LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Friday, March 4, 2011
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Current Headlines
Top Stories
• Planned Parenthood Assaults Senate to Keep Massive Funding
• Reid Opposes Planned Parenthood Taxpayer Funding Ban
• House Committee Passes Bill to End Tax Funding of Abortions
• Judge Issues Stay on Obamacare Ruling, Forces Admin to Appeal
More Pro-Life News
• Clinton Can't Say if Obama Asked Hu About Forced Abortions
• Abby Johnson Challenges Planned Parenthood Prez to Debate
• San Francisco Abortion Biz Closes After Losing Planned Parenthood Tie
• Rallies for Baby Joseph Maraachli Taking Place This Weekend
• Phill Kline: Kansas Supreme Court Obstructed Abortion Justice
• ABC Ignores Jane Russell's Pro-Life Views, Mentions Abortion
• Lila Rose to Lead Women-Led Tour Opposing Planned Parenthood
• Planned Parenthood: Public Funding of "Human Weed" Removal?
• Cenk Uygur: Unborn Babies Would Oppse Stopping Abortions
• Pro-Abortion Hawaii Senator Daniel Akaka Will Retire
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Planned Parenthood Assaults Senate to Keep Massive Funding
The Planned Parenthood abortion business has launched an all-out assault on the U.S. Senate to lobby senators to oppose any attempt to add an amendment to any government funding bill that would yank its taxpayer funding. The House has already approved the Pence Amendment and pro-life groups are putting pressure on senators to follow suit by adding a similar amendment to the long-term continuing resolution that would fund the federal government to the latter part of the year.
In a new email sent to its members and supporters, Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards claims that, since the February 18 vote in the House for the Pence Amendment, "more than 700,000 women and men have signed an open letter to stand with Planned Parenthood" that has gone to members of the Senate.
"We've made an impact. And, as the Senate considers its course on this legislation, we have the chance to make an even bigger impact. We have a chance to stop it — but we need your help," she writes, hoping more than one million people will sign the letter on its web site asking the Senate to oppose attempts to de-fund the abortion business.
"In my years working with Planned Parenthood, I've never seen so many people so ready to fight for women's health. The messages of support, the rallies, the calls, the signs, the photographs, the videos — you have done so very much for us and with us," Richards says.
Richards talked with Politico about the massive lobbying effort and said, "Going after the strongest brand in women's health in America is one of the stupidest things the Republican Party could have done. They've personalized this for women and for young people, and it has created an enormous wave of activity." Full story at LifeNews.com
Reid Opposes Planned Parenthood Taxpayer Funding Ban
With the House of Representatives having approved a long-term Continuing Resolution to fund the federal government that contains an amendment to de-fund the Planned Parenthood abortion business, the attention has turned to the Senate. Speculation has been that Senate Democrats will not allow a vote on a similar measure that has the Pence Amendment to de-fund the abortion business and, in a serious of confusing and incoherent responses, Reid confirmed that yesterday.
As a press conference, a reporter for CNS News asked Reid if he would reject a long-term Continuing Resolution and shut down the government rather than add a similar amendment to a bill that cuts taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood.
"Listen," Reid began his response that did not answer the question. "We have–I don't know the number of riders that they have on this. These riders go from eliminating public broadcasting … but the point is there's not one thing, they have multiple things. So we're not going to get into this theoretical thing where we're going to shut the government down over eliminating public broadcasting or eliminating the ability to–there's pollutants in the air," CNS reported him saying. "You know, we have some things in Nevada, too, dealing with what they're cutting the spending as it relates to scientific things, with the Nevada test site, that we have Livermore, Sandia–all of these things have just been whacked and we're not going to let that happen." Full story at LifeNews.com
House Committee Passes Bill to End Tax Funding of Abortions
The House Judiciary Committee approved a bill today on a mostly partisan 23-14 vote that would ban taxpayer funding of abortions across all federal government departments and programs. The panel voted for H.R. 3, the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act," after first rejecting pro-abortion amendments to weaken or water down the legislation. The committee also removed a provision concerning forcible rape that abortion advocates had used to misconstrue the intent of the legislation.
HR 3 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.
The legislation had come under considerable attack from abortion advocates and Planned Parenthood. They have based their attacks on the bill on false claims that it would not allow abortion funding for all women who are victims of rape and incest because of changes to the definition of rape under the bill. However, the changed language has been dropped from the bill, neutralizing the issue.
The party-line vote saw Republicans on the panel supporting the measure and Democrats on the committee voting against it, with the exception of Puerto Rico Del. Pedro Pierluisi. The vote now sends the legislation to the House floor, where it is expected to easily pass and be sent to the Senate. 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. Full story at LifeNews.com
Judge Issues Stay on Obamacare Ruling, Forces Admin to Appeal
A federal judge in Florida issued a stay today of his own ruling in what is the largest lawsuit filed against the Obamacare health care law. U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson, in January, ruled the individual mandate is unconstitutional and, therefore, the entire law is as well.
But today, Vinson noted with quite a bit of consternation that it has been more than a month since his original ruling, and still no federal appeal has come from the Obama administration.
The stay allows the Obama administration to move ahead with implementation of healthcare law, which pro-life groups oppose because of loopholes allowing abortion funding and rationing concerns, but it forces the administration to file an appeal in the case in the next seven days to a federal appeals court — the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
"The sooner this issue is finally decided by the Supreme Court, the better off the entire nation will be," a visibly frustrated Vinson wrote, adding, "the citizens of this country have an interest in having this case resolved as soon as practically possible."
"That was nearly eleven months ago," he wrote. "In the time since, the battle lines have been drawn, the relevant case law marshaled, and the legal arguments refined. Almost everyone agrees that the constitutionality of the Act is an issue that will ultimately have to be decided by the Supreme Court of the United States. It is very important to everyone in this country that this case move forward." Full story at LifeNews.com
Clinton Can't Say if Obama Asked Hu About Forced Abortions
When China President Hu Jintao visited Washington, D.C. weeks ago, pro-life advocates pressed President Barack Obama and his administration to ask the foreign leader about the problem of forced abortions on Chinese women. In a Tuesday hearing in the House of Representatives, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton couldn't say whether Obama brought up the massive human rights abuse millions of Chinese women endure if they break the country's one-child family planning rules.
Rep. Dana Rohrbacher, a pro-life Republican from California, asked Clinton the question:
"Let me ask you — I'd like to be specific, and you didn't get a chance to answer this, did President Obama confront President Hu during his visit to Washington on the issue of forced abortion? I think that could be answered with probably a yes or a no," he said.
"We consistently raise that with the Chinese and I want to just say," Clinton responded. Full story at LifeNews.com
Abby Johnson Challenges Planned Parenthood Prez to Debate
Abby Johnson is the former director of a Texas Planned Parenthood who converted to the pro-life position after being asked to participle in an ultrasound-guided abortion. Now she wants to debate the head of the abortion business. Johnson, the author of Unplanned, sent a letter to Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards requesting to engage in a public debate on whether the nation's largest abortion-performing organization should continue receiving taxpayer funding from the federal government. The House of Representatives has already approved the Pence Amendment, which would yank all federal funding from the abortion agency.
"I write to formally challenge you to a public debate, through a mutually agreed upon media forum, on the issue of whether or not Congress should continue to provide taxpayers' dollars to Planned Parenthood. This issue has received a great deal of media coverage in recent days and weeks," Johnson opened.
Johnson, in her letter, according to a CNS News report, indicated her participation in a debate would offer a unique perspective "as a former insider who is now here to tell the truth about how Planned Parenthood operates."
"For many years I was part of the deception that taxpayer funds don't finance abortions at Planned Parenthood clinics, the deception that Planned Parenthood wants to reduce the number of abortions, and the deception that Planned Parenthood's highest priority is women's health and safety," Johnson said in her letter CNS obtained that went to Richards. "You continue to repeatedly perpetuate these deceptions and the public deserves to know the truth." Full story at LifeNews.com
San Francisco Abortion Biz Closes After Losing Planned Parenthood Tie
A San Francisco area chain of abortion centers is closing after massive financial problems caused the national board of Planned Parenthood to dump it as an affiliate.
Planned Parenthood Golden Gate was dropped as an affiliate of the national abortion business following allegedly massive financial mismanagement. Responding to the decision, the California abortion business changed its name to Golden Gate Community Health and fired CEO Dian Harrison.
Harrison filed a lawsuit for more than $180,000 in severance in December which came as the abortion business was struggling to stay open.
Several employees of Golden Gate Community Health posted on their Facebook accounts earlier this week that the former Planned Parenthood affiliate based in San Francisco will close this week. The Bay Citizen newspaper indicates one former employee says staff members were notified of the impending closure Monday afternoon. Full story at LifeNews.com
Rallies for Baby Joseph Maraachli Taking Place This Weekend
Unable to get a hospital to perform a tracheotomy so they can bring him home to die, supporters of Joseph Maraachli and his parents are putting together rallies to support his right to be treated and go home. Baby Jospeh Maraachli is the subject of controversy as his parents are fighting a hospital that wants to remove his breathing tube. They want the boy to be able to die peacefully at home with his family, but the hospital will not perform the tracheotomy. Instead, they asked Ontario's Consent and Capacity board for permission to remove the breathing tube and a judge recently agreed with the doctors' position. London Health Sciences Centre said no agreement has been reached between the parents and the hospital and that it would only transfer the dying boy home without performing a tracheotomy, which the parents want because they believe it will alleviate Joseph's suffering as he dies from the condition that will ultimately take his life. Full story at LifeNews.com
Phill Kline: Kansas Supreme Court Obstructed Abortion Justice
After eight days of testimony, the first part of an ethics hearing against former Kansas prosecutor Phill Kline has concluded. Kline is being charged with two counts of ethics violations for his handling of abortion clinic investigations. Only count one has so far been heard. The hearing will resume on July 19, where the second count of the complaint will be addressed. The hearings themselves were conducted under conditions that can only be described as punishing. In some cases the court days began at 8:00 AM and concluded after 6:00 PM. Yesterday, the lunch break was only 30 minutes, and participants and observers were forced to either quickly gobble down their food in the lobby or go without. Breaks were few and far between. Once the court room was closed, there was no entering or exiting except in the case of emergency. "It is reprehensible that a man that simply tried to do is duty and enforce the law is being treated this shamefully," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. Full story at LifeNews.com
ABC Ignores Jane Russell's Pro-Life Views, Mentions Abortion
On Tuesday's World News, ABC's David Wright highlighted actress Jane Russell's "botched back-alley abortion in high school," which led her to push "hard to expand adoption," but he failed to mention that she described herself as "vigorously pro-life," and that she was a conservative activist. Full story at LifeNews.com
Lila Rose to Lead Women-Led Tour Opposing Planned Parenthood
Lila Rose, the president of Live Action, the pro-life group famous for exposing the sex trafficking abuses at Planned Parenthood centers, will lead a women-led tour across the county to press for revoking its taxpayer fundinge. Full story at LifeNews.com
Planned Parenthood: Public Funding of "Human Weed" Removal?
It's interesting that the late feminist Margaret Sanger is being trotted out right now by defenders of Planned Parenthood. The occasion is that Planned Parenthood's annual taxpayer funding—the very thought is an abomination—is threatened by newly elected Congressional Republicans. Full story at LifeNews.com
Cenk Uygur: Unborn Babies Would Oppse Stopping Abortions
Wouldn't blame you for doubting this, so fantastical is the proposition. But Cenk Uygur has claimed that given the chance, unborn babies would oppose restrictions on their mothers' right to abort them. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Abortion Hawaii Senator Daniel Akaka Will Retire
Senator Daniel Akaka, a pro-abortion Democrat from Hawaii, announced late Wednesday he would not seek a fifth term in the US Senate. Full story at LifeNews.com
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