Ruth Institute Blog

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Some scientists have proposed that when a woman has a baby, she gets not just a son or a daughter, but a gift of cells that stays behind and protects her for the rest of her life. That’s because a baby’s cells linger in its mom’s body for decades and — like stem cells — may help to repair damage when she gets sick. It’s such an enticing idea that even the scientists who came up with the idea worry that it may be too beautiful to be true.

Found here.

An urban high school teacher in Connecticut talks about unwed motherhood, fatherlessness, and how it affects the kids in his classroom.

by Gerry Garibaldi

…Here’s my prediction: the money, the reforms, the gleaming porcelain, the hopeful rhetoric about saving our children—all of it will have a limited impact, at best, on most city schoolchildren. Urban teachers face an intractable problem, one that we cannot spend or even teach our way out of: teen pregnancy. This year, all of my favorite girls are pregnant, four in all, future unwed mothers every one. There will be no innovation in this quarter, no race to the top. Personal moral accountability is the electrified rail that no politician wants to touch… Read more…

by Erika Bachiochi

Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Vol. 34, No. 3, Summer 2011

Abstract:

Within legal academic circles and the general pro-choice feminist population, it is axiomatic that women’s equality requires abortion. Indeed, pro-choice legal scholars, foremost among them Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, have argued that the Equal Protection Clause provides a far more appealing constitutional justification for the abortion right than the roundly criticized right to privacy offered in Roe. Read more…

Marcia Segelstein – OneNewsNow Columnist -

Authors Suzanne Venker and Phyllis Schlafly, in their new book, The Flipside of Feminism, have courageously laid bare the false premises — and promises — of “the women’s movement.”  And they have mercilessly quantified, to the extent possible, the negative effects that the feminist movement has had on American culture. Read more…

Yesterday there was a segment on NPR titled Taming The Twin Trend From Fertility Treatments. They talked about how various forms of ART have caused an increase in the incidence of twin pregnancies:

Twins, once a rarity to marvel over, are now a common part of American culture, thanks in large part to increased use of reproductive technology. Twins are conceived naturally just 2 percent of the time; for those who get pregnant with fertility treatments the rate is more than 40 percent.

They also discussed some of the health risks associated with twins: Read more…

At most Pregnancy Centers you’ll find a (regrettably) thriving Post Abortion Syndrome Support group – and many of the volunteers at the clinic are often members.

Those of you who have been hurt by abortion (or know someone who has) will want to read this.

For more information, visit Abortion Recovery InterNational’s websites: Read more…

by Lea Singh

Growing up, I wish I’d heard more about the roles of wife and mother. An Ivy League mom’s lament.

Recently, a possibly tragic event took place: a highly educated young woman I know got married. Radiant in her delicate lace dress, full of joy and optimism about the future, this blushing bride was not yet aware of the reality of her situation: that she has been groomed through her many years of education to be, well, the groom – and this fact is very likely to cause friction for her and her family as she tries to achieve the deepest hopes and dreams of her heart. Read more…

I could see Ari appreciating this article. More stories of people abandoning their families for love—only this time love of themselves. Is making any sort of self-sacrifice for others, particularly those whom you  married or created, passe now? What happened to commitment? What ever benefit these women sugarcoat the abandonment of their children with, does not cover the harm and the crime they committed. Heaven forbid any mothers hold these women up as examples.

by Mariette Ulrich

Salon, the Woman’s Day of the Manhattan set, has a feature called Real Families, described on the site as “a personal-essay series that celebrates the surprising and ever-shifting nature of domestic life in the 21st century.”

“Surprise” is hardly the word for what I felt, though, when I came across an account of Salon’s latest “real life” in an article on Yahoo. It was, by turns, so depressing and exasperating, I hardly knew where to being writing about it.

The original story is headed, “Why I left my children”. Here is the gist of it. Read more…

Would it surprise anyone to find out that left-wing extremists believe that religious hospitals must perform abortions?

Uh… no, I doubt very much that would surprise anyone at all.

In fact, I doubt anyone would be at all surprised to learn that, as this article points out: Read more…

From the frc.org article:

A large and growing body of scientific evidence indicates that the intact, married family is best for children. In particular, the work of scholars David Popenoe, Linda Waite, Maggie Gallagher, Sara McLanahan, David Blankenhorn, Paul Amato, and Alan Booth has contributed to this conclusion.

This statement from Sara McLanahan, a sociologist at Princeton University, is representative: Read more…

A nice story.

by Carolyn Moynihan

Picture: Caters News Agency / Daily Mail

Another story in the mums-will-cut-off-their-right-arm-for-their-child tradition, with a happy ending for both.

The Daily Mail reports:

Victoria Webster, 33, was diagnosed with cancer during a routine blood test when she was 21 weeks pregnant. Read more…

by Rachel Campos-Duffy

During my appearance on “The View” this week, Barbara Walters asked me, “Did you ever think, ‘I wish I had a career and I didn’t have six kids?’ ”

It was a provocative question, especially since baby #6 was sitting on my lap at the time. I simply responded, “Being a mom is the best job in the world!”

Politico called the answer “diplomatic,” and National Review’s Kathryn Lopez tweeted that it was “graceful,” but I couldn’t help being disappointed with my response. Not that it wasn’t true -– being a mom is the best job in the world – but I felt that a question as culturally loaded as this one deserved a better answer, especially from someone who has written countless columns and an entire book on the subject of at-home motherhood and the sad fact that our culture does little to applaud or elevate this noble calling. Read more…

Kind of a fun, funny article. I’m with the author on this one.

by Mariette Ulrich

One hates to be cynical, but I often cringe when I see an article that begins with the words: “Psychologists have found…” Usually, they have found something that wasn’t lost. Or else they find something that works for some people, but not for others, or for some people some of the time, but not at other times. That’s not a discovery; that’s the breadth and scope of human experience.

“Men should concentrate on playing with their children and leave the care to women” the London Telegraph heading announces. Read more…

by Mariette Ulrich

According to this Wall Street Journal blog piece:

That’s the question of new, dueling research articles out in the February issue of the Journal of Marriage and Family, which try to explain the decline in marital happiness of some new mothers.

I don’t need a research article (never mind two) to answer that question. When I had my first baby, my “decline in marital happiness” could be summed up in one word: exhaustion. Chronic sleep deprivation can undo your sanity, never mind your relationships. But I’m being facetious. Overall, my marital happiness didn’t decline; it changed—into something richer, fuller, certainly more challenging, but ultimately soul-expanding. My marriage changed, but that’s what you can expect with any major life transformation, which parenthood undoubtedly is.

This line is slightly amusing: Read more…

Wow this really caught my attention:

Unemployed Father of 10 Having 5 More Children

The article is about a guy who’s fathered up to 15 kids by the age of 25. There are potentially ten women involved.

I am completely mystified as to why these women are willing to bear his children. He’s not handsome, he’s not rich, he’s not employed… what is the attraction for SO many woman toward one seemingly undesirable man?

Read more…

by Joshua Mercer

Last time Rachel Campos-Duffy was on The View, she announced that she was pregnant with baby number six.

Today, she returned to the show with her baby, named Maria Victoria. She also brought along her husband, Congressman-elect Sean Duffy (endorsed by CatholicVote.org PAC). Read more…

by Carolyn Moynihan

The “maternal brain” debate has spiked again with the release of a study showing increased grey matter in the brains of mothers who have recently given birth.

I am catching up with slightly old news, here, and although there were only 19 women involved in the (US) study it is an interesting counter to periodic reports that “women’s minds turn to mush during pregnancy and birth”, as the Telegraph puts it. Read more…

by Carolyn Moynihan

One of the most studied aspects of childhood in recent decades is early, non-maternal childcare. Research tends to show benefits for a child’s cognitive development but not for emotional wellbeing and behaviour. Now a study has found that youngsters are less likely to succeed at school if their mothers return to work within a year of their birth. Read more…

One consequence that is sure to follow from marriage redefinition is that courts will be yet more empowered to assign parental rights and responsibilities.

How wonderful that would be!

If we just allow biology to determine parental rights, what a disaster!  In disputed cases, we would send wet, messy biological samples to labs!  There, those samples will be analyzed by scientists.  Scientists who probably never took a humanities course in their lives!  How can we let people who don’t know the first thing about postmodern critical theory make decisions like that?  How would social justice be served?

And that’s not just in same sex cases, either.

Andrew Stuttaford discusses an article in which this frightening idea is aired: Read more…

I thought this was interesting enough to share. Anyone with children should take heed.

by Mary Rice Hasson

James, a teacher-friend of mine, lamented recently how “morally challenged” his high school students seem to be. “They don’t think twice about lying or slamming someone’s reputation. Cheating on tests is no big deal. They only worry if they’ll get caught.” Read more…