The President of the United States is criticizing Lila Rose and her organization for having “manufactured” some issues we shouldn’t get distracted by.

Pro-life politicians have often gone after the abortion provider, while pro-choice politicians like President Obama have rushed to its defense. In our exclusive interview, the President deflected the impact of the video sting.

“I think sometimes these issues get manufactured,” he said “they get a lot of attention in the blogosphere.”

[…]

Meanwhile the President believes the group’s work speaks for itself.

“You know my bottom line is I think that Planned Parenthood in the past has done good work. If there was a specific problem at this center, it should be addressed, but we shouldn’t get so distracted with some of these issues.”

First of all, congratulations Miss Rose! If Barack Obama personally took exception to something I’d done, I would be mighty pleased indeed. And second of all, those issues that we shouldn’t get distracted with include covering up an underage sex ring. That’s why it doesn’t matter too much what happens to the recent House amendment to defund Planned Parenthood. What matters is that these issues are now out in the open. This can only be good for those of us opposed to abortion.

Creating conditions so you can create drugs to treat said conditions: Does Female Sexual Dysfunction actually exist? This doctor doesn’t think so:

When there is a biologically driven male/female mismatch in sexual drive, which partner has the mental disorder? Is it the relatively undersexed woman or is it the relatively oversexed man?Should we diagnose her with FSD and prescribe a testosterone patch–or should we diagnose him with hypersexuality disorder and prescribe a course of estrogen? Of course, both suggestions are equally ridiculous– neither partner has a mental disorder. The mismatch is just an inevitable, biological fact of life–one that currently has no proper treatment and no real justification for diagnosis. There is certainly no logic to singling out the woman in the pair as the one who is mentally disordered or sexually abnormal.

So three ProWomanProLife ladies walk into a bar… no this isn’t the start of a lame joke but rather exactly what Brigitte, Véronique and I did last night. Now why would you care about what I did last night? You wouldn’t. Except that at one point Véronique gestures for us to listen more closely to the two guys sitting at the table next to us. These guys looked like they were in their late 20s, having dinner, and discussing…Justin Bieber’s comments about abortion. It was too noisy to really eavesdrop but it just goes to show you that what a 16-year-old celebrity says gets heard.

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Véronique (who has better hearing) adds: The dudes had more issues with Rolling Stone misquoting JB than with the teen idol’s position on abortion. Which is good in a way: It shows acceptance of the pro-life position.

…lend me your ear. I’ll be giving a talk at Theology on Tap on Tuesday, February 22 at Dow’s Lake Pavilion (Malone’s), Ottawa. It starts at 7:30 and is open to everyone. The topic: The Status of Men. More specifically:

Canada has a Status of Women department. Andrea Mrozek, Manager of Research at the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada and founder of the blog ProWomanProlife.org asks if we need to create a Status of Men instead. Come hear Ms. Mrozek review how men are lagging in our current culture and the possible links this has to the decline in marriage and family.

 I like Theology on Tap because you can enjoy a beer while listening, which will certainly make my talk much better. In fact, I’ll order the first round. If you keep drinking, you are bound to believe it’s truly fascinating.

Awesome!

The House of Representatives Friday passed a measure to end federal funding for abortion provider Planned Parenthood a day after Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., brought the chamber to stunned silence after describing her own personal experience with abortion.

Friday afternoon, the House passed the amendment by a vote of 240-185 with one member voting present. The House must still vote for final passage on the underlying spending bill before the cuts head to the Senate for a possible vote later this month.

I’m not an expert on US federal law-making, and I’d be grateful if someone who knows better than I do (which wouldn’t narrow the field much) would explain and/or correct me if I’m wrong. Send me an email or write in the comments. My impression is that this measure will not go through, but I could be wrong. Still, I like the fact that politicians in the House of Representatives are not only willing to debate the issue, but to vote on it as well. And the sky didn’t fall on their heads. Canadian politicians: are you watching?

You can’t tell someone how to feel. But this is sad:

The Saskatchewan farmer who killed his severely disabled daughter almost 20 years ago says he has no regrets. In a CBC interview, 57-year-old Robert Latimer says he knew the 1993 mercy killing of his daughter Tracy was the right thing to do.

I’ll also take issue with the language used in the report. There is no such thing as a “mercy killing.” He killed his daughter, full stop.

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Brigitte wonders: Would “mercy murder” make murder sound somehow better? Then why do people use “mercy killing” as a way to soften the killing part?

A friend e-mailed this article to me today and asked what I thought of it:

Last week, the University of Victoria Students’ Society finally ruled that a pro-life club broke the school’s harassment policy by comparing abortion to the Holocaust in October 2010.

At a Feb. 7 meeting, the students’ society voted to censure Youth Protecting Youth over “Echoes of the Holocaust,” a talk led by a visiting representative of the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform. The public disapproval of YPY’s actions follows recommendations made by the students’ society’s complaints committee, which was formed in 2008 after numerous students voiced concerns regarding the controversial club.

Simply put, I think that the university needs to educate itself on the definition of “harassment” and “holocaust”. According to the dictionary widget thing on my computer, to harass is to subject to aggressive pressure or intimidation and holocaust is destruction or slaughter on a mass scale. Since the event was held in a classroom, I’m not sure how anybody could possibly feel harassed, since in order to encounter it one would have to essentially bring it upon themselves and attend the event. I feel pretty safe in saying that abortion easily fits the definition of a holocaust.

Of course, the end of the article gives away the real reason people were complaining:

The complaints committee also recommended the UVSS board weigh mediation options with YPY and host a restorative justice (likely pro-choice) event, organized by the Political Action Committee.

Maybe it’s just me, but if I wanted to do a follow-up restorative justice event, it would be about the holocaust, not abortion. It looks like just another excuse to attack the pro-life club (business as usual).

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Andrea adds: I do see what you are saying Deborah, and I do think this is just another example of open season on pro-life beliefs. That said, I think holocaust is a term that should be reserved for The Holocaust. It’s a word that was created uniquely for that, if I’m not mistaken. I support the Centre for Bio-ethical Reform, but in some ways, I wish they’d leave the term “Holocaust” out and go with “mass slaughter” or “genocide” to describe abortion. I think my feelings on this may deserve a whole post. But in the interim, I’d say you are absolutely right: no one was harrassed by the presentation and this is just an excuse to make pro-lifers on campus shut up.

I’ve just started reading Unplanned, by Abby Johnson, “the dramatic true story of a former Planned Parenthood leader’s eye-opening journey across the life line.”

It’s a book that really gets at how someone like Abby, a Christian from a pro-life family, might end up working in an abortion clinic. I’m just at the beginning and I’d say there’s a lot of naivete coupled with a lack of rigourous thinking. For today, though, I’m going to post the part about Abby’s chemical abortion. As stories accrue about how hard this is on women, I think it’s important to post:

My cramping was excruciating and went on for days and days. I was too ill to get out of bed, ran a fever, and bled heavily. I was frightened, but whether our of shame, humiliation, or self-punishment—or maybe some combination of the three—I would not call the clinic. I couldn’t bear the thought of going to an emergency room or an ob-gyn because there was no way I was going to confess that I’d brought this on myself by aborting my second pregnancy….After two weeks I returned to work though I still felt so weak I’d come home exhausted and go straight back to bed. Finally, after about eight weeks of feeling ill, I felt recovered enough to return to the clinic for one of my volunteer shifts.”

Rachel’s Vineyard is having a retreat April 8-10 in the Ottawa area for any person who has struggled with the emotional or spiritual pain of abortion.

Check their web site for more information.