The Globe and Mail reports "Low birth rates put hundreds of schools at risk of closing." George Smitherman, an openly gay Ontario cabinet minister, steps down to run for mayor of Toronto. Wesley Smith sees hope in the narrow House vote that Obamacare won't pass. Jill Stanek notes that Planned Parenthood wants Barack Obama to put pressure on Congress to remove pro-life provisions [...]
The Canadian Centre for Policy Studies will be hosting a symposium in Ottawa on free speech and liberty on December 7. Speakers include John Robson, Barbara Kay, Richard Bastien, Peter Stockland, Joseph Ben-Ami, and Gerry Nicholls, among many others. For more information visit here, where you can also register. The deadline for registration is December 2. After the symposium, there is a dinner and [...]
The House of Representatives passed the Stupak-Pitts amendment which bans abortion coverage under a government health plan. The vote was a healthy 240 to 194 margin. The vote on H.R. 3962, the government takeover of health care in the United States, was 220-215 (Democrats 219 in favour, 39 against; Republicans 176 against, one for). House Republican Leader John Boehner notes that three committee chairman will not guarantee that the [...]
The New York Times has a longish Prescriptions post on the day's debate on abortion-related amendments to the House of Representatives' health care reform bill (H.R. 3962). Anne Marie Polak at the Americans United for Life blog summarizes the statements of various Congressmen during the debate on the Stupak-Pitts amendment (the legitimately pro-life amendment). Mary Harned of AUL explains why the Ellsworth amendment is not [...]
Republican House leader John Boehner has a press release entitled "Speaker Pelosi’s Government-Run Health Plan Will Require a Monthly Abortion Premium." Boehner explains: On line 17, p. 110, section 222 under “Abortions for which Public Funding is Allowed” the Health and Human Services Secretary is given the authority to determine when abortion is allowed under the government-run plan. The Speaker’s plan also requires that at [...]
There have been an incredible number of changes and articles over the past few days concerning euthanasia and assisted suicide in Canada. First: Francine Lalonde (Bloc, MP) has now traded her date for the second hour of debate on C-384 twice. C-384 is the bill that would legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide in Canada. The original date for the second hour of [...]
One of Pensacola, Florida's two abortion facilities, the Community Healthcare Center, closed after more than a quarter century in business because it failed to pay a $413,000 fine ($1,000 a day) for operating without a state license. The Toronto Star reports on the controversy over the use of fetal cells in the NeoCutis Bio-Restorative Skin Cream with Processed Skin Proteins and a local doctor says the [...]
Britian's chief rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks links excessive consumerism and selfishness to couples having fewer or no children. That's probably true (up to a point), but this isn't: Sacks said, "Europe today is the most secular region in the world. Europe is the only region in the world experiencing population decline. Wherever you turn today the more religious the community, the larger [...]
The New York Times reports that after the resounding 53%-47% defeat of same-sex marriage at the ballot box in liberal Maine, advocates of SSM are going to have to change tactics, probably by-passing the public and appealing directly to legislators to ignore the expressed wishes of voters or legally challenging the traditional definition of marriage in the courts. According to Angus Reid, 57 [...]
Each year, The Interim co-sponsors the Fr. Ted Colleton Essay Writing Contest. Open to third- and fourth-year high school students in Canada, prizes are $1500, $800 and $500. Essays and applications are due December 8, 2009. The topic: The culture of death is all-pervasive, arising in one little corner and then engulfing the whole culture. Demonstrate whether there is a real link [...]
I don't want to be guilty of Christmas creep but Kathy Shaidle points to a wonderful seasonal lawn sign. (My first thought was "a Christmas lawn sign?")
Big Blue Wave is probably correct in a literal sense when she notes that the English media coverage of the Quebec College of Physicians press conference is wrong when it reports that the College was advocating legalization of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide while the French media is reporting that the College was merely calling for a debate on the issue. (BBW has the pertinent links.) But generally [...]
David Herszenhorn and David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times report that Congressional leaders are trying to work out a "compromise" that attempts to address pro-life concerns about public funding of abortion. Considering the games pro-abortion Democrats have played to expand abortion coverage under any new health care scheme, the compromises are sure to be nothing more than cosmetic and pro-life representatives should [...]
WorldNetDaily and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review both report on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals throwing out a Pittsburgh ordinance that created both a bubble and buffer zone around abortion facilities in the city. The Court ruled the expansive prohibitions violated the free speech rights of pro-life sidewalk counselors. The Alliance Defense Fund, which represented Mary Kathryn Brown, a pro-life nurse and sidewalk counselor [...]
It appears that Question 1, the referendum to overturn legislated same-sex marriage, will go down to defeat. With 80% of the vote counted, the yeas have about 52% to maintain the traditional definition of marriage. Referendum 71, the domestic partnership initiative (everything but the word 'marriage'), in Washington state has about 51% support as of midnight EST by running up huge margins [...]