LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Thursday, November 26, 2009
| For news updated throughout the day, visit LifeNews.com. |
Current Headlines
• New CDC Report: Abortions Rose 3.1% in 2006, Other Research Shows Decline
• Woman Heading for Abortion Faces Assault Charges, Pulled Knife on Pro-Lifer
• Cardinal: "No Way" Catholics in Congress Can Back Pro-Abortion Health Care Bill
• Planned Parenthood Thanksgiving Dinner Conversation Guide: Promote Abortion
• Beware: Senate Bill Threaten Seniors, Disabled With Health Care Rationing
• Euthanasia Backers Discount Rom Houben, Man Who Spoke After False "Coma"
• Despite Stupak, Rationing and Assisted Suicide Remain in House Health Care Bill
• Boston Globe Bashes Catholic Bishop Keeping Pro-Abortion Kennedy Accountable
• Canadian Backer of Bill to Legalize Assisted Suicide Postpones Debate to 2010
• Cincinnati Pro-Life Advocates Worry City Council Bill Would Limit Free Speech
---> Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family from LifeNews.com! We are thankful for every pro-life group and pro-life activist who dedicates their time, their gifts and their service for the unborn, the disabled and others who are threatened by abortion, euthanasia and dubious bioethics practices. We pray that the Lord and Savior bless you and your individual and collective ministries.
New CDC Report: Abortions Rose 3.1% in 2006, Other Research Shows Decline
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new report from the Centers for Disease Control claims the number of abortions has rose during 2006, the last year for which it has national data available. However, a January 2008 report from a pro-abortion group that is considered more effective in tabulating abortions shows abortions declining.
Each year, the CDC requests abortion data from 52 reporting areas, including New York City and the District of Columbia. However, just 49 areas gave the CDC abortion stats and only 46 have reported consistently over the last 10 years. California, Louisiana, and New Hampshire are not included in the annual abortion totals the CDC reports.
The new report indicates there were a total of 846,181 abortions during 2006, which the CDC says is a 3.1 percent increase over its 2005 numbers.
CDC notes the abortion rate was 16.1 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15--44 years and the abortion ratio was 236 abortions per 1,000 live births, or 23.6 percent of pregnancies ending in abortion.
Those figures are lower that and different from the statistics compiled by the Guttmacher Institute, the pro-abortion group that is the former research arm of Planned Parenthood.
In its January 2008 report, considered more accurate because Guttmacher goes through abortion businesses themselves rather than relying on state health department figures and because it gets figures from the entire country, Guttmacher said abortions dropped to 1.21 million in 2005 from 1.31 million in 2000. Full story at LifeNews.com
Woman Heading for Abortion Faces Assault Charges, Pulled Knife on Pro-Lifer
Duluth, MN (LifeNews.com) -- A Minnesota woman faces assault charges after she allegedly pulled a knife on a pro-life advocate who encouraged her not to have an abortion. The assault follows a shooting that took place in September in Michigan that saw local pro-life advocate Jim Pouillon shot and killed as he protested abortion.
Leah Winandy and other pro-life advocates were gathered outside the abortion business in Duluth when an unnamed 25-year-old woman from Superior approached the Building For Women abortion center on 1st Street at around 8:00 a.m. local time Tuesday morning.
Winandy told the woman she cared about her unborn child but the woman responded by reportedly brandishing a knife and held it to Winandy's throat.
"We asked the women 'please don't take the life of your unborn baby we care about what happens to them,'" Winandy told the Northland News Center. "She said 'don't do this,don't talk to me, don't come near me' and I just said 'fear god,' and she had the knife to my throat and I was a little nervous," Winandy added. "She was probably trying to threaten me and intimidate me...but for what reason I don't know."
After the woman threatened Winandy, another sidewalk counselor came to her aid and the woman threatened her with the knife as well, holding it close to her neck.
The assailant then entered the abortion facility -- where police later found her and located the knife in her purse. Police officials arrested her and took her to the St. Louis County jail, where she is expected to be formally charged. Full story at LifeNews.com
Cardinal: "No Way" Catholics in Congress Can Back Pro-Abortion Health Care Bill
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The outgoing head of the pro-life committee at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said recently there is "no way" Catholic members of Congress can vote for a health care reform bill that includes abortion funding.
During a press conference at the National Press Club on November 20, CNS News asked Cardinal Justin Rigali, the archbishop of Philadelphia if it would be a "mortal sin" for any Catholic to vote for the bill. The question concerned the new Senate version of the legislation Harry Reid has proposed that contains massive abortion funding.
Rigali responded that the Catholic Church would like to see better health care that does not cover abortions, but "we make a distinction between health care and killing."
"So abortion is out of the question--as we've spoken about the value of human life. And everyone is called upon to do everything possible to see that when we are trying to get laudable health care ... that abortion will be excluded from that," he said.
Rigali said Catholic members of Congress need to vote with a well-informed conscience that reminds them abortion is "absolutely wrong" and there is "no way in the world" a health care bill deserves support if it funds abortions. Full story at LifeNews.com
Planned Parenthood Thanksgiving Dinner Conversation Guide: Promote Abortion
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- When Americans gather around their dinner tables with friends and family tomorrow to celebrate Thanksgiving, they will catch up on the latest family chatter and probably talk about sports and the weather. But, Planned Parenthood's president has a suggestion for those who need a topic for discussion.
In an email today to supporters of the abortion business, Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards unveiled her own Thanksgiving dinner conversation guide.
"I don't know how things are at your Thanksgiving table, but in my house we don't just make small talk," she writes, saying she is "committed to having real conversations" that invariably turn to abortion. It is Thanksgiving "conversations like these that help" promote her pro-abortion agenda, she says, suggesting that abortion advocates follow her lead. "If your family is anything like mine, you'll want to be prepared to converse thoughtfully. Here's some help — a guide to dinner table conversation," Richards says.
Richards links to a Planned Parenthood web page urging members to help their family "avoid dirty politics by sticking to these points. If 'turkey talk' turns to health care reform, stand ready -- we've got you covered." Full story at LifeNews.com
Beware: Senate Bill Threaten Seniors, Disabled With Health Care Rationing
by Burke Balch, JD 
The U.S. Senate is poised to begin debate on the 2,074-page health care bill, crafted by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nv.), when senators return to Washington next week.
In a release last week, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of right-to-life organizations in all 50 states, noted that Senator Reid's bill would authorize the federal government to pay for any and all abortions through a huge federal health insurance program, and also to subsidize purchase of private plans that cover abortion on demand.
Further analysis finds that the Reid bill, like the House bill approved earlier this month, puts the lives of older Americans and persons with disabilities at great risk. The fundamental question is whether seniors will be prevented from using their own money, if they wish, to gain access to insurance that will not ration medical treatment. Full story at LifeNews.com
Euthanasia Backers Discount Rom Houben, Man Who Spoke After False "Coma"
Brussels, Belgium (LifeNews.com) -- No sooner did Rom Houben make international headlines than skeptics and euthanasia advocates attempt to discredit the story of a man who says he was falsely tagged as being in a coma for 23 years. Houben has been embraced by those who say physicians are too quick to label patients as in a vegetative state.
As LifeNews.com noted, Houben shared his story this week of how he is now able to talk with the world now that a scientists retested him, found his brain to be functioning normally, and provided him with therapy allowing him to communicate.
However, euthanasia proponents are attempting to discredit the story.
The Huffington Post's resident utilitarian bioethicist, Jacob Appel, contends that Houben can't really be communicating and suggests a test to smoke out the supposed chicanery. He wants to know whether "his story is authentic, a matter of wishful thinking, or even a cruel and manipulative hoax" and, until that time, "the media and the public should retain a healthy skepticism."
Apparently, that has been done. The Associated Press indicates the team of British neurological expert Dr. Steven Laureys showed Houben an object while his aide was not present and he was able to write it down correctly. Full story at LifeNews.com
Despite Stupak, Rationing and Assisted Suicide Remain in House Health Care Bill
by Anna Franzonello
Even with the inclusion of the Stupak-Pitts amendment barring federal funding of abortion in the health care reform bill passed by the House, H.R. 3962, additional pro-life concerns remain.
H.R. 3962 includes Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER) provisions. It is laudable that CER attempts to identify, evaluate and promote medical best practices–across the spectrum of procedures, devices and drugs. But CER also presents very serious concerns regarding the possible denial of care (for instance, CER could result in a denial of care if that care is deemed not "cost effective").
H.R. 3962 does not contain any assurance that assisted suicide and euthanasia will not be funded. The bill affords no conscience protection for health care providers regarding end-of-life concerns. Moreover, it contains a provision that allows for the promotion of assisted suicide.
H.R. 3962 Sec. 240 requires every health insurance company participating in the Exchange to make advanced directives available. A serious concern with the mandate of advance directives is that they may be used for the promotion or encouragement of assisted suicide. As the bill stands now, these mandated directives can be used to promote what is commonly understood as "assisted suicide" in Oregon and Washington. Full story at LifeNews.com
Boston Globe Bashes Catholic Bishop Keeping Pro-Abortion Kennedy Accountable
by Tim Graham
The Boston Globe predictably editorialized on Wednesday against Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin for "targeting" Rep. Patrick Kennedy ("Rhode Island bishop errs in targeting Patrick Kennedy.") They predictably cavil that bishops don't punish politicians who support the death penalty and wars.
What sets this leaden chunk of argument apart is its boast the bishop's attention is "ironic" since the Kennedy family have long been a flock of terrific, devout Catholics that drew others into the church. They have been virtual magnets of holiness.
Like other liberal media outlets, including the snarling Chris Matthews lecture (don't call it an interview) with Bishop Tobin, the Globe makes no attempt to consider whether Patrick Kennedy's hot talk about how the Catholic church isn't pro-life if it protests ObamaCare and shouldn't be "fanning the flames of dissent" on a "red herring" like abortion.
They seem to endorse implicitly Patrick's assertion that he can be relentlessly pro-abortion and still be a "good Catholic." Full story at LifeNews.com
Canadian Backer of Bill to Legalize Assisted Suicide Postpones Debate to 2010
Otawa, Canada (LifeNews.com) -- MP Francine Lalonde apparently needs more time to gather votes for her bill to legalize assisted suicide as the member of the Canadian Parliament has postponed the debate on her legislation a third time. The bill, C-384, was originally scheduled for a debate and vote last week.
Not having enough votes, Lalonde initially moved her legislation back to December.
Now, Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition tells LifeNews.com that the new scheduled date for the debate on C-384 is Tuesday, February 2 of next year -- with a vote the following day.
"We are convinced that Lalonde is trying to delay the debate and the vote on C-384 because she knows that the bill will be defeated," Schadenberg told LifeNews.com today. "By delaying the vote she is gaining time to create a national debate on euthanasia and assisted suicide in Canada." Full story at LifeNews.com
Cincinnati Pro-Life Advocates Worry City Council Bill Would Limit Free Speech
Cincinnati, OH (LifeNews.com) -- Local pro-life advocates in Cincinnati, Ohio are concerned that the city council is considering a bill that would ultimately restrict their free speech rights. The proposed ordinance is one of several seen in large cities such as Pittsburgh and Oakland that are targeting pro-life advocates.
Paula Westwood, the executive director of Right to Life of Greater Cincinnati tells LifeNews.com that the city council voted "under the radar" last Wednesday for a new ordinance that amends several municipal codes addressing signs.
"The ordinance had quickly passed the Economic Development Committee the night before, rushing it to full council where it failed this first vote, but is expected to pass" the next time it considers the measure, Westwood explains.
"What the public does not know is that past discussions of signage in the Economic Development Committee included much time and testimony regarding those who exercise their free speech rights with signs on social concerns," Westwood said. Full story at LifeNews.com
ACTION: Contact members of the city council by going to http://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/council/pages/-3412-/
Encourage Friends to Sign Up for Free Pro-Life News From LifeNews.com
