As One-Fourth of Free-Standing Abortion Clinics in PA. Violate Health Rules, What Could be Happening in Illinois?

photo credit: Hush Naidoo / Unsplash

Data from the Pennsylvania Health Department website reveals that a quarter of free-standing abortion businesses in the state have violated health and safety rules in the past four months.

The health department website lists 16 free-standing abortion clinics in Pennsylvania, four of which were found to be “not in compliance” with state requirements during the past four months.

Pennsylvania legislators were motivated to require regular inspections of abortion clinics after the infamous abortionist Kermit Gosnell was convicted of murdering three newborn babies and the involuntary manslaughter of a female patient, but state health officials apparently suspended those inspections for five months last year due to the pandemic. When legislators pushed for those inspections to resume, they quickly found several violations, suggesting that the lack of inspections allowed clinics to relax their health protocols.

Illinois is well-known for having some of the most relaxed abortion laws in the nation, allowing clinics to go long stretches of time without being inspected. According to Illinois Right to Life (not to be confused with the Illinois Federation for Right to Life), many Illinois clinics have never been inspected since they opened.

If the violations of Pennsylvania abortion businesses and the language of the Illinois Reproductive Health Act are any indication, Illinois abortion businesses likely have an easy time hiding safety hazards from the public. As time goes on, this only puts more and more vulnerable women at risk.

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Students for Life Wins Free Speech Lawsuit Against Oregon Community College

screenshot from Chemeketa Community College YouTube video

To end a federal lawsuit filed by a Students for Life chapter against Chemeketa Community College in Oregon, the college has agreed to revise its free speech policies.

On May 5, 2020, attorneys from Alliance Defending Freedom filed the lawsuit against Chemeketa Community College on behalf of students Marcos Sanchez and Emma Howell, co-presidents of the school's Students for Life chapter. Due to the school's "speech zone" policy, which restricted controversial student speech to certain areas on campus and required students to obtain permission from the college to use their voices, the pro-life organization was prevented from pursuing its goals.

Now, as part of a settlement, the college has agreed to end these speech-restricting policies and paid $25,000 in attorneys' fees.

“Across the nation, we are seeing incredible opposition to the pro-life speech of our student leaders and volunteers as they speak for the defenseless and educate their fellow students on abortion,” said Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins. “But the law and the Constitution are clear on the matter: Public schools cannot silence pro-life groups or force them to self-censor. We are thankful that Chemeketa Community College clarified that Students for Life—and all students—can participate in the open exchange of ideas and ensure that the entire college community is a ‘free speech zone’ for pro-life students and their peers.”

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Planned Parenthood Reveals Lobbying Plans for Illinois in 2021

The Illinois state capitol building
photo credit: Jeff Sharp / Flickr

The Planned Parenthood Action Fund affiliate webpage for Illinois was recently updated to reveal the organization's legislative goals for 2021. Among the abortion business's top priorities are passing REACH Act and Repealing the Parental Notice of Abortion Act.

The REACH Act would mandate "that comprehensive, inclusive, and age-appropriate sex education is taught in grades K through 12 in public and charter schools statewide." It's a strong possibility that Planned Parenthood would lobby government officials to have its own sex education materials used in the law's implementation.

The Parental Notice of Abortion Act, on the other hand, is something that Planned Parenthood would like to get rid of. The law requires abortion clinics in Illinois to notify a minor's parent or guardian at least 48 hours before they have an abortion. According to Planned Parenthood, "Decades of research show that laws like this hurt young people and serve no valid purpose." In reality, allowing parents to be involved in a minor's decision to have an abortion saves lives and helps expose pregnancies resulting from rape.

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Louisiana Makes Record-Breaking Vote to Accept Love Life Amendment

photo credit: American Life League / Flickr

While the outcome from the recent Georgia Senate elections might be discouraging for pro-life advocates, it's good to know that pro-life candidates and ballot initiatives found success across the country during last year's election. One of these successful votes was Louisiana's Love Life Amendment.

The vote on the Love Life Amendment broke state records, receiving more favorable votes than any ballot initiative or candidate in Louisiana history. In total, the initiative received 1,274,167 votes.

Benjamin Clapper, the Executive Director for Louisiana Right to Life, wrote that this vote was despite $250,000 spent by out-of-state groups in the final weeks before the Nov. 3 election.

The amendment, as it appeared on the Louisiana ballot, read:

“To protect human life, nothing in this constitution shall be construed to secure or protect a right to abortion or require the funding of abortion.”

Because the amendment was accepted by the people of Louisiana, the state will now be within its legal rights to make abortion illegal if the Supreme Court chooses to do away with Roe v. Wade.

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Texas to Stop Awarding Medicaid Funding to Planned Parenthood in February

Texas state capitol
photo credit: Jonathan Cutrer / Flickr

Following a ruling by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, the state of Texas will stop giving Medicaid funds to Planned Parenthood on February 3.

After the court ruled that Texas could legally choose not to provide Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood, the abortion giant asked the court to provide a six-month grace period for the decision. The fifth circuit denied that request, but it did grant a 30-day grace period.

Texas made its original decision to end Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood after the abortion business came under fire for its involvement in the trafficking of aborted baby body parts in 2015. Only now will this decision actually be enforced.

In a statement responding to the Fifth Circuit's decision, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote,

“The Fifth Circuit correctly rejected Planned Parenthood’s efforts to prevent Texas from excluding them from the state’s Medicaid program. Undercover video plainly showed Planned Parenthood admitting to morally bankrupt and unlawful conduct, including violations of federal law by manipulating the timing and methods of abortions to obtain fetal tissue for their own research. Planned Parenthood is not a ‘qualified’ provider under the Medicaid Act, and it should not receive public funding through the Medicaid program.”

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Georgia Mom Wakes from Coma the Day Life Support would be Removed

Lisa Martin leaving the hospital
screenshot from Memorial Satilla Health video

On Dec. 31, Lisa Martin, a 49-year-old mother of four from Waycross Georgia, awoke after spending 40 days in an induced coma. It was also the day that her ventilator was set to be removed, but she defied the doctors' expectations and is set to make a full recovery.

Martin entered the hospital on Sept. 27 due to pain in her lungs associated with COVID-19. She spent a total of 95 days in the hospital, 40 of them in a medically-induced coma. After Martin had spent a month in a completely comatose state, her family decided to give her 11 days before removing her from the ventilator and allowing her to die.

“But God had other plans,” reads a Facebook post from the hospital, Memorial Satilla Health. “On the eleventh day, Lisa broke through the sedatives and began tracking Jeff with her eyes and she moved her hand.”

“I can’t wrap my head around what all has happened,” she told PEOPLE. “I am shocked but amongst all the overwhelming feelings, I feel like this is definitely a God thing. I got to a point where I felt like no one cared for me. I didn’t have a lot of friends, my kids are all grown up and independent, and my husband works all the time. I was lonely, but this experience has shown me how loved I truly am.”

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Ohio Unborn Child Dignity Act Signed into Law

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine

On Dec. 30, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed the Unborn Child Dignity Act into law, requiring the Ohio Department of Health to create rules to treat the bodies of aborted children with respect.

Under the new rules, "humane disposal" of aborted children's bodies would be defined as burial or cremation.

 “After years of hard work and dedication, the Unborn Child Dignity Act has finally been signed into law,” said Mike Gonidakis, President of Ohio Right to Life. “No longer will the tiny bodies of babies whose lives have been tragically taken by abortion be treated like trash. In Ohio, we respect life and we bury our dead. The abortion industry, which has for decades tried to convince women that the lives of their children don’t matter and should simply be thrown away, will now be unable to hide behind this blatant lie.”

The Unborn Child Dignity Act was introduced after an investigation by then-Attorney General Mike Dewine found that Planned Parenthood was simply sending the bodies of aborted children to landfills. The administration was unable to take legal action against Planned Parenthood at the time since the Ohio Revised Code did not define "humane disposal."

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Eight Circuit Court of Appeals Upholds Injunction Against Two Pro-Life Arkansas Laws

On Tuesday, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a district judge's injunction that blocked two pro-life laws in Arkansas.

The first of the 2019 laws bans abortions that would take place after the 18th week of pregnancy, and the second law bans elective abortions that target an unborn child purely because they were diagnosed with Down syndrome. Both laws have exceptions for medical emergencies and cases of rape or incest.

In its ruling, the court wrote, “Before viability, a State ‘may not prohibit any woman from making the ultimate decision to terminate her pregnancy. It also may not impose upon the right an undue burden, which exists if a regulation’s ‘purpose or effect is to place a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion before the fetus attains viability.”

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Report Shows Missouri to be First Abortion-Free State

Photo Credit: Paul Sableman / Flickr

According to a survey of the nation's abortion facilities conducted by Operation Rescue, Missouri has become the nation's only abortion-free state for the time being.

The Reproductive Health Services Planned Parenthood in St. Louis remains open, but abortion appointments and abortion pills have not been available there for months. The facility risked permanent closure after the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services had revoked its license for violations of safety regulations, but an Administrative Court Judge ordered that it be relicensed. Rather than work to comply with state regulations, the facility opts to simply refer abortion-minded women to the Planned Parenthood mega-clinic in Fairview Heights, IL.

While the RHS Planned Parenthood remains open and licensed for abortions, we confirmed that none are being done there.  That means this facility is currently acting only as an abortion referral center.  There is no operational abortion facility in the State of Missouri, making it the first Abortion-Free State at this time,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman.

“It is obvious that Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region, which operates RHSPP, seeks to avoid having to comply with Missouri’s strong pro-life laws, and has opted to abort in Illinois where abortion facilities are essentially unaccountable. This shows a gross disrespect for the lives and safety of the women Planned Parenthood purports to serve,” she continued.

Illinois abortion laws are important not only because they endanger the lives of Illinois preborn children, but also because they directly undermine the pro-life legislation of nearby states.

Click here to read more from Operation Rescue's survey.

Dan Lipinski Calls on New Congress to Protect the Lives of the Vulnerable

Former Rep. Dan Lipinski
photo credit: American Life League / Flickr

Former Illinois Rep. Dan Lipinski (D) has now left Congress after being defeated in his primary by now-Congresswoman Marie Newman. He tweeted several messages regarding his departure this week, urging Americans to "protect life and liberty every day for all, especially the most vulnerable."

Lipinski was defeated in his primary by a slim margin of fewer than 3,000 votes. While his voting record showed that he compromised on pro-life ideals more than advocates would have liked, his departure is representative of an ongoing shift in the Democratic party to cast out pro-life voices.

“I want to thank the people of Illinois’ Third District for giving me the honor and privilege to serve you and our nation for 16 years,” former congressman Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.) tweeted Jan. 3.

“America is not perfect, because humans can never be perfect. But we must pray and work every day that each of us and our nation better uphold the principle of equality, and that we better protect life and liberty every day for all, especially the most vulnerable.”

In a Nov. interview with CNA, he said that Democrats would be committing a “terrible political mistake” by repealing Hyde Amendment. The amendment is an addition to congressional spending bills which is designed to prevent federal tax dollars from funding abortions. He also lamented the fact that the pro-life movement is concentrated in one political party, arguing that pro-life groups should do more to push pro-life candidates through Democratic primaries.

Lipinski served for eight terms before losing the March 2020 primary to Rep. Newman. Pro-abortion advocates pushed heavily to remove him from the seat, but a spokesperson for his campaign claimed that his primary loss was heavily influenced by the early scare from the COVID-19 pandemic, which may have kept older Catholic voters home.

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Indiana Ultrasound Law Goes Into Effect After Four Years

photo credit: Viviana Rishe / Unsplash

Four years after being signed into law, an Indiana law requiring women seeking an abortion to have an ultrasound 18 hours beforehand went into effect on Jan. 1.

The law was passed and signed by then-Governor Mike Pence in 2016. Planned Parenthood quickly took legal action to prevent the law from being enforced. In 2017, U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt placed a preliminary injunction against the law's enforcement, and that injunction was upheld by an appeals court. After Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill filed to appeal the ruling, the Supreme Court sent the case back to the appeals court.

In August 2020, Planned Parenthood and the state of Indiana agreed to have the injunction vacated on Jan. 1. Planned Parenthood dropped its lawsuit, saying that it now had functional ultrasound machines at all of its locations.

In addition to showing pregnant women the humanity of the unborn children they are carrying, ultrasounds are also used by abortionists to accurately date the gestational age of the pregnancy. An abortionist who assumes an incorrect gestational age might choose a method of abortion that has a larger risk of medical complications for the mother. Additionally, ultrasounds will allow abortionists to diagnose abnormal pregnancies such as ectopic pregnancies. Certain abortion techniques can have major medical complications, including death, when used on a woman with an ectopic pregnancy.

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45 Pro-Life Representatives Sworn into U.S. House of Representatives

Congresswoman Michelle Fischbach (R-MN)
accompanied by her husband while being sworn in
by GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy

While pro-life President Donald Trump's chances of staying in office for another term are questionable at the very least, pro-life advocates can at least celebrate the fact that 45 new pro-life congress members were sworn into the House of Representatives on Monday.

Of the new pro-life congress members sworn in on Jan. 4, 18 are women, 27 are men, and a total of 13 seats were flipped from pro-abortion politicians to pro-life ones. If challenger Claudia Tenney defeats pro-abortion Rep. Anthony Brindisi in New York’s 22nd Congressional District, that number will increase to 14.

“I’m very excited about the new GOP members in the 117th Congress!,” said Karen Cross, National Right to Life Political Director. “Every one of them is pro-life and will work with us to protect unborn children!”

While the new pro-life representatives are certainly good for the pro-life movement, they don't flip the House in favor of pro-lifers. All eyes are on Georgia's Senate run-off elections as they will determine which party (and likely which side of life issues) controls the senate during the upcoming administration.

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Planned Parenthood Celebrates after Financing Efforts to Legalize Abortion in Argentina

Argentina Capitol Building
photo credit: Will Russell / Flickr

After Argentina legalized abortion in the early morning of December 30, an international branch of Planned Parenthood posted a celebratory message on its website. In addition to celebrating the now legal killing of preborn Argentinian children, the post also boasted about how the American abortion giant helped finance the political push to pass the controversial legislation.

The International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere Region (IPPFWHR) posted on its website:

"Argentina’s Senate just voted to legalize abortion up to 14 weeks! This is a historic moment for our region, our incredible partners in Argentina, and the countless activists and organizers who formed “the green wave” to advocate relentlessly for the rights of women and girls.

IPPFWHR has nurtured an ecosystem of feminist organizations and activists for more than 15 years that contributed to make today possible. IPPFWHR directly supports seven partners in Argentina, who in turn sub-grant funds to 20 other grassroots organizations from around the country. They have been coalescing around shared activities, such as advocating with policymakers and ensuring strong communications in favor of abortion rights stayed prominent in the public discourse. They’re also actively planning how to best support the implementation of the new law."

Argentinian President Alberto Fernández, who introduced the law, denied pro-life claims that the push to legalize abortion was coming from international organizations rather than the Argentinian people.

Further casting doubt on this claim, November polling by Giacobbe & Asociados found that 60% of Argentinians opposed the law, and only 26.7% were in favor.

Pro-life citizens from many nations in which abortion is not yet legal have complained that political forces from other countries often attempt to interfere with their abortion laws. That is the case with the United Nations, and will certainly continue to be true for Planned Parenthood as well.

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Indiana Abortion Clinic Sues to Overturn Laws Requiring Respectful Treatment of Fetal Remains

Indiana State Capitol
photo credit: J. Stephen Conn / Flickr

The Indianapolis Women's Center in Indiana, along with three anonymous women who claim to be patients, has sued the state of Indiana over laws requiring abortion clinics to treat the bodies of aborted babies with respect.

The lawsuit claims that Indiana fetal disposal laws cause emotional damage to women, and should therefore be overturned.

“These laws also send the unmistakable message that someone who has had an abortion or miscarriage is responsible for the death of a person,” the lawsuit says. “As a result, they have caused many abortion and miscarriage patients, including Jane Doe Nos. 1, 2, and 3, to experience shame, stigma, anguish, and anger.”

Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill successfully defended the same laws in 2019 in front of the Supreme Court when Planned Parenthood challenged them. He says he is confident that, while these challenges may be different in nature, the law will be upheld again.

“We took our fight for Indiana’s law on the disposition of fetal remains all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, and we won,” Hill said. “We are now reviewing this latest lawsuit, but I can tell you now that we will once again defend humanity, and I am quite confident that Indiana’s law will continue to stand strong.”

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Happy New Year from the IFRL!

Indiana AG Finalizes Investigation into Deceased Abortionist who Hoarded 2,000+ Aborted Babies at Illinois Home

Ulrich Klopfer

Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill announced on Wednesday that his department's investigation into deceased abortionist Ulrich Klopfer has finished.

After he died of natural causes on Sept. 3, 2019, Klopfer was found to have hoarded the bodies of 2,411 abortion victims between his home in Will County, Illinois and the trunk of a stored vehicle. When Klopfer's attorney visited the home to go through Klopfer's property, he discovered the bodies and reported his findings to the government officials, who began an investigation.

AG Hill said that his investigation did not find evidence that Klopfer worked with anyone else to collect and transport bodies from the Indiana abortion clinics he worked at to his Illinois home. Because Klopfer is already dead, Hill did not recommend any criminal charges or licensing actions.

While incredibly disturbing, this story did lead to a push across the country for legislation requiring abortion clinics to cremate or bury aborted children.

Klopfer lost his license in 2016 after multiple complaints. The bodies of the aborted children he hoarded were buried in South Bend, Indiana on February 12.

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Reports from Five States Alone Show over 100 Babies Born Alive During Attempted Abortions Since 2008

photo credit: Daiga Ellaby / Unsplash

The pro-abortion movement, when confronted with the idea of legal protection for children born during a failed attempt at abortion, often argue that this never happens. Abortion survivors do exist, however. Information Live Action News gathered from just five states showed that 108 children were born alive after an attempted abortion since 2008.

Live Action accessed reports from Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, and Texas to come to this conclusion. Note that high-population pro-abortion states often don't report these kinds of statistics, so the average number of abortion survivors is likely greater than this data might suggest.

Between the years 2008 and 2020, the data collected by Live Action showed that 37 preborn children from Arizona, 27 from Florida, 12 from Michigan, 19 from Minnesota, and 13 from Texas were born alive after attempted abortions.

A report from the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute cited the CDC for another estimate of abortion survivors, saying:

"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that nationwide, between 2003 and 2014 at least 143 babies died after being born alive during botched abortions, though the CDC also states this could be an underestimation."

While some abortion survivors go on to live normal lives, others are left to die; either killed directly by an abortionist after the failed abortion or simply refused medical treatment until they eventually die. The CDC reports that the majority of children who die after surviving an abortion attempt live between 1-4 hours before they pass away.

If you would like to hear directly from abortion survivors, Faces of Choice created a series of short videos in which abortion survivors tell their stories and expose the truth about failed abortions.

Click here to read more from Live Action News.

Planned Parenthood President Says Abortion is a “critically important part of what we do”

In a recent interview with The Washington Post, Planned Parenthood President McGill Johnson broke away from the abortion giant's usual (and false) argument that abortion is only a small percentage of what it does.

“[I]t is still a critically important part of what we do,” she said. “So I think when we say, ‘It’s a small part of what we do,’ what we’re doing is actually stigmatizing it. Like it’s really not a big deal that Planned Parenthood does this. We are a proud abortion provider. We believe that abortion is health care, and we believe, fundamentally, that self-determination begins with being able to control your own body and freedom begins with being able to control your own body. So I don’t like to marginalize it in that way.”

In the past, Planned Parenthood has tried to downplay the number of abortions it does with misleading communication and math. It would say that because Planned Parenthood also provided services such as pregnancy tests and STD testing, it wasn't just an abortion business. In reality, many of these services are simply provided to women as part of a process they go through before they have an abortion.

This shift toward showing pride in killing hundreds of thousands of unborn children each year, rather than trying to cover it up, is quite significant. While pro-abortion activists may have once said that abortion should be "safe, legal, and rare," Planned Parenthood is no longer supporting that mantra.

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Argentina Senate Votes to Legalize Abortion

Capitol of Argentina
photo credit: Will Russell / Flickr

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Argentina's Senate voted to legalize abortion up to 14 weeks of pregnancy.

The legislative body debated through Tuesday evening before finally voting 38-29 in favor of legalizing abortion at 4:00 a.m. Before this, abortion was only legal when the mother's life was at risk or in cases of rape.

Argentina President Alberto Fernández has already promised that he will sign the bill into law. He argued that because illegal abortions already occurred, it made sense to legalize abortion. “The debate is not about deciding whether or not there should be abortion,” he said. “Abortions occur in clandestine form, placing at risk the health and lives of the women who submit to them. The dilemma we must overcome is whether abortions are to be clandestine or within the Argentine health system.”

Pro-life activists from Argentina's “Blue Wave” movement are gearing on for what may be a long fight against the intentional killing of unborn children. “We are witnessing a defeat of life. But our convictions do not change,” one pro-life speaker told disappointed activists after the vote. “We are going to make ourselves heard.”

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Report Shows Oregon Hospitals Denied Health Care to People with Disabilities

photo credit: Matthew Perkins / Flickr

Disability rights activists found that hospitals in Oregon have been denied healthcare during the pandemic due to discriminatory policies.

NPR reported on the story of a woman with an intellectual disability who was denied access to a ventilator due to her "low quality of life." She was further asked to sign do-not-resuscitate (DNR) and do-not-intubate orders, and workers from the care home she lived at were asked to write DNRs for all residents living in the care home in advance.

Understandably upset, the care home staffers sought legal help from Disability Rights Oregon (DRO). When DRO threatened to sue the hospital, the patient was moved and put on a ventilator, which allowed her to successfully recover.

“The threat of litigation and the threat of exposing the depth and the whiff of discrimination in our state, I think, was enough to get people to do the right thing,” DRO legal director Emily Cooper told NPR. “But what that meant is you needed to have a lawyer call or you needed to have someone that had the gravitas to push for that.”

State Sen. Sara Gelser, who was contacted during the incident, voiced frustration that the state hasn't taken action to address the issue.

“Nothing happened to that hospital. Nothing happened to that physician,” she told NPR. “The health authority confirmed that, in fact, that was a coerced do-not-intubate order, that they confirmed it happened … but there was no sanction. So there was no remedy. This is immoral. We do not respond to disability discrimination in the way that we should.”

The NPR story uncovered several other instances of people with disabilities being denied healthcare for similar reasons during the pandemic. This should be greatly concerning for pro-life activists, as the denial of healthcare is incredibly similar to euthanasia consent from a patient.

The lives of people with disabilities are greatly devalued when medical institutions discriminate against them based on a supposed "low quality of life." All life is valuable.

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