Ever since the announcement of the infamous HHS mandate in January, SFL has been on the front lines of the battle against this anti-Faith, anti-Life, and anti-American measure of the Obama administration.
On Saturday, October 20, local pro-lifers organized a Stand Up For Religious Freedom rally in Ann Arbor to coincide with similar events taking place that day in 144 other cities nationwide. SFL President Tori was privileged to be one of the keynote speakers in this rally held at Concordia University and attended by over 300 people.
This was SFL's third time participating in a Stand Up for Religious Freedom rally. SFL Vice President Joe Lipa and former SFL President Carmen Allen spoke in similar rallies held in June on the U-M Diag and in March at the Ann Arbor Federal Building, respectively.
Hey Lifers!
As active members of the pro-life movement, it's important for us to read perspectives on life issues from the other side. This helps makes our dialogue with those who call themselves pro-choice more effective, and it gives an an idea of the arguments we may face in a debate.
Many of us know who Dr. Tiller was, an abortionist who was killed by Scott Roeder, who associated himself with the pro-life movement. That was certainly a tragedy; it can in no way be justified and we cannot condone it.
This article, from Feministing.com, explains that a women's group is hoping to re-open his abortion clinic.
http://feministing.com/2012/09/26/foundation-buys-dr-tillers-clinic-to-bring-abortion-services-back-to-wichita/
This group is facing opposition, which is good news! They're facing resistance from the pro-lifers in town.
So, we can only hope that this abortion clinic is not reopened!
Here's my point: This instance reminds us of how important it is to stay active and defend life! The pro-choice movement is as active as ever, and we must also remain proactive and defend the unborn!
Hopefully this article gets you thinking about these things, and reminds you to keep up the hard work and activism!
It's always interesting to read literature from the pro-choice movement- knowing the arguments of the other side is extremely important! Be sure to check out other sources and stay up to date on the latest abortion legislation and news. You could just save a life by sharing what you know with someone.
From noon to 1pm, we joined SFLA's representatives and the world-famous Jill Stanek (whose fabulous blog is probably responsible for any success this one has had) out on the Diag in handing out free popcorn, playing music, and--most importantly--getting people to sign the following pledge:
All in all, we probably got around 30 signers. That's about one every two minutes. Who says there's no pro-lifers in Ann Arbor???
In addition, Jill Stanek spoke about her experience working as a nurse at a hospital that not only did abortions, but left babies to who survived the "procedure" to die in a back room. Brendan O'Morchoe, National Director of Field Operations for SFL, exposed Obama's shocking record in favor of this most horrific type of infanticide as a member of the Illinois state legislature.
Here are some (read: two) pics from the event:
Jill Stanek (center in green) with UMSFLers and
iVoteProLife First Bus Tour Participants.
...As Rachel was loading groceries into her car from Walmart, the LIFE Band inexplicably slipped off her wrist and landed on the parking lot, without her even knowing it had happened.
[...]
Not many months later, Rachel began a job as a server in a local Olive Garden restaurant. One day a mother and her newborn baby came in and were seated in her section.
[...]
As Rachel talked to the woman, she caught a quick glimpse of a red bracelet wrapped around the woman’s wrist with the distinctive word LIFE engraved on it.
“You have a LIFE Band, huh?” Rachel ventured.
The woman was at first confused about what Rachel was referring to, but then clued in.
“Yeah, I found this in a parking lot,” the woman replied.
These excerpts should, if you have any heart at all, prick your curiosity enough to read the entire article over at LifeSiteNews.
If this one gets stolen, it'll be just more of the same...
If this one gets stolen, it'll be the clearest evidence possible
(as if we need any more) for the absurdity of the "pro-choice" euphemism.
Finally, if this Union banner, to be produced tonight, gets stolen then, considering
the altitude at which it is to be displayed, we'll know with 99.9% certainty that our
culprit is either a member of the men's high jump team, the women's gymnastics team,
or, quite simply, is Denard Robinson.
As I type this, Nellie Gray's funeral Mass--a Traditional Latin Requiem--is taking place in Washington D.C. In light of this, I thought I'd post some interesting tidbits I found on her life and those she impacted.
Did you know?
There appears to be some uncertainty--or at least inconsistency within media reports--regarding her date of birth and, hence, the age at which she died. This tribute from TFP states she was 88, which would make her born in 1924. However, this article, written on the day of the March in 2010 and titled "At 84, Pro-life Leader Nellie Gray Marches On," would put her birthday in 1926 and her age at 86, an age explicitly stated by this news article. Even the highly-credible LifeSiteNews article went out of its way to avoid mentioning her age directly. Accordingly, her page on the equally uncredible Wikipedia had, until just recently a "c.1924" for her birth date. It now says, she was born on June 24, 1924 and died at age 88, referencing a blog post by Jill Stanek.
Nellie served in Europe as a member of the Women's Army Corps. Afterwards, she obtained a degree in Law from Georgetown University, before deciding to found the March for Life after the nationwide legalization of abortion in 1973.
Nellie, with her unmistakable voice, has served as MC for the pre-March rally on the National Mall every year without exception since the first March. Who can replace her irreplaceable presence?
Nellie coined the phrase "No exceptions, no compromise" to express her 100% pro-life convictions. Would that all of our avowedly pro-life politicians, following her example, have the courage to do the same!
Fr. Frank Pavone, founder and national director of Priests for Life, credits Nellie Gray and the 1976 March for Life, which he had attended with his mother, with inspiring he vocation to the priesthood.
Even some secular news stations--including this notorious one--have reported on her death and legacy.
In case you haven't heard, Nellie Gray, founder of the March for Life, passed away over the weekend. The 86-year-old pro-life champion was found this morning in her apartment, having died apparently from natural causes.
If you've been to the March for Life, you'll know Nellie as the MC of the pre-March rally at the national mall, as the old woman on the podium whose frailty of appearance was only overshadowed by the passion with which she spoke.
Nellie Gray: 1926-2012
As the founder of and brains behind the event, Nellie had, in fact, done exactly this every year without exception at the March--a March which, under her watch, has grown from 20,000 participants in 1974 to perhaps over a half million this past January.
Requiescat in pace, Nellie. You will be greatly missed.
When that's the title of an article by the uber-liberal online newspaper The Daily Beast, you know something's gone right!
Here's an excerpt:
Less attention has been paid, though, to Ryan’s hard-right positions on social issues. Indeed, on abortion and women’s health care, there isn’t much daylight between Ryan and, say, Michele Bachmann. [Oh, the horrors!] Any Republican vice-presidential candidate is going to be broadly anti-abortion, [Well, not this one. What a relief that Romney had enough sense not to pick her.] but Ryan goes much further. He believes ending a pregnancy should be illegal even when it results from rape or incest, or endangers a woman’s health. He was a cosponsor of the Sanctity of Human Life Act, a federal bill defining fertilized eggs as human beings [Oh no! Not another one of those pro-science nuts!], which, if passed, would criminalize some forms of birth control and in vitro fertilization. The National Right to Life Committee has scored his voting record 100 percent every year since he entered the House in 1999. “I’m as pro-life as a person gets,” he toldThe Weekly Standard’s John McCormack in 2010. “You’re not going to have a truce.”
Congratulations to Mr. Extreme-on-Abortion! May you become the next Vice President so you can impose on the country the "extremeness" of your regard for the sanctity of life!
From: SORC Students <uuis_sorc@umich.edu>
Date: Mon, Aug 6, 2012 at 5:10 PM
Subject: Students for Life Diag Boards
Cc: SORC Students <uuis_sorc@umich.edu>
Hello Joe,
Unfortunately both of the Students for Life diag boards have been stolen. We are, again, very sorry for the inconvenience and would like to offer your two new diag boards at half of or two free used boards to make replacements. Please come into the source to pick up these materials. Again, I know this is not the first time and we are committed to getting your boards back up quickly. Thanks!
--
Student Organization Resource Center staff
For those of you keeping count, this is now the second time this summer we've had a Diag board stolen. And this time it was both of them. That makes three stolen boards in three months.
That's right--gone is the hand-painted and dazzlingly brilliant sign whose red-lettered "Pro-Life?" query was so large as to render it readable from a quarter mile. Gone is the logo-bearing sign reminding all who saw it that Students for Life is "the most active [sic] pro-life group on campus." And, perhaps the greatest tragedy, gone too is "hipster" baby, whose trendy outfit and stylin' glasses testified as equally to our members' sense of humor as to the (undeniable) fact that hippies are born pro-life too.
If you see me in the trash can, it's because I was victim of a (real) hate crime!
What bothers me most about these repeated incidents [read: crimes] is not all the hassle and inconvenience they cause us. It's not all the time and effort required to think up new advertising ideas and make new boards (although, to be sure, this takes quite some time). It's not even that our club is so obviously targeted and utterly despised by some on our "expect respect" campus.
What bothers me most is that this is being done by the very same people who make their living--and justify their killing--under the guise of tolerance. Even worse, these people all too often claim that WE are the ones being intolerant because we support life! And, absolutely the worst, they somehow get away with it, even (especially?) at a University that regards open-mindedness, progressivism, critical thinking, and intellectual honesty as its four cardinal virtues!
Excuse me, pro-aborts, but when have we stolen your Diag boards? When have we resorted to vandalism and theft over dialogue and discourse? When, despite our disagreement with your position and principles, have we failed to tolerate you as people? When, for that matter, have we failed (and if we have, please forgive us) to treat you with anything other than the respect and cordiality due to all people by virtue of their being people?
May many, many more have the courage to follow suit!
From LifeSiteNews, with our customary emphasis and comments:
Priests for Life announces it will defy HHS mandate
The HHS mandate goes into effect today for businesses and non-religious employers, but one organization has already announced it will not comply.
Fr. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life,
said that while that organization “advocates the observance of all just laws…I
want to make it clear to you today that we will disobey this mandate.” [OORAH!!!]
In a letter setting forth official policy on the matter, Fr.
Pavone wrote, “Neither Priests for Life as an organization, nor any one of our
administrative team or Board of Directors, nor I personally, consent to
provide, pay for, advocate, counsel, refer, or in any way tolerate or cooperate
with any process, plan, exchange of money or services, or any other activity
that would enable a person to engage in the use of abortion-inducing drugs,
contraception, or sterilization.”[It doesn't get much clearer than that.]
The group does not qualify for a one-year exemption
available to religious organizations to “adapt” to the mandate. “We are not
‘religious’ enough for this administration,” he said.
Faced with the option of violating its conscience or
incurring fines up to $100 a day per employee beginning today, Priests for Life
is standing by its convictions. [That's right, first amendment rights now cost $36,500 per employee per year to exercise. Behold, ladies and gentlemen, the America in which we now live.]
[...]
What crazy times these are. Cataclysmic might be a better word.
The HHS mandate went into effect today. Private employers, regardless of objections due to conscience, must now provide their employees with health care coverage that includes contraception, sterilizations, and abortifacient drugs. Religious institutions have an additional year to comply--or, as one Cardinal put it, "we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences."
Here's a snippet of what Kristen Hawkins, Executive Director of Students for Life of America, had to say, with our emphasis and comments:
Today marks the beginning of the end of religious and
conscience rights in America.
As of today, employers, just like myself, will be forced to
make a false choice between providing a vital service [aka health care] to their employees and violating
their consciences and values. [aka provide "services" such as the abortion pill]
No matter what your faith or view of abortion may be, the
HHS Abortion Pill Mandate is an egregious attack upon the rights of all people
of values and faith in America.
Today, the religious liberties of all Americans have been thrown
in the trash. And it's the same trash can where the 3,300 precious babies that
will be legally aborted today will be thrown.
While the courts have given a momentary reprieve to one
family business in Colorado, [This is very encouraging news and, hopefully, a sign of things to come. The court effectively ruled that the company could ignore the mandate. Read about it here.] today, all other businesses that employ more than
25 employees across America have been given the false choice of abandoning
their conscience or religious beliefs or being taxed and fined out of business.
And the clock has started ticking for Houses of Worships and other religious
institutions to apply for an exemption before their deadline on August 1, 2013.
Unfortunately, the requirements are so narrow that many who will apply will be
not be exempt. Even Mother Theresa’s Order, the Missionaries of Charity, will
not qualify for an exemption.[This is ridiculous! Why should we have to apply for an "exemption" in order to practice our constitutionally-guaranteed rights?!?]
[...]
We are waging a war for the soul of our nation, for the very
beliefs that this nation was founded upon.
That's the rating PolitiFact.com's Truth-O-Meter gave this Obama TV ad. But putting aside the deceptive tactics of our current president, could not this rating--given the content of the ad and the fact that we're pro-life with NO exceptions--be cause for concern?
I'll have to admit, when I first heard those words from a young woman passing by our Right to Life booth at the Ann Arbor Art fair yesterday afternoon, I was slightly taken aback.
OK...slightly more than slightly.
After a half hour of being on constant guard, ready to counter each and every argument anybody might propose in support of abortion, the sheer simplicity and directness of the question was like a down-the-middle fastball to a hitter expecting a wild curveball. No longer important was the number weeks until a beating heart, nor society's obligation to protect the most vulnerable of its members, nor the harm abortion does to women, nor even the SLED argument--in short, everything that I felt so well-versed in to the point of being able to give an almost scripted response.
And so, faced with the question--THE question, in fact--I, well, choked. After a prolonged stutter, I gave some lame answer about how I believe everyone deserves a chance at life. She wasn't impressed. Neither was I.
Yes, everyone does deserve a chance at life, but that's not the reason I'm pro-life. That's a reason but not the reason. So what is this reason? Just why am I pro-life? This is the fundamental question, and one that should not be eclipsed by why you should be pro-life. And that's what this experience forced me to think about--certainly not for the first time, but perhaps at a level deeper than ever before.
I am pro-life because I believe in the intrinsic value and dignity of the human person--that is to say, a value and dignity that he possesses not because of his perceived worth, condition, convenience, or any other factor aside from the very nature of his membership in our human race.
SFL hosts and co-sponsors Religious Freedom rally on the Diag. 1200+ people show up to protest the HHS mandate requiring religious organizations and individuals to provide morally objectional services, including abortion-inducing drugs. SFL VP Joe Lipa speaks at the rally, and former SFL president Carmen Allen is interviewed by the Daily, which writes a very favorable article on the event. Video recap of the rally below.
-Boo!
Not being tolerated by the "tolerance" crowd.
From: SORC Students Sent: Tuesday, May 29, 2012 3:21 PM To: Lipa, Joseph Subject: Your Diag Board at Location C1
Hello Joe, the diag board for Students for Life at location C1 has been stolen/ taken. [Nooooo!!! Poor Hipster Baby!] Due to the inconvenience we would like to offer you a free used canvas to paint a new board or a half price new canvas. Because of our summer hours we only do one route each week and place boards every Monday evening. If you turn your board in by next Monday, June 4th at 4 PM, your replacement board will be placed then and then guided by the contract until the take down date. Please let us know if you have any questions.
Thanks, SORC
+Woo!
SFL makes new sign and gets free week of advertising out of the ordeal.
Good luck stealing this one, pro-aborts. It was sprinkled with Holy Water! (top right)
-Boo!
No more ObamaCare. It's now ObamaTax. That's because the bill's individual mandate requiring everyone to have health insurance was found to be unconstitutional under the commerance clause. So, the Supreme Court voted, 5-4, to rewrite this part of the bill as a tax, and then justify its constitutionality under Congress' express power to tax. Naturally, right?
More importantly, this means that the healthcare bill--complete with its funding of abortion--is set to go into full effect by 2014. This is in addition to the HHS mandate, scheduled to go into effect August 1st--less than two weeks from now!
"It is not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices."
--Chief Justice John Robers in majority opinion
That pretty much says it all...
+Woo!
From Citizens for a Pro-life Society:
HUGE PRO-LIFE VICTORY--PLANNED PARENTHOOD CLINIC STOPPED IN AUBURN HILLS
The academic year may be temporarily suspended for the summer, and with it, perhaps too our pro-life efforts. But would that the abortion rate in our country do the same!
In other words, the inconvenient truth is that while we relax and enjoy our time off babies continue to die. At a time when we presumably have the most time, we are doing the least to end the tragedy of abortion. Yours truly has been especially guilty of this. (That's part of the reason this blog hasn't been updated in three months.)
We need to arise from our summer slumber! We need to end this seasonal hiatus of essential, life-saving work! And we need to do so now more than ever! The abortion industry doesn't slow down for us.
And so, fully admitting that in doing so we are as hypocritical as our work urgent, we hereby present these five ways you can help the pro-life movement during the summer, whoever you are and wherever you happen to be:
Hold vigil at your local abortion clinic. Sadly, you probably won't have to travel very far, regardless of where you are. Googling "abortion clinic [your city]" will likely yield something nearby. If it doesn't, praise the Lord and go to step two!
Stay up-to-date on the latest pro-life news. You'll find a combination of valiant victories and depressing defeats. The former will inspire you to keep fighting the good fight and the latter will shock you into action.
Get involved in your local pro-life group. This could be through a church, volunteer organization, or young-adult group. Throughout the country, 40 Days for Life groups are nearly ubiquitous. For those still in the state, Michigan Right to Life has several local chapters. Once again, Google will be your friend here.
Know how to vote. This upcoming election will be absolutely pivotal. Research the candidates so you know who's pro-life...and who's not. Make sure your pro-life friends are registered to vote...but only when your pro-abortion friends are out of earshot.
PRAY! Arguably the easiest, but definitely the most important. Pray that human life may be respected and protected from conception to natural death in our country and, indeed, throughout the whole world.
