End the Injustice

WASHINGTON, DC, October 30, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has launched a bold and sweeping nation-wide campaign against the abortion funding mandate included in healthcare reform legislation currently making its way through Congress. Pro-life leaders are applauding the campaign, with American Life League’s Judie Brown describing it as “unprecedented.”

USCCB Pro-Life Activities Secretariat Tom Grenchik this week sent an email to parishes across the US, detailing the contents of the plan. At the same time, Cardinal Francis George and other members of the USCCB leadership have asked every cardinal, archbishop, and bishop in the United States for their personal leadership in ensuring that health care reform does not include funding for abortion.

Much of the campaign involves direct action by parishes and pastors. Grenchik’s email states that a pro-life insert should be included in parish bulletins, placed on pews, or distributed at church entrances “as soon as possible.”  The insert also says that the health-care bills currently being considered by Congress are “seriously deficient on the issues of abortion and conscience,” and directs readers to www.usccb.org/action, where they may send emails to their congressmen through the action center of the National Committee for a Human Life Amendment.

The U.S. bishops have also asked that a special announcement be made at every parish at two separate Sunday Masses.  Their announcement tells laymen to contact their representatives and senators “immediately” and to “urge them to fix these bills with pro-life amendments,” so that “health care reform will be about saving lives, not destroying them.”

A special “Prayer of the Faithful” to be used during Mass has also been distributed, which asks both for “health care reform [that] will truly protect the life [and] dignity” of all and that Catholics will raise their “voices to protect the unborn and the most vulnerable and to preserve our freedom of conscience.”

The efforts of the USCCB extend beyond church walls, however.

The USCCB has started an ad campaign aimed both at congressmen and at the grassroots.  The campaign uses online advertising on various websites such National Review Online, Catholic Match, and Beliefnet, to urge people to oppose the pro-abortion health care bill.  The information distributed to US parishes also includes an ad that may be run in Catholic papers.

The bishops themselves are opposing the health care legislation by personal action.  Cardinal Francis George, president of the USCCB, with the chairmen of three USCCB committees engaged in health care, has written to the American bishops and asked for their “active and personal leadership” and to “redouble [their] efforts” to ensure that health care does not include abortion.

Cardinal George’s letter reads in part that “the outcome [of this debate] will depend not primarily on advocacy done in Washington, but on what we do in our own dioceses and states to make the case clearly and persuasively to influence how our Senators and Representatives vote.”

He goes on to ask bishops to personally contact the senators and representatives who serve their diocese, whether by letter, email, personal meeting, or phone, and to tell them that if an amendment is not added to the bill eliminating the possibility of government-funded abortions, that they then must oppose the final bill when it comes to a vote.

Such decisive action has few parallels, according to the American Life League’s Judie Brown.
In a statement issued yesterday, Brown said that “We applaud the USCCB’s unprecedented action in its national campaign to mobilize parishes against the current versions of the health care bill.”

“It has taken an important first step in activating Catholics to take back our health care system and our country from the radical pro-aborts in the legislature and sometimes even in the pulpits.”

However, Brown said the USCCB should also point out the other troubling aspects of the bill, such as “its potential to fund Planned Parenthood, to use our tax dollars to indoctrinate children with sex education in schools, to fund euthanasia, in vitro fertilization, human embryonic stem cell research, contraception and health care rationing.”

“All of these things are present in all of the current versions of the health care bill. None of these are acceptable according to Catholic teaching,” she said.

The USCCB’s campaign may be seen as the fulfillment of what they said in letter delivered to Congress on October 8th, in which the bishops said that unless their concerns were relieved they would be forced to strongly oppose the health care bill.

“We sincerely hope that the legislation will not fall short of our criteria,” the bishops wrote at the time. “However, we remain apprehensive when amendments protecting freedom of conscience and ensuring no taxpayer money for abortion are defeated in committee votes. If acceptable language in these areas cannot be found, we will have to oppose the health care bill vigorously.”

Before this current push, the USCCB had opposed an abortion-funding health care bill through various public statements, but had not made a great effort to move Catholic laymen to oppose it.

Source: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/oct/09103003.html

The United Nations Children’s Fund warns many children suffering from severe acute malnutrition in Ethiopia are at risk of death. The United Nations says 6.2 million people in the country are in need of food aid, the highest number for 25 years when one million people died of famine.

Several years of erratic rainfall, high food and fuel prices and the global financial meltdown have robbed Ethiopia of its ability to feed its own people. The United Nations says more than six million people are going hungry.

It warns lack of food weakens peoples’ immune system, makes them vulnerable to disease and, possibly, death. Among the most vulnerable are children.

According to the U.N. Children’s Fund, an estimated 270,000 children suffer from severe acute malnutrition and are in urgent need of special therapeutic feeding.

In a telephone briefing from Addis Ababa, UNICEF representative in Ethiopia, Ted Chaiban, considers the challenges ahead daunting. But, he says his agency is not without resources.

He says several programs have been functioning for years that are making a difference. One is a productive safety net program, which is a cash and food transfer program for families that lack food.

He says another program provides health services to every village in Ethiopia. And a third program treats severe acute malnutrition at community level.

“The result of that is that you treat children early on and you avoid complications and you save many more lives,” said Chaiban. “A child that is severely acutely malnourished that is not treated has a 30 to 50 percent chance of dying. We now have 3,200 points which can do this treatment at community level and that is 1,600 percent increase since 2007.”

Chaiban says UNICEF needs nearly $39 million to carry out a few essential activities. He says the agency needs to pre-position ready-to-use therapeutic food to treat severely acutely malnourished children.

He says UNICEF needs money to buy saline solutions and antibiotics to protect children from diarrhea and to establish safe water points. He says insecticide-treated bed nets are needed to protect children from malaria.

And, in some areas, particularly the Somali area of Ethiopia, a critical measles vaccination campaign is being planned. He says this is crucial because the combination of measles and malnutrition is deadly to children.

Source: http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-10-23-voa33.cfm

One of the fundamental question to be answered on the topic of abortion is whether or not life that has been conceived in a mother’s womb is a human person, distinct as an individual from the mother. God created three basic classes of life, each of which reproduces after its own kind: plants, animals, and people.

Genesis 1:11-12
Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:20-25
And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.” So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” And there was evening, and there was morning–the fifth day.

And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:26-30
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground–everything that has the breath of life in it–I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.

Genesis 5:1 – 4
This is the written account of Adam’s line. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them. And when they were created, he called them “man.” When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth. After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters.

- In which of these three categories; plant, animals, and people should a living unborn baby be classed? It cannot be considered plant or animal because plants and animals reproduce after their own kind. The living unborn human baby can only be the result of human reproduction, humans are distinct from the plants and animals. Therefore the life in the womb of a human mother must necessarily be human! Obviously, without question, we know that a mother with child will always produce a child. Not a plant, not an animal, not a car, not a typewriter, but a living human being with a blood stream and beating heart (heartbeat approx. 3 weeks – http://www.ehd.org/movies.php?mov_id=10&cell=6). In my opinion, for those of us who believe the Scriptures, we can stop here. We’ve identified life, we know what murder is, so if we ‘intentionally’ abort/kill a life in a mothers womb this would obviously be murder? Sadly not, so I’ll go further for those who need more…

The Bible identifies a human person by calling it simply a “man,” “woman,” “child,” “son,” “daughter,” “baby,” “infant,” etc. The woman in whose womb it lives is a “mother.” No human being anywhere in the Bible is identified by terms that are more distinctly human than these terms. God makes no distinction between born and unborn life. He uses exactly the same terms for both, therefore we should view them as having the same nature.

Genesis 25:21-22
Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren; and the LORD answered him and Rebekah his wife conceived. But the children struggled together within her; and she said, “If it is so, why then am I this way?” So she went to inquire of the LORD.

- That which was conceived was called a “child” between the conception and the birth. The Hebrew word used here (BEN) is the most common Old Testament word for a child or son. When used for the physical offspring of humans, it consistently refers to distinct human individuals.

Psalms 127:3-5
Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, The fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one’s youth. How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them; They will not be ashamed When they speak with their enemies in the gate.

Job 3:16
“Or like a miscarriage which is discarded, I would not be, As infants that never saw light.

- The Hebrew word for infant (owlel) means child. Again human life. In fact, this verse is exactly what happens to infants, children, babies that are aborted. We see the same word used in other verses for children outside of the womb

for example:
Joel 2:16
Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, Assemble the elders, Gather the children (owlel) and the nursing infants. Let the bridegroom come out of his room And the bride out of her chamber.

Luke 1:13
But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John.

- The life conceived in Elizabeth’s womb, before it was born, is called “a son.” The word “son” (Greek HUIOS), in contexts that refer to the physical offspring of humans, always refers to that which is a human individual separate and distinct as an individual from its parents.

Luke 1:36
Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month.

Matthew 1:21
She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

Luke 2:7
and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Luke 1:41-44
When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. And she cried out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! “And how has it happened to me, that the mother of my Lord would come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.

- Elizabeth addressed Mary as “the mother of my Lord” before Jesus was born. A mother of course is one with child. And as we know, Jesus was Mary’s first child, her first opportunity to be called a mother.

Genesis 3:20
Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.

Luke 1:60
but his mother spoke up and said, “No! He is to be called John.”

- Plain and simple a child inside a mothers womb is a child, a valued living human being, a life that should be given the chance to live their lives as all of us living today have been given.

A valued life, God values human life. It’s clear throughout the Bible that God is love, that He has a love for human life that reaches beyond our imagination for all stages of life.

Psalms 139:13 – 16
For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, {And} skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained {for me,} When as yet there was not one of them.

Romans 8:29-30
For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

Jeremiah 1:4-5
Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

Isaiah 49:1 – 6
Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations: Before I was born the Lord called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name. He made my mouth like a sharpened sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver.

He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will display my splendor.” But I said, “I have labored to no purpose; I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing. Yet what is due me is in the Lord’s hand, and my reward is with my God.”And now the Lord says– he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself, for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord and my God has been my strength — he says: “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.”

Genesis 1:27
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

- These few passages of Scripture clearly show that God has knowledge, has seen and is active in the creation of life. Many people will say that life begins at conception, I agree in that the beginning of physical human life, as we know it, begins at conception. Though God sees life before conception, before we are formed in the mothers womb, before we arrive.

Exodus 1:1-21
The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, “When you help the Hebrew women in childbirth and observe them on the delivery stool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live.” The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?” The midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.” So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.

Mark 10:13-16
People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.

Luke 7:6-7
Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

Matthew 18:10
“See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven continually see the face of My Father who is in heaven.

John 1:1-5
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

John 10:10
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

Deuteronomy 30:15-20
“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants,

Ezekiel 23:36-39
Moreover, the LORD said to me, “Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then declare to them their abominations. “For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. Thus they have committed adultery with their idols and even caused their sons, whom they bore to Me, to pass through {the fire} to them as food.

“Again, they have done this to Me: they have defiled My sanctuary on the same day and have profaned My sabbaths. “For when they had slaughtered their children for their idols, they entered My sanctuary on the same day to profane it; and lo, thus they did within My house.

John 3:16
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 15:13
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

Exodus 21:22-25
“If men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child so that she gives birth prematurely, yet there is no injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband may demand of him, and he shall pay as the judges {decide.} “But if there is {any further} injury, then you shall appoint {as a penalty} life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.

- There are some people that will use this verse to support abortion by using a mistranslated version of the word birth ‘prematurely’ to ‘miscarriage’. The typical term for miscarriage (Hebrew word nephel used 3 times in the Old Testament) is not used in this text. Most Bible translations use the word ‘prematurely’ or a word meaning prematurely to include; King James, The New King James, New International Version, The New Living Version, New American Standard Bible (1995 updated from ‘miscarriage’ to ‘gives birth prematurely’), The Darby, God’s Word, Young’s Literal Translation and many others. The Hebrew word for prematurely is yatsa (used 990 times in the Old Testament) which means to go out, come out, go forth, depart. It’s found in other verses as live child birth such as in Gen 25:26.

Even if one assumes that miscarriage is the correct translation, the text does not condone abortion in anyway: