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Personhood USA Examines Pro-Abortion Claims and Romney’s Record
Not surprisingly, the country’s oldest pro-abortion political organization, NARAL, threw their weight behind the current occupant of the White House last week. The group’s statement went on to allege that the President’s opponent, Governor Mitt Romney, supports what they called a “personhood ban.” With this enthusiastic endorsement, and the claim about Governor Romney’s position, one prominent pro-life organization, Personhood USA, says that those advocating for the protection of every human life are obliged to examine the Republican frontrunner’s record.
Planned Parenthood also recently published a fact sheet claiming that the Governor has openly supported personhood in both of his presidential runs. The page references a television appearance on Gov. Mike Huckabee’s show in which Romney answered “absolutely” when asked if he would have been willing to support a Massachusetts constitutional amendment defining life as beginning at conception. The nation’s leading abortion providers continue, charging that “Personhood groups view Romney as a supporter” and that “Romney meets Personhood USA’s criteria for support.”
Conversely, Personhood USA released a Presidential Pledge in December in which candidates were asked to commit to supporting and advancing the personhood rights of the preborn. Five presidential hopefuls signed the pledge including Speaker Newt Gingrich, Senator Rick Santorum, Congressman Ron Paul, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, and Governor Rick Perry. Notably absent from the list is Governor Romney.
The pro-abortion group’s summaries of Romney’s record are spotty. They note his veto of a 2004 bill that would have expanded access to the abortifacient “morning after pill,” but they fail to mention his complete reversal just three months later. Not only did Romney sign a measure into law expanding access to the “morning after pill” and increasing funding for abortion clinics, he penned an executive order requiring Catholic hospitals to administer the abortifacient drug.
Several groups have pointed to Romney’s veto of a bill that would have furthered the practice of embryo-destructive research. What often goes unreported is that he offered proponents of the legislation a way forward. Speaking a press conference in February of 2005, he told reporters:
“All of the rhetoric has been, ‘We are throwing away embryos–surplus embryos–that could be used for stem-cell research and that makes no sense. …And now, now that I’ve said, ‘Ok, I support that,’ now [the other side says], ‘No, that’s insufficient. How could you possibly limit it to that?’ Well, that’s what they’ve been asking for.”
In 2006, the Governor signed the Massachusetts Health Care Reform Act into law with $50 surgical abortion co-pays. His signature also gave Planned Parenthood a seat on the advisory board granting them the authority to help craft the standards. All of the available plans now offer free elective abortion according to the state’s health care website.
“Since his pro-life conversion, Governor Romney has repeatedly missed opportunities to stand for life. As a movement our only obligation is to the truth, and the truth is personhood groups could only support Governor Romney if his position was clear,” said Keith Mason President of Personhood USA. “If what Planned Parenthood and NARAL are saying is true, it should be an easy decision to sign a pledge to stand with President Reagan in defending ‘the unalienable personhood of every American, from the moment of conception until natural death.’ The time has come to make his views known, and it is our hope that he will align himself and his campaign with those committed to justice for all.”
At Disney World’s ‘Living with the Land’ Exhibit, Teaching Children About GMO Agriculture Is A Fun Activity For The Whole Family
By Ethan A. Huff
Biotechnology has made its way to “the happiest place on earth,” with an exhibit at Walt Disney World’s EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow) theme park now featuring genetically-modified (GM) fruits and vegetables, some of which are shaped like Mickey Mouse’s head. According to several different reports, the agricultural exhibit, called Living with the Land, takes parents and their children on a tour through “living laboratories” that highlight “the wondrous ways scientists are helping farmers prepare for the food needs of our world’s nations.”
With over 2.5 million square feet of greenhouse space, Living with the Land is a behemoth display of agricultural technology, including a giant gravity-defying tomato “tree” with thousands of tomato fruits, and various displays of unique growing techniques like hydroponics. But according to Jill Fehrenbacher from Inhabitat, a tour guide explained to her that most of the food grown in these greenhouses, which is also fed to park guests in restaurants and cafeterias throughout the parks, has been genetically-altered in some way.
This makes sense, since part of the tour includes a visit to the exhibit’s “Biotechnology Lab,” a “sterile research environment” sponsored by pro-GMO food giant Nestle USA, where scientists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture can be seen working on various “crop improvement” techniques. After the tour, park guests can even purchase “Mickey’s Mini Gardens,” which are small glass bottles of plant starters made from cloned plant cells rather than from natural seeds, that were produced in Biotechnology Lab.
Genetic manipulation of plants and crops has apparently been taking place at Disney’s Living with the Land exhibit for almost two decades now. Back in 1996, the USDA published an article in one of its publications explaining that the main purpose of the Biotechnology Lab at EPCOT has always been about “showcasing various tools — such as biotechnology” as part of its “sustainable agriculture” initiatives.
Even back then, John Cordts from the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) admitted that he and others were working on various GMO projects in the lab, which at the time included exploring new ways to genetically-alter peaches to ripen longer on trees, yet stay firm enough to be shipped. And before that, then-manager of the Biotechnology Lab Lexie McKently had been working on developing GM peanuts (http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/ar/archive/jul96/disney0796.htm).
And yet the millions of young children that have passed through this exhibit over the years have no idea that what those scientists are working on behind the glass has been shown to cause human sterilization, organ damage, and death. Because the entire presentation is dressed up with cute Disney characters and fun animations, it all just looks like some type of agricultural utopia.
Interestingly, the veneer of Disney’s supposed sustainable and pollution-less approach to agricultural runs thin in others areas as well, as Fehrenbacher’s tour revealed the use of materials like non-biodegradable styrofoam to house plants, for instance. When asked by several guests why the exhibit featured styrofoam and other environmentally-unfriendly materials, the tour guide allegedly explained that these materials are inexpensive and easily disposable.
So as is the case with most things Disney, the Living with the Land exhibit appears to be nothing more than a thinly-veiled veneer of propaganda aimed directly at young children. And in this case, the Disney empire has “greenwashed” biotechnology as an environmentally-friendly and sustainable agricultural system of the future in order to convince the next generation that it provides great benefits to humanity.
It is no secret that millions of families from around the world make the trek to Orlando, Fla., every year to visit Walt Disney World theme parks specifically because they believe it is a safe and fun environment for children. Little do many of them know, however, that part of Disney’s apparent agenda is to indoctrinate society’s youngest and most innocent members into the phony dogma of biotechnology.
Deliberately shaping a genetically-modified pumpkin into the shape of Mickey Mouse ears, for example, would probably not sway most NaturalNews readers into thinking that the technology is safe. But to a child, this explicit form of manipulation appears fun and exciting, which subconsciously instills in him or her the idea that genetically-tampering with nature in this way is a good thing.
Because they cannot present a legitimate and scientific argument for why GMOs are safe or necessary in the first place, purveyors of biotechnology are now resorting to such blatant brainwashing campaigns aimed directly at young children. This is why parents everywhere need to take the time to explain to their children the truth about GMOs, and teach them how to deflect all the crafty propaganda that is increasingly being embedded in popular cultural icons like Disney.
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/035861_Disney_World_GMO_agriculture.html
Marriage: Much More Than Legal Benefits
By David Fowler
Debates are often won and lost based on how the key terms are defined. In the cultural war, the California Supreme Court just threw down the gauntlet with their recent redefinition of marriage. Advocates of real marriage need not fear, but they must understand how to respond.
Those who want to reduce marriage to the least common denominator want to appeal to our sympathies. So, they begin the debate by urging us to look at marriage as simply a status to which the law provides certain benefits. From there it is easy to play on our sense of “fairness” by arguing that it’s not fair for some to get those benefits and not others.
But for this kind of logic to work, it is necessary to reduce marriage to nothing more than love between committed adults. Defined this way everyone can have the “benefits of marriage” and life is “fair.” But, while love and commitment are important for marriage, they are not enough to constitute a marriage.
To consider the legal benefits of marriage and who gets them before defining marriage is to put the proverbial cart before the horse. It is not the legal benefits given by society that make something a marriage. Rather, it is the nature of marriage that motivates society to give it certain legal benefits.
A Unique Relationship
The point is that marriage is not a relationship that society created in order to give some people benefits and deny them to others. Rather, “marriage” is the name that societies worldwide have given to a unique relationship between men and women that provides particular benefits to society.
By analogy, there are many geometric shapes. The word “square” represents one type of shape and “circle” another, but because each is what it is by definition, we cannot make circles that look like squares or vice versa. Likewise, there are many different relationships, even very important ones, but they are not marriages.
In other words, marriage is a real thing, not just a word. And marriage is important not because it has been given certain benefits.
Specifically, what makes the committed relationship between a man and woman different and of such importance to a healthy future society is its natural procreative potential and the unique roles each sex adds to the nurturing of the children they may raise.
To define other relationships as marriage so that everyone gets the same legal benefits is akin to redefining what a college diploma means so everyone can get a better paying job.
The California Supreme Court started its analysis in the wrong place and naturally ended in the wrong place. When marriage is reduced, its unique place in society is diminished. Doing so ultimately undermines the welfare of children and society itself.
David Fowler is President of the Family Action Council of Tennessee (FACT) who article first appeared in The Tennessean on May 27, 2008 and was posted on the FACT weblog on May 9, 2012.
China Cracks Down on Journalists for the First Time in 14 Years
Respected journalist Melissa Chan of Al Jazeera English was forced to board a flight out of Beijing this week after Chinese officials refused to renew her visa. Chai Ling, founder of All Girls Allowed, commended Chan for boldly pursuing leads on stories of human rights abuses. “Melissa Chan is a model for investigative reporting in China,” said Chai. “I hope others will follow her lead in giving a voice to the voiceless and fulfilling the highest calling in journalism.”
In 2010, Chan documented the immediate aftermath of a forced abortion. She interviewed a mother after officials beat her severely, restrained her, and then injected chemicals that aborted her pregnancy at 8 months. During Chan’s interview, the mother was in the hospital waiting to undergo a surgery that would remove the dead infant.
Censorship in China is nothing new, but Beijing has typically refrained from taking the dramatic step of expelling a journalist. The last time this happened was in 1998. “The action speaks for itself,” said Chai. “They do not plan to end the One-Child Policy and other abuses any time soon, so they threaten and remove the journalists who bravely expose these things to the public.”
“Chinese authorities are trying to intimidate the press to extend the reach of their censorship overseas,” said Chai.
It is a tactic that has worked well before, especially with regard to criticism of the One-Child Policy. For fear of losing their visas, other journalists may now be more hesitant to delve into topics that might raise the ire of the Chinese government. Chai Ling is concerned that this will affect coverage of the One-Child Policy and forced abortion, especially following the Chinese government’s embarrassment at the coverage last week of lawyer Chen Guangcheng’s extralegal detention and escape.
Chen was imprisoned because of his advocacy for women who faced forced abortions and sterilizations, but the media coverage of his escape has barely touched upon the stories of these women. Chai Ling said: “I call upon journalists to continue sharing the stories of the women that Chen sought to protect—the same stories that Melissa Chan exposed so boldly. To remain silent on these ongoing abuses is to give a victory to those who impose them. Silence also brings a further defeat to Chinese citizens who are pushing for the reforms that their country desperately needs.”
All Girls Allowed invites journalists who are interested in sharing these women’s stories to contact our office at the address and number below. We welcome your inquiries and look forward to hearing from you.
All Girls Allowed (http://www.allgirlsallowed.org) was founded by Chai Ling in 2010 with a mission to display the love of Jesus by restoring life, value and dignity to girls and mothers in China and to reveal the injustice of the One-Child Policy.
Read more: http://www.allgirlsallowed.org/china-cracks-down-journalists-first-time-14
Pro-Abortion and Pro-Homosexual Youth Lobby Sent Home Empty-Handed from UN
By Timothy Herrmann
NEW YORK, May 4 (C-FAM) Youth activists arrived at the UN in droves last week in an attempt to hijack the 45th session of the Commission on Population and Development (CPD) by promoting homosexual rights and abortion. However, countries rejected their demands and produced a fairly balanced outcome document that focuses on more pressing youth concerns like education, employment, health and development.
Sponsored by organizations like the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), the Youth Coalition, and the International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC), youth activists flooded the conference floor and were strategically placed on country delegations with the hope of shifting the conference’s focus to sexual and reproductive health of youth and adolescents.
Throughout the week, they lobbied country delegates to place controversial language in the outcome document that would undermine the right and responsibility of parents in the sexual education of their children and include sexual and reproductive health “rights” as well as comprehensive sexuality education (CSE).
Though comprehensive sexual education was eventually included in the document, countries refused to mention it without reference to “the rights, duties and responsibilities of parents” to provide “appropriate direction and guidance on sexual and reproductive matters.” Similarly, any reference to sexual and reproductive rights in the document was explicitly understood by countries not to include abortion as a method of family planning.
Even more disappointing for radical activist groups was the exclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity language used by the homosexual lobby to promote homosexual rights at the UN. The Arab group and a majority of the African countries along with the help of the Holy See, the Russian Federation, and Pakistan threw out the only reference to sexual orientation in the final draft of the document on the last day of the conference.
While the exclusion of “sexual orientation” appears to be a victory, the UN dialect is so misleading that the single mention that does exist in the document of the right to “decide freely and responsibly on matters related to…sexuality” greatly worried delegations like Uganda, who believed it was an attempt by countries supportive of homosexual rights to sneak in new language.
In addition, even though the conference theme was “Adolescents and Youth,” countries could not agree upon the definition of either term. Initially, they were defined as falling within the ages of 10 and 24 but given that the document mentions sexual and reproductive rights, countries were unwilling to afford these rights to 10 year olds and the definition proved too controversial to include.
Despite the hard fought battle of many delegations to move beyond reproductive rights and, instead, secure strong references to education, employment and the Millennium Development Goals in the document, the serious misgivings among countries related to the reproductive rights and sexuality of youth made it nearly impossible to reach consensus. As a result the chairman of the Population Commission took it upon himself to put together the final outcome document, or chairman’s text, which even he admitted, “was not completely satisfactory to all.”
Timothy Hermann is Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute’s Representative to the United Nations. His article first appeared in Friday Fax, an internet report published weekly by C-FAM, a New York and Washington DC-based research institute (http://www.c-fam.org/). This article appears with permission.
Arizona Votes to Defund Planned Parenthood, While Defunding Efforts Continue in Ohio!
The Arizona senate passed (18-8) the Whole Women’s Health Priority Act last week, which would defund abortion providers like Planned Parenthood of state family planning money. This bill has passed through the House and Senate, and is now headed for the desk of Governor Jan Brewer to be signed into law.
If Governor Brewer passes the bill, Arizona would join nine other states that voted to strip Planned Parenthood of tax-payer funding in 2011. These nine states were responsible for pulling over $61 million from the abortion giant PP over the course of a single year. Planned Parenthood’s latest annual report shows that they receive over $487 million in federal funding every year. Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion chain in the United States and commits over 300,000 abortions each year, so with each defunding, the lives of innocent unborn children in each of those states could be saved.
The efforts to defund Planned Parenthood are going strong in other states, as well. Last week, a provision to strip federal funding from Planned Parenthood was abruptly stopped by lawmakers in Ohio, but efforts are underway for an amendment to defund Planned Parenthood in Ohio in the near future. Other states are working towards a full defunding of Planned Parenthood, and we must continue to encourage them to follow the lead of Arizona and the eight other states who have claimed pro-life victories over the past year.
Source: Email from LifeAction.org on May 3, 2012.
Tagged Arizona, defunding, life, Planned Parenthood, unborn
Vandalizing Religious Life Display, A Course Credit At WKU
As reported by Students for Life, on the morning of April 20, campus police at Western Kentucky University (WKU) refused to stop vandals from draping condoms on the top of small crosses in the campus stadium – these crosses, all 3,700 of them, symbolize how many unborn children die through abortion each day in the US and were installed by the Hilltoppers for Life group on campus.
The Hilltoppers for Life group members, who had been keeping an eye on their display through the night in reaction to similar acts of vandalism to pro-life displays at other campuses including nearby Northern Kentucky University, asked the art students to stop and then called campus police. The students refused and the campus police just stood by and watched. The police claimed that they, “couldn’t do anything because the condoms aren’t actually vandalization,” even though the crosses are the property of Hilltoppers for Life and they have the administration’s permission for their display.
Student president of Hilloppers for Life group said “the vandals argued they were doing this for an art project for school, as an approved assignment, which makes me wonder…how does the university have the right to approve assignments that vandalize and desecrate the property and displays of other people?”
The Students for Life report made an imporant point: “Claiming vandalism as art is disingenuous and disturbing at best. The desecration of the crosses at WKU is sacrilegious, offensive, and borders on a hate crime. While we have seen vandalism before at other campuses across the nation, it is not uncommon for students to face opposition of this nature but usually the campus police do help out and stop the vandalism rather than hide behind some ‘artistic expression’ excuse.”
The underlying problem is that the art student who did it is “still getting course credit for her project,” according to the Hilltopper’s president. In other words, the art professor has made art vandalism an approved political expression of pro-choice activism. The underlying problem is culture of liberal professors and possibly the administration in which true freedom of expression is eroding to the point of non-existence.
Zero Tolerance Victory: Md. Board of Ed. Reverses Suspension of H.S. Lacrosse Players for Possession of Deadly Weapons (Penknife, Lighter)
(Easton, MD) The Maryland State Board of Education has reversed the suspensions of two Easton High School lacrosse players for possession of “deadly weapons,” namely a penknife and lighter found in their lacrosse bags. Although it was understood that the penknife and lighter were tools used by the boys to maintain their lacrosse equipment, the police were called and one player was actually handcuffed, fingerprinted and charged with possession of a deadly weapon. In reversing the suspensions, the Maryland State Board of Education noted that the students had voluntarily told officials they possessed the items, that use of the tools to maintain lacrosse equipment had been tacitly approved by coaches, and that it was the actions of school officials themselves that had caused any “disruption” to the educational process. Ordering that the students’ academic records be completely expunged of the incident, the State Board explained, “This case is about context and the appropriate exercise of discretion, in full consideration of all the facts involved in the case, including whether to suspend and whether to call the police.”
“This is a huge victory for students everywhere,” said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. “It’s a victory of reason and fairness over the kind of hysterical, irrational exercise of authority that teaches children to fear those in power.”
According to Laura Dennis, the mother of one of the suspended boys, school officials reported receiving an anonymous tip that there may have been alcohol on the lacrosse team’s bus on April 13, 2011, when the team was headed to an away game. Based on this so-called “tip,” school officials boarded the bus, told the players to identify their bags, and removed the players from the bus while they searched the bags. During the search, officials discovered a lighter in Casey Edsall’s bag and a number of small tools, including scissors, a penknife, a screwdriver and pliers, in Graham Dennis’s bag. School officials reacted by calling law enforcement officers to the scene. Dennis—whose bag contained the scissors, penknife, screwdriver and pliers—was handcuffed, fingerprinted and charged as a juvenile in possession of a deadly weapon. School officials ultimately suspended both boys from school: Edsall for one day and Dennis for ten days.
Coming to the students’ defense, attorneys for The Rutherford Institute argued that the suspensions violated fundamental principles of due process of law because the lighter and penknife were not clearly prohibited under the school’s policies. Moreover, neither item could reasonably be considered a “dangerous weapon,” Institute attorneys insisted, because the only applicable definitions of “dangerous weapons” make no mention of lighters and specifically exclude small penknives such as the one Dennis used to maintain his lacrosse equipment. Despite an outpouring of public support for the players, the Talbot County Board of Education subsequently elected not to reverse the suspensions and expunge the players’ academic records. Upon appeal to the Maryland State Board of Education, Institute attorneys pointed out—and the State Board of Education agreed—that Talbot County’s policies authorize suspension only as a “last resort” for repeated disciplinary infractions or where a student’s presence is a danger to the school community. The suspension of Edsall and Dennis was therefore “illegal,” as it was in direct conflict with those provisions. Affiliate attorney John W. Garza acted on behalf of The Rutherford Institute in its defense of Dennis and Edsall.
Rutherford Institute Appeals to Ohio Supreme Court on Behalf of Science Teacher Fired for Urging Students to Think Critically About Evolution
The Rutherford Institute has appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court on behalf of John Freshwater, a Christian teacher who was fired for keeping religious articles in his classroom and for using teaching methods that encourage public school students to think critically about the school’s science curriculum, particularly as it relates to evolution theories. Freshwater, a 24-year veteran in the classroom, was suspended by the Mount Vernon City School District Board of Education in 2008 and officially terminated in January 2011. The School Board justified its actions by accusing Freshwater of improperly injecting religion into the classroom by giving students “reason to doubt the accuracy and/or veracity of scientists, science textbooks and/or science in general.” The Board also claimed that Freshwater failed to remove “all religious articles” from his classroom, including a Bible.
The Rutherford Institute’s appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court is available at www.rutherford.org.
“Academic freedom was once the bedrock of American education. That is no longer the state of affairs, as this case makes clear,” stated John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. “What we need today are more teachers and school administrators who understand that young people don’t need to be indoctrinated. Rather, they need to be taught how to think for themselves.”
In June 2008, the Mount Vernon City School District Board of Education voted to suspend John Freshwater, a Christian with a 20-year teaching career at Mount Vernon Middle School, citing concerns about his conduct and teaching materials, particularly as they related to the teaching of evolution. Earlier that year, school officials reportedly ordered Freshwater, who had served as the faculty appointed facilitator, monitor, and supervisor of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes student group for 16 of the 20 years that he taught at Mount Vernon, to remove “all religious items” from his classroom, including a Ten Commandments poster displayed on the door of his classroom, posters with Bible verses, and his personal Bible which he kept on his desk. Freshwater agreed to remove all items except for his Bible. Showing their support for Freshwater, students even organized a rally in his honor. They also wore t-shirts with crosses painted on them to school and carried Bibles to class. School officials were seemingly unswayed by the outpouring of support for Freshwater. In fact, despite the fact that the Board’s own policy states that because religious traditions vary in their treatment of science, teachers should give unbiased instruction so that students may evaluate it “in accordance with their own religious tenets,” school officials suspended and eventually fired Freshwater, allegedly for criticizing evolution and using unapproved materials to facilitate classroom discussion of origins of life theories. Freshwater appealed the termination in state court, asserting that the school’s actions violated his rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and constituted hostility toward religion. A Common Pleas judge upheld the School Board’s decision, as did the Fifth District Court of Appeals, without analyzing these constitutional claims. In appealing to the Ohio Supreme Court, Institute attorneys argue that the Board through its actions violated the First Amendment academic freedom rights of both Freshwater and his students.
Posted in news, Ohio, politics, schools
Tagged Mount Vernon, Religious Discrimination, science teacher