Pro-life blog buzz 9-27-13

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.

Reggie Littlejohn of Women’s Rights without Frontiers addresses claims that China’s one-child policy has ended as “false.” This is the 33rd anniversary of the barbaric policy.
Politico is claiming that the pink running shoes-wearing, peace sign-waving, late-term abortion defender from Texas, State Senator Wendy Davis, intends to run for governor next year: State and national Democrats have wooed Davis over the past few months for the uphill campaign against Republican state Attorney General Greg Abbott, the presumptive GOP gubernatorial nominee.

Secular Pro-Life has some volunteer opportunities, as well as one paid part-time opening. See the link for details.


Stand True discusses the upcoming Pro-Life Day of Silent Solidarity, which was birthed in 2004 by students who asked what they could do help end abortion. Register for this year’s event on Tuesday, Oct 15th at silentday.org.

Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life are closely watching the abortion front in Finland:
Nearly a quarter of all Minnesotans can trace Finnish ancestry in their heritage and 23 percent are Lutherans in faith….
Earlier this summer Dr. Rasanen, who is also head of the Christian Democratic Party in Finland, caused a stir in Europe when she boldly used a speech at a Lutheran Church conference to call for a discussion on abortion in her country. In her speech she highlighted the fact that Finland and Sweden are the only two western European countries that do not allow health care workers the right to refuse to participate in an abortion. Dr. Rasanen also noted that Finnish law provides that animals must be slaughtered painlessly, but unborn human beings have no protections from the excruciating pain of an abortion.

Life News notes that a recent Jezebel article titled “I Help Desperate Women and I could go to Jail for It” lauds the fact that an unlicensed, untrained illegal abortionist in America acts like the “reproductive rights fairy,” doling out chemical abortion pills by mail. The criminal writes:
I send women what I can — misoprostol, or mifepristone/misoprostol in combination when I have some stocked. I know, when I do it, that it could be a devil’s bargain — that this could be the envelope that gets traced back to me. This could be the one that lands me in prison. Or, even worse, it could be the one that kills someone. The abortion drugs rarely cause major complications (less often than birth), but they do happen. I don’t know what I would do with that on my conscience. I haven’t had to find out yet.

The Lost Generation discusses some of the reasons women will choose abortion… fear of rejection:
Often, women choose abortion because they are convinced they will be alone if they do not. They believe that their parents will reject them and throw them out. They believe their boyfriend or husband will leave them. They believe their friends will scorn them or make fun of them. They believe they will become an outcast in their family, at school, or in society. They fear loneliness and rejection, but in their fear, they do not realize that abortion itself is the ultimate loneliness.

Pro-life blog buzz 9-24-13

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.
Big Blue Wave finds it rich that NARAL is now putting out the appeal for men to be more active in promoting abortion – not only at the legislative level, but grassroots as well. I guess “my body, my choice,” was only valid when the pro-choice side wasn’t in a panic.

Kansans for Life says the recent uptick in passage of state pain-capable laws is causing real angst among media elite. The New York Times publishes a piece attempting to show that these legislative victories are just “wishful thinking on the part of zealots.” Citing abortion providers and ardent supporters, the authors still had to pick and choose the experts’ works carefully to omit any published evidence that contradicted the intent of the article. If that weren’t bad enough, they chose to claim late-term abortions are so rare (2%) that they’re not a big deal – but that 2% translates to 20,000 children per year.

The Leading Edge noticed a Facebook post from pro-abortion New Zealand association ALRANZ, which defended gender-selective abortions. The interesting thing about the post, though, was that a picture of a preborn child was posted with their link – for which they felt the need to apologize (click to enlarge screenshot at left).

The Guiding Star Project posts a thought-provoking piece about how we discuss pregnancy. In the pre-ultra sound era, it was often stated that “we don’t care what we’re having as long as it’s healthy.” But the author, a mother of a child with significant health issues, says the better response would be, “we are just happy to have this child.” We wouldn’t consider abandoning our born children due to medical issues, so why should we do so with our preborn children?

40 Days for Life says another clinic prayer vigil site – this time in Montana – is closing its doors:
Local Montana 40 Days for Life leaders pointed out that this 41st clinic will close in the 41st year following the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that imposed abortion on America… in the 41st state to be admitted to the Union.

At Live Action, Sarah Terzo discusses the misperception that somehow pro-life counseling is inherently biased, while abortion clinic “counseling” is non-biased. Author of the book Lovejoy: A Year in the Life of an Abortion Clinic by Peter Korn spent a year “observing abortions and interviewing patients at an abortion clinic” and tends to paint abortion workers in a “sympathetic” light. Yet in his detail of the counseling sessions, he reveals misinformation and pressure used by the counselors (salespeople):


Tiffany is reluctant to abort her baby. She tells Anneke [the counselor] she thinks she wants to have her child. Korn describes what the counselor says next:
“I’m not here to change your mind. I’m not here to force your opinion. But I’m sitting here seeing this beautiful young woman with her whole life ahead of her, and you have so many other things you can do right now. Why don’t you go ahead with your dreams and have kids later?” Tiffany had no answer so Anneke continued, “We’re always here for you.”… Before ending the session Anneke left Tiffany with some figures that she recently had learned from Carye: One in ten high school girls who become pregnant finish high school, and one in ten thousand girls who have babies during high school finish college. And a third statistic: Over 80 percent of the men in this country don’t pay their child support. “The statistics are stacked against you,” Anneke said….

Reluctantly, Tiffany agrees to abort her baby. By this time, the baby’s father has arrived at the clinic to talk her out of the abortion. The clinic workers call the police and have him thrown out before he can see her.

Tiffany goes through with the procedure alone. The clinic makes another $400. Another baby is dead.

Pro-life blog buzz 9-20-13

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.


Jivin J comments on a recent Washington Post editorial asserting – without any evidence – that if Ken Cuccinelli wins the gubernatorial election, abortion clinics in Virginia will shut down. The editorial makes this leap because Cuccinelli favors clinic regulations and inspections. The editorial also ignores the results of last year’s announced inspections, which revealed “widespread deficiencies” and asserts there is “no evidence that women are at risk in Virginia’s abortion clinics.”

Wesley J. Smith explores the dark side of Big Fertility that “has also helped create a destructive view that people not only have a right to a child, but to the child they want.” Besides ethical concerns and the health risks associated with this industry, the failure rate of IVF in the US is almost 70%:
It is time to rein in the hype and take a more realistic look at the taboos and myths surrounding infertility and science’s ability to “cure” it.
Smith recommends instead focusing on the “parentless children” waiting for adoption and a forever home.

John Smeaton posts some timely statements from the Pope:
Pope Francis has sent a strong pro-life and pro-family message to the participants in the annual Social Week for Italian Catholics, held this past weekend in Turin on the theme of “The Family: Hope and Future for Italian Society”. He said: “A population that does not take care of the elderly and of children and the young has no future, because it abuses both its memory and its promise”. He also said that the family based on opposite-sex marriage open to life is the basis of society.

The Christian Science Monitor has published Michael J. New’s response to Marymount College student Elizabeth Jahr’s assertions that “Pro-Life Groups Don’t Really Protect The Unborn” and that political pro-life efforts (and the March for Life) would be better spent assisting women facing crisis pregnancies.

Secular Pro-Life compares the downplaying of child abuse experienced by an orphan to society’s 
downplaying of abortion: So we either do something about it… or we look the other way. We question the situation’s veracity. Or we ignore the topic entirely, using polite terms like “choice” and “personal issue.” After all, if we can’t see it — if we insist that it can’t really be that bad — then it’s not real, right? Like the local Germans who lived directly outside WWII-era concentration camps yet didn’t know its horrors until forced to see, we ignore what is happening in orphanages across the world, homes on our block, and Planned Parenthood offices in our town.

ProWomanProLife asks readers to encourage pro-life hero/activist Linda Gibbons who sits in a jail for protesting outside an abortion clinic. While in jail her daughter passed away. Letters are encouraged – info at the link.

Pro-Life Wisconsin features a song and video about a true story that ends with adoption:
John Elefante, the former lead singer of the rock band Kansas, has made a pro-life music video in honor of his adopted daughter, Sami. ”I can’t imagine life without my daughter, Sami, and it just breaks my heart that pregnant young women much like her birth mother, instead of choosing life for their babies, are denying them the chance to be born,” Elefante said. “If our song can in any way bring attention to this issue and encourage those who are considering abortion to choose life through options such as adoption, then we couldn’t be happier.”

Pro-life blog buzz 9-17-13

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.

Live Action News compares the passage of legislation regulating tattoos in Washington D.C. to the capital’s lack of abortion regulation: Consider the 66 new pages of regulations the District of Columbia is thinking about imposing on tattoo parlors, which include prohibitions on minors getting tattoos, limits on the kind of body piercings minors can get, mandatory informed consent for health risks, and a 24-hour waiting period.
Yes, that would be the same Washington, DC which is run by pro-aborts, has no parental consent or notification requirements for minors seeking abortion, and no waiting period for abortion, all of which adds up to one of the country’s highest abortion rates.
They are for regulating everything except the right to end the developing life in the womb. Amazing.

Clinic Quotes shows that Planned Parenthood has never had a problem with sex-selective abortions. From PP spokesperson Lisa Andrusko (1985):
… [O]nce the state of the fetal diagnostic art moves from second to first trimester, so abortion falls within the menstrual extraction…. Planned Parenthood will increasingly connote planning the sex as well as the spacing of offspring.

Euthanasia Prevention Coalition reports on the efforts to sell assisted suicide to the Australian public.

At Abortion Pill Risks, Monty Patterson (father of RU-486 victim Holly Patterson) discusses an Oklahoma case coming before the US Supreme Court on the use of RU-486 without regard for FDA recommendations of use. While the abortion industry contends that the off-label use of the drug is done all the time, women’s safety is put at risk by doing so: The Oklahoma law does not ban the use of the Mifeprex regimen, nor does it ban any abortion before or after 49 days gestation. It simply requires that the medical abortion regimen be administered in the way deemed safest by the FDA. The Act imposes no obstacle or undue burden to women seeking access to an abortion….As part of this Supreme Court case, I submitted an “Affidavit of Monty Patterson, father of Holly Patterson” in support of the “Brief of Women and Families Hurt by RU-486.”


Abstinence Clearinghouse links to a blog which warns parents to be aware of the Snapchat social media app, which “was based on a lie” and “was created as a ‘safe’ way to SEXT.” Hmm… sounds like it could be something that Planned Parenthood might eventually use to market themselves to teens.

[Snapchat meme via lolbrary.com]

Pro-life blog buzz 9-13-13

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.

Reflections of a Paralytic recommends a “must read” article by Jennifer Lahl of The Center for Bioethics in Culture, who asks, “Why don’t Christians see IVF and surrogacy as moral issues?”: The fact that so many people fail to consider the moral implications of IVF suggests that in the age of fertility treatments, surrogates, and modern family-building via parenting partnerships, a woman’s womb has come to be seen as a somewhat arbitrary location. NBC’s The New Normal quips that women are “Easy-Bake Ovens” and children are “cupcakes.”

Wesley J. Smith notes the “topsy turvy” values of our nation, when new legislation in Washington, D.C. mandates a 24-hour waiting period (as well as an age and parental consent restriction) before getting a tattoo – but not an abortion.

ProWomanProLife gives us an update on Canadian pro-life hero Linda Gibbons (pictured left), who was given the maximum sentence – six months and 29 days – for protesting abortion inside the bubble zone: It appears the judge sentenced her more harshly based on a personal bias against her: “She has indicated no remorse to the court,” [Madam Justice Feroza] Bhabha said angrily. “She believes in the rightness of her cause… (but) abortions are legal. Miss Gibbons does not appreciate that it’s a legal right.”
Obviously Gibbons honors a higher authority than the local judge.

SPUC’s John Smeaton speaks out against the decision of the Crown’s Prosecution Service not to prosecute UK doctors caught committing sex-selective abortions. His letter was published in the Telegraph, as well.

Pro-Life Wisconsin announces their new association with Personhood USA.

Right to Life of Michigan reports that Detroit has 7% of the state’s population but accounts for 25% of the state’s abortions.

Saynsumthn’s Blog posts the close ties between abortion giant Planned Parenthood and Obamacare. PP is “helping” to get people signed up for the healthcare monstrosity. And naturally, “all this ‘help’ from Planned Parenthood will translate into BIG Bucks into their coffers in abortions and birth control, despite their abysmal record on medicaid fraud!”

At Coming Home, Dr. Gerard Nadal pens an open letter to Elizabeth Jahr for her criticism of the pro-life movement’s annual March for Life in Washington, D.C.. Jahr claims that “[p]ro-life groups funnel tremendous resources into a legal war against abortion in the US without providing adequate practical support for women to maintain pregnancies” and that the money spent to hold the March would be better spent elsewhere. Nadal responds:
"Your claims that the money spent on travel to the Annual March on Washington could be better spent by serving the actual needs of women in crisis pregnancies is so far beyond the pale that you should blush for having said so. Certainly in your scholarly research for the article you looked at the 3,000+ pregnancy centers in this nation whose daily work includes getting housing, prenatal care, delivery services, food, clothing, diapers, supplies, employment, etc for women in crisis pregnancies….It takes money to keep the maternity homes and pregnancy centers open. Millions and millions of dollars are needed. The March each year continues to grow, and with that growth comes the great enthusiasm, the great fervor that drives the raising of far more money than is spent on the March. Beyond that utilitarian analysis there is something more fundamental that you missed in your hit piece.

Published so close to the fiftieth anniversary of Martin Luther King’s March on Washington and “I have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial, your article misses the fact that sometimes it just doesn't matter the cost of calling attention to fundamental injustice and inhumanity. There have been some 57 million babies slaughtered in my lifetime in this country. You would have 600,000 marchers stay home? Really?"

Pro-Life New Mexico rolls out Project 52, an initiative for 52 churches to focus for 52 weeks on one abortion clinic with the idea of “Saving One Woman, One Child, One Week, And One Church At A Time.” Watch their video here:

Pro-life blog buzz 9-3-13

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

Clinic Quotes pulls a quote from the wayback machine (1976) showing the mindset of the people who make their living performing abortions. A director of nursing from an abortion facility is quoted:

"In some ways it is very boring, these abortions — the same thing day after day. In fact the nurses are excited about complications because it’s something different."

Abolitionist Society has a new poster in response to President Obama’s voiced concern that the Syrian government is murdering its own people with chemical weapons (pictured left).

The Guiding Star Project discusses NaPro Technology as a better, more ethical treatment for infertility, as compared to IVF:

Many couples are completely unaware of a fast-growing technology for achieving pregnancy called NaPro Technology. This innovative technology is an approach to fertility that adheres to the guidelines provided by a woman’s natural cycles. The Creighton Model of fertility care is the foundation for this approach, monitoring the bio-markers which showcase hormonal changes in a woman’s cycle.

Coupled with natural supplements, and sometimes laparoscopic surgery, NaPro Technology has a very high success rate when used to achieve pregnancy. Because NaPro is a fertility-care based approach and not just a fertility-control approach, many women who achieve pregnancy through this method may find it to be less stressful, more inclusive and a better option overall in catering to the needs of their entire person – mind, body and soul.

Josh Brahm was interviewed by his “new favorite Christian organization Soulation… about how pro-lifers can love pro-choice people better while discussing an emotional issue like abortion”

Pro-life blog buzz 8-30-13

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 Women’s Rights without Frontiers, Reggie Littlejohn reports on Lili Zeng of China, who was forced to abort her first child at nine months pregnant and watch him die in her arms. She has attempted suicide three times since this horrific event. Where is the outrage from feminists and pro-choicers?

Her experience shows that full-term babies born alive after a botched forced abortion may be left to die. Her experience also shows that a woman can be forcibly aborted up to the ninth month of pregnancy with the consent of her presumed husband. Finally, Ms. Zeng’s experience shows that – even when a woman is pregnant with her first child – if it is her husband’s second child, she can be forcibly aborted.

Pro-life Action League comments on the new California law which aims to remedy the abortion doctor shortage by allowing non-physicians (nurses, midwives, and physician assistants) to perform abortions. They must have access to a doctor in the event of complications. Perhaps abortion will now have to be “between a woman and her ‘provider of choice’.” Reminder: CA does not report their state abortion statistics.

Secular Pro-Life takes on the abortion industry’s claims that complications are rare and that abortion regulations are unnecessary:

According to the Guttmacher Institute, which strongly supports abortion, approximately 0.5% of abortion patients have a complication that requires hospitalization. That’s likely a low figure, but let’s assume that they’re right for the sake of argument. When you consider that there are well over one million abortions performed in the United States annually, the number of patients requiring hospitalization after an abortion would be over 5,000! Don’t these 5,000+ women deserve optimal care?…
[T]hink about all the government-required safeguards in place in case a school [catches] fire. There are alarm pull stations, portable and overhead fire extinguishers, emergency exit doors, fire drills, and fire lanes around the school building. Even though school fires are rare, we still plan for the worst-case scenario regardless of the chances of such an event happening.

Good point. But the abortion industry is really concerned with their bottom line, not with safety.


Wesley J. Smith comments on new research that reveals how children remember words they heard prior to birth and how that relates to personhood:

Will this make the Peter Singers and the “after-birth abortion” advocates of the world back off from their dehumanization of late term fetuses and infants? Will we now look at late term abortion as the killing of a full member of the moral community?

Dream on, Wesley! We can’t let evidence of cognitive function get in the way of expedient desires or utilitarian outcomes.

Pro-Life New Mexico thinks there may be a lot of attention and press surrounding Albuquerque’s expected certification of a ballot initiative to ban abortions past 20 weeks.

At National Review Online, Michael J. New discusses the findings of a new Pew research poll showing 49% of Americans find abortion “morally wrong” with only 15% of Americans deeming it “morally acceptable.” The poll also found that women were more likely than men to consider it wrong.

At Stand True, Bryan Kemper has an update on a baby (Michael, pictured below) and mother helped by faithful pro-life workers:

Earlier this year, we told you about a woman who called our office upset at our newsletter asking for donations. God softened her heart as we were on the phone and she opened up and shared with us about her plans to have an abortion. We were able to talk with her and help connect her to a wonderful counselor in her city. After meeting with this counselor she decided to keep her baby and cancelled her abortion.
She lost her job due to this pregnancy and I asked all of you to donate so we could cover her rent and car payment that month. Your generosity was touching and we were able to help her pay her bills and then the counselor was able to help find her a job.

Priests for Life’s Father Frank Pavone and Dr. Alveda King commemorate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington by recalling some words from her uncle, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:

The next thing we must be concerned about if we are to have peace on earth and good will toward men is the nonviolent affirmation of the sacredness of all human life…. When we truly believe in the sacredness of human personality, we won’t exploit people, we won’t trample over people with the iron feet of oppression, we won’t kill anybody.

[Photos via ansirh.org, sciencemag.org by Veikko Somerpuro/The University of Helsinki]

Pro-life blog buzz 8-27-13

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 Live Action News, Calvin Freiburger warns abortion advocates not to party too much over RH Reality Check’s (I’m sure totally nonbiased) analysis claiming abortion is completely safe and already extremely regulated, so pro-life legislation is a waste of time:

 "A-OKs from state agencies don’t automatically settle the issue. No pro-lifer denies that the average abortionist has basic common sense about avoiding punishment and lawsuits, getting paid, or ensuring repeat customers. The bigger issue is that when abortionists do skirt the rules, liberal government officials and abortion movement leaders can’t be trusted to hold them accountable.

The least-acknowledged detail of the Kermit Gosnell case, after all, is that both the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the National Abortion Federation deliberately ignored Gosnell since the early 1990s. Indeed, when faced with those supposedly-nonexistent born-alive abortions, the current occupant of the White House decided nothing should be done about them.zzzz'

Down on the Pharm discusses New York City’s Democratic mayoral candidates, and their apparent efforts to outdo each other with repulsiveness:


Christine Quinn [pictured left], current speaker of the city council, is good buddy to Planned Parenthood and foe to pregnancy care centers. She is pushing to supply the morning after pill in middle schools.

What’s next? Slipping birth control pills into the lunches of elementary students?

• American Life League says the Catholic Church has failed to take a principled stand against Obamacare’s contraception/abortion mandate, even going so far as to accept grants to advance the law’s implementation.

• Big Blue Wave posts a story, written with a pro-abortion bias, profiling the pro-life movement in Canada. There seems to be quite a bit of concern over many young, unabashedly pro-life, “charismatic” leaders.
• Americans United for Life joins with 83 Oklahoma legislators concerned about women’s health and safety by filing an amicus curiae brief in the OK State Supreme Court regarding the use of the abortion drug known as RU-486:

"Women have died when these deadly, life-ending drugs, are administered in ways not advised by the FDA, and yet the abortion industry lobbies and files suit to use them contrary to FDA protocol anyway,” said AUL Action President and CEO Dr. Charmaine Yoest. “It is scandalous that Big Abortion puts its profits over the safety of women….Big Abortion openly flaunts its dangerous misuse of abortion-inducing drugs such as the RU-486 regimen. The FDA approved the drugs only through 49 days gestation — but abortion providers administer them up to 63 days. The drugs are to be taken in a clinic or doctor’s office—but abortion providers send women home to administer the drugs alone and away from medical supervision….”

Ethika Politika wonders why motherhood is considered taboo among young women’s future aspirations:

"Why, in a world constantly reassuring women that they can do anything they want, do so many women identify a sense of embarrassment when admitting a desire to embrace motherhood as a legitimate and stimulating life option?…

The lack of essential connection between sexuality and family gives rise to the phenomena of “choosing to have a family,” a hobby seemingly no different than choosing to start a garden, or choosing to take up marathon running, except with far greater start up and overhead costs. When children are not seen as a good in themselves, but rather as a good dependent upon their parents’ whim, having and raising children becomes inadvertently viewed through a lens of suspicion. Is it really the best thing for a woman to waste economic resources and stay at home enjoying a hobby, when she could be contributing to society? Moreover, if she chose to work and have children, she could outsource the maintenance of the child’s basic necessities to another. She could remain an autonomous contributor to and participant in modern life; she could do so much more than simply raising a child.

"This belies an inherently false assumption, namely, that devoting oneself to the formation and development of the next generation by raising a child is not a worthy endeavor.
40 Days for Life plans to celebrate, on September 7, the closure of the Bryan/College Station Planned Parenthood in Texas, in operation for 15 years. Interestingly, 40 Days chooses not to legitimize abortion facilities as “clinics” because the majority are not licensed as ambulatory surgical treatment centers:"

[Quinn image via NY Daily News; graphic via Ethika Politika]

Pro-life blog buzz 8-23-13

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.

Stand for Life features a video about unsung hero, John Barros. His faithfulness to the cause of life has saved at least 1,000 children from death by abortion. This man is an angel in the flesh: 

Secular Pro-Life invites your participation in a Tweetfest, happening today, to counter a Feminist Majority Foundation’s effort to “encourage wider education on the procedure” and “normalize the conversation.” No doubt, as SPL comments, the FMF “blog carnival” would really just be a way to “spread pro-abortion propaganda.”
Christina at Real Choice is ready for today’s Tweetfest with some great tweet ideas and graphics ready for your use.
Right to Life of Michigan reports a happy ending to a lawsuit brought by an Ann Arbor pro-lifer who was harassed and ticketed for displaying pro-life signs in his vehicle, which was parked outside a Planned Parenthood. Kudos to the pro-lifer who stood up for his free speech rights. The City of Ann Arbor settled the suit for $7,000.


John Smeaton applauds Obianuju (“Uju”) Ekeocha (pictured left), founder and president of Culture of Life Africa, for her “bold defence of Africa against the imposition of contraception by Western agencies….” Smeaton quotes Ekeocha:


[W]hat Africa needs at this time is not a sexual revolution (which has not worked well in the Western world), rather what we need is authentic and sustainable development within the social and cultural frame work of our faith and family-oriented values.
Wesley J. Smith points out how the Baby Boomer generation will long be remembered for ushering in abortion and possibly assisted suicide:


And now, according to Time, we are supposedly going to change “how we die.”…

Boomers are not a great generation. To the contrary, we did shamefully little considering how much we were given. Too busy patting ourselves on the back, perhaps, and breaking the china. Frankly, I think we are going to leave quite a mess. And if we do open the spigots to assisted suicide, it will be to our everlasting shame.
Reflections of a Paralytic says a story she once shared about a young man with Down syndrome has been nominated for a Regional Emmy:

Giving The H from Tom Martin on Vimeo.

[Photo via gadel.info]

Pro-life blog buzz 8-20-13

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 another Planned Parenthood closing – this time in New Jersey. With no fanfare or explanation, the facility in Manville closed. The clinic had come under fire in the past through Live Action stings.

• Clinic Quotes shares remarks on abortion regret from now-deceased actress Gloria Swanson (pictured left):
  
  The greatest regret of my life has always been that I didn’t have my baby… in 1925. Nothing in the whole world is worth the baby, I realized as soon as it was too late, and I never stopped blaming myself.
• Big Blue Wave wonders if pro-lifers should consider sidewalk counseling at IVF clinics. In a couple’s quest for a child, it is easy to get embroiled into the process without understanding the issue of the sanctity of human life. BBL quotes Dr. Peter Saunders at Christian Comment:
  
  Liberal Democrat Peer Lord Alton recently asked in parliament how many embryos have been created in each year since the commencement of the Human Fertilization and Embryology Act 1990, and how many of these have resulted in live births.
  Figures given in reply by the Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Health Earl Howe showed that 3,806,699 embryos have been created since 1990. Between 1992 and 2006 a total of 122,043 live births occurred according to figures from the HFEA given alongside his reply….
  122,043 live births from 3,806,699 embryos represent a success rate of 3.21%. Or, to put it another way, 3,684,656 embryos never made it to birth.
  

• Live Action discusses the success of the A&E show Duck Dynasty, where the starring family talks about abstinence, pro-life values, and the beauty of adoption instead of sex, drugs and rock and roll. Clearly, audiences long for a positive message in media:
  
  The Abstinence Clearinghouse website recently posted a video of Jase and Missy, a couple on the show. Jase is one of Phil’s (the Patriarch of the family) four sons…. Jase and his wife unashamedly admitted they chose to wait till marriage to have sex….
  Along with abstinence the Robertsons address the issue of abortion. Phil Robertson… is a strong supporter of the pro-life movement. Phil’s son Willie shows his love for children by being an adoptive father… [of] a bi-racial son, Will.
  
• Life Training Institute says if we really want to win hearts and minds, we need to learn to “argue” like Westley from the movie, The Princess Bride:
  
  In The Princess Bride, Westley is confronted with sword fights, hand to hand combat with a giant, a battle of wits to the death with a rude Sicilian, and the efforts of an evil prince to separate him from his true love. Though not lacking in strength or will, almost every engagement is peppered with wit and warmth. Even in his more terse and threatening exchanges with Prince Humperdink, his aggression is constrained by the necessity of the situation. It offers a good picture to evaluate our own exchanges in the impossibly charming light of Westley the stable boy turned Dread Pirate Roberts.
• The Leading Edge wonders if viability should even be an issue in the abortion debate:

Pro-life blog buzz 8-16-13

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 Secular Pro-Life, Frank Ludwig investigates the frequency of infanticide occurring in abortion facilities:
  
  Abortion rights campaigners continue to claim that Gosnell was an isolated case, but there are multiple indications, such as the mentioned statements of Melanie Green, Jill Stanek, [TX abortion Douglas] Karpen’s employees, Planned Parenthood and Dr. Emily’s assistant, among many others, that the gosnelling of newborn children is a common method of dealing with failed abortion attempts, in some cases even against the wishes of the mother.

• At Stand True, Bryan Kemper shares ten things students can do to speak for the preborn at their schools:
  
  It is time for us to shine the light on this darkness and be a witness in our schools. This generation must be willing to stand and expose the lies of Planned Parenthood and free young people from the bondage of their deadly cycles.
• Michael J. New points out two recent instances of mainstream media getting it “mostly right” on abortion. He also breaks down some recent abortion polling data among professing Catholics.
• ProWomanProLife links to an appalling story about an adoptive mother (with a Master’s degree in Special Education), who has had two of her special needs children removed from her care because she had placed them on a gluten-free, dairy-free diet under the supervision of her doctor. See video here.

• ProLife NZ points out the use of the term “royal baby” used by the media to describe George, the son of Prince William and Kate, before birth – and what that might mean, both for pro-lifers and pro-choicers.
• Right to Life of Michigan highlights a First Things article in response to a Washington Post editorial decrying the mandating of standards for abortion facilities and doctors. George Weigel at First Things writes:
  
  In many states, abortuaries are not required to meet health and safety standards required of the local McDonald’s or Wendy’s. After testimony in the Gosnell case depicted a foul, cluttered, ghoulish “clinic” in which basic sanitary standards were massively violated, how can anyone reasonably suggest that the case for protecting women by enforcing proper sanitation and safety standards for surgical procedures is “weak”?
  How can anyone reasonably suggest that there is a “weak case” for requiring that those who perform those procedures have the minimal professional credentials of other surgeons and doctors? How can anyone plausibly and conscientiously claim to promote “women’s health” by resisting such regulations?
  
• ProLifeBlogs features an Operation Rescue report of another ambulance transport (this time with the patient needing “advanced life support”) from a “filthy” Virginia abortion mill that has a “history of unsafe conditions.” The state recently passed a law requiring inspections:
  
  The problems at Falls Church Healthcare are more evidence that a safety crisis exists at abortion clinics across America where shoddy, hazardous practices akin to those found in Kermit Gosnell’s Philadelphia “House of Horrors” are the norm, not the exception.

Royal baby did not depend on location and dependence to be human....

Pro Life NZ tells us why the royal birth helps the pro life movement.
We all rejoiced with the birth of Kate and Will's precious baby boy. The lead up to this royal birth served however unwittingly as a reminder that young George was a human being growing in mommy's womb all along. The arguments of location and dependence did not extend to the "royal pregnancy." No news outlet referred to the future heir as products of conception or the royal fetus. It was royal baby all throughout the pregnancy despite the dependence and location of the royal heir.

"It is strange, though, for outlets like the New York Times and the Washington Post and Boston Globe–which purport to be neutral on the issue–to use this seemingly explosive phrase without so much as a qualification. And why is this strange? Because it codes a pro-life position into their description of the unborn child."

Pix: AP photo