LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Thursday, September 24, 2009
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Current Headlines
• Baucus Changes Health Care Bill, Reduces But Doesn't Eliminate Abortion Concern
• Pro-Life Leader Worries House Won't Allow Vote to Ban Abortion in Health Care
• Survey: Economy Making Women Wait on Children, Could Increase Abortions
• Catholic Campaign for Human Development Criticized, Funded Pro-Abortion Groups
• Pro-Life Group Says PolitiFact Half Wrong on Abortion Funding in Baucus Bill
• England Pro-Life Groups: Prosecutor's Assisted Suicide Guidelines Target Disabled
• Daughter of Harry Blackmun Had Crisis Pregnancy Before Roe Abortion Decision
• Missouri Planned Parenthood Closes Abortion Referral Center in Kirksville
• Minnesota Church's Pro-Life Memorial Vandalized in Recent Pro-Abortion Attacks
• Pennsylvania Teen Pleads Guilty to Spiking Girlfriend's Drink to Cause Abortion
• Florida, California Pro-Lifers Launch Personhood Campaigns Against Abortion
• Poland Catholic Magazine Fined for Criticizing Woman's Abortion Decision
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Baucus Changes Health Care Bill, Reduces But Doesn't Eliminate Abortion Concern
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- In an effort to gain more support from members of the Senate Finance Committee who do not support his bill, Sen. Max Baucus unveiled a modification of the legislation on Tuesday. The modified bill reduces -- but doesn't come anywhere close to eliminating -- the abortion concerns pro-life groups have. The original Baucus bill made it so abortions allowed under the Hyde amendment could be mandated in the health care scheme it sets up. For pro-life groups, this meant that if the Hyde amendment were ever overturned -- something pro-abortion groups admitted on Monday is on their agenda -- abortions for any reason could have been mandated in the required essential benefits. If the conceptual language is adopted, the modified Baucus bill changes that provision to say that no abortions can be mandated by the Department of Health and Human Services -- making it appear that the Baucus proposal will now mirror the Capps amendment policy found in the House bill, HR 3200. Though the revised Baucus bill fixes one concern, it does not tackle the list of problems pro-life organizations have with the bill and all of those abortion subsidy concerns remain. "The bill contains provisions that would send massive federal subsidies directly to both private insurance plans and government-chartered cooperatives that pay for elective abortion," Douglas Johnson of the National Right to Life Committee previously explained. Full story at LifeNews.com
ACTION: Contact members of the Senate Finance Committee and urge them to support amendments to make sure abortion funding and coverage are specifically excluded from the Baucus bill. You can find members of the panel here. http://finance.senate.gov/sitepages/committee.htm
Pro-Life Leader Worries House Won't Allow Vote to Ban Abortion in Health Care
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The attention on the debate over abortion funding in health care has been on the Senate side as members of the Finance Committee debate the new Baucus bill. Yet, a pro-life Democratic congressman who has been heading up efforts in the House says the battles there are still raging. In a new interview with the National Catholic register, pro-life Rep. Bart Stupak of Michigan says there has been some progress but amendments are still needed to stop massive abortion subsidies and mandates. With the House Appropriations Committee defeating his amendment to stop abortion funding, the next step is to get the House Rules Committee to authorize a vote for his amendment on the floor. But Stupak sounds pessimistic on the possibility. "We still have to go to the House Rules Committee. There we will ask that the Hyde Amendment be put into the health-care bill. Since none of the right-to-life amendments have been allowed, I don't have much hope this will happen," he told NCR. Full story at LifeNews.com
Survey: Economy Making Women Wait on Children, Could Increase Abortions
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new survey conducted by the pro-abortion Alan Guttmacher Institute has produced the first hard evidence showing that women are waiting to have children because of the economic downturn. Although the poll did not ask women about abortion, abortions could be rising as a result. Researchers at AGI, a former Planned Parenthood affiliate, found that, because of current economic concerns, nearly half of women surveyed want to delay pregnancy or limit the number of children they have. The survey also found that women are more interested in using birth control and contraception as a result. The AGI Internet poll of women found more than half worry more now about their ability to take care of their children given the state of the economy. Nearly half of surveyed women (44%) report that, because of the economy, they want to reduce or delay their childbearing. Most of these women want to get pregnant later (31%), want fewer children (28%) or now do not want any more children (7%). Sixty-four percent of women agree with the statement, "With the economy the way it is, I can't afford to have a baby right now." The survey provides additional anecdotal evidence that abortions are likely on the rise during the last 12-24 months. ' Full story at LifeNews.com
Catholic Campaign for Human Development Criticized, Funded Pro-Abortion Groups
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The Catholic Campaign for Human Development, an outreach of the nation's Catholic bishops, is coming under criticism for funding groups that support abortion. A Catholic pro-life outreach called Bellarmine Veritas Ministry analyzed the CCHD grants and discovered the problems. According to BVM, five groups that support abortion received money from CCHD according to its intensive study of CCHD grants from 2008 to 2010. "Unfortunately some of the groups funded openly promote abortion," which is "not in line with Catholic teaching," BVM explains. "The research published by Bellarmine Veritas Ministry is highly detailed and irrefutable," Catholic writer Deal Hudson says. Fortunately, CCHD has responded to the criticism by de-funding some of the groups. "CCHD, the social justice arm of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, which ceased funding ACORN last year, has responded by defunding two of the four organizations, while the fate of the other two remains undecided," he explains. BVM says it is happy that CCHD has responded to the highlighting of the pro-abortion groups that received funds. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Life Group Says PolitiFact Half Wrong on Abortion Funding in Baucus Bill
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The PolitiFact web site that does fact-checking on politicians and political issues got it right when it validated a pro-life group's analysis that abortion funding is found in the Baucus health care bill. But it got wrong its assessment of National Right to Life's description of the kind of money involved. As LifeNews.com reported on Tuesday, PolitiFact confirmed that NRLC is right on abortion funding. "According to Baucus' chairman's mark, which provides a blueprint for the plan... health plans in the exchange or co-op [would not be] prohibited from providing abortion coverage," the web site confirms. "In fact, every state exchange would have to provide one plan that covers abortion." But PolitiFact declared wrong an NRLC statement saying, "Under the Baucus bill...federal funds would subsidize coverage of elective abortions." National Right to Life says that if the government subsidizes people who are allowed to get health care plans that provide abortion coverage, then taxpayers are subsidizing abortion. Full story at LifeNews.com
London, England (LifeNews.com) -- The backlash continues against the new guidelines issued by a head prosecutor for when people will not be charged with assisted suicide. Keir Starmer QC, the director of public prosecutions, has gone beyond a court ruling and decriminalized assisted suicides in the UK committed by friends and relatives. Starmer says only someone who organizes the death of a person who has been "vulnerable to manipulation" can be prosecuted. Thus, it is no longer illegal to assisted in a suicide but it would be unlawful to encourage one. SPUC Pro-Life, based in Britain, has issued a new condemnation of the guidelines. In summary, SPUC Pro-Life says prosecutions will be less likely in cases where the deceased had been disabled or terminally ill and that the guidelines will legally downgrade the right to life of disabled or terminally-ill people. The group says the guidelines confirm the fears of disabled people that the law deems their lives to be inferior and contradicts the fairness and objectivity requirements of the existing general code for prosecutors. Full story at LifeNews.com| Right to Life plays Defense excellently. ChoiceKills.com is Offense |
 Abortion is protected by the seeming fairness of "A woman's right to choose." Choice has become both the facilitator and accomplice to the murders. Choice is now the opposition. Accuse it of involvement in the killing of millions. Remove its disguise of fairness. Reveal its true character till everyone knows Choicekills. |
Daughter of Harry Blackmun Had Crisis Pregnancy Before Roe Abortion Decision
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Seven years prior to her father wrote the opinion in Roe v. Wade that ushered in an era of more than 50 million abortions, the daughter of the late Supreme Court Justice harry Blackmun experienced a crisis pregnancy. Sally Blackmun told her story to a political meeting of women in Minnesota. According to Blackmun, she became pregnant in 1966 at the age of 19 while she attended college in New York. Justice Blackmun was a federal judge at the time and she worried her pregnancy as an unmarried mother would tarnish his legal career. Although one of her sisters mentioned the possibility of getting an abortion, which was legal in only a few states at the time, she dismissed the idea and ultimately married. "The fact that my father was a sitting federal judge made (an abortion's) illicit nature not only a risk to my health but a potential embarrassment to my family and Dad's career," she said, according to the Post Bulletin newspaper. In the time since then, Sally Blackmun has become a corporate attorney and -- no surprise to pro-life advocates -- an abortion advocate. Full story at LifeNews.com
Missouri Planned Parenthood Closes Abortion Referral Center in Kirksville
Kirksville, MO (LifeNews.com) -- Planned parenthood is closing a center in Kirksville, in the sparsely populate northeastern portion of Missouri, that did not do abortions but made referrals for them. Planned Parenthood in Kirksville will be closing permanently in November after the economic downturn left it with an insufficient number of clients. The center had been operating for 38 years but the economy and a shortage of rural nurse practitioners left it unable to continue operating. Tri-Rivers Planned Parenthood staffer Ecsi Davis said, "It was a very difficult decision for us. It was a long time coming. We've had lots of meetings. This is not a sudden decision by any means." TRPP was created in 1996 from the merger of Planned Parenthood of Northeast Missouri and Parenthood of the Central Ozarks. Rita Diller, national director of American Life League's Stop Planned Parenthood project told LifeNews.com in a statement that she is excited about the news. Full story at LifeNews.com
Minnesota Church's Pro-Life Memorial Vandalized in Recent Pro-Abortion Attacks
Frazee, MN (LifeNews.com) -- A Minnesota church's pro-life memorial was tipped over and damaged in what has become a recent rash of pro-abortion attacks on people and property. The people who pushed over the nearly 500-pound pro-life memorial must have done so on purpose because massive force would have been needed to topple it. The monument in memory of "Victims of Abortion" was vandalized late Saturday or early Sunday at Sacred Heart Catholic Church. It was pushed over and the slab containing the memorial broke from its base. Fr. Xavier Ilango told the Frazee Forum newspaper that after Sunday's service, "A parishioner came and told me it was tipped over." Frazee Police Officer Tyler Trieglaff was called after two other parishioners phoned in to report the vandalism. "Two residents called to tell me about the damage," Trieglaff told the newspaper. "It is good that people call. This is their community...the church is part of their life." Full story at LifeNews.com
Pennsylvania Teen Pleads Guilty to Spiking Girlfriend's Drink to Cause Abortion
Hollidaysburg, PA (LifeNews.com) -- A teenager in Pennsylvania has entered a guilty plea in a case where he is accused of an attempted forced abortion where is tried to spike his girlfriend's drink. The unnamed teen laced the drink with a drug normally used to abort pregnancies in cows that appears to have been stolen. He tainted the girls' drink on March 31 at Williamsburg High School and authorities considered the crime an aggravated assault against both the girl and her unborn child The teen entered the guilty plea yesterday in juvenile court to charges of attempted third-degree murder and aggravated assault. District Attorney Richard A. Consiglio told the court he wants the 17-year-old boy to be kept under court supervision until he reaches the age of 21. We consider this a terrible, terrible crime," Assistant District Attorney Derek Elensky said. Full story at LifeNews.com
Florida, California Pro-Lifers Launch Personhood Campaigns Against Abortion
Sacramento, CA (LifeNews.com) -- Pro-life advocates in California and Florida have launched campaigns to get state voters to approve personhood amendments targeting abortion. The measures would make it so unborn children would be defined under state constitutions as people from the moment of conception. In the Golden State, the California Civil Rights Foundation has submitted language to the state attorney general for what it calls the Human Rights Amendment. Founded by Walter Hoye, a black pro-life pastor who has been unfairly jailed for protesting abortion outside a local abortion center, the group is working on getting the measure before state voters. "The California Civil Rights Foundation recognizes the inherent human rights, dignity and worth of all human beings from the beginning of their biological development," Hoye told LifeNews.com today. Full story at LifeNews.com
Poland Catholic Magazine Fined for Criticizing Woman's Abortion Decision
Warsaw, Poland (LifeNews.com) -- A court in Poland today fined a Catholic magazine for likening a woman to a killer for wanting to get an abortion allegedly because she would go blind if she did not have an abortion. The case eventually netted Poland a 25,000 euro fine from the European Court of Human Rights. The European Court of Human Rights issued a decision in September 2007 upholding its previous ruling making Poland pay a woman $52,000 for denying her an abortion. The woman couldn't get an abortion in 2000 after claiming that giving birth damaged her eyesight and she is now unable to take care of her three children. The European Court of Human Rights sided with Alicja Tysiac. Commenting on the case, the Catholic magazine, Gosc Niedzielny, published by the Katowice archdiocese, compared Tysiac to a Nazi and condemned her for wanting an abortion. Full story at LifeNews.com
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