There is a good deal of Misinformation about Assisted Suicide

Supporters promote doctor-assisted suicide as the “gentle" way for people to ease out of this life and rid themselves of the problems they face, including terminal diseases.

However, Rita Marker of the Patients Rights Council says there have been reports of discomfort, nausea, vomiting, people waking up, and others not dying until several days after taking a lethal dose, although reports from states such as California and Washington seem to reflect otherwise.

“All of the reports [from California and Washington] are from the prescribing doctors who actually are not there [with the patient],” says Marker. 

Click here for more from OneNewsNow

Department of Justice announces settlement in HHS mandate suits

A week after issuing new religious freedom guidelines to all administrative agencies in the federal government, the U.S. Department of Justice has settled with more than 70 plaintiffs who had challenged the controversial HHS contraceptive mandate.

The Oct. 13 agreement was reached between the government and the law firm Jones Day, which represented more than 70 clients fighting the mandate. Made public Oct. 16, the agreement states that the plaintiffs would not be forced to provide health insurance coverage for “morally unacceptable” products and procedures, including contraception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs.

“This settlement brings to a conclusion our litigation challenging the Health and Human Services’ mandate obliging our institutions to provide support for morally objectionable activities, as well as a level of assurance as we move into the future,” said Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C. in an Oct. 16 letter to priests of the archdiocese.

Click her for more from CNA/EWTN News

President Trump tells pro-life audience he has kept this promises

In a speech to the 2017 Values Voter Summit frequently punctuated by loud applause, President Donald Trump laid out a litany of promises that he said he had made and kept.

“Some of those promises are to support and defend the Constitution. I appointed and confirmed a Supreme Court Justice in the mold of the late, great Justice Antonin Scalia, the newest member of the Supreme Court, Justice Neil Gorsuch,” the President said to a standing ovation at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C.

“To protect the unborn, I have reinstated a policy first put in place by President Ronald Reagan, the Mexico City Policy. (Applause.) “We cherish the sacred dignity of every human life.” (Applause.)

“To protect religious liberty, including protecting groups like this one, I signed a new executive action in a beautiful ceremony at the White House on our National Day of Prayer which day we made official,” Mr. Trump added.

In addition, “We have also taken action to protect the conscience rights of groups like the Little Sisters of the Poor.”

The President was alluding to HHS’s announced interim final rule changes to the ObamaCare and HHS coverage mandate that would protect moral and religious rights of conscience.

“Rights of conscience are extremely important to the right-to-life movement to protect medical professionals, religious institutions and employers from being forced to participate in abortion,” said NRLC President Carol Tobias. “We commend President Trump for keeping his campaign promises by supporting these rights of conscience. These rule changes will help promote a policy that protects pro-life rights of conscience with regard to abortion.”

Click here for more from National Right to Life

Vision 2020 - Week 34 - Senator Mattie Hunter (D) and Senator Iris Y. Martinez (D)

Pray for our legislators...

Let us sacrifice our today so that our children can have a better tomorrow.
--A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

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.

Renewed Push to Pass ERA in Illinois

There is a renewed push to pass the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in the Illinois veto session that begins on October 24th, 2017.  Supporters of the ERA are targeting legislators and threatening to run candidates against them in the upcoming elections if they don't vote for the ERA. 

To counter these tactics, your Illinois state legislators need to hear from you.  They need to hear your continued encouragement for them to vote against the ERA, and they need to know you will support them if they vote no on the ERA.  Please remind them that the poorly worded ERA will harm women, harm our unborn children, and harm our society.

The ERA will harm our unborn children by overturning all restrictions on abortions and mandating taxpayer funding for elective medicaid abortions.  

Please contact your state legislator and state representative by phone and email and encourage them to vote no on the ERA (Bill #SJRCA0004).  If they have previously told you they will vote against the ERA, please contact them and encourage them to stay firm in their conviction to vote against the ERA.  Let them know you will support them in their no vote and in the elections.

Click here for contact information for your Senator and Representative.

Department of Health and Human Service may define human life as ‘beginning at conception’

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a draft of its new strategic plan for 2018-2022, and with the addition of a few small words, it’s clear that there is a major change.

Formerly, the document stated the following in its introductory information:

    HHS accomplishes its mission through programs and initiatives that cover a wide spectrum of activities, serving Americans at every stage of life.

The new edition now states this:

    HHS accomplishes its mission through programs and initiatives that cover a wide spectrum of activities, serving and protecting Americans at every stage of life, beginning at conception.

Click here for more from LiveAction.org

Media forced to admit Trump is right about horrific U.S. abortion laws

The mainstream media pounced on President Donald Trump after he stated in announcing his support for the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act on October 2: 

    “The United States is currently out of the mainstream in the family of nations, in which only 7 out of 198 nations allow elective abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.”

The Washington Post decided to fact check the president. Their conclusion? He is "backed by data."

Click here for more from LifeSiteNews

Ruling May Create a Right to Abortion for Anyone on Earth who Enters the U.S. Illegally

UPDATE: U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler dismissed a request by the ACLU for a temporary restraining order to force HHS to either transport an undocumented pregnant 17-year-old teen to an abortion clinic or allow here to be taken there. Click here for more

Federal District Judge Laurel Beeler is hearing an emergency request from the ACLU of Northern California to order the Office of Refugee Resettlement to allow a pregnant undocumented teenager–“Jane Doe”–to leave ORR custody to have an abortion.

The ACLU’s request for a temporary restraining order allowing the abortion to go forward is opposed by the Trump Administration, Ken Paxton, the attorney general of Texas, and six other attorneys general—from Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, and South Carolina.

“No federal court has ever declared that unlawfully-present aliens with no substantial ties to this country have a constitutional right to abortion on demand,” Paxton said. “If ‘Doe’ prevails in this case, the ruling will create a right to abortion for anyone on earth who enters the U.S. illegally. And with that right, countless others undoubtedly would follow. Texas must not become a sanctuary state for abortions.”

Click here for more from National Right to Life

Senator: 60-vote rule protects pro-life agenda

The House last week passed the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (H.R. 36) by a vote of 237-189, sending the bill to the Senate where it will take 60 votes even to consider the measure. While proponents of the bill want to change the filibuster policy so only a majority vote will be required, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) (pictured) explained during a press conference why he's opposed to doing so.

"The best way to protect the pro-life issue and to pass this bill is to build consensus and get 60 votes," stated the senator. "And I can tell you that during the Obama years, there was a pretty radical pro-abortion agenda that was stopped time and time again because of the 60-vote requirement."

"So we're trying to convince the courts that legislative bodies like the Congress and at the state level have a legitimate and compelling state interest to protect a child at the fifth month of development from excruciating pain that would come from an abortion," he stated.

Click here for more from OneNewsNow

Why did Twitter reject this pro-life ad?

A political advertisement for pro-life Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) has been blocked by Twitter for statements about Planned Parenthood selling fetal body parts for medical research.

“I’m 100 percent pro-life. I fought Planned Parenthood, and we stopped the sale of baby parts, thank God,” Blackburn says in her video.

Twitter blocked the ad, telling the Blackburn campaign that the comment was “deemed an inflammatory statement that is likely to evoke a strong negative reaction.”

The tech company said the advertisement would be reinstated if the comment was removed.

Click here for more from CNA/EWTN News

New survey paints false picture of webcam abortions

The study was conducted by Daniel Grossman and Kate Grindlay of the University of California-San Francisco. UCSF has continued to produce studies generally in support of abortion, but those studies have repeatedly proven to be highly flawed, according to Dr. Randall K. O'Bannon of the National Right to Life Committee.

O'Bannon tells OneNewsNow that in the UCSF group's latest research, the authors checked hospital emergency rooms for women suffering complications from webcam abortions.

Nat'l Right to Life Committee (NRLC)"With data from all the emergency rooms, they should have been able to find out if a woman showed up at the emergency room with hemorrhaging, an infection, or something like that," he explains. "But only about a third of the ERs responded to their survey. So they're missing data from a whole lot of them, raising a lot of issues."

Click here for more from OneNewsNow

Bad News for Milwaukee’s Most Vulnerable

The terrible news broke Friday afternoon: Planned Parenthood will open a new, $8 million, state-of-the-art abortion facility in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Tuesday, October 10th. Adding to this shocking news is the fact that the abortion giant is paying for the new killing center entirely with private donations.

The new facility will be located in Milwaukee’s trendy Third Ward, home to some of the city’s most expensive real estate. In addition, the 12,000-square-foot clinic will feature an expanded waiting room, more exam and consultation rooms than their existing Milwaukee facility, as well as areas for women and children. Children can relax and play in comfort while a little brother, sister, cousin, or friend loses their life only a few feet away.

Yet again, this leaves us with just one question: Why does Planned Parenthood need taxpayer money?

Click here for more from Wisconsin Right to Life via National Right to Life

David Daleiden: More Planned Parenthood baby parts videos coming ‘very soon’

The Center for Medical Progress (CMP) will soon release “some of the most damning and incriminating tapes that we ever recorded,” the man who led its undercover investigation into Planned Parenthood’s sale of baby body parts said Thursday.  David Daleiden, project lead at CMP, told viewers of a Thursday night webcast, “Close to half of the video footage that I ever gathered still has never seen the light of day.”

The abortion industry is “terrified of the remaining video tapes coming to light,” he continued. “They know that their true motives, their true actions … the way that they run their abortion practice (is) exposed on those tapes.”

Click here for more from LifeSiteNews

Trump administration will protect religious liberty and takes positive steps regarding abortion-covering insurance plans

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a bulletin through the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reiterating that qualified health plan issuers must segregate collected premiums to pay for abortion coverage; that enrollees be informed if abortions are covered by a qualified health plan; and that HHS intends to fully enforce these requirements as a step toward ensuring that federal tax dollars are not used to subsidize coverage for elective abortion.

A 2014 report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) provided dismaying confirmation of earlier predictions by National Right to Life that federally subsidized abortion coverage would become a widespread feature of Obamacare. The report found that more than one thousand federally subsidized exchange plans covered elective abortion. The GAO findings validated previous charges by National Right to Life that the federal taxpayer is subsidizing the purchase of abortion-covering plans on a massive scale.

Additionally, HHS announced interim final rule changes to the Affordable Care Act and HHS coverage mandate that would protect moral and religious rights of conscience.

Click here for more from National Right to Life

Vision 2020 - Week 33 - Sen. Antonio Munoz (D) and Sen. Ira Silverman (D)

Pray for our legislators...

The LORD watches over you--

the LORD is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.

Psalm 121:5-6

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.

New record low U.S. fertility rate

According to recent data from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), the U.S. fertility rate sank to a record low of 62.0 births per 1,000 women of reproductive age in 2016.  The last year of the Obama administration saw the fertility rate fall to an all-time low.

This was a slight decrease from the 2015 fertility rate which stood at 62.5. The downward trend is not showing signs of stopping either. According to NCHS preliminary estimates, fertility slumped even lower to 61.5 in the first quarter of 2017.

Click here for more from LifeSiteNews

The “other” abortion clinics that perform 2/3rds of all abortions

When it comes to abortion clinics, the big name has always been Planned Parenthood, easily the nation’s largest abortion chain, performing 35% of all abortions in the United States. But that still leaves about two thirds of abortions unaccounted for. Who are those other guys who snuff out the lives of hundreds of thousands of babies each year?

Tired of being in Planned Parenthood’s long shadow and obviously not entirely happy that they don’t have the slick marketing or the big budget of the abortion giant, several of the nation’s self-identified “independent abortion clinics” (they call themselves “indies”) have joined together as the “Abortion Care Network” to issue a report on their work titled “Communities Need Clinics: The Role of Independent Abortion Care Providers in Ensuring Meaningful Access to Abortion Care in the United States.”  That report can be found here.

According to the report, “independent abortion care providers” comprise 25% of the abortion facilities in the country but perform 60% of the abortions in the U.S. (Besides the 35% performed by Planned Parenthood, the report says 4% are performed in hospitals and 1% in physician’s offices.) Another way of saying it, they want us to know that “3 in 5 people who have an abortion get care from independent abortion care providers.”

Click here for more from National Right to Life

‘Love Saves Lives’ announced as the 2018 March for Life Theme

The March for Life, the world’s largest annual human rights demonstration, will be held on January 19, 2018, in Washington, D.C.

It was announced at a press conference Tuesday, that the 2018 theme will be, “Love Saves Lives.”

“Choosing life is not always easy, but it is the loving, empowering, and self-sacrificial option,” said Jeanne Mancini, President of the March for Life. “Love is universally attractive because it is directed towards others. Love is what we all strive for because deep-down we are all drawn to give of ourselves in this way. Love saves lives in countless ways,” she added.

Click here for the March for Life website

Click here for more from LifeSiteNews

Rallying to save David Daleiden from Prison for exposing Planned Parenthood

Pro-life leaders are rallying to save pro-life activist David Daleiden from massive fines and a prison sentence. Daleiden was targeted with legal action from the abortion industry for his exposé of Planned Parenthood that allegedly caught the abortion giant selling body parts from aborted babies for profit. 

Pro-life leaders are holding a live video webcast on Thursday evening (October 5) to update the public about what they say is a “huge, new breakthrough” in the case that they hope will help Daleiden win his legal battle against the abortion giant.

Click here for the live video webcast

Click here for more from LifeSiteNews

The U.S. Senate will soon be tackling Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act

On Tuesday, the House passed the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act (H.R. 36) on a 237-189 vote, forwarding the measure to the Senate where passage could be difficult due to the filibuster rule.

Under the filibuster rule, it will take 60 votes just to advance the bill for debate and a vote. That presents a major challenge in the Senate where Republicans hold a slim 52-48 majority. But according to Nance, that's not dissuading some pro-lifers in the Senate.

There have been conversations among senators about changing the filibuster rule so that only 51 votes will be needed to ban the late-term abortions, but no formal plans have been announced as yet.

Click here for more from OneNewsNow