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(Left to right) Paul Wierzbowski, Joe Scheidler, Ann Scheidler, and Joronda Crawford at the Illinois Capitol [Photo by John Jansen]
Over 50 pro-lifers headed to Springfield for the SpeakOut Illinois Lobby Day on Wednesday, March 10. Hearings were held on Wednesday morning on the Illinois version of the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), known to the Illinois legislature as the Reproductive Health and Access bill, HB6205. Unfortunately the bill passed out of the Health and Human Services Committee by a vote of 5-2.
But providentially, pro-life activists representing the dozens of pro-life groups affiliated with SpeakOut Illinois were at the Capitol Wednesday to talk with their legislators and ask them to oppose any further expansion of abortion in Illinois. HB6205 would give Illinois its own Roe v Wade and make it virtually impossible to restrict or regulate abortion in any way. HB6205 also mandates tax dollars to pay for abortion and requires “comprehensive” sex education in public school districts.
This morning, the Illinois House of Representatives Human Services Committee passed HB6205, the Illinois
I don’t have information on who our two pro-life, pro-family, pro-sanity votes were, but I assume one of them was Republican Patricia R. Bellock, who raised numerous objections to the bill during the hearing. More details to come soon.
What this means is that the Illinois pro-life community must step up pressure on the entire House. Alicia reported that many Representatives attended the hearing. They’re clearly interested in this bill, which means they all need to hear from us again. And again. And again.
Get talking points and contact links for your State Rep here.
(Cross-posted at StopIllinoisFOCA.com.)
Even organizations that support abortion are criticizing Kermit Gosnell’s “CHOICE” abortion clinic. It seems they are even supporting laws that would force clinics to clean up a bit (good for them!).
Since it is often “pro-choice” politicians who prevent laws from being enacted to regulate abortion clinics (for fear of angering “pro-choice” interest groups who give big campaign donations), I take this as a good sign. [Continue reading ...]
(Left to right) Matt Yonke, Eric Scheidler and Jerry Nickels at the Illinois Capitol
On Wednesday, March 3, Pro-Life Action League Executive Director Eric Scheidler and I headed down to Springfield, Illinois along with local activist Jerry Nickels to join in the Catholics at the Capitol day sponsored by the Catholic Conference of Illinois.
The day began with Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception presided over by Cardinal Francis George, Archbishop of Chicago and President of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. Hundreds of faithful Catholics were in attendance, packing the Cathedral to overflowing.
Here at the Hotline Blog, we’ve been keeping you up to date with the latest news on Illinois HB6205, the “Illinois FOCA” bill that’s currently making its way through the Illinois House of Representatives.
This bill would enshrine abortion as a fundamental right in Illinois, even if Roe v. Wade was overturned. It would abolish all restrictions on abortion and force every public school in Illinois to teach “condom training” sex-ed from pre-school. Check out Eric Scheidler’s latest post on the Stop Illinois FOCA website for the latest on the bill’s progress.
Illinois pro-lifers have beaten this bill twice before, and we can beat it again, but there are some extremely important action items that every Illinois citizen needs to take to fight this pernicious piece of legislation. [Continue reading ...]
Last week, authorities made a shocking discovery while investigating a West Philadelphia abortion clinic run by Kermit Gosnell where a woman died following an abortion in November 2009.
In Gosnell’s office, they found two dozen frozen fetuses.
On Sunday, Gosnell’s license was suspended, with the suspension order detailing “deplorable and unsanitary conditions” that made his practice “an immediate and clear danger to the public health and safety.”
Today, on the pro-choice blog RH Reality Check, Rachel Larris has a post on Gosnell and the woman who died at his facility in November (the woman is identified by the Philadelphia Inquirer as Karnamaya Mongar).
Who does Larris blame for the woman’s death?
Why, pro-lifers, of course.
The pro-life movement in Illinois is already mobilizing against the pernicious “Reproductive Health and Access Act” just re-filed in the House of Representatives—better known as “Illinois FOCA”—and you can join the fight by adding your name to the petition just launched at the Stop Illinois FOCA website.
Once you’ve added your name with the online form, click the “Share This” link on the page to forward it to your pro-life family and friends. You can also download a printable petition [PDF] for gathering signatures at church or around the neighborhood.
Yesterday morning I was interviewed by Paul Butler of Moody Radio’s Prime Time America for a piece on the Personhood movement that has been gaining momentum over the last couple of years. Pro-life leaders are of different minds on the effectiveness of the Personhood approach.
In the piece, Keith Mason of Personhood USA explains the logic behind the strategy, Paul Linton of the Thomas More Society questions the legal theory behind it and I offer some perspective on where Personhood fits into the wider movement.
Listen to the segment here.
Illinois FOCA is back! The so-called Reproductive Health and Access Act (RHAA) was re-filed yesterday by chief sponsor Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie (D-25th), and designated as House Bill 6205.
The new bill slightly tweaks some provisions of HB2354, the Illinois FOCA bill defeated last year by a broad coalition of pro-life and pro-family groups. When it became clear that the bill lacked enough votes to pass, the Democratic House leadership shelved the bill, in a stinging defeat for the pro-abortion lobby.
The only thing I think I’ve ever learned about sex from TV is that it is pleasurable. And yet, somehow, Planned Parenthood thinks children have missed out on that factoid, and they need to be explicitly taught this in schools—beginning at age 10, according to a new study by the International Planned Parenthood Federation.
While God certainly created sex for pleasure, as John Paul II’s Theology of the Body teaches us, there’s more to it than that. Much, much more. And when it is separated from the bond of Holy Matrimony (and from an attitude of mutual self giving), the pleasure is fleeting and hardly amounts to much—and it’s more than outweighed by the risk of lifelong and even deadly STDs, out of wedlock pregnancies, and emotional devastation after he/she (almost inevitably) leaves you.
Bert Koenders, Minister for Development Cooperation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, writes in his introduction [pdf] to the study: “The whole world needs to accept that many young people, married and unmarried, are sexually active.” [Continue reading ...]