March for Life Chicago Sunday

Busloads from surrounding states are planning to gather with fellow pro-lifers Sunday, January 17 at the 2016 March for Life Chicago on Chicago’s Federal Plaza to proclaim the sanctity of human life and call for an end to abortion as they march through the Loop beginning at 2 p.m.

Organizers are expecting at least 7500, likely to be the largest pro-life event in the Midwest to date.

Chicago’s Archbishop Blase Cupich is expected to return to the March for Life Chicago after a well-received debut in 2015.  Last year, as he marked with sadness the January 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion in America, Cupich reminded listeners that, “We are here to do everything possible to make sure that the right to life is preserved.”

March for Life Chicago President Emily Zender said the theme for this year’s march is ‘We Are Family."

Click here for the originating article from Illinois Review.

Clinton hits all the pro-abortion hot buttons in accepting PP Action Fund endorsement

Promises to gut Hyde Amendment

Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s endorsement followed a similar enthusiasm expression of support from NARAL Pro-Choice America. Together they represent the beginning of the consolidation of the feminist pro-abortion establishment behind Clinton who is in a dog fight with Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders in both New Hampshire and Iowa (where the first presidential caucuses take place February 1).

On Sunday Planned Parenthood Action Fund staged a rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, site of the nation’s first presidential primary, to make it formal. If you are so inclined, you can watch the event here. (She begins talking about 44 minutes in.)

In gratitude for the endorsement, Clinton, the former Secretary of State, pledged her bona fides maximus to the largest abortion provider in the world.

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

'Abortion President' Obama Protects Planned Parenthood, 'Child Abuse, Inc.'

President Obama vetoed H.R. 3762, American's Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act, a bill that passed both the House and Senate which would bar Planned Parenthood from receiving taxpayer dollars.

"Subsidized by over $500 million taxpayer dollars each year, Planned Parenthood dismembers or chemically poisons a baby to death every two minute–killing over seven million innocent children since 1973," said Congressman Chris Smith, Co-Chair of the Bipartisan Pro-Life Caucus. "Planned Parenthood is Child Abuse, Incorporated.

"The House and the Senate have spoken, reflecting the will of the American people, and sent a bill to President Obama's desk that would bar Planned Parenthood from the vast majority of taxpayer dollars it currently receives.

"And now the President has spoken, rejecting our bill and condoning Planned Parenthood's cruel and inhumane actions.

Click here for the originating article from Christian Newswire.

Planned Parenthood Reveals THESE Media Partners in 2015 Annual Report

Planned Parenthood is revealing its influence on the media yet again – this time in its annual report.

In late December, Planned Parenthood released its 2014 – 2015 annual report. Under “Top Achievements,” the abortion giant boasted how it “reshaped the narrative about sexuality through popular culture” – from using celebrities like Scarlett Johansson to scheming with People and MTV.

“We collaborated with leading celebrities who are outspoken about the right of every person to own their sexuality,” the report boasted about big name support. “And they have stood with us.”

Planned Parenthood listed eight celebrities by name who have shown solidarity by tweeting out #IStandWithPP:

Scarlett Johansson
Laverne Cox
Selenis Leyva
Jenny Slate
Aisha Tyler
Gabrielle Union
Julianne Moore
Lena Dunham

Click here for the originating article from National Right to Life

Out-of-touch pro-abortion advocates “celebrate” abortion

It is almost January 22, the 43rd anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, and abortion “celebrations” are being organized – with the same, old rhetoric attracting the same, old people. These celebrations by Planned Parenthood and abortion supporters are out-of-touch in a culture that is growing more pro-life every day.

In 2015, Planned Parenthood received criticism for “celebrating” abortion with their “Chili for Choice” event at a Kansas church. Other events from abortion advocates included a Taco and Beer challenge, “Rock and Roe,” and luncheons. But just months later, in the summer of 2015, video evidence from the Center for Medical Progress showed America the depths of Planned Parenthood’s and the abortion industry’s depravity – actual bodies of babies inside glass dishes, dismembered and sold for parts.

And, yet, abortion advocates celebrate.

Click here for the originating article from LiveActionNews

New Comedy ‘Superstore’ Tries to Make Abortion Funny, Fails Miserably

After making racist jokes in a previous episode, the new NBC comedy Superstore opened the episode titled “Mannequin” with jokes about abortion and Planned Parenthood.

Praised by Jonah (Ben Feldman) for choosing to keep her baby despite still being in high school, Cheyenne (Nichole Bloom) casually admits she’s only keeping her baby because she “couldn’t get a ride to Planned Parenthood.” (Cue the pro-abortion feminist screams about abortion access and the need for late term abortions.) Jonah helpfully offers to give her a ride, prompting store manager Glenn (Mark McKinney) to chime in, “I’d prefer if you didn’t offer to shuttle our employees to the abortion clinic.”

How often do you hear Planned Parenthood referred to as an “abortion clinic” in the media rather than as a “reproductive health care provider?” Planned Parenthood hates the word abortion, why else would they focus on euphemisms like “women’s health” and claim that “only” 3 percent of their services are abortion? While other shows spread the propaganda Planned Parenthood wants you to hear about what they do, Superstore just comes right out and calls it what it is, “Abortion, abortion, abortion, abortion!”

Click here for the originating article from NewsBusters

Parents fighting for daughter’s life: “Why wouldn’t we try?”

Chris and Natalie McCrone were excited to learn they would be adding twins to their family of four, but at 12 weeks gestation they learned one of the twins had died. They were devastated, and that loss would soon be followed by more heartbreaking news.

At 35 weeks it was discovered that their baby girl, named Cassidy, was not growing properly. According to the family blog, Cassidy’s limbs were not measuring at the right size for a baby her age. Her humerus bones were measuring 18 weeks and her femur bones at 27 weeks.

Doctors warned the McCrones that Cassidy might not survive birth or may need to be on a ventilator to breathe. However, the couple was determined to bring their little girl home, and before they headed to the hospital for a planned C-section, they made sure that their home was ready for the baby’s arrival.

Click here for the originating article from LiveActionNews.

For first time, bill to defund Planned Parenthood heads to White House

After the House of Representatives voted Wednesday to pass a budget bill blocking federal funding of Planned Parenthood, the legislation will reach President Barack Obama’s desk in a historic first for the pro-life movement.

“For the first time since America’s largest abortion business began receiving public funding – nearly five decades ago – the president will have to decide up or down on legislation to defund Planned Parenthood,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List, on Wednesday.

The bill in question would block federal funding of Planned Parenthood for one year. It would also redirect funds to community health centers who also offer prenatal services, and cancer screenings that Planned Parenthood only offers referrals for.

In addition, the bill effectively guts the full health care reform law, although it doesn’t explicitly repeal it. The legislation would get rid of both the individual and employer insurance mandates, the expansion of Medicaid coverage, and the “Cadillac” tax, or the 40 percent tax on expensive employer health plans.

Click here for the originating article from CNA/EWTN News.

Number of abortuaries goes down, down, down

Cheryl Sullenger of Operation Rescue says 53 abortuaries closed their doors and another 28 have "dramatically" reduced their services.

"So 81 abortion clinics have closed or drastically reduced their services in 2015," she tells OneNewsNow.

Operation Rescue claims that 81 percent of all abortion clinics have closed since 1991, so the current numbers suggest what remains is 19 percent of the number from almost a quarter-century ago.

Click here for the originating article from OneNewsNow.

Huckabee: GOP exodus over Planned Parenthood

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee insists that the GOP’s support of the recent $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill — which includes Planned Parenthood funding — is to blame for the mass exodus that is being witnessed from the Republican Party.

 A Closer Look The former Arkansas governor insists that large numbers are leaving the GOP because they have lost their faith in their party, which controls both chambers of Congress that passed the controversial bill putting more taxpayer dollars in the hands of the world’s largest abortion provider.

"[The passage of the bill] put a lot of people over the top, [because after] working hard to get Republican majorities in the House and the Senate, [grassroots conservatives fail to see] significant policy changes," Huckabee recently stated on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.

Click here for the originating article from OneNewsNow.

Abortion Statistics fall in Illinois

Illinois Department of Public Health has published its abortion statistics for calendar year 2014.  These numbers give Illinois pro-lifers information about which to be very thankful as we celebrate the birth of Christ.  The overall number of abortions performed in Illinois has dropped 2,278 from 2013 to 2014, a drop of almost 5.6%, and the number of abortions performed on teenagers 17 years of age and under dropped 507, almost 28.8%.  There were also noteworthy declines from 2012 to 2013.  2014 was the first full year the Illinois parental notification law, passed back in 1995, had been in force.  2012 was the last year without a parental notification law in effect.

These statistics show the critical impact of pro-life work in the General Assembly and the courts.  They also show us why our political efforts are critical.  The victories are hard fought.  The Illinois Federation for Right to Life was in the forefront of the effort to shepherd the parental notification bill through the General Assembly and instrumental in securing the signature of the pro-abortion former-governor Jim Edgar.   

The IFRL needs your support so that maximum pressure can be placed on our state government to pass and enforce pro-life laws.  Pro-life laws save large numbers of lives when they are passed and enforced.

The 2014 abortion data is now available on line (a copy is attached to this e-mail).  The figures for the first full year the Illinois Parental Notice of Abortion Act was in effect (2014) are impressive.  The numbers of abortions performed in Illinois on Illinois minors (under 18 years of age) dropped by almost 29% from 2013, when the Act was in effect for only the last five months of the year.  Abortions of minors under the age of 0-14 dropped 28%.  Abortions of minors ages 15-17 dropped 29%.  Abortions for all Illinois minors dropped from 1,762 to 1,255.  Abortions for all Illinois minors dropped from 1,762 to 1,255. year.  For the two subcategories, the numbers dropped from 149 to 109 (0-14), and from 1,613 to 1,146 (15-17).

In 2014 the Act was in effect throughout the year. The result was that the numbers of abortions performed in Illinois on Illinois minors dropped from 2,213 to 1,255, a reduction of 958 abortions, or 43% in two years.  For ages 0-14 the numbers went from 218 to 109, a reduction of exactly 50% in two years and for ages 15-17 from 1,995 to 1,255, a reduction of 740, or 37% in two years.

The overall number of abortions in Illinois was reduced from 43,203 in 2012 and 40,750 in 2013 to 38,472 in 2014.  This is a decline of more than 4,700 in two years (almost 11%). 

Of the 43,203 abortions in 2012, 3,138 were performed on out of state residents.  In 2013 of the 40,750, 3,189 were from out of state residents and of the 38, 472 in 2014 2,970 were from out of state.

(Attorney Paul Linton contributed statistical analysis).

Click here to view the statistics online.  Click here to download the PDF of the statistics.

2015 Abortion Clinic Survey Reveals 81% of Abortion Clinics Closed Since 1991

The total number abortion clinics in America continues to decline, following nationwide trend extending back to 1991. In 2015, abortion clinics closed at a rate of more than one per week with 53 abortion clinics shutting down or halting all abortion services.

Operation Rescue surveyed by telephone all abortion facilities in the U.S. from December 1-15, 2015 and found the following:

42 Surgical abortion clinics halted all abortion services.

11 Medical abortion clinics halted all abortion services.

In addition, a number of abortion facilities reduced services:

16 abortion clinics halted surgeries and now offer only medication abortions.

12 abortion clinics stopped dispensing abortion drugs and now only offer surgical abortions, noting that the abortion pill was "ineffective" or "too dangerous."

In all, 81 abortion clinics closed or reduced services in 2015.

Click here for the originating article from Christian Newswire.

Police Forbid Pro-life Activists from Singing Christmas Carols in Front of Abortion Clinic

Last week, Christmas Carolers were told by law enforcement they could not sing Carols even if they were on public property.

Here is the video:



Activists will go back to the same abortion clinic on Wednesday,  December 23, at 12:00 P.M. to challenge the prohibition.

Members to risk peaceful arrest before refusing to surrender their First Amendment rights.

Rev. Patrick Mahoney, lead organizer of the event and Director of the Christian Defense Coalition, states;

"It is deeply troubling that a police officer would forbid peaceful pro-life activists from singing Christmas Carols on public property in Falls Church, Virginia..."

Click here for the originating article from Christian Newswire.

So what does the new AP poll on abortion tell us?

The headline on the Associated Press story reads, “Support for legal abortion rises to nearly 6 in 10 Americans, poll finds.” Let’s see what this poll “conducted after three people were killed last month in a shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado” does and doesn’t tell us.

According to the AP’s Nancy Benac and Emily Swanson, “Nearly six in 10 Americans — 58 percent — now think abortion should be legal in most or all cases, up from 51 percent who said so at the beginning of the year, according to the AP-GfK survey.” The AP story tells us

“The Associated Press-GfK poll on abortion was conducted by GfK Public Affairs and Corporate Communications Dec. 3-7. It is based on online interviews of 1,007 adults who are members of GfK’s nationally representative KnowledgePanel.”

Are we really supposed to believe that support for abortion legal in all or most cases actually rose a total 7 points in eleven months—from 51% to 58%? Or did it represent an immediate visceral response to the deaths of three people at a PPFA clinic that was attributed, directly and/or indirectly, to pro-lifers? The obvious answer is we won’t know for at least a few more months but that it is plausible the figure will recede back to 51%.

You can examine the numbers for yourself here.

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

Illinois 2014 Abortion Statistics Released

The Illinois Department of Public Health has released the 2014 Illinois abortion statistics.

Click here to view the statistics online.  Click here to download the PDF of the statistics.

More information and summary to come.

Franklin Graham leaves GOP in disgust over Planned Parenthood funding

Evangelist Franklin Graham has announced he is abandoning the Republican Party in disgust over the move by the GOP-led Congress last week to pass a budget that Graham said was “wasteful” and provided funding for Planned Parenthood, which he compared to the Nazis, the Religion News Service reports.

Graham has previously said he has no faith in any political party, but his apparent renunciation of his Republican affiliation is an indication of anger on the right and the strong interest many disaffected evangelicals have shown in populist outsiders like Donald Trump.

Graham himself has expressed admiration for Trump, the surprise frontrunner in the Republican presidential field, and has voiced support for some of Trump’s more controversial positions — such as his call to ban Muslims from the U.S. — which have drawn condemnation from more mainstream evangelical leaders.

Click here for the originating article from Illinois Review.

Federal Court to Hear Argument on Mandated Promotion of Abortion

A federal judge was scheduled to hear oral arguments on California's controversial effort to mandate that pro-life pregnancy clinics promote abortion.
 
Pacific Justice Institute represents three pro-life clinics challenging AB 775.  PJI attorney, Kevin Snider, will present oral arguments

PJI is asking the court to issue a preliminary injunction to prevent the law from taking effect on January 1, 2016.  Similar attempts in New York City and Baltimore to compel pro-life clinics to utter pro-abortion messages were found to be unconstitutional by the Second and Fourth Circuit Courts of Appeal, respectively.

In an attempt to avoid application of the First Amendment, the State is taking the position that the mandated signs are "conduct" and not "speech."  The State is also arguing that ObamaCare prompted the new mandates on pro-life pregnancy clinics by making more women eligible for Medi-Cal.  Under AB 775, pro-life pregnancy clinics would be required to tell women that free or low-cost (taxpayer-subsidized) abortions and contraceptives are available by contacting the County.

Click here for the originating article from Christian Newswire

Annual March to Life rally to be held January 17, 2016

Prolifers will be rallying in downtown Chicago January 17, 2016 to celebrate life and commemorate the millions of babies whose lives have been lost to abortion since the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision.

Illinois Right to Life is asking like-minded folks to set aside the date and plan to join them in at March for Life Chicago 2016. They released the following promotional video this week:



Click here for the originating article from Illinois Review.

Rep. Smith’s Bipartisan Stem Cell Bill Heads to the President’s Desk

With a unanimous show of support, U.S. Rep. Chris Smith’s legislation, the Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Reauthorization Act (H.R. 2820), cleared its final hurdle and is on its way to the President for signature and enactment.

Smith and lead co-sponsor Rep. Doris Matsui shepherded the bill through the House last summer with the support of Reps. David Jolly (R-FL) and Chaka Fattah (D-PA), and worked with Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Jack Reed (R-RI), Richard Burr (R-NC) and Al Franken (D-MN) who championed the bill in the Senate, making helpful modifications and sending it back to the House for one final vote of approval today.

As adopted by both chambers, H.R. 2820 now ensures that two collaborative programs that support treatment and therapies derived from adult stem cell lines will continue to receive funding through 2020. Under the legislation, the C.W. Bill Young Cell Transplantation Program will be authorized for five years at $30 million annually, while the National Cord Blood Inventory (NCBI) is authorized at $23 million annually for a five year period. Smith authored the original law (The Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act of 2005—P.L. 109-129) that created the national cord blood program and expanded the C.W. Bill Young Cell Transplantation Program.

Click here for the originating article from the office of pro-life Rep. Chris Smith

A Surprising Venue for Christmas Carols: Abortion Clinics

"No pregnant woman heads joyfully into an abortion clinic," said Eric Scheidler, Executive Director of the Pro-Life Action League, as he explains why pro-life advocates are gathering outside of abortion providers to sing Christmas carols. This is part of the Pro-Life Action League's nationwide "Empty Manger Christmas Caroling" event. Over the dozen years that the Pro-Life Action League has caroled outside of abortion clinics, the group has seen their share of Christmas miracles—women who choose life.

"We are here to counter that walk toward darkness with the invitation to choose life for the child they are carrying, a baby like the one meant to lay in the empty manger we gather around for our caroling," Scheidler shared. "It's particularly sad to think of someone getting an abortion during the time of Christmas, when we remember hope springing forth with the birth of a child. It can also be a special time to reach women and help them decide to not go through with the abortion."

Christmas carols evoke beautiful images of a mother and her newborn child—but also contain references to healing, mercy and salvation. "'Light and life to all He brings, ris'n with healing in His wings'—that's from 'Hark the Herald Angels Sing,'" added Scheidler, "That's the message we are offering: choose life not death. That is the path to light, hope and healing."

Click here for the originating article from Christian Newswire.