LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
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Current Headlines
• Senate Debates Nomination of Pro-Abortion Supreme Court Pick Elena Kagan
• Letter Has 200 Military Physicians Opposing Abortions on Military Bases
• Pro-Abortion President Barack Obama's Approval Rating Hits New Lows
• Kenya Constitution Would Allow Abortions Intl Pro-Life Leader Confirms
• Pro-Life Group Heads to Midwest to urge Voters to Dump "Pro-Life" Democrats
• Pro-Life Advocate Arrested in Bubble Zone Abortion Case Sees Charges Lifted
• Pro-Life Movement Must Change Public Opinion to Overcome Roe, Abortion
• Pregnancy Center Group: HBO Abortion Film 12th and Delaware Inaccurate
• New Jersey Dems Want to Override Christie Veto of Planned Parenthood $
• California Pregnancy Centers Fight NARAL Attack on Their Free Speech
• Pro-Life Advocates Challenge Prayer Ban in Front of DC Planned Parenthood
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Senate Debates Nomination of Pro-Abortion Supreme Court Pick Elena Kagan
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Members of the Senate began their debate today on the nomination of pro-abortion activist Elena Kagan to replace retiring pro-abortion Justice John Paula Stevens on the Supreme Court. Two things appear likely: that Kagan will secure enough votes and that she will become a judicial activist.
But that didn't stop lawmakers from exposing her judicial activist background.
"It is all but certain," pro-life Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama said, "that, if confirmed, Ms. Kagan will bring to the [Court] a progressive activist judicial philosophy which holds that unelected judges are empowered to set national policy from the bench."
Sessions said she lacks "real world" experience and would be tempted to engage in "political spin" from the high court.
"Her testimony [before the Senate Judiciary Committee] lacked clarity, accuracy and the kind of intellectual honesty you would look for from someone who sits on such a high court," he said.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13-6 in favor of and the Senate vote expected on Thursday will also likely be favorable.
Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, worries the Senate will easily confirm Kagan and put another abortion advocate on the high court.
"In all of American history, only 111 justices have had the privilege of serving on the U.S. Supreme Court. By the end of this week, members of the Senate will have made their decision on the 112th," he said. "If it is Elena Kagan, the President's controversial Solicitor General, she will most likely join this elite club with the third fewest confirmation votes of any nominee in history." Full story at LifeNews.com
Letter Has 200 Military Physicians Opposing Abortions on Military Bases
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- More than 200 physicians who have served U.S. soldiers have signed a letter to members of the Senate protesting a Senate bill amendment that would turn U.S. military base hospitals into abortion centers.
The amendment, sponsored by pro-abortion Sen. Rolland Burris of Illinois, would have the military break with current longstanding policy disallowing abortions.
The 16,000-member Christian Medical Association organized the letter and today sent it to the senators urging them to vote no on the National Defense Authorization Act unless the Burris amendment is removed. The group and the doctors are supporting an amendment on the Senate floor to remove the Burris language.
CMA Senior Vice President Gene Rudd, MD, who received the Gorgas Award for distinguished service in the American military, told LifeNews.com that allowing abortions on military bases is inappropriate.
"If enacted, requiring military physicians to perform abortions threatens military readiness. Morale will suffer among those already serving. Morale is a key component of military effectiveness," he said.
"Furthermore, just as we have seen a marked decrease in young doctors entering OB/Gyn training for fear of being forced to do abortion, this requirement will discourage young doctors from joining the military," Dr. Rudd said. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Abortion President Barack Obama's Approval Rating Hits New Lows
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new USA TODAY/Gallup poll found pro-abortion President Barack Obama's approval rating has declined to its lowest point since he took over the White House in January. Only 41% of those surveyed from last Tuesday through Sunday said they approve of how Obama is handling his job.
Gallup conducted a separate tracking poll that found his approval at 45 percent on Monday.
Political observer Rod Pennington says Obama's numbers are significantly lower if the approval rating from black Americans is removed. And if they fail to show up in large numbers in the November elections, he says they could turn out to be a landside against Obama's pro-abortion Democratic allies.
"What the poll fails to mention is the near universal support the President still enjoys among African-Americans which represent 14% of the population. If this support is subtracted from Mr. Obama, then he is somewhere in the range of 30% approval and 70% disapproval with all non-Blacks," he writes.
"Without President Obama on the ballot, if Blacks sit out this election cycle it could get ugly fast for the Democrats," he said.
In six recent polls released concerning Obama's approval rating, he had a negative rating in five and saw those who approve and disapprove tied in the sixth.
The most recent poll, from Rasmussen Reports, had 46 percent approving of Obama's job in office while 53 percent disapprove. That included 27 percent who strongly approve and 42 percent who strongly disapprove. Full story at LifeNews.com
Kenya Constitution Would Allow Abortions International Pro-Life Leader Confirms
Nairobi, Kenya (LifeNews.com) -- A pro-life international leader who regularly lobbies at the United Nations says media reports on the proposed new constitution in Kenya are wrongly implying that it would not essentially legalize abortions. Jeanne Head, the National Right to Life Vice President for International Affairs, confirms the constitution allows abortions.
Kenya voters are heading to the polls on Wednesday to vote on the document, which would overturn the African nation's longstanding pro-life laws against abortions.
Many in the media are falsely reporting that the new constitution would not allow abortion except 'where the life of the mother is in danger,'" Head told LifeNews.com. The truth is actually the opposite.
The language in the proposed constitution does not contain any meaningful restrictions on abortion, despite recognition of the right to life from conception.
Instead, Section 26 contains language which allows abortion when in the "opinion of a trained health professional, there is need for emergency treatment, or the life or health of the mother is in danger, or if permitted by any other written law."
Head says this is a reversal of previous Kenyan law on abortion which required the opinion of two medical doctors who were in agreement that an abortion was necessary to save the life of the mother. She said the newly-proposed broad health exceptions in the proposed constitution would essentially mean abortion on demand. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Life Group Heads to Midwest to urge Voters to Dump "Pro-Life" Democrats
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- With the repeal or de-funding of the pro-abortion health care bill becoming a clear campaign theme across the nation, a pro-life group is hitting the road to remind voters that the "pro-life" Democrats they thought they were electing sold out when it comes to the health care bill funding abortions.
Former congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave, a pro-life advocate from Colorado who is a spokeswoman for the Susan B. Anthony List, emailed pro-lifer supporters today with more about the upcoming road trip.
"With so much on the line on November 2nd including the fate of millions of unborn children threatened by the Obama-Pelosi agenda the Susan B. Anthony List is getting ready to take our campaign for Life on the road," she said.
"Starting next Tuesday, while members of Congress are home for their August recess, the SBA List team will travel across Pennsylvania, Indiana and Ohio to bring a message to the 'pro-life Democrats' and the voters in their districts," Musgrave continued. "We've done it before, but this time it s different."
"Seven months ago we stood outside district offices across the Midwest with messages of thanks and encouragement, imploring Reps. Brad Ellsworth, Kathy Dahlkemper, Steve Driehaus, Joe Donnelly, Baron Hill and Marcy Kaptur to hold firm to their pro-life principles and honor the will of their constituents," she said. "But, as we all know, they chose to compromise their principles and pass a bill without sufficient language protecting the unborn and American conscience." Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Life Advocate Arrested in Bubble Zone Abortion Case Sees Charges Lifted
Chicago, IL (LifeNews.com) -- The pro-life graduate student arrested in a case that drew national attention to the plight of pro-life advocates losing their free speech outside abortion centers, saw charges filed against him by the city of Chicago under its new bubble zone law dismissed.
The case of Joe Holland received national press when a Fox News report focused on how he was arrested merely for praying in front of a Chicago-area Planned Parenthood abortion business.
As LifeNews.com reported last week, Holland is the first pro-life person charged under the new bubble zone law in Chicago that local citizens say has robbed them of their free speech rights outside abortion centers.
Holland, a Northwestern University graduate student, was praying the rosary on a public sidewalk outside the Planned Parenthood Near North abortion facility on July 3 when staff called the police, claiming that he had violated the new ordinance.
This afternoon, the Thomas More Society, the pro-life law firm helping Holland, secured a dismissal of all charges against him under the ordinance, which establishes a 50-foot buffer outside the entrances of abortion centers and, within that zone, no one can come within an 8-foot zone to distribute literature, counsel or display a sign.
"We are pleased that the City of Chicago has dismissed these false and baseless charges against Joe Holland," said Peter Breen, the group's director and legal counsel. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Life Movement Must Change Public Opinion to Overcome Roe, Abortion
by Thomas Glessner, JD
The American patriot Thomas Paine helped to fuel the American Revolution with his classic essay Common Sense. In this essay Paine proclaims:
[A] long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.
Paine, of course, was talking about the abuses that the American colonists suffered under the crown of England, and he was bemoaning the fact that many colonists had become so used to these abuses that over time they accepted their plight instead of rising up and overthrowing tyranny.
Perhaps Thomas Paine was prophetically observing twenty-first century America and the acquiescence of the public-at-large to the judicial tyranny that has imposed upon America abortion on demand. When the United States Supreme Court issued Roe v. Wade in 1973 it invalidated the laws of all fifty states that prohibited abortion.
At that time an outcry was heard from some segments of society, most notably the Catholic Church, but for the most part the public-at-large was silent. The decision was accepted by many as an advancement of an increasingly secular and humanistic culture that views moral values as relative and changing over time. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pregnancy Center Group: HBO Abortion Film 12th and Delaware Inaccurate
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Care Net, a national network of 1,100 pregnancy centers, is taking issue with the content of the new HBO documentary "12th and Delaware." The documentary portrays abortion through the eyes of two filmmakers who dramatize the work of a pregnancy center and an abortion business in Ft. Pierce, Florida.
The organization tells LifeNews.com appear more interested in sensationalizing the issues and gaining viewers than offering an accurate portrayal of how pregnancy centers help women considering an abortion.
"While Oscar-nominated filmmakers Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing may have set out to accurately depict the work of these two 'sides' of the abortion issue, they clearly did not do the necessary background work of a good documentarian or journalist," says the group in a statement.
"Neither Care Net nor any other national pregnancy center organization was contacted, to our knowledge, by these filmmakers for any information. Without more research or interviews with other centers across the nation, how could these filmmakers faithfully portray this movement of approximately 2,300 centers?" it added.
Care Net officials say the filmmakers relied on tired stereotypes of pro-life advocates when putting together their focus on pregnancy centers. Full story at LifeNews.com
New Jersey Democrats Want to Override Christie Veto of Planned Parenthood $
Trenton, NJ (LifeNews.com) -- Democrats in the state legislature kicked off a campaign to override a veto Governor Christ Christie issued to prevent $7.5 million in state taxpayer funds from going to the Planned Parenthood abortion business. When the state currently faces an $11 billion deficit, Christ said the funding doesn't make sense.
Christie won the praise of pro-life advocates last month by vetoing a bill that would restore the family planning funds his administration cut from the state budget because of deep economic troubles.
Although it doesn't fund abortions directly, the money goes to the Planned Parenthood abortion business. The funds go to 58 family planning clinics but Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion chain, runs 29 of the facilities.
After Christ cut the funding, the state legislature approved a bill to restore it. They voted for that bill Christie voted on a 30-10 vote on the Senate, more than enough to override the veto.
But Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean Jr. told the Star-Ledger newspaper that Republicans who supported the bill will not buck their party's governor on a veto override vote.
"There will not be enough votes in the Senate to spend money that we don't have," he said. "This is the time for fiscal discipline, and the members of the Republican caucus recognize that." Full story at LifeNews.com
California Pregnancy Centers Fight NARAL Attack on Their Free Speech
Sacramento, CA (LifeNews.com) -- Pro-life groups are expressing concern about calls by NARAL Pro-Choice California for state legislation requiring pro-life crisis pregnancy centers to post signs announcing they do not refer clients for abortion or birth control.
NARAL, which supports keeping abortion legal, recently issued a report accusing the centers of deceptive practices, saying that they do not state explicitly that they oppose abortion and birth control.
The group also claims that crisis pregnancy centers distribute medically inaccurate information about links between induced abortion and increased risk of infertility, breast cancer and mental distress.
Pro-life groups said they fear the move is an attempt to defend the economic interests of abortion providers at the expense of the free-speech rights of pregnancy resource centers.
There are plenty of doctors who do not do abortions nor refer for abortions. Should these doctors be muzzled? asked Robin Strom, executive director of Pregnancy Resource Center of Marin County in Novato, a state-licensed medical clinic which would likely be exempt from any further regulation. It flies in the face of the First Amendment right of free speech. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Life Advocates Challenge Prayer Ban in Front of DC Planned Parenthood
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A pastor who was arrested in June praying front of a Planned Parenthood abortion business in the nation's capital is challenging what he says is an unconstitutional ban on his free speech. For years, pro-life advocates have been able to pray and counsel women heading to the Planned Parenthood abortion center.
That changed when the abortion business built a fence around the center and posted signs saying those who went beyond the fence were trespassing.
Patrick Mahoney, a pastor who heads the Christian Defense Coalition, challenged those signs, but was arrested.
Now, pro-life activists supporting Mahoney will pray on the public sidewalk Saturday, August 14 as part of an event called "A Time to Stand" -- even if it means arrest and going to jail.
This event also follows the recent arrest of a man in Chicago for praying in front of an abortion business there.
"On August 14, we are going to embrace free speech, the First Amendment and religious liberty and pray on the public sidewalk leading up to Planned Parenthood," Mahoney told LifeNews.com. "We will not be bullied or intimidated into silence." Full story at LifeNews.com
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