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Life Insight 12-09-11

As a Resurrection people, Christians know that our Lord defeated death. Nonetheless, evil still remains and must be opposed with every ability and resource God has given each of us. Hence, we are constantly searching for effective ways to defend and promote human life and to oppose the culture of death.

Without a doubt, the most essential and efficacious activity is prayer. In particular, a prayerful presence at abortion mills is a proven and effective activity that saves the lives of women and their unborn children from abortion. What follows is one anecdote to punctuate this assertion. It is written by a man who spends most of every Tuesday praying at the Lincoln abortion mill.

“This young couple arrived shortly after 9 a.m. Tuesday. They parked their car on the street, and walked into the abortion clinic. They appeared to be in their early 20s, and the Helpers counselors greeted them with a smile and ‘Good morning,’ but were unable to get them to stop to talk.

“About 10 a.m., the Helpers on duty changed, and there were now two women and one man on watch. The couple had been in the clinic more than an hour, when they appeared outside and stood talking by the entrance door to the clinic. While the two sidewalk counselors prayed and watched for more traffic, the man kept praying and watching the young couple.

“He watched as the couple stood and talked, and the young woman wrapped her arms around the young man’s waist. As sometimes happens…a Helper will sense a special tugging or appeal to his or her heart for a particular client in the clinic.

“The male Helper said he felt a strong pull to walk into the clinic grounds to ask the young couple to come out and ‘talk with us.’ He told one of the women counselors about it, and she suggested that he not walk in but that they pray together to ask Jesus to send the couple out to them.

“So they began praying for that, and within a minute, the couple walked out to where the Helpers were standing next to the clinic driveway. The male Helper asked the young woman if she had an abortion, and she replied, ‘No! No! We’re going to keep the baby.’

“The Helper said that he then saw the most radiant look on the face of the young woman…As the couple walked toward their car, the young woman stopped at the third female Helper, and said, ‘It’s because of your prayers.’”

This story is compelling evidence that our prayerful presence at the abortion mills can and does save lives. And this story is not the first time that an abortion-minded woman left the abortion mill and gave the credit to those who were praying outside the mill.

There is a great need for more people to pray at the three abortion mills in Nebraska (or from home if this is not feasible). Planned Parenthood does abortions in Lincoln on Tuesday and in Omaha on Wednesday. Leroy Carhart does abortions in Bellevue on Friday and Saturday. For more information on locations and specific times contact Jack at 402-465-8423 (Lincoln) or Liz at 402-614-0496 (Omaha/Bellevue).

Another efficacious and proven pro-life activity is airing Virtue Media’s television ads. These extraordinary pro-life ads touch the hearts and souls of women contemplating abortion as well as those who suffer from an abortion experience. They can be viewed at www.virtuemedia.org.

In 2007, when Virtue Media was first introduced to parishes in Nebraska, nearly $230,000 was donated which purchased almost 9500 television ads. Because of Virtue Media’s tracking system, we know that these ads prompted 580 women to call for help with their pregnancies and prompted 1120 individuals to seek post-abortion help.

In October, parishes in the Lincoln and Grand Island diocese were given another opportunity to see and contribute to airing Virtue Media’s pro-life ads. Parishes in the Archdiocese of Omaha will have an opportunity in early December.

Unfortunately, donations from the Lincoln and Grand Island Dioceses are a fraction of the 2008 donations. If you didn’t see these ads in your parish or have an opportunity to donate, you can do so online at www.virtuemedia.org. All donations originating from Nebraska will be used to buy airtime in Nebraska. Please make a contribution before the end of December and know that every dollar you give may save a life or a soul from the evil of abortion.

Life Insight 12-2-11

Good News for Ethical Stem Cell Research

A couple of weeks ago, on consecutive days, two major announcements were made in the realm of stem cell research. The first announcement was by the American Heart Association reporting new evidence that adult stem cells can repair a damaged heart.

The new evidence came from some recent clinical studies. In one of the studies, conducted at Cedars Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles and the University of Louisville’s Jewish Hospital in Kentucky, 33 subjects had laboratory-grown stem cells (derived from their own heart tissue) deposited into the damaged area of their hearts. The other 15 subjects received standard heart care.

According to news reports, all of the stem cell recipients at Cedars Sinai (17) had their heart attack scars reduced dramatically. These recipients saw, on average, almost 50 percent of their damaged heart muscle replaced by new healthy heart tissue. The control subjects (8) saw no improvement in their heart function.

“This is unprecedented, the first time anyone ahs grown living heart muscle,” says Dr. Eduardo Marban, who directed the study. “No one else has demonstrated that. It’s very gratifying, especially when the conventional teaching has been that the damage is irreversible.”

Likewise, the Jewish Hospital subjects who received an infusion of their own heart stem cells (16) saw marked improvement in their hearts’ pumping ability while those subjects given standard medications (7) showed no improvement.

According to the Do No Harm Coalition, there are more than 70 different diseases or conditions that have been favorably treated (not necessarily cured) in human patients with adult stem cells. A list of these diseases and the published studies documenting the successful treatments can be seen on its website at www.stemcellresearch.org.

The second major announcement was that a key player in embryonic stem cell research, Geron Corporation, will stop conducting this immoral research which involves the destruction of embryonic human beings. Geron said that its decision was based on economic (not ethical) considerations and it still believes in the promise of embryo-destructive research.

One of the reasons that Geron’s decision is such big news is the prominence of this company in the realm of embryonic stem cell research. Geron, a Califonia-based company, was the first to get approval by the Food and Drug Administration for a human trial using embryonic stem cells (ESCs). Less than three years after getting FDA approval, Geron not only announced that it was canceling this study but is abandoning the ESC field completely.

Geron’s claim that this shocking decision is economically-based is incredible to me. For one thing, the company has already invested tens of millions of dollars into ESC research and had just started the first-ever human trial. To give it all up now is inexplicable and begs the question, is the real reason economic or something else?

The economic reason cited by Geron is also questionable given that several years ago, a majority of California voters approved a ballot measure to appropriate $3 billion for embryonic stem cell research precisely to assure that sufficient funds would be available to support ESC research. And just last year, Geron received $25 million from this California taxpayer fund to support its human ESC trial. Oops, looks like another lousy investment of taxpayer dollars.

As a footnote to California’s $3 billion dollar investment in ESC research, of the 19 research grants it provided this year, only 5 were for ESC research and the rest were for adult stem cell research. In the previous round of research grants, only 4 out of 14 grants were for ESC research. Go figure.

Josephine Quintavalle, founder of a British pro-life group called Comment on Reproductive Ethics, said: “At long last after 10 years of unremitting hype, reality has caught up with embryonic stem cell claims. If Geron is abandoning this project it is because it is simply not working, despite the millions of dollars and hot air that has been invested in the promotion of this research.”

Life Insight 11-23-2011

Giving Thanks and Witness Through Service

"What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him? If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them ‘ Go in peace, be warmed and filled, without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead" (Jas 2: 14-17).

This passage from Scripture introduces the section (no. 87) in the encyclical "The Gospel of Life" in which Pope John Paul II presents mankind’s call and responsibility to serve the Gospel of life. "By virtue of our sharing in Christ’s royal mission," says JP II, "our support and promotion of human life must be accomplished through the service of charity, which finds expression in personal witness, various forms of volunteer work, social activity and political commitment."

Unfortunately, in a secular culture dominated by radical individualism and materialism there is a strong inclination to view persons in need of our assistance and charity as impediments to our autonomy rather than opportunities to demonstrate our faith and love. A naval-gazing culture also tends to overlook God’s expectation that we give back to Him, in serving others, what we’ve been given; and that those to whom much is given, much will be expected.

"We must care for the other," says John Paul, "as a person for whom God has made us responsible. As disciples of Jesus, we are called to become neighbors to everyone (cf. Lk. 10:29-37) and to show special favor to those who are poorest, most alone and most in need. In helping the hungry, the thirsty, the foreigner, the naked, the sick, the imprisoned—as well as the child in the womb and the old person who is suffering or near death—we have the opportunity to serve Jesus. He himself said: ‘As you did it to one of the least of my brethren, you did it to me’ (Mt. 25:40)."

"Hence we cannot but feel called to account and judged by the ever relevant words of St. John Chrysostom: ‘Do you wish to honor the body of Christ? Do not neglect it when you find it naked. Do not do it homage here in the church with silk fabrics only to neglect it outside where it suffers cold and nakedness."

John Paul II provides many examples of practical ways in which we can serve the Gospel of life through service of others: centers that promote and teach natural methods of regulating fertility, marriage and family counseling agencies, pregnancy-assistance centers and maternity homes, communities for treating drug addiction, residential communities for minors or the mentally ill, care and relief centers for AIDS patients, associations for solidarity especially for the disabled."

He also mentions the important work of social welfare agencies, palliative and hospice programs, hospitals, and convalescent homes. "A unique responsibility belongs to health care personnel: doctors, pharmacists, nurses, chaplains, men and women religious, administrators and volunteers. Their profession calls for them to be guardians and servants to human life."

Finally, John Paul II says that "[i]f charity is to be realistic and effective, it demands that the Gospel of life be implemented also by means of certain forms of social activity and commitment in the political field as a way of defending and promoting the value of life in our ever-more complex and pluralistic societies. Individuals, families, groups and associations… all have a responsibility for shaping society and developing cultural, economic, political and legislative projects which… will contribute to the building of a society in which the dignity of each person is recognized and protected and the lives of all are defended and enhanced."

In addition to fulfilling our call as Christians, when we serve those in need we give thanks to God for His blessings and we receive a therapeutic dose of love, grace and peace in return. Therapeutic? Yes, somehow when our focus is on the needs, pain, grief, and worry of others, our own concerns diminish or are at least placed into perspective.

As we give thanks for all God has given us, let us examine how faithfully and generously we are returning His gifts through service to others, particularly His least ones.

Life Insight 11-18-2011

Assault On Conscience Intensifies

A couple of months ago, many Catholics (and others) were shocked to find out that the Obama Administration had issued regulations mandating the coverage of contraception (including abortifacients) and sterilization in all private health insurance plans. The so-called religious exemption provided in the regulation is so narrowly defined as to be practically meaningless.

This action by the Obama Administration is not only foolish but is a heavy-handed assault on religious liberty. Disturbingly, this assault on religious liberty is just one of many by this Administration in recent months.

The number and gravity of assaults on religious liberty are so great that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has formed an Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty. In a letter to his fellow bishops, Archbishop Timothy Dolan, president of the USCCB, stated that this new committee "will work closely with national organizations, charities, ecumenical and interreligious partners and scholars to form a united and forceful front in defense of religious freedom in our nation."

Archbishop Dolan emphasized that religious liberty is "inherent in the dignity of the human person" and is a "foundational principle of our country, one that has been enshrined in the United States Constitution, further enumerated in the First Amendment, and explicitly extended to all U.S. citizens.

"The Framers of the Constitution themselves understood this ‘First Freedom’ to be based on the norms inherent in Natural Law—namely, ‘that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, and that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness,’ Archbishop Dolan stated.

However, the Archbishop warned, "this basic right, in its many and varied applications for Christians and people of faith, is now increasingly and in unprecedented ways under assault in America. This is most particularly so in an increasing number of federal government programs or policies that would infringe upon the right of conscience of people of faith or otherwise harm the foundational principle of religious liberty."

Archbishop Dolan cited several examples. In addition to the Obama Administration’s mandated coverage of contraception and sterilization in all health insurance plans, the Archbishop cited the following:

* The Department of State is increasingly requiring that all international relief and development programs include "comprehensive HIV prevention activities" that includes condom distribution and "reproductive health activities" that includes provision of artificial contraception.

* The Department of Health and Human Services is also requiring that Migration and Refugee Service provide the ‘full range of reproductive services’ to trafficking victims and unaccompanied minors in its cooperative agreements and government contracts. "Reproductive services" means provision or referral for abortion and contraception.

* The federal Department of Justice has ratcheted up its attack on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) as an act of bigotry. In March, the Department stopped defending DOMA against constitutional challenges, and the USCCB spoke out against that decision. But in July, the Department started filing briefs actively attacking DOMA’s constitutionality, claiming that supporters of the law could only have been motivated by bias and prejudice.

Nebraska’s 1^st District Congressman, Jeff Fortenberry, introduced the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act (H.R. 1179, S. 1467) which would provide conscience protection from the Administration’s mandated coverage of contraception and sterilization in health insurance plans. I’m pleased to say that Nebraska’s other two Congressmen (Smith, Terry) and two Senators (Johanns and Nelson) have co-sponsored this bill.

This bill, if enacted, would provide some protection from the Obama Administration’s assault on religious liberty. However, many other assaults will need to be countered as well. The efforts of the Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty will be extraordinarily critical in countering these assaults, as will the voice of every Catholic and believer in religious freedom.

For more information on this topic, check out the U.S. Bishops’ website: www.usccb.org/conscience.

Life Insight 11-11-2011

Healing Visions

I recently had the privilege of attending a portion of a post-abortion conference called Healing Visions. This conference, which brings together experts on the various facets of post-abortion trauma, is sponsored by Vicki Thorn and the National Office of Post-Abortion Reconciliation and Healing. Mrs. Thorn is also the founder of the post-abortion ministry called Project Rachel.

The experts featured at Healing Visions addressed the psychological, physical and spiritual dimensions of post-abortion trauma as it impacts women and men from various cultures and races. And the conference was attended by people from all over the United States and the world, a very encouraging sign that the hope and healing of post-abortion ministry is spreading.

For those who suffer from post-abortion trauma, it is often most difficult to take the first step toward healing from this trauma. Tragically, many believe, wrongly, that abortion is an unforgiveable sin and that they will be condemned if they seek help from the Church. This mistaken perception is addressed directly in the Project Rachel brochure produced by the U.S. Bishops’ Pro Life Secretariat:

"Don’t be afraid. Draw close to my heart. There you will find the peace and happiness you seek. Jesus speaks these words to every human being in every generation. He knows well that each of us is broken by sin and burdened by selfishness and past hurts.

"As St. Paul has written, ‘all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.’ Yet we are saved ‘by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. You may be thinking, ‘I don’t deserve to be forgiven. My sins are too great!’ Thankfully, God’s love is greater than all the sins of all time. Jesus offers his grace and forgiveness to every repentant heart. All we have to do is ask and begin to trust in his mercy.

"As Pope John Paul II wrote: ‘No human sin can erase the mercy of God, or prevent him from unleashing all his triumphant power, if we only call upon him. A great 20^th-century apostle of Divine Mercy, St. Faustina, recorded in her Diary the consoling words of Jesus:

"I want ‘all souls to trust in the unfathomable abyss of My mercy, because I want to save them all.’ And He assured her that ‘the greater the misery of a soul, the greater its right to My mercy.’ The misery of a soul grieving from abortion calls forth an outpouring of God’s mercy."

I like to refer to the network of pro-life pregnancy centers as the heart of the pro-life movement because they embody the love and support that’s necessary to make abortion unthinkable. If pregnancy centers are the heart of the pro-life movement I think it is appropriate to refer to post-abortion ministry as the soul of the movement.

Our faith tells us that the devil both tempts us to sin against God and, when we fall, accuses and shames us so that we won’t seek God’s limitless mercy. As grievous as abortion is in the eyes of God, equally grievous to God are the souls lost because they didn’t avail themselves of His Divine Mercy.

The beauty of Project Rachel, and post-abortion ministry in general, is that it helps those souls wounded by abortion to discover and avail themselves of God’s mercy. As Theresa Bonapartis ("Healing After Abortion") said, "The process of healing from abortion isn’t about who you are and what you’ve done; it is about who God is and what He’s done."

What’s more, by healing these wounded souls, post-abortion ministry greatly diminishes the likelihood of repeat abortions, which comprise more than 40 percent of all abortions.

If you or someone you know is suffering from an abortion, please take that critical first step toward hope and healing by calling Project Rachel at 1-888-456-HOPE (4673).

Life Insight 11-4-2011

The Medical Charities Dilemma

My office is frequently contacted by Catholic individuals, parishes or groups asking about the funding policies of various medical charities. These conscientious individuals and groups want to know if a charity funds immoral research before they agree to donate to that group. These requests are particularly frequent this time of year when there are significant fundraising events taking place

These regular inquiries prompted me some years ago to do my own inquiry into the funding and advocacy policies of several major medical charities. In some cases, a simple query of a group’s website provided clear information on its policies. In other cases, a letter was sent to the charity.

What I found is that many of the major medical charities have some morally problematic policy and/or practice. The most common is funding or lobbying for human embryonic stem cell research. Unfortunately, this creates a dilemma for those who want to support medical research without funding immoral practices. The charities I found to have problematic policies and/or practices are:

ALS Association (Lou Gehrig’s disease), American Association for Cancer Research, American Diabetes Association, American Lung Association, Glaucoma Research Foundation, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, March of Dimes, Muscular Dystrophy Association, National Hemophilia Foundation, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, National Spinal Cord Injury Association, Parkinson’s Action Network, Parkinson’s Disease Foundation, The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

The following charities indicate that they do not fund or advocate for embryonic stem cell research: Alzheimer’s Association, American Cancer Society. American Heart Association, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, National Kidney Foundation.

The actual policies/positions of these groups and the link or citation for them are posted on my website at www.nebcathcon.org (click on "Pro Life" and then "Medical Charities Survey"). A hard copy of this list with citations can also be obtained from my office.

In providing this information, I am always quick to qualify it as a first step in the process of determining whether to support a charity or not. Policies can and do change. Consequently, I urge those who request this information to ask the charity to confirm or refute my information before making a decision on whether to donate.

In my questioning of charities, I look for their policy on funding and on advocating for human embryonic stem cell research. Both policies are important because our donations could be used to directly fund immoral research or to lobby our elected officials to use our tax dollars to fund it.

In my experience contacting charities, I’ve also found it important to request the official, published policies produced by the national office. In some cases, I have received different answers from representatives at different levels of the organization.

I’m pleased to say that there are some research enterprises that are specifically committed to only conducting or funding ethical stem cell research. For example, the John Paul II Stem Cell Research Institute (www.jp2sri.org) is a non-profit research institute whose mission is to advance research and education on stem cell research in a manner consistent with pro-life bioethics. The Institute strictly focuses on adult and cord blood stem cell research and education.

The Thomas Hartman Foundation for Parkinson’s Research

(www.hartmanfoundation.org) was founded by Father Tom Hartman who is co-host, along with Rabbi Marc Gellman, of radio and TV’s popular "God Squad." Father Hartman has Parkinson’s disease which led him to establish this foundation, which excludes any funding for human embryonic stem cell research and supports research using adult stem cells to treat Parkinson’s.

My summary of medical charities policies also includes information on a couple of other ethical research projects focused on spinal cord injuries, juvenile diabetes and auto-immune disorders. In addition, a list of diseases that adult stem cells have treated with some level of success in humans is available (with citations) at www.stemcellresearch.org and www.stemcellresearchfacts.org.

Life Insight 10-28-2011

Celebrate and Support Ethical Research

Twelve years ago, my office and other pro-life groups in Nebraska were fighting to prohibit the use of fetal tissue from abortions in research. This was prompted by the revelation that the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) was conducting research using fetal tissue it obtained from abortionist Leroy Carhart.

Sadly, our effort to persuade the Legislature to ban this research was unsuccessful. Some senators who had voted for other pro-life measures opposed this ban largely due to heavy lobbying by UNMC officials who portrayed themselves as the only credible voice of science.

This experience made it evident to me and others that the pro-life movement needed help from pro-life researchers and doctors to more effectively challenge unethical biomedical research. Thankfully, several doctors and researchers stepped up and formed the Nebraska Coalition for Ethical Research (NCER) in April 2001.

This group is dominated by men and women of science who understand both the importance of medical research and its strict adherence to fundamental ethical principles such as "first do no harm." The group’s mission is "to advocate for biomedical research that promotes the life, dignity and rights of every human being at each developmental stage."

In commentary on its website (www.ethicalresearch.net), NCER says the following: "Biomedical research undermines human dignity when it discriminates against certain human beings based on their developmental stage, or when it treats humans as mere physical objects that can be harvested for their parts.

"To treat the human being as too old, too young, too feeble or as a mere body is to treat the person in an unequal, discriminatory and dehumanizing manner. Therefore, biomedical research must respect the whole person, body and spirit, at every stage of development and guarantee the basic human rights of equality and nondiscrimination."

It has been a privilege for me to have served on the board of NCER since its inception. The dedication and generosity I have witnessed from NCER’s board members and staff—all of whom are accomplished and busy professionals—is edifying. And their contributions to advancing ethical research and opposing unethical research have been significant.

On Nov. 10 and 11, NCER is hosting a fundraising banquet and breakfast to raise needed funds to continue its great work. The banquet will be held Thursday evening, Nov. 10 at Scott Conference Center in Omaha. The breakfast will be held the next morning, Nov. 11, at the Cornhusker Hotel in Lincoln.

Featured speaker at both events is David Limbaugh, younger brother of talk radio host Rush Limbaugh and author of the New York Times bestseller Crimes Against Liberty. Also featured at both events is Doug Rice, who has testified before Congress about the successful adult stem cell treatment he received to treat his congestive heart failure.

Tickets for both events can be purchased on NCER’s website, www.ethicalresearch.net, or by calling NCER at 402-690-2299. If you can, please attend one of these events and support the important work of the Nebraska Coalition for Ethical Research

Life Insight 10-21-11

State Pro Life Essay Winners Named

One of the most encouraging and effective assets of the pro-life movement is the next generation of Americans coming into adulthood. Several years ago, in a study of those who are now between the ages of 18 to 33 (so called Millennials, Gen Y or Echo Boomers), it was revealed that this generation strongly opposes abortion.

Our nation is seeing this belief among young people demonstrated in a variety of youth-led pro-life organizations such as Live Action (led by Lila Rose), Students for Life of America, Generation Life and Generations for Life. The commitment, enthusiasm and ingenuity of this generation to promote the dignity of human life and to oppose abortion and other attacks against this dignity are truly impressive.

Last Saturday, at the Bishops’ Pro Life Conference banquet, the pro-life conviction of young people was also on display. The banquet program included presentation of the State Pro-Life Essay Contest awards and reading of the essays by the winners.

In January each year, the pro-life directors in the three dioceses of Nebraska sponsor a pro-life essay contest for students in grades 7 through 11. The winners of each diocesan contest automatically compete in the state essay contest, sponsored by the State Council of the Knights of Columbus and my office, the State Office of the Bishops’ Pastoral Plan for Pro Life Activities.

The theme for this contest, and the winning essays for the state contest, are chosen by the State Coordinating Committee of the Bishops’ Pastoral Plan for Pro Life Activities, which is comprised of the diocesan pro-life directors, the pro-life chair couple for the Knights of Columbus, diocesan representatives for the Council of Catholic Women and directors of the diocesan Family Life offices.

The theme chosen for this year’s essay contest was the following: Mother Teresa said “How can there be too many children? That’s like saying there are too many flowers”. Various national and international groups say that the world is overpopulated. Make a persuasive case as to why this is not the case.

The winners of this year’s state essay contest are:

· 7^th Grade: Emily Kimball from St. Boniface parish in Callaway.

· 8^th Grade: Tina Le from St. Mary’s school and parish in Lincoln

· 9^th Grade: James Hytrek from St. James parish in Cortland

· 10^th Grade: Alyssa Hurd from Lourdes Central Catholic and St. Benedict’s parish in Nebraska City

· 11^th Grade: Marie Wathen, from Pius X High School and St. Peter’s parish in Lincoln

On behalf of the Bishops of Nebraska and the entire Church, I congratulate these fine young people for their exceptional essays and enthusiasm for the pro-life cause.

At World Youth Day in Denver (1993), Pope John Paul II challenged young people to “Offer your youthful energies to building a civilization of Christian love. Be witness of God's love for the innocent and the weak, for the poor and oppressed.”

“At this stage of history,” he continued, “the liberating message of the Gospel of life has been put into your hands. And the mission of proclaiming it to the ends of the earth is now passing to your generation. Like the great apostle Paul, you too must feel the full urgency of the task: "Woe to me if I do not evangelize" (1 Cor. 9:16). Woe to you if you do not succeed in defending life.

“The church needs your energies, your enthusiasm, your youthful ideals, in order to make the Gospel of life penetrate the fabric of society, transforming people's hearts and the structures of society in order to create a civilization of true justice and love. Now more than ever, in a world that is often without light and without the courage of noble ideals, people need the fresh, vital spirituality of the Gospel.”

Blessed John Paul expressed his confidence in young people’s “faith in Christ” and ability to rise to this challenge by recalling the wordsof St. Paul: "I have great confidence in you, I have great pride in you; I am filled with encouragement, I am overflowing with joy" (2 Cor. 7:4).

Life Insight 10-14-11

Exemplary Pro-Lifers to be Honored

The Bishops’ Pastoral Plan for Pro Life Activities, the official pro-life program of the Catholic Church in the U.S., calls for pro-life organization and activity at the national, state, diocesan and parish levels. In Nebraska, we are blessed to have about 375 parish pro-life coordinators who implement the Pastoral Plan in their respective parishes.

The pro-life efforts by these parish coordinators are critically important to the Church’s mission of building a culture of life and love. And the amazing dedication and enthusiasm of parish coordinators is a constant source of inspiration and encouragement to me and, undoubtedly, to many others.

In 2007, my office initiated the Gospel of Life Award to recognize the exemplary efforts by parish coordinators or other Catholics to promote the Gospel of Life in their parish and community. One individual is chosen annually from each of the three dioceses in Nebraska and honored at the Bishops Pro Life Conference banquet in October.

At this year’s pro-life conference banquet on October 15^th, the following individuals will be presented with the 2011 Gospel of Life award:

JoDee Westling, from Holy Spirit parish in North Platte, will receive the award for the Diocese of Grand Island. Since 1989, JoDee has been involved with the Women’s Resource Center, a pregnancy center in North Platte, where she has served as a board member and peer counselor.
JoDee and her husband Steve have opened their home to women and children who had no other place to go and opened their hearts with love as adoptive parents. JoDee has also been actively involved as a pro-life coordinator for her parish for the better part of 20 years, initiating such programs as the spiritual adoption of unborn children, the collection of needed items for mothers and their babies and Life Chain.
Carolyn LaGreca, from St. Patrick’s parish in Omaha will receive the award for the Archdiocese of Omaha. Carolyn was one of the first parish and diocesan pro-life leaders I met after being hired as the pro-life director for the Bishops of Nebraska. At that time she was a parishioner of St. Thomas More parish where she assisted Fr. John Vernon who was the Archdiocesan Pro Life Director.

In addition to providing pro-life leadership at the parish and archdiocesan level for more than 20 years, Carolyn served for many years on the board of Nebraskans United for Life where she chaired the Celebration of Life banquet, edited the newsletter and coordinated trips to the March for Life in Washington, D.C. Carolyn and her husband Steve have faithfully prayed at the abortion centers in Omaha and opened their home for pregnant women.

Sondra Jonson, from St. John’s parish in Cambridge, will receive the award for the Diocese of Lincoln. Sondra has served as pro-life coordinator for St. Johns for many years where she organized Life Chain, Respect Life Month events, letter writing to elected officials, and various educational projects.

Ms. Jonson passionately strives to involve young people in pro-life activities, often taking students to pray at the abortion center in Lincoln and to the annual Walk for Life. And as a high school catechist, Sondra has incorporated many pro-life activities into her teaching.

Ms. Jonson’s pro-life leadership extends beyond her parish as she has organized regional pro-life presentations in McCook, placed ads for Project Rachel in her local paper and organized pro-life billboards in the Cambridge area. And as a professional sculptor, Sondra produced a “Rachel Weeping” statue about 10 years ago which serves as a beautiful symbol for Project Rachel, the Church’s outreach of hope and healing to post-abortive women and men.

On behalf of the Bishops of Nebraska and the entire Church, I extend our gratitude and admiration to these three women for their exemplary commitment to the Gospel of Life and to the Church’s mission of building a culture of life and love.

Life Insight 10-7-11

Ten Reasons to Oppose Planned Parenthood

Jim Sedlak, founder of Stop Planned Parenthood International, spent several days in Nebraska recently to educate and equip citizens in six Nebraska communities on how to resist Planned Parenthood’s expansion into their community. These cities are North Platte, Kearney, Hastings, Grand Island, Fremont and Norfolk.

A critical part of mobilizing citizens against Planned Parenthood is to expose its dark and evil origins and underbelly. Mr. Sedlak did this quite convincingly, not with speculation or hyperbole, but with information gleaned directly from Planned Parenthood’s own public documents.

What follows are ten reasons Mr. Sedlak presented to oppose Planned Parenthood:

* Planned Parenthood (PP) runs the largest abortion chain in the nation. In 2009, it operated 304 abortion facilities and committed 332,287 abortions.
* Pregnant women who go into PP have abortions 97.6 percent of the time. Here’s the breakdown for 2009: 977 adoption referrals, 7,021 prenatal care, and 332, 287 abortions.
* Abortion accounts for 40 percent of the clinic income at PP--$162.8 million out of $404.9 million in 2008-2009.
* Planned Parenthood did its first abortion on July 2, 1970 and has committed over 5,000,000 abortions in its own facilities since then.
* Planned Parenthood comes between parents and their children—pushing “confidential” services for girls 11-years-old and younger.
* Planned Parenthood sex education programs are designed to teach children how to achieve sexual satisfaction before marriage. Its outrageous courses, web sites and printed material teach our children it is okay to ignore their parent’s values and form their own—at the earliest of ages.
* Planned Parenthood leads our children into lives of sexual sin. Almost every religion in America condemns sexual activity between unmarried minors as wrong. Yet, PP tells these minors that it is okay. It even uses ministers and pastors to push its agenda.
* Planned Parenthood lies to its customers. It does not tell them, for example, that most of its birth control products can kill newly created human beings in the womb or that girls on the birth control pill are more susceptible to AIDS than those who are not on the pill.
* Planned Parenthood demands taxpayer funding for its nefarious activities from politicians it helps get elected. In 2008-2009, PP says it received $363 million in taxpayer money, which is about one-third of its annual budget. PP has received more than $5.2 billion from the taxpayer since 1973 and has banked profits of $968.6 million during that same period.
* Planned Parenthood is simply a corporation in the sex business that preys on our children—primarily high school and college girls. According to PP data, 70 percent of its customers are under the age of 25 and 25 percent are under the age of 20. Since PP only counts the income of its customers (not their parents) to determine eligibility for government programs, most of these students are counted as “poor women.”

In addition to Stop Planned Parenthood (www.stopp.org), some other organizations have exposed the nefarious activities of PP, including Lila Rose at Live Action (www.liveaction.org) and Americans United for Life (www.aul.org) (see also www.ExposePlannedParenthood.net). As a result of the work of these groups, Congress is now investigating PP.

Representative Cliff Stearns, Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Investigations, announced last week that his Committee will examine PP’s policies and actions “relating to its use of federal funding and its compliance with federal restrictions on the funding of abortion.” Let’s pray that the light of this investigation will expose the real Planned Parenthood and result in the revocation of tax payer funding to this evil organization.

Life Insight 9-30-11

Virtue Media Returns

Four years ago, in the summer of 2007, I was introduced to a new pro-life media organization called Virtue Media. I met with its founder, Tom Peterson, viewed his pro-life ads, and discussed his vision and philosophy for producing them. I was completely impressed and inspired.

Tom Peterson spent most of his life as an advertising executive until he felt the call from God to use his talents to help build a culture of life. Virtue Media quickly grew from a small organization to a national and international pro-life media apostolate. More recently, Tom expanded his mission to reach fallen-away Catholics with his powerful Catholics Come Home ads.

On its website, Virtue Media states that “since 99 percent of U.S. homes own a television and radio, and the average American spends more than five hours every day using these media, it’s easy to see how VirtueMedia™ can reach millions of people each day using powerful broadcast commercials to positively affect culture.

“VirtueMedia™ commercials have aired on broadcast and cable stations in over 1,500 cities throughout the U.S., as well as in many foreign countries. The results are nothing short of phenomenal, with thousands of babies saved from abortion and countless post abortive mothers offered hope and healing.

“VirtueMedia™ pro-life campaigns are thoroughly researched prior to production, tracked during airing, and studied after each campaign to ensure that the maximum positive impact is achieved. The result? These powerful messages are making a tremendous difference in the lives of so many people and helping to serve as a positive, life-affirming influence in a troubled culture.”

According to Mr. Peterson, “educational advertising was the key to reducing prejudice, littering, drunk driving, and smoking… and educational advertising can help lead the way back to a culture of life in America.”

The first year the Virtue Media project was implemented in all three dioceses, more that $230,000 was raised statewide. These funds purchased nearly 9500 television ads covering much of the state. These ads prompted at least 580 women to seek help from pro-life pregnancy centers in Nebraska. And at least 1120 women and men sought help for post-abortion trauma.

After a two year hiatus, the Bishops of Nebraska graciously agreed to implement another Virtue Media project in all three dioceses. Each bishop recorded a DVD containing their message of support, a sampling of the television ads and an appeal for donations.

These DVD presentations will be shown in parishes in the dioceses of Grand Island and Lincoln sometime during October, Respect Life Month. Parishes in the Archdiocese of Omaha will make the presentation on the first weekend of December.

Hence, parishioners will get a chance to see some of the inspiring ads and make a donation to this worthy and effective project.

If I’ve peaked your interest in these amazing ads and you can’t wait until you see them in your parish, I encourage you to check them out at www.virtuemedia.org. The television ads that will be shown in Nebraska can be viewed under the category of “Pregnancy Help”, “Worth”, and “Post Abortion Healing”.

Life Insight 9-23-11

Celebrating the Gospel of Life

In his encyclical Evangelium Vitae, Blessed John Paul II outlines several activities he believes are necessary to build a “new culture of human life”. One of those activities is to celebrate the Gospel of Life. “Because we have been sent into the world as a ‘people for life’, our proclamation must also become a genuine celebration of the Gospel of life.

“For this to happen, we need first of all to foster, in ourselves and in others, a contemplative outlook…[that] arises from faith in the God of life, who has created every individual as a "wonder" (cf. Ps 139:14). It is the outlook of those who see life in its deeper meaning, who grasp its utter gratuitousness, its beauty and its invitation to freedom and responsibility.

“It is the outlook of those who do not presume to take possession of reality but instead accept it as a gift, discovering in all things the reflection of the Creator and seeing in every person his living image (cf. Gen 1:27; Ps 8:5). This outlook does not give in to discouragement when confronted by those who are sick, suffering, outcast or at death's door. Instead, in all these situations it feels challenged to find meaning, and precisely in these circumstances it is open to perceiving in the face of every person a call to encounter, dialogue and solidarity.”

To help prompt reflection on the deeper meaning and beauty of human life, starting in 1972, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops designated October as Respect Life Month. More particularly, they designated the first Sunday in October as Respect Life Sunday.

Since the first Respect Life Month in 1972, the U.S. Bishops’ Pro Life Office has produced a Respect Life Program Packet to assist dioceses and parishes in celebrating the miracle and sacred dignity of human life; in celebrating the Gospel of life. This program packet has evolved in its presentation over the years but has always contained educational materials on timely respect life issues, liturgical resources and program ideas.

This year’s program packet contains eight very attractive educational brochures featuring these topics: contraception, abortion, death penalty, persons with disabilities, embryo research, end-of-life issues, reproductive technologies, and marriage. Accompanying the educational brochures are program models that provide suggested activities to help reinforce and live the teaching presented in the brochures.

A liturgy guide provides a variety of prayer and liturgical resources. This includes homily notes to assist priests and deacons in preaching about the dignity of human life on Respect Life Sunday and on January 22^nd, the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s infamous abortion rulings. Several years ago, the U.S. Bishops declared that “January 22 shall be observed as a particular day of prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarantee of the right to life and of penance for violations to the dignity of the human person committed through acts of abortion.”

Furthermore, at the request of the U.S. Bishops, the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacrament recently approved a Mass for Giving Thanks to God for the Gift of Human Life which may be used on such occasions to celebrate the dignity of human life. This new Mass setting will be included in the Revised Roman Missal.

The key message of this year’s Respect Life Program is captured in this concluding paragraph of the program’s signature flyer:

“Although it seems a paradox, the greater the sacrifices made out of love, the greater is our joy and peace. Whether it is the brave decision of a pregnant woman to reject abortion and allow a loving family to parent her child when she cannot, or the daily sacrifices of parents in raising young children, or the hard work of caring for an elderly relative with dementia, when we step up to these challenges, God can stretch our hearts and fill them to overflowing with his love, joy, and peace. With hearts so transformed, we can become living witnesses to the meaning of Jesus mission: I came that all might have life, and have it to the full!

Life Insight 9-16-11

“Your Sorrow Shall Have It’s Reward”

The Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, celebrated on September 15, is a good time to address the sorrow experienced by women and men following abortion and the hope and healing available to them through Project Rachel.

The abortion industry tries mightily to downplay or even dismiss any negative physical or emotional consequences from abortion. While there is certainly plenty of credible research exposing real consequences from abortion, the most compelling evidence comes from the personal testimonies of post-abortive women and men.

One woman who shared her story with me said “I was so taken back by the pain and the thought that my baby had just been sucked out of me…a year later, I don’t feel a sense of relief, I feel a sense of loss, of emptiness and panic…I constantly have nightmares about bad things happening to babies, or I hear them crying and I can’t help them…This baby is a piece of me that I have lost and cannot get back.”

Another woman told me: “My life has never been the same. I mourn every single day for the child I don’t have, a child who would have maybe had my eyes, or his nose…People will tell you that you will forget, you will never have any regrets, but that is not true.”

Many other testimonies from post-abortive women are available on various websites such as www.hopeafterabortion.com and www.silentnomoreawareness.org.

Homily notes provided by the U.S. Bishops’ Pro Life Office reflect on Jesus’ Divine Mercy with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well and apply it to those tempted by abortion.

“Jesus knows the weakness of the human heart. He knows that our fears – often arising from a lack of trust in God’s love and support – can lead us into grave sin. Fear, not cruelty, is the force that motivates the majority of abortions.

“Teens and young women are afraid to tell their parents about their pregnancy for fear of disappointing them, or fear of being rejected or punished. They fear not being able to complete their education and the loss of the future life they had planned. They fear that they lack the resources and maturity to care for a baby. They fear that an adoptive family may not love their child as they would.

“Some single fathers want to marry their pregnant girlfriend or at least support their child, but others fear that they’ll be stuck with the young pregnant woman they never planned on marrying and stuck paying child support for 18 years.

“Parents whose daughters are young or still dependent on them, fear the struggles their daughters may face in trying to raise a child alone; they fear that their daughters will be kept from reaching their full potential when their studies or career are sidetracked by an unplanned pregnancy. Some parents fear how their friends will react to the family’s “shame” of an out-of-wedlock pregnancy.

“And expectant parents whose unborn child has been diagnosed with a serious genetic condition, may fear that their child will suffer in life, that they won’t be capable of caring for a child with special needs, or that the emotional pain of carrying a child to term only to witness its death will be more than they can bear.

“But in every case, our Lord is ready to provide all the grace and help we need if we simply ask him for the courage and strength to act in ways that affirm the priceless gift of life. He willingly died for us. Why do we doubt that he’d help us through any crisis, that he’d bring people into our lives who can offer the support we need through difficult times?

“And should we fail to do the right thing, sacramental Confession is always available to us. There we come face to face with God’s Divine Mercy – Mercy that forgives our worst sins, removes our guilt and our shame, fills us instead with God’s grace.”

Project Rachel, a post-abortion outreach available in Nebraska (toll free at 888-456-HOPE), helps facilitate God’s Divine Mercy. Project Rachel is based upon the Old Testament figure who mourned the loss of her children (Jeremiah 31:15-17): “Thus says the Lord, Cease your cries of mourning, wipe the tears from your eyes. The sorrow you have shown shall have its reward…there is hope for your future.”

Life Insight 9-9-11

“Unprecedented Attack on Religious Liberty”

The federal healthcare law enacted last year requires almost all private health insurance plans to provide coverage of “preventive care for women” and without a co-pay. Last month, the Obama Administration announced that among the “preventive care” services it will mandate are “All Food and Drug Administration approved contraceptive methods, sterilization procedures, and patient education and counseling for all women with reproductive capacity.”

Even worse, the new policy contains an extremely narrow and inadequate religious exemption. It covers only a “religious employer” that has the inculcation of religious values as its purpose, primarily employs and serves persons who share it religious tenets, and is a church organization under two narrow provisions of the tax code.

Plans offered by many religious organizations, including Catholic colleges, universities, hospitals, and charitable institutions that serve the general public, would be ineligible under these terms. Some Catholic leaders have even suggested that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) itself may not qualify under this definition of “religious employer.”

In comments submitted to the Department of Health and Human Services, the general counsel of the USCCB, Anthony Picarello, strongly urged DHHS to rescind this mandate calling it an “unprecedented attack on religious liberty.” A government mandate to cover “all FDA-approved contraceptives” most of which can cause early abortions, constitutes a “nationwide government coercion of religious people and groups to sell, broker or purchase ‘services’ to which they have a moral or religious objection,” the general counsel said.

“Until now,” Picarello continued, “no federal law has prevented private insurers from accommodating purchasers and plan sponsors with moral or religious objections to certain services. Plans were free under federal law to accommodate those objections by allowing purchasers to choose not to buy coverage for…procedures that the purchaser or sponsor found religiously or morally problematic.

“Likewise, federal law did not forbid any insurer, such as a religiously-affiliated insurer, to exclude from its plans any services to which the insurer itself had a moral or religious objection. Indeed, the freedom to exclude morally objectionable services has sometimes been stated affirmatively in federal law.”

All of these conscience protections will end under this Obama Administration mandate, Picarello said. “Individuals with a moral or religious objection to these items and procedures will now be affirmatively barred…from purchasing a plan that excludes [contraception and sterilization].

“Religiously-affiliated insurers with a moral or religious objection likewise will be affirmatively barred from offering a plan that excludes them to the public, even to members of their own religion. Secular organizations (insurers, employers, and other plan sponsors) with a moral or religious objection to coverage of contraceptives or sterilization will be ineligible for the exemption.”

The Department of Health and Human Services is accepting public comments on its new policy through September 30. The U.S. Bishops are asking Catholic individuals, organizations, institutions, business owners, etc. to submit comments urging DHHS to rescind its outrageous contraceptive mandate.

Comments can be submitted very easily through the website of the National Committee for a Human Life Amendment (www.nchla.org) an affiliate of the USCCB. Background information is provided along with a sample message and the ability to add additional comments. Those who use this service will also be able to send a message to our elected representatives in Congress urging them to support the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act (H.R. 1179/S. 1497) to ensure that such federal mandates do not violate American’s moral and religious convictions.

Life Insight 9-2-11

A New Springtime for the Pro-Life Movement

Blessed John Paul II repeatedly referred to a “new springtime” for the Catholic faith in the 21^st Century. Given this pope’s love of young people, which was manifest in his initiation of World Youth Day in the 1980s, it is likely that his “springtime” optimism emanated (at least in part) from the characteristics he saw in young people.

Evidence to substantiate John Paul’s optimism is plentiful. My first introduction to the encouraging characteristics of “Generation Y” was about 8 years ago when I saw the results of a study conducted by the Caring Foundation. Generation Y –also known as “Millennials” or “Echo Boomers” (because they are children of the Baby Boomer generation)—are now between the ages of 16 and 31.

According to Sandra Choate Faucher, who helped direct this study for the Caring Foundation, the study provides many reasons for the pro-life movement to be optimistic about Gen Y. “Gen Yers are spiritual, optimistic, ambitious and idealistic,” Ms. Faucher said. “They want the truth and want to do what’s right.”

“This generation does not want to be like their parents. They want to be and do better. Since many come from homes of divorce and/or are latchkey kids, they want stable marriages and homes for themselves and their children. Gen Yers are also primarily pro-life on abortion. They believe the unborn child is “pure potential” and could be the very person who finds a cure for cancer or AIDS,” Faucher said.

The pro-life inclinations of Gen Y are reflected in recent polling from Gallup and other pollsters showing a pretty dramatic shift toward the pro-life position. In 2004, 54 percent of 18 to 29 year old persons identified themselves as “pro-choice” versus just 40 percent identifying as “pro-life”. In 2010 those numbers flipped with 47 percent identifying as “pro-life” and 45 percent as “pro-choice”.

Gen Y’s interest in pro-life activities was evident locally as the UN-L Newman Center’s survey of incoming Freshman Catholics this fall revealed. Of the 594 students who replied, 336 indicated an interest in pro-life activities. This was the fourth highest response out of 31 choices. Only FOCUS Bible studies, intramural sports and Facebook group garnered more interest by students than pro-life activities!

There is other dramatic evidence of the pro-life “fruit” of Gen Y. For example, a significant reason why Planned Parenthood, America’s largest abortion provider and apologist, is under increasing public scrutiny for its nefarious activities is thanks to the courageous work of a recent college graduate, Lila Rose. These exposés (see them at www.liveaction.org) have led several state governments to discontinue taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood. And the U.S. House of Representatives voted 241 to 185 to defund Planned Parenthood, although the measure failed in the U.S. Senate.

Live Action is joined by several other outstanding youth-led organizations like Students for Life of America (www.studentsforlife.org), Generations for Life (www.generationsforlife.org), Generation Life (www.generationlife.org) and Rock for Life (www.rockforlife.org) to name a few.

Another aspect of Gen Y that provides much reason for hope, given the positive characteristics just mentioned, is its size. There are 60 million Gen Yers, compared to just 17 million in the previous generation, known as Gen X.

As Ms. Faucher noted, “everything from politicians to church groups are studying, analyzing and trying to influence this upcoming generation of young adults. They all recognize that the sheer numbers provide this generation with the ability to change society and political landscapes of the future.”

While all of these characteristics of Gen Y provide much reason for hope in the pro-life movement, we cannot take them for granted. The culture of death is working overtime to undermine the pro-life and pro-family inclinations of Gen Y. Hence, the culture of life must work even harder to engage, form and equip young people to live the truth about love and life that God has written on our hearts.

Life Insight August 19, 2011

Praying for Life: Our Most Important Work

Exterior engagement is drawn from and is based upon a deep and interior relationship with Christ." These words from Cardinal Francis Arinze provided a framework for a talk given by Msgr. James Moroney at the Diocesan Pro-Life Leadership Conference which I attended in Atlanta last week.

In his talk, appropriately titled "Praying for Life: Our Most Important Work," Msgr. Moroney reinforced what every pro-life activist quickly discovers: that prayer is our most essential and powerful weapon against the culture of death.

Blessed John Paul II, in his great encyclical Evangelium Vitae, explained that the deepest root of the culture of death is alienation from God. "In seeking the deepest roots of the struggle between the ‘culture of life’ and the ‘culture of death,’" John Paul said, "[w]e have to go to the heart of the tragedy being experienced by modern man: the eclipse of the sense of God and of man, typical of a social and cultural climate dominated by secularism."

"Those who allow themselves to be influenced by this climate," John Paul says, "easily fall into a sad, vicious circle: When the sense of God is lost, there is also a tendency to lose the sense of man, of his dignity and his life; in turn the systematic violation of the moral law, especially in the serious matter of respect for human life and its dignity, produces a kind of progressive darkening of the capacity to discern God’s living and saving presence."

To emphasize the point, John Paul II quotes the Second Vatican Council document Gaudium et spes which says: "Without the Creator, the creature would disappear… But when God is forgotten, the creature itself grows unintelligible."

"Man is no longer able to see himself as ‘mysteriously different’ from other creatures," John Paul II continues. "Life itself becomes a mere ‘thing,’ which man claims as his exclusive property, completely subject to his control and manipulation."

All of this points to the essential role of prayer in fighting the culture of death and rebuilding a culture of life and civilization of love. Our conversation with God, through prayer, will deepen our relationship with God and our understanding of the sacred dignity of human life which is made in His image and likeness.

Therefore, the first and most critical action item in our pro-life efforts must be prayer. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Pro-Life office provides many excellent prayer and liturgical resources to assist us in praying for life—individually and as a community.

These resources include a variety of blessings, intercessory prayers, litanies, novenas, rosaries for life, pro-life stations of the cross, meditations and holy hours for life. In addition, the Bishops’ Pro Life office produces a Liturgy Guide as part of its annual Respect Life program packet.

This year’s Liturgy Guide provides homily notes to assist priests and deacons in preaching about the dignity of human life. The homily notes, as well as intercessions for life, are provided for Respect Life Sunday (observed the first Sunday of October) and for January 22, the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s abortion rulings (Roe v. Wade and Doe v Bolton).

The Liturgy Guide also provides a prayer format for conducting a holy hour for life, which is based on reflections of Blessed John Paul II on the elderly. A nuptial rosary, based upon the Nuptial Blessing from the Rite of Marriage, is also featured in the Liturgy Guide.

All of these materials can be found on the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website (www.usccb.org/prolife) which is currently being revamped. During this process, these resources can only be accessed through the "old" site at: old.usccb.org/prolife (click on "prayer resources"). They also can be obtained from my office.

Life Insght August 5, 2011

Will Federal Government Mandate Birth Control Coverage?

The federal healthcare law enacted last year requires all private health insurance plans to provide coverage of "preventive care for women." And, it requires that these services be covered without a co-pay. If this policy is carried out, every American will be forced to participate in a healthcare plan that pays for "preventive care for women."

So what will these "preventive care" services include? The healthcare law didn’t define them but instead left this determination to the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). In turn, the DHHS tasked the Institute of Medicine (IOM) with providing recommendations on what should be included in "preventive services."

A couple of weeks ago, the IOM released its recommendations. Among the "preventive care" services it recommended for mandated inclusion in all private healthcare plans are surgical sterilizations and all FDA-approved birth control drugs and devices, some of which can cause abortions.

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, Chair of the U.S. Bishops’ Pro Life Committee issued a statement condemning the recommendation saying: "Pregnancy is not a disease, and fertility is not a pathological condition to be suppressed by any means technically possible… Without sufficient legal protection for rights of conscience, such a mandate would force all men, women and children to carry health coverage that violates the deeply-held moral and religious convictions of many."

The Cardinal not only urged DHHS to reject the IOM’s recommendation, but urged Congress to pass the "Respect for Rights of Conscience Act" (HR 1179) introduced by Congressmen Jeff Fortenberry from Nebraska and Dan Boren from Oklahoma. This bill would permit a health plan to decline coverage of specific items and services that are contrary to the religious beliefs of the sponsor, issuer, or other entity offering the plan or the purchaser.

Please thank Congressman Fortenberry for introducing the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act. His phone number is 202-225-4806 and his website is www.fortenberry.house.gov.

The basis of the IOM’s decision is that unintended pregnancies, and the health-related problems they can produce, could be prevented by greater access to birth control methods. This old, tired argument may have some intuitive appeal, but the research substantiating the argument is very meager. The IOM report cites only two studies that supposedly show that greater access to birth control reduces unintended pregnancies. In reality, as even some birth control proponents acknowledge, most studies show that increasing access to birth control has little or no impact on decreasing unintended pregnancies or abortions.

For example, James Trussell, who originated the claim that easier access to emergency contraception could "result in a greater than 50% reduction in abortion rates," has conceded that 23 published studies from 10 countries disprove his claim. According to every one of the 23 studies, published between 1998 and 2006, easier access to EC fails to achieve any statistically significant reduction in rates of unintended pregnancy and abortion.

In the September 2006 British Medical Journal, Anna Glasier said: "[D]espite the clear increase in the use of emergency contraception, abortion rates have not fallen in the U.K. They have risen from 11 per 1,000 women ... in 1984 ... to 17.8 per 1000 in 2004." She adds: "Ten studies in different countries have shown that giving women a supply of emergency contraception to keep at home ... increases use by twofold to threefold ... but [has] had no measurable effect on rates of pregnancy or abortion."

A list of these and other studies is available on my website at www.nebcathcon.org (under "pro-life," "printed resources").

Life Insight 7-24-2011

Here Comes the Cardinal!

Mark your calendar for Saturday, October 15. That is the date of this year’s Bishops’ Pro Life Conference and it promises to be exceptional. This year’s keynote speaker is Edward Cardinal Egan, Archbishop Emeritus from the Archdiocese of New York.

Cardinal Egan was ordained a priest on December 15, 1957 after completing his seminary studies at the Pontifical North American College. He was consecrated a bishop on May 22, 1985, in the Basilica of Saints John and Paul in Rome. From 1985 to 1988 Cardinal Egan served as Auxiliary Bishop and Vicar for Education of the Archdiocese of New York. On November 8, 1988, Pope John Paul II appointed him to be the Third Bishop of the Diocese of Bridgeport.

On May 11, 2000, then Bishop Egan was appointed Archbishop of New York and on January 21, 2001, Pope John Paul II appointed him to the College of Cardinals. Among his numerous responsibilities, his Eminence served as a member of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities and the Pontifical Council of the Family.

This year’s conference will be a bit different from past conferences in that all activities will occur on Saturday, October 15. Past conferences have started on Friday evening with a banquet and continued on Saturday with a variety of speakers and topics.

The day will begin with Mass at the Cathedral of the Risen Christ in Lincoln. Cardinal Egan will preach the homily. The conference talks will begin after Mass and take place in a new venue, Cathedral School.

The topics and speakers for this year’s conference promise to be very engaging and educational. The first topic is the U.S. Bishops’ new statement on assisted suicide entitled "To Live Each Day with Dignity."

In light of renewed efforts by physician-assisted suicide (PAS) proponents to legalize the practice, this document exposes the false freedom and compassion used to sell the PAS agenda. And the document explains an "infinitely better way to address the needs of people with serious illnesses."

Father Christopher Kubat, who was a physician before becoming a priest, will present this topic. Father Kubat is currently director of Catholic Social Services for the Diocese of Lincoln. As a part of this presentation, I will give a short overview of the Church’s teaching on medical treatment decisionmaking and advance directives.

The second topic is "Conscience and the Catholic Voter" presented by Father Damien Cook. Father Cook is a priest of the Archdiocese of Omaha where he is pastor of St. Peter Church. Father also serves as Archdiocesan pro-life director. This topic is quite timely as we move into another presidential election cycle in 2012.

The next topic is "Discovering Hope and Love After an Adverse Prenatal Diagnosis." There seems to be an increase in pregnancies with serious fetal anomalies—or at least public attention to such pregnancies—so this topic is critically important. A panel of experts will address the medical, moral and hospice care options for parents facing an adverse prenatal diagnosis.

Finally, Patricia Bainbridge will bring to Lincoln her extensive experience and knowledge about Planned Parenthood in a talk entitled "Exposing and Opposing Planned Parenthood." Patricia is chairman of the board of Human Life International and recently retired as pro-life director for the Diocese of Rockford, Ill.

The day will conclude with a reception and banquet featuring Cardinal Egan and all three Bishops from Nebraska. The reception and banquet will be held at another new venue, the University of Nebraska East Campus Student Union. More information about the conference is available online at www.nebcathcon.org.

Life Insight 7-811

Catholic Teaching Provides Balance to Medical Decisions

Last week I summarized the U.S. Bishops’ new statement against assisted suicide. The statement is a reflection of the Church’s consistent teaching that assisted suicide and euthanasia are grave violations of the law of God. As Pope John Paul II said in Evangelium vitae, "In its deepest reality, suicide represents a rejection of God’s absolute sovereignty over life and death…"

The Catholic Church’s teaching against assisted suicide and euthanasia is fairly well known. What is perhaps less well known is the opposite extreme: that Church teaching does not require Catholics to utilize every medical intervention or treatment to prolong our lives as long as possible.

Catholic teaching on the meaning of life, suffering and death guides us to avoid both extremes: actions intended to cause death on the one hand, and insisting on useless or disproportionately burdensome treatment to avoid death at all costs on the other hand.

This teaching is embodied in a document by the Nebraska Catholic Conference (NCC) entitled "Medical-Treatment Decisionmaking: Moral Guidance and Considerations from Catholic Teaching." The document’s introduction presents the basic foundation for our moral obligation to be responsible stewards of our lives:

"The Catholic Church affirms the sanctity and dignity of every human life as a precious gift of a loving God. All men and women must respect the lives of others while accepting the duties of responsible stewardship for their own lives and for the lives in their care.

"At the same time, however, faith in the resurrection and hope for eternal life have enabled the Catholic tradition to accept death as the inevitable end to temporal life and to believe that death is the gateway to eternal life. It is for this reason that there is no obligation to utilize all possible medical interventions, all possible means of prolonging life. Death need not be avoided at all costs.

"Although Catholic teaching does not look upon biological life as an absolute value, nevertheless it rejects suicide, assisted suicide and mercy killing because they are intrinsically opposed to the reverence for life that Christians are called upon to manifest and express. Compassion and care for dying and seriously ill or disabled persons must never include the willingness to assist in the direct ending of their lives."

Clearly, most decisions that individuals or families must make about whether to utilize or forego medical treatment fall somewhere between the aforementioned extremes. Therefore, the NCC document provides the following moral principle to assist us in determining whether a medical intervention is morally required or morally optional:

"If a particular medical intervention is necessary or useful for the preservation of life or restoration of health, it is ethically ordinary and there is a moral obligation to use it. If, however, a particular medical intervention is analyzed and judged by the patient to be useless (offering no reasonable hope of benefit) or excessively burdensome, it is ethically extraordinary and therefore morally optional."

The document provides other very useful principles to assist us in making moral medical-treatment decisions. It is available online at www.nebcathcon.org or by contacting my office. My office also has sample healthcare power of attorney forms that incorporate Church teaching and comport with Nebraska law.

Life Insight 6-10-11

Unprecedented Pro-Life Success in 2011 Legislature

The Nebraska Legislature ended its 2011 session on May 26^th, three days short of its normal 90 day session. Adjourning three days early is pretty remarkable given the weighty issues confronting the Legislature: a nearly one billion dollar deficit, redistricting, reform of the Commission on Industrial Relations, etc.

Equally remarkable—and unprecedented—is the Legislature’s passage of three pro-life bills, all of which were signed into law by Governor Dave Heineman. In the days of Sen. Ernie Chambers, who filibustered every pro-life bill, the pro-life movement was fortunate to get one bill enacted by the Legislature.

The first bill adopted overwhelmingly by the full Legislature (37 to 7) was LB 22. This bill prohibits abortion coverage in health insurance plans offered through state exchanges created by the new federal health care law. It also prohibits private health insurance plans, contracts or policies from providing coverage for an elective abortion except through an optional rider to the policy for which an additional premium is paid solely by the insured.

The second pro-life bill enacted was LB 521, which prohibits so-called “web cam abortions”. This bill requires an abortionist to be physically present in the same room with the pregnant woman when the abortion is performed. LB 521 was enacted on a final vote of 38 to 9.

Planned Parenthood of the Heartland (PPH), which has facilities in Iowa and Nebraska, has killed more than 2000 unborn babies in Iowa over the last few years by dispensing the chemical abortion drug RU 486 via web cam. LB 521 was introduced to prohibit expansion of this potentially unsafe abortion method in Nebraska, a concern that was heightened by PPH’s announced plan to open offices in six Nebraska communities.

The third bill enacted into law on a final vote of 41 to 6 was LB 690. This bill replaces Nebraska’s parental notification law (in effect since 1991) with the requirement that a pregnant minor (under the age of 18) obtain notarized parental consent from a parent or guardian before obtaining an abortion.

There are many individuals whose hard work was critical to the success of these pro-life bills. First, the senators who introduced and prioritized the bills deserve our gratitude.

Sen. Beau McCoy introduced and prioritized LB 22. Sen. Tony Fulton introduced LB 521 and Sen. Dave Bloomfield prioritized it. Sen. Lydia Brasch introduced and prioritized LB 690, a particularly courageous act given that she was in her first session as a legislator.

Julie Schmit-Albin, executive director of Nebraska Right to Life and its lobbyist, deserves much credit for leading the lobbying effort on LB 521. Suzanne Gage (state director for Americans United for Life) and Dave Bydalek (executive director of Family First) deserve our gratitude for leading the lobbying effort on LB 690.

For more information about these bills and to see how your senator voted on them, go to www.nebcathcon.org and click on the “Nebraska” link under “Pro Life Legislation 2011”. If your senator voted for any of these bills, please e-mail him/her a note of thanks for that vote(s). If your senator voted against any of these bills, please politely express your disappointment to him/her for that vote(s). Senator contact information can be obtained online at www.nebraskalegislature.gov.

Finally, I’m pleased to say that Nebraska is not the only state seeing an increase in pro-life legislation introduced and enacted. In 2011, legislators in 49 states introduced hundreds of bills. As of mid May, 15 bills had been enacted into law.

The increase in state pro-life legislation was due in large part to a sizable pro-life shift in state houses following the 2010 elections. Prior to 2010, 21 governors were considered to be anti-abortion compared to 29 after the elections. Likewise, the 2010 election increased the number of states with both a legislature and a governor that are anti abortion from 10 to 15.

As the saying goes: elections have consequences!

Life Insight 6-24-11

To Live Each Day with Dignity

In one of his Terminator movies, Arnold Schwarzenegger uttered one of his famous lines: “I’ll be baack”. Unfortunately, the assisted suicide movement seems to be saying the same thing.

In 1994, the citizens of Oregon voted to legalize physician assisted suicide (PAS) and PAS proponents hoped this would trigger a domino effect with similar laws in other states. Fortunately, this did not happen, despite similar attempts in several other states. In fact, many states went the opposite way and explicitly banned PAS.

In 2008, however, PAS advocates struck again with a successful ballot initiative in the state of Washington, passing a law like Oregon’s. The following year, Montana’s Supreme Court ruled that PAS for terminally ill patients is not always against public policy.

These events, along with expanded funding from wealthy donors, have breathed new life into the PAS movement. PAS groups are embarking on a new, aggressive campaign using legislation, litigation and advertising to target additional states that may be most receptive to their agenda.

This “renewed threat to human dignity” is the impetus for a newly approved statement on physician-assisted suicide by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. It was approved last week by the Bishops at their meeting in, ironically, the state of Washington.

The statement, entitled “To Live Each Day with Dignity”, explains this “renewed threat” and then counters the claims by PAS proponents that their agenda is driven by a desire for freedom and compassion. The statement provides three responses to PAS advocate’s “illusion of freedom.”

“First, medical professionals recognize that people who take their own lives commonly suffer from a mental illness, such as clinical depression… People who request death are vulnerable. They need care and protection. To offer them lethal drugs is a victory not for freedom but for the worst form of neglect.”

“Second, even apparently free choices may be unduly influenced by the biases and wishes of others…This biased judgment is fueled by the excessively high premium our culture places on productivity and autonomy, which tends to discount the lives of those who have a disability or are dependent on others.

“If these persons say they want to die, others may be tempted to regard this not as a call for help but as the reasonable response to what they agree is a meaningless life…In short, the assisted suicide agenda promotes a narrow and distorted notion of freedom, by creating an expectation that certain people, unlike others, will be served by being helped to choose death.

Third, both our founding fathers and our Christian faith identify the right to life as the first and most basic human right. “Therefore one cannot uphold human freedom and dignity by devaluing human life. A choice to take one’s life is a supreme contradiction of freedom, a choice to eliminate all choices.”

The statement also responds to the “false compassion” espoused by PAS proponents. “True compassion alleviates suffering while maintaining solidarity with those who suffer. It does not put lethal drugs in their hands and abandon them to their suicidal impulses, or to the self-serving motives of others who may want them dead. It helps vulnerable people with their problems instead of treating them as the problem.”

Finally, the statement discusses a “better way to address the needs of people with serious illnesses.” “Our society should embrace what Pope John Paul II called ‘the way of love and true mercy’—a readiness to surround patients with love, support, and companionship, providing the assistance needed to ease their physical, emotional, and spiritual suffering. This approach must be anchored in unconditional respect for their human dignity, beginning with respect for the inherent value of their lives.”

The statement and other excellent educational resources on this topic are available on the U.S. Bishops’ website at http://www.usccb.org/toliveeachday/.

Life Insight 1-7-2011

Do Something Beautiful for God

I love music. I grew up in a family that was taught an appreciation for music—both vocal and instrumental. As a member of a schola (Canticum Caelorum) I have been exposed to a treasure of indescribably beautiful sacred music from composers like Mozart, Palestrina, Byrd, Victoria, and Morales.

One need not have any particular training in music to recognize and appreciate the objective beauty of this sacred music. What’s more, sacred music can help us to experience and appreciate the supernatural.

One of Mozart’s concertos (Violin Concerto #3 in G major) has particularly captured my attention of late. As I listen to the exquisite beauty of the violin in this piece, it inevitably prompts me to think of (and thank) God. And I find myself trying to imagine that it is me playing that violin.

As I snap back to reality I lament that producing music with such mastery is not likely among my gifts. Nonetheless, it occurred to me that while most of us may not be able to produce music like Mozart, every person (regardless of his/her gifts or limitations) is capable of doing something beautiful in the eyes of our Creator.

For example, every time we demonstrate the simplest act of love or forgiveness to another person I believe that in God’s eyes the beauty of our action far surpasses the beauty of Mozart’s most sublime concerto. Likewise, as our Lord explains in the parable of the Prodigal Son, there is nothing more beautiful to God than a repentant sinner.

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta also demonstrated so beautifully in her loving care of the poorest of the poor that every one of us can “do something beautiful for God”.

“The dying, the cripple, the mental, the unwanted, the unloved - they are Jesus in disguise...” she said. “Speak tenderly to them. Let there be kindness in your face, in your eyes, in your smile, in the warmth of your greeting. Always have a cheerful smile. Don't only give your care, but give your heart as well...

“The poor give us much more than we give them. They're such strong people, living day to day with no food, and they never curse, never complain. Really we don't have to give them pity or sympathy. We have so much to learn from them... Only in heaven will we see how much we owe the poor for helping us to love God better because of them.”

“Love does not measure;” Blessed Teresa said, “it just gives. In the world, love cannot remain by itself but must be put into action through service. Whatever we are like, able or disabled, rich or poor, it is not how much we do but how much love we put into the doing... (so)… Put your love in living action.

“The hunger for love is much more difficult than the hunger for bread. In loving others you are loving God Himself... We cannot do great things. We can only do little things with great love... Keep the joy of loving God in your heart and share this joy with all you meet, especially your family.”

Blessed Teresa said that “[e]very person is Christ for me, and since there is only One, that person is the one person in the world at that time... I see God in every human being. When I wash lepers' wounds, I feel I am nursing the Lord himself. Is it not a beautiful experience?”

Even choes are truly endless. Let no one ever come away without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, and kindness in your smile.”

There it is. Blessed Teresa is telling us that every person can be “Mozart” in the eyes of God with the simplest acts of kindness and love. So let’s get to it and do something beautiful for God.

Life Insight 1-14-11

One Rose One Life

The Knights of Columbus, an organization I’m proud to be a member of, is a staunch defender of the right to life of unborn children. Nationally and locally, the Knights have sponsored many powerful pro-life activities and projects.

One of the Knight’s national pro-life initiatives is their “Memorials to Unborn Children”. According to the Knight’s website, “the idea for these memorials grew from a challenge made by the late Cardinal John O’Connor in his homily at the opening Mass of the 110th annual Supreme Council Meeting held in New York in 1992.”

Since the program’s inception more than 2000 monuments have been built around the country (dozens in Nebraska). “These monuments, ranging from simple headstones to elaborate memorials, stand as testimony to one simple fact: Human life is a sacred gift from God to be protected and cherished at all stages from conception to natural death,” the website states.

In Nebraska, the Knight’s commitment to the pro-life cause is equally evident. In addition to pro-life activities sponsored by local councils, the state council sponsors an annual pro-life art contest, and co-sponsors (with my office) a state-level pro-life essay contest.

Another significant pro-life contribution the Knights make in Nebraska is the funding they provide to numerous pro-life groups, activities and programs. My office is one of the Knight’s major beneficiaries. Another beneficiary in 2009 was the Collage Center, a pregnancy-help center in Kearney, which got a new 4D ultrasound machine from the Knights.

According to the Collage Center, since getting the ultrasound machine on September 10^th of 2009, 83 women took advantage of the free ultrasound service. Out of the 83 women that were able to see their child in their womb 77 chose to continue their pregnancy to full term. Clearly, this ultrasound machine was a life-saving gift.

Furthermore, several other pregnancy-help centers around Nebraska receive financial assistance from the Knights as does the Pope Paul VI Institute in Omaha. Equally important is the funding the Knights provide to students wanting to attend the March for Life in Washington, D.C. For many students, attending the March for Life is the catalyst for a lifetime of pro-life activism.

The Knights primarily raise funds for pro-life activities through a “Buck a Month” collection among its members and through its annual One Rose One Life collection carried out in parishes.

One Rose One Life (OROL) is implemented at weekend Masses on or around January 22^nd, the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s abortion rulings. The OROL name comes from its original activity of distributing paper roses that included a pro-life message to be sent to our Congressmen.

Many years ago, the paper roses were replaced with a prayer card. The artwork for each year’s prayer card comes from the winning entry of the Knights’ pro-life art contest. So in addition to collecting donations for pro-life activities, OROL facilitates the critically important act of prayer for the pro-life cause.

I cannot thank or commend the Knights enough for their extraordinary support of pro-life activities nationally and in Nebraska. Each of us can collaborate with the Knights in supporting pro-life efforts through our generous donations to One Rose One Life. Know that our donations to OROL will benefit many worthy and effective pro-life offices and activities.

Life Insight 1-21-11

Marching for Life

January 22, 2011 marks the 38^th anniversary of the United States Supreme Court’s tragic rulings (Roe v. Wade, Doe v. Bolton) legalizing abortion through all nine months of pregnancy for virtually any reason. In a legal brief filed with the Supreme Court in 1994, Mother Teresa (Blessed Teresa of Calcutta) said this about the Court’s ruling:

"America needs no words from me to see how your decision in Roe vs. Wade has deformed a great nation. The so-called right to abortion has pitted mothers against their children and women against men. It has sown violence and discord at the heart of the most intimate human relationships. It has aggravated the derogation of the father's role in an increasingly fatherless society.

“It has portrayed the greatest of gifts—a child—as a competitor, an intrusion and an inconvenience. It has nominally accorded mothers unfettered dominion over the dependent lives of their physically dependent sons and daughters. And, in granting this unconscionable power, it has exposed many women to unjust and selfish demands from their husbands or other sexual partners.”

Criticism of Roe has even come from legal scholars who support abortion. Edward Lazarus, former clerk to Justice Blackmun (who authored Roe) said “As a matter of constitutional interpretation and judicial method, Roe borders on the indefensible…[It is] one of the most intellectually suspect constitutional decisions of the modern era.”

This and other quotes (with citations can be found in a pamphlet entitled “Roe Reality Check” produced by the U.S. Bishops’ Pro Life Secretariat. It is available from my office and can also be downloaded for free at www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/abortion/roevwade (English and Spanish).

On January 24^th, (because January 22 falls on a Saturday this year) the annual March for Life will take place in Washington, D.C. This massive and peaceful public demonstration has occurred every year since 1973 to witness against the Supreme Court’s destructive ruling.

I, along with hundreds of other Nebraskans (mostly students), will join hundreds of thousands of other Americans (again mostly students) in Washington, D.C. for this year’s March. I highly recommend this experience as it is impossible not to be inspired by it to become more engaged in the cause to build a culture of life and love.

Nebraskans, however, have a more local opportunity to publicly stand up for the dignity of life with the annual Walk for Life sponsored by Nebraska Right to Life. This year’s Walk will be held on Saturday, January 29^th at 10:00 am on the west steps of our State Capitol.

Preceding the Walk a special pro-life Mass will take place at 9:00 am at St. Mary’s Church across the street from the Capitol. We’re privileged to have two of our three Nebraska bishops (Bishop William Dendinger and Archbishop George Lucas) concelebrating the Mass (Bishop Bruskewitz had a previously scheduled commitment).

We’re also privileged to have Msgr. Philip Reilly as the homilist for this Mass. Msgr. Reilly received a People of Life award last year from the U.S. Bishops’ Pro Life Secretariat for his work as founder and director of Helpers of God’s Precious Infants (http://www.helpersbrooklynny.org/mpr.htm), an organization that focuses on sidewalk ministry outside abortion facilities. Having heard his acceptance speech for this award, I can confidently tell you that you won’t want to miss his inspirational words.

For those able to stay after the Walk for Life events, Msgr. Reilly will conduct a workshop beginning at 1:30 pm in which he will talk about the methodology and spirituality of the Helper’s approach to sidewalk ministry. There is no need to pre-register and no registration fee for this workshop which will be held at St. Thomas Aquinas Newman Center (16^th and Q) just a couple blocks from the UNL Student Union where the Walk for Life talk will be held.

A promotional poster for these Walk events is posted on my website (www.nebcathcon.org) and is available in Spanish. Please do what you can to attend and promote this wonderful opportunity to be counted among those standing up, publicly, for life.

Life Insight 1-28-11

Several Pro Life Bills Introduced in Legislature

On January 5^th, the Nebraska Legislature opened the first session of its one hundred and second Legislature. Each new Legislature begins in the odd numbered years with a long session (90 legislative days) and is completed in the even numbered years with a short session (60 legislative days).

This year, along with its hefty budget and redistricting work, the Legislature will consider several pro-life bills. One of these bills is LB 521 introduced by Sen. Tony Fulton.

LB 521would prohibit so-called “web cam” abortions being practiced in Iowa by

Planned Parenthood of the Heartland which also operates abortion facilities in Omaha and Lincoln. This practice allows Planned Parenthood to do chemical (RU 486) abortions in more remote communities without the physical presence of a physician.

The way this practice works is that the pregnant mother interacts with the physician through an internet video (or “web cam”) connection. When the interaction is complete, the physician uses the “mouse” on his/her computer to remotely open a drawer containing a dosage of RU 486. The pregnant mother then ingests the first drug which begins the abortion process and takes home the second drug to be ingested later to complete the abortion.

Another subject being addressed is a ban on abortion coverage in insurance plans included in new “state exchanges” established by the federal health care bill. Sen. Annette Dubas introduced LB 132 to accomplish this purpose. Sen. Beau McCoy also introduced a bill, LB 22, which would ban abortion coverage in these “state exchanges” and in private insurance plans, except when purchased through a separate rider.

Freshman senator Lydia Brasch (from Bancroft) has introduced LB 690 to require parental consent before a minor child can get an abortion. Since 1991, Nebraska has had a parental notification requirement before minors can obtain an abortion. In 1992, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a parental consent law in Pennsylvania and since then a couple dozen more states have enacted similar legislation.

Taking on a controversial subject like abortion is daunting for even veteran senators. Consequently, Sen. Brasch deserves significant credit for stepping up to the plate right after getting into the “game.”

Second-term Senator Pete Pirsch has also stepped up to the plate by introducing LB 461. This bill would protect the right of health care professionals and institutions to refuse to perform or in any way engage in the practice of abortion based on moral or religious grounds.

Thankfully, the number of health care professionals and institutions willing to participate in the evil practice of abortion is dwindling. Ironically, the “pro-choice” crowd doesn’t like the trend and is trying to force individuals and institutions to embrace abortion, thus necessitating bills like LB 461.

I was amazed and thrilled that the pro-life movement was able to get two pro-life bills introduced and enacted last year. Getting to address four different pro-life concerns this year with bills introduced by five senators is incredible and hopeful.

Those wanting to stay informed as these bills wind their way through our legislative process have at least a couple of options. One is to get on my mailing and/or e-mail list by contacting my office at 402-477-7517. I will provide occasional updates and action alerts on this legislation.

The other option is to access the Legislature’s website at www.nebraskalegislature.gov. This website is an excellent tool for staying current and connected to what the Legislature is doing. On this site you can read the text of bills, check on their status, watch committee hearings and floor debate, and access your senator’s contact information.

Life Insight 2-4-11

Inspiration and Encouragement Galore!

Last Monday I had the great privilege of joining hundreds of thousands of pro-life individuals in the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. The annual march has taken place every year on or near January 22, the date that the Supreme Court issued its infamous abortion rulings (Roe v Wade and Doe v. Bolton).

On the evening prior to the march, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Pro Life Secretariat sponsors a vigil Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. For Catholics, this Mass serves as an inspirational kick-off to the march, reminding us that at its core the pro-life battle is a spiritual battle.

Every year the enormous Basilica is overflowing, usually several hours before the Mass begins, with mostly young people. This year an estimated 10,000 attended the Mass which began with a massive procession of hundreds of seminarians, deacons and priests followed by 39 bishops and five cardinals.

I’ve had the privilege of attending this vigil Mass many times and it represents Catholic liturgy and culture in all its glory. The opening procession itself took 45 minutes! The homily is typically given by the chairman of the Bishops’ Pro Life Committee, currently Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, archbishop of Galveston-Houston.

On the morning of the march, there are several pro-life Masses and youth rallies prior to the march at noon. Years ago, I recall these Masses/rallies being held in several churches around D.C.

These venues were quickly outgrown and a massive Mass/rally has been held at the Verizon Center for several years. Because the crowds continue to grow, this year a second large venue for a Mass and rally was added to the Verizon Center venue.

In addition to these venues a Mass was held at the Basilica with standing room only. Six bus loads of high school students and chaperones from the Archdiocese of Omaha, led by Fr. Damien Cook, attended that Mass, as did I. Archbishop George Lucas concelebrated the Mass.

After the Mass we were bussed down to the National Gallery of Art on the Mall where we waited for the March to begin. During this time, Fr. Cook fired up the group of more than 300 students with a variety of pro-life cheers that the students produced during the 20-plus hour bus trip from Nebraska.

As the National Mall filled up with marchers, the Omaha group participated in “interactive chanting” with other groups. The most common chant volleyed back and forth between groups was “we love babies, yes we do, we love babies how ‘bout you!”

Another catchy chant that let other marchers know who we were was this: “Who’s on the March? Nebraska’s on the March. And when Nebraska’s on the March we’re gonna de-fend-life, huh!” Great stuff. And it added to the electric environment of the March which was driven by the enthusiasm of the young people who dominated the crowd.

While waiting for the March to begin we were pleased to have Sen. Mike Johanns address the crowd of Nebraskans. Congressman Jeff Fortenberry hosted the Nebraska group in his office building after the March and invited the Nebraska Congressional delegation to address our group. Sen. Johanns was not able to join us after the March so he waded through the massive crowd on the Mall to address our group.

March organizers estimated the crowd at 400,000. Nellie Gray, long-time leader of the March said it was the largest march in her memory. When we consider that the vast majority of the crowd was young people under the age of 25, the pro-life movement has reason to be encouraged and hopeful that the future of our efforts to build a culture of life and love is bright indeed!

Life Insight 2-11-11

Susan B. Anthony: Another Anti-Choice Fanatic

One of my favorite pro-life groups—and one of the most effective in my opinion—is Feminists for Life of America (FFL). According to its website, www.feministsforlife.org, FFL was established in 1972 as a “non-sectarian, non-partisan, grassroots organization that seeks real solutions to the challenges women face.”

FFL’s “efforts are shaped by the core feminist values of justice, nondiscrimination and nonviolence…Feminists for Life recognizes that abortion is a reflection that our society has failed to meet the needs of women.” FFL is “dedicated to systematically eliminating the root causes that drive women to abortion—primarily lack of practical resources and support—through holistic woman-centered solutions.”

If we believed the masterful verbal engineering of abortion advocates we’d think that pro-life feminism is an oxymoron. Feminists for Life, however, just as masterfully points out that early American feminists such as Susan B. Anthony were opposed to abortion

“Without known exception,” FFL President Serrin Foster says in The Feminist Case Against Abortion, “the early feminists condemned abortion in the strongest terms.” Early 18th and 19th century suffragist writings regularly referred to abortion as “ante-natal murder,” “child murder,” “ante-natal infanticide,” or “infanticide,” reports Cat Clark in “The Truth About Susan B. Anthony: Did One of America’s First Feminists Oppose Abortion?”

“These early feminists regarded abortion as violence against women and their children, and attributed its practice to the denial of their rights and a dearth of nonviolent choices for women,” Clark said. “Like Feminists for Life today, the early feminists saw abortion as a symptom of, not a solution to, the struggles women face. And the early feminists, like FFL, sought to eradicate abortion by addressing its root causes.”

“The most important evidence regarding Anthony’s own stance on abortion”, Clark says, “are those writings which may be attributed to her with certainty. Her comments relating to abortion are few, but considered in the broader context of early feminist writings, it is reasonable to conclude that Anthony was truly both pro-woman and pro-life.”

In Anthony’s famous speech “Social Purity,” delivered on March 14, 1875, abortion is listed with infanticide and other murders among the negative consequences of the “evils” perpetrated by men: “The prosecutions on our courts for breach of promise, divorce, adultery, bigamy, seduction, rape; the newspaper reports every day of every year of scandals and outrages, of wife murders and paramour shooting, of abortions and infanticides, are perpetual reminders of men’s incapacity to cope successfully with this monster evil of society.”

“This speech”, Clark says, “clearly presents abortion as a symptom of the problems faced by women, especially when subjected “to the tyranny of men’s appetites and passions.”

Another quote attributed to Anthony was recorded by fellow suffragist Frances Willard. After Anthony was complimented by a man who said: “you, of all women I have met, ought to have been a wife and mother,” Anthony replied: “I thank you, sir…but sweeter even than to have had the joy of caring for children of my own has it been to me to help bring about a better state of things for mothers generally, so that their unborn little ones could not be willed away from them.”

A final quote that has been attributed, arguably, to Anthony appeared in her newspaper The Revolution in an article entitled “Marriage and Maternity”. “Guilty? Yes. No matter what the motive, love of ease, or a desire to save from suffering the unborn innocent, the woman is awfully guilty who commits the deed. It will burden her conscience in life, it will burden her soul in death; But oh, thrice guilty is he who drove her to the desperation which impelled her to the crime!”

Feminists for Life said in a recent e-mail that “Pro-life feminism is under attack on every website that supports abortion.” This testifies to the effectiveness of FLA’s efforts to expose the abortion industry’s shameful and erroneous linkage of abortion advocacy to feminism. To counter these attacks, FLA urges pro-lifers to use the excellent resources found on its website to launch an educational effort beginning on February 15th (Susan B. Anthony's birthday) and lasting through Women's History Month in March.

Life Insight 2-18-11

Sex Ed and Contraception Bills Get Hearings

Last week, I represented the Bishops of Nebraska with testimony against two bills in our State Legislature. The first bill (LB 192), introduced by Sen. Brenda Council, mandates so-called comprehensive sex education in all public schools.

Sen. Council introduced the bill in response to the extremely high rates of sexually-transmitted diseases in various parts of Nebraska, including her north Omaha legislative district. In my testimony I expressed understanding for her legitimate concern but asserted that her bill is the wrong approach to address the problem.

So-called comprehensive sex education that emphasizes, and even promotes, contraception embodies a certain defeatism that presumes young people are incapable of controlling themselves sexually and therefore reduces expectations and education to the lowest common denominator.

In my observations and study of young people today, it is clear to me that they are capable of—and they desire—self-control in this important area of their lives. And they want their parents’ and society’s help to achieve it rather than be abandoned to the mediocrity of risk reduction strategies; strategies that don’t even purport to address the emotional, psychological and spiritual consequences of sexual activity.

Abstinence-based education, by contrast, takes a truly comprehensive approach to human sexuality that conforms better to human nature and dignity. This approach recognizes and addresses all the dimensions and consequences of sexual activity (i.e. the physical, emotional, psychological, spiritual, social, economic, and educational consequences). Abstinence-based education does not simply tell students to avoid sexual activity until marriage; it helps them develop the skills and character to achieve this goal.

Nebraska’s State Board of Education and the Association of School Boards also oppose LB 192, primarily due to their opposition to state mandated curricula. Opposition by these heavy hitters will likely dim this bill’s prospects of success.

The second bill (LB 540), introduced by the Health and Human Services Committee, directs our state to apply for a federal Medicaid waiver to expand family planning services in Nebraska. This bill is a priority of Planned Parenthood and its cohorts who are seeking a new funding stream for contraception.

Currently, Medicaid covers “family planning” services for those whose incomes are at or below 100 percent of the poverty guidelines. The Medicaid waiver would allow Nebraska to expand those services to those whose income is at or below 185 percent of poverty guidelines.

One of the main points in my testimony countered the claims that contraception reduces unintended pregnancies and abortions, and, by averting births that would have to be paid for under Medicaid, saves the state money.

To substantiate this claim, proponents of contraception point primarily to a 2004 study commissioned by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The study examined six Medicaid waiver states and claims that every state experienced a cost savings based on births that were averted by expanding access to contraception. A critical examination of this study reveals that it is based on estimates and assumptions not on empirical data.

What’s particularly questionable and troubling is that the study admits that not every state examined saw a reduction in unintended pregnancies nor did every state experience an increase in family planning use. Yet the study claims that every state saved money by increasing funding for family planning and subsequently averting births. It’s doubtful that those states not seeing a drop in unintended pregnancies saw a decline in births. But if they did, the decrease in births had to come from abortions and miscarriages.

I was the only person to testify against this bill although Nebraska Right to Life communicated its opposition to the bill by e-mail. This bill’s prospects are more difficult to predict at this point. For my complete testimony and for updates on these and other bills my office is following, check out the Nebraska Catholic Conference website at www.nebcathcon.org.

Life Insight 2-25-11

U.S. House Pursues Pro Life Policies

Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) is a long-time pro-life leader in the U.S. House of Representatives. Recently, I heard him say that the current House has the most number of pro-life members he has seen in his 30 years as a Congressman.

Furthermore, Cong. Smith said that the House leadership, which determines the legislative agenda, is more committed to pursuing pro-life policies than any leadership he has experienced. Coming from Cong. Smith, this is certainly encouraging news.

What follows is a brief summary of some of the pro-life legislation that has been introduced so far this year in the House. Most of this information is provided by the National Committee for a Human Life Amendment (NCHLA), an excellent resource on federal pro-life legislation.

Protect Life Act (H.R. 358) This bill would correct serious abortion-related flaws in the federal health care reform act (PPACA). First, it would apply the Hyde Amendment policy to the entire act ensuring that no funds pay for abortions (except in cases of rape/incest or to prevent the death of the mother) or subsidize health plans that cover abortions.

Second, H.R. 358 would uphold rights of conscience related to abortion. Third, the bill would close a loophole in PPACA’s non-preemption clause so that state laws restricting abortion can’t be preempted by PPACA and so that state laws can’t override pro-life provisions in PPACA. The bill was voted out of committee and awaits action by the full House.

Fiscal Year 2011 Appropriations (H.R. 1) Since Congress has not produced a budget for fiscal year 2011, it is funding the federal government through temporary continuing resolutions (CR). The next CR, introduced by the House Republicans (H.R. 1), restores three pro-life policies removed by President Obama or the previous Congress.

First, the CR restores a ban on government funding of abortions in the District of Columbia. Second, it restores the Mexico City Policy which prohibits the use of taxpayer funds from going to groups that promote or perform abortions in other nations.

Third, the CR would remove funding for the United Nations Family Planning Agency. The UNFPA has promoted abortion globally and shown support for China’s one-child policy with forced abortions and sterilizations.

In addition, two pro-life amendments were offered to the CR. First, Congressman Mike Pence offered an amendment that would deny funds to Planned Parenthood. This amendment was adopted on a vote of 240 to 185. Second, Congressman John Fleming offered an amendment to help maintain conscience protection regulations put in place by the Bush administration for pro-life medical workers.

No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act (H.R. 3) This bill would place into permanent law the various appropriations policies that restrict the funding of abortion. For decades, these policies, such as the Hyde Amendment, had to be attached to annual appropriations bills. This bill would eliminate that annual process by enacting these policies, permanently, into law.

Abortion Non-Discrimination Act (H.R. 361) A national campaign by abortion activists to force health care providers to participate in abortion threatens the civil rights of health care professionals and other health care entities. This bill would strengthen existing federal conscience protection laws and affirms the principle that no health care entity should be forced by government to perform or participate in abortions.

To follow the progress of these and other pro-life bills in Congress, and to see how our Congressmen vote, check out NCHLA’s excellent website at www.nchla.org. And please join me in praying, fasting and working so that much progress will be made in Congress to protect women and children from the violence of abortion.

Life Insight 3-4-11

The Hand of God

Last week, Dr. Bernard Nathanson died. Dr. Nathanson was co-founder of the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL), played an instrumental role in the effort to legalize abortion, was responsible for 75,000 abortions including the abortion of his own child, and once described himself as a Jewish atheist.

Thanks to the “Hand of God” (the name of a book he wrote), Dr. Nathanson died a revered pro-life activist and a Roman Catholic. Dr. Nathanson’s conversion is nothing short of miraculous; compelling evidence of our Lord’s assurance that “with God all things are possible”.

Dr. Nathanson’s conversion as an abortionist occurred after witnessing an ultrasound of an abortion. "I had come to the conclusion that there was no reason for an abortion at any time” he said. “[T]his person in the womb is a living human being, and we could not continue to wage war against the most defenseless of human beings. Having looked at the ultrasound, I could no longer go on as before."

After his abortion conversion, Dr. Nathanson wrote his famous book “Aborting America” in which he acknowledged a number of lies that he and his NARAL collaborators produced. For example, regarding the number of deaths from illegal, “back alley” abortions, he said NARAL claimed that 5,000 to 10,000 women died each year.

“I confess that I knew the figures were totally false,” Dr. Nathanson said, “and I suppose the others did to if they stopped to think of it. But in the ‘morality’ of our revolution, it was a useful figure, widely accepted, so why go out of our way to correct it with honest statistics.”

In 1985, Dr. Nathanson produced a video called “Silent Scream” which used ultrasound to show images of an abortion on a 12-week old unborn child. He later produced a second video entitled “Eclipse of Reason” featuring a late term abortion.

Dr. Nathanson stated repeatedly that his “switch to pro-life had nothing to do with religion.” Instead, he said his mind was changed “based on the scientific evidence…based on fetoscopies and ultrasound studies.”

However, as he explained in his book “Hand of God”, his conversion was not yet complete. After 13 years of spiritual searching, Dr. Nathanson was baptized into the Catholic faith in 1996 by Cardinal John O’Connor, Archbishop of New York.

There is a fascinating local angle to Dr. Nathanson’s conversion to Catholicism. He credits Msgr. Thomas Holoman, a retired priest of the Diocese of Lincoln and former pro-life director for the diocese, with being a catalyst to his conversion.

In 2004 when Msgr. Holoman retired as pro-life director, Dr. Nathanson wrote him a letter saying the following:

“I recall that twenty years ago you found me in personal crisis and with compassion, infinite patience and understanding you helped me to resolve that crisis. I date the beginning of my thirteen-year-long hegira to Christ to that event. I personally owe you an unrequitable debt in helping me to find the peace of Christ.”

Joan Andrews Bell, a long-time pro-life activist who was Dr. Nathanson’s godmother for baptism, said “He will be remembered as a very strong advocate for the babies. One factor stood out, knowing him over the years, and that was that he had a deep pain for what he had done in terms of abortion. I remember there were periods he was fasting; he underwent huge amounts of fasting to make up for it.”

“He was like St. Paul,” Bell continued, “who was a great persecutor of the Church, yet when he saw the light of Christ, he was perhaps the greatest apostle for the Gospel. Dr. Nathanson was like that after his conversion. He went all around the world talking about the babies and the evils of abortion.”

Dr. Nathanson’s funeral Mass was held on February 28 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City with Archbishop Timothy Dolan as main celebrant. Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord, and let the Perpetual Light shine upon him. May he rest in peace.

Life Insight 3-11-11

Prayer and Fasting Does Save Lives

Here we are in another Lenten season. My how time flies! Undoubtedly, many Catholics have already determined what special prayers and sacrifices they will embrace to grow spiritually this Lent. However, I have another suggestion for Catholics to consider: offer special prayers and sacrifices specifically for those women and men contemplating abortion.

Specifically, I encourage Catholics to offer prayers and sacrifices on the days that abortions are done. At the Planned Parenthood abortion mill in Lincoln, abortions are typically done on Tuesdays and Fridays. At the Bellevue abortion mill, abortions are done on varying days but usually Thursday through Sunday.

In both locations, there are dedicated, even heroic, men and women who come (rain or shine, cold or heat) to pray and/or reach out to the mothers with messages of hope and help. This prayerful presence has been extremely powerful and fruitful in prompting mothers to reject abortion and choose life for their children.

For example, on a recent abortion day in Lincoln, 7 out of 26 mothers scheduled to have abortions that day changed their mind and left the abortion mill without having an abortion. Praise God!! Although 19 women still had abortions, 7 “saves” that day was unprecedented; truly a miracle.

That day, like most abortion days, there were various individuals and groups who came to pray at the abortion mill. We know from personal testimonies that the visible witness and blanket of prayer that these “pray-ers” provide has been the catalyst for mothers who changed their mind about abortion.

For those individuals who live within a reasonable drive to the abortion mills in Lincoln and Omaha, there is much need for more volunteers to be present in prayer or, if so called, to help as a sidewalk “counselor”. Lincoln Right to Life or Nebraskans United for Life (Omaha) can be contacted for more information about such volunteering.

In addition, both groups have sponsored the “40 Day’s for Life” prayer event during Lent this year. This event proposes to have a physical presence of prayer at the abortion mills 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Around the country, “40 Days for Life” efforts have been credited with the closure of some abortion mills, and the conversion of abortion mill workers and mothers scheduled for abortions.

For those who cannot be physically present at the abortion mills, prayers and sacrifices can still be offered in solidarity with those who are physically present. For example, consider offering a holy hour (or just a short visit) before the Blessed Sacrament at your local church on one of the days abortions are done.

Or, pray a Rosary or some other prayer at home, while you are driving to work or while doing other daily activities. Offering some sort of sacrifice—big or small—in tandem with your prayers is also powerful and fruitful.

Those who are confined to their homes due to illness, age, or frailty or who live in nursing homes can be just as efficacious in their prayers and sacrifices as those who are physically present at the abortion mills. And those who suffer—physically, emotionally, or spiritually—can be particularly powerful intercessors by offering their suffering for the conversion of mothers contemplating abortion.

Our Lord Jesus said that “certain kinds of demons do not leave but by prayer and fasting” (Mt. 17:21). Therefore, our prayers and sacrifices this Lent and beyond can be a very significant contribution toward saving lives and building a culture of life and love.

Life Insight 3-18-11

Grand Island Case Raises Questions

Last week, a Grand Island couple’s tragic story of a miscarriage was reported in various newspapers. According to these reports, Danielle Deaver was 22-23 weeks pregnant when she lost most of the amniotic fluid surrounding her unborn child. Her doctors said the condition would arrest the baby’s development leading to deformities and a slim chance of survival.

The Omaha World-Herald said the couple decided that it “didn’t want to continue putting their unborn baby through what they feared was agony, so they asked the doctors to induce labor early.” But the couple was told that “the Nebraska abortion law stood in their way.”

The law, LB 1103, was enacted last year and prohibits abortions after 20 weeks from fertilization. This point was chosen because of strong evidence that an unborn child can feel pain by this stage of development.

The World-Herald story said the couple went public with their story “in the hope of making a difference for other families in similar situations.” They are urging law makers in other states to consider their situation before enacting laws similar to LB 1103 and “have not decided whether to mount a legal challenge to the Nebraska law.”

In a March 14^th editorial in the World-Herald, Dr. Sean Kenney, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist from Lincoln replied to this couple’s situation as presented by the newspaper.

“Although my heart goes out to the Deavers, as a Maternal-Fetal Medicine Specialist who has cared for several patients in similar situations and who testified on behalf of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Act, I think it is imperative to make clear that their understanding of the facts is wrong.”

“What most specialists try to do in these situations is maintain the pregnancy for as long as possible”, Dr. Kenney said. “If she had delivered two days later at 24 weeks, the baby’s chance of survival without profound neurodevelopmental impairment would have increased to 50%, 65% if she had received steroids.”

The Deaver’s baby weighed…about 740 grams at birth (1 lb, 10 oz). Dr. Kenney said that the “edge of viability is usually felt to be around 400-500 grams. Based on an estimated gestational age of 23 weeks, female infant and 740gms, the National Institute of Child Health and Development …would quote her a 37% chance of survival without profound neurodevelopmental impairment, based on data prior to 2003.”

“Tragic as the outcome was,” Dr. Kenney continued, “the pessimism that predicted inevitable death for the baby was certainly unwarranted.” Unfortunately, some doctors are quick to suggest and even urge mothers like Mrs. Deaver to abort their child instead of letting nature take its course or trying to maintain the pregnancy long enough to increase the baby’s chance of survival.

The mentality underlying the recommendation to abort babies with lethal anomalies is eerily similar to the mentality underlying euthanasia (i.e. it is more humane to deliberately end someone’s life than to let them suffer). Fortunately, as with born humans, unborn babies with life-threatening conditions need not be subjected to a choice between a life of pain and intentional death.

There is a growing utilization of perinatal hospice care which applies the hospice model to unborn babies with fatal anomalies. I’m aware of two such programs in Nebraska (Methodist Hospital in Omaha and St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Lincoln) but there may be more. More information on this beautiful service can be seen online at www.perinatalhospice.org.

There are also support groups like Isaiah’s Promise (www.isaiahspromise.net) sponsored by mothers who chose not to abort babies with disabilities. Nancy Mayer-Whittington, a co-founder of Isaiah’s Promise shares these beautiful words about her experience:

“I was so happy I did what I did,” she says of her decision to bring Angela to term. “You get to see your child’s birth and death all collapsed in one time frame. What most people want for their kids is for them to go to heaven. You get to complete that journey with them. As a parent, that is unbelievable. Life is about relationship to God. You know that when you literally pass them from your hands to His.”

Life Insight 3-25-11

This Lent, Make Peace With Your Past

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Pro Life Secretariat recently developed new materials to communicate the Church’s message of hope and healing to post-abortive women and men. The materials promote Project Rachel, an outreach of the Church that provides post-abortion counseling and reconciliation by specially trained clergy and professional counselors.

“Don’t be afraid. Draw close to my heart. There you will find the peace and happiness you seek. Jesus speaks these words to every human being in every generation. He knows well that each of us is broken by sin and burdened by selfishness and past hurts. As St. Paul has written, ‘all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.’ Yet we are saved ‘by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.’”

These are the opening words of the Project Rachel brochure produced by the Pro Life Secretariat. The brochure and other promotional materials are intended to communicate God’s limitless love and mercy to all who are affected by abortion.

The materials feature images representing the age, gender and ethnic diversity of those suffering from a past abortion. The messages include various sentiments from those who struggle with a past abortion and God’s response to those sentiments. For example:

“God will never forgive me for this” – “God’s greatest desire is to forgive”

“I don’t deserve to be happy” – “God wants to restore your happiness”

“I can’t believe I let this happen” – “Never let your past keep you from God”

“I failed as a father” – “Do not despair. All is not lost”

“My heart is broken” – “God will take away your pain”

“I feel so worthless” -- “You are precious to God”

In all of the materials it communicates that same message of hope to those wounded by a past abortion: “Come back to God, Who is love and mercy” and “Project Rachel: Peace starts here.”

For Lent this year, the Pro Life Secretariat produced a version of their promotional ad that says: “This Lent, make peace with your past” (see below). They also produced bulletin announcements, prayers of the faithful and homily notes for the third Sunday in Lent. These resources can be downloaded for use at www.usccb.org/prolife.

The following excerpt from the aforementioned homily notes should provide all of us with a powerful point of reflection during this Lenten season.

“The story of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well is a lesson in Divine Mercy. Jesus did not come for the righteous. He came to call sinners to repentance, and repentance allows us to receive an outpouring of grace, the living water of which he speaks. In this passage, we discover the lengths to which Jesus will go to seek out those who are suffering for their mistakes, so that he can restore their dignity as children of God, their peace of heart, and their hope of salvation.”

If you or anyone you know is suffering from a past abortion, invite them to contact Project Rachel at 1-888-456-HOPE (4673) or online at www.hopeafterabortion.org.

Life Insight 4-1-11

The Word Became Flesh

There are few liturgical feasts that are more directly relevant to the pro-life cause than the Solemnity of the Annunciation. The Word became Flesh at the Annunciation, when the Virgin Mary is told that she has been chosen to be the Mother of the Savior and gives her consent.

Luke’s Gospel (1:26-38) tells us that “the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, ‘Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you…Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus.”

For Christians, the Annunciation should be a rich source of reflection on the sacred dignity of human life from its very beginning at conception. Our Lord didn’t descend from Heaven as a 30-year-old adult and begin His ministry. He “became man” like every human being, as a single cell embryo.

Single Cell Embryo

Our Lord did nothing by chance. Therefore, the fact that He began His earthly life as an embryo and experienced every subsequent stage of human life (fetus, infant, child, adolescent and adult) necessarily gives significant meaning and dignity to each of these stages.

Scripture (Luke 1:41-44) also tells us that after the Annunciation, Mary went in haste to visit her cousin Elizabeth. “When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the infant leaped in her womb and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, "Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.

“And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.” Hence, it was an unborn child (John the Baptist) who first recognized Christ’s presence on earth.

In his meditations on the Annunciation, Fr. Frank Pavone asks these provocative questions: “Would it long be possible for believers, who meditate on the unborn child who was God, to fail to see that unborn children are made in God's image?

“Would it be likely that those who ponder that our Almighty Protector was a baby in the womb will fail to see that babies in the womb deserve protection? Would it happen that Christians, who acknowledge that their Lord and Brother was an embryo and fetus, will fail to see that every embryo and fetus is a brother and sister in the Lord?”

Six Weeks

“Yet the marvels revealed by the Annunciation do not stop there,” Fr. Pavone continues. “There is also the mystery of Mary's freedom, her ‘Fiat’ – ‘Let it be done to me according to your word’ (Lk. 1:38).

“This is freedom of choice which serves the truth, as opposed to ‘pro-choice’ which claims to create its own truth. This is choice at the service of life, rather than the perverted choice to take life. This is the moment when Mary gave her body to the One who would bring life to the world by saying ‘This is My Body,’ forever undoing the sin of those who justify abortion by saying, ‘This is my body!’

My office has a flier entitled “The Word Became Flesh” that contains fetal development pictures and Fr. Pavone’s reflections. Download it at www.nebcathcon.org (“printed resources”) or contact my office.

Life Insight 4-8-11

Defund Planned Parenthood

About a month and a half ago, the U.S. House of Representatives did something I didn’t think I’d ever see: it voted overwhelmingly (240 to 185) to end taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood (PP), America’s largest abortion provider and apologist. The vote was on an amendment to a temporary budget bill called a “continuing resolution.”

To their credit, all three of Nebraska’s House members (Fortenberry, Terry and Smith) voted to defund PP. The U.S. Senate, however, rejected the House’s continuing resolution (for a variety of reasons).

The battle to finalize a permanent budget bill for the federal government’s current fiscal year continues today on a variety of fronts, including the proposal to defund PP. It is very much uncertain whether there is sufficient will, or votes, in Congress to actually end funding to PP.

Planned Parenthood should be defunded. According to its most recent annual report, PP performed 324,008 abortions in 2008, which comprised 27 percent of all U.S. abortions that year. Income from these abortions comprised 37.5 percent ($152 million) of PP’s total clinic income in 2008. Furthermore, abortions comprise 98 percent of the “services” PP provides to pregnant women.

Planned Parenthood insists that none of the more than $360 million of federal funding it receives is used for abortion. While this may be technically accurate, since the funding is largely for contraceptive services, it’s irrelevant.

What is relevant, and irrefutable, is that any federal funding PP receives, even if its use is restricted, benefits the entire organization. This is especially true given that federal funding comprises one third of PP’s overall budget.

Therefore, while PP may not use our tax dollars to directly fund abortions, there is no question that our tax dollars facilitate PP’s abortion business and advocacy as well as its vulgar, hedonistic philosophy and programs of sexual education.

This philosophy is readily found on its website (especially under “Info for Teens”). Other information about PP and its founder Margaret Sanger can be seen online at www.stopp.org and www.ldi.org/library/.

Planned Parenthood has also tried to shift public attention away from its abortion extremism by insisting that women—especially poor women—will not receive health care services if PP is denied federal funding. This assertion is false. The amendment to defund PP would simply shift the funding to other entities that provide similar healthcare services.

While there have been previous attempts in Congress to defund PP, this year’s success in the House was largely attributable to the efforts of a college student, Lila Rose. Miss Rose is founder and president of Live Action, a group that has used under cover investigations to expose deeply offensive—and potentially illegal—activities by PP.

A couple of years ago, the investigations exposed PP’s willingness to accept racist-motivated donations for the purpose of funding the abortions of black babies. Another investigation exposed PP’s willingness to cover-up cases of statutory rape. Amazingly, these revelations received a collective yawn from most of the media and elected officials.

The most recent Live Action investigations were even more explosive, clearly showing Planned Parenthood's willingness to exploit the victims of child prostitution. Shocking undercover video footage, from PP clinics in several states, reveals clinic staff assuring a “pimp” that they would secretly offer full access to abortions and other services -- despite knowing full well that the girls were underage victims.

To see video clips of these undercover investigations of PP go to www.liveaction.org. Also check out a new coalition of pro-life groups urging the defunding of PP at www.exposeplannedparenthood.com. This latter website urges (and facilitates) Americans to flood the offices of our Congressmen with e-mails asking them to defund PP. I urge you to do so as well.

Life Insight 4-15-11

The Christian View of Suffering

Holy Week is upon us. This extraordinary time in the Church’s liturgical calendar provides a particularly meaningful opportunity to reflect on the Christian view of suffering in light of our Lord’s embrace of suffering and death to redeem us from our sins.

As God the Son, Jesus could have chosen any way to redeem us. So the fact that he chose to redeem us through His suffering and death necessarily gives meaning to every human beings experience with suffering and death.

The Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services provides this explanation:

“For the Christian, our encounter with suffering and death can take on a positive and distinctive meaning through the redemptive power of Jesus’ suffering and death. As St. Paul says, we are “always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body (2 Cor 4:10). This truth does not lessen the pain and fear, but gives confidence and grace for bearing suffering rather than being overwhelmed by it.”

Pope John Paul II provides this insight in his encyclical The Gospel of Life: “This natural aversion to death and this incipient hope of immortality are illumined and brought to fulfillment by Christian faith, which both promises and offers a share in the victory of the Risen Christ: It is the victory of the One who, by his redemptive death, has set man free from death, "the wages of sin" (Rom 6:23), and has given him the Spirit, the pledge of resurrection and of life (cf. Rom 8:11).

“The certainty of future immortality and hope in the promised resurrection cast new light on the mystery of suffering and death, and fill the believer with an extraordinary capacity to trust fully in the plan of God. The Apostle Paul expressed this newness in terms of belonging completely to the Lord who embraces every human condition:

“’None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's’ (Rom 14:7-8). Dying to the Lord means experiencing one's death as the supreme act of obedience to the Father (cf. Phil 2:8), being ready to meet death at the "hour" willed and chosen by him (cf. Jn 13:1), which can only mean when one's earthly pilgrimage is completed.

“Living to the Lord also means recognizing that suffering, while still an evil and a trial in itself, can always become a source of good. It becomes such if it is experienced for love and with love through sharing, by God's gracious gift and one's own personal and free choice, in the suffering of Christ Crucified.

“In this way, the person who lives his suffering in the Lord grows more fully conformed to him (cf. Phil 3:10; 1 Pet 2:21) and more closely associated with his redemptive work on behalf of the Church and humanity.[87] This was the experience of Saint Paul, which every person who suffers is called to relive: ‘I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his Body, that is, the Church’ (Col 1:24).”

It is awesome to contemplate the reality that we worship a God who “humbled Himself to share in our humanity” and fully understands the challenges of the human condition. It’s also awesome to know that the graces from our suffering can be offered for the salvation of souls. As mentioned previously, this truth should give confidence and grace for bearing suffering rather than being overwhelmed by it.

4-22-11

We Operate From Victory

There are some celebrations during the liturgical year that naturally relate to the dignity of human life. The Annunciation, Visitation, Christmas, and Respect Life Sunday (first Sunday in October) are some of the obvious ones. But the highest Feast in the Church—Easter—should also be the greatest celebration for the pro-life cause as well.

This Feast reminds us that the victory over death has been won by our Lord Jesus Christ. We know how the battle between life and death ends. Life wins. Death loses.

Fr. Frank Pavone from Priests for Life expressed this comforting reality quite cogently when he said that as Christians we engage in the pro-life battle not just for victory but from victory. God does not ask us to defeat death. He has already done this.

While our Lord’s victory over death assures us that death will not and cannot overcome life, evil still exists and must be opposed with vigor and constancy. There can even be times when it seems that evil is winning. And many people may be tempted to become discouraged or cynical and, as a result, disengaged from the battle for life.

These are the times when we need to recall our Lord’s ultimate victory over death. We need to regularly be reminded that our responsibility isn’t to defeat the culture of death but to faithfully and persistently oppose it. The fact that we operate from victory, not just for victory should give us all the hope and encouragement we need to persevere.

God gave each of us unique gifts and opportunities to serve Him in bringing Truth and love to our world. At our final judgment we will have to account for how we used these gifts and opportunities from God. In particular, I believe, we will account for our action or inaction in proclaiming and defending the sacred dignity of human life.

If we truly embrace and embody the assurance of our faith, we should be confident and joy-filled in our pro-life efforts, in good times and in bad times. The following quote from the late Fr. Richard John Neuhaus has long been a source of inspiration and encouragement to me. I pray that it also inspires you as we contemplate our Lord’s passion, death and resurrection.

“So long as we have the gift of life we must protect the gift of life. So long as it is threatened, so long must it be defended. This is the time to brace ourselves for the long term. We are today laying the foundations for the prolife movement of the twenty-first century. Pray that the foundations are firm, for we have not yet seen the full fury of the storm that is upon us.

“But we have not the right to despair. We have not the right and we have not the reason to despair if we understand that our entire struggle is premised not upon a victory to be achieved, but a victory that has been achieved. If we understand that, far from despair we have right and reason to rejoice that we are called to such a time as this, a time of testing, a time of truth. “The encroaching culture of death shall not prevail, for we know, as we read in John’s gospel, ‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.’ The darkness will never overcome that light.”

Life Insight 4-29-10

God’s Divine Mercy Provides Hope and Healing

“My daughter, know that My Heart is mercy itself. From this sea of mercy, graces flow out upon the whole world. No soul that has approached Me has ever gone away unconsoled. All misery gets buried in the depths of My mercy, and every saving and sanctifying grace flows from this fountain…Sooner would heaven and earth turn into nothingness than would My mercy not embrace a trusting soul.”

These words from the Diary of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska (#1777) are a beautiful expression of God’s Divine Mercy, which we celebrate this Sunday. For those who suffer from a past abortion, however, God’s mercy can seem incomprehensible. Consequently, the Church provides a special outreach called Project Rachel to communicate God’s mercy and to facilitate healing for post-abortive women and men.

Project Rachel is comprised of specially trained clergy and professional counselors who provide individual, confidential counseling and reconciliation to women and men suffering from a past abortion. In Nebraska, Project Rachel can be accessed by calling 1-888-456-HOPE (4673). Information on Project Rachel and abortion’s emotional and spiritual aftermath is also available online at www.hopeafterabortion.com.

The name of this outreach comes from the Old Testament figure Rachel who “mourns her children” and “refuses to be consoled because her children are no more.” Our Lord, however, tells Rachel to “cease your cries of mourning, wipe the tears from your eyes. The sorrow you have shown shall have its reward…There is hope for your future.” (Jeremiah 31:15-17)

In his 2009 homily on the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, Pope Benedict XVI cautioned that “without the healing of souls, without the healing of man from within there can be no salvation for humanity. How essential then to the mission of the Church are the pastoral and apostolic activities that draw women and men burdened by the sin of abortion closer to God’s merciful heart. It is no exaggeration to say that the Church’s ministry of healing and reconciliation after abortion is at the heart of the Church’s mission at this time in her history.”

Homily notes provided by the U.S. Bishops’ Pro Life Office for the third Sunday in Lent reminded us that “Jesus knows the weakness of the human heart. He knows that our fears – often arising from a lack of trust in God’s love and support – can lead us into grave sin. Fear, not cruelty, is the force that motivates the majority of abortions.

“They fear that they lack the resources and maturity to care for a baby. They fear that an adoptive family may not love their child as they would. Some single fathers want to marry their pregnant girlfriend or at least support their child, but others fear that they’ll be stuck with the young pregnant woman they never planned on marrying and stuck paying child support for 18 years.

Life Insight 5-6-11

Awaking a Sleeping Pro-Life Giant

Planned Parenthood of the Heartland (operating in Iowa and Nebraska) recently announced its intention to open offices in five Nebraska communities: Fremont, Norfolk, Grand Island, Hastings, Kearney and North Platte. This is deeply alarming news coming from our nation’s largest purveyor and apologist of abortion.

Planned Parenthood (PP) has been promoting its degrading, hedonistic view of human sexuality for decades out of its offices in Omaha and Lincoln. In the mid 1990s, PP opened an abortion center in Lincoln and has since killed about 10,000 unborn babies in that one facility.

Nationally, PP abortion centers kill more than 300,000 unborn babies each year. In 2009, PP killed 332,278 unborn babies (more than 25% of U.S. abortions) and that number has been steadily rising for at least the last five years. And it will certainly continue rising as PP announced last year that it intends to increase the number of abortion centers in its franchise.

Unfortunately, many Americans (and Nebraskans) do not know about this dark side of PP because it has done a masterful job of portraying itself as a women’s health provider. Planned Parenthood does provide some health services (e.g. cancer screenings, STD testing and treatment), but by conservative estimates, more than one-third of its annual revenues come from abortion. Unfortunately, another third of its revenue comes from our tax dollars.

Planned Parenthood’s intention to open offices in five Nebraska communities is particularly troubling given the likelihood that it will provide chemical abortions at those sites via web cam (e.g. Skype). Planned Parenthood has been doing this in Iowa for the last few years.

In a web cam abortion the abortionist is in one city and the woman seeking an abortion is in another city. The abortionist speaks to the woman through an internet video connection. After obtaining the woman’s consent the abortionist uses the “mouse” on his/her computer to remotely open a drawer containing the chemical abortion regimen called RU-486.

A bill (LB 521) has been introduced in the Nebraska Legislature this year to prohibit web cam abortions. This bill, however, remains in the Judiciary Committee having failed to get the five votes needed to advance to consideration by the entire Legislature.

Committee members who voted for LB 521 are Senators Steve Lathrop, Scott Lautenbaugh, Colby Coash and Tyson Larson. Senators Brad Ashford, Brenda Council, and Amanda McGill voted against the bill. Sen. Burke Harr abstained from voting.

I and other pro-life lobbyists have been working with Sen. Harr and Sen. Ashford to address concerns they have expressed about the bill. I am still hopeful that we can sufficiently address their concerns and convince one or both of them to vote this bill out of committee. There is likely ample bi-partisan support for LB 521 in the full Legislature.

In addition to working for LB 521, the pro-life movement in Nebraska is mobilizing statewide and in the five communities to fiercely oppose Planned Parenthood’s expansion. The level of concern and mobilization I’ve seen so far indicates that PP’s announcement has awakened a sleeping pro-life giant.

Citizens in those communities (and throughout our state) will be informed about PP’s abortion advocacy and its deplorable view (and programs) of human sexuality. And every possible resource will be marshaled against PP’s expansion in Nebraska. Anyone in those five communities (or any Nebraskan) wishing to join in this effort can contact my office or local pro-life representatives.

In his column in this week’s West Nebraska Register, Most Reverend William Dendinger, Bishop of Grand Island, expressed a simple, yet powerful response to Planned Parenthood’ intention to expand in Nebraska: “WE DON’T WANT YOU”. To this, I and many Nebraskans say: DITTO!

Life Insight May 13, 2011

2010 Abortions Lowest on Record in Nebraska

The State of Nebraska requires by law that those who perform abortions report certain data to the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) within 15 days from the end of the month in which the abortions are performed. Every spring, DHHS compiles this data and issues a statewide report of abortions.

The 2010 Nebraska Statistical Report on Abortions reveals that 2,464 abortions were reportedly performed in Nebraska last year. When we contemplate that each abortion represents the killing of a human being and the wounding of his/her mother, father, family and society, this death toll is staggering.

If there is a bright spot in this number of abortions, it is that it is the lowest annual number of abortions on record in Nebraska. In 1974, the first full year after Roe v Wade legalized abortion, there were 3,094 abortions reported in Nebraska. That number steadily increased to its high point of 6,346 in 1990. Since 1990, the number has steadily declined.

Here are the most relevant statistics from the report:

Age Distribution.By far, the most abortions occurred in the 20-26 age group. Nearly 60 percent of all abortions were done on women in this age group. Teenagers (and younger) comprised 14.6 percent of the abortions; women 30 years and over comprised 26.1 percent of the abortions.

A particularly sad statistic is that 15 girls under the age of 15 had abortions. Two of the girls were 12 years old and thirteen of the girls were 14 years old. Another 344 teens (aged 15 to 19) had abortions.

Reasons for the abortions.As is typically the case, only a tiny fraction of the abortions (1.4%) were done for the so-called "hard cases" of rape, incest and to prevent the death of the mother. Even if you add in those abortions done for the broader reason of a woman’s "health" (3.8%), the "hard cases" still only comprise about 5 percent of all abortions done in 2010.

Another revealing statistic is that only 45 percent indicated that "no contraception was used." Therefore, 55 percent of those obtaining abortions were likely using contraception when they got pregnant. This percentage comports with national figures.

This statistic raises serious doubts about the claim that contraception will reduce abortions. In fact, even the Alan Guttmacher Institute (research affiliate of Planned Parenthood) acknowledges that women who use contraception are more likely to have abortions.

Guttmacher explains this phenomenon this way: "because women who are using contraception are motivated to prevent an unplanned birth, they are more likely than women who were not using contraceptives to seek an abortion should they accidentally become pregnant."

Method of abortion.The most notable statistic in this category is that the number of chemical abortions (using RU-486) more than tripled. There were 231 chemical abortions in 2009 compared to 746 such abortions in 2010.

The number of chemical abortions would likely continue to skyrocket if Planned Parenthood (PP) opens satellite offices around Nebraska. As it has done in Iowa, PP would likely offer RU-486 abortions at these offices through use of video conferencing with an abortionist in Lincoln or Omaha or elsewhere. A bill in our state Legislature (LB 521) would prohibit such "web cam" abortions.

Repeat abortions.Another very sad statistic is that nearly one third (31%) of the women obtaining abortions last year in Nebraska had one or more previous abortions. The breakdown of this statistic is incomprehensible: one previous abortion: 512; two previous abortions: 158; three previous abortions: 63; four previous abortions: 13; more than four previous abortions: 10.

The complete report of abortions can be seen online at http://www.hhs.state.ne.us/srd/abort10.pdf. A chart compiling the key data from these annual reports since 1974 can be seen on my website at http://www.nebcathcon.org/abortion%20stats%20%205-4-2011.pdf.

Life Insight 5-20-11

Pro-Life Legislation Advancing

Just a few weeks ago, two pro-life bills were stalled in the Nebraska Legislature’s Judiciary Committee and a third bill was awaiting further debate by the full Legislature. In the last two weeks, these bills (all supported by my office) are finally moving through the legislative process.

Every bill introduced in our Unicameral must be advanced out of a committee by a majority of its members. Then each bill must receive three votes before final passage. The three rounds of debate/voting are called "General File," "Select File" and "Final Reading."

LB22

The first of the pro-life bills to be debated and adopted by the full Legislature is LB 22. This bill, introduced by Sen. Beau McCoy, prohibits abortion coverage in health insurance plans offered through state health insurance exchanges created by the federal health care law. It also prohibits private health insurance plans, contracts or policies from providing coverage for an elective abortion except through an optional rider to the policy for which an additional premium is paid solely by the insured.

Last week, the Legislature gave final approval to LB 22 by an overwhelming vote of 37 to 7. The bill will now go to Governor Heineman who will likely sign the bill into law.

LB521

The second pro-life bill to advance is LB 521, which prohibits so-called "web cam abortions." Introduced by Sen. Tony Fulton, this bill requires an abortionist to be physically present in the same room with the pregnant woman when the abortion is performed. The bill is a response to an abortion practice being done in Iowa by Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, which has facilities in Iowa and Nebraska.

A "web cam" abortion involves an internet video connection between an abortion doctor and a pregnant woman at a remote Planned Parenthood facility. After providing the woman with some information, the abortion doctor uses the "mouse" on his computer to remotely open a drawer in the woman’s room which contains the chemical drug regimen called RU 486.

After conducting a public hearing on LB 521 in March, two months went by before the Judiciary Committee advanced the bill to the full Legislature May 4. On May 10, the Legislature voted to advance the bill to the second round of debate on a vote of 34 to 9.

By the time this column is printed, LB 521 will likely have advanced to Final Reading. Given the overwhelming support this bill received on its first vote, I expect that it will easily be adopted by the Legislature and signed into law by our Governor.

LB690

Finally, after also sitting in the Judiciary Committee for two months, LB 690 was advanced to General File May 11. LB 690, introduced by Sen. Lydia Brasch, would replace Nebraska’s parental notification law (in effect since 1991) with the requirement that a minor (unemancipated woman less than 18 years of age) obtain notarized parental consent from a parent or guardian before obtaining an abortion.

This bill is also likely to have strong support in the Legislature and may have received first round debate and approval by the time this column is printed. Information on these and other bills, including how each senator voted, is available on my website at www.nebcathcon.org (click on "Nebraska" under "Pro Life Legislation 2011").

Life Insight 5-27-11

The Continued Assault on Pregnancy Help Centers

One of the great myths in the abortion debate is that pro-life people only care about the "fetus" and do nothing for pregnant women or their children once born. The fact is pro-life people and organizations expend enormous amounts of time and money to address the social and economic needs of pregnant women and their children, before and after birth.

Nationally, more than 3,000 pregnancy-help centers are operated, staffed and funded by pro-life people. There are 31 such centers in 22 communities in or near Nebraska. A list of the centers is available online at www.nebcathcon.org or by contacting my office.

Pregnancy-help centers are the heart of the pro-life movement. They focus solely on helping pregnant women overcome the inadequacies and injustices that drive them to the tragedy of abortion. Pregnancy-help centers embody the ultimate mission of the pro-life movement: to make abortion unthinkable.

Many of these centers are staffed solely by pro-life volunteers. Some of the centers have full-time, paid staff with dozens of volunteers. Pregnancy-help centers provide an impressive number of services, and in most cases are funded entirely with private donations.

The services provided or facilitated include housing, instructional programs, maternity and baby clothes, furniture and other necessities, adoption through licensed agencies, parenting classes, abstinence education, job training, medical care including pregnancy testing, prenatal and obstetrical care, social services, including counseling, arrangement for transportation, child health care, and assistance in applying for financial help before and after birth.

Several of the larger centers are adopting more of a medical model that utilizes a physician medical director (in some cases an obstetrician/gynecologist) or nurse to provide a wider range of healthcare services such as screening and treatment of sexually-transmitted diseases. Some of these centers also offer mothers an ultrasound image of their unborn child, which can make the difference between life and death for the child.

The abortion industry and its apologists apparently don’t like the fact that these centers help many pregnant women to reject abortion as a response to the challenges presented by the pregnancy. They have made numerous attempts to attack and discredit pregnancy-help centers.

The latest national effort launched by NARAL Pro-Choice New York was exposed in pro-life news sources (LifeSiteNews.com and LifeNews.com). In a video that was posted on YouTube, city council members from New York City and Austin, TX disparage all pregnancy centers as "an institution with an agenda" that engage in "emotional bullying" and even "brainwashing" of pregnant women.

According to Melinda Delahoyde, president of Care Net (a national network of pregnancy-help centers), the video "reveals for the first time that these… attacks will be focused on urban areas, the very areas where abortion providers are prevalent, support for abortion alternatives is lacking, and abortion rates are skyrocketing."

Care Net pointed out in the LifeNews.com story that "many [abortion mills] are in predominantly minority-populated communities, thereby contributing greatly to the disproportionate impact of abortion on minorities. Statistics show that African American and Latina women account for only 27% of the female population in the U.S., yet they undergo 59% of all abortions," Care Net stated.

I am regularly contacted by individuals asking me what they can do to help advance the pro-life cause. One very concrete and powerful way we can help make abortion unthinkable is to donate time and money to pregnancy-help centers. Your contribution can literally make the difference between life and death.

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