By J.M. Glover
British Catholics fight against assisted suicide bill
A recent CBC online story has reported that Russian On Oct. 16, British members of Parliament began debating a Labour bill to legalise assisted suicide. Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, released a pastoral letter to Catholics reminding them that “the evidence from every single country in which such a law has been passed is clear: the circumstances in which the taking of a life is permitted are widened and widened, making assisted suicide and medical killing, or euthanasia, more and more available and accepted.” As the Catholic Herald remarked, “over the past 60 years, abortion has shown us how quickly the slippery slope can cause an issue to go from being ‘safe and rare’— Bill Clinton’s words—to becoming very frequent.” In Canada, a bill to legalize euthanasia was introduced in Parliament in 2016 for “extreme cases” where death was “reasonably foreseeable.” In 2021, the law was expanded to include those with severe illness, not necessarily with foreseeable death. Now, the Canadian government is looking at euthanasia to include mental illness. Between 2016 and 2022, 44,985 Canadians have been killed by euthanasia. Cardinal Nichols is sounding the warning to Catholics – and all Britons — outlining in his pastoral letter the political, biological and religious reasons why Brits should oppose the law. But where are other Christian churches and leaders, including the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Church of England, the Methodists, Baptists, Pentecostals, Salvation Army, United Reformed, and Eastern Orthodox? The Catholic Herald suspects that these Christian denominations are silent because “they have become obsessed with social justice like sexuality, the environment and feminism and forget that the major social justice issues that really matter are abortion and euthanasia.” The bill may not pass this time round, since under half of the Labour MPs support it. This paper will be watching the debate closely.
Attorneys-General target pro-life centres over Abortion Pill Reversal
New York Attorney General, Letitia James is targeting pro-life pregnancy crisis centres in an effort to quash speech about Abortion Pill Reversal. APR is a protocol by which a pregnant woman who decides she wants to continue her pregnancy after having taken the first of two abortion pills, is administered progesterone, the natural hormone in a woman’s body necessary to sustain pregnancy. This will counter the effects of mifepristone, the first drug in the two-drug chemical abortion regimen. (It is much less effective when taken after the second abortion pill.) “If a woman acts quickly enough after taking the first abortion pill, and without having taken the second abortion drug, it may be possible to save her child through Abortion Pill Reversal” reports Pregnancy Help News (Aug. 16). Pregnancy crisis centres assist women by explaining how the APR procedure works, and referring them to medical professionals to administer the protocol. The pro-life centres are represented by Alliance Defending Freedom and the Thomas More Society. New Jersey is also in litigation against a pro-life pregnancy centre, First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, a Christian pro-life non-profit that is being defended by Alliance Defending Freedom against New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin. The ADF attorneys have asked the court to “block Plotkin’s demands, claiming they violate First Choice’s constitutional rights to free speech, religious practice, and association. Platkin is aggressively targeting pro-life centres to reveal the identity of its donors, and has enlisted the aid of Planned Parenthood to target pro-life pregnancy centres. ADF argues that Platkin’s actions are politically motivated. A group of pro-life pregnancy centres in California is suing the Attorney General for censoring their speech because the centres tell women about the option of taking supplemental progesterone for abortion pill reversal The centres are defended by Alliance Defending Freedom lawyers, who stated that “every woman should have the option to reconsider going through with an abortion … we are urging the court to affirm the pregnancy centers’ freedom to tell the public about this lawful, life-saving treatment.” Worldwide, hundreds of babies have been saved from abortion through the Abortion Pill Reversal protocol after choosing to keep their baby, something that abortion advocates, so-called defenders of a woman’s right to choose, seem determined to stop.
Government of Canada funding for 2SLGBTQI+ ’
Since 2016, the Government of Canada has committed over $250 million to advance the rights and equality for 2SLGBTQI+ (2-spirit; lesbian; gay; bi-sexual; transgender; queer; intersex) communities, in Canada and internationally. Its news release of Aug. 26, 2024, outlined the funding amounts and recipients. For more information google: Government of Canada news release August 2024 2SLGBTQI+ (m. refers to ‘million’). Some of the programs it funds:
2SLGBTQI+ Secretariat: $3.6 m. over 3 years (budget 2017); $1.2 m. over 1 year (budget 2019); $7.1 m. over 3 years (budget 2021); $100 m. (2022)
2SLGBTQI+ Community Capacity Fund: $20 m. over 3 years
2SLGBTQI+ Projects Fund: $15 m. over 3 years (budget 2021)
2SLGBTQI+ Entrepreneurship Program: $25 m. (announced June 2023)
Action Plan to Combat Hate: $12 m. over 5 years (budget 2024); $3 m. over 2 years (budget 2024)
Canada Fund for Local Initiatives: $2.7 m. (2022-23)
Global Equity Fund: $750 thousand in 2023
Health Canada-funded projects for 2SLGBTQI+ populations: $104 m.
LBGTQ2I International Assistance Program: $30 m. over 5 years (announced 2019); $10 m. every year starting 2025-26.
Preventing and Addressing Family Violence: $1.6 m. since 2022
Rainbow Refugee Assistance Partnership: $800 thousand over 5 years (announced 2019)
Supporting Indigenous Women’s/2SLGBTQQIA orgs.: $2 m. announced Jun23
Supporting Mental Health of those affected by Covid: 2SLGBTQI+ Youth of African, Caribbean and Black 2SLGBTQI+ COMMUNITIES: $7.5 million
Various Health Research Programs for 2SLGBTQI+ persons: $11.7 m 2022-23
Victims Fund, Conversion Therapy (Dept. of Justice): $900 thousand
High-schooler Ava Trammell chooses life for her baby
At age 17, Ava Trammell found out that she was pregnant. Following a routine sonogram, she and her mother met with the doctor and were given the devastating news that her baby, whom she had named Sophie, had a rare medical condition and would not live for more than a few hours outside the womb. Ava’s family was fully supportive of Ava’s pregnancy and her decision not to prematurely end the life of her baby by abortion. The following is part of her interview with podcaster Zach Rippey on his podcast I Like Birds on YouTube. It is a heartwarming account of a young girl who chooses life over abortion for her baby. Ava: “I only have so much time left with her (Sophie). Why should I cut it any shorter? … She’s safe in my womb and at this point I have been following a million pro-life organizations on Instagram. I’ve seen what an abortion looks like, and I said ‘I don’t think I could bear to have her ripped piece by piece out of my womb, and shorten the life that’s already so short, take her away from a spot where God has placed her in my hands, in my womb, where she’s safe and she’s warm and she only knows love and doesn’t know pain.’ Why would I give her such a painful death when she’s perfectly fine with me.”
Do pro-lifers commit crimes against humanity?
C-Fam reports that a draft treaty on crimes against humanity has been “stuck” in the UN General Assembly since 2019 when it was first drafted by the International Law Commission. C-FAM reports that “the treaty could make denial of abortion a crime against humanity and expand the international crime of ‘gender persecution’ to cover advocacy, laws and policies that protect man-woman marriage and deny transgender policies.” Most African countries, some Asian nations, including China, the Russian Federation, and the entire Arab group object to the draft treaty definition of “gender” as a social construct that includes sexual orientation and gender identity. If the Treaty passes and influences national laws, it could lead to criminal prosecution for anyone who objects to homosexual and transgender ideas, behaviour, and practices. Presently, the West has managed to throw out the definition of gender as “male and female.” As C-FAM warned on Jan. 17: “The gravity of labelling anyone hostis humani generis—an enemy of humanity—for merely advocating for traditional marriage, traditional norms of sexual morality and the understanding of sex as a binary should give pause to UN member states and lead to further reflection.” The Holy See, a member of the UN General Assembly, has expressed its concern about the proposed definition of gender, warning that the “lack of a clear definition of gender rooted in the biological reality of the two sexes would undermine our efforts to prevent and prosecute those crimes that disproportionately affect women, such as rape, sexual slavery and forced prostitution.” The Holy See also objects to any attempt to change the definition of “forced pregnancy” to include “denial of abortion.” Western countries and the UN have been quite open about their intention to promote “denial of abortion” as a new crime against humanity. A recent UN Women report says “denial of abortion is a form of ‘reproductive violence’ and ‘gender persecution’ that can rise to the level of a crime against humanity.’” Talks continue.
Remy Benedict lived for 53 days. His parents chose to embrace suffering, to love a life that “was given a chance, a life that had a name, a life that had a memory.” Remy Benedict now has a baby sister—Felicity Clare. As their parents said: By choosing life, we have the greatest blessings of all: two children. One in heaven and one on earth. We could not have asked God for more.”
Update on Britain’s anti-free speech bubble zones
In the October edition, “And then there was this…” asked: Is praying silently a free-speech violation? Apparently, it is in Britain. On Oct. 16, Adam Smith-Connor was given a 2-year probation sentence and fined $11,700 for silently praying outside an abortion facility in Dorset, for the repose of his son’s soul. Fined for silently praying.
