Via LifeNews.com
Mobile, AL (LifeNews.com) -- College football superstar Tim Tebow defended a Super Bowl commercial Focus on the Family has filmed that is generating national attention. Tebow confirmed the commercial will focus on pro-life values and tell the story of how his mother decided against an abortion.

After the Senior Bowl practice on Wednesday, Tebow admitted he was surprised at the growing attention the Super Bowl commercial is receiving.

“I definitely didn't think it would have this much hype,” Tebow said, according to an Orlando Sentinel report. “It’s something I believe in and I'll stand up for.”

Tebow would not give any spoilers about the content of the ad -- which Focus on the Family has confirmed will run with the message "Celebrating Family, Celebrating Life" -- but confirmed it would share his mother's story.

“I don't think it’s anything that’s negative or anything like that,” Tebow said, according to the newspaper. “It’s a good time and place. There are a lot of people watching. It’s a great opportunity to show something very happy and a special story and my mom fighting for me. There are a lot of great things in that.”

Focus on the Family is finding unexpected defenders after getting behind a $2 million pro-life ad featuring college football super star Tim Tebow and his mom, Pam.

NOW (National Organization for Women), NARAL Pro-Choice America and a handful of other supposed “women’s rights” groups have been waging a war against CBS, Focus on the Family and the Tebow family for what they think is an abhorrence on society—a woman talking about how she chose to have a baby when the doctors told her she should get an abortion. That offensive baby was, of course, Heisman winner Tim Tebow.

“Pro-choice” advocates are turning on their own as they disagree with their extreme members who view abortion as the only noble “choice.”

"Tebow's Super Bowl ad isn't intolerant; its critics are"
The Washington Post
By Sally Jenkins

“I'm pro-choice, and Tebow clearly is not. But based on what I've heard in the past week, I'll take his side against the group-think, elitism and condescension of the ‘National Organization of Fewer and Fewer Women All The Time’…

…Pam Tebow and her son feel good enough about that choice to want to tell people about it. Only, NOW says they shouldn't be allowed to. Apparently NOW feels this commercial is an inappropriate message for America to see for 30 seconds, but women in bikinis selling beer is the right one. I would like to meet the genius at NOW who made that decision. On second thought, no, I wouldn't….”
Read the whole article from The Washington Post.

Chuck Plunkett at the Denver Post writes a compelling column about his experience with his own mother making a choice very similar to Pam Tebow.

"Nothing wrong with Tebow TV ad"
The Denver Post
By Chuck Plunkett

“I'm an agnostic who supports a woman's right to choose and not given to feeling protective of Focus on the Family. But in this case, I think the Christian ministry is being bullied…”

Here’s some mostly fair coverage from Houston’s local KTRK-TV ABC affiliate. One of the people the reporter interviews is a woman conceived by rape. She says Planned Parenthood is after people like her, and she’s not going to sit on the sidelines.

That’s pretty powerful stuff. It looks like there was a great turn out, too.

If you couldn’t bi-locate to Houston, that’s okay. Pray for the conversion of the workers of this constructions site, the abortionists who do the unfortunate deed and the Planned Parenthood employees, especially the woman interviewed here, Rachelle Tafolla. Hey, it worked for Abby Johnson, right?

San Francisco claims some of the most liberal politics and politicians in the country and is the site of some of the most heinous irreverent acts against Christians in general and the Catholic Church, specifically.

Yet on January 23, here were tens of thousands of people marching in the rain, marching through fire, willing to stand up and say “I support life.”

That’s courage.

San Francisco's March for Life coincides with Marches for Life all over the country this month, including Dallas (Jan. 16); Austin (Jan. 23); Hawaii (Jan. 22); Tulsa, Oklahoma (Jan. 22); and Washington, D.C. (Jan. 22).

The organizers did a great job with the San Francisco March for Life website. Their coverage is truly inspiring.

Check out Live Action's flickr photos from the event, too.

This is an interesting column from one of the mainstream media. Robert McCartney of The Washington Post covered the March. He admits to being pro-Roe but also gives fair coverage to the thousands of pro-life activists that went to March for Life in Washington, D.C. last week.

The whole column is worth a read, but here’s a good chunk about who is gaining momentum and who is having trouble getting more than 100 people to show up.

“…I was especially struck by the large number of young [pro-life] people among the tens of thousands at the march. It suggests that the battle over abortion will endure for a long time to come…

Activists who support abortion rights [pro-aborts] conceded that there's less energy among young people on their side of the debate.

‘Unfortunately, I feel my generation is a little complacent,’ said Amanda Pelletier, 20, co-director of the abortion rights group at American University. ‘It just doesn't seem to be a very hip issue.’"

The final day of the 40 Days for Life-Dallas Winter Vigil outside Southwestern late-term abortuary is TODAY, Friday, January 22, the 37th anniversary of the tragic Roe v. Wade U.S. Supreme Court decision which made the killing of unborn children by abortion legal in America.

Please, if at all possible, join us on your lunch hour TODAY from noon-1 p.m. on the somber anniversary of Roe v. Wade, to close this intensive 40 Days Vigil of Prayer outside this place of such unspeakable sorrow.

Monsignor Mark Seitz, pastor of St. Rita Catholic Church in Dallas, will lead the Closing Prayer Service outside Southwestern late-term abortuary, 8616 Greenville Avenue at Royal Lane (NE corner).

Our Prayer Ministry put this together:

Not everyone can make a trip out to our nation’s capital, so American’s United for Life is brining Washington, D.C. to you from the comfort of your very own computer.

Click below watch the virtual March for Life starting at 10 a.m.
http://www.virtualmarchforlife.com/

Tweet for Life using the Twitter hashtag #march4life in your tweet.

A large group of Youth for Life youth left yesterday to join hundreds of thousands of pro-life supporters at the 2010 National March for Life in Washington, D.C. We’ll have a full report when they get back.

Keep Youth for Life Director Jacquelyn Smith and all the chaperones and youth in your prayers that they have a safe return and be ready to spread the message of life that they receive.

Here’s a little bit about the March for those of you who are relatively new (which includes me) to the pro-life movement.

“Specifically, the event is a condemnation of the 1973 Supreme Court decisions of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton that, together, ushered in an era of abortion on demand that has resulted in more than 50 million abortions and tens of millions of women injured physically and emotionally.
This year, for the first time ever, organizers of the March for Life also plan a White House protest.

Thanks to everyone who came out to Saturday’s Roe Memorial, Mass, Rally and Dallas March for Life! We’ll have photos and video soon! Here’s a little recap until then.


The weather was cold and wet for most of last week. Even as the first Rosary prayers arrived at Routh street abortion center at 8 a.m. Saturday, they walked through the faint drizzle of a gray morning. Eventually, there would be about 500 people descending from shuttle busses onto the 4300 block of North Central Expressway in Dallas. The crowd was mixed with children bundled in warm layers, fathers clutching the hands of their youngest, high school students on a weekend outing with their class, all keeping a steady pace and watching out for the muddy puddles along the sidewalks.

This was the first year the Catholic Pro-Life Committee held the Rosary part of the Roe Memorial at the Routh street abortuary. For more than 10 years, the Fairmount abortion center near Guadalupe Cathedral in uptown had been the site of the Rosary, but that was before it closed its doors in late 2009 to move to the Southwestern late-term abortuary in north Dallas.

Something else was different this year, 2010. We have the most abortion-minded President ever making a year’s worth of terrible decisions that have only served to further the agenda of Planned Parenthood and other anti-life organizations. On Saturday, with the abortion-funded Healthcare bill looming in the political background, the mood was more urgent. The effort felt more real, the need for change more dire.

The March for Life from Guadalupe Cathedral to the Earle Cabell Courthouse reflected the sentiments of the Rosary earlier that day, except instead of 500 peaceful activists, there were 6,000 – 7,000 walking in the sunshine that had come out to warm the way to the Rally.

People tired of sitting on the abortion sidelines packed the parking lot across from the courthouse where cheers and claps echoed through downtown Dallas. These were ordinary people who made a decision to pack up their kids, their friends, their family members and take an extraordinary stand for something so basic, yet so threatened—life.

It’s called “Pledge-A-Protester” from the Texas Equal Access (TEA) Fund. It works by anti-life donors committing to donate a specific amount of money for each protester (you, me and 5,000 of our closest friends) who shows up to tomorrow’s Dallas March for Life. I’m guessing they’re not counting everyone at the Roe Memorial Rosary, Mass and Rally, unless they’re sneaking people into Guadalupe Cathedral for a head count.

They actually have a great photo of one of our 2009 events praying in front of Fairmount abortion center, which closed its doors this fall to do more killings over at the new Southwestern late-term abortuary in north Dallas.

There’s also an eerily happy photo of the “clinic support” from Fairmount. They “help” the women who come for abortions by blocking them from any of our “mean tactics” (i.e. getting access to abortion education literature or speaking to a sidewalk counselor about options other than killing their own child.) The caption reads “TEA Fund thanks you for supporting reproductive justice.”

That’s so sad on so many levels. According to their website, the TEA is “dedicated to helping women with a demonstrated need to pay for their abortions,” as if throwing money at a women in crisis is going to help her on any lasting level.

The TEA doesn’t care about the physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual after effects of the woman in crisis. They only want to throw a band-aid of money on the woman’s “problem” of a pregnancy. They don’t care or offer help for the woman before she gets to this desperate point. And they certainly aren’t with the woman after she leaves the doors and sidewalks of those abortion centers.

There might be some sincere people at this organization who truly care for the “many women in North Texas who would choose abortion,” but if they exist, they need to seriously take a look at the execution of their intentions.

by Alicia Colon

You can do something about it!
1. pray, pray pray

2. David Bereit, National Director of 40 Days for Life, has joined with others to protest during the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.

From his 1/13/10 email:
“On January 17-18, over the Martin Luther King, Jr.
holiday, you are invited to join thousands of pro-lifers who will come out to protest this Planned Parenthood abortion "super center."

TheCall in Crisis starts at 6 PM on January 17 with four hours of fasting and prayer at Grace Community Church in Houston.

On the morning of January 18, a silent march will begin at the Catholic Charismatic Center and end at the building site of the new Planned Parenthood Abortion Facility, a 78,000 square foot building, which will include an entire surgical floor equipped to provide late-term abortions.

Following the march, Engle will hold a nationwide press conference and prayer rally. He is expected to be joined at the rally by:

* TONY PERKINS, president of the Family Research
Council

* SAMUEL RODRIGUEZ, president of the National Hispanic
Christian Leadership Conference

* BISHOP HARRY JACKSON, senior pastor of Hope
Christian Church

* RICHARD LAND, president of the Ethics and Religious
Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist
Convention

* STAR PARKER, president of the Coalition for Urban
Renewal and Education

* ABBY JOHNSON, the former director of the Planned
Parenthood in Bryan, TX, who experienced a profound
conversion and resigned the abortion industry during
this fall's 40 Days for Life

* And some other BIG surprises!

SUNDAY, JANUARY, 17
6:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Grace Community Church
South Campus
14505 Gulf Freeway
Houston, TX 77034

MONDAY, JANUARY 18TH, 2010
9:00 AM
Catholic Charismatic Center
1949 Cullen Blvd.
Houston, TX 77023

Parking is limited. Please use carpools.

Coming into town for the event? Hotel Information:
Hyatt Regency Houston
For special rates and the room block please call
402-595-6464 or 888-421-1442.

For videos and more information about this important pro-life event, visit: http://www.thecall.com/crisis

If there's any way you can participate in this important event, know that the entire nation will be watching what happens in Houston this weekend.

For Life,

David Bereit
National Director
40 Days for Life

As early as 1957, studies have proven the link between breast cancer and abortion, so this is not news for us. The news is that the National Cancer Institute finally admitted that the latest April 2009 study is correct that lists abortion and contraceptives (i.e. birth control pills) as causes of an aggressive form of breast cancer.

There are a lot of articles out there about this, some more confusing or vague than others, but I found this one from the National Catholic Register that puts this study in simple terms.

5,000 people took to the streets last year to March for Life in Dallas. This year, Dallas Bishop Kevin Farrell has challenged to “double the crowd.” This means 10,000 potential supporters peacefully mourning the 37th memorial of the U.S. Supreme Court’s tragic Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion in America and taken the lives of 50 million unborn children.

With the closing of Fairmount abortion center, the Rosary has been moved to the Routh Street abortion center at 4321 N Central Expy in Dallas.

The schedule:

7:30 a.m.
Cathedral Shrine of Guadalupe, 2215 Ross Ave at Pearl St.

“In a country where abortion is both widespread and, with few exceptions, against the law, Dr. Choi and Dr. Shim are hoping to force South Korea’s first serious public discussion of the ethics of the procedure. In November, they and dozens of other obstetricians held a news conference to ask “forgiveness” for having performed illegal abortions.

Gynob’s morality-based campaign is unusual for South Korea, where abortion carries little of the emotional or religious significance that it does in many Western countries.”

Read the whole New York Times article, “South Korea Confronts Open Secret of Abortion”

Even after being corrected by Catholic bishops and Pope Benedict XVI himself, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi—a self-proclaimed “practicing Catholic,” hard-core abortion supporter, and one of the one most powerful people in government—has once again distorted Catholic teaching to the masses. This time, the offense landed in the pages of Newsweek magazine.

For the last few months, Pelosi has made it clear that her priority is to push tax payer-funded abortion coverage in the healthcare bill, meaning she wants you and me to pay for abortions that we are morally opposed to. She failed to do that in the House version of the bill when the Stupak amendment stripped abortion coverage from the bill. Now that the bill has passed in the Senate WITH the abortion funding, it will go to conference committee, where the two bills will be poked and prodded until they come up with some kind of compromise of what the final bill will look like. Pelosi is standing firm to her stance that tax payer-funded abortion coverage should stay in the final bill.

That doesn’t sound very Catholic to me, but here’s what Pelosi had to say when Newsweek asked about the controversy:

“I have some concerns about the church's position respecting a woman's right to choose. I have some concerns about the church's position on gay rights. I am a practicing Catholic, although they're probably not too happy about that. But it is my faith. I practically mourn this difference of opinion because I feel what I was raised to believe is consistent with what I profess, and that is that we are all endowed with a free will and a responsibility to answer for our actions. And that women should have that opportunity to exercise their free will.”

It doesn’t get any better when she’s asked about her obligations as a “practicing Catholic” vs. public official.

“When I speak to my archbishop in San Francisco and his role is to try to change my mind on the subject, well then he is exercising his pastoral duty to me as one of his flock. When they call me on the phone here to talk about, or come to see me about an issue, that's a different story. Then they are advocates, and I am a public official, and I have a different responsibility.”

Elizabeth Lev hits it right on the money when she writes in her column “Nancy Pelosi, Catholic Without A Clue”:

“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi seems to be planning a second career as a theologian. Unfortunately, she never gets one Catholic fact right…

…Had Pelosi chosen to do a minimum of research before speaking, she might have consulted the users' manual for the Catholic Church, the Catechism, which some American bishop or other must have sent her as a stocking-stuffer this year. There our aspiring theologian would have found a different definition. Freedom, according to the Catholic Church, (CCC article 3) is the person's ability to choose between good and evil. He can choose to do something good or something evil but he cannot choose to make evil good. To take responsibility for one's actions is to recognize that one has chosen evil and to accept the consequences both in this world and the next.

Merry belated Christmas! It’s almost a week ago that we celebrated Christmas, hopefully with friends and family, or at least people that we like a little bit. Since we’re still in the Christmas liturgical season, which ends Epiphany Sunday, Jan. 3, I wanted to take a moment and remember the greatest pro-life story ever told.

Consider Mary, an unmarried teenager who found herself pregnant in a time when a scandal like that would earn her a death by stoning. Amid pressure from her family and community, she has faith, keeps the baby, and the rest is our grateful and joyful history.

If you want more pro-life Christmas reflection, here’s an excerpt from the Lifenews.com article “Do You See What I See? Christmas Reminds Pro-Life People Unborn Have Value.”

“…Jesus healed out of a deep well of empathy and compassion. He restored many whose bodies, hearts, and souls were weighed down with terrible physical and emotional burdens. But he was also teaching us a timeless lesson: unless we are willing to open our eyes, we, too, will be blind to the hurting around us.

While it is not my intention to idealize pro-lifers, it would be false modesty to ignore that they demonstrate a tremendous capacity to truly ‘see’ what others either cannot, or choose not, to see. It is no accident that pro-lifers defend unborn babies. Love and concern for the downtrodden, the dispossessed, and the marginalized is what gives their lives a rich unity of purpose.

The great hope of the pro-life movement is that despite our nation's descents into inhumanity and indifference, the self-image of Americans is deservedly of a good people, blessed in a unique way. And it is because Americans are fundamentally decent people that the significance of the debate over partial-birth abortion cannot be exaggerated…”