Last week, 72 members of Congress signed onto a letter initiated by Congresswoman Diane Black of Tennessee calling for the federal Government Accountability Office to investigate the amount of tax dollars Planned Parenthood and its affiliates are receiving annually from American taxpayers. No members of the Illinois delegation signed onto Black's February 21 request.
Illinois hosts 18 Planned Parenthood clinics, one of which is being sued for alleged negligent care of 24 year old Tonya Reaves. Reaves died last year at the Chicago Planned Parenthood clinic after her uterus was perforated during a late term abortion. The Planned Parenthood website says they offer birth control counseling and in two locations they now offer permanent sterilization for women and men.
Black's letter asks that the GAO check into the funds going to Planned Parenthood and its numerous affiliates because low and middle income women are going to these clinics for health services, and federal tax dollars are subsidizing Planned Parenthood services. A portion of Black's letter reads:
Source: Illinois Review
Robin Roberts
Once again a jaunt on the old Gold's Gym treadmill paid results. Although I had forgotten all about it, Good Morning America co-anchor Robin Roberts was making her triumphant return to ABC's #1 rated morning show after being on medical leave following a bone marrow transplant to treat a rare blood disorder myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS).
It was great television: a close up of Roberts who told her audience, ""I've been waiting 174 days to say this: 'Good morning, America.'"
During the course of the program (obviously much of which was devoted to Roberts), she reflected on faith, family and physicians.
"There's so many people that I want to thank throughout the morning, my doctors and nurses and family and colleagues and people who have sat in this chair and those who have blazed the trail before me," Roberts said. "As my mother said, 'We all have something.' Everyone's story has purpose and meaning and value and I share this morning, this day of celebration with everyone."
Besides a wonderful story of triumphing over cancer, there is a special association for pro-lifers. Indeed, if the full ramifications of the stories about Roberts were more widely known, it would be a real eye-opener.
MDS damages the bone marrow, making it no longer able to make the healthy cells and platelets we all need to live. Her older sister, Sally-Ann, was Robin's bone marrow donor. In the procedure, a patient's damaged bone marrow is eradicated and then replaced with healthy, donated marrow.
Although the words were not used, in fact, the transplant is another example of the successful, even routine use of adult stem cells.
As we reported at the time of the transplant, hematologist-oncologist Colleen Delaney, director of the program in cord blood transplant and research at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, said, "We always call it a bone marrow transplant, but really it is a transplant with blood stem cells."
Another terrific source is umbilical cord blood.
Obviously there is a better chance of success the closer the match between donor and recipient cells. Ms. Roberts was especially fortunate because her sister was an excellent match. (Finding a family match happens only about 30% of the time, according to a USA Today's story.)
"The other 70% (more than 10,000 patients each year) have to turn to an unrelated adult donor or donated umbilical cord blood," wrote Michelle Healy. "Often treated as waste and discarded, umbilical cords and placentas are rich with blood-forming cells, and more recent studies show the outcomes of cord blood transplants 'are just as good as conventional donor outcomes,' Delaney said."
And "Because cord blood transplants don't require the close genetic matching needed for more conventional bone marrow transplants, they hold special promise for the thousands of patients each year who can't find a well-matched, unrelated donor, a particular challenge for people of mixed ethnicity and minority backgrounds, says Delaney."
NRL News Today asked Dr. David Prentice, an expert on the issue of stem cells, to comment. "It is so heartening to see her return, and it further validates the life-saving abilities of adult stem cells," he said. "I hope she'll become a champion to speak out and educate people about the real promise of stem cells–adult stem cells. Many more lives could be saved if only more people were aware of the successes, shown by her example and thousands of others."
Prentice noted that "No doubt, it's a harrowing experience for MDS patients leading up to the transplant, with chemotherapy to destroy the cancer in the body." However, "the adult stem cell transplant is a short and simple procedure—an IV injection into a vein, and the millions of adult stem cells begin looking for a new home. In this case, they will look to make themselves at home as new bone marrow, and begin producing new red blood cells to carry oxygen, white blood cells for immunity, and platelets for clotting."
His conclusion speaks volume:
"The more we focus on adult stem cells, the sooner we'll find gentler and more efficient methods for transplants like this one, for other types of cancers, for anemias, as well as spinal cord injury, heart damage, and dozens of other conditions. Adult stem cells are truly the patient's best friend."
Source: National Right to Life
Jennifer Morbelli
On the webpage today of Newsday, next to the headline "Jennifer Morbelli, New Rochelle teacher, died of complications after abortion, medical examiner says," is a photo of pro-abortion New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the headline, "Cuomo proposes to expand legalization of late-term abortions."
Morbelli was 33 weeks pregnant when she was aborted at LeRoy Carhart's Germantown Reproductive Health Services clinic in Germantown, Maryland, and died Thursday, February 7 at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital.
Bruce Goldfarb, a spokesman for the Maryland medical examiner's office, told reporters that initial findings listed two causes for the death of the 29-year-old Morbelli.
The New Rochelle, New York teacher died when amniotic fluid seeped into her bloodstream ("amniotic fluid embolism following termination of pregnancy") and because of "disseminated intravascular coagulation," according to Newsday's Ken Schachter.
Schachter explained that as "a condition that occurs when small blood clots form in the blood vessels," adding, "Eventually, the proteins needed for clotting can become depleted, which can lead to extensive bleeding throughout the body." A headline for the White Plains Daily Voice read, "White Plains Teacher Bled To Death After Abortion."
Until yesterday, the medical examiner had listed the manner and cause of Morbelli's death as "pending." A spokeswoman for the Montgomery County, Maryland, Police Department, which is investigating Morbelli's death, said investigators are awaiting the full autopsy report. This is typically issued anywhere from 30-90 days after a death.
In Maryland the manner of death is defined as "natural," "undetermined," "accidental," "homicide" and "suicide." The medical examiner chose to designate the manner of death for Morbelli as "natural."
Morbelli's first visit to Carhart's Germantown Reproductive Health Services came Sunday, February 3. (Abortions this late in pregnancy take place over several days.)
"In the days after Feb. 3, the woman returned to the clinic several times, an indication of a multi-day abortion procedure that involved inducing labor, abortion opponents have said," the Washington Post's Dan Morse and Lena Sun reported. "Complications arose, and on Feb. 7, she arrived at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital, where state and local officials say she died that day."
Morbelli's death "has again cast a national spotlight on a small clinic that opened inside a nondescript office park in Germantown a little more than two years ago," Morse and Sun wrote. "The clinic's leader, LeRoy Carhart, is one the few doctors nationwide who publicly acknowledges performing late-term abortions. He has declined to comment."
When news of Morbelli's death first broke, it was a reminder that Carhart had performed late-term abortions in Nebraska until 2010 when the state passed the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. "One hopes that Maryland authorities will do a thorough investigation in this case and what ramifications it will have on Carhart continuing to do late-term abortions in Germantown," said Nebraska Right to Life Executive Director Julie Schmit-Albin. The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which is the law in seven states, bars abortions on babies capable of experiencing pain, established to be no later than 20 weeks.
Carhart still lives in Nebraska but flies into perform abortions at the Germantown, Maryland abortion clinic which is located about 30 miles north of Washington.
A few days after Morbelli's death the Omaha World-Herald reported that an online obituary said Morbelli was married and taught in New Rochelle, N.Y. Robby Korth and Roseann Moring concluded their story, "It also listed her baby girl as having died Thursday."
Source: National Right to Life
In a case that garnered national headlines, the parents of a pregnant 16-year-old girl have told a Texas judge that they will not use physical force or psychological coercion to try to compel their daughter to abort. The teenager, from Hockley, Texas, had sued her parents when, she alleged, they had threatened "to make her life miserable" unless she had the abortion.
The girl, who is ten weeks pregnant, was not named. The baby's father is Evan Madison. The parents did not talk with reporters after Monday's settlement but had denied the allegations.
"She wanted to have this child without coercion and she got that," Stephen Casey, one of the teen's attorneys, told the Houston Chronicle. "We're glad that our client recognized that her unborn child had a right to live, and she wanted to protect that."
The parents also agreed "to pay half of the hospital bill if the girl has not married when the baby is delivered and let her use her car to go to school and work," according to the Chronicle's Brian Rogers. The young man, also 16, told reporters he intended to marry his girlfriend.
"There were times when she was in tears," Madison told reporters about the coercion and the decision to file a lawsuit. "It was hard on her and me."
Madison told CNN's Piers Morgan last night that ""We were always determined to have the baby" and never considered an abortion.
It was Madison's mother who first contacted lawyers who then reached out to the girl and offered their services free of charge.
As reported previously in NRL News Today, the lawsuit alleged that the girl's mother threatened to "slip (the teen) an abortion pill." CNN noted that the mother allegedly "took her daughter's phone and car and kept her home from school to punish her for choosing not to abort her fetus. The mother told the teen that she was 'making the biggest mistake of her life' by choosing to have the child and that the mother herself had undergone numerous abortions, so her daughter should, too," according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit added that the parents told their daughter she could "continue to live in misery" in their home or she could "have the abortion and tell everyone it was a miscarriage."
Source: National Right to Life
Priscilla Coleman, Ph.D.
A recent study published in the Medical Science Monitor indicates that women who undergo abortions have a higher mortality rate than women who give birth.
The researchers, Priscilla K. Coleman (Bowling Green State University) and David C. Reardon (the Elliot Institute), note the limitations of previous studies on this issue:
All existing studies of mortality rates associated with prior pregnancy outcomes have been limited to pregnancies within an arbitrary range of women's reproductive lives and have lacked information on the subjects' complete reproductive history. Therefore, one of the main purposes of this study is to eliminate the potential confounding effect of unknown prior pregnancy history by examining mortality rates associated specifically with first pregnancy outcome alone.
The authors summarize the findings of their study, which used detailed medical records from Denmark:
A total of 463,473 women had their first pregnancy between 1980 and 2004, of whom 2,238 died. In nearly all time periods examined, mortality rates associated with miscarriage or abortion of a first pregnancy were higher than those associated with birth. Compared to women who delivered, the age and birth year adjusted cumulative risk of death for women who had a first trimester abortion was significantly higher in all periods examined, from 180 days through 10 years, as was the risk for women who had abortions after 12 weeks from one year through 10 years.
"[C]ompared to a first pregnancy ending in a live birth," Coleman and Reardon write, "an abortion prior to 12 weeks is associated with 80% higher risk of death within the first year and a 40% higher risk of death over 10 years."
Source: National Right to Life
Almost 1 in 9 young women who are sexually active have used the morning-after pill after sex, nearly three times the rate that used it 11 years ago, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study released Feb. 14.
The study, which evaluated women between 15 and 44, found that 5.8 million women -- 11 percent -- used the morning-after pill between 2006 and 2010, compared to 4 percent in 2002. For women between 20 and 24, the rate was even higher: 1 in 4 women who had ever had sex used the drug at some point.
The increased popularity of the drug stems in part from easier access and media coverage of efforts to lift the age limit for the over-the-counter sales. Women over 17 do not need a prescription to buy the morning-after pill but must request it from a pharmacy.
Under President Obama's health care reform, employers will be required to cover birth control, including morning-after pills, which likely will increase their use in the future.
Supporters of morning-after pills, which are sold under the names Plan B, ella and Preven, claim they are merely contraceptive drugs that delay or prevent ovulation, so the egg is never fertilized. But pro-lifers note that a second mechanism of the pill prevents a fertilized egg from implanting, which makes it an abortifacient drug.
The effectiveness of the morning-after pill also has been called into question. Researchers who demanded making it non-prescription found in 2007 that the pill does not reduce either abortion or pregnancy rates. "No study has shown that increased access to this method reduces unintended pregnancy or abortion rates on a population level," the authors wrote. They also said the drug's effectiveness may be "substantially" overstated.
Americans United for Life (AUL) attorney Anna Franzonello said in a statement the increase in use shows many women don't know what the drugs really do:
"AUL's concern that life-ending drugs are being deceptively labeled as 'contraception' has only increased since the period that the CDC's national Center for Health Services (NCHS) study examined."
Source: Baptist Press
The Southern Baptist Convention's ethics entity has told two more federal appeals courts the Obama administration's abortion/contraception mandate violates religious liberty.
The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission signed on to friend-of-the-court briefs filed Feb. 19 with both the Sixth and 10th Circuit Courts of Appeals in supporting lawsuits against the mandate, which requires employers to pay for coverage of drugs defined by the Food and Drug Administration as contraceptives, even if they can cause abortions. The ERLC has now endorsed five briefs defending the religious freedom of entities challenging the requirement at the appeals court level.
The administration proposed a change Feb. 1 supposedly designed to satisfy the concerns of faith organizations, but religious freedom advocates said objecting employers -- other than churches and church ministries -- still would be unwilling participants in underwriting both contraceptive and abortion-causing pills. Under the revision, dissenting employers would have to be affiliated with an insurance plan connected to coverage of such pills and may end up absorbing increased costs for the drugs if the insurance companies pay for them and consequently increase rates.
Religious institutions and business owners with conscience objections to paying for contraceptives or abortion-causing drugs have challenged the mandate in more than 40 lawsuits against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which issued the rule. So far, owners of for-profit companies that have challenged the rule have won injunctions blocking enforcement of the mandate 11 of 14 times.
The latest ERLC-endorsed briefs -- written by the Christian Legal Society -- are in support of two for-profits that have not gained injunctive relief -- Hobby Lobby in the 10th Circuit and Autocam Corp. in the Sixth. The ERLC also has signed on to CLS-authored briefs regarding the mandate in these circuits: District of Columbia (Wheaton College v. Sebelius); Seventh (Korte v. HHS) and Eighth (O'Brien v. HHS).
In the latest briefs, the ERLC and other organizations join CLS in saying the mandate's "current definition of 'religious liberty' is grossly inadequate to protect meaningful religious liberty." In the mandate, HHS chose to go with a narrower definition of "religious employer" than a standing definition under federal law, according to the brief.
"The proposed rule would continue to violate the [First Amendment clauses protecting religious free exercise and barring government establishment of religion] because the government would continue to squeeze religious institutions into an impoverished, one-size-fits-all misconception of 'religious employer,'" the brief said.
The HHS mandate "departs from the [United States'] bipartisan tradition of respect for religious liberty, especially its deep-rooted protection of religious conscience rights in the context of participation in, or funding of, abortion," according to the brief.
"At the end of the day, this case is not about which religious viewpoints regarding contraceptives or abortion are theologically correct -- a question, of course, beyond the competency of the courts -- but whether America will remain a pluralistic society that sustains a robust religious liberty for Americans of all faiths."
Federal judges ruled the HHS mandate does not substantially burden the religious liberty of Hobby Lobby and Autocam -- or their owners.
Hobby Lobby -- founded by evangelical Christian David Green, who remains its chief executive officer -- opposes providing insurance for abortion-causing drugs and has said it will not obey the mandate. As a result, the 525-store chain based in Oklahoma City ultimately could face government fines amounting to $1.3 million a day.
Autocam -- a Michigan-based auto parts firm owned by John Kennedy, a Roman Catholic -- opposes the contraceptive mandate as well as the requirement to cover abortion-causing drugs.
In addition to the ERLC, others signing on to the latest CLS briefs were the National Association of Evangelicals, Prison Fellowship, Association of Gospel Rescue Missions, Association of Christian Schools International and Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance. The C12 Group, which serves Christian CEOs, joined in the brief on behalf of Hobby Lobby.
Drugs considered contraceptives under the mandate -- which HHS issued to implement the 2010 health care law -- include Plan B and other "morning-after" pills, which can prevent implantation of tiny embryos. That secondary, post-fertilization mechanism of the pill causes an abortion. The mandate also covers "ella," which -- in a fashion similar to the abortion drug RU 486 -- can even act after implantation to end the life of the child.
Source: Baptist Press
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has ties to late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart, who was involved in the 33-week abortion death of Jennifer Morbelli on February 7, 2013, in Maryland, that raise concerns that she may attempt to interfere in ongoing investigations involving Carhart.
Operation Rescue obtained photographs of a secret party held by Sebelius in 2007 while serving as Governor of Kansas that honored late-term abortionist George Tiller and his entire abortion clinic staff. Carhart and his wife, Mary Lou, were present at that party, which was held while they were under investigation by the State Attorney General's office for suspected illegal late-term abortions.
Operation Rescue also has documentation that indicates that Sebelius interfered in a medical board investigation into the death of another of Carhart's third-trimester abortion patients, Christin Gilbert, on January 13, 2005. An investigation was launched by the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts based on a complaint filed by Operation Rescue. Gilbert's death prompted the Kansas Legislature to pursue a law that year, which would have regulated abortion clinics in Kansas. Sebelius adamantly opposed any regulation or accountability for abortion clinics, having vetoed similar laws in previous years.
After a Board investigation was opened, Sebelius wrote to her appointee, KSBHA Ex. Director Larry Buening (who was later forced to resign his position), asking for him to report to her on Gilbert's death investigation and to give her an opinion about how the proposed new law would have affected her care. The pro-abortion political climate created by Sebelius, along with her personal interjection into the investigation, led the Kansas Board of Healing Arts to prematurely and publicly "clear" Tiller and Carhart of any culpability in the death of Gilbert a full five months before the politically sanitized autopsy report was even completed. It is no coincidence that the Board's opinions on the Gilbert death were released the same day that an important vote on the clinic regulations bill was scheduled in the Senate.
Operation Rescue helped convene a citizen-called grand jury to look into Gilbert's death. During that investigation, Carhart dodged a subpoena for his testimony by staying out of Kansas while the grand jury was in progress. He never testified. The Grand Jury disbanded without handed down indictments. (Read more about this.)
"It is regrettable that political corruption in Kansas that was orchestrated and controlled by Sebelius thwarted efforts to hold Carhart accountable in the death of Christin Gilbert. If she had not interfered and an honest investigation had been allowed to proceed, Jennifer Morbelli might be alive today. In a very real sense, the blood of Mrs. Morbelli is on Kathleen Sebelius' hands," said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue and Pro-Life Nation.
Now the concern is that Sebelius, with her added power as Secretary of Health and Human Services in the pro-abortion Obama Administration, will also interject herself into the ongoing investigations into the death of Jennifer Morbelli in order to protect her friend, Carhart.
"Our experience with Sebelius is that her number one priority is protecting and promoting abortions - even if it means the death women and their babies that our laws are supposed to protect," said Newman. "We call on all authorities investigating the death of Jennifer Morbelli to conduct independent and honest investigations that are free from the influence of Sebelius and her pro-abortion cohorts in the Obama Administration."
Souce: Operation Rescue via Pro-Life Blogs
Though Congress seems unable to pass pro-life legislation at this point, state legislatures are seeing success.
Mary Spaulding Balch of the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) believes 2013 will be another year of hard work for pro-lifers in some states.
"In Texas, the bill has already been introduced," she tells OneNewsNow. "They're going to be pursuing a Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, and the chance for success looks good. The governor (Rick Perry) has come out in support of it, and it looks like a good possibility that it will pass."
Several other states are considering similar measures to ban abortions at the point that a baby can feel pain -- generally considered 20 weeks into the pregnancy or less. In addition, several states are considering a bill that ban abortions on the basis of the sex of the child.
"I think that that's an issue that unfortunately is here in the United States," she laments. "We now know that sex-selection abortions are not confined to China; they're not confined to India. They are here in the United States, and we think that we have to address that now."
Other bills being pursued are laws to ensure that women have information on the dangers of abortion and their rights. States are also moving to make sure abortionists have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals and that clinics are regularly inspected.
Mississippi is working on legislation to force abortionists to follow federal protocol on use of the abortion drug RU-486.
Source: OneNewsNow
Pregnant teenagers, not a good thing. Usually, stories involving children who get pregnant involve the girls obtaining wanted abortions over the objections, or without the knowledge, of parents. But in Texas, a pregnant teenage girl is suing her parents to prevent them from forcing her to have an abortion. From the Court House News Service story:
HOUSTON (CN) – A 16-year-old sued her parents, claiming they are trying "to coerce her to have an abortion." R.E.K. sued her parents, Jeffrey Koen and Denise Watts Koen, in Harris County Court. "R.E.K., plaintiff, is a 16-year-old girl, who is nine (9) weeks pregnant," the complaint states. "She does not want an abortion but her mother and father are attempting to coerce her to have an abortion." R.E.K. says she lived with the baby's father, her 16-year-old boyfriend, and his parents, for some time "because her mother routinely does not supervise her, frequently spending her evenings at a local bar, and R.E.K. avoided her father's presence because of his tendency towards physical violence, which she has observed on multiple occasions."
Teen pregnancies don't "just happen," do they?
The pressure allegedly got intense, including threats of violence and continual pressure and coercion. And what does the girl want from the court?
R.E.K. seeks an injunction to stop her parents from forcing her to have an abortion, and a declaration that "she has the right, under federal constitutional law, to make her own reproductive decisions, including the decision to carry her child to term and give birth."
That is the law, it seems to me.
This is a terrible situation, no doubt about it. But regardless of one's position on the legality of abortion–and certainly teenage parenthood is a daunting thing–at least we can all agree that this girl should not be forced into having her unborn child killed. Right? I mean, "choice" and all that, right? Right? Right?
Source: Life and dignity with Wesley J. Smith
