At least once or twice weekly Nancy Keenan of NARAL had been sending a steady stream of "Keep anti-choice extremism out of health-care reform"-type e-mails, as was her July 28 message entitled - until Aug. 3. Nancy has now gone silent for over 2 weeks.
Same goes for Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood, who likewise was transmitting "Anti-choice groups step up attacks on women's health"-type emails, as was the title of her July 22 dispatch - until July 24. Cecile hasn't been heard from in over 3 weeks.
On Aug. 11, President Obama unveiled his Reality Check website with nary a word about the biggest obstacle to passing health care, abortion.
Coincidental clam-ups?
No.
In her last e-mail, Cecile wrote, "[T]ell Congress that women's reproductive health care MUST be part of health-care reform."
Nancy in hers wrote, "Ask your lawmakers to oppose anti-choice attacks on health-care legislation."
Clearly, both felt their unnamed treasure trove, abortion, was in imminent danger of being aborted from health care.
Then ... silence?
The other side does nothing without a plan. The plan is to stop talking about abortion 1) in hopes the controversy will die down, and 2) to regroup and reframe the argument.
But make no mistake: Abortion is still part of the liberal plan. On Aug. 12, Cecile tweeted...
Continue reading my column today, "Why pro-aborts went silent on healthcare," at WorldNetDaily.com.
Wesley Smithwrites regarding a story that a woman in Tunisia is apparently pregnant with 12 children after using IVF:
IVF has brought joy to millions of parents. But it has also fueled the hedonism front of the coup de culture. Moreover, because the reproductive industry, feminists, bioethicists, and others in the anything goes crowd resist any reasonable regulation, it has also opened the door to treating nascent human life as mere ore taken from a mine, set the Brave New World project on its trajectory, led to women becoming so many paid brood mares, caused the death, disability, and serious illness of egg donors and sellers, and transformed reproduction into a mercantile transaction in which people believe they have the right not only to a baby, but to the baby - or many babies - they want....
by Bethany Kerr, to give us a break from the daily grind.
In honor of the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, which began August 17, 1969, here is a redux of a video we posted earlier this year, Joe Cocker's "I get by with a little help from my friends," sung at Woodstock, interpreted...
Click on Elwp.com for larger view of this video...
UPDATE, 8/19, 3:22a:Shakesville has closed off comments due to this post. Following are the last 4. As I said yesterday, blogger Melissa chose her words carefully when soliciting advice for Kirsten, which she verified at the end of the thread (click to enlarge):
[HT: commenter Rachael C.]
_______________
Yesterday "abortion-positive" blogger Melissa at Shakesville posted a request from reader Kirsten, soon to be undergoing an RU-486 abortion, for affirmation with her decision because "she's a little anxious about the actual procedure." Careful wording, I thought. Not guilt that she will be killing her baby, just fear of the "actual procedure."
Anti-choice Melissa didn't allow any, "Don't do it; everything will turn out ok" or "I regret my abortion" posts, so I'm hoping commenters here will fill that gap.
The pill was great. I took one at the clinic, the other at home a few hours later. Sometime after that I had some (relatively) mild cramping and tada. The only thing that was hard about it was that I bled for nearly 3 weeks afterwards....
One year ago Planned Parenthood opened an outlet in Dubuque, IA, despite warnings from the pro-life community it would create "an abortion pipeline to our town," according to a statement released yesterday by Dubuque Co. Right to Life, as well as provide a haven for child sexual predators and construct a firewall between parents and children.
Yesterday Dubuque Co. RTL announced Phase II of an educational campaign launched when PP opened its doors in Dubuque by near constant prayer vigils (3,000 hours logged by volunteers since last August 21) and educational talks before numerous groups.
Phase II, reported Dubuque Co. RTL Exec. Dir. Steven Brody in an email to me...
The poll by Denver-based Vitale & Associates was conducted July 29-30....
The findings reaffirm the notion that Reid is in trouble in his home state, despite expectations that he will raise as much as $25 million to maintain his grip on the seat, said those behind the poll....
I wrote this morning that showing the reality of abortion tosses "pro-choice" platitudes out the window.
Newsweek reporter Sarah Kliffwrote a nice pro-abort puff piece about late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart but in a related piece reported running into emotional trouble when actually watching him commit the dirty deed:
... But I'd never actually seen an abortion; I'd never watched the procedure that activists vehemently defend or deplore.... I wasn't sure I would. I confess I was hesitant to step into Carhart's operating room....
In today's Life Links, Jivin J mentioned the August 15 Newsweek profile on NE late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart.
The pro-abort bent of the piece was obvious from the provocative title, "The abortion evangelist." I can think of no other reason for such verbiage other than to insult and incite pro-life Christians.
Here was the accompanying video. There were no interview questions, just cutting back and forth between pro-aborts (Carhart, staff, and the clip of a Charlie Gibson newscast of George Tiller's death) and pro-life activists. Pro-aborts got 3:34 air time; pro-lifers got 1:17...
I previously reported here and here about the White House's "fishy" expedition, a request that supporters turn in emails/websites giving contrary information on Obamacare. And as of today, the request is STILL UP.
But according to Politico today, spotlighted by Drudge (currently top link), the email address no longer works:
Following a furor over how the data would be used, the White House has shut down an electronic tip box - flag@whithouse.gov - that was set up to receive information on "fishy" claims about President Barack Obama's health plan.
E-mails to that address now bounce back with the message: "The e-mail address you just sent a message to is no longer in service. We are now accepting your feedback about health insurance reform via http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck."
I tried sending an email and it did indeed bounce back. The form the WH is now referring people to specifies (click to enlarge):
TN pro-life groups have been working behind the scenes several weeks to keep Planned Parenthood from renting larger space to expand into a surgical abortion business in the Knoxville area. On August 8 KnoxvilleNews.com announced success...
Are disruptive town hall participants acting unpatriotically?
Of course liberals initiated this spin to intimidate average Americans from displaying anger and rabble rousing in the healthcare debate. Liberal audacity knows no bounds, particularly on this topic. Loud, disruptive, vitriolic dissent has been a liberal staple since the Vietnam War protests. Speaking of the LSD era, here are a couple flashbacks.
Unrestricted access to abortions paid for by the national government? That's not enough!
So declares Canadian columnist Andre Picard, in the Globe and Mail, who claims women in Quebec "need fewer barriers to abortion, not more" in response to a proposed regulation which would require abortion clinics to meet the same requirements as other non-hospitable facilities which provide surgeries (the horror!)....
Yesterday I took part in a planned protest of my IL Democrat Obamacare-loving Congresswoman, Debbie Halvorson (CD-11), who refuses to hold a townhall meeting during summer recess.
We were surprised to be greeted by Obamacare counterprotesters, who learned about our protest and beat us to the coveted spot in front of Halvorson's office.
I've read that while complaining about we astroturf, unAmerican, mobs of "evil mongers" (the latest depiction of us by Harry Reid, yesterday), the other side has been organizing unions to brandish its message.
I'm here to corroborate. First, just by perusing these 2 photos you can tell the financially backed, highly organized group from the organically grown group...
In this week's video report, the American Life League leafs through the 1k+ pages of Obamacare to show how abortion is a Trojan horse in the bill.
Then ALL challenges Catholic Charities and the Catholic Health Association for supporting Obamacare, dropping this little bombshell: 5 days after endorsing Obamacare Catholic Charities got its 1st ever government contract - for $100 million. Quid pro quo....
Through the official statements of the USCCB, the Catholic bishops assert that health care is a "basic human right." Since the release of their 1981 pastoral letter on health and health care, the bishops have consistently argued that the federal government is responsible for establishing "a comprehensive health care system that will ensure a basic level of health care for all Americans."...
Perhaps more Catholics would question the necessity of the present suggestion for health care reform if they realized the central argument - health care as a human right - is muddled and, therefore, dangerous....
To assert the right to health care as the end of the argument leaps over both prudential reasoning and the Catholic principle of subsidiarity, which stipulates that a social problem should first be dealt with at a local level before being addressed at higher, governmental levels....
Giving the responsibility for adjudicating the meaning of the health care right to the government poses obvious problems for Catholics, and should be a deal-breaker for the bishops....
Catholics will be handing the morally charged responsibility of medical treatment to political leadership whose operating assumptions about the human person are antithetical to Catholic social teaching.....
Are all Catholics supposed to become socialists in order to solve the health needs of the poor, the immigrants, the uninsured? Opposition to a federal takeover of healthcare is not just an "American" protest, it is a Catholic one, as well. A Catholic should know as well as any other citizen that the truly personal life of individuals and families should not be controlled by the state.
The current healthcare legislation, in all 5 of the bills being considered, poses a clear and present danger to the conscience and religious liberty of every Catholic. Catholics should be challenging the assumption that Church teaching is congruent with government-directed, universal healthcare. Medical care is one of the most morally-charged and private dimensions of our personhood. Why would anyone want to hand off those decisions to the federal government?
Rather than being directed by an individual's decision-making, the government, with its own value system, will inevitably be rationing healthcare.
I concur with Deal completely and am relieved to read his thoughts. I have been bothered by certain Catholic leadership support of nationalized healthcare. I would be just as bothered if aware of liberal Protestant support as well, which I'm sure is out there.
The Evangelical Protestant perspective, which as you know is solo scriptura, is that the Church is primarily responsible to care for the poor and the sick, (importantly, the sick poor). Deal is saying the same thing from a Catholic perspective.
The government's role is to protect citizens, and provide societal order and justice.
Mixing these roles causes societal chaos and harm. We've seen the government completely muck up care of the poor, since it instituted welfare, thwarting Biblical teaching, for instance, that fit people should not be given handouts. Who can forget the photo, for instance, of a supposedly homeless poor man taking a photo of Michelle Obamawith his cell phone while in line for free food at a local D.C. soup kitchen in March?
We've seen the government completely muck up care of the sick, too, since becoming involved in healthcare, using that launchpad, for instance, to thwart Biblical teaching about sexual behavior.
In essence, the Church is abdicating its primary societal responsibilities by pawning the the poor and sick off on the government.
The pattern of giving also becomes hopelessly imbalanced. Whereas people used to give more to the Church and charities to care for the sick and poor, now the government is siphoning off that money and the Church and charities are getting less. Obama only plans to exacerbate this imbalance by decreasing tax write-offs for charitable giving. The principle of tithing (giving 10% to Church) becomes that much more difficult to attain.
It is good for pro-lifers to argue against abortion and euthanasia in Obamacare.
But Christians need to step back and argue against the principle of government-run healthcare.
[Top and middle photo attribution: InsideCatholic.com; bottom photo attribution: Los Angeles Times]
Who Is Jill Stanek?
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.
Former Celtics coach Rick Pitino told police he had sex with and paid for an abortion for the woman accused of trying to extort him for $10 million, the Courier-Journal of Louisville (Ky.) reported on its website last night. Pitino, the Louisville men's coach, told police he had been drinking in a Louisville restaurant and had sex with Karen Sypher in August 2003. The police report said he denied allegations by Sypher that he raped her after the restaurant closed. He said later he gave her $3,000 for an abortion.
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.