Update III (1/23 @ 4:43 p.m.): I spent the day with a client, a lawyer who does pro bono work on right to life cases. She represents patients whose doctors are about to pull the plug, and she’s in D.C. to speak at an event sponsored by National Right to Life (NRLC).
Bobby Schindler (Terri Schiavo’s brother) is also a guest speaker. We stopped by the NRLC office this afternoon and met Terri’s sister Suzanne Carr, who’s in town for the event. Suzanne and Bobby travel the country talking about pro-life issues and helping families deal with the same problem they faced with Terri.
I need to get more involved with the right to life movement. There are so many people out there doing so much good work, but you don’t hear much about it. For instance, if your family member is in the hospital facing withdrawal of treatment, National Right to Life can put you in touch with lawyers in your state to help extend plug-pulling deadlines so you can transfer your loved one to a different facility.
Check out blogger Barbara Curtis’s photos from yesterday’s March for Life rally. More rally pics at Human Events.
I forgot to mention yesterday that Ramesh Ponnuru, author of The Party of Death: The Democrats, the Media, the Courts, and the Disregard for Human Life, spoke at the Family Research Council’s March for Life conference. I heard only the last part of his presentation (good sense of humor, given the seriousness of the subject matter) and didn’t get to meet him.
Update II (1/22 @ 8:43 p.m.): Must-read post from a commenter, “Changed Life”:
“As to abortion. I can speak as to what is wrong with it because I had one. If some asks now if I have children, I say none living. If they dare ask what happened, I tell them I murdered my children. I say children but I only had one abortion. They make me get off the table and go back into the office and pay them more money because the doctor says I am too big so I am further along than I think and I have to pay more money for him to do the abortion. Pay the money, back on the table, time passes, they wake me up tell me nope they were wrong, I was just having twins. How did they know it was twins…they counted arms, legs, heads of what they vacumned out. (No refund by the way). Guess it wasn’t the mass of meaningless unformed tissue they told me it was if they could count arms and legs.
“30 years ago and it feels like 30 seconds ago.
“I thank God for the peace he has placed in my heart and for his grace. Amazing Grace that saved a wretch like me.”
Update (6:13 p.m.): The panel went well. The discussion focused on blogging in general rather than pro-life blogging in particular. Reminded me that I need to do more pro-life blogging.
Dr. David Prentice’s stem cell presentation was captivating. That may sound like a strong word to describe it, but he talked about things mainstream media don’t report. For instance, did you know that adult stem cells, which don’t involve the destruction of human embryos, heal people, and embryonic stem cells don’t? So much information. Adult stem cell research is supported mostly by private investors because investors want a return on their money. There’s a reason why embryonic stem cell research is supported by taxpayers. Why are so-called scientists salivating over embryos? Why do mainstream media fail to provide balanced coverage of the stem cell research debate?
The new euphemism for cloning is “somatic cell nuclear transfer.” Dr. Prentice said the scientific evidence isn’t there to support embryonic stem research, but even if it were, ethical concerns still remain. Much more later.
Townhall intern Katie Favazza live-blogged the panel and Dr. Prentice’s presentation and will post more text and pictures later. I didn’t get to see the late Terri Schiavo’s brother Bobby Schindler this morning. I met him at last year’s CPAC, but I doubt he remembers me. I may get to meet his other sister tomorrow when I drop by the National Right to Life office.
Blogger Peter Shinn is doing much more than blogging about child killing. He visits the clinics, does some video blogging, and writes representatives, and he’s involved with a group that visits abortion mills on days they do abortions. They pray for the unborn and the women and also counsel the women.
Correction: I called Jill Stanek a “former abortion nurse.” INCORRECT. She was a labor and delivery RN who made a gruesome discovery in 1999. Read all about it.
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*** Very important question at the end ***
Black folks sure have come a long way.
We can go anywhere we want to go (except for certain hispanic areas in Los Angeles County, that is), sit at the back of the bus only if we want to, and fornicate with people of different races without fear of incarceration for miscegenation or lynching for race-mixing.
We can vote for the crook of our choice without having to pay poll taxes or take literacy tests, and we can move to any neighborhood anywhere in the United States we can afford. If we want to send our kids to schools with white kids, we won’t be harassed or stoned, and if, on the off chance we are, there’s plenty of legal recourse. If fact, there are whole organizations on call for such occasions, organizations that exist for the sole purpose of uncovering and exaggerating the most trivial racial grievance.
We have overcome, indeed.
(By the way, Barack Obama, white liberals’ Great Black Hype and would-be president, is all for child killing.)
Freedom to Kill
The fight for civil rights, defined as those guaranteed in the Constitution – freedom of speech and religion, the right to due process of law and to equal protection under the law, etc. – was much more than a struggle for equality. The movement was about dignity of the person and first class citizenship in this great country. Blacks were subjugated by law and practice, and people on the front lines of the movement risked life and limb so those coming after them would never experience the outrage of one’s own government treating them as less than human.
Those years of hard work have come to fruition. In 2007 we can, with impunity, kill our babies in a safe, sterile doctor’s office, just like white people.
We have overcome, indeed.
*** The March for Life rally begins today at noon on the National Mall. ***
Perhaps my image of the civil rights movement is overly romanticized. From my perspective, the movement’s appeal to “Christian love” and human dignity included sanctity and preservation of life.
But I’m in error.
Last October, Planned Parenthood joined the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, an organization founded at the dawn of the modern civil rights movement. This isn’t news per se, but I thought it was a timely tidbit for today, the 34th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that fashioned a Fourteenth Amendment “right to privacy” for women to kill their babies in utero.
Says conservative writer and friend Mychal Massie: “How can a civil rights group that claims to support underprivileged blacks embrace an organization created expressly to hasten the demise of black people? People of conscience should be appalled and outraged by this alignment.”
(Hat tip: National Center)
But alas, some blacks only can summon outrage for things like the dismantling race preferences. I know more than a few who become unrighteously indignant at the mention of high crime rates among blacks or the high illegitimacy rate. But they spare no outrage over the fact that Planned Parenthood targets black areas for its abortion mills. (See “Marching for life and against the ‘Negro Project’”and one of my earlier efforts, “Through The Fire: 43 Million Sacrifices”)
But then again, we have overcome.
Abstinence, Anyone?
Some of you may be wondering how I can adamantly oppose child killing and out-of-wedlock birth at the same time. It should be obvious, but if not, allow me to explain. Even if a woman is pregnant without a husband, I would never, under any circumstances, advocate killing the child. There are many steps leading up to pregnancy, and I believe the rate of out-of-wedlock births can be reduced if people learned to make responsible choices about sex. On this issue I am an absolutist: sex is for marriage.
As one who’s decided to obey God and remain abstinent until marriage (after years of debauchery), I can tell you it ain’t easy sometimes. And I’m a Christian, a “new woman” in Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit to understand the things of God and seek him out. I can’t imagine how much of a struggle it might be for those whose moral authority extends no higher than themselves. I can give young women plenty of practical reasons to reserve sex until marriage, but without the spiritual component, the need to live one’s life according to God’s plan, I don’t know how effective those reasons would be.
Blogger Dawn Eden, who wrote The Thrill of the Chaste: Finding Fulfillment While Keeping Your Clothes On, probably is better equipped to help young women and teens deal with responsible sexual choices. I’m too extreme. “No sex before marriage, no in-between, period.” 
(Clarification: That’s not to say Dawn isn’t extreme, but I rarely meet people as extreme as I am.)
I haven’t read Dawn’s book yet, but I’m sure I’ll be able to relate to some of her experiences. She blogs about Planned Parenthood quite often, so if you want to stay informed about what this group is up to, make Dawn’s blog a regular read.
Blogs for Life
This afternoon I’m speaking on a Blogs for Life “new media” panel at the Family Research Council, moderated by the wonderful Charmaine Yoest. There’s a live web feed, I’m told. Panelists include Mary Katharine Ham (who appeared with me on an episode of Michelle Malkin’s Hot Air “Vent;” The main topic was child killing), Rob Bluey, and Tim Ruchti of Pro Life Blogs. Thanks for the invitation, Joe Carter.
Following the panel, Dr. David Prentice of FRC will discuss stem cell research.
Morning speakers include Bobby Schindler, brother of Terri Schiavo, and nurse Jill Stanek of Pro Life Pulse.
Live-blogging at Pro Life Blogs.
Radio show host and blogger Cindy Swanson posts an ultrasound photo of her grandson.
QUESTION: Sexual abstinence until marriage: unrealistic or do-able?
