July 1, 2008

Planned Parenthood: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing?
Harry R. Jackson, Jr. Monday, June 23, 2008

--During the last few years, everyone in the nation has come to understand that things are not always the way they appear with individuals or organizations. While all of us struggle to live up to our ideals, some groups live permanently in the land of personal or professional compromise. In my opinion, Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) may be such an organization. Because of the group’s gross disregard for the law and the dignity of its youngest clients, I believe that Planned Parenthood should be de-funded by the Federal government. This billion dollar a year federation presents the pristine appearance of an empowering, civil rights organization. As I have already stated, looks can be very deceiving. Media savvy representatives such as Faye Waddleton and Cecile Richards have cut stunning figures in both print and television. They have sold the nation on the idea that PPFA is advancing the interests of the last, the least, and the forgotten. Waddleton, a charming and articulate black social activist, served as a past president of the PPFA; while Richards (daughter of famed former Texas governor Ann Richards) serves as the current president of the organization. As PPFA leaders both women have been given a seat at the table of media-driven influence. Their political opinions are highly regarded by cable news pundits and producers. They are seen as important reformers. There is only one problem with their polished personas - their organization is dramatically different internally from its public face. Although Planned Parenthood describes itself as “the nation's leading sexual and reproductive health care advocate and provider,” many people believe that Planned Parenthood is actually peddling death in an aggressive and unethical manner. This statement refers to the way the services are being delivered, not just to the fact that abortions are being performed. As local representatives make what they believe to be historic stands for what they call “reproductive freedom,” they often do so in a “by any means necessary,” Machiavellian mindset in which the ends justify the means. They fight to give access to abortion, contraception, pregnancy tests, and cancer screenings to people of all races and classes.

Unfortunately, local leaders of Planned Parenthood may have moved into a level of dangerous rule breaking that could destroy the future of many naïve young persons and countless under aged girls. Complete story: Townhall.com

Obama Makes Promise to Planned Parenthood

--The so-called Freedom of Choice Act could wipe away every state law limiting abortion. Last year, presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., made a promise to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund: "The first thing I'd do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act," he said. The so-called Freedom of Choice Act could wipe away every state law limiting abortion, undoing decades of legal work, research and educational successes. Obama has co-sponsored the legislation with 18 other senators. The bill has the support of 109 members of Congress. "Thirty-five years after Roe, abortionsupporters, like Senator Obama, are dismayed that abortion remains a divisive issue and that their radical agenda has not been submissively accepted by the American public," writes Denise M. Burke, vice president of Americans United for Life. "Rather than confronting legitimate issues concerning the availability and safety of abortion, they choose to blatantly ignore the concerns and interests of everyday Americans, as well as the growing evidence that abortion hurts women." Day Gardner, president of the National Black ProLife Union, said even the federal Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act could be overturned. “This shows exactly how dangerous this man is to unborn children," he said. "We are killing off our children, and this is something we really have to pay attention to.”

Barack Obama and the Comfort Room
by Jill Stanek

In March 2002, then Illinois state Sen. Barack Obama and I engaged in an interesting exchange during my testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, of which he was a member. I was speaking in favor of the Illinois Born Alive Infant Protection Act for the second time, which had failed the year before. The previous year, I had told Obama and the committee of my experience holding a live aborted baby until he died in my capacity as a labor and delivery nurse at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Ill. That year, I described Christ Hospital's Comfort Room, unveiled in December 2000 to counter my public statements that personnel were shelving babies to die in the department's soiled utility room next to dirty linens, bloody and biohazardous waste, and a urinal: Four months ago, Christ Hospital unveiled its "Comfort Room." So now I can no longer say that live aborted babies are left in our Soiled Utility Room to die. We now have this prettily wallpapered room complete with a First Foto machine, baptismal gowns, a footprinter and baby bracelets, so that we can offer keepsakes to parents of their aborted babies. There is even a nice wooden rocker in the room to rock live aborted babies to death. I did not mention the Comfort Room when I testified again in 2002. But Barack Obama remembered. Of over 4,000 pieces of legislation introduced in the Illinois General Assembly in 2001, Obama apparently recalled my description of Christ Hospital's Comfort Room. He stated, according to the State Net transcript: Complete story: - Illinois Federation for Right to Life - Barack Obama and the Comfort Room

Coming to a Mall Near You -- Planned Parenthood's New Strategy Posted: Wednesday, June 25, 2008

"It is indeed a new look...a new branding, if you will." That's the explanation offered by Leslie Durgin, a senior vice president at Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains. She was speaking of Planned Parenthood's new "upscale" approach to marketing abortions and other "services" to wealthier suburban women.

This new strategy and marketing plan was described in chilling detail by reporter Stephanie Simon of The Wall Street Journal [article available by subscription only]. "Flush with cash, Planned Parenthood affiliates nationwide are aggressively expanding their reach," she explains, "seeking to woo more affluent patients with a network of suburban clinics and huge new health centers that project a decidedly upscale image."

The nonprofit, which traces its roots to 1916, has long focused on providing birth control, sexual-health care and abortions to teens and low-income women. While those groups still make up the majority of Planned Parenthood's patients, executives say they are "rebranding" their clinics to appeal to women of means -- a move that opens new avenues for boosting revenue and, they hope, political clout.

Planned Parenthood may be legally defined as a nonprofit organization, but it is flush with money. The organization took in over $1 billion last year, and reported $112 million in "excess of revenue over expenses." The group also received $70 million in federal funds -- your tax dollars at work.

Make no mistake -- Planned Parenthood has an agenda, even as it did when founded by Margaret Sanger and other radicals in the early 20th century. The organization receives hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue from killing unborn babies. It wants to extend its reach into the population. Complete story: Coming to a Mall Near You -- Planned Parenthood's New Strategy

FRC Action Video Challenges Obama on Life Issue

FRC Action President Tony Perkins is calling on Sen. Barack Obama to clarify his statements about when life begins. Perkins and his infant son are featured in a new TV commercial, which is airing in Cincinnati, Atlanta and Dallas. http://capwiz.com/fof/utr/1/IQOOITLGGA/AVUNITLHFD/2138164196/

During a Father’s Day speech in Chicago, Obama said: “We need fathers to recognize that responsibility doesn't just end at conception.” Perkins, a father of five, said he couldn't help but notice the irony. "Senator Obama has voted for numerous laws supporting abortion in his time in the U.S. Senate and the Illinois Legislature,” he said. “He is the co-sponsor of the federal Freedom of Choice Act, a sweeping piece of legislation that will legalize partial-birth abortion and overturn virtually all federal and state limitations on abortion."Senator Obama understands that a father's responsibility does not end at conception, but does he understand that it begins there as well?" FOR MORE INFORMATION Watch Tony Perkins’s video, and then forward it to a friend. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCm8a5e47Kw&eurl==http://www.frcaction.org/

Unborn Baby Undergoes Successful Surgery at 22 Weeks Gestation

--In what may be a medical first, doctors at Monash Medical Centre in Melbourne Australia successfully conducted surgery on an unborn child at a mere 22 weeks gestation, reports Australia's The Age. Typically doctors will wait until at least 28 weeks gestation before conducting such 'in utero' surgery, said a representative from Monash according to AFP, due to the high risks involved both to the child and mother. When Australians Kylie and Terry Bowlen were told, eighteen weeks into Kylie's pregnancy, that their baby girl suffered from a relatively rare condition known as Amniotic Band Syndrome (ABS), they did not know what to do. "I was just thinking, 'What have I done to deserve this? Have I done anything wrong?" Kylie told The Age. Amniotic Band Syndrome occurs when amniotic bands wrap around the unborn child, constricting blood flow to various parts of the child's body. In the case of the Bowlen's baby girl, Leah, the bands had wrapped around her legs. If the ABS had been left untreated, it could have led to her having her legs amputated after birth, or even to her death. Tests revealed that, other than the bands wrapped around her legs, Leah was a perfectlyhealthy child. Her parents decided that, rather than running the risk of their daughter being crippled for life, they would risk 'in utero' surgery to remove the amniotic bands. "It came down to knowing that the restof Leah was pretty healthy and quite strong," Mr Bowlen said."Everything was fine, it was just these legs. We basically came to the conclusion that if she was born with bung legs we could cope with that." Complete story: - Illinois Federation for Right to Life - Unborn Baby Undergoes Successful Surgery at 22 Weeks Gestation

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July 5, 2008

John McCain Tells Pro-Life Advocates He Will Strongly Oppose Abortion as President Washington, DC (LifeNews.com)

-- Republican presidential candidate John McCain, in a videotaped message played for the hundreds of pro-life advocates at the National Right to Life convention, said he would resolutely oppose abortion as president. He said he joined the pro-life community in wanting to make sure unborn children are protected by law. “More than 200 years ago out nation’s founder declared that we are endowed with certain inalienable rights and among these is the right to life,” McCain explained. “It was no accident that they cited life as the first and most basic right. Without recognition of the right to life, we are not guaranteed any other rights.” “I have been pro-life my entire public career and I am pro-life because I know what its like to live without human rights and where life is accorded no value,” he said. McCain said he has a long career promoting pro-life policies and talked about his votes to support the ban on partial-birth abortion, oppose Roe v. Wade and make sure abortions aren’t funded with taxpayer dollars. “I will proudly defend my record defending human life during any debates on domestic and international policy,” he said. “Wisdom suggests we should be willing to give an unborn child the same chance our parents gave us,” McCain said. “We can’t fail to respect the inherent dignity of all human life, born or unborn.” “The most important duty of our national leaders is to protect human life and you need only to examine my public record to know I won’t change my position,” he added. Full story at LifeNews.com

Coalition of Pro-Life Advocates, Pastors Unite to Support John McCain for President Washington, DC (LifeNews.com)

-- A coalition of leaders of pro-life and Christian groups met in Denver on Tuesday to unite to endorse presidential candidate John McCain. The leaders and activists said they wanted to come together behind McCain because he opposes abortion and because they consider Barack Obama’s abortion record too extreme. The meeting of the group of about 100 pro-life leaders and activists will help McCain reach out to the majority of Americans who take a pro-life position on abortion. Presidential candidates have been traditionally aided by the pro-life vote. Mat Staver, the chairman of Liberty Counsel, a pro-life law firm, talked with Time magazine about the endorsements. "Collectively we feel that he will support and advance those moral values that we hold much greater than Obama, who in our view will decimate moral values," the former Huckabee backer said. Staver said the pro-life advocates were split in their loyalties during the Republican primary and the event was an opportunity for them to come together to support a candidate in what will be a clear contrast in the general election between McCain and Obama on abortion. "There are people who came through the primary with very mixed emotions of the candidate," Staver continued. "This event was to put those aside." "Our shared conservative evangelical values and our concern about judicial activism compelled us to unite around the presidential candidate who most closely aligns with us,” Staver said. “That candidate is obviously Sen. John McCain.” Full story at LifeNews.com.

President Bush Greets Pro-Life Advocates With Special Video Message Against Abortion Washington, DC (LifeNews.com)

-- In a special video message to the hundreds of pro-life advocates at the National Right to Life convention, President Bush urge pro-life advocates to keep on pressing towards the goal of protecting unborn children. He also discussed the numerous pro-life actions he’s taken as president. “Thank you for your commitment to protecting the unborn,” he said. “The nation’s Declaration of Independence exists to give the right to life to the unborn.” “I have proudly stood with you to make sure this nation stands up for this noble promise,” he added. “For eight years we have stood together to defend the principle that every human life has value.” Bush said he’s worked overtime to make sure that taxpayer dollars don’t go to paying for abortions in either the United States or overseas and, instead, he’s focused public funds on funding for abstinence education and crisis pregnancy centers. He said he was delighted to sign the Unborn Victims of Violence Act that protects people like Laci and Conner Peterson and provides them with justice when a violent attacker would kill or injure them. As the president said, the bill “allows prosecutors to charge those who harm a pregnant woman and who harm or kill her unborn child as well.” Full story at LifeNews.com.

Fred Thompson Opens National Right to Life Convention With Pro-Life Passion Washington, DC (LifeNews.com)

-- Former Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson served as the highlight of the opening ceremonies of the National Right to Life convention Thursday morning. He urged the more than one thousand pro-life activists attending the annual event to stick to their pro-life principles regardless of the wins or losses. Thompson said there “has been a lot of talk about the need for change in this country and this has become Senator Obama’s mantra.” He said Congress is controlled by pro-abortion politicians “so I see the need for great change in this country.” Thompson worried about a change in the wrong direction and said Americans should be focused on reasserting the pro-life principles that makes the United States great. Endorsed by National Right to Life during the Republican primaries, Thompson said the direction of the Supreme Court is significantly important -- especially as it relates to pro-life concerns. He said Barack Obama is an “agent of change in the wrong direction.” “If Senator Obama is elected, he will through the Supreme Court and federal nominations bring about a negative trend in this country that we may not live long enough to see rectified,” Thompson said. Thompson also blasted Obama over his votes in the Illinois legislature against a bill that would have given infants who survive failed abortions with appropriate medical care. “I’m not sure how he can explain how he is to the left of NARAL,” referring to a leading pro-abortion group that took no position on a Congressional version of the anti-infanticide bill. Full story at LifeNews.com

Leading Pro-Abortion Group Continues Attack on John McCain on Abortion, Birth Control Washington, DC (LifeNews.com)

-- Leading pro-abortion group NARAL is continuing its attacks on John McCain in the latest fundraising email sent to its donors and the attacks focus on abortion and birth control. NARAL, which has already endorsed pro-abortion presidential candidate Barack Obama, says McCain is unfit to be president because he opposes abortion. “Please join NARAL Pro-Choice America immediately and help us ensure that the anti-choice, anti-birth control candidate, John McCain, does not become president,” NARAL president Nancy Keenan says in the fundraising missive. Keenan highlighted a recent poll the organization conducted showing Republican and independent women were more likely to oppose McCain after hearing about his pro-life voting record on abortion. She said the group needs money to take the message to top battleground states. “It’s critical that we contact the almost 200,000 pro-choice women we identified in 2004 and 2006 in battleground states who will be this year's swing voters and tell them about the threats to choice we can expect if John McCain picks up where George W. Bush left off,” Keenan explained. However, pro-life advocates say conservative Democrats, Catholic voters and others will come around to supporting McCain when they learn Obama supports limitless abortion paid for at taxpayer expense and has opposed any kinds of sensible limits on abortions. Knowing that pro-life presidential candidates have enjoyed an advantage on the issue of abortion, NARAL is attempting to expand the reasons for opposing McCain by getting more women and independent voters to support Obama. To accomplish the task, the pro-abortion group is going after McCain on votes he’s made on birth control and women’s reproductive and other health care. Full story at LifeNews.com

New Report Indicates Voters Most Interested in Barack Obama’s Position on Abortion Washington, DC (LifeNews.com)

-- A new report shows voters are interested in the position Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama takes on abortion. The Internet traffic monitoring firm HitWise indicates abortion is now the number one political issue voters are looking for when they conduct a search on Obama’s campaign web site. Hitwise analyzed the top 200 U.S. search terms that sent visits to the presidential candidates’ websites for the first half of 2008, revealing the types of content searched for the most among Internet users. Issues like education, the environment, health care and immigration are important to visitors on Obama’s web site, but HitWise says abortion tops them all. In the first quarter of 2008, abortion came in as the number two most important issue on the minds of voters looking to Obama’s web site to learn more about him. As news of Obama’s pro-abortion position has filtered throughout the nation, the abortion search term moved up to the top spot over the last three months. McCain’s pro-life position on abortion must be more clear to voters as abortion came in as the third most important issue in searches on his web site in the first quarter but slipped out of the top five in the second quarter. Heather Dougherty, research director for HitWise, says the topics that voters put in searches on the candidate web sites, give an indication of what political issues are most prominent on their minds. “This has implications for what content should be featured on the candidates’ websites, and broadly across all communications with voters,” she said. Full story at LifeNews.com.

Pro-Life Congressional Leader Highlights Chinese Abortion Abuses Ahead of Olympics Beijing, China (LifeNews.com)

-- One of the leading pro-life members of Congress who has long championed the rights of the Chinese people who are subjected to forced abortions and sterilizations under China’s one-child policy, is speaking out in the weeks leading up to the Summer Olympics. Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey says more attention should be focused on the problems. Smith told LifeNews.com that the United States and the international community needs to speak out more for political prisoners like Chen Guangcheng. Chen is the attorney who was working on a class action lawsuit for thousands of people in Linyi, China who became victims of forced abortions and sterilizations or lost jobs and homes in a massive population control crackdown. Smith spent four days on a human rights mission to China and made his comments from Beijing. “With just weeks to go to the Olympics, we join our voice to those of millions of Chinese and appeal to the Chinese Government to free its prisoners of conscience, stop the indiscriminant harassment and arrests of dissidents and respect fundamental human rights,” he said. Smith, a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and a leading human rights advocate in Congress, said he and pro-life rank Wolf of Virginia went to China to bring attention to the most recent government crackdown and to work for its reversal as the world starts to focus more on China and the Olympics. “Tragically, the Olympics has triggered a massive crackdown designed to silence and put beyond reach all those whose views differ from the official ‘harmonious’ government line,” he said. Full story at LifeNews.com

Pro-Life California Group Says Bill Promoting Euthanasia Still Has Major Concerns Sacramento, CA (LifeNews.com)

-- Though sponsors of a bill that would promote euthanasia removed some of the problematic language from the measure, a leading California pro-life group says several concerns remain. The bill would codify palliative sedation and voluntary stopping of eating and drinking as legitimate means of pain control and allow doctors and nurses to suggest death by unconscious dehydration. Last week, changes were made to the bill that Brian Johnston of the California Pro-Life Council calls “bell and whistle amendments” that looked good but did not remove the significant concerns pro-life advocates have with the bill. Johnston told LifeNews.com the changes “in no way changed the substantive effect” of the bill in terms of it promoting euthanasia. “Unfortunately, these ‘attention getting amendments’ distracted some and convinced them to drop opposition to the bill,” Johnston said. The confusion about whether the changes really improved the bill led members of the committee to support it and send the harmful legislation to the California Senate floor. “An important swing vote on the committee was thus falsely convinced it rendered the bill harmless. With that slim one vote, it passed out of the committee. It now goes to the Senate floor,” Johnston said. As a result, Johnston said his group and its national organization remain opposed to the bill. Full story at LifeNews.com

Kansas Grand Jury Refuses to Indict Late-Term Abortion Practitioner George Tiller Wichita, KS (LifeNews.com)

-- A Kansas grand jury investigating late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller has refused to return an indictment against him despite evidence showing he may have engaged in illegal late-term abortions. After a six-month investigation, the 15-member grand jury said it failed to find enough evidence to issue an indictment. Mary Kay Culp, the director of Kansans for Life, said she thinks the county prosecutor led members of the grand jury astray during the probe. “The failure of the grand jury to deliver indictments today is a tragic injustice for all law-abiding Kansans,” she said. “This grand jury would have surely indicted George Tiller had they not been misinformed. The problem isn't the current law. The problem is the so-called enforcers of that law that have failed to do their job,” Culp added. Operation Rescue president Troy Newman also responded to the news and said his group, which has joined KFL in trying told Tiller accountable, would continue to do so. “We are extremely disappointed that this grand jury did not indict Tiller,” he said. "We will not stop seeking justice for the innocent victims of Tiller's late-term barbaric practice, and will continue to exercise every legal avenue to stop the shedding of innocent blood and bring Tiller to justice,” he added. Full story at LifeNews.com

Pro-Life Advocates Protest Abortion at National Education Association Convention Washington, DC (LifeNews.com)

-- Pro-life teachers, students and other educators have been protesting this week at the National Education Association annual convention at the Washington Convention Center. The protest, which started on Wednesday, pointed out how the union has upset pro-life advocates many times over the years. Most recently, the NEA came under fire from pro-life advocates when it hosted a forum featuring a late-term abortion practitioner. With signs reading "NEA: Be Abortion Neutral” and "Pro-Life NEA Member,” the pro-life advocates say they hope to remove current pro-abortion language from NEA policies such as statements endorsing “family planning” and “reproductive freedom.” Bob Pawson of Pro-Life Educators and Students initially talked with LifeNews.com about the protest he has coordinated for years at the national event. Pawson, an NEA-NJEA teacher in Trenton, says the NEA should be one of the leading advocates against abortion because the practice is killing the next generation of students. "A pro-abortion position isn't just morally outrageous; it's stupid; economic suicide. Twenty-five abortions equal one lost classroom, lost teaching careers, and catastrophic losses to America's future," he said. Nancy Tanner, a retired teacher and NEA member told CNS News the protest is important to keep the largest teacher’s group aware of the pro-life views of a large number of its members. She said pro-life teachers and educators don’t appreciate the group deviating from its mission of improving education and fighting for better pay and benefits for educators. Full story at LifeNews.com

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July 7, 2008

Karl Rove Applauds Pro-Life Advocates, Says Barack Obama is Too Pro-Abortion Washington, DC (LifeNews.com)

-- Hundreds of pro-life activists at the National Right to Life convention were treated to a morning keynote speech from political strategist Karl Rove on the anniversary of the nation’s independence. Rove, the much-celebrated and much-maligned political advisor to President Bush said owes his elections to the work of the pro-life advocates. Rove said he’s been appreciative of the support pro-life advocates have given to President Bush and that the president has done everything possible to advance the pro-life cause. “This is a president who is deeply and passionately committed to the goal you have -- which is to foster a respect for life in this country,” Rove said. “He has been forthright and clear and deliberate in his rhetoric and has been aggressive in his actions,” Rove added. “He’s happy to work together with you for a great common cause.” He said Barack Obama is the “most pro-abortion candidate the Democrats have put forward.” That’s because Obama has vocally opposed the partial-birth abortion ban, a co-sponsor of a bill to overturn pro-life laws across the country, and is a supporter of taxpayer funding of abortion. “How can you bring Democrats together when you support the divisive practice of supporting abortions with taxpayer dollars?” Rove said. “He just can’t square that circle.” Full story at LifeNews.com.

Poll Shows Majority of Americans Pro-Life, Abortion Issues Helps McCain Over Obama Washington, DC (LifeNews.com)

-- A new poll reveals a majority of Americans take a pro-life position on abortion and that pro-life Americans outnumber pro-abortion Americans by a 16 percent margin. The survey also found the issue of abortion gives presidential candidate John McCain an eight point advantage over his pro-abortion rival Barack Obama. Conducted by the Polling Company for National Right to Life, the June 2008 poll finds 54 percent of Americans take one of three pro-life positions on abortion and just 38 percent take a pro-abortion position. Looking at a breakdown of the pro-life side of the equation, 17 percent of those surveyed said they oppose abortions and want them illegal for any reason. Another 12 percent said abortions should only be allowed to save the life of the mother, and 27 percent said abortions should only be allowed in the very rare cases to save the life of the mother or when the woman is a victim of rape or incest. The poll also found 30 percent of voters say that the issue of abortion will affect their vote, with 20 percent of self-identified pro-life voters saying so and only 9 percent of pro-abortion voters saying so. Breaking down the numbers further, 17 percent of voters said they would only vote for a candidate who shares their view on abortion, regardless of that view. Looking at that group, 12 percent said they would only vote for a pro-life candidate and just 4 percent said they would only support a candidate who backs abortion. That gives pro-life candidates, like McCain, an eight percent advantage on the issue of abortion, says David O’Steen, the executive director of National Right to Life. Full story at LifeNews.com

Congressman Chris Smith Says Pro-Life Movement Needs John McCain as President Washington, DC (LifeNews.com)

-- Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey is no stranger to the pro-life community and he told attendees at the National Right to Life convention that the pro-life movement needs John McCain as president. Smith has championed the pro-life cause for decades and said pro-life voters can trust McCain to stand with them on abortion. “John McCain is proudly pro-life and will faithfully and effectively promote the culture of life both here and abroad,” Smith said. “I have known John McCain for three decades and trust him as you do.” “John McCain had the support of Arizona Right to Life,” in his Congressional campaigns, Smith said, and, from the beginning of his career in Washington, “he talked about this as our issue and truly defending the right to life.” “Now, more than ever, the pro-life movement needs men and women of courage,” Smith added. “McCain won’t waffle, capitulate or retreat.” Smith said pro-life voters should have an easy time in November choosing between McCain and pro-abortion Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois. He talked about how Obama opposed the Born Alive Infants Protection Act in the state legislature and essentially put himself on record as saying babies born alive after a failed abortion shouldn’t receive legitimate medical care. Smith said Obama’s first priority as president would be to sign the so-called Freedom of Choice Act -- legislation so heinous that it would overturn all pro-life laws nationwide. “He would compel each and every one of us to fund abortion in the United States through various programs,” Smith said. Full story at LifeNews.com

CNN Runs Biased News Story Covering Up Barack Obama’s Pro-Abortion Record by Matthew Balan

--In a report on Monday’s "The Situation Room" purporting to clarify how Barack Obama "really voted on abortion" , CNN correspondent Carol Costello misconstrued the Democrat’s stance on legislation during his time in the Illinois state senate that would have protected infants that survived abortions. Besides the two votes specifically mentioned by Costello in the report, Obama also voted against it at the committee level, and when he was committee chair, denied a simple up or down vote on the legislation. The CNN correspondent also misrepresented the apparent pro-life stance of pro-abortion senators like "liberal Ted Kennedy" when the U.S. Senate voted on similar legislation. The bill passed by unanimous consent, so none of the senators actually voted yes or no on it. Substitute host John Roberts introduced the segment, and asked Costello, "what are the allegations and what's the truth about Obama's abortion record?" Though the CNN correspondent did present both sides of the debate on the issue, she left out key details about Obama’s voting record. First, Costello presented how the "charge" that Obama opposed a bill that would have protected unborn babies that survive abortion has been "circulating online for months," as if it’s just another one of those Internet rumors about the senator, like the one that claims that Obama is a Muslim. She then mentioned the criticism of "[a]nti-abortion conservatives like Former Senator Rick Santorum," and Bill Bennett, who have taken Obama to task for the vote. Full story at LifeNews.com

President Bush Again Refuses Funding for Pro-Abortion United Nations Agency Washington, DC (LifeNews.com)

-- President Bush has again refused to direct taxpayer funds to a United Nations agency accused of promoting abortion and backing the one-child forced-abortion policy in China. Bush revoked funding for the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) for the seventh consecutive year. The White House is withholding almost $40 million in funding from the UN agency because the State Department has determined that it has violated the Kemp-Kasten amendment of 1985. That’s a pro-life law that ensures no public funds can go to groups that promote forced abortions overseas. The Population Research Institute issued a statement LifeNews.com received applauding the decision and noting that Bush denied the funding in part because of research PRI president Steven Mosher conducted. In total, Bush has denied $235 million in taxpayer funds to the pro-abortion agency since he took office in 2001. "The evidence demonstrates that the UNFPA continues to aid and abet China's barbaric one-child policy," Mosher said. "It doesn't deserve one penny of US money."

YouTube Gives No Reason for Pulling Prolife Group's Video By Karna Swanson DENVER, Colorado, JULY 2, 2008 (Zenit.org)

-- YouTube has pulled a video from their site that unmasks a supposedly unbiased film project as a pro-abortion initiative, and has yet to give any reason as to why it was removed.The video-sharing site pulled “The Decency Gap/Eve Reinhardt,” which shows a meeting that took place in Lima several weeks ago between Carlos Polo, director for Latin America of the pro-life Population Research Institute, and independent filmmaker Eve Reinhardt, the Catholic News Agency reported today.Polo reported that Reinhardt sent him several e-mails requesting an interview for an unbiased documentary on abortion, while hiding the true nature of her project. In the video, Polo confronts Reinhardt with information that ties her to a multimedia theater project titled "The Decency Gap."The term "decency gap" is used among abortion supporters to refer to the gap of funding left open after President George Bush reinstated in 2001 the Mexico City Policy, which prohibits U.S. funding for international organizations that perform or provide information about abortion.The video also includes pictures of the official Web site of “The Decency Gap,” which confirm it is being financed by the International Planned Parenthood Federation, Marie Stopes International, and the Center for Reproductive Rights, as well as the Peruvian pro-abortion association PROMSEX. Since the posting of the video, the home page of "The Decency Gap" Web site has been pulled.Polo had told the Catholic News Agency in June that those behind the multimedia project are trying to portray themselves as neutral in order to “continue ahead with the intention of misinforming people about the reality of abortion.”No answer.David Uebbing, editor of Catholic News Agency, told ZENIT that YouTube refused to give comment via phone, and two e-mails sent Tuesday have not been answered. "All of our efforts to determine why the video was pulled have met dead ends."
Complete story: Catholic.net - Catholics on the net

Obama's biggest lie about supporting infanticide
by Jill Stanek

On June 25, CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked conservative commentator Bill Bennett what question he would ask Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama if he could. Bennett said he would ask Obama:

Why are you to the left of NARAL, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein when it comes to abortion? Are you really there? ... I got to question the guy's moral judgment who doesn't see a problem with killing a baby after it's been born. … What is the answer to that question?

Bennett was speaking about Obama's opposition to Illinois' Born Alive Infants Protection Act as state senator. This legislation declared all live babies legal persons, which would guarantee them the right to appropriate medical care, even if abortion survivors. (To which Obama defender Donna Brazile responded, "Bill, you want to have a conversation about narrow issues … but the American people want to talk about gas prices. …")

Over the years, Obama or his surrogates have mischaracterized Illinois' Born Alive Infants Protection Act and his reasons for opposing it at least 10 different ways.

Complete story: Obama's biggest lie about supporting infanticide

Pro-Life Group: NEA Endorsement of Pro-Abortion Barack Obama is Ironic Washington, DC (LifeNews.com)

-- The National Education Association endorsed Barack Obama on Friday and a leading pro-life group says there is significant irony in the endorsement of a candidate who favors the destruction of the next generation of schoolchildren. "The tragic irony of the NEA's endorsement of Barack Obama is not lost on millions of pro-lifers across the country," Karen Cross, the National Right to Life political director, told LifeNews.com. "The NEA has chosen to back a presidential candidate who wants to continue a policy of abortion on demand, which has resulted in nearly 50 million missing students in classrooms from coast to coast since 1973,” she said. Senator Obama has said that, if elected president, the first thing he would do is sign the so-called "Freedom of Choice Act" – a bill that would make partial-birth abortion legal again, require taxpayer funding of abortion and nullify virtually all federal and state limitations on abortion, such as parental notification laws. "Barack Obama's extremist pro-abortion agenda is a poison pill for our nation's classrooms," Cross added. "It borders on the incomprehensible that our nation's educators would get behind a candidate whose agenda will result in more and more missing children." Full story at LifeNews.com

Abortion Center in California Closed as Owner Faces Criminal Charges
San Diego, CA (LifeNews.com)

-- An abortion center near San Diego, California has closed as the owners are facing charges of 10 felony counts of practicing medicine without a license and grand theft. Bertha Bugarin and her sister Raquel have pleaded not guilty to doing abortions despite not holding a medical license. Bugarin made a court appearance on Wednesday in San Diego District Court and her arraignment was postponed until July 10. According to the local Fox News television station, the Chula Vista office of Clinica Medica Para La Mujer De Hoy, the abortion center the Bugarins own, has been closed by state officials. Bugarin was arrested after nine women came forward to report that they had received abortions from her despite the fact she has no medical back ground and it not a physician licensed by the state. Some women reported complications from the abortions afterwards. In addition to the Chula Vista abortion center Bugarin operated four other abortion businesses in Los Angeles County, where she faces 18 additional counts of practicing medicine without a license. According to the pro-life group Operation Rescue, which has closely monitored the situation, abortion practitioner Nolan Jones, who has his own problems with state medical authorities with numerous cases of Medical Board disciplinary action for botched abortions, is running them. Organization spokeswoman Cheryl Sullenger told LifeNews.com that Jones filed for bankruptcy for substantial amounts of debt in 2003 and has bounced around several southern California abortion centers moving to new ones when others close for medical problems or other reasons. Full story at LifeNews.com

Washington Assisted Suicide Backers Submit 300,000 Petitions to Qualify Measure Olympia, WA (LifeNews.com)

-- Backers of a statewide initiative that would make Washington the second state in the nation to allow legalized assisted suicide turned in 300,000 signatures last week. That makes it appear likely the measure will qualify for the November ballot and lead to a battle pitting euthanasia proponents against pro-life advocates, disability rights groups, and medical organizations. The measure is known as Initiative 1000 and the group led by former Gov. Booth Gardner submitted over 320,000 signatures to qualify it. Duane French, a paralyzed civil servant who heads the opposing disabilities-rights group Not Dead Yet, says the assisted suicide law would encourage discrimination against people with disabilities and prompt doctors to encourage death over treatment. Oregon is currently the only state in the nation that permits assisted suicide and most other states make the practice illegal. California, Hawaii, Michigan, Maine and Vermont have all turned back either ballot initiatives or legislation to allow assisted suicide over the last several years. Internationally only Belgium, Switzerland and the Netherlands allow assisted suicide. If approved by state voters, Initiative 1000 would allow doctors to write a prescription for lethal drugs for patients who have less than six months to live and meet certain eligibility criteria such as a psychological evaluation. The measure needed 225,000 signatures to qualify and the Washington Secretary of State’s office is expected to certify the signatures in the coming weeks. In Oregon, 49 people used the assisted suicide law to kill themselves in 2007 and more than 340 people have taken their lives over the course of the decade the law has been in effect.

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July 12, 2008

Pro-Life President George W. Bush’s Remarks to NRLC 2008
Thank you.

I am pleased to address the National Right to Life’s annual convention and I send warm greetings to your president, Dr. Wanda Franz. I thank all the men and women in attendance for your commitment to protecting the unborn. Our nation’s declaration of independence promises that all people have an unalienable right to life. It states, that this right comes from our creator. And that government exists to secure the rights of its citizens. For the past eight years my administration has proudly stood with you to ensure that our nation lives up to this noble promise. Working together, we promoted adoption, abstinence education and crisis pregnancy programs. We have fought to ensure that U.S. tax dollars were not used to perform or promote abortions overseas. We have worked to secure legislation that allows prosecutors to charge those who harm or kill a pregnant woman, with harming or killing her unborn child as well. We’ve extended legal protection to children who were born despite abortion attempts, and we’ve enacted a ban on the grisly practice of partial-birth abortion. We defended this good law all the way to the Supreme Court, and we prevailed. The majority that issued this landmark ruling included two outstanding justices that we worked tirelessly together to confirm; John Roberts and Sam Alito. We also stood strong in defending the principle that effective medical science can still be ethical. We embrace the healing potential of stem cell research, but ensured that federally funded research is conducted within clear moral boundaries. And we saw the promise of this policy realized when scientists discovered a way to reprogram adult cells, to act like embryonic stem-cells, extending the frontiers of medicine, without destroying human life. For eight years we have stood together to defend the principle that every human life has value. I thank all of you for your support, and I join you in looking forward to the day when every child is welcomed in life, and protected in law.

Pro-Life Senator John McCain’s Remarks to NRLC 2008

--Thank you for inviting me to address the 2008 National Right to Life Convention, I'm sorry I'm not able to be there in person to address you. More than two-hundred years ago our nation's founders declared, that we are endowed by our creator, with certain and unalienable rights, and that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It was no accident, that they cited life as the first, and most basic right. For without recognition of the right to life, we are not guaranteed any other rights. Sometimes all wisdom asks of us, is that we recognize common-sense. But sometimes wisdom, as to all other virtues requires courage. Wisdom suggests that we should be willing to give an unborn child the same chance that our parents gave us. But it takes courage in this political climate, to insist on the protection of unborn children, who can't vote, have no voice, and can't reward you with support and donations. Wisdom suggests that when federal judges impose their social views on the citizens of every state, the result is going to distort our politics in harmful ways. But it takes courage to insist, that the courts have to return to their proper role. I will look for accomplished men and women, with a proven record of excellence in the law, and a proven commitment, to strictly interpreting the Constitution of the United States. I will look for people in the cast of John Roberts, Sam Alito, my friend the late William Rehnquist, jurists of the highest caliber who know their own minds, and know the law, and know the difference. I have been pro-life, my entire public career. I am pro-life, because I know what it is like, to live without human rights, where human life is accorded no inherent value. And I know that I have a personal obligation to advocate human rights wherever they are denied, in Bosnia or Burma, in Cuba or the Middle East, and in our own country, when we fail to respect the inherent dignity of all human life, born or unborn. That is a personal testament, which you need not take on faith. You need only to examine my public record, to know that I won't change my position. I've been proud to serve our great country in the military and in Congress. Complete story: Pro-Life Senator John McCain’s Remarks to NRLC 2008

Living the Pro-Life Message: John McCain's Adoption Makes His Views Real by Laura Echevarria

I learned something new about John McCain this week. I knew that he and his wife had an adopted daughter and that Cindy McCain had brought her home as an infant after visiting Mother Teresa in India. What I did not know was that when they brought their little girl back to care for her and save her life, they brought back another little girl as well. She was adopted by one of McCain's aides. The story in the Jerusalem Post reads: Also little-known is the story of McCain's youngest child. As a result of a 1991 Cindy McCain visit to Mother Teresa's orphanage in Bangladesh, the McCains adopted an infant daughter dying from a host of health issues. The orphanage could not provide the medical care needed to save the little girl's life, so the McCains, already the parents of six children, brought the child home to America, and paid for desperately needed surgeries and years of rehabilitation. That child is their teenage daughter Bridget. In fact, there was a second infant girl brought back from the orphanage that the McCains saved. She ended up being adopted by one of McCain's aides, Wes Gullett, and his wife. "We were called at midnight by Cindy," Gullett has stated, and "five days later we met our new daughter Nicki at the LA airport." This fall, Nicki will be a high school junior. Even after years of expensive medical treatment for the child, Gullett says, "I never saw a hospital bill" for her care. It is an extraordinary man who commits himself to such generous and heroic acts; it is an extraordinary politician who won't utter a word about such acts for political aggrandizement. Full story at LifeNews.com

Black Pro-Life Advocates Finalize Abortion Protest Plans for NAACP Convention Cincinnati, OH (LifeNews.com)

-- Leading pro-life African Americans are finalizing their plans to protest abortion at the upcoming national convention of the NAACP. The black pro-life advocates say they plan to point out how the civil rights group is unwilling to discuss how abortion disproportionately affects the African-American community. As LifeNews.com reported exclusively last month, Rev. Clenard Childress, a New Jersey pastor, and a leader of the black pro-life group LEARN, says the protests will address the NAACP, abortion and Barack Obama. His group, with the help of several other pro-life organizations, will hold signs at the entrance to the Duke Energy Center when the NAACP delegates gather next Monday. "Abortion kills 1,452 black infants every day in this country. Sadly, the black community and its leaders are largely ignoring the slaughter," Childress said in a new statement on Monday. Childress says that, historically, the NAACP "has failed to address the concerns of many of its delegates about abortion." He pointed to a 2004 resolution voicing support for “equal access to abortion” and urging its members to participate in a pro-abortion rally in Washington. Then, in 2007, the NAACP, for the second time in four years, blocked a proposed resolution expressing opposition to abortion. "The good news is the NAACP’s Macon chapter is once again poised to present another pro-life resolution at this year’s Cincinnati conference and we will be there to support them," Childress says. Full story at LifeNews.com.

Pro-Life Group Warns Doctors, Patients on Abortion-Based Polio Vaccine Washington, DC (LifeNews.com)

-- A leading pro-life group that monitors the use of fetal cells from abortions in vaccinations is warning doctors and patients about a new polio vaccine. Children of God for Life is calling on both to "just say no" to the newly-licensed vaccine Pentacel made by Sanofi Pasteur. On June 26, the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended the vaccine as part of the immunization schedule for children. That's despite the fact that vaccines that were not derived with the controversial fetal cells have been on the market and in use for years. "We find it strange that the ACIP would recommend Pentacel in particular when children are already receiving untainted versions of these vaccines in their routine series of shots," Debi Vinnedge, the director of the group, told LifeNews.com Monday. Pentacel is a combination vaccine used to prevent Diptheria, Pertussis, Tetanus (DTaP) plus HiB and Polio. Vinnedge says the polio portion of the vaccine uses the aborted fetal cell line MRC-5, taken from the lung tissue of a baby who became a victim of an abortion at 14 weeks into pregnancy. "If a 5 in 1 vaccine is desired, why not recommend the ethical version, Pediarix, by Glaxo SmithKline?" Vinnedge asked. "The only difference between the two is that Pediarix protects against Hepatitis-B instead of HiB." Full story at LifeNews.com.

British Agency Clears Pro-Life Doc Who Talked Patients Out of Abortions London, England (LifeNews.com)

-- A British agency that regulates physicians has cleared a pro-life doctor of any wrongdoing after abortion advocates accused her of bullying her patients. Dr. Tammie Downes says she's only guilty of looking out for the best interests of mother and child when she talked women patients out of abortions. The General Medical Council investigated Downes after complaints from a pro-abortion physician upset by her actions. Downes has practiced medicine for 13 years and says she would readily talk to women about abortion alternatives, including keeping the baby. Through her efforts, she says one-third of her patients in crisis pregnancy situations didn't have an abortion and credits the counseling with saving at least eight babies. The GMC found that Downes did not breach its medical and ethical guidelines with the counseling and the decision prevents her from being removed from the medical register of licensed physicians. "It was a worrying time and it felt completely unjust because I was sure that I was doing the job of a good GP - not something I should be suspended for," Downes told the London Telegraph newspaper. "What they were accusing me of was ridiculous." Full story at LifeNews.com.

Assisted Suicide Crusader Jack Kevorkian's Congressional Bid Certified
Royal Oak, MI (LifeNews.com)

-- Elections officials in Oakland County have certified that assisted suicide crusader Jack Kevorkian has submitted enough signatures on petitions to qualify for the November ballot as an independent candidate. The certification comes on the heels of a victim's son confronting him. Joe Rozell, the elections director in Oakland County, said on Monday that her office verified 3,200 signatures on petitions requesting his candidacy to appear on the November ballot. Kevorkian needed at least 3,000 to qualify to take on pro-life Rep. Joe Knollenberg and his main opponent, former Lottery Commissioner Gary Peters, a Democrat. All three are seeking the Michigan's 9th Congressional district seat in the November election. Kevorkian has admitted to killing more than 130 people, including the televised death of Thomas Youk, netting him a 25-year prison sentence. Democrats have targeted Knollenberg and Kevorkian's candidacy may have the effect of peeling some Democratic votes away. Full story at LifeNews.com.

Barack Obama Slams John McCain For Opposing Abortion, Activist Judges Washington, DC (LifeNews.com)

-- With pro-life advocates and John McCain's campaign criticizing his position in favor of unlimited abortions, Barack Obama struck back on Thursday. The Illinois senator put forward an absolutist position in favor of abortion and attacked McCain for wanting judges who don't make law from the bench. "I will never back down in defending a woman's right to choose," Obama said at a breakfast fundraiser with an internal campaign group called "Women for Obama." "That's what's at stake," Obama added, referring to control of the Supreme Court and whether abortion will remain legal and without limits for another 35 years. "Senator McCain has made it abundantly clear that he wants to appoint justices like Roberts and Alito -- and that he hopes to see Roe overturned," Obama said, according to an AP report. "I stand by my votes against confirming Justices Roberts and Alito." Obama also talked about the recent decision by Planned Parenthood to endorse his candidacy and said that he and McCain are far apart on abortion. Of the endorsement, he said it was hardly a "nail-biter." Full story at LifeNews.com.

De-Fund Planned Parenthood Abortion Business, Members of Congress Say Washington, DC (LifeNews.com)

-- On Wednesday night, several members of Congress lined up on the floor of the House of Representatives and issued a call for de-funding Planned Parenthood. They said taxpayers shouldn't be forced to fund the abortion business -- even if the money doesn't directly go towards abortions. Reps. Michelle Bachmann of Minnesota and Chris Smith of New Jersey, both Republicans, organized the special order speeches. In her testimony on the House floor, Bachmann referenced recent reports highlighting Planned Parenthood’s targeting more affluent young women in her congressional district. A Wall Street Journal article also cited opening of “express centers in wealthy Minnesota suburbs” with the purposes of appealing to women who are “already doing their grocery shopping, picking up their Starbucks, living their daily lives.” Bachmann criticized Planned Parenthood for turning abortion into an industry and controlling it much the same way other corporations are accused of controlling other sectors of the economy. “They are big business. They are the Wal-Mart of big abortion,” she said. “They are the big box retailer. It’s time to end their tax exempt status. It’s a fraud. It is time to stop the public financing of Planned Parenthood -- it is the right thing to do.” Full story at LifeNews.com.

Conscious Patient Dies at Florida Hospice Where Terri Schiavo Was Killed
St. Petersburg, FL (LifeNews.com)

-- The Florida hospice where Terri Schiavo was killed after her husband won a court order to euthanize her is coming under fire for the death of another patient. In this case, doctors at Hospice of Florida Suncoast pulled the feeding tube of 26-year-old Bradley Whaley. Whaley entered into a coma following an overdose of painkillers and alcohol after he injured his hand severely when he punched out a glass window. For years his parents kept vigil, and then decided to transfer him to the hospice in which Terri Schiavo died. According to the St. Petersburg Times newspaper, his mother Sue was able to communicate with her son, who was conscious despite his incapacitated state. When Sue would tug on Bradley's chin, he would be able to mouth "Mama" and, if she leaned in close, he would try to kiss her. Though they spent three years by his side hoping his condition would improve, it didn't and the newspaper indicated his parents appeared to have allowed hospice to withdraw his feeding tube, subjecting him to the same kind of death Terri endured. That greatly upsets Wesley Smith, a bioethicist who is one of the leading authorities on euthanasia issues. He says pro-life advocates and patients should be concerned that they may have someone else take their life -- even if they are conscious. Full story at LifeNews.com.

Justice Loves Babies -- Twin College Students Teach Kids Fetal Development
by Dave Andrusko

According to Publishers Weekly, there are 3,000 books published each day in the United States alone. Making headway in a market flooded with new titles is a gargantuan task that would test the patience and resilience of any new author. By chance I met two determined and faith-filled new authors at NRL Convention 2008. Twin sisters Darlene and Danielle Wibeto are not just fresh faces with considerable talents, they are also devout Christians who are passionately persuaded that Justice Loves Babies can help raise a generation that knows that life is precious and a gift from God. "We live in a culture that doesn't value life," Danielle said. "I want children to understand that life begins in the womb and that this life is very precious to God." The word "abortion" never appears in their beautifully illustrated children's book, which was published January 21, 2008, the day before the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. But the story of a little African-American boy named Justice, who is eagerly awaiting the birth of his baby sister, Destiny, provides children with the raw materials out of which can come a life-long commitment to treasure life and to understand that life begins in a mother's womb. Full story at LifeNews.com

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July 14, 2008

San Jose Planned Parenthood Spends More Against Parental Notification Sacramento, CA (LifeNews.com)

-- The San Jose Planned Parenthood affiliate, which has already spent $700,000 against a November ballot initiative that would allow parental notification on abortion, is sinking another $300,000 into the campaign against it. In total, the central California abortion business has spent over $1 million against the measure to help parents know when their minor daughter is having an abortion. Proposition 4 is the third time pro-life advocates have tried to get the measure approved after two proposals failed in previous votes. Last month, Planned Parenthood Mar Monte sent the so-called Campaign for Teen Safety $700,000 to defeat the proposition. Buu Thai, director of public affairs for the group, told the California political web site Politicker that preventing parents from knowing when their teenagers are having a relatively risky surgical or drug-induced abortion promotes their health. "It's critical that teens have safe healthcare options," Thai said. "This is what our campaign against the initiative will be about." Thai told the web site at that time that more six figure donations are forthcoming as Planned Parenthood begins to roll out a massive media campaign to blast the common sense measure. "This particular donation will be just the first of several as we get closer to November," Thai admitted. In June, the California Secretary of State validated Sarah's Law, the latest version of the parental notification initiative, for the November 4 ballot. Proponents submitted more than 1.2 million signatures on petitions seeking a third vote on adult involvement in minors' abortions, after Propositions 73 and 85 were narrowly defeated in 2005 and 2006.

Barack Obama So Extreme on Abortion He Would Let Babies Die Who Survive Them by Jill Stanek

--A CNN reporter interviewing me a couple weeks ago about Barack Obama's opposition as state senator to the Illinois Born Alive Infants Protection Act groaned more than once that this topic was "complicated." She was referring to Obama's various explanations through the years for blocking Born Alive and lately his outright denial that obstructing legislation declaring live aborted babies legal persons had anything to do with endorsing their death. I finally emailed her, "It is clear: Obama strongly opposed legislation to protect abortion survivors. This is horrible, so of course he will try to make it 'complicated,' but it is not." The federal Born Alive Infants Protection Act passed unanimously in the U.S. Senate and overwhelmingly in the U.S. House. Sens. Kennedy and Boxer even spoke in support on the Senate floor. NARAL expressed neutrality. Obama actively opposed nearly identical legislation in Illinois, the sole state senator to speak against Illinois' Born Alive two years in a row. Barack Obama is so radically pro-abortion he supports infanticide, as evidenced by his active opposition to the Illinois Born Alive Infants Protection Act. This makes him further left than any U.S. senator and even NARAL. Full story at LifeNews.com.

"Abortion Cancels Souls" Says Practitioner Who Was Hillary Clinton's Doctor Washington, DC (LifeNews.com)

-- An abortion practitioner who says he's done more than 20,000 abortions and was formerly Hillary Clinton's OBGYN, has recently admitted that "abortion cancels souls." William Harrison's frank admission came in a conversation with prominent pro-life psychologist Warren Throckmorton. Throckmorton told LifeNews.com on Tuesday about an email conversation he recently had with Harrison. The conversation started with a discussion of an appeals court ruling upholding a South Dakota law that allows women to know the risks of and alternatives to abortion. It ultimately resulted in Harrison sending Throckmorton a letter to the editor he recently submitted to a local newspaper with some frank language. In the letter, Harrison reacts to a question about whether or not he has any regrets as an abortion practitioner who snuffs out the lives of unborn children. "Anyone who has delivered as many babies as I have, and has seen hundreds of living and dead embryos and fetuses being spontaneously aborted as have I, knows exactly what we are doing when we provide an elective abortion for our patient," Harrison writes. "We are ending the life of an embryo or a fetus. Not the life of a person, but certainly a creature that might have become a person under other circumstances," he adds. Full story at LifeNews.com.

UNFPA's World Population Day Uses Scare Tactics to Promote Overpopulation
by Colin Mason

--The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has a long and painful history of coercive tactics. Since its inception in 1969, pro-lifers have decried its cultural insensitivity and unrelenting top-down logic that sees human beings as disposable commodities, and overpopulation as the world's greatest looming threat. Now, nearly 4 decades later, the UNFPA is announcing the 19th iteration of a secular holiday they like to call World Population Day. Slated for Friday, July 11, World Population Day marks a continuing effort on the part of the UNFPA to soften their message for the people who they are, in fact, targeting. In other words, the UNFPA is trying to succeed where pro-lifers have always excelled: on human-level education. The problem is, the ingenuity of pro-lifers has always arisen from our relative lack of funds and aided by the basic "human-ness" of our message. The UNFPA's "grassroots campaign," on the other hand, is nothing more than another top-heavy attempt to forcibly reeducate people with an unnatural message -- a message of death and infertility that flies in the face of fundamental human instincts. Full story at LifeNews.com.

California Stem Cell Research Panel Opposes Bill Making it Help Patients Sacramento, CA (LifeNews.com)

-- The California panel created by Proposition 71 was supposed to benefit patients across the state by allowing scientists access to funds for research for cures. However, the committee funding by the initiative is opposing a bill in the state legislature to make it do just that. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine has emailed its supporters a dire-sounding letter saying its existence is threatened by legislative efforts to keep it accountable. "We need you to take a few minutes to help save the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine and embryonic stem cell research in California. This is under siege right now in the state legislature," the group claims. "During the campaign for Proposition 71, proponents promised that Californians would reap a cornucopia of benefits from borrowing $3 billion over 10 years to pay researchers in private companies and their business partners in universities to conduct human cloning and embryonic stem cell research," he explained. "Well the California Legislature is holding them to that, and now the CIRM is wailing and gnashing its teeth that the very existence of the CIRM is threatened." Full story at LifeNews.com.

Man Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison for Abortion-Sexual Abuse Coverup Hartford, CT (LifeNews.com)

-- A Connecticut man and his two accomplices have been sentenced in a kidnapping and sexual abuse case where a Planned Parenthood abortion business did an abortion on the girl, who was 15 at the time. Adam Gault is headed to prison for 25 years and his accomplices received three years each. According to police reports, an unnamed girl ran away from home in June 2006 to live with now 42-year-old Gault, who plead guilty to a variety of charges in connection with the kidnapping and alleged sexual abuse. He and Ann Murphy and Kimberley Cray, who lived with Gault at the time, gave the teenager drugs and alcohol, sexual abused her, and kept her locked in a small storage closet. After getting her pregnant, Gault reportedly took the girl to a Planned Parenthood in West Hartford where she had an abortion. The girl would not tell abortion facility officials the name of the father, but, according to an August 2007 AP report, police obtained the remains of the baby and DNA obtained form the unborn child matched Gault's DNA. Planned Parenthood did not appear to report the 15 year-old pregnancy or her desire for an abortion to officials to look into the possibility she was sexually abused. Full story at LifeNews.com

Congressional Bill to Protect Parental Rights on Teen Abortions Gets Exposure Washington, DC (LifeNews.com)

-- A Congressional bill that would protect teenagers and parental rights when their daughters are considering an abortion got some extra exposure on Thursday. Members of the House Constitution Subcommittee hosted a forum to draw attention to the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act. The measure would prohibit any person, other than a parent or guardian, from transporting a minor across a state line to obtain an abortion. The idea behind the bill is to make sure the parental consent and notification laws in a minor girl's home state are followed and that abortion center staff or some other person doesn't take a teen to another state for a secret abortion. The bill is especially helpful for parents and teens living in large cities near state borders of states that do not protect parental rights the same way. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican, is the prime sponsor of the bill. During the forum, she said the measure will "protect minors from exploitation from the abortion industry, promote strong family ties, and will help foster respect for state laws." Members of Congress urged the pro-abortion Democratic Congressional leadership to allow a vote on the bill, although they don't expect that to happen anytime soon. Full story at LifeNews.com.

Barack Obama’s Catholic Outreach Head Won’t Appear on Catholic Show Detroit, MI (LifeNews.com)

-- Barack Obama’s campaign wants to reach out to Catholic voters even though he strongly supports abortion, yet his Catholic outreach director refused to appear on a popular radio program. Mark Linton, director of Catholic Outreach for the Obama Campaign, declined an appearance on the Al Kresta radio show. Kresta, one of the popular hosts on the Ave Maria Radio Network hoped to invite Linton along with Deal Hudson, a prominent Catholic writer who has written numerous article discussing Obama‘s pro-abortion position. Commenting on the refusal, Nick Thomm, the producer for Kresta’s show, explained to CNA, “[Linton] is the National Catholic outreach guy and he disagrees with Deal Hudson over the facts surrounding Obama’s record on abortion. So we figured we'd have them both on the show to hash it out.” Linton responded to Hudson’s articles on July 4 with an email criticizing him and soft-peddling Obama’s position. After repeated efforts to get Linton on the show, Thomm explained that when he called Obama’s senate office he told the Obama staffer, “we have no choice but to think that he’s trying dodge us. He’s supposed to be a National Catholic Outreach coordinator and we're a Catholic radio show, so who’s he doing outreach to?” He added: “We never heard back from him and so we just went ahead and did the show without him.”

Dr. James Dobson Calls Barack Obama’s Christian Radio Ad Misleading Washington, DC (LifeNews.com)

-- Barack Obama’s campaign is running an advertisement on Christian radio stations that leading pro-life advocate Dr. James Dobson says is misleading. He made the comments in a radio broadcast last week and also spent time criticizing Obama on abortion. According to a CBN News report, the Obama ad claimed certain people were trying to grab headlines and throw stones at Obama's faith and it was aimed at Dobson, who has said Obama is misrepresenting his Christian faith by backing unlimited abortions. In the broadcast, Dobson responded, "We are not throwing stones at Senator Obama for his faith. That's off the wall. We are responding to his comments about the Bible and about us and about the Constitution. We don't want to leave it on the record that we are throwing stones at Senator Obama to grab the headlines." CBN News Senior National Correspondent David Brody responded to the dust-up saying, “Obama's concerted effort to reach out to conservative Evangelicals has many in the conservative Evangelical community very concerned.” Brody added: “First off, Evangelicals like Dr. Dobson and the millions of people who have similar beliefs think Obama's public service record simply does not match up with their view of biblical absolutes. That leads me to the second concern. There is frustration in conservative Evangelical circles that the traditional bedrock biblical issues of abortion and marriage are starting to play second fiddle to new issues like climate change, genocide, poverty, etc.”

Abortion Video on YouTube

Recently Priests for Life produced a short video which explained the "Dismemberment" abortion procedure. Response to it was so overwhelming that we have produced two new ones. And just like the original, pro-abortion politicians are hoping you won't watch either one. In truth, they fear these videos more than anything because each video shows the inhumane cruelty and barbarity of two common abortion procedures: (1) The prostaglandin abortion; and (2) The dilation and extraction abortion. Some versions of the second are known as "partial birth abortion" and it will literally make your blood boil especially when you hear abortionists applauding after a machine sucks the brain from a defenseless, partially delivered child in the womb. Like the original in this series, these videos put the spotlight of the abortion "debate" right where it needs to be ... on what abortion does to the child in the womb! After all, if we're going to debateabortion in this country, let's make sure everyone knows exactly what we're talking about. Sadly, the word abortion has lost its meaning. That's why politicians can get away with making themselves sound appealing to voters when they say they supportthe legality of abortion ... or of a woman's so-called "right to choose". But when people come to see and know what actually happens during an abortion, then a woman's "right to choose" is seen in a totally different light. That said, if you are serious about wanting to end abortion, Select Here towatch the two short videos that will send shock waves through the abortion industry. And while there, you can learn more about this election year project and what you can do to make it an effective weapon in our fight to end abortion! http://c7.21st-cc.net/t/l?17x-7ozh-6-4smn-j6bd&utm_content=agpeterson%40mindinfo.com
Make no mistake: These Priests for Life videos have the power to end abortion!

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July 17, 2008

Dancing With the Baby Stars - The Amazing Feats of Fetal Development
by Maria Vitale

You may not think of yourself as the next Kristi Yamaguchi, but long before you could walk, you could dance. Not on the floor, mind you, but in the womb. If you want proof of an unborn baby's dancing ability, check out http://www.yourdevelopingbaby.com/sampleChapters/7.htm. There, under the headline "Baby aerobics," you'll see a baby 15 weeks after conception, doing a unique form of hip hop. The incredible video comes courtesy of two Harvard radiology professors, Peter Doubilet and Carol Benson, a married couple who have written an eye-catching book called "Your Developing Baby." The work includes some 250 images which underscore the humanity of the unborn child. I think it can be argued that where there is dancing, there is life. Therefore, an abortion disrupts the dance of life, destroying the dancer's body and rendering him or her lifeless. Full story at LifeNews.com.

NAACP Convention Sees Black Pro-Life Advocates Condemn Abortion Cincinnati, OH (LifeNews.com)

-- Yesterday, African-Americans kicked off the 99th annual conference for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Though Barack Obama was on-hand as the first black presidential candidate, black pro-life advocates there said he doesn't represent them. Several pastors and dozens of black pro-life people, including NAACP members, said the organization shouldn't turn a blind eye to how abortion disproportionately hurts black women. The protestors included Dr. Alveda King, a niece of the Rev. Martin Luther King who told the Wall Street Journal she knows what abortion does to women -- having had two abortions herself. "I remember when I was pregnant and considering a third abortion," she says. "I went to Daddy King [her grandfather and Martin Luther King's father]. He told me, 'that's a baby, not a blob of tissue,'" she explained. 'Unfortunately, 14 million African-Americans are not here today because of legalized abortion. It's as if a plague swept through America's cities and towns and took one of every four of us," she added. Full story at LifeNews.com.

Bush Admin Helps Pro-Life Doctors, Nurses Avoid Abortion Discrimination Washington, DC (LifeNews.com)

-- The Bush administration is continuing its efforts to help pro-life doctors and nurses avoid employment discrimination when it comes to opting out of participating in abortions. The Department of Health and Human Services has drafted new tentative rules that would guide hiring decisions. The idea is to require hospitals and other medical facilities that receive federal funding to guarantee that they will not refuse to hire medical staff who refuse to participate in abortions. The facilities would be required to sign written certifications as a prerequisite for receiving the federal funds. The rules would go further and require state and local governments receiving federal funding to certify as well that they won't discriminate against hospitals and medical facilities that don't do abortions when making grant considerations with federal monies. The New York Times obtained a copy of the proposed rules and HHS officials say they're necessary to ensure federal funds do not "support morally coercive or discriminatory practices or policies in violation of federal law.” Full story at LifeNews.com

Black Churches Hold Pro-Abortion Meeting, Call Pro-Lifers "Fetus Lovers" Washington, DC (LifeNews.com)

-- Representatives of several black churches held a meeting with pro-abortion activists at Howard University in Washington this week. During the presentation, the head of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice criticized black pro-life advocates as "fetus lovers." The pro-abortion group hosted the 12th annual National Black Church Summit on Sexuality that included pro-abortion Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina. Former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders, who blamed pro-life advocates during the Clinton administration of having a "love affair with the fetus," also appeared. However, in an interview with the Cybercast News Service, Rev. Carlton W. Veazey, the president of RCRC, used similar language to condemn black pro-life advocates. Asked to comment on the fact that black women represent 13 percent of the childbearing population but have 36 percent of the abortions, Veazey condemned them for supposedly abandoning children after birth. “They talk about abortion, and I tell them ‘you are the ones who believe in the fetus, you all worship the fetus, and then when the baby really gets here you all abort them,’” Veazey told CNS News. Full story at LifeNews.com

Linking U.S. teen pregnancies and AIDS in Africa

--CNN reported July 11 that according to the National Institutes of Health, U.S. teen pregnancies in 2006 rose for the first time since 1991. Translation: "One-third of girls in the U.S. got pregnant before age 20." In the same article, CNN reported a "striking decrease" in the percentage of eighth graders smoking, down from 10 percent in 1996 to 3 percent in 2007. While federal health experts were at a loss to explain the spike in teen pregnancies, a Centers for Disease Control official said smoking abated due to "efforts convincing kids and adults not to smoke," according to CNN. So teaching smoking abstinence works, reminiscent of last decade's "Just Say No" drug abstinence campaign It would make sense to teach kids to abstain from the harmful behavior of premarital sex. But no. The Associated Press reported June 24 that 22 state governors have now rejected federal grant money to teach sexual abstinence, with "participation in the program … down 40 percent over two years." Logic would equate increased teen pregnancies with decreased abstinence education. Complete story: - Illinois Federation for Right to Life - Linking U.S. teen pregnancies and AIDS in Africa

Expert on Forced Abortions in China Urges Boycott of Beijing Summer Olympics Washington, DC (LifeNews.com)

-- A leading expert on the brutal campaign of forced abortions and sterilizations that accompany China's one-child family planning policy is urging a boycott of the Summer Olympics. Steven Mosher, of the Population Research Institute, says the games will legitimatize China's abhorrent human rights records. "The Olympics is intended to be a celebration of the human spirit," Mosher said. '"But the spirit of the Chinese people, not to mention the spirit of the Tibetans and other minorities, is being crushed under the weight of an oppressive regime," he explained. "We should no more celebrate the Olympics in China in 2008, than we should have celebrated the Olympics in Nazi-controlled Berlin in 1936," Mosher told LifeNews.com. Mosher has formed the "Beijing Boycott Coalition" to oppose the Beijing Olympics. His group invites activists and groups of different backgrounds to join in protesting ongoing human rights violations in China by refusing to watch the games or patronize its sponsors. Full story at LifeNews.com

Pro-Life Group Focuses on Businesses Helping Late-Term Abortion Practitioner Wichita, KS (LifeNews.com)

-- In a continued effort to put pressure on Kansas late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller in the wake of the failure of the state government holding him accountable for potentially illegal abortions, Operation Rescue has released a list of businesses he works with. The pro-life group launched the project in 2004 called the Abortion Collaborators, and it initially compiled a list of 50 businesses that did work for Tiller's late-term abortion business Women's Health Care Services. Since then, 25 businesses have stopped collaborating with Tiller. Five more have been added to the list, which now contains 30 businesses that work with his center. The list includes everything from Holiday Inn Select, which provides discounted rates for Tiller's patients, to Intrust Bank, where Tiller does business. It also includes Tiller's landscaping company, his security firm, and the business that provides services on his copy machine. Operation Rescue president Troy Newman tells LifeNews.com the list is more than just a boycott list. Released one day after the Wichita Clinic stopped helping Tiller., he says it's a way to hurt Tiller's abortion business financially. Full story at LifeNews.com.

No Such thing as a Right to Have Babies: Population Trust

--The solution to global warming, says a UK charity, is to implement laws that would result in people having fewer children. Governments should put slow pressure on people to limit their offspring to one or two children to save social and environmental resources. "There is no unlimited right to have children," said the Optimum Population Trust (OPT), the group known to be one of the most militantly anti-life organisations in the world. There is a limit, the Trust said, "on the number of children to which people are 'entitled'." "A voluntary population policy should be incorporated into law," the group said. Governments, indicated the organization,should implement a "society-wide process of agreement, internalisation and normalisation" to the idea of small families and use a series of "gentle nudges" rather than "hard shoves," to get people to conform to the new childless paradigm. All of this, they said, is to ensure that everyone has equal access to wilderness areas. "Our moral and legal rights to access wilderness and natural biological diversity (including other species), enjoy its benefits, and perhaps even see it restored, are at odds with, and arguably outweigh, the private right to have an unlimited number of children." Complete story: - Illinois Federation for Right to Life - No Such thing as a Right to Have Babies: Population Trust

World Bank Promotes Abortion

--The US-led World Bank released a statement last week promoting the need in developing countries for "contraception and family planning" measures, which includes abortion. In the statement, Joy Phumaphi, the World Bank's Vice President for Human Development, said that there are "population issues" and that the answer is to provide women in developing nations with "access to modern contraception and family planning." This latest move reaffirms the World Bank's long-standing goal to flood developing countries with abortions and contraceptives. It has been documented that the Bank has required countries to implement these measures as a pre-condition to receiving development loans. The pro-abortion initiative was accelerated during the Clinton era in the 1990s as the Bank more openly insisted countries wishing to receive funding institute "family planning" programs, meaning that they must permit abortion. In 2007, however, the Bush Administration sought to insert language in the health policy update which would distance the Bank from forcing abortion on recipient countries. The language would have asked countries to provide "age appropriate access to sexual and reproductive healthcare," rather than the currently worded "reproductive health services," which include abortion. Yet, Bank directors from Belgium, Switzerland, France, Germany and Norway successfully demanded that the bank continue its coercive population control policy. (click here to see the letter) Complete story: - Illinois Federation for Right to Life - World Bank Promotes Abortion

I blanked out my emotions after each of my SEVEN abortions.

--Among the throng of women who gather outside the school gates each day, Angela Simians is every inch the archetypal middle-class mother, fussing over her seven-year-old son Ben and ferrying him between after-school clubs and play dates. Certainly nobody would guess that the 39-year-old former estate agent is one of around 50 women each year in the UK to have notched up her seventh abortion. Government statistics released this week show that record numbers of women are having two or more abortions - and those who do so are not, as might be expected, young teenagers who don't know any better. Angela is typical of them. As a cautionary tale about abortion, her story reveals a great deal about the emotional legacy of a termination - and especially of multiple abortions. For while she continually insists she does not regret any of her actions, she goes on to describe in agonising detail her lifelong battle with depression, how she once tried to take her own life and how she finds it a daily struggle to overcome a deep and abiding sense of shame. 'Looking back, there was a definitive reason why I had each termination and a valid reason why I felt at the time I could not even have begun to contemplate continuing with each of the pregnancies,' says Angela. Many, of course, will find such a flimsy justification hard to accept - especially seven times over. Perhaps the most astonishing revelation of all is Angela's insistence: 'I do not really regret any of my abortions. Complete story: I blanked out the emotions after each of my SEVEN abortions | Mail Online

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July 22, 2008

Planned Parenthood Abortion Center Closes Instead of Following New Law Sioux Falls, SD (LifeNews.com)

-- Monday was the first day that Planned Parenthood, which operates the only abortion business in South Dakota, had to comply with a new state law telling women the truth about abortion. Rather than tell women abortion kills children and has numerous risks, Planned Parenthood closed its doors. The state law, which the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld last week, required abortion practitioners to inform every woman that she is terminating the life of a human being. It requires giving her information about the mental health complications such as a high risk of depression and suicide and physical problems like hemorrhage infection, premature births of subsequent pregnancies, and infertility. Dr. Allen Unruh, a leading pro-life advocate who works with Alpha Pregnancy Center, told LifeNews.com that Monday was a historic day. "Time will tell if Planned Parenthood plans to re-open it’s doors, but as for now, the regular abortions were canceled today as the abortionist refused to show up," he explained. "We will see if any other abortionists plan to take the risks involved with full disclosure of what they do to women and their unborn children." Full story at LifeNews.com.

Woman Kills Pregnant Mother, Steals Her Baby; Now Charged With Homicide Pittsburgh, PA (LifeNews.com)

-- A western Pennsylvania woman who apparently killed a pregnant mother and cut open her stomach to steal her unborn child has been charged with homicide. Andrea Curry-Demus of Wilkinsburg has been in policy custody since the crime occurred and she also faces charges of unlawful restraint and kidnapping. Curry-Demus, 38, went to a hospital with the child after the murder and claimed the baby was her own. After officials questioned the contention, she later told authorities she paid $1,000 to the baby's mother to purchase the infant. Later on during the questioning, she changed the story again and said two people removed the baby and gave him to her. Now, Curry-Demus stands accused of killing 18-year-old Kia Johnson, whose body police found on Friday. She has been jailed pending a $10,000 bail and a psychiatric exam. Police believe Curry-Demus, a convicted felon with a history of trying to steal children, met Johnson at the Allegheny County Jail. Both happened to be visiting inmates at the time of their coincidental meeting. After the visits, Curry-Demus reportedly lured Johnson to a third-floor apartment where she tied up Johnson, wrapped her head in a plastic bag, used a sharp object to rip open Johnson's abdomen and pulled out the baby boy. Full story at LifeNews.com.

Priests Group Asks Catholic Leaders to Re-Read Key Pro-Life Document Washington, DC (LifeNews.com)

-- An association for Catholic priests is urging Catholic leaders and parishioners to re-read a key pro-life document that spells out the Church's teachings against abortion. The Confraternity of Catholic Clergy recently concluded its annual meeting and celebrated the 40th anniversary of Humanae Vitae. That's the encyclical from Paul VI that articulates a strong defense of the pro-life position and CCC is asking every deacon, priest and bishop to re-read the document and urge others to do the same. At its national meeting in Baltimore last week, Fr. Thomas Euteneuer of Human Life International and Fr. Peter West of Priests for Life were speakers. "They discussed the perennial truths taught in Humanae Vitae, namely, that human life is sacred from the first moment of conception until natural death and that it is gravely immoral to separate the unitive (love) and procreative (life) ends of conjugal love," the group told LifeNews.com in a statement. "Hence, abortion, contraception, in vitro fertilization, et al. are considered sinful and immoral and to be avoided," the group added. Full story at LifeNews.com.

California Gov. Schwarzenegger Signs Bill Relaxing Abortion Center Probes Sacramento, CA (LifeNews.com)

-- California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has upset pro-life advocates by signing a bill into law that relaxes inspection standards on abortion centers. According to a press release from the governor’s office, Schwarzenegger signed the measure, AB 2010, on July 10 after it was rushed through the state legislature. It was chaptered by the secretary of state the same day Schwarzenegger signed it. According to the California Catholic Daily newspaper, Assemblyman Mark DeSaulnier, a Democrat from Concord, introduced the bill on behalf of abortion business Planned Parenthood. The bill rescinds a 2007 letter from the Department of Public Health to its district offices telling administrators that “affiliate clinics” like those of the abortion business are subject to onsite inspection before they can open. The result of the measure is that Planned Parenthood can open new abortion centers without any oversight from the state government and health inspectors. Planned Parenthood opposed the inspections claiming they delayed its ability to do abortions for women. But a legislative analysis of AB 2010 noted that “according to the Department of Public Health, there is currently no backlog for clinic surveys and DPH further indicates that all completed clinic licensing applications have been processed, and that the initial surveys for those applicants has been completed.”

Hillary Clinton Opposes Bush Plan to Protect Pro-Life Doctors on Abortion Washington, DC (LifeNews.com)

-- Senator Hillary Clinton says she will try to stop a new proposal from the Bush administration that would protect pro-life doctors, nurses and other medical professionals from having to participate in abortions. The Bush plan also protects medical facilities that don't want to do abortions. The idea is to require hospitals and other medical facilities that receive federal funding to guarantee that they will not refuse to hire medical staff who refuse to participate in abortions. The facilities would be required to sign written certifications as a prerequisite for receiving the federal funds. The rules would go further and require state and local governments receiving federal funding to certify as well that they won't discriminate against hospitals and medical facilities that don't do abortions when making grant considerations with federal monies. But Clinton has said no to the idea and called it a "gratuitous, unnecessary insult" to women. "We will not put up with this radical, ideological agenda to turn the clock back on women's rights," the New York senator said. She joined Planned Parenthood. and other abortion advocates who have misconstrued the proposal by claming it limits the promotion of contraception and birth control. Full story at LifeNews.com

Pro-Life Group Releases Names of Late-Term Abortion Staff to Urge Quitting Wichita, KS (LifeNews.com)

-- A leading pro-life group that monitors late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller in Kansas has released the names of his abortion center staff. They don't want the 22 staff members to be picketed or targeted, but hope pro-life advocates will surround them with prayer and encouragement to quit. The most recent list of employees at the Women's Health Care Services abortion center Tiller runs also includes three out-of-state abortion practitioners who help Tiller do the late-term abortions. "We are releasing this list of abortion workers in order to expose them to the community, and to elicit prayers for their repentance," OR spokeswoman Cheryl Sullenger told LifeNews.com. "As Christians, we are concerned about them as people, and understand that sometimes it takes 'tough love' to help someone see the destructive path they are taking," she added. "Most people who quit the abortion industry tell us that they are relieved to be out of that business, and say that leaving improved their lives." The pro-life movement is filled with a laundry list of advocates who are former abortion practitioners, abortion facility staff like Norma McCorvey of Roe v. Wade, or women who have experienced the pain of an abortion. Full story at LifeNews.com.

California Voters Leaning Towards Supporting Parental Notification on Abortion Sacramento, CA (LifeNews.com)

-- California voters are not familiar with the statewide initiatives that will appear on the ballot when voters go to the polls in November. One of those is of interest to pro-life advocates because it would require that parents are notified when a teenager girl is considering an abortion. Of those voters who know about the notification proposal, the poll shows a plurality say they would support it. The California Secretary of State qualified Sarah's Law, the latest version of the initiative that is similar but not identical to past attempts, for the November 4 ballot. Despite the fact that pro-life advocates are now trying for the third time to get the measure approved, a new Field Poll shows just 45 percent of California voters are familiar with Proposition 4 with 55 percent not knowing about it. However, that's a significantly higher percentage of people who are aware of the parental notification measure compared to the other four initiatives. No other initiative has more than 23 percent of voters aware of its contents. The Field Poll found 48 percent of the registered voters polled in the survey would support the parental notification measure while 39 percent would oppose it. Another 13 percent are undecided. Full story at LifeNews.com.

Pro-Abortion Group NOW to Honor CBS News Anchor Katie Couric Washington, DC (LifeNews.com)

-- When the pro-abortion National Organization for Women holds its awards gala tonight, CBS News anchor Katie Couric will be one of its honorees. The award shows how difficult it is for pro-life advocates to combat media bias when leading news figures are honored for promoting abortion. "We look forward to gathering all these fabulous women in one room, to celebrate their dedication, strength and passion," NOW president Kim Gandy said in a statement LifeNews.com received. The NOW event is named the Intrepid Awards Gala and Gandy said Couric "[embodies] the definition of Intrepid: Fearlessly courageous and bold." Gandy said Couric was chosen as an award recipient because she "shattered the glass ceiling in network nightly news, becoming the first woman to solo anchor a network news show." Gandy also said Couric helped pro-abortion presidential candidate Hillary Clinton overcome "media sexism" during the presidential campaign. Full story at LifeNews.com.

Planned Parenthood Teams Up With Girls Inc For Pro-Abortion Workshops Billings, MT (LifeNews.com)

-- Girls Inc. is back in the news over abortion and now the group for young women is teaming up with Planned Parenthood. The organization, which has come under fire for adopting a pro-abortion position, is conducting workshops in Montana with the nation's largest abortion business. The girls group came under fire in 2005 for adopting a statement saying it backs abortion and supports the Roe v. Wade decision that ushered in an era of approximately 50 million abortions. At the time, pro-life groups called for a boycott of the American Girl doll because the company making them teamed up with Girls Inc. for a promotional. Now, Jim Sedlak of STOPP International, a Planned Parenthood watchdog, says the pro-abortion groups are teaming up for a workshop for high school girls at the Planned Parenthood Heights Clinic in Billings, Montana. "As parents, we need to be very careful about what types of programs and activities we allow our children to participate in," he said. "A program with a name such as "Girls, Inc." doesn't sound bad, does it? Actually, Girls, Inc. is a pro-abortion group and one of many pro-death groups that are listed on [pro-life boycott lists]." Full story at LifeNews.com.

Poll: Voters Don't Know Barack Obama Pro-Abortion, John McCain Pro-Life Washington, DC (LifeNews.com)

-- A new poll finds half of voters don't know that presidential candidate John McCain is pro-life on abortion or that Barack Obama is pro-abortion. The survey shows that, when pro-life voters know that information, they support McCain by a three-to-one margin. A new poll from the Pew Research Center finds voters are more interested in the 2008 election than they were the 2004 election, but they are less informed on where the candidates stand. Pew finds that just 52 percent of voters rightly identify Obama as pro-abortion ("pro-choice" in the poll's terminology") and only 45 percent know John McCain is pro-life on abortion. A stunning 38 percent of voters don't know where either Obama or McCain stand on the issue of abortion. Some ten percent wrongly identify Obama as pro-life and 17 percent think McCain supports abortion. This information gap is important and a subsequent question shows whichever side of the abortion debate can frame the candidates first will likely help one of them win the election. Among pro-life voters who know where the two candidates stand, McCain trounces Obama by a whopping 70-24 percentage point margin. Surprisingly, Obama has a one percent lead (43-42 percent) among pro-life voters who are uninformed about their abortion positions. On the other side, pro-abortion groups will be working overtime to educate their supporters as well. That's because Obama leads 71-24 percent among pro-abortion voters who know where the two candidates stand and he has a much smaller 48-40 percent lead among pro-abortion voters who don't. Full story at LifeNews.com.

University of Kansas Professor Quits Helping Late-Term Abortion Practitioner Wichita, KS (LifeNews.com)

-- A leading pro-life group learned that a University of Kansas professor was helping late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller. Burtram Odenheimer, a Clinical Assistant Professor with the University of Kansas School of Medicine, was now signing off on second and third-trimester abortions. However, just hours after Operation Rescue told LifeNews.com about the scandal and a story appeared online, Odenheimer and another physician agreed to disassociate themselves with Tiller. Tiller is the infamous late-term abortion practitioner who has repeatedly escaped prosecution for allegedly illegal abortions that are done outside of Kansas law. State law requires two physicians to sign off on the supposed need for a late-term abortion and Tiller had apparently violated the law by having a business partner vouch for them rather than obtaining an independent analysis from another doctor. Operation Rescue told LifeNews.com that Odenheimer was providing the second opinion needed for the abortions to qualify under state law. The group says Odenheimer, a neurologist who is board certified in psychiatry, secretly saw Tiller's patients at his office at the Wichita Clinic. Late Monday, Newman told LifeNews.com that his group received notice from the Wichita Clinic that it had no knowledge about the abortion participation. It also confirmed that both Odenheimer and the other physician had been providing the second opinions and that both agreed to stop. Full story at LifeNews.com.

British Woman Has Seven Abortions, No Regret Despite Suicide Attempt London, England (LifeNews.com)

-- A British woman who has had seven abortions described her experienced in a new interview that even the London Daily Mail newspaper found repulsive. Angela Simmons, a middle class woman, says she had each of the abortions because she was never involved in a committed relationship. During the interview, Simmons recounts various relationships with men who, she says, never would commit to a relationship with her. "Looking back, there was a definitive reason why I had each termination and a valid reason why I felt at the time I could not even have begun to contemplate continuing with each of the pregnancies," she told the newspaper. "The reason why I had so many abortions is that I didn't want to bring a child into the world unless my situation was perfect -- but it never was," she claimed. Yet two of the abortions came with a partner who said he wanted her to keep the baby, and the abortions eventually resulted in the demise of the relationship. In an attempt to salvage the relationship, Simmons decided to keep one baby. But, because of the toll the abortions likely took on her body, her son Ben was born eight weeks prematurely and with severe learning difficulties. Full story at LifeNews.com.

Washington Assisted Suicide Opponents Trail Nearly 12-1 in Fundraising Olympia, WA (LifeNews.com)

-- Voters in Washington state head to the polls in November to decided whether to make it the second, after Oregon, to legalize assisted suicide. In the coming months, they'll likely see a one-sided campaign in favor of I-1000 because the backers of the initiative have a nearly 12-1 advantage in fundraising. The numbers should light a fire under pro-life advocates, patient and disability rights groups and medical professionals who don't want euthanasia to expand. Backers of the assisted suicide proposal turned in more than enough signatures earlier this month to likely qualify for the ballot. And when the debate begins, a new Vancouver Columbian article shows proponents will have a significant money advantage. The campaign for the initiative has raised $1,124,000 with $315,000 coming in from the group that made assisted suicide legal in Oregon. The main group opposing I-1000 has raised just $95,600. While opponents have raised all of their money from Washington residents, assisted suicide crusaders have brought in funds from out of state. Full story at LifeNews.com.

Comatose Man Jesse Ramirez, Almost Euthanasia Victim, Now Enjoys LifePhoenix, AZ (LifeNews.com)

-- Jesse Ramirez was badly injured in an automobile accident in May 2007 and nearly became a victim of euthanasia when his wife made the decision to have his feeding tube removed. Now, Ramirez has recovered to the point that he is enjoying life and waking and running. Ramirez suffered traumatic brain injury in the accident and had been in a minimally conscious state for just over a week when doctors told his family he may never recover. A legal battle ensued over the man's life and he almost became a victim of euthanasia in the same way Terri Schiavo was starved and dehydrated to death. Last June, Ramirez woke up from the coma and appeared to be on the road to recovery. Jesse's sister recently wrote a note to bioethicist Wesley J. Smith and said he is happy and alive now and enjoying working out at the gym. "Since you last spoke and saw Jesse, he has made such a miraculous recovery," his sister said. "He walks semi without the gait walk, but is now running and really working out at the gym three times a week for three and a half hours." 'Wow -- considering a year ago he was said to have been in a vegetative state," she explained. His sister told Smith that Ramirez "was not a vegetable literally speaking at all" -- "He was a human with a life and deserved his dignity." Full story at LifeNews.com.

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