You Deserve to Know the Truth: Contraception

Bishop E.W. Jackson Message to Black Christians

Feels Like Home--Reece's Rainbow

Women Speak for Themselves

Is Christ calling you to be His bride?

Let's take a few minutes to inspire hope in a world which is in darkness.
Religious sisters give hope to the world that we are destined for Eternity with Christ, that this fallen world is merely a shadow of the coming glory. Here is a new project aimed at asking single women if they are indeed being called to the consecrated life.

Imagine Sisters Announces One Rose Project

CHICAGO, Ill.--September 15, 2012 - Imagine Sisters, a new online organization founded to be the nexus for media and information about discerning a vocation as a Catholic Religious Sister, will launch its first viral vocation initiative, The One Rose Project, on October 1, 2012.

The One Rose Project invites Catholics around the globe to reach out to young women they know, personally inviting them to consider that God may be calling them to be a Religious Sister.

The campaign promotes a personal encounter on October 1, 2012--the feast of St. Therese of Liseux. Participants will invite the young woman they know to consider a call to consecrated Religious Life by giving her a single rose in the spiritual legacy of St. Therese.

Imagine Sisters has received substantial testimony that a personal invitation is incredibly powerful for young women who are open to a religious vocation. Imagine Sisters asks for prayers that this invitation will be used by God to plant the seeds of religious vocations among young women, blessing the Church with many new religious sisters.

The One Rose Project can be easily shared through social media networks, personal blogs and speaking engagements. Imagine Sisters has created a short video explaining the project, and encourages supporters to share this video as the primary means of transmitting the message virally.

In the spirit of The New Evangelization, Imagine Sisters embraces social and visual media to passionately propose the possibility of becoming a religious sister in the world today. Through the grace of God, the Imagine Sister website and Facebook interact with over 100,000 individuals each week, effectively working through the new media to reach young women around the world.

The short video may be found at the following address: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPxYW4HiHsc
The Imagine Sisters website can be found at http://imaginesisters.org

To Sr SimoneCampbell, Prof Schenck, and Kathy Dahlkemper; Catholics who support Obama on 'pro-life' grounds

I had to watch a re-run of Ray Arroyo's interview with Prof Schenck, head of Catholics for Obama to follow his contorted logic when he and fellow Catholics Bart Stupak and Kathy Dahlkemper claim that they are supporting Obama on pro-life grounds. Sr Simone Campbell followed similar logic in her DNC speech, and I was more than upset with their misuse of logic.

I have the following challenges for Prof Schenck, Sr Campbell, Mr Stupak and Ms Dahlkemper or any Catholic who sees the Paul Ryan budget as an excuse to vote for Obama while claiming the moral high ground on life issues.

1. Prove that Romneycare and Romneycare ALONE decreased abortions;
you are drawing a conclusion without proof that other factors are not at play; increased counseling, chastity education, higher wages, better economy, etc could have caused this. Pregnancy is caused by such erroneous things as the Gloucester Pact in Massachusetts, can we say that abortion is utterly predictable as Prof Schenck claims? When you are dealing with human beings the answer is complicated. 

Its specious to assume that more Medicaid spending equals fewer abortions. Its like saying higher wages for Chicago teachers will improve the abominable reading and math scores (only 15% are on grade level). Money is not always as effective at providing the results we intend, the federal government has an abundance of examples to prove this case!

2. Prove that women seek abortions principally because they have no medical coverage.
I have counseled abortion bound women for decades, believe me sir you are oversimplifying things.We never allowed a woman to leave our CPC without assurance that she had medical coverage. Cardinal O'Connor in his day personally paid for some middle class women without insurance to give birth.

That is never cited as the top reason for abortion when opinion surveys are done. Here are the results of one survey. Note the second reason is not that the woman can't afford medical care per se, but the cost of raising the child is too high. And its only 23% of women who seek abortions. Source: Lawrence Finer, et. al, "Reasons U.S. Women Have Abortions: Quantitative and Qualitative Perspectives" Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, Vol. 37 No. 3 (Sept., 2005) p. 110
Social Reasons (given as primary reason)
- Feels unready for child/responsibility25%
- Feels she can't afford baby23%
- Has all the children she wants/Other family responsibilities19%
- Relationship problem/Single motherhood8%
- Feels she isn't mature enough7%
- Interference with education/career plans4%
- Parents/Partner wants abortion<1 br="br"> - Other reasons<6 .5=".5" div="div" total:93="total:93">

3. Can you say for sure that the Ryan budget will be adopted by Romney without any changes to the proposed cut in the increase in Medicaid spending?  IF in the unlikely scenario that Romney's version of the budget is ditched for Ryan's and after two houses of Congress finish with it, it would be unrecognizable anyway! You have picked an unsteady pole on which to hang your political hat, considering the behavior of the Congress with regard to budgets. President Obama's budget did not receive one single vote. How do you know which budget will emerge, if any?

4. If you add up all the abortions we pay for at Planned Parenthood via federal subsidies, overseas abortions via the banning of the Mexico City Policy, the abortions done via abortifacient drugs which are now mandated by the HHS, and other miscellaneous abortions Obamacare will pay for that we don't know about yet, (like when Obamacare pays for new prenatal testing which will decimate the population of babies with Down syndrome) http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/is-the-hhs-taking-aim-at-babies-with-down-syndrome/can you really keep telling us that Obama would LOWER the abortion rate? REALLY?!
AND if the Ryan budget is NOT adopted, as Ray Arroyo assured you it would not be then your entire argument is null and void. Plus we have the statements of President Obama which show that he sees abortion as a good, he is not interested in lowering it as Bill Clinton claimed, he is a hero to the likes of NARAL and Planned Parenthood who spoke in his defense at the DNC; he is the ONLY American politician who approved after birth abortion according to the testimony of Jill Stanek. http://www.godandscience.org/doctrine/stanek.html#.UE9nhLJlTQA

 Sr SimoneCampbell, Prof Schenck, and Kathy Dahlkemper; Catholics who support Obama on 'pro-life' grounds no one who knows the issue of abortion is going to buy your argument that you support Obama on purely 'pro-life' grounds. It appears that you are simply Democrats in search of an excuse to support a man and a party you have unreasonable loyalty to. Its time to allow logic to challenge your emotional connection, its time to inform your Catholic consciences. 

Japanese OBs wary of new Down syndrome screening test

The Japaneses Obstetricians are taking excellent care of their patients; especially expectant women whose unborn child has a diagnosis of Down syndrome, when they urge caution after a diagnosis of Down syndrome is given.

Hoping to halt the rapid and widespread implementation of the new diagnostic method, developed in the United States, in domestic medical institutions, a study group of doctors has been launched to draw up guidelines for medical institutions wanting to introduce the method. Further, the Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology (JSOG) has issued an emergency statement stressing the need for support systems that include genetic counseling.

Contrast this to the approach followed in the United States.

According to Fumio Takada, who is a qualified clinical geneticist and a professor at Kitasato University, when genetic counseling was given to pregnant women who had been considering abortion after learning their fetus had the chromosome abnormality that causes Down syndrome in an amniotic fluid check, some women decided against abortion after learning about the characteristics of Down syndrome and what support was available for affected children and their families.
"To help parents decide, it's important to provide objective counseling before and after the examination," Takada said.
In the United States, the decision to obtain a prenatal diagnosis is largely left up to the discretion of the parents, and the process is legally regulated.

It is up to the discretion of the OB whether the woman is sent to a genetic counselor, in 49 states. Only Massachusetts has a law requiring that up to date information such as that contained in the pamphlet created by Lettercase which is free as an ebook. Massachusetts governor Duvall Patrick recently signed a law requiring up to date information be given to parents whose unborn child is diagnosed with Down syndrome.

Such a bill was jointly sponsored by Democrats and Republicans, passed unanimously in October 2008 by both houses of Congress, but it is still awaiting funding from the HHS. It is a sad commentary that the ACOG does not offer obstetrical patients the same type of informed consent after a diagnosis of Down syndrome that Japanese OB's are organizing. Recent studies reveal a 99% rate of satisfaction among parents of children with Down syndrome, according to a study done by Dr Brian Skotko and published in the American Journal of Medical Genetics. 

 The timing of the new tests, where 99% accurate results are given as early as the 12th week of pregnancy with only a simple maternal blood test, offers patients an unprecedented opportunity to seek the latest information about Down syndrome including, the latest medical advances in treatment, research, and to familiarize themselves with the day to day realities of raising a child with Down syndrome which can be found at an ever growing community of parent bloggers.

Knowledge is power and certainly is the right of all patients facing a life changing decision. Hopefully the ACOG will follow the lead of the JSOG (Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology ) and provide patients with informed consent.

Read more on Japanese OBs here.
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T120908002687.htm

Bill Clinton tell the truth about Down syndrome!

Here is Bill Clinton culling favor with parents of children with disabilities during the DNC Convention. He is discussing the alleged GOP plan to cut Medicaid funding. My comments are in red.

PRESIDENT CLINTON: Of course, that’s going to really hurt a lot of poor kids. But that’s not all. Lot of folks don’t know it, but nearly two-thirds of Medicaid is spent on nursing home care for Medicare seniors — (applause) — who are eligible for Medicaid.
(Cheers, applause.) It’s going to end Medicare as we know it. And a lot of that money is also spent to help people with disabilities, including — (cheers, applause) — a lot of middle-class families whose kids have Down syndrome or autism or other severe conditions. (Applause.) And honestly, let’s think about it, if that happens, I don’t know what those families are going to do. (My family is middle class and we do not have Medicaid for our daughter with Down syndrome; our income is WAY over the guidelines for Medicaid or SSI)So I know what I’m going to do. I’m going to do everything I can to see that it doesn’t happen. We can’t let it happen. (Cheers, applause.) We can’t. (Cheers, applause.)

Before we give Clinton too much credit for being concerned for funding Medicaid for those with Down syndrome, as he cited in his DNC Convention Speech,  remember he vetoed the Partial Birth Abortion ban TWICE. During the debate on the Senate floor it was said that most of the babies who died in this procedure had Down syndrome. Democrats like Senator Barbara Boxer and Bill Clinton knew that, and fought the bill anyway. They were protecting a mother's 'right' to kill a baby with Down syndrome, not her health or fertility.

Obama as a Illinois State Representative killed a Born Alive Infant Protection Act Bill in the Illinois House. A similar bill passed both houses of Congress UNANIMOUSLY a short time later, not even NARAL and PP would dare oppose it for fear of a backlash. But Obama did not have a problem with allowing babies born during a botched abortion procedure to die slowly . . . and without love.
Jill Stanek a Registered Nurse, testified for the Ban based on experience of watching a tiny baby boy with Down syndrome suffocate in a soiled utility room who had been born accidently during an abortion. Again, Obama showed an icy lack of compassion for the child with Down syndrome, yet he champions his funding for such children who are lucky enough to be one of the 10% whose parents give birth to them.

 If they don't make it to birth, then they don't cost as much. That's the Clinton/Obama method of helping those with disabilities. Why are we allowing them to get away with this hypocrisy?

Obamacare pays for pre-natal testing which targets unborn babies with Down syndrome for abortion, especially with new maternal blood tests emerging which will be given to all pregnant women. In nations with national health care programs such programs are rightly called eugenics, and Mike Sullivan of New Zealand is suing his nation's Ministry of Health in International Criminal Court for exactly that; eugenics targeting of unborn babies with Down syndrome for abortion. Because, under international law, eugenics is still a crime.

So Dems get high grades from Down syndrome organizations like the blog Down Syndrome Daily which posted this piece, while they ignore the fact that the high abortion rate is working behind the scenes to make certain those with Down syndrome never make it to birth to make use of the benefits.
I say let the light of day shine on this act of deception and let those who love people with disabilities see the true intentions of those who allege they champion the medical care of the disabled.