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Current Headlines
• Baucus Health Care "Reform" Bill Pushes Doctors to OK Rationing for Seniors
• Opposition to Pro-Abortion Health Care Plan Hits New High With Baucus Bill
• Obama May Promise Abortion-Free Health Care But He Won't Likely Deliver
• Violence Begets Violence, Abortion Culture Produces Death of James Pouillon
• Pro-Life Catholics Express Skepticism About Notre Dame President's Overtures
• Project Rachel Spends 25 Years Helping Women Face Problems After Abortion
• Her Choice, Her Problem: How Legalized Abortion Empowers Men Over Women
• Lancet Follows School OKing Population Control to Reduce Climate Change
• Accused Shooter Scott Roeder of Abortionist Tiller Won't See Trial Until Next Year
• South Dakota Appeals Ruling Denying Women Abortion-Suicide Link Information
• Dominican Republic Includes Pro-Life Language on Abortion in Constitution Bill
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Baucus Health Care "Reform" Bill Pushes Doctors to OK Rationing for Seniors
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The Baucus health care "reform" bill that is quickly becoming the potential alternative to the Kennedy bill and HR 3200 includes abortion subsidies and mandates. Additional analysis also shows the legislation includes health care rationing that would cause problems for senior citizens. Burke J. Balch, an attorney and the director of the medical ethics center at the National Right to Life Committee, has examined the entire bill. He points to language on pages 80-81 regarding Medicare physician payments as a concern. "Beginning in 2015, payment would be reduced by five percent if an aggregation of the physician's resource use is at or above the 90th percentile of national utilization," the Baucus bill says. "After five years, the Secretary would have the authority to convert the 90th percentile threshold for payment reductions to a standard measure of utilization, such as deviations from the national mean." Balch says the language clearly makes it so doctors are pushed financially into provided less care for seniors by being urged to purchase cheaper medical tests and phase out costly treatments. "The provision penalizing doctors establishes that for at least five years, Medicare physicians who authorize treatments for their patients that wind up in the top 10% of per capita cost for a year will lose 5% of their total Medicare reimbursements for that year," he explains to CBN News' David Brody. "This means that all doctors treating older people will constantly be driven to try to order the least expensive tests and treatments for fear that they will be caught in that top 10%," Balch adds. Full story at LifeNews.com
ACTION: Contact members of the Senate Finance Committee and urge them to support amendments to make sure abortion funding and coverage are specifically excluded from the Baucus bill. You can find members of the panel here. http://finance.senate.gov/sitepages/committee.htm
Opposition to Pro-Abortion Health Care Plan Hits New High With Baucus Bill
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Opposition to the pro-abortion government-run health care plans has hit a new high following the introduction of the Baucus bill that the senator has billed as a compromise. Like HR 3200 and the Kennedy bill, the measure from the Montana Democrat also includes abortion subsidies and mandates. The Baucus bill also includes financial incentives for physicians to promote rationing of health care. Given those problems, a new Rasmussen poll finds opposition to the three plans has increased to a record high in its surveys. The new poll released today finds 56 percent of voters nationwide now oppose the health care reform proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats. That's the highest level of opposition yet measured and includes 44% who are strongly opposed. Just 43% now favor the proposal, including 24% who strongly favor it. Pollster Scott Rasmussen says there was a slight bounce toward supporting the pro-abortion health care proposals after Obama's speech, but the numbers have returned to the levels they have been at for some time -- with a clear majority of Americans opposing the plans. Full story at LifeNews.com
Obama May Promise Abortion-Free Health Care But He Won't Likely Deliver
by Ken Connor
President Obama attempted to allay the concerns of pro-life advocates last week by assuring Americans that federal funding for abortion will not be included in "his" health care reform plan. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius sought to reinforce this sentiment in a recent interview: "Well that's exactly what the President said and that's what he intends that the bill he signs will do.... I think the legislative language will reflect what the President has just said." What's going on here? Either President Obama has experienced an epiphany regarding the sanctity of human life at every stage of development, or once again his Administration is attempting to pull the wool over the American people's eyes with a rhetorical bait and switch. A review of the facts may provide insight as to which is the case. Let's take a look at Barack Obama's record to-date with regard to abortion policy… As a state senator, Barack Obama twice voted against a bill that would require physicians to provide emergency medical care to infants who survive attempted abortion. His explanation? He feared such a law would serve as a tacit acknowledgement of the "legal standing" of the fetus, thereby threatening the legality of Roe v. Wade. Heaven forbid we acknowledge the humanity of an unwanted child, even one that has managed to make it out of the womb alive against all odds. Full story at LifeNews.com
Violence Begets Violence, Abortion Culture Produces Death of James Pouillon
by Deirdre A. McQuade
Last week, James Pouillon was shot multiple times and killed while protesting abortion outside a high school in Owosso, Michigan. According to reports, the suspect in custody, Harlan James Drake, admitted to police that he had also killed Mike Fuoss earlier that morning and that he had intended to murder a third man against whom he held a grudge, but was arrested before he reached his last victim. The violence didn't end with his arrest. The Associated Press reports that Mr. Drake was hospitalized Saturday night after an attempt on his own life in the county jail. Nor is that the end of it. Some angry people are already calling for the death penalty, yet another act of violence. Pro-life demonstrators are no strangers to verbal and physical harassment and even death threats, but this is the first publicized case of one's murder. Police who took the suspect into custody reported that Drake targeted Pouillon because he didn't like his sign showing the disturbing reality of abortion. On one side, the placard read: "LIFE" accompanied by the lovely image of a smiling baby, while the other had "ABORTION" written above a gruesome photo of the bloody remains of an aborted child. Full story at LifeNews.com
Pro-Life Catholics Express Skepticism About Notre Dame President's Overtures
South Bend, IN (LifeNews.com) -- More pro-life Catholics are expressing skepticism about the overtures Notre Dame University president John Jenkins is making. Jenkins is attempting to repair the damage from inviting pro-abortion President Barack Obama to give commencement and presenting him an honorary degree. As LifeNews.com reported yesterday, Jenkins says he is planning to attend next year's March for Life and is asking people to join him. He is also launching a new task force meant to promote the pro-life perspective as well as aide for pregnant women and adoptions. The Cardinal Newman Society, which helped lead the opposition to the Notre Dame-Obama scandal, sent LifeNews.com an email yesterday responding to Jenkins' letter to Notre Dame staff and students. CNS president Patrick Reilly said, "These are welcome steps in the right direction -- the sort of activities that Catholics should expect from any Catholic college or university -- but there are serious steps that Notre Dame should take immediately to atone for its shocking betrayal of the U.S. bishops and the Catholic Church last spring." Full story at LifeNews.com
Milwaukee, WI (LifeNews.com) -- Project Rachel, the organization that has helped thousands of women rebuild their lives following the problems and pain of an abortion, is marking 25 years of ministry. The anniversary is a bittersweet moment because the need for such a group only arises out of death, pain and heartache. Vicki Thorn founded the ministry, which started as a project out of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, and she has seen the physical and emotional scars of an abortion in the bodies and hearts of countless women. She told the Catholic News Service the anniversary has been "an awesome experience of looking back and seeing how an idea that was really only Spirit-inspired changed the face of the abortion debate in the U.S., and, not only in the U.S., but also in other countries."\ Thorn had personal experience watching women go thorough agony after an abortion when her close friend in high school suffered through addiction, eating disorders and self-destructive actions after her abortion. She went to school to study psychology and noted how her courses did not specifically prepare her for how to help women facing an abortion decision. Thorn told CNS that she saw the Catholic Church as an ideal place to form the ministry. Full story at LifeNews.comHer Choice, Her Problem: How Legalized Abortion Empowers Men Over Women
by Richard Stith
This summer, President Obama proclaimed again that we "need fathers to recognize that responsibility doesn't end at conception." In a sense, of course, he is absolutely right. But the problem is that, in another sense, he is completely wrong: Male responsibility really does end at conception. Men these days can choose only sex, not fatherhood; mothers alone determine whether children shall be allowed to exist. Legalized abortion was supposed to grant enormous freedom to women, but it has had the perverse result of freeing men and trapping women. The likelihood of this cultural development was foreseen by the radical feminist Catherine MacKinnon, one of the critical voices responding to Roe v. Wade's extension of the right of privacy to cover abortion. In an essay called "Privacy vs. Equality," MacKinnon argued that "abortion's proponents and opponents share a tacit assumption that women do significantly control sex. Feminist investigations suggest otherwise. Sexual intercourse . . . cannot simply be presumed coequally determined." Indeed, she added, "men control sexuality," and " Roe does not contradict this." Full story at LifeNews.com
Lancet Follows London School OKing Population Control to Reduce Climate Change
London, England (LifeNews.com) -- The British medical journal Lancet is following the lead of the London School of Economics in advocating population control as a solution for so-called climate change. The trend is alarming for pro-life advocates who say abortions have already been pushed in nations like China and may be promoted worldwide. In an editorial, the publishers of Lancet said contraception should be distributed on a worldwide basis -- specifically in nations in Africa -- to cut back on the population. They advocate this as a solution to the highly-disputed claim that the environment is being destroyed because of the number of people on the planet. The claims come even as many nations face severe underpopulation and worker shortages that are threatening their economies and causing social problems. "There is now an emerging debate and interest about the links between population dynamics, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and climate change," the editorial reads. Full story at LifeNews.com
Accused Shooter Scott Roeder of Abortionist Tiller Won't See Trial Until Next Year
Wichita, KS (LifeNews.com) -- Scott Roeder, the militia activist who stands accused of killing late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller, will not go on trial until next year. News of the delay follows a week to the day after a Michigan man allegedly shot James Pouillon, a pro-life advocate who protested abortion outside a local high school. Roeder, who has no official ties or affiliations with any pro-life organizations, entered Reformation Lutheran Church on May 31 and reportedly shot Tiller at close range. The Sedgwick County District Attorney's office said this morning that it is not prepared to take Roeder to trial until next year. The date had been scheduled for Monday but is now set for January 25, 2010. That is just three days after the 37th anniversary of the infamous Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that allowed virtually unlimited abortions -- which likely means that the trial will color the mainstream media's coverage of the anniversary. Full story at LifeNews.com
South Dakota Appeals Ruling Denying Women Abortion-Suicide Link Information
Pierre, SD (LifeNews.com) -- The state of South Dakota and pregnancy centers are appealing a judge's ruling preventing women from getting information before an abortion showing its link to suicide. A judge ruled in August that a new state law telling women that abortion kills their children is okay but struck down the suicide provision. Judge Karen Schreier also struck down a portion of the new law requiring abortion centers to tell women that they have a legal relationship with their unborn child. About the suicide provision, Judge Schreier called it "untruthful and misleading" -- claiming that "such a risk is not 'known,'" and, therefore, the "the suicide disclosure language of the statute is untruthful and misleading." Attorney General Marty Jackley says the state is appealing her decision. "We have sorted out two main legal issues that again we feel warrant further review by the higher court," Jackley told KSFY. Two South Dakota pregnancy centers are also joining in the appeal -- the Alpha Center in Sioux Falls and the Black Hills Crisis Pregnancy Center in Rapid City. They want the case to be heard by the entire 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Full story at LifeNews.com
Dominican Republic Includes Pro-Life Language on Abortion in Constitution Bill
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (LifeNews.com) -- The Dominican Republic, an island nation in the Caribbean, has long had pro-life laws that prohibit abortions. Now, lawmakers in its legislature have approved a provision adding pro-life language to a bill that would make changes to its constitution. Members of the Congress easily approved adding the pro-life language to the bill, with changes on other political issues, saying "the right to life is inviolable from conception until death." The Rev. Manuel Ruiz spoke for many pro-life advocates in this Catholic country saying that the passage of the language is great news. But pro-abortion activist Sergia Galvan told the Associated Press she is upset by the vote and accused pro-life advocates of wanting to take women back to "medieval times," even though current research shows how abortion kills children and hurts women. The Dominican Republic has been coming under heavy attacks from abortion advocates, including Amnesty International. In June, the human rights group attacked the nation for proposing these changes. Full story at LifeNews.com
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