LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
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Current Headlines
• Komen for the Cure Donated $7.5M to Planned Parenthood Abortion Biz in 2009
• Media Misreporting: Embryonic Stem Cells Not Involved in Geron's New Testing
• Actors Calista Flockhart, Connie Britton, Tony Scott, Get Planned Parenthood Award
• Pro-Life Candidates Lead Senate Races in Wisconsin, Ohio, NH, Washington
• Study: Women Who Use Abortion Drug Experience More Pain, Emotional Distress
• Pro-Life Group Backs Dino Rossi in Washington, Cory Gardner in Colorado
• Abortion Backers Ignore How Unsafe Abortions, Clinics Are Hurting Women
• Right to Life Responds to Ohio "Pro-Life" Democrat's Complaint Against Pro-Lifers
• New York City to Follow Baltimore, Austin in Attacking Pregnancy Centers
• Pro-Life News: Minnesota, Notre Dame, Massachusetts, Waco, Texas, Abortion
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Komen for the Cure Donated $7.5M to Planned Parenthood Abortion Biz in 2009
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- October is the month for breast cancer awareness, but it's difficult for pro-life advocates to lend their support to one of the primary organizations involved in the fight against breast cancer because it has provided contributions to the Planned parenthood abortion business.
The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation has long denied that abortion plays any role in elevating the risk for women of contracting the deadly disease.
That's despite a wealth of research over decades showing an average increased risk of about 40 percent for women having abortions compared to those who carry their pregnancy to term.
But the contributions Komen affiliates make to Planned Parenthood, which does more than 25 percent of all abortions in the United States and aggressively promotes abortion abroad, provide another sources of frustration for pro-life people who otherwise would support the group.
In a new interview with the Daily Caller, Komen spokesman John Hammarley provided the latest figures showing the link between the two groups.
He confirmed 20 of Komen s 122 affiliates have made donations to Planned Parenthood and, last year, those contributions totaled $7.5 million -- much higher than the $731,000 Komen's figures on its web site showed earlier this year. Full story at LifeNews.com
Media Misreporting: Embryonic Stem Cells Not Involved in Geron's New Testing
by David Prentice
In its usual style, Geron has put out a press release that it has injected the first patient for its trial of embryonic stem cells for spinal cord injury. Of course their main goal is to increase their stock price and cash flow from investment. Not about science, not about helping patients. After all, this is just an announcement that the patient has been injected with millions of cells. No results, no peer-reviewed publication, nada.
Contrary to what most of the news stories report, Geron is not injecting growing embryonic stem cells into a patient. They inject cells made from embryonic stem cells; in this case cells called oligodendrocyte progenitors."
Oligodendrocytes form a sheath around nerve fibers, like insulation. The injected ESC-derived cells are progenitors or precursors, only partly specialized; theoretically the cells will grow, migrate and specialize around the spinal cord, creating a sheath around nerves and also perhaps secreting nerve growth factors to enhance nerve survival.
From the total of two published rat studies on which the human experiment is based, Geron already knows that their ESC-derived cells will not work on chronic spinal cord injury; patients must be recruited and injected within the first 14 days after their injuries. They also know that the patient must be juiced with immunosuppressive drugs, so that the injected cells are not rejected by the immune system, since they are foreign to the body. Full story at LifeNews.com
Actors Calista Flockhart, Connie Britton, Tony Scott, Get Planned Parenthood Award
Los Angeles, CA (LifeNews.com) -- The Planned Parenthood abortion business has always been close with the Hollywood elite and, last week, more than 300 people gathered at a shindig for the abortion business to honor three actors who have supported the pro-abortion cause and organization that does 25% of the nation's abortions.
The Planned Parenthood Advocacy Project of Los Angeles County (PPAP) held its "Champions of Choice event to honor elected officials, celebrities, and entertainment and business leaders.
This year's honorees included Donna and Tony Scott, Connie Britton, Calista Flockhart, and Assemblymember Bob Blumenfield.
Flockhart was the Emmy-nominated star of the series Ally McBeal and has acted in the ABC series Brothers and Sisters. Connie Britton is the Emmy-nominated star of the NBC's Friday Night Lights.
The Scotts have been involved in movies and shows as actors and producers -- including Austin Powers and Enemy of the State and directing and producing Top Gun, Crimson Tide, and the Emmy-nominated series The Good Wife.
PPAP says they each "demonstrate a strong commitment to" supporting and promoting abortion. "Honorees are Planned Parenthood Advocacy Project supporters who have worked to promote" abortion. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Life Candidates Lead Senate Races in Wisconsin, Ohio, NH, Washington
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new slate of polls shows pro-life candidates holding leads in a handful of top Senate races, close in others and losing in Delaware. As Lifenews.com has noted, there is a chance pro-life advocates could take control of the Senate from pro-abortion leaders, including Harry Reid.
In New Hampshire, pro-life Republican Kelly Ayotte for the third month in a row earns more than 50% of the vote against Democratic Congressman Paul Hodes.
The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters in New Hampshire shows Ayotte with 51% support to Hodes 44%, unchanged from a month ago. Three percent (3%) prefer some other candidate, and two percent (2%) are undecided.
Rasmussen's new Wisconsin poll reveals pro-life Republican challenger Ron Johnson continues to earn more than 50% of the vote in his U.S. Senate bid against pro-abortion incumbent Democrat Russ Feingold.
And the polling firm shows pro-life Republican Rob Portman has now jumped to a 23-point lead over Democratic Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher in Ohio s U.S. Senate race, making it virtually a certainty he will be elected.
Meanwhile, a new Fox News poll shows pro-life Republican Dino Rossi with a 1-point lead over incumbent Sen. Patty Murray and the Real Clear Politics average of recent polls now has Rossi in the lead - showing him gaining the momentum in the race.
On the downside, pro-life Republican candidate Christine O'Donnell of Delaware is not catching up to her pro-abortion opponent, Chris Coons, according to a new Fox News poll. Full story at LifeNews.com
Study: Women Who Use Abortion Drug Experience More Pain, Emotional Distress
London, England (LifeNews.com) -- The abortion drug mifepristone (more commonly known as RU 486) was supposed to be a panacea for women -- allowing them to have safer abortions in the privacy of their own home. But a new study out of England finds women who had the drug-induced abortions preferred the surgical abortion procedure.
They complained of more medical problems and more mental health issues following the use of the abortion drug and the passing of the body of the dead baby.
More than half the women who took the abortion drug (53 percent) told researchers their experience was worse than expected.
Teresa Kelly and colleagues at Newcastle University followed 122 women who had either the surgical abortion or used the mifepristone pill in the second trimester of pregnancy and published their findings in the obstetrics journal BJOG.
They found all of the women in the surgical abortion group would decide to have a surgical abortion again.
The women who used the abortion drug reported more pain and more vaginal bleeding and, two weeks after the abortion, they were much more likely to report "intrusive" psychological symptoms ranging from unwanted thoughts to nightmares of killing their unborn child. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Life Group Backs Dino Rossi in Washington, Cory Gardner in Colorado
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A pro-life women's group issued two endorsements today for candidates in Washington state and Colorado. The Susan B. Anthony List has endorsed Dino Rossi, who is seeking the Senate seat in Washington, and Cory Gardner, running for a congressional seat in Colorado.
Both candidates received the endorsement of the Susan B. Anthony List because they are facing pro-abortion lawmakers endorsed by Emily's List, which funds candidates and politicians who support abortion and forcing taxpayers to fund it.
The Susan B. Anthony List is proud to support Dino Rossi in his bid to defeat Senator Patty Murray, said SBA List president Marjorie Dannenfelser in a statement to LifeNews.com.
Patty Murray has voted repeatedly in favor of taxpayer funding of abortion and has been rewarded with more than $538,000 in campaign contributions from the pro-abortion lobby," Dannenfelser explained. "Washington taxpayers deserve better than Patty Murray. They can count on Dino Rossi to keep their hard-earned tax dollars from paying for abortions. He is the better candidate for women and all Washingtonians.
Meanwhile, in Colorado, the SBA List announced its endorsement of Colorado State Representative Cory Gardner, candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in Colorado s 4th District, against pro-abortion freshman incumbent Betsy Markey.
The contrast between Cory Gardner and Betsy Markey is clear, Dannenfelser told LifeNews.com. Cory Gardner has consistently voted to protect life in the Colorado State House while EMILY s List favorite Betsy Markey has voted in lock-step with the pro-abortion Obama-Pelosi administration." Full story at LifeNews.com
Abortion Backers Ignore How Unsafe Abortions, Clinics Are Hurting Women
by Denise Burke
Practitioner Pleads Guilty to Manslaughter, Killed Woman in Failed Abortion, Abortionist Agrees to Suspended License, and Abortion Clinic Closed After Regulators Find Aborted Baby Parts in Jars these are just a few of the recent headlines that have Americans rightly questioning the safety and legitimacy of abortion practice in this country.
Abortion advocates have consistently argued that legalized abortion is beneficial to women s health. When abortion is legal, women are not supposed to be at the mercy of unskilled and incompetent butchers and unsanitary and unsafe clinics.
All too often, however, today s abortion clinics have become the true back-alleys of abortion mythology.
Imagine walking into a Kansas abortion clinic in 2003 and finding fetal remains stored in the same refrigerator as food, a dead rodent in the hallway, overflowing and uncovered disposal bins containing medical waste, improperly labeled and expired medicines, and visible dirt and general disarray throughout the clinic. Full story at LifeNews.com
Right to Life Responds to Ohio "Pro-Life" Democrat's Complaint Against Pro-Lifers
Cincinnati, OH (LifeNews.com) -- The National Right to Life Committee is fighting back against Steve Driehaus, the Ohio congressman who claims to be a "pro-life Democrat" but who filed a criminal complaint against the Susan B. Anthony List for holding him accountable by running billboards showing how he voted for the ObamaCare bill that included abortion funding.
NRLC submitted a sworn affidavit today to the Ohio Elections Commission, the same agency with which Driehaus filed his complaint. It demonstrates the Obama health care law does in fact provide federal subsidies for elective abortion.
NRLC's statement was filed at the request of attorneys for the Susan B. Anthony List to help the organization defend its billboards saying Driehaus "voted for taxpayer-funded abortion."
In his complaint, Driehaus used a rarely-employed Ohio statute under which it is a violation to make "a false statement concerning the voting record of a candidate or public official," or to "post, publish, circulate, distribute, or otherwise disseminate a false statement concerning a candidate, either knowing the same to be false or with reckless disregard of whether it is false or not." Full story at LifeNews.com
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New York City to Follow Baltimore, Austin in Attacking Pregnancy Centers
New York, NY (LifeNews.com) -- The New York City Council is moving in the same direction as local officials in Baltimore, Maryland and Austin, Texas. Officials are considering a proposal that would target pregnancy centers that offer women information about abortion alternatives because abortion advocates don't like them.
Thousands of pregnancy centers provide practice help, information and support for pregnant women unlike anything abortion businesses offer.
Because of that, and their communicating to women accurate information on the risks and dangers associated with an abortion, pro-abortion groups like NARAL and Planned Parenthood have targeted them with new bids to put local ordinances in place making them post disclaimers that the information is reportedly not medically accurate.
Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, and Councilwoman Jessica S. Lappin are upset by a slate of new subway ads promoting some of the centers run by EMC Frontline.
Their proposal, according to the New York Times, would make pregnancy centers include information in their ads saying they do not give out the morning after pill or make abortion referrals. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Life News: Minnesota, Notre Dame, Massachusetts, Waco, Texas, Abortion
• Minnesota Pro-Life Group Endorses Opponent of Former Pro-Life House Co-Chair
• Notre Dame Faculty Can Join new Campus Chapter of National Pro-Life Group
• Massachusetts Pro-Life Group Backs William Gunn for Congress
• Waco, Texas Pro-Lifers Get Coverage of Boycott of Central National Bank
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