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“The so-called right to abortion has pitted mothers against their children and women against men. It has sown violence and discord at the heart of the most intimate human relationships. It has aggravated the derogation of the father’s role in an increasingly fatherless society. It has portrayed the greatest of gifts—a child—as a competitor, an intrusion, and an inconvenience.”
        – Mother Teresa

Dear students,

Many of you have come to our website in the last few days to write comments defending your civics teacher, Mr. Searle, and to vent your frustration about the cancellation of this week’s trip to Ohio.

Firstly, it’s worth observing that at no point did LifeSiteNews.com call for the trip to be cancelled. It is unfortunate that one misguided decision to include a strong partisan element has scuttled what otherwise may have been a memorable educational experience. And secondly, we have never questioned Mr. Searle’s teaching abilities or character. Your comments have made it abundantly clear that Mr. Searle is a charismatic and well-liked teacher.

Quite simply, the controversy over this trip is about whether students at a Catholic high school should be travelling to support Barack Obama, the most extreme pro-abortion President in American history: the same President who has been strongly condemned by the country’s Catholic bishops for attacking freedoms of conscience and religion, especially those of Catholics.

When we first reported on the trip, we spoke to one mother who expressed concerns that Obama is pro-abortion. However, many of you have dismissed this mother’s concerns, arguing that the president’s views on this issue are irrelevant and that the purpose of the trip was not to “support abortion.” Some of you have even made the claim that one can be both Catholic and “pro-choice.” We can understand how you might have come to those views. But we regret that your Catholic schools have failed in their duty to equip you with the truth about abortion – the greatest civil rights issue facing our generation.

The Catholic Church teaches that abortion is murder. It does so not based upon some abstract theological argument, but rather on the basis of modern science, which demonstrates conclusively that human life begins at the moment of conception, and that from conception forward life is simply an ongoing process of development.

The greatest threat to “abortion rights” today is not the pro-life movement, but the widespread availability of the ultrasound, which has opened a window into the womb, exposing the undeniable truth that the preborn child is as human as any of us – and therefore possesses the basic human right not to be killed. Is it any wonder, then, that abortionists have gone to great lengths to make sure mothers do not see an ultrasound image of their child before undergoing an abortion?

Every year in Canada some 100,000 unborn children are killed through abortion. In the United States, the number is much higher. If indeed abortion is murder, then there is no more pressing issue facing us today, because no other issue involves such a massive loss of innocent human life.

As well, we must consider the welfare of the mothers of these babies, who are often pressured into abortions by unsympathetic boyfriends and husbands, and who are often traumatized as a result. Many fathers, too, have been negatively affected by abortion, especially in the heart-breaking circumstance when they have wished to keep and care for their child.

While Mr. Searle is a popular civics teacher, we humbly submit that he has failed in one important duty as a civics teacher at a Catholic school if he has not informed you about Mr. Obama’s positions on critical moral issues such as abortion.

Here are a few key facts that you should know about the sitting U.S. president:

→ Mr. Obama voted three times while a senator in the Illinois senate against a bill that would have protected babies born alive after failed abortions from being abandoned and left to die. The bill was introduced after a nurse at an Illinois hospital witnessed living babies being taken to a utility room in the hospital, and then left on a table to die. Obama expressed concerns that supporting the bill would somehow restrict legal abortion. However, even after an amendment was introduced to the bill, explicitly stating that the bill would in no way affect abortion rights, he still voted against it, effectively voting to protect infanticide. It may sound too horrific to be true, but unfortunately, it is. You can find out more here. A later federal version of the bill was passed with the overwhelming bi-partisan support of Republicans and Democrats – putting President Obama on the extreme fringe even of his officially pro-abortion party.

→ Mr. Obama opposed a federal ban on the so-called “partial-birth abortion” procedure. In a partial-birth abortion, a fully-formed baby is mostly born, with only his head still remaining in his mother’s birth canal. Scissors are then used to puncture a hole in the back of the skull, into which a suction device is inserted, which vacuums out the baby’s brains, killing the baby. The skull is then crushed and the body of the baby is removed and discarded. Even though numerous medical organizations testified that there is no conceivable medical reason for a partial-birth abortion, Obama opposed the legislation, saying it should include “exceptions” for the health of the mother.

→ Mr. Obama has also expressed support for so-called “late-term” abortions, in which fully-formed, living babies into the third trimester of pregnancy are literally ripped apart, limb-by-limb. You can read one former abortionist’s description of this process here. Be warned, the descriptions are gruesome, graphic, and heart-rending.

→ Recently top Obama aides were asked to name any abortion restrictions that the president supports. They could not think of a single one.

→ Earlier this year the Obama administration issued a new rule that requires nearly all employers to provide contraception, sterilizations and drugs that can cause early abortions to their employees free of charge. All of these things violate Catholic moral teaching. Since then, dozens of Catholic employers have sued the Obama administration. The U.S. bishops have strongly spoken out against the rule, calling it an unprecedented attack on freedom of religion in the United States. Despite the massive backlash from Catholics, Obama has continued to defend the rule, and refused to consider allowing those who object on moral grounds to opt out.

→ On his very first day in office, President Obama rescinded a rule called the Mexico City Policy, which forbade U.S. foreign aid money from going to groups that promote or perform abortions.

This is really only the tip of the iceberg of Mr. Obama’s abortion activism. During the current presidential campaign, the president has made abortion rights a central element of his platform, mentioning his support for abortion and the country’s #1 abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, wherever he goes.

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In short, it is not possible to argue that Mr. Obama’s abortion support is simply one among many issues the president supports. It is an issue of life and death for millions of unborn babies, whose only crime was being conceived. One can try to argue that it’s ok to support a pro-abortion candidate despite his support for abortion (the Catholic Church would disagree), but certainly it is impossible for any voter or political activists with a moral conscience to simply ignore the issue as inconsequential.

As Pope Benedict said in 2006, abortion is “today’s gravest injustice.”

There are other issues as well that should be of grave concern to Catholics or any voter of good will, including Mr. Obama’s support for embryonic stem cell research, which exploits human life at its earliest stages, as well as his support for same-sex ‘marriage.’ Any discussion about political candidates in a Catholic school should include an analysis of the candidates’ stance on these issues.

We sincerely hope that Mr. Searle and other teachers at your school will renew their dedication to the school’s mission to impart an authentically Christian worldview to their students, equipping you to make a positive difference in a world that is all too hostile to the fundamental values of life, family, faith and freedom. And certainly we encourage you, students at a Catholic school, to spend some time researching the truth about abortion and other key moral issues.

Sincerely,
The LifeSiteNews.com team