March 6, 2015

So you won't perform abortions, doc? Prepare to be sued by the ACLU


The American Civil Liberties Union is suing a hospital in Washington state – because it's not performing enough abortions to make its plaintiff happy. 

The ACLU has filed suit against Skagit Regional Health under the state's Reproductive Privacy Act, which requires that public hospitals that offer maternity services also offer access to abortions, too.

The complaint is that the hospital - which does some abortions but refers others to Planned Parenthood - doesn't do enough abortions.

In a press release, the ACLU complained that Skagit performs a "wide array" of maternity care services "yet does not provide medication abortions and rarely provides surgical abortions."


Worse still, claims the far-left ACLU, too many doctors at Skagit have signed up to refuse to do abortions.

Dan Kennedy, who heads Human Life of Washington, says the law is "quite clear" that doctors and nurses can't be forced to participate in abortions, and their hiring can't be based on if they're willing to perform them.

"That is also illegal," he says, "and yet that is exactly what the ACLU wants."

A Washington newspaper reports that there is "tension" over the state law demanding abortions and also allowing doctors to opt out of performing them.

"The law says we can't require employees to violate their conscience to perform an abortion," a spokesperson for the Washington State Hospital Association told the newspaper. 

Kennedy considers the lawsuit "the tyranny of the intolerant," pointing out the Left's supposed live-and-let-live belief that champions the rights of the individual.

"And yet if you don't agree with them, they don't let you live so it's absolutely deplorable," Kennedy complains. "This is just absolute nonsense but another one of those things where they just beat on something, and beat on it until they end up getting their way." 

By: Charlie Butts, OneNewsNow

Why are ardent pro-abortion feminists reluctant to tell their own children about their abortions?

NRLC has run dozens of stories about the attempt of pro-abortionists to “normalize”abortion by (among other tactics) “telling their stories.”The assumption is not hard to figure out. They believe if woman “openly”talk about their abortions, over time the public will grow used to hearing the stories and conclude, hey, it’s no big deal to dismember a baby.
Of course, in reality what happens to the kid is subsumed under the neutral sounding nomenclature of “choice.”My guess is few abortion “stories”talk about separating tiny arms and legs from little torsos.
What Happened When My Daughter Asked About My Abortion,” by Raven Snook (I’m assuming that is her actual name) appeared yesterday on Yahoo’s Parenting section.
The first third of the story””about Snook’s difficulty in telling her own child about her own abortion””introduces us to the wonderfulness of “Not Alone,”an organization run by Sherry Matusoff Merfish and her two grown daughters.
Merfish had an abortion in college and did not tell her daughters about it until they went off to college. Beth Matusoff Merfish subsequently wrote an op-ed for the New York Times. We commented on it at the time and are reposting it both as background to this post and because it is a fascinating example of burying the truth in the guise of telling the truth.
There’s nothing terribly original in “Not Alone,”except that (a) the accounts are short videos posted on the site, and (b) more “stories” than you might think would be posted on a pro-abortion site talk of pain and depression following an abortion. (We also wrote about that last year.)
Snook asks herself why she “froze” when her nine-year-old daughter asked, “Mommy, were you ever pregnant besides me?”
After all, Snook tells us, she’d been open with her friends about her abortion, was “unabashedly pro-choice,”had talked about the birds and the bees with her daughter “and the fact that women have the right to decide if and when they become mommies.”
Yet…
when it came to revealing my own abortion “a necessary conversation so that my daughter views it as a personal choice, not a political one” I panicked.
Which is what led Snook to the discovery that “Apparently I’m not alone.”
I spoke with a number of moms, including a few ardent feminists who discussed their abortions with me, but couldn’t bring themselves to tell their kids. As one admitted, “I don’t know why! I’m not ashamed of it, and it was the right thing to do at the time, but I have this mental block about it. The stigma goes deep.”
Which led her to the importance of “telling stories”and “Not Alone.”After all, why should any woman who had aborted””let alone someone who is “unabashedly pro-choice”””dread telling her own kids?
Just to ask the question is to answer it: all the pro-abortion feminist jargon in the word doesn’t minimize the fear that your living children might look at your differently, might feel less secure.
Snook ends with an unintentionally revealing final paragraph:
I still haven’t answered my daughter’s question. The day she inquired, after a few moments of silence, I blurted out, “Why would you ask that?”and quickly changed the subject. Now I want to find my way back to that conversation, but in an organic way. I’d rather she initiate it than me say, “By the way, have I ever told you about the time I had an abortion?”So I’m waiting, but I know it will come. And this time, I’ll tell the truth.
“By the way?”
“By the way, did I tell you about the time I forget to get milk?”
“By the way, have I ever told you that I once forgot to unplug the curling iron?”
Taking an unborn child’s life is not a by-the-way topic of conversation. Snook squares the circle by telling us that she’s going to find an “organic way” to revisit the subject she quickly changed from.
But there is night and day difference between trying to portray abortion as an example of how “women have the right to decide if and when they become mommies”and honestly admitting (if you feel it is right to tell your children) that you made a mistake.
One is rationalizing an evil. The other is confessing human vulnerability and asking for forgiveness.
By Dave Andrusko, NRL News Today

Pro-choice activist: “I know life begins at conception”

Pictured Left: Jodi Jacobson
[From Jodi Jacobson “Life Begins At Conception. That’s Not the Point” RH Reality Check November 4, 2012.]
“Here is a startling revelation: I am a mother of two and a woman who earlier in her life had an abortion. I am unapologetically pro-choice. And I know life ‘begins’ at conception …. because I kinda already knew that having a child required, as a first step, the successful integration of a sperm and an egg, or fertilization.
“In other words, ‘life’ begins at conception, if by ‘life,’ we mean the essential starting place of a potential human being. Neither my 16-year-old daughter nor my 13-year-old son would be here if they were not first conceived, if the fertilized eggs had not gone through the process of cell division, successfully implanted in my uterus and developed into healthy embryos, and subsequently gone successfully through the many other phases of development leading to their births.”
[Commenting on a quote from Congressman Paul Ryan, where he said that seeing his unborn baby on the ultrasound screen, convinced him that life began at conception]
“I understand that seeing the sonogram of a wanted child is a powerful thing and a connection to the potential person whose birth is much awaited. But if it took Paul Ryan to see a sonogram of his daughter in utero to get him to believe his wife was pregnant and that his daughter’s “life” began with conception, the state of GOP knowledge on sex and biology is even worse than I thought.”
She does not explain how “life begins at conception,” but an unborn baby is only a “potential child.” It is typical pro-choice doublespeak.
Editor’s note. This appeared at clinicquotes.com.
By Sarah Terzo, via NRL News Today

How to change hearts on abortion in under one minute


A new video from Pro-Life Texas, Stolen Moments, offers a perspective so powerful, you may be left speechless after you see it:
The video gives faces to a handful of the 57 million Americans who are not with us today because of legal abortion. Just imagine the millions of unique individuals who would be your siblings, your aunts and uncles, your teachers, your classmates, you doctors, your childhood best friends, your co-workers, or maybe even your spouse or your own children. They were not the victims of circumstance, disease, disaster, or accidents. Their deaths were wholly preventable – their lives could be thriving today. We will never know who those 55 million were, but we have all been affected by their loss.
The filmmakers at Pro-Life Texas, Jason Vaughn and Andrew Koch, wanted to expand the perceptions of the millions lost to abortion. Abortion victims are usually depicted as babies in utero, growing and developing.
But what if we carried that image further, thought the filmmakers, to explore the adults and children who are tangibly missing from our daily lives today as a result of abortion. “I wanted something different that made people think of those aborted as not just blobs of tissue or faces on a sonogram,” said Koch. “These were people who had a life and future taken from them and the world.”

Unfortunately, the pair’s vision was stalled by the anti-Life antics of Kickstarter, the crowd-funding site that bizarrely banned the Stolen Moments campaign, along with the hugely-funded Gosnell Movie campaign. Both campaigns moved to Indiegogo, where they each achieved or exceeded their full funding goals. “Crowd-funding has been huge to help creative messages on both sides of the spectrum to get out and promote open and free speech,” said Vaughn.
For such a short video, the pair put many months of work into production. But they wanted to get the first video just right, in hopes that the first installment will serve as the catalyst for a forthcoming series of short films aimed at providing an unexplored perspective on abortion to the masses. “If it makes one person thinks about their options and what may be lost if they get an abortion,” said Vaughn, “then it’s a success beyond measure and well worth the efforts of all involved.”

Source: Texas Right to Life, via NRL News Today

Ultrasounds Save Lives

A survey conducted by the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA), a national legal network of prolife pregnancy centers, showed how powerful ultrasounds are in changing the minds of abortion-minded and abortion-vulnerable patients. 
NIFLA stated in a press release:
Four-hundred and ten (410) of NIFLA's medical membership (less than one-half) reported providing 75,318 ultrasound confirmations of pregnancy in 2013 on patients identified as either abortion-minded or abortion-vulnerable. Of these abortion at risk patients, 58,634 chose to carry to term, indicating that 78% of those mothers who saw an ultrasound image of their unborn child before deciding about abortion chose life.
When asked whether ultrasound confirmation of pregnancy has a positive impact upon a mother considering abortion to choose life 83.5% said "Absolutely," 15.76% said "More than likely," and 0.74% said, "Only a small impact."
Planned Parenthood and abortion advocates will do all they can to conceal the reality that abortion kills babies.  That is why they refer to preborn babies as “tissues” or “products of conception” and oftentimes dissuade women from looking at their ultrasounds.  Technology reveals the truth that they try to hide from women.  When a woman sees her preborn child on an ultrasound, with a beating heart by 22 days post-fertilization, she will most likely choose life—78% of abortion-minded or abortion-vulnerable mothers who saw their ultrasounds did!  It is not a coincidence that 83.5% said that the ultrasound “Absolutely” has a positive impact and another 15.76% said that it “More than likely” did. 
We are seeing a trend in women connecting with their babies before birth.  Four dimensional ultrasounds (4-D) have done wonders in revealing to us the humanity of the child.  One ultrasound company did a 3-D/4-D photo contest asking parents to send in their child’s ultrasounds and photo post-birth, generally in the same pose as their ultrasound. The results are stunning, revealing the striking resemblance of these children’s mannerisms, both in the womb and outside of it.  There is also a new phenomenon of women doing 3-D printing of their ultrasounds for as little as $250.  A writer at the Washington Post admitted that it “could perhaps change the abortion debate.”  When the humanity of the preborn child is revealed with the help of technology, both the child and the mom win.
Source: FRCBlog

March 5, 2015

ACTION ALERT!


Ultrasound opportunity act

HB 2701

Chief Sponsor: Representative Barbara Wheeler

This bill provides that at any facility where abortions are performed, the physician who is to perform the abortion, the referring physician, or another qualified person working in conjunction with either physician shall offer any woman seeking an abortion after 8 weeks of gestation an opportunity to receive and view an active ultrasound of her unborn child by someone qualified to perform ultrasounds at the facility, or at a facility listed in a listing of local ultrasound providers provided by the facility, prior to the woman having any part of an abortion performed or induced and prior to the administration of any anesthesia or medication in preparation for the abortion.

Take Action:

1. Fill out a witness slip in support the bill before the hearing convenes at 8:00 am on Wednesday, March 11th.  Remember to check the boxes for "Proponent," "Record of Appearance Only," Enter "Illinois Federation for Right to Life" for the Agency field and "Citizen" for the Title Field. Make sure to "Agree to Terms" before submitting.
Click here to fill out the witness slip.

2. Please contact as many of the committee members as you can before 7:30 am on Wednesday, March 11th, and let them know that you SUPPORT HR 147, the Ultrasound opportunity act.

Robyn Gabel (Chairperson) (217) 782-8052
Litesa E. Wallace (Vice Chairperson) (217) 782-3167
Patricia R. Bellock (217) 782-1448
Carol Ammons (217) 558-1009
Jaime M. Andrade, Jr. (217) 782-8117
Kelly M. Cassidy (217) 782-8088
Tom Demmer (217) 782-0535
Laura Fine (217) 782-4194
Mary E. Flowers (217) 782-4207
Norine Hammond (217) 782-0416
Sheri L Jesiel (217) 782-8151
Cynthia Soto (217) 782-0150
Brian W. Stewart (217) 782-8186
Michael Unes (217) 782-8152

Click here for other legislation.

March 4, 2015

ACTION ALERT!


UN CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD

HR 147 (RATIFY CONVENTION ON CHILD RIGHTS)

We need to stop this resolution scheduled for committee hearing on Thursday, March 5, at 11:00.

Under this resolution, children would have the right to reproductive health information and services, including abortions,  without parental knowledge or consent.

Take Action:

1. Fill out a witness slip in opposition to the resolution before the hearing convenes at 11:00 am on Thursday, March 5th.  Remember to check the boxes for "Opposition," "Record of Appearance Only," Enter "Illinois Federation for Right to Life" for the Agency field and "Citizen" for the Title Field. Make sure to "Agree to Terms" before submitting.
Click here to fill out the witness slip.

2. Please contact as many of the committee members as you can before 10:30 am on Thursday, March 5th, and let them know that you OPPOSE HR 147. If you want to briefly explain why you oppose a resolution that encourages the ratification of the UNCRC you may do so, but it is not necessary.

Here are the members of the committee and their office numbers in Springfield:
Laura Fine, Chairman (217) 782-4194
Deborah Conroy, Vice-Chairman (217) 782-8158
C.D. Davidsmeyer, Republican Spokesman (217) 782-1840
Adam Brown (217) 782-8398
Terry Bryant (217) 782-0387
Tom Demmer (217) 782-0535
Mary E. Flowers (Bill Sponsor) (217) 782-4207
Robyn Gabel (217) 782-8052
Frances Ann Hurley (217) 782-8200
Jeanne M. Ives (217) 558-1037
Natalie A. Manley (217) 782-3316
Martin J. Moylan (217) 782-8007

References:

Katie Hatziavramidis, Parental Involvement Laws for Abortion in the United States and the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child: Can International Law Secure the Right to Choose for Minors?, 16 Tex. J. Women & L. 185, 202-203 (Spring 2007):

“The unmistakable trend in the United States is to consistently increase anti-choice legislation, particularly with respect to minors. Ratification of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child by the United States holds a strong possibility of assisting minors who seek abortions without parental interference.  [*203]  The Convention may offer the best hope for securing adolescent reproductive freedoms on a global level. If enough diplomatic pressure were exerted on the United States to compel it to ratify the treaty, the CRC could provide significant improvements in the outlook for reproductive freedom for minors.”

Paragraph 3, Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child: Columbia, Committee on the Rights of the Child, 42nd sess., U.N. Doc. CRC/C/COL/CO/3 (2006): “The Committee notes with appreciation…decisions of the Constitutional Court on…the partial decriminalization of abortion.”


Paragraph 55, Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child: Chile, Committee on the Rights of the Child, 44th sess., U.N. Doc. CRC/C/CHL/CO/3 (2007): “The Committee…is concerned over the high rate of teenage pregnancies, the criminalization of the termination of pregnancies in all circumstances….”

March 3, 2015

2015 Illinois Legislative Update

There are a number of bills currently being heard in the Illinois General Assembly, some very good pro-life bills and some very bad pro-abortion bills.  Here is a summary of legislation currently introduced in the Illinois General Assembly.  Please stay informed for more upcoming action alerts.

Please visit our legislative page often for more updates.  Click here for more information.

Pro-Life Bills:

Ultrasound opportunity act

HB 2701

Chief Sponsor: Representative Barbara Wheeler

Background: This bill was sparked after an Illinois woman was refused by an abortion clinic to see her ultrasound. Frustrated, she left the clinic and instead went to a pregnancy help center that was able to give her a free ultrasound and let her see.

Bill Summary: This bill would require the medical professional to offer any woman seeking an abortion after 8 weeks gestation, the opportunity to receive and view the ultrasound prior to beginning an abortion.
Click here for more information.
_______________________________________

Women’s Health and Protection Act

HB 3274

Chief Sponsor: Representative Sheri Jesiel

Background: Illinois abortion clinics receive a health and sanitary inspection an average of once every 9 years. 193 health and sanitary violations were discovered in thirteen of the fourteen licensed women’s clinics when they were inspected between 2011 – 2014 (the majority of the women’s clinics were inspected for the first time in 9-17 years.)  A grave need for regular health and sanitary violations is necessary.

Bill Summary:  This bill does four things:

1) Requires clinics that perform 50 or more surgical abortions in a year to first receive a license from the Illinois Department of Public Health. The license can be a PTSC license (a less restrictive category made only for women’s abortion clinics) or an ASTC which is what other doctors offices are required to be licensed under – such as eye doctors.

Point of Interest: 54% of the abortion clinics open today, are not licensed and therefore have not since 1999 received a health and sanitary inspection. No Planned Parenthood in Illinois has a state license.

2)  This bill requires that each women’s abortion clinic receives an unannounced health inspection once per year.

3) If a violation is found within the clinic that continues to place women’s health at risk (such as unsterile surgical equipment was used), then the clinic doctor is required to issue a notice to all potentially affected patients. A copy of the letter must be included in the plan of correction that is submitted to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

4) The Illinois Department of Public Health will issue a Public Health announcement regarding the violations found that continue to endanger women’s health. It must include the location, the dates when the violation took place, and the issue (for example: HIV, STD, staph infection, tetanus, etc) that the female patients may need to be treated for.
Click here for more information.
_______________________________________

Women’s Health Defense and Pain Capable Act

HB 3561

Chief Sponsor: Representative Terri Bryant

Background: Advancements in science and medicine have provided us with substantial evidence showing that unborn children are feel the pain of dismemberment abortion as early as 20 weeks gestation. Documented reactions of unborn children feeling pain during surgery has led fetal surgeons to find it necessary to sedate the unborn child with anesthesia to prevent the unborn child from thrashing about in reaction to invasive surgery.

Bill Summary: This bill would prohibit abortions after the unborn child is 20 weeks gestation. An exception is allowed for a significant health risk that would endanger the mother’s life.
Click here for more information.
_______________________________________

Insurance Nutritional Support

HB 120

Chief Sponsor: Representative Mary Flowers

Background: Health insurance companies have denied coverage for intravenous feeding and for enteral or tube even if a doctor deems in a written order one is medically necessary for the health and life of a patient.

Bill Summary: This bill would require insurance companies to provide the same coverage (including co-pay and deductibles) as other benefits within the plan ensuring patience have full access to medically necessary feeding tubes.
Click here for more information.
_______________________________________

Pro-abort Bills:

Public Aid for Abortions

HB4013

Chief Sponsor: Sara Feigenholtz

This bill amends the State Employees Group Insurance Act of 1971 and removes a provision prohibiting the non-contributory portion of a health-benefits program from including the expenses of obtaining an abortion, induced miscarriage or induced premature birth

Bill Summary: This bill removes on restrictions on tax payer funding of abortions
Click here for more information.
_______________________________________

Immunization Exemption Amendment

SB1410 

Chief Sponsor: Senator Mulroe

This bill amends the School Code. Requires the State Board of Education to publish on its Internet website the exemption from immunization data it receives from schools. It requires that parents or legal guardians who object to health, dental, or eye examinations or immunizations on religious grounds must present to the appropriate local school authority a Department of Public Health objection form, detailing the grounds for the objection and signed by the parent or legal guardian, as well as a religious official attesting to a bona fide religious objection whose signature must be notarized (instead of presenting a signed statement of objection detailing the grounds for the objection).

Bill Summary: This bill complicates and makes it harder for parents to opt out of immunizations due to parent's & religious rights.
Click here for more information.
_______________________________________

Health Care Right of Conscience Act


SB1564 

Chief Sponsor: Senator Biss

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

Bill Summary: This bill undermines Healthcare Right of Conscience
Click here for more information.
_______________________________________

Source: Illinois Federation for Right to Life with information from Illinois Right to Life

February 27, 2015

Teenager dies after being forced to take abortion pill

The Times of India is reporting that a teenage girl died after being forced to consume an abortifacient by a man who had allegedly sexually exploited her “several times.”
Reporting from Kanpur, Faiz Rahman Siddiqui wrote that police identified the man as Monu, a local resident. According to the story, Monu has fled and authorities “are conducting raids at his possible hideouts to arrest him,” according to Officer Anurag.
Siddiqui quoted an unnamed police official at length:
When Monu learnt that the girl had become pregnant, he allegedly started forcing her to undergo an abortion. On Friday, Monu compelled her to consume a pill that would cause an abortion. Soon after consuming the pill, the girl’s condition deteriorated and she collapsed. Monu abandoned her at the spot and fled. Later, she was spotted by locals who informed her parents, who rushed her to a nearby Community Health Centre from where she was later referred to Lala Lajpat Rai hospital. She died in the hospital on Sunday night during treatment,” said the police official. Her body has been sent for postmortem.
Siddiqui also quoted the girl’s father who said, “Monu had raped my daughter several times and forced her to consume [an] abortion pill. He must be severely punished for causing [the] death of my daughter.” (What exactly the girl consumed was not specified other than an “abortion pill.”)
Siddiqui reported that police have registered a case against Monu under sections 313 (forcible abortion) and 314 (causing death with abortion).
By Dave Andrusko, NRL News Today

Suicide Prevention Facebook Style

Facebook has decided to try and prevent suicides. From the San Francisco Chronicle story

When people write about harming themselves on Facebook, their friends can ask Facebook to review the post because it’s “hurtful, threatening or suicidal.” 

A team of Facebook employees from America, Dublin or India will take a look at the flagged post to determine whether it is troubling, and then essentially lock the user out from their account until they review options related to suicide prevention.

Those include suicide prevention materials, links to contact Facebook friends or a suicide-prevention hotline. 

I can see it now: “But I have cancer!,” the suicidal person responds. 

“Oh, never mind,” Facebook replies, having received training from the Hemlock Society Compassion and Choices. “Carry on.”

By Wesley J. Smith, National Review

February 25, 2015

Pro-Life Doctor Succeeds in Reversing Abortion Pill

Advancements in science and medical technology have proven to be great gifts to the pro-life movement time and time again. Doctors are able to routinely deliver premature babies at earlier and earlier stages of development. Innovations in sonogram imaging have provided a window to the womb enabling expectant mothers to see their unborn children face to face. We also have the ability to hear the unborn baby’s tiny heartbeat.
These glimpses at the baby’s humanity have inspired countless numbers of mothers to reject abortion and choose life. However, until now, once a pregnant woman selected a chemically-induced abortion, there was little hope that the unborn child would survive.
Now, a new medical advancement is saving lives in a previously unimaginable way. Dr. George Delgado, medical director at the Culture of Life Family Health Care in San Diego, California, has been instrumental in developing a technique to reverse what was the inevitably fatal effect of the RU-486 abortion pill.
Dr. Delgado’s story began when he received a call from a friend in El Paso, Texas, who informed him about a woman who had taken the abortion pill but immediately regretted the decision.
At the 2015 American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) conference, Dr. Delgado told attendees, “I started thinking about my years of experience with progesterone, and how I’d used progesterone to try to prevent miscarriage.” The protocol calls for taking the injectable progesterone as soon as possible after taking the mifepristone.
Dr. Mary Davenport, another pro-life physician at the forefront of this new innovation, explained how chemical abortions involve two drugs:
“Medical [chemical] abortion is actually performed in early pregnancy with TWO pills, the first – RU-486 – mifepristone or Mifeprex, antagonizes the hormone progesterone, which is necessary for pregnancy. This cuts off the nutritional supply to the pregnancy, ending in the unborn baby’s death. One or two days later the woman takes a second pill, misoprostol or Cytotec, which causes uterine contractions and expels the pregnancy. Medical abortion is frequently a horrible experience for the women, lasting up to 2-4 weeks with nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, hemorrhage, and intense pain.”
The reversal attempts to counteract the first drug, mifepristone, before the second one, misoprostol, is ever given.
Progesterone is a critical hormone during pregnancy, said Delgado. It helps nourish the placenta, keeps the cervix closed, and inhibits contractions. Mifepristone, a progesterone receptor antagonist, acts like a “false key” binding with the progesterone receptor and blocking its activity. This action softens the cervix, makes the uterine wall more vulnerable to contractions, and attacks the placenta, Delgado said.
“I thought, well, maybe we can out-compete [mifepristone] at the receptor [using progesterone],” he said.
At a press conference held at the National Press Club, AAPLOG physicians reported that as of the end of 2014, 78 babies have been born after abortion reversal treatment, with 45 women still pregnant, a 57% success rate out of 223 attempted reversals.
One success story is Andrea Minichini, her boyfriend Chris Caicedo, and their son Gabriel David. Minichini, though still wrestling with the decision, took the first abortion pill, mifepristone, while the abortionist at Planned Parenthood cheered her on.
Instead of taking the second pill the next day, which would induce contractions, she began to look into ways to stop the death of her unborn child. Not surprisingly, the abortion center staff was no help. A local hospital informed her that if she carried the baby to term, he would face severe health issues.
A Google search led her to Dr. George Delgado in San Diego. On December 31, 2014, she delivered a healthy baby boy they named Gabriel David.
“Obviously women are changing their minds and interested in options,” said Delgado.
As noted, Dr. Delgado’s innovations have already saved 78 young lives. And that is just the beginning! AAPLOG recently unveiled a new “Emergency Abortion Pill Reversal Kit,” which they would like to see placed in emergency rooms and urgent care clinics nationwide.
Dr. Davenport observed that there are approximately 200,000 chemically-induced abortions annually in the USA.
By: By Andrew Bair, NRL News Today

February 24, 2015

Illinois bill could deny doctors freedom of conscience

SPRINGFIELD, IL - New legislation proposed in Illinois would compel health care providers who may deny care for reasons of conscience or religious belief to provide patients with information about where to find treatment.

The bill (SB1564) is sponsored by state Senator Daniel Biss and co-sponsored by state Sen. Michael Noland. Biss and Noland say the new law would still allow health care providers to assert religious objections, but would require them to provide material information to patients despite those objections.

Critics argue the bill essentially denies doctors and health care providers the right to exercise their First Amendment religious freedom by requiring them to provide material support and assistance for things such as abortion or abortifacients - drugs that cause abortion.

The bill also requires that any refusal to provide health care cannot impair the patient's health, subjectively defined by the state or the patient.

The bill seeks to change the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act, under which an appellate court ruled three years ago that the religious beliefs of the provider trump the patient's needs.

Source: Illinois Review

February 23, 2015

The pro-life movement loses two heroes

On the same day, February 20, the pro-life movement lost two of its heroes, Dr. Jack Willke and Brother Paul O’Donnell.

I was honored to know both and to be close friends with Bro. Paul. The photo right is us at a wedding last year. His death at the youthful age of 55 came as a shock, but it happened peacefully during his sleep, which brings some comfort, along with knowing he now lives on in blissful happiness of which we cannot yet fathom.

You can read Bro. Paul’s obituary here.

Bro. Paul was long involved in the pro-life movement before the plight of Terri Schiavo in 2005 thrust him into the national spotlight as the Schindler family’s spokesperson.

I met Bro. Paul sometime after that. What bonded me to him was first his engaging personality and then his strong will to protect the defenseless among us.

Bro. Paul belonged to the Franciscan Brothers of Peace, and he wore a Franciscan habit, but those who thought these may have signified a passive personality were mistaken. Bro. Paul was passionate, tough, vocal, and bold in his attempts to protect those without a voice. I loved and was inspired by those qualities about him.

Bro. Paul was also my March for Life walking buddy. It was our tradition. The last time I saw him was at the Washington, D.C., pro-life hang-out pub, The Dubliner, a month ago. I will be attending his wake and funeral in Minneapolis on Thursday and Friday. I will really miss him.

Dr. Willke and his wife Barbara, who preceded him in death by almost two years, helped launch the anti-abortion movement even before abortion was legalized in 1973.  The 89-year-old retired obstetrician died at his home.

I’m grateful Dr. Willke lived to see his memoir published – just two weeks before he died. Entitled, Abortion and the Pro-Life Movement: An Inside View, it describes the history of the pro-life movement from his vantage point.

A poem by pro-life stalwart Congressman Henry Hyde concludes that “a chorus of voices that have never been heard in this world but are heard beautifully and clearly in the next world” will greet pro-lifers as they enter Heaven.

What a wonderful moment that must have been for Bro. Paul and Dr. Willke.

By Jill Stanek, JillStanek.com

The post The pro-life movement loses two heroes appeared first on Jill Stanek.

Kansas Senate passes first-in-nation ‘dismemberment abortion’ ban

Great news from Kansas. This morning the Kansas Senate approved SB 95, the Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act, by a vote of 31-9.

Crafted to withstand constitutional scrutiny, SB 95 heads to a very receptive Kansas House, where it is expected to pass easily. The bill would then go to pro-life Gov. Sam Brownback (R), who promised to sign this bill.

Lead sponsor Sen. Garrett Love (R-Montezuma) began Thursday’s formal discussion on the Senate floor by recounting how members of the Senate Health committee heard an ex-abortionist describe this method

“of tearing the arms, legs, and other body parts off until a baby dies. Hearing the description made myself and many other members of the committee feel sick [especially] when learning nearly 600 such abortions occur each year in Kansas.”

Sen. Love, the “youngest-ever-elected” to the Kansas Senate, discussed his new baby daughter and coming to love her more through her ultrasound imaging at 12 and 19 weeks gestation, the time frame when most dismemberment abortions occur. He said

“people in my generation are outraged by this procedure; they see the sonograms of their friends, family and their own babies on Facebook and realize that in those pictures are little, defenseless babies. They need us to defend them because they cannot defend themselves…This is a truly barbaric practice we must end in Kansas.”

Unfortunately, none of the eight Senate Democrats supported the bill. Only two strident abortion supporters, Marci Francisco (D-Lawrence) and David Haley (D-Kansas City), chose to speak yesterday. Unsurprisingly, neither discussed the dismemberment method per se.

Sen. Francisco took pains not to use the word “dismemberment” and referred to “the procedure” as being very safe for women. She offered one amendment that would have both gutted the bill and eliminated many pro-life provisions enacted over the past five years. Her amendment was strongly rejected.

Sen. Haley riled up his peers by saying SB 95

– would cost too much to defend,

– was purely a political ploy using inflammatory terms of ‘unborn child’ and ‘protection,’ and ‘dismemberment,’

– was advanced by people who are anti-science,

– was improperly being debated by male senators, who have no right to vote on this issue since they can’t ever get pregnant.

He finished by calling himself a defender of mothers, grandmothers, sisters, and daughters who should not be restricted from access to ‘healthcare’ –i.e., abortions.

Of course these are all side issues, which were easily and quickly rebutted. Thus, it was clearly demonstrated that in the Kansas Senate, the pro-abortion side has no substantive defense for the barbaric abortion procedure of dismembering living, tiny unborn babies with sharp metal tools.

By Kathy Ostrowski, Legislative Director, Kansans for Life, via NRL News Today