LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Friday, August 20, 2010
| For pro-life news updated throughout the day, visit LifeNews.com. |
Current Headlines
• Obama Admin Blocks Release of Study Showing Abstinence Education Works
• Setting the Record Straight on Catholics United and Pro-Abortion Health Care
• Support for Repealing Pro-Abortion Health Care Bill Highest in One Month
• United Nations Takes Good Ideas From Catholics, Uses Them to Promote Abortion
• Can Europe Survive Its population Plunge? Underpopulation Devastating Continent
• Florida Polls Show Mixed Results on Pro-Life Marco Rubio, Pro-Abortion Crist
• Kenya Catholic Bishops: Respect Constitution Vote, Want Abortion Amendment
• Georgia: Pro-Life Governor Candidate Nathan Deal Leads Democrat Roy Barnes
• Ohio Governor Poll Sees Pro-Life John Kasich Leading Pro-Abortion Ted Strickland
• Massachusetts Pro-Life Group Backs James McKenna Atty General Write-In Bid
• North Dakota House Race Sees Republican Berg Lead Pro-Abortion Pomeroy
• Hawaii Right to Life Endorses Pro-Life Duke Aiona for Governor
• Jaime Herrera Wins Republican Congressional Primary in Washington State
---> Thank you for the excellent support for LifeNews.com in our new fundraising campaign to raise $2,010 for news coverage about pro-life efforts to retake both the House and Senate. We have a good start on the $4,020 we want to bring in and need your help to get to the goal. Please use the button below to make a donation or use the donate button on the left-hand side of http://LifeNews.com
Obama Admin Blocks Release of Study Showing Abstinence Education Works
Washington, DC -- The Obama administration is, once again, entangled in controversy over sex education.
Yet this time, it is not about what the administration is trying to implement, but about what it is withholding and apparently for political reasons.
A taxpayer-funded study that indicates parental and adolescent support of abstinence education is not being released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), as it does not support the administration s objective or that of vocal safe sex activists of eliminating all abstinence-education funding.
The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), a division of HHS, funded a survey of 1,000 adolescents between the ages of 12 and 18 and their parents, in order to measure parent-adolescent communication and adolescent attitudes toward sex and abstinence.
The American Public Health Association s (APHA) website reveals the results of the study:
Adjusting for all other factors in the model, parent and peer factors are more consistently associated with differences in adolescent attitudes about sex and abstinence than are measures of adolescent exposure to sex and abstinence topics in a class or program.
Additionally, parent attitudes are more important in influencing adolescent views than the level of parent communication with their adolescent. Full story at LifeNews.com
Setting the Record Straight on Catholics United and Pro-Abortion Health Care
by Marjorie Dannenfelser
Catholics United, a group that strongly supported pro-abortion President Barack Obama's campaign, sent disruptive protesters to our Votes Have Consequences stop in Erie, Pennsylvania where local pro-life activists called out Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper for selling out Pennsylvania values by providing a key vote for the passage of Obama s health care bill.
The protestors led by James Salt, Director of Organizing for Catholics United and close associate of Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius (an avid pro-abortion activist and cheerleader of late-term abortionist George Tiller) followed the bus as it made additional stops in Meadville, Grove City, and Butler.
It is important to note that during the health care debate, Catholics United actively opposed efforts to add Hyde amendment language to the bill to ensure taxpayer dollars wouldn't be used to pay for abortions in health care legislation. From the start to the end of the debate, Catholics United worked to undermine the efforts of honest lawmakers working to protect the unborn, their mothers, and the conscience of American taxpayers.
So it comes as no surprise that Catholics United is now doing everything they can to undermine our efforts to educate pro-life voters as the mid-term elections draw near.
Catholics United protestors claimed the SBA List is lying about funding for abortion in health care because of an executive order issued by President Obama.
The problem with their argument is that the executive order doesn't hold any legal weight, isn't worth the paper it s written on, and does not even attempt to address all the funding problems in the bill. Full story at LifeNews.com
Support for Repealing Pro-Abortion Health Care Bill Highest in One Month
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Support for repeal of the health care reform bill that funds abortions is at its highest level in over a month, while the number of voters who believe repeal will be good for the economy has reached a new high.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely Voters shows that 60% at least somewhat favor repeal of the health care reform law, while 36% oppose repeal.
Those numbers include 50% who Strongly Favor repeal and 26% who Strongly Oppose it. Platinum Members can see state-by-state results from across the country.
The number that favors repeal is up five points from last week and is the highest level measured since July 1. The number that Strongly Favors repeal also ties the highest level ever - first measured in mid-April.
Overall support for repeal has ranged from 52% to 63% since the law was passed by Congress in March.
Fifty percent (50%) of voters now say repeal of the bill will be good for the economy. That's up six points from the end of July and is the highest result found since the question was first posed in April. Twenty-six percent (26%) say repeal of the bill would be bad for the economy, while another 15% say it will have no impact. Full story at LifeNews.com
United Nations Takes Good Ideas From Catholics, Uses Them to Promote Abortion
by Colin Mason
The United Nations must love Catholics, we give them their best ideas.
Take, for instance, the UN's latest initiative, aimed at the world's youth. The International Year of Youth was initiated by the United Nations at the end of last year, and officially began on August 12, 2010. According to the UN, the Year was initiated for the purposes of promoting peace, freedom, progress and solidarity towards the promotion of youth development and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.
And the year will be started off with a conference in Mexico City, from August 24th-27th, called the World Youth Conference.
Hmmm. This conference, and its related International Year of Youth, bear an uncanny resemblance to a certain tradition that the Catholic Church has been practicing since 1986: World Youth Day.
World Youth Day, started by Pope John Paul II, was designed to be an event where youth from all over the world could come together and celebrate their Catholic identity. Like so much of Pope John Paul II's pontificate, the emphasis was on solidarity and a sense of Catholic unity. It was this unity that brought legions of youth together, from disparate backgrounds and widely separate countries, and it was this sense of unity that strengthened them to be faithful Catholics in an often hostile world. Young people leave World Youth Day invigorated, encouraged, and full of love of their faith, and for their fellow humans.
The United Nations has obviously seen the effectiveness of having such a powerful youth focus, and it would seem that the events of the International Year of Youth, particularly this World Youth Conference, were inspired directly by the Catholic event. Full story at LifeNews.com
Can Europe Survive Its population Plunge? Underpopulation Devastating Continent
by Mary Jo Anderson
Paris, France -- Europe is dying. The Washington Post, among others, reports that, within a hundred years, there will be the rare German in Germany or Italian in Italy. Some demographers believe it is too late to correct Europe's plunge into extinction. "The fall in the population can no longer be stopped," reported Walter Rademacher of the German Federal Statistics Office.
Replacement fertility rates are 2.1 children per woman in developed nations. No nation in Europe can claim that rate, and most fall under 1.6. At those levels, each generation is barely half the number of the preceding one. The working-age population is reduced by 30 percent in just 20 years, having a devastating impact on economies. Today, European Union and United Nations experts are sufficiently alarmed to call councils to address the population crisis. The irony is that this is a crisis of their making.
In the 1960s, futurists painted a dire picture of population explosion and its concomitant depletion of resources. As recently as ten years ago, the UN's own Millennium Summit Declaration insisted, "We must spare no effort to free all of humanity, and above all our children and grandchildren from the threat of living on a planet irredeemably spoilt by human activities, and whose resources would no longer be sufficient for their needs" (22).
Global policy planners set about crafting a means to curb world fertility. Contraception and abortion as social policy necessarily pitted planners against Christian teaching and traditional families. Predictably, these policies led to tacit devaluation of marriage and the acceptance of divorce, cohabitation, and single parenthood in the developed nations. Full story at LifeNews.com
Florida Polls Show Mixed Results on Pro-Life Marco Rubio, Pro-Abortion Crist
Tallahassee, FL -- Two new polls in the Florida Senate race show differing results when to comes to pro-life candidate Marco Rubio and pro-abortion candidate Charlie Crist.
A new Mason Dixon poll shows Rubio has nudged ahead of Crist in a hypothetical three-way matchup with pro-abortion Democrat Kendrick Meek. Rubio led Crist in the poll 38 percent to 33 percent, with 18 percent for Meek and 11 percent undecided.
Rubio and Crist are running neck and neck, however, if billionaire businessman Jeff Greene becomes the Democratic nominee, the poll found. In that hypothetical matchup, Crist got 39 percent of those polled, Rubio 38 percent and Greene 12 percent.
Crist's fate depends on whether he attracts large numbers of Democratic voters in the general election, the poll found. The results indicate that Meek is gaining support among Democrats, which could draw votes away from Crist and give Rubio an advantage.
But a second, more recent poll, from Quinnipiac University showed Crist with 39 percent to Rubio's 32 and 16 percent for Meek. If Jeff Greene gets the Democratic nod, he gets 15 percent to Crist's 40 percent and Rubio's 32 percent. Full story at LifeNews.com
Kenya Catholic Bishops: Respect Constitution Vote, Want Abortion Amendment
Nairobi, Kenya -- The Catholic bishops in Kenya released a statement today calling for Catholics in the nation to respect the recent vote for the Constitution. But, they called on the government of the African country to allow for amendments to the newly-adopted constitution that fix the problems of it allowing unlimited abortions.
Kisumu Archbishop Zacchaeus Okoth said the Catholic Church was committed to respecting the vote.
During the Constitution reform and campaign period, we the pastors of the church noted with greater force the need to continually provide a proper integral and balanced moral and civic education to all, he said at a press conference, according to the FM news agency.
The Catholic Church had campaigned against the ratification of the Constitution in the just concluded referendum. The church argued that a clause on the right to life contained loopholes that could allow abortion on demand. On Thursday, the Bishops insisted that the government should keep its pre-referendum pledge that amendments to the contentious issues would be made once the new Constitution was in place. Full story at LifeNews.com
Georgia: Pro-Life Governor Candidate Nathan Deal Leads Democrat Roy Barnes
Atlanta, GA (LifeNews.com) -- Coming off his razor-thin Republican Primary runoff win on Tuesday, former Congressman Nathan Deal earns better than 50% support against Democrat Roy Barnes in Georgia's race for governor.
A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Georgia Voters finds Deal with 51% of the vote versus Barnes' 42%. Three percent (3%) prefer some other candidate, and another three percent (3%) are undecided.
These new findings move Georgia from a Toss-Up to Leans GOP in the Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 Gubernatorial Scorecard.
Last month, Deal posted a 49% to 43% lead over Barnes, who previously served as governor from 1999 to 2003. Deal has held a small lead over Barnes in surveys since March, earning 43% to 49% of the vote. Support for Barnes in those same surveys has ranged from 39% to 43%. Full story at LifeNews.com
Ohio Governor Poll Sees Pro-Life John Kasich Leading Pro-Abortion Ted Strickland
Columbus, OH (LifeNews.com) -- Republican John Kasich now holds an eight-point lead over incumbent Democrat Ted Strickland in the race for governor of Ohio, shifting the state from a Toss-Up to Leans Republican in the Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 Gubernatorial Scorecard.
Kasich earns 48% of the vote, while Strickland picks up 40% support in the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Ohio Voters. Six percent (6%) prefer some other candidate, and seven percent (7%) are undecided.
Two weeks ago, Kasich was barely ahead 45% to 42%, but the race has been close for months. Since December, the Republican s support has ranged narrowly from 45% to 49%, while the Democrat in those same surveys has earned 38% to 45% of the vote. Full stories at LifeNews.com
Massachusetts Pro-Life Group Backs James McKenna Atty General Write-In Bid
Boston, MA -- The Massachusetts Citizens for Life PAC has announced that it has Jim McKenna for Attorney General in the September 14 Primary and November election. He is waging a write-in campaign to challenge pro-abortion Martha Coakley.
Jim McKenna is a dedicated defender of the law, said Madeline McComish, Chairman of the MCFL State Political Action Committee.
"He served as an assistant district attorney in the Organized Crime Division of the Suffolk County District Attorney's office where he focused on corruption and organized crime in Boston. For six years, McKenna also served as an assistant district attorney in the Worcester County District Attorney's office," she said. Full stories at LifeNews.com
| Looking for a Pro-Life Speaker? |
| Looking for a pro-life speaker for your next banquet, conference or convention? LifeNews.com editor Steven Ertelt is a low-cost speaker who can entertain and educate your audience as well as help you with a fundraising pitch. He can speak on any pro-life topic. For more information, email news@LifeNews.com. |
North Dakota House Race Sees Republican Berg Lead Pro-Abortion Pomeroy
Bismarck, ND (LifeNews.com) -- Republican challenger Rick Berg remains slightly ahead of pro-abortion incumbent Democratic Congressman Earl Pomeroy in the race for North Dakota s only U.S. House seat.
The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely North Dakota voters shows Berg with 53% support, his best showing in the contest to date, while Pomeroy picks up 44% of the vote. One percent (1%) favor some other candidate in the race, and three percent (3%) are undecided.
Berg, a businessman and state legislator, has remained consistently ahead throughout 2010. His support has ranged from a low of 46% to a high of 53%. For Pomeroy, support has stayed between 40% and 46%. Last month, the race was the closest it s been all year. Full stories at LifeNews.com
Hawaii Right to Life Endorses Pro-Life Duke Aiona for Governor
Honolulu, HI (LifeNews.com) -- Duke Aiona recently announced that Hawai`i Right to Life, a non-profit organization committed to the protection of life for all people, has endorsed his campaign for Governor.
We must respect all human life, said Duke Aiona. It is my personal belief that we should do everything we can to stand up and speak out for the most innocent among us."
Hawai`i Right to Life enthusiastically endorses Duke Aiona for Governor , said Janet Grace, executive director of Hawai`i Right to Life. Duke is an outspoken supporter of the right to life of all people, from conception to natural death, and has publicly demonstrated his strong commitment to the value of all human life. Full stories at LifeNews.com
Jaime Herrera Wins Republican Congressional Primary in Washington State
Olympia, WA -- On Tuesday night, Susan B. Anthony List Candidate Fund-endorsed Jaime Herrera qualified for the November general election in Washington s 3rd District jungle primary.
The Susan B. Anthony List is proud to support an authentic pro-life woman leader like Jaime Herrera as she moves on to the general election. Jaime Herrera is exactly the type of candidate Americans crave. Herrera s commitment to rescinding taxpayer funding of abortion in health care and in every aspect of federal spending is urgently needed in the coming Congress, said Susan B. Anthony List Candidate Fund President Marjorie Dannenfelser. Full stories at LifeNews.com
Encourage Friends to Sign Up for Free Pro-Life News From LifeNews.com
