LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Saturday, December 12, 2009
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Current Headlines
• Senate Vote Coming This Weekend on Funding Abortions in District of Columbia
• Senate Omnibus Bill Funds Planned Parenthood, UNFPA, Ditches Abstinence Ed
• What's Next on the Health Care Debate? Stop the Abortion Mandate Knows
• Fake Catholic Groups Resurface in Health Care-Abortion Funding Debate
• Potential Opponents of Pro-Abortion Barack Obama Fare Well in 2012 Polling
• Saving Mexico City: Pro-Life Lobbying Salvages Attempt to Restore Abortion Limits
• Physicians Criticize Planned Parenthood in Sting Video Lying About Abortion
• Pro-Life Nations Beat Pro-Abortion Ones on Maternal Mortality, New Report Shows
• Abortion, Assisted Suicide and Bioethics Predictions for 2010, Tough Pro-Life Year
• Pro-Life Revival Against Abortion Laws Seen in Mexico, South America, Elsewhere
• Italy Government Approves Dangerous Abortion Drug Mifepristone, Available Soon
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Senate Vote Coming This Weekend on Funding Abortions in District of Columbia
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The Senate is expected to vote this weekend on an omnibus spending bill that includes a provision overturning a ban on taxpayer funding of abortions in the District of Columbia. The House already voted for the bill, which could increase abortions in Washington by as much as 1,000 a year.
The Dornan Amendment has prevented the federal government from paying for abortions in the District of Columbia, whose budget is overseen by Congress. But the omnibus spending bill, a collection of appropriations bills needed to fund the federal government, includes language overturning it.
House members approved the omnibus bill on a vote of 221-202-1 despite calls from pro-life groups to oppose the legislation because of the taxpayer funding of abortion. Now, the Senate is expected to vote on the bill this weekend.
Senators approved a motion to proceed to the bill on a 56-43 vote, with just three Democrats joining Republicans to oppose the procedural maneuver. Lawmakers are expected to vote on cloture, to end the pro-life filibuster against the legislation, on Saturday. Then, on Sunday, the Senate is expected to vote on the bill itself. Full story at LifeNews.com
ACTION: Contact members of the House about the vote for the bill. See how your members voted here. Also, Contact members of the Senate at 202-224-3121 or http://www.Senate.gov and urge them to oppose the omnibus bill because of the taxpayer funding of abortions in the District of Columbia.
Senate Omnibus Bill Funds Planned Parenthood, UNFPA, Ditches Abstinence Ed
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The omnibus spending bill the Senate will consider this weekend could pave the way for funding abortions in the nation's capital for the first time in 13 years. There are other winners and losers in the legislation -- with Planned Parenthood and the UNFPA dining at the Congressional trough.
As LifeNews.com has reported, the Senate is expected to vote on the bill and a filibuster of it this weekend.
In the House, not a single Republican voted for the bill and 28 Democrats joined them in opposing the measure, in part because of the abortion funding. But, there's more.
"Because the legislation funds so many federal agencies, there's ample room to squeeze in liberal goodies like abortion," says Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, tells LifeNews.com.
After the $10 million boost for Title X funding, Planned Parenthood is expected to be the biggest recipient of the Fed's $317.5 million pool, Perkins notes. The bill also says farewell to abstinence education -- the Omnibus zeros out "save sex" programs and replaces them with $110 million in condom promotion. Full story at LifeNews.com
What's Next on the Health Care Debate? Stop the Abortion Mandate Knows
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The last several months have been some of the most tumultuous for the pro-life movement in recent history as the battle has intensified over abortion funding in the government-run health care bills in Congress. After votes in the House and Senate, pro-life advocates who want to know what's next will get answers soon.
The debate in Congress has seen the House adopt the Stupak amendment to remove the abortion funding from the health care bill.
The Senate followed suit in voting on abortion funding but came to a different conclusion -- defeating an amendment to keep abortion money out of the public option and affordability credits.
And both bills still present concerns for pro-life advocates on conscience issues, rationing and the promotion of assisted suicide.
To cover these topics, the Stop the Abortion Mandate Coalition is having its fourth national webcast next Tuesday at 9:00 p.m. EST. There, pro-life advocates will learn of the current action in the Senate and upcoming action needed in the House.
"The U.S. Senate just defeated the Nelson-Hatch amendment which would have blocked the government from paying for abortions in the health care reform bill," the coalition, which includes LifeNews.com, said in a new statement. "Despite the fact that most Americans do NOT want our government to pay for abortions with their money, the Senate caved in to pressure from Planned Parenthood and abortion industry lobbyists." Full story at LifeNews.com
Fake Catholic Groups Resurface in Health Care-Abortion Funding Debate
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- They led the way in confusing Catholic voters about the pro-abortion record and views of presidential candidate Barack Obama. Now the fake Catholic groups that claim to be pro-life but advance the pro-abortion agenda are back -- this time in the national debate over health care and abortion funding.
Catholics United and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good proved that adding "Catholic" to the name of an organization could get one media attention -- and condemnation from pro-life Catholics who knew better.
The two groups went as far as passing out literature at churches that obfuscated Obama's pro-abortion views.
And in new interviews with the Christian Science Monitor today, they are hoping to water down the concerns over the massive government expansion of abortion under the auspices of the health care bill.
In a story that will likely confuse Catholics even further, the CSM gave the groups a platform to make their case that health care trumps the taxpayer funded death and destruction of perhaps hundreds of thousands of unborn children a year under the health care bill. Full story at LifeNews.com
Potential Opponents of Pro-Abortion Barack Obama Fare Well in 2012 Polling
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new poll comparing potential opponents of President Barack Obama to the pro-abortion president shows Obama's numbers sliding backwards. The new survey from the Public Policy Polling institute, a Democratic polling firm, shows pro-life candidates picking up steam against Obama.
Looking at the hypothetical matchups, the PPP survey finds Obama leading pro-life former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee by just one point at 46-45 percent with 9 percent undecided.
Compared with pro-life former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Obama leads by a 50-44 percentage point margin with 6 percent undecided.
The poll has Obama ahead of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who campaigned as a pro-life candidate in the 2008 presidential election, by a 47-42 percent margin with 12 percent undecided.
The fourth and final candidate PPP tested against Obama, current pro-life Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty fared the worst of the four against Obama likely because he is still not yet well known outside of Minnesota and hardcore Republican circles. Obama led Pawlenty 47 to 42 with 12 percent undecided. Full story at LifeNews.com
Saving Mexico City: Pro-Life Lobbying Salvages Attempt to Restore Abortion Limits
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Candidate Barack Obama promised the abortion lobby that, upon his ascendancy to the presidency, he would follow Bill Clinton's lead and ditch the Mexico City Policy. Obama scrapped the abortion limit and his allies in Congress could have made that permanent if not for some intense lobbying.
The Mexico City Policy is the pro-life protection President Ronald Reagan put in place in the 1980s after a population conference in the Mexican capital. The measure makes it so taxpayers are not forced to fund groups through U.S. family planning programs that perform or promote abortions in other nations.
Planned Parenthood and the British-based Marie Stopes International abortion business has received the funds and refused to stop doing abortions or lobbying nations to throw out their pro-life laws so they could receive the funding the policy banned.
Every time the presidency changes hands from a pro-life to a pro-abortion advocate, the policy, issued via executive order, is overturned or restored. After Obama forced taxpayers to finance the abortion agenda, his friends in Congress -- sensing a rare opportunity after an election that gave them ironclad control over Congress -- sought to make his executive order permanent. Full story at LifeNews.com
Physicians Criticize Planned Parenthood in Sting Video Lying About Abortion
Appleton, WI (LifeNews.com) -- Two physicians are responding to a new sting operation video produced showing staff at a Wisconsin Planned Parenthood center lying to women about fetal development and abortion. The undercover footage from Live Action shows abortion center staff, including the abortion practitioner, misleading women.
The Planned Parenthood staffers encourage pregnant women posting as potential abortion customers to obtain an abortion because "women die having babies."
In the undercover video, two women posing as potential abortion customers ask a Planned Parenthood counselor if the pregnant woman's 10-week-old unborn child has a heartbeat.
The counselor emphasizes "heart tones," and answers, "Heart beat is when the fetus is active in the uterus--can survive--which is about seventeen or eighteen weeks."
Now, two physicians are stepping forward in response to the video and, as they say, to correct the "absurd and scientifically erroneous" information Planned Parenthood presented the women. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Life Nations Beat Pro-Abortion Ones on Maternal Mortality, New Report Shows
New York, NY (LifeNews.com/CFAM) -- A new report from the World Economic Forum (WEF) shows that countries with restrictive abortion laws are often the leaders in reducing maternal mortality, and those with permissive laws often lag.
According to the report, the pro-life nation of Ireland has topped the global rankings once again with the best maternal health performance.
Abortion advocates have attempted to push an international "right to abortion," claiming that restrictive laws force women to seek unsafe abortion, which in turn leads to high maternal mortality.
In October, the Guttmacher Institute released a report on global abortion calling on states to "expand access to legal abortion and ensure that safe, legal abortion services are available to women in need." Sharon Camp, president of the Guttmacher Institute, asserted that "in much of the developing world, abortion remains highly restricted, and unsafe abortion is common and continues to damage women's health and threaten their survival."
An examination and comparison of several countries included in the WEF survey show that legal abortion does not mean lower maternal mortality rates. Full story at LifeNews.com
Abortion, Assisted Suicide and Bioethics Predictions for 2010, Tough Pro-Life Year
by Wesley J. Smith
"Flash Forward" is a new and interesting television drama presented on the ABC Television Network. The premise is brilliant - due to reasons still unknown, everyone in the world (except the bad guys) blackout for two minutes seventeen seconds.
Planes crash, people collapse on the streets, swimmers drown, it is an utter catastrophe that results in the deaths of 20 million people. Being unconscious, blackout victims experience a "flash forward" - a vision of precisely what they would be doing for two minutes and seventeen seconds at the same specific time in April 2010.
Some have happy futuristic visions of new loves, some unhappy of broken marriages and deaths, some terrifying such as being murdered, one hilarious - an FBI supervisor is chagrined to admit he spent his entire flash forward on the toilet. Still others have nothing but blackness, indicating that they may be dead next April. The show raises several fascinating questions; whether free will exists, can "the future" be changed, indeed, can it really be predicted.
Well, it's time for our very own "flash forward" as the CBC has again asked me to prognosticate about our bioethical future in 2010. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Life Revival Against Abortion Laws Seen in Mexico, South America, Elsewhere
New York, NY (LifeNews.com) -- Mexican pro-lifers were elated when the Vera Cruz amended its state constitution last month to protect life from the moment of conception, joining 16 other Mexican states.
The vote set the stage for a possible amendment to the federal constitution: under Mexico's constitution, approval by a majority of the 32 state legislatures and two-thirds of the bicameral Congress is a prerequisite for any federal amendment.
Mexican abortion advocates who cheered last year's limited Supreme Court decision upholding a liberalized Mexico City law did not foresee such a popular reaction in favor of life. The court there had deferred to the legislature while declining to hold that abortion is a constitutional right.
Nor is Mexico's experience unique – it is consistent with a string of victories in favor of life this past year around the globe that has heartened defenders of the unborn. These victories undercut the argument that a liberalized "customary" global norm on abortion is evolving.
First and foremost was this summer's successful reform of the Dominican Republic's constitution, which now declares that "the right to life is inviolable from conception until death." The nation also tightened its penal law protection of unborn life. Full story at LifeNews.com
Italy Government Approves Dangerous Abortion Drug Mifepristone, Available Soon
Rome, Italy (LifeNews.com) -- The Italian government has given the final approval for nationwide sales of the dangerous abortion drug mifepristone. The abortion pill has already killed at least 13 women worldwide and injured more than 1,100 in the U.S. alone according to FDA figures that are three years old.
The Italian drug agency AIFA said earlier this week that it would end years of debate on the abortion drug and approve it for use in abortions at around seven weeks of pregnancy.
The regulations the government put in place make it so the abortion pill can only be obtained from a licensed physician in a hospital and can't be sold in pharmacies. AIFA had originally allowed sales of the drug at the end of July but a Senate committee asked the agency to review its decision in the face of protests from the Catholic Church and members of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government.
The decision has already come under heavy criticism with deputy interior minister Alfredo Mantovano saying the decision labeled the drug by classifying it as just another drug for treating fever, rather than "an instrument for ending a life." Full story at LifeNews.com
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