LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Firday, August 5, 2011
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Current Headlines
Top Stories
• Romney Picks Pro-Life Conservatives as Top Judicial Advisors
• Pro-Life Firm Defends Indiana Law De-Funding Planned Parenthood
• Interview: Obama Admin Responsible for Legal Abortion in Kenya
• On Rick Perry and Abortion: It s a State and Federal Issue
More Pro-Life News
• Obama Birth Control Decision Labels Pregnancy a Disease
• Webcam Abortions Don t Make Abortion Either Safe or Rare
• Texas Legislators Defend Pro-Life Ultrasound Bill in Court
• Dozens Protest Catholic Hospital s Relationship With Abortionist
• Catholic College Professor Blasts Pro-Life Work of Bishops
• Christians: Don t Turn Your Back on IVF-Conceived Children
• Woman Who Regrets Abortion Leads Protest of LeRoy Carhart
• Maryland Abortion Regulations Draw Pro-Life Groups Support
• San Francisco Would Censor Internet to Attack Pregnancy Centers
Romney Picks Pro-Life Conservatives as Top Judicial Advisors
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has assembled a team of pro-life, conservative legal heavyweights to advise him on legal matters specifically on the right kind of judges he should consider should he become president.
The pro-life bonafides of the legal team are so significant that Romney, who shifted to the pro-life position, could find himself winning over some skeptics who worry about the kind of judges he would appoint if elected.
The co-chairman of the new Romney Justice Advisory Committee is former Appeals Court justice Robert Bork, a prior Supreme Court nominee who is highly-regarded by pro-life and conservative voters for his legal acumen, his steadfastly pro-life, conservative views and because of the way liberals treated him during his failed bid to become a Supreme Court justice. Bork, had he been confirmed, would be one of the justices on the high court ready to consider a case to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that ushered in an era of virtually unlimited abortions.
The second member of the Romney judicial team is Harvard law professor Mary Ann Glendon, a pro-life heroine who is a former ambassador to the Vatican and well-respected by the Catholic community.
Glendon recently defended Romney s pro-life views in an interview with the National Catholic Register.
After participating in a searching no-holds-barred conversation among Mitt, his wife, Anne, and a group of pro-life activists in March 2007, Glendon said, I was completely convinced of his sincerity on the life issues. The pro-life movement has staked so much on the confidence that people s minds can be changed that it would be strange to accuse a person of flip-flopping when, as in Mitt s case, his mind and heart have brought him to respect the dignity of human life from conception to natural death. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/08/05/romney-picks-pro-life-conservatives-as-top-judicial-advisors/
Pro-Life Firm Defends Indiana Law De-Funding Planned Parenthood
A pro-life law firm has filed legal papers with an appeals court defending the law the state recently-approved that revokes taxpayer funding for the Planned Parenthood abortion business.
Indiana has appealed a judge s ruling in June blocking an Indiana law that protects taxpayers from having to fund the Planned Parenthood abortion business with public funds via family planning programs through Medicaid.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt in Indianapolis granted Planned Parenthood s request for a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit filed after Republican Governor Mitch Daniels signed the law in May. Now, Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller has filed legal papers with a federal appeals court seeking to lift the injunction so Planned Parenthood can be de-funded while the lawsuit it filed against the state continues.
Indiana filed papers with the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals responding to the injunction the Planned Parenthood of Indiana and the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana received. The papers, according to an AP report, have the state arguing that Planned Parenthood shouldn t be the main party in the lawsuit because it involves a dispute between the state and federal government not only one individual organization or business denied money under the law preventing funding of abortion agencies.
This week, the Thomas More Society filed a friend of the court brief to support the Indiana efforts to defend the law. The brief, also filed with the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, came on behalf of 60 members of the Indiana legislature in opposition to Planned Parenthood s assertion that defunding abortion providers imposes an unconstitutional condition on physicians alleged right to perform abortions. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/08/05/pro-life-firm-defends-indiana-law-de-funding-planned-parenthood/
Interview: Obama Admin Responsible for Legal Abortion in Kenya
In a new video interview, Father Raphael Wanjohi, the director of Human Life International Kenya, a pro-life organization, says the effect of the new Constitution the nation adopted is that legalized abortion has expanded quickly. Wanjohi says the Obama administration and Obama himself is responsible for the adoption of the Constitution that resulted in allowing two abortion businesses to expand their reach into Kenya.
HLI distributed the new video today and below is a transcript of the interview:
Q: How has life in Kenya changed since the new constitution was approved one year ago?
Fr. Wanjohi: Yeah, there was this new, a referendum, a new constitution which had to be approved. And the Catholic Church, and most other churches were not in favor of it because of some sections that were to be rectified or to be adjusted or to be rephrased before the constitution. But we worked harder to see that, and especially this one, was very much on abortion. Then, it started very well, abortion is not legal. But somehow, along the line came, It s not legal except when the health of the mother is in danger. Then wanted to know, what does that health mean? Because health does not mean death. Health may mean one is having headache, or one is having really stomachache. One feels the weight is going on. So that needed, in theory to be really clear because the Church has felt that the sanctity of life is very, very important. But, we had a lot of money from America, more than twenty-three million dollars, which were really poured in to make sure that that constitution has to pass through that referendum. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/08/05/interview-obama-admin-responsible-for-legal-abortion-in-kenya/
On Rick Perry and Abortion: It s a State and Federal Issue
LifeNews has extensively reported on the pro-life abortion views of Texas governor, and possible Republican presidential candidate, Rick Perry. The governor recently said he favored the 10th Amendment when it comes the right of states to prohibit or limit abortions.
After receiving some pushback on that from pro-life advocates who say abortion should be a federal issue or that Perry should embrace a Human Life Amendment or other federal solution providing legal protection for unborn children, the governor indicated he supports a federal amendment protecting unborn children because states would have to sign off on it.
Now, Americans United for Life legal scholar and LifeNews blogger Bill Saunders has written an opinion column at Politico saying Perry is right on abortion because it is both a federal and state issue at the same time.
A tempest has erupted over Texas Gov. Rick Perry s recent remarks about abortion. Perry has long been anti-abortion, and he was talking about the role of the Constitution s 10th Amendment in the resolution of social issues including abortion.
For some, when Perry said that abortion was ultimately an issue to be decided by the states rather than the federal government or the courts it seemed to indicate that the governor was not the anti-abortion champion they hoped to see. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/08/05/on-rick-perry-and-abortion-its-a-state-and-federal-issue/
Obama Birth Control Decision Labels Pregnancy a Disease
By now, I m sure you ve heard that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), at the recommendation of the Institute of Medicine (IOM), has decided to re-define women s health care yet again by mandating that by January 1, 2013, insurance providers give women a range of new preventative services free, no co-pay or deductible.
These preventative services will include birth control all FDA-approved birth control, including proven abortion-causing drugs like ella and Plan B.
That s right the Obama administration has just labeled pregnancy as a disease.
According to a Consensus Report released by the IOM on July 19, The IOM defines preventative health services as measures including medications, procedures, devices, tests, education and counseling shown to improve well-being, and/or decrease the likelihood or delay the onset of a targeted disease or condition. Under these conditions, insured women will have access to free birth control because pregnancy has been redefined as a targeted disease.
Am I the only one who thinks government-mandated health care telling me that my children are targeted diseases is utterly revolting? Further, I find it alarming that the U.S. government will now mandate employers like myself, all except churches, to pay for and cover abortion and cancer-causing drugs like the birth control pill. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/08/05/obama-birth-control-decision-labels-pregnancy-a-disease/
Webcam Abortions Don t Make Abortion Either Safe or Rare
A new study says the growing practice of tele-medicine abortions, in which women are prescribed abortion-inducing medications without having a physician present, is safe and successful but that declaration is dangerously deceitful.
The truth is that at least 3,534 women have been mildly to fatally affected by the pill in question, Mifepristone, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2000. According to a recent FDA report, there have been 14 reported U.S. deaths.
Ibis Reproductive Health was responsible for the study but why would a conscientious health organization promote an unsafe practice like tele-med abortion? The answer is found on the Ibis website, which says that its projects focus on improving access to abortion. Unfortunately, media outlets like ABC News that are using the study to advertise the safety of tele-med abortion never reveal the Ibis agenda.
Tele-med abortions make abortion faster, easier, and more removed from medical supervision. In the marketplace, faster and easier usually lead to higher sales, and the abortion industry is no exception. In fact, America s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, raked in $114.9 million of revenue from abortion in 2009 alone. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/08/05/webcam-abortions-dont-make-abortion-either-safe-or-rare/
Texas Legislators Defend Pro-Life Ultrasound Bill in Court
Texas state legislators are defending an ultrasound bill in court that allows women a chance to see an ultrasound of their baby before an abortion. The bill is the subject of a lawsuit seeking to topple it.
Governor Rick Perry recently signed the measure into law that allows women to see the ultrasound 24 hours before the abortion. Abortion centers typically do ultrasounds to estimate the age of the baby before the abortion but they don t normally allow women a chance to see or explain to them in detail the development of their unborn child. When used in pregnancy centers offering abortion alternatives, approximately 80 percent of women change their mind about having an abortion.
The Center for Reproductive Rights, a pro-abortion law firm based in New York City, filed the lawsuit against the new law in June and is seeking to have a judge issue a temporary restraining order so abortion businesses in the state don t have to implement the law while the lawsuit moves forward. The measure is scheduled to go into effect September 1 and abortion businesses would be obligated to allow women a chance to see the ultrasound.
Today, on behalf of Texas Senator Dan Patrick and Texas Representative Sid Miller, Liberty Institute filed an amicus brief to defend HB 15. Senator Patrick and Representative Miller were the authors of HB 15 in the Texas Senate and Texas House of Representatives, respectively. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/08/05/texas-legislators-defend-pro-life-ultrasound-bill-in-court/
Dozens Protest Catholic Hospital s Relationship With Abortionist
A Catholic hospital in Durango, Colorado faced protests yesterday from dozens of pro-life advocates upset that Mercy Regional Medical Center associates with abortion practitioner Richard Grossman. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/08/05/dozens-protest-catholic-hospitals-relationship-with-abortionist/
Catholic College Professor Blasts Pro-Life Work of Bishops
Bianca Laureano, a professor at College of Mount Saint Vincent is under fire for contributing to a pro-abortion blog and promoting criticism of the pro-life work of the nation s Catholic bishops. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/08/05/catholic-college-professor-blasts-pro-life-work-of-bishops/
Christians: Don t Turn Your Back on IVF-Conceived Children
Recently a mother who conceived her child through in vitro fertilization (IVF) wrote to a Washington Post advice column. Her parents objected to the immoral manner of their grandchild s conception so they decided to have nothing to do with the baby, a decision that was both hurtful and troubling. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/08/05/christians-dont-turn-your-back-on-ivf-conceived-children/
Woman Who Regrets Abortion Leads Protest of LeRoy Carhart
Kelly Stauffer, who underwent a late-term abortion at 14, will be a featured speaker today as pro-life protests continue outside the Maryland office of late-term abortion practitioner LeRoy Carhart. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/08/05/woman-who-regrets-abortion-leads-protest-of-leroy-carhart/
San Francisco Would Censor Internet to Attack Pregnancy Centers
The city of San Francisco has launched an aggressive two-pronged attack on pregnancy centers there that help women find abortion alternatives both a law going after the centers and a lawsuit falsely accusing them of engaging in misleading advertising. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/08/05/san-francisco-would-censor-internet-to-attack-pregnancy-centers/
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