LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Thursday, May 20, 2010
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Current Headlines
• Hearings on Pro-Abortion Supreme Court Nominee Elena Kagan Start June 28
• Thurgood Marshall's Pro-Abortion Record Good Indicator of Elena's Kagan's
• Abortion Advocates Face Difficulty in Tuesday Primary Elections, Specter Defeated
• Pro-Abortion Democrat: Elena Kagan Not Pro-Abortion Enough, FRC Disagrees
• Media Attacks Against Terri Schiavo, Schindler Family Continue Five Years Later
• Bella Actor Eduardo Verástegui Hosting First-Ever Pro-Life Hispanic Event
• Pro-Life Message on Maternal Mortality, Abortion Goes to World Health Assembly
• British Television Will Begin Airing Advertisements for Abortion on Channel 4
• Louisiana Senate Approves Ultrasound Bill Helping Women Ahead of Abortions
• Sweden Abortions Decline in 2009, Reversing Multi-Year Trend of Increases
• Maryland County Faces Lawsuit for Passing Law Targeting Pregnancy Centers
• Pro-Life News: Adult Stem Cell research, Kansas, Abortion, Operation Rescue
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Hearings on Pro-Abortion Supreme Court Nominee Elena Kagan Start June 28
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The Senate Judiciary Committee will start hearings on pro-abortion Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan on June 28. Kagan is the second pro-abortion judicial activist President Barack Obama has selected for the nation's highest court following Sonia Sotomayor.
If confirmed, she would replace retiring pro-abortion Justice John Paul Stevens and maintain the 5-4 pro-abortion majority that has kept Roe v. Wade and its legacy of 52 million abortions in place.
Today, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, a pro-abortion Vermont Democrat, announced his panel will hold hearings in late June and wrap up with a vote before the July 4 recess.
Republican Jeff Sessions, a pro-life Alabama senator who is the top GOP lawmaker on the panel, complained that Republicans wanted more time to sift through a laundry list of new memos and papers on Kagan -- including one showing her advising ex-President Bill Clinton how to avoid political fallout from vetoing a partial-birth abortion ban.
"Sometimes we just disagree about how things ought to be done. I know that we had asked that we be able to have the hearing after the recess, just to give our colleagues more time to study the record and maybe prepare their remarks," Session said, according to Fox News.
He added, "We'll try to do our best to conduct an effective hearing, even if I would have preferred a little more time." Full story at LifeNews.com
Thurgood Marshall's Pro-Abortion Record Good Indicator of Elena's Kagan's
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A pro-life legal group says it is not tough to predict how pro-abortion Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan will decide abortion-related cases if she is confirmed to the Supreme Court. Americans United for Life says she will likely follow the lead of her mentor, the late pro-abortion Justice Thurgood Marshall.
Since Kagan has never served as a judge, it is important to review her jurisprudential influences and mentors.
"Elena Kagan has expressed a deep affection for the Supreme Court Justice she clerked for, Thurgood Marshall," AUL tells LifeNews.com in a new memo on the high court judge. "While many of Justice Marshall s legal endeavors deserve the praise and gratitude of the nation, his written opinions on abortion do not."
AUL cites Marshall s four dissenting opinions in cases following Roe v. Wade as indicative of the kind of justice Kagan would be if the Senate confirms her to replace retiring pro-abortion Justice John Paul Stevens.
In the 1977 companion cases of Beal v. Doe and Maher v. Roe, the Supreme Court held that state funding restrictions on the use of Medicaid funds for non-therapeutic abortions was constitutional.
"Justice Marshall, on the other hand, felt the denial of funds for abortions amounted to a violation of Equal Protection under the Fourteenth Amendment," AUL noted. "Justice Marshall not only believed that legalized abortion was constitutionally required, but also that the Fourteenth Amendment mandated that states pay for abortions." Full story at LifeNews.com
Abortion Advocates Face Difficulty in Tuesday Primary Elections, Specter Defeated
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Abortion advocates faced tough losses in Tuesday night's primary elections as five-term Sen. Arlen Specter, a pro-abortion Republican who flip-flopped to the Democratic Party went down in defeat. The election also saw a preperation of major battles in states where pro-life candidates will take on abortion proponents.
The major loss for the pro-abortion side came in Specter's defeat, though Rep. Joe Sestak, a Democratic congressman who had the backing of NARAL, took Specter's place as the nominee.
He will face pro-life former congressman Pat Toomey, who will have the backing of pro-life groups heading into the November elections.
Toomey has a lead over Sestak and political observers believe he has a good shot of putting the Pennsylvania Senate seat in the pro-life column.
Conservative writer Ed Morrissey of Hot Air looked back on the race and said, "Arlen Specter had the backing of the DSCC and Barack Obama, was an incumbent who delivered key votes to Harry Reid and still lost to Joe Sestak, who couldn t claim any of those things."
Meanwhile, in Kentucky, a victorious Rand Paul told supporters we ve come to take our government back," after defeating pro-life candidate Tray Grayson for the Republican nomination of the seat of retiring pro-life Sen. Jim Bunning. Paul is pro-life and would keep the seat in pro-life hands if he wins in November. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Abortion Democrat: Elena Kagan Not Pro-Abortion Enough, FRC Disagrees
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- One of the leading pro-abortion Democrats in the House is complaining that Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan is not pro-abortion enough. But Family Research Council vice president Tom McClusky tells LifeNews.com that Kagan's record is thoroughly pro-abortion and unworthy of support.
New York Rep. Louis Slaughter, the head of the pro-abortion caucus for House members, is concerned about a memo Kagan wrote in 1997.
The memo, which has her advising pro-abortion ex-President Bill Clinton to support legislation that would give him political cover for vetoing a partial-birth abortion ban, is the source of Slaughter's concerns.
She calls it "troubling" and is asking the Senate Judiciary Committee to fully probe Kagan when it holds hearings on her nomination in late June.
Slaughter sent a letter to pro-abortion Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy and the top Republican on the panel, pro-life Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, yesterday.
McClusky has sent his own letter to Slaughter in response saying her interpretation of the memo as somehow compromising Kagan's polemic pro-abortion views is inaccurate.
"In your correspondence, you express concern that the complete lack of a judicial record for President Obama's Supreme Court nominee makes it essential that the committee scrutinize her views on abortion," he writes. "I agree with you that Ms. Kagan's views on abortion deserve major attention."
"Having reviewed her record, I assure you she is as pro-abortion as you and other members of your caucus," he continued. Full story at LifeNews.com
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Media Attacks Against Terri Schiavo, Schindler Family Continue Five Years Later
by Bobby Schindler
As you know, it's been over five years that we all lived through the barbarism of Terri's death. And since Terri died, our family has been astonished to the extent that her brain injury has been the focus of repeated mean-spirited media attacks. If that wasn't enough, the work of Terri's Foundation is now being included in these attacks!
In our last E-Newsletter we informed you about what happened on National television within days of the anniversary of Terri's death when an episode of Fox's The Family Guy program parodied Terri with a school play called, "Terri Schiavo: The Musical." (Click on "The Family Guy" icon to read about our continuing on-line petition.)
Recently, a local Florida TV Station smeared the Foundation with a baseless report claiming that we were profiting from our sister's tragedy. The reporter's key witness: Terri's estranged husband, Michael Schiavo.
If that wasn't bad enough, a National radio shock jock, in an act of gross insensitivity, has joined many of his media brethren, boasting that he's glad our Dad is dead, repeatedly making fun of Terri's brain-injury, and is accusing the Foundation of dishonest activity.
It has become painfully clear to us that the secular media has one objective: succeed in making Terri's Foundation go away. Full story at LifeNews.com
Bella Actor Eduardo Verástegui Hosting First-Ever Pro-Life Hispanic Event
Los Angeles, CA (LifeNews.com) -- Eduardo Verástegui, the Hispanic actor best known for his leading role in the highly-regarded movie Bella is hosting a first-ever national event for pro-life Latinos. The Latino United for Life Family Congress will take place May 23 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
In a statement sent to LifeNews.com, the Congress is sponsored by Manto de Guadalupe, an international aid organization that helps the poor and homeless.
Verástegui said, The funds raised through our United for Life Family Congress will be used to open a medical center in Los Angeles that provides free, high-quality care for pregnant women and their preborn babies."
The new pregnancy center, the Guadalupe Medical Center, will be located in a minority area targeted by 10 abortion centers.
"Therefore, our center will be an oasis of life in the midst of a desert of death," the actor said. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Life Message on Maternal Mortality, Abortion Goes to World Health Assembly
Geneva, Switzerland (LifeNews.com) -- Pro-life organizations are on hand at the 63rd World Health Assembly in Geneva to monitor the annual meeting as it addresses the activities of the World Health Organization and its future priorities. They're bringing the message that legalizing abortion doesn't reduce maternal mortality.
Attendees will discuss strategies for reaching the U.N. Millennium Development Goals, including Goal 5 to improve maternal health.
The United Nations, some influential nations, and pro-abortion groups have sought to use the issue of maternal mortality to press for legalized abortion on demand, particularly in those countries that still have laws in place protecting unborn children and their mothers.
This is in spite of research demonstrating that legalized abortion does not improve maternal health or reduce mortality.
Scott Fischbach, the director of MCCL GO, the international outreach of the Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life group, told LifeNew.com that a large majority of the 193 nations represented sent pro-abortion delegations with the intent of promoting abortion as the solution to maternal mortality.
Usually only a few pro-lifers are present to advance the lifesaving position and, in this case, the National Right to Life Committee, Minnesota's MCCL Global Outreach and the U.K.'s Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) are in Geneva to meet with delegates throughout the May 17-22 conference. Full story at LifeNews.com
British Television Will Begin Airing Advertisements for Abortion on Channel 4
London, England (LifeNews.com) -- Channel 4 will begin airing advertisements starting next week for abortions for the British-based abortion business Marie Stopes international. Last year 29,000 people signed a SPUC-organized paper petition to the prime minister against a proposal to allow abortion agencies to advertise on television and radio.
The Committee of Advertising Practice and the Broadcast Committee on Advertising Practice allowed rules changes that have prompted the ads.
Without the television and radio commercials, MSI has relied on magazines, taxi and bus ads, and advertising through alternative newspapers.
Anthony Ozimic, SPUC communications manager, criticized the coming ads.
Marie Stopes may claim to be a non-profit organization, but they have a financial interest in drumming up demand for abortion. Marie Stopes has a cavalier attitude to obeying legal restrictions regarding abortion, and has been implicated in illegal abortions overseas," he said. Full story at LifeNews.com
Louisiana Senate Approves Ultrasound Bill Helping Women Ahead of Abortions
Baton Rouge , LA (LifeNews.com) -- The Louisiana state Senate has approved an ultrasound bill that will help women get a view of their unborn child before deciding to have an abortion. The pro-life measure now heads to the state House, which is expected to sign off on it and advance it to Governor Bobby Jindal.
The measure would give women something abortion centers don't normally provide: a chance to see an ultrasound of their unborn child before the abortion.
When used in pregnancy centers, women considering an abortion who see the ultrasound change their mind about the abortion about 80 percent of the time.
In committee, lawmakers removed a section that would have required a "screen depicting the active ultrasound images" placed within view. Instead, the bill now gives women a chance to see the ultrasound but a right to refuse to do so.
Sen. Sharon Weston Broome, a Democrat, is the sponsor of the bill, Senate Bill 528, that would make the state the fifteenth to allow women the information before considering an abortion. Full story at LifeNews.com
Sweden Abortions Decline in 2009, Reversing Multi-Year Trend of Increases
Stockholm, Sweden (LifeNews.com) -- The number of abortions in Sweden has declined for the first time in many years, according to new numbers from the National Board of Health and Welfare. Some 37,524 abortions were done last year, which is a decrease of about two percent from the 38,053 abortions in 2008.
"Since 2004, the number of abortions have increased each year, but last year, the trend reversed," statistician Tsegalem Muzullo said in a statement, according to The Local newspaper. "Even teenage abortions fell sharply."
The numbers revealed that teenagers ha fewer abortions -- with abortions declining 7.8 percent to 22.5 abortions per 1,000 teenage girls compared with 24.4 the previous year.
The states indicated that 25 percent of pregnancies in Sweden ended in abortion with 80 percent of teen pregnancies ending in the destruction of the unborn child.
The Local showed the abortion rate at its highest in Stockholm and Gothenburg and lower abortion rates in Blekinge, Kronoberg and Jönköping counties. Full story at LifeNews.com
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Maryland County Faces Lawsuit for Passing Law Targeting Pregnancy Centers
Rockville, MD (LifeNews.com) -- Officials in Montgomery County in Maryland face a new lawsuit related to an ordinance it approved that targets pregnancy centers. The county, located in a suburban area of both Baltimore and Washington, D.C., approved new rules after Baltimore approved its own ordinance attacking such centers. Montgomery County Councilwoman Duchy Trachtenberg sponsored the legislation that passed on a 7-2 vote.
Under the law, pregnancy centers would be required to tell potential clients that they should go elsewhere for medical advice because Trachtenberg claims they are misleading women.
The new law makes it so pregnancy centers must post a disclaimer if they don't have medical professionals on staff and would refer them to a center with licensed medical professionals.
Alliance Defense Fund attorneys filed suit Wednesday against Montgomery County on behalf of a Silver Spring pregnancy resource center.
The lawsuit says it is wrong to make limited-service pregnancy centers and individuals who have a primary purpose of offering information about pregnancy face steep fines if they don't post signs saying the county believes women should consult someone else. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Life News: Adult Stem Cell research, Kansas, Abortion, Operation Rescue
Pontifical Council for Culture and NeoStem Partner for Adult Stem Cell Research
New York, NY (LifeNews.com) -- NeoStem, Inc, an international biopharmaceutical company with operations in the US and China, and the Vatican s Pontifical Council for Culture, today announced a joint initiative that includes their charitable organizations to expand research and raise awareness of adult stem cell therapies.
Kansans For Life Political Action Committee Backs Kobach for Secretary of State
Topeka, KS (LifeNews.com) -- The Kansans For Life Political Action Committee is pleased to announce the endorsement of Kris Kobach, who is running for Secretary of State. Kris Kobach is very pro-life and has been endorsed by Kansans For Life PAC when he ran for Congress in the 3rd Congressional District.
New Video Promotes Abortion Whistleblowers Reward Program
Wichita, KS (LifeNews.com) -- Operation Rescue has released a short new video designed to promote the Abortion Whistleblowers Program, which is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of abortionists who are breaking the law.
Kidneying Around with Adult Stem Cells
by David Prentice
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Scientists have shown that human adult stem cells can promote kidney repair. There are currently no therapies to repair kidney damage. Patients with severe kidney damage go on dialysis while waiting for an organ transplant.
New Disease Identified, Treated with Adult Stem Cells
by David Prentice
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Australian doctors have diagnosed a newly-described disease in a young woman, and have successfully treated her disease with adult stem cells. Katie Pulling had been in and out of the hospital for years, since she was eleven years old.
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