Obama Complains that Fears over Abortion Agenda "Not Based on Anything I've Said or Done"

In a meeting with several members of the Catholic media Thursday, President Obama insisted that pro-life Catholics' fears over the new administration's abortion agenda was "not based on anything I've said or done." The president also said he embraces the so-called "seamless garment" moral theory of Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago, which he said he feels has been "buried under the abortion debate" in recent decades.

The president called for the brief round-table meeting with Catholic media to discuss his upcoming meeting with Pope Benedict XVI July 10, but addressed the rift between his stance on abortion and the Catholic Church's moral teaching in response to questions.

The meeting was attended by representatives of the Catholic News Service, the National Catholic Reporter, National Catholic Register, America magazine, Commonweal magazine, Catholic Digest, Vatican Radio, and a Washington Post religion writer.

According to the Catholic Digest report, one member asked for more information on President Obama's stance on conscience protection for doctors objecting to abortion.

President Obama said that the expectation of heavily pro-abortion policy from his administration "is not based on anything I've said or done, but is rather just a perception somehow that we have some hard-line agenda that we're seeking to push."

Obama, who in February began repealing a Bush regulation strengthening doctors' conscience rights, said he favors a "robust" conscience clause. However, he did not elaborate on what aspect of the Bush regulation he considered flawed and did not give a compelling reason for why his administration is repealing the regulation.

"[The new conscience clause] may not meet the criteria of every possible critic of our approach," he said, "but it certainly will not be weaker than what existed before the changes were made."

Despite Obama's claim that pro-life fears are "not based on anything I've said or done," a steady stream of pro-abortion policy since his inauguration has left the pro-life community little room to doubt the President's devotion to the abortion agenda. These policies include abolishing the Mexico City Policy, funding the United Nations Population Fund, unleashing federal funds for embryonic stem-cell research, and calling for taxpayer-funded abortion in Washington, D.C.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in April confirmed that the Obama administration would work to dismantle pro-life laws around the world as part of its policy of promoting "reproductive health."

In terms of Obama's personal stance on abortion, pro-lifers have pointed to a July 2007 speech in which Obama told Planned Parenthood that the "first thing" he would do as president would be to sign the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA). Because FOCA would establish abortion as a "fundamental right" for women, the legislation would effectively eliminate all state and federal bans on abortion, as well as the rights of medical professionals to deny to perform or refer for abortions.

"I am absolutely convinced that culture wars are so nineties; their days are growing dark, it is time to turn the page," Obama had said. "We want a new day here in America. We're tired about arguing about the same ole' stuff. And I am convinced we can win that argument."

In addition to his statement on FOCA, Obama had a 100% pro-abortion voting record as a U.S. senator, including voting against the Born Alive Infants Protection Act, which would have mandated that babies that are born alive after failed abortions receive normal medical care.

In Thursday's meeting, President Obama mentioned more than once his attraction to Cardinal Bernardin's consistent life ethic or "seamless garment" theory of social justice, which advocates a holistic approach to the sanctity of human life by opposing abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment, and economic injustice.

However, Obama said, that theory has been "buried by the abortion debate" in recent years, and he expects to advance a "broader set of values" than those espoused by pro-life Catholics.

"It's not up to me to try to resolve those tensions [among Catholics]. All I can do is to affirm how that other tradition has made me, a non-Catholic, reflect on how I can be a better person and has had a powerful influence on my life," said the president.  "And that tells me that it might be a powerful way to move a broader set of values forward in American life generally."
 
Although President Obama has more than once called upon the theory to downplay his disagreement with the Church on abortion, including in his speech at Notre Dame, Cardinal Bernardin himself strongly condemned the use of the consistent life ethic to dismiss the centrality of the abortion debate.

In 1988, Bernardin told the National Catholic Register: "I know that some people on the left, if I may use that label, have used the consistent ethic to give the impression that the abortion issue is not all that important anymore, that you should be against abortion in a general way but that there are more important issues, so don't hold anybody's feet to the fire just on abortion. That's a misuse of the consistent ethic, and I deplore it."

Thursday's discussion also touched on the "common ground" the administration is avowedly seeking on abortion when one journalist asked about the president's expectations for the initiative.

Obama responded that he awaits a memo from his task force mapping out common ground, and said he expected to find agreement on advancing sex education and reducing "the circumstances in which women feel compelled to obtain an abortion."

Wendy Wright, President of Concerned Women for America, has criticized Obama's emphasis on reducing the "need" for abortion while staunchly refusing to support reducing the number of abortions.

Wright recounted her experience at a May meeting of the abortion "common ground" task force in which Melody Barnes, the Director of Domestic Policy Council and a former board member of Emily's List, corrected Wright for stating that the administration wished to reduce abortions.

"It is not our goal to reduce the number of abortions," said Barnes, but rather only to "reduce the need for abortions."

"Obama needs to be honest with Americans," said Wright.  "Is it true that it is not his goal to reduce the number of abortions?

"More importantly, will he do anything that will reduce abortions? Actions are far more important than words."

Contact: Kathleen Gilbert
Source: LifeSiteNews.com
Publish Date: July 6, 2009
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7th grader sues school to wear pro-life t-shirt

From Fox News, July 6 (Can't believe Fox called these images "graphic."):



    Anna Amador has gone to court on behalf of her daughter, who she says was ordered by her principal to change her shirt on "National Pro-Life T-Shirt Day." The shirt the girl was wearing displays two graphic pictures of a fetus growing in the womb....

    The incident occurred in April 2008 at McSwain Elementary School, a K-8 school in Merced, CA. Amador alleges in her legal complaint that school Principal Terrie Rohrer, Assistant Principal C.W. Smith and office clerk Martha Hernandez mistreated her daughter and denied the girl her First Amendment rights when they ordered her to leave the cafeteria and change her shirt.



    "Before Plaintiff could eat [breakfast] she was ordered by a school staff member to throw her food out and report immediately to Defendant Smith's office...," the complaint reads.

    "Upon arriving at the main office, Defendant Hernandez, intentionally and without Plaintiff's consent, grabbed Plaintiff's arm and forcibly escorted her toward Smith's office, at all times maintaining a vice-like grip on Plaintiff's arm. Hernandez only released Plaintiff's arm after physically locating her in front of Smith and Defendant Rohrer...

    "Smith and Rohrer ordered Plaintiff to remove her pro-life T-shirt and instructed Plaintiff to never wear her pro-life T-shirt at McSwain Elementary School ever again...

    "Completely humiliated and held out for ridicule, Plaintiff complied with Defendants' directives and removed her pro-life T-shirt, whereupon, Defendants seized and confiscated it. Defendants did not return Plaintiff's property until the end of the school day."

    The school administrators dispute some of the allegations, said Anthony DeMaria, attorney for... McSwain....

    He said he was unable to reach the administrators to determine which parts they say are incorrect, because school is out for the summer....



    The school district sought to get the case thrown out due to "failure to state a cognizable claim," but a U.S. Eastern District Court judge ruled last month that all but one of Amador's claims could go forward.

    The complaint quotes school district officials saying that they ordered Amador's daughter to remove the shirt because it constituted "inappropriate subject matter" in violation of the school's dress code, which bans clothing with "suggestion of tobacco, drug or alcohol use, sexual promiscuity, profanity, vulgarity, or other inappropriate subject matter."

    Amador claims in the legal complaint that other students at the school have been allowed to wear expressive shirts, and she blames the school for "inconsistently applying their Dress Code based upon subjective determinations as to which messages are acceptable and which messages are not."

    One of the girl's lawyers, Mark Thiel, said that the images on her shirt of a fetus in the womb were same as those in her science textbooks. He said no student had complained about the shirt, and he said the girl's parents were not called when the incident took place....

    A spokeswoman for the local Planned Parenthood chapter declined to take sides in the case.

    "Even offensive speech is protected as long as it doesn't impinge upon the rights of others," said Deborah Ortiz, vice president of public affairs for PP Mar Monte....

    UCLA law professor and First Amendment expert Eugene Volokh said Supreme Court precedent appears to support the girl's case.

    "During the Vietnam War, the Supreme Court ruled that wearing black arm bands [at school, to protest the war] was OK," Volokh said. "If students can wear armbands in protest, why can't they wear a pro-life shirt?"

    He said the case would be different if there was evidence that the shirt could have led to disruption or fighting....

    But the fact that it's a K-8 school with very young children could change things, said Brooklyn Law School professor William Araiza. He pointed to the 2007 Supreme Court decision in Morse v. Frederick, where the court allowed a high school to suspend students in Juneau, AK, who waved a banner that read "Bong hits 4 Jesus" from across the street during an Olympic torch relay, because it was seen as promoting illegal drug use.

    "[The school] could almost use a "bong hits" kind of rationale about protecting students from inappropriate messages," Araiza said. "For instance, would you allow a 4th grader to wear a gruesome picture of a bomb scene? You probably wouldn't."

    First Amendment attorney William Becker, who represents Amador, disagreed that the shirt could be seen as containing inappropriate messages.

    "The message of the T-shirt is that life is sacred," he said. "One would be very hard pressed to find anything wrong with that particular idea, except that some people do object to the political message."

Source: JillStanek.com
Publish Date: July 6, 2009
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Fetal Tissue in Vaccine Production May be Linked to Autism in Children Claims Campaign Group

Fetal Tissue in Vaccine Production May be Linked to Autism in Children Claims Campaign Group



Increased rates of regressive autism in children in the US and UK can be historically associated with the switch by pharmaceutical companies from the use of animal cells to produce vaccines to the use of aborted human fetal cells, a campaign group is claiming.

"Now when we vaccinate our children, some vaccines also deliver contaminating aborted human fetal DNA. The safety of this has never been tested," says Dr. Theresa Deisher, President of the Sound Choice Pharmaceutical Institute (SCPI).

SCPI, a group that educates the public on the use of aborted human fetal material for drug production, warns that the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccines introduced to the US and UK in 1979 and 1988 respectively, were produced using aborted fetal cells, while previous versions were made using only animal cells. This switch coincides with what SCPI says are "dramatic" increases in the rates of regressive autism in children, in which the child's social and verbal development halts.

The warning comes in response to the recommendation in June by the National Vaccine Advisory Committee (NVAC) of the US Department of Health and Human Services for further study into vaccine safety with relation to autism. Some concerned parents of children with autism maintain that there is a link between childhood vaccinations and autism.

Despite assurances from health agencies and the scientific community disputing this, a growing number of parents have opted out of national vaccination programs. This has prompted the Centers for Disease Control to convene a Vaccine Safety Working Subgroup. A report by the NVAC recommended further study of the potential for vaccines to contribute to regressive autism in children.

SCPI points to studies showing an environmental factor, "a trigger," that brings on the disorder. But while scientists pointed to the presence of mercury in the MMR vaccines, SCPI says that autism continued to rise after mercury was removed.

"The early vaccines produced using aborted fetal cells, such as MMRII, don't even inform consumers that residual aborted fetal DNA is injected with each vaccine," SCPI said in a media release. More recently introduced vaccines, the group says, do inform consumers that they contain contaminating residual DNA from the "human diploid cell" but do not say that this cell is from an aborted human fetus.

"The safety of injecting our children with aborted human fetal DNA has been debated for over 40 years, but has never been studied," SCPI said.

Contact: Hilary White
Source: LifeSiteNews.com
Publish Date: July 6, 2009
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NEWS SHORTS FOR TUESDAY

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.

IRS Demands that Coalition for Life of Iowa Swear It Will Not Oppose Planned Parenthood

Thomas More Society Attorneys Request that IRS Stop the Harassment and Violation of Coalition's Constitutional Rights to Prayer and Legal Protests Outside Planned Parenthood
 
Today, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was put on notice that the Thomas More Society in Chicago stands ready to defend the Coalition for Life of Iowa against the prejudicial questioning by the IRS, which has delayed granting tax exemption to the non-profit religious organization. After questioning the "educational" nature of the Coalition's materials, prayer meetings, talks and other Pro-Life activities, the IRS stated that it would not grant tax exemption until the Coalition swore to limit its "picketing" and "protesting" of Planned Parenthood.
Click here for the full article.


Alabama Attorney General Calls Undercover Video of Planned Parenthood Ignoring Statutory Rape 'Extremely Troubling', Seeks Investigation

Alabama Attorney General Troy King has called a new undercover video released last week showing Planned Parenthood of Alabama apparently breaking state mandatory reporting laws for sexual abuse "extremely troubling" and requested the full recordings. The student-led nonprofit responsible for the recordings, Live Action, immediately sent the full footage, which the Attorney General's office received yesterday.

The video shows a Planned Parenthood staffer, identified as "Tanisha," telling a purportedly 14-year-old girl with a 31-year-old "boyfriend" that Planned Parenthood "does sometimes bend the rules a little bit" when it comes to reporting statutory rape to state authorities. Despite strong parental consent laws in Alabama, "Tanisha" also explains that a person with the "same last name" as the 14-year-old would suffice as a guardian or parent to sign off for the minor's abortion. In an interview last week, King said, "If that tape is an accurate depiction of what's happening, that's very troubling," and "if that video is true and accurate and correct, it's extremely troubling from a legal and moral point of view."
Click here for the full article.


ACLU Challenges Arizona Over Sheriff Preventing Inmates' Abortions

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is again asking an Arizona court to stop Maricopa County Sheriff Joseph Arpaio from preventing female inmates from accessing abortion services. A 2005 lawsuit struck down the Sheriff's policy of prohibiting jail officials from transporting a prisoner for an abortion without a court order. However, Arpaio allegedly began requiring women to pre-pay for security and transportation costs associated with acquiring an abortion.
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Wisconsin Gov. Signs Bill to Expand Birth Control, Chemically Induced Abortions 'At Taxpayer Expense'

Not many people seem to have noticed yet, but buried among the new measures signed into law last week as part of Gov. Jim Doyle's budget is a trio of family planning initiatives that are expected to expand access to birth control and contraceptive education in Wisconsin. Advocates who had fought for previous versions of the controversial measures over the past years, only to see them get beat back repeatedly by the Republican-controlled Legislature, are thrilled at the relative ease with which the measures passed this year.
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Pro-life pamphlet series provides plain talk in defense of life

The pro-life group Human Life International (HLI) has introduced a new series of online pamphlets titled Pro-Life Talking Points (PLTP) addressing claims about the necessity of abortion, the effect of welfare on the abortion rate, and the distorted claims surrounding abortion-related violence and the promotion of condom use.

PLTP titles also discuss the beginning of human life and the issue of men and abortion.

"From fertilization to natural death, there exists an unbroken and smooth continuum of human development during which the person needs only oxygen, water, and nutrients to live and develop physically," says HLI's pamphlet on fetal development.
Click here to view or download the pamphlet series.
Click here for the full article.


Dems' Health Care Reform Plans Would Include Abortion Coverage, Washington Times Opinion Piece States

As lawmakers work to pass health reform legislation, "few are talking about" the "essential question" of whether "health reform will force taxpayers to pay for abortions for the first time in 30 years," Family Research Council President Tony Perkins writes in a Washington Times opinion piece. According to Perkins, "the short answer is yes" because there is no "explicit provision" in any Democratic health plan that would "[p]revent taxpayer funding of abortions as part of the health care benefit Congress is considering"; avert "delays in health care services that result in the death of the patient waiting for care"; or allow health care providers "to refuse to participate in health care-related action that violates their conscience." Perkins continues that the House's reform proposal would provide federal coverage for "'family planning,' the well-worn buzz word that includes abortion unless specified to the contrary." He adds that "it would be naive to assume, unless there is an explicit prohibition in the bill, that [HHS] Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will not use her discretion to fund abortions with taxpayers' money." Perkins also writes that the Democratic reform plans, "in short, ... attempt to be silent on the key question of whether or not to allow the U.S. government to fund abortions with taxpayers' money," and also give the HHS secretary "the power to allow taxpayer-funded abortions."
Click here for the full article.


Abortion Has Greater Impact on Parenting than Other Forms of Pregnancy Loss, New Review Finds

A new review of studies examining various types of prenatal loss and the effects on subsequent parenting has concluded that abortion may be "particularly damaging to the parenting process."

The article, published in Current Women's Health Reviews, looks at already published studies on miscarriage, induced abortion and adoption. The author, Priscilla Coleman of Bowling Green State University, focuses on psychological reactions to these various types of loss and discusses how they might affect a mother's relationship with children born after the pregnancy loss.
 
It is now known that women usually begin feeling maternal attachment in the early stages of pregnancy. The paper notes that despite the increased responsibilities and stress involved in raising children, "numerous studies have documented positive psychological characteristics associated with motherhood including increases in life satisfaction, self-esteem, empathy, restraint, flexibility and resourcefulness in coping, and assertiveness." Losing a child before or at birth, for any reason, however, "can be a profound source of suffering."
Click here for the full article.


Commentary: How the WHO Skewed Maternal Mortality Data to Advance Abortion Agenda

In its recently released annual report on the state of global health, the World Health Organization (WHO) presents statistics that misleadingly appear to place maternal mortality on par with other global killers like malaria and HIV/ AIDS. This new approach contradicts other WHO reports where maternal mortality does not even make the top ten of global killers, ranking somewhere lower than car accident fatalities.

The confusion first arises in the second table of the new report, which provides data about mortality due to maternal causes, HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and injuries. All of these causes of death, except maternal mortality, are among the top ten causes of death globally; yet maternal mortality is shown in the same statistics table, as if it were comparable to the others.

Even more confusing to the casual reader is that the statistics in the table for maternal mortality actually appear to be a greater cause of death than the others. The table shows that maternal mortality has a "mortality rate" of 400 while coronary heart disease, considered the number one killer in the world, has a mortality rate of 301. While the WHO itself says maternal mortality kills 536,000 per year and coronary heart disease kills 7.2 million, this seeming parity is achieved by showing maternal mortality numbers as a function of total live births while the others are shown as a function of total population - a mixing of apples and oranges.
Click here for the full article.

How Much is a Woman's Life Worth? In Michigan, Only $10,000

Operation Rescue declares abortionist Hodari a "Public Menace" and demands meaningful discipline for his reckless conduct.
 


Abortionist Alberto Hodari has been fined $10,000 by the State of Michigan for the 2003 abortion death of Regina Johnson. The consent order, which recently became public, was issued on March 4, 2009, over five years after Ms. Johnson's death.
 
"Now we know what a woman's life is worth in the State of Michigan once she walks into an abortion clinic," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. "This paltry fine has reduced Ms. Johnson's life to that of chattel. Animals are bought and sold for more than this."
 
In exchange for the consent agreement, counts of negligence and incompetence against Hodari were dismissed, leaving only the charge that his conduct constituted a "lack of good moral character."
 
"Hodari was given a slap on the wrist for his part in Regina Johnson's death, even though he has been involved in the deaths of at least three additional women since 2004," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. "The Board's finding that his conduct lacks 'good moral character' is a gross understatement. The man is a public menace. "
 
Hodari has had other problems with the law. Citizens for a Pro-Life Society discovered illegally dumped private medical records in open dumpsters behind several of Hodari's Detroit-area abortion clinics. He was charged with 12 counts of illegal record dumping, but another agreement allowed him to plead "no contest" to a single count, for which he remains on probation.
 
More shocking was the discovery of the bodies of aborted babies that had been illegally dumped in the same trash receptacles. Hodari was never charged with any crime related to the dumping of human remains. The babies were later given a proper burial.
 
One of Hodari's former patients came forward in February, 2009, and told of her traumatic forced abortion when she was 16-years old. She has since filed a formal complaint against Hodari with the health board in Michigan.
 
But Hodari appears to be so confident that he is above the law that he has given interviews and speeches bragging about his appalling abortion practices. He says that he believes abortionists have a "license to lie."
 
"In addition to his part in four abortion deaths, Hodari has openly admitted that he purposely places women's lives and health at risk. The fact that he is still allowed to continue his reckless behavior is inexcusable," said Newman. "The Health Department's coddling of Hodari completely unacceptable. We plan to formally demand that they take meaningful disciplinary action before he kills anyone else."
 
Click here for the Complaint
Click here for the Consent Order

Contact: Troy Newman, Cheryl Sullenger
Source: Operation Rescue
Publish Date: July 6, 2009
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Late-term abortionist James Pendergraft loses appeal; suspension stands

Orlando, FL, late-term abortionist James Pendergraft has lost his appeal in the 5th District Court of Appeal, and the suspension of his license by the FL Board of Medicine stands.

According to a court document filed, "Dr. Pendergraft violated sections 456.072(1)(k) and 458.331(1)(g) when he performed a third trimester abortion in his clinic, which is not a hospital."...

pendergraft.jpgNext, Pendergraft "violated section 390.0111(1)(a)... which prohibits third trimester abortions unless two physicians certify in writing to the fact that, to a reasonable degree of medical probability, the termination of the pregnancy is necessary to save the life or preserve the health of the pregnant woman."

Third, Pendergraft violated "section 390.0111(1)(b)... because he did not certify in writing "to the medical necessity for legitimate emergency medical procedures for termination of pregnancy in the third trimester, and another physician is not available for
consultation."

Finally, "the [Administrative Law Judge] found that there was clear and convincing evidence that Dr. Pendergraft committed medical malpractice."

There are no details on the news yet. Unknown is whether any or all of Pendergraft's 5 clinics will have to close during his suspension. Also unknown is whether criminal charges will be filed.

Baby Rowan, the subject of the movie 22 Weeks, was aborted alive in 2005 at 1 of Pendergraft's mills. Workers refused his mother's pleas for help.

Pendergraft's license was suspended in 2006 for the same reason.

In 2001, Pendergraft was convicted of extortion and spent 46 months in prison.

Contact: Jill Stanek
Source: JillStanek.com
Publish Date: July 2, 2009
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NEWS SHORTS FOR MONDAY

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.

Taxpayer Funded Abortion Referrals

Along with a "universal health care" experiment in the form of the taxpayer-funded Ennis Regional Medical Center and the Ennis Independent School District's Early Childhood Center for students' babies (EISD property taxes pay for that one) nearby, the City of Ennis is about to welcome a labratory in population control: Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood was approved by city officials and the elected representatives (the city commission) voters helped elect to office to be placed in dangerous proximity to the Early Childhood facility and the hospital. This paper Defends Truth and Freedom, and the truth is, life is a gift and abortions destroy life.
Click here for the full article.


Abortion Clinic 911 Emergency Calls: 'No lights and sirens, please!'

This is a composite of ambulance calls to Aware Woman abortion clinic in Melbourne, Florida. It shows the tragic results of botched abortions. Countless women have been injured at Aware Woman and other abortion clinics throughout the United States where abortion is legal but not safe.
Click here for Video 1
Click here for Video 2
Click here for the full article.


Obama Calls for Universal Access to Abortion at UN Meeting

At United Nations (UN) headquarters this week, the Obama administration continued its push for ever increasing access to legal abortion around the world. The Obama team has introduced language that has thrown a high level negotiation into a roil. The US proposal calls for "universal access" to "sexual and reproductive health services including universal access to family planning." The document under consideration will culminate in the 2009 Annual Ministerial Review, which convenes next week in Geneva.
Click here for the full article.


Alaska Proposal That Requires Parental Consent for Abortion Is Certified

A proposal to require parental notice or consent before a female younger than 18 could have an abortion was certified Thursday by the state so that its backers can seek enough signatures to get the initiative before voters next year. The proposed law would require the parental notice or consent except in these circumstances: -- The teen submits a notarized statement that she is a victim of abuse by a parent or guardian. -- The teen persuades a court to let her bypass notification. -- A doctor declares a medical emergency. Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell certified the initiative. If its backers get at least 32,734 Alaskans from across the state to sign the initiative in the next year, the proposal will go on a statewide ballot for a public vote next year.
Click here for the full article.


Parents Denied Abortion Clinic Records

The Ohio Supreme Court Wednesday rejected a request from the parents of a girl who obtained an abortion for access to records from the clinic. The parents filed a lawsuit against Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio in Cincinnati after their 14-year-old daughter's abortion in 2004. They say the clinic ignores evidence of sexual abuse, The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch reported. The girl allegedly was impregnated by her 21-year-old soccer coach, who posed as her father to get her an abortion and gave his "consent," the Dispatch said.
Click here for the full article.


SC GOP Official Sues City over Abortion Protest

A state Republican Party official has sued the city of Orangeburg for a second time, saying a police officer prevented him from participating in an abortion protest. The (Orangeburg) Times and Democrat reports that the Rev. Charles Butler's lawsuit involved a January protest about then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's stance on abortion. The lawsuit says an Orangeburg Department of Public Safety officer told Butler, the second vice chairman of the S.C. Republican Party, that he couldn't protest without a permit.
Click here for the full article.


Anger At Abortion Increase

Sexual health campaigners have blasted government policy after Wales' teen abortion rate rose for the third year running. Latest figures from the Department of Health show the total number of abortions for under 18s across the nation rose from 894 in 2005 to 1,048 in 2008. Vivienne Rose, a clinic manager for the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) – which runs Wales' only dedicated abortion clinic in Cardiff – said: "The Assembly Government (WAG) have all these initiatives but, at the core, what is happening?
Click here for the full article.

Planned Parenthood - a primary healthcare provider?

Planned Parenthood is facing criticism for alleged false advertising.
 


The organization has been running ads in Washington, DC, claiming that 90 percent of its services are preventive and primary care, just like going to a doctor's office. Jim Sedlak of American Life League disagrees. With Obama's healthcare program, Sedlak contends Planned Parenthood is just trying to position itself to be in the mainstream of healthcare.
 
"The problem is that according to its last annual report, Planned Parenthood...primary care patients account for only seven-tenths of one percent of its total number of customers," he says.
 
Sedlak was asked if Planned Parenthood's recent report was designed to get more government money.
 
Jim Sedlak 1"Absolutely! They're trying to set the stage so that they get recognized as an entry point into the healthcare system, and that people don't have to go to another primary care physician, and they can get referenced to Planned Parenthood, that they can just walk in the door at Planned Parenthood and that will result in millions of more dollars to Planned Parenthood," he points out.
 
According to Sedlak, abortion accounts for about one-third of Planned Parenthood's income -- and government-funded abortion is likely to be a part of the Obama healthcare plan.

Click here to view Planned Parenthood's TV commerical.

Contact: Charlie Butts
Source: OneNewsNow
Publish Date: July 3, 2009
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How to get your girlfriend to abort

"Dealing With An Unwanted Pregnancy" blares the title of the article on AskMen.com, a website which claims 7 million readers a month.



AskMen.com has been criticized for the way it objectifies women with its "Top 99 Women" poll among other unfavorable facets of the site.

This particular article lays out a guide for men who don't want their partners to give birth to their preborn children. Written by a woman, Isabella Snow, it purports to be an inside look at how women think and act in such situations.

happy pregnant.jpg"For some women, getting pregnant can start clocks ticking and make them suddenly want to be mothers, despite previous agreements," warns Snow. In other words, she's not in her usual state of mind: you are going to have to do your utmost to convince her to deny new maternal feelings.

The entire article is geared against innocent preborn life and instead focuses on wants and lifestyles, primarily of the father....

Copious hints and suggestions are given to help the man make his partner feel relaxed and comfortable as he attempts to convince her that an abortion is the most favorable option. It's for a purely selfish motive: becoming a father could "put tremendous stress on a relationship, particularly if [he doesn't] want to have a child, but [doesn't] want to lose the girl, either."

harley.jpgThe third person in the relationship is brushed aside as a mere "issue of an unwanted pregnancy" which encourages men to treat the situation as if it is only themselves and their partner that need consideration: "Will you have to sell your Harley and get a station wagon?" asks the author.

Oh, what a terrible thought! Yes, clearly ending the life of your unborn child is more preferable!

Ultimately, according to Snow, if a man has made it clear he has no desire for the pregnancy to continue, he is freed from any obligation to stick with the relationship.

The only redeeming factor to the article is it suggests if mothers insist on allowing their preborn children to live, men should feel free to change their minds and embrace their future roles as fathers.

Contact: Andy M.
Source: JillStanek.com
Publish Date: July 3, 2009
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Is Obama Pushing Federally Mandated Futile Care Theory as Cost Control? It’s Hard to Know

I was away and completely off the grid when President Obama made his health care pitch. But several people sent me e-mails questioning whether he pushed futile care theory as a method of cost containment and health care reform. As usual with our president, it is hard to tell exactly what he wants as he tends to speak in overly broad generalities or take both sides of an issue at the same time. Here is the report from the LA Times:

    President Obama suggested at a town hall event Wednesday night that one way to shave medical costs is to stop expensive and ultimately futile procedures performed on people who are about to die and don't stand to gain from the extra care. In a nationally televised event at the White House, Obama said families need better information so they don't unthinkingly approve "additional tests or additional drugs that the evidence shows is not necessarily going to improve care." He added: "Maybe you're better off not having the surgery, but taking the painkiller."

It all depends on who gets to decide, doesn't it? If people are to be educated about these matters, it is one thing. If they are going to be coerced, as in Futile Care Theory and rationing,  it is quite another. The devil will truly be in the details–especially with this president.

By the way, this isn't the first time Obama has a point about end-of-life care that is similarly wide-open to interpretation–as dutifully reported here at SHS.

Contact: Wesley J. Smith
Source: Secondhand Smoke
Publish Date: July 6, 2009
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Late-term abortionist Alberto Hodari fined $10k in death of patient

Dr. Monica Miller, Director of Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, issued a statement today revealing newly discovered information that MI late-term abortionist Alberto Hodari, pictured left, was fined $10k four months ago for his role in the 2003 death of 32-year-old Regina Johnson.

Johnson died from complications after a first trimester abortion committed at Hodari's Womencare abortion mill in Lathrup Village....

According to court documents (here and here), the abortion was committed September 17, 2003, by abortionist Milton Nathanson, then employed by Hodari.

Johnson died September 18 from "anoxic encephalopathy due to cardiac arrest." According to CPLS's statement:

    In addition to Hodari and Nathanson, anesthesiologist Barry Thompson and the abortion clinic's nurse, Cathy Litchig were also implicated in Ms. Johnson's death.

    The Attorney General's office... imposed the fine on Hodari March 4, 2009 - but the penalty only recently became publicly known. The complaint against Hodari found him guilty of "negligence," "incompetence" and lacking in "good moral character." Hodari paid the fine without contesting....

    Nathanson submitted to retraining. Thompson and Litchig were both placed on probation for a period of time and also subjected to fines.

There was not that much more value placed on Johnson's life than late-term abortionists charge to kill almost full-term babies.

hodari baby.jpgIf Hodari's name sounds familiar, it's because only 16 months ago members of CPLS found multiple remains of aborted babies as well as hundreds of medical records of aborting mothers in 2 of Hodari's dumpsters.

For that, Hodari got a warning and is on probation.

In January 2008 Hodari garnered national attention for being caught on tape bragging during a lecture at Wayne State University in November 2007 that he didn't wash hands between patients and had a "license to lie."

Source: JillStanek.com
Publish Date: July 3, 2009
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Pregnancy Prevention, Contraception Recommended for ‘Priority Attention and Funding’

Taxpayer money should be spent to "compare the effectiveness of innovative strategies for preventing unintended pregnancies," according to a federal advisory committee. The "innovative strategies" to be studied include over-the-counter access to oral contraceptives and providing free contraceptive methods at public clinics and pharmacies.

Background

The Democrat-passed stimulus bill includes $1.1 billion to be spent on comparative effectiveness research, which a federal advisory panel defines as a way to identify "what works for which patients under what circumstances."
 
Specifically, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 called on the Institute of Medicine – part of the National Academy of Sciences -- to come up with a list of topics that will serve as a starting point for deciding which health care approaches work best.
 
A committee convened by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) says it received 1,268 unique topic suggestions from health professionals, consumer advocates, policy analysts, and others who submitted nominations through an online form.
 
That list has now been narrowed to 100 topics, divided into four quartiles (groups of 25).
 
Included in the highest priority group – the first quartile – is pregnancy prevention. The sentence reads as follows:
 
"Compare the effectiveness of innovative strategies for preventing unintended pregnancies (e.g., over-the-counter access to oral contraceptives or other hormonal methods, expanding access to long-acting methods for young women, providing free contraceptive methods at public clinics, pharmacies, or other locations)."
 
The complete list of national priorities for comparative effectiveness research can be found here.
 
Advocates say comparative effectiveness research will improve the quality and efficiency of health care. 

"Health care decisions too often area matter of guesswork because we lack good evidence to inform them," said Harold C. Sox, editor of Annals of Internal Medicine, who co-chaired the IOM committee.  "For example, we spend a great deal on diagnostic tests for coronary heart disease in this country, but we lack sufficient evidence to determine which test is best."
 
Critics, however, warn that comparative effectiveness research will be used to ration health care and minimize costs.
 
As CNSNews.com previously reported, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) has pledged to take those rationing concerns seriously.
 
"We need to address the very real concern that this research (comparative-effectiveness) might be used to quote 'ration health care,'" Baucus told a Brookings Institution audience last month. "This is serious and needs to be addressed with integrity," he added.
 
In its report, the Institute of Medicine committee said comparative effectiveness research will fall short of its potential without vigorous efforts by the Department of Health and Human Services to promote adoption of the findings by health care providers and organizations.
 
The IOM study was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
 
Established in 1970 under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine is a nongovernmental agency that provides "independent, objective, evidence-based advice to policymakers, health professionals, the private sector and the public."

Contact: Susan Jones
Source: CNSNews.com
Publish Date: July 2, 2009
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NEWS SHORTS FOR MONDAY

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.

Taxpayer Funded Abortion Referrals

Along with a "universal health care" experiment in the form of the taxpayer-funded Ennis Regional Medical Center and the Ennis Independent School District's Early Childhood Center for students' babies (EISD property taxes pay for that one) nearby, the City of Ennis is about to welcome a labratory in population control: Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood was approved by city officials and the elected representatives (the city commission) voters helped elect to office to be placed in dangerous proximity to the Early Childhood facility and the hospital. This paper Defends Truth and Freedom, and the truth is, life is a gift and abortions destroy life.
Click here for the full article.


Abortion Clinic 911 Emergency Calls: 'No lights and sirens, please!'

This is a composite of ambulance calls to Aware Woman abortion clinic in Melbourne, Florida. It shows the tragic results of botched abortions. Countless women have been injured at Aware Woman and other abortion clinics throughout the United States where abortion is legal but not safe.
Click here for Video 1
Click here for Video 2
Click here for the full article.


Obama Calls for Universal Access to Abortion at UN Meeting

At United Nations (UN) headquarters this week, the Obama administration continued its push for ever increasing access to legal abortion around the world. The Obama team has introduced language that has thrown a high level negotiation into a roil. The US proposal calls for "universal access" to "sexual and reproductive health services including universal access to family planning." The document under consideration will culminate in the 2009 Annual Ministerial Review, which convenes next week in Geneva.
Click here for the full article.


Alaska Proposal That Requires Parental Consent for Abortion Is Certified

A proposal to require parental notice or consent before a female younger than 18 could have an abortion was certified Thursday by the state so that its backers can seek enough signatures to get the initiative before voters next year. The proposed law would require the parental notice or consent except in these circumstances: -- The teen submits a notarized statement that she is a victim of abuse by a parent or guardian. -- The teen persuades a court to let her bypass notification. -- A doctor declares a medical emergency. Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell certified the initiative. If its backers get at least 32,734 Alaskans from across the state to sign the initiative in the next year, the proposal will go on a statewide ballot for a public vote next year.
Click here for the full article.


Parents Denied Abortion Clinic Records

The Ohio Supreme Court Wednesday rejected a request from the parents of a girl who obtained an abortion for access to records from the clinic. The parents filed a lawsuit against Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio in Cincinnati after their 14-year-old daughter's abortion in 2004. They say the clinic ignores evidence of sexual abuse, The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch reported. The girl allegedly was impregnated by her 21-year-old soccer coach, who posed as her father to get her an abortion and gave his "consent," the Dispatch said.
Click here for the full article.


SC GOP Official Sues City over Abortion Protest

A state Republican Party official has sued the city of Orangeburg for a second time, saying a police officer prevented him from participating in an abortion protest. The (Orangeburg) Times and Democrat reports that the Rev. Charles Butler's lawsuit involved a January protest about then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's stance on abortion. The lawsuit says an Orangeburg Department of Public Safety officer told Butler, the second vice chairman of the S.C. Republican Party, that he couldn't protest without a permit.
Click here for the full article.


Anger At Abortion Increase

Sexual health campaigners have blasted government policy after Wales' teen abortion rate rose for the third year running. Latest figures from the Department of Health show the total number of abortions for under 18s across the nation rose from 894 in 2005 to 1,048 in 2008. Vivienne Rose, a clinic manager for the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) – which runs Wales' only dedicated abortion clinic in Cardiff – said: "The Assembly Government (WAG) have all these initiatives but, at the core, what is happening?
Click here for the full article.

Issue of Covering Abortions Will Not Impede Health-Care Reform Legislation, Says ‘Pro-Life' Democratic Sen. Bob Casey

Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), a self-proclaimed pro-life Democrat who now embraces President Barack Obama's call for "common ground," said Wednesday that the issue of abortion should not bog down passage of a health-care reform bill. 
 
"It hasn't been an impediment, and I don't expect it to be and it shouldn't be. There is no reason why in a health-care bill we have to have another debate about that issue (abortion)," Casey told CNSNews.com in a conference-call discussion about health-care reform in the Senate.

"I think it is abundantly clear what my position is on the issue of abortion," he added.
 
Casey has been clear about his opposition to abortion. The son of the late pro-life Pennsylvania Gov. Robert Casey, Sen. Casey has held that while the Constitution protects the right to privacy, it does not trump the rights of the unborn.
 
Yet Casey's statement that abortion should not impede health care reform flies in the face of 19 pro-life Democrats in the House, who recently sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) insisting that abortion funding should not be included in any health-care reform bill.

In fact, CNSNews.com specifically asked Casey about the House members' pledge to oppose any health-care bill that contains abortion funding: "Nineteen pro-life House Democrats sent a letter to Speaker Pelosi saying they would only support a health care package that  'explicitly excludes' abortion from the scope of the plan. Do you agree? And will you also only support a health reform plan that explicitly excludes abortion coverage?" 
 
"I can't speak for what the House is doing and what members are doing in the House, but in the Senate, I don't think that it (the abortion issue) is going to be an impediment to getting this legislation passed," Casey told CNSNews.com
 
In their letter to Pelosi, the pro-life House Democratic claimed that a health-care plan that mandates coverage for abortions would be an "unacceptable" option.
 
The congressmen explained that without an explicit exclusion, abortion could be federally funded as part of a government-subsidized health care plan. "We want to ensure that the Health Benefits Advisory Committee cannot recommend abortion services be included under covered benefits or as part of a benefits package," the House Democrats wrote.
 
"The health-care reform package produced by Congress will be landmark, and with legislation as important as this, abortion must be addressed clearly in the bill text," the letter continued. The pro-life Demcrats further explained that congressional funding restrictions on abortion have "saved lives by reducing the number of abortions."
 
'Common-ground' guy
 
While campaigning for his Senate seat, Casey supported overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion on demand.
 
But more recently, Casey also supported then-presidential candidate Barack Obama, who supports abortion rights.

As Casey told the Democratic National Convention last summer, "Barack Obama and I have an honest disagreement on the issue of abortion. But the fact that I'm speaking here tonight is testament to Barack's ability to show respect for the views of people who may disagree with him."
 
In January, Casey re-introduced the Pregnant Women Support Act (S.270), which would provide assistance to pregnant women both before and after delivery.
 
"I introduce this bill with the deepest conviction that we can find common ground," Casey said at the time. "I believe that we can transform this debate by focusing upon the issues that unite us, not the issues that divide us."
 
Obama also has called for "common ground" in the abortion debate, but many pro-life conservatives reject the notion.
 
"Over the years, we have come to understand that a desire for common ground translates into the view that principle must yield to pragmatism, and after that, to acceptance of abortion in some cases and after that, to abysmal defeat," wrote American Life League president Judie Brown in a May 29 column. "The common ground theory and those who advocate it remind me of quicksand … the slow, certain sinking of truth into the sands of deceit that clearly represent, among other things, Obamaland."

Source: CNSNews.com
Publish Date: July 2, 2009
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Abortion Linked to Subsequent Pre-Term Births, New Research Again Confirms

Having an abortion is dangerous for subsequent children, an international team of researchers has concluded.  The team, led by Dr. Robbert van Oppenraaij of Erasmus MC University Medical Centre, presented their findings on Monday to the 25th Annual Meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) in Amsterdam.

In his presentation, Dr. van Oppenraaij reported that one abortion increases the risk of premature birth in a next pregnancy by 20 percent. With two or more abortions, the risk is raised by 90 percent, and the risk of a very premature birth - meaning 34 weeks or less - is doubled.

"It can be concluded," said Dr. van Oppenraaij, "that a history of abortion is associated with an increased risk for premature delivery and very premature delivery."

The conference presentation was based on a March 2009 article published by the team in the ESHRE's Human Reproduction Update.  The research consisted of a literature review of over 75 investigations conducted between 1980 and 2008, focusing on predicting the health of pregnancies based on early pregnancy complications.

The article admits the difficulty of predicting adverse pregnancy outcomes after abortion because of the many variables, such as different abortion methods and gestational age.  Nevertheless, they say, "it can be concluded that a history of TOP [termination of pregnancy] is associated with an increased risk for PPROM [preterm premature rupture of membranes], PTD [preterm delivery] and VPTD [very preterm delivery]. These risks depend on the number of TOP."

Numerous independent studies have found this link between abortion and premature births in subsequent pregnancies, as LifeSiteNews.com has reported.  Most significantly, LSN reported in February this year on the findings of a German team who evaluated over two million pregnancies between 1995 and 2000. According to this study, the risk of very premature birth is increased by 30 percent after one abortion, and by 90 percent after more than one.

Contact: Patrick B. Craine
Source: LifeSiteNews.com
Publish Date: June 29, 2009
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Just say no to Gardasil

With school physicals right around the corner, parents should be cautious about allowing their daughters to receive the vaccine called Gardasil, a yet unproven vaccine for HPV, a disease only transmitted by sexual activity. The vaccine is pushed as a means to prevent cervical cancer, which has been connected to HPV, but Gardasil does nothing to prevent HPV strains causing 30% of cervical cancers.

Gardasil has developed a track record of unusual and dangerous side effects. The death toll from the drug has reached at least 47. There were also 1061 "serious" reports of complications including 142 classified as life-threatening, 147 spontaneous abortions, and 29 cases of Guillain-Barre Syndrome. Is use of this vaccine really worth the risks?

More specifics on complications should really raise questions about the risk versus benefit of this vaccine.  Reports indicate that 62 girls developed warts after receiving the vaccine, even though Gardasil is designed to prevent two strains of genital warts and is not supposed to react with other HPV strains.  However, not only did previously healthy women experience genital warts after the vaccination, but 21 girls developed warts on other areas, most commonly the face, hands and feet, and in one case, "all over her body."

Situations like this must be devastating to teenage girls and their parents, who were just following their doctor's recommendation and had no idea there were any risks of note.  FDA's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) reports show that since June 2008, 235 cases have involved permanent disability.  Just say no to Gardasil!

Source: Illinois Right to Life
Publish Date: July 2, 2009
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General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase Out Lab Rats

General Electric has announced that it will use embryonic stem cells provided by Geron Corporation for the purpose of testing toxic effects of drug treatments.

GE issued a statement, attempting to preempt criticism over the decision, saying, "We acknowledge the considerable debate and take very seriously the ethical and societal issues associated with research using stem cells derived from embryonic or fetal tissue."

"We conduct our research in an ethically and scientifically responsible manner," the statement said.

However, embryonic stem cells have been the center of heated controversy since harvesting the cells requires the destruction of embryonic human beings.

But Geron Corporation indicates that in this case it believes that the ends justify the means.

"Up to three quarters of toxicity problems are not detected until preclinical or later stages of drug development and this significantly increases the cost of developing new drugs," Geron Corporation said in a press release, "Earlier detection of toxicity problems could reduce both overall drug development costs and potentially harmful patient exposure in clinical trials."

Konstantin Fielder, General Manager of Cell Technologies at GE Healthcare said that stem cells harvested from human embryos could even replace lab rats as the primary scientific testing method.

"Once you have human cells and you can get them in a standardized way, like you get right now your lab rats in a standardized way, you can actually do those experiments on those cells," he said.

Both GE and Geron have said that the stem cells to be used are listed on a National Institutes of Health registry, making them eligible for use in the United States.

Click here for contact Information for General Electric.

Contact: Alex Bush
Source: LifeSiteNews.com
Publish Date: July 1, 2009
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U.N. Population Agency Receives $50 Million in Taxpayer Money, Despite Its Involvement in China Where Government's Population Control is Coercive

"UNFPA moves quickly when emergency strikes, to protect the reproductive health of communities in crisis," the United Nations population-control agency says on its Web site. This photo shows a UNFPA clinic in an unspecified country, and it comes from UNFPA's Web site.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) received $50 million from the United States government this year, despite its involvement in China, where the government's population program, according to the U.S. State Department, includes a "coercive birth limitation policy" that in some cases results "in forced abortion or forced sterilization."

The UNFPA says its programs in China are voluntary and respect human rights.
 
Funding for the group was included in an omnibus appropriations bill that Congress passed in March, which represents a reversal from the Bush Administration's refusal to fund UNFPA.
 
During a conference call with reporters on Tuesday, UNFPA discussed "the status of family planning in the developing world and its impact on population dynamics and inequality." Geeta Sen, an adjunct professor of global health and population at the Harvard School of Public Health, described UNFPA's mission.
 
"Like our need for food and air and water, sex and reproduction are a hearty perennial of human existence," Sen said. "We are always going to be doing those things and we need be able to do them safely. We need to make sure poor people have the same rights in this area as rich people do. We need to make sure that young people have the same rights and abilities in sex and reproduction as older people do."
 
The fund's Web site repeats the phrase: "No woman should die giving life."
 
But critics of UNFPA say that phrase is a euphemism for population control. Steven Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute, says UNFPA is pro-abortion.
 
The Population Research Institute describes its mission as exposing the "myth of overpopulation" as well as human rights abuses committed in population control programs.
 
"Reproductive health is a misleading phrase," Mosher told CNSNews.com. "Their measurement of reproductive health is . . .  how many, what percentage, of women in a population of reproductive age are (using contraception) or have been sterilized."
 
"(T)his is the U.N. Population Fund, this is not the U.N. Maternal Health Fund, or the U.N. Natural Family Planning (Fund)" he said. "This is a population-control group."
 
Mosher said UNFPA's assertion that "no woman should die giving life" can be better met by offering prenatal care, attending to the mother at the time of birth, and providing a means to get to a clinic in the case of complications.
 
"You can reduce maternal mortality down to very low levels, levels that we see in Germany, Sweden and the United States, but that's not the solution offered by the U.N. Population Fund," said Mosher, who first traveled to China in 1979 to interview women there about China's "One Child" forced abortion and sterilization program.
 
"(The fund) is going to ensure that no women die in child birth by ensuring that no women get pregnant," he added. "Well, that's like saying if you prevent people from driving cars, they won't die in traffic accidents. It's true, but who would ever advocate that?"
 
In 1983, the U.N. agency gave its first World Population Award to Qian Xinzhong, the minister of China's State Family Planning Commission, who was charged with overseeing that country's "one-child policy." At a family planning conference the prior year, Xinzhong made it known that his goal was 100 percent sterilization by 1985 for couples that already had two children.
 
A 2001 report Mosher authored for the Population Research Institute details population-control efforts in China, where the UNFPA allegedly supports the one-child policy and even funds programs sterilizing women and aborting additional children.
 
Mosher said little has changed since Xinzhong's tenure: "It's still just as brutal as it was in the beginning, 30 years ago," he said. "Women are arrested and aborted there, sometimes in the (last months) of pregnancy," he said.
 
The PRI report includes interviews that were submitted as congressional testimony in 2001 showing widespread human rights abuses in Sihui County. That county is said to be representative of the rest of the country. Although UNFPA denies any coercion takes place, Mosher says the UNFPA works with China's family planning authorities.
 
The subjects in the 2001 testimony include:
 
-- A woman who was forcibly sterilized after having a second child, but then had a third child after the operation failed. She was sterilized a second time and has not become pregnant again.
 
Asked by the interviewers what would happen if she tried to evade family planning workers who came to sterilize her, she said, "That wouldn't work. They would tear down my house."
 
Pointing at the ceiling, she said, "They would wreck it."
 
-- A woman who was pregnant with her second child and refused to abort it. She went into hiding until three family members were arrested, then was forced to hide with her in-laws, six of whom were then arrested and three of whose homes were destroyed by authorities armed with jackhammers.
 
"Look at this," her father said. "All of the doors and windows destroyed . . . It took forty bags of cement to repair the holes."
 
Local officials also told the PRI's investigative team, according to the report, that "there is no distinction between UNFPA's program in Sihui and the Chinese family planning program (there)."
 
UNFPA, however, maintains that no coercion is happening in Sihui County, and it told CNSNews.com that their programs are entirely voluntary.
 
"(W)e have been found by the U.S government, by the Secretary of State, Secretary Clinton, to not be in violation of any U.S. laws," Sarah Craven, chief of UNFPA's Washington, D.C., office, said. "Our program in China promotes an approach based in voluntarism and human rights."
 
The Kemp-Kasten amendment, regularly found in appropriations bills including the March omnibus appropriations bill, forbids federal money from going to any organization that "supports or participates in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization."
 
The Obama administration and Secretary Clinton have found that UNFPA does not violate Kemp-Kasten, and House Democrats also authored language guaranteeing funds to UNFPA.
 
But Mosher finds the certification incomprehensible.
 
"I have talked to literally hundreds of people on the ground in China in the last few weeks, and the program is clearly coercive," he said.
 
"(The fund) is not making a difference in the direction of voluntarism, which it claims to be, and there's no way that Secretary Clinton couldn't know that."
 
Indeed, the State Department's 2008 Human Rights Report on China, published on February 25 of this year, describes China's population control program as sharply coercive.

"The government continued its coercive birth limitation policy, in some cases resulting in forced abortion or forced sterilization," said the State Department.

"Those who violated the child limit policy by having an unapproved child or helping another do so faced disciplinary measures such as social compensation fees, job loss or demotion, loss of promotion opportunity, expulsion from the party (membership in which was an unofficial requirement for certain jobs), and other administrative punishments, including in some cases the destruction of private property," said the State Department. "In the case of families that already had two children, one parent was often pressured to undergo sterilization. The penalties sometimes left women with little practical choice but to undergo abortion or sterilization."

One Chinese woman's case, according to the State Deparment, ended with Chinese officials killing a child who had just been born.

"In March family-planning officials in Henan Province reportedly forcibly detained a 23-year-old unmarried woman who was seven months pregnant," said the State Department. "Officials reportedly tied her to a bed, induced labor, and killed the newborn upon delivery."

According to its annual report, UNFPA spent more than 66 percent of its 2008 Asia budget on "reproductive health."
 
"(N)o one is saying that the UNFPA office staffer in Sihui County is actually out there doing abortions, but does he know about them? Is he complicit? Does he work with the family planning authorities?" Mosher asked.
 
"Do they know what the quotas are, the targets? Do they know that women are arrested and (undergo abortions) sometimes in the eighth and ninth months of pregnancy? Of course they know. Are they funding the program? Of course they are."
 
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell made similar findings when he sent a fact-finding mission to China in May 2002, saying, UNFPA's "support of, and involvement in, China's population-planning activities allows the Chinese government to implement more effectively its program of coercive abortion."
 
The UNFPA's Craven said: "(W)e are absolutely delighted that the United States has come back as a funding partner and joined the 180 other countries around the world that support (us)."
 
The $50 million from the omnibus bill makes the United States one of the top UNFPA donors, along with the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden.

Contact: Christopher Neefus
Source: CNSNews.com
Publish Date: July 2, 2009
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You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.

Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, chair of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote to members of the House Appropriations Committee yesterday urging them not to fund abortions in the District of Columbia. Last week the House subcommittee that is considering the Financial Services appropriations bill for 2010 voted to permit direct public funding of abortion in the nation's capital.

Cardinal Rigali said that the subcommittee's action "effectively nullifies the Dornan amendment," which for a total of 18 years has prevented public funding of elective abortions in the District. He said this move, "presumably the first step in a broader effort to restore such funding throughout the federal government," is misguided for three reasons.

"First, he said, "public funding of abortion is rejected by the American people, as numerous surveys of public opinion have shown." He also noted that Catholics recently sent "tens of millions of postcards to their elected representatives in Congress, opposing   any weakening or reversal of current appropriations riders on abortion."

"Second, no lawmaker or Administration can support such a policy change and still claim to support 'reducing abortions.' The evidence is overwhelming, and universally recognized by groups on all sides of the abortion issue, that the availability of public funds for abortion greatly increases abortions."

"Third, this action takes place as Congress is working to win broad support for a much-needed major reform of our health care system," Cardinal Rigali noted. "This is the worst of all possible times to be injecting the divisive issue of public abortion funding into the debate on government health policy."

Cardinal Rigali concluded by urging the full House Appropriations Committee to reverse the subcommittee's action and retain the funding ban in current law.

Click here to read the full text of his letter.

Source: LifeSiteNews.com
Publish Date: July 1, 2009
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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.

Planned Parenthood to Investigate Undercover Actor's Claim That `Baby Killers' Broke Laws

Planned Parenthood of Alabama will investigate claims by a self-proclaimed "undercover actor and investigative journalist" that the organization's Birmingham clinic is failing to report the sexual abuse of minors and "bending rules" on parental consent laws for abortions, a spokesman said Tuesday. The allegations were made by 20-year-old Lila Rose, a UCLA college student who has posted on the Internet a series of audio and video recordings of her visits to Planned Parenthood clinics across the nation.
Click here for the full article.


Alabama AG Seeks Undercover Tape of Planned Parenthood's Sex Abuse Coverup

Attorney General Troy King said Wednesday he's asked for the tape of a Birmingham Planned Parenthood clinic staffer allegedly saying the law about reporting sexual abuse is "bent" by the clinic. "If that tape is an accurate depiction of what's happening, that's very troubling," King said in an interview. "Live Action" undercover reporter Lila Rose, a 20-year-old student, said she posed as a 14-year-old girl at the Birmingham Planned Parenthood clinic a year ago. Rose said she told a staffer she got pregnant by her 31-year-old "boyfriend" and needed a secret abortion.
Click here for the full article.


Arizona Lawmakers Outlaw Planned Parenthood's Killer Nurses

Lawmakers voted Wednesday to make it illegal for anyone other than a physician to perform a surgical abortion. SB 1175 is aimed at a practice used by Planned Parenthood Arizona that allows nurse practitioners with special training to terminate pregnancies in the first trimester. The legislation overrules regulations from the state Board of Nursing, which concluded that those with the specialized training are qualified to perform the procedure.
Click here for the full article.  (scroll down)


Minors' Abortion Records Off Limits for Proving Criminal Pattern, Court Says

In a split decision released Wednesday, July 1, the Ohio Supreme Court said the parents of a Cincinnati teen who had an abortion at a Planned Parenthood clinic do not have the right to other minors' medical records. The parents of "Jane Roe," who had an abortion in March 2004 as a 14-year-old, filed suit against Planned Parenthood, alleging the clinic didn't properly get parental consent for the abortion or notify authorities of suspected sexual abuse of a minor. The lawsuit claimed Planned Parenthood's handling of Jane's case is part of a pattern involving minors who had obtained abortions.
Click here for the full article.


Minn. Health Department News of Abortion Decline Is FALSE, Report Does Not Count `Plan B', `RU-486' and Other Chemically Induced Abortions

False News Report by Winona Daily News:

The number of abortions performed in Minnesota in 2008 fell to the lowest level since the 1970s, and marked the second straight year of declines, the state Health Department reported Wednesday. The annual report said 12,948 abortions were performed in Minnesota last year, down about 6 percent from 13,843 in 2007. There were 14,065 abortions in 2006. Despite a spike in 2006, both the total number of abortions and the abortion rate per 1,000 women of childbearing age have been on a steady decline since 1980. The 2008 total is the lowest since the 10,565 abortions reported in 1975.
Click here for the full article.


Nineteen House Dems Plan To Vote Against Health Reform If Abortion Funding Is Included

Nineteen House Democrats recently sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) stating that they will not vote for health care reform legislation "unless it explicitly excludes abortion funding from the scope of any government-defined or subsidized health insurance plan," CongressDaily reports. In the letter, the lawmakers wrote that they want to ensure that the Health Benefits Advisory Committee cannot recommend that abortion services be included as part of benefits packages. They wrote, "Without an explicit exclusion, abortion could be included in a government-subsidized health care plan under general health care."
Click here for the full article.

ACTION ALERT ! ! !

Help Protect the Pre-Born
 
The House Financial Services Appropriations Subcommittee has approved its annual appropriations bill with language to gut the longstanding ban on taxpayer funding for abortion in the District of Columbia.

The bill adopted the Obama administration proposal to make public funds available for abortion in D.C.  It represents a removal of what has come to be known as "the Dornan amendment," which prohibits  taxpayer dollars appropriated for D.C. from being used for abortion except in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother.

Please take a moment to contact your member of Congress and ask him or her to support the reinstatement of the Dornan amendment into the Financial Services Appropriations bill.  Members are back home in their districts right now, so please contact their district offices.

Click here for your Congressional Member's contact information.

Update: Healthcare Forum

Last night's healthcare forum hosted by 3rd Congressional District Representative Dan Lipinski was attended by a number of pro-life individuals.  Representative Lipinski expressed a clear and strong commitment to fight to retain Hyde language barring the use of any federal funds for abortion in any national healthcare plan. 

 

He did not address whether or not he would ultimately withhold support from any plan that did not include the Hyde prohibitions.

 

In a brief conversation after the public program when I thanked Representative Lipinski for his support for pro-life positions on both abortion and life-destructive stem cell research he said he intends to continue to address both as matters of principle although he does expect to be attacked more aggressively than here-to-fore on these stands because of the combined pro-death positions of city hall and the locally rooted federal administration.  The congressman's legislative director also expressed Rep. Lipinski's committment to these positions and the expectation that the position will be attacked as well.  Although this was not pursued in the public meeting at all neither Rep. Lipinski nor his legislative director professed awareness of the "Dear Colleague" letter to Speaker Pelosi signed by 19 pro-life Democrats last week. 

 

Clearly Rep. Lipinski needs the continued support and encouragement of pro-lifers -- along with our thanks -- for his principled stands on both abortion and life-destructive stem cell research.  For those who may not know Rep. Lipinski suffers from juvenile diabetes and has used his own health status to buttress the importance of opposition to federal involvement in life-destructive stem cell research.