LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
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Current Headlines
• Senate Resumes Debate on Pro-Abortion Health Care, Support Drops in Poll
• Hatch Expected to File Amdt to Cut Abortion Funds in Senate Health Care Bill
• Pro-Life Group Files Complaint Against Hodari in Forced Abortion Case
• Evangelical Pastor Rick Warren Challenges President Obama on Abortion
• Harvard Study: Planned Parenthood is an Abortion Biz, Business is Bad
• Mike Huckabee: "Less Thank Likely" He Will Challenge Obama in 2012
• New York Times Highlights Divide Between Old, Young Abortion Advocates
• Poll Shows Canadians More Concerned About Killing Animals Than Unborn
• Northern Ireland Court OKs Pro-Life Group's Challenge of Abortion Rules
• Austin Texas' Travis County to Consider Spending $450K on Abortions at Mtg
• Vermont Assault Bill Fails to Give Women, Unborn Children Proper Justice
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Senate Resumes Debate on Pro-Abortion Health Care Bill, Support Drops in Poll
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The Senate resumes debate today on a health care restructuring bill that contains massive abortion funding, rationing and promotion of assisted suicide. As the debate renews following the Thanksgiving break, the White House, congressional Republicans and pro-life advocates are renewing their efforts.
One Obama administration official told CNN today that the White House is "geared up to go on offense" in favor of the pro-abortion health care bill despite Obama's promise that he doesn't want abortion funding. The official said President Barack Obama and his team are planning to "push back on the distortions and misinformation... being circulated by interest groups and opponents."
The new offensive includes a video featuring Vice President Joe Biden and the presidents of the American Nurses Association and the American Association of Family Physicians.
The efforts come as a new Gallup poll shows Americans currently tilt against Congress' pro-abortion health care bill.
The poll found 49% saying they would advise their member to vote against a bill (or they lean that way) and 44% saying they would advocate a vote in favor of the bill (or lean toward advising a yes vote).
"Since Gallup began tracking Americans' preferences for healthcare legislation earlier this year, there has never been a strong public mandate in favor of passing a law this year," the polling firm indicated. Full story at LifeNews.com
Hatch Expected to File Stupak Amdt to Cut Abortion Funds in Senate Health Care Bill
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The Senate resumes debate today on its version of the government-run health care bill that contains massive abortion funding. As the debate continues, pro-life advocates are still holding out hope that a Stupak-type amendment can be added to the bill to remove it.
Before the Thanksgiving recess, Sen. Orrin Hatch, the Utah Republican who has long been associated with efforts to stop abortion, said he would propose an amendment to strike the abortion funding from the bill. The amendment will likely mirror the language of the Stupak amendment that the House added to its version of the government-run plan prior to passing its legislation.
"The sanctity of life is not an issue that can be traded away for political expediency," Hatch said recently on the Senate floor.
Before the break, Hatch joined Republican Sens. Sam Brownback of Kansas and Mike Johanns of Nebraska in complaining about the abortion funding in the bill Senate leader Harry Reid introduced.
"The House provisions, in contrast to the terribly flawed provisions in the Reid bill, contained language that would not only safeguard the rights of the unborn but also would prevent medical providers from being coerced into performing procedures that violate their conscience," Hatch said. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Life Group Files Complaint Against Alberto Hodari in Forced Abortion Case
Flint, MI (LifeNews.com) -- Michigan-based abortion practitioner Alberto Hodari is already the subject of a lawsuit from a woman who says he subjected her to a forced abortion. Now, a pro-life group that monitors the illegal and unethical actions of abortion practitioners has filed a formal complaint with the state attorney general.
Caitlin Bruce is the victim of a forced abortion that saw Hodari and a staffer forcibly restrain her as she screamed "no."
She filed a lawsuit against Hodari in June saying she withdrew her consent for an abortion and accusing Hodari and his assistant of holding her down and covering her mouth to muffle her screams while Hodari viciously forced an abortion upon her. Bruce told WJRT-TV last week about the lawsuit she has filed against Hodari and said that she changed her mind and withdrew her consent for the abortion after seeing an ultrasound of the unborn baby.
Operation Rescue president Troy Newman has been following Bruce's case and has exposed Hodari's shoddy practices over the years.
He informed LifeNews.com today that his group has filed formal complaints against Hodari with the Michigan Attorney General's office and with the Michigan Department of Community Health. The complaints ask for investigations into possible criminal misconduct in the alleged forced abortion that took place last year.
"We have filed the appropriate complaints to insure that the correct authorities are also investigating possible criminal charges and causes for discipline against Hodari's medical license," Newman said. Full story at LifeNews.com
Evangelical Pastor Rick Warren Challenges President Barack Obama on Abortion
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Evangelical pastor Rick Warren, author of the best-selling "A Purpose Driven Life," and the spiritual leader of the mega-Saddleback Church in California, challenged President Barack Obama during an interview on Sunday. Warren says Obama is hypocritical for saying he wants abortions to be rare.
In the context of abortion and Obama, Warren is best known as the pastor to whom Obama said assessing when human life begins is "above my pay grade."
Warren said on NBC's "Meet the Press" program that Obama is taking an abortion stance that contains a false juxtaposition by saying he wants abortions to be rare but not believing human life begins at conception. For Warren, the admission that abortions should be rare acknowledges there is something wrong with abortion. And if there is something wrong with abortion, why won't Obama take the position they should be prohibited.
"We've had 46 million Americans who aren't here. Those who could be here since Roe v. Wade, who are not voting. I think that innocence is a holocaust. I really do," Warren said.
"Now, I don't understand the idea of it should be rare and less. Well, either you believe it's life or you don't....why would you believe it should be rare?....If a baby, a fetus is not a life, then why restrict it?" he continued. Full story at LifeNews.com
Harvard Study: Planned Parenthood is an Abortion Business and Business is Bad
by Mauricio Roman
Despite profits of $85 million in 2008, Planned Parenthood is facing serious financial difficulties.
According to a recent Harvard Business School case study, Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) is structured as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with multiple affiliates, each of which is also a 501(c)(3) non-profit. The national entity lobbies on national policy, sets affiliation standards, and leases its "Planned Parenthood" brand to affiliates, each of which has its own independent board and management structure, and so enjoys independence in its day-to-day operations.
Internally, Planned Parenthood's difficulties stem from the uneven strength of its affiliates, and President Cecile Richards is worried.
According to the Harvard case, her organization faces "tough economic times, a hostile political environment, and limited ability to raise philanthropic dollars in a resource constrained area of the country."
What does a "hostile political environment" entail?
For one thing, past government funding of crisis pregnancy centers and abstinence-only sex education programs. No industry likes a product that can become a substitute for the one it sells. From this perspective, abstinence is a substitute for contraception, and adoption is a substitute for abortion. Unable to grasp that these are morally superior options to abortion, Planned Parenthood sees them only as threats to their established position. Full story at LifeNews.com
Mike Huckabee: "Less Thank Likely" He Will Challenge President Obama in 2012
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Former Republican presidential candidate and Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee said over the weekend that it is "less than likely" that he will challenge pro-abortion President Barack Obama in 2012. His comments come as recent polls show him with the most support among Republican voters.
Huckabee, who has his own show on the Fox News network, told Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday" that a 2012 presidential depends in part on whether Fox News head Roger Ailes keeps his show going.
"The reason I wouldn't is that this Fox gig I've got is really wonderful, " he said.
Huckabee also said he is concerned about the lack of financial and organizational support for another bid for the GOP nomination. He noted that he did not get enough support in 2008 to make his candidacy as effective as he would have liked, although he would likely receive more support this time around as one of the top candidates.
"It's easy to say, 'Oh gee, don't you just want to jump back in it?' But jumping into the pool, you gotta make sure there is some water in it," he said. Pressed about the specific chances of him running, Huckabee said, "It's hard to say." Full story at LifeNews.com
New York Times Highlights Divide Between Older and Young Abortion Advocates
by Matthew Balan
Sheryl Gay Stolberg devoted most of her article in Sunday's New York Times detailing the concerns of radical feminists over the future of legalized abortion, specifically its support among the younger generations.
Stolberg tried to downplay the larger opposition to abortion in the 18-30 year old demographic, and only one of the pro-abortion activists that she quoted in her article belonged to this group.
The New York Times correspondent began her article, "In Support of Abortion, It's Personal vs. Political," with a sympathetic personal anecdote from one of the aging radicals, Representative Louise Slaughter of New York: "In the early 1950s, a coal miner's daughter from rural Kentucky named Louise McIntosh encountered the shadowy world of illegal abortion. A friend was pregnant...and Ms. McIntosh was keeper of a secret that, if spilled, could have led to family disgrace. The turmoil ended quietly in a doctor's office... Today, Louise McIntosh is Representative Louise M. Slaughter, Democrat of New York. At 80, she is co-chairwoman of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus — a member of what Nancy Keenan, president of Naral Pro-Choice America, calls 'the menopausal militia.'"
This so-called militia, and the wider "abortion rights movement," according to Stolberg, has been "forced...to turn inward, raising questions about how to carry their agenda forward in a complex, 21st-century world." Full story at LifeNews.com
Poll Shows Canadians More Concerned About Killing Animals Than Unborn Children
Ottawa, Canada (LifeNews.com) -- A new Canadian poll finds a tremendous incongruency in the thinking of Canadians on key social and political issues. The new survey finds Canadians are more outraged with the killing of animals or their medical testing than the destruction of unborn children and using them for scientific study.
A new national survey conducted by Angus Reid Public Opinion and published in Maclean's magazine finds practices pro-life advocates find objectionable are morally acceptable. The poll asked: "Regardless of whether or not you think each of the following issues should be legal, please indicate whether you personally believe they are morally acceptable or morally wrong."
In 2007, 61 percent of Canadians found abortion morally okay and that number has increased to 66 percent today. On the other hand, a lower 53 percent of Canadians say buying and wearing clothing made of animal fur is morally all right.
While a minority of 44 percent of Canadians are morally fine with medical testing on animals, some 69 percent of Canadians have no trouble with medical research that uses stem cells obtained from human embryos -- which can only be obtained by destroying days-old unborn children.
The only issue on which Canadians place human beings above animals comes on cloning -- where 27 percent say they are all right with animal cloning compared with 11 percent who say human cloning is morally permissible. Full story at LifeNews.com
Northern Ireland Court OKs Pro-Life Group's Challenge of Govt's Abortion Rules
Belfast, Northern Ireland (LifeNews.com) -- The Belfast high court has approved a pro-life group's challenge of the rules for when abortion can be done in Northern Ireland. The abortion guidelines the health department released in March drew a challenge from the British pro-life group SPUC.
The organization says the guidelines, which explain the rare circumstances when abortions can be legally done, could be used to legalize abortions through the back door. Northern Ireland, unlike the rest of Great Britain, does not allow abortions and makes them available only when the life of the mother is at risk.
The new document says abortions can be done for two reasons: to "preserve the life of the woman" or if a physician determines continuing the pregnancy will impose "a risk of real and serious adverse effect on her physical or mental health which is either long-term or permanent."
The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, a pro-life group that operates in Great Britain, challenged the guidelines in court and, today, Lord Justice Girvan ruled in favor of SPUC's challenge on two grounds. Full story at LifeNews.com
Austin Texas' Travis County to Consider Spending $450K on Abortions at Meeting
Austin, TX (LifeNews.com) -- Travis County officials in Austin, Texas are set to discuss, at a December 10 meeting, whether or not they will spend $450,000 to directly pay for abortions. The county has paid for abortions in prior budgets and the Texas Alliance for Life pro-life organization hopes to stop officials this time around.
The Travis County Healthcare District (TCHD) Board of Managers will decide whether to continue to fund abortions with property taxes.
"The TCHD will consider proposed contracts totaling $450,000 for approximately 1,000 abortions a year with one or more abortion facilities," TAL president Joe Pojman told LifeNews.com over the weekend. "Despite repeated requests, the TCHD has so far refused to make available the proposed contracts."
The TCHD is a taxing authority that collects property tax dollars and spends those dollars by contracting for health care for low-income residents of Travis County. Pojman says the abortion funding issue is nothing new, but he hopes to raise new interest this year. Full story at LifeNews.com
ACTION: Contact TCHD officials at http://www.traviscountyhd.org/contact_us.html
Vermont Assault Bill Fails to Give Women, Unborn Children Proper Justice
Montpelier, VT (LifeNews.com) -- A state legislator plans to introduce a new bill in the Vermont legislature in response to an automobile wreck that claimed the lives of two unborn children. However, the bill fails to give women and unborn children proper justice when they are victims of such violent crimes.
Patricia Blair was injured when another automobile struck her car in August and that crash resulted in the deaths of her twin six-month-old unborn children.
Kelly Cook of Pownal, the other driver who was high at the time of the crash, faces felony charges related to the injuries Blair and her husband suffered.
But Cook will not be held accountable for killing the unborn children because Vermont is one of just 15 states that have no unborn victims law allowing prosecutors to bring charges in these kind of cases where someone is responsible for the death of a baby before birth. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Richard Sears, a Democrat, has sponsored a bill that, for Blair, adds insult to injury.
The legislation doesn't hold criminals accountable for killing unborn children but calls their death an additional attack on pregnant women and merely enhances the penalties for assaulting them. Full story at LifeNews.com
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