What is the Unborn? A Case for Biological Humanity from Fertilization

Before you can even answer the question of whether or not abortion is moral, you must first decide what the unborn is. For as Greg Koukl of Stand to Reason observes, if the unborn is not human, then no justification for elective abortion is necessary. It would be no different from having a mole removed or a tooth pulled. But if the unborn is human, then no justification for elective abortion is adequate.

If it’s true that no one can tell when human life begins, then the benefit of the doubt should go to life. We should not be aborting the unborn because there’s a chance we could be aborting living human entities. If a hunter hears a rustling in the woods, does he shoot right away or does he make sure the rustling wasn’t caused by another human? Or if you’re driving down a road in the dark and you see the outline of something that may be a child or may simply be the shadow of a tree, do you drive into it or do you slow down? Or if you’re about to blow up a condemned building and you’re not sure if someone’s inside, do you blow it up anyway or send someone in to make sure?

However, it’s not true that no one can tell when human life begins.

The unborn from fertilization are alive because they exhibit the properties of living things. They grow through cellular reproduction and division, they metabolize food for energy, and they respond to stimuli. In fact, the only things the unborn need to survive are adequate nutrition, a proper environment, and an absence of fatal threats. That’s all any of us need. There is no point in human development at which the developing entity goes from non-life to living.

Click here for the originating article from Secular Pro-Life Blog

Behind the façade, customers Yelp about their horrible PPFA experiences

Writing at The Federalist, Hemingway alerted her readers to “’All Sorts of Nasty’: These 39 Yelp Reviews of Planned Parenthood Clinics will Horrify You.”

If you’re like me, you may not know that Yelp is “a popular online customer review application.” The service may be popular, but the posts describing what women went through at the nation’s largest abortion provider included “’Experience was awful,’ ‘insanely horrible,’ ‘filthy,’ ‘frankly, I am scared,’ ‘1 word: disgusting.’”

According to Hemingway, the responses were from clinics located in Falls Church, VA; Silver Spring, MD; Washington, D.C.; Montgomery Village, MD,; Miami, FL; Orlando, FL; Tampa, FL; Atlanta, Georgia; Charlotte, NC; Virginia Beach, VA; Richmond, VA; Lancaster, PA; and Philadelphia, PA.

You can read the posts for yourself. But in case you don’t have time, here is a smattering of typical comments, Click here to read some of the comments.

Click here for the originating article from National Right to Life.

‘The View’ Slams Kelsey Grammer for Wearing Pro-Life T-Shirt

Despite its many panelists, ABC’s The View has always pushed one view, and it certainly has never been conservative or pro-life.

So imagine how the ladies at the liberal talk show reacted when actor Kelsey Grammer posted a photo of himself wearing a pro-life shirt to his Instagram account last week. The ensuing confusion over a Hollywood elite having a different view than their own left the panel dumbfounded Monday.

The t-shirt Grammer wore was designed by pro-life advocacy group Abort73, and compared abortion violence to gun violence by asking, “Would it bother us more if we used guns?”

The shirt prompted a discussion on The View where the crew slammed the male actor for getting in-between a “choice between [a woman] and her God.

Click here for the originating article from Newsbusters.

Jerry Brown Vetoes Right to Try and Live Bill

This makes zero sense. Last week, Gov. Jerry Brown signed assisted suicide into law in California. This week, he vetoed a bill that would have allowed dying patients to access experimental drugs in an attempt to live. From the Sacramento Bee story:

Less than a week after signing legislation allowing California doctors to prescribe their dying patients lethal drugs, Gov. Jerry Brown on Sunday vetoed a bill that would have let terminally ill people petition pharmaceutical companies for access to experimental drugs before they are approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

The so-called “right-to-try” legislation had gained support in more than a dozen states, and it sailed through the Legislature with nearly unanimous support.

Click here for the originating article from National Review.

Planned Parenthood Stops Taking Money for Baby Parts

In a move borne out of desperation, Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards has announced that effective immediately, Planned Parenthood affiliates will no longer accept money in exchange for aborted baby body parts.

"Planned Parenthood has been caught with their bloody hands in the cash register. They are now trying to back-track their criminal conduct while making attacking accusations against the investigators. This will not work," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman, who also serves on the board of the Center for Medical Progress, which released videos that revealed Planned Parenthood's participation in the illegal trafficking of aborted baby remains.

"It is interesting to watch Planned Parenthood officials squirm. No amount of denial or pretending it won't happen again should be allowed to let them off the hook. I renew my call for criminal prosecutions of all Planned Parenthood employees involved in criminal conduct," said Newman. "Planned Parenthood should not be held above the law."

Click here for the originating article from Christian Newswire.

Abstinence proponent: Teens need 'healthier' message

The survey, conducted in July by the Barna Group, reveals that about 40 percent of 18- and 19-year-olds feel their contraceptive-focused sex ed classes make sex seem like an expectation. In other words, says Valerie Huber of the National Abstinence Education Association, those teens are feeling more pressure from their sex ed classes to have sex than from their dating partners.

"When you make comments [like] We know you're going to have sex, but just try to do it safely – what kind of message is that sending?" Huber asks. "Well, according to these teens, it's sending the message: We expect you to have sex."

The Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program (comprehensive sex ed) is contraceptive-based; in contrast, the Sexual Risk Avoidance (SRA) approach is abstinence-based. Currently 95 percent of funding goes to the latter, leaving only five percent for abstinence.

Click here for the originating article from OneNewsNow.

Pro-lifers push filibuster-proof plan in Senate

More than 35 pro-life organizations signed a letter to Congress calling for pro-lifers on Capitol Hill to try again to defund Planned Parenthood after a Democrat-led filibuster killed an earlier bill.

Marilyn Musgrave of Susan B. Anthony List explains the U.S. Senate can use a process known as "reconciliation," which allows a simple majority of votes, 51, to skirt around a filibuster.

Citing the filibuster and a lack of 60 pro-life senators,  Musgrave explains, "we can avoid that and just have a simple majority to pass something, and get it on the desk of the President, if you're successful."

Click here for the originating article from OneNewsNow.

House Judiciary Committee Continues Hearings Investigating Planned Parenthood’s Abortion Business

The U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary today held a second hearing examining Planned Parenthood’s abortion business. The hearing, titled “”Planned Parenthood Exposed: Examining Abortion Procedures and Medical Ethics at the Nation’s Largest Abortion Provider,” comes on the heels of a series of videos by The Center for Medical Progress (CMP) exposing the gruesome business of baby-body-part harvesting and trafficking, often involving affiliates of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), the nation’s largest abortion provider

“Planned Parenthood now commands about one-third of the total abortion ‘market’,” said Carol Tobias, National Right to Life president. “We fully support investigations into many aspects of this grisly business. Planned Parenthood equals abortion.”

Among today’s witnesses testifying before the Committee on the Judiciary were former abortionist Anthony Levatino, M.D., J.D. and Susan Thayer, former center manager of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland’s Storm Lake, Iowa clinic.

Click here for the original article from National Right to Life.

Religious groups demand Governor Rauner cut Planned Parenthood state funding

The Christian Emergency League, along with the Illinois Family Institute and other pro-life organizations in Illinois, are demanding that Gov. Rauner take action immediately to cut off all state funds going to Planned Parenthood.

They're planning a "Jericho Prayer March" around the governor's mansion.

"Recent videos produced by the Center for Medical Progress have exposed very clearly the gruesome practices in particular of Planned Parenthood," says Christian Liberty Pastor Calvin Lindstrom. "Attention has been given to Mark Kirk for his refusal to vote for cutting off funding for Planned Parenthood, but what pressure is being placed on Gov. Rauner?"

Illinois' comptroller records show that in Fiscal Year 2015, Illinois' cash-strapped taxpayers sent nearly $8 million to Planned Parenthood of Illinois and other affiliates.

Click here for the originating article from Illinois Review.

Congress Can Receive Full Unedited Footage of Undercover Investigation

Court Rules that Congress Can Receive Full Unedited Footage of Undercover Investigation into National Abortion Federation and Planned Parenthood

This afternoon, in response to arguments by the Thomas More Society, counsel for David Daleiden, U.S. District Judge William H. Orrick III has ruled that David Daleiden and The Center for Medical Progress may respond to Congress's subpoena seeking all unedited video footage of Daleiden's undercover investigation into trafficking in fetal body parts by Planned Parenthood and other National Abortion Federation affiliates.

"The National Abortion Federation has gone to extraordinary lengths to keep David Daleiden's footage of its annual meetings out of the hands of law enforcement and the Congress," said Peter Breen, Thomas More Society Special Counsel. "We're pleased that the District Court has today decided to allow Congress to seek the unedited footage of the wrongdoing uncovered by David's investigation. We will continue to urge the District Court to allow David to release more undercover videos featuring the footage from these annual meetings to the public, so that the American people can make their own assessment of the practices of Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Federation."

Judge Orrick's order further stated that, "Importantly in our Constitutional system, there are three equal branches of government, and courts should refrain from creating needless friction with a coordinate branch of government."

Read Judge Orrick's Order Here.

Click here for the originating article from Christian Newswire.

Bill to protect babies from being torn apart

Congress is being asked to approve a pro-life bill that likely wouldn't survive a vote in the Senate, but if it were approved would end by being vetoed by the president. However, the battle will continue to be fought until the bill is passed and signed into law.

Veteran pro-life Congressman Chris Smith (R-New Jersey) recently introduced the Dismemberment Abortion Ban Act (H.R. 3515). Douglas Johnson of the National Right to Life Committee explains what the dismemberment abortion procedure entails.

“It involves literally dismembering the unborn child with steel tools, clamps, grasping forceps, tongs, scissors and other steel tools that depend on the convergence of two rigid levers to slice, crush or grasp a portion of the child's body and to cut it and rip it off,” he explains.

Click here for the originating article from OneNewsNow.

Illinois conservatives could find Kirk alternative in IL GOP primary

A businessman from Oswego, Illinois has stepped forward to challenge Illinois U.S. Senator Mark Kirk in the 2016 Illinois Republican Party - and he's building support among Illinois conservative Republicans and Tea Party activists.

James Marter, a 42 year old computer analyst, hasn't held elected office before, but in a year when voters are flocking to Donald Trump, Carly Fiorina and Ben Carson, what would normally be considered a detriment in a statewide election, coming from a business background could be a plus.

Marter says he is "deeply concerned" with repealing Obamacare, wants to defund Planned Parenthood and would support prolife legislation.

That's in direct contrast to the incumbent Mark Kirk, acconding to Marter.

Click here for the originating article from Illinois Review.

"Pregnancy and Infant Loss Day" and Planned Parenthood

Since 2006, October 15 has been designated by Congress as Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day in the United States.

This day is intended for the remembrance of “pregnancy loss and infant death, which includes but is not limited to miscarriage, stillbirth, SIDS, or the death of a newborn.”

This is a lovely recognition of the painful loss of a baby, something millions of Americans have experienced.  It’s a loss no parent ever wants to know.

Exactly one week before this date, the House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing titled, “Planned Parenthood Exposed: Examining Abortion Procedures and Medical Ethics at the Nation's Largest Abortion Provider.” The hearing, which will take place in the Rayburn House Office building, will address issues raised by the release this summer of a series of videos showing Planned Parenthood officials haggling over the details of harvesting organs from aborted unborn children -- and even discussing techniques for aborting those children so as to optimize the collection of their body parts.

Click here for the originating article from FRC Blog.

Planned Parenthood Nationwide Protests to Take Place on Oct. 10

On Saturday, October 10 a second round of public protests of Planned Parenthood (PP) abortion clinics and facilities will take place across the United States. The first round of protests took place on August 22 when over 78,000 people turned out at 354 sites throughout the United States and in six foreign countries.

On October 10, 2015, pro-lifers will once again hit the streets and sidewalks outside Planned Parenthood facilities in protest with the goal of bringing our message to even more Planned Parenthood locations.

What: Protest PP's disrespect for human life, harvesting and selling of aborted baby parts

Where: Hundreds of Planned Parenthood facilities across America

When:  October 10, 2015 from 9:00am-11:00am

For more information, go to ProtestPP.com 

Click here for the originating article from Christian Newswire.

Life Chain hopes when church lets out, people stand up

Sunday, October 4 is the 28th annual Life Chain.

Royce Dunn, national director of Life Chain, says pro-lifers will hold signs describing the "Abortion Holocaust."

The hope is that pastors after church services will lead members of their congregation to the locations to prayerfully stand against abortion.

Dunn says it's time for churches and pastors to end the silence. He says the fight is spiritual warfare.

"In order for a Holocaust to settle in on any nation," Dunn explains, "those spiritual forces have to subdue their opposition just like in a military campaign."



Click here for the originating article from OneNewsNow.

House passes pro-life Women’s Public Health and Safety Act

The US House of Representatives has passed the Women’s Public Health and Safety Act, a bill introduced by Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI) that grants states the discretion not to provide Medicaid funding to abortion providers.

The National Committee for a Human Life Amendment, which works closely with the US bishops’ conference on pro-life legislation, supports the bill.

The bill faces an uncertain future in the Senate, and the 236-193 House vote falls over 50 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a presidential veto.

Click here for the originating article from Catholic World News.

NRLC asks Congress to include language defunding Planned Parenthood in Reconciliation Package

The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of state right-to-life organizations, urges you (member of Congress) to actively work for inclusion of language to defund Planned Parenthood in the reconciliation package that is now being assembled for consideration by the House of Representatives in the near future.

Other measures to defund Planned Parenthood have been blocked by filibuster in the Senate. The reconciliation process provides a legislative path that avoids the filibuster. NRLC cannot support a reconciliation bill that does not include such language.

According to a Government Accountability Office report released March 20, 2015, PPFA received $344.5 million in federal funds over three fiscal years (2010-2012), and another $1.2 billion in funding from Medicaid (a combination of state and federal funds), for a three-year total of $1.5 billion from federal programs.

Over one-third of all abortions in the U.S. are performed at PPFA-affiliated facilities – indeed, one senior Planned Parenthood official boasted in 2014, “We have 40 percent of the [abortion] market in the whole country.” PPFA requires every affiliate to provide abortions. Longstanding objections to the massive federal funding of PPFA have been reinforced by recent widely publicized undercover videos, which illuminate involvement by some PPFA affiliates and executives in the harvesting and selling of baby body parts. For additional up-to-date information on the extent of Planned Parenthood’s involvement in abortion, see: www.nrlc.org/communications/ppfamediabackground/

Click here for the originating article from NRLC.

Stop 'corporate welfare' for Planned Parenthood, pro-life Democrats say

The House on Tuesday passed a bill allowing states to withhold Medicaid funds from health care providers that perform abortions.

The Women’s Public Health and Safety Act, introduced by Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wisc.) passed the House largely along party lines in a 236-193 vote Sept. 29. Only two Democrats – Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.) and Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) – supported the bill. Nine Republicans voted against it.

Rep. Randy Hultgren (R-Ill.) said that “Given the appalling activities revealed to be occurring at Planned Parenthood clinics, states should have the option to direct tax dollars away from abortion providers like Planned Parenthood and toward comprehensive health care providers,” shortly after the vote.

Although the House successfully voted to strip Planned Parenthood of federal funding in the wake of the controversy, the Senate has failed to do so. Both houses have passed a short-term Continuing Resolution that funds the government through Dec. 11 and continues funding Planned Parenthood. The funding resolution was passed in the House 277-151 on Sept. 30, with a large majority of Republicans voting against it.

Click here for the originating article from CNA/EWTN.

House Committee releases findings on Planned Parenthood finances

Planned Parenthood is self-sustaining, and the need for federal taxpayer funds to keep their doors open is questionable, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform reported Tuesday.

They also found:

-Planned Parenthood reported $1.3B in revenue in 2014; 41% of which came from government funding.
-Obamacare makes federal funding for Planned Parenthood duplicative
-Salaries at Planned Parenthood are lucrative
-Planned Parenthood spends millions on travel, galas and real estate
-Taxpayer dollars subsidize political affiliates
-Planned Parenthood sends millions overseas with no accountability
-Planned Parenthood falsely claims that only “three percent of all health services are abortion services.
-Planned Parenthood is not a primary provider of mammograms
-Planned Parenthood’s cancer screening services declined by nearly 50 percent from 2009-2013
-Numerous Alternatives to Planned Parenthood Exist

The rest is in a memo from the committee chairman HERE.

Illinois' own representation on the committee is senatorial candidate Tammy Duckworth, who has continuously emphasized her support for Planned Parenthood. She joined with several of her female Democrats on the committee, saying the Republicans are continuing their "assault" on Planned Parenthood.

Click here for the originating article from Illinois Review.

NRLC urges Congress to support the Women’s Public Health and Safety Act (H.R. 3495)

Dear Member of Congress:

The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of state right-to-life organizations, urges you to support the Women’s Public Health and Safety Act (H.R. 3495), sponsored by Congressman Sean Duffy, when it comes before the House of Representatives on September 29.

According to a Government Accountability Office report released March 20, 2015, PPFA received $344.5 million in federal funds over three fiscal years (2010-2012), and another $1.2 billion in funding from Medicaid (a combination of state and federal funds), for a three-year total of $1.5 billion from federal programs.

PPFA is also the nation’s largest provider of abortions. Over one-third of all abortions in the U.S. are performed at PPFA-affiliated facilities – indeed, one senior Planned Parenthood official boasted in 2014, “We have 40 percent of the [abortion] market in the whole country.” PPFA now defines abortion as a “core” service, which means that PPFA requires every PPFA affiliate to provide abortions. For additional up-to-date information on the extent of Planned Parenthood’s involvement in abortion, see: www.nrlc.org/communications/ppfamediabackground/

H.R. 3495 would make it clear that federal law does not prevent a state from, at its option, excluding organizations that provide elective abortions from the Medicaid program. We urge you to support this vital legislation. NRLC intends to include the roll call on passage of H.R. 3495 in our scorecard of key pro-life roll calls of the 114th Congress.

Click here for the originating letter from National Right to Life.