Sotomayor Makes Reserved Opening Statement as Senate Notes Her Activism
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor took a relatively reserved approach in her opening remarks to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday. Her comments came after Republican members of the panel noted her penchant for judicial activism. Sotomayor is the first Supreme Court nominee pro-abortion President Barack Obama has put forward and she would replace retiring pro-abortion Justice David Souter if confirmed. Obama, leading pro-abortion senators, and pro-abortion groups have also said they feel comfortable Sotomayor is supportive enough of unlimited abortions throughout pregnancy to warrant a Senate confirmation vote. Although Republicans on the Judiciary Committee talked about the kind of judicial activism that led to Roe v. Wade and its more than 50 million abortions since 1973, Sotomayor didn't address it. Instead, Sotomayor offered an understated defense of her experience as a federal appeals court and lower court judge. “Throughout my seventeen years on the bench, I have witnessed the human consequences of my decisions. Those decisions have not been made to serve the interests of any one litigant, but always to serve the larger interest of impartial justice,” Sotomayor claimed. Full story at LifeNews.comSenate Republicans Ask Pro-Life Group's President to Testify on Sonia Sotomayor
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- When leaders of various advocacy groups get a chance to testify on the nomination of Supreme Court pick Sonia Sotomayor, a leading pro-life advocate will get a chance to represent the pro-life community. Senate Republicans have asked Americans United for Life president Charmaine Yoest to testify. Yoest is the only representative of any pro-life groups to be invited to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which started its hearings on Sotomayor's nomination today. She will present her comments to lawmakers on Thursday. No representatives of any major pro-abortion groups, including NARAL, Planned Parenthood and others appear to be on the list of representatives invited by Democrats on the panel. "We are honored to have the opportunity to testify before the Judiciary Committee about the nomination of Judge Sotomayor to the highest court in the land," Yoest told LifeNews.com about her invitation. "I am looking forward to sharing AUL's extensive legal research about Judge Sotomayor's record. In particular, her radical associations and judicial philosophy raises serious concerns in the pro-life community," she said. Yoest is referring to Sotomayor's tenure with the Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund, a group that has submitted numerous Supreme Court briefs arguing for an unrestricted right to abortion and claiming any pro-life limits are racist. Full story at LifeNews.com
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- When leaders of various advocacy groups get a chance to testify on the nomination of Supreme Court pick Sonia Sotomayor, a leading pro-life advocate will get a chance to represent the pro-life community. Senate Republicans have asked Americans United for Life president Charmaine Yoest to testify. Yoest is the only representative of any pro-life groups to be invited to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which started its hearings on Sotomayor's nomination today. She will present her comments to lawmakers on Thursday. No representatives of any major pro-abortion groups, including NARAL, Planned Parenthood and others appear to be on the list of representatives invited by Democrats on the panel. "We are honored to have the opportunity to testify before the Judiciary Committee about the nomination of Judge Sotomayor to the highest court in the land," Yoest told LifeNews.com about her invitation. "I am looking forward to sharing AUL's extensive legal research about Judge Sotomayor's record. In particular, her radical associations and judicial philosophy raises serious concerns in the pro-life community," she said. Yoest is referring to Sotomayor's tenure with the Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund, a group that has submitted numerous Supreme Court briefs arguing for an unrestricted right to abortion and claiming any pro-life limits are racist. Full story at LifeNews.com Abortion Protesters Interrupt Hearing on Supreme Court Pick Sonia Sotomayor
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A pro-life advocate interrupted the Senate hearing this morning on Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, who could be confirmed to replace retiring pro-abortion Justice David Souter. The abortion protester briefly interrupted the proceedings before U.S. Capitol Police escorted him out of the hearing room. The outburst came form a bearded man in a suit seated in the visitors gallery during the opening comments from pro-abortion Sen. Dianne Feinstein. As she talked, a man in the room began yelling, "Senator. What about the unborn!" He called abortion "genocide" and yelled, "What about abortion?" and "Stop the genocide of unborn Latinos!" Sotomayor did not react much to the protester other than to turn her head towards friends and family, who were seated behind her to witness the proceedings. Sen. Patrick Leahy, an abortion advocate who is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, warned after the man was taken away that no further displays for or against the nominee would be tolerated from observers. Full story at LifeNews.comObama Surgeon General Pick Regina Benjamin Wanted Docs to Learn Abortions
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- President Barack Obama named Alabama physician Regina Benjamin as the next Surgeon General of the United States. Benjamin is an African-American doctor who is known for rebuilding her medical clinic after it was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and then ravaged by fire in 2006. However, Benjamin has also urged that future physicians be trained to learn how to perform abortions. In 1990, Benjamin founded the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic to serve the Gulf Coast fishing community of Bayou La Batre, Alabama and its 2,500 residents. She is credited with maintaining contact with patients scattered across multiple evacuation sites and having a practice that allows her to treat all incoming patients, many of whom are uninsured and get rides to the clinic from Benjamin. Benjamin became the first black physician and the youngest doctor ever elected to the American Medical Association's board. In that position, she presents some concerns for the majority of Americans who take a pro-life position on abortion. In December 1996, Benjamin spoke in favor of a vote by the AMA's governing body to "urge medical schools to expand their curriculum" to teach "more about abortion." She supported teaching doctors to do abortions in an interview with the Associated Press. "We are adopting a policy that medical school curriculum provide the legal, ethical, and psychological principles associated with abortion so students can learn all the factors involved," she said. Full story at LifeNews.comSenate Panel OKs Abortion Coverage in Health Care Bill, Senator Forced to Admit
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- During a Senate committee meeting on Friday, a leading pro-abortion senator was forced to admit that one of the health care bills pending in the Senate will include abortion coverage. After the admission, the Senate panel voted to include abortions in that version of a national health care plan. Three pro-life senators used Thursday's Senate HELP Committee meeting to force the leadership's hand on its agenda of including abortion in a public health care plan. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, a Maryland Democrat, stammered her way through an explanation of an amendment to the health care bill that would cover abortion. When pressed by Sen. Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, she admitted that her language would force health insurance companies to contract with abortion groups like Planned Parenthood. Hatch asked, "Would this include abortion providers? I mean, it looks to me like you're expanding it to... for instance, Planned Parenthood. Would that put them into this system?" "It would include women's health clinics that provide comprehensive services and under the definition of a woman's health clinic, it would include, uh, it would include, uh, Planned, uh, Parenthood clinics. It would, um, it does not expand in any way expand a service," Mikulski responded. "In other words, it does not expand, um, uh, or mandate abortion service." Full story at LifeNews.comSenate Panel Also Agrees to Obama's Plan to Fund Abortions in Nation's Capital
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Following a vote by their colleagues in the House, members of a Senate committee agreed to President Barack Obama's request to fund abortions in the nation's capital. Last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee defeated an effort to restore the Dornan Amendment to prohibit such abortion funding. As LifeNews.com has repeatedly reported, President Obama asked members of Congress to write the federal budget bills in such as way as to allow tax-funding abortions in the District of Columbia. The House complied and, last week, the House Appropriations Committee voted largely along partisan lines to prevent a pro-life amendment restoring the funding ban. On the Senate side, Sen. Sam Brownback, a pro-life Kansas Republican, offered an amendment to the Financial Services appropriations bill (S. 1432) to restore the long-standing abortion funding limits. However, the amendment failed by a vote of 15-13 with Democrats mostly voting against the amendment and Republicans supporting it. Democratic Sens. Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Mark Pryor of Arkansas broke with their caucus to support the Brownback amendment. Full story at LifeNews.comACTION: Contact members of the Senate and urge them to support an amendment to stop taxpayer-funding of abortion in the District of Columbia. Go to http://www.Senate.gov for contact info.
Senate Vote Would Make Obama's Tax-Funded International Abortions Permanent
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Last week, members of a Senate committee voted for an amendment to make permanent, President Barack Obama's overturning the Mexico City Policy. That is the order that stopped sending taxpayer funds to groups that promote and perform abortions in other nations. Obama reversed the Mexico City Policy in January and polls after that showed a strong majority of Americans opposed his taxpayer-funded abortion agenda. Not content to rely on Obama's opening of the abortion-funded floodgates in other countries, members of the Senate proposed an amendment to the State, Foreign Operations Appropriations bill to make the move federal law. The move is important because it would make it so a pro-life president could not restore the Mexico City Policy and its tax-funded abortion limits. Instead, Congress would have to approve a new law overturning the amendment. Senator Frank Lautenberg, a New Jersey Democrat, offered the pro-abortion amendment along with Democratic Senators Pat Leahy, of Vermont, Barbara Mikulski, of Maryland, Pat Murray, or Washington, and pro-abortion Republican Susan Collins of Maine. On Thursday, the Senate Appropriations Committee passed the amendment to permanently overturn the Mexico City Policy on a 17-11 vote with one member absent. Full story at LifeNews.comACTION: Contact your two U.S. senators and urge strong opposition to the Lautenberg amendment against the Mexico City Policy. Urge lawmakers to remove the amendment from the State, Foreign Operations Appropriations bill and to vote against the bill if it is not removed. Go to http://www.Senate.gov for contact information for your senators.
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Two members of the U.S. Senate who have been behind unsuccessful efforts to ban all forms of human cloning have introduced new legislation with a new approach. They want to ban the use of human cloning to make human-animal hybrids, the kind of research taking place currently in England. Stephen Minger of King's College London, who has received permission from the British government to engage in hybrid cloning there, has been pushing hybrids forward. He is attempting to fuse DNA from cows with that of humans in order to create new stem cells that could be used in scientific research. Sens. Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican, and Mary Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat, want to prohibit such research from taking place in the United States. "This legislation works to ensure that our society recognizes the dignity and sacredness of human life," Brownback told LifeNews.com on Friday. "Creating human-animal hybrids, which permanently alter the genetic makeup of an organism, will challenge the very definition of what it means to be human and is a violation of human dignity and a grave injustice," he explained. Full story at LifeNews.comPro-Life African-Americans to Protest Abortion at NAACP Centennial Convention
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Dozens of pro-life advocates are expected in New York City as the NAACP marks 100 years of serving as the nation's largest civil rights group for African-Americans. The black pro-life advocates will be educating participants on how abortion targets the African-American community. They will also educate convention participants how the NAACP has ignored abortion's affect on black Americans by taking a pro-abortion position. Rev. Clenard H. Childress, Jr., the head of the northeast chapter of the black pro-life group LEARN will head up the educational efforts. "The NAACP continues to ignore the severe health ramifications for women who have abortions," he told LifeNews.com on Monday. "A disproportionate number are African-American," he explained. "African-American women now lead the nation in miscarriages and the rise in breast cancer among African-American women is epidemic. Multiple studies find this is due directly to abortions, especially among women who abort in their first pregnancy." Full story at LifeNews.comHouse Subcommittee Further Strips Funding for Abstinence Education Efforts
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A House subcommittee last week further stripped the ability of community abstinence education programs to obtain federal funds for their work. Led by pro-abortion Rep. David Obey, a Wisconsin Democrat, a House appropriations subcommittee stripped even more funding from the federal budget. The House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor HHS passed the Fiscal Year 2010 appropriations bill but not before it further targeted abstinence education. Although both sides of the abstinence debate say the language in the bill needs more analysis, the first glance makes it appear that abstinence education funding will be eliminated or severely curtailed. Obey included $114.5 million for a new teenage pregnancy prevention initiative that Obama is calling for, but the funds are expected to go to groups like Planned Parenthood that perform and promote abortions. The budget language will likely place requirements on the funding that only groups that do not take an abstinence-only approach can qualify for funding. Full story at LifeNews.comCatholic Church Responds in Vatican Paper to Brazil Abortion Excommunication
The Vatican (LifeNews.com) -- The Catholic Church has issued an official response in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano saying its pro-life teachings remain unchanged. The letter came in response to an article about a high-profile case in Brazil concerning an abortion done on a nine-year-old girl who was pregnant with twins. The girl became pregnant after allegedly being subjected to sexual abuse at the hands of her stepfather. The abortions took place in March. The case drew even more international attention when Archbishop José Cardoso Sobrinho of Olinda and Recife excommunicated the mother and medical staff involved in the abortion. Archbishop Rino Fisichella, the president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, responded to some of the criticism of the Catholic Church in an article in March. At the same he said that the participants in the abortion invited their own excommunication but said that "such urgency and publicity [of it by Archbishop Sobrinho] was not necessary." The new "clarification" article said it answers "a number of letters have been sent to the Holy See, some of them from prominent figures in political and ecclesiastical life, reporting the confusion that has been created in various countries, above all in Latin America." Full story at LifeNews.com
The Vatican (LifeNews.com) -- The Catholic Church has issued an official response in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano saying its pro-life teachings remain unchanged. The letter came in response to an article about a high-profile case in Brazil concerning an abortion done on a nine-year-old girl who was pregnant with twins. The girl became pregnant after allegedly being subjected to sexual abuse at the hands of her stepfather. The abortions took place in March. The case drew even more international attention when Archbishop José Cardoso Sobrinho of Olinda and Recife excommunicated the mother and medical staff involved in the abortion. Archbishop Rino Fisichella, the president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, responded to some of the criticism of the Catholic Church in an article in March. At the same he said that the participants in the abortion invited their own excommunication but said that "such urgency and publicity [of it by Archbishop Sobrinho] was not necessary." The new "clarification" article said it answers "a number of letters have been sent to the Holy See, some of them from prominent figures in political and ecclesiastical life, reporting the confusion that has been created in various countries, above all in Latin America." Full story at LifeNews.comEugene, Oregon Pregnancy Center Hit By Pro-Abortion Vandals Last Week
Eugene, OR (LifeNews.com) -- A crisis pregnancy center in Eugene, Oregon was hit by vandals last week who left pro-abortion messages on its building. The incident comes weeks after an abortion advocate attacked the national headquarters of the pro-life group Operation Rescue. Vandals targeted the Lane Pregnancy Support Center on 13th Avenue in Eugene and the attack occurred late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning. Those involved spray-painted the phrases "kill us now", "give us your eggs", "freedom", and a swastika on the windows at the front of the pregnancy center. "We were kind of caught off guard by it this morning," client services director Pam Walton told the register-Guard newspaper. "According to the police, it is targeted. The messages are such that it's not just artistic expression on a blank surface." Full story at LifeNews.com
Eugene, OR (LifeNews.com) -- A crisis pregnancy center in Eugene, Oregon was hit by vandals last week who left pro-abortion messages on its building. The incident comes weeks after an abortion advocate attacked the national headquarters of the pro-life group Operation Rescue. Vandals targeted the Lane Pregnancy Support Center on 13th Avenue in Eugene and the attack occurred late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning. Those involved spray-painted the phrases "kill us now", "give us your eggs", "freedom", and a swastika on the windows at the front of the pregnancy center. "We were kind of caught off guard by it this morning," client services director Pam Walton told the register-Guard newspaper. "According to the police, it is targeted. The messages are such that it's not just artistic expression on a blank surface." Full story at LifeNews.com Encourage Friends to Sign Up for Free Pro-Life News From LifeNews.com
