LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
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Current Headlines
Top Stories
• Obama Admin Denies Indiana Request to De-Fund Planned Parenthood
• Catholic Bishops to Vote on Document Opposing Assisted Suicide
• Jim DeMint May Reconsider Not Running for GOP Nomination
• Explaining the Science Behind the Pro-Life Boycott of Pepsi
More Pro-Life News
• GOP 2012 Poll Has Romney Leading Iowa, Cain and Palin Second
• Chinese Children Born Outside One-Child Policy Trafficked Abroad
• New Campaign Targets Gendercide, Sex-Selection Abortions
• New Zealand Court: Unborn Children Have No Right to Life
• The Case Against Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey
• NPR Backs Egg Donation, Freezing; Ignores Risks for Women
• Indiana Reps Tell Sebelius to OK Planned Parenthood De-Funding
• Legislatures Protecting Women, Teens From Unsafe Abortions
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Obama Admin Denies Indiana Request to De-Fund Planned Parenthood
The Obama administration today denied Indiana s use of its new state law that would deny millions in taxpayer dollars to the Indiana affiliate of the nation s largest abortion business.
Governor Mitch Daniels signed the law, which would cut off anywhere from $2 million to $3 million the Planned Parenthood abortion business receives in federal funds via the Indiana government through Medicaid.
Daniels said that any organization affected by this provision can resume receiving taxpayer dollars immediately by ceasing or separating its operations that perform abortions.
However, the Obama administration has told the state it can t implement the new law, with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Donald Berwick denying a request to deny funds saying the federal Medicaid law stipulates that states can t exclude providers based on the services they provide.
Medicaid programs may not exclude qualified health care providers from providing services that are funded under the program because of a provider s scope of practice, Berwick wrote, according to National Journal. We assume this decision is not unexpected.
Berwick also said the law makes it so states can t prohibit access to family planning, which is provided under federal law. His department released a memo advising states that they can t exclude abortion providers from receiving taxpayer funds via Medicaid.
Medicaid programs may not exclude qualified health care providers whether an individual provider, a physician group, an outpatient clinic or a hospital from providing services under the program because they separately provide abortion services, Center for Medicaid Director Cindy Mann wrote in the memo. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/06/01/obama-admin-denies-indiana-request-to-de-fund-planned-parenthood/
Catholic Bishops to Vote on Document Opposing Assisted Suicide
The nation s Catholic bishops are expected to debate and vote on a new document later this month that would renew their opposition to the practice of assisted suicide at a time when activists are trying to expand it.
With the states of Oregon and Washington having legalized the practice and euthanasia supporters trying to do the same in Montana, the bishops have announced they will debate and vote on a document on assisted suicide at their Spring General Assembly taking place June 15-17 in Seattle. The document, To Live Each Day with Dignity, will be the first statement on assisted suicide by the full body of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), but the Catholic Church has long opposed the practice.
The head of the pro-life outreach of the Catholic bishops says the statement is needed because assisted suicide proponents are taking the practice to other states though a coalition of doctors, pro-life advocates, Catholic officials and disability rights advocates have held them at bay in states like California, Hawaii and Vermont.
After years of relative inaction following legalization of physician-assisted suicide in Oregon in 1994, the assisted suicide movement has shown a strong resurgence in activity, said Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities.
This renewed effort has led to the passage of an Oregon-style law in Washington by popular referendum in November 2008, a state supreme court decision essentially declaring that assisted suicide is not against public policy in Montana, and concerted efforts to pass legislation in several New England and Western states, DiNardo said. The Church needs to respond in a timely and visible way to this renewed challenge, which will surely be pursued in a number of states in the years to come. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/06/01/catholic-bishops-to-vote-on-document-opposing-assisted-suicide/
Jim DeMint May Reconsider Not Running for GOP Nomination
Sen. Jim DeMint, a pro-life Republican from South Carolina, says he is possibly reconsidering his decision not to seek the Republican nomination for president. DeMint had previously indicated multiple times he would not run for the GOP nod.
In March, DeMint, a prominent pro-life conservative, ruled out running for president and a spokesman for him said he is definitely not seeking the GOP nomination. Matt Hoskins, spokesman for the Senate Conservatives Fund, DeMint s political action committee, told the Washington Post that, instead of seeking the presidential nod, DeMint will focus on supporting conservative candidates for Congress as he did during the 2010 election cycle.
He s said all along that he isn t running for President and his role in the primary is to encourage the candidates to embrace conservative principles, Hoskins confirmed.
But, now, DeMint says he is flirting with the idea of running because some conservatives who don t like any of the current crop of candidates for president are urging him to get in the race. DeMint told The Hill that he will discuss the presidential race with his wife and family and will pray about whether or not to run though he insisted he has no current plans to run.
It s humbling and out of respect, my wife and I have talked about it, DeMint said late last week of a possible White House bid. Out of respect for the people who have asked us to think about this, that s what we re going to do. I don t want to imply that I m changing in mind, but I want to consider what all these folks are doing. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/06/01/jim-demint-may-reconsider-not-running-for-gop-nomination/
Explaining the Science Behind the Pro-Life Boycott of Pepsi
There is a growing chorus from within the pro-life movement against PepsiCo for their use of a cell line (derived from a baby aborted in the 1970?s) for testing response to new flavors in the lab. This is biologically straightforward, and ethically problematic. From a consumerist and moral perspective, it s even murkier. Pepsi is just the tip of the iceberg. Let s build the argument from the biological level, upward.
Taste testing is as simple as stimulus and response. We eat/drink something new, and our taste buds either love us, or hate us for the experience. If we zoom in closer on the taste buds of the tongue, we would see that they are made up of many cells. If we zoom in even further on the cells, we come to the apparatus at the surface of the cell responsible for interacting with molecules in food, and creating a response within the cell that will be transmitted to the brain.
This apparatus is pictured above, and is at the core of the ethical debate. The two solid green, parallel lines represent the membrane of the cell. The purple signaling agonist at top left is our food molecule. It binds to a receptor molecule that only binds molecules of a very specific shape and size. That receptor then slides to the right and interacts with G-Proteins, which activate other molecules such as Inositol Triphosphate, which in turn triggers what amounts to the old Mousetrap game a cascade of responses within the cell.
It s more complicated than that, but that s the fundamental mechanism in question here. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/06/01/explaining-the-science-behind-the-pro-life-boycott-of-pepsi/
GOP 2012 Poll Has Romney Leading Iowa, Cain and Palin Second
A new poll in Iowa following the departures of Mike Huckabee and Donald Trump as potential Republican presidential candidates shows former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney leading in Iowa among Republican voters.
The Public Policy Polling institute survey has businessman Herman Cain and former governor Sarah Palin tied for second at 15 percent, with Romney leading the race at 21 percent when Republican and independents who lean Republican are measured.
Newt Gingrich is 4th with 12%, Michele Bachmann 5th with 11%, Tim Pawlenty 6th with 10%, and Ron Paul 7th with 8%. All other candidates were shown at 0 or 1%.
Cain and Palin have been the biggest beneficiaries in Iowa of Huckabee and Trump s decisions not to run, PPP pollster Tom Jensen said. Cain is at 15% now despite not even having been included on our last poll. Palin s gained 7 points in the six weeks since our last poll compared to 5 point gains for Romney, Pawlenty, and Bachmann, a 3 point gain for Gingrich, and a 2 point bump for Paul.
Should Palin not run, the breakdown comes in at Romney 26%, Cain 16%, Gingrich 15%, Bachmann 14%, Paul 11% and Pawlenty 10%. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/06/01/gop-2012-poll-has-romney-leading-iowa-cain-and-palin-second/
Chinese Children Born Outside One-Child Policy Trafficked Abroad
According to a report in the Caixin Century magazine, population control officials in the Chinese province of Hunan seized at least 16 babies born in violation of the one-child policy, sent them to state-run orphanages, and then sold them abroad for adoption. In the words of Steven W. Mosher, China expert and president of the Population Research Institute, if this is true (which we at PRI believe it to be based on our own research in China), then this act represents a serious human rights violation and a clear instance of human trafficking.
Before 1997, they usually punished us by tearing down our houses for breaching the one-child policy, but after 2000 they began to confiscate our children, the magazine quoted villager Yuan Chaoren as saying.
The children, reportedly from Longhui county near the city of Shaoyang, were abducted by local authorities who accused their parents of breaching the one-child policy or illegally adopting children. Then, according to Caixin Century, the local family planning office sent them to local orphanages, which listed them as being available for adoption. The report added that the office could get 1,000 renminbi or more for each child. The orphanages in turn receive $3,000 to $5,000 for each child adopted overseas, money that is paid by the adoptive parents. The magazine reported that at least one migrant worker said she had found her daughter had been adopted abroad and was now living in the United States.
According to Steven Mosher, this report is heartbreaking, but not surprising. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/06/01/chinese-children-born-outside-one-child-policy-trafficked-abroad/
New Campaign Targets Gendercide, Sex-Selection Abortions
Members of Congress, demographers and representatives from leading human rights organizations are launching a new effort today designed to target gendercide the practice of eliminate girls via sex-selection abortions, infanticide, or selling or giving away infant or young girls.
On Children s Day, the various activists and leaders are coming together to say gendercide the systemic elimination of a particular gender is wrong. At the press conference, members of the media will view a trailer for an upcoming film on gendercide, in which an Indian mother openly reveals the graves of her eight daughters, strangled because of their gender.
Chai Ling, founder of All Girls Allowed, is coordinating the event. The organization, which marks its first anniversary today, wants more discussion of the international security and economic implications of a massive gender imbalance in China and India. Demographers Dudley Poston and Nicholas Eberstadt will present research to members of Congress showing the link between war and a male youth bulge, as well as the impact of gender imbalance on currency valuation (leading to trade imbalance).
It s important for world leaders to see gendercide is not just a women s rights issue, but it also leads to trade imbalance, insecurity and a threat to peace, Ling told LifeNews in a statement. More and more economists are speaking up about China s increase in private saving. The drop in Chinese marriages brings the drop in consumption, and until it changes, we will see little change in our trade and exchange rate with China.
In 1979 in China, 106 boys were born for every 100 girls, for an at-birth gender ratio of 106:100. The following year, China implemented its strict one child family planing policy that has been enforced by forced abortions and sterilizations and that has seen the use of abortion and other methods to eliminate girls because of the cultural preference for boys. Today in China, the gender ratio has risen to 120:100 with no sign of dropping and the Chinese government reports that there are 37 million more men than women. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/06/01/new-campaign-targets-gendercide-sex-selection-abortions/
New Zealand Court: Unborn Children Have No Right to Life
The New Zealand Court of Appeal has issued a legal decision saying unborn children have no legal rights under the laws in the Pacific island nation. It also ruled on whether the Abortion Supervisory Committee was improperly approving abortions on mental health grounds. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/06/01/new-zealand-court-unborn-children-have-no-right-to-life/
The Case Against Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey
On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Roe v. Wade. That same day, the Court also decided Doe v. Bolton. In Roe, the Court struck down a Texas abortion law. In Doe, the Court threw out the restrictions on abortion in a more liberal Georgia law. The combined result overturned the laws that restricted abortion in every state. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/06/01/the-case-against-roe-v-wade-and-planned-parenthood-v-casey/
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NPR Backs Egg Donation, Freezing; Ignores Risks for Women
On Tuesday s Morning Edition, NPR s Jennifer Ludden all but acted as an proponent of egg donation and freezing to preserve women s fertility, but failed to acknowledge the dangers associated with the donation process, ranging from negative psychological effects to kidney failure and death. Ludden barely touched on other risks to the procedures, such as using them to permit women over 50 become pregnant. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/06/01/npr-backs-egg-donation-frrezing-ignores-risks-for-women/
Indiana Reps Tell Sebelius to OK Planned Parenthood De-Funding
Responding to a letter from U.S. Senate Democrats opposing the new Indiana law de-funding Planned Parenthood, eight members of the U.S. House delegation are defending the new pro-life statute.http://www.lifenews.com/2011/06/01/indiana-reps-tell-sebelius-to-ok-planned-parenthood-de-funding/
Texas Special Session May Cover Planned Parenthood, Abortion
The Texas legislature, unable to complete its work on the state budget, was forced to accept the call from Governor Rick Perry to enter into a special legislative session to complete its work. The special session may also see a debate over abortion. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/06/01/texas-special-session-may-cover-planned-parenthood-abortion/
Legislatures Protecting Women, Teens From Unsafe Abortions
It is a brave new world in the grizzly business of abortion. Movement is underfoot to make chemical abortions more accessible, even if it means compromising women s health to do so. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/06/01/legislatures-protecting-women-teens-from-unsafe-abortions/
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