LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Monday, July 4, 2011
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Current Headlines
Top Stories
• Shock: Thousands of UK Abortions on Disabled, Down Syndrome Babies
• Democratic School Board Candidate Quits, Hit Pro-Lifer With Car
• Jaycees Kick Out Pro-Life Group From July 4th Parade
• Daily Show Comedian Lizz Winsted Attacks Bachmann on Abortion
More Pro-Life News
• Ireland Sees 8,000 People Join the Pro-Life Rally for Life
• UN Using Sex-Selection Abortion Problem to Push for Abortions
• Minnesota Pro-Life Group Worried Taxpayers Must Fund Cloning
• We Must Keep Pressing Against Forced Abortions in China
• United Nations Promotes Abortion Before UN Youth Conference
• Abortion Law Reform Assn of New Zealand Denies Humanity of Unborn
• Demand Continues for More Human Embryonic Stem Cell Lines
• Remembering the National Right to Life Convention, a Pro-Life Gathering
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Shock: Thousands of UK Abortions on Disabled, Down Syndrome Babies
Shocking new statistics have been produced in England after a pro-life organization won its bid to make some abortion numbers public that the government had failed to disclose concerning abortions on disabled babies.
The numbers reveal, thousands of babies victimized by abortion merely because they were mentally or physically disabled including 500 abortions done on unborn children who have Down syndrome. In total, 2,290 abortions were done on disabled babies with 147 done after 24 weeks of pregnancy.
The London Daily Mail indicates the statistics for England and Wales came after the Department of Health followed a Freedom of Information Request from the Pro Life Alliance, which won a 5-year battle to make the figures public and the figures are the first in over 10 years. The ways in which disabled babies are targeted by abortion makes it clear why the government was reluctant to make them available.
Julia Millington, spokeswoman for the ProLife Alliance, told the newspaper, This is a great victory for transparency and freedom of speech and we are delighted that full information about the justification for late abortions is now being made available in the same detail as it was in 2001.
The abortion numbers showed 482 babies aborted who had Down syndrome, including 10 aborted after 24 weeks; 123 babies who died in abortions with the nervous disorder spina bifida; abortions were done on 181 babies who had a club foot or other musculoskeletal problems, including 8 killed after 24 weeks of pregnancy. Seven babies who had cleft palates were victims of abortion.
The ProLife Alliance is opposed to all abortion at any stage in pregnancy, but terminating the lives of babies at gestational ages when they could survive is always particularly horrifying, Millington told the newspaper. We have always argued that if these abortions are permitted under law, there should be no attempt whatsoever to hide details of the numbers or justifications. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/07/04/shock-thousands-of-uk-abortions-on-disabled-down-syndrome-babies/
Democratic School Board Candidate Quits, Hit Pro-Lifer With Car
A Democratic candidate for the school board in Fairfax County, northern Virginia, has quit her campaign because she has become the subject of criminal charges for purposefully hitting pro-life advocates participating in the March for Life with her vehicle.
As the Washington Post reports:
A Fairfax County School Board candidate who carried the endorsements of the local Democratic Party and Rep.Gerry Connolly has withdrawn from the race after it was learned that she is facing assault charges in the District for allegedly hitting a woman with her car near the Supreme Court building on the day of the annual Right to Life March.
Charisse Espy Glassman, a Falls Church resident who is the niece of former U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy, told party members she is stepping down from the at-large school board campaign because of personal and family matters, according to Rex Simmons, chair of the Fairfax County Democratic Committee. It s official, Simmons said Friday .
Court records from Superior Court in the District of Columbia say Glassman was charged with assault and possession of a prohibited weapon after the Jan. 24 incident.
The court records and a Democratic party source say Glassman was driving out of an alley at 3:44 p.m. in the 100 block of 1st St. NE near the Supreme Court building where there was a crowd of people taking part in the March for Life. A woman stepped in front of Glassman s car, yelling at her to stop because of all the people around, the court papers say. Glassman allegedly laughed, revved her engine and moved forward. When the woman stepped back, Glassman allegedly kept laughing, moved forward again and hit the woman in the legs, the court records say. The woman suffered minor injuries. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/07/03/democratic-school-board-candidate-quits-hit-pro-lifer-with-car/
Jaycees Kick Out Pro-Life Group From July 4th Parade
Apparently, when no one was looking, the Jaycees became a pro-Infanticide group. I wonder about this because the United States Junior Chamber Jaycees has thrown the Palatine Area Catholics Respect Life Group out of the Palatine, Illinois July Fourth parade, preventing them from participating in this year s celebration.
The Jaycees claim that they have done so because the pro-life group has an offensive photo on the banner they planned to carry in the procession. Following is a photo of the banner as seen on the local Patch story:
They decided that an unborn baby is too offensive, said Martin Kelley, co-founder of Palatine Area Catholics Respect Life. It s an ultrasound photo. It s not a picture of an aborted baby.
So, how is an ultrasound photo of an in utero infant offensive ? This isn t a gruesome photo of an aborted fetus like many pro-life groups use to shock viewers if it were I might agree with the claim that it is an offensive display. This is simply a live baby in the womb captured through the wonders of modern technology. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/07/03/jaycees-kick-out-pro-life-group-from-july-4th-parade/
ACTION: Contact the Jaycees at http://www.usjaycees.org/index.php/contact-us
Daily Show Comedian Lizz Winsted Attacks Bachmann on Abortion
Daily Show co-creator Lizz Winsted is going on tour to fund Planned Parenthood, and Lucas Kavner of the Huffington Post insisted that this is somehow not leftist:
While her comedy has always been inherently political and she s not backing down from her own personal affiliations this tour is not aimed at those on the right or left. It s merely to raise awareness and support for an organization that has been an essential part of her life.
Earth to Lucas Kavner: did you watch some of her Minneapolis show, posted ahem, on your own website? It took about 15 seconds for her to announce that saying Michele Bachmann performed well among the Republican contenders is like being the smartest Kardashian. She also added comic gems that only a secular leftist would love, like I think she s hogging too much of God s time, which is why everything is so f ed. And I don t understand why we don t treat Michele Bachmann with the same diligence as other nut allergies.
Winstead was the HuffPost Greatest Person of the Day for her charity tour. She hardly gets to lecture Bachmann on having a grasp of the facts, since she somehow thinks that Planned Parenthood has suffered decades of depletion of resources, which hardly reflects their financial report: http://www.lifenews.com/2011/07/04/daily-show-comedian-lizz-winsted-attacks-bachmann-on-abortion/
Ireland Sees 8,000 People Join the Pro-Life Rally for Life
As many as 8,000 pro-life advocates in Ireland joined the pro-life Rally for Life over the weekend and two prominent UK pro-life advocates, Pat Buckley and John Smeaton, blogged about the event.
From Buckley, who was born in Galway, Ireland and lived in Cork and Dublin writes:
The 5th Rally for Life which in Dublin on Saturday last 2 July was the largest yet.
The rally organisers estimated that at least 7000 people took part in the Rally, however official Garda figures later estimated it to be 8,000. The huge crowd consisted of people of all ages with a big emphasis on young people and children. The weather was beautiful, and the sun shone out as the Rally proceeded towards Leinster House, the seat of the Irish Government. It was a very colourful event, and there was a huge sea of red and yellow proclaiming the pro-life message.
There were also posters and placards calling on the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, to keep the pro-life promise that he made in the run-up to the recent General Election that, if he were elected to government, he would not legislate for abortion in Ireland. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/07/04/ireland-sees-8000-people-join-the-pro-life-rally-for-life/
UN Using Sex-Selection Abortion Problem to Push for Abortions
A recent United Nations inter-agency statement on imbalanced sex ratios calls for unrestricted access to abortion as a human right.
The statement recognizes that sex-selective abortion is a form of gender discrimination against girls and women, but nonetheless proclaims that ensuring access to services for safe abortion is crucial.
Various United Nations human rights treaty monitoring bodies have established that the rights of women and girls to life, health, and development are violated when they undergo an unsafe abortion or are forced to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term, the report claims.
While calling for the strengthening of policies to provide safe abortion services and the adoption of all necessary supplies, training, and equipment, the report briefly admits that proving that an abortion was sex-selective is difficult. Following an ultrasound examination, a woman can go to a different clinic to have an abortion while providing a reason that is acceptable within the legal framework.
Today, the issue of sex selected abortion affects many countries worldwide, especially Asian countries. The UN statement states that restricting access to certain reproductive technologies in order to prevent an imbalanced male-to-female ration in a given society should not result in the curtailing of the human rights of women. However, sex-selective abortions have become so intense that by 2020 an estimated 15 to 20 percent of men in northwest India will lack female counterparts. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/07/03/un-using-sex-selection-abortion-problem-to-push-for-abortions/
Minnesota Pro-Life Group Worried Taxpayers Must Fund Cloning
Public funding of human cloning became legal on in Minnesota on July 1 without reauthorization of the state s current ban on such funding. Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life helped to pass the ban on taxpayer funding of human cloning during the 2009 legislative session.
A recent Gallup poll showed that 84 percent of Americans believe human cloning is morally wrong (May 5-8, 2011).
Minnesotans, like the vast majority of American citizens, are opposed to the cloning of human beings, said MCCL Legislative Associate Jordan Bauer. People don t want human life treated as mere raw material for experiments, and they do not want to pay for such unethical activity.
The 2009 Legislature ushered through a session law provision that provided for a two-year ban on state funding of all forms of human cloning. Because this provision expires on June 30, MCCL has supported legislative efforts to either ban human cloning (authored by Rep. Bob Dettmer, R-Forest Lake, and Sen. Michelle Fischbach, R-Paynesville) or to enact a statutory prohibition on taxpayer funding of human cloning (authored by Rep. King Banaian, R-St. Cloud, and Sen. Fischbach). http://www.lifenews.com/2011/07/04/minnesota-pro-life-group-worried-taxpayers-must-fund-cloning/
We Must Keep Pressing Against Forced Abortions in China
I met Reggie Littlejohn, President of Women s Rights Without Frontiers in Washington DC a few months ago, and I promised this amazing lady that I would do all I can to help get the word out about her organization. This brief expose of her work to end forced abortion in China is stunning. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/07/03/we-must-keep-pressing-against-forced-abortions-in-china/
United Nations Promotes Abortion Before UN Youth Conference
A major UN agency youth program envisions abortion and decriminalized sex work for young people ahead of the UN Youth Conference. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/07/04/united-nations-promotes-abortion-before-un-youth-conference/
Abortion Law Reform Assn of New Zealand Denies Humanity of Unborn
The Abortion Law Reform Association of New Zealand [ALRANZ] issued a media release on 24 June 2011 that contains serious misinformation. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/07/03/abortion-law-reform-assn-of-new-zealand-denies-humanity-of-unborn/
Demand Continues for More Human Embryonic Stem Cell Lines
For those keeping count, the NIH embryonic stem cell registry (the list of human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines approved to receive federal taxpayer funding) now lists a total of 128 hESC lines. Previously NIH Director Francis Collins had been approving lines slowly, but on a regular basis. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/07/03/demand-continues-for-more-human-embryonic-stem-cell-lines/
Remembering the National Right to Life Convention, a Pro-Life Gathering
I have always considered it an honor to be a part of the National Right to Life Convention. This gathering of leaders is a pro-life tradition stretching back to 1971, and an important part of the history of the greatest human rights battle of our time. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/07/04/remembering-the-national-right-to-life-convention-a-pro-life-gathering/
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