LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
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Current Headlines
• Republicans Respond to Pro-Abortion Health Care Campaign With Ballot Votes
• Pro-Life Legal Group Files Papers in Lawsuit Against Pro-Abortion Health Care
• Kagan Article Shows She May Use Motive Test to Strike Pro-Life Abortion Laws
• Tuesday Primary Election Has Pro-Life Candidates Aiming for Abortion Advocates
• Charlie Crist Removes Pro-Life Section of Campaign Web Site, Rubio Complains
•Abortion Advocates Blast Parental Notification Law After Teen's Pencil Abortion
•CNN's Sanjay Gupta Surprises Pro-Life Viewers, Calls Womb a "Sacred Place"
• Planned Parenthood Backs Down From Expanding Telemed Abortion Process
• 40 Days for Life Continues Between Events, Babies Saved From Abortions
• Pro-Life Dem From Oklahoma Gets Rare Pro-Life Support, Opposed HCR Bill
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Republicans Respond to Pro-Abortion Health Care PR Campaign With Ballot Votes
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Republicans in several states are responding to the new $125 million publicity campaign by Democrats for the pro-abortion health care law with their own idea. Relying on polling data showing a strong majority of Americans opposed to the pro-abortion plan Obama signed, they're pushing ballot votes.
The ballot measures condemning or seeking to repeal President Barack Obama's health care scheme that involved massive taxpayer funding of abortions, could energize voters in key states.
Joel Sawyer, executive director of the South Carolina GOP, told The Hill: "What we're trying to do is give voters an added reason to show up to the polls. It s a voter turnout tool.
With ballot measures turning out an additional one to two percent of the base -- in this case pro-life advocates opposed to pro-abortion health care -- pro-life candidates have a better shot at getting the extra spark they need to win close elections.
Grover Norquist, a conservative anti-tax activist, says the ballot measures "will play to independents" and to the tea party voters that are more likely to turn out this year than abortion advocates.
He told The Hill that ballot measures have reliably turned out pro-life advocates -- such as when President George W. Bush won nine of 11 states in 2004 where voters could support bans on same-sex marriage. Norquist says as many as 1 million more voters for Bush came to the polls because of the ballot measures. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Life Legal Group Files Papers in Lawsuit Against Pro-Abortion Health Care
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The American Center for Law and Justice, a prominent pro-life legal group, filed an amicus brief with a federal court in Virginia against the pro-abortion health care law President Barack Obama signed. ACLJ is representing 28 members of Congress and more than 70,000 Americans.
The amicus brief supports the Commonwealth of Virginia's lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the federal health care law.
The ACLJ brief contends the mandate forcing Americans to purchase health insurance is unprecedented and violates the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
"The individual insurance mandate represents an unconstitutional power-grab by the federal government - a clear violation of the Commerce Clause," said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the ACLJ.
"From the very start, a majority of Americans never wanted this government-run health care law. And most Americans understand that including a provision forcing them - under penalty of law - to purchase insurance is wrong," Sekulow told LifeNews.com.
He continued, "We support the legal action taken by the Commonwealth of Virginia and other states that challenge this governmental over-reach. At the same time, we're preparing a federal lawsuit directly challenging this troubling provision as well - a lawsuit that will be filed soon."
The attorneys general of 13 states immediately filed lawsuits against the pro-abortion health care bill President Barack Obama signed it. Dozens of other states joined the lawsuit in the weeks that followed. Full story at LifeNews.com
Kagan Article Shows She May Use Motive Test to Strike Pro-Life Abortion Laws
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The slew of legal memos released by the Clinton presidential library provide enough proof to show Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan is radically pro-abortion. But a law review article she wrote over a decade ago yields more evidence as to how Kagan would strike down pro-life laws if confirmed.
A 1996 University of Chicago Law Review article Kagan wrote has officials at Americans United for Life concerned that Kagan impose a governmental motive test to invalidate state and federal pro-life laws.
Kagan argued in the piece that First Amendment doctrine actually is focused not on the effects of legislation but the motive of the government for passing the law.
Looking for governmental motive invariably involves looking for bad motives -- in other words reasons to declare a law unconstitutional.
"Despite her emphasis on governmental motive, Kagan s article actually demonstrates that accepted free speech jurisprudence includes objective criteria (like text and plain language) that go back to the English common law and that more reliably identify an unconstitutional impact on free speech, than would a search for the subjective motives of lawmakers," the pro-life legal group notes.
AUL, in its new paper on Kagan, points out that pro-abortion academics and judges have long sought to impose an anti-abortion motive analysis to invalidate state pro-life laws on abortion. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun applied a motive analysis to strike down abortion laws in the 1986 Thornburgh case. Full story at LifeNews.com
Tuesday Primary Election Has Pro-Life Candidates Aiming for Abortion Advocates
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Voters held to the polls in states with key primary election contests today and the winners of the elections are posed to take on abortion advocates in November. The results will set up some of the marquee election battles pitting pro-life candidates against incumbents who solidly support abortion.
Voters in 12 states cast ballots Tuesday and California and Nevada voters will set up two of the most contentious Senate races for November.
In California, Carly Fiorina, a former Hewlett Packard executive, is leading in the polls against GOP opponents Tom Campbell, a pro-abortion former congressman, and pro-life state Assemblyman Chuck DeVore.
Fiorina enjoys the endorsements of pro-life groups, including National Right to Life and the Susan B. Anthony List, and the winner of the primary will face Sen. Barbara Boxer, the head of the pro-abortion forces in the Senate and an abortion champion.
The SBA List says the contrast between the women couldn't be more clear.
"We've been waiting for Carly Fiorina for a long time--in fact, since the day Barbara Boxer was elected to the U.S. Senate," SBA List president Marjorie Dannenfelser told LifeNews.com. "Senator Boxer is one of the most aggressive champions of abortion rights and is endorsed by EMILY's List."
Meanwhile, in Nevada, three Republicans are vying for the chance to take on Sen. Harry Reid, the formerly pro-life senator whose pro-abortion position has grown over the years as he has ascended the ranks of the Democratic Party to become the Majority Leader. Full story at LifeNews.com
Charlie Crist Removes Pro-Life Section of Campaign Web Site, Rubio Complains
Tallahassee, FL (LifeNews.com) -- In the latest development in the race for the open U.S. Senate seat in Florida, Governor Charlie Crist is coming under fire for removing the pro-life section of his campaign website. This comes on the day the legislature sent him a bill that would allow women to see an ultrasound of their baby before an abortion.
Crist has already hinted he will veto the legislation, which also allows Florida to opt out of some of the abortion funding under the new national health care law President Barack Obama signed.
That he would potentially veto a pro-life bill with broad support from voters is another indication of his strategy to leave the Republican Party and run as an independent.
Knowing he may veto the bill, the campaign of pro-life Republican candidate Marco Rubio informed LifeNews.com today that Crist's campaign scrubbed his web site of a section touting Crist as a supposedly pro-life candidate.
"Now that he has left the Republican Party in order to win an election and is trying to attract liberal votes, the Crist campaign yesterday removed the 'pro-life/family' issue page of its website," Rubio spokesman Alex Burgos told LifeNews.com today. "In doing so, Charlie Crist eliminated any reference to being 'pro-life' in a transparent attempt to hide his position in order to win an election."
"Crist is flip-flopping again," Burgos continued. "When he was a Republican trying to win the Republican primary, Crist repeatedly stated he was pro-life and even said he would 'fight for pro-life legislation if he s elected to the Senate.'" Full story at LifeNews.com
Abortion Advocates Blast Parental Notification Law After Teen's Pencil Abortion
Lehigh, PA (LifeNews.com) -- Abortion advocates are responding to a bizarre case of a self-induced abortion by claiming abortion isn't promoted enough and blasting parental involvement laws allowing parents to help persuade their teenagers to not have an abortion.
As LifeNews.com reported on Monday, a 13-year-old Pennsylvania girl reportedly conducted a self-abortion using a lead pencil after her much-older boyfriend subjected her to statutory rape.
The 30-year-old boyfriend, officials say, then buried the body of the dead unborn child after the abortion was completed.
Robin Marty, at the pro-abortion blog RH Reality Check, used the occasion not as a chance to condemn statutory rape or admit how legalizing abortion didn't stop the self-induced "back alley" abortions it was designed to prevent, but to attack pro-life laws and promote abortion further.
"It's a stark reminder of what happens when a desperate woman (or in this case child) gets pregnant and will do anything to end the pregnancy when there are no safe means available," Marty claims.
She added the teenager "had no choice but to try to abort on her own."
Yet legalized abortion is available throughout Pennsylvania, though it is clearly unsafe -- as a woman in Philadelphia who died from a botched abortion found out. Full story at LifeNews.com
CNN's Sanjay Gupta Surprises Pro-Life Viewers, Calls Womb a "Sacred Place"
by Matthew Balan
CNN anchor Dr. Sanjay Gupta refreshingly made an implicitly pro-life argument during a report about how toxic chemicals possibly affect the unborn children: "Here in the womb, enveloped in darkness and warmth, a baby's life begins in earnest. It is a sacred space: pristine, insulated, more than nine months of safe refuge from the world outside" [audio available here].
Dr. Gupta made that statement as he gave a voice-over for the first segment of his "Toxic Childhood" special, which first aired on Thursday evening at 8 pm Eastern. CGI of a baby in the womb played as he described the "sacred space."
The anchor continued on this note in his first question to Dr. Frederica Perera of Columbia University: "We imagine a baby sort of nice and safe and tucked away in the womb, impervious to all the assaults that occur on the body. You say, not so fast?" So Gupta twice referred to the unborn human as a "baby."
Despite this pro-life language, the CNN anchor failed to mention the liberal affiliation of the Environmental Working Group, an organization whose study he cited during the report, and how they are a project of the Tides Foundation. On two earlier occasions as well, Gupta leaned towards the pro-abortion side. Full story at LifeNews.com
Planned Parenthood Backs Down From Expanding Telemed Abortion Process
Des Moines, IA (LifeNews.com) -- A local Planned Parenthood affiliate in Iowa has backed down from comments saying it would expand the controversial telemed abortion process throughout Iowa. The process has women getting the dangerous abortion drug without an in-person examination by a physician.
The process is concerning pro-life advocates because national Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards recently visited Iowa.
There, she confirmed the abortion business has plans to put women at risk nationwide by denying them a doctor visit before getting the drug that has killed at least 13 women -- and perhaps as many as 40 -- and injured at least 1,100 more according to 2006 FDA figures.
At the time, Planned Parenthood of East Central Iowa Director of Patient Services Barbara Chadwick told Iowa Public Radio there were plans to expand the telemed abortion process nationwide.
Now, PPECI is backing down, telling the local Dubuque newspaper it has not authorized such abortions there or in Cedar Rapids.
Meanwhile, a weekend press release from the abortion business indicates there has been no Board approval for the expansion of abortion into its clinics and denies that there is a blueprint in place for such an expansion.
Steven Brody, the director of Dubuque County Right to Life, told LifeNews.com today, "Planned Parenthood is performing the old telemed two-step in order to try to have it both ways." Full story at LifeNews.com
40 Days for Life Activity Continues Between Events, Babies Saved From Abortions
by David Bereit
You've started something incredible -- and the power of God continues to shine through! Even though we are between 40 Days for Life campaigns, great news continues to roll in daily.
In Fort Wayne, Indiana, Cathie notes that the number of abortions at the facility where 40 Days for Life vigils are conducted has gone down. WAY down.
Over the past few years, this facility has scheduled around 10 abortions every week. Two weeks ago, the number was three. And last week, the total number of abortions performed was ... ONE.
Cathie says there are several factors contributing to the decrease, but "above all we are witnessing the results of consistent and fervent prayer over the years intensifying with the 40 Days for Life campaigns the past two years and the power of Almighty God."
We hope and pray that the number will soon drop to ZERO ... and we believe that God will soon answer those prayers.
In Columbia, Missouri, volunteers continue to pray on a weekly basis at a Planned Parenthood facility where 40 Days for Life vigils have taken place.
Last week, they heard the center was overbooked. So they anticipated the worst -- they recalled a day in November when around two dozen women arrived for abortions. Full story at LifeNews.com
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Pro-Life Democrat From Oklahoma Gets Rare Pro-Life Support, Opposed HCR Bill
Oklahoma City, OK (LifeNews.com) -- When a coalition of pro-life Democrats walked out on the pro-life groups which strenuously opposed the pro-abortion health care bill President Barack Obama eventually signed, Congressman Dan Boren of Oklahoma was one of the few to not jump ship. Today, the National Right to Life Committee and its Oklahoma affiliate rewarded the pro-life Democrat with an endorsement.
The backing comes at a time when other pro-life Democratic candidates in states like Ohio, Indiana and Michigan, lost their endorsements because of their support of the government-run health care plan containing massive taxpayer financing of abortions.
The NRLC PAC endorsed Boren of Oklahoma s 2nd congressional district in the July 27 Democratic Primary.
The group told LifeNews.com Boren has had a 100% pro-life voting record during the 111th Congress and it thanked him for opposing the health care bill.
Congressman Dan Boren is to be commended for his efforts to prevent the Democratic health-care legislation from mandating coverage of abortion and federal funding of abortion, said National Right to Life Vice President and Chairman of Oklahomans For Life, Tony Lauinger. Full story at LifeNews.com
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