Health Care Right of Conscience Act - Deadline Extended AGAIN!

SB1564 the Health Care Right of Conscience Act

Sponsor: Senator Biss.

The Deadline has now been extended to September 30, 2015.

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

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

From the bill text:

Amends the Health Care Right of Conscience Act. Makes changes in the Section concerning findings and policy. Defines "access to care and information protocols" and "material information". Provides that notwithstanding any other law, a health care facility, or any physician or health care personnel working in the facility, may refuse to permit, perform, assist in, counsel about, suggest, recommend, refer for, or participate in health care services because of a conscience-based objection only if the refusal occurs in accordance with written access to care and information protocols designed to ensure that (1) the patient receives material information in a timely fashion; and (2) the refusal will not impair the patient's health by causing delay of or inability to access the refused health care service. Provides that nothing in the Act shall be construed to prevent a health care facility from requiring that physicians or health care personnel working in the facility comply with access to care and information protocols.

This amendment requires a written referral to a facility that will complete the refused services including abortion, contraceptives and family planning.

From the bill text:

...a written document that contains the names of and contact information for health care facilities, physicians, or health care personnel that may provide the patient the particular form of health care service refused...

"Health care" is defined as any phase of patient care, including but not limited to, testing; diagnosis; prognosis; ancillary research; instructions; family planning, counselling, referrals, or any other advice in connection with the use or procurement of contraceptives and sterilization or abortion procedures; medication; or surgery or other care or treatment rendered by a physician or physicians, nurses, paraprofessionals or health care facility, intended for the physical, emotional, and mental well-being of persons...

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

Click here for more information on this bill.

Click here for the full bill text.

March for Life wins exemption from Obamacare contraceptive mandate

The March for Life has won a permanent injunction barring enforcement of the “Obamacare” contraceptive mandate.

A federal court rules on August 31 that the March for Life, the group that organizes the annual pro-life demonstration in Washington each January, should be granted the same exemption from the mandate that has been applied to religious organizations. Although the March for Life is not a religious group, the court reasoned:

If the purpose of the religious employer exemption is, as HHS states, to respect the anti-abortifacient tenets of an employment relationship, then it makes no rational sense-indeed, no sense whatsoever to deny March for Life that same respect.

Click here for the originating article from Catholic World News.

Video: Huge Crowds Gather in Aurora to Protest Planned Parenthood

In the wake of revelations that Planned Parenthood sells human baby parts for profit, over 1600 gathered outside the abortion clinic in Aurora as part of the nationwide protest against abortion.



Click here for the originating article from Illinois Review.

Andrzejewski: IL Comptroller Munger pays Planned Parenthood; holds disability payments

Instead of directing court ordered payments to the developmentally disabled, Illinois comptroller massively funded Planned Parenthood, spent taxpayer dollars on lobbyists, paid thousands of dollars in checks to a political blogger, and used the state plane as her personal taxi.

Those are the assertions of government transparency advocate Adam Andrzejewski in a Forbes' commentary Friday.

Andrzejewski says she's close to being in contempt of court with the checks she's writing.

Click here for the originating article from Illinois Review

Undercover video producers debunk Planned Parenthood's defense

The Center for Medical Progress, which has released a series of damaging undercover videos showing Planned Parenthood’s involvement in the sale of fetal tissues, has now sent a letter to Congress, rebutting a Planned Parenthood defense of its policies.

“The Planned Parenthood report contains multiple erroneous statements and conclusions, yet by its own words finds no ‘substantive video manipulation’ and ‘no evidence of audio manipulation,’ the pro-life group observed in a press release.

In his letter to Congress, the Center for Medical Progress pointed out that Planned Parenthood had acknowledged that some clinics “may ‘adjust’ abortion procedures in order to obtain higher quality fetal tissue specimens.” That would be a violation of federal law, the group notes. Explaining the process of harvesting organs from aborted babies, the Center says that “this is a new revenue stream off of fetal tissue with no real cost to Planned Parenthood, and thus a criminal profit.”

Click here for the originating article from Catholic World News

New Video Continues to Expose Grisly Nature of Baby Body Part Trafficking

Over lunch with undercover investigators from the CMP, Dyer casually discusses her company’s role in the trafficking process, including admissions that the company gets “a lot” of intact fetuses and suggesting that “another 50 livers a week” would not be enough. In her conversation, Dyer indicates the value of Planned Parenthood as a partner, referring to them as a “high volume” operation. She also fully revealed the gruesome nature of her “business,” namely that clients who receive the trafficked baby body parts often don’t want to see the heads, hands, and feet of the unborn children – indicating that even for researchers, the sight of an unborn child’s head in a delivery box is too grisly.

A claim repeated like a mantra by Planned Parenthood, and uncritically transmitted by many journalists, is that abortion makes up “only 3%” of Planned Parenthood’s “services.” But Planned Parenthood counts everything given to, or done to, a given patient as a separate “service.” For example: every pregnant woman who enters a Planned Parenthood clinic for an abortion, may also have a pregnancy test, STD screening, and may receive birth control pills. Each of these counts as a “service;” thus, a woman who walks in for an abortion receives not one, but four “services.” (This doesn’t include other “services” that may be required for the abortion itself.)

In short, the 3% figure is purposefully misleading. A much more instructive measure is to look at the numbers of clients, rather than the number of “services.” Based on data from their own annual report from 2008-2009 (where the 3% figure made its first appearance), nearly one in eight women walking through the door of a Planned Parenthood clinic has an abortion.

Click here for the originating article from NRLC

Thomas More Society Defends David Daleiden as He Uncovers Abortion Industry's Sale of Fetal Body Parts

Anti-SLAPP Motion Filed to Fend off National Abortion Federation Attempt to Silence Filmmaker's Free Speech

Thomas More Society attorneys are helping to defend David Daleiden, the investigative journalist who produced the Planned Parenthood exposé videos, against civil RICO charges which are pending before the federal district court in San Francisco. The not-for-profit national public interest law firm has filed an Anti-SLAPP motion on behalf of Daleiden and his affiliated entities, the Center for Medical Progress and Biomax Procurement Services LLC, in that ongoing proceeding.

The Anti-SLAPP action is a legal response to an arguably legally baseless effort on the part of the plaintiff, the National Abortion Federation, whose objective is allegedly to deny Daleiden his First Amendment free speech rights. Daleiden's whistleblowing videos depict the roles of Planned Parenthood, Stem Express and others in the illegal harvesting and selling of fetal body parts for profit, as well as the violation of laws against partial birth abortion, killing of born alive infants, and altering abortion procedures so as to enhance possibilities for securing "intact fetal cadavers." Following the release of these films, the National Abortion Federation sued Daleiden and his affiliated entities, as well as Operation Rescue head Troy Newman (represented by separate counsel), under the federal Racketeer Influenced & Corrupt Organizations Act known as RICO. This 1970 federal law was designed to combat organized crime. The suit also, as well as under another twelve California state law claims.

Click here for the originating article from Christian Newswire

Media Support for Forcing Doctors to Kill

So, you’re a doctor. You go into the profession to heal and alleviate suffering.

You believe in the sanctity of human life, either due to religion or philosophy. You accept the maxims of the Hippocratic Oath. Your beliefs are in accord with the ethics of your profession.

Suddenly, the Supreme Court of your country rules that doctors killing sick patients is a Charter right–even for psychological pain. Now, your beliefs are considered a denial of a patient’s right to be killed.

Fine. Let other doctors do it, you say. Not you. You believe it is a grievous sin and/or profoundly immoral to be complicit in homicide. That’s not why you became a doctor. Tough!

Canada’s medical establishment wants to force you to kill. And, the media is beginning to join the chorus.

Click here for the originating article from National Review.

2016 Presidential Candidates on Defunding Abortion Providers: Do you know where they stand?

Following the release of undercover videos exposing Planned Parenthood’s trafficking of baby parts procured from their lucrative abortion business, pro-life Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) introduced S. 1881, a bill which would end all federal funding of the nation’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, with the money being given instead to other women’s health service providers.

On August 3, 2015, U.S. Senators voted 53-46 to advance this bill.  Sixty votes were needed for advancement. Two Democrats voted to advance the legislation, which was opposed by a single Republican. One pro-life senator was absent and another pro-life senator changed his vote to “no” at the last minute so that he could later ask for reconsideration.

One of the individuals pictured above is likely to be elected President in 2016. In light of President Obama’s threat to veto any bill that defunds Planned Parenthood, following is an overview of the 2016 presidential candidates’ positions on the issue in alphabetical order.

Where do the 2016 presidential candidates for the Republican nomination stand on defunding abortion providers?  Click here for more.

Click here for the originating article from NRL News.

Starkehaus: Will Bruce Rauner’s support for Planned Parenthood remain “unequivocal”

...we have a game changer now – and "game" is the accurate description of what the political dialog of abortion has become. The whistleblower videos that Holly O'Donnell and the Center for Medical Progress have produced regarding Planned Parenthood's designer abortions – tailored with the harvesting human fetal tissue in mind – mean that social conservatives can no longer delude themselves by thinking that Planned Parenthood is in the business of "mostly mammograms with an occasional abortion thrown in for emergency purposes only."

Representatives like Bruce Rauner would perhaps like to gloss over the need for a thorough examination of Planned Parenthood's profit motive for expedience's sake. Maybe they will suggest that it's a poor use of the state's limited resources. And, after all, we wouldn't want to be seen as infringing upon Planned Parenthood's mythological mammogram programs, would we? Think of the optics in the upcoming election cycle if feminists start launching on so-called misogynist Republicans again.

So social conservatives have been alerted to the atrocities and are left wondering, what will Bruce Rauner do now that the actions of Planned Parenthood's employees have been revealed on video for all the world to see?

Click here for the originating article from Illinois Review.

Pro-life advocates line sidewalks nationwide outside 300+ Planned Parenthood centers

Almost half of the 668 Planned Parenthood facilities in the nation were flooded with pro-life protesters Saturday in a nationwide effort. The demonstrations come on the heels of a series of videos by from the Center for Medical Progress that show top doctors at Planned Parenthood haggling over the price of fetal body parts.

The protest, planned for weeks, follows a new video released this week in which a Planned Parenthood fetal parts buyer is seen making jokes about shipping baby heads. About 320 Planned Parenthood centers saw protesters with the turnout at some numbering in the hundreds and even thousands. Posts about the rallies were tagged #ProtestPP and became the top trending items on both Facebook and Twitter.

Click here for the originating article from Live Action News.

StemExpress says it has cut ties with Planned Parenthood

A week ago Sunday, Heather Saunders Estes, CEO and president of Planned Parenthood’s Northern California chapter, told Phil Matier of KPIX 5, “What we do is legal and ethical and we’re proud of it.”

Estes was, of course, referring to the tremendous backlash against PPFA stirred by the shocking remarks made by Planned Parenthood officials on recorded undercover videos taken by the Center for Medical Progress (CMP).

On Saturday Stem Express ostensibly cut ties with Planned Parenthood.

“Due to the increased questions that have arisen over the past few weeks, we feel it prudent to terminate activities with Planned Parenthood,” a company statement said. “While we value our relationship with Planned Parenthood, that work represents a small percentage of our overall business activity and we must focus our limited resources on resolving these inquiries.”

Click here for the originating article from NRLC.

ETHICAL Stem Cells Grow Human Brain

This is an achievement: Scientists have used skin cells to build a rudimentary human brain. (These were induced pluripotent stem cells.) From The Guardian story:

An almost fully-formed human brain has been grown in a lab for the first time, claim scientists from Ohio State University. The team behind the feat hope the brain could transform our understanding of neurological disease. 

Though not conscious the miniature brain, which resembles that of a five-week-old foetus, could potentially be useful for scientists who want to study the progression of developmental diseases. It could also be used to test drugs for conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, since the regions they affect are in place during an early stage of brain development. 

The brain, which is about the size of a pencil eraser, is engineered from adult human skin cells and is the most complete human brain model yet developed, claimed Rene Anand of Ohio State University, Columbus, who presented the work today at the Military Health System Research Symposium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Click here for the originating article from National Review.

Over 300 Planned Parenthood Protests to Take Place Simultaneously in 47 States August 22

On Saturday, August 22 public protests of Planned Parenthood (PP) abortion clinics and facilities will take place all over the United States. Thousands are expected to attend these protests with the purpose of creating awareness of the barbaric practice of abortion and the sale of aborted baby body parts -- a scandal that has erupted in recent weeks due to undercover videos released by the Center for Medical Progress. Currently, there are over 300 cities in 47 states and 5 countries represented in the nationwide protest.

Radical pro-abortion groups have organized counter protests in several cities. "We are going to be out there … it's up to us to make a big noise," Sunsara Taylor, founder of StopPatriarchy.org, said recently in the Washington Times.

#ProtestPP is the largest demonstration against Planned Parenthood in their 99 year history.

For more information and locations, go to ProtestPP.com

Click here for the originating article from Christian Newswire.

Video #7: 'Absolute barbarism' at Planned Parenthood

Just when one thinks the reports can't possibly get more gruesome, a revealing video tells of abortion technicians harvesting an intact brain from a late-term baby boy whose heart was still beating.

The seventh in a series of undercover videos about Planned Parenthood and the harvesting of body parts of aborted babies was released today by The Center for Medical Progress. Project lead David Daleiden says this of the latest video:

"[It] contains heartrending admissions about the absolute barbarism of Planned Parenthood's abortion practice and baby parts sales in which fetuses are sometimes delivered intact and alive. Planned Parenthood is a criminal organization from the top down and should be immediately stripped of taxpayer funding and prosecuted for their atrocities against humanity."



Click here for the originating article from OneNewsNow.

What the House is Doing About Planned Parenthood

The following was distributed today by the office of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Ca.)

The videos of Planned Parenthood employees detailing and engaging in gruesome abortion practices are profoundly disturbing, and no person can escape being sickened by what Planned Parenthood is doing and the callousness of how they do it. The White House may not want to look at the problem in the face, but the rest of America knows that as good and decent people, we can’t turn a blind eye to Planned Parenthood’s abortion industry.

When these videos first came out, the House immediately started investigating Planned Parenthood. And over the course of over a month, we have demanded answers to determine whether abortion providers are profiting from selling fetal body parts and organs, whether abortion providers change procedures in order to maximize their harvesting of body parts, and if there are any other violations of federal law or ways Congress can respond to these horrifying practices.

We need to get all the facts about Planned Parenthood so that the American people know exactly what is going on. Once we’ve gotten to the bottom of Planned Parenthood’s abortion business, we can work to stop any illegal selling of fetal body parts and make sure no taxpayer is ever forced to give their money to fund these repulsive practices.

Click here for the originating article from NRLC.

Five states have now cut funding to Planned Parenthood

In rapid succession, Utah and Arkansas last week became the fourth and fifth states to defund Planned Parenthood.

On Friday pro-life Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson “moved to cut the state’s funding of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and ordered the Department of Human Services to sever its Medicaid contract with the abortion provider,” Reuters reported.

Also on Friday Utah Gov. Gary Herbert instructed the Utah Department of Health to “stop distributing federal funds to the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah,” Deseret News reported.

Click here for the originating article from NRLC.

Get your Pastor more involved in the Pro-Life Movement

Attention Pro-Life Activists!

Do you want to do more to get your pastor and your church involved in the pro-life movement?  Do you want to bless your pastor with information that will inspire him or her to become a pro-life warrior?  Do you know of a pastor or church that you just want to bless and arm with a deeper understanding of the most crucial issue in the United States today – the right to life?

If your answer is “Yes!” then visit: http://www.deliverusfromabortion.com/grassroots/

Learn about an exciting new call to wake up the churches of Illinois and become a partner in the frontline of this important outreach to God’s pastors.

Check it out!
Dawn Behnke, IFRL President

Viral video of 11-week baby jumping shows the humanity of preborn children

A beautiful video of a baby in utero is rapidly being shared across social media. The ultrasound shows the 11-week, 4-day-old preborn child bouncing around in the womb. This child is still in the first trimester, the gestational age during which most abortions take place.

Monica Barba posted the video, saying, “For everyone who is wondering what can be seen on an ultrasound of a 1st trimester baby. Enjoy!” She says the child belongs to a woman who came into the pregnancy resource center and chose life. Barba describes the child as having a lot of energy and being full of life, and that another ultrasound later revealed he is a boy.

Since July 21, the video has been shared more than 8,000 times and has been viewed over 500,000 times.

This baby was saved at a pregnancy resource center when his mother chose life after seeing this ultrasound. We discovered later in the pregnancy this baby was a BOY! For everyone who is wondering what can be seen on an ultrasound of a 1st trimester baby. Enjoy!11 weeks 4 days old baby. So much energy & life!!! Precious baby =)
Posted by Monica Barba on Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Click here for the originating article from Live Action News.

Planned Parenthood scandal may have international effects

A pro-life organization is anticipating the possibility that Europe may soon be ending its relationship with Planned Parenthood.

The abortion business has lately been the target of several undercover videos showing staff discussing the sale of aborted baby organs and tissue, and Joseph Meaney of Human Life International tells OneNewsNow the controversy is not limited to the United States.

"It kind of shows, I think, the globalization of the pro-life movement, because Planned Parenthood's troubles in the USA are turning into international Planned Parenthood Federation's troubles all over the world," Meaney offers. "The European Commission now has been asked to investigate Planned Parenthood in Europe based on the fact that Planned Parenthood Federation of America has been caught doing all these things here in the USA."

A member of the European Parliament, Miroslav Mikolasik, filed the complaint with the Commission in part because the Commission provides funds for the international abortion provider for Africa.

Click here for the originating article from OneNewsNow.