March for Life

90 Days of Life: Downs and Far From Out

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90 Days of Life: Downs and Far From Out

 

This month happens to be the “official” month for a number of things.  It is National Pizza Month as well as redundantly being National Sausage Month and National American Cheese Month (scandalously there is no “National Pepperoni Month”).  For my wife and her side of the family it is National Polish-American Heritage Month and for my side of the family it is German-American Heritage Month (if we believed in such “hyphenated Americans” nonsense.)

For pro-lifers we can observe many different things related to the movement including National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Medical Ultrasound Awareness Month, 3D Ultrasound Awareness Month and American Pharmacist Month as well as National Infertility Awareness Month. 

For many in the movement (or me at least) most importantly it is National Down Syndrome Awareness Month.  In celebration LifeNews has printed inspiring stories that are sure to cause some dust in your eyes.  One inspiring story comes via LiveAction and is written about the author’s brother Edward Vincent Ebenhoeh.  The second story is about two High School seniors, Semone Adkins and Travjuan “Bubba” Hunter, with Down’s Syndrome who were just elected Homecoming Queen and King by a student body of about 800.  The article highlights the tremendous obstacles these two kids had to overcome, including just being born:

The couple’s big win came as both a surprise and an affirmation for their parents. The teens have already beaten numerous odds just to come into this world.

McNeil, Adkins’ mom, said that she considered having an abortion when she found out the her daughter had Down syndrome.

“I would have had to have had a partial abortion because I was so far along in the pregnancy and the doctor wouldn’t do it,” McNeil told Today.com. “I thank God he did not let me be able to have that abortion.”

When her baby was born, McNeil confessed that she was afraid to look at her daughter. She said she wasn’t properly educated about Down syndrome. In addition, she nearly died due to complications from the birth.

“I promised God that if he let me live, I would love her and take care of her forever. When I said that, that’s when my blood pressure started coming back up,” McNeil said. “That’s why it was such a big deal for me when Semone won because she really wasn’t supposed to be here.”

Research has found “[a] 2002 literature review of elective abortion rates found that 91–93% of pregnancies in the United Kingdom and Europe with a diagnosis of Down syndrome were terminated.”  In the United Kingdom the rate has been constant at 92% of children diagnosed with Down’s syndrome are killed in the womb.  These statistics match the United States where about 92 percent of pregnant women who are given a Down syndrome diagnosis have chosen to have an abortion.

As many parents can tell you people with Down’s Syndrome can lead very happy and productive lives.  I would imagine it is harder to raise a child with Down’s than without, however none of the parents I know with a child who has it would ever change their position or ignore the joy that child, and eventually adult, brings to their lives.  When we are a society that decides the killing, or mistreatment, of innocents is okay in a pursuit of perfection or to ease our own lives the quest for flawlessness only makes us as a whole more flawed.  George Will called it correctly when he called it “eugenics by abortion” however it isn’t just those with Down’s we are euthanizing but what makes us human as well.

 

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91 Days of Life: 35 Years Ago Today Karol Wojtyla Changed His Name

On this day in 1978 Karol Józef Wojtyła became Pope John Paul II.   While I would like to say I remember the day clearly I do remember shortly after the death of Pope John Paul I my Catholic teacher asking my class of about twenty what name we thought the new Pope would take.  Amazingly I was the only one who answered “Pope John Paul the II” – for which I won a rosary.   Blessed Pope John Paul II (who will be canonized next year on April 27th) became better known for what he did then of course for the name he chose.  On top of being the second longest-serving pope in history and the first non-Italian since Pope Adrian VI, who died in 1523.   

More importantly he created and nurtured a generation, if not generations, of people, young and old, to more fully embrace God and His teachings.  One of the many encyclicals he wrote was Evangelium Vitae (“The Gospel of Life”) which clearly articulated the position of the Catholic Church regarding the value and inviolability of human life. The Pope issued the encyclical on March 25, 1995.  Before writing Evangelium Vitae, Pope John Paul II surveyed every Catholic bishop in the world asking whether they agreed that murder, directly willed abortion, and euthanasia were immoral, and they all agreed that they were.

The great Father Richard Neuhaus wrote of Evangelium Vitae:

Evangelium Vitae is a love letter to the whole world. At the same time, it is a prophetic indictment of what we human beings are increasingly doing to one another at the end of the twentieth century, at the threshold of the third millennium. Love and prophecy are not opposed to one another. On the contrary, true prophecy is always driven by love. And true love dares to speak the truth that is necessary for the welfare of the beloved. Love that deceives is neither truthful nor loving. The Apostle Paul tells us that we are to speak the truth in love (Eph 4:15). Evangelium Vitae is a powerful example of doing just that.

Blessed John Paul II’s writings and speeches on the life issue should be seen as an inspiration to all who stand up for the unborn and others who cannot fight for themselves.  It is no coincidence that the younger generations are more pro-life than their parents. 

To find out more about Blessed John Paul II visit the website for the Blessed John Paul II shrine.

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92 Days of Life: Obamacare recognizes personhood while having you subsidize abortion

When the Patient Protect and Affordable Care Act, better known as “Obamacare” passed it included a gimmick that would ensure at least one plan in each state was a pro-life plan.  As the exchanges have gone “live” this month, it has become evident that it is nearly impossible for individuals seeking exchange plans to identify which, if any, plans on their state exchange exclude abortion.  That is why Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) introduced the “Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act” to require prominent, transparent disclosure of abortion coverage for each plan offered on an exchange.

 

This is vital information since the many plans that include elective abortion are required by law to charge a mandatory abortion surcharge of at least one dollar per month.  Doubtlessly there will be many Americans who would object to paying a surcharge into a fund to be used solely for the purpose of destroying innocent human lives. 

 

National Right to Life has more:

 

The Rhode Island Exchange will not even have a federally administered multi-state plan that doesn’t cover elective abortion. ObamaCare requires each Exchange to have at least one federally administered multi-state plan that doesn’t cover elective abortion. But this requirement is phased in and the federal government has until 2017 to implement a multi-state plan in every Exchange. Rhode Island is not among the initial states in which a multi-state plan will operate.

 

The federal government gave over $82 million to the state of Rhode Island to establish its Exchange. The result? A marketplace exclusively for abortion-covering plans.

As the Exchange plans go online, pro-lifers will have to ferret out which plans in their respective Exchanges do not cover elective abortion.

 

Twenty-three states have enacted “opt out” laws, in various forms, that will prevent Exchange-participating insurance plans from covering abortions. An up-to-date listing is posted on the NRLC website here.  

 

Connecticut does not have a pro-life option either.

 

As timely as ever the incredible Charlotte Lozier Institute put out a paper explaining just how Obamacare is funding abortions (“How Obamacare Will Subsidize Abortion” and more here.)

 

This does not mean Obamacare doesn’t recognize the unborn.  A keen eyed fan of the March for Life sent the following screen shot from when they tried to register for Obamacare.  The  question asks “How many people in your family? (inculde unborn child(ren) if someone is pregnant.)”

 

 

So under Obamacare they recognize that an unborn child should be counted as a person, but also will use your money to help eliminate that person.

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95 Days of Life: Prayer into Action, Mothers into a Home

This term the Supreme Court is getting ready to hear a case, McCullen v. Coakle, which will seek to define if a can state ban pro-life speech outside abortion facilities while allowing pro-abortion speech.   It will be interesting to see the arguments why praying or holding pro-life signs, on public property, are such a threat to abortionists like Planned Parenthood. 

 

While a later post hopes to highlight 40 Days for Life this post wants to focus on the good works that came from such prayer in a city close to my hometown, Syracuse, NY.   Here is the story from the Syracuse Post Standard.

 

Kitty Spinelli stood on the sidewalk outside Planned Parenthood Thursday, clutching her silver rosary beads. Every week for four years, that has been her spot. She prays that the women who walk by her will choose to have their babies instead of having abortions.

 

One day, her prayer became a call to action. She should create another option for the women and babies she prayed for, she said.

 

“The answer in my heart was you have a home where women go so they can have their children,” Spinelli said.

 

That was March 19, 2010. The idea of Joseph’s House was born. It will be a place where pregnant women who have no place to live will be able to come, have their babies and stay for up to two years. The home is on track to open in Syracuse in the spring.

 

And that ladies and gentlemen is the power of prayer that the state of Massachusetts and other pro-abortion folks find so dangerous.

 

To learn more about pregnancy care centers and how you can help them check out:

 

Heartbeat International

Carenet

Focus on the Family’s Heartlink

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96 Days of Life: Nellie Gray, a worldwide inspiration

When Nellie Gray held the first March for Life in 1974 I am sure she understood how important this March would be in the United States – but who knew she would be an inspiration to pro-lifers worldwide? 

 

The Paris March for Life (Marche pour la vie) is an annual demonstration held in late January, close to the anniversary date of the 1975 law that legalized abortion in France. The event was created in 2005 by several French pro-life organizations to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of legal abortion.  The Paris March for Life has become the largest annual pro-life gathering in Europe.  The rally attracts delegations from European countries other than France, notably Italy, Spain, Belgium, the UK, Poland, Switzerland, Germany and Ireland. 2010 saw a sharp rise in attendance, possibly as high as 25,000, compared to 15,000 in 2009.

 

Not widely reported in any media was that this year there was a German March for Life that attracted about 4,500 marchers.  More can be found here.

 

The first March for Life in Warsaw, Poland (Marsz dla Życia i Rodziny) was in 2006 and attracts a few thousand every year.  In this birth country of Blessed Pope John Paul II the marchers are not only there to support life but marriage as well.  The most recent March was this past Sunday where marchers began at the symbolic monument to the Shipyard Workers victims of communism, which displays three crosses with crucified anchors. Some of the marchers carried long strips of cloth on which was inscribed the full text of the Vatican document, Donum Vitae (The gift of life) which addresses respect for human life at its origin and the dignity of procreation.

 

The Prague March for Life is an annual demonstration protesting abortion held in Prague in late March, close to Saturday, Day of the Unborn Child (25th March). The event was created in 2001.  Estimates of the number of marchers in 2013 is near 3,000.

 

Berlin was not the only surprise March this year as Slovakia recently held their first March ever and ended up attracting over 80,000 marchers!  LifeSiteNews.com has more on this March:

 

So many came that the 2.5 kilometer route was too short to accommodate all the marchers, according to an on-the-spot account by Hlavné Správy, a local news service, and the crowd shut down most streets in the city’s core. Although the March was supposed to have started by 12:30 pm, by 3 pm most of the crowd “had not yet budged because of the huge mass of people who completely fill the street”. 

 

The March for Life was held on the same weekend as the Gay Pride demonstration in the capital, Bratislava, which reportedly attracted about 1000 participants.

 

Organizers of the March for Life said their aim was to mobilize the public to advise legislators that the “protection of life, and family consisting of a married man and woman as indispensable basis for the stability and development of life in Slovakia has public support.” 

Last, but far from least, our own Jeanne Monahan participated in Italy’s third March for Life this past May.  Joining 40,000 other Marchers in Rome she heard inspiring words from Pope Francis:

 

“I greet the participants in the ‘March for Life,’ which took place this morning in Rome and I invite all to continue to be attentive to this very important issue of respect for human life from the moment of conception,”

 

While I didn’t know Nellie enough to know if she was a world traveler – her spirit and passion for life seems to have touched down on all parts of the globe!