Abortion advocates discover adoption

     

We've always said "pro-choice" is code for "pro-abortion," because the other side only pushes that 1 of the 3 choices of mothers in crisis pregnancies.

On June 18 the New York Times reported on a major concession made by the other side, the "emergence of a generation of women's advocates who want to remedy" the pro-abort adoption gap....

It remains to be seen whether this actually comes to pass or is just a PR move by desperate ideologues not only losing in the polls now but also losing their previously presumed position as spokespersons for women.

Pro-aborts promoting adoption would be one "common ground" measure I'd support. The difference between them and us being, of course, our side offers financial and legal assistance toward that end, while their side will only supply a piece of paper with the name of a pro-abortion adoption agency.

But if the bottom line is more babies saved, that would be good.

Promoting adoption also forces pro-aborts to mentally go places they have always refused to go. It is to agree with a pro-life platform plank, to delve into our territory, It is to concede abortion isn't necessarily the best option for mothers in crisis pregnancies. It is to promote life over death. It is to concede the "pregnancy" is a life in the 1st place. It is to accept that some mothers are willing to sacrifice their interests and to accept responsibility for the the life they have created, which is to admit abortion is self-serving and irresponsible.

The NYT piece was quite interesting. A few highlights:

What if groups that demanded reproductive choices for women actually offered them?...

The idea is simple. It is about choice. Not choice as a euphemism for the right to have an abortion, but choice in the true sense of the word: options, informed consent and support for women trying to figure out what to do with an unwanted pregnancy....

(In other words, pro-aborts do not provide totally informed consent nor provide holistic support?)

The thinking is that all the clinics' clients, whether they seem uneasy about abortion or not, should have a clear understanding of how adoption works, rather than just be handed a list of references - a list that essentially says, adoption is fine, but it's not our thing.

To many who have labored for abortion rights, it might seem at first blush that abortion clinics need adoption specialists the way fish need bicycles - that it represents an infiltration of the opposition....

Corinna Lohser... worked at an abortion clinic in Cleveland years ago... [and now] works for Spence-Chapin Adoption Services, a NY adoption agency that supports abortion rights, and has come to regret the lack of information she had been able to provide women in Cleveland....

As Ms. [Christina] Page put it: "It's like you've come to this g>Italian restaurant - do you really want the waiter saying, 'There's this great German place down the block, not sure how much you know about it, but you might like it'?"...

After Ms. Palin's recent "mama grizzlies" speech, pundits focused more on whether she could call herself a feminist than on addressing her critiques of the abortion-rights message. Feminist groups, she said, want to tell women: "You're not capable of doing both. You can't give your child life and still pursue career and education."

If Ms. Palin feels confident lobbing that point it's because the right has kept old-line feminists so busy protecting abortion rights that they have less energy to focus on issues like adoption or, for that matter, quality child care for women who want to parent. The Adoption Access Network suggests recognition of one weak spot....

Note that it's our fault pro-aborts haven't focused on adoption heretofore.

Contact: Jill Stanek
Source: jillstanek.com
Publish Date: June 21, 2010
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Jack Kevorkian Admits to Committing Second Murder on Larry King

     
     Jack Kevorkian in cuffs at his Trial

The murderer Jack Kevorkian was imprisoned for lethally injecting Thomas Youk, who had Lou Gehrig's disease. He was prosecuted because, egotist that he is, he video taped himself doing it and brought it to euthanasia fan Mike Wallace for airing on 60 Minutes. That was even too much for the Oakland County, MI prosecutor, who had won office on a plank of letting Kevorkian be Kevorkian–not knowing just how depraved K could be, as in taking kidneys from Joseph Tushkowski after an assisted suicide and offering them at a news conference. Plus, there was Kevorkian's obsession with human vivisection, but I won't replay the entire litany here.  If you want more details, hit this link.

It was always thought that Kevorkian only injected Youk. Not according to Kevorkian. From the interview:

KING: What did you do?

KEVORKIAN: I did the injection [of Youk].

KING: Usually they kill themselves, right? So, that was not pure suicide.

KEVORKIAN: No. I did the first one too, [Janet] Adkins, the first case. After that, we had the method where the patient could trigger it themselves.

Adkins had early Alzheimer's disease, meaning she had many years left of life, and in fact, played tennis with her sons a few days before her apparent murder.

So, Kevorkian has admitted he's a repeat murderer.  Technically, since there is no statute of limitations for murder, he could be prosecuted for Atkins' homicide.  Instead, he'll keep getting high level interviews, movies made about him starring Al Pacino, and $50,000 speaking fees at state funded universities.  We sure do have a twisted love for outlaws in this country.

Contact: Wesley J. Smith
Source: Secondhands Smoke
Publish Date: June 21, 2010
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IVF babies being aborted

     

About 80 unborn babies conceived by in vitro fertilization (IVF) are eliminated by abortion each year in Great Britain, according to a new report.

The stunning news that a sizable number of women who go through expensive fertility treatments choose to abort their children caught even some fertility specialists off guard. "These women can't be surprised to be pregnant; you can't have an IVF pregnancy by accident," Bill Ledger said, according to The Times of London. Ledger is an HFEA member and head of reproductive and developmental medicine at Sheffield University.

The statistics from Britain's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) show an increasing number of women are choosing abortion for "social," rather than medical reasons after becoming pregnant by IVF, The Times reported June 6.

Some women chose abortion because of problems in their marriages, according to the report.

Victoria, a London secretary, aborted her IVF child when it became obvious her marriage was falling apart. "I couldn't cope with bringing up a child on my own and I didn't want any link that would force me to stay in touch with my husband," she told The Times.

Ann Widdecombe, formerly a Conservative Party member of Parliament, said women who abort for "social" reasons are treating their unborn children like "designer goods," the newspaper reported. "If the law was being applied properly, people wouldn't be able to get an abortion just because they changed their minds," she said.

R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said the news demonstrates human beings are increasingly practicing self-idolatry. "We are witnessing the elevation of personal autonomy, personal happiness, and personal fulfillment to levels that can only be described as idolatry," he wrote on his weblog June 9.

"Americans should take note -- we can be virtually assured that this scandal is present in this nation to a degree exceeding even what has been revealed in Britain," Mohler wrote. "This nation lacks some of the protections and regulations found even in Britain. The United States is, as some foreign observers have noted, the 'wild, wild West' of fertility treatments. Add to that fact the reality that women in the U.S. can demand an abortion for any reason or for no stated reason at all.

"One might think that the most welcome place in the world for an unborn child would be the womb of a mother who would be so intent on getting pregnant that she would seek and undergo IVF fertility treatment. It turns out that in a significant number of cases, that assumption is proved wrong. How do we take the measure of that tragedy?"

KANSAS GOVERNOR AIDS P.P. -- Kansas Gov. Mark Parkinson used a line-item veto to restore funding to Planned Parenthood in a blow to pro-life efforts in the state.

The Democratic governor struck a legislative provision that required all Title X funding to go to comprehensive health clinics and hospitals instead of family planning clinics. Title X is the federal government's family planning program. Parkinson's veto means two Planned Parenthood clinics in Kansas will receive $375,000 in Title X funds.

Title X money is not to be used for abortions, and Parkinson said the two Planned Parenthood clinics do not perform abortions.

Planned Parenthood, however, is the country's leader abortion provider. Its affiliates performed more than 305,000 abortions in the United States in 2007, the most recent year for which statistics are available. Planned Parenthood received about $350 million in government grants and contracts in 2008.

"Governor Parkinson is out of step with the public, which doesn't want to be linked with this abortion business.... It's a sad day in Kansas when the Governor insures a politically motivated group like Planned Parenthood gets our taxpayer dollars while state health clinics are left wanting," said Mary Kay Culp, executive director of Kansans for Life, in a written statement after Parkinson's May 27 action.

GIRL DOES SELF-ABORTION -- A 13-year-old Pennsylvania girl performed a self-abortion, and her 30-year-old boyfriend buried the dead child, according to a newspaper report June 7.

The girl, who lives in Monroe County in the eastern part of the state, told police she initiated the abortion at home June 2, according to The Express-Times in Lehigh Valley. During the next three days, she became ill, had contractions and delivered the child at her home. The unnamed girl contacted Michael James Lisk, whom she believed to be the baby's father, and he buried the body in the woods between their homes.

Lisk, who police reported had been involved in a sexual relationship with the girl for about a year, was charged with rape and concealing a child's death, according to The Express-Times. No charges had been filed against the girl, the newspaper reported.

IPPF'S INCOME SOARS -- The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) reported an increase in total revenue of more than $20 million in 2009.

The IPPF's income grew from $119.7 million in 2008 to $140.7 million last year, according to a financial statement released in May. More than $97 million of the 2009 total came in the form of government grants.

The statement showed massive growth in some of IPPF's services, including a rise in "abortion-related services" from 219,229 in 2005 to 1.1 million in 2008 and an increase in the number of condoms distributed from 97.9 million in 2005 to 139.8 million in 2008.

PAID NOT TO ABORT -- Low-income women in northern Italy can receive $6,600 over 18 months to not abort their babies.

Roberto Formigoni, president of the Lombardy region, said June 2 he set aside funds to fulfill a campaign pledge that no woman should feel as if she had to choose an abortion because of financial need, The Australian reported.

Contact: Tom Strode
Source: Baptist Press
Publish Date: Jun 21, 2010
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NEWS SHORTS FOR TUESDAY

Planned Parenthood's missing millions

New GAO report reveals disturbing financial discrepancies

A new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) on federal tax money funneled into Planned Parenthood and similar organizations raises more questions than it answers about the nation's largest abortion chain.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America's (PPFA) audits show the organization spent just $657.1 million between 2002 and 2008 from federal government grants and programs, but the abortion behemoth's own annual reports show that it took in $2.3 billion from government grants and programs during the same time period.
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Pro-Lifer says Feds Lawsuit for Entering Abortuary Based on False Information

A pro-life witness in San Antonio, Texas, is facing a lawsuit from the federal government after entering an abortion facility to offer pro-life alternatives to an abortion-bound couple. [The unconstitutional] federal law known as the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act was passed under President Clinton in 1994 and prohibits individuals from directly interfering with access to abortion. In the lawsuit filed Tuesday in San Antonio by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, 56-year-old Juan Gaona is accused of entering the centre on April 17, 2009 and blocking the entrance to the waiting room before being forcibly removed by staff. Gaona was further accused of directing insults and profane language at abortion workers during his years of routine witness outside the abortion clinic. The San Antonio Express-News reports the suit could result in a restraining order and a $10,000 civil penalty.
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Man Charged with Vehicular Homicide after Preborn Baby Dies In Car Accident

Police say a 35-week-old fetus has died after a pregnant woman was thrown from her car in a crash in Cincinnati. Police say 19-year-old Jasmine Malone wasn't wearing a seat belt Sunday night when the car she was riding in ran off the road and slammed into several trees. Malone, 18-year-old driver Wesley Fain and a juvenile passenger were all injured and taken to a hospital. A message was left Monday for their conditions. Police have charged Fain with aggravated vehicular homicide.
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Groups Target Black Community in Arkansas with Billboards

Pro-Life groups have launched a billboard campaign in Arkansas targeting the black community. The billboards in Little Rock, North Little Rock and Pine Bluff feature a photo of a black child about 1 year old, the words "Black & Unwanted" and the names of the three sponsoring organizations: Arkansas Right to Life, TooManyAborted.com and the Radiance Foundation. "The abortion rate in the African-American community is three times higher than that of white women, a fact that most African-Americans find shocking," Rose Mimms, executive director of Arkansas Right to Life, said today. Mimms said 39 percent of all abortions in the U.S. are performed on blacks, though blacks comprise only 13 percent of the population.
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'The Law Must Speak for the Unborn Child': Senior Ghanian Leader Calls for Abortion Restrictions

Ghanian Parliament's Minority Leader, Mr. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has called upon the Attorney General to significantly increase restrictions on abortion in the country.

Abortion in the Republic of Ghana is currently legal in cases of rape or incest, if the pregnancy is judged to threaten the woman's physical or mental health, or if there is "substantial risk" of fetal abnormality.

Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu says he wants to change the law to allow abortions only in cases where it is "necessitated by medical reasons."

He told the Daily Graphic newspaper that some constitutional provisions guarantee the right to life and the sanctity of life.
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Adult Stem Cells Restore Sight to People With Damaged Corneas

More good news on the adult stem cell front.  The blind can see.  From the story:

Patients blinded in one or both eyes by chemical burns regained their vision after healthy stem cells were extracted from their eyes and reimplanted, according to a report by Italian researchers at a scientific meeting. The tissue was drawn from the limbus, an area at the junction of the cornea and white part of the eye.
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Embryonic Stem Cell Lines Ruled Ineligible for Federal Funds

 
    
     The National Institute of Health

The National Institute of Health's (NIH) Advisory Committee recommended withholding federal research funding for embryonic stem cell lines on Wednesday that were thought to be eligible with Obama's policy. Concerned that one particular sentence would open up to lawsuits, the Committee decided to err on the side of caution.

Days after his inauguration, President Obama reversed President Bush's policy of restricting the use of federal funds for research on human embryonic stem.

"It's primarily because there was some language in the consent forms that the NIH Advisory Committee didn't like," said Dr. David Prentice, senior fellow for life sciences at the Family Research Council. He considers it a temporary setback. 
Prentice notes that embryonic research involves destroying a young human life and more.

"They haven't helped anybody. They haven't really helped that many mice in almost 30 years of research. They tend to form tumors instead." 

Meanwhile he lists numerous advances in adult stem cell treatments from bone marrow, umbilical cord blood and more.

"They are already treating over 50 thousand patients every year for dozens of diseases like heart damage, spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, juvenile diabetes, (and) lots of different cancers." 

He adds that a new report shows a treatment for blindness in which the front layer of the eye had been scarred.

"They took a few little adult stem cells from the edge of their eye," said Prentice, "and grew a new cornea, popped it on and restored their vision."

Wesley J. Smith, senior fellow in human rights and bioethics at the Discovery Institute, links the push embryonic stem cell research with the desire of some to conduct human cloning. Another type of research with significant ethical concerns.

"It is human cloning that opens up the potential for genetic engineering of the human species," said Smith, "as well as fetal farming to grow fetuses and artificial gestation environments, so they can be used eventually for organ harvesting and experimentation."

Source: CitizenLink
Publish Date: June 18, 2010
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Andrea Bocelli clarifies that his message is pro-life, not merely anti-abortion

    
     Andrea Bocelli

Following the popular video in which he recounts how his mother ignored the advice of doctors to have an abortion, tenor Andrea Bocelli said he does not want his testimony to be considered as merely anti-abortion, but also in support of life.

"Because of my personal convictions as a devout Catholic, I am not only fighting against something, I am fighting for something - and I am for life," he told the Italian newspaper, Il Foglio.

Bocelli said he wants his video "to help comfort those who are in difficult situations and who sometimes just need to feel that they are not alone. Life is hard, but we need to listen, we need to open our ears" to embrace them.

Bocelli said he has been surprised by the calls he has received following the video.  "I said those things a year and a half ago in a video message for Father Richard Frechette, a missionary who works with children in Haiti and deserves to have a book written just about him. I gave a concert to help him build the Home of the Angels and he asked me to say a few words of hope for mothers in difficult circumstances and I decided to tell the story of my birth."

"I did so recounting the private experience of my mother without asking her permission, but she didn't admonish me. I wasn't ready for all the uproar it has created," Bocelli said.

 As a young boy, he continued, "I was very hyper and quite naïve." He said he has loved music ever since he was a boy. "My mother tells me that I would cry whenever I heard a song, even through the wall from another room in the hospital.  I would turn towards the sound and listen with glee."

Source: CNA
Publish Date: June 20, 2010
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Abortion's Fundamental Deception

    
     Planned Parnenthood Lies

Thirty-seven years ago, the United States Supreme Court decriminalized an act that Planned Parenthood had spent years promoting as a backup to failed contraception. That act is abortion. The historical fact is that, during the 1960s, Planned Parenthood's campaign to make contraception acceptable took the position that contraception was not abortion. Why? Because lying served its political purposes. 

In one of its advertisements at the time, PP actually admitted, "An abortion kills the life of a baby after it has begun."  By telling the public that this was the major difference between contraception and abortion, PP sought to convince the public that, for this reason alone, contraception was better than abortion.

PP never bothered to point out that the contraception it promoted also could kill a preborn child. It did not have to—it just convinced the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology to change the biological facts.

In 1965, ACOG issued a bulletin stating "CONCEPTION is the implantation of the fertilized ovum." The lies just kept coming!

Good friend and Catholic columnist Joe Sobran wrote in "Legacy of Lies":

Early advocates of legal abortion agreed that abortion was a bad thing, but argued that legalization would make it easier to regulate. Then they adopted the agnostic line: "nobody can say" whether abortion is wrong -- it should be a matter of "individual conscience." Finally they switched to the position that abortion is a positive good, "a fundamental human[!] and constitutional right," which taxpayers, no matter what their consciences told them, should be forced to subsidize. The more abortions, the better. From pretending to want to minimize the frequency of abortion -- since "it happens anyway" -- they quickly moved to maximize it.
 
And so it goes, lie after lie. Refute one lie, and two others spring up in its place. It's as tiresome as it is futile to debate people who argue in such consistent bad faith.
 
The fact is that those who advocate the killing of the preborn child are the very same people who would deny that a preborn human being is a person. PP and its cronies are committed to deception, for if they were not, they would never defend an act that kills someone by claiming that it was something else entirely. If this sounds like double-talk to you, then you understand the fundamental problem with abortion … abortion is a lie.
 
Each day that abortion remains divorced from truth is another day the treachery continues. And it just keeps getting worse.
 
At a new PP facility in Colorado where RU-486 (mifepristone) abortions are available for $425 dollars each, we find the following on the PP Web site:

Abortion pill (medication abortion) is offered up to nine weeks after the start of your last menstrual period. If your last period was more than nine weeks ago, we can still help. Call us for a referral list of health care providers in your area that offer other abortion services.

From these few words, the depth of the abortion deception is clear.  Equating the taking of a life with "health care" tells the entire story about the level at which Planned Parenthood operates.

They will lie to your children in the classroom; they will deceive them in a school-based clinic, they will spirit them away to a place where surgical killing is done … and they will do it all with your tax dollars.

Isn't it time to stop the lies? If you think so, join us and make your voice heard.

Contact: Judie Brown
Source: CNSNews.com
Publish Date: June 21, 2010
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Dangerous to Abuse Darwinism To Justify Suicide Based on Human Unexceptionalism

    
      Darwin debate

I am not part of the Darwin debates generally, but it always fries me when some Darwinists abuse a theory of biological inception and change over time to promote dangerous shifts in human society and culture.  Now, over at Psychology Today, we are told that because life evolved, human exceptionalism is bunk, and hence, preventing suicide or opposing euthanasia is sometimes wrong.  From the blog post by Steve Stewart-Williams:

…Thus, the injunction against assisted suicide – like that against unassisted suicide – is commonly underwritten by the doctrine of human dignity. But the whole edifice starts to crumble once we bring Darwin into the picture. With the corrective lens of evolutionary theory, the view that human life is infinitely valuable suddenly seems like a vast and unjustified over-valuation of human life. This is because Darwin's theory undermines the traditional reasons for thinking human life might have infinite value: the image-of-God thesis and the rationality thesis (see my last post). But if human life is not supremely valuable after all, then there is no longer any reason to think that suicide or voluntary euthanasia is necessarily wrong under any or all circumstances. In fact, it starts to seem decidedly odd that we have elevated human life – i.e., pure biological continuation – so far above the quality of the life in question for the person living it. Why should life be considered valuable in and of itself, independently of the happiness of the individual living that life?

We've seen this nonsense often.  Human exceptionalism doesn't need religion, and it seems to me, is undeniable from a rational perspective.  But note the potential for tremendous harm here.  A publication involved with mental health is the forum for pushing an anti-anti suicide meme.  That's dangerous to despairing people and could very well undermine the important work of suicide prevention.  The author sees that, and tries weakly to combat the obvious consequence that would result from his advocacy:

Needless to say, we must be very cautious with this argument, especially when it comes to suicide. Most people who kill themselves have not thought their decision through properly, and if they'd managed to ride out the suicidal crisis, they would have had perfectly good and happy lives. Many suicidal individuals are severely depressed, and severe depression involves an unrealistically negative apprehension of the future and the hopelessness of one's situation. Rational suicides (suicides based on an accurate picture of one's situation and future prospects) are comparatively rare. Furthermore, in assessing the rightness or wrongness of suicide, we need to take into account its effects on those left behind, as suicide usually causes immeasurable grief and suffering to the victim's family and other loved ones. Nonetheless, after Darwin, it is difficult to maintain an absolute prohibition on suicide. There may be circumstances – rare and unhappy circumstances – in which suicide is a reasonable and ethically permissible course of action. In any case, this possibility cannot be ruled out on the grounds that human life is infinitely valuable.

That doesn't work at all because once suicide is validated, you can't expect suffering people to think–Charlie's suicide was rational, but mine wouldn't be.  And note the potential harm beyond assisted suicide:

Critics of euthanasia argue that it is immoral to take a person's life, even when that person is suffering and wishes to die with dignity. After Darwin, we might be more inclined to think that it is immoral to force people to keep on living when they would rather not. Here's something to think about. In many ways, we treat other animals abysmally. But if a horse or a dog or a cat is suffering terribly from a fatal injury or disease, or if it has limited prospects for quality of life in the future, most people agree that the humane thing to do is to put it out of its misery. Not to do so would be considered inhumane. However, because of the inflated value traditionally assigned to human life, we are less humane in our treatment of human beings who are suffering or have a painful terminal illness. This is an ironic exception to the general rule that the doctrine of human dignity secures better treatment for humans than for nonhumans.

Talk about a slippery slope! We euthanize animals because they are abandoned, because they become incontinent, because they are expensive, because they are vicious, because they cost too much for which to care, etc..  If humans are no different than animals–and if we really come to believe that–what will stop us from treating each other like we do animals–and even like animals do each other?  Think about it: We treat animals humanely because of human exceptionalism, not in spite of it. I mean, if all we are is meat on the hoof, why even adhere to a quality of life ethic?  Let's get onto serious social Darwinism and dominance by the powerful, and woe betide the weak that get in the way!

This is an important matter to ponder.  Stewart-Williams' post vividly illustrates the harm that would be caused by denying human exceptionalism, a cost that would be measured in the number of human casualties.

Contact: Wesley J. Smith
Source: Secondhand Smoke
Publish Date: June 21, 2010
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Nevada Supreme Court Runs Out the Clock on Personhood Initiative

    
     Personhood Nevada

After sitting on the case for months, the Nevada State Supreme Court waited until the day after the Personhood Nevada deadline to now ask why they should have to decide the case at all.

On January 8, District Court Judge James Russell, in issuing an injunction keeping the personhood initiative off the ballot and preventing signature collection, ruled that the fourteen word amendment did not encompass a single subject.

The proposed amendment reads, "In the great state of Nevada, the term 'person' applies to every human being."

Personhood Nevada filed an appeal of Judge Russell's decision to the Nevada Supreme Court on February 12. Despite the timely manner of Personhood Nevada's appeal, the Nevada Supreme Court waited until the day after the deadline to issue its order.

The Court Order read, "It appears that the initiative's proponents may not have obtained sufficient signatures to place the measure on the ballot, thus rendering this appeal moot. This court's duty is to decide actual controversies, not to give opinions on moot questions."

Personhood Nevada was prohibited from collecting even one signature by Judge Russell's decision. The Nevada Supreme Court was aware of Judge Russell's decision, and its ramifications, one of which being that Personhood Nevada would be in violation of the law, and in contempt of court, for collecting even one signature.

"Clearly this is an offense to our 1st Amendment rights," stated Olaf Vancura, initiative sponsor. "The Court delayed their response for so long that they now have the audacity to try to avoid a decision altogether. When the appeal was filed, the petition was not moot. The court, by its own inaction, may now possibly find the issue moot. This is a gross obstruction of my rights, and those of our board and volunteers as both Americans and Nevadans! The Supreme Court needs to decide this case now; if they don't, we can expect the same injustices to repeat in 2012."

Continued Vancura, "The state legislature's small time window to gather petitions, coupled with the routing of all challenges through a single, activist district court, mean that it is nearly impossible for any citizen-led initiative to reach the ballot if challenged. Tragically in Nevada, the citizens' right to petition is now, for all practical purposes, defunct."

Contact: Olaf Vancura
Source: Personhood Nevada
Publish Date: June 18, 2010
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Obstructed by the Supremes! Abortion justice in Kansas

Campaign pinpoints judiciary for delaying criminal case against Planned Parenthood

    
     The Kansas Supreme Court

A new campaign by Operation Rescue accuses the Kansas Supreme Court of obstructing justice by delaying action in a pending criminal case against Planned Parenthood.

The charge comes in a statement Operation Rescue President Troy Newman has prepared and posted on the organization's website. The statement also is being prepared for broadcast on a radio network that serves many parts of Kansas.

The organization says the statement exposes "how the Kansas Supreme Court's delay in ruling on issues related to 107 criminal charges against Planned Parenthood is obstructing justice, shaking confidence in the judicial system, and enabling abortionists to continue to flout the law."

In the presentation, Newman quotes former U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger saying, "A sense of confidence in the courts is essential to maintain the fabric of ordered liberty for a free people …. [One thing] that could destroy the confidence and do incalculable damage to society: that people come to believe that inefficiency and delay will drain even a just judgment of its value."

How do the rules of the court affect the fight? Get "Betrayed by the Bench"

Newman cites the case against Planned Parenthood that has been pending for seven years, "with no end of delays in sight."

State Supreme Court Information Officer Ron Keefover said the court has no comment on the case.

"They are working on that case," he told WND today.

Operation Rescue has posted an online timeline revealing that the work began early in 2003 when Phill Kline, a former state attorney general, was sworn into office and began investigating Planned Parenthood and abortionist George Tiller for allegedly violating state abortion law by doing illegal late-term abortions and falsifying records.

It took three years before the documentation he sought for his investigation was turned over to him, but the case actually has been before the Kansas Supreme Court since late in 2004 when the two abortion businesses asked the justices to block subpoenas that sought their records that could document legal – or illegal – behavior.

There also have been fights over venue, custody of evidence, politics and elections during the course of the case.

And some unusual twists have developed: Kline was defeated in his bid for re-election by proabortion candidate Paul Morrison only days after obtaining the evidence he had sought years earlier. But Kline immediately was appointed district attorney in the county where Planned Parenthood operates, meaning he legally could continue his investigation.

Morrison then promptly issued a letter "clearing" Planned Parenthood of wrongdoing, which irritated Judge Richard Anderson, then involved in overseeing Kline's investigation.

Anderson responded that Morrison's statement was improper. Morrison shortly later was forced to resign amid allegations he was trying to use an illicit lover who worked in Kline's office to hinder Kline's work.

Kline filed 107 counts against Planned Parenthood in late 2007, including 23 felonies, all relating to allegedly illegal late-term abortions. But Morrison's replacement, Attorney General Stephen Six, who had been hand-picked for office by "radical abortion supporter" Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, then got a gag order on Anderson.

It wasn't until a year ago the Supreme Court finally heard oral arguments about Kline's subpoenas for evidence – a step in the criminal-prosecution process far short of a trial.

"Now, over a year has passed, a ruling has yet to be issued, and the case languishes in limbo. Judge Anderson remains gagged. Kline has since left office. The public outcry has died away. Planned Parenthood continues to operate as if they are above the law," Operation Rescue reported.

"It would take a book to fully tell the tale of governmental obstruction and corruption in this case," said Newman. "The worst thing about it is that the people involved in shielding Planned Parenthood from prosecution expect those of us who want the laws enforced to sit down, shut up and forget about it.

"If we don't, then we are subject to having our reputations attacked and destroyed, as they attempted to do to the original prosecutors in this case. We must keep this case in the public eye, and that is why Operation Rescue is taking to the radio waves and encouraging people to sign an online petition urging the Supreme Court to send Planned Parenthood to trial," he said.

"Delays in justice only encourage the lawbreakers to keep breaking the law," said Newman. "Even the Bible says in Ecclesiastes 8:11, 'Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.' We are seeing that fulfilled in this case. For the sake of the preservation of justice, our collective societal conscience and the lives of the innocent we cannot allow this case to be swept under the rug."

The charges against Planned Parenthood include 23 counts of making a false information, 26 misdemeanor counts of unlawful failure to maintain record, 29 misdemeanor counts of unlawful failure to determine viability for a late-term abortion and 29 misdemeanor counts of unlawful late-term abortion.

Operation Rescue's petition said the "inexplicable delay by the Kansas Supreme Court" has produced "an obstruction of the prosecution of 107 serious criminal charges and in so doing has placed the health and safety of women and their viable babies at unnecessary risk of suffering unlawful abortions."

"It's time to clear the logjam, put aside political obstructionism and allow this case to go forward to trial on its merits," Newman said.

Contact: Bob Unruh
Source: WorldNetDaily
Publish Date: June 19, 2010
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NEWS SHORTS FOR MONDAY

Baby Murdering Feds Sue Abortion Protester Under Unconstitutional FACE Act

The U.S. Justice Department has sued a San Antonio abortion protester under a little-used federal law that prohibits blocking access to reproductive health services. Juan Antonio Gaona often protests outside clinics that offer abortions. But the Justice Department says the 56-year-old crossed the line when he stepped inside a Planned Parenthood clinic and blocked entrance to the waiting room in April 2009. Gaona was sued Tuesday under a 1994 unconstitutional law that allegedly makes it "unlawful" for a person to use force, threats or physical obstruction to injure or intimidate a person seeking reproductive health services. The DOJ wants a restraining order and a $10,000 penalty. Gaona disputed the version of events in the government's case but told the San Antonio Express-News he has entered the clinic.
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Pro-Life License Plates Available in Massachusetts

Massachusetts is now offering specialty pro-life license plates, thanks to the efforts of the Massachusetts Choose Life organization.

The plates have the words "Choose Life" written in black beneath the number, and an illustration of a mother cradling an infant beside the number.  They are available on the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles website.

There is an initial registration fee of $50 plus a special plate fee of $40 to order the plates.  Twenty-eight dollars of the special plate fee goes to Choose Life, Inc., which will distribute the funds to Crisis Pregnancy Centers.
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Louisiana Doctors Who Perform Elective Abortions No Longer Covered Under State's Medical Malpractice Laws

The state Legislature has decided that doctors shouldn't be covered under medical malpractice laws when they are providing elective abortions. The Senate gave final passage with a 31-2 vote Friday to the bill by Rep. Robert Johnson, of Marksville. The measure would prohibit health care providers from receiving coverage under state and private Medical Malpractice Acts when performing an abortion of "an uncomplicated, viable pregnancy" that isn't required to save the life of the mother.
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Protests Over Kenya Abortion Law

Kenyans take to the streets over draft constitution's approval of Islamic courts and abortion Kenya is in the throes of a political crisis. This time, it is over a controversial draft constitution about to be a subject of a national referendum. Those protesting are members of the Kenyan Christian communities. They are opposed to some proposals in the draft constitution which they think is against the interest of their faith.One such objectionable provision is on the recognition by the draft constitution of existing Islamic courts for Muslim groups who are in the minority in Kenya. The second is the legalisation of abortion under the draft constitution. The constitution allows termination of pregnancies on health grounds.The Christian groups say they would not have any of those positions in the Kenyan constitution.
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Care Net on EllaOne: 'Not Just Another Morning-After Pill'

On June 17th, an advisory panel of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made a recommendation that the FDA should approve EllaOne (Ulipristal), a new drug closely related to Mifiprex (Mifepristone, the RU-486 abortion pill). Like Mifiprex, EllaOne has the potential to cause the death and abortion of an established pregnancy growing in the womb. Care Net, a national network of more than 1,100 pregnancy resource centers, strongly recommends that EllaOne not be granted FDA approval. Its ability to destroy established pregnancies, as well as prevent implantation, makes it an embryocidal drug. FDA approval without making this clear to the public would violate the public trust.
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Proof: Tax dollars going to abortions

Members of Congress have received requested information from the General Accounting Office on how abortion organizations spend federal tax dollars.

Former Colorado Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave, who is now a spokesperson for the Susan B. Anthony List, takes a look at the pro-abortion groups.
 
"These individuals from these organizations say that they give choice to women," she remarks, "but when you look at these agencies that advocate for abortion or provide abortion, they received almost a billion dollars [in federal funds] from 2002 through 2009...."
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Pregnancy Centers Fight Back Against NARAL Attacks

Pregnancy Centers Fight Back Against NARAL Attacks

    
     Peggy Hartshorn
 
Attacks against pregnancy help centers have been occurring since the 1980's, led by NARAL, the leading pro-abortion political force and ally of Planned Parenthood. In fact, for years, the pregnancy help movement has been brushing away the slander attacks like we fan away returning swarms of hornets. But, at the same time, we have been developing a much stronger network of centers and friends and we are now ready to fight back and even take the sting out of the pests! A good offense often makes for a great defense, and this one provides us all a few positive things to do.

NARAL's strategy is outlined in womensenews.org (12-2-09), a feminist newsletter. First, publish "studies" that show that centers "mislead" women. Second, identify "sympathetic lawmakers" who will pass legislation restricting the free speech of pregnancy help centers in order to close them down. No matter that the "studies" rely on "evidence" gathered only by NARAL members who act as fake clients and try to trip up the centers they visit. This is proving embarrassing for NARAL, however. When such a study was brought into hearings on a law to muzzle centers in Virginia, the expert witness for NARAL was forced to admit that their study contained "methodological flaws"! In hearings on a similar bill in Washington state, four of the six women who testified against our centers, upon close questioning by lawmakers, had to sheepishly admit that they were employed by either NARAL or Planned Parenthood! So, who is misleading whom?

Like a nightmarish game of "whack a mole" these attacks keep popping up. In three places now, restrictions on center advertizing have been rushed into place: Austin[Texas], Baltimore, and Montgomery County, Maryland. In case you missed it, two small pregnancy help centers in these targeted areas are suing to have the reputations of all our centers cleared! The Washington Post and Washington Times recently covered one of the lawsuits, just filed in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, close to Washington, D.C., by the Alliance Defense Fund on behalf of a small Spanish language center, Centro Tepeyac. The other suit has been filed by the Archdiocese of Baltimore on behalf of Baltimore's Center for Pregnancy Concerns. Yeah! We are not sitting still in this attempt at strangulation through regulation.

What do these proposed laws have in common? They all restrict the freedom of speech of our centers by requiring them to advertize what they do NOT provide. They must post disclaimers on their doors indicating that they do not provide or refer for contraceptives or abortions. One law even requires the size of the sign and that it be in English and Spanish. Another needs to say "Montgomery County Health Office encourages women who are or may be pregnant to consult with a licensed health care provider." All define fines to be levied if the required advertizing is not prominently displayed. Some have suggested "common ground": we will comply if Planned Parenthood and other abortion clinics will post signs saying, "We do not provide professional counseling or after-care, medical or emotional. Once we kill your child, we don't know your name."

Why are the hornets attacking more furiously now than ever before? Over 2,000 plus pregnancy help centers and pregnancy help medical clinics and maternity homes means several thousand women every week no longer turn to abortion because they feel they have "no choice." The pregnancy help movement, fueled by Christian charity and equipped by the leadership training and support of Heartbeat International and our partners, and providing ultrasound proof of the humanity of the preborn, is lowering abortion sales and tilting the culture toward life. Therefore, in the eyes of NARAL and Planned Parenthood, we are now a threat. We must be stopped. (For the Family Research Council's excellent report on the effectiveness of pregnancy centers and our contribution to maternal and child health in the USA, see www.heartbeatinternational.org/apassiontoserve.)

You would think that before accusing our centers of deceiving and damaging women, NARAL would collect some real evidence, say, a few hundred affidavits from among the hundreds of thousands of women served over the past 40 years in the thousands of pregnancy help ministries across the land. If NARAL accusations were true, then there must be tens of thousands of women willing to testify that they went to pregnancy help centers and were damaged by the caring volunteers who gave them free pregnancy tests, or the nurses who provided them with ultrasounds and confirmed the presence of their own babies, alive and beautiful in their own bodies., Truth is, it is impossible to find mothers who will testify, "I came to this pregnancy help center and they deceived me into having this beautiful baby! My life is ruined!" We have one powerful, slander-busting weapon that abortion advocates do not have – precious BABIES with happy Mothers! NARAL's regulatory proposals are self-serving and insulting to women, who are fully able to determine who they seek help from and decide if it is offered in good faith. Using the powerful testimonies of our mothers and their babies, we intend to fight back.

We welcome your help and participation in defending and commending the pregnancy help movement.

Contact: Peggy Hartshorn
Source: Heartbeat International via NRLC
Publish Date: June 17, 2010
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Telemed Abortion Funding in Federal Stimulus Bill

Telemed Abortion Funding in Federal Stimulus Bill

    
     Telemed at Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin

Telemed quick hits: Of course it was in the federal stimulus bill; Planned Parenthoods in CA/UT up next; On guard MN

•Telemed funding is in the federal stimulus bill. From the Telemedicine Information Exchange, February 19, 2009:

Specific telemedicine spending in final stimulus bill: The recently passed $787 billion economic stimulation bill includes $19 billion for health information technology. Specific for telemedicine, it will provide... $1.5 billion for HRSA [Health Resources and Services Administration] to use to build or repair health centers and/or to purchase equipment, and $85 million for health IT and telehealth technologies within the Indian Health Service. In addition ot this, much of the other HIT money will most likely have telehealth applications....

•HRSA has given a grant to the following, although I'm not sure if this came before or after stimulus windfall:

... The [Association for Utah Community Health] Telehealth Program will... supply[ ] telehealth equipment and resources to all association members....

Members of theAUCH include... Planned Parenthood of UT, a Title X funded reproductive health organization....

Services to be provided include... videoconferencing....

Specific PP participants of the UT Telehealth Network include clinics located in Logan, Ogden, Park City, Salt Lake, South Jordan, St. George, UT Valley, and West Valley.

•In June 2009 Tides and the CA Endowment issued Health Information Technology Resources for Community Clinics re: the "unprecedented opportunity" due to "[n]ew funding for health information technology at the federal level...."

A couple telemedicine funds are mentioned. 9 CA PPs are listed as "community clinics": PP Golden Gate, PP Shasta Diablo, PP Los Angeles, PP Mar Monte, PP Pasadena and San Gabriel Valley, Six Rivers PP, PP of OCSB, PP of San Diego & Riverside Counties, and PP of Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo Counties.

    
     Planned Parenthood mission

•From the Planned Parenthood of San Diego and Riverside Counties 2008 Annual Report:

We continue to explore innovative ways to deliver medical services and enhance the overall experience of our patients, including telemedicine....

•Now that we know what we're looking for, and particularly given PP of Greater IA's Spring 2009 newsletter stating, "The telemedicine technology has expanded access to women from Iowa and bordering states," a 2009 report rementioned on PP of MN, ND, and SD's blog on June 9 is ominous.

It's 2009 Rural Women's Health Report is chock full of telemed buzz phrases. Following is a snippet. On guard, MN pro-lifers:

The obstacles faced by health care providers and patients in rural areas are vastly different from those in urban areas. Economic factors... and the isolation of living in remote areas all impact rural residents' ability to lead a healthy life.

See related news...

Wisconsin pro-lifers on the watch for 'telemed'

Contact: Jill Stanek
Source: jillstanek.com
Publish Date: June 18, 2010
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Planned Parenthood's 850 facilities--"The most unsafe place for women and children today"

Planned Parenthood's 850 facilities--"The most unsafe place for women and children today"

The following are excerpts from the statement of Rep. Chris Smith at yesterday's press conference on GAO Report on Taxpayer Funding of Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion organizations.

     
     Congressman Chris Smith
 
Planned Parenthood's founder Margaret Sanger said, "The most merciful thing that the large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it."

No one "kills it" more efficaciously and in such huge numbers–over 300,000 dead babies each year--as Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

In one of her books The Pivot of Civilization, Sanger devotes an entire chapter to what she calls--"The Cruelty of Charity"--and harshly condemns maternal healthcare as "stupid cruelty" that only "encourages the perpetuation of defectives, delinquents and dependents."

Sanger's anti-child, anti-human rights nightmare is today aggressively implemented by Planned Parenthood Federation of America with huge subsidies from U.S. taxpayers--$657 million according to GAO between 2002-2008 alone.

The most unsafe place for women and children today is Planned Parenthood's 850 facilities. At Planned Parenthood clinics, in 2007 alone, 305,000 babies were either dismembered, chemically poisoned or starved to death by RU486.

Since Obama's election, U.S. subsidies to the abortion industry at home and abroad, have significantly increased.

When Obama shredded the Mexico City Policy, he opened the floodgate of taxpayer funds to pro-abortion NGOs (i.e. International Planned Parenthood Federation) that perform and lobby for abortion worldwide. Making matters worse he increased funding available to those organizations by 50%--to $648,457 million.

It's time for Americans and especially Congress to take a second look and defund it; defund Planned Parenthood--Child Abuse Inc.
 
Contact: Congressman. Chris Smith
Source: NRLC
Publish Date: June 17, 2010
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Wisconsin pro-lifers on the watch for 'telemed'

Wisconsin pro-lifers on the watch for 'telemed'

Wisconsin pro-life groups are concerned over possible "telemed" abortions in that state.

    
     Tele-medicine

Iowa Planned Parenthoods are under scrutiny for tele-medicine abortions in which a woman or a girl seeking an abortion communicates via computer with a distant doctor. The doctor then remotely opens a drawer that contains RU-486 -- then the abortion is on.
 
Virginia Zignego of Pro-Life Wisconsin says there is a 100-percent chance that telemed abortions are occurring in her state. "There is no administrative law or code preventing it from happening," she laments, "and the Wisconsin Planned Parenthoods have a taxpayer-financed telemedicine system already set up that we know is dispensing birth-control pills" -- and "morning-after pills" as well.
 
The patient does not see a doctor in the telemed abortion. Zignego argues that approach is very dangerous.
 
"Mifepristone, which is used in RU-486, is a highly toxic substance," she notes. "It can cause death, and it has a number of health complications." The Food and Drug Administration lists 600 different complications reported after use of the drug.
 
There are no laws in Wisconsin to prohibit telemed abortions, so Zignego is hopeful the state legislature will get into action.

Contact: Charlie Butts
Source: OneNewsNow
Publish Date: June 18, 2010
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IPPF Leads Push for Abortion Rights as UN Prepares for High-Level MDG Review

IPPF Leads Push for Abortion Rights as UN Prepares for High-Level MDG Review


    


The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) launched a new campaign this week called "A Promise is A Promise," demanding that states implement policies and programs to achieve the controversial Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target 5b on "universal access to reproductive health by 2015."

According to IPPF, "universal access to reproductive health refers to a full package of services including comprehensive sexuality education, access to contraception, maternity care, emergency obstetric care, and safe abortion services …"  The IPPF event was promoted as an UN-sponsored meeting to get input from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for the high level MDG Summit that will take place in the fall.  

IPPF Director-General Gill Greer said advocates "must make up for lost opportunity" and that "the universal access to reproductive health target is not optional."  Greer claimed that though "universal access to reproductive health" was not included in the MDGs in 2000, in 2005 states "recognized the missing link" to reproductive health.

UN member states have pointed out a number of times that no new targets, particularly, no new target on "reproductive health" was ever negotiated or agreed to by the General Assembly, the main decision-making body of the UN.  Prior to both the Millennium Summit in 2000 and the MGD five-year review in 2005, abortion activists pushed hard for a separate goal on reproductive health, but failed.  Since those failed attempts, activists have sought to link reproductive health to existing MDGs. In 2006, in the annex of a report published by then-Secretary-General Kofi Annan, a "new" target 5b on "universal access to reproductive health by 2015" appeared though this was never agreed to by the General Assembly.

Greer said IPPF would continue to argue for "safe, legal abortion" and that the organization would work to "ensure that these issues will not be forgotten again" at the MDG review in September.

In keeping with the organization's renewed focus on youth and adolescents, the IPPF panel featured Neha Sood from the Youth Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Rights, who argued that "the MDGs cannot be achieved unless it is acknowledged that young people are sexual beings and have sexual and reproductive health need, and sexual and reproductive rights."

Sood said, "Legal barriers that hinder access to sexual and reproductive health services must be removed," including spousal or parental consent laws, inequitable age-of-consent laws, and the criminalization of sex work, HIV transmission and same-sex sexual activity."

IPPF's "Promise is a Promise" campaign brings together an all-star lineup of abortion advocates, including the Center for Reproductive Rights, Ipas, and the International Women's Health Coalition, among others, to push countries to commit to greater action and financial commitment for "reproductive health." Critics expect this and other similar campaigns to ramp up at the UN as UN member states negotiate MDG Summit outcome document over the coming weeks.

The MDG Summit is scheduled to take place at UN headquarters in New York from September 20-22.

Contact: Samantha Singson
Source: C-FAM
Publish Date: June 17, 2010
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Abortion May Increase Risk of Autoimmune Disease

Abortion May Increase Risk of Autoimmune Disease

    
     Brown University

Surgical abortion may increase the likelihood of certain autoimmune diseases, according to a new report by Dr. Ralph P. Miech of Brown University.

Fetal microchimerism - the transfer of fetal cells into the bloodstream of the mother, whence they may be grafted on to bone marrow or other tissues - is the key link between abortion and autoimmune disease, says Miech. 

The researcher pointed out that as the placenta is destroyed during a surgical abortion, there is an increased "fetal-to-maternal transfer of fetal ... cells." These fetal cells may persist in the mother's body for decades.

"Activation of hibernating fetal microchimeric cells," Dr. Miech writes, has "been postulated to result in the initiation of an autoimmune disease."

Autoimmune diseases occur when the body's immune system mistakenly attacks its own tissues and cells as if they were foreign.  Certain triggers, Dr. Miech states, may activate the "fetal microchimeric immune cells to attack the maternal host cells, resulting in an autoimmune disease," although these triggers "have not yet been definitely identified."

This would explain why women during their reproductive and post-reproductive years are more likely than men to develop many chronic autoimmune diseases.  According to Dr. Miech, such diseases have "had for decades an unexplainable increasing incidence."

"The consistently rising incidence of auto-immune diseases in women over the past four decades may be attributed to the increase in the utilization of abortion," he says.

Dr. Miech has also performed research linking the abortion drug RU 486 to a rare bacterial infection.

In that research, Dr. Miech showed that the anti-progesterone effects of Mifepristone cause changes in the cervix that allow C. sordellii, a common vaginal bacteria, to enter the cervical canal. C. sordellii thrives in this low-oxygen environment and derives nutrition from the decaying fetal tissue, leading to infection.

Contact: James Tillman
Source: LifeSiteNews.com
Publish Date: June 17, 2010
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NEWS SHORTS FOR FRIDAY

FDA's Advisory Panel Approves Another Baby Killing Drug
     
A federal advisory panel voted unanimously Thursday that federal drug regulators should approve a medicine that could help prevent pregnancy if taken as late as five days after unprotected sex. The pill, called ella, sprang from government labs and appears to be more effective than Plan B, a morning-after pill now available over the counter to women 18 and older that gradually loses efficacy after intercourse and can be taken, at latest, three days after sex. Ella, by contrast, works just as well on the fifth day as the first after sex. Ella blocks the effects of progesterone, a female hormone that spurs ovulation. It is a chemical relative to RU-486, the abortion pill, and some mystery remains over exactly how it works. That mystery spurred a fierce debate outside of the committee about whether it should be considered an abortion drug, a debate that prompted the posting of several uniformed police officers around the meeting room.
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Michigan Bill Demands Abortionists Give Women Best Ultrasound Images

    
     Sen. Wayne Kuipers

A Michigan Senate Judiciary Committee is considering a bill to tighten up the state's informed consent laws. The bill would mandate that mothers seeking an abortion receive high quality images of their unborn babies from the best ultrasound equipment available at the abortion facility.

Sen. Wayne Kuipers (R-Holland) believes abortionists may be using out-of-date ultrasound equipment to comply with the letter of the law, while ignoring its intent: to provide women considering abortion with the best quality images of their unborn baby, before making an irreversible decision.
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University pro-life group leader calls for Irish resistance to abortion
 
    
     University of Ireland

Maria Mahoney, of the National University of Ireland (NUI) Galway Life Society, in a letter to the Irish Independent today, has said everything that needs to be said about the international anti-life political pressures on Ireland right now and about the case against legalizing abortion. Maria writes:

Poll after poll confirms that women who 'chose' abortion felt that they had no choice.

In reaction to this fear and panic, it is vital to respond with love for the gifts of motherhood and human life.
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Barrier Method: How a 42-Inch Fence Is Threatening Our Nation's Unborn

    
     Rev. Patrick Mahoney

On Tuesday, June 8, the Rev. Patrick Mahoney arrived at Planned Parenthood with the intention of going to jail over a fence. Two months earlier, the District had granted the organization a permit to build a 42-inch-high "wrought iron steel fence" around the front lawn of its clinic at 1108 16th St. NW. When Mahoney learned of the construction, he notified police, press, and fellow activists; marched onto the lawn; and knelt to pray in hopes of getting handcuffed. The new barrier, equipped with signs reading, "Private Property. No Trespassing. Violators Will be Prosecuted," is meant to keep the anti-choicers at a distance. But it also provides an opportunity for Mahoney to pursue his second-favorite activity involving the property in front of the clinic: litigation. Before Mahoney staged his public prayer, he brought in his go-to attorney, James Henderson of the American Center for Law & Justice. Henderson investigated the issue with city officials and uncovered city maps indicating that the 40 feet between Planned Parenthood's doorway and the 16th Street sidewalk is zoned as "public space."
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Sight Restored to Blinded Patients using Their Own Adult Stem Cells

    

Italian scientists report that they have restored sight to patients blinded by chemical burns using the patient's own adult stem cells. The team treated 112 patients blinded in one or both eyes; some of whom had been blind for years. Adult stem cells were taken from the edge of a patient's eye and cultured on fibrin, then the cell layers transplanted onto the damaged eyes. The adult stem cells produced healthy corneas and functioning eyes. Some patients regained sight within two months, while for others with deeper injuries the process took a year before vision was restored. Patients were followed up to ten years after the transplant. After a single transplant, 69% of patients regained vision; in some cases a second transplant occurred, with a total success in 77% of patients and partial vision restoration in 13% of patients. The long-term restoration was an especially encouraging success of the study.
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$1+ billion federal funding given to abortion advocacy groups over 7 years

    

Yesterday TX pro-life Republican Congressman Pete Olson (pictured at podium, right) held a press conference flanked by pro-life Congress stalwarts [Reps. Chris Smith (NJ), Paul Broun, M.D. (GA), Mary Fallin (OK), John Fleming, M.D. (LA), Trent Franks (AZ), Walter Jones (NC), Jim Jordan (OH), Joe Pitts (PA), Steve Scalise (LA), and Jean Schmidt (OH)], Lila Rose of Live Action; Ken Blackwell of Family Research Council, and Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America to announce the results of a Government Accountability Office audit detailing federal taxpayer dollars given to groups that advocate and/or commit abortions.

The audit was requested by 31 Republican lawmakers.

There is some discrepancy whether the final figure over the course of 7 years was "almost $1 billion in taxpayer dollars," as even Olsen wrote in his press statement, or over $1 billion. It's over. Here is the exact tally...

• Advocates for Youth: $8.7 Million (2002-09)
• Guttmacher Institute: $12.7 Million (2002-08)
• International Planned Parenthood Federation: $93.8 million (2002-09)
• Planned Parenthood Federation of America: $657.1 million (2002-08)
• Population Council of the United States: $284.3 million (2002-08)
• Sexuality Information & Education Council of the U.S.: $1.6 million (2002-09)

That equals $1,058,200,000. And it doesn't include state and local funding, which is massive.

For instance, the GAO report states PP got $657.1 million in direct federal funding over 7 years, which is almost $94 million a year. But PP stated in its most recent annual report, 2007-08, it received $349.6 million that year in "government grants and contracts." So the actual amount in total taxpayer funding is likely more than triple what the GAO found.

(BTW, PP is late making its 2008-09 annual report public. But it knew the GAO report was coming, so there is speculation it was waiting for the GAO results before posting its numbers... to make sure they jibe?)

According to the Houston Chronicle:

"Obviously there is no direct link between the taxpayers' money and women getting abortions because that would violate federal law," a congressional staffer said. "But this report helps track the offsets that we know are taking place at these organizations."...

PP of Houston and SE TX recently debuted a $26 million headquarters to help expand family planning services across the region.

Spokeswoman Rochelle Tafolla said... "None of the federal dollars received are used for abortion care."... PP affiliates in TX that provide abortion services "are required to be separately incorporated from the entity that provides family planning services," she said.

This is all a ruse, a shell game, as we saw as recently as yesterday, when I reported that PP of WI got $150k in federal grants 2 years ago through the Title X program to purchase 10 telemed machines, presumably to dispense birth control pills. Will PP have to give the $150k back if it starts using the telemed machines to dispense the RU-486 abortion cocktail? Good question but certainly no. Furthermore, the $150k PP of WI saved in this area freed it to spend $150k on abortion promotion.

Now you can understand more fully Rep. Mike Pence's legislation, which has 93 co-sponsors, "The Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act," which would prohibit Title X family planning funding to go to abortion providers.

Again, GAO's $1 billion figure only includes funds given directly to the selected organizations by HHS or USAID. It does not include state and local funding. It does not include funds HHS or USAID gave to another entity that then passed them on to PP, etc.

As the GAO report stated, its $1 billion figure "may understate the actual amount of federal funds the selected organizations and their affiliates spent." It represents the floor, not the ceiling.

Contact: Jill Stanek
Source: jillstanek.com
Publish Date: June 17, 2010
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Pence: GAO Report Confirms it is Time to Defund Planned Parenthood

"The time has come to deny any and all federal funding to Planned Parenthood by passing the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act."

    
     U.S. Congressman Mike Pence

U.S. Congressman Mike Pence today issued the following statement regarding the release of a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report revealing that the Planned Parenthood Federation of America received $657.1 million in taxpayer dollars from Fiscal Year 2002 to Fiscal Year 2009. The largest source of these funds ($342.1 million) was the Title X family planning program.

"It is morally wrong to end an unborn human life by abortion. But it is also morally wrong to take the taxpayer dollars of millions of pro-life Americans and use those funds to promote abortion.
"This report confirms that the largest abortion provider in America is being bankrolled by American taxpayers. In these tough economic times, there is simply no reason why taxpayer money should go to fund the activities of abortion providers and equip them with the resources they need to end innocent human life.

"We must stop providing taxpayer dollars to abortion providers through Title X. We must put an end to Americans unwillingly providing financial support to the abortion industry. The time has come to deny any and all federal funding to Planned Parenthood by passing the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act."

Background:

The Title X Family Planning program was enacted in 1970 as Title X of the Public Health Service Act. Title X is the only federal grant program that provides individuals with comprehensive family planning and related preventive health services.

Congressman Pence introduced The Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act (H.R. 614), a bill prohibiting the distribution of Title X family planning money to entities that use abortion as a method of family planning. The bi-partisan bill has 93 co-sponsors.

Originally, family planning services were not allowed to include abortions and currently federal dollars are not used directly for abortions. However, over the years, the subsidy of abortion providers under the umbrella of family planning has been gradually accepted.

Current law prohibits the use of Title X family planning funds "in programs where abortion is a method of family planning;" and current regulations require some form of separation between federally-funded family planning services and abortions. However, the current regulations do not contain a descriptive standard of what constitutes "separation." They only require the level of separation to be more than "mere bookkeeping."

When Title X money goes to clinics that provide both abortions and family planning services, even though the money cannot directly fund abortions, it is being used to offset operational costs with federal funds, freeing up money to promote and provide abortions.

Rep. Pence, Rep. Pete Olson (R-TX) and 29 other Members requested the GAO study, which can be accessed at http://gao.gov/products/GAO-10-533R.

Contact: Matt Lahr
Publish Date: June 16, 2010
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