Irish Vote This very day (Friday, May 25), voters in Ireland are deciding about repealing the Eighth Amendment to their constitution. The amendment recognizes an equal right to life of the mother and the unborn child. It originally passed in 1983 with 67% of the vote. In The Irish Exception, Ross Douthat writes in the New York Times on how, with abortion illegal in Ireland, maternity deaths are down but female empowerment is up. The dire claims of abortion legalization advocates haven’t come true here.
New Funding Reg Last Friday, May 18, the US administration made a welcome announcement: it plans a regulation to exclude from family planning grants (called “Title X” – X meaning 10) clinics which perform or refer for abortions. Unlike the so-called “gag rule” of the Reagan years, they could discuss abortion, but not refer for it. The US Supreme Court has already decided such regulations are constitutional in Rust v. Sullivan. The regulation hasn’t been placed in the Federal Register yet, and the official public comment period only opens when this happens. For ways local activists can encourage Planned Parenthood clients to go elsewhere in their vicinity, see our website, Grassroots Defunding: Finding Alternatives to Planned Parenthood.
Pro-Life Women’s Conference We’re one of the sponsors of the Pro-Life Women’s Conference, to be held in St. Louis June 22 – 24. If you plan to go, register now! Regular ticket prices will increase on June 1 from $149 to $169.
Latest CLN Blog Post: Quick Responses Do you find opportunities to respond to challenging questions on peace and life issues? Would you like an effective, short response? Rachel MacNair, in Quick Responses, offers a few she’s garnered from her own experience. We invite people to use the comment section to add more possible questions and responses. We also list a few links at the bottom, offering previous blog posts dealing with challenging questions. We have a committee now working on a booklet of Frequently Asked Questions, and responses people have found to be effective. If you have experience with answering specific challenging questions on any of the life and peace issues individually, or on their connections and the consistent life ethic, please send a note to weekly@consistent-life.org.
Quotation of the Week Bob Hartman As Ireland decides whether to relax abortion law, there is nothing progressive about voting 'Yes' Christian Today (a British publication), May 23, 2018 I guess it's ‘smart’, if you're a man, to come up with the money for an abortion instead of taking responsibility to raise a child . . . But you'd better be a white man, because if you are a person of colour you stand a disproportionately higher chance of never emerging from your mother's womb . . . And heaven help you if some prenatal test discovers that you have a disability. Because the ‘smart’ people won't. . . . When you consider, however, that most progressives will join a march against war at the drop of a hat and show no reluctance to holding up signs depicting the horrors that might ensue, it seems just that bit hypocritical, doesn't it?
Responses/News tips/Questions to share are all welcome.
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