Tag: abortion

Mainstreaming Conservatism

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Kristina Loew: From movies to music, conservative voices have cornered the tween scene, that 12 – 13 year old demographic which often looks to their favorite stars for moral guidance (and ways to spend their parents’ paychecks). Parents can feel safe knowing that the Twilight franchise is one long ode to abstinence, while the Jonas Brothers sport promise rings and Miley Cyrus gives shout-outs to Jesus. Most recently, Justin Bieber let his fans know he doesn’t like abortion, even in cases of rape. With young impressionable minds hanging on every word, maybe it’s time for parents to ask — has the mainstreaming of conservatism gone too far? Continue Reading →

38 Years

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My naive questions on this anniversary of Roe v. Wade are: Why, when organized anti-abortion groups are predominantly evangelical/fundamentalist/orthodox Christian, are we not having a broader discussion about separation of church and state laws governing patients’ rights?  To do so would not undermine individual rights to personal or religious freedom.  Or is patient autonomy not the issue? Continue Reading →

What’s In a Title?

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Andy Kopsa writes about the awkward title of a fantastic and haunting article by Sarah Blustain at Mother Jones.  Blustain chronicles the work and activism of “pro-life” lawyer Harold Cassidy.  The article was first posted with the title A Pro-Choice Feminist’s Worst Nightmare which has since been changed to The Man Who Loved Women Too Much.

Pro-Life: adj. opposing abortion and euthanasia

Feminism: n. the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes

Absurd: adj. unsound, ridiculous, incongruous

Manipulate: v. control or influence someone in a clever or underhanded way

Pro-Life Feminism: The word you’ve entered isn’t in the dictionary.

Continue Reading →

What's In a Title?

Posted on by

Andy Kopsa writes about the awkward title of a fantastic and haunting article by Sarah Blustain at Mother Jones.  Blustain chronicles the work and activism of “pro-life” lawyer Harold Cassidy.  The article was first posted with the title A Pro-Choice Feminist’s Worst Nightmare which has since been changed to The Man Who Loved Women Too Much.

Pro-Life: adj. opposing abortion and euthanasia

Feminism: n. the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes

Absurd: adj. unsound, ridiculous, incongruous

Manipulate: v. control or influence someone in a clever or underhanded way

Pro-Life Feminism: The word you’ve entered isn’t in the dictionary.

Continue Reading →

Ross Wants Your Snowflakes

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Mary Valle: My favorite cheek-shaved, neck-bearded Catholic convert, Ross Douthat, weighs in today (sort of? His columns seem to consistently defy “logic” and “making a point”) on abortion and infertility. Citing a recent MTV broadcast of a show in which a teen mother has an abortion, an article about how years of Pill usage makes women forget about their fertility, and last Sunday’s spectacular about the making of very special “twiblings” in his own paper, he ends with a little sniffy blort about America’s unborn — “No life is so desperately sought after, so hungrily desired, so carefully nurtured.  And yet no life is so legally unprotected, and so frequently destroyed.” Continue Reading →

An Authentically Catholic Hospital

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In November of 2009 Sister Margaret McBride was fired and excommunicated by Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted. As a member of the ethics board at St. Joseph’s hospital in Phoenix, McBride had authorized an abortion to save the life of a 27 year old mother of four.  The young mother survived.  In May of this year when the story was broken by The Arizona Republic, a local newspaper, Olmsted stated about his decision, “An unborn child is not a disease … the end does not justify the means.” Continue Reading →

Small-r Rebellion

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Gary Younge, a feature writer for the Guardian, has written that the Tea Party is “not a new phenomenon. It’s simply a new name for an old phenomenon – the American hard right.”  A disparate, loose group of previously unnamed ideas and motivations, with a boat load of money and its own TV channel.

The relationship between these organisations [The Tea Party Express, FreedomWorks, Americans for Prosperity, Tea Party Patriots] and the base of people who call themselves Tea Party supporters is episodic and erratic. They show up in different places where they sense an opportunity for a breakthrough, throw money at it, attract media attention for it, and then see what sticks.

Which is the point that Terry Mattingly (aka tmatt or editor) at Get Religion is hinting at in his recent post on a story at WaPo about Rick Santorum’s presidential bid water-testing. Continue Reading →

Pitts Gets Another Crack at Health Care

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The anti-abortion site Lifenews is reporting that Rep. Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania will chair the health subcommittee of the House and Energy Committee, where challenges to the Obama administration’s health care bill are expected to originate.  Last November, Pitts made a national name for himself as the co-sponsor of the Stupak-Pitts amendment that nearly railroaded the proposed health care legislation.  The amendment claims that the new health care structure will allow government money to be used for abortion, a violation, the bill asserted, of the Hyde Amendment.  Hyde was passed in 1976 as a reaction to Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion.  It states that government funded Medicaid may not be used to pay for abortion; the language of the amendment has changed over the years and continues to be renewed annually. Continue Reading →