DEACON FOR LIFE

Were there to be no support in the whole history of ethical and moral thought, were there no acknowledged confirmation from medical science, were the history of legal opinion to the contrary, we would still have to conclude on the basis of God's Holy Word that the unborn child is a person in the sight of God. He is protected by the sanctity of life graciously given to each individual by the Creator, Who alone places His image upon man and grants them any right to life which they have.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

LifeNews Pro-Life News Report 3/28/12

LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Wednesday, March 28, 2012

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

Current Headlines

Top Stories
• Supreme Court Completes Hearings: Strike All or Part of Obamacare?
• Oklahoma Judge Strikes Down Abortion-Ultrasound Law
• Judge: Bishops Must Refer Sex-Trafficking Victims for Abortion
• Abortion Doc Who Dumped Patient Records May Not be Charged

More Pro-Life News
• Is the Health Care Law Constitutional? No, Strike It Down
• Unlicensed Abortion Practitioner Released From Prison Early
• UK House of Commons Essentially Decriminalizes Euthanasia
• Woman Rushed to Cincinnati Hospital, Possible Botched Abortion
• Obama HHS Mandate Wasn t Just About Contraception
• Komen Still Reeling From Planned Parenthood Controversy
• Arizona Senate OKs Bill to Ban Abortions After 20 Weeks
• Supreme Court s Obamacare Decision Has Big Abortion Impact
• Legalizing Euthanasia Leaves Vulnerable Unprotected
• The Children That Only a Mother Can Kill
• Professors: Laws for Pre-Abortion Ultrasounds Constitutional

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Supreme Court Completes Hearings: Strike All or Part of Obamacare?
Today was the final day of oral arguments before the Supreme Court on ObamaCare. This morning the Justices heard oral arguments on the issue of severability whether all of ObamaCare must be struck down if the individual mandate is found unconstitutional.

The court heard several different arguments on this issue. The States, represented by the former Bush Administration Solicitor General, Paul Clement, argued that [i]f the individual mandate is unconstitutional, then the rest of the Act cannot stand. This is the position the ACLJ took in our amicus brief. The federal government argued that if the individual mandate is struck, the requirement that insurers accept all customers must also fall, but that the other provisions of the law must remain. Finally, the Court appointed an amicus curie to argue the position taken by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals that the rest of the law remain intact if the individual mandate is struck down.

Justice Kagan agreed with the States and the federal government that there is a textual basis for saying that the guaranteed-issue and the community ratings provisions are tied to the mandate. But said she was unable to find one for other provisions of ObamaCare. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/03/28/supreme-court-completes-hearings-strike-all-or-part-of-obamacare/

Oklahoma Judge Strikes Down Abortion-Ultrasound Law
An Oklahoma judge has struck down as unconstitutional a state law that would allow women a chance to see an ultrasound of their unborn child before an abortion. The law came under suit from a Tulsa-based abortion business.

The state legislature voted overwhelmingly to override Governor Brad Henry on two pro-life bills, including the ultrasound measure. Hours later, the Center for Reproductive Rights sued to stop enforcement of the pro-life law in Oklahoma County District Court.

Today, District Judge Brian Dixon claimed the law is unconstitutional and unenforceable because it relates only to abortion and not to other medical procedures.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Nova Health Systems, which operates an abortion center in Tulsa and has filed lawsuits against pro-life legislation over the years. Larry Burns, who does abortions in Norman, also is a party on the lawsuit. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/03/28/oklahoma-judges-strikes-down-abortion-ultrasound-law/

Judge: Bishops Must Refer Sex-Trafficking Victims for Abortion
A federal judge has issued a ruling concerning a grant the nation s Catholic bishops received from the federal government and said the bishops can t accept the funds because they do not refer victims of sex-trafficking for abortions.

The Obama administration, last year, revoked the grant to the bishops because they would not victimize women a second time with abortions.

Before that, since 2006, the health department has allowed the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to limit the kind of services it offers women who are sex trafficking victims under the grant money it receives through the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. 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. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/03/28/judge-bishops-must-refer-sex-trafficking-victims-for-abortion/

Abortion Doc Who Dumped Patient Records May Not be Charged
An abortion practitioner who dumped thousands of patient records in a recycling bin may not be criminally charged in connection with his actions.

On a tip from a local woman, the Kansas City Star newspaper recovered over 1,000 abortion medical records from 2001-2002 that were illegally dumped in a public recycling bin by abortion practitioner Krishna Rajanna. The files contained names, addresses and other sensitive information about abortion patients at his now-closed Affordable Medical Center abortion facility.

The newspaper has since turned the documents over to the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts. The documents could be used as evidence in a possible criminal case but Johnson County District Attorney, Steve Howe, said yesterday he doesn t anticipate filing legal charges as it is not clear whether federal medical privacy laws apply. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/03/28/abortion-doc-who-dumped-patient-records-may-not-be-charged/

Is the Health Care Law Constitutional? No, Strike It Down
This summer, the Supreme Court will decide whether Congress violated the Constitution when it enacted the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which contains an individual mandate requiring virtually every American to purchase health insurance. Based on the Constitution s text and structure, and judicial interpretations of the relevant provisions, the mandate should be struck down.

Pennsylvania is one of 26 states to have attacked the ACA s constitutionality. They seek to uphold the Constitution s basic division of power between the national government and state governments.

The framers and those who ratified the Constitution withheld from Congress a plenary police power to enact any law that it deems desirable. Instead, the powers granted to Congress in Article I of the Constitution are limited and enumerated. The 10th Amendment emphasizes this structure by affirming that all powers not given to Congress are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/03/28/is-the-health-care-law-constitutional-no-strike-it-down/

Unlicensed Abortion Practitioner Released From Prison Early
The owner of a chain of abortion centers in California who was sentenced to three years and four months in prison on charges of pretending to be a physician and doing abortions without a medical license is getting out of prison early. Bertha Pinedo Bugarin was also sentenced to a six year, eight month sentence in the same case filed on separate charge sin another county.

Bugarin had pleaded no contest to seven felony counts in Los Angeles Superior Court. She was accused of putting more than a dozen patients at risk by doing abortions on them or giving them the dangerous RU 486 abortion drug without having medical training.

She appeared in court sobbing uncontrollably and begging for leniency and mercy and received a slightly lesser sentence than the five years prosecutors sought. Had she been found guilty and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law on all charges, Bugarin could have faced 15 years in prison. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/03/28/unlicensed-abortion-practitioner-released-from-prison-early/

UK House of Commons Essentially Decriminalizes Euthanasia
The House of Commons is upsetting pro-life advocates in England by essentially decriminalizing assisted suicide by welcoming new guidelines that make it so people engaging in so-called suicide tourism will not be prosecuted.

Paul Tully, the general secretary for SPUC, a British pro-life group, said the House of Commons passed unopposed a motion to welcome the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) policy on prosecuting assisted suicide and said it undermines society s protection of the most vulnerable.

SPUC Pro-Life has warned that the DPP s guidance effectively decriminalises assisted suicide by removing any realistic chance of prosecutions for assisting suicide. The guidance was published following the successful court challenge by euthanasia supporter Debbie Purdy. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/03/28/uk-house-of-commons-essentially-decriminalizes-euthanasia/

Woman Rushed to Cincinnati Hospital, Possible Botched Abortion
A woman was rushed to a local hospital in the Cincinnati suburb of Sharonville, Ohio after appearing to have suffered from a botched abortion at the facility run by the abortion practitioner credited with promoting partial-birth abortions. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/03/28/woman-rushed-to-cincinnati-hospital-possible-botched-abortion/

Obama HHS Mandate Wasn t Just About Contraception
An ancient example of resistance to a tyrant s attempt to coerce violations of religious conscience provides an interesting perspective on resistance to the Obama administration s recent healthcare coverage mandate. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/03/28/obama-hhs-mandate-wasnt-just-about-contraception/

Komen Still Reeling From Planned Parenthood Controversy
The Komen for the Cure breast cancer charity is canceling its annual lobbying day on Capitol Hill in what is a sign the national organization is still reeling from the controversy surrounding its funding decisions related to Planned Parenthood. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/03/28/komen-still-reeling-from-planned-parenthood-controversy/

Arizona Senate OKs Bill to Ban Abortions After 20 Weeks
The Arizona state Senate has approved a measure that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy based on the scientific evidence showing unborn children feel pain at least at that point in development, if not sooner. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/03/28/arizona-senate-oks-bill-to-ban-abortions-after-20-weeks/

Supreme Court s Obamacare Decision Has Big Abortion Impact
I wanted to share my remarks from the pro-life rally that Students for Life of America and Live Action did yesterday morning in front of the Supreme Court. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/03/28/supreme-courts-obamacare-decision-has-big-abortion-impact/

Legalizing Euthanasia Leaves Vulnerable Unprotected
On March 22, the Quebec government s Dying with Dignity Commission released its recommendations concerning euthanasia and palliative care. The media reported that the commission recommended the legalization of assisted suicide in exceptional cases. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/03/28/legalizing-euthanasia-leaves-vulnerable-unprotected/

The Children That Only a Mother Can Kill
Not so long ago, people would exclaim in jest that certain children were ones that only a mother could love. Today, many of those same children and, in fact, all children are lives that only a mother could kill. If you think I m joking, let s examine a federal law together. It s called the federal Unborn Victims of Violence Act, also known as Laci and Connor s Law. . http://www.lifenews.com/2012/03/28/the-children-that-only-a-mother-can-kill/

Professors: Laws for Pre-Abortion Ultrasounds Constitutional
In a new opinion column, two constitutional law professors make the case that laws under consideration in multiple states requiring or allowing women to see an ultrasound of their unborn baby before an abortion are constitutional. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/03/28/professors-laws-for-pre-abortion-ultrasounds-constitutional/

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