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.
California Governor is Considering Budget Cuts - Including Defunding Planned Parenthood
What pro-lifers can do to make it happen!
While most companies struggle to survive in the current state of our economy, recent annual reports show that business has never been better for Planned Parenthood and profits have never been so high.
In a press release last weekend, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards admitted that clinics like Mar Monte, California have seen as much as a 21 percent jump in the number of women they perform abortions on in a weekly basis.
But despite the booming business of the baby-butchers, 90% of "family planning" (aka, abortion services) is funded by the "federal government" (aka, YOUR tax-dollars).
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Tension Mounts over Possible Abortion Referral Venture at Boston Catholic Hospitals
Pro-life and Catholic advocates are voicing concern that Boston Catholic hospitals may soon refer for abortions as part of a joint medical venture it won last week, and which reportedly requires access to "family planning" services including abortion, contraception, and sterilization.
The archdiocesan-owned Caritas Christi Health Care network first raised questions in February after it was revealed that the networks' hospitals had joined with Centene Corp. to bid on a state-subsidized health insurance contract, called the Commonwealth Family Health Plan. According to joint statements by Caritas/Centene, the contract requires access to abortion, contraception and sterilization, or at least referral for such services. The joint venture is expected to take effect July 1.
The bid to take over the Commonwealth Family Health Plan "will contract with providers, both in and out of the Caritas network, to ensure access to all services required by [the state], including confidential family planning services," said a February statement.
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Oklahoma passes bill to ban abortions based on sex selection
An Oklahoma bill to ban abortions based on an unborn child's sex has been passed by the state legislature and now heads to the governor for signing.
H.B. 1595 passed the Senate on Friday by a vote of 35 to 9. The bill had passed the House by 88 to 6. Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, urged Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry to sign HB 1595 into law.
"Aborting a baby because she's a girl or he's a boy is offensive on so many levels, it's hard to imagine anyone trying to justify the practice," Fr. Pavone said.
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Abortion tops 50% for pregnant Brit teens
More than half of the pregnancies to underage girls in Great Britain ended in abortion last year for the first time.
New government statistics show there were about 40,000 pregnancies to girls under the age of 18 in 2008, and more than 20,000 of those ended in abortion, according to the Daily Mail.
Amazingly, some supporters of abortion rights applauded the development.
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Louisiana House Approves Bill Allowing Providers To Refuse Certain Reproductive Health Services
The Louisiana House on Tuesday voted 82-13 to approve legislation (HB 517) that would allow some health professionals to refuse to provide certain medical services that they object to on religious or moral grounds, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports.
The House-passed bill is an amended version of a measure, introduced by Rep. Bernard LeBas (D), that a House committee rejected earlier this month. The revised bill narrowed the list of procedures that can be denied, and it applies to health providers only in public facilities, not religious health facilities statewide as in the original bill. Under the bill, public health care employees would be allowed to decline to provide abortions or abortifacient drugs. They also would be allowed to refuse participation in embryonic stem cell research or cloning, euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. Public employees would be immune from civil lawsuits and have job security under the measure.
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Spain's "Disastrous" Contraceptive Policies have Resulted in the Oldest European Population
A report by Spain's Institute for Family Policy says that Spain, with one of the western world's lowest birth rates and a high average life expectancy, is now the most rapidly aging country in the European Union.
The Institute's head, Eduardo Hertfelder, told media that the government's "dreadful" contraceptive policies are having a "catastrophic effect."
The report says that the Spanish youth population has dropped from 10 million in 1981 to 6.6 million in 2008. The process of population aging follows Spain's precipitous drop in birth rates. In 2000, a UN report found that the Spanish birth rate was the lowest in the world with 1.07 children per woman. Hertfelder stressed that the Spanish population is being bolstered now only by increases in immigration.
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