Northern Light: Nov 11, 2021

November 11, 2021

Abortion before SCOTUS Dec 1st- TCA In The News

"... Oral arguments for Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the most important abortion case to come before the Supreme Court in decades, are set for December 1^st, and the national debate over abortion has reached a fever pitch. Two members of The Catholic Association, Senior Fellow Maureen Ferguson and Policy Advisor Dr. Grazie Pozo Christie joined the debate on the national stage...."

As Catholics, we are called to stand up for the dignity of life and religious freedom as well as to defend our Church when it comes under attack. These days those attacks are unrelenting – against Catholic healthcare workers, Catholic educators, and Catholic social programs serving our neediest brothers and sisters. In many places, our most basic right to worship is threatened.

Please join the fight to restore and defend religious liberty in the United States. Your financial support will help TCA promote awareness and meet every attack on religious freedom head on. Donate Today.

LIFE

Oral arguments for Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the most important abortion case to come before the Supreme Court in decades, are set for December 1^st, and the national debate over abortion has reached a fever pitch. Two members of The Catholic Association, Senior Fellow Maureen Ferguson and Policy Advisor Dr. Grazie Pozo Christie joined the debate on the national stage.

In an article published in USA TODAY, Maureen argues that abortion is a "relic of the past" and wholly unnecessary for women to flourish in society today. Maureen cites the "mountains of evidence" which show that "women's social and economic advancement over the past decades has not been dependent upon abortion access."

"Progress requires us to update our laws to reflect what we know in our hearts to be true about the flourishing of human persons, both mother and child," she writes.

Writing for The Wall Street Journal, Grazie writes about her experience as a diagnostic radiologist and how far modern science has advanced since Roe v. Wade, allowing doctors to see the full humanity of the unborn child with exquisite detail.

"A healthy baby at 15 weeks is an active baby…kicking and arm-waving are commonly seen during ultrasound evaluations," she writes. "The fetal spine is a marvel of intricacy, and it is most often gently curved as the fetus rests against the mother's uterine wall. These are the patients I encounter daily in my work as a radiologist. Clearly human, clearly alive, no longer mysteriously hidden from the eyes and knowledge of man."

Grazie's arguments were picked up by a range of other outlets from the Washington Examiner to National Review to Real Clear Politics.

THE CHURCH

After President Biden met with Pope Francis on October 29^th, NBC News featured commentary from Senior Fellow Ashley McGuire. She argues that Biden is "a very confusing figure to American Catholics because he very much campaigned on his faith and Catholicism and at the same time is sort of openly flouting church teaching."

"Biden is openly embracing policy positions that directly contradict the church's most fundamental teachings," McGuire states. "The church doesn't have the choice, really, of staying silent."

CULTURE

Maureen responded to leaked Facebook documents revealing that the social media giant knowingly targets children in a harmful way, especially teenage girls, in an article for National Review entitled "Parents: Your Teens Don't Need a Smartphone."

Maureen highlights the difficulties parents face in trying to regulate their children's activity on mobile devices.

"Smartphones have parental controls, of course, but tech-savvy kids often find workarounds," Maureen notes. "Experts' advise limiting screen time, but the genius programmers in Silicon Valley designed these platforms to be highly addictive."

This lack of control is very worrisome because children face very real threats online.

"Today's average kid stumbles across pornography at age eleven," Ferguson points. "A recent Wall Street Journal exposé of TikTok accounts of 13- to 15-year-olds is horrifying: Feeds are dominated by endless videos of violent sexual bondage, glorification of drug use and drunk driving, and how-to-videos of eating disorders and self-harm."

Maureen offers concrete ways parents can take control of tech in their homes.