Friday, October 31, 2008

FROM LIFENEWS.COM:

Barack Obama Repeats Pro-Abortion Litmus Test for Supreme Court Judges
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- In a Thursday interview with NBC News, Barack Obama repeated the pledge he's made throughout the campaign. Obama indicated he would only appoint judges to the Supreme Court who support unlimited abortions, in what is a clear pro-abortion litmus test for federal justices. "And so my criteria, for example, would be -- if a Justice tells me that they only believe the strict letter of the Constitution -- that means that they possibly don't mean -- believe in -- a right to privacy that may not be perfectly enumerated in the Constitution but, you know, that I think is there," Obama said. NBC News columnist Mark Impomeni understood the clear meaning of Obama's words. "No originalist judges need apply," Impomeni wrote in response. "The right to privacy is a code word for abortion rights. The focus of liberal jurisprudence since Roe v. Wade first conferred the right to an abortion has been the protection of that 'right.'" And with Roe guaranteeing virtually unlimited abortions throughout pregnancy for any reasons, based on the so-called privacy right, Obama is confirming his intent to only select pro-abortion judges who want no limits on abortion. Full story at LifeNews.com

New Video Ad: Barack Obama Wants to Reverse Ban on Partial-Birth Abortions
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Barack Obama is so out of step with mainstream America that he favors overturning a ban on partial-birth abortions that polls show more than 70 percent of Americans support. That's the message of a new Internet ad distributed by the Family Research Council. The ad mentions how the respected late Democratic Sen. Daniel Moynihan supported the ban and described the abortion procedure for what it is. "Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan drew a line against partial-birth abortion, calling it 'too close to infanticide,'" the FRC ad says. "But Barack Obama crossed that line, voting against a measure that would have banned partial-birth abortion in Illinois." "Barack and Michelle Obama even used the partial-birth abortion issue in an appeal to raise campaign cash," the ad continues. "Barack Obama aggressively supports a bill that would overturn all state and federal partial-birth abortion bans," the ad explains. "The culture of death has a good friend in Barack Obama." Full story at LifeNews.com

Catholics United Threatens Churches, Pastors Over Pro-Life Literature Drops
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- This weekend, tens of thousands of pro-life advocates will head to both Protestant and Catholic churches to provide pro-life voting information to church members. The pro-Obama group Catholics United sent out an email to its supporters urging them to confront the pro-life advocates at the churches. Each election year pro-life advocates distribute information designed to educate voters, and this presidential election is no different. The information makes it clear that Barack Obama is pro-abortion and only John McCain has an authentic pro-life position when the two are compared. CU spokesman James Salt says Catholics United is heading up the campaign to "put the brakes" on the literature drops. He urges his pro-Obama forces to call pastors and priests to ask them to ask pro-life advocates to leave church property. Salt urges callers to ask that church officials monitor the parking lots and go as far as removing the pro-life information from cars after the information is distributed. Father Frank Pavone, the head of Priests for Life, wasted no time in responding to the threats and told Salt that Catholics United would face a potential lawsuit if it disrupted the Constitutionally-protected free speech activities of pro-life advocates. Full story at LifeNews.com

Hispanic Actor Eduardo Verastegui Reminds Latino Voters Obama Pro-Abortion
Los Angeles, CA (LifeNews.com) -- Hispanic actor Eduardo Verastegui has a last-minute reminder for Hispanic voters nationwide: Barack Obama doesn't share your pro-life values on abortion. The actor has released videos on abortion and the elections that have been popular in the Latino community. In his latest, Verastegui explains the crisis of abortion in America, while explaining Barack Obama's pro-abortion track record and agenda. "Barack Obama does not share our traditional Latino values," he says. "That's what inspired me to put this video together. I want people to know the truth about Obama." "As a Latino, I was also shocked to learn that most abortion centers are located in neighborhoods where Hispanics and minorities live," Verastegui says. "It broke my heart when I discovered that more than 650 Latino babies are killed every day by abortion in the U.S." Full story at LifeNews.com

Latino Catholic Bishop Tells Hispanic Voters Obama Not Pro-Life on Abortion
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A Catholic bishop is working with pro-life advocates to launch a radio and email campaign telling Hispanics that Barack Obama is not pro-life on abortion. Several Catholic groups are confusing voters with erroneous claims that Obama takes a pro-life position, something Bishop Rene H. Gracida refutes. More than 2.9 million Hispanic Catholics received an email Friday morning from Bishop Gradcida, of the Diocese of Corpus Christi. "We only have days left before a critical election to elect a new president. In this moment, like no other moment in history, Hispanic votes will decide the future of the United States. That means that we have a great weight of responsibility," the letter said. "A Catholic cannot say that he/she voted in this election in good conscience if he/she votes for a candidate in favor of abortion," Bishop Gradcida continues. "Barack Obama is a candidate in favor of abortion." "I am Bishop Rene A. Gracida, reminding all Catholics that they need to vote in these elections with an informed conscience," the letter adds. Full story at LifeNews.com

Pro-Life Women's Group's Mailer to Half Million Voters Hits Obama on Abortion
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A national organization for pro-life women is joining the fray to persuade what polls show are the 14 percent of voters who are either undecided or soft in their support for Barack Obama or John McCain. The Susan B. Anthony List has a professional new mailing that hits Obama on his pro-abortion views. The mailing is headed to 500,000 voters in the battleground states of Ohio, Minnesota, Michigan, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, and Colorado. The mailer shows a baby carriage on railroad tracks and says, "if you saw this, you would take action -- wouldn't you?" The flip side of the mailing says Obama wouldn't and highlights his votes against a measure in the Illinois legislature to provide medical care for newborns who survive failed abortions. "Barack Obama voted four times against the Illinois State Born Alive Infants Protection Act," the SBA List mailing explains. "Despite hearing horrifying testimony from nurses about health babies being left to die in hospital supply closets, he voted against protecting these innocent children who defied all odds and survived an abortion." "Seem to gruesome to be true? It's true." Full story at LifeNews.com

40 Days for Life Pro-Life Campaign Nears End, 441 Babies Saved From Abortion
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The latest 40 Days for Life campaign to draw attention to the destruction of human life at local abortion businesses is nearing the end, but the director of the campaign tells LifeNews.com he is hearing from dozens of pro-life groups in local communities that want to continue. "Even after praying and fasting for 40 days - and being involved in vigils that in many cities went round the clock, seven days a week -many of the people who are participating in this campaign simply don't want to see it end," David Bereit says. "Tens of thousands of people have prayed in front of abortion facilities, many for the first time," the campaign director explained. "They see the impact of that peaceful presence, and they yearn to keep going." Beginning September 24, intensive 40 Days for Life campaigns have been conducted in more than 175 communities in 47 states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa and two Canadian provinces. Bereit said the biggest success of the campaign may have been jumpstarting efforts by existing groups to do more in their community and taking existing efforts that had grown stale and given them new life. Full story at LifeNews.com

British Parliament MPs File Motion to Force Northern Ireland to Legalize Abortion
London, England (LifeNews.com) -- Thirteen members of the British parliament have filed a motion saying that the 1967 law that legalizes abortion in the rest of the U.K. should be extended to Northern Ireland. Labour Party MP Diane Abbott is leading the effort in the House of Commons to force abortion on the region. The measure also calls on the taxpayer-funded National Health Service to pay for the abortions of Northern Ireland women who travel to England for them. A previous attempt to force abortion on Northern Ireland failed as MPs were prevented from adding an amendment to do so to the pro-cloning HFE bill. Bernadette Smyth, the head of the NI pro-life group Precious Life told LifeNews.com she thinks the latest move by Abbot and her supporters is nothing more than a "publicity stunt." The pro-life group has called on the MP who tabled the motion to "butt out and stop interfering" in Northern Ireland's protection of unborn children. Full story at LifeNews.com

International Abortion Advocates Attempt to Co-Opt Inter-American Commission
New York, NY (LifeNews.com/CFAM) -- Two initiatives from the pro-abortion Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) landed before the Washington-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights this week. The first was a 'thematic hearing' on whether abortion providers and by extension, non-governmental organizations that advocate abortion should be called human rights defenders. The second challenged the right of Costa Rica to determine the content of its laws after the country's Supreme Court determined that In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) violated right-to-life guarantees under the American Convention on Human Rights. Both efforts appear to be part of a CRR-orchestrated strategy to co-opt the generally well-regarded Inter-American Commission as a platform for promoting CRR's agenda to overturn abortion laws in Latin America and to rewrite the American Convention on Human Rights. Full story at LifeNews.com