President Trump and Pope Francis -- Paying Heed to the Silent, Choked Cry of Aborted Babies and Sexually Abused Children

THE TIMES THEY ARE A'CHANGING. At least when it comes to the question of abortion -- and perhaps on the Catholic Church's fight against sexual child abuse. . • • • NOTRE DAME IS LEADING THE WAY ON ABORTION. Last week, Father John I. Jenkins, president of the University of Notre Dame, released a statement expressing their disdain for the Reproductive Health Act ("RHA"), just signed into law by Governor Andrew Cuomo. Father Jenkins's statement is titled "Who is Next?," a rhetorical question for abortion advocates asking : if medical care is not required for babies surviving abortion in New York, what group is next to be denied medical care? That is a facet of the new wave of Democrat state abortion-infanticide laws that has not before been raised. • American Thinker's William Dodd reacted to Father Jenkins statement : "The commentary from Father Jenkins is surprising from several perspectives. The influential Notre Dame platform has in recent decades been used by Jenkins and other university officials to advocate mostly liberal views on social matters -- views that have in some cases conflicted with traditional Catholic teachings. In this article, Father presents a surprisingly conservative perspective. Coming from him, it has diluted credibility. After all, it was Father Jenkins who in 2009 invited President Obama, the most pro-abortion President in our country's history, to be his and Father Hesburgh's honored guest and speaker at the university's graduation ceremony. Obama's speech from that platform gave the impression to the world that Catholic Notre Dame may consider abortion a subject for debate or dialogue rather than a doctrinal matter. But another president of Notre Dame must bear even more responsibility for the current headlong drive by Democratic politicians and state legislatures for up-to-term and 'who's next' abortion legislation. Father Theodore Hesburgh became president of Notre Dame in 1955. Six years later, he joined the board of the ultra-liberal Rockefeller Foundation. In doing so, Hesburgh was surreptitiously endorsing his acceptance of abortion. The foundation had always been known for providing worldwide funding for population control, eugenics, abortion, and contraception. Hesburgh served as chairman of the Board of the foundation from 1977 until retiring in 1982. In 1984, Father Hesburgh invited Governor Mario Cuomo of New York to speak at Notre Dame on the difficulties that elected Catholic politicians have in reconciling the obligations of their faith regarding abortion with their obligations to their constituencies. On September 13, 1984, Cuomo delivered 'Religious Belief and Public Morality : A Catholic Governor's Perspective' at Notre Dame's Washington Hall. Some saw the Cuomo speech as an orchestrated Hesburgh-Cuomo rebuttal to comments made by Archbishop John O'Connor, the new archbishop of New York and a staunch defender of unborn life. Earlier in 1984 O'Connor, on a televised news conference, had stated that he did not believe that a Catholic in good conscience could vote for a political candidate who approves of abortion. He further stated that he would not rule out excommunicating Governor Cuomo for his support of abortion rights. Cuomo's speech at Notre Dame stifled the debate. It was a brilliant move, a well staged home run for the abortion cause. With delivery from the platform of one of the Church's most influential universities and tacit approval by the renowned Father Hesburgh, the speech received extensive media coverage. 'Father Ted' likely knew that it would be a watershed event, and it was. In effect, without Church authority, the speech 'sanctioned' the Catholic body politic's relaxation of its opposition to abortion. Archbishop O'Connor and the conservative wing of the Church had lost the public debate with the governor. Liberal Catholic politicians silently leaped for joy. Their consciences had been unburdened." • William Dodd notes in his article that the speech "had immediate effects" -- it relieved US Catholic politicians of any obligation to mention their faith's view on the immorality of abortion in public discourse, either "on the stump" or after being elected, and it freed US Catholic politicians of any obligation to object to legislation that would in any way limit state or federal funding of abortion. AND, says Dodd, it freed Catholic voters of any conscience-based reluctance to vote for politicians of any faith who sought to expand abortion." • • • MARIO CUOMO AND ANDREW CUOMO. If Governor Mario Cuomo's 1984 speech had such an important impact, causing the Catholic Church hierarchy to pull back on public criticisms of politicians, even Catholic ones, who sought to expand abortion, then its effect seems to have run its course. While Catholic legislators in the past were convinced that advocating the most aggressive kinds of abortion legislation because it won elections and it brought pro-feminist women voters into the fold of Progressive Democrat politics -- think the "pro-abortion litmus test" and Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, Dick Durbin, Patrick Leahy, Bob Menendez -- that being pro-abortion would insure their survival for decades to come, it is no longer a given. The public response to the passage of the New York RHA from some quarters has been disgust, from others shock and surprise. Yes, says William Dodd, Surprise : "The seed for this horrendous legislation was sown decades ago. We know its lineage. Its grandfather's name is Mario, and its father's name is Andrew. It has uncles named John D., Theodore, Barack, and John I. and has countless cousins in the party of Democrats. Public reception of the RHA has been less than favorable -- so much so that the act itself may help bring an end to our country's deviant reliance on abortion to solve social problems and to celebrations of its enabling laws. Like the laws passed following the Dred Scott decision doubling down on slavery, pro-abortion legislation of the past four decades may someday be found to be the worst ever written in our country's history." • What one NY Governor Cuomo -- Mario -- created, another NY Governor Cuomo -- Mario's son Andrew -- has driven to its negative political extremity. • • • "IF YOU WANT PEACE, PREPARE FOR WAR." That is how the Canadian Free Press's Fredy Lowe addressed the abortion issue in early February. In a no-holds-barred essay, Lowe wrote : "Woe unto them who call evil good and good evil...One of the more memorable statements made by the person who was erroneously given the title of POTUS, has now been declared true, when he once boldly admonished us saying, 'We are no longer a Christian nation.' Only in a non-Christian nation can the Catholic Church, or any Christian church for that matter, stand by and berate young teenaged boys for wearing a MAGA hat at a right-to-life rally, and nearly in the same breath, not consider the excommunication of a governor or the legislators who rejoice in their newly found right of ‘elimination’ of a newborn baby. '...Before I formed you in the womb I knew you...' The prophet Isaiah warned us, 'Woe unto them who call evil good and good evil...' There is little need to sugarcoat these truths for we, as a society, are about to experience the woe that comes with distress and sorrow which is assured onto a nation that has so willingly embraced evil." • I suppose we now have to admit that Progressives, and their Democrat Party operatives, do not believe in God. Lowe states : "They, in fact, despise and mock a person, or all religious institutions that know, love and accept The Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. They entertained removing the line, 'So help me God,' from the oath taken in front of a key House committee, whereas their non-belief in God is now at the forefront of the evil that has engulfed our once honorable nation. Their long-term-goal has been an entirely godless society, which they now seem to have fully accomplished by not only their words, but by their deeds. They are now right-in-your-face unashamed of murdering infants out of convenience, making it more difficult for them to continue hiding behind the term fetus, as they desire approval for a discussion-to-eliminate, which is their code word for killing a newly born baby, even after the child has physically been born into the world, but soon to be dead, for they have legally deemed it so." • CFP and Lowe have harsh words for Cardinal Dolan of New York, who "agreed with the baby-killing-monster governor Andrew Cuomo" by refusing to take a stand against his new radical law making infanticide legal : "One might think that it would have been difficult for Cardinal Dolan to attend Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral this past Sunday hearing the words of Jeremiah in the First Reading, '...Before I formed you in the womb I knew you...' But, sadly, it was no more difficult for the hypocritical church leader...than it was for the doctors or nurses in his congregation, who willingly do the dastardly-deed of killing infants as part of their livelihood -- they simply admonish themselves saying, it’s part of our job. Woe onto them who call evil good." • • • PRESIDENT TRUMP DEFENDS BABIES. President Trump was very clear in his State of the Union address on February 5 : "Lawmakers in New York cheered with delight upon the passage of legislation that would allow a baby to be ripped from the mother's womb moments before birth. These are living, feeling, beautiful, babies who will never get the chance to share their love and dreams with the world. And then, we had the case of the Governor of Virginia where he stated he would execute a baby after birth. To defend the dignity of every person, I am asking Congress to pass legislation to prohibit the late-term abortion of children who can feel pain in the mother's womb. Let us work together to build a culture that cherishes innocent life. And let us reaffirm a fundamental truth: all children -- born and unborn -- are made in the holy image of God." We should pray for our President Trump and for the cause of eliminating infanticide labeled ad abortion. It is true, as Fredy Lowe says: "If you truly want peace, first admit to yourself that we are already at war. And, so we say once more, Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum." • • • WHERE ARE THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES ON THE INFANTICIDE-CUM-ABORTION ISSUE? I keep reporting about the Catholic Church's reactions to abortion, and to the latest infanticide-as-abortion laws because there is scarcely a Protestant reaction to report. Google the issue, and you will see that American Protestant Churches are for the most part silent. A 2018 study by the Pew Research Center on Religion and Public Life concluded : "Though abortion is a divisive issue, more than half of US adults take a non-absolutist position, saying that in most -- but not all -- cases, abortion should be legal (34%) or illegal (22%). Fewer take the position that in all cases abortion should be either legal (25%) or illegal (15%)." The only religious group registering a majority (61%) who think abortion should be illegal in all or most cases was white evangelical Protestants. By contrast, 74% of religiously unaffiliated Americans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, as do two-thirds of white mainline Protestants (67%)." • Even American Catholics are somewhat pro-abortion -- 51% say abortion should be legal in all or most cases while 42% say it should be illegal. The National Catholic Reporter wrote last week : "While politics yielded a Supreme Court that might well overturn Roe v. Wade in the not-too-distant future, the needle hasn't moved much in terms of the general culture. The figures have not changed a great deal over the decades. Extremes all along have determined the terms of debate. The broad middle, which would have a largely moderating influence, remains mostly unheard and irrelevant. Perhaps passage of the New York law will foster a backlash, as some have predicted. More likely, should Roe be overturned, is that the extremes will then have dozens of states over which to continue a fight that appears to have no satisfactory end." • • • THE LIBERAL CATHOLIC VOICE IN THE ABORTION ISSUE. The National Catholic Reporter, in its February 18 editorial, wrote : "As the 2020 presidential campaign season begins to roll out and abortion remains singular in its ability to divide the electorate and swamp all other political issues, a bit of not-too-distant papal history may be instructive. In 2001, in a public Mass in Rome marking the end of the Church's jubilee year, Pope John Paul II, since sainted, distributed Communion to Rome's mayor, Francesco Rutelli, a high-profile Catholic and politician who earlier had led his party's campaign for liberalized abortion laws. That fact was noted by conservative Vatican writer Sandro Magister weighing in during the flap over the presidential candidacy of John Kerry, a Catholic, in 2004. Magister at the time was commenting on a note by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger [later to become Pope Benedict XVI] on the subject of abortion, politicians and Communion, as well as discussion among US bishops about whether the then-Senator should be refused Communion because of his permissive views on abortion. Though Magister concluded that Ratzinger's directive would have come down on the side of refusing Communion -- the US bishops voted to leave it up to individual bishops -- he made special note of the fact that 'the rigorism of Ratzinger and the Holy See have for years lived side by side, in Italy and the rest of Europe, with a more flexible praxis, even at the highest levels of the Church.' He recalled, specifically, the incident in which Rutelli received Communion from John Paul II. Further, Magister noted : 'In Italy during the 1970's, other left-wing politicians even more closely connected than Rutelli with the Catholic sector, such as Piero Pratesi and Raniero La Valle, had given strong support to the introduction of the abortion law. But they were never denied communion. It was never even discussed.' Two years after that public Mass, John Paul II, in a private Mass in the Pope's apartment, distributed Communion to then-Prime Minister Tony Blair of the United Kingdom. Blair at the time was both a pro-choice politician and an Anglican. Perhaps John Paul was making a point for tolerance for political realities as well as for daring ecumenism. Whatever the case, John Paul's example might provide a good model for US bishops as some of those more inclined to be culture warriors seem eager to pick fights with politicians. There are also rumblings of threats to excommunicate New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for signing (and rather distastefully celebrating) the state's recent liberalized abortion law, which drops restriction to abortions after 24 weeks if the woman's life or health is at risk. To his credit, New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who rightly points out the violence of late-term abortions in opposing the state law, also quickly stated that excommunication should not be used as a weapon or out of frustration." • New York is not the first to liberalize its abortion laws, and it is expected that others will follow with the growing possibility that the Supreme Court would reverse Roe v. Wade. At the same time, says National Catholic Reporter : "If the bishops were to honestly assess what they've accomplished after more than 40 years of single-minded, single-issue politics, they might reconsider. Given that they've had more than four decades to persuade both Catholics and the wider culture of the wisdom of church teaching, any reasonable measure would term the effort a monumental failure....In the Catholic world, the primary debate is not over church teaching, though there are moralists and legalists and certainly women within the tradition but outside the power structure who raise demanding questions. The more immediate debate is over tactics in the real world. How best to raise the seriousness of the issue? To combat the need for it? To combat laws that allow it without limit? To persuade others -- Catholics included, if the surveys are to be believed -- to a point of view? The bishops, unfortunately, have helped fuel one of the extremes. They've had 46 years with endless bulletin inserts, Washington rallies, threats against politicians, the harshest words for women who would even consider abortion, and political alliances that have jeopardized other compelling portions of the Church's social teaching. All to accommodate this single issue....They've succeeded, instead, in hardening opinions and positions. In more recent years, they have set themselves up to be roundly criticized as hypocritical. They are members of a culture complicit in rationalizing the cover-up of what some have accurately called the 'soul murder' of abused children while railing against the assault of children in the womb. They deemed it the expedient way to handle that problem. The bishops may get to cheer the overthrow of Roe, but they will have done little to thwart the forces that gloat over having been able to successfully minimize the seriousness of abortion. The hierarchy's tactics in the public square never allowed the unconvinced to consider deeper truths about life and the need to protect it. Technology has certainly allowed us to understand fetal development in a more intimate way and with stunning clarity. That itself has convinced some to moderate their views. But countervailing advances in science increasingly allow much earlier detection of pregnancy and much easier access to pharmaceutical abortion performed in private. If respect for life in all of its phases is the ultimate good, some political wins or victory at the Supreme Court will likely fall far short of that end. Maybe John Paul had a bigger picture in mind." • • • WHAT ABOUT THE CHURCH'S SEXUAL ABUSE CRISIS? The Washington Times published an opinion piece by R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. last week. Tyrrell writes : "Pope Francis is increasingly showing his hand. He came into the papacy promising to clean up the church, especially on matters of sexual abuse. In doing so, he raised hopes among the laity, especially in America and Latin America. He said all the right things or at least many of the right things. He traveled the world. Now it is increasingly obvious that he means none of it. Pope Francis comes from Argentina. Yet, the more I see of him he looks and sounds like a fat alderman from Chicago. He is slippery, evasive, and I think we all know where he is going to go. He is heading to the comfortable left, ever to the left. What he really thinks about anything I cannot say, but look at the issues that he claims move him....Now we have arrived this week at the Pope’s 'abuse summit.' That is to say, his sexual abuse summit. For months it looked like it would not come off at all, but we now have it. Is the Pope going to move against child molesters within the church in a serious way? Well, he has finally defrocked Theodore McCarrick, the disgraced cardinal from Washington, DC, but that should have been done long ago, and as George Neumayr reported over the weekend he did it after promoting Cardinal Kevin Farrell, one of McCarrick’s cronies. Cardinal Farrell will now be 'responsible for administering the Vatican after a Pope dies or resigns and before a new one is elected,' according to the online news site Crux. That is not a very reassuring promotion." • Yet, the Abuse Summit did produce some key results. • The Catholic News Agency (CNA) noted that : "A Vatican spokesman said Sunday that concrete follow-up to this week’s abuse summit will include a new law on child protection for Vatican City State and a document from Pope Francis. At the conclusion of the Vatican’s sex abuse and child protection summit February 24, conference moderator Father Federico Lombardi, SJ, announced that Pope Francis will soon issue a motu proprio 'on the protection of minors and vulnerable persons.' Vatican City State will also receive its own new child protection law and the Vicariate of Vatican City will receive new child protection guidelines in the coming weeks. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) will publish a 'vademecum,' or handbook, with the tasks and obligations of bishops, Lombardi said. Archbishop Charles Scicluna, adjunct secretary of the CDF and a leading figure in the abuse conference, said February 24 that while changes in law are good, the most important thing is 'a change of heart' and conversion, 'to be more like the Good Shepherd, taking care of the little ones and the most vulnerable.' Another measure slated to take place over the next months is the creation of task forces specifically to help local Churches in need of help to solve problems and develop initiatives in their bishops’ conferences and dioceses. Father Hans Zollner, SJ, summit organizer, said the reason behind the task force idea is that some countries the Church, and society overall, lack trained personnel and need outside assistance. The task forces would help bishops’ conferences and dioceses that have requested help on things like writing guidelines and education about abuse. 'This is something that in the mid- and long-term will [bear] fruit,' Zollner commented. At the final press conference of the abuse summit, organizers re-emphasized the plan for a follow-up meeting to take place between summit leaders and top people in the Roman Curia first thing Monday morning. The February 25 meeting will be the first of a serious of follow-ups to discuss what should come next, Lombardi said. Zollner said they have tried to bring out some concrete outcomes from the week’s encounter, but that they will 'need to be fleshed out.' He also said there are a number of other points and suggestions which came out of the bishops’ working groups, and which organizers will be discussing. Implementation of any concrete measures will have to take place at the local level, Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Bombay said. Gracias and Scicluna both agreed that one point worth looking into in the follow-up is the amendment of the 'pontifical secret,' a policy of confidentiality in the Church, regarding cases of sexual abuse of minors. Scicluna praised the four-day meeting with heads of bishops’ conferences, Eastern Catholic Churches, and religious communities, saying that while the Church has acknowledged for decades the seriousness of the crime of abuse of minors by clergy, this was the first time he had seen an equally clear acknowledgment of the gravity of cover-up." • The Catholic News Agency also reported on the Pope's closing speech to the conference attendees. Pope Francis Saturday led the 190 presidents of the world’s bishops’ conferences in a penitential liturgy and examination of conscience on their failures in handling abuse within the Catholic Church : “For three days we have spoken to each other and listened to voices of victim survivors about the crimes that children and young people have suffered in our Church. We have asked each other : how can we act responsibly and what steps do we now need to take? But so that we can go into the future with new courage, we must say, like the prodigal son : ‘Father, I have sinned.’....We need to examine where concrete actions are needed for the local Churches, for the members of our Episcopal Conferences, for ourselves. This will require that we look honestly at the situation in our countries and our own actions.” • Following the Pope's words, a lector read a series of questions, punctuated by intervals of reflection, for an examination of conscience. Among them were the questions : “In the Church of my country, how have we dealt with bishops, priests, deacons and religious accused of sexual assault? What abuses have been committed against children and young people by clergy and others in the Church of my country?” They were also asked to reflect on what “I know about the people in my diocese who have been abused and violated by priests, deacons and religious.” The bishops were asked to examine their consciences regarding the response of the Church in their country and how they have treated those who have been abused. “How did we deal with those whose crimes were established? What have I personally done to prevent injustice and establish justice? What have I failed to do?” they were asked. The final questions looked to the future : “What steps have we taken in my country to prevent new injustice? Did we work to be consistent in our actions? Were we consistent? In my diocese, have I done what is possible to bring justice and healing to victims and those who suffer with them? Have I neglected what is important?” • Following the examination of conscience, the bishops and other religious leaders made a “confession of faults,” praying : “Lord Jesus Christ, we confess that we are sinful human beings.” • The bishops also listened to the Parable of the Prodigal Son and a homily given by Archbishop Philip Naameh of Tamale, the president of the Ghana bishops’ conference. In his homily, Archbishop Naameh noted that it is “almost taken for granted” for bishops and religious to preach to sinners on the Parable of the Prodigal Son but forget to apply the Scripture to themselves. “Just like the prodigal son in the Gospel, we have also demanded our inheritance, got it, and now we are busy squandering it,” he said. “The current abuse crisis is an expression of this. Too often we have kept quiet, looked the other way, avoided conflicts,” the bishop said. “We have thereby squandered the trust placed in us -- especially with regard to abuse within the area of responsibility of the Church, which is primarily our responsibility. We have not afforded people the protection they are entitled to, have destroyed hopes, and people were massively violated in both body and soul....No one can exempt themselves, nobody can say : but I have personally not done anything wrong, he stated. “We are a brotherhood, we bear responsibility not only for ourselves, but also for every other member of our brotherhood. What must we do differently, and where should we start? Let us look again at the prodigal son in the Gospel. For him, the situation starts to take a turn for the better when he decides to be very humble, to perform very simple tasks, and not to demand any privileges. His situation changes as he recognizes himself, and admits to having made a mistake, confesses this to his father, speaks openly about it and is ready to accept the consequences,” he said. • Archbishop Naameh ended with strong words : “There is a long road ahead of us,” he concluded, saying that just as the prodigal son had to do, the bishops must “win over our brothers and sisters in the congregations and communities, regain their trust, and re-establish their willingness to cooperate with us, to contribute to establishing the kingdom of God.” • • • DEAR READERS, the examination of conscience -- the admission of errors and faults and sins -- weighs heavily on the Catholic Church at this moment. It also weighs heavily on America. Protestant and Catholic churches need to speak out about abortion up to delivery. They need to open the dialogue with their congregations and with their church leadership. American women need to examine their consciences -- do they really need to have the right to abortion up to, and even beyond, delivery? Do they, at least after adolescence, need abortion at all, considering the availability of preventive measures and morning-after pills. Has America abandoned the ethical considerations of teaching teenagers responsibility for the ease of abortion on demand? These are political, as well as ethical, questions because they will partly shape the electoral debate in 2020. • Lloyd Marcus wrote on Monday in his American Thinker article : "Folks, something has gone terribly wrong in the hearts and minds of Democrat politicians. Similar to a school playground bully, leftists will continue stickin' it to us as long as we allow them to get away with it. We must ask God for his wisdom and strength; stand up and push back in a Godly and legal manner." • On Sunday, Pope Francis said of the sexual abuse crisis : “We need to recognize with humility and courage that we stand face to face with the mystery of evil, which strikes most violently against the most vulnerable, for they are an image of Jesus. For this reason, the Church has now become increasingly aware of the need not only to curb the gravest cases of abuse by disciplinary measures and civil and canonical processes, but also to decisively confront the phenomenon both inside and outside the Church.” • That same "mystery of evil, which strikes most violently against the most vulnerable, for they are an image of Jesus" applies equally to abortion's victims -- both the unborn or just-born child and the fragile and traumatized mother. • Again Pope Francis on Sunday : “In people’s justified anger, the Church sees the reflection of the wrath of God, betrayed and insulted by these deceitful consecrated persons. The echo of the silent cry of the little ones who, instead of finding in them fathers and spiritual guides, encountered tormentors, will shake hearts dulled by hypocrisy and by power. It is our duty to pay close heed to this silent, choked cry.” • Who is speaking on behalf of the "choked cry" of the unborn but living aborted children? • Pope Francis made “a heartfelt appeal for an all-out battle against the abuse of minors both sexually and in other areas, on the part of all authorities and individuals, for we are dealing with abominable crimes that must be erased from the face of the earth.” The Pope reflected on the Gospel’s emphasis on mercy. He stressed that “if our hearts are open to mercy...we proclaim before the world that it is possible to overcome evil with good.” • LATE BREAKING NEWS TELLS US that the times really are a'changing. The latest Marist Poll has found that Americans are equally likely to identify as pro-life as pro-choice, a double-digit shift from just last month, the leftist Axios reports. Marist, in a poll commissioned by the Catholic group the Knights of Columbus, asked respondents about their views on abortion and compared the results to a similar poll from last month. The February poll shows 47% pro-choice, 47% pro-life. In January, the Marist poll showed 55% pro-choice and 38% pro-life. The latest Marist poll also found that most Americans -- 80% -- think abortion should be restricted to the first three months of a pregnancy.Both New York and Virginia have passed measures on abortion in recent weeks, primarily concerning late-term abortion, which Marist Poll director Barbara Carvalho credits with changing Americans’ attitudes on abortion : “The recent legal changes to late-term abortion and the debate which followed have not gone unnoticed by the general public. Current proposals that promote late-term abortion have reset the landscape and language on abortion in a pronounced -- and very measurable -- way.” The most significant shift, according to Carvalho, was found among young Democrats. In the February Marist poll, 34% of Dems under 45 identify as pro-life, 61% as pro-choice. In January, the numbers were 20% identified as pro-life and 75% as pro-choice. Carvalho told Axios : "This has been a measure that has been so stable over time. To see that kind of change was surprising. And the increased discussion [of late-term abortion] in the public forum in the past month appears to have made the biggest difference in how people identify on the issue." The Marist survey has a margin of error of 3.5% • The old slogan "Save the Children" is before us today on two fronts. Will we rise to the challenge, reject the infanticide-as-abortion laws being passed by radical ProgDems, and save the children entrusted to us by God?