Congressman: Abortion is not healthcare

In 2010, the Association told Congress that federally qualified centers don't provide abortions to their patients. Because of this, lawmakers wanting to take funds away from Planned Parenthood were directing people to local health clinics. Either things have changed - or someone wasn't telling the truth.

"We learned that some health center clinics in New York have been performing abortions," Pennsylvania Congressman Joe Pitts recently told Congress. "The National Association of Community Health Centers has egregiously violated our trust."

The Republican representative went on to say that the fact that abortions are performed at these federally funded community health center clinics is astonishing. That's because of the Weldon Amendment, which specifically forbids the use of federal tax dollars for abortions.

Click here for more from OneNewsNow.

Illinois Legislative Update - Insurance Contraception Coverage (HB5576)

Insurance Contraception Coverage - UPDATE AND ALERT

HB5576

PASSED THE HOUSE 61-52 is now in the IL SENATE, it has been assigned to the Executive Committee  HB5576 is now scheduled for the Senate Executive Committee hearing on May 11th at 2:00 p.m.

This bill provides that an individual or group health policy shall provide coverage for all contraceptive drugs, devices, and other products approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration, including over-the-counter contraceptive drugs, devices, and products; voluntary sterilization procedures; contraceptive services, patient education, and counseling on contraception; and follow-up services related to their use.

This bill requires insurance coverage of over-the-counter drugs such as Plan B and Ella.  These drugs prevent a fertilized egg  from implanting to the uterine wall and therefore cause a chemical abortion.

You can call the members of the Executive Committee (below) and urge them to vote 'NO' on HB5576.

Members of the Executive Committee are...

Chairperson: Don Harmon (D) (217) 782-8176
Vice-Chairperson: Ira I. Silverstein (D) (217) 782-5500
Member: James F. Clayborne, Jr. (D) (217) 782-5399
Member: John J. Cullerton (D) (217) 782-2728
Member: Mattie Hunter (D) (217) 782-5966
Member: Kimberly A. Lightford (D) (217) 782-8505
Member: Terry Link (D) (217) 782-8181
Member: Antonio Muñoz (D) (217) 782-9415
Member: Kwame Raoul (D) (217) 782-5338
Member: Heather A. Steans (D) (217) 782-8492
Member: Donne E. Trotter (D) (217) 782-3201
Minority Spokesperson: Matt Murphy (R) (217) 782-4471
Member: William E. Brady (R) (217) 782-6216
Member: David S. Luechtefeld (R) (217) 782-8137
Member: Christine Radogno (R) (217) 782-9407
Member: Sue Rezin (R) (217) 782-3840
Member: Dave Syverson (R) (217) 782-5413

Click here for more information on this bill.

Recycled pro-abortion talking points don’t change the truth of fetal pain

There are certain “givens” that pro-abortionists will defend with the unborn child’s dying breath. They constitute such a key component of the pro-abortion narrative that there is no amount of evidence that can be allowed to cast even the slightest doubt on their authenticity.

Such is fetal pain—the capacity of the unborn child to experience unfathomable agony as she is ripped apart. That cannot be true lest that “tissue” or that “pregnancy” or that “uterine content” take on human qualities that gives pause to all but the hardest heart.

Of course it is true; it is just an inconvenient truth for the Abortion Industry. National Right to Life has produced model legislation that is on the books in thirteen states—The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. (The bill has been introduced in other states as well.) It has also passed the U.S. House of Representatives before being waylaid by pro-abortion Democrats in the Senate.

In a word, the law forbids such brutal inhumanity by extending general protection to unborn children who are at least 20 weeks beyond fertilization (which is equivalent to 22 weeks of pregnancy — about the start of the sixth month).

It is ethically and strategically an approach that public opinion polls show a sturdy majority of the public agrees with.

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Very helpful primer on “Abortion Pill Reversal”

Tip of the hat to Live Action News for posting on its Facebook page a link to brief video describing how this technique works. The narrator is Dr. Anthony Levatino, who (he tells us) earlier in his career performed over 1,200 abortions.

For those new to the discussion, this is a technique that in some circumstances (depending mostly on very early intervention), a chemical abortion is not so much reversed as neutralized. How does it work?

The one, very small saving grace of all the publicity surrounding the FDA’s new protocol on “RU-486” is that the public is learning that this chemical abortion technique actually involves not one but two drugs, and if a doctor intervenes before the second set of pills are given, there may be a chance to save the baby.



Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Constitution makes injunction against Daleiden invalid

David Daleiden, who heads The Center for Medical Progress, videoed Planned Parenthood and National Abortion Federation officials as they chatted about harvesting and selling organs and other tissue from aborted babies, allegedly for profit. Thomas More Society founder and attorney Tom Brejcha tells OneNewsNow the Federation sued Daleiden in federal court and obtained an injunction against him.

“It's really a gag order that says he cannot divulge to anybody outside of court the contents of his recordings at the annual conventions of the National Abortion Federation, at which these videos were taken undercover in 2014 and 2015,” Brejcha says.

The case is before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and Thomas More is arguing that the gag order conflicts with a First Amendment free-speech clause in what is called a prior restraint on speech. According to that clause, the court’s injunction against Daleiden is presumptively invalid under U.S. constitutional law.

Click here for more from OneNewsNow.

Newsweek Advocates for Patients Like Terri Schiavo, on 'Edge of Consciousness'

In the latest issue of Newsweek, Aimee Swartz contributes her startling and welcome voice in reporting on medically vulnerable patients "living on the edge of consciousness."

In her reporting, Swartz tells the story of Maggie Worthen -- a young college-aged woman whose story is so similar to Terri Schiavo's as to be uncanny. Like Terri, Maggie collapsed and became unconscious, unable to speak or move. Like Terri, Maggie initially recovered with the assistance of a ventilator and the benefit of time. Like Terri, Maggie relied on a feeding tube after recovering the ability to breathe naturally, without machines.

Like Terri, Maggie was given very little rehabilitation before being called "vegetative," resulting in her disqualification from further insurance. Like Terri, Maggie was sent to a nursing home where she continued to show signs of life and consciousness.

Unlike Terri, Maggie's supportive physician had her transferred to a facility where she was deemed "minimally conscious." Unlike Terri, Maggie benefited from aggressive rehabilitation that let her regularly communicate with family, friends, and medical staff before she died in 2005 after an illness.

What is most remarkable about Newsweek's feature on these medically vulnerable Americans is the absence of any mention of Terri Schiavo, whose own struggle for rehabilitative services and basic care and against premature death at the hands of an unsupportive husband dominated the attention of the nation in 2005, the same year that Maggie died.

Click here for more from Christian Newswire.

Mom in her 39th week captures baby’s “rolling in her womb”

As it turns out, this video has been on the Internet since last October. But that doesn’t make viewing it any the less stunning.

Tip of the hat to the British publication, The Daily Mail for alerting readers to what it describes as “A 39-weeks-pregnant woman [who]has captured her baby rolling in her womb; The video shows the baby start to wriggle around before flipping over.”

It’s easy to exaggerate, I suppose, but in this case the use of the term “amazing” is utterly justified.

If you watch–and you don’t even have to watch closely–you can see the baby’s movements as he/she pushes up against their mother’s stomach.


Click here for more from National Right to Life.

A candid admission that abortion clinics are declining in blue states as well as red states

In pro-life circles, no one has documented and explained the depletion–the shrinking number –of abortion clinics more thoughtfully and more thoroughly than NRLC’s Dr. Randall K. O’Bannon, director of education and research. That is why it is appropriate that this morning Randy would forward me a story by Madeleine Schwartz, “Abortion Clinics In Blue States Are Closing, Too.”

That headline speaks volumes and is a necessary corrective to the endless supply of superficial stories about how/why the number of abortion clinics is dropping.

The abortion industry and its hordes of media apologists spend most of their time lamenting how “red states”–which is code for them for conservative Republican statehouses–are “closing down” abortion clinics. We hope and believe that laws are having an effect closing down dangerous and substandard facilities, helping women consider life affirming alternatives to abortion. But Ms. Schwartz’s larger observation, one rarely acknowledged outside of NRL News Today, is that abortion clinics are closing everywhere for reasons that go far beyond changes in the law.

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Video gone viral celebrates motherhood

Christian artist, Nichole Nordeman, is out with a new music video that is already going viral, a mere three days after “Slow Down” was released. While the video has over 17,000 views on YouTube, its Facebook total has already hit 2.5 million.

The song celebrates the preciousness of children, calling them “everything I wanted” even in the unexpected and tearful moments.

This video was personal for Nordeman, as she tweeted that “lots of people I love” are in “Slow Down” and explained that she wrote it for her son’s fifth grade graduation.



Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Why Are Suicide Rates Climbing after Years of Decline?

After years of declines, the US suicide rate rose 24% over 15 years according to a new report from the national Centers for Disease on suicide rates in the US from 1999-2014. The suicide rate rose for everyone between the ages of 10-74.

National media like the Wall Street Journal and CNN speculated that the economic downturn, drugs and lack of mental health resources could be factors in the 24% increase.

However, one huge factor was totally ignored: the legalization and promotion of physician-assisted suicide.

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Police investigating “murder-suicide” of Board Member of Final Exit and his wife

The case being investigated as a murder-suicide by local police illustrates just how far assisted suicide advocates are willing to go and how much violence they can rationalize away. The case also is a textbook example of the media’s whole-hearted cooperation in overturning laws that ban assisted suicide.

The Washington Post and other media outlets have reported that Frank Kavanaugh — who served on the national advisory board for the Final Exit Network —was discovered last week alongside his wife, Barbara Kavanaugh, at the Solaris HealthCare Charlotte Harbor center in Port Charlotte, Florida.

A local ABC affiliate reported, “Both died from gunshot wounds, authorities said.”

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Network news ignores congressional hearing

The recent congressional hearing into the pricing of fetal tissue by the abortion giant was censored in the morning and evening newscasts on ABC, CBS and NBC, the Media Research Center found.

In fact, says MRC spokesperson Katie Yoder, they didn't cover the April 20 House hearing for a second. That's in contrast to last fall's hearings, she says.

"When the hearings featured and starred Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards, then they paid attention," Yoder observes. "But when it goes into investigating the abortion businesses and making abortion look bad, the networks won't say a word."

Click here for more from OneNewsNow.

Rep. Cole Calls on CEO of CNCS to immediately end HealthCorps Grant Funding

The report reveals that the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC), which received a grant through the AmeriCorps Community HealthCorps program, trained AmeriCorps members to act as “doulas” during abortion procedures at three community health center sites in New York and did not consult with the CNCS on this matter for two years. Allowing AmeriCorps participants to participate in such activity is prohibited by the Serve America Act. In response, Cole called on Spencer to immediately terminate and not renew HealthCorps grants to the NACHC and also initiate an investigation into all grantees and sub-grantees of AmeriCorps programs to ensure no other violations exist.

Cole also sent a letter to the HHS Office of Inspector General requesting an investigation to ensure that community health centers are abiding by federal restrictions on funding for abortion procedures.

Congressman Tom Cole, chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies, sent a letter to Wendy Spencer, CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), in response to troubling findings related to an investigation by the CNCS Office of Inspector General (OIG). The CNCS OIG report was released today. CNCS oversees AmeriCorps programs that operate under federal grants.

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Members of House and Senate ask for documents behind FDA change in FDA protocol

If you click here, you can read the entire letter sent by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Senator James Lankford (R-OK), joined by 73 of their colleagues, to Dr. Robert M. Califf, M.D., the FDA’s Commissioner, “requesting information about the agency’s recent decision to change its policies regarding the abortion drug mifepristone.”

The letter is respectful and courteous, but asks for data that was not forthcoming last month when the FDA relaxed safety standards and modified the protocol for mifepristone/misoprostol chemical abortions that had been in place since September of 2000.

This was a great coup for the Abortion Industry, particularly Planned Parenthood. The FDA was retroactively giving its seal of approval to various important changes the Abortion Industry made unilaterally.

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Life Legal Files New Motions in Planned Parenthood Lawsuit

Life Legal has filed two new motions in the case of Planned Parenthood v. Center for Medical Progress (CMP) and David Daleiden. In addition, six amicus—or "friend of the court"—briefs were submitted on behalf of Daleiden in the National Abortion Federation's lawsuit against CMP. A seventh, neutral, brief filed by a diverse group of constitutional scholars discusses the critical First Amendment issues at play.

The amicus briefs were provided by the following organizations: American Catholic Lawyers Association, Charlotte Lozier Institute, Justice and Freedom Fund, the law firm of Peace | Crowell, the Attorney Generals of 14 states, and several Members of Congress.

The briefs cover a diverse range of issues, including the American public's "unfettered right in our society to have access to important information about controversial matters," such as abortion. Judge William Orrick of the US District Court for the Northern District of California recently granted NAF's request for an injunction to prohibit public access to hundreds of hours of video evidence of NAF's trafficking in fetal body parts.

Click here for more from Christian Newswire.

Pro-lifers will gather in Kansas to remember 'Mercy'

July is the 25th anniversary of the "Summer of Mercy" in Wichita.

Rusty Thomas of Operation Save America remembers what happened when an event planned for one week grew into two and a half months of revival.

"It was at that point in 1991," he says, "that the paradigm shift took place in this battle to end the American holocaust," referring to abortions in the United States that are estimated at 57 million.

Click here for more from OneNewsNow.

Restricting abortion is a form of torture: UN bureaucrat

Abortion groups have found a new champion. His name is Juan Mendez, and he is a UN expert on torture. In his latest report to the UN he goes out of his way to characterize protective abortion laws as a form of torture.

Laws against abortion are directly responsible for “prison overcrowding”, “tremendous and lasting” physical and emotional suffering, and subject women and girls to “humiliating and judgmental attitudes”, according Mendez’s’ latest report to the Human Rights Council.

This isn’t the first time the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture has issued outlandish recommendations. What is perhaps surprising is how insistently Mendez makes his claims this time around.

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Panel on body parts urged to dig deeper

On Wednesday the U.S. House Select Panel on Infant Lives held its second committee hearing with testimony about revelations from undercover videos by The Center for Medical Progress. The videos show Planned Parenthood and other abortion officials discussing the sale of the body parts.

Attorney Catherine Glenn Foster of the Charlotte Lozier Institute explained to the panel that federal law bars profiting from the harvesting and selling of the body parts and tissue.

"Indeed the trade in fetal body parts is a business," Foster stated. "As demonstrated by the evidence presented by this panel, clinics and procurement companies have been getting away with charging far more than the allowed costs for harvesting, transporting, and warehousing body parts as they wait for customers."

Click here for more from OneNewsNow.

Illinois House passes expanded insurance coverage for contraceptives

After a lengthy debate over an array of issues concerning the beginning of life, contraception, abortifacients and whether employers should be required to provide insurance coverage for all forms of prescription contraceptives, the Illinois House voted to pass HB 5576 with a 61 to 52 Thursday morning.

The sponsor and supporters pointed to the insensitivity of "white men" who opposed the legislation in House committee testimony because of the costs HB 5576 would add to employers' health care requirements. Both the state's Chamber of Commerce and several insurance companies opposed the legislation.

The McHenry County Right to Life said that HB 5576 greatly expands the definition of "contraceptives" and reproductive" medical procedures and will force employers and individual health insurance policy holders to pay for abortifacients (abortion-inducing drugs) and interfere with religious liberties as in the cases of Hobby Lobby and Little Sisters of the Poor.

Click here for more from Illinois Review.

Legislative Update - HB 5576 Insurance Contraception Coverage Bill

Insurance Contraception Coverage Bill - HB5576

PASSED THE HOUSE 61-52 it now goes to the IL SENATE

This bill provides that an individual or group health policy shall provide coverage for all contraceptive drugs (including abortifacients), devices, and other products approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration, including over-the-counter contraceptive drugs, devices, and products; voluntary sterilization procedures; contraceptive services, patient education, and counseling on contraception; and follow-up services related to their use.

This bill now goes to the Illinois Senate.

Click here for more information on this bill.