LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report 11/1/11

LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Tuesday, November 1, 2011

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

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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Giant LIFE Balloon Rosary seen by Thousands over Chicago.

Giant LIFE Balloon Rosary seen by Thousands over Chicago.  Downtown CHICAGO (August 15, 2011)

 

 Just in time for the Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady, a 75-foot rosary floats skyward from Chicago's Michigan Avenue Bridge claiming the Magnificent Mile for Mary.

A giant rosary floated gracefully over Chicago's  busy tourism district on Friday as thousands looked on. The six-foot gold cross hanging from the rosary sparkled in the sunlight as it very slowly ascended between the Tribune tower and the Wrigley building. The rosary of helium-filled yellow balloons bearing the word LIFE then floated down Michigan Avenue over the Hancock Tower and past North Ave Beach.  Cameras and cell phones flew into action as people responded to the unexpected sight.

"There was an excitement all around us and there were people in tears at the sight of the rosary. I think we often take it for granted the power of a simple witness to the faith," said a camp counselor. A passerby tweeted, "A balloon rosary in the air. My faith confirmed :)", while another surprised Chicagoan wrote, "what the... giant balloon rosary, with cross, just floated heavenward from the Michigan Avenue bridge."

The rosary was the craft of 20 imaginative elementary-school-aged girls and their counselors participating in a summer camp at a Chicago Catholic

Parish. The girls prayed the rosary in front of the Washington Blvd. Family Planning Associates asking Our Lady for an end to abortion. They then carried the rosary, cross-first, through downtown Chicago 's peak traffic to the cheers, and sometimes jeers, of pedestrians and motorists. Homeless people gave high fives, street preachers started singing Gospel songs, and semi-truck drivers shook the streets sounding their truck horns in approval. "I was completely ecstatic the whole time. I loved seeing how many people on a random street corner were thrilled. It is a lot more than we tend to think," said one participant.

One of the girls said, "It was the prettiest rosary I have ever seen. I liked how it would float up and sit and then float up and sit. It looked really pretty against the buildings and the sky." Another camper said, "The best way to describe it was 'beautiful'. I didn't see one frowning face. It evangelized everyone who saw it."

This is the latest of a series of spontaneous acts of joy across the United States involving the yellow LIFE balloons. Sightings of LIFE balloons at prayer vigils, county fairs and flash mobs leave many wondering if the trend will impact this year's March for Life in Washington DC .
See photo post here: https://picasaweb.google.com/104310456403281787387/GiantLIFEBalloonRosarySeenByThousandsOverChicagoSDowntown
Story by Nathan Joel, Photos by Rebekah Smith.

Posted by Ed Sousa, Sr. at http://ingodscompany2.blogspot.com/2011/11/giant-life-balloon-rosary-seen-by.html

DOUBLING DOWN ON DEATH

November 1, 2011

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments as follows:
 
In September, officials at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ended funding to a program operated by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) that helps victims of human trafficking. Their decision followed a lawsuit by the ACLU contesting the right of the USCCB not to refer trafficking victims to abortion and contraceptive services. The USCCB maintains that this entire episode evinces an anti-Catholic bias. The Catholic League agrees.
 
Many HHS career staffers recommended that the USCCB program be funded; they cited scores by an independent review board. But in a highly politicized ruling, Obama appointees rejected the advice of these veteran civil servants.
 
It is imperative that others follow the lead of disgruntled HHS staffers and contact the HHS Inspector General’s office with their complaints [click here].
 
This comes on the heels of several assaults on religious liberty. The administration said Obamacare wouldn’t threaten religious liberty, yet it wants to mandate that Catholic healthcare providers offer sterilization and contraceptive services. It also showed its stripes when earlier this year it decided it would no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act, a bill that defines marriage as being between a man and a woman. And just recently, the administration argued before the Supreme Court that government shouldn’t be barred from policing the hiring policies of any church.
 
The lust for abortion is so thoroughly ingrained with many in the Obama administration that they will use any means possible to force the pro-life community to accept its radical agenda. They must be resisted. At stake is the right of a world religious body to practice its tenets with impunity. Moreover, the campaign to kill babies in the wombs of women who have already been victimized is doubling down on death. 

Contact our director of communications about Donohue’s remarks:
Jeff Field
Phone: 212-371-3191
E-mail: cl@catholicleague.org

 

Watch SPUC's Anthony Ozimic and me speak about population on Russian TV

3 Whitacre Mews, Stannary Street London, SE11 4AB, United Kingdom Telephone: (020) 7091 7091 Email: information@spuc.org.uk http://www.spuc.org.uk
Watch SPUC's Anthony Ozimic and me speak about population on Russian TV
John Smeaton, SPUC director Tuesday, 1 November 2011 Watch SPUC's Anthony Ozimic and me speak about population on Russian TV Last week Anthony Ozimic, SPUC's communications manager and I participated in a round-table discussion on the Russian news channel RIA Novosti. We were joined by Russian experts on demography and by our colleague Steven Mosher of the Population Research Institute (PRI) (see my blog yesterday commending Steve's message on the birth of baby 7 billion). Do watch the whole discussion on YouTube (click the play button in the box below or watch directly on YouTube). My first contribution starts at around 17 minutes into the video and lasts until 26mins. Anthony's first contribution starts at around 30mins and ends at around 37mins. Our final, briefer contributions start at 1hr04mins. Here are some of the main points I made: Phoney science on population growth has helped to de-sensitise the world, including religious leaders, to the greatest attack on human life in the history of the world. There is no moral leadership in the West seeking to withstand this onslaught on human life, on parental rights, and on conscientious objection to abortion. Unless the pro-life movement worldwide speaks up loud and clear and makes this deplorable situation absolutely clear to Christian pastors, the decline into the destruction of unborn children, the destruction of parents’ rights and responsibilities and the destruction of the health and moral welfare of young people will be completed with terrifying speed.
© Society for the Protection of Unborn Children 2011

Hospital Limits Merely The Beginning Of Obamacare

via lifeandhope.com

As a country whose laws show little respect for life at its most vulnerable stages, from the unborn to the elderly and disabled, it should come as no surprise that the government, in efforts to control costs, will begin to limit hospital stays for those covered by Medicaid.

Indeed, with Medicaid increasing its roll significantly with the economic downturn, anyone should be able to see that this is merely the beginning of Obamacare.

Under the new healthcare law, competition for health insurance will be finite as the government takes control of the market. Private insurance companies will be forced to cap premiums, hamstringing their potential to make any kind of profit while covering government-mandated services for “free.” As the proponents of Obamacare want, Americans will be forced into a government exchange where the people who need care will have to fight for limited resources and doctors.

It wasn’t too long ago when Sarah Palin was lamented as an alarmist when she coined that infamous phrase “death panels.” Unfortunately, it seems she was correct in her assessment.

All one has to do is look at the healthcare systems of other countries under government-controlled health insurance. Not only evident throughout Europe, with frightening stories of rationing potentially threatening countless lives, but with our neighbor to the north where government runs a centralized healthcare system. It is all too common for Canadians to wait for an extended period of time, in some cases months and months, for doctor appointments and surgeries.

There just isn’t the time or money to cover everyone in a suitable manner. There are horror stories of patients who need life-saving treatment and their government-run insurance plans are unable help in time – so, they take out loans and go to the United States to get life-saving treatment.

In England, where the National Health Service (NHS) provides healthcare for all UK citizens, which is funded by taxpayers, the system has become so insufficient that women have died because they can’t get to the gynecologist in time to test for cervical cancer.

What good is a system to provide health insurance for everyone if people can’t even get an appointment to the see the physician? Or worse, what good is it to be “covered,” but have your healthcare limited because of government bureaucracy and costs?

What Medicaid is doing to the poor and disabled is merely the beginning of healthcare rationing. The government comes out of this looking like it could not care less for those people in society who need more care than others. That’s certainly what happened when it came to my sister, Terri Schiavo.

The government and the courts were apathetic to the love and care my sister needed and subsequently because of their actions/inactions and disregard for human life at all stages barbarically starved and dehydrated her to death while my parents were forced to watch.

Necessary medical decisions will no longer be made by families and individuals but by unelected bureaucrats tasked with finding ways to cut costs. Indeed, as healthcare costs rise, services that are most expensive, some of them life-sustaining, will be cut. It’s an inevitable fact.

The controversial Obama appointee, Dr. Donald Berwick, the Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said that “the decision is not whether or not we will ration care — the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open.”

As opposed to rationing with our eyes closed? Berwick has professed his love of Britain’s single payer system, and he wants to institute a similar healthcare system in the U.S. that allocates resources to subgroups of patients instead of individual patients.

Who decides which subgroup gets what kind of the care? Unelected bureaucrats? Would the elderly be an important subgroup? Or the disabled?

As Obamacare is implemented and Americans find out the dirty underbelly of government-run health insurance, it may be too late. The country needs to continue to fight the healthcare law, exposing its many weaknesses and fight to have it repealed or struck down in court. The option of implementation shouldn’t even be on the table.

Editor's Note: Bobby Schindler, co-executive director of the Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network (www.lifeandhope.com).

Ghoulish reasons why bones break easily after 50 [Video]

via smartplanet.com

http://www.smartplanet.com/video/ghoulish-reasons-why-bones-break-easily-afte...

It may be a bone-chilling fact, but we know that the chance of breaking a bone increases significantly after age 50, especially for women. We know bones lose mass as they age. However, a scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory says what makes them become brittle is more complicated than that. He literally looks inside our skeletons to discover what else happens to bones as they age in hopes of finding more effective ways to make them strong.

Florida Justice Ride: Can You Join Us?

Florida Justice Ride Winter 2012:  Can You Join Us?

"I made the choice to have an abortion,” a young female student laments in the newly released video from Created Equal Films.  "Had I had more education, I wouldn't have done it.”  Then, pointing to Created Equal's outreach, she concludes, "But I didn't have stuff like that.”

We can prevent more stories like this.  Join us as we educate America on our Justice Ride. 

www.youtube.com/watch--Q-v--E-yrwRutnJlrA--A-feature--E-channel_video_title" target="_blank">

See Justice Ride Flyer HERE.

Justice Ride to Florida March 2012!

Who: Activists from across America piling into vans to expose the truth about abortion

What: Justice Ride like the Freedom Rides of old: standing against discrimination, creating media to spark conversation about injustice, and unifying a team of 21^st century defenders

Where: All across the state of Florida

When: March 10-16 (Week 1), 17-24 (Week 2)

How to apply:  Email Contact@CreatedEqual.net to request an application.  Completed applications are due November 28, 2011.

To have these meaningful conversations with all types of people and to have so many of them say they were affected to the point of reconsidering their foundational thinking on abortion was so rewarding.  I encourage everyone to be part of this movement. -Sheila, Justice Rider

Seats on the Justice Ride are limited!  Act now!

To financially support the Justice Ride, click HERE.

Find us on www.facebook.com/createdequal" target="_blank">Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and subscribe on www.youtube.com/createdequalfilms" target="_blank">Youtube.

To subscribe to our SMS alerts, text EQUAL to 292929