Illinois Federation for Right to Life

October 23, 2009

Abortion Kills More Black Americans Than the Seven Leading Causes of Death Combined, Says CDC Data

Dr. Freda Bush spoke recently at an event in
Washington, D.C. to recognize the work done by
Pregnancy Resource Centers to help women
who face unplanned pregnancy. She said that
abortion kills more African Americans than many
of the most deadly diseases blamed for killing
blacks each year combined.
(CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)

Abortion kills more black Americans than the seven leading causes of death combined, according to data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for 2005, the latest year for which the abortion numbers are available.

Abortion killed at least 203,991 blacks in the 36 states and two cities (New York City and the District of Columbia) that reported abortions by race in 2005, according to the CDC. During that same year, according to the CDC, a total of 198,385 blacks nationwide died from heart disease, cancer, strokes, accidents, diabetes, homicide, and chronic lower respiratory diseases combined. These were the seven leading causes of death for black Americans that year.

A total of 49 jurisdictions reported their abortion numbers for 2005 to the CDC. These included all 50 states--except California, Louisiana, and New Hampshire--and New York City and the District of Columbia. Of these 49 jurisdiction, only 36 states plus New York City and the District of Columbia reported the number of abortions by race.

Of these 36 states, Georgia reported the largest number of abortions--18,325--among African Americans. Idaho and Montana reported the fewest, 16 and 17 respectively.

Among the large states not reporting abortions by race--and thus where the number of blacks killed by abortions is not included in the national total of 203,991--are California, Florida, Illinois and the rest of New York state outside of New York City.

According to the CDC, the total of 203,991 blacks killed by abortion in 2005 also does not include those aborted by "private physicians’ procedures.”

Every year since 1969, the CDC has amassed abortion data by state or area of occurrence, requesting information each year from the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and New York City. The CDC attempts to collect data on abortions by the age, race and marital status of the women who undergo them as well as the type of abortion procedure.

However, the “CDC is not a regulatory agency,” Senior Press Officer Karen Hunter told CNSNews.com. “So while we are required by Congress to collect this information, states are not required to provide any data to the CDC, including abortion surveillance.”

In 2005, a total of 820,151 legal abortions were performed in the 49 jurisdication that reported abortions to the CDC, according to the “Abortion Surveillance” report, which is published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, or MMWR, for Nov. 28, 2008. (Scroll up to top of report)

The report states, “Approximately 1 in 5 U.S. pregnancies have ended in abortion,” and also notes some limitations on the data: “The overall number, ratio, and rate of abortions are conservative estimates; the total numbers of legal induced abortions provided by central health agencies and reported to the CDC for 2005 were probably lower than the numbers actually performed.”

In Table 9 of the report, it states that there were 203,991 blacks killed by abortion, which comprises 35.5 percent of all abortions reported for that year.

Rev. Clenard H. Childress, Jr., founder of BlackGenocide.org, told CNSNews.com that according to numbers gleaned from statistics provided by the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion group, 1,784 blacks are aborted each day. Also, he notes on his Web site that three out of five African-American women will obtain an abortion.

Childress said the information and sources on his Web site have never been challenged by abortion-access supporters. “This is because they can see that themselves, and they know them probably to be far worse than we’re reporting. The facts come from the pro-abort/pro-choice community,” he said.

“You want to go to a reliable source where people can’t dismiss what you’re saying,” Childress said.

“Yet the Congressional Black Caucus, NAACP, Urban League, and the National Action Committee of Al Sharpton fail abysmally to report not only the decimation but the health ramifications which are questionably very pertinent and provable,” said Childress.

“It would be one thing if we were talking about something hypothetically, but these are actual empirical proofs. … We simply want the health issues of abortion to be discussed,” Childress added.

Susan Cohen, director of government affairs at the Guttmacher Institute, said that black women are not inordinately targeted.

It is the high number of unintended pregnancies among black women that explains the disproportionate number of black abortions, she stated in a policy analysis, “Abortion and Women of Color: The Bigger Picture (2008),” which was provided to CNSNews.com by Guttmacher Institute spokeswoman Rebecca Wind.

While acknowledging that the abortion rate for blacks in the United States is “almost 5 times that for white women,” Cohen concluded in her analysis, “these higher unintended pregnancy rates (among African American women) reflect the particular difficulties that many women in minority communities face in accessing high-quality contraceptive services and in using their chosen method of birth control consistently and effectively over long periods of time."

“Because black women experience so many more unintended pregnancies than any other group—sharply disproportionate to their numbers in the general population—they are more likely to seek out and obtain abortion services than any other group,” said Cohen.

When asked to comment on this report, Dr. Freda Bush, an obstetrician and gynecologist in private practice in Jackson, Miss., told CNSNews.com that she found the explanation for the high rate of black abortions “disingenuous.”

“I would just like for them to explain why there’s such a significant proportion of their clinics that are located in minority communities,” said Bush, who is black. “So if you’ll notice, I did not mention that as a factor when I talked to you [earlier], so I was not accusing them of anything.

“I was just pointing out the fact that we have more, but since they brought it up, I would like for them to explain where their clinics are located, and why their clinics are located in that area,” she added.

“I would also like for an explanation of why their founder, Margaret Sanger, who was a known eugenist, also had a Negro project, and an explanation if that was not directed at the ‘undesirables,’” said Bush. “So, I’m not accusing them of anything. I would just like an explanation for the practices that they have continued.”

Dr. Alveda King, niece of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., is a pro-life activist. In August 2007 she told a meeting of Priests for Life that abortionists “plant their killing centers in minority neighborhoods and prey upon women who think they have no hope.”

“The great irony,” she said, “is that abortion has done what the Klan only dreamed of.”

Contact: Karen Schuberg
Source: CNSNews.com
Publish Date: October 23, 2009
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Personhood Amendments

Affirmation of personhood rights on the march

Cal Zastrow, who heads Michigan Citizens for Life, notes that the campaign in his state has crossed political boundaries. "Five [Democratic] state representatives led by Jim Slezack [have] joined with 18 Republican co-sponsors to introduce the Michigan Personhood Amendment into the state legislature," he exclaims.

The process in Michigan requires the legislature to approve an issue for the ballot. Zastrow describes what voters will be asked to decide.

"It'll define a person as a human being at the moment of their biological beginning," he says. "So we've got 23 state reps who are committed to ending abortion and ending embryonic stem-cell research and cloning."

So far, Personhood Amendment campaigns are active in about 30 states. At least three more should kick into gear by the end of the year, and a number of campaigns will be launched in other states in 2010.
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Nevada Launches Personhood Initiative

Another personhood amendment initiative entered the signature-gathering stage on Wednesday after being filed by a pro-life coalition in Nevada. The proposed amendment would change the Nevada constitution to read: "In the great state of Nevada, the term 'person' applies to every human being. Article I Section 8 of the Nevada constitution states, 'No person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law.'"
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Personhood Educates Millions of Coloradans

Submitted by Gualberto Garci... on Mon, 09/28/2009 - 21:00 Here is a collection of coverage simply from the launch of the 2010 Colorado Personhood Initiative. As we continue our petition efforts, remember: the victory is ours, because we know the Way, the Truth, and the Light, and we are carrying it to our brothers and sisters as we are called to do.
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Abortion Would Be Outlawed Under Proposed Michigan Constitutional Amendment

Abortion would be considered murder under a state constitutional amendment proposed by a Davison-area state lawmaker. The "personhood amendment" -- introduced by Rep. Jim Slezak, D-Davison Township -- would essentially outlaw abortion and possibly some common birth control methods by defining a person as a human being whose life begins at conception. A resolution in support of the amendment was introduced by Slezak last week, as first reported by The Journal on Monday, making Michigan one of 30 states considering such an initiative.
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Feminist Organization Pushes Campaign Against Pregnancy Clinics

A feminist organization is trying to warn students about two pregnancy clinics near campus it says misinform women, but the clinics insist they are truthful with their clients. The Feminist Majority Foundation's "Campaign to Expose Fake Clinics" is an effort against crisis pregnancy centers that give women inaccurate information about abortion. The closest center to campus is the Northwest Center, located near Dupont Circle, but another clinic is located on Capitol Hill. Jacqueline Sun, a campus organizer for FMF - a nonprofit organization that raises awareness on feminist issues - said the campaign' goal is to have students be able to discern between a real crisis pregnancy center and a fake clinic, which she said would give clinic-goers inaccurate information about abortion.
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FEC Won't Appeal EMILY’s List Ruling

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) announced Thursday it would not appeal a court ruling vacating key regulations regarding funding certain election activities. The decision not to appeal to an en banc panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals means independent political organizations will be able to raise and spend significantly more money on voter registration drives and advertisements that refer to political parties. A Sept. 18 Appeals Court ruling vacated three FEC regulations it said violated the First Amendment by prohibiting political speech. Those regulations required political committees not affiliated with a party or a specific candidate to use federal funds, which are severely limited, for many campaign activities. The suit was originally brought by EMILY’s List, the organization that backs pro-abortion Democrat women running for office.
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Using contraception to fight poverty is the result of 'unbridled capitalism'

Archbishop Juan Ruben Martinez of Posadas in northern Argentina remarked this week that groups which seek to solve the issue of poverty by the use of contraception reflect a “sort of ‘selfish and unbridled capitalism’” that does not address the crux of the problem.

According to the AICA news agency, Archbishop Martinez warned that such groups “control large media outlets and denigrate the family. He added, that “amazingly, these groups absurdly portray themselves as ‘progressive’ and ‘modern,’ when in reality they reflect the worst of capitalism.”

This “contradiction and hypocrisy of our present-day culture” is in addition to the pressure from many lawmakers and legislatures that support anti-life laws and pro-abortion positions that harm the family.
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Okla. District Judge Temporarily Blocks Law Requiring Personal Information About Women Seeking Abortions

Oklahoma District Judge Twyla Mason Gray has issued a temporary restraining order blocking the enforcement of a state law requiring abortion providers to report personal information on women who obtain the procedure, the Tulsa World reports. The law was scheduled to go into effect on Nov. 1 (Hoberock, Tulsa World, 10/21).

The law requires doctors to report to the state a woman's age, marital status, education level and the nature of the relationship with her partner (Women's Health Policy Report, 10/1). It also requires information regarding previous pregnancies, reasons the woman is seeking an abortion, and the cost and method of payment for the procedure.
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Abortion Corruption Concerns Deepen as Confer Resigns from KSBHA

Will Women and Babies Pay the Price?

It was confirmed yesterday that Jack Confer, Executive Director of the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts resigned unexpectedly and without explanation on Monday, October 19, 2009. Circumstances suggest that Confer's resignation may have been related to abortion cases that were before the KSBHA.

"We are sorry to see Mr. Confer go. He seemed to us to be a fair man that was above the corrupt abortion politics in Kansas. He will be deeply missed," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman.
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October 22, 2009

NRLC letter to U.S. House on H.R. 3200 and Rule

NRLC letter to U.S. House on H.R. 3200 and Rule

The following letter was presented to members of the U.S. House on October 21st.

Dear Member of Congress:

The purpose of this letter is to advise you that the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) is strongly opposed to H.R. 3200, the “America’s Affordable Health Choices Act,” based on the versions reported by the committees which considered the legislation.

Moreover, NRLC intends to oppose the Rule on H.R. 3200 and to score the roll call on the Rule, if – as we anticipate – the Rule fails to allow a vote on the Stupak-Pitts Amendment, which is the amendment that is necessary to prevent federal funding of abortion through the proposed “public plan” and to prevent federal subsidies of premiums for private abortion coverage. A vote for a Rule that protects the pro-abortion language approved in committee is a vote to establish two new federal government programs that will subsidize abortion on demand.

H.R. 3200 would create (1) a nationwide insurance program run directly by the federal government, “the public plan,” and (2) an “affordability credit” program that would subsidize health insurance for tens of millions of Americans. None of the funds that would be spent by the public plan, and none of the funds that would be spent by the premium subsidy program, would be appropriated through the annual appropriations bills (as the Congressional Research Service has confirmed), and therefore, none of these funds will be covered by the Hyde Amendment or any other current law that restricts government subsidies for abortion. The new government programs created by H.R. 3200 will cover elective abortion, unless the Stupak-Pitts Amendment is added to the bill to prevent this outcome.

The Capps-Waxman Amendment, added to H.R. 3200 in the House Energy and Commerce Committee despite the objections of pro-life members of both parties, would enact not the policy of the Hyde Amendment, but an inversion of the Hyde Amendment. The Capps-Waxman Amendment is an attempt to establish federal government funding of abortion and insurance coverage of abortion by use of misleading, contrived terminology.
The Capps-Waxman language explicitly authorizes the public plan to cover elective abortions. The public plan would be a program within the Department of Health and Human Services, and everything for which it pays will be paid for with federal government funds (as the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service has confirmed). Thus, under the Capps language, the public plan would be engaged in direct funding of elective abortion, using federal funds. The federal program would pay abortionists for performing elective abortions, out of funds drawn on a U.S. Treasury account. (It is, of course, entirely irrelevant whether or not the agency hires contractors to help process the paperwork.) It is a hoax to claim, as some have, that this federal program would pay for abortions with “private” funds. The public plan is the federal government, and if it pays for abortions, it is federal funding of abortion.

In addition, the Capps-Waxman Amendment explicitly authorizes federal subsidies to pay the premiums of private health plans that cover elective abortions. This, too, would be a break with the policy established under longstanding federal laws, under which federal funds do not flow to health plans that pay for elective abortions. For example, the 260 private plans that participate in the Federal Employees’ Health Benefits program are prohibited by law from including elective abortion coverage, because they are federally subsidized. Likewise, in Medicaid, current law prohibits not only direct federal funding of abortion but also federal funding of any fund that pays for abortions – and this ban covers even state matching funds.

The Stupak-Pitts Amendment would apply the true principles of the Hyde Amendment to the proposed new programs: No federal funding for elective abortion, and no federal subsidies for private insurance plans that cover elective abortion.

Some versions of H.R. 3200 have also contained provisions that could be used as a basis for government regulations to force expansions in the number of abortion providers, or achieve other pro-abortion policy goals through regulatory action. NRLC will carefully examine the final, melded version of H.R. 3200 to determine whether any such “abortion mandate” provisions are retained and, if so, what remedial amendments would be required to nullify them.

NRLC will also carefully examine the final version of H.R. 3200 to determine whether it contains provisions that would result in denial of lifesaving medical care on the basis of disability or “quality of life” criteria or facilitate assisted suicide. Some such provisions were ameliorated by language adopted in at least one committee, but others were not, and it is very unclear to what extent these problems will remain in the bill that is currently being constructed. Separate and apart from the abortion-related concerns, NRLC reserves the right to score the roll call vote on any version of H.R. 3200 that fails adequately to address these concerns, at the conference report stage if not before.

Thank you for your consideration of NRLC’s position on this critical legislation. We would welcome the opportunity to provide additional documentation on any of the points in this letter. Extensive documentation is also available on the NRLC website at http://www.nrlc.org/ahc and http://www.nrlc.org/HealthCareRationing/Index.html

Contact: David N. O'Steen, Ph.D., Douglas Johnson, Burke Balch, J.D.
Source: NRLC
Publish Date: October 22, 2009
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U.N. declaration, correctly understood, is pro-life

U.N. declaration, correctly understood, is pro-life

A pro-life organization is asking the United Nations to correctly interpret a decades-old declaration as protection for the unborn.

Austin Ruse of the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute (C-FAM) points out that last year the U.N. celebrated its 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

"At that time, Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion groups were circulating a petition calling for abortion to be recognized as a universal human right," Ruse explains. "We launched a petition last year to counter that, to say that the Universal Declaration should be properly interpreted as protecting the unborn child from abortion. After all, the universal declaration mentions that everyone has the right to life."

That campaign generated 467,000 signatures and opened the eyes of many people when the petition was submitted at the United Nations. The new petition drive ends December 1.

"There's always a fight at the United Nations over the question of abortion and the rights to abortion and things like that," Ruse admits. "So this is a battle that we fight as an organization, day in and day out -- and we have [done so] for 12 years."

When the next battle starts, C-FAM hopes to present at least one million signatures to the U.N. secretary general. At press time, well over half-a-million had been gathered thus far.

Contact: Charlie Butts
Source: OneNewsNow
Publish Date: October 22, 2009
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The connection between 'the Cure' and abortion

The connection between 'the Cure' and abortion

A national organization dealing with breast cancer is a supporter of Planned Parenthood -- a taxpayer-funded agency that harms unborn children as well as women.

Several organizations in America are upset that part of the donations going to Susan G. Komen for the Cure goes to Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest aborton-provider. Marie Hahnenberg with American Life League offers more information.

"Susan G. Komen affiliates donated $711,485 to Planned Parenthood affiliates across the country during April '05 to March 2006," she points out. "And the very fact that Susan G. Komen would give money to Planned Parenthood does not make any sense since Planned Parenthood is not only the largest abortion chain in America, but the connection between breast cancer and abortion is very clear."

Studies have shown the connection between breast cancer and abortion, especially with a first-time pregnancy. And while Komen has stated the money it donates is not for abortion services, Hahnenberg says it does pay for other services -- ultimately freeing up the money for abortion.

It makes little to no sense for Komen "to give money to an organization that exploits children, that exploits women, and covers up rape." Hahnenberg concludes that "Planned Parenthood does not help women."

Groups like Live Action and Students for Life have conducted undercover probes which reveal that Planned Parenthood workers coach supposed underage girls in how to have an abortion without getting their adult molesters in trouble while also avoiding parental involvement.

Contact: Charlie Butts
Source: OneNewsNow
Publish Date: October 22, 2009
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'Abortion crushes hope,' says Rep. Chris Smith at health care press conference

'Abortion crushes hope,' says Rep. Chris Smith at health care press conference

Rep. Chris Smith speaks at a July 2009
press conference on health care

Pro-life leaders gathered in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the danger of federally-funded abortion being a part of health care reform. One speaker, Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), said that although President Obama ran his presidential campaign on “hope,” “abortion crushes hope” and is “its polar opposite.”

The press conference took place at the House Triangle, a grassy triangular area near the Capitol Building. Others present were: Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), Representatives Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Mike Pence (R-Ind.) as well as the organizations Focus on the Family Action, Susan B. Anthony List, National Right to Life Committee, Family Research Council and Concerned Women for America.

Rep. Smith addressed the crowd on the prospect of federal funds being used to pay for abortions under new health care reform measures. He began by noting that President Barack Obama led his campaign based on “hope,” but that “abortion is the antithesis of hope.”

“Abortion is violence against children, and a serious human rights violation—not hope,” he added.

Turning his focus to mothers, Smith explained that abortion also crushes the “hope and the spirit of women,” and that the government needs to “defend women from abortionists, not publicly fund and facilitate this insidious exploitation of women.”

“The myriad of word games routinely employed to divert attention from the gruesome reality of abortion and its deleterious consequences to women and children are now being used to suggest that the public somehow isn’t being coerced into funding and facilitating abortion on demand in the House and Senate health care reform bills,” he warned.

Rep. Smith then recalled Obama's words to Congress on Sept. 9, 2009, when he said, “under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortion.”

“Oh if that were only true,” Smith lamented, adding that Americans would not pay for abortions if the Stupak/Pitts amendment was enacted. The amendment would have prohibited taxpayer funds from being used for abortion, but it was defeated in a committee vote this past July.

Also in attendance at the news conference was Wendy Wright, the president of Concerned Women for America. Previewing her comments to the media, Wright noted that with the current health care bill, the government will decide which procedures Americans can receive, “with cost as a major factor.”

“It also will fund abortion,” she insisted. “Since abortion costs less than prenatal care, delivery and post-natal care, especially if the mother or child has special needs, it is not unlikely that bureaucrats will put on their green-eye shades and decide that abortion will be covered but expensive maternal and child care is not.”

Source: CNA
Publish Date: October 21, 2009
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"Assisted Suicide Advocates Seek to Euthanize the Rule of Law"

“Assisted Suicide Advocates Seek to Euthanize the Rule of Law”

I was asked to write a piece for an online magazine called The Church Report. I decided to expand my criticism of the lawsuit in Connecticut to redefine the word “suicide” in the assisted suicide context to “aid in dying.” The suit wants a judge to rule that when the suicidal person is terminally ill and is assisted in self-killing by a lethal prescription from a physician, it is not assisted suicide, in short, a blatant attempt to legalize by lexicon that which could not be done by legislation.

I get into the history of “aid in dying” as an advocacy term coined to overcome poll results showing that people have a negative attitude toward suicide. From the column:

Never mind that it is accurate. The dictionary definition of “suicide” is “the act or an instance of taking one’s own life voluntarily and intentionally.” http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/suicide And forget for the moment that fear of stigma can save lives. C & C is blatantly promoting a postmodern word engineering scheme that would sacrifice accurate and precise legal lexicon on the altar of emotional personal narratives.

Lest you think such subterfuge cannot succeed, it already has. Under Washington State’s newly legalize assisted suicide regime, participating doctors are legally required to lie on the death certificate by listing the cause of death as the underlying disease rather than the prescribed suicide drug overdose.

Redefining the term in order to legalize assisted suicide by judicial fiat would have consequences:

Consider the surrealistic possibilities: If the lawsuit succeeded and I gave a terminally ill friend in Connecticut an overdose with which to intentionally end his life, it would remain a crime. But if my friend consulted a doctor he doesn’t know who is affiliated with Compassion and Choices to obtain the overdose—as happens with most assisted suicides in Oregon— it would merely be legal “aid in dying”—this, even though the act, the motive, and the lethal consequence would be precisely the same in each instance. That’s not only nuts, it is blatantly Orwellian.

But the issue is bigger than just assisted suicide:

It is also dangerous beyond the issue of assisted suicide. The United States, we are often told, is a nation of laws and not of men. If we are to be governed by the rule of law, words have to matter and definitions must be capable of being relied upon. But if a commonly understood term can simply be tossed out in order to legalize what the people’s elected representatives made a crime, why couldn’t a judge similarly criminalize an otherwise legal act via the same sleight of hand machination? Indeed, should judges decide they can unilaterally change the rules by simply redefining terms, what law could permanently be relied upon?

The case should be a slam-dunk, the lawsuit thrown forcefully out of court. But the way things are in the courts today, you never know what will happen. In this sense, the assisted suicide lawsuit in Connecticut not only threatens to remove a vital legal protection from vulnerable patients, it is a lethal threat to the rule of law itself.

And frankly, I don’t think that assisted suicide advocates much care.

Contact: Wesley J. Smith
Source: Secondhand Smoke
Publish Date: October 19, 2009
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Pro-Life Student Forced into Isolation on Day of Silent Witness by School Principal

Pro-Life Student Forced into Isolation on Day of Silent Witness by School Principal

Principal says the right to free speech does not apply to school property

16-year-old high school student Jennifer Rankin fully intended to unite her voicelessness with that of the unborn as part of the annual Pro-Life Day of Silent Solidarity when she arrived at school yesterday, reports Bill Henry of Sun Media.

She was impeded, however, by her school principal, who stated that the right to free speech does not apply on school property and who forced Rankin to remain in isolation for the entire day as long as she participated in the event.

During the annual Day of Silent Solidarity international campaign, which is organized by Stand True Ministries, students don red bands on their arms and red duct tape on their mouths, remaining silent while passing out fliers about the atrocity of abortion.

Rankin, 16, arrived at Peninsula Shores District School in Wiarton, Ontario yesterday morning, with the red tape over her mouth and with the simple word 'life' written upon it. She and her mother were stopped at the door, however, by school principal Patricia Cavan, while police cruisers stood nearby. Cavan initially told Rankin that she could not enter school property, but then consented to allowing her in the building, separated from other students.

"I was taken directly into a small room that was opposite the vice-principal's office and I was in there all day," Rankin told Sun Media. "I wasn't allowed to speak with or see any other students and students were not allowed to come and see me and I was isolated in that room for the entire day."

While Cavan had informed students in advance that their pro-life witness would not be allowed, Rankin insists that her Charter right to free expression was infringed. "I felt very discriminated by it," she said. "I don't think it was right at all what happened."

Several students had joined her in the event last year, but this time Rankin was alone. "I think a lot of people got scared and backed out," she said. "I would like to have the ability to correct this. I don't think it should be just left alone."

The youth pastor at Rankin's church, Ken Holley, expressed disappointment and insisted that the school's actions violated her rights. "It's a day of silence and basically they lose their voice for those that never had a voice," he said. "It's pro-life. There's no arguing. They can't talk all day. They just stay silent and if anybody asks why they're silent they hand out a little sheet that says this is why."

"I guess I am disappointed that they're not allowed to have a voice, or not have a voice, actually," he said.

Cavan, who did not return a message left by LifeSiteNews.com, told Sun Media that the right to free speech does not apply on school property. "School property is not a public place," she said. "So while absolutely we support the right to free speech in a public space, that's not school property." She said that school policy prohibits the dissemination of one-sided information on religious, political, or other issues that are controversial.

Pastor Holley pointed out that the school does an annual 'Gay Pride' day "where everybody wears pink shirts," and that the school allows nude pictures on the wall to stand as 'art'. "My students have to go to school and deal with that," he said, "and as soon as they try to stand up for anything, it's like, well, just be quiet, go home. I don't think that's right."

Cavan maintains that the 'Gay Pride' event is a different issue because it is about fighting homophobia and supporting rights guaranteed in the Charter. Jennifer Rankin's cause, however, "is not an issue under human rights," Cavan said. "It's an ethical/moral decision and everyone has the right to their view, absolutely. And I commend the students for their personal views and their desire to share their beliefs. I just want to assure that every student feels supported when those beliefs are shared."

Mary-Ellen Douglas of Campaign Life Coalition expressed dismay that the school shut down Rankin's message. "You would think a school, as a facility of education, would be the place where free speech would flourish, not the opposite," she said. Regarding the school's 'Gay Pride' day, she said, "There's only one side on that one, I guess, too, eh? They're just trying to make sure that the truth doesn't get out."

David Cortman, senior legal counsel with the Alliance Defence Fund, told LSN that "the school should be ashamed of its hypocrisy."

"On the one hand, the school first of all is apparently picking and choosing which parts of the Charter that it wants to comply with," he said. "It hides behind the Charter to justify its blatant promotion of the homosexual agenda, while at the same time it ignores the students' rights to free expression under the Charter."

"In my opinion, the policy and their actions, violate the Charter," he continued. "If homosexual behaviour is a human right, even more so is life itself a human right. ... I think it's just another instance of government indoctrination that's aimed at the suppression of religious speech."

Contact: Patrick B. Craine
Source: LifeSiteNews.com
Publish Date: October 21, 2009
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Police: 15-Year-Old Was Killed After Refusing to Get Abortion

Royce Mitchell was pressuring 15-year-old Tiffany Wright to end her pregnancy - and took her to an abortion clinic - according to new court documents that may shed light on why police say Mitchell should be prosecuted for statutory rape. The documents, released Tuesday, say Mitchell took Tiffany - his adopted sister - to a Charlotte abortion clinic in mid-July but was turned away because, at 21 weeks of pregnancy, she was too far along. Within days, Mitchell planned a trip to an Atlanta clinic where Tiffany's pregnancy could be terminated, the documents say. Tiffany refused to go. On Sept. 14, Tiffany, a Hawthorne High junior, was fatally shot as she waited for her school bus on Mallard Creek Road. Doctors delivered her baby girl, but the infant died.
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Sheriff's Pre-Pay Abortion Policy Overturned

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio cannot force jail inmates who want an abortion to pay up front for transportation and security, a Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday. Judge Robert Oberbillig sided with the American Civil Liberties Union, which challenged the sheriff's policy as an obstacle to a timely abortion. The judge said, however, that the inmates could eventually be billed for the transportation and security costs. Alessandra Solar Meetz with the ACLU said the decision removed an obstacle for inmates seeking an abortion. "It's pretty obvious that the judge recognized there was no legitimate jail interest in continuing to put forth this argument," Meetz said. Darrell Manhart, attorney for the sheriff, said, "This means the county will, in very many instances, likely not be paid at all and, therefore, it will have to be making transports for abortion services, that it otherwise is not required to do.
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200 abortionists, Jeanne Tiller get aborted eye-full at National Abortion Federation event

On October 17, the National Abortion Federation held a "Remembering Dr. Tiller" event at the Westin Hotel in Denver, with 200 abortionists from around the world attending. I simply can't imagine being in a room full of abortionists. Their hands, yuck. What did they talk about? Although the thought of all this truly creeps me out, this is the sort of event where I'd like to be a fly on the wall.

Jeanne Tiller accepted the award on behalf of her husband George, who was murdered May 31.

American Right to Life got wind of the event beforehand and were able to strategically place cars across the street from the Westin, honoring one of their maxims, "no child killing with tranquility."
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Archdiocese laments feminist praise for 30,000 legal abortions performed in Mexico City

The Archdiocese of Mexico City has criticized the so-called “success” celebrated by abortion supporters in the country after it was announced that 30,000 abortions have been performed in the capital since the practice was legalized.

The archdiocesan newspaper, “Desde la Fe,” published the statistics that were released by the Mexico City Institute of Women.

“These figures were presented as a triumph for the rights of women against the ‘shadowy interests’ of ‘the right and of conservatives,” the newspaper said.

“What are these people celebrating this as a triumph?” the article questioned. “Nothing less than the annihilation of more than 30,000 human lives, with the medical, technical, legal and economic support of the Federal District’s government, where not only the Legislative Assembly, but also the head of the government and supposed defender of Human Rights have actively intervened to carry out this massacre, an embarrassment for our times.”
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Oklahoma law that collects abortion stats won’t violate privacy

Proponents of Oklahoma legislation that would ban sex-selective abortions and would require the collection and internet publication of statistics on abortions in the state are denying critics’ claims that the bill would violate the privacy of women seeking abortions.

Statistical Reporting of Abortions Act is slated to take effect on Nov. 1, but it may be held up in court.

The Act requires the Oklahoma Department of Health to publish data online on all abortion patients, including the woman’s race, marital status, financial circumstances, years of education, number of previous pregnancies and her reason for seeking the abortion.

The law does not allow women’s names to be posted, but it requires women to answer 37 questions, including a question about the county in which the abortion is performed. Sen. Todd Lamb (R-Okla.) told CNN on Wednesday that the questions were derived from questionnaires used by the Guttmacher Institutehe, the former research arm of Planned Parenthood.
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Cord-Blood Clinic to Open in Arizona

The Celebration Stem Cell Centre in Gilbert, Ariz. is nearing completion.

The center will be a cord-blood donation facility, research lab for adult stem-cell treatments and offer genetic counseling. It will also serve as a private storage facility for cord blood.

Dawn Vargo, bioethics analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said adult stem cells derived from cord blood allow researchers to find treatments for diseases without harming a human embryo in the process.
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October 21, 2009

ObamaCare = Coerced Abortions

ObamaCare = Coerced Abortions

Health care bill that funds abortion and rations care will lead to women being coerced into abortions

Today Concerned Women for America will join in a press conference on health care with numerous groups including Focus on the Family Action, National Right to Life, and Family Research Council as well as Representatives Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina,) Tom Price (R-Georgia) and Eric Cantor (R-Virginia.) The press conference will be held in the House Triangle.

"Women are generally the primary decision-makers in the family when it comes to health care. However, our ability to make health care decisions will be snatched away and given to bureaucrats empowered to ration care and pay for abortion," stated Wendy Wright, President of Concerned Women for America.

"The current bill sets up a system whereby bureaucrats decide what health care we can receive, with cost as a major factor. It also will fund abortion. Since abortion costs less than prenatal care, delivery and post-natal care, especially if the mother or child has special needs, it is not unlikely that bureaucrats will put on their green-eye shades and decide that abortion will be covered but expensive maternal and child care is not.

"Amendments to ensure access to health benefits regardless of age, expected length of life or disability were defeated along party lines. This means that the most vulnerable -- unborn and premature babies, and those with special needs -- will be discriminated against if this bill passes.

"This bill gives czar-like power to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who has a history of siding with abortionists over women. President Obama's appointees who have little regard for the value of life are far less qualified than mothers to make health decisions for our families."

Contact: Demi Bardsley
Source: Concerned Women for America
Publish Date: October 21, 2009
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Obamacare: "Harardous Pathway," The Road to Death Panels

I have a piece in today's NRO about the Liverpool Care Pathway, which we have discussed here previously at SHS. From my column:

The United Kingdom continues to provide vivid warnings about the dangers of centralized health-care planning — a real possibility under Obamacare. Within the last few years, the U.K.'s notorious rationing board, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), urged hospitals, nursing homes, and hospices to follow an end-of-life protocol known as the Liverpool Care Pathway. The Pathway's guidelines instruct doctors to put patients thought to be near death into a drug-induced coma, after which all food and fluids, as well as medical treatments such as antibiotics, are withdrawn until death.

The problem with such a protocol is that no matter how well motivated — and undoubtedly, the Pathway's creators had good intentions — follow-the-dots medical protocols often lead to patients' being treated as members of a category rather than as individuals. At that point, nuance often goes out the door, and mistakes, neglect, and even oppression frequently follow.

I get into some of the horror stories, such as the man put into a coma and dehydrated who turned out not to have cancer. And then I tie the Pathway into Obamacare:

This is precisely the paint-by-the-numbers medical approach that Obamacare threatens to bring across the pond to our shores. Indeed, former senator Tom Daschle — whom the New York Times called the most influential adviser to the president in the health-care debate — has long urged that America adopt NICE-style centralized medical planning. Indeed, according to Scott Gottlieb, writing in the Wall Street Journal, Daschle "argues that the only way to reduce spending is by allocating medical products based on 'cost effectiveness.' He's also called for a 'federal health board' modeled on the Federal Reserve to rate medical products and create central controls on access."

Chillingly, current Obamacare plans call for the creation of many cost/benefit/best-practices boards, the full power of which won't be fully known until the bureaucrats promulgate tens of thousands of pages of regulations between now and 2013, when the law would go into effect. Making matters more alarming, these boards would not only govern treatment provided in any public-option health plan, but would also be empowered to set the standards of care paid for by private insurance. Unless the final version of Obamacare is amended explicitly to prohibit such centralized health planning, don't be surprised if an American version of the Liverpool Care Pathway comes soon to a hospital or nursing home near you.

Obamacare is intent on cutting costs. The great danger is that while the government will never ration its own spending, never cut its own perks, never decide that a program has outlived its usefulness, it will readily cut the most vulnerable among us out of life itself.

Contact: Wesley J. Smith
Source: Secondhand Smoke
Publish Date: October 20, 2009
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Witness found in 'forced pregnancy test'

Witness found in 'forced pregnancy test'

Lawsuit seeks apology for counselor's demands

A witness has been found who supports the claim by a 12-year-old girl that a school counselor in Nevada City, Calif., forced her to take a pregnancy test after hearing rumors she might be pregnant, according to a law firm working on the case.

WND reported in February on the civil rights case filed by the Pacific Justice Institute against the Nevada City School District.

The organization took the action after failing to obtain an apology from the district for the counselor's actions in requiring the test without the consent from the girl's parents – or even their knowledge.

"Parents have enough to worry about with sex education being taught in public schools without now having to wonder whether their daughters will be forced to take pregnancy tests," Pacific Justice President Brad Dacus said at the time. "This was a clear breach of parental trust."

The case alleges the school counselor demanded that C.R., as she is being referred to in court documents in order to maintain her privacy, take a pregnancy test after hearing rumor that she might be pregnant. Even though C.R. denied that she was pregnant, claiming that false rumors had been spread about her in the past, her word was not good enough.

"Instead of accepting C.R.'s denial, or contacting her parents, the counselor got a pregnancy test from the school nurse and ordered C.R. into a bathroom to give a urine sample. Feeling that she did not have a choice, C.R. reluctantly complied," the Pacific Justice Institute said.

The test results came back negative, however C.R. was embarrassed and humiliated.

When the girl later told her parents about the incident, they were livid and eventually contacted Troy Vahidi, an affiliate attorney with Pacific Justice.

"The school counselor had no right to force an emotionally fragile 12-year-old to take a pregnancy test," Vahidi said. "She was humiliated, and her privacy rights were trampled. Every minor has the right to make sensitive decisions such as taking a pregnancy test in consultation with her parents and medical providers."

School spokesman Roger Steel told WND the school denied the allegations as without merit and never has had pregnancy tests on campus.

The law firm said, however, that during a deposition another student verified the claims by C.R. She said she was present in the school office on the day that C.R. was forced to take the test. She claims that the counselor told her that he had tested C.R., but that the results came back negative.

The firm also said there is evidence in this case backing the claim that another student at the school also was forced to take a pregnancy test.

The case is scheduled for trial in March of next year.

Pacific Justice Institute staff attorney Matthew McReynolds attended the deposition and concluded, "We felt the evidence in this case is compelling, and last week's testimony by a former classmate with no stake in this lawsuit confirms our suspicions. We are also concerned that there may be more victims who have yet to come forward."

Dacus said, "This case could have been quickly resolved at the outset with a simple apology and policy change. Since the school district has chosen to deny any wrongdoing, we will continue to fight to ensure that what happened to this 12-year-old girl never happens again in this or any other California school district."

Contact: Kathleen Farah
Source: WorldNetDaily
Publish Date: October 20, 2009
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Fetal Cell Experiments on Patients: Not Learning Their Lessons

Fetal Cell Experiments on Patients: Not Learning Their Lessons

The journal Science reports that scientists in Europe, in collaboration with American researchers, are planning new trials using aborted fetal tissue in an attempt to treat Parkinson's disease, despite what is termed a "growing scepticism" among the scientific community about the wisdom of such fetal cell trials.

Scepticism indeed. Perhaps they need to be reminded of the last few times when fetal cells were used in attempts to treat patients for neurological conditions, especially Parkinson's. Most prominent was the 2001 published report of the clinical trial showing that Parkinson's patients not only did not improve, but a significant number of the transplants were deleterious to the patients. The New York Times story called the outcome "devastating"; "the patients writhed and jerked uncontrollably." Or there was the other large clinical trial published in 2003, showing similar results, with significant numbers of patients with worsened conditions. Or the followup report on some of the patients who did not worsen immediately, published in 2008, showing that those fetal grafts had developed Parkinson's characteristics. And then there are the papers showing "graft overgrowth" (interesting euphemism) in a Parkinson's patient and a Huntington's patient, both treated with injections of fetal cells into their brains.

According to the story in Science, even the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research has become much more cautious about cell therapy, noting the foundation is now funding new drug development and very little stem cell research.

Another feature of the "graft overgrowth" that has been seen is tumors. In February 2009 the story broke that a young Israeli boy had developed tumors, from a fetal stem cell transplant.

All of this endangering of patients with fetal cells, while adult stem cells already have shown real promise. An Australian group has successfully treated Parkinson's in mice using adult stem cells. And in February 2009, Levesque et al. published a case study showing a Parkinson's patient's own adult stem cells ameliorated his symptoms for almost five years. It would seem the payoff is already coming from adult stem cells.

Contact: David Prentice
Source: FRC Blog
Publish Date: October 21, 2009
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Population control advocates neglect concrete health problems, Steve Mosher says

Leo Bryant / Steve Mosher

Researchers who claim that an increased human population size harms the environment have written an editorial in a prominent British medical journal promoting contraceptive use in the Third World, leading Steve Mosher of the Population Research Institute to warn that concerns about population control and climate change neglect the concrete health problems of people.

Leo Bryant, who is a researcher at the World Health Organization and an advocacy manager for the international pro-abortion group Marie Stopes International, authored an editorial in The Lancet claiming that increased access to contraceptives would slow population growth and curtail climate change, Reuters reports.

He claimed that two hundred million women want access to birth control but cannot get it. This reportedly results in 76 million unintended pregnancies every year.

His study on the relationship between climate change and population growth in the world's 40 poorest countries reportedly indicated that rapid population growth puts pressure on the environment.

Though population growth in poor nations with low carbon emissions is considered unlikely to increase global warming significantly, Bryant said that overpopulation combined with climate change will worsen living conditions and degrade natural resources, Reuters says.

The research, to be published in the World Health Organization Bulletin in November, reports that population growth in countries such as Ethiopia and Rwanda is exacerbating drought and straining fresh water supplies.

Bryant told Bloomberg that the "environmental relevance of family planning" should be examined.

"Reproductive health services ought to be integrated into the climate adaptation strategy," he said.

Advocates of population control claim that contraceptive family planning is five times cheaper than "green" technologies intended to fight climate change.

According to Reuters, policymakers neglect family planning in order to avoid being associated with efforts like China's one-child policy, whose implementation has included coercive abortions and sterilizations.

Bryant told Reuters that researchers are not advocating that governments instruct people how many children they can have.

"The ability to choose your family size… is a fundamental human right," he claimed. "But lack of access to family planning means millions of people in developing countries don't have that right."

Steve Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute (PRI), commented on the Lancet essay in an e-mail to CNA. He charged that population control advocates blame people as the economy sours.

Claims in the article's subtitle calling climate change "the biggest global health threat" of the century, in Mosher's view, are "simply not true."

"Everyone reading the Lancet article will be dead in a hundred years, and I guarantee that they will not die from 'climate change.' Rather, they will die from infectious diseases, from cancers, from heart attacks, from strokes, and so on."

"These are the real health threats of our age," Mosher claimed. "These are the threats to our lives and wellbeing that should command our attention and our resources, not some vague, unpredictable and indirect health consequences of supposed 'global warming.'"

Population control advocates are distracting from "more immediate threats" to human health and are delaying the discovery of cures for fatal illnesses, he charged.

The immediate health concerns of Africans, particularly HIV/AIDS, is a topic that has been raised by bishops at the synod for Africa in recent days.

Many Catholic prelates in Africa have criticized the distribution of contraceptives, the use of which Catholic teaching considers to be a sin against marriage.

Bishop of Capra, Namibia Joseph Shpandeni Shikongo addressed the Synod for Africa, meeting in Rome this month, on the topic of condoms.

He stated that they spread a "secular and relativistic vision of sexuality" and encourage promiscuity.

He also criticized the government in his country for undermining the Church's promotion of abstinence in the face of HIV/AIDS, adding that the Namibian government is much better financed, has international advisors and better access to the media than the Church.

Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, who is Archbishop of Cape Coast, Ghana, has also reported that faulty condoms imported to Ghana often break and give a "false sense of security" in fighting HIV/AIDS.

Source: CNA
Publish Date: October 20, 2009
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Pregnancy resource centers save lives

Mallory Hitt could have been aborted after her mother was raped but instead was placed for adoption because her mother chose to go to a pregnancy resource center. Now she is a dean's list student hoping to achieve a law degree.

Hitt shared her story at the National Press Club, where the Family Research Council released a new report detailing the impact of pregnancy resource centers nationwide in curbing the abortion epidemic and improving the lives of pregnant women in need.

"Had my birthmother not turned to the pregnancy center for help, I might not have left her womb intact. I am glad to be alive and feel an obligation to let people know that pregnancy centers are good for America because they really help women and children," Hitt, a student at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va., said.

The FRC report, "A Passion to Serve, A Vision for Life," is available at www.aPassionToServe.org and includes information on how pregnancy resource centers in the United States and worldwide have made a difference. Release of the report coincided with the 40-year anniversary of the pregnancy resource center movement in the U.S.

With more than 2,300 U.S. centers affiliated with national organizations, pregnancy resource centers assist about 5,500 Americans daily with concerns related to sexuality and pregnancy, in addition to serving in more than 40 countries, according to the report, which was released Sept. 30.

"This report lays out the untold story of centers that provide caring and compassionate services to at least 1.9 million people each year at little or no cost to the clients and the taxpayers, in large part thanks to private charity and the high proportion of trained volunteers who work at the centers," Tony Perkins, FRC's president, said.

One way some pregnancy resource centers assist pregnant women is by providing free ultrasounds. Women who are at risk to have an abortion, the report said, are twice as likely "to express their intent to carry their baby" to term if they receiving counseling and an ultrasound than if they only receive counseling.

Another way pregnancy resource centers assist women is by connecting with them online, the report said.

The 24/7 Option Line contact center, a website that assists people with pregnancy-related and abortion-recovery needs, is operated by Care Net, a nonprofit organization that supports a large network of pregnancy centers, and joint venture partner Heartbeat International, an association of such centers, the report said.

"The Option Line is giving us the opportunity to reach 93 percent of those women, our youngest demographic, who will only go online to find their answers, to connect with a real person and get them in a door where the loving care and support is there for her," Melinda Delahoyde, Care Net's president, said at the news conference.

Pregnancy resource centers help women attain better health for themselves and for their children by providing abortion alternatives such as pregnancy support and adoption, Freda McKissic Bush, medical advisor for Heartbeat International, said.

Among services provided by many pregnancy resource centers, according to the report, are pregnancy testing, ultrasounds, prenatal care, childbirth classes, testing for sexually transmitted diseases, abstinence education, post-abortion counseling and material assistance.

Pregnancy resource centers not only provide for needs from resources within the centers but by connecting women to free clinics, community health centers and other services, which usually result in positive maternal and child health effects, the report said. Examples of community, social and support agencies are listed in the document, which is available for download at www.aPassionToServe.org.

Sandy Christiansen, national medical consultant to Care Net, said she has performed hundreds of ultrasounds at pregnancy resource centers.

"I never tire of observing the look in that woman's eye or the man's eye ... when they first see that baby.... When they see a flickering heartbeat, they make a connection," Christiansen said.

Only 13 percent of counties in the United States have an abortion facility, but 65 percent of all U.S. women live in those counties, Margaret Hartshorn, president of Heartbeat International, said.

Although pregnancy resource centers make positive contributions in their communities, the centers face challenges.

"Any health care reform, any public policy that inhibits the centers is undercutting the wellbeing of mothers, babies and families," said Charles Donovan, senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation's DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society.

In addition, an FRC staff member said the Obama administration sees an unborn child as a commodity for use in embryonic stem cell research. FRC, an organization that promotes marriage, family and the sanctity of human life in national policy, rejects such a view, said Rob Schwarzwalder, FRC's senior vice president.

"The Obama administration has made a very studied and deliberate choice in the use of the term the 'need for abortion,' implying that such a need ever exists," Schwarzwalder said.

Contact: Cindy Ortiz
Source: BP
Publish Date: October 19, 2009
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NEWS SHORTS FOR WEDNESDAY

NEWS SHORTS FOR WEDNESDAY
(Referral to Web sites not produced by The Illinois Federation for Right to LIfe is for informational purposes only and does not necessarily constitute an endorsement of the sites' content.)

Lack of Truth in Advertising at IVF Clinics

A paper published in the journal Fertility and Sterility by researchers at Columbia University finds that most IVF clinics fail to mention negatives associated with genetic testing of embryos.

Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is used to test for various genetic disorders, as well as to choose the sex of an infant. However the eugenic procedure, which involves removing one or two cells from an early embryo for the genetic testing, is not completely reliable and can harm or destroy the embryo. The researchers looked at websites of 83 IVF clinics that offered PGD; 22 of the clinics were hospital- or university-based, while 61 were private clinics. Only 1/3 of the clinic websites mentioned the possibility of misdiagnosis, and only 14% mentioned the risk to the embryo.
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Sheriff Sued Again For Restricting Inmate Abortion

The popular elected official who operates the prison system in one of the nation's largest counties is being sued for unconstitutionally restricting the rights of inmates to have abortions. Well known nationally for conducting effective immigration raids that have cleaned up the Phoenix metropolitan area, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio illegally obstructs inmates' access to abortion care, according to a 22-page lawsuit filed on behalf of a prisoner in Arizona Superior Court. In doing so the sheriff violates protection against cruel and unusual punishment guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution's Eighth Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment's right to access reproductive healthcare.
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Thousands of Colombians stand up for life, women and the family in Medellin

Medellin, Colombia - At least 10,000 Colombians took to the streets of Medellin on October 17 for the March for Life, Women and the Family to voice support for the unborn in response to plans to build an abortion clinic in the city with public funds. The number of protestors who came out for the event surpassed even the organizers' expectations.

Young people, children, the elderly and entire families marched from the Explora Park to Cisneros Square carrying signs and chanting pro-life slogans. At the conclusion of the march, various pro-life leaders addressed the crowd on abortion and adoption, with some women sharing personal testimonies.
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Pro-Life Supporters Rally in Helena

Pro-life supporters wrapped up a weekend-long tour of several cities to introduce a new initiative they hope to get on the 2010 general election ballot on Sunday. CI-102 would add unborn babies to the definition of "person" under the Montana code. The initiative's creators held a meeting in Great Falls last week to start to gather signatures for a petition to get the initiative included in the next election. Then after a stop in Missoula, the group wrapped up the weekend with a meeting in Helena on Sunday.
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Peruvian Congress continues forward with measure to legalize abortion

Lima, Peru. - A new bill that would legalize abortion in cases of rape and fetal deformation has moved through a Congressional committee in Peru and will be sent to the floor of the Peruvian Congress in the coming months, despite widespread opposition to the measure among voters.

Various lawmakers from the ruling party in Peru—which has expressed opposition to abortion—voted to move the bill through committee, including Representative Jose Vargas, who recently during a radio interview called those who defend the unborn hypocrites. "Nobody defends life without restriction because, for example, a vegetable is life and therefore you shouldn't eat salads," he argued
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Two High Profile Pro-Life Prelates Appointed to Key Vatican Post

Two prelates who are known for their vocal defence of life and family as well as the defence of traditional liturgical practices have been appointed to one of the most critical offices in the Catholic Church. Archbishop Raymond L. Burke and Antonio Cardinal Canizares Llovera have been appointed to serve in the Vatican's Congregation for Bishops, the group that oversees the selection of bishops around the world.
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October 20, 2009

Students for Life of Illinois to Host Pro-Life Leadership Summit

Students for Life of Illinois to Host Pro-Life Leadership Summit

Pro-Life students will be trained to transform campus culture

CHICAGO.- Loyola University Students for Life will host the third annual Students for Life of Illinois statewide Leadership Summit, with the theme: “Leadership. Media. Activism.” At this event, students will develop the skills necessary for an active pro-life presence on their campuses.

“This summit will inspire and challenge students to effectively present the truth about human life issues on their campuses,” said John-Paul Deddens, Executive Director of Students for Life of Illinois.

The event will take place Saturday Oct. 24th at the Crown Center of Loyola University. Check-in begins at 9:00 a.m., and the event spans 9:45 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The registration is $30 and includes lunch and conference materials.

The conference features nationally known speakers David Bereit, the founder of 40 Days for Life; Kristan Hawkins, Executive Director of Students for Life of America; and Eric Scheidler, Communications Director of the Pro-Life Action League.

“The right to life is the human rights issue of our generation,” Deddens said. “Students must be involved in order to change our society. This conference will be a catalyst for that change.”

To learn more information about the conference, visit the web site at: www.prolifeillinois.com/summit.

Pro-Life Leadership Summit.

Contact: John-Paul Deddens
Source: Students for Life of Illinois
Publish Date: October 20, 2009
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