In a shocking decision delivered February 28, President Obama’s Security and Exchange Commission ruled that PepsiCo’s use of aborted fetal remains in its research and development agreement with Senomyx to produce flavor enhancers falls under “ordinary business operations.”

The letter, signed by attorney Brian Pitko of the SEC Office of Chief Counsel, was sent in response to a 36-page document submitted by PepsiCo attorneys in January 2012. In that filing, PepsiCo pleaded with the SEC to reject the Shareholder’s Resolution filed in October 2011 that the company “adopt a corporate policy that recognizes human rights and employs ethical standards which do not involve using the remains of aborted human beings in both private and collaborative research and development agreements.”

PepsiCo lead attorney George A. Schieren noted that the resolution should be excluded because it “deals with matters related to the company’s ordinary business operations” and that “certain tasks are so fundamental to run a company on a day-to-day basis that they could not be subject to stockholder oversight.”

Debi Vinnedge, executive director of Children of God for Life, the organization that exposed the PepsiCo-Senomyx collaboration last year (see www.cogforlife.org/senomyxalert.htm) was appalled by the apathy and insensitivity of both PepsiCo executives and the Obama administration.

“We’re not talking about what kind of pencils PepsiCo wants to use—we are talking about exploiting the remains of an aborted child for profit,” she said. “Using human embryonic kidney (HEK-293) to produce flavor enhancers for their beverages is a far cry from routine operations!”

PepsiCo also requested the resolution be excluded because it “probed too deeply into matters of a complex nature upon which shareholders cannot make an informed judgment.”

“In other words, PepsiCo thinks its stockholders are too stupid to understand what they are doing with the remains of aborted children,” Vinnedge stated. “Well they are about to find out just how smart the public really is when they turn up the heat on the worldwide boycott!”

Vinnedge is warning consumers to be on guard for the roll-out of PepsiCo’s newest beverage that claims to cut sugar and calories by 50 percent. The product is called Pepsi Next and is anticipated to hit the market in the coming weeks.

PepsiCo stated that its goal with Senomyx is to produce new beverages with reduced sugars and calories. So is Pepsi Next the new Senomyx-PepsiCo creation?

While fetal components are currently not in the final product, there is growing concern among consumers that it could happen in the near future. With the explosion of health foods on the market, there is nothing to stop companies from using fetal remains as protein ingredients.

Impossible, you say? Actually, because of GRAS rules (Generally Accepted as Safe) it might not even trigger FDA oversight. And that has consumers plenty worried about just what might be “next” from the industry!

It also makes Oklahoma senator Ralph Shortey’s SB1418 banning the sale of products that are developed with or contain aborted fetal remains, critically important for consumer protection. See http://cogforlife.org/oklahomasenator.htm.

“We commend the senator for his courageous move,” noted Vinnedge. “The public is already saying no thanks to all Pepsi beverages and Pepsi Next is just that—the ‘next’ product to avoid!”

To date, the worldwide boycott has expanded to include Canada, Germany, Poland, UK, Ireland, Scotland, Spain, Portugal, Australia, and New Zealand.

Debi Vinnedge is founder and executive director of Children of God for Life, a watchdog group focused on the issues of aborted fetal and embryonic stem cell research.

This article has been reprinted with permission and can be found at http://www.cogforlife.org/pepsiSEC.pdf.

From DDL
By Tom Beyerlein

Anti-abortion activists have been holding prayer vigils outside a Kettering abortion clinic for decades, but on Sunday they plan to up the ante by saying prayers of exorcism.

The Rev. Steve J. Angi, chancellor of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati, has given permission for priests to say exorcism prayers at a 2 p.m. rally outside the Women’s Med Center, 1401 E. Stroop Road, the Miami Valley’s only abortion clinic. The clinic is closed on Sundays.

Ruth Reddens, an organizer of the 40 Days for Life campaign that plans the vigil, sought Angi’s permission to perform the “exorcism of locality,” designed to drive evil out of a place, rather than out of a person. “Hopefully, the spiritual battle will be won,” she said.

Officials of the Women’s Med Center did not return a phone message seeking comment.

Rick Pender, spokesman for Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio, which refers local women for abortions and performs abortions at a clinic in Cincinnati, said, “This is America — people have a right to free speech. We don’t agree that we’re doing something evil. We’re providing a service that is needed and appreciated by a lot of people.”

Participants will be reading the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel, written by Pope Leo XIII in 1886. It reads, in part, “Seize the dragon, the ancient serpent, which is the devil and Satan, bind him and cast him into the bottomless pit, that he may no longer seduce the nations.”

“This (prayer) is said over a place that’s infested with the evil spirit, to remove any evil that might happen to be there,” said the Rev. Earl Fernandes, dean of the Athenaeum of Ohio seminary in Cincinnati.

He said it’s one of the minor exorcisms in Catholic tradition, meant to “turn people away from sin and toward the Holy Spirit.”

Deddens got the idea of using exorcism prayers from a similar vigil in Rockford, Ill., in 2009. Some said the prayers led to the January decision to close Rockford’s abortion clinic, which had been cited for health and safety violations.

Sunday’s prayer vigil, open to people of all faiths, comes at a time when women’s reproductive issues have taken center stage in the national political debate. Deddens said she also is helping to organize a rally at the Dayton Federal Building on March 23 to protest what conservatives see as infringement of the religious freedom of Catholic employers contained in President Barack Obama’s health care reform plan, which requires that insurance cover contraceptives.

“We’re all Catholic now,” Deddens said. “Everybody needs to stand for freedom or they’re coming for you next.”

A video promoting the benefits of Natural Family Planning. The video points out the inconsistency of those who strive to eat a pesticide- and hormone-free diet yet take a hormone-laced contraceptive pill without thinking. Produced by the Catholic Advance, Diocese of Wichita.

By Timothy Cardinal Dolan
My brother bishops,

Twice in recent weeks, I have written you to express my gratitude for our unity in faith
and action as we move forward to protect our religious freedom from unprecedented intrusion
from a government bureau, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). I remain
deeply grateful to you for your determined resolve, to the Chairmen of our committees directly
engaged in these efforts – Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Bishop Stephen
Blaire and Bishop William Lori -who have again shown themselves to be such excellent leaders
during these past weeks, and to all our staff at the USCCB who work so diligently under the
direction of the Conference leadership.
(more…)

by John-Henry Westen

From LifeSiteNews.com

Fr. John Hollowell’s truly amazing monologue needs to be spread far and wide. It’s a wake up call, and one of the most encouraging statements I’ve heard in a long time. It’s a Divine battle cry!

The talk heats up after minute 2 where he notes in this talk addressed to Planned Parenthood Pres. Cecile Richards that “we have not doubt” that in the future Planned Parenthood will be seen as the “slave traders, the Nazis, the Communists and all those groups that seek to oppress people.”

He then warns PP and President Obama: “You better knock us out now. You and the President better knock us out right now, because Cecile, I can promise you – Here comes the Catholic Church … you’ve awakened a sleeping giant.”

“Priests and bishops that have in the past been content to remain quiet are no longer so. … The Truth is being rained down everywhere. … Here comes the Catholic Church.”

He notes that PP since its founding “have proclaimed yourselves sworn enemies of the Catholic Church,” but “we’re in the ring now, the gloves are off.” He acknowledges that Cecile has every worldly advantage in her corner – the President of the United States, the media. But Goliath too had every worldly advantage.

The powerful talk ends quoting Tolkein: “The board is set, the pieces are now in motion, at last we come to it – the great battle of our age.”

AWESOME!!!

by Keith Riler
“Contraception reduces unintended pregnancies” has joined its fantastic make-believe friends “death with dignity,” the “efficacy” of embryonic stem cells, the “certainty” of man-made global warming, and the “positive” multiplier effect in the leftist vernacular. Hopeful that repetition supplants truth, choirs of liberal faithful are singing:

Most importantly, broadening access to birth control will help reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and abortions – Jeanne Shaheen, Barbara Boxer and Patty Murray

Covering contraception saves money for insurance companies by keeping women healthy and preventing spending on other health services – White House Fact Sheet on Contraception Coverage

Now consider, instead, reality.
(more…)

By Rebecca Peck

Dear Friends,
I just wanted you to see this thread of a discussion on some points related to the HHS mandate.
Although the religious liberty issue is universally compelling, another crucial point is that birth control is NOT preventative care (see below). The current administration wants this to be about the Catholic Bishops denying women their “women’s health”. This is why I feel our recent research article is so timely and important right now (1). The pill is not a warm little fuzzy harmless object. It causes significant harm and the American people have been deceived for long enough. As a practicing physician, I see the fallout every day—young women with blood clots in their legs, strokes, early breast cancer, HPV, and cervical cancer. This is NOT about women’s health; it is about preventing and killing babies. The present administration will try to pit US Bishops against women and try to portray the bishops as a bunch of old men that don’t want women to have their “women’s health” options, but this has no credibility.
Every day, I, my husband Benjamin, and other doctors like us do TRUE preventative care. We do pap smears looking for cervical cancer, perform breast exams looking for breast cancer, refer for mammograms, order colonoscopies looking for colon cancer, and give immunizations to prevent pneumonia and influenza. These time-tested measures are very different from prescribing a pill to prevent a CHILD. A child is not a disease. Pregnancy and fertility are not disease states; they are normal physiological processes of the human body. (more…)

+ February 10, 2012
Dear Brothers & Sisters in Christ:
As you are most undoubtedly aware, on January 20, 2012, the Department of Health and Human Services announced its decision not to expand the unacceptably narrow “religious employer” exemption to its mandate that virtually all health insurance plans must include, as so-called “preventive services” sterilizations, abortifacients, and contraception. Since that time, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and I began immediately preparing to meet this challenge.
The Bishops’ Conference committee on Religious Liberty is actively engaged in planning a nation-wide response on a number of levels. I simply want you to know that the bishops are fully engaged in this process, and a significant, sustainable, and long-term strategy is our goal.
You are invited to visit the USCCB website for continually updated information regarding our efforts to defend freedoms of conscience and religious liberty, and to better inform yourself as to what you can do as individuals. There is already information on this website to assist you in writing your representatives to express your deep concern for the protections of freedom of conscience and religious liberty. (more…)

BY
ARCHBISHOP TIMOTHY M. DOLAN:

(THE WALL STREET JOURNAL:
JANUARY 25, 2012)

How about some respect for Catholics and others who object to treating pregnancy as a disease?

Religious freedom is the lifeblood of the American people, the cornerstone of American
government.  When the Founding Fathers determined that the innate rights of men
and women should be enshrined in our Constitution, they so esteemed religious
liberty that they made it the first freedom in the Bill of Rights.

 
In particular, the Founding Fathers fiercely defended the right of conscience.
George Washington himself declared: “The conscientious scruples of all men
should be treated with great delicacy and tenderness; and it is my wish and
desire, that the laws may always be extensively accommodated to them.”  James
Madison, a key defender of religious freedom and author of the First Amendment,
said: “Conscience is the most sacred of all property.” (more…)