LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
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Current Headlines
Top Stories
• Pro-Life Champion Joe Pitts to Head Key ObamaCare Panel
• Republican Party Chair Candidates to Debate Pro-Life Issues
• Upton Wins Key House Committee Nod After Opposition From Pro-Lifers
• Michelle Bachmann: New Congress Should Defund Planned Parenthood
More Pro-Life News
• Obama Rationing Czar Berwick: I m Happy With ObamaCare
• Obama Backs Privacy Rights When Convenient, on Abortion
• Jimmy Carter s Legacy: Pro-Abortion Judge Stephen Reinhardt
• Texas Speaker: Chisum, Paxton Answer Pro-Life Survey, Strauss Doesn t
• North Carolina County Cuts Paid Abortions for Employees
• Brazil Soccer Player Jailed, Killed Woman Refusing Abortion
• Connecticut Group: NARAL Lying About Pro-Life Protestors
• No Room in the Inn: Unborn Children Rejected Like Jesus
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Pro-Life Champion Joe Pitts to Head Key ObamaCare Panel
When it comes to abortion and taxpayer funding of it, Congressman Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania is the one of the big pro-life champions on Capital Hill.
Now he will have the opportunity to head a key subcommittee that will have jurisdiction over efforts to repeal the ObamaCare law or, at minimum, de-fund the law or the abortion funding it allows.
While pro-life advocates were disappointed by the news that Rep. Fred Upton, who has a weak pro-life voting record, will head the full House and Energy Committee that will tackle ObamaCare and other abortion issues, they were delighted by the news on Pitts.
He will likely, following a full House Republican caucus vote on Wednesday, head up the health subcommittee where any ObamaCare and abortion funding battles will originate.
John Boehner, the incoming Speaker, and members of the House Steering Committee named Pitts to become the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee which is good news for Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser, who told LifeNews.com the appointment is a major pro-life victory. Full story at LifeNews.com
Republican Party Chair Candidates to Debate Pro-Life Issues
The candidates seeking the critical post of chairman of the Republican Party will participate in a debate next month that will partly focus on pro-life issues, including abortion.
With the 2010 elections having concluded and with current pro-life Republican Party chairman Michael Steele facing questions of his handling of the party, the battle is beginning for who will run the show.
The chairmanship of the GOP is important because the party apparatus will lay the groundwork for the massive get out the vote campaign necessary to defeat pro-abortion President Barack Obama.
Steele is pro-life, but he has disappointed many grassroots conservatives by a lackluster fundraising effort and a poor get out the vote effort that is cited by some election experts as hurting pro-life Senate candidates in Washington, Colorado, West Virginia and elsewhere.
He has been beset by a string of gaffes and will likely face stiff competition to keep his post which he has said he wants to do.
To evaluate those candidates seeking to challenge him for the post, the Susan B. Anthony List and Americans for Tax Reform announced today they are co-sponsoring a debate featuring candidates for Republican National Committee chairmanship on January 3. Full story at LifeNews.com
Upton Wins Key House Committee Nod After Opposition From Pro-Lifers
In an internal battle at the House of Representatives, Michigan congressman Fred Upton has tentatively won the fight to lead the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee.
Upton will likely become the chairman of the panel, which will have enormous oversight on the battle to dismantle abortion-funding ObamaCare, despite strong opposition from pro-life organizations that cited his spotty pro-life voting record.
Upton won critical support from top Republican lawmakers today, including pro-life Speaker-Elect John Boehner, who named him to head the panel.
The full Republican caucus is expected to vote Wednesday on Upton and other nominees for chairmanships of House committees in the next Congress but the support is seen as paving the way for his victory. Rep. Joe Barton, a pro-life advocate from Texas, has waged a campaign to become the chairman but political observers don t expect him to beat Upton tomorrow if he runs.
Some top pro-life conservative lawmakers have urged Barton to run, but others, according to Politico, have said he should not in order to avoid what would likely be a defeat that could cost him some of his political capital. Full story at LifeNews.com
Michelle Bachmann: New Congress Should Defund Planned Parenthood
Rep. Michele Bachmann has become a prominent national conservative figure as an articulate female spokeswoman for issues like abortion and her latest call demonstrates why.
Bachmann says she will press for the new Republican-controlled House of Representatives to pass a bill sponsored by fellow conservative luminary Mike Pence, an Indiana congressman, to de-fund Planned Parenthood when it convenes in January.
Well, I think one thing that we can do, quite simply, is to withhold funding from Planned Parenthood, Bachmann said when asked by CNS News about what Congress can do to protect unborn children.
It wouldn t mean that Planned Parenthood would go out of existence, because they do have their own independent funding, but what it would mean is that the taxpayer would no longer be funding that, she said.
Pence is the leading sponsor of the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act that would ensure federal funding for family planning does not go to abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood, even if they supposedly segregate the funds and ensure they do not directly fund abortions. Full story at LifeNews.com
Obama Rationing Czar Berwick: I m Happy With ObamaCare
President Barack Obama s Medicare chief, rationing advocate Donald Berwick, says he is happy with ObamaCare in terms of how it redistributes wealth similarly to the British health care system.
Berwick is the man Obama appointed to implement ObamaCare and head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
He recently claimed he has backed away from some of his pro-rationing positions, but CNS News caught up with him at speech he delivered Friday at a conference sponsored by the National Committee for Quality Assurance.
Do you think the new health care law President Obama s health care law does enough and a sufficient job to redistribute wealth? the conservative news service asked Berwick.
Berwick said in response: I don t think I ve seen a law with more help in it, more sense of responsibility than the Affordable Care Act not in my time. Full story at LifeNews.com
Obama Backs Privacy Rights When Convenient, on Abortion
There s been much controversy in recent weeks over the issue of full body scans and pat-downs at airport security checkpoints across America. Individuals from all points on the political and ideological spectrum are angry and speaking out against practices that they assert violate civil liberties and undermine human dignity.
Much in the same way that the Patriot Act thrust the privacy v. security conundrum into the foreground of the public s attention, the kerfuffle begun by John Don t Touch My Junk Tyner has ignited a national debate about how far our society is willing to go to ensure the safety of air travel in America. President Obama, for his part, acknowledges the inconvenience posed by the new TSA procedures, but insists that they are necessary to ensure our safety in an era of pervasive terror threats.
Upon hearing the President s rationalization of full body scans and vigorous pat-downs, I can t help but be struck by this Administration s inconsistent and unprincipled approach to personal privacy issues. Full story at LifeNews.com
Jimmy Carter s Legacy: Pro-Abortion Judge Stephen Reinhardt
Some pro-life advocates are still confused about former President Jimmy Carter and whether he was pro-life or supported abortion. While Carter claimed to be pro-life, his actions frequently spoke louder than words.
Judge Stephen Reinhardt, a liberal who sits on a federal appeals court that will soon decide the controversial appeal of proposition 8 in California, is one judicial activist Carter placed on the courts who has issued decisions anathema to pro-life concerns over the years.
Reinhardt was active in questioning attorneys for both sides in the case after rejecting a legal motion and public calls for him to recuse himself from the case.
In a new columnat Town Hall, pro-life women s leader Phyllis Schlafly talks about Carter s legacy through Reinhardt. Full story at LifeNews.com
Texas Speaker: Chisum, Paxton Answer Pro-Life Survey, Strauss Doesn t
In what has become a contentious race to become the next Speaker of the Texas state House of Representatives, two key candidates have responded to a pro-life survey from a state organization.
On November 15, officials with Texas Alliance for Life hand-delivered a candidate survey to the office of each of the three Republican candidates for House Speaker, including Warren Chisum (R-Pampa), Ken Paxton (R-McKinney), and current Speaker Joe Strauss (R-San Antonio).
The survey has 10 short questions on issues important to pro-life Texans, including issues regarding overturning Roe v. Wade, partial-birth abortion, public funding for embryonic stem cell research, and public funding for Planned Parenthood. Full story at LifeNews.com
North Carolina County Cuts Paid Abortions for Employees
Wake County, North Carolina is the latest to cut taxpayer funded abortions for government employees a move that is helping spread the new trend nationwide to get government out of the abortion business.
The county commission s new Republican majority acted soon after commissioner-elect Phil Matthews was sworn in, according to the Raleigh Public Record newspaper.
Paul Coble, another Republican and the former mayor of Raleigh, was appointed chairman of the county commission and the board immediately took a series of votes, including removing abortion coverage from county employees health care plans. Full story at LifeNews.com
Brazil Soccer Player Jailed, Killed Woman Refusing Abortion
Bruno Fernandes das Dores de Souza, the former captain and goal-keeper of the very popular Rio de Janeiro soccer team Flamengo, has been jailed for his alleged role in an abortion-murder.
Brazilian police have charged one of the country s biggest soccer stars with planning the October 2009 murder of 25-year-old student Eliza Samudio, his pregnant girlfriend who refused an abortion. Full story at LifeNews.com.
Connecticut Group: NARAL Lying About Pro-Life Protestors
The Family Institute of Connecticut, a pro-life group, is accusing the state chapter of the pro-abortion organization NARAL of lying about the pro-life protestors who recently participated in the 40 Days for Life prayer campaign. Full story at LifeNews.com.
No Room in the Inn: Unborn Children Rejected Like Jesus
She wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn (Luke 2:7).Full story at LifeNews.com.
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