LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
| For news updated throughout the day, visit LifeNews.com. |
Current Headlines
• Abortion Advocates Gathering Votes to Defeat Health Care Bill With Stupak
• Obama Rep Won't Say if He Supports Abortion Funding Ban in Health Care
• Senate Dems Will Have to Face Abortion-Health Care Issue After Stupak Vote
• Abortion Advocates Kill Each Other in Civil War After Stupak Vote
• Pro-Life Movement Must Unify After Strategy Difference on Stupak Amdt
• Ben Nelson May Become the Stupak of the Senate on Abortion, Health Care
• Pro-Abortion Groups Upset by Stupak, Oppose Health Care Bill, Lobby Obama
• Pro-Life Groups Applaud Passage of Stupak Amdt to Stop Abortion Funding
• Planned Parenthood Director Who Resigned Shares Story on National TV
• China's One-Child Forced Abortion Policy Turns 30, Congress Holds Hearing
• Pro-Life Advocates Launch New Adult Stem Cell Research Ed Campaign
• Sacramento City College Goes After Student Body Prez on Pro-Life Display
---> Take a LifeNews.com sign up sheet to your church or pro-life event. We've made a handy sign up sheet you can use to have pro-life folks sign up for our free news and mail back to us. Just email julie@lifenews.com to request one or make your own and email or mail it to us.
Abortion Advocates Gathering Votes to Defeat Health Care Bill With Stupak Added
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The vote for the Stupak has produced a debate within the pro-life movement on whether the health care bill could have been defeated without it. But the pro-abortion reaction to adding Stupak is so strong that pro-abortion zealots are threatening to torpedo the health care bill as a result.
The House cast a strongly bipartisan vote in favor of the Stupak amendment to remove the abortion funding found in the health care bill via the public option and affordability credits. The House then voted for the bill on a narrow 220-215 vote with virtually all Republicans and dozens of Democrats still opposing the bill.
Upset that massive abortion funding has been removed from the bill, Rep. Diana DeGette, a Colorado Democrat who leads the pro-abortion forces, says she has the signatures of more than 40 House members on a letter threatening to defeat the health care bill if Stupak is not removed.
"There's going to be a firestorm here," DeGette told the Washington Post.
"Women are going to realize that a Democratic-controlled House has passed legislation that would prohibit women paying for abortions with their own funds," she falsely claimed. "We're not going to let this into law." Full story at LifeNews.com
Obama Spokesman Won't Say if He Supports Abortion Funding Ban in Health Care
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Top Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs twice misled the public before the Stupak vote by wrongly saying the Hyde amendment would prohibit abortion funding in the health care bill. Now the White House spokesman refuses to say whether pro-abortion President Barack Obama backs the pro-life Stupak amendment.
The House approved the controversial government-run health care bill Saturday, but not before adding the Stupak amendment to stop abortion funding.
Obama told Congress months ago that his health care bill will not fund abortions but ultimately lobbied for the pro-abortion bill before funding limits were added. Now, Gibbs won't say whether Obama supports the pro-life limits.
CBS reporter Chip Reid asked Gibbs, "On the health care bill the President supports, endorses, whatever you want to call it, the House bill he's made that very clear. Does he support the abortion funding restrictions in the House bill?"
The Obama representative talked about anything but the limits. "The President, Chip, as you know, went to Capitol Hill to rally support for the bill. That bill is now through the House, which we are quite pleased about. The Senate, once we get budget numbers from CBO, that will move to the Senate floor. I don't doubt that you will have a somewhat different bill. That's the way this process works and we'll iron out differences as they come," he said. Full story at LifeNews.com
Senate Democrats Will Have to Face Abortion-Health Care Issue After Stupak Vote
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Senate Democrats will have to face the issue of abortion funding in health care now that the House has signed off on the Stupak amendment that removes it. The bill the Senate eventually considers that combines the Baucus and Kennedy measures includes abortion funding as did the House version.
Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid admitted on Monday to the Washington Post that the abortion funding battle is forthcoming.
"The debate in the House highlighted some of these issues that we're going to have to face here in the Senate, and on this issue in particular, it's something [Reid] is going to have to talk with his caucus about," Manley said.
The Senate operates with a process that is not as top-down as the House, where Speaker Nancy Pelosi threatened to prevent a vote on the Stupak amendment until the last minute. As a result, pro-life lawmakers are almost guaranteed a chance to vote on amendments that, to this point, have been killed in Senate committees.
However, unlike in the House, there is less of a guarantee that a Stupak-type amendment can be added to the bill. The Senate has pro-abortion Republicans like Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine and others who may oppose the amendment which passed with a unanimous Republican in the House.
The Senate also doesn't have the same percentage of pro-life Democrats -- as Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska is the only consistent pro-life vote along with Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania who sometimes votes pro-life. Full story at LifeNews.com
Abortion Advocates Turn on Each Other in Civil War After Stupak Amendment Vote
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Abortion advocates are turning on each other in the wake of the House vote on the Stupak amendment that saw massive abortion funding stripped from the health care bill. Abortion advocates are upset with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her top lieutenants while grassroots abortion activists are companying about the leadership at Planned Parenthood and NARAL.
In the House, the feud saw top pro-abortion lawmaker Rosa DeLauro take on Pelosi, according to a Politico report. Before representing Connecticut, DeLauro was the executive director of the pro-abortion group Emily's List and she had that single-minded pursuit of the abortion agenda in mind as she took on the Speaker.
When Pelosi announced she would allow a vote on the Stupak amendment in order to get support from moderate and pro-life Democrats for the bill, an angry shouting match ensued between DeLauro and pro-abortion Pelosi lieutenant Rep. George Miller, a California Democrat.
Politico indicates Miller told DeLauro that there were "more pro-life votes in the House than pro-choice" and said she needed to come to grips with that fact.
DeLauro denied yelling at Miller but told the news service that she made her views "strongly known" to the Democratic leadership present in Pelosi's office at the time. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Life Movement Must Unify After Strategy Difference on Stupak Abortion Amdt
Sometimes in politics it is amazing how things play out much differently than anyone would expect and that is certainly the case with the vote on the government-run health care bill in the House and the divide produced in the pro-life movement on the strategy concerning the Stupak amendment.
Leading up to Saturday's votes, the pro-life community was unified in a magnificent way in supporting an amendment to the health care bill to remove the abortion funding and in defeating the bill outright if the abortion funding remained intact (and for other pro-life reasons such as rationing).
Yet, in the hours leading up to the vote on the Stupak amendment, a strong fissure developed between pro-life advocates who felt the Stupak amendment was still needed and those who worried it would allow passage of the health care bill.
Let's break down both sides and then, hopefully, get back on track to stopping abortion funding and defeating a pro-abortion, pro-rationing health care bill. Full story at LifeNews.com
Ben Nelson May Become the Stupak of the Senate on Abortion and Health Care
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The Senate has never had the same percentage of pro-life Democrats as the House and the only committed pro-life advocate with the record to match his rhetoric is Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson. His representative confirmed today that Nelson could become the Senate version of Rep. Bart Stupak -- a Democrat defying his party on abortion funding.
Nelson wants to see language in the final bill unveiled by Sen. Harry Reid on the Senate floor that has the same effect as the Stupak amendment in stopping the massive abortion funding currently contained in the bill.
Otherwise, Nelson is a definite no vote on the health care bill itself and may go as far as supporting a Republican filibuster.
"Senator Nelson is strongly pro-life and was pleased the Stupak amendment passed with such strong support," his office told Politico.
"He believes that no federal money -- including subsidies or tax credits -- should be used to buy insurance coverage for abortion. This is a very important issue to Senator Nelson and it is highly unlikely he would support a bill that doesn't clearly prohibit federal dollars from going to abortion," Nelson's office added. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Abortion Groups Upset by Stupak, Oppose Health Care Bill, Lobbying Obama
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- In the fallout from yesterday's votes on the government-run health care reform bill and the Stupak amendment to remove abortion funding from it, pro-abortion groups are angry and upset. They promise to press Democrats in the House and Senate to remove Stupak and say they will oppose the bill if not.
"While there are some who are satisfied with the health care reform bill that passed in the House of Representatives late Saturday night, I am not one of them," Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards writes in a tersely-worded email.
Richards said "the Planned Parenthood Federation of America has no choice but to oppose HR 3962" now that the Stupak amendment has been added.
She complained that despite the aggressive efforts her group took to defeat it, the Stupak amendment passed by a large bipartisan majority and "the bill that passed late Saturday night includes a ban on private abortion coverage."
Richards said in the email LifeNews.com obtained that her group would put enormous pressure on pro-abortion President Barack Obama to ensure that the health care bill in the Senate keeps abortion funding currently in it. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Life Groups Applaud Passage of Stupak Amendment to Stop Abortion Funding
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Several top pro-life organizations hailed last night's vote for the Stupak amendment to stop abortion funding in the government-run health care bill the House approved last night. They said the vote was just the first step of many in making sure Congress doesn't create new programs to fund abortions.
As LifeNews.com reported, the House voted 240-194 in a strong bipartisan fashion for the Stupak-Pitts amendment that prohibited abortion funding.
The measure ensures that both the public option and the affordability credits found in HR 3962 are not able to funnel taxpayer dollars towards abortions.
Americans United for Life Action president Charmaine Yoest confirmed that the passage of the Stupak measure "is a victory for the pro-life Americans across this country who have flooded Congress this week with the message that abortion does not belong in health care."
"One victory however does not mean the battle is won," Yoest warned. Full story at LifeNews.com
Planned Parenthood Director Who Resigned Shares Story on National Television
by Brad Wilmouth
On Saturday's Huckabee show on FNC, host Mike Huckabee interviewed the former executive director of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Bryan Texas, Abby Johnson, who became a pro-life activist after witnessing an ultrasound of an abortion while she assisted in a procedure.
She charged that the abortion provider tries to "increase the number of abortions they do" for the purpose of making money, and described the emotional experience of watching an unborn baby at 13 weeks pregnancy "trying to get away" as its life was being ended. Video of the interview can be found here.
Johnson: "I saw the probe going into the woman's uterus. And at that moment, I saw the baby moving and trying to get away from the probe. ... And I thought, 'It's fighting for its life.' And I thought, 'It's life, I mean, it's alive.'" Full story at LifeNews.com
China's One-Child Forced Abortion Policy Turns 30 as Congress Holds Hearing
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- China's coercive one-child policy that makes it so couples living in the Asian nation can only have one baby marks its thirtieth anniversary this year. As it does, members of Congress plan to hold a hearing on it tomorrow that will reveal new information about how it has hurt women and children and their families.
The policy was instituted at a time when Chinese communist leaders believed the nation's was growing too large. However, since the implementation of the one-child family planning policy, millions of women have reportedly faced forced abortions or sterilizations for violating it.
Husbands and partners have been forcibly sterilized as well and violators and their families have been subjected to imprisonment, job less, home detention, fines and other human rights and other kinds of abuses at the hands of local population control officials bent on making their people quotas.
On Tuesday, the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission will hear testimony on human rights abuses connected to China's one-child policy. Congressman Chris Smith, the head of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, will be present for the meeting and give prepared remarks. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Life Advocates Launch New Adult Stem Cell Research Educational Campaign
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- With the never-ending battles over abortion and health care, the pro-life community may be lulled into forgetting that other fights exist on the bioethics front. To keep those concerns at the forefront, the Family Research Council is launching a new adult stem cell research educational campaign.
"It's no longer a dream," FRC tells LifeNews.com. "Now there's living proof that adult stem cell treatments are creating medical miracles for cancer, blood diseases, immune disorders, and heart damage."
On Saturday, FRC is giving the public and pro-life advocates in the Kansas City area a chance to meet patients who are living miracles through its new Adult Stem Cells Saved My Life campaign.
The event will take place at noon at the Shawnee Town Hall in Shawnee, Kansas. Full story at LifeNews.com
Sacramento City College Goes After Student Body President on Pro-Life Display
Sacramento, CA (LifeNews.com) -- Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund Center for Academic Freedom have issued a cease-and-desist letter to Sacramento City College officials after the president of the Associated Student Government was subjected to an illegal recall election for refusing to censor a pro-life group on campus.
College officials targeted Steve Macias for retaliation after they attempted to censor the speech of an off-campus pro-life group that ASG had already voted to allow to participate in a campus event.
Macias refused to censor the pro-life display on the grounds that doing so would violate the group's First Amendment rights. The officials and ASG retaliated by subjecting him to an illegal recall election.
"Respecting people's First Amendment rights is worthy of praise, not punishment," said ADF Litigation Staff Counsel David Hacker. "Steve Macias did exactly the right thing in his role as president, and now he is paying the price determined by those who wanted to censor this pro-life group." Full story at LifeNews.com
Encourage Friends to Sign Up for Free Pro-Life News From LifeNews.com
