Archive for April, 2013

JAMA Study: Kids With Fewer Vaccines Have Fewer Doctor and Emergency Room Visits

Source: Health Impact News

jama-logo

JAMA Pediatrics published a new study today looking at vaccination rates. The results of that study are making headlines throughout the “mainstream” media outlets, but none of them have headlines like ours. Yet, ours is probably the most factual headline representing the true facts of what this study found.

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Obedece al Mandato o Las Escrituras

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El mandato del HHS: ¿Qué es? y ¿Por qué está mal?


“Es necesario obedecer a Dios antes que a los hombres.”

Ha habido una gran confusión acerca del Mandato general de HHS que requiere que todos los empleadores, incluyendo los empleadores
relacionados con la Iglesia den cobertura en sus planes de seguro médico a la anticoncepción gratuita, la esterilización y a abortivos.
En primer lugar, el mandato no es un mandato para la cobertura de servicios de salud universal. Por el contrario, obliga a todos los empleadores a pagar primas del seguro que financian el aborto, la anticoncepción y la esterilización. También obliga a los empleados que pagan las primas de seguro de salud a proporcionar fondos para la anticoncepción gratuita, la esterilización y el aborto. Esto forzaría a todas las agencias de servicios católicos, tales como hospitales, colegios, y agencias de servicios sociales a pagar por los servicios que la doctrina Católica considera gravemente inmorales, o irse a la quiebra. Esto plantea varias preguntas importantes:
¿Por qué la Iglesia Católica participa en la educación, la salud, y el servicio social en el primer lugar?
Si la Iglesia tiene un mandato divino para hacer obras de misericordia,
¿Por qué el gobierno tiene el derecho de infringir en este proceso?
• ¿Es la anticoncepción atención en salud?
• ¿Es la esterilización atención en salud?
• ¿Es el aborto atención en salud?
En primer lugar, la Iglesia tiene un mandato divino que es llevar a cabo obras de misericordia, como la educación, servicos de salud, servicios sociales, alivio de desastres, y así sucesivamente. Como el Papa Benedicto XVI aclara en su encíclica Dios es amor, “Para la Iglesia, la caridad no es una especie de actividad de asistencia
social que también se podría dejar a otros, pues es parte de su naturaleza y es manifestación irrenunciable de su propia esencia. “Desde este punto de vista, el servicio a los necesitados, de alguna forma, es una obligación de todos los católicos (de hecho, de todo cristiano), una obligación que se une la conciencia de todos los creyentes cristianos.
En segundo lugar, una obligación impuesta por Dios, no puede ser revocada por cualquier institución humana. Este es el significado
claro de la primera enmienda de la constitución de los EE.UU., que dice: “El Congreso no hará ley respecto al establecimiento de la religión, o prohibiendo el libre ejercicio de la misma; … “En vista de esta enmienda, cualquier intento por parte del gobierno para prohibir a los miembros de una comunidad religiosa para actuar de acuerdo a su fe es inconstitucional.
En tercer lugar, la anticoncepción no es cuidado de la salud. La anticoncepción ataca a un sistema sano del cuerpo con el fin de evitar que este sistema cumpla con sus funciones normales. La evidencia
de esta situación es proporcionada por los muchos problemas
de salud en realidad causados por los métodos anticonceptivos como la píldora anticonceptiva.
En cuarto lugar, la esterilización no es cuidado de la salud. La esterilización destruye el mismo sistema del cuerpo que los anticonceptivos atacan. Un estado malsano causado por la esterilización se demuestra
por las alteraciones en la salud y los problemas sociales asociados con la esterilización como la depresión,disfunción sexual y aumento de divorcios, con toda la los consiguientes problemas sociales que surgen con el divorcio.
En quinto lugar, el aborto no es cuidado de la salud.
Ni el niño ni la madre se hacen más saludables por un aborto, sobre todo, el niño. De hecho, hay una multitud
de problemas de salud asociados con el aborto arrepentimiento,
la depresión, el suicidio, la infertilidad, y los riesgos para la salud de los futuros hijos.

Operation Rescue’s investigation reveals Brigham’s AWS abortion

Source: Operation Rescue

Operation Rescue’s investigation reveals Brigham’s AWS abortion chain is a haven for rapist, other criminals

by Cheryl Sullenger, Senior Policy Advisor for Operation Rescue

Voorhees, New Jersey – Operation Rescue has conducted an investigation of the American Women’s Services (AWS) abortion chain operated by the notorious Steven Chase Brigham and discovered that abortionists who are working to keep AWS open during Brigham’s medical license suspension have shocking backgrounds that include criminal convictions and other problems. This information has led Operation Rescue to believe that the entire AWS chain is fraught with problems and should be shut down to protect the public.

“Brighham’s abortion business is a haven for the bottom of the barrel criminals and quacks masquerading as medical doctors, and that’s just the unvarnished truth,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. “We have reviewed hundreds of pages of disciplinary documents. Every medical misfit on the east coast that has run out of options seems to have found a welcome home in Brigham’s abortion organization.”

Abortionists who continue to work for Brigham include:

• An admitted sex offender and drug abuser
• Two convicted drug violators
• A convicted income tax cheat who once paid out $3.5 million in a malpractice suit.
• An abortionist convicted of billing fraud
• Several abortionists that cannot get hospital privileges

Brigham was caught operating an illegal late-term abortion ring in August, when one of his patients suffered a seriously botched abortion at a secret abortion clinic in Elkton, Maryland, that required she be airlifted to John Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore for emergency surgery to save her life. The abortions were started illegally in New Jersey by Brigham and finished in Maryland where Brigham holds no medical license. Other abortionists involved in Brigham’s operation, Nicola Riley of Utah and George Shepard, Jr. of Delaware, had their Maryland medical licenses suspended. (Background documentation)

Four Maryland abortion mills closed

According to his web site, Brigham continues to operate 15 abortion mills in four states even though his only remaining medical license has been suspended by the State of New Jersey.

However, an investigation by Operation Rescue into Brigham’s infamous American’s Women’s Services abortion chain has revealed that five of Brigham’s listed abortion mills are now closed, including all three of his listed Maryland offices. In addition, the off-the-radar Elkton mill, where police discovered the remains of 35 late-term aborted babies in a freezer, was closed immediately by the authorities in August. Brigham’s Cheverly abortion mill closed and moved out of its office sometime in September. The Baltimore and Frederic clinics are “not taking appointments at this time” and appear to have closed, at least for now.

“Even though these clinics remain closed, phone numbers in those locations still ring in to a central office. Women are led to believe that abortion services are available locally, when they are not. Patients are then shuttled to other clinics controlled by Brigham,” said Newman. “It is a way to draw in abortion customers from areas they no longer service. Is it dishonest? Of course it is, but dishonesty and deception are traits that have characterized Brigham’s career.”

In its October 13, 2010, ruling suspending Brigham’s medical license, the New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners recognized this pattern of deception when it stated, “Dr. Brigham has consistently and repetitively engaged in manipulative and deceptive behavior designed to circumvent the requirements of the board’s termination of pregnancy regulation and to eviscerate the protections that those regulations seek to afford to New Jersey patients.”

“We have a message for the authorities in Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia: For the love of God, please close these abortion clinics!” said Newman. “As relieved as we were by the suspensions and clinic closures, the authorities really need to do more and close AWS down permanently. We knew that the suspensions would not alleviate the danger posed to the public by Brigham’s abortion mills that remain in operation right now, but what we discovered about Brigham’s current abortion staff was worse than we had imagined.”

Regec’s criminal past

In Pennsylvania, two offices in Erie and State College listed on Brigham’s ASW web site have long been closed. Brigham holds no medical license in Pennsylvania since he was forced to surrender it under a cloud of accusations in 1992. However, Operation Rescue has confirmed that two abortion clinics listed on Brigham’s web site located in Allentown and Pittsburgh, are now open for business and taking patients.

Abortionist Steven Paul Regec worked for Brigham in Pennsylvania, but significantly cut back his schedule in 2007, when he applied for licensure in South Carolina and apparently relocated there. According to local pro-life groups, that led to the closure of the State College and Erie clinics. However Regec continued to operate sporadically in Allentown. Operation Rescue has confirmed that Regec actively refers to the AWS offices in Pennsylvania from his other practices. Operation Rescue’s undercover investigators were told that Regec “may or may not” be doing abortions at the Allentown clinic.

“Usually when an abortionist doesn’t work at an office, the receptionists have no problem telling callers that. It is only when they are trying to hide something that we get the ‘may or may not’ kind of answers,” said Newman. “There is obviously something to hide.”

That something may include Regec’s criminal background.

Regec, plead guilty in 1991 to three misdemeanors: one violation of the Controlled Substance Act; and two violations of Refusal or Failure to Keep or Furnish Records. As a result, Regec’s license was suspended for four months; he paid a $10,000 fine, and served two years’ probation.

Interestingly, Regec’s South Carolina medical licensing information states that Regec has no history of holding a medical license in any other state. Operation Rescue has forwarded information about Regec’s nefarious criminal deeds and medical board discipline in Pennsylvania to the authorities in South Carolina.

Gordon’s deception

In July, 2010, the Pennsylvania Department of Health told Brigham that he could no longer operate abortion clinics in Pennsylvania. Brigham then simply transferred ownership to another corporation, Rose Health Services, which is owned by an elderly woman he knew in Ohio, and the clinics continued operations without interruption.

Abortionist Richard Efram Gordon continued working at the Allentown clinic when Brigham transferred ownership. It is thought that Brigham still maintains under-the-radar connections with the Allentown and Pittsburgh mills, even though he has been banned from owning or controlling abortion clinics in Pennsylvania. For Gordon to go along with that obviously deceptive relationship shows a level of dishonesty that makes him a danger to the public.

“There is no doubt that Brigham maintains some level of involvement in the Pennsylvania clinics,” said Newman. “He has learned well over the years how to exploit the system to continue his otherwise illegal operations. All the while, women are placed in serious jeopardy from his hired abortionists whose appalling records beg the question of why they are still allowed to continue practicing.”

With the closures in Maryland and the reorganization of the Pennsylvania clinics, Brigham continues to openly and directly operate six abortion clinics in New Jersey and two in Virginia. Operation Rescue has uncovered documents that show the abortionists who work at them could well serve as inspiration for a Hollywood Halloween horror flick.

Convicted felon Gellman and his $3.5 million mistake

Abortionist Elliot Gellman currently works for Brigham at four of his New Jersey abortion clinics in Voorhees, Elizabeth, Woodbridge, and Paramus. Like Brigham, he operates dangerously without hospital privileges anywhere.

In 2002, Gellman was convicted of felony counts for repeatedly failing to file personal income taxes in New York and sentenced to three years of “conditional discharge.” As a result, his New York license was placed on probation for three years with a fine of $10,000. In 2009, Gellman was ordered by New York “never practice medicine in New York State…activate his registration…or seek to reapply for a license.”

But Gellman’s legal troubles were not confined to New York. In New Jersey, he served three years probation on his medical license for the New York income tax fraud case.

He also paid out a hefty $3.5 million settlement in August, 2006, in a malpractice case against him, according to the New Jersey Medical Board.

“Cases don’t settle for three and a half million dollars if something very serious didn’t happen. This is an indication that Gellman is a dangerous doctor with a criminal history that continues to prey on unsuspecting women,” said Newman. “His dishonesty and incompetence are incompatible with the practice of medicine where trust is everything. Gellman continues to pose a serious danger to the public.”

Convict Aalai bilks Medicaid

Abortionist Mehrdad Aalai seems to have been one of the primary abortionists in Baltimore and Cheverly, Maryland, when those clinics were in operation. It is unclear at which AWS facilities he is currently operating. He has no hospital privileges anywhere.

In October 13, 1993, Aalai was charged in Maryland with one criminal count each of Medicaid fraud, theft over $500, knowingly destroying, damaging or altering medical records, and obstruction of justice. In his defense, Aalai arrogantly argued that his fraudulent Medicaid billing did not constitute a crime of moral turpitude.

Aalai eventually pled guilty and was sentenced to three years of incarceration, which was suspended on the condition that he pay a $10,000 fine, $142,570 in restitution, and successfully serve three years of unsupervised probation. It was a slap on the wrist.

In 1994, Aalai’s Maryland medical license was revoked.

In 1996, Aalai petitioned to have his Maryland medical license reinstated. His request was granted. In 1997, his probation was terminated. However Aalai continues to be listed as a “sanctioned provider” who is barred from participating in Maryland’s Medicaid program.

No hospital will have Denis

Abortionist Frantz Denis works for Brigham at his Voorhees and Elisabeth, New Jersey locations. He maintains a medical license in New York and is listed as a certified interpreter for the Haitian Creole language. Denis also operates, like Brigham, without any hospital privileges.

Peters violates drug laws

Abortionist David Reid Peters works for Brigham at his Virginia Beach, Virginia, location.

In 2001, abortionist Peters was charged by the Virginia Board of Medicine for prescribing drugs “outside of a bona fide practitioner-patient relationship, as required by law.” He further “authorized the prescriptions without obtaining a medical or drug history, performing a comprehensive physical examination, providing information about the benefits and risks…and without initiating additional interventions and follow-up care.”

It took the Board six years to reprimand Peters for his shoddy doctoring and required that he complete continuing education courses related to the prescribing of drugs.

But Brigham’s next abortionist makes all others look like choirboys.

Sex Offender Kaji

Abortionist Vikram Hiralal Kaji continues to work for Brigham at his Voorhees and Woodbridge, New Jersey, abortion mills. He has no hospital privileges.

Kaji was convicted by the New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners in 1993 for having improper sexual contact with three patients. After a lengthy relationship that involved improper sexual conduct, Kaji reportedly had sex without a condom with one young girl in the birthing center of his office during business hours. He knew his victim was vulnerable to his advances because she had been a depressed victim of child sex abuse with a history of psychiatric hospitalization. He later misperscribed drugs for her including Seconal and steroids. Kaji at first fought the charges, saying the sex was consensual, but later admitted that he had made an error in moral judgment.

Kaji was also accused of giving improper breast and rectal exams to two other women. New Jersey placed Kaji on a 1-year suspension and fined him $5,000 and ordered him to undergo psychological counseling.

The Federal Drug Enforcement Agency ordered Kaji’s license to prescribe controlled substances revoked in 1994. Also that year, Pennsylvania suspended Kaji for 36 months after learning of the New Jersey action.

The New York Medical Board was less forgiving. It revoked Kaji’s medical license for “sexual misconduct and drug abuse” in 1995, and banned him from practicing in that state.

In 2005, Marcia Carroll, the mother of one of Kaji’s underage patients, testified before the United States House of Representatives (see p. 17) regarding her daughter’s February, 2005, experience at Kaji’s New Jersey clinic. Carroll state that her daughter was “coerced, harassed and threatened” into having an abortion across state lines, in direct violation of parental consent laws, and the clinic staff never breathed a word about Kaji’s long history of sexual abuse. On the way home to Pennsylvania the 15-year-old started to cry, and she still cries herself to sleep at night. Carroll said her daughter “does suffer. She had to go to counseling for this….But she did want me to come here today and speak on her behalf. [emphasis in original] She asked me to come here for her sake and for other girls’ safety.”

In fact, it would be hard for New Jersey patients to be aware of Kaji’s history of sexual abuse since the Board’s physician look-up page excludes any derogatory information older than ten years. A search of Kaji’s New Jersey license remarkably reveals no record of discipline.

“There is no doubt in my mind that Kaji will reoffend,” said Newman. “We have seen sex offenders such as Laurence Reich, Lawson Akpulonu, Brian Finkel, and others use abortion clinics in a predatory way to access victims for abuse sometimes even after they have been caught and charged. Allowing Kaji to continue to practice is like putting a fox in the hen house. It is unconscionable and guarenteed to lead to continued abuse.”

Kaji curiously made headlines in 1989, when he offered pro-life protesters a room in his abortion clinic where they could talk to patients about their abortion decisions. However, after one visit, pro-lifers were banned from his clinic when they enraged him by showing a patient images of aborted babies and taking the woman, who changed her mind about the abortion, to a local pregnancy help center.

Why are these mills still open?

These clinics continue to operate for several reasons:

• Brigham has become adept over the years at using deception and legal loopholes to skirt the law.
• Brigham operates in four states, making is easier for his to evade laws in more restrictive states and the closing of the entire abortion chain legally difficult and complicated.
• People are generally unaware of the horrific backgrounds of the shoddy abortionists who are working at AWS, so there has been limited public outcry – until now.
• In this economic downturn, pro-life groups lack the resources needed to push this issue into the public eye and make a prosecution more probable.

Operation Rescue is committed to pursuing legal action against this dangerous chain of abortion mills in all four states in which it operates. The key to closing the chain lies in obtaining criminal charges that will put Brigham in jail for an extended period of time. Operation Rescue has reported extensively about Brigham’s accusations that he was practicing medicine without a license in Maryland and operating a secret late-term abortion mill where a botched abortion nearly cost one woman her life. We have worked with other Maryland groups to press for criminal charges against Brigham in this illegal late-term abortion scheme.

What you can do to protect women and babies from AWS abortionists

The State Attorney who would have jursdictional control over a criminal prosecution in Maryland has been non-responsive to calls for criminal charges. The good news is that he was handily defeated in November’s election. His replacement, Ellis Rollins, III, has indicated that he would will look at the case and enforce the law appropriately. Operation Rescue will be asking the public to contact the newly elected State Attorney as soon as he is sworn in to encourage him to pursue criminal charges against Brigham. With Brigham convicted and jailed, that may cause the rest of his operation to collapse. (Please sign up to receive e-mail alerts from Operation Rescue to be notified.)

Secondly, this project is huge and expensive because it requires our staff to operate in several states. Please consider making a donation to Operation Rescue today ensure we have the resources we need to continue our investigations and press for criminal charges.

Finally, please pray that Brigham will be held accountable under the law and that his chain of seedy abortion mills will permanently close.

Powerful Testimony of Horrific Abortion Abuses Ends Prosecution Case in Gosnell Murder Trial

Source: Operation Rescue

[Written on an airplane and posted from my iPad at an airport so please forgive typos. I wanted you all to have this ASAP. Thanks! Cheryl]

By Cheryl Sullenger

Philadelphia, PA — Kareema Cross worked for Kermit Gosnell for a harrowing four years helping with abortion procedures amid conditions so bad that she snapped photos to document them in 2008 — a year before the death of Karnamaya Mongar — then reported her boss to the authorities under a fictitious name. But no one listened. Two years later, authorities raided Gosnell’s clinic thinking it was a pill mill only to discover that it was frightfully so much more.

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‘Infant beheadings, severed baby feet,’ but media still ignoring Gosnell trial

PHILADELPHIA, April 11, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – It’s gruesome. It’s dramatic. It’s arguably the abortion-related story of the decade.

It's the murder trial of “House of Horrors” abortionist Kermit Gosnell. And the mainstream media is almost completely ignoring it. 

But cracks are beginning to show in what pro-life activists argue can only plausibly be explained as a deliberate blackout by a largely pro-abortion media of one of the biggest stories of 2013.

Recently 21 leaders in the pro-life and conservative movements signed a statement denouncing national broadcast networks ABC, CBS, and NBC for failing to give so much as a nod to the Gosnell trial.

Now they have been joined by a U.S. Congressman and a leading feminist columnist.

In a statement on the House floor today, Rep. Scott Perry, R-PA, slammed President Obama and the media for turning a blind eye to Gosnell’s alleged misdeeds.

“Mr. President, your silence is deafening,” Rep. Perry said today, according to The Hill. “Are you so blind, are you so intractable, are you so extreme that you yourself can't even call this out for what it is, something that is reprehensible? Pro-life or pro-choice, this is reprehensible.

“It is worthy of your attention,” he said. “It is worthy of your leadership. It is worthy of your direction.”

“The media doesn't want to talk about it,” Perry added. “Not NBC, CBS, ABC, CNBC, not Fox, and not the leaders of our nation, not the president.” 

“It gives me great pain and sorrow to have this entered and read into the record,” Perry concluded. “But since the media outlets refuse to cover this because it's uncomfortable, because it might not meet with their agenda, and because many of the leaders of this country refuse to discuss it, I think it's important that we have it read into the record, so that this history and their stories don't remain untold.”

Fox News analyst and Daily Beast columnist Kirsten Powers, who is a liberal and feminist, also added her voice today to those who have called out the media for downplaying the Gosnell trial despite its evident newsworthiness.

Infant beheadings. Severed baby feet in jars. A child screaming after it was delivered alive during an abortion procedure. Haven't heard about these sickening accusations?,” asked Powers in the opening to her column, published on USAToday

“It's not your fault,” she added. “Since the murder trial of Pennsylvania abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell began March 18, there has been precious little coverage of the case that should be on every news show and front page.” 

“Let me state the obvious. This should be front page news. When Rush Limbaugh attacked Sandra Fluke, there was non-stop media hysteria. … Yet, accusations of babies having their heads severed — a major human rights story if there ever was one — doesn't make the cut.” 

Powers concluded: “You don't have to oppose abortion rights to find late-term abortion abhorrent or to find the Gosnell trial eminently newsworthy. This is not about being ‘pro-choice’ or ‘pro-life.’ It's about basic human rights.

“The deafening silence of too much of the media, once a force for justice in America, is a disgrace.” 

Gosnell stands accused of murdering seven newborn babies by “snipping” their spinal cords. He is also charged with murdering one of his clients, who died after an overdose of anesthesia. 

Testimony in the case has been ongoing for the past two weeks, and has featured several of Gosnell’s former employees giving gruesome details about the conditions at what has been dubbed Gosnell’s “House of Horrors” clinic, including the routine practice of severing the spinal cords of hundreds of newborn babies.

One former employee described Gosnell's method of “abortion” as “literally a beheading.” He also testified: “It would rain fetuses. Fetuses and blood all over the place.”

But despite the dramatic testimony, coverage has been isolated mostly to a small number of mostly local or smaller conservative outlets.

Rights of conscience must be preserved

Source: Detroit News

Michigan lawmakers worried that the Obama administration is brushing over concerns that its health care law will trample religious freedoms have crafted an appropriate bill to shield workers and hospitals from being coerced into violating their conscience.

Sen. John Moolenaar, R-Midland, introduced legislation that would offer conscience protections to individuals and institutions in the health care field.

“The HHS mandate brought this to the forefront,” Moolenaar says, referring to regulations from the federal Health and Human Services department requiring all insurance plans to provide coverage of abortions and contraceptives. “As a state, we need to protect the religious liberty and conscience of citizens.”

The bill recently passed out of the Senate Health Policy Committee and will now be taken up by the full Senate.

And while a state law can’t override federal contraceptive dictates, it would prevent similar mandates from occurring at the state level and would protect hospitals and workers from having to engage in activities they object to on moral or religious grounds.

Other states, including Illinois, Missouri and Kentucky, have similar laws, according to the Michigan Catholic Conference, which is backing Moolenaar’s bill.

Michigan already has a 30-year-old law on the books allowing health care workers and health care facilities to refuse participating in abortions.

This bill would expand protections to other non-life-threatening, elective services, including selling contraceptives and participating in sterilization procedures.

The legislation would also shield health care providers and institutions from firing, liability or discrimination because of objections to certain services.

But the bill, along with existing federal law, excludes religious objections in life-threatening situations. The bill would also limit objections in parts of Michigan where health care services are limited.

At a time when the White House has decided enacting its health care bill is more important than respecting civil liberties, the state must offer its citizens what protections it can.

Same-Sex Marriage: We’re Playing Chess, Not Checkers

by Doug Mainwaring

Just as chess requires players to seriously consider every possible consequence of their moves, we need to seriously consider every possible consequence of the push for same-sex marriage, especially for children.

In our sometimes misguided efforts to expand our freedom, selfish adults have systematically dismantled that which is most precious to children as they grow and develop. That’s why I am now speaking out against same-sex marriage.

By the way, I am gay. (more…)

I’m gay, and I oppose gay marriage

by Doug Mainwaring, Source:ThePublicDiscourse.com

In our sometimes misguided efforts to expand our freedom, selfish adults have systematically dismantled that which is most precious to children as they grow and develop. That’s why I am now speaking out against same-sex marriage.

By the way, I am gay.

A few days ago I testified against pending same-sex marriage legislation in Minnesota’s Senate Judiciary and House Civil Law Committees.

The atmosphere at these events (I’ve also testified elsewhere) seems tinged with unreality—almost a carnival-like surrealism. Natural law, tradition, religion, intellectual curiosity, and free inquiry no longer play a role in deliberations. Same-sex marriage legislation is defended solely on grounds of moral relativism and emotions.

Pure sophistry is pitted against reason. Reason is losing.

Here’s the problem: The national discussion of same-sex marriage treats the issue like a game of checkers, where opponents can quickly gain each other’s pieces without much forethought about the consequences. This unreflective view of the discussion has prevented any real debate.

In years past, defenders of marriage found it easy to win the battle on the checker board. Appeals to religion and tradition won hands down almost effortlessly. While same-sex marriage advocates argued for a more thoughtful consideration of the topic, they were mostly just bulldozed over.

The tide has turned. Same-sex marriage proponents now have all the “kings” on the board, and rule it. One only needs to consider media headlines from the last few weeks. We are bombarded with approvals of same-sex marriage. To the casual onlooker, not steeped in this issue, it would seem that conservatism has embraced same-sex marriage. Each day brings fresh news of Republican political elites, Fortune 500 companies, NFL members, and even Dirty Harry himself, Clint Eastwood, throwing their support behind genderless marriage.

The game we are actually playing is chess, not checkers. This sounds confusing, because chess and checkers are played on the exact same sixty-four square game board. Checkers is easy and it’s fast. It’s one of the first games children learn how to play. Chess is hard, requiring thought about the intended and unintentional consequences of every single move that may or may not be made.

In developing their goals for policy and law, politicians often look no further than the next election cycle. They’re concerned about votes. Supporting same-sex marriage now looks like a winner for them.

It also looks like a winner for media outlets, concerned about revenues and readership, and for large corporations, eager to polish their images and create goodwill. Few of these outlets are interested in playing chess because a quick win at checkers is more important to them.

The sense of urgency regarding same-sex marriage, now palpably frenetic, is in itself a sign of our national discussion’s devolution into nothing more than slogans and emotions.

Our nation’s individual state legislatures and courts—including the Supreme Court— need to apply the brakes. Now.

As in chess, the unintended consequences deserve sound consideration.

Genderless marriage now enjoys an aura of equality and fairness, which suggests that the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment had same-sex marriages in mind as they penned their magnificent giant leap forward for humanity. While this situation is highly unlikely, those who selfishly seek additional “rights” for themselves have found their justification in the penumbra they now sense surrounding legitimate civil rights.

Same-sex marriage will not expand rights and freedoms in our nation. It will not redefine marriage. It will undefine it.

This isn’t the first time our society has undefined marriage. No-fault divorce, instituted all across our country, sounded like a good idea at the time. Its unintended consequence was that it changed forever the definition of marriage from a permanent relationship between spouses to a temporary one. Sadly, children became collateral damage in the selfish pursuits of adults.

Same-sex marriage will do the same, depriving children of their right to either a mom or a dad. This is not a small deal. Children are being reduced to chattel-like sources of fulfillment. On one side, their family tree consists not of ancestors, but of a small army of anonymous surrogates, donors, and attorneys who pinch-hit for the absent gender in genderless marriages. Gays and lesbians demand that they have a “right” to have children to complete their sense of personal fulfillment, and in so doing, are trumping the right that children have to both a mother and a father—a right that same-sex marriage tramples over.

Same-sex marriage will undefine marriage and unravel it, and in so doing, it will undefine children. It will ultimately lead to undefining humanity. This is neither “progressive” nor “conservative” legislation. It is “regressive” legislation.

Nowhere on any marriage license application in any state are the applicants asked, “Do you love each other?” Yet this is the basis on which same-sex marriage proponents seek to change our laws. Is the state really in the business of celebrating our romantic lives?

The mantra I heard repeatedly in Minnesota was that “marriage is about love, commitment, and responsibility.” But these three things are not the state’s interests in marriage. Marriage, from the state’s perspective, is about kids. Period. That’s the reason the institution exists. We should tremble at and fear the notion of undoing it.

For a nation that has no trouble selfishly creating a seventeen-trillion-dollar (and growing) deficit it will soon hand off to its children and grandchildren, perhaps this is asking too much. But for the sake of all children and those yet to be born, we need to slow down and seriously consider the unintended consequences of undefining marriage. Otherwise, we risk treating our progeny as expendable pawns, sacrificed in the name of self-fulfillment. We can do better than that.

Doug Mainwaring is co-founder of the National Capital Tea Party Patriots. This article reprinted with permission from The Public Discourse.

‘Nobody mentioned the risk’: woman paralyzed after taking contraceptive pill speaks out

by Peter Baklinski,

QUEBEC, April 3, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The pill may have promised women the world, but many women are discovering that blood clots, stroke, paralysis, and even death are a price too high to pay for the holy grail called sexual liberation. 

This is true for 32-year-old Marie-Claude Lemieux of Quebec.

Three years ago Marie-Claude began taking the contraceptive pill Tri-Cyclen, manufactured by Toronto-based drug company Janssen.

Tri-Cyclen, like all oral contraceptives, contains synthetic versions (norgestimate and ethinyl estradiol) of two female sex hormones – estrogen and progestin. 

According to the manufacturer, Tri-Cyclen inhibits the woman’s ovaries from releasing eggs. It also thickens her cervical mucus to immobilize sperm so they cannot reach an egg to fertilize it. If fertilization occurs despite these measures, the pill hardens the woman’s uterine wall to prevent implantation of a newly conceived human life. 

Marie-Claude had taken Tri-Cyclen for six months when she one day unexpectedly suffered a stroke that left her completely paralyzed, save for the ability to move her left eyelid. Doctors blamed the stroke on the contraceptive pill since Marie-Claude was not overweight, did not smoke, and had no family history of stroke. 

Last week, Marie-Claude was able to communicate to a reporter from La Presse that before going on Tri-Cyclen, neither her doctor or pharmacist told her the risk factors involved in taking the contraceptive pill. 

“Nobody mentioned the risk and I believed that since it was approved [for women’s use], it was not dangerous.”

“Let's say it has a nasty side effect,” she said. 

While Marie-Claude has gained some use of her finger, which allows her to communicate on an electronic device using a special program, doctors believe that she will remain severely disabled for life.  

Many women are shocked to learn the manufacturer’s small print of the risks involved in taking the pill.

Janssen states on its website that Tri-Cyclen’s risks include:

1. Circulatory disorders including “blood clots in legs, lungs, heart, eyes or brain.” Janssen states clearly that blood clots are the “most common serious side effects of birth control pills. Clots can occur in many areas of the body.”

2. Breast cancer. Janssen warns that “women who use birth control pills may be at increased risk of developing breast cancer before menopause,” adding that these women “may be long-term users of birth control pills (more than eight years) or women who start using birth control pills at an early age.”

3. Cervical cancer. Janssen warns that “some studies have found an increase of cancer of the cervix in women who use hormonal contraceptives”.

4. Gallbladder disease. Janssen warns that “users of birth control pills have a greater risk of developing gallbladder disease”.

5. Liver tumours. Janssen warns that the “short and long-term use of birth control pills also has been linked with the growth of liver tumours.”

But Marie-Claude is only one of numerous women who have experienced negative side-effects from using the pill – ranging from the minor to the fatal. 

A discussion board on Topix has over 200 entries from women sharing their horror stories of using Tri-Cyclen related pills. Some mothers have had their teenage daughters die from using the pill. Some women have had close brushes with death. Others have become incapacitated for life. Many are hoping for a class action lawsuit against the manufacturer. 

One mother from California wrote of her teenage daughter: “My precious Baby girl died June 25, 2009 from using Ortho TriCyclene Lo. I agree whole heartedly with you [that] the company should be held responsible for the children that are dead because of this drug. Believe me we will have our say soon, and although no amount of money will bring our precious little girls back, their deaths will not have been in vain.” 

A mother from Montana wrote: “My daughter almost died 2-1/2 years ago after taking these pills for about 6 weeks. After a week in the ICU, a clot buster procedure, and 4 titanium stents in her iliac, she took coumadin for 8 months.” 

Another mother wrote: My 21 year old girl died 28 days after taking this deadly drug! She was going to get married in Nov, and died in Oct, 2008) 28-days after starting the birth control pill. I don't care how many warnings are on the information packet, this company should be forced to re-design this drug or take it off of the market.” 

A woman named Jaime wrote: “I was on Ortho Tri-Cyclen in 2001 when I ended up with a transverse sinus thrombosis, which is a clot in my brain. My neurologist left me on the birth control pills and 6 months later I got a PE, pulmonary embolism, which is a clot in your lungs. I am lucky to be alive with both of these. The doctor from the PE immediately pulled me off of the birth control. I have been and will continue to be on blood thinners my whole life.” 

According to La Presse, approximately 90,000 Quebec women were on the pill last year. No one knows how many women have suffered from using it since doctors are not required to report adverse effects.

Women who have suffered using Tri-Cyclen are discovering that there is no recourse to legal action against the manufacturer since the manufacturer clearly states the risks associated with using the product.

Marie-Claude’s husband Frederic Boulianne told La Presse that he would be willing to join a class action suit against the makers of Tri-Cyclen. He compared using the pill to playing “Russian Roulette.” 

Andrea Mrozek, founder of ProWomanProLife.org, told LifeSiteNews.com that her heart goes out to women suffering from the pill.

“I remember reading The Greatest Experiment ever Performed on Women by Barbara Seaman and wondering why this information isn't more commonplace. Women take the pill because it is easy to take and does the job. And yet, side effects do occur and an outcome like this isn't easy (or freeing) in the end, at all.”

Mrozek pointed out that there are safe methods of postponing pregnancy that are just as effective as the pill but are 100 percent natural. These include the Billings ovulation method, the Creighton Model FertilityCare System, and the symptothermal method. 

“I’m convinced if more women knew and understood what these other methods are, they would use them instead,” she said. 

Homosexual Marriage: We Have Sown The Wind, And Now Reap The Whirlwind.

MsgrCharlesPopeby Msgr. Charles Pope
Homosexual Marriage Is The Logical Conclusion For A Culture That Celebrates Sterility! Widespread Acceptance of the Homosexual Lifestyle Is God’s Punishment for Sin!

There is, among faithful Catholics, a dismay, and even an understandable anger at the events unfolding at the Supreme Court these past days related to gay unions. And even if the court were to uphold traditional marriage (which does not seem likely), or merely return the matter to the States, it seems quite clear where our culture is going regarding this matter, approving things once, not so long ago, considered unthinkable.
What then to do with our dismay and anger? It is too easy to vent anger, which is not only unproductive, but in the current state of “hyper-tolerance” for all things gay, angry denunciations are counter-productive. (more…)