#317 Abortion Distortion, Prolife Women's Conference - July 1, 2016
The Abortion Distortion Factor Still Rules Showing yet again what’s wrong with having a handful of people making decisions by judicial fiat for the rest of us, the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) knocked down the abortion clinic health regulations Texas passed. Excellent comments on the decision come from our member groups Feminists for Life and Democrats for Life. Kristen Walker Hatten of New Wave Feminists had an op-ed in The Dallas News. Our member group All Our Lives has a tweet stream of comments. But what may be the most insightful comment came from a group that supports the decision – and lets us know one of the things it really means. This Tweet comes from the comedy program The Daily Show with Trevor Noah: “Celebrate the SCOTUS ruling! Go knock someone up in Texas!” (2:18 PM, June 27, 2016) Some abortion defenders were offended at the male-centered and astonishingly callous attitude. Yet the only unusual thing about that attitude is that was expressed in public; it’s quite widespread in private.
Our Blog: Speaking Out in Texas Our latest blog posting covers the press conference we held in Austin, Texas, the day after the Supreme Court decision. It notes that in addition to the recent case on abortion clinic regulations, Texas also has two death penalty cases on the court’s docket. It’s entitled “Mourning After & Hoping for the Future, We Call for a Consistent Life Texas!”
Meanwhile, Back at the Grassroots: Resounding Success Over 500 women attended the first Pro-life Women’s Conference, a marvelous diversity of views and positive advocacy of empowering women. Organizers included CL Endorser Abby Johnson, who initially announced the event would happen every other year, but as it unfolded, got enthused about holding it annually. We had a literature table, as did many member groups of our network. Below are highlights; photos from many women at the conference are at #prolifewomen16, and there’s a report on it from our member group Secular Pro-Life.
Photo: Aimee Murphy on the left speaks with people after finishing her session covering the consistent life ethic – “Why Consistency Matters in the Fight for Human Rights.”
Photo in front of our member group Feminists for Life (FFL) table: Left, Serrin Foster, current President, who gave two keynote addresses at the conference (sign reads: Peace Begins in the Womb) Right, Rachel MacNair, former President of FFL (and current CL Network board member)
Photos: Top left, Kristine Kruszelnicki with Prolife Humanists and Sarah Terzo with member group Pro-life Alliance of Gays and Lesbians at a shared table; Sarah is also a CL Network Board member. Top right, Kristine with her full sign. Bottom: Lois Kerschen of Democrats for Life and Rachel MacNair; DFL Executive Director Kristen Day gave presentations and was part of a plenary panel
Sojourners Our member group Sojourners (a social-justice evangelical magazine) is eager to share one of its articles that shows links between issues of violence, and between the reasoning on abortion and on guns: “Should Christians Own Guns?” (free link expiring on Tuesday, July 5, 2016) We remind all our member groups to send us notice of their consistent-life activities to share with our readers; send to Peace & Life Connections.
Quotation of the Week Erin Kluever, of New Wave Feminists commenting on the US Supreme Court decision knocking out health regulations Rich women will still get clean, quality care. But poor women? Well, this just perpetuates the stereotype that they need to take whatever crappy care they can find, because they shouldn’t be having babies anyway.
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