LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Saturday, March 5, 2011
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Current Headlines
Top Stories
• Obama Would Veto Spending Bill De-Funding Planned Parenthood
• Senate Votes Next Week on Planned Parenthood-Related Funding Bills
• Pro-Life Legal Group Now Helping Parents of Baby Joseph
• Pro-Life Groups Respond to Planned Parenthood With 1M Petitions
More Pro-Life News
• CDC Report: Most Teens Not Having Sex, Abstinence Ed Works
• Pro-Life Group Has Plane Ready to Take Baby Joseph to U.S.
• Texas House Passes Bill for Ultrasound Before Abortion
• Religious Leaders Wrong to Support Funding Planned Parenthood
• As We Fight to De-Fund Abortion, Remember the Unborn Children
• Idaho Senate Panel OKs Bill to Ban Abortions Over Fetal Pain
• South Dakota Governor Likely to Sign 72-Hour Abortion Wait
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Obama Would Veto Spending Bill De-Funding Planned Parenthood
President Barack Obama would veto the House-approved long-term spending bill for the federal government that contains the Pence Amendment, a measure that would de-fund the Planned Parenthood abortion business. Because of that provision and other pro-life riders that stop abortion funding globally and in the District of Columbia, the Washington Times indicates "Obama has issued a veto threat on that bill, saying House Republicans' cuts are unacceptable."
"Senate Democrats said the non-spending provisions of the bill — such as restrictions on Planned Parenthood and on Obama administration rules and regulations — will also have to be struck," the Times continues.
That is the current impasse over the federal spending legislation — where House Republicans have adopted a budget-cutting bill with pro-life provisions and where Senate Democrats have not put forward their own legislation whereby pro-life advocates could either negotiate for the pro-life provisions or try to pass amendments to the Senate bill.
Obama issued a statement this week calling for such negotiations: "I'm calling on Democratic and Republican leaders of Congress to begin meeting immediately with the vice president, my chief of staff and budget director so we can find common ground on a budget that makes sure we are living within our means."
But pro-life Speaker John Boehner says no formal invitation has been extended and Senate Democrats have yet to write a spending bill. Full story at LifeNews.com
Senate Votes Next Week on Planned Parenthood-Related Funding Bills
The U.S. Senate is expected to vote next week on a Continuing Resolution to fund the federal government and government programs through September that does not de-fund Planned Parenthood. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a pro-abortion Democrat, has filed cloture on the motion to proceed to H.R. 1, the long-term Continuing Resolution the House approved in February that contains the Pence Amendment de-funding Planned Parenthood. Upon the conclusion of the Senate's current debate on the Patent Reform bill, likely on Tuesday, the Senate will immediately proceed to a vote on Reid's cloture petition to allow a debate and vote.
The expectation is that, if the Senate adopts cloture, Reid would push for votes on both the House bill as well as a Senate version — with the understanding that neither bill will probably get the 60 votes needed for a cloture vote beforehand to shut off debate and move to a vote on final passage.
When they vote on the Senate version, lawmakers will be voting on a bill that does not de-fund Planned Parenthood and does not contain the pro-life policy riders the House added to its legislation that reinstates the Mexico City Policy, stops abortion funding in the District of Columbia, and de-funds the pro-abortion UNFPA, which works hand-in-hand with Chinese population control officials who use forced abortions to enforce the one-child policy.
A report in The Hill, a congressional newspaper, indicates the Senate Appropriations Committee on Friday afternoon released details about the highlights of the Senate bill and it showed Senate Democrats do not want the Pence Amendment de-funding Planned Parenthood in their measure. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Life Legal Group Now Helping Parents of Baby Joseph
The American Center for Law and Justice, a pro-life legal group, is now helping the parents of Baby Joseph Maraachli, who is suffering from a terminal illness that will soon take his life.
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 helping them find a hospital that will accept him as a transfer and perform the procedure so he can go home. The hospital wants to remove his breathing tube but his family wants the boy to be able to die peacefully at home with his family.
The family asked Ontario's Consent and Capacity board for permission to remove the breathing tube and a judge recently agreed with the doctors' position.
Baby Joseph's family had an attorney who had been negotiating with London Health Sciences Centre but he was not retained for undisclosed reasons. Yesterday, ACLJ officials told LifeNews.com that its firm has been hired by the family.
"This has been a tragic case where the parents desire only to receive proper family-centered care and medical attention that will allow 'Baby Joseph' to live out his final days at home naturally with his family," Jay Sekulow, the chief counsel of the pro-life law firm, told LifeNews.com. "We are exploring all options with the parents and are representing their interests in the United States only. We're working with the parents to determine the likelihood of bringing their son to the United States to receive the medical treatment he needs and deserves." Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Life Groups Respond to Planned Parenthood With 1M Petitions
Not to be outdone by the Planned Parenthood abortion business, which is besieging the Senate with more than 700,000 messages urging lawmakers to not yank its federal funding, pro-life groups have responded with a massive campaign of their own.
Today, the Expose Planned Parenthood Coalition — an ad hoc group of more than 30 pro-life organizations including LifeNews.com — announced that nearly 1.2 million mailed petitions and emails have been sent to Congress urging support for the Pence Amendment. That's the provision the House passed by a strong margin and added to the Continuing Resolution which would deny all taxpayer funding to Planned Parenthood through September.
Concerned Women for America alone has generated 980,000 mailed petitions to the House of Representatives and Family Research Council Action (FRC Action), the Susan B. Anthony List and Catholic Advocate Voice have generated more than 190,000 direct e-mails and petition signatures to Congress.
The groups have led the effort to de-fund the abortion provider following the release of Live Action's undercover footage from Planned Parenthood clinics across the country showing employees aiding and abetting in alleged sex trafficking of minors, further evidence that the organization is not safe for women and children.
"More than one million Americans have stepped forward to send a clear message to our elected leaders: whether pro-life or pro-abortion we do not believe that tax dollars should be used to finance abortion services. The time to permanently end taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood is now," said Penny Nance, CEO of Concerned Women for America. Full story at LifeNews.com
CDC Report: Most Teens Not Having Sex, Abstinence Ed Works
New data released by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) this week confirms the majority of teens are not having sex — and making it appear the abstinence education message is working. According to 2006-2008 survey results released Thursday by the National Center for Health Statistics, 68% of boys and 67% of girls between the ages of 15 and 17 have never had sexual intercourse.
The new data also shows overall sexual contact trends are also moving in the right direction with 53% of boys and 58% of girls 15-17 reporting that they have never had any kind of sexual relations with any partner. The findings come from the 2006-2008 National Survey of Family Growth and examine response from 13,495 teens and adults ages 15-44, including 5,082 ages 15-24.
Valerie Huber of the National Abstinence Education Association that these numbers are a positive change from 2002 when only 46% of boys and 49% of girls reported no sexual contact and she says the report challenges the wisdom of the recent federal funding cuts to abstinence education. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Life Group Has Plane Ready to Take Baby Joseph to U.S.
On the heels of the news that a prominent pro-life legal group, the ACLJ, has moved into play to help the parents of Baby Joseph Maraachli, who is suffering from a terminal illness that will soon take his life, another pro-life group has stepped forward. Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, tells LifeNews.com that his organization stands ready to transport the child and his family to an American hospital if ACLJ can find one that will take on the little boy and do the tracheotomy procedure his parents want so they can take him home.
"Priests for Life and other pro-life and pro-family organizations have been negotiating with hospitals across the United States for more than a week to have them agree to admit Baby Joseph," he told LifeNews.com. Full story at LifeNews.com
Texas House Passes Bill for Ultrasound Before Abortion
After Democrats used parliamentary stalling tactics and filed a slew of amendments designed to weaken the bill, the state House late Thursday approved a bill helping women see an ultrasound of their baby before considering an abortion. The bill is meant to give women a chance to get information they may not normally receive from an abortion center before they have an abortion.
Texas lawmakers voted 103-42 to approve House Bill 15, which is similar but slightly different to legislation the state Senate approved on a 21-10 vote last month. The Senate bill requires the ultrasound two hours before the abortion while the House measure requires it 24-72 hours beforehand.
Republican Rep. Sid Miller sponsored the bill that will get a final vote on the state House on Monday before heading to the Senate and said: "We want to make sure that they're fully informed, that they understand the medical consequences, the psychological consequences and everything involved in the procedure." Full story at LifeNews.com
Religious Leaders Wrong to Support Funding Planned Parenthood
Defending their "Shared commitment to women and children," on the Washington Post/Newsweek's "On Faith" site, the Revs. Richard Cizik and Debra Haffner joined forces today support federal tax monies flowing to Planned Parenthood. Cizik, you may recall, is a bit of a media favorite because he hails from a generally theologically conservative tradition but has been moving leftward politically over the past few years. Haffner is liberal theologically and politically, a Unitarian-Universalist minister and the former president of the Sex Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), a group that lobbies to end federal funding of abstinence-until-marriage sex ed programs. As we've noted, the On Faith feature often skews liberal in theology and politics, and the Cizik/Haffner tag-team fits hand-in-glove with the leftward tack of the site. Full story at LifeNews.com
As We Fight to De-Fund Abortion, Remember the Unborn Children
The last few weeks have been a flurry with pro-life activity in Washington, D.C. The No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act has been passed around for various procedural votes. The Continuing Resolution's Pence Amendment would deny all taxpayer funding to Planned Parenthood through September and is being hotly debated. Feathers have been ruffled and words exchanged to support or lambaste Members of Congress on how they're voting or even why abortion legislation is on the docket. Full story at LifeNews.com
Idaho Senate Panel OKs Bill to Ban Abortions Over Fetal Pain
Because unborn children have the capacity to feel intense pain, the Idaho state Senate approved an avant garde bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. The measure is similar to a first-in-the-nation law Nebraska passed that forced abortion practitioner LeRoy Carhart to move to Maryland to do abortions late in pregnancy. The law has not been challenged by abortion advocates and the legislation is an attempt by pro-life groups to get the Supreme Court to move case law further down the road of allowing more limits on abortion. Full story at LifeNews.com
South Dakota Governor Likely to Sign 72-Hour Abortion Wait
Governor Dennis Daugaard of South Dakota says he is pro-life and likely to sign into law a bill that requires a 72-hour waiting period before an abortion and helps women find better counseling beforehand. The bill in question would require women considering an abortion to visit a crisis pregnancy center before going to an abortion business to get counseling on abortion's alternatives as well as the risks associated with having one. Full story at LifeNews.com
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