WOMEN TELL OF BEING COERCED INTO ABORTIONS: 'I DID WHAT MY DOCTOR AND BOYFRIEND TOLD ME TO DO'
from: LiveAction News

(23 Aug.) Even as pro-abortion media bombards readers and viewers with stories from women who claim abortion was the best thing they ever did, the countless stories of women who regret their abortions are often buried – despite entire organizations, such as Silent No More, which give women suffering abortion trauma a voice and venue to share their stories. In addition, entire books have been written on the subject of abortion regret. Below are stories from just one pro-life book featuring women’s accounts of coerced abortions.

Loophole in the law allowed a legal abortion before Roe v. Wade

Maria wanted her baby but was pressured to abort by her boyfriend. She says, "I told him that I didn’t think abortion was right and that it wasn’t what I wanted."

Despite her wishes, he continued to argue:

I got daily pressure from Sam. "When are you going to do something?" he'd ask. "You have to do something soon, or it will be too late." I remember at that point being terribly afraid that I would lose him because I wasn't doing what he wanted me to do.

This was before Roe v. Wade, but Maria was able to have a legal abortion anyway. All she had to do was meet with a atrist:

[The psychiatrist] "asked me a list of what seemed like standard questions. If I didn't answer them "correctly," he told me what I should have said and asked the question again… He wrote on a piece of paper that I was incompetent to have a baby, and that's how the illegal abortion became legal."

An abortionist ignored her wishes

At the abortion facility, Maria tried to back out:

"I remember telling the [abortionist] that this wasn't really what I wanted, but he said that this was the best solution to my problem. He asked – 'What would your mother and father say if they knew?'

"All through my growing up years I'd been taught to respect doctors, that they would always do what was best for me. I remember thinking that he must be right, that this must be the best solution to my problem."

"I was mesmerized by these two male authority figures – my boyfriend and my doctor – and I did what they told me to do."

A traumatic abortion followed by serious complications

Maria had a saline abortion, a type of abortion that is seldom done today because it is so dangerous to the mother and resulted in so many live births. In a saline abortion, a caustic salt solution is injected into the uterus, which burns and poisons the baby. The mother then goes through labor and delivers a dead child.

After the abortion, Maria suffered severe complications. The saline solution caused a massive infection, and her kidneys failed. She was rushed to the hospital and put on dialysis. Maria had wanted to keep her abortion a secret from her parents, but doctors doubted she would survive and suggested she call them. She remembers her father standing by her hospital bed, weeping. And the infection left her infertile. [read more...]

COMMENTARY: How many women are still suffering emotional problems because they never told their parents after getting an abortion? Unless a person comes clean, there can be no full healing; instead there will be suppressed guilt covered up by shame and blame... often manifesting as physical maladies. Tomorrow is "Standing With Her Sunday" – a nationwide simulcast this Sunday at 8:00 p.m. EST: please watch!

IRANIAN DOCTORS COOPERATING WITH JUDICIAL AMPUTATIONS
from: BioEdge.org

(20 Aug.) A special guillotine machine has allegedly been installed in a medical clinic in an Iranian prison to carry out amputations. The World Medical Association has condemned the apparent involvement of physicians in these acts.

WMA President Dr. Heidi Stensmyren said: "Information we have seen from Amnesty International indicate that the chief doctor at the prison medical clinic was present at recent amputation sentences being carried out. It is horrific that any doctor should be involved at such punishments and it is equally despicable that a place where these acts of torture are occurring should be called a medical clinic."

According to Amnesty International, two Iranian men who had been convicted of theft, have had their fingers amputated in 2022. One was told by prison authorities that he could pay to have the fingers frozen and reattached. However, the convict could not afford this operation. After the fingers were severed, he lost consciousness and was transferred to a hospital for three days. Back in prison the fingers became infected and he needed another trip to the hospital.

A special guillotine has been set up in Teheran's Evin prison to centralise judicial amputations. Amnesty International gives some background on the amputations, which violate the ban on torture in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a signatory. [read more...]

COMMENTARY: This is not medical care! It is the abuse of medical science to commit atrocities, just like in Auschwitz. Another appalling BioEdge article "INDIAN DOCTORS ARE REMOVING THE WOMBS OF CANE-CUTTERS TO INCREASE THEIR PRODUCTIVITY" describes the abuse of women for the sake of profit and the abuse of the medical profession in India for performing this atrocity.

KAZAKHSTAN: "THIS IS NOT A STATE CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE CHURCH"
from: Forum 18 News Service

(19 Aug.) Protestants say secret police encouraged a former church member to lodge a suit against New Life Church – now in court in Pavlodar – claiming back pay and compensation for moral damages for volunteer work in a rehabilitation centre. "This is not a state campaign against the Church," a local religious affairs official claimed, though the individual met officials and a state-backed anti-"sect" center. Jehovah's Witnesses are appealing a decision awarding large "compensation" to two former members. An assessment of their literature, claiming it caused psychiatric harm, listed a work by Andrei Snezhnevsky, leader of Soviet-era psychiatric abuse.

A spate of civil suits against Protestant and Jehovah's Witness communities appear to have at least some backing from parts of the state. A suit against the Pentecostal New Life Church in Pavlodar – by an individual who is claiming back pay and compensation for moral damages for the years he worked as a volunteer in a rehabilitation center – is now in court.

Protestants say the National Security Committee (KNB) secret police appear to have encouraged the plaintiff in Pavlodar to lodge the suit. "This not a dispute over labour as the individual never worked for the Church," one Protestant familiar with the case told Forum 18. "It is a clear provocation by state agencies and you can tell that from admissions by the individual himself that the secret police are behind him."

The plaintiff in Pavlodar met officials of Pavlodar Regional Akimat (Administration) Religious Affairs Department. He also had contact with and support from the head of the state-backed Centre to Support Victims of Destructive Religious Sects in Kostanai, Yuliya Kalyuzhnaya. The Centre gets funding from Kostanai Regional Akimat Religious Affairs Department and other state bodies.

Kalyuzhnaya has contributed to articles published in the local media and by her Center attacking "the leaders of religious organisations who are parasites on human gullibility". She publicly accused New Life Church of violating the plaintiff's rights.

Another article published by her Centre in August warned parents about the alleged dangers of children being invited to "dubious events" by "pseudo-religious organisations." She refused to identify these organisations to Forum 18. A Protestant described this article as anti-religious "in the spirit of Soviet times."

Daulet Zakaryanov, head of Pavlodar Regional Akimat Religious Affairs Department, insisted that the state had not encouraged the former church member to bring the suit. "We listened to him, but we don't speak for him," he told Forum 18. "We won't take sides." And he added: "This is not a state campaign against the Church." [read more...]

COMMENTARY: As you can read here, Protestant and Jehovah's Witnesses are lumped together as "sects" and "pseudo-religious organisations" in Kazakhstan, which also is the case in other former-USSR states. Society always has a preferred ideology or worldview, even if it is the pseudo-tolerance of "You can believe anything in general, but nothing in particular." When we do not uphold religious liberty for all, sooner or later the state will be coming after us.

SCIENTISTS IDENTIFY MORE GENES LINKED TO AUTISM
from: Disability Scoop

(23 Aug.) New research is uncovering dozens of genes associated with autism and helping to explain a broader swath of cases across the spectrum.

While science has previously linked several genes to autism, they only account for about 20% of cases of the developmental disorder. And, many known genes are tied to more profound forms of autism that present with co-occurring conditions like epilepsy and intellectual disability.

But in a new study published this month in the journal Nature Genetics, researchers found 60 genes related to autism, including five with a more moderate impact on cognition and other characteristics of the condition. The study is based on data from nearly 43,000 people with autism.

Notably, the variants in these five genes were often inherited from a child’s parents – even though the majority of the parents did not have autism or cognitive differences – while most previously known autism genes are considered de novo, or spontaneous.

"Overall, the genes we found may represent a different class of genes that are more directly associated with the core symptoms of ASD than previously discovered genes," said Dr. Wendy Chung of Columbia University Medical Center, a coauthor of the study. "We need to do more detailed studies including more individuals who carry these genes to understand how each gene contributes to the features of autism, but we think these genes will help us unravel the biological underpinnings that lead to most cases of autism."

The findings were published alongside the results of three other studies in Nature Genetics assessing similar large sets of genetic data. [read more...]

COMMENTARY: It is great to know that scientists are discovering more genetic links to autism. But this does not rule out the possibility of behavioral causes. Thank God for these discoveries and pray for more discoveries and treatments for autism.

"THOSE SUPPORTING THE WAR WILL BE CONDEMNED BY FUTURE GENERATIONS," – HEAD OF THE UGCC
from: Religious Information Service of Ukraine

(22 Aug.) (← Photo: "no to war") On the 179th day of Russia's war against Ukraine, Patriarch Svyatoslav thanked all those who are fighting for peace, asserting it, and looking for various effective alternative ways to avoid using weapons in solving the problems of modern humanity. He thanked all those who stand beside the suffering Ukrainian people in this terrible tragedy. The Patriarch continued his reflection, saying that the devil is sowing the seeds of war. This is exactly what we are seeing in Ukraine right now:

"Who are those who come to kill us, who torture our children, women and elders? These are people from those regions of Russia where the criminal authorities have stolen the opportunity for Integral and just development - personal, as well as of their family, people, and even the part of the country where they live. The only way that the Russian authorities offer them to survive, keep their families, and find a livelihood is to kill. This type of recruiters, unfortunately, disperse throughout Russia, even through the network of Orthodox churches, encouraging them with rewards. And the worst thing is that they give permission to kill with impunity and enrich themselves with looting. And since the opportunity to live and develop is stolen from these people, they go to kill Ukrainians."

As His Beatitude Sviatoslav notes, war is a disaster that can never contribute to the development of an individual, state or society and can never be a solution to problems. On the contrary, like sin does, it only worsens the state of man and society and is always a defeat for humanity. Therefore, more than 100 years ago, Pope Pius XII noted that in peace, we lose nothing, and in wars, we can lose everything.

"No one and nothing can justify the outbreak of war in the modern world. It is always immoral. This is a tragic moment that can always be avoided. There is no excuse for those who use war as a tool to solve socio-political or international problems. Therefore, the conscience of every honest person calls him and the world to condemn the war. Means, methods, or goals can never justify war. That is why it is so painful to hear that someone justifies it to date, even among religious figures."

The Patriarch noted that all those who started wars lost them. The first victims were the peoples of those states that supported the criminal actions of their statesmen.

"Today, there are about 20 different wars going on in the world. But in Ukraine, this is something special and more dangerous because it was started by a country with atomic weapons and threatens our state and the whole world. The war in Ukraine is a crime against humanity, a defeat of humanity, and therefore a danger of involving the whole of humanity in a military adventure. Therefore, we must all do everything possible to stop the unfair aggressor who condemns his own people to poverty and kills Ukrainians on their own territory." [read more...]

COMMENTARY: The tragedy about this war of agression is that the agressor is using religion to rationalize its actions. As this article makes clear, "No one and nothing can justify the outbreak of war in the modern world. It is always immoral."

DETECTING AUTISM IN CHILDREN WITH AN EYE TEST
from: Disabled World

(22 Aug.) Measuring how a child's pupils change in response to light could potentially be used to screen for autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Children's pupillary light reflexes were tested by trained clinical providers using a handheld monocular pupillometer device, which measures one eye at a time. Analyzing the results, the researchers found that children with autism showed significant differences in the time it took for their pupils to constrict in response to light. Lynch's desire to improve autism screening grew from her experiences watching parents struggle through the cumbersome process of pursuing a formal diagnosis for their child.

Researcher Georgina Lynch said the proof-of-concept study builds on earlier work to support the continued development of a portable technology that could provide a quick and easy way to screen children for autism, a disorder that affects communication and social interaction with others. Such a tool would allow health care providers to catch children earlier in their development when interventions are more likely to benefit them.

"We know that when we intervene as early as ages 18 to 24 months, it has a long-term impact on their outcomes," said Lynch, an assistant professor at the Washington State University's Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine who worked with children with autism while practicing as a speech-language pathologist. "Intervening during that critical window could be the difference between a child acquiring verbal speech and staying nonverbal. Yet, after 20 years of trying, we still have not changed the average age of diagnosis here in the U.S., which is four years old."

Published in the journal Neurological Sciences, the study tested 36 children aged 6 to 17 who had been previously diagnosed with autism along with a group of 24 typically developing children who served as controls. Children's pupillary light reflexes were tested by trained clinical providers using a handheld monocular pupillometer device, which measures one eye at a time. Analyzing the results, the researchers found that children with autism showed significant differences in the time it took for their pupils to constrict in response to light. After removing the light, their pupils also took longer to return to their original size.

"What we did with this study is we demonstrated the parameters of interest that matter – speed of constriction and return to baseline," Lynch said. "And we demonstrated it with monocular technology because we knew there is no significant difference between eyes in terms of the pupillary response in autism, unlike in head injury or concussion where it's common to see unequal pupil sizes." [read more...]

COMMENTARY: Here is another encouraging report about the benefit of diagnosing autism as early as possible in order to begin treatment, which can greatly reduce the behavioral aspects of autism. Genes do not absolutely determine behavior.

In his article "Weaponized Compassion & The Culture War" about "Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria" (ROGD), Rod Dreher describes the similarity of the "compassionate" response 50 years ago toward AIDS to today's "compassionate" response toward ROGD. He writes – "...the alarmists like Kramer were shouted down because what they were saying was not what people wanted to hear. Aside from the fact that if they were right, then an ethic of unlimited pleasure was going to get a lot of people killed, there was the matter of these warnings standing as a denial of the promises and ideals of the Sexual Revolution. They could not be true, because if they were true, then so many people were wrong about the thing that they had given their lives to."

"But they weren't wrong. The death and destruction caused by the failure to heed the warnings is impossible to calculate."

"The failure to heed the warnings was both ideological (the Sexual Revolution's ideals), and instinctive (the unleashing of raw desire). This is the same thing that's happening now with the epidemic spread of Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria -- a mental illness that does not, thank God, kill you, but which is leading many thousands of young people to embrace their insanity, and mutilate their bodies with surgery and/or chemicals. It is also destroying the foundations of society."

I encourage you – no, I urge you – to read the whole article and decide what you will do about it. We can't just sit back and "Tsk-tsk" – it will be too late when 25% of our youth have been chemically or surgically sterilized because of this social contagion – this socially-induced mental disorder – when our population will go into a tailspin. As the Talmud states: "He who does not engage in propagation of the race is as though he had shed blood." Our sense of compassion must be balanced by our rational understanding of physical reality.

(← Click to see full-size) This is a familiar expression not only to Christians but also to the secularists who decry the hypocrisy of some who call themselves Christians. If someone tells me he won't believe in Christ because there are hypocrites in the Church, I reply – "There's always room for one more!" You see, to some extent we are all hypocrites, even Christians.

The Lord Jesus Christ repeats the phrase "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!" seven times in Matthew 23:13-29 – it's called "the seven-fold woes." Also as this picture illustrates, when the Scribes and Pharisees brought to the Lord a woman caught in adultery, he put them in their place by saying – "He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone" (see John 8:1-11).

There are two kinds of hypocrites: those who sincerely believe that they're doing God a favor by their strict hyper-religiosity and those who are consciously aware that they are trying to deceive people by their hyper-religious acting. What lies behind these texts is that we so often identify with the self-righteous Scribes and Pharisees, pointing our finger at "the lowlife scum, the alcoholics, drug addicts, fornicators, homos, and social parasites" ...as all the while there are three of our fingers pointing back at us.

If the Lord meant these words to be directed only to the Scribes and Pharisees, there would be no need to record them in the Gospels. No, these words are recorded for us too, that's why they're in the Gospels. What is the remedy for this malady of the soul? See Luke 18:10-14 –

"Two men went up into the temple to pray; one was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed to himself like this: 'God, I thank you, that I am not like the rest of men, extortioners, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get.' But the tax collector, standing far away, wouldn't even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted."

The only cure for the sins of pride, deceit, and hypocrisy is humility – "God, be merciful to me, a sinner! Lord, have mercy!"

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