IFRL NEWS SHORTS FOR THURSDAY
Disclaimer: The linked items below or the websites at which they are located do not necessarily represent the views of The Illinois Federation for Right to Life. They are presented only for your information.
Abortion Memorial Raises Awareness of 50 Million Murdered Babies
Cyberspace Project Intended To Support Personhood Campaign
The 58,000 names on the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C., occupy a 10-foot wall that is 500 feet long, so pro-life activists assembling a memorial for the estimated 50 million dead as a result of the 1973 legalization of abortion had to turn to cyberspace. That's because a wall with that many names would be more than 80 miles long. The new project, called Personhood, is intended to raise awareness of the cost of abortion in American lives and generate support for a series of advertisements that address the personhood issue: the idea that constitutional rights should be conferred on the unborn.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=86129
Bishops pledge to help U.S. leaders advance common good and defend life
Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, writing on behalf of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, has sent a letter to President-elect Barack Obama, Vice-president-elect Joseph Biden and Congress to assure them of the bishops' prayers and their commitment "to make this period of national change a time to advance the common good and defend the life and dignity of all."
The January 13 letter from Cardinal George, who is the President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), offered an outline of "an agenda for dialogue and action."
The cardinal began by explaining that bishops approach public policy "We lead the largest community of faith in the United States, one that serves every part of our nation and is present in almost every place on earth," the letter continued. "From our experience and our tradition, we offer a distinctive, constructive and principled contribution to the national dialogue on how to act together on issues of economic turmoil and suffering, war and violence, moral decency and human dignity."
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=14779
Whistleblower in Planned Parenthood Over-Billing Swindle Appeals For Dismissal of Federal Lawsuit
A former executive of Planned Parenthood-Los Angeles has filed an appeal of a federal judge's dismissal of his whistleblower's lawsuit against all Planned Parenthood affiliates in California and their statewide political action arm, Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California. The suit alleges the nine affiliates and PPAC knowingly engaged in a scheme to defraud state and federal taxpayers out of more than $180 million by deliberately over-billing the Medi-Cal program for contraceptives Planned Parenthood purchased at a deep discount.
http://www.calcatholic.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?id=0c474993-d965-4456-bb9f-1b0d1a60f3ec
Group Protests UW Plan To Perform Abortions
The Madison Surgery Center on Park Street could soon offer abortions. The UW Hospital is proposing to allow a number of UW Gynecologists at the center to offer an uncommon procedure, 2nd tri-mester abortions, which are performed on women between 13 and 22 weeks of pregancy. UW hospital officials say they're proposing this because a Madison Planned Parenthood doctor who performed 2nd trimester abortions recently retired.
http://www.wkowtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=9625232&nav=menu1362_2_1
Democrat Senate Leader To Push Sex-Ed, Abortion Legislation
Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith said Monday that legislation to establish a sex-education grant program for teens and to update New York's abortion statutes are priorities for the now-Democrat-controlled chamber. Smith's pledges represent a policy shift from the former Republican majority, which blocked the bills from a vote by the full Senate. The Democrat-led Assembly passed the Healthy Teens Act each of the past four years, but the Senate did not. The abortion legislation was proposed by then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer in 2007 and was introduced in the Senate, but it has not passed either house.
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20090112/NEWS12/90112040
Forced Abortions - America's Secret Epidemic
Elliot Institute spokesperson Amy Solby says one study found 64 percent of women who had abortions reported they felt pressured to abort by others. "Something like 80 percent of them said that they didn't get the counseling they needed to make a good decision, that often they were not given counseling at all, or that the counseling they had was inadequate," she explains.
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=378732
Sex Offenders 'Concerned' About Abstinence-Only Education Grants
Nine grants from the state of Michigan totaling $1.4 million for abstinence-only education are drawing fire from health advocates and gay rights leaders because they say the grants exclude messages for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. Specifically, the granting rules mandate that abstinence be defined as no sex before marriage, and they define a mutually monogamous relationship in the context of marriage as the "expected standard of human sexuality."
http://michiganmessenger.com/11517/gay-leaders-concerned-about-abstinence-only-education-grants
