#volume1issue3

Feb 13, 2014
2 min

Hypocrisy on Human Life: Pro-lifers & The Death Penalty

Wendy Davis, a confirmed supporter of late-term abortion, has come in for severe criticism from Texas Republicans, who argue that late-term abortion presents a menace to women and the unborn. The measure, stipulating that doctors performing abortions have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals, is being hotly debated by the Supreme Court. This measure calls into question Texas Republicans’ self-proclaimed benevolent humanism, which is unmistakably redolent of hypocrisy. T

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Mar 30, 2012
3 min

"October Baby" Fails to Deliver

BY AIMEE BEDOY As an avid pro-life activist, I really wanted to love this film. I looked forward to it for months and months, and the preview actually looked decent. Upon sitting down for a pre-screening at the Students for Life of America Conference this year, I was so ecstatic to get the chance to go back to my friends and sing its praises. But within the first five minutes, my hopes for a truly good-quality film that I could take back to my friends were dashed. It is a

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Mar 30, 2012
5 min

Make it History: Life Society at National University of Ireland, Galway

BY EVELYN FENNELLY Ireland remains one of the only countries in the world without abortion, embryonic stem cell research, or the death penalty. Its armed forces are neutral in wartime, and are only ever sent on peacekeeping missions. Pro-life student groups at Ireland's colleges and universities have a vital role to play in educating the next generation of Irishmen and Irishwomen about the importance of maintaining the country's pro-life ethos. Life Society at the National

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Mar 30, 2012
2 min

"Love" Speaks Volumes

BY ANTHONY BEDOY Angels and Airwaves is a band not largely appreciated by the general public, mostly due to the whiny voice and poppy feeling to their music. Whatever one feels regarding such types of music is largely irrelevant to the powerful message conveyed in their first full-length film, Love. This independent film, released in 2011, won awards at countless film festivals and shocked and awed viewers with scenes of colors, lights, and sounds unlike any other. As an i

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Mar 30, 2012
10 min

The Noise That Won't Go Away: A True Life Story

BY NATHAN WILL SHEETS Photo by Ben Husmann; some rights reserved. The noise is what I remember the most. The noise itself was not deafening in a literal sense; however, my mind remembers it as such. When I have flashbacks, it is the thought of the noise that triggers me first, putting me into a state of anxiety or apprehension. Music is constantly flooding my mind: a song from this musical, or a classical piece by that person or even something that I have made up; I typi

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Mar 30, 2012
3 min

Race, Abortion, and the Military: A Tragic Parallel

BY JULIA SMUCKER As explosive a combination of topics as the subject of this article appears to be, I am aiming here to address a systemic problem in a way that can hopefully cut through the usual polemics. The particular problem I am referring to is the disproportionately large representation of racial minorities in both abortion rates and military recruitment in the United States. I am using this problem as both a concrete example of how life issues interpenetrate and a j

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Mar 30, 2012
3 min

Justice for Trayvon Martin and His Parents

BY JEN ROTH Most of the talk of reproductive rights in mainstream politics and media in the United States revolves around not bearing children. Family planning advocates, ourselves included, argue for sex education and access to contraception to prevent unintended pregnancy. Pro-choice advocates argue for a right not to bear children who have been conceived. What is too often neglected in the mainstream discourse is the right to have children, and to raise them safely and w

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Mar 30, 2012
1 min

Both Utmost Sanctuary

BY MARY KRANE DERR for the Consistent Life 25th Anniversary Conference Never mind and never heart the prearranged war that splits and splits the literal cord of one lifebody from the quite familial other & smaller one. Instead, why not negate either into an insensate clump of merest cells, why not create both utmost sanctuary: the woman-with-child, the child-with-woman, who subsist not singly but doubly human, whose joint faces call, the invisible smaller nested wi

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Mar 30, 2012
13 min

The Lives and Times of Marjorie Walker: A Short Story

BY SARAH TERZO It was a dull, gray morning when Marjorie Walker drove into the parking lot of North Ridge Women's Center and parked her car. She saw that the clinic manager was already there, her red BMW parked in the employee section of the parking lot. The sky was overcast, and it was cold, and she felt a little bit thankful for that, because it meant that fewer protesters would show up at the clinic. They had their regulars, most of whom stayed pretty quiet, only holding

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Mar 30, 2012
4 min

On Date Rape: Responding To and Decreasing Sexual Violence in Our Communities

BY MARY STROKA There's a problem that plagues many campuses across the nation and around the globe. It's not an issue of low-quality food in the cafeteria, but something much more serious: violence -- specifically date rape. Statistical information about rape is unreliable, partly because of the sensitive nature of the issue, but the prevalence of rape is certainly a problem, even if it is not as high as statistics suggest. The National Center for Victims of Crime states o

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Mar 30, 2012
5 min

Susan B. Anthony was Slut-Shamed, Too!

BY MARY KRANE DERR Have you ever been slut-shamed -- that is, cast as a sexually disordered, out-of-control woman? Take heart. You are in excellent company. Name any independent, outspoken woman from history, and you can probably find feverish, unreality-based, perverted fulminations against her sexual character. Even the nineteenth-century suffragist leader Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906), a seventh-generation Quaker and confirmed temperance advocate whom no one ever knew t

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Mar 30, 2012
2 min

Grave Concerns.

BY LISA GROVES Sixty-seven days ago I discovered the utility of making major life decisions in a cemetery. Ripe ground for an epiphany, indeed. Surrounded by people crammed into little boxes, I rapped on the walls of my own. Itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny little boxes housing all I hold dear - my empire - lined up neatly like the soup cans in my grandma's pantry. Until sixty-seven days ago, that is. I suppose it doesn't much matter what particular transaction drove me to seek clarit

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Mar 30, 2012
4 min

Not Another War Based on Suspicion

BY NICHOLAS NEAL Before I make the case for why we should not attack Iran, I would at first like to apologize. When I was in high school, I, like many conservative Christians, had supported the Iraq war. Like many Christians I had fused my religion with neoconservative ideology thus blinding myself to the evils of war with "patriotic" rhetoric, and a messianic faith in the American state. When I went to college I had delved deeper into the pro-life philosophy and discovere

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Mar 30, 2012
3 min

Polar-ized Language: A True Life Story

BY CAROL CROSSED Here is a conversation I had with a tourist guide in the country of Greenland. I went to the Arctic Circle for some R & R and to learn about polar explorations. I fell in love with a pair of child's sealskin slippers. I was poised to buy them. "You are from the United States, no?" she asked in her nicest ever tourist voice. "It is one country you cannot bring in the skin of the seal." Seeing my confused look, she explained, "It is how you say, a populist l

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Mar 30, 2012
4 min

Pragmatism vs. Idealism

BY AIMEE BEDOY Photo by Krystal T; some rights reserved. As you may know from reading my Letter from the Editor, I attended the Consistent Life conference at the beginning of March. It was a good, fruitful experience and I can gladly say that I learned a lot and felt bolstered by much of the weekend. I heard one idea there after my presentation on youth and the consistent life ethic that struck a chord within me and helped me to come to terms with some criticisms I had rece

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Sep 13, 2011
6 min

What is the Consistent Life Ethic?

BY NICHOLAS NEAL We often hear partisan pundits criticize their opponents for the opponents' inconsistencies about killing people. We hear that pro-life advocates do not respect the sanctity of life in war zones. We hear that peace advocates are not so peaceful when it comes to unborn children. What is the answer to this inconsistency? The simple answer is being consistent. This ideological position is known as the consistent life ethic. The foundation for this ethic is

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Sep 13, 2011
2 min

The Rebels Storming Tripoli

BY NICHOLAS NEAL & AIMEE BEDOY On Tuesday, August 23rd, the rebel forces in Libya stormed Gadhafi's capital of Tripoli, thus declaring victory over the tyrannical leader who had once imposed unjust and inhumane purification laws against his own people. After 42 years in power as an autocratic dictator in Libya, Muammar Gadhafi has been removed from power by rebels within his own borders. Gadhafi is currently out of power and in hiding from NATO forces, but in an effort to k

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Sep 13, 2011
4 min

A Terse Nonpartisan Assessment of Our Political Prospects

BY JULIA SMUCKER It's that time of year again -- or has been, since sometime last year. The mud is flying left and right as a motley crew of politicians competes for our nation's volatile confidence. And who are they trying to appeal to? For a myriad of confounding reasons, our national political discourse has become so polemicized that most prominent candidates, as well as many commentators, seem able to do little more than preach to particular choirs within their own par

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Sep 13, 2011
2 min

The Abolition of Capital Punishment in Illinois

BY NICHOLAS NEAL The abolition of the death penalty in Illinois began when Governor George Ryan placed a moratorium on capital punishment in the state in 2000, after seeing an alarming number of death row inmates being exonerated. Eleven years later, the Illinois General Assembly passed a bill officially abolishing capital punishment in Illinois. It was then up to Pat Quinn to sign it. Now, although Governor Quinn is a Democrat, he had previously spoken in favor of capital

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Sep 13, 2011
6 min

Family Planning Freedom is Pro-Life

BY MARY KRANE DERR The right to access the full range of voluntary family planning methods is often neglected or actively undermined in the name of prolife, especially but not exclusively in the United States. Yet there are nine good reasons -- at least -- why fostering this right is essential to respect in practical deed for all human lives, already born and unborn. 1. Family planning freedom prevents millions of human deaths every year. Voluntary access to modern methods o

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