LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
| For pro-life news updated throughout the day, visit LifeNews.com. |
Current Headlines
Top Stories
• Obama May Force New Hampshire to Fund Planned Parenthood
• Father Frank Pavone Prevented From Running Priests for Life
• Woman Who Killed Infant Freed by Canada s Pro-Abortion Law
• Judge Rules Individual Mandate in Obamacare Unconstitutional
More Pro-Life News
• Battle to Stop Tax Funded Abortions in DC Picks Up Again
• Republican Debate Touches on Pro-Life Issues, Parental Rights
• Terri Schiavo Again: Mild Stroke Leads to Mother s Starvation
• Planned Parenthood Drops Bid for New California Abortion Biz
• Hearing on Indiana Law to Stop Planned Parenthood Funding Put Off
• Scientists: Ethical IPS Cells Work Like Embryonic Ones
• Our American Community: A Pro-Life Reflection on 9/11
• My New Position: National Director of Med Students for Life
• Kansas Hearing: Abortionist Violated Standard of Care
• Liechtenstein Battling EU Pressure to Legalize Abortion
---> With over 14 million pageviews annually, LifeNews.com is the leading pro-life web site on the Internet. If you're not advertising with us, you're missing out
on quite a few pro-life people seeing your ad on a weekly basis. Email us to find out how your ad can appear on LifeNews.com for as little as $100.
Obama May Force New Hampshire to Fund Planned Parenthood
The battle over whether New Hampshire taxpayers will fund Planned Parenthood continues and pro-life groups are working together against a concerted effort to force the state to fund the abortion business with tax money.
As LifeNews reported days ago, it appears the Obama administration may reinstate the taxpayer funding to the abortion business that the state s Executive Council denied earlier this year. The Obama administration, via the Health and Human Services Department, may restore part or all of the $1.8 million in taxpayer funding revoked by a majority of the members of the council.
Now, New Hampshire Executive Councilor David Wheeler says he is concerned New Hampshire Health Commissioner Nick Toumpas is conspiring with the Obama administration to go over the heads of the council to restore the funding. Wheeler says Toumpas, although financially reporting to the NH Executive Council, is working to get Planned Parenthood their money back. Wheeler accuses Toumpas of providing information to HHS claming that New Hampshire is in violation for not providing family planning statewide as mandated under the Title X family planning law because no replacements for Planned Parenthood have yet to be approved.
Wheeler says Toumpas reported to the council that Boston Region HHS issued an RFP last week to replace $359,765 of the taxpayer funds intended for Planned Parenthood. He believes Planned Parenthood has applied and will get the award directly in the next few days from HHS circumventing any further decisions from the Executive Council.
According to an internal communication Wheeler has sent out from Toumpas: The Department received confirmation from DHHS (Federal) that a request for proposal was made from the Federal government to provide services for the NH areas where we have no contractual capacity to provide the family planning services. We expect PPNNE will be applying as they are already contractors of the Federal government in Region 1. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/09/13/obama-may-force-new-hampshire-to-fund-planned-parenthood/
Father Frank Pavone Prevented From Running Priests for Life
Father Frank Pavone is being prevented temporary from the Catholic Bishop under whom he serves from operating Priests for Life, the respected national pro-life organization that has been a leader for years in the pro-life movement.
According to a Catholic News Service report, Amarillo Bishop Patrick J. Zurek of the Diocese of Amarillo, Texas is preventing Pavone from leading the organization and working outside of the boundaries of the diocese. CNS indicates the suspension was made public in a September 9 letter the bishop released that questioned the finances of Priests for Life.
Pavone told CNS that he is complying with the request from his bishop and returning to Amarillo, Texas to resume priestly duties. Father Pavone has been able to operate the Priests for Life ministry with the help and support of the Catholic Church ever since Cardinal O Connor granted him permission to create the organization in 1993.
My decision is the result of deep concerns regarding his stewardship of the finances of the Priests for Life (PFL) organization, Bishop Zurek wrote in the letter. The PFL has become a business that is quite lucrative which provides Father Pavone with financial independence from all legitimate ecclesiastical oversight.
Zurek told CNS he has received persistent questions and concerns about the finances of Priest for Life, which has become a large pro-life organization with numerous ministries to youth, women who have been victimized by abortion, a special outreach to Catholic priests and a political responsibility outreach urging pro-life groups to help pro-life voters register to vote and to vote pro-life. He said he wanted Pavone to return to spend time in prayer and reflection.
Pavone responded saying he would comply with the request today after taping programs for EWTN, a popular Catholic television network. He came under the Texas bishop s direction after Priests for Life relocated part of its offices from Staten Island, New York to the Texas diocese but it has now returned to New York following the retirement of Bishop John W. Yanta, who strongly supported the organization.
Bishop Zurek asked me to go back to the diocese today, which I am doing for a limited period of time, Father Pavone said. I am going there and my (priestly) faculties are fully intact and I m in good standing.
Pavone, who takes no salary from Priests for Life, released an official statement on the matter (see below) and a letter in response. The pro-life advocate is asking the bishop to rescind his request, has appealed to Rome to be allowed to continue working in pro-life ministry full-time, and is actively defending the finances of Priests for Life as being aboveboard. Priests for Life has submitted to annual audits from a top accounting firm showing everything in top order. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/09/13/father-frank-pavone-prevented-from-running-priests-for-life/
Woman Who Killed Infant Freed by Canada s Pro-Abortion Law
A woman who strangled and killed her newborn baby has been released and will face no jail time thanks to a judge who cited support for legalized abortion in Canada, where abortions are legal and paid for at taxpayer expense.
Katrina Effert of Wetaskiwin, Alberta gave birth secretly in the downstairs level of her parents home and then killed her baby son by throwing his body over the fence of their yard. Effert, 19 at the time of the infanticide, told the court she worried about what her parents would think of having to listen to the cries of a newborn baby in the house. Effert s parents were not aware of the pregnancy and she initially told police she had not had sexual intercourse.
The boy was named Rodney and Effert reportedly used a pair of her own underwear to strangle him and take his life before tossing his body into her parents neighbor s yard.
On Friday, Effert received a three-year suspended sentence from Justice Joanne Veit of the Alberta Court of Queen s Bench and, because of the ruling, she was able to go free on probation and face no time in prison for killing her child. Judge Veit issued the verdict in part because she heard testimony from witnesses that Effert faced sever persecution in prison, where fellow inmates called her baby killer.
But part of the ruling that also has pro-life advocates troubled is Judge Veit s decision that Canada s acceptance of legalized abortion entitled Effert to kill her child. Judge Veit ruled, according to multiple media reports, that because Canada allows abortions it reflects how while many Canadians undoubtedly view abortion as a less than ideal solution to unprotected sex and unwanted pregnancy, they generally understand, accept and sympathize with the onerous demands pregnancy and childbirth exact from mothers, especially mothers without support.
http://www.lifenews.com/2011/09/13/woman-who-killed-infant-freed-by-canadas-pro-abortion-law/
Judge Rules Individual Mandate in Obamacare Unconstitutional
A federal judge hearing one of the many lawsuits filed against the abortion-funding Obamacare law has ruled the individual mandate requiring people to purchase health insurance is unconstitutional.
The ruling provides more support for the panoply of cases that will all eventually make their way to the Supreme Court once federal appeals courts have rendered their decisions. Leading pro-life organizations opposed Obamacare because of its abortion funding components and concerns over rationing health care.
Judge Christopher Conner in Harrisburg issued the ruling today, according to an AP report, and he said the individual mandate is an unconstitutional extension of the authority the Commerce Clause grants the federal government. This suit was filed by a Pennsylvania couple who does not want to be forced to purchase health care insurance and pay the penalties for not doing so under the Obamacare provisions.
The nation undoubtably faces a health care crisis, Conner, an appointee of President George W. Bush in 2002, said in his ruling. Scores of individuals are uninsured and the costs to all citizens are measurable and significant. The federal government, however, is one of limited enumerated powers, and Congress s efforts to remedy the ailing health care and health insurance markets must fit squarely within the boundaries of those powers. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/09/13/judge-rules-individual-mandate-in-obamacare-unconstitutional/
 Announcing: National Association of Pro-life Nurses announces its 2011-2012 scholarship for student nurses. Scholarship application deadline is Feb. 15, 2012. Application can be found online at http://www.nursesforlife.org |
Republican Debate Touches on Pro-Life Issues, Parental Rights
Last night s Republican debate unlike the one last week touched briefly on pro-life issues and featured a heated exchange between a couple of the candidates and pro-life Texas Gov. Rick Perry over the issue of parental rights.
Because none of the questions from the Tea Party participants or CNN moderator Wolf Blitzer queried about pro-life issues, Michele Bachmann, the pro-life Minnesota congresswoman, was the first to bring up the issue of abortion, doing so on her own. She repeatedly attacked pro-abortion President Barack Obama on Obamacare, promising to repeal the government-run health care plan that includes abortion funding and rationing concerns, but she also tagged Obama for a recent decision forcing insurance companies to pay for drugs that can cause abortions, birth control and contraception as preventative care.
President Obama, in a stunning, shocking level of power, now just recently told all private insurance companies, You must offer the morning-after abortion pill, because I said so. And it must be free of charge. That same level coming through executive orders and through government dictates is wrong, Bachmann said.
Also during the debate, Perry talked about his pro-life record as governor, something two pro-life organizations say was stellar.
I passed a parental notification piece of legislation. I ve been the most pro-life governor in the state of Texas. And what we were all about was trying to save young people s lives in Texas, he said. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/09/13/republican-debate-touches-on-pro-life-issues-parental-rights/
Terri Schiavo Again: Mild Stroke Leads to Mother s Starvation
I watched an old woman die of hunger and thirst. She had Alzheimer s, this old woman, and was child-like, trusting, vulnerable, with a child s delight at treats of chocolate and ice cream, and a child s fear and frustration when tired or ill.
I watched her die for six days and nights.
I watched her suffer, and I listened to the medical practitioners, to a son who legally decided her fate, and to an eldest daughter who advised him and told me that the old woman, my mother, was comfortable, except when she was in distress, at which times the nurses medicated her to make her comfortable again.
I watched the old woman develop ulcerations inside her mouth as she became more and more dehydrated; the caregivers assured me these were not painful.
I listened to her breathing become more and more laboured, as her lungs became congested from the morphine administered every three to four hours, and later every hour.
That is what morphine does, you see. It relieves pain, but its cumulative effect is that eventually it shuts down the respiratory system. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/09/13/terri-schiavo-again-mild-stroke-leads-to-mothers-starvation/
Planned Parenthood Drops Bid for New California Abortion Biz
The Planned Parenthood abortion business has dropped plans to open a new abortion facility in Redwood City, California after city officials and a local Enterprise Rent-A-Car business refused to help it.
The city council in Redwood City, California, a town in the Bay Area, was to have the final vote next week to determine if a new Planned Parenthood abortion-referral business could open that didn t have the required parking spaces.
Redwood City officials initially signed off on the new center, but the city s planning department sent a letter in July saying it has amended the permit issued allowing it to open the abortion business at 2890 El Camino Real. Planned Parenthood had initially obtained an agreement from the Enterprise Rent-A-Car company across the street for it to provide the center with the additional parking necessary to meet city requirements as the location only has 18 of the 27 spaces the city requires for the facility.
However, Enterprise is backing down thanks to a local protest organized by pro-life advocate Ross Foti, who says he and other pro-life residents informed Enterprise they would picket the company if it provided the spaces to Planned Parenthood. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/09/13/planned-parenthood-drops-bid-for-new-california-abortion-biz/
Hearing on Indiana Law to Stop Planned Parenthood Funding Put Off
A hearing at a federal appeals court about a law Indiana passed making it the first state this year to cut off taxpayer funding for the Planned Parenthood abortion business has been put off until December. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/09/13/hearing-on-indiana-law-to-stop-planned-parenthood-funding-put-off/
Scientists: Ethical IPS Cells Work Like Embryonic Ones
Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have used detailed, high-tech analysis to examine the differences between human embryonic stem cells (ESC) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC). http://www.lifenews.com/2011/09/13/scientists-ethical-ips-cells-work-like-embryonic-ones/
Scientists Make Green Fluorescent Kitty-Cat to Study Diseases
Hard to lose this kitty in the dark, since it fluoresces a green color. Mayo clinic researchers have created a transgenic cat, genetically engineered to glow green. They used a technique called gamete-targeted lentiviral transgenesis, inserting genes into cat oocytes before fertilization with normal sperm. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/09/13/scientists-make-green-fluorescent-kitty-cat-to-study-diseases/
My New Position: National Director of Med Students for Life
Today I begin a new endeavor as the National Director of Med Students for Life of America, a division of Students for Life of America. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/09/13/my-new-position-national-director-of-med-students-for-life/
Kansas Hearing: Abortionist Violated Standard of Care
The Kansas Board of Healing Arts intends to prove that abortionist Ann Kristin (Kris) Neuhaus failed to meet the standard of care when supplying late-term abortion referrals to George Tiller in 2003. The charges were filed in April 2010 and the hearing began Monday in Topeka. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/09/13/kansas-hearing-abortionist-violated-standard-of-care/
Liechtenstein Battling EU Pressure to Legalize Abortion
This week the Principality of Liechtenstein will decide by national referendum whether to ratify a draft bill which would lead to the depenalization of abortion in the tiny Middle-European country. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/09/13/liechtenstein-battling-eu-pressure-to-legalize-abortion/
Encourage Friends to Sign Up for Free Pro-Life News From LifeNews.com
