NEWS SHORTS FOR THURSDAY
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.
4 Charged in Multi-State Investigation Into Alleged Assisted Suicide Ring
A wide-ranging investigation into an alleged suicide assistance ring led to charges against four people and raids in nine states as authorities looked into how many deaths might have been involved.
Four members of the Final Exit Network were charged Wednesday with helping a 58-year-old Georgia man end his life by inhaling helium. The group assigns those seeking to end their lives a guide who instructs them to purchase two new helium tanks and a hood, known as an "exit bag," the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said.
It wasn't immediately clear how many deaths were being investigated by law enforcement agencies that include the FBI, but authorities in Arizona were looking into whether a death there involved the group.
Group members Thomas E. Goodwin, who was identified as the organization's president, and Claire Blehr, a member, were both arrested Wednesday at a home in northern Georgia, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said. The arrests came after a sting operation in which an undercover agent posed as a member of the group.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,500449,00.html
Montana Senate: `We Want Grandparents Notified Before Abortion takes their Grandchildren'
The Montana Senate endorsed a measure Tuesday that would revive a requirement for parental notification when a woman under 18 plans to have an abortion, despite a 10-year-old court ruling that the requirement is unconstitutional. Montana lawmakers passed a parental notification law in 1995, but a state District Court ruled in 1999 that it violates a minor's right to privacy. Senate Bill 374, introduced by Sen. Gary Perry, aims to change that law's language to allow for a new constitutionality test.
http://www.helenair.com/articles/2009/02/25/legi/105st_090225_abortion.txt
Students gearing up for pro-life contest(PDF File)
Students can win money for their campus clubs through a brand new "Campus Impact Award" sponsored by Human Life Alliance (HLA) and Students for Life of America (SFLA). Three prizes of $500, $250 and $250 will be awarded to student clubs that promote pro-life issues on campus using HLA materials and succeed in producing creative and broad reaching educational efforts. The contest runs February 1st through March 31, 2009 so don't delay! Contact pro-life students in your area today!
http://www.humanlife.org/publications/2009campus_contest_rules.pdf
The Power of Love is the Power of Life
Day after day we are assaulted with the idea, fundamental to the assisted suicide movement, that some lives are not worth living and hence, not worth protecting from suicide. This advocacy, I believe, does not really promote liberty and freedom, but rather, endangers lives--of the elderly, people with disabilities and mental illnesses, and those with terminal or chronic diseases--by confirming their worst fears about their futures and their human worth.
http://www.wesleyjsmith.com/blog/2009/02/power-of-love-is-power-of-life.html
Pro-lifers get all over Guttmacher
Pro-lifers get all over GuttmacherThe Guttmacher Institute has completed a study that suggests Planned Parenthood needs more money. The American Life League, in response, calls the study a "well-timed and self-serving sales pitch" for the abortion provider.
The lead author of the study argues that every dollar spent on "family planning" saves taxpayers $4 in costs associated with unintended births to mothers eligible for Medicaid-funded natal care. "The national family planning program is smart government at its best," states Rachel Benson Gold.
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=426504
Public Financing of Abortion Constitutional: Chancellor of Justice of Estonia
In September 2008, the Institute for the Culture of Life, a pro-life group based in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, filed an application to the Chacellor of Justice of the Republic of Estonia, Mr. Indrek Teder, asking him to declare public financing of abortion unconstitutional.
The Government of the Republic of Estonia has for years been paying 70% of the cost of each and every elective abortion, spending well over a million US dollars on abortions every year.
The application rested upon the 2002 decision of the previous Chancellor of Justice, Mr. Allar Jõks, in which he argued that "the right to life enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of Estonia protects also the fetus" and the Constitution has to be interpreted as laying down "the objective responsibility of the State to protect unborn life."
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/viewonsite.html?articleid=09022505
