In This Issue:
- COVID Controversy
- Post-Vax Results
- Poster Child Passes Away
- Deepening Depopulation
- Economy Affects Fertility
- Communist China
- Bishops Leave Early
- Policy Makes No Difference
- Neuro-Weaponry
- UN Misdeeds
- Biden vs. Pro-Lifers
- Science Gone Mad
- The Entrance to Eternity
- Pro-life Around the World
- Block Biden’s Nominee
- Surrogacy Semi-Criminalized
- Lobbyist Peddles Mis-info
- Pro-Life on the Home Front
- Clinic Mass Canceled
- The Trans Mandate
- PA’s March for Life
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- Australian Miracle Baby
COVID Controversy
Post-Vax Results: A study of 22,000 women looked at the effects of the Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines on women’s menstrual cycle. Within four weeks of receiving the vaccine, unexpected vaginal bleeding occurred in 13.1% of perimenopausal, 14.1% of premenopausal, and 3.3% of postmenopausal women. The two vaccines did not have equivalent effects though. Moderna had a 32% higher chance of vaginal bleeding compared to Pfizer. Researchers theorize that these side effects were the result of the spike protein in the mRNA vaccines. But no studies have delved into why the spike protein would have this effect, or whether it is causing long-term issues, such as endometriosis, Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, or other conditions which can result in abnormal bleeding.
Poster Child Passes Away: An Israeli boy featured in a video used to push COVID vaccines on children in a nationwide campaign died tragically from a sudden heart attack in late September. The boy was only 8 years old. According to reports, Yonatan Moshe Erlichman, grandson of a distinguished physician in Beit El, Dr. Mati Erlichman, “died unexpectedly of cardiac arrest while taking a bath.” In 2020, at the age of 5, the child appeared in a video produced by the regional council of Mateh Binyamin. The government was determined to push vaccines on children, despite the nearly universal immunity of children to COVID-19. The video made Yonatan a “poster child” for the vaccine campaign in Israel, which was one of the most draconian nations in the world for vaccine measures. We pray for the repose of Yonatan’s soul and for his family as they grieve this loss.
“We mourn the loss of this innocent child,” says Mr. Mosher. “He was used as a guinea pig in the testing of an experimental gene therapy that has caused many deaths and injuries.”
Deepening Depopulation
Economy Affects Fertility: The Institute for Family Studies has uncovered a connection between fertility gaps and economic freedom. A fertility gap is the difference between how many children a woman desires and how many she will actually end up having. Around the world, women themselves express a desire for more children than they currently have (on average). In a working paper, IFS researchers found that women living in U.S. states with greater economic freedom also experience smaller fertility gaps. This means that women growing up in an environment of more economic choice are also more likely to end up having the number of children that they want (increasing fertility overall). If states are looking to boost fertility rates, these findings suggest that their leaders should seriously consider measures that expand economic freedom.
Communist China
Bishops Leave Early: The two bishops from mainland China are leaving the Vatican’s Synod on Synodality after less than two weeks. Bishop Antonio Yao Shun of Jining and Bishop Joseph Yang Yongqiang of Zhoucun will return to China this week without completing the Synod process. This means that they will not be able to participate in the final vote on the synthesis document at the end of the assembly. Vatican spokesperson Paolo Ruffini gave no detailed explanation for this departure, sharing only that their departure is due to “pastoral needs” in their diocese that require their presence. This situation exactly mirrors that of the Synod of Bishops in 2018, when Bishop Joseph Guo Jincai and Bishop Yang Xiaoting of Yan‘an left early.
“The Chinese Communist Party keeps even its hand-picked bishops on a very short leash,” says Mr. Mosher. “They are not allowed to travel abroad alone, but in groups, so they can watch each other. And they are not allowed abroad for more than short periods, lest they get too used to the freedoms that we in the West take for granted.”
Policy Makes No Difference: When the CCP’s three-child policy was rolled out in 2021, Chinese leaders knew that they wouldn’t see an impact within the year. But their hopes for a surge in 2022 remained high. Last week, the National Health Commission released the breakdown of birth stats for 2022 and it was no better than the previous year. Of the 9.56 million newborns in China last year, 15% of them were a family’s third child, up only 0.5% from 2021. Adding to the demographic crisis, fewer people had second children with the share falling from 41.4% in 2021 to 38.9% in 2022.
Neuro-Weaponry: Chinese military officials have been discussing the weaponization of the human brain for years. In March of this year, a Chinese military-run newspaper described cloud-powered AI“integrating human and machine” as the key to winning wars. Every year, Beijing spends billions on neuroscience to bring these ideas closer to reality. Concerned about these Chinese activities in biotechnology, the United States in December blacklisted China’s AMMS—the country’s top medical research institute run by the Chinese military—and its 11 affiliated biotechnology research institutes, accusing them of developing “purported brain-control weaponry” to further the Chinese military.
UN Misdeeds
Biden vs. Pro-Lifers: The Biden administration has asked UN agencies and other governments to ramp up efforts against what they have called “anti-rights” and “anti-gender” movements. The statement, joined by Belgium and Macedonia, came at a meeting on discrimination against women. Patrick Breen, the U.S. Advisor for the Third Committee, called for a future UN report to “address the negative effects of the anti-rights and anti-gender movements on the advancement of gender equity and equality.” However, the effort to undermine and remove pro-life and pro-family organizations at the UN does not stop with delivering statements and issuing reports. Last year the NGO Committee of the UN Commission on the Status of Women issued participation guidelines including a list of progressive “values,” mandating that all participants to a CSW conference share the same view on sexuality and gender. The United Nations, with support from the U.S. government, is determined to stamp out traditional views and force its progressive views on the world at large.
Science Gone Mad
The Entrance to Eternity: In this moving reflection on motherhood, Susanna Spencer details how a mother’s womb truly is a portal to eternity. Life begins in the womb, and too often ends, within a mother’s womb. But whether they live on Earth or head to eternity before birth, all lives are to be celebrated. That spark of life at conception is a gift, given to a husband and wife through co-creation with God. Besides being a connection to God, mothers are also connected to the Blessed Mother in pregnancy and childbirth. Mothers everywhere can lean on the Blessed Mother “who received God-Made-Man within herself, birthed him into this visible world, and suffered with him into death, and is now joined with him for eternity in heaven.”
“Modern science has given human beings the idea that they are in absolute control of their fertility,” says Mr. Mosher. “But while it is true that ending a pregnancy–and a baby’s life–can be accomplished in a number of ways, the opposite is not true. One-sixth of couples are naturally infertile, while one-third of all babies conceived end in miscarriages. Those couples who postpone childbearing on the mistaken belief that they can turn their fertility on and off like a faucet often wind up with fewer children than they had hoped for. Or none at all. When all is said and done, God is the author and arbiter of Life, and of every single human being who has ever been conceived.”
Pro-life Around the World
Block Biden’s Nominee: Over 360 pro-life groups have asked the UN General Assembly to block President Joe Biden’s nominee, American law professor Sarah Cleveland, to the International Court of Justice because of her support of abortion. A petition was created in order to help stop such a controversial abortion activist from being a part of the most powerful court in the world. Apparently while serving on the UN Human Rights Committee Cleveland tried to impose new human rights that were never contemplated by Sovereign nations, including on abortion and transgender issues. She was rewarded for her activism by President Biden with a nomination to be the top lawyer in the U.S. State Department. This was blocked in the United States Senate precisely because of concerns over her judicial activism and her globalist views. Now, Cleveland has been nominated to serve a ten-year term as a judge on the top court in the world, where she will be free to advance her anti-sovereignty, pro-abortion, anti-family agenda. If appointed, her decisions will reach far beyond the International Court of Justice. Domestic courts and activists all over the world will cite them as binding jurisprudence.
Surrogacy Semi-Criminalized: A sub-committee of the EU Parliament has adopted a draft position on revising the rules regarding human trafficking which would partially criminalize surrogacy. The text, adopted by the Women’s Rights and Civil Liberties committees, addresses surrogacy for reproductive exploitation in the context of trafficking. It ensures that if a woman is recruited by being threatened to become a surrogate for the purpose of reproductive exploitation, she would be considered a victim of trafficking and benefit from the rights under these rules, while the traffickers would be prosecuted. Surrogacy as a practice is always immoral, as it treats both female bodies and children as commodities to be bought and sold. While the entire practice was not criminalized, this is still a step in the right direction to ban the practice as a whole.
“Surrogacy is always a form of human trafficking,” says Mr. Mosher. “This is true whether it involves human trafficking or not because it always entails the purchase of another person’s body to grow a child, which treats the child as a commodity. So this is a win, but only a partial one.”
Lobbyist Peddles Mis-Info: The assisted suicide lobby has been caught spreading misinformation about the number of British people who end their lives in an assisted suicide clinic, Dignitas, each year. Last week in an interview on Sky News, a board member of Dignity in Dying, Dr. Jacky Davis, claimed that “over 600 people a year in this country [the UK] go to Dignitas, we are outsourcing assisted deaths at the moment.” But this figure was inflated by over twenty times. Just earlier this year, a representative of Dignitas shared that over the past 20 years, 540 people from the UK had ended their lives in the Dignitas clinic. This means that the average number of deaths per year is about 27 and Dr. Davis’s claim was a 2100% exaggeration.
Pro-Life on the Home Front
Clinic Mass Canceled: Earlier this month, the Diocese of Wichita, Kansas, was forced to cancel its annual “Mass for Life” scheduled to take place in front of an abortion clinic after a judge revoked its permit to close the road where the event was to take place. Sedgwick County Chief Judge Jeffery Goering signed a temporary restraining order the day before the mass was scheduled, which prohibited the Mass from taking place. Instead, Wichita Bishop Carl Kemme led a rosary in front of the abortion clinic with over 100 attendees. The diocese has plans to appeal the decision, in order to hold the Mass next October.
The Trans Mandate: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has imposed a transgender pronoun mandate on its employees. This mandate instructs employees to affirm any co-worker’s self-proclaimed gender identity and preferred pronouns, as part of the department’s new Gender Identity and Non-Discrimination Guidance. Neither the email nor the video sent about the mandate explained how the policy would be enforced or whether employees would be subject to disciplinary action if they violated the new policy. This mandate clearly violates the First Amendment. Roger Severino, who served as the director of the HHS Office for Civil Rights during the Trump administration, accused the HHS of a “compelled speech” mandate with the new policy. “It absolutely will [lead to targeting Christians] because the [Biden] administration has made it abundantly clear that it prioritizes gender ideology over free speech and religious freedom rights,” Severino said.
“As the cultural Marxists rush headlong over the cliffs of linguistic insanity,” says Mr. Mosher. “it is important to remember that basic biology–the science–teaches us that there are only two genders. Do not comply with their demands.”
PA’s March for Life: Pennsylvania had a successful March for Life at the state capitol this week. Thousands of pro-lifers came out to advocate for state policies that respect the human dignity of every person, both born and unborn. Pro-life leaders came to advocate, alongside supportive local senators and House Representatives. This year, pro-life organizations are focused on helping pregnancy resource centers, which offer better options to vulnerable women who are told abortion is the only choice. Such support was made especially necessary after Governor Josh Shapiro cut millions of dollars worth of state funding for Real Alternatives.
Good News
Australian Miracle Baby: An Australian baby boy, born prematurely at 23 weeks, has finally gone home with his family after 184 days in the NICU. Courtney and Rhys Matulis were overjoyed to find out they were pregnant with their son, Maverick, after having lost their previous baby at 18 weeks due to an incompetent cervix. But this joy turned to worry when this same issue caused Courtney to go into early labor. Despite the many fears of medical complications, Courtney and Rhys were able to focus on the positive, with the support of an organization called Life’s Little Treasures Foundation. Every day, the couple focused on the time they were able to spend with Maverick in the NICU and now they will have a lifetime to love their little boy.
Quote of the Week
“Every child brought into existence in the womb is a gift received. The Blessed Mother is our example of how to receive this gift of new life. The woman’s own life is a gift, her fertility is a gift, and in the act of co-creating, she receives from outside herself, and the immortal soul of the new human person brought into existence comes from God.”
~ Susanna Spencer, source
