Region: USA

By Peter J. Smith CHICAGO, August 13, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The City of Chicago has yet again dropped charges of “disorderly conduct” against another pro-life advocate accused by Planned Parenthood staffers of violating the city’s controversial “Bubble Zone” ordinance.  David Avignone, an MBA student at Loyola University Chicago, was arrested on July 8 while standing outside Planned Parenthood’s Near North Side clinic just five days after police arrested Joe Holland, a Northwestern University graduate student, while he prayed his rosary at the same place. Like Holland, Avignone was accused of violating a city ordinance passed in 2009 that prohibits individuals […]

By Peter J. Smith Updated 5:09pm EST SAN FRANCISCO, August 12, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A federal judge says he will lift the stay he imposed on his ruling striking down Proposition 8, California’s constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman. U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn Walker in San Francisco issued his decision Thursday, just five minutes past his self-imposed deadline of 12 P.M. PST, rejecting arguments by attorneys defending Prop.8 that the stay should remain in place until a final decision was issued in the appeals process. The judge’s order will allow same-sex couples […]

By Peter J. Smith MADISON, Wisconsin, August 12, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Catholic Diocese of Madison says they will abide by Wisconsin law requiring them to offer insurance coverage for artificial birth control – but they are making absolutely clear that they will fire any employee who willfully uses it in defiance of Catholic teaching against contraception. According to the Wisconsin State Journal, the diocese, which is headed by Bishop Robert Morlino, made the decision after discovering that the financial costs to become self-insured were too high. A new state provision that went into effect January 1 requires health insurance […]

By James Tillman WASHINGTON, D.C., August 12, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In response to Students for Life of America's (STFLA) efforts, the University of North Carolina has told the group that they have provided students an ability to ”opt-out” of the mandatory abortion-covering health care. Nevertheless, STFLA's Executive Director Kristan Hawkins said that “this is not a victory,” as there was no proof that students opting-out in their own plans will not still foot the bill for other students' abortion coverage. Earlier this week STFLA uncovered the fact that, unless students could afford their own private health insurance, the university-mandated health insurance included coverage for […]

By James Tillman WASHINGTON, D.C., August 11, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com)—GOProud, which bills itself as the “only national organization representing gay conservatives,” has announced that well-known conservative author Ann Coulter is headlining their first annual “Homocon.” The announcement shocked both advocates of traditional family values and homosexualist advocates of “gay rights,” who have previously attacked Coulter for her supposedly homophobic language and beliefs. Christopher Barron, Chairman of the Board of GOProud, said he could think of no “conservative more fun to headline our inaugural party then the self-professed ‘right-wing Judy Garland’—Ann Coulter.” Judy Garland is an icon among homosexuals. “The gay left […]

By Kathleen Gilbert PHOENIX, Arizona, August 11, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The federal appeals court decision to overturn California's constitutional ban on recognizing same-sex “marriage” represents a threat to “cultural sanity” fueled by a line of thinking that is “absurd and only nominally rational,” wrote Phoenix bishop Thomas Olmsted this week. Olmsted said in a Tuesday column for the Catholic Sun that the decision to overturn the voter-approved constitutional language “cannot be passed over in silence,” and criticized an opinion piece in The Arizona Republic that stated: “If this generation of Americans doesn’t move forward, the next one will. Young people […]

By Peter J. Smith SAN FRANCISCO, California, August 11, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The American Bar Association adopted a resolution supporting the legalization of same-sex “marriage” across the United States at the conclusion of its annual national convention in San Francisco on Tuesday. According to the Associated Press, only one member voiced dissent against the resolution, which “urges state, territorial, and tribal governments to eliminate all of their legal barriers to civil marriage between two persons of the same sex who are otherwise eligible to marry.” The resolution was sponsored by the state bar associations of New York, Washington, Vermont, Massachusetts, […]

By Patrick B. Craine PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, August 11, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Venerable Pope John Paul II’s catecheses on the theology of the body form “the curriculum of the Culture of Life” and represent “a step-by-step, Spirit-laden presentation that resonates with the hunger so many people feel every day,” said Cardinal Justin Rigali, Archbishop of Philadelphia, in a homily at the first National Theology of the Body Congress. Cardinal Rigali told the Congress that, in his theology of the body, the Pope was “laying out … God’s plan for humanity,”  Pope John Paul, he said, “told us that there is only one […]

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 11, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - American Life League’s Stop Planned Parenthood project (STOPP) is mobilizing parents to counter Urban Outfitters Inc., the youth-oriented retailer selling Planned Parenthood’s “Proper Attire” condoms on its web site. While condoms have an overall typical-use failure rate of 15 percent – with some studies reporting a failure rate as high as 36 percent for typical teen use – Planned Parenthood condoms scored at the very bottom in a February 2005 Consumer Reports study on condom effectiveness. “By hawking Planned Parenthood’s condoms, Urban Outfitters has become part of the problem, not the solution,” said Rita Diller, STOPP’s […]

By James Tillman CHAPEL HILL, North Carolina, August 10, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – This coming school year, students at the University of North Carolina who do not have or cannot afford their own private health insurance will be required to buy into a state-selected health insurance plan that funds abortions. “The fact that North Carolina students are going to be forced to pay for elective abortions is appalling,” said Kristan Hawkins, Executive Director of Students for Life of America, which discovered the abortion mandate. “Students should not be put in a situation like this in order to attend an educational institution.” […]