Pro-life

Dawn Eden points out that Planned Parenthood has helpfully defined when a person begins.

Q: My friend says that life begins when the egg and sperm join together. I say that it begins when a baby takes its first breath. Which of us is right?

"Most medical authorities and Planned Parenthood agree that it starts when a baby takes its first breath." [Source]

I guess once outside air is introduced into the babies respiration system it must mix with another component and personhood is spontaneously created. This works kind of like what occurs in a binary chemical weapon. This also means that if you gag the baby as it is born you can still kill it because personhood hasn’t occurred yet. Why go through the mess of partial-birth abortion when you can just strangle it before it takes its first breath.

Now we just need to know when rationality begins in a Planned Parenthood representative. Unfortunately there is not a known sample group on which to be able to do a scientifically measured study of.

If you want to read a truly sane explanation of when personhood begins read Peter Kreeft’s Human Personhood begins at Conception

TALLAHASSEE — Lawmakers agreed Thursday to sweeping changes in Florida abortion laws, including a voter-mandated requirement that doctors must notify the parent or guardian of girls who want to end their pregnancies.

The Legislature also sent to Gov. Jeb Bush a bill that creates stricter regulations for some abortion clinics.

And in another measure sought by anti-abortion activists, legislators approved a bill saying a person who assaults a pregnant woman can, in certain cases, be charged with murder if the fetus dies.

The bills were considered a victory for Christian conservatives and Republican leaders who tried unsuccessfully earlier this year to pass a law to help Terri Schiavo’s parents keep their brain-damaged daughter alive against her husband’s wishes.

The debate over Schiavo’s case, which nearly brought the legislative session to a halt in March, became a rallying cry for what Christian conservatives and some lawmakers call the "culture of life."

The aftermath of that debate could have helped along those bills, some lawmakers said.

"Because of the Schiavo vote, some probably felt it might be a good idea to address some of these issues to sort of balance things out," said Rep. Jeff Kottkamp, R-Cape Coral, who sponsored the bill to mandate parental notification before abortions. "There may have been some pressure felt to pass some legislation that would be viewed favorably to the pro-life folks." [Source]

It seems these positive changes are being advanced more for political reasons than to bring about a culture of life. The language used of balancing things out and legislation that would be viewed favorably by pro-life folks certainly speaks mainly of of political tone.

A social worker at a clinic connected with Providence Alaska Medical Center led a 15-year-old girl to seek an abortion, then arranged for her to obtain it in Seattle at government expense, all without her parents’ knowledge or approval, a lawsuit filed last month alleges. Her boyfriend, 17, went with her.

The parents only found out when they became frantic because their daughter didn’t come home one night in March 2003, according to the suit filed by Anchorage attorney Yale Metzger on behalf of the girl and her parents. An older daughter who knew about the abortion told them where she was, the suit says.

The suit names as defendants Sisters of Providence, doing business as Providence Health System Alaska and Providence Family Practice Center, as well as the social worker at the center.

The Daily News is not naming the plaintiffs because of the sensitive nature of the matter and the girl’s age. She is now 17.

The unusual court case provides a look at how a young teenager can get an abortion without her parents’ knowledge. It was filed March 3, just before the issue returned to public view. Alaska’s Legislature passed a law in 1997 requiring that girls under 17 get approval either from their parents or a judge, but it has never taken effect because of court challenges. On April 13, the Alaska Supreme Court heard the latest round of arguments over whether the law should stand.

The girl in the lawsuit regrets her decision to have an abortion, Metzger said. "Whether you agree or disagree with parental consent or parental notification, this isn’t the right way," he said. She and her parents are seeking unspecified damages for emotional distress.

Providence, as a Catholic institution, doesn’t perform abortions but will refer patients to where they can get one, said spokeswoman Karina Jennings.

A staff member may bring up the option of an abortion if a patient indicates the pregnancy is unwanted, she said. It’s a difficult area for workers whose role is to help the patient but who still must follow Catholic ethical and religious teachings, Jennings said.

"We believe we followed good sound medical practice in this case," Jennings said. She wouldn’t discuss specifics. [Source]

What a bunch of crap. The goal is to help patients, but unfortunately we still must still follow Catholic teaching so we have to wiggle around the fact that we are a Catholic hospital. Of course they didn’t explain how their help in this case caused the girl to regret the abortion she had.

Under their spiritual care services page they included the Catholic Mass but seem to have left off "Arranging travel to another state so that an abortion may be provided without informing the parents." Under spirituality they also offer ‘sound’ medical treatment like Music Thanatology. They offer to have harp player play at your beside as you die. I guess this is to help you transition to the dominant musical genre in Heaven since you always see Angels with harps. "A music vigil doesn’t require a doctor’s order." Well that is a good thing. Nothing worse than prescriptive harp playing.

Karen Gilley, RN
Music Thanatologist

Dawn Eden gives a well deserved fisking to a post in Planned Parenthood’s SaveRoe blog. Planned Parenthood all upset about Focus on the Family’s Operation Ultrasound which is working to equip 650 crisis pregnancy centers with ultrasound machines by the 2010 using privately raised money.

For all the talk about pro-choice I guess this does not include a visual choice. Reality must be hidden at all cost.

NARAL’s director of government relations had previously said concerning ultrasound machines

"They don’t want them to go to Planned Parenthood, where they’ll get their full range of options. They just want them to go to crisis pregnancy centers, where women will be exposed to this weapon at taxpayer’s expense."

Well this time the machines are provided from private sources yet they are complaining that the amount raised will be more than they get from the federal government. Not surprising when showing the truth as something can be described as a weapon.

Here is a picture of an Aviation Ordanceman loading and doing the final check on a ultrasound machine weapon to be dropped on emergency pregnancy resource centers.

First they called it Physician assisted suicide and now it is "Aided-suicide." Wow that just sounds so much better and it really changes the morality of helping people to kill themselves.

"We are trying to bring the everyday practice of aid in dying out of the shadows, into the light of public scrutiny," said Levine, who pursued the concept of assisted suicide after the death of his terminally ill grandmother.

Supporters, who included a wildly varied parade of hospice workers, doctors, attorneys, religious and community-group representatives, hope to win some GOP backing and push the measure through to Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who would face a dilemma as a Catholic and social moderate.

Arnold Schwarzenegger has yet to face a moral dilemma or wrestle with one and lose. When asked previously about his positions contrary to the Catholic faith he replied "That’s easy, I never had one sleepless night over it" Maybe Arnold can deliver the death prescriptions personally and tell them "your ‘e terminated."

"It’s never right to commit, encourage, endorse or assist suicide for persons of any age or stage of life," said Ned Dolejsi, executive director of the California Catholic Conference, which includes the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Instead, he said, legislators should "work together to deal with the real issues of health care, death and dying in our society."

Fr. Rob Johansen reports on another case of death by dehydration
currently being done to 85 year-old Mae Margourik of LaGrange, Georgia.
[Source]

BlogssforTerri has more.

A nice pro-life story with a happy ending.

Jimmy Akin answers a listener in regards to the moral character of what happened to Terri as being murder. He cuts through the smoke screen of excuses of why they don’t affect the moral character of the act.

"Apparently Planned Parenthood isn’t content with killing 244,628 innocent children in the last year through abortion. Now the harmful organization is telling its advocates how to thank elected officials for voting against a measure aimed at saving the life of Terri Schiavo," said David Bereit, national director of American Life League’s STOPP International.

On Thursday, March 24, the director of public affairs for Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida sent an e-mail to advocates for the abortion operation telling them how to "express your appreciation" to Florida Republican senators who split with the GOP leadership by voting against a bill intended to save Terri Schiavo. The message listed the names and contact information for the six senators.

In a Wednesday, March 30, phone conversation with David Bereit, the Planned Parenthood executive admitted to sending the e-mail and said, "We just felt that it was pretty courageous of them [the six senators] to do what they did, and it’s always a good idea to thank legislators when they do something you like."

When asked by Bereit about the specifics of the measure, the abortion clinic employee admitted, "I really am not sure exactly what the legislation said," but explained that she sent out the e-mail because, "I think probably the majority of our supporters feel that there should not be government intrusion, that the court should be the ones handling this issue, as it has, and so that’s why I did it."

"It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Planned Parenthood and its supporters think the courts should ultimately decide who lives and who dies in America," Bereit explained. "After all, it was the courts that forced abortion upon America, giving Planned Parenthood the ability to make over $100 million a year by terminating innocent children."

Bereit added, "This is just one more example of why people across America are uniting to oppose Planned Parenthood and its destructive agenda." [Source]

This indeed is a sick consistency and shows their love of the judiciary. Heaven forbid our duly appointed representatives actually pass a law that might save a life. You just got to love them admitting that they don’t even know what the legislation said, but as Groucho Marx sang "Whatever it is I’m against it." [audio] If they are so against government intrusion then why do they accept$254.4 million in taxpayer money? I truly wish the government wouldn’t intrude in PP’s budget.

Dawn Eden previously reported that while Planned Parenthood does not come right out and support euthanasia, their End of Life page does list three euthanasia advocates and the forth is the The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) . NHPCO had this to say about Terri.

Over the past week many people have asked – “why is hospice caring for Terri Schiavo?” “Terri isn’t terminally ill,” “Terri doesn’t have cancer,” “Terri has been in the hospice facility for too long,” are just some of the variations on the question of “why hospice” that we have heard.

Our response – who better than hospice to support a family in crisis and conflict over end-of-life decision making? Who better than hospice to provide comfort care to Terri and her family? Who better to provide support for a community, a nation, torn apart by differing beliefs about this tragic situation? Who better than hospice to educate people about the body’s response to withdrawal of life-sustaining medical treatments? Who better than hospice to minister to Terri, her family, her caregivers and all of us as we experience anticipatory grief over the loss of Terri’s life?

So withholding food and hydration comes into the area of comfort care. I certainly hope they never start a hotel chain since their definition of comfort is somewhat different than mine. If I ordered room service would they bill it as "life-sustaining medical treatment"?

With the news of Terri’s death today I pray that we learn some lessons from it. That this be truly a wake up call to the culture of death. Many of us have been falsely lulled into a belief that their has been some progress in the pro-life front. That a growing condemnation of abortion equated to generally a growing pro-life movement. This sad case proves that our view of human life is very utilitarian.

Part of the growth in belief against abortion is the result of new ultrasound techniques that show babies have more identifiable human characteristics earlier then was generally known. Case in point is how in England there are attempts to lower the time time for legalized abortion by a couple of weeks because of newer ultrasound pictures. These pictures did not generally make people want to outlaw abortion, but just to limit it to an earlier time. This only shows that if it starts just to look more human that people become more squeamish about it. So while this is positive progress if you are under the time limit you are still open game. Earlier stages of human development can still be slaughtered because of how they look or because they are really small. The lesson that all human life has dignity and the right to life has not really been learned. If you fall outside of the parameters of how somebody defines what it means to be human then hunting season is open.

What we are doing to the front end of human development we are also doing on the other end. Those that are not deemed to be living a fully human life are also not deemed to be human and not worthy of life. If it is perceived as that you are no longer conscience of your surroundings then it would just be better to put you down. Whatever happened to where there is life there is hope? Does this only apply to people in the cases of miraculous embryonic stem-cell cures? Though in the case of Terri if she was allowed to live and never substantially improved she was still a human person to be treated with dignity. Death by dehydration is not dignified. Purposeful attempts to directly cause someone to die by removing the basic means for life is not dignified for that person nor for the persons instrumental in their removal.

Justin Katz describe what our society is doing as "Chipping at the edges"

I’m wading deeply into speculative waters, but there seems to me clear reason to worry about a society that begins trimming its notions of rights and worthiness around the edges. Anybody who’s ever thought a Monday morning head cold would never fade knows that suffering is a fluid concept; when current, it feels eternal and unbearable. And anybody who’s ever been through or witnessed a teenage romantic breakup knows that whether a life is worth living is a matter of mushy perspective.

We all rightly despise suffering, and it is right to wish that our world did not include it. It’s also right to desire to relieve it in some way. We’d best be wary of looking to death for that relief, however, lest it become the prescription for midlife discomfort.

We not only as Senator Moynihan said have "defined deviancy down", but we have defined what consists of being human down. In a society that largely has no problem sacrificing human embryos for alleged cures we should not be surprised that the other end of the life spectrum can be sacrificed for not matching the current definition of being fully human.

This case has also shown that we do live in a black-robeocracy. That congress can pass a law that can basically be ignored and even declared unconstitutional We are very good at redefining terms to suit what we want them to mean. The road to the execution of Terri Schiavo started with house Bill 2131 to amend Florida law to redefine the legal definition of life support to include artificially provided food and hydration. This bill was introduced by a legislator who was on the board of the same hospice where Terri died today. This of course is the same board that included George Felos and Judge Greer. The bill previously signed into law to save Terri was ruled unconstitutional by the Florida Supreme Court. So whenever there is some pesky law passed by our representatives it can be just ignored by slapping the unconstitutional tag to it. Here is SecretAgentMan’s analysis of the law that congress passed and how the writers of the bill are complicit with how the courts reacted to it.

One of the unfortunate side effects of the Congresses action was that it took the heat of the Florida legislature for the most part. We can complain about Judges all we want but it was a Republican dominated Florida Senate that could not pass HB 701 "Artificially Provided Sustenance and Hydration". The vote was 18 to 21 and they still have not released the names of the Senators who voted against it. This bill not only would have saved Terri’s life but it would fix the 1999 bill that lead to this. Others in my state of Florida our still not safe and can still be denied life’s most basic needs. Pressure must still be applied to correct this situation here in Florida and wherever else life support has been redefined.

We have tried to fight for the human dignity of Terri Schiavo and others who are in some ways disabled. We must also remember the human dignity of those who worked towards her death. While the actions that were taken against her are gravely wrong we must not make the same mistake as to dehumanize them or to call them subhuman. I pray for Michael Schiavo, Judge Greer, George Felos and others that this sin might not be held against them and that they repent of their actions in support of euthanasia.

Unfortunately one of my older posts of Terri seems to be a high web searches for Terri’s death and I had to close comments because I was getting some very sad and sick comments. The culture of death is in full swing and our actions against it must start with prayer and then action to defeat it.

Please also pray for the repose of Terri’s soul and for her family who have suffered so much.