Christmas in Mexico 2009

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman, Latin America Correspondent GUADALAJARA, December 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – I am privileged to spend Christmas this year in a very special setting: in the rectory of a chapel that offers the mass and sacraments according to the traditional usage of the Catholic Church.  The mass, done in accordance with the norms last codified in 1962, is performed in Latin, and the priest and people face the same direction.  The canon, the central part of the mass in which the consecration of the bread and wine occur, is spoken silently, representing the “mystery of faith” that is […]
News
 • 

A Difficult Year Put into Perspective

By Steve Jalsevac December 24, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – This has been the most challenging and difficult year ever for us at LifeSiteNews and for myself as the manager of this work of proclaiming truth through news reporting. And yet, this was only to be expected given the mission we have willingly accepted at this extremely controversial time in history. For myself, there are certainly no regrets and there is a peace that we reported what we were obliged in conscience to report, regardless of the sometimes crushing time demands and very harsh responses from some quarters.  But then, this is not […]
News
 • 

Why is Christmas so Beautiful?

By John Jalsevac December 24, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Lately I have been pondering the topic of beauty. Roger Scruton, a British philosopher whose area of specialty is the study of aesthetics, recently aired a 1-hour special on BBC, a visual essay entitled “Why Beauty Matters.” I was fortunate enough to stumble upon this video, in the way one does stumble upon things on the internet, and it has sent my head spinning. Towards the beginning of the essay Scruton lays out his thesis, stating in his rich British accent as Giovanni Pergolesi’s haunting Stabat Mater plays in the background: “I […]
News
 • 

A Candle Burning Brightly

Note: John-Henry and Diane were expecting their 8th child but Diane experienced a miscarriage on Christmas Eve day, her third in the past few years. This story is not as it was originally written given that they were still very joyfully expecting that new child at the time of writing. Please say a prayer for them as they endure their loss. By John-Henry Westen December 24, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Mothers teach us a great deal about love. Over 2000 years ago a 9-month pregnant mother braved the 70-mile trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem while facing (if the weather then was similar to today) […]
News
 • 

The Silence of Christmas and the Role of the Family

By Matt Anderson December 23, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – It is incredible to think about the miracle and historical reality of that Christmas over 2000 years ago when our Lord entered this world.  Indeed, in some sense, it was a Christmas that was very different from Christmases of today.  That evening, Joseph and Mary couldn’t find a place to stay in town. As hard as they tried, the inn was too full to welcome our Lord, too taken up with people returning to Bethlehem to take part in the government’s census. Many of the people in the inn, who probably hadn’t […]
News
 • 

God’s Surprise

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski December 24, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Dear LifeSiteNews readers, this year I want to share with you a story about the birth of my first daughter, Mary Ann Rose, born into a family of nine boys, which took us so much by surprise that we could only see in her birth a glimpse into God’s sense of humor and His delight in blessing us with surprises. Catherine Doherty, foundress of Madonna House, spoke beautifully in her writings about the intimate connection between pregnancy and birth, and Advent and Christmas.  “Each pregnancy sings of the First Advent,” she […]
News
 • 

Christmas: the Pinnacle of Providence

By Tim Waggoner December 24, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Christmas in Nashville.  Sounds like a country song, doesn’t it? My wife and I made the 13-hour drive from a small town north of Toronto to Music City so that we night celebrate Christmas with her side of the family. For those of you who have made that trek, or a portion of it, you know that when I say that the drive is uneventful, this is a bit of an understatement.  I was, therefore, left with a rare chance to reflect ahead of time upon this Christmas reflection. As usual, I […]
News
 • 

Peace on Earth?

By James Tillman December 24, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) –‘Tis the season for platitudes. To some it seems the season for platitudes by necessity.  When private individuals, public figures, and companies wish to be as inoffensive as possible, they search for the vaguest possible terms.  And so we hear that it is the season of goodwill, of brotherhood, or of peace – words that, taken out of any religious context, mean merely what the hearer wants them to mean.  For a Christian to search for common ground among such statements is like a Christian searching for common ground with a secular humanist […]
News
 • 

Christmas Eve Vote Shows Arrogance of Dem’s ‘Monument to Greed for Power’: CWA

WASHINGTON, D.C., December 24, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Following the passage of the Senate health care reform bill, Wendy Wright, President of Concerned Women for America, stated, “No senator with an ounce of integrity can be proud of this bill or how it was passed. It marks among the lowest points in the U.S. Senate's history. “Americans overwhelmingly disapprove of the Democrats' health care bill and distrust how the Democrats passed it. The bill will fund abortions, deny care for patients, increase premiums, create more bloated and unnecessary government agencies and burden taxpayers with paying off bribes to senators. “As if […]
News
 • 

In Final Stage, Abortion Could Remain Top Obstacle to Health Bill

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., December 24, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Now that the health care bill has made it out of the U.S. Senate, only one more revision stands between it and President Obama's desk – but once again the most troubling section appears to be the language governing abortion funding, which could still bring about the legislation’s ultimate demise. Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) re-affirmed this week that he is holding together a group of conservative Democrats who have pledged to take down any version of the bill that contains government funding for abortion, which the Senate version does. “Well, […]
News
 • 

The Joy and Responsibility of Fatherhood

By Patrick B. Craine DARTMOUTH, Nova Scotia, December 24, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – This Christmas is certain to be the most special I have had.  My wife and I, married in the summer of 2008, were overjoyed to welcome our first on April 15th – Noah, our little “preacher of righteousness” (2 Peter 2:5).  While last year was my first Christmas as a father, this year will be the first I can truly share with my son. Since becoming parents, my wife and I have remarked often how the transition into marriage, while a major life change, pales in comparison with […]
News
 • 

Senate Passes Health Care Overhaul 60-39

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., December 24, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Slightly after 7 a.m. the morning of Christmas Eve, the U.S. Senate voted to pass President Obama's health care overhaul, paving the way for the House and Senate bills to be reconciled before a final vote in both chambers early next year. The body of lawmakers burst into applause after voting to pass the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2009 along a strict party line divide, 60-39. The Senate parliamentarian required only a simple majority for the final passage. However, a significant question as to whether the measure […]
News
 • 

Commentary on Dec. 23 News – Last regular news until January 4

Thank you to all those who have raised our fundraising total to $76,421. That is encouraging! The appeal letters have ended, but we hope that those who have not yet donated will remember us the remaining few days of December and help us to get past that last necessary $24,000.  Today we have a mix of items for the last regular news day before our Christmas break. Tomorrow we will publish Christmas reflections from our staff who I must tell you are a very special group of people – without exception. I am sure you will enjoy these personal articles as many did last […]
News
 • 

House Dem Defects to GOP Blaming Pelosi and ObamaCare

By Peter J. Smith WASHINGTON, D.C., December 23, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An Alabama Congressman has left the Democratic Party and joined US House Republicans, saying that the reckless push by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and leading House Democrats to force through passage of the unpopular health care reform bills made him leave. Rep. Parker Griffith, who also is an oncologist, made his decision to leave his caucus public on Tuesday, citing “those in the Democratic Leadership that continue to push an agenda focused on massive new spending, tax increases, bailouts and a health care bill that is bad for our healthcare […]
News
 • 

White House Pressuring Rep. Stupak into Silence on Abortion

By James Tillman WASHINGTON, December 23, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com)—Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) has said that the White House and House leadership have tried to pressure him into silence about the so-called abortion compromise language accepted by Sen. Nelson in the Senate version of the health care bill. “They think I shouldn’t be expressing my views on this bill until they get a chance to try to sell me the language,” he told CNSNews.com.  “Well, I don’t need anyone to sell me the language. I can read it. I’ve seen it. I’ve worked with it. I know what it says. I don’t need […]
News
 • 

Final Senate Health Vote Now Expected 7 am Christmas Eve

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., December 23, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) -  The Senate is now expected to hold a final vote to pass President Obama's health care overhaul at about 7 am Christmas Eve, following an agreement between Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Majority Leader Harry Reid Tuesday to shorten the timetable. Previous projections had expected the vote to occur sometime Thursday night.  Thursday’s session will be the first time in 46 years that the Senate has met on Christmas Eve. Tension has arisen among Senate Democrats and Republicans over the timetable, with Republicans angry that Democrats insist on rushing the […]
News
 • 

Poll: Voters Oppose Proposed Health Care Plan

By James Tillman HAMDEN, CT, December 23, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com)—According to a new poll released by Quinnipiac University, a majority of American voters now “mostly disapprove” of the proposed health care changes under consideration in Congress and an even larger majority oppose using public money to pay for abortion.  The news comes even as the proponents of abortion attempt to ram the bill through before Christmas, following the defection of Senator Nelson to support of the bill. The poll shows that 72% of voters think that abortions should not be paid for by public funds under a health care reform bill.  Majorities […]
News
 • 

2009 Washington March for Life Events Schedule

Washington D.C., December 23, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In order to help pro-life pilgrims plan their trip for the upcoming Washington March for Life, LifeSiteNews.com has compiled a list of events in and around D.C. at that time. Please check back frequently as this list will be updated as more details become available. Wednesday, January 20 6:00 p.m.Mass for Life – Georgetown University ***TBA American Life League: Training and Activism Week – runs through January 23 Washington Court Hotel525 New Jersey Ave., N.W.Washington, D.C. 20001https://www.all.org/taw/ Thursday, January 21: ***TBA: Cardinal O'Connor Conference on Life –Georgetown University, Washington D.C.https://www.cardinaloconnorconference.com/ 1:00 p.m. – […]
News
 • 

“CONSERVATIVE” MP ATTACKS STOCKWELL DAY FOR PRO-FAMILY STAND

Goal: $100,000. Donations received: $68,931. Wednesday March 15, 2000 “CONSERVATIVE” MP ATTACKS STOCKWELL DAY FOR PRO-FAMILY STAND Scott Brison Vilifies Pro-Family Stance As “Intolerant” OTTAWA, Mar 15 (LSN.ca) – On Monday, Scott Brison, the federal Tory finance critic, slammed Alberta Treasurer and Canadian Alliance leadership candidate Stockwell Day. Referring to Day’s pro-family stance on homosexuality, Brison called Day a “social dinosaur.” Attacking Day and all who hold to the traditional understanding of the family, Brison said, “People call him a social conservative but social intolerance is a more appropriate description of his perspective.” Day, whose immense popularity has been seen […]
News
 • 

Commentary on Dec 22 News

Internationally acclaimed author and artist Michael O'Brien is generous in his comments about what LifeSiteNews means to him. The Family Reseach Council seems to have pegged the Democrat health care bill scenario especially well in its Washington Update for today. We had to share that with you. Archbishop Diarmud Martin seems to be taking actions that many other bishops had a very serious obligation to also take for years regarding fellow bishops who were known to be overlooking, permitting or even directly involved in criminal sexual abuse of youths. This would also include the abuse of seminarians, which might not […]
News
 • 

Lifesite News, Valiant Defender of Truth

By Michael O'Brien Author, artist I have been reading Lifesite daily news for many years now, and have always found that it offers straightforward, honest, insightful reporting and commentary about world events. The vision of its editorial staff and writers is as deep as it is broad. They are, of course, focused primarily on reporting the war against the unborn in our times, and the spreading of the “culture of death” through euthanasia and violations of Christian bio-ethics, as well as various other manifestations. Their articles, which are as concerned with building the culture of life, consistently give accurate accounts […]
News
 • 

Letters to the Editor

Re: Last Call for Life and FamilyI want to thank you very, very much for making it possible for me to stay abreast of the truth about what goes on at “the hill” and for helping me to have a voice in the mess.  I believe that only God can and will straighten it all out.  But we do have to use the human means available to us, along with our prayers and mortifications. Janice Catt-Lavigne Plymoouth, Michigan _____________________________________ Please continue to give us world Catholic news too. As disturbing as it is, we have to see America within the […]
News
 • 

FRC Calls Senate Health Care Push “Nightmare Before Christmas”

By Steve Jalsevac WASHINGTON 22, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com ) – In its Washington Update for today the Family Research Council (FRC) in Washington, D.C. summarizes the Democrats' push for a Christmas Eve vote on the Senate health care bill as “The Nightmare before Christmas.” FRC states, “It's going to be tough sledding for Senate Democrats over Christmas – and not because of the snow. America's rage over the leadership's bill is exploding on all sides.” The leading US family action organization notes that Democrat Senators are already being faced with rallies at their local offices. FRC says, “The biggest bulls-eye seems to be squarely […]
News
 • 

Majority in US Opposed to Homosexual “Marriage”

By John Jalsevac December 22, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A newly released Angus Reid poll shows that the majority of Americans are opposed to same-sex “marriage.” In the poll 1,001 respondents were asked, “Do you favor or oppose allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally?” Forty-six percent of respondents said that they were opposed to same-sex “marriage,” while only 43% said they are in favor. Ten percent said they are not sure. The poll has a margin of error of 3.1 percent. The results from the poll come at the same time as a volley of attempts at legalizing same-sex “marriage” […]
News
 • 

Euthanasia Advocate Attacks Bishops’ Bioethics Revision

By Kathleen Gilbert DENVER, Colorado, December 22, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – One leading national euthanasia advocate has attacked the U.S. Bishops' revision of bioethics rules to protect cognitively disabled individuals from being starved and dehydrated to death. Barbara Coombs Lee, the president of Compassion & Choices (formerly the Hemlock Society) condemned the new directives in a Huffington Post column December 17, claiming that the revision amounted to a violation of patients' right to choose how to die.  “Compassion & Choices understands what this will mean for your healthcare choices. And the impact of the decision is greater than you can imagine,” […]
News
 • 

No Human Rights for Fetuses because of Undeveloped Nervous System: Ethicists

By Kathleen Gilbert December 22, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – While the unborn child could be considered a “patient,” such a status should not be confused with having human rights – something the child would only gain later thanks to a more developed nervous system, insist the authors of a new report justifying the ethics of abortion. In a response to the article, however, a director at the National Catholic Bioethics Center said that the authors “really ought to learn to pick on those their own size,” saying that “human fetuses or newborns do not need to be able to balance a checkbook […]
News
 • 

Constitutional Amendment on Marriage Filed in New Mexico Senate

By Peter J. Smith SANTA FE, New Mexico, December 22, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A proposal to ban same-sex “marriage” via constitutional amendment has been filed in the New Mexico legislature. Senate Joint Resolution (SJR) 01 pre-filed for the 2010 legislative session by State Sen. William Sharer (R-Farmington), would define marriage in New Mexico as a monogamous heterosexual union, thereby excluding polygamous or homosexual unions from recognition as “marriages.” SJR01 would amend Article 20 of the New Mexico constitution by adding a new section stating: “Marriage in this state shall consist only of the union of one man and one woman.” For […]
News
 • 

Christians in Britain Wondering Why “Equality and Diversity” Don’t Apply to Them

By Hilary White LONDON, December 22, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Christians in the U.K. are continuing to warn that the government’s planned “equality” legislation will drive Christian believers out of public life. The Christian Institute, Britain’s leading evangelical Christian lobby group, has issued a report titled “Marginalising Christians,” detailing the many recent cases of Christians who have been disciplined or lost work because of conflicts between faith and the government-sponsored and increasingly aggressive secularism. The government’s recent equality and diversity laws, the group says, leave Christians “the first to be punished and the last to be protected.” The report cites a […]
News
 • 

Commentary: Christmas with Congress, A Seat for Aborted Souls

By Jen Shroder “A voice was heard in Ramah,Lamentation, weeping, and great mourning,Rachel weeping for her children,Refusing to be comforted,Because they are no more.”Matt 2:18 Dec 22, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In Bethlehem, Herod killed all male children under 2 years of age because he felt threatened. On Capitol Hill, battles are raging to keep the abortion mills running. Who threatens you, Pelosi? Why are you determined to murder our children, Reid? If they succeed, the vote is shaping up for Christmas Eve, a night when we are all reminded of the Christ born in a manger, a star to guide […]
News
 • 

Senate Clears Second Health Care Hurdle 60-39

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., December 22, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – On Tuesday morning the Senate cleared the second of three important procedural votes needed to put President Obama's abortion-funding health care overhaul on a path to final passage, in a vote now projected to occur around 10 p.m. Christmas Eve. The same body had voted earlier in the morning to approve Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's manager's amendment, the final changes that will be allowed in the Senate bill. That vote required only a simple majority of 51 to pass. The next vote is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. A high-pressure […]
News
 • 

Commentary on Dec 21 News

We are tempted to say, “who needs all this right now?” It's almost Christmas and we are having a hard time focusing on and keeping up with all the drama going on in the news. Yet, it has to be done since the enemies of life and family appear to be deliberately picking this time of year to pass things by us when we are especially distracted with things like family, friends, the needy and the great celebration of the birth of Christ. It boggles the mind that the Democrats want to pass their revolutionary anti-life and many other ways […]
News
 • 

Canadian Panel to Study Euthanasia Stacked with Pro-Euthanasia Academics

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski OTTAWA, December 21, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Royal Society of Canada, an association of scientists and scholars “dedicated to encouraging education and the advancement of knowledge in the natural and social sciences and the humanities” has established a panel of “experts” to “assess the pros and cons of permitting physician-assisted death” in Canada. The society has appointed a six-member “Expert Panel on End-of-Life Decision Making,” chaired by Dr. Udo Schuklenk, professor of philosophy and Ontario research chair in bioethics at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. Four of the six panel members are already well known for […]
News
 • 

Vatican Sends Anti-Communist Message with Sainthood Picks

By Hilary White ROME, December 21, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Vatican has sent the world a message of Catholicism's fundamental opposition to communism with the announcement this weekend from the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Three of the greatest twentieth century opponents to the communist and socialist ideologies, Pope John Paul II, Pope Pius XII and the Polish Solidarity priest Jerzy Popieluszko, all moved a step closer to canonisation. The two popes were declared “venerable” for their heroic virtues and the Vatican announced that Pope Benedict XVI had approved the decree of beatification for Fr. Jerzy Popieluszko, the “Solidarity […]
News
 • 

Study Finds Half of Women on “Birth Control Shot” Suffer Bone Problems

GALVESTON, Texas, December 21, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Nearly half of women using depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA), commonly known as the birth control shot, will experience high bone mineral density (BMD) loss in the hip or lower spine within two years of beginning the contraceptive, according to researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. The study, reported in the January 2010 issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology, was the first to show that women on the birth control shot who smoke, have low levels of calcium intake and never gave birth are at the highest risk for BMD loss. […]
News
 • 

Lila Rose Says Escort Assaulted her Outside Abortion Mill

SAN JOSE, California, Dec. 18, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Live Action Films president Lila Rose, the undercover investigator who has gained notoriety for videotaping Planned Parenthood employees, filed a police report yesterday after she says she was struck by a Planned Parenthood escort outside a San Jose abortion mill. Rose was standing on a public sidewalk outside the Planned Parenthood affiliate at 1691 The Alameda. She was there with a group to pray and provide information to abortion-bound women. Rose reports that just before noon Thursday she began the exchange with the uniformed escort, who recognized her as the investigator in […]
News
 • 

UN General Assembly Eliminates Reference to “Sexual Orientation,” Gender Identity

By James Tillman NEW YORK, December 21, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com)—Last Friday the United Nations General Assembly voted to delete language from a proposed resolution referencing a document claiming that two new anti-discrimination categories exist: one based on “sexual orientation” and the other on “gender identity.” “This was a great victory for the natural law and the family and a slap in the face to the radicals,” Austin Ruse, president of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM), told LifeSiteNews. The deleted reference was to General Comment 20 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).  The ICESCR was […]
News
 • 

Senate Clears Major Health Care Vote 60-40

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., December 21, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The U.S. Senate voted 1 a.m. Monday morning to close debate on the manager's amendment to the health bill, delivering a critical victory to Democrats who had worked furiously to hold together 60 votes for the bill's most significant vote yet. Senators remained at their desks for the vote – a procedure reserved for only the most solemn occasions – to vote along strict party lines for cloture on the amendment, 60-40.  The vote is generally considered a litmus test for securing the success of the bill in the remainder […]
News
 • 

German Homeschooling Family Applies for Asylum in US

Goal: $100,000. Donations received: $53,119. Tuesday November 18, 2008 German Homeschooling Family Applies for Asylum in US PURCELLVILLE, Virginia, Nov. 18, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A homeschooling family who recently fled Germany has filed for political asylum in the United States. Uwe and Hannelore Romeike formerly of Bissingen, Germany, along with their five children made it to the United States in August of this year. The family has settled in Eastern Tennessee where they have been warmly welcomed by local homeschool supporters and are being assisted by the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA). “The persecution of homeschoolers in Germany has […]
News
 • 

Commentary on Dec 18 News

Another challenge from a reader. This has certainly become an interesting Christmas season campaign. Please join in the challenge or give a gift to LSN of any size. Senator Bob Casey disappoints again trying to play both sides of the abortion issue. His poor deceased father who was a solidly pro-life Senator must be rolling over in his grave. The Vatican does NOT support the Gore type of fraudulent radical environmentalism, although there are certainly differing views on environmentalism among Vatican and other senior Church officials who have been affected to varying degrees by all the confusion and hype. An […]
News
 • 

69 year-old student started to make religious themes in ceramics class which prompted college’s acti

DALLAS, Texas, December 18, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Dallas area community college is facing a possible lawsuit if administrators fail to revoke a policy of banning art students from creating religious-themed objects. One teacher enforcing the policy is alleged to have gone so far as to justify the rule by saying that some find the Christian cross as offensive as the Nazi swastika. Liberty Legal Institute, a legal advocacy group for religious freedom, sent a demand letter to Eastfield College administrators in the Dallas County Community College District on behalf of Joe Mitchell, a 69 year-old retired General Motors employee and resident […]
News
 • 

Vatican Newspaper Slams the Copenhagen Summit over Population Control, “Nihilism”

By John-Henry Westen COPENHAGEN, December 18, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a front-page commentary in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano yesterday, the President of the Vatican Bank took the Copenhagen summit to task over its “nihilism,” and consequent emphasis on population control and de-industrialization. “Nihilistic thought, with its rejection of any objective truth and values causes serious damage when applied to economics,” wrote Ettore Gotti Tedeschi.  He recalled as an example the “disastrous consequences” of Malthus' argument that population growth causes poverty, as well as the theory that the economy is morally autonomous, which he said has led to an “overly consumerist […]
News
 • 

New Paper Links UN Promotion of “Safe” Abortion to Maternal Deaths

By Susan Yoshihara, Ph.D. NEW YORK, NY, December 18, 2009 (C-FAM) – A recent submission to the United Nations (UN) Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR) provides evidence of the potentially fatal consequences of “safe” abortion promoted by UN agencies, and includes a list of 113 studies linking abortion dangerous complications such as pre-term birth in subsequent pregnancies. “The encouragement by [the UN Population Fund] UNFPA and [the World Health Organization] WHO of the use of mifepristone (RU-486, Mifegyne) and misoprostol (Cytotec) as ‘safe’ abortifacients in medically resource poor nations is unconscionable” the paper says, “and a […]
News
 • 

Italian Supreme Court Decision Signals Sovereign Resistance to European Overreach

By Piero A. Tozzi, J.D. NEW YORK, December 18, 2009 (C-FAM) – A little-publicized decision by Italy's Constitutional Court last month may have significant implications concerning the direction of Europe, strengthening national sovereignty as a bulwark against transnational overreach by European institutions. It also signals the continued importance of national constitutions, despite the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty earlier this month. In Sentenza N. 311, the Italian Constitutional Court stated that where rulings by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) conflict with provisions of the Italian Constitution, such rulings “lack legitimacy.”  Sources close to the Italian judiciary […]
News
 • 

Portuguese Gvmt Seeks to Legalize Same-Sex “Marriage”

By Patrick B. Craine LISBON, Portugal, December 18, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Portugal's Socialist government will seek to legalize same-sex “marriage,” they announced yesterday. At a news conference, Cabinet Minister Pedro Silva Pereira said the government will be putting forward a new bill that would strike current references to marriage as being between a man and a woman from Portuguese law.  The proposal, he said, will likely be presented for debate in the Assembly of the Republic, the country's sole legislative chamber, in January. While same-sex “marriage” is opposed by the opposition Social Democratic Party and other right-leaning parties, the Associated […]
News
 • 

Northern Ontario Town to Reconsider Approval of Pro-Life Monument

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski KAPUSKASING, Ontario, December 18, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – After approving a request by the Kapuskasing chapter of the Knights of Columbus to install a pro-life monument in a local park, the Kapuskasing town council has now decided to re-examine their decision at the next council meeting to be held on January 25, 2010. Knights Council 2777 approached the town council with a request to install a monument in the park to promote awareness of the organization's culture of life ideal. Grand Knight Marcel Tourigny provided the council with a design drawing showing a baby cradled by two […]
News
 • 

Casey Working with Reid to Topple Nelson’s Abortion Hang-up

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., December 18, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Nebraska Democrat Senator Ben Nelson is earning the ire of party leadership for standing by his amendment that would have restored Hyde-amendment restrictions to the senate health bill, and resisting any watered-down compromise measures.  Yet Sen. Bob Casey (D-Penn.), the other Democrat sponsor of the Nelson/Casey/Hatch amendment, has taken a different path since that amendment's defeat: his abortion-funding compromise issued this week (which has been condemned by pro-life groups and Nelson himself) was crafted at the behest of Democrats seeking Nelson's support for the bill, Bloomberg reports. Unlike the Nelson […]
News
 • 

Instantly Double Your $2500 Donation – Another Surprising Reader Challenge

Folks, we are not making these things up as creative fundraising strategies, nor are we actively encouraging people to initiate them. They are happening totally on their own. LifeSiteNews just got a call from an anonymous reader today who is donating $2500. However, he has asked for someone to match his donation. We are just passing on the challenge as requested. So there you have it. Will someone respond and thereby double the $2500 donation to LifeSiteNews? We would of course be extremely grateful if someone were able to do that. The campaign has reached $55,483 towards our goal of $100,000 at this time […]
News
 • 

Christmas Commercialism Combated by “Advent Conspiracy” Movement

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski December 18, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A growing number of Christian churches are joining forces with a grass-roots movement known as the Advent Conspiracy, which is seeking to “do away with the frenzied activity and extravagant gift-giving of a commercial Christmas.” The group was founded by Portland pastor Rick McKinley, who with a group of fellow pastors realized that their own, and their congregations', focus during the time of Advent revolved more around secular consumerism than preparing to celebrate the birth of Christ. “What was once a time to celebrate the birth of a savior has somehow […]
News
 • 

UK Christian Marriage Registrar Loses Appeal

By Hilary White LONDON, December 18, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The case of a Christian marriage registrar in the U.K. who had been penalized at her job for refusing to participate in same-sex civil union ceremonies, may go to the U.K.'s Supreme Court, her lawyers said on Tuesday. Lillian Ladele lost her appeal against a ruling by an Employment Appeal Tribunal who had said that she had been treated badly by her employers but that this did not constitute discrimination based on her religious beliefs. The Court of Appeal's Lord Neuberger said, “It appears to me that, however much sympathy one […]
News
 • 

UK Prime Minister Pledges to Force Gay Civil Union Recognition in Eastern Europe

By Hilary White LONDON, December 18, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has pledged to attempt to force Eastern European countries to accept as legally valid homosexual civil partnerships contracted in Britain. Brown told Attitude, one of the UK's leading homosexualist magazines, “I'm fighting to get all the countries in Europe to recognise civil partnerships carried out in Britain.” “We want countries where that hasn't been the case – especially in Eastern Europe – to recognise them. We're negotiating agreements with France and then with Spain.” “If we could show eastern Europe as well as western Europe, that […]
News
 • 

Vatican Defrocks Rogue Archbishop for Ordaining Married Bishops

By Hilary White ROME, December 18, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Already excommunicated for ordaining four married men as bishops in 2006, the former head of the diocese of Lusaka, Zambia, Emmanuel Milingo, 79, now has been formally removed from the clerical state, an announcement from the Vatican said yesterday.  The Vatican said that Milingo's various acts of disobedience and defiance had caused “serious upset and scandal among the faithful.” “Sadly, Archbishop Milingo has shown no sign of the desired repentance with a view to returning to full communion with the Supreme Pontiff and the other members of the College of Bishops,” said […]
News
 • 

Support the Underdogs

Good Day Friends, You and I and all those fighting for life and family – in the eyes of the world, we are the underdogs. The opposition is armed with an arsenal in the multi-billions, and the punches of their destructive NGOs, organizations, media services, governments and other national, and international forces, carry great weight. But, as LSN Managing Director Steve Jalsevac alluded to in “Beggars vs Giants“, so did the pebble that David whirled from his slingshot. Actually, it carried more weight. It had more lasting effect than all of Goliath's armor, strength and training. The theme of the […]
News
 • 

Commentary on Dec. 17 News

Another big news day. The culture war rages on.   We have just creeped past the half way point towards our goal for the Christmas campaign. Our readers have now donated $52,240. This is starting to get somewhat exciting. Please keep it up! $5, $10, $100 - whatever. We appreciate it all. Join the others who have given a gift for life, family and truth for Christmas.   The politics regarding the U.S. Senate health care bill is now getting downright dirty. That was expected if the Obamacare project got to the point of risking imminent defeat. The true character of these […]
News
 • 

Letters to Editor

Re; Germany Jails Eight Christian Fathers for Removing Children from Sex-Ed Class Copy of letter to  German Embassy in Canada Dear sir,      It seems that the “democratic” German government competes with itself, year by year, to find new abominations with which to persecute its own citizens. Your government is in clear violation of this article of the Helsinki Final Accord (from the US Commission web site): “VII. Respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief. The participating States will respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of thought, conscience, […]
News
 • 

Radical Dems Condemn Compromise Measures, Fight to Rescue Original Health Care Language

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., December 17, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Liberal politicians and lobby groups have begun to warn Democrat Senate leadership to ensure that the final version of the health bill, amended to gather stray conservative Democrat votes, does not wander too far from the radically liberal foundations of the health care overhaul. Some are concerned that progressive hot items, most notably a government-run health insurance program, might be scrapped in order to win tough votes such as that of Independent Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT).  If that happens, some say, the whole bill should be killed.   Former Democratic National […]
News
 • 

Christian Medical Association CEO Quits AMA over Health Care Support, Embryo Research

BRISTOL, TN, December 17, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Dr. David Stevens, CEO of the 17,000-member Christian Medical Association, the nation's largest faith-based association of doctors, today announced that he is canceling his membership in the American Medical Association as a way of publicly protesting what he says is the AMA's control by special interests that do not represent most physicians. The AMA has come under fire for endorsing healthcare overhaul legislation after closed-door negotiations with legislators. “I can no longer associate with or support an organization that is unscientific, unprofessional and controlled by special interests,” Dr. Stevens asserted in a letter […]
News
 • 

Indian Religious Leaders Call for Repeal of Ruling Decriminalizing Homosexual Acts

By Patrick B. Craine NEW DELHI, India, December 17, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A delegation of Indian religious leaders, led by the Catholic Archbishop of New Delhi, Vincent M. Concessao, has called for the repeal of a summer court decision that decriminalized homosexual acts.  In July, the Delhi High Court overturned the 150-year-old law banning homosexual acts, stating that it violated “fundamental rights.”  The same month, the country's Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal of the ruling, but indicated that they wanted to first hear the stance of the government on the issue. Archbishop Concessao and his delegation met with Prime Minister Manmohan […]
News
 • 

Pope: “The Only ‘Equitable’ Laws are Those that Defend the Sacredness of Human Life”

By John-Henry Westen VATICAN CITY, December 16, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Speaking yesterday, Pope Benedict XVI called attention to the writings of John of Salisbury, the Bishop of Chartres in France who died in 1180. John of Salisbury wrote, said Benedict XVI, that natural law is “an objective and immutable truth, the origin of which is in God, a truth accessible to human reason and which concerns practical and social activities.”  From natural law, he added, “human legislation, and political and religious authorities, must draw inspiration in order to promote the common good.” The Holy Father explained that the 12th century […]
News
 • 

U.K. Supreme Court Overturns 3,500-Year-Old Jewish Tradition as “Discriminatory”

By Patrick B. Craine LONDON, England, December 17, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The U.K. Supreme Court overturned a 3,500 year old Jewish tradition yesterday, ruling that the Jewish law of matrilineality violates the country's anti-discrimination laws. The decision came in a case between the Jewish Free School (JFS) and a father who had sought admission for his son.  The son had been denied based on JFS' admissions policy, which gave preference in the event of oversubscription to children confirmed as Jewish by the Office of the Chief Rabbi. According to Jewish law, a child is considered Jewish if his mother is […]
News
 • 

Limerick Bishop Resigns after Sex Abuse Revelations: Pope Benedict “Deeply Disturbed” by Irish Scand

By Hilary White ROME, December 17, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Pope has accepted the resignation of the Catholic bishop of Limerick in the wake of damning revelations of misconduct in cases of clerical sexual abuse of minors in the Dublin diocese between 1974 and 2004. Bishop Donal Brendan Murray, a former auxiliary of Dublin, said in a statement, “I know full well my resignation cannot undo the pain that survivors of abuse have suffered in the past and continue to suffer each day. “I humbly apologise once again to all who were abused as little children.” The resignation of Bishop […]
News
 • 

Christian Groups Can Hire Only Christians Only if Main Purpose is to Spread Faith: OHRC Lawyers

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski TORONTO, December 17, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Lawyers for the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC), presenting their case before a three-judge panel hearing the appeal by Christian Horizons against an OHRC ruling, are arguing that faith-based groups may only use a provincial human rights code exemption allowing them to discriminate when hiring if their main objective is spreading their faith. Christian Horizons operates more than 180 residential homes for people with developmental disabilities and serves about 1,400 people. Although it is funded by the Ontario government at $75 million a year, the agency relies on the religious […]
News
 • 

Obama Signs Omnibus Bill Funding D.C. Abortions, Overseas Providers

By Peter J. Smith WASHINGTON, D.C., December 17, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The District of Columbia now has a green light to allocate some of its federally-funded budget to subsidize the abortions of low-income women after President Barack Obama signed the measure into law as part of a $1.1 trillion omnibus spending package for the 2010 fiscal year. Congress had approved the measure on Sunday, which combines $447 billion funding the federal government's operating budget with $650 billion in payments for existing federal benefit programs. The bill lifts the Dornan amendment, which for thirteen years had prevented the D.C. local government […]
News
 • 

NY Gov. Orders State Agencies to Recognize “Transgender” Civil Rights

By Peter J. Smith ALBANY, New York, December 17, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Gov. David Paterson signed an executive order Wednesday that prohibits state agencies from refusing to hire transsexuals and transvestites. Although state agencies cannot discriminate based on “sexual orientation,” Paterson's order goes further to ban discrimination based on “gender identity and expression in any matter pertaining to employment by the State.” Paterson signed Executive Order No. 33 on Wednesday, putting these regulations into effect. The governor's order directs the Office of Employee Relations to “develop and implement clear and consistent guidelines prohibiting gender identity and expression discrimination by all […]
News
 • 

Updated: Nelson, NRLC, US Bishops Deem New Casey Abortion Compromise ‘Unacceptable’

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., December 17, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Although the full text of Sen. Bob Casey's (D-PA) proposed abortion-funding health bill compromise has not yet been released, major pro-life organizations have already called the new funds-segregation scheme “completely unacceptable” and a violation of the Hyde amendment. Because Casey is widely regarded as one of two pro-life Democrat Senators with Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), pro-lifers were concerned that Casey's amendment might be seriously considered by Nelson, who has been holding out against the bill because of its violation of the Hyde amendment.  If Nelson agreed to the compromise language, it […]
News
 • 

Interview: Pro-Life Counselor Says She was Threatened with Gun by Off-Duty Officer

By Kathleen Gilbert AURORA, Illinois, December 17, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A sidewalk counselor with the Pro-Life Action League has filed a report against an off-duty Chicago police officer, whom she says pulled a gun on her when she approached him and his female companion before they entered Aurora's Planned Parenthood clinic Wednesday morning. Rachelle Crile of Naperville said that the incident occurred around 9 am, after she had gone back into her car to warm up from witnessing outside the abortion facility.  There, she says, she noticed a man and woman in another vehicle pulling up and parking nearby. Since […]
News
 • 

LifeSite Special Report – List of Catholic College Concerns identified by Cardinal Newman Society

Goal: $100,000. Donations received: $46,795. Friday March 17, 2006 List of Catholic College Concerns identified by Cardinal Newman Society The Web page for the American Studies Program at Boston College (Chestnut Hill, MA) offers “Useful Web Links,” including links to “The Abortion Rights Activist Home Page” (appears to be defunct), the “New York Clinic Defense Task Force,” the pro-abortion Feminist Majority Foundation, and the pro-abortion National Organization for Women. These links were reported in the CNS report “The Culture of Death on Catholic Campuses” in 2004. https://www.bc.edu/schools/cas/amstudies/resources/links/gender/ https://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/amerstudies/gender.html The Web site of the College of St. Catherine (St. Paul, MN) […]
News
 • 

Commentary on Dec 12 News – Challenge has been met by six readers, Pope and environment, “Fatherless

Hello LifeSiteNews Readers First the good news. The $1,000 challenge by reader Chris from Pennsylvania was a wonderful success. We have to express tremendous gratitude to Chris for making the challenge. That is, he offered to donate $1,000 if three other LSN readers first donated that amount. Well, today Chris donated his $1,000. That is because Matthew from Austria, Calvin from Georgia, Kevin from New Jersey, Carmen from Surrey, England, Richard from Indiana and the Stoessels from New York State each met the challenge with a $1,000 donation. That's right – Six LifeSiteNews readers donated $1,000 in response to Chris's […]
News
 • 

Editorial: Pope Speaks on Church’s “Grave Misgivings” about Modern Environmentalism

Editorial by John-Henry Westen ROME, December 16, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In comments which received absolutely no mainstream media coverage, Pope Benedict XVI, in his World Day of Peace message issued December 8, explained the skepticism of the leadership of the Church in regard to certain strains of modern environmentalism.  “If the Church's magisterium expresses grave misgivings about notions of the environment inspired by ecocentrism and biocentrism,” he said, “it is because such notions eliminate the difference of identity and worth between the human person and other living things.” The Peace message warned, “In the name of a supposedly egalitarian vision […]
News
 • 

Rwanda Parliament Follows Uganda in Plan to Criminalize Homosexual Acts

By Peter J. Smith KIGALI, Rwanda, December 16, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Rwandan Parliament is now considering legislation that would amend the country's penal code to criminalize homosexual acts, and would impose prison sentences and heavy fines on individuals convicted of engaging in or promoting homosexual behavior. The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission reports that the proposed text of Article 217 of the draft Penal Code Act defines offenders as “[a]ny person who practices, encourages or sensitises people of the same sex, to sexual relation or any sexual practice.” The law's language applies to those who promote homosexuality […]
News
 • 

Ontario Christian Ministry in Court Today Challenging Human Rights Ruling

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski TORONTO, December 16, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The ruling of the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal (OHRT) against a Christian ministry serving disabled people in Ontario is being challenged in the Ontario Divisional Court today. The case involves a former employee of the Evangelical Christian ministry Christian Horizons, who resigned because she had entered into a homosexual relationship, which contravened her commitment to the group's Statement of Faith and Lifestyle Policy. Christian Horizons operates more than 180 residential homes for people with developmental disabilities and serves about 1,400 people. Although it is funded by the Ontario government at […]
News
 • 

Irish Supreme Court Rules Stored Embryos “Not Unborn”: No Protection Under Irish Pro-Life Constituti

By Hilary White DUBLIN, December 16, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An Irish woman has lost her bid in the Supreme Court to have her frozen embryos, left over from her previous in vitro fertilization treatments, implanted in her womb. Despite the Irish constitutional guarantee for the right to life “from conception,” the Supreme Court ruled that the three embryos cannot be implanted against the wishes of the woman's estranged husband. Mary and Thomas Roche underwent IVF treatment in 2001. The five judges ruled that the human embryo does not enjoy protection under Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution that says, “The State […]
News
 • 

Phase 2- $5 For Life and Family

Good Morning Friends, As you can see from the progress bar on our home page, it is only 10 days until Christmas, and we are not yet halfway toward reaching our Christmas fundraiser goal! But all is not lost, because today we are switching into phase two of our Christmas appeal. Last year at this time you might remember that we launched a $5 for Life campaign and so many readers generously responded that it made last year's campaign the most successful in our 12 year history. We figured that if lots of readers gave at least $5, the cumulative […]
News
 • 

TTC TRANSFERS MUST CARRY GAY ADS

Goal: $100,000. Donations received: $38,855. Monday June 7, 1999 TTC TRANSFERS MUST CARRY GAY ADS TORONTO, June 7 (LSN) – The Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) has ruled that the Toronto Transit Commission must place gay, lesbian and bisexual advertisements on TTC transfers and electronic billboards at stations. A discrimination complaint by the homosexualist group Toronto Area Gays and Lesbians produced the ruling from the controversial quasi-judicial tribunal. TTC officials told LifeSite that elected representatives sitting on the public transit commission voted against running the ads. As a result, this ruling is another in a growing list of affronts to […]
News
 • 

Fake Catholic Groups Working Overtime for Healthcare Bill

Commentary by Deal W. Hudson   December 15, 2009 (InsideCatholic.com) – It's sad to report, but report we must: The same fake Catholic groups that helped President Barack Obama get elected have rallied to the cause of the health-care bill, abortion funding and all. As reported by LifeNews.com, Catholics United (CU) and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good (CACG) are warning Catholics not to get too hung up on things like federal funding of abortion. Interviewed by the Christian Science Monitor, CU president Chris Korzen commented, “The wrong thing would be for anyone to be so firmly entrenched in their […]
News
 • 

The Lieberman Pincer: Key Senator “Ready” to Vote for Healthcare under New Deal

By Peter J. Smith WASHINGTON, D.C., December 15, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Furious backroom negotiations and last-minute deals are putting enormous pressure on two key Democratic senators to end their opposition to health care reform and pass the Senate version by President Barack Obama's Christmas deadline. Both Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) are the last public non-GOP holdouts to the current Senate legislation, but the latter has indicated he is now “ready” to vote for health care reform if Senate Democrats follow through on a deal that eliminates the government-insurance mandate. Last night, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid […]
News
 • 

D.C. Council Casts Final Vote to Legalize Same-Sex “Marriage”

By Peter J. Smith WASHINGTON, D.C., December 15, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The District of Columbia City Council voted again this afternoon to approve a measure legalizing same-sex “marriage.” D.C. Council members passed the “Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009” by an 11-2 margin on the final reading of the bill. An identical vote took place on December 1 for the first reading of the bill. The measure will now go to Mayor Adrian Fenty, who has stated his intention to sign the bill into law. Congress will have thirty days to review the law before it […]
News
 • 

Cherie Blair Attacks Church Teaching on Contraception…Again

By Hilary White December 15, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Cherie Blair, the wife of former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, has again attacked the Catholic Church's teaching on sex and contraception, despite her continued claims to be a “devout” Catholic.  In an article in the Tatler, one of England's most venerable society magazines focusing on the lives of the upper classes and elites, Cherie Blair disparaged natural family planning methods, saying, “Personally, I think it is better to go for contraception that works.” Blair again reiterated her theme that it is artificial contraception that has allowed women to “progress.” Contraception, she […]
News
 • 

Court to Hear Arguments against San Francisco’s Anti-Catholic Resolution

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski SAN FRANCISCO, December 15, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A panel of eleven judges of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals sitting in San Francisco will hear oral arguments tomorrow, December 16, concerning the constitutionality of the San Francisco Board of Supervisor's resolution attacking the Catholic Church for its teachings against homosexual adoptions. The en banc panel, consisting of all the judges of the court, will review the earlier opinion of a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit that upheld the resolution. The anti-Catholic resolution, adopted March 21, 2006, was challenged by the Thomas More Law Center, a […]
News
 • 

Pro-Life Action League Goes Christmas Caroling at Chicago-Area Abortion Facilities

CHICAGO, Dec. 15, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Pro-Life Action League will hold its seventh annual “Empty Manger” Christmas Caroling Day on Saturday, December 19. Two caroling tours will take place, one visiting four Chicago abortion facilities and one visiting four in DuPage County. “The Christmas story is a story of hope and joy brought into the world by a newborn baby,” said League communications director Eric Scheidler. “We want abortion-bound mothers in Chicago and the western suburbs to know that their unborn babies are a gift, too.” The League has saved babies from abortion in past years when their mothers heard […]
News
 • 

Milwaukee Archbishop: You Can’t Call Yourself Catholic and Support Contraception

By John-Henry Westen MILWAUKEE, December 15, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The incoming Archbishop of Milwaukee, Jerome Listecki, has responded to a campaign by “Young Catholics for Choice” to promote use of contraception and abortion among Catholic youth.  Using media advertising the group is, says the Archbishop-Designate, “attempting to convey the message that Catholics can disregard Church teaching regarding contraception, abortion and human sexuality in general and remain Catholics in good standing.”  However, “Nothing could be further from the truth.” “While people can call themselves whatever they want, it is my duty as a bishop to state clearly and unequivocally that by […]
News
 • 

Half of Urban Teen Girls Acquire STIs within 2 Years of First Sexual Activity

INDIANAPOLIS, December 15, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Half of urban teenage girls may acquire at least one of three common sexually transmitted infections (STI) within two years of becoming sexually active, according to an Indiana University School of Medicine and Regenstrief Institute study. The study appears in the December 2009 issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. The researchers followed 381 girls enrolled at ages 14 to 17 years and found that repeated infection with the organisms that cause chlamydia, gonorrhea and trichomoniasis also was very common. “Depending on the organism, within four to six months after treatment of the […]
News
 • 

Urgent Webcast Tonight to Combat Abortion-Funding Healthcare Bill

By James Tillman WASHINGTON, DC, December 15, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com)—Tonight prominent pro-life figures from across the nation will be speaking live in an urgent Stop the Abortion Mandate webcast designed to educate about the dangers of the abortion-funding healthcare bill in the Senate and about how to prevent the bill from being passed. The webcast is run by Stop the Abortion Mandate Coalition, an alliance of over 50 pro-life and pro-family organizations that have banded together to stop what the Coalition calls the biggest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade.  It aims to help viewers prevent abortion industry lobbyists from […]
News
 • 

U.S. Archbishop: Life Concerns Paramount And Eclipse Any Other Considerations When Voting

Goal: $100,000. Donations received: $32,165. Tuesday May 4, 2004 U.S. Archbishop: Life Concerns Paramount And Eclipse Any Other Considerations When Voting Political compromise possible on many social justice issues but not abortion NEWARK, NJ, May 4, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Archbishop John Myers of Newark, New Jersey has issued a pastoral statement to the Catholics of his diocese bringing a close to many debates around abortion and its political ramifications. “There is no right more fundamental than the right to be born and reared with all the dignity the human person deserves,” says the Archbishop. “On this grave issue, public officials […]
News
 • 

AUSTRIAN BISHOP SAYS ABORTION LAW REFLECTS “THE SPIRIT OF NAZIS”

Goal: $100,000. Donations received: $32,165. Monday December 11, 2000 AUSTRIAN BISHOP SAYS ABORTION LAW REFLECTS “THE SPIRIT OF NAZIS” SALZBURG, Dec 11, 2000 (LSN.ca) – The auxiliary bishop of Salzburg Andreas Laun was quoted in an Austrian news magazine speaking about the country’s law permitting abortion. “The abortion law has a common denominator with the spirit of the Nazis and of communism: We may kill,” said Bishop Laun in an interview with the Austrian magazine News. (https://www.news.at/magazin/) Speaking about the law which allows women to abort “severely disabled” babies up to the ninth month of pregnancy he said that “Hitler […]
News
 • 

Challenge From LifeSiteNews Reader

An avid LifeSiteNews reader, who we don't personally know, emailed over the weekend to express his disappointment about the slow progress of our Christmas season fundraiser. Chris from Yardley, Pennsylvania decided to do something to try to get people moving on this campaign. So he made an offer. He wrote: “I'd like to offer a 'seed' gift. If you can find 3 more people willing to contribute $1,000 each, I will personally contribute $1,000. My offer is good for the duration of your current campaign. I have been contributing $20 per month for the last couple of years.” That's quite a jump […]
News
 • 

Commentary on Dec. 14 News Reports

By Steve Jalsevac December 14, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – So the outlook for the Senate Health Care bill is grim say some of the US Senators. Many are hoping that is true, but Americans have been repeatedly warned by pro-life, pro-family organization leaders not to underestimate the resolve and deviousness of the Obama administration. That is, hard work against the bill cannot let up until the issue is resolved. The bill passed on Sunday in the US Senate confirms the Democrats' fanatical commitment to abortion. They will continue to relentlessly pursue their agenda. Take a few minutes to watch the video […]
News
 • 

More Reaction to Diane Francis Call for Worldwide Implementation of China’s One-Child Policy

By Steve Jalsevac December 14, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In addition to strong criticisms from Laura Ingraham on the Fox Network and Canadian MP Maurice Vellacott, there is increasing outrage to the blunt, sincerely meant comments by National Post editor-at-large Diane Francis advocating worldwide adoption of the Chinese one-child policy as a solution to climate change. Francis's column is only the latest in a growing number of calls for de-population as a principal solution to climate change. The Chinese delegation to Copenhagen has been urging international adoption of a population policy similar to their forced one-child program. A report by Britain's Optimum Trust suggests that the 10 metric tons of carbon […]
News
 • 

Largest Ever March for Life in Netherlands Held December 12th

By Michael van der Mast and Bert Block Cry for Life, the Netherlands November 14, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Dutch annual March For Life was held on Saturday, December 12, 2009. The event was organized by Cry for Life and Christians for Truth and attracted some 700 participants – the largest number ever since the marches began 17 years ago.   The March For Life is held each year in December, commemorating the date – December 18, 1980 - when abortion was approved in the Dutch Parliament. Currently abortion up to the 24th week is allowed. The 2009 March started from […]
News
 • 

Catholic University Promotes Abortion Advocates as “Professional Resources”

By Matt Anderson DETROIT, MI, December 14, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A list on the library website for the University of Detroit Mercy – a Catholic university – promotes a number of abortion advocacy groups as “professional resources” for the university's Women's and Gender Studies discipline. The site lists organizations such as Planned Parenthood and the pro-abortion National Organization for Women (NOW) as resources for students seeking a professional perspective on Women's and Gender Studies. Of the nine organizations listed as professional resources, three (Planned Parenthood, NOW, and League of Women Voters) openly support abortion. Two other organizations listed on the […]
News
 • 

Congress Approves Funding for D.C. Abortions, Overseas Providers

By Peter J. Smith WASHINGTON, D.C., December 14, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The US Senate has voted to approve a must-pass spending bill that lifts the ban on the District of Columbia using its budget to subsidize abortions. The bill also funnels hundreds of millions of dollars to abortion-advocacy groups overseas, including the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). On Sunday, the Senate voted to approve the Consolidated Appropriations Act (H.R. 3288), already passed by the House of Representatives, which funds the operations of the federal government, but has many anti-life provisions tucked within the legislation. The $1.1 trillion omnibus spending billion, […]
News
 • 

Most Americans Want To Hear “Merry Christmas”: Poll

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski December 14, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A poll of attitudes to Christmas released by Rasmussen Reports recently says that the vast majority of Americans celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday and prefer to hear the traditional greeting of “Merry Christmas” over the politically correct “Happy Holidays.” Furthermore the survey finds that 76% of adults believe religious symbols like Christmas Nativity scenes, Hanukkah menorahs and Muslim crescents should be allowed to be displayed in public spaces such as schools, government buildings and parks. Eighty-three percent (83%) believe public schools should celebrate religious holidays. This figure includes 47% who […]
News
 • 

NJ Abortion Clinic Pays $1.9 Million for Botched Abortion

ENGLEWOOD, NJ, December 14, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A troubled New Jersey abortion facility affiliated with the National Abortion Federation (NAF) has paid out $1.9 million to settle a lawsuit brought by a Rasheedah Dinkins, who suffered a horrifically botched second trimester abortion in 2007. The huge pay-out raises questions about the quality and safety of abortion facilities that will be eligible for tax-funding should health care reform now under consideration in the Senate include abortion coverage. “We also have to wonder if taxpayers will be footing the bill for enormous malpractice settlements for botched abortions done on the public option […]
News
 • 

Outlook for Senate Health Bill Grim: Senators

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., December 14, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The two steadiest non-GOP votes against the senate health care bill reaffirmed this weekend that attempts at compromise so far have not won their support, and that the prospects for the bill continue to grow dimmer as time passes.  While one Democrat senator claimed that there was, to the contrary, “tremendous momentum” behind the bill, the latest voter poll shows opposition holding a steady majority among American voters. “The opposition to it has been growing as the week has gone on,” Independent Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut said on CBS's […]
News
 • 

Planned Parenthood Says Live Action Video “False and Inflammatory”

By James Tillman APPLETON, WI, December 14, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com)—Following the release of an undercover video revealing Appleton Planned Parenthood employees giving information called “absurd and scientifically erroneous” by two medical doctors, the organization has released a statement claiming that “Planned Parenthood's standard is to provide honest, medically accurate information” and calling Live Action's claims “false and inflammatory.” On December 9th, Live Action Films released a video showing a Planned Parenthood counselor claiming that fetal heartbeats begin at 17-18 weeks, over twelve weeks later than heartbeats in fact begin. Wisconsin informed consent law requires that women receive medically accurate information before undergoing […]
News
 • 

Canada’s Conservative Gov’t Gave $80 Million To De-Population Groups in 2006/07

Goal: $100,000. Donations received: $32,165. Tuesday November 27, 2007 Canada’s Conservative Gov’t Gave $80 Million To De-Population Groups in 2006/07 Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) is agency doing funding By Hilary White OTTAWA, November 27, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Information available from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) shows that Canada’s Conservative government is donating millions that will help fund the anti-life activities of the United Nations Population Fund, International Planned Parenthood and UNICEF, all under the auspices of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). The CTF compiled a list of the top 100 contributions paid by the Conservatives for the 2006/07 […]
News
 • 

Life Versus Death; Beggars Versus Giants

Goal: $100,000. Donations received: $28,319. Thursday October 29, 2009 Life Versus Death; Beggars Versus Giants Special Report Commentary By Steve Jalsevac Note: There has been much discussion lately among pro-life leaders about the chronic lack of resources the movement has had to endure during its existence while fighting the great battle against the Culture of Death. This article is one I believe has been needed for some time, and now more than ever. 40 years of this battle is a long time. It will be won, but certain things must finally happen to bring that about. This article addresses some […]
News
 • 

For Your Children, Your Grandchildren, the Future of Your Nation – For Life and Truth

By Steve Jalsevac At the end of October I wrote an in-depth article titled, Life vs Death: Beggars vs Giants, about the constant struggles of pro-life, pro-family organizations to obtain even the bare minimum resources required to do their job - the job that Pope John Paul II called “the most important work in the world” and which Benedict XVI said concerns a “duty upon which the future of humanity depends.” The past few days of the giant Copenhagen conference have abundantly illustrated one of the crucial points in that article – the opponents of life and family are massively funded, with hundreds of millions, […]
News
 • 

US Senate Poised to Approve Bill Funding D.C. Abortions, Overseas Abortion Providers

By Peter J. Smith WASHINGTON, D.C., December 11, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The US Senate is poised to approve a must-pass spending bill, which allows the District of Columbia to subsidize abortions and gives abortion-advocacy groups overseas, including the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), access to millions of dollars related to “family planning.” The omnibus appropriations bill, the Consolidated Appropriations Act (H.R. 3288), passed by the House of Representatives on Thursday 221-202, with one abstention. The measure funds the operations of the federal government, but has many anti-life provisions which provoked pro-life Democrats to join with House Republicans in trying to […]
News
 • 

Dutch MP: Homosexual Sexual Education Should be Mandatory

By James Tillman AMSTERDAM, December 11, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – According to Dutch member of parliament Boris van der Ham, of the liberal Democrats 66 party, the government should mandate that all schools, including religious schools, include homosexuality as a topic in their sexual education classes. “Too many children are raised with a homophobic morality,” said Van der Ham. ”Although this is more common in urban immigrant families, rural Dutch families also have such prejudices. Schools should correct that image.” The MP's statement was timed to coincide with a Thursday debate upon that subject. Six pro-homosexual organizations have sent a joint letter to the […]
News
 • 

The 15 Catholic Senators Who Nixed Nelson

WASHINGTON, D.C., December 11, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Of the 54 senators who voted against the Nelson/Hatch/Casey amendment, which would have restored Hyde-amendment restrictions on federal funding of abortion in the health care overhaul, 15 were professed Catholics. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) was the only Catholic Republican to vote against the Nelson/Casey/Hatch amendment; Senators Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Ted Kaufman of Delaware were the only Catholic Democrats to support it. The Catholic senators who voted against the Nelson/Casey/Hatch Amendment and their local bishops and links to contact their bishops are as follows: Patrick Leahy (D-VT): Burlington Bishop Salvatore R. Matano John […]
News
 • 

“Life is Short. Have an Affair.”: Toronto Transit System Rejects Adultery-Promoting Ad

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski TORONTO, December 11, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) today rejected a proposed advertizing campaign that woulud have involved wrapping its streetcars with advertisements for the Ashley Madison Agency, an online dating site that promotes adultery. The advertising plan would have seen one of the city's streetcars wrapped in purple with the phrase, “Life is short. Have an affair,” in bold letters running from front to back on both sides. The phrase would also occupy every ad slot inside the vehicle. Ashley Madison CEO Noel Biderman told the media that, if the initial ads were successful, he […]
News
 • 

Germany Jails Eight Christian Fathers for Removing Children from Sex-Ed Class

By Peter J. Smith WESTPHALIA, Germany, December 11, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – At least eight Russo-German families in Salzkotten, Germany, have suffered heavy fines and now their fathers have been sentenced to prison, because they have refused to send their elementary school-age children to mandatory sexual education classes. The International Human Rights Group, a Christian legal defense organization that defends religious liberty and the right to homeschool in Europe, reports that in addition to refusing to allow their children to attend sex-ed classes, the families also resisted having their children enlisted in a theatre production of “Mein Körper gehört mir” or […]
News
 • 

Copenhagen Anti-Population Push Coming from UN

By Patrick B. Craine LONDON, England, December 11, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Leading up to this month's conference on “climate change” in Copenhagen, Denmark, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) issued their annual State of World Population 2009 report, in which they called for reducing population in the interest of the environment.  The report is further confirmation of the claims made by pro-life leaders that the current environmentalist effort is being used to advance an anti-life agenda. “Rapid population growth and industrialization have led to a rapid rise in greenhouse gas emissions,” states UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Obaid.  “We have now reached […]
News
 • 

Appeals Court Hears Lisa Miller Case as Custody Transfer Looms

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia, December 11, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – On Wednesday, Liberty Counsel lawyers appeared in court to defend Lisa Miller. Last month a Vermont court ordered the custody of Miller's biological daughter transferred to her former lesbian lover.  The ACLU and Lambda Legal Defense Fund are seeking to transfer custody of 7-year-old Isabella to Janet Jenkins, a Vermont resident who lived with Miller in that state before the latter's conversion from the homosexual lifestyle.  Miller met with the ire of a Vermont judge after she refused to send her daughter to scheduled visitations with Jenkins because, she says, Isabella has been […]
News
 • 

Civil Unions Bill Passed in Austria

By Hilary White VIENNA, December 11, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Austria's parliament has passed legislation allowing homosexual partners to enter into formal civil unions. Lawmakers voted 110-64 in favor of the measure, which will come into effect January 1st. It gives same-sex partners the same rights as heterosexual couples in civil unions in financial areas including tax, pension and maintenance. However, it does not allow same-sex partners to adopt children or receive fertility treatments like IVF or artificial insemination. Under pressure from a decision by the European Court of Human Rights, in 2003 Austria granted same-sex partners the same rights as […]
News
 • 

Commentary: Mexican Victories Underscore Global Pro-Life Trend

By Piero A. Tozzi, J.D. NEW YORK, December 11, 2009 (C-FAM) – Mexican pro-lifers were elated when the Vera Cruz amended its state constitution last month to protect life from the moment of conception, joining 16 other Mexican states. The vote set the stage for a possible amendment to the federal constitution: under Mexico's constitution, approval by a majority of the 32 state legislatures and two-thirds of the bicameral Congress is a prerequisite for any federal amendment. Mexican abortion advocates who cheered last year's limited Supreme Court decision upholding a liberalized Mexico City abortion law did not foresee such a popular […]
News
 • 

Prominent Canadian Journalist Calls for Imposed Planetary One-Child Policy

By John-Henry Westen TORONTO, December 9, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a column published yesterday in one of the major Canadian national newspapers, Diane Francis, the Editor-at-Large of the National Post, has called for a globally enforced one-child policy taken after the example of China.  “A planetary law, such as China's one-child policy, is the only way to reverse the disastrous global birthrate currently of one million births every four days,” writes Francis. Commenting on the ongoing climate talks in Copenhagen, where world leaders are deliberating on possible solutions to hypothetical environmental catastrophes, Francis says, “None will work unless a China […]
News
 • 

Updated: City Orders Acknowledgement of Pro-Life Donor Removed from Public Nativity Display

By Patrick B. Craine and John-Henry Westen TORONTO, Ontario, December 10, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Campaign Life Catholic (CLC), a branch of the pro-life organization, Campaign Life Coalition, has come under media fire in the last day following a controversy related to a donation they made this year to help another organization purchase figurines for a public nativity scene. CLC Catholic had donated $5000 for figurines for a nativity scene erected by the Catholic lay movement, Gethsemane Ministries, in front of Toronto's Old City Hall courthouse.  Affixed to the display was an 8 ½  X 11 in. laminated paper sign noting that the display had been […]
News
 • 

Pastor Rick Warren: Obama’s Plan to Make Abortion “Legal” and “Rare” Contradictory

By Peter J. Smith LOS ANGELES, December 10, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Prominent evangelical Pastor Rick Warren and author of the immensely popular book, “Purpose Driven Life,” says that he prays for President Barack Obama as he addresses the nation's economic crisis and health-care reform. However, he says the president's position on keeping abortion “rare” actually depends on the contradictory premise that all life begins at conception. Warren made his comments during a Nov. 29 appearance on Meet the Press, saying that 36 years of legal abortion since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision has created a real “holocaust.” “We've had […]
News
 • 

BC Christian Dad Backs Away from Human Rights Complaint against School District

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski SURREY, British Columbia, December 10, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A BC father who had filed a complaint with the province's Human Rights Tribunal against his sons' elementary school for refusing him space to hold a Bible study group has withdrawn his charge after experiencing what he described as a “storm of controversy” over his actions. Paul Jubenvill filed a complaint with the tribunal on Dec. 1 alleging his religious rights were violated after the Colebrook Elementary School turned down his request to run a lunchtime Bible study club. At the beginning of November, Mr. Jubenvill contacted the […]
News
 • 

U.K. Church Could Face Prosecution for Refusing to Ordain Women, Homosexuals: Bishops

By Patrick B. Craine LONDON, England, December 10, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Catholic Bishops of England and Wales have warned that they could be prosecuted under Britain's proposed Equality Bill for refusing to allow married men, women, practicing homosexuals, and 'transsexuals' into the priesthood, reports the Catholic News Service (CNS). The Equality Bill seeks, in part, to apply anti-discrimination laws to churches and religious institutions, requiring them to hire practicing homosexuals and 'transsexuals' for positions such as youth workers. The bishops stated, however, in a new brief to Catholic members of the House of Lords, that the bill also defines […]
News
 • 

Bishops Deeply Disappointed by Senate Vote to Table Nelson-Hatch-Casey Amendment

WASHINGTON, December 10, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – On Tuesday, the US Senate voted to table the Nelson Amendment, which would have established Hyde-amendment funding restrictions on abortion in the health reform bill currently before the Senate. The US Catholic bishops, who were instrumental in ensuring that a similar amendment was passed in the House version of the bill last month, condemned Tuesday's vote. “The Senate vote to table the Nelson-Hatch-Casey amendment is a grave mistake and a serious blow to genuine health care reform,” said Cardinal Francis George, President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). “The Senate is ignoring […]
News
 • 

Young Pro-life Europeans Demonstrate for Life at Strasbourg Court

By Hilary White STRASBOURG, December 10, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Young pro-life advocates from across Europe demonstrated in Strasbourg yesterday as the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) heard arguments in the case of three Irish women who have demanded that their country abandon its legal protections for the unborn. At a vigil, organised by Liam Gibson of SPUC Northern Ireland, pro-life young people from Ireland, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, and Romania held placards outside the court reading, “Europe needs children not abortion,” “Hands off Ireland's pro-life laws” and “Abortion kills children.” Members of the Irish pro-life group Youth […]
News
 • 

Pro-Lifers Fear Disastrous Decision in “Roe v. Wade of Europe” Case

By Hilary White STRASBOURG, December 10, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pro-life advocates involved in the “A, B and C v. Ireland” case fear that the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is preparing to issue “an activist” decision that could lead to the abolition of the pro-life amendment of Ireland's constitution. The ECHR heard arguments yesterday in the case that has been described as the “Roe v. Wade of Europe.” Three women, two Irish nationals and one Lithuanian, who live in Ireland and obtained abortions in the UK, have complained to the Court that had they been allowed to have had […]
News
 • 

Lord Monckton Warns Obama Will Attempt Use of Executive Authority to Commit US to Copenhagen Agreeme

By Steve Jalsevac COPENHAGEN, December 9, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a brief video released on the Internet, Lord Christopher Monkton is seen giving a speech today in Copenhagen warning that President Obama will try to use his Executive Authority to sign an agreement, rather than a treaty, to commit the United States to undertake measures against climate change that will seriously damage the freedoms and prosperity of America. Monkton states, “President Obama is going to come here (Copenhagen) and sign the Copenhagen Agreement.” He says it's no longer being called a treaty specifically because US Senators “know they can't get a […]
News
 • 

Who Are the Notre Dame 88?

BACKGROUND On May 17, 2009, the University of Notre Dame, considered by many to be the United States' foremost Catholic University, honored President Barack Obama by making him the keynote speaker at its commencement ceremonies and awarding him an honorary degree. This scandal was opposed by over 80 U.S. bishops, many of whom argued that in so honoring the President, the university had violated a policy issued by the U.S. bishops that states that Catholic institutions should not “honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles.”   In addition, literally hundreds of thousands of concerned pro-lifers and Catholics […]
News
 • 

Belgian Doctor Cleared of Murder Charges after Euthanizing 88-year-old, Non-Terminally-Ill Woman

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski BRUSSELS, December 9, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Belgian judge has decide not to prosecute a doctor specializing in euthanasia after he was accused of murdering a woman who came to him seeking death, but who was not terminally ill. Dr. Marc Cosyns of Ghent euthanized the 88-year-old woman on January 5, 2008 after her own doctor had opposed the request for euthanasia. It was reported that the woman had an incurable disease that was not terminal and suffered from several other ailments. The woman's son filed a complaint with the public prosecutor after he learned of […]
News
 • 

Planned Parenthood Caught on Tape Lying about Pre-Natal Development

APPLETON, WI, December 9, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Live Action films just released a new video featuring Planned Parenthood employees lying about pre-natal development and encouraging a young woman to obtain an abortion because “women die having babies.” In an undercover video, filmed in an Appleton, WI, Planned Parenthood abortion facility, a counselor says that a 10-week old unborn child has no heart beat, only “heart tones,” which she says begin at 7 weeks.  In fact, heartbeats begin at roughly 3 weeks. Wisconsin informed consent law requires that women receive medically accurate information before undergoing an abortion.  Live Action president Lila […]
News
 • 

Harry Reid Stands by Slavery Comparison for Health-care Opponents

By Peter J. Smith WASHINGTON, D.C., December 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is not a likely candidate to write a sequel to the book “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” especially when it comes to winning over the opposition to health-care reform. In one broad sweep, the Democratic Leader on Monday tarred all opponents of health-care reform with the same brush as Americans who once opposed ending slavery or extending civil rights to women and Blacks, and he has refused to back down from his analogy. Instead, the Nevada Democrat on Tuesday castigated Republicans […]
News
 • 

Pro-Life Leaders Launch Opposition to Senate Health Bill Following Nelson Amendment Demise

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., December 9, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Following the defeat of the Nelson/Hatch/Casey amendment Tuesday evening,  pro-life leaders are calling on senators to oppose the Senate health care bill as it heads towards a final vote, which lawmakers expect will happen before the end of the year. The Senate voted 54-45 Tuesday evening to table the Nelson/Hatch/Casey amendment, effectively killing the language that would have applied Hyde-amendment restrictions on federal funding of abortion to the health care overhaul.  The “tabling” vote allowed Democrats to do away with the Nelson amendment without the 60 votes needed to overcome […]
News
 • 

Who’s Afraid of the Apostolic Visitation?: A Vatican Investigation Seen Through the Eyes of a Conver

By Nancy Heise December 9, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – I recently received an email from a friend of mine who is a married Catholic ex-nun. She forwarded an article in the New York Times called “A Nun's Story” by columnist Maureen Dowd – a critical essay of Pope Benedict, the Catholic Church and its ongoing investigation of US women religious. Essentially, the article screams to readers, “Who do they think they are?” My friend echoed this sentiment and called the Vatican investigation a “witch hunt.” “A witch hunt” – I was shocked to see anyone characterize the investigation this way. I thought […]
News
 • 

Moral and Mental Pollution from the Media “Harden Hearts and Darken Minds”: Pope Benedict

By Hilary White, Rome correspondent ROME, December 10, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – While the world's leaders are meeting in Copenhagen to talk about the problem of “climate change,” Pope Benedict XVI has addressed the problem of moral pollution through the media. Speaking on Monday at an annual ceremony near Rome's Spanish Steps for the feast of the Immaculate Conception, the pope said that pollution of society's moral environment is as dangerous to the human person as pollution of the natural environment. The pontiff said, “Hearts harden and thoughts darken” with a daily diet of the news media in which “evil is […]
News
 • 

The Big Picture

Good Morning Friend, During the time that it will take you to read this article, roughly 400 babies will have been murdered in their mother's wombs around the world. What would you sacrifice to stop this injustice? Of course you and I know that abortion is only one of the many injustices that LSN stands against everyday in defiance of the culture of death.  And we also know that LSN reports have proven time and again to result in effective actions taken against these injustices.   Through LSN, your donation: saves lives educates our culture with facts not publicized by the […]
News
 • 

Commentary: Another Major Problem with the Senate Health Care Bill: Sex Ed

Commentary by Colin Mason December 9, 2009 (www.pop.org/) – It's funny, the things that never make the news. Take the recent amendment to the Senate health care plan by Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus (D-MT). This language allocates hundreds of millions of dollars of your money toward “Personal Responsibility Education for Adulthood Training.” What can this possibly mean? According to the amendment's mostly vague language, $400 million from the years 2010 to 2015 will be spent on “evidence-based effective programs” that will supposedly teach kids “healthy life skills,” including things like “goal-setting, decision making, negotiation, communication and interpersonal skills, […]
News
 • 

Canadian Bishops Announce Ad Hoc Committee to Review D&P

By Patrick B. Craine OTTAWA, Ontario, December 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) has set up an ad hoc committee of four bishops to review their international development arm, the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace (D&P) “The focus of the committee is to help Development and Peace to review its mandate and to see how they can adjust to the last encyclical letter of the Pope, Caritas in Veritate,” said CCCB president Bishop Pierre Morissette, in an interview with Canadian Catholic News (CCN).  “We think that there is a lot of very helpful […]
News
 • 

Senate Kills Nelson Amendment Restricting Abortion Funding

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., December 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Senate voted 54-45 Tuesday evening to table the Nelson/Hatch/Casey amendment, effectively killing the language that would have restricted abortion funding in the healthcare bill. The tabling vote allowed Democrats to do away with the Nelson amendment without the 60 votes needed in an up-or-down vote. The Nelson/Hatch/Casey amendment would have mirrored the House's Stupak amendment, which preserved federal Hyde-amendment policy in that chamber's bill by banning government-appropriated funds from paying for most abortions.
News
 • 

White House Compares Gallup to ‘a 6-Year-Old with a Crayon’ Following Drop in Approval Ratings

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., December 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Responding to news that President Obama's approval ratings in Gallup's daily tracking poll have dropped to an all-time low, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs on Tuesday mocked Gallup's reliability, likening its charts to a wobbly EKG monitor and 6-year-old's crayon scribblings. “I tell you, if I was a heart patient and Gallup was my EKG, I'd visit my doctor,” Gibbs said of the influential polling organization, according to Politico. “If you look back, I think five days ago, there was an 11-point spread, now there's a 1-point spread,” he […]
News
 • 

35 Senators Issue Letter Opposing Attempt to Fund Abortions through Appropriations Bill

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., December 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Thirty-five senators today vowed to oppose a vital omnibus appropriations bill if Democratic leaders attempted to use it as a vehicle to overturn a number of longstanding pro-life policies. The policy changes have already been inserted into committee versions of two pieces of omnibus appropriations legislation.  Because five of the twelve Fiscal Year 2009 bills have not yet been passed, Democratic leaders are currently crafting a catch-all bill that will encompass all remaining omnibus appropriations legislation, including those with the controversial abortion policy changes.  The possible abortion-related provisions at issue […]
News
 • 

Researcher to Dutch Government: Allow Euthanasia for Newborns Based on Foreseeable Suffering

By Patrick B. Craine   AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, December 7, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Dutch health researcher has called on the nation's government to allow physicians to euthanize newborns based on foreseen suffering, rather than only actual suffering, reports the Dutch medical journal Zorgkrant.    Hilde Buiting, maintains that such an amendment would only conform the law to the current practice among physicians.   “The current guidelines state that there must be actual grave suffering on the part of the newborn,” she said, as quoted in Zorgkrant.  “In practice, physicians look not only to the actual suffering of the sick newborn, […]
News
 • 

NJ Committee Passes Same-Sex ‘Marriage’ Bill: Senate Vote Expected Thursday

By Kathleen Gilbert TRENTON, New Jersey, December 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Following several hours of impassioned debate, New Jersey's Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday allowed a same-sex “marriage” bill to continue to the full Senate for a vote as early as Thursday. State lawmakers voted 7-6 Monday evening to give the green light to the bill in hopes that it will reach the desk of Democrat Gov. Jon Corzine before he leaves office in six weeks.  Corzine, a same-sex “marriage” advocate, will be replaced in January by Republican Chris Christie, who has vowed to veto any such legislation. Debate on […]
News
 • 

Senators Go Head-to-Head Over Nelson/Hatch/Casey Amendment

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., December 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Senators debating President Obama's health care overhaul Monday and Tuesday went head-to-head on the Nelson/Hatch/Casey amendment, with pro-life senators arguing that the amendment would restore Hyde-amendment protections in the bill, and pro-abortion senators claiming that the bill already does so. However, the amendment, which mirrors the Stupak amendment in the House health care bill, was voted on and defeated on Tuesday evening in a 54-45 vote. After introducing the long-awaited language, Sen. Ben Nelson on Monday said that the health care overhaul “should not be used to open a new avenue […]
News
 • 

Colombia’s Inspector General Demands Morning-After Pill Be Taken Off Market

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski BOGOTA, December 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Colombia's pro-life Inspector General, Alejandro Ordoñez, has demanded that morning-after pills containing the abortifacient drug Levonorgestrel be taken off the market, because the pills can be used to abort pregnancies. According to the Inspector General, using pills with Levonorgestrel is “a clear violation of the right to life, as with fertilization a new human life begins.” The drug can disrupt ovulation, but numerous studies have also shown that it is abortifacient since, if taken within three days after intercourse, it inhibits the implantation of the already fertilized ovum into the […]
News
 • 

New Zealand Abortion Rate Drops Slightly

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski WELLINGTON, December 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – New Zealand's Abortion Supervisory Committee (ASC) reported today that 17,940 abortions were performed last year, a drop of 892 from the 18,832 unborn babies that were killed in 2007. The ASC's report did not make any comment or offer an explanation for the fall in abortion rates but did note that New Zealand has a “high abortion rate in comparison to other countries.” According to the ASC statistics, the women of New Zealand have three times as many abortions as those in the Netherlands and Germany. However, the ratio of abortions […]
News
 • 

Evangelical Alliance in Ireland Supports Civil Unions Bill

By Hilary White DUBLIN, December 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Some Evangelicals in Ireland are supporting the government's civil partnership bill, introduced in June, that will grant some of the rights and privileges of marriage to homosexual partners. Evangelical Alliance Ireland has issued a statement saying, “The government is seeking to legislate for greater justice and fairness for co-habiting couples, both same-sex and opposite-sex couples. As Christians we should support that stance.” The Alliance said that the bill “does not directly challenge the traditional understandings of marriage in Ireland.” “Same-sex couples are now a part of life in Ireland,” the statement […]
News
 • 

Pope Warns against “Deceitful” Marxist-Based Theology to Brazilian Bishops

By Hilary White, Rome Correspondent ROME, December 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pope Benedict XVI has decried the “long painful night of violence and oppression” that was the communist rule in Germany, and, in the same week, commemorated the suppression of Marxist-inspired Liberation Theology pushed by many Catholic churchmen in Latin America in recent decades. In an address to the Catholic bishops of Brazil visiting Rome, Pope Benedict recalled the 25th anniversary of the document “Libertatis nuntius” by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which condemned Marxist Liberation Theology trends. Pope Benedict said in his address on Saturday that […]
News
 • 

Maine Reporter Fired for Personal E-mail Rebutting Criticisms of Traditional Marriage Supporters

By Kathleen Gilbert WINSLOW, Maine, December 7, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Maine reporter is combating his termination after he says he was fired from his job for issuing a personal email rebutting a homosexualist group's defamation of true marriage advocates. 58-year-old Larry Grard of Winslow, Maine, says that he was fired from his 19-year post at Maine Today Media's Morning Sentinel after local Human Rights Campaign leader Trevor Thomas complained about an email rebuttal Grard sent on his personal email account.  Grard says he was provoked to respond to a press release by Thomas which was issued following the November […]
News
 • 

US Catholic Sisters Lash out at Vatican Visitation

By Hilary White December 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Some groups of American Catholic sisters are continuing to defy the Vatican's attempts to assess their lifestyles and choice of mission. Many say they are simply refusing to fill out the questionnaire for the Vatican's Apostolic Visitation, an investigation into the lives and work of the remaining US religious orders. Others have complained that the Vatican has not been forthcoming about the reason for the investigation and say they fear being forced back into more traditional patterns of religious life. Sister Elizabeth Ohmann, a Franciscan nun who works for Humane Borders, an […]
News
 • 

Obamas Wanted a Non-Religious Christmas: White House Social Secretary

By James Tillman WASHINGTON, DC, December 7, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com)—The Obamas were planning a “non-religious Christmas” and intended not to put the traditional White House créche scene on display. White House Social Secretary Desirée Rogers reportedly told a meeting of former secretaries that the Obamas did not intend to put the manger scene on display – a suggestion that was greeted by an “audible gasp” from her audience.  The White House confirmed that there had been discussion regarding whether to make Christmas more “inclusive.” Despite such discussions, the White House eventually bowed to tradition, reports the NY Times; the creche scene is now […]
News
 • 

Report: Over Two-Thirds of All Abortion Clinics Have Closed Since 1991

WICHITA, KS, December 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Operation Rescue has just released the results of an extensive research project into the abortion industry showing that the number of abortion facilities continues to dwindle as Americans become more pro-life. “We now have an accurate listing of every open abortion clinic in the country,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. “In 1991, it was estimated that there were nearly 2,200 abortion clinics in the country, today there are just 713. The pro-life movement has made significant strides exposing and closing abortion clinics and shifting public opinion toward the pro-life position. This has resulted in […]
News
 • 

Commentary on December 7 News

Dear Readers, The expected vote in the US Senate Monday on the Nelson-Hatch Amendment did not happen. It will likely take place Tuesday. Big time arm twisting is taking place in Washington. In today’s lead story there are links to recordings where you see and hear Senator Kohl make a promise to vote against funding for abortion in the health care bill. Caught on tape. Explicit. Definite. He should be held to that by the people of his state. But after all, it is the right thing to do anyway. The giant fossil fuel burning, energy gobbling, CO2 spewing Copenhagen summit […]
News
 • 

Selection of First Open Lesbian Bishop Furthers Split in Anglican Communion

By Peter J. Smith LOS ANGELES, December 7, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The breach in the worldwide Anglican Communion is continuing to widen in the wake of the US Episcopal Church's decision to ordain an open lesbian as bishop of the Los Angeles Archdiocese. The Rev. Canon Mary D. Glasspool of Baltimore, who is living with her homosexual partner, was narrowly elected on the seventh ballot to serve as a suffragan, or assistant bishop, of the Los Angeles Archdiocese. She will become the first lesbian bishop in the worldwide Anglican Communion once she is installed as scheduled in May. The decision […]
News
 • 

NY Woman Charged with ‘Attempted Abortion’ After Alleged Bid to Kill Rival’s Baby

By Kathleen Gilbert BROOKLYN, New York, December 7, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Brooklyn woman has been charged with attempted abortion and assault after prosecutors say she tried to kill the unborn child of her husband's mistress, and attempted again after the child was born. 38-year-old Kisha Jones was arrested on Friday after detectives say she conceived an elaborate plot to murder the child of Monique Hunter, 25, who was seven months' pregnant with a baby thought to be conceived in an affair with Jones' husband.  Jones allegedly forged a prescription order for the labor-inducing drug misoprostol and, posing as a […]
News
 • 

Pastor Boissoin’s Lawyer: Case Will Positively Impact Religious Freedom in Canada

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski CALGARY, December 7, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Gerald Chipeur, the lawyer who represented Pastor Stephen Boissoin, has said that the recent ruling in favor of Mr. Boissoin “will have a significant long term positive impact on religious freedom in Canada.” Pastor Boissoin was exonerated by a Court of Queen's Bench judge last week after being subjected to the proceedings of the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal for over seven years. The Tribunal had found Boissoin guilty of “hate speech” for having written a letter to the editor of a local newspaper about the homosexualist agenda. But Justice Earl […]
News
 • 

Santorum, R.I. Governor Defend Bishop Tobin against Rep. Kennedy

By James Tillman PROVIDENCE, RI, December 7, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com)—Rhode Island Governor Don Carcieri and former senator Rick Santorum are now among Bishop Thomas Tobin's defenders in the public battle between the bishop and Rep. Patrick Kennedy. “Simply put, the church has membership requirements,” wrote Rick Santorum recently in the Philadelphia Inquirer.  “Kennedy is free to reject them. What he is not free to do is redefine them for himself and condemn the church for not accepting his definition.” The exchange between Bishop Tobin and Rep. Kennedy started when the pro-abortion Kennedy questioned whether the Church was “pro-life” because it opposed the abortion-funding […]
News
 • 

Croatian Leaders must Defend Life and Family Bishop Says in Lead-up to Election

By Hilary White ZAGREB, December 7, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Republic of Croatia is facing general elections in the next year, and the leadership of the Catholic Church has issued a warning that elected leaders must defend the right to life. In a recent sermon at Karlovac in the church of St. Franjo Ksaverska, Bishop Juraj Jezerinac told believers, “Being president requires a commitment to uphold the values of our nation and to rule in favor of transmission of these values.” “He must protect the Christian principles of natural law, the defense and protection of human life from conception until […]
News
 • 

An Encouraging Donation Boost!

Week one of the Christmas campaign ended with an encouraging donation boost! Who will rise to the challenge in week two? It is only through your generosity that this vital work is possible.
News
 • 

On Video: Wisconsin Senator Kohl Promised to Vote Against Abortion in Health Care

By John-Henry Westen WASHINGTON, December  7, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The upcoming Senate vote on the pro-life Hatch-Nelson amendment to the health care bill has been called into question as an audio recording has surfaced with a Senator with a 100% rating from the pro-abortion group NARAL Pro-Choice America vowing to vote against abortion in the health care bill.   The vote is expected as early as Monday, December 7, 2009. In a recorded, and publicly available Q&A,  Wisconsin Senator Herb Kohl can be heard promising (at 52 min. of 60 min. full recording) to vote against abortion in the health care bill (Hear […]
News
 • 

Police Arrest Town-Haller Demanding Rep. Kennedy Explain Abortion Support

Goal: $100,000. Donations received: $15,340. Tuesday December 1, 2009 Police Arrest Town-Haller Demanding Rep. Kennedy Explain Abortion Support By Peter J. Smith PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island, December 1, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Rep. Patrick Kennedy, a Rhode Island Democrat, and son to the late “Lion of the Senate” Ted Kennedy, made clear to his constituents this past Monday that demanding how he could support anti-life measures in health-care reform and call himself a Catholic was a bridge too far to cross. In fact, one citizen who dared to as that question at a town hall event found himself dragged off by police, […]
News
 • 

President Obama’s Remarks to the Human Rights Campaign

Goal: $100,000. Donations received: $15,340. Tuesday October 13, 2009 President Obama’s Remarks to the Human Rights Campaign THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, everybody. Please, you’re making me blush. (Laughter.) AUDIENCE MEMBER: We love you, Barack! THE PRESIDENT: I love you back. (Applause.) To Joe Solmonese, who’s doing an outstanding job on behalf of HRC. (Applause.) To my great friend and supporter, Terry Bean, co-founder of HRC. (Applause.) Representative Patrick Kennedy. (Applause.) David Huebner, the Ambassador-designee to New Zealand and Samoa. (Applause.) John Berry, our Director of OPM, who’s doing a great job. (Applause.) Nancy Sutley, Chairman of Council on Environmental Quality. […]
News
 • 

Commentary on Dec 4 News

Dear readers, On the U.S. health care debate, sources indicate that the Senate session over the weekend will be intense and pro-life groups are urging their memberships to contact Senators now to urge them to support the Nelson amendment. “Never be ashamed to speak what God has put on your heart.  Speak with courage and trust that your faithfulness with never return void.”  Those are the words of Canadian Pastor Stephen Boissoin who has been vindicated after seven years of human rights trials for speaking the truth in love about the dangers of homosexuality. Also today we bring you coverage […]
News
 • 

New Research Attempts to Question the Negative Effects of Pornography

By Patrick B. Craine MONTREAL, Quebec, December 4, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – New research into the effects of pornography on men from a University of Montreal postdoctoral student has made waves worldwide over the last couple days. The interest stems from the researcher's controversial conclusion that all men consume pornography and that such consumption has a negligible impact on men's sexuality. US family issues expert Dr. Patrick Fagan severely criticized the credibility of this study stating the researcher “knows nothing about statistics. He knows nothing about sampling. So it's not serious.” “We started our research seeking men in their twenties who had […]
News
 • 

National Right to Life: Tell Senators to Support Nelson Amendment Immediately

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., December 4, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Following reports that the Senate may vote imminently on its pro-life amendment, the National Right to Life Committee is urging voters to lobby senators to ensure a yes vote for the pro-life Hatch-Nelson amendment. Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Ben Nelson (D-NE) have submitted an amendment to the health care reform bill that, like the Stupak amendment in the House, prevents the Senate version of reform from mandating abortion coverage or providing federal funds for coverage that includes elective abortions. Although the text of the Hatch-Nelson amendment has yet to be […]
News
 • 

Quebec Government Set to Initiate Public Debate on the “Right to Die”

By Patrick B. Craine QUEBEC CITY, Quebec, December 4, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Quebec government agreed yesterday to open public debate on the so-called “right to die,” by establishing a non-partisan ad hoc commission mandated to seek public and expert opinion on the issue. The government's move comes in response to a motion filed yesterday by three members of the province's Parti Quebecois (PQ), including leader Pauline Marois (Charlevoix), who asked Premier Jean Charest to establish such a commission. While euthanasia and assisted suicide are Criminal Code issues, and are thus under federal jurisdiction, the PQ insist that Quebec must […]
News
 • 

New Edmonton Archdiocese Policy to Prohibit ‘Unethical Gambling’ Fundraising

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski EDMONTON, December 4, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Edmonton's Archbishop Richard Smith is urging the Catholic schools in the archdiocese to forgo fundraising from “harmful” gambling activities such as school-based casinos, high-stakes bingo and video lottery terminals. “The Catholic Church doesn't have a problem with gambling per se, but there are activities that we do consider harmful,” said Lorraine Turchansky, director of communications and public relations for the archdiocese. “Those are things like casinos and video lottery terminals and high-stakes bingo. Those are the kinds of things that hurt people and, therefore, are ethically wrong.” “We know these […]
News
 • 

Santorum: Conservatives Must Battle ‘Toxic Tide’ of Pop Culture more than Politics

By Kathleen Gilbert and Peter J. Smith WASHINGTON, D.C., December 4, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum last night urged leaders of the conservative movement to turn their resources towards countering the deluge of liberal pop culture, a front he considers more critical in the long-term than specific political battles. “I will assure you that the vast majority of the American public has very little idea what is going on in the halls of Congress right now, as far as who's speaking on the floor of the Senate,” said Santorum at the 2009 Paul Weyrich Awards Dinner Thursday […]
News
 • 

Where’s the “Rebuke”?  Mainstream Media Inventing another Vatican Feud

Commentary By Hilary White, Rome correspondent ROME, December 4, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – It is always entertaining watching the international secular news coverage of the various goings on at the Vatican; it's like a kind of sport. If there were score cards available, they would have to award points to journalists for “least religious knowledge” and, perhaps, on a scale of one to ten, “most eager to spot a turf war.” When the media catches what it thinks is the scent of a division between the forces of light (liberal Catholicism, or what I like to call “Catholicism lite”) and the […]
News
 • 

Pastor Boissoin Exonerated: Judge Rules Letter on Homosexuality Not “Hate” Speech

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski CALGARY, December 4, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Christian pastor who was hauled before the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal (AHRT) for writing a letter to the editor on homosexuality has been exonerated by a Court of Queen's Bench judge who ruled the letter was not a hate crime but legitimate expression allowed under freedom of speech. Pastor Stephen Boissoin told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) that he was “overjoyed and relieved” that the lengthy, stressful and expensive seven year legal battle over his letter to the editor has ended in his favor.  Justice Earl C. Wilson overturned a 2008 ruling […]
News
 • 

New Uruguayan President-Elect Means Pro-Life Battle is Compromised, Leader Warns

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, Dec 4, 2009 (CNA)- Following the announcement that Uruguay's left-wing candidate had won the country's recent presidential election, pro-life leader Alvaro Fernandez warned that “the ballot for life in Uruguay is frankly compromised,” as the newly elected leader has said he would not oppose the possible legalization of abortion, as did his predecessor, outgoing President Tabare Vasquez. In an interview with the Catholic News Agency (CNA), Fernandez explained that president-elect Jose Mujica was a member of the Tupamaros during the 1970s, a Marxist group that resorted to violence to bring about social change in Uruguay. His wife, who […]
News
 • 

Pope Meets with Russian President: Full Diplomatic Relations with Holy See a Major Step Forward

By Hilary White, Rome Correspondent VATICAN CITY, December 4, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The President of Russia, in a visit to Rome, has pledged his government to full diplomatic relations with the Vatican, a move that is being called an historic step forward for relations between the former communist state and the Catholic Church. On a one-day visit to Rome, Dmitry Medvedev met with the pope for 30 minutes, speaking through interpreters. A media release from the Vatican said that President Medvedev had spoken with Pope Benedict on the “value of the family and the contribution believers make to life in […]
News
 • 

Abortionist Carhart Abandons Plans for Late-term Abortion Facility in Kansas

By James Tillman WICHITA, KS, December 4, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com)—Operation Rescue has confirmed that abortionist LeRoy Cahart will not open a late-term abortion facility to replace the one that closed in Wichita after abortionist George Tiller's death. “I'm thinking we may not go ahead and develop that down there” Carhart told a source connected with Operation Rescue.  “I think we are just going to stay in Nebraska for now.” Carhart, who does abortions out of Bellevue, Nebraska, had announced that he would do late-term abortions at the Wichita Women's Health Care Services after Tiller was murdered, but Tiller's family instead decided to […]
News
 • 

Michigan Abortion Facility Advertizes Abortion as “Sacred Work”

By James Tillman DETROIT, December 4, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com)—Northland “Family Planning Centers” of Michigan are now advertising their services with a video calling abortion “sacred work.”   Set to soft, upbeat piano music and themed with pink pastel shades, a recently uploaded video entitled “Every Day, Good Woman Choose Abortion,” assures prospective customers that deciding “to have an abortion is a normal experience,” and that the decision is a good decision.  The video's spokeswoman continues:  “Goodness is courage, honesty, wisdom, risking for what you believe is right for you, making choices that are good for yourself.” “Goodness is not perfection, it is not obedience, […]
News
 • 

You, LSN and Providence – Day 4

This weekend, with the vital importance of our pro-life and pro-family reporting in mind, please donate as generously as you can to our $100,000 Christmas campaign. Dear Friends, As the Development Manager for LifeSiteNews, I have become very familiar with the term “Divine Providence.” It is, after all, only Providence that can explain our seemingly inexplicable past successes and answer the question of how we can continue to make challenging plans for the future when we currently have such limited resources.  At LSN we naturally rely heavily on Divine Providence, not only because the work that LifeSiteNews does is considered […]
News
 • 

Commentary on Dec 3 News

Dear Readers, This is day three of our Christmas season fundraiser. We are gradually getting off the ground as you can see from the fundraising thermometer on our website pages. So far 6% of the goal has been donated – so, please join in with as generous a gift as possible. We need you and we hope in return we can fulfill your need for the very best, most reliable news available in the world on life, family and culture. Catching up on an item from Monday, I just want to make sure our Canadian readers have gone through the Dec. […]
News
 • 

UNFPA Pushing for Hundreds of Billions for Family Planning

By Samantha Singson NEW YORK, NY, December 3, 2009 (C-FAM) – At the United Nations this week, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) organized a commemorative seminar on the 1995 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and, in a look ahead, urged states to renew their commitment to the program, calling for over $200 billion (US) in funding for “sexual and reproductive health and family planning” alone. UNFPA's Ann Pawliczko gave a financial perspective of the ICPD Program of Action and presented a “revised ICPD Global Cost Estimate” for 2009 through 2015, when the ICPD program is scheduled to […]
News
 • 

NIH Approves First Embryo Stem Cell Lines under Obama Executive Order

By James Tillman WASHINGTON, DC, December 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com)—Yesterday the federal U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH) approved the first new 13 human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines for use in NIH-funded medical research.  The approval is the result of an executive order issued last March, when President Obama overturned President Bush's ban of the use of new hESC lines in federally-funded research. “I am happy to say that we now have human embryonic stem cell lines eligible for use by our research community under our new stem cell policy,” said Dr. Francis Collins, director of the NIH.  “In accordance […]
News
 • 

Pro-Life MP Disappointed that Vote on Euthanasia Bill Has Been Delayed Again

By Patrick B. Craine OTTAWA, Ontario, December 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Canadian Member of Parliament expressed his disappointment yesterday as Parliament was prevented again from voting on Bill C-384, which seeks to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide.  Francine Lalonde's private member's bill had been scheduled for a vote on December 2nd, but she recently traded the date back to February 3rd. “I was looking forward to seeing this bill defeated,” MP Rod Bruinooge, who serves as chair of the Parliamentary Pro-Life Caucus, told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN). “Canada needs to maintain a legal position regarding euthanasia that protects the most vulnerable and […]
News
 • 

New Study: Home-Educated Canadian Adults Excel

By Patrick B. Craine LONDON, Ontario, December 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A new study released yesterday by the Canadian Centre for Home Education (CCHE) reveals that home-educated adults in Canada excel in all measured areas of adult life, including education level, religious observance, civic and community participation, life satisfaction, and income. The study, entitled Fifteen Years Later: Home-Educated Canadian Adults, surveyed adults whose parents had responded to a 1994 study on home education.  In total, the researchers collected 226 questionnaires.  Ranging in age from 15 to 34, the respondents answered questions on a variety of topics for which Statistics Canada […]
News
 • 

Vatican Cardinal says Active Homosexuals Can’t Go to Heaven

By Hilary White ROME, December 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A leading Vatican cardinal caused a flutter in the secular press yesterday by stating that homosexuals who act on their sexual impulses cannot go to heaven.  “Transsexuals and homosexuals will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven and it is not me who says this, but Saint Paul,” said Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, a Mexican and the former head of the Vatican's Council for Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers. The cardinal was reiterating the Catholic teaching that states that any sexual activity outside of marriage that is not repented of before […]
News
 • 

ND88 Judge Stays Charges, Grants Motion to Appeal over Possible Bias

December 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – On Thursday the judge hearing the case of the 88 pro-life protesters who were arrested for trespassing on Notre Dame property earlier this year granted a motion to stay the charges pending an appeal into the question of whether she should recuse herself from the case due to bias. Judge Jenny Pitts Manier, who is assigned to the case of the 88 pro-lifers who were arrested while protesting President Obama's commencement address at Notre Dame in May, is married to Notre Dame Professor Edward Manier. In addition to several writings revealing his pro-abortion beliefs, Professor […]
News
 • 

Senate Passes Amendment that Could Mandate Abortion Coverage in Insurance Plans

By John Jalsevac December 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Senate on Thursday approved the Mikulski amendment by a vote of 61-39.  All Republicans except Senators Vitter, Snowe and Collins voted against the amendment, and all Independents and Democrats except Senators Nelson (NE) and Feingold voted for it. Pro-life leaders opposed the amendment over concerns that it provides authority that could be used to mandate abortion coverage in private insurance plans.  Specifically, the amendment states that anything classified as preventive care or screenings for women by the Health Resource and Services Administration (HRSA) would become a mandated covered service.  However, if […]
News
 • 

Letters to the Editor

Re: RECOMMENDED VIDEO: Lord Christopher Monckton Speaking in St. Paul on climate change Thank you so much for the recommendation of Lord Monckton´s talk on the global warming conspiracy. It was entertaining as well as extremely informative. His UN definition of a spade was hilarious! At last it looks like the message is getting through to the general public, in spite of the censures, the media hysteria and the hypocritical moral posturing of the eco-fanatics. Global warming skeptics will soon be the majority, and perhaps common sense will prevail after all. Christopher Fleming Murcia, Spain ______________________________________________________________________ Re: Life Versus Death; […]
News
 • 

LifeSite Daily News for Thursday January 29, 2004

Goal: $100,000. Donations received: $3,025. Thursday January 29, 2004 SHARE THIS PAGE: E-mail Print Poll Shows Majority of Americans Believe Abortion Makes Women’s Lives Worse America’s ‘Pastor to the Unborn’ Warns of God’s Wrath on Canada Pro-Life Report Cards on U.S. States Show Louisiana, Texas and Pennsylvania Most Pro-Life Pope Warns Parents of Grave Responsibility to Protect Children from Harmful Media Parents Overwhelmingly Prefer Their Kids Be Taught Abstinence Adoption Ban for Same-Sex Couples Upheld by U.S. Appeals Court Mexican Bishops Warn Morning After Pill Causes Abortion and Brings Excommunication LifeSite NewsBytes Embargo of US Funding for UNFPA Continues The […]
News
 • 

Commentary on December 2 News

Dear Readers,   The NY Senate defeat of the same-sex “marriage” bill shows that the American people are not the sheep and fools that the social engineers think they are.   Sen. Nelson could sink the entire health care bill. You can be sure he will be under incredible pressure to give in. Will he also be offered a $300 million or more bribe in return for his vote? Stay tuned.   Our reporters covering the anti-Stupak amendment rally found the event to be disturbing. The cold, steely eyed Cecile Richards and some of the other radical feminist speakers are a […]
News
 • 

New Major Study Catalogues How Porn Harms Marriages, Children, Communities and Individuals

By John-Henry Westen WASHINGTON, December 2, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Family Research Council (FRC) has released a comprehensive study on the devastating effects of pornography, identifying its harms to countless marriages, children, individuals and communities. “Pornography corrodes the conscience, promotes distrust between husbands and wives and debases untold thousands of young women,” explains the study's author Dr. Pat Fagan, Senior Fellow at FRC and Director of the Center for Research on Marriage and Religion.  While it is often said that it is harmless entertainment, the evidence shows, says Fagan that it is rather “relational and emotional poison.” Findings on Harm […]
News
 • 

Christian Coalition Defends Affiliation with Pro-Abortion UNFPA

By Kathleen Gilbert OSLO, Norway, November 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) -  After the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) praised an international Christian health care coalition for providing networking opportunities among its members, the leader of the coalition has defended the cooperation, in spite of several investigations concluding that the UNFPA is complicit in China's coercive one-child policy. In a November 13 keynote address to colleagues in Oslo, UNFPA executive director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid said that Christian Connections for International Health (CCIH) “have expanded their family planning advocacy, and they are working to connect their member organizations with UNFPA in their countries to […]
News
 • 

Obama Establishes New Bioethics Commission

By James Tillman WASHINGTON, December 2, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com)—Just five months after disbanding the Bush-era President's Council on Bioethics, President Obama has established a new Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, which is expected to follow a decidedly different direction than its predecessor. In June of this year, the White House had dismissed the members of the existing President's Council for Bioethics on one day's notice.  According to the New York Times, the council was seen as “a philosophically leaning advisory group” favoring discussion over developing consensus; and President Obama instead desired a commission offering “practical policy options.”  Perhaps […]
News
 • 

50,000 March for Life in Costa Rica Capital

By Hilary White SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica, December 2, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – 50,000 people marched in the capital of Costa Rica in support of “life and the family” on November 28, the Catholic News Agency reports. A statement read at the rally called on politicians to “defend all human life” from conception to natural death. The statement urged that marriage and the family continue to be protected in law, “and for this reason we oppose, and we call on our representatives in the executive branch, legislative assembly and municipalities to reject any bill, policy or institutional activity” to the contrary. […]
News
 • 

Motion to Dismiss Charges against Notre Dame 88 to be Heard Thursday

December 2, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Lawyers for the 88 pro-life protesters who were arrested on the University of Notre Dame's campus earlier this year will be heading to court Thursday in St. Joseph County, Indiana, to argue in favor of a motion to dismiss the charges against the pro-lifers. Currently trespassing charges are pending against the 88, who were arrested on Notre Dame property while protesting the commencement speech and honorary law degree given to pro-abortion President Barack Obama in May. If convicted, the pro-lifers could face up to 1 year in jail and a $5,000 fine. Despite repeated requests from […]
News
 • 

U.K. Labour Gov’t Appointee says Traditional Two-Parent Family a Lost Cause

By Hilary White LONDON, December 2, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Labour government appointee to its think tank “charity” on the family, a hard-line feminist, has said that the two-parent “typical family” is outmoded and government efforts to rescue it are futile. In her inaugural speech as the head of the Family and Parenting Institute, Dr. Katherine Rake said the idea of the traditional family is no longer the “norm” and it is “a trap” for government to alter its policies to try to boost it. Rake said that because of the rise in divorce, fewer marriages and the growth of […]
News
 • 

Pro-Life Catholic Wins Leadership of Australian Federal Opposition Party

By Hilary White CANBERRA, December 2, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Tony Abbott, the former federal minister for health and a pro-life Catholic, has won the leadership of the opposition Liberal Party of Australia, putting him in line for possible leadership of the country in Australia's next general election. The Federal Member for Warringah and shadow Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, was voted in at the party's Dec 1st leadership convention, beating the incumbent Malcolm Turnbull by a single vote. The vote makes Tony Abbott the first social conservative to lead the Liberal party since the resignation of […]
News
 • 

Sen. Nelson: I Won’t Support a Health Bill Without Stupak Language

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., December 2, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – One Democrat senator has thrown a critical wrench in President Obama's health care plans by stating he will not support the measure unless it includes Hyde-amendment restrictions like those introduced by Rep. Bart Stupak in the bill's House counterpart. Democrat Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska says he intends to introduce a Stupak-like amendment for his chamber's bill.  The Huffington Post reports that when asked by reporters if he would support a bill that lacked his amendment, Nelson replied, “No.” Nelson's stand against the abortion-funding bill could prove fatal to the […]
News
 • 

Brazilian Homosexuals File “Hate” Charges Against Brazilian Christians

Wednesday November 28, 2007 Brazilian Homosexuals File “Hate” Charges Against Brazilian Christians By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman SAO PAULO, November 28, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Brazilian Association of Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, Transvestites and Transsexuals (ABGLT) has lodged a criminal complaint against Christian activist Julio Severo and the National Vision for Christian Awareness (VINACC) for inciting “hatred” against homosexuals, and “homophobia”. The complaint was made because Severo, on his website (https://juliosevero.blogspot.com), regularly denounces homosexual behavior as immoral, and opposes the goals of the homosexual movement. VINACC is also accused because it reposts Severo’s material. Luiz Mott, who is generally recognized as the […]
News
 • 

Justin Trudeau: My Positions on Abortion and Gay ‘Marriage’ “Don’t at all Resemble” Catholic Positio

By John-Henry Westen OTTAWA, December 1, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Given all of his speaking engagements at Catholic events, many Canadians not surprisingly believe Justin Trudeau to be an exemplary Catholic.  However, Justin, like his late father – former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau – is extremely up-front about his dissent from Church teaching on abortion and homosexuality. Trudeau, who was a featured speaker at a 2001 major lead-up event for the 2002 World Youth Day in Toronto, appeared on a French-language CBC show in June in which he expressed his positions on those two moral issues.  A DVD of the interview […]
News
 • 

Same-Sex Partners will Receive the Same Tax Benefits as Married Couples: U.K. Tory Leader

By Hilary White LONDON, December 1, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The leader of Britain's Conservative party said yesterday that under a Tory government, same-sex partners in registered domestic partnerships would be afforded the same tax benefits as married couples. David Cameron let it slip in comments to the Daily Mail that the Tories will consider any relationship registered with the state as qualifying for tax benefits. A Conservative Party spokesman later told the homosexualist news service PinkNews, “David Cameron has always made it clear that civil partnerships should be treated the same as marriage.” In the Daily Mail, Cameron had accused […]
News
 • 

This Christmas Season, Make a Generous Gift to LifeSiteNews.com – a gift that will enlighten minds,

Dear Friends Today we are embarking on the most ambitious fundraising campaign in the history of LifeSiteNews.    Because 2009 has seen the abortion issue take front and center stage to a degree that in some ways is greater than I have seen in my 30 years involvement with the pro-life movement, there has never before been a greater need for our uncompromising and TRUTHFUL reporting.  In light of this, we have made new additions to our reporting and administrative teams over the year to accommodate the heavier workload. Thanks in large part to these additions we have developed an […]
News
 • 

New USCCB Pro-Life Head Defends Bishops’ Role against Health Bill

By Kathleen Gilbert WASHINGTON, D.C., November 30, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, the newly-appointed Chairman of the U.S. Bishops' Pro-Life Committee, has defended the Church's role in advocating for the unborn in the health care bill in his first interview since ascending to the chairmanship last month. “If you call it lobbying, we're lobbying on moral issues that relate to the public square and we feel we have, as religious leaders, a place in that debate with others,” said Cardinal DiNardo in an interview with the Houston Chronicle last week DiNardo assumed the chairmanship on November 19 from Cardinal […]
News
 • 

Argentina Judge Orders Halt to Nation’s First Gay “Marriage” On Eve of Ceremony

By Peter J. Smith BUENOS AIRES, December 1, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A trial judge made an eleventh-hour decision to halt Argentina's first impending same-sex “marriage” that was due to happen Tuesday in Buenos Aires in conjunction with “World AIDS Day.” The ruling prevents the city's registrar from giving the homosexual couple a marriage license, but the legal battle is far from over and will likely make its way to the Argentine Supreme Court. Judge Marta Gomez Alsina filed an injunction on the eve of the ceremony that prevents – but does not invalidate – the earlier ruling of another trial […]
News
 • 

D.C. Council Overwhelmingly Approves Same-Sex “Marriage” Law

By Kathleen Gilbert and Peter Smith WASHINGTON, DC, December 1, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – By a lopsided majority, the District of Columbia City Council voted this afternoon to approve legislation that opens the legal definition of marriage to include homosexual couples. The vote went through despite strong protests from the city's religious leaders who said that the law violates individual conscience rights and religious liberty. The “Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009” passed on the first vote by an overwhelming 11-2 margin. The measure was predicted to pass, as it had been originally sponsored by nine of […]
News
 • 

Pro-life Journalists Attacked at Abortion Rally in Vienna

By Hilary White VIENNA, December 1, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A film crew for Gloria TV, the Swiss-based Catholic internet video and news service, was attacked on Friday night by a group of abortion demonstrators in Austria's capital. The abortion demonstrators were filmed outside the Vienna offices of Human Life International chanting anti-Christian slogans like, “If Mary had had an abortion, we would have been spared from Christians.” Video footage shows a group of young people whose faces were covered with scarves, rushing towards the camera, with one voice audibly screaming in German, “Go away, go away! Stop filming!” One held […]
News
 • 

Slovenia Poised to Create Same-Sex “Marriage”

By Hilary White LJUBLJANA, Slovenia, December 1, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – While the Slovenian parliament prepares to vote on a bill creating legal same-sex “marriage” and allowing homosexual partners to adopt children, Christians have taken to the streets to protest the measure.  Local media reports that in October, 3000 people gathered in the capital Ljubljana to protest against the planned legislation. If approved, the bill will come into force on May 1, 2011 and would make Slovenia the first Central European country and the first former Communist country to legalize same-sex “marriage.” In 2006, the government created registered partnerships for same-sex […]
News
 • 

Argentine Legislature Passes Bill to Limit Sale of Drug Used for Abortions

By James Tillman BUENOS AIRES, December 1, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com)—The Argentine Legislature has approved a bill that would restrict the sale of Misoprostol, a drug that is currently being promoted by anti-life organizations as a means of conducting abortions that are illegal under Argentine's current law. Misoprostol is currently sold in Argentina to help treat gastric ulcers; it also may be used, however, to help cause a spontaneous abortion.  Senator José Abel, a supporter of the proposed law, said, “We know of many cases where someone goes to the pharmacy with a prescription, because he has a family member with a […]
News
 • 

Massachusetts Episcopal Bishop Approves Solemnizing Same-Sex “Marriages”

By Peter J. Smith BOSTON, December 1, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Episcopal priests in the eastern part of Massachusetts, the birthplace of same-sex “marriage” in the United States, now have permission to “solemnize” the marriages of “all eligible couples,” including those entering same-sex unions, according to a new pastoral directive from the local Episcopal bishop. Bishop M. Thomas Shaw III, consecrated the 15th bishop of Massachusetts in 1995, releaseda letter to all priests and parishes in the diocese on Sunday, informing them of the decision. Shaw, who is also a member of the religious order Society of St. John the Evangelist, […]
News
 • 

ACLU Sues to Block Alaska Personhood Initiative

By Kathleen Gilbert ANCHORAGE, Alaska, December 1, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In the latest in a string of court proceedings against personhood initiatives nationwide, the Alaskan branch of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is backing a lawsuit against state officials for giving voters an opportunity to decide on a ballot initiative that would declare all human beings “persons.” The suit alleges that the proposed language does not adequately present to voters the possible consequences of its enactment, such as the outlawing of abortion, and thus Lieutenant Governor Craig Campbell should not have approved it.  Plaintiffs, including Vic Fisher, a former […]
News
 • 

Obama Education Czar + Planned Parenthood Sex Education = High Teen Pregnancy Rate

By Rita Diller Note: Rita Diller is the national director of STOPP at American Life League. STOPP is devoted to fighting the anti-life, anti-family agenda of Planned Parenthood. December 1, 2009 (https://www.all.org/) How many times and how many ways can Planned Parenthood say that it is reducing teen pregnancy with its horrifyingly graphic, immoral sex education, when evidence shows quite the contrary to be true?  With Planned Parenthood's own Guttmacher Institute conducting all of the studies on the efficacy of its programs, and Planned Parenthood supervising its own programs in schools, it sometimes appears our teens are doomed to never-ending […]
News
 •