The "Fruits" of Abortion

Surprise, surprise! Today Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb) caved in under the pressure exerted by the Senate Democrat leadership and will now support the Senate's "health care bill" even though it does not explicitly prohibit government funding of abortions. Of course I and all my pro-life friends hoped that he would remain committed to the principles and values he supposedly holds so dear. How naive of us. We should have known that Senator Nelson is, first and foremost, a politician. Accordingly, he, like all career politicians, will do whatever is necessary to protect his political career. In this instance the senator sold his vote (and his soul) for $45 million of federal funds. Of course, there are undoubtedly other goodies, as yet not public, heading the senator's way for hopping aboard Harry Reid's train to political oblivion. I will step out on a limb here and predict that the people of Nebraska will toss Nelson out of office in 2012.

That being said, we can now forget about Senator Nelson. For a while he was a shining star, a man of principle who apparently refused to compromise on the right to life. But, by joining the other 59 Senators who will support this ridiculous, monstrous, deficit busting bill, he has made himself irrelevant. He is just another unprincipled, opportunistic politician among many others.

The evil fruits of abortion, however, can also be found well beyond the halls of the Capitol. The following opinion piece by Deacon Keith Fournier (written on December 16 before Senator Nelson's capitulation) tells another story. It's worth a read. (Deacon Fournier's columns are published by Catholic Online.)

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Abortion is America’s Shame: Dead Baby under the Christmas Tree

By Deacon Keith Fournier
12/16/2009

Catholic Online

'Apparently they cleaned up the fetus and they placed it inside a gift box under the Christmas tree’. (San Juan Police Chief Juan Gonzalez)

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Catholic Online) – All US News reports are fixated on efforts to push a “Heath Care Reform” package through the Senate before Christmas. The threat by Senator Joe Lieberman to hold the legislation hostage unless the so called ‘public option” is removed has now given way. He has backed down. The President held one more “persuasion” session with Democratic Senators Tuesday to keep the pressure on. From most insiders playbooks it looks like some form of legislation will clear the Senate before the Nation pauses to remember a baby born in a manger.

Senator Ben Nelson, who fought hard to amend the legislation to ensure that no tax dollars would be used to pay for abortions, is under extreme pressure to fold his cards. Rumors are circulating that he will vote with those who want such a barbaric practice to be funded with tax dollars. I do not believe it. I pray that he has the courage to withstand the increasing pressure.

Some “inside” sources claimed on Tuesday that he is being threatened with closure of an air force base and others that he is being offered a “blank check” in the way of funds to bring home to his constituents. Are these claims true? No one knows for sure. However, that is how the game is played in Washington, DC. After all, children in the womb are not recognized as having a Right to Life in this Nation. That is so even though the American founders insisted that such a right was endowed by a Creator and inalienable.

While the myriad of talking heads on television news shows crow on saying nothing in so many words, a shocking story out of San Juan Texas puts the entire deadly affair in perspective. The Associated Press reported on Tuesday, December 15, 2009:

Fetus found in gift box, Texas couple charged

“Authorities allege a south Texas couple put an aborted 7-month-old fetus in a gift box under a Christmas tree after trying to flush the remains down a toilet. Thirty-one-year-old Ruby Lee Medina and 37-year-old Javier Gonzalez are jailed on abuse of corpse and tampering with evidence charges. Bond is set at $20,000 each. A woman at the San Juan city jail says she can't say whether either has retained an attorney. San Juan Police Chief Juan Gonzalez says police found the fetus inside the woman's trailer home Thursday after an anonymous tip. Gonzalez says police believe the woman used pills to induce an abortion, then called an ambulance and said she didn't know where the fetus was. Gonzalez says the couple first tried to flush the fetus, then cleaned it up and put in the gift box….”

The horror of this act brought me back to May 8, 2006 when a mother named Tammy Skinner of Suffolk, Virginia killed her own child with a gun and was set free by a Judge. On Feb. 23, 2006 she called police from a car dealership and told them that she had been shot in the stomach and pushed out of her car. Police found blood in Skinner’s red compact car, and a gun. Tammy was carrying her baby within her; a little girl who was to be delivered that very day. Later, Tammy changed her story, claiming that the father of Baby Girl Skinner had killed her. Finally, she told the authorities the truth - she had shot herself in the abdomen with the intention of killing her baby.

Tammy had two other daughters. However, she simply did not want this one. So, she killed her with a gun. She was charged with inducing an abortion. However, since she actually fired the gun herself, Judge James A. Moore decided that she could not be so charged because abortion is legal in America throughout all nine months under the holding of Roe v. Wade. Her lawyer, known for his “civil rights” work- and for his representation of the People for the Ethical treatment of Animals (PETA)- argued at a preliminary hearing that the charge of inducing an abortion or miscarriage is intended for use against a third party and did not apply to a mother who shoots herself to commit an abortion.

In the United States Baby Girl Skinner had no rights; mother Tammy had them all. She also had a “right” to kill. Given the state of the law, the other human person involved, the one who died as a direct result of the gunshot, Baby Girl Skinner, had no voice and no legal standing. She, along with all children in the first home of the human race, their mothers’ womb, had been reduced to the status of property. The charge of inducing an abortion was dismissed. Tammy Skinner had also been charged with using a firearm in a felony. However, that charge was not prosecuted because it must occur during the commission of a specific felony in Virginia. Tammy’s intentional killing of Baby Girl Skinner was not a felony. It was viewed as an extension of her “right” to take the life of her own child as long as the baby was still in the womb. She was convicted of filing a false police report and ordered to pay the cost of the police investigation, $750.

If someone else had shot Tammy Skinner and her daughter on the day she was to have delivered, they could have been prosecuted. However, Virginia’s fetal homicide law did not apply to the mother. It referred to killing “the fetus of another.” One of the Commonwealth’s Attorneys, Phil Ferguson, said: “We are dealing with a woman who, by her own hands, killed her child on the day of its birth…This was a nine-month fetus, clearly in the realm of viability. Whether it meets legal tests to constitute criminal conduct – we’re reviewing and exploring our options.” Tammy Skinner’s attorney, who recognizes the civil rights of animals and fish, did not concern himself with the preeminent natural and human right to life of Baby Girl Skinner. He said he was happy with the decision stating: “It was clear to me, and clear to the judge, that you cannot convict when an expectant mother does this,”

Now, 31 year-old Ruby Lee Medina and her 37-year-old accomplice Javier Gonzalez are being held on “abuse of corpse and tampering with evidence” charges in Texas. Let’s see what happens. The case is no different than the Skinner case. The “super right” to decide whether to kill a child in the womb seems to trump every other true right such as the Right to Life. Cases such as these two reveal the fangs on the evil face of legal abortion on demand in our Nation. The Senate will soon pass legislation which, in the name of “health care”, will allow our tax dollars to fund the killing of children in the womb through surgical dismemberment and chemical destruction. Every procured abortion is the taking of an innocent human life, the killing of our neighbor in the first home of the whole human race.

As we prepare to celebrate the birth of a child who was born in a manger because there was no room for Him in the Inn, another child was killed before he or she could join us for Christmas. This killing was willful and intentional. It was done by his/her mother through a self ingested deadly chemical weapon which she swallowed. This little baby was delivered dead, wrapped in a box and placed under a Christmas tree. When we hear or read of such horrors we still react. That is because there is still some shred of conscience left in us. If we begin to fund this practice with tax dollars, perhaps even that last remaining shred will disappear.

Abortion has become America’s Shame. We have allowed the growth of a culture which views human persons as products - commodities to be disposed of if inconvenient. We have put in place a legal and political system which promotes and protects the evil. The Dead Baby under the Christmas tree cries out for justice and mercy. Abortion is not health care because killing is not healing.
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What will become of our country?

Pray, brothers and sisters...pray!

God's peace....

Planned Parenthood Calls Catholics to Rebellion

Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund and Planned Parenthood Federation of America, wants Catholics to rebel against their bishops and their Church's teaching on the sacredness of human life. This is part of what she wrote to her constituents:

“A few days ago, it felt as if we were holding strong in achieving health care reform that would finally ensure comprehensive coverage for everyone. As the legislation began moving closer to a vote, I knew that our job holding on to our reproductive health victories would be hard ... and then I received a copy of a memo that the Catholic bishops sent to their congregations. As I write this, the bishops have asked all the Catholics in the country to contact their legislators, asking them to alter current health care legislation to include anti-choice amendments. The bishops have inserted letters into church bulletins and asked priests to include their call to action in their sermons — and even in their prayers — during Sunday services…. If you're Catholic and you disagree with the bishops, please let your legislators know when you send your message. Your voice as a pro-choice Catholic needs to be heard NOW."

By the way, before taking her job at Planned Parenthood, Ms. Richards was the chief of staff of none other than Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, a Catholic legislator who has consistently ignored the Church's teaching on a wide range of moral issues. The photo above shows Ms. Richards with then presidential candidate Barack Obama. The president, of course, is of one mind with Planned Parenthood as they labor together to pursue their ongoing slaughter of the most innocent Americans.

Deacon Keith Fournier has written an insightful column on Ms. Richards' latest attack on human life and sanity. Click here to read it: Planned Parenthood Calls Catholics to Rebellion: Bishops Speak for Catholics & Children

Natural Law...Who Cares?

It's becoming increasingly apparent that we live in a age of relativism, an age in which the only objective truth is that there is no truth. (Of course there's an inherent contradiction here, but that doesn't seem to bother those who believe it.)

While it's true that not everyone has succumbed to this belief, virtually all of our self-anointed enlightened progressives -- that is, the movers and shakers in the media, government, and higher education -- have bought into this way of thinking. For them the very idea of natural law, the law that St. Paul tells us God has written on the hearts of all men [Rom 2:15], is something that should have been left behind in the Middle Ages. For them, my "truth" is no more valid than anyone else's "truth." Indeed, if my truth is hostile to their truth then my truth becomes less than truth; it becomes hate speech. On the other hand, their truth, no matter how hateful, can never fall into this category because they are, after all, the enlightened ones.

Lest you think this is just an academic discussion, you need only consider the path our society has followed over the past few decades when it comes to abortion, homosexual activity, premarital sex. If you're over 40 you have seen this first-hand. And don't think this change in society's attitudes has affected only sexual morality. If a politician or public figure doesn't pay his taxes, well...that's okay because he's one of the enlightened who believes and says all the right things. It's affecting all areas of moral life.

The real concern, though, and it's something we're already starting to experience in this nation, is that some in our government want to punish those who believe in objective truth and are courageous enough to express their beliefs publicly. According to these self-appointed thought watchdogs, there are some things -- homosexuality, for example -- that one simply should not be allowed to criticize. This is a symptom of what Pope Benedict has called "the dictatorship of relativism" and, sadly, far too many Catholics have bought into this and refuse to confront such errors with the truth.

I'm certainly not the best person to address this subject, and so I will refer you to another excellent commentary by Deacon Keith Fournier on Catholic Online. Deacon Keith's article, "The 'Two Step' of the New Censors. A Threat to Catholics?" is a thoughtful and timely discussion of what we as Catholics face and the need to catechize our brothers and sisters in faith.

And if you'd like to delve into natural law more deeply, I suggest reading Russell Hittinger's book, The First Grace, published by ISI Books, or 50 Questions on the Natural Law by Charles Rice and published by Ignatius Press.

Pray for strength and trust in the face of persecution.

God's peace...

The Coming (and Present) Persecution

Whenever I refer to the likelihood of a real persecution of the Catholic Church in this country, most Catholics I know immediately tune me out. First they force an indulgent smile of the sort you'd offer a small child when he says something patently absurd. Then they begin to plan their exit strategy. Their eyes search left and right for something or someone that might offer an escape or refuge from the crazy deacon. To them religious persecution is just not something they can imagine happening in the good ol' USA.

Too many Catholics seem blind to what's been happening in this country. Maybe for some it's because their faith is something they consciously practice only once a week when they attend Sunday -- or, all too often, Saturday -- Mass. Unless you live your faith, every hour of every day, it's unlikely you will notice the very real threats to and attacks on the Catholic Church that have become increasingly acceptable in our society.

I worry about these folks because I suspect that many will not hold up very well under the threat of real persecution. The majority of Germans and other Europeans simply "went along" with Nazism because to do otherwise was flat-out dangerous. We see the results in the tremendous loss of faith that Europe has experienced since World War II. I believe I can safely say that today most Western Europeans are, at best, agnostic. This is the Europe that Pope Benedict has been preaching to, pleading with them to revisit and return to the Christianity that formed them, the Christianity that enabled them to confront and defeat the many threats to human freedom over the centuries.

Much the same happened in the Soviet Union after the Revolution and later in Eastern Europe under communism. The only nation that was able to cling to its faith during those years of overt persecution was Catholic Poland. And from Poland came the beginning of the end of communism in Europe.

I could go one, but others have written about these things and done so far better than I. The following article, written by Deacon Keith Fournier of the Diocese of Richmond, is a beautiful example. Written five years ago, it shows remarkable prescience. Here's a direct link to the article, Please read it...

The Beginning of a Persecution Against Catholics is also the Beginning of a new Missionary Age. By Rev. Mr. Keith A. Fournier

...and remember, "Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven." [Mt 5:11-12]