Guttmacher Report Shows Significant Abortion Decrease

The Guttmacher Institute is a pro-abortion organization that publishes a report every few years detailing developments in the number and kinds of abortions taking place in the United States. Its most recent report (which shows information up to 2017) showed a 7% decrease in abortion between 2014 and 2017. For context, the institute found 862,000 abortion occurred in 2017, 926,000 in 2014 and 1. 6 million in 1990. This is still a very large number of abortions, but it is also nearly half of its all-time high now. However, 18.4% of pregnancies still ended in abortion in 2017. The study also notes that fertility rates decreased between the years 2014 and 2017.

The report has statistics regarding the usage of different abortion methods and changes in the number of abortion providers. Click here for more.

Stem Cell Researcher Testifies Only Hearts from Live Babies Can be Used in Research

David Daleiden

Dr. Theresa Deisher testified on behalf of the defense as an expert witness on September 18th, the final day of preliminary hearings for the illegal recording lawsuit against undercover journalists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt. Deisher testified that Daleiden contacted her in 2012 to inquire about a Stanford University Study from that year using fetal tissue provided by StemExpress. He wanted to know if researchers would have required hearts harvested from living babies. Deisher told him in 2012 that this was true and repeated this in her testimony on Wednesday.

She testified that a heart “has to be beating and be arrested in a relaxed position” for researchers to harvest a heart that is useful for research. “Once the heart goes into contraction, you can’t get it to come out of that position,” she said. She also testified that Daleiden called her several times during his investigation to learn the science of stem cell research and its vocabulary. Click here for more.

Detroit Police Harasses Pro-Life Protesters During Democratic Debate

The pro-life organization Created Equal is suing the city of Detroit for violating their constitutional right to protest outside during a Democratic presidential debate. The encounter culminated with the handcuffing of a protestor and the threat to arrest him and other protestors unless they agreed to leave. You can watch footage recorded by the protestors above and read more by clicking here.

Abortionist Takes Stand in Defense of Undercover Journalists

Dr. Forrest Smith, one of the longest-practicing abortionists in the United States, testified Wednesday on behalf of David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt. He testified that the Center for Medical Progress videos recorded by the undercover journalists indicate that abortion providers were purposefully altering abortion procedures to collect intact fetal organs in ways that were harmful to women, and likely resulted in babies being killed after they were removed from the womb.

“There’s no question in my mind that at least some of these fetuses were live births,” Smith said. He testified that Planned Parenthood's definition of "fetal demise" was very loose and did not correctly identify when a child was actually dead. He commented that the removed limbs, a removed umbilical cord, a clamped cord, lack of pulsation in the umbilical cord, no breathing, and no movement were all definitions he had seen used by Planned Parenthood, but none of them completely ruled out a living fetus because they didn't include a heartbeat. He went as far as to say that some Planned Parenthood from the prosecution likely didn't know they were delivering live fetuses because of their definitions, and they were guilty of killing fetuses "by neglect." Click here to read more about Dr. Smith's testimony.

Daleiden Testified he Filed Murder Charges Against Planned Parenthood

David Daleiden

On Sep. 18th, David Daleiden testified in court that he filed criminal charges against Planned Parenthood and several fetal tissue harvesting companies before releasing videos of undercover conversations with abortionists. Daleiden is facing charges for illegally recording supposedly confidential conversations, but California law states that in cases where one has a reasonable belief that they are investigating violent crimes privacy law cannot be applied. Testimony about these charges and conversations with police were meant to show Daleiden's state of mind during his investigation. Judge Hite, however, ruled it inadmissible.

Judge Hite stated that because Daleiden did not file his report with the El Dorado Attorney General until after he recorded the videos, it was irrelevant to the charges he is facing. Meetings that Daleiden had with El Dorado law enforcement officers during his investigation were not ruled out, however. Read more about Daleden's testimony from that day here.

Oklahoma Judge Refuses to Delay Ban on Dismemberment Abortion

An Oklahoma law banning dismemberment abortion was passed in 2015, but it has faced legal trouble ever since then. The Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act was upheld in court on July 12 and has now also survived a motion for a temporary injunction from the Center for Reproductive Rights. It is very close to being the law of the land in Oklahoma, but it still awaits the conclusion of an emergency motion in another court case involving the Tulsa's Women's clinic.

Dismemberment abortion involves tearing limbs off an unborn child one-by-one until the remaining pieces of the body are easier to remove from the mother's womb. This process is the most common method for second-trimester abortions. Click here for more.

Judge Rejects Request to Quash Search Warrant Against Daleiden

On September 16, Judge Christopher C. Hite issued a ruling stating that the search warrant issued against Daleiden would not be quashed because the California eavesdropping law does not contain exceptions for journalistic activities. He also said there was, “sufficient probable cause in the warrant that Daleiden was engaged in criminal activity irrespective of his journalistic status and that the items seized were related to the criminal activity."

The defense for Daleiden and Merritt also requested a Franks hearing on Friday. This procedure would investigate whether the information provided by the police to obtain a warrant included false statements from an officer. The defense argued that DOJ special agent Cardwell was pressured by planned parenthood to serve the warrant and did not provide complete information to the judge when requesting it. He left out, for example, the fact that several conversations were recorded in public places where there could be no assumption of confidentiality. Furthermore, defense lawyer Brent Ferreira stated that the defense collected statements from at least two Department of Justice agents who were willing to testify that the entire operation was political.

Despite all of this, Judge Hite ruled there was insufficient essence to justify a Franks hearing. Click here for more.

California Bill Would Require State Colleges to Provide Abortion Pills

Gov. Gavin Newsom

A bill requiring University of California and California State University campuses to provide abortion pills to students is awaiting the signature of Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has already expressed his approval. A similar bill was vetoed by the previous governor Jerry Brown because he believed there were enough abortion facilities in the state that there wasn't an issue with students' access to abortion.

Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, had this to say:

"California legislators are recklessly experimenting with students’ lives and health by advancing a plan to force school health centers to become abortion vendors, pushing chemical abortion pills to force an intentional miscarriage. These Toilet Bowl Abortions would create havoc on campuses, as girls are sent to their dorm bathrooms to bleed and pass an aborted infant in a toilet, without medical supervision or assistance. Why would California schools want to expose their students and their universities to that kind of deadly risk?"

The governor has until October 13 to decide if he wants to sign this version of the bill. Click here for more. 

Dignity in Dying Video Promotes Assisted Suicide by Portraying Hospice as Torture

Dignity in Dying Scotland recently released a video to go along with a report titled "The Inescapable Truth," in which a young boy asks his mother how his grandfather died. As she describes his cancer and the process of putting him in hospice care, the video cuts to jarring shots of the grandfather writhing in pain asking to "make it stop" while the mother watched and cried. The report claims that 17 people die in this way each day and advertises assisted suicide as the solution to this problem.

Videos like these only serve to pressure scared or depressed individuals into feeling like they should choose suicide over palliative care. We can't allow propaganda like this to make anyone's life feel worthless. Click here for more.

Conversations with Fetal Tissue Procurement Technician Motivated Daleiden to Investigate Abortionists

Holly O'Donnell
Credit: Center for Medical Progress

David Daleiden testified on Monday that his reasoning for beginning his undercover investigation into members of the abortion industry was spurred by a former tissue procurement technician at StemExpress. He testified that in October 2013, he contacted Holly O'Donnell via Facebook message to inquire about StemExpress procedures. He attempted to show a video clip of O'Donnell talking about her experiences, but it was deemed inadmissible due to editing. Daleiden instead testified her story.

O'Donnell told Daleiden that she witnessed her supervisor tap on the heart of an intact fetus and watched it beat for "about 30 to 50 seconds" before having O'Donnell cut through the fetus's face to harvest the brain. O'Donnell soon left that job sadly died of multiple health challenges in 2018 at the age of 27.

His discussion with O'Donnell led Daleiden to believe that StemExpress and Planned Parenthood Mar Monte committed homicide on live babies. Click here for more.

Daleiden Begins Testimony on Undercover Journalism Operation

Undercover Journalist for the Center for Medical Progress David Daleiden took the stand for the first time Monday to testify as a defendant in a case regarding an illegal taping lawsuit in California. He began to detail many of the interactions that he had with members of the abortion industry while posing as a graduate student researching stem cells. He was told by lawyers before starting the operation that the taping would be considered legal under California law if it was done in public spaces where conversations couldn't be considered confidential or if he had a reasonable belief that he was gathering evidence of violent crimes.

Under oath, he discussed conversations with abortion doctors who admitted to selling fetal tissue when he expressed the desire to gather fetal specimen donations. He testified that an abortionist named Perrin Larton from an organization called Advanced Bioscience Resources told him that she was performing abortions for the purpose of harvesting fetal organs. The conversations led Daleden to believe that the organs were harvested from babies who were born alive in order to harvest tissue more effectively.

He also spoke about conversations his co-defendant Sandra Merritt had with other doctors in the abortion industry. They admitted to purposefully altering abortion procedures in order to obtain completely intact bodies when removing fetuses from their mothers' wombs. Abortion consultant Ruth Arick admitted to employing over-dilation as a method of procuring intact bodies and even stated that this was "a risk to women." This confirms that these abortion disregard the health of the women asking for abortions for the sake of profiting from organ sales. Daleiden's testimony will continue today. Click here for more.

New Federal Program Allocates $9 Million to Support Rural Pregnant Women

A new federal program aimed at offering prenatal and obstetrical care to pregnant women in rural areas was announced by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The Rural Maternity and Obstetrics Management Strategies (RMOMS) program will fund Texas, Missouri, and New Mexico health care services by testing models for services that might someday be implemented on a larger scale.

Hospital-based OB services are unavailable in roughly half of the rural counties in the United States, so this should be welcome for many women who don't have access to nearby care at all. It also becomes more difficult for Planned Parenthood to argue that defunding it would decrease women's access to health care. Click here for more.

Disabled Woman Jokingly Asks Assisted Suicide Donations. "No Single Person Said No."

Alex Luyckx

Samantha Connor, a wheelchair-bound woman, was protesting the premiere of a pro-suicide film titled "Me Before You," in which a wealthy man commits assisted suicide after becoming disabled to not burden his girlfriend and allow her to "live boldly." She was with about 15 other protestors at the time and decided to make what she thought would just be a joke.

“Because I’m completely hilarious I had a giant tin that said ‘Send Me to a Swiss Suicide Clinic’ and I rattled the tin after we’d finished our tiny protest, in jest, thinking that I was being funny." Initially, it was funny, but over time it became far more somber. "We took our tin and rattled it and over the course of the next hour, the smiles faded from our faces, because no single person said ‘no’.” Donators state that they would also want to die if they were in a wheelchair. Click here for more.

2,246 Unborn Babies' Bodies Found at Deceased Abortionist's Illinois Home

Ulrich Klopfer

The bodies of 2,246 unborn children were found at the home of recently-deceased abortionist Dr. Ulrich Klopfer in Will County, Illinois. Klopfer committed abortions at several abortion clinics around South Bend Indiana until his abortion license expired in 2016. The bodies were discovered by Klopfer's attorney while he was going through Klopfer's property. He called the Will County Coroner's office to have them properly removed.

The Will County Sheriff's office issued a press release stating, “The family is cooperating fully with this investigation. There is no evidence that any medical procedures were conducted at the property.” If there is no evidence indicating abortions were committed on his property, then it becomes more likely that the bodies were transported from the Indiana abortion facilities at which he worked. Click here for more.

Department of Justice Agent Changes Testimony Regarding Letter

California DOJ Agent Brian Cardwell
Photo Credit: Jim Hale / LifeSiteNews

On Tuesday, September 10 Department of Justice special agent Brian Cardwell testified under oath that he saw a letter from Obama Attorney General Loretta Lynch to then California Attorney General Kamala Harris requesting that Harris start an investigation of pro-life journalists. On Friday, September 30, he took back that statement, saying the letter he saw was not from Lynch. It was likely an already-known letter from Reps. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill.; Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif.; Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y.; and Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y that was sent to both the Federal and State Attorney Generals.

Peter Breen, a lawyer for David Daleiden, had this about the incident: “[The change in testimony] doesn’t in any way diminish the fact that this is a political prosecution and everyone knows it." Click here for more.

20,000 Pro-Lifers Held Silent Protest in front of Ireland Government Buildings

On September 6, approximately 20,000 Northern Ireland protestors marched to parliament buildings to hold a silent protest of the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Act 2019. The legislation requires Northern Ireland to make a provision for abortion laws if its government does not assemble before October 21, 2019.

The protestors silently held lights for six minutes to represent the six counties of Northern Ireland, none of which were represented in the vote for this legislation. “We want our silence to say two things," said Sarah Crutchley, a spokeswoman for the pro-life event. "...First, we, as the people of Northern Ireland, were not asked about this change in legislation, and that it actually goes against public opinion here, and that every sitting MP from Northern Ireland voted against this change, and that the unborn children, they have no voice, they cannot speak so they were not considered in this legislation.”

Click here for more.

Facebook Prompts Investigation of Abortionist "Fact Checkers"

Credit: www.shopcatalog.com

Facebook removed restrictions on pro-life news source Live Action on Wednesday and prompted the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) to start an investigation on the abortion advocates who falsely claimed a Live Action post was "false news."

The "fact check" was applied to two Live Action videos which claimed abortion was never medically necessary. They back up this claim by saying that in situations where the life of the mother is in danger, doctors can avoid purposefully killing a baby by simply performing a preterm delivery. In these cases, the preterm children can still be given a chance to live without being purposefully killed by a doctor.

After Facebook contacted the IFCN, the IFCN issued a statement saying that it will conduct a transparent investigation of the fact-checkers. To read more about this story, including the IFCN's description of its investigation procedure, click here.

North Dakota Abortion Pill Reversal Notification Law Blocked by Federal Judge

On Tuesday, September 10, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction against a North Dakota law requiring that parents be notified about abortion pill reversal after their daughter starts the abortion pill regiment. Doctors have stated that high doses of progesterone, if taken soon after the first part of the two-part abortion pill regiment, can safely stop the abortion process.

In Judge Daniel Hovland's ruling, he stated,

"State legislatures should not be mandating unproven medical treatments, or requiring physicians to provide patients with misleading and inaccurate information. The provisions of H.B. 1336 violate a physician’s right not to speak and go far beyond any informed consent laws addressed by the United States Supreme Court, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, or other courts to date."

The law does not mandate the treatment, and there are many doctors that attest to the effectiveness of abortion pill reversal. Hundreds of children have been saved by the practice already. Click here for more.

Online Abortion Pill Seller Sues FDA After it Blocks Sales

The FDA intervened in the sale of dangerous abortion drugs over the internet and is facing a lawsuit as a result.

Rebecca Gomperts owns an online abortion pill business in Europe and was selling mifepristone and misoprostol to women who contacted her on the internet. The drug is used to complete early-stage medical abortions, but this online process did not include the approval of a physician. Illegal online sales of abortion-inducing drugs have been linked to forced abortions. Even without being sold illegally, the drugs have been linked to complications or death in some cases.

Gomperts and her lawyer claim that the FDA is using its power to bully her and reduce access to abortion for women in rural states, but the FDA says this action was taken purely to protect women's' safety. A representative of the agency had this to say in an interview with NPR.

“FDA remains very concerned about the sale of unapproved mifepristone for medical termination of early pregnancy on the Internet or via other channels for illegal importation because this bypasses important safeguards designed to protect women’s health,”

Click here for more.

Republicans Hear Testimony at Minority Hearing for Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act

43 Congress members gathered at a minority hearing to hear moving testimony from several sources about children left to die after an abortion procedure fails. Republican Congress members rallied together and signed a discharge petition designed to force a vote on the Born-Alive Survivors Protection Act, a bill brought forward by Representative Ann Wagner from Missouri requiring healthcare practitioners to provide the same level of care to children born when abortions fail as they would to other children born at the same gestational age.

The testimony included a story from Jill Stanek, a nurse who in 1999 found a baby with down syndrome abandoned in a utility room after a late-term abortion failed. The discharge petition currently has 201 signatures, but 218 are required to force a vote on the bill. You can watch the full testimony below or click here to read more.

California DOJ Agent Testified that Investigation was Sparked by Letter from Loretta Lynch

[Note: This agent took the stand again since this testimony and stated that there was no letter from Loretta Lynch. This is likely true because the defense would have received this letter as part of court proceedings and they did not. He was likely referring to a letter from several members of US Congress instead.]

On September 10, testimony in the ongoing legal case against pro-life undercover journalists showed that the investigation was sparked by a letter from Loretta Lynch, the Attorney General under Obama's administration. California Department of Justice agent Brian Cardwell testified that Lynch wrote to Kamala Harris, who was California's Attorney General at the time, asking that she investigate David Daleiden, Sandra Harris, and the Center for Medical Progress. "We've always said it was a political prosecution, but hearing that Loretta Lynch was the one that instigated it, that's a huge, huge factor," David Breen said in an interview with LifeSiteNews. David Breen is a defense attorney for David Daleiden.

Lynch's letter led to the current prosecution of the journalists for 15 counts of illegally taping confidential conversations. They could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted. Click here for more.

San Francisco Attorney General Moved to Silence Coverage of Testimony in Daleiden Trial.

Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Deputy Attorney General Johnette Jauron filed a motion on September 10 to place a gag order against the lawyers of the undercover journalists defending against a privacy lawsuit. In the preliminary hearings for the case against David Daleiden and Sandra Merrit, several pro-life news sources have been covering the story intently, and LifeSiteNews has been filming video interviews with lawyers on the defense team to get their takes on each day's events. The prosecution claims that the coverage was causing undue stress to the "victims" (the Planned Parenthood prosecution). Thankfully, this request was denied by the judge in the hearing that took place on September 11.

The prosecution cited an incident of road rage involving one of the Planned Parenthood witnesses, but could not back up the claim that the incident was caused by pro-life coverage of the proceedings. The Planned Parenthood witnesses are already referenced with "Doe" pseudonyms to protect their identities in public coverage. Luckily, the right to a public trial was protected in this instance. Click here for more.

Judge Says Testimony on Whether Live Babies Were Born and Harvested for Parts is Irrelevant

U.S. District Court Judge William Orrick dealt with procedural matters in the upcoming jury trial of undercover journalists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt. Planned Parenthood is prosecuting them for recording conversations about the sale of human body parts that they claim were confidential under California law. Orrick stated on Tuesday that whether “videos exposed illegal conduct, or whether Planned Parenthood affiliates made a profit from selling fetal tissue, or whether there were any live births during abortion...not particularly relevant to these proceedings."

The journalists' legal team planned to bring forth evidence and witnesses to prove several of those points and argued against this ruling. They say that these points are important to the case because California privacy law excludes recordings related to violent conduct. If a baby was born alive and then killed so that its heart could be sold to Stanford, that would be considered a violent crime and could theoretically acquit the journalists.

Orrick responded that these details, which apparently aren't considered proven, are "not as important or not important at all, as far as what is actually done." He said the only thing the jury will concern themselves with is, "were the defendants allowed to do the things they actually did." Click here for more.

Two Planned Parenthood Facilities in Ohio Close After Losing Funding

Jill Stanek

Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio recently announced that the Springdale Health Center and Western Hills Health Center in West Price Hill will close by September 20. The two clinics in the Cincinnati area could not keep their doors open after losing Title X funding just a month ago. In 2016, Ohio defunded Planned Parenthood from several state programs as well, making operations even more difficult for them.

According to a story from Cincinnati.com, neither of the clinics even performed abortions, but because Planned Parenthood refused to stop referring patients to abortion clinics they still lost federal funding. A New York Times editorial expressed fear that that was likely to happen to many more clinics in the near future. Click here for more.

September 14 Marks the 7th Annual National Day of Remembrance for Aborted Children

On Saturday, mourners across the country will visit over 180 locations to mourn and hold memorial services for victims of abortion across the country. Many of these will take place at the burial sites for aborted children. Pro-Life Action League organizer Eric Schiedler says that participation in the event has been increasing over time, and he seemingly expects it to continue that trend this year.

"This year, we've seen a real interest in this issue, I think because so many Americans have thought about abortions this year because of the battles over heartbeat bills in some states like Ohio and Georgia. And we've also seen states like Illinois and New York and others sweeping away abortion restrictions, so as blue states seem to go more pro-abortion and red states seem to be pushing more pro-life, the issue is in front of the public, in front of voters, in front of churchgoers."

The event is co-sponsored by Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, Priests for Life and the Pro-Life Action League. Click here to see if there are any memorial sites near you.

Vice Article Argues Pro-Lifers Should Never Have Nursing Jobs

In response to the recent story in which a Vermont Medical Center nurse was forced to perform an abortion, Vice has written a piece stating that "we need to be more discerning about who is worthy of serving the public." In an article titled "If You Don't Want to Provide Abortions, Don't Go Into Healthcare," author Monica R. McLemore makes the argument that nurses who don't provide abortions for patients are not willing to provide necessary medical procedures and therefore not suitable to be medical professionals.

She defines healthcare as any procedure that happens under medical supervision. This is obviously ridiculous because any number of things can happen under the supervision of medical professionals and it would not have to be considered healthcare simply due to that person's presence. This assumption is dangerous and we should be careful to protect the right of medical practitioners to object to performing abortions. Click here for more.

26 Canadian Organizations Denied Public Funding for Being Pro-Life

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

In a move that is apparently the complete opposite of the recent Title X rule in the United States, which reduced government funding for organizations that practiced abortions, the Canadian government has now denied federal funding to 26 organizations due to their pro-life stance on abortion issues. This rule applies to organizations that utilized the Canada Summer Jobs program, an employment and skills initiative.

Pro-life organizations are required to declare that their organization does not actively work to limit access to abortion (which is available during all 9 months of pregnancy for any reason in Canada) or forego funding that was previously used to fund summer jobs. This rule even applies to pro-life pregnancy centers, severely limiting mothers' options for life-affirming pregnancy care. Click here for more.

Mother Who Chose Life After Incestuous Rape Tells Her Story

A brave woman recently came forth to share the story of a daughter she bore even though she was conceived in rape. This woman (who identifies as Angie in the story) was raped by her father and chose to carry out the pregnancy anyway, eventually asking a friend to adopt the baby. She believed that she was in no position to be a mother to this child, but that did not prevent her from allowing the child to live.

Later a similar situation occurred when she was raped by her uncle. This child was born with a heart defect and autism but was able to survive due to early medical treatment. She chose to keep this boy however because she believed he would be safer than a girl would have been in her family. "I love that baby girl and I don’t regret having either of my babies or the choice to give her to someone safe. I chose to hurt so she could live. They were the only beauty to come from tragedy." Click here for more.

Daleiden Hearing: Planned Parenthood Once Again Admits Selling Intact Baby Parts

Daleiden and Center for Medical Progress Legal Team
Lianne Laurence / LifeSiteNews

In part of the ongoing Daleiden hearings, "Doe 12" admitted under oath that Planned Parenthood sold intact skulls and hearts of aborted children. This again bolsters the defense that Daleiden and Merrit were investigating violent acts and the California law prohibiting the recording of private conversations does not apply. She elaborated that a baby's head could be procured either attached or unattached to a body, meaning that completely intact children were born and sold for parts.

The prosecution also attempted to argue that the undercover journalists were given non-disclosure agreements, but had no records of when they were sent. The defense stated that these agreements were not sent to the journalists until a month after conversations had been recorded. Click here for more.

Senator Bernie Sanders Endorses Use of Taxpayer Funds to Subsidize Abortions Abroad

In a CNN town hall on climate change, Senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders stated that he supported the use of United States federal aid to help fund abortions in low-income countries.

An audience member asked this question of Bernie Sanders:

“Empowering women and educating everyone on the need to curb population growth seems a reasonable campaign to enact. Would you be courageous enough to discuss this issue and make it a key feature of a plan to address climate catastrophe?”

To which he responded,

"Well the answer is yes. And the answer has everything to do with the fact that women in the United States of America, by the way, have a right to control their own bodies, and make reproductive decisions.

“And the Mexico City agreement, which denies American aid to those organizations around the world that are — that allow women to have abortions or even get involved in birth control to me is totally absurd.

“So I think, especially in poor countries around the world where women do not necessarily want to have large numbers of babies, and where they can have the opportunity through birth control to control the number of kids they have, it’s something I very, very strongly support.”

Several conservative voices have compared this statement with eugenics, a policy that restricts reproduction in order to prevent undesirable characteristics from becoming more widespread in the gene pool. The idea has been connected to racists throughout history who would prefer to limit the reproduction of those from a different race or a lower class. Because Africa has several countries with low incomes and high fertility rates, a policy like this could target African preborn children far more than other races. Click here for more.

Christine Ford's Lawyer Admits Abortion was Part of Ford's Motivation for Attacking Brett Kavanaugh

In a video obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation, Christina Ford's lawyer, Debra Katz, admitted that her client's motivation for accusing Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of rape was at least partially political. “[Brett Kavanaugh] will always have an asterisk next to his name,” Katz said. “When he takes a scalpel to Roe v. Wade, we will know who he is, we know his character, and we know what motivates him, and that is important; it is important that we know, and that is part of what motivated Christine.”

Katz was speaking at a University of Baltimore Feminist Legal Theory Conference entitled "Applied Feminism and #MeToo" last April when the footage was recorded. Click here for more.

Former Planned Parenthood Medical Director Lies Under Oath

On September 5th, a former Planned Parenthood medical director took the stand in the ongoing preliminary hearing against undercover journalists Daleiden and Merrit for recording supposedly "confidential" conversations with some of the most notorious members of the abortion industry. This abortionist, referred to as "Doe 9" in court documents, spoke openly with the journalists at a restaurant about abortion practices designed to leave the body parts of preborn children as intact as possible so that they could be sold more easily. The journalists were posing as potential buyers.

The defense asked Doe 9 if she cared whether the videos were released publicly. "Of course I care," she responded. The defense pointed out that she responded differently while under oath in the deposition of her suit. "I haven't done anything wrong in any of the videos. It doesn't matter to me if any of them are released publicly," she had said.

The statement in her deposition makes the entire lawsuit ridiculous, as it hinges on the confidentiality of conversations. If Doe 9 didn't care how public her statements were, then they couldn't have been confidential. “This is the DA, the attorney general coming forward to bring a prosecution on behalf of victims who don’t know they’re victims and who don’t care if these videos are ever published,” said Horatio Mihet of the defense's legal team. Click here for more.

Daleiden Trial: Late-term Abortionist Administered Potentially Dangerous Levels of Misoprostol

In the preliminary hearings for a suit in which undercover journalists Daeleden and Merritt are being accused of recording "confidential" conversations with abortionists at a National Abortion Federation conference, several big names in the abortion industry will be forced to testify about their dangerous and disgusting practices. On September 5, "Doe 3" took the stand to answer questions from the defense.

She said, "one of the worst nightmares" for her practice was "if a living fetus is delivered out of center." Their late-term abortion process took place over the course of several days, and if the mother gave birth in that period rather than completing an abortion, she considered that event a nightmare. Furthermore, she referred to a born child as a "living fetus," which tells us that the baby's life is not valued even after birth if the mother desired to complete an abortion. This statement is only tangential to the point the defense was trying to make, however.

The defense is pointing out that the amount of Misoprostol that the abortionists were administering to initiate labor in this procedure were harmful to the mother and offered little control to doctors as to whether the child was even aborted. If this is true, then the procedure could be considered a violent felony. The undercover journalists' recording could not be illegal if they were investigating crimes of that nature. Click here for more.

Australia Adopts Increasingly Permissive Euthanasia

New assisted suicide legislation became effective in June in the Australian State of Victoria. Applications for death are approved and at least one patient has already died. With this new legislation in one state of Australia, now others are debating euthanasia laws that are even more permissive. Doctors in West Australia might be allowed to suggest euthanasia to their patients for example, while it is illegal for Victorian doctors to do the same.

Chris Moye, the chair of the Australian Medical Association's ethics committee, is concerned that the Victorian law has started a slippery slope that will end up relaxing euthanasia law far more than intended. "...we haven’t seen how assisted dying works in Victoria and yet the slippage is happening across these various jurisdictions. I think there are two reasons: people were always going to be looking at it (the Victorian law) and the tendency always is to relax legislation.” Click here for more.

Daleiden Preliminary Hearing Begins. Undercover Journalists Defend Against Abortion Industry.

David Daleiden

Undercover journalists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt began their preliminary hearings on the morning of September 4. The journalists recorded video of conversations from the 2014 National Abortion Trade Show, which the prosecution claims were confidential. Now, the two journalists are facing 15 felony charges that could lead to 10 years in prison if they are convicted.

The videos uncovered illegal abortion practices and found out that the abortion industry profited through the sale of body parts from aborted children. Peter Breen, the defense lawyer for the journalists, has planned a defense around the facts that these conversations took place outside of private settings and the journalists knew about violent activity surrounding those recorded. Click here for more.

Texas' "No Taxpayer Funds for Abortion" law takes effect.

Photo Credit: Texas Right to Life

Texas Right to Life wrote on August 30th to remind readers that a new law limiting the use of taxpayer funds came into effect September 1st. The law prevents state funds from being used by organizations that commit abortions, thereby stopping taxpayer dollars from subsidizing abortions directly or indirectly. The effect is similar to the recent Title X rule which reduces the federal funding Planned Parenthood receives. 

Sadly, legislators also chose to renew a lease to Planned Parenthood in East Austin before the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act" became law. This means taxpayers will likely continue to subsidize this property for Parenthood use in spite of the ruling. Click here for Texas Right to Life's original story.

Father's Lawsuit Against Alabama Abortion Facility Dismissed

Ryan Magers filed a Lawsuit against the Alabama Women's Center in Huntsville in 2017. His ex-girlfriend and the abortion facility committed an abortion on their six-week-old preborn child via the abortion pill. Magers did not want his child to be aborted, and he expressed this to his then-girlfriend. Magers's wrongful death suit was dismissed on August 30th by a Madison County Judge.

The judge stated that Magers has no personal claim against Alabama Women's Center and that nothing illegal occurred because abortion was legal in Alabama. He added that federal laws protect abortion clinics from these kinds of lawsuits. Click here for more.

Facebook Cites Pro-Abortion Sources to Claim Links to "Live Action" Stories are Fake News

On September 30th, Facebook took disciplinary action against Live Action News for "repeated sharing of false news." The page and content that it posts will appear less on Facebook's feed. Users who shared recent posts from Live Action News received a notification saying, "There's additional reporting from an independent fact-checker on content that you shared." Users who clicked on this notification were sent to a statement from two doctors affiliated with abortion organizations.

The statement by Live Action News that these doctors "fact-checked" was this: "abortion is never medically necessary." The doctors rebutted by saying abortion is necessary in some cases to preserve the life of the mother, thus the disciplinary action against Live Action News. Facebook failed to understand Live Action News's entire argument, though. Live Action has repeatedly expressed its position that in situations where the life of the mother is in danger, preterm deliveries should take place instead of abortions. This way mothers can receive medical care immediately and the preterm children have a chance to survive, even if they sometimes do not. Facebook ignored this part of Live Action's argument and instead sided with abortion doctors who only stand to profit from increased abortion. Click here for more.

Woman Dies of Fatal Bleeding the Day After Abortion at Ohio Facility

On June 7, 2019, Tia Archieva Parks went into Preterm, an Ohio abortion facility, to have a first-trimester abortion. She was pregnant with twins (although she may not have known at the time) and the mother of a four-year-old. The day after the procedure, she was dead.

After her death, Parks was diagnosed with heterotopic gestation and other health issues that, if spotted before the procedure, should have told the clinic that the abortion procedure was unsafe. Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue, had this to say: "Ms. Parks had several health issues that made her a high-risk patient who should have been referred for proper medical care in a hospital setting where her tubal pregnancy may have been detected. That may have spared her life and the life of her baby in the womb." Click here for more.

Tennessee Senator Argues Preborn Children Don't Have Functioning Hearts Until Second Trimester

The Tennessee state senate heard testimony surrounding a proposed fetal heartbeat law in mid-August. During this time, pro-life lawyer and Tea Party Leader Hal Rounds entered an argument with Senator Katrina Robinson about when the brain and heart are developed during pregnancy. After Rounds's testimony, Senator Robinson pushed Rounds into a seemingly premeditated corner by asking him when he thought the heart and brain were formed during pregnancy.

He responded by saying that he would leave that up to medical professionals multiple times before giving his answer: "before what is considered viable by the supreme court." "It's the end of the second trimester," Robinson pounced. "The heart is beating way before that," Hal replied. "It's the end of the second trimester, sir. I'm a nurse, what are you?" Rounds stated multiple times that he was not an authority on that topic, yet Senator Robinson pushed to discredit the lawyer with a medical debate anyways with the seemingly planned response, "I'm a lawyer, what are you," to back up her faulty information. The heart begins functioning 16-21 days after conception. Click here for more.

Woman Helps Abortion Volunteers and Clients Find Healing and Forgiveness

In 1981, Karen Ellison had an abortion. She was 22 years old and in college, but her family pushed her to have the procedure in order to hide her pregnancy from others. After feeling shame for years, Karen sought out God's forgiveness and confessed her abortion to a woman at church. “The Lord being the Lord would not let me stay in my cave and shame,” she said. “He just pursued me in all kinds of different ways. He brought me out of the dark place and it was just a whole healing process He began.”

She started to lead bible studies for women who were clients or volunteers at abortion clinics. Eventually, that led to the inception of a retreat called Deeper Still. Deeper Still now hosts three retreats each year in Knoxville, Tennessee. Attendees at these retreats share their stories, break down problems in their lives that might have caused them to choose abortion, and seek repentance.

Ellison has also written a book entitled Healing the Hurt that Won’t Heal: Freedom for the Abortion Wounded and Help for the Church They Fear. Click here for more about Karen's story.

Pope Francis Condemns Euthanasia

Pope Francis speaks to the Italian Association of Medical Oncology
Sept. 2, 2019. Credit: Vatican Media.

Pope Francis spoke against the increasing practice of euthanasia to the Italian Association of Medical Oncology on September 2. He pointed out that the practice of euthanasia reduces the value of human life to convenience. “In reality, it is based on a utilitarian view of the person, who becomes useless or can be equated to a cost, if from the medical point of view, he has no hope of improvement or can no longer avoid pain.” He went on to say that medical professionals should never treat a patient as a burden or a waste, but rather attend patients and loved ones at all stages, "creating a culture and practice more attentive to the value of each person."

He stated that a major issue with medical care is that often doctors explain every possible option to patients from a medical standpoint, but they rarely explain hope. When doctors only treat their patients physically and don't attempt to help them spiritually, mercy hope and love are forgotten. “Inspire everyone to be close to those who suffer, to the little ones above all, and to put the weak in the first place, so that they can grow a more human society and relationships marked by gratuitousness, rather than opportunity,” Click here for more.

Comedian David Chappelle Highlights Pro-Choice Hypocrisy in Netflix Comedy Special

A recent clip from a Netflix comedy special entitled "Sticks and Stones" caused outrage from pro-choice advocates as it made the rounds on Twitter. In the clip, he calls out abortion creative way: 

"I'm not for [abortion], but I'm not against it either," he said. He then makes the ironic point that men shouldn't have a say in the issue before coming in for the punchline: "And ladies, to be fair to us, I also believe that if you decide to have the baby, a man should not have to pay. That's fair. If you can kill this ****, I can at least abandon 'em. It's my money, my choice."

You can click here to watch the full clip, but be aware it uses language that isn't safe for work.

Man with Down Syndrome Diagnosed to Die by Age 10. Now He's 77

Georgie Wildgust's mother was told that her son was not going to live 10 years. He was diagnosed with Down syndrome, but good medical care and social support have allowed him to live 77 so far. Advances in care have increased the lifespans of those born with Down syndrome significantly. Now the average is between 50 and 60 years. Wildgust is a retired gardener who now lives in a disability care home. He is very social with other residents and loves to talk with his sister, who often calls him on Skype.

Wildgust is thought to be one of the oldest people in the world with Down syndrome. He even survived medical issues this year that put him on end-of-life care for a short while. Click here for more.

One-Child Nation Co-director Says China and US are Both Guilty of Policing Women's Bodies

In a surprising turn of events following a documentary that should largely support pro-life values, Amazon Studios's One Child Nation ending moments argue that both the United States and China are guilty of preventing women from exercising control over their own bodies. The documentary describes the horrors of China's one-child policy and its enforcement. Forced abortions and abandoned children are just two of the many problems that it caused in China, not including its present and future culture. Despite this, co-director Nanfu Wang compares the one-child policy to abortion restrictions in America. In an interview with Vox, she had this to say:

"I remember when I first came to the US and learned about the restriction on abortions in the US. I was very shocked. It wasn’t the free America that I had thought it would be. I was surprised by the government control on reproductive rights and the access to reproductive health care.

Making this film, I also had a lot of conversations with people about the topic, and I was surprised. Sometimes people couldn’t see how forced state abortions and the state limiting access to abortions are quite similar; they are both the government trying to control women’s bodies and trying to control women’s reproductive rights.

I hope that the film reminds people what would happen if their government takes away women’s choice, or any individual’s choice. And sadly I think it’s happening in China, it’s happening in the US, and it’s happening in a lot of countries throughout the world, where women do not have the freedom to make their own reproductive decisions."

So many of the incidents described in this film show the horrors of abortion and the danger it poses to life, especially preborn girls in a society that doesn't value women highly. This director refuses to stand up for the life that her documentary seems almost designed to protect. It is a shame because the film could otherwise be used to promote the pro-life cause. Click here for more.

Priest Pictured in AP Story Interviewed about Robert Fuller's Death

Father Quentin Dupont gave statements about the recent controversy surrounding his appearance in a recent Associated Press Article glamorizing a man's suicide.

On August 26th, the Associated Press Published a story titled "In the Face of Death, the Party of a Lifetime." It tells the story Robert Fuller, a 74-year-old man with cancer who planned to commit suicide but also scheduled several events (including a celebration of life party and a "marriage" to his male partner) leading up to the moment of his death. Dupont was pictured in the article praying over Fuller at his final mass, and social media posts have surfaced that show Fuller believed that a priest gave him their blessing to continue with his plans to commit suicide, but Dupont denies that this was him:

“I was absolutely, unequivocally unaware of Mr. Fuller’s intention [to kill himself]. I’m not part of the conversations that happen in [the St. Therese] community all the time. I was given very limited information, and I had very limited knowledge about Mr. Fuller’s situation.”

Dupont says others told him that this was Muller's final mass and that he was going to die soon, but he was unaware that Muller planned to take his own life. Recent coverage of the story has led some to believe that Father Dupont gave Fuller permission to carry out his plan, but this may not be the case. It could be a different priest, or Fuller may have been confused about the nature of the blessing that Dupont was trying to give. Click here for more.

16 States, Including Illinois, Join Lawsuit Against Indiana for Closing Abortion Clinic

A Whole Women's Health abortion clinic in South Bend, Indiana was denied a license in 2017 for not adhering to regulations and providing the necessary information. A federal judge had already issued an injunction that allowed the facility to continue operating without a license, but now 16 states have joined a lawsuit against the state of Indiana for closing the facility. Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said in a press release that, "Women have the right to make their own reproductive health care decisions, and they should be able to access safe health care within their communities."

He also claimed that the Indiana licensing policy was placing a burden on Illinois abortion facilities, despite Governor JB Pritzker's statement that he wanted Illinois to be "an abortion destination for the country." It's deeply upsetting that Illinois tax-payer dollars are going to fight a legal battle to defend an unlicensed abortion facility in another state. Click here for more.

United Nations Cancels Pro-life Workshop at Conference for “building inclusive and sustainable cities and communities.”

On Saturday, August 24th, the United Nations canceled a workshop titled “The Family and Protection of Life, Women and Girls in Sustainable Communities," when the UN conference for "building inclusive and sustainable cities and communities" was set to start in only two days, on August 26th in Salt Lake City, Utah. Two other workshops were presented by Family Watch International, and neither of them was canceled, presumably for political reasons.

A spokesman for the Salt Lake City Mayor's Office had this to say, "The group members who were going to be on the panel, the groups that they were representing have a history of not being inclusive. There were not other voices on that panel talking about a really complicated issue. That was really where the concern came down for the workshop committee." Apparently, the United Nations did not want to have conversations about building cities that were inclusive of preborn life. Click here for more.

13 Reasons Why Scene Depicts Abortion and Turns Sidewalk Counselors into Caricatures

In the most recent season of 13 Reasons Why, a Netflix series which first came under fire for glamourizing suicide to a teenage audience, a character named Chloe, who was assaulted and raped in the second season of the show, has an abortion after being persuaded by her boyfriend's mother. In the episode, sidewalk counselors shout from the sidewalk while another one walks her towards the clinic door, pretending to be an employee escort to make Chloe listen. The scene portrays the counselors as crazy and manipulative, which only hurts the image of real counselors who act responsibly.

You can watch the full scene above or click here to read more.

China Fighting Repercussions from One-Child Policy

China officially relaxed its infamous one-child policy in 2015. Before that change, families were often forced to abort their preborn children if a woman became pregnant a second time. Human trafficking skyrocketed and many families abandoned their newborn babies, especially girls, to avoid the discipline of the government. The story is now gaining traction once again as the Amazon documentary One Child Nation makes waves in the media, but that is not the only issue caused by China's policy.

Steven Mosher, President of the Population Research Institute, was interviewed about China's population problem on EWTN Pro-Life Weekly. “The state is now pressuring people to have a minimum of two children so you can see the trajectory,” Mosher said. “We’ve gone from forcing people to stop at one child to encouraging them to have two and now saying, ‘you’ve got to have two.’ Party members have been told they must have two, they must lead by example.” There is some fear that China's government may at some point enact a policy that forces pregnancy on women. Click here for more.

Dutch Euthenasia Doctor Restrains and Kills Resisting Woman

After several years, a Dutch euthanasia doctor has appeared in court for killing a 74-year-old woman in 2016 while she resisted. Four years before her death, the patient wrote that she would rather be euthanized than enter a care home. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease. The suicide doctor decided that this woman should be killed one day and slipped a sedative into the woman's drink and prepared to administer the lethal injection. She woke up before the doctor was done, however, and the doctor told family members to restrain the patient against her will while the injection was administered.

Prosecutors are not seeking punishment for the suicide doctor in this case. They are only seeking clarity on what consent means in the Netherlands' euthanasia laws. Click here for more.

Man Who Held Suicide Party Heralded by Associated Press

Saint Therese Catholic Church in Seattle. (Facebook)

On August 26th, the Associated Press published a story detailing the story of a man named Robert Fuller and the events that led to his assisted suicide. In the month leading up to his death, Fuller made several references to his planned suicide and encouraged friends to attend events such as his final mass, an end of life celebration, and his funeral all with pre-planned dates. He married his male partner during this end of life celebration as another event to cross off his "bucket list."

Recent coverage, including the AP story, claimed that members and priests knew Fuller's plans and that a priest gave Fuller his blessing to continue with them in his final days. The Archdiocese of Seattle denies these claims:

“That morning, the priest in the photograph was told Mr. Fuller was dying and wanted the blessing of the faith community. It wasn’t until later that parish leaders learned of his plans. When these plans were made known, the pastor met with Mr. Fuller to discuss the sacred gift of human life and how we are called to respect and revere that gift as disciples of Jesus.”

Click here for more on this story. 

Vermont Medical Institution Forces Objecting Nurse to Perform Abortion

Today, Health and Human Services released a press release and a violation notice to the University of Vermont Medical (UVMMC) for forcing a nurse to participate in an abortion procedure despite the nurse's conscientious objection. This is in violation of the Church Amendments, which gives medical professionals the right to refuse to carry out abortion procedures if it violates their religious or moral beliefs.

UVMMC has violated these rules on multiple occasions. There have been nurses on staff that do not object to performing abortions, but UVMMC forced nurses who do object to assist in elective abortion procedures anyway under threat of discipline. The nurse, in this case, was told that if they did not cooperate they would lose their job. The nurse's conscientious objection had been expressed and recorded for years, but UVMMC did not respect it. This marks the third conscience complaint the office of Civil Rights has investigated since President Trump took office. Click here for more on this story.

Click here for National Right to Life's official response.