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News and commentary from the Pro-Life Action League
News and commentary from the Pro-Life Action League
I attended the opening show of the pro-life documentary Blood Money last week at the Pickwick Theatre in Park Ridge, and afterward, the film’s producer/director, David Kyle, led a short discussion and answered questions from the audience.
Someone asked what ordinary pro-lifers could do to help get the movie into other theaters, and David said the best way is to get others to come and see it during its time here in the Chicago area.
From a theater’s standpoint, it’s all about attendance: if a movie is able to draw large crowds in one city, there’s a good chance that theaters in other cities will show it too.
If you haven’t seen Blood Money yet, there’s still time. It’s playing at the Pickwick through this Thursday, September 2 (see show times here, and get directions here).
Speaking at a Canon Law symposium in Slovakia this week, Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput gave voice to some sobering thoughts on what the future holds for Christianity in general and the Catholic Church in particular, which he called “the most compelling and dangerous heretic of the world’s new order.”
In his address, Chaput spoke of the dangers inherent in moral relativism, which inevitably results in such “foundational injustices” as abortion, which he called “the crucial issue of our age.”
He went on to make some eye-opening statements about human rights and the nature of government: [Continue reading ...]
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth
Pro-lifers have good reason to be happy about U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth’s decision this week to prevent the Obama administration from expanding embryonic stem cell research.
In his decision, Lamberth determined that an executive order signed by President Obama in March 2009 was at odds with an appropriations bill rider commonly known as the Dickey-Wicker Amendment, which prohibits taxpayer funding of research in which human embryos “are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death.” [Continue reading ...]
Although the FDA last week approved the drug “ella” (ulipristal acetate) for prescription use, the controversy over how it works — Is it a contraceptive, or an abortifacient, or both? — shows no signs of going away any time soon.
According to the New York Times, the members of the FDA’s advisory committee that voted to approve it were largely indifferent to this question; all they concluded, in their wisdom, is that it’s supposedly “safe and effective”.
Meanwhile, ella’s manufacturers are going to great lengths to claim that it functions only as a contraceptive and not as an abortifacient. Witness David Archer, whom Slate calls an “expert” for ella’s manufacturer, HRA Pharma of Paris: [Continue reading ...]
Screenshot from Planned Parenthood Golden Gate's infamous video "A Superhero for Choice"
The Planned Parenthood Federation of America will sever ties with its San Francisco affiliate, Planned Parenthood Golden Gate, as of September 3.
The affiliate is being cut loose apparently due to financial mismanagement. Its most recent documents filed with the IRS showed a loss of a staggering $2.8 million, and other documents from as early as 2004 indicate it has been falling well short of meeting the national office’s financial requirements.
PPGG’s political action fund — i.e., its 501(c)(4) political advocacy arm — is also in trouble with the State of California’s Attorney General’s Office, which last week sent a warning letter to the fund because it has not filed its tax documents with the office for at least 10 years. [Continue reading ...]
Our hat is off to Midland (Texas) Catholics for Life, which earlier this month put up a billboard on its property (see left) featuring graphic abortion pictures.
Not surprisingly, the billboard has been generating significant controversy, due in no small part to the fact that the billboard is located across the street from a Planned Parenthood facility that performs abortions.
The local CBS affiliate did a segment on the billboard recently, and to its credit, actually showed the images of aborted babies: [Continue reading ...]
Tremendous outcry has arisen in the past year after it was learned that the national office of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development has been funding abortion, contraception, same-sex “marriage,” and legalized prostitution.
It’s painfully obvious that the CCHD is in need of reform, and in Chicago, its local Archdiocesan office has taken that responsibility very seriously.
Given the revelations about the CCHD’s history of supporting dubious organizations, it certainly has had its share of critics — as well it should. And to his great credit, Rey Flores, the new director of the Chicago CCHD office, has taken an irenic approach in reaching out to the most outspoken ones and asked them to suggest groups that they believe are deserving of grants from the Campaign.
A recent LifeSiteNews article spoke very favorably about the changes being made in the Chicago CCHD office under Flores’ leadership and noted that the reforms he is instituting locally would serve as a great example for the CCHD to follow nationwide. [Continue reading ...]
With the new school year right around the corner, Generations for Life — the League’s youth outreach — has recently heard from a number of students across the country who are looking for help in getting pro-life clubs started at their high schools.
We love getting these requests, since helping get new pro-life clubs up and running is one of the main reasons GFL exists.
It’s for this reason that we created our Pro-Life Curriculum, which is designed as a manual for forming and maintaining an effective pro-life club. [Continue reading ...]
This afternoon at our office we received the latest edition of Time magazine, and couldn’t help but notice its provocative cover (see left).
On the cover is a portrait of Aisha, an 18-year old Afghan woman who was ordered by the Taliban to have her nose and ears cut off because she ran away from her abusive in-laws.
On Time’s website, managing editor Richard Stengel writes that it was not without reservation that he decided to include the picture of Aisha on the cover:
I’m acutely aware that this image will be seen by children, who will undoubtedly find it distressing. We have consulted with a number of child psychologists about its potential impact. Some think children are so used to seeing violence in the media that the image will have little effect, but others believe that children will find it very scary and distressing — that they will see it, as Dr. Michael Rich, director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Children’s Hospital Boston, said, as “a symbol of bad things that can happen to people.” I showed it to my two young sons, 9 and 12, who both immediately felt sorry for Aisha and asked why anyone would have done such harm to her.
The mother of a 6th grade girl who was not allowed to wear a pro-life T-shirt at her public school in Merced, California filed a federal lawsuit this week against the school, claiming that the school violated her daughter’s First Amendment rights.
The design on the girl’s shirt can be seen above, right.
The school claims it had the right to prevent the girl (identified in court documents as “T.A.”) from wearing the shirt on the grounds that it violated the school’s dress code, which states:
Personal articles, clothing, or manner of dress shall make no suggestion of tobacco, drug, or alcohol use, sexual promiscuity, profanity, vulgarity, or other inappropriate subject matter.