Pro-Life Page

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

by Sarah Terzo | LifeNews.com | 1/12/15 4:33 PM

 

Lauren Enriquez wrote an article  a week ago about pro-choice author Magda Denes. Denes, who survived Nazi Germany, held on to a pro-choice viewpoint even when confronted with the horrors of abortion while researching her book, In Necessity and Sorrow: Life and Death in an Abortion HospitalHer book, though written many years ago, reveals some basic truths about abortion. Here are some quotes from the book that illustrate key points.

Abortion takes lives

Denes quotes three different abortion doctors.

One says:

When you do a D & C most of the tissue is removed by the Olden forceps or ring clamp and you actually get gross parts of the fetus out. So you can see a miniature person so to speak, and even now I occasionally feel a little peculiar about it because as a physician I’m trained to conserve life and here I am destroying life.

Another says:

In the beginning I was mixed up because I was taught by the Hippocratic Oath not to take a life.

And a third:

It [abortion] goes against all things which are natural. It’s a termination of a life, however you look at it.

 

“Babies” are killed

A clinic worker says:

A lot of people say they’re killing their baby. You get a lot of that. Some people afterwards get very upset and say ‘I killed my baby.’ Or even before, they say ‘My circumstances are such that I can’t keep it, but I’m killing my baby.’ They wouldn’t rather have the baby, and give it up for adoption either. If you go into that with them they will say that they could never do that…and yet they still consider it killing the baby…well, they are killing a baby. I mean, they are killing something that would develop into maturity…

Doctors know it’s murder

Denes was interviewed in a newspaper about her book and said:

There wasn’t a doctor, who at one time or another in the questioning did not say, “This is murder.”

(Daily News [Chicago] October 22, 1976, Quoted in Abortion: The Silent Holocaust by John Powell, S.J. p 67)

Abortion is profitable

So Denes, although she is pro-choice, has documented how abortion providers in one busy abortion clinic all acknowledge that they are in the business of taking lives. Why do they do it? One doctor gives a reason:

It’s not a purely altruistic …. The money that’s involved is also a big factor in why to do this. And I think that most doctors who do abortions also do them for the money’s sake. It’s a big motive, and certainly it’s nothing to be hypocritical about.

Another doctor says:

I practice medicine not to make a living and yet I like to make money at it. We made a lot of money in abortions. … For the first two or three months I didn’t do any of the abortions… Then I suddenly realized I had all the headaches because whenever they ran into trouble I got involved. I took over gradually and work two days a week and I found that I work very hard, but it made an awful lot of money.

And some abortionists think women aren’t deserving of respect

One doctor says:

The patients are subservient to us, and when they rebel it’s very simple: Go to somebody else….What better relationship can a man have with a woman? Besides, if you finger f*ck thirty women a day with your fingers, and in a way you do, this is a form of sexual violation.

Clinic workers sometimes criticize the doctors:

I really feel that about several of the doctors. That there’s really pathological things and their involvement with abortion. Like Dr. Roderigo. [pseudonym] He is very sarcastic and he really, you know, like goes after people. Recently he had a horrendous fight with Rachel [another clinic worker]. It was absolutely, totally disgraceful. It happened right in the nurse’s station. He flew at her. Cursing, screaming out loud, yelling, you could hear it all over the whole floor. It was incredible, I mean, imagine the kind of feeling that gives the patients on the floor. He was just out after her and it had to do with her being a woman, in her position, kind of…”

And reveal a lack of concern about patient care:

Our surgeons have a technique, even though I shouldn’t really say this, where they don’t really scrub between cases. They’ll scrub once and they’ll do a case and they’ll go next door to the next room and put on a new gown and gloves. Without scrubbing between.  

Clinic workers silence their consciences

Clinic workers describe how they have hardened themselves to the death of the babies:

I’m not one to see blood and mess and things like that. But I have since gotten so excited about it that I thought about going back to nursing school. When you think about it on a certain level, it’s a really interesting thing that is happening. It’s fascinating, when you can think about it clinically and not get involved in the people, or the babies. What happened when I was first working here was that I just thought about the baby and that was very upsetting. I’m very pro-abortion… several times I saw a really beautiful things happen, I mean it’s physically beautiful… Sometimes you can see the vagina opening up in the entire thing coming at once.

Another says:

[Abortion] hasn’t had any effect on me at all. …. I don’t know if it’s because I’m a male, but when I leave here I don’t feel worried, as if I’ve done something wrong. It’s like any other type of surgery, I just consider it a job. I once did say to myself, “Gee, suppose I’d one day have a dream and see thousands of fetuses running after me.” ….I feel funny sometimes taking on a fetus by D&C even, when you can see the heart beating. Even with D&C’s you get these feelings that you are doing something wrong. Especially when you see arms and legs coming out. It comes out in so many pieces. We had nurses that couldn’t adjust to this type of work. Many of them quit.”

 

Denes herself becomes hardened to the babies’ deaths.

She watches clinic workers looking through the remains of an aborted child for a lost ring, barely noticing the horror of it.

Sensibility is blunted through exposure. After weeks of trailing Holzman [an abortionist] from  OR 1 to OR 2, my sense of meaning dulls. I begin to see “cases,” “cervical apertures,” “fetal tissue.”… One time the circulating nurse loses her wedding ring during surgery. She discovers the loss at the end of the operation as the orderly is about the fold the bloodied sheets on the floor. She takes the filled plastic bag from the wastebasket and empties it into the middle of the sheets. Both kneel and with their bare hands rummage frantically in the pile of placental tissue and blood and  body parts. “It has to be here,” she says nearly in tears. “We’ll find it,” he reassures her. I am all for them. Is frightful to lose one’s wedding ring.… Hours later, when the scene reasserts itself in my mind, I do not recognize myself.

And eventually, Denes and the clinic workers just sit around joking about eating aborted babies.

… Several of us sit in the cafeteria around a luncheon table, eating overdone, tasteless stew. “What do you think this is made of?” Someone asks. “Venison,” I say. “Pigeon,” says Betsy. “Don’t be silly,” says one of the counselors “there is a hell of a lot cheaper meat to be found around here.” All of us laugh, guffaw, splutter, and slap each other on the arms. It is the funniest thing we have heard in years… “Get a hold of yourself, ladies,” Rachel says. “This is unseemly.” She is right, of course, but all of us laugh again. “I think it’s a Greek dish,” says Teresa, laughing so hard that tears begin to roll down her face and we can barely understand her. “It’s fetustu.” There is no containing any of us now. “There is mincemeat pie for dessert,” someone shouts. “And that isn’t tomato juice you’re drinking, ” adds somebody else. Most of us are doubled over. The air is filled with the shrieks, and gasps, and gurgles. My sides begin to ache.”

Denes has written a book that shows the horror of abortion. That it comes from a person who is dedicated to the pro-choice belief system is even more disturbing.

Monday, January 12, 2015

by Cheryl Sullenger | LifeNews.com | 1/9/15 12:43 PM

As the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals considers the constitutionality of Texas abortion safety laws, Operation Rescue has confirmed that Northpark Medical Group, an abortion facility in Dallas, Texas, has halted all abortions after the hospital that provided its two abortionists with privileges closed.

This represents the first abortion clinic to terminate abortion services in 2015, leaving just 549 surgical abortion clinics in America after clinic numbers hit a high-water mark on 1991 with 2,176 surgical abortion clinics. Last year, 73 abortion clinics nationwide closed or halted abortion services for at least part of the year – 60 of them permanently according to a survey conducted by Operation Rescue.

In Texas, 16 surgical abortion clinics remain, down from 44 in 2013, before Texas passed HB2, the law requiring abortion facilities to meet minimum safety standards.

“The Texas abortion law is doing what it is supposed to do. It is protecting women from substandard facilities and practices. The benefit of requiring abortionists to maintain hospital privileges within 30 miles of their abortion facilities is that it weeds out those who cannot qualify or meet the medical standards that hospitals require,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. “If an abortion facility cannot meet minimum safety standards, it is just too dangerous to stay open.”

The Houston-based University General Health System shut down its 111-bed Dallas hospital on Christmas Eve in preparation for selling the property. This has left Northpark Medical Group’s abortionists, Lamar Robinson and Jasbir Ahluwalia, without hospital privileges, which are required under Texas law.

Ironically, this same hospital temporarily revoked Robinson and Ahluwalia’s hospital privileges on March 31, 2014, after pro-life activists began protesting the hospital. In letters sent by University General, which notified Robinson and Ahluwalia of the loss of privileges, reasons for terminating their privileges were cited, including “disruptions” and liabilities created by the abortionists’ “voluntary disruptions of pregnancies.”

Robinson and Ahluwalia filed suit against University General in April, 2014, and obtained a court order forcing the hospital to reinstate their privileges. In July, the abortionists and reached a settlement with hospital, which made the reinstatement permanent.

However, now that the hospital is closed, the Northpark Medical Group abortion clinic has been forced halt abortions.

Northpark’s two abortionists are said to be making applications for privileges at other area hospitals, but so far have not received them. If they are unsuccessful, Northpark Medical Services could be forced to shut down for good.

“Northpark Medical Services does not exactly have Mayo Clinic standards,” said Newman. “They are documented abortion abusers.”

Northpark Medical Services was cited and fined repeatedly between 2000-2012 by the Texas Department of State Health Services for violations that included:

• Hiring unqualified workers to provide direct patient care.
• Failing to maintain accurate patient records.
• Improperly altering patient records.
• Failure to maintain surgical rooms that met minimum standards.

Northpark’s abortionists have fared even worse with regulatory boards.

Educated primarily in Uganda, Ahluwalia has a checkered history. His Texas medical license was restricted for a year in 1996 after it was found he kept inadequate patient records. But that is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Ahluwalia’s problems.

• Ahluwalia was sued for causing severe brain damage to infant during delivery and settled lawsuit for over $1.3 million in 1989.
• He lost hospital privileges at Harris Methodist Erath County Hospital (TX) after failing to adequately manage high-risk pregnancies.
• He was sued twice by two patients in 1991 for perforating their uteri during an abortions.
• He was sued by patient in 1995 for allegedly blocking a ureter with stitches. The resulting complications forced his patient to undergo surgery to remove one kidney.

Robinson was the subject of a medical board discipline in Louisiana in 1982 for over prescribing weight control drugs. His license was suspended for six months and he was placed on probation for five years.

“If HB2 is upheld, other abortion facilities in Texas that are currently operating under dangerous conditions will also be forced to close. That would be a victory for vulnerable pregnant women that these businesses prey upon,” said Newman. “If the Fifth Circuit somehow finds the law unconstitutional, abortion facilities that are no better than back alley butcher shops will reopen.”

Newman says that HB2 should not be about access. It should be about safety.

“Many people in America have to travel to access specialized health care not found in their communities. Some have travel to other states to get certain procedures that their local hospitals are not qualified to provide. That’s not uncommon. There is certainly no justification for leaving substandard abortion clinics open just because they happen to be the last one in a particular community or area. For example, no one would want Kermit Gosnell’s ‘House of Horrors’ to stay open just because it happened to be the last abortion clinic in Philadelphia,” said Newman. “We are confident the Fifth Circuit will act to protect women by upholding HB2. Meanwhile, we rejoice that today there is one less abortion clinic is endangering women and killing babies.”

Friday, January 9, 2015
by Steven Ertelt | LifeNews.com | 1/8/15 1:56 PM
 
Just weeks after it announced that it killed another 327,000 unborn babies in abortions in its most recent fiscal year, Planned Parenthood faces a new
Congressional bill to yank its taxpayer funding.
Congressional Republicans informed LifeNews today that more than 80 other House members re­introduced the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act
would would revoke taxpayer funds from Planned Parenthood to ensure taxpayers are not financing the abortion industry.
Representative Diane Black, a pro­life congresswoman from Tennessee, is the lead sponsor of the bill along with Reps. Bill Flores (R­TX), Jackie Walorski
(R­IN), Pro­Life Caucus Co­Chairman Chris Smith (R­NJ), and Rep. Joe Pitts (R­PA) . This bill ensures that Title X family planning grants are used for their
intended purpose and are prohibited from being used by organizations that provide abortions or fund those that do.
 
 
“Planned Parenthood and organizations like it that profit off the destruction of innocent life do not
deserve one more dime from American taxpayers. I have been proud to lead the charge against the
funding of the big­abortion industry since my first days as a state legislator, and I am honored to
continue this fight by reintroducing the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act. This legislation would
simply clarify the original intent and spirit of the law to ensure that Title X federal funded grants will no
longer be awarded to ‘health care’ providers that fail to protect life by providing abortions,” Black said.
House Republicans previously approved bills to de­fund the Planned Parenthood abortion business.
 
In 2011, House members voted 241­185 for a resolution that would prohibit the Planned Parenthood abortion business from qualifying for family planning
funds. The vote saw almost all Republicans supporting de­funding while Democrats generally opposed it. That was the second vote taken to de­fund the
abortion giant. An earlier vote in 2011 saw the House de­funded Planned Parenthood on a 240­185 margin.
Last month, Planned Parenthood Federation of America rleased its 2013­2014 Annual Report.The report indicates Planned Parenthood did 327,653
abortions in 2013, an increase over the 327,166 abortions it did in 2012.
 
While it remains America’s biggest abortion corporation, the “nonprofit” continued to make money
— bringing in $305.4 million last year and $305.3 million this year. Planned Parenthood continued
to receive over a half­billion dollars in taxpayer money, as it took in $540 million in 2012 and $528
million in 2013.
 
Black told LifeNews in a statement: While Planned Parenthood and its counterparts like to repeat
the company line that federal dollars do not directly fund abortions, commonsense tells us
differently. According to Planned Parenthood’s own annual report, the organization performed 327,
653 abortions in 2013 alone – all the while receiving more than $528 million in funding from Uncle
Sam. The sad truth is they are not alone. Similar organizations continue to threaten the lives of the
unborn while cashing in on our tax dollars. My legislation will stop this shameful practice in its
tracks.”
 
Some other takeaways from Planned Parenthood’s own figures:
In 2013, abortions made up 94% of Planned Parenthood’s pregnancy services.
For every adoption referral, Planned Parenthood performed 174 abortions. While abortions rose, Planned Parenthood adoption referrals dropped 14% in one year, and prenatal care services dropped 4%.
Planned Parenthood’s cancer prevention services are down 17% over one year, and contraceptive services dropped by 4%.
During fiscal year 2013­2014, Planned Parenthood received more than $528 million in taxpayer funding, or more than $1.4 million per day, in the form of government
grants, contracts, and Medicaid reimbursements.
 
Taxpayer funding accounts for 41% of Planned Parenthood’s overall revenue.
Planned Parenthood reported more than $127 million in excess revenue, and more than $1.4 billion in net assets.
 
While it did more abortions, Planned Parenthood’s contraceptive business declined from 3,724.558 customers in 2012 to 3,577,348 customers in 2013.
“It is appalling to see organizations like Planned Parenthood receive federal funding. I commend Congresswoman Black for once again leading the effort to
prevent taxpayer money from hardworking American families from being used by organizations that provide abortions. It is imperative that we protect the
lives of our unborn children from organizations which have demonstrated callous disregard for the sanctity of life,” said Republican Study Committee
Chairman Bill Flores.
 
“Protecting human life is something I take extremely seriously, and when the largest abortion provider also receives federal money to help end human life,
Thursday, January 8, 2015

by Sarah Terzo | LifeNews.com | 1/7/15 5:25 PM

(LiveActionNews) — Former Planned Parenthood facility worker Catherine Anthony Adair went public with her story of working at an abortion mill.

In an  interview with Live Action News in July, 2014, Adair admitted that Planned Parenthood routinely lies to abortion patients about the development of their preborn babies. Adair shared about sorting through baby body parts and seeing perfectly formed hands and feet of aborted babies in the second trimester. Her testimony is extremely powerful.

The baby was dismembered during the process. The nurse would account for the baby parts and put it into a baggy, which I then put in a box with the other aborted babies. We then had to count them at the end of the day to ensure we had all of them to go to the lab.

When I saw a second trimester abortion, I saw dismembered arms and legs, with perfect feet and hands.

 

I ran across an article that explains why Adair came forward with her testimony many years after leaving the clinic. She credits Live Action’s investigation into child sex-trafficking with inspiring her to break her silence.

Adair told the National Catholic Register:

I was present when young girls came in with their abusers and Planned Parenthood performed their abortions. When Live Action came out with their videos, I felt vindicated. I knew it to be true, and they showed it to be true. That allowed me, for the first time, to tell others what I had experienced.

Adair’s statement affirms what Live Action’s undercover investigations reveal. Many abortion clinics, including Planned Parenthood, have helped pimps procure abortions for their underage trafficking victims, allowing the pimps to continue victimizing the girls they “employ.”

Live Action’s investigation did more than just expose Planned Parenthood’s dirty secrets; it inspired a clinic worker to come forward with her story and give powerful testimony in support of the pro-life cause. We can hope that Live Action investigations will continue to inspire former abortion facility workers to tell their stories, and that these investigations will encourage current workers to leave the abortion industry.

Wednesday, January 7, 2015
by Steven Ertelt | LifeNews.com | 1/6/15 6:27 PM
 
Pro­life members of Congress today introduced legislation in the House of Representatives that bans
abortions from after 20­weeks of pregnancy up to the day of birth.
With Republicans controlling both the House and Senate, there is a guarantee that the important pro­life
legislation will finally receive a vote in both chambers of Congress. In 2013, the House approved the bill on
a 228­196 vote with 6 Democrats voting for the bill and 6 Republicans voting against it. President Barack
Obama has issued a veto threat against that bill and Senate Democrats refused to bring it up for a vote.
Congressman Trent Franks of Arizona, along with Representative Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, are
the lead sponsors of the bill.
 
In a statement, Franks told LifeNews: “More
than 18,000 ‘very late term’ abortions are
performed every year on perfectly healthy
unborn babies in America. These are
innocent and defenseless children who can
not only feel pain, but who can survive
outside of the womb in most cases, and who
are torturously killed without even basic
anesthesia. Many of them cry and scream
as they die, but because it is amniotic fluid
going over their vocal cords instead of air, we
don’t hear them.”
 
“Late term Abortion in America has its
defenders, but no true or principled defense.
The Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act seeks to afford basic protection to mothers and their unborn
babies entering the sixth month of gestation,” he said. “Throughout America’s history, the hearts of the
American people have been moved with compassion when they discover a theretofore hidden class of
victims, once they grasp both the humanity of the victims and the inhumanity of what is being done to
them. America is on the cusp of another such realization.”
 
“We have a moral obligation to end dangerous late­term abortions in order to protect women and these
precious babies from criminals like Kermit Gosnell and others who prey on the most vulnerable in our
society,” Blackburn said. “The United States is one of the few remaining countries in the world that allows
abortion after 20 weeks. That is why today we renew our efforts to protect the lives of babies and their
mothers with the introduction of the Pain­Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. Rep. Franks and I have
been a good team moving this legislation through the House as we continue to lead the fight to ensure the
unborn are provided the same protections that all human life deserves.”
 
 
Douglas Johnson of the National Right to Life Committee says several states have already passed the bill.
“The Franks­Blackburn bill is based on the NRLC model legislation that has been enacted in 10 states, and
it reflects a policy that is broadly supported in national public opinion polls. In the new Congress, every
member of the House and Senate will go on record on whether to permit the continued killing of paincapable
unborn children, in the sixth month and later,” he told LifeNews.
 
A national poll by The Polling Company found that, after being informed that there is scientific evidence
that unborn children are capable of feeling pain at least by 20 weeks, 64% would support a law banning
abortion after 20 weeks, unless the mother’s life was in danger. Only 30% said they would oppose such a
law.
 
A November 2014 poll from Quinnipiac found that 60 percent of Americans support legislation limiting
abortions after 20 weeks, including 56 percent of Independents and 46 percent of Democrats.
During the hearing on the last bill, former abortion practitioner Anthony Levatino told members of the
committee the gruesome details of his former abortion practice and how he became pro­life following the
tragic automobile accident of his child.
 
Another bombshell dropped during the hearing came from Dr. Maureen Condic, who is Associate
Professor of Neurobiology and Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Utah School of Medicine.
She testified that the unborn child is capable of reacting to pain as early as 8­10 weeks. This is when most
abortions in America take place.
 
The bill relies on the science of fetal pain to establish a Constitutional reason for Congress to ban abortions
late in pregnancy. The science behind the concept of fetal pain is fully established and Dr. Steven Zielinski,
an internal medicine physician from Oregon, is one of the leading researchers into it. He first published
reports in the 1980s to validate research showing evidence for it.
 
He has testified before Congress that an unborn child could feel pain at “eight­and­a­half weeks and
possibly earlier” and that a baby before birth “under the right circumstances, is capable of crying.”
He and his colleagues Dr. Vincent J. Collins and Thomas J. Marzen were the top researchers to point to
fetal pain decades ago. Collins, before his death, was Professor of Anesthesiology at Northwestern
University and the University of Illinois and author of Principles of Anesthesiology, one of the leading
medical texts on the control of pain.
“The functioning neurological structures necessary to suffer pain are developed early in a child’s
development in the womb,” they wrote.
 
“Functioning neurological structures necessary for pain sensation are in place as early as 8 weeks, but
certainly by 13 1/2 weeks of gestation. Sensory nerves, including nociceptors, reach the skin of the fetus
before the 9th week of gestation. The first detectable brain activity occurs in the thalamus between the 8th
and 10th weeks. The movement of electrical impulses through the neural fibers and spinal column takes
place between 8 and 9 weeks gestation. By 13 1/2 weeks, the entire sensory nervous system functions as
a whole in all parts of the body,” they continued.
 
With Zielinski and his colleagues the first to provide the scientific basis for the concept of fetal pain, Dr.
Kanwaljeet Anand has provided further research to substantiate their work.
One leading expert in the field of fetal pain, Dr. Kanwaljeet S. Anand at the University of Tennessee, stated
in his expert report commissioned by the U.S. Department of Justice, “It is my opinion that the human fetus
possesses the ability to experience pain from 20 weeks of gestation, if not earlier, and the pain perceived
by a fetus is possibly more intense than that perceived by term newborns or older children.”
“The neural pathways are present for pain to be experienced quite early by unborn babies,” explains
Steven Calvin, M.D., perinatologist, chair of the Program in Human Rights Medicine, University of
Minnesota, where he teaches obstetrics.
 
Dr. Colleen A. Malloy, Assistant Professor, Division of Neonatology at Northwestern University in her
testimony before the House Judiciary Committee in May 2012 said, “[w]hen we speak of infants at 22
weeks LMP [Note: this is 20 weeks post fertilization], for example, we no longer have to rely solely on
inferences or ultrasound imagery, because such premature patients are kicking, moving, reacting, and
developing right before our eyes in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.”
 
“In today’s medical arena, we resuscitate patients at this age and are able to witness their ex­utero growth
and development. Medical advancement and technology have enabled us to improve our ability to care for
these infants…In fact, standard of care for neonatal intensive care units requires attention to and treatment
of neonatal pain,” Dr. Malloy testified. She continued, “[t]hus, the difference between fetal and neonatal
pain is simply the locale in which the pain occurs. The receiver’s experience of the pain is the same. I could
never imagine subjecting my tiny patients to horrific procedures such as those that involve limb detachment
or cardiac injection.”
Tuesday, January 6, 2015

by Steven Ertelt | LifeNews.com | 1/2/15 3:44 PM

Some media pundits and even pro-life advocates think the pro-life movement is losing. Yes, in the United States, abortion has been legal for more than four decades. But, as Carol Tobias of National Right to Life explains, if the flip the cup upside down, it’s definitely half full.

Even within the confines of legalized abortions, babies are saved from abortion each and every day.

Consider this good from Tobias in an email to LifeNews that really puts things in perspective:

552,000 times in this new year, a woman will NOT have an abortion that would have occurred 25 years ago.

That’s right:  In 1990, there were 1,610,000 abortions in the United States.  Today, there are about 1,058,000 each year.  Both are tragic statistics.

But the newer number represents 1,500 innocent baby girls and boys saved from abortion each and every day.  More than 60 every hour.  Five babies every two minutes.

 

Our work succeeds one precious baby at a time; remember, it took almost 90 years for the movement to end slavery in the United States to reach its full fruition – the banning of slavery in all parts of the United States in 1865.  It’s worth noting as we begin this new year that 2015 will be the 150th anniversary of the 13th Amendment that recognized the right of ALL Americans to live free of bondage.

Many smaller victories were won on the way in those 90 years, and the victories of the Right to Life movement have accelerated in recent years to give us this huge drop in abortions.

2015 promises to be an even better year, as newly elected pro-life officials will give unborn babies a stronger voice in Congress and in state legislatures.  They will help us continue to drive the number of abortions down . . . until we have our own great day, when every baby is safe from the pain and loss of abortion.

National Right to Life and other pro-life groups will be fighting for a bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Now that pro-life lawmakers run the U.S. Senate, it will finally get a vote in that chamber.

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

A new survey conducted by Operation Rescue of all abortion facilities in the United States has confirmed that the abortion clinic closure trend continued strongly in 2014. Operation Rescue is the only pro-life organization that maintains a listing of abortion facilities and tracks clinic closures and its extensive research has provided the most accurate accounting of abortion facilities known to exist.

In all, 73 abortion facilities shut down for all or part of the year. The total number of all remaining abortion clinics in the US is currently 739. Surgical abortion facilities account for 551 of that total while the number of medication-only abortion facilities stands at 188.

Out of 60 surgical abortion clinic closures, 47 were permanent. This represents a 23% decline in surgical abortion facilities over the past five years.

Thirteen surgical facilities were allowed to reopen after initially closing, primarily due to court action that enjoined abortion safety laws that had shut down the substandard facilities.

Thirteen facilities that provided only medication abortions account for the remaining closures in 2014. That more than doubles the number of medication abortion facilities that closed in 2013 when six were shuttered.

abortionclinic5

While the abortion clinic closures did not eclipse the high water mark of 93 total closures in 2013, the 73 closures this year far exceeds the two dozen closures recorded in 2012.

The 2014 figures represent a net decrease of 31 surgical abortion facilities nationwide. even though the number of medication abortion facilities increased by 11 over 2013 numbers, they still remain below the high of 196 facilities in 2012.

abortionclinic6“We are continuing to witness the implosion of the abortion cartel in America,” said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue. “The only things that are preventing total collapse are court injunctions that are blocking several state abortion safety laws from being enforced. Once those laws clear the courts, we expect to see even more dangerous abortion facilities close. This is great news for women and babies because when abortion clinics close, lives are saved.”

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The greatest number of closed facilities took place in Texas as the result of the 2013 abortion law known as HB2. Eleven surgical and three medication-only facilities shut down permanently over the course of 2014.

Closures far outpaced clinic openings. Fifteen facilities either added surgical abortions or opened for the first time. Thirteen clinics, primarily Planned Parenthood centers, added medication abortions to clinics that previously did not provide them. Eight clinics that formerly provided surgical abortions made the decision to halt those procedures, but continue to sell medication abortions.

“As new states laws add safety standards for surgical abortions, we are seeing the beginnings of a new trend. Abortion providers who cannot or will not comply with the higher standards have, in some cases, dropped surgical abortions in favor of medical abortions so they did not have to become licensed,” said Newman. “This allows incompetent abortionists to continue exploiting women for money while evading the need to increase patient safety.”

Some of the more notable abortion facility closures included:

• Outpatient Services for Women, Oklahoma City, OK: This surgical clinic shut down after the arrest on December 9 of clinic owner and operator Naresh Patel on charges of fraud and racketeering after Operation Rescue filed complaints. Patel had been caught selling abortion pills to women who were not pregnant.
• All Women’s Health, Chicago, IL: Clinic owner, abortionist Mandy Gittler, closed this facility after local activists protested there over the death of Tonya Reaves, which was killed by Gittler in 2012 at a Chicago Planned Parenthood clinic.
• Novi Laser and Aesthetic Center, Novi, Michigan: This facility shut down after being evicted from two locations this year. After the last eviction in November, owner Michael Arthur Roth had nowhere to go.
• Aid for Women, aka Central Family Medical, Kansas City, MO: Operation Rescue discovered evidence of multiple abortion abuses and lodged complaints. This facility was best known for suing in court for the right to stop reporting child sex abuse. Under pressure from the medical board and struggling for business, Aid for Women, finally shut down.
• Affiliated Women’s Services, Indianapolis, IN: This facility, associated with the infamous late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart shut down in July due to financial woes and a lack of demand for abortions.
• Femcare, Asheville, NC: Its shut down earlier this year for two dozen serious health and safety violations caused an outcry from abortion supporters since it was thought to be the only facility that could pass new safety standards. It reopened briefly before permanently closing after its abortionist, Lorraine Cummings, announced her retirement and placed the building for sale.

abortionclinic7There are several primary reasons why abortion facilities continue to close. Those reasons include:

• The enactment and enforcement of new state laws.
• Increased reporting by pro-life activists of incompetent and/or criminal behavior committed by abortionists.
• Financial struggles within the abortion cartel due to decreased demand for abortions.
• The retirement of abortionists who are not replaced.

In 1991, there were 2,176 surgical abortion facilities operating in the U.S. Since then, a full 75% of those facilities have closed.

As abortion facilities continue to close, abortion numbers continue to fall. While national abortion numbers remain incomplete, the average number of abortions decreases by about 3% annually. However, state statistics show that the drop in abortions that is more pronounced in areas where there are abortion clinic closures.

For example, in Ohio, four abortion facilities closed in 2013, the most recent year for which abortion figures are available. During that year, the number of abortions dropped by nine percent – three times the average national drop in abortion numbers.

“No matter how one views the numbers, they show that we are winning,” said Newman. “As the truth about abortion abuses and other dangers become public and are followed by new laws that increase protections for women and their babies, we can only expect the decline of the abortion cartel to continue until it collapses altogether.”

Please visit AbortionDocs.org for a listing of all abortion facilities in the U.S. and documentation of their known abuses. A listing of closed abortion facilities is also available there.

LifeNews.com Note: Cheryl Sullenger is a leader of Operation Rescue, a pro-life that monitors abortion practitioners and exposes their illegal and unethical practices.

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

by Steven Ertelt | LifeNews.com | 12/22/14 2:01 PM

A federal appeals court issued a ruling today striking down a North Carolina law allowing women a chance to see an ultrasound of their unborn child before an abortion is done.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit struck down a North Carolina law requiring a 24-hour waiting period and informed consent of a woman before an abortion is performed. In January 2013, a district court imposed a temporary injunction on the law, claiming that its mandated disclosures about abortion are an unconstitutional imposition of “the state’s philosophic and social position discouraging abortion,” rather than being factually based.

The appeals court, today, agreed and essentially said that showing women an ultrasound before an abortion and giving them information on abortion’s risks and alternatives unconstitutionally has the state of North Carolina taking sides in the abortion debate and making abortion practitioners its spokespeople.

The law, which gives women a chance to see an ultrasound of their unborn baby before considering an abortion, faced a lawsuit from the ACLU and Planned Parenthood. The law also requires the abortion practitioner to allow a woman considering an abortion to hear the heartbeat of her baby and to describe what the ultrasound shows.

A study shows 99% of abortion clinics do ultrasound prior to the abortion to determine the age of the baby beforehand. The question then becomes whether the abortion practitioner will allow women to see the ultrasound beforehand — and most do not.

Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Steven H. Aden is involved in the case.

“Pro-life laws provide women with crucial information that they wouldn’t otherwise get from abortionists,” said Aden. “The court was wrong to view these reasonable disclosures of fact as merely ideological. This law simply provides women the adequate time and information they need to make such an important decision.”

“Abortionists should not be exempted from the standard that anyone performing risky surgery fully inform the patient of what the procedure is and what it does. Giving women the information they need before such a weighty decision is more important than any abortionist’s bottom line. Because this law places the best interests of women and their children first, we hope that it will ultimately be upheld,” he added.

“Women in need deserve laws that are in the best interest of their physical and emotional well-being, and that take into consideration their unborn child,” added Aden.

“The State has a compelling interest in ensuring that women are not rushed or coerced into having an abortion,” the brief in Stuart v. Camnitz explains. “The General Assembly could appropriately take notice that some women who seek to obtain an abortion may have been pressured into doing so, and that women who have the opportunity to see and hear specific information about fetal development have time to ponder the decision and a chance to discuss it with their physician.

Mary Spaulding Balch, J.D., director of state legislation for the National Right to Life Committee, responded to the lawsuit the abortion advocates files, saying, “What are abortion advocates afraid of? Probably that when mothers see the recognizable images of their unborn children as they kick and move inside the womb, with beating hearts, abortionists will lose business.”

 

Balch added: “As U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in Gonzalss v. Carhart in 2007, ‘Whether to have an abortion requires a difficult and painful moral decision….The State has an interest in ensuring so grave a choice is well informed. It is self-evident that a mother who comes to regret her choice to abort must struggle with grief more anguished and sorrow more profound when she learns, only after the event, what she once did not know…’”

“This law would protect a mother’s right to receive vital information prior to making a life or death decision about her unborn child,” said Mary Spaulding Balch, director of state legislation for the National Right to Life Committee.

“We are disappointed by the decision of the Court striking down North Carolina’s Ultrasound law,” Barbara Holt, executive director of North Carolina Right to Life, told NRL News Today. “Turning the screen at an angle where the mother may view it if she wishes is very little to ask, considering that a human life hangs in the balance.”

She noted that “Ultrasound technology has made tremendous advancements and provides a window to the womb that allows mothers to see their unborn children in real time. It is absolutely vital that a woman, at this most crucial life-and-death juncture, be provided all the information possible about the abortion procedure and the development of her unborn child. Simply put, the abortion decision cannot be undone. Women deserve all the facts.”

Holt added, “We will continue to work and urge the legislature to pass legislation that seeks to protect mothers and their unborn children.”

The informed consent bill provides that a booklet containing scientifically accurate information about risks, alternatives and information on the development of the unborn child, compiled by the Department of Health and Human Services, be offered to the mother at least 24 hours prior to an abortion so that she might have the opportunity to read and understand the information.  It also provides that an ultrasound image of the unborn child be displayed at least four hours prior to an abortion so that the mother might view it.

“The abortion industry, working in league with Governor Perdue, attempted to place a financial bottom line above the rights and protection of mothers,” Balch added.

U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles in Greensboro issued the initial ruling about the law, which also provides for a 24-hour waiting period before an abortion. The lawsuit, filed in the Middle District of North Carolina, claims the new law violates the rights of women and abortion facilities.

The law is important because women frequently complain they were not shown any ultrasound information before the abortion even though abortion centers routinely do them to determine the age of the unborn child at the time of the abortion.

The pro-life measure received approved from the state legislature this summer and became law when lawmakers overturned a veto from pro-abortion Governor Bev Perdue, a Democrat. The measure helps women obtain information about abortion’s risks and alternatives they may not otherwise receive before an abortion. The bill also allows women a chance to see an ultrasound of their unborn baby, something abortion centers routinely do but don’t let women see.

Planned Parenthood Health Systems, Planned Parenthood of Central North Carolina and the Center for Reproductive Rights, a New York-based pro-abortion legal group, joined the lawsuit the ACLU filed. But Rep. Ruth Samuelson, a Mecklenburg County Republican who sponsored the bill, told AP she expected the law to survive the legal challenge and said it is in the best interest of women to have it in place.

The Woman’s Right to Know bill, H 854, is similar to legislation other states have passed and is proven to reduce abortions. When women are given information about abortion that Planned Parenthood and other abortion businesses don’t routinely provide, they frequently consider alternatives.

Some 34 other states already have a waiting period on abortion on the books and Republican Sen. Warren Daniel of Morganton, on the Senate floor, told lawmakers, “We know statistically that this type of legislation helps to make abortions more rare.” He said the bill could reduce the 30,000 abortions in North Carolina annually by as much as 10 percent.

Monday, December 22, 2014
by Cheryl Sullenger | LifeNews.com | 12/22/14 11:15 AM
 
Pro­life activists caught an ambulance on video as it rushed a patient to the hospital from Southwestern
Women’s Options, an abortion facility known to specialize in very late­term abortions. The incident took
place on Friday, December 19, 2014.
 
This represents the seventeenth documented botched abortion at that facility since 2008.
The video clearly shows a patient on a gurney
as she was loaded into an awaiting ambulance
and whisked away to a nearby hospital.
“While abortion is never safe for mother or
child, those who champion abortion in New
Mexico cannot claim to care about women
seeking abortions when these injuries continue
to pile up without consequence,” stated Bud
Shaver, Executive Director of Protest ABQ.
 
Tara Shaver, also of Protest ABQ, verified that
the abortionist on duty was Shelley Sella, who
was featured in the film “After Tiller,” which explored controversial late­term abortions done by Sella and
others throughout all nine months of pregnancy.
 
Sella, who flies in from her home in California to conduct abortions in Albuquerque, faced license
revocation in 2012 for botching an abortion done at 35 weeks on a woman with a history of having a
previous Cesarean section. The woman’s uterus ruptured during labor and she nearly died. The incident
was discovered by Tara Shaver, who had obtained 911 records that dramatically documented the event.
Both Shaver and Operation Rescue filed complaints against Sella with the New Mexico Medical Board.
However, after a disciplinary hearing in which the Board’s attorney recommended sanctions against Sella,
the New Mexico Medical Board inexplicably cleared her of all wrong­doing in 2013, leaving Sella to
continue her pattern of seriously injuring women.
 
In addition, New Mexico has enacted no minimum safety standards for abortions and continues to allow
abortion clinics to operate without inspection or any other accountability despite the large number of
documented abortion injuries.
 
“New Mexico continues to be the Wild West for an out­of­control abortion cartel that is allowed to run amok
by a state government that refuses to hold it accountable to even the most rudimentary safety standards
that could spare women from needless injury,” said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue. “Until
that changes, we will continue to see women hurt and perhaps killed by abortionists that admit they do not
use practices that meet the minimum standard of care. Women everywhere should be outraged that
women’s lives and health are regarded with less consideration that what New Mexico‘s pets receive.”
Operation Rescue continues to urge the New Mexico Medical Board to take action to protect women and
shut down Southwestern Women’s Options permanently.
 
Friday, December 19, 2014

by Sarah Torre | LifeNews.com | 12/18/14 12:45 PM

 

Yesterday, the Council of the District of Columbia passed a bill that could force employers in the nation’s capital to cover elective abortions in their health plans and require even pro-life organizations to hire individuals who oppose their views on abortion. The bill will now go to Mayor Vincent Gray for approval.

This latest attempt to violate the freedom of individuals in the District should spur Congress to better protect the conscience rights for all Americans.

The “Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Act,” specifically prohibits employers from discriminating in “compensation, terms, conditions or privileges of employment” on the basis of an individual’s “reproductive health decision making” – including the “termination of a pregnancy.”

In light of comments made by Council member David Grosso at a hearing on the bill earlier this year, the D.C. legislation could be interpreted to force even religious and pro-life employers to provide coverage of elective abortions.

The threat against conscience rights is serious for many organizations in D.C. like Americans United for Life, March for Life, Family Research Council and the Archdiocese of Washington, among others. Organizations whose mission is to empower women facing unplanned pregnancies with physical and emotional support or who advocate for policies that affirm the dignity and value of both mother and child in law could be forced to provide health insurance for the life-ending procedure they oppose.

“This bill is an egregious attack on pro-life conscience,” said Alliance Defending Freedom’s Senior Counsel Casey Mattox, who wrote letters to the council on behalf of a number of pro-life groups in the District. “The government has no business forcing pro-life organizations to pay for elective abortions.”

The bill could also prohibit an organization from making employment decisions in accordance with their beliefs so as to maintain the integrity of their pro-life mission and advocacy.

“Under the proposed bill, a Catholic school could not fire a principal who had an elective abortion, announced this to staff and students, and stated she believed this decision was consistent with Church teaching,” writes Peter Kirsanow, a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, in a letter to the D.C. council. He explains:

 This is absurd….[N]ot only is there nothing invidious about religious organizations making employment decisions on the basis of employee behavior, but such decisions are protected by the First Amendment’s guarantees of freedom of association and freedom of religion.

Even D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray urged the council to postpone voting on the bill a few weeks ago, noting a review of the legislation by the Office of Attorney General “deemed the legislation legally insufficient.” The Mayor’s letter continued:

According to the OAG, the bill raises serious concerns under the Constitution and under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA). Religious organizations, religiously-affiliated organizations, religiously-driven for-profit entities, and political organizations may have strong First Amendment and RFRA grounds for challenging the law’s applicability to them.

In addition to those concerns, the District could also be in hot water under federal conscience law. To the extent the D.C. bill would force employers to include coverage of elective abortion in their health plans, the District would be in violation of a federal policy known as the Weldon Amendment.

Since 2004, the Weldon Amendment has prohibited state and local governments receiving certain federal funds from discriminating against health care entities that decline to “provide, pay for, provide coverage of or refer for abortions.” That protection extends to health care plans. Enforcement of the conscience policy, however, is left to the discretion of officials in the Department of Health and Human Services, which has a less-than-illustrious track record of moving quickly on complaints.

Congress should provide victims of conscience rights violations the ability to defend their rights in court, not leave them to wait on bureaucrats in the Obama administration. The Abortion Non-Discrimination Act would do just that by modifying the Weldon amendment to provide a private right of action for individuals and institutions who are discriminated against because they decline to participate in or pay for coverage of abortion.

The D.C. bill is the second time this year a government has forced employers to cover elective abortions in their health plans. In August, California mandated that almost ever health plan in the state include coverage of elective abortions, including those offered by religious organizations, religious schools – even churches. Requests to HHS officials to review the state’s mandate have so far gone unanswered by the Obama administration.

Policymakers shouldn’t wait for more assaults on conscience to better protect the freedom of every American – from California to D.C. and everywhere in between.

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