It's not surprising that speakers tonight at the Democratic National Convention made no attempt to disguise the abortion extremism of the Democratic platform and President Barack Obama.
NARAL President Nancy Keenan used her speech to make DNC 2012 the abortion convention as she proudly proclaimed the Democratic Party's support for abortion. It's understandable given the shared and unwavering dedication of NARAL and the President to the policy of abortion on demand without limits. Following Keenan, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius praised Obamacare, which will lead to expanded insurance coverage for abortion.
Every day, more than 3,000 mothers across the country have abortions. These women and their children deserve better than a violent procedure that leaves one dead and one wounded. But you won't hear that at this year's DNC. Look no further than their platform to see how extreme and out of touch with Americans they truly are. Even with 59% of Americans opposing the vast majority of abortions, and still more than 1.2 million abortions annually in this country, the Democratic Party has never seen any limit on abortion they liked, or any abortion they opposed.
As the DNC begins to showcase their pro-abortion extremism in Charlotte, the differences between Barack Obama and the pro-life ticket of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have never been more clear.
Contact: Carol Tobias
Source: National Right to Life
Life Legal Defense Foundation Says Bill Morphed from Boat Paint to Humans
The California Senate voted last week to pass a bill allowing non-physicians to perform aspiration abortions. Senate Bill 623, introduced by Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego), extends a program run by the University of California, San Francisco, in which nurse practitioners, midwives and physicians assistants are trained to perform abortions.
"This bill was originally created to regulate boat paint," said Dana Cody, Executive Director of the Life Legal Defense Foundation. "Now it's regulating and destroying human lives."
Ms. Kehoe claimed that the bill was necessary to fill gaps in the availability of abortion caused by the shortage of doctors in parts of the state. The bill went through three attempts before passage. Ms. Kehoe "gutted and amended" the bill after its introduction, which raised some protest from other members of the Senate. This spring, a Senate committee rejected an attempt to pass a broader bill allowing non-physicians to perform abortions. In the end, a narrower version of the bill was passed. Rather than opening abortion to non-physicians generally, the bill focuses on extending a U.C. San Francisco program training physicians assistants and others to perform first trimester abortions.
For months, the Life Legal Defense Foundation has been tracking down information on the U.C. San Francisco program. Earlier this year, they filed a Writ of Mandate to compel disclosure with a public records request for complete information. "There have been numerous attempts to resist records requests, leaving us wondering what they have to hide," said Katie Short, Legal Director of the Life Legal Defense Foundation. "It is important for Californians to find out what is being done in this training program -- who are the abortionists conducting the training? How many women are being injured by these non-physician abortionists?"
Contact: Tom Ciesielka
Source: Life Legal Defense Foundation
Supporters of Planned Parenthood argued at a Sept. 4 rally that pro-life views amount to the belief that women are inferior and should not have certain rights.
Congresswoman Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) asserted that pro-life politicians are trying to remove "women's basic rights" and the ability to control "their destinies."
Republicans believe that women "are not created equal" and do not include women "when they talk that freedom and liberty stuff," she argued.
Moore charged that abortion foes are radically "backward-looking" and warned against those who want women "to be barefoot and pregnant."
Moore was one of several speakers who endorsed President Barack Obama at a Sept. 4 Planned Parenthood rally held outside the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, N.C., during the Democratic National Convention.
The rally featured a woman dressed as a giant container of birth control pills who led chants, as well as speakers like Emily Sussman, executive director of Young Democrats of America, who declared that she is a "b-tch for choice."
Although the rally was not an official convention event, Planned Parenthood supporters wearing pink t-shirts were very prominent around the convention center.
Many of the speakers at the event focused on a controversial federal mandate that requires employers to provide health insurance covering contraception, sterilization and early abortion-inducing drugs, even if doing so violates their consciences.
Religious organizations and individuals across the country have voiced objections to the mandate, arguing that it infringes on their freedom of religion because such products and procedures are contrary to their beliefs.
Republican candidates have vowed to protect religious employers and those who object from the mandate.
Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards told the crowd that "we're fighting over the right of women in this country to have birth control" and argued that opponents of the mandate "want to let our boss decide whether or not we should be able to get birth control."
But the numerous churches and secular employers who object to the mandate have responded to these claims by pointing out that most companies already cover contraception and would be free to continue doing so. Employees who work for the minority of morally objecting employers can find contraception already widely available for little cost at many pharmacies and for free at some health clinics, they add.
Still, rally participants repeatedly made the claim that their opponents are attempting to prevent insurance policies from covering birth control.
Newark’s Mayor Cory Booker argued that the GOP is "denying women access to healthcare."
"You see, there's some people in the Republican Party that believe that when they say all men are created equal, that they are leaving out women," he said.
Speakers at the event veered away from discussing abortion, despite the fact that Planned Parenthood is the nation's largest abortion provider.
"It's not just about abortion," said actress Aisha Tyler, a Planned Parenthood national board member.
When discussing the organization and surrounding issues in the months leading up to the election, she advised the crowd, “don't let it be about abortion,” shift the focus to "women's health."
The transition in emphasis may have been in response to polls that indicate Americans who identify as "pro-choice" are at an all-time low.
In addition, Democrats for Life of America recently announced that nearly one in three Democrats self-identifies as pro-life. The organization made an attempt to expand the party's 2012 platform to include pro-life positions in addition to pro-abortion views, but its request was rejected.
While they acknowledged that significantly lower rates of women supported the Democratic Party in the 2010 election, speakers at the Planned Parenthood rally did not address the growing numbers of pro-life Americans, and instead focused on the "extreme" views of those who oppose abortion and the contraception mandate.
Georgetown University law graduate Sandra Fluke also spoke at the rally, highlighting the importance of the 2012 election.
Fluke has become a hero for the push to promote the contraception mandate since she testified before a U.S. House committee in February on why she believed religious institutions such as Georgetown University should be required to provide free contraception to students.
The 31-year-old recounted stories of fellow students who allegedly suffered because they were unable to treat medical conditions with contraceptives, even though the university's student health care plan was later shown to cover birth control if needed for medical purposes rather than contraceptive ones.
Fluke told rally attendees to spread the word that women will die from lack of health care if Republican candidates Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are elected.
"This is personal," she stressed.
Contact: Michelle Bauman
Source: CNA/EWTN News
With the curtain closed on the Democratic National Convention, one pro-lifer is certain about where the party stands on life issues.
Marilyn Musgrave, spokesperson for the Susan B. Anthony List, says the party's pro-abortion stance was evidenced by the selection of speakers at the DNC. Two of them were Nancy Keenan of NARAL and Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards.
"Well, the fact that Cecile Richards was there really speaks to the extreme position of the party [that's] very evident in their platform," Musgrave asserts. "Also this reflects her close relationship with the most pro-abortion president ever."
Upon listening to Richards' speech, the SBA List spokesperson noticed that the fact that Planned Parenthood kills more than 300,000 preborn babies each year was missing -- "or even the word 'abortion,' for that matter."
"Talking about women's health -- abortion is not healthcare," Musgrave asserts. "Planned Parenthood has gotten by with this image of providing healthcare. Their money comes in from abortions -- that's what they're all about."
Richards claimed that several million women would be denied health services like cancer screenings without Planned Parenthood. But the fact is those services are available through other sources that do not do abortions.
Musgrave goes on to stress that the party platform seeks no restrictions at all on abortion, even late-term and sex-selection.
Contact: Charlie Butts
Source: OneNewsNow
The First Lady of America took the grandstand last night in a rousing speech. As the emails flooded into my cache, with the pros and cons, I wrote back to one sincere young lady: "She looked beautiful and proves that she's nearly as much a consummate skilled politician as her husband. She almost makes you forget that her husband supports killing babies and destroying natural marriage. Almost..."
In comparison to Mrs. Romney's sincere and impassioned speech in support of her husband last week, Mrs. Obama's speech was more glittering and glamorous. She skillfully moved through the controversial issues of abortion and homosexual marriage by drawing comparisons between the two leading candidates without ever mentioning her husband's opponent's name during the subtle attack on his candidacy.
Mrs. Obama's efforts to pit the rich against the poor also fall short of the mark, when we consider that both candidates and their families are not poor people. The President and First Lady are not poor by a long shot. Both candidates also have humble beginnings in their ancestries. Neither the President nor the Governor have ancestors who have been slaves in America by the way.
What the First Lady didn't mention is the high number of jobless families, and the astronomical debt her husband has run up in the name of entitlement during his tenure. This debt will fall on the backs of our children, at least those who don't end up contracepted or aborted or not conceived in the first place.
However, after saying all of this, we can admit that both Mrs. Romney and Mrs. Obama have delivered stunning and memorable speeches in support and defense of their husbands. Women can be proud that two intelligent women are at the forefront of this year's elections.
Women should also be very wary of an agenda that is very harmful to the female and family populations of America, which is the agenda that Mrs. Michelle Obama, the First Lady of America is promoting. The current administration supports programs and initiatives such as homosexual marriage and the HHS Mandate which delivers harmful chemical and medical procedures that are linked to strokes, heart attacks, breast cancer and a host of other ills that are harmful to the lives of babies and women.
The question that is continually being asked is: "What diseases do abortion and unnatural contraceptives cure?" Pregnancy and childbirth are not diseases, so how can abortion and harmful contraceptives help women? Who is on guard for the civil rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for women and babies who are being hurt, maimed and slaughtered in the name of birth control and abortion?
Of course, Mrs. Obama stayed away from these issues as much as she possibly could during her speech. It would be amazing if the women of America, if the voters of America could step away from the glory and the hype for a moment and put some of these questions before the First Lady and the President of the United States.
I'll end with this one... All that glitters ain't gold.
Contact: Eugene Vigil, by Alveda King
Source: King for America
The Democratic Party platform for 2012 “strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade, endorses legal recognition of same-sex marriage, and regards the promotion of “gay rights” as an American foreign-policy priority.
The program approved by the Democratic Party at this week’s convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, no longer says that abortion should be “rare,” as previous party platforms once said. In a blanket statement of support for unrestricted legal abortion, the platform says: “We oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right.”
The platform adds that the option of abortion should be available to all women “regardless of ability to pay,” underlining Democratic support for taxpayer-financed abortions.
In a new bid for support from homosexual activists, the platform says: “We support marriage equality and support the movement to secure equal treatment under the law for same sex couples."
Regarding the rights of churches that refuse to acknowledge same-sex marriage, the platform says: “We also support the freedom of churches and religious entities to decide how to administer marriage as a religious sacrament without government interference.” That sentence is ambiguous, insofar as it says that religious institutions should be allowed to decide “how” to celebrate marriages; the platform gives no indication that they should remain free not to solemnize homosexual marriages.
The Democratic platform applauds the Obama administration’s decision to treat same-sex relationships as “families” for purposes of immigration policy, and to fund programs that finance gay-rights organizations abroad through the State Department. The platform explains that “gay rights are human rights.”
"President Obama and Democrats will continue to stand up to Republican efforts to defund Planned Parenthood health centers,” the Democratic platform proclaims. And: “President Obama and the Democratic Party are committed to supporting family planning around the globe...”
Contact: Catholic World News
While the economy remains the focus of the presidential election, one conservative advocate explains why social issues should be a main part of the dialogue.
Some believe Romney and establishment Republicans want to downplay topics like abortion. But Gary Bauer, president of American Values, tells OneNewsNow that pointing out the Democratic Party's policy positions on the subject can educate voters. He maintains the mainstream media wrongly reports that the GOP is the radical party on abortion, especially in regards to "exceptions" like rape and incest.
Bauer, Gary (American Values)"It's the other side that has an extremist position, because they will not outlaw any abortions -- not for a 15-year-old without her parents' permission, not abortions to pick the sex of the baby, not abortions in the seventh and eighth month of pregnancy," he asserts. "Not only will they not outlaw them, they expect us to pay for those abortions."
Bauer predicts voters will not hear reporters challenge President Barack Obama or the Democratic Party concerning what he considers "extremist views" like abortion on demand -- at least not like the media challenged GOP leaders in Tampa last week for protecting the unborn. But he also believes Republicans should not avoid discussing the subject for fear of condemnation.
"This party at the grassroots, it's the party of Lincoln and Reagan. It's the party that was based on the idea that in America, everybody is protected by the words of our founding documents," Bauer states about the Republicans. "That includes, in the beginning of our party, slaves -- we were the party that said they were men; they should be welcomed. And today we're the party that believes that our children ought to be welcomed into the world, have a seat at the table and be protected under the law."
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden support abortion on demand, which, according to various polls, is a position shared by less than one quarter of Americans. For instance, The Daily Caller reports that Gallup recently found that 86 percent of Americans believe such abortions should be illegal.
Contact: Russ Jones
Source: OneNewsNow
Some 79 members of the US House of Representatives have signed amicus curiae briefs in support of the 40 Catholic institutions that have brought suit to halt enforcement of the Obama administration's contraceptive mandate.
The amicus briefs, prepared by the American Center for Law and Justice, oppose a bid by the Department of Health and Human Services to dismiss the lawsuits, which were brought by Catholic dioceses, schools, and charitable institutions.
The representatives who joined in signing the briefs were: Jeff Landry (LA), Robert Aderholt (AL), Todd Akin (MO), Mark Amodei (NV), Michele Bachmann (MN), Spencer Bachus (AL), Lou Barletta (PA), Roscoe Bartlett (MD), Dan Benishek (MI), Gus Bilirakis (FL), Diane Black (TN), Marsha Blackburn (TN), Charles Boustany (LA), Kevin Brady (TX), Paul Broun (GA), Dan Burton (IN), Francisco "Quico" Canseco (TX), Bill Cassidy (LA), Steve Chabot (OH), Michael Conaway (TX), Chip Cravaack (MN), Jeff Duncan (SC), Renee Ellmers (NC), Stephen Fincher (TN), John Fleming (LA), Bill Flores (TX), J. Randy Forbes (VA), Jeff Fortenberry (NE), Virginia Foxx (NC), Bob Goodlatte (VA), Gregg Harper (MS), Andy Harris (MD), Vicky Hartzler (MO), Wally Herger (CA), Tim Huelskamp (KS), Bill Huizenga (MI), Bill Johnson (OH), Walter Jones (NC), Jim Jordan (OH), Mike Kelly (PA), Steve King (IA), John Kline (MN), Raul Labrador (ID), Doug Lamborn (CO), James Lankford (OK), Bob Latta (OH), Dan Lipinski (IL), Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO), Dan Lungren (CA), Don Manzullo (IL), Jeff Miller (FL), Mick Mulvaney (SC), Tim Murphy (PA), Randy Neugebauer (TX), Alan Nunnelee (MS), Pete Olson (TX), Steven Palazzo (MS), Ron Paul (TX), Steve Pearce (NM), Joe Pitts (PA), Ted Poe (TX), Mike Pompeo (KS), Ben Quayle (AZ), Reid Ribble (WI), Phil Roe (TN), Todd Rokita (IN), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL), Dennis Ross (FL), Steve Scalise (LA), Bobby Schilling (IL), Jean Schmidt (OH), David Schweikert (AZ), Adrian Smith (NE), Chris Smith (NJ), Lamar Smith (TX), Glenn Thompson (PA), Tim Walberg (MI), Lynn Westmoreland (GA), and Joe Wilson (SC).
Source: Catholic World News
