News

October 18, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The quality and usefulness of commenting from LifeSiteNews readers has been dramatically increasing over the past several months as we have been monitoring the comments more closely. That is, we have been trying to encourage comments that, as best as possible, meet the standards that we have for our journalists. We also want to avoid the vulgarity, on-going verbal sparring, personal attacks and general mayhem that tends to dominate many website commenting sections. This has has been a very time-consuming task, but the resulting benefits for all of our readers have proven to be worth the effort.

A good number of comments have led to stories being written on LifeSiteNews, thanks entirely to the information provided by commenters. Thank you!

Some of those have turned out to be very moving personal stories that the commenter has agreed to share with us about his or her personal life.

Now and then we will try to publish a list some of just a few of the more noteworthy comments that have been posted under LSN stories.  Following are just a few that undoubtedly most readers have missed in the past few days since it can be time consuming to read all the comments under each story that often continue to be posted for days after these reports are published.

Notable Reader Comments:

That Victoria’s Secret baby is just the tip of a disturbing trend

Nehj. I'm sorry you don't know God, He knows you and He loves you very much. I got pregnant when I was 17 and I was not ready for a baby either. I gave my little girl to a family where she now has flourished into a lovely, confident teenager. I get to talk to her through emails and letters and she is the pride of my life. She's planning on being an Olympic swimmer one day. There are other options. I miss her everyday, but I have never regretted my decision and she has brought me such joy.

Nina K

I'm not religious. I love God but far from religious. I was pro-choice my entire life until the choice was mine and no one agreed with my choice. When a young, single woman is pregnant and the father wants to abort what do you think friends and family will advise her to do? Do you think anyone will want to help take care of that baby or (babies in my case of twin pregnancy) is it just easier to tell them you cant do it alone??

It is easier to go along with what the father wants for everyone. It also puts the mother in a position to feel major GUILT and to feel SELFISH and IRRESPONSIBLE for bringing lives in to this world that she “can not” care for. 
Abortion should NOT be an option! I am so lucky that my own inner strength and faith that all would be okay in the end was strong enough.

Many women are not as strong as me and they go through with it. I don't think anyone really wants to kill their own flesh and blood that they have always imagined having to love and care for. My twins are beautiful and so amazing!!! They are five years old and I have to log off now because THEIR FATHER just pulled up in the driveway.

He was just scared because of what society tells new parents about having a baby. He is the best father and loves his daughters and I more than anything he could have ever imagined. I hate abortion and I am not religious. Forcing a woman to kill her child is WRONG.

Victoria
 

Weep for your children: Sex Week at the University of Maryland

From 1994-2010, the number of Planned Parenthood facilities (which promotes sexual promiscuity) in the Texas panhandle went from 19 to zero. In the same period, the teen pregnancy rate dropped almost in half.

Richard


Australian pro-aborts lament portrayal in media as violent during March for the Babies

I was at the march for Life in Zurich (Switzerland) last month. The same people holding up obscene signs, making obscene gestures and deliberately targeting families with small children. At one point there was a guy yelling insults from his apartment overlooking the march with his small daughter absolutely terrorized with her hands on her ears. Must have been a proud moment for him …scaring his own child.

The fun part was that we had a samba band which managed to make more noise than the pro-death squads. A few scuffles, but we did complete the march. Looking forward to next year!

Erik F.


You're right. Even the title (“Anti-abortion protesters in clash during CBD rally”) suggests that the pro-life side started the violence. I bet they sifted through footage very carefully in order to make it looked like both sides were fighting. The partiality of the media is glaring.

Benna

 
Japan withdraws support of controversial HPV vaccine over safety concerns

I'm generally pro-vaccination. Vaccines like MMR, DTaP, chickenpox & Hep-B are essential for children. But not all vaccines are good. Gardasil and the shingles vaccine are lousy. They're both very expensive, short-lasting, and minimally effective, with side-effects that exceed their touted benefits.

Women need to know the truth about Gardasil:

1. Gardasil only protects against 2 of the 19 (so far) known high-risk strains of HPV,

2. The vast majority of high-risk HPV infections are with strains that Gardasil does not protect against, and

3. Sexually active women are at risk of cervical & other cancers, and still need regular PAP smears, regardless of whether they've had Gardasil.

HPV types 16, 18, 26, 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 53, 56, 58, 59, 66, 67, 68, 73, and 82 have all been identified as high-risk oncogenic strains, and Gardasil only protects against types 16 & 18. But in a U. Washington study (Winer 2006) those two types accounted for just 18% of high-risk infections.

Worse, a recent CDC study (Markowitz 2013) found that Gardasil-vaccinated girls had slightly HIGHER rates of infection with high-risk HPV strains than did unvaccinated girls!

Part of the problem is exaggeration of the vaccine's benefits by the manufacturer (Merck), but a big part is wildly inaccurate reporting by the press. For example, on 6/20/2013, on “CBS This Morning,” I heard Holly Phillips, MD, report that Gardasil can “eradicate” (her word) the disease, and that people who get the vaccine will never get HPV-caused cancers. That kind of misinformation may well be causing some women to behave less responsibly, or skip PAP smears, which could cost some of them their lives.

Dave B.


Recognizing human dignity in difficult circumstances

Hello HLI,

I would like to bring to your attention the pro – life movement in India which is very fragmented, weak in its reach and largely restricted to Christian & Catholic circles. The mission field in India is very vast and demanding. India has accepted abortion as a population control mechanism and a women's right issue, resulting in unprecedented abortion of girl babies in recent times. When it is not possible to abort due to laws restricting pre natal sex determination, people resort to infanticide.

The problem of abortion in India is inextricably linked with social justice issues. The major driving factor for abortion in India is the discrimination against women which starts from the womb and haunts till the tomb. What we lack in India when compared to the west is the total vacuum of a national scale political / social movement for life and social justice.

Even the Indian Catholic Church is in effect silent on this vital issue which is in fact a great call for witness to the Gospel in the public sphere. The Church in India should have voiced its concern and come out openly with social outreach programs in life and justice issues. The concept of Crisis pregnancy centers is also absent in India.

I request HLI to take the initiative to campaign for Crisis Pregnancy centers, Fertility awareness drives and pro life awareness drives in India, especially among the poor, the illiterate, the tribal people and the underprivileged (so called low caste people).

Jos C.