NEWS SHORTS FOR WEDNESDAY (Referral to Web sites not produced by The Illinois Federation for Right to LIfe is for informational purposes only and does not necessarily constitute an endorsement of the sites' content.)
CHICAGO -- Researchers studying antibiotics in pregnancy have found a surprising link between common drugs used to treat urinary infections and birth defects. Reassuringly, the most-used antibiotics in early pregnancy—penicillins—appear to be the safest. Bacterial infections themselves can cause problems for the fetus if left unchecked, experts said, so pregnant women shouldn't avoid antibiotics entirely. Instead, women should discuss antibiotics choices with their doctors. Click here for the full article.
For decades, Sister Donna Quinn has championed the rights of women to use contraception, seek ordination and end unwanted pregnancies. The Dominican nun has picketed for abortion rights in Washington, petitioned the pope for a female archbishop and escorted women into abortion clinics. But as the Vatican turns up scrutiny of the nation's nuns and U.S. Roman Catholic bishops refuse to support universal health care if it covers abortion, Quinn has put her crusade on hold. "I want to be clear that this is my decision," she said in a statement today, announcing she would suspend her activity as a peacekeeper outside the ACU Health Clinic in Hinsdale. "Respect for women's moral agency is of critical importance to me, and I look forward to continuing to dialogue with our congregation on these matters as a way of informing my actions as well as educating the community." Click here for the full article.
A new law has taken effect in Honduras prohibiting the consumption and marketing of the morning-after pill in the Central American country.
The law was passed by the Honduran Congress at the beginning of the year with backing from the Medical College of Honduras, which pointed out that the pill has an abortifacient effect making it unconstitutional.
The Honduran Congress argued that the drug would "gravely endanger the health of the Honduran population, especially women who are able to get pregnant."
Lawmakers pointed to a 2008 report by the Medical College of Honduras that warned of the drug's anti-implantation effect, making it an abortifacient. The new law prohibits "the promotion, consumption, sale and purchasing of the emergency contraceptive pill, as well as its distribution, whether for sale or free-of-charge." Click here for the full article.
"Every time an election is held and pro-abortion candidates win, Planned Parenthood runs to the media to say the results show great support for its agenda. But the hierarchy of the abortion-committing group is silent now that voters in New Jersey and Virginia have soundly rejected the politics of death espoused by Planned Parenthood-endorsed candidates," said Douglas R. Scott, Jr., president Life Decisions International (LDI).
"Many Planned Parenthood-endorsed candidates, including Creigh Deeds in Virginia, made unrestricted abortion the keystone of their campaigns," Scott said. "They saw the issue as the Achilles' Heel of pro-life candidates. But the people have seen through the ruse that Planned Parenthood and its legions have employed for decades." Click here for the full article.
Christendom College's pro-life student group, Shield of Roses, held its biggest protest in over 30 years of its existence this past Saturday. On October 31, over 200 students, faculty, staff, and visitors traveled to Washington, D.C., to peacefully protest abortion at the Planned Parenthood clinic, located just north of the White House, on 16th Street.
The group protests at this same clinic each Saturday morning during the academic year, but normally only around 20-30 students make the trek into D.C. on a weekly basis. Once a semester, however, the group's leadership organizes what it calls a "Mega Shield" event and encourages as many of the members of the College community as possible to participate. Last year, Mega Shield events drew as many as 125 students, and prior years' saw up to 150 participants. Click here for the full article.
The president of the International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations, Dr. Jose Maria Simon, said last week that instead of creating a registry of doctors who refuse to perform abortions, the Collegial Medical Organization should create one for those who do.
In his judgment, it would be easier to register those who practice abortions, since "they are much fewer in number." In addition, he believes that this would make it easier to keep the practice under control since it is still a crime, "although it has been legalized in certain cases." Click here for the full article.
On Monday afternoon, Thomas More Society attorneys Tom Brejcha and Peter Breen were in Court on behalf of Illinois state's attorneys to oppose the ACLU's latest attempt to overturn the Illinois Parental Notice of Abortion Act - and to read an unlimited right to abortion into the Illinois Constitution. The ACLU is representing the plaintiff in the case, Hope Clinic v. Adams, with the Illinois Medical Disciplinary Board and the Secretary of Financial and Professional Regulation as defendants.
The Parental Notice Act was ruled valid and constitutional by the federal courts earlier this year, and our own Illinois Supreme Court had previously instructed [PDF of letter] that "our state courts are prepared to proceed to apply the law as enacted."
TMS attorneys thought they would be joining the defendants to defend the Parental Notice Act. Instead, upon arriving in Court, the attorneys were handed a memo [PDF of memo] saying that the Medical Board would now "review evidence" on the constitutionality of the Act and intended to extend a "grace period" against the enforcement of parental notice. (Of course, the Medical Board does not have the authority to stop valid Illinois laws from being enforced, but that hasn't stopped them thus far.)
That puts the Thomas More Society in an odd spot in this case - against both the plaintiffs, the ACLU, and the defendants, the Illinois government. They knew it was going to be a long day when the representative from Personal PAC - the political arm of Illinois' abortion providers - warmly introduced himself to the attorneys for the Medical Board (from the office of Illinois Attorney General, Lisa Madigan). Personal PAC sat right behind these lawyers in Court.
At the hearing, the Medical Board's lawyers told the judge that it would be meeting on Wednesday morning [PDF of agenda] at 9a.m. to consider the matter - to either lift the (illegal) "grace period" or to continue it. So you might wonder, will we finally be done on Wednesday morning? Will the 14-year wait for this parental notice law - something 80% of Illinoisans support - be over?
The medical administrative process is supposed to proceed in a two-step: first, the Medical Board adopts a recommendation and, second, the Secretary of Financial and Professional Regulation approves the recommendation, at which point the recommendation becomes effective.
Here's the problem: TMS has learned that one of the six members of the Board, Robert Fernandez, is a partner in the firm of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal in Chicago. That firm's lawyers serve as Outside General Counsel to Planned Parenthood of Illinois. (The Thomas More Society is up against Sonnenschein in the Scheidler v. Trombley defamation lawsuit, now pending in the Illinois Appellate Court.)
And, it gets worse. Brent Adams, Secretary of the Department of Professional Regulation and the lead defendant in this lawsuit, is on the Executive Committee for Personal PAC, the political arm of Illinois' abortion providers, and he has served on its Board of Directors since 1999. And, his resume [PDF] lists him as a past member of the Board of Directors of the ACLU of Illinois, the lawyers for the plaintiffs in this case.
Various groups are urging activity today. Via email, some Churches have asked people of good will to "call the Governor's office and urge him to instruct the Department to end the delay and finally allow parental notification to go into effect in Illinois. His number is 217-782-0244 in Springfield and 312-814-2121 in Chicago."
This morning, the Chicago Tribune editorialized that, "This had better be a routine hearing. The legislature passed this law in 1995. Enough with the delays."
No matter what, the Thomas More Society will be in Court on Wednesday afternoon - if necessary, standing alone against the Illinois government and the ACLU - to defend the Illinois Parental Notice of Abortion Act.
Over 11,000 pro-lifers tuned in last night to an emergency webcast by StopTheAbortionMandate.com, where national pro-life leaders briefed listeners on the extent of the threat to human life posed by the House health care bill.
According to coordinator David Bereit, although news of the webcast went out only 13 hours before it began, 11,243 people joined in. Speakers included Rep. Chris Smith, Charmaine Yoest of Americans United for Life, Kristen Day of Democrats for Life, Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America, Douglas Johnson of the National Right to Life Committee, Deirdre McQuade of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' pro-life secretariat, and Christian Medical and Dental Associations CEO Dr. David Stevens.
"You know as well as I, ladies and gentlemen, that killing human babies by abortion is not health care," said Congressman Smith of New Jersey, the chairman of the House's pro-life caucus. The congressman noted that prohibiting federal funding of abortion has been the status quo "across the board," including for the Medicaid Program, the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program, SCHIP, the Department of Defense, and even the Veterans Health Administration.
Smith warned that, included in the language of the "manager's amendment" that will be introduced to try to bridge divides in order to pass the bill, "will almost certainly be a new phony compromise that does nothing but put window dressing on the deadly abortion funding already in the bill."
The leaders once again made clear the bottom line regarding the 1,990-page bill's treatment of abortion funding. The Capps amendment, proposed as a "compromise" measure in July by the radically pro-abortion Rep. Lois Capps, does three key things: it allows abortion-covering insurance plans to receive government subsidies, establishes a government-run insurance plan that must cover abortion, and requires all U.S. regions to offer at least one abortion-covering health plan.
"They are wanting to make it as complicated as possible," said Americans United for Life President and CEO Charmaine Yoest, "in order to obscure the fact that there is a very simple truth underneath it all: this is a huge expansion in abortion funding and coverage by the federal government, which changes the way that we've approached abortion policy in this country for the last 30 years."
Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak, whose efforts at a pro-life amendment have posed a significant threat to the bill's abortion expansion, earned praise from the webcast speakers. Stupak has threatened to arrange like-minded Democrats to block passage of the bill's rule - which must be passed before the bill can be considered by the House - unless Democrat leadership allows a vote by the full House on a Hyde-like amendment for the measure. Kristin Day, the president of Democrats for Life, called Stupak a "hero."
"Pelosi has made it very clear so far that she has no intention whatsoever of allowing a vote on the Stupak/Pitts amendment," said Rep. Smith, referring to the pro-life amendment. "She wants to keep this issue quiet, and silence the pro-life members of congress who oppose government funding for abortion."
Douglas Johnson, the legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee, focused on the public option and the "powerful legal formula" in the Capps amendment that protects the public option's coverage of abortion. "Will the Obama administration use that sweeping authority if Congress provides it? You bet they will," he said. "And will they use federal funds to pay for those abortions? Why, certainly they will. Because the federal agency can spend nothing other than federal funds."
"The claim which has been disseminated by pro-abortion lawmakers and by some of their apologists in the media, that this federal program would pay for abortions but with private funds - although accepted and repeated with a straight face by some gullible journalists - is absurd on its face," he added. "It's a political hoax."
The leaders noted that the pro-life lawmakers have a formidable opponent in House Speaker Pelosi, who, according to Rep. Smith, has "no intention whatsoever" of allowing the House an opportunity to vote on the pro-life amendment. "Indeed, Speaker Pelosi believes that if the full House were allowed to vote on the Stupak/Pitts amendment, it would pass, and so she is determined not to allow that vote," noted Johnson.
Deirdre McQuade from the USCCB affirmed that the U.S bishops are "responding clearly and vigorously" to the health care bill. The USCCB recently began an all-out campaign against the abortion-laden bill, and asked all American U.S. prelates to join the effort to stop the abortion mandate earlier this month. http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/oct/09103003.html
Dr. David Stevens, CEO of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations, said that the bill's conscience language protecting doctors objecting to abortion was weak, and liable to be scrapped when the House and Senate bills undergo a merging process. "I don't think it's any time to relax or celebrate," Stevens said.
In addition, Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America noted President Obama's ambiguity on the abortion mandate. Though claiming that he is personally opposed to federal funding for abortion, Wright reports that Obama "has been personally and aggressively lobbying members of Congress to vote for the current bills," all of which include such funding.
Ultimately, according to the speakers, the pro-life effort against the rules vote - due to occur either today or Wednesday - is the "do or die" moment.
"I believe we can and I believe we will win, but we have to out-think and outwork the abortionists as never before," said Smith. "Clearly, this is the big one."
HINSDALE, Illinois - A congregation of US Dominican nuns has publicly apologized for the scandal caused by one of its members acting as a volunteer escort at a Chicago area abortion facility.
LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) first broke the story about Sr. Donna Quinn, O.P., a Dominican nun who is outspokenly in favor of legalized abortion, who had been identified by pro-life witnesses as an escort for the ACU Health Clinic.
Sr. Quinn's religious community, the Wisconsin-based Sinsinawa Dominican Congregation, admitted in a press release posted on their website that they were informed of the allegation several months ago, and, after having completed a period of investigation, the Congregation's leaders have informed the pro-abortion sister that "her actions are in violation of her profession as a Dominican religious."
The congregation reports that its leaders "are working with Sr. Donna to resolve the matter appropriately" and regret the public scandal caused by her actions.
The Sinsinawa Dominicans took the opportunity to re-affirm unequivocally their commitment to the Catholic Church's core teachings, as well as the necessity to witness to the sanctity and dignity of all human life from conception to natural death.
"We as Sinsinawa Dominican women are called to proclaim the Gospel through the ministry of preaching and teaching to participate in the building of a holy and just society," read a statement issued on behalf of the congregation.
"As Dominican religious, we fully support the teaching of the Catholic Church regarding the dignity and value of every human life from conception to natural death. We believe that abortion is an act of violence that destroys the life of the unborn. We do not engage in activity that witnesses to support of abortion."
Mike Johnson, senior legal counsel for Alliance Defense Fund, tells OneNewsNow there has been a long pattern, lasting more than a decade now, of harassment by local officials towards pro-life advocates.
"We've had officers who have routinely bullied these citizens for just merely expressing their religious viewpoints on the sanctity of human life, and they've even been threatened with arrest, actually arrested and even prosecuted, although not successfully, merely for standing on public sidewalks while engaging in their pro-life free speech," Johnson reports.
The attorney contends that what the demonstrators are doing is definitely protected by the First Amendment.
pro-lifer being handcuffed"People who believe in the pro-life cause shouldn't be punished and discriminated against merely for expressing their beliefs," he says. "I mean, treating these peaceful demonstrators as criminals is a crime in itself, and not to mention a blatant violation and suppression of their free-speech rights."
In one case, three squad cars and seven police officers surrounded Alex and Ana Marie Doak, along with their four-month-old son, as the couple was passing out leaflets to women entering an abortion clinic. Ana Marie was threatened with arrest for child abuse and neglect, while officers cited Alex for disturbing the peace. A lawsuit has been filed in the matter.
Linda Wadsworth of the University of Maryland, left, draws blood from Ethan Houley, 11, of Annapolis, Md. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
The Swine flu has claimed the lives of at least 114 children in the United States since April, according to the latest data available from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). But an estimated 2,247 to 3,305 babies lose their lives to abortion each day, based on statistics compiled by both the CDC and the Guttmacher Institute, a private research foundation tied to the abortion industry.
A CDC report released last Friday placed the death toll from H1N1 at 114 for persons aged 18 or younger. The week of Oct. 18-24 saw 19 laboratory-confirmed pediatric deaths from H1N1. Since August, 65 children have died from the virus and 12 have died from an unkown subtype of Influenza A. Since April 26, only 1 child has died from seasonal flu.
Meanwhile, in a 2008 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), the CDC said that in 2005, the most recent year for which abortion data is available, 820,151 legal abortions were reported from 49 reporting areas. (Scroll down to p.1 of report -- link above -- for information).
According to Guttmacher data, which are considered more up-to-date and more accurate than federal government statistics, 3,305 babies on average lose their lives to abortion daily. In 2005, the number of abortions totaled 1,206,200 children, (see p. 9, Table 1).
Guttmacher spokeswoman Rebecca Wind told CNSNews.com that her organization's data are more "complete" than the CDC's because, rather than relying on state self-reports, Guttmacher contacts abortion providers directly.
"Guttmacher conducts a census of all known abortion providers in the United States," Wind explained. "The CDC compiles data that are submitted by state departments of health and depend on state reporting requirements, which vary from state to state. In 2005, California, Louisiana, and New Hampshire did not provide data to the CDC."
Moreover, the CDC does not factor in how many children die from the legal abortion-inducing drug mifepristone, also known as RU-486.
Based on the Guttmacher statistics, an estimated 694,050 children were killed by abortion over the last seven months -- not including deaths from abortion drugs taken privately, outside of clinics.
Brian Clowes, director of research at Human Life International, told CNSNews.com that while it is "sad" that that 114 children have died from the H1N1 virus since April, the contrast is overwhelming.
"Over that same seven months, over 700,000 pre-born human beings have been killed legally by abortion in the United States," Clowes said. "Yet we tolerate the death toll from abortion because we have come to believe, contrary to science and every mother's experience, that the unborn human being really isn't a human being."
Clowes added: "This staggering inconsistency hardly even shocks us anymore, as the latest 'pandemic' never even begins to reach the death toll that we have grown to tolerate from legalized abortion. Ignoring the by-far-largest killer of children in favor of the latest fashionable panic goes beyond mere irony; it speaks of a deep societal sickness that we can hardly comprehend because it is so pervasive."
London, England - A man in Great Britain is fighting to keep his 12 month old son on life support, while the boy's mother and the hospital are arguing that his rare neuro-muscular condition does not leave him with a sufficient quality of life to warrant continued treatment.
If the high court rules in favor of the mother and hospital, it would be the first time that a U.K. court has ruled against the will of a parent and determined that life support can be removed from a child who does not have any brain damage.
The child, who is only known as "Baby RB," has been in the hospital since birth. He is currently on a ventilator, though his father argues that a tracheotomy would allow the child to breathe independently, and thus be cared for at home.
The father, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is planning on submitting videos to the court that demonstrate that Baby RB's brain is unaffected, as he can see, hear, feel, and recognize his parents. He is also able to play with some toys and and enjoy stories and music.
Anthony Fairweather, a lawyer for the child's mother, told Sky News that "RB's mother has sat by her son's bedside every day since he was born. In her mind the intolerable suffering experienced by her son must outweigh her own personal grief should she lose her child." Doctors say that the child's quality of life is so poor that keeping him alive is not in his own best interest.
This is not the first time that the life of a child has been determined by the British courts, though a General Medical Council survey found that 80 percent of parents don't think that courts should be allowed to decide whether or not a child should be kept alive. A spokeswoman for The British Medical Association told The Guardian that though such cases are disturbing, they must be resolved in the courts when the parents and doctors don't agree on the best treatment for the child.
NEWS SHORTS FOR TUESDAY (Referral to Web sites not produced by The Illinois Federation for Right to LIfe is for informational purposes only and does not necessarily constitute an endorsement of the sites' content.)
On Thursday, November 5, pro-life advocates from several states are coming to Washington DC to lobby members of Congress to vote "No" on the health care bill. After lobbying, they will proceed to Nancy Pelosi's office to stage a sit-in. They will crumple the entire health care bill one page at a time -- and leave the tattered bill on the floor. When asked to leave, they will refuse.
Missy Smith states: "If need be, we are willing to be arrested to highlight the horrifying injustice of Nancy Pelosi funding the murder of the innocent under the guise of 'health care.' Nancy Pelosi needs to hear loud and clear - WE WON'T PAY FOR MURDER!!"
Researchers in New Zealand who examined the medical history of over 500 women concluded abortion "leads to significant distress in some" and that those reporting adverse reactions were up to 80 per cent more likely to have mental health problems. The University of Otago study, reported in the British Journal of Psychiatry, found the risk of mental illness was "proportional to the degree of distress" associated with the abortion. Prof David Fergusson, of the department of Psychological Medicine, and his team, studied data from women who had been interviewed six times between the ages of 15 and 30, each time being asked whether they had been pregnant and, if so, what the outcome of that pregnancy had been. Click here for the full article.
Alaska residents have launched a petition drive that could make the state the first in the nation to recognize human rights for all human beings. Personhood Alaska sponsor Christopher Kurka is coordinating the drive to get 30,000 Alaska voters to sign the petition before it appears on the ballot. The personhood movement seeks to recognize all human beings from the biological beginning of their development as persons and as such, entitled to equal protection under the law. Alaska is the eighth state to launch a campaign for a personhood amendment to the state constitution. Click here for the full article.
Zaragoza, Spain - The fourth International Pro-life Congress will take place from November 6-8 in Zaragoza, Spain featuring speakers from 14 different countries including the U.S., Canada, Uganda, Cuba and France. Organizers expect 1,000 participants to attend from Spain and around the world.
According to organizers, the Congress aims at both raising social awareness in support of women with unexpected pregnancies and defending the life of the unborn. Speakers hail from various countries including the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Uganda, Chile, Cuba, Argentina, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Sweden, Italy, France and Spain. Click here for the full article.
The pro-life community has won a battle against buffer zones around abortion clinics.
At issue before the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was an ordinance in Pittsburgh severely restricting activities of pro-life counselors. Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) senior counsel David Cortman tells OneNewsNow the problem with the law was that it established a fixed, and then a floating buffer zone.
"So the fixed zone is a circle drawn 15 feet around the door where no pro-life advocate can enter. On top of that zone, as if it was not restrictive enough, they've also added [that] within 100 feet of every clinic in the city, you were not able to approach another person on a public sidewalk unless you get prior consent from the person," Cortman reports. Click here for the full article.
Abortion industry lobbyists and their allies in Congress are about to ram through mandated government funding of abortion in healthcare reform legislation THIS WEEK in the U.S. House of Representatives.
To respond swiftly to this crisis, the pro-life movement is unifying TONIGHT on a huge nationwide webcast -- and your attendance is crucial:
"This may be the last chance to block the largest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade…"
Join the URGENT nationwide webcast event this Monday, November 2, to prevent Washington D.C. bureaucrats and abortion industry lobbyists from forcing YOU to pay for abortions.
Concerned Women for America has seen into America's future and produced 9 clever automated phone calls we should anticipate if Obama and Congress succeed in railroading nationalized healthcare.
For example, as CWA wrote when introducing the following call, "Under Obamacare, abortion providers like Planned Parenthood could be the official government 'community provider' for clinics at or near schools."...
Josh Brahm's latest edition of Science Matters is not only hysterical and well done, it is also good ammo to keep in one's back pocket the next time a pro-abort claims the product of the union of human sperm and human egg is not a human...
The new 1,990-page healthcare bill not only authorizes federal funding for elective abortions, but it also allows abortion funding in the Indian Health Service.
House Democrats have attached to the back of their healthcare bill a measure to reauthorize the Indian Health Service.
Democrats have failed to move the Indian health bill for the past three years because there were votes in the Energy and Commerce Committee to add an amendment preventing the Indian Health Service from funding abortions. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) has refused to add the Hyde Amendment abortion funding ban to the overall healthcare bill.
Joy Yearout with the Susan B. Anthony List says Democratic leaders are doing everything they can to prevent a vote on federal funding of abortion.
"Congress has had difficulty passing this Indian healthcare bill for the last three years, mainly because of the abortion issue," explains Yearout. "Democrats in leadership haven't wanted to have a battle on the House floor about federal funding for abortion, so they've avoided it. They were hoping no one would notice that they folded it into the healthcare bill."
Yearout says there are no protections in the healthcare bill for pro-life taxpayers. She also notes that as the current legislation stands, government funds will be used to write checks for abortionists.
Pro-lifers: Wildfire effort could be death blow to abortion in Obamacare
A pro-life movement seeking to guarantee basic human rights to unborn babies is exploding in 32 states – and leaders say it could be just the key to nullifying abortion provisions in President Obama's health-care "reform."
While abortion was not specifically mentioned in earlier bills under consideration, H.R.3962, unveiled by Nancy Pelosi this week, does in fact state abortion is to be covered. Concerns are mounting that whatever the final form of the legislation, the procedure will become more accessible, requiring health insurance companies to fund abortions.
Gualberto Garcia Jones is director of Personhood Colorado and a legal analyst for Personhood USA, a grassroots Christian organization that seeks to legally define every unborn baby as a "person" protected by God-given and constitutionally protected rights, including the right to life. His organization was set up to support personhood efforts across America through legislation and constitutional amendments.
"We're trying to end abortion right now," Garcia Jones told WND. "All of our laws that we're promoting are direct challenges to Roe v. Wade. If we can get a challenge up to the Supreme Court, then that's the ideal thing. That's what we're trying to do."
The personhood approach within the pro-life movement was sparked by a statement in the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that opened the doors for legal abortion in the U.S.
Justice Harry Blackmun wrote in the majority opinion for Roe v. Wade, "The appellee and certain amici [pro-lifers] argue that the fetus is a 'person' within the language and meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment. In support of this, they outline at length and in detail the well-known facts of fetal development. If this suggestion of personhood is established, the appellant's case, of course, collapses, for the fetus' right to life would then be guaranteed specifically by the [14th] Amendment."
According to the movement, if every unborn baby is defined as a person, each baby will be legally guaranteed the same right to life as all Americans.
"We believe – and a lot of the justices on the Supreme Court agree with us – that there is no right to privacy that would allow abortion," Garcia Jones said. "Since it's not mentioned directly in the 14th Amendment, we could use the 10th Amendment and the states' rights to police themselves and to pass laws regulating morality and health and safety to regulate abortion so it's not permitted. Basically it would be treated the same way as a homicide, where a state can regulate how they punish it and how they try to prevent it, but they could never allow it."
He continued, "We believe respect for life is in the Constitution, so therefore a state could never say you can kill a person."
Garcia Jones said the personhood movement is a timely approach considering the widespread success of the tea party movement, the states' rights movement and voter frustration with what they consider overreaching policies by the federal government.
He said citizens in 32 states are now acting to find sponsors for personhood statutes or constitutional amendments to include them on 2010 ballots.
"It's taken off so much that we're having trouble keeping up with it," he said. "Colorado, Montana, Missouri, Mississippi and California are all in the process of getting signatures."
The Los Angeles Times reported Sept. 28 that while personhood measures failed in Montana and North Dakota legislatures earlier this year, "the close votes alarmed supporters of legal abortion."
According to WND columnist Jill Stanek, pro-life legislators in Alaska, Arkansas, Hawaii, Indiana, Louisiana and Texas have also signaled their intent to introduce personhood statutes.
Personhood USA co-founder Keith Mason told WND the personhood movement is one of the only things that could combat abortion in health-care reform legislation.
"The 24-hour waiting periods and parental consent laws fall short," he said. "Obama's making a lot of people mad, and it's a great way for us to ride this wave of social tension and backlash against Obama so we can get as much done for the pre-born child as we can. What's coming down the pike next is an abolition against all restrictions on abortion. This is a real fight."
Mason said the grassroots personhood movement is "exploding." As WND reported, a project inspired by a Zogby/O'Leary poll revealed 71 percent of Americans oppose allowing taxpayer-funded abortions in health-care reform legislation.
"Most of these efforts start with one or two people and grow into something bigger," he said. "As we press forward, I think this is going to grow, and we're seeing that happen."
The Personhood USA website lists states involved in the personhood movement and allows citizens to register with groups in their respective states.
Australia's suicide obsessed Philip Nitschke is bringing his how-to-kill-yourself class to the USA. I have a piece about his planned San Francisco suicide lecture in today's San Francisco Chronicle. From the column:
Shouldn't there be limits to assisted-suicide permissiveness? Not according to Nitschke, who bluntly takes assisted-suicide advocacy to its logical conclusion. If we each own our bodies, he says, and if self-termination is an acceptable answer to human suffering, then assisted suicide shouldn't be restricted to limited "subgroups," such as the dying. Indeed, in 2001 interview with National Review Online, Nitschke asserted that "all people qualify … including the depressed, the elderly bereaved, the troubled teen."
Nitschke's advocacy has had real casualties: In 2002, a woman named Nancy Crick caused a media frenzy in Australia after announcing publicly that she was being counseled by Nitschke because of terminal cancer. After months of equivocating, she finally killed herself in front of a group of awestruck euthanasia advocates, who reportedly applauded when she took the drugs (Nitschke was not present). When the autopsy showed that she was not terminally ill, Nitschke admitted that he and Crick knew it all along. However, rather than apologize, he argued that her nonterminal condition was "irrelevant" because she was "hopelessly ill" with a painful digestive problem.
Some claim that Nitschke is fringe. He's not: Other assisted-suicide advocates will say that Nitschke's activities illustrate why assisted suicide should be legally regulated. But why would that stop him from "counseling" people who would not qualify for assisted suicide under such a law? More important, if society comes to broadly accept a "right" of the dying to receive assisted suicide – currently legal in three states – what would prevent legal access to terminal prescriptions from expanding eventually to people with serious disabilities and chronic diseases, the elderly and the existentially despairing, who, after all, might suffer far more profoundly and for a longer time? And indeed, that is precisely what has happened in the Netherlands and Switzerland, after assisted suicide became popularly accepted.
Nitschke appears to be on the radical edge of the assisted suicide movement – but he's really not. Should assisted-suicide mentality sink into the bedrock of American culture, the question will not be whether its practice will expand to accommodate Nitschke's dark vision, but rather, how long that process will take.
Assisted suicide advocacy is often well meaning. But it is profoundly destructive. Over time, as has happened in the Netherlands, it turns abandonment into a virtue and promotes the idea of a life not worth living. That is an especially dangerous notion in these days of Obamacare, where the drive to cut costs could promote self elimination over life-extending care–as it already has in Oregon in the Barbara Wagner/Randy Stroup cases.
Back in February, Eric Holder – the country's first black Attorney General – announced that we were a nation of cowards because, "we, as average Americans, simply do not talk enough to each other about race." Holder is right.
That there are still organizations operating in this country that demonize, target, and victimize innocent people simply because of the color of their skin is unconscionable. That there are still hate groups in our midst whose very foundation is rooted in a malevolent contempt for minorities is disgusting. That, while we stand quietly, there are those working daily inside this country to commit genocide against blacks is an abomination. And worse, still others go beyond complicit silence and actually attempt to give legitimacy and offer defense for such institutions perpetrating these atrocities.
These devastating realities only prove Holder's assertion to be accurate. It is inescapable...as long as Planned Parenthood continues to operate in this country, we are a nation of cowards.
In her book The Pivot of Civilization, Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger wrote that unless something was done to stop them, those living in the slums (blacks, Hispanics, and Jews) would eventually leave the boundaries of their neighborhoods and mix with the better parts of society (whites). Their inferior genes, she argued, would then infect the rest of us. Therefore, she suggested we cease all charitable giving to the inner-city poor, segregate these "morons, misfits, and maladjusted," sterilize these "genetically inferior races," and begin a process of eliminating such "human weeds."
And her organization, Planned Parenthood, has done just that. In the 1980s, the organization began intentionally targeting black inner-city neighborhoods for their clinics. Author George Grant pointed out that, "of the more than 100 school-based clinics that have opened nationwide in the [1980s]...all have been at black, minority, or ethnic schools." By 1991, Planned Parenthood was reporting that 43 percent of all its abortions were performed on minorities – a time when the minorities accounted for only 19 percent of the total population. And in a comparative analysis between the 2000 U.S. Census data and the location of Planned Parenthood clinics, Cybercast News Service concluded, "The results appear to bolster the charge that the organization targets black communities."
Consider also a recent sting operation conducted by The Advocate, a student magazine at UCLA. In the sting, an actor posed as a potential donor to Planned Parenthood wanting to contribute his money to help "lower the number of black people." In the seven states where the sting took place, each clinic agreed to take the racially earmarked contribution, with none of them expressing concern over the motivation. In one exchange, the actor said, "the less black kids out there, the better." The Planned Parenthood director responded by saying such sentiments were "understandable."
Combine those grim realities and you begin to see that Planned Parenthood is doing its part to carry on the eugenic and racist policies of its founder. But don't take my word for it. Alan Guttmacher, who led Planned Parenthood for 12 years, stated, "We are merely walking down the path that Ms. Sanger has carved out for us." And recent Planned Parenthood President Faye Wattleton stated she was "proud" to be "walking in the footsteps" of Sanger. When you consider that Wattleton is black, it is difficult to know whether to be outraged or just cry at such a statement.
As a leftist himself – whose boss got elected to the White House thanks in no small part to contributions from Planned Parenthood and its allies – I recognize that Eric Holder certainly wasn't calling for an open discussion about the abortion mills' racial genocide. This only proves that while preaching against racial cowardice, Holder is ignoring his own. You simply can't be taken seriously when discussing America's racism problems if you are willing to ignore the greatest perpetrators of racial injustice in our midst.
Talk to me all you want about Rush Limbaugh and his comments regarding Donovan McNabb. If you are not simultaneously sickened by the revolting racism of Planned Parenthood...if you are not demanding that immediate action be taken against it and the evil it encourages...if you are not ashamed that such a group continues to operate with a third of its budget financed with your tax dollars...you are a coward with absolutely no credibility to ever be taken seriously on this issue.
And worse, you are a willful accomplice to the racist violence of a group that, as Dr. Alveda King (the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.) points out, "has done what the Klan only dreamed of."
ST. LOUIS, MO -- Planned Parenthood sued the State of Missouri this week to challenge two pro-life ballot initiatives, in an apparent effort to stifle the people's constitutional right to the ballot process.
One of the ballot initiatives, submitted by Personhood Missouri, states, "Section 35, Person defined. As used in sections 2, 10, and 14 of Article I of the state constitution, the term "person" shall apply to every human being from the beginning of the biological development of that human being."
The personhood amendment, along with another pro-life initiative, were both approved by Secretary of State Democrat Robin Carnahan on October 20th. An amendment much like this one was introduced in Colorado and found to be a single-subject issue, approved by the Colorado State Supreme Court. The Planned Parenthood lawsuit claims that the Missouri personhood amendment did not warn voters of the legal and constitutional fallout if the ballot measure passes.
"The legal and constitutional 'fallout' of a Missouri Personhood amendment, is that all humans in the state of Missouri have human rights," stated Keith Mason, of Personhood USA. "All humans are people, and must be protected."
According to the law, it is not required or necessary for ballot initiative proposers to outline every possible legal scenario if an amendment is passed.
"Our amendment is easy to understand, and simply protects all humans from their biological beginning," stated Dr. Gregory Thompson, initiative sponsor. "The Planned Parenthood lawsuit was quoted in several newspapers as incorrectly using the term, 'fertilized egg'. In fact, at the moment of biological beginning, the newly formed human being is not an egg at all, but a unique individual person."
This lawsuit will cost taxpayers additional funds and use valuable government resources, pointed out Dr. Thompson. He continued to say, "The very organization that uses tax dollars to cause the deaths of millions of innocent human beings and many mothers, along with years of physical, mental, and spiritual pain, is now using government resources again to keep this issue from going to the voters."
"The motivation of Planned Parenthood is highly suspect. This lawsuit addresses a concern about loss of funds, yet Planned Parenthood reportedly brought in over 10 million dollars in 2008 in Missouri alone, and over a billion dollars nationwide," continued Mason. "This is clearly an act of desperation by a billion dollar industry, seeking to keep the issue of Personhood away from the people of Missouri."
There have been interesting polling, occasionally reported here, about how the country seems to be moving in a pro life direction, with the Gallup Poll now showing a majority opposing abortion. One reason seems to be that improved imaging techniques have verified the humanity of gestating life. That is sure what happened with Abby Johnson, who quit her position as head of a local Planned Parenthood chapter, and indeed, now works with pro lifers to help persuade women to make the choice of giving birth. From the story:
Planned Parenthood has been a part of Abby Johnson's life for the past eight years; that is until last month, when Abby resigned. Johnson said she realized she wanted to leave, after watching an ultrasound of an abortion procedure. "I just thought I can't do this anymore, and it was just like a flash that hit me and I thought that's it," said Jonhson.
She handed in her resignation October 6. Johnson worked as the Bryan Planned Parenthood Director for two years. According to Johnson, the non-profit was struggling under the weight of a tough economy, and changing it's business model from one that pushed prevention, to one that focused on abortion. "It seemed like maybe that's not what a lot of people were believing any more because that's not where the money was. The money wasn't in family planning, the money wasn't in prevention, the money was in abortion and so I had a problem with that," said Johnson.
If Johnson's charge is true about being told to intentionally push abortion for financial reasons, Planned Parenthood cannot credibly claim to be a dispassionate family planning/women empowering organization. Rather, it has an agenda that is both ideological and financially motivated. Since PP receives millions in taxpayer dollars, I think Johnson's charge should be investigated.
NEWS SHORTS FOR MONDAY (Referral to Web sites not produced by The Illinois Federation for Right to LIfe is for informational purposes only and does not necessarily constitute an endorsement of the sites' content.)
Women may seem to be the driving force of health reform, given all the attention recently paid to gender disparities in insurance premiums. In fact, the massive health reform bill unveiled by the House of Representatives yesterday contains several sections that pertain just to women in terms of abortion coverage, pregnancy services, and prohibitions against excluding those with pre-existing conditions, specifically mentioning women who've been victims of domestic violence. While the bill does provide maternity coverage as part of a basic benefits package that insurers must provide in their coverage, it specifically says that public funding can't be used for abortions--which would include coverage under the public option--except where it's already allowed, such as in cases of rape or incest or where a mother's life is at risk. Click here for the full article.
Sacramento, California - A Christian student government president in California is facing a recall amidst anger from some administration and students after the student government permitted a pro-life demonstration during the college's annual Constitution Day celebrations.
Constitution Day at Sacramento City College, which took place this year on September 16-17, is an annual celebration of the Constitution and free speech, which features external speakers and organizations who request an invitation from the Associated Student Government (ASG).
ASG president Steve Macias, 19, and student affairs commissioner Monica Guzman now risk losing their positions in a recall vote after the ASG welcomed the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP). Click here for the full article.
Dr. Leon Kass is the winner of the 2010 Paul Ramsey Award for excellence in bioethics.
Kass served as chairman of President Bush's Council on Bioethics from 2001-05.
The Center for Bioethics and Culture, which presents the award each year, said Kass has defended the dignity of human life while advancing ethical biotechnology. Click here for the full article.
Legislation (FID 09-0406) before the Baltimore City Council that would require crisis pregnancy centers to post signs stating that they do not provide abortion services prompted a "contentious" debate at a hearing on Wednesday, the Baltimore Sun reports. City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake (D), who introduced the bill, said it is "about truth in advertising."
According to the Sun, the bill would affect at least four crisis pregnancy centers, which offer adoption information and counseling but do not provide abortion services or dispense contraception. Two of centers are funded by the Roman Catholic Church. Carol Clews, director of one of the centers, showed the city council a release form and a statement of care that the facility displays. Clews said, "We already inform our clients in a variety of ways about the services we perform." Click here for the full article.
I have been warning that the drive has been renewed to expand the number of organ donors by opening the door to killing for organs, in this column about. Now, another article in the journal Bioethics, by Christian Coons and Noah Levin, add new targets to the list of potential (killed-for-organs) donors–people who want assisted suicide and prisoners due to receive capital punishment.
First, they claim that the Dead Donor Rule (DDR)–that prohibits killing for organs–is untenable and should be rejected. They go into a lot of detail about the reasons, but that, I think, is too arcane to deal with here. Then they argue that if someone is going to die inevitably anyway, why not take their organs even though it causes death. They illustrate their point with a silly mind game. From the article (link to Abstract) Click here for the full article.
"Slow euthanasia by deep sedation" is a current reality in the British health care system, and not just a journalistic myth, a survey of UK doctors has revealed. The study found that continuous deep sedation (CDS) was more frequently requested by patients or relatives seeking a "hastened death" and was associated "with a greater incidence of other end-of-life decisions containing some intent to end life by the doctor".
Under existing medical care protocols in the UK, patients who are designated as dying, can have food and hydration withdrawn until they die of dehydration, even when continued hydration can still be of medical benefit.
"Doctors supporting legalization of euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide, or who were nonreligious, were more likely to report using CDS," the researchers found. Click here for the full article.
Chicago-Based Thomas More Society Intervenes to Defend Illinois Parental Notice of Abortion Act
CHICAGO -- Today, the Thomas More Society filed a petition to intervene, on behalf of three Illinois state's attorneys, in Cook County Circuit Court to defend the Illinois Parental Notice of Abortion Act. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) recently brought suit in Illinois state court to enjoin or block the Act, after the ACLU lost its bid in federal court earlier this year to stop the Act from going into effect.
State's Attorneys Stewart Umholtz of Tazewell County, Edward Deters of Effingham County, and Raymond Cavanaugh of Henderson County are seeking to intervene in order to have the case dismissed. The petition is expected to be heard at 2:00 p.m., Monday, November 2, 2009, along with the ACLU's motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against the Parental Notice of Abortion Act. Thomas More Society attorneys will be available for comment after the hearing.
"At some point, the ACLU will realize that Illinois law, just like the law in 36 other states, provides parents the right to know before their underage daughters are taken for abortions," said Peter Breen, Executive Director & Legal Counsel for the Society. "Until that time, we will defend against the ACLU's continued attempts to thwart the will of Illinois voters, the large majority of whom support parental notice before an abortion."
The suit brought in Illinois court by the ACLU did not name Illinois state's attorneys, as had been done in the earlier federal case. The Thomas More Society's filing asserts that the ACLU's case is barred because of the earlier loss in the federal courts. The Society also asserts that the Illinois Constitution of 1970 did not include a right to abortion, based on the proceedings of the Constitutional Convention. Also, abortion remained illegal in Illinois, under almost all circumstances, after the 1970 Illinois Constitution went into effect and up until the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade, which was based only on the U.S. Constitution.
Doctor divulges details on sex life, tells Americans, 'All of us get HPV'
Planned Parenthood has announced a new message to sexually active Americans: Expect to have the human papillomavirus, or HPV, sexually transmitted disease because "all of us get it."
Planned Parenthood Federation of America's vice president for medical affairs, Vanessa Cullins, M.D., aired the following advertisement on YouTube, in which she urges viewers to "become more explicit and more concrete in talking about sex."
The video is titled "Let's Talk about Sex." She introduces herself as an obstetrician/gynecologist who is "a sexually active individual."
"Conversation is going to be necessary whether you're thinking this is a relationship going to end up in marriage or one that's going to end up as a one-night stand," she said. "In terms of sexually transmitted diseases, expect to have HPV once you become sexually intimate.
"All of us get it."
Cullins warns about the risks of contracting chlamydia and declares, "My best advice for staying healthy is to admit that you're a sexually active individual – like most of us – and that you're going to have sex and that you need to take precautions in order to stay healthy."
American Life League's Judy Brown blasted the Planned Parenthood video, saying, "Any adult female such as Cullins who can, with a straight face, expound on the virtues of promiscuity is contributing to corruption in more ways than one."
Brown said Cullins implies that individuals who choose not to be sexually active are not "like most of us."
"Cullins' implication … rings true among not only young people but far too many young parents, many of whom are single parents, and even among married couples who have bought into the lies inherent in the prevailing contraceptive mentality," she said in a statement. "It is a sad testimony to the times in which we live, but all too true. If we bury our heads in the sand and pretend that such grossly misguided attitudes and distorted theories about human sexuality are normal, then we too are part of the problem."
