pro-life – NZ Catholic Newspaper

Psychiatrist queries pro-life contributions to abortion

Rowena Orejana — Mon, 01 May 2017 21:14:02 +0000

Abortion cannot be stopped unless pro-life people understand how they are contributing to it, said a prominent Canadian pro-life child and family psychiatrist. Dr Philip Ney, in an interview with NZ Catholic, said the majority of people who claim to be pro-life don’t live that way. “Probably the most important thing that nobody wants to

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Move to shut down Thames pro-life protest

Rowena Orejana — Sun, 20 Nov 2016 20:30:43 +0000

Voice for Life members in Thames have vowed to continue their protest against abortion “for as long as it takes” after pro-abortion elements tried and failed to get the Thames Coromandel District Council to revoke their permit to assemble outside Thames hospital. VFL Thames representative Lyn Hopkins said on October 21 that the pro-life group had received a permit in the

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Former abortion woman speaks for babies

Rowena Orejana — Mon, 15 Dec 2014 22:46:29 +0000

by ROWENA OREJANA Former Planned Parenthood clinic director turned pro-life advocate Abby Johnson has called on New Zealanders to give humanity back to unborn babies. “Really, my message is a call to action. Babies are dying. If there was a clinic that opened up somewhere here in Auckland saying, ‘If you are tired of being

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Pro-life internship trains 16 young people

Michael Otto — Tue, 13 Aug 2013 05:26:21 +0000

by CHRISTINE GOUNDER PARAPARAUMU — Voice for Life has run another successful Stayin’ Alive Pro-Life Internship programme at Kapiti in Wellington. Sixteen interns, the maximum number the programme can take, gathered for six days to discuss pro-life issues. Organiser Brendan Malone said more than 20 people applied for a place in this year’s internship, but

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Nelson duo win pro-life song contest

NZ Catholic Staff — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 03:31:11 +0000

by NZ CATHOLIC staff AUCKLAND — This year’s fifth annual pro-life songwriting contest, won by a Nelson duet, may be the last such event. Organiser Don Brebner announced at the finals that he, and the Bay of Plenty Voice for Life branch that initiated the contests, were retiring from the project, and challenged the young

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Wrong electoral choice can jeopardise your soul, bishop cautions

Michael Otto — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 04:55:09 +0000

SPRINGFIELD, Illinois (CWN) — Strongly criticising provisions of the Democratic Party platform, Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield warned that “a vote for a candidate who promotes actions or behaviours that are intrinsically evil and gravely sinful makes you morally complicit and places the eternal salvation of your own soul in serious jeopardy”.
Bishop Paprocki first discussed the controversy over the inclusion of the word “God” in the Democratic Party’s platform:
“After outcries of protest from outside as well as within the Democratic Party, the sentence with the same reference to God used in 2008 was restored to read, ‘We need a government that stands up for the hopes, values and interests of working people, and gives everyone willing to work hard the chance to make the most of their God-given potential’.
“Before anyone relaxes and concludes that all is well, now that the Democratic Party platform contains a single passing reference to God, the way that this was done should give us pause. Convention chairman Antonio Villaraigosa had to call for the voice vote three times because each time the sound level for the ‘ayes’ and the ‘nays’ sounded about even, far short of the two-thirds necessary according to convention rules to amend the platform. That did not stop the convention chairman from declaring, ‘The ayes have it!’
“What is troubling about that is the blatant disregard for the rules and for the apparent wishes of about half the delegates. The reference to God is back in the platform apparently because President Obama wanted it back in. That may be fine for now, but if a future president wants references to God taken out, apparently that can be done regardless of the wishes of the delegates if that is what The Leader wants. That does not bode well for democracy in the Democratic Party.”
Bishop Paprocki then offered strong criticism of the party’s positions on abortion and same-sex marriage:
“In 1992 presidential candidate Bill Clinton famously said that abortion should be ‘safe, legal and rare’. . . . Apparently ‘rare’ is so last century that it had to be dropped, because now the Democratic Party Platform says that abortion should be ‘safe and legal’. Moreover, the Democratic Party platform supports the right to abortion ‘regardless of the ability to pay’. Well, there are only three ways for that to happen: Either taxpayers will be required to fund abortion, or insurance companies will be required to pay for them (as they are now required to pay for contraception), or hospitals will be forced to perform them for free.
“Moreover, the Democratic Party platform also supports same-sex marriage, recognises that ‘gay rights are human rights’, and calls for the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, the federal law signed by President Clinton in 1996 that defined marriage as the legal union of one man and one woman.
“Now, why am I mentioning these matters in the Democratic Party platform? There are many positive and beneficial planks in the Democratic Party platform, but I am pointing out those that explicitly endorse intrinsic evils.
“My job is not to tell you for whom you should vote. But I do have a duty to speak out on moral issues. I would be abdicating this duty if I remained silent out of fear of sounding ‘political’ and didn’t say anything about the morality of these issues.”
Turning to the Republican Party platform, the bishop added:
“So what about the Republicans? I have read the Republican Party platform and there is nothing in it that supports or promotes an intrinsic evil or a serious sin . . . One might argue for different methods in the platform to address the needs of the poor, to feed the hungry and to solve the challenges of immigration, but these are prudential judgments about the most effective means of achieving morally desirable ends, not intrinsic evils.
“Certainly there are ‘pro-choice’ Republicans who support abortion rights and ‘Log Cabin Republicans’ who promote same-sex marriage, and they are equally as wrong as their Democratic counterparts. But these positions do not have the official support of their party.
“I am not telling you which party or which candidates to vote for or against, but I am saying that you need to think and pray very carefully about your vote, because a vote for a candidate who promotes actions or behaviours that are intrinsically evil and gravely sinful makes you morally complicit and places the eternal salvation of your own soul in serious jeopardy,” he concluded.

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Voice for Life song contest to be in Auckland

NZ Catholic Staff — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 05:14:10 +0000

by NZ CATHOLIC staff AUCKLAND — The fifth Voice for Life National Pro-Life Songwriting Contest will be held in Auckland in November, organiser Don Brebner has announced. Mr Brebner said that after the first contest, in Tauranga in 2008, Christian groups and organisations such as Right to Life, Family First and Pro-Life NZ offered to

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Thames weekly pro-life protest braves winter chill

Michael Otto — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 05:26:00 +0000

by MICHAEL OTTO THAMES — The mornings might be frosty of late, but the spirit of about a dozen sidewalk pro-life witnesses in Thames is cheery. On Friday mornings since November last year, members of the Hauraki branch of Voice for Life have held vigil for two hours on a street corner near Thames Hospital.

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Pro-life youth and vigour shocks pro-abortion leader

Michael Otto — Tue, 15 May 2012 05:39:03 +0000

WASHINGTON (LSN) — When Nancy Keenan, the head of America’s oldest abortion lobby, told the Washington Post she was stepping down, she cited a grim fact that she had noticed for years: Abortion supporters just aren’t as young or zealous as their pro-life counterparts anymore.
“While most young, anti-abortion voters see abortion as a crucial political issue, Naral’s own internal research does not find similar passion among abortion-rights supporters,” wrote the Post’s Sarah Kliff. “If the pro-choice movement is to successfully defend abortion rights,” Keenan contends, “it needs more young people in leadership roles, including hers.”
Keenan, 60, said she would step down at the end of the year in favour of a younger executive. “There’s an opportunity for a new and younger leader,” Keenan told the paper. “Roe v. Wade is 40 in January. It’s time for a new leader to come in and, basically, be the person for the next 40 years of protecting reproductive choice.”
The abortion leader had told Newsweek in 2010 of her shock at the youth and vigour of the pro-life movement after stumbling upon the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., which draws hundreds of thousands of people — disproportionately female and very young — each year.
“I just thought, my gosh, they are so young. There are so many of them, and they are so young.”
Gallup polls on the abortion issue among Americans have shown age groups growing more similar in their views on the topic for the past 20 years. Although abortion-on-demand found most of its support among young adults in the mid-1970s, surveys since 2000 show all age groups below seniors showing similar feelings on the topic.
Naral’s poll of 700 young Americans in 2010 found 51 per cent of pro-life voters under 30 calling abortion a “very important” voting issue, compared with only 26 per cent of the same group among abortion supporters.

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Two sisters winners in song contest

NZ Catholic Staff — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 00:52:40 +0000

by NZ CATHOLIC staff AUCKLAND — Two sisters were winners in the finals of the fourth Voice for Life National Pro-Life Songwriting Contest on December 3. Rachel Schryvers, Auckland, was first in the Open category and her sister, Maria, from Kaitaia, won the College/Tertiary category. Organiser Don Brebner said the 50 original entries — including

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