Moms for the Motherland
A recent CBC online story has reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin is pushing towards more traditional Russian conservative values, aligned with the Orthodox Christian faith. He is encouraging Russian women to have more children. Russia’s fertility rate — the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime — is 1.4, considerably less than the replacement level of 2.1. (Canada’s fertility rate is a dismal 1.3.) He has put forward a number of financial incentives to persuade women to have babies, including targeting full-time female students to give birth. In the Ural Mountains, the payout to a new mother is nearly $15,000. In Moscow, there will be an expansion of free fertility testing. Russian school children in grades 5 to 9 will receive a new course designed to encourage large families. And, Russia is intent on curbing access to abortions, although no plan has yet been revealed. Senior officials in Moscow are supporting Putin’s plan. For example, the Minister of Health told a Russian news outlet that “having a busy career isn’t an excuse for not having a family.” (He also made the preposterous suggestion that people could choose to “create offspring” during work breaks.) There has been pushback from feminists, and from ordinary Russian women who complain online anonymously. One complainant said that she felt like a “surrogate for the state.” Others do not trust the government to collect their personal, intimate fertility data. One woman revealed to the CBC reporter that the government family planning scheme “created a feeling of coercion and invasion of personal boundaries.” An independent Moscow-based demographer says that the family studies classes will “brainwash” the students. In his opinion the days of large Russian families is long gone. Other countries are also trying to raise their fertility rate, but, in “non-democratic states” like Russia, he maintains that the tone is authoritarian, where the government is equating a larger population with state power.
The abortion pill and emergency room visits
The Charlotte Losier Institute advises and leads the pro-life movement with groundbreaking scientific, statistical, and medical research. Its staff and over 70 credentialed associate scholars provide the pro-life community with groundbreaking information on abortion, women’s health, treatment for the unborn, and related issues. A group of its research scholars has just published a study on the increasing severity and frequency of emergency department visits following use of abortion drugs. The study is entitled Comparative Acuity of Emergency Visits Following Pregnancy Outcomes Among Medicaid Eligible Women, 2004-2015. Its lead research scientist is Dr. James Studnicki. Their key findings include: the likelihood of an Emergency Department (ED) visit with a severe or critical acuity code following the use of abortion drugs was more than twice as high as that of women who were not pregnant; compared to surgical abortions and live births, abortion drugs were associated with significantly higher rates of severe or critical ED visits; the overall acuity and number of ED visits have increased across all pregnancy outcomes from 2004 to 2015, with the most dramatic rise seen following the use of abortion drugs. The entire research report is available by googling the title and then going to the end of the script and clicking on ‘Read complete article’ which will take you to the article published in The International Journal of Epidemiology and Public Health Research.
UN bullies Poland on abortion ‘rights’
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who assumed office last year for a four-year term, is considered a “centrist” and a globalist who leads a coalition government. He replaced the previous pro-life government which took a strong stand for life. Tusk’s coalition is being pressured to advance the abortion agenda. The United Nations is one of those pressuring Poland. The CEDAW Committee that focuses on “women’s rights” claims restricting abortion violates women’s rights, and demands that Poland support “the right to abortion as a fundamental right” and adopt standards in line with the guidelines of the World Health Organization including “total decriminalization and legalization of abortion.” However, nowhere does the CEDAW treaty use the word “abortion” either explicitly or euphemistically, nor is there any internationally recognized human right to abortion in any UN human rights treaty or General Assembly resolution. This is simply bullying a nation to accept abortion as a bogus human right under international standards. The Polish government has responded to the CEDAW Committee stating in “its dedication to guarantee equal access to healthcare services provided by national law including abortion … women will experience a radical improvement in terms of their rights, dignity, health and safety.” But note that the Polish government did not mention defense of legal protections for the unborn, including their right to life. Nor did it suggest that the UN committee exceeded its mandate by insisting that Poland recognize abortion as a fundamental freedom. As C-FAM’s Rebecca Oas concludes: “The notion that abortion is an international right, or that these entities have the ability to make it so, is a claim that requires stronger contestation than the current Polish government is willing to provide.”
Is praying silently a free-speech violation?
Adam Smith-Connor is a 49-year-old British father of two and an army veteran who served in Afghanistan. On Nov. 24, 2022, he was praying near an abortuary in Bournemouth, England, when he was approached by two police officers, who asked him what he was doing. He said that he was praying, so they asked him what the nature of his prayer was. He said that he was praying for his deceased son who had been aborted many years before. On Dec. 13, 2022, Smith-Connor received a fixed penalty detailing that he had been “praying for his deceased son” on the previous month near an abortion facility in Bournemouth where a “buffer zone” was in place. In an earlier filmed encounter with Smith-Connor who was praying silently at the same place, the police who approached him informed him that he was not breaking the law, remarking that “this is England and it’s a public place and you’re entitled to do that.” Jeremiah Igunnubole, Alliance Defending Freedom UK legal counsel for Smith-Connor, remarked that “In other circumstances, the police and the courts have made it clear that silent prayer is not a criminal act. And yet, the Bournemouth City Council now argues that the buffer zone extends to a ban on silent prayer.” He further stated that “Both domestic and international law have long established freedom of thought as an absolute right that must not ever be interfered with by the state.” A ban on “influencing” within 200 metres of an abortuary in England and Wales will commence in October. It is not clear if praying silently is considered “influencing.” The three-day trial of Adam Smith-Connor began on Sept. 17. No verdict had been reached as of publishing time.
Choosing life and accepting one’s cross
This is the story of baby Remy Benedict and his parents who took up their cross and embraced life, until Remy passed from this life. The story begins with Stephanie and Bradley Vergano who met in December 2020 in Sydney, Australia and married in December 2021. Stephanie became pregnant almost immediately and thought that the pregnancy was proceeding normally. However, a 20-week scan indicated that something was wrong: the baby was not developing physically as it should. There was only a 10-30 percent chance that the baby would survive, and would be severely disabled. They were told that Stephanie would have to have a C-section, which risked her ever conceiving again. Then, she was told to abort the baby and try again. Stephanie told the doctor that this was her first pregnancy, that it was not a “wheel of fortune.” “This is the child we have been given,” she pleaded. On July 12, 2022, Remy Benedict Vergano was born, weighing in at 390 grams. Remy’s life and that of his parents was “incredibly painful and challenging.” He was baptized: “It was important for us that we could help him to receive the greatest gift of all from God: his eternal salvation.” Determined to include Remy in a wider circle, his parents set up a daily prayer livestream. Although death loomed in the shadows, God filled their hearts with supernatural joy. “The Lord allowed us to … learn the pain of the Cross. Not to bring an end to the suffering, but rather to accept it and let it transform us.” 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.”
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.”
