LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Friday, January 1, 2010
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Current Headlines
• Ben Nelson Attacks Pro-Lifers Again, Pledges No Vote if Abortion Deal Weakened
• Montana Supreme Court Makes State Third to Allow Unlimited Assisted Suicide
• U.S. Catholic Editor Defends Catholic Groups Backing Pro-Abortion Health Care
• Pro-Life Advocates: Montana Assisted Suicide Decision Could Have Been Worse
• Focus on the Family May Run Pro-Life Super Bowl Ad Featuring Tim Tebow's Mom
• Pregnancy Center in Arizona Severely Burned in Apparent Arson Attack
• Embryonic Stem Cell Researchers May Target Minorities for New Embryos
• Kansas Lawmaker Will Work Next Year to De-Fund Abortion, Planned Parenthood
• Utah Legislator Will Promote Bill Helping Women See Ultrasound Before Abortion
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Ben Nelson Attacks Pro-Lifers Again, Pledges No Vote if Abortion Deal Weakened
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Senator Ben Nelson is quickly digging himself into a hole from which he may never recover by continuing to attack pro-life advocates. In a new interview, he does that and also pledges to vote against the final health care bill if his already-compromised abortion language is watered down further.
Nelson brokered a deal with Senate Leader Harry Reid to include minor limits on abortion funding that don't truly ban taxpayer funding on abortion in exchange for becoming the 60th vote for the pro-abortion bill. Since he announced the deal, every major pro-life group and the nation's Catholic bishops have denounced the language as forcing taxpayer funding of abortions.
In comments yesterday to the McCook Daily Gazette, Nelson took issue with that characterization and said pro-life groups only oppose his language because they didn't write it.
He told the newspaper pro-life groups suffer from "pride of authorship" and are unwilling to support bills or amendments they didn't write but which achieve the goal of not setting up government-funded abortions.
Nelson also told the Gazette he will not vote for the final conference committee health care bill if members of the committee "start fooling with taxes and come up with a new tax scheme or the House scheme" or if it funds abortions or weakens his Senate language. "If they (the conference committee) try to weaken it in any way, I'm not going to be able to support the conference bill," he said. Full story at LifeNews.com
Montana Supreme Court Makes State Third to Allow Unlimited Assisted Suicide
Helena, MT (LifeNews.com) -- The Montana Supreme Court has officially paved the way for the state to become the third to allow the practice of assisted suicide. The high court considered a case from a now-deceased terminally ill patient who wanted the right to kill himself with assistance from a physician.
The high court did not determine if the Montana constitution guarantees a right to assisted suicide but said nothing in state law or the precedent of the court prevented assisted suicide.
We find nothing in Montana Supreme Court precedent or Montana statutes indicating that physician aid in dying is against public policy, the high court said in its opinion.
The decision essentially has Montana joining Oregon and Washington as the only three states in the nation to allow assisted suicides. It declared assisted suicide as legal and could prevent doctors from almost any prosecution for engaging in them.
Montana law explicitly shields physicians from liability for acting in accordance with a patient s end-of life wishes, even if the physician must actively pull the plug on a patient s ventilator or withhold treatment that will keep him alive," the court said. However, assisted suicides in Montana will likely go further as the state doesn't have even basic limitations, restrictions or guidelines in place and the ruling could pave the way for the practice of euthanasia with little or no state oversight. Full story at LifeNews.com
U.S. Catholic Editor Defends Catholic Groups Backing Pro-Abortion Health Care
by Deal Hudson
Bryan Cones, the managing editor at U.S. Catholic, is upset that I used the word "fake" to describe Catholics United and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. Two weeks ago, I criticized those organizations for supporting the Senate health-care bill containing abortion funding.
Cones stresses his disagreement with me in a lively style: "If he wants to have a debate about whether I'm a Catholic, I say: Bring it, Deal."
You have to love that spirit, but Cones misses the point. I'm not interested in arguing over whether he is a Catholic, but whether it is "Catholic" to support health-care reform containing federal funding for abortion.
I argue that if the health-care bill contains federal funding for abortion -- no matter what's contained in the rest of the bill -- Catholics in the Congress must oppose it. To support such a bill constitutes direct cooperation with this serious moral evil (Catechism of the Catholic Church 2270; Evangelium Vitae 74).
Why? Because there is no doubt that federal funding would lead to an increase of 200,000 or more abortions each year. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Life Advocates: Montana Assisted Suicide Decision Could Have Been Worse
Helena, MT (LifeNews.com) -- Reaction is coming in form pro-life advocates responding to today's decision by the Montana Supreme Court that determined there is no right to assisted suicide but saying it is allowed under state law. The pro-life activists say the decision is definitely bad but could have been worse.
The Montana Supreme Court, today, released its long-awaited decision in the Baxter case on assisted suicide.
In a 5-2 decision, the Supreme Court vacated the lower court's decision that found a constitutionally-guaranteed right to physician assisted suicide, and, instead, found the practice legal on statutory grounds. In his dissenting opinion, Justice Jim Rice said that the majority badly misinterpreted our public policy. He said that assisting suicide has been explicitly and expressly prohibited by Montana law for the past 114 years.
Jeff Laszloffy of the Montana Family Foundation told LifeNews.com, "Definitely not what we wanted, but not as bad as it could have been."
"While we would have preferred an outright reversal of the lower court's decision, this ruling is a partial victory," he explained. "The fact that the Court did not find a constitutional right to physician assisted suicide is good for those of us opposed to this abhorrent practice."
The pro-family leader told LifeNews.com that the legislature should now get involved. Full story at LifeNews.com
Focus on the Family May Run Pro-Life Super Bowl Ad Featuring Tim Tebow's Mom
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- When football fans watch the Super Bowl next year, they may see a pro-life ad from Focus on the Family focusing on the mother of potential future NFL star Tim Tebow. Tebow is the Heisman Trophy winner and University of Florida star quarterback whose mother decided not to abort him in a crisis pregnancy.
The Super Bowl ad would be costly -- as a spot during the game and three 30-second commercials before it would reportedly run about $4 million -- but provides a unique exposure to a large national and international audience.
The ad, according to multiple sources, reportedly features the story of Tebow's birth.
Pam Tebow and her husband were Christian missionaries in the Philippines in 1985 and they prayed for "Timmy" before she became pregnant.
Unfortunately, Pam entered into a coma after she contracted amoebic dysentery, an infection of the intestine caused by a parasite found in a contaminated food or drink. The treatment for the medical condition would require strong medications that doctors told Pam had caused irreversible damage to Tim -- so they advised her to have an abortion.
Tebow refused the abortion and cited her Christian faith as the reason for her hope that her son would be born without the devastating disabilities physicians predicted. She ultimately spent the last two months of her pregnancy in bed and, eventually, gave birth to a health baby boy in August 1987. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pregnancy Center in Arizona Severely Burned in Apparent Arson Attack
Whiteriver, AZ (LifeNews.com) -- A pregnancy center in rural eastern Arizona that serves a predominantly native American population was severely burned in what appears to be an arson attack. The Living Hope Women's Center clinic has closed indefinitely as a result of a fire that gutted a portion of the building on December 20.
Dinah Monahan, the former executive director and current board president of the group of pregnancy centers that operate as Living Hope, says it appears to her the fire was deliberate.
The center maintains a Fatherhood Store and Mommy Store to help low-income residents earn the ability to purchases critically needed pregnancy and other items and Monahan says they were raided.
She told the White Mountain Independent newspaper that whoever started the fire vandalized televisions, VCRs and other equipment before setting the blaze in the back of the building.
The board president indicated that a local resident who lives next door to the clinic heard and saw people at the scene and chased them away from the clinic after the fire began. The neighbor was able to wrestle one person to the ground and the newspaper indicates the individual is now in police custody.
Monahan indicated the fire did not burn the clinic to the ground but caused enough fire and smoke damage that the clinic facility is useless until it undergoes major repairs. Full story at LifeNews.com
Embryonic Stem Cell Researchers May Target Minorities for New Embryos
by Dr. David Prentice
Two recent papers–one published online by the New England Journal of Medicine and one just published in Nature Methods–analyzed the genetic ethnic diversity of some of the existing human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines. One group examined 47 hESC lines, while another checked 42 hESC lines; there were 9 lines that both groups checked, for a total of 80 different lines investigated, including some of the most-used hESC lines and some of the few newly-approved hESC lines.
Not surprisingly, they found that most of the hESC lines represent a limited genetic ethnic diversity, primarily from European and Middle Eastern, as well as some East Asian, descent. The University of Michigan group seems to think this is surprising, but in truth it is not surprising and has been noted for years.
Why is this lack of genetic diversity not surprising?
Thus far, the embryos destroyed for hESC lines are all taken from in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics. As many have pointed out for years regarding the hESC lines, the IVF technique is expensive, so the sample is self-selected for those who can afford the IVF practice. The sample is further restricted to those parents who are willing to sacrifice their so-called “leftover” embryos to science. They also found that more than one cell line came from the same embryo donors; again, common sense would have indicated that given the selection, this would be the case. Full story at LifeNews.com
Kansas Lawmaker Will Work Next Year to De-Fund Abortion, Planned Parenthood
Topeka, KS (LifeNews.com) -- A Kansas state legislator says he will work in next year's legislative session to de-fund abortion and the Planned Parenthood abortion business. Sen. Tim Huelskamp announced yesterday that he will continue his previous efforts to cut off any state taxpayer funds the group receives.
The Republican told LifeNews.com that Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion provider in the United States and promotes abortion as a means of family planning and routinely uses taxpayer dollars to fund their operations.
Huelskamp led the effort to remove the funding in last year s legislative session. His measure passed the legislature, but was vetoed by Governor Parkinson.
This is the right thing to do, Huelskamp said. Organizations that perform abortions and fail to report sexual abuse of young girls should never receive taxpayer subsidies. This flies in the face of basic Kansas values.
Huelskamp also believes that cutting funding to groups like Planned Parenthood will help establish a responsible threshold for spending public dollars.
Planned Parenthood has received approximately $1.2 million over the last four years in Kansas, including a dramatic 23% spike in funding from 2008 to 2009 at the same time that revenues were sharply in decline. Full story at LifeNews.com
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Utah Legislator Will Promote Bill Helping Women See Ultrasound Before Abortion
Salt Lake City, UT (LifeNews.com) -- A Utah state legislator will promote legislation in the next session to help women be able to see an ultrasound of their unborn child before an abortion. When used in pregnancy centers, ultrasounds are credited with helping more than 80 percent of women to reconsider a decision to have an abortion.
Knowing that statistic, Rep. Carl Wimmer says he is sponsoring a bill in the 2010 session that would update the state's informed consent laws on abortion.
While current law says women considering an abortion must be told of their right to view an ultrasound, Wimmer's law would says that, if an ultrasound is performed to diagnose the age of the baby, the mother must be shown the image if she wants.
The person doing the ultrasound must also provide a "detailed description" of the development of the unborn child to that point. "It's as if a pregnant couple is at the ultrasound, checking on their baby," Wimmer told the Salt Lake Tribune newspaper.
He says his bill is necessary because abortion centers don't want to lose business by persuading women not to have an abortion. "They're in the abortion market to make money. The more ultrasounds they show, the fewer abortions they're going to be able to do," he told the newspaper. Full story at LifeNews.com
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