Ruth Institute Blog

by Carolyn Moynihan

A White House edict tells us to ignore our conscience when we go to work. Bernie Madoff should ask for a retrial.

If there is one thing that disaffection with “Wall Street” has achieved it is the ramping up of moral discourse. Not since the Great Depression, probably, have we heard so much about greed, corruption and injustice. But if you want people to be temperate, honest and just, they have to have two things: firm principles and a functioning conscience. How surprising, then, that the New York Times thinks we need neither. Read more…

by Charlie Butts

A group of nurses threatened with termination are setting the record straight after the hospital where they are employed denied forcing them to train and participate in abortions. Read more…

by Helen Alvaré

October 19, 2011 http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2011/10/4155

New York Times reporter Linda Greenhouse refuses to see the truth about contraception, conscience, and religious liberty.

I wouldn’t be the first to question the judgment of New York Times‘ former Supreme Court reporter, Linda Greenhouse. That’s already been done by National Public Radio, the New York Times‘ public editor Byron Calame, and a member of the executive committee of the Pulitzer Prize Board, on account of Ms. Greenhouse’s penchant for bouts of very public, very raw, and quite emotional political partisanship, even while she was a “hard news” reporter for the Times. Now, as an “opinionator,” she’s grown worse. Read more…

by Matthew Schmitz

This Thursday the Council of Europe, a transnational body created in 1949 to promote democracy and human rights, will vote on a resolution and series of recommendations on conscience protection. Americans, who faced similar issues during the debate over the health care overhaul, will find much of interest in the resolution. It would create guidelines that encourage member states to force doctors to perform abortions in some circumstances and to make referrals for them in every circumstance. Drafted by the pro-abortion British parliamentarian Christine McCafferty, it is an all-out assault on conscience and community. Read more…

Here’s more from the author of ‘Plan C for Conscience,’ since that post garnered so much attention here and elsewhere. Here’s her take on the reactions her previous article received. Be sure not to miss the last few paragraphs. They’re key.

by Cristina Alarcon

Pharmacists dispense advice to a colleague who will not sell the morning after pill.

I recently wrote an article expressing my delight that Washington State pharmacists will no longer be forced to dispense products or provide services they find morally objectionable. My elation at the Washington victory was quickly numbed, however, when an edited version ran as a “Point of View” on the Canadian Healthcare Network website. It is one thing for the public to oppose our freedom of conscience, quite another for pharmacists to be shooting themselves in the foot. Read more…

Way to go, Dr. Sang-duk Shim and the doctors who have joined you to fight abortion in Korea. Way to be courageous despite opposition on many fronts.

From Mercatornet.com

A Korean gynaecologist explains why he abandoned a lucrative procedure and is campaigning to reduce abortions.

South Korea has one of the highest rates of abortion in the world, even though abortion is technically illegal there except in a few rare circumstances. According to official government figures, there are 340,000 abortions each year, although one parliamentarian has estimated that there may be as many as 1.5 million. At the same time, Korea’s birth rate is the second-lowest in the world – 1.19 births per woman — and some Koreans fear that their very survival as a nation is in doubt.

That is the background for a courageous decision by a 50-year-old Seoul obstetrician and gynaecologist, Dr Sang-duk Shim, to stop doing abortions and to lobby the government for a dramatic reduction. He has even received death threats for his stand. MercatorNet conducted this email interview with him: Read more…