LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Friday, March 5, 2010
| For pro-life news updated throughout the day, visit LifeNews.com. |
Current Headlines
• Obama, Democrats Set March 18 as Date for Pro-Abortion Health Care Vote
• Pro-Life Democrats Confirm: We Will Kill Health Care Bill Over Abortion Funding
• Polls: Voters in Districts of Pro-Life Democrats Oppose Pro-Abortion Health Care
• Pelosi Calls Pro-Life Democrats Liars, Third Abortion Funding Denial This Week
• Senate Judiciary Committee OKs Obama Pro-Abortion Pick Dawn Johnsen
• Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts Not Stepping Down, Report False
• Washington Report: At Least 36 People Died in Assisted Suicide Law's First Year
• Pro-Abortion Women Want More Funding for New United Nations Super Agency
• Missouri Budget Committee to Determine Fate of Abortion Alternatives Funding
• Virginia Senate Committee Kills Pro-Life Bills Protecting Women From Abortions
• Oklahoma Supreme Court Affirms Ruling on 2009 Abortion Bill, New Bills Coming
• Pennsylvania Pro-Life Sidewalk Counselors Get Settlement After Abortion Arrests
• Colorado Personhood Backers Need 15K Signatures or Abortion Amendment Fails
--> Is your pro-life group or pregnancy center looking for an affordable speaker? Need a speaker for a conference, convention, church presentation or on short notice? Consider LifeNews.com Editor Steven Ertelt. Email us for details.
Obama, Democrats Set March 18 as Date for Pro-Abortion Health Care Vote
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Mark your calendars for March 18 as that is the target date President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies in Congress have set as the target date for a vote on the pro-abortion Senate health care bill. That means pro-life advocates have two weeks to contact lawmakers and urge them to vote no.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said today that Obama hopes to get the bill approved by that date.
March is when Obama leaves for an international trip and Gibbs told reporters at a briefing this morning that it makes a convenient target.
"We're leaving on March 18 and we believe that we're on schedule, based on our conversations with the Speaker and the majority leader, to get something done by then," Gibbs said Thursday morning on MSNBC. "I think this is going to get done in the next couple of weeks."
With the reconciliation bill that will follow not making any changes to the massive abortion funding and pro-abortion problems the Senate bill invites, stopping the Senate bill in the House is the main priority.
Thanks to the opposition from pro-life Democrats, pro-life advocates may be able to complicate the numbers game for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. But Gibbs thinks there will be enough votes for the bill.
"We're going to work every day to make sure we have the votes," he said. "My sense is that if the vote were held today, we would have the votes." Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Life Democrats Confirm: We Will Kill Health Care Bill Over Abortion Funding
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- More than a dozen pro-life Democrats could decide the fate of the Senate health care bill that contains massive abortion funding and other pro-abortion problems. They are led by Michigan Rep. Bart Stupak, who confirmed again this morning that they are prepared to kill the health care bill over abortion.
Stupak and the approximately 12 other pro-life Democrats gave House Speaker Nancy Pelosi the narrow margin she needed to pass the House health care bill.
But with the Senate measure funding abortions, they are willing to walk and flip their yes votes to no -- complicating the numbers game for Pelosi and pro-abortion President Barack Obama.
"Yes. We're prepared to take responsibility [for killing the bill]," Stupak said on ABC's "Good Morning America" this morning when asked if they would take the heat for killing the pro-abortion bill. "We're not going to vote for this bill with that kind of language."
"I want to see health care pass. We must have health care but, boy, there are some principles and beliefs that some of us are not going to pass," he said. "We're prepared to take the responsibility. I mean, I've been catching it ever since last fall. Let's face it, I want to see health care. But we're not going to bypass some principles and beliefs that we feel strongly about." Full story at LifeNews.com
Polls: Voters in Districts of Pro-Life Democrats Oppose Pro-Abortion Health Care
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The Susan B. Anthony List today released the results of new polls showing the voters who live in the districts of key pro-life Democratic members of Congress oppose funding abortion in the health care bill. The polls are designed to encourage the members to vote no on the Senate health care bill.
The poll surveyed congressional districts in Indiana, Pennsylvania and Ohio represented by pro-life Democrats who voted for the Stupak Amendment, which prohibited abortion funding in the House version of the bill.
At least three-in-five voters in these eight congressional districts agreed that Abortion and abortion funding have no place in healthcare legislation. Additionally, more than 70% of voters agreed in four of the districts surveyed (Ohio-06, Ohio-16, Indiana-08, and Indiana-09).
At least two-thirds of voters in each Congressional District opposed using tax dollars to pay for abortions and in all districts majorities strongly opposed. Furthermore, in three districts opposition reached 80% (Ohio-06, Ohio-16, and Indiana-08)
In each district, voters were more apt to reject, rather than embrace, a candidate who votes for healthcare legislation that includes federal government funding of abortion. Majorities of voters in seven of the eight districts said they would be less likely to support a candidate knowing he or she cast a vote for this type of legislation. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pelosi Calls Pro-Life Democrats Liars, Third Abortion Funding Denial This Week
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- In a press conference today. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi denied the abortion funding in the Senate health care bill for the third time in the last seven days. Reacting to a promise from pro-life Democrats to kill the bill over the massive abortion funding it contains, Pelosi essentially called them liars.
This morning,Rep. Bart Stupak said he and pro-life Democrats were prepared to vote against the bill because it funds abortions and contains other pro-abortion problems.
Pelosi got exasperated when a reporter asked at her weekly press conference about their unwillingness to support the bill over abortion.
Let me say this: This is not about abortion! This is a bill about providing quality, affordable health care for all Americans, she said, according to Politico.
Politico indicated Pelosi talked about ways in which the reconciliation bill could be used to attract votes from Democrats for the Senate health care bill, but she omitted abortion. That's likely in part because the reconciliation bill can't be used to strike the abortion funding.
I will not have it turned into a debate on (abortion), she said when asked a follow-up question about Stupak.
Let me say it clearly: we all agree on the three following things. One is there is no federal funding for abortion. That is the law of the land. It is not changed in this bill. There is no change in the access to abortion. No more or no less: It is abortion neutral in terms of access or diminution of access. And, third, we want to pass a health care bill," she said. Full story at LifeNews.com
Senate Judiciary Committee OKs Obama Pro-Abortion Pick Dawn Johnsen 
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The Senate Judiciary has confirmed pro-abortion activist Dawn Johnsen, whom President Barack Obama appointed for a powerful Justice Department position. Johnsen's nomination now heads to the full Senate, where Democrats are battling to stop a filibuster against her.
Johnsen is the radical pro-abortion activist President Barack Obama named to head up the Justice Department s Office of Legal Counsel.
The post is one of the top legal positions in the federal government and frequently a stepping stone to the Supreme Court.
Johnsen's nomination has been stalled by Republicans and at least one Democrat who are filibustering her nomination because of her out-of-the-mainstream pro-abortion views and on other political issues.
In preparation for that battle, the Senate Judiciary Committee, on a party-line vote with Democrats supportive and Republicans opposed, approved the nomination of Dawn Johnsen to be Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel.
At the end of 2009, the Senate returned her nomination to the White House and President Obama promptly renominated her in January. Full story at LifeNews.com
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts Not Stepping Down, Report False
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A rumor that sprang up Thursday and would have severe repercussions for the pro-life movement has quickly been put to rest. Reports indicate Chief Justice John Roberts will not be stepping down just five years after winning Senate confirmation to steer the nation's most influential court.
The news source Radar claimed it learned exclusively that Roberts would be stepping down "for personal reasons."
Radar quickly retracted the story after it was immediately shot down by numerous Washington sources and news outlets and put a note on its web site saying it "had obtained new information that Justice Roberts will not resign" and "will be staying on the bench."
Radar provided no citation for the claim, but political observers LifeNews.com heard from today speculated it may have had something to do with the fact that Roberts, 55, has suffered two seizures -- in 1993 and again in 2007.
Although a Time magazine report after the second seizure speculated Roberts may have epilepsy, the Supreme Court said Roberts "fully recovered" and a neurological evaluation "revealed no cause for concern."
Shortly after the false claim made the rounds on the Internet, Fox News reported that sources it has heard from said the Roberts resignation rumor is not true and one well-connected pro-life advocate informed LifeNews.com that the rumor is false. Full story at LifeNews.com
Washington Report: At Least 36 People Died in Assisted Suicide Law's First Year
Olympia, WA (LifeNews.com) -- A new report from the Washington health department reveals at least 36 people died after they killed themselves under the first year of the state's new law legalizing assisted suicides. The law was only enacted for nine months during 2009 after voters approved it on the 2008 ballot.
The figures from the state indicate Washington doctors gave prescriptions for lethal doses of drugs to 63 patients between March 5, when the law went into effect, and the end of 2009.
The numbers reveal 47 people died -- with 36 of them taking the lethal cocktail of drugs while seven people died of other causes and four people died but it could not be determined if they died from an assisted suicide or for other reasons.
In the cases of those whose cause of death could not be determined, the death report has yet to be filed indicating it.
The people who killed themselves via the assisted suicide law closely resembled the patients who died in Oregon under the law there that is the first in the nation. Most victims of the law were white, well-educated, had health insurance, and were battling cancer at the time of their death. All of them worried about losing personal autonomy. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Abortion Women Want More Funding for New United Nations Super Agency
New York, NY (LifeNews.com/CFAM) -- The annual United Nations (UN) Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) began this week in New York and marks the 15-year review of the Beijing Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995).
While governments are supposed to be meeting to examine national commitments to implementing the UN Millennium Development Goals, the fight so far has been over the structure and funding for a new women s super-agency that would essentially subsume the four major existing UN institutions dealing with women s and gender issues: the Division for the Advancement of Women, the United Nations Development Fund for Women, the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women, and the Office of the Special Advisor on Gender Issues.
The wish is that women s issues get the same institutional weight that children s issues get from the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) even though much of UNICEF now focuses on women rather than children. Full story at LifeNews.com
Missouri Budget Committee to Determine Fate of Abortion Alternatives Funding
Jefferson City, MO (LifeNews.com) -- The Missouri House Budget Committee will determine the fate of the funding for the Alternatives to Abortion (ATA) program when it meets next week. Last month, the House Committee on Mental Health, Health and Social Services recommended the complete elimination of funding.
House Budget Committee chairman Allen Icet instructed the six appropriations committees that take the first pass of the state budget to come up with suggestions on cutting spending that eliminating the pregnancy help money is one item on the chopping block.
State pro-life groups were concerned after that recommendation and shifted into high gear to urge legislators to keep the program.
Now, Rep. Icet has proposed to retain full funding, all $1.9 million of the ATA budget. The issue of ATA funding and all other state budget matters will come before the panel when lawmakers return from their break on Monday.
The Missouri Catholic Conference told LifeNews.com pro-life advocates need to contact members of the panel soon to urge support for funding the abortion alternatives program. Full story at LifeNews.com
Virginia Senate Committee Kills Pro-Life Bills Protecting Women From Abortions
Richmond, VA (LifeNews.com) -- A Virginia state Senate committee killed pro-life bills that would have protected women from abortions and held abortion centers to same standards as legitimate medical facilities. The Senate Education and Health Committee on Thursday rejected the pro-life bills as it has so many others in the past.
Delegate Bob Marshall, a Republican, sponsored HB 334 that would require updating the state's informed consent law to include information that has been published in a peer reviewed medical journal about the consequences of abortion on future pregnancies.
The measure had the support of the Family Foundation and its president, Victoria Cobb, told LifeNews.com about the need for the bill.
"Ironically, Planned Parenthood, which has accused pregnancy resource centers of disseminating information that is not 'medically accurate,' is opposed to this bill that requires the information given to women at Virginia's abortion centers to be exactly that medically accurate," she said. Full story at LifeNews.com
Oklahoma Supreme Court Affirms Ruling on 2009 Abortion Bill, New Bills Coming
Oklahoma City, OK (LifeNews.com) -- The Oklahoma Supreme Court has upheld a judge's ruling striking down an omnibus abortion bill from 2009 by saying they couldn't be compiled into one measure. However, the state legislature is moving the bills ahead this year with separate measures that should overcome the ruling.
On Wednesday, the state's high court upheld the February ruling of a state District Court that a pro-life state law not yet enacted is unconstitutional.
Both courts found the law to be unconstitutional on the basis that the law violates state rules requiring that legislation address only a single subject.
The law would have prohibited sex-selective abortions and required doctors to fill out a 10-page questionnaire about the circumstances of the abortion. Survey responses would then be sent to the state health department for publication online.
The state Supreme Court wrote in their opinion, "We are growing weary of admonishing the Legislature for so flagrantly violating the terms of the Oklahoma Constitution. It is a waste of time for the Legislature and the Court, and a waste of the taxpayers' money."
The legislature is already advancing new bills. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pennsylvania Pro-Life Sidewalk Counselors Get Settlement After Abortion Arrests
Philadelphia, PA (LifeNews.com) -- With the help of a pro-life legal group, pro-life sidewalk counselors near Philadelphia secured a favorable settlement with the city of York Tuesday.
Alliance Defense Fund allied attorneys and ADF attorneys helped the people who were kept from sharing their pro-life message with individuals in a public alley next to a Planned Parenthood abortion facility.
Edward Snell and John McTernan, who were arrested and threatened with arrest, respectively, for exercising their First Amendment rights, were represented by ADF attorneys and allied attorneys in two separate lawsuits against the city of York.
Christians shouldn't be arrested and threatened with arrest for expressing their beliefs on public property, said Randall L. Wenger--one of more than 1,600 ADF-allied attorneys--who was lead counsel in the cases and serves as chief counsel of the Independence Law Center in Harrisburg.
Colorado Personhood Backers Need 15K Signatures or Abortion Amendment Fails
Denver, CO (LifeNews.com) -- The Colorado Secretary of State has evaluated the signatures backers of the personhood amendment submitted to get the proposal on the 2010 ballot. The amendment defines unborn children as persons starting at conception, but it may never go before state voters.
That's because Personhood Colorado leaders submitted only 79,817 petition signatures last month.
The total was just 3,770 signatures more than the 76,047 required, which is five percent above the limit. Because not all signatures come from valid Colorado voters and some may be duplicates, the total wasn't enough.
The Colorado Secretary of State has disclosed that 15,690 of the 79,648 signatures submitted by the group were invalid and, starting today, it has 15 days to submit more than that amount to get the amendment on the ballot. Full story at LifeNews.com
| Looking for a pro-life speaker for your next banquet, conference or convention? LifeNews.com editor Steven Ertelt is a low-cost speaker who can entertain and educate your audience as well as help you with a fundraising pitch if necessary. He can also speak on any pro-life topic. For more information, email news@LifeNews.com. |
Encourage Friends to Sign Up for Free Pro-Life News From LifeNews.com
