LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
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Current Headlines
• Kagan Memo on Partial-Birth Abortion Shows She'd be Hostile to Pro-Life Laws
• Americans Still Divided on Pro-Abortion Supreme Court Pick Elena Kagan
• White House Pushing Pro-Abortion Health Care Law After Polls Show No Support
• Gallup Poll: Pro-Life Conservatives More Enthusiastic About 2010 Elections
• Catholic Bishops Must Leave Coalition Group Backing Pro-Abortion Elena Kagan
• Team Exposing Sexual Abuse Coverup at Planned Parenthood Heads to Canada
• Pro-Life College Group Loves New Poll Showing Young Adults Oppose Abortion
• Catholic Cardinal in Canada Under Fire for Opposing Abortion in Cases of Rape
• California Planned Parenthood Wants To Stop Cuts to Tax Funding in State Budget
• Belgium Sees Euthanasia Numbers Increase as Most Cases Go Unreported
• Phoenix Catholic Hospital Questioned Over Abortion to Save Mother's Live
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Kagan Memo on Partial-Birth Abortion Shows She'd be Hostile to Pro-Life Laws
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Further analysis of the controversial memo Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan wrote for ex-President Bill Clinton on the subject of partial-birth abortion provides new concerns for pro-life advocates. It shows she regarded the ban on the abortion procedure as unconstitutional.
The new analysis from Americans United for Life also indicates Kagan would likely be hostile to any pro-life laws that may come before the Supreme Court.
President Barack Obama appointed his pro-abortion Solicitor General for the open seat vacated by retiring pro-abortion Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.
In 1997, while serving as an associate White House Counsel to President Bill Clinton, Elena Kagan advised Clinton on HR 1122, a bill to ban partial-birth abortions.
Americans United for Life attorneys say the media is misrepresenting the contents of the memo.
"Kagan s memo to the President containing her advice was selectively leaked to the press and has been spun to present Kagan as a moderate who would possibly be friendly to pro-life legislation. The memo, however, does not support that conclusion. Rather, Kagan s advice to President Clinton indicates that she could be hostile to pro-life legislation. Moreover, it raises questions regarding her respect for the Constitution," the group informed LifeNews.com in a new paper on the memo. Full story at LifeNews.com
Americans Still Divided on Pro-Abortion Supreme Court Pick Elena Kagan
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- New polling from Rasmussen finds Americans are still split on the nomination of pro-abortion Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. The same percentage oppose President Barack Obama's selection as support it -- which is consistent with the first poll Rasmussen took after the nomination.
The new survey finds 39% of voters believe Kagan should be confirmed by the Senate, while another 39% say she should not be confirmed. Another 22 percent are still undecided.
A week ago, immediately following Obama's announcement, a Rasmussen Reports poll found 33% said she should be confirmed, 33% disagreed, and 34% were undecided.
Support for Kagan s confirmation among Democrats has jumped dramatically over the past week from 47% to 68%. Opposition among Republicans has risen from 54% in the previous survey to 61%. Among voters not affiliated with either party, 32% favor confirmation, while 42% are opposed, up eight points from a week ago.
"By way of comparison, support for Kagan s confirmation is a bit lower than support for Judge Sonia Sotomayor a week after her nomination. In both cases, support declined slightly in the week following the nomination," Rasmussen noted.
Virtually unchanged from last week is the finding that 83% of all voters think it is at least somewhat likely that Kagan will be confirmed, including 55% who say confirmation is very likely. Full story at LifeNews.com
White House Pushing Pro-Abortion Health Care Law After Polls Show No Support
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- New polls show Americans have not come around to support the pro-abortion health care law President Barack Obama signed. With the mid-term Congressional elections looming on the horizon, White House officials are putting together a concerted effort to boost support for it before voters head to the polls.
Yesterday, the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey showed 56% favor repeal of the law, while 39% are opposed.
Support for repeal is unchanged from a week ago and from other polls since Congress passed and Obama signed into law the bill that forces taxpayers to fund abortions.
"That support is also proving to be just as consistent as opposition to the health care plan before it was passed into law," pollster Scott Rasmussen noted. "In polls conducted every week since the law was passed in March, support for repeal has stayed in a very narrow range from a low of 54% to a high of 58%."
The current results include 45% who strongly favor repeal and, among senior citizens, the generation most likely to use the health care system and the most likely to turn out in November, 63% favor repeal.
Overall, 39% of voters believe the law will be good for the country, and 50% say it will be bad. Full story at LifeNews.com
Gallup Poll: Pro-Life Conservatives More Enthusiastic About 2010 Elections
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- With a pro-abortion health care bill President Barack Obama and his allies pushed through Congress and now a second pro-abortion Supreme Court nomination, pro-life advocates are worked up about the 2010 elections. A Gallup poll shows that to be the case as it has conservatives the most excited.
Upset by the pro-abortion agenda Obama and his Democratic lieutenants in Congress have put in place, pro-life advocates appear ready to go to the polls in droves this November to vote them out.
That's because a Gallup poll released today shows registered voters who identify themselves as conservatives are significantly more enthusiastic about voting than moderates or liberals, who are mostly for abortion.
Those who say they are "very" conservative are the most enthusiastic of all, with substantially higher enthusiasm than those who say they are "very" liberal.
The poll shows 62 percent of those who call themselves very conservative are very enthusiastic while another 17 percent are somewhat enthusiastic, or 79 percent overall enthusiastic.
Another 40 percent of conservatives are very enthusiastic and 24 are somewhat enthusiastic, for 64 percent total.
Those numbers compared with just 46 percent of moderates who say they are enthusiastic (22 percent very and 24 percent somewhat), 53 percent of liberals saying they are enthusiastic (21/32 percent) respectively) and 63 percent of very liberal voters (44/19 percent). Full story at LifeNews.com
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Catholic Bishops Must Leave Coalition Group Backing Pro-Abortion Elena Kagan
by Deal Hudson
An organization called The Coalition for Constitutional Values has put on its web site a 30 second ad supporting Elena Kagan, Obama s nominee to fill the Supreme Court seat being vacated by Justice John Paul Stevens.
The Coalition for Constitutional Values is a project of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights (LCCHR), a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations, to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is a member of the LCCHR, and as a member pays an annual membership fee. The Leadership Conference claims to work toward creating an America as good as its ideals.
Do those ideals for the bishops include putting pro-abortion justices on the Supreme Court, thus thwarting any efforts to overturn Roe v. Wade? This endorsement of the Kagan nomination is typical of public positions taken by the LCCHR for many years.
In February, I published an article, Why Did the USCCB Join This Civil Rights Organization? That article catalogued the various positions taken by the LCCHR that directly conflict with Church teaching. Support for abortion, same-sex marriage, and contraception were among them.
It s no surprise that the web site of the Coalition of Constitutional Values also features the endorsement of Elena Kagan by the Human Rights Campaign, the powerful gay rights lobbying group. Make no mistake about it, the Coalition for Constitutional Values speaks for all the members of the coalition, including the USCCB! Full story at LifeNews.com
Team Exposing Sexual Abuse Coverup at Planned Parenthood Heads to Canada
Ottawa, Canada (LifeNews.com) -- The pro-life team of young adults whose undercover videos uncovered how Planned Parenthood officials in numerous states hid alleged cases of sexual abuse, violated state abortion laws and misled women about abortion and fetal development is taking their investigations to Canada.
Lila Rose and her Live Action organization will use the same tactics to highlight potential problems at abortion businesses in Canada.
Such a project could help pro-life advocates there to overcome the reticence to oppose or even address abortion that is seen in Canada more so than the United States.
As Rose told LifeNews.com, the evolution of the undercover campaign towards a Canadian outreach makes sense, if only because the reach of the Planned Parenthood abortion business knows no boundaries.
"Planned Parenthood is active all over the world, often funded by governments, ruthlessly pushing their anti-life agenda," she said. "Live Action plans to expand our investigative work in the future to include other countries."
Canada is but one nation that the project could expand to, Rose says. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Life College Group Loves New Poll Showing Young Adults Oppose Abortion
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- One of the pieces of good news for the pro-life movement found in last week's new Gallup poll showing more Americans saying they are pro-life than "pro-choice" is another confirmation of where the next generation of Americans stand. The survey found young adults continue displaying pro-life values.
As LifeNews.com reported, the May 3-6 Gallup poll revealed 47 percent of Americans say they are pro-life on abortion versus 45 percent who say they are "pro-choice," supporting legal abortions.
That included 47 percent of 18-29 year-olds who say they are pro-life, an increase of five percent from the 2008 Gallup figures.
And 45 percent of Americans aged 30-49 said they are pro-life, an increase of three percent from 2008 and an increase of five percent from 2006.
Kristan Hawkins, Executive Director of Students for Life of America, told LifeNews.com she's elated by those numbers.
After four years of working with young pro-lifers on the nation s college campuses, she says the Gallup poll shows that the hard work of Students for Life of America is paying off.
This poll is the second in three months showing that this generation of young people are pro-life and do not tolerate abortion. America is now a pro-life nation, and its young people are the reason for that, she said. Full story at LifeNews.com
Catholic Cardinal in Canada Under Fire for Opposing Abortion in Cases of Rape
Quebec City, Quebec (LifeNews.com) -- A Canadian Catholic cardinal is under fire for saying abortion should still be opposed in the cases of rape and incest because it involves the killing of an unborn child. Over the weekend, Marc Cardinal Ouellet of the Archdiocese of Quebec City made the remarks.
Ouellet applauded the Harper government for its recent stance against using taxpayer funds to pay for abortions abroad.
He then described abortions as a moral crime in every case, including when a woman is a victim of sexual assault. The Catholic Church has long held that there is no justification for killing a baby before birth, even when the child was conceived through rape or incest.
"Why should we push a woman who has been the victim of a crime to commit one of her own?" he said.
"I understand very well that a woman who's been raped is dealing with trauma and that she needs to be helped. But she needs to do so with respect for the being that is in her womb. It is not responsible for what happened. It's the rapist who is responsible. But there's already a victim. Do we need to have another one?" he added. Full story at LifeNews.com
California Planned Parenthood Wants To Stop Cuts to Tax Funding in State Budget
Sacramento, CA (LifeNews.com) -- The California affiliate of Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion business, is starting up another campaign designed to prevent cutting off its government trough of funding. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed more budget cuts designed to stem the financial woes of the state.
Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California says the cuts Schwarzenegger intends to make to confront a $19.1 billion budget shortfall could include cutting the state s Family PACT program.
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed to curtail funding and possibly eliminate the entire program in his 2010-2011 budget," the abortion business complains.
For every dollar the state spends on the Planned Parenthood program, the federal government provides $9 in matching federal funds -- one of the highest federal matches of any program in California.
But the California Catholic Daily newspaper, in a column on Monday, says Planned Parenthood needs to inform the public how the money it receives from the state in tax dollars frees up funds to promote and perform abortions.
"Family PACT is a major source of funding for Planned Parenthood s multi-million dollar business, which over the past several years has shown ever-increasing profits. And those Family PACT millions do not include additional revenues earned by Planned Parenthood in government contracts and Medi-Cal payments for providing abortions," the newspaper noted. Full story at LifeNews.com
Belgium Sees Euthanasia Numbers Increase as Most Cases Go Unreported
Brussels, Belgium (LifeNews.com) -- New figures out of Belgium show the number of euthanasia cases is on the rise. Last year, 700 official cases of euthanasia were reported -- a 40 percent increase from 2008, which saw 500 people killed by physicians with their consent or approval.
Despite the apparent certainty of the numbers, officials told the Flanders News that they are only estimates and that the likely represent merely one-fourth of the total cases of euthanasia in the European nation.
They say that is because euthanasia is guided by very strict limits and conditions even though Belgium is one of the rare nations in the world to allow it.
The News indicates just 25 percent of doctors are said to file an official report with the government when a patient is killed.
The newspaper also interviewed Wim Distelmans, a professor at the Brussels university VUB, who cited vast regional differences in the figures. He says the number of euthanasia cases in Flanders far outpaces those in the rest of the country with 80 percent taking place there.
Distelmans said French speaking physicians are more likely than Flemish and German doctors in Belgium to engage in euthanasia and no report their activities to the government. Full story at LifeNews.com
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Phoenix Catholic Hospital Questioned Over Abortion to Save Mother's Live
Phoenix, AZ (LifeNews.com) -- St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona, which is affiliated with the Catholic Church, is facing questions over a 2009 abortion. A hospital ethics committee deemed the abortion necessary to save the life of the mother, but the top Catholic official is questioning that. Sister Margaret Mary McBride, the hospital s vice president of mission integration, was a member of the committee, including patients and doctors, that made the decision.
Coming under fire for okaying the abortion, she has been reassigned to new duties.
The hospital has defended its decision saying such decisions are "guided by our values of dignity, justice and respect, and the belief that all life is sacred."
"We have always adhered to the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services as we carry out our healing ministry and we continue to abide by them," it added in a statement. "In those instances where the Directives do not explicitly address a clinical situation - such as when a pregnancy threatens a woman's life - an Ethics Committee is convened to help our caregivers and their patients make the most life-affirming decision."
The hospital continued, "In this tragic case, the treatment necessary to save the mother's life required the termination of an 11-week pregnancy." Full story at LifeNews.com
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