Gosnell trial: Location, location, location - The Hill's Congress Blog

It will be downright unfair if Dr. Kermit Gosnell is found guilty of murder this week at his abortion-infanticide trial in Philadelphia. His defense attorney made a convincing case in closing arguments that abortion doctors end pregnancies every day, so why single out Gosnell? Perhaps he operated under particularly unsanitary conditions, was singularly incompetent, and committed medical malpractice, but, really, murder?


In fact, the judge in Gosnell’s case has already dropped three of the murder charges because the medical examiner said he could not prove those babies were alive after birth. The murder case against Gosnell rests entirely on the location of the victim (in inches, mind you) at the time of death, not in the fact that the victim was killed. The main difference between Gosnell and other abortion doctors is that he couldn’t get the job done before the baby came out. He tried doing it like his peers at Planned Parenthood --the industry leader which is worthy of half a billion dollars annually in tax-payer funds. Standard practice for later-term abortions at Planned Parenthood is to inject the drug Digoxin into the baby’s heart, while it’s still inside the mother, inducing fetal demise before the procedure begins. Or the D&E (dilation and evacuation) method, which is the in-utero dismemberment of the fetus (done “gently,” thank goodness).

Baby killed inside the mother – legal abortion. Very same baby killed seconds later on the other side of the birth canal – murder. In abortion, as in real estate, it’s location, location, location.


Dr. Gosnell tried the legal methods, but he failed at pinpointing the baby’s heart – it requires skill he doesn’t have to delicately guide the needle through a pregnant woman’s belly into the stubbornly beating heart of the unborn baby.
He apparently also tried the industry approved D&E method (as the severed baby feet found in the jar would indicate). With this method, as a doctor at Family Planning Associates of Phoenix explained to a woman 23 weeks pregnant, “it comes out in pieces.”

Why single out his client, the defense attorney argued, since “Gosnell is not the only one doing abortions in Philadelphia.” No, he isn’t. Ten minutes away from Gosnell’s clinic is the Philadelphia Women’s Center, where they advertise dismemberment abortions through 24 weeks and 6 days, right at the edge of Pennsylvania’s 24 -week age limit.

The grand jury report said that most of Gosnell’s victims were under Pennsylvania’s 24-week limit. But some were older. Again though, the problem is merely one of real estate. Gosnell could have moved his clinic 15 minutes away, across the river to New Jersey, which doesn’t have those pesky limits on late-term abortions (limits opposed by pro-choice groups). Just over the Ben Franklin Bridge, a quick Google search reveals seven New Jersey clinics that do late-term abortions.
Oh, the injustice of it all. Doctor in Pennsylvania is charged with a crime for aborting a 25-week baby; doctor in New Jersey gets a good fee for aborting a 25-week fetus. Location, location, location.

Gosnell trial: Location, location, location - The Hill's Congress Blog

AlbertMohler.com – Can Christians Use Birth Control?

The effective separation of sex from procreation may be one of the most important defining marks of our age–and one of the most ominous. This awareness is spreading among American evangelicals, and it threatens to set loose a firestorm.
Most evangelical Protestants greeted the advent of modern birth control technologies with applause and relief. Lacking any substantial theology of marriage, sex, or the family, evangelicals welcomed the development of “The Pill” much as the world celebrated the discovery of penicillin — as one more milestone in the inevitable march of human progress, and the conquest of nature.

AlbertMohler.com – Can Christians Use Birth Control?

The Family | Challies Dot Com

s you know, I often post favorite Puritan prayers on Sundays. Here is one entitled “The Family.” It is drawn from The Valley of Vision. I think any Christian family member can pray this prayer with sincerity!
O Sovereign Lord,
Thou art the Creator-Father of all men, for thou hast made and dost support them;
Thou art the special Father of those who know, love and honour thee,
who find thy yoke easy, and thy burden light,
thy work honourable,
thy commandments glorious.
MORE: The Family | Challies Dot Com

Ask RC: What is hesed? - Highlands Ministries OnlineHighlands Ministries Online

There may be no more significant Old Testament description of how God relates to His people than this Hebrew word hesed. I argue that the best translation of this term would be “loyal love.” God loves His people genuinely, immutably, loyally. Both the love and the loyalty are, of course, tightly bound together. That is, just as one cannot love capriciously so one cannot be loyal without love. God is for His people, and will never cease to be for them.
Our calling is to reflect that reality. Our loyalty and our love, grounded in our loyal love toward Him who loved us loyally first, ought to be toward both what it is we believe, and those with whom we believe it. Too often we fail one way or another. MORE: Ask RC: What is hesed? - Highlands Ministries OnlineHighlands Ministries Online

AlbertMohler.com – On Second Thought — Why Mother’s Day is a Bad Idea

Now that Mother’s Day for 2009 is over, perhaps a bit of second-guessing is in order. Americans have celebrated Mother’s Day for over a century, and the observance has grown to become one of the nation’s most popular annual events. But is it good for motherhood?
Back in 1858, Anna Reeves Jarvis organized the precursor to Mother’s Day as a way to protest a lack of sanitation in rural Appalachia. Later, Julia Ward Howe would organize what became “Mother’s Days for Peace” in protest of all war. Howe, who wrote the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” pledged: “Our husbands shall not come to us reeking with carnage. . . . Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy, and patience.” MORE:  AlbertMohler.com – On Second Thought — Why Mother’s Day is a Bad Idea

Ed Stetzer - Love Your Neighbor-- Even the Muslim Ones, An Expanded Version of My Column in USAToday

For many Americans, their knowledge of Muslims is what they see on television news rather than what they know from experience. Yet, forming a view of any group based solely on what one sees on the news is a bad idea.
When the Boston Marathon bombing occurred, many Americans were quick to assume it was the work of Muslim extremists, even before it was confirmed. The connection of terrorism to radicalized Islam is no secret. Yet, far too many take it further, leading me to ask, why do some people assume that all, most, or even many Muslims must be terrorists?
In addition, I wondered why so much hate is directed at Muslims today-- the vast majority of whom are peaceful people and, when living here, love their country.
Simply put, too many people make decisions about a group based on what they see on television news--and that's a bad place to make sweeping conclusions.
But this connection happens more than with terrorism and Muslims.
More: Ed Stetzer - Love Your Neighbor-- Even the Muslim Ones, An Expanded Version of My Column in USAToday

Mary Eberstadt: In Battle Over Christianity, Orthodoxy Is Winning | TIME.com

Small wonder, given the harrowing times recently, that news about a long-running property fight over a picturesque church in northern Virginia escaped most people’s notice. But the story of the struggle over the historic Falls Church is nonetheless worth a closer look. It’s one more telling example of a little-acknowledged truth: though religious traditionalism may be losing today’s political and legal battles, it remains poised to win the wider war over what Christianity will look like tomorrow.

On April 18, the Virginia Supreme Court upheld an earlier court decision that a breakaway Episcopalian congregation (now called the Falls Church Anglicans) did not have rights to the historic church there. Instead, the court ruled, the property belongs to the same mainline denomination — the Episcopal Church — that the Falls Church Anglicans had voted to leave in 2006. What’s striking here is not so much the legal outcome, for earlier cases involving other breakaway congregations had also ended without any clear advantage to the rebels. It’s that this episode is exquisitely emblematic of today’s Christian moment.  MORE:  Mary Eberstadt: In Battle Over Christianity, Orthodoxy Is Winning | TIME.com

WORLD | Full court press on Chris Broussard over comments on homosexuality | Leigh Jones | April 30, 2013

ESPN analyst and sportswriter Chris Broussard is feeling the heat today after calling homosexuality a sin during a televised discussion Monday.

Broussard, a well-known and committed Christian who has written about his beliefs before, was asked to comment on NBA player Jason Collins’ announcement that he is gay. In an article for Sports Illustrated published online Monday, Collins talked about his sexuality and his belief in God.

MORE: WORLD | Full court press on Chris Broussard over comments on homosexuality | Leigh Jones | April 30, 2013