I would also like to thank the many people who purchased products from my shops. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of purchases in these economic times! I will be making a donation to Human Life International in the near future.

Visits to this site have been tapering off for the past few days, and I presumed that people had their information, and had made up their minds. I was therefore stunned when I checked my stats a few minutes ago, and discovered that the number of visitors today is triple the highest count from any previous day. I like to think that these visits represent some of those “undecideds”, or perhaps Catholics who are searching their conscience before making their choice.

I am still praying for the outcome of our election to be favorable to Catholics, but whatever happens I know that it is God’s will, and something good will somehow result. I can say personally that this election has helped me seek more information about my cause, to seek a deeper understanding of the Church’s teachings, and to better communicate my beliefs to the people around me.

Keep praying!

“What is popular is not always right, and what is right is not always popular.”

They’re fasting on the steps of the Florida Capitol, hoping God will hear their pleas to put an abortion opponent in the White House.

Prayer warriors will staff the get-out-the-vote command center Tuesday at Ebenezer A.M.E. Church in Fort Washington, Md. A rabbi is distributing a prayer to be said in the voting booth…

…The faithful are busy as Nov. 4 nears.

Click here to read the entire article.

Keep up the excellent work, and remember to thank God for our wonderful progress! Polls indicate that Catholics, who once supported Barack Obama by a wide margin, are now split 50/50. Clearly many have gotten the message. If nothing else, we will have saved a great many souls from grave danger on election day. This is surely a difficult time for faithful of many religions. We have been ridiculed and mocked for our beliefs, and it feels like our voices and our votes do not matter. But we have also sought more knowledge about what our religions teach us, we have solidified our moral beliefs, and we have learned to find our voice. We may feel as though we are on the brink, but much good has come out of this test already.

Reflecting on this point, I realized that mankind has been here before. Prior to His crucifixion, Jesus was betrayed by one of his own disciples, a man who we would have assumed to agree with and support Jesus. With a kiss on the cheek he signaled to the guards that Jesus was the man to be crucified. Jesus was placed on trial before the public, and a vote of sorts was carried out. The people could choose to free Jesus, a peaceful man whom Pontius Pilate found to be innocent of the crimes of which He was accused, or Barrabas, an insurrectionist and murderer. The people, whom Jesus had never harmed, made their choice loud and clear: “Barrabas!”

The passion of Jesus serves as a metaphor for where we find ourselves now. And considering that Jesus died to forgive all our sins past and future, I don’t believe this is merely coincidence. Remember His words: “Weep not for me, but for your children.” While I would never presume to compare any political candidate to Jesus, I would venture to believe that Jesus would not mind a comparison to the millions of innocent human beings murdered each year through abortion. And of course, Jesus is the Church. While I would not compare a person to Barrabas, I would suggest that he represents the culture of death, the pro-choice movement that is slowly but surely corrupting our good country. Jesus was mocked prior to his horrific death. Although he truly was the King of kings, the guards made fun of this notion, fashioning a crown of thorns and a purple robe for him to wear. Jesus is the culture of life, Barrabas the culture of death.

While this election process and the betrayal by fellow Catholics has been difficult to bear, I know that it is only a small taste of what Jesus endured on our behalf. I am grateful to Him that I am allowed to share in His experience, and that I have gained a great deal of insight into my own faith and beliefs.

I would like to offer a new “mantra” to the Obama supporters who are so keen to use our Lord’s name for political purposes: Jesus was betrayed by His own, and Barrabas was a murderer. And I would ask my fellow Catholics: Which side do you want to be on?

McCain has cut into Obama’s lead for a second day and is now just 1.1 points behind. The spread was 3.7 Wednesday and 6.0 Tuesday. The Republican is making headway with middle- and working- class voters, and has surged 10 points in two days among those earning between $30,000 and $75,000. He has also gone from an 11-point deficit to a 9-point lead among Catholics.

We must continue to pray right up until the polls close, regardless of positive or negative news. Remember God’s words: “I would not destroy it for the sake of ten.” Keep faith that God will help us uphold the real progress we have made for the sake of life over the past eight years. Don’t be discouraged, but instead strive to be one of those ten.

In perhaps the most telling comment made by any candidate in either party in this election year, Senator Obama, when asked by Rick Warren when a baby gets human rights, replied: ”that question is above my pay grade.” It was a profoundly disingenuous answer: For even at a state senator’s pay grade, Obama presumed to answer that question with blind certainty. His unspoken answer then, as now, is chilling: human beings have no rights until infancy – and if they are unwanted survivors of attempted abortions, not even then.

Read the rest of the article…

The complete text of FOCA follows (my comments in italics):

110th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 1173
To protect, consistent with Roe v. Wade, a woman’s freedom to choose to bear a child or terminate a pregnancy, and for other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
April 19, 2007
Mrs. BOXER (for a current list of co-sponsors, click here) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

A BILL
To protect, consistent with Roe v. Wade, a woman’s freedom to choose to bear a child or terminate a pregnancy, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `Freedom of Choice Act’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) The United States was founded on core principles, such as liberty, personal privacy, and equality, which ensure that individuals are free to make their most intimate decisions without governmental interference and discrimination.
(2) One of the most private and difficult decisions an individual makes is whether to begin, prevent, continue, or terminate a pregnancy. Those reproductive health decisions are best made by women, in consultation with their loved ones and health care providers.
(3) In 1965, in Griswold v. Connecticut (381 U.S. 479), and in 1973, in Roe v. Wade (410 U.S. 113) and Doe v. Bolton (410 U.S. 179), the Supreme Court recognized that the right to privacy protected by the Constitution encompasses the right of every woman to weigh the personal, moral, and religious considerations involved in deciding whether to begin, prevent, continue, or terminate a pregnancy.
(4) The Roe v. Wade decision carefully balances the rights of women to make important reproductive decisions with the State’s interest in potential life. Under Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, the right to privacy protects a woman’s decision to choose to terminate her pregnancy prior to fetal viability, with the State permitted to ban abortion after fetal viability except when necessary to protect a woman’s life or health.
(5) These decisions have protected the health and lives of women in the United States. Prior to the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, an estimated 1,200,000 women each year were forced to resort to illegal abortions, despite the risk of unsanitary conditions, incompetent treatment, infection, hemorrhage, disfiguration, and death. Before Roe, it is estimated that thousands of women died annually in the United States as a result of illegal abortions. “Forced to resort to illegal abortions”? Are they suggesting that 1,200,000 women annually had absolutely no option but to kill their babies? Could they not have carried the children to term and then given them up for adoption?
(6) In countries in which abortion remains illegal, the risk of maternal mortality is high. According to the World Health Organization, of the approximately 600,000 pregnancy-related deaths occurring annually around the world, 80,000 are associated with unsafe abortions. Those countries also tend to have poor healthcare to begin with, as evidenced by the high rate of pregnancy-related deaths. This is not an adequate comparison to The United States of America.
(7) The Roe v. Wade decision also expanded the opportunities for women to participate equally in society. In 1992, in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (505 U.S. 833), the Supreme Court observed that, `[t]he ability of women to participate equally in the economic and social life of the Nation has been facilitated by their ability to control their reproductive lives.’. Apparently they don’t have enough control over their reproductive lives if they find themselves with fetuses that they need to kill.
(8) Even though the Roe v. Wade decision has stood for more than 34 years, there are increasing threats to reproductive health and freedom emerging from all branches and levels of government. In 2006, South Dakota became the first State in more than 15 years to enact a ban on abortion in nearly all circumstances. Supporters of this ban have admitted it is an attempt to directly challenge Roe in the courts. Other States are considering similar bans.
(9) Further threatening Roe, the Supreme Court recently upheld the first-ever Federal ban on an abortion procedure, which has no exception to protect a woman’s health. The majority decision in Gonzales v. Carhart (05-380, slip op. April 18, 2007) and Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood Federation of America fails to protect a woman’s health, a core tenet of Roe v. Wade. Dissenting in that case, Justice Ginsburg called the majority’s opinion `alarming’, and stated that, `[f]or the first time since Roe, the Court blesses a prohibition with no exception safeguarding a woman’s health’. Further, she said, the Federal ban `and the Court’s defense of it cannot be understood as anything other than an effort to chip away at a right declared again and again by this Court’. Great. So a portion of our Federal Government has taken it upon themselves to criticize the rest of the government, including the Supreme Court, and seek to overturn the decisions and laws they find unfavorable.
(10) Legal and practical barriers to the full range of reproductive services endanger women’s health and lives. Incremental restrictions on the right to choose imposed by Congress and State legislatures have made access to reproductive care extremely difficult, if not impossible, for many women across the country. Currently, 87 percent of the counties in the United States have no abortion provider.
(11) While abortion should remain safe and legal, women should also have more meaningful access to family planning services that prevent unintended pregnancies, thereby reducing the need for abortion.
(12) To guarantee the protections of Roe v. Wade, Federal legislation is necessary.
(13) Although Congress may not create constitutional rights without amending the Constitution, Congress may, where authorized by its enumerated powers and not prohibited by the Constitution, enact legislation to create and secure statutory rights in areas of legitimate national concern.
(14) Congress has the affirmative power under section 8 of article I of the Constitution and section 5 of the 14th amendment to the Constitution to enact legislation to facilitate interstate commerce and to prevent State interference with interstate commerce, liberty, or equal protection of the laws.
(15) Federal protection of a woman’s right to choose to prevent or terminate a pregnancy falls within this affirmative power of Congress, in part, because–
(A) many women cross State lines to obtain abortions and many more would be forced to do so absent a constitutional right or Federal protection;
(B) reproductive health clinics are commercial actors that regularly purchase medicine, medical equipment, and other necessary supplies from out-of-State suppliers; and
(C) reproductive health clinics employ doctors, nurses, and other personnel who travel across State lines in order to provide reproductive health services to patients.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) GOVERNMENT- The term `government’ includes a branch, department, agency, instrumentality, or official (or other individual acting under color of law) of the United States, a State, or a subdivision of a State.
(2) STATE- The term `State’ means each of the States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and each territory or possession of the United States.
(3) VIABILITY- The term `viability’ means that stage of pregnancy when, in the best medical judgment of the attending physician based on the particular medical facts of the case before the physician, there is a reasonable likelihood of the sustained survival of the fetus outside of the woman. Refer back to Sec. 2 (4).
SEC. 4. INTERFERENCE WITH REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH PROHIBITED.
(a) Statement of Policy- It is the policy of the United States that every woman has the fundamental right to choose to bear a child, to terminate a pregnancy prior to fetal viability, or to terminate a pregnancy after fetal viability when necessary to protect the life or health of the woman. If a fetus is viable, as described just now, then why should abortion of that fetus be necessary in order to protect the life or health of the mother? Why can’t the fetus be delivered and both the mother and the fetus be cared for?
(b) Prohibition of Interference- A government may not–

(1) deny or interfere with a woman’s right to choose–
(A) to bear a child;
(B) to terminate a pregnancy prior to viability; or
(C) to terminate a pregnancy after viability where termination is necessary to protect the life or health of the woman; or
(2) discriminate against the exercise of the rights set forth in paragraph (1) in the regulation or provision of benefits, facilities, services, or information.
(c) Civil Action- An individual aggrieved by a violation of this section may obtain appropriate relief (including relief against a government) in a civil action.
SEC. 5. SEVERABILITY.
If any provision of this Act, or the application of such provision to any person or circumstance, is held to be unconstitutional, the remainder of this Act, or the application of such provision to persons or circumstances other than those as to which the provision is held to be unconstitutional, shall not be affected thereby.
SEC. 6. RETROACTIVE EFFECT.
This Act applies to every Federal, State, and local statute, ordinance, regulation, administrative order, decision, policy, practice, or other action enacted, adopted, or implemented before, on, or after the date of enactment of this Act.

In 1999 a gruesome discovery was made that an Illinois hospital was shelving babies to die in a soiled utility room who had survived their abortions.

The Illinois Born Alive Infants Protection Act was introduced in 2001 to provide legal protection to all born babies, wanted or not, including the right to medical care.

Then-state Senator Barack Obama voted against Born Alive 4 times in 3 years and was the sole senator to speak against it on the Senate floor in 2001 and 2002.

In 2002, the Federal version of Born Alive passed unanimously in the US Senate and by overwhelming voice vote in the House. The pro-abortion group NARAL even went neutral on the bill.

But In 2003, Barack Obama voted against the identical version of Born Alive in Illinois. Then, for the next 4 years he repeatedly misrepresented his vote until it was recently discovered in the IL General Assembly archives.

Visit BornAliveTruth.org to learn more about Senator Barack Obama’s atrocious record with regard to the rights of infants.

I was a sophomore in college during the 2000 Presidential Election. I have been interested in politics since I was at least eleven years old, so I had been following the campaigns and media coverage closely. It seemed as though our country was dangerously close to electing the Democrat ticket, which I opposed primarily due to their stance on abortion. The polls and biased media coverage made the situation seem dire.

I watched all of the coverage on TV on election night, and as the numbers came in I continued to pray. The election was closer than anyone had anticipated, and I was losing hope quickly. Finally, it became clear that the result would not be known for several hours. I anxiously kept my eyes glued to the TV well past the time that the winner would normally have been announced. Suddenly, I smelled an overpowering scent of roses, as though a breeze had blown it toward me. The only thing I had in my room that smelled similar was a rose-scented bar of soap, but I knew it was tucked into a drawer in my dresser and could not have suddenly filled my room with fragrance. I turned from the TV screen to look toward the source, and see if I had perhaps left my dresser drawer open. The drawer was not open, and there was no source of a breeze. I turned back to the TV screen and to my complete shock there was a still image of President Bush with bold letters declaring him the winner. It took a few more days before the outcome of the election was officially resolved, but through the turmoil I kept in mind what I had experienced, along with a firm belief that it was a message from St. Therese.

I know that many Catholics would criticize me for my support of President Bush, but I believe he was the best candidate in 2000 and in 2004. He and his administration have done so much to uphold the dignity of human life that he is sometimes referred to as The First “Catholic” President. Just refer to this list of the progress that has been made under the Bush Administration. There is only one ticket this November that would uphold and continue the progress we have made. The stakes are even higher, and we need God’s help more than ever.

This is a new site dedicated to amassing an army of Catholics and others willing to pray that Barack Obama and Joe Biden will not be elected in the November election. Their stances on abortion rights make them unworthy of ruling a country in which every human being is guaranteed the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Send a message to God that there is a great deal of good in this country, and we are ready to fight for it.

Please visit The Prayer Room for some prayer ideas.

I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. -Abraham Lincoln

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