Articles for Month: February 2009

By Kathleen Gilbert SCRANTON, Pennsylvania, February 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Bishop Joseph F. Martino of Scranton issued yet another rebuke this week against “pro-life” Catholic Senator Bob Casey, who persisted in his decision to vote against restoring the abortion-reducing Mexico City Policy.  The bishop simultaneously reminded ministers in the Scranton diocese that public figures in a persistent and objective denial of the Church’s teaching on life must be denied Communion. Bishop Martino had condemned Casey on February 5 for the vote, which permitted taxpayer funds to abortion providers overseas, saying that in so doing Casey “persist(s) formally in cooperating with […]

Matthew Cullinan Hoffman PARIS, February 26, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The use of the contraceptive pill is plummeting among younger women, in response to growing awareness of its destructive health effects, reports a French bioethics site. According to the site “Genetique,” the use of “the pill” among women aged 15 to 24 years old dropped from 43% in 2003 to 26% in 2007.   The rate of childbirth among the same group increased at the same time. “The principal reason for this decrease is the attention paid by women to their health,” says Genetique. “It is now proven that the pill suppresses […]

Wendy Wright warns UN will be even more aggressive in attacking parental rights and pushing abortion-on-demand globally

By Samantha Singson NEW YORK, February 27, 2009 (C-FAM) – At a forum hosted by the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs in New York this week, a former top United Nations (UN) official criticized the UN’s “deplorable” record on women and the “the hypocrisy within the UN” on gender. In a presentation entitled “The United Nations and Gender: Has Anything Gone Right?,” Stephen Lewis promoted a radical overhaul of the United Nations, starting with a the creation of a new, billion dollar gender office. Lewis, the former UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa and a former Deputy Director […]

By Kathleen Gilbert CHERRY HILL, New Jersey, February 26, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – South Jersey pro-lifers were thrilled to receive the support of Bishop Joseph Galante, who led a prayer vigil outside a Cherry Hill abortion facility today to kick off the South Jersey chapter of 40 Days for Life. About 30 people gathered in the February chill at the Cherry Hill Womens’ Center, where the Camden diocese bishop led a recitation of the rosary.  Bishop Galante then addressed the crowd, applauding them for fighting to end the “destruction of human life and the sadness of the women.”  “I really believe […]

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., February 26, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The United States Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that a Utah city can display the Ten Commandments in a public park without giving quarter to a different religious viewpoint. In a landmark 9-0 decision, the Court ruled that the City of Pleasant Grove, Utah, need not accommodate the demands of a small religious sect known as the Summum, who sued the city for rejecting a monument of the religion’s “Seven Aphorisms” for display in the same park. The sect had earlier convinced an appeals court that their free speech was violated […]

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski BALTIMORE, February 26, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Maryland House of Delegates has unanimously approved a proposal to require “parental consent” for tattoos and body piercings done on minors. However, the state still only requires that one parent be notified that a minor is going to have an abortion, with no need for the parent’s consent. Republicans in the House tried and failed to amend the “tattoos and body piercing” measure to include parental consent for abortion when Del. Gail H. Bates, a Howard County Republican, asked to have the measure include parental consent for “other invasive […]

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., February 26, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Congress prevented consideration of two amendments that would have blocked funding of overseas abortions as well as coerced abortion and sterilization, in the $410 billion Omnibus spending bill the House approved yesterday. One of the amendments proposed by Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) attempted to fix a loophole whereby the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) will be able to receive money, despite federal policy that forbids funding organizations that support forced sterilization and abortion.  The U.S. stopped funding the UNFPA after 2001 investigations discovered that the Fund supports and promotes China’s coercive one-child policy.  […]

By Hilary White – Rome correspondent ROME, February 26, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – If a patient is able to process oxygen from the lungs into the bloodstream, maintain a normal body temperature, digest food and expel waste, grow to normal adult size from the age of four to twenty, and even carry a child to term, can he or she be considered dead? Can a person who is “dead” wake up and go on later to finish a university degree? Can a corpse get out of bed, go home and go fishing? Can he get married and have children? These are […]