Barack Obama May Pick Woman Who Introduced Abortion Drug for FDA Chief
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- If anyone had any question about whether Barack Obama would promote the increase or reduction of abortions as president, the abortion advocates he's named to top administration posts confirm his agenda. Now, Obama appears likely to select the FDA chief who oversaw the abortion drug for a second stint. Jane Henney is a professor at the University of Cincinnati who was the head of the Food and Drug administration in the final years of the Clinton administration. As far as abortion is concerned, her main claim to fame is that she oversaw the last-minute approval of the dangerous abortion drug RU 486, also known as mifepristone. The abortion drug has been responsible for the deaths of at least 14 women worldwide, six in the United States and has been responsible for injuring over 1,100 women alone in the U.S. The women injured by the drug have suffered from complications ranging from failed abortions and parts of the unborn baby remaining following the abortion to hospitalizations and the need for complete blood transfusions. According to a report in the Cincinnati Enquirer, members of Obama's transition team contacted Henney about potentially heading up the FDA again and she has reportedly expressed interest in returning to her old job. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Abortion Obama HHS Nominee Tom Daschle Attacks Bush Pro-Life Policies
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Tom Daschle, the pro-abortion former senator Barack Obama nominated to become the next health secretary appeared before the Senate HELP committee Thursday. There, he attacked President Bush for his pro-life policies on bioethics issues such as stem cell research and the morning after pill. Daschle criticized the Bush administration and the FDA for its policies -- making the pro-abortion claim that it interjected politics into science. "I want to reinstate a science-driven environment," Daschle said. "I want to take ideology and politics, as much as humanly possible, out of the process and leave the scientists to do their job." Daschle will also play a large role in shaping Obama's health care plan -- which pro-life advocates worry will promote abortion and do so at taxpayer expense. During the hearing, Daschle said the formulation of the plan will not be like that of the Clinton administration, where Hillary Clinton devised the plan in secret and pro-life advocates had to work diligently to find the pro-abortion and pro-euthanasia aspects of it. Full story at LifeNews.com
Any Obama Decision to Fund Embryonic Stem Cells Goes Against Best Science
by Helen M. Alvaré
Incoming President Barack Obama's strenuous support for legal abortion is well-known. His unbridled enthusiasm for destructive embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) is likely less visible to most Americans. But President-elect Obama's statements about ESCR throughout his campaign, and his behavior as a U.S. Senator, make him a "warrior" for the cause no less fierce that (now-disgraced) Senator John Edwards, who famously over-stated that if the federal government had funded ESCR all along, the late actor Christoper Reeve might have "[gotten] up out of that wheelchair and walk[ed] again." Fast forward four years, and science is demonstrating, as (Dr. E. Christian Brugger wrote in his recent Morning of the Stem Cell Revolution) that it is adult stem cell research which is providing actual patient treatments. Current law dates back to President Bush's Aug 9 2001 issuance of an executive order limiting federal research funds for ESCR to 'lines' of stem cells created before that date. No limitations were placed upon state or private funding. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Life, Pro-Abortion Advocates Have Different Takes on Teen Birth Increase
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Advocates on both sides of the abortion debate have different takes on the latest news from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. New CDC statistics show a slight increase in teen births and the figures are making headlines across the country. For the pro-life side, a rise in teen births leads to the obvious conclusion that fewer teenagers are having abortions when confronted with a teen pregnancy. But for pro-abortion syndicated columnist Bonnie Erbe, that's not good news. She complains in a new column that the state of Mississippi saw the highest increase in the teen birthrate only because pro-life advocates have enacted more abortion limits than any other states and closed down abortion businesses. "Hats off to the religious right once again, this time for Mississippi's latest honor" that of being the state with the highest teen birthrate in the nation," she writes. Erbe complained that "religious abortion foes (and most abortion foes are religiously driven) have helped drive up the teen birthrate." "I attribute this honor, in great part, to antiabortion activists in the state who succeeded in shutting down six of the state's seven" abortion centers, Erbe adds. Erbe said she was disappointed that only one abortion center remains in Mississippi. On the other hand, Janice Shaw Crouse, the head of Concerned Women for America, says the real culprit in rising teen birth rates is the pushing of teen sex in the mainstream media. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Life Catholic Luminary Father Richard John Neuhaus Dies After Cancer Battle
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Father Richard John Neuhaus, one of the leading Catholic thinkers on the pro-life side of the abortion debate has died at the age of 72. Neuhaus became very ill suddenly on Wednesday from several side effects from the cancer he was suffering and died Thursday morning. Neuhaus became intimately involved in the pro-life movement after the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision and helped to unite pro-life advocates in both Catholic and Protestant circles. He continued as an intellectual heavyweight -- founding the journal Fist Things in 1990 -- and became even more well-known for his advising President George W. Bush on pro-life matters. His influence was so great on the president that his catch-phrase of "welcoming unborn children into life and protecting them under law" became Bush's standard line any time he referenced pro-life matters. That influence was noted as Time magazine, in 2005, hailed Father Neuhaus as one of the top 25 most influential religious leaders in America. Bush, himself, credited with Neuhaus as "helping me articulate these [religious] things. Full story at LifeNews.com
Planned Parenthood Abortion Businesses Merge in Washington, Idaho, Alaska
Olympia, WA (LifeNews.com) -- Three large Planned Parenthood abortion businesses are merging together to create a large northwestern United States conglomerate. One leading pro-life advocate who is a Planned Parenthood watchdog tells LifeNews.com that the merger is an effort to cut costs in a tough economic climate. As of January 1, Planned Parenthood of Alaska, Planned Parenthood of Western Washington, and Planned Parenthood of Idaho will now operate as one new organziation. The new Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest will continue to be affiliated with the national Planned Parenthood umbrella that does about 25 percent of all abortions in the United States. With their combined budget, the new PPGN abortion business brings in nearly $34 million in annual income. Jim Sedlak, of STOPP International, tells LifeNews.com that this is a case of the Washington-based Planned Parenthood expanding its reach and of a directive from the national office to consolidate the number of affiliates it has to cut costs. Full story at LifeNews.com
New York Times Misses Opportunity to Promote Abortion, Hide Pro-Life Message
by Marvin Olasky
A pro-abortion culture requires eternal vigilance. Heresy can sneak through. The New York Times has for four decades maintained abortion orthodoxy, but an editor should be fired for not cutting out a tender dialogue in the next-to-last paragraph of a 7,500-word lead story in the newspaper six weeks ago. Let me set the scene: A husband and a wife have had 15 failed pregnancies and in vitro fertilization non-starters. Author Alex Kuczynski, a fine writer, comes perilously close to falling off the cliff when she describes a "fetus" that didn't make it past 10 weeks as "a small dead baby" and quotes a nurse as telling her, "In case you were interested, it was a girl." But she quickly regains her footing and writes, "I was not, in fact, interested in attaching a gender to the coagulation of cells, briefly and potentially human. . . ." Kuczynski and her husband then decide to hire a surrogate mother to bear their child. They chose one "not so different from us. Later, during the election season, she and I were unaccountably pleased to learn that we were both planning to vote for Obama." The article proceeds with great specific detail about the emotions involved as the author's baby grows in another woman's womb. When baby Max is born, the author notes "the mind-bending philosophical weirdness of it all: there is our baby "coming out of her body." Full story at LifeNews.com
Indiana Biz Cancels Planned Parenthood Speaker After Abortion Rape Coverup
South Bend, IN (LifeNews.com) -- A local business in South Bend, Indiana has canceled a scheduled speaking engagement with the head of the state Planned Parenthood after complaints about how it recently covered up a case of statutory rape. Local residents also complained that Planned Parenthood of Indiana is the state's largest abortion business. The South Bend League of Women Voters had scheduled a luncheon with Betty Cockrum, president and chief executive of the abortion business at South Bend Chocolate Cafe on Friday. But when news of her appearance got around to local pro-life advocates, they called to complain. South Bend Chocolate Co. owner Mark Tarner told WSBT that he received numerous phone calls, mostly from women who were upset. ACTION: Thank the South Bend Chocolate Co for canceling the pro-abortion speech by contacting the business at 3300 W Sample St, South Bend, IN 46619, (574) 233-2577. Full story at LifeNews.com
