New Poll: Americans Split on Sonia Sotomayor Nomination for Supreme Court
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- As members of the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the Supreme Court nomination of Sonia Sotomayor on a 13-6 vote, a new Zogby poll shows Americans are evenly split. Less than half of Americans support her nomination, with 49 percent saying they support her and an equal number opposed. Hispanic voters are roughly split on Sotomayor, 47% in favor and 43% against, while independent voters oppose her confirmation on a 55 to 45 percent margin. Zogby conducted the poll July 21-24 and surveyed 4,470 voters. Meanwhile, Gallup released the analysis of its newest poll on Sotomayor yesterday that found "she now garners more opposition than any Supreme Court nominee of the past two decades, except for the unsuccessful Harriet Miers.” In contrast, “[s]upport for [Samuel] Alito's confirmation grew after widely televised confirmation hearings,” Gallup said, with 54% of Americans expressing support and only 30% opposing. The polling results show that Sotomayor, who was expected by some to be a shoo-in because of her life story and background, is sparking opposition because of concerns she will be a judicial activist. Full story at LifeNews.com
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- As members of the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the Supreme Court nomination of Sonia Sotomayor on a 13-6 vote, a new Zogby poll shows Americans are evenly split. Less than half of Americans support her nomination, with 49 percent saying they support her and an equal number opposed. Hispanic voters are roughly split on Sotomayor, 47% in favor and 43% against, while independent voters oppose her confirmation on a 55 to 45 percent margin. Zogby conducted the poll July 21-24 and surveyed 4,470 voters. Meanwhile, Gallup released the analysis of its newest poll on Sotomayor yesterday that found "she now garners more opposition than any Supreme Court nominee of the past two decades, except for the unsuccessful Harriet Miers.” In contrast, “[s]upport for [Samuel] Alito's confirmation grew after widely televised confirmation hearings,” Gallup said, with 54% of Americans expressing support and only 30% opposing. The polling results show that Sotomayor, who was expected by some to be a shoo-in because of her life story and background, is sparking opposition because of concerns she will be a judicial activist. Full story at LifeNews.com Medical professionals are on the frontlines of the battle on life issues. From abortion to assisted suicide, we are challenged in the workplace to defend our beliefs and risk our employment. The National Association of Pro-life Nurses has been here for nurses since the beginning. Join with us to protect those voices. |
House Won't Vote on Pro-Abortion Health Care Bill by Friday, Vote Expected Soon
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The House of Representatives will not hold a vote this week on a bill for a government-run health care system that pro-life groups oppose because it would include abortion funding and mandates. That comes despite an ironclad pledge by pro-abortion House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that such a vote would happen. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said yesterday that there will not be a vote before Friday, when lawmakers are slated to leave town for their August recess. "That clearly will not be possible at this point in time," Hoyer said. However, Hoyer left open the possibility that a vote could occur over the weekend or early next week -- not fully removing the threat that the pro-life community faces. The House health care legislation is still tied up in the House Energy and Commerce Committee where pro-abortion committee chair, Rep. Henry Waxman, faces strong opposition from pro-life Democrats because the bill could be used to promote taxpayer funding of abortion and insurance coverage mandates. That, Waxman says, means the next battle will take place in the committee as amendments come up that would limit the bill's abortion reach. "This is the week for markup," Waxman told reporters yesterday. "If you're going to do the bill out of committee, this is the week." Full story at LifeNews.comHouse Lawmakers Say Obama Health Care Plan an Abortion Industry Bailout
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Several pro-life members of the House of Representatives held a press conference today to keep up the pressure on getting abortion out of the health care restructuring plan Congress is considering. Their effort come as one top abortion advocate says keeping abortion in is essential to the debate. The government-run health care plan Congressional Democrats are crafting is a bailout for the abortion industry -- that was the essence of the message at the press conference. Held in the House triangle of the Capitol Building, Republican Reps. Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania, Mike Pence of Indiana, Chris Smith of New Jersey, Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska, Trent Franks of Arizona, and Doug Lamborn of Colorado, participated. They said the plan, which President Barack Obama favors and wants sent to him immediately, would require taxpayer-funding of abortions and insurance mandates unless amendments are adopted to make it abortion neutral. “History has demonstrated that unless abortion is explicitly excluded in the bill, administrative agencies and the courts will mandate it,” Pitts said. “Abortion will be determined to be an essential benefit. Pro-life Americans will be forced to pay for plans that pay for abortion.” Full story at LifeNews.comNew Study Finds 66 Percent Increased Breast Cancer Risk After Abortion
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new study done on women in Turkey who had abortions finds a 66 percent increased risk of contracting breast cancer as a result. The study is the latest to confirm that abortions cause significant adverse medical risks for women who have them, in addition to killing unborn children. The results also found that, while induced abrotion causes increased breast cancer risks for women, having a spontaneuous abortion, or miscarriage, does not. Dr. Vahit Ozmen and his colleagues at the Istanbul Medical Faculty at Istanbul University and Magee-Women's hospital in Pittsburgh conducted the new retrospective study. They published their findings in the April 2009 issue of the World Journal of Surgical Oncology and examined women who, between January 2000 and December 2006, were admitted to clinics of Istanbul Medical Faculty for examination. The researchers said that their findings showed abortion was "significantly associated with increased breast cancer risk.""Breast cancer risk was found to be increased in women with ... induced abortion (95% confidence interval)" and an age above 35 years-old at the time of a first live birth. "However, decreased breast cancer risk was associated with ... presence of spontaneous abortion." Full story at LifeNews.comSeniors Groups Say Claims False That Health Care Bill Promotes Euthanasia
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Seniors groups are taking issue with claims from a conservative health care advocate and House Republicans who say the health care bill in Congress could be used to promote euthanasia. At issue are provisions that detractors say require senior citizens to submit to end-of-life consultations. Betsy McCaughey, a former New York lieutenant governor and conservative health expert first brought up the concerns. She says the health care restructuring legislation contains a provision that would require Medicare coverage for an end-of-life consultation once every five years and more frequently if someone has a terminal illness. House Minority Leader John Boehner and Republican Policy Committee Chairman Thaddeus McCotter followed McCaughey with their own statement that LifeNews.com reported on saying the concerns are valid. But AARP Executive Vice President John Rother says the bill does not pose any such euthanasia problems. He says the provision would require Medicare to cover the consultations the first time but does not mandate that individuals receive the end-of-life consultation. Rother also says the consultations take place with the patient and a doctor or nurse practitioner and not a government bureaucrat. Full story at LifeNews.com
Scott Roeder to Face September Trial for Killing Abortion Practitioner George Tiller
Wichita, KS (LifeNews.com) -- Scott Roeder, the former militia member who has no ties to the pro-life movement, will face a September trial on charges of killing late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller. Roeder plead not guilty after a day-long hearing where witnesses talked about how he shot and killed Tiller at his church. Roeder said he was not guilty of first-degree murder of aggravated assault, but Sedgwick County Judge Warren Wilbert scheduled Roeder's trial for September 21. During the Tuesday hearing, the judge heard from three witnesses who said Roeder was the man who used a gun to shoot and kill Tiller and end his life. Gary Hoepner was the first witness called at a preliminary hearing for Roeder, who has no connections with any pro-life organizations. Hoepner was at Reformation Lutheran Church on May 31 when Tiller was shot and says Roeder pointed a gun at Tiller's head and killed him. “I wasn't sure if it was a cap gun or what," Hoepner said, noting that he wasn't certain that the assailant had a real gun to use to hurt Tiller. “I couldn't believe what I was seeing." Hoepner said he and Tiller were discussing Tiller's fondness of doughnuts at the time he was shot. Full story at LifeNews.com
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- To fund abortions or not fund abortions, that is the question about a Senate bill that concerns the eight million federal employees enrolled on the government's health care system. A media outlet that covers Congress claims the legislation doesn't fund abortions but a pro-life activist says it does. As LifeNews.comreported last week, the Senate Financial Services Appropriations bill, S. 1432, would have Americans fund abortions for employees of the federal government. Then,Jonathan Allen, a columnist for Congressional Quarterly, blasted pro-life advocates saying the concern "doesn't exist." But Douglas Johnson, the legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee, says the longstanding ban on abortion funding in the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) has been deleted. Johnson says Senator Dick Durbin, the number two Democrat in the Senate, is responsible for removing the language preventing taxpayer funding of abortions for federal workers. "In the subcommittee that he chairs, [the Senate] approved a bill that would repeal the ban on funding of elective abortions for federal employees," Johnson said. Johnson finds it incredulous that, "at the same time," Durbin "has been on TV assuring the public that the Hyde Amendment will prevent the Obama-backed health care bills from funding abortions -- which is untrue." Full story at LifeNews.comNew York Nurse Speaks Out About Hospital That Forced Abortion Participation
New York, NY (LifeNews.com) -- A nurse in New York City who Mount Sinai Hospital forced to participate in an abortion is speaking out about her ordeal. As LifeNews.com first reported, Alliance Defense Fund attorneys filed a lawsuit last week for Cathy Cenzon-DeCarlo who says she told the hospital about her objections. Since 2004, officials at Mount Sinai Hospital knew that Cenzon-DeCarlo had deeply-felt pro-life views and would not consent to assisting in an abortion. That didn't stop hospital officials from threatening her with disciplinary measures if she did not honor a last-minute summons to assist in a scheduled late-term abortion. "It felt like a horror film unfolding," Cenzon-DeCarlo told the New York Post today about having to participate in an abortion against her wishes. "I couldn't believe that this could happen." She told the newspaper she has been having nightmares and trouble sleeping ever since the May 24 incident. "I felt violated and betrayed," Cenzon-DeCarlo said about how officials at the hospital treated her after knowing her faith and values. "I emigrated to this country in the belief that here religious freedom is sacred," she said. "Doctors and nurses shouldn't be forced to abandon their beliefs and participate in abortion in order to keep their jobs." Despite the fact that the patient was not in crisis at the time of the surgery, the hospital insisted on her participation in the procedure on the grounds that it was an “emergency." Full story at LifeNews.comOakland Still Wants to Stop Pro-Life Pastor Walter Hoye From Protesting Abortion
Oakland, CA (LifeNews.com) -- Prosecutors for the city of Oakland are trying again to stop pro-life African-American pastor Walter Hoye from providing women with abortion alternatives. Hoye had appeared outside the Family Planning Specialists abortion center until the city passed a law prohibiting him. Hoye was sent to jail following his conviction on a local ordinance that targets the free speech rights of pro-life advocates and he returned to the abortion center in June. Hoye has been ordered by a local judge to stay 100 yards away from the abortion center, but he says he plans to provide abortion alternatives information to women anyway. In response, an Alameda County prosecutor went back to court hoping to convince the judge to order an injunction using the new Oakland law, implemented specifically to target Hoye, which puts a “bubble zone” in place within eight feet of women entering any local abortion business. At a hearing Monday before Alameda County Superior Court Judge Stuart Hing, deputy district attorney Masanao Morimoto revealed he wants to ban Hoye for life from appearing at the abortion center. Full story at LifeNews.com
Oakland, CA (LifeNews.com) -- Prosecutors for the city of Oakland are trying again to stop pro-life African-American pastor Walter Hoye from providing women with abortion alternatives. Hoye had appeared outside the Family Planning Specialists abortion center until the city passed a law prohibiting him. Hoye was sent to jail following his conviction on a local ordinance that targets the free speech rights of pro-life advocates and he returned to the abortion center in June. Hoye has been ordered by a local judge to stay 100 yards away from the abortion center, but he says he plans to provide abortion alternatives information to women anyway. In response, an Alameda County prosecutor went back to court hoping to convince the judge to order an injunction using the new Oakland law, implemented specifically to target Hoye, which puts a “bubble zone” in place within eight feet of women entering any local abortion business. At a hearing Monday before Alameda County Superior Court Judge Stuart Hing, deputy district attorney Masanao Morimoto revealed he wants to ban Hoye for life from appearing at the abortion center. Full story at LifeNews.comEncourage Friends to Sign Up for Free Pro-Life News From LifeNews.com
