LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Thursday, December 30, 2010
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Current Headlines
Top Stories
• Pro-Life New Year s Resolution: De-Fund Abortion, Planned Parenthood
• MTV Show No Easy Decision a Reminder Abortion Industry Misleads Women
• Status of Democrats for Life Questioned After Pro-Life Criticism
• State Health Care Compact an ObamaCare Repeal Idea
More Pro-Life News
• Youth Pro-life Leaders Respond to MTV s Abortion Episode
• Bob Casey s Weak Pro-Life Record Means Tough Re-Election
• Media Reports on Teen Birth Decline Forget Abstinence
• Texas Pro-Life Group Backs Paxton Over Straus for Speaker
• New York Pregnancy Centers Still Battle Anti-Free Speech Law
• Mother of Woman Who Died in Abortion Named Person of Year
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Pro-Life New Year s Resolution: De-Fund Abortion, Planned Parenthood
When it comes to making New Year s resolutions, pro-life organization have one they definitely intend to keep: pressing for bills in Congress to de-fund abortion and Planned Parenthood.
This is the time of year when we look forward to a new year with hope and anticipation. It s the perfect time for making a list of resolutions to achieve greater life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, says Americans United for Life president Charmaine Yoest.
Saying the new pro-life controlled House of Representatives presents opportunities opening up for the mission of defending life, Yoest says her group has very specific plans to work toward advancing our resolutions.
Number one on our list? Defund abortion HQ: Planned Parenthood, she said. Congress could give taxpayers a gift by defunding Planned Parenthood. Eliminating their yearly federal subsidy of over $300 million should be one of Congress top priorities.
She says the abortion business has a fundamental disconnect with the heart of most Americans, where the majority of us embrace unborn children in the womb as a gift, wrapped and hidden until the birth-day of celebration. Nothing compares to the joy a mother feels when she meets her child for the first time. Full story at LifeNews.com
MTV Show No Easy Decision a Reminder Abortion Industry Misleads Women
by Laura Echevarria
The program followed one of the teens, Markai, from the show 16 and Pregnant after she found out that her birth control method failed and she was pregnant for a second time in less than a year. The show included interviews by Dr. Drew Pinsky with two young women who also made the decision to have abortions. In promotional materials MTV said the special report would show the devastating effects of facing such a decision.
One of my concerns before watching the show was that it would document the effects of facing an abortion decision but not the after-effects of the abortion itself. And while it turned out to be true, I think Markai s decision and some of the comments made reveal more about the abortion industry than pro-abortion groups would care to admit.
Markai is uncertain what to do and knows she has three options : adoption, give birth or have an abortion. While she says abortion is not her first choice, but both she and her boyfriend James recognize that they had a rough time getting to the point in their lives where they can provide for their daughter. James, in particular, recalls what it was like as a child to grow up without water, electricity and sometimes food in the house and he doesn t want to do that to their daughter. Because the decision affects Markai more because of her plans to attend college, James says that maybe she should talk to someone else and get another opinion.
While at a friend s house to discuss the issue, Markai calls an abortion clinic and the staff person talks to her about the abortion methods available. This staffer comments that during a pill-induced abortion the pregnancy tissue would be expelled. During the discussion, Markai gets upset and has to hand the phone off to her friend. Full story at LifeNews.com
Status of Democrats for Life Questioned After Pro-Life Criticism
The status of Democrats for Life of America is in doubt after the organization spent the year coming under fire from numerous pro-life groups for its role supporting ObamaCare.
The organization was the only pro-life group to support the bill, which allows abortion funding and has rationing concerns, and it maintained weak abortion funding limits in the legislation were sufficient to allay the concerns hundreds of other pro-life groups presented.
Democrats for Life came under additional criticism for its public attacks on several pro-life groups relating to the legislation and its participation in supporting a complaint Congressman Steve Driehaus, a pro-life Democrat who voted for ObamaCare, filed against the Susan B. Anthony List. The complaint would have fined the pro-life group and put its president or staff in prison for telling the truth about Driehaus vote in a billboard campaign.
The organization also was rebuked by pro-life advocates for disclosing private and sensitive email communications in supporting the complaint and some pro-life organizations pledged they would no longer work with DFLA officials or its executive director, Kristen Day.
Today, the website of Democrats for Life no longer functions and a phone number previously associated with the organization does not mention it. Full story at LifeNews.com
State Health Care Compact an ObamaCare Repeal Idea
Next year, Republicans in Congress will float their legislation to repeal ObamaCare, though some suggest the legislation is not likely to succeed in overturning the controversial law.
With President Barack Obama still in office and Democrats controlling the U.S. Senate, an expected bill approved by the newly-minted prolife Republican majority in the House of Representatives would place pressure on Obama and Democrats leading up to the presidential elections but not likely be approved by either one.
Keeping that problem in mind, Weekly Standard editor Fred Barnes has a different approach he suggests could be a third option in addition to the multiple lawsuits that are making their way through federal courts for rolling back the pro-abortion, pro-rationing law. Full story at LifeNews.com
Youth Pro-life Leaders Respond to MTV s Abortion Episode
by Bryan Kemper
For weeks we have been hearing about the MTV special that would feature a teen couple contemplating abortion. We were tempted to write about this show last week but decided to wait until the show aired. We know that MTV is no bastion of decency or truth, but we did not think the show would actually go as far as it did. We were wrong.
One very telling feature of the show was that it played without commercial interruption; this is not normal for MTV. This show was obviously funded by some one or some organization with an agenda; a very deadly agenda.
To be honest it felt like this was almost scripted as the perfect pro-abortion propaganda film. The couple was young, poor, and volatile; and they also already had one baby. They talked about God and the father had a Jesus tattoo on one shoulder and was wearing a necklace that looked like a rosary. They could have made it an extreme case, but they kept it simple; I don t think they could have cast a better couple for this show to make the audience sympathize with their decision to kill their child. Full story at LifeNews.com
Bob Casey s Weak Pro-Life Record Means Tough Re-Election
Senator Bob Casey was supposed to be the pro-life Democratic champion in the style of his father that the pro-life movement needed for a bipartisan attack on abortion.
But, to pro-life advocates in Pennsylvania, he has been a colossal failure because of his frequent votes against the pro-life position on key legislation and amendments votes he and his staff describe as pro-life.
Since his election, Casey has received just a 50 percent grade from the National Right to Life Committee covering numerous votes on abortion, abortion funding and other issues such as limiting the political free speech rights of pro-life organizations.
Casey backed the ObamaCare bill even after the Senate failed to approve language he supported ensuring it would not fund abortions at taxpayer expense. Though every major pro-life group and the nation s Catholic bishops told senators they wanted the bill defeated because of the abortion funding component, Casey went along with pro-abortion activists who railroaded it through the Senate. Full story at LifeNews.com
Media Reports on Teen Birth Decline Forget Abstinence
When media outlets reported last week on the decline in the number of teen births, one leading researcher says they should have placed emphasis on abstinence education.
Last week, the Centers for Disease Control released statistics showing that teen pregnancy rates in the United States have hit a record low. The Washington Post and other media outlets reported the news but focused primarily on sexual education.
The media sources also analyzed the decline by saying the slow economy has caused teens to think twice before giving birth or engaging in sexual activity.
But Dr. Michael New, a political science professor and research on abortion at the University of Alabama, wrote in a new column at National Review: This focus on the economy as the reason for the teen-birthrate decline is rather puzzling. Full story at LifeNews.com
Texas Pro-Life Group Backs Paxton Over Straus for Speaker
In the latest move in the contentious debate over the next Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, Texas Alliance for Life announced today it has endorsed Rep. Ken Paxton.
Paxton, a Republican from McKinney is facing off against Rep. Warren Chisum (R-Pampa) and current Speaker Joe Straus of San Antonio.
TAL informed LifeNews.com today of the endorsement and said it urges all incumbent and newly-elected state representatives to support him in that race. Texas Alliance for Life also encourages pro-life Texans to contact their state representatives and urge them to support Rep. Paxton.
We enthusiastically endorse pro-life Representative Ken Paxton for Speaker of the Texas House, said Joe Pojman, executive director of the pro-life group. Full story at LifeNews.com
New York Pregnancy Centers Still Battle Anti-Free Speech Law
Pregnancy centers helping women find abortion alternatives in New York City continue to battle the city council and its attempt to limits its free speech.
The city council is considering a measure that would place stringent limits on the advertising pregnancy centers use and require them to post signs designed to dissuade women from seeking their abortion alternatives services.
Christine Quinn, the City Council speaker, and Councilwoman Jessica Lappin are behind the proposed ordinance. Should the measure be approved, one pro-life legal group is planning to sue the city over the law. Full story at LifeNews.com
Mother of Woman Who Died in Abortion Named Person of Year
The mother of a young woman who was killed in a failed abortion has been named the person of the year by the pro-life organization Operation Rescue.
Eileen Smith is an unlikely national pro-life advocate, but she became well known in the pro-life movement after Massachusetts-based abortion practitioner Rapin Osathanond was charged with manslaughter in relation to his killing 22-year-old Laura Smith, Eileen s adoptive daughter.
Smith died in September 2007 at his Women s Health Center abortion business after Osathanondh failed to provide proper medical care after the abortion went awry. Full story at LifeNews.com
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