Chelsea Zimmerman is the editor-in-chief for Catholic Lane. She often writes and speaks about life issues and Catholic spirituality. She has been featured on EWTN's Life on the Rock. Her website is Reflections of a Paralytic.
Today is World Down Syndrome Day, a day to celebrate the lives of those who have an extra 21st chromosome. It’s also a reminder that we should love and value all people with disabilities. Speaking of which, a couple of my fellow contributors over at the Ignitum Today blog have been asking for lots of prayers […]
Because of her opposition to third party reproduction, the Catholic Church is often accused of being anti-science and insensitive to those who suffer the pain of infertility. Last year’s CNN Belief Blog op-ed from Sean Savage calling on the Catholic Church to reverse her opposition to IVF is a good example of the anger that […]
In his book As I Lay Dying, Fr. Richard John Neuhaus writes about being sick and near death in the hospital: “The very sick can look simply awful. Although they politely tried to hide it, I saw the recoil on the faces of visitors. A young parishioner arrived unannounced and, before I knew what she was […]
For years, several Susan G. Komen for the Cure affiliates have given Planned Parenthood over half a million dollars in grants every year. Last year that amount was roughly $680,000 and $580,000 the year before. Now, the Nation’s largest breast cancer awareness organization says it will officially end its financial support for the Nation’s largest […]
Today, hundreds of thousands of pro-life people gathered in Washington D.C. for the annual March for Life, commemorating the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that struck down existing state laws protecting unborn children. For those who have been on the March or seen footage of it on EWTN (you can hardly […]
In 2009 two researchers filed a lawsuit claiming that new National Institutes of Health (NIH) guidelines easing restrictions on human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research are a violation the Dicky-Wicker Amendment, a budgetary amendment prohibiting federal tax dollars from being used to create or destroy human embryos for scientific research. In August 2010, district court […]
Plan B (also known as the morning-after pill) was approved by the FDA at the end of the Clinton administration in 1999. Since 2009, it has been available behind the pharmacy counter without prescription for women 17 years of age and older. This week, the FDA considered a request from Plan B manufacturer Teva Pharmaceuticals […]
Yesterday the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held a two-hour hearing investigating whether the Obama administration denied grant money to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops because of its religious objections to abortion. Under the Bush administration, the bishops received a five-year $19 million grant to help victims of human trafficking. The grant was first […]
For years, the Geron Corporation has been touting its embryonic stem cell program as the future of regenerative medicine. Just last year, it became the first company to begin human trials on a treatment derived from embryonic stem cells. This Monday, however, citing financial constraints as the primary reason, Geron announced that it has terminated these […]
On Nov. 12 at the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace, Pope Benedict XVI addressed participants of the Nov. 9-11 international conference Adult Stem Cells: Science and the Future of Man and Culture. The Holy Father opened his remarks with praise for the various institutions exploring and promoting research on adult stem cells. Adult stem cells hold great […]
Don’t ever let anyone tell you that the Catholic Church is “anti-science” or against stem cell research. Actually, she is very much in favor of stem cell research, so long as tiny human beings are not created, used and destroyed in the process, and now she’s putting her money where her mouth is with regard […]
I think it’s pretty fair to say that the whole IVF/artificial insemination social experiment has been a process of putting the desires of adults over the best interest of children. Latest case in point: recently, the New York Times reported that the grossly under-regulated and greedy U.S. fertility industry has been allowing dozens of different […]
Not too long ago I came across a news piece on the mission of Barbara Harris, a woman who started a group called Project Prevention which offers $300 cash to drug addicts if they agree to get on “long term” birth control. According to their most recent statistics, they have paid 3,848 addicts, with tubal […]
