Weekend Round-Up

In a remarkable feat of Newspeak, Diana Thomas and her World Egg Bank pretend to help solve  women's infertility with the wonders of frozen eggs.  The World Egg Bank has recently expanded into the UK and is working on agreements to include Canada and Australia.  The problem is that these women are still themselves infertile.  They have taken advantage of women who are often mis-informed about the risks of egg donation, sometimes thinking it is nothing more risky than a simple medical procedure.  All for the sake of creating the illusion that they are mothers in a way adoptive mothers are not. 

And what do these children do when they find out later in life that their social dad is not their biological father?  For that story, see the newly released, Anonymous Father's Day .

This week, many activists and supporters of religious liberty were biting their fingernails until Congress did the right thing and re-authorized the USCIRF.  The 11th-hour reprieve, however, shows that neither the Democratic leadership in the Senate or President Obama are entirely serious about supporting the work of the Commission (it had been set to pass by unanimous consent until it was held up by the 2nd highest ranking Senate Democrat, Dick Durbin of IL).  Add to this the State Department's new directive to elevate LGBT rights as a foreign policy priority, it will increasingly fall to NGOs and citizens to keep the spotlight on religious persecution around the world.

Here the work of Open Doors becomes even more important. On January 4, 2012 they will release their annual Watch List in which countries are ranked according to the intensity of persecution within their borders. North Korea, the often forgotten closed and brutally repressive regime, has topped the list for the last ten years.  Iran and Afghanistan are near the top as well.  In the past year, there have been 300 confirmed martyrs in Nigeria alone.  The figures for North Korea are likely worse but are not known with any accuracy because of the tight restrictions on information flowing in and out of the country. 

International Justice Mission has a number of job openings.

Alex Perottet at Crisis Magazine talks Nunsense about the Pill.  Well, he doesn't write nonsense.  Instead he illustrates the false claims being made in an effort to make birth control truly universal.

The Heritage Foundation has a nifty resource for candidates in its Candidate's Briefing Book.  It covers a wide range of topics with suggestions for policy initiatives and resources for additional information.  One glaring omission, however, is the issue of abortion.  With a presidential contest where Republican candidates are seeking to oust the most actively pro-abortion President in history, a glance through the sections on "Family & Religion"' and "Healthcare" plus a search using two different page formats turned up not one single mention of abortion.  With that noted, it looks to be an excellent resource for both candidates and voters.

With so much seriousness around us here, I want to end on a happier note.  I mentioned this gift from God in last week's round-up but included a photo of a different child with Down's syndrome.  Last week's photo was a reminder about how many babies don't survive long after prenatal testing comes back with a diagnosis of Trisomy 21.  Their lives end in abortion.  We have lost an untold number of treasures because of something that can only justly be described as the practice of eugenics.  But little Taya Kennedy was blessed with a mom who treasured her.  And now she is the darling baby supermodel taking the modeling world by storm.  In closing this week, I give you model extraordinaire, Taya: