Bishop Joensen’s Prayer at the 2023 Pro-Life Prayer Rally

Feb 9, 2023 |
Bishop Joensen prayer at 2023 Prayer Rally
Bishop Joensen prayer at 2023 Prayer Rally

Bishop William Joensen prays at the Capitol

Bishop Joensen came to the Capitol on Monday, February 6th, to participate in the 2023 Pro-Life Prayer Rally. Here is Bishop Joensen’s prayer:

“Generous Father and Creator of the Heavens and Earth: The Psalmist exclaims, “How many are your works, O Lord! In wisdom you have made them all—the earth is full of your creatures; Bless the Lord, O my soul!” (Ps. 104:24, 35). You have brought us into being with a natural dignity that is your founding gift to all human persons as the only creatures after your own heart. And when we lost sight of this dignity and turned our faces from you, you loved us more than ever by sending us your own Beloved Son. By the power of his own blood poured out on the Cross, he raises us to a royal dignity as daughters and sons who are redeemed and restored to your friendship. In him, the words of the Psalmist are fulfilled: “He asked you for life and this you have given; days that will last from age to age” (Ps. 21:5). 

Truly, Lord God, when you love us into being, you will that we live forever. Help us to love one another as you love us: to cherish each and every human life as the bearer of a dignity that should never be distorted or destroyed. Free us to look beyond our own fears, our own self-interest, our own vulnerability and limits to behold those who have claim on our hearts, so that in mutual dependence we might support and serve one another in justice and charity. Do not let us make our own autonomy a god in itself, so that we might build communities and ensure that the State of Iowa is a place where the least among us is drawn into the center and spotlight of our concern. 

As Pope Francis has enjoined, may we form a “caravan of solidarity,” where nascent persons in the womb and those in every stage and situation along the continuum of life, including persons with special needs, single parents, immigrants, and senior individuals conscious of the horizon between this world and the next, might be accompanied with all they need to realize the length of days that you in your wisdom have bestowed upon us. 

May we as a people be guided by your Spirit in our selection, appointment, and support of leaders in all branches of government: women and men who likewise are in accord with your saving design, who consistently place their power at the disposal of the common good. May we transcend partisan interests and continue together on pilgrimage toward that day that never ends, where we hope to abide forever in your company, +Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.” 

“Powerful drugs should require a prescription”

Feb 9, 2023 |
Tom Quiner interviews Bishop Joensen

By Maggie DeWitte, Board President

Pulse connected with William Joensen, Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Des Moines, and Tom Chapman, Executive Director of the Iowa Catholic Conference this past Monday at the Pro-Life Prayer Rally at the Capitol. The subject of contraceptives, which are powerful drugs, came up.

We discussed a big bill pending before the legislature, HSB 91, which I wrote about last week. We like most of this bill, except for the piece on contraception. Tom Chapman made a key point:

“From our perspective, there’s a reason those powerful drugs need a prescription … we don’t want to break up that relationship with the doctor.”

As a reminder, I expressed these concerns in my testimony before a sub committee last week:

Maggie DeWitte testimony

  1. Oral contraception is dangerous.  The World Health Organization has classified combined hormonal contraception as a Group 1 carcinogen.  This is the same classification as tobacco, arsenic, and asbestos.  Women who use contraception for 11 years or longer are at a 210% increased risk of breast cancer. Contraceptives have been proven to increase the risk of blood clots, which can be fatal. They also have increased risk of causing heart disease, especially in smokers. Lawsuits have been filed blaming the Patch for several deaths due to blood clots, heart attacks and strokes. The Food and Drug Administration has cautioned that the Patch carries a higher risk of blood clots than the birth control pill. These medications should not be prescribed by anyone except a medical doctor who has access to accurate medical records and the necessary medical tests. 
  2. Hormonal Contraception is ineffective and gives women a false sense of security.  The New York Times published an article that stated that the fail rate is 38% by year five and that by year ten, 61 out of 100 women who use the pill will become pregnant. According to a March 2017 Guttmacher Institute study, “A substantial proportion of unintended pregnancies occur despite women’s and their partners’ use of contraceptives. In 2001, some 48% of women experiencing an unintended pregnancy had been using a method in the month of conception.” In the same study Guttmacher also reported that “about half of pregnancies terminated by induced abortions in 2008 occurred during use of contraceptives.” So, you can give them the pills, but faulty or incorrect use makes them ineffective in reducing unplanned pregnancies.
  3. This bill states it does not include any drug intended to induce an abortion.  Unfortunately, oral contraception can be abortifacient in nature. It is a medical fact that most if not all hormonal birth control drugs and devices, including the Patch and the Pill, can act to terminate a pregnancy by chemically altering the lining of the uterus (endometrium) so that a newly conceived child (human embryo) is unable to implant in the womb, thus starving and dying. This mechanism of action is termed a pre-implantation chemical abortion. 
  4. If the intent of this section of the bill is to reduce abortions, providing OTC birth control will not reduce abortions.  More contraception leads to more abortions not less.  And frankly, we don’t have an access problem; birth control is readily available in the state of Iowa. This will undercut / damage the physician-patient relationship.  Any prescription medication carries risks, and a doctor should be monitoring those risks- it’s not the role of a pharmacist to monitor symptoms and they do not have access to the patient’s medical history.  And relying on a self-administered questionnaire is not reliable- people frequently do not remember the name or type of medication they have been on or currently on and would not know of the risks associated with that medication.”

The Iowa Catholic Conference shares our concerns on these powerful drugs

You can see in the interview above with Pulse board president, Tom Quiner, that Tom Chapman and Bishop Joensen share our concerns on this piece of the bill and the powerful drugs that compromise conception. Like Pulse Life Advocates, the Iowa Catholic Conference is a member of the Iowa Coalition of Pro-Life Leaders.

Great turnout at the Prayer Rally!

As you can see in the accompanying pic, a large crowd turned out for the Prayer Rally, including so many followers of Pulse Life Advocate’s blog and social media platforms. Thanks to you all for turning out.

Yes, we have our finger on the pulse of what is happening in the pro-life arena in Iowa. Even more, we are championing solid legislation that protects innocent human life in the womb to build on our successes in recent year.

I can’t emphasize enough how much we appreciate your support. We can’t do it without your prayers, participation, and patronage. Thank-you SO much! Please, keep it coming. Our fight for the rights of the unborn doesn’t come cheap when you consider Planned Parenthood’s deep pockets. We need your financial support. Donate today and help us save more babies!

[Every dollar counts. Support Pulse. Give today.]

“Barbaric” abortion law passed in Minnesota

Feb 2, 2023 |
Minnesota abortion law

A new Minnesota abortion law strips away every single regulation on human abortion. The Protect Reproductive Options Act claims that every person has a fundamental right to make “autonomous decisions” regarding their own ‘reproductive healthcare,’ unless, of course, you’re still in the womb. 

Minnesota Republican Minority Leader Mark Johnson calls the law the most extreme in the US:

“Today we are not just codifying Roe v Wade or Doe v Gomez [a Minnesota Supreme Court pro-abortion decision], as the author has indicated, we are enacting the most extreme bill in the country.”

Minnesota Republicans tried to limit 3rd trimester abortions and provide protections for babies who survive their abortions to no avail, losing the vote by a single vote, 34 to 33.

Robert Barron, Bishop of the Winona/Rochester Diocese, was even more forceful, characterizing the bill as “the worst type of barbarism.” You can hear his complete reaction in the Tweet above.

The Minnesota abortion law is the same type of law Planned Parenthood and their political allies want to enact in all 50 states, including Iowa, since Roe v Wade was overturned. In Iowa, Pulse Life Advocates and our allies in the Iowa Coalition of Pro Life Leaders stand in their way.

Help support our protection of the unborn. Donate today.

Will Biden declare Martial Law against pro-lifers?

Feb 1, 2023 |
Holocaust Museum

Holocaust MuseumBy Maggie Dewitte

I just returned from another impactful March for Life in Washington DC.  I took my 14-year-old daughter and 17-year-old son with me.  I brought my daughter to visit the Holocaust Museum after the March.  I knew she would be just like me when I visited the first time; we spent a solid three hours in which Abi absorbed every word, picture and video.

As we whispered in-between exhibits, I talked about the many parallels between the Holocaust and the fight for our unborn brothers and sisters.  I have often wondered what people will think about as they look back at this time in history as we looked back in time to the Holocaust and wondered how such an atrocity could occur.

These thoughts linger as I read a news report in Axios yesterday regarding the Biden administration and their obsession to kill unborn children.  The piece reports that the president is being encouraged by his party to declare a public health emergency to get around pro-life regulations and boost abortion access.

The Twilight Zone?

Their desire to declare a ‘public health emergency’ over abortion honestly reminds me of a show I used to watch:

“A dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind.  A journey into a wondrous land of imagination.  Next stop, the Twilight Zone!”

The safest place in the world should be the womb; instead, it has become a battle ground in which pregnancy is seen as a disease and ‘healthcare’ has become abortion, which has nothing to do with health and everything to do with death.

A declaration of a martial law decree?

Kristan Hawkins of Students for Life assessed the move with the clarity which so defines the pro-life perspective:

“Biden’s abortion obsessed administration wants to basically declare Martial Law to take control of our society with the same health care regulations used to control Americans during the height of the COVID crisis. This is an abuse of a process that was created to SAVE lives, not end them.”

Is pregnancy a disease?

Pulse Life Advocates concurs with Students for Life that pregnancy is not a disease. Says Hawkins:

“Even so, we saw how the regulations were abused, and used against Americans, when it really was a health issue being debated. But pregnancy is not a disease and its fake cure is not abortion. The best healthcare in the world should be used to see both mother and child safely cared for and loved. Violating people’s rights of conscience to push abortion in all 50 states using the thuggish tactics of Biden weaponized HHS and DOJ will be opposed with all our resources. We are already taking steps to address this.”

The Holocaust museum showed how the Third Reich simply issued a decree to assume legislative powers following a fire which destroyed part of the German Parliament, the Reichstag, on February 27, 1933. Here is their account:

“Hitler immediately accused the Communists, an opposition party, of setting the blaze, and he issued an emergency decree that allowed him to crush political opposition. This decree became the basis of the Nazi police state, and would remain in effect until 1945.

On March 23, a Nazi-dominated parliament voted to transfer all legislative powers to Hitler’s cabinet. After this Enabling Act, the parliament would serve merely as a rubber stamp. Finally, all political organizations except the Nazi party were banned, on July 14. The one-party state was thus established within six months of Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor.”

Roe v Wade and the Holocaust

Some reading this account surely bristle at any comparison between the Third Reich and modern American politics. And yet the impact of Biden’s martial law on the rights of the unborn far exceeds the scope of the Nazi’s final solution, which killed a staggering 6,636,235 human beings for the crime of being Jews. By contrast, Roe v Wade ushered in an abortion era which killed 64 million human beings for the crime of being inconvenient.

A Biden martial law decree will ensure that the death toll from human abortion will once again spike in the U.S. after decades of decline.

“Pro-abortion extremism”

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, was even more pointed in her reaction to the specter of a martial law type of decree from the president:

“They think allowing more Americans to be born is a crisis, and the only solution is ending those lives through abortion for any reason up until birth. Their latest scheme would result in taxpayer-funded abortion on demand across the country with no protections whatsoever for unborn children or their mothers – including dangerous mail-order abortion drugs that put women at risk of serious complications. 

Democrats’ pro-abortion extremism knows no bounds.”

Sadly we are not living in the Twilight Zone. All of this is really happening. Pulse is fighting back in dozens of ways. Just today, I again testified at a sub committee hearing at the Capitol.

How can you help? Donate. Donate right now. Without your support, all of the pro-life initiatives you see on this website comes to a halt. We can win. We will win with your support.

Would you join us in prayer at the Capitol on February 6th?

Jan 25, 2023 |
Maggie DeWitte
Maggie DeWitte

A letter from Pulse Life Advocate’s Executive Director, Maggie DeWitte

Dear Fellow Pro-Life Warrior:

Prayer holds the pro-life movement together. It fuels our ability to persevere in the face of setbacks, and to ultimately triumph. That’s why Pulse Life Advocates and our allies in the pro-life movement pray together. We want you to be a part of our shared prayer. To that end, would you join us at the 2023 Iowa Prayer Rally For Life?

Here are the details:

DATE: Monday, February 6th

PLACE: Iowa State Capitol Rotunda

SCHEDULE:  

11AM to 2PM: Meet the members of the Iowa Coalition of pro-life leaders. They’ll have tables set up in the rotunda. Ask them how YOU can join the effort and save BOTH babies and mothers in Iowa.

11AM to Noon: Go to Room 305 to learn how to lobby. Make your voice heard. We promise you, Planned Parenthood has trained their acolytes. We have assembled veteran lobbyists who will show you exactly how to properly influence public officials.

Noon to 1PM: Be inspired. You’ll hear from Iowa’s pro-life leaders on the latest efforts to save babies’ lives; you’ll hear from and encourage legislators who are standing up to defend life; and you’ll join local clergy in powerful prayer at the focal point of where Iowa public policy is decided.

We’ve invited the following speakers: Governor Kim Reynolds; Senator Kevin Alons; Senator Mark Costello; Representative Luana Stoltenberg; and Reverend Dr. Jim Lamb, a Lutheran Family Service Life Advocate.

Let’s rock the house with prayer!

1PM to 2PM: Go lobby your Senator and Representative.

The 2023 Iowa Prayer Rally for Life is sponsored by a ‘who’s who’ of Iowa pro-life leaders, including:

  • Pulse Life Advocates
  • Iowa Right to Life
  • The Family Leader
  • Lutheran Family Service
  • Personhood Iowa
  • Operation Outcry
  • Thomas More Society
  • Iowa Catholic Conference
  • Restored By Grace
  • Dubuque County Right to Life

These groups comprise the Iowa Coalition of Pro-Life Leaders, whose motto is:

Standing firm in God’s truth for life.

Prayer is the foundation of the pro-life movement. This movement needs YOUR prayers more than ever. Please … join us at the 2023 Iowa Prayer Rally for Life on February 6th.

Thank-you,

Maggie DeWitte, Executive Director

PULSE LIFE ADVOCATES

Men in the Arena

Jan 24, 2023 |
man in the arena

man in the arenaWomen hold the important leadership positions in the pro-life movement. Some examples in Iowa:

Pulse Life Advocates: Maggie DeWitte

Iowa Right to Life: Kristi Judkins

Innervisions HealthCare: Theresa Welch

Agape Pregnancy Resource Center:  Leanna Simpson

At the national level:

Live Action: Lila Rose

March For Life: Jeanne Mancini

Susan B. Anthony PRO-LIFE America: Marjorie Dannenfelser

Students for Life: Kristan Hawkins

Abortion isn’t a woman’s issue

In recognition that abortion isn’t merely a ‘women’s issue,’ men were well-represented at last Friday’s March For Life in Washington DC, both as ‘marchers’ as well as speakers.

Perhaps the highest profile man speaking at the March was Hall of Fame football coach, Tony Dungy, who won Super Bowls both as a player and a coach.

Mr. Dungy stated that his appearance at this human rights event was “way, way more important” than the NFL play-off season, which so defines his career, both as a player and a coach, and now as a high-profile football analyst. You can watch his speech below.

The man in the arena

By agreeing to speak at the March for Life, Tony Dungy truly became a “man in the arena,” opening himself up to vitriol from a pro-death culture. For example, Dave Zirin, sports editor for The Nation, blasted both Dungy and his boss, NBC:

“If Dungy wants a show on ‘The Daily Wire,’ more power to him. But his being center stage on the most watched program in the country makes NBC and the NFL complicit in his disinformation and political posturing. Like Dungy, neither NBC nor the NFL has commented about his latest eruption. But their silence speaks volumes. It’s a silence that’s almost as loud as Dungy’s hateful blather, almost as loud as the thousands of people descending upon Washington—some mandatorily—to celebrate a fascistic, discredited Supreme Court and the loss of our rights. It’s shameful. And we should not be afraid to say so.”

Mr. Zirin’s tirade barely scratches the surface of the hateful feeding frenzy that took place on Twitter.

Another man in the arena

Actor Jonathan Roumie, who portrays Jesus in the hit TV series, The Chosen, also stepped into the ‘arena’ at the March For Life. Said Roumie:

“I know how difficult it can be to think differently, to swim against the current, to choose life in a culture that celebrates death. You know standing here and saying these things to you now is neither the obvious career choice, or an easy decision for me, because I’ve never set foot in this arena before publicly. But ultimately, I had no choice. This guy made me do it [pointing towards heaven], and I’m a better man for it.”

Role models for men

Tony Dungy and Jonathan Roumie are role models for men to boldly leap into the arena to defend the little guy, the unborn, regardless of the cost. Teddy Roosevelt described what it takes to be this man in the “arena”:

“It is not the critic who counts, not the one who points out how the strong man stumbled or how the doer of deeds might have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred with sweat and dust and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, if he wins, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

Join us in the arena

Pulse Life Advocates honors not just the great women in the pro-life movement, but those men who act like men by stepping into an arena that the culture says doesn’t belong to them. 

Men like Tony Dungy and Jonathan Roumie.

Men like Bishop William Joensen who attended last year’s March, and who just issued common sense guidance on how to handle gender dysphoria in Catholic schools and churches, despite the cultural pushback he knew would come.

Men like Michigan football coach, Jim Harbaugh, who spoke at a Michigan pro-life banquet last year, despite the pushback he knew would come.

Young men in the arena

And men like the high school and college young men who ‘dared greatly’ by making a pilgrimage to this year’s March in Washington DC with Pulse knowing that they’d face pushback from their peer group who don’t see the life issue in the same way as they do.

Timid men cower in the face of the threats hurled at the likes of brave men like Dungy, Roumie, Joensen, and Harbaugh. There is no shortage of these men.

Rather, let us emulate Teddy Roosevelt and all the brave men who step into the arena and fight valiantly for a worthy cause. The March For Life demonstrates that they won’t be alone.

[Pulse Life Advocates needs your financial support to continue our pro-life educational outreach. Donate today.]

Top 10 blogposts of 2022

Jan 3, 2023 |
top 10 blogposts of 2022

top 10 blogposts of 2022Pulse Life Advocates published 81 blogposts in 2022. Some were news, political, and legislative updates; some were cultural commentary; some were prayer. All are connected by Pulse’s mission to promote life from fertilization to natural death.

Here are the top 10 blogposts for 2022, accompanied by an excerpt from the piece and a link for you to read the entire piece.

We encourage your comments.

#10

Pulse Responds to a Critic

You contradict yourself. You don’t actually believe in the right and dignity of a girl or woman at any stage of her development if you allow another person to kill her in the womb, even if she is a zygote. And even at that young age, she contains the same 46 unique chromosomes she’ll have at age 5 or 95. She has the entire genetic blueprint of a new individual at that young age. Her chromosomes contain tightly packed, coiled molecules at fertilization with the detailed instructions for her to develop into an adult … unless she is killed in the womb by human abortion.

#9

The Case for Marriage Grows

The media is noticing. The Wall Street Journal ran yet another piece touting the case for marriage. They reported on the mystifying tendency of married couples to become wealthier than their non-married counterparts in a November 7th piece (“Moving in Together Doesn’t Match the Financial Benefits of Marriage, but Why?”).

#8

Abortion Politicians Set Their Sights on Catholic Hospitals

Although they assist in a half a million births a year and provide extensive pre and post natal services, they don’t provide abortions. Which is a problem to abortion activists, like Jill Filipovic. She’d rather see Catholic hospitals shut down if they refuse to provide abortions:

#7

They Are Not the Enemy

Various polls affirm that 7 out of 10 Americans support limits on abortion. In fact, President Biden supported limits on abortion at one point in his career, asserting that the Supreme Court had gone “too far” on abortion with the Roe v Wade decision.

#6

Fr. Martin accuses pro-lifers of grumbling

“Fr. James Martin claims that support for the death penalty is the moral equivalent as support for abortion. [Abortion and the Grumbling Crowd, July 21st.] Let’s contrast the issues: 

Some 800,000 innocent unborn American were ‘executed’ (aborted) for the crime of being inconvenient last year in contrast to the 11 criminals who were executed for the crime of murder. 

There is no moral equivalency between human abortion and the death penalty.”

#5

“Who is My Neighbor?”

“The answer, of course, is nobody isn’t your neighbor: not Jews, not Samaritans, not Democrats, not Republicans, not blacks, not whites, not South Koreans, not North Koreans, not Red Sox fans, not even Yankee fans. Your neighbor is everyone — not “everyone” in general but each one in particular, one by one:  every person God brings into your life in any way, even heretics like the Samaritans.”

And even the unborn.

#4

Roe Dies on the Solemnity of Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

The Pope further explains that from the Heart of Jesus flows a deeper understanding and experience of his His divine love.

Abortion is the antithesis of Christ’s love.

Love is sacrificial, which is why Christ allowed His Sacred Heart to be pierced by his oppressors, so that He could save us all.

Abortion is selfish, as it pierces the hearts of its innocent victims to the detriment of us all.

#3

Is Western Civilization Worth Saving?

Saint Mother Teresa posed a provocative question: “… if a mother can kill her own unborn baby, what is left of Western civilization to save?”

There’s no question that Western civilization is under attack.

‘Western Civ’ is a decreasingly required course in institutions of higher learning. And when it is taught, curriculum tends to focus on its negatives rather than its staggering achievements.

The progressive Left calls for a dismantling of the structures and values of Western civilization.

Rank and file citizens of the West display increasing apathy towards the rich heritage bestowed upon them by the superior values of Western Civilization.

So before answering St. Mother Teresa’s challenging question, we should ask, “what defines Western civilization?”

#2

The Depopulation Bomb

Sadly, the overpopulation myth is having a devastating impact on our culture. Erhlich claimed that the earth didn’t offer enough resources to accommodate the planet’s population. When that claim was proven false, a new breed of alarmists came on the scene and said that our growing population was heating up the earth and unnaturally changing the planet’s climate.

#1

Top Ten Religious Movies For Lent

[This is consistently one of our most popular annual blogs, updated every Lent.]

Lent has started. What a perfect time to enjoy a good religious movie. At some time or other in your life, probably during your Lenten fast, you have asked yourself the question, “what is the meaning of life?” And the answer is, that life has meaning. That meaning comes from being adopted sons and daughters of God. That meaning comes from the unique mission our Creator gives to each of us as members of His Kingdom.

A good religious movie helps us appreciate the profound meaning of our lives as it ultimately draws us nearer to Christ. It reveals the Truth, with a capital T. If you have not had the good fortune of watching any of these films yet, then you may want to see what your Cable TV package has available and where you could watch these with the family. There is a source here that discusses the statistics of people who watch TV and what they are looking at, so maybe you’ll be able to find a package that leans towards more religious teachings that can help you with your journey.

[Pulse Life Advocates needs your support more than ever to pushback against Big Abortion’s attempt to overturn every single pro-life law in Iowa. Arm us with the resources we need to reach more at-risk Iowans with our educational pro-life outreach. Donate today.]

The Depopulation Bomb

Dec 30, 2022 |
the depopulation bomb

the depopulation bombBy Tom Quiner, Board President, Pulse Life Advocates

I conducted a little survey amongst family and friends. I asked this question:

By the year 2100, will the population of the planet be:

  1. One billion MORE persons?
  2. About the same as today?
  3. One billion LESS persons?

Most answered one billion more persons. The correct answer is one billion fewer persons, according to demographers, Joel Kotkin and Wendell Cox. Their essay in Quillette (The Unexpected Future) portends a planetary depopulation trend based on data published by the United Nations.

Surveys show ignorance on depopulation concerns

How can this be? A YouGovAmerica survey asked:

“Which do you think is of greater concern to the world in future decades?”

53% of respondents said overpopulation; 22% said neither; 15% didn’t know; and only 10% said underpopulation.

No one is worried about underpopulation. Just the opposite. I remember when Paul Erhlich’s apocalyptic tome, “The Population Bomb,” was published in 1968. I was in high school, and it made quite a splash. Students went from class to class making presentations based on his prognostication: 

“The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now.”

His book asserted that overpopulation is the root problem. Not only did he influence impressionable high school students, the political class jumped on board. High profile public figures, such as Zbigniew Brzezinski (who became President Jimmy Carter’s National Security Adviser), J. Paul Getty, and Henry Luce III among others took out a full page ad in the Wall Street Journal declaring:

“The world as we know it will likely be ruined before the year 2000,” since “food production cannot keep pace with the galloping growth of population.”

A demographic misdiagnosis

Of course, they were wrong. None of Erhlich’s dire predictions came to pass. In fact, the United Nation’s Food and Agricultural Organization said hunger dropped from one of four people in the world at the time Population Bomb was published to but one in ten today. Those affected by famines dropped from 27 million in 1900 to less than a million today.

Nonetheless, the damage was done. Anti population measures were aggressively implemented in countries like India and China, including forced sterilizations and abortions. In the U.S. and Europe, liberal abortion policies have helped drive birth rates below replacement levels.

The fruit of these polices is now evident, according to Mssrs. Kotkin and Cox:

“It’s not a matter of if but when global populations will start to decline. Under the UN’s medium variant projection, the world’s population will peak in 2086, while under the low variant, the peak will occur in 2053, and by 2100, the population will be about a billion below today’s level.”

Devastating impact

Sadly, the overpopulation myth is having a devastating impact on our culture. Erhlich claimed that the earth didn’t offer enough resources to accommodate the planet’s population. When that claim was proven false, a new breed of alarmists came on the scene and said that our growing population was heating up the earth and unnaturally changing the planet’s climate. 

A Wall Street Journal October 7, 2018 headline said:

“U.N. panel warns drastic action needed to stave off climate change.”

In another piece on September 26, 2019, the Wall Street Journal began a piece with this provocative paragraph:

“Inside the United Nations General Assembly this week, world leaders tackled the gravest issues facing humankind. Nuclear weapons. Tensions in the Persian Gulf. Fears of a climate apocalypse.”

Politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez amplified the media’s apocalyptic rhetoric with dire forecasts, like this claim made in 2019:

“The world is gonna end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change and your biggest issue is how are we gonna pay for it?”

With 1.8 followers on Facebook and another 13.4 million on Twitter, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez has tremendous influence.

“A social intelligence of a sea sponge”

Although she later backtracked, claiming that only those with a “social intelligence of a sea sponge” would believe such a claim, the damage was done. A Rasmussen Poll showed that two-thirds of Democratic voters do believe the claim. 

We’re still waiting to see if Ms. Ocasio-Cortez apologizes to the sea sponge lobby.

Climate alarmism affects young people’s willingness to bring children into this world, as the New York Times pointed out. They asked readers for their feedback on reactions to the “existential” threat of climate change. Here was a fairly typical response:

“I have one child, a daughter, who told me age 8 that she would never have a child because of global warming. She’s now 34 and has never changed her mind. So I will not experience a grandchild. For her wisdom, I am grateful. I would be heartsick if I did have a grandchild who would have to experience the onslaught of changing climate.”

Overpopulation has been a bogeyman for most of Baby Boomer’s adult lives. But now that they have reached retirement age, a depopulation bomb looms as a serious threat to the U.S. economy and social-safety net. Every single state in the U.S. has a fertility rate below replacement level.

Depopulation weakens our social safety net

At the time of the Roe v Wade decision (1973), there were 29 people on Social Security per hundred workers compared to 37 today and projected to rise to 66 by 2100, according to SS trustees. Reserve funds will be depleted by 2035.

The depopulation bomb presents more than an existential threat to our social safety net. It guts the vitality of an entire economy, as Japan’s experience shows us. 

Their fertility rate dipped below replacement level in 1973. Their economy began to sag twenty years later as the effects of a shrinking labor force were felt. Their per capita GDP fell from $44,198 in 1995 to $39,285 by 2021.

The depopulation bomb is an existential threat

So what is the biggest existential threat to the United States and the world? The depopulation bomb. Demographic projections have a more reliable track record than climate projections. The same people warning of global warming today warned of a coming ice age just fifty years ago.

In light of the growing need for more people, the U.S. can’t afford aborting 900,000 human beings a year, who represent our ultimate resource. The time has come to end the moral and economic confusion at the heart of the abortion debate.

[Tom Quiner is Board President for Pulse Life Advocates, a pro-life advocacy group located in Des Moines, IA. You can learn more about their educational outreach at www.PulseForLife.org and support their cause here.]

John Lennon’s most obnoxious song

Dec 27, 2022 |
John Lennon’s most obnoxious song

John Lennon’s most obnoxious songThe late, great Beatle, John Lennon, has written some very fine songs. But boy has he written some clunkers. Two songs stand out as being particularly insufferable: “Imagine” and “Happy Xmas (The War is Over).”

Let’s start with the latter. The first sentence asks:

“So this is Christmas, and what have you done?”

Take a listen …

Lennon and his co-writer, wife Yoko Ono, are trying to make you feel guilty that you Christians aren’t doing enough to make the world peaceful, that somehow you’re actually phonies.

“Superficial do-gooders”

Writing in the National Review, Mark Milke characterizes their lyrics as “superficial  do-goodery.” Says Milke:

“Those ten words have enough hubris to inflate the Hindenburg. It’s as if ordinary folk somehow should justify themselves to a 1960s–1970s rock star consumed by self and by error, as in his musical worship of anti-religious belief and consequences.”

Lennon’s issue was war; so is ours, only ours is the the war on the unborn. In fairness, Lennon’s views on abortion aren’t known, although Yoko Ono said she considered aborting their son Sean, but John said no. That speaks well of Mr. Lennon.

The transformation of the ‘peace and justice’ crowd

Sadly, the peace and justice crowd morphed from an anti-war movement in the 1960s into a pro-abortion movement in the name of women’s reproductive rights in the 1970s. That helps to explain this blog’s disdain for the opening line in this sorry Christmas song.

The pro-life movement has to endure endless sniping from Big Abortion and their acolytes demanding to know, ‘what have YOU done’ to help babies after they’re born.

The pro-life movement does so much nationally helping moms after their babies are born to possibly list here. In Des Moines, Pulse partners with Mary’s Helping Hands to provide clothing, diapers, and formula for the first two years of babies’ lives.

The largest pro-life group in the world

The largest pro-life group in the world, Catholic Charities, works non-stop:

√ Reducing infant mortality.

√ Boosting the number of kids with health coverage.

√ Increasing access to healthy food for the hungry.

√ Lessening the number of families and individuals forced to live in emergency shelters.

√ Expanding the quantity of affordable housing units.

√ Working to increase fathers’ involvement in families.

√ Expanding access to quality affordable early childhood education.

√ Increasing the rate of high school completion.

√ Raising the number of youth participating in postsecondary education or workforce training.

√ Adopting out more children than any other provider in the country.

If ever there was a pro-life group that helps babies after they’re born, it is the Knights of Columbus.

The Knights of Columbus supports the Special Olympics, you know the very kids abortion advocates abort at alarming rates. (Some 90% Down Syndrome babies are aborted.)

They buy ultra sound machines for pro-life pregnancy centers.

They provide funds to support refugee relief to help persecuted groups facing genocide around the world.

And they provide coats for kids; wheelchairs for the lame; and homes for the homeless.

There’s more … 

Pro-lifers adopt babies and support women’s pregnancy centers in every state in the union. In fact, pro-lifers have erected an entire social safety net on their own dime helping women, as government programs often won’t let groups participate if they don’t refer clients for abortion services. That happened during the Obama presidency when the administration terminated a program run by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops helping women who were victims of human trafficking.

Lennon’s hectoring in this Christmas song is compounded by his unendurable anti-religion lyrics as expressed in “Imagine”:

“Imagine there’s no heaven,

It’s easy if you try,

No hell below us,

Above us only sky.

Imagine all the people living for today.”

Take a listen:

Hard to take

All of this is hard to take in light of Christianity’s relentless outreach to the poor over the past two millennia. The Catholic Church in particular founded the modern day university and hospital systems. Even today, Catholic hospitals care for one out of every seven patients in the U.S.

And yet Mr. Lennon became the poster child for driving young people from the Church by using his platform to preach his smug sermons:

“Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that; I’m right and I’ll be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first—rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.”

John Lennon’s most obnoxious song

So what is John Lennon’s most obnoxious song? This blog votes for Happy Xmas (The War is Over) as Lennon presents his secular religion in Christmas wrapping paper. We live in an era of woke virtue-signaling where self-righteous elites constantly lecture the little people on their moral failings.

Our tirade isn’t meant to diminish the good songs John Lennon wrote, nor even his activism to promote peace. After all, who opposes peace? But we live in an age where pro-lifers are constantly asked: “what have you done?”

In this Christmas season, we respond: much. We believe that peace begins in the womb. It seems only fitting that we end this essay in Mr. Lennon’s own words, “All we are sayin’ is give peace a chance.”

Sad news about the Priest for Life 

Dec 19, 2022 |
priest for life

By Tom Quiner

priest for life

Fr. Frank Pavone (left) with Pulse Board President, Tom Quiner

Fr. Frank Pavone was one of the most inspirational pro-life speakers I’ve ever heard. He came through Des Moines a number of years ago and riveted the audience with his passionate defense of human life in the womb.

What stuck with me was his concern for the women suffering with guilt from their abortions.

What stuck with me was the faith-based compassion he demonstrated to women who participated in thousands of abortions until they saw the light.

What stuck with me was this is a man who is making the world a better place.

The news from Rome is that Pope Francis has defrocked Fr. Prank Pavone effective immediately. This blog won’t take sides. We don’t know all that has transpired between Fr. Pavone, his bishop, and the Holy See.

All of us at Pulse Life Advocates are saddened by the news. Nothing, though, changes my conviction that Fr. Frank Pavone has made the world a better place with his tireless defense of the unborn and his heartfelt outreach to the women so wounded by the horror of human abortion.

I don’t know what the future has in store for this ‘priest for life.’ We simply want to thank him for all the babies he has saved.

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