Planned Parenthood losing some big donors

Last year at this time, 2ndVote scored Macy's low partly because of its practice of donating to Planned Parenthood and matching donations from its employees – but 2ndVote spokesperson Robert Kuykendall has an update.

"Macy's reached out to 2ndVote and told us that the company is no longer donating any kind of money to Planned Parenthood, the world's largest provider of abortion," he explains.

Since 2ndVote started scoring corporations, AT&T, Coca Cola, Ford, and Xerox also stopped funding the abortion conglomerate – and Kuykendall says that's largely due to exposing the companies' practices and urging consumers to apply pressure. But there's more work to be done, he says.

"If you're doing business with American Express, with Allstate, with Patagonia especially – Patagonia gives tens of thousands of dollars to Planned Parenthood every year – a portion of your dollars is going to the largest provider of abortion services," he informs. "So we want people to be informed; and secondly, we want people to engage those companies."

Click here for more from OneNewsNow

Supreme Court battle still looms as Justice Department drops effort to block undocumented woman from aborting

Last night, after learning that an undocumented, unaccompanied girl was 19, not 17, lawyers for the Trump administration moved to dismiss an appeal to prevent “Jane Roe” from having an abortion.

According to POLITICO’s Josh Gerstein and Renuka Rayasam, a birth certificate for Jane Roe showed she had lied about her age. In the document filed with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, lawyers for the government explained that HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) “obtained a copy of Ms. Roe’s certificate of birth from her home country. Accordingly, ORR is currently transferring custody of Ms. Roe to the Department of Homeland Security [“DHS”] as an adult.”

The significant of the age difference is, as Gerstein and Rayasam explained, “because Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is responsible for adults in immigration detention, tends to have fewer restrictions on pregnant women seeking to obtain abortions while in custody.”

As a result Jane Roe was released on her own recognizance and was free to have the abortion if she still wanted to.

The second undocumented girl the ACLU sought to have her abortion had already been released, presumably because she was 22 weeks pregnant. “Jane Poe” aborted her baby on Tuesday.

Click here for more from NRL News Today

Tennessee woman gives birth to baby girl frozen as an embryo in 1992

News broke today of a truly remarkable birth that took place last month in Tennessee. On November 25, “Tina and Benjamin Gibson became the proud parents of Emma Wren,” according to Crystal Bonvillian of the Cox Media Group. “Emma weighed a healthy 6 pounds, 8 ounces and measured 20 inches long.”

What made Emma Wren’s birth so special? Emma was frozen as an embryo on October 14, 1992, when mother Tina was just 18 months old!

Mrs. Gibson thus “delivered the longest-frozen embryo to successfully come to birth,” according to a press release from the National Embryo Donation Center [NEDC].

“Emma is such a sweet miracle,” proud papa Benjamin said. “I think she looks pretty perfect to have been frozen all those years ago.”

“The NEDC has been privileged to work with the Gibsons to help them realize their dreams of becoming parents,” said Dr. Jeffrey Keenan [the NEDC Medical Director]. “We hope this story is a clarion call to all couples who have embryos in long-term storage to consider this life-affirming option for their embryos.

Click here for more from NRL New Today

Hospital wants to remove sick toddler’s life support as parents fight for treatment

The parents of 19-month-old Alfie Evans are fighting for him in court, arguing that they should be allowed to transfer their mysteriously sick toddler to another hospital. Alder Hey Children’s Hospital wants to yank Alfie’s life support against his parents’ wishes.

According to British media, the Vatican hospital that offered to help baby Charlie Gard earlier this year is willing to try to find out what’s wrong with Alfie, who has an undiagnosed disease. He’s in a coma and has seizures.  Bambino Gesu Hospital in Rome would give Alfie “a tracheotomy and a percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) to allow him to be fed through his stomach,” which is apparently treatment he hasn't been given at Alder Hey. The hospital wouldn't let Alfie be flown to Rome by a private air ambulance.  But officials at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital think it would be in Alfie’s best interest to take him off life support against his parents’ wishes.

Click here for more from LifeSiteNews

2017 Abortion Facility Survey: Abortion Clinic Numbers Keep Dropping

In a year that abortion businesses attempted to expand in America, the actual number of abortion facilities decreased by 27 clinics over 2016 totals.

Closures far outpaced newly opened abortion facilities in 2017.

In all, 49 abortion facilities - 35 surgical and 14 medication only clinics - closed or halted abortion services. Only eight new surgical abortion facilities were opened, along with eleven new medication abortion facilities.

In 2017, there are 704 abortion facilities remaining in the U.S. Of these, 490 offer surgical abortions, often along with medication abortions. There are 214 facilities that offer only medication abortions.

Forty-five percent of all states had at least one abortion facility that closed or halted all abortion services this year.

Click here for more from Christian Newswire

Post-abortive women tell survey they were pressured

Dr. Priscilla Coleman of Bowling Green University in Ohio has compiled responses from post-abortive women who went to pro-life pregnancy centers for help after an abortion. Over a thousand women responded.

The study was published in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons.

Dr. Jane Orient, managing editor of the Journal, tells OneNewsNow the most common negative comment from the women was that they had taken a life.

“Before the pregnancy that led to an abortion,” says Orient, “only a very small number of women had had any type of psychiatric or psychological care or counseling – and afterwards the great majority of them had to have some sort of counseling for things that were related to their emotional reactions” to abortion.

Click here for more from OneNewsNow

Judge orders Trump admin to allow illegal immigrant minors to abort

The battle continues to rage between the pro-abortion American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Trump administration over whether the U.S. government should be forced to provide abortions for pregnant illegal immigrant minors.

“A federal judge granted the ACLU’S request for a temporary restraining order to prevent the Trump administration from blocking two more young immigrant women from obtaining abortions,” the ACLU stated in a press release. “The judge however put the ruling on hold for 24 hours to allow the government time to seek a stay from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.”

Click here for more from LifeSiteNews

Vision 2020 - Week 41 - Sen. Jim Oberweis (R) and Sen. Dale A. Righter (R)

Pray for our legislators...

Give the Gift of Prayer!
Will You Pray with Us?

Vision 2020 and the Illinois Federation for Right to Life 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!

Some of our legislators need prayer that God will open their eyes and change their hearts (or move them out of their positions) and some need prayers that they will have the strength, courage and boldness to be able to stand firmly against the opposition as they fight for life and family values.

Illinois abortion stats lowest since 1973

While Illinois taxpayers will be forced to pay for abortions as early as January 1st, in 2016, the number of abortions declined by 3.7% - 1,474 less statewide.

In 2016 there were 38,382 abortions, down from 39,856 in 2015. The greatest decline came from abortions on high school age girls moving into college, decreasing by 408 abortions (11.9%) on girls ages 15 through 19. That's the lowest number in Illinois since 1973 - the year the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortions.

Abortions also declined in the two counties that historically have the highest rate of abortions: Cook County and Dupage County. In these counties, abortions declined 5% and 5.9 % respectively.

However, the health department shows that even though abortions decreased overall, abortions increased on minor girls aged 0-14 by 26.8%. Abortions on women traveling from out of state also increased by 41.5%.

Click here for more from Illinois Review

Planned Parenthood squirming to survive

American Life League has released its annual report on Planned Parenthood indicating that this year the abortion chain opened five new clinics, one each in five states and closed 32 facilities in 16 states.

That report can be read here.

ALL director Jim Sedlak says that continues to be a trend.

"They were at their high back in 1995 when they had 938 clinics,” Sedlak says, "and right now Planned Parenthood is down to 597 clinics. They've closed 341 clinics since 1995. It is an organization that is imploding.”

According to the report, there is no let-up in closures and services are diminishing.

While getting well over a half-billion dollars from the government, the abortion conglomerate has lost business, dropping from 3.1 million customers to 2.4 million.

Click here for more from OneNewsNow

Christmas should inspire us to fight even harder to save babies from abortion

God took on a body at Christmas, and became visible, so that love could become visible. It is the incarnation, a word coming from the Latin "in carne," which means, "in the flesh." Christmas is God in the flesh: no longer only an eternal Spirit who fills the universe, but our brother, whom we can hear, see, and touch. By having his own blood, he could shed it for us. By having his own body, he could offer it on the cross for us.

God becoming visible at Christmas is not only a blessing we receive; it is an obligation we accept. In receiving the one who took on a body precisely to sacrifice it for us, we accept the duty and privilege of sacrificing our own bodies, possessions, and lives in order to love one another, especially the oppressed, first among whom are the unborn.

For more reflections on the connections between the Advent-Christmas season and our pro-life commitment, download the ebook at ChristmasForTheUnborn.com

Click here for more from LifeSiteNews

Obama-appointed judge blocks Trump’s rule ending HHS contraceptive mandate

Obama-appointed U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone (pictured) has blocked a Trump order from October that was to end the federal requirement that employers violate their consciences to participate in the provision of employees’ contraceptives and abortifacient drugs.

Judge Beetlestone ruled in the lawsuit filed by the state of Pennsylvania that she would not permit such “sweeping exemptions” to the Affordable Care Act and could not envision an exemption that “intrudes more into the lives of women.”

Click here for more from LifeSiteNews.com

Center for Medical Progress asks that Judge be disqualified

David Daleiden, the citizen journalist who heads the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), has stepped up his efforts to have San Francisco federal Judge William Orrick III (pictured) disqualified from the lawsuits brought against CMP by Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Federation.

In a release sent out Wednesday, Daleiden said the CMP had filed a petition for a writ of mandamus in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing that Judge Orrick’s “extrajudicial support of Planned Parenthood” means he should no longer preside.

Judge Orrick is responsible for the prior-restraint gag order that “censors CMP’s remaining undercover footage of Planned Parenthood at the National Abortion Federation’s annual meetings,” which CMP is currently is appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court, according to the press release. In addition

Daleiden cited four specific facts about Judge Orrick which justified his disqualification, including most significantly, “While in a leadership role at a San Francisco family resource center, Judge Orrick helped open, run, and fund a Planned Parenthood clinic in partnership with the family resource center. That clinic is part of Planned Parenthood Northern California, which has NAF membership and is now suing CMP in Judge Orrick’s courtroom.”

Click here for more form NRL News Today

NRLC strongly urges Congress to oppose Alexander-Murray and Collins-Nelson proposals

The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of state right-to-life organizations, urges you to oppose the Bipartisan Health Care Stabilization Act of 2017 (Alexander-Murray) sponsored by Sens. Lamar Alexander and Patty Murray as well as the Lower Premiums Through Reinsurance Act of 2017 (Collins-Nelson), sponsored by Sens. Susan Collins and Bill Nelson, because they lack Hyde-like protections.

The Alexander-Murray proposal would appropriate over 20 billion dollars in cost-sharing reduction (CSR) payments to be distributed to insurers, and these payments do not include Hyde-like restrictions. If enacted, the Alexander-Murray CSR payments can be expected to underwrite an estimated one thousand Obamacare plans that cover abortion on demand.

Additionally, the Collins-Nelson proposal would amend Obamacare to provide nearly 10 billion taxpayer dollars to subsidize abortion on demand through reinsurance.

We urge Congress that both proposals be amended to include language to reflect the long-standing pro-life policy of the Hyde amendment.

Click here for more from NRL News Today

Women Traumatized by Past Abortions File Brief at U.S. Supreme Court

Operation Outcry and The Justice Foundation filed a Supreme Court Amicus brief including the testimony of Cynthia Collins and 10 women of Operation Outcry, in Case No. 17-689,  Andrew March v. Janet T. Mills, as Attorney General of Maine, et al. The issue in this case is whether a preacher should be allowed freedom of speech to preach against abortion on a sidewalk outside the abortion facility.

Click here to read the brief. The Justice Foundation was represented pro bono by Erin Mersino and William Wagner of The Great Lakes Justice Center.

Operation Outcry, a ministry of The Justice Foundation, has collected approximately 4,500 written testimonies of women traumatized by abortion in their past, who are now bravely breaking silence.

Click here for more from Christian Newswire

Trump may have become first president to describe a ‘pro-choice’ Democrat as ‘pro-abortion’

In urging Alabamians to vote for Judge Roy Moore yesterday, President Trump made an important distinction that pro-life politicians often fail to acknowledge: he used the phrase “pro-abortion” rather than “pro-choice.”

"Doug Jones is Pro-Abortion,​" said Trump on twitter yesterday.

This may be the first time a U.S. President has accurately described those who support legalized abortion as pro-abortion rather than use the euphemistic phrase “pro-choice.”

Click here for more from LifeSiteNews

Former Planned Parenthood VP will be appointed to U.S. Senate

The governor of Minnesota has appointed former Planned Parenthood vice president Tina Flint Smith to replace Democratic Sen. Al Franken, who resigned last week over sexual misconduct.

Smith is Gov. Mark Dayton’s Lieutenant Governor. She was the vice president of public policy at Planned Parenthood of Minnesota and the Dakotas from 2003 to 2006.

Click here for more from LifeSiteNews

Chicago area carolers to gather outside abortion facilities

Throughout December, Christmas carolers will gather outside abortion facilities across America, to draw attention to the unborn children at risk of abortion. The Pro-Life Action League’s nationwide caroling event, Peace in the Womb, brings the Christmas message of peace and joy to the darkness of abortion clinics at over 80 locations in 30 states.

“It’s particularly sad to think of someone getting an abortion during the Christmas season, when we celebrate a new dawn of hope and joy coming into the world with the birth of a child,” explained Eric Scheidler, Executive Director of the Pro-Life Action League. “With our Christmas carols, we seek to remind those entering abortion facilities, and the entire community, that the Christmas message of salvation came through an unplanned pregnancy.”

The Pro-Life Action League calls for pro-life advocates to gather outside of abortion facilities across America throughout December to sing Christmas carols. Peace in the Womb caroling events take place nationwide, with multiple events and locations in some metro areas, including Chicago, Omaha and Philadelphia. December 2017 marks the fifteenth year that the Pro-Life Action League has coordinated caroling outside of abortion clinics.

Click here for more from Illinois Review

City Sides with Abortion Industry in Free Speech Crackdown

In a decision handed down Monday night, the city council for Hartford, Conn., authorized a new regulation that will force the city’s only pro-life pregnancy center to post signage meant to turn women away from its life-saving services.

Threatening Hartford Women’s Center with a $100 fine per day for noncompliance, the ordinance would require the center to identify itself as a non-medical facility despite the fact that its team includes licensed medical professionals working under the supervision of a physician.

By the time the ordinance is set to go into effect, July 1, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on a similar case in 2018, which will likely affect whether or not the regulation in Hartford stands or falls.

Other, more onerous laws forcing pregnancy centers to speak a government message have come under scrutiny in Illinois, California and Hawaii, with a judge permanently stopping Illinois’ law and the U.S. Supreme Court taking up pro-lifers’ challenge to California’s law earlier in November.

Click here for more from NRL News Today

Aborted baby parts traffickers hit with $7.8 million lawsuit settlement

Two California bioscience companies that illegally trafficked aborted baby body parts for profit have been wallopped with a $7.8-million settlement and told to close shop forever in the Golden State.

DV Biologics and DaVinci Biosciences were exposed in the summer of 2015 as illegal for-profit fetal parts traffickers in undercover videos taken by the Center for Medical Progress at abortion trade conventions. In September of that year, Orange County’s district attorney’s office began an investigation of its own. It filed suit just over a year later in Orange County Superior Court.

Click here for more from LifeSiteNews