BIG BLUE WAVE

Updated Comments Policy

2012-01-27T23:53:00.001-05:00

Hello Dear Readers

I have just updated my comments policy. It's not anything radically new. It just tells new posters how I operate. The big change is that I will not edit comments that contain violations of the rules, but are otherwise acceptable.

It feels like our health ministry is run by the Keystone cops

2012-01-27T22:28:00.001-05:00

Deb Matthews backs down on reducing C-sections to save money

Backing off any plan to curb caesarean sections to save money, Health Minister Deb Matthews says new birthing centres outside hospitals may be a better way to accomplish the same goal.

...

Matthews hinted the government is open to funding birthing centres where women could have their babies through vaginal births assisted by midwives, dramatically cutting costs.

Why do women have c-sections?

Is is because women request them?

Not really, says one research group.

Women have c-sections because they either have a medical reason, or they have had a previous c-section, which is often an indication to have another one, because, as my OBGYN explained, there is a 50-50 chance of ending up in the operating room once again.

I suspect that OBGYN's like C-sections because they are relatively predictable. You don't always make it to your scheduled date, but you know how you will end up giving birth.

Now the suggestion is to encourage women to give birth in "birthing centres".

These birthing centres have to be built. That's going to cost money.

And the number of midwives has to be sufficient.

And are women willing to give birth in a birthing centre?

There's a reason birth has been medicalized. And it's not some big conspiracy on the part of men. Labour hurts. Complications can be life-threatening. You're safer in a hospital than a birthing centre.

If you want to save money, just de-list. Get insurance plans to cover it. Allow for more private health care. I would have loved to have had more options on how my c-section took place. If there had been a "deluxe" option in a private centre, with a guaranteed private room and immediate attention from nurses, and other perks, I definitely would have considered it.

However, it just seems like a cheap shot to suggest de-listing c-sections, but not abortions. Or sex change operations. Or a host of other elective operations. I think many people understand that choices have to be made, and something will have to be cut. It just seems that interventions dealing with the conditions that are the least life-threatening should be the ones that are on the chopping block. C-sections save lives. Abortions kill.

Vellacott’s exposé of CTV’s so-called “investigation” of crisis pregnancy centres

2012-01-27T16:17:00.001-05:00

January 26, 2012, Ottawa – A Member of Parliament and founding board member of a crisis pregnancy centre in Saskatoon is concerned that CTV’s ‘investigative reporting’[1] on crisis pregnancy centres in BC may be in violation of the Canadian Broadcast Standards Code of Ethics, to the ultimate detriment of vulnerable pregnant women.

Here's an interesting question raised:

“Did Dr. Wendy Norman share with CTV’s reporter the informed consent form she gets her patients to sign and whatever other information she gives her patients before they undergo an abortion? If so, the information was not shared with the viewers. And how are women counselled and supported before and after the abortion?

Yeah, what kind of information do providers offer women about to abort? I would like to poll women to find out if they want info on fetal develpoment.

There are no possible comparisons between the Holocaust and Abortion what-so-ever

2012-01-27T11:32:00.000-05:00

Nazi extermination of thousands of disabled children featured in new Berlin museum exhibit

And if you see one, it's an illusion. You're guilty of false consciousness.

“Through 1945, over 10,000 [children] fell victim to the various programs which were designed to exterminate ‘life unworthy of living,’” the museum states. “More than 5,000 children and teenagers were tortured and murdered in the Nazi ‘children’s departments’ alone, institutions which were specially created for the purpose of extermination.”

...

“The notion of ‘life unworthy of life’ is eerily familiar to today’s slogan, ‘quality of life,’” Stephanie Gray told LifeSiteNews. “The philosophy which guided the Nazis is a philosophy which guides many today - that the value of one’s life is to be determined by one’s features or abilities. It is this frightening mentality which leads to human rights violations.”

And the Nazis made it sound like you were doing the kid a favour if you killed him.

But are there any parallels with abortion? Naaaaaaah.

If these children had lived, they would have experienced a lot of medical advances as adults that would have greatly helped them.

And about graphic images:

“Isn’t it interesting that people will pay money to go to a museum to see disturbing images of the mistreatment of children, yet many criticize the display of abortion images. Perhaps it’s because it’s easier to face historic injustices which we didn’t commit; it’s much more difficult to face present-day injustices which we do permit,” she said.

I've never heard a Catholic bishop protest against showing images from the Nazi Holocaust. Ever.

Campaign Life Coalition urges Deb Matthews to delist abortion from OHIP

2012-01-27T10:56:00.001-05:00

Toronto, Jan. 27, 2012 – Campaign Life Coalition is urging Deb Matthews, the Minister of Health and Long Term Care, to delist elective abortions as part of Ontario’s action plan on health funding that will be announced on Monday January 30th, 2012.

Talking about C-section births, Matthews recently told reporters that “procedures must improve patients’ health outcomes or they won’t be covered,” adding that OHIP coverage applies when a procedure is deemed medically necessary.

“We agree with Deb Matthews that medically unnecessary procedures should be delisted,” said Mary Ellen Douglas, Ontario President for Campaign Life Coalition. “A procedure that kills a child in the womb is never medically necessary and therefore we call on the Liberal government to stop funding this elective surgery with our tax dollars,” added Douglas.

“Abortions are performed for convenience rather than for medical necessity,” said Alissa Golob, Youth Coordinator for Campaign Life Coalition. “If the McGuinty government is prepared to delist services that reflect a lifestyle choice, abortion should be the first one to go.”

A recent poll shows that more than six in ten Ontarians oppose the status quo of tax dollars paying for abortion on demand.

Campaign Life Coalition has already gathered more than 15,000 signatures for a petition to defund abortion, and is urging supporters to contact their MPP and tell them that abortion is a financial drain on our health care system and should be delisted from OHIP.

About Campaign Life Coalition

Campaign Life Coalition is a national, non-profit organization involved in political action and advocacy for legal and cultural change in Canada with respect to protecting human life and the family. It is non-partisan and encourages voting based on principles, not party. For more information visit www.campaignlifecoalition.com.

Media Contacts:
Alissa Golob, Campaign Life Coalition Youth Coordinator 416-204-9749
Mary Ellen Douglas, Campaign Life Coalition Ontario President 613-389-4472

Is is morally wrong to take a life? Not really, say two bioethicists

2012-01-27T09:06:00.002-05:00

The culture of death rides on.

“[T]he dead donor rule is routinely violated in the contemporary practice of vital organ donation. Consistency with traditional medical ethics would entail that this kind of vital organ donation must cease immediately. This outcome would, however, be extremely harmful and unreasonable from an ethical point of view [because patients who could be saved will die]. Luckily, it is easily obviated by abandoning the norm against killing.”

...

“Then killing her cannot disrespect her autonomy, because she has no autonomy left. It also cannot be unfair to kill her if it does her no harm.”

Could this be incitement to hatred and violence? I'm serious.

More hospitalization for drug and alcohol overdose

2012-01-26T22:40:00.002-05:00

From a study abstract:

RESULTS:

Hospitalization rates for alcohol overdoses alone increased 25% from 1999 to 2008, reaching 29,412 cases in 2008 at a cost of $266 million. Hospitalization rates for drug overdoses alone increased 55%, totaling 113,907 cases in 2008 at a cost of $737 million. Hospitalization rates for combined alcohol and drug overdoses increased 76%, with 29,202 cases in 2008 at a cost of $198 million.

It would be interesting to know which drugs are most responsible for hospitalization. And how many of these patients died.

Source:
J Stud Alcohol Drugs. 2011 Sep;72(5):774-86.
Hospitalizations for alcohol and drug overdoses in young adults ages 18-24 in the United States, 1999-2008: results from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample.
White AM, Hingson RW, Pan IJ, Yi HY.
Source
Division of Epidemiology and Prevention Research, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-9304, USA. whitea4@mail.nih.gov

Brazil seeks to register all pregnant women

2012-01-26T22:16:00.002-05:00

Please tell me feminists are against this.

I can't believe people who are supposedly pro-choice are for this.

Social Justice Tribunals of Ontario

2012-01-26T12:12:00.001-05:00

As I was doing some research on special education, I learned that the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal is now a member of Ontario's Social Justice Tribunals.

The Social Justice Tribunals Ontario is the second cluster of adjudicative tribunals (Environment and Land Tribunals Ontario was first) created under the Adjudicative Tribunals Accountability, Governance, and Appointments Act, 2009. The Act permits the government to create a cluster through regulation when it believes the tribunals can “operate more effectively and efficiently as part of a cluster than alone.” The regulation for the social justice tribunals cluster was passed on January 25, 2011; the tribunals brought together in this cluster are listed below.

Child and Family Services Review Board

Custody Review Board

Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario

Landlord and Tenant Board

Ontario Special Education (English) Tribunal

Ontario Special Education (French) Tribunal

Social Benefits Tribunal

The Ontario Human Rights Tribunal has this to say about this "clustering":

The clustering initiative promotes the best use of resources through cross-agency cooperation and coordination of operations and administration. It will also enhance consistency in tribunal practices, procedures and decision making.

So the government wants to become more efficient at screwing you over.

My Review of The Iron Lady

2012-01-24T19:45:00.000-05:00

Today, Mr. Big Blue Wave and I went to see The Iron Lady, the biopic about Margaret Thatcher, starring Meryl Streep, who was brilliant in the lead role.

I liked the movie. I didn’t love it, but I liked it. It was the first movie I’d seen in a movie theatre in years. Finally something to pique my interest. It’s been even longer since I actually liked a movie I saw in a theatre.

I did not like the flashback approach to telling the story. It made the movie into a series of vignettes. These vignettes were delightful, but they remained somewhat superficial. I would have liked more drama about the Falklands’ war, or the IRA bombings, or the political back-biting in her party. I only got segments. The segments themselves were very well-written and well-acted. Just too short.

There was a lot of controversy about portraying Margaret Thatcher as old and senile. Mr. Big Blue Wave, like many other movie reviewers, believed that this depiction of her was a leftist attempt to cut her down. I don’t see what the fuss is about. I thought showing her as a senile old woman made her more human and sympathetic. Her character incarnated the old phrase “she puts her pants on one leg at a time like the rest of us.” I enjoyed the exploration of the woman behind the political figure, especially in her capacity as wife and mother. She hallucinates about talking to her dead husband concerning events that happened to her during her term. Some people see that as pathetic. I thought it was just a tool to get her to show the action. Mr. Big Blue Wave would have preferred a conventional “life and times” type movie that featured the salient historical events.

Because of the focus on feelings and relationships rather than action, it is something of a “chick flick”. Male conservatives who go to see this movie probably want to see her in her full Tory splendour—and you do get some of that. But it’s intertwined with scenes about relationships. Women who see this movie, whatever their political stripe, would appreciate the personal aspects of her tenure.

One theme that I drew from the movie is that she gave her life to politics and public life, but her failure to properly develop her family and amicable relationships meant that she ended up basically alone except for the company of her daughter Carol. She has a secretary and an assistant and a security detail, but they are not close confidants. The only confidants she had was her husband, which is why letting go was so difficult for her. It makes a statement about political ambition. You can love politics, but politics will not love you back.

Because those TRAP laws are just so damned inconvenient!

2012-01-23T15:27:00.000-05:00

Two women injured in Alabama: run-down abortion clinic has no gurney access

Pro-Life blogger Jill Stanek posted dramatic photos taken at the scene that showed that EMT with gurneys were forced to navigate through an alley filled with trash and debris to reach a door that prevented gurney access. The condition of the two women is currently unknown.

VIDEO: Poor-choicers crash pro-life gathering

2012-01-22T17:35:00.001-05:00

Not happy to take over public parks and squares in several North American Cities, members of the Occupy crowd crash a pro-life event in Washington D.C.

Because shouting a bunch of slogans and disrupting a meeting accomplishes SO MUCH.

H/T: Verum Serum

Engineers Develop Robot Baby

2012-01-22T16:46:00.001-05:00

CNET:

The silently mewling babe is a collection of whirring servomotors and flailing claw-arms, seemingly powered by unseen mechanisms beneath its blanket.

Its movements are perfectly lifelike, and yet its appearance is so alien-death machine-like that I get an overwhelming urge to cast it far into the Uncanny Valley from whence it came.

Imagine if we made a fetus like this robot, and we covered it in a lifelike skin. Then we show the world what an abortion is like.

How to get money from CIDA; and how not to

2012-01-21T23:10:00.000-05:00

Says Patricia Maloney of Run with Life:

The best way involves telling CIDA you’ll give out lots and lots and lots of condoms to third world countries. International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) did this, along with promising all kinds of other contraception methods/abortifacients including emergency contraception and IUDs.

And the worst way? DON'T promise to hand out condoms. Promise to actually deal with maternal mortality:

...

In their 2004 refusal from CIDA, MaterCare were told that one of the reasons their funding request was refused was because—are you ready for this? Because their project [West African regional Birth Trauma Centre in Ghana] was:

“aimed at curing the problem rather than preventing it from taking place”.

MaterCare was trying to cure a problem of maternal child mortality. Oh my goodness, what were they thinking?

I wish someone would pay her a living wage to do this research full time. I'm sure she would, too :)

Ovulating women use sexier gaits and walk slowly ahead of men.

2012-01-21T20:39:00.000-05:00

I'm posting this for fun. From a journal called Gait Posture:

Previous research has demonstrated that women's physical appearance or sexual interest is different across the menstrual cycle. However, the nonverbal behavior of women toward men according to their menstrual cycle has not been previously explored. In this study, the gait of women walking ahead a male confederate was recorded with the help of a spy-camera. The amount of time that women spent walking was the first dependent variable whereas the extent to which the women were perceived to be sexually attractive by two judges was the second dependent variable. Comparisons were performed according to the women's ovulation phase measured with an LH salivary test. Near ovulation, it was found that women walked slower and their gait was subjectively rated as sexier. Such behaviors were interpreted as unconscious desires of women near ovulation to reinforce their attractiveness in order to attract more men and to increase their choice of a partner.

This is such a bogus study. Two judges?

And even if you have a number of judges...what purpose could this information serve?

Source:
Gait Posture. 2012 Jan 13. [Epub ahead of print]
Gait and menstrual cycle: Ovulating women use sexier gaits and walk slowly ahead of men.
Guéguen N.
Université de Bretagne-Sud, UFR LSHS, 4, rue Jean Zay, BP 92116, 56321 Lorient Cedex, France.

Priest evangelizes in the mall

2012-01-21T20:13:00.001-05:00

I think this is brilliant.

It does take a special kind of priest to do this, though.

Abortion will not come to an end in Canada without martyrdom

2012-01-21T00:29:00.001-05:00

Today on LSN there were two very interesting blogposts that dealt with the end of abortion:

What God-given rights would you bleed for?

The end of abortion (will not be pretty)

Kristen Walker says when abortion will come to an end, it will involve forcing some pro-aborts to accept the new reality. And making them really mad.

Alissa Golob asks the question: what rights are you willing to bleed for.

I'd like to add my two cents about the end to abortion.

Abortion will not end without martyrdom.

How many bona fide pro-life martyrs are there in Canada?

You can name them all: Linda Gibbons. Ruth Lobo and the other Carleton U. students. Bill Whatcott. Whatever you may think of his tactics, he's willing to walk the walk and suffer for his beliefs, and he has numerous times.

If we are not willing to suffer for our cause, God will not give us victory. Do you really think God ever does things so that we're all comfy-cozy in our engagement?

No.

We will not end abortion simply with clicks and votes.

So what did I have in mind?

There are many leftist readers on my blog right now. And I suspect they think I mean we should commit violence against people involved in abortion.

I've never condoned violence. I oppose it.

I simply mean that pro-lifers will have to stand up to the unjust pro-abortion structures in our country and be ready to suffer in the name of Christ.

This may even involve being targeted by poor-choicers, who have hurt pro-life witnesses in the past.

Once upon a time, pro-lifers thought that winning the battle against abortion was a matter of political strategem.

And of course we've come to realize that this is ultimately a spiritual battle. Spiritual battles require spiritual means.

God does not grant victory to people unwilling to take up their crosses.

There are many good and dedicated pro-lifers doing all they can to fight the good fight.

But I do not see a heckuva lot of martyrdom in Canada.

I know that someone will object that I should be the first to step up to the plate because I'm the one raising the point.

There is a kernel of truth to this. I struggle with this. I am a mother. I think about the welfare about my children above all else. I am not in a good position to make myself a target. Prudence suggests to me that this is not what I should do.

Objectively speaking, though, there is no way around the truth that if pro-lifers want to win, they must each suffer the cross.

And losing an election is not suffering a cross. Being called a name on a blog is not suffering a cross.

I'm talking about major suffering: Getting arrested. Losing a job. Being physically attacked by a poor-choicer. I'm talking about serious inconvenience.

And this has to be undergone on a wide scale.

I don't see it in our movement. I don't want to disparage what pro-lifers are doing, because they are doing good work, and they're doing what's necessary in worldly terms. But it's insufficient in spiritual terms.

If you look at secular social movements, they had their heroes.They succeed according to how badly the members wanted victory. If secular movements won with suffering, don't expect Christian-led movements to win with less effort. And not just because our culture is hostile to Christianity. It has to do with the spiritual truth that God doesn't hand us victory on a platter. That's not his way. If you want the victory of Christ, you have to suffer with him.

Without this effort to suffer for the cause, we're not going to win. No cross, no victory. So the question becomes: how can we take up our cross?

My hope is that someday, a group of individuals will found a community or an order of single people whose only goal is the pro-life cause. I know Priests for Life and the Sister for Life have done some good work. But I was thinking more along the lines of a secular institute, of single, celibate people so that they can be involved in every worldly field.

I see these people praying in front of clinics, making sure that every clinic has at least one witness on every abortion day. When laws are passed to prohibit this witness, as it would inevitably be the case, they would go to jail and suffer there. And then more individuals would take their place. They would set up witness in other areas too-- for example, college campuses or the public square. Someone would find an excuse to jail them as well. Maybe even hurt them. They would accept the controversy and inconvenience as part of the mortification necessary to make reparation for Canada's sins.

We can't all be martyrs. We are not all called to undergo this suffering, but somebody has got to do it. Think of me what you will, but this is the objective truth.

The parents who refused to say for FIVE years finally reveal sex of their 'gender-neutral' child

2012-01-20T22:33:00.001-05:00

The Daily Mail:

From the moment Sasha was born, Beck Laxton and Kieran Cooper have been at pains not to lumber their son with the stereotyping they fear that gender brings.

So they simply called him ‘the infant’ and kept his gender a secret from all but a few close friends and relatives. As he grew older, he was encouraged to play with dolls as much as Lego, slept in a neutral yellow room and was allowed to wear both boys’ and girls’ clothes.

But now that he is five and at school Miss Laxton, 46, and Mr Cooper, 44, believe it will be almost impossible to keep it up.

I wonder how the kid felt about it.

I wonder if he'll teased about it when he's older.

Is pregnancy unethical?

2012-01-20T16:42:00.000-05:00

Yes, says UK bioethicist.

Here is contrarian bioethics at its best. Pregnancy and childbirth are so painful, risky and socially restrictive for women that public funding should urgently be directed to the development of artificial wombs. This is the only way to achieve true equality between men and women for then neither women nor men would then be limited by having children and the burdens of reproducing the species would be shared equally.

This is the radical suggestion made by a leading British bioethicist, Anna Smajdor, of the University of East Anglia.

In other words, make sure women and men are exactly alike.

Sometimes you just want to give a person a vigorous shake.

Says Anna Smajdor:

Either we view women as baby carriers who must subjugate their other interests to the well-being of their children or we acknowledge that our social values and level of medical expertise are no longer compatible with “natural” reproduction.

We mustn't subjugate our interests for that of others. Why, that would be self-sacrificial. And loving.

And men NEVER have to sacrifice their interests for their family. They screw around and stay out all the time. *eye roll*.

I suggest that there is a strong case for prioritizing research into ectogenesis as an alternative to pregnancy. I conclude by asking the reader the following: if you did not know whether you would be a man or a woman, would you prefer to be born into Society A, in which women bear all the burdens and risks of pregnancy, or Society B, in which ectogenesis has been perfected.

I would love to escape the symptoms of pregnancy. That doesn't mean I wouldn't choose to be a mom to an unborn child. Those are two different things.

This philosophy is a recipe for forced abortion. If childbirth is unethical, then a coerced abortion is the solution.

If you want to fight contraception, you must take up metaphysics

2012-01-20T00:11:00.001-05:00

I could not agree more with this article:

The ubiquity of the contraceptive mentality is such that people will not talk about the issue and when there is talk, if it cannot be explained in a sound-bite answer, it is rejected. Such is the loyalty—unwitting or not—to the foe of our race. As Pope Paul VI predicted, contraception is a potent weapon in the hands of the very powerful in society. From the partner in the law firm who is adulterously sleeping with his secretary, to the government official conditioning the provision of aid to a poor nation, to the local public school who demands the rigorous attention of elementary school aged children to instruction on different sexual practices, contraception has changed and continues to change the landscape of society. Children are seen more and more as things to be avoided or inconveniences to a lifestyle trying more and more to be devoid of difficulty. With this mentality, it is a short step to abortion and infanticide. On this point, it should be no wonder that the largest provider of abortion in the United States is the foremost promoter and peddler of contraception: Planned Parenthood. This mentality, however, would never have gained traction had not human persons disparaged the search for the answers to the ultimate questions; had not disparaged metaphysics. Thus the difficulty of engaging in discussion in the modern world–especially in the United States.

...

As is manifest in the most recent encyclicals and allocutions of John Paul II and Benedict XVI, the Church is now not only defending the Faith, but she is defending reason. She is the last voice on the earth that stands foursquare against the enemy. She always has and she always will. The reason is simple: she is preoccupied with metaphysics–namely, the ultimate metaphysical question: God. In so doing, she defends the truth, freedom, and the dignity of the human person. It is our task as the sons and daughters of Mother Church to do the same.

Metaphysics is practically absent in the Catholic scene, and it shouldn't be.

It's absolutely necessary.

Nothing irks me more than Catholics who disparage metaphysics. Because it's the basis for understanding all Catholic doctrine.

The difficulty for laypeople like me is finding resources to vulgarize it. I remember there used to be a website called The Sixty Second Aquinas. It was awesome. It took a small point of metaphysics and gave every day examples to explain it.

If there are any philosophers out there looking for a mission, this would be it: trying to explain to the folks in the pews the basic and finer points of metaphysics.

An affordable compact humanoid robot for autism spectrum disorder interventions in children.

2012-01-19T21:46:00.000-05:00

This has nothing to do with culture wars, but this sounds cool:

Autism Spectrum Disorder impacts an ever-increasing number of children. The disorder is marked by social functioning that is characterized by impairment in the use of nonverbal behaviors, failure to develop appropriate peer relationships and lack of social and emotional exchanges. Providing early intervention through the modality of play therapy has been effective in improving behavioral and social outcomes for children with autism. Interacting with humanoid robots that provide simple emotional response and interaction has been shown to improve the communication skills of autistic children. In particular, early intervention and continuous care provide significantly better outcomes. Currently, there are no robots capable of meeting these requirements that are both low-cost and available to families of autistic children for in-home use. This paper proposes the piloting the use of robotics as an improved diagnostic and early intervention tool for autistic children that is affordable, non-threatening, durable, and capable of interacting with an autistic child. This robot has the ability to track the child with its 3 degree of freedom (DOF) eyes and 3-DOF head, open and close its 1-DOF beak and 1-DOF each eyelids, raise its 1-DOF each wings, play sound, and record sound. These attributes will give it the ability to be used for the diagnosis and treatment of autism. As part of this project, the robot and the electronic and control software have been developed, and integrating semi-autonomous interaction, teleoperation from a remote healthcare provider and initiating trials with children in a local clinic are in progress.

I'd really like one that is sturdy and could move on grass so I could send my kids out in the backyard to play with it.

(Yes, I know, it'll probably cost tens of thousands of dollars, but a girl can dream, can't she?)

Source:
Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2011 Aug;2011:5319-22.
An affordable compact humanoid robot for autism spectrum disorder interventions in children.
Dickstein-Fischer L, Alexander E, Yan X, Su H, Harrington K, Fischer GS.

Pro-choice Semantics

2012-01-19T21:43:00.002-05:00

Says the Abortion Ganger who goes by the name "Not Guilty":

Here’s the thing: no pro-choicer I know denies that a fetus is human; we deny that it is a person. And there is a distinct difference.

...

“Human” can refer to so many things other than a person. Our cells are human. We have human emotions that aren’t experienced, as far as the current evidence shows, by other animals to the same degree as us. We have human culture and technology. “Human” is such a broad term that to suggest that a fetus is not human is really quite ridiculous. That being said, not all fetuses are human, just the ones that share human DNA. But DNA does not a person make.

Note how she carefully avoids saying that a fetus is *a* human, as opposed to just human.

Pro-choicers seem to try to avoid the fact that a fetus is *a* human.

A person is completely different from a human and although a person is also human, “human” is not necessarily a person. To suggest that they are synonyms is to conflate their meanings. People share a number of characteristics, which while not all are present in each person, most people will indeed share most of the characteristics. People have emotions and thoughts, they experience sensation, often through their 5 senses but not always. People have the capacity to learn, to form opinions, to have likes and dislikes. Even small infants and children have many of these qualities in at least a rudimentary sense. People also have individual bodies that are self-sustaining. When they are not self-sustaining, we have medical intervention that can take over to some extent, but when ultimately our bodies lose too much of their ability to self-sustain, we die.

Here's the problem.

Our western human rights and moral system is based on the intrinsic value of a human being.

The moment a human being exists, he is intrinsically valuable.

You can't argue that a being is intrinsically valuable, but that it only has value at a certain point in time. That would be contradictory.

So all human beings are valuable in and of themselves the moment their existence begins.

Their existence begins at conception.

The only qualification one needs to be intrinsically valuable is to be a human being. No other qualification is required.

That is what is meant by "all men are created equal". When they are created, that is, at conception, they have equal value.

History shows that human beings are denied personhood in order to be able to kill and oppress them. This is just another example.

Why hiding information from the women was suggested

2012-01-18T07:51:00.002-05:00

BioEdge:

In fact, one of the papers on which the journal’s stand was based was more realistic. “Our [30-week] proposal, then, would not prevent sex selection. Rather, we suggest that it would permit health care providers to navigate ethically the meaningful application of the SOGC policy of not supporting sex selection while maintaining patients’ rights to full disclosure of medical information.” In other words, the 30-week rule is just a sop for doctors’ consciences.

In other words, the measure wasn't proposed to effectively stop sex selection abortion. All it is supposed to do is ease the conscience of healthcare workers.

And I don't get how waiting until 30 weeks gestation satisfies the right to information. You have a right to information from conception.

The Insanity at the Rockford, Illinois Abortion Clinic

2012-01-18T07:39:00.001-05:00

That is now closed:

Vicki Johnson, a pro-life Christian who’s prayed outside of the NIWC for over two decades, said she remembers someone affiliated with the NIWC dressed up as Cookie Monster handing children balloons made out of condoms at a youth picnic.

They all remember the landlord dressed as a priest ushering women into the driveway and yelling obscenities at the pro-lifers praying there. Another time a man dressed in a devil costume.

There's lots more.

Funny how that place didn't close because of pro-choicers.

Pro-life Nation Launches AbortionDocs.org

2012-01-17T23:03:00.000-05:00

We should do this in Canada:

Pro-life Nation's first project is the launching of a groundbreaking web site AbortionDocs.org. This site is a searchable database that endeavors to list every surgical abortion clinic, every "abortion pill-only" clinic, and every abortionist in the United States. The website boasts that it contains the largest collection of documents ever compiled on the abortion cartel-and is growing daily.

Documents include photos, medical license applications, malpractice suits, disciplinary records, news articles, videos, criminal histories, and more.