Abortion

The president of a pro-family organization is asking the public to boycott Girl Scout cookies because of the group's ties with Planned Parenthood.

Austin Ruse, the president of Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute, told The Christian Post, "The Girl Scouts partner locally, nationally and internationally with Planned Parenthood, the largest abortionist in the world. They should stop this and the only way to stop them is by hitting them in the pocketbook."

The Girl Scouts have been frequently linked over the past few years with the pro-choice organization, allegedly endorsing abortion and the use of contraceptives to their young members through conventions and website links from their sites. more >>

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) has introduced a bill that would allow all religious employers an exemption to a requirement that health care coverage include contraceptive services.

President Barack Obama has been sharply rebuked from both sides of the political spectrum for his administration's decision to require employers to carry the coverage.

"One of Barack Obama's great attractions as a presidential candidate was his sensitivity to the feelings and intellectual concerns of religious believers," wrote liberal columnist E. J. Dionne in a Jan. 29 editorial for The Washington Post. "That is why it is so remarkable that he utterly botched the admittedly difficult question of how contraceptive services should be treated under the new health care law." more >>

Several Catholic dioceses urged Catholics this past weekend to take political action against the Barack Obama administration for mandating that faith-based schools, hospitals and charities provide insurance coverage for contraception and abortion-inducing drugs.

In an unprecedented move, dioceses in Maine, Arizona and New Orleans issued statements to their churches criticizing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and urging Catholics to write their congressional representatives about it, according to USA Today. These statements were then read to congregants during the weekend masses.

New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond issued a statement to its 108 parishes, saying that the contraceptive mandate, which was reaffirmed earlier this month by Health and Human Services Department Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, "is an example of government violating our rights." more >>

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich, who is campaigning for votes in Tuesday's Florida primary, said he would ban all embryonic stem cell research and called for a commission to study the ethics of in vitro fertilization.

"I believe life begins at conception," the Republican presidential hopeful stressed Sunday at a news conference outside a Baptist church in Lutz, Fla.

"The question I was raising was what happens to embryos in fertility clinics," Gingrich added, referring to the remarks he made a day earlier at another Baptist church in Winter Park, that embryonic stem-cell research amounts to "the use of science to desensitize society over the killing of babies." more >>

An atheist group in Minnesota has put up billboards featuring pictures of babies and attacking religion in the Twin Cities and its members say they are inspired by pro-life ads across the country.

"Please don't indoctrinate me with religion. Teach me to think for myself," says an illuminated 14 x 48 foot billboard, installed at 725 Washington Ave. N. in Minneapolis by the Minnesota Atheists, a group affiliated with the national organization American Atheists.

"We are all born without belief in gods. Learn how to be a born-again atheist," reads another ad, which measures 10.5 x 36 foot and has been installed at the corner of University Avenue and Lexington Avenue in St. Paul. The billboards, which went up this week and will remain in place until Feb. 19, carry images of smiling babies. more >>

Both the West Coast Walk for Life and the D.C. March for Life hosted large rallies to commemorate the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade this week. Organizers say the former drew over 40,000 participants, and the latter, 400,000, but neither event drew much coverage from major media outlets.

Kristi Hamrick, media consultant for Americans United for Life, told The Christian Post that "there has been a dwindling in the coverage" of these pro-life rallies.

She keeps tabs on the coverage for AUL and said this year "AP barely mentioned what was going on and had a picture of three pro-abortion supporters in their story." She also said The New York Times had no coverage of it except to say that Rand Paul was arrested at the airport on his way to speak at the March for Life. more >>