LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Saturday, September 25, 2009
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Current Headlines
• Senate Vote Next Week on Pro-Life Health Care Fixes on Abortion
• Washington Times Confirms Baucus Health Care Bill Has Rationing
• Abortion Center Workers Sentenced for Illegal, Unlicensed Abortions
• Planned Parenthood Abortion Biz Needs ACORN Treatment, DeFund It
• Report Details 40 Years of Pregnancy Centers Helping Women
• 40 Days for Life Event Results in Abortion Center Employee Quitting
• Clinic's Error in Giving Mother Wrong Unborn Baby Sparks Reform Call
• Virginia Abortion Advocates Attack Choose Life License Plates
• Study: Patients in Vegetative States Can Learn, Predicts Recovery
• Arizona Judge Prevents Pro-Life Groups From Intervening in Abortion Suit
• Virginia Pro-Life Candidate McDonnell Sees Lead Drop to Four Percent
• Planned Parenthood of Illinois Brings Abortion Drug to Springfield
• Corpus Christi, Texas Hospital Gives Planned Parenthood $70K
• Malta Stands Up for Pro-Life View on Abortions at UN Human Rights Mtg
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Senate to Vote Next Week on Pro-Life Health Care Fixes on Abortion, Rationing
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The Senate Finance Committee had been expected to vote this week on a slate of pro-life amendments offering fixes to abortion funding and rationing problems in the Baucus health care bill. However, the panel adjourned today without having voted on them. The panel, dominated by abortion advocates, will reconvene on Tuesday morning -- which gives pro-life advocates more time to support the amendments. As several pro-life groups have noted, the Baucus bill opens the door to massive abortion funding, though one change Sen. Max Baucus made to his measure prevented the bill from making it so abortions allowed under the Hyde amendment could be mandated in the health care scheme it sets up. Still, according to National Right to Life legislative director Douglas Johnson, "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." To fix these problems, pro-life senators Orrin Hatch of Utah and Mike Enzi of Wyoming have proposed a handful of amendments. At least six pro-life amendments will be offered that address abortion funding, state laws and the conscience rights of pro-life medical professionals who do not want to be forced to perform or refer for abortions. Meanwhile, pro-life groups are also supporting amendments to fix the rationing components found in the Baucus health care "reform" measure. 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 -- as well as rationing -- are specifically excluded from the Baucus bill. You can find members of the panel here. http://finance.senate.gov/sitepages/committee.htm
Washington Times Confirms Baucus Health Care Bill has Rationing for Seniors
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- In their analysis of the Baucus health care bill, pro-life groups point out a section that rations health care for senior citizens. In an editorial today, the Washington Times confirms that to be the case, and members of a Senate panel will address it when they vote on amendments next week to fix the problems. Borrowing from a controversial phrase first introduced by Sarah Palin, the Times says, "Yes, there are death panels. Its members won't even know whose deaths they are causing." "But under the health care bill sponsored by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, Montana Democrat, death panels will indeed exist - oh so cleverly disguised as accountants," the Times editors write. The offending provision is on Pages 80-81 of the bill buried deep in a section about Medicare payments to doctors that would take an attorney to decipher. "Beginning in 2015, payment would be reduced by five percent if an aggregation of the physician's resource use is at or above the 90th percentile of national utilization," the Baucus bill says. The Times translates the language into plain English, saying "it means that in any year in which a particular doctor's average per-patient Medicare costs are in the top 10 percent in the nation, the feds will cut the doctor's payments by 5 percent." Full story at LifeNews.com
Abortion Center Workers in California Sentenced for Illegal, Unlicensed Abortions
San Diego, CA (LifeNews.com) -- Two accomplices of Bertha Bugarin, who was convicted of doing illegal, unlicensed abortions at her abortion business in southern California, have been convicted as well. The abortion workers will have lighter sentences, but a pro-life group says the conclusion of the case is a good one. That is because the abortion centers Bugarin ran, which preyed on Hispanic women, are now closed. With the abortion practitioners her centers hired having their own legal problems, Bertha Pinedo Bugarin, 48, took it upon herself to do abortions. As LifeNews.com reported in April, Bugarin was sentenced on a second set of charges that she did abortions without a medical license. Now, according to the San Diego County District Attorney's office, Chula Vista abortion center workers Luz Catalina-Gomez and Paloma Yonna Solorzano-Rodriguez reached a sentencing agreement with San Diego Superior Court Judge Ted Wethers for probation and community service. Catalina-Gomez was sentenced to 1 year of prison, a term that was stayed
pending the completion of 350 hours of community service. She will also receive three years probation. Solorzano-Rodriguez was sentenced to 1 year of prison, stayed pending the completion of 200 hours of community service. She also received three years probation. Full story at LifeNews.com
Planned Parenthood Abortion Business Needs ACORN Treatment, DeFund It
by Gary Bauer
For James O'Keefe, the sequel has been a blockbuster. As almost everyone knows by now, the investigative journalist and a friend secretly filmed themselves posing as a pimp and prostitute while ACORN workers advised them how to obtain a mortgage for a brothel of Latin American sex slaves. But lost in the deserved attention to the ACORN sting film has been O'Keefe's first release, a 2007 expose of the systemic corruption at another liberal activist organization, Planned Parenthood. ACORN is losing some of its federal funding in part because of O'Keefe's video. But the Planned Parenthood story, in which O'Keefe and a friend posing as his pregnant minor girlfriend expose the abortion giant's willingness to cover up alleged statutory rape, is just as incriminating. Planned Parenthood deserves the same treatment ACORN is getting and should be stripped of the hundreds of millions of tax-payer dollars it receives annually. For that to happen, the conservative media must give O'Keefe's debut film another look. Full story at LifeNews.com
Report Details 40 Years of Pregnancy Centers Helping Women Avoid Abortion
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Millions of women have avoided the medical and mental health heartache that accompanies an abortion and chosen life for their unborn children thanks to the yeoman's work of staff and volunteers at pregnancy centers across the country and around the world. A new report slated for release next week, "A Passion to Serve, A Vision for Life," details those efforts for the last 40 years. At a Wednesday luncheon, leaders of Heartbeat International, Care Net, NIFLA, the Family Research Council and others will talk about the ways women have received tangible pregnancy help and abortion options counseling. The panel of speakers will include physicians, clients served by the centers, and presidents of three national pregnancy center networks representing more than 2,300 cross-affiliates in all 50 states. Heartbeat International president Peggy Hartshorn will be among those talking about how pregnancy centers have positively impacted women's, adolescent, maternal and child health and how the movement's growth is driven by the public's desire to support abortion alternatives. "This report shines a light on the positive contributions of pregnancy centers, maternity homes, adoption agencies, and pregnancy help medical clinics," she told LifeNews.com this afternoon. "These faith-based community organizations, 40,000 volunteers strong, brighten a woman's future with the support and help she needs to bring new life into the world." Full story at LifeNews.com
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- David Bereit, the national director of the pro-life 40 Days for Life campaign that involves peaceful prayer and education outside local abortion centers, told local organizers before the latest campaign to be ready for something exciting to happen. For Bereit and the pro-life advocates participating in the event in Bakersfield, California, that something exciting is the resignation of an employee at a local abortion business. Tim Palmquist, who is leading the 40 Days for Life event in this large central California city, sent Bereit an urgent email: "An employee of the Bakersfield Family Planning Association abortion center has just quit!" The woman walked out of the abortion center building as pro-life people gathered outside and told a participant named Rosa, who was taking part in the prayer vigil, "I'm done with this place." The woman also said she had turned in her uniform and Rosa quickly offered a hug, which the former employee accepted. 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. |
Fertility Clinic's Error in Giving Mother Wrong Unborn Baby Sparks Reform Call
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The case of an Ohio fertility clinic that has received national attention for giving a mother the wrong unborn child is sparking calls for reform. One leading pro-life bioethicist says the entire industry is largely unregulated and needs more oversight from federal and state governments. The case involves Sean and Carolyn Savage, an Ohio couple, who had hoped and struggled for one more child from in vitro fertilization. When the doctor's call came, however, Sean was in "total shock" as they were told from fertility clinic staff that the fertility clinic had implanted another couple's embryos into Carolyn's womb. "The wand is on my abdomen and the technician's talking to someone else: 'There's your baby's nose. There's your baby's head,' " she said. "It was surreal." Carolyn has now become an unintended surrogate but the couple has rejected having an abortion. Carolyn will carry the baby to term and then relinquish him to his genetic parents. Full story at LifeNews.com
Virginia Abortion Advocates Attack Choose Life License Plates, Pregnancy Centers
Richmond, VA (LifeNews.com) -- Motorists in Virginia have a way to express their pro-life views and support pregnancy centers providing alternatives to abortion at the same time. However, abortion advocates in the state don't like that and they are taking steps to oppose the plates and cast aspersions on the centers. Virginia drivers pay an additional $25 to get the yellow affinity plates and $15 of that fee, after the first 1,000 plates are sold, goes to Heartbeat International to provide women with tangible pregnancy help and options. But, Planned Parenthood and NARAL-Virginia have set up an online petition to ask the state legislature to cut off the funding stream from the license plates to centers helping women. Victoria Cobb, the head of the Family Foundation in Virginia, informed LifeNews.com of the pro-abortion move. "So before the paint was dry on the first Choose Life license plates that were made available this year, with revenue going to pregnancy resource centers, our 'choice' advocates immediately sought to eliminate that choice," she said. Full story at LifeNews.com
Study Shows Patients in Vegetative States Can Learn, Predicting Recovery
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Brain-damaged patients who appear to have lost signs of conscious awareness might still be able to create new memories -- showing signs of new neural networks and potential for partial recovery, a new study shows. In patients who have survived severe brain damage, judging the level of actual awareness has proved a difficult process. And the prognosis can sometimes mean the difference between life and death. According to a Scientific American report, new research suggests that some vegetative patients are capable of simple learning -- a sign of consciousness in many who had failed other traditional cognitive tests. The findings are presented in a paper today in Nature Neuroscience. Mariano Sigman, senior study author and director of the Integrative Neuroscience Laboratory at the University of Buenos Aires, said researchers wanted to "have an objective way of knowing whether the other person has consciousness or not." The neuroimaging work had surprised doctors by showing that some vegetative patients, when asked to imagine performing physical tasks such as playing tennis, still had activity in premotor areas. In other patients, verbal cues sparked language sectors. Recent research has revealed that about 40 percent of vegetative state diagnoses is incorrect -- which could have an impact on cases such as the painful starvation and dehydration death of Terri Schiavo.
Arizona Judge Prevents Pro-Life Groups From Intervening in Abortion Law Suit
Phoenix, AZ (LifeNews.com) -- An Arizona judge has prevented pro-life groups from intervening in a lawsuit the Planned Parenthood abortion business has filed against a new omnibus abortion law that protects medical workers and women considering abortions. Two Arizona legislators together with pro-life physicians and organizations filed motions Tuesday through their attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund to support an Arizona abortion law. But, in a Wednesday ruling, Judge David Campbell said accommodating the request to participate at this point "is not feasible." He said attorneys for both challengers of the law and the Attorney General's Office, which is defending it, have to file their own papers by the end of the day today. Campbell pointed out he is set to hear arguments on the request for an injunction on Tuesday. Judge Campbell agreed to let the pro-life groups and legislators file a single "friend of the court' brief, no longer than 12 pages, outlining their arguments of why they think the law should be allowed to take effect as scheduled on Wednesday. Center for Arizona Policy president told Capitol Media Services that the Attorney General's Office is focused on the technical legal issues and the collection of pro-life advocates will have an interest in convincing the judge there are legitimate medical reasons for the requirement that women be given certain information prior to getting an abortion. Campbell said he will consider later the requests of the groups to intervene in any future trial. The judge is expected to suspend the law while the lawsuit moves forward.
Virginia Pro-Life Candidate McDonnell Sees Lead Drop to Four Percent Over Deeds
Richmond, VA (LifeNews.com) -- The relentless attacks on Bob McDonnell by his pro-abortion opponent Creigh Deeds and the mainstream media have reduced McDonell's former double-digit lead in the governor's race to four percent. The InsiderAdvantage/Majority Opinion Research poll conducted Wednesday evening showed McDonnell leading Deeds 48 percent to 44 percent. Seven percent had no opinion. McDonnell has led throughout the race, much of the time by double-digits. But the gap has closed significantly in recent weeks and on Sunday, a Washington Post poll showed McDonnell up by a 51 percent to 47 percent margin. "The race has definitely tightened," said Matt Towery, CEO of InsiderAdvantage. "Virginia is still very much a state that is up for grabs." The poll showed stronger party support for Deeds than McDonnell. Eighty-nine percent of Democrats said they back Deeds, compared to 79 percent of Republicans who would vote for McDonnell. Among Independents, McDonnell leads by a significant margin, 55-33 percent. If the results are true, then pro-life advocates need to do more to get the pro-life base to support McDonnell and turn out for him on election day. Deeds holds a narrow 48-45 percent lead among women voters, whom the Democrat's campaign has targeted intensely in the wake of news stories about McDonnell's 1989 master's thesis, which saw him defend his pro-life views. The good news for McDonnell the polls show some evening out and the worst of the attacks may be done.
Planned Parenthood of Illinois Brings Dangerous Abortion Drug to Springfield
Springfield, IL (LifeNews.com) -- Planned Parenthood of Illinois is bringing the dangerous RU 486 abortion drug, also known as mifepristone, to the state's capital city. A statement from the abortion business says that the abortion drug, which has been responsible for killing 13 women worldwide and has injured more than 1,100 in the United States alone according to the FDA, will be dispensed in Springfield in the "coming months." The pro-abortion group said, "After a careful assessment of the needs of patients and the community, PPIL decided to expand services to include medication abortion so that women will have more choices available to them." Hundreds of women could get abortions with the drug as PPIL says it administered more than 994 pregnancy tests last year and 28 percent of them were positive. "Sangamon County is home to some of the highest birth rates, including teen birth rates, in Illinois. Nearly half of all pregnancies in Illinois are unintended. And many of the women who come to the Springfield Health Center and find out they are pregnant request help in obtaining abortion services," it said. The group says the abortion drug is good news for women who have to drive to the abortion center in Peoria, the two in Champaign or the abortion business in Granite City for a surgical abortion.
Corpus Christ, Texas Hospital Gives Planned Parenthood Abortion Center $70K
Corpus Christi, TX (LifeNews.com) -- The Nueces County Hospital District Board of Managers has approved a $70,000 grant for the Planned Parenthood abortion business in town. The move came despite a public meeting where pro-life advocates expressed strong opposition. The money, approved unanimously, was part of $135,000 the hospital district supported for three local organizations. The Caller newspaper indicates the hospital board has approved funding for the pro-abortion group since 2000. The money came from the state's settlement with tobacco companies. During the meeting, the newspaper reported, members of South Texas Stop Planned Parenthood questioned Planned Parenthood's work, including its promotion of abortion. Kristie Rutledge told the board the organization promotes casual sex to teenagers. "That will lead to teenage sexuality, and it will lead to pregnancy," she said. Rutledge, a teenage mother at 19, said the board would be better off funding other needed programs. Amanda Stukenberg, executive director of the local Planned Parenthood center, defended the pro-abortion group. "We feel we deliver a tremendous amount of services for the money invested," she said. Stukenberg said the local center doesn't do surgical abortions but does referrals for them.
Malta Stands Up for Pro-Life View on Abortions at United Nations Human Rights Mtg
Geneva, Switzerland (LifeNews.com) -- Pat Buckley of the British pro-life group SPUC has been at the meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva and has the following report: "The United Nations Human Rights Council reviews periodically the situation on human rights in UN member-states. The council has just released the report of its review of Malta. In the review process, the Maltese government 'reiterate[d] that the right to life is an inherent right of every human being – this includes the unborn child, from its conception. We will retain our existing national legislation on the question of abortion.' The Holy See (the government of the Catholic Church) supported Malta within the council by recommending that Malta 'continue its policy in defense of the right to life' Malta's resolute and courageous stand for life and family values in the face of considerable pressure from pro-abortion and anti-family forces is to be commended. The Holy See is also to be commended for supporting Malta's pro-life and pro-family laws." The defense comes at a time when Malta was given an ambassador from the United States, Douglas Kmiec, who has defended the pro-abortion views of President Barack Obama.
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