Commentary on August 31 News

Dear readers, In addition to our coverage of the Kennedy funeral we have today two excellent commentaries on them. One by our own Steve Jalsevac and the other by Father Brian Harrison, both of which I urge you to read. We also report today on the death of the heroic father of Terri Schiavo who fought so valiantly for the life of his daughter. And also on the resignation of heroically pro-life Bishop Martino of Scranton PA, the stress of opposition was too much for his health. Take a look at today's installment of Peter Smith's series of article on […]
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Bob Schindler, Father of Terri Schiavo and Tireless Fighter for Disabled Persons Right to Life, Pass

By Peter J. Smith ST. PETERSBURG, Florida, August 31, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Robert Schindler, Sr., the father of Terri Schiavo, passed away on Saturday after experiencing heart failure at Northside Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida. Pro-life advocates paid tribute to the man they said was a hero and “inspiration” who never gave up fighting for the right to life of disabled persons like his daughter. Schindler, a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, died at 71 years of age, four years after he and his family lost a decade-long battle with his daughter's philandering husband to save her life. Schindler is survived by […]
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Medical Journal Blames Disabled People “who want to live” for Confusion on Assisted Suicide Debate

By Hilary White LONDON, August 31, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An editorial appearing in the prestigious British Medical Journal (BMJ) has blamed disabled people “who want to live” for the difficulties surrounding the debate in the UK on assisted suicide. Tony Delamothe, deputy editor of the BMJ, bluntly admitted that he is in favour of assisted suicide.  “The debate on assisted dying has been hijacked by disabled people who want to live. It needs to be reclaimed for terminally ill people who want to die,” he wrote. Led by Baroness Jane Campbell, a disabled member of the House of Lords, the […]
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Dangerous Sex Offender Charged With Sexually Attacking 5-year-old Boy

TORONTO, August 31, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Toronto man accused of sexually attacking a 5-year-old boy last week was declared a dangerous sex offender 19 years ago, according to court records. Dennis James Taylor, 50, is in custody after being charged with sexual assault and sexual interference in connection with an incident last Thursday involving a boy who lives at the same Toronto apartment complex on Sherbourne St., the Toronto Star reported. The boy told his mother about the assault the following day and she called police, who arrested Taylor, described as a bisexual pedophile, on Saturday night. In 1990, […]
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Priest: Imagine the Funeral if Kennedy was an Anti-Semite Rather Than Pro-Abortion

The following is adapted from an email from U.S. priest, Fr. Brian Harrison , O.S. from the Oblates of Wisdom Study Center,St. Louis, Missouri written on August 29, following the funeral of Senator Ted Kennedy. August 31, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – As a Roman Catholic priest, I feel a duty in conscience today to register my emphatic dissent from a message that was projected around the nation and the globe this morning to millions of viewers and listeners by certain other members of the Roman Catholic clergy. I refer to this morning's televised funeral Mass, celebrated in Boston's Basilica of Our […]
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Carrie Prejean Sues Miss California USA for “Religious Discrimination” Over Marriage Defense

By Peter J. Smith SAN FRANCISCO, August 31, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The next contest for Miss California USA and its officials has a new and unusual location: California's Superior Court. The dethroned Miss California, Carrie Prejean, has decided finally to file a lawsuit against K2 Productions, which owns the Miss California USA franchise, and its officials, whom she says defamed and discriminated against her over her public support for traditional marriage. Hollywood blog sites Big Hollywood and TMZ.com both report that Prejean filed court papers on Monday with the Los Angeles County Superior Court accusing K2 Productions officials, Keith Lewis […]
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Reflections on the Kennedy Funeral

Commentary By Steve Jalsevac August 31, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – I am not dismayed or downhearted, just amazed at the depth of human weakness and self delusion revealed by the Kennedy funeral. Let me explain, and also urge what should be the attitude of pro-life people be to this event. It was a fascinating funeral with many touching moments and fine speeches. Ted Kennedy was shown to have presented in many ways a very attractive image – an exceptionally generous person, a good father, a faithful friend to many, an accomplished man of the world despite many personal setbacks and hardships.  For […]
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Pro-Life Champion Bishop Martino Retires

By Kathleen Gilbert SCRANTON, Pennsylvania, August 31, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Scranton's Bishop Joseph F. Martino, one of the most vocal pro-life and pro-family defenders in the American Catholic Church, announced at a press conference today that Pope Benedict XVI had accepted his resignation.  Martino cited wavering health triggered by stress as the reason for his resignation. As Scranton's Auxiliary Bishop John Dougherty is simultaneously retiring, the Pope appointed Cardinal Justin F. Rigali of Philadelphia to serve as Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Scranton until a new Bishop of Scranton is named.  Martino said that the stress from dissent among […]
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Beck to the Future III: “Quality of Life” Rationing Links Nazi Doctors and ObamaCare Experts

By Peter J. Smith See the previous parts in this series: Beck to the Future: Glen Beck Exposes Dangerous Link Between Nazi Eugenics and ObamaCare Reform Experts Beck to the Future II: Three Scary ObamaCare “Czars” WASHINGTON, D.C., August 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Glen Beck says that Germany went terribly wrong from two things: the nation “ran out of money” and it had “crazy people” – the National Socialists – running a centralized bureaucracy that extended its reach into all corners of German society, and particularly in the nation's universal health-care system. For Beck, the list of Obama advisors behind health-care […]
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Do Obstetricians Have a Duty of Care to the Unborn?  Ontario Court Decides to Reserve Judgment on Ca

By Patrick B. Craine LONDON, Ontario, August 31, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – After hearing arguments yesterday about whether an obstetrician has a duty of care to the unborn child, a London judge has opted to reserve judgment until sometime in October.  The issue was be taken up as a preliminary proceeding to a malpractice suit brought by a Rockford family against Guelph General Hospital, where their son was born eight years ago, reports the Toronto Star. Kevin Liebig, 8, was born with hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, a form of brain damage caused by oxygen deprivation.  Since then, he has been diagnosed with […]
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Doctor Admits Euthanizing Patient During Hurricane Katrina

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 31, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A doctor has admitted that he gave orders for a lethal dose of medication to be administered to a patient under his care during the hurricane Katrina disaster in 2005 – a decision that he says he does not regret having made. Dr. Ewing Cook said that as staff at Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans were struggling to evacuate patients from the flooded building, he gave the order to give Jannie Burgess, 79, who was dying of uterine cancer and kidney failure, a dose of morphine that he […]
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Austrian Bishops Blast Vienna Mayor for Abortion Anniversary Party at City Hall

By Hilary White VIENNA, August 31, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Two of Austria's most senior Catholic prelates have taken the mayor of Vienna to task for his support of a “celebration” of one of the city's commercial abortion facilities. In a letter of protest to Mayor Michael Haupl, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, the archbishop of Vienna, said that abortion, as the taking of a human life, “is not a trivial issue.” The furor comes in connection to the celebration of the 30-year anniversary of the “Turning Pro-woman ambulatory” clinic, to be held at the Vienna city hall. As Kathpress reported, the Archbishop […]
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Pro-Abortion Kennedy Lauded as “Champion for Those Who Had None” at Funeral Mass

By Kathleen Gilbert BOSTON, Massachusetts, August 31, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Despite the warnings of pro-life Catholic leaders that the public honoring of pro-abortion Sen. Ted Kennedy by the Catholic Church would lead to an enormous scandal, the Boston Archdiocese hosted an elaborate televised funeral Mass for the senator this past Saturday.  The service, presided over by Boston's Cardinal Sean O'Malley, included prayers of the faithful endorsing health care reform and homosexualist policies, and a eulogy by President Obama, who remembered Kennedy as a “champion for those who had none.” The Catholic Sen. Kennedy, one of U.S. Congress' most powerful legislators against the right […]
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Text of Kennedy Letter to Pope Benedict and Part of Response from Vatican as Read by Cardinal McCarr

Kennedy's letter: “Most Holy Father, I asked President Obama to personally hand deliver this letter to you. As a man of deep faith himself, he understands how important my Roman Catholic faith is to me, and I am deeply grateful to him. “I hope this letter finds you in good health. I pray that you have all of God’s blessings as you lead our Church and inspire our world during these challenging times. “I am writing with deep humility to ask that you pray for me as my own health declines. I was diagnosed with brain cancer more than a […]
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Commentary on August 29 News Reports

Dear readers, Given the gravity of the situation regarding the Kennedy funeral Saturday we've devoted much of Friday's news to the subject. That is also why we sent some of our stories out earlier in a Part I of Friday's emailed news. You'll find the courageous Fr. Euteneuer of HLI warning of the potential for scandal, and a campaign to contact Cardinal O'Malley to urge him to do the right thing.  One such letter has been penned by American Life League's Judie Brown. Unfortunately, soon after we published that story, we learned that the Boston Cardinal will preside at the funeral […]
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Threats and Intimidation as Citizens Try to Stop New Strip Club Proposed in Belleville

By Patrick B. Craine BELLEVILLE, Ontario, August 10, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Belleville City Council approved on August 10th a bylaw that allows a third strip club, known as 'Doc's Palace', to open in an industrial-residential area of the city, reports the Belleville Intelligencer. The building, recently purchased by brothers Carlos and Robert Moniz, is planned to house a Russian and Portuguese restaurant on the bottom floor, a strip bar on the second, and a 10-room hotel on the top.  They originally planned to have the building renovated this fall, and in operation by December. In a vote of six […]
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Beck to the Future II: Three Scary ObamaCare “Czars”

See Part I Beck to the Future: Glen Beck Exposes Dangerous Link Between Nazi Eugenics and ObamaCare Reform Experts By Peter J. Smith WASHINGTON, D.C., August 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Germany's experience with National Socialism is one of the darker moments of human history. FOX News host Glenn Beck has taken on the challenge of applying the lessons of Nazi Germany (government-controlled health care, combined with the principle of valuing human beings based on “quality of life” and a severe economic crisis) to “question with boldness” the direction American health-care is heading under President Barack Obama and his policy advisors. […]
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LifeSiteNews.com NewsBytes – Ted Kennedy

* 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. Senator Edward Kennedy: Resilient? Yes. Devout? Not exactly. While it seems like common courtesy to speak kindly of the dead, in this case, it’s even kinder to be plainly honest. Based upon the witness of the life he lived in the public eye, Edward Kennedy wasn’t particularly honorable. He wasn’t exactly the embodiment of the kind of statesmanship that would make our Founding Fathers proud. And most importantly of all, he […]
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L’Osservatore Romano Recalls Edward Kennedy’s Support for Abortion, Chappaquiddick Incident

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman ROME, August 28, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Vatican's flagship newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, has publicly taken note of Edward Kennedy's public misbehavior during the last 40 years of his life, in a brief obituary published on August 26. Crediting Kennedy with being “constantly on the front line in battles over such matters as the protection of immigrants, arms control, the minimum wage,” it adds that “but he also unfortunately took positions favorable to abortion.” The article does not mention that, in addition, the senator supported deadly embryonic stem cell research, “homosexual marriage,” and the the funding of […]
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New York Bishops Seek to Defend Traditional Marriage in State’s Highest Court

NEW YORK, August 28, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – This week the New York Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, okayed the Chicago-based Thomas More Society to file an amicus curiae brief on behalf of the New York State Catholic Conference to defend traditional marriage in the case of Kenneth Lewis v. New York State Department of Civil Service. The central issue is whether New York state should recognize out-of-state same-sex marriages that have been lawfully entered into in another state. The brief argues that recognition of same-sex marriages, which would undermine a natural and social institution, is not required by […]
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Whistleblowers Come Forward with Accusations of Illegal, Unsafe Conditions at Carhart’s Abortion Cli

BELLEVUE, Neb., August 28, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Four former employees of late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart have come forward to tell of unsafe and illegal practices at LeRoy Carhart's Bellevue, Nebraska, abortion clinic. Members of Operation Rescue and Rescue the Heartland were contacted directly by three of the women. A fourth woman is working directly with a pro-life attorney to tell her knowledge of illegal and unsafe conditions at Carhart's clinic. The women have made allegations that unlicensed staff illegally performed medical duties that they were not trained for or legally qualified to do, such as starting IVs, dispensing medication, and […]
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Slovakian President Signs Abortion Informed Consent Law

BRATISLAVA, August 25, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – President Ivan Gašparovic signed into law on Tuesday an amendment to Slovakia's abortion act that establishes mandatory counselling, requires a 2-day wait, and increases the age until which parental consent is required from 16 to 18. The amendment was adopted by the Slovak Parliament in June and it will now come into effect in September. International abortion groups' pressure, coordinated by the US based pro-abortion network “Center for Reproductive Rights,” called for rejection of the amendment, claiming that it was “in conflict with women's rights to privacy, physical integrity and autonomy, confidentiality, health, and […]
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Commentary on August 27 News

Dear Readers, Without judging Ted Kennedy's final hours, we all should be deeply concerned about what message Saturday's Kennedy funeral will send. Considering that President Obama is at the moment slated to give the eulogy and that he has been a master in exploiting the Church to the advantage of his dangerous agendas, this could have far worse effect than even the Notre Dame speech and award. The media super saturation of Kennedy stories is also an indication of the degree to which his death is being exploited to overwhelm us with liberal ideology to induce support for the Obama agenda. It […]
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UN Committee: Nations Must Grant Special Rights for “Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity”

By Susan Yoshihara, Ph.D. NEW YORK, August 26, 2009 (C-FAM.org)- A UN human rights committee recently told UN member states they must grant broad new human rights on the basis of “sexual orientation and gender identity.” By making sweeping changes to their national laws, policies and changing practices and attitudes within families and cultural institutions, or else they will be in “violation” of their obligations under international law. The document, called “General Comment 20,” was released on July 2nd by the committee responsible for monitoring compliance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Going well beyond putting […]
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NH Court Orders Homeschooler into Public School to Expose Her to Different Faith Views

LACONIA, New Hampshire, August 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An Alliance Defense Fund allied attorney asked a New Hampshire court Monday to reconsider its decision after it ordered a 10-year-old homeschooled girl to attend public school in order to remedy the girl's lack of exposure to “a variety of points of view” in matters of faith. Although the marital master making recommendations to the court agreed the child is “well liked, social and interactive with her peers, academically promising, and intellectually at or superior to grade level” and that “it is clear that the home schooling…has more than kept up with […]
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Beck to the Future: Glen Beck Exposes Dangerous Link Between Nazi Eugenics and ObamaCare Reform Expe

By Peter J. Smith WASHINGTON, D.C., August 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – “Question with boldness.” That is the motto of radio host and FOX News television host Glenn Beck, who says he asks questions no different than ordinary Americans – he just has an army of researchers to help him explore these questions. But what the question explores is the disturbing relationship between eugenics, Nazism, and the imposition of Obama's health care plan upon the United States. Like the old adage “those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it,” Beck has looked back to the past to get a […]
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The Kennedy Funeral – A Golden Opportunity or Capitulation for the Catholic Church

Editorial by John-Henry Westen August 26, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Saturday’s grandiose Catholic funeral for Senator Ted Kennedy has the potential to be a scandal that will make Notre Dame’s Obama Day a walk in the park.  With all four living former Presidents in attendance and an address from President Barack Obama, the funeral is set to be a royal crowning, right inside a Catholic Church, of a man who betrayed the most fundamental moral teachings of the faith. What example will this give to Catholics and the rest of the world looking in?  It will surely belie the Catholic teachings […]
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German High Court OKs Gay Adoptions

By Hilary White KARLSRUHE, August 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Germany's Federal Constitutional Court has declared it legal for homosexual partners to adopt children. The court decided in favour of a woman in the southern city of Schweinfurt who wanted to adopt the now three-year-old child of her female partner, with the consent of the father and social services. A lower court had argued that such a move would be unconstitutional because it placed the rights of the partner of a parent above those of a biological parent. But the Constitutional Court rejected this, saying that “life partners” who assume the […]
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Mexican Pro-Life and Pro-Abortion Groups Duel in Interamerican Court of Human Rights

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman, Latin America Correspondent MEXICO CITY, August 26, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pro-abortion and pro-life organizations in Mexico are appealing to the Interamerican Court of Human Rights to vindicate their legal positions in the struggle over the legalization of abortion in Mexico. Pro-abortion forces say that they have filed an appeal with the Commission against the passage of a pro-life amendment in the state of Morelos in 2008, and a a pro-life lawyer's association has appealed the legalization of abortion in Mexico City Patricia Bedolla Zamora, director of the “Academy of Human Rights of the State of Morelos” (ADHEM) […]
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A Letter from a Mother with an Unborn Child with Foetal Abnormalities

Wednesday August 6, 2008 A Letter from a Mother with an Unborn Child with Foetal Abnormalities The writer sent this letter to LifeSiteNews and another to ethicist Dr. Margaret Somerville, an edited version of which was published in the Ottawa Citizen. Dear LifeSiteNews.com, I’m sure that you have probably heard many stories like the one I’m about to tell, but wish to share mine with you anyway. I am a happily married, 32-year-old Catholic elementary school teacher. This past February, after 7 glorious months of marriage, my husband and I discovered we were expecting a baby in October. While we […]
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Commentary on August 26 News – Kennedy, etc.

Dear readers, The death of Senator Kennedy calls us to reflect on the seriousness with which we must pray for our politicians, especially Christian politicians, to remain true to their pro-life convictions.  Kennedy was pro-life but he betrayed pro-life and pro-family values seemingly for political advantage. We now pray that he had a conversion prior to his death and for consolation for his grieving family. It is however also a time to pray for the Catholic Church as it will now be called on to make a grandiose funeral for Kennedy – a man who was one of the most extreme […]
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Listening to the Voice of the Forgotten: a Review of “The Human Experience”

Movie review by Kathleen Gilbert FALLS CHURCH, Virginia, August 26, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The tagline of the Human Experience, simple as it is, seems to scratch the itch rankling in the corners of our cyber-saturated minds: Did we forget what it means to be human? Grassroots Film's masterful 90-minute piece, which has been touring the U.S. and Europe in a series of screenings, has asked audiences of all different creeds to probe that question, and offers a rich contemplation of humanity through the eyes of its forgotten members.   What we see there, as Martin Luther King, Jr. said and as […]
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CWL Calls for Repeal of Hate Speech Clause in Human Rights Act

By Patrick B. Craine ST. JOHN'S, Newfoundland, August 12, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Catholic Women's League of Canada (CWL) passed a resolution on August 12th urging the Canadian government to repeal the hate speech section of the Canada Human Rights Act (CHRA).  The resolution was adopted by the CWL at their 89th Annual National Convention in St. John's. Section 13 of the CHRA covers communications that are “likely to expose a person or persons to hatred or contempt.”  The clause has been the subject of growing criticism as limiting freedom of expression. In the past few year a number notable […]
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Georgetown Law School to Honor AFL-CIO Leader Despite Gay Marriage Advocacy

August 26, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – On September 3, 2009, Georgetown University, a Jesuit, Catholic institution in Washington, D.C., plans to bestow upon AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney an honorary Doctor of Laws degree, despite his organization's advocacy for homosexual “marriage” and laws mandating employee insurance coverage for contraceptives.  Sweeney had served as the vice-president of AFL-CIO since 1980 and was elected president in 1995. “The Catholic bishops have made it abundantly clear that Catholic universities are not to publicly honor leading opponents of Catholic moral principles,” said Patrick J. Reilly, President of The Cardinal Newman Society (CNS) in response to Georgetown's […]
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Notre Dame’s Bishop D’Arcy Rebukes and Challenges Catholic University Over Obama Scandal

By Kathleen Gilbert SOUTH BEND, Indiana, August 26, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Fort Wayne-South Bend Bishop John D'Arcy, whose diocese includes the University of Notre Dame, has penned a column calling on the University, its president, and board members to answer for their decision to honor a pro-abortion president – without notifying or seeking guidance from their local prelate. When Notre Dame published its decision to honor President Barack Obama with the commencement address and an honorary law degree on May 17, Bishop D'Arcy voiced his opposition early on, vowing to boycott the ceremony and questioning whether the school had placed […]
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Preliminary Injunction Granted in IL Conscience Case – Pro-Life Pharmacists Score a Win

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 26, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The circuit court in Springfield, Ill. on Friday issued a preliminary injunction in favor of two pharmacy owners who have been fighting to protect their right to conscientiously object to distributing abortifacient contraceptives.  The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) is representing the pharmacists, Luke VanderBleek and Glenn Kosirog, in the case of Morr-Fitz, Inc. v. Blagojevich.  The lawsuit was launched to fight against a 2005 executive order by former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich forcing pharmacists and pharmacy owners to distribute the abortifacient morning-after pill.  Blagojevich defended the executive order by saying that “right […]
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Colombian Government Fights to Open Abortionist “Women’s Clinic” with Millions in Public Money

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman, Latin America Correspondent MEDELLIN, COLOMBIA, August 26, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The government of Medellin, Colombia, is being inundated with email protests in response to plans to build an abortion center with millions of dollars in public money, according to the Catholic Spanish-language news agency ACI Prensa. Medellin's Secretary of Health, Agudelo Suarez, as well as the mayor of Medellin, “has received tens of thousands of messages expressing the rejection of the use of 8 million dollars for the construction of the first clinic in Latin America with 'gender perspective,' that is to say, to promote the […]
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More Nuttiness from Looney England: Government Protecting Nudists from Discrimination

By Hilary White LONDON, August 26, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Nudists in the UK are petitioning the government's Equalities Office to be included as an officially recognised minority group to be protected from “discrimination” in law. Called “naturists” in Britain, they have received a positive hearing from Harriet Harman, the Labour government's Equalities minister. The lobby group British Naturism has sent a brief to the Government Equalities Office in which they claimed that nudists are unfairly discriminated against in British society. The group, whose stated purpose is to “make social nudity more acceptable across the UK,” told Harriet Harmon that a […]
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Commentary on August 25 Stories

Dear readers, It seems that since the smashing success of The Passion of the Christ and the Narnia films more filmakers are increasingly and successfully turning to Christian themes for their work. With an Esterhauz film on Guadalupe and an upcoming film on Opus Dei Founder Josemaria Escriva, Christians are taking up the challenge of getting into the new and traditional media. On what has coincidentally become a movie day on LifeSiteNews, we also feature an upcoming pro-life film Blood Money, and the fact that the National Geographic special ‘Inside the Womb’ with 4D and actual film of unborn development […]
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NY Appellate Court Slams Pro-Gay-‘Marriage’ Gov. for “Unconstitutional” Move to End Senate Stalemate

By Peter J. Smith ALBANY, New York, August 25, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Just as it seemed that his political fortunes could not sink any lower, New York Gov. David Paterson received another blow from a state appellate court rebuking him for his unconstitutional attempt to appoint a lieutenant governor during the New York Senate's recent political breakdown. Up until a sudden June 8 leadership coup, the Democratic governor had expected the New York legislature to approve his bill to legalize same-sex “marriage.” The sudden political upheaval, however, doomed all chances of the bill's passage. Paterson ordered the Senate into special session in […]
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Federal Court Tosses Lawsuit Challenging Federal Defense of Marriage Act

SANTA ANA, CA, August 25, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A federal court Monday threw out a lawsuit filed against the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman. The decision to dismiss the case comes just over a month since the same court threw out a portion of the lawsuit that challenged California's constitutional amendment protecting marriage. Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) attorneys represent ProtectMarriage.com in the suit. In December 2008, two men filed the lawsuit Smelt v. United States of America, claiming that the California marriage amendment, which voters decisively passed as […]
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Academy Award Nominee to Film Movie on Opus Dei Founder

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski BUENOS AIRES, August 25, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – British film director Roland Joffe has been hired by members of Opus Dei to direct a film dramatizing the life of St. Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, the Spaniard who founded Opus Dei and has since been canonized by the Catholic Church. Best know for two films produced in the 1980's that garnered him Academy Award nominations for Best Director – “The Killing Fields,” about the Khmer Rouge's genocidal war in Cambodia, and “The Mission,” about Jesuit missionaries in South America who try to defend the Guaraní Indian tribe from […]
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‘In the Womb’ is Now on the Net: Amazing 4-D Footage of Growing Baby

By Patrick B. Craine August 25, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The two-hour National Geographic documentary 'In the Womb' is now available on YouTube in 9 parts.  Originally aired in 2005, the documentary used revolutionary techniques in computer imaging and 4-D ultrasounds to present stunning images of the developing embryo, taking viewers through the amazing journey of the unborn baby from conception to birth. The video presents a remarkable visual apologetic for the pro-life message that human life begins with fertilization.  Showing the continuous development of the unborn child from conception to birth, it shatters all attempts to pinpoint any other time […]
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Abp. Chaput Steps up Pressure on Obamacare: Funding Abortions not ‘Common Ground’

By Kathleen Gilbert DENVER, Colorado, August 25, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver has penned another column on the health care debate, this time slamming efforts to frame President Obama's health care legislation as a vehicle for the “common good.” In an editorial titled “U.S. bishops must back Obama” in the U.K.'s Tablet last week, the journal claimed that U.S. bishops “have so far concentrated on a specifically Catholic issue – making sure state-funded health care does not include abortion – rather than the more general principle of the common good.”  The journal's editors suggested that the bishops should, instead, […]
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Commentary on August 24 News

Dear readers, We are catching up today since we did not publish on Friday and staff have been away on holidays. There are significant good news reports today mixed in with the usual concerning developments. The ruling by the South Dakota federal district judge is awesome. She really shows how far we have strayed from plain common sense and justice in many other judicial decisions over the past few decades. Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen is another one deserving of immense gratitude and admiration. Again, common sense and true justice rules this person's action. Factcheck.org confirms what so many […]
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State AG Tells Wisconsin: Find Someone Else to Defend “Unconstitutional” Domestic Partnership Law

By Peter J. Smith MADISON, August 24, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Armed with sound legal principles and plenty of chutzpah, the Wisconsin Attorney General has told state lawmakers that he will not defend the state's domestic partnership law for homosexual couples against a legal challenge, because the law violates the Constitution and the voters' intent to preserve the natural institution of marriage. Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen issued a statement last week saying he would not represent the government over the Domestic Partnership Registry, because the people amended the Wisconsin Constitution in 2006 to prohibit lawmakers from creating institutions for unmarried couples […]
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Commentary: Happy Birthday, William Wilberforce – A Hero’s Legacy

By Chuck Colson August 24, 2009 (www.breakpoint.org) – Today marks the 250th birthday of William Wilberforce, the Christian statesman who, for 18 arduous years, led the crusade against the abominable British slave trade. And I can think of no better gift I could give my listeners than to tell you about some of the traits that made Wilberforce a man who profoundly changed history – and whose legacy so profoundly shaped my life. To speak of Wilberforce is to speak of biblical worldview in action. When Wilberforce, one of the youngest members of Parliament, came to Christ, he contemplated leaving […]
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Bowling for Death Panels II: Obama Administration Promotes “Death Book” for Veterans

By Peter J. Smith See Part I: Bowling for Death Panels: Euthanasia Group Behind “End-of-Life” Counseling WASHINGTON, D.C., August 20, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Americans worried about President Barack Obama's health care reforms turning into “death panels” have a new cause for concern: the Obama Administration has mandated that government-run Veterans Affairs hospitals give their patients a handbook on advanced directives including “end-of-life counseling” created by advocates for legal euthanasia. Last week, LifeSiteNews.com reported that Compassion & Choices, formerly known as the Hemlock Society, is aggressively promoting a measure (sec. 1233) in the “American Affordable Choices Act of 2009” (HR 3200) as […]
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Suit Filed in Case of New York Nurse Forced to Participate in Abortion

By Matt Anderson August 24, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Alliance Defense Fund recently responded to a brief filed by Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York that seeks to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a Catholic nurse who was forced to participate in the abortion of a 22-week-old unborn child. On August 10, attorneys for Mt. Sinai Hospital filed a brief claiming that Cathy Cenzon-DeCarlo, the Catholic nurse forced to participate in an abortion, has no right to sue. The Alliance Defense Fund, in a suit filed on behalf of Cenzon-DeCarlo, is seeking to prosecute the hospital for violating the “Church […]
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Pepsi Cola Forms Gay Pride Organization – Boycott Pepsi Drinks, Frito-Lay, Quaker

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski August 24, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Soft drink giant PepsiCo is continuing its support and sponsorship of the homosexual agenda despite growing protest and a continuing boycott of Pepsi products that include Frito Lay chips, Tropicana orange juice, Gatorade and Quaker products. The American Family Association (AFA) has revealed that according to a PepsiCo representative, Philene Frazar, PepsiCo is a founding member in establishing a homosexual activist group in Chicago called “Citywide Pride.” “Frazar, in a presentation during a 2009 homosexual advocacy conference, announced PepsiCo was instrumental in forming Chicago's 'Citywide Pride,'” said AFA president Tim Wildmon […]
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Court Rules Canadians May not Refuse to File Tax Returns Because of Government Funded Abortion

By Patrick B. Craine FREDERICTON, New Brunswick, August 20, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Canadian pro-life man convicted in 2007 for refusing to file tax returns over taxpayer funded abortion has lost his second appeal, in a decision released Thursday from the New Brunswick Court of Appeal. Mr. David Little, 65, formerly of Fredericton, now living in Alberton, P.E.I., is a Roman Catholic and pro-life activist who has committed to not filing his taxes because tax money is used in Canada to fund abortions.  While convicted for not filing from 2000-2002, Little has, in fact, not filed since 1999. In 2003, […]
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School Official Cleared of Contempt Charge in Prayer Case

SANTA ROSA COUNTY, FL, August 23, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – After a seven and a half hour hearing in federal court, federal District Judge Casey Rodgers ruled on Friday that Michelle Winkler, a clerical assistant for the Santa Rosa County School District, would not be held in civil contempt over her husband's prayer at an awards banquet. Last year the ACLU filed a lawsuit against the Santa Rosa County School District, claiming some of the teachers and administration endorsed religion. The suit was filed on behalf of two students, who said that the teachers were promoting their views of religion. In […]
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Women in SD Must be Told Unborn Child is a Human Being: Federal Judge

By Hilary White PIERRE, South Dakota, August 24, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Federal Court has upheld the constitutionality of a South Dakota law requiring doctors to inform patients that abortion kills a human being. U.S. District Judge Karen Schreier handed down the ruling on Thursday in a lawsuit against the state filed by Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota objecting to the 2005 law requiring that full information be given to women seeking abortions. Judge Schreier said that although doctors must use the term 'human being,' it can be used in a “biological sense” and not an “ideological” one. […]
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LifeSiteNews.com NewsBytes

* 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 Internet Snitch Brigade disabled, but… – Michelle Malkin The White House spammers haven’t been thrown under the bus. They’re just taking a potty break. Rather than shut down the entire fiasco, they are expanding it https://michellemalkin.com/2009/08/17/internet-snitch-brigade-disabled-but/ Alinsky, Beck, Satan and Me – David Horowitz For the Hillary-Soros generation of johnny-come-lately radicals and their ACORN footsoldiers, Alinksy is their Sun-Tzu and his book Rules for Radicals is […]
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WISCONSIN CATHOLIC CONFERENCE STATEMENT ON INSURANCE MANDATE FOR CONTRACEPTIVE SERVICES

Dear brothers and sisters, We are writing to you to share our deep concern about a provision in the new state budget that requires providers of health insurance to include contraceptive services as a “mandated benefit.” This mandate will compel Catholic dioceses, parishes, and other agencies that buy health insurance to pay for a medical service that Catholic teaching holds to be gravely immoral. Contraception prevents the full and reciprocal self-giving that is essential to Christian marriage and diminishes the role of God, the giver of life, within marriage. Only dioceses or agencies that are self insured, such as La […]
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LifeSite Special Report – Child Pornography Law Under Attack by Homosexuals

Monday September 26, 2005 Child Pornography Law Under Attack by Homosexuals By C. Gwendolyn Landolt National Vice President REAL Women of Canada See original format as pdf document at https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005_docs/Childpornlawunderattack.pdf In the confusion surrounding Royal Assent granted July 20, 2005 to the same-sex marriage law, it was overlooked that Royal Assent was also given at the same time to amendments to the Criminal Code on the child pornography law (Bill C-2). The amendments in Bill C-2 were helpful, but still do not provide full protection for vulnerable children. There is no doubt that child pornography is harmful to children. Dr. […]
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New Zealand Judge Calls for Homosexual Adoptions

By Matthew Anderson August 20, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The acting head of the New Zealand Family Court called today for homosexual couples to have a right to adopt children. According to the New Zealand Herald, Judge Paul von Dadelszen said that homosexual couples, who have had the right to “marry” in New Zealand since 2004, should now be allowed to adopt children as well. New Zealand already allows homosexuals to adopt, but only as individuals. According to Von Dadelszen, “If one partner can adopt but a couple can't, the imbalances and inequities of that within a relationship actually cause a […]
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Alaskan Mayor Vetoes Homosexual Anti-Discrimination Law

By Patrick B. Craine ANCHORAGE, Alaska, August 17, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Anchorage mayor Dan Sullivan vetoed an ordinance Monday that would have instituted anti-discrimination measures specifically for homosexuals in areas such as employment, housing, and education.  Ordinance 64 had been passed by the Anchorage Assembly on August 11, with a vote of 7-4. The mayor, who took office on July 1, after the initial ordinance had been put forward, said that it had not been demonstrated adequately that the protections were needed, and that most people were against it.  “My review shows that there is clearly a lack of quantifiable evidence […]
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Oklahoma Legislators Will Appeal Judge’s Ruling On Pro-Life Abortion Ultrasound Law

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski OKLAHOMA CITY, August 20, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – State legislators have said they will appeal a ruling made on Tuesday by Oklahoma County District Judge Vicki Robertson that struck down a state law that included numerous pro-life provisions. Judge Robertson ruled that the 2008 law violated a state constitutional provision that requires laws to address only one subject. Charles Price, a spokesman for Attorney General W.A. Drew Edmondson, said yesterday that an appeal would be filed with the State Supreme Court. The state will argue that the law does not violate the single-subject rule, because all its […]
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UK Nurses Assisted Suicide Stance Changed to Neutral – Christian Nurses Respond

By Hilary White LONDON, August 20, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A British Christian nursing and midwives association has reacted to the announcement last month by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) to drop their opposition to assisted suicide, saying that it sends the “wrong signals to the vulnerable.” Late last month the College announced it has changed its policy towards assisted suicide from opposition to one of neutrality. Christian Nurses and Midwives (CNM), however, says the College had canvassed only half its members and made the decision based on less than one quarter of one per cent of its membership's wishes. The […]
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Quebec Health Minister Exempts Abortion Facilities from New Surgical Clinic Law

By Patrick B. Craine QUEBEC CITY, Quebec, August 20, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Faced with loud criticism from the Quebec College of Physicians (the College) and other groups, Quebec Health Minister Yves Bolduc announced Tuesday that Quebec's private abortion facilities would be exempted from the new legislation governing surgeries at private medical clinics. Meanwhile, while the College has denied involvement in the regulations for abortion facilties, the Quebec abortionist who wrote them told Radio Canada that the regulations actually came from the College's own guidelines, contrary to the College's claims. Bill 34, passed in the Quebec National Assembly in June and […]
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Commentary: American Health Care Reform – A Good End Does Not Justify Evil Means

Commentary by Msgr. Ignacio Barreiro Carámbula (Editor's Note: Msgr. Barreiro, a Doctor of Dogmatic Theology and attorney with years of experience in international diplomacy at the UN, is head of the Rome office of Human Life International.)    ROME, Italy, August 20, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – All persons of good will need to understand the clear and present danger with which the US is being menaced by the health reform proposed by the Obama Administration. Abortion will be multiplied, the U.S. will move ahead on the road towards euthanasia, conscience rights will be in jeopardy: but what is worse, the United States […]
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Trial Date Set For Court Challenge to California’s Proposition 8

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski SAN FRANCISCO, August 20, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker set January 11, 2010 to hear a lawsuit challenging Proposition 8, the California ballot initiative that banned homosexual “marriage” in the state. The lawsuit was filed in May by attorneys David Boies and Theodore Olson on behalf of two homosexual couples who were denied marriage licenses after 52.3 percent of California voters approved Prop. 8 last November to amend the California Constitution to specify, “Only marriage between a man and woman is valid or recognized in California.” The two attorneys argue that Prop. […]
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StopTheAbortionMandate.com Launches Video Galvanizing “Largest Pro-Life Coalition Ever Assembled”

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., August 20, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The pro-life leaders nationwide who joined forces this summer to create the massive Stop the Abortion Mandate Coalition have launched a new video summoning pro-life citizens across America to ask legislators to stop the vast expansion of abortion embedded in President Obama's health care legislation.    The video features pro-life luminaries Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, Charmaine Yoest of Americans United for Life, Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life, David Bereit of 40 Days for Life, Jim Daly of Focus on the Family, and Wendy Wright of Concerned […]
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Catholics Students React to Obama Administration Threat against Belmont Abbey over Contraception Cov

WASHINGTON, Aug. 19, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Students at Catholic universities across the nation are banding together with students at Belmont Abbey College (BAC) in a stand for religious liberty and conscience rights, after the college was warned by the Obama administration last month that its refusal to cover contraception amounted to gender discrimination. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ignited the First Amendment firestorm earlier this month when it ruled Belmont Abbey College was wrong not to include coverage for contraception in its employee health insurance plan, despite the Catholic Church's prohibition on contraception as intrinsically evil. In addition to […]
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Suit Filed Against NIH to Stop Federal Funding of Destructive Embryo Research

WASHINGTON, Aug. 20, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A lawsuit filed yesterday in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia seeks to overturn the controversial guidelines for public funding of embryonic stem cell research that the National Institutes of Health issued on July 7, 2009. The implementation of these guidelines marks the first time that taxpayer dollars will be used to fund research that will result in the destruction of human embryos. Since 1994, Congress has expressly banned NIH from funding research in which human embryos “are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death.” According […]
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Obama’s Quixotic Justice Department Simultaneously Attacks, Defends “Discriminatory” DOMA

By Peter J. Smith WASHINGTON, D.C., August 14, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The US Justice Department filed papers in federal court on Monday that argued a federal law protecting the traditional definition of marriage was “discriminatory” and ought to be repealed. However, at the same time, Justice Department attorneys argued that the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) passed Constitutional muster and that the court ought to throw out a challenge brought forward by two California homosexuals. Attorney General Tony West filed the brief defending DOMA in the US District Court for the Central District of California, which stated that the […]
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The Gloves are Off: Planned Parenthood President Slams U.S. Bishops on Abortion, Healthcare

By John Jalsevac August 19, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The president of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards, has penned a scathing editorial, published today in the Huffington Post, in which she sets her sights on the U.S. Catholic bishops, slamming them for their opposition to the abortion mandate in the Obama health care bill, and to abortion in general. “Does anyone else see the irony in the U.S. bishops wanting to define universal health care as covering everything except for what they don't support?” writes Richards. “Since when does universal health care mean denying comprehensive reproductive health care supported by the majority […]
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YouTube Yanks Video Showing Abortionist’s Satanic Handyman’s Abusive Behavior

OMAHA, Nebraska, August 19, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – YouTube.com has removed a video that showed a handyman hired by late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart verbally abusing a pro-lifer and a clinic worker that he identified as his wife. The handyman, who was preparing Carhart's dilapidated Bellevue abortion clinic for paint, also described himself as a “Satanist” and pointed to his tattoos of demons as proof. At one point in the video, the handyman said to Larry Donlan of Rescue the Heartland, “Where the **** do you live so I can go to your house?” The handyman's wife was recognized to be Lindsey […]
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Sycamore Trust Petitions Notre Dame Board Meeting: Return to Catholic Roots

By Kathleen Gilbert NOTRE DAME, Indiana, August 17, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – As the University of Notre Dame's board of trustees prepares for a meeting at the end of this month, a Notre Dame watchdog group has launched a campaign to persuade the members to repair the disintegration of the school's Catholic identity following the Obama scandal. The Sycamore Trust is also calling upon those outraged by the Obama scandal to contact the board of trustees before their August 21 meeting, to urge them to steer the school back to fidelity to the Catholic Church.  “With respect but without doubt, we […]
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Poll: Majority of Americans Believe Obama Health Care Would Cover Abortion

By Matthew Anderson August 19, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – As the health care debate has heated up around the country, a large coalition of pro-life and religious organizations have stepped up their efforts to inform the public of the dangers of the Capps Amendment and any other provisions in the Obama health care reform plan that would federally fund abortion. And it appears their efforts are working. In a recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, 50% of Americans believe it is likely that the current health care plan will use taxpayer dollars to fund abortion. This is in contrast to only 37% […]
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Oklahoma Pro-Life Abortion Ultrasound Law Overturned

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski OKLAHOMA CITY, August 19, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Oklahoma pro-life law that requires abortion doctors to tell a woman she has a right to a free ultrasound exam and an explanation of the development of her unborn child, has been struck down by a district court judge. Oklahoma County District Judge Vicki Robertson ruled that the 2008 law, which included a number of pro-life initiatives and expanded on anti-abortion legislation passed in 2006, violated a state constitutional provision that requires laws to address only one subject. The notable pro-life measures in the legislation include the creation […]
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New Brunswick Will Not Appeal Court Ruling Allowing Abortionist Morgentaler to Sue Province

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski FREDERICTON, NB, August 19, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The New Brunswick government has revealed that it will not pursue a further appeal to the Supreme Court to prevent abortionist Henry Morgentaler from suing the province to pay for abortions at his Fredericton abortion mill. In May, the New Brunswick Court of Appeal dismissed the province's appeal of a Court of Queen's Bench ruling that gave Morgentaler status to pursue a lawsuit on behalf of women claiming the province should pay for abortions in his private facility. “The decision to grant public interest standing to Dr. Morgentaler was […]
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Battle Lines Drawing up in Ireland’s Second Lisbon Treaty Referendum

By Hilary White DUBLIN, August 19, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – With 43 days to the second Irish referendum on Lisbon, and with the government with almost unlimited public funds already campaigning heavily for a Yes, No campaigners on both sides of the political divide have launched a strong counter-offensive. Campaign Against the EU Constitution (CAEUC) started with a public meeting in Dublin today addressed by MEPs and union leaders. CAEUC contends that the Lisbon Treaty, despite promises of special “guarantees” for Ireland, is precisely the same document that has already been soundly defeated by referendum three times, by the French and Dutch […]
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Australia Court Legally Recognizes Two Women as Men

August 19, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Two women who consider themselves men have won the legal recognition of their “masculinity,” reports ABC News in Australia. The two women, who have undergone mastectomies and testosterone treatment, believe that even though they still have female reproductive systems, their outward demeanor and hormone regimens make them men. The two so-called “transgenders,” whose identities have been legally suppressed, applied for a change of sex in 2008 to the Gender Reassignment Board in Western Australia, who initially denied the women their request due to the fact that they still had female reproductive organs. The Gender Reassignment […]
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Man Allegedly Stabs Ex-Girlfriend for Refusing to Abort Child

By Kathleen Gilbert SOUTHBRIDGE, MA, August 19, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A young Massachusetts man is in custody after allegedly stabbing his ex-girlfriend, reportedly in anger that she would not abort their unborn child, according to police. Police say they found Leah Diver, 28, with multiple stab wounds lying in a pool of blood in the hallway of her apartment late at night, as reported by the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.  Police quickly tracked down ex-boyfriend Alex Santana, 18, who they say admitted he told his ex-girlfriend “she was going to abort the pregnancy 'one way or the other.' ” According […]
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7 Things Teenage Boys Most Need: An Interview with a Spiritual Director of Adolescents

Wednesday January 14, 2009 7 Things Teenage Boys Most Need: An Interview with a Spiritual Director of Adolescents Interview With Spiritual Director of Adolescents WASHINGTON, D.C., JAN. 13, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Being the parent of an adolescent boy is legendary for its difficulty. But according to one priest who acts as a spiritual director and confessor for high school boys, just keeping in mind seven points can make for a better relationship with adolescent sons. Legionary of Christ Father Michael Sliney suggests the following seven necessities for parents of adolescent boys: 1. Clear guidelines with reasonable consequences from a unified front; […]
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Florida High School Officials Face Criminal Charges Over Luncheon Prayer

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski PENSACOLA, Florida, August 18, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The principal of Pace High School, Frank Lay, and Athletic Director Robert Freeman are facing fines and imprisonment on criminal contempt charges after violating a court injunction that forbids prayers by administrators at school functions. The criminal charges carry up to a $5,000 fine and a six-month jail term. Earlier this year, Florida's Santa Rosa County School District was coerced into consenting to a court order prohibiting prayers during school-sponsored events after it decided not to further contest a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The […]
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Queensland Seeks to Allow Homosexuals to Acquire Children through “Altruistic” Surrogacy

By Hilary White BRISBANE, August 18, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Christians in Queensland are working to lobby MPs to vote down a provision that would allow homosexuals to use “surrogate” mothers to acquire children. The premier of the state of Queensland has announced planned legislation that would allow same-sex partners to adopt children through “altruistic surrogacy,” in which the birth mother's expenses could be met by the adoptive party but no other payments made. The proposal would also amend the Status of Children Act 1978 to provide that where two women decide to have a child together, both mothers are legally […]
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Study: Homosexuals Twice as Likely to Seek Mental Health, Substance Abuse Treatment

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski August 18, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A study led by Susan Cochran and her team of researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles, published in the open access journal BMC Psychiatry, reports that homosexuals seek treatment for mental health issues or substance abuse at a rate over two times higher than heterosexuals. The study of 2074 people interviewed in the California Health Interview Survey found that 48.5% of homosexual and bisexual individuals reported receiving psychiatric or drug abuse treatment in the past year as compared to 22.5% of heterosexuals. When the research results were broken down […]
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Quebec Anti-Homophobia Action Plan to be Tabled by Year-End, Says Justice Minister

By Patrick B. Craine MONTREAL, Quebec, August 16, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The province of Quebec will be proposing a new wide-ranging action plan to fight 'homophobia' by the end of this year, announced Quebec Justice Minister Kathleen Weil at the Montreal Pride event on Sunday – reiterating her original promise made in May. “We are fortunate to live in a society that is so open, but that does not mean that the work is done, there are other measures to provide,” said the Minister at the event, reports Canoe. Weil, whose mandate includes “the fight against homophobia,” had announced on […]
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GATES-SPONSORED VACCINE PROGRAM A DEPOPULATION MEASURE?

Tuesday December 14, 1999 GATES-SPONSORED VACCINE PROGRAM A DEPOPULATION MEASURE? WASHINGTON, Dec 14 (LSN.ca) – American Life League (ALL) confronted software mogul Bill Gates last week telling him that a World Health Organization (WHO) tetanus program undertaken with Gates’ sponsorship bears striking resemblance to a similar WHO program which was exposed as a measure to involuntarily sterilize young women in the Philippines. Gates has donated $26 million to a who tetanus program in several developing countries. In its press release, ALL notes that a previous tetanus program, conducted in the Philippines in 1995, aroused suspicion from Catholic health workers since […]
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Commentary on August 17 News

Dear Readers, A Beautiful Life: 30 Days of Pure Love is a must read. This is THE answer to information given to parents that their unborn child has a fatal condition. This story and many others like it are strong evidence to justify repelling the abortion or early induction pushers and their callous encouragement to prematurely end a beautiful life. Sarah Palin continues to confound both the left and the right. The political gurus, intellectuals and party lords still don't know what to do about this woman who does not play by their established rules. There is a lesson here for […]
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Letters to the Editor – Development and Peace, Sweden

Re: Many Priests, Laity and Some Bishops Misled by D & P Misinformationhttps://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/aug/09081304.html Dear LifeSiteNews, The continuing story of the Development and Peace scandal reminds me of something that Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen said in an address to the Supreme Convention of the Knights of Columbus in June 1972: “Who is going to save our Church? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes, and the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops act like bishops, […]
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Fifth World Congress of Families Issues Proclamation Defending Traditional Marriage and Family

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski AMSTERDAM, August 17, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – At the conclusion of its 2009 conference, the fifth World Congress of Families (WCF) has issued the Amsterdam Declaration on the Family. The document defends the natural family as the “fundamental group unit of society,” which “is entitled to protection by society and the State.” The Congress, which took place from August 10 to 12 in Amsterdam, saw an assembly of thousands representing families and organizations from over 60 nations gather to discuss a “family-centered approach” to resolve many of the world's problems. The Amsterdam Declaration reaffirmed that the family […]
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Venezuelans Protest New Law Banning Religious Education, Imposing Socialism in Nation’s Schools

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman, Latin America Correspondent CARACAS, August 17, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Venezuelans erupted into protest this weekend in response to a new law that seeks to indoctrinate the nation's students in the “21st Century Socialism” of Hugo Chavez and eliminate religious instruction from the nation's schools. The law will also reportedly establish censorship of the press, prohibiting communications that “produce terror in children, incite to hatred, and offend the healthy values of the Venezuelan people and the mental and physical health of the population.” Students peacefully protesting the new law were met with tear gas and water sprayed […]
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The Lady is the Champ: Senate Expunges Palin’s “Death Panels” from ObamaCare Bill

By Peter J. Smith WASHINGTON, D.C., August 17, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The US Senate has sounded a hasty retreat on “death panels” in health-care reform by striking out the provision on “end-of-life counseling” from the bill. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), announced last week that the Senate Finance Committee has now expunged all “end-of-life” provisions from the Senate version of health-care reform in order “to avoid unintended consequences.” Grassley admitted in a statement Wednesday that the storm of controversy surrounding the “end-of-life” provisions in detailed in section 1233 of the House version (H.R. 3200) expressed legitimate concerns that the elderly and […]
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Former President Clinton Calls for Repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Polic

By Patrick B. Craine PITTSBURGH, PA, August 14, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who has come under criticism by gay and left-wing activists for signing into law the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and the military's Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT) Policy during his tenure as president, last Friday called for the laws to be repealed at a Pittsburgh 'progressive' politics conference. DOMA, which Clinton signed into law in 1996, defines marriage at the federal level as exclusively between one man and one woman. Accordingly the homosexual 'spouse' of a homosexual federal employee cannot receive spousal benefits.  […]
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Australian Quadriplegic Wins the “Right” to Commit Suicide

By Hilary White August 17, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An Australian quadriplegic man has won a court case that will give him the “right” to commit suicide by refusing nutrition and hydration. Christian Rossiter of Perth, who was left unable to move after a car accident in 2004, thanked the court for the decision but said he may yet be persuaded to live after consulting doctors. He told media, “I'm happy that I won my right to die, and (have) no sustenance and no water.” Mr. Rossiter, who is not suffering from a terminal illness, said he intends to end his […]
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Bishop Finn Exhorts Pro-Life Volunteers to Prayer and Action

By Matthew Anderson KANSAS CITY, August 16, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Bishop Robert W. Finn spoke to a group of pro-life volunteers on Sunday at a Respect Life Banquet held at St. Pius X High School in Kansas City, MO. The theme of his address was “moving from ideas to action.” (To read the complete speech, click here) Bishop Finn highlighted four main components in being pro-life: belief, teaching, prayer and especially action. “First: I believe, as you do, in the truth of life's dignity,” he said to those at the dinner. “We invite all people of good will to join […]
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Wisconsin Medical Society Rejects Resolution Supporting Physician Assisted Suicide

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski MADISON, WI, August 17, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Wisconsin Medical Society has rejected a proposal tabled within its ethics committee to remain neutral on legalizing assisted suicide. By a vote of 13-5 the medical society came down strongly on the side of protection of the elderly and disabled. Wisconsin Right to Life Legislative / PAC Director Susan Armacost told LifeSiteNews.com that the pro-life group worked tirelessly behind the scenes to assure a successful outcome in the vote by submitting written testimonies from numerous patients' rights organizations and pro-life groups. “Though we did not think the Wisconsin […]
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Euthanasiast Robert Latimer Denied Greater Parole Freedom

By Patrick B. Craine August 13, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Robert Latimer's request for less stringent parole requirements was denied August 7, according to material released on Thursday from the National Parole Board.  Latimer, who currently works and studies in B.C., had requested permission to spend five nights a week in a private residence, and only weekend nights at his halfway house.  His day parole has been extended for another six months, however. Latimer, 56, was convicted of murder in 1994 and again in 1997, after he euthanized his 12-year-old daughter in 1993.  The incident, dubbed by him and others a […]
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Commentary on August 14 News

Dear Readers, Obama + Planned Parenthood = universal abortion coverage in new health care plan – not the slightest doubt. The Belmont Abbey situation appears to be yet another example of where the Obama administration is taking the United States. Matthew Hoffman's detailed and well documented Commentary Special Report on the APA and reorientation therapy for homosexuals is an excellent reference on this issue. Hoffman makes a compelling case that the APA is due for some serious reform. Regarding Thursday's report on Development and Peace (https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/aug/09081304.html) and how their misinformation has been influencing laity, priests and some bishops: We urge […]
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LifeSiteNews Corrections

In our two original reports on the new Quebec law requiring basic safety standards, Quebec Abortuaries Set to Cease Abortions, Can't Meet Basic Safety Standards of New Bill and Campaign Life Coalition Praises Quebec Government's New Abortuary Safety Requirements it was incorrectly reported that the Alternative abortuary planned to close because of the new requirements. In fact, the abortuary did not state that it would close but that it would cease doing abortions._______________________________________ Re: Many priests, laity and some bishops misled by Development and Peace misinformationSaving Face, Collegiality, and Charity in Truth: The D&P Fallout”slanderous accusations” against D&P. In the article is was stated […]
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Stanley Haidasz, Pro-Life Canadian MP, Senator RIP

By Paul Tuns, Editor, The Interim August 13, 2009 (theinterim.com) – One of Canada's most committed pro-life politicians, Stanley Haidasz, passed away August 6 at the age of 86. Haidasz served in Parliament for nearly a half century. First elected in 1957, he lost his re-election bid the following year, regained his Parkdale seat in 1962 and was re-elected five times. In 1978, he was appointed to the Senate. He retired from the Upper Chamber in 1998 at the age of 75. Haidasz was also Canada's first Minister of State for Multiculturalism in the early 1970s and played key roles […]
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Planned Parenthood Continues Boasting Close Ties with White House on Obamacare Bill

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C, August 13, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – As calls for protection against abortion in President Obama's health care legislation fall on deaf ears, Planned Parenthood (PP) has made no secret of its continued communications with the White House on its interest in ensuring that “reproductive health” plays a central role in the final version of the legislation. “Just left the White House meeting on women's health care – they appreciate all the mighty PP supporters speaking up for reform in the states!” wrote Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards on her Facebook and Twitter accounts Wednesday afternoon. The […]
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Alberta Parental Rights in Education Could be Implemented by October, Teachers Upset

By Patrick B. Craine EDMONTON, Alberta, August 14, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Alberta's new legislation, Bill 44, that recognizes the rights of parents to oversee their children's education, could be implemented as early as October or November, says Culture and Community Spirit Minister Lindsay Blackett. The controversial bill would amend the province's human rights legislation to require school officials to inform parents in advance of direct discussions about religion, sexuality, or sexual orientation.  The bill does not cover indirect or casual classroom discussions, however. Before it was passed in June, the bill was praised by a coalition of pro-family advocates, but […]
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Harry Potter Star Blasts Parents Who Oppose Gay Sex Ed in Schools

By John-Henry Westen LONDON, August 13, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – 20-year-old Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe has, in an interview with a homosexual magazine, expressed anger and intolerance for parents who oppose education about homosexual sex in the classroom.  “Then there's all this stuff at the moment, which is hateful, about people being up in arms about the idea of gay sex education in schools.  Hello!?!  Actually for the one or two gay kids in the class, it's f***ing vital!  It really makes me angry,” he said in an interview with Attitude. The magazine quotes Radcliffe continuing his tirade against pro-family […]
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ABORTIONIST SEES HUMANITY AS A CANCER ON EARTH

Tuesday December 8, 1998 ABORTIONIST SEES HUMANITY AS A CANCER ON EARTH PHILADELPHIA, Dec 8 (LSN) Last week, abortionist Warren Hern submitted for debate at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association his belief that humanity is a cancer on earth. Perhaps explaining his involvement in the abortion industry, Hern claims that this belief has motivated him for over 20 years. A National Post article last Wednesday noted that Hern, preoccupied with environmentalist mantras of environmental degradation, deforestation and global warming, compares cancer’s rapid, uncontrolled and destructive growth to the human population’s expansion on the planet.
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Commentary on August 13 Articles

Dear Readers, The C-Fam report on UN health data showing that liberal abortion laws lead to greater maternal deaths shows what we and many pro-life organizations have been saying for years. The abortion movement's usual tactic of flogging vastly exaggerated illegal abortion maternal death statistics must be more aggressively challenged. They are constantly allowed to get away with these lies – dangerous, life threatening lies. To be pro-woman is to be pro-life. Sadly, the Vatican waited for too many years to finally begin dealing with their extremely rebelious women's religious orders – many of which, in practice, can barely be […]
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Radical NGO Paints Abortionists as Human Rights Defenders

By Samantha Singson NEW YORK, August 13, 2009 (c-fam.org) – In a recently released report from the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR), the advocacy group is appealing to the United Nations (UN) to formally recognize abortion-providers as “human rights defenders.” In “Defending Human Rights,” CRR presupposes that abortion is part of the accepted human rights framework and targets legal restrictions on abortion, funding restrictions on abortion and “failure to reduce abortion-related stigma” as “human rights violations.” CRR asserts that abortion providers should be recognized as “human rights defenders” because the targeting of abortion providers directly infringes on women’s fundamental human […]
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No Difference between Marriage and Cohabitation: Italian High Court

By Hilary White ROME, August 13, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – According to a ruling earlier this month by Italy's highest court, there is no legal difference between a cohabiting couple and a lawful marriage, a decision that earned a sharp rebuke from the Vatican. The Court of Cassation in Rome, the country's court of last resort, ruled that a cohabiting couple, especially one that has produced children, which is characterized by coexistence based on common ideals and lifestyles, is the legal equivalent to lawful marriage. In the case of a man accused of theft against the former cohabitant, the Court ruled […]
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Louisville Pro-Life Students Call for Dismissal of Coach who Killed Unborn Child to Cover Up Affair

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky, August 13, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) -  A basketball coach at the University of Louisville has admitted to paying for the abortion of his unborn child in order to cover up an extramarital affair.  While the school has expressed willingness to support Pitino in his decision not to resign, the college pro-life group is calling for his dismissal, saying his deeds destroyed his ability to act as a role model. Coach Rick Pitino apologized at a press conference Wednesday for committing adultery in 2003 in a Louisville restaurant.  Pitino told police seven months ago that he engaged in consensual sex […]
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Ontario Progressive Conservative Party Courts ‘Married’ Lesbian for By-election Candidate

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski TORONTO, August 13, 2009 (LIfeSiteNews.com) – The Toronto Star reports that the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, under new leader Tim Hudak, is “actively wooing” a lesbian as their candidate in the St. Paul's (Toronto) by-election to be held later this summer. City hall columnist for the Toronto Sun Sue-Ann Levy is described by the Star report as “Jewish and gay – she came out on the Sun's front page to mark Pride Week in 2007 – Levy lives in the riding, which boasts a thriving Jewish community, with her new wife, Denise Alexander. … Insiders confide […]
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ND Judge Refuses Bid by Pro-Abortion Legal Group to Halt Informed Consent Law

By Kathleen Gilbert FARGO, North Dakota, August 13, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A district judge in North Dakota on Wednesday rejected a lawsuit by the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) to block enforcement of a new law strengthening informed consent law for women seeking abortions.  East Central District Judge Douglas Herman clarified that the abortion clinic was not required to make mothers hear the sound of their child's heartbeat, but only to offer the service, contrary to CRR's stated concern. The Center for Reproductive Rights announced in late July that it would launch a lawsuit on behalf of the states sole […]
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NRLC Webpage Exposes Pro-Life Movement’s Benedict Arnold in Congress

By Peter J. Smith WASHINGTON, D.C., August 13, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – US Congressman Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) has now achieved the status of “Benedict Arnold” in the pro-life movement, and the National Right to Life Committee is making sure pro-life advocates know about it. NRLC has announced a “Tim Ryan, pro-life impersonator” webpage to inform pro-life advocates that one of their own has now achieved “become a major asset to the pro-abortion lobby in Washington.” The webpage offers pertinent documents and links that detail Ryan's pro-abortion activities and includes a report by NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson that contains quotes critical […]
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Ben Stein, Booted from NYT Column, Blames Anger over Obama Criticism

By Kathleen Gilbert NEW YORK, August 12, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – After his abrupt termination as a columnist at the New York Times, actor, writer, and economist Ben Stein says he suspects he was rejected because of his criticism of President Obama. Stein, the popular comedian who caught flak for exposing higher education's anti-intelligent-design bias in his movie “Expelled – No Intelligence Allowed,” explained in an American Spectator column that he was recently booted from his regular Times slot after a supposed “conflict of interest” for advertising for an Internet aggregating company.  But, said Stein, evidence points elsewhere for the newspaper's […]
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US Should NOT Imitate Canadian Health Care System – Commentary

Commentary by Steve Jalsevac TORONTO, August 12, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – There have been many references to the government run Canadian health care system as being a model the United States should imitate. Americans are warned to beware of succumbing to that dangerous temptation, even though in Canada all Canadians are “covered” by the system. It should first be acknowledged that there are indeed many wonderful doctors and other health care professionals and excellent facilities in Canada. However, and that is a huge however, the system has its severe problems and is often downright dangerous – at least in my experience and […]
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Grant from Canada’s Federal Conservatives to Subsidize Bill Clinton Toronto Talk

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski TORONTO, August 12, 2009 (LIfeSiteNews.com) – The federal government's Marquee Tourism Events Program will give a $3-million grant to Toronto's Canadian National Exhibition (CNE), part of which, the Globe and Mail reports, is to be used to bring former US president Bill Clinton to Toronto for a speaking engagement. The now controversial tourism stimulus fund was the source of a $400,000 subsidy, given by Minister of State for Small Business and Tourism Diane Ablonczy, for Toronto's sex parade, notorious for its inclusion of full frontal nudity and public sex acts by homosexuals, during homosexual pride week […]
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Quebec Health Minister Backing Down on Safety Measures for Abortion Mills

By Patrick B. Craine QUEBEC, August 11, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Faced with backlash from the Quebec medical community and calls for his resignation over the new legislation imposing basic safety measures on Quebec abortuaries, provincial Health and Social Services Minister Yves Bolduc backed down from his position yesterday in an interview with RadioCanada. Currently, Bill 34, passed this spring in the Quebec National Assembly, will require abortion mills in Quebec to conform to new basic safety standards, such as the use of a sterile operating room, by September 30th.  Private abortuaries perform approximately one third of Quebec's abortions, covered by […]
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Cat out of the Bag: Dem Congresswoman Admits ObamaCare Covers Elective Abortions

By Peter J. Smith SAN JOSE, California, August 12, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Democratic Congresswoman admitted to her California constituents gathered at a town-hall meeting what the Obama administration has tried desperately to keep quiet: the health care reform bill covers abortions. “We know that over 90 percent of abortions are purely elective, not medically necessary. Why is this being covered when abortion is not clearly health care,” Ignacio Reyes, a local pro-life advocate, asked Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Cali.) at a San Jose town-hall meeting. As the applause for Reyes subsided, Lofgren, who represents California's 16th Congressional District, responded that […]
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Kenyan Vice President Vows Cabinet will “Shoot Down” Any Bill Legalizing Abortion

By Hilary White NAIROBI, August 12, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Vice President of Kenya has asked for Kenyans to support the right to life movement and promised that the cabinet would never pass any bill that would allow abortion. Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka told a pro-life conference that he regrets pregnancies end in abortion in spite of the alternatives of adoption and foster parenting. Speaking last Friday at a dinner hosted by The Protecting Life Movement in Nairobi, Musyoka said that abortion is contrary to human dignity. The Protecting Life Movement, founded in 2000, is an interdenominational Christian organization that […]
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Commentary on August 11 News

Dear Readers,   We have a number of reports on the US health care reform boondogle. This is a monster issue that calls for a thorough level of reporting. The implications of what Obama and company are trying to do are truly frightening and every encouragement must be given to those who are attempting to expose the Democrats' real agenda and force genuine, life-saving health care reform. The role of LifeSiteNews is to arm them with some of the very best reporting and information on the issue. I think our US reporters, Kathleen Gilbert and Peter Smith, have been doing an excellent […]
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Popular, Anti-Christian Author Sir Terry Pratchett calls for Legal Assisted Suicide

By Hilary White August 11, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – One of Britain's most popular novelists, who recently revealed that he suffers from Alzheimer's disease, has weighed in on the side of legalising assisted suicide. Terry Pratchett, the author of one of the world's most popular series of science fiction/fantasy books, told the Daily Mail that he wants the “right” to kill himself, saying, “I live in hope I can jump before I am pushed.” In an op-ed, Pratchett described those who had already travelled to Switzerland to kill themselves as “brave souls” and his own potential suicide as a heroic act. […]
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LSN Interview with Roger Conner of Catholic Charities Re: Obama Health Care Bills

August 10, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Following is the complete text of the Aug. 11 telephone interview by LSN's Kathleen Gilbert with Catholic Charities spokesman Roger Conner. LSN: “The USCCB Pro-Life Office Executive Director Tom Grenchik on Friday wrote about the current bills on Capitol Hill, and he said that: '… one thing is certain. The bills approved so far by House and Senate committees include mandated abortion coverage and abortion funding, and that is a line we can never cross.'  Does Catholic Charities agree that the current bill's handling of abortion is 'a line we can never cross,' even if that means a […]
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Obama Sells Health Care “Public Option” with Bankrupt Post Office Analogy

By Peter J. Smith PORTSMOUTH, New Hampshire, August 11, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – President Barack Obama reassured Americans gathered at a town-hall style gathering in New Hampshire on Tuesday that a public-option in health care would not lead to the death of private insurance and rationing by telling them that private mail carriers, like UPS and Fed-Ex, have done just fine against the US Post Office. But comparing the government plan to a bankrupt postal service may not help a President who just slipped today under 50 percent approval in one poll. “If you think about it, UPS and FedEx are […]
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USCCB Pro-Life Office: No Health Care Reform while Abortion Mandate Remains

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., August 11, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – While America may need genuine health care reform, the danger that the bills on Capitol Hill already pose to unborn children presents a barrier that “we can never cross,” according to the executive director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) Pro-Life office. Tom Grenchik wrote a column Friday on the USCCB website that gives a clear account of the pro-life Catholic response to the debate over Obama's health care overhaul: health care reform must not be pushed at the expense of the unborn lives the current bill puts at […]
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Homosexual and Financial Scandals Ignored by Bishop in Colombian Archdiocese

By Hilary White SANTIAGO DE CALI, Colombia, August 11, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Out of frustration at episcopal inaction, a priest of the Colombian archdiocese of Cali, is writing a book on the ongoing homosexual and financial scandals among priests of the archdiocese. Father Germán Robledo, former head of the archdiocesan ecclesiastical tribunal, wrote that the third largest diocese of Colombia is rife with active and uncorrected homosexuals and heterosexual priests who prey upon young people, have fathered children and used parish funds to pay off the extortion demands of their boy-lovers and the fees for procurers. In an interview with […]
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Letters to the Editor

Re: Obama Health Care Reform I would like to thank you and your writers for a fantastic job of covering the Healthcare Reform.  I have been following it for almost 20 years.  I hate to say it is in place, a done deal! School-based clinics were brought here to Phoenix with help on the diocese's part in 1989. Sex-ed in the Catholic schools were the first because they did not come under state/fed laws. St. Joe's delivering pregnant women for abortion to Maryvale and of course there were nurses who attended what was recorded as a D&C and it was […]
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Pro-Family Man Chosen for Library Board, Despite Protest by Homosexual Groups

By Patrick B. Craine EGANVILLE, Ontario, August 10, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Despite a 33-signature petition begun by homosexual groups, the North Algona Wilberforce Township Council appointed pro-family advocate Ken O'Day to the Board of the Bonnechere Union Public Library last Wednesday. O'Day chose to apply for the Board position because he has been upset with the library's offerings, including most notably a pornographic movie.  “If nobody is going to take a leadership role, then somebody has to,” he told LifeSiteNews.com in July. The library has replaced many of its older books, he told LSN today, and “the new books are […]
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Communities Organize Against Health Care, While Professional Protestors Organize at White House Behe

By Peter J. Smith WASHINGTON, D.C., August 7, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – After a series of humiliating town-hall meetings suffered by Congressional Democrats, the White House has called out professional “community organizers” and labor unions to fight-back against a vigorous grassroots movement protesting President Barack Obama health-care reform. But opponents of the Democrats health-care plans, many of whom are concerned about the potential for involuntary euthanasia and abortion coverage, are gaining momentum and show no signs of backing down, even in the face of union violence. “If you get hit, we will punch back twice as hard!” Jim Messina, the White […]
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Feds Accuse Catholic Belmont Abbey College of Sexual Discrimination for Not Covering Contraception

By Kathleen Gilbert BELMONT, North Carolina, August 10, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has accused Belmont Abbey College of discriminating against its female employees by not covering contraceptives in its health insurance plan. The EEOC stepped in after eight teachers filed a complaint over what they considered a discriminatory health insurance policy, and what Belmont Abbey says is simply faithfulness to basic Church teaching. In December 2007 Belmont Abbey, a conservative Catholic campus in North Carolina, stopped offering abortion, contraception, and sterilization coverage that had been accidentally included as part of its employee health insurance […]
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Why Delay Marriage and Invite Sexual Sin and Loneliness say Some US Evangelicals and Catholics

By Hilary White August 10, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Young people who, under the sway of raging hormones, simply cannot hold back from having sex should just get married say some US Evangelical leaders. An article in Christianity Today magazine, the flagship publication of the US Evangelical protestant world, titled, “The Case for Early Marriage” says that more “chastity training” will not work to keep young people from having sex before marriage. Mark Regnerus, a professor of sociology at the University of Texas and author of the book “Forbidden Fruit: Sex & Religion in the Lives of American Teenagers“, wrote that […]
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Faith Groups Declare Victory as Virginia Jail Backs off Religious Material Ban in Prisoners’ Mail

STAFFORD, Virginia, August 10, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – After being contacted by a coalition of concerned civil liberties and religious organizations, officials at the Rappahannock Regional Jail have agreed to amend their policy on materials downloaded from the internet in order to put an end to their practice of censoring religious material sent to detainees. The Rutherford Institute, in conjunction with the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Virginia, the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, Prison Fellowship, the Friends Committee on National Legislation and the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, had sent a letter to the Rappahannock Regional Jail demanding […]
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Keep Strip Club in Development Project, Montreal City Panel Recommends

By Patrick B. Craine MONTREAL, Quebec, August 7, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Montreal public consultation office has recommended to Montreal mayor Gerald Tremblay that a new development project on St. Laurent Boulevard, which would have removed the local strip club Café Cleopatra, be reconsidered. The $167-million development, currently set to begin in January, would give a facelift to the deteriorating red-light district, where most storefronts are now boarded up.  While preserving building facades that date as early as the 1890s, the plan involves construction of a twelve-story Hydro-Quebec building, which will bring in about 1,500 new employees to the area.  Currently, the […]
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Quebec Abortuaries Set to Cease Abortions, Can’t Meet Basic Safety Standards of New Bill

By Patrick B. Craine MONTREAL, Quebec, August 7, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Montreal's Alternative abortuary has announced that it will cease doing abortions on September 30th due to a new Quebec government bill that has required minimal safety standards for abortion centres. Effective September 30th, Bill 34 requires abortuaries to receive a permit, which would require that they perform abortions in a sterile surgery room.  The director of Alternative, Micheline Dupuis, told Le Devoir that the safety requirements are “excessive” and “absolutely unnecessary.”  Alternative conducts approximately 1,000 abortions per year, and so both the Quebec media and abortion agencies are warning of long […]
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Opposition Continues To Madonna Concert in Poland

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski WARSAW, August 7, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The protests to American pop-singer Madonna's upcoming concert in Poland are gathering momentum as over 17,000 letters have been sent to government ministers and event organizers and more public figures are making statements condemning both the singer's suggestive performances and the scheduling of the show to coincide with the August 15th celebration of the Feast of the Assumption, the day Roman Catholics honor the Virgin Mary's assumption to Heaven. At the special website well over 17 thousand people have sent letters to Polish and American organizers of the show, as well […]
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Teachers Dissatisfied with Pro-Abortion, Homosexualist NEA Turn to Ethical Alternatives

By Kathleen Gilbert ALEXANDRIA, Virginia, August 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – After the National Education Association (NEA) last month confirmed its support for abortion and same-sex “marriage,” one teacher's association is reporting an influx of new members seeking an ethical alternative source of liability insurance and other benefits. The American Association of Educators (AAE) says that more teachers are discovering their legal options, after the NEA in its July convention voted down an attempt to end the group's abortion advocacy, and strengthened their support for same-sex “marriage.”  In addition, they say, teachers coming to the AAE have expressed outrage with retiring […]
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Cash for Clunker Politicians

By Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer FRONT ROYAL, Virginia, August 6, 2009 (hli.org) – I have a modest proposal for getting rid of wasteful spending, irresponsible government and even out-of-sight deficits: let's demand cash for trading in congressional clunkers. The idea occurred to me when I recently found out that our esteemed House of Representatives just authorized $200 million for three new luxury jets to take them on the “necessary” trips that they have to go on in order to do the business of government that we have not asked them to do. Since “we the people” are their bosses, we […]
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Manitoba’s NDP Government Puts Paying For Sex-Change Surgery on the Back Burner, For Now

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski WINNIPEG, August 6, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A “confidential” government document obtained by the Winnipeg Sun outlines the Manitoba government's plan for full funding of treatments and surgery for people who believe they are the opposite sex to their physical gender. The Sun reports that the funding proposal went as far as the Treasury Board, a subcommittee of Premier Gary Doer's cabinet that makes funding decisions, before it was put on the back burner. “Manitoba has no standards of care of gender identity disorder in spite of the fact that internationally accepted standards exist,” the document states. […]
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Radical Homosexual Group Targets CEDAW to Push “Gender Identity” Agenda

By Samantha Singson NEW YORK, NY, August 6, 2009 (C-FAM) – The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) recently released a handbook for activists on how to use the United Nations committee, responsible for overseeing the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), to introduce “fluid” concepts of “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” into the established human rights arena. The IGLHRC handbook's “key terms” glossary deems gender and sexuality not to be rooted in biology, but based on “social constructs.” IGLHRC acknowledges that the original drafters of CEDAW would have found today's advocacy […]
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U.S. Signs Disabilities Treaty, Sparking “Reproductive Health” Concerns

By Piero A. Tozzi, J.D. NEW YORK, NY, August 6, 2009 (C-FAM) – Late last week, United States (US) Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) Susan Rice signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities – the first binding UN treaty to mention “sexual and reproductive health” – on behalf of the US. While this has prompted concern among certain advocates for the unborn, veteran pro-life UN observers say that the term should not be construed to include abortion. At the time of the treaty's adoption in 2006, delegates debated including the phrase amid worries among pro-lifers that […]
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Irish Government Pressing Hard for Yes Vote on Lisbon while Other EU States Hesitate

By Hilary White DUBLIN, August 6, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Irish government's broadcasting regulator has told “No” campaigners on the upcoming Lisbon Treaty referendum that there will be no equal time for both sides of the debate. Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) chief executive Michael O'Keeffe said in a statement that the agency is under no obligation to “allocate an absolute equality of airtime to opposing sides of the referendum debate during editorial coverage.” Guidelines require only that the allocation of airtime to opposing sides be “fair.” While the move was welcomed by Yes campaigners, one leading pro-life No campaign […]
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Alaska Planned Parenthood Sues to Strike Down Parental Notification Referendum

By Kathleen Gilbert ANCHORAGE, Alaska, August 6, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Alaska branch of Planned Parenthood has launched a lawsuit against a nascent referendum that would allow voters to decide whether parents ought to be notified of their minor's abortion. Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell certified the initiative in early July, triggering the rush to collect 32,734 signatures to launch the initiative onto the voter ballot. But Planned Parenthood is fighting the referendum bid in court, claiming it is technically illegal. “The Alaska constitution has very specific rules about what a citizens initiative can and can't do,” said Alaska's Planned Parenthood […]
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‘Health Care Reform Must be Abortion-Free,’ says Supreme Knight

August 6, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – “A health care system designed to save lives on the one hand must not become a vehicle for taking lives through abortion and euthanasia,” Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson said in his annual report at the organization's 127th annual convention yesterday. Referring to health care legislation now being considered in the U.S. Congress, he declared that “Health care reform must be abortion-free.” The leader of the 1.78 million member Knights of Columbus told delegates that the inclusion of an abortion mandate and other provisions that would require all health insurance plans to pay for abortions […]
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Lawmakers Rip White House for “Orwellian” Blog Post on Health Care

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., August 6, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A White House blog post calling on readers to report “fishy” information about health care reform to the administration has sparked outrage among lawmakers, who question Obama's definition of illegitimate information, as well as the retaliatory tactics they say are dangerously Orwellian. In a blog post entitled “Facts are Stubborn Things,” the White House had a disparaging take on the torrents of negative information flooding Internet discussion of Obama's health care legislation.  “Scary chain emails and videos are starting to percolate on the internet, breathlessly claiming, for example, to 'uncover' the […]
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IRS Drops Objections to Planned Parenthood Protests, Grants Tax-Exempt Status for Iowa Pro-Life Grou

CHICAGO, August 6, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – After the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) last month threatened to withhold tax-exempt status from an Iowa pro-life group unless they stopped protesting Planned Parenthood, the group's attorneys say they received a letter this week acknowledging that the IRS had backed down and granted the status. Lawyers with the Thomas More Society announced that they received an official “Determination Letter” from the IRS granting tax exempt status to the Coalition for Life of Iowa, a newly formed grass roots pro-life citizen group based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.  […]
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Cardinal Marc Ouellet Calls Out Brother Bishops for Lack of Support for Pope

By John-Henry Westen PHOENIX, August 5, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a short but stunning talk before some 90 Bishops, eight Cardinals and 1000 Knights, the Primate of Canada, Quebec City Archbishop Marc Cardinal Ouellet, addressed the subject of unity at the 127th annual Supreme Convention of the Knights of Columbus last night.  Ouellet spoke of the “hard winter” Pope Benedict XVI had to “suffer” this past year as he was “harshly criticized both within and outside the Church and was not adequately defended by those who share his ministry.” The two biggest controversies that sparked criticism of the Pope in recent […]
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Senate Confirms Sebelius Supporter Diaz as U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., August 5, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The U.S. Senate today confirmed Catholic theology professor Miguel Diaz as the U.S. ambassador to the Holy See.    Diaz is a professor of theology at the College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph, Min. and St. John's University in Collegeville, Min.  The Hispanic Catholic fell out of favor with pro-life Catholics when he supported President Obama's nomination of former Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius in March to head the HHS. Pro-life and Catholic groups across the country immediately criticized the move, pointing out Sebelius' close ties with the abortion industry, particularly […]
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AP Confirms Health Bill Radically Opens Federal Funds to Abortion

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., August 5, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Associated Press confirmed pro-lifers' alarm over the Obama health care bill this week, reporting that the legislation would allow the public plan to cover abortions – although abortion groups are continuing to claim that the abortion mandate is a “myth.” As pro-life groups - including the U.S. Conference of Catholic bishops – have warned, the bill's potential to vastly expand abortion through taxpayer funding and a coverage mandate is dangerously close to becoming reality after Congress rejected dozens of pro-life amendments in recent weeks.  The success last week of Rep. Lois […]
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Maclean’s Mag: Kids “hurt your career, your marriage, your social life, your bankbook. Why bother?”

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski August 5, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An article in the August 3rd issue of Maclean's magazine defends the choice of couples to remain intentionally childless, arguing that remaining childless helps the environment and that those who “breed” are guilty of extreme selfishness. After touching on a growing list of writers who promote childlessness and examining the lives of a few upscale couples who decided against parenting, the article focuses on a book by French psychotherapist Corinne Maier. “No Kids: 40 Good Reasons Not to Have Children” caused an uproar when published in France last year, due in […]
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Children the Greatest Threat to US Environment: Oregon Study

By Hilary White August 5, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A new study by statisticians at Oregon State University claims that one of the best ways for people to support the environmentalist cause is to refrain from having children. At the same time that the US fertility rate stands at 2.05 children born per woman, barely under the level necessary to maintain a steady population, researchers Paul Murtaugh and Michael Schlax maintain that having children is the most destructive thing that can be done to the environment. The “basic principle” of the study, titled “Reproduction and the carbon legacies of individuals,” is […]
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Big Brother is Watching Britain: Government Announces 24-Hour CCTV Surveillance for Bad Parents

By Hilary White LONDON, August 5, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The British government will force thousands of the “worst” families in the country to live with 24-hour CCTV surveillance in a bid to cut back on child abuse and neglect, the Children's Ministry has said. In the next two years the government plans to expand an existing family monitoring program from 2000 families to 20,000 at a total estimated cost of £400million. Despite growing complaints that New Labour's new Britain has in the last ten years become the most spied upon nation in the world, ahead of even China, the Labour government announced […]
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Over 100,000 Letters Sent Urging Congress to Keep Abortion Out of Health Care

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 5, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Susan B. Anthony List announced last week that pro-life activists nationwide have sent over 100,000 letters to Congress urging the exclusion of abortion from any national health care reform effort. The Susan B. Anthony List is a member of the Stop the Abortion Mandate Coalition, a team of pro-life organizations dedicated to keeping the abortion mandate out of health care reform.   “As we approach the August recess, already tens of thousands of pro-life Americans have contacted Congress urging them to keep abortion out of health care,” said Susan B. Anthony List […]
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World Congress of Families Conference Organizer Offices Vandalized

AMSTERDAM, August 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – On July 30, the Amsterdam offices of EuroCongress, the professional conference organizer for World Congress of Families (WCF), were vandalized and damaged. Vandals defaced and damaged the outside of the EuroCongress building by smearing paint and writing various obscenities and anti-Christian slogans. The WCF has taken place four times since 1997, with the last congress in 2004 drawing 3900 participants to discuss the importance of the family for society and current threats against the institution.  This year's event is set to take place from August 10-12 in Amsterdam, with participants coming from more than […]
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Obama-Recommended Census Rules Take Effect: Same-Sex “Marriage” Data to be Released

By Patrick B. Craine August 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Responding to the direction of the Obama administration, the U.S. Census Bureau released guidelines Monday indicating that they will now begin reporting data on same-sex “marriage.” Due to the late decision, the 2010 Census will operate according to previous policy, with Census software recoding relationship status entries for same-sex partners who identify themselves as “husband or wife,” to “unmarried partner.” In late 2011, however, Census officials will, for the first time, release raw state-by-state data on same-sex partners who identify themselves as “husband or wife.” The Bush administration had prohibited the […]
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Oakland Abortion ‘Bubble Zone’ Ordinance Upheld by Federal Judge

By Patrick B. Craine SAN FRANCISCO, California, August 4, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A federal judge ruled yesterday that the City of Oakland's 2008 'bubble' ordinance, which prohibits pro-life protesters outside abortion facilities from standing within 8 feet of women seeking abortions, is constitutional. The law was enacted in response to the efforts of Baptist Rev. Walter Hoye, 52, who has protested for several years outside the Oakland abortion mill, Family Planning Specialists Medical Group. Hoye would approach women to offer alternatives to abortion. He was fined and jailed for 18 days this March and April for breaching the law. In a […]
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International Groups Pressure Dominican Government to Remove Pro-Life Constitutional Provisions as F

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman, Latin America Correspondent SANTO DOMINGO, August 5, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – As the Dominican Republic's National Congress approaches the final vote on the right to life in its constitution, a pro-abortion legislator is claiming he has the votes to inject rape and incest exceptions for abortion into the country's new charter document. The president of the Chamber of Deputies Health Committee, Doctor Victor Terreno, openly declared his support for the “suspension of pregnancy in cases of rape, incest, and when the life of the mother is in danger,” and claimed that “every day the support increases” for […]
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White House Caught Between Drudge and a Hard Place on Health Care Reform

By Peter J. Smith NEW YORK, August 5, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Drudge Report, perhaps the most popular news nexus on the internet, has found itself in the White House's crosshairs after it published a link to a video in which President Barack Obama is shown, in 2003 and 2007, expressing enthusiastic support for a “single-payer” socialized health-care system. In recent weeks, however, Obama has repeatedly attempted to assuage widespread concern by stating that he does not intend to eliminate private insurance companies, but only wants to provide a “public option” to give insurance to an estimated 47 million persons […]
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To Avoid Greed and Lust, Avoid Temptation – New research from Kellogg School of Management

August 5, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Whether it's highlighted in major news headlines about Argentinean affairs and Ponzi schemes, or in personal battles with obesity and drug addiction, individuals regularly succumb to greed, lust and self-destructive behaviors. New research from the Kellogg School of Management examines why this is the case, and demonstrates that individuals believe they have more restraint than they actually possess – ultimately leading to poor decision-making. The study, led by Loran Nordgren, senior lecturer of management and organizations at the Kellogg School, examined how an individual's belief in his/her ability to control impulses such as greed, drug […]
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LifeSiteNews.com NewsBytes – Life Issues, Religion, Environmental Extremism, Swine Flu, US Politics,

* 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 Doctors Should Kill the Pain, Not the Patient Euthanasia debate should not be confused with the need for pain-relief management https://www2.canada.com/montrealgazette/features/viewpoints/story.html?id=73be67da-0a27-4cf2-bec5-413c0463ac6c Dr. Will Johnston: Quebec College has played into the hands of the euthanasia extremists https://www.ottawacitizen.com/opinion/letters/Played+into+hands/1827350/story.html The killing fields – David Warren The word “euthanasia” was designed from the beginning as a euphemism—as an attempt to draw the happy face over a profoundly ugly thing, […]
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LifeSiteNews.com NewsBytes – Obama Gangster Gov’t,  Obamacare,  Grassroots Rage Building Over Obamac

* 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 “Gangster government” in Washington DC Continues to Roll AheadWe all see a lot of YouTube videos about politics, but this one really shook us. It's a speech by Rep. Bachmann on C-Span, at the US House of Representatives. It's titled “Obama is running a gangster government.” It's quite chilling. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXyhKXUP7PM KURTZ: Rahm Pressured Nets to Carry 'Press Conference'https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/02/AR2009080202045_pf.html Issa to Emanuel: Back Off!Following reports that White […]
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New Gallup Poll: More Americans Pro-Life than Pro-Choice Thanks to Obama

By John Jalsevac August 4, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A new Gallup poll released today has again found that more Americans are calling themselves pro-life than pro-choice – a finding that Gallup speculates could be due in part to Obama's pro-abortion views. According to the mid-July poll, 47% of Americans call themselves “pro-life,” while 46% call themselves pro-choice. The numbers have equalized somewhat since May, when Gallup found that 51% defined themselves as pro-life and 42% as pro-choice. The May poll was the first time since Gallup polling on the question began in 1995 that pro-life respondents outnumbered pro-choice. “In 2009, […]
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Congressman: I Would Rather Save My Soul than Support Abortion-Promoting Health Care Bill

By Kathleen Gilbert NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana, August 4, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Like his fellow conservative delegates from Louisiana, one U.S. Representative has vowed not to support Obama's health care overhaul. But Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao (R-New Orleans) says that his primary motivation stems from a desire to preserve his own soul from the danger of participating in the destruction of “thousands of innocent lives” that are threatened by the vast expansion of abortion embedded in the bill. “At the end of the day if the health care reform bill does not have strong language prohibiting the use of federal funding […]
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Mature Adolescents Should Have a Say in Medical Treatment: Supreme Court of Canada

By Patrick B. Craine June 26, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) has told the nation's courts that they must consider the opinions of “mature adolescents” (those under 16 years of age), in medical decision-making. The SCC directive relates specifically to Manitoba.  Under current Manitoba law, The Child and Family Services Act, the court has the authority to prescribe medical treatment that it deems to be in the “best interests of the child.”  The Act presumes that the decision of children 16 and over is in their best interests, unless the child does not understand the decision […]
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McCain Says No to Sotomayor as Senate Debate Opens

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., August 4, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – As the full Senate today begins debating the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, Sen. John McCain has sided with conservative Republicans who say they will not back the candidate based on her record of judicial activism. Sen. McCain, Obama's rival for the presidency last year, said he had “great respect” for Sotomayor, but her “long public record of judicial activism” stood in the way of McCain's support.  “Regardless of one's success in academics and in government service, an individual who does not appreciate the common-sense limitations on judicial […]
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EU “Equality” Directive an “Instrument of Oppression” against Religious Believers: UK Bishops

By Hilary White LONDON, August 4, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Left without amendment, an impending EU directive could be used as an “instrument of oppression” aimed at religious believers by homosexualist activists and other anti-Christian groups, say the Catholic Bishops of England, Wales and Scotland. In a 1200-word document that is being presented as part of a public consultation, the bishops are asking for provisions that “differences of treatment” will not be considered discriminatory “where such differences are required to enable a religious body to function in accordance with its ethos.” The EU's proposed Equal Treatment Directive is ostensibly intended to […]
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American Bar Association Champions Same-Sex “Marriage” Benefits

By Kathleen Gilbert CHICAGO, August 4, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Policymakers at the American Bar Association (ABA) overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling for the abolition of Section 3 in the national Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which reserves federal marital benefits for marriages between a man and a woman. The ABA, America's largest bar association and the world's largest voluntary professional association, provides accreditation for law schools across the country and is considered the authority on ethical standards for the legal field. Passed in the ABA's House of Delegates Monday on a voice vote, the new measure urges Washington to recognize […]
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German Catholic Bank Apologises for Contraceptive Investments

By Hilary White Cologne, August 4, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Catholic bank in Germany has apologized for its investments in a pharmaceutical company that manufactures abortifacient contraceptives. It was revealed on Monday that, as part of its “ethical” investment scheme, Cologne-based Pax Bank, with Liga Bank, another church-owned institution, had invested  159,000 (US $229 073.62) in shares of US pharmaceutical company Wyeth that makes hormonal contraceptives. Today the bank's spokesman apologized for what it said was behavior “not in keeping with ethical standards” and thanked journalists at Der Spiegel newspaper for bringing the matter into the light. “We regret it, […]
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Operation Rescue Launches Campaign to Keep Tiller’s Business Closed

By Kathleen Gilbert WICHITA, Kansas, August 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Operation Rescue, the pro-life group long dedicated to ending the sordid business of George Tiller, has announced a campaign to prevent another late-term abortionist from picking up where Tiller left off.  Operation Rescue has teamed up with two Nebraska pro-life groups, Rescue the Heartland and Nebraskans United for Life, in the “Keep it Closed” campaign to stop abortionist LeRoy Carhart from opening a late-term abortion mill in the area to replace Tiller, who was shot and killed in May. Carhart, who often filled in at Tiller's Wichita abortion clinic, in […]
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Pelosi Dodges Questioning on Health Bill’s Abortion Mandate

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., August 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – When asked a direct question on whether she favored prohibiting the funding of abortion in the health care bill, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi dodged the question, and echoed President Obama's answer to the fiasco by downplaying the abortion debate. A reporter at a press conference Friday asked Pelosi to give “a yes-or-no answer” on whether she personally supported “expressly prohibiting the funding of abortion through the federally subsidized health plan created by the health-care reform bill.”   “Well, my position on a women's right to choose is well […]
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Why Catholics Will Not Get Abortion Out of the Health Care Bill

By Deal Hudson WASHINGTON, D.C., August 3, 2009 (InsideCatholic.com) – The Congress and the White House have little to fear from the bishops' official statements opposing the abortion provisions in the health care bill. Unlike with President Barack Obama's appearance at Notre Dame, there is no chorus of bishops' voices rising in protest against the bill; most of the Catholics in Congress support it, and mainstream Catholic organizations like Catholic Charities USA and the Catholic Health Association—which some assume speak for the bishops—have also voiced their support.   The overall impression given by Church leadership thus far is that universal […]
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