McHenry County Blog

Saturday night in Spring Grove, a banquet was held to raise money to buy an ultrasound machine for 1st Way Pregnancy Support Services.

In the fight against abortion, ultrasound images of unborn babies have been found to be the most persuasive tool.

A speaker pointed out that 80-85% of mothers decide to carry their babies to term after seeing its ultrasound image.

Even more astounding is the claim that 99% of men will encourage their mates to have their baby after seeing such an image.

And the machine’s importance was emphasized on the front page of the Chicago Tribune today.

In the Elgin area, an ultrasound machine has been installed in a bus by now-retired Dr. Ronald Winters.

A component of Elgin’s Life Center, the bus is parked, with permission, near Larkin High School at the Evangelical Covenant Church and J.B.’s Pub 7 Pietro’s Pasta.

Now the city has enacted a zoning ordinance which prohibits the weekly efforts.

The Pro-life organization has sued in Federal Court, claiming violation of of First Amendment free speech and religious rights.

Councilwoman Anna Moeller seems to be most disturbed with the anti-abortion efforts.

But back to Spring Grove.

The “full cost” of the Samsung machine is $75,000 that First Way wants to put in its office in Johnsburg near and south of Angelo’s Grocery.

This is an openly Christian outreach organization.

As originator and Executive Director Connie Freund said, “I couldn’t have done this without God, without Jesus in my life.”

There are 67 people who volunteer their time in the organization that was founded in 1973, the year Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton (the “health of the mother,” very loosely defined, case) was handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Speaker for the evening was Jill Stanek.

Stanek is the nurse who blew the whistle on Christ Hospital’s practice of allowing unsuccessfully aborted babies to die without offering medical care.  The instance that set her on her over decade-long mission was one in which a baby was left to die in a janitor’s closet.  She held the tiny infant for the forty-five minutes it took to die.

Part of her presentation was an interview with Bill O’Reilly that twice left O’Reilly speechless.  (It was one of five interviews used that year in the end-of-year wrap-up of the show.)

At the end of the interview, O’Reilly tells the names of the people who voted against the Federal statute that required hospitals to provide medical care.

Included in the short, under ten in number list was Jesse Jackson, Jr.

“I haven’t watched that video since Jesse Jackson was indicted,” Stanek observed.

“All I can say is ‘What goes around comes around.’”

Stanek described abortion as “the most despicable moral atrocity of our generation.”

She lamented the one billion abortions, “one-seventh of the world’s population,” adding, “No one who waits for God will ever be put to shame.”

And although Stanek cautioned those present at The Shores of Turtle Creek banquet hall not to depend on politicians, she did observe, “While the other side continues to abort their babies, [ours]continue to be born.”

She suggested Pro-Lifers could “win the war by attrition.”

Making part of the pitch for donations at the event, whose entire cost had already been covered by sponsors, Stanek pointed out, “We are the hands and feet…and pocketbooks” of Jesus.

She urged people attending not to leave thinking, “I missed my chance.”

The dinner was underwritten by

• Pat Griffin
• Luster Leaf Products
• Right to Life McHenry County Education Fund
• Bert and Joan Schommer
• Sports Decals, Inc.
• TW Machine Service – Tom Wiznerowicz

Table sponsors included

• David F. Bengston
• Berger Excavating
• Len and JoAnn Charlan
• Merle and Connie Freund
• ITW Foundation – Rich and Sue Podloski
• James and Kathleen Morrow
• Irene Napier
• Patriots United – Joe Edwards
• Patriots United – Brian Kelly
• Rabine Group Foundation – Gary and Cheryl Rabine
• Greg Steil
• Russell R. Steil
• In hone of Alice and Jerry Sullivan
• Joahn Vickery

$41,000 was raised.

A communication concerning a new service being offered by the Tri-County Pregnancy & Parenting Center (with offices in Crystal Lake behind the main McDonald’s on Route 14):

Announcing FREE ULTRASOUND

Tri-County Pregnancy & Parenting Services is announcing that their new state of the art Ultrasound Machines are on the way – and they are currently looking for ultrasound models.

If you are pregnant and in your 1st or early 2nd trimester please contact them for an appointment at one of the following locations:

• 610-1 Crystal Point Dr., Crystal Lake, IL. 60014 – 815 455-0965
• 888 E. Belvidere, Unit 124, Grayslake, IL. 60030 – 847-231-4651

Visit them at: www.informedchoices.org and www.tricountypps.org

Tri-County’s nurses have just completed their classroom Ultrasound training and will continue in mid-April with hands on scan training.

This will require volunteers to be scan models. The models will receive a free ultrasound and a picture of their baby.

They are currently taking names and phone numbers of interested women at 847-231-4651 in the Grayslake location.

If you are in your 1st trimester or early 2nd trimester, give them a call for your free ultrasound.

Though ultrasounds before abortion are routine in some abortion clinics – “The women are never allowed to look at the ultrasound image because we knew that if they so much as heard the heartbeat, they wouldn’t want to have an abortion,” states Catherine Anthony Adair, former Planned Parenthood worker.,

Ms. Adair further reported, “We never discussed fetal development. The baby was referred to as the ‘contents of the uterus’, ‘a clump of cells’, etc. ”

Jewels Green, another former clinic worker verified the use of this terminology, and emphasized that “the word baby was never used.”

Ultrasounds cut through all this evasive rhetoric – and simply show the reality of the unborn baby.

A picture’s worth a thousand words it is said – and in the case of ultrasound technology, these words certainly come to life.

Up to 78% of women who see an ultrasound image of their baby, choose not to have an abortion!

The intention in allowing women to view an image of their unborn baby through an ultrasound image, is not meant to ‘force’ the woman to change her mind – but rather to present her with all her options so she can make a truly well-informed choice. After all – if the pro-choice crowd is truly interested in a woman’s “right to choose” – you can’t make a choice without options.

The fact that pro-choice advocates are so vehemently against revealing other options to the woman belies their words and the hypocrisy of their concern over supposedly allowing women to “choose for themselves.”

Pro-choice advocates have another reason to fear ultrasounds, as the image of the baby on an ultrasound can disturb clinic staff as well.

This was especially true in the case of former Planned Parenthood Director Abbey Johnson; who, while assisting the doctor in an ultrasound guided abortion one particular day, witnessed a perfectly formed little 13 week old infant desperately dodging the abortion probe, and in the next instant being horrifically crumpled up and sucked through the suction tube.

Today, Abbey is an avid pro-life activist. Abbey’s is an amazing story of the power of the Ultrasound.

Contact Tri-County Pregnancy & Parenting Services to have your free ultrasound and receive a photo of your baby!

A letter from Cardinal George:

December 28, 2012Feast of the Holy Innocents

Dear Father:

A twinkling star millions of miles distant provides light in a darkened sky, viewed by all – even over centuries. The star of Bethlehem enlightens our darkened world; a world embedded with a continual tendency toward violence, especially among our most vulnerable – the child in the womb, children in classrooms, and children on our streets. Our original grace in Eden was likeness to God albeit with vulnerability: They were naked and felt no shame (Gen 2.28); the original sin was thinking how we could become like God, and so hide or deny our God-given need for Him.

A sad anniversary is upon us – the 40th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decisions Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton that were handed down on January 22, 1973.

From then to now, unique, living, human, and vulnerable life became expendable, unprotected by civil law.

This ‘choice’ to nurture life or to cut it short remains an abhorrent option. This anniversary provides us an opportunity to reform individual conscience.

Take up this challenge.

Vulnerable lives need our voices, our passion, and our truth-saying as spoken by the prophet Isaiah: You are precious in my eyes and I love you. (Is 43.4)

Our faith holds conception and birth in the highest esteem:

• the Annunciation (March 25) and the Nativity of our Lord (December 25);
• the Immaculate Conception (December 8) and the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary (September 8);
• the Birth of John the Baptist (June 24).

We are convinced that a child from the moment of conception is made in the image and likeness of God.

We cannot tire of presenting the fact that human life begins at conception.

At this time, the deepest relationships begin: parent and child; child and Creator; this child in communion with all humanity.

As Pope Benedict XVI wisely counseled the world and some new ambassadors on June 10, 2011, we need an ecology of the human person.

We need to foster a culture of receiving the sacred and unique person in the womb when first announced as present among us.

We need to encourage our families to become strong; families are the fabric of society and Church.

We need to continue to shape public conversations about a culture friendly to family and new life.

To help you to observe this anniversary, you will soon receive a separate mailing from our Respect Life Office containing a variety of resources for bulletins, homilies and agencies that can be of service to your parishioners. This season of birth, family, and light invites us to renewed compassion and commitment. Thank you for your dedication to your people, especially the vulnerable. You are in my daily prayers; please keep me in yours.

Fraternally yours in Christ,

Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I.
Archbishop of Chicago

Forty years ago Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton were handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Doe v. Bolton is the decision, little noticed at the time, that allows an abortion for the health of the mother. The term “health” is defined every so broadly.

After the deluge of publicity about how “extreme” Congressman Joe Walsh is on the abortion issue went unanswered, my frustration level grew so much that I posted the following on Capitol Fax Blog:

Cal Skinner – Monday, Oct 15, 12 @ 10:33 am:

Picture a bold Pro-Lifer’s response.

Run a video of a baby developing.

Say, “Not all of us are going to agree when this becomes a baby, but all of us are going to agree there is a baby before the baby is born.

“Tammy Duckworth believes that mothers should be able to abort their babies up until the day they are born.

“Now, that’s extreme.”

Run text along the bottom quoting what Duckworth’s told the Tribune: “Duckworth said she does not ’support any restrictions on a woman’s right to chose or her access to safe, affordable reproductive health services.”

Now, it would take a bold Pro-Life candidate to follow this advice and there have been none sighted in Illinois.

Something like this run against Pat Quinn during the last days of the campaign would have elected Bill Brady, I believe.

Dave McSweeney went in this direction in a mailing that got delivered on Saturday that can be seen here:

http://mchenrycountyblog.com/2012/10/14/mcsweeney-responds-to-beaubien-pounding-on-abortion-issue/

Also related to abortion, a Catholic Church in Crystal Lake went all in on Obama last weekend:

http://mchenrycountyblog.com/2012/10/15/crystal-lakes-st-thomas-parishioners-get-handout-like-none-they-have-ever-seen/

Below you will see the pro-abortion Personal PAC five-page questionnaire for legislative candidates. Personal PAC requires answers that agree with its positions in order to get an endorsement.

Take a read and see if you conclude that a Personal PAC-endorsed candidate has an “extreme” position on abortion.  Click on any page to enlarge it.

Some of the letter writers in the Chicago Tribune provide rebuttals to the attacks on Joe Walsh:

A press release from Congressman Joe Walsh:

8th District Women to Duckworth: Enough on Abortion – Talk about Jobs

Today, pro-choice and pro-life women came together with Congressman Joe Walsh to call on Tammy Duckworth to stop discussing abortion and focus on the issues that matter to them today:

• jobs,
• the economy and
• the national debt.

The women were both pro-choice and pro-life and were business owners, community leaders and mothers from the 8th district.

Congressman Walsh began, “These women with me today, women not from California, but from within this 8th district – moms, business owners, grandmothers, community leaders, pro-choice and pro-life have all come together to ask a simple request of Ms. Duckworth: would you please have enough respect for women to speak to the issues that matter this year to women and their families?”

Business owner Marina Collazo followed,

“I’m pro-choice. I’m trying to build my business. I know where I stand on abortion. Talk to me like a real woman. I care about more things than abortion.”

Peggy Thotos, another 8th district business owner, added,

“Quite frankly, I’m offended that Tammy Duckworth feels that women’s main issue this election is abortion – I’m just offended by it. We’ve got so many people out there looking for work, worried about losing their homes and putting food on the table. Yet, she’s talking about abortion. It’d be nice to really see her focus on what’s important this election.”

Barrington-area 6th District Democratic Party challenger Leslie Coolidge has mailed her first piece I’ve seen in her campaign against incumbent Republican Congressman Peter Roskam.

You can see she attacks Roskam on his Pro-Life views on the address side:

Here’s the introduction side of the mailing:

The pro-abortion Personal PAC launched its second mailing on behalf of Dee Baubien (Ind.-Madigan) in her race against Republican David McSweeney. It arrived on the last workday of the third week of October.

It features former George Ryan Lt. Gov. Corrine Wood (not implicated in any of Ryan’s misdeeds), along with candidate Beaubien. It has a lot of panels, which you can see below:

Here’s the back of the piece as it arrived in mailboxes:

Inside is a foldout,

The second in the feature pair in this mailing comes next.

Text appears on the next panel.

The piece has two more panels that are meant to be read together. You see them chopped up below here, so put them together in your mind.

And, the final part of the mailing has a large photo of Corrine Woods.

While Beaubien’s campaign was going after abortion, McSweeney’s was warning of the real estate tax hike that Mike Madigan wants to impose upon all parts of Illinois outside of Chicago.

On the back McSweeney links Beaubien to Madigan.

Received from Congressman Joe Walsh:

Congressman Joe Walsh made the following statement earlier regarding his Pro-Life position. Medical opinions supporting Congressman Walsh’s position can be found here. Statements made my Tammy Duckworth regarding sexual assault victims can be viewed here.

Begin Transcript

I want to clarify the comments that I made last night regarding my position on life.

I want to make it very clear that I am in fact pro-life without exception.

I believe there is nothing more sacred than human life, and it is our responsibility to do everything to protect it.

Let me very clear that when I say I am pro-life, I mean that I am pro-life for the mother and I am pro-life for the unborn child.

For me, there is no distinction between the two.

When it comes to having an abortion to save the life of a mother, I will say again that, outside of the very rare circumstances such as ectopic pregnancies, during which both the mother and baby will die if the baby is not aborted, and other rare health issues, the research is pretty clear that with the advances in modern medicine, an invasive and traumatic procedure like an abortion is not necessary to save the life of a mother.

In those very rare cases where a mother’s life may be in danger past the point of viability for the baby, today’s doctors work to induce labor or perform a caesarean section in an attempt to save BOTH lives.

These cases are extremely rare, and they unfortunately are used by the militant pro-choice movement to justify every single abortion.

This is an issue that I take very seriously.

I have a wife and two young adult daughters, so this is not a political issue for me, it is a personal issue.

While, I do not support abortion, I do of course support medical procedures for women during their pregnancies that might result in the loss of the unborn child.

When such an occurrence takes place, that decision on whether to perform that procedure is a very difficult one and one that should be left up to the mother and her family.

Once again I am strongly pro-life for both the mother and the unborn child.

That is a position I am proud to have, and I will not back off it.

I also think that is a position that most women also share.

And for Ms. Duckworth to say that I support letting a mother die is the most disgusting form of politics.

That is a desperate quote from a desperate candidate.

On abortion I am happy to contrast my position with hers.

Ms. Duckworth has an extreme pro-abortion with no restrictions stance.

She is not just pro-abortion; she is a pro-abortion zealot who actually believes that tax payers regardless of their position on abortion should fund all abortions.

To go further she even supports late term, 9 month abortions under any circumstance.

Her exact quote from last night was that she is “pro-choice without any restriction”.

Her position that there should be abortions on demand, no matter when, no matter why, and they be paid for by tax payers is a position that makes most American wince.

Let’s also not forget my opponent’s comments on sexual abuse.

When asked earlier this summer about sexual abuse in the military and her personal experience with it, My opponents response was, and I quote, that I was never sexually assaulted because I was a pretty tough chick, and not some weak 18 year old who couldn’t push back.

As a father of two daughters, I found those comments every bit as offensive as Congressman Akin’s offensive comments on rape.

Ms Duckworth’s comments could not be more offensive and yet they were not covered.

How dare Ms. Duckworth imply that women are only raped because they are too weak to fight back, and if only they were just a little tougher rape would not occur?

How dare she say that?

Not only is her position out of the mainstream, what is more troubling is how she is using this issue to try to save a desperate campaign.

In the last 2 weeks, Ms. Duckworth and her liberal SuperPAC’s have spent over $2 million dollars attacking me on abortion, yet according to the recent polls she is down in this race.

The voters of the 8th district, men AND women, care about finding a job, keeping their house, trying to pay their day to day bills, and fixing this unconscionable debt our country finds itself in, and yet Ms Duckworth can only talk about abortion.

Why is that?

Why does she want to make this campaign about abortion and not about the economic tough times all of us are going through?

Because she’s trying to scare women. Women should find this offensive.

Every poll shows that men and women care most deeply this year about jobs, the economy, and our debt and yet Ms Duckworth thinks so poorly of women that if she can simply utter the word abortion women – and only women – will forget all about the fact that they are unemployed, paying almost $4 for a gallon of gas, and struggling to stay above water on their mortgage.

Shame on Ms Duckworth but I think more highly of women and I think they’ll see through this campaign of Ms Duckworth’s to scare and distract them.

Ms Duckworth will likely spend the next 19 days talking about abortion.

I will spend the next 19 days talking about jobs, the economy, and our debt and what I intend to do to help get this country working again.

I am going to talk about the empty warehouses, and storefronts littered across the 8th district that we are standing in today.

I am going to talk about the massive unemployment and foreclosures in this district that somehow my opponent does not seem to be aware of.

Let us remember that just a few weeks ago my opponent said that the voters of the 8th district are better off today than they were 4 years so.

I don’t think we are, but I do think we should be and can be.

Finally, I find it amazing that both the local media and the national media are so fascinated that I and most Americans actually feel passionately about protecting the sanctity of life.

For some reason this is breaking news that all of you feel must be covered.

Yet, this very same media has absolutely no interest at all in covering issues regarding my opponent that voters in the 8th district actually care about.

There are major issues regarding my opponent that put into question if she has the ethics and standards to even run for Congress.

In the last 3 months we have learned that my opponent

1. Is a tax cheat who claimed multiple homestead exemptions for a number of years
2. Wasted $2.5 million of taxpayer dollars on a Hawaii Boondoggle government trip
3. That while heading up the IL VA she was Cited 12 times by the Illinois Auditor General for failing to comply with state law.
4. That she is currently being sued by two ILVA employees, two whistleblowers who had the courage to report campaign activity being done at the VA, a clear violation of state law. Ms Duckworth fired, humiliated, and threatened these employees and tried to cover up her actions.
5. And, as I said earlier Ms Duckworth thinks women are only raped because they are too weak to push back against their attacker.

Why won’t the media concern itself with these questions, yet they are obsessed with a candidate being pro-life?

This election and the times we live in right now are too important for the media to gloss over the issues that voters truly care about.

As I said earlier I am going to spend the next 19 days the exact same way I have spent my entire campaign; I am going to tour this district and speak with as many families and small businesses about the issues that matter to them, jobs, the economy, and getting government out of the way so we can get out of the mess that Ms. Duckworth and her friends got us into.

Thank you very much.

Here’s this weekend’s homework for Crystal Lake Catholics who attend St. Thomas Catholic Church on Route 176.

President Obama: An Opponent Of Catholicism?

By Msgr. Eric Barr, Vicar General & Chancellor, Diocese of Rockford

Step with me into the area of controversy and consider the provocative question of whether President Barak Obarna is an opponent of Catholicism and its values. As our government bent upwards and sideways last week to appease the darkness that is radical Islanr, apologizing and even going wobbly on the issue of free speech, I thought a bit about how the president and his govemrnent is treating Catholics and their views.

For your consideration:

First abortion rights.

Not only is the president a fierce proponent of abortion on demand, he is also for something that should horrify not only Catholics but all people of good will. Not once, not twice, but three times as an Illinois senator, Obama opposed the “Bom Alive Infant’s Protection Act,” which stated that babies born after abortions are persons and must be given care.

His opposition was a patent endorsement of infanticide – the murder of children. There has never been an abortion restriction that he has endorsed. He is not simply pro-choice; rather, he is an activist in the strongest sense, diametrically opposed to the most obvious moral stance taken by Catholicism.

Second, the humiliation of Cardinal Dolan over the health care act.

During a White House meeting between the cardinal and the president Obama promised the cardinal that he would protect churches and religions and the consciences of those in Obamacare, not forcing them to go against their beliefs in any way.

The HHS mandate forcing Catholics and others to pay for birth control abortifacients, and sterilization in their employees’ healthcare plans showed his prornise to be false and the “compromise” he suggested simply doubled down on his belief that the Constitution provides only for freedom of worship (inside church buildings) and not freedom of religion (a broader concept that allows people of faith to act publicly).

Third, his continued prevarication, i.e., lying, about freedom of religion.

Just this past Monday, the president made a video on religious liberty. The HilI reports that Obama, “made a campaign pitch to ‘people of faith’ in which he reaffirmed his ‘commitment’ to this value saying ‘The American people should know this: In a changing world, my commitment to protecting religious liberty is and always will be unwavering-’” He goes on talking about protecting people’s consciences – something he has no intention of ever doing. Meanwhile, Obamacare marches on; steamrolling Catholic morality and the First Amendment under its weight. How can that be tolerated by citizens?

These statements and attitudes by the president become even more breathtaking when weighed with the passion and determination the administration has shown trying to soothe outraged Muslims who are not even citizens of our country.

The rioting mobs around the world are kowtowed to and the precious sensibilities of their belie{s are put on the front burner even as they kill and harm others. Nothing jusfifies this peculiar and unreal stance of the president.

But these are the times we live in, when truth is sacrificed for expediency and a hostile stance – we could even call it a hatred – toward religion and Catholicism in particular grows in our country. Ifs persecution without rack and pyre, but perhaps those are coming too, if men and women of integrity, regardless of faith do not stand up for religious liberty.

September 21 , 2012, Observer Newspaper