LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
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Current Headlines
Top Stories
• Hospital Told Nurses: Assist Abortions or Lose Your Job
• Bishops May Sue Obama Admin for Denying Grant Over Abortion
• De-Funding Shuts Down Texas Planned Parenthood Clinic
• New Video Exposes Pro-Abortion Guttmacher Institute
More Pro-Life News
• House Hearing Focuses on Conscience Issues in Obamacare
• Catholic Newspaper Calls Michelle Bachmann Strongly Pro-Life
• Doctors Pressured Family to Abort Baby With Trisomy 18
• Emergency Hearing Held on China Activist Chen Guangcheng
• Kids With Trisomy 18 Are Not Incompatible With Life
• Allowing Women a Pre-Abortion Ultrasound Makes Perfect Sense
• Father Pavone Welcomes a New Pro-Life Catholic Mass
• Virginia Pro-Life Candidates Get Support From National Group
---> Please inform others of President Barack Obama's pro-abortion record, link to it on your web site.
Hospital Told Nurses: Assist Abortions or Lose Your Job
A dozen nurses have filed a lawsuit against their employer, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, which told them they had to either assist in abortions or risk losing their jobs.
The Alliance Defense Fund filed a lawsuit on behalf of 12 nurses in New Jersey who work for a hospital receiving federal health funds who were told they needed to assist abortions or be terminated from their employment. The mandate violates several federal conscience laws and state law, ADF senior legal counsel Matt Bowman tells LifeNews.
Pro-life nurses shouldn t be forced to assist in abortions against their beliefs, Bowman told LifeNews. No less than 12 nurses have encountered threats to their jobs at this hospital ever since a policy change required them to participate in the abortions regardless of their religious objections. That is flatly illegal.
According to a copy of the complaint ADF sent LifeNews, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey was demanding that the Nurses must assist abortions in violation of their religious objections or they will be terminated. Defendants have illegally coerced some of the Nurses to train to assist abortions already, and Defendants are presently scheduling the others to do so.
UMDNJ s coercion of the Nurses is a blatant violation of federal and state law, which explicitly prohibit UMDNJ from penalizing employees including Plaintiffs because they object to assisting abortions, the complaint says. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/11/01/hospital-told-nurses-assist-abortions-or-lose-your-job/
Bishops May Sue Obama Admin for Denying Grant Over Abortion
The nation s Catholic bishops are considering a lawsuit against the Obama administration for denying a grant previously granted for a program helping victims of sex trafficking because the bishops would not refer the women for abortions.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops had previously received a five-year $19 million grant to help victims of sex trafficking during the administration of pro-life President George W. Bush. Sensitive to how women are exploited in the sex industry, the Catholic bishops prohibit any subcontractors from using the funds to pay for or promote abortions. Instead, the Catholic bishops provide comprehensive case management services to survivors including medical and mental health services.
As LifeNews reported, while the Obama administration extended the contract briefly in March, the bishops were recently notified that it would not be renewed. Instead, Obama officials awarded the grant to three other groups (Tapestri of Atlanta, Heartland Human Care Services of Chicago and the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants of Washington) even though the bishops have helped more than 2,700 victims with the funding.
Now, the Washington Post indicates the bishops are considering a lawsuit saying the Obama administration is engaging in religious bias in awarding the federal contract.
HHS officials say they made a policy decision and not one based on religion, but the decision to not renew the grant came after the pro-abortion ACLU filed suit against the Obama administration for renewing it. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/11/01/bishops-may-sue-obama-admin-for-denying-grant-over-abortion/
De-Funding Shuts Down Texas Planned Parenthood Clinic
A Planned Parenthood abortion referral clinic in Brownsville, Texas is the latest to close down thanks to the Texas state legislature and Governor Rick Perry signing a bill that yanks much of the taxpayer funding for the abortion business.
Although the Planned Parenthood clinic at 5636 Southmost Road, which closed at the end of October, did not do abortions itself, all Planned Parenthood centers refer pregnant women for abortions and none of them provide mamograms while very few offer legitimate medical services for pregnant women.
Yvonne Gutierrez, the vice president for public affairs for the Planned Parenthood Trust of South Texas, and Cynthia Contreras, general manger for Planned Parenthood clinics in Brownsville, Harlingen and Kingsville, complained about the de-funding in an interview with the Brownsville Herald newspaper about the closing.
They couldn t believe that the little help that they were getting was being taken away from them, Contreras said of patients affected by the closure. We actually had a few who were asking us for phone numbers; who do they contact to let them know it was a hit.
Gutierrez said Planned Parenthood does not provide abortions anywhere in the Valley. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/11/01/de-funding-shuts-down-texas-planned-parenthood-clinic/
New Video Exposes Pro-Abortion Guttmacher Institute
A clever new pro-life music video with a Motown vibe is the latest effort form the Radiance Foundation to take on the Guttmacher Institute, a former Planned Parenthood affiliate that is routinely cited by the mainstream media.
The Guttmacher Institute is seen by media outlets as a nonpartisan and unbiased reference on abortion and abortion statistics, but Radiance Foundation president and LifeNews blogger Ryan Bomberger has routinely exposed the organization for its pro-abortion position, former Planned Parenthood ties and current funding from the abortion business.
The National Black Prolife Coalition sponsored the new video with Bomberger s group to illuminate what he calls black genocide the specific targeting by Planned Parenthood and its allies of black babies in abortions. The video contains a song, We ve Been Guttmachered, that highlights the high percentage of black abortions and the ways in which Panned Parenthood and Guttmacher have covered up how abortion clinics are located in predominantly black neighborhoods.
The video addresses numerous contradictions by Guttmacher. A recent national study confirms that most abortion clinics are located in disproportionately black areas. Guttmacher, itself, declared in January 2011 that abortion services are concentrated in cities then issued another advisory contradicting their own claim. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/11/01/new-video-exposes-pro-abortion-guttmacher-institute/
House Hearing Focuses on Conscience Issues in Obamacare
TA House committee will hold a hearing Wednesday on the lack of conscience protections in Obamacare, the national health care law pro-life groups opposed because it fails to protect pro-life medical workers or ban abortion funding.
The Subcommittee on Health has scheduled a hearing on Wednesday entitled Do New Health Law Mandates Threaten Conscience Rights and Access to Care? Some of the participants on the witness list include William Cox of Alliance of Catholic Health Care, David Stevens of the Christian Medical Association, and Jane G. Belford of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. On the pro-abortion side, Democrats have invited Jon O Brien, the president of Catholics for Choice.
In a November 1 letter to subcommittee chairman Rep. Joseph Pitts, the Pennsylvania Republican who is the chairman of the panel, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, the head of the pro-life office of the nation s Catholic bishops, said he looks forward to the hearing. In the letter, Cardinal DiNardo says Congress should strengthen conscience protections for health care providers and ensure that health care reform measures do not impede religious liberty.
He said the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA or Obamacare) excluded longstanding protections for conscience rights on abortion, by failing to apply the annual Hyde/Weldon amendment to the billions of dollars newly appropriated by the Act.
And it created new open-ended mandates for essential health benefits and preventive services to be included in almost all private health plans, without any provision for individuals or institutions that may have a moral or religious objection to particular items or procedures, he said. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/11/01/house-hearing-focuses-on-conscience-issues-in-obamacare/
Catholic Newspaper Calls Michelle Bachmann Strongly Pro-Life
Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann has earned support from pro-life evangelicals and Protestants as she seeks the Republican nomination for president, but a prominent Catholic newspaper is out today with a profile of her pro-life views.
The National Catholic Register says Bachmann s campaign is fueled by her pro-life views and, at a time when many Republicans contend that life issues should take a back seat to addressing the country s economic woes, GOP presidential hopeful Rep. Michele Bachmann is having none of it.
The newspaper cites Bachmann saying, The life of the unborn is not a sidebar issue. This is it. It is the issue that impacts more than any other how you view other issues. It is the watershed issue of our time.
Bachmann s pro-life views and sterling 100 percent pro-life voting record in Congress are well known as is her status as a foster mom who has helped dozens of children via adoption, but the Register says Bachmann first earned her pro-life stripes outside abortion centers counseling women and by promoting the pro-life perspective in the state legislature. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/11/01/catholic-newspaper-calls-michelle-bachmann-strongly-pro-life/
Doctors Pressured Family to Abort Baby With Trisomy 18
The baby is incompatible with life. Here is the number if you choose to terminate.
Until this Summer, I had never heard of Trisomy 18. Also known as Edwards Syndrome, Trisomy 18 is a genetic disorder caused by the presence of an extra 18th chromosome in a person s cells. This can cause heart malformations, kidney problems, breathing difficulties and a number of other problems. The idea of a genetic disorder was abstract, until Tad, my unborn baby cousin, was diagnosed with T18.
After learning that Tad had T18, doctors quickly changed their tone when talking about him. Despite the fact that some children do survive with the condition, they told his parents that the condition is lethal and that the baby is not compatible with life . Sometimes subtly, and sometimes bluntly, they urged abortion.
Fortunately for Tad (and his extended family), his parents are not only opposed to abortion, but active in the pro-life movement in their community. But, hearing my aunt and uncle tell about the doctors brought me to an important question: Aren t we all incompatible with life ?
Death is faced by every human being even those with the ideal lives envisioned in the every child a wanted child mantra of Planned Parenthood and pro-abort groups. The fact that Tad will one day meet his Creator proves that he is just as alive and human as his born contemporaries. Knowing that this sad day may come sooner, however, is no reason to end his life now. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/11/01/doctors-pressured-me-to-abort-my-baby-with-trisomy-18/
Emergency Hearing Held on China Activist Chen Guangcheng
The unknown condition of Chen Guangcheng, a blind human rights lawyer being oppressed by the Chinese government for exposing a massive campaign of forced abortions and sterilizations, was the topic of an emergency hearing of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China this afternoon. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/11/01/emergency-hearing-held-on-china-activist-chen-guangcheng/
Kids With Trisomy 18 Are Not Incompatible With Life
Trisomy 18 is a genetic condition where a person has three copies of chromosome 18. Trisomy 21, three copies of chromosome 21, is the genetic condition that causes Down Syndrome. Both are caused by three copies of a chromosome, but trisomy 18 is considered to be incompatible with life. This is a medical term that means that most children with trisomy 18 die before or shortly after birth. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/11/01/kids-with-trisomy-18-are-not-incompatible-with-life/
Allowing Women a Pre-Abortion Ultrasound Makes Perfect Sense
U.S. District Court Judge Catherine Eagles last Tuesday granted a request for a preliminary injunction that temporarily blocks a provision in North Carolina s new abortion-restriction law that would require women seeking an abortion to view an ultrasound image of their womb within four hours of the procedure. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/11/01/allowing-women-a-pre-abortion-ultrasound-makes-perfect-sense/
Father Pavone Welcomes a New Pro-Life Catholic Mass
With the start of Advent, Catholics begin using a new translation of the Mass. Along with this there are two brand new texts for a Mass For Giving Thanks to God for the Gift of Human Life. This is the result of a long process that actually started with Cardinal John O Connor of New York over twenty years ago. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/11/01/father-pavone-welcomes-a-new-pro-life-catholic-mass/
Virginia Pro-Life Candidates Get Support From National Group
The Susan B. Anthony List Candidate Fund, a national pro-life political action committee, last week announced the endorsement and financial support of four candidates running for Virginia State Senate. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/11/01/virginia-pro-life-candidates-get-support-from-national-group/
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