Friday, January 28, 2011

LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report 1/29/11

LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report
Saturday, January 28, 2011

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

Current Headlines

Top Stories
• Attorney General to Probe Second Gosnell Abortion Center
• Appeals Court Upholds Obama Stem Cell Research Order in Second Lawsuit
• Washington University Cancels Bristol Palin Abstinence Talk
• Women Who Had Abortions: Latest Mental Health Study Bogus

More Pro-Life News
• Catholic Healthcare West Awards Grants to Abortion Businesses
• Thune Expects 2012 Decision Next Month, Barbour Considering
• Republican Presidential Nominee Must Be Truly Pro-Life to Win
• Judge Strikes Baltimore Law Targeting Pregnancy Centers 
• Pro-Life Movement Should Lead the Way in Repealing Obamacare
• Poll: 60% of Americans Want to Stop Abortions or Limit Them
• Washington Senate to Hear Anti-Pregnancy Center Bill Wed
• Wisconsin Pro-Life Group OKs David Prosser for Supreme Court

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Attorney General to Probe Second Gosnell Abortion Center
Much of the attention in the national attention-getting case of Kermit Gosnell has been focused on the Pennsylvania abortion center he ran where he killed and injured women in failed abortions and kills newborn infants by snipping their spinal cords. Now the focus is turning towards an abortion center in Delaware that employed him.

As LifeNews.com has reported, Gosnell is connected to two other abortion facilities in two states, including the Atlantic Women's Medical Services in Wilmington, Delaware. Gosnell is associated with Eileen O'Neill and Leroy Brinkley, who owns the Delta Clinic of Baton Rouge and the Atlantic Women's Services in Wilmington, Delaware. Gosnell was employed at the Delaware facility one day per week to do abortions.

Late Thursday, Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden said his office will launch a "wide-ranging" investigation of Gosnell and probe his work at the Delaware abortion facility given the vast problems at his Pennsylvania abortion center.

"Like most of us, I'm disturbed by the allegations that were handed up by the grand jury in Philadelphia," said Biden, according to the News Journal newspaper. He said the probe will focus on "a range of issues and we want to get to the bottom of it."

"It is under way and has been under way," Biden said of the probe, and he indicated staff from his office and Delaware investigators have already met with officials from Pennsylvania to determine if any criminal acts of violations of state health and safety standards occurred in Delaware or by those associated with Gosnell in the state.

The announcement of the probe come on the same day members of Delaware Right to Life and national pro-life groups called for investigations into whether Atlantic and the two other abortion clinics that operate in Delaware are following state laws. Full story at LifeNews.com

Appeals Court Upholds Obama Stem Cell Research Order in Second Lawsuit
The executive order President Barack Obama issued to force taxpayers to finance embryonic stem cell research has been upheld in a decision a federal appeals court issued regarding one of the two lawsuits that have been filed against it.

The National Organization for Embryonic Law, Nightlight Christian Adoptions and eight parents of children adopted as frozen embryos filed one of two lawsuits the executive order faces and the suit is headed by frozen human embryo Mary Scott Doe as representative of a class of unborn children who would be killed in the research the order funds.

A Maryland federal judge has also ready tossed the lawsuit and, this week, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that decision. Judge Harvie Wilkinson, writing for the three-judge panel, called the argument "insufficient" because the plaintiffs could not show that all of the frozen embryos would be harmed by the research.

"The complaint does not identify any of the named plaintiff's particularized characteristics," the ruling says. "Instead, it leaves us only with questions such as whether the embryo will ever be used for research and whether that research will be funded by the National Institutes of Health.. Full story at LifeNews.com

Washington University Cancels Bristol Palin Abstinence Talk
Washington University in St. Louis, one of the most highly-regarded colleges in the nation, is raising eyebrows with its sudden cancellation of a speech on abstinence education Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol Palin was slated to deliver.

The college says it "mutually agreed" with Bristol that she should not participate in a panel discussion on abstinence and that it did not have a contract with Palin.

"Because of the growing controversy among undergraduates over the decision to pay for her talk with student-generated funds, the Student Health Advisory Committee and Palin decided that the message that they intended on sharing would be overshadowed by controversy," the school said in a statement.

The decisions appeared to come after some Washington University students protested Palin's inclusion on the panel and they described the use of students funds to allow her to be a part of the program. The talk was supposed to take place next month during the University's "Sexual Responsibility Week"

The protests were led in part by "Private Practice" star Kate Walsh, a member of the Planned Parenthood board of directors who has been in trouble with pro-life advocates for urging donations and support for the abortion business. Full story at LifeNews.com

Women Who Had Abortions: Latest Mental Health Study Bogus
Although a new study claims women suffer few mental health problems in the aftermath of an abortion, women who have had abortions or work with those who have say the personal evidence significantly counters the study's results. Leaders of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, the world's largest network of individuals harmed by abortion, today slammed a new Danish study published in the New England Journal of Medicine that purports to show that abortion does not increase the risk of subsequent mental health problems.

Georgette Forney, who is one of the founders of the post-abortion group, has personally experienced the mental pain and anguish associated with an abortion decision,

"Frankly, for the thousands of us who have stepped forward publicly and the many more who endure the pain of abortion privately, it's outrageous to hear abortion apologists say that we don't exist," she said. "It's as if the people who designed this report set it up to exclude women at the greatest risk to suffer post-abortion problems – those having repeat abortions or having abortions after thirteen weeks of pregnancy." Full story at LifeNews.com

National Abortion Federation Rejected Gosnell in Pennsylvania, Not Delaware
by Warren Throckmorton
By now the primary facts about the Philadelphia massacre are becoming well known. Kermit Gosnell and several of his staff were charged last week in connection with the deaths of a former patient via a botched abortion and seven infants who were born alive and then murdered at Women's Medical Society, his West Philadelphia clinic. According to the grand jury report of the investigation, Gosnell frequently delivered viable babies and then snipped their spinal cords with scissors, leaving them to die. Prosecutors think there may have been many more than seven since records of other cases were destroyed.

Gosnell even collected body parts in jars which were displayed openly when police raided the clinic to secure evidence of illegal prescription drug dealing. What makes the situation all the more stunning is that state Department of Health regulators deliberately avoided inspecting abortion clinics during the administrations of pro-choice Governors Ridge and Rendell to avoid putting up barriers to abortion.

Less publicized is the fact that Women's Medical Society in Philadelphia was not the only place where Kermit Gosnell performed abortions. Until last year, Gosnell worked one day a week at Atlantic Women's Medical Services in Wilmington, Delaware. In fact, one of the abortions resulting in infant death began in that Delaware clinic. According to the grand jury report, a 17 year old girl came to Atlantic Women's Medical Services with her great aunt and requested a late term abortion. Full story atLifeNews.com

Catholic Healthcare West Awards Grants to Abortion Businesses
Catholic Healthcare West is under fire again — this time for awarding grants to various nonprofit groups — including two abortion businesses. This comes after a Catholic bishop said the company was no longer faithfully Catholic. CHW issued $1.2 million in grants or organizations in central California earlier this month, according to Father John Malloy, who conducted research into the grants earlier this month and posted the results at his blog. The grants include donations to Planned Parenthood and Women's Health Specialists, both of which do abortions.

"On January 6, 2011, Catholic Healthcare West awarded nearly $1.2 million in grants to various nonprofit organizations in Sacramento, Placer, Yolo and Nevada counties," Malloy says.

CHW, which has a history of promoting abortions, is represented in the Sacramento area by Mercy Hospitals and the grants came through the Capitol Community Health Network.

"The CCHN consists of 12 member clinics, all of which are listed on its website. They include Planned Parenthood Mar Monte and Women's Health Specialists. Members of the CCHN Board of Directors include Shauna Heckert, who is also the Executive Director of Women's Health Specialists and Deborah Ortiz, the Vice-President of Planned Parenthood Monte Mar," Malloy said. "The services provided by Planned Parenthood are well known. Like Planned Parenthood, Women's Health Specialists are pro-abortion activists." Full story at LifeNews.com

Medical professionals are on the front lines of battle. From abortion to assisted suicide, we are challenged in the workplace. The National Association of Pro-life Nurses has been here for nurses since the beginning. Join with us. www.nursesforlife.org

Republican Presidential Nominee Must Be Truly Pro-Life to Win
With the announcement that Congressman Mike Pence is not running for president, the 2012 Republican presidential race is officially in motion as a slew of contenders are expected to announce in the coming months that they will or won't run. Whichever candidate becomes the nominee, it's almost a guarantee that they will need to be pro-life to win. Over the last several Republican presidential races, pro-abortion candidates have gone and gone — mostly without coming anywhere close to getting the nomination.

Despite massive media attention and buzz and standing atop the polling data for months, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani fell flat on his face in 2008 — spending hundreds of millions of dollars to accumulate one delegate and be brushed aside early by pro-life candidates. Former candidates or potential candidates ranging from Pete Wilson to Arlen Specter to Steve Forbes (in 1996) have failed to win the Republican nomination on platforms opposed to the pro-life views of a strong majority of grassroots Republicans. Full story at LifeNewscom

Judge Strikes Baltimore Law Targeting Pregnancy Centers
A federal judge has struck down a Baltimore law that was the subject of a lawsuit brought by the Archdiocese of Baltimore because it unfairly attacks pregnancy centers that provide women with abortion alternatives.
A non-compliant pregnancy center may also be subject to a criminal misdemeanor charge under the law and, if convicted, the pregnancy center is subject to a fine of $200, plus $50 for each day the offense continues. The non-payment of fines could result in the pregnancy center being held in contempt of court.

Judge Garbis in Baltimore granted summary judgment finding the anti-pregnancy center law is viewpoint-based and impermissible to render constitution under the First Amendment. He dismissed without prejudice all other claims and found a couple of the plaintiffs lacked standing (including the Archbishop and the Catholic church that provides space for one of the pregnancy centers that filed suit) but the ruling is viewed as a substantial victory by pro-life advocates. Full story at LifeNews.com

Pro-Life Movement Should Lead the Way in Repealing Obamacare
by Dr. Michael New
As pro-lifers return from this week's March for Life in Washington, DC, there exist plenty of reasons for optimism. In recent years pro-lifers have made impressive gains in the court of public opinion. These gains have been the largest among America's youth and the media reports of the March will undoubtedly express surprise at the number of students who were in attendance. Furthermore, even though recent statistics indicate that abortions increased slightly in 2008, the overall numbers have dropped by nearly 25 percent since the early 1990s. These are all good signs. Unfortunately, amidst all this sunny news, one development from 2010 has the ability to undermine much of the hard fought progress the pro-life movement has made since the Roe v. Wade decision. That is, of course, this last spring's passage of Obamacare. Full story at LifeNews.com

Poll: 60% of Americans Want to Stop Abortions or Limit Them
Just days after the nation marked 38 years of virtually unlimited abortions following the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision, a newly-released CBS News poll shows 60 percent of Americans want abortions stopped or more limits on them. CBS News conducted a poll December 17-20 of last year and released the results yesterday. Full story at LifeNews.com

Washington Senate to Hear Anti-Pregnancy Center Bill Wed
On Wednesday, members of a Washington state Senate committee will hold a hearing on legislation attacking pregnancy centers that offer women abortion alternatives. The legislation would create two classes of medical/pregnancy centers based on whether or not they provide abortions. It would require centers not doing abortions to disclose that fact in five different languages (English, Spanish, Chinese, Cambodian, and Laotian) in 30 point font notices they would be required to place on the front door of the centers, and on any advertisement or notice promoting the center's services. Full story at LifeNews.com

Wisconsin Pro-Life Group OKs David Prosser for Supreme Court
A statewide pro-life group in Wisconsin says voters should re-elect David Prosser to his current position on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. With high court races not usually occupying the attention of voters, having the support of the pro-life community could make the difference in the election. There are three candidates vying to replace Justice David Prosser, who was appointed to the court in 1998. JoAnne Kloppenburg, an assistant  attorney general, Marla Stephens, head of the appellate division in the state Public Defenders office, and Joel Winnig, a Madison attorney, are seeking to replace him. Full story at LifeNews.com

 

Join Alveda King's Save The Life Centers Campaign to stop NYC's bill to censure and cripple pro-life centers. 60% of NYC blacks abort! 41% of NYC Hispanics abort. The rate in 2008 41% of babies conceived in NYC were aborted. EMC Life Centers Saved 3,000 babies in 2009.