University Faculty for LifeHere is a link to Ross Douthat’s recent (January 2, 2011) column with the above title in the New York Times. Here is his conclusion: “This is the paradox of America’s unborn. No life is so desperately sought after, so hungrily desired, so carefully nurtured. And yet no life is so legally unprotected, and so […]
Colleagues involved in linguistic study may find Google’s Ngram feature helpful as a starting point for discussion about the use of words over the centuries. A word of caution, though: entering the words “abortion,” “infanticide,” and “euthanasia” results in a graph which may be misleading. As pro-life scholars know, “abortion” was often called “infanticide” by British […]
Here is another insightful piece by Michael New on the latest controversy about the link between abortion and women’s health. The Washington Post recently gave attention to a new article that allegedly refuted a study documenting that women who had abortions had an increased risk of various mental health problems. New explains that the study that the Post highlighted […]
The European Court of Human Rights has decided the Ireland abortion case. The Court held Ireland’s law violated one of the claimant’s rights by failing to provide a mechanism for her to obtain a legal abortion, which in Ireland is only available under limited circumstances. The decision doesn’t seem as bad as some had feared. […]
Christopher Kaczor has just published a new book entitled “The Ethics of Abortion: Women’s Rights, Human Life, and the Question of Justice.” http://www.amazon.com/Ethics-Abortion-Question-Routledge-Bioethics/dp/0415884691 This is an excellent book, and I highly recommend it. In the book, Kaczor defends the pro-life position with clarity and philosophical depth. Nearly half of the book discusses the personhood question. He also critically discusses […]
A colleague on the Italian American Professionals group on LinkedIn posed the following question: “Since the death rate in Italy exceeds the birth rate, Italians are a disappearing race. How do we stop this from happening?” My response is as follows: “May I also suggest that you support the pro-life movement in Italy? As you […]
Louisiana recently passed The Ultrasound Before Abortion Act, which requires ultrasounds before abortions are performed but doesn’t require that the woman view the ultrasound images. The Bioethics Defense Fund helped draft the law. For more information about the law, see http://bdfbuzz.wordpress.com/2010/08/10/ultrasound-bills-touted-in-wash-post-column/ On August 6, 2010, the law was challenged in federal court. For reaction to the lawsuit, see http://www.lifenews.com/state5330.html UPDATE: The […]
The Public Discourse website has posted additional analysis of the abortion/health care controversy. See this analysis by Helen Alvare http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2010/07/1468 and this analysis by the editors of Public Discourse. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2010/07/1449 Richard M.
The Pontifical Academy for Life is preparing a new document on the the impact of abortion on women. http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=16589 There has been greater awareness of this issue in recent years. The Supreme Court addressed this issue in Gonzales v. Carhart, and this caused a huge uproar. (I discussed this briefly in my paper at the 2007 […]
Here is the Amazon link to Jane Gilroy’s new book entitled “A Shared Vision: The 1976 Ellen McCormack Presidential Campaign.” http://www.amazon.com/Shared-Vision-McCormack-Presidential-Campaign/dp/1432755064/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280603411&sr=8-3 Jane presented some of this story at the 2005 UFL conference. Here is a link to her paper from the 2005 conference. http://www.uffl.org/vol15/gilroy05.pdf Jane, who was the vice-chair of McCormack’s campaign committee, is uniquely […]