Author Archives: rocklandrtl

Survey: New Yorkers Oppose Cuomo’s Proposed Abortion Expansion

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RHA-smallNo surprise. Even in New York, 80% oppose unlimited abortion through the ninth month of pregnancy, and 75% oppose changes in the current law that will allow non-doctors to perform abortions, according to a statewide survey.

In the proposed “Reproductive Health Act,” Gov. Cuomo and his allies in the abortion lobby go far beyond the sensible restrictions on abortion most New Yorkers support. Click here to read about the survey, which the Chiaroscuro Foundation released today on the steps of New York City Hall.

The Reproductive Health Act would, among other things:

  • Allow non-physicians to perform abortions;
  • Remove criminal penalties even from unlawful abortions;
  • Prevent an unborn child who is the intended victim of a crime from being recognized as a victim;
  • Prevent any limitation on use of taxpayer funds to curtail New York’s Medicaid policy of paying for abortion-on-demand through all nine months of pregnancy;
  • Deceitfully redefine pregnancy as beginning at implantation – not fertilization;
  • Falsely redefine fetal (child) viability and
  • Unleash new assaults on the consciences of those who oppose participating in abortion – health care professionals, hospitals, hospital residents, and health insurance providers.

Prolife New Yorkers Push Back on ‘Reproductive Health Act’

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RHA-smallNew York prolife advocates appear to be successfully pushing back against “The Reproductive Health Act,” a bill that would take virtually every prolife law off the books and promote late-term abortions

Just a few weeks ago, prolife state senator Ruben Diaz (D-Bronx) said, it looked like Cuomo had the votes to ram the legislation through the 63-member Senate. But strong public opposition led by Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York and the New York Catholic Conference (NYCC) to Cuomo’s inclusion of the Reproductive Health Act in his women’s equality bill has raised awareness about the abortion expansion and generated unease among some lawmakers, Diaz said.

For complete LifeNews story, click here.

Spring 40 Days for Life Campaign Begins Wednesday

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” . . . We know that whether we will live to see victory over abortion is not in our hands.
We also know that standing for truth, for mercy, and for justice is always within our power, and so we will keep doing it for as long as evil endures.”

The 40 Days for Life will begin at 3 pm, Wednesday, Feb. 13 at the prayer site on Perlman Drive near the Spring Valley Planned Parenthood office.  The vigil of prayer, fasting, and peaceful activism will continue around the clock, rain or shine, for 40 days, 9 am to 5 pm (and in the evening and throughout the night at the Eucharistic Chapel of St. Gregory Barbarigo on Cinder Road in Garnerville), ending on March 24.

Rockland participants in this nationwide campaign of prayer to end abortion give one hour of their time a week for the next 40 days to come to the Planned Parenthood site to stand and pray.

Why Planned Parenthood?

Although surgical abortions are not done at the Planned Parenthood Spring Valley facility, the parent organization’s own fact sheet admits to its having performed over 333,964 abortions in 2011. And although PP says these abortions amount to 3 percent of the services it provides, it has been estimated that abortion nevertheless accounts for more than 38% of PP’s income.

Vigil participants gather on Perlman Drive (across the road from the Spring Valley Marketplace)  to pray that women considering abortions will have a change of heart,  to ask for God’s help and guidance was they work to build a true culture of life, and to bring the attention of community of Rockland to Planned Parenthood as a nationwide abortion provider.

Rockland Right to Life  website will follow the progress of the vigil volunteers throughout the 40 days of this spring’s campaign.

For more information or to volunteer to pray for an hour each week, please call 845-492-6709 or email Rachelminister@aol.com.

For more information about the 40 Days for Life campaign, which will kick off at 261 sites across America on Wednesday, click here.

The quote above is from Abortion, An Enduring Wrong, National Review, Feb. 11, 2013

The Rockland Right to Life Committee — 40 Years of Leadership for Life

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rose 2On this 40th anniversary, among the many thousands of Rockland County residents who have fought for life over the years, we’d like to remember those who served in leadership positions in our organization, The Rockland Right to Life Committee. The people below were officers, board members, key committee heads, or contributed in some special way to our mission. We thank them – and everyone whose sacrifices have kept the Right to Life movement alive throughout these 40 years.

Terry Anselmi    Cathy Baker    Jane Barry    Tina & Paul Bell    Mary Bentley    Peg Beirne    Betty Braun    Richard Bruno    Richard Byman    Geraldine Caifa    Catholic Daughters of America     Richard Caunitz    Gene Commerford    Ronald Cortazzo    Ann Costello    Peggy Coughlin    Betty Cunningham    Jack Donaldson    Tom Duff    Viola Duffy    Bob Ellsworth    Terry Gartner Escobar    Janet Botto Fenton        John Ferrao    Sr. Christine Ferrar O.P.    John Paul Fitton    Margaret Fitton    Peter Fitton    Lynn Gannon    Charles Gargiulo     Kathy Gartner    Mary Gartner    Eileen Gesner    Ginny Gulezian    Jeanmarie Grahn    Rev. Brendan Gormley    Ed Green    Assmblymn. Harold Grune    Msgr. John Harrington    Regina Fitton Hendrickson    Sally Holland    Marion Hoke    Kathy McSweeny Hornberger    George & Dorothy Kelly    Jo Kelly    Kathy Kelly        Joyce Kineke    Knights of Columbus    Nick La Bruno    Mary Loftus    Bob & Ann Loughman    Brendan & Betty Lynch    Julia Magnone    Jim Maloney    Bill Martin    Margaret McCabe    Marion McPhillips    Don Mellon    Kathy Melville    Marianne Modafferi    Sen. Tom Morahan    Dave Moynihan    Io Mura    Clarke Najac    Margie Najac    Rev. Ed Netter    Jim Niblo    Michael Niblo    Tom & Inez Niblo    Frank Orlando    Pat O’Brian    Liz O’Brien    Ann O’Connor    Mary Parisi    Peter & Mary-Anne Partridge    Eileen Peterson    Nancy & Joe Reeves    Sr. Helen Regina O.P.    Eileen Reninger    Jean Romano    Dorothy Roth   Rev. Frank Samoylo    Eileen Shine    Kathy Skae    Ellen Skelly    The Spear Family    Anna Stellwag    Ann Upton    Michael & Mary Walker    Bonnie Walsh    Msgr. Edward Weber    Leslie Weber    Margaret Whalen    Kenneth Zemsky

March for Life 2013 — Banners in the Sky

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DSC09732DSC09812As we come to the end of our March for Life 2013 coverge, we’d like to thank a group of unsung heroes – the Right to Life banner pole assemblers.

For 30 years, our iconic ‘I ♥ Life’ banners have flown bravely over many Marches for Life, St. Patrick’s Day parades, and prolife events. Designed and constructed by the late Tom Niblo, they are miracles of home-made ingenuity.

And they are also somewhat pesky when it comes to assembling them – an operation that challenges you to figure out how to fit together all those crazy telescoping poles of various lengths and how to secure them the odd collection of screws, washers and assorted hardware that Tom provided.

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This can only be done barehanded  and  — with the March for Life temperature usually below freezing,  the wind blowing, and fellow marchers impatient to get the show on the road  — it takes good circulation, a steady hand, a keen mind, and stout heart to be a banner pole assembler.

Then, after the March, the poles have to disassembled, collapsed, wrapped up in plastic bags, and transported by cab to the Basilica (long, pointy things are not allowed on the Metro), and eventually lugged to the bus for the trip back home.

In all their many public appearances over the years, the banners have never come crashing down on their wranglers or nearby marchers — no matter how hard the rain fell or the wind blew – nor have they ever been lost or damaged.

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All this is a tribute to the many of you who have assembled them with care and carried them with pride – this, the symbol of the prolife community of Rockland.

Thank you everyone!

We’ll see you at the March next year!

 

MARCH for LIFE 2013 — Hope Springs Eternal

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BasilicaexteriorCarolyn Pappalardo of Pomona describes how the reverence of college students at Mass in the Basilica after the March for Life brought her the consolation of continuity and the blessings of hope — both for the Church and the prolife movement.

After the awesome and inspiring Right to Life March up Constitution Avenue to the Supreme Court Building in Washington DC last Friday and our trek back to the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception to catch our bus, a few of us went inside to see if there was a Mass we could attend.

Sure enough, there was a Mass starting at a side altar in the Crypt of the Church at 4:30 p.m.. A few of us sat in the back of the little chapel so as not to interfere with the group that scheduled the Mass. In they came, college students. About 30 of them. They quietly and reverently took their seats.

No talking, no laughing, no texting, no looking around. They seemed to be from the University of Pittsburgh because one was wearing a sweatshirt with that name. They assisted the priest, proclaimed the readings, sang, and when it came time to kneel, since there were no kneelers, they knelt on the stone floor the whole time.  As they processed up at Communion Time, they bowed low or knelt before rising to receive. Back in their places, again  prayerfully kneeling and the same when Mass was over.

Tears flooded my eyes and my heart flooded with Hope. The Church will go on with these beautiful people and the thousands of young men and women that marched that day chanting, “We are the Pro Life Generation.”

MARCH for LIFE 2013 — Very Much Alive

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“The prolife movement is very much alive!” says Sean Miller who sent us this video. It will make you feel like you’re there, right in the midst of all the excitement. And below are his thoughts, inspired by the March.

On a bitterly cold January morning a group of 31 people boarded a bus to embark on a journey that would unite them with over 500,000 people. This day long journey will lead us to our nation’s capital. Every year at this time, hundreds of thousands of Americans unite at this destination to celebrate the gift of life. This celebration is marred with the unfortunate legalization of abortion which took place 40 years ago.

On this day, we urge the people in power to respect the sanctity of life. We pray that their hardened hearts open up so that they can be open to the gift of life. In particular, a life that is innocent, defenseless and most vulnerable. In our nation, which is known for being the land of the free we have discriminated against those that are powerless and cannot defend themselves. Perhaps, since they have no voice it is easier to do so. Well, on this day we stand in solidarity with one powerful voice pleading for the unborn that only ask for the “right to life.” How can a country turn its back on a completely dependent little baby? Since when is it inconvenient to care for those that are most in need? If this is the case than we truly are a poor nation. Our own selfish desires have filled our hearts with greed to the point that we have no room to care for an innocent little baby.

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MARCH for LIFE 2013 — Links for Life

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Some links from other sites with important stories about the 2013 March for Life

March for Life — Cool video produced by students of Steubenville College really captures the spirit of the March for Life. It’s young, positive. It’s simply prolife.

The Ultrasound Generation — Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s message to teens and young adults:  I think of you as the “Ultrasound Generation.” You are different than any generation that came before you in that your very first baby pictures were taken not with you in your mother’s arms, but you alive in her womb.

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