Kermit Gosnell: Killing For No Good Reason

    
     Kermit Gosnell

David Harsanyi of the Denver Post said that if the pro-life movement is going to win the hearts and minds of the rest of the nation, it's not going to need more God. It's going to need more reason. He appears to be generally against abortion, but he is concerned that other irreligious people like himself might be turned off by anti-abortion signs that say Baptists for Life, Catholics for Life, Lutherans for Life.  He did not take a stand on the practice of showing gruesome pictures of cut-up little babies, but I suspect he thinks those turn off people, too.

His article was spurred on by two events in the news: The March for Life in Washington, DC, and the arrest of Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell for violating the sensibilities of the Philadelphia prosecutor, Seth Williams, who charged him with waiting two minutes too long to kill seven of his victims.  You see, some of the pesky babies in late-term abortions manage to outwit their assailants and survive.  That is bad form and gives assassins a bad reputation, so it was necessary for Gosnell to finish the job with a sharp pair of scissors to the back of the neck.  It is similar to the old adage about making sure you don't miss when you shoot at the king.  No one wants a living baby out there testifying against you in a wrongful life suit.

In his 1980s book, Time for Anger: The Myth of Neutrality, Frank (Franky) Schaeffer once wrestled with the insanity of a culture charging one person with murder for being two minutes too late, while applauding the same brutality committed a few minutes earlier. He referred to laws requiring hospitals to affirmatively try to save babies they just tried to kill.  Barack Obama is at least consistent on this, so look for him to issue a pardon to Gosnell.  Some in the pro-choice crowd bemoan the squalid conditions of the "doctor's" office, others focus almost solely on the women.

Schaeffer has since recanted most of his arguments because he thinks his own rhetoric was too strong and may have led to the killing of George Tiller the Killer. Schaeffer makes the same error that Harsanyi makes: Thinking that the voice of reason will prevail[1].

The invention of ultrasound and pictures of little infants sucking thumbs at age 8 weeks have only had the affect of hardening the populace against rationality.  All of our reasons for abandoning abortion, albeit good ones, have had little impact on abortion rates and attitudes, all hoopla from the pro-life community and politicians to the contrary.  Harsanyi cites few examples of reason that he thinks will overcome the day, only citing former presidential candidate, Ron Paul:

"People ask an expectant mother how her baby is doing. They do not ask how her fetus is doing, or her blob of tissue, or her parasite."

Another question.  Why are 14-year old mothers called "babies having babies", but those who choose to kill their babies are "women" exercising their rights and control over their own bodies.  Abortion itself is irrational, on a hundred levels, and a few babies are rescued with these arguments or by the offer of adoption options.   But millions of fathers and mothers (and grandmothers and grandfathers, too), ignore these offers by sidewalk counselors or crisis pregnancy centers and head right into the killing centers.   Godless reasoning is NOT ENOUGH!

I will grant that signs that say "Thou Shalt Not Kill" do not always work either.   But it is the truth.   The moment we stray from the truth, ignore the truth, or fear offending people with the truth, we move further away from overcoming evil with good.

Rick Santorum has taken some heat for comparing the killing of unborn children with the institution of slavery, which ended in the civil war.  He is right to do so.  Note what Abraham Lincoln said about God, slavery, and bloodshed in his Second Inaugural Address.

Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other….The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him?…. Yet, if God wills that it continue until …every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

Oh! that we could see a less bloody end to this evil than more bloodshed!    Much better than civil war would be if God would raise up Christian statesmen like William Wilberforce who in England faithfully spoke the truth and overcame the evil of slavery with good, he warned against vain human reasonings and advocated use of the Word of God:

Policy, Sir, is not my principle, and I am not ashamed to say it. There is a principle above everything that is political. And when I reflect on the command that says, 'Thou shalt do no murder,' believing the authority to be divine, how can I dare set up any reasonings of my own against it? And, Sir, when we think of eternity, and of the future consequences of all human conduct, what is here in this life which should make any man contradict the principles of his own conscience, the principles of justice, the laws of religion and of God?

Contact: David Shedlock
Source: Caffinated Thoughts

State of the Union: Honeyed Words Herald Worse Rationing Ahead

Suppose a government official announced a plan to limit the automobiles you were allowed to buy, so that only the smallest and cheapest would be available.

President Obama State of the Union Address

It is likely most Americans would oppose it. Announce a plan limiting what automobile manufacturers can charge you for cars, however, and it would sound appealing to many people. Yet both proposals would amount to the same plan.

When the government imposes limits on what people can choose to spend for a product or service, it means that only those items that producers can afford to provide at or below the government limit will be available. Instead of letting consumers balance cost against benefit, and decide what they can afford to and want to spend their own money on, the government takes that choice away from them.

Now consider what President Obama said in his January 25, 2011 State of the Union speech about health care. He said his health care law "prevents the health insurance industry from exploiting patients." That certainly sounds good: who wants patients to be "exploited." But what does it mean? Obama considers it "exploiting" people when they are given the option of paying more to save the lives of their families, through the purchase of unrationed health insurance, than Obama thinks they should be allowed to choose to pay.
There is an old joke about a man being stopped by a thief who points a gun at him and says, "Your money or your life!" The man replies, "Take my life. I'm saving my money for my old age."

It's very foolish to pay less than you can afford for health insurance if that means you and your family will be stuck with a cheap "managed care" plan that will use "utilization review" and limited drug "formularies" to limit the treatment or drugs you may need to save your lives. It's foolish to look only at the price without also considering the quality you will get for that price.
Americans balance quality and price all the time. Of course we look for the "better deal" that will save us money, but we also keep in mind that sometimes paying bottom dollar for shoddy merchandise is no bargain.

In the State of the Union speech, President Obama said of what people are allowed to spend on health care, "The health insurance law we passed last year will slow these rising costs." And he called for "further reducing health care costs."

What he didn't mention was how the Obama health care law will "slow . . . rising costs." It will do so in large part by forcing doctors and other health care providers to limit care, through "quality and efficiency" standards imposed on them that will establish one uniform national standard of care for what treatment may – and may not – be offered patients.

Beginning in 2015, these "quality and efficiency" standards will be drawn from recommendations of an 18-member Independent Advisory Board, that is directed to come up with ways to limit what private citizens choose to pay, using their own funds and private insurance, so that they cannot keep up with the rate of medical inflation. (For details and documentation, see http://www.nrlc.org/HealthCareRationing/Index.html.)

If you're not allowed to keep up with medical inflation, what do you think will happen to the quantity and quality of the health care you can get? It will go into a steady decline.

Yet Obama is not only pledged to veto any repeal of the health care rationing law– he is now threatening to seek unspecified (so far) measures that will limit the resources Americans are allowed to use to save their own lives still further.

Honeyed words – but words that mean one thing: worse and worse health care rationing ahead.

Contact: Burke J. Balch, J.D.
Source: National Right to Life

Elections Matter, Laws Matter, You Matter!

Let's see if we can't determine what the following three news stories, taken together, may tell us.
First, from yesterday's Orange County Register, "Dr. Andrew Rutland, the Anaheim obstetrician-gynecologist accused by the California Medical Board of homicide in the death of an abortion patient, has agreed to surrender his medical license for a second time. Rutland, 67, will give up his license effective Feb. 11, rather than face disciplinary proceedings for allegations of gross negligence in the death of Ying Chen, who suffered a toxic reaction to anesthesia in 2009. Board documents allege that the storefront San Gabriel clinic was not equipped to handle emergencies, and that Rutland failed to recognize her reaction, adequately attempt resuscitation or promptly call 911."
Second, from the Associated Press, Kansas Health and Environment Secretary Robert Moser told AP Monday "that his office will require abortion providers to give the state more details about late-term procedures they perform."

Moser said while his Department's interpretation is "different than how the law has been enforced in the past," it is "in line with the intent of a 1998 law."

That law allows abortions after the 21st week of pregnancy (when the unborn "is viable, or capable of sustained survival outside the womb without extraordinary medical means") "only if the life of the pregnant woman or girl is in danger or if she faces a substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function."

In the past when the governors were pro-abortion, when abortionists filed a report on these post-21-week abortions, the Department of Health and Environment allowed them "to repeat the exact substantial and irreversible impairment phrase in the law in their reports, without a more detailed medical diagnosis, arguing it was the only thing legally required." In other words, for 13 years they were given a blank check under which 3,000 such abortion were performed. This despite the fact that not only does the law itself require that the abortionist state the basis for his determination that continuing the pregnancy would cause such an impairment, the Department of Health forms themselves provide a place for them.

Gov. Chris Christie

Third, from a very critical editorial in today's New Jersey Star-Journal. "As a younger politician, [Gov. Chris] Christie favored abortion rights, but he says he changed his mind 14 years ago when his wife, Mary Pat, became pregnant with their daughter, Sarah. 'It was at that moment that it became clear to me that being on the sidelines of this issue was not something that I could live with,' he said. 'That child is a life which deserves protection.'"

The editorial went on to say, while "there are no grounds to doubt the governor's sincerity," what's "unsettling is that the governor would impose his spiritual conversion on the rest of us." The immediate impetus was Gov. Christie's appearance at a pro-life rally Monday commemorating the 38th anniversary of Roe, but the editorial page's anger stems from Christie's determination to keep funds for Planned Parenthood--the nation's largest abortion provider--and similar organizations out of the state budget.

Clearly, there are a couple of lessons. It is very, very difficult to put abortionists out of business, and even harder to keep them out of business.
According to the Register's Andy Templeton , Rutland gave up his license in 2002 "after allegations of negligence in the death of two babies, scaring patients into unnecessary hysterectomies, botching surgeries, lying to patients, falsifying medical records, over-prescribing painkillers and having sex with a patient in his office." He also "admitted to negligence in the death of Jillian Broussard, a newborn whose spinal cord was torn during a forceps delivery."

So how did he get reinstated five years later? By "demonstrating rehabilitation and expressing remorse," Templeton writes. Ying Chen is now dead.
Second, it makes a huge difference who is governor, particularly because it can mean replacing people who are in the abortion lobby's pocket. Kansas' new governor is former Senator Sam Brownback. Mr. Moser told the AP he has not talked to Brownback about abortion, and that the Department of Health and Environment is not changing any state regulations but only enforcing existing reporting requirements.

Interestingly, before attributing Gov. Christie's actions to a "spiritual conversion," the Star-Ledger actually made a very important point: "This change of heart can happen to men and women when they become parents."

Yes! More to the point, this change of heart can come about even with an abortion-vulnerable woman, provided she is allowed to see her baby on an ultrasound. A very close friend of our family told me about exactly that kind of conversion just this week!

The light of truth matters, which is why pro-abortionists count on us remaining in the dark.

Contact: Dave Andrusko
Source: National Right to Life

U.S. youth will help overturn Roe

    

Meanwhile, President Obama acknowledged the Jan. 22 observance by reaffirming his support for the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision but again failing to call for a reduction in the number of abortions.

Tens of thousands of pro-lifers rallied and marched Jan. 24 at the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., after a weekend filled with pro-life events in the capital and around the country. Southern Baptist ethicist Richard Land spoke at one of those on Roe's anniversary -- the Louisiana Life March in Baton Rouge.

The president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission decried Roe's effect but said there is "good news." The Roe ruling struck down all state bans on abortion and, coupled with the Doe v. Bolton opinion issued the same day, effectively legalized abortion throughout pregnancy for virtually any reason.

"It is both a disgrace and a tragedy that we have killed somewhere between 50 and 55 million unborn Americans over the last 38 years," Land told Baptist Press Jan. 24. "We have killed more of our unborn citizens every year than all the deaths of all of our military in all of the wars we have ever fought from colonial times through the latest deaths in Afghanistan.

"The good news is that America is awakening like the prodigal son from her moral slumber and the pro-life movement is gaining new strength every day," Land said. He pointed to polls that show "pro-life is the new majority, the new normal."

"When one attends pro-life rallies, you cannot help but be struck by the youthfulness of the crowds," Land said. "That majority will grow and with it ever more protection for our unborn citizens until Roe v. Wade is justly put on the ash heap of history along with Dred Scott and Plessy v. Ferguson."

The Supreme Court ruled in 1857 that Dred Scott, an African-American slave, was not a U.S. citizen and had no rights. In the 1896 Plessy opinion, the high court upheld racial segregation.

"Young pro-lifers proclaim at every rally both with their voices and with their hand-drawn signs, 'We survived Roe, Roe won't survive us.' The most pro-life segments of the country are those born since 1973, and they will restore America's moral compass sooner rather than later," Land said.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List, said of Roe's 38th anniversary, "[W]e hold heavy in our hearts the 52 million lives lost and the countless mothers hurt by the horror of abortion.

"But with this great sadness comes great optimism," she said in a written statement. "Americans have shown in poll after poll, and especially in the last election, that they find 'pro-choice' rhetoric empty of meaning and find abortion-friendly policies a violation of their consciences. The new pro-life House leadership has shown it is dedicated to translating this public opinion into real public policy that saves lives and ends taxpayer funding of abortion."

Speaker of the House John Boehner has demonstrated in his first month in the position his support for legislation to ban federal money for abortion. He said in a Jan. 22 written statement the Roe opinion "tore asunder a right to life our Founding Fathers described so indelibly in our Declaration of Independence. The decision denigrated the respect we must have for life at all stages, especially the innocent unborn."

The Ohio Republican said, "The new House majority has listened to the people and pledged to end taxpayer funding of abortion. A ban is the will of the people and ought to be the law of the land.... This is critical, common-sense legislation that deserves the support of the people's representatives and the president."

As expected, Obama showed no evidence in his Jan. 22 written statement of joining an effort to prohibit -- or reduce -- federal funding of abortion.

He described Roe as the high court's ruling "that protects women's health and reproductive freedom, and affirms a fundamental principle: that government should not intrude on private family matters." Obama said he is "committed to protecting this constitutional right."

The president also affirmed his commitment to "policies, initiatives, and programs that help prevent unintended pregnancies, support pregnant women and mothers, encourage healthy relationships, and promote adoption."

For the second year in a row, Obama did not say in his brief statement that Americans are united in "our determination" to "reduce the need for abortion" -- a comment he made in 2009 on the Roe anniversary.

The president's statement followed by only three days the news that Kermit Gosnell, a Philadelphia, Pa., abortion doctor, had been charged with murdering a woman and seven babies after their deliveries in a filthy clinic where he allegedly had harmed scores of women and killed thousands of late-term, unborn children over more than three decades. It also was released barely two weeks after it was reported that four in 10 pregnancies in New York City still end in abortion.

Obama's Jan. 22 statement shows how radically pro-abortion he is, said R. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

The president's statement included nothing "that indicated any recognition that abortion is in any case or in any sense a tragedy," Mohler wrote in a Jan. 24 blog post.

"How can any President of the United States fail to address this unspeakable tragedy? There was no hope expressed that abortion would be rare. ... The only words that even insinuate any hypothetical reduction in abortion were addressed to reducing 'unintended pregnancies' and promoting adoption," Mohler wrote. "But no goal of reducing abortion was stated or even obliquely suggested. No reference at all was made of the unborn child. There was no
Pro-life leaders expressed hope regarding the state of their cause upon the 38th anniversary of abortion's legalization in the United States.
Contact: Tom Strode
Source: Baptist Press

Obamacare: H.R. 3–Making Sure Feds Don’t Pay for Abortion

      

Obamacarians assure us that the new law prohibits coverage for abortion.  That's not true.  It was merely one of the many shell games played by its supporters. The law left to the bureaucracy to include abortion as an indirectly covered procedure in subsidized state exchange-authorized policies–which considering who is head of HHS–it almost certainly will.

That was why the "Stupack Amendment," introduced by the late (politically) pro life Congressman was fought so hard (costing him his job when he caved) by the pro choice crowd.  They didn't want a permanent Hyde Amendment.  (The president's executive order was a mere sop. It can be withdrawn at the stroke of a pen.)

To ensure that no federal money pays for any abortion (except in case of rape, incest, or physical threat to the mother), opponents of federally subsidized or paid for abortion introduced the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act" (H.R. 3), with 178 co-sponsors at last count.  From the legislation:

SEC. 301. PROHIBITION ON FUNDING FOR ABORTIONS.

    No funds authorized or appropriated by Federal law, and none of the funds in any trust fund to which funds are authorized or appropriated by Federal law, shall be expended for any abortion.

SEC. 302. PROHIBITION ON FUNDING FOR HEALTH BENEFITS PLANS THAT COVER ABORTION.

    None of the funds authorized or appropriated by Federal law, and none of the funds in any trust fund to which funds are authorized or appropriated by Federal law, shall be expended for health benefits coverage that includes coverage of abortion.

SEC. 303. PROHIBITION ON TAX BENEFITS RELATING TO ABORTION.

    (1) no credit shall be allowed under the internal revenue laws with respect to amounts paid or incurred for an abortion or with respect to amounts paid or incurred for a health benefits plan (including premium assistance) that includes coverage of abortion,

    (2) for purposes of determining any deduction for expenses paid for medical care of the taxpayer or the taxpayer's spouse or dependents, amounts paid or incurred for an abortion or for a health benefits plan that includes coverage of abortion shall not be taken into account, and

    (3) in the case of any tax-preferred trust or account the purpose of which is to pay medical expenses of the account beneficiary, any amount paid or distributed from such an account for an abortion shall be included in the gross income of such beneficiary.

The bill does not prevent private or state-only funded coverage (the latter being the law currently regarding assisted suicide), and specifically exempts the rape, incest, or physical health threat to the mother from its scope, so there actually could be funding in a few cases.

I support this bill.  I believe that, legality aside, public policy should disfavor abortion–and funding restrictions clearly promote that goal. Thus,  women or couples who want one of the nearly 1 million surgical abortions performed in this country each year, each of which stills a beating heart, can pay for it themselves.  Maybe then sexually active couples would take more responsibility toward avoiding unwanted fecundity.  It's not that difficult.

(I would also like to see Planned Parenthood subsidies ended, at least proportionate to the extent that its activities involve abortion.  I am sure there are plenty of very wealthy pro choice supporters who could fund "scholarships" for pregnancy terminations.)

Contact: Wesley J. Smith
Soruce: Secondhand Smoke

Defending the Defenders

     

Liberals have a favorite slam on pro-lifers: "They believe life begins at conception and ends at birth." It is a base slander of people who give more time and money to Christian charities–and non-Christian charities–than many others in America.

It is indeed a lazy and despicable slander of pro-lifers. Helen Alvare and her co-authors are certainly right in their recent Christianity Today column. Theirs is a powerful defense of the defenders. They demonstrate pro-lifers' commitment to social justice and to lending helping hands.

But the liberals' slam raises another pertinent question: What's wrong with saving human lives? I served in the Coast Guard for nine years. I took part in rescues at sea. The Coast Guard recently claimed to have saved 1 million lives since its founding in 1790.

In 230 years, not one of those million persons whose lives were saved ever complained that the Coast Guard did not teach them to read, or help them obtain a job, or give them a breakfast. (Actually, we did give them breakfasts, but only until we got them safely on shore). In the Coast Guard, we did nothing about illiteracy. Or poverty.

Still, Americans honor the Coast Guard all the same.

The entire charge against pro-lifers is as offensive as it is absurd. When 3,000 unborn children are unjustly killed every day, there is an urgency that life alone can command.

Several years ago, I was writing a paper late on a Friday afternoon. We were then living at the U.S. Naval Academy. I was struggling to convey to the reader the enormity of 3,000 lives a day.

My wife, a Navy captain, pulled me away from my word processor to a ceremony on the Parade Field. With the band leading the parade, the Brigade of Midshipmen marched by the reviewing stands.

There were young men and women, from every state, marching by. They formed up nine abreast. It took eleven minutes for this company to pass the Superintendent and take the salute.  And there were three thousand of them.

Watching these vital young Mids marching by, it struck me with a pang: we lose the equivalent of this wonderful brigade–a hopeful brigade of future Americans–every day.

For anyone to say that stopping the fatal parade of abortion is not urgently needed–or to slander those good Americans who are trying lawfully and lovingly to stop it–is cruel and unjust. It is as morally wrong as those who take innocent lives.  God bless the pro-lifers. I'm still happy to throw them a line.

Contact: Robert Morrison
Source: FRC Blog

Texting poll aims to highlight media influence in abortion debate

     

The pro-life group Heroic Media launched a massive texting poll to hundreds of thousands of participants at the West Coast Walk for Life and the D.C. March for Life this past weekend, in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of media influence on the debate over abortion.

At the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. on Monday, mobile billboards and crowd volunteers encouraged participants to text their opinions about abortion as part of a new nationwide poll.

"We are trying to see how many people are aware of the role mainstream media and Planned Parenthood play in promoting abortion versus promoting a culture of life," spokesperson Kimberly Guidry Speirs said in a Jan. 25 e-mail.

Heroic Media – headquartered in Austin with offices nationwide – launched the national campaign this weekend at the Walk For Life West Coast in San Francisco, which was held on Jan. 22, and at the Jan. 24 March for Life 2011 in Washington D.C.

"These walks and marches celebrate life and stand in opposition to the violence of abortion," said Heroic Media President Brian Follett.

"The anniversary of Roe v. Wade encourages reflection on the deaths of 52 million unborn children and the millions of women who suffer emotional scars from the procedure."

Follett said that in his organization's work to provide educational resources on alternatives for women in crisis pregnancies, he has seen that "once women learn about hopeful alternatives, they usually choose life."

He said that the pro-life media organization helps assist pregnancy resource centers that do not have the funding to promote media that will let women know where they can find help. The group regularly uses  television, radio, billboards, bus shelter ads and Internet messaging to spread its message.

Follett noted that in cities where Heroic Mediaʼs commercials have aired consistently, the abortion rates have decreased as much as 20 percent.

Source: CNA

Adult Stem Cells Treat End-Stage Liver Disease

     

A team of researchers in California and in Egypt report therapeutic benefit treating end-stage liver disease patients with adult stem cells A total of 48 patients were treated with their own adult stem cells–36 patients with chronic, end-stage hepatitis C-induced liver disease, and 12 patients with end-stage autoimmune liver disease. Researchers used the factor G-CSF, commonly used to mobilize bone marrow adult stem cells into the circulation, to obtain the cells from each patient. The CD34+ stem cells were then isolated, amplified to increase numbers of cells, partially differentiated in culture, then re-injected into each patient via their hepatic artery or portal vein. The results were published in Cell Transplantation

According to co-author Dr. Mark A. Zern of University of California-Davis Medical Center:

"This enabled us to transplant as many as one billion of these cells per patient. For all patients there was a statistically significant decrease in peritoneal cavity fluid, or 'ascites'. There was also clinical and biochemical improvement in a large percentage of patients who received the transplantation. The finding of improvement in ascites in a significant number of patients is impressive and somewhat surprising, suggesting that cell transplantation might be clinically significant beyond the improvement in laboratory parameters."

The mechanism by which the infusion of CD34+ adult stem cells improves liver function is still unclear. As to whether any partial differentiation into liver cells was needed for the therapeutic results, Dr. Stephen Strom at the University of Pittsburgh and section editor for Cell Transplantation, noted:

"Other research groups are now showing similar results with cells without any hepatic characteristics, including fractionated and unfractionated bone marrow and mesenchymal stem cells. Taken together, these data suggest that the positive effects these researchers find may be the result of paracrine effects from factors secreted by the donor cells.

Published data in 1999 suggested that some bone marrow adult stem cells could form liver hepatocytes. Others reported similar results in 2000 using mice, by observing liver cells of human bone marrow adult stem cell transplant patients, and in experiments showing regeneration of liver in mice. However, some published evidence also indicates that the regenerative capacity of bone marrow adult stem cells is due to paracrine effects, i.e., secreted factors.

No matter what the mechanism, various clinical trials are investigating use of adult stem cells for liver diseases. Published results from earlier trials show therapeutic benefit of adult stem cells for liver repair and regeneration.

In a published 2010 report, a Korean group found some improvement in liver cirrhosis patients using their own adult stem cells.

In 2006 a U.K. group reported improvement in patients with liver insufficiency treated with their own adult stem cells, and the same group reported in 2008 the long-term improvement of chronic liver disease patients, using the patients' own adult stem cells in a trial similar to the current Egyptian trial.

Also in 2006, a German group reported increased liver regeneration in liver cancer patients using adult stem cells, and a Japanese team found improved liver function in cirrhosis patients after using the patients' own bone marrow adult stem cells.

Adult stem cells continue to provide ethical and successful results for patients.

Contact: David Prentice
Source: FRC Blog

Presence of youth prominent at DC March for Life

     
    College women march in support of the
    unborn at the Jan. 24 March for Life

Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Washington, D.C. for the annual March for Life on Jan. 24. People of all ages filled the streets, including a large number of young adults who came to show their support for the dignity of all human life.

Catholic colleges from around the country were represented at the March, in addition to pro-life groups from secular colleges. Diocesan groups, families and individuals also came from near and far to march along the National Mall in commemoration of the 38th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion in the United States.

In addition to marching, young people were also encouraged to participate in a new nationwide poll launched by the pro-life advocacy group Heroic Media. Mobile billboards and representatives in the crowd encouraged marchers to text their responses to poll questions about abortion.

Poll participants were asked factual questions about how many unborn children have been killed since Roe v. Wade and what ethnic neighborhoods house the largest number of Planned Parenthood clinics. They were also asked questions of opinion, including whether they think that the mainstream media should do more to promote the heroism of motherhood and whether they think embryonic stem cell research should continue.

Lacy de la Garza, age 22, organized a trip to the March for Life for a group of her classmates at the University of Dallas. "I really felt that as everything is getting more heated in the legal system and in the courts, I wanted UD students to be able to be involved," she told CNA.

De la Garza has attended the March for Life three times and believes that the annual event is making a difference in America. "I don't think it's well-publicized enough in the mainstream media, but I do think it shocks D.C. into seeing how important this is, and I think that's the first step to change," she said.

"There are many reasons that women get abortions, but I think that all women are naturally pro-life, and that is shot down in them through the culture," she said. "No woman really wants what abortion is."

Grace Gniewek, age 18, was one of many students from Christendom College who attended the March for Life. The nearby Virginia college closed down for the day, canceling all classes and chartering buses to transport the entire student body to the March. Gniewek said that she and her classmates came "to show that we are of one heart and one mind, and that we won't stand for these injustices."

Women were not the only young participants represented in the March. The event also drew large numbers of young men. Jake Barakat, 20, told CNA that this was his nineteenth time attending the March for Life.

Barakat explained that men play an important role in the pro-life movement. "As husbands, boyfriends and friends of women, it's important for men to support life," he said. "We need to help women through the difficult times in their lives, showing them our stance, and showing them that they're not alone."

Marcellino Dambrosio, age 23, agreed, calling abortion a "problem of manhood in America."

"We live in a hook-up culture. There is no permanence to relationships. People want pleasure without responsibility," he said. "This is a man's problem too. It's everyone's problem."

Dambrosio said that attending the March has influenced his understanding of the pro-life movement. "The media doesn't cover this very much. Seeing this on TV is not the same as being here," he said.

Dambrosio said that he was especially touched by the Vigil Mass that was held on the evening before the March, particularly the procession of priests at the beginning, which took over half an hour.

"This Church is strong. This movement is strong," he said.

Contact: Michelle Bauman
Source: CNA/EWTN News

The Murder of Innocent Black Children is Not a Civil Right

The National Black Pro-Life Union and Black Pro-Life Movement: Sharpton is Wrong - Santorum is Right

    
     Sean Hannity from The Hannity Show on FOX

Recently, Rick Santorum and Al Sharpton squared off in a fiery debate on race and abortion on the Hannity Show (FOX). 
 
Black pro-life leaders weighed in:
 
"Al Sharpton, for the sake of Al Sharpton, railed against Rick Santorum for calling attention to the horrific impact abortion is having on the black community," said Rev. Dr. Johnny Hunter of Life Education and Resource Network.  "It is inconceivable that blacks today continue in that same spirit of division as we saw on the Hannity Show," he said.  
 
"I cannot believe that Sharpton called the taking of innocent life in the womb a civil right," said Alveda King, Founder of King for America and Director of African American Outreach for Priests for Life. "This is not the right my father and my uncle gave their lives for. Civil rights protect individual freedoms, not deny them.  The right to life is the 21st century civil right that will protect all human beings from conception to natural death and we must all fight for it," she said.
 
"As in the Dred Scott case, the Supreme Court, in 1973, denied protection to a class of citizens," said Walter Hoye of Personhood USA. "Justice Blackmun and the core of eugenicists he collaborated with cloaked their racial intent in the garment of abortion and Al Sharpton has happily agreed to be one of the faces of the Negro Project authored by Planned Parenthood Founder Margaret Sanger" he said.
 
"For more than thirty eight years, abortion has cut into the birthrate of the black community" said Dean Nelson, Vice President, CareNet's Urban Outreach. "The black community must recognize that Roe v. Wade is the modern answer to the lynching and killing fields of the south. It must be stopped," he said.
 
"More black children have died by abortion than the seven leading causes of death in the African American community combined," said Catherine Davis of the Network of Politically Active Christians.  "Since the days of Margaret Sanger, Planned Parenthood has targeted the black community in order to control the growth of our population." 
 
Day Gardner, President of the National Black Pro-Life Union, states; "First of all, Al Sharpton is not my leader. Mr. Sharpton's head is buried so deep in the silk pockets of Planned Parenthood he can't see the light of day.  In the early 70s, we were told pre-born children were blobs of tissue. We were ignorant to the truth and didn't know any better. But now with modern technology and the advances in 3D and 4D ultra sounds--we know the truth.  Abortion is the greatest civil rights issue of our time! So, when we hear old cronies like Al Sharpton harping on protecting the civil rights of a woman to kill her child--I have to ask: What about the civil rights of the younger woman she's carrying?  That baby girl is 'fully human' and her rights need to be protected, too--especially the most basic right, which is the right to life." 

Contact: Catherine Davis

Planned Parenthood's troubling 'philosophy'

A Knoxville, Tennessee mother and daughter are voicing their disapproval of the speaker at the girl's mandatory sex education classes at school.
 
Planned Parenthood is an approved speaker for the mandatory health classes at Hardin Valley Academy. Kymberly McCormick, the mother, says she had no idea what the clinic would be teaching her 16-year-old daughter.

"This is about us having a right as parents to control what our children are taught," she told a local television station. "I don't have an objection to the sex education. It's this group; it's their whole philosophy."

When her daughter, Alaynna, researched Planned Parenthood's website, she was shocked at how the links go well beyond what most parents would find acceptable.

"This is not about sexual education," contends Alaynna. "This is about sexual instruction and sexual encouragement. People assume that...a whole bunch of educators...have gone through this stuff. They assume that it's safe, and it's not."

The McCormick family hopes their experience might encourage parents nationwide to educate themselves on what their youngsters are being taught and whether Planned Parenthood is involved.

Contact: Charlie Butts
Source: OneNewsNow

Pro-life generation gives hope

Following the 2011 March for Life in Washington, D.C., one of the nation's most active pro-life organizations is stepping forward with its mission to end abortion by educating student on the issue of life.

 

As the Students for Life of America (SFLA) conference set a record in attendance, Jordan Lorence of the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) reports that what "struck" him was that "even after 38 years of Roe v. Wade, a pro-abortion media, many college faculty members being pro-abortion [and] the legal system [being] pro-abortion, they have not closed the deal with the next generation of Americans."

So rather than dissipating, deteriorating and shrinking, the pro-life movement is very much alive among the nation's youth. In fact, he says commitment to the cause has increased.

"Some of these people are going to be future leaders in Congress and state legislatures, and they are dedicated to the pro-life cause," Lorence notes. "Many of them are strong Christians, and it just gives you a lot of hope."

The ADF senior counsel adds that it is exciting to pass on his wisdom as one who has witnessed 38 years of abortion to the young people who will eventually overturn the Supreme Court decision that legalized it.

Contact: Charlie Butts

Source: OneNewsNow

Belgian Doctors Harvesting Organs From Disabled Euthanasia Donors

Back when I first got into this line of work, I wrote a piece for Newsweek about the dangers of euthanasia consciousness. I was a naif at the time.  I had no idea how insidiously seductive the culture of death could be nor how deeply it had already seeped into the culture of the West.  Since then, the darkness has spread like a stain.

But even then, in my innocence, I was prophetic.  Here's a key paragraph from my first anti-euthanasia piece, "The Whispers of Strangers," published on June 28, 1993:
 

Of greater concern to me is the moral trickledown effect that could result should society ever come to agree with Frances. Life is action and reaction, the proverbial pebble thrown into the pond. We don't get to the Brave New World in one giant leap. Rather, the descent to depravity is reached by small steps. First, suicide is promoted as a virtue. Vulnerable people like Frances become early casualties. Then follows mercy killing of the terminally ill. From there, it's a hop, skip and a jump to killing people who don't have a good "quality" of life, perhaps with the prospect of organ harvesting thrown in as a plum to society.
 

Over the years, I have been told many times that my fears would never happen.  Assisted suicide/euthanasia was just for the terminally ill, at the very end of life, for whom nothing can be done to alleviate suffering.  We would never use euthanasia to harvest organs!
 
For years I waited for the organ harvesting shoe to drop.  Then, I found a letter in a transplant medicine journal in which doctors admitted harvesting organs from the euthanasia of a catastrophically disabled woman.  They had done it, the letter stated, ergo it was ethical. That's the kind of self justification we see in this field.
 
Now, Belgian doctors have taken to the road to sell the idea. From the story:
 

A group of Belgian doctors are harvesting "high quality" organs from patients who have been euthanased. This is not a secret project, but one which they described openly at a conference organised by the Belgian Royal Medical Academy in December. In a PowerPoint presentation, Dirk Ysebaert, Dirk Van Raemdonck, Michel Meurisse, of the University Hospitals Of Antwerp, Leuven And Liège, showed that about 20% of the 705 people who died through euthanasia (officially) in 2008 were suffering from neuromuscular disorders whose organs are relatively high quality for transplanting to other patients. This represents a useful pool of organs which could help to remedy a shortage of organs in Belgium (as everywhere else).

I can think of few more dangerous activities then to convince people with disabilities–and society–that their deaths have greater value than their lives.  That pebble with which I was concerned has grown into a massive boulder that is generating tidal waves of harm.
 
Contact: Wesley J. Smith
Source: Secondhand Smoke

Speaking against China's one-child policy

Several prayer vigils are scheduled in honor of the Roe v. Wade anniversary across the nation, but one event in Washington, DC, focuses on aborted babies in land far away from the political debate in the U.S.

 

 A new movement is stirring in the pro-life community. All Girls Allowed, a new organization devoted to mothers' and girls' rights in China, gathered for prayer Monday at the Chinese Embassy, calling out to God concerning the millions of babies aborted, killed and abandoned as a result of the one-child policy in China.
 
Tessa Dale, communication director for the organization, says the battle to fight abortion is far beyond the United States.
 
"There's really two issues going on," Dale explains. "One is the forced abortion of unregistered children -- [which] means that single mothers who can't have birth permits are all forced to abort their babies by the government.
 
"In addition, any child after the first one, she'll have to pay fines that are often up to ten times the family's salary -- which means that she's also forced to abort her baby."
 
Even though Chinese President Hu Jintao recently stated there are no forced abortions in his country, Dale contends babies are known to be aborted up to their due dates. She also says few Americans are aware of the "gender-cide" taking place in other parts of the world.
 
"About two months ago, a video surfaced -- very popular on YouTube -- of a woman who was eight months pregnant who thought that she was properly registered to have her new baby, but found out that she wasn't," says the group spokeswoman. "And rather than giving her time to get her paperwork in order, the government...kidnapped her, beat her, and forcibly aborted her child."

 

All Girls Allowed is a Boston-based organization with the mission to restore life, value, and dignity to girls and mothers in China, and to expose the injustice of the one-child policy.

Contact: Russ Jones
Source: OneNewsNow

Congressmen by dozens promise to protect unborn

We have pledged to institute a prohibition on taxpayer funding of abortion'


House Speaker John Boehner

Dozens of members of Congress have used the annual March for Life, which drew hundreds of thousands into the icy air of Washington, to pledge support for a ban on government funding for abortions.

Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, the speaker of the U.S. House, said, "Without respect for life, freedom is in jeopardy."

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., cheered marchers for braving bitter cold, then said, "For the past two years, the life community has suffered the consequences of being completely out of power. Against the will of our people, Democrats have jammed through an agenda that forces taxpayers to fund abortion and embryonic stem cell research, and even attempted to repeal conscience protections for health-care providers.

"But now the tide has turned and… [o]ur majority has been re-energized by a strong crop of pro-life leaders. We have pledged to institute a permanent, government-wide prohibition on taxpayer funding of abortion, a bill at the top of our agenda in the House," he said.

While Cantor and others admitted there will be an uphill battle in the Senate and White House, the crowd cheered when he said, "But I can promise you one thing: the people's House will stand for life, and we will do everything in our power to make sure our values are reflected in the law of the land."

Reps. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb.; Chris Smith, R-N.J.; Dan Lipinski, D-Ill.; and Mike Pence spoke to WND about their bills.

"First of all, let me say how wonderful this event is to hundreds of thousands of people here – most of them young. I think this speaks to the fact that we've got a new generation of pro-life leaders that hopefully will change the minds of America in this regard," Fortenberry said.

Fortenberry promised a conscience rights bill to protect medical providers from penalties should they refuse to perform abortions and other procedures that conflict with their religious beliefs.

Smith is author of the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act. "The evidence suggests that when public funding for abortion is unavailable, the number of abortions drops dramatically, by about 25 percent," he said.

A key section of the bill states: "No funds authorized or appropriated by federal law, and none of the funds in any trust fund to which funds are authorized or appropriated by federal law, shall be expended for any abortion."

Smith's bill was referred to the House Ways and Means Committee, and has bipartisan support from 153 Republicans and 10 Democrats. Smith further credits Lipinski for joining him in introducing this bill to the House.

Lipinski, the lone Democrat who voted against Obamacare, is confident that the House will gain certain pro-life victories.

"I think in the House of Representatives we are going to pass the Protect Life Act which I have introduced with along with Joe Pitts, [R-Pa.,] to take the abortion funding out of the health-care law," he said.

The Protect Life Act, cosponsored by 85 Republicans and five Democrats, has been referred to House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Lipinski also said, "I think we're going to pass Chris Smith's bill, the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, to take out all taxpayer funding from federal programs. And we have work to do in the Senate after that."

Referring to his allies in Congress, Pence said, "We just believe the time has come to deny federal funding to Planned Parenthood of America. I think most Americans are surprised to learn that the largest abortion provider in America is also the largest recipient of federal funding under Title X. We now have more than 150 cosponsors on Capitol Hill for the legislation that I've offered to deny federal funding and we're hopeful for its passage."

According to sources online, 147 Republicans already are supporting Pence's Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act along with three Democrats, and it's been referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Since Pence is a popular choice to run for president in 2012, WND asked whether he has decided to run.

He said, "We're obviously very humbled and encouraged to seek higher office, and my family and I are in the process of evaluating where we can make the most difference through the values that we are standing for here to today."

The annual march protests the 1973 Supreme Court conclusion in Roe v. Wade in which the justices overruled state statutes and decriminalized abortion nationwide.

Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said the decision has led to a "holocaust" in the U.S., and "it amounts to a stain on our national conscience and it's 'time for it to end."

There was no lack of intensity on the part of the marchers.

"A country that is able to kill their own children is kind of a hypocrite country to me," 15-year-old Anthony Rivera of Charlotte, N.C., told ABC. "How can you decide that a fetus is not a living thing? If it is not alive then it is not a baby. And if it's not a baby then you're not pregnant. So it's not terminating a pregnancy, you're just killing a life. So how can we have a country that kills our own children?"



Also on hand was Abby Johnson, renowned former director of a Planned Parenthood in Texas.

"Lawmakers and judges have to take notice because there's 250,000 – 300,000 – people right there in their front yard," she told WND.

Johnson understands why abortion advocates try to ignore pro-lifers. While she worked at Planned Parenthood, she thought of herself as a Christian and resented them praying outside her office. Now she's becoming a Catholic and speaking about her pro-life conversion in the bestselling book "unPlanned."

Johnson's change of mind and heart began as she assisted in an abortion and watched it on a sonogram.

"It was clear to me that I wasn't watching a simple choice," she said. "It was very gruesome, the taking of a life. I saw the baby's body being twisted and burned. As I said in the book, the baby was wrung like a dish cloth and its body just kind of crumbled into the tube. It was terrible to watch."

American Cardinal Raymond Burke, prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of Apostolic Signatura, otherwise known as chief justice of the Vatican supreme court, sent a message from Rome to the nation's largest religious bloc and everyone of good will.

"The annual March for Life is a most effective instrument in the work of restoring the protection of the right to life for the innocent and defenseless unborn," he said."It gives an eloquent and strong pro-life witness to the whole nation.

"[I]t is important that as many citizens as are able make the effort to take part in the March for Life for the sake of our tiniest brothers and sisters."

Burke hopes that the executive, lawmaking and judicial branches of the U.S. government will restore protection of "the right to life of all, from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death" because it's "critical to the future of our nation and all of her citizens."

Rabbi Yehuda Levin, president of the Rabbinical Alliance of America, said, "Ask yourself, am I here to have a good time and shout for life with my friends or am I going to use this as a catalyst for the rest of the year?'

Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, joined the chorus.

"Why do I march, and why do I encourage others to march?" he asked. "It gives voice to the children. Yes, abortion continues unabated. But it does not continue unchallenged. When a tragedy goes on and on, the voice of those who defend the victims must only increase, not fall silent."

Alveda King, pastoral associate of Priests for Life and spokesperson for the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, believes that victory begins with love and prayer.

"As my uncle Martin Luther King, Jr. said, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.' Abortion is the greatest injustice of our time," she said. "As members of the human race, we are called by God to protect the least among us, the unborn babies in the womb."

Joe Scheidler, founder and director of the Pro-Life Action League, said, "There's a mood change in the country. Abortion is still an ugly word. Most doctors and people who work in abortion clinics pretend they're not doing that.

"I march for life because I'm trying to reach people that will be activists," he said. "I think pro-life people are the greatest people in the world because they know the truth and truth is the root of freedom."

Contact: Anita Crane
Source: WorldNetDaily

Planned Parenthood involved in sex trafficking cover-ups?

Bryan Howard, btw, is the Planned Parenthood staffer who asked President Obama this question at that infamous 2007 PP fundraiser:

 
Bryan Howard: Senator Obama, thank you for being here today.

Senator Obama: Thank you, Bryan.

Bryan Howard: Um, you know that rights and access and rights and ability have to go hand in hand. Um, and we know that health care reform is an important part of your agenda. Could you talk – and  give us some specifics about how reproductive health care and women's health care is going to fit into and be a part of primary care for women in your health care reform plans and how PP, as asafety net provider, will continue to be a part of the health care safety net for women and families across the country.
 

Bryan didn't specify PP is apparently a "safety net provider" for child sex traffickers.



Accompanying some very nice model portfolio shots of  Arizona Planned Parenthood CEO Bryan Howard came an Associated Press story last night, "AP Exclusive: Planned Parenthood seeks FBI probe."

What apparently has happened is sex clean-up workers in various PP abortion mills around the country have realized after kibitzing about a patient that they've been stung again by Lila Rose and LiveAction.org, as recently as January 11-15, according to the AP.

What Lila and her team do is no different than what MSM investigative  teams or Ashton Kutcher do. Lila's undercover work is totally legal. She only conducts it in states where the videotaping party does not have to notify the other party to smile for the camera.  Lila has never, in all these years, been accused of illegal activity.



PP knows this but is trying to preempt Lila this time by breaking the story first, and with its own spin.

And it's very good spin. One has to read the story a couple times to understand PP didn't call the FBI on Lila but rather in a belated attempt to appear on the up-and-up.

According to the AP story, the scenario this time involved "a man purporting to be a sex trafficker" who "requested information about health services for sex workers, including some who he said were minors and in the U.S. illegally."

This sounds like the PP parallel to James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles' ACORN sting.

Imagine if workers at any of the 12 abortion mills PP claims Live Action punked indeed offered to help the trafficker get abortions, STD treatment, and/or contraceptives for his illegal, minor sex slaves.

Well, guess what, apparently they did. According to the AP Lila responded, "The story that speaks loudest will be in the evidence. I can't comment until we release the visual evidence."

Can't wait. And guess what again, I've been told a little about the "visual evidence," and it's utterly appalling, Lila's most explosive exposure yet of the filthy disgusting abortion biz that is Planned Parenthood.

In an attempt to put the toothpaste back in the tube, the AP reported that…

 

… Last week, Planned Parenthood… president Cecile Richards wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder summarizing the visits and requesting an FBI investigation. If the man's assertions were true, she wrote, they would indicate possible violations of federal laws dealing with interstate sex trafficking of minors.
 

And what if PP workers were caught on video offering to aid and abet such a man? Wouldn't they, too, be breaking federal laws?

It's too bad Lila's videos aren't part of federal investigations but only citizen journalism.

All Lila does is expose PP to the world as filthy slime that exploits girls and women in the worst ways for filthy profits.

Contact: Jill Stanek
Source: JillStanek.com

Pence: ‘A Nation That Will Not Stand For Life Will Not Stand For Long’

Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., center, speaks at the 38th annual March for life on the National Mall in Washington on Monday, Jan. 24, 2011. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) told pro-life activists in Washington on Monday that "a nation that will not stand for life will not stand for long."

The Indiana congressman -- who appears to have his eye on higher office – told the 38th annual March for Life that pro-lifers "will keep gathering until Roe v. Wade is sent to the ash heap of history where it belongs."

(Roe v. Wade is 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortions nationwide. One conservative leader, the Family Research Council's Tony Perkins, noted that the decision of seven unelected judges has led to the largest loss of life in human history.)

Despite the nation's current economic challenges, Pence said the fight for life should not be ignored. He said the process of cutting federal spending should begin with a denial of all federal funding for abortion, both at home and abroad.

"We must not remain silent when great moral battles are being waged," said Pence. "Those who would have us ignore the battle being fought over life have forgotten the lessons of history. As in the days of a house divided, America's darkest moments have come when economic arguments trumped moral principles."

Pence called for stripping Planned Parenthood, which he referred to as the "largest abortion provider in America," of federal funding.

"Every American knows in their heart, this is the greatest nation on earth because we acknowledge the God-given right to liberty, the pursuit of happiness and the unalienable right to life," Pence said. He said it's time to restore the "sanctity of life" to the "center of American law."

The annual March for Life has been held every year since 1974, the year after the Supreme Court's decision legalizing abortion on demand. The march begins on the National Mall and ends in front of the Supreme Court building, located directly behind the U.S. Capitol.

"Thank you for braving the cold one more time," Pence told the crowd.  "We will win this fight because the deepest desire of every mother and father is to protect their child, at any cost, even with their own lives, and that truth cannot be erased."

According to the liberal Guttmacher Institute, 1.2 million abortions take place in the United States each year.  Since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, more than 52 million children have been killed by abortion in America. (See earlier story)

After addressing the 2011 March for Life attendees, Rep. Steve King (R-La.) said in a statement that the end of Roe v. Wade will occur in "our time."

"For 38 years, Americans have come here to pray and march for life," said King. "Thomas Jefferson said generation is 19 years; that's two generations of Americans who have been here. Millions of Americans come here, make friends, march, pray for life, and deploy back across America to do the same. Because of the dedication of these generations of Americans, I am confident that we will see the end of Roe v. Wade in our time."

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) praised the March for Life attendees for withstanding the bitter cold. He called it the U.S. government's "moral and constitutional obligation to protect the sanctity of human life.

"The right to life is a foundational right, fundamental to the strength and vitality of this great nation, and I will continue to fight the pro-life battle in the Senate," Inhofe promised. "The yearly event serves as a reminder that we must continue to fight for the rights of the most vulnerable."

Contact: Edwin Mora
Source: CNSNews.com

Hundreds of thousands assemble against abortion in DC

March for Life 2011 / Photo Credit Beechwood Photography

Hundreds of thousands of people packed the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 24 to show their support for the human rights of the unborn at the annual March for Life.
 
This year's march marked the 38th anniversary of the  Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade.
 
For the first time ever, the morning rally events that preceded the March for Life took place at two locations – the Verizon Center and D.C. Armory – to accommodate larger-than-usual crowds. Growing youth participation, possibly assisted by online social media, has nearly quadrupled the size of the march during the past decade.
 
Fr. Mark Ivany, a priest from Bethesda, Md., told the crowd at the Verizon center on the morning of the march that they were speaking on behalf of those who would never be able to speak for themselves.
 
"The greatest difference between other civil rights movements and this one," Fr. Ivany reflected solemnly, "is that most of the people affected by Roe v. Wade can't march on Washington. They can't give great speeches."
 
In the afternoon, the demonstrators assembled on the Washington Mall before proceeding to the steps of the Supreme Court. Although the city of Washington, D.C. does not provide estimates of the crowd size at the yearly event, organizers predicted that up to 400,000 people would participate in this year's march.
 
The evening before the event, thousands gathered in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception for the opening Mass of the National Prayer Vigil for Life. Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo, Archbishop of Galveston-Houston, Texas and chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities, celebrated the Mass for a capacity crowd at the nation's largest Catholic church.
 
Cardinal DiNardo drew particular encouragement from the presence of many young people who came from across the nation to advocate for the human rights of the unborn. He described the youth as the "genuine leaders and pioneers of this March for Life," noting that their stand against abortion showed a willingness to question the fashionable stances and received opinions of popular culture.
 
He recalled the words of Pope John Paul II, whose beatification he hailed as "sign of light in darkness" for those defending the rights of the unborn against violence. The late Pope, he said, "called on us to be a 'luminous conscience' for many whose conscience, on the dignity of the human person, is distorted, and thus lives in shadows."
 
Catholic participation in the March for Life itself has always been strong, although the event attracts participants with various beliefs. Its focus is on the right to life as a question of justice and human rights, rather than as a matter of faith – an approach that Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York recently endorsed when he called the defense of unborn life "the premier civil rights issue of our day."
 
In a statement welcoming the marchers to the nation's capital, House Speaker John Boehner (R – Ohio) expressed a similar perspective on abortion as a violation of both constitutional and moral principles. He stated that the March for Life, and similar efforts "aimed at restoring the damage of the Roe decision," reflected the best principles of American society and "must continue."
 
"Americans love life as much as we love freedom," he said, indicating that public policy should never seek to balance the freedom of one individual against the vulnerable life of another, but must always respect both. In an authentic vision of freedom, he said, these "founding principles" – individual liberty, and the right to life – are inseparably "intertwined, and form the basis of our national character."
 
No one is safe, Boehner observed, when the most vulnerable members of society lose their rights. "Without respect for life, freedom is in jeopardy."
 
President Obama, however, praised the Roe v. Wade decision on its anniversary, Jan. 22, stating that he is "committed to protecting this constitutional right." The decision held that a right to abortion was implicit in the 14th amendment, a provision originally intended to ensure that no person or group would be unjustly deprived of "life, liberty, or property" after the abolition of slavery.
 
The president, whose 2009 "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act" allocated a total of $4.1 billion for government-funded or state-run child-care programs, nonetheless said that the Roe decision "affirms the fundamental principle" that "government should not intrude on private family matters."
 

Contact: Benjamin Mann

Source: CNA/EWTN News

March for Life 2011

Missed the March? Check out ProLifeBlogs full coverage, Lifenewsand Cspan. What about ProLifeCon? Yep, you can still watch the video.

Blogustine reports:
 

There was great excitement in Washington DC today as over 250,000 people converged on the National Mall for a pro-life rally and the 38th annual March For Life. The atmosphere is super-charged every year as young and old alike show their support for overturning the infamous Roe v. Wade court case which legalized abortion-on-demand.
 

See this an other great photos here:
Rep. Mike Pence gave a powerful speech:
 

These are trying times in the life of this nation. Our economy is struggling and our national government is awash in a sea of debt. Amidst these struggles, some would have us focus our energies on jobs and spending.  
We must not remain silent when great moral battles are being waged. Those who would have us ignore the battle being fought over life have forgotten the lessons of history. As in the days of a house divided, America's darkest moments have come when economic arguments trumped moral principles.
A nation that will not stand for life will not stand for long. You know there can be no lasting prosperity without a moral foundation in law.
 
And as to focusing on spending, I agree. Let's start by denying all federal funding for abortion at home and abroad.
 

More here

Source: ProLifeBlogs.com

Today's Newslinks

Liberal media outlets discovering pro-life cause?
Are some reliably left-leaning journals finally recognizing the validity of pro-life claims?  Mother Jones carries a lengthy and mostly sympathetic portrait of a pro-life lawyer and his efforts to promote legislation that would protect both unborn children and their mothers.

Abortionist Surprised By Denial Of Bail
Abortion doc Kermit Gosnell, who is accused of killing one patient and seven infants at his West Philadelphia clinic, was surprised when he was denied bail at his arraignment yesterday. "Is there some cause to believe I'm a risk or might flee?" he asked District Judge Jane Rice. Rice explained to Gosnell, 69, that there is no bail for murder - and he was facing eight counts of it.

Baby Killer 'May' Face Death Penalty
Last week, news of a horrific find in a Philadelphia abortion clinic made even the strongest cringe in disbelief and outrage. When executing a warrant for controlled substance violations, officials discovered a horrific "abortion mill." Dr. Kermit Gosnell was charged with eight counts of murder: seven infants and one woman. Each of the infants died after labor was induced and the child was born.

European court: right to commit suicide is among human rights
The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the "respect for private life" found in the European Convention of Human Rights includes the right of individuals to choose freely to commit suicide.

Obama praises Roe, says decision protects women's health and freedom
President Barack Obama issued a statement on January 22 praising Roe v. Wade, the infamous Supreme Court decision that struck down laws across the nation protecting unborn children. In the 38 years since the decision, 53 million unborn children have been slain in their mothers' wombs.

Vermont Assisted Suicide Bill the Usual Loophole Scam
American assisted suicide activists pretend that legalization is to be strictly controlled.  But the legislation they propose–and the laws they pass–contain loopholes big enough for a hearse to drive through.

Abortion And The Creation Of Demand
 An abortion center can open and pay for itself in its first month and be a profit center every month after that. The slaughter of the unborn is a HUGE money making enterprise for those who operate and own the the clinics. In order to drive demand for their product (abortions) the practitioners and owners of the clinics will go to schools and sell abortions to teens through the means of selling safe sex.

The deadly logic of abortion

     

Saturday marked the 38th anniversary of the infamous Roe v. Wade decision that opened the floodgates for abortion in America. On Jan. 22, 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down the decision, declaring that women have a constitutional right to an abortion. Hard as it is to imagine, the justices in the majority really believed that their decision would end the national debate over abortion. Not by a long shot.

Nearly four decades later, the argument rages on -- and so does the carnage. The national abortion rate is over 20 percent. Just last week it was reported that the abortion rate in New York City is over 40 percent, and among African-Americans in that city, nearly 60 percent. In other words, an abortion industrial complex now claims over a million unborn lives each year. The carnage just continues.

In recent days, two horrifying accounts of abortion have gripped the human conscience. From Australia, news came of a couple who had aborted twin boys, just because they wanted a baby girl. Having three sons already, the couple aborted the twins because they want a daughter after the death of a previous baby girl who died shortly after birth.

The couple is now appealing to a legal tribunal, demanding the right to use gender selection in the course of an IVF procedure. Australia, unlike the United States, has laws against gender selection. The couple is pressing for an exception.

The abortion of the twin boys precipitated an international outcry, with headlines carrying the news around the world. But, even as millions were morally troubled by the account, many were unable to muster a moral argument against the abortions. Why? Because the logic of abortion has been so widely accepted in the larger society.

The very idea of gender-selection abortions is abhorrent, and most people would almost surely argue that such abortions should not be allowed. But the logic of abortion rights demands that a woman be recognized as having a right to an abortion at any time for any reason or for no reason. Once you accept abortion as a moral option, it is virtually impossible to preclude any abortion for any reason. The Culture of Death is built upon the logic of abortion on demand. Once the floodgates were opened, it became almost impossible to stem the tide.

On Jan. 19, the Associated Press reported that a Pennsylvania doctor had been charged with eight counts of murder in the deaths of one woman and seven babies, "who were born alive and then killed with scissors."

The description of Gosnell's Women's Medical Society sounds like something out of a Stephen King novel. Investigators found bags and bottles containing aborted babies and parts of babies. District Attorney Seth Williams said that Dr. Kermit Gosnell "induced labor, forced the live birth of viable babies in sixth, seventh, eighth month of pregnancy, and then killed those babies by cutting into the back of the neck with scissors and severing their spinal cord."

Williams described Gosnell's clinic as a "house of horrors." Gosnell, it turns out, made millions of dollars by performing thousands of abortions, including late-term abortions. According to the prosecutors, Gosnell performed "as many illegal late-term abortions as he could."

Dr. Gosnell has been charged with multiple counts of murder, and for this fact, we should be thankful. But the reality is that what Dr. Gosnell did is just a more graphic display of the horror inside every abortionist's chamber.

These two cases illustrate the pattern of moral confusion found among the public. News of the "house of horrors" in Pennsylvania brings prompt moral outrage, and understandably so. But is the abortion clinic on the corner, established for the purpose of killing unborn children, any less a house of horrors?

The couple in Australia openly admitted aborting their twin boys because they want a daughter. Millions around the world seem outraged by their decision, but having accepted the basic logic of abortion, they are hard-pressed to define when any abortion demanded by a woman might be unjustified and thus illegal.

The Christian revulsion over abortion and the destruction of human life is based in the knowledge that God is the Author of all life and of every life, without exception. Abortion is the business of death, and it is the great wound that runs through the nation's conscience. These shocking accounts may sear their way into the nation's collective conscience, but unless the basic logic of abortion rights is overturned, such accounts will erupt again and again.

Once we buy into the logic of abortion, there is no end to the trail of tears. In the case of the Australian couple, a professor of medicine commented that they should be able to select the gender of their baby after aborting the twin boys. "I can't see how it could possibly hurt anyone," he said.

What about the twins?

Contact: R. Albert Mohler Jr.
Source: Baptist Press

American Idol Contestant Chooses Life

     

A new season of American Idol started this week with auditions in New Orleans, La. One audition yielded an inspiring story. Paris Tassin, in an interview with American Idol, talked about her daughter, who inspired her to audition for the show. Tassin's daughter was diagnosed in utero with Hydrocephalus. The Doctors advised her to abort her daughter, but Tassin chose to continue her pregnancy.

"I got pregnant at 18 years old. It was tough for me 'cause I wasn't ready yet… [The doctors] told me that I shouldn't have her and that it wasn't going to be good if I did, but I decided to keep forward with the pregnancy… she's the best thing that's ever happened to me in my life… I'm very proud of her…"

Tassin sang Carrie Underwood's "Temporary Home" before the judges, and there was no doubt that she left a big impression on not only the judges, but the 22.9 million people who watched the show and heard her story.

Click here to view the video.

Contact: Krystle Weeks
Source: FRC Blog

Bills would bar Federal Funds for Abortion

     

Pro-life members of Congress reinforced Jan. 20 their intention to prohibit federal funding of abortion by introducing two bills, one that would accomplish the feat across the board and one that would do so in last year's health-care law.

The introduction of the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, H.R. 3, and Protect Life Act, H.R. 358, came one day after the House of Representatives voted 245-189 to repeal the health-care measure dubbed "Obamacare" by its critics. One of the reasons for the effort to rescind the 2010 law was its authorization of subsidies for insurance plans that cover abortion.

The No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, which was introduced by Rep. Chris Smith, R.-N.J., with 161 cosponsors, would institute a permanent, government-wide ban on federal funds and subsidies for abortion. It would serve to standardize bans on abortion funding that now exist in various federal programs, many of which have to be approved each year, and make certain the prohibition extends to all agencies.

The Protect Life Act, introduced by Rep. Joe Pitts, R.-Pa., with 89 cosponsors, would amend last year's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to bar federal money from paying for abortion or abortion coverage.

Speaker of the House John Boehner called Smith's bill "one of our highest legislative priorities" and designated it as H.R. 3 to demonstrate its importance.

"A ban on taxpayer funding of abortion is the will of the people and ought to be the law of the land," Boehner said at a Jan. 20 news conference announcing its introduction.

The Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) urged about 90 House members to sign on as original cosponsors of the government-wide funding ban.

"We find it unconscionable that a single taxpayer dollar be funneled for abortion," ERLC President Richard Land said in a Jan. 19 letter to the House members. "With the adoption of the [Smith] bill, concerns on abortion funding would be significantly abated."

If approved by the House, both legislative pieces face unpromising prospects in the Senate, which is not as pro-life as the House. In addition, President Obama would be expected to veto either bill that reached his desk.

Smith and Pitts both appealed to Obama regarding their proposed bans.

"President Obama said he wants abortions to be rare," Smith said. "To Mr. Obama I say, 'Here is a bill for you.'"

Smith cited a report by the Guttmacher Institute -- a pro-choice research organization -- that a ban on government funding of abortion reduces the number of procedures by 25 percent.

Pitts said Obama agreed with the goals of the bills and demonstrated it by issuing an executive order "trying to prove his support for prohibiting federal funding for abortion" after he signed health-care reform into law in March. "If he chooses to stand by his word, he should have no problem signing both bills into law," Pitts said of the president.

Pro-life advocates inside and outside the House reject Obama's executive order as ineffective. They point out the president could rescind his order at any time and contend the federal courts would rule in favor of the language in the law, not that in the executive order.

The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) also challenged Obama.

"If President Obama seeks to obstruct these bills, that will provide additional glaring evidence that his professions of opposition to public funding of abortion are phony," NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson said in a written statement.

Johnson also said, "Public opinion is strongly against federal subsidies for abortion, and any member of Congress who is truly opposed to federal funding of abortion will vote for both of these bills."

Smith's bill also would institute conscience clause protections for pro-life, health-care workers.

Rep. Dan Lipinski of Illinois is the lead Democratic cosponsor on both Smith and Pitts' bills.

In another pro-life effort to halt abortion-related funding, Rep. Mike Pence, R.-Ind., introduced Jan. 7 the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act, H.R. 217. Pence's bill would bar Title X family planning money from going to organizations that perform abortions. That would include Planned Parenthood, the leading Title X recipient and the country's No. 1 abortion provider. As of Jan. 21, Pence's bill had 149 cosponsors.

Contact: Tom Strode
Source: Baptist Press

Speaker Boehner Marks 38th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade Decision, Welcomes March to Life Participants

     

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) issued the following statement today marking the 38th anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade and welcoming participants in the annual March for Life, which will take place on Monday, January 24:

"Today marks the 38th anniversary of the Supreme Court's tragic Roe v. Wade decision that tore asunder a right to life our Founding Fathers described so indelibly in our Declaration of Independence.  The decision denigrated the respect we must have for life at all stages, especially the innocent unborn.  

"The new House majority has listened to the people and pledged to end taxpayer funding of abortion.  A ban is the will of the people and ought to be the law of the land.  This week, Congressman Chris Smith introduced bipartisan legislation that would codify the Hyde Amendment and similar policies by permanently applying a ban on taxpayer funding of abortion across all federal programs.  This is critical, common-sense legislation that deserves the support of the people's representatives and the president.

"The cause of life endures today in large part due to the vigilance of all those Americans who, led by Nellie Gray, travel to Washington each year at this time to march and pray for the protection of the unborn.  These efforts--aimed at restoring the damage of the Roe decision--must continue.  Americans love life as much as we love freedom.  These two founding principles are intertwined and form the basis of our national character.  Without respect for life, freedom is in jeopardy."

Contact: Michael Steel, Brendan Buck, Kevin Smith

Illinois Nears the 2 Million Abortion Mark

Thirty-eight years ago today, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in Roe vs Wadethat unrestricted abortion is protected by the U.S. Constitution. Since that time, the Illinois Department of Public Health has kept track of the number of unborn children aborted within Illinois borders.

According to the IDPH's numbers, we will likely reach the 2 million aborted babies' mark in 2011. Thus far, according to the departments chart, 1,907,081& procedures have been committed by Illinois abortionists since 1973.