LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Friday, August 12, 2011
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Current Headlines
Top Stories
• Appeals Court Rules Obamacare Mandate Unconstitutional
• GOP Presidential Candidates Push Pro-Life Themes in Debate
• NARAL Slams Texas Gov. Rick Perry s Pro-Life Abortion Record
• Chili s Restaurant Cancels Planned Parenthood Fundraiser
More Pro-Life News
• Bachmann Misrepresents Pawlenty s Pro-Life View in GOP Debate
• Catholic Church: Unborn Children Have a Soul at Conception
• Austin, Texas Travis County Ends Tax Funding of Abortion
• UN Indifferent to Sex Selection Abortions, Says New Book
• Republican Debate Should Have Emphasized Pro-Life Issues More
• British Nurses Win Bid Against Working at Abortion Business
• Abortion Activists in India Resist Efforts to Stop Gendercide
• The Racialization of Adoption Threatens Black Children
• Planned Parenthood Alaska Agrees to Debate Abstinence Education
Appeals Court Rules Obamacare Mandate Unconstitutional
A federal appeals court today issued a ruling agreeing with a federal judge s decision ruling the individual mandate at the heart of Obamacare is unconstitutional.
In January, a federal judge in Florida issued a ruling in what is the largest lawsuit filed against the Obamacare health care law. U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson said the individual mandate is unconstitutional and, therefore, the entire law is as well.
The individual mandate is a portion of the law independent and conservative voters most strongly oppose because it requires Americans to purchase health insurance, that could fund abortions with taxpayer funds or premiums, whether they want to or not. The case the state of Florida and more than two dozen others made to Judge Vinson is that the individual mandate is unconstitutional and the Constitution does not allow Congress to regular financial inactivity.
The Obama administration appealed the decision to the U.S. Appeals Court based in Atlanta, Georgia. Judge Vinson did not stop the implementation of the law pending the appeal which could take two years to reach the Supreme Court and result in a decision.
Today, a three judge panel of the federal appeals court ruled Obamacare s individual mandate is unconstitutional, calling it an unprecedented exercise of congressional power. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/08/12/appeals-court-rules-obamacare-mandate-unconstitutional/
GOP Presidential Candidates Push Pro-Life Themes in Debate
In a debate filled with fireworks and candidates dueling each other on multiple fronts on other political issues, some of the GOP presidential hopefuls struck pro-life themes during the Republican presidential debate in Iowa Thursday night.
Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator, and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty both were asked questions about their stances on pro-life issues. both candidates made their pro-life perspectives crystal clear for viewers.
Santorum was asked why he didn t support abortion exceptions for rape and incest and he pointed out that society should help pregnant women in such cases rather than push them into abortions. He said the crime of rape should not be exacerbated by the crime of an abortion and that the unborn child did not deserve to die simply because of the circumstances surrounding his or her conception.
During his eloquent defense of the pro-life position against abortions in rare cases of rape or incest, he pointed out that under current law, a murderer or rapist can escape the death penalty, but a child conceived in rape cannot escape execution if the mother decides to have an abortion. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/08/12/gop-presidential-candidates-push-pro-life-themes-in-debate/
NARAL Slams Texas Gov. Rick Perry s Pro-Life Abortion Record
Sensing the Texas governor is one day away from announcing that he will join the Republican presidential field, the pro-abortion organization NARAL today launched a scathing attack on Perry s pro-life record.
Titled The Rick Perry Primer: His Record on Choice, NARAL president Nancy Keenan opined on Perry s treatment of abortion and said my staff and I have been working to answer the question of what abortion activists know about Perry, who has received A grades from the two top pro-life organizations in the state.
How a candidate voted on choice [read: abortion] or what actions he or she took as governor tell us a lot about what he or she would do if elected president, Keenan writes. Gov. Perry s choice-related actions as governor of Texas are dominated by anti-choice positions.
Keenan complains about a bill Perry signed that would allow women to receive information about abortion s risks and alternatives 24 hours before getting an abortion. Although Gallup polling data shows such laws enjoy the support of pro-life and pro-choice Americans, Keenan ripped into Perry with a misleading statement about it. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/08/12/naral-slams-texas-gov-rick-perrys-pro-life-abortion-record/
Chili s Restaurant Cancels Planned Parenthood Fundraiser
A Chili s restaurant in California is getting applause from local pro-life advocates for canceling a fundraiser it has scheduled to host for the Planned Parenthood abortion business.
Chili s Grill & Bar, which has more than 1,500 restaurants in 31 countries and two U.S. territories, cancelled their recent fundraiser for Planned Parenthood, due to a tidal-wave of customer opposition to funding the abortion giant.
According to a spokesperson for Chili s parent company, Brinker International, Inc., The event was canceled after hearing growing concerns from our guests. Management of the Natomas Chili s received numerous calls, as the Sacramento community expressed concerns about Chili s restaurant donating money to Planned Parenthood, which performs over 330,000 abortions every year.
Wynette Sills, a local pro-life advocate who had been monitoring the situation, told LifeNews today, The Chili s fundraiser for Planned Parenthood was brought to my attention on Wednesday, July 27, the night before the event. By the next morning, Chili s decided to cancel the Planned Parenthood fundraiser due to guest complaints.
Sills says the cancellation is a significant and abrupt change of opinion for the restaurant chain as a flier announcing the fundraiser originally proclaimed Chili s proudly supports Planned Parenthood and invited customers to bring in the promotional flyer so Chili s could donate 15 percent of the customer s bill to the Planned Parenthood Mar Monte s Sacramento affiliate. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/08/12/chilis-restaurant-cancels-planned-parenthood-fundraiser/
Bachmann Misrepresents Pawlenty s Pro-Life View in GOP Debate
Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is strongly pro-life, but she misrepresented pro-life issues during the Republican debate in Iowa on Thursday night during which GOP candidates articulated their pro-life views.
Bachmann, of Minnesota, and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty got into a heated exchange over the comparison of Bachmann s and Pawlenty s record on various political issues including abortion.
Bachmann sought to make it appear Pawlenty deviated from his fiscally conservative record by raising fees on cigarettes and she also made it appear Pawlenty agreed to a bill that revoked pro-life protections for unborn children.
I was very vocal against that tax, and I fought against that tax. The problem is, when the deal was put together, Governor Pawlenty cut a deal with the special interest groups and he put in the same bill, a vote to increase the cigarette tax, as well as the vote that would take away protections from the unborn, Bachmann said. I made a decision, I believe in the sanctity of human life. And I believe you can get money wrong, but you can t get life wrong. That s why I came down on that decision that I made.
However, Bachmann s comments on the bill are at variance with the facts, as the bill contained a pro-life provision supported by Minnesota s biggest pro-life group. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/08/12/bachmann-misrepresents-pawlentys-pro-life-view-in-gop-debate/
Catholic Church: Unborn Children Have a Soul at Conception
We continue our study today of a little-known and little-studied 1974 document from the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith entitled:
Declaration on Procured Abortion
Read Part I here.
Today we turn to the document s treatment of the Church s varied voices on when the body is infused with a soul. This is critical, because so many proaborts look selectively to voices from within the Church that have fixed a point some time after fertilization. What they do not do is point to the universal condemnation of abortion at every stage, going all the way back to our most ancient document of apostolic teaching, The Didache (pronounced DID-a-kay), subtitled, The Lord s Teaching Through the Twelve Apostles to the Nations.
Here are excerpts from the Declaration on Procured Abortion, followed by the footnotes from the text, and then a few words of analysis: http://www.lifenews.com/2011/08/12/catholic-church-unborn-children-have-a-soul-at-conception/
Austin, Texas Travis County Ends Tax Funding of Abortion
In Texas, pro-life advocates are overjoyed by the decision by the Central Health board vote yesterday to unanimously agree to ending taxpayer financing of abortions in Travis County, the home of Austin, Texas.
The board voted to stop spending public funds on abortions as of September 12 in a vote that comes in response to a new state law Governor Rick Perry signed that revokes a considerable amount of taxpayer funds from the Planned Parenthood abortion business. The law also cuts off state funds to hospital districts that use tax funds to pay for abortions and the Travis County district was the only one in the state to do so.
The Statesman newspaper indicates the board also voted 8-1 to redirect the $450,000 originally allocated for abortions to other legitimate medical services. Still, the board produced a resolution endorsing abortion access, saying it continues to believe that all women in Travis County, regardless of income, should and will continue to have access to pregnancy termination services, it now must respond to Senate Bill 7 in light of the other objectives that the organization seeks to accomplish. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/08/12/austin-texas-travis-county-ends-tax-funding-of-abortion/
UN Indifferent to Sex Selection Abortions, Says New Book
One night in 1978 a student in Delhi s most prestigious obstetrics program reported for his first deliveryg. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/08/12/un-indifferent-to-sex-selection-abortions-says-new-book/
Republican Debate Should Have Emphasized Pro-Life Issues More
It should come as no surprise that so little of the coverage of last night s Republican presidential debate in Ames, Iowa, has involved talk of the pro-life issue. The economy and joblessness took center stage, and understandably so, as President Obama has clearly failed on his promise of immediate (despite his attempts to disown his earlier timeline) economic recovery. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/08/12/republican-debate-should-have-emphasized-pro-life-issues-more/
British Nurses Win Bid Against Working at Abortion Business
Two British nurses have won their bid by successfully suing to say that the Equality Act made it so they should not have been forced to work one day a week at a local abortion business. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/08/12/british-nurses-win-bid-against-working-at-abortion-business/
Abortion Activists in India Resist Efforts to Stop Gendercide
A group of abortion activists in India, including Bollywood personalities, teachers and journalists, signed onto a letter this week to government officials resisting proposed efforts to stop the epidemic of sex-selective abortions targeting female babies, referred to by many as gendercide. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/08/12/abortion-activists-in-india-resist-efforts-to-stop-gendercide/
The Racialization of Adoption Threatens Black Children
Adoption is a powerful and emotionally potent act, for the birth mother and the prospective parents. The act of relinquishing a child to someone else and to take in a child, who is not biologically related, is an incredible act of love and sacrifice. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/08/12/the-radicalization-of-adoption-threatens-black-children/
Planned Parenthood Alaska Agrees to Debate Abstinence Education
Two of the more recognizable leaders from both sides of the often-heated debates on sexual health in Alaska have agreed to meet on radio for a third time this time to debate whether sex education should focus on abstinence or include information on condom use and other so-called safe sex techniques. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/08/12/planned-parenthood-alaska-agrees-to-debate-abstinence-education/
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