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.

Pro-Life Legislation Moves Through Tennessee House
 
Four times, the Public Health Subcommittee in the Tennessee House has defeated a proposed constitutional amendment that would overrule a pro-abortion state Supreme Court ruling from 2000.

That changed on Tuesday, when the full Health Committee voted 20-7 in favor of the amendment. SJR 127 recently passed the Senate for a fifth time and could go to the House floor within two weeks.

After the state Supreme Court ruled that the state constitution protects the "right" to abortion, several pro-life regulations have been struck down. This amendment would reverse the court ruling and allow incremental regulations on abortion.
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Crisis Pregnancy Center in Mattoon Reopens

Since the Mattoon Crisis Pregnancy Center closed almost four years ago, about 200 women each year had to drive from Mattoon to Charleston for help. But officials with the Crisis Pregnancy Centers of Eastern Illinois no longer have to give out fuel cards to Mattoon area women in need. In January, the Mattoon Crisis Pregnancy Center reopened at a new location, offering counseling on pregnancy, adoption and abortion, as well as other material assistance and instruction on life-building skills.
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Christian Doctors' Group Protests Rolling Back 'Conscience' Rule

An organization of Christian physicians argued Wednesday against an impending rollback of a federal rule allowing health care workers to refuse to provide certain reproductive services, saying it's discriminatory. The Bush White House proposed the rule in August, and it was enacted January 20, the day President Obama took office. It expanded on a 30-year-old law establishing a "conscience clause" for health care professionals who don't want to perform abortions.
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Nation's Oldest Abortion Clinic to Close

The nation's oldest abortion clinic, which is located in Oakland, is closing due to California's budget crisis. The Women's Choice Clinic of Oakland provided reproductive health care services for below cost. On Wednesday, the clinic's supporters announced the center is no longer seeing patients because the state has frozen payments, and has cut funding.
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Competing Medical Futility Bills Introduced in Texas--One to Stop It, One to Defend it

The current Texas Futile Care law is a disgrace, permitting star chamber ethics committees to force patients off of wanted life sustaining treatment, with family given a mere 10 days to find another hospital. This often proves impossible because these are expensive patients for which to care.

The last effort to revoke the law, which appeared to have a good chance of passage, was surprisingly blocked when the Catholic bishops of Texas supported a competing bill.
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Altruistic Desires Are Not the End All and Be All in Organ Donation

A very sad case in Canada is testing the ethics of organ donation at a Canadian hospital. A terminally ill baby was going to be allowed to die naturally and then after cardiac arrest, be an organ donor under the "Non Heart Beating Cadaver Donor Protocol." But the baby didn't die as planned and the donation has been called off, about which the parents are not happy. From the story:

    Two-month-old Kaylee has a fatal brain condition called Joubert Syndrome, which has caused a malformation of her brain, leaving her unable to breathe without a machine when she sleeps. With no way to save their child's life and not wanting to see her suffer any longer, Kaylee's parents, Jason Wallace and Crystal Vitelli, wanted to take her off life support and donate her heart to another baby in need.

    They thought Tuesday would be their last day with their daughter. Wallace said that Kaylee was expected to fall asleep in the operating room Tuesday evening and then be taken off life support. If she died within two hours, her heart would be removed for a transplant. But doctors called off the surgery when she did not fall asleep as thought.
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