Know the truth of live birth abortions By Andrea Mrozek

 https://www.catholicregister.org/opinion/columnists/item/37233-know-the-truth-of-live-birth-abortions

Know the truth of live birth abortions

By  Andrea Mrozek

• October 11, 2024

Infants born alive after abortion has come up recently. JD Vance asserted on October 1, 2024 that Tim Walz signed a statute in Minnesota, whereby doctors would no longer be required to provide life-saving care to a baby born alive after an abortion. 

But why discuss this most electric of third rail issues? The politics gloss over the point. The real answer is laid bare in a June 2024 study that received no attention, published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Our leaders should address issues before them, and infants born alive after abortion is clearly one of them. Babies born alive after an abortion in the second trimester, the authors assert, is “common.” 

In resolutely academic language, the study says on average, eleven percent of abortions in the second trimester result in a live birth. 40 percent of these abortions are done between 20 and 24 weeks gestation (where over a quarter, one in four, resulted in a live birth). The reasons for the abortions are not fetal abnormality or maternal emergency, but rather in the majority “other personal factors.” This points to these abortions being done for social reasons. The mean survival time of the babies “is 110 minutes, with a range of 1 minute to 1 day.” The result of infants born alive after abortion is so common that the study authors advise “mothers be counseled on the risk of live birth.” 

That’s an awkward counseling session. 

The kicker for Canadians is that the study sample was 13,777 abortions done between 1989 and 2021 in Quebec.  This means that over 32 years, about 430 abortions resulted in live births every single year in that province.   

A couple of observations:

First, most will say this doesn’t happen in Canada. It is called propaganda when (always) pro-life people bring it up. 

Second, pro-life people ought to raise this. The weird twilight zone of transitioning from deliberately killing the fetus in utero to placing the baby in a neonatal ward or palliative care puts pro-choice people in, ahem, an uncomfortable position. 

The authors speak of “feticidal injection” as “protective.” It means an injection will ensure the fetus emerges dead. “Live birth,” they tell us, “is less common after surgical abortion because the fetus is rarely intact.” Translation: Dismembering the fetus inside the womb better guarantees a dead baby. 

Those who stridently defend this should be on the defensive. 

An Austrian study in 2018 found fully 50% of abortions done between 20 and 24 weeks resulted in a live birth. There’s a global cadre of medical professionals who either rush to take an aborted baby to the neonatal unit, or witness the baby dying. They must watch signs of life disappear—“including breathing, heartbeat, umbilical cord pulsation, or muscle movement,” whether it takes one minute or one day. 

The Mayo Clinic says a fetus at 20 weeks “might be awakened by noises or your movements.” 

A doctor friend who delivers babies affirms this is a study about more effectively killing babies in utero. He points out a morally defensible scenario: “A woman at 22 weeks gestation with skyrocketing blood pressure, kidneys shutting down, liver enzymes through the roof, where the enemy is the placenta and that needs to be removed as soon as possible.”

Maternal emergency is the reason for these abortions in just five percent of cases. 

So here we are, living comfortably sedated in relative peace and prosperity while we kill our children, only to have them live but then die. Whether uttered by Melania Trump or Kamala Harris, “reproductive freedom” must be one of the most malicious, nefarious terms the world has known. 

Now more than ever, babies are unseen. The baby in utero: she’s rarely present. Today, fertility rates are so low we barely see born children in our daily lives. 

This summer, I watched caterpillars and snails die in habitats we lovingly created for them. I felt bad. I began encouraging my kid to leave the caterpillars in the woods. It must be truly terrible to witness a baby emerge alive, who is supposed to be dead. Much worse is not finding it terrible at all. 

This study doesn’t find it terrible. It simply documents. That’s a service to pro-lifers, and that’s why no one knows about the study. 

But I can’t un-know what I just read, and now, dear reader, neither can you. 

Andrea Mrozek is Senior Fellow at Cardus Family. 

Let's Talk About Abortion - Deacon Isaac Longworth C.C.

Worse than Roe / National Catholic Register

 https://www.ncregister.com/commentaries/worse-than-roe

A NOTE FROM OUR PUBLISHER: Congress must reject the Orwellian ‘Women’s Health Protection Act.’

Michael Warsaw is the Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of the EWTN Global Catholic Network, and the Publisher of the National Catholic Register.

Michael Warsaw Publisher's Note February 25, 2022

With the demise of Roe v. Wade — the U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion through all nine months of pregnancy nearly 50 years ago — seemingly within reach, efforts are underway by both the pro-life community and the radical abortion lobby to prepare for a post-Roe world.  

While much of the action being taken so far is at the state level, the U.S. Senate is poised to vote on the misleadingly named “Women’s Health Protection Act.” If truth in advertising was a requirement in naming bills, it would be called “The Abortion On Demand Until Birth Act.” 

Supporters of this legislation have characterized it as an attempt to simply enshrine Roe into federal law. As tragic as that would be, the stark reality is that this bill would go way beyond that, gutting even the most basic protections for women and their unborn babies.  

Bluntly, this is far worse than Roe.  

This is the most extreme piece of abortion legislation to ever receive a vote in the U.S. Senate.  

What would it do? This bill would nullify every single state law regulating abortion. That includes state laws that limit painful late-term abortions and laws that prohibit abortions from being performed because of the race, sex or condition of the child. It would even end basic informed-consent laws that ensure that mothers have all the relevant information before choosing an abortion.  

Despite public polls consistently showing strong support — 71% of Americans and nearly half of Democrats — for limits on abortion, particularly during the second and third trimesters, the Senate is moving full steam ahead.  

But the truth about the grave evil of abortion and the consequences for both the child and the mother are undeniable. Every abortion ends at least one life and wounds another.  

Catholic politicians who willingly and enthusiastically champion the availability and practice of abortion are living contrary to the teaching of the Church.  

The Catechism of the Catholic Church is clear about the necessity to preserve the dignity of life (2270): “Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person — among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life.” 

The Catechism later describes that it is not just the procurement of abortion that is a grave offense, but, indeed, as explained in 2273, “[t]he inalienable right to life of every innocent human individual is a constitutive element of a civil society and its legislation. … The inalienable rights of the person must be recognized and respected by civil society and the political authority. These human rights depend neither on single individuals nor on parents; nor do they represent a concession made by society and the state; they belong to human nature and are inherent in the person by virtue of the creative act from which the person took his origin. Among such fundamental rights one should mention in this regard every human being’s right to life and physical integrity from the moment of conception until death.”  

Could it be any clearer? Our Holy Father, Pope Francis, has been unequivocal about the evil of abortion, likening it to the “white-glove” equivalent of Nazi eugenics programs and to people who hire a hitman “in order to solve a problem.” It couldn’t be clearer. 

Yet, despite strong rebukes of the “throwaway culture” by Pope Francis himself, far too many Catholic politicians — and others — continue to pursue policy and political agendas that offend the basic dignity of the human person.  

In a stirring message to the United Nations less than two years ago, Pope Francis said that, “[a]t the origin of this ‘throwaway culture’ is a gross lack of respect for human dignity, the promotion of ideologies with reductive understandings of the human person, a denial of the universality of fundamental human rights, and a craving for absolute power and control that is widespread in today’s society. Let us name this for what it is: an attack against humanity itself.” Amen.  

The crux of the abortion lobby’s agenda is not just a total devaluation of the dignity of every human life, it is the pitting of mothers against their children — flipping the understanding of the most fundamental human relationship on its head. It is utterly false to claim that children are an impediment to women’s flourishing, that the only solution to an unexpected pregnancy is abortion, and that “unwanted” babies are better off dead. Catholics and pro-life people must unite to forcefully dispel these myths.   

So where do we go from here? For starters, we must resist this specific bill and any of its subsequent iterations, and we must hold politicians accountable when they claim to be Catholic but then support such horrific legislation.  

But building a culture of life is not just about opposing deadly policies. It’s about showing how the Church supports women and their babies from conception with the resources and tools needed to help mothers take care of their babies — and thrive.  

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee for Religious Liberty, and Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, chairman of the USCCB’s Pro-Life Activities Committee, sent a letter to senators this week ahead of the vote that I believe provides a road map for American Catholics looking for bold leadership. 

In one particularly memorable section, they write, “Answering the needs of women by promoting taxpayer-funded elective abortion, as this bill would do, is a failure to love and serve women. Offering free or low-cost abortions, instead of the resources needed to care for her child, is not ‘choice’ but coercion. It communicates to a mother in need that there is no hope for her or her child and perpetuates injustices that drive mothers to end the lives of their children. As a nation built on the recognition that every human being is endowed by its Creator with the unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, we must reject this bill and embrace public policy that fully respects and facilitates these rights and needs of both mother and child.” Again, I say amen.  

We are at a critical turning point in our struggle to protect life. We cannot falter. We cannot allow all our progress to be wiped out. This legislation must be defeated — for the good of humanity.

More from Laura Klassen on the Pfizer Vaccine

 

Run With Life: We know the world is upside down when this happens...

Run With Life: We know the world is upside down when this happens...: The Coronavirus is here. We have people dying all over the world from this horrible pandemic. The world is shut down because of it. Financial markets are in free fall. People have lost their jobs. People of faith are prevented from attending their Church services, their Mosques and their Synagogues. Catholic Christians are prevented from receiving the sacraments including reconciliation, baptisms and the sacraments of the sick for the dying. We can't even enter our churches for private prayer, even if we follow all the social distancing rules.

So what are the pro-abortions up to here in Canada? Unlike many US states, Canada is pathetically still performing abortions. None of the rules the rest of us have to follow apply to killing babies.

In fact the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada has put out a fundraising call for Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights.

Faith in Action

Jennifer and Mary visiting Father Tony Van Hee on Wednesday  

Father Tony is a true Canadian hero  and an inspiration to all of us

Growing Violence Against Pro-Lifers - Fr. Shenan J. Boquet HLI

Thank you to Human Life International for permission to post this article on my blog.

https://www.hli.org/2019/05/violence-against-pro-lifers/

Pro-Life Assault -by Fr. Shenan J. Boquet HLI

Human Life International 

I am troubled by what appears to be a growing trend of violent attacks on peaceful pro-life activists.  Perhaps the most famous recent instance was caught in a dramatic video last fall. The video shows a twenty-something-year-old man wearing a purple sweater, with a pentagram (a pagan symbol) on a necklace around his neck. He asks the pro-life woman behind the camera what should happen if a 16-year-old gets pregnant by rape. From his tone, it is clear that he doesn’t really want an answer. Still, the woman begins to explain that the child is still a child, and should not be murdered, regardless of how the baby is conceived. Before she can finish, however, the young man sticks out his tongue, winds up, and kicks her. The camera falls and clatters on the ground. 

A female voice is heard crying, “Someone call the cops!”

The woman who was assaulted, Marie-Claire Bissonnette, described in a written account the astonishing indifference of the Toronto police who arrived on the scene. Eventually, however, the attacker was identified, and charges were filed. As it turns out, the same man was responsible for another violent assault on a pro-life activist some months before.

As Bissonnette points out, the attack on her is far from an isolated incident. And while the video of the assault against her was viewed millions of times, most of these assaults receive little to no public attention. On the very same day that Bissonnette was attacked, for instance, a woman walked up to a pro-life man who was silently praying at a location just West of Toronto and poured paint down his back. This was mild in comparison to what happened just days before, also in Toronto, when Gabby Skwarko, a member of the Ryerson Reproductive Justice Collective, walked up to pro-life activist Blaise Alleyne and proceeded to repeatedly punch her, attempted to grab her bag, and threw a metal dolly at her.

One elderly woman recently had her leg broken when she was assaulted outside Kentucky’s only abortion facility, in Louisville. Another elderly man, participating in the recent Lenten 40 Days for Life campaign, was thrown to the ground and viciously and repeatedly kicked. Then there’s the woman who was left bruised after being punched outside a clinic in Alabama. Or the young man who was repeatedly punched by a pro-abortion woman during a pro-life demonstration at the University of North Carolina.

As a life-long pro-lifer, Bissonnette has participated in pro-life demonstrations for years. She says she has repeatedly suffered physical and verbal assault. “Rocks have been thrown at me,” she writes. “I’ve been spat upon multiple times and pushed. Men have aggressively asked how I would like it if they raped me and forced me to have an abortion.”

Brian Sims’ Contemptible Attack

Thankfully the issue of aggression and violence against peaceful pro-life activists is receiving some (but still shockingly limited) media attention right now, thanks to the contemptible antics of Pennsylvania Democratic Representative Brian Sims. Earlier this month Sims posted a video of himself harassing a pro-life woman who was praying the rosary outside an abortion facility, calling her “shameful,” “disgusting,” “racist,” as well as “old white lady.”

Even worse, he also filmed himself approaching two young girls (aged 13 and 15), calling them “a bunch of pseudo-Christian protesters who’ve been out here shaming young girls for being here.” Sims then offers $100 to anybody who can identify the girls. This is called “doxing” – that is, publicly identifying ordinary citizens in order to subject them to systematic shame and harassment. It’s a terrible practice. Coming from an elected politician, aimed at young, minor girls, it’s downright evil.

Ironically, in posting the footage of his harassment of the girls, Sims accused the pro-life activists of “prey[ing] on young women.” People who protest Planned Parenthood” use white privilege, & shame,” he claimed. “They’re racist, classist, bigots who NEED & DESERVE our righteous opposition.”

Got that? According to Sims, young pro-life girls “need” to be harassed by grown men such as himself. Astonishingly, at the time of this writing, Sims has neither resigned, nor been dismissed from office, though he did record and release a video apology. If instead of a pro-abortion Democrat, it had been a pro-life Republican who berated and doxed young teen girls I think this story would have ended quite differently.

Canada’s Maxime Bernier on abortion: “This issue is not settled” - NRL News Today

Canada’s Maxime Bernier on abortion: “This issue is not settled” - NRL News Today:

By We Need a Law

Maxime Bernier, leader of the upstart People’s Party of Canada, has issued some strong statements in support of advancing abortion regulations in Canada. In a series of tweets, Maxime Bernier responded to a report in La Presse newspaper that the Ministry of Health in Quebec was looking into ensuring late-term abortion services were provided within the province instead of sending women to United States “specialty clinics.”Please send a note of thanks to Mr. Bernier for his clear stance and suggest that he take an even stronger position by promising to initiate an abortion bill himself if he is elected this fall! You can call his office at 613-992-8053 or email him at maxime.bernier@parl.gc.ca.Bernier is the latest high-profile politician in the past few weeks to outline their perspectives on the legality of abortion.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who has never missed an opportunity to reiterate his pro-abortion stance, initiated much of the current national conversation with a fundraising letter in response to the participation of a dozen Conservative MPs in the National March for Life in Ottawa.Speaking of those Conservative MPs, we thank them as well for publicly taking a stand in support of pre-born human rights! Their courage is not without opposition – both from within and outside of their political party.And let’s not forget the three MPPs who spoke at the March for Life in Toronto! They incurred the wrath of abortion fanatics, with two having their offices targeted by protestors. We encourage you to send Christina Mitas, Willem Bouma, and Sam Oosterhoff a note of encouragement to stand strong for the pro-life cause.

The abortion debate continues, further than ever from being a closed issue!

Facing Violence is a weekly reality for pro lifers in Canada

Pro Lifers are opposed to violence, but that is not what Joyce Arthur of Abortion Rights Action League would have you believe.  She makes false statements that WE are the violent ones and goes so low as to condone acts of violence towards us.  And many of our political leaders buy into her non truths. 

I have been actively Pro Life for decades, and never have I encountered a pro life person who wasn't anything but peaceful.  In fact over the years I have seen numerous verbal and physical attacks on us from abortion supporters for simply praying or standing quietly holding a sign that says “Pray to End Abortion” And now we aren’t even allowed to do that any more.   

click here

And acts of violence towards us are virtually ignored by our liberal mainstream media. This is discrimination plain and simple and you never hear a word from our Political leaders  condemning it. Federal, Provincial, and Municipal: they are all the same. click here

Obviously I don’t expect everyone to have the same point of view that I have, but I do expect that I have a right to that point of view without being treated like a second class citizen for having it.  Isn’t that what democracy is all about?  

Jonathon Van Maren sums up this double standard way better than I could ever do.  Click below to hear to Jonathan’s podcast 
Abortion activists frequently lie and claim that pro-lifers pose a risk to abortion workers. The reality on the ground is that pro-lifers, often young women, are attacked with shocking regularity. Jonathon Van Maren breaks it down.

Overview of Ottawa's 2018 40 Days for Life Campaign

Dear 40 Days Reps and Friends:

It is with gratitude that I convey my sincere appreciation and thankfulness to all 40 Days Reps who took on this important and vital role in this fall’s campaign.

All your efforts are valued and have contributed to at times a logistically challenging campaign in church and ministry group participation this year.

Outreach to churches and ministry groups began in late July. From this outreach, 28 churches, 3 ministry groups, and 1 small faith community committed to vigil day participation.  Overall, 26.5 of the 40 days were committed vigil days, slightly down from overall vigil coverage last year. Special thanks to St. Hyacinth Parish, for committing to 2 separate vigil days this year. That was a first in our history of doing these campaigns.

As in previous years, efforts were made in other church communities to organize or strengthen themselves to eventually participate in a vigil day. Hopefully this will materialize with prayerful persistence and with exhortations of our pro-life responsibilities as people of faith.

We benefited from the intercessory prayer role of church communities that were either very small or very far out from downtown Ottawa. 

As in previous years, there were committed individuals who helped out with a regular almost daily prayer vigil presence in covering uncommitted hours. 

Thank You to all the clergy: pastors, assistant pastors, deacons, and religious sisters who participated in the vigil; your prayerful presence encourages the rest of us. 

Given the logistical challenges of recurring thefts of our vigil site supplies throughout this campaign, the overall coverage of vigil hour participation is not fully known. Not all on-site vigil participation got recorded in our sign-in book. Based on the current posted website calendar, there was 82% coverage of the 480 total vigil hours. This is down from our 91% coverage in past campaigns.  At the same time, we know that the 82% coverage was most likely higher because of vigil presences not recorded especially on uncommitted days.

In the pro-life movement, over the past decade, one of the most effective spiritual instruments God has been leading us in, are 40 Days for Life Campaigns.  God has been encouraging us to keep on doing these campaigns, and as of Monday, Nov 5^th, 414 known lives have been saved through this fall’s campaign.  To God be all the glory!  The final international results will be known later this month.

Given the current legislation criminalizing free speech and expression outside abortion facilities in Ontario it is tempting to grow fatigued in our enthusiasm and resolve to participate whole-heartedly in these campaigns.

However, it may well be that God is testing our resolve to participate fully in these public prayer vigil campaigns, after over a decade of doing them in Ottawa. With the current bubble zone restriction, do we slacken in our participation or do we keep on labouring? In my view, our response should be tied directly to our reality.

Which is: on average 1 in 5 babies are aborted in the womb; there are an estimated 100,000 abortions a day, and over 45 million abortions a year worldwide. In Canada, there are approximately 280 babies a day lost to surgical abortion, and this number does not include chemical abortions. These estimated overall numbers are declining somewhat in recent years, but they are nonetheless staggering. Abortion remains the leading cause of death in this country. At its root, abortion is a spiritual crisis, and 40 Days campaigns are a strong spiritual response to this pervasive crisis. 

Comfortable Christianity and comfortable Catholicism isn’t an option with what is happening under our watch, because we know what our obligations are to those little ones that do not have a voice.

Please keep praying and challenging more of our pro-life brothers and sisters to support us with their sacrifices and prayer presence at the vigil site during our fall campaigns.  We need them.

I will end with this short prayer taken from the daily devotionals of the American 40 Days Headquarters report on Canadian vigil sites in Ontario.

Father, help us to embrace the fact that we are our "brother’s keeper." When we try to cast off this responsibility please call to us to account, that we would be pleasing to you and to our "brother." Through the help and grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Thank you so much for your participation in this year’s campaign. 

For the least of our brethren, 

Helena Szakowski

Church and Ministry Co-ordinator

Ottawa’s 2018 – 40 Days for Life Campaign