MCFL wins "coveted" Phoenix award! (lol)

The Boston Phoenix (6/29/11) is serious. "MASSACHUSETTS CITIZENS FOR LIFE TRIES TO SHUT DOWN SAFE-SEX SITE FOR TEENS There are so many bad actors in the saga of Maria Talks, a safe-sex-education Web site that came under fire this past spring, that it's hard to know where to begin. The 63 state legislators who demanded that Governor Deval Patrick eliminate the $100,000 in state funding the site receives? Check. The state's four Catholic bishops, led by Cardinal Seán O'Malley, who jumped on the defunding bandwagon? Check. The Boston Herald, for endangering a vital program by flogging this story above and beyond the call of journalistic duty? Check. The state's public-health commissioner, John Auerbach, who partly caved in to the pressure and ordered that the site be toned down? Check. The coveted Muzzle, though, goes to the anti-abortion-rights group MASSACHUSETTS CITIZENS FOR LIFE (MCFL). According to the Herald, which broke the story on April 20, it was MCFL that initially 'took aim at the site'".   The Phoenix claims we helped this very sensible, needed web site by letting more people know about it.  No doubt The Phoenix will be glad to hear that we are investigating the Planned Parenthood connection - which looks like conflict of interest .  I'm sure The Phoenix will also be thrilled to learn that we are training speaking teams to go into the areas targeted to have Maria Talks integrated into the school curricula.  These pro-life speakers will talk directly to the young people with the facts about life, abortion, relations with their parents, etc.   In receiving this award, as they say, I must thank all those who made it possible, blah, blah...  Seriously, thanks to all of you who made the calls, sent the emails, and talked to countless people.  I know I can count on you for the next phase of the battle.  Anne       DONATIONS - WE NEED AND APPRECIATE THEM!     Donate through PayPal     THANK YOU!    For more information about the Pro-Life cause in Massachusetts or to get involved    please visit our website at massprolife.com.

SUMMER ACADEMY: Register now!

Massachusetts Citizens for Life Summer Academy, 2011 Rising 9th - 12th Grade Students - Worcester and Boston The goal of the sessions is to form and engage high school students as workers in the pro-life movement. More specifically and immediately, we intend these students to become Ambassadors of MCFL in their respective schools, churches, or homeschooling communities during the 2011-2012 school year, as both a leaven and liaison in their respective pro-life clubs. So that we may provide a thorough formation, our preference is for students who can and will commit to attending all, or at least most, of the sessions. An award certificate will be conferred during the last session, which will also serve as a "commissioning ceremony" for these MCFL Ambassadors. In order to present a thorough overview of the main life issues, the pro-life movement, and the various ways that these students can and should get involved, we will hold eight weekly sessions. With the exception of the first and last, sessions will normally consist of a 45 minute expert presentation of content, and a 45 minute interactive workshop, with 30 minutes allotted at the beginning for informal fraternizing over pizza and soft drinks. Dates:                   Worcester:  Burncoat Baptist Church, 475 Burncoat Street                     Wednesdays, July 6 - Aug 10                              Charlestown:  MCFL Office, Schrafft Center, 529 Main Street   Wednesdays, July 13 - Aug 17   Time:                     6:00 p.m. To 8 p.m. Tuition:                Free for pro-life high school students                                 WEEK 1:  Wednesday, July 6 (Worcester), July 13 (Charlestown)   Topic: Anthropology, Ethics & Human Rights Prof. David Franks, PhD, Prof. St John Seminary (confirmed) What do we mean by "personhood" (theological, philosophical, legal) ? The ethical status of the unborn child, the disabled, the elderly. Human Rights / Rights & Duties / Conflicting Rights Workshop: Questions and Answers ▪     it's my body ▪     "right to choose" ▪     personally opposed but... ▪     "safe-legal-rare" ▪     hard cases (rape, incest, life of mother)         the "common ground " fallacy                                                                             Thomas Day, Esq. on Roe v Wade and the other Supreme Court decisions that got us where we are   WEEK 2: Wednesday, July 13 (Worcester) and July 20 (Charlestown) Topic: Fetal Development & Abortion Linda Thayer , Vice President, Educational Affairs, MCFL (confirmed) The humanity of the unborn child from the moment of conception (fertilization)   WEEK 3: Wednesday, July 20 (Worcester) and July 27 (Charlestown) Topic: Alternatives to Abortion and Consequences of Abortion Speakers:  Pregnancy Counselors and Project Rachel Counselors Cori Connor Morse, Abortion Survivor/ MCFL Role-Playing Workshop   WEEK 4: Wednesday, July 27 (Worcester), August 3 (Charlestown) Topic: Stem Cells and the intentional distortion of language used when discussing life issues Micheline Matthews-Roth, MD, Harvard Medical School (confirmed) Matt Hanafin (confirmed) and William Keough (confirmed), Student Leaders on use of language   WEEK 5: Wednesday, August 3 (Worcester), August 10 (Charlestown) Topic: Euthanasia & End of Life Issues  Prof.  Scott Fitzgibbons, JD, Boston College Law School (confirmed)   WEEK 6: Wednesday, August 10 (Worcester), Aug 17 (Charlestown) 2-3 hours with little party to close Topic: Civics & Political Action  Local Massachusetts State Representative in each location How we can participate in the political system Women's Right to Know Bill in Massachusetts and current legislative situation in DC   (Worcester)  Students from the Celebrate Life Club, Minnechaung Regional High School, Wilbraham  (Charlestown) Students from the Pro-Life Club at Burlington High School Burlington, Kayla Coluci Call to Ambassadorship:  Conferral of Awards and Commissioning as Ambassadors Register at http://www.masscitizensforlife.org/events/180-2011-student-academy-registration.html           DONATIONS - WE NEED AND APPRECIATE THEM!     Donate through PayPal     THANK YOU!    For more information about the Pro-Life cause in Massachusetts or to get involved    please visit our website at massprolife.com.

Local news of note

James Sherley,  MD, stem cell expert, who speaks regularly at MCFL events and received an award at a recent MCFL Dinner, has filed briefs in a lawsuit to stop Obama's ESCR, http://www.lifenews.com/2011/06/27/scientists-file-briefs-in-lawsuit-to-stop-obamas-escr-funding/ Also, Erika Bachiochi from Walpole, whose new book, Women, Sex, and The Church, was featured in the last MCFL News, just let us know about her article, "Embodied Equality: Debunking Equality Arguments for Abortion Rights," published in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy this summer.  She sent the link and the abstract.  It's the first widely published pro-life feminist critique of pro-choice feminist scholarly equality arguments for abortion rights.  It looks like a very helpful tool in the pro-life arguments. We should all check it over!  Anne  http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1873485.   Erika says: Within legal academic circles and the general pro-choice feminist population, it is axiomatic that women's equality requires abortion. Indeed, pro-choice legal scholars, foremost among them Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, have argued that the Equal Protection Clause provides a far more appealing constitutional justification for the abortion right than the roundly criticized right to privacy offered in Roe.  This article seeks to systematically engage, on feminist grounds, the leading pro-choice feminist legal literature, detailing why sexual equality need not-indeed, should not-include a right to abortion. I critique popular scholarly equality arguments from both a constitutional perspective (i.e., why abortion ought not be protected by the Equal Protection Clause) and a philosophical perspective (i.e., how autonomy arguments fail to understand the actual biological dependency relationship that exists between mother and unborn child, and the affirmative duties of care that follow).  I thus challenge the assumptions underlying the idea that pregnancy and motherhood necessarily undermine equality for women. I argue instead that abortion rights actually hinder the equality of women by taking the wombless male body as normative, thereby promoting cultural hostility toward pregnancy and motherhood. In a legitimate attempt to get beyond the essentialist idea that women's reproductive capacities should be determinative of women's lives, pro-choice feminist legal scholars have jettisoned the significance of the body. In rightfully arguing that pregnancy is more than just a biological reality, they discount the fact that pregnancy is a fundamental biological reality. I will show that acknowledging this biological reality-that the human species gestates in the wombs of women-need not necessitate the current social reality that women are the primary (and, too often, sole) caretakers of their children or the social arrangements in which professional and public occupations are so hostile to parenting duties. Easy access to abortion serves to further discharge men of the consequences that sometimes result from sexual intercourse and so places responsibility for unintentional pregnancies solely on pregnant women. Rather than making significant demands on men who sire children, current law encourages women to mimic male abandonment. Concomitant with the proclivity to view male sexual autonomy as the standard for human reproduction is an embrace of a male-centered sexuality that ignores the procreative potentialities inherent in the sexual act. I will conclude by outlining the contours of a pro-woman sexuality and an embodied equality that takes the male and the female body seriously and affirms their shared capacities for full human development.           DONATIONS - WE NEED AND APPRECIATE THEM!     Donate through PayPal     THANK YOU!    For more information about the Pro-Life cause in Massachusetts or to get involved    please visit our website at massprolife.com.

Dr. Jefferson doubly honored!

At their meeting last week, the Board of Directors of the National Right to Life Committee passed unanimously the following resolution: WHEREAS, Mildred Fay Jefferson, a woman of remarkable talent, strength and ability, was a trailblazer as an African-American woman, pro-lifer and physician and WHEREAS, Dr. Jefferson gave four decades of her life to the cause of the most defenseless human beings, serving in many capacities for Massachusetts Citizens for Life, and as an NRLC founding member, NRLC Vice-Chairman of the Board, NRLC Chairman of the Board and President of The National Right to Life Committee; and WHEREAS, Dr. Jefferson was an eloquent speaker, motivational proponent of our cause to activists at every level of our movement and friend to many, including those of us privileged to serve with her on the Board of Directors, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the National Right to Life Committee Board of Directors, sitting in Jacksonville, Florida, this 22nd day of June, 2011, offers sincere sympathy to her family, and commemorates her extraordinary life.  The first morning of the Convention, this wonderful video  about Dr. Jefferson's life was shown - to many tears and "Amens!" We'll have professional DVD's at the Mass Citizens Dinner for a lucky few.  I hear G K Chesterton is looking forward to seeing it.  I know you'll enjoy it!  Anne       DONATIONS - WE NEED AND APPRECIATE THEM!     Donate through PayPal     THANK YOU!    For more information about the Pro-Life cause in Massachusetts or to get involved    please visit our website at massprolife.com.

NRL Convention: Old friends

This was one of the best NRL Conventions!  Constant themes:  we must hold the U S House, elect 60 Senators, take back the Presidency, and then repeal Obamacare.  I'll be telling you more about implementation of Obamacare that is so bad we never could have imagined when we started fighting it two years ago!   The Convention concluded with a Banquet that featured Michael Clancy.  You'll remember him at our 2010 Assembly for Life.  The picture of Baby Samuel, who is now 11 years old, will never cease to amaze and inspire, as will Michael's beautiful story.  The last day was kicked off by the Schindler family.  They have done such a wonderful job in protecting vulnerable patients - patients who had been denied care and are now alive and healthy because of their efforts.  Suzanne Vitadamo, who spoke at our Dinner right after Terry's death, her brother Bobby Schindler, and their mother were all there. A new movie, Doonby, was  premiered.  It features Norma McCorvey and stars Jennifer O'Neil, who spoke at our Mothers' Day Dinner.  Burke Balch continues to be THE national expert on health care - he has developed his research even further than that he presented to us two years ago.  Wanda Franz who spoke last October, David Franks, Chairman of the MCFL Board, and his wife, Angela, all presented at breakout sessions.  Fr. Frank Pavone was very enthusiastic about his recent visit to Hingham, and many other presenters told me they would love to come to Massachusetts to speak. There are some more exciting things from the Convention.  I look forward to sharing them with you!  Anne       DONATIONS - WE NEED AND APPRECIATE THEM!     Donate through PayPal     THANK YOU!    For more information about the Pro-Life cause in Massachusetts or to get involved    please visit our website at massprolife.com.