Category Archives: Catholic Church Teaching

‘Pregnancy is not a disease’: Bishops slam Planned Parenthood

‘Pregnancy is not a disease’: Bishops slam Planned Parenthood push for free birth control | LifeSiteNews.com

EXCERPTS

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 20, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – After the Institute of Medicine (IOM) this week publicly backed government-mandated birth control coverage, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is standing in the breach against what would prove a massive victory for abortion giant Planned Parenthood.

The birth control question has sparked a rare spectacle as the two most influential lobbies on sexual health forcefully butt heads over an issue many other interest groups consider secondary.

“Pregnancy is not a disease, and fertility is not a pathological condition to be suppressed by any means technically possible,” said Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Tuesday.

Like other conservative leaders, the USCCB pro-life chairman noted that the mandate would violate the conscience rights of Americans morally opposed to birth control, and objected to coverage of “emergency contraception” such as ella, a chemical functionally identical to the abortion drug RU-486.

But the cardinal’s challenge did not stop there: DiNardo noted that the IOM report was so radical as to have indicated interest in recommending full abortion coverage as well. The report stated that, “despite the health and well-being benefits to some women,” abortion was outside of the project’s scope given federal legal restrictions.

Pope says ordaining women is not the church’s choice to make

Pope says ordaining women is not the church’s choice to make

“The church has ‘no authority’ to ordain women.  The point is not that we are saying we don’t want to, but that we can’t,” he said.  This requires obedience by Catholics today, he added.

“This obedience may be arduous in today’s situation, but it is important precisely for the church to show that we are not a regime based on arbitrary rule. We cannot do what we want,” the pope said.

Abortion May be the “Death Knell” for our Society: U.S. Bishop Doran

Abortion May be the “Death Knell” for our Society:   U.S. Bishop Doran

“As with other forms of wrongful activity sanctioned or winked at by the government, procured abortion is for the killers and those who support them, immensely profitable,” the bishop says.

“Abortuaries are gold mines for their operators.  Killer physicians and surgeons, disdaining the Hippocratic Oath, travel hundreds of miles to assassinate a few children, and you may be sure that that kind of doctor or nurse does not work for nothing.”

Read full article by clicking on the post title above.

New Anti-Death Penalty Campaign, What About Abortion?

Catholic Network Starts New Anti-Death Penalty Campaign, What About Abortion?

By Deal Hudson

Excerpts:

On January 29, the Catholic Mobilizing Network to End the Death Penalty (CMN) was launched. According to its executive director, Karen Clifton, the CMN was created “with the encouragement of the USCCB.”

. . . there’s no avoiding the fact that political arguments about the death penalty are going to play a role in the pro-life debate.

The “seamless garment” argument used by Clifton, of course, raises questions about what those connected with the Catholic Mobilizing Network will be saying about the pro-life position of politicians. As everyone knows too well, this version of Catholic social teaching has been used for more than four decades to provide cover for Catholic politicians who do not oppose abortion.

The stated purpose of Clifton’s organization is to “end the death penalty” by educating “the lay community through our courses on the Church’s teachings on the death penalty” and facilitating “respectful and informed discourse within the Catholic community and the community at large.”

These are all admirable goals, but the obvious caveat is how the effort of CMN will result in applying the pro-life label to politicians who support abortion but oppose the death penalty.

This kind of misapplied moral equivalency was the hallmark of the Catholic effort for Obama during the campaign.

Any arguments about the sanctity of life, after all, make no sense if they don’t arise from the obligation of protecting the not-yet-born.

New HLI America Confronts Contraceptive Lies

HLI America

Human Life International launches new affiliate, HLI America!

Very few pro-life groups in our country are dealing with the root cause of abortion, which is the Pernicious Pill and all other forms of contraception that have given the abortion industry its feeder system of contraceptive failures and the devaluing of women and children.

What will HLI AMERICA do?  We’re going to fight the “big lie” of contraception . . . “—Fr. Thomas Euteneuer, President, Human Life International

CLICK HERE to read more of the announcement!

The Infertile Soul: Contraception’s Influence On Faith and Society

A Talk by Fr. Thomas Euteneuer

“Abortion is not the revolution; contraception is.”—-Fr. Thomas Euteneuer

CONTRACEPTION is a topic that is often overlooked or neglected in the pro-life movement.

What we sometimes forget or don’t realize is that abortion is not the revolution; it’s the fruit of the revolution.  The revolution is contraception.

In this talk, you’ll hear about the connection between birth control and abortion and the four stages of development through which birth control morphs into abortion.

(click here) Fr. Thomas Euteneuer:  The Infertile Soul: Contraception’s Influence On Faith & Society

LISTEN ONLINE or download to your MP3 player.  Also available at HLI to purchase on audio CD.  Approximately 1-1/2 hours.

Key Themes

Contraceptive revolution, coercive contraception, population control, contraception indoctrination, communist propaganda, abortion, conversion, the natural law.


Readers Respond to Contraception Controversy

j0423098 Our Position on Contraception, posted last week, which includes an Open Letter to Gayle Atteberry, director, Oregon Right To Life, drew a number of responses, pro and con.  Note:  Even though the readers who spoke out against our expose of ORTL’s silence on contraception, they DO AGREE with our position,  i.e., there is a connection between contraceptive usage and abortion rates.

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Thumbs Up

Dear Nina,

I want to congratulate you for taking this stand:  that of showing that there is a profound contradiction between working to stop abortion while keeping silent about contraceptives. A few years ago, one of my teenage children entered ORTL’s essay contest.  She wrote an essay on the topic of the connection between abortion and contraceptives but it was very poorly received.  I backed down of that battle then, thinking that maybe focusing on a single issue (abortion) would be more efficient, but I think differently now. The problem of turning a blind eye to contraceptives is that the connection between abortion and contraceptives is intrinsic, so to ignore the facts in this instance is suicidal for the cause of life. Thank you for standing up for the truth in this crucial matter, and may God and the Blessed Mother guide your steps and work in His service.

We have supported ORTL for some time but after reading what you wrote regarding their total silence on contraceptives, I am going to write to them about this and if they do not “ease” their policy, I will tell them I will have to refrain from supporting them at this time. I do not expect them to take up two causes here (namely to fight against abortion and contraceptives).  I can see how that may be trying to take too much at once. However, while not fighting against contraceptives per se, they can at least not be opposed to it and permit booths and essays on the topic; for there is an intrinsic connection between the two.—-Amelia Volz

Note to readers:  American Life League has ALWAYS

taken on both contraceptives and abortion.

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Dear Nina,

Just a quick note to thank you for sending this material.  I was confused about the positions of NRTL and ORTL on contraception.  I took a couple of days to read through your email and all of the links. Thank you for putting all of that together.  It was very well done. Thank you for clarifying things. It’s a shame, really, that there is division in the ranks of the right to life army. It needs prayer and educating action such as yours.

Thank you, also, for speaking for the unborn in your communications and decisions regarding the ProLife Action of Oregon’s position on contraception/abortion. I agree with you and support your position completely. I remember you and ProLife Action of Oregon daily in the Rosary.—-Name Withheld

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Nina,

If opposition to contraception is merely a “Catholic issue,” that would come as a surprise to the Hindu Mahatma Gandhi, the Jewish-born atheist Sigmund Freud, and the growing number of evangelical Protestants who have thrown their contraceptives in the toilet and followed the Bible’s teaching on life and its transmission.  If contraception is merely a Catholic issue, then so is abortion.  Incorrect.  The perennial teaching against contraception has to do with the demands of the natural law, which is binding on humanity, not just humans who happen to be Catholic.  Which is why Paul VI did not address Humanae Vitae to bishops only, nor even to Catholics only, but to “all men of good will.”—-Patrick Coffin, radio hoPatrick Coffin webst of Catholic Answers Live; and author of new book, Sex Au Naturel:  What It Is and Why It Is Good For Your Marriage.

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Thumbs Down

Those who wish to bring a stop to abortions have two choices:  work together or spend time working against each other.

I have no question whatsoever concerning the interlinking of artificial birth control and abortions.  And I may disagree with the unwillingness of Right to Life to address the issue, but I am not going to spend time trying to change their mind, nor am I going to stop supporting their work.

Entering into a pissing contest with them over the issue is non-productive.  If they don’t want you to have a booth there, then for God’s sake and the sake of the unborn, find a way to support them and move on.

I do not disagree with your position on artificial birth control.  But demanding moral purity of position is not going to get our (you, me, NRLC, the LDS Church, Muslims, and anyone and everyone else engaged in trying to limit and stop abortions) goals accomplished.

The internecine warfare didn’t start yesterday; you are not the first to enter into this fray.  And I seriously doubt you are going to win your argument.  Getting warfare going between the various groups who wish to bring a halt to killing our children is a subtle or not so subtle distraction from our common goal and looks like, smells like, and has every appearance of the work of Satan.

Spend your time productively.  Do something positive for Right to Life and move on.

I do not have a problem with you differing with Gayle on the approach to take about abortion, nor for that matter do I disagree with your approach to that issue.

What I am writing you about is the wisdom, or lack thereof, of taking your dispute with her public in the way that you have.  There was an interesting article in Our Sunday Visitor some time ago on this issue specifically – the internecine warfare that has been going on between different groups fighting abortion.  I suspect if you contacted the Visitor they could provide you with the article.  I would encourage you to do so.

Taking your dispute with Gayle public did no good for Right to Life; it did not and will not change their position; but it certainly can work to cause some of her support to fall off.  They do good work and they oppose abortion; they do not do it with the moral stance you and I both agree is important and is the truth; but that does not make them enemies.  Christ ate with sinners; we might do wisely to understand that if both Right to Life and you work for an end to abortion, both are working for a moral good, and to understand that we are required to work for the moral good, not to try to enforce moral purity in a way that can damage the work of others who also seek, albeit not perfectly, for the same moral good.

I admire your fire; I just disagreed with your first post.  I am not mad – or for that matter, angry.  I do think there is more than one way to achieve an objective.

He is risen!  May He guide both you and I to do His will.   Even if we might disagree as to how to go about it.  ;) —-Tim Moore

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Contraception—the Bitter Pill

Contraception—the Bitter Pill

by George Sim Johnston.  Crisis Magazine.  1996.

The Church’s insistence on the link between contraception and abortion occasionally gets support in surprising quarters. In Planned Parenthood v. Casey the U.S. Supreme Court, on its perennial search for the most plausible-sounding sophistries to uphold legalized abortion, stated:

For two decades of economic and social developments, people have organized intimate relationships and made choices that define their views of themselves and their places in society, in reliance on the availability of abortion in the event that contraception should fail.

In other words, we need abortion so that people can continue their contraceptive lifestyles.

Our Position on Contraception

Updated 9:03 a.m., 04/14/10

Why was Pro-Life Action of Oregon’s “Contraception” Material Banned from Oregon Right To Life’s Conference?

Our position, and that of Judie Brown, president, American Life League, on the connection between the use of abortion pills and the rate of abortion has been rejected by Gayle Atteberry, director, Oregon Right To Life.  But that position is also the party line of National Right To Life.

Atteberry banned our educational material on the contraception-abortion connection from the upcoming ORTL conference.  Rather than compromise our beliefs we won’t be participating in the conference.

Silence on birth control’s role in abortion rates will continue to mislead and misinform pro-lifers.  More babies will die.

BACKGROUND

Pro-Life Action of Oregon requested a table at the upcoming ORTL 2010 pro-life conference.  Atteberry asked to review our educational material (from American Life League) due to ORTL “policies” about ALL.

She banned them all.

Which material did she censor?  Anything about contraception!

  • Contraception and Abortion:  The Deadly Connection
  • Emergency Contraception
  • Birth Control Pills:  How They Work
  • Flawed Condoms

Each of these are available for viewing at the American Life League store.

Atteberry characterized these as “minutia.”

“As I see it, Judie Brown is focused on the minutia and ORTL does not agree with that.”

Updated 5:32 PDT 04-15-10 –
“Minutia?”!!!  According to the Guttmacher Institute, 54% of women who abort their babies were using The Pill or condoms during the month they became pregnant.  Of those, 76% were using The Pill — “inconsistently.”
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Open Letter to Gayle Atteberry, Oregon Right To Life
April 13, 2010 – Portland, Ore

Gayle, in light of your censoring American Life League (ALL) material which makes the connection between contraception and abortion — material I wanted to bring to the April Oregon Right To Life conference — Pro-Life Action of Oregon will not be participating.

Our Position On Contraception

We are  very grateful that you took the time to inform us of Oregon Right To Life’s policies which illustrate the philosophical and theological differences between National Right To Life / ORTL and Judie Brown/A.L.L.  You expressed being uncomfortable with Brown’s criticisms of NRLC.  Your characterization of her criticisms is as follows:

A.L.L. puts a great emphasis in opposing birth control. While it is true that some birth control methods are abortifacients, not all are. Judy Brown adamantly opposes the birth control pill. While sometimes the bc [birth control] pill acts as an abortifacient, it does not always work that way, and many pro-life doctors say there is no proof that it does.

It is obvious that your assessment of Judie’s opposition to The Pill is restricted to its abortifacient action.

We are  aware of its abortifacient action.  Yet, we are struck by your silence on its rate of failure which leads to “unplanned” pregnancies.

As a serious pro-life activist, we are  in total 100% agreement with Judie Brown.  The Pill increases abortion.

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