Urge U.S. Senators to Vote for the Blunt Amendment To Protect Conscience Rights and Block an Abortion Mandate! Take Action! 
The U.S. Senate may vote any day on a vital pro-life amendment offered by Senator Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) to a highway bill that is pending on the Senate floor. The text of the Blunt Amendment consists of the language taken from an NRLC-endorsed bill, the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act (S. 1467, H.R. 1179). It would amend the Obama health care law ("ObamaCare") to prevent the imposition of regulatory mandates that violate the religious or moral convictions of those who purchase or provide health insurance. The Blunt Amendment is Amendment No. 1520 to S. 1813, a highway bill. When President Obama's health care legislation was under consideration in the Senate in 2009, NRLC warned that a provision dealing with "preventive health services" would empower the Secretary of Health and Human Services to mandate coverage of any medical service, including abortion, merely by adding the service to an expandable list. Predictably, the Administration issued a decree in August, 2011, covering all FDA-approved birth control methods – a mandate that, unless overturned, will produce an irreconcilable conflict between conscience and the coercive force of government for many employers. In recent months, the Administration's "birth-control mandate" has elicited vigorous protests from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Southern Baptist Convention, and many other religious leaders, as an attack on religious liberty But this is not a debate only about the specific parameters of the birth-control mandate. Exactly the same statutory authority could be used by the Administration -- as early as next year -- to mandate that all health plans pay for elective abortion on demand. The Blunt Amendment goes to the heart of the problem by amending the ObamaCare law itself, to prevent provisions of the law from being used as a basis for regulatory mandates that violate the religious or moral convictions of those who purchase or provide health insurance. Please employ the easy-to-use tools here to send a message to your two U.S. senators, urging support for the Blunt Amendment. This vote could occur any day. Source: National Right to Life
Pro-Life Nation announces that its ground-breaking new website, AbortionDocs.org has passed 1,000 document uploads. AbortionDocs.org is the most up-to-date database of existing abortion businesses and providers in the United States that contains civil and criminal court records, disciplinary documents, health department inspection reports, and other documents that paint a picture of rampant abortion abuses throughout the country. "We are happy to announce that AbortionDocs.org has surpassed the 1,000 document mark, however, we have just begun the arduous process of uploading. The running document count does not include videos and links to off-site news articles. For many areas of the country, there is already a vast amount of information available that can be used to show the shoddy and often criminal nature of the abortion cartel," said Troy Newman, President of Pro-Life Nation and Operation Rescue. AbortionDocs.org is a project of Pro-life Nation, a newly launched initiative from Operation Rescue. "This is a resource for the entire pro-life movement and for anyone seeking more information about abortion businesses in their areas. We encourage anyone with documentation, such as photos, court records, videos, affidavits, or any other documentation on such things as abortion injuries or deaths, billing fraud, criminal backgrounds, tax evasion, clinic health violations, and the like to post the evidence to AbortionDocs.org." On AbortionDocs.org, there are records that document such abuses as: •Illegal dumping of aborted baby remains •Life-threatening botched abortions •Coerced/Forced abortions •Abortion-related deaths •Criminal abortions •Fraud •Huge malpractice judgments •Sex crimes on patients •Unsafe clinic conditions •Illegal weapons possession New information is being added and updated daily. Currently AbortionDocs.org shows: •658 surgical abortion clinics (down from 2,176 in 1991) •280 abortion pill-only clinics •724 abortionists "These facts prove that the abortion cartel is self-destructing due to their own misdeeds and lack of demand for their grisly services," said Newman. "That means very soon we may see all of America become a Pro-life Nation." Source: Pro-Life Nation
An abstinence education advocate says the media is putting a deceptive twist on a new report that shows an encouraging decline in the number of teen pregnancies, births, and abortions. According to researchers at the Guttmacher Institute, U.S. teen pregnancies have declined dramatically since their peak in the early 1990s, as have the number of births and abortions. Teen pregnancies in 2008 reached their lowest level at a rate of about seven percent -- down 42 percent from the peak of 1990. Researchers say teens are deciding to be more effective contraceptive users, but Valerie Huber of the National Abstinence Education Association (NAEA) says the way this study is being reported is misleading because it ignores the fact that abstinence education was being taught in one-fourth of public schools during the year these statistics were gathered. "Contraceptive education and contraceptives in general are being credited … for the reason for these drops, and that's just a disingenuous argument," she says. The report also shows that 75 percent of 1-5 to 17-year-olds are not even having sex, which, in part, accounts for the decline. But Huber finds another statistic troubling. "About 75 percent of teens didn't even use contraception the last time they had sex, so to say that these drops are due to contraceptive usage is really stretching the truth," the NAEA executive director adds. She goes on to report that even though the 2012 federal budget does call for replacing some money for the Sexual Risk Avoidance program (see earlier story), there is still a 50-to-1 disparity between abstinence education and contraceptive education monies. The Guttmacher Institute was founded in the late 1960s as a semi-autonomous division of The Planned Parenthood Federation of America. It now operates as an independent not-for-profit corporation. Contact: Bob Kellogg Source:OneNewsNow
Priests for Life announced Feb. 9 that it will file a lawsuit against the U.S. government in order to protect its religious beliefs from the Health and Human Services contraception mandate. "It's unthinkable that President Obama would force Americans of any faith to violate their consciences," said Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life. The announcement comes amid mounting criticism over secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius' Jan. 20 announcement that virtually all employers will soon be required to purchase health insurance plans that cover contraceptives – including abortion-inducing drugs – and sterilization. Catholic media network EWTN also issued a statement on Feb. 9 detailing its lawsuit against the Obama administration over the federal rule. Despite being one of the nation's largest pro-life educational organizations, Priests for Life does not qualify for an exemption from the contraception mandate because it educates people of numerous religions – not only Catholics – about issues surrounding abortion and euthanasia. Priests for Life believes it to be especially qualified to challenge the administration because its mission "to promote and protect life" sharply contrasts with the intention of the HHS mandate to make abortifacients and contraception more widely available. Civil rights lawyer Charles LiMandri of San Diego will represent Priests for Life in court. LiMandri is known for his work in the "Mt. Soledad Cross" case in which local atheists tried to have an historic war memorial torn down because it was a religious symbol on public property. LiMandri was also involved in California's Proposition 8 campaign to support marriage defined as between one man and one woman. The U.S. Catholic bishops, among other religious leaders, have led the rising opposition to the mandate since its announcement. The White House has failed, however, to offer any concessions to religious groups concerned with protecting their conscience rights. Bishop William E. Lori of Bridgeport, Conn., the U.S. Bishops for Religious Liberty chair, told CNA in a Feb. 8 statement that "no one from the Administration has approached the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops for discussions on this matter of a possible 'compromise.'" Schools such as Bellmont Abbey College and interdenominational Colorado Christian University have also raised legal challenges against the Health and Human Services mandate. Contact: Hillary Senour Source: Catholic News Agency
The headline in the Washington Times story read, "Hot-button social issues burst back onto radar in GOP race" and the first sentence of Seth McLaughlin's story is, "It's no longer just the economy, stupid." Pro-lifers, while grateful when the obvious is recognized, nonetheless shake their heads. It never WAS "just the economy," as important as that undoubtedly is. And just so it's clear, all four of the Republican presidential contenders—Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, and Rep. Ron Paul—are pro-life. To be sure it is true that the abortion issue and the right of conscience for believers can be put on the back burner by a media that is overwhelmingly pro-abortion and equally indifferent to whether Barack Obama gives a darn about religious liberty. But these issues always assume prominence because they are (1) foundational, and (2) there is an immense chasm between the two parties: overwhelmingly, Republicans are pro-life; Democrats, with some exceptions, are pro-abortion. While McLaughlin understands the dynamic, others pretend that if they pretend abortion isn't important, it won't be. Consider the silly comment Barbara Walters made yesterday on "The View." Walters said, "First of all, it is interesting in every primary the subject of abortion comes up and it is always so controversial and so divisive and yet in the actual election, it plays a very small part. I always find that fascinating. It's always an issue, but people, with it all, do not vote for the president on that issue." NRL Political Director Karen Cross did a beautiful job debunking that myth (www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2012/02/a-different-view-than-the-view). "Even if the media wasn't covering the issue, pro-life voters would still vote their values. They would still vote their hearts. They would still vote for the most vulnerable among us. They are selfless and passionate and in 2010, they soundly voted against Obama's abortion agenda." That enduring truth is important to recall and to remember. The closer and closer we come to November 6, the likelier it is that the media collectively will discover that abortion is hugely important. Contact: Dave Andrusko Source: National Right to Life
"Friend of the Court" Brief Submitted for In Vitro Fertilization Social Security Benefits Case 
What do a filmmaker, a board member of NOW, a reproductive endocrinologist, two bloggers, and a pro-life legal group have in common? They all teamed up on a filing this week in the U.S. Supreme Court in a case involving children conceived by in vitro fertilization (IVF). The friend-of-the-court brief the Life Legal Defense Foundation (LLDF) filed is designed to educate the Court about the "array of serious dangers" IVF poses to women, children, and society at large. The Supreme Court is hearing a case, Astrue v. Capato, No. 11-159, in which a widow seeks Social Security survivor benefits for the twins conceived by IVF and born after her husband's death. Lower federal courts are divided on the question of whether such posthumously conceived children are entitled to benefits under the Social Security Act, and the Supreme Court is expected to settle the question in a ruling this spring. And while the case presents fairly dry and complicated legal questions of statutory interpretation, the context of the case -- children conceived and born through IVF technology after their father had passed away from cancer -- makes this the first case in which the Supreme Court will confront this new reproductive technology. "We felt this was an educable moment for the Court," said Catherine Short, Legal Director of the Life Legal Defense Foundation, who was counsel of record on the brief. "There's a huge dearth of appreciation for the ugly underbelly of IVF. This case presents a unique opportunity to educate the Court on this issue, lest the Court in ignorance bestow some unqualified praise upon IVF as a practice. The Court benefits greatly from hearing points of view that might not otherwise be expressed. Here, neither the mother of the IVF twins nor the Department of Justice have any reason to speak ill of IVF. That's where we provide a key supplemental voice." The brief emphasizes that children conceived by IVF are fully human and entitled to love and respect just like any other children. But the brief also cautions the Court that IVF comes with a package of very significant downsides, including physical and emotional risks to both the IVF child and the genetic mother, the routine creation and destruction or freezing of untold numbers of "spare" human embryos, the deconstruction of the family, and the unleashing of an exploitative industry that can prey upon vulnerable women. The five friends of the court appearing on the brief are: Jennifer Lahl, documentary filmmaker and producer of Eggsploitation, an exposé of the IVF industry's exploitation of human egg providers; Kathleen Sloan, NOW board member and veteran activist for women's rights; Kathleen R. LaBounty, conceived by donor sperm, blogger on donor conception; Stephanie Blessing, also conceived by donor sperm and blogging on her situation; and, Anthony J. Caruso, M.D., MPH, a former IVF practitioner who oversaw more than 1,000 IVF procedures but has since renounced the practice. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the case on March 19, with a decision likely to follow in June. Contact: Tom Ciesielka Source: Life Legal Defense Foundation
ETWN, a global Catholic television network, has filed a lawsuit Thursday against the mandatory free coverage of contraception in ObamaCare. "We had no other option but to take this to the courts," says EWTN president Michael Warsaw. The mandate forces faith-based organizations such as hospitals to provide the coverage, even though it might violate their religious beliefs. Attorney Mark Rienzi with the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty tells OneNewsNow that religious liberty is not just confined to churches and religious orders. "And essentially the folks at EWTN will refuse to comply with this mandate," the attorney explains, "and [they] have taken the government to federal court to require the government to do what it has to do -- which is follow federal law and provide an exception for anybody who objects on grounds of religion or conscience to providing these drugs." The government contends most Catholics use birth control and that faith involvement of religious hospitals and other organizations is only nominal. But Rienzi says that is not the government's call. "The government in our system has no power and no role to decide which organizations and people are 'religious enough' to get the protection of the Constitution," he argues. "The government can't sit there and say Well, I think you're Catholic enough, but you not so much -- they have no power to do that. And even if it were true that some number of people don't follow a church's teaching, that doesn't give the government the power to force the other people to also violate it." Priests for Life has filed suit against the mandate as well, and several other organizations intend to follow suit. In addition, there is a report that Nebraska's attorney general is asking other state chief attorneys to join in a lawsuit he intends to file. Contact: Charlie Butts Source: OneNewsNow
Lower the expectations and they'll likely succeed 
Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania is now selling the "morning-after" pill via a vending machine. A pro-family group in that state believes that sends the wrong message to students. For $25, people with access to campus health services at Shippensburg can buy Plan B from a machine, just like they would a soda or a bag of chips. Diane Gramley of the American Family Association of Pennsylvania finds that appalling. "To begin with, they're approving the sexual activity of their students -- and they're not providing the young ladies with the correct information about Plan B, about the morning-after pill," Gramley explains. "If they are pregnant, it actually does not allow the implantation of the fertilized egg -- and that's just killing their baby." University officials say a survey of students found that the vast majority were in favor of having the pill available through campus health services. The pro-family spokeswoman questions that as well. "It's interesting that that survey was taken several years ago," she notes, "and it says that 85 percent of the respondents wanted the availability of the morning-after pill. Now our question to the school is: How many students actually responded?" Another issue that Gramley has with the vending-machine availability is that it makes it possible for a man who molests an underage girl to walk onto campus, gain access to the machine, then provide the pill to their victim. But the school maintains because the one machine that makes Plan B available is in a private room in the health center, no one can just "walk in off the street" and access it. Regardless, Gramley says the machine should be removed, but there are questions about the legality of the vending machine service -- questions that ought to be answered by the state. Plan B is available without a prescription to anyone who is 17 or older. A university statement says all full-time students currently at Shippensburg fit that criteria -- and that the pill is made available "at cost" (i.e., no state funds or student health fees are used). Contact: Charlie Butts Source: OneNewsNow
The fallout from Planned Parenthood's triumph in its public relations war with Susan G. Komen for the Cure continues, even as a new report to Congress suggests 20 percent of the abortion provider's affiliates could be guilty of waste and fraud involving government funds. Karen Handel, Komen's senior vice president for public policy, resigned Feb. 7, only a week after her organization's decision to defund Planned Parenthood was reported. Her resignation was not a shock after an onslaught of Planned Parenthood-fueled outrage against the world's leading breast cancer charity prompted Komen to backtrack Feb. 3 by announcing Planned Parenthood affiliates would remain eligible for grants. Meanwhile, the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) -- in a report prepared for a congressional investigation of the country's No. 1 abortion provider -- released evidence Feb. 7 showing waste, abuse and potential fraud by Planned Parenthood affiliates. Among its findings, ADF reported audits of seven of 79 affiliates over a 14-year period found nearly $8 million of fraud, waste and abuse. The Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) and its affiliates received $487.4 million in government grants, contracts and reimbursements alone in 2009-10, the most recent year for which statistics are available. PPFA clinics performed 329,445 abortions in 2010, which was more than one-fourth of the lethal procedures in the United States for the year. Some critics of Komen's defunding decision had targeted Handel for blame in the organization's initial decision to halt grants to PPFA affiliates. A former Georgia secretary of State, she called for defunding Planned Parenthood during an unsuccessful gubernatorial run in 2010. In her resignation letter, Handel, who joined Komen's staff in April 2011, acknowledged her role in the process to defund Planned Parenthood but said the decision "was fully vetted by every appropriate level within the organization" and Komen's board raised no objections. The decision to change Komen's criteria for grant-making, as well as the controversy over the organization's relationship with PPFA, preceded her hiring, Handel said. Komen decided to abstain from future funding of Planned Parenthood affiliates because of a new policy that bans grants to organizations under government investigation, a Komen spokeswoman had said in a Jan. 31 report by the Associated Press. A House of Representatives committee began an investigation of Planned Parenthood in September. Though PPFA President Cecile Richards charged Komen with appearing to "have succumbed to political pressure," Handel told Fox News, "The only group here who has made this issue political has been Planned Parenthood." Handel made clear her disdain for PPFA's high-pressure tactics through social media and the mainstream news media. "[T]he last time I checked, private, non-profit organizations have a right and a responsibility to be able to set the highest standards and criteria on their own without interference, let alone the level of vicious attacks and coercion that has occurred by Planned Parenthood. It's simply outrageous," she told Fox News. She resigned because it became obvious she was "too much of a focal point," Handel said. "I really felt I had a responsibility to step aside so that [Komen] could refocus on their mission." Nancy Brinker, Komen's chief executive officer, wished Handel the best after receiving her resignation and said in a statement, "We have made mistakes in how we have handled recent decisions and take full accountability for what has resulted, but we cannot take our eye off the ball when it comes to our mission." From a pro-life perspective, the widespread news coverage of Komen's original action, the PPFA-orchestrated reaction and Komen's subsequent policy change served a couple of educational purposes for the public: (1) More Americans, including pro-life advocates, now know the breast cancer foundation is giving to Planned Parenthood. As a result, pro-lifers' donations to Komen and participation in its popular five-kilometer, fund-raising runs/walks that draw more than 1.6 million participants each year likely will decline further. (2) More Americans now realize Planned Parenthood centers do not offer mammograms but refer women to other clinics for the screenings. Komen affiliates gave about $680,000 to PPFA centers last year, AP reported. An analysis last year by the pro-life American Life League found 18 of Komen's about 120 affiliates had given PPFA centers grants totaling nearly $630,000 in the 2009-10 fiscal year. In announcing its Feb. 3 change of course, Komen said it would amend its new criteria "to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political." The current federal investigation of PPFA will certainly be more than political if the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee finds the ADF report is the tip of an iceberg of misuse of government funds. Rep. Cliff Stearns, R.-Fla., who is leading the committee's investigation, asked Richards in a September letter to provide audits, documentation, policies and procedures regarding such issues as improper billing, segregation of federal funds from abortion services and reporting of suspected sex abuse and human trafficking. Based on its review of federal and state audits, ADF reported there were 12 kinds of potential fraud PPFA affiliates were engaging in, including overbilling and illegal billing for services or drugs related to abortion. ADF's report was based on audits available to the public and confirmed by undisclosed sources. The ADF report said PPFA's "primary motivation is to take advantage of 'overbilling' opportunities to maximize its revenues in complex, well-funded federal and state programs that are understaffed and rely on the integrity of the provider for program compliance. Thus, Planned Parenthood's primary motivation appears not to provide quality healthcare to patients who seek family planning services, but rather to enhance its profits." The unknown extent of "waste, abuse and potential fraud" at PPFA affiliates deserves investigation by the House committee, according to ADF. The Susan B. Anthony List assisted ADF in the report. Planned Parenthood has been plagued by various scandals in recent years. Secret investigations by pro-life organizations have uncovered PPFA workers demonstrating a willingness to aid self-professed sex traffickers whose prostitutes supposedly are in their early teens, seeking to cover up alleged child sex abuse and agreeing to receive donations designated for abortions of African-American babies. Contact: Tom Strode Source: Baptist Press
