U.S. Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid, likes to claim he is “pro-life.” We wonder when and where has he exhibited this belief? Certainly not on the upcoming health care battle where Reid responded to a direct question about whether he could support a national health care bill which includes abortion coverage. “I could,” said Reid.
Of deeper concern is that Reid is considering bringing up the health care bill under rules which do not allow for a filibuster. This means that whatever comes out of committee is pretty much a slam-dunk for passage.
To set the stage, Planned Parenthood, true to course, is strongly supporting inclusion of abortion coverage. Out of the other side of its mouth, PP is asking for “dialogue” with pro-life advocates to find “common ground.” I don’t see pro-life leaders jumping at this opportunity. You either force people to pay for others’ abortions, or you don’t.
UW Madison continues to forge a new path in ethical stem cell research as researchers announce a safer method of reprogramming ordinary cells into becoming like embryonic stem cells. No embryos are used or destroyed in the reprogramming process.
When the reprogramming method was discovered, viruses were used to coax skin cells into returning to their embryonic origin. Critics claimed that iPS cells would not have value because the viruses and genes used to reprogram could cause mutations and tumors.
UW scientist James Thomson and his colleagues report that they have bypassed these obstacles using a new process.
“You don’t need to make viruses. You don’t need to have special precautions. This is a technique any basic molecular biology lab can use. I think we’re getting to a position where we can start to think about using these cells therapeutically,” stated Stephen Duncan from the Medical College of Wisconsin in today’s Journal Sentinel.
Thomson now plans to analyze the reprogrammed cells using the new process to see how closely they match embryonic stem cells. Unfortunately, Thomson plans to still work with embryonic stem cells. A step backwards, but a major step forward.
The furor over Notre Dame’s invitation to President Obama to speak and be honored at the May commencement is not dying down — only increasing. This insensitive and morally reprehensible action by Notre Dame has sickened both alumni and students.
Kudos to Bishop John D’Arcy in whose diocese Notre Dame is located. He will not attend the graduation, saying “This will be the 25th Notre Dame graduation during my time as bishop. After much prayer, I have decided not to attend the graduation…My decision is not an attack on anyone, but is in defense of the truth about human life.”
A number of Notre Dame student groups are strongly criticizing their own university. They call the decision by Notre Dame President Fr. John Jenkins to invite Obama “shameful.” “We cannot sit by idly while the University honors someone who believes that an entire class of human beings is undeserving of the most basic of all legal rights, the right to live,” the groups said in a statement.
Senior students are conflicted about attending their own graduation. What a sad dilemma Fr. Jenkins has caused for his own students.
Interestingly, the University stated that the uproar was not much worse than they expected. This confirms that they knowingly and deliberately created this controversy, public be damned.
The outrage from alumni, students and the public is so strong, that the University should not feel comfortable with where they are in the eyes of the public. The opposition will increase, not diminish. That’s what happens when people feel sincerely betrayed by those they held in high esteem on the most important human rights issue of our times.
America is outraged — particularly Catholic America. Notre Dame has invited President Obama to give the May commencement address and receive an honorary degree.
Thus, the most notoriously pro-abortion President in history will be honored by the Catholic institution of Notre Dame.
Here is the response by ND President Fr. John Jenkins to date: “The invitation of President Obama to be our Commencement speaker should in no way be taken as condoning or endorsing his positions on specific issues regarding the protection of life, such as abortion and embryonic stem cell research.”
I am sending an email to Fr. Jenkins asking if Notre Dame would welcome an avowed racist who favors slavery to give the commencement address.
If Jenkins had invited such a speaker would his response be: “Our invitation to speaker X should in no way be taken as condoning slavery or racism, even though the speaker ardently supports them.” It is laughable.
Wisconsin Right to Life is urging people to contact Fr. Jenkins by phone at 574-631-5000 or via email at president@nd.edu. Please add your voice to those clamoring in protest over this scandal.
Blatantly pro-abortion David Hamilton, a former Clinton nominee, is the first judicial pick of Barack Obama. No surprise here.
Hamilton had been appointed by Bill Clinton to a district judgeship in Indiana in 1994 in spite of the fact that he had an American Bar Association rating of “not qualified.” Hamilton issued a series of rulings that prevented Indiana from implementing an informed consent law that would insure that women received all the information they need to make a truly informed decision regarding whether to continue their pregnancies or whether to have an abortion.
Hamilton’s rulings on this issue were so outrageous that the 7th Circuit Court overturned his rulings and said, “No court anywhere in the country (other than one district judge in Indiana [i.e., Hamilton] has held any similar law invalid in the years since Casey.” They added, “It is an abuse of discretion for a district judge to issue a pre-enforcement injunction while the effects of the law (and reasons for those effects) are open to debate.”
Apparently Obama, who claims to want to reduce abortions, believes that it’s OK to withhold important information from women when they are considering whether or not to have an abortion.
Hamilton is just the first of a number of pro-abortion zealots that Obama will nominate to the U.S. Supreme Court and other federal courts.
Make your voice heard! Contact Senators Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold and express your opposition to Hamilton’s nomination. To email them, click here
No matter how late in pregnancy an abortion is desired, the abortionist of last resort is George Tiller of Wichita, Kansas. Until now. Tiller has been charged with 19 counts of performing illegal late-term abortions. A jury has been selected and the trial begins March 23.
Tiller has long been the infamous late-term abortionist whose name sends shudders down spines. Notorious Wisconsin abortionist Dennis Christensen would do abortions “only” up to 24 weeks (that’s six months, folks). Instead of turning women down who sought abortions after that, he sent them to Tiller. So did everyone around the country.
Tiller has recently become even more infamous because of his cozy association with Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, picked by President Obama as Secretary of Health and Human Services in Washington. Tiller made contributions to Sebelius’ campaign and was invited to dinner in the governor’s mansion.
It is surreal — that people with these types of connections hold some of the most powerful positions in our government. I cry for a country that has either lost its soul, or its will to confront an evil happening before our very eyes.
Contrary to what Obama and his media cheerleaders would have you believe, a poll released by respected pollster Scott Rasmussen on March 13 reveals that just 52% support the President’s decision to provide tax dollars to destroy living human embryos. 38% oppose the decision and 10% are undecided.
The Rasmussen poll found that a significant number of Americans are skeptical that embryonic stem cells will ever help patients. Even Obama conceded that “I cannot guarantee that we will find the treatments and cures we seek.” As usual, covering all of his bases, but spending tax dollars, nonetheless.
The good news of this poll is that the hype about embryonic stem cells of the past ten years is dissipating as Americans become more savvy about the “spin” put on this issue. They may also be reacting to massive tax spending for anything and everything. Whatever the reason, it is good news to see public support wane on this issue.
Earlier today, I wrote about the comments of a Geron Corporation official lauding the ethical and practical benefits of iPS cells on a national news program yesterday. Mike West was introduced as an official of Geron. I have been informed that West has left Geron and now works with a company called BioTime.
Regardless of his affiliation, West succinctly stated what we at Wisconsin Right to Life have been saying since the discovery of iPS cells in late 2007. This discovery makes embryonic stem cell research and cloning obsolete.
On a Sunday morning national news broadcast, Mike West, an official at Geron Corporation, effusively affirmed that ethical iPS cells are the future of stem cell research. West stated several times that iPS cells are without controversy and the path which unites scientists and the country to pursue promising stem cell research to treat debilitating illnesses.
West described for a national audience how four molecules are used to take ordinary cells and turn them back to their embryonic state, resulting in iPS cells. No one has to die in this reprogramming process.
Geron Corporation, located in California, has been a major player in embryonic stem cell research. Earlier this year, Geron was given clearance by the FDA to conduct the first human embryonic stem cell trials. That’s why it was so interesting to hear West speak approvingly of ethical iPS cell research as the future.
West’s statements also corroborate what Wisconsin Right to Life and others stated last week following Obama’s reversal of the Bush policy prohibiting federal funding to kill more human embryos: Obama is turning back the clock and using ideology to trump science.
President Obama has taken disingenuous and contradictory rhetoric to new heights. At the ceremony at which he announced an executive order allowing the use of federal tax dollars for the destruction of living human embryos, Obama weighed in on cloning.
Obama said that human cloning is “dangerous, profoundly wrong.” Really. Only those who are knowledgeable on cloning double-speak would catch the problem with this statement. And that’s the way Obama wants it — confusion in the minds of the public fed by disingenuous statements.
Here’s the truth: Obama opposes the creation of clones to be implanted into a mother (or artificial womb when that becomes available) to develop to full term and be born. That is what is “dangerous, profoundly wrong,” in his mind. Obama has no problem with creating human clones to destroy them for research purposes. As reported in Tuesday’s blog, Obama left the door wide open for Congress to allow federal tax dollars for human cloning research.
Obama is the epitome of “slick” — the best we’ve seen.
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