LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Saturday, August 28, 2010
| For pro-life news updated throughout the day, visit LifeNews.com. |
Current Headlines
• Poll: 57% of Americans Oppose Tax Funding of Embryonic Stem Cell Research
• Sarah Palin Says Obama Most Pro-Abortion President, Bashes Charlie Crist
• Religious Doctors Less Likely to Kill Patients With Euthanasia, Assisted Suicide
• Black Abortion Advocates Attack Alveda King, Say Martin Luther King Not Pro-Life
• Illegal Abortion Myths: What Would America Look Like Without Abortions?
• Florida and Wisconsin Voters Favor Pro-Life Candidates Over Abortion Backers
• Minnesota Pro-Life Group: Mark Dayton Misleading Voters on Abortion Position
• New Jersey Democrats to Hold September Vote to Restore Planned Parenthood $
• Appeals Court Overturns Pro-Life Pastor's Conviction for Counseling on Abortion
• Students for Life Welcomes Wilberforce Leadership Fellows, Training Pro-Lifers
• Human Life International Pro-Life President Euteneuer to Work in Catholic Diocese
• Mainstream Media Admits Abortion Hurt Lisa Murkowski, Thinks Pro-Lifers Crazy
---> 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 received just under 50% of 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
Poll: 57% of Americans Oppose Tax Funding of Embryonic Stem Cell Research
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- On the week in which a federal judge ruled that President Barack Obama's executive order forcing Americans to pay for embryonic stem cell research with taxpayer funds violates a federal law, a new poll shows a majority of Americans opposed tax-funding the controversial and unproven research.
Only 33% of U.S. voters believe that taxpayer money should be spent on embryonic stem cell research, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
Fifty-seven percent of Americans say funding for the research, which has never helped any patients and requires the destruction of human life to facilitate, should be left to the private sector.
The Rasmussen poll found 55% of voters who identify themselves as "pro-choice" support government funding of embryonic stem cell research, but a much higher 83 percent of pro-life advocates oppose it.
Seventy-eight percent (78%) of Republicans and 62% of voters not affiliated with either major party oppose taxpayer funding of embryonic stem cell research. Fifty-five percent of Democrats do back forcing taxpayers to fund the destructive research.
The poll did find that Americans support embryonic stem cell research as 24% of voters now believe embryonic stem cell research is morally wrong, down five points from March 2009 when Rasmussen conducted a similar survey. Fifty-four percent say it is not morally wrong, unchanged from the previous survey, and 21 percent are unsure.
Fifty-two percent (52%) of pro-life voters think embryonic stem cell research is morally okay do 79 percent of those who support legalized abortion. Full story at LifeNews.com
Sarah Palin Says Obama Most Pro-Abortion President, Bashes Charlie Crist
Jacksonville, FL (LifeNews.com) -- In a speech Thursday night delivered at a banquet to raise funds for an organization that uses the media to advance the pro-life perspective, former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin labeled President Barack Obama as the most pro-abortion president in the nation's history.
She also took at swipe at pro-abortion Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, now an independent Senate candidate, for vetoing a pro-life bill to allow women a chance to see an ultrasound of their unborn child.
Palin said the ObamaCare health care plan Obama and his Democratic allies passed would lead to more abortions because of abortion funding it contains.
"The biggest advance of the abortion industry in America is the passage of Obamacare," Palin said, according to an AP report. "Elective abortions have nothing to do with health care. It's about ending lives, not saving lives."
Obama, by many accounts, has become the most aggressive president in promoting the pro-abortion agenda and he has compiled a lengthy record funding abortions with taxpayer dollars both domestically and abroad.
Palin also took on Crist, who left the Republican Party when he realized he would lose the GOP Senate nomination to pro-life candidate Marco Rubio.
"Unfortunately your Republican governor," Palin said. She paused and added, "I don't know if he wants to be one or is a Republican anymore" -- which prompted a chorus of boos. Full story at LifeNews.com
Religious Doctors Less Likely to Kill Patients With Euthanasia, Assisted Suicide
London, England (LifeNews.com) -- Patients worried about becoming a victim of euthanasia should ensure they find a doctor who holds strong religious views. That's because a new study out of Great Britain finds physicians who are atheist or agnostic are twice as likely to make decisions taking the lives of terminally ill patients.
Dr. Clive Seale, a professor at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, conducted a random mail survey of more than 8,500 doctors. Almost 4,000 responded and more than 3,000 described the death of a patient.
Seale found doctors, many of whom care for elderly patients or are neurologists, who describe themselves as "extremely" or "very nonreligious" were twice as likely to report that the care for their last terminally ill patient included euthanasia practices such as deep sedation.
He found religious doctors were also less likely to keep patients in continuous deep sedation or to support legislation allowing assisted suicide.
"There was a strong link between specialty and reporting decisions that were expected or partly intended to hasten the end of a sick patient's life," Medical News Today reported on the study. "Hospital specialists were nearly 10 times more likely to report such decisions than palliative care doctors."
According to an AP report, Seale wrote that "nonreligious doctors should confess their predilections to their patients," so they know they could become victims. Full story at LifeNews.com
Black Abortion Advocates Attack Alveda King, Say Martin Luther King Not Pro-Life
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A group of black abortion advocates are attacking Alveda King, the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., for saying her uncle is pro-life. The younger King has been a pro-life advocate for some time since coming to regret her multiple abortions but some abortion activists don't like what she has to say.
King is slated to appear at the Glenn Beck event commemorating the 47th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s historic "I Have a Dream" speech.
Responding to that event and a new billboard campaign, members of the "Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice" held a press conference and issued a statement blasting Alveda King.
They said the "religious right billboard campaign claiming African American children are an 'endangered species' and Alveda King's comparison of anti-abortion activists to 'Freedom Riders' sparked outrage in the African American community."
The black RCRC members called King's claims that her uncle would be pro-life today "baseless and inflammatory assertions." Full story at LifeNews.com
Illegal Abortion Myths: What Would America Look Like Without Abortions?
by Maria Vitale
To those who came of age long after 1973, it s understandably difficult to imagine America without legal abortion. After all, they can't remember a time when abortions were not routinely carried out. They grew up thinking that, if birth control failed to prevent pregnancy, abortion was the back-up plan.
But even proponents of legal abortion have said they believe that Roe v. Wade s days are numbered. They realize that the U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion could be overturned in our lifetime.
So the question becomes, what would an America without legal abortion look like?
Abortion supporters would have you believe that the major consequence of outlawing abortion is that deaths from illegal abortions will become epidemic. But history does not bear out that supposition.
Dr. Bernard Nathanson, a founder of the National Abortion Rights Action League who became pro-life, admitted that he lied about the number of women who perished from illegal abortions before 1973. Nathanson was quoted as saying, We spoke of 5,000 10,000 deaths a year I confess that I knew the figures were totally false..it was a useful figure, widely accepted, so why go out of our way to correct it with honest statistics?
Information from the National Center for Health Statistics indicates that it wasn't the legalization of abortion that reduced the number of abortion-related deaths. Rather, it was the introduction of antibiotics which helped to save women s lives. Full story at LifeNews.com
Florida and Wisconsin Voters Favor Pro-Life Candidates Over Abortion Backers
Tallahassee, FL (LifeNews.com) -- Voters in Florida and Wisconsin favor the pro-life candidates in races for governor over abortion advocates competing in the two states. The new numbers come from Rasmussen Reports polls released today of likely voters in both competitive 2010 election states.
In Florida, the first Rasmussen survey following Tuesday's primary election finds Republican Rick Scott and Democrat Alex Sink in a close contest, with Scott leading.
Scott, who is running as a pro-life candidate, earns the support of 41% of likely voters while Sink picks up 36% of the vote. Independent Bud Chiles runs a distant third with eight percent, five percent like another candidate and 9 percent are undecided.
In Wisconsin, both GOP hopefuls in the state's gubernatorial contest run just slightly ahead of Democrat Tom Barrett, who supports abortion.
The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of likely voters shows former Congressman Mark Neumann picking up 48% support while Barrett, the mayor of Milwaukee, earns 44% of the vote. Seven percent like another candidate or are undecided.
Scott Walker, who in earlier surveys has been the slightly stronger GOP candidate against Barrett, now leads the Democrat by a 47% to 44% margin, with 8 percent undecided or liking another candidate. Full story at LifeNews.com
Minnesota Pro-Life Group: Mark Dayton Misleading Voters on Abortion Position
St. Paul, MN (LifeNews.com) -- A Minnesota pro-life group says pro-abortion gubernatorial candidate Mark Dayton is misleading voters about his abortion position. Though he supported a bill in Congress that would overturn such laws, Dayton told a radio station he allegedly supports parental notification before an abortion.
Dayton, one of the two major-party pro-abortion candidates for governor, has a "confused and conflicting position," Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life says.
MCCL is calling for Dayton to state clearly whether he supports the extreme agenda of the abortion industry or would back limits on abortion like allowing parents to know when their minor daughters are considering one.
Dayton's record in the U.S. Senate includes his sponsorship of the Freedom of Choice Act, also known as FOCA, in 2004.
The legislation would have wiped out all state and federal pro-life laws across the nation and codified abortion on demand in federal law. It would have overturned any pro-life laws in Minnesota such as parental involvement, informed consent, holding abortion centers accountable to health and safety standards or limits on taxpayer funding of abortions.
In direct conflict with FOCA, a Dayton spokesperson said in a WNMT radio interview Thursday that Dayton supports parental notification for minor girls before an abortion. Full story at LifeNews.com
New Jersey Democrats to Hold September Vote to Restore Planned Parenthood $
Trenton, NJ (LifeNews.com) -- New Jersey Democrats in the state legislature have set a September 20 vote to attempt to override a veto Governor Chris Christie issued on a bill restoring the family planning funds Christie cut from the state budget. Christie said the money shouldn't go to the Planned Parenthood abortion business.
Christie thinks there's little reason to send the abortion centers $7.5 million when the state currently faces an $11 billion deficit.
The funds go to 58 family planning clinics but Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion chain, runs 29 of the facilities.
Upset by his decision, Senate President Stephen Sweeney has scheduled a Senate vote on September 20 to override Governor Christie's veto of S2139. Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver said she would schedule the override vote in the Assembly on September 30 if the vote in the Senate is successful.
Scheduling the votes comes after a U.S. Inspector General report showed New Jersey-based family planning clinics run by the Planned Parenthood abortion business were improperly billing Medicaid for services that did not qualify as family planning.
The state eventually returned $2.9 million to the Medicaid program this week.
New Jersey Right to Life director Marie Tasy told LifeNews.com today her group is "asking everyone to both call and email their State Senator and two assembly members with the message" to vote no on the override. Full story at LifeNews.com
Appeals Court Overturns Pro-Life Pastor's Conviction for Counseling on Abortion
Oakland, CA (LifeNews.com) -- A federal appeals court has overturned the criminal conviction against pro-life African-American pastor Walter Hoye. He violated the ordinance Oakland officials passed targeting him because he engages in sidewalk counseling outside abortion centers in the area to help women find alternatives.
In a jury trial in 2009, Hoye was found guilty of two counts of unlawfully approaching women seeking abortions at an Oakland abortion business. The court sentenced him to 30 days in jail and an $1100 fine.
Officials with the Life Legal Defense Foundation, a pro-life legal group, represented Hoye before the Appellate Division of the Alameda Superior Court.
In a new opinion, the court agreed with Hoye's attorneys that the trial court had erred in two respects.
First, the trial court refused to instruct the jury that it had to unanimously agree on the particular incident for which Hoye was to be found guilty. Because the district attorney's office presented evidence of several separate interactions between Hoye and people entering the abortion clinic, it was unclear whether the jury had all agreed on a single instance where Hoye allegedly violated the ordinance.
Secondly, LLDF officials say the trial court refused defense requests to provide a definition of "knowingly approach," a critical element of the "crime" for which Pastor Hoye was convicted. Full story at LifeNews.com
Students for Life Welcomes Wilberforce Leadership Fellows, Training Pro-Lifers
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Students for Life of America has created a new partnership between pro-life student activists and leaders of the pro-life movement. The national organization hopes the partnership, the new Wilberforce Leadership Fellows program, will result in a new generation of adult leaders against abortion.
"The vision of the Fellowship is to equip and further train student pro-life leaders to form national and state leaders that will help end abortion in our lifetime," the organization says.
Last weekend, at the SFLA national headquarters, the pro-life group welcomed the 2010-2011 class and the students heard from David Bereit, the national coordinator of the 40 Days for Life program. They participated in seminars on the history of the pro-life movement, pro-life apologetics, how to build and cultivate pro-life campus groups.
"These students are the rockstars of the campus pro-life movement," Kristan Hawkins, the head of SFLA, told LifeNews.com.
She added: "The Fellowship will help to continue their growth in leadership as well as propel them into a pro-life career by networking them with mentors and leaders from the national pro-life movement. We are so excited to be working with them this school year." Full story at LifeNews.com
Human Life International Pro-Life President Euteneuer to Work in Catholic Diocese
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- When it comes to fighting the pro-life battles around the world, Rev. Thomas Euteneuer of Human Life International is one of the best known activists.
However, the HLI board announced today that, after nearly 10 years of service as the organization's president, Euteneuer has stepped down from his position after being asked by his Bishop to return to his Diocese.
Euteneuer returns to his Catholic diocese in West Palm Beach, Florida and will have fewer stamps on his passport over the next 10 years as he tends to local concerns. During his tenure, Fr. Euteneuer traveled more than one million miles visiting 48 countries as a pro-life missionary to the world.
"Nearly ten years ago I answered the call of the Lord to come to Human Life International and work full-time in pro-life work with the permission of my bishop. I have been utterly privileged to serve this great mission for a decade," Euteneuer said in an email.
"A true pro-lifer is not oriented to a job so much as to the daily task of fighting the culture of death and building the culture of life," he added. Full story 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. |
Mainstream Media Admits Abortion Hurt Lisa Murkowski, Thinks Pro-Lifers Crazy
by Jill Stanek
Even though liberal MSM types like Ron Elving, senior Washington editor at NPR, have a hard time understanding what's going on, they are giving credit for Joe Miller's Alaska GOP Senate primary (apparent) victory to pro-life voters.
But the title and opening paragraph of Elving's August 26 piece not so subtly tell us he thinks Alaskans have gone crazy...
Elving, among others, still can't fathom that pro-lifers now comprise the majority. Even if so, he thinks people who believe preborn humans shouldn't be slaughtered for convenience and profit, and/or parents who want to know before their daughters abort (which was the ballot initiative that helped get voters out), wear tin hats. Nevertheless, he gave us credit. Full story at LifeNews.com
Encourage Friends to Sign Up for Free Pro-Life News From LifeNews.com
