New Maine Law Requires Insurers to Pay for Abortions and Lowers Qualifications Required to Commit Them

Gov. Janet Mills

A law that went into effect Thursday requires certain health insurance plans to pay for abortions, while also allowing less qualified individuals to perform them. Some physician assistants and nurses will now be allowed to commit abortions.

Gov. Janet Mills said this on CNN after signing the bill in June:

"Every woman in Maine should be able to access sexual and reproductive health care when and where they need it. While other states are seeking to undermine, roll back, or outright eliminate a woman's right to make her own personal medical decisions, Maine is defending the rights of women and taking a critical step towards equalizing access to their care."

Pro-lifers fear that the law will result in more abortions, violate conscientious objections of insurers, and harm mothers who have less-qualified medical personnel committing abortions on their preborn children. Click here for more.

Canadian Catholic Hospital Required to Offer Euthenasia

St. Martha’s Regional Hospital in Antigonish, Nova Scotia will now be required to kill patients who ask to be euthanized. The Nova Scotia Health Authority recently implemented a policy change that seemingly goes against an agreement set between the health authority and the Sisters of St. Martha in 1996. Tim Guest, the authority's vice-president of health services, had this to say:

“This approach respects the 1996 Mission Assurance Agreement with the Sisters of St. Martha that lays out the philosophy, mission and values of St. Martha’s in accordance with its faith-based identity, while also meeting the legislated obligation to ensure that [assisted suicide and euthanasia] is available in the Antigonish area for those who request and meet the criteria to access that service.”

A euthanasia advocacy group called Dying with Dignity Canada said it hopes other provinces will see this and use it as a model for enforcement of euthanasia legislation in their own jurisdictions. Click here for more.

New Bipartisan Bill Increases Minimum Action States Must Take to Reduce Sex-Trafficking

Credit: Ira Gelb

Congresswoman Ann Wagner (R-MO) and Congressman Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) recently introduced the Sex Trafficking Demand Reduction Act. The new legislation, if passed, would require states to use language prohibiting the purchase of sex as a minimum measure in preventing sex trafficking.

The bill states “if a government has the authority to prohibit the purchase of commercial sex acts but fails to do so, it shall be deemed to have failed to make serious and sustained efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts.” If the bill is passed, those who purchase sex from traffickers or prostitutes can face legal consequences. If this bill successfully makes sex-trafficking and prostitution less profitable throughout the United States, the women and children (born and unborn) who are often hurt in these practices will be better for it. Click here for more.

Nebraska Man Denied Memorial Ad in Paper for Aborted Son

Brad Allen at Protest with Life Runners
Credit: Life Runners Facebook Page

The Omaha World-Herald denied a father's request to publish a memorial ad for his aborted son. Brad Allen's son was conceived during an affair that he had with a neighbor. After reconciling with his wife, Allen pled with the mother not to abort.

“In the struggle for my child’s life the mother’s ‘right’ to an abortion utterly overwhelmed my right to protect and provide for my own child,” Allen said. “I couldn’t even bury my own child. I’m now discovering my right to even memorialize my own child is being overwhelmed. I didn’t expect the Omaha World-Herald to deny me that.”

Originally, Allen's ad was denied for directing readers to donate to a pro-life organization called Life Runners, but he removed the mention in later iterations to attempt to comply with the paper's demands. Click here for more.

Guttmacher Report Shows Significant Abortion Decrease

The Guttmacher Institute is a pro-abortion organization that publishes a report every few years detailing developments in the number and kinds of abortions taking place in the United States. Its most recent report (which shows information up to 2017) showed a 7% decrease in abortion between 2014 and 2017. For context, the institute found 862,000 abortion occurred in 2017, 926,000 in 2014 and 1. 6 million in 1990. This is still a very large number of abortions, but it is also nearly half of its all-time high now. However, 18.4% of pregnancies still ended in abortion in 2017. The study also notes that fertility rates decreased between the years 2014 and 2017.

The report has statistics regarding the usage of different abortion methods and changes in the number of abortion providers. Click here for more.

Stem Cell Researcher Testifies Only Hearts from Live Babies Can be Used in Research

David Daleiden

Dr. Theresa Deisher testified on behalf of the defense as an expert witness on September 18th, the final day of preliminary hearings for the illegal recording lawsuit against undercover journalists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt. Deisher testified that Daleiden contacted her in 2012 to inquire about a Stanford University Study from that year using fetal tissue provided by StemExpress. He wanted to know if researchers would have required hearts harvested from living babies. Deisher told him in 2012 that this was true and repeated this in her testimony on Wednesday.

She testified that a heart “has to be beating and be arrested in a relaxed position” for researchers to harvest a heart that is useful for research. “Once the heart goes into contraction, you can’t get it to come out of that position,” she said. She also testified that Daleiden called her several times during his investigation to learn the science of stem cell research and its vocabulary. Click here for more.

Detroit Police Harasses Pro-Life Protesters During Democratic Debate

The pro-life organization Created Equal is suing the city of Detroit for violating their constitutional right to protest outside during a Democratic presidential debate. The encounter culminated with the handcuffing of a protestor and the threat to arrest him and other protestors unless they agreed to leave. You can watch footage recorded by the protestors above and read more by clicking here.

Abortionist Takes Stand in Defense of Undercover Journalists

Dr. Forrest Smith, one of the longest-practicing abortionists in the United States, testified Wednesday on behalf of David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt. He testified that the Center for Medical Progress videos recorded by the undercover journalists indicate that abortion providers were purposefully altering abortion procedures to collect intact fetal organs in ways that were harmful to women, and likely resulted in babies being killed after they were removed from the womb.

“There’s no question in my mind that at least some of these fetuses were live births,” Smith said. He testified that Planned Parenthood's definition of "fetal demise" was very loose and did not correctly identify when a child was actually dead. He commented that the removed limbs, a removed umbilical cord, a clamped cord, lack of pulsation in the umbilical cord, no breathing, and no movement were all definitions he had seen used by Planned Parenthood, but none of them completely ruled out a living fetus because they didn't include a heartbeat. He went as far as to say that some Planned Parenthood from the prosecution likely didn't know they were delivering live fetuses because of their definitions, and they were guilty of killing fetuses "by neglect." Click here to read more about Dr. Smith's testimony.

Daleiden Testified he Filed Murder Charges Against Planned Parenthood

David Daleiden

On Sep. 18th, David Daleiden testified in court that he filed criminal charges against Planned Parenthood and several fetal tissue harvesting companies before releasing videos of undercover conversations with abortionists. Daleiden is facing charges for illegally recording supposedly confidential conversations, but California law states that in cases where one has a reasonable belief that they are investigating violent crimes privacy law cannot be applied. Testimony about these charges and conversations with police were meant to show Daleiden's state of mind during his investigation. Judge Hite, however, ruled it inadmissible.

Judge Hite stated that because Daleiden did not file his report with the El Dorado Attorney General until after he recorded the videos, it was irrelevant to the charges he is facing. Meetings that Daleiden had with El Dorado law enforcement officers during his investigation were not ruled out, however. Read more about Daleden's testimony from that day here.

Oklahoma Judge Refuses to Delay Ban on Dismemberment Abortion

An Oklahoma law banning dismemberment abortion was passed in 2015, but it has faced legal trouble ever since then. The Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act was upheld in court on July 12 and has now also survived a motion for a temporary injunction from the Center for Reproductive Rights. It is very close to being the law of the land in Oklahoma, but it still awaits the conclusion of an emergency motion in another court case involving the Tulsa's Women's clinic.

Dismemberment abortion involves tearing limbs off an unborn child one-by-one until the remaining pieces of the body are easier to remove from the mother's womb. This process is the most common method for second-trimester abortions. Click here for more.

Judge Rejects Request to Quash Search Warrant Against Daleiden

On September 16, Judge Christopher C. Hite issued a ruling stating that the search warrant issued against Daleiden would not be quashed because the California eavesdropping law does not contain exceptions for journalistic activities. He also said there was, “sufficient probable cause in the warrant that Daleiden was engaged in criminal activity irrespective of his journalistic status and that the items seized were related to the criminal activity."

The defense for Daleiden and Merritt also requested a Franks hearing on Friday. This procedure would investigate whether the information provided by the police to obtain a warrant included false statements from an officer. The defense argued that DOJ special agent Cardwell was pressured by planned parenthood to serve the warrant and did not provide complete information to the judge when requesting it. He left out, for example, the fact that several conversations were recorded in public places where there could be no assumption of confidentiality. Furthermore, defense lawyer Brent Ferreira stated that the defense collected statements from at least two Department of Justice agents who were willing to testify that the entire operation was political.

Despite all of this, Judge Hite ruled there was insufficient essence to justify a Franks hearing. Click here for more.

California Bill Would Require State Colleges to Provide Abortion Pills

Gov. Gavin Newsom

A bill requiring University of California and California State University campuses to provide abortion pills to students is awaiting the signature of Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has already expressed his approval. A similar bill was vetoed by the previous governor Jerry Brown because he believed there were enough abortion facilities in the state that there wasn't an issue with students' access to abortion.

Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, had this to say:

"California legislators are recklessly experimenting with students’ lives and health by advancing a plan to force school health centers to become abortion vendors, pushing chemical abortion pills to force an intentional miscarriage. These Toilet Bowl Abortions would create havoc on campuses, as girls are sent to their dorm bathrooms to bleed and pass an aborted infant in a toilet, without medical supervision or assistance. Why would California schools want to expose their students and their universities to that kind of deadly risk?"

The governor has until October 13 to decide if he wants to sign this version of the bill. Click here for more. 

Dignity in Dying Video Promotes Assisted Suicide by Portraying Hospice as Torture

Dignity in Dying Scotland recently released a video to go along with a report titled "The Inescapable Truth," in which a young boy asks his mother how his grandfather died. As she describes his cancer and the process of putting him in hospice care, the video cuts to jarring shots of the grandfather writhing in pain asking to "make it stop" while the mother watched and cried. The report claims that 17 people die in this way each day and advertises assisted suicide as the solution to this problem.

Videos like these only serve to pressure scared or depressed individuals into feeling like they should choose suicide over palliative care. We can't allow propaganda like this to make anyone's life feel worthless. Click here for more.

Conversations with Fetal Tissue Procurement Technician Motivated Daleiden to Investigate Abortionists

Holly O'Donnell
Credit: Center for Medical Progress

David Daleiden testified on Monday that his reasoning for beginning his undercover investigation into members of the abortion industry was spurred by a former tissue procurement technician at StemExpress. He testified that in October 2013, he contacted Holly O'Donnell via Facebook message to inquire about StemExpress procedures. He attempted to show a video clip of O'Donnell talking about her experiences, but it was deemed inadmissible due to editing. Daleiden instead testified her story.

O'Donnell told Daleiden that she witnessed her supervisor tap on the heart of an intact fetus and watched it beat for "about 30 to 50 seconds" before having O'Donnell cut through the fetus's face to harvest the brain. O'Donnell soon left that job sadly died of multiple health challenges in 2018 at the age of 27.

His discussion with O'Donnell led Daleiden to believe that StemExpress and Planned Parenthood Mar Monte committed homicide on live babies. Click here for more.

Daleiden Begins Testimony on Undercover Journalism Operation

Undercover Journalist for the Center for Medical Progress David Daleiden took the stand for the first time Monday to testify as a defendant in a case regarding an illegal taping lawsuit in California. He began to detail many of the interactions that he had with members of the abortion industry while posing as a graduate student researching stem cells. He was told by lawyers before starting the operation that the taping would be considered legal under California law if it was done in public spaces where conversations couldn't be considered confidential or if he had a reasonable belief that he was gathering evidence of violent crimes.

Under oath, he discussed conversations with abortion doctors who admitted to selling fetal tissue when he expressed the desire to gather fetal specimen donations. He testified that an abortionist named Perrin Larton from an organization called Advanced Bioscience Resources told him that she was performing abortions for the purpose of harvesting fetal organs. The conversations led Daleden to believe that the organs were harvested from babies who were born alive in order to harvest tissue more effectively.

He also spoke about conversations his co-defendant Sandra Merritt had with other doctors in the abortion industry. They admitted to purposefully altering abortion procedures in order to obtain completely intact bodies when removing fetuses from their mothers' wombs. Abortion consultant Ruth Arick admitted to employing over-dilation as a method of procuring intact bodies and even stated that this was "a risk to women." This confirms that these abortion disregard the health of the women asking for abortions for the sake of profiting from organ sales. Daleiden's testimony will continue today. Click here for more.

New Federal Program Allocates $9 Million to Support Rural Pregnant Women

A new federal program aimed at offering prenatal and obstetrical care to pregnant women in rural areas was announced by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The Rural Maternity and Obstetrics Management Strategies (RMOMS) program will fund Texas, Missouri, and New Mexico health care services by testing models for services that might someday be implemented on a larger scale.

Hospital-based OB services are unavailable in roughly half of the rural counties in the United States, so this should be welcome for many women who don't have access to nearby care at all. It also becomes more difficult for Planned Parenthood to argue that defunding it would decrease women's access to health care. Click here for more.

Disabled Woman Jokingly Asks Assisted Suicide Donations. "No Single Person Said No."

Alex Luyckx

Samantha Connor, a wheelchair-bound woman, was protesting the premiere of a pro-suicide film titled "Me Before You," in which a wealthy man commits assisted suicide after becoming disabled to not burden his girlfriend and allow her to "live boldly." She was with about 15 other protestors at the time and decided to make what she thought would just be a joke.

“Because I’m completely hilarious I had a giant tin that said ‘Send Me to a Swiss Suicide Clinic’ and I rattled the tin after we’d finished our tiny protest, in jest, thinking that I was being funny." Initially, it was funny, but over time it became far more somber. "We took our tin and rattled it and over the course of the next hour, the smiles faded from our faces, because no single person said ‘no’.” Donators state that they would also want to die if they were in a wheelchair. Click here for more.

2,246 Unborn Babies' Bodies Found at Deceased Abortionist's Illinois Home

Ulrich Klopfer

The bodies of 2,246 unborn children were found at the home of recently-deceased abortionist Dr. Ulrich Klopfer in Will County, Illinois. Klopfer committed abortions at several abortion clinics around South Bend Indiana until his abortion license expired in 2016. The bodies were discovered by Klopfer's attorney while he was going through Klopfer's property. He called the Will County Coroner's office to have them properly removed.

The Will County Sheriff's office issued a press release stating, “The family is cooperating fully with this investigation. There is no evidence that any medical procedures were conducted at the property.” If there is no evidence indicating abortions were committed on his property, then it becomes more likely that the bodies were transported from the Indiana abortion facilities at which he worked. Click here for more.

Department of Justice Agent Changes Testimony Regarding Letter

California DOJ Agent Brian Cardwell
Photo Credit: Jim Hale / LifeSiteNews

On Tuesday, September 10 Department of Justice special agent Brian Cardwell testified under oath that he saw a letter from Obama Attorney General Loretta Lynch to then California Attorney General Kamala Harris requesting that Harris start an investigation of pro-life journalists. On Friday, September 30, he took back that statement, saying the letter he saw was not from Lynch. It was likely an already-known letter from Reps. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill.; Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif.; Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y.; and Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y that was sent to both the Federal and State Attorney Generals.

Peter Breen, a lawyer for David Daleiden, had this about the incident: “[The change in testimony] doesn’t in any way diminish the fact that this is a political prosecution and everyone knows it." Click here for more.

20,000 Pro-Lifers Held Silent Protest in front of Ireland Government Buildings

On September 6, approximately 20,000 Northern Ireland protestors marched to parliament buildings to hold a silent protest of the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Act 2019. The legislation requires Northern Ireland to make a provision for abortion laws if its government does not assemble before October 21, 2019.

The protestors silently held lights for six minutes to represent the six counties of Northern Ireland, none of which were represented in the vote for this legislation. “We want our silence to say two things," said Sarah Crutchley, a spokeswoman for the pro-life event. "...First, we, as the people of Northern Ireland, were not asked about this change in legislation, and that it actually goes against public opinion here, and that every sitting MP from Northern Ireland voted against this change, and that the unborn children, they have no voice, they cannot speak so they were not considered in this legislation.”

Click here for more.