Conceived in Rape: Ethel Waters
Posted by Corrina Gura (March 3, 2011 at 11:17 am)
A caller this morning alerted me to this story, of a woman conceived in rape who reached great heights in her life and career.
Ethel Waters, famed blues and jazz singer and the second African American ever nominated for an Academy Award, was conceived in rape.
Ethel wrote in her autobiography, His Eye Is on the Sparrow:
So John Waters, my father, came back one day and forced my mother to submit to him. She tried to fight him, but he raped her, holding a knife. She was only twelve and didn’t know what it was all about, but she had to give in to him. And that is how I was conceived. (p. 3-4)
This was in the year 1900, long before abortion would have been considered the “easy” or “compassionate” solution to a pregnancy resulting from rape.
That was fortunate for Ethel, who otherwise would not have lived to become a Grammy award winning singer and Academy Award nominated actress.
If you live in the Elgin, Illinois area, you can attend a performance of Ethel Waters’ songs on March 10 at the Gail Borden Library. The singer, Rise Jones, “will sing songs and narrate the performer’s life using information from Waters’ two autobiographies.”
I hope Jones mentions that, despite the awful way Ethel’s life was conceived, her life was just as valuable as any “planned” or “wanted” pregnancy ever was.
February 14, 2011
U.S. Representative Mike Pence has crafted legislation that will end taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider.
Last year, Planned Parenthood received over $363 million, lifted from your wallet and mine, and performed 324,00 abortions along the way.
Live Action films has released seven undercover videos in the last two weeks alone showing the eagerness of Planned Parenthood clinics in Virginia, New York and New Jersey to help sex traffickers get birth control and illegal abortions for 14-year-old illegal alien prostitutes. They offered to help them avoid legally mandated reporting and parental consent requirements.
Rep. Pence’s bill is entitled the “Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act” (H.R. 217), and will deny taxpayer funds to Planned Parenthood and any other abortion provider.
This is the best opportunity the pro-family community has had in decades to end subsidies for the largest abortion provider in the United States.
Take Action
Send an email to your representative and either thank him for co-sponsoring H.R. 217, the “Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act” or urge him to add his name to the list of sponsors.
A Person is a Person no matter how small…
Supreme Court Justice Scalia: Roe v. Wade Not in Constitution
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia frequently talks about his views on abortion and the high court case that allowed for unlimited abortions throughout pregnancy for any reason.
As the nation looks to mark the 38th anniversary of Roe v. Wade later this month and 53 million abortions it has ushered in, Scalia said in a new interview that the case is an “absurdity.”
“You want a right to abortion? There’s nothing in the Constitution about that. But that doesn’t mean you cannot prohibit it,” he said in an interview with California Lawyer.
For those wanting to make abortion legal, “Persuade your fellow citizens it’s a good idea and pass a law. That’s what democracy is all about. It’s not about nine superannuated judges who have been there too long, imposing these demands on society.”
Scalia reiterated his position that the Constitution’s 14th Amendment doesn’t guarantee equal protection for women in a way that could be construed as allowing abortion on demand. Full story at LifeNews.com
Teen Birth Rate Hits Record Low in 2009, Abstinence Credited
The teen birth rate hit record low levels in 2009 according to a new report issued by the National Center for Health Statistics.
Among girls between the ages of 15 and 19, the birth rate fell to 39.1 births per 1,000 teens in 2009, which is the most recent year for which statistics are available. That’s the lowest level in 70 years, the Center indicates and a 6 percent decline from the 2008 level and the second year in a row that teen birth rates fell.
The numbers are also down 16 out of the last 18 years — though the question becomes one of why the rates are falling, whether the downturn in the has something to do with it or whether abstinence education or promotion of birth control and contraception is the main factor.
Valerie Huber of the National Abstinence Education Association says abstinence is the leading cause for the decline. Full story at LifeNews.com
