PS It is entirely a coincidence, so much so that it must be Providence, that I happened to choose a photo that remembers a woman and her unborn child. I got a bit of a surprise when I proofed my already published post.

From my go-to blog when the world is getting me down, Momastery.

My mom does this too, except she doesn’t call me “honey” but rather a Czech variation on my name that no one else, myself included, can pronounce. (It contains an “a” that sounds like an “e” and a “soft d,” which does not exist in English. Good luck, my fellow anglophones!)

My mom answered the phone. We’d just spoken three hours prior. Still, she answered like this: “Well, Hiiiiiiiiiiiii HONEY!!!” Like it’d been four years since we’d checked in. Like it was a thrilling unbelievable SHOCK that I was calling. Like I was in a third world country and the likelihood that I’d have found a phone was nil. Like I’d been missing for years. She always answers like that.

A good friend of mine is in the midst of watching her mother’s health decline in hospital.

So, my friends, today is a good day to call your mom and tell her you love her. You can do it, just pick up the phone.

I won’t speak ill of the dead. Be aware that this sort of hagiography for a mere friend of Morgentaler will be multiplied 1000 fold when the man himself dies. Be further aware that the press will ring with the sounds of how this was done for “women’s rights.”

This is fun. Cardinal Dolan gives the benediction at the Democratic National Convention and, as a Catholic, calls for courage to protect unborn life. I was thinking last night that provided Caroline Kennedy (as a Catholic) still believes in God, she’ll be called to account for her speaking to the masses in this way, and leading them astray. As a Catholic, my foot. That really gets me. I’m entirely used to all the “reproductive health/abortion rights” hoopla. Just don’t try and make Catholicism, or really, any living faith, sanction it.

…Well, I’m not. But let’s pretend for a second that I am. If I said to you, “As a Catholic woman…” and I asked you to fill in the sentence, what would you say?

Here’s the quote from Caroline Kennedy’s speech at the Democrat National Convention ce soir:

As a Catholic woman, I take reproductive health seriously, and today, it is under attack. This year alone, more than a dozen states have passed more than 40 restrictions on women’s access to reproductive health care. That’s not the kind of future I want for my daughters or your daughters.

Last I checked, the Catholic church was under attack for holding the line on sexual mores. Last I checked, Pope John Paul’s encyclical was not called “In defence of reproductive freedom.” If you did the most cursory of polls on city streets and asked people whether Catholics can support abortion, I’m guessing most would know the answer: No.

It is sad to me, besides being such hogwash, that she insists on bringing her Catholicism into such an insulting, twisted misinterpretation of what her faith teaches. This is particularly true since even as a Protestant I can see the freedom and beauty of teachings on sexuality in the Catholic church, for those who bother looking into them.

I signed an open letter to the mayor of Kelowna with others. I feel that if one disagrees with this small symbol in Kelowna, the thing to do is have your own week, and not censor someone else.

Interesting article. Please note that it is fair to call President Obama “pro-abortion,” not “pro-choice.” I think the Hilary Clinton view of seeing abortion as tragic but wanting it to be “safe, legal and rare,” could more aptly be described as “pro-choice.” But the Democrats are rebranding as the abortion party, which hardly seems strategic at a time when public opinion is becoming more pro-life.

All that changed under Obama. Evidence suggests that this is not a man who has ever doubted that the abortion rights position is both constitutional and ethical. As a state senator he voted “present” on a bill that would have compelled doctors to provide life support to fetuses that survived a termination procedure and were not expected to live. Obama argued that the language of the bill extended the legal protection to a “pre-viable” infant and so would not be constitutional. (PolitiFact notes that Illinois “already had a law on its books from 1975 that said if a doctor suspected an abortion was scheduled for a viable fetus — meaning able to survive outside of the mother’s body — then the child must receive medical care if it survives the abortion.”)

…attend National Political Conventions dressed up as a vagina. At what point in their lives did these women decide this was an honourable, courageous or inspiring course of action? I suppose they think it is fun. Or Funny. I’m not sure. Anyhoo, it’s Hallowe’en come early again, at the Democratic National Convention. (I say again, because apparently there is nothing pro-choicers/pro-abortion folks like better than playing dress-up.)

This sounds like a book I’d enjoy reading:

Criticizing major players on both sides, former Susan G. Komen for the Cure Vice President Karen Handel has written a blistering insider’s account of the prominent cancer charity’s decision to halt grants to Planned Parenthood and its swift retreat in the face of an intense, widespread backlash. Titled “Planned Bullyhood” and due for publication on Sept. 11, the book depicts Planned Parenthood as an aggressive, partisan organization that was willing to weaken Komen to further a liberal political agenda. However, Handel — a conservative who resigned from Komen after its reversal — also assails Komen’s leadership as indecisive, timid and politically naive, and says the hasty decision to backtrack was “a terrible mistake.”

Great article about the Paralympics, which aren’t getting much, if any, coverage.

As recently as World War II, many of today’s Para-athletes wouldn’t have existed—not just as swimmers or tennis players, but as human beings. People with crippling birth defects or war wounds would have been left to die, partly because of the limits of medical science, but also because the world seemed to have no place for them. Today, “victims”—including Martine Wright, a sitting-volleyball player who lost her legs in London’s 7/7 transit bombings of 2005, and Joe Townsend, an Ironman triathlete who lost his legs fighting for Britain in Afghanistan—not only live, but excel.

This is true. And it’s a great reminder that killing babies in the womb because we think they won’t have a good quality of life is not a decision for us to make.