The moral and ethical corruption inherent in assisted suicide

We’ve long argued that abortion and euthanasia/assisted suicide were birthed in the same hatchery. They are, if not identical twins, at least fraternal twins.

Both are inherently expansionary, for example. Consider the parallels.

If offing her unborn child is a woman’s “right,” why should that “right” end at the conclusion of the first trimester? Or second? Or up till birth? Indeed, it is (as the saying goes) no accident that we are hearing occasional rumbles about “after-birth abortion.”

Likewise with assisted suicide. If the issue is about autonomy, about one’s supposed right to die “on my own terms,” why should there be any ethical calibration made about “good” reasons and insufficient reasons? If I can’t exercise my “right”–whether because I am in a weakened physical state or no longer can articulate my desires, or something else–then surely it is discriminatory not to facilitate my death.

And, of course, where the twin sisters of death meet is when countries decide that newborns should be killed if they are disabled (physically or intellectually) or because that’s what they would “want” if they were able to speak.

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Clinton vows to PPFA Action Fund to “always have your back”

When the former Secretary of State is speaking to her soul mates, you hear in clear, straightforward English just how in touch she is with PPFA but how out-of-touch she is with the rest of America.

Clinton told the Planned Parenthood Action Fund

Let’s repeal laws like the Hyde Amendment that make it nearly impossible, make it nearly impossible for low-income women, disproportionately women of color, to exercise their full reproductive rights.

Never mind that overwhelmingly, the American people do not–do not–want their tax dollars paying for abortions. In an environment that is ever more receptive to the pro-life cause, this truism goes back to the earliest days.

What is the real reason Clinton and Planned Parenthood want to gut the Hyde Amendment? Simple. By cutting off virtually all federal funding for abortion, unborn lives are saved each and every day.

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Abortion still “morally wrong,” latest Gallup shows

A Gallup poll conducted May 4-8 finds that more Americans still find abortion “morally wrong” (47%) than “morally acceptable” (43%). In 2015, Gallup’s numbers were 48% and 42% , respectively.

The breakdown along party lines is that only 24% of Republicans said abortion was morally acceptable, 44% of Independents, but 62% of Democrats.

On an encouraging note, while there is still a majority who found “Doctor Assisted Suicide” morally acceptable, the numbers are down slight from 2015 (naturally not noted by Gallup).

In 2016, 53% responded they believed Doctor Assisted suicide is morally acceptable to 41% who said it is morally wrong .

In 2015, 56% said they believed Doctor Assisted Suicide was morally acceptable, to 37 who told Gallup they believed it was morally wrong.

Needless to add, the “Doctor assisted” label increases support. Even now, people are more likely to voice support when a “doctor” is involved.

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Pediatric nurse sues Winnebago Co Health Dept after losing job for her beliefs

On Wednesday, Rockford nurse Sandra Mendoza sued the Winnebago County Health Department for forcing her out of her long-time job as a pediatric nurse on account of her refusal to participate in abortion related services. Ms. Mendoza, a devout Catholic, had worked for the Health Department for 18 years providing pediatric care, immunizations, and screenings.

In 2015, the County’s new Public Health Administrator, Dr. Sandra Martell, merged the pediatric clinic with women’s health services and mandated that all nurses be trained to provide abortion referrals and participate in the provision of abortifacients like Plan B.

When Ms. Mendoza informed Dr. Martell and the administration of her conscientious objections to participating in any way in the provision of abortions, Dr. Martell gave Ms. Mendoza two weeks to either quit or accept a demotion to a temporary job as a food inspector. Mendoza refused the demotion and was forced to resign in July 2015.

Click here for more from Illinois Review.

Virginia family gets reprieve to stop hospital from taking 2-year-old off life support

The family of a Virginia toddler has more time to seek another hospital for their child after a judge’s ruling Tuesday that she cannot be removed from life support for at least another 10 days.

Patrick and Alison Lawson are in a dispute with Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Health System over performing a brain apnea test on their two-year-old daughter Mirranda Grace and withdrawing her life support, in another case involving the legal definition of brain death.

Click here for more from LifeSiteNews.com.

Researchers use adult stem cells to reverse stroke symptoms up to 3 years later

Researchers at Stanford University’s School of Medicine have successfully treated stroke victims with donated adult stem cells, restoring the use of legs and arms rendered useless by the loss of brain function.

There are treatments to mitigate the impact of strokes if administered within days. This treatment is the first that works long afterwards. The injected bone marrow, used for decades as a safe treatment for leukemia and other cancers, surprised the research team by disappearing from the brain within a month (while in leukemia treatment the marrow remains in the patient, producing red blood cells, but requiring the patient to take drugs to suppress his or her immune system).

Click here for more from LifeSiteNews.com.

If Illinois Government Has Its Way, Women Won’t Have the Right to Choose Pro-Life Doctors

Can you imagine a passionately pro-life OB-GYN who is forced by the government to provide patients with a list of abortion providers if they request one? How would this doctor reconcile promoting abortion with his or her conscience? What would this doctor tell pro-life patients who came to him or her because they wanted someone who shared and upheld their values – not someone who helps facilitate abortions?

Abortion is a serious issue. For those of us in the pro-life camp, the thought of promoting abortion—in any form—would be a violation of conscience.

Unfortunately, the Illinois legislature has passed a bill—SB 1564—that would force all medical facilities and physicians in the state who conscientiously object to involvement in abortions to adopt policies that provide women who ask for abortions with a list of providers “they reasonably believe may offer” them. In other words, the government is trying to compel the speech of pro-life providers—in the form of abortion referrals.

What the Illinois government fails to realize (or care about since we’ve brought it to their attention before) is that referring someone for an abortion goes against everything that pro-life doctors and pregnancy care centers believe about the sanctity of human life.

Please call the Governor's office at 217-782-0244, or click here to go to his website and send an email asking him NOT to sign SB1564 and veto the bill.

Click here for more on this bill and other legislative updates and alerts.

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Planned-Parenthood partner reportedly takes 400-600% profit for fetal organs

A report from the US House of Representatives charges that StemExpress, a California firm, sold fetal tissue for as much as six times the purchase cost, in violation of federal law that prohibits the sale of fetal tissue for profit.

Undercover videos taken by the Center for Medical Progress had shown Planned Parenthood officials arranging for the delivery of fetal body-parts to StemExpress, to be sold for medical research. After a further probe, the House Selective Investigative Panel on Infant Lives reports that the fetal organs were sold for profit. The panel also said that the sales by Planned Parenthood to StemExpress appeared to violate federal laws requiring confidentiality in the records of medical patients.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, who chairs the House panel, said that the business relationshiop between Planned Parenthood and StemExpress changed the nature of the relationship between the abortion clinic and the pregnant women. "The contract changes the way both entities view the young woman," she said. "Her baby is now a profit center."

Click here for more from Catholic World News.

Natalie Portman: Contraception caused depression that gave me ‘dark moments’

Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman has announced that taking oral contraceptives caused depression that plunged her into some “dark moments” as a teenage college student.

Portman's admission that taking birth control pills contributed to ill health should not come as a surprise. Oral and injectable contraceptives have a well-documented history of negative effects on women, whether mental or, more often, physical. The risk for blood clots, which can cause stroke, heart attack, blindness, brain damage, and death, is three-to five times higher in women taking birth control pills.

Click here for more from LifeSiteNews.com.

FDA used faulty data to approve Essure contraceptive coil: study

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has used faulty data to approve many high-risk ob-gyn medical devices in the last 15 years, a new study says, including the controversial contraceptive device Essure.        

“Recent controversies surrounding obstetrics and gynecology devices” including among other things, the Essure contraceptive coil device, “highlight the need for deeper understanding of obstetrics and gynecology medical device regulation,” the study’s authors, based at Northwestern University, said. “Our results reveal significant weaknesses in the preapproval and post approval regulation of high-risk obstetrics and gynecology devices.”

Click here for more from LifeSiteNews.com

President Ronald Reagan: The Unborn’s Transcendent Right to Life

Sunday was the twelfth anniversary of the passing of pro-life President Ronald Reagan. The following was described as “a personal letter to the Pro-Life movement from President Ronald Reagan.”

As America looks forward to the second half of the 1980s and beyond, our Nation faces a clear political choice. Two very different views about America – who we are and what we can become – are competing to lead our great country into the future.

I think that Americans involved in the noble work of the pro-life movement will agree that the difference between those competing views is no more striking than on the tragic issue of abortion.

Recently, some of our political opponents have tried to further their cause by belatedly assuming the mantle of traditional family values. They talk about family, about concern for less fortunate Americans. And they portray themselves as the “party of compassion.”

But where are those high-minded ideals when it comes to the issue of abortion? Where are the new defenders of the family when it comes to the taking of innocent human life? And what have we heard from them while more than 15 million unborn children – over 10 times more Americans than have been lost in all our nation’s wars – had their lives snuffed out by legalized abortions? [Editor’s note. The total is now over 58 million.]

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Supreme Court approaches deadline for decision on pro-life Texas law HB 2

Just to be clear, no one except the eight Supreme Court justices and (to a lesser extent) their clerks know exactly when the High Court will rule on a host of controversial cases, some of which raise new issues, others of which will finesse previous rulings. Could be this week, could be the end of the month.

According to ABC News, “The court still has 24 opinions left to release before it recesses for the year in late June.”

HB 2 is best known outside the Lone Star state for the filibuster that temporarily derailed the law. Pro-abortion state Senator Wendy Davis catapulted her role in that filibuster to national fame, which tempted her to run what proved to be a disastrous 2014 campaign for governor.

At issue are two provisions: (1) that abortion clinics meet the same building standards as ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs); and (2) that abortionists have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital for situations of medical emergencies.

What gives the case such importance is that the justices will be challenged to flesh out yet again what an “undue burden” on the “right” to abortion means.

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Dismemberment abortions are vicious, cruel, barbaric, and not worthy of culture that calls itself civilized

Emily Crockett, writing at Vox.com today informs us (and I kid you not) that “Pro-life advocates are trying to ban abortion by grossing people out about it.”

She’s referring to the Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act which Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards signed just last week. Six states have banned these grotesque abortions: the other five are Kansas, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Mississippi, and Alabama.

According to Crockett

D&E bans are quickly becoming the latest trend in anti-abortion lawmaking at the state level. They have colorful names like the “Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act.” And some advocates and lawmakers are using them to focus on the lurid details of later abortion procedures, in hopes of turning more Americans against abortion and making the procedure easier to outlaw or restrict.

“Colorful names,” “lurid details,” “grossing people out…” Wow.

So, what do we have to say about that, fellow pro-lifers? Or is Ms. Crockett’s brilliance so dazzling, we are rendered speechless?

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Kudos to LEGOS for baby-in-the-womb minifigure

LEGOS announced on Monday that it had created a graphic that depicted a LEGO baby in the womb. If you go to the LEGO Facebook page, you read, “It’s a big day! The first ever LEGO baby minifigure says HEY! to the world, arriving with the LEGO City 60134 Fun in the Park set, tomorrow June 1st.” [For those of us not familiar with the minutiae of LEGOS, minifigures are miniature figurine toys that accessorize LEGO sets.)

As of this afternoon, there were 63,100 comments and 13,682 “shared.”

As you can see, the graphic looks like a regular birth announcement coupled “with a ‘photo of the toy baby on an ultrasound screen,” as the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children described it. “The hazy gray ultrasound ‘photo’ shows the smiling ‘baby,’ its size and estimated date of birth.”

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Blackburn Calls for HHS Investigation into StemExpress & Abortion Clinics

Select Investigative Panel Chairman Marsha Blackburn is calling on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to investigate potential violations of federal law by StemExpress and a number of abortion clinics.

In a letter to the Office of Centralized Case Management Operations at HHS, Chairman Blackburn asks Director Jocelyn Samuels to examine evidence uncovered by the Select Panel’s investigation that shows StemExpress and the abortion clinics violated the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). The HIPAA privacy rule is a patients’ rights law, designed to empower the patient to determine when and where their private medical information will be disclosed.

The Select Panel’s investigation also shows that StemExpress violated federal regulations governing Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) by using the appearance of compliance with the regulations, while fraudulently using invalid consent forms, and misleading scientific researchers to believe it had a valid IRB approval. Misleading scientific researchers violates one of the core values of the IRB system, enacted by Congress to engender integrity in scientific medical research. As a result, Blackburn is asking HHS Office for Human Research Protections Director Jerry Menikoff to conduct a thorough investigation into whether StemExpress violated the applicable regulations; and, if any violation is found, to take all appropriate actions.

“The key to understanding the HIPAA and consent violations that we’ve referred to HHS is that there’s a business contract between StemExpress and the abortion clinics under which both sides make a profit from the baby body parts inside the young woman’s womb,” Chairman Blackburn said. “The contract changes the way both entities view the young woman: her baby is now a profit-center. This betrayal of a young woman’s trust should disgust us all. It takes financial advantage, obtains consent through coercion, and deceives the woman, all in violation of federal privacy laws.”

Click here to read the letters and accompanying documents from Chairman Blackburn to HHS.

Click here for more from the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee.

A “radical shift in outlook,” brought on by the birth of her daughter, enables mother to let go of the grief at losing her own father

The post is so stunning, so beautifully written, so intense that I will not spend more than a few sentences telling you that rewire news was the last place in this galaxy that I expected to read, “Only Through Becoming a Parent Have I Been Able to Let Go of My Grief at Losing My Own.”

Rewire is the new name for the second iteration of the dismal pro-abortion site Rhrealitycheck.org. The re-named site is just as hysterically pro-abortion, just as vicious in its treatment of our Movement as its predecessor. But…. then….out of the blue….comes ….

This magnificent post by Sharona Coutts. And because I really do want you read her entire tribute to her father, who passed away 21 years ago, and wonder at the power of healing that came in the form of her child who was born late last year...

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Euphemisms for Killing

Words matter. The terminology we employ not only reflects our values but helps to define them. Language is particularly important in bioethical debates, in which dehumanizing verbiage can distance us from our fellow human beings.

When embryonic stem-cell research was in the news, we were told constantly by scientists and the media that an early embryo was “just a ball of cells” that didn’t even “look human.” We even heard that human life had no actual beginning, since we had all evolved from bacteria floating in a primordial sea.

But the fact that a young organism does not yet look as it will at maturity doesn’t make it a non-organism. When we were early embryos, we each were the same organism that we are now. And a human embryo is far more than a bunch of cells.

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Man convicted of first-degree manslaughter and manslaughter in deaths of pregnant woman and her unborn baby

On the fourth day of deliberations, a Rensselaer County Court jury today convicted Gabriel Vega of first-degree manslaughter and manslaughter in the April 2014 strangulation death of Vanessa Milligan, his ex-girlfriend, who was pregnant with his child, Alina.

Prosecutors say Vega strangled the 19-year-old Milligan and then doused her apartment with gasoline before setting the fire.

“The jury of six women and six men also convicted Vega of second-degree arson, third-degree arson and first-degree abortion,” according to reporter Kenneth C. Crowe II.

“Vega had been charged with second-degree murder, which carries a maximum sentence of 25 years to life but after days of deliberations the jury opted to convict him of the lesser charge,” Crowe added. However Vega still faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison.

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Abandoned in college laundry room, “Baby Jane Doe” graduates 32 years later from same school

32 years ago, a student at San Francisco State University, who happened to be “taking a course in newborn care,” found a baby in a box in the laundry room.

“Her body temperature had dropped precipitously and her skin had turned blue,” wrote Bob Collins. “She’s been putting up a fight ever since.”

That fight culminated for Jill Sobol when she graduated last Friday from the same university at which her mother had abandoned her in 1984!

If her story weren’t already amazing enough, consider this. Sobol had written a letter years before to her birth mother but got no reply. She also tried Facebook. “The woman friended, then unfriended, Sobol on Facebook.”

Having learned last month that some Facebook message can be hidden from view, she looked to see if she had any.

She found one. It had been sitting, unseen, for nearly two years.

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

ACTION ALERT HB5576 and SB1564

Two pro-abortion bills are on Governor Rauner's desk for his signature, SB1564, the Health Care Right of Conscience Act and HB5576, the Insurance Contraception Coverage bill.  Both of these bills are dangerous and need to be stopped.  Please call the Governor's office at 217-782-0244, or click here to go to his website and send an email asking him NOT to sign SB1564 or HB5576 and veto the bills.

Here is more information on the bills...

Health Care Right of Conscience Act 

SB1564

Sponsor: Senator Biss.

This bill is currently on the Governor's desk for his signature.

This bill amends the Health Care Right of Conscience Act  The 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.

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

Please call the Governor's office at 217-782-0244, or click here to go to his website and send an email asking him NOT to sign SB1564 and veto the bill.

Click here for more information on this bill.

Click here for the full bill text.


Insurance Contraception Coverage 

HB5576

This bill is currently on the Governor's desk for his signature.

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.

Please call the Governor's office at 217-782-0244, or click here to go to his website and send an email asking him NOT to sign HB5576 and veto the bill.

Click here for more information on this bill.