End Times and Current Events

Enough! Congress investigates defunding Planned Parenthood
Oversight chair ready to pull plug over sex-trafficking exposé videos

A string of undercover videos that shows employees of the nation's largest abortion provider aiding and abetting underage sex-trafficking has prompted powerful players on Capitol Hill to call for the cash-strapped federal government to stop funding Planned Parenthood.

In the videos, members of the pro-life activist organization Live Action posed as the "managers" of 14- and 15-year-old prostitutes, even girls illegally brought into the country, and taped Planned Parenthood employees offering services, proposing ways to skirt mandatory reporting laws and helping the pimps find ways to get abortions for the girls.

Now Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., chair of the House Energy & Commerce Committee's Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – which in turn oversees federal grants to Planned Parenthood – is demanding action.

"We're going to bring Health and Human Services Secretary [Kathleen] Sebelius, put her under oath in the spring and ask her to explain what is she doing about these videos," Stearns said at a press conference yesterday. "And if she lies, then we're going to ask the attorney general to investigate her."

"Taxpayers are demanding to know how their money is being spent," Stearns continued in a statement, "and these videos answer how Planned Parenthood uses public dollars."

Members of the House have already proposed three different bills that would ensure no federal dollars fund abortions, Politico reports, and the appropriations panel has also promised to cut off a federal family planning program that Planned Parenthood relies on for grants and contracts.

Earlier this week, Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., stood on the House floor and pushed for one of the bills that would end federal funding of the abortion industry:

"It's heartbreaking news this morning," he said, "that Planned Parenthood of America has now been the subject of one more undercover video showing someone posing as a pimp being facilitated by employees of Planned Parenthood in how to secure secret abortions, [sexually transmitted disease] testing and contraception for child prostitutes.

"The time has come to deny all federal funding to Planned Parenthood," he continued. "Pro-life Americans and all Americans should not be forced to subsidize America's largest abortion provider."

Read more: Enough! Congress investigates defunding Planned Parenthood http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=262537#ixzz1Dle7oqav

Historic amendment to defund Planned Parenthod passes overwhelmingly in House


In a historic vote Friday afternoon, the US House voted to strike all federal funding for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Every year the abortion giant receives hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funding.

The congressional body voted 240-185 in favor of the amendment, introduced by Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), to the 2011 Federal Spending Bill.

Immediately after the vote Rep. Pence released a statement saying: “This afternoon’s vote is a victory for taxpayers and a victory for life. By banning federal funding to Planned Parenthood, Congress has taken a stand for millions of Americans who believe their tax dollars should not be used to subsidize the largest abortion provider in America.

“I commend my colleagues in both parties for taking a stand for taxpayers and a stand for life. I encourage my colleagues in the Senate to support this legislation and end federal funding of Planned Parenthood once and for all.”

The amendment will now go before the Senate.

The vote came after a heated debate in the House. It also comes in the wake of an explosive series of videos released by the pro-life organization Live Action, which showed Planned Parenthood staff repeatedly being willing to aid and abet the trafficking of underage “sex workers” by offering advice to an undercover investigator posing as a “pimp” on how to obtain secret abortions, contraception, and STD tests.

In a web page released right after the vote, Planned Parenthood called the legislation “the most dangerous legislative assault in our history, and it cannot go unanswered.” In an open letter to Congress that the organization is asking supporters to sign, the abortion giant says “To every member of Congress, know that we stand together today against this outrageous assault, and together we will not lose.”

Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, blasted the vote.

“The new anti-choice House leadership promised a jobs agenda and is now waging a war on contraception,” Keenan said. “This is why elections matter. In the past, we had the votes to beat attacks like this amendment, but a new wave of anti-choice politicians is voting to take away women’s access to birth control. These lawmakers are out of control, and we will hold them accountable for their actions. As the debate goes to the Senate, our members will tell senators that they must put a stop to this extreme anti-choice agenda.”

In a statement Tony Perkins of Family Research Council congratulated the House: “We commend Mike Pence and the bipartisan majority of House Members who stood with the American people in saying that enough is enough. Planned Parenthood, a scandal-plagued abortion organization, must be held accountable for abusing innocent young victims while receiving hundreds of millions in federal dollars each year.”

“The fact that Planned Parenthood not only left minor girls trapped in prostitution, but encouraged it, shows an incredible lack of humanity on their part. What goes on behind the windowless offices of Planned Parenthood, as Live Action’s videos show, is both saddening and shocking, but the fact that it has often been done with taxpayer dollars is indefensible.”

“We urge the U.S. Senate and President Obama to adopt the Pence amendment and respect the millions of Americans who oppose their hard-earned dollars going to a corrupt organization that destroys innocent human life,” concluded Perkins.

The American Center for Law and Justice also welcomed the vote, saying that it was “long overdue.” “In less than a week, the ACLJ has heard from nearly 55,000 people who urged the House to defund Planned Parenthood by signing on to a petition demanding action,” said ACLJ in a statement.

“There’s no better place to begin the budget cutting process than putting a stop to funding Planned Parenthood,” said Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel of the ACLJ.  “It’s stunning that Planned Parenthood receives more than $360 million dollars a year in federal taxpayer funds. According to its own filings, Planned Parenthood reported more than 330,000 abortions in 2009 alone, a number that continues to climb.  By receiving this windfall of federal funds, Planned Parenthood is able to free-up other resources enabling them to continue to promote and expand their pro-abortion agenda.  The approval of the Pence Amendment in the House is long overdue and sends a strong message - American taxpayers are no longer willing to subsidize the nation’s largest abortion provider.”

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/breaking-amendment-to-defund-planned-parenthod-passes-in-house/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLDGFzdPjBU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTxsWZz9whg

Budget bill cutting Planned Parenthood funding heads for trouble in Senate
by Kathleen Gilbert
Wed Feb 23,
WASHINGTON, D.C., February 23, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The spending bill that would defund Planned Parenthood and that was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives early Saturday morning is not likely to see the light of day in the Senate, except in a very different form, one source on Capitol Hill told LifeSiteNews.com Wednesday.

“Most likely the Senate will not take up H.R. 1,” said the source, noting that, if they do, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid would probably replace it with “a substitute bill that is entirely different from the House-passed version.” 

“Fighting for the pro-life policies will most likely happen in negotiations between the House and Senate,” the source added.

The Continuing Resolution, or H.R. 1, grabbed headlines for the inclusion of an amendment that would defund Planned Parenthood, but the news overshadowed the measure’s other momentous pro-life measures.

The measure would re-establish the Mexico City Policy, which bars foreign aid funds from going to international organizations that perform or promote abortion. President Obama had struck down the policy by Executive Order three days after his inauguration in January 2009.

It also eliminates funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which American investigations have concluded is complicit in China’s coercive population control policy.

After the Bush administration investigated UNFPA-assisted Chinese regions, where forced abortion and sterilization was found to have occurred, Bush gutted funding to the UN agency. The Obama administration restored $50 million in annual aid to the UNFPA with no comment about the China allegations, and has ignored further investigations by the Population Research Institute confirming the UNFPA’s continued complicity in the maltreatment of Chinese citizens.

President Obama has promised to veto the legislation in its current form. A line-item veto is not possible, meaning that the president will be forced to either reject or accept the entire bill as agreed upon by the House and Senate.

Congress will resume battling over the bill after it returns from recess this week.

(http://www.certaindoubt.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/bloody-hands-1-150x150.jpg)

The Obama administration directed Indiana this week to drop its ban on Planned Parenthood, which the legislature passed this spring after becoming considerably more Republican and conservative in last fall's midterm election. The Department of Health and Human Services said the state cannot legally pick and choose which agencies provide health care to people covered by the federal-state program. The warning letter cited a federal statute that directs the withholding of all Medicaid funding from a state if it violates federal law.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said this week that 19 states have gotten into disputes with the Obama administration over health care funding, and all amended their plans to keep their money. He said he expects Indiana to do the same.

(http://endtimescurrentevents.freeforums.org/images/smilies/MoreInfo.png) (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110606/ap_on_he_me/us_planned_parenthood_indiana?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+delicious%2Fgqlf+%28Christian+Headlines+Top+Headlines%29)

Now the dog and pony show starts

(http://unitedcats.files.wordpress.com/2007/01/dog_and_pony_show.jpg)

______________________________________________________________________________________________________


28 Pro-Life Senators Defend Indiana Against Obama Administration

A group of 28 senators sent a letter to President Obama’s Medicaid Administrator Thursday defending Indiana’s ban on federal tax dollars going to clinics that provide abortion.

The senators, led by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), argue that Indiana’s new law is consistent with the federal Medicaid Statute. Also, the group of powerful senators defended the rights of states to manage their own Medicaid programs.

“We disagree with your narrow interpretation of Title XIX of the Social Security Act and believe this represents a significant departure from Medicaid’s longstanding practices of having the states – not the federal government – set reasonable standards for qualified providers,” reads the letter.

“Unfortunately, your decision is simply the latest example of this Administration’s alarming pattern of usurping states’ authority to manage their Medicaid programs in ways that best meet the needs of their citizens.”

rest of the show: http://www.christianpost.com/news/28-pro-life-senators-defend-indiana-against-obama-administration-51034/

Basically, the feds are resorting to the strong-arm tactics of extortion, forcing the states to do things or the feds threaten to pull funding.

How many different times have they threatened to pull highway funding in the past? Lots of times. If the states resist, the feds just fall back to the trusty highway funds threat.

To me, that just shows how much the states have become addicted to the federal money bribes.

Judge Blocks Indiana Law Stopping Planned Parenthood Funding By Taxpayers

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_t2Ry7I5DNuQ/SQgkbWs65lI/AAAAAAAADCQ/dofBWG8sFKY/s400/Obama+live+birth+abortion.bmp)

A federal judge blocked an Indiana law on Friday that protects taxpayers from having to fund the Planned Parenthood abortion business with public funds via family planning programs through Medicaid. U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt in Indianapolis granted Planned Parenthood’s request for a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit filed after Republican Governor Mitch Daniels signed the law in May. “While it remains to be seen who will ultimately prevail on the merits, the court is persuaded” that Planned Parenthood demonstrated a “reasonable likelihood of success” in challenging the law, Pratt wrote in her decision.

http://www.lifenews.com/2011/06/25/judge-blocks-indiana-law-stopping-planned-parenthood-funding/

Are citizens that blind that they don't see the pattern? The federal government is running ripshod all over the states, and they got the fed courts backing their tyranny.

When the federal government keeps interfering with state rulings and overriding state law, I'm not sure what else to call it but tyranny. If the citizens of a given state cannot have their say by vote, then where do citizens turn? The feds have left the public with nowhere to turn legally.

Maybe they need to read this again...

from the Declaration of Independence

Idle threat; healthcare still available for Indiana women

Planned Parenthood claims in its lawsuit against Indiana that its new law that defunds abortion-providers will be a burden on the state's poverty-stricken women who need other health services. But a recent undercover probe from Live Action shows that the abortion provider knows a number of other facilities offer the same needed services.

Live Action learned in its telephone investigation of 16 of Indiana's 28 Planned Parenthood facilities that its plea for money for the sake of impoverished women is not on target. Some 800 other facilities in Indiana provide the same Medicaid services as Planned Parenthood, and the abortion provider is aware of that.

In one call, a Planned Parenthood receptionist tells the caller she "can try going to North Shore," which is not a Planned Parenthood, "but they have the same services we have."

Another caller is advised to visit her primary doctor for "well woman exams, STD tests, and things like that."

In a third conversation, the Planned Parenthood receptionist assures the caller that her "primary care doctor should be able to" perform a well woman exam, because "that's what they're there for."

According to the abortion provider's statistics, their Indiana clinics serve less than one percent of Medicaid patients, but they do more than 50 percent of the state's abortions.

So Live Action concludes that Planned Parenthood's lawsuit is more about money than providing medical services for impoverished women. And the pro-life group suggests "the Obama administration is using unprecedented tactics to bully the state into restoring taxpayer dollars to Planned Parenthood," because the contested law actually sends taxpayer dollars to providers throughout the state that provide all of the needed services.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=1381418

And that is a MAJOR part of the budget problem; redundency in "federal assistance". The government is dumping billions into multiple agencies, all doing the same things with massive overlap and in the end many of them are nothing more than fronts for political lobbys.

800 other facilities? Is that 800 different non-profits? Surely not.

Texas yanks Planned Parenthood funding

Texas has passed a bill defunding Planned Parenthood, making it the seventh state to do so. The bill sends $47 million in tax funds to other organizations that provide medical services to poor women.

 Jonathan Saenz of Liberty Institute calls Monday's vote in Austin a "defining moment" in Texas for the pro-life movement.
 
"This legislation particularly takes away funding from groups that provide abortions and are affiliates for abortions, and it also prioritizes family-planning money in a way that it goes to organizations that provide comprehensive healthcare for women in the state of Texas, which Planned Parenthood does not do," the Institute representative says.
 
Jonathan SaenzPlanned Parenthood has sued Indiana and Kansas for passage of defunding bills in those states. Saenz says the Texas measure (S.B. 7) should withstand legal scrutiny.
 
"Well, it's unfortunate that there are frivolous lawsuits out there [but] the state of Texas has done a very good job with folks in our organization and others to make sure that we have language in place that will stand up to any challenge," the attorney explains. "And so, if Planned Parenthood and other abortion groups want to come to the state of Texas and file a frivolous lawsuit on this issue, that's up to them -- but Texas is up for the fight."
 
In passing the law, Saenz suggests elected officials are simply responding to the desire of constituents who refuse to allow their tax dollars to be used for abortion and would prefer that money be spent more responsibly.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=1382112

Democrats fail to stop Gov. Christie’s defunding of Planned Parenthood


Gov. Chris Christie’s veto of funding for Planned Parenthood in the state budget will stand now that New Jersey’s Democrat senators have failed in their bid to override his veto.

The legislature has already failed several times to restore funding for the abortion provider over Christie’s veto, including an attempt to restore funding through a Medicaid expansion.

Christie vetoed more than $1.3 billion in extra spending demanded by the Democrat-controlled legislature for FY 2012, including the state family planning funds that would be available to Planned Parenthood.

rest: http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/democrats-fail-to-stop-gov-christies-defunding-of-planned-parenthood

Ohio lawmakers seek to defund Planned Parenthood

 Ohio lawmakers introduced legislation Tuesday that will redirect millions in state funding away from abortion providers like Planned Parenthood to local health departments and community health centers.

Reps. Kristina Roegner (R-42nd) and Cliff Rosenberger (R-86th) have sponsored legislation in the House, and Sen. Kris Jordan (R-19th) has sponsored companion legislation in the Senate.

Mike Gonidakis, Executive Director for Ohio Right to Life, explained that the new legislation is an extension of a 2004 state law that gives local health departments priority when it comes to funds for women’s health services.

“Taxpayer funded health centers and community health centers should receive the utmost consideration from the government when distributing these limited resources,” said Gonidakis.

Ohio Right to Life pointed out that abortion numbers have increased at Planned Parenthood over the years, along with increases in its public funding. In the decade since 1998, Planned Parenthood’s funding increased from $165 million per year to $363.3 million, during which time the number of abortions performed by Planned Parenthood increased from 165,509 per year to 332,278.

The Susan B. Anthony List, which has led a public effort to defund Planned Parenthood, especially of federal Title X family planning money, is supporting the state effort.

rest: http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/ohio-lawmakers-seek-to-defund-planned-parenthood-fund-public-health-centers

Governor signs Ohio late-term abortion ban

Gov. John Kasich signed into law Wednesday legislation banning abortion in most cases after the unborn child has reached the age of viability.

Kasich, a pro-life Republican, approved The Viable Infants Protection Act (HB 78), banning abortion generally after 20 weeks gestation. The law had passed both the Ohio House and Senate with bipartisan majorities.

“By signing this critical pro-life legislation, Governor Kasich demonstrated to all Ohioans that the health and welfare of birth mothers and their unborn children are of paramount importance to the state of Ohio,” stated Mike Gonidakis, Ohio Right to Life’s executive director. 

Gonidakis said Department of Health statistics showed that a 35-week-old unborn child was aborted last year in the state.

“From now on, these babies and their mothers will be protected.”

The law has no exceptions for **** or incest, but allows late-term abortion after 20 weeks gestation if the mother’s physical life is in danger or if she faces “serious risk of the substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.”

Under these circumstances, the abortionist also has to certify that he could not end the pregnancy in a way that would give the unborn child the best chance to survive without risking greater danger to the mother.

Ohio Right to Life praised the bill as the most important pro-life legislation passed by the legislature in years, saying that it contributes to a national pro-life strategy to overturn Roe v. Wade. That 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision, along with its companion case Doe v. Bolton, overturned U.S. state laws criminalizing abortion on the basis that abortion was part of an implied right to privacy protected in the US Constitution.

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/governor-signs-ohio-late-term-abortion-ban

Texas Gov. signs bill defunding Planned Parenthood, local abortions

Texas governor and potential GOP 2012 contender Rick Perry has signed a measure defunding Planned Parenthood in the Lone Star state, making it the largest state to deprive the abortion organization of taxpayer funds.

Perry on Wednesday signed SB 7, which excludes abortion providers and their affiliates from the Medicaid Women’s Health Program, and also places Planned Parenthood at the bottom of a list of eligible recipients of family planning funds.  Lawmakers last month also drastically cut the state’s pool of such funds, from $100 million to about $38 million.

SB 7 also prevents hospital districts from using local tax funding for elective abortions, and encourages adult stem cell research by giving health officials authority to regulate adult stem cell banks.

“Texas faces unique challenges when it comes to health care delivery, and Washington’s one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t fit our needs,” said Perry.

Perry’s signature places Texas among several other states depriving Planned Parenthood of funding in its state budget this year, including Indiana, Kansas, New Jersey, and North Carolina.

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/texas-gov-perry-signs-bill-defunding-planned-parenthood-local-abortions

(http://endtimescurrentevents.freeforums.org/images/smilies/Obama_live_birth_abortion.jpg)

Obama admin threatens second state for defunding Planned Parenthood

New Hampshire has become the second state after Indiana to receive a strongly-worded rebuke from Obama officials for cutting off Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood.

A state health official told New Hampshire Public Radio Wednesday that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services had warned his office that New Hampshire’s defunding effort may have broken federal rules by depriving state Medicaid recipients of a qualified provider.

New Hampshire Health and Human Services Commissioner Nick Toumpas said federal officials ordered the state to fund Planned Parenthood by August 15, and said that refusal to comply could lead to sanctions in the form of withheld federal health care funds.

“The focus is, how do we achieve statewide access ... because there are a number of women who are out there right now that, beyond the family planning services, the bigger concern is that they’re not getting some of the basic health services,” Toumpas told NHPR’s The Exchange.

The rebuke is nearly identical to the administration’s attack on Indiana this year after Gov. Mitch Daniels signed a state budget depriving Planned Parenthood of Medicaid funds.

A federal judge last month blocked the defunding law from taking effect, based on the severity of Obama’s threat to withhold billions in Medicaid funds over Planned Parenthood’s $3 million portion.

Sting investigators with the pro-life group Live Action later found that Planned Parenthood’s claims as a critical Medicaid provider in Indiana were vastly inflated. Phone callers with Live Action seeking Medicaid services from Planned Parenthood’s 28 clinics during the defunded period were simply directed to one of 800 other facilities that provide the same care.

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/obama-admin-threatens-second-state-for-defunding-planned-parenthood

I don't know, but there appears to be some Hegelian Dialect in play.

Seriously, the same politicians in office that are calling to end abortions...they don't say one word about how aborted fetal tissues are used in vaccinations(which of course has resulted in autism in children). In a recent USSC ruling, they ruled against an autism boy who brought suit against the pharmeceuticals for the stuff they put in the vaccinations, and ALL FOUR "conservatives" voted against the measure.

And didn't Gov. Cristie in NJ recently endorse gay civil unions?(or some other homosexual agenda)

Planned Parenthood completely defunded in Tennessee

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/planned-parenthood-completely-defunded-in-tennessee


De-Funding Shuts Down Texas Planned Parenthood Clinic

http://www.lifenews.com/2011/11/01/de-funding-shuts-down-texas-planned-parenthood-clinic/

Planned Parenthood Closes 12 Clinics After Texas De-Funding
Austin, TX | 11/4/11 10:25 AM

A new confirmed total of 12 Planned Parenthood facilities have been shut down in Texas since the end of the 82ndlegislative special session, which dealt the abortion industry a $64.2 million blow.

http://www.lifenews.com/2011/11/04/planned-parenthood-closes-12-clinics-after-texas-de-funding/

Republicans trying to ‘turn back the clock’ by defunding Planned Parenthood: Obama

In a speech at the 2011 Annual Dinner hosted by the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC), President Obama chastised Republicans for not supporting his new jobs bill and “spending time focusing on how to turn back the clock.”

“Instead of working to boost our economy they are out there spending time trying to defund Planned Parenthood and prevent millions of women from getting basic health care that they desperately need – pap smears and breast exams,” Obama said, accusing Republicans of “trying to make the fight about social issues that stir up their base.”

Obama touted the abortifacient contraceptive mandate that is being implemented as part of his health care reform law. That mandate would require all employers, including many religious employers, to pay for all contraceptives, including “emergency” contraceptives that can cause abortions.

He decried Republican efforts to repeal the mandate, saying, “they’ve been trying to figure out how to take away preventive care that is covered under the Affordable Care Act.”

“That is not the right direction for our country,” he said.

The president concluded that Republicans are “spending their time trying to divide this country against itself, rather than coming together to lift up our country – and we don’t have to settle for that.”

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/republicans-trying-to-turn-back-the-clock-by-defunding-planned-parenthood

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_t2Ry7I5DNuQ/SQgkbWs65lI/AAAAAAAADCQ/dofBWG8sFKY/s400/Obama+live+birth+abortion.bmp)

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Y-DbBvf7R5Y/SKGC_PQJgII/AAAAAAAAM5M/uj_dw0LeAAY/s400/_Glenn_4_2_08_Obama_abortion.jpg)

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gcA0ZuKGkI8/So1E31OEx1I/AAAAAAAADQQ/BCVoUS763ug/s400/cartoon.png)

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gcA0ZuKGkI8/S3FcbZtk7tI/AAAAAAAAGAI/DW_Hj0Glwno/s400/Obama%2Babortion.png)

(http://media.ebaumsworld.com/mediaFiles/picture/642983/81787088.jpg)

New Hampshire House Defunds Planned Parenthood

The New Hampshire House of Representatives voted 207-147 on Wednesday to pass a bill stripping state funding of Planned Parenthood and any other group performing elective abortions.

rest: http://www.citizenlink.com/2012/01/19/new-hampshire-house-defunds-planned-parenthood/?utm

Texas Defunds Planned Parenthood Despite Obama Admin Attacks

The state of Texas is defying attacks form the Obama administration in the form of threats to revoke federal funding if the state cuts of its funding for the Planned Parenthood abortion business.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and state lawmakers have directed the Texas Health and Human Services commissioner to sign a rule yesterday that officially bans Planned Parenthood and other abortion businesses from participating in the Texas’ Women’s Health Program.

In December, the Obama Administration refused to renew funding for Texas’ Women’s Health Program (WHP) because of new state rules that disqualify abortion business affiliates from participation in the program. The WHP encompasses Medicaid family planning services for low income women. The program started through authorizing legislation in 2005 and was renewed in the recent 82nd Legislative Session with new pro-life rules.

REST: http://www.lifenews.com/2012/02/24/texas-defunds-planned-parenthood-despite-obama-admin-attacks/

Judge approves of Texas plan to defund Planned Parenthood

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals refused to hear Planned Parenthood’s complaint about a Texas law that bars their participation in the state’s Medicaid program on Thursday, allowing Texas to withhold state funds from the abortion provider. 

Planned Parenthood argued unsuccessfully that the law violates Medicaid patients’ constitutional rights.

The “ruling affirms yet again that in Texas the Women’s Health Program has no obligation to fund Planned Parenthood and other organizations that perform or promote abortion,” said Governor Rick Perry celebrating the decision. “In Texas we choose life, and we will immediately begin defunding all abortion affiliates to honor and uphold that choice.”

Texas has gone further than other states in its attempt to defund the abortion industry.  Most states accept federal funding for Medicaid, which covers 90 percent of expenses as long as states allow patients to choose any medical provider from their list of “qualified” professionals. Planned Parenthood is on that list.

Texas has, at least for now, assumed all health care costs for the state’s poor, forgoing federal money—and the strings that come with it. 

Thursday’s decision came soon after federal judges blocked two other states’ efforts to defund Planned Parenthood. Judges in two separate courts ruled this month that Indiana and Arizona must continue Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood despite state laws barring payments for abortions. Both states accept federal funding for Medicaid.

rest: http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/judge-approves-of-texas-plan-to-defund-planned-parenthood

While this is good news, at the same time, I really wonder what the NWO's real agendas are - I'm referring to Dr. Richard Day who once upon a time ago revealed to a group of medical doctors over the draconian future NWO plans(Day of course was Medical Director of PP), and it was MUCH MORE stuff than abortions(ie-one of them being rewriting the bible, another putting more and more $ex and violence in the media, etc).

I wish these states and judges would address these other issues PP is also behind.

http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/newsletters/2012/newsletters20121210.htm#1AA2

Planned Parenthood Mandates Abortions – Affiliates Flee

By Bob Unruh
WorldNetDaily
A third affiliate of the nation’s leading abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, is leaving the organization because of a demand that all local groups provide abortions starting no later than 2013.

“Planned Parenthood of South Central New York is the latest affiliate to become independent because it won’t comply with the rule,” Marjorie Dannenfesler, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, said in a statement today.

She cited an announcement from the affiliate itself.

“This mandate will no doubt result in an increase in revenue for Planned Parenthood as well as an increase in the more than 329,000 lives the abortion chain ends in one year. Does that sound like women’s health?”

Earlier, several affiliates of Planned Parenthood in Texas abandoned the national abortion leader. Click here to continue reading.
 
http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/newsletters/2012/newsletters20121210.htm#1AA2

Though it really doesn't matter at this point, if it did, the states would need to stop taking federal bribe money, because that is exactly how the federal government has been using their "funding", as a bribe to force states to do the fed's bidding.

In general, states need to stop bowing to the federal level and take back their right to dictate what they do in their own states. Federal tyranny is at a all-time high.

This kind of thing is so irritating that state governments have been so duped by federal cash, they have no idea what rights states have anymore, and clearly have no idea that the whole deal has been turned around from the federal government answering to the states, to the states being federal pawns.

It's embarrassing to be an American, or for that matter, a resident of this planet!

http://news.yahoo.com/judge-overturns-arizona-law-barring-planned-parenthood-funding-020558711.html

2/12/13

PHOENIX (Reuters) - A federal judge has overturned an Arizona law that sought to block funding through the state for Planned Parenthood's healthcare clinics because the group also performs abortions.
 
U.S. District Court Judge Neil Wake ruled that the controversial measure signed into law last May by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, a Republican, unlawfully robs individuals on Medicaid of the ability to choose healthcare services.
 
"The Arizona Act violates the freedom of choice provision of the Medicaid Act precisely because every Medicaid beneficiary has the right to select any qualified health care provider," Wake ruled in a decision released on Friday.
 
Wake had put the Arizona law on a temporary hold in October following a lawsuit by Planned Parenthood, blocking the state from cutting off Medicaid funding for family planning and health services by the organization and other groups performing abortions.
 
Medicaid, a joint program between states and the federal government, provides healthcare coverage for low-income individuals.
 
The effort to defund Planned Parenthood in Arizona was part of an orchestrated move nationwide by conservatives who oppose abortion.
 
There was no immediate comment from the governor or the state attorney general's office late on Monday.
 
Arizona does not provide tax dollars for abortion, but backers said the law was needed to make sure that no indirect money was funneled to organizations like Planned Parenthood that provide abortion and other health services.
 
Cathi Herrod, president of the conservative Center for Arizona Policy, said the ruling was "disheartening" and the group was weighing its options.
 
"Though we are disappointed, we are not defeated as this fight is far from over," Herrod said in a statement, declining to be more specific about the center's plans.
 
Bryan Howard, president and chief executive of Planned Parenthood Arizona, called the judge's decision "a victory for all Arizonans" and vital for those women who count on the organization's healthcare services.
 
"Politics should never interfere with a woman's breast exam or birth control," Howard said in a statement. "It is wrong for the state to tell Arizonans who can be their health care provider ... Our health centers are open today and they will be open tomorrow."
 
Planned Parenthood officials said the organization provides thousands of women in the state with healthcare services. Only 3 percent of those services are abortions.
 
Lawmakers in more than a dozen states have taken steps to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood in the last few years, prompting several lawsuits.
 
Planned Parenthood is the country's largest provider of abortions, conducting about one-fourth of those procedures performed in the United States. In 2011, Republicans unsuccessfully tried to end federal funding for the group.
 
(Reporting by David Schwartz; Editing by Tim Gaynor and Eric Beech)

No it's not. There are those like myself that do not want to be paying our tax dollars against our will to fund murder. >:(

So we're seeing PP going against Mr. Gun Control Michael Bloomberg? ::)

Planned Parenthood trashes NYC’s ‘Cost of Teen Pregnancy’ PSAs

3/6/13
Planned Parenthood denounced a new ad campaign aimed at sexually active teens, unveiled by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg this week, for shaming current and expectant teen parents and their children.
 
“The latest NYC ad campaign creates stigma, hostility and negative public opinions about teen pregnancy and parenthood rather than offering alternative aspirations for young people,” Haydee Morales, vice president of education and training at Planned Parenthood's New York office, said in a statement released on Wednesday. “The city’s money would be better spent helping teens access health care, birth control and high-quality sexual and reproductive health education, not an ad campaign intended to create shock value.”
 
The "Cost of Teen Pregnancy" campaign—displayed in subways and bus shelters citywide—includes images of concerned toddlers with messages for their teen parents.
 
"Honestly Mom," one poster reads, "chances are he won't stay with you. What happens to me?"
 
"Dad, you'll be paying to support me for the next 20 years," reads another, noting that New York state law requires a parent to pay child support until a child is 21.
 
The public service announcements also instruct teens to text "'NOTNOW' to 877877 for the real cost of teen pregnancy."
 
[Related: NYC rolls out 'Cost of Teen Pregnancy' PSAs]
 
"This campaign makes very clear to young people that there’s a lot at stake when it comes to deciding to raise a child,” Bloomberg said in his weekly radio address on Sunday.
 
The effort, he said, will "let thousands of young New Yorkers know that waiting to become a parent could be the best decision they ever make.”
 
According to the health department, the city's teen pregnancy rate has fallen 27 percent in the past decade. But Morales said stigmatizing teens who have already become parents "has not been a part of what has led to this success."
 
In 2011, the city quietly rolled out a controversial pilot program that allowed teens access to the contraceptive drug Plan B—the so-called "morning after pill"—in some of its public schools without parental consent. (Parents could choose to exclude their children from access.) In 2012, officials expanded the program to 13 schools with hopes of implementing it citywide.
 
That program—dubbed CATCH, or "Connecting Adolescents To Comprehensive Health"—is supported by Planned Parenthood.

I just don't get that. How is it that this happens without the parents input? Aren't the people who passed such things parents themselves?

I do get it, but I just...wow.

Again, what disturbs me about these recent anti-abortion laws a few states have been passing recently is they have this attitude of, "This is OUR plan to curb abortion, but abortion clinics can keep themselves open if they like, but we have them on a short leash nonetheless". And not to mention too where was all this when Bush Jr was in office for 8 years? They're waiting until NOW to fight against it?

This is just me, but something is cooking behind the scenes.

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley signs law raising requirements for abortion clinics
By Michael Martinez and Greg Botelho, CNN
updated 7:05 PM EDT, Tue April 9, 2013

(CNN) -- Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley signed a law Tuesday that drastically raises the safety requirements for abortion clinics to operate -- a measure that he says "has been endorsed by pro-life groups across America."

But Planned Parenthood immediately warned of "an almost certain legal challenge," saying the new law's requirements "would be difficult for nearly all providers to meet" and would shut down clinics.

Bentley, a Republican, hailed the new law.

"As a physician, and as a governor, I am proud to sign this legislation," he said in a statement. "This bill provides appropriate standards of care."

Doctors who provide abortions must have admitting privileges at local hospitals, the governor's office said.

A similar new law in Mississippi has put that state's only abortion provider "on the verge of closing" because of such an admitting privileges requirement, Planned Parenthood said. That clinic is challenging the Mississippi law in federal court, saying the state would end up banning abortion because the clinic's doctors haven't been able to gain the privileges.

Nikema Williams, vice president of public policy for Planned Parenthood Southeast, said that "medical experts agree that laws requiring admitting privileges for abortion don't increase health or safety for a woman.

"They just limit a woman's access to safe and legal abortion," Williams said in a statement.

"As a high-quality health care provider working every day to support women's health and safety, Planned Parenthood is evaluating every possible option to protect the health of women in the face of this dangerous law and blatant attack on women's health and rights," she said.

The Alabama measure passed by overwhelming majorities in both houses of the state legislature. Mike Hubbard, speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives, has said, "With the passage of this legislation, we are doing everything we can to ensure the procedure is performed in a safe and healthy environment."

North Dakota governor signs law banning most abortions

Once signed, Alabama's new law would require abortion clinics to meet the standards of an "ambulatory surgical center," Staci Fox, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood, has said.

This means the state's five abortion clinics would have to remodel to increase the sizes of rooms and doorways.

"It puts an undue burden on existing facilities. All of this makes it harder to access health care," Fox said.

The new law also requires doctors at the clinics to ask pregnant minors under age 16 seeking an abortion who the father is, according to a summary of the legislation provided by Hubbard's office.

Again, we will see if this works or not...

The pregnant minor will be able to refuse to give the father's name and age.

Arkansas lawmakers back nation's most restrictive abortion bill

If the girl provides the name and the father is two or more years older than the girl, the facility will have to report the pregnant girl and father to police, the legislation says. The legislation is designed to prevent abuse.

The law is the centerpiece of the "We Dare Defend Our Right to Life" section of the House Republican caucus's 2013 legislative agenda.

The law's House sponsor, Rep. Mary Sue McClurkin, a Republican from Indian Springs Village, Alabama, said abortion clinics truly dedicated to care "will embrace this legislation rather than oppose it.

"For far too long, Alabama has had more health regulations in place to protect your cat or dog at a vet clinic than it does for a woman receiving an abortion; this law will correct that shameful disparity," McClurkin said in a statement.

^^ Someone brought this to my attention the other day. Again, someone tell these "conservative" politicians the pieces were already in play many moons ago to strike down these abominations.

http://www.irontontribune.com/2008/09/30/republican-nominees-have-upheld-roe-v-wade/
9/30/13
Republican nominees have upheld Roe v. Wade

Is there a religious and righteous political party in the United States? An untruth when told often and long enough will be perceived by the public to be the truth.

A 1973 Supreme Court decision, Roe V. Wade legalized abortion by a 7 to 2 vote. Six of the seven Justices in the majority were Republican appointees. The only other Democrat appointee, Byron White, voted against Roe V. Wade.

In fact, in every year since 1969, the United States Supreme Court has been controlled by a majority of Republican-appointed judges. There has not been a Democrat-appointed Chief Justice since 1953. Currently, there are seven Republican appointees and two nominated by Democrats.

Obviously if the Republican majority had wanted to overturn Roe v. Wade at any time since 1973, they had the votes to do so. Why haven’t they?

In 2003, the United States Supreme Court in Lawrence v. Texas overturned a Texas law against sodomy. Once again in the 6-3 decision, four Republicans voted to overturn the law.

Recently, the California Supreme Court overturned the State’s ban on same sex marriage.

Six of the seven California judges were elected Republicans.

From 2000-2006, Republicans controlled both houses of congress, Plus the Presidency. In 2006, the Federal Drug Administration approved an “over the counter” abortion drug which is total abortion, common name Levonorgestrel Drug Plan B Dual Label TB.75. This is not birth control, but is to be used after conception. This pill was so complete an abortion pill, Senate Bill 3 in Indiana was introduced so pharmacist would not have to dispense the drug. You can get a print out from your pharmacist. The head of the FDA serves at thepleasure of President Bush.

My point is clear. The courts that handed down Roe v. Wade and Lawrence v. Texas were controlled by Republican appointees. For religious leaders to continue to blame Democrats for Republican actions is wrong.

One’s own Christian relationship should not be questioned because of where they worship or their political leanings.

----------------------------------------------------------

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9  Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Act 17:24  God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
Act 17:25  Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;

Especially when it's not a Republican or Democrat issue. It's a politician issue, and the Supreme Court has been manipulated by politicians, not justice. It legally should not matter what party a judge is or the courts. To be one or the other is legal bias, and that in itself nullifies their position and makes the courts worthless.

Looks like the USSC is in the back pockets of all of the NWO agendas now...

Planned Parenthood Funding Cutoff Bid Rejected by Court
5/28/13
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-28/planned-parenthood-funding-cutoff-bid-rejected-by-court.html?cmpid=yhoo

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to revive an Indiana law that would have blocked Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid dollars because the organization provides abortion services.

The justices today left intact a lower court ruling that said the Indiana law violated Medicaid beneficiaries’ right to freely choose their medical provider.

Indiana is one of several states targeting Planned Parenthood in an effort to prevent even indirect subsidies of abortion. Texas, Arizona, Missouri, Florida, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Tennessee, New Hampshire, Kansas and North Carolina have taken steps to limit public funding to health centers that provide abortion services.

Medicaid is the joint federal-state health care program for the poor. While federal law bars use of Medicaid funds for abortions, providers that perform abortions can receive payment from Medicaid for other types of services.

Under the federal law that governs the program, state Medicaid plans must reimburse any provider “qualified to perform the service or services required.”

Indiana contended that provision isn’t absolute, leaving states room to determine what it means to be “qualified.” Indiana’s 2011 law says state agencies can’t provide public funds to any entity that performs abortions or operates a facility where abortions take place.

more

Supreme Court refuses to hear Planned Parenthood cases
5/28/13
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-supreme-court-refuses-to-hear-planned-parenthood-cases-20130528,0,4569389.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fmostviewed+%28L.A.+Times+-+Most+Viewed+Stories%29

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court dealt a setback Tuesday to the campaign of abortion opponents to “defund” Planned Parenthood.

Without comment, the justices turned away Indiana’s defense of a 2011 law that would ban all Medicaid funds to an organization such as Planned Parenthood whose work includes performing abortions.

The high court let stand decisions by a federal judge in Indiana and the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago that blocked the measure from taking effect. The “defunding law excludes Planned Parenthood from Medicaid for a reason unrelated to its fitness to provide medical services, violating its patients’ statutory right to obtain medical care from the qualified provider of their choice,” Judge Diane Sykes said last year for the 7th Circuit.

The Obama administration had joined the case on the side of Planned Parenthood and argued that the Medicaid law gives eligible low-income patients a right to obtain healthcare from any qualified provider. This is known as the free-choice-of-provider rule.

More than 9,300 Medicaid patients in Indiana go to Planned Parenthood clinics for routine medical exams, cancer screening and birth control, the lower court said.

At issue in the case was how far states can go to prevent indirect subsidies for abortion. Congress forbids the spending of federal funds to pay for elective abortions. Indiana has a similar provision in state law.

Two years ago, Indiana lawmakers voted to go further and forbid the spending of any Medicaid money — federal or state — through “any entity” whose facilities perform abortions. Hospitals and state-licensed surgical clinics were exempted. But Planned Parenthood went to federal court and sued on behalf of a doctor, a nurse and two patients.

Arizona’s Legislature passed a similar measure, but it too has been blocked by a federal judge.

Indiana's attorney general appealed to the Supreme Court and urged the justices to review the case and revive the state's law.

Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, welcomed the court's decision.

"All women, no matter where they live, should be able to get quality, affordable healthcare from the healthcare provider they know and trust,” she said.

California Assembly passes bill specifically exempting abortion clinics from surgical building code standards
http://liveactionnews.org/california-assembly-passes-bill-specifically-exempting-abortion-clinics-from-surgical-building-code-standards/
5/29/13

The state of California, who often leads the nation in laws and legislation, has taken a step backwards, as the California State Assembly passed an act to amend the current health and safety code in state medical facilities in a manner that would allow Planned Parenthood and other abortion clinics to have fewer requirements, allowing them to perform their life-taking surgeries in non-surgical facilities. Assembly Bill 980 passed Friday and now moves to the Senate for debate.

Assembly Bill 980 amends current California building codes by allowing surgical abortion centers to be exempted from facility standards that all other surgical medical centers must comply with. In part, the bill says:

"
(c) Notwithstanding any other law, the Building Standards Commission shall not adopt building code standards that establish construction requirements for primary care clinics that provide medication or aspiration abortion services that differ from construction standards applicable to other primary care clinics described in Section 1226.6 of the 2013 Triennial Edition of the Building Standards Code. (You can read the code here.)

Primary care clinics may include a place where you get a flu swab or strep test, and don’t generally include things as severe and risky as abortion. This legislation flies in the face of the direction of the nation, which has seen multiple laws actually enacting requirements for abortion facilities to be properly inspected and equipped to meet medical standards.

While many states have been tightening abortion restrictions to ensure that the Gosnells of the land are stopped in their tracks, the California Assembly has sent a message to abortion providers that the state’s legislators want to help abortionists do business and will aid in removing barriers to doing this – even when logical health and safety issues are presented. This special loophole just for abortion providers shows once again the symbiotic relationship between the abortion industry and its predominately Democrat pro-abortion political allies.

The California ProLife Council is currently trying to inform residents of this potential law’s passage and is asking all Californians to contact their legislators. To register your objection to this law, you may contact your legislator. This link will help you find the appropriate lawmaker.

It's...unsettling to see how the world is backing such evil. It's as if the murders are getting ready for the immigration flood. I can't even begin to understand how those people can be so rabid about this, to the point of pushing it beyond all reason and logic, not to mention being void of any human decency. And governments are the biggest supporters. That should tell the citizenry something!

Dunno, but all of this talk to defund PP seems to be nothing more than lip service...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/post/komens-planned-parenthood-decision-all-about-politics/2012/02/01/gIQAJS1xhQ_blog.html
Posted at 12:50 PM ET, 02/01/2012 
Komen’s Planned Parenthood decision all about politics

DALLAS – “Not about politics” is the part that even some of Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s most loyal supporters might question.

The Dallas-based organization, which is the country’s biggest breast cancer charity, insisted its controversial decision to defund Planned Parenthood affiliates was made only in light of Komen’s new policy against supporting agencies that are under investigation. (The congressional investigation itself was launched by a conservative Republican and spurred by antiabortion groups.)

The decision was “not about politics,” a Komen statement insisted.

But the truth is that Komen founder Nancy Brinker has strong Republican ties and Cecile Richards, who leads Planned Parenthood, is daughter of late Texas Gov. Ann Richards and has longtime Democratic Party ties. Also worth noting: This is an election year.

Brinker, a longtime GOP donor who was ambassador to Hungary under then-President George W. Bush, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama in 2009. She has cast Komen as above politics, saying its focus is women’s health.

But the decision to stop funding Planned Parenthood comes shortly after Komen unveiled a new partnership that strengthens its ties to the George W. Bush Institute. The institute is the policy-making arm of Bush’s presidential library, which is scheduled to open in Dallas next year.
 
Founders say the new effort, called the Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon campaign, is an “innovative partnership” aimed at improving breast and cervical screenings for women in developing nations in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.

Other partners include the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS.

The founding corporate sponsor is Merck, which is making a financial contribution of $3 million over three years and in-kind contributions to a cervical cancer vaccination program in Tanzania.

Merck, which manufactures the Gardasil vaccine, is a longtime campaign donor to Texas Gov. Rick Perry, whose ties to the company were briefly an issue during his failed presidential bid. Rival Michele Bachman accused Perry of pushing the Gardasil vaccine on young girls in Texas at Merck’s behest in 2007.

Richards, too, is a Texan with a Bush connection; it was to George W. that her mother lost her reelection bid. And it is Dallas Democratic donors Ann and Lee Fikes who made news with their a $250,000 donation to Planned Parenthood in response to the Komen decision.

The money will help launch a Breast Health Emergency Fund to offset Komen’s funding cut at 19 local Planned Parenthood programs.

Over the past five years, Komen funding has provided nearly 170,000 clinical breast exams out of more than 4 million nationwide at Planned Parenthood health centers. Komen has also provided more than 6,400 out of 70,000 mammogram referrals.

Those non-abortion-related services are often the collateral damage when Planned Parenthood takes a hit.


Lori Stahl is a Dallas-based journalist. Follow her on Twitter at @LoriStahl.

501c3 non-profit
abortion supporter
Texas Democrat governor Ann Richards
Ann Richards daughter
Brinker, a Republican ambassador appointed by Bush
Brinker received honor from Obama
Komen is strengthening ties with the Bush library policy arm
sponsored by Merck, a wicked drug company, maker of Gardasil
Merck is a supporter of Rick Perry

And that is just on the surface. It reads like a nightmare!

Judge puts parts of new Kan. abortion law on hold
6/28/13
http://news.yahoo.com/judge-puts-parts-kan-abortion-law-hold-222041443.html

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas judge on Friday temporarily blocked some of the state's new abortion restrictions that were set to take effect next week, including a requirement that providers said would make it nearly impossible for a woman to obtain an emergency abortion.

Shawnee County District Judge Rebecca Crotty blocked two provisions. One requires providers to declare on their websites that the state health department's information on abortions and fetal development is accurate and objective. Another redefines medical emergencies so that they don't include mental health reasons, such as a woman threatening to commit suicide. Critics of the provision have said the new definition is so narrow that a woman never would be able to obtain an emergency abortion.

Crotty refused to block other portions of the law that ban sex-selection abortions, block tax breaks for abortion providers and prohibits them from furnishing materials or instructors for public schools' sexuality courses. Another provision that will take effect requires doctors to provide information to patients that includes a statement that abortion ends the life of "whole, separate, unique, living human being."

The judge ruled in a lawsuit filed by Dr. Herbert Hodes and his daughter, Dr. Traci Nauser, who perform abortions at their Overland Park health center. They asked Crotty to prevent the state from enforcing the entire law while their lawsuit proceeds. Crotty said Hodes and Nauser did not present enough information to justify blocking the entire law, requiring her to review each provision. But the judge said, in the case of the provisions she blocked, they and their patients would suffer irreparable harm.

Hodes and Nauser argued that the new law violates their right to equal legal protection, as guaranteed by the state constitution. Hodes called the ruling "a victory for women in Kansas."

Supporters contend the law preserves life, protects patients and lessens the state's entanglement with abortion. The Republican-dominated Legislature has strong anti-abortion majorities in both chambers, and GOP Gov. Sam Brownback is a strong abortion opponent.

Crotty's ruling came two days after the chief federal judge for Kansas had a hearing in Kansas City, Kan., on a narrower challenge filed by Planned Parenthood, which performs abortions at its Overland Park clinic. Planned Parenthood is challenging provisions requiring providers to give certain information to patients.

The state already has spent nearly $769,000 on private attorneys in defending anti-abortion laws enacted since Brownback took office in January 2011. Attorney General Derek Schmidt, also a Republican, has predicted that defending this year's law will cost the state $500,000 over the next two years.

Health and safety regulations enacted in 2011 specifically for abortion clinics have never been enforced because courts are still reviewing them.

http://news.yahoo.com/judge-delays-enforcement-alabama-abortion-law-until-2014-014233658.html
Judge delays enforcement of Alabama abortion law until 2014
7/23/13

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (Reuters) - A federal judge on Tuesday delayed until next year the enforcement of Alabama's new abortion law, which tightens restrictions on providers and, according to opponents, could force the closing of more than half of the state's abortion clinics.

The law, signed by Republican Governor Robert Bentley in April, requires every doctor who performs an abortion at a clinic to have staff privileges at a local hospital and mandates the clinics meet the same facility standards as ambulatory care centers.

The law was set to go into effect on August 15.

Tuesday's order by U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson delays the law until March 24, 2014, while the court moves forward on a lawsuit filed in June by Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union.

The delay comes as similar laws have been passed in a number of states.

A law in Mississippi threatens to close the state's sole abortion clinic, which has been unable to obtain hospital privileges for its physicians.

Nine states, including Alabama, have laws on the books requiring abortion clinics to conform to ambulatory care center standards, according to the National Abortion Rights Action League.

Supporters of the law argue it is intended to make abortions safer and improve patient care. But critics say the law will unnecessarily restrict a woman's right under the U.S. Constitution to have an abortion.

**So "supporters" of this bill are saying abortion is OK?

The lawsuit said the law will lead to the closure of three out of the state's five licensed health centers that provide abortions.

Most Alabama clinics hire out-of-town physicians to perform abortions and partner with local doctors who have hospital admitting privileges to provide follow-up care.

Doctors at the clinics are often unable to obtain staff privileges because local hospitals oppose abortion or they live too far from the area, the lawsuit said.

The law "would unconstitutionally restrict the ability of Alabama women, including victims of **** and incest, to access safe and legal abortions," said Wayne Sabel, an attorney representing Planned Parenthood Southeast.

State Representative Mary Sue McClurkin, a Republican who sponsored the legislation, said the law's aim was not to shut abortion clinics.

"I am surprised they are filing lawsuits instead of bringing the clinics up to code," she said when the suit was filed.

Surprised, really? Valid point though. Why would a "medical" professional not try to have hospital privileges?

Doesn't mean they are required to do business with the hospital. It's technically just a business deal for the doctor to use the hospital facility and it's diagnostic tools to work on his patients. One advantage that these thugs a abortion clinics would want to avoid is the close association with all kinds of medical disciplines within a hospital. They can't pull the wool over those people's eye for long. Medically, hospitals are full of people who know what the deal is medically with abortions, so I'd say that's why the abortionists aren't running to hospitals begging for access.

No privileges, then the patient then has to be under another doctor if something goes wrong and goes to a hospital. Medically, the patient becomes the hospital's patient (well, a doctor with privileges that agrees to take the patient), and not the clinic's, as the clinic is a specialist, not a "primary care" provider. Interesting how that works.

Louisiana pro-lifers call for Jindal to defund Planned Parenthood affiliate in wake of Texas fraud


“Based on this serious abuse of taxpayer funds, we encourage the Jindal administration to immediately suspend Louisiana's contract with Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast pending a thorough investigation,” Louisiana Right to Life said in a statement.

rest: http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/after-texas-fraud-louisiana-pro-lifers-tell-jindal-to-defund-planned-parent

Jindal's been in office there since 2007 - and Louisiana pro-lifers have waited until NOW to ask Jindal this?

Seriously - we need to use some discernment here. The perfect time for them to have acted on this was when George W. Bush was in office for 8 years previously. But somehow they just sit on their hands until NOW? Why? Did they just realize a "Democrat" is in office?

Something smells stink about this...

Was just looking at this pro-life's group web site(Louisiana Right to Life Federation).

Aside it from having Catholics on their Board, Executive Council, and Staff, here's their statement on contraception...

http://www.prolifelouisiana.org/about-us/issue-statements.html

Apparently, they have no problems with it. There's no 2 ways about contraception drugs - they've been proven to be very dangerous and abortion-inducing. No ifs, ands, or buts.
http://endtimesandcurrentevents.freesmfhosting.com/index.php/topic,8464.0.html

Ultimately - this seems to be the agendas of these pro-life groups pushing these state governments(runned by GOPers) to push for these abortion "restriction" laws - while they seem to make decent laws restricting abortion clinics/Planned Parenthood, at the same time they do ALMOST NOTHING addressing these dangerous contraception pills. Even the recent Texas abortion restriction bill addressed almost nothing about it(as a matter of fact, ended up reading a subsequent article where it was quietly being pushed from outside sources).

So it just seems like while they're making everyone think abortion clinics are going to be closed down, and Planned Parenthood is getting defunded, at the same time these contraception pills are quietly being pushed, which will potentially in turn profit ALOT of money for these Big Pharma giants.

John 10:7  Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.
Joh 10:8  All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them.
Joh 10:9  I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.

Rev 18:23  And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.

!

http://news.yahoo.com/abortion-limits-sweep-us-even-purple-states-join-153341784.html
7/30/13
As abortion limits sweep US, even 'purple' states join the crackdown

Excerpt:

States are also increasingly polarized over broader issues of reproductive health – access to birth control (by defunding Planned Parenthood at the state level), the approach to sex education in schools, and how reproductive health intersects with "Obamacare." As of July 1, twenty-two states prohibit abortion coverage in the state health-insurance exchanges that are being set up. And at least 21 states are opting out of Medicaid expansion, which means less reproductive health care for poor women.

But abortion is the hot topic in the world of reproductive policy. Take Virginia. In 2011, the legislature passed a bill requiring abortion facilities to upgrade to hospital-level standards, such as wider hallways and bigger closets. This past April, Hillcrest Clinic in Norfolk, Va., closed its doors, citing the expense of compliance as the main reason. (Another reason, it must be noted, is that demand for abortion had declined, owing to more effective use of birth control.)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 John 4:3  And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

John 6:33  For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.

Indiana Planned Parenthood Medicaid Battle Ended By Judge
7/30/13
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/30/indiana-planned-parenthood_n_3679164.html

INDIANAPOLIS — A judge on Tuesday made permanent her order barring Indiana from denying Medicaid funds to Planned Parenthood clinics, ending the state's two-year legal fight.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt issued his permanent injunction after the U.S. Supreme Court in May refused to hear Indiana's appeal in the case. Days later, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued an administrative ruling siding with Planned Parenthood.

Indiana had sought to prevent Medicaid enrollees from accessing health care at clinics operated by Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky because the organization provides abortions.

Planned Parenthood, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, had argued that a 2011 Indiana law targeting the organization should be blocked because it probably conflicted with a federal Medicaid statute that protects patients' rights to make their own decisions about health care providers.

"This decision recognizes the rights and liberties of health care providers and the women they serve," said ACLU of Indiana Executive Director Jane Henegar. "We hope lawmakers will now see where federal law and the Constitution draw the line to protect individuals against government intrusion."

Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller issued a statement saying "it was important and necessary to defend the policy decision of the people's elected representatives in the Legislature that Medicaid dollars should not indirectly subsidize the payroll and overhead expenses of abortion providers. "

"If legal challenges to similar statutes in other states eventually reach the United States Supreme Court, then Indiana would have another opportunity through an amicus brief to assert this legal argument," Zoeller said.

Tuesday's ruling made permanent the judge's June 2011 preliminary injunction. It came a day after the two sides filed an agreement with the court stipulating that the state cannot violate Medicaid's "freedom of choice" provision.

The legal battle dating to May 2011 was marked by a temporary interruption in Planned Parenthood's ability to receive reimbursement for seeing Medicaid patients for routine care such as Pap smears, breast exams and pregnancy tests.

The interruption, however, led 1,600 donors in 48 states and on three continents to provide about $500,000 allowing Medicaid recipients to continue to receive at Planned Parenthood's more than 20 clinics across Indiana, said Betty Cockrum, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky.

"We've been encouraged at every step along the way, but two years is a long time, and it certainly did introduce some confusion out there for our patients," Cockrum said in a telephone interview. "That's unfortunate anytime when Indiana is seeing a lot of economic duress. We're seeing the number of Hoosiers living in poverty increase. It's a bad time for people to have confusion about their health care."

The 2011 law would have made Indiana the first to deny the organization Medicaid funds for general health services. The state argued that Medicaid funds intended to help groups such as Planned Parenthood provide general health care would indirectly subsidize abortions.

The Hyde Amendment, a 1976 provision named after the late Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., bans federal funding for abortions except in cases of ****, incest or when the life of the mother is at risk.

Uh, no it doesn't! That legal fight is still ongoing.


Here's the kicker...they all talk about a woman's health, insisting that women need PPH for their health care.

Really? So what's with all those other medical clinics, doctor's offices, hospitals, and state health clinics? Women cannot go to all those THOUSANDS of offices for their health care? BULL.

Women don't go to those places for health, they go to Planned Parenthood to kill babies, not for health care!


Wait, did I read that right? "government intrusion"? What? This person is seriously confused! How is not funding an organization "intrusion" by the government?

Not funding doesn't mean they can't operate. It means they don't get government cash, and why should they? How are they any different than any other business? They aren't, but they don't want the public to know that, because the truth is, certain people are basically stealing the public's money through federal programs, and through those federal programs, the federal government uses that promise of cash to bribe organizations to do the fed's bidding. The feds are doing the exact same thing to the states, bribing them to conform to federal standards under threat of pulling the cash, like the classic threat of taking away "highway funds", or funding for schools.

I say, take your tainted cash, please, and go away!   ::)

Surprise, surprise! All of this, apparently, was meant to be nothing more than a puppet show starring the false left/right paradigm players...

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/gop-key-states-tries-slow-173055789.html
GOP in key states tries to slow anti-abortion push

Fearing voter backlash, GOP leaders in key states try to slow the anti-abortion push
8/2/13

MILWAUKEE (AP) -- Abortion is still legal but getting one in many states will be difficult if laws passed this year are upheld by the courts. In a march through conservative legislatures, anti-abortion Republicans passed a wave of new restrictions that would sharply limit when a woman could terminate a pregnancy and where she could go to do so.

The push brought the anti-abortion movement closer to a key milestone, in which the procedure would become largely inaccessible in the three-fifths of the country controlled by Republicans even if still technically legal under Roe vs. Wade.

But rather than continuing to roll across the GOP heartland in synch with the pro-life movement's plan, the effort may now be hitting a wall. The obstacle comes not from opposing Democrats but from GOP leaders who believe pressing further is a mistake for a party trying to soften its harder edges after election losses last year.

The resisting Republicans include governors and top legislators in more than a half-dozen states, including some of the largest and most politically competitive in the party's 30-state coalition. They are digging in to stop the barrage of abortion proposals, hoping to better cultivate voters not enamored with the GOP's social agenda.

"It's a huge mistake if your ear is not in tune where people are," said Republican state Sen. Dale Schultz in Wisconsin, who is trying to fend off more abortion legislation in the state's GOP-controlled legislature, even though he says he personally supports it. "And we were pushing people too fast. All we're going to do is panic people and this is going to blow up if we don't begin to moderate on some of this stuff."

The Ohio Senate president, Republican Tom Neihaus, blocked a bill in November that would have banned abortions as early as six weeks into pregnancy.

"I just didn't think it was appropriate," said Niehaus, a supporter of earlier anti-abortion measures. "It's a distraction from our primary focus of getting the economy back on track."

But anti-abortion leaders say they are determined to push on into more Republican strongholds, taking advantage of the party's majority status.

"It is definitely the case that the future for us lies beyond what is considered your traditional pro-life states," said Dan McConchie, vice president of Americans United for Life, which circulates model legislation to state lawmakers.

The dissension, strongest in the Midwest and southern border states, is flaring as the GOP prepares for competitive races in the contested regions next year. The anti-abortion movement is poised to press for constitutional amendments giving legal rights to fetuses, bans on abortions based on gender, and an end to abortion exceptions for victims of **** and incest.

Anti-abortion Republicans have gotten more than 170 new abortion laws passed in 30 states since the party won control of a majority of statehouses in 2010. This year's push was highlighted by some of the strongest restrictions yet passed in North Dakota, Arkansas and Texas.

The key measures banned abortions after approximately six weeks, 12 weeks or 20 weeks, depending on the state; required women to see the fetus on an ultrasound; required doctors to have hospital admitting privileges; and required clinics to have full hospital-type facilities. More than a dozen GOP states in the South and West adopted all or most of the package.

If the new laws are upheld by the courts, many providers would close. Only six of the 42 abortion clinics in Texas are expected for remain open, serving the nation's second largest population. Already, only one clinic remains open in Mississippi, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming.

In the midst of the push, Republican legislatures in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and several other swing states enacted restrictions, but not the tougher ones. Republican majorities in Florida did not add new restrictions and leaders don't expect to. In Virginia, a key anti-abortion measure didn't pass. Republican Gov. Pat McCrory in North Carolina is balking at more action.

GOP officials there object to the idea of legislating abortion repeatedly and to proposals they consider extreme.

"We just passed the biggest abortion bill in Wisconsin in 15 years," said Wisconsin state Sen. Glenn Grothman, among the chamber's leading anti-abortion crusaders. "But to ask our members to do that again, they might not have the stomach for that."

In these states, GOP leaders say they are worried about alienating women and young people, who disproportionately favor abortion rights. These groups voted in lesser numbers than usual for GOP candidates last year. Democratic President Barack Obama won the women's vote by 11 percentage points.

Nationally, most voters approve of restrictions on abortion but 54 percent think it should be legal in most or all cases, according to a poll conducted in July by the Pew Center for People and the Press. The support for abortion rights was 10 percentage points higher in the Great Lakes and South Atlantic regions than in the South.

In Michigan, "There's just not a whole lot of legislative things left do" on abortion, said GOP Senate President Randy Richardville. "We lean conservative, but we're not crazies."

Michigan's Republican House Speaker Jase Bolger blocked one tough abortion bill this year and Republican Gov. Rick Snyder vetoed another last year, which opponents are now trying to circumvent with a ballot initiative.

But abortion rights supporters say that even if the GOP's anti-abortion push loses momentum, the measures already passed in Republican states will have a major impact on women seeking abortions.

"Even if this wave of restrictions stops, it's not like access will be restored," said Elizabeth Nash, the state policy analyst for the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.

^^



Yet another controlled-opposition group...

Look at the Board members who work at Jesuit institutions.
http://www.aul.org/about-aul/board/

http://www.aul.org/about-aul/history/

Wrong! It was in California when then-governor Ronald Reagan signed the Therapeutic Act in 1967, which lead to about 800K abortions during his tenure there. Before this bill went into law, only 2 states legalized abortion. It was THIS watershed event that turned the tide in the other direction, and eventually lead to Roe V Wade.


Look at that New Age/Jesuitical buzzword - SOCIAL JUSTICE!

You miss this?...

I saw that - but that wasn't the point. Pt was that this pro-life group(in their web site), as well as other ones time and time again ignore the fact that Ronald Reagan pushed a big abortion bill in 1967 as governor of California. It was THIS that changed the course for this country, and eventually lead to Roe V Wade(and not the New York one where Nelson Rockefeller vetoed the repeal in 1970).

I just thought it interesting that a Rockefeller was in the middle of that, and he voted to overturn a ban.

Me too - also to add, most of the current crop of "Republicans" since the "Reagan Revolution" were Rockefeller Republicans..."fiscally conservative", but pro-eugenics/anti-family. And yeah, you rarely ever hear these pro-life groups expose Rockefeller much either.

Obama has found another way to get blackmail cash to PPH.

Now they are getting federal money to push his health care scam as a "navigator", along with several other "non-profits".

http://news.yahoo.com/planned-parenthood-obamacare-funds-enrollment-push-234051835.html (http://news.yahoo.com/planned-parenthood-obamacare-funds-enrollment-push-234051835.html)

Remember Obamacare was modeled after Romneycare in MA, which provided free taxpayer abortions - so this isn't a surprise. Abominable, yes, but not surprising.

New Abortion Restrictions in States Are 0 for 8 in Courts

By Andrew Harris - Aug 20, 2013 2:50 PM CT

State legislatures trying to curtail abortions have suffered a 0-for-8 losing streak after court challenges to their new laws this year.

The laws, all but one signed by Republican governors, drew on ideas from a playbook created by an anti-abortion group. Democrats plan to use the attempted curbs to boost 2014 congressional fundraising and increase voter support, calling the laws part of a “War on Women.”

Four states’ statutes attacked the core of the U.S. Supreme Court’s rulings that a woman has a right to the procedure before a fetus is viable. Efforts to bar abortions after six, 12 and 20 weeks of pregnancy were halted in North Dakota, Arkansas and Idaho. An appeals court struck down Arizona’s 20-week ban. Laws imposing restrictions on doctors were blocked in North Dakota and two other states.

Trying to ban abortions before a fetus can live outside the mother’s womb “flies in the face” of U.S. Supreme Court rulings, said Paul B. Linton, a lawyer with the Chicago-based Thomas More Society whose group, an opponent of abortion, isn’t involved in defending early-pregnancy curbs.

Efforts to limit early-pregnancy abortions are unlikely to succeed, he said.

Federal Courts

“I cannot see the Supreme Court upholding any of these laws with respect to the pre-viability applications,” Linton said in an interview, adding: “I can’t see those laws being upheld by lower federal courts.”

A judge in Bismarck, North Dakota, supported that view on July 22 in temporarily striking down a state law barring abortions at the sixth week of pregnancy, when a fetal heartbeat can typically be detected, except in cases of medical emergency.

“The state has extended an invitation to an expensive court battle over a law restricting abortions that is a blatant violation of the constitutional guarantees afforded all women,” U.S. District Judge Daniel L. Hovland wrote.

It has been 40 years since the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade established a woman’s constitutional right to terminate an early pregnancy. Thirty states limited or prohibited abortions at the time. Colorado became the first to legalize it in 1967, after about 80 years of legislation against the procedure in the U.S., according to the pro-choice National Abortion Federation.

Curb Procedures

The high court reiterated its stance in “Roe” in 1992’s Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey. The decisions didn’t end legislative attempts to curb the procedure.

Leading the anti-abortion campaign in the states are the Washington-based groups Americans United for Life and National Right to Life Committee. The latter organization started lobbying before “Roe,” said Mary Spaulding Balch, its state-legislation director.

“Not a single year has gone by where we didn’t pass some piece of substantive legislation,” she said. “Our state affiliates have been in the trenches from the beginning.”

Americans United for Life publishes an annual review of laws in states titled “Defending Life,” a guide for lawmakers that contains model legislation.

“We believe that in the end, the abortion issue ought to be left to the states, that it was a serious judicial error for the United States Supreme Court to put itself in the position of being the abortion control board for the country,” said Ovide Lamontagne, the organization’s general counsel and a two-time Republican candidate for governor of New Hampshire. “We are essentially providing a resource for legislators across the country.”

‘Defending Life’

Model bills in “Defending Life” and proposals by state affiliates of the National Right to Life Committee have been the impetus for some of the bills.

“Some people call it the playbook,” Jordan Goldberg, state advocacy counsel for the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, said of “Defending Life.”

“If you look, you will see a lot of the legislation that’s pending,” based on the models, Goldberg said in a phone interview. “It’s not as if the people in North Dakota woke up one day and said, ‘We have a real problem with the admitting privileges.’”

Her organization, the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood, have led the legal opposition to laws targeting abortion.

Admitting Privileges

Laws resembling Americans United for Life’s proposal to require doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at hospitals within 30 miles of their facilities passed in Mississippi and North Dakota.

Those laws were temporarily blocked by judges who found they likely burdened a woman’s right in states where doctors would be unable to obtain the privileges and sole clinics would be forced to close.

Similar laws now blocked would have shuttered three of five clinics in Alabama and in Wisconsin would have closed two of four and curtailed services at a third.

Proponents of North Dakota’s law argued it was needed to guarantee emergency care for abortion patients. It would have closed the Red River Women’s Clinic in Fargo.

State Judge Wickham Corwin said abortions performed there are “extremely safe and effective” pre-viability procedures, making the statute unnecessary.

Undue Burden

In his July 31 decision, the judge also said the law posed an undue burden on women and that it ran afoul of the Supreme Court’s “Casey” decision.

Of the three hospitals within the specified 30-mile radius of the Red River clinic, Corwin said, one is affiliated with the Catholic Church and can’t be involved with abortions; the second -- a U.S. veterans’ hospital -- is barred from doing them by federal law; and the third has an annual minimum patient-admission requirement for a doctor’s affiliation.

“The legislature has shown open disdain for the rights clearly protected by the federal Constitution,” Corwin wrote.

Two hundred miles to the west in Bismarck on July 22, Hovland, the federal judge, was similarly critical in calling the fetal-heartbeat law a “blatant violation” of women’s rights.

Upon signing that measure into law in March, Republican Governor Jack Dalrymple acknowledged its uncertain future by saying its chance of surviving a court challenge was “in question.” He called it “a legitimate attempt by a state legislature to discover the boundaries of Roe v. Wade.”

Real Restrictions

“The courts are incredibly important stopgaps, but nobody should be sanguine to think the courts are the solution to this,” Louise Melling, the ACLU’s deputy legal director, said in a telephone interview, adding that resistance is needed in the state legislatures.

“It’s important that people realize the impact of these restrictions is real,” Melling said. The New York-based group earlier this year launched a web page, dedicated to the proposition that the abortion rights issue is a women’s issue.

An adjacent page states that more than 300 abortion-restrictive laws have been introduced by state legislators this year.

Steven R. Morrison, a constitutional-law professor at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, said some lawmakers don’t understand the constitutional implications of their work.

“They truly believe abortion is murder,” Morrison said. “Why wouldn’t you pass a law that prohibits it? But we don’t live in a theocracy, we live in a democracy, and they’re ignoring the case law as it stands.”

Futile Attempt

Even a futile attempt to curb abortion has moral, political and legal value, said Donald P. Judges, a University of Arkansas law professor.

“For some it’s to make a point to their constituents or perceived constituents,” said Judges, the author of “Hard Choices Lost Voices: How the Abortion Conflict Had Divided America, Distorted Constitutional Rights, and Damaged the Courts.”

In his state, a measure curbing abortions at the 12th week of pregnancy was passed this year by the legislature over Governor Mike Beebe’s veto. Then it was blocked in court by U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright.

Drawing conclusions about trends should await final rulings on the merits of cases challenging state restrictions and subsequent appeals, Lamontagne, of Americans United for Life, said in an e-mail. “Trial courts apply the law as they understand it to be, and they are not always correct,” he said.

Peter Rofes, a Marquette University law professor in Milwaukee, said there’s a positive side to investing “the time, the effort, the money to engage the challenge” of proposing laws almost certain to prompt lawsuits they may not survive.

“It’s a victory for those who seek to keep it in the nation’s consciousness,” he said.

Current Court

Rofes predicted the federal cases will rise at least to the regional appeals courts of appeal. Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen has filed papers signaling his intention to appeal an Aug. 2 ruling by a U.S. judge temporarily blocking the state’s hospital affiliate law.

Judges, the Arkansas law professor, agreed.

“I don’t think the current court is inclined to revisit Roe,” he said. “Until there’s a one-justice switch, I think it’s going to rest in the lower courts.”

Chief Justice John Roberts and associate justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito are perceived as the most likely to vote to revisit the issue and perhaps alter the status quo, Rofes said.

Justices Anthony Kennedy, Steven Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan are widely viewed as unwilling to fundamentally alter the law, he said.

National Right to Life is pushing for a different kind of legislation, barring abortion at the 20th week of a pregnancy on the ground that a fetus at that point can feel pain.

Neural Pathways

Such measures have been passed in the U.S. House of Representatives and 10 states, most recently Texas.

“Pain is a subjective experience, no matter who is experiencing it,” Cassing Hammond, a professor at Northwestern University in Chicago and a doctor of obstetrics and gynecology, said in a phone interview. Neural pathways that transmit that sensation and cerebral development needed to process it as pain typically don’t fully develop in a fetus until at least the 23rd week of a pregnancy, he said, and possibly not until the 29th.

“We simply do not have evidence that those pathways are in place” at 20 weeks, he said, even if neuroscience has advanced since Roe. “These bans do not make good scientific sense.”

Hammond served as chairman of the National Abortion Federation’s board from 2010 to 2012. He said his views are “not about politics. It’s about providing safe care to patients.”

Linton of the Thomas More Society said of the pre-viability fetal-pain laws, “I would like to see these bills upheld. I just don’t think they will be.”

An Arizona law criminalizing abortions performed at or after the 20th week of pregnancy was struck down May 21 by a San Francisco-based federal appeals court. Prohibiting the procedure before fetal viability is unconstitutional, the court said.

State lawmakers based the statute on “the documented risks to women’s health and the strong medical evidence that unborn children feel pain during an abortion at that gestational age,” according to the appeals court ruling.

The state has until Sept. 28 to petition the U.S. Supreme Court for review. Americans United for Life was among the groups filing briefs in support of the law. Arguing against it were attorneys from the Center and the ACLU.

Balch of National Right to Life said her organization hopes the Supreme Court finds a compelling state interest in protecting the life of a child that can feel pain, based on science that wasn’t available in 1973.

“It hasn’t been before the court before, and we would welcome that challenge,” she said.

Well, Thomas Moore, FYI, was a Roman Catholic who helped lead the inquisitions for the Papacy a few centuries ago. No surprise that the Thomas Moore Society is controlled-opposition(at least judging by this guy's comments here).


But it was Ronald Reagan who signed a big pro-abortion bill when governor of CA in 1967, which not only lead to 1m abortions during his term there, but all but paved the way for Roe V Wade as more states followed in CA's lead.



But Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush, and George W. Bush continue to get free rides for appointing Sandra Day O'Conner, Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the USSC? You DO know that it was O'Conner's appointee by Reagan that was the clincher to the 1992 5-4 upholding of Roe V Wade, right?



Uhm...WHAT? ??? Abortion IS MURDER, PERIOD! And should NOT be legalized anywhere!

Exo_20:13  Thou shalt not kill.




Yes, they have been compromised. It's not just Clinton/Obama appointed judges making rulings for pro-abortion groups, Reagan/Bush appointed judges are doing so as well.



And ALMOST ZERO of these laws were introduced by state legislators when George W. was President for 8 years! ::)



A George HW Bush appointee, that is.



Or the love of money(as it sounds like you said).



Wrong! Both John Roberts and Samuel Alito have made rulings in favor of pro-abortion when they were lower court judges(prior to George W. appointing them in 2005).



Why is it that these "pro-life" groups set out to "compromise"? Either it's right, or it's wrong. Jesus Christ says either you are with me or against me. There's no gray areas.



Huh? Wasn't this science available in 1992, when Roe V Wade was sent to the USSC to review? Or shouldn't have this science been available to all of the lower court judges that made rulings recently? ::)

Your Personal Data Given to Planned Parenthood

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRU_8p-gHX4

 Published on Aug 25, 2013

America's number one abortion mill is expanding into another line of business — advising people like you how to navigate the complexities of Obamacare's health care exchanges. Plus, thanks to a relaxed screening policy, the new positions of trust will be a "go to" source of jobs for ex-cons.

It seems like being labeled as a "conservative" nowdays is nothing but an oxymoron - ultimately, look at all the propaganda these institutions are indoctrinating the youth with in recent years. And it's not just the public schools, even worse it's the Babel church buildings indoctrinating children with their "youth groups" and Sunday School/Vacation Bible School materials.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/michael-w-chapman/gops-young-guns-program-backs-pro-abortion-pro-gay-marriage
GOP's 'Young Guns' Program Backs Pro-Abortion, Pro-Gay Marriage Candidates for Congress
December 13, 2013 - 11:58 AM

(CNSNews.com) – Although the Republican Party Platform opposes abortion and same-sex marriage, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) is backing and promoting through its "Young Guns" program two congressional candidates who are homosexual, and who support same-sex marriage and abortion.

In addition, one of the "Young Guns" candidates, Carl DeMaio, has received $15,000 from the political arm of House GOP leaders Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), while the other candidate, Richard Tisei, “has won the support of the entire House Republican leadership, including a $5,000 check from the PAC run by the vice-presidential nominee, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.)," reported the Washington Post.

Richard Tisei, who is “married” to his male partner Bernie Starr, in Edgartown, Mass., is running for a congressional seat in the 6th District in the Bay State.   Carl DeMaio is running for a congressional seat out of San Diego, Calif.

DeMaio, who is openly gay, supports abortion and same-sex marriage.  In a press release, he said, “I see myself as a 'new generation Republican' who wants to challenge the party to focus on pocket-book, economic and quality of life issues in a more positive and inclusive way, rather than issues that are, frankly, none of the government's business in the first place.”

Tisei supports same-sex marriage and is pro-abortion, having received a 100% rating from NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts. The NRCC is spending money on television ads attacking Tisei's opponent, Rep. John Tierney (D-Mass.), as is YG Action, a political action committee founded by former aides to House Minority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), reported the Washington Post.

Concerning Tisei’s congressional run, Cantor told the Washington Post, "We all came here from somewhere. It is the opportunity that drew us here, and he will have every bit of opportunity, as an openly gay Republican, as any other Republican. I told him, we're fully behind him. I'm supportive of his candidacy and look forward to serving with him."

The National Republican Congressional Committee announced on Nov. 21 that Tisei and DeMaio were among 36 candidates placed "On the Radar" level of the "Young Guns" program.

"‘On the Radar’ is the first level of the committee’s ‘Young Guns’ program, and will help to provide candidates and their campaigns the tools they need to run successful, winning campaigns against their Democratic opponents," states the NRCC. "As participants in this program, these candidates will continue to work with the committee and the program’s original founders to ensure that their campaigns remain competitive, well-funded and communicative within their districts."

The NRCC also provides a website page, "Young Guns," with photos and links to individual pages for the 36 "On the Radar" candidates.  The page states that "On the Radar candidates are individuals running in competitive congressional seats. They have met the minimum threshold in campaign organization and show potential to achieve greater status in the program as the cycle progresses."

mroe

Birmingham, Alabama Abortion-Free for Now as Planned Parenthood Closes

Birmingham, Alabama is abortion free for now, as the sole abortion clinic there, run by Planned Parenthood, has temporarily closed. If it stays closed this is the second closure of an abortion clinic in 2014.
 
Local pro-life activist Fr. Terry Gensemer of CEC For Life tells LifeNews that sidewalk counselors report that the facility does not appear to have performed abortions since before Christmas. One counselor confirms that she has only seen a handful of patients show up in the past four weeks, none of which stayed long enough to have an abortion.


“But that’s just the start. On December 30th, after the facility was closed for several days, pro-lifers on the sidewalk witnessed the facility’s director being escorted from the building, followed by a repairman changing all of the locks. Three days later, a sign from Planned Parenthood Southeast (PPS) appeared stating that the facility would be closed until January 6th, 2014. After the 6th, sidewalk counselors say the facility did reopen, but only briefly,” Gensemer explained.
 

As of Tuesday, PPS posted yet another sign, now reading: “We apologize for the inconvenience, but this facility is temporarily closed.” The PPS website also removed the facility’s hours of operation schedule, as well as adding a note that reads: “Services at our Birmingham health center are temporarily slowed.”Gensemer hopes the closure will be permanent.
 

He told LifeNews, “This Planned Parenthood should have been closed long before today. It already has a lawsuit pending from a woman left infertile after the abortionist ignored her ectopic pregnancy and performed an abortion on her empty womb. Before that, the facility was caught in a round of scandal for allegedly covering up cases of statutory ****. For the sake of everyone this facility continues to harm, we are praying it remains closed.”
 


He said if the facility does remain closed, Birmingham will be the largest metropolitan area in the country free of abortion clinics – a prayer that many in the city have waited decades to see answered.
 
Ed Carrick, Director of Birmingham 40 Days for Life, comments, “We’ve done numerous prayer campaigns outside of this facility. The goal of any 40 Days campaign is to arrive at the start date and have no abortion facility at which to hold your campaign. A final shutdown would not only be an answer to many years of dedicated prayer, it would be a miracle for the city. We give God the glory for every day Birmingham remains free of these clinics.”
 


The Planned Parenthood website has removed all operating house for the Birmingham abortion facility and has noted the following:
 

Services at our Birmingham health center are temporarily slowed. Please call (205) 322-2121 for more information about our other locations.
 
“The term ‘slowed’ to them means ‘stopped’ to everyone else. In typical Planned Parenthood ‘new-speak,’ they just can’t admit they are closed and that their facility director was given the ‘perp walk.’ Obviously there are serious issues at the Birmingham Planned Parenthood and we are grateful for the respite in their grisly abortion business,” said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue. “Planned Parenthood organizations around the country have a history of financial malfeasance, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case in Birmingham, given the way the facility director was removed from the building.”
 
Other troubles have plagued the Birmingham Planned Parenthood abortion business. An incompetent abortion that left a patient unable to bear children and a series of deficiency reports noting conditions and practices that endangered the public prompted Life Legal Defense to file a complaint with the Alabama Department of Public Health in September 2012, on behalf of the CEC for Life, Operation Rescue, and Alabama Physicians for Life.
 
Operation Rescue also filed a formal complaint against the Birmingham Planned Parenthood’s abortionist, Aqua Don E. Umoren, for incompetence and negligence related to the incompetent abortion, which was done on a woman suffering an ectopic pregnancy that Umoren failed to diagnose with disastrous consequences to the patient. That case remains open.
 
“We join the CEC for Life and other local groups in praying that the Birmingham Planned Parenthood abortion clinic never reopens,” said Newman. “Its permanent closure would protect the public from suffering further abortion abuses there.”
 
The Planned Parenthood facility is the second abortion clinic closure in 2014. Earlier this month, the Ft. Wayne Women’s Health Center in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, was the first surgical abortion clinic to officially shut down in 2014, following a record-breaking year where 87 surgical abortion clinics permanently closed.

http://www.lifenews.com/2014/01/16/birmingham-alabama-abortion-free-for-now-as-planned-parenthood-closes/

Sadly, for every 1-2 minor victories, there are much more major losses. Didn't the USSC strike down an AZ anti-abortion law recently?

Ephesians 6:10  Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
Eph 6:11  Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
Eph 6:12  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

http://health.yahoo.net/news/s/nm/planned-parenthood-in-alaska-sues-state-official-over-abortion
Planned Parenthood in Alaska sues state official over abortion
1/29/14

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Planned Parenthood in Alaska sued the state health commissioner on Wednesday over new regulations that prevent state Medicaid from covering elective abortions.

The new regulations, set to go into effect on Sunday, require abortion doctors who receive Medicaid payments to certify that a procedure is "medically necessary" to prevent serious risk to the woman's health, or that the patient is a victim of **** and incest.

The group, Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest, is seeking to have the regulations struck down as an unconstitutional violation of equal protection, said Planned Parenthood spokesman Joshua Decker.

The lawsuit also seeks to prevent the state from enforcing the regulations.

Decker said the regulation will illegally restrict low-income Alaskans' access to abortion services.

Decker said a 2001 Alaska Supreme Court decision ruled that the state must fund medically necessary abortions along with other medically necessary services for low-income residents.

"State Medicaid in Alaska can't single out abortions and treat them differently from other Medicaid services," Decker said. "With every other service, Alaska trusts its medical doctors to adhere to the best interests of their patients."

A representative for Bill Streur, the Alaska Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner, did not immediately return calls for comment.

The representative told the Anchorage Daily News on Wednesday that Streur would not comment until he had reviewed the lawsuit with state lawyers.

Under the regulations set to take effect next week, paperwork requesting Medicaid reimbursement will include two boxes. Doctors would check the first box if the patient was the victim of **** or incest, or the second box to certify that the procedure was "medically necessary" to prevent serious risk to the woman.

A list of medical conditions - which includes congestive heart failure, a pregnancy complication called eclampsia, and a psychiatric disorder - which could put a pregnant woman in "imminent danger" of damage to a "major bodily function" can be cited as defining the notion of "medically necessary."

Last summer, at the request of a Democratic state senator who objected to the regulation - which was then only a proposal - Alaska's Legislative Affairs Agency issued a legal memo on the abortion regulation, saying the regulation would "likely be found unconstitutional," NBC's Anchorage affiliate, KTUU, reported in August.

(Reporting By Chris Francescani; Editing by Ken Wills)

Well, surprised that lifesite news still advertises themselves on FB. ::)

Nonetheless, yet another reason to get ride of your FB account(if you have one, that is).

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Donates $992 Million to Charity Funding Planned Parenthood
2/12/14
http://www.lifenews.com/2014/02/12/facebook-ceo-mark-zuckerberg-donates-992-2-million-to-charity-funding-planned-parenthood/

Philanthropy magazine released an article titled “A Look at the 50 Most Generous Donors of 2013.” Topping the list was Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, pediatrician Priscilla Chan.

In 2013 the couple donated 18 million shares of Facebook valued at $992.2 million to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation in Mountain View, California. The couple previously donated 19 million Facebook shares to the same foundation in 2012.

The Silicon Valley Community Foundation describes its organization as a “comprehensive center of philanthropy.” They partner with donors to fund for profit and non-profit organizations around the globe. On their website you can see a list of words that describe the values of their company. The first word listed is “collaboration.”

This word summarizes the work of Silicon Valley Community; they work as a middle-man between donors and companies, making it easy for donors to get their funds into organizations they support. They accept a number of assets such as real estate, stock, and mutual funds and offer their donors customized philanthropy services.

One of the organizations Silicon Valley Community Foundation collaborates with is Planned Parenthood. A copy of their 2012 Public Disclosure is available for online viewing. The disclosure reports that the SVCF donated over $480,000 to Planned Parenthood in 2012 alone. The donations benefited Planned Parenthoods in multiple cities: San Antonio, TX; New York, NY; San Jose, CA; Jacksonville, FL; and Burlington, VT.The donations ranged in amount from $5,000 to $361,750.

Donations were earmarked under broad terms such as “health,” “supporting families,” and “building community.” The annual donations to Planned Parenthood have almost doubled from 2011, when the SVCF report shows that SVCF gave close to $250,000.

Although Zuckerberg hasn’t publicly commented on the programs their gift will support, he did say their philanthropy would focus on children. Zuckerberg and his wife have every right to spend their money as they see fit. I’m grateful that they are donating to assist children in need. I only hope none of their funds will end up in the big pockets of Planned Parenthood.

As for Silicon Valley Community Foundation, they should cut ties with the taxpayer-funded abortion giant and funnel donations into the hundreds of Pregnancy Resource Centers, Crisis Pregnancy centers and homes for mothers. The Silicon Valley Community Foundation currently has assets of $2.9 billion, more than 1,600 philanthropic funds under management and over 60 local nonprofit partners. One can only dream of the impact those resources could have if directed into pro-life, pro-family, pro-women organizations. Perhaps someone should write Zuckerberg a letter.

Yeah, I never did sign up for any of those social apps except for very early on I was on LinkedIn just after it first got up and running several years ago, I think maybe in 2006 or so. Closed it a few years ago when I left the game industry.

No Facebook, no MySpace, no Twitter, nothin', ever. Personally, I think it's a more edifying example, and it does keep the spam down.

Beware of the elephant in the room! :o

Sarah Palin backs Karen Handel in crowded Georgia Senate field
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/03/27/sarah-palin-backs-karen-handel-in-crowded-georgia-senate-field/?wprss=rss_politics


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Handel

Karen C. Handel (born April 18, 1962) is an American politician, author, and former senior vice president for public policy at Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

She served as Secretary of State of Georgia from 2007 until January 2010, when she resigned to run, unsuccessfully, for the Republican Party nomination for Governor of Georgia.[1] In 2011, Handel was appointed senior vice president of public policy at Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a leading charity in the cause of fighting breast cancer,[2] but resigned on February 7, 2012, following the foundation's controversial decisions to end, and then restore, funding for Planned Parenthood.[3] Karen Handel will be a candidate for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in 2014 [4]

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Uhm...Komen and PP have been one and the same from Day 1. And forget about PP's agendas, the whole "breast cancer awareness" agenda has been genocide to begin with. So who are they trying to fool? ::)

So, Palin backs abortions eh? Figures.  ::)

Federal Court Rules Kansas Can Strip Planned Parenthood of Title X Funding

In a 2 to 1 ruling, a federal court in Denver has ruled that Kansas officials may strip Planned Parenthood of Title X funding, contrary to the organization’s contentions that it violated their free speech and association rights.

The Kansas legislature had passed a bill in 2011 that required funds from Title X, a federal family planning program, to first go to public health departments and hospitals. The result of the bill, some concluded, would be that the state would then pass by Planned Parenthood, as funding would already be allocated to other locations.

Planned Parenthood then filed suit in federal court to challenge the legislation, asserting that the organization was being purposefully targeted because of its advocacy for abortion. It stated that the law violated Planned Parenthood’s constitutional rights, and warned that the new law could close the Planned Parenthood office in Hays, which does not offer abortion services.

Following a hearing on the matter, U.S. District Circuit Court Judge J. Thomas Marten sided with Planned Parenthood, issuing an injunction against the law while the case moves forward in court.

But on Tuesday, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver overturned Marten’s decision, stating that there was no proof that the law was enacted to punish Planned Parenthood, but that the result was rather incidental.

“Planned Parenthood’s theory raises the prospect of every loser in a political battle claiming that enactment of legislation it opposed was motivated by hostility toward the loser’s speech. That is essentially what Planned Parenthood argues here,” the panel wrote. “Planned Parenthood favors abortion rights. At least some influential Kansas lawmakers take a contrary view. If they act on that view to favor legislation opposed by Planned Parenthood, is the statute to be struck down as violating Planned Parenthood’s First Amendment rights?”

“If Congress imposes a tax on oil companies, is the tax to be voided because supporters of the tax said they dislike Big Oil or because those impacted by the tax contributed to losing campaigns challenging legislators who later voted for the tax?” the court asked. “Must courts decide in cases such as this whether legislators were motivated to punish Planned Parenthood’s speech and association, or were opposed to providing funding to an organization that also provides abortion services, or were simply in favor of family-planning services associated with full-service medical care? We think not.”

REST: http://christiannews.net/2014/03/27/federal-court-rules-kansas-can-strip-planned-parenthood-of-title-x-funding/

Well, duh! Of course they are, the murdering thugs.

What gets me to raise an eyebrow over all this, is how PP has somehow entrenched itself as some pseudo agency or something that is presenting itself as being entitled to public funds.

There is NOTHING governmental about the PRIVATELY run Planned Parenthood.

It's nothing more than a private social services company, that's all. More or less a privately-owned and run medical clinic of sorts that also under pressure offers "counseling".

PP has no more entitlement to US public funds than "Joe's Laundry Mat".

It's also a 501c corporation(just like with these 501c churches in America that are set up as corporations).

http://news.yahoo.com/judge-ala-abortion-clinic-law-unconstitutional-145247710.html
Judge: Ala. abortion clinic law unconstitutional
8/4/14

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama law restricting doctors at abortion clinics is unconstitutional because it would unduly hamper women's ability to obtain the medical procedure, a federal judge ruled Monday.

U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson, in a 172-page opinion and an accompanying order, said state lawmakers exceeded their authority when they passed a law last year requiring doctors at abortion clinics to have hospital admitting privileges.

Thompson extended an earlier order blocking enforcement of the law and said he would issue a final order after considering more written arguments from lawyers.

"This case is not closed," Thompson wrote.

The decision came days after a federal appeals court blocked a similar law in Mississippi.

Susan Watson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama, said the law wasn't designed to protect women, as supporters maintain.

"Major medical organizations, including the American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, oppose them," she said of the Alabama law and similar ones.

In a statement, Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange said he disagreed with the ruling and would appeal after Thompson issues a final order.

Clinics in Birmingham and Mobile run by Planned Parenthood Southeast and the Montgomery clinic operated by Reproductive Health Services filed the lawsuit, saying they would have to close because they use out-of-town doctors without admitting privileges and have been unable to get local doctors with privileges to serve their clinics. The state's other two clinics, in Tuscaloosa and Huntsville, use local doctors with admitting privileges.

The law's sponsor, Republican Rep. Mary Sue McClurkin of Indian Springs, said the measure would make the clinics safer, while clinic operators said it was an attempt to shut them down through a regulation they could not meet.

Thompson agreed with the clinics. In his opinion, Thompson said evidence showed doctors wouldn't be able to gain admitting privileges in Birmingham, Mobile and Montgomery, the state's three largest cities, should the law remain in place.

Two doctors who perform abortions in Montgomery live in Nigeria and Chicago and couldn't meet residency requirements and other rules set by hospitals, Thompson said. Similarly, two Georgia doctors who travel to Birmingham and Mobile to perform abortions also couldn't meet the requirements for staff privileges in those cities, he said.

"The resulting unavailability of abortion in these three cities would impose significant obstacles, burdens, and costs for women across Alabama ..." he wrote.

New doctors are unlikely to begin performing abortions in the state because of the "detrimental professional consequences" of being associated with procedure and a history of violence that includes bombings, shootings and arsons against clinics, the judge said.

Similar laws have been blocked by federal courts in Kansas and Wisconsin, while they have taken effect in Missouri, North Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.

Two of Alabama's five licensed abortion clinics are temporarily not performing abortions, but not because of the physician requirement. Planned Parenthood Southeast closed its Birmingham clinic in January after firing two employees for selling an abortion medication to a person in the clinic's parking lot. The clinic has replaced its staff and plans to resume services after an inspection by state health officials.

Alabama Women's Center for Reproductive Alternatives in Huntsville closed in late June because it couldn't comply with another part of the 2013 law that took effect July 1. It requires clinics to have wide halls and doors and improved fire safety systems like a surgical treatment center. The Huntsville clinic is trying to move to a new location that meets the requirements, said Brian Hale, attorney for the state Department of Public Health.

The Department of Public Health reports that 8,485 pregnancies were terminated in Alabama in 2013, with 16 done at hospitals and the rest at abortion clinics.

http://news.yahoo.com/striking-down-alabama-abortion-law-judge-focuses-souths-182508659.html

In striking down Alabama abortion law, judge focuses on South's culture
A federal judge on Monday ruled that an Alabama law violates women’s constitutional rights by making abortions too hard to get. This follows a similar ruling last week about a Mississippi law.


8/5/14

Citing incidents of hostility against abortion providers in the South, a federal district judge on Monday expanded the scope of federal judicial pushback against a new breed of laws that make it almost impossible for abortion clinics to operate in the South and Midwest.

Judge Myron Thompson ruled that the Women’s Health and Safety Act, signed into law last year in Alabama, violates women’s constitutional rights by making abortions too hard to get. The ruling came less than a week after a panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals found that Mississippi, too, violated constitutional rights by trying to force the last abortion clinic in the state to close.

Five states – Missouri, North Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah – have put comparable rules into place, requiring that abortion providers have admission privileges at local hospitals. Oklahoma and Louisiana are set to see stricter abortion clinic rules go into effect in September. But courts have blocked similar laws in Kansas and Wisconsin and now in Mississippi and Alabama.

In the 172-page ruling, Judge Thompson zeroed in on a legal and cultural campaign in conservative states to try to decrease the number of abortions. In addressing the “backdrop” to the laws, he expanded the debate over abortion to include the impact of local cultures and religious views on the ability of American women to have access to abortion.

While acknowledging that most antiabortion protesters are peaceful, Thompson listed examples such as Eric Rudolph, who bombed a Birmingham, Ala., clinic in 1998. Using the examples, Thompson “linked past violence against Alabama abortion clinics to the current political climate against abortion providers,” writes Jim Stinson on the Alabama Media Group website AL.com.

In another unique legal argument probably aimed at a rural and mostly Southern audience, Thompson compared abortion rights with the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms – noting that a law that allowed only two gun shops in Alabama to remain open “would take a heck of a lot of explaining.”

The slew of recent abortion rulings is part of a broader debate that most legal experts say will have to be settled by the US Supreme Court. Given that it’s largely former Confederate states openly testing the extent to which abortion is supported at the federal level, states’ rights will probably be a factor in such a decision.

In the meantime, Thompson’s ruling was widely hailed by abortion rights groups, which said that it supports their contention that the new state clinic laws infringe on the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision. That Supreme Court ruling affirmed the right of states to regulate abortion clinics as long as rules didn’t put an “undue burden” on women who wanted to have an abortion. Having to travel from 150 to 500 miles for an abortion is too burdensome, the abortion rights supporters argue.

In effect, “politicians passed this law in order to make it impossible for women in Alabama to get abortions, plain and simple," Staci Fox, president of Planned Parenthood Southeast, argued in a statement after Thompson’s ruling.

More practically, the new admission rules for abortion providers “are expected to leave behind a patchwork-quilt of access in low-clinic states,” abortion rights activist Robin Marty writes on Talking Points Memo. “But reproductive rights advocates are cautiously optimistic that recent court rulings may finally stem the tide on these medically unnecessary restrictions.”

Those who have supported the new clinic laws argue that the restrictions improve standards at abortion clinics and institute important protections for women using such services.

In his ruling, Thompson cited Rep. Mike Hubbard (R), Alabama’s House speaker, who said after the law passed last year, “Republicans boldly defended the rights of the unborn and courageously safeguarded the health and safety of Alabama women.”

Thompson’s ruling took note of just how successful antiabortion activism has been in the South. In Texas, for which a Fifth Circuit panel found new admissions procedures constitutional, and where another legal challenge begins Tuesday, half of all abortion clinics have closed since last year.

While the number of abortions has declined nationally over the past decade, Mississippi has the lowest rate in the United States: Four out of every 1,000 women in Mississippi have had one, compared with 27 out of every 1,000 California women.

In his ruling, Thompson documented the challenges of getting an abortion in Alabama, which would lose three of its five remaining clinics if the law takes effect.

He described how Alabama clinics rely on three traveling doctors – one from as far away as Nigeria – to perform the abortions because of cultural antipathy toward the providers. Pressing the issue, Thompson allowed those doctors to testify from behind a curtain, for their safety.

http://m.cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/boehner-and-pelosi-unite-pass-bill-funding-planned-parenthood
Boehner and Pelosi Unite to Pass Bill Funding Planned Parenthood, Obamacare, Syrian Revolutionaries
9/17/14

(CNSNews.com) - House Speaker John Boehner (R.-Ohio) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) joined forces early Wednesday evening as the House passed a continuing resolution that will fund the government after the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, and that will permit funding for Planned Parenthood (the nation's largest abortion provider), the entirety of Obamacare, and an amendment requested by President Barack Obama "to train and equip appropriately vetted elements of the Syrian opposition."

The bill passed 319 to 108 with four members not voting. But there were not enough Republican members to pass the bill without significant support from Democrats. While Pelosi sided with the Republican leadership and voted for the bill, 53 Republicans joined with 55 Democrats in voting against it.

**Uhm...the Repubs control the House...ONLY 53 voted against it? ::)

In addition to Pelosi, some of the other Democrats voting for the Republican leadership's bill, included Rep. John Conyers (D.-Mich.), Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schlultz (D.-Fla.), Rep. Xavier Becerra (D.-Calif.), Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D.-Ore.), and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D.-Ill.).

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R.-Texas), Rep. Michele Bachmann (R.-Minn.), Rep. Trey Gowdy (R.-S.C.), Rep. John Fleming (R.-La.), Rep. Jim Jordan (R.-Ohio), and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R.-Calif.) were among the Republicans who voted against it.

The Syrian opposition, which is seeking to overthrow the secular authoritarian regime of Bashar al Assad, includes al Nusrah Front, the al Qaeda affiliate in Syria, and the Islamic State in Iraq and al Sham (ISIS), which used to be an al Qaeda affiliate and now controls parts of Iraq and Syria.

ISIS recently beheaded two American journalists and a British aid worker.

The training and arming of Syrian rebels is aimed at combating ISIS and Islamist terrorism, so ISIS and al Nusrah Front would not be among the Syrian rebels deliberately armed and trained by the new U.S. policy authorized by this bill.

The bill will fund the government through Dec. 11, when a "lame-duck" Congress, which will include members thrown out by the voters in November, will be able to return to Washington and vote for programs and governmental actions that they may not have wanted to vote for before the election. That new funding bill will also be passed before the newly elected members of Congress will be sworn in and have a say in what the government does.

Before the inclusion of the amendment to train and arm revolutionaries in Syria, the House Appropriations Committee had described the continuing resolution as a "clean" bill that did not include riders affecting current spending programs and policies. The committee affirmed to CNSNews.com last week that the bill does not prohibit funding for Planned Parenthood or for any element of Obamacare.

Twenty-four minutes before it voted on this final spending bill, the House voted on the amendment sponsored by House Armed Services Chairman Buck McKeon (R.-Calif.) that added to the bill the authorization for President Obama to arm and train the Syrian revolutionaries. That amendment passed by a vote of 273 to 156, with 3 members not voting.

Pelosi and Boehner joined together to vote for the amendment to arm and train Syrian revolutionaries, as did House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R.-Calif) and House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R.-La.).

Among the 71 House Republicans standing in opposition to Pelosi and Boehner and the other Republican leaders on this amendment were Rep. Trey Gowdy (R.-S.C.), Rep. Jim Jordan (R.-Ohio), Rep. John Fleming (R.-La.),  Rep. Louie Gohmert (R.-Tex.), Rep. John Duncan (R.-Tenn.), Rep. Thomas Massie (R.-Ky.), Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R.-Calif.) and Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R.-Wisc.)

“President Obama is choosing the wrong locals to support,” said Rep. Rohrabacher on the House floor. “With this vote, Congress approves the arming and training of the Free Syrian Army, which is riddled with radical Muslims. In short, we may again be arming insurgents who will end up our enemy. We are told that the Free Syrian Army has been vetted and that we can trust them. This is wishful thinking, not realistic planning.”

“The truth is that, if you look back under this president as commander in chief, we trained people in Libya,” said Rep. Gohmert. “We provided weapons to Libya that were then used against us in Benghazi. There are Americans dead because this administration felt compelled to go in and take out Qadhafi."

“Because Libya fell, so did Algeria and Tunisia," said Gohmert, "and it jump-started, as I have said before, the new Ottoman Empire, the new caliphate that the Muslim brothers and so many of the radicals are saying they are going for."

“One of the big problems, too, when we go in and train, as this President wants to do for the Syrians, they learn our tradecraft,” said Gohmert. “They use it against us, as they did at Benghazi.”

“I am opposed to the president's vague and inadequate strategy for dealing with ISIS; and, therefore, I rise in opposition to this amendment,” said Rep. Fleming.

“If we are going to degrade and destroy them [ISIS] it will not happen through an indecisive strategy that relies on unreliable and largely unknown help from Syrian rebels, whose own motivations and goals are mixed, and almost impossible to be certain of,” said Rep. Fleming.

Planned Parenthood--whose federal funding is permitted under the continuing resolution--said in its most recent annual report that it did 327,166 abortions in fiscal 2012. The same Planned Parenthood annual report said the group received $540.6 million in funding from local, state and federal governments in the year that ended on June 30, 2013. (Federal funding through Title X family planning grants cannot go to directly pay for abortions, but can pay for other Planned Parenthood activities.)

The CR also put no restriction on funding any provision of Obamacare or any regulation issued under Obamacare. That includes the preventive services regulation that requires individuals and families to purchase health insurance plans that cover contraceptives, sterilizations and abortion-inducing drugs even if doing so violates their religious faith.

“It is a critical piece of legislation, and my committee has crafted the bill in a responsible, restrained way that should draw wide support in the House and Senate," House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R.-Ky.) said last week when his committee released the bill--before the amendment was added to arm and train Syrian revolutionaries.

"This bill is free of controversial riders, maintains current levels, and does not seek to change existing federal policies," Rogers said.

Rogers voted for the amendment to arm and train Syrian rebels and then for the overall bill.

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/10/17/3581470/planned-parenthood-abortion-story/
10/17/14
Cecile Richards Shares An Important Abortion Story: ‘It Wasn’t A Difficult Decision’

Cecile Richards — the head of Planned Parenthood and one of the most prominent figures in the reproductive rights community — opened up about her personal abortion story in an essay published in Elle on Friday, writing that women who feel comfortable enough to share their experiences with the medical procedure can help decrease some of the stigma surrounding it.

“I had an abortion. It was the right decision for me and my husband, and it wasn’t a difficult decision,” Richards writes. “Before becoming president of Planned Parenthood eight years ago, I hadn’t really talked about it beyond family and close friends. But I’m here to say, when politicians argue and shout about abortion, they’re talking about me — and millions of other women around the country.”

There’s been a move toward encouraging more women like Richards to speak up about the fact that they’ve had an abortion, a type of “coming out” process that can help shift societal attitudes about the procedure. While advocates say that no one should be obligated to disclose their personal medical history, putting a personal face on the common reproductive health experience — one in three U.S. women will have an abortion before the age of 45 — can help influence the national conversation.

http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/19896/
TRENDING: MORE COLLEGE STUDENTS SUPPORT POST-BIRTH ABORTION
by MAIREAD MCARDLE - THOMAS AQUINAS COLLEGE on OCTOBER 29, 2014

A trend seen by prolife activists that frequently engage college students on campuses nationwide is the growing acceptance of post-birth abortion, or killing the infant after he or she is born, campus prolife outreach leaders tell The College Fix.

Anecdotal evidence by leaders of prolife groups such as Created Equal and Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust said in interviews that not only do they see more college students willing to say they support post-birth abortion, but some students even suggest children up to 4 or 5-years-old can also be killed, because they are not yet “self aware.”

“We encounter people who think it is morally acceptable to kill babies after birth on a regular basis at almost every campus we visit,” said Mark Harrington, director of Created Equal. “While this viewpoint is still seen as shocking by most people, it is becoming increasingly popular.”

Campuses where the high school, college students, local activists and staff members of Created Equal have encountered this opinion include Purdue, University of Minnesota, and University of Central Florida. And at Ohio State earlier this year, the group captured a debate on video between one of its members and an older woman on campus who defended infanticide.

“This is the whole problem with devaluing human life at any stage—it will naturally grow to include other groups of humans; in this case, born humans as well as preborn humans,” Harrington said. “ talked with one young man at the University of Minnesota who thought it was alright to kill children if they were under the age of 5 years old, as he did not consider them persons until that age.”

Kristina Garza, spokeswoman for Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust, a prolife organization that often sets up anti-abortion displays on campuses along the West Coast, said her group also frequently encounters college students who accept infanticide.

“For those who are firmly for abortion, because they understand it kills a human being, it’s very easy for them to accept killing a human being after birth,” Garza said. “There is this notion that is common on campus, that it’s OK to kill babies because somehow we don’t become human until we are self aware.”

“A common number that is going around is 4 years old,” she adds.

As for the trend, Garza said there’s an explanation for it. For one, the arguments put forth by Peter Singer and other philosophers who support infanticide are given as reading assignments to college students.

**And not to mention too the entertainment industry pushes a culture of violence. And not to mention too rock music(both "secular" and "contemporary christian").

Singer wrote in 1979 that “human babies are not born self-aware, or capable of grasping that they exist over time. They are not persons … [therefore] the life of a newborn is of less value than the life of a pig, a dog, or a chimpanzee.”

“He has been saying things like this since the 70s, but I think it has been more recently that this type of ideology is being promoted on college campuses,” Garza said. “When he said this stuff, there was a very select few who accepted it. But nowadays, we have become so desensitized, and college students lacking in a moral fiber easily accept this kind of strange ideology.”

But prolife advocacy and engagement on campuses has helped turn students away from pro-choice stances, she adds.

“While the number of students who believe it is OK with killing children after birth is growing, the number of students who accept that life beings at conception is also growing, and that is growing at a larger and faster rate than those who accept infanticide,” Garza said.

“The trends I am seeing is it’s not so much students are better grounded in morals, it’s that we as a prolife movement have done our job in presenting a better argument, and we are pushing people out of the middle,” she said. “We are seeing more students who see the logic and choose to be anti-abortion.”

**But have you been preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ? Doesn't sound like it.

Yet staunch opposition to the prolife philosphy remains.

Asked about the incident at Ohio State, at which a woman responded to a prolife display by defending infanticide, a pro-abortion activism group at the campus stated its views were similar to those of the woman in the clip.

“As for post-birth abortion, I would imagine that my colleagues would think the ‘post-birth’ part was largely irrelevant, as we believe very strongly in abortion on demand, without apology, and it’s plain and simple that we should look to the woman’s morals and not shove our opinions where they, frankly, don’t belong,” Devin Deitsch, leader of VOX: Voices for Planned Parenthood at Ohio State University, said in an email to The College Fix.

“Speaking as the primary leader of VOX, I assure you we are very pro-choice,” Deitsch also noted. “… We are not here to advocate for women to get abortions, we advocate for her ability to make that choice without fear, heckling, or barriers. Essentially, we ask for a woman (and her body) to be respected. Nothing more, nothing less.”

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/health/oklahoma-supreme-court-puts-new-state-abortion-law-on-hold/article_7ec5227b-327b-5623-bdc6-6e8ae2197955.html
Oklahoma Supreme Court puts new state abortion laws on hold
11/4/14

OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Tuesday put on hold two laws that restricted abortions.

Reproductive Services in Tulsa and the Oklahoma Coalition for Reproductive Justice filed suit against House Bill 2684 alleging it violated provisions of the Oklahoma Constitution. The measure put restrictions on medication used to induce an abortion.

An Oklahoma County district judge last month put a portion of the law on hold. That decision was appealed by the plaintiffs to the Oklahoma Supreme Court. Plaintiffs sought to have the entire law put on hold.

The state's high court sent the case back to district court to be litigated.

"This court expresses no opinion concerning the validity of the Act," the opinion said.

The law took effect Saturday.

Norman abortion provide Dr. Larry Burns filed suit in Oklahoma County district court against Senate Bill 1848, which requires doctors with admitting privileges at a nearby hospital to be present during the abortion. It also took effect Saturday.

A district judge declined to put the law on hold. That decision was appealed to the state’s high court, which put the law on hold, according to an opinion released Tuesday.

The district court is expected to issue a ruling on the constitutionality of the law.

Both cases were handled by the Center for Reproductive Rights.

“Today the Oklahoma Supreme Court handed the women of Oklahoma a crucial victory by protecting their constitutional rights and restoring critical options for those seeking safe and legal abortion services,” said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights. “Time and time again, courts are seeing that the true motive behind these underhanded and baseless restrictions is to push essential reproductive health care services out of reach for as many women as possible.

“We will continue to stand with Oklahoma women and their health care providers to ultimately see these sham restrictions overturned and ensure their rights are never determined by virtue of their zip code.”

http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/la-na-abortion-20141106-story.html
On abortion, election delivered mixed messages
11/5/14

The 2014 midterm election was a mixed bag for abortion rights supporters: Two out of three state ballot measures that would have regulated the procedure went down to defeat, but control of the U.S. Senate swung to the Republican Party, with its antiabortion candidates claiming victory.

"It is a happy day for us, a great day for pro-lifers," said Marilyn Musgrave, vice president for government affairs with the Susan B. Anthony List, which advocates for female antiabortion candidates. "The life issue won."

It is a happy day for us, a great day for pro-lifers. The life issue won.

During a Family Research Council webcast Wednesday, Musgrave ticked off the Senate races that social conservatives viewed as victories, including the defeat of Democratic Sen. Mark Udall in Colorado and the forced runoff for Democratic Sen. Mary L. Landrieu in Louisiana.

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said voters were delivering a message that was "not so much an embracing of a GOP vision, but a denouncing of the policies of this administration, which have been pro-abortion, anti-family, anti-faith. But in order to keep that confidence and secure it, the Republicans will have to deliver."

No. 1 on the social conservatives' wish list, Musgrave said, is a federal ban on abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, followed by "no taxpayer funding of abortion. ... And I think we're going to have some great allies in the United States Senate. It is a new day."

The 20-week limit would appear to exceed Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision recognizing a constitutional right to abortion. That ruling permitted states to restrict abortion after viability — the fetus' ability to survive outside the womb, which is generally from 22 to 24 weeks.

Voters in Tennessee passed a measure, with 53% in favor, that abortion rights activists say will strip the state constitution of protections for a woman's right to safe and legal abortion. Tennessee becomes the second state after Rhode Island to take such an action.

In 2000, the Tennessee Supreme Court affirmed that a woman has a right to an abortion, a right that is protected by the state constitution, said Elizabeth Nash, senior state issues associate with the Guttmacher Institute, which advocates for abortion rights.

Since then, Nash said Wednesday, abortion opponents have been trying to roll back that protection, "and last night the voters voted for it."

Tennessee already has restrictions in place, including parental notification if a minor seeks the procedure and limits on public funding, she said, and more measures probably will be debated at the state level in the next session.

"The Legislature is very conservative and so is the governor," Nash said. "So it would not be surprising to see multiple restrictions passed in 2015."

But voters in North Dakota and Colorado soundly defeated so-called personhood measures on Tuesday. Although the two used different language, the probable outcome of both would have been to ban abortion outright.

North Dakota's Measure 1, for example, stated that "the inalienable right to life of every human being at any stage of development must be recognized and protected." An overwhelming percentage of those who cast ballots — 64% — voted no, even though North Dakota is one of the most restrictive states in the country for abortion access and has only one clinic.

Colorado's version, Amendment 67, would have given a fertilized egg the same rights as a person. Again, about 64% of voters were opposed. Voters rejected similar efforts in 2008 and 2010, also by wide margins.

"The two measures in North Dakota and Colorado were personhood initiatives, and we have never lost one of those in the country so far," said Sarah Stoesz, chief executive of Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota. "There have been five. We've won every time in very conservative places."

Stoesz also said Wednesday that social conservatives were "disingenuous" if they proclaimed that the Senate switching to Republican control would give them a mandate for restricting access to abortion.

Republicans who won Tuesday "did not run on those issues," Stoesz said. "They ran on other issues — 'Washington is broken. Fix the gridlock.' ... I would argue that, had they run on an antiabortion platform, they would not have won."

**Hate to say it, but she's telling the truth.

FYI - Susan B. Anthony started the first wave of the feminist movement(shortly after 1881 Westcott and Hort) - she HATED Christianity(and wrote her own "women's bible").

Why all of these conservative, pro-life, evangelical, etc groups hold her in high regard, I have no idea why.

http://news.yahoo.com/ruling-mississippi-abortion-law-remains-blocked-163817118.html
Ruling: Mississippi abortion law remains blocked
11/20/14

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A federal appeals court said Thursday that it won't reconsider its earlier ruling that a 2012 Mississippi abortion law is unconstitutional.

The law required abortion doctors to obtain admitting privileges at nearby hospitals.

The clinic, Jackson Women's Health Organization, sued the state to try to block the law as it was taking effect. A federal district judge in Jackson blocked the state from enforcing the law while the clinic tried, unsuccessfully, to get admitting doctors' privileges.

On a 2-1 decision, a panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled July 29 that the law could block access in Mississippi to a constitutionally protected medical procedure by closing the only abortion clinic in the state. Attorneys for the state had argued that if the clinic closed, women who live in Mississippi could travel to other states to obtain abortions. The 5th Circuit panel said Mississippi may not shift its obligation for established constitutional rights of its citizens to another state.

The U.S. Supreme Court established a constitutional right to abortion in its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

Days after the ruling this summer, the state's attorneys asked the full, 15-member appeals court to reconsider. The 5th Circuit denied that request Thursday, without explanation.

Asked whether the state would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, Schaefer, spokeswoman for Mississippi attorney general Jim Hood, said Thursday: "We are in the process of reviewing the order and considering our options."

Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement Thursday that the new ruling means "the sole clinic providing safe, legal abortion care can keep its doors open for the women of Mississippi."

"Earlier decisions in this case have rightly recognized the very real and severe harm that would befall countless women in Mississippi if the state's only abortion clinic were shuttered," Northup said. "We are confident the federal district court will once again see through the sham justifications for this underhanded clinic shutdown law and ultimately strike it down permanently as a gross violation of women's constitutional rights."

Republican Gov. Phil Bryant, who signed the law, said it was designed to protect women's health by ensuring that a woman who has complications from an abortion could receive hospital treatment from the same doctor who performed the procedure. Bryant has also said repeatedly that he wants to end abortion in Mississippi.

For year, Jackson Women's Health Organization has had an agreement with a local physician who will meet a patient at a Jackson hospital in case of complications, clinic owner Diane Derzis has said. Derzis said such complications are rare.

Opponents of the law say the admitting privileges requirement is unnecessary, since patients in distress are automatically treated in emergency rooms, and that it gives religious-affiliated hospitals veto power over who can work in an abortion clinic and, by extension, whether a clinic can stay in business.

About 10 other states, including Alabama and Texas, have similar admitting privileges laws that have forced a growing number of clinics to close.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ4QBC0W2wo

http://news.yahoo.com/indiana-abortion-clinic-law-ruled-unconstitutional-134603891.html
Indiana abortion clinic law ruled unconstitutional
12/4/14

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A federal judge has ruled against an Indiana law that changed the classification of abortion clinics in a way that opponents said targeted a Planned Parenthood facility that only provides drug-induced abortions.

The law violated equal protection rights by treating the Lafayette clinic differently than physician offices that provide the same medications, U.S. District Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson said in a ruling released Wednesday.

Planned Parenthood would have had to take steps, such as adding a recovery room and scrub facilities, so that the Lafayette clinic met the same standards as surgical abortion clinics in order to continue offering the abortion pill under the GOP-backed law signed by Gov. Mike Pence in 2013.

The law had not yet taken effect because Magnus-Stinson put it on hold last year after the ACLU of Indiana filed a lawsuit on Planned Parenthood's behalf. The judge's ruling didn't immediately void the law, with details of a permanent injunction still to be decided.

more

http://news.yahoo.com/court-strikes-down-north-carolina-ultrasound-abortion-law-175812728.html
12/22/14
Court strikes down North Carolina ultrasound abortion law

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (Reuters) - A North Carolina law requiring doctors to perform an ultrasound and describe the displayed images to women seeking abortions constitutes compelled speech that violates the patients' free speech rights, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Monday.

The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a district judge's decision that struck down the 2011 provision, agreeing that doctors could not be forced to disseminate the state's message discouraging abortion.

"This compelled speech, even though it is a regulation of the medical profession, is ideological in intent and in kind," Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III wrote in a unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel.

"While the state itself may promote through various means childbirth over abortion, it may not coerce doctors into voicing that message on behalf of the state in the particular manner and setting attempted here," the ruling said.

North Carolina's Republican-led legislature passed the abortion measure over a veto by then-Governor Beverly Perdue, a Democrat.

Several groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Reproductive Rights and Planned Parenthood Federation of America, challenged the law on constitutional grounds. They said requiring abortion providers to explain the images in an ultrasound to patients before performing the procedure infringed upon their right to free speech.

“We're thrilled that the appellate court rejected this unconscionable attempt to intrude on the doctor-patient relationship,” said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights.

The U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion nationwide in 1973 but lawmakers in more conservative states have enacted laws that seek to place restrictions on the procedure.

Republican lawmakers in North Carolina have defended the ultrasound requirement as providing crucial information for women making an irrevocable decision. Under the law, women could avert their eyes and not listen to the explanation of the fetus images.

Planned Parenthood’s newest low: Abortion-themed s’mores at Christmas?

(https://lifesite-cache.s3.amazonaws.com/images/made/images/remote/https_s3.amazonaws.com/lifesite/PlannedParenthoodsmore_645_521_55.jpg)

Just when you thought sexualizing children as a revenue plan, playing “healthcare hero” to maintain grip on the multi-million-dollar government dole, committing Medicaid fraud, advocating immoral behavior, and snuffing out unborn life for profit wasn’t enough, the nation’s abortion behemoth stoops low again with a bizarre money-grubbing ploy.

Planned Parenthood has put out a promo with a customized s’more kit where the product’s maker will donate $5 to the nation’s largest abortion provider for every unique hash tagged-photo posted promoting Planned Parenthood, Wayne Dupree is reporting at Biz Pac Review.

The hash tag is #PPsmoresupport. Isn’t that cute?

The marshmallow in the kit has the Planned Parenthood double “P” logo on it. A clinical-looking confection promoting abortion -- yum.

The kit looks like sterile medical supplies somehow got mistakenly crammed in the wrong plastic baggie with someone’s sack lunch dessert.

So unappetizing on so many levels.

And weird. Not sure how the candy designer or Planned Parenthood thinks this could stimulate someone’s palette or their charitable inclinations, but then Abortions-R-Us never ceases to surprise in the surreal arena.

It has pushed gift certificates for Christmas in the past, promoting them by saying they “allow you to give the gift of life to your loved ones.” What??

Planned Parenthood has had “Choice on Earth” Christmas cards for years, claiming at one point that Jesus Christ “was for choice.” Again, what?

Earlier this year Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards promoted abortion for Valentine’s Day. Nothing says “I Love You” like ending a life.

Go to its PAC Twitter page this holiday season and you’ll see cards with snowflakes designed with IUDs and the Pill. You can’t make that stuff up.

The messed-up marshmallow promotion got attention from Ebony magazine’s Jamilah Lemieux posting a pic encouraging support for ooey-gooey Planned Parenthood, saying, “Cute gift from my friends at @PPact (and I appreciate them for using a small WOC-owned business!) #PPsmoresupport.”

WOC stands for women of color, a demographic of which Lemieux and s’more abortion candy stylist Nila Nicholas both belong.

Did Lemieux and Nicholas miss the woolly mammoth in the room, which is the fact the abortion industry originated from the eugenics movement? And that Planned Parenthood targets minority women? Did they also miss when Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast’s Louisiana state director was forced to resign earlier this year for her racist remarks to a women of color gathering?

Santa brought poetic justice to those in the respect life movement this Christmas, as Dupree is also reporting that the Planned Parenthood Please Sir, May I Have S’more Money for Abortion campaign has backfired, with some great resulting humor.

There was one hashtag in the abortion marshmallow’s favor, as of Dupree’s reporting, and from what I saw it was Lemieux’s. But, and here’s the cue to look in your pro-life stocking, there’s many s’more making a mockery of it.

We won’t link because many are crude, but it begs the question, that gosh, if the abortion-and-destroying-lives-for-profit movement weren’t so dog-gone nasty, then why would those responding feel the need to meet it where it is?

I think a more honest marshmallow would tell the real deal about Planned Parenthood, but that tale’s already been scripted in Hell, and the poor little guy would burn up before Cecile Richards could say, “My ginormous half-million-dollar salary helps low-income women.”

https://www.lifesitenews.com/pulse/planned-parenthoods-newest-low-abortion-themed-smores-at-christmas

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2015/01/16/3612731/gop-women-abortion-bill/
1/16/15
Republicans Introduce An Anti-Abortion Bill So Extreme That GOP Women In Congress Are Revolting

Several Republican congresswomen are reportedly splitting from their party on a national abortion bill that’s scheduled for a vote in the House next week, raising concerns that the legislation is too extreme and will alienate female voters.

The GOP-controlled House will vote on a proposed 20-week abortion ban next Thursday — the 42nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court case that legalized abortion throughout the United States. The legislation has passed the House for the past two years and was expected to have broad support in the 114th Congress, particularly as Republicans have set their sights on later abortions as an area where they believe they can advance their agenda.

However, the National Journal reports that a group of GOP women led by Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC) have started pushing back against the legislation, expressing concerns during a closed-door meeting of House Republicans. Ellmers reportedly said she is worried that voting on the 20-week ban will alienate young female voters, urging her colleagues “to be smart about how we’re moving forward.”

As Politico reports, Ellmers is also concerned that the proposed abortion ban has a particularly narrow exception for **** victims. As the bill is currently written, in order to qualify for the exemption, women who became pregnant from **** must have reported their assault to law enforcement officials. The assumption that sexual assaults are only valid crimes if they’ve been reported to the police ultimately fuels the idea that some rapes are more “legitimate” than others. The Republican Party has been haunted by “legitimate ****” ever since former Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) infamously claimed that victims of legitimate **** don’t often get pregnant “because “the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” Now, Ellmers is reportedly trying to get the language changed to stave off similar controversy around the 20-week abortion ban.

In a press release on Friday afternoon, Reps. Louise M. Slaughter (D-NY) and Diana DeGette (D-CO) — the leaders of the Pro-Choice Caucus — criticized House Republicans for the narrowly defined **** exception in the proposed abortion ban. “Families across this country don’t want politicians inserting themselves into these extremely personal decisions, much less defining whether a **** or case of incest was legitimate or not,” the congresswomen said.

Republicans have recently been attempting to appeal more to female voters, particularly after the party lost women’s votes by wide margins in the 2012 elections. Part of that effort has involved giving female Republicans a more prominent role in the party. In 2012, a group of two dozen Republican congresswomen formed a new women’s caucus.

From both a policy and public relations standpoint, however, the party has largely botched its outreach strategy — blocking equal pay legislation and releasing political ads relying on sexist stereotypes, for example.

And the emerging split among Republicans in the House reveals another potential pitfall of attempting to appeal to women: More women in Congress can lead to more pushback against policies that the GOP establishment supports.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CONGRESS_ABORTION_BILL?SITE=MYPSP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-01-21-12-09-22
House Republicans encounter divisions over abortion bill
1/21/15

WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Republicans ran into divisions Wednesday over the new Congress' first abortion bill, and leaders were searching for a way to advance the legislation without an embarrassing split over the issue. By evening, one leading GOP dissident said she would support the bill, suggesting that the revolt might be ebbing.

Legislation scheduled for a vote Thursday would criminalize virtually all abortions for pregnancies of 20 weeks or longer. It would offer some exceptions, including for victims of **** that have already been reported to authorities.

Some Republicans, including female members of Congress, objected to that requirement, saying that many women feel too distressed to report rapes and should not be penalized. A 2013 Justice Department report calculated that just 35 percent of rapes and sexual assaults were reported to police.

"The issue becomes, we're questioning the woman's word," said Rep. Renee Ellmers, R-N.C. "We have to be compassionate to women when they're in a crisis situation."

Wednesday evening, Ellmers posted on her Facebook page that she would vote for the bill. And while last-minute changes remained possible, they seemed unlikely, said a top House Republican speaking on condition of anonymity to describe internal conversations.

"I have and will continue to be a strong defender of the prolife community," Ellmers wrote.

There were also objections to the bill's exemption for minors who are victims of incest and have reported the incident.

"So the exception would apply to a 16-year-old but not a 19-year-old?" said Rep. Charles Dent, R-Pa. "I mean, incest is incest."

The divisiveness over the measure comes as Republicans, looking ahead to the 2016 presidential and congressional elections, hope to increase their support from women. In control of the entire Congress for the first time in eight years, Republicans also want to demonstrate that they can focus on issues that matter to voters and not get bogged down in gridlock.

"My own view on this stuff is I prefer we as a Republican conference avoid these very contentious social issues," Dent said.

Thursday's debate was timed to coincide with the annual march on Washington by abortion foes marking the anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 legalizing abortion.

Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., a chief sponsor of the bill, called it "a sincere effort" to protect women and "their unborn, pain-capable child from the atrocity of late-term abortion." He also said GOP leaders "want to try to create as much unity as we can."

The White House has threatened to veto the legislation, calling it "an assault on a woman's right to choose."

Democrats were strongly against the legislation and said the measure was nothing more than a political gesture.

"This is not only insulting to the women of this country, but it's just another pointless exercise in political posturing," said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y. "It will never become law."

The GOP rift on the issue was discussed Wednesday at a private meeting of House Republicans, who by a large majority are strongly anti-abortion.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said in a brief interview that he believed the House would debate the bill as planned. But he did not rule out changes.

"We're moving forward," he said. "There's a discussion and we're continuing to have discussions."

The legislation would also allow an exception where an abortion is necessary to save the mother's life.

Under the bill, those performing the outlawed abortions could face fines or imprisonment of up to five years.

A report this week by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office cited estimates by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that about 10,000 abortions in the U.S. are performed annually 20 weeks or later into pregnancies. The budget office estimated that if the bill became law, three-fourths of those abortions would end up occurring before the 20th week.

The House approved a similar version of the bill in 2013, but the measure was never considered in the Senate, which was then controlled by Democrats. Its fate remains uncertain in the Senate, where anti-abortion sentiment is less strong than in the House.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/11/sarah-davis-texas_n_6850038.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592
3/11/15
There's A New Davis In Texas Standing Up For Women's Health -- And She's A Republican

Two years ago, former Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis (D-Ft. Worth) stood and spoke for 11 straight hours to filibuster a bill that eventually shut down multiple abortion clinics in the state. Now, a lawmaker from the other side of the aisle is standing up to protect women's health clinics in Texas: state Rep. Sarah Davis (R-Houston).

Davis, 38, is bucking her party to fight against a provision in the proposed state budget that would put Planned Parenthood and other private women's health clinics at the bottom of a tiered priority list for cervical and breast cancer screening funds. She worries that the move could cause the federal government to retaliate by pulling all federal cancer screening funds out of Texas, which could negatively impact many women's health clinics throughout the state.

"It's not good public policy to target one type of clinic, and then as a result, lose 51 other clinics," she told The Huffington Post in an interview.

In 2011, the federal government cut off all Medicaid family planning money for Texas after the state tried to defund Planned Parenthood. This forced Texas to set up a state-run Women's Health Program with far fewer providers, since many clinics had lost funding. Davis fears that the same thing will happen if the current effort to put Planned Parenthood on the lowest-priority tier is successful.

“I don’t think it is appropriate to continue to fund the Women’s Health Program so that we can make some type of a political statement as Republicans that we care about women, only to chip away at the safety net of the providers,” Davis told her colleagues at a committee hearing on Tuesday. “If we don’t have the provider network, women cannot be served. And they will die.”

Davis, who survived breast cancer at the age of 32, told HuffPost that she is frustrated that her colleagues are using women's health as a political football.

"I believe the sole purpose is to ensure that Planned Parenthood clinics don't receive any funding," she said. "The problem with that is I know Planned Parenthood can be a partisan issue, but I don't think women's health should be."

Davis said she also opposes cutting funds for Planned Parenthood itself, because she believes it has been "an efficient and cost effective provider of women's health services for a long time." She is one of the rare Republicans in Texas who supports abortion rights, and was the only Republican lawmaker in the state House of Representatives to vote against HR2, the package of anti-abortion restrictions Wendy Davis tried to block in 2013.

"I think abortion is a horrible way to end a pregnancy, but it's a constitutionally protected right," Davis said. "As Republicans, we have always believed in personal freedom, individual responsibility and limited government, and that is embodied in the right to make decisions over your body and who you're going to spend time with in your bedroom as well as what's in your wallet."

Davis said she is gearing up for a passionate fight over cancer screenings in the coming weeks. On Tuesday, she tried to remove the tiered funding system entirely from the House budget, but was unsuccessful. She did, however, manage to include a rider that says the state must drop the tiered system if the federal government does decide to pull cancer screening money out of Texas, and she said she will defend the rider "without hesitation" when the budget goes to the full House for a vote.

"I'm a breast cancer survivor myself because of screenings like this," Davis said. "So I take it very personally, and I'm very passionate about it."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-judge-rules-wisconsin-abortion-law-unconstitutional-20150320-story.html?track=rss
3/20/15
Judge rules Wisconsin abortion law unconstitutional

A federal judge on Friday struck down a Wisconsin law requiring DOCTORSperforming abortions to get hospital admitting privileges, ruling that any benefits to women's health from the requirement are "substantially outweighed" by restricting women's access to abortion.

U.S. District Judge William Conley, who earlier had put the law on hold, ruled that the 2013 law is unconstitutional. He issued a permanent injunction blocking its enforcement.

Planned Parenthood and Affiliated Medical Services had sued the state, arguing the requirement will force AMS's Milwaukee clinic to close because its DOCTORS can't get admitting privileges.

The groups argued that would amount to restricting access to abortions in Wisconsin. State attorneys contended the mandate will ensure CONTINUITYof care for women hospitalized with abortion complications.

In his ruling, Conley wrote that the "marginal benefit to women's health" by requiring hospital admitting privileges "is substantially outweighed by the burden this requirement will have on women's health outcomes due to restricted access to abortions in Wisconsin."

"While the court agrees with the State that sometimes it is necessary to reduce access to insure safety, this is decidedly not one of those instances," Conley wrote. "In particular, the State has failed to meet its burden of demonstrating through credible evidence a link between the admitting privileges requirement and a legitimate health interest."

In a statement, Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union noted that only four health centers provide abortions in Wisconsin. If the law took effect, the groups said, the largest of those centers would be forced to close immediately, and the remaining three "will not be able to absorb the unmet need."

"Politicians, not DOCTORS, crafted this law for the sole purpose of shutting down women's health care centers and preventing women from getting safe, legal abortions," ACLU deputy legal director Louise Melling said in the statement.

"We all want to protect patient safety — this law doesn't do that, as the court recognized," said Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin CEO Teri Huyck. "Politicians passed this law in order to make it extremely difficult for women in Wisconsin to get safe and legal abortions, plain and simple."

A spokeswoman for Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel did not immediately respond to messages for comment.

Conley said at the hearing on the lawsuit that he was worried the law was too rigid. He noted that the law required providers to get privileges within three days of its enactment. Republican Gov. Scott Walker signed the law on July 5, 2013, and it required providers to have privileges in place by July 8.

In his ruling, Conley noted that the "sudden adoption" of the permitting requirements, without giving enough time for compliance, "compels a finding that its purpose was to impose a substantial obstacle on women's right to abortions in Wisconsin."

Fourteen states require DOCTORS performing abortions to either have hospital admitting privileges or some sort of alternative agreement, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights. Five other states have passed such restrictions but courts have put them temporarily on hold.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaGQgRzZgQg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyUTT4tw4oE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-fgGhhSTus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RxR36vWTwY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWpZLGlPeOA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceZLhk4K1P8

http://news.yahoo.com/supreme-court-wont-revive-north-carolina-abortion-law-133620941--politics.html
6/15/15
Supreme Court won't revive North Carolina abortion law

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from North Carolina to revive a requirement that abortion providers show and describe an ultrasound to a pregnant woman before she has an abortion.

The justices left in place an appeals court decision that said the 2011 North Carolina law was "ideological in intent" and violated doctors' free-speech rights.

The North Carolina law would have required abortion providers to display and describe the ultrasound even if the woman refused to look and listen — a mandate that the court found particularly troublesome.

North Carolina is among 23 states, mostly in the South and the Midwest, which passed laws dealing with the administration of ultrasounds by abortion providers, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research institute that supports abortion-rights.

Justice Antonin Scalia voted to hear the appeal.

The court took no action in a separate abortion case from Mississippi. The state is appealing a lower court ruling that effectively allowed Mississippi's lone abortion clinic to remain open and blocked a state law that would have required the clinic's doctors to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital.

A second appeals court ruling involving a Texas law imposing restrictions on abortion providers also is expected to make its way to the Supreme Court soon. In Texas, the appeals court upheld the admitting privileges requirement and other provisions that could force 11 clinics to close by July 1, lawyers for the clinics said in court papers.

The North Carolina case is Walker-McGill v. Stuart, 14-1172.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/supreme-court-takes-no-action-mississippi-abortion-law-case-n384371
Supreme Court Takes No Action on Mississippi Abortion Law
6/30/15

The U.S. Supreme Court today took no action on a dispute over a Mississippi abortion law that requires doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at local hospitals.

As a result, the law will remain on hold for several more months — perhaps until the court decides whether to take a similar law from Texas. The Supreme Court Monday blocked enforcement of the Texas law while it's on appeal.

Passed by the state legislature in 2012, the Mississippi law was blocked by lower courts, which found that it would effectively force the state's only licensed abortion clinic to shut down.

The state argued that the law would not unduly burden the right of access to abortion services, because many women in Mississippi could go to nearby clinics in Tennessee, Louisiana, and Alabama. But the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that "Mississippi may not shift its obligation with respect to the established constitutional rights of its citizens to another state."

In a more recent ruling, a different panel of the same appeals court said that requiring women to leave Texas for abortion services is not necessarily unconstitutional. That decision came in the separate dispute over the 2013 Texas abortion law.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/emergency-ruling-blocks-abortion-law-from-going-in/nmpWr/
6/30/15
UPDATE: Judge blocks abortion law from going into effect Wednesday

A judge this afternoon granted an emergency injunction that blocks Florida’s newest abortion law from going into effect tomorrow as planned.

The new law requires women to wait at least 24-hours after meeting in person with her doctor before the procedure can go forward. The law, which was scheduled to go into effect on Wednesday, will remain blocked while the case proceeds.

In an 11-page ruling, Leon County Circuit Court Judge Charles Francis emphasized that he was not ruling on whether the law violated a woman’s right to privacy but whether the groups that sought the emergency order were entitled to a temporary injunction.

“The court has no evidence in front of it in which to make any factual determination that a 24-hour waiting period with eh accompanying second trip necessitated by the same is not an additional burden on a woman’s right of privacy,” Francis wrote.

The lawsuit, brought by Medical Students for Choice and Bread and Roses Women’s Health Center in Gainesville, was filed by lawyers with the Center for Reproductive Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union was filed the day after Gov. Rick Scott signed the bill into law on June 11. In it, the groups claim that the new law violates a woman’s right to privacy, guaranteed by the U.S. and Florida Constitutions.

“The court has recognized that this law serves only to demean women and the choices they and their families make about their own medical care,” said Renée Paradis, Senior Staff Attorney at the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project. “This decision ensures that the right to privacy guaranteed to women by the Florida Constitution will be protected and allows women to receive the care they need while the courts hear our legal challenge to this unconstitutional law.”

The bill prompted passionate debate during this spring’s regular legislative session, but passed overwhelmingly in the Republican-controlled House and Senate.

It adds to an already-existing law that requires physicians performing abortions to provide information to women to obtain their consent.That existing law includes a requirement that women undergo an ultrasound before an abortion and be shown the images and hear an explanation unless they sign a form refusing.

The new law means pregnant women must go to the clinic twice for an abortion — once to meet with the physician, “physically present in the same room, and at least 24 hours before the procedure” and a second time for the actual procedure.

FWIW - it's all and good that these modern-day evangelicals defend pro-life and anti-sodomy through and through - but at the same time, notice how they almost never quoted the Genesis account - man is created in God's image, and marriage is b/w a man and a woman as clearly stated in the first 2 chapters of Genesis.

Pt being that the reason why modern-day christianity has gotten so bad now, is b/c they allowed the Trojan Horse of many different flavors of evolution to creep in(day age, gap, theistic, progressive, etc) - which all but destroyed the foundations.

It's all and good that they preach the cross of Christ - but ultimately, the Creation/Genesis account is THE backbone of the gospel, period. IOW, if the earth is millions of years old, then sin by one man didn't come into the world, and if sin by one man didn't come into the world, then it wasn't necessary for Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. And for that matter too, Noah's flood would have been local(at best). Ultimately, the whole bible ended up getting discredited b/c of this very first initial lie on the Genesis account.

No thanks to state of VA, abortion clinic shuts doors

A Virginia abortion clinic targeted by health inspectors won't be doing abortions anymore but it was not made to close by the state.

The Amethyst Health Center for Women in Manassas, Virginia, will be hanging a closed-for-good sign as of September 28, although owners have not announced a reason for shutting down.

Cheryl Sullenger of Operation Rescue tells OneNewsNow the abortuary failed past state inspections.

l“The place was found to be very dirty and unsanitary,” she says. “The clinic workers didn't change their gloves between patients, and that means women could have been exposed to infections.”

A woman could have left after an abortion not realizing she had been exposed to a sexually transmitted disease from a previous patient.

News of the Health Center's closing came on the eve of a health board vote to do away with many regulations on abortion clinics.

The Washington Post reported that the Virginia Board of Health has rolled back "strict" regulations, which would free the clinics from abiding by hospital-level safety codes.

Sullenger alleges the Health Center abortionists did not have a clean record either.

“For example, [one abortionist named] Linwood Turner was sued for wrongful death in 1997,” Sullenger explains. “He apparently reached an agreement with the family of the woman who died. And there was another abortionist called Thomas Gressinger. He was reprimanded in 2013 for allowing unqualified workers to administer drugs to abortion patients.”

He also faced lawsuits by abortion patients, including one woman whose abortion resulted in an emergency hysterectomy.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/pro-life/2015/09/18/no-thanks-to-state-of-va-abortion-clinic-shuts-doors

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/blog/?p=36386
PRO-ABORTION FEMALE ‘PASTOR’ LAURA YOUNG LEADS PRAYER RALLY TO BLESS ABORTION CLINIC
Geoffrey Grider | October 14, 2015 | 10 Comments

THEY CONCLUDED, “OUR RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS CALL US TO OFFER COMPASSION, NOT JUDGMENT. PEOPLE WHO WORK FOR PLANNED PARENTHOOD GIVE CARE AND RESPECT TO THOSE IN NEED, DOING GOD’S WORK. FOR THIS WE ARE GRATEFUL.”

“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first,” 2 Thessalonians 2:3 (KJV)

EDITOR’S NOTE: Honestly, with this story, I don’t even know where to begin. Do we discuss the great “falling away” from Bible truth prophesied in 2 Thessalonians? Do we go to Revelation 3 where it talks about the end times Church of Laodicea that Jesus spues out of His mouth? Perhaps Revelation 18 where a voice from Heaven warns “come of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” Or maybe all three?  Any way you slice it, watching female “pastors” preaching that abortion is a “blessing from God” is absolutely a fulfillment of last days Bible prophecy about the condition of the professing Christian church right before the Rapture.

In Ohio, United Methodist Church “pastor”, Reverend Laura Young, says she believes pro-life protesters in front of Planned Parenthood and other abortion facilities have “misguided faith.” In fact, she thinks these clinics should be blessed, which is why she went out to an abortion facility called Preterm on October 8th in Cleveland. In 2014, Preterm was involved in the abortion-related death of Lakisha Wilson.

How the Bible feels about female “pastors”: “But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.” 1 Timothy 2:12 (KJV)

Young explained her acceptance of abortion like this: “Christianity, like most faiths, is founded on love. Watching protesters shouting judgment and hate based on what they call religion is horrible. Is that loving God? Is that loving your neighbor as yourself?”

united-methodist-episcopalian-church-pastors-lead-prayer-rally-to-bless-abortion-clinics-church-laodicea-great-falling-away
Welcome to the Church of Laodicea, your last days counterfeit “christian” experience. Click for more…
Think Progress reports that the group hopes their “blessing” will protect Preterm from “preachy protesters, as well as encourage the strength and bravery of those providing and relying on its services.” Young plans to go out to other abortion facilities in the state if their event in Cleveland is successful.

Young also says religious groups are fueling the so-called war on women. She explained, “Women are being attacked at a moral level by the radical Religious Right. They’ve hijacked the political discussion. This event is an opportunity for progressive religious leaders to stop the silence. We need to be in the conversation.”

The abortion reverend heads up a group called the Ohio Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, and they run an “all-options” counseling hotline for women facing crisis pregnancies. She said, “It breaks my heart to know women are sitting in pews across the country feeling shamed, believing that they’re cursed for making this decision. That’s a question I get a lot on the phone, ‘Am I going to hell?’ When God instead is there to support women through it all.”

On their website, the group says their mission is to “ensure reproductive choice through education, advocacy, and counseling. The Coalition seeks to give clear voice to the reproductive issues of people of color, those living in poverty, and other underserved populations.”

As LifeNews previously reported, on July 29, the Planned Parenthood Clergy Advocacy Board said the undercover videos exposing the organization’s organ harvesting business are simply an attack on women’s health care. Jeffrey Walton from the Institute on Religion and Democracy reports that the board is made up of religious leaders from the United Church of Christ, Episcopal Church and American Baptist Churches as well as clergy from Reformed Jewish and Unitarian Universalist congregations.

PLANNED PARENTHOOD BABY PARTS BUYER STEMEXPRESS WANTS “ANOTHER 50 LIVERS PER WEEK”

In a statement the clergy said, “As faith leaders committed to justice, honesty, and liberty, we are troubled by the decades-long campaign of harassment against Planned Parenthood and those they serve. Our faiths demand care for those marginalized by poverty and other oppressions. Faith leaders have supported Planned Parenthood for nearly 100 years because of our shared goals: every person — regardless of income, race, or religion — deserves access to safe, affordable, high-quality health care.”

They concluded, “Our religious traditions call us to offer compassion, not judgment. People who work for Planned Parenthood give care and respect to those in need, doing God’s work. For this we are grateful.”

Rev. Franklin Graham and Baptist theologian Albert Mohler commented on Planned Parenthood’s lucrative business after the footage was released. Rev. Graham said,“Abortion is a sin and is clearly murder in God’s eyes. The people who perform it have no conscience, so I’m not at all surprised that they would be selling organs, tissue, and body parts from babies. Planned Parenthood should be put out of business. They’ve done enough damage.”

In some ways, Mohler used even stronger language than Rev. Graham to describe Planned Parenthood and said they “stand at the epicenter of the Culture of Death.” He also dismissed the abortion giant’s justifications for their executive’s unbelievable comments.

He said, “They are not going to be able to explain this video away. I have no reason to believe that the video is anything less than totally credible. But, even if Planned Parenthood somehow finds a way to evade justice in terms of criminal activity, the part of the video that Planned Parenthood does not –and cannot — deny reveals their senior medical director enjoying a conversation over a meal in which she describes tearing apart the bodies of unborn human beings in order to get the desired organ: “I’m gonna basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact.” source

Young children can be a blessing(this is Troy Dukes' daughter)...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHB5MVGfgXU

‘The Antis Found a Way to Close Us:’ Abortionist ‘Desperate’ After None Would Help Dispose of Babies

Recently leaked videos believed to be obtained by the Center for Medical Progress provide audio footage of an abortionist explaining how “desperate” she was to come up with a way to dispose of the aborted babies stockpiled at her facility after having difficulty finding any businesses that wanted to work with her.

“I mean, it was the worst. I dreamed about how to dispose of fetal tissue,” said Renee Chelian, owner of the Northland Family Planning chain in Michigan in the video, which was recorded at the 2014 National Abortion Federation conference. “I mean I was so desperate, the antis found a way to close us.”

Chelian was speaking as part of a panel of fetal disposition. She explained that in Michigan, some facilities were using the garbage disposal to do away with the remains of the aborted babies, and when she lost her contract with the nation’s leading medical waste company Stericycle—which services abortion facilities nationwide—she became frantic regarding how to dispose of the babies and keep their doors open.

While Chelian did not outline why she lost her contract with the company, she stated that when Stericycle parted ways with her, she had five months worth of dead babies stocked in freezers.

“Nobody wants to talk about dead bodies. And nobody with me, I have to say,” she said. “There was a point, when Stericycle fired us, that I had 5 months of fetal tissue in my freezers. We were renting freezers to put them in. This was all I thought about.”

Chelian admitted that she thought of having a secret bonfire in the woods.

“I was so consumed with fetal tissue that I was ready to drive to upper Michigan to have a bonfire. And it was just trying to figure out, you know, how I wouldn’t get stopped or how far into the woods would I have to go to have this fire that nobody would see me,” she explained.

The abortionist said that she went to various hospitals to see if she might be able to work with them, but most officials feared what might happen if the public found out.

“We met them in like, Denny’s restaurants. There’s not even very many of those left, they wanted to make sure nobody would see them with us,” Chelian explained.

She said she was told that the aborted and miscarried babies and other body parts from the hospital were either picked up by Stericycle or burned at the hospital’s incinerator.

“And they were terrified of a public relations nightmare, that hospitals actually had big freezers with … abortions or miscarriages, and that they all go in jars together at some point, and they go to Stericycle, unless the hospital happens to have their own incinerator, which is rarer and rarer,” Chelian outlined. “The guy from Stericycle was quick to point that out to me.”
She stated that she went to a crematorium, but was told that the abortion facility would be responsible for picking up the ashes.

“And I was like, ‘I don’t know. Do they have to?’ And they were like, ‘Well, we can’t just dump them, somebody has to be responsible for them,’” Chelian said, “which also made me really worried I was just gonna have to open some room somewhere where I just had bottles of ashes.”

She stated that she soon turned to the garbage disposal like other facilities, even though she had criticized others for doing so. Chelian also commented on her support for burning aborted babies for energy, but admitted that the idea would not go over well with the public.

“It’s also a potential PR nightmare,” she said. “This country doesn’t want to deal with death and dead bodies, and whether—-or tissue. … [S ]o we pretend like that doesn’t happen.”
“If we end up being the front page of the paper, ‘Fetuses are being used for energy,” Chelian outlined. “I mean, I think it’s a great idea…”

The footage is included among 11 videos currently being reviewed by the U.S. Congress as part of its investigation into Planned Parenthood’s harvesting and sale of aborted children.

There are a variety of ways that abortion facilities dispose of aborted children, including using medical waste companies like Stericycle, which transports containers of “pathological waste” to its incineration plants nationwide.

“Without the help of Stericycle, and companies like it, the abortion industry would collapse,” says the Campaign to Stop Stericycle, which was launched in 2010 to call upon the company to stop helping facilitate the abortion holocaust. “If businesses would refuse to service the abortion industry out of ethical integrity, then the doors of these killing centers would soon close and the murder of millions of innocent children would come to an end.”

http://christiannews.net/2015/10/27/the-antis-found-a-way-to-close-us-abortionist-desperate-after-none-would-help-dispose-of-babies/

New Planned Parenthood video: Doctor wants intact fetal heads for brain harvesting

A new Planned Parenthood video, the 11th in a series of secretly-taped interviews, shows a Texas doctor wishing to conduct an abortion that produces intact fetal heads for brain harvesting.

"I haven't been able to do that yet," said the doctor, Amna Dermish of Planned Parenthood Austin. "This will give me something to strive for."

The video is the latest in the sting produced by the The Center for Medical Progress in the ongoing Planned Parenthood baby parts scandal that has led to the formation of a special investigative committee in Congress because the women's health group receives federal funding.

https://youtu.be/2tgez97aG74

It could also bring renewed pressure on three GOP Senate holdouts on legislative efforts to defund Planned Parenthood.

Republican Sens. Mark Kirk of Illinois, Susan Collins of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska havn't committeed to the defunding measure and without their support it is likely to fall short of the needed 51 votes, according to reports.

In the latest video, Dr. Dermish tells the camera that she was trained by the Senior Director of Medical Services at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Dr. Deborah Nucatola.

"My aim is usually to get the specimens out pretty intact," says Dermish, who said she sometimes uses ultrasound guidance to convert a 2nd-trimester fetus to a feet-first breech presentation: "Especially the 20-weekers are a lot harder versus the 18-weekers, so at that point I'll switch to breech."

In the transcript provided by the Center, she said, "That's what Deb [Nucatola] was telling us, was it really makes a difference for tissue collection at PPLA."

Asked about harvesting fetal brain, Dermish said, "I haven't been able to do that yet," but "this will give me something to strive for."

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/doctor-in-new-planned-parenthood-video-strives-for-intact-fetal-heads/article/2574992

New Planned Parenthood Video Shows Doctor Admitting to Partial-Birth Abortions
“I haven’t been able to do that yet — to get the calvarium intact [the skull portion containing the brain] … Well, this will give me something to strive for,” she laughs.

The latest undercover Planned Parenthood video from the Center for Medical Progress shows Dr. Amna Dermish, the abortion provider for Planned Parenthood in Austin, TX, describing a partial-birth abortion procedure to terminate living, late-term fetuses.

Dermish was trained by Planned Parenthood’s Senior Director of Medical Services, Dr. Deborah Nucatola, which means she knows how to harvest baby organs “intact.” She calls it something “to strive for.”

Pictures of both doctors with their hands outstretched in describing these second-trimester abortion procedures are chilling, not because they’re graphic, but because both women are grasping with their hands and demonstrating the violent and invasive procedure of pulling children from their mothers’ wombs.

Another doctor, with Whole Women’s Health, tells the undercover investigator, “I’m sure there won’t be a problem with volume.” She reminds him that “80,000 abortions happen in the state.”

Dermish: “We’re scheduling 25 procedures a day, three days, well, ten days a month … we’re scheduling 25, but we’re going to be increasing it to 30. I’m the only provider.”

Dermish assures the potential organ buyer, “My aim is usually to get the specimens out pretty intact.” She uses laminaria sticks to slowly dilate the cervix and prompt labor.

Then, in an uncut sequence, Planned Parenthood’s Dr. Dermish walks the organ buyer through the method she uses for infants older than 18 weeks.

She uses ultrasound guidance to convert a second-trimester fetus to a feet-first breech presentation.

“With a further gestation, I will sometimes do that [deliver breech] if it’s a cephalic [head-first] presentation, just cause it’s easier to get … convert to breech, grab the spine.”

This is a textbook description of partial-birth abortion, which is illegal. The baby is alive and mostly outside of the mother’s body when it is killed.

After this ghoulish walkthrough, Dermish admits to the buyer that she hasn’t gotten an intact head. Yet.

“I haven’t been able to do that yet — to get the calvarium intact [the portion of the skull containing the brain] … Well, this will give me something to strive for,” she laughs.

Planned Parenthood’s Dermish describes the difficulty of “getting around the cal” once the fetus is 20 weeks and presenting head first. “Especially the 20-weekers are a lot harder versus the 18-weekers, so at that point I’ll switch to breech.”

Dr. Dermish told the organ buyer that a worker in her clinic, “one of our POC [product of conception] persons is really into organ development.”

“She’ll pull out, like, kidneys, and like, heart, and heart we frequently see at nine weeks and she always looks for it.”

“Just like, for fun?” the buyer asks.

The other doctor interjects. “Well, it’s cute.”

Cute. Tiny hearts torn from human babies.

Dermish continues: “It’s amazing, it’s sort of — I have so much respect for development, it’s just so incredible.”

Would that Dr. Dermish showed respect for the tiny human life that provided the incredible and amazing organs she’s examining.

https://stream.org/new-planned-parenthood-video-shows-doctor-admitting-to-partial-birth-abortions/

I BELIEVE IN DEMONS

Abortion clinic owner caught on video: Burning aborted babies for energy is ‘a great idea’ (video)

https://youtu.be/YUFMN_pN71o

An undercover video of the National Abortion Federation caught the owner of a chain of abortion facilities saying that burning aborted babies' bodies for energy is "a great idea" and "a really good solution" for society.

The remark came during a panel on "fetal disposition" - disposing of the bodies of aborted babies - at the NAF's 2014 annual convention in San Francisco.

During a Q-and-A session, a Canadian abortionist announced, "Just before I came I had to handle some media" requests dealing "with a big, sort of, explosion of the incineration of fetal [tissue] and stillbirths." Canadian media had learned that aborted babies from Canada were being shipped to Portland, Oregon, where they were being burned for energy.

"It seems like a really good solution," replied Renee Chelian, who owns three abortion facilities in the greater Detroit area.

"It's a potential PR nightmare," Chelian continued. "I mean, nobody wants to know where the kneecaps are going."

She later repeated, "It's a PR nightmare for us. It would be on the front page of the paper: 'Fetuses are being used for energy.'"

"I mean, I think it's a great idea, but --" she said, before the Canadian abortionist resumed talking.

"I don't know about the rest of you, but certainly ours is going to Portland. The facility is a waste energy facility," the female Canadian abortion provider affirmed.

However, she believed that she managed to bury the story by misleading the press.

"I've basically got the reporter spinning in so many details that she probably thinks, 'It's too complicated. Never mind!'"

She, and the room of abortionists, then burst out into laughter.

"We're afraid to tell the truth," Chelian said, a common thread in the NAF conference, where other abortionists confessed they kept quiet "to protect the pro-choice movement."

Their tactics did not suppress the story, which was broken by LifeSiteNews reporter Steve Weatherbe in the B.C. Catholic last April 21, exactly two weeks after the CMP video was recorded.

The British Columbia Health Ministry confirmed to him that "biomedical waste," including "fetal tissue," was shipped to the Portland, Oregon, area. "There it is incinerated in a waste-to-energy plant," the ministry wrote.

The fetal bodies were burned at Covanta's Marion County Energy-from-Waste facility, also called Marion County Resource Recovery Facility, in Brooks, Oregon.

Jill Stueck, Covanta Energy Corporation's vice president of marketing and communications, vehemently denied the story, calling it "not just inaccurate" but "completely false.”

But a former employee, Bud Waterman, said that officials "had to know" the facility was generating power by burning babies' body parts.

The Marion County Board of Commissioners put a stop to the practice in a special session just two days later.

The Portland story came just one month after The Daily Telegraph revealed that more than 15,500 aborted babies had been burned to heat British hospitals. The UK's National Health Service put a stop to that, and then-Health Minister Dr. Dan Poulter called the practice “totally unacceptable.

The NAF video, which was taken by the Center for Medical Progress at NAF's annual conference last April 7, is one of 11 undercover abortion industry videos leaked to an online news site and posted on YouTube by a hacker.

The discussion begins at approximately 16:20 of the video.

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/abortion-clinic-owner-burning-aborted-babies-for-energy-is-a-great-idea-vid

http://news.yahoo.com/judge-blocks-alabama-defunding-planned-parenthood-clinics-154537869.html
U.S. judge bars Alabama from defunding Planned Parenthood clinics
10/28/15

(Reuters) - A federal judge on Wednesday blocked Alabama from defunding Planned Parenthood clinics amid controversy over the release of covertly recorded videos about the reproductive health organization's handling of aborted fetal tissue.

U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson issued a preliminary injunction after Planned Parenthood challenged the state's move to terminate its contract to provide services under Medicaid, the federal and state healthcare program for the poor.

The judge wrote that Alabama had not provided a reason for terminating its agreement with the Planned Parenthood affiliate serving the region, as required under federal law. Planned Parenthood, which has clinics in Mobile and Birmingham, is an abortion provider.

"This is an absolute victory. The state of Alabama cannot impermissibly target abortion providers for unfair treatment," said Susan Watson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama, which joined in the lawsuit.

Alabama Governor Robert Bentley, a Republican named in the suit, said he was considering the state's legal options.

"I am disappointed, and vehemently disagree with the court’s ruling today," he said in a statement.

He was one of several Republican governors who have sought to strip funding from Planned Parenthood clinics following the release this summer of videos secretly recorded by an anti-abortion group, the Center for Medical Progress.

Planned Parenthood has denied the group's claims that the videos show wrongdoing and has challenged similar defunding efforts in other Republican-controlled states, calling them politically motivated.

The organization cheered the Alabama ruling and noted that it has now seen success in three other states: Arkansas, Louisiana and Utah, where it also challenged similar defunding efforts.

"For the fourth time in six weeks, the courts have ruled to protect access to care at Planned Parenthood," said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, in a statement.

In Louisiana, a federal judge temporarily blocked the state from cutting Medicaid funding to the group's clinics as the legal fight over the payments continues. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, a Republican presidential candidate, has said he would appeal.

In Arkansas, the organization is pursuing a class action complaint on behalf of state Medicaid patients, after a U.S. judge narrowly ordered the state to continue payments to three women who challenged the state's defunding.

The organization also won a temporary judicial order barring Utah Governor Gary Herbert, a Republican, from revoking state contracts with Planned Parenthood.

http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/258660-planned-parenthood-scores-legal-victory-in-louisiana
Judge orders Jindal to restore funding to Planned Parenthood
10/30/15

A federal judge has ordered Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal to restore state payments to Planned Parenthood, making Louisiana the second state blocked from defunding the group.

U.S. District Judge John deGravelles ruled Thursday that Jindal couldn't cancel the state’s Medicaid contract with Planned Parenthood over allegations the group is facing related to its fetal tissue donation program, according to The Associated Press.

Planned Parenthood clinics in Louisiana do not perform abortions and do not accept fetal tissue donations.

DeGravelles, who was appointed by President Obama last year, had previously delivered a temporary ruling in favor of Planned Parenthood. Jindal, who is running for president, has promised to continue fighting in court.

One day earlier, Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley (R) received a similar ruling from a federal judge who also rejected his argument for canceling the group’s Medicaid contract, which was also based on the fetal tissue donation controversy.

The Obama administration had previously warned states like Alabama and Louisiana that cutting off Medicaid contracts was likely against the law. Planned Parenthood launched lawsuits in those states shortly after.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/women-using-long-term-birth-control_56420df1e4b0411d30728117?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592
Long-Term Birth Control Use Soars For American Women
The once little-used contraceptive method is making a big comeback.

Posted: 11/10/2015 04:21 PM EST | Edited: 11/10/2015 08:26 PM EST
After nearly disappearing from the market 30 years ago, the once rarely used long-acting reversible contraceptive is now the fastest-growing birth control method among American women.
 
Between 2011 and 2013, 11.6 percent of women opted for LARC methods like implants and intrauterine devices (IUDs), up from 6 percent between 2006 and 2010, according to a report released Tuesday by the National Center for Health Statistics.
 
While use of the most common methods of contraception like the pill, sterilization or the male condom held steady, LARC methods represent a small but rapidly growing share of the contraceptive choices for women. Experts note that the growth is largely driven by IUDs, while implants make up a small share of the LARC options.
 
The pill is still the most popular contraceptive method, followed closely by female sterilization: More than a quarter of women aged 15 to 44 use the pill (25.9 percent), while another quarter (25.1 percent) go the route of sterilization.


CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION/NATIONAL CENTER FOR HEALTH STATISTICS
Megan Kavanaugh, senior research scientist for the sexual and reproductive health-focused Guttmacher Institute, points to several factors contributing to the rise in LARC popularity: Health care providers get more and better training on the devices, medical groups have voiced growing preference for LARCs and consumer marketing has raised awareness of the option.

"A lot of that is trickling down to the patient side," Kavanaugh said. "Patients, particularly younger patients, are learning about [LARCs] as an option. As more women use these methods, they're likely to share their experience with their friends, so it grows by word of mouth."

The current popularity of LARC methods stands in sharp contrast to the 1980s and 1990s, when use dwindled after the Dalkon Shield scandal of the 1970s. The intrauterine contraceptive device was yanked from the market after an estimated 200,000 women were injured, many became infertile and about 20 died from infections related to the IUD.

Kavanaugh notes that the U.S. is unique in high usage of oral contraceptives and sterilization; LARC use is much higher in other developed countries.

"We think that's in relation to the Dalkon Shield," Kavanaugh said. "It kind of tainted the entire [U.S.] industry."

With safer options on the market, LARC methods are getting the support of groups like the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which earlier this year strengthened its recommendations regarding the use of LARC methods and called them "the most effective and safe forms of non-permanent contraception."

According to the NCHS, contraceptive methods like the pill and injections vary widely across race and education level. Women with a college education overwhelmingly opt for the pill, while injectable contraception is most common among women with the lowest levels of education. While condom use was about equal across racial lines, non-Hispanic black women had the highest rates of using female sterilization as a contraceptive method.

Use of LARC methods increased "almost uniformly" across the total population of users, according to Kavanaugh's recent study for the Guttmacher Institute.

In the coming years, Kavanaugh said she expects LARC use will increase even more following the rollout of the Affordable Care Act, which requires most insurance plans to cover all types of birth control at no cost.

http://news.yahoo.com/supreme-court-decide-major-abortion-case-first-time-192250990.html
U.S. top court to decide major abortion case for first time since 2007
11/13/15

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court took up a major new abortion case on Friday, agreeing to hear a challenge by abortion providers to parts of a restrictive, Republican-backed Texas law that they contend are aimed at shutting clinics that offer the procedure.

The case focuses in part on a provision that has not yet gone into effect requiring clinics to have costly hospital-grade facilities. A separate section of the 2013 law that requires abortion clinic physicians to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles (50 km) is also at issue but has gone into effect in most parts of Texas.

The last time the nine justices of the Supreme Court decided a major abortion-related issue was in 2007 when they ruled 5-4 to uphold a federal law banning a late-term abortion procedure.

The Supreme Court legalized abortion more than four decades ago but abortion remains a contentious issue in the United States and some states have sought to chip away at a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy.

These states have pursued restrictions including bans on certain types of abortion procedures, regulatory standards imposed on clinics and abortion doctors, waiting periods, ultrasound requirements and others.

The court will hear oral arguments in the case early next year, with a ruling due by the end of June.

Backers of the Texas law asserted that the provisions being challenged before the Supreme Court were necessary to protect the health of women.

The abortion providers contended they were a smokescreen for trying to close down clinics to make abortions more difficult to obtain. They said that before the law was passed there were 42 clinics in the state that provided abortions. After the first part of the law went into effect, more than half of those clinics closed, leaving 19 currently open.

If the court rules for Texas, nine of the remaining 19 facilities would be forced to close, the abortion providers said. Texas is a state of 27 million people.

The Supreme Court has been at the center of the fight over abortion ever since its 1973 landmark decision in the Roe v. Wade case legalizing abortion nationwide. The court in that case held that a woman's constitutional right to privacy protects her decision to end a pregnancy, and only a compelling state interest can justify regulating abortion.

The core legal question in the matter coming before the court this term is whether the Texas law places an "undue burden" on the woman's right to have an abortion, a standard the high court adopted in a 1992 ruling that upheld Roe v. Wade.

The abortion providers have contested the Texas law since it was passed in 2013 by the Republican-controlled legislature and signed by Republican Governor Rick Perry. The measure also includes a ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

The Texas case is Whole Woman’s Health v. Cole, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 16-274.

http://news.yahoo.com/u-top-court-rejects-anti-abortion-groups-planned-143912251.html
U.S. top court rejects anti-abortion group's Planned Parenthood case
11/16/15

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected an anti-abortion group's bid to force the federal government to reveal more information about a $1 million grant it made in 2011 to women's health provider Planned Parenthood in New Hampshire.

The nine justices rejected an appeal filed by New Hampshire Right to Life, a group that sued the federal government under freedom of information law to find out about the arrangement.

The Supreme Court's action leaves in place a February ruling by the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in favor of the government.

The government already has revealed some details about the grant, but New Hampshire Right to Life sought more, including a Planned Parenthood internal document that explains how the group operates its clinics.

Planned Parenthood, which provides abortions as well as health services for women, has been under fire for months by Republican lawmakers and anti-abortion activists over a series of videos produced by an anti-abortion group that purport to show that it improperly sells fetal tissue to researchers for profit.

Planned Parenthood gets about $500 million annually in federal funds, largely in reimbursements through the Medicaid health insurance program.

Two of the court's conservative justices, Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia, said they would have heard the case.

Thomas said in a written statement joined by Scalia that the appeals court decision "perpetuates an unsupported interpretation" of the federal Freedom of Information Act.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services gave the family planning grant directly to Planned Parenthood of Northern New England. Normally, federal funds are dispersed by the state, but officials in New Hampshire voted not to give any money to Planned Parenthood. The federal government then decided to provide the grant directly to Planned Parenthood.

New Hampshire Right to Life contends Planned Parenthood may have violated federal law by using the money to subsidize abortions. It is illegal for federal funds to be used for abortion services.

The high court's decision not to hear the dispute came three days after the justices announced they would decide their first major abortion case since 2007. The court on Friday agreed to hear a challenge by abortion providers to parts of a restrictive, Republican-backed Texas law they contend are aimed at shutting abortion clinics.

The case the court rejected on Monday is New Hampshire Right to Life v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 14-1272.

Ohio House Approves Bill to Defund Planned Parenthood

The Ohio House of Representatives has voted to advance a bill that defunds the abortion giant Planned Parenthood, reallocating over $1.3 million in funding to other health-related groups in the state that do not perform abortions.

House Bill 294 was passed along party lines 62-30. The legislation was introduced by Representatives Bill Patmon and Margaret Conditt, and follows a Senate version that passed 23-10 last month.

“The department of health shall ensure that all funds it receives through the Violence Against Women Act to distribute as grants for the purpose of education and prevention of violence against women are not used to do any of the following: (1) Perform nontherapeutic abortions; (2) Promote nontherapeutic abortions; (3) Contract with any entity that performs or promotes nontherapeutic abortions; (4) Become or continue to be an affiliate of any entity that performs or promotes nontherapeutic abortions,” it reads in part.

The bill also disallows funding for the HIV/AIDS initiative, the infant mortality reduction program, sexual education program and other initiatives to go to groups performing or promoting abortions.

“This is about ideological opposition to a woman’s right to choose—let’s call it what it is—by legislators who think they have the right to make a woman’s personal health care decisions,” Rep. Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood) asserted during deliberations.

But Rep. Kristina Roegner (R-Hudson) defended the legislation.

“I just get sick and tired of hearing a bill like this is a war on women. As a woman and a mother of three daughters, I can stand here and confidently say that the real war on women is abortion,” she said.

Others also supported the measure.

“There is no reason that the State of Ohio should be in business with the so-called ‘Walmart’ of abortion,” said Stephanie Ranade Krider, executive director of Ohio Right to Life. “When an organization like Planned Parenthood ranks as one of the world’s 50 most lucrative non-profits, the State should seriously reconsider how it is allocating taxpayer dollars. We are grateful for the prudence and compassion of our elected officials in continually leading our state towards a more life-affirming culture.”

The bill will now be sent to the Ohio Senate, and if passed, will then move to the desk of Gov. John Kasich.

According to a state report, there were 21,186 abortions in the state last year, and there were 147 abortions per 1,000 live births. The majority of women obtaining abortions are unwed mothers.

“Approximately 74 percent of women who obtained an abortion [in 2014] were never married, divorced or widowed,” the report reads.

http://christiannews.net/2015/11/18/ohio-house-approves-bill-to-defund-planned-parenthood/

http://news.yahoo.com/san-francisco-judge-rules-couples-frozen-embryos-discarded-004027340--sector.html
San Francisco judge rules couple's frozen embryos be discarded
11/18/15

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A San Francisco judge ruled on Wednesday that a woman was not entitled to frozen embryos conceived with her now ex-husband in a widely-watched case over reproductive rights in the nation's most populous state.

Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo made the ruling in the case between Mimi Lee and Stephen Findley, upholding a consent agreement the couple had signed which required the embryos be "thawed and discarded" in the event of a divorce.

"It is a disturbing consequence of modern biological technology that the fate of the nascent human life, which the Embryos in this case represent, must be determined in a court by reference to cold legal principles," Massullo said in her 83-page decision.

She added however that "there must be rules to govern the disposition" of frozen embryos.

Attorneys for Lee said in a statement that she was "disappointed with the Court's tentative ruling and is evaluating her legal options."

Lawyers for Findley could not be immediately reached for comment on Wednesday.

Just days before the pair got married in August 2010, Lee was diagnosed with breast cancer, according to court records. The couple decided to create several embryos and have them cryogenically frozen to ensure they could still have children.

The five embryos were created at the University of California, San Francisco's (UCSF) Center for Reproductive Health and the pair signed a consent form that said they would be discarded in the event of a divorce, the ruling said.

Findley filed for divorce from Lee in December 2013 and the issue of what to do with the embryos became a flashpoint.

Lee argued during a five-day trial this summer that the embryos should be granted to her, saying she was now infertile and would have no other opportunities to bear children.

She said the consent form was invalid, and urged the court to consider her constitutional rights to procreate, according to the ruling.

Findley, meanwhile, said he had constitutional rights not to procreate with Lee, and said that she would attempt to use the resulting offspring to take advantage of him financially.

The ruling, which directs UCSF to discard the embryos, would be stayed pending any appeals.

(Reporting by Curtis Skinner and Dan Levine in San Francisco; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Diane Craft)

http://news.yahoo.com/federal-court-rules-wisconsin-abortion-law-unconstitutional-225116471.html
Federal court rules Wisconsin abortion law unconstitutional
11/23/15

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin law that requires abortion providers to get admitting privileges at nearby hospitals is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court panel ruled Monday.

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel's 2-1 decision doesn't put the question to rest. Nearly a dozen states have imposed similar requirements on abortion providers, and the U.S. Supreme Court agreed last week to hear a challenge to Texas' law in a case that could settle the issue nationally.

The Wisconsin case centers on a lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood and Affiliated Medical Services. The groups argue that the 2013 law amounts to an unconstitutional restriction on abortion.

The law's supporters counter the Republican-backed statutes would ensure continuity of care if a woman developed complications from an abortion and needed to be hospitalized. But the lawsuit said the statute would force AMS's clinic in Milwaukee to close because its doctors couldn't get admitting privileges. That in turn would lead to longer waits at Planned Parenthood clinics. Therefore, the lawsuit maintained, the law amounts to an illegal restriction on abortions.

U.S. District Judge William Conley sided with the abortion providers in March, saying the law served no legitimate health interest. The Wisconsin Department of Justice later appealed to the 7th Circuit.

Writing for the 7th Circuit majority, Judge Richard Posner called the contention that the law would protect women's health "nonexistent." He said the law would put more women in danger by increasing the waiting times for abortions, which could push some procedures into the second trimester.

"What makes no sense is to abridge the constitutional right to abortion on the basis of spurious contentions regarding women's health — and the abridgement challenged in this case would actually endanger women's health," he wrote.

Judge David Manion was the lone dissenter, saying the law protects women's health and doesn't amount to an undue constitutional burden.

"The solution to the plaintiffs' problems is that they find more qualified doctors, not that the state relax — or that we strike down as unconstitutional — precautions taken by the state to protect the health and safety of pregnant women who have chosen to end their pregnancies," Manion wrote.

Anne E. Schwartz, a spokeswoman for the Wisconsin Department of Justice, which defended Wisconsin's law, said the U.S. Supreme Court will ultimately decide the issue.

Oklahoma Governor Calls for End to Planned Parenthood Medicaid Funding

The governor of Oklahoma is calling for the state’s Health Care Authority Board to cancel its contract with the abortion giant Planned Parenthood.

Gov. Mary Fallin sent a letter on Wednesday to Director Nico Gomez to outline her reasons for pulling the funding.

“Research strongly suggests that Planned Parenthood and its Oklahoma and national affiliates regularly, whether intentionally or negligently, engage in a pattern of practices resulting in the overbilling of state Medicaid programs,” she wrote. “Numerous False Claims Act whistleblower lawsuits around the country have also alleged potential fraud by Planned Parenthood affiliates.”

Fallin noted that the October Program and Integrity Review surrounding Planned Parenthood affiliates in Oklahoma shows that “more than one in every seven bills submitted for payment … are inaccurately coded or insufficiently documented.”

“These errors result in overbilling to the Oklahoma taxpayer,” she said.

The governor therefore called for the termination of the state’s Medicaid contract with Planned Parenthood and any other organization found to be overbilling for services.

“Indeed whether willful or simply negligent, the consistent submission of improper billings should disqualify these Planned Parenthood providers from participation in the Oklahoma Medicaid program,” Fallin stated.

The religious liberties organization Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) says that it agrees with Fallin.

“Governor Fallin is right to recognize that taxpayer money should go to fund local community health centers, not to subsidize a scandal-ridden, billion-dollar abortion business,” ADF Legal Counsel Kellie Fiedorek said in a press release on Thursday.

“Oklahomans shouldn’t be forced to give their money to Planned Parenthood, which has a long track record of abusive and potentially fraudulent billing practices, not to mention that it has also been caught in authenticated undercover videos trafficking aborted babies’ body parts and has repeatedly failed to report the sexual abuse of girls,” she continued. “That tax money should be redirected to trusted health care providers.”

As previously reported, the state of Texas recently terminated its Medicaid contract with Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast for similar reasons.

“[T]here is reliable information indicating a pattern of illegal billing practices by Planned Parenthood affiliates, including you, across the state,” the Texas Health and Human Services Commission wrote in a letter to the organization. “Our prima facie case of fraud is supported by related cases involving fraudulent practices identified by whistleblowers from inside the Texas Planned Parenthood network.”

It further noted that Planned Parenthood locations violated safety protocols surrounding the spread of infectious diseases.

“Specifically, you allowed individuals posing as commercial buyers of fetal body parts to handle bloody fetal tissue while wearing only gloves,” the Commission outlines, referring to undercover footage released by the Center for Medical Progress this summer.

Fallin did not mention the expose’ videos in her letter last week.

http://christiannews.net/2015/11/23/oklahoma-governor-calls-for-end-to-planned-parenthood-medicaid-funding/

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/right-on-time-for-chicago-riots-another-spontaneous-mass-shooting-takes-place/
RIGHT IN TIME FOR CHICAGO RIOTS, ANOTHER ‘SPONTANEOUS’ MASS SHOOTING TAKES PLACE
President Obama has been briefed about the shooting and Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton wrote a tweet supportive of Planned Parenthood, saying "Today and every day, we #StandWithPP."
11/27/15

AT LEAST THREE DEAD, INCLUDING COP, AFTER MASS SHOOTING GUNMAN OPENS FIRE AT PLANNED PARENTHOOD IN COLORADO SPRINGS; FIVE POLICE OFFICERS SHOT, 9 PEOPLE STILL HOSPITALIZED

EDITOR’S NOTE: IT HAS BECOME AS PREDICTABLE AS THE RISING OF THE SUN OR THE WAVES THAT LAP AGAINST THE SANDY SHORELINE. WHENEVER THERE IS A RACIALLY-MOTIVATED INCIDENT IN THE COUNTRY LIKE FERGUSON, BALTIMORE AND NOW IN CHICAGO, A “SPONTANEOUS” MASS SHOOTER COMES UP OUT OF NOWHERE AND KILLS PEOPLE. THIS TIME THEY RIGGED IT TO COVER BOTH PRO-ABORTION AND ANTI-SECOND AMENDMENT ISSUES. TOMORROW IT WILL ‘BE REVEALED’ THAT THE SHOOTER WAS ON DOCTOR PRESCRIBED ANTIDEPRESSANTS. SHOCKER.

Three people, including a police officer, were killed and a gunman is in custody after he opened fire and shot at least five cops and several other civilians at a Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs,  authorities say.

The murdered police officer was identified as 44-year-old Garrett Swasey, a six-year veteran of the force at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, the college said.

There is a “huge crime scene that has to be processed,” the city’s mayor, John Suthers, told reporters. The Friday incident began around noon and didn’t end with the suspect in cuffs into approximately 5 p.m. local time.

The shackled suspect was a white man who wore white T-shirt, a graying beard and glasses, pictures of the arrest show.

Our hearts go out to the people and families affected by this shooting, but do not believe for a second that the shooter just ‘spontaneously’ thought to do this out of the blue. False flag events like this are a hallmark of the the Obama administration so eager to dissolve the Second Amendment and promote abortions.

CNN Calls Colorado Springs Shooting 'Latest' in 'String of Attacks' At Planned Parenthood Clinics
Meanwhile, the news chyron below him reads "Not clear if facility was targeted."
nothing new there

On CNN, a reporter played the "But if it is" game on whether or not the shooting at a Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs was the result of the shooter targeting the clinic over their abortion practices, calling it the "latest" such incident.

"If this was a targeting of Planned Parenthood it would be the latest in a string of attacks on abortion providing facilities or on doctors who work with them."

If it was, you see. But this is a very liberal (pun intended) use of the words "latest" and 'string", which imply an ongoing series of attacks. That impression is belied by the information he actually provides to back up his claim.

The most recent fatal attack was six and a half years ago, Dr. George Tiller, shot and killed inside his church in Wichita, Kanasas, on May 31, 2009.

If you think that is a reach on the implication of an ongoing pattern of attacks, his next one is even moreso.

Also in October of 1998 Dr. Barnett Slepian who worked at an abortion providing clinic in Buffalo, New York, he was shot through the window of his kitchen with a high-powered rifle.

There have also been bombings of abortion clinics in the United States. In January 1998 ....

Well, you get the picture. 18 years ago next month. The number of fatalities in attacks on abortionists & abortion clinics between January of 2000 and October 2015: One. As of the time of this article, that number has not increased.

This is not what you call a spate or "string" of attacks, of which today's is the "latest."

It is refreshing, though, to see the liberal media acknowledge at least the premise of related incidents. There is a long, long, long, long list of terror attacks from those shouting "Allahu Akbar" and citing the Koran as their motivation. Maybe we can finally get the media to recognize that those events are part of a pattern. They are certainly more abundant, frequent, and recent than this so-called string CNN reported on with a big "if" in front of it.

http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/cnn-calls-colorado-springs-shooting-latest-string-attacks-planned-parenthood-clinics

https://www.yahoo.com/politics/the-shooting-at-planned-parenthood-put-gop-2016-203438711.html
The shooting at Planned Parenthood put GOP 2016 hopefuls in a ‘politically uncomfortable’ position

Hunter Walker
November 28, 2015

The motive for a shooting that took place outside a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Friday still isn’t clear, but all three of the top Democratic presidential candidates quickly rushed to express their support for the organization.

Meanwhile, the leading Republicans, all of whom have spoken out against Planned Parenthood, have largely remained silent about the shooting.

Operatives from both parties suggested to Yahoo News that the incident puts the GOP field in a tough spot because of its opposition to Planned Parenthood. The organization is the country’s largest provider of abortions.

Three people were killed in the shooting. One of the victims was a police officer who responded to a call for help. The suspect has been identified as Robert Lewis Dear, who was reportedly captured on the scene in Colorado Springs after surrendering to law enforcement.

According to the Associated Press, Dear had spent part of his time living in a North Carolina shack, and his neighbors described him as an incoherent loner with no known political or religious leanings. However, John Suthers, the Republican mayor of Colorado Springs, suggested people could draw conclusions about a motive for the attack by drawing “inferences from where it took place.”

President Obama issued a statement on the shooting Saturday that did not address the question of opposition to abortion as a potential motive. Instead, the president suggested that the incident is further proof of the need for stronger gun control.

“We don’t yet know what this particular gunman’s so-called motive was for shooting 12 people, or for terrorizing an entire community, when he opened fire with an assault weapon and took hostages at a Planned Parenthood center in Colorado. What we do know is that he killed a cop in the line of duty, along with two of the citizens that police officer was trying to protect,” Obama said, adding, “This is not normal. We can’t let it become normal.”

The three top Democrats vying to be Obama’s successor all addressed the shooting on Twitter. Both frontrunner Hillary Clinton and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley issued expressions of support for Planned Parenthood. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., took things a step further and suggested antiabortion rhetoric could have encouraged the attack.

“I strongly support Planned Parenthood and the work it’s doing. I hope people realize that bitter rhetoric can have unintended consequences,” Sanders wrote.

Indeed, all of the leading Republican candidates have expressed opposition to Planned Parenthood. And almost none of them have made any public comment on the shooting.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is the only major Republican presidential hopeful who has tweeted about the incident.

“Praying for the loved ones of those killed, those injured & first responders who bravely got the situation under control in Colorado Springs,” Cruz wrote.

Yahoo News reached out to the campaigns of all of the other leading Republicans to see if they had any comment on the shootings. As of this writing, Anna Epstein, a spokeswoman for businesswoman Carly Fiorina was the only one to respond.

“Carly will be on Fox News Sunday tomorrow, and she’ll likely react then,” Epstein said.

There was no comment on the shooting from representatives for real estate mogul Donald Trump, former neurosurgeon Ben Carson, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., or New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

All nine of these Republicans have spoken out against Planned Parenthood and expressed support for taking federal funding from the organization. Cruz has led a congressional push to defund Planned Parenthood by threatening a government shutdown.

A Democratic operative who works in Colorado told Yahoo News they believe the shooting will hurt the GOP field because it “reminds voters of the relentless Republican campaign against women’s health and the right to choose.” They also suggested the shooting would highlight Republican opposition to gun control.

In messages to Yahoo News, Amanda Carpenter, a Republican strategist and former top aide to Cruz, acknowledged that the shooting could be “politically uncomfortable” for GOP candidates because they oppose Planned Parenthood and also abhor the violent shooting. Carpenter suggested that the candidates should have followed Cruz’s example and commented on the shooting regardless of their stance on abortion.

“Candidates can choose to avoid commenting on crisis, but a president cannot,” Carpenter said. “While it’s prudent to wait for all information, GOP candidates should easily be able to express sorrow, whether this situation is politically uncomfortable or not.”

Carpenter went on to describe the silence in the Republican field as “sad.”

“This event happened 24 hours ago, and lives were lost. It’s sad more candidates can’t show their support for those in mourning. Republicans can disagree with what PP does and grieve for those injured and killed,” she said. “Being pro-life means opposing murder, period. Law enforcement lives are at risk each day, as shown in Colorado yesterday. They need our support more than ever, and the GOP should not hesitate to give it.”

http://news.yahoo.com/planned-parenthood-shooting-may-one-154235766.html
Planned Parenthood Shooting Wasn't the First — And It Won't Be the Last
11/28/15

On Friday, Robert L. Dear made his way into a Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs, Colorado, shooting at civilians and police officers alike, prompting a rush of law enforcement to the area and putting the entire vicinity on lockdown.

Colorado Springs police Lt. Catherine Buckley said Friday at a press conference, "We're not sure of what the connection is to Planned Parenthood."

While the shooter's motives have yet to come to be released, what we do know is that this is not the first violent attack waged at a Planned Parenthood facility, and it likely won't be the last. Mass shootings at Planned Parenthood and other reproductive health clinics might not be common, but violence and harassment are.

In August, police investigated a car fire at a Planned Parenthood construction site in New Orleans. That same month, a man was accused of vandalizing an abortion clinic in Metairie, Louisiana. In September, an arsonist set fire to a Planned Parenthood in Pullman, Washington, that forced the clinic to shut down for at least a month. On Sept. 30, another arsonist targeted a Planned Parenthood in Thousand Oaks, California, smashed a window, poured gasoline inside and then set it on fire.

Attacks and intimidation of women's health facilities and the patients who rely on them aren't new. From 1977 to 2014, there have been nearly 7,000 violent attacks against abortion providers, including bombings, burglaries and murders, according to the National Abortion Federation. It's been six years since George Tiller, one of the few doctors in the United States to provide late-term abortions, was murdered while attending Sunday church.

But the past several months have seen a rise in attacks of every kind, including a notable increase in arson, with four alleged incidents in four months. Planned Parenthood has even been subject to cyber attacks: In July, hackers published the names and email addresses of 333 people associated with Planned Parenthood.

David S. Cohen, Drexel University professor and co-author of the book Living in the Crosshairs: The Untold Stories of Anti-Abortion Terrorism, told Mic at the time, "Publishing a list like this is just another way for someone out there who wants to do harm — and we know those people exist — to get more information that facilitates their harm."

But what also facilitates that harm is the fanning of flames with extremist language and viewpoints, the kind we've seen recently out of Congress and presidential debates, as conservative lawmakers and politicians use incendiary language and level questionable allegations against Planned Parenthood.


As Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) noted after the arson in Thousand Oaks, "The toxic rhetoric directed at Planned Parenthood has dangerous consequences. It sends a signal that using violence to close clinics and intimidate health care professionals and women is 'OK.' It is not."

Politicians might have a harder time justifying that rhetoric if the violence it ignited was called out for what it is: total, unabashed terror.


We may hesitate to use the word, but the attacks and intimidation — the stalking, the blockading and now the mass shooting — are meant to inflict terror and deny women their rights, not only to abortions but to the myriad other health services offered by clinics like Planned Parenthood, including testing for sexually transmitted infections and cancer screenings.

"In modern Western parlance, that term is used overwhelmingly to describe acts of violence committed by Muslims," Mic's Zak Cheney-Rice previously noted. But when we fail to note other acts of terror when they're committed and call them what they are, we're even less likely to call out the extremism that's prompting them.

As Planned Parenthood noted one day before the shooting in Colorado on Twitter, "We're especially thankful to partners & allies who have refused to let anti-abortion extremism and attacks take us back decades."


So far, Dear's actions have resulted in the deaths of one police officer and two civilians. While we're still waiting for specific clarification of his particular motives, it remains clear that extremism is still alive and well here in the U.S. — and calling it what it is is more urgent than ever.

Planned Parenthood Condemns Deadly Shooting at Facility Where They Kill Children Up to 18 Weeks

The abortion giant Planned Parenthood has condemned Friday’s deadly shooting at its facility in Colorado Springs where abortionists kill and dismember children up to 18 weeks.

Gunshots were first reported at the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood after 11:30 a.m. local time, as the suspect, who has yet to be identified, began shooting at police from the parking lot. He then entered the building and continued firing at law enforcement.

Approximately two dozen people were inside the building when the incident occurred, and police used an armored vehicle to rescue those being held inside.

Just before 5 p.m. local time, authorities persuaded the gunman to surrender. Photographs show a middle-aged man with a white beard in police custody.

Eleven people were injured in the exchange of gunfire, including four police officers. One police officer died from his wounds, as well as two civilians.

Lt. Catherine Buckley told reporters that there are a lot of questions surrounding the incident, as “[w]e do not know about this person’s mentality or ideology.” It is not known whether the man has any past ties to Planned Parenthood or if a family member had obtained an abortion at the location.

Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains also acknowledged that “[w]e don’t yet know the full circumstances and motives behind this criminal action, and we don’t yet know if Planned Parenthood was in fact the target of this attack.”

“We condemn this heinous act of violence, regardless of the motive behind it,” Planned Parenthood’s Ohio branch also said, remarking that “[n]o one deserves to be a victim of senseless violence, whether it is based on their gender [or] skin color…”

According to the Planned Parenthood website, the Colorado Springs location performs abortions up to 18 weeks. Dilation and evacuation (D&E) is used in second trimester abortions, a procedure where the child’s body is dismembered with forceps, being removed piece by piece and laid onto a tray to ensure all of the parts have been removed from the womb. Medical abortions are also offered up to nine weeks.

In its statement Friday night, while acknowledging that the motives surrounding the incident were not known, Planned Parenthood accused those who oppose the killing of unborn children of causing terror.

“We share the concerns of many Americans that extremists are creating a poisonous environment that feeds domestic terrorism in this country,” said Rocky Mountains President Vicki Cowart in a statement. “We will never back away from providing care in a safe, supportive environment that millions of people rely on and trust.”

Pro-life groups were quick to condemn the violence just as they condemn Planned Parenthood for killing children.

“We believe the way to end serious conflict in a civil society is by ballots, not bullets,” said Brian Johnston, chairman of California ProLife, told reporters. “Whatever the motive of this shooter, this is the wrong way to address the most important issue of our time, and only clouds peoples’ emotions and understanding of what is at stake and how to bring positive change.”

http://christiannews.net/2015/11/27/planned-parenthood-condemns-deadly-shooting-at-facility-where-they-kill-children-up-to-17-weeks/

https://www.yahoo.com/politics/gop-candidates-on-planned-parenthood-shooting-181258448.html
After two days of silence, GOP candidates respond to Planned Parenthood shootings
11/29/15

After two days of near-radio silence over the deadly shootings at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado, several Republican presidential candidates addressed the attack Sunday.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee condemned the alleged shooter, 57-year-old Robert Lewis Dear, who reportedly told investigators “no more baby parts” when questioned following his arrest Friday.

“What he did is domestic terrorism,” Huckabee said in an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday. “And what he did is absolutely abominable, especially to us in the pro-life movement, because there’s nothing about any of us that would condone or in any way look the other way on something like this.”

Huckabee contrasted his reaction with Secretary of State John Kerry’s comments following the recent terror attacks in Paris. Kerry said the January assault on the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris had a “rationale” that could be understood, while the attacks earlier this month did not.

“We’re not going to have the kind of language that you heard from John Kerry where he talked about legitimizing or rationalizing terrorist actions,” Huckabee said. “There’s no legitimizing, there’s no rationalizing. It was mass murder. It was absolutely unfathomable. And there’s no excuse for killing other people, whether it’s happening inside the Planned Parenthood headquarters, inside their clinics where many millions of babies die, or whether it’s people attacking Planned Parenthood.”

Three people were killed — including a veteran police officer — and 12 others were wounded in Friday’s shootings.

Carly Fiorina — whose controversial comments about Planned Parenthood videos during a Republican debate briefly elevated her candidacy — called the shootings “a tragedy.”

“Nothing justifies this,” Fiorina said on “Fox News Sunday.” “And presumably, this man who appears deranged, if nothing else, will be tried for murder as he should be. But it’s a tragedy, especially on a holiday weekend.“

The former Hewlett-Packard chief executive had called for the defunding of Planned Parenthood in the wake of videos she said showed workers discussing harvesting fetal tissue while “a fully formed fetus [lies] on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking” — a claim that proved to be false.

“We’ve experienced so much hateful language, hateful speech, such a negative environment has been created … around the idea of safe and legal abortion,” Vicki Cowart, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Rocky Mountains, said on ABC’s “This Week.” “And we’ve seen that across the country from all sorts of speakers in the last few months. I can’t believe that this isn’t contributing to some folks, mentally unwell or not, thinking that it’s OK to target Planned Parenthood or to target abortion providers.”

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders suggested such rhetoric may have inspired the alleged gunman.

“While we still do not know the shooter’s motive, what is clear is that Planned Parenthood has been the subject of vicious and unsubstantiated statements attacking an organization that provides critical health care for millions of Americans,“ the Democratic hopeful said in a statement. “I strongly support Planned Parenthood and the work it is doing and hope people realize that bitter rhetoric can have unintended consequences.”

Fiorina fired back.

“This is so typical of the left to immediately begin demonizing the messenger because they don’t agree with the message,” she said. “Anyone who tries to link this terrible tragedy to anyone who opposes abortion or opposes the sale of body parts is … this is typical left-wing tactics.”

Carson on Planned Parenthood shooting: “Hateful rhetoric is detrimental”

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson says there is “no question” that hateful rhetoric hurts American society. The neurosurgeon gone politician says presidential candidates on both side of the aisle must act more maturely to engage in intelligent civil discussions.

Dr. Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon-turned-GOP hopeful, described the shootings as a “hate crime” and called for a “rational discussion” from those on both sides of the abortion issue.

“Unfortunately, there’s a lot of extremism coming from all areas,” Carson said on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday. “It’s one of the biggest problems that I think is threatening to tear our country apart. We get into our separate corners and we hate each other, we want to destroy those with whom we disagree.”

He added: “You know, all you have to do is go to an article on the Internet and go to the comments section. You don’t get five comments down before people start calling each other names and acting like idiots, you know. What happened to us? What happened to the civility that used to characterize our society?”

Republican frontrunner Donald Trump dismissed the alleged gunman as a “maniac,” but refused to tone down the anti-abortion talk.

“I will tell you there is a tremendous group of people that think it’s terrible, all of the videos that they’ve seen with some of these people from Planned Parenthood, talking about [harvesting fetal tissue] like you’re selling parts to a car,” Trump said. “Now, I know some of the tapes were perhaps not pertinent. I know that a couple of people that are running for office on the Republican side were commenting on tapes that weren’t appropriate. But there were many tapes that are appropriate in terms of commenting on. It looks like you’re talking about parts to some machine or something. And they’re not happy about it.”

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who referred to Planned Parenthood as a “criminal enterprise” during a GOP debate in September, called Friday’s shootings “unacceptable, horrific, and wrong.“

“We know that police officers and civilians have been targeted and lost their lives, and our prayers are, right now, are with the families,” Cruz said while campaigning in Iowa Saturday. “I have spent much of my adult life working in law enforcement, working against murderers and those who commit violent crime, and that one officer who lost his life is particularly tragic.”

Meanwhile, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is calling for stricter gun control measures in the wake of the shootings.

“We’ve got to try and keep guns out of the hands of people who are violent and unstable,” the Democratic governor said on CNN. “I think we have to come back and look at all aspects of why these shootings have continued to occur — you know, in Oregon or South Carolina or Colorado.”

Hickenlooper added: “The frequency is unacceptable, and … I’m not willing to say, ‘Well, we just have to sit back and accept this as the cost of freedom.’”

Pro-Life Groups Concerned as Ben Carson Agrees Pro-Lifers Use ‘Hateful Rhetoric’

Pro-life groups are expressing concern after Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson told reporters this weekend that both sides of the abortion issue use hateful language and need to tone it down.

Carson had been asked by CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday about a Tweet from Planned Parenthood that stated that Friday’s shooting in Colorado was caused by “hateful rhetoric” against abortion.

“The increase in hateful rhetoric and smear campaigns against abortion providers and patients creates an environment [that] breeds acts of violence,” the abortion giant wrote on Twitter yesterday.

“There is no question that you know hateful rhetoric no matter which side it comes from—right or left—is something that is detrimental to our society,” Carson replied when asked what his view is on whether “rhetoric” has led to violence at abortion facilities.

“Our strength in this country has traditionally been in our unity, and we are allowing all kinds of circumstances to divide us and make us hateful toward each other,” he continued. “And the rhetoric is extremely immature, divisive and is not helpful when you have outside forces—global Islamic radical jihadists who want to destroy us.”

A number of pro-life groups are now expressing concern about Carson’s statements, stating that he seemed to agree with Planned Parenthood in his remarks.

“Did Carson take his talking points from Planned Parenthood?” asked Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America. “He completely missed the mark, casting suspicion on pro-lifers who had nothing to do with this tragedy and only furthering the deceitful narrative that the abortion industry has already laid out in the media.”

    Connect with Christian News


“Compassion and love, not violence, are at the heart of the pro-life movement and motivate us to protect life in its stages and we extend that same love and compassion to the victims and their families of this horrible tragedy,” she said.

Ryan Bombarger, the founder of the Radiance Foundation, made similar statements.

“Pro-abortion activists consider any scientifically, historically, or statistically accurate information about the violence of abortion to be ‘hateful rhetoric,'” he said. “Facts are not hate speech, Dr. Carson. Exposing the inner-workings of Planned Parenthood in an undercover investigation isn’t ‘hateful rhetoric’; it enables illuminating and civil discussion about inhumane barbarity.”

“Division is healthy, especially when it delineates right from wrong,” Bombarger continued. “The pro-life movement strives passionately, and peacefully, to educate the American public about abortion because mainstream media, including Face the Nation and certain presidential candidates, won’t.”

http://christiannews.net/2015/11/30/pro-life-groups-concerned-as-ben-carson-agrees-pro-lifers-use-hateful-rhetoric/

Leftist media pundits and “doctors” compare speaking out against abortion to murder

 In the aftermath of the attack on a Colorado Planned Parenthood, media pundits, leftist physicians, and top abortion provider officials have gone on the record with their belief that speaking out against abortion in any way is a form of harassment that should be made illegal under threat of government force.

Couple this with the fact that these same media pundits and leftist academics have labeled the attack as “white terrorism” caused by horrible Republicans and you have a transparent portrait of the playbook being used by these control freak authoritarians.

Blame white people. Blame pro-life protesters. Blame the 2nd Amendment. Blame secretly recorded videos. Blame the entire Republican Party.

And of course the most important one of all, vote for Hillary or you hate women and support attacking abortion providers.

Speaking out against abortion now equals violence

In perhaps the most stunning narrative to come out of the left in the aftermath of the shooting at the abortion giant is the claim by multiple “doctors” and media pundits that merely speaking out against abortion is a form of violence on par with an actual shooting.

In an article for the hard left news outlet Slate, OB-GYN physician and medical “journalist” Jennifer Conti makes this startling narrative perfectly clear while also transparently revealing that without this absurd narrative the idea that abortion providers are under attack would be completely debunked.

    As news continues to unfold about Friday’s Planned Parenthood shooting in Colorado Springs, one thing is clear: Domestic terrorism remains unchecked, even on the day after Thanksgiving.

    To label this an isolated act of violence would be naïve. In 2015 alone, there has been unprecedented harassment from anti-choice extremists, including most recently, a series of slanderous manipulated videos used to attack Planned Parenthood’s fetal tissue donation programs. And now this.

There you have it. In the liberal mind, domestic terrorism against abortion providers is a major issue and the proof of that is not the most recent obviously isolated incident in Colorado but the fact that a pro-life group released videos exposing the horrors of what actually happens inside a Planned Parenthood clinic.

Domestic terrorism is now being redefined as speech that liberals do not agree with and if you do not go along with this sort of new age thought control then you must hate women and want to kill people.

Americans throughout the country now find themselves at a crossroads where their first amendment protected speech is now being redefined in major media outlets as actual terrorism in a disgusting attempt at silencing ALL criticism of abortion.

And make no mistake, these authoritarian liberals are pushing and will continue to push the idea that we need the government to pass new legislation that would make speaking out against abortion a hate crime.

You do not like baby parts being sold so you shared one of the undercover videos on your Facebook page? To people like Conti you are a domestic terrorist.
CNN blatant propaganda

As if labeling speaking out against abortion a form of domestic terrorism wasn’t enough, government propaganda specialists at CNN just couldn’t help themselves in their transparent and lame attempt at convincing the public that the Colorado shooting was the “latest” in a string of attacks on abortion providers.

In reality, there literally hasn’t been an actual attack before Colorado’s Planned Parenthood shooting since 2009.

A report by Truth Revolt exposed this hysterical nonsense by CNN as nothing more than straight up leftist propaganda aimed at convincing Americans to support abortion.

“On CNN, a reporter played the “But if it is” game on whether or not the shooting at a Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs was the result of the shooter targeting the clinic over their abortion practices, calling it the “latest” such incident,” reported Caleb Howe.

“If this was a targeting of Planned Parenthood it would be the latest in a string of attacks on abortion providing facilities or on doctors who work with them.”

https://youtu.be/NvOBXs-MVPI

    If it was, you see. But this is a very liberal (pun intended) use of the words “latest” and ‘string”, which imply an ongoing series of attacks. That impression is belied by the information he actually provides to back up his claim.

    The most recent fatal attack was six and a half years ago, Dr. George Tiller, shot and killed inside his church in Wichita, Kanasas, on May 31, 2009.

    If you think that is a reach on the implication of an ongoing pattern of attacks, his next one is even moreso.

    Also in October of 1998 Dr. Barnett Slepian who worked at an abortion providing clinic in Buffalo, New York, he was shot through the window of his kitchen with a high-powered rifle.

    There have also been bombings of abortion clinics in the United States. In January 1998 ….

    Well, you get the picture. 18 years ago next month. The number of fatalities in attacks on abortionists & abortion clinics between January of 2000 and October 2015: One. As of the time of this article, that number has not increased.

This is a perfect example of a major media network hoping its viewers are mostly uninformed idiots who would swallow the obvious lie that a string of attacks equals one attack in 2015 and the next most recent in 2009.

It’s also important to note that all three major cable networks, including Fox News, have aired the outright bullshit being spewed by top Planned Parenthood officials (you know the great people making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year selling abortion) without so much as one rebuttal.

This is allowing the hard left to lead the conversation and to frame speaking out against abortion as actual terrorism.

Police disinformation and obvious cover-up over real shooting motive

In yet another sign that nothing the mainstream media is reporting about this shooting should actually be believed, police “sources” in Colorado have told NBC News that the suspect mentioned “baby parts” in a rant made to police after his arrest.

This claim is being parroted by the mainstream media and hard left news websites as gospel and all the proof they need to continue to claim that merely opposing abortion and actively talking about this opposition is a form of terrorism.

The problem? For starters, anonymous police leaks are notoriously unreliable and are usually done to further whatever agenda the police and or media are already promoting. Think back to any police shooting that eventually was revealed to be illegal and you have these same anonymous leaks from police, always containing information that puts the police in a good light and or further whatever media narrative is being pushed at the time.

Couple this with the fact that the American people are being expected to believe that speaking out against baby parts has led to the shooting in Colorado yet police in the state have already declared their intent to seal the warrants, thus censoring any of the actual information as to why the shooter carried out the attack, and you have all the makings of a cover-up.

If police are so sure that the shooter spoke about baby parts why are they purposefully making it impossible to confirm this claim?

At this point there is literally no actual evidence (high possibility they are “making” this evidence as we speak) that the shooter carried out the attack because he saw the viral undercover videos and even if he did the idea that speaking out against killing babies is a form of violence is absolutely ridiculous and even more proof of the push by the hard left to criminalize any speech they disagree with.

https://www.intellihub.com/142540/

http://news.yahoo.com/lawmaker-gun-buyers-wait-72-hours-required-getting-211552845.html
12/4/15
Lawmaker to Gun Buyers: Wait the 72 Hours Required Before Getting an Abortion

A Missouri legislator wants to treat gun violence as a public health issue by asking colleagues to consider a bill that would treat gun rights and reproductive rights similarly. Just a day before a mass shooting killed 14 and left 21 injured in San Bernardino, California, Missouri state Rep. Stacey Newman presented a bill proposing to make it as difficult to buy a gun as it is to get an abortion.

“If we truly insist that Missouri cares about ‘all life,’ then we must take immediate steps to address our major cities’ rising rates of gun violence,” Newman said in a statement.

Both St. Louis and Kansas City rank in the top 10 U.S. cities with the highest rates of gun violence, according to St. Louis Magazine. In October, Missouri earned the unfortunate distinction of ranking first in a state-by-state Washington Post study on the number of gun deaths inflicted by toddlers. The state is also home to some of the most extreme restrictions on abortion, such as requiring a woman to wait 72 hours before getting an abortion after initially seeking one—a waiting period shared in length only by South Dakota and Utah. Missouri currently has no waiting period for prospective firearm buyers, according to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

The bill would require prospective gun owners to meet with a licensed physician to discuss the health risks of gun ownership during the 72-hour waiting period and to buy a gun from a dealer at least 120 miles away from the gun buyer’s home. Gun buyers would also be required to tour a trauma center at the nearest hospital between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., when gun violence victims are most likely to be present, and to meet with two families who have been victimized by gun violence.

“Since Missouri holds the rank as one of the strictest abortion regulation states in the country, it is logical we borrow similar restrictions to lower our horrific gun violence rates,” Newman said.

This isn’t the first controversial bill introduced by Newman: In 2012, she introduced legislation that would have permitted men to get vasectomies only if the procedure would protect them from death or serious injury—another clear comment on abortion access for women. While it’s easy to dismiss both bills—doomed to fail in the Republican-controlled legislature—as campaigns that comment on the state of abortion access, Newman isn’t the first to suggest a public health approach to the crisis of gun violence. In a week when the U.S. experienced its 355th mass shooting of the year, as frustrated and terrified Americans struggle to make sense of the violence, creative responses to the lack of gun control may be welcome.

The American Public Health Association, a scientific research–based policy and advocacy group, has recognized gun violence as a “major public health problem” for more than a decade. A 2001 brief from the organization pointed out that gun violence can be reduced or prevented by using public health tools such as better data collection on firearms policy and violent crime deaths, expanded access to mental health services, and prevention programs in schools and communities.

On Wednesday, the same day as the San Bernardino shooting, a coalition of more than 2,000 physicians called on Congress to remove barriers faced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes for Health to conducting research on gun violence.

“Gun violence is a public health problem that kills 90 Americans a day,” said Alice Chen, executive director of Doctors for America, in a statement. “Physicians believe it’s time to lift this effective ban and fund the research needed to save lives. We urge Congress to put patients over politics to help find solutions to our nation’s gun violence crisis.”

http://news.yahoo.com/planned-parenthood-suspect-am-warrior-babies-214004459.html
12/9/15
Planned Parenthood suspect: 'I am a warrior for the babies'

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — The man accused of killing three people at a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic stunned a courtroom Wednesday when he declared himself a "warrior for the babies" and said he was guilty and won't go to trial.

Robert Lewis Dear, 57, made the outburst before he was formally charged with 179 counts of first-degree murder, attempted murder and other crimes.

Bearded, unkempt and cuffed at the wrists and ankles, Dear repeatedly disrupted the hourlong hearing, interrupting his public defender, Daniel King, and objecting to King's attempts to limit publicity in the case.

King — who represented Colorado theater shooter James Holmes — has asked the judge to impose a gag order on participants in the Planned Parenthood case before a trial.

"You'll never know what I saw in that clinic. Atrocities. The babies. That's what they want to seal," Dear shouted at one point, prompting a deputy to squeeze his shoulder in an effort to quiet him.

"Seal the truth, huh? Kill the babies. That's what Planned Parenthood does," Dear yelled later.

King did not address the outbursts but raised doubts about whether Dear is competent to stand trial, saying defense attorneys wanted investigators to turn over evidence as soon as possible so they could assess the "depth of his mental illness."

"Do you know who this lawyer is?" Dear then exclaimed of King. "He's the lawyer for the Batman shooter. Who drugged him all up. And that's what they want to do to me."

Holmes was on anti-psychotic medication during his trial this year in the 2012 shootings that killed 12 people and wounded 70. He was sentenced to life in prison.

Colorado Springs police have refused to discuss a potential motive in the Nov. 27 attack, which wounded nine. But even before Wednesday's startling outbursts, there was mounting evidence that Dear was deeply concerned about abortion.

He rambled to authorities about "no more baby parts" after his arrest. And a law enforcement official told The Associated Press this week that Dear asked at least one person in a nearby shopping center for directions to the clinic before opening fire. The official was not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation and spoke this week to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

On Wednesday, Dear interjected as Judge Gilbert A. Martinez discussed a pretrial publicity order, saying, "Could you add the babies that were supposed to be aborted that day? Could you add that to the list?"

At one point, Dear yelled simply, "Protect babies!"

Later, he accused his attorneys of being in "cahoots" with Planned Parenthood to "shut me up."

"I want the truth to come out. There's a lot more to this than for me to go silently to the grave," he shouted.

Dear has lived in remote locations without electricity or water and was known to hold survivalist ideas.

One of his three ex-wives, Barbara Mescher Micheau of Moncks Corner, South Carolina, said he vandalized a South Carolina abortion clinic at least 20 years earlier, announcing to her that he had put glue in the locks of its doors, a common protest technique among activists trying to shut down abortion clinics.

Killed in the attack were Garrett Swasey, 44, a University of Colorado-Colorado Springs officer who rushed to the scene; Ke'Arre Stewart, 29, an Iraq war veteran who was accompanying someone at the clinic; and Jennifer Markovsky, 35, who also accompanied a friend at the clinic.

Five other officers were shot and wounded in the rampage.

Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers said Monday that responding officers rescued 24 people from inside the clinic building and helped remove 300 people from surrounding businesses where they had been hiding while the shooting unfolded.

Martinez set the next hearing for Dear for Dec. 23. A first-degree murder conviction can lead to life in prison or the death penalty.

At the end of Wednesday's hearing, the judge looked at Dear and said, "Are you finished?"

https://www.yahoo.com/health/support-for-legal-abortion-at-highest-level-in-2-184253561.html
12/22/15
Support for Legal Abortion at Highest Level in 2 Years

Support for legal abortion in the U.S. has edged up to its highest level in the past two years, with an Associated Press-GfK poll showing an apparent increase in support among Democrats and Republicans alike over the last year.

Nearly six in 10 Americans — 58 percent — now think abortion should be legal in most or all cases, up from 51 percent who said so at the beginning of the year, according to the AP-GfK survey. It was conducted after three people were killed last month in a shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado.

However, just over a third of Americans want laws on abortion to be stricter than they are now, the poll shows, while a quarter think they should be less strict.

While support for legal abortion edged up to 40 percent among Republicans in this month’s poll, from 35 percent in January, the survey found that the GOP remains deeply divided on the issue: Seven in 10 conservative Republicans said they want abortion to be illegal in most or all cases; six in 10 moderate and liberal Republicans said the opposite.

Count 55-year-old Victor Remdt, of Gurnee, Illinois, among the conservatives who think abortion should be illegal in most cases. He’s adopted, and says he “wouldn’t be here talking” if his birth mother had opted for abortion rather than adoption. Remdt, who’s looking for work as a commercial driver, said he’d like to see abortion laws become more restrictive but adds that he’s not a one-issue voter on the matter.

John Burk, a conservative Republican from Houston, Texas, is among those whose position on abortion is somewhere in the middle. He reasons that banning the procedure would only lead to “back-alley abortions.” But he’s open to restrictions such as parental notification requirements and a ban on late-term abortions.

Burk, a 59-year-old computer programmer, said he tracks his beliefs on the issue to his libertarian leanings and the fact that he’s not religious. He doesn’t see the nation coming to a resolution on the divisive issue any time soon, saying hard-liners on both sides of the question are entrenched and “they’re never going to change.”

Related: Bill Nye Says Yes to Reproductive Rights and Vaccination, No to Vitamins

Among Democrats, 76 percent of poll respondents now think abortion should be legal all or most of the time, up slightly from 69 percent in January.

Independents are more evenly split, with 54 percent saying abortion should be legal all or most of the time, edging up from 43 percent in January.

For Larry Wiggins, who describes himself as a liberal Democrat from Henderson, North Carolina, legal access to abortion should be — but isn’t — a settled matter.

“A woman has the right to decide what she wants to do with her body,” he said flatly. “I don’t think the government has the right to interfere.”

Nefertiti Durant, a 45-year-old independent voter from Columbia, Maryland, sees abortion as more complex matter, calling it “kind of a Catch-22.” She thinks a woman should have the right to choose abortion but she’s “not so keen on the fact that just anybody can go and have an abortion.” She worries that young people may not understand the effects of the procedure, and the “deep issues” that go along with it.

Still, she said, abortion is legal and “let’s just leave it at that. … I don’t think it’s a matter of discussion.”

It undoubtedly will be up for discussion, though, in a presidential election year. All of the Republican presidential candidates say they favor restricting abortion rights. The Democratic candidates support broad abortion rights.

Related: Texas Law Leads to Thousands of Women Giving Themselves Abortions

Interest in the issue picked up this year after anti-abortion activists began releasing undercover videos they said showed Planned Parenthood personnel negotiating the sale of fetal organs.  Planned Parenthood said any payments were legally permitted reimbursements for the costs of donating organs to researchers, and it has since stopped accepting even that money. Republicans have sought to cut off federal funding for Planned Parenthood, and several GOP-governed states have tried to block Medicaid funding to the organization.

Overall, the poll found, 45 percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of Planned Parenthood, and 30 percent have an unfavorable opinion. A quarter said they don’t know enough about the organization to say.

The AP-GfK Poll of 1,007 adults was conducted online Dec. 3-7, using a sample drawn from GfK’s probability-based KnowledgePanel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.4 percentage points. Respondents were first selected randomly using telephone or mail survey methods, and later interviewed online. People selected for KnowledgePanel who didn’t otherwise have access to the Internet were provided access at no cost to them.

Government to probe fetal tissue research after Planned Parenthood scandal

A federal watchdog will conduct a full audit of all fetal tissue research supported by the federal government in the wake of Planned Parenthood's video scandal.

The watchdog will look into grants awarded for human fetal tissue research projects primarily doled out by the National Institutes of Health. It will primarily center on whether the grants violate any federal requirements.

The probe, announced Tuesday by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is in response to a letter sent by Paul and 34 other senators in October. The investigation will be conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General.

The senators wanted the audit after a series of undercover videos showed Planned Parenthood officials discussing the harvesting and donating of aborted fetal body parts.

The undercover videos, produced by the anti-abortion activist group Center for Medical Progress, sparked questions from lawmakers over whether Planned Parenthood profits from aborted fetal body parts, which is illegal under federal law.

The women's health and abortion provider has repeatedly denied that it profits, saying that it only gets compensated for costs such as transportation. The organization has since ceased such donations after the scandal erupted with the videos.

Paul said he was happy that the watchdog would investigate Planned Parenthood.

"Planned Parenthood selling body parts of the unborn demonstrates that the organization deserves not one penny more of our taxpayer dollars, and I am confident this investigation will give further proof of that," the presidential candidate said. Paul currently ranks sixth in the Washington Examiner's presidential power rankings.

While the senators' letter had spurred the investigation, Planned Parenthood had previously suggested such an inquiry. President Cecile Richards had said in July that such a review could help ensure the medical community was held to the highest standard possible.

The organization said Tuesday that it applauded the announcement of an investigation into fetal tissue research. It also reiterated that Planned Parenthood has never sold fetal tissue for profit.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/government-to-probe-fetal-tissue-research-after-planned-parenthood-scandal/article/2578932

http://news.yahoo.com/federal-judge-blocks-arkansas-restrictions-abortion-pill-035620715.html?nf=1
12/31/15
Federal judge blocks Arkansas restrictions on abortion pill

LITTLE ROCK, Ark (Reuters) - A federal judge on Thursday granted a two-week restraining order against an Arkansas law restricting use of the so-called abortion pill, one day before the statute was to go into effect.

Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, which operates two clinics in Arkansas, had challenged the law and U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker heard arguments on Wednesday before granting on Thursday the group's request for a temporary stay preventing the law's enforcement.

The judge will hear further arguments, but in her ruling said Planned Parenthood had a substantial chance of prevailing in its contention that the statute is an unconstitutional infringement on a woman's right to obtain an abortion.

Attempts to restrict abortion in Arkansas have intensified in recent years as Republicans took control of both chambers of the legislature and, in January, the governor's office.

State law now requires pre-abortion counseling and a 24-hour waiting period before the procedure.

    The law the judge ruled on Thursday, which was approved by the state legislature in March, would require organizations or individuals dispensing mifepristone to maintain a contract relationship with a physician who has hospital admitting privileges. It also stipulates that the patient receive two more doses of the drug than the four presently required by law.

    Mifepristone is intended to induce miscarriage when taken in the first two months of pregnancy.

Planned Parenthood also maintained that the extra dosage is clinically unnecessary and thus imposes an undue financial burden.

The group said it had tried without success to establish contract relationships with physicians, relating in court papers that doctors were fearful to enter into such an agreement with Planned Parenthood for fear of reprisals.

    "At this early stage of the proceeding, the court finds that, in the case of medication abortion, any benefit of admitting privileges in terms of continuity of care is incrementally small," Baker wrote in her ruling.

    The judge also took issue with the state's contention that the extra dosage was necessary.  She said the law appeared to be based on "inaccurate, incomplete, irrelevant, or outdated" data.

The state argued that the law was necessary to protect women's health.

    Governor Asa Hutchinson, who signed the bill into law, said he hoped the judge would reverse her decision after hearing further arguments.

    "Planned Parenthood places a premium on the convenience of abortion providers over the health and welfare of women seeking these procedures," Hutchinson said.

Kansas Becomes Eighth State to Defund Planned Parenthood

During his State of the State address on Tuesday, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback announced that he has ordered the state Department of Health and Environment to defund the abortion giant Planned Parenthood, making Kansas the eighth state to do so.

“In 2011, I signed legislation stopping most taxpayer funding from going to Planned Parenthood. The time has come to finish the job,” he declared.

The move is reportedly due in part to a series of undercover videos released last year by the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) that show officials with Planned Parenthood from various locations across the country nonchalantly discussing the strategic removal of baby bodily organs so that they can meet the demand of scientific corporations.

“Planned Parenthood’s trafficking of baby body parts is antithetical to our belief in human dignity,” Brownback stated, noting that he has consequently directed Kansas Department of Health Secretrary Susan Mosier to “ensure that not a single dollar of taxpayer money goes to Planned Parenthood” for Medicaid. He also asked legislators to submit a bill that would enshrine the move into state law.

“We must keep working to protect our most innocent Kansans, the unborn,” Brownback declared. “We have become the shining city on the hill and the champions of life. … Kansas was founded on the principal that every life has dignity, that every life has beauty, that every life has value.”

The governor, a Roman Catholic, also posted about his move on Facebook, reiterating that “[t]rafficking of ‪#‎babybodyparts‬ is antithetical to our belief in human dignity. No more Kansas Medicaid dollars will go to Planned Parenthood. ‪#‎defundpp‬ ‪#‎prolife‬”

Planned Parenthood currently receives approximately $61,000 in Medicaid reimbursement by the state each year.

Elise Higgins, a lobbyist for Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, said that the group will fight Brownback’s efforts.

“I am disappointed on behalf of the women who rely on us for health care that the governor has chosen to make them his political scapegoat,” she told the Associated Press.

But others applauded the move.

“Not one more penny should go to Planned Parenthood, a scandal-plagued abortion business that does not provide comprehensive health care services for women,” said Casey Mattox of the religious liberties group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) in a statement. “Gov. Brownback’s directive will terminate funding for Planned Parenthood, freeing up money for more widely available and more comprehensive low-cost healthcare options for women and families in Kansas.”

As previously reported, Planned Parenthood outlined in its annual report released at the end of December that the organization performed 323,999 abortions nationwide during the 2014-2015 fiscal year. The organization was founded in 1921 by Margaret Sanger, which was originally known as the American Birth Control League. She later changed the name as some found it offensive.

“Birth control appeals to the advanced radical because it is calculated to undermine the authority of the Christian churches,” she wrote in a 1920’s newsletter. “I look forward to seeing humanity free someday of the tyranny of Christianity, no less than capitalism.”

Sanger, who was a staunch advocate of eugenics, also wrote in “The Pivot of Civilization,” “Constructive” eugenics … shows us that we are paying for and even submitting to the dictates of an ever increasing, unceasingly spawning class of human beings who never should have been born at all—that the wealth of individuals and of states is being diverted from the development and the progress of human expression and civilization.”

“The emergency problem of segregation and sterilization must be faced immediately,” she said. “Every feeble-minded girl or woman of the hereditary type, especially of the moron class, should be segregated during the reproductive period. Otherwise, she is almost certain to bear imbecile children, who in turn are just as certain to breed other defectives.”

http://christiannews.net/2016/01/13/kansas-becomes-eighth-state-to-defund-planned-parenthood/

https://www.yahoo.com/parenting/average-age-of-new-us-moms-at-all-time-high-194622987.html
Average Age of New U.S. Moms at All-Time High

Associated Press
January 14, 2016

NEW YORK (AP) — The average age of first-time mothers is at an all-time high in the U.S — over 26.

The change is largely due to a big drop in teen moms. But more first births to older women also are tugging the number up, said T.J. Mathews of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

He’s the lead author of a report released Thursday that put the average age at 26 years, 4 months for women who had their first child in 2014.

STORY: 54-Year-Old Woman Gives Birth to Her Own Granddaughter

The government began tracking the age of new mothers around 1970 when the average was 21. It’s been mostly climbing ever since, and spiked in about the last five years.

The number rocketed immediately after a 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing abortion, which is used mostly by young unmarried women. Also fueling the rise were improvements in birth control and greater opportunities for women, experts said.

STORY: Two-Foot-Tall Newborn Tips Scales at More Than 12 Lbs.

“Women are staying in school longer, they’re going into the workforce, they’re waiting to get married, and they’re waiting to have kids,” said John Santelli, a Columbia University professor of population and family health.

“It’s been going on in the U.S. since the 1950s,” and in many other countries as well, he added.

Overall, the average age of first-time moms has been rising in every racial and ethnic group, and in every state. Since 2000, some of the most dramatic increases were for black mothers and for moms living along the West Coast.

However, the Northeast still has the highest average ages. Topping the list are Massachusetts and the District of Columbia, each at about 29, and Connecticut and New York, at or near 28.

STORY: 44-Pound Baby Weighs as Much as a 5-Year-Old

In New York’s Park Slope neighborhood in Brooklyn — an enclave for families with young children — older moms are common.

Pushing a stroller on a frigid Wednesday morning, Meisha Welch said she didn’t have the first of her two children until just after her 38th birthday.

“Many of my friends I grew up with, we all have small children,” said Welch, now 42. “We had children at what in the past may have seemed like an older age. But now it feels more average.

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2016/01/20/3740987/abortion-trend-restrictions-voters/
1/20/16
New Polling Reveals Voters’ Opposition To Abortion Restrictions

Many voters aren’t aware of the state-level assault against abortion access that’s been advancing over the past few years — and once they learn more about the trend, they say they’re opposed to it, according to new polling released this week.

States have passed hundreds of separate restrictions on abortion since 2010. In fact, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a think tank that tracks reproductive health policy, the past five years account for more than one-quarter of all anti-abortion laws passed since Roe v. Wade first legalized the procedure more than four decades ago.

But the new poll, which was commissioned by the National Institute for Reproductive Health (NIRH), found a big information gap here. Fifty-five percent of respondents said they didn’t know about this recent rush of state-level legislation.

In order to get participants up to speed, researchers provided them with information from the Guttmacher Institute detailing the different categories of new state laws that make it more difficult to access abortion:
abortion poll

After receiving this information, most respondents indicated that they disagreed with the recent trend. Nearly two-thirds of participants said these state laws are going in the “wrong direction.” And, when asked to choose one word to describe their reaction to the list of new state restrictions, many chose words like “unfair,” “wrong,” “disgusted,” “ridiculous,” and “angry.”

“There is a misguided assumption that the public is divided on abortion, and that abortion restrictions have the tacit approval of the voters,” Andrea Miller, the president of NIRH, said in a statement. “But when the public learns about the staggering intensity of such laws against abortion, which place women’s safety, autonomy and dignity in jeopardy, they become outraged.”

NIRH’s new research — which was a national survey based on the information the organization previously collected from focus groups in eight different states — takes a different approach to gauging Americans’ attitudes about abortion than traditional polls typically do.

Most major pollsters ask Americans whether they consider themselves to be “pro-choice” or “pro-life.” They also tend to ask respondents whether their beliefs align with one of the following four categories: Abortion should be legal in all cases; abortion should be legal in most cases; abortion should be illegal in most cases; or abortion should be illegal in all cases.

According to NIRH, that line of questioning doesn’t deliver accurate results. It’s been clear for quite some time that Americans’ complicated views on abortion don’t fit neatly into pro-choice and pro-life labels. And questions about abortion’s legality aren’t as relevant to politics or policymaking as questions about abortion’s accessibility — after all, state lawmakers can’t overturn Roe v. Wade altogether, but they can enact an increasing number of restrictions that make it quite difficult for women to exercise the right to choose in practice.

In a previous interview with ThinkProgress, NIRH’s Miller said that finding effective ways to close the information gap about the recent trend in anti-abortion legislation could eventually move voters to take action.

“When people see the current state of affairs, in terms of what kinds of laws are in place and what women need to do if they want to get an abortion, they’re shocked and appalled and they want it to change,” Miller said. “The attacks that have been happening are ultimately an overreach so far beyond where the American public is. Awareness of that overreach,

I think, will result in a tremendous power surging forward.”

The results of the new poll hint at this potential future: More than half of participants said they plan to pay close attention to political candidates’ positions on reproductive health issues now that they’ve heard more about the current state landscape.

http://news.yahoo.com/pro-choice-movement-just-scored-135700395.html
The Pro-Choice Movement Just Scored a Major Win in Arkansas
1/21/16

Not everything should make a comeback.

In February 2013, Arkansas passed the strictest abortion ban in the country via the Human Heartbeat Protection Act, a bill that made it illegal for women to receive an abortion after 12 weeks if doctors could detect a heartbeat. According to Mother Jones, two doctors had challenged the bill in the lower courts, which prevented it from ever going into effect.

Nearly three years later, supporters of the bill in the Arkansas Legislature, which at the time overrode then-Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe's veto, were still fighting to appeal the decision. On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court told them tough luck and threw out a petition for the court to reconsider the ban.

more

http://news.yahoo.com/latest-kansas-ban-abortion-method-remains-hold-154140687.html
The Latest: Abortion rights backers hail Kansas court ruling
1/22/16

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The latest on the Kansas Court of Appeals decision on whether to allow the state's first-in-the-nation ban on a common second-trimester abortion method (all times local):

12:15 p.m.

A national abortion-rights group says the Kansas Court of Appeals has issued a groundbreaking ruling in blocking enforcement of a ban on a common second-trimester abortion procedure.

The New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights noted that the Friday decision was the first time an appellate court in the conservative state said the Kansas Constitution protects abortion rights independently of the U.S. Constitution.

The decision was 7-7, allowing a trial-court judge's injunction against the 2015 law to stand.

Other abortion rights advocates also hailed the decision. Julie Burkhart, founder of the group Trust Women and the South Wind Women's Center, says she's elated.

Burkhart says "women deserve the right to access necessary reproductive health care without undue governmental interference."

___

11:15 a.m.

An anti-abortion leader and a top Kansas legislator are dismayed by a Kansas Court of Appeals ruling that blocks enforcement of the state's first-in-the-nation ban on a common second-trimester abortion procedure.

David Gittrich of Kansans for Life said his group will work to oust Kansas Court of Appeals judges in elections later this year. Gittrich says the judges aren't accountable to voters, but "they will be accountable to God."

Kansas Senate Majority Leader Terry Bruce says he can't imagine a scenario where the framers of the Kansas Constitution meant to legalize abortion.

Appeals court judges split 7-7 in a ruling Friday over whether the Kansas Constitution protects abortion rights independently of the U.S. Constitution. The split means a lower court judge's injunction blocking the law remains in effect.

___

10 a.m.

The Kansas Court of Appeals ruled in a split decision that the state's constitution protects a woman's right to an abortion independent of the rights granted by the U.S. Constitution.

The court made the statement Friday in a 7-7 ruling that maintains a temporary hold on the state's first-in-the-nation ban on a common second-trimester abortion method.

Tie votes from the appeals court uphold the lower-court ruling being appealed. That means seven judges agreed with a lower court judge, who ruled that the Kansas Constitution's Bill of Rights has general statements about personal liberties that create independent protections for abortion rights.

___

9:40 a.m.

The Kansas Court of Appeals has refused to allow the state's first-in-the-nation ban on a common second-trimester abortion method to take effect.

The court released the ruling Friday, the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision.

A lower court put the law on hold last year. The state's second-highest court upheld that decision Friday, though an appeal to the Kansas Supreme Court is expected.

The case comes in a lawsuit filed by two abortion providers who say the 2015 law unconstitutionally burdens women seeking abortions.

The law prohibits doctors from using forceps or similar instruments on a live fetus to remove it from the womb in pieces. The Center for Reproductive Rights says the procedure is the safest and most common second-trimester abortion method in the U.S.

___

1 a.m.

The Kansas Court of Appeals is deciding whether to allow the state's first-in-the-nation ban on a common second-trimester abortion method.

The court is expected to release its decision Friday, the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision.

The lawsuit was filed by two abortion providers who said the 2015 law unconstitutionally burdens women seeking to end their pregnancies. A lower court has temporarily put the law on hold.

At issue is whether the Kansas Constitution's broad language about individual liberty protects abortion rights.

The law prohibits doctors from using forceps or similar instruments on a live fetus to remove it from the womb in pieces. The Center for Reproductive Rights says the procedure is the safest and most common in the U.S. in the second trimester.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/justices-wont-let-north-dakota-enforce-tough-abortion-144320516--politics.html
Justices won't let North Dakota enforce tough abortion law
The Supreme Court will not allow North Dakota to enforce a law banning abortions when a fetal heartbeat is detected as early as 6 weeks into a pregnancy
1/25/16

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) -- The U.S. Supreme Court refused on Monday to review lower court rulings overturning North Dakota's ban on abortion at six weeks of pregnancy — before many women know they're pregnant.

The justices turned away the state's appeal of decisions striking down the 2013 fetal heartbeat law as unconstitutional. The law never took effect, and abortion-rights supporters said it was the strictest anti-abortion measure in the country.

The high court last week rejected Arkansas' bid to enforce its own fetal heartbeat law, banning some abortions at 12 weeks. Both measures had been struck down by a unanimous panel of three judges appointed by President George W. Bush to the St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

"We knew it was unlikely and it came as no surprise," North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said of the high court's refusal to review the case.

The Supreme Court gets about 7,500 requests each year but takes on fewer than 100 cases.

"It was a long shot," Stenehjem said. "And it's the end of our litigation on this issue. Even some of staunchest pro-life groups agree there isn't much more we can do at this point."

The appeals panel judges said the laws were inconsistent with the standard set by the Supreme Court that generally ties abortion restrictions to the viability of the fetus. But they urged the Supreme Court to re-evaluate its abortion cases to take account of changes in medicine and science, and the wishes of elected state lawmakers. The current framework "discounts the legislative branch's recognized interest in protecting unborn children," Judge Bobby Shepherd wrote for the panel, which included Judges William Benton and Lavenski Smith.

North Dakota's Republican-dominated legislature approved the law in 2013, though it was quickly put on hold after the state's lone abortion clinic, the Red River Clinic in Fargo, filed a lawsuit that July.

Republican Gov. Jack Dalrymple has called the law "a legitimate attempt by a state Legislature to discover the boundaries of Roe v. Wade." But opponents called it an attempt to shutter the clinic that is backed in its legal fight by the Center for Reproductive Rights.

Nancy Northrup, president and CEO of the New York-based group, praised the high court's refusal to review the law.

"This utterly cruel and unconstitutional ban would have made North Dakota the first state since Roe v. Wade to effectively ban abortion," she said in a statement.

North Dakota lawmakers set aside $400,000 to defend lawsuits arising from a spate of new abortion laws in 2013, and the Legislature added another $400,000 last year. Records obtained by The Associated Press show the state had used $320,029 to defend the abortion laws as of December, most of which was spent on the fetal heartbeat measure.

No new abortion measures were introduced by the Legislature last year, after two of the most ardent anti-abortion state lawmakers were ousted by voters in the highly religious red state.

"Lawmakers need to know that citizens care about all issues, not just one," said Stenehjem, a Republican seeking the nod for governor to replace Dalrymple, who is not seeking re-election.

The Fargo clinic, which performs about 1,250 abortions a year, is served by out-of-state physicians licensed to practice in North Dakota. The nearest other abortion clinics are four hours south to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and four hours away in Minneapolis.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/appeals-court-upholds-health-care-law-contraceptive-mandate

Appeals court upholds health care law contraceptive mandate

By the Associated Press | February 20, 2016 | 4:45 AM EST

ATLANTA (AP) — A federal appeals court in Atlanta on Thursday upheld a contraceptive mandate included in the president's health care law but is delaying the implementation of its ruling until the U.S. Supreme Court can weigh in on the issue.

A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 to reject challenges to the mandate in a single opinion addressing two separate cases, one filed by nonprofit organizations affiliated with the Catholic Church in Georgia and the other by Catholic broadcaster Eternal Word Television Network in Alabama.

The organizations had argued the mandate and a related rule against those entities would violate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, which prohibits the government from imposing a substantial burden on a person's religious practice.

The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments March 23 on the question, and the 11th Circuit said the mandate and associated opt-out rule should not be enforced against the Georgia and Alabama organizations until the high court rules.

Under the health care law, most health insurance plans have to cover all Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptives as preventive care for women, free of cost to the patient. Catholic dioceses and archdioceses are exempt from the mandate, but the other affiliated organizations, including schools, charitable institutions and hospitals are not.

Those groups are required to submit a form to their third-party insurers saying they object to the coverage. The insurer will then make the coverage available at no cost to the institution or the employee.

The religiously affiliated groups had claimed that this requirement was overly burdensome to their practice of their religion because it makes them a party to something that is against their religion.

"Congress included the contraceptive mandate in the ACA to improve women's health and public health generally. There is no evidence whatsoever that the mandate was enacted in an attempt to restrict religious exercise," Circuit Judge Jill Pryor wrote in the majority opinion.

In a dissenting opinion, Circuit Judge Gerald Tjoflat decried government efforts to "force them to participate in a complicated regulatory scheme."

"Doing so, these parties sincerely believe, would make them complicit in violating the sanctity of human life," he wrote.

EWTN chairman and CEO Michael P. Warsaw said in an emailed statement that the broadcaster is extremely disappointed.

"This decision by the Court of Appeals ignores the arguments that EWTN and numerous plaintiffs around the country have made with regard to this mandate," he said. "In effect, this decision orders EWTN to violate its religious beliefs and comply with the government's HHS mandate or pay massive fines to the IRS."

EWTN, which has studios in the Birmingham suburb of Irondale, offers programming available in more than 140 countries and territories.

Lawyers for the Georgia Catholic organizations did not immediately respond to after-hours emails seeking comment Thursday.

Georgetown is a JESUIT university!

http://www.lifenews.com/2016/03/03/catholic-georgetown-university-defends-hosting-planned-parenthood-ceo-cecile-richards/
3/3/16
“Catholic” Georgetown University Defends Hosting Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards

The Cardinal Newman Society broke the news yesterday that the Lecture Fund at Georgetown University invited Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) President Cecile Richards to campus this April. The University defended its decision to allow Richards to speak on campus in a statement released today citing Georgetown’s commitment to “the free exchange of ideas.”

“As the nation’s oldest Catholic and Jesuit university, Georgetown University is proud to be a university that deeply values our faith tradition and that encourages the free exchange of ideas,” according to the statement. “We respect our students’ right to express their personal views and are committed to sustaining a forum for the free exchange of ideas, even when those ideas may be difficult, controversial or objectionable to some.”

“They said the same thing when Larry Flynt and Barack Obama spoke at Georgetown,” Cardinal Newman Society President Patrick Reilly told CNSNews.com in response to Georgetown’s statement. “Besides a clear bias in the choice of speakers, there’s no sense of moral truth, which is the central point of a Catholic university. Either you accept Catholic moral teaching as true or you do not. In the case of Georgetown, they simply do not.

“In bringing in someone with such a horrendous record of not only advocating ideas that would be contrary to Catholic teaching, but is herself responsible for the deaths of more than two million babies under her watch, Georgetown demonstrates that it does not understand the nature of a Catholic university,” Reilly added.

As the Newman Society reported yesterday, PPFA’s records of “abortion services” disclosed in annual reports show that Richards has overseen the deaths of over 2.8 million babies since taking charge of the organization in 2006. The number of reported abortions increased steadily from 2006-2011 before waning in recent years.

“Ms. Richards is not being paid to speak,” Georgetown’s statement continued. “Student groups may invite any outside speakers and guests to campus. An appearance of any speaker or guest on campus is not an endorsement by the university.”

The University added: “We work very hard to ensure that [Catholic and Jesuit] values maintain a privileged place in our community while at the same time providing a forum that does not limit speech either in the content of the view being expressed or the speaker expressing the view.”

And despite a long history of Catholic identity abuses, including many documented by the Newman Society in the current academic year, Georgetown’s statement asserted, “Our Catholic and Jesuit identity on campus has never been stronger.”

According to the University’s Speech and Expression Policy, there are some limits the administration is willing to impose on free speech.

“The right of free speech and expression does not include unlawful activity or activity that endangers or imminently threatens to endanger the safety of any member of the community or any the community’s physical facilities, or any activity that disrupts or obstructs the functions of the University or imminently threatens such disruption or obstruction,” the policy states. “Moreover, expression that is indecent or is grossly obscene or grossly offensive on matters such as race, ethnicity, religion, gender, or sexual orientation is inappropriate in a university community and the University will act as it deems appropriate to educate students violating this principle.”

Click here to sign up for pro-life news alerts from LifeNews.com

But the policy goes on to stipulate that “these qualifications are naturally subject to interpretation,” and students can file an appeal to the vice president for student affairs through a “Speech and Expression Committee” if they believe the policy has been misapplied.

Many would argue that Richards, as the head of an organization that kills human beings on a daily basis, is a far more controversial speaker than pornography tycoon Flynt, whom the Georgetown Lecture Fund hosted in 1999.

During that controversy, Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, who at the time was Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Washington, criticized Georgetown and then-President Father Leo J. O’Donovan, S.J., for allowing Flynt to speak on campus.

Speaking on behalf of Cardinal James Hickey, who was out of the country at the time, Bishop Lori said Flynt speaking at Georgetown is “utterly contrary to the Catholic identity of Georgetown University. The university’s actions are indefensible.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi2LKQCEMKY

http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=32416124340
I Sought for a Man and Found None - Who will Go to the Valley of Slaughter? (pastor Jason Cooley)
3/24/2016 (THU) 
Audio: http://www.sermonaudio.com/playpopup.asp?SID=32416124340

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/the-incredible-extent-of-planned-parenthoods-hatred-for-human-life-revealed/

The Incredible Extent Of Planned Parenthood’s Hatred For Human Life Revealed

Ms. Arellano and Planned Parenthood are not advocating for abortion as it is already legal and Hillary Clinton is very much in favor of it. No, what has Ms. Arellano so incensed is that Clinton has the audacity (pun intended) to actually refer to that "growing lump of cells" in a pregnant woman's body as a child, a baby, a (gasp!) human being. Unwittingly, Arellano revealed in a moment of time the true agenda of the rabid Left in America. Death by doctors.
4/4/16

The trail of Planned Parenthood blood that flows through the streets of America via abortion is catastrophic, with no end in sight.

“Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:” Matthew 5:21 (KJV)

Let me just say at the outset that this is not an anti-abortion article, it goes far deeper than that. No one will argue that abortion in America, while a sin according to the Bible, is quite legal and readily available. We all get that. But information has recently come across our desk that is actually breathtaking in it’s scope when you consider the full ramifications of it.

The other day, a Planned Parenthood political advocacy executive changed her identification on Twitter after she slammed Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for referring to a “fetus” as an “unborn child” and saying she is open to restrictions on abortion later in pregnancy. Diana Arellano, manager of community engagement for Planned Parenthood Illinois Action, tweeted Sunday that Clinton “calls a fetus an ‘unborn child’ & calls for later term restrictions,” a statement Arellano says “further stigmatizes #abortion.”

Now let that sink in for a moment. Ms. Arellano and Planned Parenthood are not advocating for abortion as it is already legal and Hillary Clinton is very much in favor of it. No, what has Ms. Arellano so incensed is that Clinton has the audacity (pun intended) to actually refer to that “growing lump of cells” in a pregnant woman’s body as a child, a baby, a (gasp!) human being. Unwittingly, Arellano revealed in a moment of time the true agenda of the rabid Left in America. Death by doctors.

Margaret Sanger co-founder and the demonic Negro Project:

Margaret Sanger, hero to the Liberal Left in America, was an evil, bitter, jaded old woman who hated babies, but most of all hated black babies. On many levels she was worse than Hitler because her legacy is much more far-reaching, and her total number of “kills” makes Adolf look like a rank amatuer. Her infamous ‘Negro Project’ is still being carried out to this day.

Modern day America is a fractured, lost, and hopelessly confused society. The ruling elite fight tooth and nail for the “rights” of the LGBTQP movement to be given, and yet, has absolutely no love, respect or compassion for the smallest of our citizenry, unborn babies. In Nazi Germany, Hitler said that the Jews were “subhumans” that had no soul and deserved any horrible act that came their way. That thinking led to 11,000,000 people killed in the Nazi concentration camps, and when it was found out the world rightly recoiled in horror. Yet, the statistics on the number of aborted babies far and away exceeds those killed in concentration camps in WWII.

Number of abortions in America and worldwide:
•Number of abortions in the United States today – 2,693
•Number of abortions in the United States since Roe v. Wade – 58,870,500
•Number of abortions by Planned Parenthood so far in 2016 – 84,472
•Number of black babies aborted since 1973 – 17,661,151
•Number of abortions globally since 1980 – 1,410,428,839 source

On NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday, Clinton told host Chuck Todd, “the unborn person doesn’t have constitutional rights.”:


My position is in line with Roe v. Wade, that women have a constitutional right to make these moment intimate and personal and difficult decisions based on their conscience, their faith, their family, their doctor. And that it is something that really goes to the core of privacy. And I want to maintain that constitutional protection. Under Roe v. Wade as you know there is room for reasonable kinds of restrictions after a certain point in time. I think the life, the health of the mother are clear. And those should be included even as one moves on in pregnancy. So I have been — I’ve had the same position for many years.

When asked by Todd “when or if” an unborn child has constitutional rights, Clinton responded:


Well, under our laws currently, that is not something that exists. The unborn person doesn’t have constitutional rights. Now, that doesn’t mean that we don’t do everything we possibly can in the vast majority of instances to, you know, help a mother who is carrying a child and wants to make sure that child will be healthy, to have appropriate medical support. It doesn’t mean that, you know, don’t do everything possible to try to fulfill your obligations. But it does not include sacrificing the woman’s right to make decisions. And I think that’s an important distinction that under Roe v. Wade we’ve had refined under our Constitution.

The trail of blood that flows through the streets of America via abortion is catastrophic, with no end in sight. Planned Parenthood and it’s supporters have a deep and abiding hatred for human life whose roots are so deep that calling it a ‘child’ provokes waves of anger from them.

Planned Parenthood is nothing more than a modern-day altar to Molech, and the slaughtered children their daily sacrifice to him.

In 1926, Sanger spoke at a Ku Klux Klan rally in 1926 in Silver Lake, New Jersey. Following the invitation, Sanger describes her elation after receiving multiple speaking requests from white supremacy groups. She writes of the experience on page 366 of her book, An Autobiography:


I accepted an invitation to talk to the women’s branch of the Ku Klux Klan … I saw through the door dim figures parading with banners and illuminated crosses … I was escorted to the platform, was introduced, and began to speak … In the end, through simple illustrations I believed I had accomplished my purpose. A dozen invitations to speak to similar groups were proffered.

We will leave you with a quote from Sanger, who when asked how she felt about the unborn babies of the poor, had this to say about them:

“They are…human weeds,’ ‘reckless breeders,’ ’spawning… human beings who never should have been born.”

And that’s exactly why Planned Parenthood and it’s supporters get enraged when you call the unborn baby a ‘child’. Because to them it is not a child, it’s a weed, a piece of garbage that needs to be disposed of.

Mark my words, one day Planned Parenthood will be more than just the number one source of dead babies in America. One day they will perform euthanasia on any and all of those poor souls deemed ‘unfit to live’ under the dictates of the Obamacare death panels.

That day is surely coming.

California Attorney General’s Office Searches Apartment of Man Behind Planned Parenthood Expose’

Representatives from the California attorney general’s office searched the apartment of the pro-life investigator behind the series of expose’ videos on Planned Parenthood’s harvesting and sale of aborted children.

“The California Attorney General’s office, led by Kamala Harris, [who] Planned Parenthood supported with thousands of dollars, is now searching David’s apartment,” the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) posted on Facebook on Tuesday.

As previously reported, David Daleiden, the director of CMP was indicted in January on a felony charge of “tampering with a governmental record” for creating a fake driver’s license in conducting his undercover investigation, as well as a misdemeanor count related to the purchasing of aborted babies.

Daleiden, 27, had posed as a representative of a fetal tissue procurement company in order to engage in discussions with Planned Parenthood officials as a potential buyer of bodily organs. He recorded the interactions, conducted at various locations across the country, as part of his “human capital” investigative series that was released last July.

The first of nearly a dozen videos was released by CMP featured Planned Parenthood Medical Director Deborah Nucatola, who nonchalantly munched on salad and sipped wine as she talked about adjusting the child so as not to crush certain organs due to the demand for the body part.

“I’d say a lot of people want liver. And for that reason, most providers will do this case under ultrasound guidance, so they’ll know where they’re putting their forceps,” she explains.

“[Y]ou’re just kind of cognizant where you put your graspers,” Nucatola outlines. “You try to intentionally go above and below the thorax, so that—-you know. We’ve been very good at getting the heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so ‘I’m not gonna crush that part. I’m gonna basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact.’”

The second video showed Mary Gatter, the president of Planned Parenthood’s Medical Directors Council, haggling with the undercover investigators about the compensation for the fetal organs, laughing, “I want a Lamborghini.” Other footage showed an actual aborted baby being dissected in a dish, with an assistant declaring, “Another boy!” and another video showed an abortionist laughing about how harvesting an intact baby head would be “something to strive for.”

Planned Parenthood apologized for the insensitive “tone” of the first video, but denied that it profits from its agreements with scientific organizations. It soon announced that it would stop receiving reimbursement for “expenses” surrounding the provision of body parts of aborted babies. The abortion giant argued that the dead babies were beneficial in research to find cures for diseases.

On Tuesday, Harris’ office searched Daleiden’s apartment and seized all of his videos from the undercover investigation. Daleiden posted a statement afterward, remarking that the investigation is lopsided as Harris’ office ignored information surrounding the working relationship between former buyer StemExpress and Planned Parenthood. StemExpress discontinued its work with the abortion giant after CMP released videos revealing its involvement with the organization.

“Today, the California Attorney General’s office of Kamala Harris, who was elected with tens of thousands of dollars from taxpayer-funded Planned Parenthood, seized all video footage showing Planned Parenthood’s criminal trade in aborted baby parts, in addition to my personal information,” Daleiden wrote.

“Ironically, while seizing my First Amendment work product, they ignored documents showing the illicit scheme between StemExpress and Planned Parenthood,” he said. “This is no surprise—Planned Parenthood’s bought-and-paid-for AG has steadfastly refused to enforce the law against the baby body parts traffickers in our state, or even investigate them—while at the same time doing their bidding to harass and intimidate citizen journalists.”

Daleiden vowed to “pursue all remedies to vindicate [his] First Amendment rights.”

http://christiannews.net/2016/04/06/california-attorney-generals-office-searches-apartment-of-man-behind-planned-parenthood-expose/

Planned Parenthood Donated $81,000 to Kamala Harris, Who Ransacked David Daleiden’s Home

Since the California Department of Justice, under the leadership of Democratic State Attorney General Kamala Harris, searched the home of David Daleiden on Tuesday, there have been numerous news stories noting an apparent conflict of interest in Harris’ investigation of Daleiden and the Center for Medical Progress that ignores obvious evidence of illegal conduct on the part of Planned Parenthood.

California authorities seized a laptop and hard drives containing the video footage collected during Daleiden’s 3-year investigation of Planned Parenthood’s involvement in the illegal sale of aborted baby remains, according to a written statement made by Life Legal Defense Foundation, which is helping to defend Daleiden.

Harris, a pro-abortion Democrat, chose to focus her investigation on Daleiden and his associates rather than Planned Parenthood, even though the video footage so far released by Daleiden’s Center for Medical Progress shows clear evidence that Planned Parenthood was illegally altering abortion procedures to endure intact organs targeted for harvesting then selling the organs for profit.

Operation Rescue has obtained evidence that supports accusations that Harris’ investigation was politically retaliation, and that the raid on Daleiden’s home represents a frightening attack on free speech, freedom of the press, and our precious guarantee of equal (not biased) protection under the law.

SIGN THE PETITION: Drop the Charges Against David Daleiden and Charge Planned Parenthood

Records obtained from the California six California Planned Parenthood organizations along with several individuals from around the nation who have identified themselves as Planned Parenthood Board Members, have contributed tens of thousands of dollars to Harris’ election campaigns over the past five years, both to Harris’ campaigns for Attorney General and her current campaign for a seat in the U.S. Senate.

Planned Parenthood organizations that have contributed funds to Kamala Harris’ political campaigns include:

    • Planned Parenthood Advocacy Project Los Angeles
    • Planned Parenthood Action Fund of the Pacific Southwest PAC
    • Planned Parenthood of Orange & San Bernardino Counties PAC
    • Vote Planned Parenthood Shasta Pacific
    • Planned Parenthood Advocates Mar Monte Candidate PAC

In total, over $81,000 has flowed into Harris’ campaign coffers from Planned Parenthood and other abortion promoters. She owes these people for her political livelihood.

Harris has shown that she is a puppet of radical leftists with Planned Parenthood and the rest of the Abortion Cartel paying for the right to pulling her strings.

Kamala Harris Abortion Cartel Contributions

https://www.scribd.com/doc/307336860/Kamala-Harris-Abortion-Cartel-Contributions

But what could have motivated Harris to order the raid now?

Life Legal Defense Foundation pointed to an OpEd column published by the LA Times on March 25, 2016, where so-called “journalist,” Robin Abcarian, chided Harris for taking so long to take action against Daleiden.

“Over the last few days, advocates for reproductive rights have wondered aloud during interviews whether Harris’ campaign to replace Barbara Boxer in the U.S. Senate has anything to do with her apparent lack of urgency on this case,” Abcarian wrote. She concluded her missive by asking, “But what is Atty. Gen. Harris waiting for? I’d sure love to know.”

Abcarian also took to task Operation Rescue president, Troy Newman, repeating blatantly false accusations that Operation Rescue may have been somehow involved in the murder of late-term abortionist George Tiller in 2009, and that Newman believed the killing of an abortionist should be considered “justifiable homicide.”

In parroting this dishonest pro-abortion propaganda, which was fabricated to destroy a pro-life organization that has been very effective at documenting and exposing abortion abuses, Abcarian has only destroyed her own credibility as a journalist.

Obviously, there is little if any evidence of reading comprehension, contextual analysis, or critical thinking skills in her prattling.

But there is evidence that Abcarian was acting as a surrogate for an impatient Planned Parenthood, urging Harris to quickly move on Daleiden. So move Harris did.

But if large amounts of campaign financing from Planned Parenthood, the NAF, and abortion promoters isn’t enough to see that Harris is working to protect Planned Parenthood and punish those who are calling attention to their misconduct, one need only look at Harris’ own website.

Harris is promoting her petition to “protect” Planned Parenthood “and the important work it does.”

“Once again, we need you to take a stand and join Kamala in defending Planned Parenthood,” the petition states.

http://lifenews.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/kamalaharris2.png

So, by her own admission, Kamala Harris’ goal is to “protect” Planned Parenthood, and one way she appears to be doing that is by misusing her authority as State Attorney General to silence the one who is inflicting the most damage on Planned Parenthood’s carefully crafted veneer of legitimacy and respectability.

Dispatching eleven law enforcement agents to toss Daleiden’s home and confiscate his journalistic work product was an oppressive overreach of the kind that harken to mind terms like “Gestapo” and “reign of terror.”

Operation Rescue is calling for the resignation of Kamala Harris for her conflict of interest and agenda-driven abuse of power. In what is supposed to be a country that cherishes First Amendment Freedoms, her brand of political corruption and heavy-handedness against those with which she ideologically disagrees, makes her unfit to serve as Attorney General, U.S. Senator, or even as dog catcher.

http://www.lifenews.com/2016/04/07/planned-parenthood-donated-81000-to-kamala-harris-who-ransacked-david-daleidens-home/

Pro-Life Groups Demand Kamala Harris Resign After Raiding David Daleiden’s Home, Stealing Videos

Pro-life groups are calling on the California attorney general to resign as her ties to Planned Parenthood become increasingly apparent.

On Tuesday, in what appears to be a politically motivated move, officials from California AG Kamala Harris’s office raided the home of David Daleiden, the undercover investigator who exposed Planned Parenthood’s trafficking of aborted babies’ body parts. Officials with Harris’ office took personal property from Daleiden — including camera equipment and copies of unreleased Planned Parenthood videos.

Daleiden, the head of the Center for Medical Progress, has been a target of abortion activists and their political friends ever since he released the first undercover video last summer showing a top Planned Parenthood official discussing the sale of aborted babies’ body parts. Since then, CMP has released a dozen undercover videos of the abortion giant’s employees and partner research groups, exposing their horrendous baby body parts trade. However, pro-abortion politicians have been ignoring the evidence of wrong-doing at Planned Parenthood and attacking CMP instead.

SIGN THE PETITION: Drop the Charges Against David Daleiden and Charge Planned Parenthood

Susan B. Anthony List and other pro-life groups believe Harris abused her government power to go after Daleiden, according to Politico.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony List, said in a statement that Harris ought to drop her bid for U.S. Senate and resign from her current position.

“The fact that Ms. Harris is seizing private property of a pro-life California activist who has exposed horrific practices conducted by Planned Parenthood, which donated thousands to her last campaign, while her Senate campaign promotes and defends them — the nation’s largest abortion provider — is a conflict of interest and abuse of government power,” Dannenfelser said. “Ms. Harris should resign from her attorney general post and end her bid for the U.S. Senate. She has abused her government office and no longer deserves the public trust.”

Since the news of the raid hit the mainstream media, information has surfaced about Harris’s close connection to Planned Parenthood. The abortion group and its partners donated more than $81,000 to Harris’s election campaigns, according to documents obtained by Operation Rescue.

Harris also was endorsed by the pro-abortion National Organization for Women. NOW describes her as a “longtime, vocal supporter of Planned Parenthood” who promised to investigate CMP and fight for taxpayer funding of the abortion business.

Here is more from the report:

    The call from SBA follows similar ones this week from the anti-abortion group Students for Life of America and Concerned Women for America.

    “California Attorney General Kamala Harris, who sent agents to raid the home a citizen journalist who exposed Planned Parenthood’s practices of harvesting and selling the body parts of aborted babies, is using her Senate campaign website to advocate for the abortion giant, promoting a petition to defend Planned Parenthood,” Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, said in a statement Wednesday.

    “Kamala Harris is engaged in the highest level of corruption and abuse of power. While she uses her KGB-like tactics to seize personal property of an innocent American citizen, the Concerned Women of America CEO and president said in a statement Thursday. “The American people and the citizens of California have had enough of corrupt politicians who abuse their power for political gain.”

    And in a statement Tuesday, Daleiden accused Harris of not investigating Planned Parenthood because of her political ties.

    “This is no surprise — Planned Parenthood’s bought-and-paid-for AG has steadfastly refused to enforce the law against the baby body parts traffickers in our state, or even investigate them — while at the same time doing their bidding to harass and intimidate citizen journalists,” Daleiden said in a statement. “We will pursue all remedies to vindicate our First Amendment rights.”

Politico reports Harris’s office would not comment about the situation.

Harris oversaw the raid — but she has significant conflict of interest problems. She is funded by Planned Parenthood and her web site is currently promoting a petition for the abortion business.

“To storm into a private citizen’s home with a search warrant is outrageously out of proportion for the type of crime alleged.  It’s a discredit to law enforcement, an oppressive abuse of government power,” said Matt Heffron, a former federal prosecutor in Phoenix AZ and now a legal adviser to David Daleiden.

Daleiden’s legal team at the Life Legal Defense Fund highlighted the issues with Harris in an email to LifeNews:

    “California Attorney General Kamala Harris has obtained a warrant to search and seize David Daleiden’s property in retaliation for his investigation into Planned Parenthood’s trade in fetal body parts. Harris threatened to pursue Daleiden after the first undercover video was released last July and is now making good on her threat,” it said. “Yesterday, Department of Justice agents searched David’s home and took away many of his personal belongings.”

    “The timing of the warrant appears suspect, as only days ago the Los Angeles Times taunted Harris by asking ‘What’s taking California so long?’ to dispense ‘swift poetic justice’ to David Daleiden,” it added.

    “Kamala Harris is a staunch supporter of Planned Parenthood and has received campaign donations from numerous Planned Parenthood affiliates. These affiliates are the beneficiaries of millions of dollars in state and federal funds annually—a portion of which is funneled into political campaigns so the billion-dollar abortion cartel can call in favors as needed,” Life Legal continued.

It added:

    In video after video, David Daleiden exposes Planned Parenthood officials skirting or violating federal and state laws governing fetal tissue harvesting. The CEO of California-based StemExpress is shown discussing “making it financially beneficial” for abortion providers to sell aborted tissue to fetal tissue brokers. StemExpress is currently resisting requests from Congress seeking information related to buying the bodies of intact and dismembered human fetuses aborted at California Planned Parenthood facilities.

    Nevertheless, California’s Attorney General has decided that her loyalty to Planned Parenthood requires her to turn a blind eye to the abortion giant’s unlawful activity. Instead, she has launched an inquisition into David Daleiden, starting with the seizure of his private property and papers.

    In contrast, when an undercover investigation of a meat-packing plant revealed potential violations of the law, Kamala Harris defended legislation to stop the barbaric treatment of animals. At no time fit the Attorney General’s office call for an investigation into the undercover journalist who exposed the illegal activity.

Daleiden is facing politically-motivated attacks on multiple fronts. Earlier this year, a Texas grand jury whose task was to investigate Planned Parenthood turned on the pro-life citizen journalist instead.

A Texas grand jury indicted Daleiden and another pro-life activist, Sandra Merritt, behind the videos. Instead of prosecuting Planned Parenthood for selling aborted baby parts, Daleiden was indicted for buying them.

Daleiden rejected a deal for probation on those charges in February, and his attorney said he demands an apology from the Texas district attorney who filed the bogus charges.

http://www.lifenews.com/2016/04/07/pro-life-groups-demand-kamala-harris-resign-after-raiding-david-daleidens-home-stealing-videos/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHgt1QbwNkw

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2016/05/19/3779756/republican-congressman-planned-parenthood/
5/19/16
GOP Congressman: The Relentless Investigation Into Planned Parenthood Is A Waste Of Time And Money

This week, Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN) submitted an appropriations amendment that would have defunded the House panel currently investigating Planned Parenthood over allegations the organization is selling “aborted baby parts.”

The amendment was defeated 28-20 — but for the first time, a Republican congressman crossed party lines and voted to end the congressional investigation into the women’s health care provider.

Rep. David Jolly (R-FL), currently vying for Marco Rubio’s open Senate seat, voted for McCollum’s amendment. Defending his vote on Facebook, Jolly said that the committee is an unnecessary use of millions of taxpayer dollars and of Congress’ time.

“The truth is, we already have had three panels look into the matter and we don’t need a fourth. We’re either a party of less government or not,” he said.

The Select Panel on Infant Lives, named by the conservative lawmakers who initially formed it, was convened following allegations made last summer by the Center for Medical Progress’ widely-debunked sting videos.

The central claim made in those videos — that Planned Parenthood illegally profits off fetal remains — has not been substantiated despite numerous state and federal investigations. In January, after a months-long investigation, a Texas grand jury decided not to indict Planned Parenthood and moved to indict the videographers who made the sting videos instead.

Across the aisle, many Democrats in Congress have already denigrated the ongoing investigation as a waste of time and money. In April, 98 Democratic lawmakers wrote to the chairman of the committee and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) urging that the committee be disbanded, saying it’s a waste of taxpayer dollars and is serving “no other purpose than to carry out politically-motivated attacks on Planned Parenthood.”

However, the House panel continues to operate, going after not only Planned Parenthood but also the scientists who use fetal tissue for medical research, searching for the cure to debilitating diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) even compared the crusade to the Salem witch trials.

"This time, those being burned at the stake are our scientists, who hold future medical breakthroughs in their hands," said Speier at a March hearing convened by the committee. "They are joined by brave women’s health care workers who are simply trying to care for their patients."

Though repeated investigations have turned up no credible evidence of wrongdoing, 24 states have moved forward with attempts to cut off Planned Parenthood funding anyway -- a move that, since Planned Parenthood does not use federal funding to provide abortions, in reality means cutting off federal funding for family planning services like birth control, STD testing, and cancer screenings. In April, the Obama administration warned all 50 states that attempts to strip funding from Planned Parenthood is likely illegal.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/fallin-vetoes-bill-criminalizing-performing-abortions-210625822.html?ref=gs
5/20/16
Oklahoma governor vetoes bill criminalizing abortion

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin on Friday vetoed legislation to make it a felony for doctors to perform an abortion, a measure that would have effectively outlawed the procedure in the state.

In vetoing the measure just a day after the Legislature passed it, Fallin, a Republican who opposes abortion, said it was vague and would not withstand a legal challenge.

"The bill is so ambiguous and so vague that doctors cannot be certain what medical circumstances would be considered 'necessary to preserve the life of the mother,'" Fallin said. "While I consistently have and continue to support a re-examination of the United States Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade, this legislation cannot accomplish that re-examination."

The bill's sponsor, Republican Sen. Nathan Dahm, said the measure was aimed at ultimately overturning the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide. Dahm said he was considering whether to try to override the governor's veto, which would require a two-thirds majority in each chamber, a threshold it did not meet in the House when it first passed. The bill passed on a 33-12 vote in the Senate with no debate on Thursday; it passed 59-9 in the 101-member House on April 21.

"Of course I'll consider it," Dahm said. "I'm weighing my options."

The bill would have made it a felony punishable by up to three years in prison for anyone who performs an abortion, including doctors. State law already makes it a felony for anyone who's not a doctor to perform an abortion, and Dahm's bill would have removed the exemption for physicians.

The bill, which abortion-rights group Center for Reproductive Rights said was the first of its kind in the nation, also would restrict any physician who performs an abortion from obtaining or renewing a license to practice medicine in Oklahoma.

Dahm had said Thursday after the bill's passage that he hoped it could lead to overturning Roe v. Wade.

"Since I believe life begins at conception, it should be protected, and I believe it's a core function of state government to defend that life from the beginning of conception," said Dahm, from Broken Arrow.

But abortion-rights supporters — and the state's medical association — said the bill was unconstitutional. Sen. Ervin Yen, an Oklahoma City Republican and the only physician in the Senate, described the measure as "insane" and voted against it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXySCelvl78

Supreme Court Strikes Down Texas Abortion Restrictions in Major Win for Abortion Rights
6/27/16
https://www.yahoo.com/news/supreme-court-strikes-down-texas-140800414.html

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of abortion rights groups Monday, striking down a Texas law that imposed restrictions on abortion providers in the state that forced the vast majority of clinics to close.

The 5-3 ruling in Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt is a major win for abortion rights groups. It struck down a Texas law, called HB2, saying it imposed an "undue burden" on women seeking abortions in the state.

HB2 created stricter standards both for doctors performing the procedure and the clinics that offer abortions, and ultimately shuttered three-quarters of the state's abortion clinics.

Abortion rights groups said the law was specifically written to shutter clinics and thwart women's access to obtain a legal abortion, a right granted by the landmark Roe v. Wade case.

The state department of health, led by John Hellerstedt, said the law was intended to protect women's safety when seeking an abortion.

http://www.vox.com/2016/6/27/11713644/whole-womans-health-supreme-court-choice?yptr=yahoo
6/27/16
Pro-choice Child sacrifice advocates just won the biggest Supreme Court abortion case in decades

In a huge victory for the pro-choice movement, the Supreme Court voted 5-3 Monday to strike down two major anti-abortion provisions that were part of an omnibus anti-abortion law Texas passed in 2013.

The court's ruling in Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt also strikes a blow to a strategy by the pro-life movement to limit abortion access incrementally, through state laws.

To provide abortions at any stage of pregnancy, the provisions forced doctors to have "admitting privileges" with a nearby hospital (which are difficult to get for abortion providers specifically), and forced clinics to undergo often expensive renovations to become "ambulatory surgical centers," which haven't been demonstrated to make abortion safer (though abortion is already quite a safe medical procedure.)

While pro-life advocates said these laws made abortion safer for women, their most significant effect was forcing roughly half of the state's abortion clinics to close. The overwhelming consensus from doctors is that the laws had no medical benefit, and actually made abortion less safe because they forced quality clinics to close for no compelling medical reason.

The central constitutional question was: Did the policies put an "undue burden" on women when they are forced to drive hundreds of miles because their nearest clinic has closed due to regulatory hurdles?

The Court found that it did.

"Both the admitting-privileges and the surgical-center requirements place a substantial obstacle in the path of women seeking a previability abortion, constitute an undue burden on abortion access, and thus violate the Constitution," read the decision.

"I am beyond elated," said lead plaintiff Amy Hagstrom Miller, founder and CEO of Whole Woman's Health, in a statement on Monday. "Every day Whole Woman’s Health treats our patients with compassion, respect and dignity—and with this historic decision, today the Supreme Court did the same. We’re thrilled that justice was served and our clinics stay open."

What the opinion said

The majority opinion, authored by Justice Stephen Breyer, said that neither restriction "offers medical benefits sufficient to justify the burdens upon access that each imposes."

In short, there was no good evidence in the record to support Texas's key argument: that admitting privileges and ambulatory surgical centers make abortion safer for women. Abortion already has an extremely low complication rate, and performing it in surgical centers doesn't change that. Furthermore, admitting privileges do nothing to give women easier access to a hospital in the rare event of a major complication.

Breyer noted that HB2 was basically a solution in search of a problem. Before HB2 was passed, abortion in Texas had been "extremely safe with particularly low rates of serious complications and virtually no deaths occurring on account of the procedure." And even Texas's own solicitor general admitted that there was no evidence in the record of even one woman who would have gotten better treatment as a result of the laws.

Meanwhile, the majority found, there was good evidence that the requirements put a "substantial burden" on women seeking abortion. Under the landmark 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision, which upheld Roe v. Wade but weakened its legal standards, states were allowed to pass laws designed to convince women to change their mind about having an abortion. But, crucially, those laws couldn't actually stand in women's ways and present an "undue burden" to accessing the procedure.

"In our view, the record contains sufficient evidence that the admitting-privileges requirement led to the closure of half of Texas’ clinics, or thereabouts," the majority opinion read. "Those closures meant fewer doctors, longer waiting times, and increased crowding."

Many women also had to drive much farther to reach their nearest clinic than they would have before HB2.

Increased driving distances alone don't necessarily constitute an "undue burden" under Casey, the opinion noted: "But here, those increases are but one additional burden, which, when taken together with others that the closings brought about, and when viewed in light of the virtual absence of any health benefit, lead us to conclude that the record adequately supports the District Court’s 'undue burden' conclusion."

The Court also found that there was just no way the nine remaining surgical centers could do the work 44 clinics had done before HB2 was passed. The centers would have to increase their capacity about fivefold, and the state didn't present evidence that this would be feasible.

As Ruth Bader Ginsburg put it in her concurring opinion, "It is beyond rational belief that H. B. 2 could genuinely protect the health of women." She added that women may resort to "unlicensed rogue practitioners" if abortion is severely limited, "at great risk to their health and safety."

Dissenting were Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts. Thomas was the only justice who would have actually voted to uphold the Texas laws; the other two would have remanded the case back to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals for additional findings.

The dissenting justices argued that the majority's opinion had procedural problems, and that it "simply disregards basic rules that apply in all other cases." Thomas wrote separately to argue that the Court has a "habit of applying different rules to different constitutional rights — especially the putative right to abortion."


Background of the case

If the Supreme Court hadn't intervened, a ruling from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals would have immediately closed 10 clinics in the state last year, leaving just nine ambulatory surgical centers to do the work that more than 40 clinics used to do.

The Fifth Circuit had overturned a District Court injunction blocking the admitting privileges and ambulatory surgical center requirements from going into effect. The Fifth Circuit did allow a limited exception to the admitting privileges requirement for one clinic in McAllen, Texas, but it only applied to one 75-year-old physician, who would have then become the only abortion provider in four counties.

Pro-life leaders had aimed for a 5-4 decision in their favor, which could have meant a sweeping, nationwide validation of anti-abortion laws like the ones in Texas. But with the death of Justice Antonin Scalia and the composition of the court, a 4-4 split was the most pro-life advocates could hope for.

Such a split would have still spelled trouble for abortion providers in Texas. It would have probably meant that those 10 clinics would close for good. It also probably would have spelled trouble for Louisiana abortion providers, since Louisiana is also in the Fifth Circuit's jurisdiction and has passed similar laws (which are also currently blocked by the Supreme Court). And it would have meant inconsistent nationwide policy, where some states are allowed to pass laws like these and others aren't.

This ruling should be able to prevent other states from passing admitting privilege or ambulatory surgical center laws, which are some of the most popular tools that anti-abortion lawmakers currently use to limit the procedure at the state level.

It should also invalidate similar laws that other states have already passed — particularly Louisiana, where the Supreme Court recently blocked similar restrictions, and Mississippi, where the last remaining abortion clinic in the state has been threatened with closure. But that process is not automatic and will have to be litigated, since each state has slightly different laws and circumstances. The clinics in those states will remain open while the litigation continues.

The decision could jeopardize other anti-abortion laws among the hundreds that states have passed in the past five years, although the extent of this isn't yet clear. For now, many other anti-abortion provisions remain law, including in Texas. Other provisions in HB2 still stand — including a ban on abortion after 20 weeks, and severe restrictions on how medication abortion is dispensed.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, in typical fashion, was the Court's swing vote. He's voted to uphold abortion rights in the past, more or less, but it's well known that he generally opposes abortion as a practice. In this case, however, he voted for abortion access.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2016/06/28/scotus-saves-mississippi-s-last-abortion-clinic.html
6/28/16
SCOTUS Saves Mississippi’s Last Abortion Clinic

The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that Mississippi’s only abortion clinic is to stay open. Laws enacted in both Mississippi and Wisconsin would have forced abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. The Supreme Court also declined to hear appeals regarding these laws, which were each put on hold by lower courts.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/supreme-court-rejects-pharmacists-religious-claim-140843417.html
6/28/16
Divided Supreme Court rejects family pharmacy's religious claim

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A divided U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday turned away an appeal by a family-owned pharmacy that cited Christian beliefs in objecting to providing emergency contraceptives to women under a Washington state rule, prompting a searing dissent by conservative Justice Samuel Alito.

The justices left in place a July 2015 ruling by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that upheld a state regulation that requires pharmacies to deliver all prescribed drugs, including contraceptives, in a timely manner.

Three conservatives among the eight justices argued that the court should have agreed to hear the appeal by the Stormans family, which owns Ralph's Thriftway grocery story and pharmacy in Olympia.

Alito, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Clarence Thomas, said the court's decision not to hear it is "an ominous sign" for the future of religious liberty claims.

"If this is a sign of how religious liberty claims will be treated in the years ahead, those who value religious freedom have cause for great concern," Alito added.

The court may be less likely to rule in favor of people making such claims following February's death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, especially if he is replaced by a liberal appointee.

The American Civil Liberties Union praised the court's action.

"When a woman walks into a pharmacy, she should not fear being turned away because of the religious beliefs of the owner or the person behind the counter," said Louise Melling, the group's deputy legal director.

Evolving American social attitudes and changes in the law relating to issues such as gay marriage and birth control coverage in health insurance have spurred numerous court challenges by individuals, businesses and nonprofit employers who say their religious liberty has been violated. The U.S. Constitution's First Amendment protects freedom of religion.

Washington state permits a religiously objecting individual pharmacist to deny medicine, as long as another pharmacist working at the location provides timely delivery. The rules require a pharmacy to deliver all medicine, even if the owner objects.

The Supreme Court in 2014 allowed certain businesses to object on religious grounds to the Obamacare law's requirement that companies provide employees with insurance that pays for women's contraceptives. The court in May sent a similar dispute brought by nonprofit Christian employers back to lower courts without resolving the main legal issue.

The Stormans family is made up of devout Christians who associate "morning after" emergency contraceptives with abortion. Two individual pharmacists who worked elsewhere also joined the lawsuit.

"The dilemma this creates for the Stormans family and others like them is plain: Violate your sincerely held religious beliefs or get out of the pharmacy business," Alito said.

Thirty-eight state and national pharmacy associations had urged the court to take up the case, saying pharmacies generally get to choose what products they stock.

Alito said there is evidence the state's regulation was adopted because of "hostility to pharmacists whose religious beliefs regarding abortion and contraception are out of step with prevailing opinion in the state" and designed "to stamp out religious objectors."

The appeals court said the rules rationally further the state's interest in patient safety. Speed is particularly important considering the time-sensitive nature of emergency contraception, that court said.

"Americans should be free to peacefully live and work consistent with their faith without fear of unjust punishment, and no one should be forced to participate in the taking of human life," said Kristen Waggoner, a lawyer with the Alliance Defending Freedom, the conservative Christian legal group representing the Stormans.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/health-care/article87086777.html
Federal judge blocks parts of abortion law hours before it goes into effect
7/1/16

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/07/01/judge-dimisses-ky-lawsuit-planned-parenthood/86619490/
7/1/16
Judge dismisses Ky. lawsuit against Planned Parenthood

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Jefferson Circuit Court judge has tossed out a lawsuit by Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin's administration against Planned Parenthood that alleged the reproductive health organization illegally provided abortions at its new clinic in downtown Louisville.

In dismissing the lawsuit filed by Bevin's general counsel, Steve Pitt, Judge Mitch Perry found that Planned Parenthood had, as it had claimed, been following directions of state officials when it began offering abortions in December as part of its effort to obtain a state license.

Lawyer Thomas Clay, who represents Planned Parenthood, provided The Courier-Journal with a copy of the order Friday.

Perry, in his order, said it "defies reason" to believe that Planned Parenthood had willfully violated state law when it was acting at the direction of state officials.

more

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a46431/planned-parenthood-investigation-costs/
The Real Cost of That Planned Parenthood Investigation
Today in money pits.

7/5/16

It came as no surprise that Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn (R-Zygote) of Tennessee has had her name bruited about as a possible running mate for He, Trump. (Also, hello again to my new friend, Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa! I'm so proud.) After all, Blackburn was in charge of the second biggest waste of time and money in the House of Representatives this year behind only Trey Gowdy's masterful pursuit of The Truth—which is Out There—behind Benghazi, Benghazi, BENGHAZI!

It was Blackburn who led the preposterous probe into the meretricious charges that Planned Parenthood was selling pieces of aborted babies in the parking lots of abandoned gas stations all over America. These hearings produced an array of witnesses even wilder and more unhinged than the folks Gowdy summoned to appear before him in his kangaroo suit. Heavily edited "undercover" videos were treated as gospel. Exhibits seemed to appear out of thin air. Even the editorial board of The New York Times pronounced itself appalled.

Wednesday's hearing showed that limiting or ending access to legal abortion services is part of the agenda. One witness said that women who have had abortions "forfeit the moral standing needed" to decide what should happen to the fetal tissue. One panel member, Representative Diane Black, Republican of Tennessee, bizarrely asked, "Have we reached a point in our society where there effectively is an Amazon.com for human parts, including entire babies?"—a comment that has no basis in reality.

(Dear Tennessee: Please stop electing morons. Sincerely, America.)

So now come the folks at Rewire to tell us what we already suspected—that not only are these hearings a big ship of fools, they're also an ongoing money pit.

Congressional documents reveal that panel Republicans requested the money from the Committee on House Administration, which sets aside $500,000 per session of Congress to supplement operating budgets. A congressional aide told Rewire that the request has been approved. The panel last year received $300,000, which followed the House's informal two-thirds/one-third funding split between the majority and minority parties, from the Administration Committee's coffers. All told, the investigation is well on its way to totaling $790,000, using nearly 80 percent of the House's available supplemental funding.

I shudder to think how much money would be wasted in the House if Speaker Paul Ryan weren't such a staggering economic savant.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/07/05/federal-judge-blocks-kansas-from-cutting-medicaid-money-to-planned-parenthood.html
7/5/16
Federal judge blocks Kansas from cutting Medicaid money to Planned Parenthood

Kansas cannot cut off Medicaid funding for two Planned Parenthood affiliates, a federal judge said Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson in Kansas City, Kansas, issued the temporary ruling in a lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri and the organization's St. Louis regional affiliate.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment planned to cut off funding by Thursday for health services offered at Planned Parenthood facilities, such as exams and cancer screenings, for poor patients receiving health coverage through the state's Medicaid program. Medicaid funds do not cover abortions.

Federal courts have blocked attempts by other states to cut off Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood, including Arkansas, Arizona, Indiana, Louisiana and Utah.

In its defense, Kansas' health department cited a dispute in December over its attempts to inspect the handling of solid waste at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Overland Park, Kan., which was later resolved. The department also cited allegations against Planned Parenthood affiliates in Oklahoma and Texas that Planned Parenthood called unfounded.

more

http://thefederalist.com/2016/07/08/supreme-court-says-pharmacists-must-dispense-abortifacients/
7/8/16
Supreme Court Says Pharmacists Must Dispense Abortifacients
 
If the Supreme Court were ever going to defend the Free Exercise Clause, this was the case to do it.


The Supreme Court refused to hear a case in which the State of Washington changed its pharmacy referral rules for the sole purpose of forcing a handful of pharmacists to carry the “morning after” pill in violation of their religious and moral (and scientific) belief that life begins at conception.

Pharmacist referral on the basis of conscience is legal in all 49 other states, and supported by the American Pharmacists Association and more than 30 other medical and pharmacy associations. In addition, the trial court record contained voluminous evidence that the state’s specific intent was to target “religiously-motivated conduct.” If the Supreme Court were ever going to defend the Free Exercise Clause, this was the case to do it. Consider the following facts.

It was undisputed that there were no less than 30 pharmacies within a five-mile radius of the pharmacy at issue that did offer these pills, and that there was not one instance of a customer in Washington being denied timely access to these drugs.

The same regulations contain numerous referral provisions for virtually any business or convenience reason, but specifically disallow them for a religious or moral purpose.

The court of appeals ruling directly contradicted Supreme Court precedent, which has consistently held that laws and regulations must be neutrally applied and cannot, in rule or practice, treat those with religious motivations any differently than those who operate on a secular basis.

Rights We Made Up Trump Rights the Law Promises You

With decisions like this, along with recent rulings on abortion and marriage, the Supreme Court has effectively created a hierarchy of rights, valuing judicially created liberties for some over the enumerated rights of others.

Abortion and same-sex marriage have become the court’s most sacred rights (with transgender rights quickly ascending) and are afforded the strongest protections, while express constitutional rights like the free exercise of religion are less important than a “State’s interest in patient safety” despite zero evidence of anyone actually being harmed by a pharmacy referral. The message the court has sent is clear: religious liberty is just not that important anymore.

more

https://www.yahoo.com/news/appeals-court-orders-utah-fund-planned-parenthood-branch-182041453.html
Appeals court orders Utah to fund Planned Parenthood branch
7/11/16

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A federal appeals court on Tuesday ordered Utah to keep sending money to the state branch of Planned Parenthood, overturning an unusual lower-court ruling that allowed the governor to block the group's funding.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver decided there's a good chance the move was politically motivated and violated the group's constitutional rights. The ruling extends an order that keeps the money flowing while a lawsuit goes back before a judge in Utah.

Republican Gov. Gary Herbert cut off cash last fall for sexually transmitted disease and sex education programs following the release of secretly recorded videos showing out-of-state employees discussing fetal tissue from abortions.

The head of the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah said the move amounted to retribution against an organization Herbert opposes.

CEO Karrie Galloway said Tuesday's ruling is a victory for the clinic's patients. "Our doors are open today and they will be tomorrow_no matter what," she said in a statement.

Two appeals court judges wrote in Tuesday's ruling that Herbert likely used the controversy to take a public swipe at the group because it provides abortions.

A third judge dissented from the ruling and questioned whether Planned Parenthood would ultimately prevail.

Herbert believes contract decisions should be made by the state, and he is disappointed Tuesday's ruling, his spokesman said. He and the attorney general will be considering the state's next steps.

Lawyers for the Utah branch argued it has never participated in fetal donation programs. They also filed emails showing state health officials were concerned about defunding the programs that serve thousands of teenagers and low-income people.

State attorneys have argued that the governor has the right to end contracts and that Planned Parenthood was still under a cloud of suspicion when Herbert ordered state agencies to stop acting as a pass-through for federal money.

Herbert said he was offended by the callousness of the discussion shown on the videos, which sparked uproar among Republican leaders around the country.

Several states have moved to strip Planned Parenthood of contracts and federal money, and the organization has sued in states like Arkansas, Alabama and Louisiana.

While most court decisions have allowed money to keep flowing, U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups in Utah decided the governor could block the money because the state has an interest in avoiding the perception of corruption.

While Waddoups acknowledged that the Utah organization has not broken any laws, he said it has associated with other Planned Parenthood entities accused of illegally selling fetal tissue to researchers for profit.

The contracts that the governor blocked are worth $275,000, a small portion of the organization's $8 million budget. It also receives money through federal contracts, fees from clients, insurance and contributions.

Multiple investigations by Congress and several states have cleared Planned Parenthood of illegal acts. A Texas grand jury also cleared the group and instead indicted two of the activists who made the undercover videos.

seattletimes.com/nation-world/indiana-court-tosses-womans-feticide-conviction
Indiana court tosses woman’s feticide conviction

Originally published July 22, 2016 at 8:47 am  |  Updated July 22, 2016 at 1:31 pm

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Indiana Court of Appeals overturned the feticide conviction of a woman found guilty of killing her premature infant by taking abortion-inducing drugs, saying Friday the state’s law wasn’t intended to be used “to prosecute women for their own abortions.”

The ruling comes in the case of Purvi Patel, who was convicted of neglect and feticide last year. However, the court upheld a lower-level felony neglect of a dependent conviction.

She was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2015, two years after her self-induced abortion at her family’s home. Women’s advocacy groups have been heavily involved in the case, saying it marks the first time a state feticide law was used against a woman because of an alleged self-induced abortion.


The appeals court ruled that Patel, who is currently in state prison on the neglect and feticide convictions, should be resentenced on the lower-level felony charge, which carries a possible prison term of between six months and three years. It wasn’t immediately clear how quickly that resentencing could happen and whether Patel could soon be released from prison.

Stanford University law professor Larry Marshall, who represented Patel during the appeals court hearing in May, said Friday that he was reviewing the court’s 40-page decision and would discuss it with Patel before deciding the next legal steps.

“At this point, we’re going to digest it before we have any comment,” he said.

The Indiana attorney general’s office said it would confer with local prosecutors before deciding whether to appeal the decision.

Patel, who was 32 at the time, was arrested when she sought treatment at a local hospital for profuse bleeding after delivering a 1½-pound boy in a bathroom and putting his body in a trash bin behind her family’s restaurant. Court records show she bought abortion-inducing drugs from an online pharmacy based in Hong Kong.

She used the drugs because she feared her family would discover she had been impregnated by a married man, according to documents. Patel lived with her parents and grandparents in Granger, a city just northeast of South Bend along the Michigan border.

Attorneys for Indiana argued that Patel was at least 25 weeks into her pregnancy, so her infant was just beyond the threshold of viability and took at least one breath before dying. The attorneys also argued that Indiana’s feticide law could apply to pregnant woman, not just “to third-party actors,” and that Patel hadn’t shown the feticide law constituted an undue burden on the right to an abortion.


The appeals court disagreed, saying the feticide law only had been used since it was enacted in 1979 to prosecute those who attacked pregnant women. The judges also wrote that the wording of state law on illegal abortions shows the Legislature “intended for any criminal liability to be imposed on medical personnel, not women who perform their own abortions.”

Patel endangered the child by not seeking medical care, but prosecutors failed to prove that her failure to do so resulted in the boy’s death, the court said.

Two dozen women’s advocacy groups, as well as Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union, filed friend-of-the-court briefs siding with Patel.

At least 38 states have fetal homicide laws, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The Patel case was the first time a state feticide law was used against a woman specifically because of “an alleged self-induced abortion,” said Jill Adams, executive director of the abortion-rights advocacy group Center on Reproductive Rights and Justice.


Adams said she was glad the appeals court overturned Patel’s feticide conviction, but that it was still worrisome that she faced a felony neglect conviction. Adams called the prosecution a misuse of the criminal justice system.

“No person in Purvi Patel’s position should have to feel threat of arrest or jail for ending their own pregnancy,” she said. “That is not what these laws were put in place to do.”

District Attorney Dismisses All Charges Against Man Behind Planned Parenthood Expose’

The Harris County District Attorney’s office in Texas has dismissed all of the charges against David Daleiden, the pro-life investigator who recorded undercover videos of the abortion giant Planned Parenthood.

As previously reported, Daleiden, the director of the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) was indicted in January on a felony charge of “tampering with a governmental record” for creating a fake driver’s license in conducting his undercover investigation, as well as a misdemeanor count related to the purchasing of aborted babies.

Daleiden, 27, had posed as a representative of a fetal tissue procurement company in order to engage in discussions with Planned Parenthood officials as a potential buyer of bodily organs. He recorded the interactions, conducted at various locations across the country, as part of his “human capital” investigative series that was released last July.
Ads by ZINC

The first of nearly a dozen videos was released by CMP featured Planned Parenthood Medical Director Deborah Nucatola, who nonchalantly munched on salad and sipped wine as she talked about adjusting the child so as not to crush certain organs due to the demand for the body part.

“I’d say a lot of people want liver. And for that reason, most providers will do this case under ultrasound guidance, so they’ll know where they’re putting their forceps,” she explains.

“[Y]ou’re just kind of cognizant where you put your graspers,” Nucatola outlines. “You try to intentionally go above and below the thorax, so that—-you know. We’ve been very good at getting the heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so ‘I’m not gonna crush that part. I’m gonna basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact.’”

The second video showed Mary Gatter, the president of Planned Parenthood’s Medical Directors Council, haggling with the undercover investigators about the compensation for the fetal organs, laughing, “I want a Lamborghini.” Other footage showed an actual aborted baby being dissected in a dish, with an assistant declaring, “Another boy!” and another video showed an abortionist laughing about how harvesting an intact baby head would be “something to strive for.”

Planned Parenthood apologized for the insensitive “tone” of the first video, but denied that it profits from its agreements with scientific organizations. It soon announced that it would stop receiving reimbursement for “expenses” surrounding the provision of body parts of aborted babies. The abortion giant argued that the dead babies were beneficial in research to find cures for diseases.

In April, the California Attorney General’s office, led by Kamala Harris, searched Daleiden’s apartment and seized all of his videos from the undercover investigation. Daleiden posted a statement afterward, remarking that the investigation is lopsided as Harris’ office ignored information surrounding the working relationship between former buyer StemExpress and Planned Parenthood.

StemExpress discontinued its work with the abortion giant after CMP released videos revealing its involvement with the organization.

Last month, a Texas judge dropped the misdemeanor count against Daleiden, and Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson advised that she would not seek to appeal. She, however, said that her office planned to remain “focused on the felony charge.”

On Tuesday, District Judge Brock Thomas dismissed the charge upon Anderson’s request.

“The grand jury took the investigation where the facts led it, however Texas law limits what can be investigated after a grand jury extension order is issued,” she said in a statement. “In light of this and after careful research and review, this office dismissed the indictments.”

Daleiden expressed thankfulness for the development.

“I’m glad the first Amendment rights of all citizen journalists have been vindicated today,” he told reporters. “And I would just note that Planned Parenthood is still under investigation by the United States Congress, as they should be, because they are the real criminals in this matter.”

http://christiannews.net/2016/07/26/district-attorney-dismisses-all-charges-against-man-behind-planned-parenthood-expose/

https://www.yahoo.com/news/ilyse-hogue-dnc-speech-000000927.html
7/27/16
In a convention first, NARAL president talks about her own abortion


 PHILADELPHIA — Her remarks came in the 5 p.m. hour, not in primetime, but when NARAL Pro-Choice America President Ilyse Hogue spoke from the Democratic National Convention stage here on Wednesday, she made convention history.

On Tuesday, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards was the first speaker to utter the word abortion from the convention stage this year. The next day, Hogue broke new ground and spoke about having had one.

“I am a fourth-generation Texan,” said Hogue, who before leading the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws had worked with MoveOn.org in Washington, D.C. “Texas women are tough. We approach challenges with clear eyes and full hearts. To succeed in life, all we need are the tools, the trust, and the chance to chart our own path.”

She continued: “I was fortunate enough to have these things when I found out I was pregnant years ago. I wanted a family, but it was the wrong time. I made the decision that was best for me — to have an abortion and get compassionate care at a clinic in my own community. Now, years later, my husband and I are parents to two incredible children.

more

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-salzman/again-a-republican-us-sen_b_11298906.html
Again, a Republican U.S. Senate Candidate Backpedals on Abortion
8/8/16

If you look at the Colorado Right to Life website, you’ll see that Colorado U.S. Senate candidate Darryl Glenn is labled “pro-life.”

If you’re Colorado Right to Life, you’re opposed to all abortion, even for **** and incest. No exceptions. No abortion. Never. And you’re opposed to some forms of birth control, like some intrauterine devices (IUDs).

The group determined that Glenn is “pro-life” based on his answers to questions about seven “pro-life issues,” revealing his position “through specific language with no weasel-room.”

Colorado Right to Life states:

No candidate who supports abortion for any reason is “pro-life.” Regardless of what they may say, any truly pro-life citizen/candidate believes that government has an obligation to protect all human life from conception forward, and therefore pledge to oppose all abortion (with the understanding that a doctor may take action to save a woman’s life while also trying to save the baby’s life, even if the baby’s survival is doubtful due to other factors) - every innocent human being has an inalienable Right to Life at every age or stage of development.

But as the Durango Herald’s Peter Marcus reports today, Glenn appears to have described his abortion stance differently to different audiences.

Marcus quotes Glenn in an appearance on “Devil’s Advocate,” a television show sponsored by the conservative Independence Institute.

Glenn said: “As a person who has two adult daughters, I put myself in that situation. And I want to make sure that when we’re talking about health care, you want to make sure that women have the ability and access to health care, so that they understand all the different options that are out there. And at some point in time, maybe they might have to make that decision. But that is a personal decision that they have to make between them and... God.”

Marcus’ report included a reaction to the Caldara interview from Colorado Right to Life:

“I’m willing to say on behalf of our organization that his comments were not nearly as strong as we would hope,” said Susan Sutherland, vice president of Colorado Right to Life. “He was just trying to play a little bit of political maneuvering there.”

Republican U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner ran into a similar situation in 2014 when he defeated incumbent Democrat Mark Udall. To defeat Udall, Gardner walked more to the middle on the abortion issue, attempting to distance himself from personhood.

Glenn proudly leaned to the right during the primary, which helped propel the relatively unknown El Paso County commissioner to success in a crowded GOP field.

But Glenn wouldn’t talk to Marcus. And The Denver Post’s John Frank has been trying to talk to Glenn about his abortion stance for weeks, with no luck.

Before Gardner sprt pf backtracked on his abortion stance, there was 2010 Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ken Buck, who, after the GOP primary, oops, took back his support for a personhood abortion ban  because, he said at the time, he didn’t understand the proposed amendment.

Like Buck, U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman was cozy with the poor folks at Colorado Right to Life, before he jumped ship and took back his personhood support a couple years ago—though he’s never offered up much detail on why and how his position evolved on the issue.

I woudn’t be feeling very good if I were in the shoes of Colorado Right to Life, but we all agree that it’s better to have journalists expose the buckpedaling than leaving it buried in candidate questionnaires few people bother to read.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-abortion-rights-movement-is-bolder-than-its-been-in-years-thats-cecile-richardss-plan/2016/08/16/ea96bf1a-3d34-11e6-a66f-aa6c1883b6b1_story.html
8/16/16
The abortion rights movement is bolder than it’s been in years. That’s Cecile Richards’s plan.

On the morning of one of the most important days in her career, Cecile Richards waited anxiously in her office at Planned Parenthood headquarters in Manhattan, texting furiously with friends across the country.

A few minutes past 10 a.m., a message from her daughter flashed across the screen. A single word: Yay!

“That was when I knew we’d won,” Richards says, recalling the moment when she learned of the decision in the biggest abortion-related case to come before the Supreme Court in more than two decades. In a 5-to-3 vote, the justices had ruled that Texas’s restrictions on abortion clinics placed an “undue burden” on women seeking to end their pregnancies.

Seeing that text, the president of Planned Parenthood ran out of her office and joined her staff, gathered around television sets, clapping and crying, to revel in a moment of joy.

“It was a little bit unreal,” she recalls of the day’s emotions.

The decision in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt was a significant victory for abortion providers nationwide. And it came at a significant moment.

One hundred years after Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger began educating women about birth control in New York and 43 years after Roe v. Wade, the reproductive rights movement in America is at a pivotal crossroads. Facing hundreds of restrictive laws nationwide, abortion rights advocates are going on the offensive with a new strategy.

Gone is the vaguely conciliatory mantra of the past, the ideal of keeping abortion “safe, legal and rare” once advocated by Bill and Hillary Clinton. Today’s activists are bringing the passionately debated procedure into the light, encouraging women to talk openly about their abortions and giving the movement an unapologetic human face.

And they aren’t stopping there. Heading into a high-stakes presidential election, Planned Parenthood’s political arm and its supporters are rolling up their sleeves to help elect Hillary Clinton — who has done an about-face on the issue with a party platform that is pushing, for the first time , for full Medicaid funding for abortions.

It’s a bold move that positively courts controversy. But controversy has never stopped Cecile Richards.

“There’s this thought that women are just too scattered, we’re too impulsive, we are too hormonal, we can’t make good decisions for ourselves,” Richards says, sitting in a sterile, glass-walled conference room at Planned Parenthood’s headquarters. She’s talking about what she thinks lies at the root of the bitter debate over abortion.

She is, as always, immaculately put together, her tall frame draped in a merlot-colored sheath and matching cardigan, gold earrings twinkling beneath her short, white-blond hair. Her alto voice conveys the subtlest hint of a Texas twang, and more than a hint of sarcasm.

“Therefore we need the state to tell us, we need the state to give us medical information, even if it’s incorrect,” she says. “We need the state to give us an ultrasound because we must not really realize that we’re pregnant; we have to go away for 24 hours and think it over.”

She leans forward slightly and raises her voice: “Can you imagine if these kinds of restrictions were put on any other kind of health care in America?”

In person, the 59-year-old Richards exudes both a warm authenticity and a subtle impenetrability; there’s the sense that she means everything she says, but she isn’t saying everything. Her public persona is almost preternaturally controlled; like the savviest politicians, she’s supremely polished, perpetually on-message and surrounded by a highly protective media operation that carefully controls reporters’ access and circles the wagons when uncomfortable situations arise.

Which, given her job, they frequently do. As the president of the country’s largest abortion provider, Richards is a lightning rod for conflicting passions. Polarizing? The word could have been invented for her. It’s a safe bet that how you view her depends on where you stand on abortion: She’s composed, heroic, a righteous defender of the vulnerable; or she’s cold, unfeeling, a cunning apologist for baby murderers.

She gets standing ovations. She also gets death threats.

One thing, though, is indisputable: her success at creating a powerful political juggernaut — pretty close to “the largest kick-butt political organization” that she said she wanted to establish not long after she took the helm in 2006.

In a lineup of past presidents of Planned Parenthood, which has a separate political action committee, Richards stands out — her background isn’t in women’s health care. It’s in organizing and politics. And she has deployed her skills in those fields to win major battles for abortion rights.

When the Susan G. Komen foundation announced that it would cut funding for breast cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood clinics in 2012, the organization sparked an outcry so fierce that Komen quickly backtracked. Last year, Planned Parenthood successfully turned back a challenge by an antiabortion group that shot undercover video purporting to show that the organization was illegally selling fetal tissue. Richards herself stared down hostile lawmakers bent on defunding her organization in a congressional hearing called after the videos surfaced.

Since Richards’s ascension, Planned Parenthood has also pointedly transformed its messaging and its public strategy. Two years ago, the organization officially — and shrewdly — shed the abortion-specific “pro-choice” label in favor of broader terms such as “reproductive rights” and “women’s health care.” Most notably, it started highlighting the day-to-day reality of abortion, encouraging women to come forward with their personal stories.

And lots of women are taking the leap. More than 200 shared their abortion experiences in public amicus briefs filed as part of Whole Woman’s Health.

“I have never been in a courtroom where women’s experiences were so prominent and so impossible to ignore,” Richards says.

For the activist extraordinaire, it’s all in a decade’s work. And it wins her major kudos from admirers.

Richards has “really transformed” Planned Parenthood, says Rep. Gwen Moore, a Wisconsin Democrat, and “turned it into the kind of political machine that has been necessary to not only fight back the bad policy positions, but to actually raise money.”

more

https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/9f2e956f-a347-3089-8992-dbaf6c8038bd/judge-definitively-blocks.html
Judge definitively blocks Florida abortion law
8/19/16

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday definitively blocked a Florida abortion law that prevents state funds from going to organizations that provide abortions after the administration of Gov. Rick Scott made the unusual decision to drop further legal action. U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle had placed a temporary hold on the law in June just hours before it went into effect. The sweeping law also greatly increased inspection requirements for abortion clinics. Planned Parenthood challenged three parts of the law. But instead of taking the case to trial and offering additional evidence or legal arguments, attorneys for the Scott administration agreed to forgo further legal action. ...

Unborn Babies Found at South Carolina Wastewater Treatment Plant

Two unborn babies were found at a wastewater treatment plant in South Carolina last Monday, prompting an investigation by law enforcement.

According to reports, workers at the Plum Island Wastewater Treatment Plant found the dead babies in the water on Aug. 8. as they were cleaning out the filter screens at the plant. They spotted a small hand, then the rest of the infant’s body—then another baby. Neither child was fully intact.

Police were called to the scene, and were taken to the pump station to be shown the preterm babies.

The babies had been found in the headworks, where the wastewater flows in. Officials state that the infants could have only entered the system by either being flushed down the toilet or placed in a manhole. The bodies were turned over by police to the Charleston County Coroner’s Office for further review.

Coroner Rae Wooten told the Post and Courier that while the gestational age of the babies is not known, they appear to be in the second trimester. It is also unknown as to how long the babies had been in the water.

“We don’t have anywhere to start,” Wooten told the outlet in regard to identifying where the babies had been disposed. “It is probably a very isolated situation.”

The facility serves over 54,000 homes and businesses in Charleston, West Ashley, and James Island.

In January, a baby was also reported to have been found at the Bucklin Point Wastewater Treatment Facility in East Providence, Rhode Island. The medical examiner’s office concluded that the child was a male 19 to 20 weeks in gestation.

Police sought out the mother of the child, but no new information has been released about the matter.

“We’re hoping an appeal to the public may lead us to the mother,” East Providence Police Capt. Richard Frazier told reporters. “We’re hoping to get some tips from the public.”

The plant serves the cities of East Providence, Pawtucket, Central Falls, Smithfield, Cumberland and Lincoln.

“It’s very sad to see that a life couldn’t continue and become the person that they were supposed to be. Very, very sad,” neighbor Betty DeCrescenzo told WPRI-TV.

http://christiannews.net/2016/08/18/unborn-babies-found-at-south-carolina-wastewater-treatment-plant/

Aborted Babies Reportedly Cut Open while Still Alive

 Experiments were reportedly done on aborted babies while they were still alive, according to an article published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

LifeNews.com draws attention to the article and says the experiments were done at Stanford University Hospital by Dr. Robert C. Goodlin.

The purpose of the experiments was to observe the still-beating hearts of the aborted babies.

The babies were reportedly kept in incubators and their chests were cut open and their hearts observed.

In a grisly description of the experiments, the Journal says: “The thorax [chest] was opened and the heart was observed directly. When the heart was beating, the fetus was returned to the chamber and the experiment was resumed.”

One of the babies survived for 11 hours under these brutal conditions.

This kind of experimentation on aborted babies who are still alive is illegal in the U.S., despite these studies.

http://www.christianheadlines.com/blog/aborted-babies-reportedly-cut-open-while-still-alive.html

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/generation-z-earn-outwork-rest-090017938.html
8/31/16
Generation Z will out-earn and outwork the rest of us

Move over millennials, there’s a new workaholic generation in town.

Generation Z, currently in school and the early years of college, is more willing to work longer hours and weekends than their elders are, according to a recently released report by Monster Worldwide Inc., the job-search firm. The data was gathered in January by research agency TNS, which surveyed members of Generation Z from age 15-20.

Of more than 2,000 people surveyed, 58 percent of Generation Zers said they would come into work on evenings and weekends in exchange for a bigger paycheck, compared with 45 percent of millennials, 40 percent of Generation X, and 33 percent of boomers. That’s not entirely surprising: They’ve got youth on their side and are generally not burdened with child-care responsibilities that make working irregular hours difficult for their generational predecessors.

Among the generations, Zers surveyed were the most motivated by money, although 74 percent of them said work should have a greater purpose than earning a salary, compared to 45 percent of millennials, 40 percent of Generation X, and 33 percent of boomers.

Brands seeking to recruit young blood should consider forgoing the beer fridge and ping pong table in exchange for a good old-fashioned health plan. While Gen Z might be more energetic and money-hungry than the rest, its first job requirements are reminiscent of generations before them. Seventy percent of those surveyed said their top priority is health insurance, followed by a competitive wage, a boss they respect, room for growth, and parental leave.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/trump-birth-control-prescription/
Trump supports birth control without a prescription
9/15/16

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump says he believes women should be able to obtain birth control without a prescription.

Speaking on an episode of “The Dr. Oz Show” airing Thursday, the Republican nominee suggested that, for many women, obtaining a prescription can be challenging.

“I would say it should not be prescription,” he told the audience, adding that many women “just aren’t in a position to go get a prescription.”

The GOP’s 2016 platform says it opposes the FDA’s “endorsement of over-the-counter sales of powerful contraceptives without a physician’s recommendation.”

The comment comes days after Trump unveiled a plan aimed at making childcare more affordable for women and as he works to boost his poll numbers with women. Polls show women favoring Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, though Trump does better than her with men.

Trump has sometimes stumbled when it comes to reproductive health issues.

During the Republican primary, he was criticized for saying that, if it the abortion were to be outlawed, women should be punished for having them. He later said that providers, not women, should be the ones who face penalties.

While Trump was more liberal in his views on social issues when he was younger, he now opposes abortion rights.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists declared support for nonprescription birth control pills in 2012, but some groups oppose the measure because of the health risks associated with them. Insurance also doesn’t cover over-the-counter drugs, which could make the pills far more expensive.

Dawn Laguens, the Executive Vice President of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, warned that such a move would “put access to birth control out of reach for millions of women by making it more expensive.”

“Women shouldn’t have to choose between paying for birth control or buying groceries for the month,” she added in a statement.

NARAL Pro-Choice also voiced opposition, accusing Trump of fighting policies “that actually help women.”

Spokeswoman Kaylie Hanson Long said in a statement that such a move “could deny women coverage of birth control altogether.”

“Out of one side of his mouth, he makes a claim that he’s helping women, but out of the other side, he’s actively working to dismantle the greatest expansion of contraceptive coverage of our time,” she said.

https://www.yahoo.com/beauty/what-donald-trump-got-wrong-about-abortion-150108000.html
What Donald Trump Got Wrong About Abortion
10/20/16

Donald Trump took on Hillary Clinton’s position on abortion during the third and final presidential debate Wednesday evening, suggesting that during the ninth month of pregnancy, a full-term fetus can be “ripped” out of its mother’s womb.

Here’s what Trump said:

“I think it’s terrible if you go with what Hillary is saying, in the ninth month you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb of the mother just prior to the birth of the baby. Now you can say that’s OK and Hillary can say that’s OK, but it’s not OK with me. Because based on what she’s saying and based on where she’s going and where she’s been, you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb on the ninth month on the final day. And that’s not acceptable. … Honestly, nobody has business doing what I just said, doing that as late as one or two or three or four days prior to birth. Nobody has that.”

Trump’s comments were quickly taken to task by medical experts on Twitter, and one Canadian ob-gyn, Jennifer Gunter, M.D.,  was widely retweeted.

    There is no such thing as a ninth month abortion – I'm a doctor who trained in late term abortions #debate2016

    — Jennifer Gunter (@DrJenGunter) October 20, 2016


    I am a doctor and at 9 months it's just birth https://t.co/VeEH80jKR1

    — Jennifer Gunter (@DrJenGunter) October 20, 2016


    No doctor does abortions one or two or three days before term delivery. Ever. #debate2016

    — Jennifer Gunter (@DrJenGunter) October 20, 2016


Gunter was quick to point out that what Trump described during the debate does not reflect the reality of what late-term abortion actually is.

Late-term abortions — or those performed after 20 weeks gestational age — are incredibly rare. They are usually performed when there is a life-threatening fetal anomaly or a severe risk to the health of the mother. “The reality is that abortion later in pregnancy is very rare and often happens under complex circumstances — the kind of situations where a woman and her doctor need every medical option available,” according to Planned Parenthood.

Eighty-nine percent of all abortions occur within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. And only 1.2 percent of all abortions in the United States occur after 21 weeks. Furthermore, 43 states — an overwhelming majority — presently ban abortion after a certain point in the pregnancy that is often tied to fetal viability outside the womb, sometime in the third trimester.

more

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/10/20/donald-trump-s-abortion-fanfic.html
10/20/16
Donald Trump’s Abortion Fanfic
The GOP candidate vowed to overturn Roe v. Wade and drummed up ghastly images of babies ripped from wombs—peddling in the worst kind of anti-abortion myths.

Voters pining for a debate question on reproductive choice finally got what they wanted Wednesday night when Fox News’s Chris Wallace, moderator of the third and final presidential debate of the year, asked both candidates about their views on abortion. Finally, some substantive conversation between two candidates with seriously divergent views on an issue that people on both sides view as a matter of life and death. Finally, some smart talk of women’s health, or of how a pro-life candidate can realistically push an agenda that restricts abortion in a post-Texas v. Whole Women’s Health world.

Just kidding.

Donald Trump spun an abortion stance so removed from the reality that it read less like a serious policy proposal and more like abortion fan fiction.

The big moment came early in the Las Vegas debate, when Wallace pivoted from guns to the Supreme Court’s impact on abortion access. Wallace wanted to know if, as president, Trump would appoint justices who would move to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Trump said that he would, and that abortion should be left up to the states, which is a fringe enough claim without what came next. But Donald was just getting warmed up.

Hillary Clinton noted that late-term abortion should be allowed if it is necessary to protect the life or health of a woman, and that the decision that leads to abortion late in pregnancy is often difficult. Trump responded with a third-hand story looking at itself in a funhouse mirror.

“I think it is terrible,” said the Republican nominee for president. “If you go with what Hillary is saying, you can take baby and rip the baby out of the womb of the mother just prior to the birth of the baby.”

Well, no. That’s not what abortion is. Most abortions take place during the first trimester. Killing a viable fetus willy-nilly was never something Roe v. Wade protected. But Trump wasn’t done.

“Now, you can say that that is OK and Hillary can say that that is OK, but it’s not OK with me,” Trump continued. “Because based on what she is saying and based on where she’s going and where she’s been, you can take baby and rip the baby out of the womb. In the ninth month. On the final day. That’s not acceptable.”

It’s also not legal, unless there are extraordinary circumstances.

Trump’s puzzlingly weird lie could have come from a number of places. He may have been achieving a C-grade in parroting a talking point used during the primaries by his former rivals Carly Fiorina and Marco Rubio. But both of those candidates’ version of this particular nontruth wasn’t quite so graphic, even the one where Carly Fiorina said that she’d seen a nonexistent video of a baby being born fully alive and then ripped up by Planned Parenthood ghouls. Trump running mate Mike Pence used a less graphic, same easy-to-debunk set of myths during the vice-presidential debate this month.

But what Trump said Wednesday was more colorful than any of the previous iterations.

Planned Parenthood, unsurprisingly, wasn’t impressed. Said PPFA Political Communications Director Erica Sackin, “Donald Trump has been clear that he would ban abortion, and appoint justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade. Donald Trump’s hostility to women, their health, and well-being has been clear from the beginning of his campaign—and it makes him unfit to lead this country.”

Conservative commentator Glenn Beck was less formal.

“You have got to be kidding,” Beck tweeted. “Trump doesn’t even know what partial birth abortion even is!  Ahhhhhhhgggggg.”

Ahhhhhhhgggggg indeed.

Yes, GOD have mercy on the house of God!

Baptist Minister Defends Aborting Her Baby: “God Helped Me Make the Best Decision”
10/17/16
http://openyoureyespeoplebreakingnews.com/2016/10/17/baptist-minister-defends-aborting-her-baby-god-helped-me-make-the-best-decision/

Thousands, maybe even millions, of women sit in American churches each week, hurting silently because of a past abortion.

Abortion is tragically common even among American Christians, despite Christian teachings about the sanctity of life. In 2014, 24 percent of women who had abortions identified as Catholic, 17 percent as mainline Protestant and 13 percent as evangelical Protestant, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

For many years, Susan Chorley, a Baptist minister from Boston, Massachusetts, was one of the women who remained silent about her abortion in church. Chorley shared her story with The Daily Beast this week and urged churches to offer compassion, empathy and healing to women who have abortions.

Unfortunately, Chorley also argued that churches should accept women’s decisions to have abortions. She never mentioned how that decision destroys the life of an innocent human being in the womb, or how Christianity teaches that killing an innocent human being is wrong.

The Baptist minister said her decision to have an abortion was “wrenching,” and it left her feeling “sad” with a sense of “loss.” Still, she justified her decision to abort her second child 12 years ago.

She wrote:

    I was serving in a congregation in New England at the time I realized I was pregnant. I was far away from family and friends. I had always imagined I would have a second child and I knew that it would be a struggle on our family financially as well as add to the stress of our marriage, which was starting to fall apart. I didn’t want to bring a baby into the world that would feel it was a burden—and I prayed to God to help me make the best decision I could in a situation that seemed impossible.

Later, she added:

    Faith is so much more than judging right from wrong. Faith is about how we make meaning in our lives, how we understand our God, and how we live our values. Decisions about whether and when to grow one’s family carry the deepest meaning, and religious women make this decision in conversation with God, just as we do every decision.

Chorley is correct that churches need to do a better job of reaching out to women who have had abortions, but she never acknowledges that the root of these women’s pain is the abortion itself. To prevent more pain, churches should not accept abortions. Rather, they should be doing more to help stop abortions by offering pregnant and parenting families love and support.

Abortions are not the answer. They are not good for women or their unborn children. Not only do abortions kill unborn children, they often cause mothers to suffer intense emotional and sometimes physical pain. A number of studies have linked abortion with depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, drug abuse, suicidal tendencies and other psychological problems. Abortions also can have profound emotional effects on other members of the family, especially fathers and siblings of the aborted child.

Churches should be places where women and families can find healing and forgiveness when they are suffering because of an abortion. Debby Efurd, director of Post-Abortion Support for Involved Life in Dallas, Texas, explained that churches must reach out with compassion and understanding toward those who are hurting and need forgiveness.

“Understand their need for forgiveness,” Efurd wrote in 2013. “Many believe that because they knew it was wrong and did it anyway, abortion is a sin too big for God to forgive and often are unable to forgive themselves.”

Hegelian

Dialectic.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/trump-victory-inflates-antiabortion-movement/2016/11/09/12fe6494-a6a3-11e6-8042-f4d111c862d1_story.html
11/9/16
Trump victory inflates antiabortion movement

The antiabortion movement reluctantly embraced Donald Trump. Now, activists say they plan to make sure that uneasy partnership pays dividends.

Groups taking some credit for Trump’s presidential upset on Wednesday pledged to hold him to his promise to promote an antiabortion agenda. They announced immediate plans to revive in Congress several bills, including one targeting Planned Parenthood, and to press Trump to appoint a Supreme Court justice who opposes Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision legalizing abortion nationally.

“Today, preborn babies got a reprieve,” Mark Harrington, director of Created Equal, a group that campaigned for Trump in 18 cities in battleground states and in some places flew airplane-toted banners depicting pictures of aborted fetuses, said in a statement.

“Now, we must hold our new president-elect accountable for his promises to defund Planned Parenthood,” as well as pass a ban on abortions at 20 weeks of pregnancy and appoint antiabortion judges, he said.

The surge of optimism marks a turnaround from just this summer, when antiabortion groups had assumed a defensive position in the wake of a Supreme Court decision striking down clinic regulations in Texas. The decision led Alabama and Wisconsin to roll back restrictions in those states. Activists also faced the prospect of a victory by Hillary Clinton, who embraced abortion rights like no previous major-party nominee for president.

Now, Republicans are poised to control Congress, occupy the White House and choose and approve quickly the next Supreme Court justice. And while restricting abortion may not be at the top of Trump’s priority list, it is paramount for many of the activists who helped propel him to the White House.

Trump’s record on abortion is murky at best. He previously supported the right to an abortion and left conservatives aghast by repeatedly praising the “good things” done by Planned Parenthood.

But the antiabortion movement rallied around Trump after an about-face on the issue. At one point during the campaign, he went so far as to say women ought to be punished for terminating a pregnancy. He backtracked after critics and some antiabortion groups condemned the remarks.

He tried to reassure skeptical social conservatives about the sincerity of his transformation by choosing as his running mate Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R), who has a long record opposing abortion rights.

Then, this fall, Trump sealed the deal by issuing a letter to antiabortion leaders. In addition to pledging to cut off federal funds to Planned Parenthood and support a ban on abortions after 20 weeks, he promised to make permanent the Hyde Amendment. That measure bars federal funds from being used to pay for abortions; right now, it must be renewed annually by Congress.

Abortion rights groups struck a defiant tone Wednesday, calling Trump’s abortion policies extreme even among his supporters.

“We will fight to make sure that Planned Parenthood health center doors stay open, and that people in this country can get access to basic reproductive health care, no matter their Zip code, income, sexual orientation, race, religion, gender, or country of origin,” Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, said in a statement. “The majority of Americans, including Trump’s own voters, support access to health care at Planned Parenthood and want abortion to stay legal and safe.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/afb17230-a801-3a14-be3a-73b84d3acf5f/ss_donald-trump-could-find-it.html
Reversing Roe Easier Said Than Done as Trump Looks to High Court
11/21/16

Donald Trump says his Supreme Court nominees will be willing to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion-rights decision. He hasn’t said how he’ll make sure of that.

Trump’s list of 21 prospective Supreme Court justices includes people with clear anti-abortion credentials and those whose public records show next to nothing on the subject.

What assurances Trump requires may determine who the nominee is and whether abortion opponents will achieve their dream of overturning a ruling that has been at the heart of the nation’s culture wars for more than four decades.

As conservatives have learned over that span, justices selected by Republican presidents don’t always follow the party’s script once they join the court. Republican appointees Sandra Day O’Connor, Anthony Kennedy and David Souter all proved to be supporters of at least the core right of abortion access.

That’s in part because presidents traditionally eschew directly asking prospective nominees how they would vote on particular issues, relying instead on less-concrete indicators such as a contender’s lower-court rulings and experience in like-minded administrations.

Some of Trump’s candidates have stronger anti-abortion credentials than others. Federal appellate judge William Pryor of Alabama once called Roe "the worst abomination in the history of constitutional law." Senator Mike Lee of Utah has said the Constitution can’t plausibly be read to protect abortion rights. Florida Supreme Court Justice Charles Canady is a former U.S. congressman who crafted the federal law barring what critics call “partial-birth” abortions.

Others have little if any public record on the issue. Michigan Supreme Court Justice Joan Larsen, for example, has been on the bench barely more than a year, meaning she has only a handful of judicial opinions on any subject.

Abortion-rights supporters note that, like everyone on Trump’s list, Larsen has a solid conservative resume, with a stint in President George W. Bush’s Justice Department and a clerkship for Justice Antonin Scalia, the late conservative whose seat the next justice will fill. She was appointed to the Michigan Supreme Court last year by the state’s Republican governor.

And Larsen’s campaign website -- she successfully ran for re-election in November -- uses language long associated with anti-Roe forces. The site says Larsen "knows it’s not her job to legislate from the bench" and "understands our ‘State Constitution’ is not a ‘living document.’"

Another candidate, federal appellate judge Diane Sykes, drew Democratic criticism at the time of her 2004 nomination for comments she made as a trial judge praising two men convicted of blocking access to an abortion clinic. Even so, during her 12 years on the appeals court she hasn’t directly ruled on abortion rights.
Liberals Not Optimistic

Liberal groups say they aren’t optimistic.

"Based on the very preliminary research that we’ve done, all of them are problematic," said Nan Aron, president of the Alliance for Justice.

"We are working under the assumption that they have to be bad on the issue of women’s reproductive rights because that’s what he said he is doing," said Marge Baker, executive vice president of People for the American Way. "It’s hard to believe he’s not going to find someone who wants to overturn Roe v. Wade."

Pryor has emerged as a favorite pick for those who would overturn Roe, and he may get a boost if Trump’s choice for attorney general, fellow Alabaman Jeff Sessions, holds sway over Supreme Court nominations. Pryor’s anti-abortion rhetoric was one reason Democrats waged a two-year battle to block his appeals court nomination by Bush. Pryor was finally confirmed in 2005.

A key outside adviser for Trump on court appointments, Federalist Society Executive Vice President Leonard Leo, suggested Friday that Trump might be envisioning a justice who upholds restrictions on abortion, rather than necessarily voting to overturn Roe.
‘Happen Automatically’

"There are lots of follow-on regulations to abortion involving partial-birth abortion, fetal pain and other issues that the court hasn’t fully resolved," Leo, who met with Trump on Thursday, said on the Bloomberg Law radio show. "When he talks about Roe v. Wade, that’s probably the way he’s thinking about it."

Still, Trump’s rhetoric has gone well beyond mere restrictions. During the third presidential debate with Hillary Clinton in October, he said that overturning Roe v. Wade would "happen automatically, in my opinion, because I am putting pro-life justices on the court."

In a "60 Minutes" interview that aired Nov. 13, Trump discussed the prospect that, with Roe overturned, some states would be able to ban abortion altogether.

For women who live there, "they’ll have to go to another state," Trump said.
Court Balance

Trump may have more leeway in replacing the anti-abortion Scalia because the nomination for his seat won’t tip the court’s balance. The court in June gave abortion-rights advocates a major victory, voting 5-3 to strike down a Texas law that would have imposed new requirements on clinics and doctors and closed as many as three-quarters of the state’s facilities.

Keep up with the race of a lifetime.
Get our politics newsletter daily.

It would take at least two and possibly three Trump nominations to put Roe v. Wade in jeopardy. That’s not out of the question, given that three of the court’s abortion-rights justices are 78 or older. But it’s also no guarantee in light of the history of Republican nominations. O’Connor, Kennedy and Souter were all touted as judicial conservatives -- only to end up jointly writing the 1992 ruling that reaffirmed Roe.

One way or another, many scholars and advocates say they expect the next justice will be a solid vote against abortion rights.

"On balance, it’s a pretty good bet," said Eugene Volokh, a professor at UCLA School of Law. "You can’t always foretell people’s future actions this way, but often you can."

Speaker Paul Ryan: We’ll Pass Another Bill to Defund Planned Parenthood, “Our Position Has Not Changed”

I do not trust Paul Ryan at all on anything

During a press conference yesterday, pro-life speaker Paul Ryan said Congress is committed to passing another bill to defund the Planned Parenthood abortion business, which was caught selling the body parts of aborted babies. Hearings have exposed how the abortion company likely violated federal laws to sell the body parts.

Earlier this year, Congress approved legislation to defund the nation’s largest abortion company. Pro-abortion President Barack Obama vetoed the bill and the House did not have enough votes to overcome objections from pro-abortion Democrats — who prevented Congress from reaching a two-thirds threshold to override Obama’s veto.

In his comments to reporters, Speaker Ryan said Congress will pass another piece of legislation. This bill to defund Planned Parenthood should arrive at the desk of President-elect Donald Trump, who has already promised to sign such legislation into law.

“We’ve already shown what we believe with respect to funding Planned Parenthood,” Speaker Ryan said. “We put a bill on Obama’s desk in reconciliation. Our position has not changed.”

rest: http://www.lifenews.com/2016/11/18/speaker-paul-ryan-well-pass-another-bill-to-defund-planned-parenthood-our-position-has-not-changed/

House Republicans Vote to Double Budget for Investigation of Planned Parenthood Selling Aborted Babies

On the same day a Congressional panel found that Planned Parenthood and others broke either federal or state laws when selling the body parts of aborted babies, the House of Representatives voted to double the budget of the committee investigating the abortion business.

Yesterday, the House Select Panel on Infant Lives released a list of nine criminal and regulatory referrals against abortion providers and/or fetal tissue procurement companies made as a result of their investigation into the illegal practice of selling aborted baby remains for profit. That list included the Planned Parenthood abortion company.

Then the House voted on H. Res. 933, which would cover the expenses of the Select Panel’s work through the end of the year. It approved the bill to authorize funding necessary to allow the Select Investigative Panel to complete its inquiry into America’s abortion industry and fetal tissue procurement entities.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican who heads the panel, told LifeNews she was pleased with the vote:

    “Our Panel was tasked with investigating areas that, prior to the revelations of undercover journalists, received too little attention. For most of us, it is nothing short of an outrage that Planned Parenthood and other abortion clinics supplement their budgets by selling human fetal tissue from aborted babies. The House charged members of this Panel with investigating fetal tissue trafficking, second- and third-trimester abortion practices, the standard of care for infants who survive abortions, and the role played by our taxpayer dollars in this sector of society. Over the last year, we have held hearings that explored the bioethics surrounding fetal tissue use and that revealed the sobering reality of how some bad actors seek to profit from the sale of fetal tissue in violation of federal law.

    “The work of our Panel is specifically focused on protecting the integrity of research, scientific advancements, and voluntary organ donation in America. Evidence we have uncovered reveals that the unethical and potentially unlawful practices of some bad actors may be putting important research at risk. Considering all that our Panel has identified, despite having barely a year to conduct this investigation, it is now up to us to build on this work, to hold our government accountable, and to stop these affronts to human dignity.”

    SIGN THE PETITION! Congress Must De-Fund Planned Parenthood Immediately

Lawmakers passed the measure along party lines, 234-181 as Democrats objected to the vote.

“This panel and its investigation are a disgrace to this House of Representatives,” said Rep. Jan Schakowsky (Ill.), the panel’s top Democrat. “Instead of providing more funding for this divisive and dangerous inquisition, Congress should shut down this panel and put an end to its shameful proceedings.”

The panel is now likely to spend nearly $1.6 million in total investigating the sales of aborted baby parts.

The Select Panel was created in October 2015, in response to undercover videos released by the Center for Medical Progress that showed Planned Parenthood officials haggling to achieve the highest price for aborted baby tissue and organs that were to be provided to a middle-man organ procurement business.

“Rep. Marsha Blackburn has done an outstanding job chairing the Select Investigative Panel in the midst of vicious opposition from those involved with the Abortion Cartel,” said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue, who also served as a Founding Board Member for the Center for Medical Progress during its undercover journalistic study of the trafficking of aborted baby remains.

In addition to the nine criminal and regulatory referrals, the Select Investigative Panel has issued 41 subpoenas – not all of which have been met with full compliance. At least two late-term abortionists, LeRoy Carhart and Warren Hern, who conduct abortions through all nine months of pregnancy received subpoenas but have not yet fully complied.

http://www.lifenews.com/2016/12/02/house-republicans-vote-to-double-budget-for-investigation-of-planned-parenthood-selling-aborted-babies/

http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/09/politics/ohio-abortion-bills/index.html
Ohio passes 2nd bill restricting abortions; both await Kasich's signature
12/9/16

 (CNN)Ohio lawmakers for the second time this week have passed a bill that would restrict abortions, the latest of which would ban the procedure after 20 weeks' gestation.

The state's current law generally bans abortions after a fetus has begun its 20th week of gestation, unless a doctor determines that the fetus isn't viable outside the womb. Exceptions are made if the pregnancy puts the woman's health at serious risk.

The latest measure, Senate Bill 127, would eliminate the viability test and simply ban abortions past 20 weeks. The woman's-health exception would still apply.

Gov. John Kasich will now have before him that measure, which passed Thursday, and the "Heartbeat Bill," which passed on Tuesday. The "Heartbeat Bill" aims to ban abortions from the moment the heartbeat of a fetus can be detected -- which usually occurs about six weeks into a pregnancy.

Some Ohio legislators criticized the latest measure.

"It's not about the babies; it's about the attack on women," Democratic Rep. Teresa Fedor said.

Fedor proposed an amendment to SB 127 that would have made an exception for victims of **** and incest. But the amendment failed, and the House passed the bill Thursday with a 64-29 vote.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio said SB 127 would harm Ohio women. The bill would prevent those "who are facing the difficult decision to terminate a wanted pregnancy from receiving the care they need in our state," the group said in a statement published on its website.

The law "would effectively eliminate all options for women without the financial resources to travel for abortion care," the ACLU said.

In a statement, Iris E. Harvey, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio, said: "For the second time in a week, the Ohio Legislature has inserted itself into women's private and personal health care decisions."

"These bans are a deliberate attempt to make abortion illegal in the state of Ohio," she said. "If signed into law, these bills would force women to travel long distances and cross state lines to access abortion. For many women, the expense and time these restrictions would force upon them would make access impossible."

Planned Parenthood referred to FBI for criminal charges

Several Planned Parenthood affiliates have been referred by a Senate committee to the Department of Justice for investigation and possible prosecution for their involvement in a baby body parts trade that was exposed in 2015 through a video sting operation.

The videos contained interviews with Planned Parenthood and other abortion industry officials in which they negotiated over the price of the body parts of aborted infants, one famously suggesting higher pay because, “I want a Lamborghini.”

The U.S. House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives also previously recommended a contractor, StemExpress, an organ procurement company, be cited with contempt for refusing congressional requests for information about the scandal.

Now, a letter from Sen. Charles Grassley the chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, to Attorney General Loretta Lynch and FBI Director James Comey, posted online by Operation Rescue, provides the details.

“In the summer of 2015, the Senate Judiciary Committee began an inquiry into paid fetal tissue transfers involving Planned Parenthood. The committee has since obtained and reviewed more than 20,000 pages of information from the organizations involved, and engaged in detail discussions with the attorneys for those organizations,” Grassley writes.

REST: http://www.wnd.com/2016/12/planned-parenthood-referred-to-fbi-for-criminal-charges/

https://www.yahoo.com/beauty/texas-moves-cut-medicaid-funding-planned-parenthood-160933490.html
Texas Moves to Cut Medicaid Funding for Planned Parenthood
December 21, 2016

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Texas plans to block about $3 million in Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood operations in the state, according to a legal document obtained on Wednesday, a move the reproductive healthcare group said could affect nearly 11,000 low-income people.

Planned Parenthood said it would seek court help to block the funding halt, which would cut cancer screenings, birth control, HIV testing and other programs.

Planned Parenthood gets about $500 million annually in federal funds, largely in reimbursements through Medicaid, which provides health coverage to millions of low-income Americans.

Texas and several other Republican-controlled states have tried to cut the organization's funding after an anti-abortion group released videos last year that it said showed officials from Planned Parenthood negotiating prices for fetal tissues from abortions it performs.

Texas sent a final termination notice to Planned Parenthood in the state on Tuesday to alert it of the funding cut, the document showed, saying the basis of the termination was the videos.

Planned Parenthood has denied wrongdoing, saying the videos were heavily edited and that it does not profit from fetal tissue donation. It has challenged similar defunding efforts in other states, calling them politically motivated.

Republican President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to defund Planned Parenthood, and at least 14 states have tried to pass legislation or taken administration action to prevent the organization from receiving federal Title X funding.

"Texas is a cautionary tale for the rest of the nation," Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said in a statement. "With this action, the state is doubling down on reckless policies that have been absolutely devastating for women."

The Texas governor's office was not immediately available for comment. The state investigated Planned Parenthood over the videos. A grand jury in January cleared Planned Parenthood of any wrongdoing and indicted the anti-abortion activists who made the videos for tampering with government records. About a year ago, the Texas health department cut funding to a Houston Planned Parenthood affiliate for a nearly three-decade-old HIV prevention program. The contract was federally funded through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention but managed by the state. (Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/children-dont-come-cheap-cost-of-raising-one-hits-dollar233610/ar-BBy51rk?OCID=ansmsnnews11
Children don't come cheap: Cost of raising one hits $233,610
1/9/17

Children keep getting more expensive to raise -- fashion is pricier and so are doctor visits and day care, according to the U.S. government.

At least food’s still relatively cheap.

The cost for a middle-income family to raise a child born in 2015 to age 18 is $233,610, a 3 percent increase from the previous year, the Department of Agriculture said Monday. Housing was the largest expense, at 29 percent of the cost. Wealthier families, who live in costlier neighborhoods and are more likely to use day care, spend more than twice as much on their children as poorer households.

The USDA has prepared the report almost every year since 1960. It tracks seven categories of spending, including housing, transportation and clothing, and is used to help courts and government agencies estimate child-support costs. It excludes payments for college, as well as financial contributions from sources other than parents, including government aid.

The cost of child-raising has outpaced inflation because of rising health-care costs and additional money spent on clothing, which tends to fluctuate based on fashion trends. Lower projected energy costs, meanwhile, are giving parents a break on transportation expenses, notably driving.

One good piece of news for parents: This year’s increase is below the historic average annual increase of 4.3 percent.

“Those trips you made to soccer games, driving children around, became cheaper,” Mark Lino, the USDA economist who wrote the report, said in a telephone call with reporters. "Costs for child-care and education have really gone up among upper-income groups."

Per-child expenses go down as families grow larger, and teenagers cost more than younger children, largely because they eat more and have greater transportation needs, Lino said.

The study defines middle-class as having before-tax income of $59,200 to $107,000. A family earning less than that before taxes will probably spend $174,690 in 2015 dollars raising a child to age 18, while parents earning more than $107,499 may pay $372,210, according to the study.

The urban Northeast, where an affluent married couple will spend $397,110 to raise a child, had the highest costs, the USDA said. Child costs are lowest in rural areas, where a two-parent family will spend $146,310.

Child-care and education is the second-biggest expense for middle- and higher-income households, followed by food. Nutrition ranked second for lower-income families, which are more likely to care for children at home, according to the study.

Transit costs ate up a greater share of budgets for children ages 15 to 17, as many teenagers get drivers’ licenses. Child-care costs were greatest until age 6, when attending school reduces the need for daycare.

USDA’s most recent study was in 2014, before the department revised its methodology to incorporate more current data.

Housing has accounted for almost a third of costs to raise a child since the first study done in 1960. The USDA calculation takes into account the need for more living space as families grow, although it excludes potential expenses such as moving to a more expensive neighborhood in search of better schools.

In 1960, housing costs to raise a child were estimated at $25,229 -- equal to $202,020 in 2015 dollars. Food was the second-biggest expense then, at 24 percent, with transportation at 16 percent.

“While housing costs have increased over time, changes in American agriculture have resulted in lower food costs,” said Angie Tagtow, executive director for the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion at the USDA.

Health care accounted for just 4 percent of costs in 1960, less than half the 2015 level. Education and child care were 16 percent of 2015 costs, up from 2 percent in 1960, when most children were cared for at home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4uoyIbgz5c

“Many people are caught up with the toys of contemporary society. Because of great advancements in our culture, some have cultivated an attitude of “comfortability.” They may be going to hell, but it is going to be a comfortable ride for them.”
― A.W. Tozer, And He Dwelt Among Us: Teachings from the Gospel of John

“But the sons of this world have not God; they have only each other, and they walk holding to each other and looking to one another for assurance like frightened children.”
― A.W. Tozer

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/18/obituaries/norma-mccorvey-dead-roe-v-wade.html?_r=0
Norma McCorvey, ‘Roe’ in Roe v. Wade, Is Dead at 69
2/18/17

Norma McCorvey, the anonymous plaintiff in Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion in the United States, reshaping the nation’s social and political landscapes and inflaming one of the most divisive controversies of the past half-century, died on Saturday in Katy, Tex. She was 69.

Her death, at an assisted-living home, was confirmed by Joshua Prager, a New York journalist who is writing a book about the Roe v. Wade decision and had interviewed her extensively. He said the cause was heart failure.

Since the ruling, perhaps 50 million legal abortions have been performed in the United States, although later court decisions and new state and federal laws have imposed restrictions, and abortions have declined with the wide use of contraceptives. Theological, ethical and legal debates about abortion continue in religious circles, governing bodies and political campaigns, and they have influenced elections, legislation and the lives of ordinary people through films, books, periodicals, the internet and other forums.

At the heart of it all, Ms. McCorvey — known as Jane Roe in the court papers — became an almost mythological figure to millions of Americans, more a symbol of what they believed in than who she was: a young Dallas woman lifted by chance into a national spotlight she never sought and tried for years to avoid, then pulled by the forces of politics to one side of the abortion conflict, then by religion to the other.
Continue reading the main story

Her early life had been a Dickensian nightmare. By her own account, she was the unwanted child of a broken home, a ninth-grade dropout who was raped repeatedly by a relative, and a homeless runaway and thief consigned to reform school. She was married at 16, divorced and left pregnant three times by different men. She had bouts of suicidal depression, she said.

Ms. McCorvey gave up her children at birth and was a cleaning woman, waitress and carnival worker. Bisexual but primarily lesbian, she sought refuge from poverty and dead-end jobs in alcohol and drugs.

She was 22 and pregnant when she joined the abortion rights struggle, claiming later that she had not really understood what it was all about. When she emerged from anonymity a decade later, strangers shrieked “baby killer” and spat at her. There were death threats. One night, shotgun blasts shattered the windows of her home.

more

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1os97JPf14

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_Qao6cXA98

Paul Ryan Defends Not Defunding Planned Parenthood in New Spending Bill

 House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) has defended the fact that defunding Planned Parenthood is absent from Congress’ new spending bill.

The Washington Examiner reports that Congress is set to vote on the new spending bill this week. The bill is needed to avoid a government shutdown.

As ChristianHeadlines.com previously reported, the spending bill is a $1 trillion spending package, which includes $12.5 billion to be allocated for increased military spending and $1.5 billion for border security.

Pro-life advocates lamented the missing defunding measure in the bill, however.

"With pro-life Republican majorities in both houses, it is incredibly disappointing that any Republican spending bill would contain continued funding for Planned Parenthood," Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of the Washington-based pro-life lobbying organization Susan B. Anthony List who chaired the Trump campaign's pro-life coalition, said in a statement Monday.

Speaker Paul Ryan, in his weekly press conference, attempted to assuage the disappointment of pro-lifers by noting that the reason why lawmakers left out defunding of Planned Parenthood from the spending bill is that they believe such a measure can be better accomplished through a reconciliation bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

While the spending bill requires 60 votes in the Senate to pass, the reconciliation bill would only require 51.

"The reconciliation bill advances the pro-life cause even further," Ryan noted.

http://www.christianheadlines.com/blog/paul-ryan-defends-not-defunding-planned-parenthood-in-new-spending-bill.html

Oklahoma House Passes Resolution to Stop Murder of Unborn Children

The Oklahoma House of Representatives has passed a resolution “directing every public official in Oklahoma to exercise their authority to stop [the] murder of unborn children by abortion.”

House Resolution 1004 was approved by a voice vote on Monday without any debate or discussion. It notes that every human being is protected by God’s law and the U.S. Constitution, and declares that the U.S. Supreme Court overstepped its bounds by offering its opinion on the matter and usurping the authority of the states.

The resolution consequently declares that “every public official in Oklahoma, including but not limited to sheriffs, district attorneys, judges and justices, the attorney general, and the governor, is directed to exercise their authority as appropriate in their respective jurisdictions to stop the murder of innocent unborn children by abortion.”

It also asks that state courts not interfere with any legislative efforts to clarify state law to protect the lives of the unborn.

rest: http://christiannews.net/2017/05/09/oklahoma-house-passes-resolution-to-stop-murder-of-unborn-children/

Planned Parenthood Clinics Closing Rapidly

Three of the six Planned Parenthood affiliates in New Mexico are slated to close by the end of September. The abortion vendor’s Casper, Wyoming, location will also close on July 21, making Wyoming and North Dakota the first two states in the nation without Planned Parenthood clinics.

Planned Parenthood’s facilities in Parker and Longmont, Colorado, are also scheduled to close, as are four more of its Iowa clinics. Planned Parenthood and its president, Cecile Richards, blame Iowa’s closures on a new state law that redirects taxpayer funding to other community healthcare centers. Since 2010, however, 16 facilities in Iowa have closed:

Adrienne Mansanares, an official at Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains (PPRM), admitted to the Star-Tribune that there are other places for women to receive comprehensive reproductive health care.

“Our No. 1 priority and concern is to ensure that we have coordination of care for our patients,” Mansanares said. “We’ll be working really closely with our patients to make sure we get them connected to another provider.”

Whitney Phillips, spokesperson for PPRM, said the clinic closures in her area were due to “a shifting health care landscape nationally and in the states we serve,” and to allow the organization to “maintain a fiscally solvent operation.”

“After careful and extensive evaluation, PPRM is making some difficult but necessary organizational changes to ensure that we can continue to meet our patients’ needs in both the short and long term,” Phillips said. “This is necessary for us to position PPRM for long-term sustainability in the communities we serve.”

“Planned Parenthood’s enterprise is crumbling, even while they are still raking in over half a billion dollars a year from taxpayers,” said Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser. “Their abortion-centered business model isn’t just morally wrong, it’s a failure. In a market where there are so many better options, women don’t need to get their health care from Planned Parenthood.”

Dannenfelser points to Planned Parenthood’s own annual reports, which show a dramatic drop in non-abortion services, including cancer screenings, STD testing, and even contraceptive services – the last of which the organization often touts as one of its primary areas of service:

“Their latest annual report is five months overdue,” Dannenfelser continues. “We urge Congress to redirect tax dollars to community health centers that outnumber Planned Parenthood facilities by an average of 20 to one nationally.”

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/05/19/planned-parenthood-clinics-closing-rapidly/

Good News for Pro-life Movement: 8 States Have Only One Abortion Clinic Left

Eight states are reportedly on their way to being abortion free and each have only one abortion clinic remaining.

LifeNews.com reports that the eight states are Kentucky, West Virginia, Wyoming, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Arkansas.

West Virginia and Kentucky were the most recent states to shut down all abortion clinics except one.

Abortion advocates have expressed their concern at the lessening access to abortion.

“In 2002, the Legislature passed the so-called Women’s Right To Know Act, which required that a biased counseling script had to be delivered to every patient by a licensed medical professional. So we had to hire somebody. And that’s the kind of thing the anti-choice people advocate for, because it costs us additional money,” said Sharon Lewis, executive director of the remaining abortion clinic in West Virginia.

Another pro-abortionist, Brent Blue, a physician and the director at Wyoming’s last abortion clinic, complained about the law that mandates a woman seeking an abortion first get an ultrasound.

“[P]atients have to be offered the opportunity to look at the ultrasound, but we do ultrasounds anyway, so if they want to look, all they have to do is turn their head to the right,” Blue said. “It’s a law that has no teeth, and there’s no way to enforce it. It won’t change one thing for us.”

Despite these complaints, these laws are saving the lives of unborn children, and pro-life advocates believe the movement is only gaining more ground.

http://www.christianheadlines.com/blog/good-news-for-pro-life-movement-8-states-have-only-one-abortion-clinic-left.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVz38UmUfok

Planned Parenthood sets ‘abortion quotas,’ former employees say

Planned Parenthood sets ambitious goals for the number of abortions it wants each clinic to perform by providing incentives for those that reach their quotas and meting out corrective measures against those that underperform, according to former employees.

In a video released Tuesday by Live Action, Sue Thayer, a former Planned Parenthood clinic manager, said that even clinics that did not perform abortions had to refer a certain number of patients to other facilities for the procedures.

“Every center had a goal for how many abortions were done,” Ms. Thayer said in the video, “and centers that didn’t do abortions, like mine, that were family-planning clinics had a goal for abortion referrals. And it was on this big grid, and if we hit our goal, then our line was green. If it was 5 percent under, we were yellow. If it was 10 percent under, it was red. That’s when we needed to have a corrective action plan — why we didn’t hit the goal, what we were going to do differently next time.”

She said employees were trained to manipulate women into choosing abortion by bringing up the costs associated with raising a family.

“We would say things like, ‘Your pregnancy test, your visit today is X number of dollars. How much are you going to be able to pay toward that?’” Ms. Thayer said. “If they say, ‘I’m not able to pay today,’ then we would say something like, ‘Well, if you can’t pay $10 today, how are you going to take care of a baby? Have you priced diapers? Do you know how much it costs to buy a car seat?’

“‘So, really, don’t you think your smartest choice is termination?’” the former clinic manager said. “‘We can take care of that, set it up for you.’”

Marianne Anderson, a former nurse at Planned Parenthood, said she sometimes felt more like an “abortion salesman” than a medical professional.

“I felt like I was more of a salesman sometimes, to sell abortions,” Ms. Anderson said in the video. “We were told on a regular basis that you have a quota to meet to keep this clinic open.”

“We were constantly told you have quotas to meet to stay open,” she said. “It was just, like I said, I felt more like I was selling abortion sometimes than treating people.”

Ms. Thayer said Planned Parenthood also offers perks for clinics that exceed their abortion quotas.

“It is true, we would have things like pizza parties,” Ms. Thayer said. “Occasionally, they would say things like, ‘You can have two hours of [paid time off].’ If your center consistently hit goals and you were green all the time, three months in a row, you might be center manager of the month and get to go to Des Moines and have lunch with the upper management or something.”

Planned Parenthood did not respond to a call seeking comment on the video.

The Live Action video is the latest in its Abortion Corporation series, which highlights the ways Planned Parenthood promotes abortion at the expense of women’s health.

Republican lawmakers have vowed to defund the abortion giant and redirect its more than $500 million budget from taxpayers to women’s health centers that do not perform abortions.

Click to Read More
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/feb/7/ex-employee-planned-parenthood-has-abortion-quotas/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=No3wOPUsbcg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLlgfcbVY8c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7aa3-S3Av4

(http://media.sermonaudio.com/gallery/photos/CooleyJason-02.jpg)

Bible Blueprint For Cultural Destruction
9/10/2017 (SUN)
Audio: http://mp3.sa-media.com/download/91017233529/91017233529.mp3

http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/26/europe/ireland-abortion-referendum-2018/index.html
9/26/17

Ireland to hold referendum on abortion in 2018, government says

(CNN)The Irish government announced Tuesday that a referendum on the country's abortion laws -- some of Europe's most restrictive -- will be held next year.

In a statement, the Irish government said the referendum would be held in May or June 2018, just months before Pope Francis is due to visit the Catholic-majority country.

Ireland's abortion laws are drawn from the 8th amendment to the country's constitution, which places the right to life of an unborn child on equal footing with the right to life of the mother.

Ireland's Prime Minister, or Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, who came to power in June, pledged to hold a referendum following the non-binding recommendations of a Citizen's Assembly. The group heard harrowing testimony from scores of Irish women and received more than 13,000 individual submissions.

In Tuesday's statement, Varadkar said the Citizen's Assembly report was "currently being considered" by a parliamentary committee. The precise timetable for the referendum would be defined in legislation that would be brought forward.

"A Bill to amend the Constitution will be prepared in light of the committee's report, and subject to its passage by the Houses of the Oireachtas (Parliament), a referendum will be held in May or June of 2018."

Varadkar has generally expressed conservative views on abortion, although he has suggested the 8th amendment is too restrictive.
"Any amendment to our Constitution requires careful consideration by the people," he said Tuesday. "They should be given ample time to consider the issues and to take part in well-informed public debate."

https://hollowverse.com/hugh-hefner/
Hugh Hefner was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois.

Hefner describes his religious upbringing as in a “conservative, Midwestern, Methodist” family.1 And in talking about it, Hefner paints a picture of guilt-ridden Puritanism, an environment and lifestyle he rejected and that caused him to become the “pamphleteer”2 of the sexual revolution.3

His current views of religion are:

a) it’s ridiculous.

b) no one should claim to know the answers to these cosmic questions.

It all amounts to a somewhat antagonistic agnosticism. He has said:

    It’s perfectly clear to me that religion is a myth. It’s something we have invented to explain the inexplicable… What does it all mean — if it has any meaning at all? But how can it all exist if it doesn’t have some kind of meaning? I think anyone who suggests that they have the answer is motivated by the need to invent answers, because we have no such answers.4

So we can’t know the answer to tough, cosmological questions. Fair enough. But what about religion’s utility as instilling morals into society (for fear of damnation in the afterlife, of course)? He says:

    An afterlife would be a really good deal. Yeah, I would vote in favor of that. But in the meantime, I urge one and all to live this life as if there is no reward in the afterlife and to do it in a moral way that leaves this world a little better place than you found it.5

Politics and Pornography

Unsurprisingly, Hefner’s politics have historically been oriented toward First Amendment rights and positioned against conservatism. His business has, for its entire existence, been pitted against “traditional” values of morality, decency and purity–and he’s become quite the warrior.

So important is freedom of expression to Hefner that he has established two awards that he gives out to deserving recipients. One is the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment award, given to 100 embattled defenders of First Amendment rights every year. The second is the Freedom of Expression Award, given to one person every year who is “dedicated to defending, advocating, or supporting the First Amendment through their personal or professional pursuits.”6

In the realm of party politics, Hefner is a longtime Democrat–a very longtime Democrat. He said:

    I was a Democrat in a Republican household before I could even vote.7

Hefner has given over $130,000 to political candidates and organizations–and not a single Republican.8

And he’s quite liberal. Hefner feels that his media empire has been a liberating force for women, that what some feminists might consider sexual exploitation, he considers a chance to strut their stuff and fly in the face of Puritanical bondage.9 He said:

    We fought for birth control rights and the change in birth control laws, the change in abortion laws, we fought cases to give women the right to choose…10

Most recently, Hefner has thrown his considerable clout behind the gay marriage movement, making an official statement on the subject. An excerpt:

    Today, in every instance of sexual rights falling under attack, you’ll find legislation forced into place by people who practice discrimination disguised as religious freedom. Their goal is to dehumanize everyone’s sexuality and reduce us to using sex for the sole purpose of perpetuating our species. To that end, they will criminalize your entire sex life.11

Keep on truckin’ Hef. You and your scantily-clad bunnies are as American as apple pie and baseball.

(http://media.sermonaudio.com/gallery/photos/CooleyJason-02.jpg)

http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=101172139361
MENACE OF FEMINISM: Identical Rights Or Equal Rights?
The Menace Of Feminism
10/1/2017 (SUN)
Audio: http://www.sermonaudio.com/saplayer/playpopup.asp?SID=101172139361

Clergy Gather to 'Bless' Late-Term Abortion Facility, Claim Abortion Staff Work for God's 'Glory'

Four clergy members who profess to be Christians and one rabbi gathered outside of a late-term abortion facility in Maryland on Monday to “bless” the location, which is run by notorious abortionist Leroy Carhart.

“God of grace and God of glory, in whom we move and live,” prayed Carlton Veazey, president of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice and pastor of Fellowship Baptist Church in Washington, D.C.,“… keep them safe and keep them strong. And may they always know that all that they do is for Thy glory.”

Cari Jackson, who is ordained in the United Church of Christ and also works with the Coalition, was likewise present at Wildwood Medical Center for the occasion. According to the Washington Post, which first broke the story, the clergy members sprinkled water in each room of the abortion facility, as well as in the parking lot.

“We give honor to all of these women who choose to come to this space,” Jackson said. “We sanctify this space, and we honor this as holy.”

Those involved also sang songs, such as “Mi Shebeirach,” which is stated to be a Jewish prayer for healing.

“May the one who blessed our ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah, bless and heal those who are ill,” it states. “May the blessed Holy One be filled with compassion for their health to be restored and their strength to be revived.”

Charles Feinberg, who served as rabbi of Adas Israel Congregation in Washington, D.C. from 2006 to 2015, claimed to those gathered that Jewish leaders have believed for hundreds of years that a baby is not a person, and that killing a baby is only considered murder once he or she is born.

“Jewish rabbinic authorities, starting with the Middle Ages, say that a fetus is not a person,” he asserted. “Judaism has always said abortion is never murder. It may not be permitted, depending on the circumstances—how far along the pregnancy is, how seriously ill the mother-to-be is—but it is never murder. It only becomes that once the baby is born.”

Veazy likewise asserted that God is not against abortion because it “affirms a woman’s moral agency.”

“The Supreme Court affirmed a woman’s right to choose an abortion. But before the Supreme Court did it, God had already done it, because it affirms a woman’s moral agency,” he claimed.

A Hindu priest was supposed to have attended the interfaith event, but was not present.

As previously reported, last October, Carhart—who also operates an abortion facility in Nebraska—announced that he would be opening an office in the Wildwood Medical Center for “advanced gestation abortion care.” Abortion is legal throughout all nine months of pregnancy in Maryland.

Word of the new facility drew opposition from pro-life groups nationwide, which held a protest and press conference outside of the location and urged those concerned to call for the cancellation of Carhart’s lease. According to PrayforBethesda.com, demonstrations are being held outside of the facility on a weekly basis. Organizers also state that other businesses in the medical complex object to having an abortionist in the building.

http://christiannews.net/2018/02/04/clergy-gather-to-bless-late-term-abortion-facility-claim-abortion-staff-work-for-gods-glory/