by Steven Ertelt | LifeNews.com | 3/25/15 4:46 PM

A new governmental report shows American taxpayers have been forced to send $1.5 billion in federal funds to the nation’s biggest abortion business, Planned Parenthood.

Two years ago, pro-life members of Congress sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) requesting a comprehensive report on which abortion advocacy groups Americans were forced to fund with their tax dollars. Today the government watchdog (GAO) released the requested report which details funding for six abortion advocacy groups over a three year period (2010-2012).

The six organizations researched were Planned Parenthood, Population Council, International Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Guttmacher Institute, Advocates for Youth and Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States.

The report found the Planned Parenthood abortion corporation and its affiliates received $344.5 million in federal funds and another $1.2 billion in funding from Medicaid (which includes a combination of federal and state funds) for a total of $1.5 billion over three years from federal programs. The abortion fiant receives $1.2 billion from Medicaid, $201 million from the Title X family planning program $40.6 million from Title XX Social Services block grants and $25.9 million from the Title V Maternal and Child health Services block grant.

On average, Planned Parenthood receives approximately $500 million a year in taxpayer funds. The report found that the six organizations spent $481 million in federal funding from Fiscal Years 2010 to 2012.

Congresswoman Diane Black, a Tennessee Republican, was dismayed by the numbers.

“This report confirms what we suspected all along: hard-earned taxpayer dollars continue to be used to promote abortions. The GAO study found that Planned Parenthood Federation of America alone – the nation’s largest abortion provider – spent about $1.5 billion in combined federal and state funding during this reporting period. This is shameful and we have a responsibility to stop it,” she said. “As a nurse for more than 40 years, I know that abortion is not health care. In light of this report, Congress should act swiftly by passing the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act, which would help cut off federal funding of organizations like these that promote the destruction of unborn life.”

Representative Black added, “It is a sad irony that this study would be released at a time when Senate Democrats are working against human trafficking and Medicare bills that continue the longstanding Hyde Amendment aimed at prohibiting federal funding of abortions. As the GAO report clearly shows, this amendment alone does not fully prevent the federal funding of abortion providers and promoters.  And let’s not forget, this is information the Obama Administration never wanted us to have. The only reason this report exists is because pro-life Members of Congress specifically demanded it. Greater transparency and accountability is needed to expose how taxpayer dollars are being spent when it comes to abortion. By exposing the facts and shining a light on this egregious misuse of federal dollars, I believe we can successfully mobilize the support needed to defund the big abortion industry once and for all.”

“It shouldn’t take a GAO request from Congress for the American public to know where their tax dollars are being spent. Yet, since I’ve been in Congress, this is the only way we can get answers. That’s why I continue to demand transparency and fight to stop organizations like Planned Parenthood from receiving a single tax dollar. I will continue to do all I can to prevent taxpayers from being forced to support organizations that promote or perform abortions. Greater transparency is critically important and precisely what these groups seek to avoid,” said Congressman Pete Olson.

“The government watchdog (GAO) report issued today found that Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion chain in America, received a whopping $1.5 billion dollars through federal programs over a three year period.  Planned Parenthood—Child Abuse Incorporated—is responsible for killing more than 6 million unborn children, and it is unconscionable that this organization continues to be subsidized by the American taxpayer,” said Congressman Chris Smith.

“Taxpayer funding should in no way support abortions. But when we hand out funding to groups like Planned Parenthood, we know exactly where it’s going – they proudly admit that the majority of their pregnancy-related resources go toward abortions,” said Senator David Vitter. “We can’t let this federal support come at the expense of millions of unborn children.”

Congressman Tim Huelskamp (KS-01): “Sixteen months ago, I joined seventy-one fellow Members of Congress to demand a Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation into how Planned Parenthood, the largest abortionist in the world, uses our tax dollars.  Last week, GAO finally completed their investigation and confirmed much of what we already knew – massive amounts of taxpayer dollars are being pocketed by a group that is snuffing out the lives of nearly 900 babies every day. Handing over 500 million tax dollars annually to a group of abortionists rife with abuses, including fraudulent Medicaid claims, cover-up of rape and incest, and violations of the Hyde Amendment is not only controversial – it is immoral.”

by Steven Ertelt | LifeNews.com | 3/24/15 12:13 PM

We know unborn babies are not clumps of cells or blobs of tissues and ultrasound photos have long confirmed their humanity. As the pro-life movement has focused on the pain unborn children feel when they are victimized by abortion, it’s helped put an additional spotlight on the humanity of babies before birth.

Now, a new series of ultrasounds shows just how much they can be harmed even though they haven’t been born. A series of ultrasound images reveals how unborn babies adversely react when their mother smokes a cigarette.

Dr Nadja Reissland has studied moving 4-d scan images and recorded thousands of tiny movements in the womb. She monitored 20 mothers attending the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough, four of whom smoked an average of 14 cigarettes a day. After studying their ultrasound scans at 24, 28, 32 and 36 weeks, she detected that babies whose mothers smoked continued to show significantly higher rates of mouth movement and self-touching than those carried by non-smokers.

The image is of a 4-d ultrasound scan showing a sequence of movements displayed by two unborn children at 32 weeks gestation which shows fetal movements in a baby whose mother is a smoker (top) and a fetus whose mother is a non-smoker (below). In the image, the baby clearly looks uncomfortable and covering his or her face.

The London Telegraph newspaper features the images and more information:

The pilot study, which Dr Reissland hopes to expand with a bigger sample, indicated that babies carried by smokers may have delayed development of the central nervous system.

The research, conducted by Durham and Lancaster University, is published in the journal Acta Paediatrica.

Dr Reissland, from Durham’s Psychology Department, said: “A larger study is needed to confirm these results and to investigate specific effects, including the interaction of maternal stress and smoking.”

She believed that videos of the difference in pre-birth development could help mothers give up smoking.

But she was against demonising mothers and called for more support for them to give up. Currently, 12 per cent of pregnant women in the UK smoke but the rate is over 20 per cent in the Durham, Darlington and Tees area.

http://www.lifenews.com/2015/03/24/dramatic-ultrasound-photos-show-unborn-baby-grimacing-in-womb-when-mother-smokes/

by Shawn Carney | LifeNews.com | 3/23/15 11:27 AM

We start off the final week of this 40 Days for Life campaign with HUGE news!

Since the first coordinated 40 Days for Life campaign in 2007, we have now received cumulative reports of 10,000 babies who are alive today because their mothers rejected abortion and chose life!

10,000!!

To God be the glory … great things He has done!

Tempe, Arizona

A young couple had just left Planned Parenthood when a 40 Days for Life prayer volunteer caught their attention. As they talked, they explained that they didn’t think they could afford another child.

It turns out they couldn’t even afford the $75 Planned Parenthood wanted to charge them for an ultrasound.

That’s when the vigil participant said they could get a free ultrasound at a nearby pregnancy help center. When the center’s director heard this couple was on the way, she dropped everything and headed back to arrange the ultrasound.

All this time, the young man and woman smiled as they read a brochure about the development of the baby – and talked about what they were seeing.

As they left for the pregnancy center, the woman said, “We hope it’s a boy.”

Houston, Texas

The Houston team tells of a woman who was going to Planned Parenthood to schedule an abortion. But when she got there, the place was closed.

But even though Planned Parenthood was locked up for the day, there was a man praying on the sidewalk. She spoke to him, and he gave her a coupon for free services at the Big Blue Bus – the mobile pregnancy help center that spends many hours every week parked outside the abortion center.

A few days later, she returned and told the counselors on the bus she was there to redeem her coupon. She had changed her mind and chosen life for her unborn child!

“When she saw her baby on the ultrasound,” said one of the volunteers, “she called this man an angel sent from God. If we hadn’t been there with our Big Blue Bus, chances are she would have gone into Planned Parenthood.”

Sharonville, Ohio

The 40 Days for Life vigil in Sharonville takes place outside a business that stopped doing surgical abortions … but still offers chemical abortions.

“From what we understand,” said Mary Jo in Sharonville, “the cost of this is close to what an early-term surgical abortion costs. The abortion clinic continues to make a lot of money even though it is not doing surgical abortions.”

So the volunteers keep praying … and learning that their prayers are being answered.

A young woman who was entering the abortion center accepted some information from volunteers, but went inside anyway. She left … and returned a few days later. But this time, when she came out, she told the volunteers she had changed her mind and was keeping her baby.

“The weather is getting better,” Mary Jo said. “Please consider coming to pray!”

by Andrew Bair | LifeNews.com | 3/19/15 2:42 PM

A recent article published by the Washington Examiner focused on the remarkable pro-life progress being made on the state level.

The article quoted Mary Spaulding Balch, J.D., director of state legislation for the National Right to Life Committee, who said, “In terms of the numbers, we’ve had a pretty good run of it these last few years, and this year we will pass substantive legislation as well.”

However, the article missed the mark regarding groundbreaking legislation making its way through the Kansas and Oklahoma legislatures.

The article noted, “The Kansas and Oklahoma Houses have approved legislation banning abortions performed through a method called ‘dilation and extraction,’ in which a fetus is partially removed from a woman’s uterus.”

The legislation has not yet passed the full Kansas House. The measure passed the full Senate. It has passed a House committee.

The bill is not a ban on the “dilation and extraction” (D&X) technique. That is commonly referred to as partial-birth abortion and unborn children are already protected from that horrific method of abortion. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a ban on partial-birth abortion in the landmark Gonzales v. Carhart case in 2007.

Instead, the bill would end dismemberment abortions, a particularly brutal form of “dilation and evacuation” (D&E) abortions.

The Examiner article displayed a fundamental misunderstanding of what takes place during a dismemberment abortion. In no abortion are unborn babies only “partially removed.”

The entire body of the unborn child must be removed in every abortion regardless of method. Otherwise, the mother would be even more susceptible to infection and severe complications.

A dismemberment abortion, as described in the bill, ends the life of an unborn baby by grasping, pulling and twisting off her tiny limbs from her body using sharp metal instruments. This method is used to abort unborn children as old as 24 weeks, or even later. By this time, the baby’s skull has often hardened to bone and the skull must be compressed or crushed to facilitate removal.

Perhaps what the reporter meant to say is that the unborn baby’s parts are removed limb by limb, piece by piece.

Abortionist LeRoy Carhart described dismemberment abortions in this way while testifying under oath in 2000, “My normal course would be to dismember that appendage and then go back and try to take the fetus out whether foot or skull first, whatever end I can get to first….Just pulling and rotation, grasping the portion that you can get hold of which would be usually somewhere up the shaft of the exposed portion of the fetus …”

The further question was asked, “In that situation, when you pull on the arm and remove it, is the fetus still alive?” Carhart answered, “‘Yes.’ …I know that the fetus is alive during the process most of the time because I can see fetal heartbeat on the ultrasound.”

The passage of legislation to protect unborn babies from dismemberment abortions is a top priority of National Right to Life in 2015.  In addition to saving lives, the bill serves an educational purpose by shining light on the inherent brutality of abortion. Bringing the violent reality of abortion before the public has the power to change hearts and minds in a similar fashion to the successful push to ban partial-birth abortions.

by Kristi Burton Brown | LifeNews.com | 3/17/15 10:26 AM

As usual, Planned Parenthood and NARAL close their eyes to pro-life women. So much so, this time, that they pretend these women don’t even exist

The Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act has been debated all over the media these last few days. And not because Americans actually debate whether we ought to help trafficked women and girls. No, the Trafficking Act has been debated because Democrats decided to oppose it late in the game because the Hyde Amendment – which prohibits federal funds from being used for abortions – was included.

The Hyde Amendment was included from the very beginning, but perhaps Democrats failed to read the actual wording of the legislation. Or, maybe they decided to change course when Planned Parenthood and their cronies started yelling about the proposed law.

Adam Peters wrote for Live Action yesterday about exactly how Planned Parenthood handles victims of human trafficking. (Note: It doesn’t help them with “legal” abortions, despite its claims to the contrary. Instead the abortion giant is content to help pimps secure forced abortions for the women they victimize.)

So instead of looking past a pro-life provision that is a normal part of federal legislation, Planned Parenthood and NARAL decided to come against a law that would help trafficking victims. And, in the process, they are blaming pro-life men and pretending pro-life women don’t even exist.

On March 12, Planned Parenthood retweeted a NARAL tweet, claiming that “only men are supporting #antichoice restrictions in a #humantrafficking bill.”

Wait a second, here. Only men?

Are Planned Parenthood and NARAL really claiming that Senator Joni Ernst – who spoke out in support of the pro-life provision in the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act that same day at a press conference – is a man?

Are they so desperate to pretend there is no such thing as a pro-life woman? Or even a woman who could support basic, popular pro-life legislation like this? So desperate, in fact, that they hide their eyes from Senators Amy Klobuchar, Dianne Feinstein, Deb Fischer, Kirsten Gillibrand, Heidi Heitkamp, Susan Collins, Kelly Ayotte, Shelley Moore Capito – all women who cosponsored this bill?

According to Congress.gov – an official government website – only one woman took her name off the bill as cosponsor: Senator Barbara Boxer.

So despite Planned Parenthood and NARAL’s insistence that “only men” support the pro-life provision in the Act, basic facts prove them wrong. Of course, when you’re in the business of killing, what’s a little lie? And while some of the Democrats are claiming they weren’t aware the Hyde Amendment was included, Senator John Cornyn – head sponsor of the Act – explains it well:

“You can imagine my surprise when — I think it was yesterday that I got calls, letters, heard speeches that people were surprised, shocked that this provision was in the legislation, when of course it was filed in January, I think January the 13th, and made public to the world,” said Cornyn. “If anybody thought it was hidden, it was hidden in plain sight to anybody who cared to read it. And to me what was so surprising about some of the reaction is that this… maintains the status quo. This doesn’t change anything.”

So even though including a prohibition on using taxpayer dollars to pay for abortion is status quo, Planned Parenthood has decided to pick a fight, pretending to stand up for victims of trafficking. Too bad for them that they’ve already been caught on tape helping traffickers victimize underage girls.

It’s time for Planned Parenthood to stop all the pretending. Stop pretending they couldn’t read the bill for themselves. Stop pretending they care about victims of trafficking. And stop pretending that pro-life women – or women who support even the basic, most commonsense pro-life measures – don’t exist.

But I guess, in the end, if it’s so easy for Planned Parenthood to erase the lives of millions of preborn children through abortion, it must not be that difficult to erase the votes, sponsorship, and press conferences of nine women who took a basic pro-life stand.

by Stephanie Krider | LifeNews.com | 3/17/15 9:37 AM

Ohio opinion leaders are sounding off about the appalling fact that our state has the highest black infant mortality rate in the nation — a rate more than twice that for white babies. In Lucas County, African-American babies die at a higher rate than in some third-world countries.

Fundamental to Ohio’s strategies to reduce infant mortality is the recognition that such efforts must begin before babies are born. They must begin in the womb.

Ohio Right to Life’s legislative agenda this year includes defunding Planned Parenthood and redirecting state grants aimed at reducing infant mortality to community institutions that preserve life. Agencies such as the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department can safeguard babies’ lives in a way that an abortion provider never can.

According to Planned Parenthood’s annual report, abortions account for 94 percent of the services it provides to pregnant women. This abortion business claimed 327,653 babies’ lives in 2013. Ohio Right to Life opposes Planned Parenthood because it kills preborn babies. It is an authority on taking lives, rather than saving them.

It is alarming that the State of Ohio is funding Planned Parenthood in the name of fighting Ohio’s black infant mortality crisis. To anyone who knows the history of the organization, this is a grossly offensive revelation. Planned Parenthood’s founder, Margaret Sanger, was a famed eugenicist of the early 20th century. She accepted a dozen invitations to speak to the women’s branch of the Ku Klux Klan and similar groups.

Today, black women have 42 percent of abortions, even though they make up just 12 percent of the population. That is, while black infants in Ohio die at twice the rate of white infants, they are aborted at more than three times the rate.

Yet some leaders express moral outrage at the former statistic, and accuse those of us who also criticize the latter of extremism. This outcry reveals the driving force behind abortion advocacy: discrimination — the arbitrary power to decide who lives and who dies.

Such discrimination decries a child’s death in the crib, but calls it a right in the womb. This bias extends beyond race to touch people with disabilities.

Another item on Ohio Right to Life’s agenda is legislation that would prohibit abortions of preborn babies who are diagnosed with Down syndrome. Today, 99 percent of people with Down syndrome report that their lives are happy. This far outweighs the financial cost or utilitarian value that anyone could put on a human life.

Our agenda promotes and embraces diversity, consistently protecting every human life from conception. It extends empathy to the most vulnerable human beings, seeking to prohibit abortions at the point at which babies can feel pain.

Yet even this proposal evokes the ire of abortion advocates. Surely a culture is debased when it has no apprehension about inflicting pain on others. Wouldn’t a humane society agree to err on the side of caution on the question of whether a 5-month preborn baby can feel pain?

Americans are doing just that: According to a Quinnipiac University poll late last year, 60 percent of Americans support such moderate, bipartisan legislation. Opposition to it reveals the true extremism of abortion advocates.

Planned Parenthood and similar advocates dress up the raw nature of abortion in attractive language that speaks of human rights. But violent discrimination against the innocent, before and after birth, is never a human right.

by Steven Ertelt | LifeNews.com | 3/13/15 3:09 PM

When a pregnant woman takes the dangerous abortion RU 486 abortion pill, there is a chance that the abortion drug can be reversed if she changes her mind in time about aborting her baby. Knowing that, legislators in Arizona are supporting a bill to inform women of that fact

Fr. Frank Pavone is praising an Arizona House committee for passing a first- in-the-nation amendment that would call for women to be informed that if they take the first drug of a two-step chemical abortion process, but not the second, they may be able to stop the abortion process and deliver a healthy baby.

“A woman needs to know that if she undergoes the abortion regimen, RU-486, it may not be too late to save her baby,” said Fr. Pavone.  “Priests for Life Medical Advisor Dr. Matt Harrison has pioneered a technique that has now been adopted by a whole network of physicians in which such babies have been saved. In 223 documented cases, 57 percent of the women who received the abortion reversal treatment have been able to keep their healthy babies.  The Arizona legislature, by adopting this measure, has a chance to save lives and help mothers who change their minds after taking that first pill.”

Dr. Harrison performed the first-ever reversal in 2007. At a press conference in January sponsored by Priests for Life and the American Association of Pro-life Obstetricians & Gynecologists, Dr. Harrison said the baby who was saved is now a healthy and happy 8-year-old girl.

As currently administered, a chemical abortion involves taking the drug mifepristone, which makes the uterus inhospitable to new life and starves the baby. One or two days later, the second drug is taken to induce contractions and expel her child. The reversal process, which is gaining in usage as it becomes more widely known, can reverse the impact of the first drug and allow the baby to continue normal development.  Time is of the essence, though, in starting the reversal process.

Fr. Pavone said Priests for Life will push for the enactment of similar legislation in other states.

“The abortion lobby says women don’t change their minds about abortion. But most who abort are ambivalent, and when a procedure, whether early or late in pregnancy, takes a couple of days, there is a lot of opportunity for that ambivalence to assert itself,” Fr. Pavone explained. “We need to be there with the tools to help that mom and that baby. That is why we are asking counselors, medical professionals, pregnancy centers, pro-life groups, churches, and all citizens to spread the word about the abortion reversal. Moreover, we ask state legislators to introduce bills like the one in Arizona.”