SF author John C. Wright has an excellent post on abortion with some very good arguments he has used when talking with those who are pro-abortion.
TALLAHASSEE – A request to review a proposed state constitutional amendment that would require state spending on embryonic stem cell research went to the Florida Supreme Court on Tuesday.
Attorney General Charlie Crist asked for the review after Secretary of State Sue Cobb verified sponsors had collected 10 percent of more than 600,000 signatures needed to get the citizen initiative on the 2008 ballot.
The high court will determine whether the amendment conforms to a requirement that initiatives cover a single subject and if the ballot summary is clear and accurate. The justices did not immediately set a date for oral argument.
The proposal would require the state to appropriate $20 million annually for 10 years.
The Culture of Death never sleeps. I guess one positive thing is that yesterday we Floridians passed a state constitutional amendment requiring 60 percent of the voters to approve any state constitutional amendments (which passed by 63%).
"My decision to clone myself should not be the government’s business, or Cardinal O’Conner’s, anymore than a woman’s decision to have an abortion is. Cloning is highly significant. Its part of the reproductive rights of every human being."
–Randy Wicher, cloning activist
Via Mary Meets Dolly
Electron micrograph of a four-day-old human embryo.
“See that you do not despise one of these little ones; for I tell you that in heaven their angels always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven." Matt 18:10
‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me." Matt 25:40
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,and before you were born I consecrated you;" Je 1:5
"I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live," Dt 30:19
The diocese of Sioux Falls suggests starting a novena to the Immaculate Conception today especially since they have an abortion ban on their ballot. So for the next nine days I will be running their novena.
Prayer To The Immaculate Conception
O God, who by the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, did prepare a worthy dwelling place for Your Son, we beseech You that, as by the foreseen death of this, Your Son, You did preserve Her from all stain, so too You would permit us, purified through Her intercession, to come unto You. Through the same Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.
Day Nine
O Mother of the King of the Universe, most perfect member of the human race, "our
tainted nature’s solitary boast," we turn to you as mother, advocate, and mediatrix. O
Holy Mary, assist us in our present necessity. By your Immaculate Conception, O
Mary conceived without sin, we humbly beseech you from the bottom of our heart to
intercede for us with your Divine Son and ask that we be granted the favor for which
we now plead…
(State your intention here…)
O Mary of the Immaculate Conception, Mother of Christ, you had influence with your
Divine Son while upon this earth; you have the same influence now in heaven. Pray for
us and obtain for us from him the granting of my petition if it be the Divine Will.
Amen.
A group of St. Louis area Catholics led by former U.S. senator Tom Eagleton has challenged church leaders by forming Catholics for Amendment 2.
In a two-page letter sent by e-mail last week to fellow Catholics, the group laid out its reasons for supporting the ballot measure that would protect stem-cell research in Missouri.
Passage would ensure that research could go forward and treatments would be available in Missouri. It would keep Missouri on par with other states by allowing any research and treatment permitted under federal law. And it is moderate in its approach, the letter said.
“Some people want to ban all stem cell research,” the letter said. “At the other extreme there are those who would like to see research proceed completely unfettered. We believe that Amendment 2 strikes a responsible balance … (with) clear ethical boundaries and safety guidelines.”
The letter was signed by the group’s 30-member steering committee, made up mostly of people connected to Washington University and various medical institutions, and including Eagleton, a Democrat, and former state senator Anita Yeckel, a Republican.
The letter is a direct challenge to Missouri’s Catholic bishops, who also sent letters last week to parishioners. Those letters urged the faithful to vote against Amendment 2.
Tom Eagleton was briefly a Vice-Presidential Candidate who stepped down after his electro-shock treatments were revealed is leading this effort. It makes you wonder if he received too many or too few treatments. This group who has members who post on Daily Kos is just another one of those faux Catholic groups who will flat-out lie for their agenda. Who is it that wants to ban all stem-cell research?
CATHOLICS FOR AMENDMENT 2 is putting together a statement to demonstrate Catholic support for Amendment 2 in Missouri which would keep vitally necessary embryonic/SCNT research. I ask my fellow Catholics in Missouri to sign on and send ultra-traditionalist Arcbishop [sic] Burke (St. Louis) and Opus Dei Bishop Finn (KC) a message that this is our Church too and that the faithful do support this very pro-life research.
By this definition Dr. Josef Mengele was also pro-life. So what if the research leads to the death of some, after all they were only Jews/embryos. Not really human you know and they don’t look like us. Imagine how many lives we can save by our research.
They are also not afraid to continue the lies in the amendment itself.
Fact #3: Stem cell research does not involve the cloning of a human being, and Amendment 2 strictly bans any attempt to do so. What Amendment 2 does permit (as long as federal law permits) is the creation of stem cells through a process that utilizes a patient’s own single skin cell and an unfertilized egg. There is no sperm involved and no fertilization. This process is sometimes called "therapeutic cloning" because it copies the patient’s own cell, and the new cells can potentially be used to treat the patient’s disease. Amendment 2 specifically bans any attempt to initiate a pregnancy with these cells or to create a human version of Dolly the Sheep. Without Amendment 2, cloning a person is entirely legal in Missouri. Amendment 2 will prohibit it.
Unbelievable. So copying the persons cells is not cloning? That using the same process (SCNT) to create Dolly the Sheep is also not cloning. That somehow if you kill early that a clone was never created. That somehow if they implant an embryo that they say was not cloned if implanted into a uterus then becomes a clone?
There letter also goes on with the false claim that the church opposed using cadavers for research, a subject I covered before. Their understanding of Church history is just as tenuous as their understanding of moral theology.
I can easily understand secular sources advancing such arguments, but I totally fail to understand Catholics doing so. Obviously they must believe we are a soul body composite. That all living things have a soul. Do they think embryos have a animal soul that somehow becomes an human one at implantation or birth? That Jesus before becoming fully God/fully Man, was once fully God, fully animal? When Mary went to the house of Zechariah it could well be the case that Jesus as embryo had not yet implanted into Mary’s womb since this roughly occurs seven to ten days after ovulation. By their definition a similar aged embryo can be killed for medical research yet Elizabeth responded at the sight of Mary by saying "…that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" Strangely John the Baptist responded in the womb to the presence of an embryo.
The diocese of Sioux Falls suggests starting a novena to the Immaculate Conception today especially since they have an abortion ban on their ballot. So for the next nine days I will be running their novena.
Prayer To The Immaculate Conception
O God, who by the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, did prepare a worthy dwelling place for Your Son, we beseech You that, as by the foreseen death of this, Your Son, You did preserve Her from all stain, so too You would permit us, purified through Her intercession, to come unto You. Through the same Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.
Day Eight
O Most gracious Virgin Mary, beloved Mother of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, intercede
with him for us that we be granted the favor which we petition for so earnestly in this
novena…O Mother of the Word Incarnate, we feel animated with confidence that your
prayers in our behalf will be graciously heard before the throne of God. O Glorious
Mother of God, in memory of your joyous Immaculate Conception, hear our prayers
and obtain for us our petitions.
(State your intention here…)
O Mary of the Immaculate Conception, Mother of Christ, you had influence with your
Divine Son while upon this earth; you have the same influence now in heaven. Pray for us and obtain for us from him the granting of my petition if it be the Divine Will.
Litany of the Blessed Virgin
Valley Catholics are being asked to pressure the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation to stop funding cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood clinics.
The foundation is one of the nation’s leading organizations in raising money for breast cancer awareness, and although the organization says Planned Parenthood uses the money only for cancer screenings, the church is concerned Planned Parenthood also performs abortions.
"Some will argue the grant is earmarked for areas other than abortion or contraception, so the affiliation between the organizations is inconsequential," said an editorial in Thursday’s Catholic Sun, the diocese newspaper. "But the sad reality is that the grant money now frees up Planned Parenthood funds for those other areas opposing life and counter to our Catholic faith."
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The editorial was approved by Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted. But Olmsted has not taken action against two major Komen supporters with ties to the diocese.
…A Planned Parenthood representative said some people in the community have a misconception about the organization’s work.
"The reality is that over 90 percent of our work is about sexual health education and prevention of unplanned pregnancy and disease," said Melissa Fink, the organization’s spokeswoman. "Last year alone, our health centers served nearly 55,000 women and men across central and northern Arizona."
I like the irony of "misconception about the organization’s work" and then talking about the prevention of unplanned pregnancies. I also find it rather funny that they defend themselves that they do not just do abortion, but provide contraception also as a rebuttal for why Catholics should support them.
The diocese of Sioux Falls suggests starting a novena to the Immaculate Conception today especially since they have an abortion ban on their ballot. So for the next nine days I will be running their novena.
Prayer To The Immaculate Conception
O God, who by the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, did prepare a worthy dwelling place for Your Son, we beseech You that, as by the foreseen death of this, Your Son, You did preserve Her from all stain, so too You would permit us, purified through Her intercession, to come unto You. Through the same Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.
Day Six
Glorious and immortal Queen of Heaven, we profess our firm belief in your
Immaculate Conception preordained for you in the merits of your Divine Son. We
rejoice with you in your Immaculate Conception. To the one ever-reigning God, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit, three in Person, one in nature, we offer thanks for your blessed
Immaculate Conception. O Mother of the Word made Flesh, listen to our petition as we ask this special grace during this novena…
(State your intention here…)
O Mary of the Immaculate Conception, Mother of Christ, you had influence with your
Divine Son while upon this earth; you have the same influence now in heaven. Pray for
us and obtain for us from him the granting of my petition if it be the Divine Will.
Amen.
The diocese of Sioux Falls suggests starting a novena to the Immaculate Conception today especially since they have an abortion ban on their ballot. So for the next nine days I will be running their novena.
Prayer To The Immaculate Conception
O God, who by the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, did prepare a worthy dwelling place for Your Son, we beseech You that, as by the foreseen death of this, Your Son, You did preserve Her from all stain, so too You would permit us, purified through Her intercession, to come unto You. Through the same Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.
Day Five
O Lord, who, by the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, did prepare a fitting dwelling for your Son, we beseech you that as by the foreseen death of your Son, you
did preserve her from all stain of sin, grant that through her intercession, we may be
favored with the granting of the grace that we seek for at this time…
(State your intention here…)
O Mary of the Immaculate Conception, Mother of Christ, you had influence with your Divine Son while upon this earth; you have the same influence now in heaven. Pray for us and obtain for us from him the granting of my petition if it be the Divine Will. Amen.