Prolife common ground with Obama Administration?

This just aired on Thurs night (5/28/2009) and I randomly stumbled upon it on CSPAN (which I don't normally watch at all!)

It's a public exchange of views (not really a debate) at Catholic University of America with the topic: “The Obama Administration and the Sanctity of Human Life: Is There a Common Ground on Life Issues? What is the Right Response by ‘Pro-Life” Citizens?”

It's interesting since one of the presenters is Dr. Doug Kmiec who argued publicly and strongly that faithful Catholics can vote for Obama in the last election and is seen here still generally supportive of Obama and his administration. Both presenters are Catholic lawyers and professors and even though it's not a debate, it's interesting to see both sides articulated so clearly before each other. Take a look, it's only about an hour. And yes, this matters for you still in high school because you SHOULD be voting in the next presidential election in 4 years! And Catholic or not, as residents of the US, we're all under the administration of President Obama.

Catholic University School of Law presentation

Freedom of Choice Act

For those of you who had been keeping up with the Presidential election or you listened to Fr. Engel's homily this past Sunday, the Freedom of Choice Act has been a big mark against President Obama from the pro-life point of view. Some common (and sometimes overly-simplistic) implications of this bill are that it codifies Roe v Wade into law, will abolish every state and federal limitation on abortion, and even more instigative, will force Catholic hospitals and health-care workers to perform abortions or else risk being shut down or fired.

While there may be elements of truth in those implications, I'm sure things are more complicated than that. I've found that it's all too easy to accept the over-generalized, sometimes fantastical statements we hear because let's face it, we all like a little drama (gossip!) and it seems to make the world make a little more sense with a minimum amount of effort. Diving in to a little more detail is always tough, but I think it makes for a less polarized world.

If you're interested in learning more about FOCA, I came across this article that I feel does a thorough (at least for the lay person) job evaluating what it is and what it isn't. Sure, it's coming from a pro-life perspective, but it digs deeper into what the text is actually saying, not unlike what we do with the inductive method at Bible Study. The middle portion gets a little technical, but if you can get through it, it makes the final summary that much stronger:

Ultimately, the bill should be seen less as a serious attempt at lawmaking than as abortion-war propaganda dressed up as legislation. It’s noteworthy that from a purely political perspective, FOCA is useful to both prolife and prochoice activists. The bill helps prochoicers ward off any perceived threat to the right to abortion-even as, in its ominous shadows, prolifers see new threats to unborn life, and mobilize accordingly.

Go learn.

Jane Roe's Change of Heart (Roe v. Wade)

I just found out that Fr. Frank Pavone (from EWTN) converted "Jane Roe" from Roe v. Wade to Catholicism and now she is a pro-life advocate!! How awesome is that? God's grace is so empowering!

For those of you who don't know Roe v. Wade, it is a U.S. supreme court case that resulted in the overturning of anti-abortion laws in the U.S. Esentially, the decision overturned all state and federal laws outlawing or restricting abortion that were inconsistent with its holdings. It was a landmark case in which Jane Roe sued the state of Texas for violation of the constitutional right to privacy for not allowing her an abortion after she was raped. Consequently, the court decided that, "a mother may abort her pregnancy for any reason, up until the point at which the fetus becomes ‘viable.’" The Court defined viable as being "potentially able to live outside the mother's womb, albeit with artificial aid."

Here's the link to the 'Jane Roe' video. http://www.justonejudge.com/ Click on the Norma McCorvey video, or see below:



Norma McCorvey became a member of the pro-life movement in 1995; she now supports making abortion illegal. In 1998, she testified to Congress:

“It was my pseudonym, Jane Roe, which had been used to create the "right" to abortion out of legal thin air. But Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee never told me that what I was signing would allow women to come up to me 15, 20 years later and say, "Thank you for allowing me to have my five or six abortions. Without you, it wouldn't have been possible." Sarah never mentioned women using abortions as a form of birth control. We talked about truly desperate and needy women, not women already wearing maternity clothes."

Let's get political

yeah (from www.catholicvote.com)



And some bad news: Google has turned it's back on it's unofficial slogan "don't be evil." Is it even POSSIBLE to boycott Google??

Google comes out against traditional marriage