#334 China & Paraguay - October 28, 2016
Welcoming the Message At the Rockville (Maryland) Pregnancy Clinic Annual Banquet October 18, CLN endorser Patrick Mahoney, MC for the evening, interviewed CLN Advisory Board Member Aimee Christine Murphy and CLN endorser Destiny Herndon-De La Rosa, pictured below. They talked about how one can appeal to people who don’t fit the common stereotypes of pro-lifers. Aimee spoke on how the consistent life ethic appeals to people, especially young people, who might not respond as well to a single-issue focus on abortion. That the clinic brought in these consistent-life folks is an example of how the pro-life movement is increasingly welcoming the consistent life ethic message.
Board Member Tony Masalonis also reports a pleasant surprise at the banquet of the politically conservative pregnancy center in Wilkes-Barre, PA, where his mom (a CLN member) volunteers. Several Catholic clergy mentioned other life issues and the consistent life ethic.
Clinton & Abortion in China In defending her support for abortion access, Hillary Clinton, during the recent presidential debate, said “I've been to countries where governments either forced women to have abortions, like they used to do in China . . . ” This refers to coercive practices by the Chinese government as part of its 35-year one-child policy. Saying forced abortion is something they “used to do” implied such practices no longer take place. While the one-child policy officially ended last year, the essentially coercive nature of China’s population control policies hasn’t changed. The state generally permits married couples to have two children, not just one. Nevertheless, it still limits the number of children. A coercive state apparatus for enforcing such limits still exists. Clinton has criticized the Chinese government’s repressive practices in the past. As this is one area where people on both sides of the abortion controversy can work together, we all must monitor Chinese population control and not hesitate to speak out against human rights abuses.
Paraguay CL Board member Richard Stith reports: “I'm down here in Paraguay giving talks for a seminar organized by their Supreme Court on the rights of the unborn. In the discussion after my first talk, I had a chance to push the consistent life message. One of the other speakers asserted that the other side has only ad hominem arguments, and suggested that we simply insist they respond to the substance of our arguments and not to the person. I suggested we must do more. I was thinking about building bridges. The pro-abortion people won't hear our points, however well reasoned, unless we find other points of agreement first. Then I told them about CL. From my conversations later, I think I had an impact.”
Latest CL Blog If we advocate that the choice of using violence must stop, does it follow we’ve taken away options, so people have fewer ways to solve problems? Rachel MacNair makes the case, in “The Creativity of the Foreclosed Option,” that the opposite is true, that cutting off violence as a possible choice actually increases creativity and therefore increases available options.
Reminder – Petition to the Media Be sure you’ve signed, and gotten your friends to sign, the petition to “Include Feminists & Peace Advocates When Covering Pro-lifers.”
Quotation of the Week Mary Grace I was writing "keep kids out of war zones" at the end of my emails, but then I realized that, really, we need to keep wars out of kid zones.
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