Winter 40 Days for Life Campaign Comes to an End

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Day 40 -- 1On Palm Sunday — Day 40 of the 40 Days for Life campaign — prolifers gathered to officially close the winter vigil with a recitation of the Divine Mercy Chaplet and the rosary. The prayer site is on Perlman Drive in Spring Valley, outside the Pascack Plaza Mall where Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, has an office.

40 Days for Life is an international program of prayer, fasting and public outreach to end abortion. It is held twice a year, and a team of local volunteers commits to a round-the-clock 40 Day prayer vigil. It was estimated that nearly 500 unborn children around the world at the 354 locations were the vigil took place were saved during the past 40 days as their mothers rejected abortion and chose life.

 

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A Great Day for the Irish — and for Celebrating Life

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Marching under the “Respect Life” banner, a coalition of prolife citizens from Rockland and Orange County celebrated life at the Ancient Order of Hibernians St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Pearl River. It was a classic March 17, not a cloud in the sky and the cold wind whipping the flags as we marched along.  Respect Life marched right behind the Orange County AOH Pipe and Drum Band, and their great repertoire of Irish music from beginning to end only added to our spirit.  A great day!!

Appalling Abortion Bill in NY State Budget

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Yes, in the state budget!!! The pro-abortion forces here in New York never rest. Now here’s their latest ploy: to put all their abortion priorities into the Fiscal Year 2019 Executive Budget and push them through with the rest of the finance-related bills before April 1.

Attached to Gov. Cuomo’s budget this year is a “Women’s Agenda” bill (S.7511/A.9511) that will actually enable and promote abortion.

Part A of this bill requires health insurance to provide “contraception” coverage that includes abortion-causing drugs.

Part B expands late-term abortion. It does this by removing all references to abortion from penal law. That means abortion would no longer be a crime. In other words, abortion would not be illegal for any reason at any time during a pregnancy — including into the ninth month and up to the moment of birth.

In addition, stripping abortion from New York’s Penal Law under Part B would mean that anyone who forced a pregnant woman to abort or attacked her violently to cause an abortion could not be charged of a crime against the baby.

Part B would also repeal Public Health Law Section 4164, which gives full legal protection to an a child who somehow manages to survive an abortion, and requires a second doctor to be present during a late-term abortion to give medical care to any such child. Part B would allow the abortionist to allow the child to die of neglect – and that would be infanticide.

Part B could also empower non-doctors to perform abortions. Under Part B, language would be removed that now says only a “duly licensed physician” may perform abortions in New York. With that language gone, the State Education Department bureaucrats would have the authority to decide who may perform an abortion. It’s likely abortion advocates would pressure them to allow abortions by nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurse midwives, and a broad range of non-physicians – all to broaden the accessibility to abortion

Part B and the insurance mandate requiring abortion-causing drugs must be removed from the New York State budget. Those sections of the “Women’s Agenda” that have merit, such as those dealing with pregnancy discrimination and human trafficking, should be voted on as separate bills in the regular legislative process.

Please contact your legislators in Albany and ask them to oppose Governor Cuomo’s abortion expanding budget bill.

More information:

Here’s the text of the Women’s Agenda  (S.7511/A.9511) in the FY2019 New York State Executive Budget.

The New York State Catholic Conference Memo of Opposition

New York State Right to Life Committee Statement of Opposition

Will Gov. Andrew Cuomo Get His Abortion Legislation Passed? (New York Families)

Commentary: Proposed Budget’s Changes to Abortion Law Are Extreme (TimesUnion, 3/22/18)

Senate Rejects 20-Week Abortion Ban

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Jan. 29 — Tonight the U.S. Senate failed to pass a bill that would have banned abortions after 20 weeks — the  Pain-Capable Unborn Child Act — by a vote of 51-46. The bill had passed in the House of Representatives on Jan. 19, the day of the March for Life in Washington. Pres.Trump had said he would sign the bill into law if it came to his desk.

The vote was mainly along party lines, with Democrats voting against it and Republicans voting for it. However, two Republicans, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted against the bill, and three Democrats, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Bob Casey Jr. of Pennsylvania, and Joe Donnelly of Indiana voted for it.

A recent Marist poll showed that two-thirds of Americans support a 20-week ban on abortion.

This was lost on our two senators for New York, Chuck Schumer (D) and Kirsten Gellibrand (D),who voted against this prolife legislation. They joined our representative in the House, Nita Lowey (D), who voted down the bill last Friday. Three out of three fail again to protect the mosts vulnerable!  Very sad!

Fios News Coverage: ‘Prolife Rockland Residents Protest Planned Parenthood’

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Here’s the link to the video. Click here. 

Jan. 22 — Verizon FIOS News — Lower Hudson Valley sent out a crew to cover the gathering of prolife supporters in Spring Valley, who gathered outside Planned Parenthood on Perlman Drive to pray. It was on Jan. 22, the true anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in 1973 to legalize abortion in America. (The March for Life this year was on Friday, Jan. 19).

Good for FIOS!  Unlike the Journal News/USA Today who didn’t print a word about any March for Life events, but had plenty to say about the Women’s March that took place the next day. And, as usual, the three major TV networks combined — CBS, ABC, and NBC– had less than three minutes of coverage of the March. CBS had nothing at all.

Well, it’s nice to know that balanced  journalism is still alive somewhere around here — at local FIOS news.

(update 1/28/18) The Journal News (Lo-Hud) has since published an article with extensive remarks from five marchers, March for Life 2018: 5 People Share Their Vision of the Future. Print story appeared 1/27/18; online 1/26/18.

Rose Mass Celebrated at St. Gregory’s

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Pastor of St. Gregory Barbarigo Church Fr. Joseph LaMorte speaks to the eighth graders of Rockland’s Catholic elementary schools at the Rose Mass for Life.

Jan 19 — The Rockland Region of Catholic Schools of the Archdiocese of New York hosted the annual eighth-grade Rose Mass for Life on Friday, Jan. 19, at St. Gregory Barbarigo Church in Garnerville. It was attended by students from Sacred Heart School in Suffern, St. Anthony’s School in Nanuet, St. Margaret of Antioch School in Pearl River, St. Paul School in Valley Cottage, and St. Gregory’s School.

The mass is held each year to coincide with the March for Life in Washington, D.C. The sacredness God’s gift of life is symbolized by the long-stemmed red roses, which the students bring to decorate the sanctuary.

The homily was delivered by Rev. Joseph P. Lamorte, pastor of St. Gregory’s. He told the eighth graders that they were the “prolife generation,” and he was full of hope that when they were adults, their efforts to overturn the legalization of abortion would be their great gift to society.

Fr. Lamorte concelebrated the mass with pastors Rev. Matthew Furey (Sacred Heart Church), Rev. Joseph  Deponai (St. Anthony’s Church), Rev. Eric Raaser (St. Margaret’s Church)  asst. pastor Roman Palecko (St. Paul and St. Ann Parish), and pastor Rev. William Cosgrove (St. Augustine’s Church in New City).

Music was provided by the Barbarigo Student Chorus, led by director David Christian Azarow.

Attending the mass were several adult prolife supporters from around the county who were unable to attend the March for Life in Washington.

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Concelebrating the Rose Mass for Life were (left to right): Fr. Bill Cosgrove, Fr. Roman Palecko, Fr. Matthew Furey, Fr. Joseph LaMorte, Fr. Jerry Deponai, and Fr. Eric Raaser