LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Friday, February 25, 2011
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Current HeadlinesTop Stories
• CDC: Abortions Declined in 2007, Black Women Have Highest Rate
• Planned Parenthood Falsely Uses Mammograms to Defend Tax-Funding
• U.S. Hospital Rejects Baby Joseph, Family Not Giving Up Hope
• De-Funding Planned Parenthood Doesn't Hurt Women's HealthMore Pro-Life News
• Pro-Life NYC Billboard on Black Abortion Rate Taken Down
• Second Set of Vigils Focuses on Planned Parenthood De-Funding
• Kanye West Sends Controversial Abortion Tweet Attacking Women
• Texas State House Committee Passes Abortion-Ultrasound Bill
• Virginia Senate OKs Bill Cracking Down on Abortion Centers
• Kansas House Okays Two Pro-Life Bills Limiting Abortions
• Indiana: Lugar's Pro-Life Weakness Opens Door to Mourdock
• Fort Wayne, Indiana Pro-Life Group Moves Next to Abortion Ctr
• Kentucky House Defeats Bill for Ultrasound Before Abortions
• Oklahoma Committee Approves Fetal Pain-Based Abortion Ban
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CDC: Abortions Declined in 2007, Black Women Have Highest Rate With the largest state in the country not included, the CDC report is considered inferior to the one the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute released in January, because the former Planned Parenthood research arm gets its figures from every state and directly from abortion businesses rather than going through state health departments. That new Guttmacher report showed the previous deline in abortions up to 2005 had slowed and the number of abortions remained the same in 2008. Still, comparing the current CDC report to the past one and to prior year's report is instructive. The new report indicates 827,609 abortions were done in 2007, a decline of about 2 percent from the 852,385 abortions that took place in 2006. The 2007 total is the second lowest since 1998, with only the 2005 figure of 820,151 showing fewer abortions. The abortion rate, the number of abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–44 years, dropped to 16.0 and is tied for the second lowest in the last decades. The abortion ratio, the number of abortions per 1,000 live births, dropped to 231 — which is the lowest figure since 1998, meaning 23.1 percent of pregnancies end in abortion. Full story at LifeNews.comPlanned Parenthood Falsely Uses Mammograms to Defend Tax-Funding However, it turns out that, in one case, when it comes to mammograms, Planned Parenthood doesn't actually provide the service. On February 21, Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards joined the talk show of pro-abortion activist Joy Behar and defended Planned Parenthood against the legislation seeking to de-fund it. "If this bill ever becomes law, millions of women in this country are going to lose their health care access, not to abortion services, to basic family planning – you know, mammograms, cancer screenings, cervical cancer," she said. But pro-life blogger Jill Stanek did some checking and found out Planned Parenthood doesn't do mammograms. "The fact is not one Planned Parenthood in America performs mammograms. All Planned Parenthoods do are refer for mammograms," she said. "So while Richards was technically correct to add the word 'access' before citing mammograms as a service Planned Parenthood provides, I guarantee no one understood her to say anything other than Planned Parenthood performs mammograms, when actually all Planned Parenthood does is merely write down the name of a place to go for mammograms." Full story at LifeNews.com U.S. Hospital Rejects Baby Joseph, Family Not Giving Up Hope
A new report the Centers for Disease Control issued today indicates abortions fell in 2007 to their second lowest level in the last 10 years. However, as has been the case for some time, the CDC report is incomplete as it leaves out some states. The CDC report relies on states to voluntarily report their abortion totals and related information to the federal government agency, and California and New Hampshire have not reported accurate abortion totals for some time, as has Wyoming. Maryland is also not included in the 2007 stats.
Reeling from a vote in the House of Representatives that would deny any and all taxpayer funding, the Planned Parenthood abortion business is turning to its non-abortion "services" to defend the need for the government dole.
Children's Hospital of Michigan has told the parents of 13-month-old Joseph Maraachli it will not accept the transfer of the infant whose parents are fighting a hospital that wants to remove his breathing tube.
Baby Joseph has been at Victoria Hospital in London, Ontario, in October with a rare deteriorating condition that is not improving.
The doctors who have cared for him want to remove his breathing tube but Moe Maraachli and Sana Nader took their battle to court to allow the tube to be removed at home, so the boy can die surrounded by his family. A Superior Court judge in London, Ontario, last week, dismissed the request of the Canadian couple to overturn a decision requiring the removal of their baby's breathing tube in a hospital instead of at home.
The baby's parents want a tracheotomy performed on their son so they can take him off the respirator and bring him home to live his last days surrounded by family. The London hospital has refused to perform the procedure.
The couple's lawyer, Mark Handelman, had hoped to be able to get Children's Hospital of Michigan to accept a transfer, but the hospital decided against it. Handelman previously said the coupled hoped the Michigan hospital would provide "a second, completely independent medical opinion." Full story at LifeNews.com
De-Funding Planned Parenthood Doesn't Hurt Women's Health
by Rep. Mike Pence
I believe that ending an innocent human life is morally wrong. I also believe it is morally wrong to take the taxpayer dollars of millions of pro-life Americans and use them to fund organizations that provide and promote abortions, like Planned Parenthood of America.
It is for that reason that I offered an amendment to the recent Continuing Resolution that would deny any and all federal funding to Planned Parenthood for the rest of the fiscal year. It passed with bipartisan support.
Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion provider in America. In 2008, Planned Parenthood performed 324,008 abortions, and a recently released fact sheet shows that their abortion procedures increased to a staggering 332,278 in 2009.
According to their latest annual report, Planned Parenthood received more than $363 million in taxpayer funds, and it was the largest recipient of taxpayer funding under Title X.
While Planned Parenthood asserts that no federal funds are used to provide or promote abortion, a woman entering a Planned Parenthood clinic in 2009 was 42 times more likely to have an abortion than to receive either prenatal care or be referred for adoption. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Life NYC Billboard on Black Abortion Rate Taken Down
ro-abortion activists in New York City have forced the removal of a pro-life billboard that warned about the inordinately high abortion rates on African-American women and children.
The pro-life group Life Always paid for the billboard, to try to draw attention to the fact that abortions kill 300,000 black unborn children annually. In fact, new data put out by the CDC today indicates black babies are victims of abortions at a much higher rate than their white or Hispanic counterparts.
The billboard, located in SoHo, bears an image of a young black girl and says "The most dangerous place for an African-American is in the womb."
But the outdoor advertising company that sold the space to the pro-life group for the billboard said on Thursday that it would remove the image because the employees at the Mexican restaurant located on the bottom floor of the several story building bearing the ad were facing harassment over its pro-life message.
"It's down, or at least it should be coming down soon," Peter Costanza, the general manager for Lamar Advertising, told the New York Times. "Why did I take it down? Yesterday, somebody came into the restaurant harassing the waiters and waitresses. I don't want any violence to happen around the buildings there." Full story at LifeNews.com
Second Set of Vigils Focuses on Planned Parenthood De-Funding
On Friday, pro-life advocates will again gather across the country for a set of vigils to focus attention on the efforts in Congress to de-fund Planned Parenthood. These vigils will have pro-life advocates at the district offices of their U.S. Senators — following a first set that had them at Planned Parenthood clinics.
"The House of Representatives voted by an overwhelming majority to strip Planned Parenthood of its federal taxpayer funding, but the struggle is far from over," she said. "Planned Parenthood is furious and is mobilizing abortion advocates across the country while running attack ads in the home districts of courageous House members who voted their conscience."
"Now, the pro-abortion Senate has to create its own version of the "Continuing Resolution" bill… and it's far less likely to include an amendment to stop federal funding to Planned Parenthood," Hawkins explained. "And regardless of the vote in the Senate, things don't end there. For the President to sign any bill into law, the wording from the House and the Senate versions of that bill must be exactly the same. The next step will be to send the Continuing Resolution bills from both the House and Senate to be ironed out in "Conference Committee." After the final bill from the Conference Committee is voted on again by both chambers, it will head to the President's desk to be signed into law, or vetoed." Full story at LifeNews.com
Kanye West Sends Controversial Abortion Tweet Attacking Women
Singer Kanye West is no stranger to controversy and more is coming his way thanks to a controversial tweet he sent out on Twitter concerning abortion.
The rapper hinted not so subtly that there are women who intentionally get pregnant so they can extort money from their husband or boyfriend (or one night-stand participant) so to pay for an abortion and keep quiet about it.
"An abortion can cost a [black man] up to 50 Gs, maybe a 100," West said. "Gold diggin' [women] be getting pregnant on purpose. It ain't happen to me but I know people." Reaction across the Internet and in the entertainment world was fast and furious to the late Wednesday night tweet from West. Full story at LifeNews.com
Texas State House Committee Passes Abortion-Ultrasound Bill
A Texas state House committee on Wednesday approved a bill similar to one the state Senate has already approved that would allow women considering an abortion a chance to see an ultrasound of their unborn child beforehand. When used in pregnancy centers, ultrasounds have convinced 80 percent or more women to keep their baby as opposed to having an abortion. Full story at LifeNews.com
Virginia Senate OKs Bill Cracking Down on Abortion Centers
The Virginia state Senate has signed off on a bill the state House revived that would crack down on abortion businesses in the state and ensure they are following better health and safety standards.
After a Democratic-controlled state Senate committee that traditionally kills pro-life bills defeated the abortion clinic regulations measure, Del. Kathy Byron, a Republican, on Monday put forward an amendment to SB 924, a Senate bill on health and safety regulations for hospitals. The amendment essentially attached the pro-life bill the Virginia state Senate Education and Health Committee killed earlier this month to the legislation.Full story at LifeNews.com
Kansas House Okays Two Pro-Life Bills Limiting Abortions
The Kansas state House passed two important pro-life bills today, the Abortion Reporting Accuracy & Parental Rights Act and the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. The House signed off on HB 2218, the fetal pain bill, on a 91-30 vote. The measure is landmark legislation, already law in Nebraska, banning abortion after 22 weeks gestation due to the unborn child's pain capability. Full stor at LifeNews.com
Indiana: Lugar's Pro-Life Weakness Opens Door to Mourdock
Senator Richard Lugar, the senior Republican Senator from Indiana, faces a tough reelection in 2012. Currently in his sixth term, Lugar is the most senior Republican member of the U.S. Senate. Throughout his career, Senator Lugar has generally held a pro-life position, supporting key pro-life legislative efforts like the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act, the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, reinstating the Mexico City Policy and most recently, the repeal of the pro-abortion Obama healthcare law. Full story at LifeNews.comFort Wayne, Indiana Pro-Life Group Moves Next to Abortion Ctr
The board of directors of Allen County Right to Life, a local affiliate of Indiana Right to Life based in this northeastern Indiana city, will be moving the offices of the pro-life group next door to the only abortion center in town. The board has announced that it has formally signed a lease for office space at 2118 Inwood Drive, located just a few feet away from Fort Wayne's only surgical abortion center. Full story at LifeNews.com
Kentucky House Defeats Bill for Ultrasound Before Abortions
A Kentucky state House panel has defeated a bill the state Senate already approved that would allow women a chance to see an ultrasound of their baby before an abortion. The House was the key concern for pro-life advocates because the Senate has twice before approved the legislation only to see the pro-life bill go down in the state House as a committee refused to hold a hearing or vote on the bill. Full story at LifeNews.com
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