LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Thursday, June 21, 2012
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Current Headlines
Top Stories
• Catholic Bishops Issue Liberty Prayer Responding to HHS Mandate
• Soros-Funded Group Attacking Bishops on Conscience Rights
• Skeptical Pro-Lifers: It s Time to Embrace Mitt Romney
• Evangelicals, Protestants Should Join the Fortnight for Freedom
More Pro-Life News
• Get Involved in the Fortnight for Freedom to Defend Conscience
• Komen Sees Huge Drop in Support After Planned Parenthood Funding
• Planned Parenthood Gives Up Building New Michigan Abortion Biz
• World s First Surgery Removes Tumor From Unborn Baby s Lips
• Canada in Danger of Following Oregon on Assisted Suicide
• Texas Works to Make Planned Parenthood Funding More Difficult
• Planned Parenthood Annoys Supporters With Unsolicited Telemarketing Calls
• Canada: Pro-Life Teen s Letter Campaign Hits Harper on Abortion
• Ireland Poll Shows Public Wants Fine Gael to Honor Pro-Life Values
• Texas A&M Sued for Silencing Pro-Life Speaker Star Parker
• Montana: Pro-Lifer Denny Rehberg Leads Pro-Abortion Tester
• North Carolina Man Faces Charges in the Death of Unborn Baby
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Catholic Bishops Issue Liberty Prayer Responding to HHS Mandate
With the Fortnight for Freedom beginning today, the nation s Catholic bishops have released a new prayer calling for greater respect and appreciation of religious liberty which they say the Obama administration has abrogated with its HHS mandate.
The mandate has caused massive controversy within pro-life and religious circles by forcing Catholic and evangelical groups and businesses to pay for abortion-causing drugs and birth control for their employees.
The full Prayer for the Protection of Liberty the bishops released reads. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/06/21/catholic-bishops-issue-liberty-prayer-responding-to-hhs-mandate/
Soros-Funded Group Attacking Bishops on Conscience Rights
With the nation s Catholic bishops launching a new campaign today, the Fortnight of Freedom, to draw attention to the ways in which the Obama administration is violating religious liberty and conscience issues, the bishops are finding themselves under attack.
A leaked email from a liberal, George Soros-funded Catholic group called Faith in Public Life, is working behind the scenes to attack the bishops and try to get media outlets to run negative stories about the campaign.
Bill Donohue, President of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, released a copy of the email he received, that is addressed to top reporters and news outlet editors. The email contains proposed questions media outlets could ask the bishops such as Are you willing to sacrifice Catholic charities, colleges and hospitals if you don t get your way on the contraceptive mandate? and Are you willing to drop all health insurance for your employees? http://www.lifenews.com/2012/06/21/soros-funded-group-attacking-bishops-on-conscience-rights/
Skeptical Pro-Lifers: It s Time to Embrace Mitt Romney
Pro-life advocates love a good conversion story. And in recent years they have cheered as a long list of politicians, celebrities, and former abortion facility workers have embraced the pro-life cause.
But there s one man whose pro-life transformation many abortion opponents seem unwilling to accept: Mitt Romney. The former Massachusetts governor and likely Republican presidential nominee followed a well-worn path from abortion advocacy to science-inspired pro-life awakening. But some pro-life candidates and commentators have remained skeptical about the authenticity of Romney s conversion.
It s no secret that Romney was once an emphatic supporter of abortion rights. Running for US Senate in Massachusetts in 1994, Romney declared that he was a committed pro-choice advocate, adding, And you will not see me wavering on that. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/06/20/fortnight-for-freedom-campaign-against-hhs-mandate-starts-thursday/
Evangelicals, Protestants Should Join the Fortnight for Freedom
This August, the HHS regulations that require religious non-profits to provide contraception, abortifacients and sterilization to their employees are scheduled to go into effect.
Since the proposed regulations were announced in February, HHS and its supporters have tried to depict opposition to the regulations as merely a Catholic concern. The issue, they would have us believe, is the Catholic Church s position on artificial birth control, not the abridgment of religious freedom.
Chuck Colson worked tirelessly to refute this nonsense. In the last few months of his life, he pointed out that the HHS regulations were part of a larger pattern. They were an example of what the Manhattan Declaration calls the [trampling] upon the freedom to express [one s] religious and moral commitments to the sanctity of life and to the dignity of marriage. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/06/21/evangelicals-protestants-should-join-the-fortnight-for-freedom/
Get Involved in the Fortnight for Freedom to Defend Conscience
In Our First, Most Cherished Liberty, the bishops called for a Fortnight for Freedom, a 14-day period of prayer, penance, education and action in defense of religious freedom from June 21st through the Fourth of July.
The Fortnight is packed with liturgical and civic significance. It starts on the vigil of the feast of St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More, martyrs who remained faithful to their conscience despite persecution by political power. Archbishop William Lori, chair of the bishops Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty, will open the Fortnight with Mass in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, the first diocese established in the United States. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/06/21/get-involved-in-the-fortnight-for-freedom-to-defend-conscience/
Komen Sees Huge Drop in Support After Planned Parenthood Funding
Komen affiliates are seeing huge drops in support in terms of the number of walkers participating in events and the amount of donations coming in following its decision to re-establish funding for the Planned Parenthood abortion business.
In Missouri, KMOX reports that one of the largest Komen walks in the country, in St. Louis, saw almost half the number of walkers this time as it did the year prior. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/06/21/komen-sees-huge-drop-in-support-after-planned-parenthood-funding/
Planned Parenthood Gives Up Building New Michigan Abortion Biz
The Planned Parenthood abortion business has given up on its bid to build a new abortion facility in Auburn Hills, Michigan, outside of Detroit. The decision comes even as a Michigan court, in January, allowed a local Planned Parenthood to build a new abortion business in the Detroit area despite a restriction on the deed Planned Parenthood obtained for a building prohibiting an abortion clinic.
The restriction was put in place by the owners of the Comfort Inn Hotel located behind the building Planned Parenthood purchased several years ago. In October 2010, attorneys for the abortion business tried to get the owners of the Comfort Inn to agree the building could be used as a medical office without mentioning that abortions would be done at the facility. Comfort Inn s owners balked and Planned Parenthood sued in court. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/06/21/planned-parenthood-gives-up-building-new-michigan-abortion-biz/
World s First Surgery Removes Tumor From Unborn Baby s Lips
In a first-of-its-kind surgery, doctors in Miami, Florida performed a surgery on an unborn baby in the womb to remove a tumor growing on her lips that was detected during pregnancy. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/06/21/worlds-first-surgery-removes-tumor-from-unborn-babys-lips/
| Looking for a Pro-Life Speaker for 2012? |
| Looking for a pro-life speaker for your next banquet, conference or convention? LifeNews.com editor Steven Ertelt is a low-cost speaker who can entertain and educate your audience as well as help you with a fundraising pitch if necessary. He can also speak on any pro-life topic. For more information, email news@LifeNews.com. |
Canada in Danger of Following Oregon on Assisted Suicide
Last week, the British Columbia Supreme Court emulated the state of Oregon s assisted suicide law via a decision in Carter v. AG Canada, which carves exceptions into the laws allowing Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in Canada. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/06/21/canada-in-danger-of-following-oregon-on-assisted-suicide/
Texas Works to Make Planned Parenthood Funding More Difficult
With Texas awaiting a final decision from the courts on whether it s budget that cuts significant funding from the Planned parenthood abortion business is constitutional, state officials are working to make it even more difficult for it to receive funds. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/06/21/texas-works-to-make-planned-parenthood-funding-more-difficult/
Planned Parenthood Annoys Supporters With Unsolicited Telemarketing Calls
I know I m not the only pro-lifer who glances at Planned Parenthood s Facebook page now and then. In the last week or so, a noticeable pattern has emerged on the page: supporters complaining about unsolicited phone calls from the abortion giant. Not just unsolicited, but pushy and rude phone calls. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/06/21/planned-parenthood-annoys-supporters-with-unsolicited-telemarketing/
Canada: Pro-Life Teen s Letter Campaign Hits Harper on Abortion
Not content that Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will not allow a debate on abortion and pro-life issues take place in Parliament, a teenage pro-life advocate has launched a campaign to send 100,000 letters to him. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/06/21/canada-pro-life-teens-letter-campaign-hits-harper-on-abortion/
Ireland Poll Shows Public Wants Fine Gael to Honor Pro-Life Values
New polling data released by the Millward Brown Lansdowne polling firm and commissioned by the ProLife Campaign shows strong public backing for the pro-life commitments made by majority government party Fine Gael prior to the general election in 2011. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/06/21/ireland-poll-shows-public-wants-fine-gael-to-honor-pro-life-values/
Texas A&M Sued for Silencing Pro-Life Speaker Star Parker
Texas A&M University faces a lawsuit from the Alliance Defense Fund for attempting to stop a student conservative group bringing black pro-life speaker and political activist Star Parker to speak to students. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/06/21/texas-am-sued-for-silencing-pro-life-speaker-star-parker/
Montana: Pro-Lifer Denny Rehberg Leads Pro-Abortion Tester
A new Rasmussen poll released this week shows the race for the Montana in a virtual dead heat. Pro-life Congressman Denny Rehberg (R) holds a two-point lead over pro-abortion incumbent Senator Jon Tester (D). http://www.lifenews.com/2012/06/21/montana-pro-lifer-denny-rehberg-leads-pro-abortion-tester/
North Carolina Man Faces Charges in the Death of Unborn Baby
A North Carolina man is facing prison after allegedly stabbing his pregnant girlfriend and killing her unborn baby. Aris Nichols, 39, has been arrested on the charge of death or injury of a child in utero due to commission of a violent crime. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/06/21/north-carolina-man-faces-charges-in-the-death-of-unborn-baby/
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