LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Saturday, December 19, 2009
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Current Headlines
• Nelson and Reid Don't Reach Abortion Deal, Focus Shifts to Olympia Snowe
• Pro-Life Group's Analysis of Bob Casey Compromise: It Still Funds Abortions
• Other Senate Democrats May Join Nelson to Oppose Pro-Abortion Bill
• Catholic Bishops Give Thumbs Down to Senate Abortion Funding Compromise
• Key Pro-Life Democrat Bart Stupak Rejects Casey Abortion Funding Compromise
• Pro-Life Activist Lila Rose Attacked by Planned Parenthood Center Escort
• Bob Casey Won't Commit to Oppose Pro-Abortion Bill, Pro-Lifers Challenge
• Catholic Health Association Backs Phony Casey Abortion Funding Compromise
• "Christian" Leaders Endorse Fake Abortion Funding Compromise for Senate
• United Methodist Church Bashes Ben Nelson on Abortion-Health Care Refusal
• Senator Hatch: Don't Allow Federal Funding for Abortions in Health Care Bill
• New United Nations Paper Shows How "Safe" Abortions Lead to Women Dying
• Pittsburgh Buffer Zone Abortion Center Law Weakened by Federal Judge
--> IMPORTANT ACTION ALERT: Please call both of your members of the Senate and urge them to support the filibuster of the pro-abortion health care bill. Find any senator's contact information here.
Nelson and Reid Don't Reach Abortion Deal, Focus Shifts Again to Olympia Snowe
Nelson emerged from the meeting, which also included pro-abortion Sen. Chuck Schumer and White House staff, saying they were no closer to a deal.
Nelson previously rejected a compromise from Sen. Bob Casey that added some pro-life provisions to the bill to support pregnant women but left the abortion funding intact.
With a Saturday deadline approaching to reach a deal that would allow passage of the government-run bill by Christmas, Nelson told Politico today he is no closer to supporting the bill and becoming the 60th vote.
"Hopefully we're making progress," Nelson said. "As I've said there is always a lot of room which you have to have between the bid and the ask, and we're seeing if we can close the gap."
Asked whether it was possible to resolve their differences by the deadline, he said, "I don't know. I can't predict the time." Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Life Group's Analysis of Bob Casey Compromise: It Still Funds Abortions
The Casey language will likely be incorporated into the manager's amendment that Senate Leader Harry Reid will offer this weekend to get all 60 Democrats to oppose the filibuster of the bill Republicans are supporting.
"Your proposal completely fails to correct any of the major pro-abortion provisions in the underlying Reid bill," the letter from NRLC said. "We believe that your proposed language in no way improves the highly objectionable provisions of the Reid bill that authorize subsidies for health plans that cover elective abortion, and that authorize federal mandates for private health plans to cover elective abortion."
"Under your language, federal funds would be used to pay the premiums of private health plans that pay for elective abortion on demand, for tens of millions of Americans. This is completely unacceptable," the letter states.
National Right to Life focuses on the opt-out clause in the Casey language.
"Your proposed provision to allow an individual enrollee to decline the coverage of abortion at best misses the point, and might even be considered to add insult to injury," it says. Full story at LifeNews.com
Other Senate Democrats May Join Nelson to Oppose Pro-Abortion Health Care Bill
The potential opposition is important because, to get the pro-abortion health care bill approved in the Senate this year, Reid needs commitments by Saturday evening.
"If we are going to get a bill out of the Senate, which will be very close to getting a bill enacted, we have to do it in 2009," Sen. Bob Casey said yesterday, according to Politico. "Some might not think so, but what I would worry about is losing momentum." "We're down to 48 to 72 hours," he said.
The office of Virginia Sen. Jim Webb said late Thursday that he is still "undecided" about the health care bill. A Webb spokesman told the Washington Post that the first-term Democrat is "still deliberating about the bail."
"It is not surprising that he is being lobbied by interests on both sides of the aisle. Senator Webb has a reputation for being very deliberative and independent-minded," spokeswoman Jessica Smith said in a statement. "The fact that he has said he is undecided about this bill is not extraordinary."
Webb wrote in an op-ed published in the Winchester Star on Wednesday that "I have yet to decide whether I will support final passage of the bill." Full story at LifeNews.com
Catholic Bishops Give Thumbs Down to Senate Abortion Funding Compromise
Responding to the Casey language, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo today reaffirmed the position of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
He said in a statement LifeNews.com obtained that the legislation will be morally unacceptable "unless and until" it complies with longstanding current laws on abortion funding such as the Hyde amendment.
"Senator Casey's good-faith effort to allow individuals to 'opt out' of abortion coverage actually underscores how radically the underlying Senate bill would change abortion policy," Cardinal DiNardo said.
"Excluding elective abortions from overall health plans is not a privilege that individuals should have to seek as the exception to the norm. In all other federal health programs, excluding abortion coverage is the norm. And numerous opinion polls show that the great majority of Americans do not want abortion coverage," he added. Full story at LifeNews.com
Key Pro-Life Democrat Bart Stupak Rejects Casey Abortion Funding Compromise
Stupak said the Casey proposal was a "non-starter," and he expressed confidence that he would have the votes in the House to keep abortion funding out of the bill.
Stupak said his Senate colleagues Nelson and Sen. Orrin Hatch, the Republican who helped Nelson lead the fight to stop the abortion funding in the Senate, are asking him if he will be able to defeat a bill that removes his language.
"They are holding tough and they are asking me, 'Is the House holding tough?'" Stupak told ABC News. "Our members are holding, so we will not pass if they are putting anything but a version of our language."
"This isn't an argument on merit. This is more an argument on their pride," Stupak said of Democrats who opposed his amendment. "They chose this fight and lost." Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Life Activist Lila Rose Attacked by Planned Parenthood Abortion Center Escort
Late Thursday morning at the Planned Parenthood abortion facility located at 1691 The Alameda in San Jose, California, Rose led a group of pro-life advocates.
Rose tells LifeNews.com she was visiting the abortion center with a group of about 20 students and three adults to pray and provide information to women who might be open to abortion alternatives.
According to a police report filed at the scene and numerous witnesses, a uniformed Planned Parenthood escort engaged in a short exchange with Rose and eventually struck her on the hand, knocking her literature to the ground. Full story at LifeNews.com
Bob Casey Won't Commit to Oppose Pro-Abortion Health Care, Pro-Lifers Challenge
The abortion divide is so large that it has prompted fellow Democrat Ben Nelson to oppose the bill and join Republicans in filibustering it.
Casey proposed a compromise but it retained the abortion funding, was rejected by Nelson and pro-life groups, and is earning him a pro-abortion tag by some pro-life advocates.
Casey has seen pro-life advocates fill his office in protest, but, on Thursday, the Catholic politician still would not commit to opposing the bill.
CNS News reports that he "danced around the question on Thursday" when it asked if he agreed with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that the bill should be opposed because of the massive abortion funding and until it is removed. "The big goal here is to get a health care bill done," he said. Full story at LifeNews.com
Catholic Health Association Backs Phony Casey Abortion Funding Compromise
The compromise from Casey is an attempt to get Nelson on board with the pro-abortion health care bill that contains massive abortion funding.
Sr. Carol Keehan, the president of the CHA said that, although she hasn't seen the text of the Casey proposal, "we are encouraged by recent deliberations and the outline Senator Casey is developing."
Keehan claimed that "now that a public health insurance option is no longer on the table, we are increasingly confident that Senator Casey's language can achieve the objective of no federal funding for abortion."
"It is our understanding that the language now being written would prohibit federal funding of abortion," Keehan said.
But that's not at all the case, according to those who have seen the language and provided their analysis. Full story at LifeNews.com
"Christian" Leaders Endorse Fake Abortion Funding Compromise for Senate Bill
The so-called pro-life evangelicals are not affiliated with any of the numerous pro-life groups that promote pro-life issues on a daily basis.
Some of them signed onto fraudulent statements backing pro-abortion presidential candidate Barack Obama and claiming he would be pro-life on abortion or reduce abortions.
"More than three dozen pro-life Christian pastors, leaders and theologians released the following statement Friday morning, December 18, 2009, to applaud Sen. Robert Casey' proposed alternative language on abortion to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act," the lead-in to their statement says.
"As Christian leaders moved by our faith to protect life at all stages, we applaud Sen. Robert Casey's efforts to ensure that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act prohibits federal funding of abortion," they write. Full story at LifeNews.com
United Methodist Church Bashes Ben Nelson on Abortion-Health Care Refusal
Rev. Cynthia Abrams has written an email for the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society, that made the rounds Friday.
The sharply-worded email, sent to its Nebraska members, urged them to lobby Nelson to support the government-run health care bill even though it includes massive abortion funding.
"The U.S. health-care system is broken. It needs to be repaired. Your U.S. senator, Ben Nelson, is the last holdout blocking an important step forward in the reform," it says. The email calls on Nelson to "set aside his personal agenda" against taxpayer funding of abortions "and think about the common good." Full story at LifeNews.com
Contact the United Methodist Church with your opposition to its letter at 202-488-5600 or James E. Winkler, its General Secretary at jwinkler@umc-gbcs.org. Contact the letter's author Cynthia Abrams at (202) 488-5636 or cabrams@umc-gbcs.org
Senator Orrin Hatch: Don't Allow Federal Funding for Abortions in Health Care Bill
by Sen. Orrin Hatch
Recently, the House of Representatives passed a health care reform bill containing language that would safeguard the rights of the unborn, and also prevent medical providers from being coerced into performing procedures that violate their conscience.
However, the health care reform bill introduced by Harry Reid, D-Nevada, in the Senate does not contain similar protections. To be clear, the language in the Reid bill on abortion is significantly weaker than that of the bill that passed in the House last month.
I have major concerns about how effective the weak language in the Reid bill will be. The one thing we know is that coverage of elective abortions in the government-operated health plan (or the public option) would be decided by the secretary of Health and Human Services. I am certain that federal subsidies would ultimately pay for insurance coverage used to cover elective abortions. Full story at LifeNews.com
New United Nations Paper Shows How "Safe" Abortions Lead to Women Dying
"The encouragement by [the UN Population Fund] UNFPA and [the World Health Organization] WHO of the use of mifepristone (RU-486, Mifegyne) and misoprostol (Cytotec) as 'safe' abortifacients in medically resource poor nations is unconscionable" the paper says, "and a violation of the human right to health of women."
Submitted by Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute (C-FAM) [publisher of the Friday Fax] and authored by Donna Harrison, M.D., President of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG), the paper calls on the Human Rights Council "to defend the right to bodily integrity of all human beings from fertilization to natural death" and "refrain [from] supporting in law and policy measures…empirically proven to hurt rather than help pregnant women." Full story at LifeNews.com
Pittsburgh Buffer Zone Abortion Center Law Weakened by Federal Judge
The measure prohibits pro-life advocates from coming within 15 feet of the door of any health care facility, which would include abortion centers. Within 100 feet of the entrance, pro-life advocates must stay a distance of eight feet away from anyone heading to the abortion facility.
Alliance Defense Fund attorneys challenged the local law as unconstitutional for prohibiting speech and helped represent a pro-life nurse who took on the ordinance, which prohibited her from counseling and speaking with women.
Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Nora Barry Fischer permanently prohibited the city using the so-called 100-foot bubble zone. Full stories at LifeNews.com
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