Ohio Senate passes bill banning abortion after detectable heartbeat

A bill banning abortion after a fetal heartbeat can be detected has passed the Ohio Senate by an 18-13 vote. Last month, the Ohio House also voted in favor of the bill 58-35, but the Senate did make some changes, meaning the bill will now have to be approved by the House again before Governor John Kasich can sign it or veto.

The Senate removed the mandate for transvaginal ultrasounds, which can pick up a heartbeat as early as six weeks, and instead merely requires abdominal ultrasounds, which some see as less invasive for women. “We found that (a transvaginal ultrasound) process is possibly intrusive and we wanted to protect the rights of women who didn’t wish to have that done to them,” Senate Health Committee Chairman Dave Burke said.

Click here for more from Live Action News.

Teen says he killed pregnant cheerleader because she didn’t abort baby

16-year-old Indiana high school student Aaron Trejo has been arrested after he admitted to killing 17-year-old Breana Rouhselang and their preborn baby by stabbing her in the heart after learning she hid her pregnancy from him until she was six months pregnant. Her body was found over the weekend in a trash bin behind a restaurant in Mishawaka, Indiana, a town about 80 miles east of Chicago.

Detective Gery Mullins said, “[Trejo] explained that Breana waited too long to tell [him] about the pregnancy to get an abortion. I asked Aaron what he did about that, and he replied, ‘I took action… I took her life.'” Despite this confession, Trejo has entered a plea of not guilty.

Click here for more from Live Action News.

Cook had highest abortion rate among largest Illinois counties in 2017

In a list of the 30 most populous counties in Illinois, Cook County ranked No. 1 for the rate of abortions performed there in 2017, according to an Illinois Department of Public Health report issued in December, which tracks abortions performed on an annual basis.

The abortion rate for Cook County was 0.41 percent. Peoria had the second highest abortion rate in Illinois in 2017, the department reported.

Click here for more from North Cook News.

Trump administration to fund ethical, pro-life alternatives to fetal tissue research

The Trump administration is investing up to $20 million for the next two years to determine effective alternatives to using tissue from aborted babies for research.

The announcement Monday from the Department of Health and Human Services comes after the administration in September terminated a government contract with California-based Advanced Bioscience Resources Inc. to provide human fetal tissue research.

Click here for more from Live Action News.

Human Rights Day: Pope Francis Calls for Action to Protect the Unborn

“Human rights must at the center of all policies even when it means going against the grain,” Pope Francis exhorted.

In reference to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) on its the 70th Anniversary, Pope Francis noted that “the Family of Nations wished to acknowledge the equal dignity of every human person, from which fundamental rights and freedoms derive that, in as much as rooted in the nature of the human person — inseparable unity of body and soul — are universal, indivisible, interdependent and interconnected.”

Pope Francis stated that as the anniversaries of the UDHR and the 25th Anniversary of the Vienna Declaration and Program of Action are celebrated this year, it is his hope that an in-depth reflection on the current state of human rights will “be harbinger of a renewed commitment in favor of the defense of human dignity, with special attention to the most vulnerable members of the community.”

Click here for more from NRL News Today.

Supreme Court declines opportunity to determine whether states can defund abortion businesses from Medicaid

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court has declined the opportunity to determine whether states are required to fund abortion businesses under the Medicaid Act. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch dissented and would have agreed to hear the cases because they present a question that “is important and recurring.”

Currently, there is a split in lower courts over whether the Medicaid Act grants individual Medicaid patients a private right of action to sue in federal court in order to challenge a state’s disqualification of their preferred Medicaid provider. Two states, Kansas (Andersen v. Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri) and Louisiana (Gee v. Planned Parenthood of Gulf Coast), asked the Supreme Court to resolve this conflict.

Click here for more from Americans United for Life.

Heartbeat bill on trial in America's Heartland

Thomas More Society is representing Governor Kim Reynolds (R-Iowa) and others who, through the legislature earlier this year, passed a heartbeat bill that not only prohibits abortion when a fetal heartbeat is detected but requires efforts to detect it.

The law was predictably challenged by Planned Parenthood on the grounds it conflicts with Roe v. Wade and the Iowa state constitution, which they feel gives a woman a right to an abortion.

The arguments are scheduled to start last Friday at the Polk County Courthouse in Des Moines. The attorney says Planned Parenthood chose to file their case at the state level to avoid the federal court system – which Cannon notes is becoming "more favorable" to pro-life arguments.

Click here for more from OneNewsNow.

Trump nominates attorney general with anti-Roe v Wade past

After a month of speculation, President Donald Trump has selected William Barr to be his new permanent attorney general.  Barr is a conservative who declared during his previous confirmation hearings that Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided.

At the time, Barr told the Senate Judiciary Committee that, however broad a constitutional right to privacy may be, "I do not believe it extends to abortion." Then-Sen. Joe Biden, who went on to become President Barack Obama’s pro-abortion Vice President, complimented Barr for bucking tradition and giving a “candid answer” on the subject.

Click here for more from Life Site News.

Tiny one pound, one ounce baby overcomes grim prognosis, will be home with her family to celebrate her first Christmas

Born in June, four months early, Sussie has left the Neo Natal unit at Arrowe Par hospital in Northwest England and will celebrate her first Christmas at home with mother Jodie Marrin and her dad Lee Patrick.

When Sussie was born at 22 weeks she was so tiny doctors said she was the size of a chocolate bar. One pound, one ounce to be exact.

As is always the case with extreme preemies, the circumstances were harrowing and doctors immediately told the parents Sussie’s survival chances were “non-existent.” Medics added, if somehow she did survive, Sussie’s life would be bleak.

Click here for more from NRL News Today.

Life Legal Seeks to Dismiss Claims in Planned Parenthood Baby Parts Case

Life Legal Defense Foundation has filed a motion to dismiss all racketeering, conspiracy, and fraud claims in Planned Parenthood v. Center for Medical Progress (CMP). Planned Parenthood sued CMP and its board of directors shortly after CMP released a series of videos showing Planned Parenthood officials negotiating the sale of baby parts for profit.

Planned Parenthood Federation of American and nine of its largest affiliates alleged that they had to implement exorbitant security measures following the release of the CMP videos. However, the court has already ruled that Planned Parenthood may only recover for damages caused directly by CMP defendants, not those caused by third parties.

Click here for more from Christian Newswire.

Facebook cracks down on pro-life viral video creator, says ad violates ‘discrimination’ policy

The Ontario-based nonprofit Choice42 (Choice for Two) is perhaps best known for a series of satirical videos in which founder and director Laura Klassen dons a pink wig and sarcastically spouts pro-abortion talking points for the purpose of dismantling them. The group also connects women to crisis pregnancy resources, and publishes more serious videos on topics such as the firsthand accounts of women who choose life in difficult circumstances.

On Tuesday evening, Choice42 posted a notice they received from Facebook over one of their most recent ads, which was promoting their video taking aim at the pro-abortion claim that men shouldn’t discuss abortion because they can’t get pregnant. “We find this pretty ironic” that Facebook found the video highlighting a pro-abortion argument “to be discriminating,” they said.

Click here for more from Life Site News.

How Project Rosie helped a pregnant college student to choose life

A pregnant Rosie the Riveter is the mascot for Project Rosie, a pro-life campaign dedicated to assisting pregnant and parenting college students in Michigan. Project Rosie is a nonprofit group created by Protect Life Michigan, and it travels to different colleges all across Michigan in an attempt to help pregnant college women choose life.

Project Rosie has three main goals: to reach, to empower, and to support. Project Rosie reached out to me, empowered me, and continues to support me and countless other girls to this day. Project Rosie’s website provides information to resources available at or around every college in Michigan. They don’t just care about saving a baby’s life, they care about saving the woman as well.

Click here for more from Live Action News.

This is what Planned Parenthood calls ‘healthcare’

With new president Leana Wen at the helm, Planned Parenthood is advertising itself as a healthcare provider. A new campaign, called “This is Health Care,” shows celebrities and other women discussing how Planned Parenthood provided them with necessary health services. But Planned Parenthood has a tendency to fudge statistics and bloat the facts about the provision of health care that women need — and fails to give accurate details about some of the procedures it most commonly performs. Namely, abortion.

Below, Planned Parenthood describes a D&E abortion, the most common abortion in the second trimester in the United States:

Click here to enlarge.

Note this phrase: “gently take the pregnancy tissue out of your uterus.” Just before that, Planned Parenthood mentions that a “combination of medical tools and a suction device” will be used to do this. The medical tool used is a sopher clamp as used below...

Click here to enlarge.

Click here for more from Live Action News.

GOP gives up trying to defund Planned Parenthood in lame-duck session

With only four weeks left until Democrats assume control of the House of Representatives, pro-lifers had hoped for congressional Republicans to make one final push to defund Planned Parenthood before losing their majority. But GOP leaders have already thrown cold water on those hopes.

Trump has once again floated threats to veto a budget that doesn’t reflect his priorities, but most Republicans are unwilling to draw a line in the sand on Planned Parenthood, Politico reports. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-TX, attempted to rally support for another defunding effort, but his colleagues rejected it over fears of a potential government shutdown. A Cruz spokesperson says the senator will continue fighting to defund Planned Parenthood in the next session.

Click here for more from Life Site News.

Yale University plans to offer morning after pill in vending machines

The Yale Daily News has reported that Yale University will be supplying Plan B — also known as the morning-after pill — to students through a vending machine for a price of about $50. The vending machine, which will also be equipped with condoms and sexual lubricant, will be located at Silliman College, a residential college at Yale, in the Good Life Center. Yale spokeswoman Karen Peart has said that the morning-after pill is already available free of charge to any student at the Yale Health Pharmacy or at Acute Care twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

“The point of this is to make Plan B more accessible and to make medications in general more accessible,” said Ileana Valdez, a Yale College Council representative who oversaw the project. “Hopefully this will set a precedent for more machines to show up around campus that contain other things so Yale students don’t have to go out of their way to go to CVS, especially students from the new colleges.”

Click here for more from Live Action News.

Study: Most people don’t know what ‘assisted suicide’ actually means

As legislatures around the world grapple with the question of assisted suicide, proponents often claim majority support for legalizing it. But a study from New Zealand reveals that many people do not actually know what legalized assisted suicide entails.

The study from Curia Market Research surveyed 894 New Zealanders and found that many people confuse assisted suicide with medical practices that are already legal and widely available. For example, news outlet Scoop notes, “66% of respondents thought assisted dying includes the removal of life support,” and “only 68% thought that ‘assisted dying’ includes receiving deadly drugs by injection.”

Click here for more from Live Action News.

Why the CDC’s annual abortion numbers are understated

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released its report on the number of annual abortions in the United States, and according to the organization’s data, abortions in the U.S. have hit their lowest level since Roe v. Wade. But what many have noticed is that the CDC’s number is significantly lower than the actual total of abortions in the U.S. Here’s why.

Both the CDC and the private Guttmacher Institute publish national abortion totals; however, the numbers are vastly different.

Click here for much more from Live Action News.

Samsung app comforts premature babies by playing their mother’s heartbeat

Prematurity can be difficult for babies and mothers alike, but new technology is helping to make it a more positive experience. An app created by Samsung helps to comfort premature babies in incubators by allowing their mothers to record the sound of their heartbeats and voices. The app then removes the high frequencies from the audio, to make it sound similar to how it did inside the womb, and is played on a speaker by the baby’s side.

Samsung notes that 15 million babies were born premature last year, unable to be nurtured by their mothers, who carried them in their own bodies for so long. The NICU environment, though lifesaving, can be stressful for babies, and that stress can lead to changes in the brain’s structure and function. This leaves them at higher risk for language and attention deficits.

Click here for more from Live Action News.

These babies were saved by abortion pill reversal - So were hundreds of others

This month, over 6,000 people shared an image of a newborn baby moments after his or her delivery. While every newborn is worthy of an amazing first photo outside the womb, this one was different. This particular child survived an abortion thanks to a pro-life doctor who knew exactly what to do to reverse the effects of the abortion pill — something the abortion industry claims is impossible, and even dangerous.

In an interview with Pregnancy Help News, Dr. Brent Boles shared the story of the baby in the viral photo. The baby’s mother, called “Brianna” to protect her identity, went to her local Planned Parenthood where she was given the first of the two dose abortion pill regimen: mifepristone. This pill blocks the progesterone receptors, thereby reducing progesterone levels in the mother’s blood. Progesterone is necessary to sustain the pregnancy. The second pill, misoprostol, acts to induce labor. When only the first pill is taken, there may still be time to save the child.

Click here for more from Live Action News.

Planned Parenthood boosts CEOs’ salaries while demanding tax funding: report

The Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) continues to present itself as a simple organization that depends on government assistance to serve women’s health, but a new report highlights just how lavishly the abortion giant compensates its top executives.

Between 2015 and 2017, the average compensation for a PPFA affiliate CEO rose from $237,999 to $255,523, according to American Life League’s (ALL’s) 2018 report on the subject. The average compensation to top PPFA executives during that same period rose from $389,514 to $394,893.

Click here for more from Life Site News.

Pro-Lifers mourn the death of President George H.W. Bush

The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of state right-to-life affiliates and more than 3,000 local chapters, mourns the death of former President George H.W. Bush. The 41st president died last night at age 94.

“President George H.W. Bush dedicated his administration to advancing pro-life policies to protect mothers and their unborn children,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. “He used his presidency to stop enactment of pro-abortion laws and promote life-affirming solutions. Our prayers today are with former president George W. Bush, and the entire Bush family.”

During President Bush’s term in office, his Administration urged the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade and allow states to pass laws to protect unborn children, stating, “protection of innocent human life – in or out of the womb – is certainly the most compelling interest that a State can advance.”

Click here for more from NRL News Today.

Time for new conservative leadership as abortion numbers climb higher in Illinois

New abortion stats emerged this week, showing Illinois' numbers rising to nearly 40,000 annually.

Not only are more expectant mothers coming into Illinois to abort their babies because their states are passing more and more restrictions on abortions,  Illinois taxpayers began picking up the tab for Medicaid abortions last year. The numbers are certain to be higher in 2018.

Abortion advocates celebrated by calling Illinois a "reproductive rights haven."

Click here for more from Illinois Review.

2017 Report Shows Increase in Illinois Abortions

The Illinois Department of Public Health has released the 2017 Abortion Statistics report in which it was detailed that the abortion rate has increased. This reflects man increase in out of state abortions.

Some details in short state that in 2017:

- 39,329 abortions were recorded in Illinois (.5% increase)
- 5,528 out of state abortions were recorded in Illinois (over 21% increase)

Click here to view the entire report (in PDF).

Pro-life students ask Trump to defund Planned Parenthood

Students for Life has urged U.S. President Donald Trump to defund Planned Parenthood, and encouraged pro-life advocates to ask the administration to do so.

The pro-life organization issued a letter to President Trump Nov. 27 signed by the Kristan Hawkins, president for Students for Life of America.

In the message, Hawkins thanks Trump for pro-life measures he has undertaken, and invites him to pursue five steps to defund Planned Parenthood.

Click here for more from CNA/EWTN News.

Pro-life law firm asks Supreme Court to dismiss Planned Parenthood lawsuit against David Daleiden

Attorneys from the Thomas More Society have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a decision of the Ninth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals that denied their motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood against pro-life hero David Daleiden.

The Thomas More Society is asking the high court to apply California’s Anti-SLAPP statute to dismiss Planned Parenthood’s lawsuit and vindicate Daleiden. The statute gives defendants like Daleiden the ability to quickly end Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, known as “SLAPP” lawsuits.

Click here for more from Life Site News.

Former abortion worker: We ‘often’ skirted the law on waiting periods

The pro-life group And Then There Were None sponsored a webcast in which a former abortion worker explained how her abortion facility broke the law requiring waiting periods before abortion. In North Carolina, women must be given certain information, including information about abortion’s risks and abortion alternatives, and then wait 72 hours before having an abortion. The information may be given over the phone, but the caller is required to wait before coming in for an abortion. The former abortion worker’s facility broke that law. The former worker said:

Often times what would happen was patients would come in and say, “Oh, yeah, I did speak with someone. I don’t have my paperwork and we wouldn’t have their paperwork, but my regional director would say something to the effect of, “Well, can you show me in your cell phone where you had a phone call from a private number? Or show me in your cell phone where you have a phone call from an unlisted number or a 1-800 number, and we’ll just say that that was the phone call, and we just forgot to put it in the system.

Click here for more from Live Action News.

Doctor on prenatal surgery: If the baby is a patient, then he’s also a person

In a recent Facebook video, Dr. William Lile, an OB/GYN in Florida, speaks about how children in the womb are distinct human beings from their mothers, and also how they should be viewed as persons because they can receive prenatal medical treatment.

In the video, Lile says that “the mom is a patient, and the baby is a patient.” The mother’s body, he says, doesn’t see the baby’s body as just another one of her organs — which is so often the implication of pro-abortion slogans such as ‘my body, my choice’ — but as a “foreign entity.” Sometimes, he adds, the mother’s body even makes antibodies against the baby. In cases like this, antibodies cross the placenta and begin to attack the baby, and the child’s blood count may become low enough that a blood transfusion is necessary… in-utero. It can be done “as early as 19 weeks,” says Lile, and can be done every four weeks to continue to ensure the health of the baby, because the baby is viewed as a separate patient.

Click here for the video and much more from Live Action News.

Help Save Lives this #GivingTuesday

Make a Charitable Gift on #GivingTuesday and Help Us End Abortion and Save Lives. Help us to continue our life-saving work by giving the gift of life on November 27, 2018. It’s now easier than ever, just Click Here.

The Illinois Federation for Right to Life...

 - Sponsors educational seminars and conventions to train volunteers and educate the public on the life issues.

 - Encourages the creation and strengthening of pro-life affiliates throughout Illinois.

 - Serves as a communications center for the interchange of ideas and news of interest to pro-life people in Illinois.

 - Provides knowledgeable individuals to participate in radio & television programs and public forums to discuss the life issues.

 - Promotes programs and activities which increase respect for the dignity and value of every human life.

Effective Action is only possible through citizens involvement!  We Need Your Help!   Please donate today!   Please note, donations made through the below service are designated 501(c)(3) and are tax deductible as charitable contributions.

Click here to donate.

Trump appoints pro-life neurobiologist to National Science Board, pro-abortion activists panic

President Donald Trump has appointed Dr. Maureen Condic, a prominent pro-life expert on biology and medical ethics, to a six-year term helping shape science-related policies with Congress as well as the federal bureaucracy.

Condic is an associate professor in the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy at the University of Utah Health, the author of over 40 articles and a book on science policy and bioethics, and an experienced scientific researcher and adviser who in 2016 consulted for the House Select Investigative Panel of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Click here for more from Life Site News.

Trump admin moves pro-life Scott Lloyd from refugee policy to faith-based initiatives

Scott Lloyd, the pro-life member of the Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) who fought to prevent the government from being forced to facilitate abortions for illegal immigrant minors, has been resassigned to another position within the department.

Now, Lloyd will become a senior adviser at HHS’s Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Politico reports. The center’s mission is to champion religious liberty and religious engagement in the process to develop solutions for issues such as health insurance, the opioid crisis, mental illness, and childhood obesity.

Click here for more from Life Site News.

CDC: Abortions continue to decline, dropping to lowest number since Roe

Abortion data just released by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reveals that the number of reported abortions dipped slightly (2.27 percent) from the previous year. In 2015, 638,169 abortions (down from 652,639 in 2014) were reported to CDC from 49 reporting areas excluding California, Maryland and New Hampshire. The abortion rate also decreased from 12.1 in 2014 to 11.8 in 2015.

The CDC estimates that, in 2015, 18% of all pregnancies in the United States ended in induced abortion, according to the most recent national estimates from 2010.

Click here for the report.

Click here for more from Live Action News.

Faith-based Adoption Providers Are Answering the Pro-Life Call and Must Be Protected

There is a movement of Christians putting actions to their pro-life words through adoption. Adoptive families will find their search for faith-based adoption agencies increasingly difficult, however. Faith-based agencies (FBAs) have been under attack for practicing their religious freedom, despite their impactful work in placing children in loving homes.

Courtney Lott works with such organizations. As part of Family Research Council’s Speaker Series and to recognize National Adoption Month 2018, she shared her experience as Co-Executive Director of Faithful Adoption Consultants (FAC) and mother of eight children—both biological and adopted. FAC walks alongside adoptive families to assist in all aspects of the adoption process. From matching families with children to encouraging the birth mothers to adopt instead of abort, the pro-life message is clear.

Lott summarized FAC’s mission: “Our heart is to build relationships, educate families, and put actions to our pro-life words.”

Click here for more from NRL News Today.

Patient hemorrhages at Planned Parenthood that caused another’s death

A 19-year-old girl was taken to the hospital in an ambulance after a botched abortion at Planned Parenthood of Illinois, located in Chicago.

Last month, the victim underwent an abortion, and began hemorrhaging from her uterus and vagina badly enough that staffers needed to call 911. Audio revealed that there was no doctor present at the time.  According to Operation Rescue, there have been nine calls for emergency assistance within the last year. This Planned Parenthood is also believed to be the same facility where Tonya Reaves was killed in 2012 by a botched abortion.

Click here for more from Live Action News.

650 Obamacare State Exchange Plans Cover Abortion on Demand in 2019 -- a 23% Increase Over 2018: Taxpayers are Funding Abortion on Demand Even if Their State Opts Out

The Family Research Council (FRC) and Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI), the research arm of Susan B. Anthony List, announced the results of their fifth annual comprehensive review of elective abortion coverage in Individual and Family health insurance plans offered on healthcare.gov and state-based exchanges under the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare"). Open enrollment began on November 1 and continues until December 15.

The groups' 2019 fact sheet with detailed information and an interactive map are available online at ObamacareAbortion.com. The web site was launched in 2014 as a resource to help consumers find pro-life health plans. Some of their key findings for the 2019 plan year include:

·         Of all Individual and Family exchange plans in the 24 states and the District of Columbia that allow abortion coverage in exchange plans, an estimated 65 percent (650 plans) cover elective abortion -- up from 53 percent (527 plans) in 2018.

·         In eight states and the District of Columbia, 100 percent of Individual and Family plans on the exchange cover elective abortion. There is no pro-life option in these jurisdictions.

·         In an additional five states, between 50 and 99 percent of plans cover elective abortion.

·         26 states have passed laws to opt out of elective abortion coverage in plans offered on the state exchange.

·         Two insurance companies on the Colorado exchange, Bright Health and Elevate by Denver Health Medical, now clearly state that elective abortion is not covered in their 2019 plans after CLI documented their failure to disclose whether abortion was covered as required by federal law and requested enforcement by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

·         In 2017, there were more than 200 Multi-State Plans (MSPs) nationwide; for 2019, only one state -- Arkansas -- offers MSPs. None of these plans cover elective abortion. Guaranteeing there would be at least one pro-life plan on the state exchanges was a stated goal of the Affordable Care Act -- that promise has now all but collapsed.

·         In 2018, an estimated 2.2 million people in states that have not opted out of abortion coverage are receiving a total of $11.2 billion in premium tax credits for plans that cover elective abortion.

Click here for more from Christian Newswire.

A repugnant new test could screen out IVF embryos with lesser intelligence

Babies could be chosen based on genetic indications of intelligence. Company also expects parents to chose babies of higher intelligence

Genetic tests have long made it possible to screen out embryos with conditions such as cystic fibrosis or Down’s syndrome. Now, a new way of testing an embryo’s genes could make it possible to discard them for not being intelligent enough.

Genomic Prediction, a company based in New Jersey, says it has developed genetic tests that can assess complex traits, such as the risk of some diseases and lower intelligence. The tests haven’t been used yet, but the firm began talks last month with several IVF clinics with a view to providing them to customers.

While such a test can’t predict IQ for each embryo, it can, apparently, indicate certain genetic outliers, allowing parents to avoid embryos with a high chance of an IQ 25 points below average. While the company says it will only offer screening based on intelligence for cases of “mental disability”, co-founder Stephen Hsu claims the technique could be used to identify embryos with a likelihood of having a high IQ. “I think people are going to demand that,” he said. “If we don’t do it, some other company will.”

Peter Visscher, a geneticist at the University of Queensland, Australia, says that the idea of using such tests to select embryos predicted to have high intelligence is “repugnant, but technologically feasible.”

Click here for more from NRL News Today.

Pelosi promised Planned Parenthood she wouldn’t pass Obamacare without abortion

Despite former President Barack Obama’s promises that “no federal dollars” would be used “to fund abortions and federal conscience laws would remain in place” under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), a recent Tweet by former Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards unintentionally revealed that funding abortion through the ACA was actually part of the plan from the beginning.

In a series of tweets, Richards responded to pushback against Nancy Pelosi being nominated as Speaker of the House in the newly-elected Congress. In her tweets, Richards said she spoke with Pelosi while the ACA was being pushed through, receiving an assurance that abortion would be part of the healthcare act.

Click here for more from Life Action News.

Republicans refused to elect pro-life reformer as House GOP leader: Pro-lifers should be mad

As they prepare for their new role as a minority party, on Wednesday House Republicans elected Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California (pictured) to be the GOP’s Minority Leader in the House of Representatives. He’s been Majority Leader under retiring Speaker Paul Ryan for years, so on the surface this may seem like a mere formality.

But the circumstances this year were anything but ordinary. McCarthy is part of the leadership team that not only failed to defund Planned Parenthood but approved multiple budgets, under Presidents Obama and Trump alike, that contained the abortion giant’s blood money. Obviously, he’s also part of the leadership on whose watch the GOP just lost the House to the Democrats.

Most significantly, this year there was a choice.

Click here for more from Life Site News.

‘It is worth the effort’: Doctor shows off baby saved by abortion pill reversal

A Facebook post from a pro-life doctor in Tennessee has been shared over 2,000 times, and for a very good reason. With one photograph, Dr. Brent Boles has shown thousands of people that abortion pill reversal really does work.

“Recently I did this delivery, and am sharing the picture with the patient’s permission,” he wrote. “You see, when a woman takes the abortion pill, she often immediately regrets it. This patient did exactly that.”

Click here for more from Live Action News.

Pro-life leadership set in House and Senate as Pelosi scrambles to be next Speaker

Yesterday three congressional leadership posts were easily decided. As NRL News Today noted on Wednesday, pro-life Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will remain Senate Majority Leader and Pro-life Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) will become the new House Minority Leaders. Pro-abortion Senator Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) will serve as Senate Minority Leader.

The one position up for grabs. Pro-abortion Rep. Nancy Pelosi (pictured) had unleashed a “charm offensive” which was intended to fend off a challenge from fellow Democrats to her re-assuming the position of Speaker of the House when her party assumes control next January.

Click here for more from NRL News Today.

New Website Reveals Truth About Pregnancy Centers, Busting Pro-Abortion Myths

“Hope. Compassion. Truth.”

These are just a few of the commitments pregnancy help organizations make to clients in need of support during one of the most trying moments of their lives.

That’s why it’s the tagline of a new website geared towards busting some of the most pervasive myths about their charitable work.

PregnancyCenterTruth.com, launched today by Heartbeat International—a global network of 2,600 pregnancy help organizations—tackles the major talking points of abortion advocacy groups like NARAL, designed to smear their life-saving work.

Click here for more from Pregnancy Help News.

It's bye-bye to pro-abortion judges, Planned Parenthood

The abortion business has a huge political slush fund available to use in elections to gain victory for pro-abortion candidates to protect the organization and to fight against those who strive to defund it in Congress. But as Jim Sedlak of American Life League points out, Planned Parenthood has in the last decade relied on the courts and "friendly judges" to force its will on people.

"A lot of this has to do with the fact that President [Barack] Obama was in place for eight years and appointed a lot of federal judges at the district court level, at the appellate court level – and of course [two] at the Supreme Court level," he explains.

Sedlak says Planned Parenthood has relied on those judges – all who have a "progressive" bent and some who are judicial activists – to ward off legal challenges and protect it from its enemies. But now, says the pro-life spokesman, President Donald Trump is appointing conservative judges.

Click here for more from One News Now.

VIDEO: Down Syndrome community asks to be put on ‘endangered species’ list in face of abortion genocide

In Iceland, people with Down Syndrome have been virtually wiped out by abortion. In Denmark, people with Down syndrome also face extinction. In the United Kingdom, 90% of parents who discover that their pre-born child has Down syndrome opt to have the baby aborted. In the US, 75% of babies diagnosed with Down syndrome are aborted. In Canada, it is also close to 90%.  In Iceland, people with Down Syndrome have been virtually wiped out by abortion. In Denmark, people with Down syndrome also face extinction. In the United Kingdom, 90% of parents who discover that their pre-born child has Down syndrome opt to have the baby aborted. In the US, 75% of babies diagnosed with Down syndrome are aborted. In Canada, it is also close to 90%.

That is precisely why the Canadian Down Syndrome Society (CDSS) is attempting to draw attention to the plight of people with Down syndrome via a daring new campaign, “Endangered syndrome”: They have launched a petition calling for those with Down syndrome to be placed on the "endangered" list, noting that that by the standards of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the Down syndrome community qualifies.

Click here for more from Life Site News.

Native American abortion worker compares abortion to abandoning an infant to be eaten by a wild animal

Samara Azam—Yu, director of Access Women’s Health Justice in Oakland, California, an organization that raises funds for women who can’t afford to have abortions:

“There’s a Native American nurse at an abortion clinic in San Francisco who put it this way. She said, “If you have twins and it’s a bad year, you have to put one in the badger hole.”

She compares abortion to abandoning an infant to be eaten by a wild animal.

Click her for more from NRL News Today.

Trump tries to ensure Affordable Care Act enrollees won’t unknowingly fund abortion

The Trump administration has issued a proposed rule change to enforce existing regulations regarding taxpayer dollars used under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), a.k.a. ObamaCare. This is meant to remedy the fact that, as SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser stated, “The Obama administration… allow[ed] insurers to ignore the plain language of the law that said an abortion surcharge had to be collected separately,” allowing insurers to collect the “separate” abortion surcharge “along with regular premiums, effectively defining ‘separate’ to mean ‘together.’”

“Thanks to this trickery,” Dannenfelser adds, “millions of Americans have unwittingly purchased plans without knowing about the hidden abortion surcharge…. Consumers deserve to know how Obamacare pays for abortion so they can avoid having their hard-earned dollars used to fund the destruction of innocent lives.”

Click here for more from Live Action News.

Leakers seek to gut Trump admin’s pro-life foreign policy

A new Trump administration policy defending human life in international negotiations by avoiding terms that promote abortion has come under attack this week.

A recent spate of negative articles revealing details of internal U.S. documents that give guidance to diplomats have appeared in Foreign Policy and Politico. The guidance tells negotiators to avoid terms such as “sexual and reproductive health” and “comprehensive sexuality education,” according to the reports.

Click here for more from Life Site News.

UN committee proclaims ‘right to life’ means ‘right to abortion’

The “right-to-life” clause in an important UN human rights treaty must now include a right to abortion. So says a committee of experts charged with monitoring compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which most states have ratified.

The committee says governments must decriminalize abortion in all circumstances and “remove existing barriers that deny effective access by women and girls to safe and legal abortion including barriers caused as a result of the exercise of conscientious objection by individual medical providers,” according to the committee that monitors the implementation of the UN treaty on civil and political rights, ratified by the United States in 1991.

Click here for more from Life Site News.

Trump mulls pro-life judge, pro-abortion Giuliani among replacements for AG Sessions

With President Donald Trump firing embattled Attorney General Jeff Sessions (pictured) the day after the 2018 midterm elections, speculation abounds as to who will be selected as his replacement.

The New York Daily News reports that among them are Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. Fox News reports that retired California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown is also being considered, and an aide to South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham vociferously denied his boss would take the job.

Click here for more from Life Site News.

National Right to Life Applauds Announcement from Trump Administration Regarding Pro-Life Policies in Health Insurance

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today issued a proposed rule to require health plan issuers operating in state and federal healthcare exchanges to separately bill for any elective abortion coverage and to segregate any collected funds.

Additionally, HHS announced a final rule change to the Affordable Care Act and HHS coverage mandate that would protect moral and religious rights of conscience.

Under President Obama’s administration, pro-abortion forces not only put increasing pressure on health care providers to violate their moral convictions with regard to abortion, but also backed efforts to force employers, including religious institutions and organizations that object to abortion, to cover abortion in their insurance plans.

Click here for more from NRL News Today.