Articles About My Vaccine Issue With The Coast Guard

The U.S. Coast Guard recently granted my request for a religious exemption from receiving the Hepatitis A vaccine, which is derived from cells obtained in the abortion of a healthy 14-week old baby. I am a practicing Catholic, and the Church teaches that all life is sacred, from conception to a natural death, and I think it is wrong to use aborted babies in medical research.

The Coast Guard initially denied my request, stating that receiving the vaccine was not against my faith, but after a lawsuit filed on my behalf by the Alliance Defense Fund (http://www.telladf.org/), the authorities reconsidered my request and ended up granting it.

Here's a great quote from the WND news article: "[Healy] said the decision "is consistent with the Coast Guard's mission to save human lives from dangers at sea; in this case, those in danger are the unborn babies in the turbulent waters of their mothers' wombs.""

My special thanks go out to Debi Vinnedge (http://www.cogforlife.org/), Matt Bowman (Alliance Defense Fund), and all of the many hundreds of people who offered their prayers and words of encouragement throughout this case.

Here are some news stories about my case:

WorldNetDaily.com: http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=64230
Catholic News Agency: http://catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=12647
LifeSiteNews.com: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/may/08051301.html
LifeNews.com: http://www.lifenews.com/nat3924.html
Catholic World News: http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=58527
Children of God for Life: http://www.cogforlife.org/militaryexemptionallowed.htm
Alliance Defense Fund: http://www.alliancedefensefund.org/news/story.aspx?cid=4509
FRC Action: http://www.frcaction.org/get.cfm?i=WA08E13#WA08E13
The Source Daily: http://tinyurl.com/4rl2c6

Blogs:

Theoreo: http://theoreo.wordpress.com/2008/05/13/128/
Transfigurations: http://transfigurations.blogspot.com/2008/05/coast-guard-relents-allows-officer-to.html
St. Louis Catholic: http://stlouiscatholic.blogspot.com/2008/05/military-allows-religious-exemption-to.html
The Shepherds' Journey: http://www.shepherdsjourney.com/jaysblog/2008/05/coast-guard-allows-officer-to-refuse.html
Scout.com: http://forums.scout.com/mb.aspx?S=7&F=1405&T=2471251&P=1#s=7&f=1405&t=2471251
iFeminists: http://www.ifeminists.net/e107_plugins/enews/enews.php?item.9962.3