LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
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Current HeadlinesTop Stories Democrats Vow to Oppose Any Bill De-Funding Planned Parenthood Some 54 Republicans voted against the measure because they wanted to see the Pence Amendment de-funding Planned Parenthood and the pro-life riders that stop abortion funding in various instances included in the measure. However, Senate Democrats have balked at those pro-life provisions and Republicans hoped to avoid being blamed for a government shutdown by insisting they be included in the short-term bill. Going beyond voting against the first long-term bill House Republicans sent them with the Pence Amendment 19 Senate Democrats today sent a letter to Vice-President Joe Biden vowing to vote against any federal funding bill that contains the Pence Amendment. "We wanted to offer our support in rejecting the ideological, divisive riders passed by the House of Representatives, which serve only a purely political agenda," the write in the new letter, according to a report in The Hill. Senators signing the letter include Daniel Akaka (Hawaii), Max Baucus (Montana), Mark Begich (Alaska), Richard Blumenthal (Connecticut), Barbara Boxer (California), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Dianne Feinstein (California), Kirsten Gillibrand (New York), and Frank Lautenberg (New Jersey). Others signing the letter include Patrick Leahy (Vermont), Carl Levin (Michigan), Robert Menendez (New Jersey), Jeff Merkley (Oregon), Barbara Mikulski (Maryland), Bernie Sanders (Vermont), Charles Schumer (New York), Jeanne Shaheen (New Hampshire), Debbie Stabenow (Michigan) and Ron Wyden (Oregon). Full story at LifeNews.comObama Admin Tells Supreme Court to Wait to Hear Obamacare Lawsuit On Monday, the Obama administration asked the high court to stay away from the case until after a federal appeals court has a chance to review the federal judge's decision and issue its own opinion on whether the law, which presents abortion funding and rationing concerns for pro-life groups, is unconstitutional. Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal wrote, "there is no basis for short-circuiting the normal course of appellate review" and he said Cuccinelli's case is flawed because he supposedly lacks standing to bring the lawsuit. Katyal said the Obama administration doesn't dispute that the case is of great public importance but says it doesn't meet the Supreme Court's threshold as "one of the rare cases that justifies deviation from normal appellate practice and require[s] immediate determination in this court," according to a Fox News report. Katyal also says several other lawsuits filed against Obamacare in other states, including the main case in Florida that has been joined by dozens of other states and where a federal judge ruled the entire Obamacare law unconstitutional, are still pending and still should get hearings and decisions from appeals courts. Full story at LifeNews.com Pro-Life Congressional Women Mark Women's History Month, Hit Abortion
• Democrats Vow to Oppose Any Bill De-Funding Planned Parenthood
• Obama Admin Tells Supreme Court to Wait to Hear Obamacare Lawsuit
• Pro-Life Congressional Women Mark Women's History Month, Hit Abortion
• Congressional Cmte Hears Bill Stopping Tax-Funded Abortions
More Pro-Life News
• New York Mayor Bloomberg Signs Bill Hurting Pregnancy Centers
• Hearing: Delaware Abortionist Helped Kermit Gosnell Avoid Law
• Pro-Lifers Should Oppose Pro-Abortion Obama Judicial Pick Steve Six
• Illinois Panel Passes Pro-Life Bill on Abortion Center Regs
• Ohio Bill to Strengthen Parental Consent on Abortion Passes
• Judge Strikes Most of Maryland Law Attacking Pregnancy Centers
• New Hampshire House Passes Parental Notification Abortion Bill
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As the Senate works to pass a House-approved short-term bill funding the federal government and debate begins on a long-term measure, a group of Senate Democrats have promised to not support anything de-funding Planned Parenthood.Yesterday, the House approved the latest short-term continuing resolution on a 271-158 vote margin that does not de-fund Planned Parenthood. The Senate is expected to approve the bill and the battle over Planned Parenthood funding remains.
In legal papers filed with the Supreme Court late Monday night, Obama administration officials told the Supreme Court it doesn't want it to take up yet the lawsuit one state filed against the controversial health care law.A Virginia federal judge ruled the individual mandate portion of the Obamacare law invalid in a lawsuit the state filed against the measure and Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, in February, asked the Supreme Court to take an expedited review of the case.
Last night on the floor of the House of Representatives, several pro-life women members of Congress celebrated Women's History Month with a discussion of abortion in the context of true feminism and women's rights.
Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, quoted early feminist Alice Paul, who said abortion is the "ultimate exploitation of women."
Rep. Renee Ellmers of Washington talked about the myriad of ways in which abortions present medical and mental health problems for women.
"The original feminists were, indeed, against abortion. These women believed that there was power in motherhood and in choosing life," Ellmers said. "It is this exploitation by groups like Planned Parenthood that frighten me for the women of our country." Full story at LifeNews.com
Congressional Cmte Hears Bill Stopping Tax-Funded Abortions
A second committee in the House of Representatives held a hearing on a bil that would ban taxpayer funding of abortions across all federal government departments and programs.
The House Judiciary Committee, earlier this month, approved the measure on a mostly partisan 23-14 vote.
H.R. 3, the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act," is a government-wide permanent prohibition on taxpayer funding for abortion introduced by Reps. Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican, and Dan Lipinski, an Illinois Democrat.
Today, the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures subcommittee held a markup of the bill and, before that, news surfaced showing the measure now has 221 official co-sponsors, crossing the 218 threshold necessary for passage on the House floor, where it is expected to easily pass and be sent to the Senate. But that's where the difficulty in moving the legislation forward will begin because Senate Democrats are led by and controlled by abortion backers who may not allow a vote on the bill.
The bill went to the panel because it affects the tax code by preventing the use of itemized medical deductions such as tax credits like those in the Obamacare bill or tax-advantaged health-care accounts to pay for abortions. Full story at LifeNews.com
New York Mayor Bloomberg Signs Bill Hurting Pregnancy Centers
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed a bill today that adversely affects pregnancy centers that the city council approved and that is expected to quickly become the subject of a lawsuit. Earlier this month, on a 39-9-1 vote, council members approved an ordinance 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.
The American Center for Law and Justice, a pro-life law firm, had threatened to file a lawsuit against the city if Bloomberg signs the bill into law. But, before doing so, it delivered a letter to the mayor on behalf of EMC FrontLine Pregnancy Centers, a chain of a dozen pregnancy centers in the Big Apple, asking for a formal hearing on the ordinance required under city statutes.
Bloomberg appeared to ignore the letter and signed the bill into law today at a public signing ceremony for three pieces of legislation.
"To ensure that women are fully informed of the services provided by pregnancy service centers, this bill requires the centers to inform their clients whether they have a licensed medical provider on staff and disclose whether they provide certain pregnancy-related services or not. This bill also requires centers to provide confidentiality protections for their clients' personal and health information," he said before signing the bill.
Responding to the signing, Chris Slattery, the head of the EMC pregnancy center group, told LifeNews.com a lawsuit is forthcoming. Full story at LifeNews.com
Hearing: Delaware Abortionist Helped Kermit Gosnell Avoid Law
During a hearing before the state medical board on Tuesday night, Delaware officials say abortion practitioner Albert Dworkin helped embattled abortionist Kermit Gosnell avoid state law and enabled him to run the shoddy abortion business in neighboring Philadelphia.
Gosnell is the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania abortion business owner who ran one of the most filthy and unregulated abortion centers ever exposed and his shoddy practices resulted in the deaths of and injury to women from botched abortions. He also engaged in a brutal practice of live-birth abortions that saw him purposely prematurely birth babies and, afterwards, he would "snip" their spinal cords with medical scissors. The abortion practitioner likely killed hundreds of babies in the same abortion-infanticide method but prosecutors were only able to charge him with seven counts.
Gosnell not only operated in southeast Pennsylvania, but he was employed at the Delaware abortion facility known as Atlantic Women's Medical Services, with offices in Wilmington and Dover, Delaware, where he would work one day per week to do abortions. That abortion center has already come under investigation from Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden and reportedly falsified abortion reports to state officials.
Earlier this month, the Board of Medical Licensing and Discipline agreed with a recommendation from Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden to suspend the medical license of Dr. Albert Dworkin.
Dworkin was on the staff of the Women's Medical Society clinic in Philadelphia, the abortion center Gosnell ran and the medical board agreed with Biden that he presented a "clear and present danger" as obstetrician of record at the abortion center. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Lifers Should Oppose Pro-Abortion Obama Judicial Pick Steve Six
President Barack Obama has nominated former Kansas Attorney General Stephen Six as a judge on the Federal Appeals Court in Denver. Six was involved in obstructing the prosecution of Planned Parenthood on 107 criminal charges and, according to some, tied the hands of the prosecutor in the 2009 criminal case against George Tiller.
Because of this, Operation Rescue opposes Six's confirmation on the grounds that his political biases make him unfit to serve.
Six's ascension to state office followed a contentious and scandal-ridden political battle over abortion, which continued unabated under his administration.
Six was appointed by former Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a rabid abortion supporter who was known for appointing ideological soul-mates to positions throughout the state government that would protect abortionists from accountability to the law. Six replaced Paul Morrison, who was hand-picked by Sebelius to run against then-Attorney General Phill Kline, for the purpose of halting his investigation into abortion clinics in Kansas. Morrison was forced to resign in disgrace after being caught in a sex and corruption scandal where he tried to use his illicit lover to spy on Kline's abortion investigation for the purpose of derailing it. Full story at LifeNews.com
Illinois Panel Passes Pro-Life Bill on Abortion Center Regs
If a woman has an abortion, she should be going to a place that can ensure it has the proper medical equipment and properly trained staff who can help if the abortion goes awry. That's the thought behind a bill the Illinois House Agriculture Committee passed Tuesday on a 13-0 vote despite complaints that the measure was in the wrong committee. The panel heard the bill while abortion advocates wore shirts saying, "Women are not livestock" — even though abortion centers that quickly process women through abortions without given them proper counseling or warning that it has potential medical risks treat them that way. Full story at LifeNews.comOhio Bill to Strengthen Parental Consent on Abortion Passes
An Ohio bill meant to strengthen the parental consent law in place that prohibits teens from getting an abortion without their parents' consent is moving along in the legislative process. House Bill 63 and Senate Bill 8 would revise Ohio's current judicial bypass provision in the parental consent on abortion law. This bill will strengthen current law by requiring a "clear and convincing evidence" standard, require judges to specifically inquire about the minor's understanding of the possible physical and emotional complications of an abortion, and require judges to question how much the minor has been prepped to respond to such questions. Full story at LifeNews.com
Judge Strikes Most of Maryland Law Attacking Pregnancy Centers
A federal judge struck down most of a law Montgomery County, Maryland officials passed that targets pregnancy centers and requires them to post signs that may turn potential clients away. The decision follows on the heels of another one where a another federal judge struck down a Baltimore law that was the subject of a lawsuit brought by the Archdiocese of Baltimore because it unfairly attacks pregnancy centers that provide women with abortion alternatives. Full story at LifeNews.com
New Hampshire House Passes Parental Notification Abortion Bill
The New Hampshire House today approved a bill to allow parents to know when their minor daughters are considering an abortion so they can help them find better solutions and alternatives. Without such a law in place, parents would have to pick up the pieces after their daughter has an abortion and potentially be required to pay for medical bills related to problems afterwards without knowing about the abortion in the first place. Full story at LifeNews.com
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