| Disclaimer: The linked items below or the websites at which they are located do not necessarily represent the views of The Illinois Federation for Right to Life. They are presented only for your information. Police: Man Tried To Run Over Abortion Protesters A Fayetteville man is facing felony charges after allegedly trying to run over a group of anti-abortion demonstrators. Police said they responded to a call at the Fayetteville Women's Clinic at about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday and took Jason Shireman, 42, into custody on three aggravated assault charges. Witnesses said he drove his car onto the curb, nearly striking three demonstrators. Click here to read the entire article online Judge: AG's Office Must Answer Allegations of Misconduct in Tiller Criminal Case A judge (Sedgwick County District Judge Clark Owens) ruled Thursday that prosecutors for Kansas Attorney General Stephen Six should answer nearly 500 allegations of misconduct by his predecessors. The allegations were leveled by lawyers for Wichita abortion provider George Tiller. Sedgwick County District Judge Clark Owens denied a request by Six's office to wait until after a November hearing to respond to a motion to dismiss 19 misdemeanor charges against Tiller. Tiller faces charges stemming from the way he sought second medical opinions on fetus viability before performing late-term abortions. Tiller is one of the few doctors in the nation who perform such procedures. Click here to read the entire article online Planned Parenthood Desperate to Stop Protest in Colorado Planned Parenthood in Durango, Colorado is really being bothered by LifeGuard' weekly protests. Since they began a couple of years ago, Planned Parenthood has erected a fence and is trying to get the police to intimidate peaceful protestors, to discourage them from protesting. The latest incident at this clinic, on June 11, 2008, resulted in local protestor Jean Paul Wright being arrested on charges of trespass and assault. Wright, who was released on bail for $1,500, had a preliminary court date set for September 16, but more time is needed because the plaintiff, Pamela Beckert, a security guard for Planned Parenthood, has come forward with more injury claims, according to District Attorney Craig Westberg. Click here to read the entire article online Operation Rescue Files Complaint After Abortion Operation Rescue is seeking the emergency suspension of the medical licenses of Drs. George Tiller and Shelley Sella after a Derby woman allegedly went into cardiac arrest last week at Women's Health Care Services during an abortion. But the 23-year-old woman told The Associated Press on Tuesday that she didn't remember giving the anti-abortion group permission to file a complaint with the Kansas Board of Healing Arts, nor had she filed a complaint herself. Click here to read the entire article online California Approves Nurse-Assisted Suicide California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has officially approved an assisted suicide measure allowing nurses to sedate, dehydrate and starve depressed or confused individuals they consider to be "terminally ill." The bill, sponsored by Assemblywoman Patty Berg, a Democrat, passed the California Assembly Aug. 28, and the state Senate Aug. 20. It was signed by the governor yesterday. Click here to read the entire article online Anti-Abortion Group Holds Demonstration at High School A Riverside group held a demonstration in front of La Quinta High School on Monday to express anti-abortion views, sparking concern over what students should be exposed to during the school day. Principal Donna Salazar confirmed Tuesday that about 10 members of Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust, a Christian faith-based organization against abortion, were on the sidewalk near the school, which is public property. The group was not allowed on campus, but assembled at the entrance and exit of the parking lot and bus lanes. |
October 3, 2008
NEWS SHORTS FOR FRIDAY
Web Site Calls Obama Pro-Life
'It's an insult and affront to every true pro-lifer in the country.' A new Web site claims that, if elected president, Sen. Barack Obama would "drastically reduce abortion" and "promote life with dignity for all from the beginning of life to the end." Prolifeproobama.com is the brainchild of the Matthew 25 Network — the same group that created a radio ad this summer attacking Dr. James Dobson. "The Matthew 25 Web page is a desperate attempt to attract pro-life Christian voters to Obama by misrepresenting and redefining the pro-life cause," said Carrie Gordon Earll, senior bioethics analyst at Focus on the Family Action. "It's an insult and affront to every true pro-lifer in the country." The site claims Obama will reduce abortion by "giving women and families the support and the tools they need to choose life." Perhaps Obama should consider supporting Focus on the Family's Option Ultrasound Program, which has issued 405 grants for ultrasound machines and sonography training since 2004. Tens of thousands of preborn babies have been saved, thanks to the millions of dollars that are donated to Focus each year for pro-life efforts. Obama has received a 100 percent pro-abortion rating from Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America. His rating from the National Right to Life Committee? Zero. The Matthew 25 Network, which claims to promote "life with dignity," says an Obama administration would do more than a McCain administration "for the cause of life." Earll said she isn't buying it. "The meaning of pro-life is to protect human life from the single-cell stage to natural death," she said. "That means opposing public policies that target and destroy innocent human life. From what I can see, not one word of this Web site addresses banning abortion, or even restricting it. "If Obama wants to reduce abortion, he should support pro-life measures like parental involvement, informed consent and public-funding restrictions. Obama's words and actions do not conform to being pro-life." Contact: Jennifer Mesko Source: CitizenLink Source URL: www.citizenlink.org Publish Date: October 2, 2008 |
New Illinois Law Could Stifle Grassroots Pro-Life Groups
Pro-life advocates say a new law intended to protect small, grassroots organizations is doing just the opposite. Today in Kane County Circuit Court, members of the Chicago-based Pro-Life Action League were shocked to hear Planned Parenthood of Illinois is demanding $317,322 in legal fees related to a libel lawsuit filed against it by the League and its communication director, Eric Scheidler. Planned Parenthood says it is entitled to recover legal fees for parts of the libel lawsuit a judge dismissed under Illinois' new Citizen Participation Act. "As if it weren't enough for Planned Parenthood to smear our good name with lies in letters to the Aurora City Council and ads in newspapers, now they want to bankrupt us and shut us down for daring to challenge their lies," said Scheidler. According to its wording, the Act was intended to protect individuals' and small organizations' "constitutional rights to...participate in and communicate with government," and guard against the threat of frivolous and costly lawsuits that might deter them from doing so. In this case, the billion-dollar enterprise, Planned Parenthood, is using the law to justify its defamatory statements against Scheidler and the Pro-Life Action League, a small non-profit that operates on an annual budget of $800,000, compared to Planned Parenthood/Chicago Area's budget of more than $15 million. The Act was signed into law on August 28, 2007, just a week before Planned Parenthood accused pro-life advocates of fomenting violence in local newspaper ads and in a letter to the Aurora City Council. Judge Judith Brawka interpreted it and the letter to City Council as being protected because the ad contained a line urging readers to call their local alderman. "Under this interpretation, the Citizen Participation Act has been used not to protect, but to penalize citizen participation -- to the tune of $317,000," said Tom Brejcha, Scheidler's attorney and chief counsel for Thomas More Society/Pro-Life Law Center. "The enormity of Planned Parenthood's fee demand underscores the chilling effects on First-Amendment rights that will inevitably follow the ruling in this case." "They're turning the Citizen Participation Act completely upside-down," Scheidler said. "Powerful Planned Parenthood is trying to intimidate me into dropping my libel case under threat of financial ruin for my small non-profit organization and my family -- but it won't work." Scheidler and his attorneys will return to court on November 12 to respond to Planned Parenthood's fee petition. Contact: Amber Dawe Source: TC Public Relations Source URL: www.tcpr.net Publish Date: October 1, 2008 |
National Life Chain Sunday on Oct. 5
For how long will the destroyer kill and disgrace as innocent blood begs for mercy and justice? When will the churches awaken and "plead the case of the fatherless to win it [Jere. 5:28]"? Which pulpits in each community will rise up and lead? And how eminent is God's Judgment against America and Canada? Those and related questions accompany National Life Chain Sunday 2008, a peaceful public prayer witness to be held October 5 in over 1375 U.S. and Canadian cities and towns (that provide over 1600 Life Chain locations due to multiple Chains in the larger cities). Serious prolifers will line local sidewalks to seek God's forgiveness and intervention, while holding signs that read Abortion Kills Children; Adoption: The Loving Option; Abortion Hurts Women; and Jesus Forgives and Heals. Idle talk, frivolity, and interaction with motorists are not welcomed. Thus to all who deem human life sacred from fertilization until natural death, Life Chain asks: "Will you 'tarry with us' in prayer for one hour? Please do so." The first duty of Life Chainers is to humbly receive the convicting ministry God has for us on October 5. Then, if we are receptive, God can witness through us to save lives and change hearts in each local community. Surgical and chemical abortions have likely killed over 100 million preborn American and Canadian citizens; and, being mindful of other ruinous spiritual forces allied with abortion (homosexuality, pornography, cohabitation, illegitimacy, sexual epidemics, addictions, human embryo abuse and disposal, cloning), Life Chain believes only the church can erect a repentant wall and defeat the destroyers of Western Civilization. Over critical decades the church lost its way. Wrote George Grant in his prominent history of the pro-life movement: "... during much of the twentieth century, the memory of the church was erased.... The community of faith forgot what it was and what it should have been.... the needy, the innocent, and the helpless lost their one sure advocate.... The only urgency that drove much of the church during this dark period was its own satisfaction." And our denial endures with the killing. Was the European church under Nazism our frail mentor? In Hitler's Cross, Erwin Lutzer observed that "... only a few German Christians saw the Jews as their brothers and sisters.... If only the church had seen that when the Jews were persecuted, it was the Lord Jesus who was suffering!" Added German Theologian Helmut Thielicke: "The church had overlooked its greatest danger, namely that in gaining the whole world it might 'lose its own soul.'" America and Canada's holocaust is larger than Europe's by far--with no Hitler to coerce us. Today, will we the church repent of our hypocrisy and truly value unborn humanity? Both our culture and national security ultimately rely on our response. Life Chain depends primarily on local pastors who will lead their congregations and parishes to their city sidewalks. Pastors may add to the prayer topics on the back of each sign, and they are encouraged to prepare their people for earnest intercession and reflection. Life Chain follows a Code of Conduct that respects all motorists and pedestrians; and while Life Chain believes the church must impact government, all political activity is suspended on National Life Chain Sunday. Click here for Illinois locations Contact: Royce Dunn, Director Source: National Life Chain Source URL: www.LifeChain.net Publish Date: October 2, 2008 |