On Thursday, May 17, from 5 pm to 6 pm, there will be prayer at the Planned Parenthood prayer site (public property) on Perlman Drive in Spring Valley.
The 40 Days of Life project invites everyone to come as we celebrate Ascension Thursday, the ascension of Our Lord into Heaven.
The next Stand Up for Religious Freedom Rally will be held on Friday, June 8, in cities and town across the United States. The nearest one will again be at Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York City.
The June 8 Stand Up Rally builds on the tremendous momentum created by the first Stand Up Rally on March 23.
On that day, over 63,000 Americans came out in 145 cities coast to coast, including a group from Rockland, pushed back against the new mandate from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that requires all employers provide free contraceptives, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs through their health plans, even in violation of their consciences.
Targeting the peaceful protests of prolife Americans, the Westchester County Board of Legislators, in a party-line vote Monday night, passed a bill creating a 25-foot buffer zone outside clinics that provide abortions.
Hopefully, Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino will veto this law. Click here for the Hudson Valley Coalition for Life’s take on the future of this unfortunate legislation, which they describe as “bad law — badly crafted, bad for the County, and bad for the County’s citizens.”
The primary supporters of this law were Planned Parenthood of Hudson-Peconic, the Westchester Coalition for Legal Abortion, and Rep. Nita Lowey, of the newly revamped 17th Congressional District, which now includes all of Rockland County as well as parts of Westchester.
On Monday, April 30, approximately 150 to 200 people attended the hearing of the Westchester County Board of Legislators on a bill that would restrict the free speech rights of prolife witnesses outside abortion clinics.
The vote is scheduled for next Monday, May 7. Click here for a letter from Sister Lucy Marie of the Sisters of Life, appealing for a redoubling of prayers and sacrifices for the conversion of hearts on this issue. It includes insights from Ed Mechmann, an attorney from the Archdiocese of New York, on how such hearings can help the prolife cause:
I thought that having so many “regular people” on our side — as opposed to the largely institutional witnesses on the other side (e.g., employees and activists from Planned Parenthood) — was a very good thing. I think that the legislators are more impressed when lots of people testify who don’t make a living out of the issue at hand. Five voters count for a lot more than one “spokesman.” — Ed Mechmann
On Monday evening, April 30, the Westchester County Legislature will hold a public hearing on proposed legislation that would allow abortion clinic facilities to sue anyone who — in their opinion — has harassed or intimidated a person trying to gain access.
Please read this opinion piece submitted to the Journal News by the co-directors of the Hudson Valley Coalition for Life against this attempt to use the law to intimidate peaceful people who are expressing their views against abortion.
Click here for the latest issue of New York State Right to Life’s newsletter, LifeWorks. You’ll find articles about:
On April 18, the Journal News hosted a debate regarding the “Clinic Access Bill” — a bill currently under consideration in Westchester — which seeks to suppress the right to protest at abortion clinics. Click here to view the video of this discussion.
The pro-life free speech advocates were Tom Faranda and Judy Anderson, the co-directors of the Hudson Valley Coalition for Life, and Antoinette Consentino, MD, a pediatrician.
Speaking of free speech, according to the website LifeNet, it looks like the time allotments at this debate were a little lopsided:
If you are interested in attending this event, please call Rockland Right to Life at 845-732-8277 or email RocklandRTL@optonline.net, and we will put you in touch with others in Rockland who would like to go. Perhaps you can arrange to carpool together. 
Last week Rick Santorum suspended his campaign for the presidency. Santorum, who never shied away from issues of life, faith, and family, is the father of seven, including 3-year-old Bella, who has Trisomy 18, a condition which, when detected prenatally, almost always results in the child being aborted.
Sometimes a candidate’s strongest message is not found in his speeches or debate arguments. It emanates from who he or she is, and that can have the most powerful influence of all. Below, Joe Klein, the Newsweek columnist, who says he disagrees with Santorum on “almost every possible issue,” nevertheless admits that Rick and Bella have made him think about his own and our society’s response toward the disabled.
I am haunted by the smiling photos I’ve seen of Isabella with her father and mother, brothers and sisters. No doubt she struggles through many of her days — she nearly died a few weeks ago — but she has also been granted three years of unconditional love and the ability to smile and bring joy. Her tenuous survival has given her family a deeper sense of how precious even the frailest of lives are.
All right, I can hear you saying, the Santorum family’s course may be admirable, but shouldn’t we have the right to make our own choices?
Yes, I suppose. But I also worry that we’ve become too averse to personal inconvenience as a society—that we’re less rigorous parents than we should be, that we’ve farmed out our responsibilities, especially for the disabled, to the state—and I’m grateful to Santorum for forcing on me the discomfort of having to think about the moral implications of his daughter’s smile.
Right-to-Life Movement Focused on Defeating Barack Obama in November
WASHINGTON – Determined to secure a pro-life victory in the November election, which will decide the fate of unborn children for decades to come, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of 50 state right-to-life affiliates and more than 3,000 local chapters, today endorsed Mitt Romney for President of the United States.
“On pro-life issues, Mitt Romney and Barack Obama provide a stark contrast. As the country’s most pro-abortion president, Barack Obama has pursued a radical pro-abortion agenda,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. “It is now time for pro-life Americans to unite behind Mitt Romney. For the sake of unborn children, the disabled, and the elderly, we must win.” Continue reading
ROCKLAND RIGHT TO LIFE COMMITTEE 