LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
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Current Headlines
• Congressman Stupak: If Obama Removes Abortion Funding Ban, Health Care Dies
• Orrin Hatch Will Sponsor Amendment to Cut Abortion Funding in Health Care Bill
• Senator: Pro-Life Side Lacks Votes to Stop Abortion Funding in Health Care
• Senate Allows Vote on Nomination of Pro-Abortion Obama Judge David Hamilton
• Angry Activists Mobilizing to Keep Abortion in Health Care, Pro-Lifers Worried
• Fake Amendment Not Banning Abortion Funding Could Lead to Health Care Bill OK
• Senate Democrats Nelson, Casey Backing Down on Abortion, Health Care Battle
• Cardnial Daniel DiNardo to Become Head of Catholic Bishop's Pro-Life Office
• Planned Parenthood of Minnesota North, South Dakota Makes Record Abortion Profit
• Diane DeGette Blasted for Religious Discrimination, Says Abortion Debate Closed
• Nevada Pro-Life Groups Oppose Personhood Amendment, Abortion Strategy Poor
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Congressman Stupak: If Obama Removes Abortion Funding Ban, Health Care Dies
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Congressman Bart Stupak, whose amendment to ban abortion funding from the House health care bill, has seen President Barack Obama's call and raised him. He says if Obama makes good on his threat to remove the ban in conference committee that he will effectively kill the health care bill.
Stupak is commenting on a claim by White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod that Obama would intervene to remove the abortion funding ban.
"They're not going to take it out. If they do, health care will not move forward," Stupak told Fox News today. "We won fair and square. ... That's why Mr. Axelrod's not a legislator. He doesn't really know what he's talking about," Stupak added.
Stupak referenced the approximately 40 pro-life and other Democrats who voted for his amendment who, he said beforehand, would have voted against the bill had it contained the massive abortion funding.
He said he has "at least 10 to 15 to 20" votes against the health care bill without the abortion funding prohibition in place. Those members, he said, would oppose the bill on final passage in the House after the conference committee if the Stupak amendment is removed.
"The majority has spoken. Most people agree -- do not use public funds for abortion," he told Fox News. "You're not going to summarily start dismissing amendments which the majority of the House of Representatives wanted because some person, David Axelrod or someone, doesn't like it." Full story at LifeNews.com
Orrin Hatch Will Sponsor Amendment to Cut Abortion Funding in Health Care Bill
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Senator Orrin Hatch hopes the third time is a charm when he becomes the official sponsor of the amendment in the Senate to cut abortion funding from the government-run health care bill. Hatch floated two amendments in the two committees that considered the bill but both were defeated.
Hatch told Politics Daily Tuesday that he will become the Bart Stupak of the Senate -- the main person behind the amendment to remove abortion funding. When asked if his amendment would mirror the Stupak language, Hatch replied, "I think so, I think that's a fair appraisal."
Stupak got his amendment added to the House version of the legislation bot Hatch likely won't experience the same kind of success.
Most Republicans will vote for the pro-life amendment, but Hatch says he is having a hard time finding many Democrats who will join them. "It will be much more difficult in the Senate," Hatch predicted, saying he has already started lobbying Democrats for his language. "There are so few you can really turn to." Full story at LifeNews.com
Senator: Pro-Life Side Lacks Votes to Stop Abortion Funding in Health Care
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A pro-abortion lawmaker says the pro-life side in the Senate does not have enough votes to add a Stupak-type amendment to the Senate government-run health care bill. Sen. Sherrod Brown's comments follow a similar LifeNews.com analysis and make it appear pro-life groups will need to oppose the bill.
Brown, an Ohio Democrat, said pro-abortion senators have no concerns that pro-life advocates will be able to attach an amendment stopping abortion funding.
"I don't think that it's a threat at all," Brown said on MSNBC. "There aren't more than four or five Democratic senators that I would say are anti-choice. There are at least, I think, two Republican senators who are pro-choice." "Then the Republicans will try to amend it into the bill, and they will be unsuccessful; they won't even get close to 50 votes," he predicted.
To successfully amend the bill, pro-life advocates will need 60 votes instead of the normal majority -- which makes what would be a tough challenge nearly impossible.
National Right to Life Committee legislative director Douglas Johnson told LifeNews.com the Senate process makes it so 60 votes are needed for a Stupak-type amendment. Full story at LifeNews.com
Senate Allows Vote on Nomination of Pro-Abortion Obama Judge David Hamilton
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The Senate successfully ended debate on President Barack Obama's first pro-abortion judge, appeals court nominee David Hamilton. On a 70-29 vote, lawmakers voted to stop debate and allow a vote on his confirmation and they are expected to complete the voting process on Wednesday.
David Hamilton was tapped by Obama in March to fill a vacancy on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
As he promised he would do, pro-life Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama led the filibuster and said Hamilton should be opposed in part because of his pro-abortion views.
Sessions noted how Hamilton kept an informed consent measure from being enforced in Indiana, thereby prohibiting women from getting information about abortion's risks and alternatives so they can find positive alternatives.
"And for seven years, through a series of rulings, Hamilton kept it form being enforced. This case is a blatant example of allowing personal views to frustrate the will of the people and the popularly elected representatives of the government of Indiana," Sessions said. "This appeared to me to be obstructionism." Full story at LifeNews.com
ACTION: Call 202-224-3121 to tell your senators your thoughts on how they voted on the cloture vote. Results of that vote appear here.
Angry Activists Mobilizing to Keep Abortion in Health Care, Pro-Lifers Worried
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Angry and upset that the House-approved health care bill contains the Stupak amendment to ban virtually all abortion funding, pro-abortion activists have mobilized for a protest day on December 2 at Congress that could see tens of thousands of people attend. That has pro-life advocates worried.
As LifeNews.com reported last week, the main pro-abortion organizations Planned Parenthood and NARAL have recruited their friends in the labor union and gay rights movements to help turn out participants.
They are following the tried-and-true game plan of the pro-life community that uses buses to bring in thousands of people to the March for Life and they are working overtime to bring in massive amounts of donations for their efforts.
Last week, pro-abortion leaders from 20 different organizations met for a strategy summit at Planned Parenthood's office to talk about next month's "National Day of Action" and map out lobbying tactics. In new comments to Roll Call magazine, the heads of pro-abortion groups say their members are furious at the prospects of a health care bill that stops the government from forcing taxpayers to fund hundreds of thousands of abortions. Full story at LifeNews.com
Fake Amendment Not Banning Abortion Funding Could Lead to Health Care Bill OK
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- In the lead up to the vote on the Stupak amendment and the House government-run health care bill, pro-life advocates spotlighted a fake amendment. The Ellsworth amendment came up as a potential compromise to get Nancy Pelosi enough votes for the bill without banning abortion funding.
The amendment is making its return via an essay posted at the pro-abortion blog RH Reality Check by Rachel Laser -- a career pro-abortion activist who now works for the influential pro-abortion "messaging" group Third Way.
The amendment is important because it could be used to ultimately get the House to approve the health care bill and get it to President Obama.
The House approved its bill only after adding the Stupak amendment, but the Senate is not expected to approve a bill that bans abortion funding. Ultimately, when the conference committee meets to work out the differences in the legislation, if abortion funding is added it would make it so the House would defeat the bill - but the Senate would likely defeat a version containing the Stupak amendment.
With a need to agree on language that could muster a majority vote in both chambers, enter the Ellsworth amendment.
The National Right to Life Committee, the Catholic bishops, and other pro-life groups have highlighted the amendment as a fraud, but the potential for adding it at the 11th hour to move the health care bill to the president is concerning enough for National Right to Life to email LifeNews.com about it and Laser's support for it today. Full story at LifeNews.com
Senate Democrats Nelson, Casey Backing Down on Abortion, Health Care Battle
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- If the pro-life movement has any chance of stopping abortion funding in the Senate version of the health care bill, they need Democratic Sens. Ben Nelson and Bob Casey to help lead the fight. While they have either voted for abortion limits or said they would do so, their recent statements show a backing down.
Nelson, a Nebraska Democrat, is the truest pro-life Democrat in the Senate and had previously made ironclad statements that he would not support a health care bill that included abortion funding.
Nelson appeared ready to become the next Stupak and the leader from either party against abortion funding in the Senate. Today, CNN reports that Nelson "now says he would be satisfied with the less restrictive language approved by the Senate Finance Committee."
Meanwhile, Casey was a solid yes vote on an amendment in committee supported by pro-life groups to axe the abortion funding from that version of the Senate health care bill.
Now, his office has released a statement that appears to go along with comments from President Barack Obama saying that the Stupak amendment goes too far in banning abortion funds, even though the analysis is off base. Full story at LifeNews.com
Cardnial Daniel DiNardo to Become Head of Catholic Bishop's Pro-Life Office
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, the Archbishop of Galveston-Houston and the first Cardinal elevated from the Southern United States, is slated to become the next head of the pro-life office at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The position has seen an increased importance in the abortion-health care debate.
The Catholic bishops were instrumental in getting the House to approve the Stupak amendment to its health care bill to strongly restrict abortion funding in it. Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, the current head of the pro-life office at the USCCB, wrote several letters to members of Congress in advance of the votes.
And USCCB officials, under his direction, went as far as meeting with Speaker Nancy Pelosi in her office hours before the vote to guarantee that lawmakers would have a chance to vote to stop virtually all of the abortion funding.
Now, as the nation's bishops hold their annual meeting in Baltimore, Cardinal DiNardo is set to become the new pro-life leader once they conclude their meeting on Thursday. Full story at LifeNews.com
Planned Parenthood of Minnesota North, South Dakota Makes Record Abortion Profit
St. Paul, MN (LifeNews.com) -- A new annual report issued from Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota shows the abortion business turned a record profit in 2008. Total revenues from 2007 to 2008 rose nearly 11 percent as Planned Parenthood raked in almost $3 million more. Looking at the new annual report, total revenues rose 10.8% from $24,660,000 in 2007 to $27,328,000 in 2008.
Total revenues from government funds increased 21% from $4,350,000 to $5,268,000, the largest annual dollar amount to date, and donations from pro-abortion activists climbed 66.7 % from $5,955,000 to $9,924,000.
While government and individuals' contributions increased enormously, Planned Parenthood suffered an investment loss on its vast reserves of cash as its investment portfolio lost $3,429,000.
Scott Fischbach, executive director of Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, told LifeNews.com today that he is dismayed by the numbers. Full story at LifeNews.com
Diane DeGette Blasted for Religious Discrimination, Says Abortion Debate Closed
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Colorado Rep. Diane DeGette, the head of the pro-abortion caucus in the House, is coming under fire for comments saying that religious groups should be shut off from participating in the abortion debate in Congress. Detractors say she is fostering an environment of religious discrimination.
In comments to The Hill, a magazine that covers Congress, DeGette essentially said religious groups should not be allowed to be part of the abortion debate.
"Last I heard, we had separation of church and state in this country," she said. "I've got to say that I think the Catholic bishops and all of the other groups shouldn't have input."
That earned DeGette a critical rebuke from Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council. Perkins called on President Obama and Congressional leaders to repudiate her comments. "DeGette's comments are stunning," he told LifeNews.com.
"According to her, if a group of people are in association with one another because of their Christian faith, they should not have a voice in the crafting of public policy. What she is asserting is that if your ideas and actions are a product of your faith, you're a second class citizen and your voice should not be heard," he said. Full story at LifeNews.com
Nevada Pro-Life Groups Oppose Personhood Amendment, Abortion Strategy Poor
Carson City, NV (LifeNews.com) -- Two Nevada pro-life organizations said today they plan to urge their members to oppose the personhood amendment proposed there -- not because they oppose personhood for unborn children, but because they believe the strategy will not result in stopping abortions and only waste time and money.
As LifeNews.com reported in October, Richard Ziser, a longtime pro-life activist in Nevada, launched a signature drive for a personhood amendment.
Although they oppose abortion and practices like human cloning and embryonic stem cell research, leaders of Nevada Life and Nevada Eagle Forum say the amendment would use money that could be reserved for stopping abortions now on a gamble that would not likely pay off. The two groups were joined by Nevada Families and the conservative Independent American Party.
"Unfortunately, we believe the personhood initiative petition filed in Nevada with good intent will not protect the unborn or stop abortion," they continue. "It is so vague and general that it may not even apply to abortion at all." They also say the amendment "cannot overturn Roe v Wade," which is the only method of allowing states to approve abortion bans. Full story at LifeNews.com
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