Catholic Church Leaders Vow to 'Take to the Streets' As They Declare War on Obama over Birth Control
MAIL ONLINE: Reform law demands free birth control to be provided at Catholic hospitals and universities / Catholics make up quarter of U.S. population / Some now rethinking vote come election time

Prominent Catholic leaders across the U.S. have threatened to turn voters against President Obama over his controversial plans to offer free birth control.

The fight is over a provision of the health reform law announced on January 20 that would require health insurance plans -- including those offered by institutions such as Catholic-affiliated hospitals and universities -- to offer free birth control including sterilization.

According to estimates, there are some 70 million Catholic voters – and many could be posed to vote against the president in the crucial upcoming election.

Catholic League head Bill Donohue said: ‘Never before, unprecedented in American history, for the federal government to line up against the Roman Catholic Church,’ CBS New York reported.

'This is going to be fought out with lawsuits, with court decisions and, dare I say it, maybe even in the streets.' Read on and comment » | Daily Mail Reporter | Tuesday, February 07, 2012

How the New Zealand PM Silenced the Press with News of His Vasectomy
THE GUARDIAN: New Zealand's prime minister John Key has revealed he's had the snip - and left his audience in embarrassed silence

As a nation, we can let out a well-repressed sigh of relief. There is a country even more prudish about things "down below" than us. John Key, New Zealand's prime minister, has reportedly "silenced a room full of press" by informing them that he'd had – brace yourselves – a vasectomy.

Proceedings ground to a clanging halt as the press mentally processed this horrifying image of the leader of a powerful nation (well, New Zealand) willingly submitting to "the snip".

"Boy, that's slowed things down. Any other questions?" asked the PM, eager to get back to the subject of the press conference: funding for early childhood education centres (he had been asked if his views would change if he were to have another child). But clearly that wasn't going to work – after a pause, the next question was, inevitably: "Did it hurt?" "Not overly," was the measured response. >>> Jon Robins | Tuesday, June 01, 2010

Related: Nick It, Snip It, Cut It >>>

Catholic Backlash at Cherie Blair's Speech to Students over Views on Birth Control
MAIL Online: An invitation to Cherie Blair to speak at a university set up by the Vatican has been met by a storm of protest because of her views on contraception.

The Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas in Rome is surprised by the backlash against the decision to invite the Catholic wife of the former Prime Minister to speak on human rights.

The university has received more than 200 complaints over the talk by Mrs Blair, who admitted in her autobiography Speaking For Myself that she used birth control.

In a TV interview earlier this year, Mrs Blair – whose husband Tony converted to Catholicism last December – declared: ‘I can still be a good Catholic girl and use contraceptives.’ >>> By Nick Pisa and Daniel Boffey | December 7, 2008

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