Illinois Federation for Right to Life

February 18, 2019

Kentucky Senate passes Heartbeat bill and House passes bill banning abortion if Roe v. Wade is overturned

By a vote of 31 to 6, the Kentucky Senate voted to pass SB9, known as a “heartbeat bill.” The bill will now go on to the Kentucky House. If it passes and is signed into law, it will restrict abortion once a preborn child’s heartbeat is detected. Then the Kentucky House passed a bill to ban nearly all abortions in the state only in the event that Roe v. Wade (the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide in 1973) is overturned. The bill would still allow for abortions in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother. The bill passed by a vote of 69 to 20 and will now head to the Senate.

However, many physicians and medical professionals have attested to the fact that there is no reason to deliberately take the life of a child in the womb through abortion at any stage. According to FOX News, Republican Rep. James Tipton said, “There is no other medical procedure that I know of that the goal is to intentionally take the life of an unborn child.”

Click here for more from Live Action News.

Planned Parenthood of Illinois to offer ‘free’ contraceptives. But what’s the real cost?

Planned Parenthood of Illinois has announced that affiliates across the state will offer free birth control for a year to women who cannot afford the cost. The program seems altruistic until you take a closer look at the contraceptives on offer to women in the program. The options include IUDs, vaginal rings, injectable birth control, and the pill. These forms of contraceptives carry significant health risks for women, both physical and mental, as hormonal contraception has been strongly linked to depression.

Several of these contraceptives can cause early abortions, a fact that many women prescribed these harmful drugs are not told. What is more, recent studies show that contraception is more likely to lead to abortion.

Click here for more from Live Action News.

Not pregnant? No problem. Abortion clinic sold abortions to non-pregnant women

It’s no secret that abortion is a profitable business. But according to one former abortion clinic manager, some abortion clinics are so driven by profit that they will lie to women, convincing them they're pregnant when they’re not simply in order to close the “sale” and maximize profit.

Carol Everett, who managed multiple abortion clinics over a space of several years before converting to the pro-life position in 1983, recently told Jonathon van Maren on The Van Maren Show, LifeSite's new weekly podcast, how her staff and abortionists would trick non-pregnant women into getting abortions.

Click here for more from Life Site News.

Trump commemorates Susan B. Anthony: She fought for rights of women and ‘innocent unborn babies’

Marking the birthdate of famed women’s suffrage advocate Susan B. Anthony, President Donald Trump praised her for advocating for “the founding principles of our Nation” and her pursuit of “equal rights...for all human life, including innocent unborn babies.”
Today is Anthony’s 199th birthday.

“She advocated tirelessly for life, liberty, and equality for all Americans, regardless of sex, and she is best remembered for her role in the women’s suffrage movement,” Trump said in a February 15 proclamation... “We must also never forget that Susan B. Anthony’s pursuit for equal rights demands respect for all human life, including innocent unborn babies.” “We must cherish innocent life, secure equal rights for all people, and relentlessly extend those protections to our most vulnerable.”

Click here for President Trump's full proclamation.

Click here for more from Life Site News.

February 15, 2019

This Week's News Links from around the Web

'Illinois is already the abortion capital of the Midwest,' Pro-Life advocate says

Mississippi passes bill banning abortions on babies with beating hearts

Massachusetts Democrats propose expanding late-term abortions, ending care for abortion survivors

Texas bill with over 40 cosponsors would ban abortions on babies with beating hearts

Mexican pro-life leader: abortion is making our people selfish, dehumanized

Tennessee pro-lifers introduce bill to criminalize abortion after Roe v. Wade falls

Vermont’s new abortion bill would allow ‘Gosnell-like’ clinics to run here, pro-lifers warn

Pro-lifers on the move in states to pass protective laws and thwart pro-abortion proposals

Ultrasound right-to-view measure would empower women

Missouri Supreme Court unanimously upholds state’s 72-hour waiting period against challenge by member of Satanic Temple

Midwife claims women aren’t told sex of their babies due to abortion fears

Vermont pushes new law as survey confirms late-term abortion opposition

Prediction: High court will one day face heartbeat bill

Missouri pro-lifers introduce bill requiring both parents to be notified for minors’ abortions

Lawmaker who delivered 5,000 babies: New York abortion law endangers mothers

Preborn baby’s amazing surgery, return to mother’s womb challenges the morality of abortion

Illinois poised to repeal parental notification, partial birth abortion laws

Victory for Pro-life Speech in New York

Woman seizing, unconscious at partial-birth abortion creator’s facility

Pro-life leaders hope Trump will back ‘fantastic’ SOTU comments with heartbeat, personhood bills

Her baby lived for two minutes after birth, and she has no regrets rejecting abortion

Assisted suicide bill advances in New Jersey

There’s no social justice without protecting unborn lives

I’m a member of Congress. Here’s why I’m pushing Democrats to ban infanticide

Man admits to causing nine women to unknowingly chemically abort

Wisconsin Right to Life is Ready to Work with Legislators to Protect Life

Disabled people like me fear legal assisted suicide suggests that some lives are less worth living

Louisiana’s “Unsafe Abortion Protection Act” is different than Texas’ HB2 and why that matters

Senate confirms Trump attorney general who opposes Roe v. Wade

The Senate voted 54-45 Thursday to confirm William Barr to become President Trump’s next attorney general, an appointment that is being debated over other issues but is encouraging to pro-lifers for his past comments recognizing Roe v. Wade as constitutionally bankrupt.

Trump asked for Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ resignation the day after the 2018 midterm elections, having long been dissatisfied with the pro-life appointee’s handling of both the Russia investigation and scandals involving the previous administration. A veteran of the CIA and Justice Department since the 1970s, Barr already held the position of Attorney General during the first Bush administration, for which the Senate confirmed him unanimously.

Click here for more from Life Site News.

February 14, 2019

CALL TO ACTION: Attack on the Unborn in Illinois

Ask your state legislators to vote against HB 2495 and HB 2467.

Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and Personal PAC have joined forces with Governor JB Pritzker and several lawmakers once again to eradicate any and all limits on killing babies in Illinois in the form of two bills; HB 2495 and HB 2467.

In fear of Roe v. Wade being overturned, they will do everything in their power to preserve the non-existent moral “right” to slaughter inconvenient and imperfect humans in Illinois. In a press conference on February 12th, they made their intentions clear - their bills will do the following:

- Repeal the Illinois Abortion Law of 1975 including criminal penalties on doctors who commit abortion

- Repeal the Partial Birth Abortion ban, which allows babies to be killed up to the time of birth

- Remove any and all regulations on clinics that commit abortion

- Repeal the Parental Notification Act of 1995

State Representative Emanuel Chris Welch (D-Westchester) is the chief sponsor of the HB 2467, a proposal to repeal the Parental Notice of Abortion Act of 1995. This law only requires notification—not consent. But pro-abortion advocates don’t want anything—not even parents—to hinder a child’s ability to have her baby killed. Liz Higgins, Planned Parenthood Associate Medical Director, stated, “Planned Parenthood and our partners are not going to let this become a country where people can no longer access abortion.” This includes our daughters. The government is once again interfering in familial relationships in order to advance Leftist “values.”

This must be stopped. Planned Parenthood and the ACLU will stop at nothing to achieve their body-and soul-destroying goals. If we fail to do everything in our power to block the passage of these bills, we become complicit in the destruction of countless more innocent lives.

This abortion extremism must be stopped! We don't want to follow in New York's footsteps!

Ask your state legislators to vote against HB 2495 and HB 2467.
Contact Gov. Pritzker and ask him to veto or not sign HB 2495 and HB 2467.

Click here for contact information for your Legislators
Click here for contact information for Gov. Pritzker

Illinois taxpayer-funded abortions increase by 1,758 percent in one year including abortions for 12 year-olds

News Channel 20 has reported that taxpayer-funded abortion numbers are on the rise in Illinois, according to data obtained they from the state of Illinois and that the increase coincides with the 2018 law allowing insurance to cover elective abortions for people on Medicaid and the state employee health insurance plan.

News Channel 20 further reported that a DHS spokesman said from January-June 2017 the state provided reimbursements for 84 procedures which is an increase of 1,477 cases, or 1,758 percent. The data from DHS further showed the youngest patients receiving taxpayer-funded abortions were 12-years-old and the oldest were 45.

OK lawmakers push 'logical' conclusion in pro-life bill

Pro-life lawmakers in Oklahoma are pushing legislation that would define an unborn life as a human being and define abortion as murder. The measure also warns that anyone involved in an abortion within the state borders of Oklahoma would be held liable for murder, the legislator advises.

That is the logical conclusion after defining life beginning from the moment of conception, state Sen. Joseph Silk tells OneNewsNow while pro-lifers naturally predict legal challenges and are aware that Oklahoma courts have not been friendly to the pro-life issue, but Silk says the same measure deals with that judicial opposition.

Click here for more from One News Now.

Mississippi Legislature passes bills banning abortion after detectable heartbeat

Both the Mississippi House and Senate passed ‘heartbeat bills’ on Wednesday, bills which would ban abortion after a heartbeat is detected in a preborn child, at approximately six weeks. The bill reportedly contains no exceptions for cases of rape, incest, etc. Other states considering similar legislation are, according to the Associated Press, Florida, Kentucky, Ohio, South Carolina and Tennessee.

Mississippi previously passed a 15-week abortion ban, which a judge struck down late last year. The state plans to appeal that decision to the Fifth Circuit.

Click here for more from Live Action News.

Democrats block bill to stop infanticide for sixth time in Congress

Democrats in the House of Representatives on Monday evening blocked another vote on the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act to guarantee medical care for newborns who survive attempted abortions, marking the fifth instance in the House and the sixth overall. Last week Democrat Sen. Patty Murray of Washington blocked an attempt in the Senate, as well. Republican Rep. Jackie Walorski of Indiana made the fifth attempt to get a vote on the bill Wednesday afternoon.

Republicans have called for the bill to be passed by unanimous consent, under which a bill automatically passes if no senator objects, as well as for roll-call votes to be held. In the Democrat-controlled House, Rep. Ann Wagner and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise plan to file a discharge petition to force a vote, under which it will receive a vote regardless of leaders’ opposition if it gets the signatures of least 218 House members, a simple majority.

Click here for more from Life Site News.

February 13, 2019

Speak Out Illinois 2019

Click here to register online.

LIVE 4-D Ultrasounds on Times Square Jumbo Screen: 'No Way a Person's Going to Be Able to Say That's Not a Child'

In a bold response to the decision of New York and other states to legalize abortion up until the moment of birth, Focus on the Family is gearing up to blast live ultrasounds on monitors and screens across Times Square.

"We'll have great speakers. We're going to have music, but we're also going to do a live ultrasound of a third-trimester baby," Focus on the Family President Jim Daly explained.

"And with the 4-D technology that we have, it looks like a picture of a 1-year-old," he noted. "There is no way a person is going to be able to say, 'That is not a child.' It is a child and we want everybody to see it."

Click here for more from CBN.

Ban on aborting babies with heartbeats reintroduced in Ohio as new governor stands ready to sign

Pro-lifers in the Ohio legislature moved Tuesday to reintroduce a bill protecting preborn babies with beating hearts from abortions, confident it will finally become law now that Mike DeWine has replaced John Kasich as governor.

Senate Bill 23 is virtually identical to legislation unsuccessfully pushed last year, which would ban aborting any baby with a detectable heartbeat, except in cases of a physical threat to the mother. Preborn babies’ heartbeats can be detected around six weeks into pregnancy; violating physicians would face up to a year in prison.

Click here for more from Life Site News.

House Republicans push for legislation to force abortion doctors to save babies they fail to kill

Conservative lawmakers in the House are trying to force a vote on a bill protecting babies born alive after abortion, after a Democrat in the Senate last week blocked Republicans in the upper chamber from passing similar legislation by unanimous consent.

Using a procedural tactic know as a discharge petition, House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., and Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Mo., want to force a floor vote on the legislation that protects babies born alive during an abortion. Wagner, who has introduced the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, said in a statement, "To my colleagues, this is the simplest vote you will ever take: either you support babies being killed after they are born or you don't."

Click here for more from Life Site News.

February 12, 2019

Democratic Lawmakers plan to introduce Legislation to repeal Pro-Life Provisions in Illinois

The Chicago Sun times reported today that four Democratic lawmakers plan to introduce legislation (The Reproductive Health Act) this week that would repeal several decades-old abortion-related provisions in Illinois state law and is backed by the American Civil Liberties of Illinois and Planned Parenthood of Illinois.

One bill would introduce language that treats abortion as health care, another repeals the Partial Birth Abortion ban, yet another bill (that has already been blocked by the courts) would repeal a provision that provides for criminal penalties for doctors providing abortion care to patients.

State Rep. Kelly Cassidy, D-Chicago, plans to sponsor the Reproductive Health Act, State Sen. Melinda Bush, D-Grayslake, plans to carry the health act provision in the Illinois Senate. State Rep. Emanuel “Chris” Welch, D-Hillside, and State Sen. Elgie Sims, D-Chicago, plan to carry the parental notice measure.

Massachusetts set to follow New York in expanding third trimester abortion

After New York State passed one of the most expansive and and sweeping abortion laws in the country, Massachusetts is poised to follow in its footsteps. The Remove Obstacles and Expand Abortion Access Act, or the ROE Act, would extend the ability to procure an abortion in Massachusetts after 24 weeks, as well as remove key protections for viable babies that survive abortions. The law also broadens the meaning of a mother’s health to include mental health and removes the section of Massachusetts law requiring a minor to get parental consent before having an abortion.

Current law in Massachusetts permits abortions after 24 weeks only in cases of a “grave impairment of her physical or mental health.” The proposed law would remove any limitations or qualifier. Section 12P of the existing law specifically includes protection for babies who survive an abortion procedure with a requirement for life-saving equipment to be on hand in cases for abortions of viable babies. The proposed law specifically deletes this requirement, thus opening the door to de facto infanticide of viable babies surviving abortion.

Click here for more from Live Action News.

Mexico’s pro-life movement wins initial victory against abortion

Porfirio Muñoz Ledo, the head of Mexico's Chamber of Deputies,

introduced a bill to legalize abortion

Pro-lifers made a stand against the government’s effort to amend Mexico’s constitution and allow abortion and same-sex “marriage.”

Porfirio Muñoz Ledo, who leads Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies, introduced a bill last week to reform the constitution that would not only legalize abortion throughout the largely Catholic nation but also permit same-sex “marriage” and euthanasia and also legalize narcotics.

Click here for more from Life Site News.

February 11, 2019

Arkansas Senate passes bill to ban most abortions once Roe v. Wade falls

Republican State Sen. Jason Rapert,

sponsor of the Arkansas Human Life Protection Act

SB 149, the Arkansas Human Life Protection Act, declares it is “time for the United States Supreme Court to redress and correct the grave injustice and the crime against humanity which is being perpetuated by their decisions in Roe v. Wade, Doe v. Bolton, and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.” The Act cites post-1973 advancements in embryology, additional knowledge of abortion’s harm to women, safe haven laws that mean women don’t have to raise babies they give birth to, and increased support for adoption.

The Act provides that after Roe’s central holding is either overruled “in whole or in part” by the Supreme Court, or nullified by an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, legal abortion will be “abolished” in the state except to save a pregnant woman’s life from a “physical disorder, physical illness, or physical injury.”

Click here for more from Life Site News.

New Mexico House passes ‘most extreme’ pro-abortion bill in America

On Wednesday the New Mexico House of Representatives joined a wave of states passing measures meant to insulate abortion-on-demand from future Supreme Court rulings, with a bill critics are calling the most radical of its kind to date.

HB-51 is the most extreme bill in the nation because it keeps elective abortion-up-to-birth, and also seeks to force medical professionals to participate in this practice by stripping away explicit conscience protections from the current statute.

Click here for more from Life Site News.

9 senators seek to halt US funding to pro-abortion orgs in Latin America

Nine U.S. senators sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in December demanding an end to public funding to two organizations that promote abortion in Latin America.

The letter notes that it’s against U.S. law for tax dollars to be going to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and the Inter-American Commission on Women (Comisión Interamericana sobre la Mujer - CIM) because these bodies promote abortion and said that the Siljander amendment to the Foreign Assistance and Related Programs Appropriations Act of 1981 specifies that “no U.S. funds appropriated under the Foreign Operations Appropriations Act may be used to lobby for or against abortion.”

Click here for more from Life Site News.

World Health Organization sneaks pro-abortion language into resolutions

The United States pushed back on attempts to insert abortion into the World Health Organization's resolution on universal health coverage at the agency's just concluded executive board meeting.

The executive board adopted the resolution on February 1st. The issue has become a priority for UN agencies.

The resolution mentioned existing international commitments to provide "universal access to sexual and reproductive health care services" and "integration of reproductive health into national strategies and programs." This sparked intense closed-door debate. After its adoption, the United States dissociated itself from "reproductive health terminology" which "has evolved to include abortion." The U.S. delegate's statement explained that such language has been used to pressure countries to change their abortion laws and normalize teenage sexual activity.

Click here for more from Life Site News.

Supreme Court puts Louisiana admitting privileges law on hold

On a 5-4 vote Court grants procedural stay

Justices Kavanaugh and Gorsuch Would Have Allowed the Law to Go Into Effect

Louisiana State Rep. Katrina Jackson (D-Monroe),

who authored the admitting privileges law.

On Thursday the U.S. Supreme Court granted a Shreveport, Louisiana abortion facility’s emergency stay request, further delaying Louisiana’s attempt to enforce Act 620. The 2014 law requires abortion physicians to have admitting privileges at a local hospital. Thursday’s order from the high court means the law will be stayed pending full briefing on the question of whether the Supreme Court should grant certiorari for a full review of the case.

Attorneys for the Shreveport abortion facility asked the Supreme Court to issue the emergency stay in January, just days before the law was set to take effect. The stay comes after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the law last fall, then refused the abortion industry’s attempt to have the full court rehear the case. The abortion attorneys have indicated their intention to file a petition for certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking the Supreme Court’s full review of the law.

Click here for more from NRL News Today.