Pro-Life Page

by Steven Ertelt | Seoul, South Korea | LifeNews.com | 8/18/14 10:08 AM

Over the weekend, Pope Francis visited a memorial in South Korea dedicated to remembering babies who have been victimized by abortions.

The leader of the Catholic Church is inspired by something done in and around The Vatican shortly after the death of Jesus Christ.

Dug into the walls of the ancient Christian catacombs in the outskirts of Rome are countless small tombs, only a foot or two across. These are the burial places of infants cast out of their pagan homes and left to die of starvation and exposure—a common practice of that time. Members of the Early Church, charged by Christ to love all their neighbors, offered these tiny victims of Roman cruelty the only act of love they could: to bury their little bodies and mourn for them in prayer.

The abortion memorial, located at the Kkottongnae home for the sick about 120 miles from Seoul, is a field dotted with white crosses and statues of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus as a child. Francis paused briefly at the site, bowed his head and folded his hand in prayer, the Boston Globe reports.

Jung Kwang-ryul of the Kkottongnae community, described the site as a “one-of-a-kind memorial,” saying the Pope’s stop is “a clear testimony of his defense of life.”

“It is necessary to reiterate the strongest opposition to any direct attack on life, especially innocent and defenseless, and her unborn child in the womb is the innocent par excellence,” the pope said in April.

The Kkttongnae Home, located in the Diocese of Cheongju, was created in 1976 by Father John Oh, the founder of the Kkottongnae Brothers and Sisters of Jesus. The priest was inspired by a beggar named Choi Gwi Dong to feed 18 other sick beggars despite his own physical handicaps.

It offers assistance to the homeless, disabled individuals and alcohol addicts. Currently it can serve around 5,000 people.

The Cemetery for Aborted Children is located behind the home and includes a statue of the Holy Family surrounded by cross representing the unborn.

During the National Day of Remembrance for Aborted Children next month in the United States, mourners across the country will visit the gravesites of aborted children, whose broken bodies were recovered from trash dumpsters and pathology labs and solemnly buried over the four decades of legal abortion in the United States.

by Brad Mattes | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 8/15/14 6:02 PM

We used to call my dear friend, mentor and colleague, Dr. Jack Willke, the father of the pro-life movement. These days, as he nears 90 years old, we call him the grandfather of the pro-life movement. I’ve had the distinct honor and privilege to learn much from Jack over the years.

For decades, he’s been saying we’ll end abortion if not for the simple reason that pro-lifers are the ones having babies and the pro-abortion people aren’t. Eventually, we’ll outnumber them. Although that seemed a compelling theory, I wondered if we’d ever have tangible evidence to support it. Now, we do. A study from the Social Science Research Network proves he’s right.

Historically, public support of abortion rights increased following Roe v. Wade in large part due to the mistaken notion that just because it’s legal it’s okay. Since that time, public support for abortion has remained relatively flat and recent years are showing a reversal toward greater support for the pro-life position. This is significant because the percentage of opposition to abortion among young adults is particularly strong. And this trend is occurring while society is growing more liberal on other issues, such as homosexual marriage. Why is the abortion issue different?

Researchers J. Alex Kevern and Jeremy Freese of the Department of Sociology at Northwestern University assert that there’s a connection between fertility and abortion attitudes. The basis of their research is 34 years of data compiled in the General Social Survey by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago between the years of 1977-2010. In-person surveys were conducted with over 55,000 respondents to collect both demographic information and opinions on issues varying from political to religious and social concerns.

The premise is that opinion on the abortion issue is largely determined from parent to child. When factoring in the issue of fertility, those who have more children are therefore more likely to shape the cultural opinions of future generations. It should come as no surprise thatpro-lifers have had, on average, 27% more children than those who are pro-abortion. Estimates show pro-lifers have roughly 3 children (2.82) for every 2 children of those who support abortion. As those children come of age and have children of their own, the gap between pro-abortion and pro-life is widening in our favor.

The difference is seen generationally. When surveyed at ages 23-34, those born in 1950-1955, were 44.7% in favor of abortion. One generation removed, those born in 1975-1980 were surveyed at the same age and found that only 38.8% were “pro-choice.” It’s reasonable to expect that the next generation’s results will be even lower.

How can we help to ensure that this downward trend continues? We must invest in this nation’s most precious, renewable resource—our children. Start young, even as young as toddlers, help them to understand that babies grow inside their mother’s tummies. As they get older, use educational tools, such as books and the media to reinforce pro-life beliefs. Continue to affirm your values with teens, empowering them to be proactive and take a stand for life. You have the power to plant seeds of life that will grow for generations to come.

Furthermore, I found it interesting that their analysis revealed if there were no difference in the number of children between pro-life and pro-abortion individuals, the population would be about five percentage points more pro-abortion. Our families are making a difference. This shows that as parents, when we invest in our children and share our pro-life beliefs,we’re not just shaping our sons and daughters; we’re shaping the future of the world.

We’re winning the battle on many fronts. And I think it’s fitting that by actually giving life, we’re strengthening the pro-life cause even more. I’m going to forward this email to my married son.

by Tom Ciesielka | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 8/14/14 3:47 PM

Yesterday, the Thomas More Society filed an amicus brief urging the United States Supreme Court to hear a case involving “Choose Life” license plates, in order to resolve disputes among lower courts over how to treat specialty license plates.

The brief is brought on behalf of Choose Life America, Choose Life Wisconsin, and Illinois Choose Life, and urges the Justices to hear the case and uphold broad free speech rights for license plates.

“Every American should have the opportunity to purchase a ‘Choose Life’ license plate,” said Peter Breen, Thomas More Society vice president and senior counsel. “While most states allow a broad range of messages on specialty license plates, the ACLU and its allies have diminished free speech by preventing Americans from obtaining ‘Choose Life’ plates in many states. Because some lower courts have agreed with the ACLU and silenced free speech, we urge the Supreme Court to reaffirm the broad free speech rights of citizens to have the message of their choice on their license plates.”

“Choose Life” license plates are available in 29 states and the District of Columbia, and the revenue they generate benefits adoption-related organizations, including pregnancy care centers that serve mothers in need. North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Illinois are among the states where “Choose Life” plates are not available, either due to inaction by the legislature or court action to suppress the plates.

“It makes no sense that the ‘Choose Life’ specialty plate is upheld by some courts and condemned by others,” added Steve Crampton, Thomas More Society special counsel. “Thousands of drivers wish to purchase ‘Choose Life’ specialty plates in order to express their personal views in favor of an important societal issue, but they are not able to do so because of confusing contradictions in the lower courts. It’s high time that this conflict is resolved once and for all–the forum of specialty plates should include all speech.”

by Steven Ertelt | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 8/12/14 11:53 AM

A pro-life group is demanding more information about a deal the IRS has struck with an atheist groupto monitor the content of sermons.

The next time your pastor delivers a pro-life sermon or urges the congregation to stand up for pro-life values in the political or public arena, he could be taken to task by the IRS.

Last month, the pro-life legal group Alliance Defending Freedom asked the Internal Revenue Service Tuesday to release all documents related to its recent decision to settle a lawsuit with an atheist group that claims the IRS has adopted new protocols and procedures for the investigation of churches.

ADF submitted the Freedom of Information Act request after learning of the IRS’s agreement with Freedom From Religion Foundation in a press release the group issued on July 17 concerning its lawsuit Freedom From Religion Foundation v. Koskinen, which accused the agency of failing to investigate churches the way the atheist group would like.

The IRS claims it is temporarily withholding investigations of all tax-exempt entities because of congressional scrutiny of its recent scandals, but no one knows when it will decide to restart investigations based on any new or modified rules that it develops.

Now, the pro-life group Faith and Freedom Coalition is demanding release of a secret legal agreement between the IRS and an atheist group about censoring the content of  sermons and other messages heard in houses of worship by challenging their tax-exempt status.

As the Daily Signal reports:

The agreement followed the voluntary dismissal of a 2012 lawsuit filed in federal court by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a nonprofit atheist organization that advocates strict separation of church and state.

The suit attempted to force the Internal Revenue Service to question the tax-exempt status of churches and other houses of worship when priests, pastors, rabbis and other clergy preach in a way that has “political implications.

The agreement reached July 17 between the atheist group and the IRS has not been made public. Nor has the IRS stated what new protocols or provisions it agreed to follow in enforcing the tax code.

Causing alarm among Christian organizations such as the Faith and Freedom Coalitionwas a statement released by Freedom From Religion Foundation’s president, Annie Laurie Gaylor, calling the group’s settlement with the IRS a “victory.” Gaylor wrote:

This is a victory, and we’re pleased with this development in which the IRS has proved to our satisfaction that it now has in place a protocol to enforce its own anti-electioneering provisions.

Adding teeth to the agreement, Gaylor added, her group “could refile the suit if anti-electioneering provisions are not enforced in the future against rogue political churches.”

Ralph Reed, chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, said:

Given the history of the IRS in harassing, persecuting and infringing on the First Amendment rights of Christians and other people of faith, this is a deeply disturbing development. For the Christian community to be targeted for increased enforcement power and the threat of loss of tax-exempt status by this scandal-plagued agency defies logic, common sense, and any sound legal basis.

“Secrecy breeds mistrust, and the IRS should know this in light of its recent scandals involving the investigation of conservative groups,” said ADF Litigation Counsel Christiana Holcomb. “We are asking the IRS to disclose the new protocols and procedures it apparently adopted for determining whether to investigate churches. What it intends to do to churches must be brought into the light of day.”

|The Daily Caller|

Posted By Tristyn Bloom On 7:04 PM 08/11/2014

An Arizona Planned Parenthood clinic failed to report the rape of an underage girl, thereby facilitating the sexual assault of more young women, according to a complaint filed with the Department of Health Services last week.

The complaint, which calls on the department to investigate the clinic for ignoring mandatory reporting laws, alleges that when the girl’s mother brought her in for an abortion after her rape, a clinic worker told them that filing a sexual assault report would be too much of a “hassle.” The alleged rapist, Tyler Kost, has been charged with 27 felonies for assaulting 11 girls ranging in age from 12 to 17 years old. He is currently being held without bond “to protect the public’s safety,” according to Pinal County Attorney Lando Voyles.

Kost allegedly assaulted four more minors between the girl’s abortion in January and his arrest in May.

Shortly after his arrest, the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office called on the Arizona attorney general to pursue a criminal investigation of the clinic for failing to report the assault and allocated resources to assist with the investigation. When asked whether they were preparing an investigation, the attorney general’s office declined to comment. Failure to report sexual conduct with a minor in Arizona is a Class 6 felony. Some states impose penalties for acting to prevent a report, although Arizona is not currently one of them.

“The allegations against Planned Parenthood AZ and its employees are not merely that it remained silent, which it is itself a crime,” the complaint explains. “The allegations are that Planned Parenthood deliberately misrepresented sexual abuse on a minor by Mr. Kost by deliberately miscoding a sexual assault as ‘consensual.’ Moreover, because [Arizona state law] 36-2161 requires abortion providers to file a report that includes the reason for an abortion, it is reasonable to conclude that this mandatory report form, even if filed, also contained false information.”

The department complaint, filed by the conservative legal nonprofit Alliance Defending Freedom, doesn’t concern criminal charges but violations of licensing requirements. According to the Arizona Department of Child Safety, mandatory reporters include “any physician, physician’s assistant, optometrist, dentist, osteopath, chiropractor, podiatrist, behavioral health professional, nurse, psychologist, counselor or social worker…who reasonably believes that a minor is or has been the victim of physical injury, abuse, child abuse, a reportable offense or neglect.”

Under Arizona’s recently passed Women’s Health Protection Act, the Department of Health Services now has the authority to immediately investigate any abortion clinic it has reasonable cause to believe is violating regulations. The legislation was motivated in part by undercover footage released last year of an Arizona abortion doctor admitting nothing would be done to save the life of a child born alive during an abortion procedure, in direct violation of Arizona law.

The complaint calls on the department to make use of that new authority and immediately investigate not just the clinic in Tempe, but all Arizona Planned Parenthood facilities.

A Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado is currently being sued for having sent a 13-year-old girl back with the abusive stepfather, who impregnated her after performing her abortion. Despite her young age, clinic workers neither asked her about potential abuse nor reported suspected abuse after performing the abortion.

“Planned Parenthood has violated the health and safety of our daughters, putting them at risk,” said Alliance Defense Fund Senior Counsel Michael J. Norton. “The Arizona attorney general and Department of Health Services should immediately investigate the Tempe facility to ensure no other young woman is told that sexual assault isn’t worth the ‘hassle’ of filing the mandatory report with police.”

by Eric Porteous | LifeNews.com | 8/6/14 10:35 AM

You work hard for your money, and as a good, upstanding citizen, you pay your taxes, trusting that those dollars will be used to benefit the greater community. They should not be wasted. They should not be abused. And it’s reasonable to believe that any organization that benefits from those dollars should not be caught up in potential fraud.

But, if actions speak louder than words, that’s clearly not how Planned Parenthood sees it.

We recently released our Annual Report on Planned Parenthood Affiliates and State Family Planning Programs. So, what did we find?

A large number of federal and state audits have documented that improper practices from Planned Parenthood and state family planning agencies have resulted in a minimum of $115 million in losses to American taxpayers.

A minimum of $115 million…lost.

What else could those tax dollars have gone to? They could have been used to help the homeless, improve education, or support foster or adoptive families. Perhaps they could have been used to help the economy or support our veterans. Instead, they went to support waste, abuse, and potential fraud by Planned Parenthood and other state family planning programs.

Is that where you want part of your paycheck to go?

Much of Planned Parenthood’s potential fraud was found in their unlawful billing practices, including: duplicate billing for examinations and products, billing for services that weren’t medically necessary, billing for services that weren’t really provided, and more.

You read that right. In some circumstances, Planned Parenthood was paid for services they didn’t even provide! Could you imagine paying your doctor for an annual physical without him actually giving you an annual physical?

Ridiculous.

The potential fraud goes even deeper. As the report indicates:

·     “At Planned Parenthood of Southwest Michigan (PPSWMI), a May 2010 audit revealed bank statements accumulated for up to six months before being reconciled, and personal expenses such as household bills being paid as company expenses.”

·     “In Vermont, Planned Parenthood of Northern New England Action Fund agreed to pay a $30,000 fine to the Vermont Office of the Attorney General for failing to comply with political committee reporting requirements relating to $119,437 it spent in the 2010 gubernatorial election.”

·     “Planned Parenthood affiliates have also been fined or settled in cases involving wrongful death / medical malpractice, failure to report child sexual abuse and rape, and regulatory violations.”

These are just some of the stories. But, don’t just take it from me. You can read about it all in our annual report on Planned Parenthood.

Take Action

It’s time to hold Planned Parenthood accountable. We must investigate their plan.

Spread the word to your friends, family, and followers on social media. And be sure to contact your local congressman or senator to investigate Planned Parenthood for waste, abuse, and potential fraud.

Question: What other ways can $115 million be used to benefit society? 

by Kathy Ostrowski | Topeka, KS | LifeNews.com | 8/4/14 5:17 PM

Reporters are still contacting Kansans for Life to ask what we think is the real reason the Aid for Women clinic closed abruptly last Saturday.

Our executive director, Mary Kay Culp, responded

“It’s hard to know for sure why the clinic closed, but if it’s as we suspect– that women are better informed and more protected from clinic exploitation due to new state laws–clinic owners and operators would be the last to admit it.”

Culp is referencing the state of Kansas-provided “Woman’s Right to Know” information.

Aid for Women so hated having to post the statement

“The abortion will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being”

on their website’s consent form, that they added this ‘commentary’:

This [statement] is untruthful because the fetus is quite dependent upon, not separate from, the maternal placental oxygen and nutrient acquisition and kidney’s waste disposal. The word “whole” implies “complete” but the fetus is not truly completed until birth. Also, cancer is unique, human and living, yet not deserving of life.

In response to such abortion clinic “factoids,” the state of Kansas enacted a law, effective July 2013 (tweaked slightly in May 2014), that requires each Kansas abortion business to post this on its homepage:

“The Kansas Department of Health and Environment maintains a website containing information about the development of the unborn child, as well as video of sonogram images of the unborn child at various stages of development, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment`s website can be reached by clicking here [www.womansrighttoknow.org].”

Isn’t it instructive that not just the abortion clinic but other abortion proponents are reduced to hysterically bad-mouthing scientifically accurate information? When women go to an abortion clinic’s website, they should be able to see the truth about their unborn baby before they commit to further action. It is a fair inference, is it not, that equipped with accurate information, fewer women would chose abortion?

On Monday’s show, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow recycled some of Aid for Women’s criticism. For example, Maddow said

“[T]he state of Kansas newly requires all abortion clinics to post this about the state’s official ‘talk you out of an abortion’ website…. And the clinic has made clear as day in context that they think that is hooey… that you shouldn’t believe, but they made us put it out.”

To emphasize the “burden” on the abortion clinic of having to provide an informational link, Maddow shows how Aid for Women added an ‘introduction’ to the mandated link on their homepage (archived here):

“We’re being forced by Republicans to use our website resources to say untruthful things about the state’s pro-life website in hopes you will visit their website and change your mind away from having an abortion. We must have this signage or go to jail. Republicans also don’t believe that rape causes pregnancy, nor that there can ever be too many children. They are stupid. Let’s vote them out of office. However, here goes.”

Maddow is obviously highly sympathetic to the Aid for Women business, quoting the clinic manager as revealing that they had struggled for eight years to find a replacement for the aging abortionist.

In addition, Maddow voices the clinic manager’s complaint of “ingratitude.” Maddow said,

“He told us, ‘We cannot seem to get some of these Gen Xers to take it seriously and vote. Why am I the only one fighting this?…The generation of patients whom we have helped need to step up and carry the torch instead of assuming clinic workers will always fight their battle.’ ”

So what do we learn from Maddow? That the poor abortion clinics are burdened by providing informational weblinks to pregnant women, when the unborn child is just like cancer, right?

Now that is hooey.

by Carole Novielli | Austin, TX | LifeNews.com | 8/1/14 9:28 AM

Another abortion center in Texas has closed as a result of the new abortion law which took effect last year.

On their blog page, abortion clinic chain Whole Woman’s Health announced the closure of their Austin center.

The announcement reads:

With extremely heavy hearts, we’re announcing today that Whole Woman’s Health of Austin is closing its doors days before our trial against House Bill 2 begins.

Austin was our flagship clinic, serving the community of Central Texas with the best abortion care available to women for over ten years. House Bill 2, which passed last summer, has forced us into yet another closure, this time because we’re unable to meet the standards of an ambulatory surgical center at this location.

In October the Beaumont Whole Woman’s abortion centers was inspected and what authorities found was abysmal.

According to a recent state inspection report, Whole Woman’s failed to have some of the same life-saving tools on site that Convicted abortionist Kermit Gosnell was cited for in Pennsylvania.

In March of 2011, Operation Rescue documented widespread abortion abuses at a dozen Texas abortion clinics. Among the worst offenders was Whole Women’s Health. The McAllen office discoveries were particularly disturbing. Dumped in the trash were the bloody refuse of several abortions along with the names of patients and other private information.

Among the discoveries at several WWH clinics, Patient logs and other records were discovered on Whole Women’s Health forms and the bloody remains of abortions came in bags with other documents bearing Whole Women’s Health’s name. Operation Rescue has made examples of this evidence public.

In November, Life Dynamics, a national pro-life group in Denton, Texas sent fliers to every hospital warning them the abortion lobby was going to attempt to get privileges:

According to the Dallas Morning News, the Austin abortion facility is the 17th clinic to close in Texas since November when a new law went into effect requiring doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at hospitals within 30 miles of the clinics. The same law will require clinics to meet the same strict structural standards required of ambulatory surgical centers by September of this year. Fourteen of the 20 clinics still operating do not meet those standards.

by Kristan Hawkins | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 7/29/14 12:42 PM

Because Planned Parenthood is always looking for a way to normalize abortion and make it seem mainstream, accepted and no big deal, (see their funding of the “abortion comedy” movie flop Obvious Child), their president Cecile Richards found something equally appalling to compare the ending of a child’s life to: men’s colonoscopies.

Ms. Richards was recently on PBS with Bill Moyers and talked about the recent ruling from the Supreme Court on buffer zones for abortion protestors and sidewalk counselors. Here is what she said:

BILL MOYERS: What do you think will come from the court’s junking of the 35-foot buffer zone?

CECILE RICHARDS: Well, we’re already seeing in Massachusetts that absolutely, immediately after that decision eliminating the buffer zone we had record numbers of protesters outside of the following women all the way up to the door of our health center in Massachusetts. These are not all kindly, elderly ladies simply whispering in the ears.

And even if they were, it is the right of women in this country to be able to access healthcare that they need without harassment and without the advice of dozens of people outside their health center. I mean, can you imagine if, you know, if men in this country, before going into their doctor had to walk through a gauntlet of protesters telling them, you know, whether it’s not to get a colonoscopy or just go down the list? It’s incredible.

Imagine those signs – “Colonoscopies Exploit Men!” or “Abolish Colonoscopies” or “Pro-Men, Anti-Colonoscopy”.

As uncomfortable as a colonoscopy may be, it is a valid medical procedure that saves lives (as opposed to ending them) and is a necessary and actual medical process, something that is considered “healthcare” by the general public and medical field. On the other hand abortion takes life and is not considered healthcare – abortion hasn’t been subsidized by the government since 1976 through the Hyde Amendment until Obamacare came around.

This is a tactic that Planned Parenthood and the abortion lobby need to employ to get the public on their side. But it isn’t working. In fact, the New York Times reports today that abortion advocates are pulling away from the term “pro-choice” because it doesn’t mean anything. Why? Maybe because an actual pro-choice person would want women to see ultrasounds before they decide to have an abortion or to have access to all the information they could on what abortion is, how it affects the women on a physical, mental and spiritual level. Logically, the term pro-choice just doesn’t make sense.

The abortion lobby wants to use terms like “women’s health” instead to promote abortion. But women’s health isn’t about abortion. Please. Any woman is going to see through that façade.

Women’s health isn’t about abortion – it’s about mammograms (which Planned Parenthood doesn’t do), well visits, making sure women are eating healthy and taking care of themselves so they can take care of their families, mental well-being, work-life balance, and other things that yes, deal with reproduction, but also deal with the impressive body and inner workings of being a woman. The “right” to end the life of her child doesn’t encompass “women’s health.”

Planned Parenthood and their allies are losing. They are struggling to figure out how to articulate their position of wanting to perform as many abortions as possible in order to increase their bottom line. They are trying to message around the fact that they exploit women and their preborn babies every day for profit. No wonder they are on the losing end.