates, Voters Don t Want Him Back
As the focus moves from the Congressional elections to the race for the presidency, political observers are chomping at the bit to dissect every new poll that comes out and a new one today shows bad news for Obama.
President Barack Obama is behind former governors Republicans Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee in their possible 2012 quest to prevent Obama from getting another term.
According to a new poll released today by Quinnipiac University, both are in a statistical dead heats in hypothetical matchups with Obama where Romney, the ex-Massachusetts governor, leads Obama 45-44 percent and Obama leads Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, 46-44 percent.
Obama also came out on top in a matchup with Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels by a 45 percent to 36 percent margin. Daniels is a pro-life governor who upset the pro-life community with talk of a truce on social issues like abortion.
When it comes to Republican voters, pro-life former Alaska governor Sarah Palin is the top choice, though she does nor fare as well against Obama trailing 48-40 percent among all voters. Full story at LifeNews.com
Vote Shifts Towards Telling Couple to Have Abortion, Possible Vote Fraud
Elaborate hoax, publicity stunt or legitimate effort to get input on a major life decision, the vote the infamous Minnesota couple has put online of the potential abortion of their unborn child has taken a turn.
Whereas the vote ran largely in favor of Pete and Alisha Arnold keeping their 17-week-old unborn child, it has seen a seismic shift towards telling the couple to have an abortion.
At midday Friday, the vote at the BirthOrNot.com web site stood at 82,584 (about 80%) for give birth and 19,539 (about 20%) for have an abortion.
Now, more than 838,000 people have voted, with 67.54 percent (566,461) saying the couple should have an abortion and 32.46 percent (272,249) saying they should give birth to the baby.
Pete Arnold, who has said in interviews the vote is legitimate, in a post on the blog, acknowledges both the massive popularity of the web site, given the international media attention focused on it, and the potential for vote fraud. Full story at LifeNews.com
Media Misreports Pope s Statements on Condom Usage
The media is practically falling over themselves with a report, propagated in part by the flimsy Nicole Winfield of the Associated Press, that Pope Benedict XVI has justified the use of condoms. (See this enormous (and misleading) headline at HuffPo, for example.) But is it true? In a word, no. Nowhere in his remarks does the Pope talk about justifying anything.
Rev. Joseph Fessio is the editor-in-chief of Ignatius Press, which is publishing the interview book Light of the World, from which the Pope s notable remarks are gleaned. Fr. Fessio is quoted in the New York Times, It would be wrong to say, Pope Approves Condoms. He s saying it s immoral, but in an individual case the use of a condom could be an awakening to someone that he s got to be more conscious of his actions.
Dr. Janet Smith at Catholic World Report has an excellent explanation of the Pope s remarks. She also provides the actual interview exchange from the upcoming book.
Dr. Smith s piece is a must-read for those who wish to examine this story. Although the following snippet from Dr. Smith does not do justice to her entire piece, here is part of what she wrote.... Full story at LifeNews.com
A Vote For Bristol Palin on Dancing With the Stars is Pro-Life
Tonight, I plan to do two things I ve never done before and will hopefully never do again: I will watch Dancing with the Stars and send a text message actually, a bunch of text messages.
The occasion, of course, is Bristol Palin, who continues to dance her way to the finals on one of the culture s most popular TV shows. She glides merrily along not with the support of the New York/Hollywood elite that stand in judgment of her, but with the enthusiastic approval of millions of us Neanderthals out here in the Hinterland-and to the great chagrin of perpetually angry liberals.
Without the backing of us boors in fly-over country, Sarah Palin s daughter would have been booted long ago. Alas, like her mother, she is buoyed by the affections of countless regular Americans who praise be to God don t give a damn about the New York Times.
And as Bristol trots to victory after victory, the pressure cooker that is liberal America rises and rises and rises, boiling over with customary ferocity. Full story at LifeNews.com
Funeral for Babies Found in Abortion Dumpster Attracts 1,000
More than 1,000 pro-life people attended a funeral for seventeen aborted babies whose remains were discovered earlier this year in a trash dumpster used by the Woman s Choice abortion center.
Members of the Citizens for Pro-Life Society organization discovered the allegedly illegal dumping of fetal remains in dumpsters outside the Woman s Choice abortion clinics in Lansing and Saginaw.
They also found patient documents including the names of women who obtained abortions at the facilities and bloody instruments.
At least 1000 people in a public display of grief and mourning, packed St. Mary s Cathedral on Saturday and paid their respects to the babies victimized by abortion. The aborted babies, whose bodies once laid at the bottom of a garbage container, were brought before the sanctuary in a simple white infant s coffin for a funeral Mass celebrated by Lansing bishop Earl Boyea. Full story at LifeNews.com
New Jersey Senator Won t Let Post-Abortive Woman Testify
The New Jersey state senator who is the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee prevented a post-abortive woman from testifying before the panel on the legislature s attempt to fund Planned Parenthood.
On Monday, November 15, 2010, the Senate Budget Committee held a hearing on Bill S239,sponsored by Senator Paul Sarlo and Senator Loretta Weinberg.
The measure, according to New Jersey Right to Life, requires the Department of Human Services to file a permanent waiver application to expand medicaid coverage to persons up to 200% of the poverty level for family planning services.
Darlene Dunn, signed up to testify on the bill, which was released from committee by a 8-5 vote along party lines. Full story at LifeNews.com
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We Must Help Pro-Life Students Facing Arrest, Discrimination
Thank you to everyone who sent a Thank You Note to the four pro-life student members of Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada) pro-life group, Lifeline, who were arrested on October 4th for conducting a peaceful pro-life demonstration on campus.
As you know, the students were arrested for holding graphic signs of aborted children in the public quad on campus. Soon after the arrests I did an interview with Ruth Lobo, the president of the group. Listen to it here.
Now, these brave students need your help once more.
Two weeks ago, Carleton Lifeline (the pro-life student group at Carleton) was notified that the school Student Association would be decertifying the group in less than a week, on November 18th, unless they renounced the pro-life beliefs expressed in their group constitution. The Carleton University Student Association (CUSA) is using the school s Discrimination on Campus policy, which upholds a woman s right to choose to justify discriminating against the pro-life student group. Full story at LifeNews.com
Louisiana Abortion Law Protecting Women Gets New Lawsuit
Not content to allow a Louisiana law to stand that allows the health department to hold abortion centers accountable for violating health and safety standards, the law is now subject to another lawsuit.
Five abortion centers and an abortion practitioner filed the lawsuit contenting the law allows the health department to suspend or revoke their licenses based on any violation of any state or federal law or regulation without warning.
That, they say, is a violation of due process. They say the law intends to close down outpatient abortion facilities regardless of whether those facilities are operating safely. Full story at LifeNews.com.
Full story at LifeNews.com.
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