LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
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Current Headlines
• Senate Defeats Nelson Amdt to Stop Abortion Funding in Health Care Bill
• Bill Has Biggest Abortion Funding Since Roe, Pro-Life Groups Urge No Vote
• Senators Warn Dems: Will Filibuster Bill Overturning Pro-Life Abortion Laws
• New Report Shows 1,500 Abortion Ctrs Closed Since 1991, Pro-Life Victory
• Louisiana Sen. Landrieu Flip-Flops, Opposes Amdt to Stop Abortion Funds
• Pro-Life Group Challenges Planned Parenthood on Health Care Bailout
• Britain Saw 20,000 Women Under 25 Have Repeat Abortions in 2008
• New Zealand Abortions Drop 4.8 Percent in 2008, Screening System Criticized
• Italy's Parliament Gets Bill Recognizing Rights of Unborn Children on Abortion
• New York Woman Charged With Attempting to Kill Baby in Forced Abortion
• Utah Prosecutors Appeal Dismissal of Abortion Case Against Teenager
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Senate Defeats Nelson Amendment to Stop Abortion Funding in Health Care Bill
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The Senate on Tuesday voted 54-45 to defeat the Nelson amendment that would have removed the massive abortion funding from the Senate government-run health care bill. With the defeat, pro-life advocates will unite behind a concerted effort to defeat the entire health care bill.
The legislation currently allows abortion funding under both the public option and the affordability credits to purchase health care insurance.
The bill contains a slightly-reworded version of the much-maligned Capps amendment, which a House committee approved on a partisan vote and which pro-life groups say is an accounting scheme to hide government-funded abortions.
The Nelson amendment, sponsored by Nebraska Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson, Democrat Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Republican Orrin Hatch of Utah, would have restored the Hyde amendment principles to the bill to ensure that abortions can't be funded.
Nelson was unable to get enough Democrats to join him in supporting the amendment while two Republicans, pro-abortion Maine Sens. Olympia Snow and Susan Collins, sided with abortion advocates against the amendment. Sen. Barbara Boxer moved to table (kill) the Nelson amendment and she was joined by most Democrats and opposed by most Republicans.
Democrats who voted no and opposed Boxer's motion to kill the Nelson amendment included Sens. Casey, David Pryor of Arkansas, Byron Dorgan and Kent Conrad of North Dakota, Edward Kaufman of Delaware and Evan Bayh of Indiana. Full story at LifeNews.com
Health Bill Has Biggest Abortion Funding Since Roe, Pro-Life Groups Urge No Vote
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- With the Senate having defeated an amendment that would have removed the massive abortion funding from the government-run health care bill, pro-life groups now say the legislation would result in the biggest expansion of taxpayer-funding of abortions since Roe v. Wade.
After Roe, during the 1970s and before the Hyde amendment was exacted, the federal government paid for as many as 300,000 abortions annually -- and abortion numbers sharply declined once that funding was revoked.
With the Nelson amendment, pro-life groups say the nation would go back to those days and they say they will pull out all the stops to get the Senate to defeat the bill.
"A majority of senators today voted to keep abortion covered in the proposed federal government insurance program, and to subsidize private insurance plans that cover abortion on demand," National Right to Life legislative director Douglas Johnson told LifeNews.com. "Now, the vote on cloture on the bill itself will become the key vote on whether to put the federal government into the abortion business," he explained. "We will oppose cloture on the bill, which would require 60 affirmative votes."
Johnson said the battle is far from over and hopes the pro-life Democrats who supported the Stupak amendment in the House will stand up for it by voting against the health care bill should it be removed in conference committee. Full story at LifeNews.com
Senators Warn Democrats: Will Filibuster Bill Overturning Pro-Life Abortion Laws
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new abortion battle is shaping up this week in Congress that is separate and distinct from the battle over abortion funding in the health care bill. This battle concerns the omnibus appropriations bill the House and Senate must approve to keep the federal government running.
As LifeNews.com reported on Monday, the bill will merge several funding bills that have real concerns for pro-life advocates.
The bills make it so Americans, for the first time in decades, would be forced to fund abortions in the District of Columbia and for federal employees through their health insurance program.
They would also turn President Barack Obama's decision to overturn the Mexico City Policy, which prevented taxpayer funding of groups that perform and promote abortions abroad, into federal law. That makes it so a pro-life president can't undo Obama's decision and Congress would be forced to pass a new law repealing this one.
The House is expected to vote on the omnibus bill, the language of which had not yet been made public as of Monday, later this week. When it does, and if it does not fix the problem of overturning pro-life laws and making Obama's abortion-funding order permanent, pro-life groups will urge a no vote on the omnibus bill.
Also yesterday, a group of 35 senators wrote a letter to leading Congressional Democrats, promising to filibuster the omnibus legislation in the Senate unless the amendments overturning the pro-life laws are withdrawn. In a letter delivered to Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, pro-life Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina led the senators in saying the omnibus legislation will face stiff resistance because of its pro-abortion provisions. Full story at LifeNews.com
ACTION: Urge your member of Congress to oppose the omnibus appropriations bill unless all of the pro-life laws stopping taxpayer funding of abortion remain unchanged. Contact any House member thorough http://www.House.gov
New Report Shows 1,500 Abortion Centers Closed Since 1991, Pro-Life Victory
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new report shows the pro-life movement is winning the abortion battle because nearly 1,500 abortion businesses have closed down since 1991. The report, from Operation Rescue, is an encouragement at a time when the pro-life community is frustrated by the abortion-health care debate in Congress.
The pro-life group says the number of abortion facilities has declined as polls have shown Americans increasingly pro-life.
"We now have an accurate listing of every open abortion clinic in the country," Operation Rescue president Troy Newman told LifeNews.com. "In 1991, it was estimated that there were nearly 2,200 abortion clinics in the country, today there are just 713." "The pro-life movement has made significant strides exposing and closing abortion clinics and shifting public opinion toward the pro-life position. This has resulted in lower abortion rates," he said.
Newman has plotted the abortion centers on a map and correlated the locations with the data showing abortion rates in various states.
"The information shows a general relationship between access to abortion clinics and the abortion rate in each state. With few exceptions, the states with greater access to abortion clinics have higher abortion rates," he explained. Full story at LifeNews.com
Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu Flip-Flops, Opposes Amdt to Stop Abortion Funds
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- When she voted today on the Nelson amendment to strip the abortion funding from the Senate government-run health care bill, Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Democrat, was accused of flip-flopping because of her no vote. Landrieu has voted against government funding of abortions before.
In 2008, Landrieu was one of nine Democrats to vote for an amendment similar to the Nelson amendment that would prevent abortion funding in the bill that covers government health care for native Americans living on Indiana reservations.
However, Landrieu's spokesman Aaron Saunders told the Weekly Standard last night that "We expect her to oppose" the Nelson amendment when the Senate votes today.
Landriu eventualy did so and joined the majority of senators in supporting abortion funding. Asked why she would deviate from a past vote opposing abortion funding, Saunders said Landrieu would not explain her position today. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Life Group Challenges Planned Parenthood on Health Care-Abortion Bailout
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A top pro-life organization is challenging the nation's leading abortion business on how much it stands to gain financially from passage of a government-run health care bill in Congress. Americans United for Life president Charmaine Yoest is behind the challenge.
The challenge comes on the day the Senate will vote on the Nelson amendment to determine if massive abortion funding will be removed from the bill.
Americans United for Life Action published a full-page newspaper ad in The Hill, a respected Capitol Hill newspaper, challenging Planned Parenthood to come clean about how much money it will take in from the bill.
"This Senate health care bill is a bailout for the world's largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood," Yoest told LifeNews.com. Their lobbying efforts are said to be about empowering women and advancing reproductive health but the bottom line is that Planned Parenthood needs the business." Full story at LifeNews.com
Britain Saw 20,000 Women Under 25 Have Repeat Abortions in 2008, Many Teens
London, England (LifeNews.com) -- Anne Milton, the Conservative Party's Shadow Health Minister, obtained new figures from the British National Health Service showing more than 20,000 repeat abortions in 2008 on women under the age of 25. The NHS data shows teenagers accounted for 5,000 of those repeat abortions.
Approximately 3,800 of the women having repeat abortions last year were on their fifth abortion or higher, proving that abortions are routinely used for birth control purposes.
Milton says the NHS data shows a "huge concern," and added, "These figures demonstrate the Government's failure to produce a coherent and effective sexual health policy for England."
"Why is it that we are not able to reduce the number of young girls who not only end up with one unwanted pregnancy, but then just go back and have another?" she asked. Milton added that research shows abortions "can have a damaging effect on mental health." Full story at LifeNews.com
New Zealand Abortions Drop 4.8 Percent in 2008, Screening System Criticized
Wellington, New Zealand (LifeNews.com) -- New figures from the Abortion Supervisory Committee in New Zealand today indicate the number of abortions dropped 4.8 percent from 2007 to 2008. The government agency indicated abortions fell from 18,832 in 2007 to 17,940 last year.
The committee also reported that the ratio of abortions per 1000 pregnancies also fell from 222 to 217, and it's lower than the peak in 2003 of 247 per 1000 pregnancies. The abortion rate also fell last year for women aged between 15 and 44 from 20.1 to 19.7 per 1,000 women and this measure also peaked in 2003 at 20.8.
According to NZPA, the report shows 5,396 of the women getting abortions were between 20-24 years-old, the highest age category seeing abortions, while there were 4,097 between 15 and 19. Most abortions were done before the 12th week of pregnancy and 75 were done after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Full story at LifeNews.com
Italy's Parliament Gets Bill Recognizing Rights of Unborn Children on Abortion
Rome, Italy (LifeNews.com) -- A member of the Italian parliament has introduced legislation that would recognize the rights of unborn children. The measure, sponsored by Carlo Casini, president of the Pro-Life Movement and Member of the European Parliament, would recognize that unborn children have rights beginning at conception.
Casini says his bill has the backing of leaders of the Italian Parliament, including Maurizio Gasparri, Gaetano Quagliarello and Laura Bianconi.
A Zenit report indicates he filed the bill last Thursday and, during a press conference on it, explained that it is not an attempt to rewrite Italy's abortion law.
Instead, he said it would go along with the law by stopping the distortion of it "to the point of denying the one conceived the dignity of person and of using abortion as a contraceptive, two conditions that the law rejects." Casini told Zenit the bill spells "progress in the juridical culture" and that recognizing the rights of unborn children "is a more solid and lasting support for the rights of everyone." Full story at LifeNews.com
New York Woman Charged With Attempting to Kill Unborn Baby in Forced Abortion
New York, NY (LifeNews.com) -- A New York City woman has been charged in a case that saw her attempt to force her husband's pregnant mistress to have an abortion using the dangerous abortion drug mifepristone. When the abortion failed and the baby was born prematurely, she attempted to kill the infant.
Kisha Jones of Brooklyn obtained a doctor's prescription pad and phoned into the pharmacy a phony prescription for her husband's girlfriend, Monique Hunter. Jones then phoned Hunter and left a voicemail message about the prescription and told her to pick it up at a local pharmacy.
The prescription gave Hunter the RU 486 abortion drug, which has killed at least 13 women worldwide and injured more than 1,100 in the U.S. alone.
Hunter fell for the trick and took the abortion drug, which caused her to go into labor two months early, but the unborn child, who was later in pregnancy, survived. Jones then tried to pose as the baby's mother and sent a man to the hospital with two bottles of tainted milk and instructions to nurses to feed the baby. Full story at LifeNews.com
Utah Prosecutors Appeal Dismissal of Miscarriage-Abortion Case Against Teenager
Salt Lake City, UT (LifeNews.com) -- Prosecutors have appealed a judge's decision to dismiss a criminal case against a Utah girl who paid a man to hit her in the stomach in an attempt to cause a miscarriage-abortion. In October, the teenager was declared by a judge to not be guilty of violating any state law.
In November, 8th District Juvenile Judge Larry A. Steele used a state abortion law that one state legislator says was applied wrongly to absolve her of any responsibility.
He said Utah abortion law is "unambiguous" when it states, "a woman who is seeking to have or obtains an abortion for herself is not criminally liable."
The case involves 21-year-old Aaron Harrison whom the unnamed 17-year-old girl asked in May to help her cause an abortion to kill her seven-month-old unborn child. The court documents show the girl's boyfriend had threatened to leave her if she did not get an abortion.
Harrison, a friend of the girl, reportedly struck and bit her and she paid him $150 to do so. The unborn baby survived the attack and doctors induced labor so the baby could be born and the child was placed in state custody. Full story at LifeNews.com
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