LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
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Current Headlines
Top Stories
• Abortions Stop Falling After Previous Lows, Abortion Drug Used More
• Abby Johnson Shares Abortion Conversion With 21K in Webcast
• Report Shows Contraception Failure, 54% Used Before Abortion
• Vanderbilt University Requires Nursing Students to Do Abortions
More Pro-Life News
• Opinion: Daniels, Barbour Should Heed RNC Candidates Pro-Life Unity
• Indiana Planned Parenthood Report: More Abortions, Income
• L.A. Billboards Focus on Black Babies Killed in Abortion
• Botched Abortion Injures Woman at Boston Planned Parenthood
• Romney Leads Republicans in Nevada, Huckabee Leads Iowa in Second Poll
• Britain Activists Promote Assisted Suicide, Bash Disabled
• Virginia Governor McDonnell Wants to Reduce Abortions More
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Abortions Stop Falling After Previous Lows, Abortion Drug Used More
New figures from the Guttmacher Institute reveal the number of abortions in the United States and the abortion rate has risen slightly after its last report showed historic lows.
The institute is pro-abortion but regarded by pro-life groups as having more accurate abortion figures than the Centers for Disease Control because it receives its numbers directly from abortion businesses and accounts for all 50 states, whereas the CDC does not receive reports from California and others.
The new numbers show the actual number of abortions in the U.S. rose from 1,206,200 in 2005 to 1,212,350 in 2008 the first increase since steady decreases during both the 1990's and 2000's. Abortion figures peaked in 1990 but had been dropping ever since thanks to pro-life legislative and educational efforts as well as the work of pregnancy centers offering women tangible pregnancy help and abortion alternatives.
The abortion rate the percentage of pregnancies ending in abortion had reached the lowest point in the 2005 Guttmacher Institute figures since the year following Roe. Now that has gone up from a rate of 19.4 percent of pregnancies ending in abortion in 2005 to 19.6 in 2008. One factor is that Guttmacher included in its 2008 report abortion centers that were not accounted for in the 2005 report making it so the abortion totals and abortion rate likely remained about the same had they been included before. Full story at LifeNews.com
Abby Johnson Shares Abortion Conversion With 21K in Webcast
More than 21,000 people tuned in to a Monday night webcast featuring former planned Parenthood abortion center director Abby Johnson, who is quickly becoming a pro-life hero.
Johnson, in late 2009, resigned from her position as the director of a Bryan, Texas abortion center after assisting in an abortion and the story of her pro-life conversion and returning to her Christian faith has already propelled her new book, Unplanned, to the number 11 position on Amazon.
During the webcast, Johnson admitted having had two abortions putting her in a large category of pro-life advocates who had abortions and later came to thoroughly regret their decisions. This was the first time the pro-life convert admitted publicly she had had an abortion, on the eve of the release of the new book.
I never thought I would be a person who would choose abortion, but I did, she shared.
Johnson talked about how she was raised in a Christian family and considered herself pro-life until she decided to volunteer at Planned Parenthood. There, she discovered she was pregnant and she told webcast views she was just blank when she saw the results of the at-home pregnancy test.
Engaged and not prepared to become a mother Johnson had a surgical abortion and said she felt isolated and alone immediately after the abortion procedure. Full story at LifeNews.com
Report Shows Contraception Failure, 54% Used Before Abortion
The number of abortions would decrease in the United States if only contraception and birth control were promoted to a higher degree, abortion advocates say, but the new abortion report issued today by the Guttmacher Institute puts that notion to rest.
The report showed the decline in abortions that had been taking place over the last two decades has finally stopped. Instead, abortions increased very slightly, though the addition of abortion centers to the new 2008 report that did not make their abortions totals known in 2005 likely accounts for the increase.
The stoppage of the decline in abortions come as Planned Parenthood and abortion advocates successfully lobbied the Obama administration and Congress to shift taxpayer funding from abstinence education to family planning, arguing it will decrease abortions further. Yet, the report indicates a majority of abortions took place after contraception failure.
The Guttmacher report shows 54 percent of women who have abortions had used a contraceptive method *usually condom or the pill) during the month they became pregnant. These figures are similar to those of a report in Spain showing abortions doubling despite increased family planning promotion.
And, of the women who say they did not intend to become pregnant, the report said most of these women have practiced contraception in the past. Full story at LifeNews.com
Vanderbilt University Requires Nursing Students to Do Abortions
Vanderbilt University is the subject of a federal complaint filed today by officials with the Alliance Defense Fund over requiring nursing students to participate in abortions.
ADF, a pro-life legal group, filed the complaint with the Department of Health and Human Services saying it illegally forces the students to do the abortions despite receiving $300 million in federal tax dollars each year. Federal law prohibits grant recipients from forcing students or health care workers to participate in abortions contrary to their religious beliefs or moral convictions.
The complaint was filed on behalf of a fourth-year nursing student at another university who wants to apply to Vanderbilt s nurse residency program but won t do so because of the abortion policy. She says Vanderbilt admission forms require her to promise to participate in abortions.
ADF Legal Counsel Matt Bowman commented on the case and said, Christians and other pro-life members of the medical community shouldn t be forced to participate in abortions to pursue their profession.
People enter the medical profession to protect and heal the helpless. Federal law protects them from being required to kill the helpless. The law clearly states that grant recipients cannot accept taxpayer dollars and require health care workers to participate in abortions, which is precisely what Vanderbilt is doing, Bowman added. Full story at LifeNews.com
Opinion: Daniels, Barbour Should Heed RNC Candidates Pro-Life Unity
The president of a pro-life women s group has a message for potential presidential candidate Mitch Daniels and Haley Barbour, the governors of Indiana and Mississippi.
Marjorie Dannenfeler, the head of the Susan B. Anthony List, noted that each of the candidates for the chairmanship of the national Republican Party said they were pro-life on abortion and endorsed legislation to de-fund the Planned Parenthood abortion business.
Writing in an opinion column at National Review, Dannenfelser said the ubiquitous positions of the RNC candidates is the truce that really counts a reference to the truce on abortion and social issues the governors advocated last year that drew outrage from the pro-life community.
Last summer, Indiana governor Mitch Daniels called for a truce on social issues like abortion and gay marriage. After the first political debate of 2011, it now seems far more likely and logical that there will be a truce on truces, Dannenfelser wrote.
Referring to the January 3 debate featuring the five RNC chairman candidates, Dannelfeser noted the debate was completely devoid of the kind of fireworks that political commentators love as each of the five candidates affirmed without hesitation their determination to support the Republican platform s social-issue stands and to honor that support in the party s programs. Full story at LifeNews.com
Indiana Planned Parenthood Report: More Abortions, Income
Just as Planed Parenthood nationally is doing more abortions and making more money, a new report from its Indiana affiliate finds the same situation.
Indiana s largest abortion business, Planned Parenthood of Indiana, is reporting 5,580 abortions done in 2010, an increase of more than 2% in the number of surgical and drug-induced abortions it did in 2009. The figure is almost 130 more than the 5,452 reported abortions for 2009.
Planned Parenthood of Indiana annually does more than 50% of the total chemical and surgical abortions done in Indiana, when comparing its own figures to those of abortions done annually statewide as shown by the state health department.
The numbers come from the new annual report posted on the website of the abortion business and they show the abortion increase comes at the same time that ratio of abortions to pregnancy tests has increased making it clear Planned Parenthood pushing more women into abortions than they assist with having a baby. Full story at LifeNews.com
 Medical professionals are on the front lines of battle. From abortion to assisted suicide, we are challenged in the workplace. The National Association of Pro-life Nurses has been here for nurses since the beginning. Join with us. www.nursesforlife.org |
L.A. Billboards Focus on Black Babies Killed in Abortion
The City of Angeles will be getting the message that a large number of black angels unborn children are killed there every year more so than babies of other races.
This week, the Radiance Foundation is launching its Endangered Species billboard campaign in Los Angeles, California, after having experienced significant success and getting massive media attention with campaigns in other states.
In conjunction with Walter Hoye, a pro-life African-American pastor who was jailed in Oakland for violating a new law passed there to target him for presenting abortion alternatives outside abortion centers, the group has purchased 70 billboards across the town with the message that too many black children are killed in abortions.
Billboards will be up through Black History Month and are an attempt to raise awareness of abortion s devastating and disproportionate impact in the black community, Ryan Bomberger told LifeNews.com Tuesday afternoon. Full story at LifeNews.com
Botched Abortion Injures Woman at Boston Planned Parenthood
A woman has been victimized by an apparent botched abortion at a Planned Parenthood abortion facility in Boston, Massachusetts.
Two ambulances and a fire truck arrived around mid-morning at the Planned Parenthood center on Friday, according to pro-life advocates who were outside the center offering abortion alternatives help to women.
Pro-lifers on the scene said they saw one woman wheeled out the front door on a gurney and loaded into one of the awaiting ambulances. Bill Kotter of Operation Rescue Boston, a local pro-life group, provided details on the incident to Operation Rescue, a national organization that monitors abortion centers and how they hurt women.
Operation Rescue president Troy Newman told LifeNews.com today there is a clear pattern in the abortion industry to call ambulances only in the event of a life-threatening emergency, making it so he is gravely concerned about the welfare of the woman victimized by the failed abortion. Full story at LifeNews.com
Romney Leads Republicans in Nevada, Huckabee Leads Iowa in Second Poll
itt Romney leads the potential Republican presidential candidates in a new Nevada poll while the second poll in recent days shows Mike Huckabee ahead in Iowa.
When it comes to the Republican Presidential contest in Nevada, the site of one of the early battles, which Romney won in 2008 handily because of the large percentage of Mormon voters, Romney leads again. He remains well out ahead of the pack with 31% to 19% for Sarah Palin, 18% for Newt Gingrich, and 14% for Mike Huckabee.
The PPP institute, which conducted the poll, says it is good news for Romney, who has not polled well in other state sin which it has conducted polling of the potential candidates seeking the GOP nod to take on pro-abortion President Barack Obama.
Meanwhile, in Iowa, Huckabee continues his lead found in a previous poll the other day. The PPP survey shows him getting 30 percent of the vote compared with 18 percent of Romney, who finished second to Huckabee in 2008. Huckabee won Iowa in 2008 with 34 percent of support from delegates to 25 percent for Romney. Full story at LifeNews.com
Britain Activists Promote Assisted Suicide, Bash Disabled
Assisted suicide backers in England are pressing again for legalization of the practice, but they are going further by trashing disabled people in the process. In the current British Medical Journal, Tony Delamothe writes a column titled One and a Half Truths About Assisted Dying, in which he disparages the disabled.
Sixteen months ago I argued that the debate on assisted dying had been hijacked by disabled people who wanted to live and that it should be reclaimed for terminally ill people who wanted to die, he says. But American bioethicist Wesley J. Smith, in a new blog post, calls him on the carpet. Full story at LifeNews.com
Virginia Governor McDonnell Wants to Reduce Abortions More
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell says he supports reducing abortions further in the state and backs a bill in the state legislature that would put more regulations on abortion facilities in place.
I think that s important and I ll support that, he said on Norfolk s WNIS radio of the bill to ensure abortion centers comply with the same rules and standards that apply to legitimate medical facilities.
McDonnell also told the radio station he recently asked his commissioner of health to examine the abortion totals across the state, and he said he found out that we ve really got some appallingly high rates of abortion, pregnancy terminations in certain metropolitan areas. McDonnell said he directed our commissioner of health to start taking some action on those subjects to be able to formulate some community-based plans for everything from education to other things to be able to reduce these terribly high rates, and included more money for reducing abortions in his state budget. he said Virginians want to see abortions lowered. Full story at LifeNews.com
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