Men, Father’s Day, and Abortion

June 19 is Father’s Day, where children (occasionally with assistance from their moms) will splurge on their dads. Personally, if each of my kids gave me the same exact tie, I would treasure each one of them just because I love being a dad.

But there will be many men who are not fathers because of their role in an abortion. They will not experience the joy of fatherhood, only the guilt, remorse, and pain that so often accompanies a decision they either acceded to, did not oppose, or, worst of all, coerced the woman in their life into making.

The last thing the abortion industry wants is more players in the decision-making process. Expanding the range of what is possible is our goal, not theirs. They are one-trick ponies–they want women (and girls) to be placed on a conveyor belt which moves without interruption until she reaches the destination that will “solve” her “problem.” They want their finely tuned propaganda engine running smoothly. A father’s involvement risks throwing sand in the gears.

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

A Tribute to Fran Fortier

Fran Fortier passed from this life on June 9, 2016

Fran Fortier lived her Catholic faith as a wife, mother and a defender of unborn babies.  Fran was the former Director of the Joliet Diocese Life Office.  I first met Fran in the early 1980's when we both served on the Board of the Illinois Federation for Right to Life.  I represented the 10th Congressional District and Fran represented the 6th Congressional District.  There wasn't a politician Fran did not know personally.  Through her strong pro-life commitment, everyone she met knew about the sanctity of human life and our obligation to defend that life in the public square.

It was shortly after my meeting Fran that I discovered that she was the Director for pro-life in Joliet.  In fact, if the truth be known, Fran laid the groundwork for the ministry to continue even after she retired from her office.  Fran's Catholic faith led her to stand tall in the public square when the Roe v Wade Decision in 1973 legalized abortion on demand in the U.S.  Fran did what all Catholics (and people of good faith) should have done.  She rolled up her sleeves and went to work to restore respect for innocent human life.  She never tired, and I know that many times she was in the office until 1AM or 2AM in the morning.  These hours led to her son, Dr. Martin Fortier, to insist that Fran drive her Lexus that he bought so she would be safe.

Fran Fortier died as she lived faithful to the pro-life movement, her Catholic faith and her family.   It was God's gift to me to know and work with Fran.  I am humbled by her consistency and strong devotion to life and family.

by Bonnie Quirke

American Medical Association To Explore Policy Change on Assisted Suicide

Yesterday, at its annual meeting in Chicago, the American Medical Association (AMA) rejected a Louisiana State Medical Society proposal to reaffirm the AMA’s long-standing policy against physician assisted suicide. Instead it approved a study-resolution to explore AMA adoption of a neutral position on physician assisted suicide, which was often referred to as “aid-in-dying” in the debate.

The study will be led by the AMA Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs, which will study a possible change to the AMA policy and report back with recommendations to the AMA Annual Meeting next year.

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

More free publicity from PBS for the Abortion Industry

Nancy Northrop, the President & CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights was celebrating that next week one of the Abortion Industry’s most reliable friend–PBS–would be broadcasting “Trapped.” As you’ll recall, this ridiculously misleading pro-abortion acronym stands for Targeted Regulations of Abortion Providers.

In English that means any regulation which does not allow the Abortion Industry to do exactly what it wants to do with no oversight, is “targeting” abortion clinics.

The documentary will be aired right around the time the Supreme Court is expected to hand down its decision in a case that director Dawn Porter no doubt would hold up as a classic example of Trapped: Texas’s pro-life 2013 HB 2.

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Illinois breaks its own law protecting religious freedom

Sandra Mendoza was a nurse in Rockford, Illinois, in Winnebago County's Health Department where she served in the pediatric clinic and also in a children's home in Rockford. Noel Sterett, an attorney with the Chicago-based law firm Mauck & Baker, tells OneNewsNow a change came about that forced Mendoza out of her job.

“A new public health administrator was hired by the Health Department, and Mendoza was informed that as a result of the mergence of the Women's Health Clinic and Pediatric Clinic she was going to have to be involved in the provision of abortion referrals and abortifacients,” Sterett explains. “And according to her beliefs, both religious and moral conscientious objections, she couldn't participate.”

Mendoza was then informed she would have to take a job as a temporary food inspector and then was forced out of her job for standing for life and for her convictions, the attorney explains.

Click here for more from OneNewsNow.

Judge drops charge against Planned Parenthood investigator

A county court on Tuesday dismissed a misdemeanor charge against the man responsible for undercover investigations of Planned Parenthood, although a related felony charge is still pending.

“The dismissal of the first indictment today sends a strong message to Planned Parenthood and their political cronies that colluding to suppress the First Amendment rights of citizen journalists will never work,” said the Center for Medical Progress, the group founded by David Daleiden.

The “swift dismissal” of the charge against Daleiden is evidence that “the indictments from a runaway grand jury in Houston were a politically-motivated sham all along,” the statement went on to say.

Click here for more from CNA Daily News.

Mom’s tearful response convinces teenager not to abort

They don’t call them “reality TV” shows for nothing. Some readers may recognize the name Stacey Solomon. A while back, as a singer, she finished third in the sixth season of the British program “The X Factor.”

Nowadays Solomon is a singer, panelist on television programs, and a reality television star. Appearing on the daytime show “Loose Women,” Solomon talked about how as a teenager she was literally on the table about to have an abortion when she changed her mind.

Why? Her mother’s unspoken response to the ultrasound.

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

The Dignity of Unborn Children Goes On Trial Today in United States District Court

Tuesday marks a historic day for Indiana and the nation as the dignity of unborn children goes on trial in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana. The core issues to be argued before Judge Tonya Walton Pratt revolve around the humane disposal of aborted babies in Indiana, as well as Indiana’s new protections, established in civil rights code, preventing unborn children from being aborted for the sole purpose of gender, race, national original, Down syndrome or other disability.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Planned Parenthood are once again teaming up in hopes of blocking Indiana’s new protections from going into effect on July 1. The expected ACLU argument will be that the free speech rights of abortion facility workers, who profit from the act of dismembering unborn children, outweighs the basic right to live for a baby with Down syndrome, or for the little girl whose parents would rather have a boy, or for the little boy whose life is being terminated for no other reason than the color of his skin. These are the children whose civil rights the ACLU is hoping to deny. What a strange contradiction for an organization with “civil liberties” incorporated into its name.

Regarding the humane disposal of aborted babies, the ACLU will argue that it is nonsense to require that aborted babies be treated any differently than any common medical garbage. Just months ago Indiana learned that the bodies of aborted babies were being shipped in 31-gallon drums to a medical waste plant in Indianapolis to be ground up with other garbage, and even persons with no interest in the abortion debate were horrified.

Click here for more from National Right to Life

UN has trampled on rights of people with disabilities in its rush to push abortion

Life Institute spokeswoman Niamh Uí Bhriain said that the case had been brought before the United Nations by the US-based Centre for Reproductive Rights, a massively wealthy pro-abortion outfit who were persistently attacking Ireland’s pro-life laws. She said the UN Committee ruling contradicted international human rights law, and trampled on the rights of people with disabilities.

“What is really disgusting here is that this US-based organisation used the most vulnerable children of all, unborn babies with severe disabilities, to try to drive a wedge in Ireland’s abortion laws. These are the most vulnerable, most helpless unborn babies, they are sick and need support and protection, but these abortion campaigners cynically use their disability to attack their right to life, and to try to push abortion,” said Ms Uí Bhriain.

“Instead of protecting the most vulnerable, the UN has chosen, yet again, to champion abortion, and has trampled on the right of people with disabilities,” she added.

Click here for more from National Right to Life

The Culture of Death’s Love Story

It’s maddening to watch a movie trailer resplendent with engrossing and alluring screen shots projecting a terrific flick, only to learn after paying the price of admission that you’d watched the totality of the movie’s value. That’s not misleading; it’s good advertising.

But sometimes movie studios are just plain guilty of false advertising.

The new movie Me Before You looks to be an inspirational love story. A lower-class woman in England is hired to take care of a young man who recently became a quadriplegic after being hit by a car. He inspires her to live a fuller life; she inspires him to find the joys he can still realize from his wheelchair.

That’s the commercial, but that’s not the actual plot. Spoiler alert: this isn’t a love story, it’s a story of a man’s self-love leading to assisted suicide. Girl meets boy, girl falls in love with boy, girl holds hand as boy kills himself.

As Eric Henderson wrote for Slant magazine: “Me Before You is some kind of twisted reversal of those expectations, punking its impressionable audience into believing the lie and then punishing them for their foolishness.”

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

The moral and ethical corruption inherent in assisted suicide

We’ve long argued that abortion and euthanasia/assisted suicide were birthed in the same hatchery. They are, if not identical twins, at least fraternal twins.

Both are inherently expansionary, for example. Consider the parallels.

If offing her unborn child is a woman’s “right,” why should that “right” end at the conclusion of the first trimester? Or second? Or up till birth? Indeed, it is (as the saying goes) no accident that we are hearing occasional rumbles about “after-birth abortion.”

Likewise with assisted suicide. If the issue is about autonomy, about one’s supposed right to die “on my own terms,” why should there be any ethical calibration made about “good” reasons and insufficient reasons? If I can’t exercise my “right”–whether because I am in a weakened physical state or no longer can articulate my desires, or something else–then surely it is discriminatory not to facilitate my death.

And, of course, where the twin sisters of death meet is when countries decide that newborns should be killed if they are disabled (physically or intellectually) or because that’s what they would “want” if they were able to speak.

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Clinton vows to PPFA Action Fund to “always have your back”

When the former Secretary of State is speaking to her soul mates, you hear in clear, straightforward English just how in touch she is with PPFA but how out-of-touch she is with the rest of America.

Clinton told the Planned Parenthood Action Fund

Let’s repeal laws like the Hyde Amendment that make it nearly impossible, make it nearly impossible for low-income women, disproportionately women of color, to exercise their full reproductive rights.

Never mind that overwhelmingly, the American people do not–do not–want their tax dollars paying for abortions. In an environment that is ever more receptive to the pro-life cause, this truism goes back to the earliest days.

What is the real reason Clinton and Planned Parenthood want to gut the Hyde Amendment? Simple. By cutting off virtually all federal funding for abortion, unborn lives are saved each and every day.

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Abortion still “morally wrong,” latest Gallup shows

A Gallup poll conducted May 4-8 finds that more Americans still find abortion “morally wrong” (47%) than “morally acceptable” (43%). In 2015, Gallup’s numbers were 48% and 42% , respectively.

The breakdown along party lines is that only 24% of Republicans said abortion was morally acceptable, 44% of Independents, but 62% of Democrats.

On an encouraging note, while there is still a majority who found “Doctor Assisted Suicide” morally acceptable, the numbers are down slight from 2015 (naturally not noted by Gallup).

In 2016, 53% responded they believed Doctor Assisted suicide is morally acceptable to 41% who said it is morally wrong .

In 2015, 56% said they believed Doctor Assisted Suicide was morally acceptable, to 37 who told Gallup they believed it was morally wrong.

Needless to add, the “Doctor assisted” label increases support. Even now, people are more likely to voice support when a “doctor” is involved.

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Pediatric nurse sues Winnebago Co Health Dept after losing job for her beliefs

On Wednesday, Rockford nurse Sandra Mendoza sued the Winnebago County Health Department for forcing her out of her long-time job as a pediatric nurse on account of her refusal to participate in abortion related services. Ms. Mendoza, a devout Catholic, had worked for the Health Department for 18 years providing pediatric care, immunizations, and screenings.

In 2015, the County’s new Public Health Administrator, Dr. Sandra Martell, merged the pediatric clinic with women’s health services and mandated that all nurses be trained to provide abortion referrals and participate in the provision of abortifacients like Plan B.

When Ms. Mendoza informed Dr. Martell and the administration of her conscientious objections to participating in any way in the provision of abortions, Dr. Martell gave Ms. Mendoza two weeks to either quit or accept a demotion to a temporary job as a food inspector. Mendoza refused the demotion and was forced to resign in July 2015.

Click here for more from Illinois Review.

Virginia family gets reprieve to stop hospital from taking 2-year-old off life support

The family of a Virginia toddler has more time to seek another hospital for their child after a judge’s ruling Tuesday that she cannot be removed from life support for at least another 10 days.

Patrick and Alison Lawson are in a dispute with Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Health System over performing a brain apnea test on their two-year-old daughter Mirranda Grace and withdrawing her life support, in another case involving the legal definition of brain death.

Click here for more from LifeSiteNews.com.

Researchers use adult stem cells to reverse stroke symptoms up to 3 years later

Researchers at Stanford University’s School of Medicine have successfully treated stroke victims with donated adult stem cells, restoring the use of legs and arms rendered useless by the loss of brain function.

There are treatments to mitigate the impact of strokes if administered within days. This treatment is the first that works long afterwards. The injected bone marrow, used for decades as a safe treatment for leukemia and other cancers, surprised the research team by disappearing from the brain within a month (while in leukemia treatment the marrow remains in the patient, producing red blood cells, but requiring the patient to take drugs to suppress his or her immune system).

Click here for more from LifeSiteNews.com.

If Illinois Government Has Its Way, Women Won’t Have the Right to Choose Pro-Life Doctors

Can you imagine a passionately pro-life OB-GYN who is forced by the government to provide patients with a list of abortion providers if they request one? How would this doctor reconcile promoting abortion with his or her conscience? What would this doctor tell pro-life patients who came to him or her because they wanted someone who shared and upheld their values – not someone who helps facilitate abortions?

Abortion is a serious issue. For those of us in the pro-life camp, the thought of promoting abortion—in any form—would be a violation of conscience.

Unfortunately, the Illinois legislature has passed a bill—SB 1564—that would force all medical facilities and physicians in the state who conscientiously object to involvement in abortions to adopt policies that provide women who ask for abortions with a list of providers “they reasonably believe may offer” them. In other words, the government is trying to compel the speech of pro-life providers—in the form of abortion referrals.

What the Illinois government fails to realize (or care about since we’ve brought it to their attention before) is that referring someone for an abortion goes against everything that pro-life doctors and pregnancy care centers believe about the sanctity of human life.

Please call the Governor's office at 217-782-0244, or click here to go to his website and send an email asking him NOT to sign SB1564 and veto the bill.

Click here for more on this bill and other legislative updates and alerts.

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Planned-Parenthood partner reportedly takes 400-600% profit for fetal organs

A report from the US House of Representatives charges that StemExpress, a California firm, sold fetal tissue for as much as six times the purchase cost, in violation of federal law that prohibits the sale of fetal tissue for profit.

Undercover videos taken by the Center for Medical Progress had shown Planned Parenthood officials arranging for the delivery of fetal body-parts to StemExpress, to be sold for medical research. After a further probe, the House Selective Investigative Panel on Infant Lives reports that the fetal organs were sold for profit. The panel also said that the sales by Planned Parenthood to StemExpress appeared to violate federal laws requiring confidentiality in the records of medical patients.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, who chairs the House panel, said that the business relationshiop between Planned Parenthood and StemExpress changed the nature of the relationship between the abortion clinic and the pregnant women. "The contract changes the way both entities view the young woman," she said. "Her baby is now a profit center."

Click here for more from Catholic World News.

Natalie Portman: Contraception caused depression that gave me ‘dark moments’

Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman has announced that taking oral contraceptives caused depression that plunged her into some “dark moments” as a teenage college student.

Portman's admission that taking birth control pills contributed to ill health should not come as a surprise. Oral and injectable contraceptives have a well-documented history of negative effects on women, whether mental or, more often, physical. The risk for blood clots, which can cause stroke, heart attack, blindness, brain damage, and death, is three-to five times higher in women taking birth control pills.

Click here for more from LifeSiteNews.com.

FDA used faulty data to approve Essure contraceptive coil: study

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has used faulty data to approve many high-risk ob-gyn medical devices in the last 15 years, a new study says, including the controversial contraceptive device Essure.        

“Recent controversies surrounding obstetrics and gynecology devices” including among other things, the Essure contraceptive coil device, “highlight the need for deeper understanding of obstetrics and gynecology medical device regulation,” the study’s authors, based at Northwestern University, said. “Our results reveal significant weaknesses in the preapproval and post approval regulation of high-risk obstetrics and gynecology devices.”

Click here for more from LifeSiteNews.com

President Ronald Reagan: The Unborn’s Transcendent Right to Life

Sunday was the twelfth anniversary of the passing of pro-life President Ronald Reagan. The following was described as “a personal letter to the Pro-Life movement from President Ronald Reagan.”

As America looks forward to the second half of the 1980s and beyond, our Nation faces a clear political choice. Two very different views about America – who we are and what we can become – are competing to lead our great country into the future.

I think that Americans involved in the noble work of the pro-life movement will agree that the difference between those competing views is no more striking than on the tragic issue of abortion.

Recently, some of our political opponents have tried to further their cause by belatedly assuming the mantle of traditional family values. They talk about family, about concern for less fortunate Americans. And they portray themselves as the “party of compassion.”

But where are those high-minded ideals when it comes to the issue of abortion? Where are the new defenders of the family when it comes to the taking of innocent human life? And what have we heard from them while more than 15 million unborn children – over 10 times more Americans than have been lost in all our nation’s wars – had their lives snuffed out by legalized abortions? [Editor’s note. The total is now over 58 million.]

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Supreme Court approaches deadline for decision on pro-life Texas law HB 2

Just to be clear, no one except the eight Supreme Court justices and (to a lesser extent) their clerks know exactly when the High Court will rule on a host of controversial cases, some of which raise new issues, others of which will finesse previous rulings. Could be this week, could be the end of the month.

According to ABC News, “The court still has 24 opinions left to release before it recesses for the year in late June.”

HB 2 is best known outside the Lone Star state for the filibuster that temporarily derailed the law. Pro-abortion state Senator Wendy Davis catapulted her role in that filibuster to national fame, which tempted her to run what proved to be a disastrous 2014 campaign for governor.

At issue are two provisions: (1) that abortion clinics meet the same building standards as ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs); and (2) that abortionists have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital for situations of medical emergencies.

What gives the case such importance is that the justices will be challenged to flesh out yet again what an “undue burden” on the “right” to abortion means.

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Dismemberment abortions are vicious, cruel, barbaric, and not worthy of culture that calls itself civilized

Emily Crockett, writing at Vox.com today informs us (and I kid you not) that “Pro-life advocates are trying to ban abortion by grossing people out about it.”

She’s referring to the Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act which Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards signed just last week. Six states have banned these grotesque abortions: the other five are Kansas, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Mississippi, and Alabama.

According to Crockett

D&E bans are quickly becoming the latest trend in anti-abortion lawmaking at the state level. They have colorful names like the “Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act.” And some advocates and lawmakers are using them to focus on the lurid details of later abortion procedures, in hopes of turning more Americans against abortion and making the procedure easier to outlaw or restrict.

“Colorful names,” “lurid details,” “grossing people out…” Wow.

So, what do we have to say about that, fellow pro-lifers? Or is Ms. Crockett’s brilliance so dazzling, we are rendered speechless?

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Kudos to LEGOS for baby-in-the-womb minifigure

LEGOS announced on Monday that it had created a graphic that depicted a LEGO baby in the womb. If you go to the LEGO Facebook page, you read, “It’s a big day! The first ever LEGO baby minifigure says HEY! to the world, arriving with the LEGO City 60134 Fun in the Park set, tomorrow June 1st.” [For those of us not familiar with the minutiae of LEGOS, minifigures are miniature figurine toys that accessorize LEGO sets.)

As of this afternoon, there were 63,100 comments and 13,682 “shared.”

As you can see, the graphic looks like a regular birth announcement coupled “with a ‘photo of the toy baby on an ultrasound screen,” as the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children described it. “The hazy gray ultrasound ‘photo’ shows the smiling ‘baby,’ its size and estimated date of birth.”

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Blackburn Calls for HHS Investigation into StemExpress & Abortion Clinics

Select Investigative Panel Chairman Marsha Blackburn is calling on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to investigate potential violations of federal law by StemExpress and a number of abortion clinics.

In a letter to the Office of Centralized Case Management Operations at HHS, Chairman Blackburn asks Director Jocelyn Samuels to examine evidence uncovered by the Select Panel’s investigation that shows StemExpress and the abortion clinics violated the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). The HIPAA privacy rule is a patients’ rights law, designed to empower the patient to determine when and where their private medical information will be disclosed.

The Select Panel’s investigation also shows that StemExpress violated federal regulations governing Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) by using the appearance of compliance with the regulations, while fraudulently using invalid consent forms, and misleading scientific researchers to believe it had a valid IRB approval. Misleading scientific researchers violates one of the core values of the IRB system, enacted by Congress to engender integrity in scientific medical research. As a result, Blackburn is asking HHS Office for Human Research Protections Director Jerry Menikoff to conduct a thorough investigation into whether StemExpress violated the applicable regulations; and, if any violation is found, to take all appropriate actions.

“The key to understanding the HIPAA and consent violations that we’ve referred to HHS is that there’s a business contract between StemExpress and the abortion clinics under which both sides make a profit from the baby body parts inside the young woman’s womb,” Chairman Blackburn said. “The contract changes the way both entities view the young woman: her baby is now a profit-center. This betrayal of a young woman’s trust should disgust us all. It takes financial advantage, obtains consent through coercion, and deceives the woman, all in violation of federal privacy laws.”

Click here to read the letters and accompanying documents from Chairman Blackburn to HHS.

Click here for more from the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee.

A “radical shift in outlook,” brought on by the birth of her daughter, enables mother to let go of the grief at losing her own father

The post is so stunning, so beautifully written, so intense that I will not spend more than a few sentences telling you that rewire news was the last place in this galaxy that I expected to read, “Only Through Becoming a Parent Have I Been Able to Let Go of My Grief at Losing My Own.”

Rewire is the new name for the second iteration of the dismal pro-abortion site Rhrealitycheck.org. The re-named site is just as hysterically pro-abortion, just as vicious in its treatment of our Movement as its predecessor. But…. then….out of the blue….comes ….

This magnificent post by Sharona Coutts. And because I really do want you read her entire tribute to her father, who passed away 21 years ago, and wonder at the power of healing that came in the form of her child who was born late last year...

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Euphemisms for Killing

Words matter. The terminology we employ not only reflects our values but helps to define them. Language is particularly important in bioethical debates, in which dehumanizing verbiage can distance us from our fellow human beings.

When embryonic stem-cell research was in the news, we were told constantly by scientists and the media that an early embryo was “just a ball of cells” that didn’t even “look human.” We even heard that human life had no actual beginning, since we had all evolved from bacteria floating in a primordial sea.

But the fact that a young organism does not yet look as it will at maturity doesn’t make it a non-organism. When we were early embryos, we each were the same organism that we are now. And a human embryo is far more than a bunch of cells.

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Man convicted of first-degree manslaughter and manslaughter in deaths of pregnant woman and her unborn baby

On the fourth day of deliberations, a Rensselaer County Court jury today convicted Gabriel Vega of first-degree manslaughter and manslaughter in the April 2014 strangulation death of Vanessa Milligan, his ex-girlfriend, who was pregnant with his child, Alina.

Prosecutors say Vega strangled the 19-year-old Milligan and then doused her apartment with gasoline before setting the fire.

“The jury of six women and six men also convicted Vega of second-degree arson, third-degree arson and first-degree abortion,” according to reporter Kenneth C. Crowe II.

“Vega had been charged with second-degree murder, which carries a maximum sentence of 25 years to life but after days of deliberations the jury opted to convict him of the lesser charge,” Crowe added. However Vega still faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison.

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Abandoned in college laundry room, “Baby Jane Doe” graduates 32 years later from same school

32 years ago, a student at San Francisco State University, who happened to be “taking a course in newborn care,” found a baby in a box in the laundry room.

“Her body temperature had dropped precipitously and her skin had turned blue,” wrote Bob Collins. “She’s been putting up a fight ever since.”

That fight culminated for Jill Sobol when she graduated last Friday from the same university at which her mother had abandoned her in 1984!

If her story weren’t already amazing enough, consider this. Sobol had written a letter years before to her birth mother but got no reply. She also tried Facebook. “The woman friended, then unfriended, Sobol on Facebook.”

Having learned last month that some Facebook message can be hidden from view, she looked to see if she had any.

She found one. It had been sitting, unseen, for nearly two years.

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

ACTION ALERT HB5576 and SB1564

Two pro-abortion bills are on Governor Rauner's desk for his signature, SB1564, the Health Care Right of Conscience Act and HB5576, the Insurance Contraception Coverage bill.  Both of these bills are dangerous and need to be stopped.  Please call the Governor's office at 217-782-0244, or click here to go to his website and send an email asking him NOT to sign SB1564 or HB5576 and veto the bills.

Here is more information on the bills...

Health Care Right of Conscience Act 

SB1564

Sponsor: Senator Biss.

This bill is currently on the Governor's desk for his signature.

This bill amends the Health Care Right of Conscience Act  The Act provides that notwithstanding any other law, a health care facility, or any physician or health care personnel working in the facility, may refuse to permit, perform, assist in, counsel about, suggest, recommend, refer for, or participate in health care services because of a conscience-based objection.  

This bill now undermines Healthcare Right of Conscience by requiring pro-life facilities to refer pro-abort services to other facilities thus violating their morals or beliefs.

Although an amendment has been added to bill, the Federation for Right to Life still opposes this bill.

Please call the Governor's office at 217-782-0244, or click here to go to his website and send an email asking him NOT to sign SB1564 and veto the bill.

Click here for more information on this bill.

Click here for the full bill text.


Insurance Contraception Coverage 

HB5576

This bill is currently on the Governor's desk for his signature.

This bill provides that an individual or group health policy shall provide coverage for all contraceptive drugs, devices, and other products approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration, including over-the-counter contraceptive drugs, devices, and products; voluntary sterilization procedures; contraceptive services, patient education, and counseling on contraception; and follow-up services related to their use.

This bill requires insurance coverage of over-the-counter drugs such as Plan B and Ella.  These drugs prevent a fertilized egg  from implanting to the uterine wall and therefore cause a chemical abortion.

Please call the Governor's office at 217-782-0244, or click here to go to his website and send an email asking him NOT to sign HB5576 and veto the bill.

Click here for more information on this bill.

Illinois Bill Forcing Pro-Lifers to Refer for Abortion Sent to Governor’s Desk

Illinois came one step closer to forcing its pro-life medical community to choose between violating state law and violating deeply held religious conscience Wednesday, as the state’s House approved Senate Bill 1564 and set the legislation on the governor’s desk.

The bill, which would introduce decisive changes to Illinois’ Health Care Right of Conscience Act, passed by a 61-54 margin and now awaits the signature of Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner.

Originally put forward in the summer of 2015, the legislation would require pro-life medical providers, including 51 Illinois nonprofit pregnancy centers offering free services including ultrasound and STI testing, to take action the bill’s opponents say amounts to participating in an abortion.

Particularly at issue is the bill’s requirement that every Illinois pro-life medical provider of any kind who chooses not to perform a procedure such as abortion or a prescription for birth control has one of three options: Either they must “refer the patient” to another provider, “transfer the patient” to another provider, or provide a list of “other health care providers who they reasonably believe may offer the health care service.”

One way or another, the law would compel pro-life medical providers in Illinois to participate in abortions.

ACTION ALERT...

Please call Gov. Rauner's office at 217-782-0244, or click here to go to his website and send an email asking him NOT to sign SB1564 and veto the bill.

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Pro-lifer drops 'b' word on politicking Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood has already endorsed Hillary Clinton for president and plans to spend $30 million on political campaigns this year.

Jim Sedlak of American Life League says not all of it will be spent on behalf of the Clinton campaign, since the purpose is to support candidates who vote to continue the taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood.

That may be business as usual for the progressives in this country but Sedlak has another name for it: bribery.

"Not only is the organization committing bribery," the pro-lifer alleges, "but the person who accepts the money is committing bribery."

Click here for more from OneNewsNow.

Supreme Court sends more mandate cases back to lower circuits

After sending the Little Sisters’ HHS mandate case back to the circuit courts on May 16, the Supreme Court voided two more mandate cases on Monday.

In Zubik v. Burwell, the Supreme Court sent back to the federal circuit courts all the cases of all the plaintiffs, including the Little Sisters, the Archdiocese of Washington, the pro-life group Priests for Life, and several Christian colleges. The circuit court decisions, which all went against the non-profits, were voided.

The decision came after the Supreme Court, in a rare move in the middle of a case, had ordered both parties to come up with alternative solutions, if possible, of guaranteeing both contraceptive coverage for employees and religious freedom protections for the non-profits.

Click here for more from CNA Daily News.

Pro-Life Groups Protest Stericycle Shareholders Meeting Saying 'DUMP Planned Parenthood'

On April 11, 2016 an Illinois court denied attempts by Planned Parenthood's waste hauler Stericycle, Inc., to censor pro-life group Created Equal's first amendment protected efforts to expose the Lake Forest, IL company for providing waste-disposal services that enable abortion giant Planned Parenthood to kill preborn children. Evidence shows Stericycle has been partnering with Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry through their collection, transportation, and disposal of aborted children and the instruments used to kill them.

Created Equal launched #ProjectWeakLink on March 29 by distributing informational postcards in the Lake Forest, IL area, which is home to Planned Parenthood business partner Stericycle. On March 31, Created Equal was notified by Stericycle's attorneys that the company was seeking a temporary restraining order to stop the campaign.

On May 25, Created Equal will be conducting a demonstration at the company's annual shareholders meeting.

Click here for more from Christian Newswire.

Thomas More Law Center Wins Huge Victory for Free Speech and Unborn Babies Against Planned Parenthood

In a huge victory for free speech and unborn babies, United States District Judge Nancy Torresen, yesterday, issued a preliminary injunction barring the Maine Attorney General and City of Portland police officers from enforcing the Noise Provision of the Maine Civil Rights Act ("Act"). Under the Act, after being warned by a police officer, it is illegal to make noise that can be heard inside an abortion clinic with the intent to interfere with a medical procedure.

In a 35–page opinion and order, Judge Torresen, an Obama appointee, held that the Noise Provision of the Act is content-based because it restricts speech based on its purpose, and therefore, is facially unconstitutional.

Click here to read Judge Torresen's entire opinion.

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Judges hear appeal of woman sentenced for aborting her 25-30 week old baby and then ignoring him after he was born alive

A three-judge panel of the Indiana Court of Appeals is hearing arguments today in the case of Purvi Patel.

Last year St. Joseph Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Hurley sentenced Patel to 20 years for throwing her newborn son into a dumpster following a chemically-induced abortion. The baby was estimated to be 25 to 30-weeks old, which did not make its way into early coverage of the hearing.

Attorneys for the 35-year-old Patel told Chief Judge Nancy H. Vaidik, Judge L. Mark Bailey and Judge Terry A. Crone to throw out the conviction.

In February 2015, following a trial that took place over six days and which 20 witnesses offered testimony, Patel was convicted of feticide and child neglect. Prosecutors said she took drugs to induce an abortion and failed to get medical help for the baby when he was born alive.

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

General Conference of the United Methodist Church votes overwhelming to withdraw from Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice

An incredible turn of events. Yesterday, on a vote of 425 to 268 (61% to 39%), delegates to the quadrennial General Conference meeting of the United Methodist Church voted that two United Methodist entities withdraw immediately from membership in the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC).

The two coalition members of RCRC are the General Board on Church and Society (GBCS) and United Methodist Women (UMW).

As the Rev. Paul Stallsworth has written for NRL News Today, RCRC “is dedicated to keeping abortion–all abortions, of all unborn children, for any reason or no reason–legal in American society. In other words, RCRC never, ever speaks or lobbies or writes against abortion.”

“There is nothing moderate or nuanced about RCRC, which has consistently lobbied to defend grisly ‘partial-birth’ abortions, even after our Social Principles included a statement ‘call[ing] for the end of this late-term practice,’” said John Lomperis, a delegate to the General Conference and United Methodist director at the Institute on Religion and Democracy. “In contrast to the United Methodist Church, RCRC dismisses the value of unborn human life. RCRC even promotes rituals to bless all the work of elective abortion clinics, describing aborting unborn children as always ‘holy work.’”

Lomperis added, “This is a necessary and good step towards affirming that the unborn are persons of sacred worth. This also shows the UMC moving away from other liberal, declining, ‘mainline’ denominations to embrace a new faithful, global identity.”

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Could Brittany Maynard Have Been Saved?

This week, CBS’ 60 Minutes reported that FDA has just granted “breakthrough status” for an innovative treatment for glioblastoma brain cancer that was first reported by 60 Minutes on March 29, 2015.

Brittany Maynard had glioblastoma and died by physician-assisted suicide on November 1, 2014, just 5 months before the original TV segment aired.

Brittany Maynard was a young newlywed who, with enormous media publicity and the support of the pro physician-assisted suicide group Compassion and Choices, announced her intention to commit assisted suicide. She asked for donations to the Brittany Maynard Foundation to raise money to help Compassion and Choices fight for legalization of physician-assisted suicide throughout the US.

Using Brittany’s story and foundation, Compassion and Choices was finally successful after years of failed attempts to get a physician-assisted suicide law passed in California.

Did Brittany, her doctors, or Compassion and Choices know about the promising clinical trials for glioblastoma reported by 60 Minutes before Brittany took her life with a physician ordered lethal overdose?

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Gallup poll a gold mine of useful information and misleading inferences

As is always the case with Gallup and abortion, the latest post from veteran Gallup writer Lydia Saad is informative. In places it also makes you scratch your head and occasionally it’s deeply misleading. (The figures come from Gallup’s 2016 Values and Beliefs poll, conducted May 4-8.)

The headline is understandable, given that Donald Trump’s views on abortion are a work in progress: “Most ‘Pro-Life’ Americans Unsure About Trump’s Abortion Views.”

But what is far more interesting is that after decades of unabashed, straight-forward, unambiguous promotion of abortion, Hillary Clinton’s views are unknown, or at least unclear, to many pro-choice adults.

Let’s compare the responses to the presumptive nominees of the Republican and Democratic parties, respectively. Saad writes

Sixty-three percent of Americans who describe themselves as “pro-life” are unable to say whether they agree or disagree with Trump on the abortion issue. The rest are about equally divided between agreeing (19%) and disagreeing (18%) with him.

Clinton?

Hillary Clinton is unambiguously pro-abortion rights and has talked about her strong support for women’s reproductive rights for decades. Nevertheless, the public is only a bit less vague about her stance on the issue compared with Trump’s. Overall, 22% of Americans say they agree with her views and 32% disagree, while 46% are unsure.

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

City of Chicago and Illinois Department of Public Health Risk Women's Health and Safety

On May 19th, the Thomas More Society filed complaints against the City of the Chicago and the Illinois Department of Public Health for refusing to release information that is rightfully available under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, known as FOIA. The actions arise from requests by the Pro-Life Action League and private citizens for records that were legitimately requested in accordance with FOIA and have not been fulfilled. Both FOIAs were filed regarding matters involving the health and safety of women at abortion clinics.

Thomas Olp, attorney with the Thomas More Society, explained, "Both the City of Chicago and the Illinois Department of Public Health have acted unreasonably and unlawfully in withholding the requested public records. These FOIAs were filed seeking information regarding abortion clinics at which women's health and safety may be at risk. In both cases, the legitimate public interest in seeking the records is provable and compelling. Yet neither the city nor the health department has complied with the Illinois Freedom of Information Act which declares the public policy of the State of Illinois to be that 'all persons are entitled to full and complete information regarding the affairs of government.'"

He added that the Illinois FOIA law raises a presumption that "all records in the custody or possession of a public body are ...open to inspection or copying." While private information may be exempt from public disclosure (if it is "highly personal or objectionable to a reasonable person and in which the subject's right to privacy outweighs any legitimate public interest in obtaining the information"), the burden of proving the exemption rests squarely on the agency asserting the exemption. In neither case, Olp maintained, has the city or health department met the burden of proving that its refusal to disclose public records was justified.

Click here for more from Christian NewsWire.

Pro-abortionists’ desperate attempt to hide the truth about fetal pain

The pro-abortion mind is not big on incontrovertible truths. There is only one: nothing matters but choice, exercised by the woman. Whether to snuff out that child’s life is fair, ethical, just, or its very opposite, doesn’t matter. It is literally a decision beyond right and wrong: it is hers to make, so get over it, pro-lifers, and move on.

To pro-lifers, there are many incontrovertible truths–human equality, mutual interdependence, the responsibilities that attend absolute power over a powerless unborn child, to name just three. But here I’d like to talk about a “truth” that pro-abortionists will defend with the unborn child’s dying breath: these children cannot experience pain until at least the 27th week or even (some would argue) until after birth.

Put another way fetal pain cannot be true. Were pro-abortionists to concede the self-evident–the capacity of the unborn child to experience unfathomable agony as she is ripped apart– suddenly that “tissue” or that “pregnancy” or that “uterine content” takes on human qualities that gives pause to all but the hardest heart.

This denial of reams of scientific evidence constitute such a key component of the pro-abortion narrative that no amount of evidence could ever cast even the slightest doubt.

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Say what? Everybody's happy with SCOTUS decision?

How is it possible that both sides are declaring victory in Monday's move by the Supreme Court to send the ObamaCare contraceptive mandate dispute back down to the lower courts?

The White House, which authored the contraceptive mandate, was thrilled with the ruling. "We obviously were pleased with the announcement from the Supreme Court today," said White House press secretary Josh Earnest.

Meanwhile, Sister Constance Viet of Little Sisters of the Poor, which opposed the mandate, told FOX News she was equally pleased. "Today was a very good day, and we're very happy with the result," she stated.

Is it possible the two sides have stumbled into a legitimate compromise?

Click here for more from OneNewsNow.

Don't let the ILGOP Remove the Pro-Life Plank from the Party Platform

Pro-life leaders and activists are concerned that there may be an attempt to remove the pro-life plank of the Republican Party Platform when the by-laws committee meets at the Republican Party Convention this week.  

We must not allow that to happen so please take action now!

The Illinois Republican Party Convention takes place May 19th through the 21st, so time is of the essence, act now.

Click here to make your voice heard.  Tell the Illinois Republican Party to include the pro-life plank in the Republican Party Platform.  Just fill out this simple form.  In your message include your request to "Please continue to include the Pro-Life plank in the Republican Party Platform."

Next, call your State Representatives and State Senators and ask them to also support the pro-life plank in the Republican Platform.

Click here to find your State Representatives' and State Senators' contact information.

The racial targeting of abortion

Decades after the Civil War, America continues to deal with race relations. Joe Langfeld of Human Life Alliance tells OneNewsNow that one of the new beginnings in that arena occurred 62 years ago – on May 17, 1954 – when the U.S. Supreme Court ordered an end to segregation in public schools when it ruled in Brown v. Board of Education.

"And [even now] we're still dealing with the issues of difficulties in race relations," Langfeld shares. "In terms of abortion, African-Americans by far have more abortions than any other segment of the U.S. population."

According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Guttmacher Institute, more than 30 percent of the nation's abortions occur in the black population – which is estimated at 13 percent of the total population. Similarly, Hispanics comprise about 15 percent of the population, yet have 25 percent of the abortions.

Click here for more from OneNewsNow.

Pro-life Groups Call for the Republican Party to Defund Planned Parenthood in the 2016 Republican Party Platform

Several pro-life organizations are planning major demonstrations just before the Republican National Convention to ensure the pro-life message is heard by the Platform Committee.

Activists will request that $540,000,000 currently given to Planned Parenthood be redirected to 13,000 federally licensed health clinics which provide true comprehensive women's health care. These clinics provide a greater variety of services and choices to women than Planned Parenthood and are not under federal investigation.

The groups leading the demonstrations are also conducting a five-city tour through Ohio on June 16-17 in preparation for their campaign in Cleveland.

Click here for more from ChristianNewswire.

Dylan Rizzo’s recovery further evidence a “vegetative state may not be as persistent as it was once thought”

Even in an era of seemingly endless media sources, when an item appears on one of the networks, it has traction. Take CBS Sunday Morning.

Correspondent Lee Cowan does a terrific job in telling the more- common-than-we-think story, in this case of Dylan Rizzo, who was involved in a devastating car crash in 2011 when he was 19.

Rushed to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, “Within an hour neurosurgeons had removed the left side of his skull and part of the right to make room for his brain to swell,” Cowan explained.

Not unexpectedly he slipped into a deep coma. When he did awake he “had transitioned into what’s called a vegetative state,” where his eyes were open but he was unaware (or seemed unaware) of his surroundings.

Spoiler alert. Five years later Dylan has made tremendous progress in his recovery. But what makes the story so powerful is the larger lesson his recovery illustrates.



Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Iowa parents tell Planned Parenthood to get lost

The Obama administration has handed over $5 million in taxpayers' dollars so Planned Parenthood can pump its version of sex education into children, some as young as five, in Southwest Iowa.

Ricky A. Rohrig of the Pregnancy Center of Southwest Iowa says Planned Parenthood was booted from Iowa schools many years ago when parents learned they were graphically teaching children about condom use and using stuffed animals to demonstrate sexual positions.

"And the parents were not informed prior to their youth being taught this," he tells OneNewsNow.

Click here for more from OneNewsNow.

Report: Rate of Abortions Performed on Girls under 20 Falls

According to the Guttmacher Institute report released earlier this week, the percentage of total abortions performed on girls under age 20 fell by 32 percent between 2008 and 2014.

Click here to read more from the report.

Click here for more from Illinois Review.

Mum who rejected abortion displays quintuplet babies

An Australian mother who gave birth to quintuplets in January has released a photo shoot of her five new babies.

It took Kim Tucci, 26, just two minutes to give birth to the massive set of new arrivals – four daughters and one son – who were conceived naturally.

Doctors had advised Kim to abort some of her five unborn children on health grounds but she refused, going on to give birth to all five babies.

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Indiana installs first ‘safe haven’ boxes to save abandoned newborns

With newborns increasingly abandoned, sometimes literally thrown in trash bins or flushed down toilets, one Indiana pro-life organization is installing "baby boxes" for mothers who feel they cannot care for their baby to ensure the child's safety.

When a mother opens the box – which is climate-controlled, padded, and circulates fresh air inside – a call is made to 911.  The box automatically locks once the mother shuts its door.  Motion sensors trigger a second, backup call to 911. Within three to five minutes, paramedics arrive and take the baby to the hospital for care. Indiana's Child Protective Services then takes custody of the child.

Click here for more from LifeSiteNews.com