LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Saturday, April 10, 2010
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Current Headlines
• Pro-Abortion Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens to Retire This Summer
• Bart Stupak to Retire, Pro-Life Democrat Who Allowed Pro-Abortion Health Care
• Sarah Palin's Daughter Bristol Pain Records PSA Urging Teen Girls to Practice Abstinence
• Chicago Catholic Nun Who Said Barack Obama Wasn't Pro-Abortion Issues Apology
• Heritage Foundation Forms Conservative Grassroots Organization
• Notre Dame Releases Pro-Life Statement After Criticism for Obama Speech
• New York Woman Appears in Court to Say Novartis Boss Pressured Her to Get an Abortion
• Australia Abortion Practitioner Accused of Infecting Women With Hepatitis C During Abortions
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Pro-Abortion Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens to Retire This Summer
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The press office of the Supreme Court indicated today that pro-abortion Justice John Paul Stevens will indeed announce his retirement this summer. Stevens had been expected to announce his decision sometime this month about whether he would remain on the court or allow a replacement.
CBS News indicates Justice Stevens sent a letter to President Barack Obama indicating he will step down from his position on the Supreme Court.
He had been a member of the 5-4 pro-abortion majority on the high court that supported Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court case that allowed 52 million abortions.
Stevens' decision to step down will likely pave the way for a significant battle over his replacement.
With Democrats controlling 59 votes and expected to lose votes after the November congressional elections, Obama may determine that now is the best time to appoint a polemic pro-abortion replacement.
Given the political analysis that Obama and Democrats may go for a more polemic Supreme Court nominee before the elections, the names coming out so far as the leading potential picks include two hardcore abortion advocates, Diane Wood and Elana Kagan.
The problem for the pro-life movement is Kagan and Wood are extreme nominees and pro-life groups would likely strongly oppose their nominations.
The best pro-life advocates can hope for is retaining the current 5-4 pro-abortion majority which, if a pro-life president is elected and can put another conservative jurist on the court, is one vote away from possibly overturning the pro-abortion precedent.During his State of the Union address, Obama criticized a recent Supreme Court decision that some pro-life attorneys and legal experts say could be used as a basis for overturning the 37-year-old pro-abortion precedent in Roe and Doe. Full story at LifeNews.com
Bart Stupak to Retire, Pro-Life Democrat Who Allowed Pro-Abortion Health Care
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Congressman Bart Stupak of Michigan, the pro-life Democrat who sealed the deal for the pro-abortion health care bill by agreeing to a phony executive order with President Barack Obama that won't truly ban abortion funding, will announce his retirement today.
Stupak has gone back and forth this week and just yesterday denied talk of retirement by saying he had every intention of running for re-election.
But the Democratic congress is expected to hold a mid-day press conference to announce he will step down -- though whether he will retire at the end of his term and not run for re-election this November or resign now and spark a special election before then -- is unclear.
Stupak first informed Democratic leaders last week that he was considering retiring and top abortion advocates including Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tried to talk him out of it.
Charmaine Yoest, the president of Americans United for Life, told LifeNews.com that Stupak is merely the first casualty of the pro-abortion health care battle.
"Bart Stupak entered into a sham political deal that couldn't be defended with a straight face. He put politics over principle and now even the politics are catching up to him," she said.
Yoest added, "This is just the beginning of the fallout over pro-abortion health care reform. Ramming federal funding for abortion through against the will of the American people was a radioactive vote."
National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Ken Spain also responded.
After selling his soul to Nancy Pelosi, it appears that Bart Stupak finally found the courage to tell her no. The political fallout over the Democrats government takeover of healthcare has put the political careers of many Democrats in jeopardy thanks in-part to Stupak s decision to abandon his alleged pro-life principles," he told CNN. Full story at LifeNews.com
Sarah Palin's Daughter Bristol Pain Records PSA Urging Teen Girls to Practice Abstinence
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The daughter of former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has record a new public service announcement urging teenage girls to practice abstinence. Bristol Palin is warning girls in a new ad to consider the consequences of sexual activities beforehand.
The PSA for the Candie's Foundation has the 19-year-old mother asking: What if I didn t come from a famous family? What if I didn t have all their support? What if I didn t have all these opportunities?
Appearing in a t-shirt and jeans and holding her son Tripp, the younger Palin adds: "Believe me, it wouldn t be pretty. Pause, before you play."
Palin was in the media spotlight and the subject of much discussion during the 2008 presidential campaign after it was made know that she was pregnant and soon to become an unwed mother.
In an interview with ABC s Good Morning America last May, Palin said abstinence is the best and only way to prevent pregnancy. And while not easy, Palin said she believes abstinence is realistic.
I do think it s realistic, she said. It s definitely the harder choice but it s the safest choice and it s the best choice.
Chicago Catholic Nun Who Said Barack Obama Wasn't Pro-Abortion Issues Apology
Chicago, IL (LifeNews.com) -- The Catholic nun in Chicago who is a paid employee of the Archdiocese has issued an apology for saying in a recent interview that President Barack Obama is not pro-abortion. Sister Anita Baird, who runs the Office for Racial Justice, gave an interview recently where she claimed there is a different between pro-abortion and pro-choice and that Obama is the latter and not the former.
Now, the archdiocese has posted a statement from Baird on its Web site in which she renounces her previous comments.
I am affirming my belief in the teachings of the Catholic Church and understand that there can be no distinction between pro-abortion and pro-choice because the choice at issue is the choice to kill a child, Baird said. I also apologize to those who were scandalized by my statement.
Her original comments from earlier in the week created an uproar in the pro-life world and resulted in a widely-read column from Catholic writer Deal Hudson, a longtime pro-life advocate.
Meanwhile, Baird's office already was in the news for honoring with Cardinal Francis George s blessing the Rev. Michael Pfleger, an activist-priest who s been criticized by pro-life advocates conservatives for backing Obama and his inflammatory, racially tinged comments during the election about now-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Heritage Foundation Forms Conservative Grassroots Organization
Washington DC (LifeNews.com) -- The Heritage Foundation, one of the largest conservative think tanks normally sits on the sidelines producing analysis and information for more activist groups and federal and state lawmakers. Now, the pro-life group has formed a lobbying arm to more directly support conservative legislation in Congress.
Heritage Action will answer the demand of our rapidly growing membership to help them play a more active and effective role in national policy debates, Edwin Feulner, president of the 630,000 member group said.
Heritage Action will focus its energy and grassroots strength and apply them where it can have the biggest impact on moving good legislative proposals or blocking ruinous measures," Feulner added.
The goal here is to take Heritage s practical, research-based policy recommendations, and see them through into law, Feulner added.
Former Heritage Foundation staffer Michael Needham, Feulner's former chief of staff and a former staffer for the presidential campaign of pro-abortion New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, will head the new activist group. Full story at LifeNews.com
Notre Dame Releases Pro-Life Statement After Criticism for Obama Speech
South Bend, IN (LifeNews.com) -- The University of Notre Dame on Thursday released an institutional statement affirming "its committee to the defense of human life in all its stages." The new policy statement comes on the heels of last year's controversial commencement speech and honorary degree presented to pro-abortion President Barack Obama.
"I don't know that this will be a dramatic change," the Rev. John Jenkins, Notre Dame's president, said in a telephone interview. "We wanted principles that we could apply consistently."
The Catholic university also adopted new principles for the institution's charitable activity.
Both actions came after recommendations to Jenks from a new campus pro-life task force formed in wake of the public outcry against the university's decision to honor and award Obama.
The new statement on the defense of life reads: "Consistent with the teaching of the Catholic Church on such issues as abortion, research involving human embryos, euthanasia, the death penalty, and other related life issues, the University of Notre Dame recognizes and upholds the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death."
The charitable activity principles don't apply to personal giving by employees and students. But they will apply to official university charitable activity.
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New York Woman Appears in Court to Say Novartis Boss Pressured Her to Get an Abortion
New York, NY (LifeNews.com) -- A New York woman who is a former Norvaris saleswoman cried on the witness stand this week as she recalled how her boss has encouraged her to get an abortion after she requested a transfer to be able to be with her soon-to-be husband.
The New York Post indicated Christine Macarelli said her former manager Bruce Holstein told her over the phone in 2004 that she should get an abortion and refused the transfer.
"I told Mr. Holstein that was not an option for me," the mother-of-two testified Thursday in a Manhattan court. "I was very disturbed. I had to collect myself and decide what to do ... I felt very alone."
Asked why she never reported Holstein, Macarelli said it was because "I had a co-worker who worked for Bruce, and she complained about him quite a bit, and ultimately she was fired."
Her testimony came on the first day of a major gender discrimination trial that seeks $200 million in damages for 5,600 current and former female sales reps for the Swiss-owned pharmaceutical giant.
Another former saleswoman, Bernice Dezelan, said she was routinely subjected to crude comments from male co-workers, who used company money to take doctors to strip clubs.
Australia Abortion Practitioner Accused of Infecting Women With Hepatitis C During Abortions
Melbourne, Australia (LifeNews.com) -- An Australia abortion practitoner faces accusations that he infected as many as 12 women with hepatisis C during abortions. The heath chief of the Australian state of Victoria released the accusations against the abortion practitioner, according to an AAP report.
Chief health officer John Carnie indicated investigations showed the women were deliberately infected and that a probe into the abortion center may reveal more, but it will takes weks to contact them.
The women went to the Croydon Day Surgery abortion business between June 2008 and December 2009 for abortions, all done by the same abortion practitioner whose name was not released.
The abortion practitioner in the case could face criminal charges for infecting the women and authorities, AAP says, are days away from maing that determination. The Medical Board of Victoria has investigated the allegations and suspended the anesthesiologist involved in the abortions on February 15 -- two months after the health department became aware of the allegations when three women contacted the agency after infection.
"I find it difficult to imagine how an accidental transmission could affect 12 patients," Carnie told reporters in Melbourne on Friday, AAP said. "My main concern at this stage is that I am still unable to explain or to determine the method of transmission of the hepatitis C virus from this doctor to these patients."
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