Filling the Quiver Full

Reducing Infant Mortality Now Available

2009-10-04T15:24:00.002-05:00

Reducing Infant Mortality from Debby Takikawa on Vimeo.

Recently, a new collaborative birth film, Reducing Infant Mortality, was freely released for anyone to download. It is in the same wonderful vein as Ricki Lake's masterpiece The Business of Being Born and strives to further educate on the some of the controversial birth practices in the United States. Please view this short film above. The film can be downloaded here.

Another Much Needed Exhortation to Women

2009-09-19T21:05:00.003-05:00

Regardless of vocation, the essay, "Femininity: Developing a Biblical Perspective," from the book Biblical Womanhood in the Home, is a delightful and, may I say, greatly needed exhortation to women of our time. It is along the lines of the Theology of the Body and the Theology of the Family, and reiterates the complementary design of our female creation. I encourage women of all ages to read it here.

On a side note, I would have added Mass and or Adoration to Biblical study in the Mother's weekly "Morning Away," as they are extremely rejuvenating to my soul.

A Wonderful Homily on Education

2009-09-09T14:37:00.002-05:00

The following is a link to Patrick Madrid's Blog where you can hear the homily in full.
What Will You Say When God Asks: "Where Are Those Whom I Have Entrusted to You?"

Help Stop the Abortion Mandate

2009-07-29T14:15:00.003-05:00

"On Thursday, July 23, more than 70 pro-life and pro-family organizations united for a massive webcast event to directly address these challenges and mobilize grassroots activists.

An unprecedented 36,187 people of faith and conscience participated in the event, underscoring the urgency of the abortion mandate crisis."

You can finds ways to take action and listen to that highly informative webcast here!

Help Keep Abortion Out of Health Care

2009-07-29T14:03:00.003-05:00

Please visit the Americans United for Life website here to take their 4 easy action steps and stand against abortion in our health care system.

NFP Awareness Week 2009

2009-07-19T23:29:00.004-05:00

This year's Natural Family Planning Awareness Week is July 19th through the 25th. The national campaign is put forth by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to further the exposure of NFP. Annually, it purposely coincides with the anniversary of the encyclical of Pope Paul VI, Humanae Vitae, and the Feast day of Saints Joachim and Anne on the 25th and 26th of July respectively. For more information on this campaign, in addition to prayers and homily notes, visit the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops website here.

One Year of Marital Bliss!!!

2009-05-24T23:53:00.003-05:00

We are so happy to share the celebration our first wedding anniversary today. It has truly been a year of marital bliss filled with much excitement and many blessings for us to be deeply thankful for. At the top our list is our greatest blessing of them all, the birth of our first little manchild, Malachi Benedict, followed by my graduation from TCU in December. To mark this occasion, Phillip made a wonderful supper for us to enjoy, with our wedding and groom's cake for dessert. After supper, we read the homily from our wedding and concluded the evening with delightful conversation. I have posted the excellent homily by our Priest, the Rev. David Allen, below:

WITH MY BODY I THEE WORSHIP

The Rev. David Allen

I suppose these days the first thing that has to be said about marriage is that it is not just a bundle of feelings, a set of emotions, opinions, attitudes, religious convictions, ideals, which can safely be swept under the carpet; but a body, a physical thing, which if you swept it under the carpet you will soon be tripping over it. Two bodies to be exact, which only increase the chances. And everybody knows this, except maybe judges and bishops.

The California Supreme Court reached its recent decision by failing to produce the body, to consider the physical evidence. By ignoring that most basic legal principle of Habeas Corpus, by ignoring the simple physical, biological fact of the case that marriage requires that a certain kind of body be joined to another kind of body. Marriage is not just a matter of mutual love and affection, respect, honor, companionship, trust, all those nice, cozy, spiritual things, still less of juridical rights. But before it is any of this it is something much more obvious, namely the right kinds of plumbing, more exactly two different kinds of plumbing.

Although quite honestly you can read through many modern Christian rites of marriage designed to meet 20th and 21st century needs and not find much of anything that talks about the body, still less about sex; nor is there much that could not be applied easily to any kind of human relationship. The old rites of the church stand in contrast, in fact, the old marriage rites are particularly uncensored with what we call spirituality or values or any of that sort of stuff and concentrate on the grossly physical.

“With this ring I thee wed and this gold and silver I thee give.” The ring so hated by the Puritans because it was so unspiritual. “With all my worldly cathel I thee endow.” So vulgar and merely pragmatic to mention joint bank accounts when we should be thinking about the higher things. “And with my body I thee worship” Not to be brought up in polite company and certainly not in front of God and family and friends. And yet that is exactly what Holy Scripture does, when it talks about marriage, the twain – that is – the two – shall become one flesh, so says the book of Genesis and so quotes Jesus when he teaches about marriage in St. Mark’s gospel. Marriage, I am afraid, is grossly physical affair before it is anything else, a fleshly thing precisely in order that it might be a spiritual thing. What scripture and tradition understand and what we modern folks have such difficulty with, is that marriage is a sacrament, a natural sacrament before it is supernatural sacrament. We might even say the first sacrament. “From the beginning God created them male and female,” and like every sacrament, there must be an outward and visible sign and that outward and visible sign is not just whatever we might like it to be but, as the old theologians said the matter proper to the form. Bread and wine, not a moonpie and a RC cola, water, not champagne and roses, one man and one woman, not any other human combination we can come with. And this is so because the outward and visible sign is the means by which the inward and spiritual reality happens.

Not of course that this only involves sex it also involves all the things that come with sex beginning with babes, changing diapers, sleep deprivation, working for a living, taking out the garbage and a higher kind of tolerance than even the California Supreme Court can envision - namely the tolerance of a man for a pregnant woman. Certainly marriage is a school of virtue, a school of holiness but it is the kind of virtue and holiness, which we do well not to describe with too many abstractions. Mostly it consists of learning to put up and shut up. Not only because that is what the marriage self-help books say but because it is appropriate to the divine mystery into which it calls a man and a woman.

The kind of ordinary wonder and awe and humility before the mystery of man and woman being called to be co-creators with God. “With my body I thee worship,” is that really idolatry or the simple recognition that God has created male and female that they alone together with him may give life. Never forget this, whatever else you may forget, when all the platitudes have been put into the garage along with the other useless items we accumulate, never forget the dignity which has been conferred upon you, when God allowed you to participate in his creative love.

When you cant stand each other or put up with each other another moment, when the sorrows seem to outweigh the joys, when you are desperate, when things seem hopeless - and they will - then remember the truth of the moment when, like God Almighty Himself, you rested and contemplated what you have made and like Him too say “It is good, it is very good.”

Our First Precious Litte Blessing Has Arrived!!!

2009-04-08T10:40:00.002-05:00

Yesterday after 50+ hours of penance, our sweet little boy was born naturally. He will be baptized Malachi Benedict and arrived at 7:46pm, weighing 8lbs. 9ozs. and measuring 22ins.

Baby and I are both doing wonderfully and Papa Phillip is catching up on some much needed sleep after 2 nights without any. He was a magnificent coach and I was so blessed to have him as my rock. I am also utterly grateful for the additional presence of our faithful Doula, Melissa, whose aid allowed Phillip to fulfill his identity as coach and father. Labor was a joyful hurt that we are looking forward to enduring again when God wills.

Future posts will be sparse for a time as we embark on our first Babymoon!

An Interesting Take on the Abortion Industry

2009-02-03T11:03:00.003-06:00

Exorcist: Devil Influences Abortion Industry

By John P. Connolly, The Bulletin

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

An exorcist authorized to perform exorcisms in several dioceses spoke at a religious ministry luncheon on Sunday, explaining the basics of exorcism and its connection with abortion. Fr. Thomas Euteneuer, president of Human Life International and an exorcist, spoke at a luncheon hosted by In His Sign Network (IHS). He is an exorcist authorized to perform exorcisms in several states, and highlighted the connection between the abortion industry and demonic influence. “Abortion is a demonic industry,” he told The Bulletin. “Abortion is blood sacrifice of innocent blood to the devil. The clinics are like temples, the doctors are like priests, the medical table is like their altar. It’s a ritualized sacrifice. They have a dogma called choice, a hierarchy called Planned Parenthood, and guardian angels in the form of police guards that will arrest you if you try to stop them.” He said that there have been abortionists who have called abortion “their sacrament.” Fr. Euteneuer advocates prayer as a necessary step to successfully fighting abortion. “Abortion is a spiritual evil,” he said. “If we are to beat it, we can’t just fight it in the political realm. It derives its power from below. To confront a force this strong, you need a massive amount of prayer. That’s why I like the 40 Days For Life group, because they bring us what we need where we need it.”

Fr. Euteneuer explained the basic exorcism procedure, and the tactics the devil uses to possess a person. The first tactic relies on seduction, trying to get the victim to invite him into their lives. “Most people with demonic problems have opened a door somewhere,” said Fr. Euteneuer. He cited the popularity of the occult in bringing people closer to demonic interaction, primarily through the growth of the New Age movement and other paraphernalia. He said that even Hasbro markets Ouija boards to children. “I’m very set against Harry Potter,” he said. “It’s pumping into our children’s minds the language and imagery of the occult. It’s extremely spiritually dangerous.” He also called attention to a growing fascination with the cult of the vampire, especially through the popularity of books and movies like Twilight, where the main character falls in love with a vampire. “I predict that in the next 10 years or so, we’ll see an explosion of occult activity,” said Fr. Euteneuer. “The number of soft-core occultism in the form of things like Harry Potter, Wicca and the New Age is on the increase. These are the gateways to the hardcore stuff. Ask any inner-city police department if they’re seeing evidence of Satanism. They’re organizing whole task forces to deal with crimes having to do with these things. As society becomes more faithless, this wickedness comes and fills the vacuum.”

Fr. Euteneuer said the other tactic a devil uses is victimization of a person. The person in question doesn’t always need to invite demonic activity, but can have it placed on them by other groups or people. Nevertheless, Fr. Euteneuer stressed that exorcism is not often the dramatic thing the movies make it out to be. “The devil doesn’t have the power you see in the movies,” he said. “He cannot hold onto a state of possession for a given length of time. The movies glorify his power. They do a good job in showing the priest coming to care for these people, but the priest carefully binds that devil, and he is a prisoner in that person.” Exorcism requires prayer and fasting, and requires a long period of discernment to determine if the problem is not, in fact, psychological. “A report is made to the diocese, and then the bishop must authorize a solemn exorcism,” explained Fr. Euteneuer. The priest will then use a ritual in Latin where he binds whatever demonic entity is troubling a person and commands him. Fr. Euteneuer told the audience that the process is not unlike a trial, where the priest is the prosecuting attorney and the demon is trapped. The word “exorcism” itself means to put somebody on trial. The devil is required to answer any demands the priest makes to him in the name of Christ, because of the authority that the priest has from Christ. “Exorcism is a pastoral ministry of the Church, and it’s an important ministry,” said Fr. Euteneuer. “But confession is a much more important ministry, because it pulls out the sins which are the conditions for a possession.”

IHS Network Serves As Radio Ministry

The In His Sign Network (IHS) has been a listener-supported radio ministry for over 30 years. IHS broadcasts a daily show on WTMR 800 AM, out of Trenton from 5 to 6 p.m. “We put on retreats or events that are topical to issues going on in the Catholic Church,” said Kathleen McCarthy, president of IHS. “I see our mission as bringing the fire of God’s love to the world.” Ms. McCarthy’s son, Brian, spoke about its mission at the luncheon on Sunday. “One way or the other, media will guide and shape society,” he said. “That society has a lot of weaknesses, fears and anxieties. [But] Christ has already won the victory. The IHS Network is proclaiming that victory.”

For more information on IHS, readers may visit their Web site at www.catholicinternetradio.com

John P. Connolly can be reached at jconnolly@thebulletin.us

Please Help Save the Defense of Marriage Act

2009-02-02T10:39:00.004-06:00

From the National Organization for Marriage:

Updated just minutes after the inauguration, the new Obama White House website declares "we need to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act," instantly jeopardizing the marriage laws of 45 states, including constitutional amendments in 30 states where voters have recently acted to give marriage the greatest protection possible at the state level. Instead of protecting the will of voters all across the country, President Obama's policy would allow a handful of judges in Massachusetts and Connecticut to force same-sex marriage on the entire nation.

To stop this next repeal you can contact your Congressmen here!!!

March For Life 2009

2009-01-22T15:14:00.008-06:00

Today the 35th Annual March For Life was held in Washington DC. There were many wonderful speakers full of encouragement before the actual march, including several congressmen and Terri Schiavo's Family. Their rousing words were something that I had been in great need of following the election. EWTN had extensive live coverage of the event and an encore presentation of this coverage will be aired tonight on EWTN at 10pm Eastern Time. The March was a very uplifting and inspiring sight. Hopefully, it will spur great motivation in the Pro-Life movement.

Prevent FOCA Novena Jan. 11th - 19th

2009-01-11T20:21:00.004-06:00

If you are opposed to abortion, then there is bad news on the horizon. For those of you who do not know, the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) is set to be signed if congress passes it on January 21-22 of 2009. The FOCA is the next sick chapter in the book of abortion. If made a law, then all limitations on abortion will be lifted which will result in the following:

1) All hospitals, including Catholic hospitals will be required to perform abortions upon request. If this happens Bishops vow to close down all Catholic hospitals, more then 30% of all hospitals in the United States .

2) Partial birth abortions would be legal and have no
limitations.

3) All U.S. tax payers would be funding abortions.

4) Parental notification will no longer be required.

5) The number of abortions will increase by a minimum of 100,000 annually.

Perhaps most importantly the government will now have control in the issue of abortion. This could result in a future amendment that would force women by law to have abortions in certain situations (rape, down syndrome babies, etc) and could even regulate how many children women are allowed to have.

Needless to say this information is disturbing, but sadly true. As Catholics, as Christians, as anyone who is against the needless killing of innocent children, we must stand as one. We must stop this horrific act before it becomes a law.

The Plan :

To say a novena ( 9 days of prayer ) along with fasting starting on January 11th. For Catholics, the prayer of choice will be the rosary with intentions to stop the FOCA. For non Catholics, I encourage you to pray your strongest prayers with the same intentions, also for nine consecutive days.

Remember that with God all things are possible and the power of
prayer is undeniable. If you are against the senseless killing of
defenseless children, then the time is now to do something about it!

May God bless you all!!

Please Take the Time...

2008-12-10T13:46:00.003-06:00

If you have not done so yet, please take 30 seconds to sign the Fight FOCA petition and help stop the progression of the culture of death by keeping this horrid bill in committee.

The Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) would eliminate every restriction on abortion nationwide.

FOCA will do away with state laws on parental involvement, on partial birth abortion, and on all other protections.
FOCA will compel taxpayer funding of abortions.
FOCA will force faith-based hospitals and healthcare facilities to perform abortions.

Fr. Corapi's Eleventh Hour Election Alert

2008-10-30T12:53:00.002-05:00

Fr. Corapi produced a half hour video today that all Catholics (and Americans) should see. It expounds upon what Bishop Rene H. Gracida just said boldly in a recent radio spot. (He is the Bishop that ordained Fr. Corapi a Deacon).

"This is Bishop Rene H. Gracida, reminding all Catholics that they must vote in this election with an informed conscience. A Catholic cannot be said to have voted in this election with a good conscience if they have voted for a pro-abortion candidate. Barack Hussein Obama is a pro-abortion candidate."
Parts 2 and 3 are also available on youtube.

"Catholics in the Public Square"

2008-10-26T22:21:00.008-05:00

With the Election less that 10 days away, I submit the following excerpt from the Most Reverend Thomas J. Olmsted's booklet, "Catholics in the Public Square," for further reading. The complete, question and answer formatted, booklet is available for consumption here. Finally, as we are faced with this monumental decision on the 4th, it is crucial that we do not neglect to most fundamental and essential of all rights in America, the right on which all of our subsequent privileges are built upon, the right to LIFE.

"Catholics in the Public Square"

• How should Catholics understand the separation between Church and state?

The separation of Church and state all too often is used as an excuse to silence people of faith and to discourage them from legitimately participating in the public square. The First Amendment of the United States Constitution, of course, does not advocate for a separation of Church and state at all, but rather the protection of religious freedom from the state.

Our founding fathers intended all persons to have the equal right to voice their opinions, including those based on religious convictions. Even more, they understood that it was imperative that the state not infringe upon the religious beliefs of its citizens. The Constitution is aimed at allowing all people to have a voice in government, including those whose voice is distinctively religious.

In other words, there is nothing in the Constitution excluding people from bringing their faith into the public square.

• Should Catholics take into account their own faith at the moment of voting?

It only makes sense that if Catholics are supposed to live their faith in all of their daily activities that they should also take their faith into account while voting. As noted in the Second Vatican Council's teaching, " every citizen ought to be mindful of his right and his duty to promote the common good by using his vote ." ( Gaudium et Spes , 75)

In preparing to vote, Catholics need to understand their faith so that their consciences are properly formed. Subsequent to this formation, it is important to research all of the important issues and candidates that will appear on the ballot. Only after sufficient preparation and prayer, is a Catholic fully ready to discharge his or her responsibilities as a faithful citizen and cast a meaningful vote.

• Can Catholics honestly disagree in matters of politics, social or cultural issues?

In 2002, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a document entitled Doctrinal Note on Some Questions Regarding Participation of Catholics in Political Life , that addresses the existence of political matters in which Catholics may disagree. There are, indeed, many issues upon which Catholics may legitimately differ such as the best methods to achieve welfare reform or to address illegal immigration.

Conversely, however, there are other issues that are intrinsically evil and can never legitimately be supported. For example, Catholics may never legitimately promote or vote for any law that attacks innocent human life.

• What does it mean that Catholics should follow their conscience when making a moral decision?

Before following our conscience, we must form it in accord with the voice of God. Our conscience is not the origin of truth. Truth lies outside us; it exists independent of us and must be discovered through constant effort of mind and heart. This is no easy task for us who suffer the effects of original sin and must contend with the constant temptations of the devil. Conscience receives the truth revealed by God and discerns how to apply that truth to concrete circumstances.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1783) teaches, “ Conscience must be informed and moral judgment enlightened. A well-informed conscience is upright and truthful. It formulates its judgments according to reason, in conformity with the true good willed by the wisdom of the Creator. The education of conscience is indispensable for human beings who are subjected to negative influences and tempted by sin to prefer their own judgment and to reject authoritative teachings .”

As we see, to form one's own conscience well and to follow it with integrity is no small task. For a person's conscience cannot invent what is true and good. It must search it out beyond itself. When acting correctly, we discover the truth through the grace of the Holy Spirit and the help of God's word handed down to us in the Church. Then, when we submit our conscience to this objective truth, we act uprightly and grow to maturity in Christ.

• Is it mandatory for Catholics to follow what the Pope or bishops say on political issues?

Because they are the leaders of the Church, it is always important to respect statements from the Church's hierarchy. It is the role of the Pope and the bishops to teach clearly on matters of faith and morals, including those touching on political issues.

There are some matters, however, on which Catholics may disagree with the Church's hierarchy. In some cases, for example, a Catholic may agree with the teaching of the Church, but come to a different prudential judgment about its application.

Examples of these issues might include an instance where someone agrees with the Church's teaching on “just war” or “capital punishment,” but reaches a different conclusion as to whether the facts of the situation constitute a “just war” or the “rare” circumstances where capital punishment may be used under Church teaching.

It should be emphasized, however, that despite these examples, there are other issues, such as abortion or euthanasia, that are always wrong and do not allow for the correct use of prudential judgment to justify them. It would never be proper for Catholics to be on the opposite side of these issues.

• Are all political and social issues equal when it comes to choosing a political candidate?

Absolutely not! The Catholic Church is actively engaged in a wide variety of important public policy issues including immigration, education, affordable housing, health and welfare, to name just a few. On each of these issues we should do our best to be informed and to support those proposed solutions that seem most likely to be effective. However, when it comes to direct attacks on innocent human life, being right on all the other issues can never justify a wrong choice on this most serious matter.

As Pope John Paul II has written, " Above all, the common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights - for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture - is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition for all other personal rights, is not defended with the maximum determination ." (Christifideles Laici , 38)

• Are there any “non-negotiable” issues for Catholics involved in politics?

There are several issues that are “not negotiable” for Catholics in political life, because they involve matters that are intrinsically evil. In an address to European politicians on March 30, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI stated: “ As far as the Catholic Church is concerned, the principal focus of her interventions in the public arena is the protection and promotion of the dignity of the person, and she is thereby consciously drawing particular attention to principles which are not negotiable. Among these the following emerge clearly today:

• Protection of life in all its stages, from the first moment of conception until natural death;

• Recognition and promotion of the natural structure of the family – as a union between a man and a woman based on marriage – and its defense from attempts to make it juridically equivalent to radically different forms of union which in reality harm it and contribute to its destabilization, obscuring its particular character and its irreplaceable social role;

• The protection of the rights of parents to educate their children.”

The issues mentioned by Pope Benedict are all “non-negotiable” and are some of the most contemporary issues in the political arena. I should note, however, that other issues, while not intrinsically evil, deserve prayerful consideration, such as questions of war and capital punishment, poverty issues and matters relating to illegal immigration.

• What are the causes that can ban Catholics from Holy Communion?

No one who is conscious of having committed a serious sin should receive Holy Communion. For the Eucharist is the very Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, our most precious gift in the Church. And St. Paul warns us (I Cor 11:27-29): " Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself ."

All Catholics should examine their consciences, and refrain from receiving Holy Communion if they are not living in a proper state of grace. Should some Catholic politicians who are presently pro-abortion obstinately persist in this contradiction to our faith, this becomes a source of scandal. In these and similar cases, measures beyond those of moral persuasion may need to be taken by those in leadership in the Church . As God tells us in the Book of Leviticus (19:16), " You shall not stand by idly when your neighbor's life is at stake."

If a politician is actively supporting and furthering the culture of death, he is not only causing scandal; he is sinning. Similarly, when a politician performs actions (like voting) that allow for abortions and even promote abortions, or that mandate the distribution of contraceptives by pharmacists and others, that politician is materially cooperating in grave sin. When this occurs, then the politician cannot receive Holy Communion without previously making a good confession. A good confession would require sincere sorrow for such sin and a firm purpose of making amendment. Since the harm done would be public in nature, the amendment should also be public.

• How would you define a “candidate who is a faithful Catholic?”

There are a large number of candidates or politicians in our country that label themselves as Catholic. Regrettably, however, some of these are an embarrassment to the Church and a scandal to others by virtue of their support of issues that are intrinsically evil.

A candidate who is authentically Catholic is one who always defends the dignity of every human person and who puts the welfare of the common good over various partisan or self interests. His personal and public life is shaped by faith in Christ and His teachings. Such a candidate can be from any political party, but will never support matters that are intrinsically evil such as abortion, euthanasia, or “same-sex marriage.”

• What line should an elected official draw between his faith and his political commitments?

Elected officials should bring their faith to bear on all of their activities, including public affairs. In living out their faith, they should have a proper respect for the civil liberties of all people, including those of other faiths, or with no faith at all.

It should be pointed out, however, that sometimes Catholic politicians mistakenly claim that they need to abandon their faith out of an obligation to respect those of differing opinions or to honor a political commitment inherent with their office. These claims are perhaps most frequently made when Catholic politicians claim to be personally opposed to the killing of innocent unborn children.

Incredibly, it is somehow claimed by such people that it would be inappropriate to support legislation protecting human life because doing so would impose their faith on others or somehow violate their oath of office. These claims are ludicrous. Protecting human life is not only a religious imperative, it is a human imperative, and it is an imperative for all people.

People of faith have every right to bring their beliefs into the public square just like anyone else. In fact, Catholic elected officials should always live out their faith while promoting the welfare of all, including the protection of innocent human life.

Guadalupe Radio Network's 2008 'Celebration of St. Paul' Fall Radiothon

2008-10-23T11:52:00.008-05:00

Today is Day 2 of the Guadalupe Radio Network's 3 Day long Radiothon. The Guadalupe Radio Network produces 2 Catholic radio stations in North Texas, KATH 910 AM in English and its Spanish counter-part, KJON 850 AM. These stations are sponsored entirely by the generous donations of their listeners. So PLEASE call 800-476-3311 or go online to the network's website (click on the 'Donate Now' icon at the top of the page) and make whatever donation you can to help keep both of these evangelism mediums broadcasting over the airwaves of North Texas.

Fr. Corapi Calls for a Rosary  Novena Leading up to the Election

2008-10-21T21:03:00.006-05:00

A  Call  for  a  Rosary  Novena 

By  Fr.  John  Corapi 
www.fathercorapi.com 

Among  the  most  important  titles  we  have  in  the  Catholic  Church  for  the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary  are  Our  Lady  of  Victory  and  Our  Lady  of  the  Rosary.  These  titles  can  be  traced  back  to  one  of  the  most  decisive  times  in  the  history  of  the  world  and  Christendom.  The  Battle  of  Lepan to  took  place  on  October  7  (date  of  feast  of  Our  Lady  of  Rosary),  1571.  This  proved  to  be  the  most  crucial  battle  for  the  Christian  forces  against  the  radical  Muslim  navy  of  Turkey.  Pope  Pius  V  led  a  procession  around  St.  Peter’s  Square  in  Vatican  City  praying  the  Rosary.  He  showed  true  pastoral  leadership  in  recognizing  the  danger  posed  to  Christendom  by  the  radical  Muslim  forces,  and  in  using  the  means  necessary  to  defeat  it.  Spiritual  battles  require  spiritual  weapons,  and  this  more  than  anything  was  a  battle  that  had  its  origins  in  the  spiritual  order — a  true  battle  between  good  and  evil. 

Today  we  have  a  similar  spiritual  battle  in  progress — a  battle  between  the  forces  of  good  and  evil,  light  and  darkness,  truth  and  lies,  life  and  death.  If  we  do  not  soon  stop  the  genocide  of  abortion  in  the  United  States,  we  shall  run  the  course  of  all  those  that  prove  by  their  actions  that  they  are  enemies  of  God — total  collapse,  economic,  social,  and  national.  The  moral  demise  of  a  nation  results  in  the  ultimate  demise  of   a  nation.  God  is  not  a  disinterested  spectator  to  the  affairs  of  man.  Life  begins  at  conception. This  is  an  unalterable  formal  teaching  of  the  Catholic  Church.  If  you  do  not  accept  this  you  are  a  heretic  in  plain  English.  A  single  abortion  is  homicide.  The  more  than  48,000,000  abortions  since  Roe  v.  Wade in the  United  States  constitute  genocide  by  definition.  The  group  singled  out  for  death — unwanted,  unborn  children. 

No  other  issue,  not  all  other  issues  taken  together,  can  constitute  a  proportionate  reason  for  voting  for  candidates  that  intend  to  preserve  and  defend  this  holocaust  of  innocent  human  life  that  is  abortion. 

I  strongly  urge  every one  of  you  to  make  a  Novena  and  pray  the  Rosary  to  Our  Lady  of  Victory  between  October  27th  and  Election  Day,  November  4th.  Pray  that  God’s  will  be  done  and  the  most  innocent  and  utterly  vulnerable  of  our  brothers  and  sisters  will  be  protected  from  this  barbaric  and  grossly  sinful  blight  on  society  that  is  abortion.  No  woman,  and  no  man,  has  the  right  to  choose  to  murder  an  innocent  human  being.  

May  God  grant  us  the  wisdom,  knowledge,  understanding,  and  counsel  to  form  our  conscience  in  accordance  with  authentic  Catholic  teaching,  and  then  vote  that  well‐formed  Catholic  conscience. 

Please  copy,  email,  link  and  distribute  this  article  freely. 

God  Bless  You 
Fr.  John  Corapi 
www.fathercorapi.com 

A Prayer for the Upcoming Election

2008-09-10T12:43:00.006-05:00

As we quickly approach this important day in our nation's history, please join me in praying for the election and a return to a culture of life, using the following beautiful prayer from EWTN:

O Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Mercy, at this most critical time, we entrust the United States of America to your loving care.
Most Holy Mother, we beg you to reclaim this land for the glory of your Son. Overwhelmed with the burden of the sins of our nation, we cry to you from the depths of our hearts and seek refuge in your motherly protection.
Look down with mercy upon us and touch the hearts of our people. Open our minds to the great worth of human life and to the responsibilities that accompany human freedom.
Free us from the falsehoods that lead to the evil of abortion and threaten the sanctity of family life. Grant our country the wisdom to proclaim that God’s law is the foundation on which this nation was founded, and that He alone is the True Source of our cherished rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
O Merciful Mother, give us the courage to reject the culture of death and the strength to build a new Culture of Life.

Humanae Vitae Expounded 6

2008-08-05T13:03:00.001-05:00

Humanae Vitae and True Sexual Freedom — Part 6 of 6

By Christopher West
August 5, 2008

This column concludes my series of reflections on Pope Paul VI’s document Humanae Vitae, which we have been reviewing in light of its fortieth anniversary [[1] Part one, [2] Part two, [3] Part three, [4] Part four, [5] Part five]. In the last installment we examined the difference between rendering sex sterile with contraception and choosing to abstain from intercourse during the fertile time. If one can see the difference between telling a lie and remaining silent, one can tell the difference between contraception and periodic abstinence.

One of the main objections to Humanae Vitae is that following its teaching (that is, practicing abstinence when avoiding pregnancy) impedes couples from expressing their love for one another. But of what “love” are we speaking: authentic conjugal love that images God, or its perennial counterfeit — lust?

God is the one who united marital love and procreation. Therefore, since God cannot contradict himself, as Vatican II taught, a “true contradiction cannot exist between the divine laws pertaining to the transmission of life and those pertaining to the fostering of authentic conjugal love” (Gaudium et Spes 51). It may well be difficult to follow the teaching of Humanae Vitae, but it could never be a contradiction of love.

Following the Church’s teaching is difficult because of the internal battle we all experience between love and lust. Lust impels us, and impels us very powerfully, towards sexual intercourse. But if sexual intimacy results from nothing more than lust, it’s not love. On the contrary, it’s a negation of love. Love is being ready to sacrifice oneself entirely for the good of the beloved, and for the good of the offspring that might result. Lust seeks the pleasure and sensation of the sexual act, but without the sincere gift of oneself.

If one is unprepared to receive a child, the only responsible choice is to abstain from that act that leads to a child. And as any married couple knows, abstaining from sex can be a profound act of love. In fact, there are many occasions in married life when a couple might want to engage in sexual intercourse, but have a serious reason to abstain. Maybe one of the spouses is sick. Maybe it’s after childbirth. Maybe they’re at the in-laws and there are thin walls. If a couple can’t abstain in these situations, their love is actually called into question. It’s the same thing with needing to avoid a pregnancy. If the couple cannot abstain, their love is called into question.

What purpose does contraception really serve anyway? This might sound odd at first, but let it sink in. Contraception was not invented to prevent pregnancy. We already had a 100% safe, 100% reliable way of doing that — abstinence. In the final analysis, contraception serves one purpose: to spare us the difficulty we experience when confronted with the choice of abstinence. When all the smoke is cleared, contraception was invented because of our lack of self-control; in other words, contraception was invented to serve the indulgence of lust.

Why do we spay or neuter our dogs and cats? Why don’t we just ask them to abstain? If we spay and neuter ourselves with contraception, we’re reducing the “great mystery” of the one flesh union to the level of Fido and Fidette in heat. What distinguished us from the animals in the first place? Freedom! God gave us freedom as the capacity to love. Contraception negates this freedom. It says, “I can’t abstain.” Hence, contracepted intercourse not only attacks the procreative meaning of sex, as John Paul II observed, “it also ceases to be an act of love” (TOB 123:6).

If you can’t say no to sex, what does your “yes” mean? Only the person who is free with the freedom for which Christ set us free (see Gal 5:1) is capable of authentic love. Authentic love, as the Catechism observes, requires “an apprenticeship in self-mastery which is training in human freedom. The alternative is clear: either man governs his passions and finds peace, or he lets himself be dominated by them and becomes unhappy” (CCC 2339).

This is what is at stake in the prophetic teaching of Humanae Vitae: man’s true peace and happiness. I’m convinced that the teaching of Humanae Vitae — which is still being rejected in the name of sexual “liberation” — will one day be vindicated as the only path to authentic sexual freedom: the freedom to love.

Humanae Vitae Expounded 5

2008-08-04T12:57:00.001-05:00

Contraception v. Natural Family Planning — Part 5 of 6

By Christopher West
August 4, 2008

For several columns now we’ve been reflecting on the Church’s teaching on contraception in commemoration of the fortieth anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s letter Humanae Vitae [[1] Part one, [2] Part two, [3] Part three, [4] Part four]. We’ve observed that sexual intercourse is meant to incarnate the marriage commitment itself, and that an integral part of that commitment is openness to children.

So, does fidelity to the wedding vows imply that couples are to leave the number of children they have entirely to “chance”? No. In calling couples to a responsible love, the Church calls them also to a responsible parenthood.

Pope Paul VI stated clearly that those are considered “to exercise responsible parenthood who prudently and generously decide to have a large family, or who, for serious reasons and with due respect to the moral law, choose to have no more children for the time being or even for an indeterminate period” (HV 10). Notice that large families should result from prudent reflection, not “chance.” Notice too that couples must have “serious reasons” to avoid pregnancy and must respect the moral law.

Assuming a couple have a serious reason to avoid a child (this could be financial, physical, psychological, etc.), what could they do that would not violate the consummate expression of their sacrament? In other words, what could they do to avoid conceiving a child that would not render them unfaithful to their wedding vows? You’re doing it right now (I presume). They could abstain from sex. There is nothing wrong with abstaining from sex when there’s a good reason to do so. The Church has always recognized that the only method of “birth control” that respects the language of divine love is “self-control.”

A further question arises: Would a couple be doing anything to falsify their sexual union if they embraced during a time of natural infertility? Take, for example, a couple past childbearing years. They know their union will not result in a child. Are they violating their vows if they engage in intercourse with this knowledge? Are they contracepting? No. Contraception, by definition, is the choice to engage in an act of intercourse, but then do something else to render it sterile. This can be done by using various devices, hormones, surgical procedures, and the age-old method of withdrawal.

Couples who use natural family planning (NFP) when they have a just reason to avoid pregnancy never render their sexual acts sterile; they never contracept. They track their fertility, abstain when they are fertile and, if they so desire, embrace when they are naturally infertile. Readers unfamiliar with modern NFP methods should note that they are 98-99% effective at avoiding pregnancy when used properly. Furthermore, any woman, regardless of the regularity of her cycles, can use NFP successfully. This is not your grandmother’s “rhythm method.”

To some people this seems like splitting hairs. “What’s the big difference,” they ask, “between rendering the union sterile yourself and just waiting until it’s naturally infertile? The end result is the same: both couples avoid children.” To which I respond, what’s the big difference between killing Grandma and just waiting until she dies naturally? End result’s the same thing: dead Grandma. Yes, but one is a serious sin called murder, and the other is an act of God.

If a person can tell the difference between euthanasia and natural death, he can tell the difference between contraception and NFP. It’s the same difference. I’m not equating contraception and murder. That’s not the analogy. Rather, Grandma’s natural death and a woman’s natural period of infertility are both acts of God. But in killing Grandma or in rendering sex sterile, we take the powers of life into our own hands — just like the deceiver originally tempted us to do — and make ourselves like God (see Gn 3:5).

This is why Pope John Paul II concludes that contraception “is to be judged so profoundly unlawful as never to be, for any reason, justified. To think or to say the contrary is equal to maintaining that in human life, situations may arise in which it is lawful not to recognize God as God” (address Oct. 10, 1983).

If you have resisted the Church’s teaching on contraception, maybe it’s time to give it some more thought.

Humanae Vitae Expounded 4

2008-08-01T15:55:00.000-05:00

Sex Speaks: True and False Prophets — Part 4 of 6

By Christopher West
August 1, 2008

July 25th marks the fortieth anniversary of Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI’s famous re-affirmation of the Church’s constant teaching on contraception. In commemoration, we continue our reflections on this critical issue [[1] Part one, [2] Part two, [3] Part three].

I ended my last column by asking: How healthy would a marriage be if spouses were regularly unfaithful to their wedding vows? On the other hand, how healthy would a marriage be if spouses regularly renewed their vows with an ever increasing commitment to them? Then I stated, if you’d prefer the latter type of marriage, you have just accepted the teaching of Humanae Vitae.

This is what is at stake: fidelity to the wedding vows; fidelity to love. At the altar, the priest or deacon asks the couple: “Have you come here freely and without reservation to give yourselves to each other in marriage? Do you promise to be faithful until death? Do you promise to receive children lovingly from God?” The bride and groom each say “yes.”
In turn, spouses are meant to express this same “yes” with the “language of their bodies” whenever they become one flesh. Sexual intercourse, then, is where the words of the wedding vows become flesh. Or, at least, it’s meant to be.

Everything the Church teaches about sex begins to make sense when viewed through this lens. The Church’s teaching is not a prudish list of prohibitions. It’s a call to embrace our own “greatness,” our own God-given dignity. It’s a call to live the love we so ardently desire. It’s a call to embrace divine love and share it with one’s spouse bodily.

John Paul II goes so far as to describe the body and sexual union as “prophetic.” A prophet is someone who speaks for God, who proclaims his mystery of love. This is what the marital embrace is meant to proclaim. But, as the Pope adds, we must be careful to distinguish true and false prophets (see TOB 106:4). If we can speak the truth with our bodies, we can also speak lies.

As a sacrament, marriage not only signifies God’s life and love, it really participates in God’s life and love. However, for sacraments to convey God’s life and love, the physical sign must accurately signify the spiritual reality. For example, through the physical sign of cleansing with water, baptism truly brings about a spiritual cleansing from sin. But if you were to baptize someone with mud or tar, no spiritual cleansing would take place because the physical sign is now one of making dirty. This would actually be a counter-sign or an “anti-sacrament.”

All of married life is meant to be a sign of God’s life and love. But nowhere do spouses signify this more profoundly than when they become “one flesh.” Here, like no other moment in married life, spouses are called to participate in God’s life and love. But this will only happen if their sexual union accurately signifies God’s love. Therefore, as John Paul II concludes, we can speak of moral good and evil in the sexual relationship based on whether the couple gives to their union “the character of a truthful sign” (TOB 37:6).

Insert contraception into the language of the body and (knowingly or unknowingly) the couple engages in a counter-sign of God’s mystery, a kind of “anti-sacrament.” Rather than proclaiming, “God is life-giving love,” the language of contracepted intercourse says, “God is not life-giving love.” In this way spouses (knowingly or unknowingly) become “false prophets.” They blaspheme. Their bodies still proclaim theology, but not Christian theology; not a theology of the God who reveals himself as Father, as Son, and as Holy Spirit. Contracepted sex, whether we realize this or not, attacks our creation in the image of the Trinity at its roots. From this perspective we can see that contraception is actually a sly betrayal of the deepest truth of our humanity.

The language of the body has “clear-cut meanings” all of which are “programmed,” John Paul II observes, in the vows. For example, to “the question: ‘Are you ready to accept children lovingly from God …?’ the man and the woman answer, ‘Yes’” (TOB 105:6, 106:3). If spouses say “yes” at the altar, but then render their union sterile, wouldn’t they be lying with their bodies? Wouldn’t they be speaking against their vows?

Why, then, does the Church accept the practice of natural family planning? We’ll see in the next column.

A Must Have When Forming Family Devotion

2008-07-31T20:25:00.001-05:00

This book is full of a plethora of time honored and tested ideas for family devotions throughout the year and daily in the home. It even goes into helpful sacramentals and follows with separate sections for each nationality, which was very fascinating as well. It was originally published in the 50's under the title, "Your Home, A Church in Miniature." (doesn't that sound familiar to the often used term of our time, "the Domestic Church," we thought so.) We are so excited to incorporate many of the devotions illustrated in this book as well as several others. This book is truly a must have for both the growing family and newlyweds alike. We highly recommend it!!!

Humanae Vitae Expounded 3

2008-07-31T18:19:00.003-05:00

Contraception and the Language of the Body — Part 3 of 6

By Christopher West
July 31, 2008

We continue our series [[1] Part one, [2] Part two] commemorating the 40th anniversary of Humanae Vitae. Pope Paul VI released this oh-so-controversial encyclical on July 25, 1968, re-affirming the constant teaching of the Church on the immorality of contraception. To this day it remains a “thorn in the side” of many. It was once a thorn in my side as well. John Paul II’s “theology of the body” helped remove that thorn and show me the glorious fragrance of the rose.

Last time we observed that contracepted intercourse marks a determined “closing off” of the sexual act to the Holy Spirit, to the “Lord and Giver of Life.” In this way, as John Paul II expressed it, contraception falsifies “the language of the body.”

We all know that the body has a “language.” A wave of the hand says “hello” or “goodbye.” A shrug of the shoulders says, “I don’t know.” A raised fist expresses anger. What is sexual intercourse meant to express? What is its true language, its true meaning?

According to Scripture, the sexual embrace is meant to express divine love. Precisely here, in the consummation of their sacrament, spouses are meant to participate in the “great mystery” of divine love. Whether spouses realize this or not, this is the sacramental power of their love. It’s meant to be an image and a real participation in Christ’s love for the Church (see Eph 5:31-32).

As John Paul II candidly expressed, “Through gestures and reactions, through the whole … dynamism of tension and enjoyment — whose direct source is the body in its masculinity and femininity, the body in its action and interaction — through all this man, the person, ‘speaks.’ … Precisely on the level of this ‘language of the body’ … man and woman reciprocally express themselves in the fullest and most profound way made possible for them by … their masculinity and femininity” (TOB 123:4).

But if sexual love is meant to express Christ’s love, we must properly understand the “language” of this love. Christ gives his body freely (”No one takes my life from me, I lay it down of my own accord” -Jn 10:18). He gives his body totally — without reservation, condition, or selfish calculation (”He loved them to the last” -Jn 13:1). He gives his body faithfully (”I am with you always” -Mt 28:20). And he gives his body fruitfully (”I came that they may have life” -Jn 10:10).

If men and women are to avoid the pitfalls of counterfeit love, their union must express the same free, total, faithful, fruitful love that Christ expresses. Of course, as fallen human beings, we’ll never express Christ’s love perfectly. Even so, we must commit ourselves to the life-long journey of learning how to express this love and, at a minimum, never willfully act against it. The name for this commitment is marriage.

This is precisely what a bride and groom consent to at the altar. The priest or deacon asks them: “Have you come here freely and without reservation to give yourselves to each other in marriage? Do you promise to be faithful until death? Do you promise to receive children lovingly from God?” The bride and groom each say “yes.”

In turn, spouses are meant to express this same “yes” with the “language of their bodies” whenever they become one flesh. “In fact, the words themselves, ‘I take you as my wife/as my husband,’” John Paul II says, “can only be fulfilled by conjugal intercourse.” With conjugal intercourse “we pass to the reality that corresponds to these words” (TOB 103:3).

Intercourse, then, is where the words of the wedding vows become flesh. It’s where men and women are meant to incarnate divine love. It’s a fine thing when a couple returns to the church to renew their vows on a special anniversary, but this shouldn’t undermine the fact that every time a husband and wife have intercourse they’re meant to renew their wedding vows with the “language of their bodies.”

How healthy would a marriage be if spouses were regularly unfaithful to their vows? On the other hand, how healthy would a marriage be if spouses regularly renewed their vows with an ever-increasing commitment to them? If you’d prefer the latter type of marriage, you have just accepted the teaching of Humanae Vitae. In the next column, I’ll unfold why.

Humanae Vitae Expounded 2

2008-07-22T15:47:00.001-05:00

Does Contraception Foster Love? — Part 2 of 6

By Christopher West
July 22, 2008

We continue a series of reflections on the issue of contraception in light of the 40th anniversary of [1] Humanae Vitae. When Pope Paul VI issued this document on July 25, 1968, it fell like a bomb. Many people wished the issue would just go away. It hasn’t. And it won’t. In fact, it can’t “go away.” This encyclical takes us to the very foundations of human life (humanae vitae).

In the [2] last column, we looked at how contraception has played a key role in the cultural chaos in which we’re now immersed. Here we’ll look briefly at what seems to be at the heart of the matter — love. It all comes down to this: What is love? Does the mere exchange of sexual pleasure offer any surety of love? Our culture is sated with sexual indulgence but remains starved for love. Perhaps contraception has had something to do with this sad state of affairs.

It seems what we often call “love,” when submitted to honest examination, amounts to little more than mutual using for pleasure. In the language of John Paul II, the opposite of love is not hatred. The opposite of love is using another person as a means to an end. I know this is a cliche, but why do so many wives claim “headache” when their husbands want sex? Might they feel used rather than loved?

The Catholic teaching on sex is an invitation to embrace the love that really corresponds to the deepest desires of the human heart. That is a demanding love, to be sure. Should we expect it to be otherwise as followers of Christ? “Love one another,” Jesus says, “as I have loved you” (Jn 15:12). This means it’s going to hurt. It’s going to demand sacrifice.
St. Paul says it plainly: husbands are to love their wives “as Christ loved the church” (Eph 5:25). Then he concludes this marvelous passage with the most exalted presentation of sexual love in all of human history: “‘’or this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ This is a great mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the church” (Eph 5:21-32).

The Church, so often accused of devaluing sex, ascribes to sexual love the highest possible value — it is meant to be a merging of the human and the divine. Anything less, the Church proposes, is a counterfeit for the love we yearn for at the deepest level of our beings. Sexual love is meant to image the mysterious and eternal “exchange of love” within the Holy Trinity. In the normal course of events, the mutual exchange of husband and wife leads to a “third” — a new human life conceived through the work of the Holy Spirit, “the Lord, the Giver of life.”

Contracepted intercourse marks a determined “closing off” of the sexual act to the Holy Spirit, to the very life and love of God. In short, whether they realize this or not, contracepting couples are saying, “We prefer the momentary pleasure of sterlized sex over the opportunity of participating in the eternal love of the Trinity.” To which I respond … bad choice! But do you think if couples really knew they were saying this, that they would continue to do so? “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Lk 23:34).

Most couples simply have no idea what they’re getting themselves into when they sterilize their sexual acts. So none of this is about assigning culpability. If I drink a cup of poison — but don’t know it’s poison — I haven’t committed suicide; I’m not culpable for my own death. But it will still kill me, because whether I think it’s poison or not has no bearing whatsoever on whether it is poison or not. Furthermore, if you know it’s poison and I don’t, what would be the loving thing to do if you saw me reaching out to drink it?

The Church is not trying to impose her morality on us. Like any loving mother, she is trying to prevent her children from unwittingly ingesting a very dangerous “poison to love.” As the 40th anniversary of Humanae Vitae approaches, let us thank Pope Paul VI for loving us so much.

"Can I Live"

2008-07-21T14:05:00.002-05:00

This is the story of Nick Cannon and how his Mother made the sacrifice to chose life for him. It is a very touching reenactment of hope when worldwide over 114,500 girls are pressured into abortion daily.

Humanae Vitae Expounded 1

2008-07-21T13:13:00.000-05:00

Contraception and Cultural Chaos — Part 1 of 6

By Christopher West
July 21, 2008

This July 25th marks the 40th anniversary of one of the most controversial papal documents in history: Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae which reaffirmed the traditional Christian teaching on the immorality of contraception. If you have wrestled with this teaching, believe me, I can relate. Years ago I almost left the Church over it. Forty years of perspective provide an opportunity to take another look. That’s what I’ll be doing in [the next] several columns.

You may have noticed above that I said “traditional Christian teaching” on contraception. Only in the last 50-70 years has this been viewed primarily as a “Catholic” issue. Until 1930, all Christian bodies stood together in their condemnation of any attempt to sterilize the marital act. That year, the Anglican Church broke with more than nineteen hundred years of uninterrupted Christian teaching. When the pill debuted in the early 1960’s, the Catholic Church alone was retaining what in 30 short years had come to be seen as an archaic, even absurd position.

One way to begin understanding the Church’s stance is by “judging the tree by its fruit.” This is what first made me realize that contraception was a much more important issue than I had realized.

When Margaret Sanger and her followers started pushing contraception in the early 1900’s, wise men and women — and certainly not just Catholics — predicted that severing sex from procreation would eventually lead to sexual and societal chaos. Today’s culture of adultery, divorce, premarital sex, STD’s, out-of-wedlock births, abortion, fatherless children, homosexuality, poverty, crime, drugs, and violence was all foreseen.

What’s the connection with contraception? While today’s societal chaos is certainly complex, the following demonstrates the “inner logic” of contraception’s contribution. People are often tempted to do things they shouldn’t do. Deterrents within nature itself and within society help to curb these temptations and maintain order. For example, what would happen to the crime rate in a given society if jail terms suddenly ceased?

Apply the same logic to sex. People throughout history have been tempted to commit adultery. It’s nothing new. However, one of the main deterrents from succumbing to the temptation has been the fear of pregnancy. What would happen if this natural deterrent were taken away? As history demonstrates, rates of adultery would skyrocket. What’s one of the main causes of divorce? Adultery. Apply the same logic to pre-marital sex. Such behavior has, indeed, skyrocketed. Premarital sex, as a kind of “adultery in advance,” is also a prime indicator of future marital breakdown.

It gets worse. Since no method of contraception is 100% effective, an increase in adultery and pre-marital sex will inevitably lead to an increase in “unwanted pregnancies.” What’s next? So many people think contraception is the solution to the abortion problem. Take a deeper look and you’ll see that that’s like throwing gasoline on a fire to try to put it out. In the final analysis, there is only one reason we have abortion — because men and women are having sex without being “open to life.” If this mentality is at the root of abortion, contraception does nothing but foster and afford this mentality.

Not everyone will resort to abortion of course. Some will choose adoption. Other mothers (most) will raise these children by themselves. Hence the number of children who grow up without a father (which has already been increased by the rise in divorce) will be compounded. And a culture of “fatherless” children inevitably becomes a culture of poverty, crime, drugs, and violence. All of these social ills compound exponentially from generation to generation since “fatherless” children are also much more likely to have out-of-wedlock births and, if they marry at all, divorce.

What about homosexuality? Our culture is impotent to resist the “gay agenda” because we have already accepted its basic premise with contraception — the reduction of sex to the exchange of pleasure. When openness to life is no longer an intrinsic part of the sexual equation, why does sexual behavior have to be with the opposite sex?

Forty years after the release of Humanae Vitae, many people are beginning to see that the Church might not be crazy after all.

Greening Our Home One Step at a Time

2008-06-26T11:00:00.010-05:00

Over the last few months Phillip and I have been in the process of greening our now home. This transformation began with a container garden at my apartment, consisting of a couple of bell pepper plants and an assortment of essential kitchen herbs. It has now been expanded to include cilantro, corn, and spinach using 5 gallon buckets as planters. Upon the purchase of land we will no longer have to utilize such containers and will have the space and be able to diversify the crops and multiply production exponentially.

Our second step was Phillip requesting the use of wind power through his electric provider when he moved into our current home. This is just a temporary adjustment until we have the land to install our own power producing wind turbines and solar panels if more power is required. There are even smaller versions available for instillation in residential areas. At this time, supply via our electric company was the only acceptable choice for our landless situation.

Our third and most recently step was the installment of our, 7 day a week, 3 time period a day, programmable thermostat. Phillip's research and calculations found that by utilizing the 3 time periods and setting the temperatures accordingly, our average savings is 20% a month. Our specific model only cost $30, which we thought was more than reasonable for both the environmental and economic benefits. More information on picking the right thermostat, suggested temperatures and more general information can be found at the Energy Star website.
I encourage everyone to do their due diligence and find the thermostat that fits their family the best, $30 is a small price to pay as we attempt to be good stewards of the Planet that God gave us.

How Can These Still Be Legal?

2008-06-11T10:54:00.003-05:00

After viewing this video I find it difficult to accept the use of these medications for the current indications they are prescribed before concerning the curse of Eve and female ailments. I wish there was more emphasis placed on the alternative treatments of these conditions so the afflicted woman's health was not put in jeopardy. See here for and earlier discussion on the subject.

Benedict XVI to US Women

2008-05-07T09:42:00.000-05:00

Pope's Message to US Women

By Miriam Díez i Bosch
5/7/2008

Zenit News Agency

President of the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations summarizes the Holy Father's Message to Women of the United States.

ROME, Italy (Zenit) - Benedict XVI's zealous promotion of human rights during his trip to the United States has direct consequences for women, says the president of a Catholic women's group.

Karen Hurley is the president of the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations, which aims to promote the presence, participation and co-responsibility of Catholic women in society and Church.

In this interview with ZENIT, Hurley gives a review of the Pope's trip to the United States last month, and explains why his trip brought such a positive reaction.

Q: What is your personal impression of Benedict XVI's apostolic visit to the United States?

Hurley: We are still basking in the glow of the apostolic visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the USA. For me it was such a joy to have our Holy Father visit my homeland.

Through my service in the World Union of Catholic Women's Organizations, I have been blessed to be able to greet both Pope John Paul II as well as Pope Benedict XVI, both in Rome and at Castel Gandolfo. But most Americans only see our Holy Father from a distance through the media. People traveled from every state to Washington, D.C., and New York City to catch a glimpse of our Holy Father in person.

There was such elation, as well as deep abiding peace, when one saw the Pope. People clutching cameras forgot to take photographs because they were smiling and waving at the Pope.

Stadiums packed with worshippers were hushed with silence so all could hear each and every word spoken by our Holy Father.

Beginning on the sunny afternoon our Holy Father stepped off Shepherd One and was welcomed by President Bush until six days and nights later as the Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Sambi, Vice President and Mrs. Cheney stood on the airport runway waving good-bye, the spiritual and emotional connections deepened.

There was a tremendous witness of faith, a greater conviction that Christ is our hope, and an outpouring of love on the part of all whose lives were touched by this visit.

Q: The Pope himself has confessed he learned a lot about you, American Catholics. Is this encouraging for you?

Hurley: Yes, this is very encouraging because I believe our Holy Father found Americans who are committed to professing and living our Catholic faith in the midst of secular cultural influences.

Pope Benedict's words reflected his knowledge of the history of our nation, but also his awareness of the challenges and opportunities that face us in the present day.

The Holy Father, in his quiet, caring manner, was able to "meet people where they are": clergy and vowed religious, laity, women and men, young people, children with disabilities, representatives of other religions, and, quite poignantly, survivors of clergy sexual abuse.

In Pope Benedict's own words, he came as "a friend, a preacher of the Gospel." But he certainly spent his time listening, as well as preaching, learning as well as educating, and praying as well as being a sign of Christ's healing and peace to all whose lives he touched.

Americans also learned a lot about Pope Benedict XVI whom they compare to his predecessor, beloved John Paul II.

Clearly they are two different personalities with unique gifts which the Lord has called forth in his service.

Any earlier misperceptions held by some Americans of Cardinal Ratzinger in his previous role as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith were shattered by this personal encounter with a compassionate Pope Benedict XVI who pastorally enunciated the truths of our faith.

Q: Is there a special message for the mission of women that you could learn from this papal trip?

Hurley: Our Holy Father spoke clearly of the dignity of every human person created in the image and likeness of God. His words resonate particularly during this 20th anniversary year of Pope John Paul II's apostolic letter, “Mulieris Dignitatem," On the Dignity and Vocation of Women.

Referring to the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as the role of the United States of America in the international community, Pope Benedict XVI encouraged efforts to build "a world where the God-given dignity and rights of every man, woman and child are cherished, protected and effectively advanced."

For the members of the World Union of Catholic Women's Organizations, this encompasses our mission to work for human rights beginning with the fundamental right to life, the education of women and girls, caring for the poor, the sick and the stranger, and advocating for justice based on God's moral law.

Before his election, then-Cardinal Ratzinger wrote in the “Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Collaboration of Men and Women in the Church and in the World":

“It is women, in the end, who even in very desperate situations, as attested by history past and present, possess a singular capacity to persevere in adversity, to keep life going even in extreme situations, to hold tenaciously to the future, and finally to remember with tears the value of every human life."

Our Holy Father reminded all men and women of our God-given dignity. A reality of the dignity of women is a "capacity for the other," which elicits life and contributes to the growth and protection of all those entrusted to our care.

Q: Everybody seems happy about this visit. Why has it been so important at this particular moment in history?

Hurley: So many people are searching for meaning and purpose in their lives.

Others may have grown lukewarm in their faith. Still others were actively seeking a more intimate union with Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Pope Benedict came to the United States of America to preach the Gospel message, "Christ our Hope." This was the message people of all ages and stages of life needed to hear and to respond to.

Our Holy Father's visit presented a unique opportunity for all people of good will to experience a personal encounter with the Lord; an encounter which impels one to share the good news with others, like the Samaritan woman at the well.

Indeed, people are now sharing their faith, hope and love with renewed fervor.

With the grace of God, the fruits of this visit will continue to flourish for years to come as the seeds that were planted begin to grow.

Benedict XVI on Marriage

2008-04-15T15:21:00.003-05:00

New compendium examines Pope Benedict’s teachings on marriage

Catholic News Agency

Washington DC, Apr 15, 2008 / 11:44 pm (CNA).- A report examining Pope Benedict XVI’s writings on marriage has just been released.“Pope Benedict XVI on Marriage: A Compendium,” has been published by the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy and released on the eve of Pope Benedict’s first papal visit to the United States.

The compendium collects and analyzes the Pope’s public remarks about marriage over the first three years of his pontificate. According to the analysis, the Pope has spoken publicly about marriage on 111 occasions, often connecting marriage to wider themes such as human rights, world peace, and the dialogue between faith and reason.

He has called the family the “fundamental nucleus of society” and the “primary agency of peace,” while urging people to end the “growing crisis of the family.”

"Over and over again he has made it clear that the marriage and family debate is central--not peripheral--to understanding the human person, and defending our human dignity," said Maggie Gallagher, president of the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy.

The report cites many instances where the Pope has spoken on marriage. On September 27, 2007, Pope Benedict addressed participants in a conference of the Executive Committee of Centrist Democratic International. In his address, he connected the crisis of the family to philosophical skepticism: “There are those who maintain that human reason is incapable of grasping the truth, and therefore of pursuing the good that corresponds to personal dignity. There are some who believe that it is legitimate to destroy human life in its earliest or final stages. Equally troubling is the growing crisis of the family, which is the fundamental nucleus of society based on the indissoluble bond of marriage between a man and a woman. Experience has shown that when the truth about man is subverted or the foundation of the family undermined, peace itself is threatened and the rule of law is compromised, leading inevitably to forms of injustice and violence.”

Pope Benedict also devoted a large part of his message for the World Day of Peace on January 1 to examining the role of marriage in developing a culture of peace and openness to life, saying: “Consequently, whoever, even unknowingly, circumvents the institution of the family undermines peace in the entire community, national and international, since he weakens what is in effect the primary agency of peace.” “This point merits special reflection: everything that serves to weaken the family based on the marriage of a man and a woman, everything that directly or indirectly stands in the way of its openness to the responsible acceptance of a new life, everything that obstructs its right to be primarily responsible for the education of its children, constitutes an objective obstacle on the road to peace.”

When receiving the credentials of the new U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican, Harvard Law Professor Mary Ann Glendon, Pope Benedict connected American efforts to safeguard marriage and the family to what he called “the American people’s historic appreciation of the role of religion in shaping public discourse and in shedding light on the inherent moral dimension of social issues.” This role, Pope Benedict said, was at times disputed “in the name of a straitened understanding of political life and public discourse.”

However, he thought the role religion played in American life reflected many Americans’ view of interreligious and intercultural dialogue as a “positive force for peacemaking.”

Maggie Gallagher summarized the report’s interpretation of Pope Benedict’s writings on marriage, saying, "The short pontificate of Benedict XVI is already a standing rebuke to those voices of our time who seek to make us ashamed or embarrassed of caring about marriage and sexual issues, who try to get us to view the contemporary marriage debate as merely a distraction from more important issues." "Pope Benedict clearly connects life and marriage, the human person in the human family, with the most fundamental international issues of peace and human rights facing our times."

The full report can be viewed at www.marriagedebate.com .

Holy See Recognizing Women of the Home

2008-03-31T09:38:00.001-05:00

Holy See Urges Rewarding Women's Roles in Homes

Says Education Lies at Heart of Empowerment

NEW YORK, MARCH 3, 2008 (Zenit.org).- The Holy See is calling for "courageous policies" to reward the work of women within the home.

Archbishop Celestino Migliore, permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, made this suggestion today to the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women.

The issue under discussion was follow-up to the 4th World Conference on Women, and U.N. initiatives on gender equality and the empowerment of women, including financing measures leading to those goals.

"The last decade has seen greater involvement of women in all aspects of decision making, especially in economic development," Archbishop Migliore noted. "Indeed, the empowerment of women requires their participation in the decision-making process to ensure that their specific insights are heard and taken into account, their concerns adequately addressed and that these concerns are reflected in the decisions taken and in the programs adopted."

The prelate particularly focused on the need for equal access to education at all levels, saying this "lies at the heart of the efforts to empower women."

He noted the work of the Church in this regard, explaining that "Catholic institutions of learning continue to have enrollments which are predominantly female and work to empower women within society."

More than teaching

Still, Archbishop Migliore affirmed, the empowerment of women through education "cannot work in isolation."

"Disenfranchisement of women and discriminatory practices must be addressed and eliminated," he said. "Women must be guaranteed equality of opportunity, equal pay for equal work, fairness in career advancement, equal access to health care and legal structures and equality in property and family rights. Programs, many of which are faith-based, providing assistance to needy women, in particular to victims of sexual and physical abuse, must remain a priority.

"Policies and initiatives which foster women's ability to participate fully in the workplace have resulted in an ever increasing presence of women in the formal work sector. However, this reality has created new challenges for women, such as exploitation in sweatshops and trafficking of women and girls for economic and sexual purposes. Thus, the increasing number of women working outside the home challenges governments to enact laws, implement programs and enforce measures to protect women from unscrupulous predators, subhuman working conditions and dehumanizing work."

Unrecognized

The archbishop also gave attention to the contribution of women in households and families, in their role as wives and mothers, something that "often goes unrecognized and unrewarded."

"Women face the challenge of simultaneously raising children and trying to achieve economic security," he acknowledged.

Archbishop Migliore then called for "greater resources" and "more courageous policies" to reward the socio-economic contribution of women within the home.

"Rewarding it in some way particularly helps poor women and those who are less able to enter the labor market," he said. "It would also be a concrete way to enable women to benefit from public expenditure from which oftentimes and in many places they do not get their fair share or are even excluded. Obviously, men must assume their responsibility within the home and family."

"Finally," the archbishop concluded, "governments, civil society and faith-based organizations would do well to work together to find creative ways of promoting full access of women to development programs and financing schemes. Initiatives such as microfinance programs for women demonstrate that human ingenuity has the ability to create new and innovative solutions in this area."

Partial-birth Abortion Banned in Arizona

2008-03-28T17:48:00.005-05:00

Arizona now has legislation protecting those like my little niece/nephew!!! Hopefully other states will follow in Arizona's foot steps.

Arizona passes partial-birth abortion ban

3/28/2008
Catholic News Agency
Catholic Online

The bills now require the approval of Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano. She has vetoed other abortion laws in the past, including one involving parental consent for minors.

PHOENIX (CNA) - The Arizona legislature on Tuesday passed two bills regulating abortion in the state and sent them to Gov. Janet Napolitano for her consideration.

One bill clarified the circumstances that override the need for a minor seeking an abortion to obtain parental consent, while the other bill established state penalties for partial-birth abortion. House Bill 2769 builds on a federal law outlawing partial-birth abortions. It makes performing the procedure a Class 5 felony, which cannot be pleaded down to a misdemeanor. Senator Linda Gray described in detail on the Senate floor how a partial-birth abortion is performed. “This is a horrible, horrible procedure,” she said.

Ron Johnson, Executive Director of the Arizona Catholic Conference, called the bill “important pro-life legislation.” He said a state ban was needed so that Arizona citizens did not have to rely upon the United States Justice Department to prosecute violators. “Additionally,” Johnson said, “a state ban is helpful because federal prosecutors attempting to enforce the current partial birth abortion ban must first show that interstate commerce is somehow impacted.”

Senator Paula Aboud said the bill "claims to copy the federal law but it goes too far." She said it creates a situation where a doctor could be prosecuted under both state and federal law. The other bill, House Bill 2263, outlined the critera a judge should consider when deciding if there is “clear and convincing” evidence that a minor has the maturity to undergo an abortion without parental consent. A judge can consider whether the minor has worked and lived outside the home, handled her personal finances, or made other significant decisions on her own.

Senator Aboud criticized the bill for burdening minors already in a difficult position. "For some, speaking to their parents is not an option," she said. "It is not changing the law or adding any new burdens," said Cathi Herrod, president of the Center for Arizona Policy, a conservative think tank. The Arizona House of Representatives also approved a bill that bars nurses from performing surgical abortions. The bills now require the approval of Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano. She has vetoed other abortion laws in the past, including one involving parental consent for minors.

"The Holy See on the Empowerment of Women"

2008-03-10T16:13:00.001-05:00

Holy See on the Empowerment of Women

"Part of the Effort to Ensure That the Dignity of All Persons Is Respected"

NEW YORK, MARCH 3, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Here is the address delivered today by Archbishop Celestino Migliore, permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, to the Commission on the Status of Women.

The issue under discussion was follow-up to the 4th World Conference on Women, and U.N. initiatives on gender equality and the empowerment of women, including financing measures leading to those goals.

* * *

Mr. Chairman,

As we approach the Doha Review Conference on financing for development, this year's priority theme provides us with an opportunity to discuss and assess the impact of financing programs on women. The Monterrey Consensus rightfully calls on countries and all stakeholders to make sound economic decisions and ensure that economic growth and poverty eradication benefit all men, women and children.

The last decade has seen greater involvement of women in all aspects of decision making, especially in economic development. Indeed, the empowerment of women requires their participation in the decision-making process to ensure that their specific insights are heard and taken into account, their concerns adequately addressed and that these concerns are reflected in the decisions taken and in the programs adopted. Through this participation, the individual and collective strengths and talents of women are effectively employed.

As the Millennium Development Goal number 3 rightly acknowledges, equal access to education at all levels lies at the heart of the efforts to empower women. In its work of promoting education for all and at every level, the Holy See remains fully committed to investing in the education of women and girls. In many parts of the world, Catholic institutions of learning continue to have enrollments which are predominantly female and work to empower women within society.

However, empowering women through education cannot work in isolation. Disenfranchisement of women and discriminatory practices must be addressed and eliminated. Women must be guaranteed equality of opportunity, equal pay for equal work, fairness in career advancement, equal access to healthcare and legal structures and equality in property and family rights. Programs, many of which are faith-based, providing assistance to needy women, in particular to victims of sexual and physical abuse, must remain a priority.

Policies and initiatives which foster women's ability to participate fully in the workplace have resulted in an ever increasing presence of women in the formal work sector. However, this reality has created new challenges for women, such as exploitation in sweatshops and trafficking of women and girls for economic and sexual purposes. Thus, the increasing number of women working outside the home challenges governments to enact laws, implement programs and enforce measures to protect women from unscrupulous predators, subhuman working conditions and dehumanizing work.

The tremendous contribution of women to society within households and families as wives and mothers often goes unrecognized and unrewarded. Women face the challenge of simultaneously raising children and trying to achieve economic security. There is need for greater resources and more courageous policies to reward the socio-economic contribution of women within the home. Rewarding it in some way particularly helps poor women and those who are less able to enter the labor market. It would also be a concrete way to enable women to benefit from public expenditure from which oftentimes and in many places they do not get their fair share or are even excluded. Obviously, men must assume their responsibility within the home and family.

Finally, Governments, civil society and faith-based organizations would do well to work together to find creative ways of promoting full access of women to development programs and financing schemes. Initiatives such as microfinance programs for women demonstrate that human ingenuity has the ability to create new and innovative solutions in this area.

Mr. Chairman,

This is not merely a struggle to advance equality and empowerment of women. Even more fundamentally, this is an integral part of the overall effort to ensure that the equality and dignity of all human persons is fully respected.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Homeschoolers under Persecution in California

2008-03-07T11:10:00.008-06:00

The following is a travesty for all homeschoolers in America.

Homeschoolers' setback sends shock waves through state

Bob Egelko and Jill

TuckerSan Francisco Chronicle

March 7, 2008

A California appeals court ruling clamping down on homeschooling by parents without teaching credentials sent shock waves across the state this week, leaving an estimated 166,000 children as possible truants and their parents at risk of prosecution.

The homeschooling movement never saw the case coming. "At first, there was a sense of, 'No way,' " said homeschool parent Loren Mavromati, a resident of Redondo Beach (Los Angeles County) who is active with a homeschool association. "Then there was a little bit of fear. I think it has moved now into indignation." The ruling arose from a child welfare dispute between the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services and Philip and Mary Long of Lynwood, who have been homeschooling their eight children. Mary Long is their teacher, but holds no teaching credential.

The parents said they also enrolled their children in Sunland Christian School, a private religious academy in Sylmar (Los Angeles County), which considers the Long children part of its independent study program and visits the home about four times a year. The Second District Court of Appeal ruled that California law requires parents to send their children to full-time public or private schools or have them taught by credentialed tutors at home. Some homeschoolers are affiliated with private or charter schools, like the Longs, but others fly under the radar completely. Many homeschooling families avoid truancy laws by registering with the state as a private school and then enroll only their own children.

Yet the appeals court said state law has been clear since at least 1953, when another appellate court rejected a challenge by homeschooling parents to California's compulsory education statutes. Those statutes require children ages 6 to 18 to attend a full-time day school, either public or private, or to be instructed by a tutor who holds a state credential for the child's grade level. "California courts have held that ... parents do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children," Justice H. Walter Croskey said in the 3-0 ruling issued on Feb. 28. "Parents have a legal duty to see to their children's schooling under the provisions of these laws." Parents can be criminally prosecuted for failing to comply, Croskey said. "A primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare," the judge wrote, quoting from a 1961 case on a similar issue.

Union pleased with ruling

The ruling was applauded by a director for the state's largest teachers union. "We're happy," said Lloyd Porter, who is on the California Teachers Association board of directors. "We always think students should be taught by credentialed teachers, no matter what the setting." A spokesman for the state Department of Education said the agency is reviewing the decision to determine its impact on current policies and procedures. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell issued a statement saying he supports "parental choice when it comes to homeschooling."

Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, which agreed earlier this week to represent Sunland Christian School and legally advise the Long family on a likely appeal to the state Supreme Court, said the appellate court ruling has set a precedent that can now be used to go after homeschoolers. "With this case law, anyone in California who is homeschooling without a teaching credential is subject to prosecution for truancy violation, which could require community service, heavy fines and possibly removal of their children under allegations of educational neglect," Dacus said.

Parents say they choose homeschooling for a variety of reasons, from religious beliefs to disillusionment with the local public schools. Homeschooling parent Debbie Schwarzer of Los Altos said she's ready for a fight. Schwarzer runs Oak Hill Academy out of her Santa Clara County home. It is a state-registered private school with two students, she said, noting they are her own children, ages 10 and 12. She does not have a teaching credential, but she does have a law degree. "I'm kind of hoping some truancy officer shows up on my doorstep," she said. "I'm ready. I have damn good arguments." She opted to teach her children at home to better meet their needs. The ruling, Schwarzer said, "stinks."

Began as child welfare case

The Long family legal battle didn't start out as a test case on the validity of homeschooling. It was a child welfare case. A juvenile court judge looking into one child's complaint of mistreatment by Philip Long found that the children were being poorly educated but refused to order two of the children, ages 7 and 9, to be enrolled in a full-time school. He said parents in California have a right to educate their children at home.

The appeals court told the juvenile court judge to require the parents to comply with the law by enrolling their children in a school, but excluded the Sunland Christian School from enrolling the children because that institution "was willing to participate in the deprivation of the children's right to a legal education." The decision could also affect other kinds of homeschooled children, including those enrolled in independent study or distance learning through public charter schools - a setup similar to the one the Longs have, Dacus said. Charter school advocates disagreed, saying Thursday that charter schools are public and are required to employ only credentialed teachers to supervise students - whether in class or through independent study.

Ruling will apply statewide

Michael Smith, president of the Home School Legal Defense Association, said the ruling would effectively ban homeschooling in the state. "California is now on the path to being the only state to deny the vast majority of homeschooling parents their fundamental right to teach their own children at home," he said in a statement.

But Leslie Heimov, executive director of the Children's Law Center of Los Angeles, which represented the Longs' two children in the case, said the ruling did not change the law. "They just affirmed that the current California law, which has been unchanged since the last time it was ruled on in the 1950s, is that children have to be educated in a public school, an accredited private school, or with an accredited tutor," she said. "If they want to send them to a private Christian school, they can, but they have to actually go to the school and be taught by teachers." Heimov said her organization's chief concern was not the quality of the children's education, but their "being in a place daily where they would be observed by people who had a duty to ensure their ongoing safety."

The Pill as an Abortifacient.

2008-02-28T14:32:00.010-06:00

Does the Birth Control Pill Cause Abortions?

A condensation by Randy Alcorn

"The Pill" is the popular term for more than forty different commercially available oral contraceptives. In medicine, they are commonly referred to as BCPs (birth control pills) or OCs (oral contraceptives). They are also called "Combination Pills," because they contain a combination of estrogen and progestin.

The Pill is used by about fourteen million American women each year. Across the globe it is used by about sixty million. The question of whether it causes abortions has direct bearing on untold millions of Christians, many of them prolife, who use and recommend it. For those who believe God is the Creator of each person and the giver and taker of human life, this is a question with profound moral implications.

In 1991, while researching the original edition of ProLife Answers to ProChoice Arguments, I heard someone suggest that birth control pills can cause abortions. This was brand new to me; in all my years as a pastor and a prolifer, I had never heard it before. I was immediately skeptical.

My vested interests were strong in that Nanci and I used the Pill in the early years of our marriage, as did many of our prolife friends. Why not? We believed it simply prevented conception. We never suspected it had any potential for abortion. No one told us this was even a possibility. I confess I never read the fine print of the Pill's package insert, nor am I sure I would have understood it even if I had.

In fourteen years as a pastor I did considerable premarital counseling, I always warned couples against the IUD because I'd read it could cause early abortions. I typically recommended young couples use the Pill because of its relative ease and effectiveness.

At the time I was researching ProLife Answers, I found only one person who could point me toward any documentation that connected the Pill and abortion. She told me of just one primary source that supported this belief and I found only one other. Still, these two sources were sufficient to compel me to include this warning in the book:

Some forms of contraception, specifically the intrauterine device (IUD), Norplant, and certain low-dose oral contraceptives, often do not prevent conception but prevent implantation of an already fertilized ovum. The result is an early abortion, the killing of an already conceived individual. Tragically, many women are not told this by their physicians, and therefore do not make an informed choice about which contraceptive to use." [1]

As it turns out, I made a critical error. At the time, I incorrectly believed that "low-dose" birth control pills were the exception, not the rule. I thought most people who took the Pill were in no danger of having abortions. What I've found in more recent research is that since 1988 virtually all oral contraceptives used in America are low-dose, that is, they contain much lower levels of estrogen than the earlier birth control pills.

The standard amount of estrogen in the birth control pills of the 1960s and early '70s was 150 micrograms.

The use of estrogen-containing formulations with less than 50 micrograms of estrogen steadily increased to 75 percent of all prescriptions in the United States in 1987. In the same year, only 3 percent of the prescriptions were for formulations that contained more than 50 micrograms of estrogen. Because these higher-dose estrogen formulations have a greater incidence of adverse effects without greater efficacy, they are no longer marketed in the United States. [2]

After the Pill had been on the market fifteen years, many serious negative side effects of estrogen had been clearly proven. These included blurred vision, nausea, cramping, irregular menstrual bleeding, headaches, increased incidence of breast cancer, strokes, and heart attacks, some of which led to fatalities. [3]

In response to these concerns, beginning in the mid-seventies, manufacturers of the Pill steadily decreased the content of estrogen and progestin in their products. The average dosage of estrogen in the Pill declined from 150 micrograms in 1960 to 35 micrograms in 1988. These facts are directly stated in an advertisement by the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals and Ortho Pharmaceutical Corporation in Hippocrates magazine. [4]

Pharmacists for Life confirms: "As of October 1988, the newer lower dosage birth control pills are the only type available in the U.S., by mutual agreement of the Food and Drug Administration and the three major Pill manufacturers." [5]

What is now considered a "high dose" of estrogen is 50 micrograms, which is in fact a very low dose in comparison to the 150 micrograms once standard for the Pill. The "low-dose" pills of today are mostly 20�35 micrograms. As far as I can tell, there are no birth control pills available today that have more than 50 micrograms of estrogen. An M.D. wrote to inform me that she had researched many pills by name and could confirm my findings. If such pills exist at all, they are certainly rare.

Not only was I wrong in thinking low-dose contraceptives were the exception rather than the rule, I didn't realize there was considerable documented medical information linking birth control pills and abortion. The evidence was there, I just didn't probe deeply enough to find it. Still more evidence has surfaced in subsequent years. I have presented this evidence in detail in my 88-page book Does the Birth Control Pill Cause Abortions? I will now summarize that research.

The Physician's Desk Reference (PDR)

The Physician's Desk Reference is the most frequently used reference book by physicians in America. The PDR, as it's often called, lists and explains the effects, benefits, and risks of every medical product that can be legally prescribed. The Food and Drug Administration requires that each manufacturer provide accurate information on its products, based on scientific research and laboratory tests. This information is included in the PDR.

As you read the following, keep in mind that the term "implantation," by definition, always involves an already conceived human being. Therefore, any agent which serves to prevent implantation functions as an abortifacient.

This is the PDR's product information for Ortho-Cept, as listed by Ortho, one of the largest manufacturers of the Pill:

Combination oral contraceptives act by suppression of gonadotropins. Although the primary mechanism of this action is inhibition of ovulation, other alterations include changes in the cervical mucus, which increase the difficulty of sperm entry into the uterus, and changes in the endometrium which reduce the likelihood of implantation. [6]

The FDA-required research information on the birth control pills Ortho-Cyclen and Ortho Tri-Cyclen also state that they cause "changes in...the endometrium (which reduce the likelihood of implantation)." [7]

Notice that these changes in the endometrium, and their reduction in the likelihood of implantation, are not stated by the manufacturer as speculative or theoretical effects, but as actual ones. They consider this such a well-established fact that it requires no statement of qualification.

Similarly, as I document in my book, Syntex and Wyeth, the other two major pill-manufacturers, say essentially the same thing about their oral contraceptives. (I also relate in the book the results of my phone calls to each of these manufacturers to discuss this issue.)

The inserts packaged with birth control pills are condensed versions of longer research papers detailing the Pill's effects, mechanisms, and risks. Near the end, the insert typically says something like the following, which is taken directly from the Desogen pill insert:

If you want more information about birth control pills, ask your doctor, clinic or pharmacist. They have a more technical leaflet called the Professional Labeling, which you may wish to read. The Professional Labeling is also published in a book entitled Physician's Desk Reference, available in many bookstores and public libraries.

Of the half dozen birth control pill package inserts I've read, only one included the information about the Pill's abortive mechanism. This was a package insert dated July 12, 1994, found in the oral contraceptive Demulen, manufactured by Searle. Yet this abortive mechanism was referred to in all cases in the FDA-required manufacturer's Professional Labeling, as documented in The Physician's Desk Reference.

In summary, according to multiple references throughout The Physician's Desk Reference, which articulate the research findings of all the birth control pill manufacturers, there are not one but three mechanisms of birth control pills:
1. inhibiting ovulation (the primary mechanism),
2. thickening the cervical mucus, thereby making it more difficult for sperm to travel to the egg, and
3. thinning and shriveling the lining of the uterus to the point that it is unable or less able to facilitate the implantation of the newly fertilized egg.

The first two mechanisms are contraceptive. The third is abortive.

When a woman taking the Pill discovers she is pregnant (according to The Physician's Desk Reference's efficacy rate tables, this is 3 percent of pill-takers each year), it means that all three of these mechanisms have failed. The third mechanism sometimes fails in its role as backup, just as the first and second mechanisms sometimes fail. Each and every time the third mechanism succeeds, however, it causes an abortion.

Medical Journals and Textbooks

The Pill alters epithelial and stromal integrins, which appear to be related to endometrial receptivity. These integrins are considered markers of normal fertility. Significantly, they are conspicuously absent in patients with various conditions associated with infertility and in women taking the Pill. Since normal implantation involves a precise synchronization of the zygote's development with the endometrium's window of maximum receptivity, the absence of these integrins logically indicates a higher failure rate of implantation for Pill-takers. According to Dr. Stephen G. Somkuti and his research colleagues, "These data suggest that the morphological changes observed in the endometrium of OC users have functional significance and provide evidence that reduced endometrial receptivity does indeed contribute to the contraceptive efficacy of OCs." [8]

In another research journal article, Drs. Chowdhury, Joshi and associates state, "The data suggests that though missing of the low-dose combination pills may result in 'escape' ovulation in some women, however, the pharmacological effects of pills on the endometrium and cervical mucus may continue to provide them contraceptive protection." [9]

Note in some of these citations "contraceptive" is used of an agent which in fact prevents the implantation of an already conceived child. Those who believe each human life begins at conception would see this function not as a contraceptive, but an abortifacient.

In a study of oral contraceptives published in a major medical journal, Dr. G. Virginia Upton, Regional Director of Clinical Research for Wyeth, one of the major birth control pill manufacturers, says, "The graded increments in LNg in the triphasic OC serve to maximize contraceptive protection by increasing the viscosity of the cervical mucus (cervical barrier), by suppressing ovarian progesterone output, and by causing endometrial changes that will not support implantation." [10]

Drug Facts and Comparisons says this about birth control pills in its 1997 edition:

Combination OCs inhibit ovulation by suppressing the gonadotropins, follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and lutenizing hormone (LH). Additionally, alterations in the genital tract, including cervical mucus (which inhibits sperm penetration) and the endometrium (which reduces the likelihood of implantation), may contribute to contraceptive effectiveness. An independent clinical pharmaceutical reference also contains this assertion. [11]

Reproductive endocrinologists have demonstrated that Pill-induced changes cause the endometrium to appear "hostile" or "poorly receptive" to implantation. [12] Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) reveals that the endometrial lining of Pill users is consistently thinner than that of nonusers [13] -up to 58 percent thinner. [14] Recent and fairly sophisticated ultrasound studies [15] have all concluded that endometrial thickness is related to the "functional receptivity" of the endometrium. Others have shown that when the lining of the uterus becomes too thin, implantation of the pre-born child (called the blastocyst or pre-embryo at this stage) does not occur. [16]

The minimal endometrial thickness required to maintain a pregnancy ranges from 5 to 13mm, [17] whereas the average endometrial thickness in women on the Pill is only 1.1 mm. [18] These data lend credence to the FDA-approved statement that "changes in the endometrium reduce the likelihood of implantation" [19]

Dr. Kristine Severyn says:

The third effect of combined oral contraceptives is to alter the endometrium in such a way that implantation of the fertilized egg (new life) is made more difficult, if not impossible. In effect, the endometrium becomes atrophic and unable to support implantation of the fertilized egg.... The alteration of the endometrium, making it hostile to implantation by the fertilized egg, provides a backup abortifacient method to prevent pregnancy. [20]

Researchers have repeatedly and consistently pointed out this abortifacient effect of the Pill. To date, no published studies have refuted these findings.

Dr. Walter Larimore is a Clinical Professor of Family Medicine who has written over 150 medical articles in a wide variety of journals. In two major medical journal articles, he has addressed the issue of the Pill's capacity to cause early abortions. [21] In 2000 Dr. Larimore and I coauthored a chapter on this subject in The Reproduction Revolution: A Christian Appraisal of Sexuality, Reproductive Technologies and the Family. [22] In the same chapter, four Christian physicians present their belief that the Pill does not result in early abortions. We respectfully suggest that their case is not based solidly on the medical evidence.

What Does This Mean?

As a woman's menstrual cycle progresses, her endometrium gradually gets richer and thicker in preparation for the arrival and implantation of any newly conceived child. In a natural cycle, unimpeded by the Pill, the endometrium experiences an increase of blood vessels, which allow a greater blood supply to bring oxygen and nutrients to the child. There is also an increase in the endometrium's stores of glycogen, a sugar that serves as a food source for the blastocyst (child) as soon as he or she implants.

The Pill keeps the woman's body from creating the most hospitable environment for a child, resulting instead in an endometrium that is deficient in both food (glycogen) and oxygen. The child may die because he lacks this nutrition and oxygen.

Typically, the new person attempts to implant at six days after conception. If implantation is unsuccessful, the child is flushed out of the womb in a miscarriage. When the miscarriage is the result of an environment created by a foreign device or chemical, it is in fact an abortion. This is true even if the mother does not intend it, and is not aware of it happening.

Despite all the research, including much more presented in my full booklet, there are those who insist that these contentions are incorrect and should not be taken at face value by those concerned about early abortions. In the case of the Pill manufacturers, those who say their FDA-approved assertions are false should, in my opinion, prevail upon the FDA to change their statements, and not simply ask people to disregard them.

Confirming Evidence

When the Pill thins the endometrium, it seems self-evident a zygote attempting to implant has a smaller likelihood of survival. A woman taking the Pill puts any conceived child at greater risk of being aborted than if the Pill were not being taken.

Some argue that this evidence is indirect and theoretical. But we must ask, if this is a theory, how strong and credible is the theory? If the evidence is only indirect, how compelling is that indirect evidence? Once it was only a theory that plant life grows better in rich, fertile soil than in thin, eroded soil. But it was certainly a theory good farmers believed and acted on.

Some physicians have theorized that when ovulation occurs in Pill-takers, the subsequent hormone production "turns on" the endometrium, causing it to become receptive to implantation. [23] However, there is no direct evidence to support this theory, and there is at least some evidence against it. First, after a woman stops taking the Pill, it usually takes several cycles for her menstrual flow to increase to the volume of women who are not on the Pill. This suggests to most objective researchers that the endometrium is slow to recover from its Pill-induced thinning. [24] Second, the one study that has looked at women who have ovulated on the Pill showed that after ovulation the endometrium is not receptive to implantation. [25]

Intrauterine/Extrauterine Pregnancy Ratio

Another line of evidence of the Pill's abortifacient effect is this: if the Pill has no post-fertilization effect, then reductions in the rate of intrauterine pregnancies in Pill-takers should be identical to the reduction in the rate of extrauterine (ectopic/tubal) pregnancies in Pill-takers. Therefore, an increased extrauterine/intrauterine pregnancy ratio would constitute evidence for an abortifacient effect.

Two medical studies allow review of this association. [26] Conducted at seven maternity hospitals in Paris, France, [27] and three in Sweden, [28] the studies evaluated 484 women with ectopic pregnancies and control groups of 389 women with normal pregnancies who were admitted to the hospital for delivery during the same time period. These studies were designed, in typical fashion for "case control" studies, to determine the risk factors for a particular condition (here, ectopic pregnancy) by comparing one group of individuals known to have the condition with another group of individuals not having the condition. Both of these studies showed an increase in the extrauterine/intrauterine pregnancy ratio for women taking the Pill. Researchers who have reviewed these studies have therefore suggested that "some protection against intrauterine pregnancy is provided via the Pill's post-fertilization abortifacient effect." [29]

What accounts for the Pill inhibiting intrauterine pregnancies at a disproportionately greater ratio than it inhibits extrauterine pregnancies? The most likely explanation is that while the Pill does nothing to prevent a newly conceived child from implanting in the wrong place (i.e., anywhere besides the endometrium), it may sometimes do something to prevent him from implanting in the right place (i.e., the endometrium).

Arguments Against the Pill Causing Abortion

I have received a number of letters from readers, one of them a physician, who say something like this: "My sister got pregnant while taking the Pill. This is proof that you are wrong in saying that the Pill causes abortions-obviously it couldn't have, since she had her baby!"

Without a doubt, the Pill's effects on the endometrium do not always make implantation impossible. I have never heard anyone claim that they do. To be an abortifacient does not require that something always cause an abortion, only that it sometimes does.

Whether it's RU-486, Norplant, Depo-Provera, the morning after pill, the Mini-pill, or the Pill, there is no chemical that always causes an abortion. There are only those that do so never, sometimes, often, and usually.

Children who play on the freeway, climb on the roof, or are left alone by swimming pools don't always die, but this does not prove these practices are safe and never result in fatalities. We would immediately see this inconsistency of anyone who argued in favor of leaving children alone by swimming pools because they know of cases where this has been done without harm to the children. The point that the Pill doesn't always prevent implantation is certainly true, but has no bearing on the question of whether it sometimes prevents implantation, which the data clearly suggests.

People also often argue, "The blastocyst is perfectly capable of implanting in various 'hostile' sites, e.g., the fallopian tube, the ovary, the peritoneum."

Their point is that the child sometimes implants in the wrong place. This is undeniably true. But again, the only relevant question is whether the Pill sometimes hinders the child's ability to implant in the right place.

Imagine a farmer who has two places where he might plant seed. One is rich, brown soil that has been tilled, fertilized, and watered. The other is on hard, thin, dry, and rocky soil. If the farmer wants as much seed as possible to take hold and grow, where will he plant the seed? The answer is obvious��on the fertile ground.

Now, you could say to the farmer that his preference for the rich, tilled, moist soil is based on theoretical assumptions because he has probably never seen a scientific study that proves this soil is more hospitable to seed than the thin, hard, dry soil. Likely, such a study has never been done. In other words, there is no absolute proof.

But the farmer would likely reply, based on years of observation, "I know good soil when I see it. Sure, I've seen some plants grow in the hard, thin soil too, but the chances of survival are much less there than in the good soil. Call it theoretical if you want to, but we all know it's true!"

Some newly conceived children manage to survive temporarily in hostile places. But this in no way changes the obvious fact that many more children will survive in a richer, thicker, more hospitable endometrium than in a thinner, more inhospitable one.

(In other publications and in a much more detailed fashion, we have discussed these and other lines of evidence, with hundreds of citations of many scientific studies, as well as researchers and experts in numerous fields. We encourage interested readers to look more deeply into these studies and arguments. [30] )

Despite this evidence, some prolife physicians state that the likelihood of the Pill having an abortifacient effect is "infinitesimally low, or nonexistent." [31] Though I would very much like to believe this, the scientific evidence does not permit me to do so.

Dr. Walt Larimore has told me that whenever he has presented this evidence to audiences of secular physicians, there has been little or no resistance to it. But when he has presented it to Christian physicians there has been substantial resistance. Since secular physicians do not care whether the Pill prevents implantation, they tend to be objective in interpreting the evidence. After all, they have little or nothing at stake either way. Christian physicians, however, very much do not want to believe the Pill causes early abortions. Therefore, I believe, they tend to resist the evidence. This is certainly understandable. Nonetheless, we should not permit what we want to believe to distract us from what the evidence indicates we should believe.

I have mentioned my own vested interests in the Pill that at first made me resist the evidence suggesting it could cause abortions. Dr. Larimore came to this issue with even greater vested interests in believing the best about the birth control pill, having prescribed it for years. When he researched it intensively over an eighteen-month period, in what he described to me as a "gut wrenching" process that involved sleepless nights, he came to the conclusion that in good conscience he could no longer prescribe hormonal contraceptives, including the Pill, the Minipill, Depo-Provera, and Norplant.

Statement by Twenty Prolife Physicians

Five months after the original printing of my booklet, in January 1998 a statement was issued opposing the idea that the Pill can cause abortions. According to a January 30, 1998, email sent me by one of its circulators, the statement "is a collaborative effort by several very active prolife OB-GYN specialists, and screened through about twenty additional OB-GYN specialists."

The statement is titled "Birth Control Pills: Contraceptive or Abortifacient?" Those wishing to read it in its entirety, which I recommend, can find it at our web page, at www.epm.org/doctors.html. I have posted it there because while I disagree with its major premise and various statements in it, I believe it deserves a hearing.

The title is misleading, in that it implies there are only two possible ways to look at the Pill: always a contraceptive or always an abortifacient. In fact, I know of no one who believes it is always an abortifacient. There are only those who believe it is always a contraceptive and never an abortifacient, and those who believe it is usually a contraceptive and sometimes an abortifacient.

The paper opens with this statement:

Currently the claim that hormonal contraceptives [birth control pills, implants (Norplant), injectables (Depo-Provera)] include an abortifacient mechanism of action is being widely disseminated in the prolife community. This theory is emerging with the assumed status of "scientific fact," and is causing significant confusion among both lay and medical prolife people. With this confusion in the ranks comes a significant weakening of both our credibility with the general public and our effectiveness against the tide of elective abortion.

The assertion that the presentation of research and medical opinions causes "confusion" is interesting. Does it cause confusion, or does it bring to light pertinent information in an already existing state of confusion? Would we be better off to uncritically embrace what we have always believed than to face evidence that may challenge it?

Is our credibility and effectiveness weakened through presenting evidence that indicates the Pill can cause abortions? Or is it simply our duty to discover and share the truth regardless of whether it is well-received by the general public or the Christian community?

The physicians' statement's major thesis is this: The idea that the Pill causes a hostile endometrium is a myth.

Over time, the descriptive term "hostile endometrium" progressed to be an unchallenged assumption, then to be quasi-scientific fact, and now, for some in the prolife community, to be a proof text. And all with no demonstrated scientific validation.

When I showed this to one professor of family medicine he replied, "This is an amazing claim." What's so amazing is it requires that every physician who has directly observed the dramatic Pill-induced changes in the endometrium, and every textbook that refers to these changes, has been wrong all along in believing what appears to be obvious: that when the zygote attaches itself to the endometrium its chances of survival are greater if what it attaches to is thick and rich in nutrients and oxygen than if it is not.

This is akin to announcing to a group of farmers that all these years they have been wrong to believe the myth that rich fertilized soil is more likely to foster and maintain plant life than thin eroded soil.

It could be argued that if anything may cause prolifers to lose credibility, at least with those familiar with what the Pill does to the endometrium, it is to claim the Pill does nothing to make implantation less likely.

The authors defend their position this way:

[The blastocyst] has an invasive nature, with the demonstrated ability to invade, find a blood supply, and successfully implant on various kinds of tissue, whether "hostile," or even entirely "foreign" to its usual environment-decidualized (thinned) endometrium, tubal epithelium (lining), ovarian epithelium (covering), cervical epithelium (lining), even peritoneum (abdominal lining cells).... The presumption that implantation of a blastocyst is thwarted by "hostile endometrium" is contradicted by the "pill pregnancies" we as physicians see.

This argument misses the point, since the question is not whether the zygote sometimes implants in the wrong place. Of course it does. The question, rather, is whether the newly conceived child's chances of survival are greater when it implants in the right place (endometrium) that is thick and rich and full of nutrients than in one which lacks these qualities because of the Pill. To point out a blastocyst is capable of implanting in a fallopian tube or a thinned endometrium is akin to pointing to a seed that begins to grow on asphalt or springs up on the hard dry path. Yes, the seed is thereby shown to have an invasive nature. But surely no one believes its chances of survival are as great on asphalt as in cultivated fertilized soil.

According to the statement signed by the twenty physicians, "The entire 'abortifacient' presumption, therefore, depends on 'hostile endometrium.'"

In fact, one need not embrace the term "hostile endometrium" to believe the Pill can cause abortions. It does not take a hostile or even an inhospitable endometrium to account for an increase in abortions. It only takes a less hospitable endometrium. Even if they feel "hostile" is an overstatement, can anyone seriously argue that the Pill-transformed endometrium is not less hospitable to implantation than the endometrium at its rich thick nutrient-laden peak in a normal cycle uninfluenced by the Pill?

One medical school professor told me that until reading this statement he had never heard, in his decades in the field, anyone deny the radical changes in the endometrium caused by the Pill and the obvious implications this has for reducing the likelihood of implantation. According to this physician, the fact that secular sources embrace this reality and only prolife Christians are now rejecting it (in light of the recent attention on the Pill's connection to abortions) suggests they may be swayed by vested interests in the legitimacy of the Pill.

The paper states "there are no scientific studies that we are aware of which substantiate this presumption [that the diminished endometrium is less conducive to implantation]." But it doesn't cite any studies, or other evidence, that suggest otherwise.

In fact, surprisingly, though this statement is five-pages long it contains not a single reference to any source that backs up any of its claims. If observation and common sense have led people in medicine to a particular conclusion over decades, should their conclusion be rejected out of hand without citing specific research indicating it to be incorrect?

On which side does the burden of proof fall-the one that claims the radically diminished endometrium inhibits implantation or the one that claims it doesn't?

The most potentially significant point made in the paper is this:

The ectopic rate in the USA is about 1% of all pregnancies. Since an ectopic pregnancy involves a pre-implantation blastocyst, both the "on pill conception" and normal "non pill conception" ectopic rate should be the same-about l% (unaffected by whether the endometrium is "hostile" or "friendly.") Ectopic pregnancies in women on hormonal contraception (except for the minipill) are practically unreported. This would suggest conception on these agents is quite rare. If there are millions of "on-pill conceptions" yearly, producing millions of abortions, (as some "BC pill is abortifacient" groups allege), we would expect to see a huge increase in ectopics in women on hormonal birth control. We don't. Rather, as noted above, this is a rare occurrence.

The premise of this statement is right on target. It is exactly the premise proposed by Dr. Larimore, which I've already presented. While the statement's premise is correct, its account of the data, unfortunately, is not. The studies pointed to by Dr. Larimore, cited earlier, clearly demonstrate the statement is incorrect when it claims ectopic pregnancies in women on hormonal contraception are "practically unreported" and "rare."

In fact, "a huge increase in ectopics" is exactly what we do see-an increase that five major studies put between 70% and 1390%. Ironically, when we remove the statement's incorrect data about the ectopic pregnancy rate and plug in the correct data, the statement supports the very thing it attempts to refute. It suggests the Pill may indeed cause early abortions, possibly a very large number of them.

Questions about This Problem

People raise many objections to the issues presented in this appendix, very few of which involve issues of evidential data or scientific fact. However, these objections deserve answers. These are some of the concerns I address in my booklet Does the Birth Control Pill Cause Abortions? [32]

"If this is true, why haven't we been told before?"
"I don't trust this evidence."
"If we don't know how often abortions happen, why shouldn't we take the Pill?"
"Spontaneous miscarriages are common; early abortions aren't that big a deal."
"Taking the Pill means fewer children die in spontaneous abortions."
"Without the Pill there would be more elective abortions."
"Pill-takers don't intend to have abortions."

"Why not just use high estrogen pills?"

You can't avoid every risk."

"How can we practice birth control without the Pill?"

"I never knew this—should I feel guilty?"

"We shouldn't lay guilt on people by talking about this."

"We shouldn't tell people the Pill may cause abotions because they'll be held accountable."

"We've prayed about it and we feel right about using the Pill."

"Prolifers will lose credibility if we oppose the Pill."

"This puts Christian physicians in a very difficult position."

"Are there any good alternatives to the Pill?"

Conclusion

The Pill is used by about fourteen million American women each year and sixty million women internationally. Thus, even an infinitesimally low portion (say one-hundredth of one percent) of 780 million Pill cycles per year globally could represent tens of thousands of unborn children lost to this form of chemical abortion annually. How many young lives have to be jeopardized for prolife believers to question the ethics of using the Pill? This is an issue with profound moral implications for those believing we are called to protect the lives of children.

[1] Randy Alcorn, Prolife Answers to ProChoice Arguments (Multnomah Publishers: Sisters, OR: 1992, 1994) 118.

[2] Danforth's Obstetrics and Gynecology (Philadelphia, PA: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1994, 7^th edition), 626

[3] Nine Van der Vange, "Ovarian Activity During Low Dose Oral Contraceptives," published in Contemporary Obstetrics and Gynecology, edited by G. Chamberlain (London: Butterworths, 1988), 315-16.

[4] Hippocrates, May/June 1988, 35.

[5] Oral Contraceptives and IUDs: Birth Control or Abortifacients?, Pharmacists for Life, November 1989, 1.

[6] Physicians' Desk Reference (Montvale, NJ: Medical Economics, 1998).

[7] The PDR, 1995, page 1782.

[8] Stephen G. Somkuti, et al., "The Effect of Oral Contraceptive Pills on Markers of Endometrial Receptivity," Fertility and Sterility, Volume 65, #3, March 1996, 488.

[9] "Escape Ovulation In Women Due To The Missing Of Low Dose Combination Oral Contraceptive Pills," Contraception, September 1980; 241.

[10] G. Virginia Upton, "The Phasic Approach to Oral Contraception," The International Journal of Fertility, volume 28, 1988, 129.

[11] Kastrup, EK, ed. Drug Facts and Comparisons, Annual Edition (St. Louis: Facts and Comparisons, 1997).

[12] . Abdalla HI, Brooks AA, Johnson MR, Kirkland A, Thomas A, Studd JW. "Endometrial Thickness: A Predictor Of Implantation In Ovum Recipients?" Human Reprod 1994;9:363-365.

[13] Bartoli JM, Moulin G, Delannoy L, Chagnaud C, Kasbarian M. "The Normal Uterus On Magnetic Resonance Imaging And Variations Associated With The Hormonal State." Surg Radiol Anat 1991;13:213-20; Demas BE, Hricak H, Jaffe RB. "Uterine MR Imaging: Effects Of Hormonal Stimulation." Radiology 1986;159:123-6; McCarthy S, Tauber C, Gore J. "Female Pelvic Anatomy: MR Assessment Of Variations During The Menstrual Cycle And With Use Of Oral Contraceptives." Radiology 1986; 160: 119-23.

[14] Brown HK, Stoll BS, Nicosia SV, Fiorica JV, Hambley PS, Clarke LP, Silbiger ML. "Uterine Junctional Zone: Correlation Between Histologic Findings And MR Imaging." Radiology 1991;179:409-413.

[15] Abdalla, et al., "Endometrial thickness"; Dickey RP, Olar TT, Taylor SN, Curole DN, Matulich EM. "Relationship Of Endometrial Thickness And Pattern To Fecundity In Ovulation Induction Cycles: Effect Of Clomiphene Citrate Alone And With Human Menopausal Gonadotropin." Fertil Steril 1993;59:756-60; Gonen Y, Casper RF, Jacobson W, Blankier J. "Endometrial Thickness And Growth During Ovarian Stimulation: A Possible Predictor Of Implantation In In-Vitro Fertilization." Fertil Steril 1989;52:446-50; Schwartz LB, Chiu AS, Courtney M, Krey L, Schmidt-Sarosi C. "The Embryo Versus Endometrium Controversy Revisited As It Relates To Predicting Pregnancy Outcome In In-Vitro Fertilization-Embryo Transfer Cycles." Hum Reprod 1997;12:45-50; Shoham Z, et al. "Is It Possible To Run A Successful Ovulation Induction Program Based Solely On Ultrasound Monitoring: The Importance Of Endometrial Measurements." Fertil Steril 1991;56:836-841; Noyes N, Liu HC, Sultan K, Schattman G, Rosenwaks Z. "Endometrial Thickness Appears To Be A Significant Factor In Embryo Implantation In In-Vitro Fertilization." Hum Reprod 1995;10:919-22; Vera JA, Arguello B, Crisosto CA. "Predictive Value Of Endometrial Pattern And Thickness In The Result Of In Vitro Fertilization And Embryo Transfer." Rev Chil Obstet Gynecol 1995;60:195-8; Check JH, Nowroozi K, Choe J, Lurie D, Dietterich C. "The Effect Of Endometrial Thickness And Echo Pattern On In Vitro Fertilization Outcome In Donor Oocyte-Embryo Transfer Cycle." Fertil Steril 1993;59:72-5; Oliveira JB, Baruffi RL, Mauri AL, Petersen CG, Borges MC, Franco JG Jr. "Endometrial Ultrasonography As A Predictor Of Pregnancy In An In-Vitro Fertilization Programme After Ovarian Stimulation And Gonadotrophin-Releasing Hormone And Gonadotrophins." Hum Reprod 1997;12:2515-8; Bergh C, Hillensjo T, Nilsson L. "Sonographic Evaluation Of The Endometrium In In-Vitro Fertilization IVF Cycles. A Way To Predict Pregnancy?" Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand 1992;71:624-8.

[16] Abdalla HI, et al., "Endometrial thickness"; Dickey, et al., "Relationship Of Endometrial Thickness"; Gonen, et al., "Endometrial Thickness And Growth"; Oliveira, et al., "Endometrial Ultrasonography As A Predictor"; Bergh, et al., "Sonographic Evaluation Of The Endometrium".

[17] The 5mm figure is from Glissant, A, de Mouzon, J, Frydman R. "Ultrasound Study Of The Endometrium During In Vitro Fertilization Cycles." Fertil Steril 1985;44:786-90. The 13mm figure is from Rabinowitz R, Laufer N, Lewin A, Navot D, Bar I, Margalioth EJ, Schenker JJ. "The value of ultrasonographic endometrial measurement in the prediction of pregnancy following in vitro fertilization." Fertil Steril 1986;45:824-8

[18] McCarthy, et al., "Female Pelvic Anatomy".

[19] Physicians' Desk Reference; Kastrup, Drug Facts.

[20] Kristine Severyn, "Abortifacient Drugs and Devices: Medical and Moral Dilemmas" Linacre Quarterly, August 1990, 55.

[21] Walter L. Larimore and Joseph Stanford, "Postfertilization Effects of Oral Contraceptives and their Relation to Informed Consent." Archives of Family Medicine 9 (February, 2000); Walter L. Larimore, "The Abortifacient Effect of the Birth Control Pill and the Principle of Double Effect," Ethics and Medicine, January 2000.

[22] Walter L. Larimore and Randy Alcorn, "Using the Birth Control Pill is Ethically Unacceptable," in John F. Kilner, Paige C. Cunningham and W. David Hager (eds), The Reproduction Revolution (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 2000), 179-191.

[23] Susan Crockett, Joseph L. DeCook, Donna Harrison, and Camilla Hersh, "Using Hormone Contraceptives Is a Decision Involving Science, Scripture, and Conscience," in John F. Kilner, Paige C. Cunningham and W. David Hager (eds), The Reproduction Revolution (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 2000), 192-201.

[24] Stanford JB, Daly KD. "Menstrual And Mucus Cycle Characteristics In Women Discontinuing Oral Contraceptives (Abstract)." Paediatr Perinat Epidemiol 1995;9(4): A9.

[25] Chowdhury V, Joshi UM, Gopalkrishna K, Betrabet S, Mehta S, Saxena BN. "'Escape' Ovulation In Women Due To The Missing Of Low Dose Combination Oral Contraceptive Pills." Contraception 1980;22(3):241-7.

[26] Thorburn J, Berntsson C, Philipson M, Lindbolm B. "Background Factors Of Ectopic Pregnancy. I. Frequency Distribution In A Case-Control Study." Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol 1986;23:321-331 (the original data was reevaluated by: Mol, et al., "Contraception and the Risk"); Coste J, Job-Spira N, Fernandez H, Papiernik E, Spira A. "Risk Factors For Ectopic Pregnancy: A Case-Control Study In France, With Special Focus On Infectious Factors." Am J Epidemiol 1991;133:839-49.

[27] Coste, et al., "Risk Factors For Ectopic Pregnancy".

[28] Thorburn, et al., "Background Factors Of Ectopic Pregnancy".

[29] Larimore and Stanford JB. "Postfertilization Effects"; Thorburn et al., "Background Factors"; (the original data was reevaluated by: Mol BWJ, Ankum WM, Bossuyt PMM, Van der Veen F. "Contraception And The Risk Of Ectopic Pregnancy: A Meta Analysis." Contraception 1995;52:337-341); Mol, et al., "Contraception and the Risk".

[30] . Alcorn, "Does The Birth Control Pill Cause Abortions?"; Larimore WL, Stanford JB. "Postfertilization Effects Of Oral Contraceptives And Their Relation To Informed Consent." Larimore WL. "The Growing Debate about the Abortifacient Effect of the Birth Control Pill and the Principle of the Double Effect." Ethics and Medicine: in review.

[31] DeCook JL, McIlhaney J, et al. Hormonal Contraceptives: Are they Abortifacients? (Sparta, MI: Frontlines Publishing, 1998).

[32] Randy Alcorn, Does the Birth Control Pill Cause Abortions? Fifth edition (Gresham, OR: Eternal Perspective Ministries), 50-73.

Randy Alcorn, Eternal Perspective Ministries, 39085 Pioneer Blvd., Suite 206, Sandy, OR 97055, 503-668-5200, www.epm.org

More on the Life Front

2008-02-25T21:38:00.002-06:00

Death of unborn child as a result of Mother's drug us a Homicide
By Thaddeus M. Baklinski
2/26/2008
LifeSiteNews

These fetal homocide cases have some pro-abortion advocates concerned. If killing a child through the intentional drug use of the mother is homicide, then how is chemical abortion not homicide?

EDWARDSVILLE, IL (LifeSiteNews) - A coroner's jury has determined that the death of an Illinois woman's unborn child was a homicide because of the woman's use of illegal drugs, reports the Belleville News-Democrat.

An autopsy on 26-year-old Alicia Tucker's stillborn baby revealed cocaine and amphetamines in the child's system. Tucker was eight months pregnant at the time. The doctor who treated Tucker told the inquest that the "fetus died due to a placental abruption (premature separation of the placenta from the wall of the uterus), which can be caused by cocaine use."

The inquest was told that Tucker had bought a "bag of pills for $11 from a man outside a currency exchange in Granite City shortly before the stillbirth," which she said she thought were painkillers for which she had a prescription. She said she doesn't know why she bought the pills. "I don't know. I honestly don't know," she said. "Sometimes people make stupid mistakes." A detective also testified that Tucker told him she inhaled methamphetamine that she had purchased for someone else, a week before the stillbirth. The result of the police investigation will be forwarded to the county prosecutor for consideration as to whether criminal charges should be filed against the mother.

Robert Weisberg, a law professor and director of the Stanford University Criminal Justice Center, commented on the incongruity of legal abortion and criminal fetal homicide. "Pro-choice groups find this issue difficult," he said. "They know that so long as Roe v. Wade is good law, fetal homicide statutes passed by states can't threaten the right to an abortion. But I think they're concerned that if it becomes well-known that fetal homicide outside abortion can be considered a crime, then the notion of a fetus as a human being might become more widespread in public opinion."

Although Illinois has a fetal homicide law under which only another person can be convicted of killing a child in utero, and not the mother herself, other US states have legislation that allow a mother to be convicted of involuntary manslaughter or reckless homicide if her drug use leads to the death of her fetus.

Good News on the Life Front

2008-02-25T21:04:00.002-06:00

French Court: Parents Can Register Names for Fetuses
By John Jalsevac
2/9/2008
LifeSiteNews

According to the AFP report, the ruling is triggering a storm over the issue of abortion in France.

PARIS, France (LifeSiteNews) - France's supreme court has ruled that parents of miscarried or stillborn children can register a name for the child, no matter what stage of development the child was at at the time of miscarriage or birth, reports the AFP. Previous to this most recent ruling, parents in France were allowed to register a name for miscarried or stillborn children, but only after 22 weeks gestation, or if the child weighed over 1.1 pounds. This new ruling gives parents the right to claim the body of their child, which, until this point, was incinerated by the hospital along with other waste tissues. It also allows the mothers of miscarried or stillborn children to claim maternity leave.

According to the AFP report, the ruling is triggering a storm over the issue of abortion in France, with pro-abortion activists arguing that the ruling gives pro-life activists a strongly emotional argument for the humanity of the child, by indicating that a fetus at any stage has a right to a name. "A fetus is only viable after 26 weeks," said Chantal Birman, deputy president of a pro-abortion group called ANCIC. "You have to take the timetable of pregnancy into account." She said that the court decision, "will help a rollback [on abortion availability] that has been taking place in Europe for the last few months."

However, there is an increasing recognition in medical circles that miscarriage or stillbirth can be an extremely traumatic experience for mothers and fathers alike, who may have developed a profound emotional connection with their unborn child. "The mourning process can be long and lonely," says the Helping After Neonatal Death (HAND) website. "After the death of a baby, it generally takes twelve to twenty-four months simply to find your new base." Many parents have found that the process of grieving is helped significantly by the giving of a name to their child. "Giving the baby a name and having the baby baptized or blessed, if such rituals are important to us, are ways for us to acknowledge the reality of the life that has come and gone so quickly," says HAND.

New York Times IVF Article and Dr. Solenni's Responce

2008-02-25T15:13:00.006-06:00

Lowering Odds of Multiple Births

By Laurie Tarkan
New York Times
February 19, 2008

In the complex, expensive and emotionally charged world of fertility treatment, doctors are sounding a call to arms to reverse the soaring rate of multiple births. The doctors are responding to an unintended consequence of the success of in vitro fertilization — that it is often too successful. Since 1980, when the technique became available in the United States, the rate of twins in all births has climbed 70 percent, to 3.2 percent of births in 2004. Much of the increase, experts say, is a result of in vitro treatment. The rate of triplets and higher-order multiples increased even more from 1980 to 1998. It is not that twins or triplets are undesirable, doctors say. But multiple pregnancies often lead to risky preterm births and other complications. With that in mind, fertility centers are trying to lower the odds of such pregnancies, even at a cost of slightly lower success rates.

Fertility Center in Boston. “Is it a pregnancy without regard to the number of gestations or a pregnancy with a singleton live birth?” “Now is the time for all of us to rethink what is the paradigm of a successful I.V.F. pregnancy,” said Dr. Aaron K. Styer, a reproductive endocrinologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital. In I.V.F., a woman is given ovulation-induction hormones to produce multiple eggs, which are retrieved, fertilized with her partner’s sperm and transferred back to her uterus. The more embryos transferred, the higher the likelihood of multiples.

To achieve the goal of a single healthy baby, clinics are focusing on transferring fewer embryos and on developing more sophisticated ways to identify the healthiest embryos with the greatest chance of success. “We have been getting better at I.V.F. over the years, and as success rates go up, the number we transfer has to go down accordingly,” said Dr. Judy E. Stern, director of the human embryology and andrology lab at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H. “Where three embryos used to work and give you mostly singletons, now we transfer two, because we’re making better embryos.”

The number of I.V.F. cycles in which four or more embryos were transferred has dropped sharply, to 21 percent in 2004 from 62 percent in 1996. Although the efforts have substantially lowered the rates of triplets born through in vitro fertilization, they have not made a dent in the twin rate. That is because many doctors and patients are reluctant to take the final step to ensure a single birth, a process called S.E.T., for single embryo transfer. From 1996 to 2004, the rate of such procedures rose modestly, to 8 percent from 6 percent.

The American Society of Reproductive Medicine now recommends that women younger than 35 with a good prognosis have just one embryo transferred. Women under 35 make up 44 percent of I.V.F. cycles. In women older than 37, who have a higher incidence of embryos with chromosomal defects, three to five embryos are still recommended, depending on the woman’s age.

The main obstacle to single embryo transfer is its lower success rate. Some experts ask women to agree to two cycles, first transferring one fresh embryo while freezing the others. If the first transfer fails, doctors transfer a single frozen embryo, a much less costly and onerous procedure. That approach yields similar success rates to transferring two at once while drastically reducing twin rates. With momentum building to transfer just one or two embryos, clinics focus on choosing the embryo most likely to succeed. Selecting embryos has traditionally been based on a visual examination of their morphology — shape, number of divisions and other physical factors. But morphology does not tell all, and many embryos that look great under the microscope have undetected chromosomal abnormalities like missing or extra chromosomes, called aneuploidy. One method used to weed out unhealthy embryos is to leave the embryos in a Petri dish for five days, two more than usual, to allow more time for hidden chromosomal abnormalities to show up.

Other researchers are looking at the traits of women at high risk of having multiples. In research presented at the reproductive society’s annual meeting last October, Dr. Stern linked a higher number of oocytes, or eggs retrieved from ovaries, with higher rates of single and multiple pregnancies. “This will change our practice,” she said. “If more oocytes are retrieved, we’ll want to transfer fewer embryos.”

Other experts are turning to genetic screening before transfers to cull embryos without aneuploidy. The screening is used to select healthy embryos in families with histories of genetic diseases. Because one or two cells have to be removed for analysis, there is some concern that the process can damage embryos, lowering pregnancy rates. Another screening, comparative genomic hybridization, can assess all 23 pairs of chromosomes, providing an 80 percent chance of a healthy embryo and a 60 percent chance of a live birth, says Dr. Geoffrey Sher, executive medical director of the Sher Institutes of Reproductive Medicine, a nationwide group of fertility centers.

But Dr. Sher, whose lab performs this procedure, has encountered the same obstacles as others. He has a very high twin rate, hovering around 60 percent, because although the technique yields a higher success rate, women are refusing to have just one embryo transferred. Many women in fertility treatment say that they simply do not view having twins as a risky situation and that they are willing, if not eager, to have them to speed the completion of their family, to avoid the high costs of future I.V.F. cycles or to ensure that their child has a sibling, among other reasons.

For a couple in Brooklyn who asked that just the woman’s first name be used to protect their privacy, six years of infertility and several failed procedures was enough. When the woman, Marie, was 28, they requested that three embryos be transferred, even though their doctor advised transferring two. “I wanted a set of twins,” Marie said. “It is such a complicated and sometimes painful thing to go through I.V.F., and to have to go through it all again for a second child was just a waste for me.” In the third in vitro cycle, last June, Marie became pregnant, with triplets. At four weeks, she lost a fetus. At four and a half months, she lost the entire pregnancy. She was devastated, she said, but she added, “I don’t regret my decision.”

Though it is widely accepted that carrying three or more fetuses can have serious complications, some fertility specialists do not view a pregnancy with twins as risky, as long as the patient is carefully monitored. “Yes, twin delivery has more risk than singleton delivery, but with good obstetrical care and educated patients, the risk of twin delivery is minimally higher,” said Dr. Norbert Gleicher, medical director of the Center for Human Reproduction in New York.

Carrying twins or higher-order multiples raises the risk of preterm births; low-birth-weight babies, with the possibility of death in very premature infants; long-term health problems; and pregnancy complications, including pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes and Caesarean section. Studies show that 56 percent of I.V.F. twins born in 2004 weighed less than 5.5 pounds, and 65 percent were born prematurely, before 37 weeks of gestation. Still, many patients take comfort in the improvements in neonatal care. The survival rate for newborns over 2 pounds 3 ounces is 85 percent. And many people just see the adorable twins cooing in the double strollers crisscrossing Central Park — not the ones that do not make it out of neonatal intensive care — or the fetus that was eliminated in a medical procedure called a reduction to improve the chance of survival for the remaining fetus or fetuses.

Along with changes to in vitro fertilization, experts say, physicians need to improve monitoring drugs used to enhance ovulation. “The biggest problem with high multiples is coming from ovulation induction,” said Dr. Richard P. Dickey, chief of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at Louisiana State University Medical School in New Orleans. If ovaries are too aggressively stimulated with hormones, a woman can produce a nest full of eggs and increase her risk of having triplets, quadruplets and even sextuplets. All ovulation-induction cycles should be closely monitored, and the cycles that produce too many oocytes should be canceled, Dr. Dickey said.

The biggest obstacles to reducing twins in infertility treatment are not medical, experts said, but the lack of insurance coverage, as well as pressure from patients to be aggressive. “People have to recognize that there’s a connection between cost and how the treatment is going to play out,” said Barbara Collura, executive director of Resolve, a patient advocacy organization for people with infertility. “If you have $10,000 that you’ve begged, borrowed and stolen for this one I.V.F. cycle, you’re not going to say, ‘Please just transfer one.’" Even doctors in the vanguard of the trend face resistance from patients like Marie. Despite her pregnancy loss, she said, “With all the hard work I put into getting pregnant, I’d just rather have a set of twins than a singleton.”

Gimme, Gimme
Dr Pia de Solenni

When we go about having children the way we order a customized car, design a kitchen, or buy a wardrobe, maybe it's a sign that we should get a pet or stick to inanimate things like cars, clothing, and cuisinarts rather than babies.....

The New York Times has this piece on reducing the chances of multiple births for women who use IVF to become pregnant. Granted, infertility is a very difficult thing to deal with, but it doesn't follow that we can therefore use any means to achieve what we want - a child, our own child. This article raises some interesting points that deserve consideration. Here are a few:

"Women under 35 make up 44 percent of I.V.F. cycles."
- That's a lot of relatively young women. What IVF clinics won't tell women is that there are natural methods to overcoming many cases of infertility. Dr. Hilger's Pope Paul VI Institute is a very good place to start. Imagine treating women holistically and integrally - there's a revolutionary concept.

"But Dr. Sher, whose lab performs this procedure, has encountered the same obstacles as others. He has a very high twin rate, hovering around 60 percent, because although the technique yields a higher success rate, women are refusing to have just one embryo implanted." [emphasis mine]
- It's all about the baby, right? Yet people are willing to allow numerous embyros to die in the process of getting a "baby." Remember, that embryo is its own unique entity with it own DNA. It's not a clump of cells that will grow into a bit of hair or bone or any other isolated matter. Unimpeded, it will become the "baby" desperately desired by some. It will continue to become the screaming toddler, the morose teenager, the college graduate, the young spouse, and so on.

"Many women in fertility treatment say that they simply do not view having twins as a risky situation and that they are willing, if not eager, to have them to speed the completion of their family, to avoid the high costs of future I.V.F. cycles or to ensure that their child has a sibling, among other reasons."
- ["And I'll have one of those, and one of those, and that one, and that one, and one of those in every color, and...."] Sorry, not to trivialize infertility, but this sounds ridiculous. Only in a culture that has lost the sense of what gifts are (think of those endless registries for every occasion besides getting married; think of how acceptable it has become to buy gifts for ourselves or to select the gifts that other people will "give" us) would be so blind as to realize that we lose what it means for a child to be a gift. This is about having a baby my way, when and how I want it, without thought even for the well being of the baby that I want. Because, after all, I want it.

"And many people just see the adorable twins cooing in the double strollers crisscrossing Central Park — not the ones that do not make it out of neonatal intensive care — or the vanishing twin, a fetus that was eliminated in a medical procedure called a reduction to improve the chance of survival for the remaining fetus or fetuses."
- Need I say more? It's about getting what we want, no matter the cost to others.

"Despite her pregnancy loss, she said, 'With all the hard work I put into getting pregnant, I’d just rather have a set of twins than a singleton.'"
- Well, that's one way of looking at it.

Again, I don't intend to belittle infertility in any way. My only point is that maybe there are some good reasons for rethinking IVF. A friend of mine, faced with infertility, was ready to adopt. Her husband was completely opposed. But my friend reasoned, "Whether I have the baby or someone else does, there's no guarantee that he will be good, honest, intelligent, good looking, whatever." Even with all the choices that IVF offers, there are no guarantees of this kind. In the meantime, there are children who already exist and need homes. What about helping out one of them? Granted, it won't happen on our terms, but do we really think that having a baby on our terms with IVF will mean that everything will continue to be on our terms after that? That wouldn't really be life, would it?

Hilarious!

2008-02-25T09:39:00.003-06:00

I love these YouTube videos and what these guys did to the Mac v. PC commercials. I especially appreciate the last logo and quick tip they show at the end of each episode. There are 6 videos total, just search for "NFP vs. Contraception." Enjoy!

The Truth About Birth Control 1 & 2

2008-02-21T16:12:00.000-06:00

A Challenging Truth, Part One: How Birth Control Works

Patti Maguire Armstrong
Catholic Exchange
February 9, 2008

How can something be both immense and minute at the same time, something upon which all of human history depends, yet fragile and almost non-existent to the eye? It is the union of an egg and sperm — an embryo. Such is God's way. He takes something smaller than a mustard seed and brings forth all of civilization. After creating everything in the universe single-handedly, He created us in his own image and bestowed upon us the power to become co-creators with Him. Working in union with us, when the sperm unites with the egg, not only has a new human life been set in motion, but so too has a spiritual life. God places an everlasting soul into the being of every son and daughter.

Most of us rarely think that deeply about it all. In our worldly way, we forget eternity and begin to affix costs — physical, emotional and monetary. The costs can seem exorbitant when we focus only through the eyes of the world. And looking through those same worldly eyes, the way to prevent the miracle we clearly do not recognize as such is so easy, inexpensive, and ironically, also so small — the birth control pill. But the pill does not just prevent the miracle, it also destroys it, a fact that is often surprising to committed pro-lifers. This fact is true for all contraception that works through manipulation of hormone levels.

History

The pill has become a symbol of freedom to those who have been told they can "have it all". And it has become a symbol of destruction to those who support a "Theology of the Body," philosophy, the essence of Catholic teaching that artificial means must not disrupt God's natural order of things.

The first birth control pill received approval from the Food and Drug Administration in 1960. Using a synthetic estrogen hormone, the pill tricked a women's body into thinking it was pregnant. No egg would be released thereby preventing the opportunity for conception.

Although the pill was initially introduced with the idea of affording women a reliable way of limiting their family size, it soon became the ticket to the Sexual Revolution that began in the Sixties and never really ended. The pill promised something it's never been able to deliver: sex with "no strings attached". There are always emotional and moral consequences to thwarting God's purpose, but women discovered physical problems too. Blood clots, heart attacks and strokes were some of the side effects caused by the Pill's high estrogen levels. Drug manufacturers lowered these levels in order to reduce the side effects but that also increased the incidence of breakthrough ovulation. With the lower levels of estrogen, eggs would sometimes still get released and pregnancies resulted.

The drug companies tackled this situation by adding the synthetic hormone progesterone, which makes the uterine wall (the endometrium) inhospitable to implantation by an embryo. So if an egg was released and became fertilized by a sperm, thus creating life, the pill would have actually failed to prevent a conception, meaning it failed as a contraceptive. But, through preventing implantation of the embryo, the pill acts as an abortifacient and stops life from continuing to the next stage. (A clear and simple demonstration of this can be seen here.)

Since some women actually do become pregnant while on the pill, there are some embryos that manage to implant into the uterus. Whether it's RU-486, Norplant, Depo-Provera, the morning after pill, the Mini-pill, or the Pill, there is no chemical "contraceptive" that always causes an abortion. There is also none that never causes an abortion.

Ignorance

There is no way of knowing what percentage of pregnancies result in abortion through the pill. The woman using the pill with this scenario never even knows that she conceived a child. Her cycle will continue on schedule with no realization that an embryo is being flushed from her body. The Catholic Church has never wavered on the teaching that life begins at conception. Although Catholics are contracepting at rates parallel to non-Catholics, using artificial means to change our body's natural functions in order to block the potential for life has been recognized as rebellion against God's plan for humanity. However, using natural means to understand the rhythms of life and then to work in union with God is encouraged through Natural Family Planning.

The issue of birth control is a big one where misunderstanding and ignorance often misguide people. But when it comes to the pill, the ignorance that many women fall prey to is lack of understanding of its abortifacient properties. Most women don't consider that while taking their birth control, they may also be aborting a life within them. As Pope Paul VI predicted when he issued his encyclical Humanae Vitae (Of Human Life) in 1968, the use of artificial contraception would lead to abortions.

Although it seemed to many to be an overdramatic prediction, it proved to be prophetic. In hindsight, its logic in saying that widespread use of contraception would lead to "conjugal infidelity and the general lowering of morality" was prophetic. Since the Pill began to be sold in 1960, divorces have tripled, out-of-wedlock births jumped from 224,000 to 1.2 million, abortions doubled, and cohabitation soared 10-fold from 430,000 to 4.2 million.

Sex both inside and outside marriage ceased to be about a bond of marital love in which a couple became one in union with God. It became merely an activity for personal satisfaction devoid of anything more. The Pope predicted man would lose respect for woman, considering her "as a mere instrument of selfish enjoyment, and no longer as his respected and beloved companion."

Society as a whole moved from recognizing sex as something reserved for married couples to something for everyone, since the possibility for pregnancy was greatly reduced (although never completely removed). Thus, people completely opposed to having children could have sex with others whom they had chosen as bed partners but would never chose to co-parent their children. The most intimate experience intended to be shared in love and self-giving with the potential for creating life became merely a form of recreation. And if life sprang forth, such a life was easily regarded as nothing more than an unintended problem that could legally be disposed of through abortion.

But women choosing abortion and the men who either make that choice with them or plead for them to do otherwise, are very aware of the decision that is being made, whereas women who choose to take birth control pills are not so aware of the potential ramifications of their choice. There is not a baby with a heartbeat who must forcefully be removed, but unbeknownst to many, there is a baby. Since life begins at conception, a life, even though undetectable to us, is still a life. It is the way God chooses to begin things, small and yet mighty in its eternal existence.

In addition to the pill, IUDs, Depo-Provera and Norplant also cause early, undetectable abortions. Doctor usually fail to warn women of the abortifacient properties of the pill. I've heard some doctors admit they were not actually even aware of these properties. Women often choose contraception as a means to avoid pregnancy without realizing they are not actually stopping pregnancy, but quickly ending it.

Denial

In his booklet, titled Does the Birth Control Pill Cause Abortions?, Randy Alcorn states: "The question of whether it causes abortions has direct bearing on untold millions of Christians, many of them pro-life, who use and recommend it. For those who believe God is the Creator of each person and the giver and taker of human life, this is a question with profound moral implications."

Alcorn was a Protestant pastor who not only used the pill in his married life, but also counseled other married couples to do so. He had a vested interest in not recognizing the pill as an abortifactient. But when confronted with the facts through his own research, it demanded changes in his own behavior and philosophy. His booklet was written in 1998 to inform others of the truth.

Alcorn's booklet has met some opposition. According to him: "Despite evidence, some pro-life physicians state that the likelihood of the Pill having an abortifacient effect is infinitesimally low, or nonexistent. Though I would very much like to believe this, the scientific evidence does not permit me to do so."

Alcorn, surprisingly, found that the greatest resistance to recognizing the abortifacient quality of the pill comes from the Christian community. "Dr. Walt Larimore has told me that whenever he has presented this evidence to audiences of secular physicians, there has been little or no resistance to it. But when he has presented it to Christian physicians there has been substantial resistance. Since secular physicians do not care whether the Pill prevents implantation, they tend to be objective in interpreting the evidence. After all, they have little or nothing at stake either way. Christian physicians, however, very much do not want to believe the Pill causes early abortions. Therefore, I believe, they tend to resist the evidence. This is certainly understandable. Nonetheless, we should not permit what we want to believe to distract us from what the evidence indicates we should believe."

It's easier to be pro-life when we limit the discussion to the abortion industry. The inclusion of artificial birth control complicates and confuses people. With so many opinions even among Catholics, how is a person to know what to believe? I understand the confusion. While living in Montana, I had a doctor who was also a priest, who told me it was not realistic to expect a couple to follow the Catholic teaching on birth control. He prescribed birth control pills to many of his female patients. So, is it any surprise there are many Catholics, ones like me, ignorant of the true teaching?

Yet, we must cut through the false teachings and erroneous opinions to reach the truth. Our lives, our bodies and our souls are all we have. They are gifts that must be safeguarded. Christopher West, author and speaker, has written books and articles explaining the beauty and truth of God's plan for men and women. In his book, Good News about Sex and Marriage, he asserts that the Church's teaching on sex and marriage is good news because it's the truth about love and true love is the fulfillment of the human person. He also admits that the news is challenging. "This is so because the truth about love is always challenging."

A Challenging Truth, Part One: How Birth Control Works

Patti Maguire Armstrong
Catholic Exchange
February 12, 2008

"Everyone does it, so what's the big deal?" Taking the pill, getting "fixed", getting a shot of Depo-Provera...there's a myriad of choices for contraception. The expectation in today's modern society is that everyone uses artificial birth control at some point in their lives, be they married or not. Right?

Many years ago, I would have agreed with all of the above. I was not a rebellious Catholic, just an ignorant one. But the guilt of my ignorance rests on more shoulders than just mine. I was surrounded by contraception Catholics who discussed their birth control as easily as they spoke of which brand of toothpaste they used. And then there was the Catholic clergy. There was nary a homily I heard that even hinted of the Catholic teaching on human sexuality. Understandably, it's not an ideal topic for an audience of all ages. And, truthfully, I did not always make it to Mass, so maybe I missed the "Talk" one Sunday. Had I kept up on Catholic teaching, I would have been aware of the "Theology of the Body". This was the first major teaching Pope John Paul II gave in 129 short talks between 1979 and 1984. This project was a Biblical reflection on the meaning of human embodiment, particularly as it concerns human sexuality.

I was not aware of the "Theology of the Body" because I was not a good Catholic back in the day. Nor did I pay much heed to Natural Family Planning in which couples regulate births without recourse to unnatural methods that interfere with the way God designed our fertility. But I expected a popular priest at my parish in Montana to be up on all things Catholic. Unfortunately, he was not. As both a priest and doctor, his parishioners and patients looked up to him. He let them down by stating, "It's not realistic to expect couples to follow the Pope's teachings on birth control."

The Error of our Ways

I believed my doctor/priest and followed society. Not until I began to embrace my Catholic faith and trust its teachings to guide me did I come to trust that God's plan is always the best. When Mark and I married in 1981, I was not even aware the Catholic Church taught that contraception was against God's plan. We were both Catholic and occasionally went to Mass. It seemed like a good thing to do, but other weekend plans easily took precedence over Mass. Our Catholic faith was mostly on the back burner.

After the births of our three boys, I decided to have surgery for a tubal ligation. I loved my children very much, but three seemed like plenty. Mark said the decision was up to me. During the pre-op exam, the doctor explained the failure rate was only 1 in 500. Those odds were unsettling. "Not bad odds for a million dollar lottery," I thought. A failure could result in a tubal pregnancy, which could result in death. That thought weighed heavily on my mind. I canceled.

The next line of attack was birth control pills prescribed by my Catholic doctor/priest. (He had become a priest first then received permission to go through medical school and become a doctor.) When my cycle started up again halfway through the package of pills, it was obvious they were not working. My doctor/priest had explained they contained a low dose of estrogen to avoid common side effects. Obviously, the dose was so low that they were not preventing ovulation as intended. I tossed them out.

The following month I became pregnant. When Mark heard the news, he announced: "I've been praying for this." It turned out the big sneak had literally been praying on the sly. He liked the idea of having another baby and decided to pray rather than argue about it. I was actually happy about the news. A diehard baby lover like myself could not help but rejoice at another little one. This may seem odd from a person taking precautions against having more children, but as you can see, none of this was very well thought out.

Jacob was born on May 13, the anniversary date of Our Lady of Fatima's first appearance in Fatima, Portugal. It was also Mark's birthday and Mother's Day. Mark too had been born on Mother's Day thirty-three years earlier. Happy Birthday Mark — from God.

During this time in our lives, we began reading about various Marian apparitions and were inspired for the first time to pray the rosary. We stopped missing Sunday Mass and began learning more about our faith. Still, we were not fully converted yet — particularly when it came to family planning. There's always a learning curve and we did not go from A to Z overnight. After four children, I insisted Mark have a vasectomy. He resisted at first but finally relented.

Reality Hits

Initially, I was oblivious that we had done anything wrong. But gradually, as I grew to desire God's will in my life, started making visits to Jesus in the tabernacle and continued praying the rosary, a feeling grew in me. I realized that the Church, which Christ had founded to guide us until the end of time, had authority to teach on spiritual matters, including matters relating to sexuality. I had been given no such authority.

I shared my feelings of regret over Mark's sterilization with him. He was less than thrilled since he thought it was a bad idea to begin with. As a matter of fact, he accused me of being like Eve. "You are right," I agreed. "But remember, Adam was kicked out of the garden, too." We began praying that God's will would be done in our lives, including whether we would have more children. We determined that if it was God's will, Mark's vasectomy would fail.

But, one night, I had a dream in which I saw two babies — one blonde and one dark-haired. I felt an intense love for these babies as if they were my own. At the end of the dream, I was made to know that these were babies God had planned for us, but because we had not lived in union with His plan, they would never be born. I woke up feeling like a mother who just lost her babies. I knew the only way to get to them was to convince Mark to have a reversal of his vasectomy.

When Mark came home from work that day, I approached him with my idea for a reversal. He would have none of it. I barely got two sentences out of my mouth before he announced the subject was officially closed. Even if we could afford it, he was completely unwilling to subject himself to another surgery. Now, it was my turn to pray behind Mark's back. "Okay God," I prayed, "I want to do Your will but I am powerless to change Mark's mind. I'm putting everything in Your hands." Then, I just kept praying.

Of One Mind

Several months had passed when one morning after Sunday Mass, Mark casually wondered out loud how much a reversal operation would cost. "I know," I announced. Before Mark had shot my idea down, I had called the doctor's office to get all the information.

"I can't get off from work this month," Mark said, "but next month I could go in and get it done." I was both shocked and thrilled. We did not have the money to pay for it, but we determined we could probably make payments.

"What changed your mind?" I finally asked, wondering what had caused such a drastic change of heart. His answer took my breath away.

"I had a dream last night," Mark said. "I saw two babies that God had planned for us." I had never told a single soul about my dream.

Three months later, we were expecting a baby. I had a strong feeling that it would be our first girl and God wanted us to name her Mary after the Blessed Mother who had intervened for us. We had never considered the name with any previous pregnancy. I wrote on a slip of paper, "Yes, I think Mary would be a good name," and tucked it in my wallet. I figured that when God let Mark in on the plan, I would pull out the slip and show him.

Our blond-haired baby girl, Mary, was born on December 22, 1993. A few months before her birth, we inherited the exact amount of money we needed to pay Mark's reversal surgery in full. Dark-haired Teresa was born on my birthday, April 18, 1996. I thought we must be done now that we had the babies from our dream. Mark said he thought ten would be a good number of children. I did not actually take this seriously. I recalled that when St. Maximilian Kolbe was young, he had received a vision of Our Blessed Mother. She had shown him two wreaths of roses — one of red representing martyrdom, and one of white, representing purity. She asked him which he would like to choose. He chose both. I wondered if, like St. Maximilian, we should volunteer to take on more than God asked? We prayed for guidance.

John was born on August 31, 1999 and Isaac was born on his sister Mary's birthday, December 22, 2001. We are a family of twelve now, including two brothers who were AIDS orphans from Kenya. As of this writing, the ages range from 24 to 6. There could be no greater blessing on our family than our precious children. The kid's love for each other runs deep. I know that one of the biggest draws for my oldest sons to come home for visits is to spend time with their siblings.

The moral of this story is not that everyone must have a big family to do the will of God. No, my plan is not your plan. The moral of my story is that God has a plan for us all. To discern His plan and strive to live in union with it, we must learn and embrace the teachings He gives us through His Church. Nowadays, there is an abundance of authors, speakers and organizations that support and encourage couples in this way. I have no doubt that much of that information was available back when I first married, but I did not make it my business to learn about it. Make it your business to learn because, until your plan is God's plan, it's the wrong one.

Patti Maguire Armstrong is the mother of ten children including two Kenyan AIDS orphans. She is a speaker and the author of Catholic Truths for Our Children: A Parent's Guide (Scepter). She is also the managing editor and co-author of Ascension Press's Amazing Grace book series. Her website is RaisingCatholicKids.com

Some Thoughts on Hormonal Contraceptives

2008-02-20T16:20:00.026-06:00

The issue of birth control came to the foreground for me when I was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. Basically my ovaries were maturing oocytes but often were unable to release these eggs, resulting in cysts. In response to the first grouping of ova sacks not rupturing my body would mature subsequent groupings that were unsuccessful, utilizing more of the unregenerative number of immature gametes. Following this revelation my prior doctor gave me a limited time to have children and informed me that I would have to rely on fertility medications and possible artificial interventions like IVF and ICSI. That doctor's advisement was to begin taking an oral hormonal contraceptive for 3 months followed by a cycle of Clomid, an ovulation inducing medication.

That doctor's suggestion became an immediate subject with our Priest, who graciously made it known that even though it is an abortifacient there would not be any moral dilemma with using the contraceptives as long as we were abstaining during the interval I was taking the medication. Abstinence would be a necessary precaution do to the contraceptive's abortive properties. If we were not to abstain while I was ingesting the medication and a child was conceived, the baby would not be received in to the naturally hospitable environment of the uterus, but rather into a hostile, chemically transformed habitat incapable of fostering implantation.

Our priest also warned us that he did not think abstaining for that duration would be conducive to the beginning of a healthy marriage. Even the abstinence required for accurate Natural Family Planning practices is only a few days a month. After the discussion with our Priest I switched from my pro-life doctor to a Catholic ob/gyn and midwife that were family centered, NFP oriented, and did not provide contraception. We felt very strongly that the professionals that would be aiding our family needed to be in complete conformity with church teachings.

For most gynecologists and obstetricians their first course of action for fertility concerns is to prescribe the regiment of hormonal birth control for 3 months to restart the reproductive system, essentially by stopping its function, and follow that time period with a prescription for an ovulation inducing medication like Clomid. This instant response is a result of connections with major pharmaceutical companies and not the need of the misinformed patients who are unaware of there options. Often times, on the occasion that the ovulation inducer does provoke ovulation, a large number of oocytes are expelled producing multiple babies, therefore greater health risks for all parties involved.

In addition to putting yourself and children in danger, there are all the side effects from the contraceptives themselves. These adverse effects, include increased heart disease, breast and ovarian cancer ovarian cysts, and uterine fibroids, are why we will not be using the recommended hormone regiment and now use a Catholic obstetrician/gynecologists and midwife. On a side note, the use of hormonal contraceptives as an aid for PMS or to regulate cycles still hold the same long term side effects. And further women are given this endowment of pain each month as an opportunity for penance as with child birth. Clomid has side effects of its own, like hot flashes and ovarian hyperstimulation. Another draw back to using Clomid is that the drug inhibits the production of the viable cervical mucus crucial to the survival of sperm within the female reproductive tract. A possible solution to this side effect may be the use of Preseed, the only nonspermicidal personal moisturizer, with a make up similar to that of fertile cervical mucus. There are also many natural and licit measures for PMS, cycle regulation, and conception assistance through the help of the Creighton Method and Dr. Hildgers at the Pope Paul VI Institute.

I have been charting for fertility awareness for a few years now, and that was also the counsel given by my ob/gyn and midwife, to determine when ovulation occurs and at what frequency. It may take longer for us to conceive than those using artificial conception methods but most importantly we will not unknowingly be killing our children, moreover it will serve as a reminder to us that a child is not a right, but in fact gift that deserves to be conceived, as Pope John Paul II expressed, though a natural and marital act of love.

Just One More Reason to Homeschool.

2008-02-13T11:38:00.006-06:00

Maryland Judge Rules Against Parents on Homosexual Curriculum

LifeSiteNews
February 8, 2008

"Judge Rowan's ruling gives a green light to homosexual groups throughout Maryland to pressure school boards to adopt similar policies." Richard Thompson,Thomas More Law Center

ANN ARBOR, MI (LifeSiteNews) - Maryland Circuit Court Judge William J. Rowan, III, ruled last week that it is permissible to teach 8th and 10th grade Montgomery County public school students how to use condoms during anal and oral sex, as well as that homosexuality is inborn, even though in 2007 Maryland's highest appellate court ruled there is no scientific basis for such a conclusion. The controversial new curriculum was adopted as a result of pressure by homosexual advocacy groups.

That sexual orientation is innate is a theory that has been rejected by courts in several states including Maryland. Maryland's highest appellate court issued an opinion in a 2007 civil union case, holding that the proposition that homosexuality is innate is not supported by credible evidence. In fact, not one U.S. court presented with the issue has found homosexuality to be an innate characteristic.

The Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which represents Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum, the Family Leader Network, and the Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays had asked the Judge Rowan to overturn a Maryland Board of Education ruling that approves of public schools in Montgomery County, Maryland to teaching 8th and 10th graders that homosexuals are born that way, and how to use condoms during anal and oral sex.

274 Montgomery area doctors signed a petition objecting to the curriculum which promotes the notion that the use of condoms prevents disease in anal intercourse.

Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center commented, "Judge Rowan's ruling gives a green light to homosexual groups throughout Maryland to pressure school boards to adopt similar policies. We will be meeting with our clients next week regarding an appeal. "

Montgomery educators defended their new sex curriculum that promotes anal sex, homosexuality, bisexuality and transvestitism despite strong opposition from several pro family groups.

Brandon Bolling, the Thomas More Law Center attorney who argued the case, asked Judge Rowan to either declare the curriculum illegal or send it back to the state board of education for another review. "Maryland law says that you have to teach something that is factually accurate," said Bolling. "They are not doing that, therefore it is illegal. "

Magnificat Breakfast

2008-02-11T11:42:00.000-06:00

The Catholic Women's Ministry, Magnificat will be hosting a ladies breakfast Saturday February 16th from 9-12pm. It will be held at the DFW Hilton in Grapevine, Texas with Mary Ann Kuharski, Director of PROLIFE Across America and author of Raising Catholic Children and Outnumbered, Raising 13 Kids with Humor and Prayer as the guest speaker. In addition to being a well respected author and her work with PROLIFE Across America, Mary Ann Kuharski is a stay-at-home mother to 13 and advocate for adoption.

Tickets for the breakfast are $18 and can be acquired through Nancy Ferri at 817-498-7980. February 12th is the purchase deadline. The Breakfast will also include sections of praise and Eucharistic devotion followed by opportunities for confession. More information on PROLIFE Across America can be found at their website: www.prolifeacrossamerica.org

Some Thoughts on Pregnancy and Birth

2008-01-21T14:52:00.000-06:00

The following is a post I found from my good friend Liz. She is a catholic mother of 4 and a strong advocate for natural home birth, attachment parenting, co-sleeping, breastfeeding, and homeschooling. I have always planned on raising my children in the same way and when I read her post I knew it needed to be shared. Hopefully after those who read this will be careful not to waist the perfect opportunity for penance that God intended through natural birth.

As a pregnant woman, I find I have little in common with certain other pregnant women. When I was pregnant with our oldest it was the fact that most of the other first time moms were a good ten years older than me. They were over thirty, had "lived" life and felt they were ready for parenthood.

I have always felt that the morons of the world are the ones who think they're ready. Guess what, you're never ready.

When I was prego with number two son, it was the other moms who were on their second child who would ask if I was going to have any more after that because God knows, that was it for them.

Now I find I'm just impatient with the pregnant women choose to be ignorant. The ones who I run into all the time who don't read anything have no idea what's going on with their bodies or their babies. It's enough to make me scream. I'm talking about usually college educated women who have careers. They're smart, they just choose to be ignorant when it comes to bringing their child into the world. And it's usually the ones who won't eat any kind of fish or avoid having even half a glass of wine during their whole pregnancy. They're very careful not to put anything into their bodies that could hurt the baby but when it comes time for the baby to come out they want to be pumped full of drugs and "delivered".

I'm not even saying you shouldn't ever have pain medication but don't you want to know what your options are? Don't you want to know what your body does during labor and delivery? What you can expect to happen, or what you have the right to refuse be done to you.

The attitude of being afraid to question a Doctor's decision regarding your care because you are afraid of offending him or because you think he's doing you some big favor by delivering your child is just silly. He's offering you a service, he's being compensated for that service. Yes you have a say in what happens, if you don't tell him/her what you prefer, then they'll do what is easiest for them. Why not, I would too. If you don't care how the job gets done, then I'll do what is easiest and most convenient for me.

You might not believe me that Doctors do what is most convenient for them or make a lot of decisions from a risk management position. You might say this is the United States, we have the technology we are the greatest country in the world. The safest place you could be to have a baby is in an American hospital with an American Doctor.

I would then tell you that you were crazy. If you did the slightest bit of homework you'd find that the great U S of A is number 34 on the infant mortality rate list. Yes, I'll say it again number 34. That means that there are 33 countries safer to have a baby in than America. Ok, there are some pretty tiny countries ahead of us but even if you knock off 5 or 10 countries from the list we would still be around number 24.

If you don't like what I've said so far, then you are going to hate it when I tell you that many of the countries that have a lower infant death mortality rate have a much higher instance of births attended by midwives. It makes sense though. If you ask anyone who has experienced both, a hospital birth attended by a physician or a birth attended by a midwife, you will find they will tell you the difference in care is remarkable.

I'll tell you a few of the reasons why. When you are in a hospital setting, you are surrounded by technology and they have all the equipment necessary for any situation that may arise, but they also set themselves up to need this technology by intervening in what is a natural process. For reasons like Doctor convenience and the need for them to speed things up so you'll stay on their schedule, they do all kinds of interventive procedures which necessitate the need for technology so they can know when their interventions are not working or are putting the mother and baby at risk.

During the normal hospital delivery, you don't see your doctor very often. He/She pops in for a minute or two during labor and then leaves you in the care of the nurses, who rely on the machines they have you (so conveniently for them) hooked up to to tell them when things are going south. So, yes you do need all that technology in that setting because by the time they catch something, the need to fix the problem is immediate. Contrast that to a natural birth with a midwife who is with you the whole time assessing the situation and is much more able to catch potential problems earlier on and address them or asses the need for medical intervention. It's just a completely different attitude about the birthing process.

The midwife approach views birth as a natural process which they assist and help with in case of problems. The obstetrical approach is more of a cure you of the sickness of pregnancy. That's why you go to a hospital right? Your sick and they make you better.

You wonder why it would be this way, why won't the Doctors take a different approach ? I'll tell you why, because no one requires it of them. Because they have tons of patients who take more time picking the right car seat to coordinate with their diaper bag than they do picking or questioning their Doctor.

I'll leave you with this:

"In the U.S. the national infant mortality rate was 8.9 deaths per 1,000 live births [in 1991]. The worst state was Delaware at 11.8, with the District of Columbia even worse at 21.0. The best state was Vermont, with only 5.8. Vermont also has one of the highest rates of home birth in the country as well as a larger portion of midwife-attended births than most states. . .

"The international standing of the U.S. [in terms of infant mortality rates] did not really begin to fall until the mid-1950s. This correlates perfectly with the founding of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologist (ACOG) in 1951. ACOG is a trade union representing the financial and professional interests of obstetricians who has sought to secure a monopoly in pregnancy and childbirth services. Prior to ACOG, the U.S. always ranked in 10th place or better. Since the mid-1950s the U.S. has consistently ranked below 12th place and hasn't been above 16th place since 1975. The relative standing of the U.S. continues to decline even to the present."

("International Infant Mortality Rates--U.S. in 22nd Place," David Stewart, NAPSAC News, Fall-Winter, 1993, pages 36, 38.)

Since Liz wrote this in 2003 the United States has dropped 3 places to 37 in infant mortality rate.

It is Truly a Miracle!

2008-01-07T14:49:00.000-06:00

Before I begin the update on my Father's amazing recovery, first let me apologize for the extended silence. With all the trauma after Thanksgiving on top of trying to finishing up the semester with finals, and then the holidays, I found no time to sit down and blog. That being said, and with the spring semester in commencement preparation I have returned.

When I posted initially concerning my Father, we nor the doctors knew much about what was happening. My Father had not been feeling well the night of Nov. 24 and began exhibiting symptoms of hypoglycemia. To combat this episode of low blood sugar my Mother brought him a root beer and then left the room to get a peppermint. The first part of this miracle was that my Mother was there to help him, the doctors said repeatedly that if he had been alone he would have died. When my Mother returned with the peppermint my Father was sweating profusely and was unable to breath, this was when my Mother call the ambulance and shortly afterwards my Father lost consciousness. After arriving at the emergency room the EMTs told my Mother that my Father had stopped breathing and had no heartbeat in the ambulance and that they had been doing CPR for over 9 minutes. When he got to the hospital the doctors gave my Father all the different types of blood thinners that the hospital had because they suspected a stroke or heart attack, as well as, intubated and placed my Father on a respirator as he was unable to breathe on his own. The next week was very uncertain and frightening because the doctors performed numerous tests but were not really finding anything in order to make a diagnosis. By the end of the week they ruled out a stroke and assumed he had a heart hypoglycemia induced heart attack, the did not however find a clot most likely due to all the blood thinners he was given upon arrival at the hospital. At the end of the week the doctors were able to remove the respirator and feeding tube and my Father was successful at breathing on his own. Although unable to speak because of the tubes that were removed, my Father did recognize everyone that came in to see him and could comprehend what was being said. This is another miracle because brain damage occurs after 4 minutes without oxygen and my Father was without oxygen for over 9 minutes. The next week my Father went home and did not go back to work until the first of the year. He is a very hard worker and good provider for the family, this was the longest vacation he ever had, and the first Christmas he did not have to work on the 26th of December.

I can not thank everyone enough for all the prayers, I know that without them my Father would not be here. All the Praise and Glory be to God the Mighty Healer!

A Plea for Prayers

2007-11-25T17:37:00.000-06:00

Late last night my Father, MACK, experienced a cardiac episode resulting in respiratory and cardiac arrest while riding in the ambulance to the hospital. He is currently relying on a ventilator and feeding tube for life support and is still in critical condition as the physicians are working to keep him stable and are deciphering a diagnosis.

At this time I plead for prayers on his behalf, that God may give the Doctors thorough discernment of all conditions present, wisdom in their assessments and plan of treatment, as well as the fullness of recovery, be that it is in God's will for him. THANK YOU ALL

Dr. Ray Guarendi Speaking Tomorrow!

2007-10-26T12:52:00.001-05:00

Dr. Ray Guarendi is a host of the Catholic KATH 910AM radio show "The Doctor Is In," as well as a clinical psychologist, author and father of 10. Tomorrow he will be presenting a lecture on parenting entitled “Parental Survival Course: Turning Trials to Triumphs” at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Keller. Mass begins at 8am with the presentation following at 9am until 12pm. Tickets can be purchased at the church the day of the event and admission is $10 a piece or $20 per family.

St. Elizabeth Anne Seton Church is located at 2016 Willis Lane in Keller, Texas.

"The Doctor Is In" can be heard found on 910AM on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 12pm until 1pm.

My First Niece!!!

2007-10-25T17:36:00.000-05:00

After three nephews from my brother Scooter, I finally have a little niece!!! Her formerly Top Secret name is Lauren Avery, and she was born 7lbs 15oz, and 19in at 12:45pm, with a head full on beautiful brown locks. I can't wait for all the tea parties, dress up and all the other wonderfully feminine frills!

Pictures from Ed and Katy's Wedding

2007-10-21T22:56:00.001-05:00

Here are the pictures of Angela, Lydia, Phillip and I, from Ed and Katy's Wedding. It was great fun and fellowship. Thanks to Fr. Allen for letting us stay at St. Francis with friends so late into the night. We know that Ed and Katy will be very happy. Watch out Lydia, you're next!!!

The Duggars on the Today Show

2007-10-19T16:36:00.001-05:00

One thing that I find amazing is the overwhelming joy that Michelle, the Duggars' mother, emits. I love how both times she is asked about having more children she immediately responds "yes," without any hesitation or reservation. The Duggars have great courage not only to homeschool, but more importantly that God will provide for them as they follow His will; this is why Michelle and her husband are my heroes.

Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day

2007-10-15T12:08:00.000-05:00

Today is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day so please take a little time to pray for those Holy Innocents lost to abortion, early infant death and miscarriage, as well as thank God for His unfailing mercy. I would especially appreciate prayers for the soul of my sister, Hannah Abigail.

The following is a prayer from St. Faustina that I found appropriate:

O Greatly Merciful God, Infinite Goodness, today all mankind calls out from the abyss of its misery to Your mercy - to Your compassion, O God; and it is with its mighty voice of misery that it cries out. Gracious God, do not reject the prayer of this earth's exiles! O Lord, Goodness beyond our understanding, Who are acquainted with our misery through and through, and know that by our own power we cannont ascend to You, we implore You: anticipate us with Your grace and keep on increasing Your mercy in us, that we may faithfully do Your holy will all through our life and at death's hour. Let the omnipotence of Your mercy shield us from the darts of our salvation's enemies, that we may with confidence, as Your children, await Your final coming - that day known to You alone. And we expect to obtain everything promised us by Jesus in spite of all our wretchedness. For Jesus is our Hope: Through His merciful Heart, as through an open gate, we pass through to heaven. Amen

Such a Touching Message

2007-10-09T15:38:00.001-05:00

This commercial is awesome and has a great pro-life message. Thank you Exspectantes Beatam Spes for bringing it to my attention.

Gender Roles of Desperate Housewives and the Instilment of Catholic Family Values

2007-10-09T11:57:00.000-05:00

This essay is from a Women's Roles in Television class I took last summer. I appreciate all comments and feedback. Happy reading!

Gender Roles of Desperate Housewives and the Instilment of Catholic Family Values

Following the end of WWII, the people of the United States began reconstructing normalcy and their way of life before Pearl Harbor. This restoration of the American dream was undertaken in part through the return of previously industrious women back into the home, increased consumerism, and a re-welcoming of traditional gender roles.

During WWII a change occurred, a need to replenish a depleted workforce out weighed the social norms that viewed women in the workplace as objectionable. When the need for wartime production subsided and soldiers returned home, however, the recently, professionally trained and self-sufficient women were escorted back to their, sometimes, mundane lives. Those women who were wives and mothers reassumed their household chores of cooking, cleaning and caring for children. Others with new and old sweethearts looked forward to getting married and having a family of their own. With the confusion and unknowing that accompanied D-day, the population’s focus turned to family and the baby bomb shortly followed. All of these events were desperate efforts to rebuild lives disheveled by war.

Television also aided the reestablishment of women’s original identity in the home. With the invention of new improved appliances along with diverse modern kitchen utilities, there were more advertisement opportunities for radio, television and magazines. In turn, interest in the monotonous household duties was revived and a rise in consumerism created. An innovative need for these products arose, one may wonder if it was in part due to the pressure and influence of other housewives, and thus women became occupied with their latest gadgets that replace the industrial tools they previously used. Television also supported this image of women through the characters portrayed on their broadcasted programs. In I Love Lucy, Lucy used similar appliances and in addition to the commercials shown during the program the show provided ingenious publicity for these products and her lifestyle a like.

The relationship between the characters of Lucy and Ricky also set an example for the viewing audience. Although Lucy gets into numerous scrapes throughout the episodes and appears to question her position in the household, Ricky is the loving authoritarian. At times, Lucy reverts to childlike behavior when Ricky does not let her have her way, and in response he becomes stern and takes his place as the head of the household. These scenes were a message to women and reinforced the traditional gender role of the male patriarch. Further Ricky is the sole breadwinner in the Ricardo family. Lucy fought a constant battle to break out into show business and work for a living, but Ricky was adamantly against the idea. This was another message to women and men alike. Now these attitudes are viewed as misogynistic but they may have been accepted more readily, when the show was in its infancy, because of its comedic framing.

The character of Lucy as a mother was an important note as well. Although Little Ricky was not introduced in the show until the second season, once he arrived her role as a mother was highly emphasized. Her desire to work out side the home was continually countered by Ricky when he accentuated her job as Little Ricky’s caregiver. Further it seemed that sometimes Lucy felt bad she ever wanted to work outside the home. This conveyed a strong meaning that women should be grateful and happy that they can take care of their children and that it is solely the mother’s job. This job of child care giving was paired with Lucy’s need to care for Ricky also. She made Ricky breakfast every morning and was shown doing his laundry and ironing, in addition to the other household maintenance tasks. Ricky was unable to perform those tasks adequately in the show’s “Job Switching” episode; this illustration confirmed the traditional gender roles even more.

My how things have changed!

In our post sexual revolution society the character of the desperate housewife has drastically evolved. In Everybody Loves Raymond the wife Deborah was a career woman as was Lynette in Desperate Housewives. Both characters gave up their careers to embrace motherhood but the shows are not afraid to question if staying home with the children was the right decision. Deborah and Lynette also struggle in their parenting practices and frantically request help from their husbands while often times they are ignored. Rather than seeing their mothering as a duty, they realize when they are under appreciated and feel badly when they are not shown gratitude. Deborah is also portrayed as a bad cook, which is something that would never have been said on I Love Lucy because of its offensiveness. The husband’s roles have been altered in some ways as well. In both shows the father is still the breadwinner and head of the house, however, more say is given to the mothers, and their opinions for the most part is taken more into consideration. Overall, as seen in these programs, the running of a household has turned into a group effort as opposed to all the work being put on the woman. Here the role of women has lost its importance and is devalued. The tasks once ascribed only to women as being an innate skill and unique purpose has been asexualized and therefore attained an stereotype of menial.

In closing, television has helped disseminate values through our culture. Whether Americans are struggling to remember who they are following a world war or adjusting to the ever changing definition of the modern man and woman, television helps to mold social perceptions. In today’s society where the family unit is under attack and children are seen as a burden, shows like I Love Lucy are categorized as passé. But based on the television trends of the 1950‘s and the baby boom I am led to wonder if our society’s values and gender roles would change if our programs reflected the Catholic teachings of God ordained, traditional gender roles that valued motherhood, home cooked meals prepared with love, and basic purity and cleanliness both in person and home.

By Popular Demand: The Laundry Recipes.

2007-10-02T12:13:00.000-05:00

These are the recipes that I have use for a long time and they can be used in older machine types like the one I have as well as the newer HE machines similar to my Mother's. I am only listing the liquid version below here today because after several batches and individual attempts with the dry detergent, the substance never completely dissolved or rinsed out, this, however, may just be due to my particular machine. Let me know if y'all would like my dry detergent recipe to try, I would be more than happy to pass that one along as well. Enjoy!

Liquid Laundry Detergent

1 bar of Soap, grated
1.5 cups Borax
1.5 cups Washing Soda
3 gallons Hot Water
5 gallon Bucket from Home Depot

1. Dissolve the grated Soap in 3 cups of Water on the stove.

2. Add 3 gallons of Hot Water to the bucket.

3. Add dissolved Soap and dry ingredients.

4. Stir thoroughly.

5. Let cool over night, uncovered.

I use 1/2 cup per load. You may need to add 1/2 cup Distilled White Vinegar to your load if you have hard water. This recipe makes 102 loads at .02 cents a piece, and the price can be reduced by making your own soap.

Fabric Softener

1 cup Baking Soda
6 cups Distilled White Vinegar
8 cups Water
1 gallon Bucket

1. Add Baking Soda.

2. Add 1 cup of Water.

3. Add vinegar slowly as mixture begins to fizz.

4. Add the remainder of Water.

5. Mix well and cover, letting the concoction vent every so often.

You can either use 1 cup in your final rinse or soak a washcloth in the liquid then throw it in the dryer. You can also add 10 - 15 drop of an essential oil of your choice for scent, be sure to shake before every use if you decide to add fragrance.

Since my recipe for dishwasher detergent contains the same ingredients as the laundry recipes I will add it here. This recipe is so simple and leaves dishes clean and sparkling.

Dishwasher Detergent

Equal parts:

Baking Soda and Borax

Use 2 TBS. per load or just add one TBS. of each ingredient every load.

For a rinse agent use Distilled White Vinegar.

Thanks be to God!!!

2007-09-26T09:33:00.000-05:00

Phillip got his first JOB!!! In two weeks he will be starting at ARGO in Richardson, providing software and hardware support. After many different offers and much prayer by both of us, Phillip discerned that ARGO was the place God wanted us to be. Please pray for him as he begins this new chapter in his life and for me as I fulfill my role trusting and supporting him in this endeavor.

British Fertility Clinics Plan to Grow Human Ova

2007-09-24T13:44:00.000-05:00

Sadly there is another tragedy on the ART front. Two British fertility clinics are beginning the harvest and storage of immature gametes to mature in the lab for career women in the future. The poor egg is not even allowed to mature in the woman's body rather all the "work" is done in a lab and a newly created embryo is just implanted when the parties deem it the right time. What is the next step, no gestation or labor at all, just pick up the fully developed baby nine months later?

You can read the article from The Telegraph here.

Great Find!!!

2007-09-20T21:30:00.000-05:00

While browsing on cafe press I found this great design on shirts and other items and just knew I had to pass it on. I should be getting my shirt in about a week and hope that y'all will do the same to spread the beauty found in the modesty of head covering.

Promises of the Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary

2007-09-17T17:36:00.000-05:00

"And He showed me that it was his great desire of being loved by men and of withdrawing them from the path of ruin into which Satan hurls such crowds of them, that made Him form the design of manifesting his heart to men, with all the treasures of love, of mercy, of grace, of sanctification and salvation which it contains in order that those who desire to render Him and procure for Him all the honour and love possible, might themselves be abundantly enriched with those divine treasures of which this Heart is the source. He should be honoured under that figure of this Heart and flesh, and its image should be exposed . . . He promised me that wherever this image should be exposed with a view to showing it special honour, He would pour forth His blessings and graces. This devotion was the last effort of His love that He would grant to men in these later days, in order to withdraw them from the empire of Satan which he deserves to destroy, and thus to introduce them into the sweet liberty of the rule of His love, which He wished to restore in the hearts of all those who should embrace this devotion." ~St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

The 12 Promises of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

1. I will give them all graces necessary for their state of life.

2. I will give peace in their families.

3. I will console them in all their troubles.

4. They shall find in My Heart an assured refuge during life and especially at the hour of death.

5. I will pour abundant blessings on all their undertakings.

6. Sinners shall find in My Heart the source and infinite ocean of mercy.

7. Tepid souls shall become fervent.

8. Fervent souls shall speedily rise to great perfection.

9. I will bless the homes in which the image of My Sacred Heard shall be exposed and honoured.

10. I will give to priests the power to touch the most hardened hearts.

11. Those who propagate this devotion shall have their names written in My Heart, and it shall never be effaced.

12. The all-powerful love of My Heart will grant to all those who shall receive Communion on the First Friday on nine consecutive months the grace of the final repentance; they shall not die under My displeasure, nor without receiving their Sacraments; My Heart shall be their assured refuge at that last hour.

A New Adventure in Homemaking

2007-09-13T09:25:00.000-05:00

In my journey to maintain frugality I found an amazing book by Janice Cox, Natural Beauty at Home, that contains over 250 simple and all natural recipes for most everything from shampoo and conditioner to perfume and cold cream. A nice thing about the recipes is that the majority of them need only three or four common and everyday ingredients. The only concoction that I was surprised not to see in the book, given that it did have a section devoted to babies, was a baby wipe recipe; thankfully I already had a few of those.

Now that my usual supplies are finally dwindling I have decided to swear off store bought, over-priced and chemical filled hygiene associated products to fully pursue this natural avenue. Saturday I plan to begin with soap, hair gel, deodorant, shaving cream, powder, shampoo, conditioner, aftershave, and tooth paste. I will let y'all know how they are all working in a few weeks.

Once my other book arrives I will tackle natural home cleaning supplies, so stay tuned!

Tea Time Cookies

2007-09-12T09:12:00.000-05:00

Lady Lydia at Home Living has a very heartwarming and funny video posted showing the common truth about cookies for tea. Take a look and have a good giggle.

"Si iniquitates observaveris"

2007-08-31T09:08:00.001-05:00

I absolutely love polyphonic chant so when I found this clip I had to post it. They really do an excellent job sight reading the piece. Enjoy!

More on Prenatal Testing

2007-08-28T20:38:00.000-05:00

Here again the question of a vanishing line has arisen (see previous post on the issue), but now the risk is presented physically rather than solely mentally. Truly how many of the other invasive tests and procedures are necessary when it comes to the well being of our unborn children, in addition, how many of these everyday procedures have had harmful side effects without our knowledge? Just something to continue pondering. Thank you Colleen for bringing this article to my attention. Also below is a preceding and connected article that briefly addresses the subject matter.

160 Healthy Babies Lost for Every 50 Down's Cases Detected with Amniocentesis

Hilary White

LifeSiteNews.com
LONDON, August 21, 2007

The risks of amniocentesis to the unborn child have long been known but now a new analysis by a British doctor has shown that using the tests in seek-and-destroy missions for Down's syndrome and other genetic abnormalities results in the deaths of hundreds of healthy babies every year in Britain.

Dr. Hylton Meire, the retired physician and author of texts on ultrasound, calculates that for every 50 children with Down's Syndrome successfully identified and killed by abortion, 160 non-affected babies are lost by miscarriage after the test. His paper, published in the Journal of the British Medical Ultrasound Society, mainly emphasizes that the non-invasive test, called the foetal 'nuchal thickness' measurement, is not as useful as is widely thought because of the high incidents of false positives it gives.

In obstetrics, it is now standard practice to offer pregnant women the non-invasive test that measures the fluid at the back of the child's neck. Combined with the age of the mother, the test results in a number taken to indicate the possibility that the child has Down's. If the number is high enough, the mother is offered an amniocentesis, a test in which a needle is inserted into the abdomen and a sample of amniotic fluid is drawn off and analyzed.

With about one in every 1000 children conceived having Down’s syndrome, and with amniocentesis carrying a one in 200 risk of miscarriage, Dr. Meire, wrote in the Journal Ultrasound that if all pregnant women took the amniocentesis test as many as 3,200 healthy babies could die by miscarriage every year.

There are about 30,000 amniocentesis tests done every year in the UK.

In North America, earlier this year, both the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada (SOGC) has recommended that all pregnant women, not just those over 35, should be screened, including with amniocentesis.

All Pregnant Women Should “Screen” for Down’s Syndrome – American and Canadian Ob Gyn Colleges

Hilary White

LifeSiteNews.com
OTTAWA, January 11, 2007

Canadian group admits screening intended to give women option to abort child with Down’s Syndrome

In the same month, both the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC) are recommending that all pregnant women, not just those over 35, should be screened, including with invasive procedures such as amniocentesis, to discover whether they have a risk of bearing a child with Down’s Syndrome.

While the ACOG media release does not directly mention abortion as the usual fate of the “screened” babies, a SOGC official readily admits that the Canadian recommendation was specifically intended to give women the option to abort a child with Down’s Syndrome.

“Yes, it's going to lead to more termination, but it's going to be fair to these women who are 24 who say, 'How come I have to raise an infant with Down's syndrome, whereas my cousin who was 35 didn't have to?’” Dr. Andre Lalonde, the executive vice president of the SOGC, told the National Post.

Dr. Lalonde said the only ethical consideration is to ensure that an abortion is “what the woman wants”. “We have to be fair to give women a choice,” he said.

The National Post says that SOGC’s recommendation, to be released in the society's journal on February 1, is that pregnant women under 40 “be given” non-invasive screening and amniocentesis if their risk for Down's syndrome appears high. Pregnant women over the age of 40 should “automatically be given amniocentesis” the Post reports.

On January 2, ACOG’s media release said women should automatically “be offered” the option of “less invasive” screening, such as genetic counseling and ultrasounds, as well as the more dangerous amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling (CVS) to detect any possible “chromosome abnormality or…inherited condition”.

Canada’s pro-life leaders expressed outrage at the eugenic implications of the recommendations.

Jim Hughes, National President of CLC responded to SOGC saying, “More than 3 million babies have already been killed by abortion. Sex-selection is quickly becoming an option and a threat to the unborn, and now the medical profession, that is supposed to save lives, is proposing to terminate lives based on its medical version of acceptability.”

Joseph Boyle, a professor teaching Christian bioethics at the University of Toronto told the National Post that though having more information is itself a good thing, the ethics depends upon what is done with it.

“Other than having an abortion if the child is discovered to have Down's,” he said, “what good is that information going to be?”

ACOG says the goal is to “offer procedures with “high detection rates and low false positive rates” and admits that the invasive amniocentesis and CVS procedures can result in what they call “pregnancy loss.”

Dr. James Goldberg, a former chairman of ACOG’s committee on genetics, told the New York Times that the recommendation to offer younger women the invasive procedures was worth the risk of miscarriage.

He said that for most couples, “losing a normal pregnancy secondary to the procedure is not as problematic as the birth of a Down syndrome child, so they’re willing to take that risk.”

The ACOG guidelines were published in the January edition of journal Obstetrics and Gynecology.

"Raising 14 Kids"

2007-08-24T21:41:00.000-05:00

Raising 14 Kids

Michelle Duggar

Parent Magazine
September 2003

If you think your life is hectic, consider what it's like raising (and home-schooling) this many children! Here, one mom shares the story of her family -- and her faith.

Introduction
Compared with the average American family, ours is very unusual. My husband, Jim Bob, and I have 14 children. We've been blessed with nine boys and five girls, including two sets of twins. Our oldest son, Joshua, is 15. The youngest, Justin, is 10 months. We are evangelical Christians and decided to let God dictate the size of our family. To us, each child is a joy, a gift from the Lord.

We live in a part of the country where many people share our beliefs -- Springdale, a city of 50,000 in northwest Arkansas. Like many families we know, we home-school our kids. We feel it's the best way to teach our Christian values. Above all, we want to inspire our children to turn their hearts toward God.

Plenty of parents get frazzled with only a couple of children, so people wonder how we can possibly take care of 14. Believe it or not, I don't find it all that difficult. One key is organization. A huge master schedule for all the kids' activities nearly covers a door in our kitchen. I also keep a weekday schedule for each child. Jim Bob doesn't work a typical 9 to 5 job: He's a real-estate investor and is involved in local politics. He served in our state legislature for four years and last year ran unsuccessfully in the U.S. Senate primary. He's busy, but he manages to find time to come home during the day to help out

Our household runs smoothly because everyone pitches in. Each older child acts as a "buddy" to a younger one. In the morning, the older siblings make sure their younger buddies are changed, washed, and dressed. They watch over them at meals, help them with their schoolwork, and even put them down for naps. The older kids have other chores too, like cleaning the garage and helping prepare meals. We view chores as opportunities to serve the family -- and to serve God.

Our mornings are busy: I nurse the baby, get the kids breakfast, and then we come together for morning prayers. After that, the older kids might do schoolwork or practice the violin or piano. I do chores and try to keep the little ones occupied. In the afternoon, I conduct our school. We work on some subjects as a group, and I also give each child projects appropriate for his or her grade level. Our curriculum emphasizes character -- honesty, integrity, initiative, and responsibility. Our motto is "Joy" -- for Jesus first, others second, yourself last.

We usually all eat dinner together at around 5 p.m. The three oldest plan and prepare evening meals. They like to do that because they get to choose the menus! Our day ends with baths and then Bible study with Daddy. The boys sleep in the master bedroom, and the girls sleep in a room with bunk beds. (Jim Bob and I have a small room, but we're in the process of building a bigger house, so soon we'll all have more space.) Once the kids are in bed, Jim Bob and I have a little time alone together. Our schedule is less hectic on the weekends, with Saturdays for rest and Sundays for worship.

Everyday tasks like grocery shopping are more complicated when you're doing them for 16 people. We spend about $1,500 a month on food. The last time we went shopping, we filled five carts! Our dry pantry is stuffed with 50-pound bags of rice and beans. We've also got two deep freezers and an industrial-size fridge. When fruit goes on sale, we might buy seven bags of apples and five bags of oranges at a time. That fruit could be gone in two or three days.

For the laundry, I have a wonderful friend from church who comes by twice a week to help. We've got two washers, three dryers, and one giant closet where we store clothes for the entire family. When we go out to eat, it takes a couple of hours to get everybody ready. The kids sometimes dress in matching outfits to help us keep track of them -- they've got 10 matching sets. We also feel that dressing alike unifies us. As far as cars, we have a bus that seats 24. For smaller trips, we've got a 15-passenger van. And we also have a mobile home for vacations.

I know people wonder how we are able to support such a large family: For one thing, our real-estate investments have been successful. But we also live modestly -- and debt-free. Like the Bible says, "Let no debt remain outstanding except the continuing debt to love one another." Almost everything we buy is secondhand or from estate sales. I sew a lot of our clothing. We're saving for our children's education, but we figure only some will want to go to college. Others might go into the ministry or learn a trade. I really don't worry about money. God provides amazingly for us. If our children turn toward Him, I believe He will do the same for them. People also ask us what the children think about shouldering so much responsibility. I tell them that this is the only life my children have known. I don't think they resent their workload. The older ones like to be needed and looked up to, and the younger children love their buddies. The little ones always have someone to play with. When the kids fight, I usually encourage them to settle their problems on their own. If they can't, I'll take away the toy they're fighting over for a few days. They get a lot of opportunities to practice sharing and taking turns.

I realize our lifestyle isn't for everyone. Last year, I was pregnant, nursing a child, and looking after 12 more. A lot of people wonder, "How do you manage?" But this is my calling; this is what I love.

When Jim Bob and I got married 19 years ago, we didn't expect to have this many children: I'm the youngest of seven; my husband is one of two. But now, we think it's possible that we'll have even more. As far as we're concerned, that would be wonderful. We really desire to receive as many gifts as the Lord wants to give us.

The Duggars!!!

2007-08-24T20:25:00.000-05:00

Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar are my new heroes! I find this homeschooling, southern family of now 19, an inspiration! Currently living in Arkansas, the Duggars illustrate the fullness received by always remaining open to life. They proudly display to the world the joy and blessings of having, what some might suggest to be too many, children. I can only pray that Phillip and I would be so blessed.

"Body weight and infertility linked"

2007-08-24T16:40:00.000-05:00

Body weight and infertility linked

Penelope Debelle, Adelaide

The Age, Australia
August 24, 2007

RESEARCH has confirmed the empirical link between obesity and infertility by showing the "fat eggs" of obese women do not develop into healthy embryos.

The eggs were damaged by high levels of fat and cholesterol, which made diet a key factor in infertility, according to research by PhD student Cadence Minge from the Adelaide University Research Centre for Reproductive Health. The eggs of female mice, which were fed a high-fat diet that made them insulin-resistant and pre-diabetic, were harvested and grown in vitro but were unable to develop into healthy embryos. "They were much slower to divide and grow," Ms Minge said. "And the way that the cells developed was also disturbed."

Ms Minge said scientists were yet to understand exactly why the "fat eggs" were infertile and how they were damaged. But her research had established that a protein in cells that surrounded and nourished the egg was linked to the induced fertility and its effect could be reversed by using an anti-diabetic drug such as rosiglitazone (marketed as Avandia). The drug activated the protein that helped the egg to mature before its release so that normal embryo development function was restored. However, Ms Minge said the drug had side effects and was not advocated as "a quick fix" for infertile women.

"The rosiglitazone findings are of great significance for scientists researching egg maturation within the ovary. But at this stage, the research findings have only been made in mice," she said. "Also, the drug itself can have possible harmful side effects and more research is needed to find other, safer ways of activating the protein." She said weight loss was by far the most effective way to restore fertility and even shedding five to 10 kilograms was enough to trigger ovulation in obese women who had ceased to ovulate.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta

2007-08-24T15:33:00.000-05:00

Mother Teresa was a truly extraordinary woman that was the epitome of a servant after Christ. Below are a few of my favorite quotes from her and an extremely exciting article discussing her possible canonization during this year.

“What I do you cannot do; but what you do, I cannot do. The needs are great, and none of us, including me, ever do great things. But we can all do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful.”

“Spread love everywhere you go: First of all in your own house... let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness.”

“We the willing, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, with so little, for so long, we are now qualified to do anything, with nothing.”

"Everybody today seems to be in such a terrible rush, anxious for greater developments and greater riches and so on, so that children have very little time for their parents. Parents have very little time for each other, and in the home begins the disruption of peace of the world."

"How can there be too many babies? That's like saying there are too many flowers."

St. Teresa of Calcutta This Year?

Lay Group Prays for Anticipated Canonization

August 23, 2007
Zenit.org
CALCUTTA, India

This is the year for the canonization of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, or so hopes a group of Catholics in Calcutta.

The Catholic Association of Bengal, the largest lay organization of the Archdiocese of Calcutta, has declared 2007 the Year for the Canonization of Mother Teresa, AsiaNews reported.

The organization launched a two-week prayer campaign today, which will lead up to the 10th anniversary of the nun's death, with plans to continue the initial celebration until Sept. 23.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who founded the Missionaries of Charity, died Sept. 5, 1997, and was beatified in October 2003.

The organization's chairman, Eugene Gonsalves, told AsiaNews: "More than three years have passed since the title of 'blessed' was conferred on our beloved Mother Teresa.

"During her life, Mother was a living saint to many. There is no doubt that she is already a 'saint' to many more around the world.

"Sainthood for Mother Teresa in a real sense may not be far away as many miracles are happening by her intercession."

Gonsalves said the year will include special prayer services and celebrations of the Eucharist in different churches and institutions, to be announced in the coming months.

"We shall welcome everyone, poor and rich alike, as she did, without distinctions of faith, nationality or caste," Gonsalves said, all as "a sign of harmony, unity and devotion to Mother Teresa."

Ethical Answers to Infertility 5

2007-08-21T11:32:00.000-05:00

The Gift of Infertility, Part 4

Dr. Jameson and Jennifer Taylor

Catholic Exchange
August 19, 2007

Part one of this series discussed natural family planning (NFP) as a means of treating infertility and introduced readers to the basics of artificial reproductive technologies (ART). Parts two and three explained the Church's teaching on human sexuality, with special attention paid to the link between infertility treatments and the contraceptive mentality. A Response to Readers clarified the Church's teaching on the use of Intrauterine Insemination (IUI). Here, we enter into the heart of the mystery of infertility. If, as the Church teaches, children are the "supreme gift" of marriage, how are couples (like us) to understand their infertility as a gift?

Infertility: A Gift?
Tears were streaming down my face and they were not tears of joy. Clutching the freezer door with my left hand, I stood holding a tiny test tube in my right. With each attempt to spit, I struggled to see if my tears or my saliva were filling the vial. At any minute, I was sure I was going to fall beneath the weight of the pain. Only the cold of the door handle between my fingers kept me focused on the task. "They want a stress test as part of my infertility workup," I thought to myself. "Well, they're sure going to get it!" It was the week of my 30th birthday, and I'd never been more miserable.

The first year of our marriage seemed like an extension of our honeymoon. Jameson had a good job, and I was working part-time from home in expectation of soon becoming a mom. When we hadn't conceived after six months, we suspected something was wrong. Yet, we continued to hope that "things just hadn't come together yet" and "it wasn't the right time." Still not pregnant and nearing a year of marriage, I called one of the NFP organizations. "Give it a little more time," they said, "and if, after a year you're still not pregnant, go and see an NFP specialist."

Traditionally, primary infertility is defined as the inability to conceive after 12 months of noncontraceptive, targeted intercourse. We've come to learn, however, that for couples who are charting (or women over 35) the time frame is 6 months. If you have concerns about your ability to conceive, it's never too early to make an appointment with an NFP doctor.

Several months later, we finally met with one of the best NFP doctors in the country. Just like that, we were caught up in a whirlwind of testing — the spit test I mentioned above, as well as semen analyses and blood tests — and a strict schedule of targeted conjugal relations.

By now, we'd been married almost two years, and Jameson had been laid off. Then, I lost my part-time job; a publisher pulled out of a book contract we were counting on; and my parents lost the family farm. In the meantime, we switched doctors and started learning about the Creighton Model System. While we remain among the small percentage of couples who haven't conceived through Creighton's "NaProTechnology," thanks to our Creighton doctor we discovered that I have hyperprolactemia (elevated levels of prolactin). This condition, however, is also associated with brain tumors. Thus in addition to my already scheduled tests and surgeries — hysterosalpingogram, laparoscopy, transvaginal songrams, to name a few — I also had to have an MRI.

"It's no wonder you don't have kids," people would tell us. "Look at the stress you're under." As if having a good job or a book deal would result in having a baby. Sure, stress is a key factor related to infertility, but other people under stress seem to get pregnant easily. Besides, we'd enjoyed a time in our marriage when our stress levels were low. We'd also given up caffeine and alcohol; lost weight; taken Clomid; taken progesterone shots; targeted our intercourse — the list goes on and on. And still no baby.

Do we feel as if we've been handed a gift, or that any of this makes sense? Often, no. Our infertility makes no sense outside of God's plan for our lives — for us as an infertile couple. For all of us as infertile couples.

Part of the pain of being infertile lies in the struggle to understand how God can give us the desire to have children, and then prevent us from realizing this desire. Or, for those of you suffering from secondary infertility, how God can give you a baby only to take it away again. It's no wonder that, as we wrote in part one of our series, "infertile couples report equivalent levels of anxiety and depression as women with cancer, HIV status or heart disease" and that "the majority of infertile women report that infertility is the most upsetting experience of their lives."

The Gift of Faith
As if to add insult to injury, some time later we discovered that my prolactin levels had receded back to a "healthy level." Still, we were not conceiving. Just in case, our doctor ordered another semen analysis. While previous tests had come back as "essentially normal," the new specimens showed a defect with Jameson's sperm. At least three sperm tests are necessary to get an accurate picture of the health of a man's sperm. Even then, men produce new sperm every three months, so trouble can arise at any time. For us, this time came just as my own problems had apparently disappeared.

Soon after, the day came — a little more than a year ago — when our doctor told us he couldn't do anymore for us. "I have no other means of helping you. I've consulted all the experts. I don't know what to tell you," he whispered. The finality of it all was numbing. After a moment, our doctor continued, "I'm praying through this book. It's changed my life. It's called The Gift of Faith, by Father Tadeusz Dajczer. This is not a book you read. It's a book you pray — one you have to go over little by little because it's so tough."

We didn't read the book right away (as if a book could console our pain). For his part, Jameson felt as if God had tricked him. "God's a jokester," he protested. "Before we got married, I saw my children in my prayers. God's message to me was very clear: He told me I was called to the vocation of marriage and that I'd have kids. He duped me!"

What's God Doing to Us?
Once we finally did read The Gift of Faith, we were inspired by what we found. According to Fr. Dajczer, God often "does just the opposite of what we would expect." In our case, we expected God to give us children because we were being faithful. The fact that God wasn't living up to His part of the bargain proved He couldn't be trusted. Our experience of infertility had thus distorted our image of God, which, as Fr. Dajczer explained, had been preventing our abandonment to Him. How could we abandon ourselves to a God who seemed so unfair? Fr. Dajczer helped us see that what we were most afraid of — was not what God was doing to us — but what he was trying to do with us. What we feared, in other words, was that our infertility might actually be part of God's plan for our lives, a gift from God necessary to the working out of our salvation.

Book in hand, Jameson rounded the corner into our office and declared, "Infertility is a gift." "I thought God was a jokester," I responded. "I do feel that way sometimes," he said, "but let's be serious for a moment. We know we're infertile. That's a fact. So, let's talk about what we're going to do about it now that we've been told there's nothing we can do about it."

Our choice was to give up hope or abandon ourselves to God, trusting Him completely. Sadly, many couples reject God's gift of infertility and turn instead to the world of artificial reproductive technologies. Others abandon themselves to their own suffering, becoming enmeshed in their pain. We wanted neither, so we decided to write, with the hope of understanding what God wanted from us. "You need to give God everything," counsels Fr. Dajczer. "You need to know how to give Him, that which is His; that is the program of our conversion." So it was. We had to give God ourselves — and our infertility.

Not long after, we had coffee with Fr. Mitch Pacwa of EWTN. While discussing our infertility, he told us that it seems as if God is asking infertile couples to do penance for the sins against life committed by others. "It's a sort of divine fasting," he said. "Would I fast if God asked me to?" I wondered. "God isn't a God of imposition — He created us with free will — so why didn't He ask me?" Without realizing it, I answered out loud, "He's trusting you." The choice comes in how we respond to God's offer.

The Gift of Infertility
As the mystery of the gift of our infertility has begun to unfold before us, we have come to see that children are not the only gift of marriage. Infertility, too, is a great and mysterious blessing. Just as much as fertility, infertility is a gift husband and wife can give one another. It is an affirmation that: "I still love you. I love all of you. And I refuse to allow anything to come between this love, whether it be fertility or infertility." Infertility is also a gift couples can give to God and to the world. Like Christ's crucifixion, infertility is a sign of contradiction in a culture in which human life has lost its value.

Instead of giving children to God, infertile families can give their suffering to Him, their unfulfilled longing to conceive a baby. God will use this suffering to glorify His name and bring about the salvation of souls (cf. Jn. 9:1-3). Likewise, infertility is the gift God gives couples for the salvation of their own souls, as well as the souls of any children they might eventually adopt. To reject this gift is to reject the specific means by which God wills to lead us to Heaven.

Of course, this is not to say that infertile couples shouldn't use every licit means they can to conceive a child or bring a baby to term. We also do not mean to imply that every infertile couple is called to adopt. Adoption is not a "cure" for infertility because even after you adopt you remain infertile. Each of us, however, is called to "give everything to God," and to serve Him, even in the weakness of infertility.

Given that children are the "supreme gift of marriage," it might seem strange to think of infertility as a blessing. No doubt, infertility contradicts nature's intention. The gift of infertility, however, is one that transcends the natural order. It is a sign of divinity, of God's power to bring life out of a situation where nature is powerless. In this way, infertile spouses are like empty vessels, vessels that can be filled only by the intangible gift of grace. Even more so than those who can have biological children, the infertile couple is called by God to be a channel of spiritual fecundity (CCC 2379). As such, these couples are a sign to the world that the fullness of life is found in the gift of love, rather than mere physical existence.

This is not to demean in any way the generosity of large families. Although their sacrifices generally go unappreciated, these families are nonetheless a tangible manifestation of love. Part of the pain of infertility, however, is that it is an invisible sign. In our culture, most people assume that if you don't have kids you're contracepting. If you're infertile, they suppose you can easily correct the problem through artificial means. The physical and spiritual suffering caused by infertility is usually hidden. To use an analogy, the generosity of the couple who chooses to have a large family is like a brightly burning sun whose beams produce beautiful flowers that everyone can see and admire. While their love might shine just as brightly, the infertile family has no flowers of its own. Yet, as Fulton Sheen perceives: "There is no sign unless something happens contrary to nature. The brightness of the sun is no sign, but an eclipse is."

Like an eclipse, the sign of infertility is incomprehensible without the gift of faith. It is a sign that is usually missed because it is veiled by disappointment and failure. God, however, is the master of bringing success out of failure and life out of death. If we allow God to reveal Himself in the poverty of our infertility, He will give us a harvest of flowers more beautiful than we could sow on our own. Oftentimes these flowers are not meant for us to keep, but to give to others. For the unwed mother, infertile couples impart the gift of hope. For the couple delaying childbirth, infertile families provide motivation. For the orphan, infertile couples present the chance of new life. Recommends the Church: "Spouses who still suffer from infertility after exhausting legitimate medical procedures should unite themselves with the Lord's Cross, the source of all spiritual fecundity. They can give expression to their generosity by adopting abandoned children or performing demanding services for others" (CCC 2379).

Just as with physical fertility, spiritual fecundity requires the elimination of any barriers of bitterness, resentment and discouragement that might be obstructing your relationship with God. Although it's okay to be angry with God, at some point it's necessary to "forgive" Him. Ultimately this "forgiveness" rests in realizing that God has not committed an offense against us in allowing us to be infertile. The fruit of such forgiveness is trust.

God will forgive you, too, for not trusting Him — whether by using contraception, or in vitro fertilization, or, as is easy to do, letting the desire to have a child become a god in itself.

Forgiveness is the fruit of prayer, which is also a gift of infertility. Without prayer, the heart will never be able to discover, as one anonymous infertile woman puts it, that God is enough to love. Because we can't understand why God doesn't give us what we want, we often go in search of it on our own. By doing so, we risk overlooking the shocking truth that the gift of infertility is God Himself.

Infertility Terms You Need to Know

(Primary) Infertility: The standard medical definition of infertility is the inability to conceive after 12 months of noncontraceptive, targeted intercourse, but for couples who are charting (or women over 35) the time frame is 6 months. The definition should also include mothers unable to carry any pregnancy to term.

Secondary Infertility: The inability to conceive and/or carry a baby to term after doing so at least once before.

Sterility: A permanent condition inhibiting conception.

Zygote: A fertilized egg in the single-cell phase — i.e., an undivided fertilized egg.

Embryo: A fertilized egg that has begun the division process that will result in a fully formed person; used by scientists to refer to a baby until it reaches the fetal stage.

Fetus: Term used by the scientific community to refer to a preborn child 8 weeks or older.

ART (Assisted Reproductive Technologies): Any procedure in which both eggs and semen are extracted from a woman and a man and manipulated with the intention of producing a baby.

IVF (In Vitro Fertilization): From the Latin, "in glass," the fertilization of an egg with a sperm in an artificial environment, namely a petri dish, and the subsequent implantation of the embryo in the uterus.

AIH (Homologous Artificial Insemination): Injection of a husband's processed semen into his wife's genital tract.

AID (Heterologous Artificial Insemination): Injection of a donor's (not the husband) processed semen into a married woman's genital tract.

IUI (Intrauterine Insemination): Technique by which processed sperm are injected into the uterus with a catheter.

Multifetal Pregnancy Reduction: A euphemism used to describe the abortion of one or more children (at 8 to 12 weeks) sharing the same womb. Unlike most abortions, the dead baby's body is resorbed by the mother's body.

Embryo Cryopreservation: The freezing of leftover embryos produced via IVF.

Assisted Hatching: An IVF technique of micromanipulation that uses an acidic solution to dissolve the shell around a 2- to 3-day-old embryo to improve chances of implantation.

ICSI (Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection): A technique by which a single sperm is injected in vitro into an extracted egg; used in cases of acute male infertility.

GIFT (Gamete Intrafallopian Transfer): An ART procedure in which multiple eggs and processed semen are placed into a catheter and then injected into the fallopian tubes so that fertilization may occur.

ZIFT (Zygote Intrafallopian Transfer): An ART procedure in which multiple eggs are actually fertilized in the laboratory with processed semen; the resulting zygotes are then injected into the fallopian tubes. Also known as PROST, pronuclear stage transfer.

TOTS (Tubal Ovum Transfer with Sperm): An ART procedure in which semen is collected from a perforated condom (rather than masturbation) and placed with one or more eggs into a tube where they are kept separate from one another by an air bubble. The semen and eggs are then injected into the fallopian tubes. This technique is rarely performed anymore.

Where to Turn for Help

Natural Family Planning Techniques

The Creighton Model System (NaProTechnology)

Pope Paul VI Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction

Phone: (402) 390-6600

Email: popepaul@popepaulvi.com

Web: http://www.naprotechnology.com/; http://www.popepaulvi.com/

The Couple to Couple League International, Inc. (Sympto-Thermal Method)

Phone: (513) 471-2000 or (800) 745-8252

Web: http://www.ccli.org/

Billings Ovulation Method Association (BOMA-USA)

Phone: (651) 699-8139

Email: info@boma-usa.org

Web: http://www.boma-usa.org/

Locate an NFP Center or Teacher Near You

One More Soul

Phone: (800) 307-7685

Email: omsoul@omsoul.com

Web: http://www.omsoul.com/

Further Reading

The Bible and Birth Control, Charles D. Provan

Donum Vitae, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

Empty Womb, Aching Heart, Marlo Schalesky (While some couples profiled in this book have used artificial technologies, reading their personal struggles with infertility might prove helpful.)

Fertility Cycles and Nutrition, Marilyn M. Shannon

Full of Grace: Women and the Abundant Life, Johnnette S. Benkovic

Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI

Ethical Answers to Infertility 4

2007-08-13T12:22:00.000-05:00

The Gift of Infertility Part 3

Dr. Jameson and Jennifer Taylor

Catholic Exchange
August 12, 2007

While natural family planning (NFP) is not always effective for couples (like us) who are trying to conceive naturally (see part one of this series), the Church has good reasons for its teaching on human sexuality (see part two and our "Response to Readers"). Nevertheless, many couples believe they can use intrauterine insemination (IUI) and in vitro fertilization (IVF) without violating their consciences or their faith, because, after all, such techniques create life, not destroy it.

Flirting with Danger
Proponents of artificial reproductive technologies (ART) often argue that IUI and IVF are actually "pro-life." The thinking behind this assertion is that every endeavor aimed at bringing forth new life promotes the dignity of life. Of course, all orthodox Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, agree life begins at conception. For this reason, Dr. Dobson recommends that couples using IVF fertilize and insert only as many eggs as they are willing to keep, and no more than three. "To fertilize and implant more than three," reckons Dobson, "would unacceptably increase the risk of pregnancies of quadruplets or more, pregnancies which carry high risk for both mother and babies."

These dangers are significant. According to the CDC, even twins, who comprise 30 percent of ART births, "are still at substantially greater risk for illness and death than singletons." Dr. Eric Surrey, president of the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology, cautions: "Twin pregnancies are at a three- to five-fold greater risk for pregnancy complications and perinatal mortality compared to carrying one fetus. With triplets, there is at least a seven-fold greater risk." Low-birth weights and neurological diseases, such as cerebral palsy, are also far more common in twins and other multiple-infant births. In addition, women using ART, especially when combined with drugs that cause ovarian hyperstimulation, are putting their "health and lives in jeopardy," warn Drs. Marie Anderson and John Bruchalski. "Since there is no regulatory agency to oversee the industry, women are treated as research subjects, given drugs that pose an unknown risk."

While pro-life Christians who resort to IUI or IVF would never consider having an abortion, they should keep in mind that the reproductive technology industry is institutionally dependent upon the destruction of human life. On average, women 35 and younger are impregnated with three to five embryos per cycle. Most IVF specialists discourage couples from transferring just one embryo, but approximately 66 percent of all ART births are singletons. At the same time, the overall live-birth success rate for ART is 29 percent. Hence, well over 70 percent of all embryos created through ART do not survive. Thousands more children that reach the fetal stage are killed via selective or "multifetal pregnancy" reduction, a euphemism used to refer to a first trimester abortion. Although the CDC does not disclose the exact number of multifetal reductions each year, the number of multifetal pregnancies accounting for miscarriages and induced abortions exceeds the number of multiple births by approximately 10 percent. A 1993 study found that 31 percent of multifetal pregnancies ended with miscarriage while 27 percent ended with selective reduction.

With experts complaining about an "epidemic of multiple births," physicians feel pressure to keep their multibirth rate low. As reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, "The creation and destruction of human embryos is part and parcel of modern infertility treatments, reflecting both the inherent inefficiency of human reproduction and efforts by fertility clinics to keep costs down and success rates as high as possible" (Aug. 20, 2001, A-1).

It is estimated that as many as one million embryos have been destroyed since IVF was introduced in the United States in 1981. Over 500 embryos alone lost their lives to produce the first "test tube baby," Louise Brown, in 1978. Currently, more than 400,000 embryos are frozen.

Even if a couple follows Dr. Dobson's advice and transfers only as many embryos as they are willing to carry to term, they are still unintentionally cooperating with the murder of nascent human life. To begin with, these couples are benefiting from technologies that would not exist without embryonic research, research many of these same couples oppose. Additionally, they are lending financial and social support to a system that dishonors life by encouraging such practices as selective reduction (i.e., abortion), cryopreservation and genetic selection. Finally, couples who use ART tacitly buy into the abortion-driven myth that life begins upon implantation, rather than conception. After all, no one sends out pregnancy announcements when their baby is still "in vitro." Yet the debate over when life begins — at conception or implantation — is one of the great divides that separate the culture of life from the culture of death.

I've Got the Power
Ironically, many of the couples using IUI and IVF in their late twenties and mid-thirties were contracepting earlier in their marriage. This is because IUI and IVF are the logical counterparts of the contraceptive mentality, whose fundamental tenet is that women enjoy total control over their fertility. The following comment from one infertile woman perfectly epitomizes this view: "I'm not a control freak, but it's one area of my life that I thought I'd always have control over. You know, I was on the pill for five years before we started trying to have a baby. ... Five years I thought I was in control of my fertility. When I didn't get pregnant, it came as quite a shock" (Handbook of Families & Health, SAGE Publications, 103).

Predictably, the Catholic Church is criticized from both sides: When it's convenient, couples tell the Church that they should be allowed to contracept; when they change their mind, they tell the Church that she should permit them to use IUI and IVF. Either way, the Church is accused of being archaic and narrow. Rather, it is the view that separates the procreative and unitive aspects of marital intercourse that is truly "narrow." Such a view reduces the sexual act to being either primarily for the sake of unity or primarily for the sake of reproduction. The Church alone, in her wisdom, refuses to divide the two.

The Church refuses to divide what God has joined because she does not have the power to do so (cf. Mt. 19:6). The possession of such power would enable man to become like God (cf. Gn. 3:5). In fact, this premise underlies the scientific revolution, which promises man total control over nature, even human nature and human sexuality. Some might argue that the power science gives man comes from God, but not every thing invented by man is for his own good. This does not mean that technology cannot be used to assist the reproductive process, but that such assistance must never be divorced from the recognition that all life is a gift.

In accepting the gift of life, man agrees to respect the means by which life should be transmitted. A man who gave his wife a diamond ring, for instance, would be horrified if she used it as a drill bit. Likewise, a gift should not be opened before its time; rather the gift-giver chooses when and how to give the gift. As Donum Vitae reminds us: "The child is not an object to which one has a right, nor can he be considered as an object of ownership: rather, a child is a gift, 'the supreme gift' and the most gratuitous gift of marriage" (II, 8).

If children are "the supreme gift of marriage," how are couples to understand their infertility as a gift? The fourth and final part of this series will discuss the heart of the mystery of infertility and provide additional resources for those who want more information.

Saint Dominic on Prayer

2007-08-09T21:27:00.000-05:00

Fisheaters has this description of Saint Dominic's nine prayer forms online, the original author, however, was anonymous. I absolutely love the accompanying illustrations and the last state for prayer is my favorite. Perhaps each of us will be able to incorporate one or more of his modes into our daily prayer routines.

Holy teachers like Augustine, Ambrose, Gregory, Hilary, Isidore, John Chrysostom, John Damascene, Bernard, and other saintly Greek and Latin doctors have discoursed on prayer at great length. They have encouraged and described it, pointed out its necessity and value, explained the method, the dispositions which are required, and the impediments which stand in its way. In learned books, the glorious and venerable doctor, Brother Thomas Aquinas, and Albert, of the Order of Preachers, as well as William in his treatise on the virtues, have considered admirably and in a holy, devout, and beautiful manner that form of prayer in which the soul makes use of the members of the body to raise itself more devoutly to God. In this way the soul, in moving the body, is moved by it. At times it becomes rapt in ecstasy as was Saint Paul, or is caught up in a rapture of the spirit like the prophet David. Saint Dominic often prayed in this way, and it is fitting that we say something of his method.

Certainly many saints of both the Old and New Testament are known to have prayed like this at times. Such a method serves to enkindle devotion by the alternate action of soul upon body and body upon soul. Prayer of this kind would cause Saint Dominic to be bathed in tears, and would arouse the fervor of his holy will to such intensity that his bodily members could not be restrained from manifesting his devotion by certain signs. As a result, the spirit of the supplicant was sometimes raised up during its entreaties, petitions, and thanksgivings.

The following, then, are the special modes of prayer, besides those very devout and customary forms, which Saint Dominic used during the celebration of Mass and the praying of the psalmody. In choir or along the road, he was often seen lifted suddenly out of himself and raised up with God and the angels.

The First Way of Prayer

Saint Dominic's first way of prayer was to humble himself before the altar as if Christ, signified by the altar, were truly and personally present and not in symbol alone. He would say with Judith: "O Lord, God, the prayer of the humble and the meek hath always pleased Thee [Judith 9:16]. "It was through humility that the Canaanite woman and the prodigal son obtained what they desired; as for me, "I am not worthy that Thou shouldst come under my roof" [Matthew 8:8] for "I have been humbled before you exceedingly, O Lord [Psalm 118:107]."

In this way our holy father, standing erect, bowed his head and humbly considering Christ, his Head, compared his lowliness with the excellence of Christ. He then gave himself completely in showing his veneration. The brethren were taught to do this whenever they passed before the humiliation of the Crucified One in order that Christ, so greatly humbled for us, might see us humbled before his majesty. And he commanded the friars to humble themselves in this way before the entire Trinity whenever they chanted solemnly: "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit." In this manner of profoundly inclining his head, as shown in the drawing, Saint Dominic began his prayer.

The Second Way of Prayer

Saint Dominic used to pray by throwing himself outstretched upon the ground, lying on his face. He would feel great remorse in his heart and call to mind those words of the Gospel, saying sometimes in a voice loud enough to be heard: "O God, be merciful to me, a sinner." [Luke 18:13] With devotion and reverence he repeated that verse of David: "I am he that has sinned, I have done wickedly." [II Kings 24:17]. Then he would weep and groan vehemently and say: "I am not worthy to see the heights of heaven because of the greatness of my iniquity, for I have aroused thy anger and done what is evil in thy sight." From the psalm: "Deus auribus nostris audivimus" he said fervently and devoutly: "For our soul is cast down to the dust, our belly is flat on the earth!" [Psalm 43:25]. To this he would add: "My soul is prostrate in the dust; quicken Thou me according to Thy word" [Psalm 118:25].

Wishing to teach the brethren to pray reverently, he would sometimes say to them: When those devout Magi entered the dwelling they found the child with Mary, his mother, and falling down they worshiped him. There is no doubt that we too have found the God-Man with Mary, his handmaid. "Come, let us adore and fall down in prostration before God, and let us weep before God, and let us weep before the Lord that made us" [Psalm 94:61]. He would also exhort the young men, and say to them: If you cannot weep for your own sins because you have none, remember that there are many sinners who can be disposed for mercy and charity. It was for these that the prophets lamented; and when Jesus saw them, he wept bitterly. The holy David also wept as he said: "I beheld the transgressors and began to grieve" [Psalm 118:158].

The Third Way of Prayer

At the end of the prayer which has just been described, Saint Dominic would rise from the ground and give himself the discipline with an iron chain, saying, "Thy discipline has corrected me unto the end" [Psalm 17:36]. This is why the Order decreed, in memory of his example, that all the brethren should receive the discipline with wooden switches upon their shoulders as they were bowing down in worship and reciting the psalm "Miserere" [Psalm 50] or "De Profundis" [Psalm 129] after Compline on ferial days. This is performed for their own faults or for those of others whose alms they receive and rely upon. No matter how sinless he may be, no one is to desist from this holy example which is shown in the drawing.

The Fourth Way of Prayer

After this, Saint Dominic would remain before the altar or in the chapter room with his gaze fixed on the Crucified One, looking upon Him with perfect attention. He genuflected frequently, again and again. He would continue sometimes from after Compline until midnight, now rising, now kneeling again, like the apostle Saint James, or the leper of the gospel who said on bended knee: "Lord, if Thou wilt, thou canst make me clean" [Matthew. 8:2]. He was like Saint Stephen who knelt and called out with a loud cry: "Lord, do not lay this sin against them" [Acts 7:60]. Thus there was formed in our holy father, Saint Dominic, a great confidence in God's mercy towards himself, all sinners, and for the perseverance of the younger brethren whom he sent forth to preach to souls. Sometimes he could not even restrain his voice, and the friars would hear him murmuring: "Unto Thee will I cry, O Lord: O my God, be not Thou silent to me: lest if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit" [Psalm 27:1] and comparable phrases from the Sacred Scripture.

At other times, however, he spoke within himself and his voice could not be heard. He would remain in genuflection for a long while, rapt in spirit; on occasion, while in this position, it appeared from his face that his mind had penetrated heaven and soon he reflected an intense joy as he wiped away the flowing tears. He was in a stage of longing and anticipation like a thirsty man who has reached a spring, and like a traveler who is at last approaching his homeland. Then he would become more absorbed and ardent as he moved in an agile manner but with great grace, now arising, now genuflecting. He was so accustomed to bend his knees to God in this way that when he traveled, in the inns after a weary journey, or along the wayside while his companions rested or slept, he would return to these genuflections, his own intimate and personal form of worship. This way of prayer he taught his brethren more by example than by words.

The Fifth Way of Prayer

When he was in the convent, our holy father Dominic would sometimes remain before the altar, standing erect without supporting himself or leaning upon anything. Often his hands would be extended before his breast in the manner of an open book; he would stand with great reverence and devotion as if reading in the very presence of God. Deep in prayer, he appeared to be meditating upon the words of God, and he seemed to repeat them to himself in a sweet voice. He regularly prayed in this way for it was Our Lord's manner as Saint Luke tells us: ". . . according to his custom he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and began to read" [Luke 4:16]. The psalmist also tells us that "Phinees stood up and prayed, and the slaughter ceased" [Psalm 105:30].

He would sometimes join his hands, clasping them firmly together before eyes filled with tears and restrain himself. At other times he would raise his hands to his shoulders as the priest does at Mass. He appeared then to be listening carefully as if to hear something spoken from the altar. If one had seen his great devotion as he stood erect and prayed, he would certainly have thought that he was observing a prophet, first speaking with an angel or with God himself, then listening, then silently thinking of those things which had been revealed to him.

On a journey he would secretly steal away at the time for prayer and, standing, would immediately raise his mind to heaven. One would then have heard him speaking sweetly and with supreme delight some loving words from his heart and from the riches of Holy Scripture which he seemed to draw from the fountains of the Savior. The friars were very much moved by the sight of their father and master praying in this manner. Thus, having become more fervent, they were instructed in the way of reverent and constant prayer: "Behold as the eyes of servants are on the hands of their masters, as the eyes of the handmaid are on the hands of her mistress . . ." [Psalm 122:2].

The Sixth Way of Prayer

Our holy father, Saint Dominic, was also seen to pray standing erect with his hands and arms outstretched forcefully in the form of a cross. He prayed in this way when God, through his supplications, raised to life the boy Napoleon in the sacristy of the Church of Saint Sixtus in Rome, and when he was raised from the ground at the celebration of Mass, as the good and holy Sister Cecilia, who was present with many other people and saw him, narrates. He was like Elias who stretched himself out and lay upon the widow's son when he raised him to life.

In a similar manner he prayed near Toulouse when he delivered the group of English pilgrims from danger of drowning in the river. Our Lord prayed thus while hanging on the cross, that is, with his hands and arms extended and "with a loud cry and tears ... he was heard because of his reverent submission" [Hebrews 5:7].

Nor did the holy man Dominic resort to this manner of praying unless he was inspired by God to know that something great and marvelous was to come about through the power of his prayer. Although he did not forbid the brethren to pray in this way, neither did he encourage them to do so. We do not know what he said when he stood with his hands and arms extended in the form of a cross and raised the boy to life. Perhaps it was those words of Elias: "O Lord, my God, let the soul of this child, I beseech thee, return into his body" [III Kings 17:21]. He certainly followed the prophet's exterior manner in his prayers on that occasion. The friars and sisters, however, as well as the nobles and cardinals, and all others present were so struck by this most unusual and astonishing way of prayer that they failed to remember the words he spoke. Afterwards, they did not feel free to ask Dominic about these matters because this holy and remarkable man inspired in them a great sense of awe and reverence by reason of the miracle.

In a grave and mature manner, he would slowly pronounce the words in the Psalter which mention this way of prayer. He used to say attentively: "O Lord, the God of my salvation: I have cried in the day and in the night before Thee," as far as that verse "All the day I have cried to Thee, O Lord: I stretched out my hands to Thee" [Psalm 87:2-10]. Then he would add: "Hear, O Lord, my prayer give ear to my supplication in Thy truth . . ." He would continue the prayer to these words: "I stretched forth my hands to Thee . . . Hear me speedily, O Lord" [Psalm 142:1-7].

This example of our father's prayer would help devout souls to appreciate more easily his great zeal and wisdom in praying thus. This is true whether, in doing so, he wished to move God in some wonderful manner through his prayer or whether he felt through some interior inspiration that God was to move him to seek some singular grace for himself or his neighbor. He then shone with the spiritual insight of David, the ardor of Elias, the charity of Christ, and with a profound devotion, as the drawing serves to indicate.

The Seventh Way of Prayer

While praying, he was often seen to reach towards heaven like an arrow which has been shot from a taut bow straight upwards into the sky. He would stand with hands outstretched above his head and joined together, or at times slightly separated as if about to receive something from heaven. One would believe that he was receiving an increase of grace and in this rapture of spirit was asking God for the gifts of the Holy Spirit for the Order he had founded.

He seemed to seek for himself and his brethren something of that transcendent joy which is found in living the beatitudes, praying that each would consider himself truly blessed in extreme poverty, in bitter mourning, in cruel persecutions, in a great hunger and thirst for justice, in anxious mercy towards all. His entreaty was that his children would find their delight in observing the commandments and in the perfect practice of the evangelical counsels. Enraptured, the holy father then appeared to have entered into the Holy of Holies and the Third Heaven. After prayer of this kind he truly seemed to be a prophet, whether in correcting the faulty, in directing others, or in his preaching.

Our holy father did not remain at prayer of this type very long but gradually regained full possession of his faculties. He looked during that time like a person coming from a great distance or like a stranger in this world, as could easily be discerned from his countenance and manner. The brethren would then hear him praying aloud and saying as the prophet: "Hear, O Lord, the voice of my supplication which I pray to Thee, when I lift up my hands to Thy holy temple" [Psalm 27:2].

Through his words and holy example he constantly taught the friars to pray in this way, often repeating those phrases from the psalms: "Behold, now bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord ... in the nights lift up your hands to the holy places, and bless ye the Lord" [Psalm 133:1-3], "I have cried to Thee, O Lord, hear me; hearken to my voice when I cry to Thee. Let my prayer be directed as incense in Thy sight; the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice" [Psalm 140:1-2]. The drawing shows us this mode of prayer so that we may better understand it.

The Eighth Way of Prayer

Our Father, Saint Dominic, had yet another manner of praying at once beautiful, devout, and pleasing, which he practiced after the canonical hours and the thanksgiving following meals. He was then zealous and filled with the spirit of devotion which he drew from the divine words which had been sung in the choir or refectory. Our father quickly withdrew to some solitary place, to his cell or elsewhere, and recollected himself in the presence of God. He would sit quietly, and after the sign of the cross, begin to read from a book opened before him. His spirit would then be sweetly aroused as if he heard Our Lord speaking, as we are told in the psalms: "I will hear what the Lord God will speak to me. [Psalm 84:9]. As if disputing with a companion he would first appear somewhat impatient in his thought and words. At the next moment he would become a quiet listener, then again seem to discuss and contend. He seemed almost to laugh and weep at the same time, and then, attentively and submissively, would murmur to himself and strike his breast.

Should some curious person have desired to watch our holy father Dominic, he would have appeared to him like Moses who went into the desert, to Horeb, the sacred mountain of God, and there beheld the burning bush and heard the Lord speaking to him as he was bowed down in the divine presence. This holy custom of our father seems, as it were, to resemble the prophetic mountain of the Lord inasmuch as he quickly passed upwards from reading to prayer, from prayer to meditation, and from meditation to contemplation.

When he read alone in this solitary fashion, Dominic used to venerate the book, bow to it, and kiss it. This was especially true if he was reading the Gospels and when he had been reading the very words which had come from the mouth of Christ. At other times he would hide his face and cover it with his cappa, or bury his face in his hands and veil it slightly with the capuce. Then he would weep, all fervent and filled with holy desires. Following this, as if to render thanks to some person of great excellence for benefits received, he would reverently rise and incline his head for a short time. Wholly refreshed and, in great interior peace, he then returned to his book.

The Ninth Way of Prayer

Our Father, Saint Dominic, observed this mode of prayer while traveling from one country to another, especially when he passed through some deserted region. He then delighted in giving himself completely to meditation, disposing for contemplation, and he would say to his companion on the journey: It is written in Osee "I will lead her (my spouse) into the wilderness and I will speak to her ear" [Osee 2:14]. Parting from his companion, he would go on ahead or, more frequently, follow at some distance. Thus withdrawn, he would walk and pray; in his meditation he was inflamed and the fire of charity was enkindled. While he prayed it appeared as if he were brushing dust or bothersome flies from his face when he repeatedly fortified himself with the Sign of the Cross.

The brethren thought that it was while praying in this way that the saint obtained his extensive penetration of Sacred Scripture and profound understanding of the divine words, the power to preach so fervently and courageously, and that intimate acquaintance with the Holy Spirit by which he came to know the hidden things of God.