Homilies of Cardinal DiNardo and Archbishop Dolan

Earlier this week, I returned from the March for Life in Washington D.C. where, in addition to the March itself, I had the opportunity to listen to Cardinal DiNardo deliver an awe-inspiring homily to over 20,000 Catholic pilgrims in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.  His words resonated with me primarily because he stood strong against the blatant anti-life efforts of Health and Human Services and the Obama Administration.  Last week, the President Obama restated that many religious institutions would be required to fund contraception including abortifacient birth control pills as part of their health insurance coverage.  

“We are nearing the 40th anniversary of Roe versus Wade,” Cardinal DiNardo preached.  “53 million children have lost their lives since then; millions of men and women have lives that will never be the same because of their tragic choices.  Our embrace of life must be clear...Disturbing news came to us Friday from HHS and the Obama Administration: it fundamentally repeated the mandate that sterilization and contraception must be included in virtually all health plans.  Never before in our US history has the federal government forces citizens to directly purchase what violates our beliefs.”

Archbishop and Cardinal-elect Timothy Dolan added another point that hits all pro-lifers hard: 

“From a human point of view, we may be tempted to surrender, when our government places conception, pregnancy, and birth under the ‘Center for Disease Control,’ when chemically blocking conception or aborting the baby in the womb is considered a ‘right’ to be subsidized by others who abhor it.”

Pictures from Washington D.C.

I've just returned from the annual March for Life in Washington D.C.  Powerful, awe-inspiring, uplifting, and positive.  These are the words fellow students at the St. Lawrence Center used to describe the experience.  We attended masses at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and St. Matthews Cathedral.  The March itself consisted of approximately 250,000 individuals all united for the common purpose of protesting abortion.  In between mass and the march, we had free time to explore our nation's capital.  I took the opportunity to visit the Holocaust Museum, the American History Museum, the Museum of Natural History, and the National Archives.   

St. Matthews Cathedral

"Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching the people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. That is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion." Mother Teresa

A timeline of natural history.  Near the very top is man.

Teddy Roosevelt's pants

Ronald Reagan campaign materials.

Bakery in international food court.

The Basilica

Tesla

Sign from the Holocaust Museum.

Guest Post: Students For Life Prepare To Take On Opponent's Agenda

Today's post is written by Will Stewart- Starks.  

This week a united Students For Life kicked off plans for a robust campaign to defend the unborn.  They hope to impact the debate at KU with a week of educational events and activism as well as service to their community.

Kansas politics continues to become turbulent over the de-funding of abortion clinics across the state including one that recently was forced to shut down in the college town of Lawrence. Groups like the campus Commission on the Status of Women organizing with the likes of  Planned Parenthood to distort the facts of successes made by state pro-life activists have descended on the University.
Holding early events like Sextival, a seemingly harmless table to promote safe sex and poll students on previous education on the topic, also served as a platform to recruit students to come to the aid of Planned Parenthood's legal battle with Kansas lawmakers.

But Students For Life is fighting back and is exposing bias on campus in the form of a media blackout of their perspective.  Two articles in the last week have failed to meet editorial muster, even for the often slanted campus rag, the University Daily Kansan.  Each, one on Sextival and the other on a recent capitol protest lacks the standard rebuttal to meet the papers own standard of fairness and balance.  This is made even more evident after an editorial response by a Students For Life member has yet to be run in the online or printed edition.

Thursday evening, a Kansans for Life representative and long time pro-life organizer gave the students tips to radicalize their efforts.  Providing examples from history having been a veteran of the Summer of Mercy and an activist at Wichita State University, rich experiences and lessons learned were passed along to what he described as the next generation.  When describing what lives students should focus on defending he replied, the man on death row has a legal team at his disposal and a judicial process, however, the unborn child has no one, not even a small weapon to defend itself.  The student activist can play a major role in saving the lives of the 3,600 innocent babies sentenced to death each day.

Comparison of Gender Equalities in Turkey and Norway

By Katherine Viviano


[Editors Note: Today, I'm pleased to feature a research paper written by my sister, Katherine, on Joe's Musings.  Katherine is a freshman in high school and she involved in numerous activities in her community and school.  Right now, she plans to pursue a career either in musical theatre or law.  This paper was written as a part of a research project and is reprinted with her permission. - Joe]    

Comparison of Gender Equalities in Turkey and Norway

Gender inequality is a major issue in the world today.  One of the biggest problems we are facing is the equality level shown in the roles of men and women.  In this research paper, I am going to compare the equality between men and women seen in the country of Norway to the harsh inequality between genders apparent in the country of Turkey.  Not only are these countries in completely different parts of the world, but their values and outlook on equality are also on different ends of the spectrum, as reflected in their standards.  When exploring opportunities available to men and women, gender inequality is blatant in Turkey, where women's economic participation is slowly shrinking, yet it is almost non-existent in the country of Norway, where gender mainstreaming and gender specific actions are in full effect.

Based on the Global Gender Gap Report, coming in a close second behind Iceland is the country of Norway.  (238)  Norway was one of the first countries in the world to enforce a Gender Equality Ombud, which is an “independent agency with the task of promoting equality and combating discrimination on the basis of gender, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability and age.”  Norwegian women are looked upon as male's equal, not as the inferior gender.  For example, according to the Global Gender Gap Report, in the year 2010, the men in the workforce received an estimated amount of  $40,000, while women received the exact same $40,000. (239)  Nevertheless, Norway certainly maintains a fair and just atmosphere for people of all different ages, races, and sexes to live in.  

Differing from Norway, Turkey treats men and women quite differently.  According to the Global Gender Gap Report, Turkey is ranked 126 out of 134 countries.  (297)  Half of all women are victims of crime, and more than half have extremely low literacy rates due to the lack of education available to them.  Clearly, Turkey isn't nearly as efficient as Norway when providing a gender equal country for their people.  They have rapidly regressed in their ranking as the years have passed.  For example, the Global Gender Gap Report stated that in 2010, the estimated earned income of an average male was $20,441.00, while that of the average female was only $5,352.00.  (297)  In addition, the lack of access to good education for women is significantly decreasing the average female literacy rates.

Norway is taking steps forward to achieve the number one spot and receive the title as the worlds most gender equal country.  One specific area in which they are seeking improvement is the paternity leave for men.  It is quite impressive that they have this practice in the first place, but it is even more impressive that they are working to further expand this law.  It was first introduced in 1993 and within only two years of this law being in effect, the percentage of new fathers who used the paternity leave to it's full advantage was increased from 45 to 70.  This made it apparent that most Norwegian males will indeed take extended time off, with pay, to take care of their new children and wives.  

On the other hand, Turkey is a very conservative country.  With more than half of the population being Muslim, the people of Turkey are primitive in their apparel, actions, and customs.  One of their customs is the vulgar “honor killing.”  Don't let this title be deceiving, because there is nothing honorable about this custom.  Honor killings are, by definition, “An ancient tradition still observed; a male member of the family kills a female relative for tarnishing the family image.”  The prime Ministry's Human Rights Directorate reported that the number of Honor killings occurring in Turkey escalated to a whopping 220 back in 2007.  Imagine living in an environment where women are beaten for acts like staring out the window, greeting male friends on the street, or speaking to long to shopkeepers.   Even worse, daughters of Turkish men are sometimes strangled for being a victim of rape.  These are just a few instances of the terrible abuse and disrespect for women in Turkey.  When something this serious is happening in a country, it should strike a red flag to the government officials immediately.  Unfortunately, all the government officials are men, which means that they all have the same theories regarding the treatment of women.

The practices of the citizens in these these countries are at extreme opposites, which is why they are ranked at opposite ends of the Global Gender Gap Report.  The industrialized country of Norway is accepting and fair towards both men and women in their communities.  This is shown through their high percentage of women in the workforce, along with the high level of parliament seats occupied by Norwegian women.  In Turkey, on the other hand, there are low literacy rates among women.  Essentially, if you have a child, you simply don't work in the country of Turkey.  In addition, women have very few rights.  They are controlled by the Turkish men and limited in their lifestyle because of the social norms and what the men enforce as rules for their wives.

In summary, Norway has demonstrated an environment where men and women operate on par with each other in work and home life.  They each enjoy a high standard of living and being treated with respect in the community.  When looking at pay, rights, and benefits, men and women in Norway are equal.  Alternatively, in the country of Turkey, women continue to be subservient to men.  Their rights are not considered, as they are viewed often times as the property of men.  There is a double standard where men are free in all actions while women are condemned and sometimes even killed when they stray from what is considered the norm.  Women are not offered opportunities to gain education nor meaningful employment.  Norway and Turkey are indeed on opposite ends of the equality spectrum when it comes to women's rights and gender equality.

External Links

1. Gender in Norway- Information and Resources on Gender Equality and Gender Research in Norway

2. The Female Factor- A NY Times article that discusses a Norwegian law that requires 40% of all company board members to be women.

Movie Review: Blood Money

Recently, the pro-life club at KU screened a film called Blood Money, a documentary that aims to expose the reality of the abortion industry.  Blood Money tries to accomplish quite a bit, but I thought it succeeded in laying out facts about the abortion industry and the emotional impact that abortion has on both women and men.  

The film squeezes Roe v. Wade, Planned Parenthood, the debate over when life begins,  how abortion affects women who have had one, and the sociocultural effects of abortion into an hour and 15 minutes.  As the title implies, the main focus was how abortion has become a business, primarily through the vehicle of Planned Parenthood.  

I took a look at Planned Parenthood’s most recent annual report out of curiosity, and what I found was disturbing.  Blood Money interviewed Carol Everette who is an former employee of Planned Parenthood.  She shared a couple horror stories, one in which a woman bled to death after aborting her baby.  In another instance, an abortion procedure went awry.  Instead of pulling out the dead baby from the mother’s womb, the “doctor” accidentally grabbed the woman’s large intestine and yanked it out of her.  She said, “We [Planned Parenthood] would give them [young girls] a low-dose birth control pill they would get pregnant on or a defective condom.  Our goal was 3-5 abortions for every girl between the ages of thirteen and eighteen.  These are the kind of stories that make you realize how horrific, disturbing, and shocking abortion actually is.  So when I carefully read Planned Parenthood’s most recent annual report, it was as if I was hearing two completely different stories.  The letter from the Chair and President was peppered with phrases such as “pro-choice”, “the nation’s largest sex educator”, and “powerful advocate for sexual health and rights.”  Planned Parenthood claims that only three percent of their clients received abortion services in 2008.  Then, it cleverly covered up where their revenue streams were coming from on their income statement.  $1.1 billion in revenue came from the following sources- health center income, government grants and contracts, private contributions and bequests, support from affiliates, and other operating revenue.  You know what “health center income” means?  It means about $350-$950 for an abortion in the first trimester and usually more for a second or third trimester abortion.  The cost to have an abortion increases depending on how long a woman has been pregnant, but as Planned Parenthood points out, “Hospitals generally cost more.”

While the business aspect of abortion is directly related to my major and interests, another deeply disconcerting part of abortion is the long-term health effects on the woman.  Abortion is sold as a quick fix to an unplanned pregnancy.  Planned Parenthood and other abortion clinics market their service as one that will make your problem go away.  The movie interviewed several women who testified that the problem does not go away after you have an abortion.  In fact, after an abortion, the mental and psychological torment of the woman are just beginning.  Blood Money interviewed women who attempted suicide after aborting their babies.  One woman said she has spent the better part of 20 years trying to forget about her abortion, but she is stilled haunted by it.

Wonder Woman

Have you ever skipped class or missed a meeting?  Did you then try to rationalize your the resultant guilty feeling by telling yourself it was better for your health if you slept in?  

A woman named Amber Branson is the head coach of the Lipan High School girls basketball team.  Last Friday, she led her team to a regional semifinal victory.  The regional final was scheduled for Saturday, and most people assumed that Amber would miss her team’s game.  Why?  She is pregnant.  After the victory on Friday, she gave birth to her third child just a few hours later.  

You’d think that she would skip the game on Saturday the day after giving birth, but Branson had other plans.  She returned to coach her team on Saturday and led Lipan to a come-from-behind victory, sending the Indians to the state semifinals for the first time in eight years.  

Because she gave birth to her daughter Leslie so quickly, there was not enough time for an epidural injection.  “That was all part of God’s plan.  If I had the epidural, I might not have been able to make the game”, Branson said.  When she returned to Leslie, Branson and her team took a picture with the newborn.  

It’s stories like this that make you realize your minor complaints are virtually meaningless.  We think our lives are tough- we complain about a test or a teacher.  We moan about how our significant others do not pay enough attention to us.  I’m glad to see a woman who takes the meaning of the phrase, “Seize the Day” to a whole new level.  

The Duggar Family

Are you interested in learning more about the Duggar Family? Purchase either A Love That Multiplies: An Up-Close View of How They Make it Work or The Duggars: 20 and Counting!: Raising One of America's Largest Families--How they Do It to learn more about this unique family.

Two weeks ago, I wrote about how I have become friends with Christians in Lawrence through my involvement with Students for Life of KU.  After a semester-long hiatus, the "pro-life club" as we are better known as, has made a strong resurgence.  In fact, earlier today, we volunteered at a massive fundraiser for the Pregnancy Care Center of Lawrence (PCC).  The event featured the Duggar Family from TLC's TV Show "19 and Counting".

I actually had a wonderful time listening to 17 of the 19 kids perform.  Each one of them sings and plays the violin.  Although the event was entertaining and I had the opportunity to meet local basketball legend Wayne Simien, the purpose behind the festivities was far more meaningful.  The employees at the Pregnancy Care Center of Lawrence (PCC) have dedicated their lives to reaching out to women in Douglas County who are facing unplanned pregnancies.  PCC provides accurate information for women considering an abortion so they can make a thoughtful and informed choice.  In addition, PCC provides a atmosphere of support to help women who have had an abortion in the healing process.  What they are doing is truly wonderful, and I am proud to be associated with such a righteous organization.  

Partially through the efforts of the PCC to reach out and present other options to pregnant young women,  Planned Parenthood decided to close their Lawrence office last August.  According to a notice posted in the window of the office, the Planned Parenthood center closed due to a lack of demand for its services.  Needless to say, the PCC and it's affiliates were ecstatic when this news broke.  It means that pregnant women in Lawrence have decided to choose life to the point where the only legal abortion option in the entire city was forced to discontinue its operations.  Although it is a small victory, it is one that we can be proud of.        

Even though we might not be making great strides to criminalize abortion in Lawrence, we are making progress.  It is important to be realistic about what one pregnancy center and one student organization can accomplish.  As long as there are human beings, there will be aborted babies.  You cannot entirely eradicate abortion even if you criminalize it.  Furthermore, it is commonly noted that the abortion debate is comparable to a game of tug-of-war where one side can never gain an advantage.  Therefore, skeptics note, it is foolish to partake in the fight to defend life.  I disagree.  Think about what would happen if the pro-life side let go of the rope.  I think that without a strong contingent of individuals standing up for what is right, the pro-choicers will have their way swiftly and easily especially in America, where the diversity of ideas is partially what prevents demagogues from gaining inordinate amounts of authority.  Pope John Paul II once noted, "America you are beautiful...and blessed...The ultimate test of your greatness is the way you treat every human being, but especially the weakest and most defenseless.  If you want equal justice for all and true freedom and lasting peace, then America, defend life."

If you believe that the pro-life movement is a result of irrational religious dogma, consider this article by outspoken atheist and KU philosophy professor Don Marquis.  Dr. Marquis argues that abortion is, except in rare cases, seriously immoral and that it is in the same moral category as killing an innocent adult human being.  You see, the pro-choicer's game plan is to find a rationale that narrows the scope of murder so that abortion will not fall under it.

Although there are many valid philosophical arguments in opposition to abortion, we must continue to act now to prevent the further increase in numbers of babies aborted.  The PCC is attacking the problem on one front---providing information to young, pregnant women considering an abortion.  Individuals like Pam Stenzel work on the preventative side of the issue by addressing the importance of abstinence.  Then organizations like Project Rachel work on healing the scars-both emotional and physical- that abortion leaves.  
  
The passion with which the presenters at the fundraiser spoke was eye-opening.  Abortion is arguably the most sensitive and controversial issue in the lives of Baby Boomers and Generation Y.  Since it's legalization in 1973, the number of abortions has increased dramatically in America because once the result of Roe v. Wade became law, abortions became much more accessible.  In America alone, approximately 3,700 abortions are performed every day.  While abortion in America is legal, it is definitely not widely accepted as evidenced by the 650 confident pro-life individuals who attended the Duggars in Lawrence event.