All Life is Sacred.

Because your love is better than life,

my lips will glorify you.

I will praise you as long as I live,

and in your name I will lift up my hands.

Psalm 63:3-4

Loved ones,

These days Tonya and I frequently find ourselves doing things we never wanted to do ”“ namely, working on details of Anastasha’s funeral and burial. We are trying to get as much done as early as possible, so that we can spend our mental and spiritual energy on loving Jesus, loving one another (although we seem to fail miserably at this so often), loving the kids and loving Anastasha. But there are simply some practical things that need to be done, and are much better accomplished now instead of during the more difficult days ahead.

Twice in the past couple of weeks something happened that stopped us in our tracks.

The first time was when we had just left the headstone store (they call them “monuments”). We drove to the cemetery to try to find a plot and to look at some old headstones that we liked. We were fully engrossed in things like the shape, size, stone type of the headstones”¦err”¦monuments. And focused on the location of a burial plot ”“ under a tree, far away from “gaudy” monuments, etc.

Read more

WASHINGTON — Abortion foes have scored a victory and traditional allies of the Obama administration are grumbling about a decision to ban most abortion coverage in insurance pools for those unable to purchase health care on their own.

The Catholic bishops “welcome this new policy,” said Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, although he added the organization remains concerned that other provisions of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul law will promote abortion.

The issue flared after at least one state — New Mexico — initially decided to allow coverage of elective abortion in a newly launched, federally funded program to provide coverage for high-risk uninsured people turned away by private carriers.

Read more

Note: Cassandra Donatelli is a 19 Year Old student from Portland, Maine attending the University of Rochester. She has chosen to spend a part of her summer assisting in the Pro-life movement with CEC For Life in Ireland and Alabama. She is currently preparing for the Pro-life Freedom Rides being launched in Birmingham July 23. She is a priceless gift to our communion and to the culture of life.

This year’s annual pro-life trip to Ireland had a little of everything. I had the opportunity to join with Fr. Terry Gensemer, Jessica Kessler and Margaret House from Californiato participate with Youth Defense Ireland and Precious Life Northern Ireland at the All ireland Rally for Life in Belfast and the Annual Road Show across Ireland. We were also joined by Bishop Douglas and Karen Kessler and Bishop Gregory and Cathy Ortiz for the Rally. Overall the trip was wonderful as usual.

Read more

by Wendy Wright and Kristan Hawkins July 13, 2010

The abortion debate is shifting. Americans are uncomfortable with abortion. They definitely do not want tax dollars paying for abortions. Most doctors aren’t willing to participate.

So abortion advocates have a new plan: mislead and mislabel. They are steering the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to mislead women by mislabeling the new drug Ella to avoid mentioning that it can cause an abortion. Women and health providers will be enticed by the claim that it can prevent a pregnancy, unaware that it also can abort a pregnancy. And by not being labeled an “abortion drug,” it may skirt federal laws against funding abortions – and the government will pay for it.

The question is: Will the FDA go along with this scheme?

This new drug is close to being introduced in the market. It can be taken up to five days after sexual intercourse. The drug sponsor touts Ella’s ability to delay ovulation, but Dr. Jeffrey Bay, an FDA pharmacologist, admitted that Ella also may prohibit embryos from implanting in the uterus.

This is significant. Ella impacts embryos both before and after implantation by interfering with the hormone needed to line the uterus to support an embryo.

An FDA advisory panel recently approved Ella as an “emergency contraceptive.” However, the drug contains virtually the same chemicals as the abortion drug RU-486 and acts the same way. By blocking progesterone receptors, it starves the baby to death.

Read more

Loved Ones

It has been one month exactly since we found out that Anastasha has anencephaly. This has been a hard month, probably only second in difficulty to the month that Ariana was diagnosed with leukemia back in 2001. We’ve walked through the initial shock and terror where things felt more like a dream than reality. Now we’re moving into a place of acceptance and greater peace, despite the continued pain.

We are exactly halfway to Tonya’s due date (20 weeks). Anastasha is about 6 inches long and weighs 6 ounces. She is already developing fingerprints and toeprints. She can blink and has a complete circulatory system. With the exception of her brain, all of her parts are fully formed and appear perfect.

Even though we are halfway through the pregnancy, there is no guarantee on how long we will have Anastasha. She could die in the womb at any time. She could be born very preterm. She could survive until term but die during the delivery. Or she could survive the birth process and live for some (way too short) period of time. We don’t know. We so deeply desire that Tonya will carry her until term and that we will get to hold her alive in our arms. But that is not promised to us. We just have today. And we do trust that her loving Father, Who created her, knows when her last heartbeat will be, whether in the womb or in our arms. And we know that He is good and will give us grace to endure the pain of her loss whenever and however it comes.

Read more