The Clinic Access Bill and Freedom of Speech

1. The Times, of all papers, did a reasonably fair article on the New York City clinic access bill, which will take effect next month. They actually interviewed a woman who turned around after seeing a sonogram of her baby, and talked to pro-life sidewalk counselors, let them speak for themselves, and portrayed them fairly. Unintentionally, no doubt, the article made the pro-abortion clinic workers look bad -- not only did they make accusations that the reporter did not substantiate, but they displayed the deep intolerance for free speech that is behind this bill. Here's the give-away: a sign in the clinic that says: "Tell abortion protesters to mind their own business. This is America." Indeed it is, and there still is a First Amendment here, endangered species though it may be.

2. The propaganda effort continues elsewhere, however. In the Washington Post, there was a puff piece about a woman who became pro-abortion in medical school, and is in favor of killing unborn children with adverse fetal diagnoses. Here is a reaction to that terribly misguided attitude.

3. The next time some naive person says to you "Oh, no, nobody is really in favor of abortion", point them to the Rev. Kathrine Ragsdale, Episcopal priest, who calls abortion "a blessing", and may well be the most morally repellent person in America today. Read the whole article only if you have a strong stomach and have already taken your blood pressure medication.

4. What to make of this? Cosmopolitan magazine takes a moment off from peddling its sex-saturated tripe and favorably profiles women who are chaste.

5. Here's a chance for Notre Dame University to show a little of the Christian mercy that is part of its Catholic identity -- ask the prosecutors to dismiss the charges against the people arrested for protesting on campus.

6. Beautiful profile of a Boston priest who is continuing his ministry while suffering terminal cancer.

7. A video of a nun crushing cars with a monster truck -- now that's the way to drum up vocations!