Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

Today (Fri., Jan 24th 2020) is the annual March for Life,

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. . . which, we will monitor and update across the day, including DV, inputs from our person on the ground as usual.

March for Life logo

This year, of course, will be the first MfL attended and addressed in person by a President of the United States, here, Mr Donald Trump. Other speakers will be present and hopefully we will not see the sort of agit prop media stunt and smear game that happened last year, leading to a lawsuit that was just settled by CNN after attempts to dismiss it failed.

Today’s schedule:

Friday, January 24, 2020

  • March for Life Expo: 8:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
  • Pre-Rally Concert: 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
  • Rally Program and March: 12:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
  • Rose Dinner Cocktail Hour: 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
  • Rose Dinner: 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

We will monitor and update, adding across the day.

Backgrounder, a media discussion, 2018:

Remember, what is at stake is the deliberate mass slaughter of our living posterity in the womb, with a global toll of 800+ millions across 40+ years, growing at about a million more per week. (That’s a conservative calculation, on a modelled plateau since the 1990’s, the statistical report, 1.4 billion, has some credibility.) That makes this the worst mass killing in history, utterly dwarfing any other and warping government, law, law enforcement, media, professions and culture at large.

Arguably, this is the linchpin established evil of our time; given that mass blood guilt is perhaps the most corrupting, most subtly corrosive influence of all — how will our civilisation ever find absolution for this?

How will we defend our civilisation and our souls, finding a road to reformation, cleansing and transformation?

Where, as pace-setting country, the USA has responsibility far beyond its own 60+ million toll.

U/D1, 7:34 EC: Mr Trump’s pre-march message:

U/D2, 1245hrs: First video MfL 2020:

Gathering for MfL 2020

Some pictures:

MfL2020–determination to defend life
MfL 2020 — Panda says, save the baby humans

And, Mother Teresa has some words for us on domino effects:

MfL 2020: Domino effects . . .

U/D 3, 1305: A first vid message:

A first video message, a call to unity in repentance

U/D 4, 1354: Mr Trump’s speech (from Breitbart):

US President Trump speaks at the 2020 MfL — a first for a sitting President

U/D 5, 1500 hrs; Native American/ Amerindian voices:

MfL 2020, Native American/ Amerindian voices speak up for life (which quietly but firmly answers the agit prop stunt that used that ethnicity last year)

U/D 6, 1549 hrs: Statistics for the American Abortion Holocaust:

Abortion statistics, National Right to Life, from Guttmacher (PP) and CDC

U/D 7, 1630 hrs: Some results from estimated global abortion rates, where it is hard to get hard, standardised figures:

Global abortion rates estimates and suggestive trends

If the Guttmacher estimate of 2016, of 56 million abortions is reasonable, that may be up to a 2/3 under estimate. (Note discussions here and here.)

U/D81945 hrs: For the inevitable crowd game, here is an early crowd with the Washington monument in view:

Then, later in the day (HT: GP):

Work in progress . . .

Comments
Notice, how we are back to little or no mention or serious discussion in the major media? Lesson to be learned: what is headlined, what it focuses on, how it is slanted, how it is fed into the talking heads shows etc has little or nothing to do with real significance. In this case, the ongoing, worst holocaust in history that as a civilisation we have collectively enabled. We must never confuse media focus, talking points, stars and stories with truth, much less, pivotal truth to guide and guard us. The credibility and general integrity of the major media have cratered. So, now, on the mutinous ship of state on a suicidal voyage of folly, we need to start looking for that dismissed stargazer off in the corner . . . the navigator. (And yes, I am referring to Plato's Parable of the Ship of State.) KFkairosfocus
January 31, 2020
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ET
People like you are a dead end.
[SNIP], ET! Have we finally found our Kumbaya moment? As long as we don’t have to hug. :)Ed George
January 27, 2020
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People like you are a dead end.ET
January 27, 2020
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It’s an open forum. But hey, if you don’t want to learn…
This detour has reached a dead-end. Best wishes.Truthfreedom
January 27, 2020
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It's an open forum. But hey, if you don't want to learn...ET
January 27, 2020
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No, truthfreedom, I will never understand willful ignorance. Good luck with that…
The funny thing is that I was not even speaking with you, unless your name is Ed George.Truthfreedom
January 27, 2020
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No, truthfreedom, I will never understand willful ignorance. Good luck with that...ET
January 27, 2020
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Filial infanticide has been observed in many species and is thought to be done to enhance the survival of the offspring the parent already has.
Number of prior births Zero: 43.8% Guttmacher 2014 So, 43% of women who have an abortion are enhancing the "survival " of their inexistent children. More non-sense thanks to the ToE and its appendages. You keep dodging my question: What are the sources of "trauma" for a woman undergoing an abortion?Truthfreedom
January 27, 2020
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@ET
truthfreedom- your question had been answered before you asked it: pick an article and read it
Calm down, sweetheart. Politeness is your friend :) Again: Who makes the claim Has tu support it. Uderstood? That link you are providing was not in this thread. Understood?Truthfreedom
January 27, 2020
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TF
You made the claim. You have the data. Support your claim with said data. Or are you bluffing?
Number of prior births Zero: 43.8% One: 26.2% >=2: 33.1% Guttmacher 2014Ed George
January 27, 2020
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truthfreedom:
No. The person who makes the claim has to support it. It is Ed’s job, not mine
It is YOUR job to be knowledgeable about the things being discussed.ET
January 27, 2020
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truthfreedom- your question had been answered before you asked it: pick an article and read itET
January 27, 2020
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@ Ed George
From the same source that KF frequently cites.
You made the claim. You have the data. Support your claim with said data. Or are you bluffing? Ed George, you refuse to answer my questions. Unsupported claims = useless claims.Truthfreedom
January 27, 2020
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TF
Stats to support this claim?
From the same source that KF frequently cites.Ed George
January 27, 2020
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truthfreedom google is your friend. Use it. The stats that women with children have abortions is there.
No. The person who makes the claim has to support it. It is Ed's job, not mine :)Truthfreedom
January 27, 2020
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truthfreedom- google is your friend. Use it. The stats that women with children have abortions is there. And it refutes Eddie's claim that education will help reduce abortions.ET
January 27, 2020
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EricMH @ 25 - @EG contraception is not the solution to abortion.
1. Guttmacher’s research shows that contraception causes abortion, especially the telling statistic that 51% of abortion patients were on birth control the month they got pregnant https://www.guttmacher.org/journals/ipsrh/2003/03/relationships-between-contraception-and-abortion-review-evidence https://www.guttmacher.org/news-release/2018/about-half-us-abortion-patients-report-using-contraception-month-they-became You can see this in the OP’s graphs, where, despite the dip, current levels are nowhere near the era prior to contraception.
Eh? The first link argues precisely the opposite. From the abstract:
Rising contraceptive use results in reduced abortion incidence in settings where fertility itself is constant. The parallel rise in abortion and contraception in some countries occurred because increased contraceptive use alone was unable to meet the growing need for fertility regulation in situations where fertility was falling rapidly.
I don't know how you come to seeing a causal link between contraception and abortion if 51% of those getting an abortion were using contraception. How many of them would have got an abortion if they had not been using contraception. And how many of the 49% who weren't using contraception wouldn't have got pregnant?
If you look at the following table, the number of abortions in the US per year skyrocket from the hundreds to the hundreds of thousands once contraception is legalized in 1965. http://www.johnstonsarchive.ne.....tates.html
Where 1965 is really "between 1967 and 1973". Some (but almost certainly not all) of that increase may have been because it became more acceptable to report abortions. And the first link also provides an explanation of the pattern (which has been repeated in a few countries), explaining it with a link to changes in fertility.Bob O'H
January 27, 2020
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@Ed George
Filial infanticide has been observed in many species and is thought to be done to enhance the survival of the offspring the parent already has.
Ah. It is "thought".
It is interesting that the majority of women who have an abortion, by a wide margin, already have children.
Stats to support this claim? You have not answered my question: What are the sources of "trauma" for a woman undergoing an abortion? Thank you.Truthfreedom
January 27, 2020
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EG, I repeat, the acceptable rate of holocaust is zero. KFkairosfocus
January 26, 2020
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AS, so long as we can, we will celebrate the annual MfL. And, after the victory is won, we must remember lest we forget. KFkairosfocus
January 26, 2020
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EG, let's look at human reproduction a bit. Pregnant women suffer many disabilities, not least, often, significant debilitation. The need for a large brained baby poses constraints and creates vulnerabilities, so pregnant women are immediately a prey species, and women are generally at physical disadvantage. Then, the human baby and then child, likewise, is highly vulnerable. Clues . . . Zooming back a bit, on the whole we have but one physical advantage, long distance running. We don't have effective fangs or claws, we are not well armoured (especially in the head and neck or torso). It is our intelligence, obligate familial and community framework multiplied by technologies -- try, fire, the knife, flint then metal tools, the bow, spear and spear thrower, etc -- that allow us to dominate socially. Clues, again . . . Where, that intelligence demands moral government (starting with duties to truth, right reason, prudence, sound conscience, fairness and justice, etc) or it becomes socially and/or personally suicidal. So, immediately, we are not a likely product of a blind process of innovation, we are far too isolated an island of function. The usual evolutionary narrative on the ascent of man is manifestly little more than a just-so story. While that FSCO/I challenge includes the genetics to get there, it also embraces the broad framework of such a strange creature. A rational, social, morally governed, significantly free rational, responsible creature. One, with faculties of mind that demonstrably, categorically transcend what computational substrates can do, even beyond the challenge of blind programming and further FSCO/I issues. Yes, computational substrates, inherently, are blind, dynamic-stochastic systems governed by GIGO: garbage in, garbage out. The recall of the Pentium is an illustration of the point. A computational substrate will happily churn out the outputs shaped by inputs, organisation, stored programs etc, it neither knows nor cares about truth, knowledge, warrant, prudence etc. And yes, that holds for wetware substrates that use pulses of electrical signals and threshold summing gates; neurons in themselves carry no magic that transcends GIGO. Rocks have no dreams, it is the self-moved, rational soul that rises beyond programming to responsible, rational, morally governed freedom; starting with inherent freedom of mind. The point is, without genuine freedom and moral government, credible rationality is impossible and so we have good reason to see that our sense of conscious freedom of mind under guidance of conscience is not delusional (another self-defeating notion) but reflective of our being a new order of reality: ensouled. We are more than matter programmed by blind chance and/or mechanical necessity. We manifest soul. As a further clue, note how the heart of the living cell has in it digital, coded, algorithmic and linked regulatory information with complex molecular technology implementing machines; D/RNA. That's alphanumeric code, i.e. language. Language being a signature of intelligence and responsible rational freedom. Such, being antecedent to biological, cell based life as we have observed it. Going further, we live in a cosmos that is at a deeply isolated operating point that facilitates C-Chem, aqueous medium, terrestrial planet in circumstellar and galactic habitable zone life. Where also, even among terrestrial planets, ours is increasingly obviously exceedingly privileged. All of these add up, pointing to a needed adequate cause for a world with creatures like us in it. Quantum foams and the like are not plausible candidates. Worse, logic of being sends the message, that we need a finitely remote, independently existing [= necessary, thus, eternal being] as reality root. One, capable of grounding moral government on more than might and/or manipulation make 'right'- 'rights'- 'truth'- 'reason'- 'warrant'- 'knowledge'- 'justice' etc. There is precisely one serious candidate to be such a reality root. If you doubt, simply posit an alternative _____ and warrant on comparative difficulties _______ . (This is phil, not mere assertion of worldview claims.) A familiar figure, one most unwelcome to the ultra-modern selectively hyperskeptical mentality; a mindset that BTW does not even see how it undercuts itself decisively. Yes, a familiar figure: the inherently good, utterly wise creator God; a necessary and maximally great being. One, worthy of loyalty and of the responsible, reasonable service of doing the good that accords with our manifest nature. Where, that last part includes that we must be willing to respect our living posterity in the womb and the womb-men who have the courage to risk life itself to bring our embodied future into the world. For shame! Yes, for shame as we see the mounting horror of holocaust of our living posterity in the womb. We are caught up in enabling a mass slaughter that is worse than the holocausts that have gone before. We are guilty, guilty, guilty, as the White Rose martyrs would say. What is our answer to the ghost of Sophie Scholl? For shame! Let us turn back, seeking reform. God help us. KFkairosfocus
January 26, 2020
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EMH, I can understand the many times burned, next time shy mindset. However, we are dealing with a long term cultural struggle. In that light, the shrill and polarised, panic driven reactions we are seeing to the ongoing peasant uprising of the deplorables on both sides of the Atlantic tells me that the dominant elites who brought us holocaust [as yet unfinished] for the second time in a generation fear that a critical mass is approaching that will tip the balance against them. While I carry no brief for Mr Trump et al (and seeing in him echoes of Cyrus and Constantine is NOT a compliment!) I believe there is significance to the wave of 191 and counting Federal Judges. The system is in a broken state but there is a chance to step back from the brink of moving beyond a C21 version of Bleeding Kansas. Let us pray that we do not go to a Ft Sumter. KFkairosfocus
January 26, 2020
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TF
What are the predictions of the ToE regarding reproduction? And how does killing your offspring make sense when taking into consideration those predictions?
Filial infanticide has been observed in many species and is thought to be done to enhance the survival of the offspring the parent already has. It is interesting that the majority of women who have an abortion, by a wide margin, already have children.Ed George
January 26, 2020
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"Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution". Theodosious Dobzhansky.
What are the predictions of the ToE regarding reproduction? And how does killing your offspring make sense when taking into consideration those predictions? Any logical explanation? Truthfreedom
January 26, 2020
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I want to thank KF for posting this. In a world at large that has embraced a Culture of Death, it's nice to find an oasis of Life affirming sanity online here at UD. So, thank you very very much, kairosfocus. Andrewasauber
January 26, 2020
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Acartia Eddie:
What I find strange however is that most pro-choice people are happy about the declining abortion rates, whereas most pro-lifers don’t seem to be.
Your unsupportable trope is neither evidence nor an argument. What we find strange is that you seem to think that it is both.ET
January 26, 2020
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Earth to EricMH- Justice is supposed to be blind, because it is supposed to be impartial and objective. Someone needs to bring a good, solid case in front of them pertaining to the issue. They cannot take it upon themselves to implement a law. Do you understand how it works? As for President Trump, well he was much better than anything else there was offered. Hillary would have been a total disaster. And Trump is [SNIP! maybe, "ticking off" or the like?] all of the right people, ie all the whiny, cowardly losers.ET
January 26, 2020
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Acartia Eddie:
Differential reproduction (“survival of the fittest”) is one of the outcomes of the process.
What? Differential reproduction is a requirement for natural selection and evolution. Evolution is the outcome of differential reproduction due to (random, as in chance) heritable variation over generations.ET
January 26, 2020
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Ed George
It’s a medical procedure. All medical procedures involve some level of trauma.
And what are the sources of "trauma" for a woman undergoing an abortion?
Evolution does not have a purpose.
Well, "purpose" is a human construct. This is a philosophical statement, not a scientific one. Which creatures debate about "purpose"? Babboons? Ants? Plants maybe?
Differential reproduction (“survival of the fittest”) is one of the outcomes of the process.
No one needs a "theory" to teach them that there is differential reproduction in Nature. It has been observed for millennia. Some individuals live, other individuals die. Pretty basic stuff.Truthfreedom
January 26, 2020
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ENH@33, very good comment. I think this has many people baffled. I would like to add that the way he deals with other countries, including allies, is appalling. With him, it is not good enough for the US to be doing well, other countries must do poorly.Ed George
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