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ACTION: Contact members of the House and Senate and urge strong support for any amendment to exclude abortion from their health care bills. Call 202-224-3121 or go to http://www.House.gov and http://www.Senate.gov for specific contact information.
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Current Headlines
• Associated Press Misleads Readers on Abortion, Health Care, and President Obama
• Pro-Life Advocate: Catholics Must Do More to Remove Abortion From Health Care
• Nancy Pelosi Again Avoids Question of Abortion in Government-Run Health Care
• Terri Schiavo's Brother Concerned by Rationing in Congressional Health Care Bills
• John McCain Joins Republicans in Opposing Sonia Sotomayor for Supreme Court
• Pro-Life Group Renews Planned Parenthood Debate Challenge on Health Care
• Obama Staffer Says Abortion Compromise Coming Soon, Pro-Lifers Skeptical
• Pro-Life Campaign Started to Stop Late-Term Abortion Business Replacing Tiller
• Helping Women With Drug, Alcohol Addiction Shouldn't Include Promoting Abortion
• Heisman Winner Tim Tebow's Virginity Pledge Leaves Reporters Speechless
• Abortion Advocates Vandalize Office of Organizer of European Pro-Life Conference
• Alaska Planned Parenthood Sues to Stop Parental Notification Before Abortion
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Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The Associated Press is coming under criticism from pro-life advocates who say its recent wrap-up article on the health care debate is misleading. AP writer Charles Babington wrote a "fact check" story attempting to make the case that abortion is not included in the health care bills and that President Barack Obama doesn't want it to be included. But Douglas Johnson, the legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee, says that's not the case. AP claims that "Obama recently told CBS that the nation should continue a tradition of not financing abortions as part of government-funded health care.'" "If Obama had actually said that, it would have been a very newsworthy statement indeed. But Obama didn't say it. AP has grossly distorted what Obama actually said," Johnson tells LifeNews.com. As LifeNews.com reported, CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric asked Obama, "Do you favor a government option that would cover abortions?" Obama declined to answer the question and said he would "rather not wade into" the issue of abortion funding in health care. Obama said he is "not trying to micro-manage what benefits are covered -- which Johnson called a "swipe against adding language like the Hyde Amendment to the bill -- which is, of course, the only way to prevent a broad health-benefits law from covering abortions." Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Life Advocate: Catholics Must Do More to Remove Abortion From Health Care
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Unless Catholic groups and leaders do more, the government-run health care plans Congress is currently considering will require taxpayer-funded abortions and abortion mandates. That's the view of Deal Hudson, the editor of InsideCatholic, responding to a dustup within the Catholic community. Three mainstream Catholic groups were criticized last week for not taking a strong enough position against abortion in health care. And while the nation's Catholic bishops have written members of Congress twice asking them to keep abortion out of the health care plan, Hudson says a more cohesive national effort is needed to stop it. "The Congress and the White House have little to fear from the bishops' official statements opposing the abortion provisions in the health care bill," Hudson writes in an editorial today. "Unlike with President Barack Obama's appearance at Notre Dame, there is no chorus of bishops' voices rising in protest against the bill." Hudson laments that "most of the Catholics in Congress support" the pro-abortion health care bills "and mainstream Catholic organizations like Catholic Charities USA and the Catholic Health Association -- which some assume speak for the bishops -- have also voiced their support." Hudson's conclusion? "The overall impression given by Church leadership thus far is that universal health care coverage is so badly needed that they are not willing to endanger the legislation by protesting too loudly against abortion coverage," he writes. Full story at LifeNews.com
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The House and Senate bills for government-run health care pave the way for taxpayer-funding of abortion and abortion mandates in insurance. Yet, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has twice dodged a question about whether she supports including abortion funding in the health care plans. One week ago, CNN's John King asked Pelosi if the government-run health plan should cover abortions. Pelosi stammered, saying, "That's not--that's not the issue. The issue is people go out there to--we'll be working on that issue. But that's not the issue." At a Friday press conference, a Cybercast News Service reporter asked "Could you please give me a yes-or-no answer on whether or not you personally, Speaker Pelosi, support expressly prohibiting the funding of abortion through the federally subsidized health plan created by the health-care reform bill." Pelosi was slightly more articulate but still failed to give a yes or no answer. "Well, my position on a women's right to choose is well known," Pelosi responded. "This issue, however, will not stand in the way of us advancing the health-care legislation." Full story at LifeNews.com
Terri Schiavo's Brother Concerned by Rationing in Congressional Health Care Bills
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Bobby Schindler, the brother of Terri Schiavo, knows a thing or two about health care rationing. Forced to sit idly by as his sister's estranged husband deprived her of food and water for a period of 13 days before she died, Schindler is concerned the government-run health bills in Congress will foster rationing. In a new editorial, appearing on the conservative web site Townhall, Schindler talks about the problems associated with the health care restructuring bills. Schindler responds to a comment from Republican party chairman Michael Steele who said the rationing components are so bad that they will "make the Terri Schiavo case look like a walk in the park." He wrote that he found "Steele's remarks and his concern regarding a government-controlled health care system" to be "ironic." "What happened to Terri is a perfect example of what he and Republicans are now trying to prevent from happening and what so many health care experts are warning us will happen if President Obama gets his way and establishes a system of health care rationing that would inevitably lead to countless premature deaths," Schindler warns. Full story at LifeNews.com
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Former presidential candidate John McCain will join more than two dozen Republicans in opposing Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. The full Senate is expected to vote this week on her confirmation after the Senate Judiciary Committee approved her last week on a 13-6 vote. "I do not believe she shares my belief of judicial restraint," McCain said in a speech on the Senate floor on Monday. "She is a judge who has foresworn judicial activism in her confirmation hearings, but who has a long record of it prior to 2009," McCain said. "And should she engage in activist decisions that overturn the considered constitutional judgments of millions of Americans, if she uses her lifetime appointment on the bench as a perch to remake law in her own image of justice, I expect that Americans will hold us Senators accountable," the Arizona lawmaker added. Full story at LifeNews.com
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The Family Research Council is renewing its challenge to Planned Parenthood to debate whether or not the government-run health care bills Congress is debating cover abortions. FRC released a television ad blasting abortion's inclusion and Planned Parenthood has been on the attack ever since. Planned Parenthood has aggressively attacked FRC since it released the television ads and its president, Cecile Richards, continued the attacks on Monday. In a scathing editorial appearing in the pro-abortion blog Huffington Post, claiming, "Family Research Council has never been known to let the facts get in the way of good, old-fashioned hysteria." Richards claims it is a myth that taxpayer money would be used to pay for abortions in the government-run health care plan. Perkins challenged Richards to debate the health care bills and whether they pave the way for abortion funding. Richards has yet to respond and Perkins is renewing his challenge. "Last week, I couriered a letter to Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards inviting her to debate the question of taxpayer-funded abortion and whether or not citizens would be forced to fund abortion under the current health care reform bills," he told LifeNews.com. Full story at LifeNews.comObama Staffer Says Abortion Compromise Coming Soon, Pro-Lifers Skeptical
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- President Barack Obama's top staffer for faith-based issues says the abortion compromise proposal his office is crafting is coming soon. But one pro-life advocate who was involved in the discussions is very skeptical that the White House will craft a real proposal that legitimately reduces abortions. Joshua DuBois, head of The White House Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships gave an interview to David Brody of CBN News. In it, he talked about what can be expected from the Obama administration in the next three to six months concerning the compromise proposal. "The good thing is that the President has been extraordinarily clear about this. He knows that there are very clear perspectives on both sides of this difficult issue,' DuBois said. "But he thinks there's a lot of area in the middle that we can potentially find some agreement on whether it's strengthening the institution of adoption or making sure that pregnant women have the health care and the care and support to bring a pregnancy to term,' DuBois added. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Life Campaign Started to Stop Late-Term Abortion Business Replacing Tiller
Wichita, KS (LifeNews.com) -- Operation Rescue has started a new pro-life campaign to stop Nebraska-based abortion practitioner LeRoy Carhart from opening up a new late-term abortion business. Carhart, who runs an abortion center in an Omaha suburb, has promised to take over for George Tiller, who was recently shot and killed. Carhart told local media outlets he promised to either open up his own abortion center in Kansas to replace the one Tiller's family shut down after his death or to teach his own employees how to help him do late-term abortions in Nebraska. To combat that from happening, Operation Rescue told LifeNews.com on Monday that it has started the "Keep it Closed" campaign. Joining with other pro-life groups, including Rescue the Heartland and Nebraskans United for Life, OR will sponsor a pro-life rally in Omaha later this month which will include protests at Carhart's abortion center in Bellevue. "We are dedicated to working through every legal means to stop LeRoy Carhart from following through on his threats to open a late-term abortion clinic to replace Tiller's clinic," the group's president, Troy Newman, told LifeNews.com. Full story at LifeNews.com
Helping Women With Drug, Alcohol Addiction Shouldn't Include Promoting Abortion
by Maria Vitale
While driving in traffic one day, I was surprised to see a bus ad featuring a pregnant woman. The ad promoted something called the "Baby Love" program. Curious, I later searched the World Wide Web and discovered that the program is funded by my Pennsylvania county's commission on drugs and alcohol. The program's services run the gamut, and include referrals to addiction programs, housing help, parenting and life skills assistance, coordination of medical and dental services, referrals to legal services, and educational and vocational assistance. It seems to me that, in this case, "Baby Love" is synonymous with "Mommy love." In other words, concrete efforts are being made to protect the well-being of the preborn child by assisting the child's mother. All too often, people see drugs and alcohol as reasons why women should seek abortions. Full story at LifeNews.com
Heisman Winner Tim Tebow's Virginity Pledge Leaves Reporters Speechless
by Kevin Roeten
The Heisman winner in 2007 did it again. Reporters couldn't believe what they heard, and were speechless. University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow, who engineered his winning the Heisman, and two national championships, actually spoke the "V" word. To the accompanying reporters' shock, he said he was a "virgin", and would remain so until marriage. Tim Tebow had originally been conceived by Pam Tebow who had actually gone into a coma from contracting amoebic dysentery during her pregnancy. Doctors told Pam she needed to abort because the strong medications she took may have caused irreversible damage to Tim. She refused to abort, and later at Florida Tim won the Heisman. Any college football fan would know about Tim Tebow, the muscular Christian who plays quarterback for the Florida Gators. A more descriptive story by Austin Murphy in Sports Illustrated is in this feature about Tebow, which describes his history much better. Full story at LifeNews.com
Abortion Advocates Vandalize Office of Organizer of European Pro-Life Conference
Amsterdam, Netherlands (LifeNews.com) -- Abortion advocates have vandalized the offices of the company that a collection of pro-life groups have contracted with to put on an international pro-life conference in Europe. Despite the incident, backers of the World Congress of Families plan to move ahead with their event next week. Conference organizers tell LifeNews.com that Amsterdam offices of EuroCongress were vandalized and damaged last Thursday. EuroCongress is the professional conference organizer for World Congress of Families V, which will be held at the RAI Centre in Amsterdam starting on August 10. Vandals defaced and damaged the outside of the EuroCongress building by smearing paint and writing various obscenities and anti-Christian slogans. Simon Polinder, the Dutch chairman of the international pro-life event, told LifeNews.com, "This is really outrageous. We are organizing an international family congress, with which we intend to bring attention to the positive value of the family." Full story at LifeNews.com
Alaska Planned Parenthood Sues to Stop Parental Notification Before Abortion
Juneau, AK (LifeNews.com) -- Parents of teenage girls in Alaska may want the right to know when their daughters are considering an abortion, but Alaska Planned Parenthood doesn't want them to get to vote on it. The abortion business has filed a lawsuit seeking to stop a state ballot initiative that would allow parental notification before abortion. Earlier this month, Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell certified the initiative and its sponsors began the campaign to collect signatures from 32,734 Alaskans so the initiative can appear on the ballot. But the Alaska branch of Planned Parenthood has filed a lawsuit to prevent organizers from getting the signatures and letting Alaskans have a chance to vote on the measure. Planned Parenthood, along with Bartlett High School teacher Susan Wingrove, say they don't want to prevent a vote but they claim the language of the initiative is unconstitutional. Full story at LifeNews.com
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