NEWS SHORTS FOR WEDNESDAY
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More Pro-Life Voices Plead for No Vote in Irish Lisbon Referendum
Two more Irish pro-life voices have joined the chorus of those urging the Irish voters to reject the EU's Lisbon Treaty in Friday's referendum. Pro-life former MEP Dana Rosemary Scallon and the group Ireland for Life have warned that the Lisbon Treaty, the EU's replacement for the defeated Constitution, poses a threat to the country's constitutional protections of the unborn, as well as national sovereignty.
"I am not afraid to vote No to Lisbon," said Scallon on Tuesday. Referring to a set of promises made to Irish politicians by EU officials, Scallon said, "The people must know the truth, that the guarantees are worthless and that the EU will have primacy over Ireland's Constitution."
"Voting No," she said, "will protect Ireland's constitution in matters such as the definition and protection of the family; children's rights; parent's rights; the protection of life and the child embryo; the right to a fair trial; the right to strike etc."
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Pro-Abort County Judge In Arizona Blocks Key Parts of State's New Abortion Regulations
A state judge has blocked implementation of key parts of a new Arizona law restricting abortion. Judge Donald Daughton of Maricopa County Superior Court late Tuesday issued a preliminary injunction granting most of a request by Planned Parenthood, the state's largest abortion provider. Daughton's order blocks implementation of requirements for a 24-hour waiting period and specific in-person disclosures by a physician to a woman before getting an abortion. Other blocked provisions include a requirement that parental consents for a minor's abortion be notarized and a ban on nurse practitioners performing abortions.
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96,000 Women Have Abortions Over Medicine
Many pregnant women make the hasty decision to have an abortion because of medication they were taking when they became pregnant. The practice is often based on unfounded fears that the medicine could lead to fetal deformities, says Dr. Kim Tae-yoon, head of the gynecological department of Miz Medi Hospital. "Though doctors assure them that most of the drugs are okay and recommend them to keep the baby, they just ask for the procedure," he said. Kim's remarks came in response to the Korea Food and Drug Administration's report that about 96,000 women, 10 percent of pregnant women, were having abortions for drug-related reasons each year.
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Bill Would Require Birth Control Abortion Pill Coverage
At the Ohio Capitol Tuesday, State Senator Teresa Fedor and State Representative Tyrone Yates introduced a bill that immediately generated controversy. It involves birth control, sex ed, and abortion. "These are issues that need to be talked about," Fedor told ONN's Jim Heath. "The more we're talking about reasonable honest sex education it helps people understand it, and make good decisions that put people in charge of their health." Among other things, the Ohio Prevention First Act would mandate schools teach sex education, and that pharmacies sell the morning after abortion pill. Ideas, Yates said, the public shouldn't fear. The legislation would also force all insurance companies to offer birth control, but Fedor admits she's not sure how many companies would be affected.
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Planned Parenthood Honors Tiller with Highest Award
The late Wichita abortionist George Tiller was awarded posthumously with the International Planned Parenthood Federation's top honor over the weekend, according to the Wichita Eagle.
The abortionist's widow Jeanne received the group's Medal of Honor for "outstanding individual contribution to sexual and reproductive health" on his behalf. George Tiller was shot and killed May 31 at his Lutheran Church.
Tiller, whose booming late-term abortion business was once the source of national controversy, had boasted of killing over 60,000 children in the womb over the course of his 30-year career.
The award was presented in a Washington, D.C. ceremony by Alexander Sanger, grandson of Planned Parenthood's eugenicist founder Margaret Sanger.
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Most Americans favor healthcare reform, excluding abortion coverage
There's more confirmation that the public does not want abortion funded in any healthcare reform.
Deirdre McQuade, assistant director for policy and communications at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' secretariat of pro-life activities, tells OneNewsNow her organization conducted a poll this month.
"And that survey found widespread public opposition to the inclusion of abortion and any erosion of conscience rights protection for healthcare workers, while at the same time finding that those views are shared by those who favor efforts to pass healthcare reforms," she notes.
McQuade says the public perception that opponents of abortion are trying to kill healthcare reform is not true. But the opposition to financing abortion, she says, goes beyond any government proposals for reform.
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