LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Thursday, August 12, 2010
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Current Headlines
• Pro-Abortion President Barack Obama Sees Approval Ratings Hit New Lows
• Planned Parenthood Boycott List Now Has Pro-Abortion Firms AOL, Hilton, ING
• Focus on the Family to Run Pro-Life Ad During Tim Tebow Broncos Games
• Rick Santorum Preparing for Potential 2012 Pro-Life Republican Presidential Bid
• Dutch Govt: Euthanasia Cases Rose 13 Percent in 2009, Now 2% of All Deaths
• Florida Poll Has Pro-Life Rubio, Pro-Abortion Crist Splitting Senate Race Lead
• Kansas College and University Students Also Pay for Abortions in Insurance Plans
• Georgia Pro-Life Candidate Nathan Deal Wins Primary Runoff Over Karen Handel
• Colorado Senate Race Will Now Feature Pro-Life Ken Buck, Pro-Abortion Bennet
• Catholic Bishops Present People of Life Awards to Three Pro-Life Advocates
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Pro-Abortion President Barack Obama Sees Approval Ratings Hit New Lows
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- President Barack Obama hit new lows today in his approval ratings measured by the Rasmussen Reports polling firm. The new low ratings follow closely on the heels of the Senate approving his pro-abortion nominee for the Supreme Court, Elena Kagan.
Obama's total approval rating now stands at 43 percent with 24 percent of Americans saying they strongly approve of the job Obama is now doing.
That stands in contrast with the 56 percent of Americans who disapprove of Obama's track record in the White House and a new high of 46 percent who strongly disapprove.
Looking only at those likely voters with the most passionate views of Obama, he faces a -22 percent rating -- also a new low in the Rassmussen poll -- from those who 70 percent of Americans who view him with strong approval or disapproval.
Pollster Scott Rasmussen says Obama's ratings have been up and down in a more volatile way than number, but the polling trend clearly shows Obama's numbers getting worse as the November midterm elections approach. Full story at LifeNews.com
Planned Parenthood Boycott List Now Has Pro-Abortion Firms AOL, Hilton, ING
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The pro-life group that has compiled the national boycott list of companies and corporations that give contributions to the Planned Parenthood abortion business today released its updated list. Several new companies joined corporations that have been longtime Planned Parenthood supporters.
Some of the new companies on the boycott list include Internet giant AOL and Darden Restaurants, a conglomerate that oversees popular restaurants like Bahama Breeze, The Capital Grille, LongHorn Steakhouse, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, and Season 52.
Another restaurateur, Ignite Restaurants, made the list, and it includes Brickhouse Tavern+Tap and Joe's Crab Shack.
Hilton Worldwide made the boycott list and it manages hotels ranging from Doubletree, Embassy Suites, Hampton Inns/Suites, Hilton Garden Inn, Hilton Hotels, and Homewood Suites.
Other new Planned parenthood-supporting companies to make the list include ING financial services, Kohl's department stores, Mrs. Fields cookies, Staples office supply stores, Toys "R" Us, and Trader Joe's markets.
Kenneth C. Garvey, the director of communications for Life Decisions International, which compiles the list of companies backing the abortion business, said the boycotts have worked over the years because millions in Planned Parenthood funding has stopped.
"As a direct result of the commitment, action and prayers of pro-family people, at least 256 corporations have stopped funding Planned Parenthood," he told LifeNews.com. Full story at LifeNews.com
Focus on the Family to Run Pro-Life Ad During Tim Tebow Broncos Games
Denver, CO (LifeNews.com) -- Focus on the Family generated significant buzz with a pro-life Super Bowl commercial that featured college football star Tim Tebow and his mother encouraging a respect for life. The commercial was a smashing success and now the pro-life group is building on it with ads during Denver Broncos football games.
The ad was seen by tens of millions of people, prompted millions to visit the Focus on the Family web site, and was the most talked-about commercial in advance of the big game.
With the Broncos signing the pro-life football luminary as their quarterback of the future, Focus on the Family is playing off the buzz the Tebow signing has generated in Colorado with a new set of ads.
The Colorado Springs-based ministry told the Denver Post it received a good deal from Colorado CBS affiliates that air the preseason and in-season Broncos games on television. The new commercial will be shown on more than a dozen games during the football year.
Focus vice president Gary Schneeberger told the Post, "We saw from our Super Bowl advertising experience that, for a family-help organization like ours, football is a perfect place to advertise. The Broncos are a real family tradition here on the Front Range."
"When he was drafted by the Broncos, we were thrilled," Schneeberger added. "We had a great experience working with him and his family on the Super Bowl ad. We know what he stands for. We like the guy."
Schneeberger wouldn't talk about the new ads except to say Tebow would not be featured in them, but they would still have a pro-life and pro-family theme to them. Full story at LifeNews.com
Rick Santorum Preparing for Potential 2012 Pro-Life Republican Presidential Bid
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- He's not officially a candidate for the Republican nomination for president in 2012, but pro-life former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum is actively making preparations in case he decides to become one.
Santorum, who became a darling of the pro-life movement for leading the fight in the Senate to ban partial-birth abortions, has been actively speaking in key early primary states.
In a new interview with the conservative Daily Caller, Santorum confirmed he held a staff meeting recently with former Senate staffers and is putting together potential staff, donors and activists to support a presidential bid.
I'm going through the process of what someone who is seriously considering running would do, Santorum said, in order for when the time comes to decide, I'm in a position that I have a choice.
Santorum, who said he would ultimately make a decision by the end of this year or the beginning of 2011, said three factors would determine whether he mounts a bid against pro-abortion President Barack Obama.
The first is gauging the response to his activities in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
He said he s getting reaction from people on what they think of the message, what they think of the messenger, what they think of my background and my accomplishments and how that fits into what people are looking for in 2012. Full story at LifeNews.com
Dutch Govt: Euthanasia Cases Rose 13 Percent in 2009, Now 2% of All Deaths
Amsterdam, Netherlands (LifeNews.com) -- The Dutch government reported today that the number of reported cases of euthanasia or assisted suicide rose 13 percent in 2009 and now total about two percent of all deaths in the European nation. The news, which already worries pro-life advocates, sparked a further concern with talk of creating a euthanasia "hospital" to facilitate more deaths.
The euthanasia numbers continue to rise and the newly-reported increase follows a 10.5 percent rise in the deaths from 2008-2009.
The annual report of the regional commissions that oversee the Netherlands euthanasia law revealed 2,636 cases of killing patients directly or helping them kill themselves in 2009. The vast majority of the cases were direct euthanasia as opposed to assisted suicide.
Statistics Netherlands indicates about 80 percent of the people involved in the euthanasia deaths were cancer patients and more than 80 percent of the people killed died in their homes.
The new report also indicated nice cases in which Dutch doctors did not properly follow the stipulations of the euthanasia law. They can be sent to prison for up to 12 years when they fail to proper the euthanasia protocols and up to three years in cases where they do not properly follow assisted suicide protocols.
The Dutch Association for a Voluntary End to Life said earlier this week it is looking at putting together a Swiss-style euthanasia clinic that would make it even easier for people to be killed or kill themselves. Full story at LifeNews.com
Florida Poll Has Pro-Life Rubio, Pro-Abortion Crist Splitting Senate Race Lead
Tallahassee, FL (LifeNews.com) -- A new poll in the Florida Senate race has pro-life candidate Marco Rubio leading in one instance and pro-abortion Charlie Crist ahead in another depending on whether the Democratic nominee is Kendrick Meek or Jeff Greene. Rubio polls better if Meek is the nominee while Greene benefits Crist.
The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters in Florida shows Rubio with 38% of the vote and Crist at 33% if pro-abortion Congressman Meek, who earns 21%, is the Democratic candidate. In that case 7 percent are undecided.
If billionaire Jeff Greene is the Democratic candidate, Crist gets 37% support to Rubio s 36%, with Greene trailing at 20%, two percent liking another candidate and five percent undecided.
Scott Rasmussen, the respected pollster said, the ratings are largely unchanged from last month and the contest remains one of Crist versus Rubio.
"Last month, Rubio also held a narrow lead if Meek is the Democratic nominee, and Crist was slightly ahead with Greene in the race," he said. "But the lead in this race has seesawed between Crist and Rubio for months, ever since the former abandoned his losing bid for the GOP Senate nomination and opted to run as an independent." Full story at LifeNews.com
Kansas College and University Students Also Pay for Abortions in Insurance Plans
Topeka, KS (LifeNews.com) -- Yesterday, a national pro-life college student group unveiled new information showing how public university students in North Carolina may soon be forced to pay for abortions in student health insurance plans. A pro-life group in Kansas says it can understand how students don't appreciate having to do so.
That's because it fought and lost a battle years ago to stop abortion funding in Kansas as pro-life advocates battled in state regents in 2006.
At the time, regents restructured health insurance for public universities at Emporia, Fort Hays, K-State (Manhattan), KU (Lawrence), KU-Med, Pittsburg and Wichita and abortion coverage made its way into the plan.
Kansans for Life legislative director Kathy Ostrowski explains that the current United Healthcare policy designed for undergrads, graduate students and international students forbids coverage for elective abortion while, in the section on allowable pregnancy complications, covers therapeutic abortions.
Therapeutic abortion, she says, "was the old term for any abortion a practitioner will sign off on. This was the very loophole warned about during debate on the Senate floor." Full story at LifeNews.com
Georgia Pro-Life Candidate Nathan Deal Wins Primary Runoff Over Karen Handel
Atlanta, GA (LifeNews.com) -- Nathan Deal, a pro-life former congressman seeking the Republican gubernatorial nomination, defeated his primary runoff opponent, former Secretary of State Karen Handel.
The race saw pro-life advocates split with both groups and former presidential candidates taking opposite sides of the battle between the two candidate for the state's chief executive.
Handel has conceded to Deal after a very close race and said Wednesday morning it was best for the party to rally around Deal as the nominee.
Deal held a slim lead of fewer than 2,500 votes over Handel late Tuesday evening, or a 50.2 percent to 49.8 percent advantage with just provisional and military and overseas ballots counted. Handel could have requested a recount had the margin remained less than 1 percent, but she said the time was now to rally behind Deal's campaign.
As of this morning, we are four-tenths of a percentage point behind Nathan Deal with absentee ballots and overseas military votes yet to be counted. We certainly have the option of requesting the automatic statewide recount. But we are not going to do that, Handel said in a statement.
She added, The best thing for our party is to rally around Congressman Deal as our nominee in the fight against [Democrat] Roy Barnes." Full story at LifeNews.com
Colorado Senate Race Will Now Feature Pro-Life Ken Buck, Pro-Abortion Bennet
Denver, CO (LifeNews.com) -- Colorado pro-life Senate candidate Ken Buck captured the Republican nomination Tuesday night to face pro-abortion Sen. Michael Bennett, who won the Democratic nod for his re-election bid. Buck immediately earned the endorsement of a pro-life group after he defeated pro-life candidate Jane Norton.
Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck and Bennet, who was appointed to his Senate seat, will now square off in what is expected to be a top contest in November.
Buck, who built his grass-roots campaign with the support of more conservative voters, edged Norton 52 percent to 48 percent in the Republican race and has a lead against Bennett heading into the general election campaign.
"Get a good night's sleep," Buck told the crowd at his victory party. "Because for the next 83 days, we are going to unite the Republican Party; we are going to reach out our hand for those independent voters and Democrats who are fed up with Washington ignoring them."
He urged Colorado Republicans to unite behind him against the pro-abortion senator.
"The differences between Jane Norton and Ken Buck were minuscule compared to the differences between Ken Buck and Michael Bennet," Buck said Tuesday.
In fact, while Buck is pro-life, Bennett has compiled a 0% pro-life rating from the National Right to Life Committee. Full stories at LifeNews.com
Catholic Bishops Present People of Life Awards to Three Pro-Life Advocates
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- On behalf of the nation's Catholic bishops, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo presented the People of Life award to three individuals for their lifetime commitment to the pro-life movement. The archbishop of Galveston-Houston presented the awards at a ceremony in Houston on Monday.
DiNardo, the chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Committee on Pro-Life Activities, presented the awards to Professor William E. May, Msgr. Philip J. Reilly and Patricia Bainbridge.
More than 85 diocesan pro-life directors from across the country attended the private awards dinner during the Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities annual Diocesan Pro-Life Leadership Conference.
The People of Life Award recognizes those who have answered the call outlined by Pope John Paul II in The Gospel of Life (Evangelium Vitae, 1995) by dedicating themselves to pro-life activities and promoting respect for the dignity of the human person.
It is bestowed on occasion to a practicing Catholic in honor of his or her significant contribution in service to the culture of life.
William E. May holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from Marquette University and has taught at several Catholic universities. He is currently a senior fellow at the Culture of Life Foundation, and emeritus Michael J. McGivney Professor of Moral Theology at the Pontifical Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family at the Catholic University of America.
Reilly has devoted most of his 50-year-long priestly ministry to the pro-life cause. He fought the legalization of abortion in New York before the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision.
Bainbridge has served the pro-life movement since 1978. She recently retired from her ten-year post as director of the Respect Life Office and Natural Family Planning Coordinator for the Diocese of Rockford, Illinois. Full stories at LifeNews.com
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