Pro-life blog buzz 6-21-13

from Jill Stanek.com

by Susie Allen, host of the blog, Pro-Life in TN, and Kelli
We welcome your suggestions for additions to our Top Blogs (see tab on right side of home page)! Email Susie@jillstanek.com.

• Wesley J. Smith says that laws dealing with Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) “are increasingly authorizing doctors to unilaterally overturn surrogate wishes and patient advance directives….” The laws vary from state to state, but in Vermont and Maryland, a physician can place a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) order on a patient’s chart without the consent of the patient or designated patient advocate. Smith writes:
  
  
  Not coincidentally, Vermont has a single payer healthcare plan it can’t pay for. Some have called for the cost savings to come from assisted suicide legalization – now done – and healthcare rationing.

• Suzy B notes that during her remarks in favor of the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act this week, Rep. Michelle Bachmann showed the sonogram of the son of two SBA List employees. He may have the distinction of helping to save lives before his actual birthday!
• Right to Life of Michigan lauds the passing of a state bill that prevents minors from “judge shopping” to obtain judicial bypass in order to skirt parental consent laws.
• At Secular Pro-Life, Frank Ludwig examines the origin of the feminist movement, showing that early feminists were pro-life. Demands for voting and property rights morphed into demands for contraception at the beginning of the 20th century, and then to abortion in the 60′s:
  
  Some even claim that one can’t be a feminist without being pro-abortion, but fact is that feminists before Betty Friedan strongly opposed abortion as the taking of a human life. In light of the developments of the past 45 years, the remaining pro-life feminists started organizing themselves in groups such as Feminists for Life who were founded in 1972 but “stand on more than two hundred years of pro-life feminist history.”

• Fr. Frank Pavone is getting a lot of press for his open letter to Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (pictured right with HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards, and sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer) in response to her public statements about abortion and her Catholic faith:
  
  “You make a mockery of the Catholic faith,” the letter tells her, and says that her comments “reveal a profound failure to understand your own political responsibilities.” The letter concludes, “Either exercise your duties as a public servant and a Catholic, or have the honesty to formally renounce them.”
  Members of the public can read and sign the letter here.
• Real Choice encourages readers to help the producers of 3801 Lancaster – a must-see documentary on Kermit Gosnell’s atrocities – to finance the next part of their series, which will “expose the truth of what happens when pro-choice groups, politicians, and bureaucrats are trusted to oversee abortion.”
• Alveda King of Priests for Life discusses the 20-week abortion ban passed by the House this week, as well as Rep. Trent Franks’ comments, under fire from abortion supporters:
  
  Congressman Franks stated that the incidence of rape resulting in pregnancies that are aborted in the sixth month of pregnancy or later is “very low.” How is this even controversial?
  We know from studies on the subject that rape results in pregnancy from about 1% to 5% of the time, depending on authors of the studies. According to one study citing the 5% stats, half of those pregnancies are aborted. We don’t know what portion of those 2.5% of rapes result in abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy or later, but government statistics tell us that 1.4% of all abortions occur in the 21st week or later.
  So, is it outrageous to suggest that 1.4% of 2.5% (0.035%) is a very low amount?
  

[Pelosi image via pinterest.com]

Pro-life blog buzz 6-18-13

from Jill Stanek.com

by Susie Allen, host of the blog, Pro-Life in TN, and Kelli
We welcome your suggestions for additions to our Top Blogs (see tab on right side of home page)! Email Susie@jillstanek.com.

• Secular Pro-Life discusses the vote this week on the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act and gives analysis of some of the concerns/objections to this legislation from pro-life activists.

• Tennessee GOP Rep. Marsha Blackburn (pictured left) has an op-ed in Politico on the House’s legislation, which seeks to ban abortion past 20 weeks:
  
  A vote in favor is a vote for human decency and public health safety. A vote against is simply indefensible. Our bipartisan proposal doesn’t stop all abortions as Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi claimed last week. Will other Democrats join me in protecting women and children who feel pain or will they be on Pelosi’s side protecting Gosnell-like, late-term abortions as sacred ground?
• Clinic Quotes points out how the abortion industry knowingly lies about fetal pain. Former clinic worker Amy states, “The hardest question you get asked is ‘does the baby feel pain?’ We had to lie to them or say we don’t know.”
• At LifeSite News, John Jansen discusses the failure of emergency contraception in decreasing the “need” for abortion – even according the pro-choice Guttmacher Institute:
  
  Despite the fact that there has been a huge increase in the number of women who have used EC over the last decade, even the Guttmacher Institute admits that “there’s no evidence” that EC has lowered the overall national rate of unintended pregnancy. In moments of honesty, even the biggest cheerleaders for EC will admit that the best that can be said of it is that it’s “better than nothing.”
  Increased availability of EC hasn’t made a dent in the U.S. abortion rate, either. (And the U.S. isn’t alone. Consider this recent headline: “Abortion on rise in Sweden despite higher sales of morning-after pill.”) In this vein, it’s especially instructive to take a look at Planned Parenthood’s own figures.
  

• Our new blog addition, A Culture of Life, tells the story of one mother in New Zealand who stood courageously for her child against those who told her to abort because of a poor prenatal diagnosis:
  
  But at 32 weeks baby Ava was born. She had none of the anomalies diagnosed prior to birth, although she did have a horseshoe kidney, something the scans didn’t pick up. Because Ava was eight weeks premature, she spent time in NICU, but she was strong and was able to go home after two weeks.
  At a time when prenatal screening is routine, this story (and the countless more that are similar), should serve as a warning for medical professionals, for parents and for families. All too often, a prenatal diagnosis of an impairment, disability or life-limiting condition ends in abortion. Often this is because of pressure from the medical experts, from a lack of information about the conditions and a fear of the unknown.
  But Baby Ava’s story shows that sometimes doctors get it wrong. And even if they don’t get it wrong, why is the answer abortion?
  
• Down on the Pharm wonders if anyone in Catholic Church leadership is willing to stand up and address the Nancy Pelosis of the church who designate abortion and infanticide as “sacred ground,” citing their Catholic “faith” as a reason for their support.

• At Live Action News, Rebecca Downs documents another instance why Girl Scouts USA can no longer claim “neutrality” on the issue of abortion:
  
  While the Girl Scouts claims to not take a position on abortion, on May 9, 2013, MAKERS, a feminist, pro-abortion video of women whose “pioneering contributions” have apparently changed America, was screened as a Girl Scout-sponsored event.
  The video came with a warning to parents, stating:
  
  
  Parents need to know that Makers: Women Who Make America discusses potentially sensitive issues like abortion, birth control pills, domestic violence, and rape as they relate to the women’s movement beginning in the 1950s through today. Most of these topics are talked about, not visualized, though there are a handful of blurred images – one of a women who died after an illegal abortion and another of an image of a naked woman. There is also some discussion of how the lesbian movement fit in (and diverged from) the mainstream feminist movement.
  One of the promoters of the video is MAKERS Board member Amy Richards, “a co-founder of Third Wave Foundation, a pro-abortion group; an adviser to Planned Parenthood NYC” who recently posted a video casually discussing her own selective reduction abortions.
  Many churches are still hosting GSUSA. We cannot just stop buying cookies; we must not allow them access to our daughters.
• Americans United for Life shares video of Dr. Charmaine Yoest on a guest panel of four women on MSNBC. Naturally, Yoest is the sole representative of the pro-life view, and as always, defends it well, pointing out the extremism of the abortion lobby:

[Photos via sema.org, A Culture of Life, and protectamerica.com]

Pro-life blog buzz 6-14-13

from Jill Stanek.com

by Susie Allen, host of the blog, Pro-Life in TN, and Kelli
We welcome your suggestions for additions to our Top Blogs (see tab on right side of home page)! Email Susie@jillstanek.com.

• Alveda King of Priests for Life begins a three part series honoring the pro-life men in her life – just in time for Father’s Day:
  
  I am blessed to pay tribute to my Grandfather, Dr. Martin Luther King, Sr. who saw me in a dream three years before I was born. That prophetic dream gave me life, against the odds of a threat of abortion.
  Alveda also recommends Kevin Burke’s blog, dedicated to fathers in need of post-abortion healing.

• Pro-Life New Mexico releases an undercover video showing just how easily a 14-year-old in New Mexico (who reveals that her boyfriend is 21, which constitutes statutory rape) can schedule an abortion with Planned Parenthood. PP discusses methods for returning her call so as not to tip off her parents, though the state doesn’t require parental notification. The phone counselor also makes sure to get the patient to the building to close the sale. Is this the best we can do for our children?

• ProWomanProLife laments that citizens of Quebec may soon have to pay for people to die, if a bill seeking to reclassify euthanasia as a form of healthcare – “aid in dying” – passes.

• Secular Pro-Life publishes the first submission from their paid blogging program by guest author Prayson Daniel, who “make[s] a case for the prima facie wrongness of killing a human foetus that does not depend on theological premises.”

• Big Blue Wave reports that 64-year-old Linda Gibbons has been arrested again for peaceful prayer and sidewalk counseling outside a Canadian abortion clinic. Gibbons, who has spent 10 of the last 20 years incarcerated for her protests, admonishes the churches for their inaction, stating, “Obviously we [the church] have this holocaust because we’ve allowed this.”

• Wesley J. Smith notes the case of a Chicago mother who (with her child’s live in godmother) plotted for a week, then stabbed her 14 yr. old autistic son to death because she felt he was not getting proper care and wanted to end his misery. The two women also killed the family cat in an effort to spare it from living in a shelter, and then made unsuccessful attempts to commit double suicide via sleeping pills.Smith predicts the public’s response when the shock of the gruesome story wears off:
  

  "I suspect many will be horrified – not by the killing but the method, and the unavailability of “death with dignity” euthanasia. Indeed, I recall when Canadian farmer Robert Latimer murdered his 12 year-old daughter Traci because she had cystic fibrosis. Rather than condemning the monster, many Canadians asked, “Why couldn’t a doctor have done it for him?”

• Reflections of a Paralytic shares a video from Life TV, which reviews the science fiction movie Gattaca, 15 years after its release. The genetic engineering depicted in the film is much closer to reality today:

[Photo via saynsumthn.wordpress.com]

Pro-life blog buzz 6-11-13

from Jill Stanek.com

by Susie Allen, host of the blog, Pro-Life in TN, and Kelli
We welcome your suggestions for additions to our Top Blogs (see tab on right side of home page)! Email Susie@jillstanek.com.

• At Real Choice, Christina Dunigan says abortion advocates omitted crucial information about Beatriz, the woman from El Salvador who delivered a terminally ill child at 27 weeks gestation, in order to make the world believe Beatriz had an abortion:
  
  Their argument was that since Beatriz’s baby was “not viable” due to anencephaly, the c-section was actually a hysterotomy abortion, performed to deliver a baby and then just let it die of prematurity.
  Thanks to Melissa for providing links to this Spanish-language article, and this one, which certainly add an interesting big of information: Beatriz had already gone into labor when doctors elected to switch from a vaginal delivery to a c-section to preserve her health….
  I’ve also learned that Beatriz and her mother did go to the nursery and see the baby.
  In other words: She didn’t have an abortion.

At Live Action, Ashley Herzog points out the latest instance of anti-life bullying by the “hate brigade” – this time against Republican Congresswoman Jamie Herrera Beutler (pictured left), who recently discovered that her preborn child has a potentially fatal anomaly:

•  
  
  What motivates these people to abuse women who have chosen to carry to term despite a poor prenatal diagnosis? I strongly suspect many of them have been involved in an abortion — or know they would want one in a similar situation. It angers them to see someone make a choice they didn’t have the courage to make themselves. But it’s impossible for any normal-thinking person to really know what motivates them.
• Abstinence Clearinghouse links to an article about the balance between a minor’s privacy and parental responsibility. In her column, Mary Beth Hicks writes:
  
  How much privacy you allow depends on the child and the record of trust she has built, but your minor child’s privacy is not an entitlement. Parental responsibility for our children means we have the right to know what’s going on. That’s the only way we can guide and teach them.
  Too bad the abortion industry fights furiously against parental involvement when it comes to sex ed and abortion. It’s just bad for business.

• Alex Schadenberg of Euthanasia Prevention Coalition highlights an article written by Montana State Sen. Jennifer Fielder (pictured right) on the issue of assisted suicide legislation in MT, in which she notes the massive amount of funding behind pro-assisted suicide “nonprofit” lobbying groups.
• At National Review, Michael J. New discusses a report which features “two separate polls both of which found that a majority of young voters lean toward either banning or restricting abortion.”
• Big Blue Wave says Canadian conservatives seem to have the same trouble as many in the U.S. – they court pro-life support to get elected, but distance themselves from the position once in office.
• Ethika Politika notes the importance of fatherhood, and how its disappearing role in the home affects all of us. Each day this week, they will feature a new article on the subject to “make possible a more serious, productive discussion of fatherhood.”
• At FRC Blog, Anna Higgins laments the continuing reluctance of pastors to discuss abortion in the church, deeming it a “political issue” instead of a heart/sin issue necessitating repentance. Higgins also points out that where church leaders have dropped the ball, Christian rappers are beginning to speak out, offering hope and healing. One of those artists is Trip Lee:

Amy Richards: It's all about me...so selective reduction is no big deal...

Amy Richards, founder of radical pro-abortion Third Wave Foundation posts this "in your face video" in which she casually discusses her abortions as those she was discussing a recipe for chicken casserole.

She  got pregnant at 19 and had an abortion, then at 33 in a planned pregnancy was shocked to find out she was pregnant with triplets. Without a blink of an eye she asks can't we just get rid of one of them. She then remarks that she had never heard of selective reduction even though she thinks herself obviously intelligent and well schooled in the world of radical feminism. 

Of course being very narcissistic, she writes about her experience. She notes that she had some blow back from the sisterhood of radical feminists who call her out on casual portrayal  of her experience. Doesn't she know she is supposed to come off as more sympathetic and sad??  But Ms. Richards says  that at the end of the day  all that matters  is that it is MY decision.  She doesn't even mention the father of the child being 'selected' to be destroyed to lighten her burden.

My sympathies to her children cause it is all about her...

Pro-life blog buzz 6-7-13

from Jill Stanek.com

by Susie Allen, host of the blog,Pro-Life in TN, and Kelli

We welcome your suggestions for additions to our Top Blogs (see tab on right side of home page)! EmailSusie@jillstanek.com.
Carla Stream, our lead moderator at JillStanek.com, has written an article for Pro-Life Action News on the importance of sidewalk counseling and prayer at abortion facilities. The Third Annual National Sidewalk Counseling Symposium will be in Minneapolis from July 25-27.
Stand True shares the thoughts of four first-time sidewalk counselors. One sums up her thoughts:

"We’re talking about lives on the line here, a matter of life and death. What will you do today to make sure these little ones live to enjoy tomorrow"

Suzy B highlights a pro-life picket which took place today at the Irish Embassy in D.C.. The goal was to voice opposition to the attempt to legalize abortion in Ireland through the “guise of protecting pregnant women who are considering suicide”: Thanks to its pro-life laws, Ireland has one of the lowest maternal mortality rates in the world—it is one of the safest countries for a woman to give birth. Additionally, the number of Irish women who reject abortion and carry their babies to term is remarkably high.

Wesley J. Smith shares news of a child who, once thought to be in a persistent vegetative state, has been successfully treated with umbilical cord stem cells: A child with cerebral palsy who suffered a cardiac arrest and became – they thought – permanently unconscious, appears to have been successfully treated with his own stored umbilical cord blood stem cells….
This heartening story raises several issues, among which are: First, ethical stem cell research offers tremendous hope. Second, unconscious child patients are sometimes dehydrated to death based on the belief they can never recover.

Secular Pro-Life features an article by Kelsey Hazzard and William Saunders, which shows that while the media attempts to portray an extreme pro-choice view as mainstream, it isn’t:  The reality is that abortion advocacy groups only represent the tiny sliver of women and men who want abortion to be legal for any reason and through all nine months of pregnancy. Most American women reject that extreme view.
According to a May 2013 Gallup poll, 57% of women say that abortion should be illegal in all (20%) or all but a few (37%) circumstances. This is very close to men’s views, within the margin of error.

ProWomanProLife discusses the media’s apparent bias in labeling children with Down syndrome as “Down syndrome children,” as if that is the only thing you need to know about them.

Right to Life of Michigan features a video of the equipment in the Gosnell House of Horrors, released by the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office:

View more videos at: http://nbcphiladelphia.com.

[Photo via LifeNews]

Pro-life blog buzz 6-4-13

from Jill Stanek.com
by Susie Allen, host of the blog, Pro-Life in TN, and Kelli
We welcome your suggestions for additions to our Top Blogs (see tab on right side of home page)! Email Susie@jillstanek.com.

• Big Blue Wave discusses Canada’s attempt to curb sex selection abortions – which are illegal except for disability or disease – by requiring that women obtaining ultrasounds have a doctor’s requisition and be at least 20 weeks gestation. Undercover operations have shown ultrasound facilities willing to ignore the law.
• Clinic Quotes points out a perfect example of the extreme pro-abortion view by quoting attorney Eve Gartner, who argues for Medicaid coverage for abortions:
  
  My impression is that people don’t really understand the fact that they will save more money by funding all Medicaid abortions than just paying for life-threatening cases. Twenty-five percent of those people who might have Medicaid-funded abortions have children instead… and then people are paying for pre-natal care, childbirth and probably public assistance for the child.

• New Wave Feminists has a guest post by Melaina Lausen (pictured left), who was born to a drug-addicted mother and lived on public assistance as a child. Lausen responds to the false argument used by abortion proponents that states, “I would rather pay for someone’s abortion than to pay to raise their child for eighteen years”:
  
  After 18 years of living on welfare and having an abusive childhood I am a contributing member of society today. I vote, pay taxes, volunteer in the community, and try to spread a message of hope and change to others.
• At Coming Home, Dr. Gerard Nadal wonders if the Catholic Church has decided to surrender in the culture wars on the issues of abortion, contraception, and homosexuality. Recent revelations about the Archdiocese of New York’s willingness to pay for union employees’ contraceptives and abortions, along with silence on other issues, have been disheartening:
  
  In this Year of Faith, as our churches continue to empty, an unsolicited thought for our leaders. If fundamental moral truths and goods are not worth fighting for, then don’t be surprised when many find that there isn’t much worth staying for.
• American Life League’s Judie Brown believes the Catholic Church’s lack of “moral clarity” in social issues may lead to acquiescence on the HHS Mandate:
  
  These [court] decisions and the guarded acquiescence of the Catholic Church in both cases set the stage for what will undoubtedly be a USCCB cave-in on the Obama mandate. This is the most likely scenario in view of the fact that the USCCB historically filed amicus briefs, dubbed religious liberty briefs on the website, but offered no further opposition once the courts ruled in these cases.
• At The Public Discourse, Valerie Huber of the National Abstinence Education Association explains what abstinence education (or Sexual Risk Avoidance education) really is and how it is making great strides in affecting the sexual decisions of teens and young adults, despite the removal of nearly all federal funding:
  
  According to CDC data from the National Survey of Family Growth, the proportion of teenagers ages fifteen to seventeen who have never had sex has risen from 62 percent in 1995 to 73 percent in 2006-2010 among females, and from 56.9 percent to 72 percent for males. These are very substantial gains during the period in which SRA programs have been widely implemented.

• Down on the Pharm says that while worrying about its citizens ingesting too much sugar, New York City has no problem with teenagers having abortions without parental consent. The health department has designed an app that tells children where to get birth control and abortions on their own:
  
  The App links a video of New York girl, “Samantha”, who talks about boinking with her boyfriend, and wishing that she were also doing it with her ["hot"] girlfriend too.
  
  
  
  
   
  
  
  
  
• In a recent blog roundup, Real Choice says abortion proponents are up in arms over Mexico’s effort to prosecute women who obtain chemical abortions, fearing that if something goes wrong, women will be too afraid to seek treatment:
  
  [I]nternational abortion proponents want to distribute Misoprostol to pregnant women in countries that lack the medical facilities to treat the bleeding they fear will kill women in Mexico. Which is it? Is Misoprostol safe to hand out to women who won’t get treatment for hemorrhage, or is it dangerous?
• At Bound4Life, Ellie Saul encourages pro-lifers to pray the “Prayer of Jabez” for the preborn:
  
  Oh that You would bless the unborn in the womb indeed. Enlarge their borders and preserve their lives beyond the womb, in the name of Jesus. May Your hand be with the babies in the womb, and that You would protect them from evil abortion and deliver them from the pain they would have had to endure so that it would not hurt them!
• Live Action presents the story of Kristi Hofferber, an adoptee who didn’t learn until age 30 that her birth mother had been the victim of incest at the hands of her father – and that she was born as a result. Her amazing story demonstrates why the life of the child should not be sacrificed for the crimes of the father:

Pro-life blog buzz 5-31-13

from Jill Stanek.com

by Susie Allen, host of the blog, Pro-Life in TN, and Kelli
We welcome your suggestions for additions to our Top Blogs (see tab on right side of home page)! Email Susie@jillstanek.com.

• Secular Pro-Life writes that the CEO of Sir Richard’s condom company intends to donate one condom to a developing country for each condom purchased because “if everyone bought our condoms, we could really change the world.” SPL says:
  
  According to the CDC, while condoms are highly effective at preventing HIV transmission, the typical use failure rate for condoms as a contraceptive is a dismal eighteen percent. People often fail to make that distinction, and therefore do not appreciate the chances of pregnancy as fully as they should. No doubt that misunderstanding will be magnified in a region that has little in the way of healthcare access and sex education.

• Reflections of a Paralytic shares a Guttmacher graphic (pictured left; click to enlarge) on the “unmet need” for contraceptives in the developing world, which actually shows that women in developing countries do not report lack of access as their primary reason for not using contraception.
• ProLife NZ has a must-read on the dehumanization infiltrating embryology today. According to Princeton biology professor Lee Silver:
  
  The term pre-embryo has been embraced wholeheartedly by IVF practitioners for reasons that are political, not scientific. The new term is used to provide the illusion that there is something profoundly different between a six-day-old embryo and a sixteen-day-old embryo. The term is useful in the political arena—where decisions are made about whether to allow early embryo experimentation — as well as in the confines of a doctor’s office where it can be used to allay moral concerns that might be expressed by IVF patients.

• Down on the Pharm speaks of billionaire Bill Gates’ wife Melinda (pictured right), who is working with the pro-abortion arm of the United Nations at the Women Deliver Conference to raise money (despite her own personal wealth) to bring birth control to the under-developed countries of the world. Her selection of trainers is questionable: infanticide proponent Peter Singer and LeRoy Carhart, whose nurses and clinic (which “has eight pages of failures listed on its last state inspection”) are both substandard. LifeNews adds:
  
  
  Although Gates, a self-professed Catholic, declared at the London [2012] summit that the [reproductive healthcare] initiative was “not about abortion… not about population control,” her remarks were belied by the lineup of premiere global abortion and population control advocacy agencies in attendance….
• Priests for Life features Kevin Burke’s blog, which notes the link between child sexual abuse and post-abortive men:
  
  I encountered a number of men on Rachel’s Vineyard healing programs who had a history of previous abuse and were involved in an abortion decision.
  As they explored that abortion decision they shared a powerful sense that they abandoned their unborn child when they were vulnerable… just as they were hurt when vulnerable and defenseless children. These men felt they allowed their unborn child[ren] to be abused by the abortion procedure.
  

• The Passionate Pro-Lifer updates us on Colorado’s tolerance and leniency for serial child rapists like William Costello (pictured left), who was also charged almost a year ago with assaulting an elderly pro-life man who was collecting signatures for a personhood petition. Costello remains out on bail. PPL attended his preliminary hearing on charges that he raped three females – one being a 13-year-old girl, stating, “The details I heard in the preliminary hearing are so graphic they can’t be shared here.”
• Pro-Life Action League announces the observance of the National Day of Remembrance for Aborted Children on September 14:
  
  The observance will be marked by simultaneous memorial services in cities from coast to coast at gravesites of aborted babies. This is the first time in the history of legalized abortion that such nationwide memorials will be conducted and thousands of people from across the country are expected to participate.
  Organizers may be needed in your area.
  
• Pro-Life Wisconsin shares an eye-opening video entitled, “You Deserve to Know the Truth about Contraception”:

Pro-life blog buzz 5-28-13

from Jill Stanek.com

by Susie Allen, host of the blog, Pro-Life in TN, and Kelli
We welcome your suggestions for additions to our Top Blogs (see tab on right side of home page)! Email Susie@jillstanek.com.

• Kansans for Life reports that legislators listened to scientific and medical evidence before passing the state’s Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act in 2011, including the information that “as revealed in scientific studies developed over the past three decades… unborn children are ‘wired’ to feel pain MORE intensely than any child or adult ever can” and that “the highest density of pain receptors per square inch of skin in human development occurs in utero from 20-30 weeks gestation.”

• The FRC Blog condemns the Obama administration’s refusal to charge Major Nidal Hasan (who shot 30 people at Fort Hood, Texas – killing 14 – while shouting “Allahu Akbar”) with a violation of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act for the murder of victim Francheska Velez’s (pictured left) preborn child:
  
  She cried out “My baby! My baby!” but Hasan killed her and her unborn child anyway. The Obama administration has elected not to charge Hasan with violation of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, even though the law was passed explicitly to cover such instances.
• Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life discusses an analysis on abortion’s effect on women, released at the World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, utilizing data from several countries:
  
  Documented complications include hemorrhage, infection, cervical damage, uterine perforation, pelvic disease and retained fetal or placental tissue. Large record-based studies from Finland, Denmark and the United States found that maternal mortality rates were significantly higher after abortion compared to childbirth.
  Long-term risks of abortion, including subsequent preterm birth, infertility, cancer, miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy and placenta previa, can substantially impede future reproductive success. In addition, abortion is associated with increased risk of negative psycho-social consequences. For example, a 2011 meta-analysis published in the British Journal of Psychiatry found an 81 percent increased risk of mental health problems. Anxiety, depression, alcohol and drug use and suicidal behaviors have been found to increase following abortion, along with damage to key relationships.
  

• American Life League’s Judie Brown harshly criticizes Cardinal Timothy Dolan for calling pro-abortion Governor Andrew Cuomo (despite the governor’s support for abortion and homosexuality) a “Catholic in good standing,” and for agreeing not to exclude him from receiving Holy Communion despite canon law. Brown asks readers to pray and fast for all Bishops.
• Americans United for Life condemns the recent ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals “[which] struck down Arizona’s prohibition of abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, despite the fact that the risks to maternal health dramatically increase with such later-term abortion procedures”:
  
  Substantial medical data — utilized even by the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute — demonstrates that a woman seeking an abortion… at 20 weeks is 35 times more likely to die from abortion than she was in the first trimester. At 21 weeks or more, she is 91 times more likely to die from abortion than she was in the first trimester.
• At Live Action News, Lauren Enriquez has a piece discussing the tension in some Christian circles regarding pro-life activism.
• Fletcher Armstrong wants to bring a pro-life training academy to your town, teaching pro-lifers to “answer tough questions about abortion and [learn] the science and logic behind the pro-life position.”
• At The Leading Edge, Brendan Malone shares the promo video for a pro-life internship opportunity for New Zealanders. The deadline to apply is June 16:

Pro-life blog buzz 5-24-13

from Jill Stanek.com

by Susie Allen, host of the blog, Pro-Life in TN, and Kelli
We welcome your suggestions for additions to our Top Blogs (see tab on right side of home page)! Email Susie@jillstanek.com.

• Wesley J. Smith warns that the U.S. can expect to see in ten years under Obamacare what we currently see under the National Health Service in the UK. Quality of life medical decisions could mean more than just discrimination for the disabled.
• Reggie Littlejohn of Women’s Rights without Frontiers shows that violence in China isn’t limited to the preborn. It extends to men whose “crime” is fathering more than the allowable number of children.

• Bryan Kemper of Stand True reintroduces a t-shirt design that was very popular in the 1990′s but began to lose favor as pro-lifers became concerned about offending others. Kemper says we should “be offended that this act of homicide exists as a legally protected right in the first place.”
• ProWomanProLife focuses on the beauty of adoption over the tragedy of abortion with the story of Ryan Bomberger, who was adopted after being conceived in rape. In defending abortion, the industry points to conception during rape as the ultimate tragedy justifying the need for abortion. Bomberger puts a human face on this issue.
• Pro-Life Action League recently assisted pro-life citizens of Fairfax, Virginia, in battling an abortionist’s request to open a “mega mill” abortion facility. The swift action and pressure from the pro-life community caused the abortionist to withdraw his application the day before the city council meeting (which was nearly filled to capacity with citizens ready to voice their opposition). PLAL offers their expertise and assistance to all pro-lifers who are fighting to keep abortion clinics out of their communities.

• Secular Pro-Life says “facts are not gaffes” when it comes to the recent comments of E. W. Jackson (pictured right), candidate for Lt. Governor in Virginia. Jackson dared to state the fact that “Planned Parenthood has been far more lethal to black lives than the KKK ever was”:
  
  In 2011, the last year for which figures are available, Planned Parenthood performed 333,964 abortions in the United States. Nationally, 37% of abortions are performed on black women, according to the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute. We can therefore surmise that in one year alone, Planned Parenthood killed approximately 123,567 unborn African-American children….
  [T]he number of blacks killed by the KKK, in its entire history, does not approach 123,567.
  
• Bud Shaver of Stand for Life wonders if the fear of losing their 501(c)(3) statuses (thanks to the IRS’ targeting of conservative groups) might cause churches to fear man more than they fear God. Shaver says we should look to the past for guidance:
  
  The most frustrating thing about all this is that it doesn’t have to be the legacy we leave for posterity! Our churches and pastors in 2013 should learn from the past and realize what the religious leadership of the Civil Rights Era accomplished! They peacefully took to the streets in protest and ended the greatest injustice of their generation! PROTEST is the key. Protest is what ended that injustice, and protest is what will end this injustice [abortion].

Pro-life blog buzz 5-21-13

from Jill Stanek.com

by Susie Allen, host of the blog, Pro-Life in TN, and Kelli
We welcome your suggestions for additions to our Top Blogs (see tab on right side of home page)! Email Susie@jillstanek.com.

• Culture Campaign notes that despite the lack of reporting from mainstream media, Christians are successfully and quietly winning lawsuits against Obamacare’s HHS contraception/abortifacient mandate.
• At the FRC Blog, Chris Gacek gives two updates on the federal prosecution of a Florida man who gave his six-weeks-pregnant girlfriend misoprostol without her knowledge, causing an abortion. This appears to be the third use of the state’s Unborn Victims of Violence Act to prosecute an offender.

• At Bound4Life, Matt Lockett believes that God is using the horrors of the Kermit Gosnell (pictured left) trial to speak to the conscience of both the church and our nation. In part two of his series he writes:
  
  There is no question that the ugliest parts of the abortion industry are being exposed right now in increasing measure. The debate in the last few years has centered on birth control and so-called women’s health. These are huge topics for sure, but something has emerged in the meantime. We as a nation are now revisiting late-term abortion and infanticide in spite of the fact that Congress passed the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act in 2002. We’re revisiting it because there appears to be an increasing number of examples where BAIPA isn’t preventing the abortion industry from murdering constitutionally protected Americans. While this is obviously an enormous legal question for the nation to grapple with, I believe God is using infanticide to pierce our hearts and speak to us about abortion as a whole. God is weighing our response….
  The church cannot turn away from this question.
  
• Euthanasia Prevention Coalition explains its opposition to the Assisted Dying Bill being introduced in the UK, which purports to assist in the suicides of only mentally competent adults with less than six months to live. However, as has been seen in several other countries, this will more than likely extend incrementally beyond this group.
• The Guiding Star Project discusses the difficulties of delivering a child under 20 weeks who has died in utero:
  
  You see, in most states, unless you are at a private hospital (and even then it might not matter), babies stillborn under 20 weeks of gestation, or any fetal remains of a miscarriage or D & C must be treated as medical waste….
  In many places it is next to impossible for parents to obtain the remains of their babies or have them released to a funeral home for a proper burial. Since life insurance policies do not cover miscarried or stillborn children, the costs of a funeral and all the necessities are often too high for a family who wasn’t expecting to have to bury a baby.
  

• Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life asks why ethical issues are not considered with regards to human cloning, when cloning “can be rejected on practical [as well as ethical] grounds”:
  
  Human cloning also raises other ethical concerns, including the commodification of human life; the dangers to the health (and possible exploitation) of women, from whom eggs must be harvested; the tenuous barrier between “therapeutic cloning” (SCNT for the purpose of killing cloned embryos to derive stem cells) and “reproductive cloning” (SCNT for the purpose of implanting cloned embryos in a woman’s uterus and allowing them to develop toward maturity), which could result in the birth of a cloned baby; and the possible development of other Brave New World technologies, such as genetic engineering….
  Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) seem to offer the same potential benefits as stem cells from cloned embryos (they are pluripotent and patient-matched), and they are easier and less expensive to produce. Moreover, every proven stem cell treatment to date has used ethically-uncontroversial adult stem cells. In short, the therapeutic benefits sought from human cloning can be achieved without it.
  

Pro-life blog buzz 5-17-13

 from Jill Stanek.com

by Susie Allen, host of the blog, Pro-Life in TN, and Kelli
We welcome your suggestions for additions to our Top Blogs (see tab on right side of home page)! Email Susie@jillstanek.com.

• ProLifeBlogs features an article from The Black Kettle which states that when the pro-life group Coalition for Life of Iowa applied for nonprofit status, the IRS “sought details about the content of members’ prayers at a Planned Parenthood” and “demanded that the group refrain” from doing so. They later dropped the demand when the group sought assistance from the Thomas More Society.
• Secular Pro-Life examines the three ways in which the pro-choice side “corrupts” the abortion debate through use of dishonest language.
• Wesley J. Smith says human cloning has arrived, and just as expected, scientists and reporters are giving inaccurate information about the process:
  
  The unfertilized egg is not turned into stem cells. Rather, in the same cloning process as resulted in Dolly the sheep, it becomes an embryo, which is destroyed to obtain the cells. Moreover, the process is hardly common. In fact, this is the first time [it] has worked in humans.
  Click graphic to enlarge:

• Suzy B lists their 2013 Young Leader Awards recipients and nominees for their efforts toward life causes. Congratulations!
• Albert Mohler writes an excellent article on what the trial of Dr. Kermit Gosnell reveals about our nation:
  
  … [P]ro-abortion forces found themselves continually forced to argue that Dr. Gosnell’s house of horrors was an exception and that abortion is not really at issue in the entire Gosnell trial… but it is an impossible point to make. The babies murdered in Dr. Gosnell’s “clinic” were not visiting a pediatrician. They were born only after so-called “botched abortions.” …
  While the trial was not an open debate about the morality of abortion, that issue is what every thoughtful person recognizes is at stake — which is precisely why the pro-abortion movement had to insist, over and over again, that the morality of abortion is not the issue.
  Here is a clue: When you have to argue at every turn that the issue is not abortion, the issue is abortion.
  
• Pro-Life New Mexico features statements made by Tara Shaver in front of Southwestern Women’s Options in Albuquerque. New Mexico allows abortion all nine months of pregnancy and does not regulate or inspect its abortion facilities. How many Gosnells might be in NM?