Category Archives: Sanctity of Life

WTAQ: Parents could sue for the wrongful deaths of their unborn children, under a bill proposed by two Republican lawmakers.

TriCities.com: The debate over abortion in Virginia played out at a Henrico County office building Thursday, where the representatives of the Department of Health heard public comment on proposed regulations that would require the commonwealth’s 20 clinics to comply with building standards for new hospitals.

LifeNews: A new sex education curriculum in North Carolina has NARAL Pro-Choice America up in arms.

Luis Viera at Miami Herald: For many, this was part of Gov. Cuomo’s move to appeal to more Democratic primary voters for a 2016 presidential run. The question must arise: If this is what a Democrat in 2013 must do to appeal to the base, what does this say about the state of the Democratic Party on abortion? Indeed, in the last few years, there has been a troubling Democratic leftward shift on abortion. As early as 2004, Democrats realized that a far-left position on abortion alienated voters. In 2000, the platform acknowledged the diversity of Democratic opinion on abortion. After his disappointing 2004 presidential loss, Sen. John Kerry, a Roman Catholic, acknowledged that his perceived liberal position on abortion undermined his standing with voters.

Politico: Abortion rights groups are gearing up for a legal fight against Arkansas’s new law banning abortions after 12 weeks, the most restrictive early abortion ban in the nation.

NRLC on Pro-Life Blogs: A federal district court decision against the Idaho Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act issued March 7, 2013, opens the way to an ultimate consideration by the United States Supreme Court whether mounting medical evidence that unborn children are capable of feeling pain supports a compelling state interest allowing protection of such children from abortion.

Kansas City Star: A Kansas House committee is preparing to debate sweeping anti-abortion legislation aimed at ensuring the state doesn’t subsidize abortions even indirectly through tax exemptions or credits.

Wesley J. Smith at LifeNews: Latest example, Belgium is getting set to legalize euthanasia for children–since it is being done anyway despite the “guidelines.” From the AFP story . . .

LifeNews: Almost half of the entire budget was allocated to HIV/AIDS – $93 million. Out of the remaining $95 million, $25 million is designated for Family Planning to “improve and expand the use of family planning methods in developing countries” and to “introduce and develop new family planning methods.”

LifeNews: Seventy-two members of the U.S. Congress have signed a letter to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) requesting updated detailed information about government grants to Planned Parenthood.

Kim Daniels at Times Union: But rather than help such women in need, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Reproductive Health Act would make a bad situation worse.

Washington Post reports.

LifeNews: Under the leadership of Chairman Sam Mims, R-McComb, the Mississippi State House of Representatives passed pro-life Senate Bill 2795 by a vote of 76 to 31 yesterday.

KnoxNews.com: State Sen. Jim Tracy of Shelbyville and Rep. Rick Womick of Rockvale said Wednesday in a news release that they instead will focus on persuading voters to pass a proposed constitutional amendment on abortion.

Christian Newswire: Today, Mississippi resident and post abortive mother Anne Reed filed a Life at Conception Citizen’s Initiative, which states: “The right to life begins at conception. All human beings, at every stage of development, are unique, created in God’s image and shall have equal rights as persons under the law.”

Dallas Morning News: The latest assault on Planned Parenthood was launched Tuesday with a committee hearing a proposal to ban the organization from teaching or supplying materials about sex education to schools.

News & Tribune: A controversial bill that imposes new state requirements on clinics that offer the abortion pill is likely headed for a constitutional challenge if passed and signed into law, as expected.

Statesman.com: The abortion war, always simmering at the Texas Legislature, rose in intensity this week with Republican-backed legislation to ban the procedure after 20 weeks of gestation and a House Democrat’s effort to roll back a 24-hour waiting period approved in 2011 as part of the pre-abortion sonogram law.

LifeSiteNews: Prompted by the death of a third trimester abortion patient of LeRoy Carhart’s on February 7, 2013, seventeen members of the Maryland House of Delegates have sent a formal letter to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) seeking clarification of the state’s new abortion clinic licensing regulations that went into effect last year.

LifeSiteNews: Now she has left all of that behind, including a very lucrative financial settlement stemming from the arrest. She has chosen a life that confounds the culture of death, which depends on the clamor and ceaseless distraction of the modern world to drown out the quiet voice of conscience.

Washington Post: The Arkansas legislature has the votes to override a governor’s veto, and become the first state to ban abortions after as early as 12 weeks of pregnancy.

LifeSiteNews: All Western countries have birthrates below the replacement rates, suggesting that soon all countries will experience a graying of, and a decline in, population. Jonathan Last asks why this has happened in his new book, the cleverly titled What to Expect When No One’s Expecting, putting demographic decline in a broader context.

LifeNews: California, a state with an aging population, falling birth rates, and rising welfare rolls, now has a super majority of Democrats in the state legislature with a Democrat as governor. The legislature has the best opportunity it has ever had to pass whatever legislation it wants. And, what it has wanted since at least 2000 is assisted suicide.

LifeNews: When it comes to babies who are diagnosed with some sort of fetal abnormality in the womb, the pressure is high from doctors, family members and society to have an abortion. That’s why approximately 90 percent of babies with Down syndrome, for example, become victims of abortion.

WREG.com: Philadephia physician is accused of running a “house of horrors” where he performed illegal abortions past the 24-week limit prescribed by law. He used scissors, authorities say, to sever the spinal cords of newborns who emerged from their mothers still alive.

Akron Beacon Journal Online: An abortion-rights advocacy group says some Ohio crisis pregnancy centers are providing misleading or inaccurate information on abortion risks.

LifeNews: If the sequester was supposed to grind government to a halt, you wouldn’t know it by the volumes coming out of Health and Human Services (HHS). On the first afternoon of the President’s doomsday, HHS was unusually productive–pumping out more than 700 new pages of ObamaCare regulations.

MPR: The DFL-controlled Minnesota House has passed a key part of the Obama administration’s health care law — a state-based health insurance exchange. The bill’s chief author called the measure the most significant health reform in 50 years. But abortion restrictions adopted last night could run into trouble with Gov. Mark Dayton.

Christian Post: According to National Right to Life (NRL), among the 1,502 people who answered the Pew Research Center’s January poll questions about Roe. v. Wade: “Only 62 percent knew it dealt with abortion.”

WorldNetDaily: The prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reported Feb. 27 the rate of metastatic breast cancer in women ages 25 to 39 nearly doubled between 1976 and 2009, from 1.53 to 2.9 per 100,000. The American Council on Science and Health calls the increase “slight.” But Dr. Jane Orient, executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, points out there has been no corresponding increase in older women. | Incidence of Breast Cancer With Distant Involvement Among Women in the United States, 1976 to 2009, Rebecca H. Johnson, MD; Franklin L. Chien, BA; Archie Bleyer, MD
JAMA. 2013;309(8):800-805. doi:10.1001/jama.2013.776.

Maria Santo at the Baltimore Sun: It is long past time to question the appalling intellectual dishonesty that has led us to kill 55 million children through abortion in the past 40 years. We must, as a matter of justice, find better solutions to difficult pregnancies. Civilized societies thrive through smart, creative, generous, life-giving and just solutions to their difficulties. Civilized societies do not kill children as a solution to any problem, no matter how grave. No society can claim to be just while legally killing its own children in the name of “choice.”

Helen M. Alvaré and Meg T. McDonnell at Washington Post: Pro-choice Americans must wonder from time to time what keeps pro-lifers going. Why don’t we lay down our signs, cease our marching and admit that we’ve been good and beaten for these 40 years since Roe v. Wade? One of us is a baby boomer, the other a millennial; our views may help others understand these things and, along the way, think about some rarely considered aspects of the U.S. experience with legal abortion.

ABC: Three years after drug agents searching a suspected “pill mill” at a West Philadelphia clinic instead found a medical “house of horrors,” an abortion doctor is going on trial on eight counts of murder.

LifeSiteNews: The pro-life group Operation Rescue has today published newly obtained 911 recordings of two medical emergencies at Planned Parenthood in Wilmington, Delaware, which took place on February 8, and 16, 2013.

LifeSiteNews: An ambulance arrived at Southwestern Women’s Options, a late-term abortion clinic in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and transported an abortion patient to UNM Medical Center at approximately 1:00 p.m. on Friday.

Edward Mechmann at Archdiocese of NY: For a long time, apologists and advocates for legal abortion liked to say that they believed that abortion should be “safe, legal and rare”. Well, we know that they’ve given up on “rare”. And they certainly are unconditionally committed to “legal”. But it’s astonishing that they now seem to have given up on “safe”.

Christian Newswire: Georgia Right to Life today called on Georgia’s General Assembly to give voters the opportunity to grant personhood status to all innocent human life from the earliest stages of development until natural death.

Kentucky.com: A House panel defeated several bills Thursday that would put restrictions on abortions, including one bill that would require a woman to view an ultrasound and another that would require a face-to-face consultation before receiving an abortion.

LifeSiteNews: A new study commissioned by the Vitae Foundation has taken a careful scientific approach to identify what drives women’s decisions to keep their child, place a child in adoption or abort one’s child. The study has determined what influences that decision, which women are most reachable, what message is most likely to reach them and from whom vulnerable women would like to hear that message. | A New Understanding of the Trauma of Abortion

Kathryn Jean Lopez at National Review: Dr. Anne Nolte, a family physician, takes time today from her busy patient schedule at the National Gianna Center for Women’s Health and Fertility she directs in Manhattan to protest Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Reproductive Health Act.

First Things: The Knights of Columbus should be commended for commissioning this Marist survey. The mainstream media enjoys reporting on polls that purportedly show strong public sentiment in favor of legal abortion. However, by asking people what they thought about abortion in specific circumstances, Marist is able to present a more nuanced and a more accurate view of public attitudes toward abortion.

Jackson Free Press: Mississippi’s only abortion clinic is scheduled for an April 18 license revocation hearing before the state Department of Health, and officials say a decision could come days or weeks later.

Argus Leader: A South Dakota Senate committee Wednesday approved an extension of what is already the nation’s longest waiting period for a woman to receive an abortion. Women seeking abortions in South Dakota currently must wait three days after seeing an abortion clinic doctor before they can have the procedure.

LifeSiteNews: Last year the the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) released a 23-page report that found upwards of $99 million in waste or possible Planned Parenthood fraud, including the alleged illegal taxpayer funding of abortion and abortion-related procedures. “Planned Parenthood has to play by the same rules as everyone else,” Steven Aden, vice president for human life issues and senior council at ADF, told LifeSiteNews.com last year. “It is not entitled to a dime of taxpayer funds, especially if it is committing Medicaid fraud.”

Wall Street Journal: A coalition of physicians says Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed abortion rights bill will hurt women, forcing many into lifetime bouts with depression and guilt while making late-term abortions more common and more dangerous.

NewsObserver: The first abortion bill of the session has been filed. Senate Bill 132 would require that students be taught that abortion can cause premature births in subsequent pregnancies. Whether that’s true or not is a matter of some dispute among medical professionals, and a committee of the state Child Fatality Task Force heard from doctors on both sides in November. But it was one of the recommendations the full task force ultimately included in its list for legislators to consider this session.

Anchorage Daily News: Experts scheduled to testify on an abortion bill Wednesday are “extremists” who have made “outlandish, demonstrably false claims” about abortion, the chairman of the Alaska Democratic party said ahead of a hearing on the measure.

Reuters: The Indiana state Senate on Tuesday approved Republican-backed legislation to require women seeking to end pregnancies through use of the so-called abortion pill to have an ultrasound examination.

San Francisco Chronicle: A South Dakota Senate committee on Wednesday approved an extension of what is already the nation’s longest waiting period for a woman to receive an abortion.

Boston Globe: Late last year, the nation’s highest court said it would consider a legal challenge to patents that biotechnology company Myriad Genetics holds on genes linked to risk of breast cancer. Now, Eric Lander—a leader in the human genome project, a scientific adviser to President Obama, and the head of the Broad Institute in Cambridge—has weighed in, filing an amicus brief.

Christian Newswire: HB 481, The Ethical Treatment of Human Embryos Act, is designed to help bring biotechnological companies to Georgia by removing uncertainty for venture capitalists and companies. The measure has five co-sponsors.

My Fox Austin: Sen. Dan Patrick laid out Senate Bill 97 to the Senate Health and Human Services on Tuesday, the first step to passing the bill into law . . . Patrick’s bill would require doctors to only prescribe the drug known as Ru486 to women in the first seven weeks of her pregnancy and following a physical examination by the doctor. The woman must take the pill in a clinic.

Ken Connor at Christian Post: The message our culture now sends is clear: An unintended pregnancy, particularly for a young person, is a virtual death sentence – at least it was in a pre-Roe America. Thanks to that landmark ruling, however, your youngster’s momentary lapse in judgment need not have life-altering consequences. A quick trip to the friendly neighborhood Planned Parenthood is all that’s needed

Christian Post: A pro-life group has launched a nationwide campaign seeking to revoke the medical license of infamous abortion practitioner Dr. Leroy Carhart in response to the death of a New York kindergarten teacher.

The Morning Call: Women in Pennsylvania who use the health insurance exchange to be established under the federal health care reform law would not have coverage for abortion even if their health was at stake, according to a bill under consideration in Harrisburg.

Washington Times: A group of 72 lawmakers have revived an effort to ask the government’s watchdog agency to scrutinize taxpayer dollars going to Planned Parenthood and five other organizations who provide family-planning services.

LifeSiteNews: A former Ohio congressman has appealed his lawsuit holding the Susan B. Anthony List responsible for “loss of livelihood” when voters defeated him in 2010.

San Francisco Chronicle: The Indiana Senate has dropped a proposed requirement that doctors must try to perform two ultrasound exams on women who receive drugs to induce abortions.

NECN.com: New Hampshire’s House will again be debating whether women should be required to wait 24 hours before getting an abortion.

Anchorage Daily News: The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold its first hearing Wednesday on a bill that would define “medically necessary” abortions . . . The chairman of the Senate Education Committee is wasting no time in delving into the issue of school vouchers. Sen. Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, in an at-times funny, at-times scathing floor speech last week, announced plans for hearings on school vouchers.

The Hill: The current continuing resolution, or CR, expires March 27. On Monday, a coalition of groups that oppose abortion called for a new CR that will allow certain non-religious groups not to cover the “morning after” pill in their health plans.

Daily Tar Heel: As implementation of the Affordable Care Act begins to take shape in North Carolina, the question of whether abortions will be covered in the state’s health care exchange remains unanswered.

NY Post: What should Albany be devoting its time to these days? Gov. Cuomo seems to think it’s abortion.

Holland Sentinel: A House panel on Thursday overwhelmingly approved legislation to overhaul Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, leaving out anti-abortion provisions that torpedoed an earlier effort to change the status of the state’s largest health insurer.

Damon Linker at The Week: Two-thirds of Americans want to uphold Roe v. Wade. But only 13 percent believe abortion is morally acceptable.

CNSNews: At an event to discuss the merits of lifting the ban on women serving in combat units in the U.S. military, a retired Army sergeant said that hygiene issues are not a problem, including menstrual cycles, which she said can be regulated or eliminated by using birth control.

AP: An Illinois woman believed to be the mother of two infants found dead in the trunk of an impounded car admitted Thursday to leaving another baby girl to freeze to death along a rural roadside nearly five years earlier.

NPR “All Things Considered” audio here.

Sioux City Journal: Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin says it plans to file a state lawsuit over a Wisconsin law that subjects doctors who perform medication-induced abortions to possible criminal charges.

LifeNews: On January 28, in my capacity as social media manager for a coalition of national black pro-life leaders, I set up accounts on Facebook and Twitter to promote our upcoming demonstration in Los Angeles of the NAACP Image Awards on February 1.

USA Today: Women who want a prescription for an abortion-inducing drug would be required to undergo an ultrasound before and after taking the drug if a bill that an Indiana Senate committee approved Wednesday becomes law.

Kansas City Star: A bill forbidding the use of state money, tax credits or tax exemptions for abortion drew heated debate Wednesday in the House Federal and State Affairs Committee. House Bill 2253 also would bar the state from discriminating against any health-care provider that declines involvement in abortion.

LifeNews: Researchers at Wayne State University in Michigan are mapping, for the first time ever, fetal brain signals. Science has proven that unborn babies show brainwaves starting at just several weeks into pregnancy and the scientists say the mapping project could lead to methods of helping prevent and treat brain disorders such as autism or dyslexia.

Daniel J. Kevles at the NY Review of Books: Can genes be patented? This spring, the Supreme Court will hear a case that may well decide the question, and the consequences for American biomedicine could be huge.

The Daily Caller: The pro-abortion organization NARAL Pro-Choice America hired a consulting firm linked to President Barack Obama to conduct extensive video interviews with young pro-life activists in their homes more than a year ago, without informing the pro-life activists that the videos were intended for NARAL’s use.