Sunday, May 10, 2009

President Obama's Federal Budget: No funding for abstinence

"In Obama's FY 2010 Proposed Budget, the president calls for at least $164 million in funding for contraceptive-only education. The money includes competitive grants, research, evaluation and authorization for $50 million in new mandatory condom grants to states, tribes and territories." - From the LifeNews article.

President Obama's Federal Budget does not respect the primacy of parental responsibility in educating children, a primacy which is emphasized in the Church's teaching and law. Vatican II teaches us that, in raising children, the responsibility of parents is primary: "Since parents have given life to their children, they have a very grave duty to educate them, and so are to be recognized as their primary and principal educators" (GE, No. 3). And Pope John Paul II, explaining the conciliar teaching more fully in Familiaris consortio, No. 36, says that: "The right and duty of parents to give education is essential, since it is connected with the transmission of human life; it is original and primary with regard to the educational role of others, on account of the uniqueness of of the loving relationship between parents and children; and it is irreplaceable and inalienable, and therefore incapable of being entirely delegated to others or usurped by others." And, in No. 37 of this same document, Pope John Paul explained that education in sexuality which is offered in schools should not conflict with parental instruction: "Sex education, which is a basic right and duty of parents, must always be carried out under their attentive guidance, whether at home or in educational centres chosen and controlled by them. In this regard, the Church reaffirms the law of subsidiarity, which the school is bound to observe when it cooperates in sex education, by entering into the same spirit that animates the parents."

Canon Law is also very clear on this matter. Canon 793, 1., states that: "Parents as well as those who take their place are obliged and enjoy the right to educate their offspring; Catholic parents also have the duty and the right to select those means and institutions through which they can provide more suitably for the Catholic education of the children according to local circumstances." And Canon 1136 says that: "Parents have the most serious duty and the primary right to do all in their power to see to the physical, social, cultural, moral and religious upbringing of their children."

President Obama's Federal Budget represents an assault against parental rights and Church teaching.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

And he's being honored tomorrow at Notre Dame? Notre Dame has truly become Notre Shame.

ACatholicinClinton said...

President Obama isn't interested in the rights of Christian families. Only in promoting Planned Parenthood's anti-life agenda. The Catechism of the Catholic Church proclaims, along with Pope Paul VI, that contraception, described as every action, which, either in anticipation of the conjugal act, during its accomplishment, or in the development of its consequences, proposes either as end or means to impede procreation is "intrinsically disordered." (2370).

President Obama's agenda is anti-life and anti-Catholic.

Fred said...

I'm in my fifties. And I never thought I would live to see so many Catholics voting for a pro-killing Democrat who is also supportive of the homosexual agenda. I voted Democrat until the early 70s. It was then that I became a Republican. But to think of so many members of the Mystical Body of Christ apostasizing and caring more for their wallets than for what is morally right sends a chill down my spine.

Ted Loiseau said...

Besides being immoral, contraception is dangerous and puts people at risk. Human Life International has an excellent expose here:
http://www.hli.org/condoms.html

Warning: the contents of this expose may be a bit graphic.

Anonymous said...

Jill Stanek opines on the May 13th WorldNetDaily (http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=97942) that Obama's anti-life policies may be backfiring in terms of public opinion towrds those policies:

Pro-life Obamanation?

The terms "pro-life" and "Obamanation" would seem incompatible.

But there may be an emerging phenomenon. While President Obama continues to enjoy popular support, his anti-life agenda is enjoying less popularity the more he tries to advance it.

The first sign was public reaction to Obama's overturning of the Mexico City policy, which reinstated taxpayer funding to international abortion groups. This garnered Obama a 65 percent disapproval rating, according to Gallup, making it the least popular of his first seven decisions as president.

In late February, Obama nominated ardently pro-abortion Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as health and human services secretary. This sparked a boisterous public fight centered mostly on the topic of late-term abortions, which the public dislikes, since Sebelius was closely allied with the most infamous late-term abortionist of them all, George Tiller.

Obama pressed on with his anti-life agenda, signing an executive order in March authorizing taxpayer funding of human embryo experimentation. While Gallup showed Americans approved of this 52 percent to 41 percent, support had narrowed considerably since mid-2007, when Gallup polled it at 60 percent to 36 percent. A March Pew poll similarly showed support had "fallen below the 50-percent level for the first time since 2004 and constituted a slight decline in support since 2007," wrote the New York Times.

Also in March Obama signaled his intention to rescind President Bush's executive order enforcing protections of health care worker and entities' conscience rights, instigating another public fight against pro-lifers and violating the sensibilities of common-sense Americans.

Meanwhile, multiple pro-life organizations and the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops launched drives protesting Obama's campaign pledge to sign the Freedom of Choice Act into law "first thing" when president.

FOCA, groups reminded the public, would overturn laws like parental involvement before minor abortions, which they like, and allow partial birth abortion back into abortion clinics, which they think is gross. The drive succeeded in making FOCA radioactive, causing Obama to back away from it in a press conference only two weeks ago.

In April Politico.com reported a surge in pro-life activism:

Obama's first 84 days in office have been like an extended recruiting drive for the anti-abortion movement, reinvigorating a constituency he sought to neutralize during the campaign. Activists report a noticeable spike in activity as Obama moves to defend and expand a woman's right to choose an abortion – causing anti-abortion voters to mobilize in ways never needed during the Bush administration.
Then an April 30 Pew poll showed the biggest drop in abortion support in 15 years, mostly from abortion-leaning independents – all within the last eight months. According to Pew, the field is now almost level, with 46 percent of the public supporting most or all abortions and 44 percent supporting limited or no abortions.

This was consistent with a CNN poll conducted April 23-26, which also showed a drop during the same eight months of Americans calling themselves "pro-choice" from 53 percent to 49 percent, less than a majority.

Obama may be winning abortion battles, but a casualty is loss of public support in the abortion war.

Translation: Obama is making abortion unpopular.

If this keeps up, an interesting oxymoron may be that our most recent pro-life president made no noticeable impact on public opinion on abortion while our current pro-abortion president has by his offensive actions helped persuade public opinion toward the sanctity of life.

Here's a picture within a picture, by the Associated Press, detailing the impact of the fight in Kansas over Sebelius:

… Tiller's clinic … mak[es] abortion a perennial political and legislative issue in Kansas … said Gov. Mark Parkinson, who replaced Sebelius. … "People have made abortion a central part of school board races. They've made it the central part of city council races."
It could well be that Obama's continuous push for his radical abortion agenda, resulting in round-the-clock public debate about abortion, is having a similar impact nationally.

We need only look so far as the other side's code word, "pro-choice," to know it doesn't like the A-word. When we discuss and show abortion, we win.

If it is true, as liberals, the press and pollsters consistently maintain, that the public doesn't care about skirmishes on Obama's policy and staff picks, then the public must be integrating and accepting our message subliminally. This is fine.

So pro-lifers, don't listen to the pundits. Keep pressing the message, this weekend at Notre Dame and then with the battle over Obama's Supreme Court nominee.

The pro-life message is apparently getting through to the Obamanation.

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