LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
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Current Headlines
Top Stories
• Obama Regulations Put Death Panels Back in Health Care
• Maria Cino Criticized for Avoiding Pro-Abortion Connections
• Mitch Daniels Has No Regrets on Abortion, Social Issues Truce
• Americans Still Oppose ObamaCare Law, Individual Mandate
More Pro-Life News
• Biased MTV Reality Show No Easy Decision Features Abortion
• County Settles Case of Pro-Life Advocates Shackled, Strip Searched
• Newt Gingrich s Daughter: He Will Likely Run for President
• No Changing Fact 2010 Election Was Year of Pro-Life Women
• California Should De-Fund Embryonic Stem Cell Agency to Avoid Bankruptcy
• Not Surprising Abortion Practitioners Are Unethical Doctors
---> Looking for a pro-life speaker for a 2011 event? Email us about LifeNews.com Editor Steven Ertelt.
Obama Regulations Put Death Panels Back in Health Care
New regulations the Obama administration will put in place starting January 1 essentially put the controversial death panels back in the much-maligned ObamaCare law.
Although Democrats dropped the idea during consideration of the health care law in Congress after significant public pressure, a new Medicare regulation taking effect at the beginning of the year will have the federal government paying doctors to advise patients on possible end-of-life care treatment options. The advice may include advanced directives to authorize withdrawal of lifesaving medical treatment or, in three states, assisted suicide.
Under the ObamaCare law, Medicare coverage of yearly physical examinations, or wellness visits, is authorized and a New York Times report indicates the new rule covers voluntary advance care planning as part of the annual visit. The rule allows physicians to discuss with patients the potential of an advanced directive which can be used to request medical care and lifesaving treatment, or deny it.
The section of the ObamaCare bill that had pro-life advocates concerned about death panels would have allowed for taxpayer funding of end-of-life treatment discussions via Medicare once every five years. The new rule pays for such discussions annually. Full story at LifeNews.com
Maria Cino Criticized for Avoiding Pro-Abortion Connections
Republican Party chairman candidate Maria Cino is coming under fire for releasing a new statement over the weekend that touts her pro-life views but avoids her past connections to a pro-abortion group.
Cino previously served on the board of directors of a pro-abortion women s group, WISH List, that funds female Republican candidates who support legalized abortions and frequently vote for taxpayer funding of abortions. The former Republican Party campaign operative and convention chair also made numerous donations to the organization over a several year period from the late 1990s through 2001.
Writing at National Review Online today, conservative columnist Maggie Gallagher calls the Cino explanation disingenuous.
It s quite possible and welcome for a pro-abortion Republican (or Democrat!) to change his or her views, she explains. But the information that Maria Cino, a candidate for RNC chair backed by many mainstream conservatives, is circulating about her record is misleading.
Her response is woefully inadequate to the main charge: No one I know who is deeply and ardently pro-life would participate in a pro-abortion PAC, she concludes. Come clean, Maria. Trust is a precious commodity. Don t squander it. Full story at LifeNews.com
Mitch Daniels Has No Regrets on Abortion, Social Issues Truce
Indiana governor and potential 2012 presidential candidate Mitch Daniels says he has not changed his position on the social issues truce he advocated this summer that drew a sharp rebuke from pro-life advocates.
Daniels, himself a potential candidate to take on pro-abortion President Barack Obama next election, told the Weekly Standard the next president would have to call a truce on the so-called social issues.
We re going to just have to agree to get along for a little while, he said in July.
In a new interview with the Indianapolis Star newspaper, Daniels said No when asked, You haven t changed your mind that that s the right course?
He admitted he received some criticism for the comments but added that he got a ton of positive feedback, too. Full story at LifeNews.com
Americans Still Oppose ObamaCare Law, Individual Mandate
Two new national polls released today show Americans still strongly oppose the ObamaCare law that contains abortion-funding and rationing. They also oppose the individual mandate requirement making them purchase health care.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows 60 percent of likely voters at least somewhat favor repeal of the national health care law, while the number who expect health care costs to increase is at its highest level since August.
The 60 percent who favor repeal, with 49 percent strongly favoring repeal, is tied for the second highest level of opposition in the Rasmussen poll since August. Just 38 percent oppose the law s repeal, including 29% who strongly oppose it.
Meanwhile, a new national poll conducted by CNN finds a majority of the public still opposes the new law and the component requiring all Americans to buy insurance, which several lawsuits in federal court are currently challenging. Full story at LifeNews.com
Biased MTV Reality Show No Easy Decision Features Abortion
The MTV television network that ran the show 16 and Pregnant will feature a new program tomorrow night called No Easy Decision that will feature a former cast member who decides whether or not to have an abortion.
The program is drawing attention because the subject of abortion is not frequently presented on television and, when it is, rarely is considerable time devoted to discussing it.
A young black woman named Markai, who was on an earlier episode of the teen pregnancy show and is the mother of one child, becomes pregnant again. The special will air on December 28 at 11:30 p.m. and will follow Markai through her decision of whether to have her baby.
Those who wonder why girls on the teen pregnancy program who decided to have an abortion are never shown doing so may finally see more about the abortion decision and potentially more about the abortion process itself. Full story at LifeNews.com
County Settles Case of Pro-Life Advocates Shackled, Strip Searched
Harford County officials have settled a case involving a federal lawsuit attorneys filed on behalf of pro-life women who were shackled and strip searched after peacefully protesting abortion in Maryland.
The officers handcuffed and arrested 18 pro-life advocates for sharing a peaceful pro-life message along a Bel Air, Maryland public street in August 2008. Among those arrested were three young women who were later shackled, strip-searched, and detained overnight by other police.
Matt Paavola, the attorney for Defend Life, the pro-life group that sponsored the abortion outreach event, told the Baltimore Sun newspaper, We have settled with the county revolving around the strip searches in the county detention center, and called the settlement very amicable and the county was very accommodating. Full story at LifeNews.com
Newt Gingrich s Daughter: He Will Likely Run for President
The daughter of former House Speaker New Gingrich says her father appears likely to announce he will seek the Republican nomination for president sometime early next year.
Jackie Gingrich Cushman tells Human Events Gingrich is more intent than ever on waging a potential presidential campaign that political observers thought he might run in 2008. She also talked about why Gingrich appears to be leaning in that direction. Full story at LifeNews.com
No Changing Fact 2010 Election Was Year of Pro-Life Women
by Marjorie Dannenfelser
Jamie Stiehm s Sarah Palin Is No Friend of Women in Politics isn t the first time feminist history has been rewritten to fit the abortion-centered model, but it is one of the more egregious instances of ignoring current events.
Her recent opinion cites the 2010 election results as evidence of the alleged disservice Sarah Palin and pro-life groups like the Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List) have done women by decreasing the overall number of women taking office in 2011.
On one point she is right. 2011 will be the first time in 25 years the overall number of women taking office will not increase. But that doesn t mean the voice of women in governance is fading. The truth is that authentic female leadership is soaring. The kind of woman now able to serve in all levels of government has been dramatically widened beyond Stiehm s definition which has dominated the debate for too long. Full story at LifeNews.com
California Should De-Fund Embryonic Stem Cell Agency to Avoid Bankruptcy
by Wesley J. Smith
I have a piece in today s San Francisco Chronicle urging my fellow Californians to turn a deaf ear to the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine s insistence we continue to borrow money as the good ship California sinks beneath waves of red ink to fund its luxurious salaries and conflict of interest-seeped research grants. Full story at LifeNews.com
Not Surprising Abortion Practitioners Are Unethical Doctors
by Randy Alcorn
Here is the true story of a licensed physician who kills babies for a living. He has an adulterous relationship with a hospital employee. (What a surprise that a child-killer would act unethically). Then when she becomes pregnant, he performs an abortion on her. He did all this undercover, not keeping records of her treatment because it would have incriminated him. (Imagine a professional child-killer killing his own child to cover up his sins. What a shock!) Full story at LifeNews.com
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