Articles for Month: July 2009

Re: Vatican Newspaper Issues CDF Clarification on Abortion in Wake of Fisichella Controversy and Major Vatican Victory for Pro-Life Activists as Vatican Newspaper Rehabilitates Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Bishop Dear Editor, The article on the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's response to the unfortunate situation created by Archbishop Fisichella in relation to abortion does not do justice to L'Osservatore Romano or the CDF. The CDF statement includes the paragraph: “In this article [by Arhbishop Fisichella], which appeared in “L'Osservatore Romano” on March 15, 2009, the doctrine of the Church was presented, while still keeping in mind the dramatic situation […]

By Steve Jalsevac OTTAWA, July 31, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In its July/August Reality Newsletter, REAL Women of Canada, a pro-family, pro-life national women's group, warns that the massive $300 million Human Rights Museum project in Winnipeg, Manitoba ”is a mess.” REAL Women explains, “the museum has established a biased and duplicitous Content Advisory Committee to determine which displays will be installed in the museum” and that the committee “is mainly comprised of feminist/homosexual activists and their supporters.” REAL women says that while the Advisory Committee “is supposed to be comprised of “human rights experts, scholars and specialists”, in fact, “11 of […]

By Peter J. Smith WARROAD, Minnesota, July 31, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has backed off an audit – for now – of a pro-life Minnesota pastor. The pastor had told his congregation that they could not in good conscience vote for Sens. Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, because of their stand on abortion and other issues in conflict with Christian principles. Pastor Gus Booth of Warroad Community Church spoke out against the candidates as part of a plan by the Alliance Defense Fund to challenge a half-century-old rule that prohibits churches and non-profit organizations from speaking […]

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., July 31, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – What was possibly the final bid to halt the Obama administration health care bill's expansion of abortion in the House Energy and Commerce Committee failed early Friday. Another pro-life amendment offered by Democrat Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) and Joe Pitts (R-PA) to halt the abortion mandate Friday was rejected 27-31. (A tally of the votes can be found here.) The amendment states that “no funds authorized under this Act (or amendment made by this Act) may be used to pay for any abortion or to cover any part of the […]

By Kathleen Gilbert NEW YORK, July 31, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Center for Reproductive Rights has issued a report blaming pro-life activism and a growing “stigma” surrounding abortion for a steady decline in the procedure across the U.S., and is calling upon the U.S. government to help expand abortion by eradicating pro-life laws. Nancy Northup, the center's president, said physicians and clinics providing abortions have fallen by 25% since the 1990s – a decline it blamed on the pro-life presence outside the businesses of abortionists, whom the group upheld as “human rights defenders.” (To see the CRR document “Defending Human […]

HANOVER, Pennsylvania, July 31, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Demonstrators with the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property (TFP) were assaulted yesterday in Warwick, Rhode Island, as they peacefully held signs in support of traditional marriage. “We were at a busy intersection, getting strong support for traditional marriage,” recounted Volunteer Rex Teodosio.  “Three women approached us – one threw mayonnaise, while the other two grappled with our photographer.  “Then we were sprayed with mace.  Finally, a burly woman got out of a car and punched our photographer in the face.  They shouted obscenities the whole time.” Teodosio said […]

"80 per cent of population growth can be reduced through TV," he says.

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski LISBON, July 31, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Portugal's Constitutional Court today reaffirmed the country's definition of marriage as between one man and one woman. Judges ruled 3-2 against two lesbians who attempted to use a constitutional loophole to challenge the law. Teresa Pires and Helena Paixao, both of whom have children and are divorced, were turned away from a registry office in Lisbon in 2006 when they attempted to “marry” and were told the law stipulates that marriage is between people of different genders. The lesbians filed a complaint in a Lisbon court in 2006 but the […]

By Peter J. Smith SAN FRANCISCO, July 31, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – When Congress approved the $787 billion dollar stimulus package, lawmakers hailed the move as necessary to jumpstart the economy and rescue the American people from a deep recession. However, according to FOXNews.com, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has spent a small slice of its $80 million stimulus dollars to subsidize San Francisco pornographers providing erotic, homoerotic, or pansexual entertainment. Although the ARRA money allocated to the NEA was ostensibly for the support of museums, orchestras, theaters, and other needy artists and art venues, art houses with a […]

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 31, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Cardinal Justin Rigali, Chairman of the U.S. Catholic bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities, wrote on July 29 to the members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, urging them to amend “America's Affordable Health Choices Act” (H.R. 3200) to exclude an abortion coverage mandate and taxpayer funding of abortion. Cardinal Rigali reiterated criteria for “genuine health care reform” set forth by Bishop William Murphy, Chairman of the bishops' Committee on Domestic Policy, in his letter to Congress on July 17.  Rigali said that health care is “a basic right belonging to all human […]

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski TIRANA, Albania, July 31, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Albania's recently re-elected Prime Minister Sali Berisha announced yesterday that his government is preparing a bill to legalize homosexual “marriage,” despite hostility to the idea from many quarters in the small Balkan country. “A law that could provoke debates and reactions aims to put an end to discrimination and will allow civil unions between same-sex persons,” Berisha said in a government statement. He added that there is “a certain hostility towards minorities” in Albania and called on citizens to respect “the standards of other European countries.” The plan to […]

"Catholics and minority voters have been the twin pillars of Liberal dominance, but their support is clearly crumbling," the authors state. "[The Liberals] have to go back to basics and rebuild their partisan base."

Waxman predicts committee passage today

By Hilary White DUBLIN, July 31, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Ireland's health minister and the government-sponsored abortion referral service she helped to create have attacked pro-life crisis pregnancy centers, despite the country's constitutional guarantee of legal protection for the unborn. Calling the pro-life groups “disingenuous,” the Crisis Pregnancy Agency (CPA) accused them of manipulating vulnerable pregnant women into making a decision against abortion. The CPA, the brainchild of Health Minister Mary Harney, said it is “launching a campaign” against the “rogue” pro-life agencies which it accuses of a “bias” against abortion in favor of life and motherhood. At the same time, […]

By Hilary White LONDON, July 31, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a case that is being hailed as a victory for proponents of assisted suicide, Britain's Law Lords have ruled that the public prosecutors must “clarify” current law on the issue. The House of Lords judicial committee ruled yesterday that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for England and Wales must issue “guidance” on when and in what circumstances the law making it a criminal offense to assist suicide will be prosecuted. The DPP Keir Starmer has responded that his office will be publishing a new policy by the end of […]

Tuesday September 19, 2000 STUDY DETAILS HOW DIVORCE HARMS CHILDREN BEKERLEY, California, Sept 19 (LSN.ca) – A new study reveals divorce has a major negative impact on the lives of the children, especially as those children become adults. The study is published in a book by Judith Wallerstein, a senior lecturer emerita at the University of California-Berkeley, Julia Lewis, a professor of psychology at San Francisco State University, and Sandra Blakeslee, a science writer for the New York Times. “The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce: a 25-Year Landmark Study,” published by Hyperion of New York, is based on a study of […]

Editor’s Note: The following email was received from Warren Kinsella.  It refers to the story published yesterday entitled “Harper Communion Flap Accused of Being a Clandestine Liberal Party Strategy”https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jul/09072907.html Dear Sirs/Mesdames: I am the person referred to in your publication in the article titled “Harper Communion Flap.”  In that article, you state:  “Curiously, the time on Kinsella's blog post was changed earlier today to three hours later, a fact that could indicate an attempt to cover up the fact that he posted the Telegraph-Journal's July 8th story very early in the morning on the same date it was published.” This […]

NEW YORK, NY, July 30, 2009 (C-FAM) – A book to be released next week details widespread ineffectiveness and overreach at the United Nations (UN) in ten key areas, urging policy makers to withdraw support from dysfunctional programs and invest in alternative solutions. The book, “conUNdrum: the Limits of the United Nations and the Search for Alternatives,” is sponsored by the Washington DC-based Heritage Foundation and brings together 15 experts from diverse fields. They acknowledge that the UN's global approach is needed in certain areas, such as disease control, where the World Health Organization plays a key role, but offer […]

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., July 30, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Several of the famous figures President Obama announced today as recipients of the 2009 Medal of Freedom, the highest U.S. honor to civilians, have solidly pro-abortion and homosexualist roots. “These outstanding men and women represent an incredible diversity of backgrounds,” said Obama of the award recipients in a White House press release. “Yet they share one overarching trait: Each has been an agent of change.  Each saw an imperfect world and set about improving it, often overcoming great obstacles along the way.”  One recipient was Sen. Edward Kennedy, who has […]

By Peter J. Smith WICHITA, Kansas, June 1, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Scott P. Roeder entered a plea Tuesday of “not guilty” for the slaying of Kansas late-term abortionist George Tiller. The accused faces a charge of first degree murder and two counts of aggravated assault. Sedgwick County District Judge Warren Wilbert ordered Roeder held on $20 million bail, and set a trial date for September 21. Roeder, 51, stands accused of gunning down Tiller in the foyer of the Reformation Lutheran Church and threatening two other men with a pistol before fleeing the scene of the crime. Members of Tiller's […]

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski FREDERICTON, July 30, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Fredericton Right to Life Association has filed a complaint with the New Brunswick Human Rights Commission against Fredericton Transit for its refusal to allow pro-life ads on its buses. In the fall of 2008, the transit authority refused to sell advertising space to the pro-life group because it deemed the advertising to be political commentary. The ads, which ran in over 50 communities, were part of a nationwide pro-life campaign, coordinated by Life Canada. The ads depict a pregnant woman in profile. At the top are the words, “Nine […]

By Patrick B. Craine and John Jalsevac STEPHENVILLE, Newfoundland, July 28, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Roman Catholic priest and former federal NDP candidate Fr. Des McGrath, 74, was found dead in his garage on Tuesday, reports the CBC. The priest, who had been criticized by pro-life leaders for buckling to NDP party pressure not to vote against abortion in 2004, had been charged last month with sexual assault, stemming from alleged incidents in the early 1980s.   Known for his arduous defence of the Newfoundland fishing industry, Fr. McGrath worked for 40 years as an advocate for fishermen, being one of the […]

By Patrick B. Craine LONDON, July 28, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Euthanasia activist and disgraced medical practitioner, Michael Irwin, 77, has issued an open letter to local police challenging them to arrest him for his involvement in the February 2007 assisted suicide of 58-year-old Raymond Cutkelvin.  He has said he wants to be a “martyr” on behalf of those U.K. residents who help their relatives commit suicide and who could thereby face up to 14 years in jail. According to Irwin, at least 115 Britons have sought assisted suicide through the group called Dignitas in Zurich in the last 10 years.  […]

By Hilary White ROME, July 30, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Italian pharmaceutical regulator is expected shortly to approve the sale of the deadly abortion drug, popularly known as RU 486, under the brand name Mifegyne, according to the Italian daily La Repubblica. The Italian Pharmaceuticals Agency (AIFA) announced the impending approval on Wednesday. The move by the AIFA comes despite restrictions in Italian law allowing only surgical abortion, as well as warnings of the danger of maternal deaths recorded in association with RU 486 around the world. During a 2006 Rome conference of the International Federation of Professional Abortion and Contraception […]

Virginia woman faces prison for refusing to allow 7-year-old to visit former lesbian lover

Chinese government won't budge on One Child Policy

Also says he is grateful that his mother's story has helped women choose not to have an abortion

By Peter J. Smith WASHINGTON, D.C., July 29, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Health-care reform has a new name: “the Abortion Industry Bailout Act of 2009” – or so says one pro-life Congressman, who believes that's the name Congress should give to the proposed legislation advocated by President Barack Obama. In a press conference held yesterday, pro-life Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) explained that the proposed reforms in the current health-care bill are in effect a government bailout of abortion providers, similar to other government bailouts of banks, financial insurers and the auto industry. “ObamaCare will force every taxpayer and every insurance premium […]

By John-Henry Westen ROME, July 29, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In an interview last week, Rocco Butiglione, one of Italy's best-known Christian Democrat politicians, made remarks which sparked concerns from pro-life activists, as he seemed to suggest that promoting laws against abortion is a mistake. Butiglione had said that he had come to believe that pursuing a “common ground,” abortion reduction approach is the best way to combat abortion. He also spoke of a new network of pro-life parliamentarians who are not against Law 194, which permits abortion. “We do not want the law changed. Less than ever,” he was quoted as […]

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., July 29, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Fiscally conservative House Democrats who had been holding out against President Obama's health care overhaul in the final remaining House committee announced this afternoon that they had developed a satisfactory version of the bill, which will now move forward. Rep. Mike Ross (D-AK),a member of the fiscally conservative Democrat group called the “Blue Dogs” that had opposed the bill in the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said Wednesday that his group agreed to begin drafting and debating the bill immediately. The announcement marks a stark change from last Friday, when members […]

St. John Telegraph-Journal editor fired; publisher Jamie Irving suspended for thirty days by his father

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski OTTAWA, July 29, 2009 (LifeSIteNews.com) – Canada's bishops are calling on Catholics to become informed and get involved in the battle against euthanasia and assisted suicide in their country. “Euthanasia and assisted suicide are the antithesis to what should be at the heart of human civilization – trust, respect, concern and solidarity, based on reverence for all human life,” Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops president Archbishop James Weisgerber wrote in a July 17 letter to fellow bishops across Canada. Bishop Weisgerber says he hopes that all Catholics, with the help and guidance of their bishops, will make themselves […]

St. Vincent de Paul says of abortion inclusion in health care bill, "The bishops' office has advised us that that's not accurate"

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 29, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – About 65,000 Americans have signed a national petition in just one week calling on Congress to exclude abortion as a mandatory health benefit as part of any health care legislation being considered, The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) announced yesterday.  The ACLJ, which specializes in constitutional law, is providing legal analysis to House members urging them to reject the abortion mandate. “The American people understand that mandatory coverage for abortion services should not be a part of any health care legislation,” said Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel of the ACLJ.  “The opposition to […]

By Hilary White CANTERBURY, UK, July 29, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Suggesting a “two-track” model for the Anglican Church, Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said in a statement released Monday that the crisis over the acceptance of homosexuality in the Global Communion could be resolved by acknowledging “two styles of being Anglican.” Williams was responding to the decision earlier this month by the US Episcopal Church to continue to ordain active homosexual clergy and bishops and “bless” same-sex partnerings. In one “track,” said the archbishop, the mainstream of Anglicanism would continue to hold to Christian beliefs of sex and marriage, […]

Monday February 23, 2004 The Case Against Same-Sex Marriage The marriage Revolution would Effectively Destroy Matrimony By Tim Leslie Originally published in the January 2004 Crisis magazine. Re-published on LifeSite with permission of the author Anyone not living in a cave has noticed the intensifying attack on traditional marriage. In Vermont, Canada, and Massachusetts—and now California, with the signing of a de facto gay marriage bill—the war drums against traditional matrimony are beating with ever-growing intensity. The onslaught will not be turned back unless the public is given better, more coherent arguments against same-sex spousal unions. While religion plays an […]

* Disclaimer: The linked items below or the websites at which they are located do not necessarily represent the views of LifeSiteNews.com. They are presented only for your information. Compiled by Steve Jalsevac LIFE ISSUES Mother chooses life of child over cancer treatment https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=16654 Fifty-three percent of respondents to a recent Marist College Poll said abortion harms women https://www.citizenlink.org/content/A000010553.cfm Life-sized model of fetus named after Spanish minister who said unborn babies not human at 13 weeks https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=16639 Cardinal Slams Spanish Abortion Law https://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=96689 Annual Late-Term D&E Abortion Deaths EXCEED Annual AIDS Deaths In The U.S. https://cccf.wordpress.com/2009/07/09/annual-late-term-d-abortion-deaths-equal-annual-aids-deaths-in-the-u-s/ Step by step, we're […]

By Peter J. Smith NEW YORK, July 28, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A professor from the National University of Singapore has cancelled her plans to teach law courses on human rights at New York University, citing the “atmosphere of hostility” and “ireful campaign” against her over her legal position on homosexuality. She said that the opposition to her views has aroused in her colleagues “serious concerns about my safety and well-being.” Dr. Thio Li-ann, a Christian academic and former Member of Parliament in Singapore, had been invited by NYU as a Global Visiting Professor to teach students, offering two classes on […]

By Kathleen Gilbert OLYMPIA, WA, July 28, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pro-family advocates in Washington say they have gathered 138,000 signatures in support of Referendum 71, a pro-natural marriage referendum. The signatures were handed in to the Secretary of State at the deadline last Saturday. 120,577 signatures were required to put R-71 on the November ballot.  The referendum would allow voters to decide whether to elevate homosexual partnerships to the level of marriage.  If the state verifies enough of the signatures, it will put on hold recently-passed legislation that gives registered heterosexual and homosexual domestic partners the same benefits as married […]

By Patrick B. Craine MINNEAPOLIS, MN, July 28, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A federal class action lawsuit against Bullseye Collection Agency (Bullseye), which challenged Bullseye's “WWJD” business motto, an acronym for “What Would Jesus Do?”, has now been dismissed with prejudice. The Plaintiffs in that suit, Mark and Sara Neill, claimed they were harassed and oppressed when they received a collection letter from Bullseye that contained the same “WWJD” motto that Bullseye includes on all of its business communications. Bullseye, a small, family-owned business, says it uses the motto as a reminder to act with diligence and respect in an industry […]

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 28, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – On Tuesday, July 28 at 8:30 pm ET, FRC Action, the legislative lobbying arm of Family Research Council, will host a special one hour Webcast to mobilize opposition to President Obama's proposed government takeover of the health care system. FRC Action President Tony Perkins will be joined by Congressional leaders to discuss the moral, ethical, and financial dangers of President Obama's health care plan. During the Webcast, FRC Action will release a national TV ad that will run in key battleground states. According to an FRC press release, webcast viewers will be mobilized to: […]

OTTAWA, July 28, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Last week LifeSiteNews.com co-founders Steve Jalsevac and John-Henry Westen responded to the request contained in a recent report from the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops to have a “frank and transparent dialogue.”  Jalsevac and Westen offered “to make a brief 15-minute presentation and be available to answer questions for as long as the Bishops wish, at the Plenary Assembly of the Bishops in Cornwall this October.”  The bishops will meet in Cornwall from October 19-23 with the subject of LifeSiteNews.com and Development and Peace on the schedule. The official report of the Committee of Inquiry […]

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski NEW YORK, July 28, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Catherina Cenzon-DeCarlo, a nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital who was forced to participate in the abortion of a late-term unborn child under the threat of losing her job and nursing license, has given a candid interview to the New York Post. In the interview she describes the ordeal she endured when she was told by hospital administrators to choose between her religious convictions and her job. “It felt like a horror film unfolding,” said Cenzon-DeCarlo, 35, who claims she has had gruesome nightmares and hasn't been able to sleep since […]

By Kathleen Gilbert PORTLAND, Maine, July 28, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Supreme Court of Maine on Thursday declared that the adoption of a former lesbian lover by IBM heiress Olive Watson was valid. Watson is the daughter of Thomas J. Watson, Jr., who is the son of the founder of International Business Machines (IBM).  Two trustees of the Watson estate, Thomas Watson III and George Gillespie III, had argued the adoption was fraudulent. Adult adoptions have historically been recognized as a means of conveying inheritance rights, although some states prohibit the adoption in cases clearly outside the context of a […]

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., July 28, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Senate Judiciary Committee today voted 13-6 to support the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. While all 12 Democrats voted in favor of the pro-abortion judge, only Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) supported the nominee out of 7 GOP committee members. “I think this woman has done a splendid job,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein of Sotomayor.  “She has shown a dedication to the law.” Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch said that, while he began the confirmation process with the hope that he could vote for Sotomayor, ultimately “her […]

By Peter J. Smith FAIRBANKS, Alaska, July 28, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin officially stepped down as governor on Sunday and saw her pro-life colleague Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell sworn in as the tenth governor of Alaska. In a farewell address, Palin thanked Alaskans for the opportunity to serve as their governor and told them that when the United States looks to Alaska, they see that “there is hope, and opportunity, and there is country pride.” “We are facing tough challenges in America, with some seeming to just be Hell-bent maybe on tearing-down our nation, perpetuating some pessimism, […]

Friday October 20, 2000 JIMMY CARTER’S LEAVING SOUTHERN BAPTISTS SEEN AS POLITICAL NASHVILLE, TN, Oct 20 (LSN.ca) – Former President Jimmy Carter, publicly disassociated himself from the largest Protestant denomination in the US yesterday criticizing the Southern Baptist Convention for its “increasingly rigid creed.” “I have finally decided that, after 65 years, I can no longer be associated with the Southern Baptist Convention,” he said in a letter mailed to 75,000 Baptists nationwide on Thursday. Some political analysts question the timing of his announcement, suggesting the former president of the United States is doing this as a publicity stunt to […]

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., July 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The U.S. House of Representatives Friday voted to eliminate $99 million in grant funds that would have bolstered abstinence education in the U.S.  The House's decision to cut the funds and to approve a new grant towards contraceptive-promoting sex education had been sought by President Obama in his budget recommendations earlier this year.  House lawmakers voted 264-153 to approve the annual health and education spending bill that cut funding for Community-Based Abstinence Education.  Also according to the Obama recommendations, Congress in late June chose not to renew the smaller abstinence-education funding […]

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski KETTERING, Northamptonshire, UK, July 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Dr. Sheila Matthews, a Christian doctor who was removed as a medical advisor to an adoption panel after asking to be able to abstain from voting on occasions when she would be requested to recommend children for adoption by homosexual couples, has been reinstated by Northamptonshire County Council following media and public support. However, County Council has stipulated that Matthews will no longer be able to serve the adoption panel as a voting member. Andrea Minichiello Williams, Director of the Christian Legal Centre which represented Dr. Matthews, welcomed […]

ANN ARBOR, MI, July 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Thomas More Law Center announced today that a federal lawsuit has been filed against a Dearborn, Michigan high school, Fordson High School, and its Muslim principal, Imad Fadlallah, over the firing of Gerald Marszalek because of Marszalek's connection to a Christian volunteer coach (read the complaint here). Marszalek, who had coached wrestling for 35 years, had achieved a legendary status in the wrestling community.  Earning more that 450 wins, and sending numerous wrestlers to various collegiate programs, he was elected to the Michigan High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame, and […]

FRONT ROYAL, Virginia, July 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Population Research Institute (PRI) has released the first in a series of educational videos intended to disprove what it calls the “myth” of overpopulation.  The brief feature “Overpopulation: the Making of a Myth” refutes common misconceptions about world population, poverty, resource consumption, and the United Nations. PRI is best known for being the group responsible for uncovering the United Nations Population Fund's (UNFPA) cooperation with the Chinese government's coercive population control techniques. Its on-the-ground investigations in China led to the defunding of UNFPA by the Bush administration. “We wanted it to […]

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski July 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A homosexual advocacy group has compiled a list of US television networks, which are ranked according to the amount of homosexuality portrayed in their programming between June 1st, 2008 and May 31st, 2009. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) ranked HBO at the top of their third annual Network Responsibility Index as the most pro-homosexual network. ABC came out on top for major broadcasting networks, with 24 percent of its programming having homosexuals portrayed in a positive light. The CW and Fox networks ranked second and third respectively, though GLAAD suggested that Fox, which last […]

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Congressman Chris Smith (NJ-04) chaired a joint briefing of the Congressional Caucus on Human Trafficking and the Congressional Victims' Rights Caucus last week which featured the unveiling of a new report on sex trafficking of minors in the United States. “The United States has come far in the fight against this modern day slavery, yet there is still a lot of work to do, particularly regarding the sex trafficking of minors,” said Smith, a senior member of the House International Relations Committee, and one of the most outspoken pro-life congressmen. “It is a […]

By Patrick B. Craine CHICAGO, July 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Divorce and widowhood have a lingering, detrimental impact on health, even after a person remarries, research at the University of Chicago and Johns Hopkins University has shown. “Among the currently married, those who have ever been divorced show worse health on all dimensions,” said University of Chicago sociologist Linda Waite and co-author of a new study on marriage and health.  Further, “Both the divorced and widowed who do not remarry show worse health on all dimensions,” she said.  Waite, the Lucy Flower Professor in Sociology and Director of the Center […]

By Hilary White and John Jalsevac ROME, July 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – For Catholics, between the Eucharist and the defense of human life there is an unbreakable connection, said the head of the Vatican's liturgical office in an interview last week. Antonio Cardinal Cañizares Llovera, the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Sacraments, spoke to LifeSiteNews.com on Thursday, saying that from the viewpoint of the Catholic Church there is “no doubt” about the inherent connection between Catholics' faithfulness to the Church's liturgical norms and faithfulness to her teachings on life and family. (Read the complete interview here) The […]

Wednesday July 22, 2009 SHARE THIS PAGE: E-mail Print 22,000+ Signed Up for Today’s Emergency Pro-Life Webcast on Obama Healthcare Obama: “Let’s Not Get Distracted” over Taxpayer-Funded Abortion Coverage in Healthcare Congressman Makes Bid to Strip Planned Parenthood of Title X Funds Bishops Distance Themselves from Catholic-Funded, Homosexuality-Promoting Marriage Counseling Group Demographic Report Reveals “Unprecedented Global Aging” – Childlessness in US Women at 20% Mexican Government Promotes “Morning After Pill,” Condom Use, to 10-Year-Olds Gay Activist in Hot Water for Revealing Conspiracy to Promote Homosexuality Jimmy Carter, Kofi Annan, and Other Ex-Presidents Slam Christian Churches for Not Ordaining Women Vatican […]

* Disclaimer: The linked items below or the websites at which they are located do not necessarily represent the views of LifeSiteNews.com. They are presented only for your information. Compiled by Steve Jalsevac LIFE ISSUES It Was Never About the Leftover Embryos: It Has Always Been About Cloning by Wesley J. Smith https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/ A Glimpse of the Radical Anti-Humanism of Animal Rights by Wesley J. Smith https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/ Exposing the Language of the Culture of Death – An Interview with William Brennan https://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2009/wbrennan_interview_july09.asp The ghoulish spirit of Margaret Sanger lives By Michelle Malkin Looks like Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg […]

* Disclaimer: The linked items below or the websites at which they are located do not necessarily represent the views of LifeSiteNews.com. They are presented only for your information. Compiled by Steve Jalsevac OBAMA Independents begin to edge away from President ObamaIn a potentially alarming trend for the White House, independent voters are deserting President Barack Obama nationally and especially in key swing states, recent polls suggest.https://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/24717.html CNN's Blitzer Surprised Giuliani Thinks Obama 'Much Worse' Than He Thoughthttps://newsbusters.org/blogs/matthew-balan/2009/07/22/cnns-blitzer-surprised-giuliani-thinks-obama-much-worse-he-thought Creepy Obama Youth Corp Videohttps://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=57605355 African journalist makes CNN Obama cheerleader look really, really stupidhttps://michellemalkin.com/2009/07/13/african-journalist-makes-cnn-obama-cheerleader-look-really-really-stupid/ Obama-Blair agenda “unprecedented form of political-legal terrorism”, […]

* Disclaimer: The linked items below or the websites at which they are located do not necessarily represent the views of LifeSiteNews.com. They are presented only for your information. Compiled by Steve Jalsevac ENVIRONMENTAL EXTREMISM Another New Study Challenges Climate Change ‘Orthodoxy’Virtually all changes in global atmospheric temperatures in the late 20th century were the result of nature rather than human activity, according to a new peer-reviewed study, one of whose authors predicted Friday was “sure to cause a stir.” De Freitas and Australian scientists John McLean and Bob Carter reported that at least 80 percent of climate variability tracked […]

Dear readers, The storm of activity and controversy over the Obama administration's health care bill is ongoing. We have been giving it lots of attention because it portends a potentially devastating blow to all efforts to protect the dignity and sacredness of human life in the United States. This is very big news. It is FOCA by stealth. Almost everyone agrees the US health care system needs repair, but the Obamacrats are exploiting this real need, as ideologues are always prone to do, and using it to force another very unwelcome and destructive agenda upon the people. We dropped the […]

By Peter J. Smith SHANGHAI, July 24, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Although 2009 marks the thirtieth anniversary of the one-child policy, China's second largest city is not celebrating. Far from it. The Times Online reports that far from fearing overpopulation, the city of Shanghai has pleaded with married couples to help them stave off the looming crisis of demographic implosion by having a second child. Shanghai has announced pro-procreation policy, that contrasts sharply with the rest of the nation's strict enforcement of the “one couple, one child” policy that has inflicted forced abortions, involuntary sterilizations, and catastrophic fines inflicted on the local population […]

At least 39 pro-life Democrats said willing to buck enormous pressure from their own party and vote against the bill

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., July 24, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pro-life and Catholic leaders have come out swinging against a bill offered by two pro-abortion House Democrats that deceptively proposes “common ground” on abortion, promoting policies to “reduce the need for abortion” that pro-life leaders say would actually lead to its increase. The “Preventing Unintended Pregnancies, Reducing the Need for Abortion and Supporting Parents Act” (S.1032, H.R.2035) was introduced by Democrat Congressmen Tim Ryan and Rosa DeLauro this week.  First introduced in 2006, the bill purports to “reduce the need for abortion” by increasing funds for the Title X Family […]

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., July 23, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The “Stop the Abortion Mandate” webcast Thursday evening attracted a large web audience to hear pro-life luminaries unveil the dangers behind President Obama's healthcare bill, which has been referred to as the “largest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade.” Last night's attendance shattered the previous record of 7,000 listeners at a pro-life webcast, with over 36,000 tuning in from all across America to listen to the information-packed two hour session.  (A recording of the webcast is available here)  “This is the big one,” Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey […]

By Kathleen Gilbert and Peter J. Smith                                                                                                                                     WASHINGTON, D.C., July 24, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – After unexpectedly passing the House Rules committee late yesterday, an amendment introduced by Congressman Mike Pence to strip Planned Parenthood of its taxpayer funding under Health and Human Services “family planning” (or Title X) funds, has failed. Today the House of Representatives rejected the Pence Amendment to defund Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion provider, by a vote of 183 to 247. Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) had submitted the amendment to an HHS appropriations bill that stated, “None of the funds made available under this Act shall […]

By Peter J. Smith WASHINGTON, D.C., July 24, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The District of Columbia has just crossed another stepping stone toward the full legalization of same-sex “marriage” through a new “Heather Has Two Mommies” law that went into effect last Saturday. The law recognizes both the lesbian partner and the birth mother of children conceived through artificial insemination as the legal parents, nullifying provisions of the district's code requiring the lesbian partner to apply for adoption. The new provisions of the law radically redefine requirements for parenthood through an amendment to the Vital Records Act, which gives “domestic partners” […]

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski DALLAS, Texas, July 24, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Bishop James Stanton of the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas said he will not join in the Episcopal Church's growing acceptance of homosexuality in the clergy nor participate in the blessing of same-sex unions. In a recent letter to his clergy Stanton wrote, “We will not consent to the election of a bishop living in a same-sex relationship, and we will not allow the blessings of same-sex relationships.” Stanton's pastoral letter is seen as a response to the US Episcopalian Bishops' vote to officially allow and affirm the ordination of […]

MADISON, Wis., July 24, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A lawsuit was filed with the Wisconsin Supreme Court Thursday that argues that the governor and state legislature are illegally skirting a voter-approved constitutional amendment protecting marriage.  The lawsuit asks the high court to halt the state's “domestic partnership” scheme because it creates a legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage, which the lawsuit says directly violates Article 13, Section 13, of the state constitution. The scheme, proposed and signed into law by Gov. Jim Doyle after passage by the Legislature as part of the 2010-11 state budget, is available […]

"In that capacity [as marriage commissioner], his personal religious beliefs do not matter," said the judge.

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski NEW DELHI, July 24, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Religious leaders in India passed a resolution yesterday denouncing the recent Delhi High Court ruling which decriminalized homosexual sex between consenting adults. The resolution, which states that homosexuality is a deviation from normal laws of nature and is not accepted in any religion, will be sent to the president, vice president and prime minister and request them to “protect our rich heritage and culture.” Acharya Sadhvi Sadhna, chairman of World Fellowship of Religions, told reporters at a press conference, “The judgement passed by the high court is against Indian […]

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., July 23, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An amendment introduced to strip Planned Parenthood of its  taxpayer funding has passed the Rules Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, and is up for a vote on the House floor  Friday, reports Jim Sedlak of the American Life League.  U.S. House Representative Mike Pence (R-Ind.) submitted, as part of the Health and Human Services appropriations bill, an amendment to render Planned Parenthood ineligible to receive Title X funds for  “family planning” services. The Pence Amendment states: “None of the funds made available under this Act shall be available to Planned […]

By Peter J. Smith WASHINGTON, D.C., July 22, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The debate over health-care reform in the United States has escalated, as a coalition of Congressional Republicans and “Blue Dog” Democrats have vowed to give President Barack Obama his “Waterloo,” should he persist in his rapid and relentless drive to impose a government-administered healthcare system that could mandate abortion coverage as basic health insurance. The tension has mounted at the White House, with the President now seeking to rally his supporters to mitigate sliding poll numbers and the loss of key allies in Congress. President Obama has told Congress […]

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., July 23, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The U.S. Senate will not be able to reach a consensus on President Obama's healthcare legislation before the August recess, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid acknowledged today, pushing consideration of the hotly-debated measure into September. The announcement comes at the same time that dozens of pro-life personalities and tens of thousands of pro-life activists are preparing to participate in a massive webcast tonight, to address the threats to the pro-life cause posed by Obama's health care plan in its current form. The statement by Reid marks the demise of President Obama's […]

By John Jalsevac July 23, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Tina Tchen, director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, welcomed Planned Parenthood staff and supporters from across the country in the opening session of the Planned Parenthood 2009 Organizing and Policy Summit last week. Tchen spoke to attendees on the current push by the Obama administration for health care reform and reiterated the administration's commitment to “women's health,” according to a Planned Parenthood press release. “I can say this directly from the White House, the president reiterated to all of us in the senior staff that health care is the […]

By Lisa Giunta NEW YORK, NY, July 23, 2009 (C-FAM) – The “NGO Committee on Women” met last week at UN headquarters in New York to plan commemorations marking the 15th anniversary of the Beijing Conference on Women (Beijing +15) next March. While planning committee organizers billed the anniversary as a cause for celebration, many meeting participants voiced dismay at what they see as a lack of women's progress since 1995 and called on their colleagues to use the anniversary to demand more from governments, particularly in the area of “sexual and reproductive health and rights.” Representatives of various feminist […]

"I'd like to see all the incitement to hatred laws repealed," he said.

By Hilary White, Rome correspondent   ROME, July 23, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A high level Vatican official has reminded US bishops of their responsibilities to pro-abortion Catholic politicians, including the possibility of withholding Communion. Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera, the head of the Vatican's liturgical office, told LifeSiteNews.com in an interview today that the guiding principle for bishops considering withholding Communion from pro-abortion politicians in their dioceses should be “caritas in veritate” or “charity in truth.”     Canizares explained that according to Catholic teaching those who insist upon receiving Communion in a state of serious sin are in grave spiritual danger […]

Calls for a "Thorough Review" and "Profound Renewal" of Development and Peace

ADF attorneys file lawsuit against hospital for violating Christian nurse's rights of conscience

Tuesday July 14, 2009 Split in Consciousness: Split in Conscience: “liberal” and “conservative” reactions to Caritas in Veritate by Michael D. O’Brien As Cardinal Josef Ratzinger pointed out more than 25 years ago, the political terms “liberal” and “conservative” are grossly misleading when applied to the Kingdom of God. They are especially so when applied to the ongoing evangelical mission of the Church, which is to draw all men to Christ, to work while the light lasts, to be a “light to the Gentiles.” The most destructive aberrations in social and political thought of the post-war era have arisen from […]

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman, Latin America Correspondent MEXICO CITY, July 21, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Mexican government is distributing millions of pamphlets to children and adolescents in public schools, informing them of their “right” to receive the abortifacient “morning after pill,” after sexual intercourse. Mexican children between the ages of 10 and 19 years are receiving medical “passports” containing their vaccination records from the Secretariat of Education, which contain two pages of material advocating the drug. “If you had unprotected sexual relations and no more than 72 hours have passed, you can request emergency contraception. Protect yourself, it's your right!” […]

By John-Henry Westen WASHINGTON, July 22, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A day after the US Bishops publicized their message calling on Congress not to fund abortions with taxpayer dollars, the President of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV) also criticized the proposal.  Writing on behalf of the bishops as chairman of their Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, Bishop William F. Murphy of Rockville Centre, NY, told Congress, “we strongly oppose inclusion of abortion as part of a national health care benefit.” The letter, sent July 17, but only made public July 21, added: “No health care reform plan […]

By John Jalsevac July 22, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Tonight an all-star lineup of pro-life speakers is set to address the thousands of pro-lifers who have signed up for what promises to be the largest pro-life web even in history. The free Stop the Abortion Mandate webcast is set to begin at 9pm Eastern time. (To sign up for tonight's limited space, free webcast click here.) So far some 22,000+ people have signed up for the online event that will be devoted to informing Americans about the Obama healthcare proposal, which has been called the “silent FOCA” and the “largest abortion expansion […]

13,000+ registered for "Stop the Abortion Mandate" webcast tomorrow

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski and John-Henry Westen BETHESDA, MD, July 22, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A report by the US National Institute on Aging (NIA) says that the average age of the world's population is increasing at an unprecedented rate and that “within 10 years, for the first time in human history there will be more people aged 65 and older than children under 5 in the world.” The report entitled “An Aging World: 2008,” examines the demographic and socioeconomic implications of this trend and contains detailed information on life expectancy, health, disability, gender balance, marital status, living arrangements, education and […]

By Peter J. Smith WASHINGTON, D.C., July 22, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A US Congressman today proposed an amendment that would eliminate millions of dollars in federal funds for Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion provider, which has lately come under public scrutiny after numerous employees across the country were caught on camera failing to inform law enforcement of child victims of sexual abuse. U.S. House Representative Mike Pence, (R-Ind.) submitted an amendment to an appropriations bill funding the Department of Health and Human Services, which would make Planned Parenthood ineligible to receive Title X funds for “family planning” services. The […]

By Alex Bush EGANVILLE, Ontario, July 15, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Ken O'Day, a pro-family advocate who is applying to fill a vacancy on the Bonnechere Union Public Library Board in Eganville, Ontario, is being opposed by homosexualist groups for holding positions that “condemn gay and lesbian people in the area of social acceptance, legal rights, and education.”  The accusations come from a petition signed by 33 people, including the local provincial NDP candidate, which says that O'Day “has publicly stated that his personal agenda is to condemn members of the gay and lesbian community.” The woman who started the petition, who wishes […]

"It appears that the portfolio is now in more experienced hands," says pro-life leader.

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski UK, July 22, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An anonymous lesbian couple have won the right to in vitro fertilization (IVF) paid for by the National Health Service (NHS) after a legal battle with their local health trust, which initially refused them the service because they were of the same sex and the child would by fatherless. The health trust withdrew their objection to funding the treatment for the lesbians, which was based on U.K. regulations that recognize the child's need for a father, because of a new regulation which takes effect in October that says couples will […]

By John-Henry Westen and Patrick B. Craine July 12, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A grouping of twelve ex-world leaders convened by billionaire Richard Branson and Nelson Mandela who refer to themselves as “The Elders” has attacked the Catholic Church, the Southern Baptist Convention and any other religious tradition that refuses to permit women to become ministers, priests, or bishops.  In the media campaign for the new initiative, former US President Jimmy Carter notes that he left the Southern Baptists because women are “prohibited from serving as deacons, pastors or chaplains in the military service.” “We believe that the justification of discrimination […]

By Kathleen Gilbert MADISON, Wisconsin, July 22, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Wisconsin Supreme Court yesterday ruled that religious schools have a First Amendment right to dictate who teaches in their schools, free from anti-discrimination requirements. Coulee Catholic Schools, now called Aquinas Catholic Schools, had fired Wendy Ostlund and eight other teachers in 2002 as part of a downsizing.  Ostlund, who is 53, filed a complaint with the Equal Rights Division of the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, saying she had been the victim of age discrimination.  In a 4-3 decision, the court reversed and remanded the rulings of two lower […]

By Hilary White LONDON, July 22, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Catholic Bishops of England and Wales have issued a statement distancing themselves from a marriage counseling service, partly funded by Catholic parishes and dioceses, which promotes contraceptives and whose chief executive last week endorsed the homosexual “family.” Terry Prendergast, the head of the charity Marriage Care, told a group of homosexualist activists last weekend that same-sex partners can be as successful as heterosexual married couples in raising children and vilified the natural family as “abusive” and the product of “patriarchal” ideas.  A spokesman for the bishops said, “Defining 'family' is a […]

Wednesday May 3, 2000 CANADIAN ENTERTAINMENT MEDIA RIDICULE CHRISTIANITY TORONTO, May 3 (LSN.ca) – On Friday, the Canadian Family Action Coalition and the Catholic Civil Rights League jointly submitted a complaint against a Toronto radio station for its attack on Jesus last year. Meanwhile, Catholic activists are outraged over the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) production “Our Daily Bread”, which aired last Monday depicting a woman feeding Holy Communion to a dog. The joint submission to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) regards CFNY-FM(CFNY), and comes in response to the radio station’s morning show “Humble and Fred” broadcast of April […]

Mayo clinic slams Obama healthcare plan

By Peter J. Smith WASHINGTON, D.C., July 21, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The video-sharing platform YouTube has yanked from its site another video that exposed a Planned Parenthood's complicity in protecting perpetrators of child-rape. The video recorded by Live Action Films undercover investigator Lila Rose recorded staffers of a Birmingham Planned Parenthood stating their willingness to “bend the rules a little bit” and violate state laws requiring parental consent for a minor's abortion and mandatory reporting of child statutory rape. The video in question has prompted Alabama's Attorney General's Office to investigate Planned Parenthood and its practices, but, according to Live […]

By Patrick B. Craine July 21, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Christian doctor in the U.K. has been removed as a medical advisor to an adoption panel after having asked to be able to abstain from voting on rare occasions when she would be asked to recommend children for adoption by same-sex couples. Dr. Sheila Matthews served on the adoption panel of Northamptonshire's Children's Services for 5 years as part of her responsibilities as a community pediatrician. She would conduct medical examinations of prospective parents so as to establish whether they were healthy enough to care for a child. She would […]

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski NEW DELHI, July 21, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Supreme Court on Monday refused to pass an interim order to stay the Delhi High Court judgment declaring Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code unconstitutional and decriminalizing unnatural sex between consenting adults. Earlier this month India's Supreme Court agreed to consider a petition seeking to repeal the recent High Court ruling that effectively decriminalized homosexual sex. Counsel for the petitioners, Suresh Kumar Koshal, an astrologer, and Mukesh Kumar Koshal, had insisted on a stay, but the Supreme Court Bench, comprised of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice P. […]

By Hilary White and John-Henry Westen   ROME, July 21, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In an interview with Corriere della Sera, Italy's leading daily newspaper, Rocco Butiglione, one of Italy's best-known Christian Democrat politicians, said that he is opposed to efforts to create binding legal protections for the unborn in Italy. Instead, he said, he favors a shift in emphasis on “reducing abortion” by supporting women in need. Butiglione spoke of a new network of pro-life parliamentarians who are not against Law 194, which permits abortion. “We do not want the law changed. Less than ever.” The new emphasis, he said, […]

"As long as the abortion laws remain unchanged, abortion will continue to be a critical problem," stated Cronkite in 1965.

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., July 21, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – After several weeks of uncertainty about Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's commitment to abortion, NARAL announced today it was convinced from Sotomayor's statements during the confirmation process that the judge is adequately in favor of abortion. “President Obama made a sound choice in nominating Judge Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court,” reads the joint statement from two NARAL leaders.  The group says that the nomination “reflects the president's commitment to ensuring that justices have strong legal credentials and understand how the law affects everyday people's lives, including the need to keep […]

By Colin Mason July 21, 2009 (PRI) – On September 23, 2008, Rep. Trent Franks of Arizona introduced a bill.  Its purpose seemed straightforward and its cause universal: put an end to the wholesale killing of little girls whose only crime was that they were little girls.  One might have thought that this bill would have garnered universal support, with everyone from radical feminists to conservative Christians clamoring for its passage. The problem was that this legislation would protect unborn little girls.  The Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act of 2009 (PreNDA) seeks to criminalize the practice […]

By Patrick B. Craine OXFORD, July 21, 2009, (LifeSiteNews.com) – A new literature review, published by The Lancet, emphasizes the great proportion of HIV/AIDS cases among men who have sex with men (MSM) in sub-Saharan Africa, a fact often ignored in the fight against AIDS in Africa. The study concludes, however, that the solution to the problem lies in greater openness to homosexual practices from the African nations and better access to interventions, a solution that experts from the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) have called “simplistic.” The review, principally authored by Dr. Adrian D. Smith […]

Thursday March 12, 2009 Benedict XVI Letter Concerning the Remission of the Excommunication of the Four Bishops Consecrated by Archbishop Lefebvre Dear Brothers in the Episcopal Ministry! The remission of the excommunication of the four Bishops consecrated in 1988 by Archbishop Lefebvre without a mandate of the Holy See has for many reasons caused, both within and beyond the Catholic Church, a discussion more heated than any we have seen for a long time. Many Bishops felt perplexed by an event which came about unexpectedly and was difficult to view positively in the light of the issues and tasks facing […]

1. CHANGE OF LSN DAILY NEWS EMAILS SOURCE ADDRESS** Starting Wednesday, LifeSiteNews daily emails will be sent from a different email address – [email protected] This change is being implemented to improve deliverability of LSN emails. If you previously had to make special arrangements with your service provider to receive LifeSiteNews daily emails please report this new email address as a white listed or approved one. ** NOTE: the new email address will not allow replies to that address. To contact LifeSiteNews go to Contact Us 2. NEW SERVICE: LifeSiteNews Search is now available for posting to any website. The LifeSiteNews search […]

Decade-long battle continues over controversial drug

By John Jalsevac ZURICH, Switzerland, July 20, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Swiss prosecutors in the region of Zurich have instituted stricter regulations that are intended to curb the growing problem of “suicide tourism,” reports The Telegraph. Numerous high-profile cases over the last several years of foreigners traveling to Switzerland to commit suicide – including the recent case of a renowned U.K. conductor and his wife – have brought the country's macabre suicide trade into the limelight, and appear to have triggered concerns by Swiss officials that their country is becoming famous largely for being the premiere spot in the world to kill oneself. As […]

By Hilary White DUBLIN, July 20, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – One of the Republic of Ireland's leading pro-life lobby groups has warned Irish voters that a vote for the Lisbon Treaty will be a vote against the country's constitutional protections for the unborn. With the impending second Treaty referendum, Irish voters have been presented with postcards, paid for by the Department of Foreign Affairs, that assure that acceptance of the Lisbon Treaty will pose no threat to abortion laws or national sovereignty and independence. But these are empty promises that cannot be upheld under governing EU laws says Richard Greene, head […]

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski OTTAWA, July 20, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The federal Conservative government introduced legislation in June to give the state greatly expanded power of surveillance of electronic communications and access to the personal information of Internet users. The Department of Justice's communiqué on the proposed legislation says the intent of the bill is to thwart child pornography and identify criminal activity on the Internet. “From distributing child pornography to enabling criminals to coordinate and plan a wide range of traditional crimes, the Internet has changed the way crimes are committed. Many of today's crimes involve the use of mobile […]

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., July 20, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – As President Obama races against the clock to push nationalized healthcare through Congress, the New York Times has picked up on the growing fear among Americans that the bill will ultimately spell taxpayer-funded abortion-on-demand. In a Sunday article, the Times reported that White House budget director Peter Orszag refused to rule out taxpayer money paying for abortion under the bill. “I am not prepared to say explicitly that right now,” said Orszag.  “It's obviously a controversial issue, and it's one of the questions that is playing out in this debate.” […]

SANTA ANA, Calif., July 20, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A federal court Thursday threw out a legal challenge filed against California's constitutional amendment that defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman. In December 2008, two men filed a lawsuit claiming that the California marriage amendment, which voters passed as Proposition 8 in last November's election, violates the U.S. Constitution. The two men obtained a “marriage” license in California during the short window of time in which such licenses were allowed to be issued to members of the same sex. In its order dismissing the two men's challenge […]

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman LVIV, UKRAINE, July 17, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The General Secretaries of the Catholic Episcopal Conferences from western and eastern Europe are denouncing attempts to pressure Catholic adoption agencies to give children to homosexuals in adoption, and also the spreading acceptance of euthanasia on the continent. The statements were made during the recent meeting of the Council of the Bishops' Conferences of Europe (CCEE), which gathered in Lviv, Ukraine, from July 9 to 13. The assembled representatives denounced “a range of events wounding the dignity of the human person” which they said, “are taking place across Europe,” according […]

By Peter J. Smith WASHINGTON, D.C., July 17, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The United States Senate approved an amendment yesterday adding “hate crimes” legislation to the annual Defense Authorization bill, which would add “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to the list of federally-protected classes. The Senate voted 63 – 28 to attach S.909, the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act (MSHCPA), to the $680 billion defense bill meant to support US troops fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada favored attaching the hotly-debated bill as an amendment, instead of putting it forward as a stand-alone […]

Coalition of leaders alarmed that pro-lifers unaware of what is at stake with Obamacare

By Patrick B. Craine July 9, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a newly-released paper, one of Canada's leading proponents of  the legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide has argued that Canada has a “pressing need” for a law defining death and how it is to be determined, relating specifically to the issue of organ donation. Jocelyn Downie, health law expert at Dalhousie University in Halifax, published her paper online on July 9th in the Canadian Journal of Anesthesia.  She contends that, while Canadian law requires a donor be pronounced dead before his organs may be removed, there currently is no federal […]

By Peter J. Smith WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives has passed a bill that allows the District of Columbia to fund abortions and legalize the consumption of marijuana for medicinal purposes, but phases out a school-voucher program designed to help lower-income class parents send their children to a school of their choice. Despite the opposition of a coalition of pro-life Democrats and Republicans, the Financial Services Appropriations bill passed Thursday evening by a 219-208 margin. The measure allocates $768 million in federal funding for the D.C. government, but reversed a long-standing Congressional ban that prohibited the […]

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman MADRID, July 16, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Spanish pro-lifers are expressing outrage over the decision by the Barcelona Medical College to rehabilitate Spain's disgraced “abortion mogul” Carlos Morin, a little over a year after he and his clinic personnel were accused of performing illegal late-term abortions on babies at up to eight months gestation, and illegally disposing of fetal remains after grinding them up in industrial strength food processors.   After spending two months in jail, Morin was released in early 2008 pending the outcome of his trial. However, the terms of his release do not permit him […]

By Alex Bush VILNUS, Lithuania, July 17, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Siemas, the Lithuanian Parliamentary body, earlier this week overturned former President Valdas Adamkus' veto of the recently passed law that will ban the public dissemination to children of harmful materials, including homosexual propoganda.  The new President, Dalia Grybauskait, who was inaugurated on Sunday, is now forced to sign the law, despite the fact that she has expressed virulent opposition to the legislation. The original law was passed by a margin of 67-3, with 67 members either not present to vote or abstaining.  After the law was vetoed, 71 votes were […]

By Hilary White THUA THIEN-HUE province, Viet Nam, July 17 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The communist government of Viet Nam is punishing couples with more than two children, a local Catholic news agency reports. Catholic villagers in Thua Thien-Hue province told the Union of Catholic Asian News they are being fined for having more than two children under a revived government two-child policy. Catherine Pham Thi Thanh, 44, told the service that since 1996, she has been fined a total of 3,800 kilograms of rice for having six children. This represents a significant loss for the family which makes an annual […]

By Hilary White BRUSSELS, July 17, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Swedish liberal party MP and feminist activist has launched a campaign that, if successful, could see abortion enshrined as a “human right” across the EU – potentially forcing Ireland, as well as Malta and Poland, to abolish their protections for the unborn.  Birgitta Ohlsson, an extreme left member of Sweden's Liberal People's Party, has founded the group “Make Noise for Free Choice” that hopes to obtain the one million petition signatures necessary for a “citizens' initiative” to force acceptance of abortion as a “human right” under the new Lisbon Treaty. […]

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski ZURICH, July 14, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A new study by the Swiss Department of Justice and Psychiatric/Psychological Service purports to show that for people without a prior conviction for a hands-on sex offense, the viewing of internet child pornography does not seem to represent a risk factor for committing such an offense. Dr. Judith Reisman, however, the president of the Institute for Media Education and one of the foremost experts on the effects of pornography and its relationship to violent crime, has questioned the results of the Swiss study. Resiman told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) that a defense […]

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., July 16, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – While the fourth and final day of confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor commenced with less comment on abortion than in the previous three days, one question from Sen. Lyndsey Graham (R-NC) on the candidate's role in a strongly pro-abortion civil rights group prompted Sotomayor to refer to abortion as “a woman's right to terminate her pregnancy.” Graham pressed Sotomayor on her role as longtime board member at the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (PRLDEF), a group that signed on to at least five strongly pro-abortion […]

NEW YORK, July 16, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – As Obama is feverishly pushing a healthcare bill that not only promises abortion coverage from every taxpayer, but also threatens conscience protection for healthcare workers, Catholic League president Bill Donohue says relations between President Barack Obama and Catholics are at a critical juncture. “Exactly two weeks ago today, President Obama met with some Catholic journalists, telling them, 'I don't know any circumstances in which abortion is a happy circumstance or decision,'” said Donohue. “This begs the question: Why are his surrogates in the Democratic party pushing to make the public pay for a […]

By Peter J. Smith LOS ANGELES, July 16, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A US District Judge has blocked the Los Angeles Community College District from enforcing its sexual harassment policy, which the judge ruled had promoted a hostile environment for the free speech rights of a Christian student. U.S. District Judge George H. King agreed with Jonathan Lopez, a student attending Los Angeles City College (LACC), that the District's policy as written had created the environment that emboldened his speech professor to call Lopez a “fascist ba***rd” for explaining his Christian beliefs and how they related to his views against same-sex […]

Legislators also add text defending marriage

By Patrick B. Craine FREDERICTON, New Brunswick, July 16, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pro-life activist Suzie Ryan, who was arrested without conviction by Fredericton Police three years ago for picketing with an abortion image, was threatened with arrest again Tuesday morning for holding the same image in the same location. The incident has raised concerns about police impartiality on the abortion issue and prompted allegations that Fredericton Police Department is failing to respect the civil liberties of pro-life protesters. The Fredericton Police were called to the local Morgentaler abortuary on Tuesday morning to investigate a complaint made against a peaceful pro-life […]

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., July 16, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Researchers at the Guttmacher Institute earlier this month issued a report that found that about 1/4 of the women who would have aborted their child if the government had provided the funds decided to keep their children. The Guttmacher Institute, Planned Parenthood's research arm, concluded from a survey of 38 studies that women unable to pay for abortions on their own were frequently “forced to carry their pregnancy to term.”   Stanley Hershaw, a Guttmacher Institute senior fellow and the study's lead author, commented that “Antiabortion advocates are using these restrictions in […]

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski NAIROBI, July 16, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A media campaign by the American NGO, Populations Services International (PSI), is promoting the use of the abortifacient Plan B emergency contraceptive pill – or so-called “morning-after pill” – to Kenyan youth in Kenyan newspapers, magazines and on radio. Populations Services International of Washington, DC is part of the International Consortium on Emergency Contraception (ICEC), an international group of population control and abortion supporters formed in 1996. The group includes agencies such as the United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, Family Health International, UN Development Program, UN Fund for Population Activities, […]

By Piero A. Tozzi, J.D. NEW YORK, NY, July 16, 2009 (C-FAM) – The human rights organization Amnesty International has just issued a report on maternal mortality in Peru that promotes abortion in the pro-life nation while advancing controversial interpretations of international law. The report, “Fatal Flaws: Barriers to Maternal Health in Peru,” also acknowledges that lack of emergency obstetric care – and not access to abortion – is the largest contributing factor to high maternal death rates in the Andean nation, while listing obstacles faced by poor, often indigenous, women in gaining access to basic maternal and newborn care. […]

By Samantha Singson NEW YORK, NY, July 16, 2009 (C-FAM) – Last week in Geneva, Switzerland, negotiations went down to the wire as the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) wound down its high-level meeting on health. After a marathon negotiating session that lasted until the wee hours of the morning, delegates adopted the Ministerial Declaration on “implementing the internationally agreed goals and commitments in regard to global public health,” rejecting a push by the United States (US) and most European Union (EU) countries to include language that some NGO's and developed nations interpret to include abortion. When negotiations began on the […]

By Patrick B. Craine July 16, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In what one prominent euthanasia opponent has called “a straw man argument,” the Quebec College of Physicians is proposing that euthanasia be legalized “as part of the appropriate care in certain particular circumstances.”  The Globe and Mail broke the story today, and at the same time launched an online poll asking its readership, “Do you support the legalization of assisted suicide?” After having examined the issue for three years, the College's task force on ethics concluded that Quebec society has grown to the point where it can now tolerate euthanasia.  “The question here […]

Commentary by Deal Hudson July 16, 2009 (InsideCatholic.com) – In the late afternoon of July 10, President Obama met privately with Pope Benedict XVI for just over 30 minutes. According to official Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi, S.J., “The president explicitly expressed his commitment to reducing the numbers of abortions and to listen to the church's concern on moral issues.”  On July 13 in a Senate committee hearing, Sen. Barbara Mikulski was forced to admit under persistent questioning by Sen. Orrin Hatch that the new health-care bill includes abortion coverage. Planned Parenthood's Guttmacher Institute estimates government funding of abortion increases abortion by […]

ST. LOUIS, MO, July 16, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Today the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the South Iron School District and upheld the right of the district to establish an open forum for distribution of materials on school property. The Court of Appeals reversed the District Court and held that the school district's new policy should not have been declared unconstitutional by the lower court judge. Under the district's policy, secular and religious material can be distributed by any group, including the Gideons. In September 2006, the ACLU filed suit against the district to stop the […]

By Hilary White July 16, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – 30-week-old babies in the womb already have short-term memory capabilities, a new study from the Netherlands, published in the July/August 2009 issue of the journal Child Development, has found. Researchers at Maastricht University Medical Centre and the University Medical Centre St. Radboud examined 93 healthy pregnant Dutch women and their unborn children, measuring changes in how the child responds to repeated stimulation. The children were tested at 30, 32, 34, and 36 weeks, and again at 38 weeks gestation.  The study showed that the unborn children would initially respond to a “vibroacoustic” […]

By Hilary White LONDON, July 16, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) -  Homosexuals can “lay equal claim to their married heterosexual counterparts when bringing up children in stable relationships” the head of the highly regarded British Catholic marriage counselling service, Marriage Care, will tell a gathering of homosexualist activists this weekend. Marriage Care is registered as a Catholic charity whose president is the sitting Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, who is represented on the board by Fr. Michael Cooley. The organization, formed after the Second World War, calls itself “a Christian organisation, developed from within the Catholic community.” The group operates from 80 locations and […]

Dear Readers, Regardless of concerns we might have about some of Canadian Prime Minister Harper's policies and methods, we have to agree that the ongoing, flood of coverage of his reception of Communion at a Catholic funeral is suspect. It has gone far over the top and appears to be a concerted effort to exploit Catholic respect for the Eucharist to politically damage the PM. Harper clearly did not realize that he did anything wrong. The much greater fault can be laid with the clergy who should have done much more to ensure that only Catholics were offered the sacrament. […]

Re: Development and Peace I don't understand some of our Canadian Bishops at all. I can't believe they are villifying your work. I understand they are embarrased, but surely the lives of unborn children and the money given to them in trust by faithful catholics matter more than their pride. Kudos to Bishop Thomas in Toronto for his position on this matter, but given the response of some of the other Bishops it is not enough to restore our family's confidence in the CCCB that the truth will be persued and justice done. For years my family has given a lot […]

Securing the support of American Catholics has become an especially high-priority for Obama

New policy conflicts with country's support for coercive abortionist UNFPA

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., July 15, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A White House spokesman appears to have settled confusion on the position of Surgeon General nominee Dr. Regina Benjamin by saying that the doctor, though widely considered a devout Roman Catholic, supports President Obama's agenda on abortion. White House spokesman Reid Cherlin said in a Miami Herald report yesterday that Benjamin “supports the president's position on reproductive health issues.” Earlier this year Secretary of State Hillary Clinton explicitly confirmed that for the Obama administration the term “reproductive health” includes abortion. Cherlin added that Benjamin also aligns with Obama's position on seeking “common ground” on […]

By Patrick B. Craine ANAHEIM, California, July 14th, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Worldwide schism within the Anglican Communion appears to be imminent after the US Episcopalian Bishops voted Monday 99-45 to officially allow and affirm the ordination of practicing homosexuals “to any ordained ministry” at their 76th General Convention in Anaheim, California. The decision is being interpreted as allowing the consecration of openly homosexual bishops, which has been a question of especial tension in the Anglican Communion. Referring to homosexuals in “lifelong committed relationships,” the Bishops resolved to “affirm that God has called and may call such individuals, to any ordained ministry […]

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., July 15, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Supreme Court hopeful Sonia Sotomayor faced further abortion questioning in a third day of confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where she deflected pointed questions on her application of the constitutional right to life and said that President Obama did not ask her about her abortion views. Sotomayor declined to answer a question from Sen. Tom Coburn on whether the viability of younger and younger unborn children with the help of technology had a bearing on the “right to privacy” undergirding Roe v. Wade. (Click here to read the Washington Post's transcript […]

By Hilary White LONDON, July 15, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – While the nation's teen pregnancy and abortion rates continue to rise, Britain's National Health Service (NHS) is telling teens that “an orgasm a day keeps the doctor away.” Entitled “Pleasure,” a new booklet intended for distribution in public schools has been approved by the government's top sex-promotion groups, Brook and the Family Planning Association. The pamphlet, which has been distributed to teachers, parents and youth social workers in the Yorkshire industrial city of Sheffield, says that teens can reduce their risk of heart attack with more sex. It asks, “What about […]

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., July 15, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Senate Democrats announced on Monday that the Senate would consider a homosexual “hate crimes” proposal as an attached amendment to the annual defense authorization bill, and will likely vote on the bill tomorrow. In addition to adding “sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability” to the list of federally-protected classes, S.909, also known as the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act, also expands the reach of hate crimes law by eliminating the restriction that such crimes disrupt federally protected activities. Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said Monday he would […]

By Peter J. Smith PHOENIX, July 15, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – For the first time in years, pro-life legislation in Arizona has taken three major steps forward as Arizona Governor Jan Brewer on Monday signed into law a comprehensive reform of state statutes regulating abortion. Amongst other things, the regulations will guarantee new conscience protections for hospitals and medical professionals opposed to abortion and abortifacient contraception. The overhaul of abortion law also replaces the term “fetus” with “unborn child” and stipulates that only a licensed physician may perform a surgical abortion. Gov. Jan Brewer signed the Abortion Consent Act (HB 2564) […]

By Patrick B. Craine July 15, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – REAL Women of Canada's National President, Cecilia Forsyth, released a letter earlier this week addressed to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Minister of State for Small Business and Tourism, Diane Ablonczy, in which she protests the Conservatives nearly $400,000 grant to the Toronto Gay Pride Festival. At the same time the National Post has revealed a lengthy history of Conservative funding of homosexual events and causes, stirring up further controversy. The $400,000 grant, given in person by Minister Ablonczy on June 15th as part of the Marquee Tourism Events Program, has […]

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski WASHINGTON, July 15, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A new study published in the Journal of Family Psychology shows that couples who live together before getting engaged and/or married are more likely to get divorced than those who don't move in together until engagement or marriage, and that couples who live together before engagement report lower satisfaction in their marriages. Using a random telephone survey of 1,050 men and women married within the past 10 years, the current study replicated previous findings regarding the timing of engagement and the “premarital cohabitation effect” which generally indicated a higher subsequent divorce rate. […]

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman, Latin America Correspondent CARACAS, July 14, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Venezuela's Catholic bishops are denouncing a proposed legal reform that is likely to result in the legalization of abortion and homosexual “marriage” nationwide. The bishops state that although the bill currently under consideration by the Venezuelan Congress claims to promote such values as equality and solidarity, “we have well-founded reasons to affirm that within it serious violations and irreparable damage is committed against fundamental rights and structures of Venezuelan society recognized and guaranteed in our Constitution.” The new law, they continue, “seriously offends rights that are consecrated and […]

Dear Readers, The Obama administration, despite the president's disarming image, is proving every day to be as extreme on abortion as one can possibly imagine. The new science Czar, Harvard professor John Holdren, is another proof for those who are still determined to hear no evil and see no evil. One notable exception may be the new Surgeon General but, based on all that has gone on so far, final judgement on that one will be reserved. “FOCA is dead”, many have been saying, and we have warned repeatedly that the Democrats’ strategy is to bring FOCA in by stealth […]

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., July 14, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In the brief amount of time allotted to the abortion debate in this week's Supreme Court confirmation hearings, Judge Sonia Sotomayor assured members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that she would allow Roe v. Wade to stand as precedent, but did not consider the absolute ban on partial-birth abortion to constitute precedent of equal weight. Judge Sotomayor frequently referred to her commitment to the doctrine of stare decisis, or allowing earlier decisions to stand as guiding principles for future decisions, throughout the hearings – perhaps in response to critics who […]

O'Brien says CCCB response to LSN reports were "extraordinary over-kill reaction" and "classic damage control, spin doctoring, verbal smoke and mirrors"

No evidence that Benjamin supported a policy to teach medical students how to perform abortions.

By John-Henry Westen ROME, July 13, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – “Retractions. The Holy Office Teaches Archbishop Fisichella a Lesson”: that is how long-time Vatican expert reporter Sandro Magister of Chiesa characterized an article published Friday in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano by the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith (CDF). (see coverage here) A March 15 article by the head of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Archbishop Salvatore (Rino) Fisichella, created a substantial outcry from pro-life leaders internationally who said it besmirched the reputation of strongly pro-life Brazilian Archbishop of Olinda and Recife, Jose Cardoso Sobrinho, and also left many to believe […]

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., July 14, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pro-life groups and lawmakers are continuing to raise the alarm over the healthcare reform package President Obama is aggressively pushing through both the House and the Senate.  The groups are urging Americans to oppose the healthcare overhaul, as pro-abortion lawmakers are insisting that abortion must be included in the basic healthcare package that all public and private insurers will eventually be required to cover. Leading pro-life Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) at a Washington press conference today questioned: “Why the rush to enact Mr. Obama's exceedingly expensive, complex and potentially ruinous […]

Authorities refuse to relocate parade despite yearly complaints of physical assaults against residents, prostitution, excessive noise and trash

By Kathleen Gilbert COLUMBUS, Ohio, July 14, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A leader among pro-abortion Catholic circles has pleaded guilty to two felony counts of compelling the prostitution of a 17-year-old girl. Robert Eric McFadden, 46, admitted last Thursday that he marketed the minor for sex on the Craigslist website. The court dismissed five other counts of pandering obscenity and promoting prostitution.  McFadden's activity was discovered as part of an online sex sting operation conducted by police investigators in January. Prosecutors say that McFadden took photographs of a girl he had met in an online chat room before offering her services […]

By Hilary White STRASBOURG, July 14, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The importance of the case of three women challenging the Irish constitutional protections for the unborn has “grown exponentially” says a pro-life attorney that is involved in the case. Not only is the Republic of Ireland's ability to have legal protections for the unborn now at stake in the high profile case currently before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), but potentially the entire continent's. “This case could be the Roe v. Wade of Europe, so its importance should not be underestimated,” said Roger Kiska of the Alliance Defense Fund […]

CHICAGO, Illinois, July 14, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit today dissolved the federal injunction against the Illinois Parental Notice of Abortion Act.  As a result of the court's decision in Zbaraz v. Hartigan, for the first time Illinois law will entitle parents to notification before their minor daughters are taken for abortions.  The decision is the culmination of four years work by the Thomas More Society, particularly TMS Special Counsel Paul Linton, who devised the legal strategy which ultimately led to the lifting of the injunction.   “This is an incredible victory for […]

By Kathleen Gilbert MERCED, California, July 14, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The mother of a seventh grade girl has sued administrators at her daughter's school after school officials allegedly forced the girl to remove her pro-life t-shirt. Anna Amdor filed the lawsuit last week on behalf of her daughter over the 2008 incident at McSwain Elementary School, a K-8 school in Merced, California.  Amdor says that Principal Terrie Rohrer, Assistant Principal C.W. Smith and office clerk Martha Hernandez violated her daughter's First Amendment rights by mistreating the girl and instructing her to remove the American Life League (ALL) shirt. The shirt […]

By Patrick B. Craine COLORADO SPRINGS, July 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Archbishop Charles J. Chaput spoke to a meeting of Catholic business executives last Wednesday on the discernment of media in the Catholic life.  The meeting was held by The Legatus Group, an international organization for Catholic business executives founded by Tom Monaghan in 1987. (Read the full text of the speech here) “America's news media have enormous opinion-shaping power,” he told attendees. “Therefore it's vital for Catholics to understand how the media work, and especially how they work on us.” According to the archbishop, the media, though often seen […]

By Peter J. Smith WASHINGTON, D.C., July 13, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Although President Obama's choice for science czar received unanimous approval from the US Senate in March, little mention has been made of Harvard professor John Holdren's career as a self-avowed “neo-Malthusian.” In that capacity Holdren has advocated compulsory population control in America, including forced abortion and the addition of sterilizing agents to drinking water, and the creation of what he literally called a “Planetary Regime” that would enforce such a program worldwide. President-elect Barack Obama stated in December that he had nominated Holdren as Director of the Office of […]

By Kathleen Gilbert BATON ROUGE, LA, July 14, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Louisiana's Republican Governor Bobby Jindal last week signed a bill expanding legal conscience protection beyond abortion to include dispensing the morning-after pill, participating in embryonic stem-cell research, cloning, euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide. House Bill 517, sponsored by Democratic State Rep. Bernard LeBas, includes a specific provision against forcing professionals to distribute “abortifacient drugs,” referring to the abortion-inducing “Plan B” or morning-after pill.  It does not extend to other forms of birth control.  Planned Parenthood and the ACLU unsuccessfully lobbied against the measure. Wisconsin pharmacy owners who object to providing […]

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., July 13, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Norma McCorvey, the “Roe” of Roe v. Wade who now is a leading opponent of abortion, was arrested for disrupting the hearing of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor today along with several other pro-life protesters. Sgt. Kimberly Schneider of the Capitol Police said McCorvey and one other protester were charged with unlawful conduct for disrupting Congress, making a total of four arrests related to abortion protests during the hearing, reports the Washington Post. McCorvey had at first stayed outside the Hart Senate Office building with a small group of pro-life […]

NRLC's Johnson said the bills as they stand "have kind of a built-in Freedom of Choice Act."

By Patrick B. Craine ROME, July 11, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Following the G8 Summit in L'Aquila, Italy, which ended on Friday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper visited the Vatican on Saturday for a private audience with Pope Benedict XVI. According to the Vatican communiqué issued after the meeting, “With regard to Canada, the conversation involved ethical values, the defense and promotion of life, marriage and family.” Harper, who called the meeting an “honor,” did not explicitly mention life or family issues in his statement after the audience. According to Harper, the twenty-minute conversation addressed “a number of important issues, including human […]

By Hilary White WESTMINSTER, July 13, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Despite fierce efforts by the Labour government and some homosexualist activists to abolish it, a clause protecting the rights of religious believers in an upcoming “gay hate crimes” bill has been sustained by a vote in the House of Lords. Under the bill, the offense of “stirring up hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation” carries a sentence of up to seven years' imprisonment. The Lords voted 186 to 133 to retain Clause 61 on “Hatred against persons on grounds of sexual orientation.” The bill will now go back to the […]

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski WARSAW, July 13, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A new survey published this weekend in the pages of the Rzeczpospolita daily newspaper states that fully three quarters of Poles are against same-sex “marriage” and that 87 percent are against homosexual couples adopting children. The GfK poll conducted last week among Poles shows that seventy-five percent of respondents do not agree with same-sex “marriage,” with only 14 percent of Poles having no objection to legalizing such unions. Professor Zdzislaw Krasnodebski from Bremen University said the result of the poll “shows that Poland still has a society drawn on traditional values, […]

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., July 13, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Senate Appropriations Committee voted Thursday to codify President Obama's overthrow of the Mexico City Policy by approving an amendment to open U.S. funding for abortion-promoting non-governmental organizations (NGOs) worldwide. The abortion amendment was offered by Senator Lautenberg (D-NJ) to the State and Foreign Operations Appropriations bill (S.1434) and was co-sponsored by Senators Leahy (D-VT), Mikulski (D-MD), Murray (D-WA), and Collins (R-ME).  The committee favored the amendment 17-11, allowing it to be considered by the Senate. Instituted by Ronald Reagan in 1984, the Mexico City Policy bans taxpayer dollars from […]

By Hilary White ROME, July 13, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pope Benedict warned on Sunday that the increasing power of artificial procreation and biotechnologies will presage “dark scenarios” for the future of all the human race. These technologies, he said in his weekly Angelus address, are the “fruit of a 'materialistic and mechanistic understanding of human life' that reduces love without truth to 'an empty shell, filled in an arbitrary way.'” Speaking on his recently published encyclical “Caritas in Veritate” in the wake of the recently closed G8 summit meeting in L'Aquila, Pope Benedict cautioned against the “absolutism of technology, which […]

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski AUSTRALIA, July 13, 2009 (LifeSIteNews.com) – The Most Reverend John Hepworth, the Primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion, has issued a resoundingly clear statement on the position of the global Communion of Traditional Anglican Churches on the right to life of the unborn. Hepworth is also the Bishop Ordinary of the Diocese of Australia in the Anglican Catholic Church in Australia. In a pastoral letter published in the Messenger Journal Bishop Hepworth begins by praising the pro-life witness of a Catholic priest in Sydney, Father John Fleming, whom the bishop describes as having “given a life to […]

By Alex Bush Hamilton, ON, July 13, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – “I am a person who enjoys experiencing new things, and therefore, I eagerly signed up to attend the March for Life in Ottawa,” recounts Diana Gresku in a moving testimony about one high-school student's experience with the annual pro-life event, and how it changed her views about abortion. Gresku hails from St. Mary Catholic Secondary School in Hamilton, and her testimony appears in her school newsletter, The Crusader Chronicle. Gresku observes that she “knew that killing was wrong under all conditions, but it never occurred to me that abortion was […]

86% favor significant restrictions; Majority believes abortion hurts a woman long-term

By Patrick B. Craine July 13, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In what some critics of the embattled Canadian human rights commissions say could be the most intrusive human rights case in Canada thus far, the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal (OHRT) has accepted the complaint of a homosexual man who was dismissed by the Bishop of Peterborough as an altar server. While the bishop has refused to publicly comment on the matter, the complainant in the case says that the bishop asked him and his same-sex partner not to serve on the altar so as to avoid public scandal. Jim Corcoran, the owner of […]

Dear Readers, The President Obama visit with Pope Benedict was quite an extravaganza. The Pope reminded the president of the higher priorities that he is obliged to apply to all his actions. We should all hope and pray that the visit will result in positive changes by the president – away from his current direction that greatly threatens life, family and basic freedoms. Finally, there has been a proper resolution to the Fisichella/Cardoso affair. In the July 10 L'Osservatore Romano article there is still no direct apology to Archbishop Cardoso Sobrinho for the unjust way he was treated or for the serious errors of fact […]

Re: Canadian Non-Catholic PM Says he Did Consume Communion after Offered, Will Meet Pope Saturday This controversy would not have occured had the Archbishop of Moncton followed Church norms as he is supposed to. The Vatican issued an instruction (Redemptionis Sacramentum) in 2004 in an attempt to correct various liturgical abuses, including the giving of communion to non-Catholics. Paragraph 84 states: “when Holy Mass is celebrated for a large crowd, […] care should be taken lest out of ignorance non-Catholics or even non-Christians come forward for Holy Communion, without taking into account the Church’s Magisterium in matters pertaining to doctrine […]

By Peter J. Smith BERLIN, July 10, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Another legal battle is brewing in Germany as yet another German family faces ruinous fines and the loss of custody of their son, because they have committed the crime of homeschooling. Hans and Petra Schmidt, residents of southern Bavaria, will appear in court for two separate hearings in order to defend their right to act as the primary educators of the children against the German state, which has outlawed homeschooling since 1938, the days of the Third Reich. According to the International Human Rights Group (IHRG), the Schmidts are committed […]

Pope Benedict XVI is believed to have ordered Bertone to issue statement reiterating Catholic doctrine on sanctity of human life

Review by John Jalsevac June 2, 2009 (https://www.lifesitenews.com/) – For the most part Americans ignore Canada – not consciously, mind you. It's just that when you live in the midst of the broiling controversies of the world's most hyperactive hyper-power, the nation that every other nation gossips about at the water-cooler, it's not necessary to look elsewhere for topics of conversation – and least of all demure, “nice” Canada. And so it was a pleasant surprise when last June the New York Times covered the growing tempest in Canada over the role of Canada's Human Rights Commissions (HRC) in enforcing […]

Analysis by Dr. John Shea MD FRCP(C), Medical Advisor to LifeSiteNews.com July 10, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In 2006, research done by Dr. Gerald Buckberg, a cardio-thoracic surgeon and UCLA expert, demonstrated that a person can survive cardiac arrest for an average of 72 minutes if they are given the following treatment: cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, the use of a heart-lung machine to keep blood and oxygen circulating, and gradual restoration of blood and oxygen flow. This research was done at hospitals in Alabama and Ann Arbor, Michigan and also in Germany. Of 34 patients, seven died, only two had permanent neurological changes […]

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski NEW DELHI, July 10, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – India's Supreme Court has agreed to consider a petition seeking to repeal a recent lower court ruling that effectively decriminalized homosexual sex among consenting adults. Last week the Delhi High Court ruled that homosexual acts between consenting adults are not criminal and that the 150 year-old law, section 377 of the Indian Penal Code that criminalizes “carnal intercourse against the order of nature,” is a violation of “fundamental rights” and must be amended in accordance with the constitution. A petition filed by Sushil Kumar Kaushal, described as a “Hindu […]

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski July 10, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A men's advice column published on the sexually suggestive AskMen.com website, which describes a coercive plan of action for men on how to talk their pregnant girlfriends into aborting their unborn child, has prompted outrage from pro-life groups and commentators. The backlash over the column appears to have been so forceful that the site has now pulled the offending piece. The advice column was written by Isabella Snow, who is described as a Sex Education Correspondent. Snow offers what she claims to be an insider's look at how women react to […]

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., July 10, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – About one out of four children aborted early in America are killed by the abortion pill rather than a surgical procedure, according to an Associated Press report. The report concerns a Planned Parenthood study published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine touting the improved safety of a drug used in abortions that is now dissolved orally instead of vaginally – the latter being a technique that is more prone to causing severe and sometimes fatal infections. The chemical abortion method consists of first distributing mifepristone, also known as RU-486, […]

By Patrick B. Craine OTTAWA, July 10, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In an important defense of freedom of expression, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled today that busses cannot refuse ads of a political nature, rejecting the appeal of the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority (Translink) and B.C. Transit in a case brought against them by the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) and the B.C. Teachers' Federation (BCTF). Legal experts have suggested that this decision will be important in the pro-life cause, as the principles of the case will be transferable for advertising of pro-life and other related issues on busses, bus […]

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., July 9, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg seems to have made a stunning admission in favor of cleansing America of unwanted populations by aborting them. In an interview with the New York Times, the judge said that Medicaid should cover abortions, and that she had originally expected that Roe v. Wade would facilitate such coverage in order to control the population of groups “that we don't want to have too many of.”   The statement was made in the context of a discussion about the fact that abortions are not covered by […]

Dear Readers, The founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger, was an open racist and eugenicist. US Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg seems to have just confirmed that same mind-set as underlying her strong support for Roe V Wade. The Mexico City Policy has been defeated again while the man who rescinded it will be meeting the Pope in Rome tomorrow. Canada's Human Rights Commissions are a serious threat to freedoms. It is beyond all comprehension that the Peterborough bishop and 12 Catholic parishioners must face very costly human rights hearings because they objected to two homosexual adult altar servers who live […]

Despite Gallup Poll finding that Americans opposed, 65 percent to 35 percent, Obama's executive order reversing the policy

By Patrick B. Craine July 9, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Despite the fact that throughout the West abortions continue to take place by the tens of thousands, abortion is still generally portrayed as a grave issue, not to be taken lightly, a difficult decision.  Hilary Clinton, one of the world's foremost advocates of abortion, herself has described abortion as a “sad, even tragic choice to many, many women.” For some, however, it seems that abortion is just another reason to throw a party. In a recent article published on AlterNet, 'My First Abortion Party', writer Byard Duncan relates his experience of attending […]

By Samantha Singson NEW YORK, NY, July 9, 2009 (C-FAM) – The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), the world's foremost abortion provider, recently released its latest financial report which shows that the organization continues to receive the majority of its multi-million dollar budget from government grants and pay six figure salaries to dozens of its executives despite the world financial crisis. “IPPF Financial Statements 2008” highlights the work done by IPPF and its affiliate organizations all across the globe.  In total, the organization boasts that it has provided over 24 million “contraceptive services” and over 650,000 “abortion-related services” during the […]

By Piero A. Tozzi, J.D. and Pilar Vazquez NEW  YORK, NY, July 9, 2009 (C-FAM) – The Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) is representing a Peruvian teenager who sought an abortion after a rape and suicide attempt in a proceeding before the United Nations compliance committee tasked with overseeing the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). CRR is charging that Peru violated its obligations under the treaty because the teen was unable to obtain an abortion at a public hospital. After the girl attempted suicide by jumping off a building, CRR alleges she was […]

By John-Henry Westen PETERBOROUGH, ON, July 7, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Jim Corcoran, the owner of one of Canada's largest and most lavish spas, has launched a human rights complaint against the Bishop of Peterborough Ontario for refusing him permission to continue to serve as an altar server.  Corcoran admits that he is homosexual and lives with another homosexual man, but says that he follows the Church's teaching and lives a chaste lifestyle. According to the Catholic Register, Bishop Nicola De Angelis asked Corcoran to accept his decision that he not serve on the altar based upon the bishops' desire to avoid […]

By Kathleen Gilbert SAN FRANCISCO, California, July 9, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals today ruled that Washington pharmacists will likely have to obey a 2007 regulation forcing them to distribute the abortifacient morning-after pill, known as Plan B. The regulation had been temporarily blocked by a Washington judge in 2007 when pharmacists who refused to distribute the pill launched a suit against the state.  Today's decision overturned that of U.S. District Judge Ronald Leighton, who agreed with the complainants that there was reason to believe the rules violated the pharmacists' right […]

By Peter J. Smith WASHINGTON, D.C., July 9, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – President Barack Obama has nominated acclaimed geneticist and leader of the Human Genome Project, Dr. Francis S. Collins, to become the next chief of the National Institutes of Health. The appointment of Collins, a scientist and evangelical Christian who has defended the inherent compatibility of science and religious belief, comes just two days after the NIH released its guidelines governing human embryonic stem-cell (hESC) research. “My administration is committed to promoting scientific integrity and pioneering scientific research and I am confident that Dr. Francis Collins will lead the NIH […]

By Kathleen Gilbert SAN DIEGO, California, July 9, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The general counsel for the National Education Association (NEA), America's largest teacher's union, complained last week of the “conservative and right-wing bastards” that are “after” the NEA.  At the same meeting, the NEA rejected a proposal that would have ceased their abortion advocacy, and went on record in support of same-sex “marriage.” “We are not paranoid, someone really is after us,” said General Counsel Bob Chanin in an address to NEA affiliates on the occasion of his retirement. “Why are these conservative and right-wing bastards picking on NEA and […]

More than half of UK teen pregnancies end in abortion

Washington, D.C., July 9, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Members of the Women's Coalition for Justice have weighed in on Judge Sonia Sotomayor in advance of her Senate confirmation hearings beginning next Monday.  The women leaders expressed alarm both at Sotomayor's penchant for judicial activism and identity politics, and at the evidence pointing to the conclusion that Sotomayor is a supporter unlimited abortion.    The facts, they say, point to Sotomayor as an even more radical choice to round out the court than her predecessor, retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter. “Women are best protected by the rule of law – and blind justice,”  […]

Thomas More attorneys request IRS stop violating coalition's constitutional rights to legal protests

By Patrick B. Craine CALGARY, Alberta, July 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Roman Catholic Diocese of Calgary, under the leadership of Bishop Fred Henry, is forcing parishes this year to contribute to the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace (D&P), the official development arm of the Canadian Catholic Bishops, through the Annual Bishop's Appeal, a source has informed LifeSiteNews.com (LSN). This March LSN broke the news of the D&P scandal, in which D&P has been found to be funding numerous organizations around the world that are involved in pro-abortion and pro-contraception advocacy. Now the Calgary diocese has implemented a […]

Thursday April 15, 1999 Population Control Pedlars Spreading AIDS In Africa? NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 15 (LSN) – In startling reports coming out of Africa yesterday it was revealed that about 2.4 million Kenyans are HIV-positive and 24,000 have AIDS, while in Nambia last year 12,700 people were diagnosed with HIV bringing that country’s total HIV-positive count to 53,300. Various population control agencies, principally the United Nations Population Fund, International Planned Parenthood and USAID are largely responsible for the spread of the epidemic, charge population control critics, through the aggressive promotion of the West’s liberalized sex culture in developing countries. Despite […]

Monday August 28, 2000 Ted Turner’s Gift to Mankind The UN is still pursuing global peace, even if it has to start a global religion to get it. By Shafer Parker If prevention of world wars is the standard by which international peace organizations are judged, then the United Nations has been a smashing success, especially when compared to its hapless predecessor, the League of Nations. But by any lesser measure, the UN has failed. Despite an alphabet soup of committees, organizations and commissions striving for the betterment of mankind over 80 at last count the world seems no closer […]

Dear Readers, Pope Benedict's new encyclical is generating much controversy. We are making a special effort to report on this document because of its relevance to the issues we cover and the fact that there is much slanted or badly informed reporting on it in the media. John-Henry Westen's article today will hopefully clear up one of the major misconceptions – that the Pope is calling for some kind of world government. He is not. Yesterday's report on the encyclical revealed the strong pro-life emphasis in the document.  We include today an additonal special newsbytes section that we believe you will […]

By Kathleen Gilbert BOSTON, July 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Massachusetts, the first state to legalize same-sex “marriage,” has filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) as an “overreaching and discriminatory federal law,” making it the first state to challenge the U.S. marriage statute.  Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley filed the suit today, stating that DOMA interferes with the state's sovereign right to define and regulate marriage.  DOMA states that federal law defines marriage as between a man and a woman, and therefore Massachusetts' “married” homosexual couples are not granted spousal benefits in matters […]

* Disclaimer: The linked items below or the websites at which they are located do not necessarily represent the views of LifeSiteNews.com. They are presented only for your information. Compiled by Steve Jalsevac LIFE ISSUES Los Angeles Hospital Gets Reputation for 'Raising Dead,' Including Woman 'Dead' for 2 Hours A world-renowned surgeon at the UCLA Medical Center has pioneered a way to revive people that most doctors would have long written off, including a woman whose heart had stopped for 2 1/2 hours. Tested on a few dozen cardiac arrest patients, 80 percent survived. Usually, more than 80 percent perish. […]

* Disclaimer: The linked items below or the websites at which they are located do not necessarily represent the views of LifeSiteNews.com. They are presented only for your information. Compiled by Steve Jalsevac OBAMA ADMINISTRATION Homosexual Newspaper Reveals That 'Hate Crimes Bill' will be Attached to Defence Spending Bill!! https://catholiccitizens.org/news/contentview.asp?c=50668 Helen Thomas: Not Even Nixon Tried to Control the Media Like Obama https://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=50445 Bozell Challenges “News” Media to Report the Truth: Self-Described Conservatives Surging; Public Support for Obama Dropping Like a Rock https://mrc.org/press/releases/2009/20090706121144.aspx Obama's “Safe Schools” Pick to Conservatives: “Drop Dead” https://www.cwfa.org/articles/17286/CFI/family/index.htm Obama's Conscience Claws President Obama has a masterful […]

By Peter J. Smith WASHINGTON, D.C., July 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has given embryonic stem-cell researchers the green light to apply for federal funding of their work with minimal restrictions under new guidelines that took effect July 7. However, the NIH rejected the overwhelming public input expressing concerns over the morally questionable research, which thus far has failed to yield any beneficial therapies, unlike adult stem-cells. In a press release, the NIH states that the new guidelines “will ensure that NIH-funded research in this area is ethically responsible, scientifically worthy, and conducted in accordance […]

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski WARSAW, July 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Lech Walesa, former president of Poland, Nobel Peace Prize winner, and leader of Poland's legendary anti-communist Solidarity freedom movement, has expressed his support for the protests against pop singer Madonna's concert in Warsaw. Madonna is scheduled to bring her “Sticky & Sweet” concert tour to Warsaw's Bemowo Airport on August 15, the day on which the Catholic Church celebrates the solemn Marian feast of the Assumption. The day is especially significant to Poles who honor the original Madonna under the title of Mary, Queen of Poland, at shrines all over […]

Editorial by John-Henry Westen July 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Newspapers, blogs, talk-shows on radio and television are full of discussion over Pope Benedict XVI's supposed call for a “new world order” or a “one-world government.”  These ideas are, however, neither based in reality nor a clear reading of the Pope's latest encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, the release of which yesterday spawned the heated discussion. The Pope actually speaks directly against a one-world government, and, as would be expected from those who have read his previous writings, calls for massive reform of the United Nations.  Confusion seems to have come from […]

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) today filed an opening appeal brief in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in a multi-million dollar fraud case against Planned Parenthood (PP) affiliates in California.  ACLJ is representing a federal whistleblower and former employee of the PP affiliate in Los Angeles who claims the affiliates illegally marked up the supposed cost of various birth control drugs when seeking government reimbursement, resulting in tens of millions of dollars of overbilling – at taxpayer expense. The federal False Claims Act (FCA) forbids government contractors from submitting […]

* Disclaimer: The linked items below or the websites at which they are located do not necessarily represent the views of LifeSiteNews.com. They are presented only for your information. Compiled by Steve Jalsevac Note: There are a wide variety of responses to the controversial encyclical. We present below some of the more significant ones to help LSN readers understand this complex and important document, the criticisms levelled against it and the responses to those criticisms. The Divine Economy: On the New Papal Encylical by Rev. Robert A. Sirico (Acton Institute) Will the document draw attention to the weaknesses of Western-style capitalist systems? […]

By Peter J. Smith WASHINGTON, D.C., July 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Same-sex “marriages” performed in other states have full legal recognition in the District of Columbia now that a bill passed by the federal district's council has come into effect. The law is considered a stepping stone on the way toward full legalization of same-sex “marriage,” which would allow homosexuals to “wed” in the nation's capital. The DC city council had passed the law May 5 by a 12 – 1 margin, with councilman and former Mayor Marion Barry vigorously resisting the measure. Barry said at the time that “all hell […]

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski CAIRNS, QUEENSLAND, Australia, July 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A 19-year-old girl appeared in a Cairns court last month charged under section 225 of the Queensland Criminal Code with procuring her own miscarriage. Her 21-year-old boyfriend has been charged with attempting to procure an abortion and supplying drugs to procure an abortion, by using the abortion drug RU486, or mifepristone, to kill their unborn child. Tegan Simone Leach and her boyfriend, Sergie Brennan, decided to use mifepristone when Leach got pregnant and the couple decided they were too young to have a baby, reports The Australian. Police allege […]

By Kathleen Gilbert ROCKFORD, Illinois, July 7, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The pattern of abuse at a Rockford abortion facility has continued after an employee allegedly struck with his car a homeless man praying with pro-life protesters, and drove away, according to witnesses at the scene. The vehicle reportedly struck Scott Griffin on Wednesday as it drove into the driveway of the abortion facility, where pro-lifers say workers frequently drive recklessly in an apparent attempt to intimidate those praying and handing out pro-life literature. “The dark colored SUV the clinic worker was driving hit Scott Griffin with the mirror on the […]

By Kathleen Gilbert LOS ANGELES, California, July 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Peers have admonished and cleared Chief Judge Alex Kozinski of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals for showcasing images of bestiality and other sexually explicit material on his personal website. The images were discovered last year as Kozinski presided over an obscenity trial, from which the judge recused himself after the prosecutor in the case petitioned for time to investigate “a potential conflict of interest concerning the court having a … sexually explicit website with similar material to what is on trial here.” Kozinski was found to have published […]

By Hilary White WESTMINSTER, July 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pro-life campaigners in Britain yesterday welcomed a reprieve in the battle against euthanasia as a bill that would have legalised assisted suicide was defeated in the House of Lords. In a vote of 194 to 141, an amendment to the government's Coroners and Justice Bill was defeated last night that would have sanctioned assisted suicide in the UK and facilitated Britons going overseas to commit suicide. The amendment had been put forward by Charles Falconer, a former Lord Chancellor and major figure in Tony Blair's New Labour and part of a […]

By Patrick B. Craine July 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Society for the Protection of the Unborn (SPUC), a U.K.-based pro-life organization, is calling on pro-life supporters worldwide to lobby in support of a bill being considered today in Brazil to stop infanticide among the indigenous people. Infanticide is a traditional practice among certain tribes of Brazil, who believe that some babies are 'cursed,' including those with physical disabilities, females, babies born out of wedlock, and twins or triplets. The bill, called Muwaji's Law, written by Congressman Henrique Afonso, would declare infanticide harmful, require those who are aware of pregnancies and […]

By Hilary White DUBLIN, July 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An organizer of a large pro-life rally in Dublin says she and the other key figures were “jubilant” at the turn-out of seven thousand people on Saturday. Bernadette Smyth, Director of Belfast's Precious Life, also told LifeSiteNews.com that pro-life leaders in Ireland are especially encouraged by a growing cooperation between North and South in the pro-life movement in Ireland. A major breakthrough of the pro-life campaigns in all of Ireland, she said, has been the growing awareness that if legalized abortion is forced into Northern Ireland, it will be effectively made […]

TALLAHASSEE, Florida, July 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Late-term abortionist James Pendergraft has lost his appeal of the suspension of his medical license for committing illegal third-trimester abortions. The suspension issued by the Florida Medical Board remains valid and in effect. In an opinion filed yesterday, the Florida District Court of Appeals rejected all of Pendergraft's arguments and stated that they “found no reversible error” in the Board's suspension order. The opinion stated that “the [Administrative Law Judge] found that there was clear and convincing evidence that Dr. Pendergraft committed medical malpractice.” Pendergraft has a long history of violations and problems […]

By John-Henry Westen and Patrick Craine OTTAWA, July 7, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Prime Minister Stephen Harper is in hot water over a video that caught him taking Holy Communion in a Catholic Church, despite being a non-Catholic Christian. To make matters worse, the video** shows him walking away without consuming the host – although a spokesman for the Prime Minister told LifeSiteNews.com that the PM did consume the host off-camera. The incident took place last Friday at the funeral of former Governor General Romeo Leblanc in Memramcook, New Brunswick. In the video Harper is shown being offered communion by the […]

Dear Readers, The Population Research Institute's Stephen Mosher continues to prove that he knows how to find out the truth about what is still happening in China regarding their coercive birth control policy. Mind you, in addition to his exceptional investigative skills, it helps that Mosher can speak 3 Chinese languages. Pope Benedict's new social encyclical strongly emphasizes “the important question of respect for life, which cannot in any way be detached from questions concerning the development of peoples.” That is, the Pope reinforces the significance of our reports revealing that Canada's Development and Peace appears to give very little, […]

Re: LifeSiteNews Canada Day and Independence Day Message Dear John-Henry, This is the best patriotism that I have seen in years! God Bless you for bringing this priest and his great words to us. Narissa MacKenzieBritish Columbia, Canada ___________________________________________________________________ RE: LifeSiteNews.com – Wednesday July 1, 2009 I want to commend you for your valiant commitment to the sanctity of human life and to your dedication to finding and reporting the truth, at a time when so much of the media, and of our world, tries to hide from inconvenient truths or find some way around them.  From what I can see, you […]

Hi, Thanks for your great work that you did on the D&P file. Sometimes the truth isn’t popular, even among some of the hierarchy it would seem. As journalists, you exposed a cover-up. That’s your job. You did the right thing. Had journalists never exposed some of the pedastry that’s been going on, would the hierarchy have addressed it? One wonders…. Thank you, Dan MorseBolton, ON. _____________________________________________ Copy of email to Archbishop Weisgerber: Your Grace, The response to the D&P scandal is not surprising as I expected this from your end. The attempt by D&P and yourself to tarnish the reputation of LSN […]

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman, Latin America Correspondent SAO PAULO, June 7, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Brazilian Supreme Court and a lower appeals court have nullified two sentences against child sex abusers in recent months on the grounds that their behavior did not constitute a crime under Brazilian law, sparking a protest from the United Nations. On June 23, Brazil's Superior Tribunal of Justice (the nation's Supreme Court for cases not involving Constitutional law) upheld the acquittal of several men who had paid two girls, 12 and 13 years of age, to have sexual intercourse with them, on the grounds that prostitution […]

By Kathleen Gilbert FRONT ROYAL, Virginia, July 7, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Population Research Institute (PRI) is turning up the heat on the Obama administration for handing $50 million to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) with news of yet another investigation confirming the UN group's complicity in China's coercive birth control policies. In March and May of 2009, PRI carried out two separate investigations, covering 6 UNFPA “model counties.”  These are counties where the UNFPA claim that their efforts have “removed birth targets and quotas and introduced a quality-of-care approach” – a claim the investigators call “outrageous.” PRI investigator […]

FRONT ROYAL, VA, July 7, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Father Thomas J. Euteneuer, President of Human Life International (HLI), today praised Archbishop Jose Cardoso Sobrinho of Olinda and Recife, Brazil as a “pro-life hero.” Archbishop Cardoso's retirement was approved by Pope Benedict XVI on July 1, 2009. “Archbishop Cardoso is to be congratulated for his stalwart charity and courage under very trying circumstances,” said Fr. Euteneuer. “His heroic stand for life, taken near the end of his official service to the Church, is a fitting capstone to a career replete with Christ-like love and self-sacrifice.” Critics from the media, the political […]

LINCOLN, Neb., July 7, 2009 (LifeSIteNews.com) – A coalition of four pro-life groups have sent a letter to Nebraska Attorney General Jon Buning asking him to open a “comprehensive” investigation into late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart and his Bellevue abortion clinic. Signing the letter were Troy Newman of Operation Rescue headquartered in Wichita, Kansas, Rev. Pat Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition in Washington, DC, Larry Donlan of Rescue the Heartland in Omaha, Nebraska, and Ann Bowen of Nebraskans United for Life, also of Omaha. The group expressed concerns about the legality of certain aspects of Carhart's abortion business as well […]

By Hilary White LONDON, July 7, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II has twice written to support an emergent group of conservative Anglicans that rejects the ultra-liberal and sexually permissive direction of the Church of England. The Queen recently wrote to the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA) that she “understood their concerns” and “understands the commitment to the Anglican Church” and that she wished them well on the day of their official launch on Monday.  FCA leaders had written to the Queen to assure her of their loyalty to the Church of England. Palace spokesmen said that the letters […]

Legislation would allow commissioners to refuse to "marry" homosexuals

By Jenna Murphy TORONTO, July 2, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – At a time when the affronts on life at every stage are enough to leave one's head spinning, a group of summer interns at Campaign Life Coalition, Canada's political arm of the pro-life movement, has decided to put their energies into hosting an uplifting charity event for all ages – a fashion show celebrating the dignity of each human life. All proceeds from the fashion show are set to go towards women and new mothers in need of assistance in the Toronto area. “The idea for Pure Exposure 2009 was floating […]

But avoid recommending policy for this "controversial issue"

MONTGOMERY, Alabama, July 7, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Alabama Attorney General Troy King has called a new undercover video released last week showing Planned Parenthood of Alabama apparently breaking state mandatory reporting laws for sexual abuse “extremely troubling” and requested the full recordings. The student-led nonprofit responsible for the recordings, Live Action, immediately sent the full footage, which the Attorney General’s office received yesterday. The video shows a Planned Parenthood staffer, identified as “Tanisha,” telling a purportedly 14-year-old girl with a 31-year-old “boyfriend” that Planned Parenthood “does sometimes bend the rules a little bit” when it comes to reporting statutory rape […]

By Kathleen Gilbert ATLANTA, Georgia, July 7, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A state bill that came into effect July 1 has made Georgia the first in the nation with a law governing the adoption of embryos produced by in-vitro fertilization (IVF). HB388 dictates the legal ramifications of a couple's bid to adopt excess embryos created during the IVF procedure of another couple, aligning the process more closely to the state's laws regarding the adoption of older children.  Under the new law, the genetic mother and father can relinquish their rights to embryos before birth. Once the genetic parents have signed a written […]

Thursday June 11, 2009 Complete Article on “The Recife Affair” by Political Philosophy Professor Monseigneur Michel Schooyans I. Summary 1) On the fourth of March 2009, an abortion was carried out on a little nine years old girl in Recife. She had been raped by her step-father and was pregnant with twins. Neither the mother nor the unborn twins were in danger of death. Dom Cardoso, Archbishop of Recife, had done all that he could to prevent this double abortion. But to no avail. Badly informed, Archbishop Rino Fisichella (RF) rebuked his brother bishop for having been lacking in compassion […]

Dear Readers, We are back and raring to go. Our first two reports for Monday show once again that the public must not evaluate Obama by what he says, but rather by what he does and has done. His words often don’t mean a thing (especially when they sound life and family friendly) and we hope and pray more of the wishful thinkers will finally catch on to this reality. We are receiving some downright hateful emails (which we will not publish) from Development and Peace supporters over our continuing coverage of this scandal. Several months ago, a former military […]

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman, Latin America Correspondent GUADALAJARA, July 6, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Mexican group funded by the Canadian Catholic bishops' international aid organization, the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace (D&P), is continuing to add its name to campaigns calling for the depenalization of abortion in the state of Jalisco, and to denounce a recently passed pro-life amendment to the Jalisco constitution. The group, known as the Support Center for the People's Movement of the East (Centro de Apoyo para el Movimiento Popular de Occidente – CAMPO), joined with other groups in February to protest a proposed amendment […]

By Peter J. Smith Malta, July 6, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – President Barack Obama has nominated Pepperdine Law Professor Doug Kmiec for an ambassadorship to the Catholic island nation of Malta. The appointment is a controversial one since Kmiec had been instrumental in persuading Catholics to vote for Obama in the 2008 presidential election, saying Obama was the “Catholic” candidate, despite his position on abortion and other key moral and social issues. According to Catholic News Agency, Kmiec had been one of three names informally submitted and then rejected as possible ambassadors to the Holy See back in April. A Vatican official told CNA […]

DETROIT, Michigan, July 6, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Abortionist Alberto Hodari has been fined $10,000 by the State of Michigan for the 2003 abortion death of 32-year-old Regina Johnson, one of at least four women who died from complications involving the Michigan abortionist's services. Johnson died one day after a September 2003 first-trimester abortion performed upon her at Hodari's Womencare clinic in Lathrup Village, MI.  The abortion was performed by Dr. Milton Nathanson, then employed by Hodari.  The woman died from “anoxic encephalopahy due to cardiac arrest.” In addition to Hodari and Nathanson, anesthesiologist Barry Thompson and nurse Cathy Litchig were […]

Minister Ablonczy likely lost the file over the matter, and review of tourism spending is underway

By Peter J. Smith PHOENIX, Arizona, July 6, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Offering brochures on pro-life alternatives to abortion may appear a safe enough act, but for one Arizona sidewalk counselor, the message of “no thanks” instead came through a drawn handgun allegedly held by a man determined that his girlfriend would get an abortion.   Local Phoenix station 3TV reported that a pro-life woman was offering literature on abortion alternatives to a man who had taken his girlfriend to the Planned Parenthood facility near Seventh and Campbell avenues, when suddenly the man pulled out a pistol, pointed the weapon at […]

By Patrick B. Craine THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Kerala, July 1, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In an effort to encourage Catholics of their region to have more children, the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council (KCBC) is encouraging medical interventions such as reversing tubal ligations and remedying infertility. After visits to Kerala in the summer of 2006, LifeSiteNews (LSN) reported that, while the Catholic Church there is vibrant with a tradition of forthright public expressions of faith, the birthrate of Catholics has dropped below replacement level, and the Church is dwindling . Fr. Antony Thamby Thaikkoottathil, Vice Chancellor of the Cochin Diocese, told LSN that when he was […]

The bill was decried by critics as deeply unconstitutional and a retaliation for the Church's stance against same-sex "marriage."

By Hilary White July 6, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Increased rates of regressive autism in children in the US and UK can be historically associated with the switch by pharmaceutical companies from the use of animal cells to produce vaccines to the use of aborted human fetal cells, a campaign group is claiming. “Now when we vaccinate our children, some vaccines also deliver contaminating aborted human fetal DNA. The safety of this has never been tested,” says Dr. Theresa Deisher, President of the Sound Choice Pharmaceutical Institute (SCPI). SCPI, a group that educates the public on the use of aborted human […]

By Alex Bush ROCHESTER, UK, July 6, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Anglican bishop of Rochester, U.K., Dr. Michael Nazir-Ali, has come out in favor of the biblical interpretation of homosexuality in light of the developing crisis in the Anglican Communion over same-sex “marriage” and actively homosexual clergy and bishops.  He said in a recent interview with The Sunday Telegraph, “We welcome homosexuals, we don't want to exclude people, but we want them to repent and be changed.” Bishop Nazir-Ali called Anglicans to not be “rolled over by the culture.” The bishop also told the Telegraph, “We want to uphold the traditional teaching […]

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski ROME, July 6, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Swiss Cardinal Georges Cottier, former theologian of the papal household under Pope John Paul II and currently an influential adviser in the Vatican, has praised President Barack Obama's “humble realism” on the issue of abortion. Writing in the current issue of 30 Giorni (30 Days), one of Italy's foremost Catholic journals, Cardinal Cottier compared the president's approach to abortion to the thinking of St. Thomas Aquinas and cited early Christian tradition about formulating moral laws in a pagan society in a way that would not offend or alienate the majority […]

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., July 6, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a meeting with several members of the Catholic media Thursday, President Obama insisted that pro-life Catholics' fears over the new administration's abortion agenda was “not based on anything I've said or done.” The president also said he embraces the so-called “seamless garment” moral theory of Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago, which he said he feels has been “buried under the abortion debate” in recent decades. The president called for the brief round-table meeting with Catholic media to discuss his upcoming meeting with Pope Benedict XVI July 10, but addressed […]

By Hilary White BOBIGNY, France, July 6, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A well-known Algerian singer has been sentenced to five years in prison for attempting to force his former girlfriend to have an abortion in 2005. Mohamed Khelifati, known by his stage name “Cheb Mami,” told the court, “I was ashamed to have an illegitimate child. A child should be born from a union. I didn't want this child.” Khelifati was arrested at Orly airport in Paris in June and charged with complicity in kidnapping, group assault on a vulnerable person, threatening a victim and administering harmful substances. France had issued […]

By Hilary White DELHI, July 6, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Despite strong protests from religious leaders, the government of India has announced it will not appeal last week's court decision to decriminalise sodomy between adults. The Delhi High Court ruled on Thursday that homosexual acts between consenting adults are not criminal and that the 150 year-old law is a violation of “fundamental rights” and must be amended in accordance with the constitution. The ruling comes in a case brought by the Naz Foundation, a homosexualist lobby group that filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenge to section 377 of the Indian […]

FRONT ROYAL, VA, July 6, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Human Life International (HLI), the world's largest pro-life organization, has announced the online publication of its Pro-life Talking Points (PLTP) series. Designed to be easily downloaded, printed and shared, each of these one-page, two-sided documents lays out the pro-life arguments on specific issues from “When Does Human Life Begin?” to “Abortion Violence: Setting the Record Straight.” “I speak to pro-lifers around the world and people always ask me how they can persuasively argue for the pro-life cause on specific issues that they care about,” said Fr. Thomas J. Euteneuer, president of HLI. “The PLTP […]

VANCOUVER, B.C., June 18, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A leader in the B.C. abortion industry has called for better access in Canada to late-term abortions.  At a Tribute Rally honoring the recently-killed late-term abortionist George Tiller in Vancouver on June 18th, Jill Doctoroff, Director of the Elizabeth Bagshaw Women's Clinic in Vancouver, delivered a speech on the need for later abortions. According to Doctoroff, “the need for later abortions and access to them is essential.” Emphasizing the uniqueness of each case in which abortion is “needed,” Doctoroff said, “The story of later abortions isn't one story but many: the stories of […]

July 6, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A new review of studies examining various types of prenatal loss and the effects on subsequent parenting has concluded that abortion may be “particularly damaging to the parenting process.” The article, published in Current Women's Health Reviews, looks at already published studies on miscarriage, induced abortion and adoption. The author, Priscilla Coleman of Bowling Green State University, focuses on psychological reactions to these various types of loss and discusses how they might affect a mother's relationship with children born after the pregnancy loss. It is now known that women usually begin feeling maternal attachment in the […]

Commentary by Elizabeth Walsh WASHINGTON, DC, July 6, 2009 (C-FAM) -  In its recently released annual report on the state of global health, the World Health Organization (WHO) presents statistics that misleadingly appear to place maternal mortality on par with other global killers like malaria and HIV/ AIDS. This new approach contradicts other WHO reports where maternal mortality does not even make the top ten of global killers, ranking somewhere lower than car accident fatalities. The confusion first arises in the second table of the new report, which provides data about mortality due to maternal causes, HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, cardiovascular […]

By Samantha Singson NEW YORK, NY, July 6, 2009 (C-FAM) – At the United Nations (UN) headquarters last week, the Obama administration continued its push for increased access to legal abortion around the world. The Obama team has introduced language that has thrown a high level negotiation into a roil. The US proposal calls for “universal access” to “sexual and reproductive health services including universal access to family planning.” The document under consideration will culminate in the 2009 Annual Ministerial Review, which convenes this week in Geneva. The sticking point for many delegations and what has driven apart the usual solid European […]

Thursday November 29, 2007 Massachusetts Spanking Ban Would Criminalize Good Parents Warns Family Group “This bill equates loving, corrective discipline with hateful, harmful abuse” SACRAMENTO, CA, November 29, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Yesterday morning on Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends, Campaign for Children and Families President Randy Thomasson debated Rep. Jay Kaufman, whose bill to ban spanking was heard yesterday in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. House Bill 3922 states “it shall be unlawful” for a parent to provide corporal punishment to their own children. Taking direct aim at good parents who occasionally spank to correct rebellion, the bill specifically […]

Tuesday February 20, 2001 Ten years minimum Reproduced by LifeSite with permission from The Report Newsmagazine https://www.report.ca 02-19-2001 Knowing that everything Robert Latimer said about the child he murdered was false, the Supreme Court sent him to jail Shafer Parker For the past seven years northern Saskatchewan farmer Robert Latimer has argued that he was not being treated fairly by Canada’s justice system. But his accusations reached a new zenith last month when he accused the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) of being “twisted” and devoid of “understanding” after the court upheld by a vote of 7-0 his second-degree murder […]

Dear readers, Wednesday is Canada Day and Saturday Independence Day. LifeSiteNews will not be publishing Thursday and Friday in order to give our staff a much deserved long weekend break. Let us leave you with a thought for these two auspicious occasions. It comes from the preaching of a 38-year-old priest on Wednesday – Canada Day – on the subject of patriotism. “Who,” he said, “do we honor as patriots but those who sacrifice themselves and even their blood to save the lives of their fellow Canadians?” “And therefore,” he continued, “who are the true patriots today but those who […]

By Thaddeus M. Bakllinski and Steve Jalsevac TORONTO, July 1, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Ontario Progressive Conservative leadership win by Tim Hudak this past weekend is certain to bring in major change to the ailing party, with a substantial shift back to the right. It also provides some slim hope of advances for life and family should the PCs defeat the reigning Liberals in the 2011 election. The leadership race required three ballots to give Hudak the win over the strong campaigns of pro-life rival Frank Klees and socially liberal Christine Elliot. The newly-elected leader of Ontario's Progressive Conservative Party, […]

Says pro-family legislation is "fundamentalist" and that families are products of social evolution

By Alex Bush BOSTON, Mass, July 1, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – General Electric has announced that it will use embryonic stem cells provided by Geron Corporation for the purpose of testing toxic effects of drug treatments. GE issued a statement, attempting to preempt criticism over the decision, saying, “We acknowledge the considerable debate and take very seriously the ethical and societal issues associated with research using stem cells derived from embryonic or fetal tissue.” “We conduct our research in an ethically and scientifically responsible manner,” the statement said. However, embryonic stem cells have been the center of heated controversy since harvesting the […]

By Kathleen Gilbert COLUMBUS, Ohio, July 1, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Parents suing a Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio clinic for failing to report statutory rape may not access other girls' medical records to see if they establish a pattern of neglect, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled today.  The lawsuit involves a 14-year-old girl who, unbeknownst to her parents, aborted a child in 2004, conceived after having relations with her 21-year-old soccer coach.  Ohio state law requires that parents give consent for a minor's abortion, but the parents say only the coach signed off on the procedure.  Attorneys Charles Miller and […]

By Peter J. Smith WASHINGTON, D.C., July 1, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Superior Court judge has thrown out a request from local black pastors and marriage advocates to suspend a new law for the District of Columbia that recognizes same-sex “marriages” contracted outside the district until the people are able to hold a referendum on the matter. D.C. Superior Court Judge Judith E. Retchin dismissed the motion for an injunction on the Jury and Marriage Amendment Act of 2009 (JMA) filed by the Stand 4 Marriage D.C. coalition, led by Bishop Harry Jackson of Beltsville's Hope Christian Church. Retchin affirmed the […]

Denver, June 29, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Colorado Right to Life, the state's largest pro-life organization, has announced that it is joining with the Denver-based Personhood USA to fight for the affirmation of the rights of all humans from the beginning of their biological development. Colorado Right To Life and Personhood USA will host a press conference tomorrow on the west steps of the Colorado State Capitol as they submit language for a new Personhood initiative to the Colorado Legislative Council Staff Thursday, marking the beginning of the 2010 Colorado Personhood Initiative.  “Over half-a-million Coloradans voted for personhood in 2008. Their […]

By Alex Bush LONDON, UK, July 1, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – David Cameron, leader of the UK Conservative party, attended a gay pride fundraiser called “Pride at Paramount” yesterday where he expressed his party's desire to embrace the homosexual lobby, reports PinkNews, a U.K. homosexual news outlet. “That's the kind of change we need today. That's the kind of change the new, compassionate Conservative Party understands,” he said to the attendees. “And together, as politicians and individuals, we can bring about that change. No to bigotry and prejudice. Yes to responsibility and equal rights. It's a change worth fighting for.” Cameron […]

By Kathleen Gilbert NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana, July 1, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Two New Orleans men are suing Louisiana state officials in a federal court for denying them a marriage certificate, claiming that the U.S. Constitution and international law give them a “right” to marry – despite Louisiana's constitutional ban on same-sex “marriage.” In the text of the complaint, the two men said they are “physically, mentally and emotionally fit” for marriage, and “are in all respects capable of entering a committed, married relationship were they not prohibited from doing so under the Louisiana Constitution and Louisiana Civil Code.” The complaint […]

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman, Latin America Correspondent VATICAN CITY, July 1, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Pope has accepted the resignation of Uruguayan Bishop Francisco Domingo Barbosa Da Silveira, removing him from office following public revelations that he had engaged in sodomy with two men. The involvement of Bishop Barbosa in homosexual activity was revealed after he lodged a criminal complaint against his two accomplices for extortion. According to media accounts, one of the two had filmed the sexual encounter with Barbosa using a cell phone, and later attempted to extort money from the bishop in exchange for silence. After Barbosa […]

By Patrick B. Craine AMSTERDAM, June 29, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Having an abortion is dangerous for subsequent children, an international team of researchers has concluded.  The team, led by Dr. Robbert van Oppenraaij of Erasmus MC University Medical Centre, presented their findings on Monday to the 25th Annual Meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) in Amsterdam. In his presentation, Dr. van Oppenraaij reported that one abortion increases the risk of premature birth in a next pregnancy by 20 percent. With two or more abortions, the risk is raised by 90 percent, and the risk of […]

EL PASO, Texas, July 1, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In 1937, Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger personally visited her gleaming new Planned Parenthood offices in El Paso, Texas. This past June 30, however, American Life League joined local pro-life activists in celebration of a major victory as all seven of the Planned Parenthood of El Paso facilities permanently close their doors. The El Paso Planned Parenthoo group announced at a press conference Friday that it would shut down after 72 years of operation due to financial concerns, citing a drop in donations and government funds. “Today, it is with deep heartfelt […]

By John-Henry Westen RECIFE, Brazil, July 1, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – This morning, the Vatican announced that Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of Archbishop Jose Cardoso Sobrinho, the metropolitan archbishop of Olinda and Recife. The pope appointed Bishop Fernando Antonio Saburido as his successor. Pro-life activists around the world are very familiar with Archbishop Cardoso for his heroic defense of the unborn despite criticism he received even from Archbishop Salvatore (Rino) Fisichella, the President of Pontifical Academy for Life. The acceptance of his resignation at this time has raised many questions; however, there is no evidence to indicate that it was undertaken […]

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., July 1, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Minnesota State Supreme Court on Tuesday declared Democrat Al Franken the winner of Minnesota's U.S. Senate seat, delivering the last seat Senate Democrats needed to secure a filibuster-proof majority. Republican incumbent Norm Coleman conceded the hard-fought race after the state Supreme Court rejected his five arguments that the recount of the November 4 vote had been unfair.  Out of 2.4 million ballots cast, the final recount showed Franken defeated Coleman by 312 votes.  In the initial count, Coleman had 206 more votes than Franken, but the narrow margin sparked […]

By Hilary White BELFAST, July 1, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Iris Robinson, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) MP for Strangford, has been cleared in an internal Assembly investigation of her comments on the BBC that homosexual acts are sinful and that homosexual inclinations can be overcome with counselling. Belfast media reports that Northern Ireland Assembly ombudsman Tom Frawley has said the case does not “warrant any further action in terms of the [assembly] code.” The row started last year when Mrs. Robinson, who has described herself as a “born again and again” Christian, told the BBC Radio Ulster's Stephen Nolan Show […]

WASHINGTON, July 1, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, chair of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote to members of the House Appropriations Committee yesterday urging them not to fund abortions in the District of Columbia. Last week the House subcommittee that is considering the Financial Services appropriations bill for 2010 voted to permit direct public funding of abortion in the nation's capital. Cardinal Rigali said that the subcommittee's action “effectively nullifies the Dornan amendment,” which for a total of 18 years has prevented public funding of elective abortions in the […]

By Hilary White LONDON, June 30, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A U.K. government report has described as “worrying” the discovery that children in the youngest grades of primary school are being removed from class for “inappropriate sexual behaviour.” According to the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted), 14 out of the 69 schools surveyed had related problems with children as young as four acting out. The report mentioned children touching other children “inappropriately” and using “sexually graphic language.” Other offenses included swearing, attacking staff and throwing furniture. In some of the schools in the investigation, the same […]

Re: LifeSiteNews' Detailed Response to Canadian Bishops' Whitewash Report on Development and Peace https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jun/09063010.html Dear LSN People, Bravo and bravo again!! Your reporting on the Development and Peace funding of those who promote abortion has been admirable, both for its consistency and accuracy. The connivance of some Bishops with regard to the manipulative tactics on the part of Development and Peace are a sign of the times. It simply shows how deeply entrenched within the Church are a good number of people determined to undermine the Church's teaching from the inside. I firmly believe in the saying, “If you are […]

Tuesday November 27, 2007 Canadian Television Runs Programs Strongly Biased in Favour of Assisted Suicide CTV “The Verdict’s” moderator accused of bias favouring pro-assisted suicide view By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman CANADA, November 27, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pro-life Canadians are protesting the November 24 broadcast of the entire two hour pro-assisted suicide propaganda movie “The Suicide Tourist” on the Canadian Television (CTV) network. “The Suicide Tourist” provides a sympathetic look at several people who go to Switzerland to commit suicide, which is legal according to Swiss law. This was preceded by a biased Nov. 22 examination of the assisted suicide issue […]

Wednesday July 6, 2005 Bill C-407 A Bill to Legalize Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide By Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition On June 15, 2005; Francine Lalonde, Bloc Québécois member from La Pointe-de-l’Île introduced Bill C-407: An Act to amend the Criminal Code (right to die with dignity). Bill C-407 acts by amending sections 222 and 241 of the criminal code. Section 222 of the criminal code concerns homicide. The prohibition to euthanasia in Canada is found in Section 222. The prohibition to assisted suicide in Canada is found in section 241. Bill C-407 leaves the current wording in […]