Gosnell conviction prompts call for abortion business scrutiny

As news of the guilty verdict of first degree murder for abortionist Kermit Gosnell broke, pro-life leaders welcomed his conviction while calling for a closer look at the abortion industry as a whole.

U.S. Congresswoman Diane Black, (R–Tenn.), said that while she applauds the grand jury's decision to convict the Philadelphia abortionist on at least three charges of first-degree murder, she said his crimes "stand as a stark reminder that there is no such thing as a safe abortion."

"While Gosnell's horrific actions were especially egregious," she said in a May 13 statement, "we should remember that this is what happens each time an abortion is performed – a beating heart is stopped and an innocent human life is ended."

Gosnell faced over 250 charges, including racketeering, conspiracy and violations of Pennsylvania's late-term abortion ban. He faced more than 200 counts of breaking a state law that requires a 24-hour waiting period on abortion.

He was convicted for three of four first-degree murder charges and the one charge of involuntary manslaughter in the death of a patient who died of an overdose.

The gruesome testimony at the trial included reports that Gosnell and his staff snipped the necks of over 100 babies who survived abortions. One doctor at the clinic testified that the procedure was "literally a beheading."

Gosnell, 72, could face the death penalty for his crimes.

Rep. Chris Smith, (R–N.J.), Co-Chairman of the House Bipartisan Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, said that "not much" difference exists between Gosnell's "House of Horrors" and abortion clinics around the country.

"Some abortionists may have cleaner sheets than Gosnell, and better sterilized equipment and better trained accomplices, but what they do – what Gosnell did – kill babies and hurt women – is the same," he said in a May 13 statement.

Although some 55 million babies have been aborted in the 40 years since abortion has been legal in the United States, there is an "appalling lack of compassion" for the victims and their mothers who have been "physically, emotionally, psychologically" wounded, he said.

Lila Rose, president of pro-life investigative group, Live Action, said Gosnell's "gruesome and inhuman crimes" must not be seen as outliers in the abortion industry.

"We cannot allow these 'guilty' verdicts, welcome as they are, to make us complacent when it comes to the continuing abuses happening even now in abortion facilities throughout our nation," she said.

In her statement, Rose called on Congress "to investigate all those participating in or willing to participate in this kind of brutality" toward women and children.

Anna Higgins, director of the Center for Human Dignity at the Family Research Council, called the jury's verdict "a just conclusion to a horrific case."

However, she said, the case highlights the "callous disregard for the health and safety of women" as well as the "inhumanity of abortion."

Higgins called on Congress to work with states in requiring abortion clinics "to apply the same safety standards as those followed by other medical facilities, including veterinary offices."

Did Obama's IRS also harass pro-life groups?

With the revelation that the Obama Administration's Internal Revenue Service harassed and beleaguered groups seeking tax exemption status if their names included "Tea Party" or "Patriots," and then later admitting they targeted groups with purposes of promoting limited government and other conservative missions, questions are being raised about other targeted groups. 

Were pro-life groups also a target of the staunchly pro-abortion Obama Administration?

Chicago's Thomas More Society reported first dealing with IRS concerns from pro-life groups as early as 2009.

When the Coalition for Life of Iowa sought tax exemption status in 2009, the IRS sought details about the content of members' prayers at a Planned Parenthood facility. They also demanded that the group refrain both from activities that could be construed as protesting or picketing by police, and to cease activities that could be seen as confrontational or harassing by abortion-seeking clients.
 
Thomas More Society said the IRS insisted that "every member of the board of directors of the Coalition sign a statement, under penalty of perjury, that they will not picket or protest or organize others to picket or protest outside of Planned Parenthood," 

Soon after the unprecedented demands were made, the Chicago-based public interest law firm made the legal challenge on behalf of the Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based group. Shortly thereafter, the IRS backed off and the group was granted 501(c)3 status.

"The IRS must operate within the constraints of law, and it cannot condition the grant of tax exempt status on the forfeiture or surrender of First Amendment rights on the part of any non-profit group or individual American citizens," Thomas More Society's attorney Thomas Brejcha commented in a 2009 press release.

But again two years later, Thomas More Society issued a letter to the IRS on behalf of a group called Christian Voices for Life. The IRS made repeated requests for information about the viewpoint and content of the group's communications, prayer vigils, and other activities, violating the group's First Amendment rights.

In its 2011 letters to Christian Voices for Life, the IRS demanded to know whether the group did "education on both sides of the issues," whether members of the group "try to block people to [sic] enter a … medical clinic" during "40 Days for Life" and "Life Chain" events, whether members of the group "attempt to talk to someone trying to enter a medical clinic," and to "please explain what you are [doing] during" 40 Days for Life and Life Chain vigils.

"The application of Christian Voices for Life clearly indicates that the organization qualifies as a charitable organization under section 501(c)(3)," stated Thomas More Society executive director and legal counsel Peter Breen two years ago.

"These requests suggest that the IRS may be denying or delaying tax-exempt status based upon the organization's pro-life message, rather than any legitimate exemption concern," Breen said.  "Moreover, the implication in these questions that Christian Voices for Life somehow intends to engage in illegal activity is insulting."

Using the IRS as a tool to squelch political enemies is an illegal tactic that mounted evidence against former President Richard M. Nixon and added to a call for congressional impeachment proceedings, which eventually subsided when Nixon resigned in disgrace.

Abortionist Gosnell found guilty on 3 murder counts

A Pennsylvania jury has convicted abortionist Kermit Gosnell on three counts of 1st-degree murder.

Gosnell, who had performed late-term abortions under appalling unsanitary conditions in a Philadelphia clinic, was found not guilty on a 4th murder charge, but guilty of involuntary manslaughter and a host of other lesser charges.

The grisly details of Gosnell's business had shocked and outraged those who heard of the case. But the abortionist's trial has received little attention from American's mainstream media outlets.

Gosnell was accused of brutally killing babies who survived late-term abortions, allowing unqualified personnel to perform medical procedures, dispensing inappropriate medication, improper storage of fetal remains, and other crimes. Government agents who inspected his clinic—originally looking for evidence of illegal prescriptions—were so appalled by the conditions there that they alerted local prosecutors. The clinic, which was patronized mostly by poor women, had not been inspected for years.

New pro-life campaign for moms sees strong response

A new campaign from pro-life group Heroic Media has found considerable support from busy moms seeking to get more involved in promoting abortion alternatives.

The new campaign, 1000 Moms, was launched last year and has already “seen a very positive response,” executive director Joe Young of Heroic Media told CNA May 7.

By engaging mothers in prayer, networking and giving, the group aims “to help build a culture of life within our communities.”

One of the most important ways mothers are involved in this process is through prayer, Young explained, “Not just for Heroic Media, but for the women we’re reaching through our life-affirming media campaigns.”

Mothers are also asked to “be a champion of life” in their communities by educating themselves on sanctity of life issues, such as abortion and euthanasia, so that they can be “ready to present a pro-life position in the conversation.”

Young said moms are encouraged to share Heroic Media’s message in their social media networks as well.

Finally, members are asked to commit to a $1,000 donation annually to help fund pro-life media campaigns in their local communities.

By supporting the group financially, “They can ensure that this message of hope and help is given through their community and it points back to their local service providers in their area.”

So far, local media campaigns have helped make “significant progress” in connecting women facing an unplanned pregnancy with alternatives to abortion.

“This year, we’ve had more than 65,000 women connected to life-affirming resources,” Young said.

In addition to helping support pro-life ad campaigns, the 1000 Moms initiative is “all about celebrating the heroism of motherhood,” by recognizing the daily sacrifices of local moms.

“Motherhood is such an important job in this country, one that has been downplayed or even demonized in some circles and we really want to celebrate the heroism of motherhood,” Young said.

“Moms play critical role in child development and we just want to celebrate that and allow them to give back to new moms now.”

More information can be found at: http://www.heroicmedia.org/1000moms

Tyndale wins again against abortion mandate

A leading Bible publisher won another court victory against the Obama administration's abortion/contraceptive mandate Friday (May 3), thanks in part to the administration's own partial retreat in the case.

The publisher, Tyndale House, had won a preliminary injunction in November from a lower court that prevented the government from enforcing the mandate, which forces businesses such as Tyndale to cover contraceptives that can cause chemical abortions. The drugs often are called "emergency contraceptives" and can act after conception and implantation, and come under brand names such as Plan B and ella.
 
The administration appealed that injunction to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, but eventually asked that the appeal be dismissed. The three justices on Friday granted the administration's request and dismissed it.

The injunction will remain in place while the case itself, Tyndale House Publishers v. Sebelius, moves forward. The lower court judge, Reggie B. Walton, had said in his November injunction ruling that Tyndale likely would win the overall case.

The legal group Alliance Defending Freedom says the government's desire to withdraw its own appeal is a good sign for religious liberty. ADF is representing Tyndale.

"Bible publishers should be free to do business according to the book that they publish," said ADF senior legal counsel Matt Bowman. "The government dismissed its appeal because it knows how ridiculous it sounds arguing that a Bible publisher isn't religious enough to qualify as a religious employer. For the government to say that a Bible publisher isn't religious is outrageous, and now the Obama administration has had to retreat in court."

Tyndale is among the 25 for-profits that have obtained rulings in federal court. Of those, the for-profits have won injunctions against the administration in 19 cases, according to a tally by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, placing the for-profits' record at 19-6.

In his November decision, Judge Reggie B. Walton had said that forcing Tyndale to obey the mandate would also force it to violate its religious beliefs.

"The contraceptive coverage mandate ... places the plaintiffs in the untenable position of choosing either to violate their religious beliefs by providing coverage of the contraceptives at issue or to subject their business to the continual risk of the imposition of enormous penalties for its noncompliance," Walton wrote. "... Government action that creates such a Hobson's choice for the plaintiffs amply shows that the contraceptive coverage mandate substantially burdens the plaintiffs' religious exercise."

Although the Supreme Court upheld the health care law last summer, it did not address the issues in the Tyndale case.

Tyndale, based in Carol Stream, Ill., with 260 full-time employees, functions as a thoroughly Christian organization, the ADF suit states. For instance:

-- One of its corporate goals is to "honor God."

-- It holds a weekly chapel service for employees.

-- It opens business meetings with prayer.

-- It sends employees on mission projects to support Christian mission organizations, paid for by the company.

-- Its trustees must affirm a statement of faith that proclaims, for instance, "there is one God, eternally existent in three persons."

After the appeals court dismissed the appeal, Bowman said the ADF "will continue to argue that the administration cannot disregard the Constitution's protection of religious freedom for all family business owners and must offer a comprehensive exemption to the mandate."

The three justices who agreed to dismiss the appeal were Karen Henderson (nominated by George H.W. Bush), Thomas Griffith (George W. Bush) and Brett Kavanaugh (George W. Bush).

South Carolina Bill Would Outlaw Obamacare

The South Carolina House passed a bill Wednesday that would make it a crime for state officials and employers to implement the new federal health care law.

Signed into law in March 2010, Obamacare requires businesses to offer government-approved health insurance to employees who work at least 30 hours per week. A provision of the law, the Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate, requires most companies to offer coverage for possible abortion-inducing drugs.

If passed, South Carolina’s Freedom of Health Care Protection Act would establish criminal penalties for those who violate it.

The state has made it very clear that is doesn’t want to go along with Obamacare, said Grace-Marie Turner, president of the Galen Institute, a public policy research organization in Alexandria, Va. 

“They’re not setting up a state based exchange to be a funnel for federal subsidies for the Obamacare insurance,” Turner told CitizenLink. “They’re not expanding Medicaid according to the law. And then the House has basically said, ‘We are also going to try to make the implementation of this ‘null and void’ in the state of South Carolina by criminalizing anyone who tries to implement it.”

Plan B isn't 'preventive medicine,' says Christian physician

A spokesman for the Christian Medical & Dental Associations explains why he has always opposed efforts to lower the availability age for Plan B, saying "morning-after" planning is in fact no planning at all.
 
The Justice Department announced Thursday it will fight against the availability of Plan B - the "morning-after" pill - for minors. Last month, New York federal judge Edward Korman ordered the Food and Drug Administration to permit over-the-counter sales of the drug to minors; and two days before the order was effective, FDA issued a rule permitting sale of Plan B to 15-year-olds and up.

Now, in the appeal filed on Wednesday, the U.S. Attorney General's office will argue Judge Korman does not have the authority to order the drug's availability to minors. That move has apparently angered some White House allies - including Planned Parenthood, whose president stated later that "age barriers" to emergency contraception like Plan B "are not supported by science and ... should be eliminated."

Adds Los Angeles Times' political reporter Robin Abcarian: "Planned Parenthood is probably getting used to this shabby treatment from a president who loves them to their face but dallies with the right behind their backs."

Dr. Andre Van Mol of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations was opposed to the lowering of the age to begin with.

"It's another example of proposing technological fixes to moral issues - and as a result, opening up a whole new can of worms," he tells American Family Association. "You can't out-technology sin and its consequences. It always leads to other problems."

Van Mol, who also is affiliated with the sexual purity group known as Moral Revolution, believes making the abortifacient available without a prescription would "increase sexually transmitted infections as well as unplanned pregnancies, actually rising further than the problematic levels we already have."

"It's motivating people to think later rather than earlier. Morning-after planning is no planning whatsoever," he states bluntly. "This is not preventive medicine; and when you're talking about 15-year-olds - obviously an adolescent mentality - the problem's going to be even worse."

Thursday in Mexico, President Obama defended his administration's decision to appeal Korman's ruling, saying he was "very comfortable" with the FDA's current rule. "It's not my decision to make," he added. "The first time around, where there were no age restrictions, [HHS] Secretary [Kathleen] Sebelius expressed concerns and I supported those concerns and I gave voice to them."

Anna Higgins of the Family Research Council spoke to American Family News about the president's statement last night in support of the FDA's decision.

"I think it shows that he is backing off of his original statement - which showed a lot of common sense - in which he said that it's not smart or medically safe for a child to have access to a medication that potentially, if not used properly, could end up having an adverse effect," she offers.

"I mean he echoed Sebelius's concerns in 2011," notes Higgins. "It seems like he's kind of turning on those concerns in face of political pressure."

Celebrated abortionist draws fire after undercover film

New footage by an undercover investigative group shows a prominent late-term abortionist joking about the abortion procedure and telling women not to seek emergency care if something were to go wrong.

“Dr. (LeRoy) Carhart’s testimony is shocking and sickening,” said Lila Rose, president of Live Action, the organization that conducted the undercover investigation.

In a statement released with the video, Rose criticized Carhart’s comparison of a dead infant within a mother’s womb to “putting meat in a crock pot,” as well as references to the tools he uses to complete abortions as a “pickaxe” and “drill bit.”

She also stated that “he outright lies when he claims that his patient, Jennifer Morbelli, died of complications in her pregnancy rather than from his abortion.”

Carhart was one of four protagonists in the documentary “After Tiller,” which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2013 and has won numerous honors since its opening. The doctors highlighted in the film are the four remaining doctors in the United States that still perform third-trimester abortions.

In 2009, Dr. Carhart also won awards from Physicians for Reproductive Health and NARAL Pro-Choice America.

The doctor is shown in the latest of several videos recorded undercover by Live Action. Speaking to women at his clinic, Carhart minimizes the risks and potential side effects of abortion, despite statements to the contrary by the Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Planned Parenthood.

He also claimed to the undercover investigators that he has never “had anybody leave there feeling worse than they came,” and that he “never had to send anybody to the hospital.”

Acknowledging that a woman died after an abortion at his clinic, he asserted that the death was due to “complications with the pregnancy, but not from the abortion.”

However a Maryland medical examiner determined that the death of the woman in question, Jennifer Morbelli, was a direct result of a late-term abortion Dr. Carhart performed at his Maryland clinic. According to the Baltimore chief medical examiner's office, the 29-year-old school teacher died from “amniotic fluid embolism following termination of pregnancy” as well as widespread internal bleeding.

Carhart is currently under investigation for Morbelli's February 2013 death. Her death occurred six weeks before the second of Live Action’s investigations.

The footage also reveals Carhart advising the women not to seek emergency care should they need urgent medical attention during the multi-day abortion process.

“You don’t call 911,” he tells them, advising them instead to “just get in the car” and drive themselves to the clinic should they need emergency care.

Information sheets given to patients at Carhart’s Maryland clinic state that if patients “feel that something is wrong and you need to be seen do not go to the ER, call and we will meet you at the clinic.”

Carhart splits his weeks between his Nebraska and Maryland clinics, and according to Maryland pro-life group “Defend Life,” he was in Nebraska at the time of Morbelli’s death.

Pro-life reports indicate that Morbelli and her family had tried repeatedly to contact the doctor when she began experiencing shortness of breath and chest pains following the abortion procedure. The family eventually took her to the hospital, and she died shortly afterwards.

Rose, whose organization is releasing a series of similarly undercover videos, cautioned that these problems are not rare, although they are often overlooked in the abortion business.

“Our investigation reveals that the horrors of the abortion industry leaves devastated two victims: the mother and the child,” she said

Pro-euthanasia doctor now assistant head of Illinois' Public Health

BLOOMINGTON - The controversial family physician Dr. David Gill is now assistant director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, appointed this week by Governor Pat Quinn after Gill lost a 2012 bid for Congress from the 13th CD to Republican Rodney Davis. 

Gill, of Bloomington, received his bachelor’s and medical degrees from the University of Illinois and has served as a family practice doctor and emergency room physician for more than 20 years. Most recently he was an emergency room doctor at Advocate BroMenn Medical Center in Normal.

During the 2012 congressional campaign, Gill's views on health care raised eyebrows when Bloomington Pantagraph's political reporter Kurt Erickson revealed that Dr. Gill had been fired from OSF St. Joseph's Medical Center in Bloomington because of his support for assisted suicide.  

When asked about the controversy, Erickson reported Dr. Gill said, “I don’t think people should have to put up with the amount of suffering the state says they have to. A lot of physicians feel disgruntled, ashamed and disgusted in their inability to assist patients."

He added that physician-assisted suicides already occur. For example, Gill said some doctors will keep increasing a patient’s dosage of pain-relieving morphine, fully aware that respirations will eventually stop. ...“It goes on everyday,” he said at the time.

Dr. Gill also said in a campaign radio interview that Obamacare did not go far enough, that he fully supported the single payer health care system and that Medicare would change dramatically in the years to come.

 

Urge Congress to end abortion-to-birth in the nation's capital!

Take Action! WASHINGTON (May 8, 2013) -- Pro-life members of Congress, led by Congressman Trent Franks (R-Az.) and Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah), with strong backing from the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), have re-introduced legislation to curb an ongoing scandal in our nation's capital:  The entire abortion law was repealed, and abortion has been made legal -- for any reason whatever -- right up until the moment of birth. This appalling situation would be addressed by the District of Columbia Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act  (H.R. 1797, S. 886).   The bill would prohibit abortion in the District after 20 weeks fetal age, unless the mother's life is endangered -- based on compelling scientific evidence that by 20 weeks (if not earlier), the unborn child is capable of experiencing excruciating pain while being aborted.  During a 2012 hearing on this legislation, Dr. Anthony Levatino, a former abortionist, explained to a House panel exactly how second-trimester dismemberment ("D&E") abortions are performed -- to see video of his testimony, click here.  (Warning:  graphic content.) A recent national poll by The Polling Company found that, after being informed that there is scientific evidence that unborn children are capable of feeling pain at least by 20 weeks, 64% would support a law banning abortion after 20 weeks, unless the mother's life was in danger.   Only 30% said they would oppose such a law.  Click here to read the NRLC release on the poll.  For additional documentation on the pain suffered by unborn children, click here. Pro-abortion groups and their allies in Congress have made it clear that they intend to try to delay, obstruct, and defeat this bill.  Please use the tool below to send messages to your representative in the U.S. House and to your two U.S. senators, urging them to cosponsor H.R. 1797 or S. 886, if they have not already done so, and to urge its speedy passage! To view an up-to-date list of the current co-sponsors of H.R. 1797, arranged by state, click here.  To view an up-to-date list of the current co-sponsors of S. 886, arranged by state, click here.

 

Pro-life demonstrators have strongest impact on undecided women: study

by Hilary White

May 3, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pro-life demonstrators who work outside abortion facilities and speak to women have an emotional impact on women who have not yet made up their minds to abort, a study has found.

A group of researchers at the strongly pro-abortion Bixby Center for Reproductive Health at the University of California, San Francisco, interviewed 956 women seeking abortion between 2008 and 2010 at 30 US abortion facilities, asking them whether they had seen pro-life demonstrators and whether or how much they had been “upset” by them.

“One of the strongest predictors of being upset by protesters,” the study concluded, “is whether the woman had had difficulty deciding to have an abortion. Women who had more difficulty deciding were more likely to find the protesters upsetting.”

The study notes that there has been a significant increase in the number of protests outside abortion facilities in the US over the last ten years. “State-level analyses suggest that abortion protests have an effect on both the supply and demand for abortion services”. But little concrete research has been done directly on the effect of such demonstrations on the individual women and their decisions.

In Canada and the US there are laws that restrict pro-life demonstrations outside abortion facilities, called “bubble-zone” laws in Canada. In arguments over such laws, the study noted, “there is an implicit, but untested, assumption that abortion protesters negatively affect women’s experience of abortion”.

The study’s findings did not uphold this conclusion, however. Of 956 women interviewed who were seeking abortion between 2008 and 2010 at 30 US abortion facilities, 46 per cent saw protesters; of those, 25 per cent reported being a little upset, 9 per cent reported being “quite a bit” upset and 7 per cent were “extremely upset”. There was no reported association between seeing or being stopped by pro-life demonstrators and “negative feelings” about the abortion after the fact.

The women who said they were having the most difficulty making up their minds also reported being the most “upset” by the presence of pro-life demonstrators. 19 per cent who were having difficulty with the abortion decision reported being “quite a bit” or “extremely” upset as opposed to 11 per cent who had firmly made up their minds. More of the “quite a bit” and “extremely” upset group also reported as having been stopped and spoken to personally by demonstrators compared to those who only saw them.

Gosnell judge dismisses 3 murder charges, 5 remain

 

Judge Jeffery P. Minehart dismissed three of the eight murder charges against Kermit Gosnell this morning, leaving five counts that will eventually go to the jury. The three dismissed first degree murder counts dismissed today relate to the accused murder of three newborn babies, birthed during late-term abortions only to have their spinal cords severed.

 

Operation Rescue has been in the courtroom reporting on the trial.

 

"I am shocked that these counts have been dismissed. I have heard testimony by very credible witnesses to the effect that these babies were murdered in cold blood by Gosnell as they cried and struggled for life. We pray that justice will be done in the remaining five victims of Gosnell's horrific slayings," said Cheryl Sullenger, Senior Policy Advisor for Operation Rescue, who has observed the trial and published first-hand accounts of the proceedings.

 

The remaining charges are related to the death of four newborns and one patient, Karnamaya Mongar, who died from a drug overdose during a second trimester abortion by Gosnell.

 

Testimony from the medical examiner and toxicologist has indicated that there was no evidence the babies were injected with Digoxin to ensure the babies were dead prior to the abortion, as the defense has claimed.

 

The medical examiner testified that tests were inconclusive as proof that the babies were born alive. However, the tests also did not prove the babies were dead prior to birth. Those inconclusive test results were overshadowed by the weight of testimony from witness after witness, who detailed how the babies were in fact living prior to being murdered through what one witness described as a "virtual beheading."

"If Gosnell gets off scot-free, that will send a message that murdering live babies and abortion patients is now acceptable behavior in America and that abortionists who engage in such depraved practices are above the law. This would put women and babies in grave danger - more than they already face - at abortion clinics throughout the nation," said Sullenger.

 

Sullenger is set to return to the courtroom on Monday to hear and report on the remainder of the defense case.

 

Read Sullenger's reports on Gosnell trial at OperationRescue.org.

 

 

Obama Announces Planned Parenthood Support

by Bethany Monk

President Obama expressed his fervent support for the nation’s largest abortion seller Friday during a Planned Parenthood conference in Washington, D.C. He also made known his disapproval of members of Congress who want to defund the abortion business and state lawmakers who have voted pro-life bills into law.

Obama is the first sitting president to speak in person at a Planned Parenthood event. He mentioned that lawmakers in 42 states are considering laws limiting abortion. Even after “decades of progress” he said, “there’s still politicians who want to roll back the clock.” He also thanked the abortion seller for helping to promote Obamacare.

Planned Parenthood gave $15 million to Obama’s re-election campaign.

“President Obama touts Planned Parenthood as a trusted friend and health care provider to women and girls, but this could not be further from the truth,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony List. “Planned Parenthood last week admitted to knowing about the conditions inside Kermit Gosnell’s clinic, yet chose not to act to help end the killing of newborn babies and butchering of women.”

Gosnell, 72, is accused of murdering multiple newborns and one pregnant woman. His abortion business had not been inspected for more than a decade, even though Pennsylvania has regulations in places for the abortion industry. He is currently on trial in Philadelphia. 

“If the president was truly concerned with the healthcare needs of women and girls in abortion mills,” said Charmaine Yoest, president and CEO of Americans United for Life (AUL), “he would join AUL in calling for clinic regulations to protect the growing number of women maimed and killed there.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Watch Obama’s speech at the Planned Parenthood conference.

Read “Dig Deeper: A Case to Defund Planned Parenthood.”

Watch 3801 Lancaster, a documentary following the Gosnell case as it unfolds.
Warning: Contains graphic images.

 

 

Take Action: Urge Your Representative in Congress to Protect Conscience Rights

It’s not too late to make your voice heard.

In just a few months, most faith-based organizations across the country will have to comply with a government mandate requiring that they offer potential abortion-inducing drugs in their employee insurance plans. Life advocates are encouraging people to ask their member of Congress to attach conscience rights language to the next funding or financial bill in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The Obama administration is requiring faith-based organizations — including some hospitals and universities — to comply with the Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate by August. Rep. Diane Black introduced the Health Care Conscience Rights Act last month. The act would prevent the government from discriminating against employers, individuals and health care providers that chose not to help provide or pay for abortions.

“It seems the only feasible way to address this violation of religious freedom before that deadline is to add language like the Health Care Conscience Rights Act to the next ‘must pass’ bill needed to keep the government operating — most likely the debt-limit bill,” Richard Doerflinger wrote in an email last week to pro-life groups. Doerflinger serves the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops as its associate director of the Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities.

Both houses of Congress would have to pass this bill to keep the government running.

There are nearly 60 lawsuits challenging the mandate. Twenty-nine of those involve for-profit businesses, which had to comply beginning August 2012. In all but six of those cases, judges granted injunctions temporarily halting the mandate for those companies.

So far, 30 non-profits — including hospitals, charities, Christian colleges and Catholic dioceses — have filed suit. Courts have dismissed 19 of those, saying they can’t sue until after they have been hit with the mandate.

Doerflinger encourages people to contact their elected officials, urging them to add the language to the next must-pass bill.

“Many members of Congress still say they are not receiving messages from their constituents about this urgent issue,” Doerflinger continues in the email. “I am writing to encourage all who care about it to renew and expand your efforts.”

Employers who filed lawsuits against the mandate should also contact Congress.

“Organizations that filed comment letters against the mandate should send copies to their representative, with a cover note urging Congress to act.”

Take Action: Urge your Representative to Protect Conscience Rights TODAY
Contact your representative in Congress today and urge him or her to protect the rights of conscience for religious institutions and non-profit organizations. Ask your representative to stand against the HHS mandate by including health care conscience protection in the next “must pass” bill.

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Read H.R. 940.

Planned Parenthood Sex-Ed Too 'Graphic,'

'Shocking' to Show Adults

 

WASHINGTON, DC - This week, both the New York Times and Washington Post rejected a full-page advertisement from American Life League as "too graphic" and "shocking" for their adult readers. What was too graphic? This full-page color advertisement showed images from actual Planned Parenthood sex-ed materials used for children as young as 10 years of age. ALL couldn't agree more. The rejected ad can be seen here: http://www.all.org/pdf/PP_HookingKids.pdf.

 

"The question we must ask is: Why is the Obama administration funneling $350 million to push this filth into classrooms while at the same time telling us we don't have money for White House tours, TSA agents, or border security?" asked Judie Brown, president and cofounder of ALL. "Starting in kindergarten, funded with our tax dollars, PP uses graphic cartoons to saturate children with sexual imagery that encourages them to focus on sexuality, engage in sex, and accept dangerous aberrant sexual acts as perfectly normal. Parents' tax dollars are being used to turn their own children into Planned Parenthood's future sex customers."

 

To raise public awareness about Planned Parenthood's controversial sex education----more accurately described as sexual indoctrination----ALL planned a series of advertisements revealing what and how children are really taught in PP'S so-called "comprehensive sex education." These are programs that are already in many schools and will reach all public schools as currently mandated in Obamacare.

 

The Washington Post rejected the advertisement simply saying that, without disguising the pictures, it was "too graphic." The only images in the ad are from Planned Parenthood-endorsed sources. If they are too graphic for adults reading the Washington Post, then they certainly should not be in elementary school classrooms.

 

Likewise, the New York Times offered to run the ad only if ALL would agree to blur the pictures. Its staff suggested that they could run a disclaimer saying, "Image too shocking for the New York Times audience. To see actual image and for more information, please visit: http://www.all.org/pdf/PP_HookingKids.pdf."

 

American Life League is asking concerned citizens to demand that all federal funding for Planned Parenthood be cut. Visit StopPlannedParenthood.com for more information.

 

"Planned Parenthood is not in the healthcare business, it is in the sex industry," added Brown. "More than half of its $1 billion budget comes from tax dollars, and the organization stands to gain another billion dollars through Obamacare. It must end."    

 

 

Plan B and the Demise of Parental Rights

by Anna Higgins

Parents are meant to be the fundamental guiding influence of a child’s life. They are responsible for nurturing, educating, protecting, and providing for their children. This system, established at creation by God, is the foundation of every stable, prosperous society.

However, our government has attempted to undermine parental rights and distance parents as much as possible from important decisions affecting their children. This is happening despite the fact that the Supreme Court has long upheld the highest standards of protection for the rights of parents to educate and bring up their children without interference. The latest blow to the traditional family structure has been leveled by “reproductive rights” groups, a federal judge, and the FDA – all of which support the availability of a high dose hormonal contraceptive over the counter to young girls without a prescription.

In 2011, Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, denied a recommendation by the FDA that would have allowed over the counter access to Plan B, a high dose “emergency contraceptive,” for young girls. Both she and President Obama stated that the FDA did not present enough evidence to show that this hormone would be safe for girls.

In fact, there have been no studies on the effects of Plan B on teens. All safety studies have been done on adults and assume proper use. There is no reason to believe that young girls understand that this contraceptive should only be used once a month and that it is not meant to replace oral contraceptives.

Yet a federal judge, Edward Korman of the Eastern District of New York, unilaterally disposed of those concerns when he handed down a ruling last month requiring the FDA to provide over-the-counter access of Plan B to all girls of reproductive age without a prescription. Family Research Council authored a letter to Sebelius asking her to appeal this decision, and thankfully, the Department of Justice has decided to appeal the judge’s decision. In the midst of this controversy, however, the FDA issued an approval of over the counter access to Plan B to teens as young as 15 (the previous age limit was 17).

This decision is particularly disturbing because it allows Plan B to be sold on store shelves, not behind a pharmacy counter. Thus, the only thing standing in the way of a girl purchasing this product is the local drug store cashier, who supposedly is required to check the purchaser’s ID before selling the product. There is no indication that Sec. Sebelius will overturn this new FDA decision. In fact, President Obama, in an about face from his previous support of keeping Plan B off retail store shelves, came out in support of the FDA’s new decision.

This decision is troubling, to say the least. It will only serve to distance young girls most at risk for sexual abuse and sexually transmitted infections from medical care and parental guidance. The decision to exclude parents and doctors from dealing with the sexual behavior of underage girls and the administration of a serious drug is irresponsible and dangerous.

Parents have every right to be informed and to consent to any decision affecting their child’s health, education, or upbringing. It is important to encourage parent-teen communication regarding the moral and medical issues associated with pre-marital sexual activity, as the consequences of such activity are weighty.

Teenagers under the age of 17 cannot even be admitted to an R–rated movie and schools are required to obtain a parent’s permission to administer any type of medication to a child or teen, for good reason. The new Plan B decisions, made without regard to parental or medical concern, will only serve to endanger the health and safety of children. Parents should remain vigilant as this debate continues.

Planned Parenthood's Chicago gala features national, state abortion advocates

CHICAGO - Thursday evening, Planned Parenthood Illinois held a fundraising gala at Chicago's Navy Pier, and featured National Chairman Cecile Richards, contraception advocate Sandra Fluke. Others notables included event co-host State Senator Heather Steans and special guest, Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

Last week, President Barack Obama became the first president to keynote a Planned Parenthood national convention. Cecile Richards (pictured third from left) joined Planned Parenthood in 2006, and has expanded the organization’s advocacy power while pulling over 33 million online visits annually to its website. Richard's frequently comments on women’s rights, reproductive health, and sex education. She is a contributor to the Huffington Post and serves on the board of the Ford Foundation.

Sandra Fluke (right) was at first rejected for testimony before Congress in 2012, but at the special invitation of U.S. House Minority Speaker Nancy Pelosi, she shared the need for Obamacare to provide taxpayer-funded contraception. She became a media sensation, and has tapped into her popularity to expand her political influence.

The Generations Gala was co-hosted by Illinois Senator Heather Steans (far left), and attended by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan (Second from the left). Both Steans and Madigan have been committed to abortion rights during their political careers.

Outside the event, 30 picketers from Pro-Life Action League informed gala attendees about the atrocities of abortion and abortion's link to Planned Parenthood's mission.

 

 

Professors: Pro-life students “appear to have a lot in common with those who supported lynching”

Idealistic young men and women at the University at Buffalo may have dedicated their lives to protecting the unborn, but according to some of their professors, they are similar to Americans "who supported lynching."

Six history professors swiftly condemned the campus chapter of Students For Life after a university-approved display stirred controversy.

UB SFL hosted signs erected by the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP), which placed the deaths of 55 American million babies by abortion in the context of atrocities carried out against six million Jewish Holocaust victims and 3,446 blacks lynched in the American South. Organizers placed images of all three events side-by-side.

"[A]s historians, we feel it is imperative to speak out against this crass, uninformed, and dangerous misuse of history," the professors wrote in a letter to the campus newspaper, The Spectrum, on Tuesday.

The letter likened the display to marauding lynch mobs that hanged black men for raping white women, alleging SFL members shared views prevalent in the Reconstruction and Post-Reconstruction South.

"The inability to see women as capable of making decisions about their own sexuality. The use of violent, inaccurate, and misleading imagery. The pretense of protection. Anti-abortion protesters appear to have a lot in common with those who supported lynching," they wrote.

"If students wish to learn more about the history of racial and sexual violence, including lynching, we welcome them to take any of our classes."

The signatories were:

Susan Cahn, Professor of History;
Carole Emberton, Assistant Professor of History;
Theresa Runstedtler, Assistant Professor of American Studies;
Lakisha Simmons, Assistant Professor of Global Gender Studies;
Victoria Wolcott, Professor of History; and
Jason Young, Associate Professor of History.
"As a student in the history department and president of the pro-life club on campus, not only am I ashamed and appalled that my professors twisted our message to suit their point of view, but I am offended due to their false characterization of our argument," responded chapter President Christian Andzel. "We were citing the history of oppression and voicelessness of the victims who deserved human rights and justice."

The national organization has said the conduct is irresponsible and unprofessional.

"This is not the kind of example professors from a public university, funded with our tax money, should be setting for our students," said Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins. "We stand with UB Students for Life for courageously fighting to bring the truth of abortion to a liberal campus, despite attempts to shout them down, cover the display, and personally attack group leaders like President Christian Andzel."

The letter to the editor was not the only act of opposition from a UB faculty member. Laura Curry, a professor of media studies, cursed at the students – and then at her arresting officers – claiming the display was more profane than her repeated use of the f-word.

"UB SFL is the pro-life generation and they are already showing they know how to behave like better adults than the ones opposing them," Hawkins said.

Labeling the pro-life movement as a "hate group" is an increasingly common tactic on campus and in society. This month, Johns Hopkins University reluctantly approved the petition of Voice for Life after a member of the student government likened the pro-life movement to an alleged "hate group," the White Student Union at Towson University.

Hawkins said the University at Buffalo, a part of the State University of New York, has had a troubling history of disregarding the First Amendment rights of its conservative students.

Its application process took longer and faced more hurdles than the norm. According to SFL, the Student Association Vice President admitted that, in SFL's words, "the Student Government (SGA) was simply waiting for the club to die out," by refusing to process their application, not returning e-mails, and not keeping appointments with officers.

In May 2011, three waves of vandalism hit the club's "cemetery of the innocents," uprooting 330 crosses. "We wanted a statement condemning it. We didn't expect that [Unversity at Buffalo president Satish Tripathi] wouldn't even take our phone call," said Sara Buttitta, then-president of UB Students for Life.

Tripathi stated she wanted to find out who was responsible for the successive actions before condemning them. No action was taken.

Last December the UB chapter of Amnesty International refused pro-life students the opportunity to participate in its annual Human Rights Day Celebration because of SFL's views on abortion. Campus leaders said they wanted to participate to show their support for prisoners of conscience.

"This campus is clearly intolerant of the pro-life position and incapable of having a discussion on the morality of abortion," Hawkins said. "Sadly, we have seen an increase in this type of behavior nationwide this year where abortion advocates have become desperate, refusing to address any issues of abortion but personally attacking the students forcing the discussion."

Contact:

Office of the President, Satish K. Tripathi

501 Capen Hall
University at Buffalo
Buffalo, NY 14260

Phone: 716-645-2901
Fax: 716-645-3728
E-mail: president@buffalo.edu
Web: www.buffalo.edu/president

Source: LifeSiteNews

Former head of pro-abortion group pleads guilty to soliciting sex with 12-year-old

The former executive director of the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association (NFPRHA) has pleaded guilty to charges of soliciting sex with a 12-year-old.

Scott Richard Swirling was charged earlier this year after he engaged in online conversations with a man who claimed to be offering his 12-year-old daughter for sex. In fact, Swirling was speaking with an undercover D.C. police officer.

During conversations with the man, Swirling had expressed concerns about a possible police sting, and had asked for a photograph of the girl with the date on it. When he received a photo of his purported victim, he replied, "You are definitely a cutie."

When he arrived at the arranged meeting place, however, he was arrested.

Swirling was charged with travelling across state lines to engage in illicit sexual conduct. He reportedly reached a plea deal. The terms of that deal have not been released.

After Swirling's arrest, Lila Rose, the president of the pro-life group Live Action, had said that Swirlings actions point to the connection between abortion and the exploitation of minors.

Rose's group has conducted several undercover sting operations in which they found that abortion workers were willing to arrange illegal abortions to cover up sexual crimes.

"The National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association (NFPRHA), Planned Parenthood, and other pro-abortion organizations have demonstrated their complicity with child sexual abuse and should be investigated, not funded by hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars," said Rose. "Live Action calls for investigative action and the immediate and total removal of government funds from all abortion industry initiatives."

Swirling had served as the head of the NFPRHA for 10 years, from 1981 to 1991. He has also served as head of the American School Counselor Association, and in recent years has been running a construction-management business.

Source: LifeSiteNews

Post-abortion mom: ‘I wish abortion was illegal! I would be with my child’

The young woman sat inside her friend's dorm room, cramping and bleeding on the toilet. It was early 2008, the eve of her nineteenth birthday. The clinic worker had given her a pill to take orally and a few others to place inside herself internally. She knew that in a few more hours it would all be over. She would be over this inconvenience. She would have her life back.

She had convinced herself again that this was the best thing to do.

But Hannah Smith (named changed) could not ignore the irony of the timing. Why was it that on the day she should have been celebrating her own birth, she was deliberately making sure that the new life inside of her would never have a birthday to celebrate? How did things come to this? Hannah replayed the events in her mind's eye.

The young woman had recently started her freshman year at an out-of-state university. Her parents, who were footing the bill, had big expectations for her. Hannah had been raised Catholic, but had traded in what she considered to be outdated and restrictive religious values for the glamorous goods and pleasures offered by the world.

It was during a Christmas break visit at home that things really became complicated. Hannah's mom, who had been playing matchmaker in her absence, introduced her to the son of a close friend. But they got carried away way too fast. The young couple partied hard and ended up having sex a few times. Hannah had thought at the time that she was invincible and that nothing could get in the way of her life's plan.

But then she discovered she was pregnant.

She didn't dare tell her mother, who she was sure would make her keep the baby. If this happened, then her life as she knew it would be over. Her boyfriend made it evident that he no longer wanted anything to do with her or their baby. He had given Hannah $350 and told her to go and get an abortion.

Abandoned, alone, and scared, Hannah couldn't imagine life as a single mother. So here she was on her nineteenth birthday, sitting on the toilet in her friend's dorm room, aborting her baby.

Living to forget

A few years went by. Hannah was now married and pregnant with her first child from that marriage. She had tried to live as if the abortion had never happened. Her plan was to forget that chapter of her life for the rest of her life. She had even kept the secret of her abortion from her husband.

Then, one day, her repressed abortion experience suddenly rose up like a specter from the past, confronting her head-on.

Hannah had been reading about a near death experience of a man in which he saw himself on the verge of being cast into hell for choosing to love and serve himself instead of those who had been placed in his life by God.

Suddenly the pregnant mother found herself breaking down and wailing uncontrollably. Her husband asked what was wrong. Hannah told him that she did not want to end up in hell because of her choices. She now saw clearly that she was responsible for the death of her baby and would one day face judgment for her choice.

Hannah also read around this time the near death experience of Dr. Gloria Polo, the Columbian orthodontist who was struck by lightning and found herself to be deserving of hell for aborting one baby and unintentionally ending the lives of many other babies through her use of toxic contraceptives.

In Dr. Polo's testimony, Hannah read that abortion is the "worst of all sin" because it is "to kill your own children, to kill a baby." She read that at the moment when a new life is created, it's as if a beautiful spark of light sent from God explodes in the womb of the new mother. For the first time, she saw the conception of her first child as a beautiful event full of light and full of spirit.

She realized that she had been too selfish and too self-absorbed to allow such beauty to enter her life. She now plainly saw her choice to abort as nothing but a selfish, cowardly act. She realized that she had ended the life of a new, unrepeatable, beautiful person who she would have grown to love and who would have in time returned that love to her.

Finding peace after abortion

Hannah, now 24, believes that sorrow and loss do not have the final word over her abortion experience. Despite frequently shedding tears over her loss and grief, she believes in her heart that her aborted baby is with God in heaven. And she hopes to be there one day with her child, where God "will wipe away every tear from their eyes," as the Bible says (Revelations 21.4).

Hannah, who submitted her testimony to LifeSiteNews, said in an interview that looking back she can see what put her on the path to choosing abortion.

"All of my friends were not religious and didn't have the morals I was raised with, so I wanted to fit in with my friends and if that meant doing things that I was taught not to do, then so be it. Also with so much sexualization in the media, it was thought that being sexually active was 'cool,' especially in a college setting."

"I felt the pressure of society and became the selfish self proclaimed woman that society had wanted me to be," she said.

As a mother of two, Hannah says she now understands the reasons behind her Christian up-bringing that would have her honor and respect all human life and save sex for marriage.

"Now that I am a little bit older and have a family of my own, I understand why my parents and my faith taught me those things. Now I know it is important to be a better person and display this to be a good role model for my children."

Hannah has come to deeply regret her 'choice'. She wishes that ending her baby's life had never been a legal option for her.

"I know I wouldn't have made that choice if it were not so accessible to me. I would have dealt with my consequences as I should have," she said. "I wish abortion was never legal, and I never would have had that choice, because I would be with my child, and my life would not be so full of pain and regret."

Hannah pointed out that if the right to life guaranteed by the Declaration of Independence were cherished and lived by all Americans, then abortion would not be tolerated. She has come to see 'choice' as an ugly euphemism for 'murder'.

"Abortion is the greatest evil of our time, and we have brushed it off as if it is a woman's choice. If I could do time in prison for the murder I committed, I would. It shouldn't be a choice," she said.

A gift to your baby

Hannah hopes that her testimony might spare other young women from making her mistake.

"Please, do not take the life of your child. Keep hope, and keep your head up high. You can still accomplish your goals even with a child, or you could always give the child up for adoption to a loving couple who are in need of a loving child," she said.

"Don't rob that child of its life because you are scared or because you think your life will be over. If you keep the child, that child will bring you so much happiness and love like you never imagined possible. I know because I have two loving children now who have given my life so much meaning."

"Don't do it because you will regret it so much later in your life, especially when you do have children of your own. You will know what you missed out on. It is very painful and very hard to forgive yourself after abortion. You must look at how beautiful your life is, and how if your mother would have chosen abortion, you would have never experienced it."

"Please give your child this gift. Please choose life."

Healing is available for post-abortive women experiencing depression or feelings of unworthiness, feeling guilt, anger, shame or sorrow in relation to your abortion, using drugs or alcohol in order to cope, having abortion related nightmares, dreams or flashbacks. Visit:

Rachel's Vineyard
www.rachelsvineyard.org
(610) 354-0555

Abortion Recovery International
www.abortionrecoveryinternational.org
(866) 469-7326

Silent No More Awareness Campaign
www.silentnomoreawareness.org
(888) 735-3448

Project Rachel
www.hopeafterabortion.com
888-456-4673

Source: LifeSiteNews