Obama Administration Will Meet With Pro-Life Leaders to Talk About Abortion
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- One week after shutting pro-life groups out of a discussion on the future of health care policy, the Obama administration will finally meet with representatives of leading pro-life organizations to discuss abortion. However, the meeting only involves the head of the White House Faith-Based Office, and there is no word on whether top Obama policy officials will be present. CBN News indicates the heads of Concerned Women for America and the Family Research Council will meet with Joshua DuBois, the leading faith official for President Barack Obama. CBN national correspondent indicates CWA president Wendy Wright reached out to the Obama administration and it responded by arranging a meeting next Tuesday with the two pro-life groups and representatives of other pro-life organizations. They include the Christian Medical Association and Care Net, a national association of pregnancy care centers. The meeting will reportedly focus on how to reduce abortions and pro-life advocates will tell the Obama officials that abortions will not be reduced by sending more money to groups like Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion business. "The Obama administration says they want to be inclusive and represent all Americans. The White House faith-based office is now tasked with reducing the number of abortions " something that pro-life groups have very good experience in accomplishing," Wright told CBN News. "Funding abortion or abortion providers is one of the worst things that could be done. What the government funds, we get more of," Wright added. "We hope to begin a dialogue that results in policies which actually work, not just financially benefit certain interest groups like abortion providers." Full story at LifeNews.com
Obama Embryonic Stem Cell Research Order Complies With Federal Law, For Now
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Last week, President Barack Obama overturned the limits that prevent taxpayers from being forced to pay for embryonic stem cell research. A White House official says Obama's order, for now, complies with a pro-life federal law that prohibits creating and destroying human embryos for research. Obama's order allows funding of embryonic stem cell research conducted using so-called "leftover" human embryos from fertility clinics. A federal law, known as the Dickey-Wicker amendment, that was adopted in the 1990s prevents funding of the purposeful creation and destruction of human embryos for research purposes. The Dickey-Wicker law prohibits the creation of embryos for the purpose of research as well as any research that harms an embryo, a unique human being after conception. The provision also prohibits federal funds from being used for the intentional creation of embryos by IVF, cloning, or by any other means, for the purpose of their destruction and use in scientific experimentation. A White House official told CNSNews that the Obama order complies with that law -- but embryonic stem cell research proponents in Congress want to overturn it. The amendment was renewed in the omnibus spending bill Obama just signed. "They should develop guidelines to pursue stem cell research in compliance with federal law, meaning Dickey-Wicker," the White House official told CNS news about what the NIH will do to implement the Obama order. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Life Group Says Planned Parenthood Hurting Women With Home Abortions
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new report recently highlighted at LifeNews.com indicates Planned Parenthood is increasingly relying on the dangerous mifepristone (RU 486) abortion drug. Now, a pro-life group is accusing the abortion business of putting women at risk by more frequently employing the drugs. While Planned Parenthood is cutting its total number of centers, the number of abortion facilities is on the rise -- it jumped to 295 last year from 287 the year prior. While the number of surgical abortion centers it runs dropped from 179 to 174 during the last year, the number of places with the mifepristone abortion drug rose from 108 to 121. That means more women are using the dangerous abortion drug that has killed more than a dozen women worldwide and injured more than 1,200 in the United States alone. Marie Hahnenberg, a researcher for American Life League, tells LifeNews.com that means more women are at risk. "This new focus shift from surgical to dangerous medical abortions shows Planned Parenthood values profit over the lives of the women," she said. Full story at LifeNews.com
More Oregon Patients Killed Via Assisted Suicide as Activists Infiltrate Hospice
Salem, OR (LifeNews.com) -- The number of assisted suicides in Oregon has increased 30 percent in the last two years and euthanasia activists themselves may have provided the reasons why. It appears members of Compassion & Choices have infiltrated the hospice system and are urging patients to kill themselves. LifeNews.com reported on the increase earlier this month, but a Compassion & Choice press release last week provided an interesting take on the report. The group said that "nearly 100% of terminally ill individuals using the law in 2008 were enrolled in hospice." Coombs said the assisted suicide law is getting more patients enrolled in hospice, but bioethics watchdog Wesley J. Smith says the pro-euthanasia group "should be ashamed, not proud." "This press release is essentially an admission that its representatives interfere with the proper provision of hospice care, since an essential service of hospice is suicide prevention," Smith explains. He says C&C's involvement in hospice is pushing patients into assisted suicide and corrupting the system. Full story at LifeNews.com
Videos Showing Planned Parenthood Abortion Abuse Led to De-Funding, More Soon
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Videos taken by college students showing abuses at Planned Parenthood resulted in a decision last week by the Orange County Board of Supervisors in California to cut funding of the abortion business. Two more videos are on the way from the group behind them. The board took a unanimous vote at a meeting on Tuesday night after receiving calls and emails from pro-life advocates opposed to the $292,000 contract. Videos produced by Live Action Films were used to help strip Planned Parenthood of the funding. The videos, repeatedly profiled on LifeNews.com, have shown Planned Parenthood employees ignoring the sexual abuse of minors, which mandatory reporting laws require them to report. Mark Bucher, a local resident and board member of the Family Action PAC, saw the videos and decided to find out if Orange County gave taxpayer dollars to Planned Parenthood. Bucher sent one of the undercover videos to every Orange County Supervisor and they took action in response. Full story at LifeNews.com
Texas Lawmakers Want to Deny Women Info on Abortion-Breast Cancer Link
Austin, TX (LifeNews.com) -- Two Texas Democratic state legislators have filed a bill that would deny women information on the link between abortion and breast cancer. The legislators claim no link exists and want to limit the details women receive about it from the state-published pre-abortion informed consent booklet. The fact that abortion increases a woman's risk for contracting breast cancer is well established despite the politicized opinions against it. However, Reps. Ellen Cohen and Garnet Coleman would remove what they call "medically inaccurate" language in the booklet the Texas Department of State Health Services prepares. The 23-page booklet, A Woman's Right to Know, is produced because the state legislature approved the informed consent booklet in 2003. They did so because abortion centers routinely deny women information about the medical and mental health risks of having an abortion. "If you have carried a pregnancy to term as a young woman, you may be less likely to get breast cancer in the future. However, you do not get the same protective effect if your pregnancy is ended by an abortion," the booklet says. Though the legislators don't want the information in the booklet, the wording is accurate. Full story at LifeNews.com
Carhart's Late-Term Abortion Business Reopened After Operating Without Permit
Bellevue, NE (LifeNews.com) -- The late-term abortion business LeRoy Carhart runs is open again following a mix-up that saw city officials close it down. Carhart re-opened his abortion business following damage in an accidental fire, but it didn't stay open long because repairs on his abortion center hadn't passed a city inspection. Following an inspection, the city of Bellevue, outside Omaha, would have had to have issued an occupancy permit for him to reopen. Last week, city officials went by Carhart's abortion center Monday afternoon to close it down, and Carhart appeared to reopen on Wednesday. Mary Lou Schwope, permit technician for the City of Bellevue, said Carhart had no certificate of occupancy to open the Saturday before last. She said Steve Carmichael, Bellevue's chief building inspector, closed Carhart's abortion business on Monday, conducted the inspection and gave him the permit on Tuesday and that Carhart re-opened on Wednesday. Carhart admitted to the Bellevue Leader newspaper that he operated without a permit for three days. "We saw all our patients on Saturday, Sunday and Monday," he said. Full story at LifeNews.com
Human Rights Council Notes Children's Rights, Ignores Abortion Kills Children
Geneva, Switzerland (LifeNews.com) -- The Human Rights Council (HRC) marked the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child last week, but a leading pro-life advocate says the human rights group ignored how abortion kills children. HRC supports children after birth but it has a long history of ignoring them beforehand. Pat Buckley, a lobbyist for the England-based Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, was in Geneva where he was lobbying the HRC to respect the lives of unborn children. "The HRC panels comprehensively considered all the major issues on the topic of children's rights except the 'elephant in the room' -- the abortion question which was studiously ignored by all," he said. Buckley noted the "bitter irony" of the event was summed up by the contribution of Maud de Boer-Buquichio, Deputy Secretary-General of the Council of Europe, who highlighted the Council of Europe's efforts to promote and protect children's rights. That's the same Council that, last year, approved a resolution calling on its member nations to legalize abortion or pave the way for more abortions if they've already done so. Full story at LifeNews.com
Utah Abortions Went Up Slightly in 2007 New Health Department Figures Show
Salt Lake City, UT (LifeNews.com) -- A new report from the Utah state health department finds the number of abortions rose slightly in 2007. With 3,516 abortions done that year, the most recent for which annual statistics have been compiled, that is an increase of 72 abortions from the 2006 figures. Still, the numbers are significantly lower before the national trend of declining abortions that has taken place over the last 15-20 years. The state report indicates most abortions were done on Utah residents, but more than 400 were done on women who live in Idaho, Wyoming and Nevada. Idaho and Wyoming led with 206 and 152 women, respectively, getting abortions in Utah. Including the abortions on out of state women, there were 3,932 abortions done in Utah in 2007, an increase over the 3,753 abortions done in 2006. Though the number of abortions has increased, the rise appears to be due to the increasing population of the state as the abortion rate, the number of abortions per 1,000 women of reproductive age, remained the same. Full story at LifeNews.com
University of Calgary Students Plead Not Guilty to Trespassing on Their Campus
Calgary, Canada (LifeNews.com) -- Six University of Calgary students pleaded not guilty on Monday to trespassing on their own campus. The students were arrested last month and charged last week with trespassing after they set up a pro-life display college officials initially allowed but said they didn't want shown. When UC officials warned members of Campus Pro-Life that they had to restrict their own pro-life display, the students refused to comply. Pro-life advocates at the school have feuded with UC officials for some time about a display that includes graphic pictures. UC authorities don't want students, faculty and others exposed to the abortion pictures, so it has instructed members of Campus Pro-Life to turn the pictures inward, which makes them not visible to people walking along the college grounds. Not only did the students refuse to agree they were guilty of trespassing, Campus Pro-Life president Leah Hallman says the group will be back with another display shortly. "We have a right to freedom of speech in Canada, and the university has acknowledged that we have the right under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom in the past," she said. "I am not too sure why they changed their minds. I think it's because of the nature of the signs, because the signs show abortion for what abortion is," she added about what happened. Full story at LifeNews.com
Suva, Fiji (LifeNews.com) -- The Fiji government has filed legal papers in an attempt to stop Sachida Mudaliar from reopening his medical practice. Mudaliar is still on trial after having been previously found guilty of the death of student Poonam Kumar from a botched abortion he did on her. Last year, a judicial panel ordered a new trial for Mudaliar concerning the March 2003 botched abortion. Now Mudaliar wants to reopen his medical practice and says he should have the right to do so because his original conviction was quashed in favor of a new trial. But the Fiji Solicitor-General Christopher Pryde filed an injunction today on behalf of the Ministry of Health to stop Mudaliar from resuming practicing medicine. "We will reserve comments until after the matter has been heard by the court," he told the Fiji Times. Pryde added that he expected a court hearing soon. Full story at LifeNews.com
