OVERCOMING RAPE & ABUSE: ROBYN'S STORY
from: LiveAction News

←Watch the Video! (3 Feb.) Have you ever heard someone say that abortion should be available in cases of rape? Here's a must-watch 5-minute video that will likely change their mind: Robyn's story.

Robyn found herself in an abusive relationship, which eventually included rape. Every circumstance of rape is a horrific tragedy that no woman should ever experience.

Contrary to what some may assume, the discovery of the new life within her didn’t add to Robyn’s trauma - it actually saved her own life. Watch her story - just released - here: https://www.liveaction.org/robyn/.

Rape is a horrific crime, and every rapist needs to be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. But the truth is that abortion is also a heinous act that kills a child and forever haunts the mother.

Thankfully, Robyn not only escaped her abusive situation, but she found a loving husband and father for her son and her future children. We must call all men to a high standard of love and respect for women and children.

Hope exists for all, but it's never found in abortion. [read more...]

COMMENTARY: The article "EXCLUSIVE: Majority of Women Who Got Abortions Were Pressured Into Them, Study Finds" confirms that it isn't only this case or a few other islolated cases in which women are pressured by their "boyfriend" or husband or family to get an abortion. The result is often grief, remorse, and regret for a lifetime.

'THE RIGHT TO BUILD FAMILIES ACT' WILL PROTECT THE US IVF INDUSTRY
from: BioEdge.org

(17 Jan.) "The Right to Build Families Act," introduced into the US Senate late last year, has flown under the radar but it promises to spark bioethical debates in 2023.

The legislation is intended to protect providers of assisted reproduction technologies and their clients in the wake of Dobbs, the US Supreme Court decision which overturned Roe v. Wade. IVF clinics are worried that anti-abortion states could try to restrict IVF as well.

"With Roe v. Wade thrown out by the Supreme Court, many women and families are understandably worried about their access to healthcare and their ability to do their own family planning. Right now, we're seeing within the anti-choice community a plot to push for new, more radical policies like the so-called ‘personhood bills' that would go even further toward controlling [people's] bodies. These efforts could effectively ban fertility treatments like IVF that many Americans need to start or grow their families," the bill's co-sponsor, Senator Tammy Duckworth, told Parents magazine. She has two IVF daughters.

The main provisions of the act are to:
  * ban preventing access to ART or an individual's right to retain reproductive genetic materials like gametes (sex cells, or eggs and sperm).
  * protect for healthcare providers who provide patients with access to ART and counselling and information on it.
  * create a private right of action for people and healthcare providers living and working in states that have placed limits on access to ART.
  * permit the Department of Justice to pursue civil action against states in violation of the act.

Emma Waters, of the DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family at The Heritage Foundation, looked under the hood of the legislation. She believes that it will permit commercial surrogacy and could make IVF even less regulated than it already is. It turns a blind eye to the complex emotional issues surrounding couples' desire for children.

But fundamentally, she points out, Senator Duckworth is wrong to assert that: "The choice to build a family is a fundamental right for all Americans." This implies that parents have a right to a child. "A child, whose life begins at conception, is not a mere object to design, buy, or sell to fulfill an adult's wishes."

The legislation is strongly supported by the IVF industry. Its peak body, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, declared in a press release:

"Every American seeking to exercise their fundamental right to family building should have unhindered access to assisted reproductive technologies, regardless of zip code, employment status, a decision to become a solo parent, and who they love." [read more...]

COMMENTARY: On the surface, this bill's name seems quite innocent and commendable: people have a natural desire to have children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren – we do not want to see our family lines extinguished. But the tip-off is "regardless of... who they love" – obviously referring to homosexuals, lesbians and transgenders whose lifestyles inhibit any hope of continuing their generations. The bill would be used by sexual deviants to justify their own sterile lifestyles. Children are not commodities, material objects to be traded on the marketplace of distorted passions. Thus, we have a right and a duty to speak out against this bill.

UKRAINE: DRAFT LAW BETTER THAN OTHERS, FREEDOM OF RELIGION OR BELIEF CONCERNS REMAIN
from: Forum 18 News Service

Hebrews 13:3 – "Remember those who are in bonds, as bound with them; and those who are ill-treated, since you are also in the body."

(2 Feb.) The Ukrainian government has produced a draft law prohibiting the operation of religious organisations affiliated with "centres of influence of religious organisations or associations with ruling centres" in Russia, but imposing an obligation on the state to prove any affiliation in court. The draft law in its present form raises freedom of religion or belief concerns. If adopted and implemented it may significantly change the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is historically and ecclesiastically linked to the Moscow Patriarchate.

The Russia-Ukraine war, starting with the annexation in 2014 of Crimea and the military conflict in Eastern Ukraine, and continuing with Russia's February 2022 full-scale invasion, has had a tremendous impact on freedom of religion or belief and other related human rights in the region. Murders, tortures, forced detention, and forced displacement of religious leaders and believers of many faiths, serious freedom of religion or belief and other human rights violations inspired and directed by Russian proxies, as well as expropriations of religious properties have become the reality in Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia since 2014.

On the territories under the Ukrainian government's control, Russia's 2014 attack on Ukraine significantly changed the government's relationship with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). Under President Petro Poroshenko (who ruled from 2014 to 2019), the Ukrainian government made a crucial contribution to the establishment of the UOC's main rival in inter-Orthodox competition – the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU). This included government diplomatic support for the OCU's ecclesiastical recognition by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 2019.

Later in 2019, the Ukrainian parliament adopted two laws primarily affecting the UOC. The first law sets up a decision-making process for religious communities aiming to change their religious jurisdiction. The law requires that the decision of transition to a different jurisdiction shall be made solely by members of the religious organisation. This aims to prevent a practice common for both the UOC and the OCU when any changes to Orthodox parishes' charters must be approved by the respective ruling bishops.

Despite the fact that this law is formally generally applicable, the first law's authors and supporters did not conceal the fact that they passed the law to support the OCU, and that the law's prime goal is to simplify and encourage the transition of UOC communities to the OCU.

The second law forces religious organisations and associations with "ruling centres" in Russia to change their names in order to explicitly identify their links with Moscow. The law also prohibits these organisations from sending their chaplains to the Ukrainian Army. The second law was brought before the Ukrainian Constitutional Court, and in December 2022 the court declared the law constitutional, which allowed the forced renaming of religious communities.

Shift in Zelensky's attitude towards religious policy and the UOC

From May 2019, when President Volodymyr Zelensky took office, and during the first months of Russia's February 2022 full-scale invasion, he did not develop a religious policy. In April 2022, members of Zelensky's parliamentary party insisted that Parliament would not consider a proposed ban on the UOC until the war was over, in order not to provoke divisions within Ukrainian society.

Zelensky's attitude changed in autumn 2022, apparently under the pressure of claims – some proven in court – of collaboration by some UOC clerics with the Russian military, and growing support among the Ukrainian public for sanctions against the UOC.

In October – December 2022, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) searched UOC properties and the homes of UOC clerics across the country. The SBU reportedly found Russian propaganda material, evidence of Russian citizenship obtained by several UOC clerics, as well as Russian army-issued food.

In December 2022, based on a decision of the National Security and Defence Council, President Zelensky asked the Cabinet of Ministers to draft a law banning religious organisations affiliated with Moscow. At the same time he emphasised that this law must comply with international standards of freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) and Ukraine's obligations to the Council of Europe.

In his decree, the President also requires the State Service for Ethnic Policies and Freedom of Conscience (SEPFP) to conduct a "religious expert examination" of the UOC Charter's ecclesiastical links with the Moscow Patriarchate. [read more...]

COMMENTARY: The Moscow Patriarchate's puppet Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) is increasingly coming under Ukraine's scrutiny as a tool for the Kremlin, just like the Moscow Patriarchate is a tool for the Kremlin to maintain ideological control over the Russian people, as the article "How Russians Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the War" details: convince the people this is a "righteous war." At least some Russians have not lost their moral compass: 'I Couldn't Stay Silent': Anti-War 'Flower Protests' Spread to 60 Cities Across Russia and Priest Fled Fearing Prosecution For Preaching That War Is Terrible.

HOUSING VOUCHERS EARMARKED FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
from: Disability Scoop

(20 Jan.) The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is sending millions in funding to local officials across the country to help people with disabilities access housing in their communities.

The agency said this month that it is awarding $24.7 million to 98 local public housing authorities in order to provide permanent affordable housing to those with disabilities. As many as 2,210 families are expected to benefit from the funding, federal officials said.

"People with disabilities deserve access to affordable housing that meets their needs," said Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Marcia L. Fudge. "Today’s funding is an important step forward – one that will help more persons with disabilities serve as fully integrated members of their communities and allow them to live independently and with dignity."

The funding is being made available through the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Section 811 Mainstream Housing Choice Voucher Program. It’s aimed at helping non-elderly people with disabilities who are transitioning from institutions or other isolated settings as well as those at risk of institutionalization or homelessness.

Local public housing authorities are expected to work with community partners like centers for independent living, state protection and advocacy agencies and Medicaid agencies to help with the application and housing search process, federal housing officials said.

Given the state of the rental market, HUD included extra funding dubbed "extraordinary administrative fees" to account for security deposits, vacancy payments and other costs to ensure that families can successfully use the vouchers. [read more...]

COMMENTARY: What's needed is for us as Christians to accept our responsibility to care for "the poor, the lame, the maimed, and the blind" as Christ did and as He taught His disciples to do. We need to build accessible housing for people with disabilities that will enable them to become integrated into a Christian community, not public housing where crime and immorality abound: see our article WELCOME TO "THE ARC" CHAT/VIDEO FORUM!"

PATRIARCH BARTHOLOMEW BLESSED THE UKRAINIAN PEOPLE: "THE WHOLE FREE WORLD IS ON YOUR SIDE"
from: Religious Information Service of Ukraine

(4 Feb.) "Ukrainians demonstrate courage and heroism and will win a victory that will become a triumph of truth and justice. The Church demonstrates its support with prayers, love and care to ease the pain of the Ukrainian people." Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, who also conveyed his blessing to the Ukrainian people, said this at a meeting with the Ukrainian delegation, reports Ukrinform.

"In your person, I congratulate and bless the Ukrainian people. We all know about his courage and heroism. The Mother Church demonstrates its support through prayers, its love and care, and all other possible means to ease your pain,” His Holiness said at a meeting with the Ukrainian delegation.

According to him, such support was also provided by the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which made it possible to be independent in religious life. "We have full faith in God's will and courage of the Ukrainian people. We are confident in the victory of Ukraine. It will be a victory of justice and truth. The whole free world is on the side of Ukraine,” he said.

The Ukrainian delegation was headed by the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets. "We thanked the Ecumenical Patriarch for his daily prayerful support of Ukrainians and the Ukrainian state. I conveyed congratulations from the president of Ukraine, from the entire Ukrainian army, which is now defending the democracy of the whole world from Russian tyranny,” Dmytro Lubinets said in a comment to Ukrinform following the meeting.

At the meeting with the Ecumenical Patriarch, they discussed the return of Ukrainian citizens from Russian captivity: "Of course, the number one priority for us is the return of all Ukrainian citizens illegally detained by the Russian Federation. Both in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine and in the territory of the Russian Federation. We have separately raised the issue of civilian hostages held by the Russian Federation since 2014 and the situation with prisoners of war,” the Ukrainian Ombudsman said.

At the audience with his All-Holiness, the former prisoners shared their memories of their captivity and release and thanked the Ecumenical Patriarch for his prayers and support for Ukraine and her people. Former prisoners of the Kremlin and relatives of Ukrainians who are in captivity appealed to the Ecumenical Patriarch with a request to facilitate the release of their brothers and relatives. [read more...]

COMMENTARY: Over one million Ukrainians – most of them being children – have been abducted from Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine. They are offered Russian passports and the children are being placed with Russian families to be raised as Russians. This practice is as old as Bible times when the Hebrew people – especially children – were taken into Babylonian captivity and were given Babylonian names, as in the case of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego whose Hebrew names Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

MAJOR IMPROVEMENT IN DISABILITY PREVALENCE AMONG U.S. SENIORS
from: Disabled World

(3 Feb.) Statistics reveal the prevalence of disabilities among American adults aged 65 and older is much lower than it was for the same age group a decade earlier. If the prevalence of disabilities had remained at 2008 levels, an additional 1.27 million older Americans would have had difficulties bathing or dressing. An additional 1.89 million would have serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs by 2017.

The decline in disability among older Americans was substantial. The odds of experiencing limitations in activities of daily living (such as dressing or bathing) and the odds of experiencing functional limitations (such as serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs) declined by 18% and 13%, respectively, between 2008 and 2017.

In 2008, 12.1% of older Americans reported limitations in activities of daily living. In 2017, this percentage declined to 9.6%. To put this into perspective, if the prevalence of limitations in daily living remained at the 2008 levels, an additional 1.27 million older Americans would have ADL limitations in 2017.

Similarly, the percentage of functional limitations among those 65 and older declined from 27.3% in 2008 to 23.5% in 2017. As a result, 1.89 million fewer older adults experienced functional limitations on their quality of life.

"The dramatic improvement in the prevalence of older Americans experiencing disabilities has important implications for our communities," says first author Esme Fuller-Thomson, director of the University of Toronto's Institute for Life Course & Aging and professor at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work (FIFSW) and the Department of Family & Community Medicine. "This decline in the prevalence of disabilities has a wide range of benefits for older adults, their families and caregivers, and the health care system at large."

The improvements in disabilities among older adults were greater for women than for men. After adjusting for age and race, women's odds of experiencing limitations in activities of daily living decreased by 20%. vs. 13% for men. The odds of women experiencing functional limitations decreased by 16% compared to only an 8% decrease among men. [read more...]

COMMENTARY: This is good news for us seniors! It shows that more of the "baby boomers" are exercising, getting annual checkups, and taking their meds if needed. Women especially are more likely to do these things: men like to believe they are strong and "don't need that sissy stuff!"

"Has a nation changed its gods, which yet are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. Be astonished, you heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be very desolate, says the Lord. For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and hewed out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water" (Jeremiah 2:11-13).

Imagine yourself to be like the person in this photo: after "having fun" – several "partners": never settling down, getting married, buying a home, and having a family. Now you're 70 – no spouse, no kids, no grandkids, no property, still working. You thought all that was too much bother. Now it's hell on earth, returning to your rented apartment exhausted and nobody greets you, nobody calls you, nobody's a close friend. Fun?

Click on the above photo, and you'll see an article on demographic decline in The Atlantic. It lists several reasons including Covid-19 deaths and it tacitly approves of illegal immigration, but the most important reason it lists is this:

"Finally, yes, Americans are having fewer babies – like basically every other rich country in the world. Since 2011, annual births have declined by 400,000. Two years ago, I wrote that “the future of the city is childless,” and the pandemic seems to have accelerated that future. Just look at Los Angeles: L.A. County recorded 153,000 live births in 2001 but fewer than 100,000 in 2021. At this rate, sometime around 2030, L.A. births will have declined by 50 percent in the 21st century."

What's going on? Pursuing pleasure and possessions has the direct result of decreasing the population: luxury and licentiousness lower the birth rate. The morals in much of the world have been turned upside-down: "Archbishop of Canterbury Promises LGBT Activists to 'Root Out' Certain People From the Church of England." Who are those "certain people"? Members of the Anglican General Synod who oppose same-sex marriage, and Anglican Archbishop of Uganda, Stephen Kaziimba, who wrote "To those who are recruiting children into homosexuality, I want to sound a very strong warning to you. These are not my words, but the words of Jesus: 'If anyone causes one of these little ones…to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.'"

The homosexual practices of Roman Catholic priests and resulting charges of sexual abuse of minors has been so broadly reported over the years that I need not quote more articles. But many young Protestants have also suffered from this type of abuse: "1 in 10 Young Protestants Have Left a Church Over Abuse." The LGBTQ movement is even attempting to make inroads among Eastern Orthodox churches but it is being strongly resisted: "Sexuality and Gender: Response to "Orthodoxy in Dialogue" Open Letter."

If the birth rate stays below 1.6 babies per woman, that society will collapse within just a few generations. In the last decade, the birth rate in the U.S. has fallen to 1.5 babies per woman: see the second chart in "The Mystery of the Declining U.S. Birth Rate," but that article can't seem to explain why this is happening. I believe the main reason that we are witnessing this demographic disaster is explained above: young people are being indoctrinated in schools and in the media to reject traditional morality and instead to march in the LGBTQ parade.

We desperately need to pray for the younger generation and convince them that they will come face-to-face with the reality of demographic collapse – nobody left to take care of them when they grow old – unless they reject this indoctrination and return to Christ, the Living Word of God.

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