Catholic Fire

Shameful!  LifeSite News: Albuquerque, NM, Nov. 20, 2013 (OperationRescue) — The Albuquerque Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Ordinance, which would have banned abortions after 20 weeks, lost Tuesday tonight by 10.5% of the vote. The final tally was 44.74-55.26%. “Pro-life supporters may have suffered a political loss, but we are far from defeated. We’ll be back,” said Cheryl Sullenger, Senior Policy Advisor for Operation Rescue, who was in Albuquerque for the vote. “It is clear that the people are uncomfortable with late-term abortions and would like to see them end. We learned a lot from this campaign, and we look forward to another try that will better reflect the true feeling of the voters on this subject." The ordinance would have been the first-ever municipal ballot measure to ban abortions after 20 weeks, when babies are known to feel pain. Priests for Life founder Fr. Frank Pavone said pro-life activists in the city "should not feel discouraged" b...

On November 19, the citizens of Albuquerque, New Mexico will vote on the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Ordinance – a law forbidding abortions past 20 weeks' gestation in the city. When you consider that Albuquerque is currently the late-term abortion capital of the USA, you can see how next Tuesday's vote is the good in this fight. Meanwhile, a group of six senators and House representatives is proposing legislation to unravel every pro-life law passed throughout the nation.  This is Roe v. Wade on steroids. Proponents of the Orwellian-titled "Women's Health Protection Act of 2013" include Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) – the last of whom said, "I think that when you bring your baby home, when your baby is born ...  the baby belongs to your family and has all the rights." So it should be pretty easy to see where the evil is. Today, Live Action released a new video showcasing...

Praise God! It passed! Now if we could just ban ALL abortions. The House of Representatives today approved a that bans abortions from after 20-weeks of pregnancy up to the day of birth. The vote for the bill broke down on mostly partisan lines with Republicans supporting the ban on late-term abortions and Democrats opposing it. The House approved the bill on a 229-195 vote with 7 Democrats voting for the bill and 6 Republicans voting against it. Read the entire story.

by Kathy Ostrowski In 1979, before giving birth to the first of my five children, I was fascinated by “breaking” literature that encouraged talking and singing to your child in utero. I remember my husband’s puzzlement when I told him the “experts” said he should put his head close to my growing belly and talk to our baby! I was reminded of how new that concept had been when Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert (who is my age) recounted his experience during that era. Gohmert is a member of the federal House Judiciary subcommittee that heard testimony on HR 1797, a bill that bans elective abortions when a baby is capable of feeling pain , which the bill recognizes as existing by 20 weeks fetal age. During his brief comments at the hearing, Gohmert shared his experience with the premature birth of his first child, Katy. His wife asked him to do whatever he could to assist their daughter’s struggle to survive. The neonatologist told him how important it was to caress and talk to Ka...

Zenit's has a book review of: "Neonatal Pain: Suffering, Pain and the Risk of Brain Damage in the Fetus and Unborn" (Springer) edited by Giuseppe Buonocore and Carlo Bellieni, who are both members of the department of pediatrics, obstetrics and reproductive medicine at the University of Siena.

By Father Frank Pavone, M.E.V. National Director, Priests for Life Even from death row, you can change history and save lives. Two death-sentenced Kentucky prisoners have a grievance which the Supreme Court recently agreed to hear. In the case of Baze v. Rees, the inmates argue that the method of execution most commonly used - that is, lethal injection - violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. In fact, at least half of the death row inmates facing an imminent execution in the last two years have filed suit challenging the chemicals used in lethal injections. The fact that the high court has agreed to hear this case has caused many states to halt executions until the decision is rendered sometime in 2008. At issue is not the constitutionality of the death penalty itself, but rather a specific question raised by the type of chemicals used and the method of application. In the 1980s, most of the states that have capital punishment switched over fro...