Ashley Judd Video Mocks Abortion, Rick Santorum: Women of Virtue Need to Raise the Standard

at Catholic Online

The juvenile and malicious video featuring Ashley Judd on the FunnyorDie website (“Rick Santorum Aborts Presidential Campaign”) immediately brought to mind my favorite quote from Archbishop Fulton Sheen:

“To a great extent the level of any civilization is the level of its womanhood. When a man loves a woman, he has to become worthy of her. The higher her virtue, the more her character, the more devoted she is to truth, justice, goodness, the more a man has to aspire to be worthy of her. The history of civilization could actually be written in terms of the level of its women.”

O, how the lovely have fallen, and what a grotesque crop they’ve sown. Indeed, what passes for womanhood in our society today is nothing but a cheap, crass knock-off of the original; a crude and sloppy hack painting being sold as the masterpiece. The modern-day “feminist” woman foolishly champions faithlessness, promiscuity, contraception, and abortion and she degrades herself in the process. This latest evidence of just how far women have sunk is not only sad, but alarming.

The stars of the “choice” universe have gone way, way beyond their worn-out euphemisms and are now embracing shameless mockery. Ashley Judd and crew have made themselves a little video (how clever and funny they are!) that mocks the act of killing babies in the womb. They mock the violence of stopping the heartbeat of a child. Ha ha ha ha!! What a hilarious analogy they’ve drawn by comparing an abortion to Rick Santorum’s suspended Presidential campaign, if you’re someone who finds dead babies and wounded mothers hilarious. Apparently they do.

Babies are meaningless, doncha know. What matters is insulting and smearing the name of a faithful husband and father who happens to believe that every human life is sacred and deserving of protection. He’s a man, and worse, a conservative, Catholic man; therefore, he has no right to any opinion or belief about the legalized baby killing we call “reproductive freedom.” In fact, men have no say whatsoever unless they’re going to pipe up in favor of exterminating babies.

So this is what we’ve come to? This is the present and future of “feminism” in America? Women openly mocking the deaths of their own children; deaths fought long and hard for; deaths campaigned and paid for; deaths celebrated as “freedom” and “rights” for women? I’d say that’s officially the bottom, folks. There’s nowhere lower to sink. That’s as pathetic and wicked as it gets.

So now that we’ve seen the bottom, it’s time to work our way up. Women own this mess, and we must be the ones to correct it, through the mercy and power of God. We have a vile legacy behind us. It’s rooted deeply in the psyche and hearts of our entire culture. Women opened the door and welcomed the enemy inside because he called himself freedom and “choice” and we were stupid and selfish enough to believe it. Now the equilibrium of our society will never, ever be restored until women get serious about raising the level of womanhood in our culture again.

Not only are men the enemy, but children are commodities now. We manufacture them, buy them, sell them, store them in freezers, discard them if we don’t want them, and donate them for scientific study. We do all this because in our minds we own them. They are not persons to us, but property. They are merely “potential” that only will be realized if we so choose. Forget God – we hold the power of life and death in our hands now.

Our children are slaves to our wishes, and when they inconvenience us or disrupt our plans, we kill them and congratulate ourselves for our prudence. Perhaps we go on and on about how difficult the “choice” was for us, but ultimately, we kill them anyway because it was “the right thing to do.”

Yes, oh yes, nobody does delusion better than modern women. Mourning abortion is forbidden; denouncing or avoiding abortion is a betrayal of the collective; abortion “only when absolutely necessary” is wimpy and embarrassing; celebrating abortion, finding humor in abortion, adoring abortion – now that’s what “feminists” do these days! Look how far we’ve come! We don’t need to question or agonize over the “choice” to kill our babies – it’s a good thing. God help us.

I just recently saw the movie “Courageous” and that powerful final scene is still stuck in my head. As Adam Mitchell asked the men in his church that morning, I have to ask a similar question:

Where are you, women of virtue?

Where are the women who will not declare war on their own bodies? Where are the women who will not execute their own babies? Where are the women who will not throw away their purity? Where are the women who will not settle for men who abandon them? Where are the women who will exemplify the unique strengths of femininity, rather than remaking themselves into men?

Where are the women who will confront the lie that says women don’t need men? Where are the women who will model chastity, grace, gentleness, modesty, humility, self-control, and love?

Who will teach our daughters that they are more than a sexy body? Who will teach our daughters that their worth is not in their pretty face? Who will teach our daughters that happiness is not found in promiscuous sex? Who will teach our daughters that purity is not a restrictive idea from the past, but the shield that protects them and provides for their future?

I will.

Who will teach our daughters that a real man treasures a woman, gives his life for her, never violates her dignity, keeps his promises, is honorable in all his actions, and a man other than this is not worthy of her?
Who will teach our daughters that motherhood is not an oppressive burden, but a holy and rewarding vocation?
Who will teach our daughters that the child in the womb is not a parasite or an intruder but a human being whom no one has the “right” to kill?

I will.

Who will show our daughters the strength and blessing found in obeying God’s laws? By God’s grace, I will.
Who will live in stark contrast to the culture that says sex is power, men are the enemy, abortion is freedom, and purity is antiquated nonsense? By God’s grace, I will.

Who will teach them not to despise their virginity? Who will teach them that sex does not equal love? Who will teach them that beauty is fleeting and charm deceptive, but a woman who fears the Lord will be praised? By God’s grace, I will.

Who will teach them to guard their hearts by using their heads? I will.
Who will teach them how to say “No” to momentary pleasure and “Yes” to wisdom and self-control? I will.
Who will teach them that even the best career will never surpass the significance of the vocation of motherhood? I will.

Who will show them what a balanced and harmonious partnership with a man looks like? I will.
Who will teach them to recognize and respect the differences between men and women? I will.
Who will show them the joy and fulfillment of giving themselves completely in marriage to one man? I will.
Who will tell them that freedom is found only on a narrow road and only in self-giving, not self-seeking? I will.

What about you?

Where are you, women of virtue? I know you’re out there, but you’ve got to come out of the shadows. You’ve got to stop being embarrassed by virtue, no matter who laughs or scoffs. You can’t wait for other women to lead the way. You’ve got to be louder than the voices that mock the ongoing massacre of babies in the name of “freedom.” You’ve got to be courageous enough to live a counter-cultural womanhood that testifies to Life.

The history of our civilization is being written right now by women. The abortion zealots have written too many chapters in violence and death.  It’s time for women of virtue to start rewriting the story.

 

The Witness That Cannot Be Ignored: Loving the Least of These

at Catholic Online

When Judy first met Doreen, she had no way of knowing that God was basically going to drop Doreen in her lap like a knotted and tangled gold chain and ask her to help get things untied and straightened out. Had Judy known up front what was being asked of her she might have said “No thanks, no way!”

But God knew that He’d asked the right person. He knew that Judy had the compassion and the fortitude to go the distance. So before she really knew what she was doing, she’d offered a ride to a woman with cancer, and thus began a year-long arduous journey.

Doreen was in her mid-forties and fighting stage 4 breast cancer. She was in the thick of chemotherapy treatments and relied on public transportation to get around. The chemo was taking its toll on her, and she needed someone to take her home after the treatment. Judy volunteered to be that person for each treatment, for as long as Doreen needed.

Toni is Judy’s sister, and they live right next door to each other. Judy and Toni are cut from the same beautiful cloth, and Toni soon found herself inextricably involved as well, and they became a tag-team caring for Doreen, someone most reasonable folks would say neither of them had any obligation toward.

Offering a ride is a helpful gesture, but with Doreen, it was far, far more complicated than that. Doreen also suffered from bi-polar disorder, borderline personality disorder, diabetes, and other chronic conditions. She was not always an easy person to be around. She would call them at home a dozen times a day. The instability of her mind and the highs and lows of her emotions soon began to eat up more and more of Judy and Toni’s lives and took a heavy toll on them. They were learning the bitter reality of dealing with someone who is mentally ill.

It was increasingly clear that Doreen needed more than a ride to the hospital. Her own family had abandoned her, or worse, took advantage of what they could get out of her. In every meaningful way, she was alone in the world. She lived in a hidden, sub-stratum of our society. Those struggling with mental illness seem to live among us while remaining unseen. Theirs is a culture and a community separate from ours, though right in our midst.

In Doreen’s world the blind lead the blind. The sick tend to the sick. They know each other, get familiar with each other’s lives and habits, sometimes try to look out for each other, but often mistreat each other because they are unable to do otherwise. In their psychopathy, they can destroy relationships, businesses, homes, and finances. They can leave a devastating ruin in their wake. Families break under the strain and dysfunction.

Judy and Toni understood none of this before encountering Doreen. They’d never been personally touched by the suffocating demands of mental illness and the pain it brings. Now they were caught up in it, like it or not, and it was either go forward with Doreen or walk away and never look back.

They actually chose another option. They chose Love. They chose self-sacrifice, generosity, and charity in action. Along the way, they began helping Doreen with many things like her laundry, balancing her checkbook and paying her bills, getting her prescriptions, and accompanying her to every doctor appointment.

In the process, they discovered that Doreen was Catholic, but hadn’t been to Mass in years. They began talking to her about her faith and the Church, and Doreen realized that she was hungry for spiritual food again. They arranged to take her to see their priest, and soon she’d received the sacrament of Penance again, and Judy and Toni were there with her when she received the Bread of Life again for the first time in years. She was restored to her faith and had found such contentment and joy. Every Sunday thereafter, Toni drove Doreen to and from Mass.

They poured themselves out for this woman who needed so much. There were many days it would have been easier to say, “She’s not my responsibility!” and walk away, yet they continually chose love and I’ve had a front row seat for the past year.

Judy is my mother, and Toni is my aunt. They would be the first ones to set me straight if I tried to canonize them here, yet I insist that they are saints because they heard the voice of Jesus when He said, “Whatsoever you do to the least of these, you do unto Me.”

Doreen was surely one of the least of these. Out of love for Christ, my mother and my aunt cared for her and opened their lives to her. They went out of their way to love her, which is what real love does. There was nothing convenient about taking care of Doreen. In fact, they often had to suspend or cancel their own plans and adjust their own schedules in order to accommodate her needs.

I remarked to my mother that I was concerned for her health because caring for Doreen was so taxing on her and my aunt, both of them in their seventies. I’m ashamed to admit that I once wished she could find a way out of dealing with this troublesome woman.

But they are made of truer stuff than me, and they kept on loving their neighbor and sister in Christ, Doreen. They each got beside her and helped her carry her heavy cross of suffering. They said over and over, “Yes, Lord.”

Their example burns like a roaring fire in the dead of winter, warming cold hearts and bringing timid souls crackling to life. Now they hold out the torch, daring me to pick it up and follow in their footsteps. It is a witness that cannot be ignored. For the rest of my life I will be challenged by them to look more closely for the face of Christ in those who cross my path. Perhaps the day will come for me, too, when a stranger will need a compassionate friend and I’ll be suddenly brought to the test. How much of myself am I willing to give to someone who will take everything I have and offer me nothing but a cross in return?

A few months ago tests revealed that Doreen’s cancer was back with a vengeance and had metastasized to her liver and brain. She calmly declined more chemo, telling my mother she was ready to go home. Moved into hospice care, she deteriorated faster than anyone expected. Mom and Aunt Toni visited her every day, even though she was often not aware of their company.

Mom and I talked a few times about Doreen’s approaching death, and we both expressed the same feeling: excitement for her! I found myself feeling truly happy for this woman who would soon be greeted by the embrace of Jesus and be free from lifelong suffering. We both said, “Wouldn’t it be something if Doreen died on Easter?” Honestly, I can’t think of a better day to die.

Doreen was born to eternal life on Holy Saturday, April 7th at exactly 3:00 PM. Mom was there with her for that last breath, the very last step on this side of the veil.

Mom and Aunt Toni can see now what their real purpose was — it was to help Doreen prepare for eternity. They feel nothing but gratitude and awe at having been asked by God. Can there be a greater privilege for any of us than to walk the last mile of life with a brother or sister or neighbor and make sure they get Home safely?

I can hear the Father saying to them, “Well done, good and faithful servants.” I am left with the power and force of their living witness of love, and I want it to change me. I want it to make me braver and more generous. They’ve given me a spiritual heritage of sacrifice, compassion, fidelity and love that I can never repay.

While sorting through some of Doreen’s personal things, my mother came across a small notebook with only one entry. The tears flowed as Mom read Doreen’s private pain, written in her scrawling hand:

I want to step right out of
this skin
I am in.
Shed this person
I no longer want to be.
Just drop her on the side
of the street along with the
day’s trash.
But, she is so much a
part of me
our fibers blended,
her soul intertwined
with mine.
This seething
angry mess of a girl
who wears my skin
and speaks with my voice.
She moves my limbs
and controls my thoughts.
If only,
if only I could get her to leave.

Doreen is finally free of “this skin”, and that seething angry mess of a girl has been transformed into grace and beauty forever. Rest in peace now, Doreen. You’ll not be forgotten.

 

Awake. Alive!

In the dark and silent tomb
there is suddenly a gentle wind

Father and Spirit are there

He leans in close to whisper in a blood-stained ear

“Son…Son, it’s Me. It’s Dad. Wake up.
It’s time to get up.”

(Fr. John Congdon)

 

Holy Thursday, Repose

“I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer…This is My body which is given for you.  Do this in remembrance of Me.  This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood”

 

 

 

 

 

“My soul is sorrowful even unto death.  Stay here and keep watch with me…”

 

Sorrowful Mysteries

1st Sorrowful Mystery:  The Agony in the Garden

“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”  An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.  And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.  Luke 22:42-44

The fruit of the mystery is true contrition for our sins.

True contrition.  Before we can have true contrition, we have to first truly understand that we have sinned.

Our self-obsessed, “enlightened” society would very much like to proclaim Sin as an archaic, prohibitive concept whose time is over.  Moral restrictions, clearly defined standards of right and wrong, and consequences for violations are all antiquated notions wrongly imposed on people of free will, says the modern mind.

To dare to suggest that Someone outside ourselves, higher than ourselves has the authority to define right and wrong, good and evil, and then establish the just punishment for wrongdoing, well, that’s downright blasphemous in this age of moral relativism.

How can we be truly sorry if we’re not thoroughly convinced we’ve done wrong?  Okay, maybe we can admit that we’ve sinned, but we haven’t done anything truly terrible, so it’s not really that bad.  It can’t be that big a deal.

Take another look at that scene in the Garden.  Jesus was in so much anguish that He sweat blood as He prayed!  He asked God if there was some other way to accomplish the plan, so it’s obvious this Sin problem is a very big deal, indeed.  The torture He was about to suffer wasn’t due to something small or trivial.

But I can’t help wondering what grieves Him more – that we sin, or that we try to cover our sin, make light of it, and even delight in it?

Is it the arrogance that inhabits our sins and causes us to deny that we haven’t just broken a rule or made a little mistake – we have sinned against a perfect and just God who also happens to love us beyond our comprehension?!  Our sin is aggravated by prideful indifference.  Insult is added to injury.

Why?  Because it is scary as all hell, literally, to fully grasp the gravity of our own sin and the consequences of it, and were it not for the Cross and the unspeakable love of the Father, none of us could bear it.  Contrition that begins out of fear of the just punishment for sin is a good place to start, but God isn’t satisfied with leaving us there.  He wants to overwhelm us with His love; that crazy, illogical, endless love that took our hideous sin upon His perfect Self and endured our punishment for us.

We no longer have anything to fear.  Now we are free to be repentant out of sorrow, not terror or despair.  We can face our wretched condition and own up to our sins honestly, because what awaits us is forgiveness, not wrath.  Once that reality takes root in our hearts, then gratitude inspires us, humility enables us, and LOVE compels us to true contrition.

“Blessed is he who transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.  Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit.  When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.  For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.  Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity.  I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord” and you forgave the guilt of my sin.”   Psalm 32:1-5

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.  Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.  For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.  Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me and I will be whiter than snow.”  Psalm 51:1-4, 7

2nd Sorrowful Mystery:  The Scourging at the pillar

“Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged.”  John 19:1

The fruit of the mystery is purity, and accepting the will of God.

They used a whip made of several strips of leather that were embedded at the ends with pieces of bone and lead.  No Roman limitation was placed on the number of lashings inflicted, and often the victim didn’t survive the flogging.  Jesus did.

“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5

Every blow from that cruel whip was for my sake.  Every vicious tear in His flesh, every drop of precious blood that flowed was for my healing.  Every agonizing moment of pain He endured was to secure my peace.  His punishment, my freedom.

My impurities are not beaten out of me; they were beaten out of Him.

God deals with me gently and patiently, always with love.

I can’t even fathom the harsh treatment Jesus received in my stead.  He must have cried out in pain, but He never protested.  He never even tried to whisper a plea to the Father, “Stop!  Please stop!”

He would do anything to rescue a lost child.

Me.

You.

3rd Sorrowful Mystery:  The Crowning with Thorns

“They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him.  And they began to call out to him, “Hail, king of the Jews!”  Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him.  Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him.  And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him.  Then they led him out to crucify him.”  Mark 15:17-20

The fruit of the mystery is moral courage.

Humiliation, in one form or another, is part of the package.  It is only avoidable if we decide to deny Christ.  Every single day, we’ll be presented with moments of choice:  either choose Christ and risk mockery and scorn, or deny Him and remain safe, comfortable, hidden.

In a shallow culture that reveres only the Self and demands tolerance of all things while it is bitterly intolerant of Christ and His Church, we can’t play both sides.

If we’re truly following Jesus, we are going to be mocked.  We will be the object of scorn and ridicule.  We are going to be attacked as closed-minded, oppressive, backward, intellectually-stunted, bigoted, fanatical.  We’re going to be hated and persecuted.  If we’re not being treated as such, perhaps we’d better re-examine our lives and our faith.  If we don’t stand out from the world, then we could be in serious trouble.

It will cost us dearly sometimes to stand firm in our faith, to go against the current societal tide, to defend the unchanging truth that others dismiss as merely religious belief.  But the Humble Savior listened to the vile mockery spewing from the soldiers’ mouths and decided that your soul and my soul was worth the degradation.  He could have silenced them in an instant if He’d wanted, but He loved us – He loved them - so much that He submitted to their abuse quietly.  Like a lamb to the slaughter, He opened not His mouth.

Discipleship will exact a price — at the very least, humiliation and scorn for His sake.  Someday it might even cost our lives.  But what is the cost of the alternative?

4th Sorrowful Mystery: The Carrying of the Cross

“Finally, Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha.) John 19:16-17

The fruit of the mystery is perseverance and patience.

He was still standing after a brutal flogging that should have left him dead. His flesh is already mutilated and profusely bleeding, and His body is weak and shaky from the blood loss. Yet somehow, He withstands the pain and keeps going. I wonder if maybe the soldiers, besides being irked, weren’t just a little impressed that He was still alive after all they’d done to Him.

Maybe that’s why they enlisted some help for Him and made Simon carry the cross the rest of the way to Golgotha. “A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country and they forced him to carry the cross.” Mark 15:21

But whether Jesus could walk or not, they were determined in their cause. Nothing was going to stop them from their final goal of execution.

Jesus persevered. So did Satan.

Satan was every bit as determined as Jesus that day and he was getting plenty of help from those blood-thirsty Roman soldiers. In this battle between Love and Evil, it was beginning to look like Satan would prevail.

Thus far he had succeeded in shredding Jesus’ body and utterly humiliating Him. Not a bad day’s work for a fallen angel.

(Ah, but things are not as they seem! Evil was about to be soundly, eternally defeated.)

I wonder if perhaps it was tempting for Jesus to just lie down on the dirt road and die right there. Completely sapped of strength and in agonizing pain, I wonder if He was tempted by the thought, “I can’t take another step.”

How many times have I had that thought? It seems to me that my cross is getting too heavy, or I have been carrying it for too long, and I can’t take another step. I feel weakened by some harsh blows, and it looks as though the enemy is winning.

In faithful obedience to the Father’s will, Jesus persevered. So must I. Though it seems the enemy is scoring too many points against me, I must remember he has already lost. Though I’m sapped of strength and in pain, if I remain faithful, Satan will not prevail.

“Keep walking,” Jesus says to me. “I will carry you when you are weak. I will never leave you. I have been to hell and back for you, and there’s nothing to fear.”

“Keep walking.”

The 5th Sorrowful Mystery: The Crucifixion

“When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals – one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Luke 23:33-34

“It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.” Luke 23:44-46

The fruit of the mystery is faithfulness to God.

This Sorrowful pilgrimage now brings me here to this lonely hill. All the agony, the beatings and the bleeding have led me somewhere I do not want to go; somewhere I resist going with all my might.

The bitter truth is this: I really don’t want to die.

Will I walk with You along this distressing road only to shrink in fear when the final moment comes? Lord, You know that is exactly what I do, time and time again. My spirit may be willing, but my flesh is so weak. I start out well enough and I pray “not my will, but Thine” because I love You. But then the choice comes, and I stop short of the dying. I choose to spare myself. human instinct kicks in. But in sparing myself, I lose my life.

“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.” Luke 9:23-24

Clearly, there’s no getting around it. Following You means dying.

It means the death of my own will; in small choices, in big decisions, in little ways, in old habits. It means relinquishing my right to myself, over and over again, day after day.

What does a heart really sound like when it has died to itself? It sounds like this: “I am at His disposal – He can do with me just as it pleaseth Him, without even a thought of consulting me. I just want to be His own little one – if He so wants, otherwise I will be happy to be just nothing and He everything.”

How does a face look when the self has given up its rights? Like this: “Take whatever He gives and give whatever He takes with a big smile.”

Those are the words of Your faithful servant, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. She put hands and feet to those words every single day while privately enduring the darkest interior pain. Is that kind of faithfulness within my grasp?

I am most definitely not Mother Teresa. My vocation is quite different, but the call is the same: take up my cross and follow Jesus. I’m still being called to die.

Today, my dying looks a lot like the mundane, thankless, routine tasks that I have no motivation to accomplish. Dying is me choosing patience and kindness; dying is being faithful in little things. Dying is me forgiving the one who has hurt me – really forgiving; no grudge, no animosity, no hope of vindication, just release.

Dying is me, freely and generously, choosing someone else ahead of myself. Dying is making a sacrifice that hurts, and doing it with a full heart, asking nothing in return.

Dying is victory.  Dying is freedom from all that frightens me.  When I die to myself, it’s my fear that’s burned to death, and real faith rises out of the ashes.

With You, there is only life. Even death can no longer harm me because Your wondrous cross has rendered it void and powerless.

You held nothing back. You willingly gave it all so that I could have abundant life. I desire that kind of faithfulness, Lord! Teach me to give my all, even in little things, and withhold nothing. Grant me the courage to carry my cross and submit to the dying it asks of me, and then I will live…truly live.

Copyright 2012

 

President Obama Makes Video Vowing to Protect Planned Parenthood

at Catholic Online

With the lovely backdrop of the red room at the White House behind him, President Obama made a video of encouragement to Planned Parenthood supporters in America, pledging his continued and unwavering support for the abortion giant.

A sitting President went out of his way to publicly vow to protect the interests of America’s largest abortion provider and ensure their federal funding is not discontinued. He publicly declared his commitment to standing between PP and Congress, between PP and the American people, to preserve the hundreds of millions of tax dollars PP gets each year. He and Cecile Richards are so tight not a ray of sunlight can come between them.

Since Mr. Obama is so fond of clarity, let’s be clear; let’s be very clear, indeed. In fact, let’s take it line by line.

He begins by saying, “For you and for most Americans, women’s health is an issue that stands above politics. Yet over the past year you’ve had to stand up to politicians who want to deny millions of women the care they rely on and inject themselves into decisions that are best made between a woman and her doctor.”

Let’s clear up the euphemisms first: Abortion is not health care. It is the intentional killing of a helpless preborn child. That is really what we’re talking about here. We’re not talking about “decisions” regarding breast cancer or cervical or ovarian cancer, etc. We’re talking about abortion. The President is talking about abortion.

He continues, “Let’s be clear here; women are not an interest group.”

Oh, I beg to differ. Women are most definitely his favorite interest group. He plays “women’s interests” like a violin when he needs to rally support, the way he’s done this year with his contrived, politically-motivated “war on women” over contraception.

“They’re mothers and daughters, sisters, and wives. They’re half of this country and they’re perfectly capable of making their own choices about their health.”

Again, let’s be clear. The “choice” he’s talking about is abortion. Not whether to get a Pap smear or a breast exam or a blood test. The “choice” is whether or not to kill the child in the womb. I wonder why Obama’s so reluctant to be clear in his language?

“So we’re grateful that through it all you never forget who you’re fighting for. The woman with a new lease on life because a mammogram caught her cancer in time…”

Once more, for the record: No Planned Parenthood clinic in the country can provide a woman a mammogram. That is a deceptive lie that Cecile Richards and now Barack Obama love to perpetuate. Planned Parenthood does not provide mammograms and they never have. They are merely a referral service to send women elsewhere for a mammogram.

Since that “new lease on life” is so important to you, Mr. Obama, may I suggest the many fine Catholic hospitals across America where women can actually receive comprehensive medical care that includes mammograms. If it’s care for poor and uninsured women you’re concerned about, you should be championing Catholic health care providers instead of attacking them.

From the Fiscal Times: “Compared to their competition, Catholic hospitals take a leading role in providing less-profitable services to patients. They lead the sector in breast cancer screenings, nutrition programs, trauma, geriatric services, and social work. In most of these areas, other non-profits come close, but hospitals run by state and local governments fall significantly off the pace. Where patients have trouble paying for care, Catholic hospitals cover more of the costs. For instance, Catholic Health Services in Florida provides free care to families below 200 percent of federal poverty line, accepting Medicaid reimbursements as payment in full, and caps costs at 20 percent of household income for families that fall between 200 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty line.”

“… the woman who was able to choose when to start a family because she could afford contraception.”
Ah yes, Mr. Obama, your concocted battle over contraception. To secure votes for yourself and further Planned Parenthood’s agenda, you fabricated this ludicrous controversy over contraception as though it were hard to find, difficult to obtain, and financially out of reach to every women not earning six figures a year. It’s the most dishonest and destructive political ploy ever foisted on the public by a sitting President, and you’ve used women to do it.

You’ve exploited your favorite interest group to effectively threaten the real providers of genuine health care to millions of people — the Catholic Church — in order to prop up the illusion that America’s abortion giant is a benevolent rescuer of poor women whom no one else will serve. Catholic hospitals and clinics wait with open arms to welcome all women and meet their health care needs. But you would rather dictate that Catholics must violate their own sacred teaching; you’d rather assault Religious freedom and require Catholic institutions to bow at your altar or else. Whose interests are you serving here? Let’s be clear.

Cecile Richards and Planned Parenthood are targeting our kids. The ones they don’t kill in the womb they’ll rely on later to become new and repeat clients, and that means “educating” our children about sex, Planned Parenthood-style. Their see our kids as primarily “sexual beings” rather than human beings with a holy sexuality. Their vision of sexuality has no room for chastity, purity, abstinence, or respect for human life. At the heart of their “sex-education” agenda is promiscuity, contraception, and abortion.

NJ.com reports that while speaking to a Princeton audience recently, Cecile Richards said, “We know sex education works, the problem is we’re not in enough classrooms. In the last couple of years, Planned Parenthood has become a living digital laboratory.” Planned Parenthood uses Facebook, Twitter and text messaging to deliver sex education to young people without having to get it through the Legislature. “Technology has the power to connect people, to get our message out and drive social change,” said Richards.”

Planned Parenthood’s message is that our children are “sexual beings” who must be taught to explore their sexuality and enjoy unrestricted sex whenever, with whomever they choose, armed with only some latex and pills to “protect” them, and abortion to safeguard their “freedom.”

Obama goes on to say, “When some professional politicians casually say that they’ll get rid of Planned Parenthood, don’t forget what they’re really talking about. Eliminating the funding that millions of women rely on and leaving them to fend for themselves.”

Yes, let’s do remember what we’re really talking about here. We’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars every year being given to an industry that exists to kill the child in the womb. Let’s stop pretending that those tax dollars are not subsidizing abortion. Let’s be clear: if PP could not abort babies they would close their doors tomorrow. It is the abortion peddlers who should be left to fend for themselves. Those Catholic hospitals you’re threatening with your mandates, Mr. Obama — the ones leading in breast cancer screenings, for instance — would gladly care for women and their babies.

He concludes with this promise: “I know Planned Parenthood will never stop fighting to protect the health care and choices America’s women deserve. As long as I have the privilege of being your President, neither will I.”

One last time: abortion is not health care. Fertility is not a disease. Pregnancy is not an illness. Contraception is not an entitlement others must be forced to pay for. The natural ability of a woman’s body is not a defect that needs to be fixed. What women deserve is to not have their bodies “treated” with artificial hormones and chemicals. What women deserve is for the amazing gift of life-giving to be respected and honored, both by their doctors and by the men in their lives. Women deserve far, far better than abortion. The women still growing in the womb deserve to be protected, not killed.

Our current President has made his position crystal clear and has demonstrated time and time again that he will always defend Planned Parenthood; he will always defend abortion-on-demand, without restriction; he will always promote the culture of death. He will even go to such anti-American lengths as to shred the constitutional rights of the Catholic Church and all people of faith.

There’s no “war on women.” There’s no battle over the availability of contraception. There’s a genuine war on Religious freedom, and a genuine battle for liberty, both being waged by Obama.

There’s no ambiguity here. No wiggle-room at all for anyone to be uncertain as to Obama’s intentions and priorities.

There is only one question: Will we re-elect a man who walks in lock-step with the anti-life agenda of Planned Parenthood and allow our constitutional right to Religious freedom to be eradicated?

 

Incarnation

She was no longer simply Mary, no longer alone in herself. How astonishing is the news the angel has just given her! The God she loves above all else has called her name; called her to come receive the most splendid gift. He chose Mary, and she chose Him. And in an instant the God whom the universe cannot contain was safely tucked inside the darkness of her womb, growing and becoming. Gabriel had left her, and though she could not feel Him yet, she knew He was there. Not just in spirit now, but in her… part of her as He’d never been part of anyone before.

Weeks pass…she looks no different, yet she is the vessel that now protects the Holy One as He grows.

Then one day out of the blue she feels Him! That first gentle movement that feels like bubbles… so slight yet unmistakably baby. How delightful and exhilarating! Mighty God now softly stirs with delicate arms and tiny legs. He formed the vast oceans and filled them with marvelous creatures, and now He floats quietly in the warm, pure sea created only for Him.

Soon He is kicking her, pushing her, and forcefully! He enjoys doing flips, His ears now hear the sound of her voice, and He is quickly taking up more and more space in her body. He has always occupied her heart, and now she looks down at her round belly, places her hand over the spot where He kicks, and she marvels at how He has taken her over. She eagerly awaits the moment when she can kiss His tiny face, count tiny fingers and toes, and hold Him close to her heart…the heart He already owns.

Finally, the blessed hour comes, and He who gives life to every man and creature now waits for His own birth. I AM the LIFE must be given His life by His mother. She must deliver her Redeemer. And suddenly, there He is in her arms. Eternity was cradled in her arms.

Surely words could scarcely describe what it must have been like for her to look down at His little face and realize the mighty and sovereign Lord she bowed down to was now wearing the skin of her own flesh and nursing at her breast! To be twice overcome with fierce and tender love; once as a mother for her child, and again as a servant daughter of her Savior.

What exquisite joy and affection she must have felt to smell the sweetness of His head, feel the softness of His new baby skin (all parents know there’s nothing better than baby skin), hear His baby sighs and snores, and snuggle His warm little body against her own in sleep. Heaven on earth – literally – and every moment was hers to savor. How glorious and sweet! No mother has ever known greater joy, nor ever will.

And how deserving she was of such an unspeakable gift, for she also bore the greatest pain of any mother on earth.  
She gave Him life, so that He could give us Life.

How happy are we all to be her sons and daughters and know her loving affection and her stalwart protection! Thank you, Mother! Most Blessed Mother!

 

Obamacare and $1 Abortions: Latest Rule Requires an ‘Abortion Surcharge’

at Catholic Online

Shhhh…. President Obama’s got a little secret he doesn’t want you to know.

His administration just finalized another “rule” regarding Obamacare and the insurance exchange program: $1 abortions.

Forget all the promises Obama made about not subsidizing abortion; about people not having to pay for abortions if they didn’t want to. Forget all the speeches in which pro-lifers were ridiculed and hollered at for “lying” that Obamacare would fund abortions. Forget everything Nancy Pelosi and Kathleen Sebelius have said. Forget the Executive Order that isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.

From LifeNews.com:
“Nestled within the “individual mandate” in the Obamacare act — that portion of the Act requiring every American to purchase government-approved insurance or pay a penalty — is an ‘abortion premium mandate.” This mandate requires all persons enrolled in insurance plans that include elective abortion coverage to pay a separate premium from their own pockets to fund abortion. As a result, many pro-life Americans will have to decide between a plan that violates their consciences by funding abortion, or a plan that may not meet their health needs.”

Senator Ben Nelson helped engineer the accounting gimmick that this mandate will utilize — the compromise that enticed Stupak and others to bail on their commitment to Life and vote for Obamacare. Under this shell game, the government is not technically subsidizing abortions — you and I are by government mandate. This is how Obamacare attempts to get around the Hyde Amendment for now. The goal is to get rid of Hyde permanently, because then elective abortions will be covered by taxpayer funding.

Here’s how it will break down: Insurers will collect a $1 surcharge per month from each payer. If you write checks for your insurance premiums, you’ll have to write two checks; one for the premium cost, and a separate check for $1 for this “surcharge.” If it gets billed to your credit card, you’ll see two separate charges; one for the premium cost and one for $1.

The insurance companies may only disclose to the enrollee at the time of enrollment what the surcharge is for; thereafter, they are not permitted to reveal in any of their policy literature what the $1 is for. In addition, “insurance plans may only advertise the total cost of the premiums without disclosing that enrollees will be charged a $1 per month fee to directly subsidize abortions.

In other words, the government (that means Obama) is saying that your insurance company can only tell you what the $1 surcharge each month is for at the time you enroll, and only if you know enough already to ask them about it (since they can’t disclose the $1 charge) and read the pages of fine print which is the only place in your policy where it’s mentioned. Once you enroll, if you didn’t ask, Obama says they can’t tell you.

Is this your idea of freedom or choice? There’s no “opting out” if your plan covers elective abortions. You can’t refuse to pay the surcharge. Jill Stanek writes, “But if an insurance company participating in the Obamacare exchange program does offer elective abortions, everyone who buys insurance from that company will have to pay a $1 separate surcharge every month to cover the cost of abortions. It doesn’t matter if you are pro-life. It doesn’t matter if you’re a 72-yr-old woman who will never abort. You have to pay the $1 surcharge.”

Insurance companies participating in the exchange program do not have to provide elective abortion coverage, so my next question is, how many plans will be available that don’t offer abortion coverage? How limited will they be in number and in coverage?

It seems to me that, ironically, women will be the ones to swallow the double-edged sword here.  Will there even be such a thing as a plan that offers OB/GYN care but does not cover abortion?  Will women even have the option of choosing a plan that doesn’t cover elective abortion and thus the $1 surcharge?

After all, according to this administration, “women’s health care” now absolutely means contraception, abortifacients, sterilization, and abortion, without exception. That means that insurers will either provide complete “women’s health care” coverage or none at all. Surely they won’t be permitted to cover only some components of “women’s health care” and refuse others, right? It’s really not hard to see this one coming.  The contraceptive mandate was just laying the foundation for this demeaning and manufactured version of “women’s health care” that now regards fertility as a disease.

This President’s modus operandi has been deny, deny, accuse, deny some more. Lie. Mandate. Use accounting schemes to mislead and obfuscate. Violate Constitutional rights.  Cover-up and lie some more.

Will enough people protest? C’mon, it’s only $12 a year, right? And since it goes unnamed every month, it just happens in the background, almost hidden. Practically forgotten. It’s not called what it really is. Much the same way we don’t want to call abortion what it really is.

It ought to send chills down the spine to realize the lengths Obama has gone, and will continue to go, for the purpose of advancing abortion in the U.S.. He serves no master more than he serves abortion.

Some will think that’s too harsh or unjustified a statement to make about the President. What about respect for the Office, some will ask? I can only say that his actions are dishonest, dictatorial, and evil. He has revealed his true priorities, and they are deadly. He has demonstrated that no organization in America is more important to him than Planned Parenthood. Obama is going after states that try to defund Planned Parenthood by withholding their Medicaid funding. This man who claims to champion women’s health will gladly jeopardize real health care for women for the sake of protecting Planned Parenthood.

As a state senator, Obama voted against a bill identical to the federal Born Alive Infant Protection Act — a bill designed to make sure babies who survived the first attempt on their lives were not subjected to a second attempt but were given the medical care they needed. He voted in favor of infanticide, and did so with his customary verbosity so as to try and conceal the fact that he thought babies who survived an abortion didn’t require the care of a doctor who wasn’t just trying to kill them moments before. No amount of eloquent spin can hide that fact.

He is not a respectable leader. He doesn’t want to be the leader of a free republic — he wants to be King. He hands down mandates from on-high. Then he coerces private companies into withholding the truth and helping him deceive the American people.

And astonishingly, he still has the support of a great many Catholics. Still, many Americans think he is a good President who should be given a second term. He arrogantly tramples on fundamental Constitutional rights, and still people defend and applaud him. Those folks must enjoy the slavery of government dictates and control. They must enjoy being deceived and manipulated. It boggles the mind.

If Obamacare is not repealed or found unconstitutional, these rules go into effect in 2014. In just a few months, we have one last chance to stop all this and ensure that Barack Obama is a one-term President. If we reward his duplicity with four more years, then we will deserve every dishonest, dictatorial thing he will do with those years.

 

Women Star in the President’s Political Theater: Who’s Really Getting Played?

at Catholic Online

After Sandra Fluke’s testimony before Congress last week, two things became clear: 1) This controversy is political theater if I ever saw it, and 2) modern, secular “feminism” makes women stupid.

With a pen stroke and a press conference, President Obama used women to initiate a war on Religious freedom and with the media lapdogs panting at his heels, he made sure the Republicans, and especially the Catholic Church, were painted as misogynist zealots.

Ms. Fluke has become the latest player in a drama that President Obama has manufactured and fueled for his own political gain. Fluke, the Georgetown law student who’s actually an activist for Reproductive Justice, joined Nancy Pelosi, Kathleen Sebelius, Barbara Boxer, Cecile Richards (Planned Parenthood), Nancy Keenan (NARAL), and scores of other Congressional leaders and political activists who are bemoaning the trials of life without free birth control pills. With the President leading this contrived and fraudulent battle over “women’s health”, these so-called feminists have pinned women’s entire well-being to a package of pills and reduced women to just vaginas and uteruses.

Fluke, who was portrayed as a 23 year-old co-ed, is actually 30 years old and by her own admission chose to attend Georgetown precisely so she could battle their insurance policy since it does not cover contraceptives. What a handy witness she turned out to be last week on behalf of Obama’s contraception mandate. So important was she to Obama’s theater show that he personally called her to apologize for things Rush Limbaugh said on his program concerning her testimony.

Fluke testified that she and her classmates have to spend $3,000 during their time at Georgetown on contraception, and it’s simply an unbearable financial burden for them. If they paid top-dollar for birth control pills, that would be about $600 a year; $1,800 for three years. A box of condoms ranges from about $4.00 to $15.00. That’s maybe another $100 a year, but still nowhere close to $3,000.

To put this in perspective, I can sponsor two children through World Vision for less than $100 a month. That money actually helps feed, clothe and educate a child, and improve the lot of her community as well. So you can feed, clothe and shelter a child in a poverty-stricken country, or you can subsidize an Ivy-league college student’s sex life by buying her birth control.

To give you another perspective, consider what’s happening to active-duty military families and veteran retirees. Active-duty families will soon see their prescription costs increase while their access to civilian pharmacies shrinks. Military retirees are going to see their health insurance premiums skyrocket very soon, as Obamacare tries to force them off Tricare and onto one of the government exchange programs instead.

So while active-duty military families are paying more for all their prescriptions — medicines needed for actual illnesses — Ivy-league college co-eds simply MUST be provided with free birth control.

Meanwhile, unionized civilians health care benefits will be untouched. No additional costs for them, no sir. Protect union workers; ask military families to sacrifice even more. From whom much is already asked, even more will be required. Is this the new American way?

What Fluke and her peers need is not a legal education but a common sense, moral education. In about 30 minutes, they could all be taught how to manage their fertility without drugs, and their “birth control” would cost them absolutely nothing but self-control and mature decision-making. It’s called personal responsibility. And you know what? It’s very empowering!

In the real world, when you don’t have the money to pay for something you want, you do without it. Contraception is not food and water. It’s not electricity and shelter. It’s not a need at all. If Fluke wants birth control pills, fine, she can have them. She can also pay for them herself. No one is obligated to provide them for her.

This is the epitome of the entitlement society and mentality that we now live in. To insist that government or our employers must subsidize our sexual habits and behavior makes us officially the most selfish, lazy, immature, and embarrassing society America has ever seen.

Not to mention the most hypocritical. We demand the government stay out of our bedrooms while also demanding the government pay for our contraception. These modern “feminists” like Fluke will shout, “My body, my choice” and “stay out of my uterus” and most of all, “the Church has no right to tell me what to do with my body!” But now she is demanding that same government, that same Church must relieve her of the cost and responsibility for her own personal choices and bear the burden themselves.

Is this really the future of young American women? Do they really not have the brains to figure out that if they don’t have promiscuous, premarital sex, they don’t need to worry about paying for contraceptives? As an added bonus, they also won’t have to worry about STD’s and unwanted pregnancy. Why is that simple concept so hard to grasp?

It’s infuriating to me as a woman that this entire controversy is being played as a “war on women” and that this asinine contraceptive mandate is for the sake of “women’s health.” Artificial hormones bring with them serious risks for women and pose a real danger to women’s health. Pumping a woman’s — worse, a young girl’s still-growing body — full of these artificial hormones should not be anyone’s idea of the right way to take care of a woman’s health.

Fertility is not a disease. How insulting to suggest that women require artificial hormones, contraceptive devices, and abortion in order to be happy, healthy, and prosperous.

The language of this mandate and the rhetoric being used to defend it is insidious. Preventing pregnancy is equated with women’s health. Preventing children is equated with women’s well-being. Pregnancy = unhealthy and expensive. No pregnancy = healthy and cost-saving. Children have become the enemy. Children are now threatening, ominous dollar signs that we must strategically avoid.

This is really a mandate against life. What begins with pills in order to prevent pregnancy and save money will eventually become mandated abortions to eliminate children, especially disabled, “imperfect”, medically expensive ones. America is not immune to this progression. We’re submitting to it right now, and modern, secular “feminists” are leading the way.

The “feminists” swear that this is all about protecting women and their choices, blah blah blah. Baloney. The irony they don’t get is this mandate only further puts the responsibility of pregnancy and children totally on women, leaving men with nothing to do but use women for their sexual gratification and then walk away. Train the guys well to make sure their girlfriend is on the Pill so he can get what he wants, and then when the contraceptives fail, she can walk into Planned Parenthood where they’ve been waiting for her and she can get “her problem” taken care of. Teach those young boys now that girls are just vaginas with a pretty face.

Greater access to contraceptives does not prevent unplanned pregnancy.   Just the opposite. If people think they can have worry-free, consequence-free sex, they have more sex more often with more partners. And since contraception fails, more pregnancies result.

Face it; Cecile Richards doesn’t love this mandate because she wants to reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies. She doesn’t want to put herself out of business. She loves this mandate because she knows that it will bring her more business. More promiscuous sexual activity means more STD’s and more pregnancies. And those “unwanted” babies will need to be gotten rid of for the sake of the woman’s future, so Cecile and company will be there holding the doors open to their abortion mills, happily counting their cash.

President Obama has created this contraception brouhaha for the express purpose of getting women in a tizzy before November. He plans to stoke the fire even further at Barnard College in NY, where he just made himself the commencement speaker.

“Word of Mr. Obama’s appearance at Barnard, a 123-year-old women’s college in New York City, comes as the White House and Democrats have seized on Republican attempts to block a requirement for contraception coverage in the new health care law, saying it amounts to a “war on women.”
Democrats believe the issue could be an effective rallying point with women voters in a presidential election year, and the decision to appear at the prestigious women’s school could provide a high-profile forum for the president on that front.”

He called and invited himself, displacing Jill Abramson from the NY Times, who was already scheduled to give the commencement speech.

Whatever else he talks about in his speech, it ought to be alarmingly clear that this President is not interested in freedom.  Barack Obama doesn’t want to be the leader of a free republic. He wants to be King. He wants to be the Sovereign. He doesn’t govern or lead — he simply issues mandates from on-high. So what if our Constitution guarantees the Freedom of Religion? He’s been telling us for years now that it’s really just the “Freedom of worship”, and if it gets in the way of his dictatorial edicts, well, then to hell with it.

C’mon ladies, wake up and stop being used and played for political points. This contraception theater show is insulting and women deserve better.

 

 

What’s Really Despicable: Rick Ungar, Obamacare, and Rick Santorum

at Catholic Online

Forbes’ contributor Rick Ungar had some very harsh words for Rick and Karen Santorum last week. In his column, “Rick Santorum’s Despicable and Hurtful Health Care Lie”, he blasted the Santorums for “scaring the hell out of parents whose children face illness and disability in their lives” and said Rick was a “despicable human being.”

Mr. Ungar believes the idea that disabled children might be denied care under Obama’s health care law is so far-fetched as to be absurd, and thus the Santorum’s concerns are the most egregious sort of fear-mongering imaginable. But the Santorums are hardly the only ones to see the writing on the wall, even if the language of the bill is less clear. When insurers in 34 states suddenly stopped offering child-only policies as a direct result of Obamacare in 2010, some states had to respond with legislation requiring them to continue selling such policies.

But just how far can all these requirements go and what happens when cost/profit meets disability/life expectancy? Which medicines and procedures will insurers be required to cover, and for what time frame, and for whom under what circumstances? These decisions will have to be made, and they’ll be made by people whose motivation will likely be dollar signs and not patient care. When the government is in charge of health care, and new committees are created to make decisions about care vs. cost, it is only the most duped among us who will be confident in a bureaucrat’s willingness to grant expensive medical care to the less-abled, the elderly, and even to children like Bella Santorum.

Amidst all of Ungar’s scathing insults was the following gem, just too good to pass up:

“However, when Rick Santorum tells us that the law would deny the right to life and the care needed to sustain that life to children like his own daughter, because such a child would be deemed to not be of ‘sufficient use to society’, he accuses the President, every member of Congress who supported the law, and every other supporter, such as myself, of being unfit to walk to this earth.

Anyone is welcomed to disagree with my judgment as to whether the Affordable Care Act is a good or a bad law… But if you are going to accuse me of being willing to allow a child—or anyone else— to die because I would somehow deem her to be inconsequential to society, you’d really better be prepared to not only say that to my face but take the punishment that I promise you will follow.” (emphasis mine)

Them’s fightin’ words, Mr. Ungar, and I’m delighted to hear you say it. We need more passionate pro-life citizens in America.

Naturally, I understand you to mean that you find it despicable to deny a child the right to life. I understand you to mean that you find it despicable to say that just because a child isn’t “wanted” or wasn’t “planned” that the child is inconsequential to society and can be destroyed by whatever means necessary. Certainly what you mean is that every child’s life is precious and the adults have no right to say which children can live and which must die by our “choice.”

Because surely you realize, Mr. Ungar, that children are killed every single day in our country precisely because they are deemed inconsequential to society. Worse, actually. They’re considered enemies of freedom and prosperity. Worse still, they aren’t even considered human. Their murders are sanctioned by the law and police power of the State, and millions of people — not you, of course — consider it a good thing, a moral thing, a necessary thing.

Let me make it clear, Mr. Ungar: If you are of the opinion that abortion is a legitimate and moral “choice” that should be protected by the laws of our nation, that is despicable. If you are willing to allow the child in the womb to be killed and call it a “right”, that is despicable. What you’re doing in that case is exactly what you falsely accuse Rick Santorum of doing, except it’s far, far worse. You are denying the child in the womb her humanity. You are calling the child an “it”; far less than merely inconsequential to society, you’ve made her a slave to someone else’s power and self-interest; a “thing” to be eliminated in service to someone else and society at large.

I’m prepared to say that to your face, and President Obama’s, Nancy Pelosi’s, and anyone else’s. Do not boast about your appreciation of the value of human life and your unimpeachable virtue in protecting children if you continue to sanction the deliberate destruction of babies in the womb and call it freedom and “choice.” I’m not impressed by your indignation. There is nothing more despicable than denying the humanity of the child in the womb.

It’s also unwise to try to school the Santorums on the realities of medical care for disabled children. Rick and Karen could spend hours telling us of all the times doctors told them to just let Bella die, and how one doctor actually sent them home with a prescription for a lethal dose of morphine without telling them the dose was lethal; or the doctors who refused to even call Bella by her name. They could recount the numerous times they’ve had to fight and demand that Bella receive the medical care any “normal” child would get. No doubt parents all over America could tell similar stories of the callousness, indifference, and inhumane treatment their disabled children have endured at the hands of those who are supposed to help them.

Mr. Ungar may believe that all this will magically change with the government fully in control of medical care, but like the Santorums, I don’t buy it for a second. The same government that denies the humanity of the child in the womb will deny the dignity and worth of the disabled, the elderly, and anyone else whose “quality of life” is deemed too low to merit expensive care. With a limited pool of resources and bureaucrats interested in the bottom line — not the dignity of the human person — people will certainly be assessed according to their worth using a cost/benefit scale.

(While we’re on the subject of allowing people to die because they’re not useful to society, what about Terri Schaivo, Mr. Ungar? Actually, in her case, we didn’t allow her to die — we killed her. The people in charge of her “care” actually starved her to death. Surely you’d agree with me that killing Terri that way was utterly despicable. She was a human being, right? I mean, she wasn’t a baby, so there can’t be any question about her humanness. But she was disabled, so maybe I’m wrong there. Do we consider the disabled to be a little less human than the rest of us? No — that would be despicable.)

As it is, most children like Bella don’t make it out of the womb. The majority of babies found to have Trisomy 18 or Down Syndrome are aborted, often at the arm-twisting of medical professionals who make doom-and-gloom proclamations that the genetic condition is “incompatible with life” — the very words spoken to the Santorums about Bella.

Rick Santorum is absolutely correct to point out that more prenatal testing, as Obama’s mandate prescribes, will lead to even more babies being killed in the womb when their “defects” are discovered. A few prenatal tests can save the system a boatload of cash by eliminating expensive, disabled children. Back up a step further and it’ll save even more money, says the White House: “Covering contraception is cost neutral since it saves money by keeping women healthy and preventing spending on other health services.”

“Other health services”? That’s code for pregnancy, prenatal care, and childbirth. Like I’ve said before, caring for a pregnant woman is expensive. Contraception is much cheaper. Besides, according to Obama’s top science advisor, John Holdren, the United States government has a “responsibility to halt the growth of the American population.”

Sorry, Mr. Ungar, but it’s clear to everyone with eyes to see that Obamacare, with all its mandates and edicts, will not serve the dignity of the human person or respect life. We’ll never have health care that honors human life until we as a society honor human life from conception to natural death. We fancy ourselves entitled to kill the tiniest children. We afford ourselves the power to decide who is human and who is not, who is worthy to live and who is not, so we can dispose of the ones we deem not. That’s what is really despicable.