Anti-War Marchers Dump Pro-Life Allies

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An anti-war march will be held in Pittsburgh on the first of July. Local advocacy groups are sponsoring it. But the organizers just booted one sponsor: Rehumanize International.

As Marlo Safi reported in The Pitt Maverick: “Rehumanize International said the march organizers had retracted the sponsorship after discovering they were anti-abortion.”

In January, Rehumanize International was also excluded from the Women’s March on Washington. They were known as Life Matters Journal at the time.

Executive Director Aimee Murphy says her team will attend the march anyway. I spoke with her on the phone Thursday evening.

“We as an organization embrace the consistent life ethic,” she said. This philosophy isn’t limited to the abortion issue. “We need to respect every human being’s life from conception to natural death.” That means opposing “all forms of aggression and violence,” including unjust war.

Aimee Murphy’s Consistency is Too Much for Some

Aimee Murphy is a progressive. But her “consistent life ethic” is a stumbling block to many on the Left.

“I’ve been interested in getting involved in peace organizations for a long time,” she said. But she “didn’t hear about a single anti-war march” in Pittsburgh until Donald Trump was elected. The anti-war movement “was largely silent during the Obama administration.”

When Pittsburgh activists started planning a march this year, “we volunteered to help,” Murphy said. Her team was excited to get involved in Pittsburgh, where Rehumanize International is based.

Then organizers found out they were pro-life. Rehumanize International was ousted.

Some accuse Murphy of supporting a “war on women” by opposing abortion. “This stems from either a misunderstanding or a willful ignorance about the humanity of the preborn child. Because if abortion doesn’t kill a human being, then it’s just a bunch of crazy people trying to control women’s bodies,” she said.

Murphy said she sympathizes with her opponents. “I’m a feminist. If I did not understand the scientific reality of the humanity of the preborn child, I’m sure I would be on their side.”

But she won’t back down on the science. She says she can “pull out 10 different embryology textbooks” that show human life begins at fertilization. “If you understand that, then our position is the one that’s fully consistent.”

Murphy: Being Pro-Life Isn’t ‘Conservative’

Some say Rehumanize International is a liberal front group for conservative values. Murphy denies it. “We’re not a rightwing group. Most of the people in leadership in our organization are very liberal and very progressive.”

Murphy said pro-abortion progressives “don’t want to come to terms with the fact that standing against abortion is a very progressive cause. Extending the respect for human rights to more humans is not a regressive cause. It’s a progressive cause.”

Ultimately, Murphy doesn’t care about political tribes. She remembers an interviewer joking that he couldn’t figure out her political leanings. “I guess you care more about human rights than you do about politics,” he said.

“You are one thousand percent correct,” she told him.

I emailed the Pittsburgh March Against War organizers for a comment. As of this writing they have not responded. (For more from the author of “Anti-War Marchers Dump Pro-Life Allies” please click HERE)

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Trump’s Move to Deter Russian Aggression

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On Tuesday, President Donald Trump presented a budget request to Congress that would boost spending for an Obama-era buildup of U.S. military forces in Europe meant to deter Russia from military provocations and show NATO and its European partners that the U.S. is committed to their defense.

“Such a request is more reassuring for American allies and partners in Europe like Ukraine than mere declarations from senior Trump administration officials,” Mykola Bielieskov, an analyst with the Institute of World Policy, a Ukrainian think tank, told The Daily Signal.

The Obama administration announced the European Reassurance Initiative, or ERI, in June 2014, three months after Russia illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and launched military operations in eastern Ukraine. The program called for a buildup of U.S. military forces and equipment in Eastern and Central Europe, as well as rotating military exercises throughout the region.

Trump’s 2018 budget calls for a $1.4 billion increase in ERI funds—a 41 percent increase over the $3.4 billion tagged in 2017 by the Obama administration. The move, which U.S. military forces in Europe praised, sent a reassuring message to both NATO’s eastern flank as well as countries throughout Eastern Europe that see Russia as an existential threat and are looking for U.S. protection.

“From the Polish perspective, the deployment of U.S. troops to Poland and Baltic states means a real deterrence since it increases the probability of the U.S. forces engagement in case of potential aggression from Russia,” Daniel Szeligowski, senior research fellow at the Polish Institute of International Affairs, told The Daily Signal.

“The more combat-ready U.S. troops there are, the higher such a probability is,” Szeligowski said.

In Ukraine, Trump’s budget proposal sent a reassuring message to a country that has been in a proxy war with Russia since April 2014 that has, so far, killed about 10,000 people.

“Kyiv is especially pleased as $150 million might be allocated to train, equip, and reform Ukraine armed forces if [Trump’s] budget is approved,” Bielieskov said.

Bielieskov added that Trump’s proposed budget “is the best possible proof that security of Central and Eastern Europe continues to be one of the major priorities for the Donald J. Trump administration despite previous contradictory statements.”

U.S. military forces in Europe also hailed the proposed boost in spending to defend Europe from Russia.

“As we continue to address the dynamic security environment in Europe, [European Reassurance Initiative] funding increases our joint capabilities to deter and defend against Russian aggression,” Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, commander of U.S. European Command, said in an emailed statement to journalists on Wednesday.

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to a request for comment.

In Trump’s $4.1 trillion 2018 budget, overall U.S. defense spending is slated to increase by 10.1 percent—from $521.8 billion in 2017 to a proposed $574.5 billion in 2018.

Doubling Down

During a joint press conference with the Polish president on June 3, 2014, President Barack Obama said the European Reassurance Initiative was a “powerful demonstration of America’s unshakeable commitment to our NATO allies.”

“The United States will pre-position more equipment in Europe,” Obama said in 2014. “We will be expanding our exercises and training with allies to increase the readiness of our forces. We’ll increase the number of American personnel—Army and Air Force units—continuously rotating through allied countries in Central and Eastern Europe. And we will be stepping up our partnerships with friends like Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia as they provide for their own defense.”

Totaling roughly $1 billion in 2014, the ERI was meant to be temporary. However, Russia’s military brinkmanship in Eastern Europe and its ongoing proxy war in Ukraine have kept the program alive and growing.

Obama’s last budget in 2017 quadrupled ERI funding from $789 million to more than $3.4 billion, including $335 million in nonlethal military aid for Ukraine. That year, Congress also appropriated $75 million as part of a combined State Department and Defense Department fund to train Ukrainian forces.

Today, about 7,000 U.S. military personnel are deployed throughout Europe on a rotational basis under the ERI’s umbrella. Yet, the number of U.S. personnel permanently based in Europe has not increased, according to U.S. European Command.

The U.S. has about 35,000 total military personnel in Europe. Recently, the U.S. Army deployed an additional heavy brigade to Poland, comprising about 3,500 troops and 87 tanks, as well as a unit of 500 troops to Romania. The U.S. military also has personnel in Ukraine conducting a training mission.

“These significant investments will further galvanize U.S. support to the collective defense of our NATO allies, as well as bolster the security and capacity of our U.S. partners,” Scaparrotti said.

Up North

This week, U.S. F-15 fighters and KC-135 aerial refueling tankers are deployed on the northern edge of Europe as part of a biennial military exercise in a region that has become a hotbed of tension with Russia.

The exercise, called Arctic Challenge, will last from May 22 to June 2, and is being hosted by Norway, Sweden, and Finland—of which Norway is the only NATO country.

The exercise underscores a constant drumbeat of temporary deployments and military exercises undertaken by U.S. military forces across Europe since 2014, which, while not always specifically advertised as a message of deterrence to Russia, have nonetheless been interpreted that way by Moscow more often than not. The temporary deployment of U.S. Marines to Norway this year, for example, drew sharp condemnation from the Kremlin.

“The scenarios are generic in nature, to solve an ill-defined problem in the air,” Lt. Col. Jason Zumwalt, 493rd Fighter Squadron commander, told The Daily Signal in a telephone interview from the Arctic Challenge exercise on Tuesday.

Zumwalt said Arctic Challenge, which comprises more than 100 military aircraft from 11 countries, is not intended to simulate a conflict with Russia.

“We’re not looking at any specific threats,” Zumwalt said. “Yesterday’s mission was defending an area from attack by a superior force—to protect a region of sky from enemy incursion.”

The exercise is taking place totally within the airspace confines of the three Nordic host countries—two of which, Norway and Finland, share land borders with Russia. Yet, Zumwalt said the risk would be “very low” for an unintended encounter between U.S. and Russian warplanes.

“Our pilots are professionals and they’re trained in what to do if they’re intercepted,” the U.S. fighter squadron commander said.

Tripwire

Trump’s budget request to extend and expand the European Reassurance Initiative highlights how the Russian threat to NATO and its European partners has not dimmed in the intervening years.

Since 2014, Russia has aggressively tested NATO’s air defenses in Eastern Europe and the Arctic with warplane flybys while simultaneously building up its military hardware in places like the Kaliningrad exclave and Crimea.

Resultantly, the security situation in Eastern Europe has been upheaved. Due to the Russian threat, the Baltic countries of Latvia and Lithuania, both NATO members, have had the two fastest-growing military budgets in the world since 2014, according to IHS Jane’s. And Poland, also a NATO member, has doubled its military spending since 2006.

At the NATO summit in July 2016 in Warsaw, Poland, alliance leaders announced the planned deployment of four 1,000-troop-strong combat battalions to Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania on a rotational basis.

NATO also fields a Very High Readiness Joint Task Force, comprising about 5,000 troops, which is tasked to “respond to emerging security challenges posed by Russia,” according to a statement on the alliance’s website.

The deployments are considered “tripwire forces” by many military experts, presumably meant to deter Russia from an attack due to the risk of spurring a massive NATO response to defend its forward units.

“The U.S. rotating armored brigade combat teams currently scattered across Eastern Europe can hardly really deter Russia from starting an overt war against one of NATO’s members—it’s more of a guarantee that such violations of international law would trigger a massive U.S. and allied response,” Bielieskov, the Ukrainian analyst, said.

“Given U.S. nuclear, as well as conventional, capabilities, the risk of potential conflict escalation is high enough so as not to allow any aggressor to achieve its political goals,” Szeligowski, the Polish senior research fellow, said. “That, in the end, should influence any calculations made by third parties, especially Russia.”

Meanwhile, in Ukraine

The war in eastern Ukraine—Europe’s only ongoing land war—has not ended.

Ukrainian forces have been at war against a combined force of pro-Russian separatists and Russian regulars since April 2014.

Despite a February 2015 cease-fire, artillery and rocket attacks still occur daily, as well as small arms gun battles. Soldiers in opposing camps are hunkered down in trenches and in fortified positions along a static 250-mile-long front line in the Donbas, Ukraine’s embattled southeastern territory on the border with Russia.

Civilians and soldiers continue to die on both sides of the front lines. About a third of the conflict’s 10,000 deaths happened after the cease-fire went into effect. And about 1.7 million people remain displaced by the conflict.

According to U.S. and Ukrainian officials, Russia continues to feed the conflict with troops, weapons, and money. The Kremlin says it’s not involved in the war.

To defend itself against Russia, Ukraine has since 2014 rebuilt its once-hobbled military into the second-largest standing army in Europe, comprising about 250,000 active-duty personnel. With about 1 million active troops, and more than 2 million in its reserves, Russia has the only military in Europe bigger than Ukraine’s.

“In the end, general increased U.S. presence in Eastern Europe can indirectly assist Ukraine in its war with Russia as it would force Moscow to take into account new U.S. deployments and ease pressure in the Donbas and around the Ukrainian-Russian border,” Bielieskov said.

He added: “So the next logical step after increasing the ERI budget should be making the U.S. presence in Eastern Europe permanent, plus increasing the number of brigades in the region.” (For more from the author of “Trump’s Move to Deter Russian Aggression” please click HERE)

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Meet the Unsung Heroes of the US Border Patrol

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Deep inside the U.S. Border Patrol is a little-known elite team called the Border Patrol Search, Trauma, and Rescue Unit. Since its creation nearly 20 years ago, BORSTAR has largely flown under the radar.

“Most people don’t realize that the Border Patrol has paramedics, search and rescue capability,” says John Welter, a BORSTAR agent in the San Diego sector of the Border Patrol. “But a lot of times our guys put themselves in a lot of danger, and you end up almost in as bad a shape as the person you’re trying to rescue.”

BORSTAR initially was created in 1998 to provide Border Patrol the ability to search for and rescue its own agents caught in dangerous situations on the job, and to respond to a growing number of deaths among illegal immigrants.

The team has expanded to become the only national law enforcement search-and-rescue unit that can conduct tactical medical training for federal, state, local, and international government agencies.

Hear from Welter, one of the team’s agents, on why it’s sometimes a “selfless, thankless job”—but also a rewarding one. (For more from the author of “Meet the Unsung Heroes of the US Border Patrol” please click HERE)

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Memorial Day Is a Time to Teach Our Children About Real Heroes

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During a recent drive home from school, my six-year-old daughter began to sing.

“And I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free,” she sang. “And I won’t forget the men who died who gave that right to me.”

My little girl went on to explain that she was learning the words to the song (Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.”) in preparation for her kindergarten graduation ceremony. During that special moment, I was filled with both patriotism and pride.

Monday marks the sixteenth Memorial Day since our military went to war after the 9/11 attacks. While the national media’s collective eyes have been largely transfixed on the White House and Kremlin for the past six months, U.S. troops have been killed in action during combat operations in five countries: Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Somalia and Yemen.

Five Fallen Heroes

U.S. Navy Chief Special Warfare Operator (SEAL) Kyle Milliken, 38, was one of those American heroes. Earlier this month, he was killed while fighting the al Shabaab terrorist group “in a remote area approximately 40 miles west of Mogadishu,” Somalia, according to the Department of Defense. The Navy SEAL is the first U.S. service member killed in the African nation since the well-known “Black Hawk Down” battle in 1993.

According to the Portland Press Herald in Milliken’s home state of Maine, the high school and University of Connecticut track star joined the Navy in 2002 before earning his place inside the now-legendary SEAL Team Six. He would go on to perform dangerous missions during deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, and eventually Somalia.

“We were a nation at war when he enlisted,” U.S. Navy Special Warfare Command spokesman Jason Salata told the newspaper. “He has four Bronze Stars. You don’t get that from sitting at home.”

According to the Hartford Courant, Milliken is survived by his wife, Erin, and their two children.

“His sacrifice is a stark reminder that naval special operators are forward doing their job, confronting terrorism overseas to prevent evil from reaching our shores,” U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Timothy Szymanski said in a statement published by the Courant.

In April, our nation lost U.S. Army 1st Lt. Weston Lee, 25, who made the ultimate sacrifice in Mosul, Iraq, along with U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Mark De Alencar, 37, Sgt. Joshua Rodgers, 22, and Sgt. Cameron Thomas, 23, all of whom were killed in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar Province. In the last six months, brave American troops have also died in Syria and Yemen.

All of these fallen heroes had families, friends, and long lists of awards and accomplishments. Despite all they had to live for, these patriots were still willing to trade their lives to protect not only the warrior standing next to them on the battlefield, but people back home who they had never met.

The genuine, astounding selflessness of those who make the ultimate sacrifice is the essence of Memorial Day. That’s why when my daughter finished singing “God Bless the U.S.A.” in the car that day, we had a discussion about both the dangers and heroes of war that I hope other parents will have with their kids as the school year ends and the summer begins.

“God Bless the U.S.A.”

On May 22 in Manchester, England, happy young girls not much older than my little girl were singing along with pop star Ariana Grande. Minutes after the concert ended, a crude, vicious bomb often found on Middle Eastern battlefields pierced the innocent lives of teenagers and children. ISIS claimed responsibility for the cowardly, sickening attack, which cannot be labeled as anything other than pure evil.

My daughter wandered in from another room and looked up at the television as I watched news coverage of the Manchester attack. I could see the confusion and fear in her eyes as they were briefly filled with the searing images of terror.

“That’s why those brave men and women we talked about go to war,” I told her. “They fight the bad people to keep them away from us.”

“I know, Daddy,” she said. “It’s just like the song says.”

A few days later, my little girl graduated from kindergarten while singing those same patriotic lyrics.

“And I’d gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today,” she sang. “Because there ain’t no doubt I love this land. God bless the U.S.A.”

Because of American heroes like Kyle Milliken, Weston Lee, Mark De Alencar, Joshua Rodgers, Cameron Thomas, and thousands more who have put service above self, our children grow up in a land that is not only free, but vigorously and righteously defended. For that, all Americans owe all fallen heroes and their Gold Star families our deepest thanks on Memorial Day – and every day. (For more from the author of “Memorial Day Is a Time to Teach Our Children About Real Heroes” please click HERE)

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Trump Returns to US, Immediately Slams ‘Fake’ News Media on Twitter

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President Trump resumed one of his favorite activities on Sunday, just hours after returning to the U.S. following his first presidential overseas trip.

The Republican blasted the “fake” news media in a series of tweets, accusing reporters of fabricating anonymous sources for some stories . . .

But numerous stories about the ongoing Russia investigation dropped while he was away. Perhaps the biggest headline was a report that Trump son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner discussed setting up a secret communications line with the Russian government during a meeting with Russia’s ambassador in early December. (Read more from “Trump Returns to US, Immediately Slams ‘Fake’ News Media on Twitter” HERE)

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Do Policy-Makers Value the Lives of Our Troops?

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What differentiates our soldiers from the way our enemies use their soldiers is that they are not pieces on a board game. Their work is not a game of Risk. They have real lives with families and bright futures ahead of them.

That moral understanding should dictate two overarching principles to policy-makers: 1) Only risk the lives of our troops in war when there is a clear benefit and definitive outcome for the betterment of our security; and 2) Once that decision is made, the war must be executed in a way that prioritizes the survival of our soldiers first before all other political considerations. This should be a doctrine of all who consider themselves Americans, regardless of political views.

Sadly, since WWII, the value of our soldiers’ lives seems to rate very low on the risk vs. return matrix and cost-benefit analysis of most recent military engagements, if any such analysis was even conducted. For if they ranked high in priority, we clearly would not be pursuing so many of these protracted engagements refereeing Islamic civil wars with often contradictory or unknown goals.

George Patton was famous for saying, “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.” The goal is not to sacrifice our soldiers to promote someone else’s values, but to protect our values first, values that are actually worth sacrificing for. As Reagan said on Memorial Day in 1982, of those who died in WWII, “[E]ach died for a cause he considered more important than his own life. Well, they didn’t volunteer to die; they volunteered to defend values for which men have always been willing to die if need be, the values which make up what we call civilization.”

The idea is to fight for our values to ensure that America remains worthy and reflective of those sacrifices. Sometimes it’s inevitable that our soldiers have to make the ultimate sacrifice. But as we remember those fallen heroes this Memorial Day, we must commit to doing everything in our power to advocate for policies that ensure that fewer people make that ultimate sacrifice. And that if they do, they are not falling on the sword of Islam or dying for someone else’s country, but sacrificing for our country to preserve our values.

Sincere people can legitimately disagree over whether various military engagements were in America’s best interests, but it is beyond dispute at this point that before throwing our guys into more meat-grinders with no logical outcome, we need an operational audit of where we are engaged in conflict. We must examine why we are there, identify substantial strategic interests, weigh them against the risk to the lives of our soldiers, and determine what victory looks like. At that point, we need to secure a declaration of war from Congress to get the entire nation on board and better articulate our objectives. Then we must do everything it takes to achieve that mission with no gratuitous risk to our soldiers.

Yet both Republican and Democrat administrations continue to pursue a strategy of “send more troops into the Middle East first, ask questions about the mission, interests, and outcomes later.” We are seeing this again in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Yemen and Somalia.

Those of us who never heard the dreaded knock on the door to inform us of a loved one killed in action could never imagine the pain felt by those patriots. But that feeling is undoubtedly aggravated by the thought of one’s husband or son falling on his sword for the Free Somali Army or the Syrian rebels or the Extortion 17 special operators who fell for the corrupt Sharia-based Karzai government in Afghanistan. We no longer have the focused goals or obvious national interests protected by those who died at Omaha Beach.

We paid a heavy price for the Normandy invasion on June 6, 1944, with nearly 2,500 American fatalities. But thanks to meticulous planning, a clearly defined mission, and a no-holds-barred desire to achieve that mission, a continent was freed and the world was saved just one year later. This was all done despite bad luck, dismal weather, and mechanical failures that plagued the assault at Omaha Beach – and all without the enormous technological advantage the U.S. military enjoys today over its contemporary enemies.

To this day, families of WWII veterans can stand on the hallowed ground of Omaha Beach and solemnly reflect with pride on the enormous gains taken and preserved by their parents and grandparents in the fight to protect our national interests and those of all humanity.

What can be said of our modern-day warfare? We have nothing to show for 15 years in Afghanistan but over 1,800 military deaths, 20,000 wounded, and the Taliban controlling more territory than ever before – all to establish a Sharia-compliant government with a constitution (set up by U.S. officials) that fosters the type of Islamic supremacism we are at war with. After 4,400 fatalities and 30,000 wounded in Iraq, the country is controlled by Iranian hegemony, and our troops are now helping Iranian-backed Shiite militias, who are just as brutal as ISIS, take back Mosul from the Sunni Islamists. Then, our air force is bombing those same militias in Syria. Some of these same militias were responsible for killing hundreds of our soldiers when we originally liberated Iraq on their behalf.

At present, this administration is furthering our involvement in the Yemeni civil war. We already lost a Navy SEAL raiding the compound of an Al Qaeda kingpin who is allied with the Hadi government we are supporting, which is fighting the Houthis, who are fighting Al Qaeda!

The only thing worse than not having a coherent, consistent, and defensible policy in the Middle East is placing our soldiers into harm’s way without such a policy in place. How appropriate to reflect upon the words of Oliver Wendell Holmes in his 1884 Memorial Day speech, in which he explained the significance of this day that “celebrates and solemnly reaffirms from year to year a national act of enthusiasm and faith.” This is significant because “to act with enthusiasm and faith is the condition of acting greatly,” and “to fight out a war, you must believe something and want something with all your might.”

What is it indeed that we believe in? What is it we want with all our might? What are we fighting for in the quagmire of endless Islamic sectarian strife?

This is not a rant categorically opposing any engagement in the Middle East. That is a different discussion. Reasonable people can disagree on the prudence of strategy and strategic interests. But if our policy-makers truly valued the lives of our soldiers the way they should, the failures of the past 15 years should weigh heavily on any decision to intervene further in similar quagmires. The questions are: 1) Who is our enemy? 2) What is their threat doctrine? 3) What are our strategic interests? 4) How are they achieved? 5) Are they worth the cost? These questions should be at the forefront of the minds of the civilian and military leadership, not an afterthought to be sacrificed for the priorities of political interests, political correctness, or the whims of the Saudis. Putting America first means putting Americans first — most importantly, our own soldiers.

If this administration is going to continue in the footsteps of its predecessors and throw more troops into these theaters, the president and his advisers have an obligation to articulate to those doing the fighting and to the American public a common-sense description of our goals, desired outcomes, why they are necessary, and how we will end the cycle of refereeing Islamic civil wars, often in a contradictory way in multiple theaters.

Such a small percentage of American citizens have volunteered to serve in the military, particularly on dangerous missions. As we honor and commemorate those who died for our country, let us commit to honoring and valuing our living service members. As President Coolidge said on Memorial Day in 1927:

Reverence for the dead should not be divorced from respect for the living. If we hold those who have gone before in high estimation, it will reflected in our conduct toward those who are still with us. It would be idle to place a wreath on the grave of the dead and leave ungarlanded the brow of the living. Our devotion to the memory of those who have served their country in the past is but a symbol of our devotion to those who are serving their country at present.

(For more from the author of “Do Policy-Makers Value the Lives of Our Troops?” please click HERE)

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These Practical Pro-Life Programs Help Moms Finish School

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The story of a high school senior whose pregnancy has barred her from walking at her graduation and removed her from her student leadership positions has sparked a debate within the pro-life community.

A story at the New York Times spells out how a spokesman for 18-year-old Maddi Runkles’ Christian high school – Heritage Academy in Hagerstown, Md. – stood by the decision, calling it an internal matter. The original story concedes that the internal debate is a difficult one between policies that affirm life and policies that affirm traditional moral teachings on premarital sex.

Over the past few days, two camps have arisen in pro-life circles about the incident. One sides with Students for Life of America (SFLA) – who supported Runkles in the NYT story – saying that the school shouldn’t have penalized her for choosing to keep her baby. The other includes The Blaze’s Matt Walsh, who took to Facebook to defend Heritage Academy’s decisions.

Regardless of where you are in the debate, one inescapable fact is that Runkles – a young woman of an age to start college – is a member of a demographic extremely vulnerable to the temptation of abortion.

Statistics from the Guttmacher institute – a research arm of Planned Parenthood – show that young women of high school and college age account for over 45 percent of all abortions performed. Furthermore, a 2009 study also found that girls at private religious schools were more likely to have abortions than their counterparts at public schools, statistically speaking.

Ergo, for every Maddi Runkles, there are scores of other girls whose children will never see the light of day in large part because of the multitude of pressures these young women face.

How could the school have responded? And what are other institutions doing to affirm the lifesaving choices that girls like Maddi have made in the face of this kind of pressure and uncertainty?

Debbie Capen was once in Runkles’ shoes and made the choice to abort – a choice she deeply regrets. Now she helps other young women in the same tough situation make the choice for life in her role as the executive director of Mira Via, a maternity home in the Charlotte, N.C., area geared toward helping young single moms choose life and college at the same time.

Historically affiliated with Catholic Belmont Abbey College (BAC) in the area, Mira Via – Latin for “miraculous way” — is a program that offers pregnant women and young moms in college the resources, instructions, shelter, and childcare they need for up to two years in order to finish a degree.

For Debbie Capen, programs like this are simply part of being consistently pro-life in an institution’s beliefs as well as its policies, especially when the choice for life is as counter-cultural as it is today.

“Society has taught that being burdened with a child is some sort of a punishment,” Capen tells me over the phone, with the baby in her lap audibly cooing in the background. “We live in a culture where everything is supposed to be as easy as possible and as pain-free as possible. So when young women come to us, it’s like they have a cloud over their head with all these worries and concerns and that it is the end of their lives and they don’t know where to go.”

However, the staff at Mira Via work to lift this cloud through education, assistance, and time to sort out those issues. Once those worries are dispelled, Capen says, the moms typically experience a sense of not only relief, but joy. This allows them “not to see the child as a punishment, but as a gift,” she adds. And she loves seeing that change take place.

“It’s one of the most amazing transformations,” Capen says. “To witness that moment where they realize that they don’t have to feel this pressure, that it’s up to them to choose the fate of this child, then they can welcome the child with joy. By the time they leave our program, they all can’t believe that they were so afraid of this.”

When asked about situations like the one described by the New York Times, Capen says that adding consequences to a situation that already has enough of them is unfair, unnecessary, and unhelpful.

“[The mother] cannot escape the visible consequence [of her actions], whereas the father of the child does not have a visible consequence that everyone can see,” she explains. “Consequences are natural. The child is the natural consequence to her situation that does not need to be added to with the component of shame.”

“This young woman may have fallen down in her own personal walk,” Capen concludes, “but now she has gotten up and chosen to take the next good step, and she should not be punished for taking the next good step.”

And while women staying at Mira Via can go to any school they wish, BAC also offers them assistance in the form of two years of free tuition to help them finish their degrees.

“For us as a college, we were put in a position to figure out how we could help,” explains BAC spokesman Rolando Rivas. “So, it was important for us to step up and do equally to what the monastery had done and try to find a way to help support these young ladies at this critical time.”

Mira Via was the first program of its kind in the U.S., but it is no longer alone. One of several other such programs is located at the College of St. Mary in Omaha (CSM). CSM’s Mother’s Living and Learning program is currently ranked number one in the nation for student residential maternity homes, according to the Cardinal Newman Society.

Lacy Dodd Miske got pregnant during her senior year at the University of Notre Dame in 1999. She was able to keep her child and her future career thanks to the support of pregnancy resource centers in the local community and her hometown, as well as a delayed active duty start date in the U.S. Army.

After a five-year stint in the military, she moved to Charlotte with her daughter, where she started her civilian career. She felt called to give back and worked at Mira Via. She served on the board of directors for six years, until a military assignment for her husband – whom she met and married after the birth of her daughter, now 17 – moved her away.

She too says that piling on to a young woman’s situation when she has chosen life is unnecessary.

“If a student becomes pregnant, a Christian school and community should show support for the young woman’s decision to have the baby and not create a stigma around it, whether at the high school or college level,” says Lacy. “It is a lack of resources which is a huge cause of abortion. Schools need to show more openness and support for the choice for life.”

Capen also shares some personal experience with the girls she helps. She herself had an abortion as a young woman because “she had no other choice.” Now she works with several young moms who have found themselves in the same place.

Capen recalls one instance at a pro-life rally where she was confronted by the director of an abortion clinic. Capen was holding a sign: “I regret my abortion.” She recalls how the director of the clinic came out and “stuck a finger in my face,” informing her that pro-lifers were, in her own view, “shaming women through the front door.”

“As someone who was post-abortive, I understood because I got it,” she says. “I did not want to disappoint anybody. I did not want to hurt anyone in my family.”

“By providing organizations like Mira Via,” she explains, “it alleviates all of those fears and shame factors” that drive women through the doors in the first place. (For more from the author of “These Practical Pro-Life Programs Help Moms Finish School” please click HERE)

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People Are Dying While the FDA Keeps These Medical Apps From You

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With the GOP proving itself entirely unwilling to repeal Obamacare in a meaningful way, and the country inching ever closer to health care Armageddon, it’s going to be increasingly important for patients to find ways to get around the Byzantine insurance regulations and to take control of their health into their own hands.

Fortunately, technological entrepreneurship is poised to dramatically decentralize the knowledge and power of the medical profession.

The wild and wooly landscape of mobile apps is beginning to offer a vast array of medical services from the comfort of your smartphone. The inane Apple slogan, “There’s an app for that,” becomes progressively more true with each passing day.

While there have long existed apps that monitor heart rate or list drug interactions, developers are taking things to the next level, with new apps that can predict relapses for cancer survivors, for example. Empirical studies reveal that these apps literally save lives, and represent an amazing advance in patient-centered medicine.

But hang on — before we get too excited, there remain significant governmental roadblocks to these personalized medical services. The FDA classifies these apps as “medical devices,” and therefore claims the authority to regulate them, including subjecting them to its notoriously onerous review process before allowing them to be sold.

Supposedly, this is done to protect consumer safety, but there are a number of downsides, too.

First, the FDA has a limited capacity. Currently, they are only on track to approve 20 apps a year. That is clearly not enough to keep pace with the rate of technological progress. Second, the review process is lengthy and prevents life-saving technologies from coming to market for extended periods of time.

Economist Milton Friedman astutely pointed out that while the media fixate on unsafe drugs and devices that harm people, the deaths that occur due to devices not being approved fast enough are much less visible — but no less tragic.

Every regulatory delay for medical technology puts lives in danger, and it is disingenuous to pretend that the FDA is purely about maximizing consumer safety. Lobbying and special interest groups play just as important a role, with established medical incumbents desperate to keep competition down.

Government regulatory power is a convenient way to throw obstacles up that younger and less deep-pocketed companies will struggle to overcome.

As in so many sectors in our economy, innovations are bursting the seams of the status quo, offering new solutions to old problems. But some of these sectors should concern us more than others.

If the taxi unions successfully shut down Uber, consumers lose a convenient mode of transport; if the FDA stalls medical innovation in the form of mobile apps, however, people die. That’s why it’s crucial that medical innovations be allowed to proceed unimpeded, and patients’ access to new technologies not be choked off by bureaucracy.

The mobile app revolution could change the way we consume medical care forever, but only if regulators don’t stop the progress before it starts. (For more from the author of “People Are Dying While the FDA Keeps These Medical Apps From You” please click HERE)

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8 Dead in Shooting Rampage in Mississippi; Suspect Arrested

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A man who got into an argument with his estranged wife over their children was arrested in a house-to-house shooting rampage in rural Mississippi that left eight people dead, including his mother-in-law and a sheriff’s deputy.

“I ain’t fit to live, not after what I done,” a handcuffed Willie Corey Godbolt, 35, told The Clarion-Ledger.

The gunfire erupted Saturday night at a home in Bogue Chitto after the deputy arrived in response to a domestic disturbance call, and spread to two houses in nearby Brookhaven, about 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of Jackson. (Read more from “8 Dead in Shooting Rampage in Mississippi; Suspect Arrested” HERE)

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ICE Arrests Nearly 200 Illegal Aliens in Los Angeles Raids

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Immigration authorities have arrested nearly 200 criminal aliens in a five-day operation across the Los Angeles area, including dozens with prior convictions for sex crimes and domestic violence.

Fugitive operations officers for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) nabbed a total of 188 people in a sweep targeting at-large criminal aliens, immigration fugitives and individuals who had illegally re-entered the U.S. after being deported.

Of the those arrested, 169 — about 90 percent — had prior criminal convictions for a variety of crimes, the agency said Thursday. The most common prior offenses were drug violations, comprising 43 of those arrested, followed by DUI and domestic violence, with 30 and 27 arrests, respectively.

“Operations like this are emblematic of the vital work ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations officers do every day seeking to locate, arrest, and ultimately deport at-large convicted criminals and other immigration fugitives who pose a threat to public safety,” David Marin, field office director for ICE’s enforcement and removal division in Los Angeles, said in a statement.

“By taking these individuals off the streets and removing them from the country, we’re making our communities safer for everyone,” he added. (Read more from “ICE Arrests Nearly 200 Illegal Aliens in Los Angeles Raids” HERE)

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