Wednesday, March 30, 2011

LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report 3/30/11

LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Wednesday, March 30, 2011

For pro-life news updated throughout the day, visit LifeNews.com.

Current Headlines

Top Stories
• Boehner: GOP Wants Defunding Planned Parenthood in Budget Bill
• Calls Confirm Planned Parenthood Misleads on Offering Mammograms
• Barack Obama Approval Rating Hits New Low in National Poll
• Baby Joseph Maraachli Heading to Pediatric Hospital Soon

More Pro-Life News
• Watchdog: CNN Should Correct Planned Parenthood-Mammogram Lie
• Father Frank Pavone Remembers Death of Terri Schiavo
• Indiana OKs Opt Out of Obamacare Abortion Funding, Fetal Pain Bill
• California Abortion Biz Closes, Eighth Facility This Month
• South Carolina OKs Obamacare Abortion $ Opt-Out, Born Alive Bill
• Huntsman s Pro-Life Record Attracts Brownback Campaign Manager
• Arizona: Brewer Signs Ban on Sex-Selection, Race-Based Abortions
• Family Planning Funds Should Go to Anti-Malaria Efforts
• Ohio Cmte OKs Heartbeat Bill Banning Abortions, Pro-Lifers Split

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Boehner: GOP Wants Defunding Planned Parenthood in Budget Bill
House Speaker John Boehner appears to be holding fast and insisting that House Republicans will not back down on keeping a provision to revoke taxpayer funding for the Planned Parenthood abortion business in the budget bill. House Republicans and Senate Democrats are attempting to negotiate a long-term continuing resolution that would fund the federal government and federal programs, such as the Title X family planning program that provides tens of millions in federal funds to Planned Parenthood. The House approved a long-term bill weeks ago with the Pence Amendment to yank funding for the abortion business, but Senate Democrats rejected it.

Since then, both chambers approved a short-term bill that did not contain the amendment and Boehner and other top Republican leaders said they would renew the fight for the Pence Amendment in the long-term bill, which would make the de-funding effort longer-lasting.

Today, according to a Politico report, Boehner has told White House officials that his caucus won t agree to strip out the provisions which are red meat for the party s conservative base while Obama aides are equally adamant about removing the riders.

The news website quoted one Hill staffer who admitted, That s the next big hump. I m not sure we can get over that one in time.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who has already said hell no in response to questions about whether the de-funding and pro-life riders could be added to the long-term bill, appeared to be open to re-examining that.

There aren t many of them that excite me, he said, but we re willing to look at them. In fact, we ve already started looking at some of the policy riders. Full story at LifeNews.com

Calls Confirm Planned Parenthood Misleads on Offering Mammograms
The pro-life organization responsible for recent videos showing Planned Parenthood offering abortions to alleged sex traffickers who prey on women finds the abortion business is misleading about mammograms.

As LifeNews.com reported in February, Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards joined the talk show of pro-abortion activist Joy Behar and defended Planned Parenthood against legislation in Congress seeking to revoke its federal taxpayer funding.

If this bill ever becomes law, millions of women in this country are going to lose their health care access, not to abortion services, to basic family planning you know, mammograms, she claimed.

Previously, LifeNews.com and pro-life blogger Jill Stanek followed up with phone calls to various Planned Parenthood centers and confirmed they do not do mammograms.

Today, Live Action released videotaped footage of calls to 30 Planned Parenthood centers nationwide in 27 different states where abortion facility staff were asked whether or not mammograms could be performed on site. Every one of the Planned Parenthood centers admitted they could not do mammograms. Every Planned Parenthood, without exception, tells the women calling that they will have to go elsewhere for a mammogram, and many clinics admit that no Planned Parenthood clinics provide this breast cancer screening procedure.

We don t provide those services whatsoever, admits a staffer at Planned Parenthood of Arizona while a staffer at Planned Parenthood s Comprehensive Health Center clinic in Overland Park, Kansas tells a caller, We actually don t have a, um, mammogram machine, at our clinics. Full story at LifeNews.com

Barack Obama Approval Rating Hits New Low in National Poll
A Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday shows the approval rating for pro-abortion President Barack Obama has reached a new low with Americans saying he doesn t deserve a second term in office.

Half of the registered voters surveyed say Obama should not be back in the White House for another four years while just 41 percent of Americans say he does. That s a lower number than the same Quinnipiac University poll question when it conducted its survey four weeks ago showing a 45-47 percent split against a second term.

In a hypothetical 2012 matchup, President Obama gets 36 percent of the vote to 37 percent for an unnamed Republican challenger

The survey also showed Obama s approval rating has dropped 4 percentage points since early March and is now at a record low of 42 percent in the poll. The disapproval rating for the abortion advocate has risen from 46 to 48 percent in that time. Democrats approve 80-13 percent of the job Obama is doing, but disapproval is 81-9 percent among Republicans and 50-39 percent among independent voters. Men disapprove 52-41 percent while women split 44-44 percent. Full story at LifeNews.com

Baby Joseph Maraachli Heading to Pediatric Hospital Soon
Now that Baby Joseph Maraachli has had the tracheotomy his parents wanted him to have so he could breathe easier as he dies from a rare medical condition that will soon take his life, he will soon be transferred to a new hospital.

Doctors at SSM Cardinal Glennon Children s Medical Center in St. Louis performed the tracheotomy on March 21 and, in a follow-up statement, deemed the procedure medically appropriate after a thorough examination of the 14-month-old boy who a Canadian hospital refused to help.

It is our hope that this procedure will allow Joseph and his family the gift of a few more months together and that Joseph may be more comfortable with a permanent tracheotomy, the hospital said. We ask that you keep Baby Joseph and his family in your prayers.

The hospital also indicated Joseph suffers from Leigh Syndrome, a rare genetic neurometabolic disorder. Leigh s disease, also known as Subacute Necrotizing Encephalomyelopathy (SNEM), is a rare neurometabolic disorder that affects the central nervous system and it is named for Denis Archibald Leigh, a British psychiatrist who first described the condition in 1951. Full story at LifeNews.com

Watchdog: CNN Should Correct Planned Parenthood-Mammogram Lie
A media watchdog group is calling on CNN to correct the record now that a claim made by Planned Parenthood on the cable news network has been proven false. Today, a pro-life group exposed how the abortion business does not do mammograms.

Live Action released videotaped footage of calls to 30 Planned Parenthood centers nationwide in 27 different states where abortion facility staff were asked whether or not mammograms could be performed on site. Every one of the Planned Parenthood centers admitted they could not do mammograms. Every Planned Parenthood, without exception, tells the women calling that they will have to go elsewhere for a mammogram, and many clinics admit that no Planned Parenthood clinics provide this breast cancer screening procedure.

The information comes despite claims from Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards saying otherwise.

In February, Richards defended Planned Parenthood against legislation in Congress seeking to revoke its federal taxpayer funding, saying, If this bill ever becomes law, millions of women in this country are going to lose their health care access, not to abortion services, to basic family planning you know, mammograms.

Media Research Center President Brent Bozell says Richards made comments on a CNN program to that effect and called on the network to correct the record. Full story at LifeNews.com

Father Frank Pavone Remembers Death of Terri Schiavo
Father Frank Pavone, the president of Priests for Life, today remembered Terri Schiavo, the disabled woman whose former husband killed her six years ago after winning a court order to remove her food and water.

Terri s family fought in state and federal courts to prevent Michael Schiavo from taking Terri s life, but they were not successful in acquiring the medical care and rehabilitative treatment they wanted to provide her. Full story at LifeNews.com

Indiana OKs Opt Out of Obamacare Abortion Funding, Fetal Pain Bill
The Indiana state House of Representatives today approved two key pro-life bills that carry multiple provisions pro-life organizations strongly supported including a bill on fetal pain and the abortion funding in Obamacare.

The House passed HB 1210 by a 72-23 margin and the measure requires abortion practitioners to tell women considering an abortion that the life of the baby they could otherwise give birth to begin at conception and that scientific evidence reveals the unborn child will likely experience significant pain during the abortion at or before 20 weeks of pregnancy.

A similar bill received the support of the Senate previously, but stalled in the General Assembly. However, turnover in the state House following statewide elections that sent new pro-life legislators to Indianapolis could make it so the measure faces better prospects in the lower chamber.

The legislation also requires abortion practitioners to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. Having the ability to admit patients is important because abortions frequently pose medical problems for women and sometimes result in life-threatening injuries that would require them to be transported immediately to a legitimate medical center that can properly treat them. Full story at LifeNews.com

California Abortion Biz Closes, Eighth Facility This Month
Family Planning Associates, one of the largest abortion center chains in California, has closed the abortion business it runs in Newport Beach. That makes it the eighth abortion center across the country to have closed this month. Operation Rescue president Troy Newman informed LifeNews about the closing of the FPA abortion facility and he said the Newport Beach location is one where pro-lifers have been sidewalk counseling and praying for decades and its closure is an encouragement that we are winning. Full story at LifeNews.com

South Carolina OKs Obamacare Abortion $ Opt-Out, Born Alive Bill
The South Carolina state House approved pro-life bills yesterday by wide margins, including legislation to keeps abortion out of government and private health insurance exchanges created under the new health care law. The bills also protect the rights of health care professionals and protect infants born alive in South Carolina after failed abortions or purposefully induced for the purposes of killing them. Full story at LifeNews.com

Huntsman s Pro-Life Record Attracts Brownback Campaign Manager
The man who was the campaign manager for Sam Brownback s 2008 Republican presidential campaign is supporting former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman and hopes the pro-life advocate will declare for the 2012 race. Rob Wasinger, who headed the campaign of the former U.S. senator from Kansas who is now the state s governor, told LifeNews.com he joins other Hunstman supporters in encouraging the man who has served as President Barack Obama s ambassador to China to seek the Republican nomination. Wasinger says Huntsman s pro-life position and record attract him to the oft-mentioned potential candidate. Full story at LifeNews.com

Arizona: Brewer Signs Ban on Sex-Selection, Race-Based Abortions
Governor Jan Brewer lengthened her pro-life record today by signing a bill that would ban abortions that are sex-selection or race-based in nature by targeting girls or ethnic minorities.The legislation would ban sex-selection abortions and require women seeking abortions to sign a statement saying they are not obtaining the abortion because of the gender of the unborn baby. The bill also prohibits abortions based on the race of the unborn child. The father of the unborn child or the parents of a minor girl would be able to file a lawsuit for civil damages against abortion practitioners that do race-based or sex-selection abortions. Full story at LifeNews.com

Family Planning Funds Should Go to Anti-Malaria Efforts
If members of Congress truly want to save kids, they would put the money normally reserved for domestic and international family planning funding, which goes to abortion groups like Planned Parenthood, to anti-malaria efforts. Full story at LifeNews.com

Ohio Cmte OKs Heartbeat Bill Banning Abortions, Pro-Lifers Split
An Ohio state legislative committee has approved the Heartbeat Bill that would ban virtually all abortions in the state starting at the 22-day mark when an unborn child s heart begins beating. The legislation has the support of some pro-life advocates but Ohio Right to Life is not because of various concerns about its ability to survive a court challenge and a health exception in the bill. Full story at LifeNews.com

 

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