Trek across the country reveals a pro-life America 
Crossroads participants from a 2005 trip After weeks of witness on the road, in church youth groups, and in front of abortion clinics, forty young people will end their three simultaneous cross-country pro-life walks across America in Washington, D.C on Saturday. The walk organizer said the endeavor helped women to reject abortion and revealed significant pro-life support. Three groups of young people with the group Crossroads began their respective walks in Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles on May 23. They collectively logged 10,000 miles across 36 U.S. states in 12 weeks. Each walker averaged over 1,000 miles and spoke to parishes and youth groups. They also engaged in "peaceful, prayerful" protests and sidewalk counseling at abortion clinics. The effort has taken place annually since 1995. This year's walk will end with a 1 p.m. rally at the U.S. Capitol. Speaking in a press release, Crossroads president James Nolan said the trip showed that America is a pro-life country. "[U]nlike polls that take a small, phone-based sample, we have had the advantage of directly interacting with thousands of Americans. And the support for the rights of the innocent, unborn has always been in the majority," he remarked, charging that the Obama administration is "out of touch" with the mainstream. Speaking with CNA in a Friday interview, Nolan said walkers spoke at thousands of religious services and met with people one-on-one. He claimed the effort revealed a "massive conversion" of youth towards religion and spirituality and pro-life views. It also showed a "massive rejection" of the "culture of death," especially among the youth, he said. Many who interacted with the walkers were "very, very supportive" of the effort. Nolan told CNA that people are "hungry for truth" and for "something new," and are not "buying the old lies involved with the culture of death in general." He explained that participants walked 24 hours a day around the clock during weekdays, while on weekends they would pray at abortion clinics, youth groups, and various religious services. The Crossroads walk has witnessed "amazing stories of conversion" and of women "choosing life," according to Nolan. "There was one parish out in the Midwest where after the walkers spoke at one of the evening Masses a gentlemen came up and asked if they had been praying at the clinic earlier that Saturday." The walkers responded that they had. "This gentleman said that he had actually been driving his daughter to the clinic for the abortion and when they saw young people in T-shirts and praying the rosary, they decided they just couldn't do it," Nolan recounted. After turning away from the clinic, the pregnant woman and her father then went to get an ultrasound. They discovered she was carrying twins. "The father was just in shock. Before, he was just that close to choosing abortion. Now, he's a grandfather of two." He described the incident as a moment of "real conversion" through the youth. "When people see young people really taking a stand, hearts and minds get changed. It's pretty amazing." CNA also asked about an incident at Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado where a park ranger initially stopped three female walkers from entering the park. According to Nolan, the ranger said the shirts "might offend other people with opposing views" and needed to be changed. While the situation was resolved after half an hour, Nolan commented, "just the fact that young people wearing pro-life T-shirts were stopped from entering, just in itself, is an outrage." "There is no doubt in our minds that this was a case of thinly veiled harassment based on nothing more than political ideology," Nolan said of the incident. Though Nolan told CNA that the park ranger did not mention President Barack Obama specifically, he said the incident is indeed evidence of mounting pressure on pro-life groups under the Obama administration. Nolan reported that Crossroads walkers had faced "harassment" under the Clinton administration but had a "break" under President George W. Bush. "With the Obama administration, we're just seeing a ramping up of pressure on pro-life groups. It's clear that there has been a change in administration. "That harassment has started up again," he charged, citing the Rocky Mountain National Park incident as his group's first "real clear example." However, Nolan was optimistic about the future. "The pro-abortion position is definitely in the minority now," he said. "The youth of the country especially are returning back to the religious and the life-respecting roots of earlier generations." Source: CNA Publish Date: August 15, 2009 Link to this article. Send this article to a friend.
Appeals Court: Abortionists Must Follow FDA Regs 
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that abortionists must follow FDA regulations when dispensing the abortion pill known as RU-486. The long-running court case involves a Planned Parenthood challenge to an Ohio law. At least six U.S. women have died after taking RU-486. Dr. Donna Harrison, president of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians & Gynecologists, said the rules help protect the women who take the drug. "The FDA rules should have gone much further than they did," she said, "but they were the minimum that would allow for the drug to be used under less dangerous circumstances." Harrison said Planned Parenthood did not want to be held to common-sense regulations. "Planned Parenthood does not want a cut in its bottom line," she said. "To require that they follow the law and to require they actually see the patients and follow up, puts a big cut in their bottom line." Contact: Josh Montez Source: CitizenLink Publish Date: August 14, 2009 Link to this article. Send this article to a friend.
Wesley Medical Center Promises to Keep Carhart, Abortions Out 
Hospital hears the voices of the people and responds to the online petition asking that they not associate with late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart Wesley Medical Center issued a statement today assuring the public that late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart will not be granted a transfer agreement should he apply for one. Just hours after Operation Rescue launched a petition on Monday, August 10, 2009, to ask that Wesley Medical Center deny late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart hospital or transfer privileges, Operation Rescue President Troy Newman was contacted by a member of the hospital's administrative staff indicating that they would be willing to issue a statement in agreement with that request. The statement was sent to Operation Rescue by Paul Pettite, Vice President of Marketing and Public Relations for Wesley Medical Center on Friday, August 14, 2009, making good on promises that were made to put their position in writing. "We are very pleased that Wesley Medical Center has taken the position of protecting life, and thank them for working with us toward establishing a community that respects and welcomes life," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. "We also are grateful to the hundreds upon hundreds of people who took the time to sign the petition to Wesley Medical Center. Today, your voices were heard." Wesley stated, "Physicians do not conduct elective abortions at Wesley Medical Center." It further stated that "Wesley treats over 70,000 people yearly in our ED. Our Women's hospital assists in delivering over 6,000 babies every year. We are proud of our role in supporting life." The statement referred to Tiller, who was photographed at Wesley many times accompanying women injured by abortions at his now-closed late-term abortion clinic. "Wesley never had a transfer agreement with Dr. George Tiller nor will Wesley enter a transfer agreement with any clinic - abortion or otherwise," the statement read. Newman responded to that comment. "Tiller did not need to have a transfer agreement since he was a long-standing member of the Wesley medical staff, and boasted of his affiliation on his web site. This statement marks a change in policy from what we have seen from Wesley in the past, and we are very grateful to them for that. "We know that Carhart is trying to establish a late-term abortion clinic in Wichita, and that he would need the good graces of a local hospital to do so," said Newman. "The petition was successful at helping Wesley hear the heart of the people on this matter. It is our prayer that Carhart will see the lack of community support for his abortion plans, and will terminate his efforts to re-establish a late-term abortion clinic in Kansas or anywhere else." Read the full statement from Wesley Medical Center. Contact: Troy Newman, Cheryl Sullenger Source: Operation Rescue Publish Date: August 14, 2009 Link to this article. Send this article to a friend.
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. Planned Parenthood Wants Federal Judge to Put Restraining Order on South Dakota Planned Parenthood has asked 'U.S. District Judgette Karen Schreier' to prevent South Dakota from suspending or revoking its license to perform abortions because of state claims that it violated a law requiring doctors to tell women that abortion ends a human life. Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota requested a temporary restraining order in response to a letter it received Monday from the state Department of Health. The letter, included in the court file, lists numerous deficiencies reportedly found in May during an inspection of the state's only abortion clinic, in Sioux Falls. The agency gave Planned Parenthood, which operates the clinic, until Aug. 22 to submit a correction plan. ... Planned Parenthood asked U.S. District Judgette Karen Schreier to prevent the state from taking any action until she decides whether to rule on some or all of the lawsuit or let the case go to trial. Click here for the full article. 40 Pro-Life Students Trek 10,000 Miles to D.C. Forty pro-life college students who walked across the country from California witnessing about the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death will reach Washington, D.C., on Saturday. Organized by pro-life group Crossroads, the 40 young adults from colleges around the country spent 12 weeks walking through 36 states, thousands of municipalities, towns and cities, and collectively logged 10,000 miles during the summer pilgrimage. In the cities they traveled through, the students took part in activities such as peaceful protests and sidewalk counseling at abortion clinics. Click here for the full article.
Planned Parenthood: Kill Your Babe at Home Surgical abortions decreased. Now PP has given females drugs to kill their infants at home. Some female deaths have resulted because of course PP doesn't have it altogether. So now the American home has become the real-life real-time abortuary. The mother is really the hands-on killer. So the Republic falls more quickly, more horrifically. PP wiggles every demon in place to do whatever is necessary in order to further its death trade. Of course, death-bound Dems and death-vowed B.. H. Obama, Marxist Muslim, up the ante. Click here for the full article.
Spain's Justice Minister says doctors not allowed to object to abortion The Collegial Medical Organization and various pro-life groups in Spain have strongly rejected statements by the country's Minister of Justice, Francisco Caamano, who said Thursday that "there is no room for conscientious objection" when it comes to abortion. The president of the Collegial Medical Organization, Dr. Juan Jose Rodriguez Sendin, said, "The right doctors have in Spain to conscientious objection is going to be respected, whether they like it or not, and it is better this is accepted on good rather than on bad terms." Conscientious objection is universally recognized in the medical profession, he insisted, noting that the commitment not to kill, not to abort, not to take part in torture, not to betray patients has been part of medical practice for more than 40 centuries. Click here for the full article. Holdren: Infants Not Human Beings The infamous Holdren quotes from the 1977 'Ecoscience' textbook, proposing forced sterilizations and other draconian measures to bring about mass death, are no incidental exercises in academic frivolity. In the 1973 publication 'Human Ecology: Problems and Solutions', co-authored by his old buddies, the Ehrlichs, Holdren wrote quite candidly about his basic view on human life, providing us with a peek at the decaying undergrowth out of which the Ecoscience document has emerged, proposing among other things a 'planetary regime' to assume command of matters of life and death. In chapter 8 of the 'Human Ecology'-document, page 235, Holdren gives us his definition of human life: "The fetus", Holdren writes, "given the opportunity to develop properly before birth, and given the essential early socializing experiences and sufficient nourishing food during the crucial early years after birth, will ultimately develop into a human being." Click here for the full article. Sleepless in Shanghai Reaping What They Didn't Sow Remember all the Malthusian scare talk of a generation ago about overpopulation? Boy, were they wrong. The world faces a potential demographic crisis that threatens both the global economy and global stability. Too few, not too many, children are being born in many countries around the world. Low birthrates in Europe, East Asia, and even in places like Iran have resulted in rapidly aging societies. These societies will soon find themselves unable to sustain the kind of economic growth necessary to care for their population and maintain social peace. Click here for the full article.
End-of-Life Provision Excluded
Senator Chuck Grassley addresses crowd at townhall meeting
in Adel, IA. Source: The Des Moines Register
The Senate Finance Committee decided to exclude Section 1233 of HR 3200 which would authorize end-of-life consultations. You know the never existing "death panels?" Townhall meetings and tons of emails seem to be getting through to Members of Congress (at least the ones who would like to keep their jobs). The Hill reports:
The Senate Finance Committee will drop a controversial provision on consultations for end-of-life care from its proposed healthcare bill, its top Republican member said Thursday.
The committee, which has worked on putting together a bipartisan healthcare reform bill, will drop the controversial provision after it was derided by conservatives as "death panels" to encourage euthanasia.
"On the Finance Committee, we are working very hard to avoid unintended consequences by methodically working through the complexities of all of these issues and policy options," Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said in a statement. "We dropped end-of-life provisions from consideration entirely because of the way they could be misinterpreted and implemented incorrectly." (read the rest)
This issue has been far from being debunked, as some would claim. There isn't consensus. No one is saying that "death panel" and euthanasia language exists in the bill, but the implication is there. There is wiggle room, and it could be interpreted that way. Don't think so? Look at Oregon and see what rationing health care can get you. So score one for Governor Sarah Palin, she was right on this issue and it needed to be framed in philosophical terms that Americans can understand.
Right Wing News is encouraging anyone not to get too excited about this, as this is the House version of the bill. We have yet to see the Senate version. Palin warns that this wasn't "the only disturbing detail in this legislation; it was just one of the more obvious ones." Senator Grassley would still be wise to walk away from this mess. The fact that he hasn't, has made his constituents nervous, as could be seen in his townhall meetings (however they did go a lot better than Senator Tom Harkin's meetings).
Keep melting the phones and keep testing Congress' server capability. We've only just begun.
Contact: Shane Vander Hart Source: Caffeinated Thoughts Publish Date: August 14, 2009 Link to this article.
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Democrats Disagree on Abortion Coverage
Two years ago, President Obama promised Planned Parenthood a 'public plan that will provide all essential services, including reproductive services.'
On Monday, pro-abortion U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., acknowledged that the federal health-care overhaul would include abortion.
"Abortion will be covered as a benefit by one or more of the health-care plans available to Americans, and I think it should be," she said at a town hall meeting.
But on Tuesday, Lofgren's fellow Democrats touted the opposite position.
"There's nothing in the bill that talks about Planned Parenthood," claimed Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. "There is not one dime for any abortions. There is nothing in the bill that mandates any kind of abortion coverage."
At his own town hall meeting Tuesday, Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., agreed with McCaskill.
"If you want to have a health-care plan, which does not have payment for abortions, you can have that one where you'll not be charged for somebody who has an abortion," he said. "Now, if you want a different health-care plan, an option where you can have payment for abortion and you pay for it, because there'd be a little bigger premium, you have the choice of being in one plan or the other."
In truth, the debate was settled more than two years ago, when then-Sen. Barack Obama shared his agenda with Planned Parenthood supporters.
"In my mind, reproductive care is essential care," he said. "It is basic care. And so it is at the center and at the heart of the plan that I propose. Essentially … we're gonna set up a public plan … that will provide all essential services, including reproductive services.
"We also will subsidize those who prefer to stay in the private insurance market — except the insurers are going to have to abide by the same rules in terms of providing comprehensive care, including reproductive care. I still believe that it is important for Planned Parenthood to be part of that system."
"Reproductive care" is a political euphemism for abortion.
Ashley Horne, federal issues analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said it's pretty clear what President Obama and the Democratic Congress are working toward.
"They have shot down every single attempt in both the House and the Senate to keep abortion funding out of the health-care proposal," she explained. "The reality is, if this proposal passes, there will be unlimited funding of abortions."
Contact: Jennifer Mesko Source: CitizenLink Publish Date: August 13, 2009
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NRLC Webpage Exposes Pro-Life Movement's Benedict Arnold in Congress
US Congressman Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) has now achieved the status of "Benedict Arnold" in the pro-life movement, and the National Right to Life Committee is making sure pro-life advocates know about it.
NRLC has announced a "Tim Ryan, pro-life impersonator" webpage to inform pro-life advocates that one of their own has now achieved "become a major asset to the pro-abortion lobby in Washington."
The webpage offers pertinent documents and links that detail Ryan's pro-abortion activities and includes a report by NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson that contains quotes critical of Ryan from pro-life groups and from key pro-life Congressmen in the House of Representatives.
"In recent weeks, for example, Ryan has worked with pro-abortion groups to undermine the efforts of the pro-life members of the U.S. House of Representatives (of both parties) who are seeking to remove pro-abortion provisions from the health care bills being pushed by the Obama White House," said a statement released by NRLC.
Much like Benedict Arnold, the American whose name became synonymous with turncoat after his defection and attempt to betray key fortifications to the British Empire in the American War for Independence, Ryan's support was key to passing the Capps Amendment (30-28), which the Associated Press confirmed allows the federal funding of abortion under H.R. 3200 "America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009."
But Ryan has continued to cling to his status as a "pro-life" politician, while his actions damage efforts of the pro- life movement to combat abortion-promoting legislation in Congress disguised as "common ground" or "compromise" measures.
NRLC's Johnson stated that Ryan "has not cast a pro-life vote since 2006, impersonates a pro-life lawmaker, but in reality he is an active agent of pro-abortion activists."
"When Tim Ryan calls for 'common ground,' you know he has a memo from Planned Parenthood in his pocket."
In an article provocatively entitled, "A Pro-Lie Democrat," The Weekly Standard (TWS) published this exchange of their interview with Ryan:
TWS: When do you believe life begins?
REP. RYAN: That answer's above my pay grade. That's for God to determine.
TWS: So you're not saying first trimester, second trimester, conception?
REP. RYAN: I don't know. I mean, that's God. God knows when it begins, and when it ends, and all that other stuff.
TWS noted that Ryan's "above my pay grade" answer copied President Obama's own retort to a similar question at the Saddleback Church debate with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).
As a "common ground" measure, the Capps Amendment forbids the proposed "Health Benefits Advisory Committee" from mandating abortion coverage as an essential service for health plans included in the "Health Insurance Exchange." But it does mandate that every U.S. region have at least one abortion-covering private insurance plan, as well as one non-abortion-covering private insurance plan.
Moreover, the Capps Amendment explicitly mandates that the public health insurance option - which aims to provide for an estimated 46 million Americans who lack insurance - cover abortions through federal funding not restricted by the Hyde amendment. The new funding would come through beneficiary premiums of people buying into the public option, but also through taxpayer subsidies in the form of "affordability credits" for low-income and middle-income people buying through the "Health Insurance Exchange." The bill demands private insurers guarantee the "affordability credits" do not subsidize abortion procedures, although such a guarantee is practically impossible due to the fungible nature of money.
Ryan, a Catholic who once held a pro-life record, also voted last month in favor of abortion legislation that supported taxpayer funding for abortion in Washington, D.C.
Democrats for Life expelled Ryan from the group's advisory board due to his increasing pro-abortion voting record, according to executive director Kristen Day.
Day told the Weekly Standard that "Congressman Ryan is very politically ambitious" and surmised that Ryan was "proactively abandoning his pro-life roots in hopes of sliding his hands into the deep pockets of the national pro-choice donor base."
Click here to visit the new NRLC page on "Tim Ryan, pro-life impersonator":
Contact: Peter J. Smith Source: LifeSiteNews.com NRLC Publish Date: August 13, 2009 Link to this article.
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UN Health Data Show Liberal Abortion Laws Lead to Greater Maternal Death
The world's largest abortion provider, International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), has recently acknowledged an alarming "surge" in maternal deaths in South Africa, challenging the pro-abortion mantra that liberal abortion laws decrease maternal mortality. Maternal deaths increased by twenty per cent in the period 2005-2007 in South Africa, a country that since 1996 has had one of the most permissive abortion laws on the African continent.
While deaths attributable to HIV/AIDS account for the biggest portion of maternal deaths in South Africa, IPPF acknowledges that a portion of deaths are "due to complications of abortion" in a country where the procedure is legal and widely available.
Developing countries have been badgered in recent years by various United Nations agencies and pro-abortion civil society organizations, including IPPF, to decriminalize abortion as a measure to reduce maternal mortality rates. However, the latest IPPF revelation is the latest fact in a growing body of evidence showing the opposite relationship in which legal abortion and high maternal deaths coincide.
To illustrate, the nation with the lowest African maternal mortality rate is Mauritius, according to a 2009 World Health Organization (WHO) report. Mauritius' laws are among the continent's most protective of the unborn. The report further shows how countries that have decriminalized abortion in recent years in response to pressure, such as Ethiopia, have failed to lower dramatic maternal death rates. Ethiopia's maternal death rate is 48 times higher than in Mauritius.
According to WHO, the country with the lowest maternal mortality rate in South America is Chile, which protects unborn life in its constitution. The country with the highest is Guyana, with a maternal mortality rate 30 times higher than in Chile. Guyana has allowed abortion without almost any restriction since in 1995. Ironically, one of two main justifications used in liberalizing Guyana's law was to enhance the "attainment of safe motherhood" by eliminating deaths and complications associated with unsafe abortion.
Nicaragua has been in the crosshairs of the international pro-abortion lobby since it amended its law three years ago to grant full protection to prenatal life. Sweden, for example, reportedly cut over $20 million in foreign aid as a result. More recently, Amnesty International issued a report claiming maternal death rates increased following Nicaragua's law going into effect. Media critics, however, have contested the veracity of Amnesty's claims , and Nicaraguan government statistics show a decline in maternal deaths since 2006.
Similarly, WHO statistics for the South East Asia region show Nepal, where there is no restriction on the procedure, has the region's highest rate of maternal mortality. The lowest in the region is Sri Lanka, with a rate fourteen times lower than that of Nepal. According to the pro-abortion public interest law firm Center for Reproductive Rights, Sri Lanka has among the most restrictive abortion laws in the world.
Worldwide, the country with the lowest maternal death rate is Ireland, a nation that prohibits abortion and whose constitution explicitly protects the rights of the unborn.
Contact: Aracely Ornelas Source: C-FAM Publish Date: August 13, 2009
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Audit finds Planned Parenthood affiliate overcharged $629,000 to Medicaid
An audit has uncovered information that Planned Parenthood of the Inland Northwest has required unnecessary office visits by its poorest patients, securing over half a million dollars in excess payments from Medicaid.
The audit has also discovered questionable billing procedures and unauthorized staff prescribing and dispensing birth control pills, Doug Porter, Washington's Medicaid director, told the Spokesman-Review.
The excess taxpayer-funded Medicaid payments total $629,143, out of a total of about $7.7 million in payments. Interest of one percent per month will begin accruing on August 20 if the clinic does not repay the state.
The audit was launched after staff with the Washington Department of Social and Health Services became suspicious of the frequency of clinic visits by Medicaid patients.
"Most birth control clinics will see a woman and usually determine what method of birth control is best and then they will prescribe six months to a year right then and there," Porter explained.
However, Medicaid patients were coming to Planned Parenthood every month.
Auditors reviewed 333 procedures performed from March 2004 to February 2007. Audit sample findings were then applied to all 267,815 procedures to calculate the overpayment.
Porter told the Spokesman-Review he could not disclose whether he had referred the findings to Medicaid fraud investigators with the Washington Attorney General's Office.
Planned Parenthood is considering appealing the latest audit's findings. In a written statement, the organization said the audit was "routine" and would not affect patient services.
Porter told the Spokesman Review that the overbilling is considered significant.
"What we hope is that $630,000 is enough tuition to be smarter about how they operate and do business," he said. "It's indicative of sloppy billing practices for sure, but it's not egregious."
Porter also noted concerns about audit findings that drug prescriptions were being charged by unauthorized staff.
"That's a quality-of-care issue," he said. "You can't have a receptionist handing out pills."
Planned Parenthood clinics in other states are also under investigation after being exposed by student investigator Lila Rose of Live Action Films for not reporting suspected cases of statutory rape, as required by state law.
Source: CNA Publish Date: August 13, 2009
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NEWS SHORTS FOR FRIDAY
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.
Court waves charges against pro-lifer accused of blocking abortion clinic traffic
A Kansas court has dismissed criminal charges filed against a pro-life woman who was arrested in the driveway of an abortion clinic for allegedly blocking traffic entering and leaving its parking lot. A police officer contradicted the city's claim that she had been ordered to cease her activities before her arrest.
Along with several other pro-life advocates, Carrie Kafka, an employee of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, has reportedly distributed educational information on a monthly basis for over a year on a public sidewalk next to an Overland Park, Kansas Planned Parenthood abortion clinic parking lot.
According to a press release from the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), Kafka was careful not to trespass or obstruct traffic entering or exiting the clinic and interacted only with those who willingly stopped their cars and invited a conversation.
Click here for the full article.
Is Leroy All Alone Or Is He The Feds' Sucker Bait?
Feminists Say Carhart Has Lost His Federal Protection... R-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-ght
The US Department of Justice has withdrawn the federal marshals charged with protecting Leroy Carhart, MD, one of the few physicians in the country who provides late abortions. According to RH Reality Check, federal marshals left Carhart's Nebraska clinic two weeks ago, despite new campaigns targeting Dr. Carhart by anti-choice groups including Operation Rescue. Kansas NOW State Coordinator Marla Patrick said, "It is unconscionable that with the recent assassination of Dr. Tiller, and the numerous threats against abortion providers and their clinics, that the DOJ would remove Dr. Carhart's protection." Kansas NOW is urging US Attorney General Eric Holder to reinstate federal marshal protection to Dr. Carhart's clinic (at taxpayer expense), reports RH Reality Check.
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Driver Booked for Killing Unborn Baby
Man had drugs in his system
A St. Bernard Parish man who had drugs in his system when he drove through a red light in Slidell last year, causing a crash that killed his unborn child, was booked with third-degree feticide Tuesday, authorities said. Christopher M. Havers, 24, was arrested after a routine traffic stop, Slidell Police Department spokesman Capt. Kevin Foltz said. Havers was driving a Nissan Altima east on Gause Boulevard on June 7, 2008, with his 17-year-old girlfriend as a passenger when he ran a red light at the Interstate 10 intersection, Foltz said. The car smashed into the passenger side of a Nissan Pathfinder that was making a left turn through the intersection, he said. Havers' girlfriend, who was 6-months pregnant, was taken to Slidell Memorial Hospital, where doctors declared the child dead, Foltz said.
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Judge: N.D. Abortion Clinic Must Mention Ultrasound
A North Dakota judge ruled Wednesday that the state's only abortion clinic must tell patients they have the opportunity to see an ultrasound and hear a fetal heartbeat before having an abortion, but the clinic does not have to provide the services. A New York-based advocacy group representing the Red River Women's Clinic in Fargo challenged a new state law that requires the clinic to offer women the chance to see the images of their fetuses at least 24 hours before an abortion. The group said the provision about the fetal heartbeat was confusing and unconstitutionally vague.
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Senate Majority Leader: Protesters Are 'Evil-Mongers'
Town hall protesters are "evil-mongers," says Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). Reid coined the term in a speech to an energy conference in Las Vegas this week and repeated it in an interview with Politics Daily. Such "evil-mongers" are using "lies, innuendo and rumor," to drown out rational debate, Reid said. "It was an original with me," Reid said of the term. "I maybe could have been less descriptive," he said, adding that "I doubt you'll hear it from me again." Nevertheless, Reid worked in the word one more time during the interview.
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Americans United for Life Applauds Decision Protecting Women from Dangers of RU-486
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has dissolved an injunction against the enforcement of an OH law strictly regulating the provision of the dangerous abortion drug, RU-486.
Dr. Charmaine Yoest, CEO and President of Americans United for Life, stated, "This is a victory for women's health. Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers have readily admitted that they administer RU-486 in violation of the FDA-approved protocol for the drug. In response, Ohio rightly sought to protect women from such dangerous practices and the Sixth Circuit has ratified that decision."
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Pushing contraception on children
Planned Parenthood wants wide availability of contraception to underage children.
A bill to grant carte blanche to teenagers failed in the last session of the Montana state legislature. But Planned Parenthood is now attacking the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which supposedly prohibits coverage of prescriptions of birth control. Gregg Trude of Right to Life of Montana tells OneNewsNow that Planned Parenthood is not telling the whole story.
"Girls right now are allowed to get birth control through the CHIP program in the state of Montana, if in fact a doctor writes a prescription for it," Trude explains.
He says apparently Planned Parenthood wants unlimited access, including through the CHIP program. Trude was asked about parental involvement in the process.
Montana"There is a law in Montana -- it's on the books -- that girls under the age of 16 do not have to have parental involvement or consent in anything that has to do with birth control, birth, pregnancy, or abortion. It's crazy. It's crazy," he adds.
The effort to remove restrictions in the health insurance program are relentless, according to Representative Cary Smith, who may introduce a bill to ban contraception completely from CHIP.
Contact: Charlie Butts Source: OneNewsNow Publish Date: August 13, 2009 Link to this article.
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Planned Parenthood fined for overbilling
The state of Washington has ordered a Planned Parenthood affiliate in Spokane to reimburse about $700,000 for overbilling Medicaid.
The news is the latest in a series of events that have revealed unscrupulous and/or illegal practices in clinics of the country's No. 1 abortion provider.
The report -- released by the pro-life weblog Abortion in Washington (AIW) and based on an audit by the state's Department of Social and Health Services -- showed Planned Parenthood of Inland Washington billed Medicaid for oral contraceptives without prescriptions or with invalid ones; overbilled for condoms; billed Medicaid for post-abortion antibiotics under family planning, which is banned; billed office visits to receive a prescription or an injection as a consultation with a physician, which costs more; and billed for pregnancy tests on women when they were unnecessary.
Planned Parenthood was told to pay back $630,000 plus interest, according to the Aug. 9 AIW report.
The audit of Planned Parenthood, which occurred from 2004 to 2007, was reported by the Spokane Spokesman-Review in May.
Planned Parenthood affiliates performed more than 305,000 abortions in 2007, the most recent year for which statistics are available. The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the national organization, received more than $349 million in government grants and contracts during the financial year of July 2007 to June 2008. The organization's total revenue was $1.04 billion during that time period.
Planned Parenthood has been the target of an undercover investigation during the last year that has shown staff members circumventing the law. Employees at seven PPFA affiliates in five states -- Alabama, Arizona, California, Indiana and Tennessee -- have been caught on video seeking to cover up alleged child sexual abuse. Lila Rose, a UCLA student, has led the hidden-camera operation by posing as a minor with an adult boyfriend by whom she is pregnant.
In a different undercover investigation by Live Action, the organization Rose leads, Planned Parenthood workers in seven states were caught on audio tape agreeing to receive donations designated for abortions of African American babies.
Contact: Tom Strode Source: BP
Publish Date: August 12, 2009
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AARP backs away from Obamacare
Due to the growing furor by seniors over the euthanasian tenor of Section 1233, AARP is backing away, which is huge and important. I've said before if Democrats lose seniors on this, they've lost.
Now CNSNews.com is reporting:
AARP Chief Operating Officer Tom Nelson issued a statement saying that the organization has not endorsed any legislation. "While the President was correct that AARP will not endorse a health care reform bill that would reduce Medicare benefits, indications that we have endorsed any of the major health care reform bills...are inaccurate," Nelson said. AARP does support measures to reform health care, Nelson said, but has not endorsed the bills being crafted in Congress.
This referred back to Obama's statement yesterday in his pep rally townhall meeting that AARP was behind him. This has become a hot topic. According to Fox News this afternoon, a great exchange...
During the White House briefing today, Major Garrett asked Robert Gibbs about the comments President Obama made yesterday in regards to the AARP endorsing the health care plan - for the record - they have NOT!
QUESTION: OK. Yesterday, the president said the AARP endorsed a plan. As you're aware yesterday, the AARP said it hasn't addressed a plan. Where on the information or disinformation scale would the president's remark fall?
GIBBS: Well, the president said - well, AARP has said they are certainly supportive and have been for years on comprehensive health reform. I don't think the president meant to imply anything untoward. I think he discussed the notion that AARP is supportive of legislation - or, I'm sorry, an agreement that would - that would fund filling the doughnut hole for seniors as part of Medicare Part D, as well as additional savings for comprehensive health care reform.
QUESTION: The president is doubtless aware AARP hasn't even endorsed the House pending committee legislation...
GIBBS: Which is what I just said.
QUESTION: ... or the Senate legislation. Right. So he's aware of that. So he wasn't trying to mislead anyone?
GIBBS: No. No.
QUESTION: He just misspoke?
GIBBS: Right.
QUESTION: Is that something that can happen in this debate?
GIBBS: That people can misspeak?
QUESTION: Right, without intentionally meaning to mislead.
GIBBS: Sure. I don't know if it's happened on certain subjects, but yes.
QUESTION: OK. So it's within the range of this whole discussion something can be wrong, but not necessarily intentional misinformation, is what I'm getting at?
GIBBS: Yes. I think most of -- I think most of what the president has addressed, though, has been in many ways intentional misinformation.
QUESTION: That he's been trying to correct...
(CROSSTALK)
GIBBS: Right.
Contact: Jill Stanek
Source: JillStanek.com
Publish Date: August 12, 2009
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Health-Care Conference Call Misleads
President Barack Obama will participate in a conference call Wednesday, Aug. 19, to promote his health-care agenda.
Organized by Faith in Public Life, it includes several groups that belong to the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC). The RCRC's stand on health-care reform includes the inclusion of "reproductive health services," a code word for abortion.
Jim Wallis, president of Sojourners, said on a Monday conference call that his group's mission is to keep health-care reform alive as a "moral" issue.
"The key thing is we don't want abortion to enter this debate and sabotage health-care reform," he said. "Neither side should try to win political gains on abortion during the health-care debate."
Wallis said the goal is abortion neutrality, which he defined as "not changing federal law with regard to abortion."
But, as pro-life groups have pointed out, the House bill, H.R. 3200, establishes a federal health plan that does not exclude abortions. Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee, said abortionists would send their bills for services to the federal government for payment.
"The actual provisions of the legislation being backed by the White House and promoted by Wallis and his allies," he said in an e-mail, "is about as far from neutrality on abortion as you can get. If you wanted to sign up with the public plan, you would have no choice except to buy an abortion-on-demand policy."
Ashley Horne, federal issues analyst for Focus on the Family Action said it's a good example of the fox watching the hen house.
"Pro-abortion supporters like President Obama and religious leaders meeting to discuss so-called abortion neutrality in the health-care bill?" she questioned. "They know that the only acceptable strategy is to specifically exclude taxpayer funding of abortions in the language of the bill. Period."
Contact: Kim Trobee Source: CitizenLink
Publish Date: August 12, 2009
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Study Finds Injectable Contraceptive Leads To Obesity
A study by Drs. Abbey B. Berenson and Mahbubur Rahman of The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, has found women who use the injectable hormonal contraceptive DMPA (depot medroxyprogesterone acetate) experience a significant increase in body weight and fat, and the obesity may persist even after stopping DMPA use.
The research, published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, involved 703 women who were beginning the use of either birth control pills or DMPA, and compared them to women who used a form of non-hormone contraception.
Over the 3 year study period, DMPA users gained significantly more body fat than oral contraceptive (OC) and non-hormone (NH) contraception users, the researchers reported, adding that women of normal weight were found to gain much more body fat than women who were obese at the beginning of the study.
"It is a concern that women who were not obese at the start of the study were twice as likely to become obese over the next 3 years if they selected DMPA over non-hormone contraception," Berenson and Rahman write.
Though OC use did not cause significant weight gain, the researchers reported the often observed loss of muscle mass associated with use of the pill.
"OC users did not gain more weight than NH users but did increase their fat mass and percent body fat and lost significantly more lean body mass than did NH and DMPA users," the report states
In a 2 year follow up of the original study to examine the reversibility of the observed changes, the research team found that women who discontinued use of DMPA and switched to non-hormone contraception lost most of the fat they had gained. However, women who discontinued use of DMPA and began using oral contraceptives either kept the fat they had accumulated or gained more weight.
A huge amount of research information is available on the negative effects of contraceptives, with injectable hormonal contraceptives and the "patch" being especially harmful. Adverse reaction reports of stroke and heart attack are increasing annually and studies linking hormonal contraceptives to everything from osteoporosis to diabetes, cancer and heart disease.
Mercedes Wilson, founder and president of the natural family planning (NFP) organization, Family for the Americas, observed that hormonal contraception is devastating women's health in the third world.
"The pill, IUDs, injections, and the patch are devastating to the poor because they all carry the same steroids, which are known to be toxic and carcinogenic. 21 scientists with the World Health Organization in 2005 confirmed that estrogens in birth control methods are carcinogenic of the number one type, which is the most dangerous type of all," Wilson told LSN in an interview in 2008.
"In the third world, however, they are still using the 3-month injections the most," Wilson noted. "It does so much harm to the poor. They are given it while mothers' are breastfeeding their babies. The steroids are going right through the breast milk to the babies and that is a calamity. It causes cancer, heart disease, you name it; the list is interminable. And with the lack of the health facilities in the third world, it is criminal."
Contact: Thaddeus M. Baklinski Source: LifeSiteNews.com Publish Date: August 12, 2009 Link to this article.
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Americans Are Clear: We Do Not Trust 'Obamacare'
Record turn-out at town hall meetings declaring "We Do Not Trust You"
As news rolls in of Americans participating in town hall meetings in record numbers, a recent Rasmussen poll shows that support for President Obama's health care plan is waning quickly. Just 42% of Americans currently support the President's plan, while 53% oppose it.
"As details about abortion funding, rationing of care, higher costs and less access to health care surface, Americans are expressing their distrust of a government-run system. Average Americans who have never been politically involved before are coming out in droves. They fear that their government officials, who have spent trillions on pet projects like obscene art and luxury planes, now plan to hijack control of our health care.
"The message is clear: We don't trust Obama or Congress -- especially with our health care," stated Concerned Women for America's President Wendy Wright.
"Concerned Women for America's members are attending town halls nationwide. They are reporting huge crowds of people upset about the health care bill and peppering congressmen with questions on rationing, euthanasia, abortion and Medicare cut backs for seniors. And they are steamed that Congressmen are exempting themselves from the health care mandates.
"Obama and liberal congressmen have vividly exhibited their disdain for average Americans by their exorbitant spending spree with our tax dollars. Now they insult deeply worried citizens who engage with their congressmen by calling us 'un-American' and 'mobs' for questioning their plan. Yet these citizens know more about the House-passed bill than Obama or liberal congressmen, who respond to questioning with vague phrases that contradict the bill.
"These citizens are smart enough to know that the bill sets up a system whereby bureaucrats and government boards will determine what health care we can have. And with the way this Congress and President have acted in the last few months, Americans are convinced that they cannot be trusted with our health care."
Contact: Demi Bardsley Source: Concerned Women for America Publish Date: August 13, 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.
Hospitals Must Have Clear Policies For Workers Who Object To Abortion Procedures
A lawsuit by a nurse who alleges that a hospital scheduled her to assist in an abortion procedure against her religious beliefs "raises a timely reminder of the importance for all health care providers to have clear procedures in place for such a scenario," HealthLeaders Media editor John Commins writes in an opinion piece. In the suit, Cathy Cenzon-DeCarlo alleges that Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City scheduled her to assist with the procedure despite the hospital's knowledge that she has religious objections, according to Commins. He asks, "Can a strong code of ethics and practical policies eliminate the tough moral dilemmas that health care professionals have to confront? Or, are tough moral dilemmas simply inevitable, given the life-and-death decisions that are part of the job?"
Click here for the full article.
The Way to End Abortion
We believe the answer to ending abortion in the United States is the doctrine of interposition. "Interposition is an official act on the part of a State government to question the constitutionality of a policy established by the central government." --Felix Morley, Freedom and Federalism, Liberty Fund, Inc., Indiana (1981). "Interposition: The doctrine that a state, in the exercise of its sovereignty, may reject a mandate of the federal government deemed to be unconstitutional or to exceed the powers delegated to the federal government." --Black's Law Dictionary. Fourth Edition (1951- 1967).
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Abortion Controversy Portrayed in a Controversial Way
It's a controversial issue that many in Rockford saw or even took part in Wednesday. But it's not the issue that’s raising questions, but the way it's being portrayed. The Pro-Life Action League is bringing the 'Face the Truth' tour to Rockford. “Our goal is to show the people of Rockford what abortion really is, to change their minds on abortion and hopefully to save some babies form the fate the ones here have undergone,” says Pro-Life Action League Executive Director Eric Scheidler. They're lining the streets and showing residents what abortion can look like, but those pictures are so graphic we've decided not to show them.
Click here for the full article.
Swine Flu: TV Presenter's Daughter 'Almost Died' After Taking Tamiflu
Andrew Castle, right, with co-presenter Penny Smith confronted the health secretary, Andy Burnham, over giving Tamilflu to children during the swine flu pandemic. The health secretary, Andy Burnham, today defended giving the antiviral drug Tamiflu to children for swine flu as TV presenter Andrew Castle said his daughter "almost died" after taking it. Burnham was confronted by Castle on GMTV after researchers said the antiviral drug's benefits did not outweigh its side-effects during the flu pandemic.
Click here for the full article.
Hillary Care II -- The 'No-Choice' Act
I certainly am not needed as long as we have a White House Advisor on Healthcare, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, saying it is wrong to view the "Hippocratic Oath's admonition to 'use my power to help the patient to the best of my ability and judgment' as an imperative to do everything for the patient regardless of the cost or effects on others."(1)
So we know how they expect to pay for this plan. Long term care should be rationed like battlefield triage -- spend doc's time only with those deemed most likely to survive. But triage based on "cost" versus benefit, with all the compassion of the IRS. And don't forget to factor in the age of the patient.
Click here for the full article.
Obama on abortion: Unclear now, quite clear then
The White House unveiled its new Reality Check webpage Monday morning, attempting to realign facts in its favor about the proposed nationalized health care plan.
I noted on my blog that noticeably missing was any mention of the A-word, even though the topic has taken center stage in the national debate. Baptist Press picked up the story from there:
There is a reason behind the White House's refusal to label abortion coverage in health care reform as a rumor. ...
"The bills President Obama is pushing in Congress could create the biggest expansion of abortion in America since Roe v. Wade," said Douglas Johnson, the National Right to Life Committee's legislative director. …. "The president is evading questions on the issue because he does not want to draw public attention to the sweeping pro-abortion provisions that are in the bills.
"Both Senate and House bills would, for example, create a nationwide federal insurance plan, the 'public option,' that would pay for all abortions," Johnson said. "Also, both bills would create a huge new program that would subsidize private plans that cover elective abortion.
"Unfortunately, much of the institutional news media is helping Obama hide these provisions," he said, "by disseminating unsophisticated and often flatly inaccurate descriptions of what the bills contain."
Click here for the full article.
Unborn Child Signed to Licensing Deal
ChristianShirts.net, a faith-based retailer of pro-family and pro-life merchandise has signed a licensing agreement with cartoonist Gary Cangemi, creator of Umbert the Unborn, a pro-life comic strip about a child in the womb now in its ninth year of publication. ChristianShirts.net will feature Umbert, along with his most popular pro-life sayings on t-shirts, bumper stickers, envelope stickers, buttons, and more.
Included will be such Umbert-isms as: "I Support a Woman's Right to be Born," "Irish Eyes Start Smiling in the Womb," "Unborn Kids Are People Too," and "Life Begins at Conception...Viability Starts After College!"
ChristianShirts.net is owned and operated by the husband and wife team of Jim and Rachelle Crile and is one of the world's leading sellers of on-line Christian and Pro-Life apparel. "We are proud to introduce Umbert the Unborn products on ChristianShirts.net," stated Rachelle Crile, "Mr. Cangemi's art is outstanding, and such a move is long overdue."
Gary Cangemi, a professional cartoonist and graphic artist for over thirty years, "conceived" Umbert in 2001, while rummaging through a scrapbook of his political cartoons. Seeing an editorial cartoon he drew years earlier of a baby about to be aborted, Cangemi thought about the impact that a regular pre-natal character would have on the imagination of the public at large and children in particular. He threw together a dozen strips and pitched the idea to faith-based publications. Almost immediately, the strip was picked up by the National Catholic Register and a dozen other papers. Since then, Umbert's readership has grown to over a hundred publications, including Faith & Family magazine, pro-life newsletters, church bulletins, and diocesan newspapers.
"I'm thrilled to be associated with Jim and Rachelle's company," Cangemi stated, "I'm a perfectionist when it comes to any representations of my work. Once I saw the quality of their products, I knew immediately that Umbert would be in expert hands."
Umbert the Unborn, in syndication through the Gary Cangemi Graphic Art Studio since 2001, is an upbeat, funny, and sometimes poignant cartoon about life in the womb, centering on the character of Umbert and seen through his perspective. Armed with a pre-natal computer and a stem-cell phone, Umbert communicates with other pre-born friends such as Vita the Viable and Elwood the Expected on the "interwomb" as he joyously anticipates his life on the "outside."
Source: ChristianShirts.Net Publish Date: August 12, 2009 Link to this article.
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Susan B. Anthony List Praises Pro-Life Leadership of Eunice Kennedy Shriver
Former Susan B. Anthony List Advisory Committee Member Eunice Kennedy Shriver died today at the age of 88 at Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis, Massachusetts, surrounded by her family. Eunice Kennedy Shriver was a sister of President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, and mother of Maria Shriver, the first lady of California. She founded the Special Olympics in 1968.
"No one more than Eunice Kennedy Shriver understood better the power held by the most vulnerable in our society," said Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser. "She fought for those hidden in the shadows of life, while acknowledging that they teach us far more than we could ever offer them. She was consistent in her championing of every vulnerable human life."
On July 14, 1992, Eunice and Sargent Shriver joined PA Governor Bob Casey (D-PA) and many other influential pro-life leaders in signing a full-page ad in the New York Times protesting the Democratic Party's embrace of the abortion-rights agenda. The ad, titled The New American Compact, called for support of policies that embrace both mother and child. The ad concluded with the following statement:
We can choose to reaffirm our respect for human life. We can choose to extend once again the mantle of protection to all members of the human family, including the unborn. We can choose to provide effective care of mothers and children. And if we make those choices, America will experience a new birth of freedom, bringing with it a renewed spirit of community, compassion, and caring.
"Eunice Kennedy Shriver's heart for the most vulnerable among us will be deeply missed," said Jane Abraham, General Chairman of the Susan B. Anthony List. "She fought for the dignity inherent in every human life, born and unborn. Her legacy will serve as a life-affirming example to young women everywhere, and for that we are so blessed."
Eunice Kennedy Shriver was an early supporter of the Susan B. Anthony List and its mission to advance, mobilize and represent pro-life women in the political process. She and her husband, Sargent Shriver, also lent their time and talents to the efforts and activities of Democrats for Life of America and Feminists for Life.
Source: Susan B. Anthony List Publish Date: August 11, 2009 Link to this article.
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Palin Firestorm Brings Fresh Scrutiny to ObamaCare "Death Panels"
Dr. Emanuel, key Obama health care advisor, stated doctors take Hippocratic Oath too seriously
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin ignited a firestorm over the weekend by calling the health-care reforms pushed by President Barack Obama "downright evil" for proposals that could usher in rationing, and turn federal health boards into "death panels" that would decide whether the elderly and the disabled, like her infant Down's syndrome son, Trig, were "worthy of health-care." Palin's provocative statements, however, have brought fresh scrutiny of the dangers of the proposed "Heath Benefits Advisory Committee," if it were to adopt guidelines of a "Complete Lives System" advocated by Obama's policy advisor on health care reform, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel.
Many Americans have flocked to town-hall meetings to protest what they see as the imminent government-takeover of the health-care industry, which makes up one-sixth of the total American economy. But more and more Americans revolting at Congress's health-care reforms have expressed fears for the health-care of the elderly and disabled, whom they fear will be victims of rationing and even passive euthanasia by way of the "advance care planning consultation" provisions featured on pages 424 - 443 of HR 3200, "the American Affordable Health Choices Act."
"The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's "death panel" so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their "level of productivity in society," whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil," said Palin communicating through her Facebook page, which has over 715,000 subscribers.
Although the White House and members of the mainstream media rushed to dismiss Palin's statement as "nuts," the threat of the government insurance plan becoming a "death panel" for the weakest members of society may not be far off the mark. ABC News recently reported that the Oregon Health Plan refused to cover cancer drugs that cost $4000 per a month for Barbara Wagner, a 64 year-old terminally ill patient with lung cancer. Instead they offered to give her a one-time prescription for lethal drugs to end her life, which would cost the state health provider only $50.
Palin attacked the promise of Congressional Democrats that the government plan would reduce the cost of health care, saying "as the economist Thomas Sowell has pointed out, government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost."
"Health care by definition involves life and death decisions. Human rights and human dignity must be at the center of any health care discussion," concluded Palin.
A main feature of the legislation is a proposed "Health Benefits Advisory Committee" under the Executive Branch, which would be charged with determining "essential benefits" for all health-insurance plans and formulate standards for treatment that incorporate cost-cutting strategies. The federal health board would be comprised of a panel of medical experts, half of which would be nominated by the President. Under the current proposal, the HBAC would be independent of Congress, and its rules and recommendations guiding doctor treatments and insurance companies could only be overturned if Congress, the Executive Branch, and ordinary citizens through the judiciary act within 30 days. Even then, the actions of the Committee would have to be accepted or rejected in toto, with no exceptions.
But Palin pointed out the enormous danger for federal health boards becoming "death panels" through a policy of rationing, esp. by following the policy proposed by Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, an issue first raised by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.)
Emanuel is a key advisor of Obama's health care reform as health-policy adviser at the White House's Office of Management and Budget and a member of Federal Council on Comparative Effectiveness Research. A member of the National Institutes of Health's Clinical Bioethics Council and brother to Obama's Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, he advocates "The Complete Lives System," which as he described in a Jan. 31, 2009 article, "prioritizes younger people who have not yet lived a complete life."
Emanuel's approach has five principles which he lays out in "Principles for Allocation of Scarce Medical Interventions" published on January 31, 2009: "youngest first, prognosis, save most lives, lottery, instrumental value."
"When the worst-off can benefit only slightly, while the better-off could benefit greatly, allocating to the better off is often justifiable," wrote Emanuel.
He continued that the CLS discrimination based on age is not "invidious discrimination" because "everyone who is 65 years now was once 25 years." But in the CLS, care would also be rationed away from young people with a "poor prognoses" because they lack "the potential to live a complete life." (Read here)
Emanuel has also stated that doctors take the Hippocratic Oath too seriously, and stated that "Savings [in the medical industry] will require changing how doctors think about their patients" in a 2008 article written for the Journal of the American Medical Association. In a separate 1996 article for the Hastings Center Report, Emanuel spoke about rationing care away from those "who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens" to the non-disabled, adding "An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia."
Approximately 33 percent of medical spending occurs in the final year of a patient's life, and throughout the legislation (HR 3200), enormous pressures are put upon on physicians and medical professionals to incentivize them to cut costs.
Opponents, especially at tumultuous town-halls, have expressed fears that current provisions in the bill for government-run health-care could lead to doctors thinking of the bottom line first, could end up pressuring patients through "advanced care planning consultations" (sec. 1233) into accepting lower-quality care or care they do not want, out of a feeling that they pose some kind of burden on their families or society. Under that section in the version under discussion by the House Ways and Means Committee, doctors would formulate with patients end-of-life orders, regarding their desire to continue or discontinue antibiotic treatments or nutrition and hydration under particular circumstances.
Read H.R. 3200 "American Affordable Choices Act"
Contact: Peter J. Smith Source: LifeSiteNews.com Publish Date: August 11, 2009 Link to this article.
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Is Cap and Trade for Babies Next?
Just when you thought you'd seen everything, a pair of scientists at Oregon State University has published a study arguing that any effort to limit carbon emissions must consider the impact of "reproductive choices" on the ecological equation.
Paul A. Murtaugh and Michael G. Schlax make their case in "Reproduction and the Carbon Legacies of Individuals," published in the journal, Global Environmental Change. "While population growth is obviously a key component of projections of carbon emissions at a global level, there has been relatively little emphasis on the environmental consequences of the reproductive choices of an individual person," they argue. After all, there are not only the "immediate effects" caused by each offspring, but also the "additional impacts" if these offspring eventually produce further offspring.
According to the study, a single female's decision to reproduce even a single child could have tremendous ecological effects. In order to make their case, the researchers traced a hypothetical single female's "genetic contribution to future generations" and projected the carbon legacy this contribution would entail. They posit that each child will add 9441 metric tons of carbon dioxide to the carbon legacy of an average female.
To their credit, the researchers have invested considerable thought into exactly how they might project this "carbon legacy." They made their calculations with the understanding that children, both male and female, are likely to enter into reproductive pairs and produce future generations. They assumed a reproductive rate of 1.85 children per woman by the year 2050.
Taking all this into account, Murtaugh and Schlax estimate that a woman in the United States who makes significant lifestyle adjustments in order to reduce her own carbon legacy -- such as increasing her car's fuel economy, reducing miles driven, adopting energy-efficient technologies, recycling, etc. -- would save about 486 tons of carbon dioxide emissions over a lifetime. Yet, "if you were to have two children, this would eventually add nearly 40 times that amount" of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. In other words, all her efforts to be environmentally conscious and careful would be overwhelmed by her decision to have just two children.
The researchers argue:
Clearly, an individual's reproductive choices can have a dramatic effect on the total carbon emissions ultimately attributable to his or her genetic lineage. Understanding the ways that an individual's daily activities influence emissions and explain the huge disparities in per capita emissions among countries is obviously essential, but ignoring the consequences of reproduction can lead to a serious underestimation of an individual's long-term impact on the global environment.
In one sense, a scientific report like this could represent little more than a hypothetical answer to a conjectured question. Nevertheless, more is at stake here. These researchers make this point clear when, early in their article, they assert: "Our basic premise is that a person is responsible for the carbon emissions of his descendents, weighted by their relatedness to him."
This is a quite remarkable assertion. While these two researchers have addressed their report to the scientific community, they openly acknowledge that their argument should be taken into consideration by those concerned with the policy challenge of climate change. As they argue, "Clearly, the potential savings from reduced reproduction are huge compared to the savings that can be achieved by changes in lifestyle."
Warnings that human reproduction will lead to ecological disaster have been common since at least the 1960s. Generally, these arguments have been couched in considerations of limited natural resources and environmental sustainability. Now, a new element is added to the mix, complete with a proposed model for quantifying a projected environmental impact. These two researchers advise that failing to take "reproductive choices" of individuals into account will effectively doom all other efforts to reduce the level of carbon emissions.
The logic of this argument is clear and chilling. The leap from scientific analysis to proposals for public policy is almost sure to come. How long will it be before prospective parents are warned that their decision to reproduce could be catastrophic for the environment? Should we now expect a cap and trade proposal for babies?
Anti-natalist philosophies have been around even longer than arguments over ecology and sustainability. Given our biblical responsibility for environmental stewardship, Christians should indeed be thoughtfully engaged with the entire nexus of questions related to carbon emissions, climate change, and respect for the Earth. Nevertheless, when we begin to measure babies in terms of a "carbon legacy" and a projected threat to the environment, we abandon the biblical worldview. Human beings cannot be reduced to a "carbon legacy" and the gift of children must never be seen as an assault upon the earth.
Contact: Albert Mohler
Source: AlbertMohler.com
Publish Date: August 12, 2009 Link to this article.
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All the President's eugenics advisers
Glenn Beck ran a valuable exposé yesterday showcasing some of the people Obama has surrounding himself with related to the healthcare issue. I'll pick up the piece with a clip Beck ran of Obama in an earlier speech, with Beck following up:
Obama: Let me tell you who I associate with.... Those are the people, Democrats and Republicans, who have shaped my ideas and who will be surrounding me in the White House.
Beck: We will do exactly what Obama himself has told us to do: We have to find out about his advisers. Who is shaping his opinion? Who is surrounding him? We know it's not based in eugenics, but what is it based in?
You see, your voice isn't going to be represented in the "war room" in a crisis situation. Whose voice will the president hear?
Well, there's Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel. He is a health adviser. He said this in January of this year: "When implemented, the complete lives system produces a priority curve on which individuals aged between roughly 15 and 40 years get the most chance, whereas the youngest and oldest people get chances that are attenuated."
The science "czar," John Holdren, says: "The fetus, given the opportunity to develop properly before birth, and given the essential early socializing experiences and sufficient nourishing food during the crucial early years after birth will ultimately develop into a human being." He also wrote about putting sterilants in drinking water for population control.
One of the leaders in this type of thought, and a friend of the regulatory "czar" Cass Sunstein, is prominent Princeton professor Peter Singer. In July 2009, in a New York Times article titled "Why We Must Ration Health Care," Singer wrote that saving the life of one teenager is equivalent to saving the lives of 14 85-year-olds.
You also have Rahm Emanuel's brother Ezekiel saying in November 1996: "Conversely, services provided to individuals who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens are not basic and should not be guaranteed."
This is the stuff that they're now saying out loud. What are they saying to the president behind closed doors when we aren't there to watch it?
With friends like that, our elderly and disabled have all got enemies.
Contact: Jill Stanek
Source: JillStanek.com
Publish Date: August 12, 2009 Link to this article.
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