February 9, 2017

Girl Scouts: Planned Parenthood’s founder is among ‘most inspiring ... women in American history’

Girl Scouts, Why Not? founder Rochelle Focaracci
Girl Scouts, Why Not? founder Rochelle Focaracci
The Girl Scouts of Gateway Council in Jacksonville, Florida, includes Sanger on their list of "Women Working for Human Rights," reports “Girl Scouts, Why Not?” founder Rochelle Focaracci.

“These councils have described Margaret Sanger as 'instrumental in the development of the human rights movement' and 'important for accomplishments of women,'” Focaracci said. Or one of the “most inspiring and empowering women in American history,” “a woman who has made a significant impact on society” and a woman who “opened the first birth control clinic.”

Click here for more from LifeSiteNews.com

Majority in 2018 Senate race states oppose taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood

Jill Stanek at a Pro-Life Rally
Jill Stanek
A majority of voters in 2018 Senate battleground states oppose giving tax dollars to Planned Parenthood, America’s largest abortion provider, instead of comprehensive healthcare providers, a poll released in January by Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List) found.

While Illinois will not be involved in the upcoming 2018 Senate campaign, a majority in North Dakota, Montana, Ohio, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Florida said they would be less likely to vote for Senators who vote to keep sending tax dollars to the abortion giant.

President Trump has committed to reallocating Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer funding to comprehensive, whole-woman health care centers. These health care clinics outnumber Planned Parenthood 20 to 1 nationwide and provide the same preventative services Planned Parenthood claims to offer, but do not do abortions. These community health centers also offer services Planned Parenthood does not, such as mammograms, treatment for diabetes, hypertension and arthritis.

Click here for more from Illinois Review.

February 8, 2017

No, the sky won’t fall if Planned Parenthood is defunded. Here’s why.

If even one Planned Parenthood affiliate or center has to close as a result of defunding, they say, the patients Planned Parenthood serves will have no access to health services elsewhere. This is utter nonsense, of course.

The claim that removing federal dollars from Planned Parenthood will shutter their doors is ludicrous. As Live Action News has previously reported, the organization’s own annual reports reveal that Planned Parenthood has been netting a profit for many years. Almost every year since 2000, Planned Parenthood’s revenue has exceeded their expenses — not by just a few dollars, but by tens of millions of dollars (yearly surpluses ranging from $18.5 million to a high of $127 million). In addition, with the threat of defunding now more real under the newly elected Congress and president, Planned Parenthood has repeatedly claimed that private donations are suddenly flooding into their coffers.

Click here for more from LifeSiteNews.com

VIDEO: Former Girl Scouts leader finds organization’s ‘money trail’ to abortion

Rochelle Focaracci
Rochelle Focaracci
American parents sending their little Sally or Joan to Girl Scouts to learn essential life skills may be horrified to learn that the organization funds and partners with the world's leading abortion advocacy organization.

Rochelle Focaracci, former leader of her daughter’s Girl Scout's troop, told LifeSiteNews that the organization's “money trail” to abortion is indisputable. She spoke to LifeSiteNews while supervising an anti-Girl Scouts booth during an event at the March for Life in Washington last month.



Click here for more from LifeSiteNews.com

Nationwide Rallies Support Congressional Move to Defund Planned Parenthood

As Congress moves forward with plans to reallocate funding from Planned Parenthood, America's largest abortion business, to comprehensive health care centers, citizens across America will speak up in support of the action. Saturday, February 11, groups will gather outside over 200 Planned Parenthood facilities in 44 states and the nation's capital to #ProtestPP. There will also be overseas support with a demonstration at the London headquarters of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, which was recently defunded by executive order.

"The federal government has been subsidizing Planned Parenthood to the tune of more than $430 million annually," explained Eric Scheidler, national organizer of #ProtestPP. "This, at the same time that the nation's largest abortion provider holds $500 ticket fundraisers and charges a woman about $500 to abort her baby," he continued. "On top of that, Planned Parenthood is trafficking baby body parts. Taxpayers are sickened to see their money spent in support of these atrocities."

Click here for more information on the demonstration.

Click here for more from Christian Newswire.

February 7, 2017

American Academy of Pediatrics will oppose attempts to add parental notification laws for abortion

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has "reaffirmed" its opposition to parental consent laws on abortion, saying that adolescents have a "right" to get an abortion without letting their mom or dad know.

In a statement published in the February issue of Pediatrics, the AAP claims that parental notification laws "do not achieve the intended benefit of promoting family communication."

Click here for more from LifeSiteNews.com

February 6, 2017

Vision 2020 - Week 2: Rep. Michael J. Madigan and Rep. Sara Feigenholtz


The Illinois Federation for Right to Life is proud to partner with Vision 2020 in prayer for our Illinois legislators.  Please remember to pray each week in  support of those who fight for life and for a change of heart for those who oppose life.




CALLING ALL PRAYER WARRIORS
- Join us in praying for our state legislators

We would like to invite you to join us in praying for our state legislators.  We will send out information about a couple different state representatives each week for you to pray over.  
Consider sharing this information with your ministry partners, your church family, on your website and/or your Facebook page.  

We know that prayer changes things.  And we know that NOTHING is impossible with God. So let's join our hearts and voices together and petition heaven on behalf of the great state of Illinois!
Petitioning Heaven
Vision 2020 would like to invite you to join us in praying for our state legislators.  We will send out information about a couple different state representatives each week for you to pray over.  

Consider sharing this information with your ministry partners, your church family, on your website and/or your Facebook page.  

We know that prayer changes things.  And we know that NOTHING is impossible with God. So let's join our hearts and voices together and petition heaven on behalf of the great state of Illinois!


Rep. Michael J. Madigan
22nd District

Speaker of the House

Rep. Sara Feigenholtz
12th District
Sponsor for HB 40 

(Taxpayer Funding of Abortion)






And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith."Matthew 21:22

February 2, 2017

Ingenious device allow researchers to “read the minds” of complete locked-in syndrome patients who say they are happy

Kerstin Wirth, who has been completely paralyzed by ALS, is shown wearing a brain-computer interface device in Geneva, Switzerland, during a test measuring her responses to ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions. (Wyss Center)
Kerstin Wirth, who has been completely paralyzed by ALS
‘Locked-in syndrome’ is a rare neurological disorder characterized by complete paralysis of voluntary muscles in all parts of the body except for those that control up and down eye movement. Patients can communicate by using simple blinking systems.

But complete locked-in syndrome [CLIS] patients–as was the case in a study the results of which were just published– have lost eye movement as well

In a groundbreaking experiment reported in the journal PLOS Biology, four complete locked-in patients “told doctors they are ‘happy’ using an astonishing new brain computer interface which deciphers their thoughts,” according to Daily Telegraph Science Editor Sarah Knapton. Although incapable of even moving their eyes, they “were able to respond with ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers to spoken questions.”

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Price and Mnuchin approved by Senate Finance Committee minus any participation by Democrats


Pro-life Senator Orrin Hatch
Pro-life Senator Orrin Hatch
Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee decided to boycott confirmation hearings for HHS Secretary Rep. Tom Price and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.

Earlier, both were endorsed without a dissenting vote by the committee. A change of strategy on the part of petulant Democrats? Actually, no.

According to the Washington Post, “The Republicans voted to temporarily suspend committee rules requiring at least one Democrat present to conduct business.”

Pro-life Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) is the committee chair and among the most amiable members of the Senate. Confrontational he is not.

But after Tuesday, he’d had enough. In a statement, Sen. Hatch said

“We took some unprecedented actions today due to the unprecedented obstruction on the part of our colleagues. As I noted earlier, the Senate Finance Committee has traditionally been able to function in even the most divisive political environments. Personally, as longtime member of this committee, I have been proud of that distinction. And, in my time as both Ranking Member and Chairman of this committee, I have bent over backwards to preserve its unique status as one of the few places where Republicans and Democrats not only work together, but achieve results. That all changed yesterday. Republicans on this committee showed up to do our jobs. Yesterday, rather than accept anything less than their desired outcome, our Democrat colleagues chose to cower in the hallway and hold a press conference. Now, I get that my colleagues think these nominees are controversial. I get that they don’t want to see them confirmed. We’ve all been in that situation. It comes part and parcel with the job of being a Senator. And, this is hardly the first time a nominee deemed to be controversial has come before this committee.”

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

February 1, 2017

Planned Parenthood caught on video: ‘We only do ultrasounds’ for abortion

Two new investigative videos from Live Action show Planned Parenthood uses its ultrasound technology for abortions, but not for women who want to continue their pregnancies and check the health of their babies.

Only three of the 68 Planned Parenthood centers visited by Live Action investigators were able to provide women with an ultrasound for a purpose other than abortion. This is because, in its employees' own words, Planned Parenthood only does ultrasounds "not related to prenatal care."

Video #1 Ultrasounds for Killing, Not Care, at Planned Parenthood



Video #2 Planned Parenthood Managers: Ultrasounds for Abortions, Not Health Care.



Click here for more from LifeSiteNews.com

National Right to Life Committee Commends President Trump For His Selection of Judge Neil Gorsuch as Successor to Justice Scalia

Judge Neil Gorsuch
Judge Neil Gorsuch
The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of 50 state right-to-life affiliates, commended President Donald Trump for his selection of Judge Neil Gorsuch to fill the U.S. Supreme Court seat vacated by the February 2016 death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

“All too often, our efforts to protect unborn children and other vulnerable humans have been overridden by judges who believe they have a right to impose their own policy preferences,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. “We are heartened that Judge Gorsuch appears to share Justice Scalia’s view that federal judges are constrained to enforce the text and original intent of constitutional provisions, and on all other matters should defer to democratically elected lawmakers.”

As a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit since 2006, Gorsuch has not reviewed any state or federal abortion laws. However, he showed support for conscience rights in two cases involving Obamacare mandates. He dissented from a ruling hostile to Utah’s attempts to curb funding for Planned Parenthood (Planned Parenthood Association of Utah v. Herbert). Gorsuch’s 2006 book The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia argued against the legalization of assisted suicide, and defended the idea that “human life is fundamentally and inherently valuable, and that the intentional taking of human life by private persons is always wrong.”

“Pro-life legislators and activists nationwide can have high confidence that as a Supreme Court justice, Neil Gorsuch will not join those who have nullified past efforts to protect the lives of unborn children and other vulnerable humans,” said Douglas D. Johnson, Senior Policy Advisor for National Right to Life.

January 31, 2017

Eric Metaxas blasts media at March for Life: ‘You want to see the women of America? Here they are.’

Eric Metaxas speaking at the March for Life
 Eric Metaxas blasted the mainstream media at the March for Life for its bias against the pro-life movement, punctuating his brief address with the question: “ABC News, are you covering this?”

“The media in America has not told the other side of the story, that women have been the victims of abortion and that abortion hurts women,” Metaxas told the hundreds of thousands of people gathered at the Washington Mall for the 44th annual March for Life.

Click here for more from LifeSiteNews.com

Congressman to March for Life: Trump presidency ‘is the turning point for the right-to-life movement’

Chris Smith at the March for Life 2017
After a week of pro-life political victories that would have been unthinkable under the Obama administration, the House of Representatives is ready to go after Planned Parenthood, Chris Smith told the March for Life.

“This is the turning point for the right-to-life movement,” declared the New Jersey Republican Congressman, who is co-chair of the bipartisan Congressional Pro-Life Caucus.

Click here for more from LifeSiteNews.com

“Life is winning again in America” VP Pence tells March for Life

Vice President Pence Speech at the March for Life
By all accounts, attendance was huge. Certainly the atmosphere was optimistic, even celebratory. How could it not be with all that has taken place these last two and a half months, in addition to the stirring speeches from pro-life counselor to President Donald Trump and pro-life Vice President Mike Pence?

Between Facebook, various Hashtags, news accounts, and tweets, one conclusion would be hard to miss. For whatever reason (and we named a half- dozen possibilities earlier in the week), there’s been much more media attention paid to the March for Life, which first began the year after the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision was dropped on an unsuspecting public.

Could be a pang or two of guilt over the seemingly endless stream of flattering stories about last Saturday’s pro-abortion, anti-Donald Trump “Women’s March.” Might be that, as Mr. Pence concluded today, “Life is winning again in America.”

Click here for more from National Right to Life.

Trump and Pence lend support to Friday's March for Life

Vice President Pence Address and Tweet
For the first time in its 44-year history, the National March for Life was attended by a vice-president. VP Mike Pence and presidential adviser Kellyanne Conway addressed the marchers Friday at noon in Washington D.C.

Thursday evening, Pence met with pro-life leaders in his office and tweeted out a photo of the meeting, saying he was "honored" to meet with them. Within the first few days of being sworn into office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning U.S. tax dollars being sent to other countries to fund abortions.

Friday morning, President Trump lent his support to Pence and the March for Life via Twitter:




Click here for more from Illinois Review.

January 30, 2017

VIDEO: Illinois Congressman Participates in Washington DC March for Life

Illinois Congressman Randy Hultgren participated in the 2017 March for Life in Washington, D.C.



Click here for more from Illinois Review.

Speaker Paul Ryan: ‘We will not stop fighting until every life is protected under the law’

House Speaker Paul Ryan
House Speaker Paul Ryan
House Speaker Paul Ryan vowed to the hundreds of thousands of pro-lifers at Friday’s March for Life that the Republican-controlled government will be doing its utmost to continue defending unborn human life and ensuring they’re protected under the law.

In a short statement addressed to participants, Ryan expressed the unified support of the House, Senate, and White House, for the March and the pro-life cause as a whole.

Click here for more from LifeSiteNews.com

Vision 2020 - Ending Abortion in Illinois by 2020


The Illinois Federation for Right to Life is proud to partner with Vision 2020 in prayer for our Illinois legislators.  Please remember to pray each week in  support of those who fight for life and for a change of heart for those who oppose life.




CALLING ALL PRAYER WARRIORS
- Join us in praying for our state legislators
Petitioning Heaven
Vision 2020 would like to invite you to join us in praying for our state legislators.  We will send out information about a couple different state representatives each week for you to pray over.  

Consider sharing this information with your ministry partners, your church family, on your website and/or your Facebook page.  

We know that prayer changes things.  And we know that NOTHING is impossible with God. So let's join our hearts and voices together and petition heaven on behalf of the great state of Illinois!


Senator Daniel Biss
9th District
Senate Sponsor for SB1564



Rep. Robyn Gabel
18th District
House Sponsor of SB1564


O God, hear my prayer; give ear to the words of my mouth.  Psalm 54:2


January 26, 2017

VIDEO: President Trump calls out mainstream media for failing to cover March for Life

President Trump on an ABC Interview
President Trump on an ABC Interview
During a Wednesday night interview with ABC, President Trump called out the media for covering a pro-abortion march but ignoring the March for Life.

ABC's David Muir asked Trump if he "could hear the voices from the women’s march here in Washington?"  "I couldn’t hear them, but the crowds were large," Trump responded. "You’re gonna have a large crowd on Friday, too, which is mostly pro-life people. You’re gonna have a lot of people coming on Friday, and I will say this, and I didn’t realize this, but I was told, you will have a very large crowd of people. I don’t know – as large or larger – some people say it’s gonna be larger. Pro-life people. And they say the press doesn’t cover them."



Click here for more from LifeSiteNews.com

How IL Congress members voted on ending taxpayer funding of abortion

Congressman Darin LaHood argued to end taxpayer funding of abortion
Congressman Darin LaHood argued to end taxpayer
 funding of abortion
A measure that would end taxpayer funding of abortion passed the U.S. House Tuesday afternoon with a 238 to 183 vote. All of Illinois' delegation voted along party lines, except Congressman Dan Lipinski (IL-3), one of three Democrats that supported the bill.

Six members of the Illinois delegation - five Republicans and one Democrat - signed onto H.R. 7, the "No Taxpayer for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act of 2017," as co-sponsors: Democrat Dan Lipinski and Republicans Rodney Davis, Randy Hultgren, Mike Bost, Peter Roskam and Darin LaHood.

On the House Floor, Rep. LaHood said, “57 million innocent lives have been lost to abortion since 1973. Even more disheartening, taxpayer dollars are currently funding them, despite the fact that polls show that 60% of Americans believe that abortions should not be directly paid for with these dollars. I am proud to cosponsor and vote for this measure to permanently prevent taxpayer dollars from being spent on aborting unborn children. It’s time to make this life-saving amendment permanent and government-wide. If signed by the President, this measure would do just that.”



Click here for more from Illinois Review.