Linda Thayer, our Vice President of Educational Affairs is also a published poet of whom we are very proud. Our Board and Staff wish to share with you Linda's Christmas blessings. God bless you for all you do! Anne
fiat
time has layered
in sentiment
the deeper truth
her story has meant
in the still of her soul
in the silence of night
she said yes in the dark
and gave the world Light
Living Waters released Ray Comfort's 180 Movie in September. In this award-winning documentary, Comfort interviews people on the streets about their knowledge of the Holocaust and compares it to the modern-day holocaust that is legalized abortion. The majority of the interviewees admit to having their views swayed to favor life after the short, pithy interviews. The 180 Movie in which Comfort stars is quickly approaching 2,000,000 views on YouTube and thousands of DVDs have been distributed on college campuses around the nation. It has been endorsed by pro-life heroes such as Abby Johnson, Jill Stanek, Randy Alcorn, and Dr. Alveda King. Ray Comfort's 180 Movie has caused one of the most impressive waves in the pro-life movement in 2011.
Our son just called from DC. He was walking home from hearing Fred Barnes speak. I told him about Barnes announcing recently that pro-lifers are winning. Barnes stated that the "fetus has become a baby".
After the call, I read this article (http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/pro-lifers-the-tide-just-turned) which is living proof of his contention. It is heartbreaking that the Duggars lost their little girl, especially at this season, but it has been heart-warming that, at 20 weeks, she is a baby to everyone.
"The fetus has become a baby" because of you. Keep up the good work! Anne
Pro-Life Legal Awards Prize: $750
Deadline: Received by November 30, 2012, midnight EST
Contest Rules: http://massprolife.com/events/...
Submit your application to: legalcontest@masscitizensforlife.org
Legal scholarship has a large impact. Papers published in law reviews are frequently cited by courts when resolving new and undecided issues. For example, Roe v. Wade cited numerous law review articles. The majority opinion cited five different law review notes written by students. There is a significant shortage of pro-life legal scholarship, especially by students.
Entries are currently being accepted for the 2012 year, submit yours today to legalcontest@masscitizensforlife.org and also be sure to check out the contest's rules before submitting.
MCFL was proud to begin the National Pro-Life Legal Writing Award in 2011. Accepting submissions from those who have published in a law review or journal, we are giving a $750 award in 2011, and now again in 2012, to the best submitted piece of pro-life legal writing.
This year's winner is Michael Fragoso, a student at the University of Notre Dame law school, who published this article about the conscience clause for medical professionals.
Congrats Michael!
We are also proud to announce Amy Pedagno as the first runner-up, from Ave Maria law school, for her article on young women in foster care, entitled "Who are the Parents? In Loco Parentis, Parens Patriae, and Abortion Decision-Making for Pregnant Girls in Foster Care" to be published in the January or February 2012 Ave Maria Law Review.
I think everyone is behind schedule because of the delightful weather we have been having. Jan 22nd is fast approaching! The March for Life and Massachusetts Caucus will be Monday, Jan. 23rd
Bus Captains are already hard at work making arrangements for you and Janet is doing her usual outstanding job of coordinating. The Year 2012 is going to be huge for us, so start it off with a bang!
I hope every one of us can get to the March! Anne
39th Annual March for Life
Buses with one or two overnight stays
Departs from: Burlington Mall
Departure Date & Time: Sat. Jan. 21st at 10:00 PM
One-night (Sun.) stay at Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill Hotel
Return home at 5:00 PM after the March arriving home around 2:00 AM
Cost: $196 per person, double occupancy (other rates available)
Contact: Theresa Gorey at 978-475-6673; Cell 978-886-2911;
email thegoreys@comcast.net or Jane Finn at 978-658-6115; Cell 978-618-5005
Departs from: Immaculate Conception in Malden
with second pick-up at St. Margaret's in Burlington
Departure Date & Time: Sun., Jan. 22nd at 7:30 AM
Two-night (Sun. & Mon.) stay at Holiday Inn, College Park, MD
Return home on Tues., Jan. 24th arriving home around 8:00 PM
Cost: $210 per person, double occupancy; $315 single (other rates available)
Contact: Janet Callahan at 781-324-3564 or janet.callahan@yahoo.com
Departs from: St. Anne's in Salem
Departure Date & Time: Sun., Jan. 22nd at 6:00 AM
Two-night (Sun. & Mon.) stay at hotel along the Capitol Beltway in MD
Return home Tuesday, Jan. 24th
Cost: $165 per person, double occupancy
Contact: Bill Kirby at 978-821-2556
Departs from the following locations: Orleans, E. Sandwich, Wareham
and another location to be determined (possibly New Bedford)
Departure Date and Time: Early Sun., Jan. 22nd
Two-night (Sun. & Mon.) stay at Washington Court Hotel on Capitol Hill
Return home Tuesday, Jan. 24th
Cost: $230 per person, double occupancy
Contact: Kevin Ward at 508-291-0949 or fkw194722@yahoo.com
For information on "Red-eye" buses contact Janet Callahan at 617-242-4199 ext. 230 or jcallahan@masscitizensforlife.org.
BC Students for Sexual Health distributed condoms at Boston College last week to encourage "sexual health". With completely straight faces, another group, BC Students for Dental Health, passed out dental floss to encourage "dental health". They had much better success than BCSSH, who found them "disrespectful". http://www.thebcobserver.com/2... WAY TO GO!
Speaking of finer college students, National Right to Life just let us know that they will be able to lower the cost of their excellent NRLC Pro-Life Academy for next summer. For more information, CLICK HERE
Massachusetts Alliance Against Doctor Prescribed Suicide has posted the video of their press conference. People have suggested asking them for their signs to take to the March for Life. What do you think?
Five Ways to Better Communicate Opposition to Assisted Suicide By Tony Kirby
tkirby@massprolife.org
The forces of darkness are out collecting petition signatures to put "assisted suicide" on the ballot this election cycle. When you consider the financial forces at work, insurance companies, the government, the abortion industry, they will likely succeed since they can just buy their way onto the ballot. But they need the consent of the people to enact their dystopian future. We won't get a society killing its elderly without a vote on the matter, and that's where our challenge comes.
I'd like to assure you that the cavalry will come at the last minute and save us from this fate, or that the knight in shining armor will deliver us from a future where we're killing old people when they become too inconvenient. But there's no cavalry and no knights. You're it. You're all that stands between that and now. It's easy to despair, but we have to channel our frustrations into positive action. We still have a chance to win this, to assert a culture of life, and to stop this here in Massachusetts before the mental disease spreads to the rest of the country. After all, if assisted suicide loses here, they won't try running it as a referendum again for years. This is an enormously important time and political battle, truly for the lives of thousands and likely tens of thousands of elderly people.
We've asked the rich to hire field workers to fight this, and we've gotten excuses, denials and empty words. We've asked the other institutions to help us fund an effort to truly repel this atrocity, but many of them are either sitting it out, or writing a very weak press release. It's up to pro-lifers, the grassroots base of motivated people like yourself, to do something about this, and all we can do at the moment is ensure that it is defeated at the polls. All we have right now are our words, so we have to be extremely careful with how we speak about this topic, and ensure that everyone we speak with gets the right message. We have to be most persuasive because that's the only tool we have left to work with at the moment.
The following are five key things to think about during your communications, during your discussions with friends, coworkers and family members. It is extremely important that you be most persuasive, and these techniques will enable and empower you to be eloquent and resonate with your audience.
1) Choose who to spend your time on. Some people have hardened hearts on the topic. They have an opinion that you won't change. As well, try to spend time talking to people younger than you are, you'll have inherent authority that you won't appreciate. It's hard to take sound advice from someone younger, you just assume they know less than you do. So, focus on those younger, not older. Also don't worry if you have a hard time persuading your family. You should make arguments to them, but they can also easily dismiss you because of all the issues involved with a family. Focus on friends, co-workers, people in your community, neighbors and the like. That's the location for people you'll have the most impact upon. Don't waste your time trying to persuade the one person though, focus on quantity as well. We are in a political battle and need numbers, so don't neglect the basic quantity of people you can speak with.
2) Be confident to state a clear moral value. Too often people either talk past someone, or are too passive, it's one extreme or the other. Don't overwhelm someone, but don't be afraid to state a clear moral value either. We live in an age of relativity and subjective principles, for many people it's refreshing to hear someone say exactly what they believe, without hesitation or doubt. Assisted suicide is wrong, not just because you believe it, but because it is objectively, completely, wrong. Adult abortion is always inherently wrong. There might be caveats you can add later, or subtleties you can admit, but your general principle and morals are correct, and be unafraid in voicing them. Speak your truth loud and proud.
Six Rules of Pro-Life Philanthropy Donating in the most effective pro-life way
1. Make the organization explain what it measurably does that advances the pro-life movement
Every group should have a 15-30 second pitch for what it does, and why what it does is vital to the pro-life mission. It should have numbers and be immediately persuasive. National Right to Life should tell you that they identify, support and promote federal pro-life political candidates so they can pass federal pro-life laws and confirm pro-life judges to the court, and they have helped X number of pro-life people get elected in the last election. A group that passes legislation should tell you how many pieces of legislation it passed, and what those bills did. A pregnancy center should be able to tell you how many women it helped, and how many babies it helped.
A group that can't tell you these things is a major red flag. It's a sign that the group wastes its time and its donor's resources. A group that can't define its mission is one that is wasting time and money. A group that can't tell you what it's done is likely doing little to nothing.
2. Don't support groups that attack other pro-life groups
Marxist theorist Herbert Marcuse once explained to motivated Marxists to be tolerant to anything to their left, and intolerant to anything to their right. The pro-life movement can't make progress if we spend most of our time attacking and tearing down pro-lifers.
If a group is more known as a 'purist' group that spends a majority of its time being divisive and tearing down pro-lifers, you shouldn't support it.
That said, does the Holocaust offer an opportunity to teach pro-life apologetics? Or is it a sloppy comparison that ultimately frustrates and confuses our outreach.
American Dark Humor and Abortion's Collective Consequences: Have you heard the latest dead baby joke?
Obscene humor is nothing new to society, lewd jokes and pushing the envelope have always been around. Dead baby jokes, though, are not for the faint of heart and not for your normal comedian.
What's the difference between dead babies and an onion? You don't cry when you chop up a dead baby.
Where do these jokes come from? Why would people tell these jokes? To people of pro-life principles, they are the clear demonization and dehumanization of the unborn. Dead baby jokes in post-abortive America are a complicated mass social response to the trauma of legalized abortion. Rationalizing and justifying the "missing generation" aborted away, the young resort to dead baby jokes in order to detach, distance and deal with the anxiety of what they are witnessing.
That distance and detachment pales in comparison to the trauma suffered by those who carried dead children, the women who are post-abortive or who have suffered miscarriages.
Dr. Brad Imler, President of the American Pregnancy Association knows this well, "miscarriages are one of the hardest types of losses to work through. Society does not know how to provide support or what to say to deliver comfort." Dr. Imler added, "And often even the patented attempts to help fall short or add to the hurt."
Pennsylvania's Budd Dwyer committed suicide on live television in 1987. His death affected the children who witnessed it to the point where they were later caught quietly telling distasteful jokes about Dwyer such as "what was the last thing the press secretary said to Dwyer? Don't go shooting your mouth off." These distasteful jokes are similar to the continuing 'dead baby jokes' which serve the same purpose to the youth of today: to subconsciously allow post-abortive youth to cope with those missing in their generation.
The U. S. Senate is expected to vote as soon as Thursday, but more likely next week, on the second omnibus bill that contains the State/Foreign Operations, Energy and Water, and Financial Services appropriations measures. Four amendments are expected which will help deter the federal government from financing abortions and the abortion industry.
1) Sen. Orrin Hatch, Utah, will offer a pro-life amendment to strike language in the bill sponsored by Sen. Lautenberg, N. J., that prohibits any future presidential administration from reinstituting the Mexico City Policy that Obama removed by executive order during his first week in office. Support Hatch Amendment to remove Lautenberg language.
2) Sen. Mike Johanns of Nebraska is floating an amendment to negate language in the minibus bill that would remove the current Dornan Amendment - the D.C. Hyde Amendment, which prevents taxpayers from being forced to pay for abortions in the District of Columbia. Support Johanns Amendment to restore Dornan Amendment.
3) Sen. Roger Wicker, Mississippi, has an amendment to totally de-fund the UNFPA via the omnibus bill. The House had cut funding from Obama's $55 million to $40 million. Support Wicker Amendment.
4) Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma, is sponsoring an amendment which would restore the ban on coverage of elective abortions in the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) program. Support Coburn Amendment.
CALL SEN. BROWN, 202-224-4543. URGE HIM TO VOTE PRO-LIFE. TELL HIM TO VOTE AGAINST THE ENTIRE MINIBUS BILL IF THE AMENDMANTS ARE NOT APPROVED.
When you call, you are asking for the four items in bold. National Right to Life called the current Senate version a "cluster bomb of pro-abortion provisions" (see MCFL email of Nov 2). I want to thank our friend, Steve Ertelt at Life News for the recent analysis.
Physician Assisted Suicide/ Doctor Prescribed Suicide
"WORDS THAT WORK"
Sunday, Nov. 13, Assumption College, Worcester, 12:30pm to 4:30pm, La Maison Francaise Building. This year's Chapter Leadership Conference is different from those in the past. Pro-lifers and anyone who wants to be prepared for this battle are urged to attend.
Monday, Nov 14, St John's Seminary, Brighton, 12 noon - 2:30pm. Lunch in the Refectory. Presentation in the Medeiros Classroom. Clergy and pro-lifers.
Wednesday, Nov 16, St. Stanislaus Hall, Main Street, West Warren, 12 noon to 2:30pm. Clergy and pro-lifers.
NB. All presentations include lunch, so please register at 617-242-4199 X 230 or reply to this email with your name, address and phone number. Be sure to register by three days before the event you plan to attend.
When this issue heats up and your friends are falling for the death arguments, you will be so grateful you had the chance to learn from Rita! Find out more about Rita at http://www.patientsrightscounc...
Yesterday afternoon, HR 2354 was proposed. National Right to Life calls it a "cluster-bomb of pro-abortion provisions". When you read their information below, you will see how dangerous this legislation would be. Please call Sen. Brown immediately - 202-224-4543 - Urge him to oppose HR 2354. This is top priority. Thank you! Anne
HR 2354 would repeal or weaken pro-life policies:
1. The "Lautenberg Amendment," on pp. 479-80, added by the Appropriations Committee, would prohibit any future president from diverting U.S. population assistance funds away from overseas groups that perform and actively promote abortion.
2. Language (on page 225) would effectively repeal the "D.C. Hyde Amendment," which was restored as part of the negotiated FY 2011 continuing resolution, replacing it with the previous meaningless language that guarantees a resumption of government-funded abortion on demand in the Federal District.
3. The bill omits (and would therefore repeal) the ban on coverage of elective abortion in the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) program. This pro-life policy has been in effect, with one brief interruption, for over 25 years. The result of the minibus language would be direct federal funding of health plans that cover abortion on demand for millions of federal employees and their dependants, including Members of Congress and congressional staff.
4. Language that weakens the longstanding restriction on funding of abortions by the Peace Corps (page 265).
In addition, the bill contains these additional objectionable and/or questionable elements:
5. It sets funding for population assistance at "not less than $700 million" (p. 391). while the House bill provides for not more than $461 million. The Obama Administration has turned this program into an engine for promotion of abortion.
6. Report language on one of the component committee-reported bills, S. 1601, specifies that the UNFPA shall receive $40 million; the House bill would defund UNFPA. As you know, the UNFPA is deeply involved in China's coercive population control program, which relies heavily on government-coerced abortions. NRLC opposes funding for the UNFPA.
7. The bill would make changes to the longstanding abortion-related restrictions sometimes referred to loosely as the "Helms language." It does not appear that these changes are of great consequence, but we see no need for them and the reasoning behind them is unclear.
Steve Mosher from the Population Research Institute, who did such a great job at our MCFL Convention last spring, has let us know that he will be on FOX NEWS Monday at 12:45 p.m. on the show "Happening Now," to discuss the World's population passing seven billion.
Steve says, "It should be a good opportunity to get our pro-life message out."
He also has placed a full page ad in the Washington Times welcoming the 7 billionth baby into the world. MCFL co-signed the ad.
Sheila Patterson reminds us that many youngsters collect for UNICEF when they trick or treat. As you know, UNICEF supports abortion around the world.
This came from the producer of the Dr Oz show.
Hello,
I wanted to let you know that the Dr. Oz discussion on "Do You Have The Right To End Your Own Life" will air on Tuesday 11/1. Boston, FOX 32 WFXT, 5:00pm and 10:00 am Providence, NBC 10 WJAR, 3:00pm.
Michelle Lohr | Associate Producer | The Dr. Oz Show
O: 212-259-1586 |
ZoCo Productions | c/o NBCU Television | 30 Rockefeller Plaza, 43rd Floor | New York, NY 10112
I understand that Dr Oz is going to come out in favor of Physician Assisted Suicide/Doctor Prescribed Suicide. After you watch the show, you may want to contact Michelle Lohr.
Fred Barnes has a fabulous article, which will hearten you tremendously.
Thanks for keeping on top of all these things! Anne
"The Procedure" contemplates how "imperfect" life might be managed in the not-too-distant future. A young mother named Hannah is determined to take advantage of a free but time-limited service offered by the Clinton Reproductive Health Clinic in her city to correct the cleft palate of her daughter, Ruth, even over the objections of Ruth's maternal grandmother, Elizabeth.
THE PROCEDURE by Bob Giles
Ruth teetered through a gray cloud from Hannah's Virginia Slims and emerged to tumble into her mother's knees. On the coffee table, coated by a thin yellow layer of ash and dust, lay a shopper with an ad circled in red: "Toddler clothes for sale, never used, call 404-555-3030."
"Watch where you're going," Hannah said indifferently from the sofa without looking at Ruth. The little girl whimpered softly, momentarily distracting her mother from "Days of Our Lives" on the television.
"She's a good baby," blurted Elizabeth, Ruth's grandmother, who had been watching. "Most babies would have been wailing away if they'd bumped their face like that."
"Yeah, but I don't want her getting it any more messed up than it already is," Hannah said. "Bad enough she looks kind of freaky. I'm gonna take care of that."
"You still taking her to the clinic?" asked Elizabeth nervously. "I mean, it's not that bad. We got other kin with the same problem, and they turned out all right. Your baby brother had the same thing - worse actually - and he done fine. He got married."
"You should have done something about him when you could've," Hannah responded. "Everybody would have been a lot better off, but I know they couldn't take care of things like they can now. It's free at the clinic. The government pays for it."
The hardest changes come from within, changing lifestyles. As America has grown richer, we have gotten more accustomed to long hours, quicker meals and lazier entertainment. Instead of complicated storylines, it's a half hour sitcom. Instead of highbrow humor, it's hucksters and slapstick. If we want a different culture, though, we have to start within ourselves. If we want to form a society that makes the most of every potential, we should stop squandering our own in front of a television which so routinely lies to us.
To list out the many shortcomings of the television would be a waste because in one's mind those things would be weighed against the instant gratification of watching a show. And this argument is not about the trade-off in intelligence, or the emotional stunting television causes children and even adults, because you could easily say "well, that happens to other people, not to me..."
This is about the choices you make with your time and how you want to live. Living as a receiver for Manhattan advertising is not actualizing our full potential, it's relegating ourselves, it's a demonstration of a lack of self-respect, of the innate power, beauty and untapped potential within each of us and within each group or family.
How the cost of tuition helps drive Abortion Rates Affordability is a pro-life issue
By Gianna Rose
gianna.m.rose@gmail.com
Abortion comes from a woman cornered into a bad decision, a woman feeling forced. It's the exertion of pressure on her that pushes her into the waiting arms of a heartless abortionist who tells her that ending her pregnancy, killing her child, solves her problems. She's able to go back to her life, freed from those pressures, if the child is removed.
Abortion is a choice for many women because they feel they lack other choices. Instead of being able to embrace motherhood, they feel financial pressures, as well as social pressures to abort a child instead of raising the child. Over half of abortions are performed on college-aged women, 18-24 years old. Over half of women reported in a study done and reported in Frederica Mathews-Green's "Real Choices" that they felt forced into choosing abortion, that they couldn't choose life.
The social and economic environment of these women help drive their choices, they make it easier to choose death and harder to choose life. To the extent that college tuition and its continually escalating cost reinforces bad choices, it should be changed.
The Medical Ethics Faculty Seminar "Care at the End of Life: Empowering Terminally Ill Patients with Information and Choices"
Friday, October 21 12:30 - 2:00 PM Countway Library Ballard Room, 5th Floor 10 Shattuck Street, Boston Kathryn L. Tucker, JD, Director of Legal Affairs, Compassion & Choices. Sponsored by the Division of Medical Ethics. RSVP to DME@hms.harvard.edu.
I hope you can make it - and share your reaction! Thanks, Anne
Other articles on the Oregon and WA pages of www.choiceillusion.org
More Information:
Assisted suicide is currently legal in two states- Oregon and Washington-and may have some legal protection in the state of Montana, due to a 2010 court decision. While doctor-prescribed death is legal in only these two Northwest states, assisted suicide advocates have announced they plan on getting a foothold in the Northeast: in Vermont and Massachusetts. Should they succeed, momentum could leave many other New England states vulnerable.
The most serious and imminent threat is in the form of a ballot initiative in Massachusetts. Compassion and Choices, operating under the campaign name "Dignity 2012," must collect almost 70,000 signatures of registered voters before the petition can be presented to the legislature. Lawmakers could either adopt it as a law or let voters decide in the November 2012 general election.
Mass for Miscarried and Still Born Children, Saturday Nov 5th at 9:30 AM
St. Augustine Church, 43 Essex Street, Andover, MA 01810
St. Augustine's in Andover is hosting a Mass of Remembrance for all babies who have died through miscarriage, stillbirth or in early childhood. All are welcome, especially mothers, fathers and families who want to honor their children and heal from the tremendous pain of their passing. Those attending the Mass will have the opportunity to present cards with the name of their children written on them to the presiding priest during the service. All children's cards presented during the Mass of Remembrance will be placed in a basket. After the service, the basket will be brought to the Monastery of Saint Clare in Andover. During the month of November, the Nuns will pray for all those children whose names have been placed in it. If you have any questions, please contact Kathy Sexton at 978-258-0433 or kathy@greenler.com
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