Having caught you up to date on some of the most important recent events, I now present a few that are easier to digest.

The current National Catholic Register carries a front page story on the March for Life in Washington, D.C. with comments that hopes are running high for a Supreme Court “reversal” of Roe v. Wade. While I have commented on this issue quite a bit, let us be reminded that the Roe decision involved a cluster of findings and depended upon sentence fragments in various constitutional amendments to discern a new “right” for women to have an abortion. In their findings, they ignored the 10th Amendment, which leaves every matter not explicitly addressed in the constitution to the states.

Furthermore, those discussions in the decision that deal with medical aspects of pregnancy and abortion are antiquated and not relevant to any current review. As if not bad enough, the statement that the court did not know when human life begins and that nobody else did either, was blatantly and knowingly false at the time. Long prior to 1973, the medical community was in total agreement on the issue, and medical books worldwide reaffirmed that human life begins at the moment of conception.

Therefore, a more studious court without a political agenda must look at the Mississippi case and devise an entirely new set of findings, which must, of their nature, contradict the Roe findings. The most simple decision would be to find that the 10th Amendment leaves the matter to the individual states. Thus, the decisions in Roe, Doe, and Casey, as well as other cases which predicated their decisions on the above, would be entirely voided.

However, it is far from clear what the majority court will do. One thing that drove the court in 1973 (other than a desire to find some way to support abortion), was the issue that every state had its own laws and regulations, most of which were somewhat different or very different. The court wanted to get everyone on the same page.

However, the decisions arising out of that desire has led to a legal morass and has divided society along political and moral/ethical positions in a way that is unprecedented, and I dare say, even more divisive, with more far-reaching consequences for women and society in general, than slavery or prohibition of alcohol. We must note that nearly 70 million babies have died. The socioeconomic impact of the loss of such lives that were never born has been very damaging to our society. The topic is a bit hard to discuss, so I will not pursue it here, but I encourage the reader to study the issue. It is rarely discussed, but one needs to know about how it has affected the broader aspects of what we experience every day.

The NCR also carries the story of Aaron Oliver, the Democratic municipal chairman in his New Jersey hometown. Oliver is an openly homosexual episcopal priest and a New Jersey National Guard chaplain. Oliver declares himself to be a lifetime loyal Democrat. He also declares himself to be pro-life. That has put him on a collision course with Democratic leadership.

Publicly, some prominent Democrat leaders have voiced tolerance for pro-life democrats, but at the same time he is being pressured through back door channels to resign. He is an active participant with Democrats for Life of America, an organization led by women and dedicated to electing pro-life Democrats to office. Interestingly, Oliver observes that the pro-life movement is growing with more diversity across many metrics, and with topics under discussion other than abortion and including euthanasia and capital punishment, for example. He says that he has no intention of resigning and will continue to advocate that Democrats work on acceptance of the sanctity of human life in all its conditions and circumstances.

NCR also carries a story about Philip Nitschke, the Australian proponent of euthanasia, who is inventing new ways to kill oneself, cutting out issues of medicines, laws, doctors and family. One device is a “pod” that one gets into. Oxygen is pumped out and nitrogen is pumped in. The machine even films the death. I suppose that is for those who cannot get someone to press a pillow over the face until 5 minutes after all struggling has stopped. A second device that he is working on would be implantable and would trigger death at some time in the future. It is still “on the drawing board.”

The pro-euthanasia group Life Cycle (which openly describes Catholics as their enemy) objects to his methods as lacking “warmth.” You cannot make this stuff up.

In other news, an article points out some interesting events in 2021. A baby born at just 20 weeks gestation had his 1 year old birthday last June. Another born at 21 weeks also celebrated his 1 year birthday in 2021.

One of the amicus briefs to the Supreme Court in the Mississippi Dobbs case was submitted by the Catholic Association. It provided a “window into the womb,” detailed 3-D ultrasound imaging and photographs sucking their thumbs and moving about.

Responding to an alarming rate of false positive tests for Down syndrome in which mothers aborted a healthy baby, the state of Ohio banned abortion for that diagnosis. Iceland, on the other hand, has a policy of “Down syndrome eradication.”

In 2021, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Catholic Social Services who sued because they were excluded from foster care contracts with the City of Philadelphia when they would not agree to certify same-sex couples as foster parents. The Supreme Court unanimously cited the First Amendment in ruling in favor of CSS. This is haled as a victory for freedom of speech and freedom of religion, which have been increasingly under attack by the current administration and the same ruling political party in various states during 2021.

The 2021 Super Bowl featured a pro-life commercial by Toyota (which I regret I did not see) featuring Paralympic swimmer Jessica Long, a 13-time gold medalist. She was adopted at age 13 months but had to have both of her legs amputated at age 18 months. She fell in love with swimming and the rest is history. Does anyone dare to suggest that her life does not matter. Yet, many people would have euthanized her at age 18 months. Such a proposition is still hugely unpopular, so politicians know not to discuss it, but that does not mean that they would not support it if they get a big enough political majority.

On December 6, President Alejandro Giammattei of Guatemala said in an on line event that Guatemala “is a country of faith” and that government has a clear purpose “in respecting life from conception and the protection of family as the central axis of society.” A new public policy to that effect was passed by the country’s legislators last July. He went on to announce that Guatemala will be declared the “Ibero-American Pro-Life Capital” on March 9, 2022.

The Family Matters Association of Guatemala welcomed the announcement and commented “this is a reflection of the values of the Guatemalan society. Being pro-life is in our DNA as Guatemalans!”

In 2017, Planned Parenthood attempted to perform abortions on Guatemalan women by picking them up on shore and taking them to ships, but they were expelled from the country. It warms my heart to think that PP may have been listening. But, how sad it is that our country has not promoted life and family…. yet. The “yet” is up to us to remedy. In Guatemala, it took decades of consolidating the values into public policy. Perhaps one day…..