No, Dr. Hawking! No Ball of Fire!

No Stephen Hawking, Population Growth Is Not Going to Turn Earth into a “Ball of Fire”

from the PRI Staff

It’s a curious thing. At times, the most brilliant scientists and mathematicians throughout history have held some of the most preposterous beliefs.

For instance, Rene Descartes, inventor of modern analytic geometry and the Cartesian plane, believed the pineal gland was the seat of the human soul. Sir Isaac Newton, the father of classical mechanics, the laws of motion, and co-discoverer of calculus, believed that one couldpredict the future through hidden secrets written into the Bible. And William Herschel, who discovered the planet Uranus, believed that, based on “astronomical principles” [italics in the original text], the Sun had a solid surface with “mountains and vallies [sic]” and was “most probably also inhabited” by alien life.

Even Albert Einstein for years refused to believe—contrary to all observational evidence—in an expanding universe. Einstein initially rejected the theory of an expanding universe proposed by Fr. Georges Lemaître, former President of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, a Jesuit priest, and one of the leading astrophysicists of the mid-20th Century. Lemaître’s theory became what is now known as the Big Bang Theory.

Now world-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking has claimed that overpopulation and an excessive consumption of energy will turn Earth into a “ball of fire” by 2600, according to Metro.


Read more here

 

The Population Research Institute is a (501c3) non-profit research organization whose core values hold that people are the world’s greatest resource. PRI’s goals are to educate on this premise, to expose the myth of overpopulation, and to expose human rights abuses committed in population control programs. Our growing, global network of pro-life groups spans over 30 countries. For more information, please use this link.

Voices for Life is an e-publication dedicated to informing and educating the public on pro-life and pro-family issues. To read our Mission Statement, use this link.  Follow us on Facebook, Google, and Pinterest.  Help us spread the pro-life message by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks.

Pregnant, need help or know someone who does?  

National Hotline: Call 1-800-712-HELP or Text 'HELPLINE' to 313131.

In Southeast Penna:  Call the Community Women's Center at  215-826-8090

If you or someone you know is suffering after abortion, confidential non-judgmental help is available.  Call Project Rachel's national toll-free number 888-456-HOPE (4673) or visit hopeafterabortion.org.  

An Invitation to SE Pennsylvania's Annual Memorial Mass for Our Deceased Pro-Life Friends

From Pat & Jack O'Brien

November 27, 2017

8:00 PM

St. Anastasia Church

3301 West Chester Pike

Newtown Square, PA (map)

(Rosary at 7:45 pm) 

NOTE: Added to the list below is Pro-Life Defender Bill Miller who passed away earlier this month. Bill was a pro-life pioneer who was dedicated to prayerful witness outside of ALL the abortion mills in Philadelphia and as well as the Planned Parenthood in Warmister, Pennsylvania.

May God in His Infinite Wisdom have mercy on their souls

You have noticed that the list of those who came before us and had worked for Life keeps getting longer and longer.  These people are worthy of our remembrance, and even more than that, our grateful prayers.

Each year we celebrate our “family” by attending the Holy sacrifice of the Mass. This year we will again. The grace that comes from this Mass is not for the deceased. It is for us. 

We need fortitude, perseverance, courage, hope, love, patience, trust in His Providence, but mostly faith. We must believe that our prayer is always heard and answered. Some day the scourge of abortion will be ended. Already those who have gone before us know the time. 

As this Mass, we ask their prayers for us and that we continue the work they have begun. Each one of them is joyful to see our work. Come then and celebrate the Mass of Remembrance with them, for us, and for those waiting to be born. Making time, finding time, to be there is a gift to God to Our Mother and yes, to us. 

Pat and Jack O'Brien are long time pro-life warriors and pioneers who reside in Southeast  Pennsylvania. 

   

Pro-Life Censorship at Christian College

By Brenna Lewis
Students for Life

On Saturday, November 18th, Berea College kicked off its BereaFest Homecoming weekend and played host to many visiting alumni from various graduating classes. Berea is a small Christian college about 30 minutes south of Lexington, Kentucky. 

It’s school motto is: “God has made of one blood all peoples of the Earth.” By virtue of its size, location, and Christian foundation, most objective observers would probably assume Berea is a welcoming place for Christian values, or at the very least, open to the free exchange of ideas.

Quite unfortunately, this was not the case when our “Stop the Violence” display visited the school this past Saturday. In order to reach the largest audience possible, our student leader decided to host the display during their Homecoming weekend.

All appropriate procedures were followed, and the space was approved by the administration. About five minutes after finishing setup, an older couple stopped in front of us and asked, “Is this an anti-choice display?” 

We explained why we were there, to which the woman responded, “This is disgusting. I am a labor hall nurse and I am very pro-choice.” We invited her to dialogue with us, requests which she rudely shot down repeatedly until angrily stomping away.

This behavior was dishearteningly common throughout the day. Not long after this altercation, two administrators approached us, pulled our student leader aside for about 10 minutes, then returned asking us to move our entire display to a back hallway. At a private school, students basically check their free speech rights at the door, and we had no choice but to comply. One of the administrators even helped us move our things.

During the few hours we spent in the back hallway, we had a number of interesting conversations. A current Berea student confronted us saying, “I don’t understand why you’re doing this when so many African-Americans are killed by police every day. And there are women who are here who have had abortions, and you’re telling them that it was violent?” 

Again, we asked if she would stay and have a conversation with us about it, but she was intent on getting us removed and took pictures of the display to show to “someone in charge.” By the end of the day, we found it refreshing yet incredibly ironic that one of our most productive conversations was with the student leader of the Planned Parenthood group on campus.

Students for Life article continues

What Do Senators Manchin, Casey, and Donnelly Have in Common?

The babies cannot afford to have unreliable Senators representing them. The babies won’t simply lose an election – they stand to lose their lives.

By Karen Cross
National Right to Life

In the face of dismal voting records, Democratic Senators Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Joe Donnelly (Ind.) and Bob Casey, Jr. (Pa.) still claim to be pro-life. In the current 115th Congress, Joe Manchin and Joe Donnelly both have 25% pro-life voting records as scored by National Right to Life, and Bob Casey’s pro-life record in the 115th Congress is even bleaker – 0%.

Bob Casey, Jr. is certainly not his father. The late Pennsylvania Governor Bob Casey was a stalwart pro-life Democrat, who put his beliefs into action, even at the risk of alienating his ever-growing pro-abortion Democratic Party.

In many areas of the country, Democratic candidates know they must have pro-life votes in order to win. However they also must appease the pro-abortion political action committees which set the tune for the Democratic Party. These include Planned Parenthood – the nation’s largest abortion provider, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and EMILY’s List.

In other words, Senators Casey, Donnelly, and Manchin must deceive pro-life voters in order to win re-election in 2018.

To deceive someone is defined as “to persuade someone that something false is the truth, or to keep the truth hidden from someone for your own advantage.” A deceptive person is also defined as one who is dishonest, wily, deceptive, fraudulent, and insincere. Someone who is dishonest is also unreliable – someone who can’t be trusted with their votes.

Are Senators Casey’s, Donnelly’s, and Manchin’s votes to use taxpayer funds for the nation’s largest abortion provider a betrayal of their stated pro-life views? Are Senators Casey, Donnelly, and Manchin pandering to both sides of the abortion issue?

Let’s explore these questions.

Senators Casey, Donnelly and Manchin have long claimed to be pro-life, yet they consistently vote to allow hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding to Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider that performs 900 abortions every single day. The Senators’ attitudes? They insist not one dime of that money directly goes for abortion.

We don’t care, Senators.

Money is fungible. Planned Parenthood receives more than a million dollars a day in federal dollars. They can use that money to build more of their mega-abortion clinics, hire more staff and do more advertising. As a result, more little girls walk through their doors.

By voting to continue government funding of Planned Parenthood, these Senators are keeping money from actual health care providers who will offer comprehensive health care for more women and girls, closer to home.

Democrats ignore pro-lifers at their political peril.

In April, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez declared that the DNC would only support candidates who support an extreme abortion agenda calling for unrestricted abortion for any reason – including late abortions after 20 weeks when the unborn child is capable of experiencing pain, and taxpayer funding of abortion. This will cause problems for some Democrats that will cause them to lose elections across the nation.

The most ridiculous evidence of this recently took place when Sen. Manchin appeared in a picture holding a Planned Parenthood sign that read, “I stand with Planned Parenthood.”  Sen. Manchin later appeared in a picture with a pro-life group holding a sign that read, “We don’t need Planned Parenthood.”

Which is it, Joe?

National Right to Life continues

City Tries to Stop Pregnancy Center From Saving Babies Next Door to Abortion Clinic

By Jay Hobbs
Life News

An attempt to stop a pregnancy center from saving lives next door to an abortion clinic is still in the works in Hartford, Conn., following a raucous public meeting that drew an estimated 200 participants from all over the state Monday night.

Following the meeting, Hartford’s city council looks poised to move forward with an ordinance that would force Hartford Women’s Center to post prominent notices indicating “whether or not a licensed medical provider is on premise providing care.” before the end of the year.

While the specific language for the ordinance has yet to be revealed, what’s clear is that it singles out Hartford Women’s Center, a privately funded pro-life pregnancy center that set up a location next door to an abortion business, Hartford GYN, this May.

In response, Hartford GYN, as well as abortion lobbyist group NARAL Pro-Choice America’s state-level chapter—located just one floor above Hartford GYN—have lashed out against their pro-life neighbor, accusing the center of harassing and deceiving clients headed to the abortion business.

Two years before Hartford Women’s Center moved next door, NARAL made identical claims about all 50-plus pregnancy centers throughout Connecticut in a “report” that included the word “deception” 21 times in just 30 pages. Backed by rabidly pro-abortion U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, the hit piece was later used to introduce legislation at the state house in early 2017.

While that legislative attempt failed, the latest move from the abortion lobby is just more of the same, said Hartford Women’s Center executive director Leticia Velasquez.

“We’re offering free help to pregnant women,” Velasquez told a local Fox reporter. “I don’t see why there’s deception.”

In an interview with the Hartford Courant, Velasquez noted that fact city officials haven’t visited her clinic or made an attempt to learn more about them.

“We would welcome the council to come and visit the clinic to see what we do,” she said. “It seems they’ve picked only one side.”

With his city on the brink of bankruptcy, Mayor Luke Bronin is picking a particularly precarious time to try and force a pregnancy center to speak a government message meant to steer their own clients away from their services.

Hartford is on the verge of declaring bankruptcy, and previous attempts to force pro-lifers to post similar signage have cost local taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in Maryland and New York City.

Life News report continues

Voices for Life is an e-publication dedicated to informing and educating the public on pro-life and pro-family issues. To read our Mission Statement, use this link.  Follow us on Facebook, Google, and Pinterest.  Help us spread the pro-life message by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks.

Pregnant, need help or know someone who does?  

National Hotline: Call 1-800-712-HELP or Text 'HELPLINE' to 313131.
In Southeast Penna:  Call the Community Women's Center at  215-826-8090

If you or someone you know is suffering after abortion, confidential non-judgmental help is available.  Call Project Rachel's national toll-free number 888-456-HOPE (4673) or visit hopeafterabortion.org.  

Federal Judge Strikes Down Buffer Zone Law at Abortion Clinics

By Fr. Mark Hodges
Life Site News

In a powerful victory for the sanctity of innocent human life, a federal judge has thrown out a “buffer zone” law as anti-free speech.

Last week, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Wigenton, a George W. Bush appointee, ruled that an Englewood, New Jersey, “buffer zone” ordinance was unconstitutional.

In 2014, the Englewood city council passed an ordinance prohibiting pro-life advocates from coming within eight feet of abortion businesses’ entrances or driveways. The law also criminalized giving pro-life pamphlets to women, even if they ask for literature.

Pro-lifer Jeryl Turco, who had done sidewalk counseling outside Metropolitan Medical Associates for seven years, challenged the city ordinance in 2015, and after a two-year court battle, she won.

Noting a unanimous 2014 U.S. Supreme Court decision that a Massachusetts buffer zone was unconstitutional, Judge Wigenton determined the Englewood ordinance was too broad, that the city hadn’t tried less radical measures to address concerns, and that the “buffer zone” violated First Amendment freedoms of speech and assembly.

One News Now reported that the abortionists’ case was “based on false allegations.” Pro-lifers were accused of shouting, pushing people, and blocking entrances.

Those allegations are “not true,” Marie Tasy of New Jersey Right to Life told One News Now. “In fact, the court found no evidence of any arrests or clinic harassment or violence in the last five years or more. The court therefore said that the buffer zone law was unjustified.”

Judge Wigenton wrote in her decision that city officials “did not create a targeted statute to address the specific issue of congestion or militant and aggressive protesters outside of the clinic.”

“The ordinance established a buffer zone that extended to eight feet on either side of the clinic’s doorway and its driveway,” Tasy explained. “So it was very, very broad and the court found that the Englewood abortion clinic had not tried a less-restrictive approach to governing the clinic entrance before enacting this ordinance.”

The local chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW) expressed “disappointment” in the ruling. “The buffer helped because people’s personal space was not infringed upon,” Northern New Jersey NOW President Bonnie Shapiro said.

“The New Jersey decision is a great example of clear constitutional reasoning,” Liberty Counsel chairman Mat Staver said. “The decision should be an encouragement to pro-life sidewalk counselors around the country.”

Staver noted that Judge Wigenton’s decision was “uncorrupted by the ‘abortion distortion’ that has pervaded so many court decisions since Roe v. Wade.” He added that the ruling should deter government officials who “abdicate their duties to uphold the constitutional rights of their citizens in order to carry water for Planned Parenthood.”

Life Site News article continues

The Pro-Life Movement and a Season of Thanksgiving

National Right to Life

The November digital edition of National Right to Life News came out Tuesday, November 21, two days before Thanksgiving. As always, the “pro-life newspaper of record” is an up-to-the-minute compilation of the stories that are most important to the pro-life community. Please read the issue in its entirety and pass its contents along to pro-life family and friends.

Last year Carol Tobias, NRLC’s president, wrote a wonderful column–“Bountiful Blessings on Thanksgiving”–that I would like to use as a jumping off point for this editorial. In her thoughtful remarks, Carol listed some of the primary reasons she was thankful as well as the principal reasons all pro-lifers should be filled with hope and encouragement. Those reasons are as strong today as they were a year ago.

Speaking for myself, the reason I am most thankful and which inspires the greatest hope are the people of our Movement. I do not travel as much as I used to, so the most prevalent way I communicate with grassroots pro-lifers is at NRLC’s annual convention (which next year will be in Kansas June 28-30) and through the email responses to the monthly NRL News and to the Monday through Saturday NRL News Today.

Through those one-on-one in-person conversations and the electronic back-and-forths, I see people genuinely inspired by life, grateful for life, and resolute in bringing to pass their vision for an America that will one day be abortion-free.

Something I’ve thought about a lot recently. You might argue that nothing better illustrates the contrasting worldviews that animate pro-lifers and pro-abortionists than how they react to natural disasters and the massive harm done to people.

Jay Hobbs wrote about the utter devastation Hurricane Mari wrought in Puerto Rico. Jay told us about Joseph Pardo who runs the woman-helping center Cree Women’s Center along with his wife, Daisy, and all that they had done to “meet humanitarian needs that include access to food, clean water, safe shelter, hygiene resources and clothing through Cree Women Center’s parent organization ‘Love the Nation.’”

National Right to Life article continues

Trump Admin Ends Lawsuit Obama Used to Force Christian University to Fund Abortions

By Micaiah Bilger
Life News
The Trump administration recently stopped pursuing an Obama-era lawsuit against a Christian university that opposes paying for drugs that may cause abortions in its employee health plans.

Baptist Press reports Union University, a Christian school in Jackson, Tennessee, and the federal government recently reached a settlement in the dispute over the Obamacare HHS mandate.

“We rejoice over this outcome, in which the government acknowledges that the contraception mandate would impose a substantial burden on our exercise of religion and violate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act,” university President Samuel W. “Dub” Oliver said in a statement.

In the settlement, the U.S. government agreed that the HHS mandate imposed a “substantial burden” on the university’s religious freedom, according to the report. It referred to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling involving the Christian-owned business Hobby Lobby.

“We believe, based on the Bible, that life begins at conception,” Oliver said. “We went to court to defend religious liberty, the right to believe and to live according to those beliefs, and we are glad that religious liberty prevailed.”

Here’s more from the report:

The agreement between Union and the U.S. government specifies that Union’s employee health plans are permanently exempt from the HHS contraception mandate.

The settlement follows new rules issued by the Trump administration Oct. 6 to exempt entities from the mandate based on their religious beliefs.

Union filed one of 56 lawsuits involving more than 140 faith-based plaintiffs against the federal HHS mandate in 2014 that sought a judgment declaring that the abortifacient mandate of the Affordable Care Act violated the university’s rights, not only under RFRA but also under the First and Fifth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution and the Administrative Procedures Act. …

As part of the settlement, the government agreed to pay the bulk of the legal fees that Union accrued.

Life News article continues

Texas Allocates $20 Million to Pro-Life Program Providing Options for Women

By Grace Carr, Daily Caller News
Live Action News

Texas has allocated $20 million in its 2018-2019 budget to go to a pro-life program that offers alternatives to abortion and provides services to new parents.

“If they’re self-sufficient through the process of childbirth and afterward, that saves the state money and makes for much happier women and children and families,” Texas Alliance for Life Executive Director Joe Pojman said, according to The Texas Tribune. The $20 million brings the program’s total operating budget to over $38 million.

The Alternatives to Abortion program provides pregnant women with support groups in maternity homes and referrals to community and social service programs like child care, transportation, and housing. It also offers support to new parents on how to best handle the stress of raising a new life. The program also has classes on life skills, stress management, budgeting, as well as items that new parents need like car seats, maternity clothes, infant diapers, and formula.

“Clearly the state is prioritizing ideology over public health because a true alternative to abortion would be ensuring access to health care, especially family planning,” NARAL Pro-Choice Texas Executive Director Heather Busby said, according to The Texas Tribune.

The new funds will be used to provide services not just for newborns but also for youngsters up to age 3, according to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, which is in charge of overseeing the Alternatives to Abortion program. It intends to provide pregnant mothers with access to Medicaid services, food stamps, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

The new funds will also go toward job training in order to fuel “greater self-sufficiency and lower reliance on health and human service programs across the lifespan,” the Health and Human Services Commission report says.

Website: Live Action News

Voices for Life is an e-publication dedicated to informing and educating the public on pro-life and pro-family issues. To read our Mission Statement, use this link.  Follow us on Facebook, Google, and Pinterest.  Help us spread the pro-life message by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks.

Pregnant, need help or know someone who does?  

National Hotline: Call 1-800-712-HELP or Text 'HELPLINE' to 313131.
In Southeast Penna:  Call the Community Women's Center at  215-826-8090

If you or someone you know is suffering after abortion, confidential non-judgmental help is available.  Call Project Rachel's national toll-free number 888-456-HOPE (4673) or visit hopeafterabortion.org.  

States Sue to Overturn New Trump Rule and Force Little Sisters of the Poor to Fund Abortion Drugs

By Steven Ertelt
Life News

The Trump Administration issued new rules protecting Little Sisters of the Poor from having to pay for abortion-causing drugs in their employee health care plans. Now, two states have filed suit to force the organization of Catholic nuns to pay for abortion drugs.

As LifeNews reported, President Donald Trump signed a religious liberty executive order that would protect Christian organizations like the Little Sisters of the Poor from being forced to pay for abortions.

The order indicates the Trump administration will “provide regulatory relief for religious objectors to Obamacare’s burdensome preventive services mandate, a position supported by the Supreme Court decision in Hobby Lobby.”

However, pro-abortion attorneys general in two states don’t want the Catholic nuns to enjoy that protection. The Little Sisters of the Poor are heading back to court to defend themselves against lawsuits by the states of California and Pennsylvania to take away the Little Sisters’ religious exemption from the new Health and Human Services rule.

The abortion activists are suing to stop the Trump order that protects religious non-profits like the Little Sisters of the Poor, Catholic nuns who dedicate their lives to caring for the elderly poor, from providing services like the week-after pill in their healthcare plans in violation of their faith. If it stands, the new rule should mean that their lawsuit against the federal government will soon end.

However, shortly after the new mandate was issued, the states of California and Pennsylvania sued to take away the religious exemption the Little Sisters just won. The Little Sisters of the Poor, represented by attorneys with Becket, are asking the court to ensure that they can continue their vital ministry of caring for the elderly poor without violating their faith. Becket will file to intervene on the Sister’s behalf later today.

Mark Rienzi, senior counsel at Becket and lead attorney for the Little Sisters of the Poor, told LifeNews: “Sadly Josh Shapiro and Xavier Becerra think attacking nuns is a way to score political points. These men may think their campaign donors want them to sue nuns, but our guess is most taxpayers disagree. No one needs nuns in order to get contraceptives, and no one needs these guys reigniting the last administration’s divisive and unnecessary culture war.”

The Trump order limits a rule created under the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act that required that employers, including non-church religious organizations, must cover all forms of contraception, from birth control pills to abortion drugs and devices at no cost to the employees.

Life News article continues