Friday, January 29, 2010

LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report 1/30/10



LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report

Saturday, January 30, 2010

For pro-life news updated throughout the day, visit LifeNews.com.

Current Headlines

New Drug Ellaone Billed as Better Morning After Pill, But It Causes Abortions

NOW Attacks Sarah Palin Over Tim Tebow Ad, Says Women Need Abortions

Feminist Gloria Allred Claims Story of Tim Tebow's Mom's Non-Abortion Untrue
International Planned Parenthood Pushes "Sexual Rights," Abortion for Kids
Scott Roeder Convicted of Murder in Killing Abortion Practitioner George Tiller
Pro-Life Group Upset Abortion Business Dismisses Woman's Abortion Death
• Attacking Pregnancy Centers: Abortion Advocates Can't Show Real Scandal

Abortion Splits United States, Creates Partisan Divide Between Dems, GOP
Pro-Life Group: Scott Roeder Used Violence on Abortion, Not Pro-Life Ethic
Utah Committee Passes Bill to Allow Women to See Ultrasound Before Abortion

--> LifeNews.com is co-sponsoring the Support the Pro-Life Tim Tebow Super Bowl Ad fan page on Facebook with our friends at Americans United for Life. Please join the page and show your support for Tebow, his family and the good people at Focus on the Family letting America know about the pro-life valeus the Tebow family shares.

Help Focus Thank Pregnancy Centers - Each day, pregnancy centers help moms choose life for their babies -- and now, you can say thank you! Visit BeAVoice.net to help Focus on the Family thank pregnancy centers for serving women and saving lives. Tell your friends!

New Drug Ellaone Billed as Better Morning After Pill, But It Causes Abortions
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Abortion advocates are pushing a new drug that they say is an expanded morning after pill, or emergency contraception. However, pro-life doctors and advocates say Ellaone, also known as Ulipristal, works as an abortion drug and not an agent that prevents conception.

The morning after pill, or Plan B drug, has been around for years and can either prevent fertilization from occurring or can sometimes act as an abortifacient by killing the unique human being fertilization develops.

Ellaone is different -- instead of working hours or just a couple of days after sexual relations take place as the morning after pill does, it can be used up to five days afterwards.

The drug is becoming popular in Europe and abortion advocates there are pushing it as a better version of the morning after pill.

Ann Furedi, from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service abortion business in the UK, tells the London Daily Mail, "This new type of emergency contraceptive pill is exciting news."

But Josephine Quintavalle, of the Pro-Life Alliance, says Ellaone is not an emergency contraception because it causes an abortion rather than preventing pregnancy.

"If you take a morning-after pill within 24 hours, there is always the argument that the sperm may not have fertilized the egg by then, meaning pregnancy has not yet happened," she told the newspaper. "But if this pill works for five days there is no argument. This is not a contraceptive, it is an abortive agent." Full story at LifeNews.com


NOW Attacks Sarah Palin Over Tim Tebow Ad, Says Women Need Abortions
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Not content to allow former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin to have the last word on the Focus on the Family ad touting Tim Tebow's mother's decision to not have an abortion, the National Organization for Women (NOW) is attacking Palin.

As LifeNews.com reported Palin wrote a lengthy FaceBook post talking up the ad and Pam Tebow's decision to not have an abortion when pregnant with the college football star.

The potential 2012 presidential candidate said the ad and Tebow's decision "empowers women" to choose life when confronted with a difficult pregnancy situation.

Palin continued her criticism of NOW, which has called on CBS to flip-flop on its decision to pull the ad.

"For a pro-life, pro-woman, pro-family ad to be seen as offensive and not empowering women is puzzling," Palin told Fox News' Greta Van Susteren Thursday. "It makes you wonder what is NOW afraid of?"

"It certainly isn't an offensive message," Palin said. "For NOW to have chosen this, [they are] picking a wrong battle I think, to come across sounding quite offended by hearing that a pro-life commercial will air on the Super Bowl, it's baffling." Full story at LifeNews.com



Feminist Gloria Allred Claims Story of Tim Tebow's Mom's Non-Abortion Untrue
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The national attention placed on the Focus on the Family Super Bowl advertisement featuring the heart-wrenching story of Tim Tebow, and his mother's decision not to have an abortion when pregnant with him, is now taking a new turn.

Feminist attorney Gloria Allred has written a letter to CBS asking it to review its plans to allow the commercial before and during the Super Bowl.

In the missive, Allred offers a new objection different from ones abortion advocates have put up to this point.

She contends the story of Tebow's birth is untrue -- that doctors never recommended an abortion for Tebow's mom Pam because she contracted a dangerous disease and that the medicine would affect Tebow during the pregnancy.l

Allred's tells the web site RadarOnline she thinks the ad, which she hasn't seen, may turn out "to be misleading advertising."

In an open letter to Les Moonves, the President and CEO of the CBS Corporation, she bases her contention on the mere fact that abortion is illegal in the Philippines. According to Allred, the doctor would never have suggest Pam get an abortion because he could lose his license for doing so -- even though doctors in nations that protect women and children routinely suggest underground abortions. Full story at LifeNews.com


International Planned Parenthood Pushes "Sexual Rights," Abortion for Children
New York, NY (LifeNews.com/CFAM) -- In its new report "Stand and Deliver," the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) is demanding that governments, religious institutions and society at large provide "comprehensive sexuality education" for children as young as ten years old.

In a foreword, Bert Koenders of the Development Cooperation of the Netherlands, which helped fund the publication, asserts that, "Young people have the right to be fully informed about sexuality and to have access to contraceptives and other services. These rights are enshrined in various internationally agreed human rights convention and treaties, but unfortunately they are still not universally respected."

According to IPPF, as "young people are sexual beings," it should be self-evident that "sexuality education promotes individual well-being and the advancement of broader societal and public health goals." IPPF argues that "comprehensive sexuality education" must be mandatory in school, and governments must also ensure that this education is delivered to those young people who are out of school.

IPPF claims that "With young people as partners, today's adult decision-makers have the chance to recast sex and sexuality as a positive force for change and development, as a source of pleasure, an embodiment of human rights and an expression of self." Full story at LifeNews.com


Scott Roeder Convicted of Murder in Killing Abortion Practitioner George Tiller
Wichita, KS (LifeNews.com) -- A jury convicted Scott Roeder, who is not affiliated with any pro-life organization, or murder in killing late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller. Roeder entered the Lutheran Church on a Sunday morning last summer and shot him at point-blank range.

Roeder was also charged with two counts of aggravated assault for verbally assaulting two Reformation Lutheran Church members while brandishing the gun on his way out of the church.

The jury only deliberated for 37 minutes this morning before bringing the charges against Roeder, who is not involved in the national pro-life movement.

During the trial, Roeder testified that he shot and killed Tiller because he had grown frustrated that he kept getting off on charges that he was engaging in illegal late-term abortions. His attorneys were hoping to get a lesser charge but District Judge Warren Wilbert ruled that was not in order.

Roeder's attorneys hoped to win a lesser conviction of voluntary manslaughter, which requires a jury to confirm that a defendant had an unreasonable but honest belief that deadly force was justified. Full story at LifeNews.com


Pro-Life Group Upset Abortion Business Dismisses Woman's Abortion Death
Queens, NY (LifeNews.com) -- A botched legal abortion killed a Hispanic woman earlier this week at a shoddy abortion center in Queens, New York. In an interview with a local newspaper, staff at the abortion center were dismissive of the woman's death, prompting outrage from a pro-life group that monitors abortion facilities.

As LifeNews.com has reported, 37-year-old Alexandra Nuñez was killed after a botched abortion claimed her life at the A-1 Women's Care abortion center located in Jackson Heights.

Despite the abortion death, staff at the abortion center, who did not return a LifeNews.com phone call seeking comment, told the new York Daily News that everything went properly during the abortion procedure and that they are still booking women for abortions.

"The patient was transferred to the hospital, she didn't die at the clinic," a woman from the clinic told the newspaper. "Nothing happened here."

That has Operation Rescue president Troy Newman beside himself. "Nothing happened there -- except fatal injuries during a botched abortion which cost a woman her life," Newman told LifeNews.com.

"It is so typical of abortion clinics to hide the truth, but this time, the truth is out. The clinic is under investigation, and we will be forwarding information about this tragedy to the New York State Medical Board and demand disciplinary action against the abortionist," he said. Full story at LifeNews.com

Attacking Pregnancy Centers: Abortion Advocates Can't Produce a Real Scandal
by Joseph Backholm
Yesterday in Olympia the Senate committee on Health and Long-Term care held a hearing on SB 6452 which seeks to regulate crisis pregnancy centers in a variety of unnecessary and unconstitutional ways.

The bill, promoted by Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Rights Advocacy League (NARAL), would place a series of regulations on crisis pregnancy centers that would not apply to centers that offer abortion. For those of you following along at home, yes, that is probably unconstitutional.

Still, the hearing allows us to hear the horror stories of what is supposedly going on in crisis pregnancy centers that simply must be stopped.

One Planned Parenthood employee said she was told that "the HIV virus goes through a condom like rice through a tennis racket." Their doctor testified that condoms, when used every time, are 70% successful in preventing HIV. I know I felt a lot better when I learned that only 3 out of 10 "safe-sexers" would contract HIV if exposed.

Another Planned Parenthood employee said that she was told that sexual activity was going to lead to depression, STD's, and possibly even drug and alcohol abuse. Full story at LifeNews.com


Abortion Splits United States, Creates Partisan Divide Between Democrats, GOP
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com/CFAM) -- In Washington last Saturday night, a top legal scholar from Princeton University said that the United States Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion in 1973 led to deep societal divisions as well as to unprecedented political and religious alliances, which will be called on to lead a struggle for the "soul"of the nation once the decision is overturned.

Abortion and embryo-destructive research are at the heart of the divide between the nation s major political parties, Professor Robert George said, galvanizing support for the pro-life plank in the Republican Party while drawing disaffected Democrats to the Republican camp.

In response, Barack Obama is trying to win over religiously serious Catholics and Evangelicals, he said, who united around the pro-life cause, without altering in the slightest his support for abortion, including late-term and partial-birth abortions. Obama s recent attempt to woo religious leaders has support among some left-leaning Catholics who argue that collaboration would lead to fewer abortions, a prospect George called delusional.

George is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, a seat once held by US President Woodrow Wilson. George is also the Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. Full story at LifeNews.com


Pro-Life Group: Scott Roeder Promoted Violence on Abortion, Not Pro-Life Ethic
Wichita, KS (LifeNews.com) -- A leading pro-life organization responded to the guilty verdict a jury handed down today convicting Scott Roeder of first-degree murder in the shooting death of late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller. The National Right to Life Committee strongly condemned Roeder's actions.

As LifeNews.com reported, a jury found Roeder guilty of killing Tiller and two counts of aggravated assault for threatening members of Tiller's church, where Roeder admitted he shot and killed Tiller.

Hundreds of pro-life groups released statements at the time of the shooting last year condemning Roeder and saying his actions didn't constitute the kind of respect for human life they foster.

Today, National Right to Life executive director David O'Steen told LifeNews.com just that.

"The actions last May of which Scott Roeder was just convicted are antithetical to the work of the pro-life movement to protect the lives of unborn children and their mothers," he said. "NRLC strongly opposes any use of violence as a means of stopping the violence that has killed more than 52 million unborn children since 1973." Full story at LifeNews.com



Utah Committee Passes Bill to Allow Women to See Ultrasound Before Abortion
Salt Lake City, UT (LifeNews.com) -- When ultrasound first became popular the question was, would abortions be done if women and society had a window to the womb? A Utah state legislative panels that window open because it passed a bill allowing women a chance 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.

Legislators hope many women will be convinced to find positive alternatives by seeing an ultrasound at an abortion center.

HB 200 reworks some of the current informed consent language currently on the books in Utah and makes it so abortion centers must allow women a chance to see an ultrasound before the abortion is done.

The bill also requires abortion facilities to provide a detailed description of the unborn child to the mother considering abortion.

The legislation, sponsored by Republican state Rep. Carl Wimmer, also requires the state Department of Health to produce both printed and video information about the ultrasound viewing that abortion businesses must give women 24 hours in advance of the abortion informing them of their rights to view one. Full story at LifeNews.com

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