Newborn Baby Girl Begins Breathing on Her Own After Doctors Declare Her “Dead”

by Steven Ertelt | Halifax, Canada | LifeNews.com | 3/10/14 11:52 AM

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International

The parents of a newborn girl who doctors declared “dead” but who later started breathing on her own are rejoicing today in Halifax, Canada. The mother of the little girl is thanking God and calling what transpired a miracle.

As the Sun News Network reports:

Robin Cyr’s fourth child became wedged in the birth canal during labour Saturday and for 25 minutes after she was born, doctors and nurses watched for any sign of life, the Truro Daily News reported.

Seeing none, the baby girl was removed from the room at the IWK Health Centre.

Cyr said her aunt was in the room and started praying. About two minutes after the little girl had been taken out of the room, a nurse came back in.

“She was speechless and another nurse came over and said, ‘Your baby’s breathing,’” Cyr told Metro.

The doctor had no explanation, Cyr said.

“He said it’s a miracle,” Cyr said. “All I can say is, hand of God…God brought her back for a reason.”

NG News has more:

The big baby girl – who weighed nine pounds 14 ounces – got wedged in the birth canal during the delivery. Once she was born, Cyr lay on the bed waiting, for 25 minutes, for any sign of life.

“My aunt looked at me and said, ‘Your baby girl’s gone,’” she said, adding the baby’s body was taken out of the room after being declared dead. “Another nurse came over, two minutes later…she couldn’t talk. She was speechless, and another nurse came over and said, ‘Your baby’s breathing.’”

A flummoxed surgeon told Cyr’s family that he had no explanation for the seemingly impossible recovery.“He said it’s a miracle,” said Cyr. “He said, ‘I’m very sorry I gave up on your baby when I did, because I turned around and she’s breathing on her own.’”

LEARN MORE:

http://www.lifenews.com/2014/03/10/newborn-baby-girl-begins-breathing-on-her-own-after-doctors-declare-her-dead/

“Brain Dead” Teenager Awakens From Coma After Her Family Sings Hymns

by Steven Ertelt | Salt Lake City, UT | LifeNews.com | 3/10/14 5:14 PM

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LifeNews has repeatedly chronicled cases of people who were prematurely declared dead or said to be in supposedly persistent vegetative states who ultimately recovered.

Now comes the story of Lexi Hansen, a BYU student who suffered critical head injuries last week after being hit by a car. Hansen, 18, was alert and breathing on her own Tuesday, though she was still listed in critical but stable condition. She even tried to get out of her hospital bed. While she has a long road to recovery ahead, her family believes they have witnessed a miracle.

“When they brought her in, the doctors gave her less than a 5 percent chance of survival,” said Doug Hansen, Lexi’s father. “They told us to call our family and get them here quickly because she wasn’t going to last too long.”

In a Thursday evening interview with ABC News, Marcia Hansen, the teen’s mother, said tests indicated her daughter had essentially been brain-dead when she was brought to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo.

The Deseret News has more:

Just before 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 26, Lexi was riding her longboard while crossing the street in a crosswalk at the intersection of University Avenue and Canyon Road when the accident occurred. No alcohol, drugs or texting were believed to have played a role in the crash, police said.

Lexi suffered head injuries and was in a coma for several days. But Sunday, she came out of the coma as her family sang hymns around her.

“We had the most amazing experience today at the end of everyone’s fast,” the family wrote on the Pray for Lexi Facebook Page. “Lexi opened her eyes and kept them open for nearly an hour while we sang hymns to her as a family. While we were singing, she hand signed, ‘I love you,’ moving her arm around so that everyone could see. She then reached for each person’s hands individually so she could squeeze them. We could hardly sing due to the tears streaming down our face. We knew we were witnessing a miracle.”

Lexi’s mother, Marcia Hansen, says Lexi is a fighter. Every day she is improving on the previous day, she said.

“Every single day is a miracle, every single day,” Marcia Hansen said. “It was a zero percent when she was found, then 1 percent the next day. Now there are still a few things that we are not sure of, but almost everything is just positive.”

On Monday, Lexi had her breathing tube removed and started breathing on her own. She is now starting speech and physical therapy.

LEARN MORE:

http://www.lifenews.com/2014/03/10/brain-dead-teenager-awakes-from-coma-after-her-family-sings-hymns/

March 10, 2014

Below is my latest column, Politics and the Pulpit: Part Three: Churches are Automatically Tax Exempt by Law, but first let me give you some other important updates.

Priests for Life has taken the HHS Mandate to the Supreme Court! Check our website for an important press release later today!

Lent has begun and I invite you to join in a Lenten Prayer for Life from March 5 – April 17.  Use the prayer in your family and prayer groups and ask your Pastor to have the congregation say the prayer after each Mass.  Find the prayer at PrayerCampaign.org.

We have more great products for this holy season to aid in your prayer and reflection.  Order them at our online store at ProLifeProducts.org or send us an email at orders@priestsforlife.org.  They are:

– The Cross and the People of Life: The Seven Last Words and a Good Friday Homily.  This is a 2 CD set of me preaching the Seven Last Words at Holy Apostles Seminary in Cromwell, CT. Weaving the themes of the Passion and the pro-life cause, I give a Biblically based, stirring call to draw strength from the cross to advance the Gospel of Life. Also includes my homily at the Liturgy of the Passion.

– The Way of the Cross for Families: This is a collaborative effort of Priests for Life and the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Family. It is a special gift and blessing for families, because there is a deep connection between the mysteries of Our Lord’s Passion and the mystery of the family. This booklet is 55 pages and includes colorful illustrations.

– In the Palm of His Hand:  This popular little prayer book has been revised and expanded to include additional prayers to enrich your private and public prayer to bring about a culture of life. This little treasury of prayer now includes your favorite novenas, found at PrayerCampaign.org, post-abortion healing prayers and more. 58 pages.

– Rosary for Life CD – Be among the first to order this brand new product, to be released March 25. Pray the Rosary along with me through this CD and its pro-life meditations on each Mystery!

Also, now would be the time to order a supply of our Easter Prayer for Life prayer cards to receive them in plenty of time.  The prayer campaign will take place from Easter Sunday to Pentecost.

We are always looking for new ways to stay connected with you, our family of pro-life activists, and to inform you of developments and action items in the pro-life movement.  Our latest tool is a texting service by which, if you text Life1 to 69302, you will be able to receive important updates via text. These will not be frequent at all, but only in the cases of the most important updates. We will only text you on rare and truly important occasions. The normal flow of information comes through our email updates and social networking. So don’t worry about being bombarded. And, of course, you can unsubscribe at any time.  But when there are texts that we send you, you will not want to miss out on them. So sign up today by texting Life1 to 69302, and thank you for your pro-life commitment!

Finally, brand new episodes of our Defending Life show have begun on EWTN.  You can see what episode will be playing each week by viewing our media schedule, and you can learn more about the entire series at DefendingLife.tv.

Thank you for reading this and please spread it to as many others on your email list and social networks as you can!

With prayers,

Fr. Frank Pavone
National Director

Praise for our work

I have just received a carton of pro-life materials sent to us by Priests for Life.  We at the Family Light of the Nation Foundation are really very grateful.  Your Organisation has enriched us.  We cannot thank you enough.  Our prayer is that God continues to bless your pro-life apostolate with success and give each and every one of you the strength and the knowledge you need as you work in His vineyard.  Thanks so much.  Let us continue to communicate with each other as we depend on you for more knowledge and spiritual empowerment, God’s blessings. – Sr. M. Rosanna, Nigeria

Politics and the Pulpit – Part Three – Churches are Automatically Tax Exempt by Law

Fr. Frank Pavone
National Director, Priests for Life

It’s an election year again, and unless we’re careful, we can easily be misled by vague assertions about “the dangers of losing our tax-exempt status.”

Let me state categorically from the outset: it’s not going to happen, period.

In this current series of columns, we are exploring and exploding some of the myths surrounding “tax exemption” and the silly ways we strangle our own freedom to speak the truth about elections.

What may come as a surprise for many is that Churches are not tax-exempt because of a form they fill out and a letter of determination that they receive from the government. Rather, Churches are already automatically tax exempt by law. Whether they seek a determination of that status from the government by filling out a form and receiving a letter is entirely up to them, if they want a piece of paper that proves that they have the exemption. But even without the piece of paper, they have the exemption anyway, as long as their mission corresponds to the criteria of tax-exempt entities. Under the IRC, the section that talks about this “mandatory exception” rule for Churches is section 508(c)(1)(A).

The federal court case Branch Ministries v. Rossotti  (211 F.3d 137 (D.C. Cir. 2000)) refers to this fact when it says,

“Although most organizations seeking tax-exempt status are required to apply to the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS” or “Service”) for an advance determination that they meet the requirements of section 501(c)(3), id. § 508(a), a church may simply hold itself out as tax exempt and receive the benefits of that status without applying for advance recognition from the IRS. Id. § 508(c)(1)(A).”

The tax exemption of Churches actually dates back to ancient times. As the Supreme Court itself has noted, there is an “unbroken” history of such exemption in our country, and it “covers our entire national existence and indeed predates it” (Walz v. Tax Comm’n, 397 U.S. 664, 678 (1970)). As Erik W. Stanley points out in an article on which I will rely heavily in this chapter, “[T]he unassailable fact remains that, for as long as anyone can remember, churches have always been tax-exempt or enjoyed favorable tax treatment” (LBJ, The IRS, and Churches: The Unconstitutionality of the Johnson Amendment in Light of Recent Supreme Court Precedent, Regent University Law Review, Volume 24, 2011-2012, Number 2). The article refers to examples of the tax exemption of Churches from the priests of ancient Egypt and from ancient Sumeria in 2800 B.C.!

This is understandable from the perspective of our own Constitution and from a consideration of the nature of the Church. “My kingdom is not of this world,” the Lord said. The Church is the breaking into history of the Kingdom of God. As we have already seen, good Christians are called to be good citizens. These identities are not incompatible. But neither are they identical, and that is why the Church does not seek permission for its mission from civil government, and our Constitution does not presume the authority to give such permission. Hence the First Amendment declared, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”

So Churches are tax exempt by law. Most of them take the additional step of seeking a letter of determination from the government, and most will organize their activities under the umbrella of a section 501(c)(3) entity. But they do not have to do that either. A Church could choose to organize some of its activities under the c3 umbrella and others under the c4 model, or even organize an LLC or LL Partnership, hence allowing additional freedom.

More to follow in my next column!

This column can be read and listened to online.

Comments on this column? Go to Askfrfrank.com

Fr. Frank’s columns are podcast. See Priestsforlife.org/podcast

Remember to support our work at Priestsforlife.org/donate

Media Schedule

Fr. Denis Wilde, O.S.A. will celebrate the EWTN live televised Mass on March 11, 12, 13.  The Mass airs live at 8 am and repeats at 12 noon, 7 pm and 12 midnight (all times Eastern).  Repeat airing times are subject to change.  See the airing schedule on the EWTN website for final repeat airing times.

Defending Life Defending Life TV/Radio

Defending Life is pre-empted for the week of March 10 but tune in on next week for a brand new episode, History of Recovering Aborted Babies for Burial.  Watch on EWTN Wednesdays at 2:30 am and Thursdays at 11:00 pm. Listen on EWTN Radio every Saturday at 6:30 p.m. and Sunday at 5 a.m. (All times Eastern)

The Catholic View for Women

Airing Schedule: Wednesday, 03/12/2014 at 11:00 PM and Friday, 03/14/2014 at 10:30 AM

This Week’s Topic: Hispanic Women, Catechesis, and the Church.  Teresa, Janet and Astrid discuss the faith of Hispanic women and the urgent need for catechesis.

Gospel of Life TV

Airing Schedule: Watch on  National Religious Broadcasters network (NRB), Wednesday, March 12 at 4:30 pm ET. The NRB Network is on DIRECTV, channel 378.  This Week’s Topic: What is Heartbeat International?

Priests for Life
PO Box 141172
Staten Island, NY 10314
Phone: 888-PFL-3448
718-980-4400
Fax: 718-980-6515
Email: mail@priestsforlife.org
www.priestsforlife.org

Pharmacist says Plan B morning-after pill and its generic copycats are dangerous for young girls

BLOOMINGTON, IN, March 6, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The FDA just approved generic versions of popular morning-after pill ‘Plan B’ to be sold over-the-counter to girls of all ages, but one Indiana pharmacist told his hometown newspaper he will not be handing it out to younger teens, no matter what the law says.

“I wouldn’t do that for both moral and medical reasons,” Bloomington pharmacist Jerry Frederick told the Herald-Times. “It’s not a benign drug. It contains a high level of estrogen. Would a 12-year-old girl who took this drug even know what she was taking?”

Plan B and its generics flood a user’s body with a powerful dose of hormones designed to prevent ovulation, or – if ovulation has already occurred – make the uterus inhospitable to a conceived life, preventing implantation and causing early abortion.  The potent chemical cocktail is listed among the most dangerous carcinogens by the World Health Organization, but many users are either unaware of the risk, or willing to accept it in order to avoid having a child.

Frederick told the Herald-Times a young girl came into his pharmacy recently and confided in him that she was six weeks pregnant.  She asked if she could abort her baby secretly, without having to see a doctor, by buying and taking four Plan B pills.  Frederick refused to sell her the drugs.  “That would have been medically dangerous,” he said, “and at $50 a pill, it would have cost her $200. If she had $200, she could afford to see a doctor.”

Frederick slammed the federal judge who ordered the FDA to lower the age limit – previously 17 – on Plan B in the first place, saying, “The courts should not be making decisions concerning drug safety.  The use of a drug should be the FDA’s decision, not a judicial decision.” 

Because only brand-name Plan B has ever been tested on minors, the new policy requires generic versions of the drug to carry a warning that they are “intended for women 17 years of age or older.”  But young buyers will not have to show proof of age, as they do with cold medicines and other age-restricted drugs.

Pro-life and children’s advocates have harshly criticized the laxer rules about the morning-after pill, arguing that making emergency contraception available over-the-counter to minors will harm their health and make it easier to conceal child sexual abuse.

But Planned Parenthood applauded the decision, with spokeswoman Tammy Lieber telling the Associated Press, “We feel any step to increase access to emergency contraception is a positive one.”

LEARN MORE:

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/pharmacist-says-plan-b-morning-after-pill-and-its-generic-copycats-are-dang

My Mother Aborted My Older Sister, I’ve Felt Its Impact My Whole Life

by Lauren Enriquez | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 3/6/14 7:04 PM

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Opinion

Washington, DC (LiveActionFilms) –People’s babies don’t cease to exist when they die, whether in miscarriage or through the hand of an abortionist. They continue to exist. The life from Eden continues on even after the mortal frame returns to the earth from which we were taken. -Bob Vincent

First Things recently published a story written by a Presbyterian pastor in Louisiana, whose mother had an abortion during World War II. The baby was his older sister, Nancy, and Bob’s mother was advised by her physician to let him abort the baby “for medical reasons.” To the end of her days, Bob’s mother questioned those “medical reasons,” and she mourned the loss of her daughter from the time of her abortion until her death:

What she felt when she knew she was pregnant was the presence of another human being. And when Dr. Bill aborted her baby, she felt her absence—a quiet but profound emptiness. And it never left.

Having witnessed first-hand the impact of abortion on someone so close to him for his entire life, Bob is acquainted with the emotions and guilt the plague post-abortive women like his mom, and he writes that — although the road to freedom is difficult– the guilt need not be a shackle forever:

There is no easy way to get rid of guilt. You can’t shove it down and pretend it’s not there. You can’t reason it away. Like midnight reflux of the soul, it comes up when you least expect it, when you are least prepared to deal with it. While you’re lying in bed, half-awake–half-asleep, there it is, wafting out of your subconscious mind and dancing before you, only to disappear again before you can wrap your rational mind around it. Sometimes it comes in your dreams. Sometimes when you are attempting to pray. There it is as a waking vision, blotting out the sun, bringing on the cheerless and withering cold when the sunshine of cheerfulness should be beaming down on you.

Vincent recommends a frank acknowledgement of the act of abortion, which requires bravery

What do you do? Face what you fear to be true and admit it to God, but admit it while being held in his kind embrace and unconditional, effectual love.

“I asked someone to kill my baby. My baby is dead.”

Admit it. Face it. Feel it. Now believe the Gospel: “Come to me,” said the Lord Jesus, “All you who are weighed down with a burden that you cannot bear, and too exhausted to handle it any more. I will give you relief. I will give you refreshing rest” (cf. Matthew 11:28-30).

The pastor goes on to explain how mothers can connect with their babies, by asking God to tell them what they would like them to know, and to tell them how sorry they are for what they did. He concludes:

Then believe the Gospel, and ask God to fill you with his presence, the precious Holy Spirit. Look yourself in the mirror, and confess: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

Note: If you or someone you love is suffering from the effects of an abortion experience, organizations like Rachel’s Vineyard are there to help.

LEARN MORE:

http://www.lifenews.com/2014/03/06/my-mother-aborted-my-older-sister-ive-felt-its-impact-my-whole-life/

Citizens For A Pro-Life Society

USE OF “Abortion Victim Photos” or “Abortion Victim Photography” IN PRO-LIFE WORK

New Study Destroys Pro-Abortion Arguments Against Parental Notification

by Paul Rondeau | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 3/7/14 1:05 PM

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National

For decades, pro-choice lobbyists have fought any legislation that puts parents between minors and the so-called reproductive healthcare services sold by chains like Planned Parenthood. One argument was that parental notification laws would cause adolescents to avoid or delay “necessary” reproductive and sexual healthcare resulting in increased teen pregnancies and, in turn, abortions. However, a major new study dramatically undercuts that argument.

According to Guttmacher, “55 percent of parents participating in a 2002 survey said that overall, proposed laws requiring that parents be notified before their minor children obtain prescription contraceptives are a good idea,” but 96 percent also feared that unintended consequences may include an increase in teen pregnancies.

Now, a new study from researchers at the University of Nottingham—an institution ranked in the top one percent of schools worldwide—found no evidence that mandatory parental consent laws for the dispensing of contraceptives to minors drive up teen pregnancy.

Sourafel Girma, chair of economics at the School of Economics in Nottingham University, and David Paton, chair of industrial economics at Nottingham University Business School, published “Does Parental Consent for Birth Control Affect Underage Pregnancy Rates? The Case of Texas” in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal Demography. Paton, an expert on teen pregnancy and a member of three editorial boards for peer-reviewed journals, stated via e-mail: “The reason for looking at Texas is that it is one of the few cases in the world where a parental consent rule has been implemented and so it is one of the few places on which it was possible to test the impact of such rules on teenage pregnancy.”

In January 2003, Texas started enforcing a mandate passed in 1999 for parental consent for the provision of state-funded prescription contraception to teenagers below the age of 18. Critics suggested at the time that “the law would lead to more than 5,000 additional births and 1,600 additional abortions per year amongst minors in the state” or an increase of “about 20 percent, with an estimated direct medical cost of about $44 million.”

However, Girma and Paton found that the projections, based on the “conjectural response of minors,” did not actually translate into additional pregnancies and costs. In fact, they found, “For the youngest age group (those aged under-16), there is some evidence that, at the state level, pregnancy rates went down after the parental consent mandate relative to older teenagers who continued to be able to obtain state-funded contraception without parental consent.”

That finding is likely no surprise to the vast majority of involved parents.  Parents are the biggest influence in a child’s life.  No parent should ever approve of teens having sex outside of marriage and the vast majority of parents do not.

A 2012 survey conducted by GfK Custom Research, LLC confirmed that over 75 percent of parents strongly disapprove of their teens having  sex and up to 76 percent of teens reported that their parents would strongly disapprove of them sex.

While the authors note that minors may have gotten birth control from alternative sources, another explanation they offer is that minors responded to the actual parental involvement law by “reducing their aggregate level of risky sexual activity” more than their conjectural responses to potential laws predicted.

In other words, instead of the promise of casual sex without conscience or consequences—the siren call of contraceptive marketers—when minor teens are faced with parents and reality, they change their sexual behavior.

LEARN MORE:

http://www.lifenews.com/2014/03/07/new-study-destroys-pro-abortion-arguments-against-parental-notification/