Monthly Archives: December 2013

BY JOHN-HENRY WESTEN

The film is Gimme Shelter. And countering the trend in most of Hollywood, this new movie focuses on women’s teen shelters, which encourage young mothers-to-be to decide to have their babies.

After taking a beating by mainstream media, which have sought to paint crisis pregnancy centers and pro-life homes for pregnant mothers as manipulative, a new film is set to smash that false image.Gimme Shelter, which is based-on-a-true-story, is a star-studded and entertaining production that will both attract and educate older teens and adults alike.

Gritty and realistic, the story revolves around Agnes “Apple” Bailey (Vanessa Hudgens), a 16-year-old who was taken into state custody as a baby when her mom was found unfit. Transferred from numerous foster homes, Apple is reunited with her mom, impressively played by Rosario Dawson, only to realize that she remains as broken and abusive as ever.

Apple’s attempt to again break free leaves her homeless and eventually hospitalized. It is in the hospital where she meets a compassionate priest (James Earl Jones), who is able to guide her to the safety and the welcome arms of a pro-life shelter for pregnant young women. The amazing love shown to Apple from the home’s foundress (Ann Dowd) and the other girls makes for a touching, gripping, and powerful drama.

Gimme Shelter uses as a backdrop the value of protecting the lives of the unborn. On its face it is an amazing testimony to the work and dedication of people of faith who provide not only material goods and services but also the emotional and spiritual support needed to be open to life.

Read More: http://www.lifesitenews.com/blog/new-film-gimme-shelter-smashes-false-image-of-pro-life-homes-for-pregnant-t

BY JASON JONES

Me during my days in the army.

Dec. 9, 2013 (StudentsforLife) – It was two days before my seventeenth birthday, a Saturday morning, the day after a football game in which I’d played. So I was tired and sore, but I could smell breakfast coming from downstairs and somebody was walking up the stairs. I was half asleep. The door opened: it was my girlfriend, I smiled, of course—but from the look on her face I could see that this wasn’t called for. This was a serious moment. I steeled myself.

After a few long seconds, she looked up at me and said, “I’m pregnant.” That woke me up quick. We sat there in my bedroom, two young teenagers. My room was still a boy’s place, hung with football posters, sneakers, and baseball gloves strewn across the floor. But there I was, sitting next to my pregnant girlfriend. I knew all of a sudden I’d lost the right to keep on being just a boy. My girlfriend went to an all-girls Catholic school and looked ahead to college, while I was dreaming of college football and a career in the NFL. We each had a plan for our lives. It was time to scrap those plans.

We strategized together figuring out how to take care of the new life we created. It felt completely natural and, incomprehensibly, even a little exciting: Our adult lives were starting much sooner than we had planned, but we’d figure it out. So here’s what we decided: I could drop out of high school to join the army (a friend of mine had just done the same). My girlfriend would keep things secret, wear baggy sweaters and take vitamins until I got back from basic training and then we would be together—and I’d take care of all three of us.

So that’s what we did. I went to the recruiter’s office; I got the paperwork, which I needed my mother and my high school principal to sign. Now, out of five hundred and sixty-five students at Amos Alonzo Stagg High School, I was number five hundred and sixty-five. So my principal was quite happy to sign that piece of paper. My mother, with five kids, was also quick to sign the paper, with very few questions asked.

When I got to basic training, I didn’t go to church. I tried to once, but it was just too much for me to bear. In fact, I realized I’d rather do anything else. So I asked the drill sergeants, “When the rest of you guys go to church, can I stay back and clean something?” They agreed, so I took on pots and pans duty, which nobody wanted. I discovered that the station was right next to a freezer where the drill sergeants would hide ice cream bars. I realized that if I took those ice cream bars, packed them in buckets of ice, and snuck them upstairs, when the soldiers came back from church I could trade them. “You shine my shoes for a week? Okay, here’s an ice cream bar. You polish my brass for a week? Okay, here’s an ice cream bar. You make my bed….” And so skipping church turned out to mean that I didn’t have to polish my brass, shine my shoes, or make my bed. Not the best start for my moral education….

I was almost finished with basic and advanced infantry training and getting ready to graduate, and go home. I’ll never forget the day—it was a Sunday when I was cleaning pots and pans while everybody else was busy praying. A friend came running in and said, “Jones, your girlfriend’s on the phone and she’s crying.” So I ran out, knowing that I wasn’t supposed to leave my station or answer the phone. But I picked it up, and she was crying, as I have never heard a woman cry before. Ever. The only way that I can explain it is that her soul was crying. And she kept saying over and over and over again, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. It wasn’t me.” And then her father said, “Jason,” over the other line, “I know your secret, and your secret’s gone. She had an abortion.”

Read More: http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/call-the-police-my-girlfriends-father-killed-my-child-i-lost-my-baby-to-the

BY LIA MILLS

December 5, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – I first heard the slogan “Death with Dignity” when I was 13. Even in my youth, the phrase didn’t sit well with me. And, as I researched it, I came to a solid conclusion: euthanasia was wrong. Many said I was brainwashed and naïve and that my views would develop and mature as I grew older.

Well, I’m not exactly old, but four years later, I can say that, although I have developed and matured, my conclusion has not changed.

Lia Mills

The slogan “death with dignity” is a lovely illusion. The concept behind its birth appears flawlessly kind. It holds that controversial yet alluring “logic” that dances around the idea of ethics and goes straight for the jugular of emotion. But it is for this reason that we should be warned.

Euthanasia advocates are practiced in the ways of the heart. They know how to tug on heartstrings, how to pull out raw emotion, and how to toy with human instincts. They need raw emotion because their arguments hold little appeal to the mind.

Consider, on the other hand, the arguments against euthanasia. These look at past experience with euthanasia, which has proven that there can never be enough safeguards put in place to ensure that no one dies an unwilling victim under the guise of “voluntary” euthanasia.

They also point out that elder abuse is all too real an issue to ignore. They point out that those who suffer from mental illness, like clinical depression, could easily slip through the restraints surrounding euthanasia and be gone before anyone can give them the help they really needed.

They point out that the chance of unwanted infants being enveloped under euthanasia laws is not only a possibility but is a current reality in some countries, throwing open the question of “who will be next?” They point to the fact that, where euthanasia is legalized, advances in palliative care stagnate. All these arguments are based on hard facts, not manipulative emotional pleas.

And, yet, those who oppose euthanasia also appeal to the heart. They appeal to the real need that lies within each person to be told that their life matters, no matter what its current state, and that there is hope, no matter how dark the current situation. It is a position that actively pursues palliative care instead of merely offering lethal doses and body bags.

Read More: http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/kill-the-pain-not-the-patient-a-17-year-old-speaks-out-on-euthanasia

BY BEN JOHNSON

SACRAMENTO, CA, December 5, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Police in Sacramento have arrested a medical assistant at a Planned Parenthood facility for allegedly sexually touching a patient.

Jorge Martin-Santana, 28, has been charged with sexual battery, a misdemeanor.

The Sacramento Police Department issued a warrant for his arrest Tuesday and say he turned himself in the next day.

Jorge Martin-Santana

Police in California’s capital city investigated the complaint, which was made in October, with Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office.

It was not immediately clear which of Planned Parenthood’s three Sacramento clinics Martin-Santana worked at. Two of the three are abortion facilities.

Investigators believe, but are not certain, that Martin-Santana victimized only one patient.

Although not widely reported, mothers have faced sexual misconduct or abuse at abortion facilities worldwide.

Numerous abortionists have been accused or convicted of sexually abusing their patients, includingDr. Brian Finkel, Dr. Rodolfo Finkelstein, Laurence Reich, and Dr. Narendra Sharma.

Another California abortionist, Laurence Reich, had been accused of sexual molestation in 1982 before pleading “no contest” to four charges in 1984. He finally lost his license in 2006 after another round of sexual battery and misconduct charges.

In 2003, a jury convicted Arizona abortionist Brian Finkel of Arizona was convicted of 24 counts of sexual abuse.

Last November, the Oregon State Board of Nursing (OSBN) issued an order banning abortion nurse Evett Gradwohl from “practicing as a Registered Nurse in any capacity or functioning as a caregiver in any setting” after hearing allegations that she had sexually molested anesthetized abortion patients at Lovejoy Surgicenter in Portland, Oregon.

Read More: http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/planned-parenthood-employee-arrested-for-sexual-battery-for-fondling-p

BY DUSTIN SIGGINS

DETROIT, MI, December 3, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – On Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) opened a new front in the culture wars with a lawsuit against the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) alleging that the USCCB’s directives prohibiting abortions in Catholic hospitals are equal to medical negligence.

The lawsuit focuses on the case of Tamesha Means, who in 2010 was brought to Mercy Health Partners, a Catholic-affiliated hospital in Muskegon County, Michigan after her water broke at 18 weeks.

Mercy Health Partners Hospital in Muskegon

In the lawsuit, Means claims she visited Mercy three times after her water broke, and that by the third visit she had an infection, but the hospital tried to discharge her anyway. During the discharge she began to give birth, at which point she was treated. The baby died shortly after birth.

The ACLU claims that the appropriate care in the case would have been to induce labor to avoid the chance of infection, since the baby had a slim chance of survival. But because of the USCCB’s Ethical & Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, it claims, the hospital was prevented from treating Means in the proper way. Because Means’ baby was pre-term, inducing labor would have virtually ensured the death of the child.

The USCCB’s directives state that “abortion…is never permitted. Every procedure whose sole immediate effect is the termination of pregnancy before viability is an abortion…” The lawsuit is targeting the USCCB, not Mercy. It also names as defendants the current and two former chairs of the Catholic Health Ministries, which requires Mercy to abide by the Religious Directives.

Read More: http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/aclu-sues-u.s.-bishops-over-policy-forbidding-catholic-hospitals-from-doing