LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
| For pro-life news updated throughout the day, visit LifeNews.com. |
Current Headlines
Top Stories
• Republican Party Chair Michael Steele to Join Pro-Life Debate
• Obama Solidifies Democrats for 2012, Palin Lacks Support
• Mitch Daniels: Truce Directed at Liberals, Not for Social Conservatives
• Pro-Abortion Obama EEOC Nominee Chai Feldblum Approved
More Pro-Life News
• Voluntary Death Panels May Forgo Assisted Suicide Talk
• Nebraska Bill Bans Telemed Abortions Using RU 486 Drug
• Chief Rabbis in Israel Oppose Abortion Epidemic
• Catholic Bishop Right to Push Back Against Culture of Death
• Pennsylvania Parental Consent Abortion Law Gets Legal Aid
• Alaska Governor Wants Court to Reconsider Teen Abortion Law
• Canadian Supreme Court Decision Could Lead to Cloning Research
---> Please consider making an end-of-year donation to support LifeNews.com.
Republican Party Chair Michael Steele to Join Pro-Life Debate
Michael Steele, the embattled chairman of the national Republican Party, says he will participate in a January 3 debate co-sponsored by a leading pro-life organization.
Steele confirmed today to the Daily Caller, a conservative news web site that is sponsoring the debate with the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List and Americans for Tax Reform, that he will face off with five rivals seeking to lead the party against pro-abortion President Barack Obama.
The confirmation is surprising because some party insiders speculated Steele would not participate but would defend his record in private before the 168 members of the Republican National Committee who will determine the chairman of the party and lead its efforts to fundraise for get out of the vote efforts supporting what is expected to be a pro-life nominee facing Obama in 2012.
Because the position is so important in terms of representing the Republican Party s pro-life views as a spokesman and setting up the presidential election, which has monumental abortion implications, the SBA List has been active in the debate. It has urged pro-life advocates to contact RNCDebate.org to urge pro-life questions be asked and it conducted a series of interview questions with most of the chairman candidates on pro-life issues. Full story at LifeNews.com
Obama Solidifies Democrats for 2012, Palin Lacks Support
A new CNN poll released today shows pro-abortion President Barack Obama is solidifying his support as he heads into the year leading up to he expected re-election bid.
On the other hand, the survey finds former vice-presidential candidate and Alaska governor Sarah Palin not coalescing Republican voters behind her potential bid for the GOP nomination to take on Obama.
The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll (pdf) found 78 percent of Democrats say they want to see Obama become the Democratic Party s standard-bearer again in 2012 compared with 19 percent saying they would prefer someone else. The 19 percent number is the lowest since March, when CNN began asking the question of voters nationwide.
Meanwhile, the Public Policy Polling institute released a new poll today as well with more bad news for Palin.
We ve polled Palin s favorability in ten states over the last couple months. In Alaska just 33% of voters have a favorable opinion of her to 58% with a negative one, polling direct Tom Jensen explains. The only place where fewer voters see her positively than her own home state is dark blue Massachusetts. Full story at LifeNews.com
Mitch Daniels: Truce Directed at Liberals, Not for Social Conservatives
Indiana governor Mitch Daniels has given yet another interview in which he talks about a social issues truce he put forward this summer that upset pro-life conservatives.
The interview with WANE follows on the one he gave the Indianapolis Star in which he appeared to shift position and suggest the truce was meant for liberals, not social conservatives concerned about issues like abortion.
In the Star interview, Daniels suggested the truce was meant for liberal activists like those who favored repealing the Don t Ask, Don t Tell policy and he continued that line of thinking in the WANE question and answer session.
Asked if the truce wasn t anything to alarm social conservatives he responded, First of all, it wasn t directed to them. It was directed as much to people who, for instance, are very aggressively trying to change the definition of marriage Stand down for awhile. Let s save America. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Abortion Obama EEOC Nominee Chai Feldblum Approved
Lost in the shuffle in the last week of the most recent session of the Senate was news that another one of President Barack Obama s pro-abortion nominees was confirmed.
The U.S. Senate last week confirmed four of President Obama s long-pending nominations to positions at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, including the nomination of pro-abortion activist Chai Feldblum as a commissioner.
The EEOC enforces federal laws barring discrimination in employment and the Obama appointment could impact abortion as it relates to employment issues as could impact abortion as it relates to employment issues.
Feldblum isn t known by most Americans, but she worked for the pro-abortion Human Rights Campaign Fund and, from 1986-1987, was a legislative counsel for the pro-abortion ACLU. Full story at LifeNews.com
Voluntary Death Panels May Forgo Assisted Suicide Talk
The debate over the death panels that appear to have been added back to the ObamaCare law continues and the complexity of federal regulations is causing considerable confusion.
Early reports indicated the death panels, the annual discussions authorized under ObamaCare at taxpayer expense where physicians confer with patients about end-of-life decisions, indicated they could possible include a discussion of assisted suicide in the three states where one may be obtained.
But a key word making the discussions voluntary appears to have eliminated that possibility as does the fact that the discussions will center on advanced directives, which can t include assisted suicides.
These things can become very complicated and finding anything in federal law and regulations is increasingly difficult, pro-life bioethics attorney Wesley J. Smith writes today after conducting additional research on the death panels. Regarding them allowing assisted suicides, he says, The answer appears to be: Probably not, at least, not yet. Full story at LifeNews.com
Nebraska Bill Bans Telemed Abortions Using RU 486 Drug
A proposed law in Nebraska would stop the telemed abortion process currently employed at Planned Parenthood centers in neighboring Iowa from expanding there.
Telemed abortions are those where women visit an abortion center and don t meet in person with a physician before taking the dangerous RU 486 abortion drug, as the FDA suggests. Instead, they are only given access to a doctor over a Skype computer connection before being prescribed the drug that has killed potentially dozens worldwide and injured more than 1,100 in the United States alone as of 2006, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
The legislative proposal would prohibit Nebraska physicians from prescribing and dispensing the abortion drug via the Internet, which Planned Parenthood of the Heartland has done in Iowa in more than 2,000 cases since mid-2008. Full story at LifeNews.com
Chief Rabbis in Israel Oppose Abortion Epidemic
Yona Metzger and Shlomo Amar, the chief rabbis in Israel, are calling on Israeli residents to fight the abortion epidemic they say is ravaging the country.
The two Jewish leaders sent a letter to all rabbis across the country, according to a CBN News report, citing a portion of the Torah from Exodus that relates the story of Hebrew midwives refusing an edict from Pharaoh to drown newborn children by throwing them in the Nile River.
Jews point to the teachings in the first chapter of the book of Exodus when Hebrew midwives Pu ah and Shifra refuse to listen to the King of Egypt s order to kill all male babies. But the midwives feared God and did not as the king of Egypt commanded, the scriptures say. Full story at LifeNews.com
Catholic Bishop Right to Push Back Against Culture of Death
by Gerard Nadal
Bishop Thomas Olmsted, of the Phoenix, Arizona Diocese took the extraordinary step last week of removing Saint Joseph Hospital s Catholic status.
The measure comes after last May s confrontation between Sister Margaret McBride, the hospital s administrator who gave permission for an 11-week pregnant woman with a severe case of pulmonary hypertension to have an abortion, and Bishop Olmsted who notified her in private that her actions were formal cooperation in the child s death, and therefore incurred a latae sententiae (automatic) excommunication.
Much confusion swirls around this case, and needs to be cleared in the interest of defending the good name of a good bishop. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pennsylvania Parental Consent Abortion Law Gets Legal Aid
Attorneys representing pro-life legal groups are giving aid and support to a parental consent law that requires minor teens to get their parent s permission for an abortion.
Officials with the Alliance Defense Fund and Americans United for Life submitted a friend-of-the-court brief to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in the first-ever review of that court of the pro-life law. The groups are representing the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation, the Pennsylvania Family Institute and nearly 70 state legislators who support the law protecting a parent s right to be involved in their child s decision regarding abortion. Full story at LifeNews.com
Alaska Governor Wants Court to Reconsider Teen Abortion Law
Alaska Governor Sean Parnell asked a court last week to reconsider its decision from earlier this month to severely weaken a parental notification law.Superior Court Judge John Suddock let the law voters approved in August stand but weakened it to the point that pro-life groups say it is now ineffective.
He said abortion practitioners should not face prison sentences for failing to comply with it. He also removed a section allowing parents to file a civil lawsuit against abortion practitioners who don t comply seeking financial damages. Full story at LifeNews.com
Canadian Supreme Court Decision Could Lead to Cloning Research
Canadian pro-life advocates are concerned a recent decision by the Supreme Court of Canada could pave the way for grisly research involving cloning and merging different species.
Last week, on a split 4-4-1 decision, the nation s high court left what pro-life advocates say is a legal void that could lead to cloning research involving the fusing of humans with animals and results in the destruction of human embryos unique human beings just days into their existence. Full story at LifeNews.com
Encourage Friends to Sign Up for Free Pro-Life News From LifeNews.com
