Sens still suck, but their fans are pretty nice

We at Birth Pangs felt that deluded loyal Senators fans should be alerted to the shocking situation that we reported here. We got out the pancake make-up to cover up the Maple Leaf logo tattooed on our forehead and infiltrated the enemy camp.

We had initially added to an existing thread (the link is in the first post) on the 'Better Halves'. A couple of fans took exception to the 'Sens suck' in the title, but some seemed prepared to discuss the matter. One person though asked us to start another thread since the topic of the Sens' support for a fetus fetishizing organization was distracting from the important subject of the upcoming marriage of some player or other. So as a polite noob, we did.

In the discussion there, you'll see that some didn't care that the Sens are lending support and recognition to a fetus fetishizing gang. Others said that as long as the fetus fetishizers weren't actually bombing abortion clinics, it was OK with them too.

It did seem to bother some of them, bless 'em.

We wait on further developments and will report.

UPDATE:
UnrepentantOldHippie weighs in, in her inimitable fashion. And she has an email address for the Sens. Which I could not get to work. :rant:

UPDATE 2:
Beijing York in the comments here brings us the news that Heather Mallick is on the case. And guess what. She finds that First Place Pregnancy Centre is not only, um, economical with the truth to its clients, but also to its supporters. FPPC apparently told the Senators Foundation that it is a registered charity. Well, Heather checked and it is not.

(First published at Birth Pangs.)

Not only do Sens suck, their 'Better Halves' support fetus fetishists

Sports is usually outside the purview of Birth Pangs. But this litle item caught our attention.

The Ottawa Senators' Better Halves are holding a fundraising Tree Raffle.

Tickets will be on sale at home games on Nov. 29, Dec. 1, Dec 15 and Dec. 22. All funds raised through the sale of tickets will be matched by the Sens Foundation and directed to the following charities: First Place Pregnancy Centre, Kids Help Phone Ottawa and Harmony House.

So, what are these charities? Harmony House is a women's shelter. OK. Kids Help Phone, as its name might suggest, offers help to kids in various kinds of distress. Fine. And
First Place Pregnancy Centre is a
Crisis Pregnancy Centre.

Uh-oh.

Crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), also known as pregnancy resource centers, are non-profit organizations established by pro-life supporters that work to persuade pregnant women to give birth rather than have abortions, with a focus on women facing unplanned or "crisis" pregnancies. CPCs may advise women regarding parenting and adoption. Some CPCs provide non-medical supportive services to pregnant and parenting women. Most CPCs do not provide medical care.

CPCs are typically supported and staffed by pro-life Christians. Individual CPCs are usually affiliated with a larger pro-life Christian CPC organization, or with a specific Christian church. Some CPCs operate as parachurch organizations. Most are in the United States.

And, it seems, Canada too.

We at Birth Pangs are not the only ones with a teensy problem with this.

A news release from Planned Parenthood Ottawa says:

One of the organizations set to benefit from the money raised is the First Place Pregnancy Centre, an organization in Ottawa that claims to “want you to be empowered to make your choice”, but which will not provide women facing an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy with referrals to abortion services. As a pro-choice organization, Planned Parenthood Ottawa is concerned that generous Senators fans contributing to this fundraising campaign may do so without knowing that a portion of their donations is going to support an anti-choice organization.

So, wittingly or not, the 'Better Halves' (*snerk*) are supporting fetus fetishists.

Generous Sens fans (*snerk*) take note.

(First published at Birth Pangs.)

Girls and Women, Girls and Women, Girls and Women

We at Birth Pangs are heartily sick of this bullshit meme.

From the recent throne speech:

Our mission in Afghanistan is a noble and necessary endeavour.

It is making a difference in the lives of men who were victims of Taliban oppression, for children forced to live in ignorance, and for women who had no human rights.

From Peter MacKay:

We are supporting women who, under the Taliban regime, were forbidden to go to school, to work or to vote. . . . We are building a future for children, so that they can all be educated, have access to medical care, and have the freedom to grow up in a climate of security and hope rather than in fear.

And from Bev Oda:

"After years of conflict and insecurity, Afghanistan’s education system is one of the weakest in the world. This has deeply affected the country’s ability to rebuild and sustain itself,” said Minister Oda. “But progress is being made, and Canada continues to reinforce its role as a leader for education in Afghanistan, particularly for women and girls."

Well, thank Gord for the Canadians.

Um, well, maybe not. Today, UNICEF released a report on Afghanistan's children.

Jesus Speaks!

“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits.” Could Jesus be speaking about … those who dictate and interpret what he said, with a view to advancing and aggrandizing themselves? And could followers of false prophets be among those lobbying the Secretary of State for Arkansas to put up a memorial monument that may or may not feature a statue of Jesus, or of someone who looks like Jesus and who could be Jesus, in the Capitol?

The leader of the group, armed with the preserved remains of a fetus that was miscarried in 1993, met with the Secretary of State. She described the monument that her group wants to install; a man holding a baby while talking to a woman. The robe-clad male figure wears sandals.

Now what would Jesus say about a group of fetus-fetishizing lobbyists who want to exploit his avowed love of children and those who are child-like? How about: “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned.”? Or perhaps: “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone.”?

But Jesus could be angry, as he was with the merchants using the temple space for their own profit. He might say: “Listen up. You’ve got to stop putting words in my mouth. When I said: Allow the little children, and don’t forbid them to come to me, I didn’t mean embryos and fetuses. Remember that my Father is called a Creator, not an Impregnator. It takes time to create a human being. If a woman does not choose to give life, the decision is hers to make. My own mother was given that choice. Gestation, like creation, is a process. Only God has the right to judge and condemn. And stop with the glurge already!”

This news item was brilliantly blogged here, by GottaLaff. A big thanks to Red Jenny for bringing this to our attention!
Originally posted at Birth Pangs.

Poached Nuts on Research Menu, Hold the Eggs.

Back in July, we wrote about scientific ‘eggheads’ creating embryonic stem cells by using stimulated yet unfertilized ova, in Virgin Eggs Over Easy, Hold The Sperm. Meanwhile, a different group of scientists with something else on the brain have been playing around with mouse testicles. From the CBC story:

Stem cells found in men’s testicles could someday be used to grow organs and tissues needed to fight disease, researchers at the Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City have found. … Scientists obtained spermatogonial progenitor stem cells (SPCs), which generate the precursors to sperm and determine fertility, from mouse testicles.

Catholic clergy got hot under the collar about research that used stimulated ova, and made up their own (unscientific) claims that if these eggs grow for the first few days and then stop, according to Church doctrine that may mean that they’re actually “very short-lived human beings”.

So far, there has been complete silence from the Vatican regarding research on testicular cells. This may be explained by the dynamics of another process, uncovered in the course of conducting research on male mice.

… other researchers have shown that adult cells can be reprogrammed to acquire
stem-cell potential. However, this process, called “induced pluripotency”, has
resulted in a generation of multi-potent stem cells that carried an increased
risk of transforming into malignant cells.

Now, does that process not sound familiar …? Isn’t that the perfect metaphor for the vile entity known as the

Magisterium?

Magisterium is a technical ecclesiastical term in Roman Catholic Church referring to the teaching authority of the church. This authority is understood to be embodied in the episcopacy, which is the aggregation of the current bishops of the church, led by the Bishop of Rome (the Pope). According to Catholic doctrine, the Magisterium is able to teach or interpret the truths of the Faith, and it does so infallibly within the Sacred Magisterium. The task of interpreting the Word of God authentically has been entrusted solely to the Magisterium of the Church, that is, to the Pope and to the bishops in communion with him

The Magisterium, a proliferation of malignant cells that fetishizes the fetus and command blind obeisance. Sounds quite right to me.

Originally posted at Birth Pangs.

One Woman a Minute

Pregnancy kills one woman per minute. Unsafe abortion kills one woman every eight minutes. Reproductive Health Reality Check says:

. . .every minute, a woman still dies as a result of pregnancy or childbirth. Ninety-nine percent of these deaths occur in developing countries (primarily in Africa and Asia), and the vast majority of them are preventable. . . .

One in eight of those women dying every minute as a result of pregnancy and childbirth are women dying from unsafe abortions, after all--totaling 68,000 women every year, a figure that hasn't changed in nearly two decades. Nearly half of these deaths occur in Africa, where abortion is largely illegal, and rarely available even under circumstances where it is legal.

We decided to have a look at current news stories from Africa.

First, there's this from Uganda.

Over 1,000 Ugandan women die every year as a result of unsafe abortions and an additional 68,000 suffer serious health complications, according to a recently released report from the Ministry of Health.

"As many as 1,200 unsafe abortions result in death each year. Nearly a quarter (23%) of all abortions result in serious complications," says the report Road map for accelerating the reduction of maternal and neonatal mortality and morbidity in Uganda. . . .

Because abortion is illegal in Uganda, and because of the widespread social stigma attached to the practice, many women who experience complications are not seeking or receiving any help. "Roughly one in five of the estimated 297,000 women who have an abortion each year - a total of 65,000 women - suffer complications that require medical care but do not get treatment in a medical facility," says the report.

Now, let's have a look at Nigeria:

Why a coat hanger as pro-choice meme?

They say that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. It appears that Manhattan Mini-Storage, long known for its edgy advertising strategies, has decided that it’s time for the coat hanger meme to come out of the closet, so to speak.

Many young pro-choice supporters are unfamiliar with this symbol, and why it was chosen to eloquently express the commitment to refuse to be pushed back to those awful days. Veterans of the pro-choice struggles know at least one family who lost a daughter, a sister or a mother to a self-induced or an illegal abortion. In this post, mention is made of other illicit methods used in the past, to precipitate a miscarriage. However, the coat hanger technique is the one that resonates the most, when held up as a powerful symbol of this dark and shameful era of women’s history. Here is one account. There are others too.

O.G., a neighbour that I befriended back in the seventies recounted an incident that occurred right after she just graduated from nursing school, in 1971. O. was working a night shift in the ER of an urban hospital in Alberta. A man in his forties brought his wife for medical attention. She was delirious, weak, and gasping for breath. As O. installed her in a bed, the women moaned loudly with pain. O. recorded her vital signs, which were not good - dangerously low blood pressure. The smell of fresh blood as well as the distinctive odour of a septic infection grew stronger as O. removed her patient’s underclothing.

When the doctor stepped into the cubicle he looked at the patient, sighed, examined her and probed her abdomen as gently as possible. “A burst appendix?” asked O., quietly. The doctor shook his head, ordered an IV, saline solution, oxygen and prescribed antibiotics to be administered immediately. He and O. swiftly attended to her medical needs in heavy silence. Then he asked O. to direct him to the patient’s husband and told her that she needed to decontaminate immediately, as some of the patient’s fluids has splattered her.

A senior RN debriefed O. after she had removed her uniform, all other clothing and her shoes, thrust them into a garbage bag and put them in a specific hazardous waste bin. Freshly scrubbed after a vigorous shower and dressed in borrowed scrubs, O. was informed by a colleague that her patient had died. Although the cause would not appear on the death certificate, the doctor had confirmed that her symptoms were consistent with septic shock due to peritonitis, brought on by a perforated uterus.

O. was aghast. “Why had this woman waited so long to get medical treatment?” she asked. “She must have known, from the bleeding, the swelling and the pain, that she was dangerously ill.” “She was probably afraid that the doctor would recognize that her miscarriage was self-inflicted and that the hospital would report her to the police”, the older nurse said. “She hoped that she would heal on her own. She wasn’t aware that she was developing a deadly staphylococcus infection.”

“Does her husband know?” asked O. The older nurse shrugged, “He now has five orphaned children under the age of 10. Will telling him that his wife probably used a knitting needle or a coat hanger to abort her pregnancy help him cope better? Officially and medically, it’s a case of advanced peritonitis that did not respond to treatment. There won’t be an autopsy.” Then she looked directly at O. and told her, “Remember this patient. Her life shouldn’t end like this.”

After O. finished her recollection we sat in silence, in her cozy suburban family room, watching our toddlers - my daughter and her son, play with colourful and educational toys. Finally I asked her, “What did you do?” O. answered, “I kept working as a nurse until I got married and became pregnant with this little guy. And I did - still do - volunteer work for Planned Parenthood. Necessity is the mother of prevention. No woman deserves to die that way.”

More information about the history of abortion rights in Canada can be found here.

Originally posted at Birth Pangs.

The putrid smell of opportunism

Abortion criminalizers have a stench about them. It is a curious mélange of sulfurous fire-and-brimstone, medieval dry rot, fear-soaked piety, and the acrid fumes of high arrogance. In order to mask this odour, they crouch under the cloak of self-righteousness by associating their cause with respectable human rights concerns.

Back in the 1970s and 1980s, the anti-choice organizations deliberately co-opted the words genocide and holocaust to lend the gloss of credibility to their propaganda. As you may remember, their exploitation of these terms was challenged by the survivors and descendants of groups who have been historically targeted and subjected to ethno-focused violence or religious persecution. Grudgingly, the abortion criminalizers had to stop mis-using these two words in their publications.

In recent years, they have slithered into the proximity of civil rights activists, hoping that the credibility and legitimacy of organizations that have worked hard to eradicate racism, such as the NAACP, would somehow deodorize their anti-choice rhetorical slime. See Abortion Is Slavery and Poverty .

Observe how smoothly those who would enforce compulsory pregnancy divert criticism away from their goal of controlling women’s reproductive capacity, by proclaiming they are as pure in their thoughts and actions as those white folks who championed civil rights. Fetus fetishizers are draping themselves in the flag of the modern martyr and demanding the same respect as white civil rights workers who were excoriated for the assistance they gave to Martin Luther King and to the descendants of enslaved Black people.Quite the sleight of hand, is it not? Those who supported the civil rights movement did not set off bombs nor assassinate anyone. Given that the murderous strategies used by the extremist fringe within the anti-choice, abortion-criminalizing organizations are the same as those used by the extremist fringe within the anti-civil rights groups, the logical and correct analogy would be that “Fetus-fetishizers are the 21st century’s Jim Crow segregationists”.

If one wanted to draw a parallel between two distinctive social justice movements that are fuelled by similar motives, these are the ones who share a common vision of civil rights.

First posted at Birth Pangs.

Virgin Eggs Over Easy, Hold The Sperm

Scientists say they have created embryonic stem cells by stimulating unfertilized ova. This could be the first step toward producing transplant tissue that’s genetically matched to the women who donated the eggs. The current debate around the use of stem cells from viable embryo has become legally, ethically and politically contentious.

Stem cell research could spare the lives of people suffering from ghastly degenerative and progressive diseases. Experiments would be conducted on human ova cells that have been started on their replication process, although lacking DNA and chromosomes from sperm. The mass of replicating embryonic cells is not the product of conventional or artificial conception, yet the Rev. Tad Pacholczyk of the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia says:

“My view is that if these grow as organized embryos for the first few days and then arrest, they may just be very short-lived human beings,” he said. “One is very possibly dealing with a defective human being. And at a minimum, the benefit of the doubt should be given here, and these embryos should not be created for the purposes of destroying them.”

Doesn’t the above sound like a knee-jerk reaction, scientifically ill-informed at best, theocratic and doctrinaire at worst? “Very short-lived human beings“? What part of ‘no sperm used’ did he miss in the original research paper? His reasoning does not even follow the fallacious premise that the fetus-fetishizers promote in their abortion-criminalizing campaigns. Or perhaps his objection has more to do with the religious imperative that needs to control women’s reproductive organs and ensure that they are exclusively used for breeding?

But on another level, the Church Fathers may simply be cheesed off at the multitudes of life-creating and life-saving possibilities that ova promise. Especially since theological constraints ensure that clerics, from the Pope on down, must only shoot duds.

Source

Originally posted at Birth Pangs