Land’s End clothing quickly withdraws glowing tribute to pro-abortion icon Gloria Steinem

This photo spread interview with Gloria Steinem spurred backlash

In its corporate apology issued Wednesday, Land’s End wrote

“We thought it was a good idea and we heard from our customers that, for different reasons, it wasn’t.”

The Dodgeville, Wisconsin-based retailer of traditional clothing’s “good idea” was to include an interview with and photos of pro-abortion icon Gloria Steinem in its spring catalogue to kick off the Lands’ End “Legend Series” on “individuals who have made a difference in both their respective industries and the world at large.” The Steinem interview was conducted by Company CEO Federica Marchionni.

The backpeddling was furious as irate customers took to the company’s Facebook page to blast the decision. The interview was pulled yesterday with Land’s End saying it “sincerely apologize[d]. Our goal was to feature individuals with different interests and backgrounds that have made a difference for our new Legends Series, not to take any political or religious stance.”

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

House hearing on Planned Parenthood set for next Wednesday

The House Select Panel on Infant Lives has scheduled its first hearing into allegations that Planned Parenthood profits from the sale of aborted fetal organs and tissue. The hearing will take place next Wednesday at 10 a.m.

The House committee will hear testimony from expert witnesses on the issue of Bioethics and Fetal Tissue as it relates to Planned Parenthood’s alleged practice of profiting off the sale of aborted baby organs, and illegally altering surgical procedures to procure “live,” “intact” babies to sell to research companies.

Click here for more from LifeSiteNews.com

Congressman: Essure ‘contraceptive’ caused hundreds of fetal deaths

A Pennsylvania congressman is calling for a controversial contraceptive device to be pulled from the market pending safety studies, saying it is behind the deaths of more than 300 unborn children.

Representative Mike Fitzpatrick said Wednesday that the Food and Drug Administration has ignored roughly 303 fetal deaths that were linked to the abortifacient sterilization device Essure.

Click here for more from LifeSiteNews.com

The Pro-Leader's Role in the 2016 Elections

The topic of this video is how can churches and other C3 organizations participate in elections here in the State of Illinois.  Learn what pastors and churches can do to help candidates that share their values.

Illinois Vision 2020 Webinar from iWorshipCenter on Vimeo.

Obama like clockwork in opposing abstinence ed funding

President Obama's 2017 budget proposal eliminates a $10-million/year grant program for abstinence-only education – also known as sexual risk avoidance (SRA). Valerie Huber of Ascend, formerly known as the National Abstinence Education Association, says this comes as no surprise – even after Congress boosted the program to the $10 million mark.

"He is predictable but inexcusable," says the group's executive director. "Every single year since he has assumed the office of president, the budget that he sent to Congress eliminated every penny for sexual risk avoidance education – and this year is no exception."

"We're having a congressional briefing on Capitol Hill to let members of Congress and their offices know the lay of the land and what is in peril this year," she explains, "and to help them understand the benefits of sexual risk avoidance education."

Click here for more from OneNewsNow.

Born premature at 10 ounces, one of the world’s tiniest babies goes home

Baby E’Layah Pegues, one of the smallest and youngest babies to have ever survived premature birth, is going home. She was born via emergency C-section on September 23, 2015, at just 24 weeks gestation.

E’Layah’s mother Megan Smith began to experience severely high blood pressure during her pregnancy, and both her life and the life of her daughter were at risk. Doctors, who said they could fit E’Layah in their palms when she was born, were not sure she would survive, and they prepared E’Layah’s parents for the worst. However, her mother never gve up hope, and E’Layah proved to be a fighter.

Smith told ABC News that they gave E’Layah the middle name of Faith because she and her fiancé would always have faith and would never give up on their daughter. Before heading into the C-section, Smith prayed.

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Why the U.S. Senate must refuse to cooperate in President Obama’s plan to make the U.S. Supreme Court into a pro-abortion super-legislature

At the U.S. Supreme Court, a vacant chair is draped in black. In filling the vacant seat, the stakes could not be higher.

The vacancy should be filled by the president who is elected on November 8, 2016.

Certainly, the Constitution gives President Obama the authority to nominate a replacement for the late Justice Antonin Scalia – but the Constitution also makes it clear that the vacancy will endure until the U.S. Senate gives “consent” to a nominee. There are various ways that the Senate may refuse to consent, including inaction on a nomination, which is what should occur in this case.

That is because this is not primarily about the professional credentials of a particular nominee – it is about who decides whether unborn children will be protected, whether religious liberty will be protected, and whether the free-speech rights of groups out of favor with the liberal elites will be protected (among other things).

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

IL family, pro-life and TEA Party leaders side with McCarter, condemn Shimkus, over latest ad

Despite claims being made by 20 year Congressman John Shimkus in a new campaign ad attacking Senator Kyle McCarter, the 15th CD GOP primary challenger says Shimkus is not telling the truth.

While January polling showed Shimkus way ahead of McCarter, Shimkus must see a need to try to dub McCarter "a Washington insider" that sides with the "Chicago Machine." The ad also accuses McCarter of supporting ObamaCare and Planned Parenthood.

“I never voted for or voiced support for Obamacare and I never supported Planned Parenthood funding,” McCarter said in a statement. “The healthcare resolution to Congress and the President asked them to address the healthcare issue. There was still ongoing national debate at the time and Obamacare was still two years away from taking effect."

Click here for more from Illinois Review.

Congressional Subpoenas Go Out to Uncooperative Abortion Providers, Profiteers

The Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives has announced that it will begin issuing subpoenas to two businesses and one publicly-funded university in an attempt to obtain information in its investigation of abortion abuses. All three institutions have been uncooperative with the Select Panel’s requests to voluntarily provide information to the Committee.

“It will be interesting to see what happens next. The subpoenas will set up a showdown between the rule of law and those who routinely act outside it. Will there be compliance with the subpoenas or will these members of the Abortion Cartel continue to behave as if they are above the law?” said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue. “We hope there is compliance, but the Committee must be prepared for the same arrogant defiance we have seen so often in the past.”

“This is a unique opportunity for the Committee to tear off the veil of secrecy that is protecting a corrupt system that is shielding abortion businesses from responsibility for substandard operations that is brutally killing babies just weeks or days from delivery and endangering the lives of women every day,” said Newman.

Click here for more from Operation Rescue.

Why do you matter? Just because you are

The great apologist G. K. Chesterton once wrote, “All men matter. You matter. I matter. It’s the hardest thing in theology to believe.”

Without being able to give credit where credit is due, this writer took Chesterton’s observation and concluded “And that God—the God who is big enough to speak all of that [just the part of the universe we know about] into existence and hold it in the palm of his hand—says you matter to him. He says I matter to him.”

I wonder, could there be anything that more fundamentally separates pro- and anti-life forces than the bedrock pro-life conviction that every life matters? That lives are not disposable based on some sort of sliding scale, whether that be “wantedness” or “quality of life” or any other arbitrary and capricious line of demarcation?

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Unborn children have lost a great champion

When pro-lifers read through so many Supreme Court decisions on abortion, decisions whose contempt for state legislatures was matched only by their indifference to the fate of unborn children, we could count on Justice Scalia to cut through the dithering and the deception and the duplicity.

Unlike many of his colleagues, he really did understand there are three branches of government and that the Supreme Court ought to pay appropriate deference to men and women elected by the people. Justice Scalia’s withering critiques of untethered judicial activism will be read by law students for generations to come.

As it relates to our issues, it’s important to remember that Justice Scalia warned decades ago that a kind of judicial mission creep might lead a future Supreme Court to declare that lurking in the penumbras of the Constitution is a “right” to physician-assisted suicide. Which, of course, is but one reason the kind of jurist who will be his eventual replacement is so important.

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

#ProjectWeakLink: Chicago's Stericycle, Inc. Targeted for Enabling Planned Parenthood

Stericycle is Planned Parenthood's main medical waste service provider in America.

Stericycle's collaboration with Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry through its collection, transportation, and disposal of aborted children and the instruments used to kill them is well documented (see Evidence). Providing this service enables the killing of preborn children. Planned Parenthood depends upon medical waste companies to dispose of dead babies.

Question: What if Stericycle were to stop doing the dirty work of Planned Parenthood?

Answer: Planned Parenthood would be unable to dispose of the babies they kill, and the murder of millions of innocent children by Planned Parenthood would likely halt.

Click here for more from Christian Newswire.

PP trying more abortions to offset losses

According to the numbers ALL vice president Jim Sedlak provided for OneNewsNow, Planned Parenthood closed many more clinics in 2015 than it opened.

“Planned Parenthood opened ten new facilities and closed 33 of their existing facilities,” Sedlak tells OneNewsNow.”They are now down to 645 clinics around the country. That is 293 less than there were in 1995.”

Now, Planned Parenthood is trying to increase medical abortions, RU486 and the like, because it costs less to set up facilities for those purposes — as opposed to surgical abortion clinics.

Click here for more from OneNewsNow.

NRLC Urges Co-Sponsorship of Dismemberment Abortion Ban

RE: Dismemberment Abortion Ban Act (H.R. 3515)

Dear Member of Congress:

The National Right to Life Committee, the federation of state right-to-life organizations, urges you to co-sponsor the Dismemberment Abortion Ban Act (H.R. 3515).

This vital pro-life legislation, introduced by Reps. Chris Smith, Vicki Hartzler, Virginia Foxx, and Trent Franks, would prohibit the performance of dismemberment abortion. H.R. 3515 is based on a model state bill proposed by National Right to Life, which was enacted during 2015 in Kansas and Oklahoma. So far in 2016, similar bills have been introduced in nine state legislatures, and in several of those legislatures the bills are moving forward.

H.R. 3515 defines “dismemberment abortion” as “knowingly dismembering a living unborn child and extracting such unborn child one piece at a time from the uterus through the use of clamps, grasping forceps, tongs, scissors or similar instruments that, through the convergence of two rigid levers, slice, crush or grasp a portion of the unborn child’s body in order to cut or rip it off . . .”

This definition largely overlaps with what those in the abortion trade currently refer to as “dilation and evacuation” or “dilation and extraction” (D&E) abortions. The method is commonly used starting at about 14 weeks of pregnancy, and extending into the third trimester.

H.R. 3515 allows performance of an dismemberment abortion if necessary to save a mother’s life. The bill also says that it does not limit abortions performed in cases of rape or incest, if performed by a method other than dismemberment abortion.

In his dissent in the 2000 case of Stenberg v. Carhart, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote regarding D&E abortion: “The fetus, in many cases, dies just as a human adult or child would: It bleeds to death as it is torn limb from limb. The fetus can be alive at the beginning of the dismemberment process and can survive for a time while its limbs are being torn off.”

A medical illustration of a D&E dismemberment abortion is available here.

If you agree that an unborn child should not be subjected to the cruel violence of having her arms and legs torn off by brute force, with steel tools that grasp, tear, and crush, please co-sponsor the Dismemberment Abortion Ban Act. Thank you for your consideration of the importance placed by our organization on this landmark legislation.

Respectfully submitted,

Carol Tobias
NRLC President

David N. O’Steen, Ph.D.
NRLC Executive Director

Douglas D. Johnson
NRLC Legislative Director

IFRL PAC makes Endorsements for the 2016 Illinois Primary

The Illinois Federation for Right to Life Political Action Committee has made it's 2016 Illinois Primary Endorsements.

Click here to view the IFRL PAC Endorsements.

Click here to download the IFRL PAC Endorsements in a printable PDF.

Click here for a webinar on The Pro-Leader's Role in the 2016 Elections.

Will 9th Circuit 'go liberal' on Daleiden?

Despite a lower-court ruling barring him from doing it, David Daleiden remains hopeful he will be able to release more undercover videos of abortion advocates discussing the harvesting and sale of aborted babies' body parts.

Since last summer Daleiden has released a series of "sting" videos, mostly of Planned Parenthood officials harvesting and discussing the sale of body parts from aborted babies. A federal judge in San Francisco has made permanent an injunction prohibiting Daleiden and his Center for Medical Progress from releasing videos featuring members of the National Abortion Federation. The NAF is suggesting the release could cause irreparable harm.

OneNewsNow talked with attorney Alexandra Snyder of Life Legal Defense Foundation, who says she's disappointed, but not surprised with the ruling. The impact, she says, is that Daleiden's speech "is still being censored."

Click here for more from OneNewsNow.

New undercover video shows National Abortion Federation 'really interested' in proposal for fetal-tissue sales

Undaunted by a federal court’s injunction against release of undercover videos involving the National Abortion Federation (NAF), the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) has released a new video, in which an NAF representative touts the advantage of a “group purchasing program” to promote sales of fetal tissues.

In the new video—which is not covered under the terms of the injunction granted last week by Judge William Orrick—a NAF official says that a proposal to provide kickbacks to abortion clinics that provide fetal tissues would be “a win-win” and “a really great option to be able to offer our members.”

Judge Orrick, in issuing an injunction against the release of videos filmed at NAF meetings, had charged that the CMP videos “have not been pieces of journalistic integrity, but misleadingly edited videos and unfounded assertions.” The judge insisted that no abortionists had shown an interest in the illegal sale of fetal tissues for profit. The new video released by CMP shows, however, that a NAF representative described a proposal to share profits from tissue sales as “something some of our members would be really interested in.”

Click here for more from Catholic World News.

3% of population producing 30% of abortions

During Black History Month, a pro-life leader reminds the nation that the most dangerous place for a black baby is in the womb.

Seven years ago, Pastor Walter Hoye of Issues for Life Foundation spent 18 days in jail in Oakland, California, for holding a pro-life sign on a sidewalk in that city. Now he is spreading the truth about the impact of abortion on the black community nationwide. He points first to stats for New York City.

“For every 1,000 live births that we have in the black community in New York City, we have over 12,000 abortions,” he says. “We need to bring this kind of information to the light.”

Nationwide, the figures for how many abortions take place among African Americans are just as dramatic.

Click here for more from OneNewsNow.

'Clever' Super Bowl ad has pro-life fans

By most accounts, it is a clever, funny commercial – but the fact that it clearly shows a baby in the womb is not a "clump of cells" has evidently offended abortion supporters.

"I thought it was a clever ad; it was funny," says National Right to Life Committee president Carol Tobias. "But what NARAL doesn't like is that it showed the unborn child as a human being with a personality – and they want everybody to think this is just a clump of cells."

Tobias is referring to a Super Bowl ad for Doritos that – via an ultrasound – depicts a preborn baby trying to reach his father's bag of Doritos. The pro-abortion group NARAL Pro-Choice America used Twitter to accuse the ad of "using #anti-choice tactic of humanizing fetuses."

Click here for more from OneNewsNow.

Pro-life and Pro-Family PACS support State Senator William "Sam" McCann

Three of the major Pro-life and Pro-Family political action committees in the State have come together in strong support of the candidacy of State Senator William "Sam" McCann for the 50th Senate District in the March 15, 2016 Republican Primary.

“Senator McCann has been a strong  voice for the pro-life cause, recently voting against a bill that would have forced crisis pregnancy centers, that devote their efforts to helping women choose Life for their unborn babies, to participate in abortion” said Ralph Rivera, Chairman of Illinois Citizens for Life, PAC and state lobbyist for Illinois Citizens for Life at the State Capitol.

David Smith with Illinois Family Action, PAC also voiced his strong support for Senator McCann, “Sam stood up for families and religious liberty when he voted against the so-called same-sex marriage bill. He has a consistent record of defending our families and our religious liberties.”

“Since being elected to the Illinois Senate, Senator McCann has supported our efforts and has been actively involved with numerous pro-life events to protect unborn lives,” stated Dawn Behnke, President of Illinois Federation for Right to Life, PAC.

The Illinois Citizens for Life and the Illinois Federation for Right to Life PACs are organizations that support candidates who take positions in support of the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death. Illinois Family Action, PAC supports candidates who will defend life, family, and religious liberties.

“I am humbled and honored to have the support of these three grassroots organizations that represent many families in my district. I stand with them and will continue to advocate for life, and family, and protect the religious liberties of all Illinoisans,” said State Senator Sam McCann.

Abortion group criticizes Doritos for "humanizing fetuses" in Super Bowl ad

The National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws (NARAL) commented on Twitter about several Super Bowl ads Sunday evening, but they found one especially offensive: the Doritos ad that NARAL said used an "antichoice tactic" of "humanizing fetuses

And NARAL's response:

An array of Tweets pushed back, reminding NARAL that fetuses in human moms are human.

NARAL's abortion policy is to insist mothers' reproduction rights include ending her baby's lives until birth, for any reason, including emotional distress and familial difficulties. They fully support and advocate Planned Parenthood, despite a move nationwide to defund.

Click here for more from Illinois Review.

Federal Judge Grants Preliminary Injunction to Prevent the Release of Additional Planned Parenthood Videos

The National Abortion Federation (NAF) has been granted a preliminary injunction by Judge William Orrick to keep David Daleiden and the Center for Medical Progress from publishing material recorded at NAF's annual meetings in 2014 and 2015.

Essentially, Judge Orrick's ruling came down to a balancing test that pitted Daleiden's First Amendment rights against NAF's assertions that continued publication of videos will result in "irreparable harm." The First Amendment lost.

Although Judge Orrick acknowledged that "debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open" (quoting New York Times v. Sullivan), his ruling prevents accurate information from being included in the public debate on an issue of paramount importance.

Click here for more from Christian Newswire.

House fails to override Obama veto, setting the stage for fall elections

Repeat after me: elections have consequences. In spite of a valiant effort by the pro-life Republican congressional leadership, we were unable to override pro-abortion President Barack Obama’s veto of HR 3762. Currently while we do not have two-thirds to override a presidential veto, the vote accomplished many critically important objectives.

At the top, every voter knows there are 186 members of the House who, rain or shine, scandal or no scandal, will vote to keep hundreds of millions of dollars of federal funds going to Planned Parenthood and protect many parts of Obamacare, including the program that provides tax-based subsidies for about 1,000 health plans that cover elective abortions.

The vote also reminded us of what happens when the occupant of the White House walks arm-in-arm with the abortion industry.

Tuesday tally was 241-186, a vote that came down almost entirely along party lines. All but three Republicans– John Katko and Richard Hanna of New York, and Bob Dold of Illinois–voted to override Obama’s veto of “The Restoring Americans’ Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act.”

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Hillary Clinton Punts on Assisted Suicide

Hillary Clinton has a shriveled moral core. When asked about one of the most important and radical social agendas the other night–the euphemistic, “death with dignity”–she wouldn’t take a position.

From the Politico story:

At the town hall, Hillary Clinton fielded what she said was her first campaign question about physician-assisted suicide. Clinton didn’t stake out a position on the controversial issue, but said it will come up more frequently as people live longer with serious illnesses. 

“It is a crucial issue that people deserve to understand from their own ethical, religious and faith-based perspectives,” she said. Clinton added that she wants to examine what other countries, like the Netherlands, have experienced after enacting laws. 

She had no ready answer because she hadn’t yet polled and focus grouped the issue.

Click here for more from National Review.

Another historical step for the unborn

Today an important historical step occurred on our road to returning protection to the unborn. It won’t lead to a new law – not yet – but it is an important victory nonetheless.

Today, pro-lifers got as close as we’ve come to eliminating virtually all federal funding of Planned Parenthood, and also to repealing major anti-life provisions of Obamacare. Working strategically with pro-life leaders in Congress, we won important votes on the floors of the House and Senate, employing a rarely used procedural technique called Budget Reconciliation to get the bill that we call the “pro-life budget reconciliation bill” to the president’s desk.

That Barack Obama chose to veto the bill, and today got enough of his Democratic House members to vote to uphold his veto, doesn’t end the issue. Not at all.

What it does is to show America what we need to advance from this important step to ultimate enactment: a pro-life president in 2016 who will not veto the bill.

It’s that simple.

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Pro-lifers Sen. Ted Cruz, Donald Trump, and Sen. Marco Rubio finish 1-2-3 in Iowa

Pro-abortionists Clinton and Sanders end in dead-heat

It was worth every minute of a long, long day and night. As you all know by now, the turnout for the Iowa caucuses last night was extremely high (171,000+) with the requisite surprises (there are always surprises in the first in the nation caucus).

Pro-lifers ran the table on the Republican side, with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz defeating billionaire businessman Donald Trump 28% to 24%. The big surprise on the GOP side is that Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s gamble paid off. His campaign said he had intended to leave early to gear up in New Hampshire, saw a surge coming, and stayed in Iowa. His reward was to finish a strong third with 23%.

On the Democratic side, pro-abortion Hillary Clinton cautiously sort of declared victory last night; as of this morning she is ahead of pro-abortion Democratic Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders by a hair–3/10ths of one percent. Clinton–at one time ahead by 30 points over Sanders in opinion polls–probably put it best when she said she was “breathing a big sigh of relief.”

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Standing up against the barrage of pro-abortion propaganda to use Zika virus as a reason to tear down protective abortion laws

There is nothing–nothing wonderful, nothing tragic, and nothing in-between–that the Abortion Lobby will not attempt to exploit to further its ever-expanding death agenda.

By now we probably all know that the Zika virus is spread by a particular mosquito. Ordinarily the symptoms are relatively mild but with pregnant women it has been linked to a rise in the number of babies born with microcephaly–abnormally small heads and incomplete brain development.

The range of microcephaly, like any neurological disorder, ranges from relatively mild to severe.

Today, for only the fourth time ever, the World Health Organization declared a public health emergency of international concern.

So what is notorious online abortion service Women On Web offering? Money to develop a vaccine? Of course not.

For women who are nine weeks pregnant or less “free abortion medication to women in the Zika virus zone.”

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Illinois pro-life activist's home vandalized

When Illinois pro-life activist Jill Stanek returned home Sunday night from a vacation with her family, she found a cinder block had been thrown through their living room window with a note attached saying, "Quit the pro-life bullsh*t."

"In the scheme of things this was nothing. But having my home vandalized was a first for me in the prolife movement," Stanek wrote on her Facebook page. "As if they thought this would make me stop?"

Stanek, who has been active in the pro-life movement since 1999, said the police suggested not publicizing, but resisted, saying she wasn't going to let pro-choice violence go unchecked.

Click here for more from Illinois Review.

Apple correcting “flaw” in inquiries about abortion

Pro-abortionists are, if not feeling overjoyed, pleased that Apple has made changes which have corrected flaws in the algorithm that may have directed Siri and Apple Map users seeking information about the nearest abortion clinic to a crisis pregnancy center rather than Planned Parenthood.

Then and now the usual suspects were infuriated that “Siri,” an advanced voice-recognition app available on Apple’s iPhone, was not responding ”properly” to the question, “I am pregnant and do not want to be. Where can I go to get an abortion?”

At the time Apple said there was no pro-life agenda. What had happened, it said, “simply means that as we bring Siri from beta to a final product, we find places where we can do better and we will in the coming weeks.”

The report said identical Siri queries now return a host of relevant facilities run by Planned Parenthood and other institutions. Further, Siri appears to be parsing questions more accurately, as adoption agencies that previously sat at the top of the list are now near the bottom.

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Why our Movement is so upbeat as we enter 2016

Let’s examine at how the two sides look at the current state of the abortion battle.

On one side are pro-abortionists so shaky about their prospects, so nervous about the drift of the battle over abortion that they pounce on even their most dedicated congressional allies if the timbre of their pronouncements sounds off ever so slightly.

That would include House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca.) and Democratic National Committee Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fl.) The latter was pilloried for daring to question whether younger pro-abortion feminists were sufficiently gung-ho for the nearly 69-year-old Hillary Clinton. The former was censured for telling The Hill that she wasn’t for abortion on demand. As always is the case with Pelosi, that was just a rhetorical ruse but it upset NARAL whose ears perked up when they heard Pelosi say those words.

On the other side are pro-lifers brimming with confidence. A Republican Congress has just passed a bill to defund Planned Parenthood for a year and repeal parts of ObamaCare. That it was vetoed by a pro-abortion president only shows that we need someone in the White House who respects life.

Naturally, running-on-fumes President Obama vetoed the bill but during the debate House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Ca.) explained, “When a Republican president takes over next year, we can use reconciliation again.”

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Once again, media ignores March for Life

According to the Media Research Center (MRC), the coverage from ABC, CBS, and NBC was even worse than in previous years. Katie Yoder, staff writer and analyst for MRC’s Culture department, reports that ABC mentioned the March for Life once, but it was in the context of people being stranded due to the winter storm.

Regardless, she tells OneNewsNow this year's rally had greater significance because of last summer's release of the undercover videos showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing the illegal sales of aborted baby body parts.

"During the march, I was there, and there were billboards up playing footage from these videos while the marchers were marching," she shares. "That makes this march especially relevant this year because of the Planned Parenthood videos."

Click here for more from OneNewsNow.

Planned Parenthood in South Carolina fights fine for cooking the remains of aborted babies

South Carolina has a long history of grotesque abortion stories — from aborting a baby who lived 21-days to documenting an abortionist grinding up babies’ bodies in a common sink disposal.

The most recent disgusting revelation involves all three abortion facilities in South Carolina, but most prominently Planned Parenthood in Columbia, S.C. According to the duly authorized investigation by the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC), the PPFA staff has been illegally cooking the bodies of aborted babies who were then dumped in garbage landfills.

Planned Parenthood got caught and heavily fined for illegally disposing of the “products of conception,” the technical name for aborted babies. Now the abortion giant is fighting to keep from paying the fine while shrieking that the government is on a politically motivated “witch hunt.” Never mind that DHEC uncovered the nauseating “health care” practices in the state’s abortion industry.

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Planned Parenthood investigator protected as undercover journalist, lawyer says

The Planned Parenthood investigators indicted by a Houston grand jury on Monday were not breaking the law as they are undercover journalists, maintains the lawyer for the lead investigator, David Daleiden.

Daleiden’s use of a false identification, linked to his undercover report on Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast in Houston, is “standard undercover technique” and is allowed under Texas law, Peter Breen of the Thomas More Society told CNA.

Daleiden, the project lead for the “citizen journalist” team Center for Medical Progress, and his fellow worker Sandra Merritt, were indicted Jan. 25 by a grand jury for “tampering with a government record.” Additionally, Daleiden was indicted for the purchase or sale of human organs, a misdemeanor charge.

Click here for more from CNA/EWTN.

Grand jury indicts leaders behind undercover Planned Parenthood videos

A Houston grand jury on Monday indicted the leaders behind the undercover videos which exposed Planned Parenthood’s role in offering fetal tissue for compensation. The grand jury had been investigating alleged misconduct by Planned Parenthood.

David Daleiden, project lead at the Center for Medical Progress, and fellow worker Sandra Merritt were indicted Jan. 25 on a second-degree felony charge of “tampering with a governmental record.”

Daleiden was also indicted for a misdemeanor charge of “purchase and sale of human organs,” according to Brian M. Rosenthal of the Houston Chronicle.

Click here for more from CNA/EWTN.

Monster storm can't keep massive crowds from March for Life

Despite weather forecasts calling for what might end up being the worst blizzard in over a century, tens of thousands flooded the nation’s capital Friday to support the dignity of life.

Held every year on or around Jan. 22, the March for Life in Washington, D.C., marks the anniversary of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion throughout the country. In recent years, estimated attendance at the march has ranged from 250,000 to more than half a million.

Weather forecasts of up to 30 inches of snow beginning the day of the march forced some groups to cancel their trips this year. Nonetheless, huge crowds spilled out across the National Mall as thousands upon thousands of marchers – primarily young people – braved the blizzard to show their support for life.

Click here for more from CNA/EWTN News.

Pro-lifers brave blizzard at March for Life

Tens of thousands of pro-life activists defied freezing temperatures and the approach of a gigantic snowstorm to join in the 43rd March for Life in Washington, DC, on January 22.

The annual march, held on the anniversary of the notorious Roe v. Wade decision that struck down laws against abortion, was held despite predictions that an approaching blizzard would bring two feet of snow to the area. The snow began to fall as the participants marched toward the Supreme Court building.

With airports shutting down and highways quickly becoming impassible, thousands of the pro-lifers who traveled to Washington for the march faced the likelihood that they would be stranded in the city for the weekend-- in many cases without a place to stay. Organizers of the March for Life had urged people to be cautious about traveling to the city in light of the dire forecasts, but had vowed that the march would be held regardless of weather conditions.

Click here for the originating article from Catholic World News.

Pro-choice lawyer who drafted brief in Roe: “Abortion should eliminate the poor”

Ron Weddington, one of the attorneys who drafted the brief for abortion rights in Roe v. Wade, wrote a private letter to President-elect Bill Clinton arguing for the state to use abortion as population control. This letter was written in 1992:

“[Y]ou can start immediately to eliminate the barely educated, unhealthy and poor segment of our country. No, I’m not advocating some sort of mass extinction of these unfortunate people. Crime, drugs and disease are already doing that. The problem is that their numbers are not only replaced but increased by the birth of millions of babies to people who can’t afford to have babies. In 1989, 27% of all births were to unmarried mothers, a huge percentage of whom were teenagers. If current trends continue, soon a majority of the babies born will be born into poverty and one half of the country cannot support the other half, no matter how good our intentions. I am not proposing that you send federal agents armed with Depo-Provera dart guns to the ghetto. You should use persuasion rather than coercion. You and Hillary are a perfect example. Could either of you have gone to law school and achieved anything close to what you have if you had three or four more children before you were 20? No! You waited until you were established in your 30s to have one child. That is what sensible people do.… It’s time to officially recognize that people are going to have sex and what we need to do as a nation is prevent as much disease and as many poor babies as possible. Condoms alone won’t do it. Depo-Provera, Norplant and the new birth control injection being developed in India are not a complete answer… No, government is going to have to provide vasectomies, tubal ligations and abortions… RU-486 and conventional abortions. Even if we make birth control as ubiquitous as sneakers and junk food, there will still be unplanned pregnancies. There have been about 30 million abortions in this country since Roe v. Wade. Think of all the poverty, crime and misery… And then add 30 million unwanted babies to the scenario.”

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“Jane Roe” never aborted her baby

There is a 46-year-old woman, born in Texas, who should be dead right now. In fact, she should have never been born. Forty-three years ago, the Supreme Court decided that the Texas law that prevented Jane Roe from ending the life of her unborn daughter was unconstitutional. But by the time the Supreme Court issued its decision in 1973, she had already been born and adopted by a family—likely not knowing that all that ink spilled in Roe v. Wade was about her.

Norma McCorvey is “Jane Roe.” She claimed then that her pregnancy was the result of a rape, although for over a decade now she has been outspokenly pro-life and publicly admitted that this, and virtually every fact on which her case was built, was a lie. Both McCorvey and Sandra Cano, the Doe of Doe v. Bolton—Roe’s companion case from Georgia decided the same day—[became] outspoken pro-life advocates who have sworn that their cases are built on lies (Cano unfortunately passed away in October 2014).

But before the Supreme Court could decide whether McCorvey did have a constitutional right to end her unborn daughter’s life, it had to overcome a procedural obstacle that slowed down the process—a delay that factored into whether her daughter would ever have a family.

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Some pro-choice activists admit abortion kills life: ‘I knew it was a baby’

(Pictured: Faye Wattleton, former president Planned Parenthood)

It is usually assumed, in the abortion debate, that the fundamental difference between the pro-life and pro-choice positions is the question of when life begins. Pro-life people point to the scientific fact that the life of each organism begins at conception, when the sperm and egg meet to form a new individual with its own DNA different from that of the mother and father. As this new life implants and begins to grow, it has its own circulatory system, heartbeat, and developing body, making it an independent organism and a very young member of the human species.

Pro-choice activists, on the other hand, argue that the fetus in the womb is not a person, not a baby – instead, just a “thing” that will eventually become a human being. However, in a disturbing new trend, more and more pro-choice activists are changing their tune and admitting that an unborn baby is a person, and that their pro-choice stand is based not on the belief that the baby is inhuman, but rather on the belief that killing the baby is okay.

Click here for more from Live Action News.

Is the March for Life still relevant?

When the March for Life started 43 years ago, abortion on demand up to the point of birth had just been legalized by the United States Supreme Court in Roe vs. Wade. At that point, pro-life issues weren't nearly as politically entrenched as they are today – in fact, many legislators on both sides of the aisle thought the decision was ill-conceived and would surely be changed.

But it's been 43 years since the March for Life began, and the event has become an almost go-to staple in the world of youth ministry trips and church events for pro-life denominations. As a political march that has yet to overturn Roe v. Wade continues to tick off anniversary after anniversary, many people are left wondering - is the March even relevant anymore?

And yet, there's much to be hopeful about in the pro-life movement. This last summer saw a decline in the number of abortions nationwide in the United States, though the specific reasons as to why remain unclear. A growing number of Americans do not support abortion on demand, though they do support it under certain circumstances.

Click here for more from CNA Daily News.

U.S. House to vote Jan. 26 on override of Obama veto on Planned Parenthood cutoff and Obamacare repeal

This is a time-sensitive CALL ALERT from National Right to Life in Washington, D.C.

On Tuesday, January 26, 2016, the House of Representatives will vote on whether to override President Obama's veto of a major pro-life bill.  National Right to Life urges you to call your representative in the U.S. House to urge him or her to vote to override the veto.

The bill is H.R. 3762, the "pro-life budget reconciliation bill."  This bill contains a provision that would cut off most federal funds to Planned Parenthood for one year -- about $400 million.  In addition, the bill would repeal many major parts of the Obamacare law, including the program that provides taxpayer subsidies to about 1,000 health plans that pay for elective abortions.

The Republican majorities in the U.S. Senate and House approved the bill weeks ago.  (To see how your two U.S. senators and your representative in the House voted on the bill and on other key pro-life issues during 2015, review the NRLC Senate scorecard here and the NRLC House scorecard here.)  On January 8, President Obama vetoed the bill.  To override a veto requires a two-thirds vote in each house of Congress.  The House override roll call is scheduled for Tuesday, January 26.

Please click "Take Action".  Then, enter your zip code in the box provided.  You will be shown the name of the person who represents you in the U.S. House, and the correct phone number to call. You will also see suggested short talking points that you can refer to, if you wish, when you reach the lawmaker's staffperson.

March for Life - Chicago rally featured lawmakers, clergy and an abortion survivor

Several notables addressed the March for Life-Chicago despite 20 below wind chill this past Sunday to commemorate the millions lost to abortion since 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision.

Archbishop Blaise Cupich, Congressman Randy Hultgren, Congressman Dan Lipinski, New Beginnings' Rev. Corey Brooks and abortion survivor Melissa Ohden declared their commitment to protecting innocent life.

"Life is precious, life is valuable. If everybody shared that [view], killing in Chicago would go down to zero," Hultgren told the crowd, estimated at 5000.



Click here for more from Illinois Review.

Obi Wan Kenobi, Alec Guinness, and abortion

Several members of my family and I went to see the mega-hit Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. Those of us old enough to remember seeing the very first in the series (Episode IV: A New Hope) recall the list of “iconic” characters—including those are not in Episode VII—which is as lengthy as almost any movie you could think of.

One of those, of course, was Jedi Master Obi Wan Kenobi (played by the late, great Alec Guinness).

I had not read much about Guinness and did not even know that he had written an autobiography, “Blessings in Disguise.” So it was not until I read Fr. Dwight Longenecker’s “Abortion and Obi-Wan Kenobi” that I learned Guinness’ own back story.

Here’s the beginning to Fr. Longenecker’s great read:

In 1914 Agnes Cuff, a flighty and unstable young woman with few prospects and little money found herself pregnant. The father didn’t want to be involved. She was alone, shamed, poor and pregnant.

Today she would be encouraged to get herself to an abortion clinic and end the unwanted pregnancy.

Instead a little boy was born.

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Marching until this blight on America is resolved

Reports from NRLC state and local affiliates, combined with newspaper accounts, paint a picture of a highly-motivate pro-life grassroots. Doesn’t matter how cold it is–and in places such as Chicago it was zero degrees–Reuters reported that some 5,000 were in attendance.

“This is about the soul of our nation that we gathered here today,” said Archbishop Blase Cupich of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago. “As we bundle up in the cold today, we want to make sure the children are also born into a world that warmly welcomes them.”

Gatherings such as these in Chicago and Little Rock take place days before the annual March for Life where hundreds of thousands will gather at noon this Friday on the grounds of the Washington Monument, near the corner of 15th Street and Constitution Avenue.

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Personhood Alliance Initiates Full-time Lobbyist on Capitol Hill

One of today's fastest growing grassroots pro-life organizations inaugurated its full-time lobbying efforts for the 2016 legislative session in Washington, D.C. this week. "I am pleased to announce our legislative agenda for 2016," said Personhood Alliance President Daniel Becker. "We are meeting with the nation's pro-life political leadership to discuss two pro-personhood pieces of legislation. We are requesting a hearing on two bills H.R. 426 (Hice-GA) Sanctity of Life Act and H.R. 816 (Mooney - WV) Life at Conception Act, which reflect a personhood approach to legal protection for all human life at any stage of development."

"We are actively working these two bills toward a single hearing that would anticipate a post election 2017 re-introduction and vote. These two bills represent the stated historical objective of the pro-life movement and we would like to begin the job of educating the grassroots base and setting expectations for a new bill in 2017 that firmly respects the biblical standards established by the movement in the early '70's," said Becker.

Each bill establishes the personhood of the pre-born as its legal objective. This has been the objective of the pro-life movement since its inception four decades ago. Recent "message" bills such as the 2015 Pain Capable Bill and S.R. 3762, a partial defunding of Planned Parenthood, have confused this legal objective by stipulating that there are classes of human life that can be sacrificed for the "greater good of the greatest number." "This utilitarian approach by pro-life leaders and politicians dilutes the standard that all life is to be protected by equal protection of the law," Becker claims.

Click here for the originating article from ChristianNewsWire.

Using the death of David Bowie to Promote Assisted Suicide

From all accounts that I have read, rock star David Bowie died naturally of cancer.

But a writer in The Guardian strives mightily to tie his natural demise to assisted suicide. From, “David Bowie Planned His Death,” by Ann Neumann:

Bowie may have been a profoundly unique musician, but his secrecy regarding his terminal condition is increasingly common. Death, particularly for those in Bowie’s generation, is becoming something to control – an event to arrange and manage.

He kept his health condition private. And I assume he also received quality medical care and palliation. If that is “arranging” and “managing,” ok. But Neumann makes an unwarranted darker connection:

Boomers’ efforts to change the way Americans die are already being felt. Not willing to linger for years in nursing homes, they’re pressing for the legalization of aid in dying, the legal right to receive a lethal dose of medication from their doctor when they have six months or less to live.

Click here for the originating article from National Review.

Guttmacher says 27% of all “abortion restrictions” passed in last five years

The Guttmacher Institute is the abortion movement’s in-house think tank, which is what you would expect from the former “special affiliate” of Planned Parenthood.

Last week we posted about “How a preeminent pro-abortion think-tank views 2015 (Hint: they are not happy).”  That was based on a reported titled, “Laws Affecting Reproductive Health and Rights: 2015 State Policy Review.”

Today Guttmacher added still more detail in a “News in Context” post titled, “Last Five Years Account for More Than One-quarter of All Abortion Restrictions Enacted Since Roe.”

Sounds sort of self-explanatory, right? Well, there’s much more to it than writing that of the “1,074 abortion restrictions” enacted since Roe, “288 (27%) have been enacted just since 2010.”

Click here for the originating article from National Right to Life.

March for Life Chicago Sunday

Busloads from surrounding states are planning to gather with fellow pro-lifers Sunday, January 17 at the 2016 March for Life Chicago on Chicago’s Federal Plaza to proclaim the sanctity of human life and call for an end to abortion as they march through the Loop beginning at 2 p.m.

Organizers are expecting at least 7500, likely to be the largest pro-life event in the Midwest to date.

Chicago’s Archbishop Blase Cupich is expected to return to the March for Life Chicago after a well-received debut in 2015.  Last year, as he marked with sadness the January 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion in America, Cupich reminded listeners that, “We are here to do everything possible to make sure that the right to life is preserved.”

March for Life Chicago President Emily Zender said the theme for this year’s march is ‘We Are Family."

Click here for the originating article from Illinois Review.

Clinton hits all the pro-abortion hot buttons in accepting PP Action Fund endorsement

Promises to gut Hyde Amendment

Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s endorsement followed a similar enthusiasm expression of support from NARAL Pro-Choice America. Together they represent the beginning of the consolidation of the feminist pro-abortion establishment behind Clinton who is in a dog fight with Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders in both New Hampshire and Iowa (where the first presidential caucuses take place February 1).

On Sunday Planned Parenthood Action Fund staged a rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, site of the nation’s first presidential primary, to make it formal. If you are so inclined, you can watch the event here. (She begins talking about 44 minutes in.)

In gratitude for the endorsement, Clinton, the former Secretary of State, pledged her bona fides maximus to the largest abortion provider in the world.

Click here for the originating article from National Right to Life.

'Abortion President' Obama Protects Planned Parenthood, 'Child Abuse, Inc.'

President Obama vetoed H.R. 3762, American's Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act, a bill that passed both the House and Senate which would bar Planned Parenthood from receiving taxpayer dollars.

"Subsidized by over $500 million taxpayer dollars each year, Planned Parenthood dismembers or chemically poisons a baby to death every two minute–killing over seven million innocent children since 1973," said Congressman Chris Smith, Co-Chair of the Bipartisan Pro-Life Caucus. "Planned Parenthood is Child Abuse, Incorporated.

"The House and the Senate have spoken, reflecting the will of the American people, and sent a bill to President Obama's desk that would bar Planned Parenthood from the vast majority of taxpayer dollars it currently receives.

"And now the President has spoken, rejecting our bill and condoning Planned Parenthood's cruel and inhumane actions.

Click here for the originating article from Christian Newswire.