LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
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Current Headlines
• First State Opts Out of Abortion Funding in Health Care Bill Obama Signed
• CNN Poll Shows Americans Want Conservative, Moderate Supreme Court Justice
• New Pro-Life Law Banning Abortions Based on Fetal Pain Awaits Court Fight
• HBO Movie on Assisted Suicide Advocate Jack Kevorkian Premiers Saturday
• Kenya Government Starts Campaign for Pro-Abortion Constitution, Attacks Church
• Canadian Physician Urges Opposition to Assisted Suicide, Not Death With Dignity
• China Criticized Over Sterilization Bid to Enforce Pro-Abortion One-Child Rule
• Oklahoma Senate OKs Package of Five Bills to Limit Abortion, Require Ultrasound
• Tennessee Governor Signs Bill to Help Stop Forced Abortions, Protect Women
• Virginia NARAL Wants Taxpayers for to Pay for Abortions on Disabled Babies
• Mexico Abortion Debate Reopens as Raped 10-Year-Old Girl Becomes Pregnant
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First State Opts Out of Abortion Funding in Health Care Bill Obama Signed
Nashville, TN (LifeNews.com) -- The first state in the nation has decided to opt out of some of the massive taxpayer funding of abortion found in the new health care law President Barack Obama signed. Governor Phil Bredesen has received a bill that protects taxpayers from paying some of the abortion funding.
Bredesen is a Democrat who supports legal abortions and pro-life advocates in the state are hoping he will be signing the bill.
The measure, if signed, would have Tennessee opting out of using state tax money to pay for abortions in state health care exchanges -- though other abortion funding in the government-run health care bill can't be suppressed by state efforts.
Under the new health care law, states will be in charge of their own health care exchanges that are available for individuals and small businesses. The new law will keep any insurance plans on the Tennessee exchange from offering abortion coverage.
"We must take every action possible to protect Tennessee from being a part of a plan that allows for funding abortions," said state Senator Diane Black, a Republican who sponsored the bill.
"We have worked for years to ensure that taxpayer money is not used for abortion services in Tennessee and we must fight back against this overreach of federal power," she added. Full story at LifeNews.com
CNN Poll Shows Americans Want Conservative, Moderate Supreme Court Justice
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- When President Barack Obama names a replacement for retiring pro-abortion Justice John Paul Stevens, a new poll shows a majority of Americans want someone with a different judicial philosophy. However, Obama will likely side with just one-fourth of Americans who want another pro-abortion liberal.
A new CNN/Opinion Research poll released Tuesday showed 37 percent of adult Americans want Obama to nominate someone with a "moderate" judicial temperament.
Another 36 percent want a new Supreme Court justice with "conservative" political views.
But just 25 percent of Americans say they would prefer a new justice with either somewhat or very liberal tendencies of the kind that produced the Roe v. Wade decision and 52 million abortions.
The poll comes as Obama is searching for a replacement and he is reportedly looking at a list of about 10 people, with abortion advocates toping the list. Judge Diane Wood and Solicitor General Elena Kagan are two of the top potential abortion advocates Obama may name to replace Stevens. Full story at LifeNews.com
New Pro-Life Law Banning Abortions Based on Fetal Pain Awaits Court Fight
Lincoln, NE (LifeNews.com) -- Lawmakers in Nebraska put their state on the pro-life map by passing a first-of-its kind piece of legislation that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy based on the notion that unborn children feel pain. The legislation will likely be headed for court, but that's exactly what pro-life groups are after.
Expected legal challenges from abortion advocates will have LB 1103 in the courts, which is where pro-life advocates hope to shape the future of abortion jurisprudence.
The bill was drafted with the idea of moving the Supreme Court further along its current path of watering down Roe v. Wade with the hopes of overturning it once a pro-life majority is present on the court.
The Supreme Court is currently divided 5-4 in favor of unlimited abortion, but the swing vote, Justice Anthony Kennedy, sided with conservative justices in the most recent abortion case dealing with partial-birth abortion.
The Nebraska fetal pain abortion ban is seen as the next step down the path -- taking the ruling upholding the national ban on partial-birth abortions and moving the high court yardstick from assessing abortion laws based on the trimester system and establishing new standards. Full story at LifeNews.com
HBO Movie on Assisted Suicide Advocate Jack Kevorkian Premiers Saturday
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The new HBO movie glorifying the life of assisted suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian starring Al Pacino premiers on Saturday. You Don't Know Jack, the biopic on the man who was eventually imprisoned for killing a disabled patient on national television, is already drawing criticism.
Kevorkian wrote a book during his time in prison and the manuscript has been turned into an upcoming HBO movie entitled "You Don't Know Jack."
Pacino plays Kevorkian in a role he said previously he appreciates.
"It's an honor," Kevorkian said. "He looks exactly like me."
Attorney and author Wesley J. Smith says the movie presents a revisionist history of Kevorkian and his killing more than 120 people in assisted suicides.
"The revisionist project to create a fictional Jack Kevorkian as merely a lovable, if sometimes tactless, man of compassion rather the misanthropic and ghoulish nut that he really is continues," he says.
Smith says the media is playing a willing accomplice by ignoring Kevorkian's exploits in its coverage of the movie.
"To depict Kevorkian as merely idiosyncratic, you have to willfully refuse to report the full story in all of its macabre vividness. And that is something the media has done now for nearly two decades. But let us be clear: They don't know Jack because they don't want to know Jack," he said. Full story at LifeNews.com
Kenya Government Starts Campaign for Pro-Abortion Constitution, Attacks Church
Nairobi, Kenya (LifeNews.com) -- The government of Kenya, apparently with the help of the Obama administration, is rolling out a national educational campaign designed to persuade people to vote for the new pro-abortion constitution this summer. Meanwhile, governmental leaders are attacking church leaders for condemning abortion.
Constitutional Affairs Minister Mutula Kilonzo told NNN-KBC today that the government will unveil the new educational campaign next month.
Members of Parliament of the Party of National Unity are behind the effort, which, as LifeNews.com has reported, may be receiving financial support from the Obama administration.
US Ambassador to Kenya Michael Ranneberger called on Kenya's political leaders to rally the people to pass the referendum.
Ranneberger also suggested the Obama administration would fund a national campaign to persuade the people to adopt the document. Full story at LifeNews.com
Canadian Physician Urges Opposition to Assisted Suicide, Not Death With Dignity
Ottawa, Canada (LifeNews.com) -- As the Canadian parliament prepares to consider legislation that would legalize assisted suicide, one physician saying having doctors kill patients is not dying with dignity. Francine Lalonde, the MP sponsoring Bill C-384 to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide in Canada, has been writing articles for her bill.
Dr. Catherine Ferrier of Montreal responded with a letter to the National Post about the bill.
"The most amazing thing about Francine Lalonde's apology for her euthanasia bill is the amount of false and misleading information she was able to fit into such a short letter," Ferrier writes.
She says patients who are suffering need help and support, not encouragement to kill themselves.
"First, palliative care does alleviate suffering and is effective in the vast majority of patients. When the usual measures are insufficient, other things, such as sedation, can be offered. I don't know a single palliative care physician who thinks euthanasia is good or necessary," Ferrier said.
The physician said it is wrong for Lalonde or the media to make it appear doctors support legalizing assisted suicide. Full story at LifeNews.com
China Criticized Over Sterilization Bid to Enforce Pro-Abortion One-Child Rule
Beijing, China (LifeNews.com) -- Chinese officials have come under fire over the last week for a massive campaign to attempt to sterilize as many as 10,000 people for violating the nation's one child rule. The family planning rule has seen the nation subject people to forced abortions and other human rights abuses. Officials in southern China launched a bid to sterilize people living in and around Puning, a city of 2.2 million people in the southern province of Guangdong.
AFP indicated as many as 1,300 people were detained in the first portion of the campaign that national leaders are reportedly denying.
The focus began with people who refused to submit to voluntary sterilization and their relatives. They were reportedly held in governmental buildings and given lectures on why the need to abide by the one child policy.
"It's not uncommon for family planning authorities to adopt some tough tactics," one employee told the English-language Global Times newspaper.
The newspaper noted thousands of Chinese people in the area have already agreed to become sterilized, potentially fearing the governmental reprisals that await them for refusing. Full story at LifeNews.com
Oklahoma Senate OKs Package of Five Bills to Limit Abortion, Require Ultrasound
Okahoma City, OK (LifeNews.com) -- The Oklahoma state Senate on Monday approved a package of five different pro-life bills limiting abortions, including a measure that would allow women to see an ultrasound of their unborn children prior to getting an abortion. The ultrasound measure now heads to Governor Brad Henry.
Henry signed three pro-life bills to limit abortions into law earlier this month after courts struck them down when they were bundled into one bill.
The ultrasound bill also requires the abortion practitioner to describe the unborn child -- with the hope that the information will persuade the mother to keep her baby.
The measure has the strong support of Oklahomans for Life, the state's pro-life group.
"Providing a woman with all available information will allow her to make a truly informed decision and to give truly informed consent to this irrevocable act," its chairman Tony Lauinger told LifeNews.com.
Looking at the other pro-life bills, HB 3284 provides for the reporting of abortions performed in Oklahoma, the reasons abortions are sought, and the complications that result. Full story at LifeNews.com
Tennessee Governor Signs Bill to Help Stop Forced Abortions, Protect Women
Nashville, TN (LifeNews.com) -- Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen surprised pro-life advocates today and, despite his pro-abortion stance, signed a bill that helps stop forced abortions. The Freedom from Coercion Act will require abortion facilities to prominently post non-coercion policies and impose penalties against facilities which do not comply. The state House and Senate worked out the differences in two different versions of the bill, which requires the posting of signs.
The signs appearing at abortion centers would read: "It is against the law for anyone, regardless of the person's relationship to you, to coerce you into having or to force you to have an abortion."
Rep. Susan Lynn and Sen. Jack Johnson sponsored the companion measures which passed overwhelmingly by both the state House (87-8) and state Senate (29-2.)
The Act requires abortion providers throughout the state to post Tennessee's non-coercion policy and provides for fines against those medical facilities which do not comply. Among those required to post the signs are abortion facilities, hospitals, and offices of private physicians who perform abortions. Full story at LifeNews.com
Virginia NARAL Wants Taxpayers for to Pay for Abortions on Disabled Babies
Richmond, VA (LifeNews.com) -- A battle is brewing in the Virginia state legislature over budget amendments proposed by pro-life Governor Bob McDonnell. Unhappy that McDonnell doesn't want state money to pay for abortions, Virginia NARAL is calling on legislators to force taxpayers to pay for abortions on disabled babies.
Last week, McDonnell amended the FY 2011-12 state budget to prohibit taxpayer funding of most elective abortions for low-income residents.
That includes abortions in cases where the unborn child is merely disabled or has a condition such as Down syndrome.
Victoria Cobb of the Family Foundation has been urging pro-life advocates to tell their legislators to back the amendment.
"The Family Foundation and several of our pro-life partners in Richmond have been advocating for just such an amendment for several years. The amendment brings Virginia substantially in line with federal law," she said.
"To fully restrict Virginia to only those abortions required by federal law, Virginia will have to eliminate funding for abortions where physicians certify that the unborn child s physical deformity or mental deficiency will be totally incapacitating," Cobb added. Full story at LifeNews.com
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Mexico Abortion Debate Reopens as Raped 10-Year-Old Girl Becomes Pregnant
Mexico City, Mexico (LifeNews.com) -- The abortion debate in Mexico has come to a head again as news has traveled across the country about a 10-year-old girl in a Mexican state who became pregnant after her stepfather reportedly committed incest. Abortion is currently legal in Mexico City but not in other states.
The girl lives in state of Quintana Roo on the Yucatan peninsula and most Mexican states allow abortions for rape, incest and protecting the life of the mother.
However, news reports indicate the girl, who is now eight weeks past the 90-day deadline the law requires.
Abortion advocates say the girl was not notified of the ability to get an abortion and they are calling on national and international officials to intervene on her behalf.
"We don't know what is happening," Maria Luisa Sanchez Fuentes of the Information Group on Reproductive Choice, told UPI. "We're really asking for accountability."
State Attorney General Francisco Alor Quezada said, according to CNN, that he doesn't know if the girl was informed about abortion and that he didn't know how far along the girl was in her pregnancy when her mother reported the sexual assault to authorities. Full stories at LifeNews.com
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