All posts by Wintery Knight

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MUST-SEE: Videos from academic debate on abortion at the University of Victoria

stephaniegray
Stephanie Gray

LifeSiteNews reports on a debate featuring Stephanie Gray of CCBR.

Excerpt:

Miss Gray’s argument cut through the various issues that are often raised to confuse the abortion issue, boiling it down to the two simple questions: Are the unborn human?  Does abortion kill them?

If the unborn are human, and abortion kills them, then abortion must be wrong, she maintains.  Using potent examples, she explains how criteria such as disability and the lack of experiencing pain are not satisfactory justifications for killing any human if we recognize that they are human, unborn or not.

She demonstrates that all of the differences between an unborn human, even at the moment of fertilization, and a born human are merely accidental – size, level of development, environment, dependency.  Each of these differences, she says, distinguish a two-year-old from a twenty-year-old just as they do a fertilized embryo from a born person.

The video is in 10 parts. Here are parts 1 and 2.

Read the rest of the report here.

Debate proceeded in spite of censorship threats

LifeSiteNews also notes that the BC Civil Liberties Association is defending the right of pro-lifers to debate the issue in public.

Excerpt:

The B.C. Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) is taking up the case of Youth Protecting Youth (YPY), a pro-life club at the University of Victoria (UVic).

UVic pro-life students, who have been fighting for fair treatment from their student union since October 2008, were finally granted club status and funding by a vote of the Clubs Council on February 10th this year. However, they were again denied the right to be treated equally to other groups on campus only the following month.

In March of this year the UVic student newspaper, The Martlet, reported that the pro-life student club “was denied club money again by the UVic Students’ Society, despite Clubs Council voting in favour of the funding.”

According to a press release from the BCCLA, at the October 5th meeting of the UVic Student Society (UVSS) “the Society confirmed its stubborn determination to withhold the funding ordinarily disbursed to clubs, citing particular alarm at YPY plans to hold a public debate between distinguished UVic philosopher Eike-Henner Kluge representing the pro-choice side, and Stephanie Gray of the Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform on the pro-life side.”

My congratulations to the club and both participants in the debate.

Conservative Doug Hoffman fights Republican establishment in NY-23 race

If you haven’t heard of this story, LifeSiteNews has a nice re-cap.

Background:

A conservative uprising against the GOP’s selection of a staunchly pro-abortion, pro-gay “marriage” nominee has transformed the battle for New York’s 23rd congressional district into a tight three-way race that has the strong possibility of a dark horse Conservative Party candidate pulling an upset victory – or sending a strong message to the GOP that they alienate social and fiscal conservatives at their peril.

New York’s 23rd Congressional District covers much of the northern areas of upstate New York just north of Syracuse, bordering Canada, and encompassing most of the Adirondacks. While conservative values figure greatly into the political landscape of upstate New York, GOP party bosses instead chose to nominate NY Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava – a far-left Republican who has strong pro-abortion, pro-gay “marriage”, pro-tax, and pro-card check positions – to replace Rep. John McHugh, who handily won nine consecutive terms in a district that was safely Republican.

What’s interesting is that Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann and a host of other conservatives have endorsed Hoffman. Newt Gingrich, who is not a conservative, endorsed Scozzafava.

The Wall Street Journal excoriated GOP leaders for supporting Scozzafava in a October 21 editorial, saying that “A defeat would teach Republicans that running candidates who believe in nothing will keep them in the minority for years to come.”

The Journal’s editors pointed out that Scozzafava stands to the left of President Barack Obama on the question of same-sex “marriage” and her position on taxes makes her Democratic opponent Bill Owens look conservative. Scozzafava has also run on the ticket of the socialist Working Families Party and there is no guarantee that she would not switch parties and caucus with the Democrats if she lost a GOP primary fight in 2010.

Pro-life and pro-family advocates are devoting considerable time and effort to canvass voters and make the difference for Hoffman in the election fight. Emily Buchanan, executive director of the Susan B. Anthony List is coordinating an independent project for the National Organization for Marriage & the Susan B. Anthony List to elect Hoffman by enlisting pro-life/pro-family advocates to man the polls on November 3.

Caffeinated Thoughts has a round-up here.

Rick Santorum explains why socialism is hostile to the family

Story here at the Ruth Institute blog.

Excerpt:

Both the family and the Church stand in the way of socialism’s triumph, former US Senator Rick Santorum told Christians gathered for the 17th International Week of Prayer and Fasting last week. The pro-life champion warned attendees, however, that both institutions are under heavy attack from Obama-administration policies.

“We are under a great assault with this President and this Congress on the issue of life. We are under a great assault, maybe even greater assault, on the foundational issue of the family,” Santorum told those gathered for the October 11 dinner at the Omni Shoreham Hotel.

And more specifically:

Santorum argued that Obama’s reforms will transform health-care into “an account in the federal government” in which “accountants” or Congress will determine how much healthcare an individual gets “as part of our budgetary process.”

Once the health-care of individuals is totally dependent on the central government, the left has secured power, Santorum explained.

[…]The Netherlands, “the most liberal country in Europe” today, Santorum said, is the only country that “did not go along with the Nazi doctors in doing sterilizations and abortions” and suffered persecution for it.

“And yet, within two generations, as a result of socialized medicine and the government’s attempt to contain costs, doctors were turned into accountants,” said Santorum.

Now in the name of cutting costs, Dutch doctors counsel assisted suicide, deny care to premature-born babies under 25 weeks, and euthanize children born disabled.

“This is the custom and the practice in socialized medicine countries, who have limits on budgets. It is simply too expensive to do it any other way,” reiterated Santorum.

Read the rest here.

Social conservatives, repeat after me: SMALL GOVERNMENT IS GOOD. Do it yourself – don’t hand your money to a bunch of secular ideologues and then hope they will take care of you. They will use that money to take care of themselves.