Tuesday, August 25, 2009

LifeNews.com Pro-Life News Report 8/26/09 #4690

From: LifeNews.com Sent: Tuesday, August 25, 2009
For news updated throughout the day, visit LifeNews.com.

Current Headlines

Pro-Life Dems Plan to Stop House Health Care Bill Over Abortion Funding
Washington Times Confirms Abortion Funding, Mandates in Health Care

Backers of Pro-Abortion Health Care Bill Plan Hundreds of Rallies
• ABC Bans TV Commercial Opposing Pro-Abortion Govt Health Care Plan

Tax-Funding of Abortions Now the New Roe v. Wade of the Abortion Debate
Pro-Life Group Asks Obama to Drop Veterans Guide Promoting Euthanasia
Pro-Abortion Group to Issue Global Report Saying Abortion Helps Women
Recalling Notre Dame: Catholic Bishop Explains Decision to Boycott Obama
Hillary Opposes Sex-Selection Abortions, Other Abortion Advocates Silent
Abortion Advocates Now Defend Late-Term Abortion Practitioner Carhart

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Pro-Life Democrats Still Plan to Stop House Health Care Bill Over Abortion Funding
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The leader of a group of 40 pro-life Democrats in the House of representatives says they still plan to stop the government-run health care bill if it is not amended to exclude abortion funding. As media outlets and the nonpartisan FactCheck web site confirm, HR 3200 funds abortion in a few different ways. Rep. Bart Stupak, a Michigan congressman, is a long-time pro-life Democrat who has been a co-leader of the pro-life caucus in the House. He said in July that the pro-abortion Democrats who lead Congress need to allow an amendment to remove taxpayer funding of abortion and insurance mandates for abortions from the bill or he and his colleagues will stop it. "We are going to do everything we can to stop the rule, or the bill, from coming to the floor," Stupak told Time magazine in an article published yesterday.The debate over the rule for debate on the health care "reform" bill could be as contentious as the bill itself. That is because abortion advocates have said they may not allow amendments to remove abortion funding from the legislation.When members of Congress return from their August recess, they will work to combine the three bills House committees have approved into one measure. The House Rules Committee will propose rules for debate and the full house will debate and hold a vote on whether or not to adopt the rules. Full story at LifeNews.com

ACTION: Contact members of the House and Senate and urge strong support for any amendment to exclude abortion and rationing from their health care bills. Ask them to oppose any health care bill that allows abortion funding or rationing. Call 202-224-3121 or go to http://www.House.gov and http://www.Senate.gov for specific contact information.

Washington Times Confirms Abortion Funding, Coverage Mandates in Health Care
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Add the Washington Times to the list of media outlets that is confirming what pro-life organizations have said for weeks -- taxpayer-funding of abortion and insurance coverage mandates appear in the government-run health care bills Congress is considering. The Times joins the Associated Press, Time magazine, and the nonpartisan FactCheck.org watchdog in confirming abortion funding exists. "President Obama isn't being straight when he says current health care proposals don't provide government funding for abortion. They do," the Times newspaper says in a Monday editorial. "If Democratic plans are passed, your taxes will pay for abortions." "House and Senate sponsors defeated a total of seven different attempts, in four committees, to restrict the use of federal funds for abortions," the newspaper continues. The Times goes on to describe the Capps amendment a House committee adopted that abortion advocates say prohibits abortion funding but doesn't. Section 4 (B) of the amendment reads: "Abortions for Which Public Funding Is Allowed. -- The services described in this subparagraph are abortions for which the expenditure of Federal funds appropriated for the Department of Health and Human Services is permitted." "You can't get more explicit than that," the Times says. Full story at LifeNews.com


Backers of Pro-Abortion Health Care Bill Plan Hundreds of Rallies by Labor Day
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) --
Opponents of the pro-abortion health care bills pending in Congress have been more vocal and outspoken than the minority of Americans who support the legislation. Announcements from leading liberal groups make it appear that will change as hundreds of rallies are planned in the coming weeks. Face with public opinion that is strongly opposed to a government-run health plan that includes abortion and rationing components, public opinion has soured on the Congressional legislation. To rebuild support for the bill, which could fund hundreds of thousands of abortions, the Democratic Party and the combined DNC/Obama campaign apparatus Organizing for America will push as many as 500 rallies and public events between now and September 8. A Politico report indicates Health Care for America Now, a group pushing to create the government-run plan, is also behind the effort.
HCAN spokeswoman Jacki Schechner told the web site: "We want members of Congress to get back to work and pass reform that means something. It's doable and we expect it to get done now." Full story at LifeNews.com

ABC Bans Television Commercial Opposing Pro-Abortion Govt Health Care Plan
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) --
ABC is coming under fire for prohibiting a commercial that urges opposition to the pro-abortion government-run health care plan in Congress. The League of American Voters had planned to air the commercial that is already airing on other networks in 12 states. Bob Adams, the director of the group, told LifeNews.com he was "stunned" when he heard the news from his media buyer. "ABC television has banned our TV ad from airing on its network," he said. "With our success, we were planning to go national, so we sent the ad to the major networks." Adams says the ad, crafted by Dick Morris, the Fox News contributor and political strategist, "simply tells the truth about Obamacare."
The commercial features a respected medical doctor, a neurosurgeon, who warns that the Obama-backed health care plan will decimate health care for seniors and others in need of life-saving medical procedures.
As Dr. Cuffe explains in the ad, if Obama gets his way and adds 50 million new patients to the government system, it inevitably will lead to rationing of healthcare procedures and vital medicines for the elderly.
Full story at LifeNews.com

Taxpayer-Funding of Abortions Now the New Roe v. Wade of the Abortion Debate
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) --
Taxpayer funding of abortions is quickly become the new Roe v. Wade or touchstone of the abortion debate. The debate over requiring public funds to pay for abortions is so fundamental that it is part of a shift that could see it as the major battleground between pro-life and pro-abortion advocates. In pro-abortion legal circles, abortion advocates have shifted their arguments for abortion from the privacy considerations that played out in Roe. v. Wade and its contraception-based predecessors. Now, abortion advocates see the so-called right to abortion not as a matter of privacy but as a fundamental women's right, and human right. Their logic follows that, if abortion is a human right, then it should be a right that all women enjoy regardless of their economic situation. As such, forcing taxpayers to fund the abortions of poor women through government funding is merely a means of making that right available to all women, including those at the bottom of the economic ladder. That debate is playing out in the health care discussion as pro-abortion forces do everything in their power to make sure abortion funding and coverage are included. And it is a controversy that could extend beyond the health care legislation in Congress and to the Supreme Court. Full story at LifeNews.com

Pro-Life Group Asks Obama Admin to Drop Veterans Guide Promoting Euthanasia
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A pro-life legal group is calling on the Obama administration to drop a guide the Department of Veterans Affairs is currently promoting that some say advocates euthanasia. Obama officials have revived a guide called "Your Life, Your Choices" first published in the Clinton administration. Last year, bureaucrats at the VA's National Center for Ethics in Health Care brought back a 52-page end-of-life planning document that was suspended during virtually all of the Bush administration. It was promoted as the VA's preferred living will throughout its vast network of hospitals and nursing homes but, as Jim Towey writes in the Wall St. Journal, "the Bush White House took a look at how this document was treating complex health and moral issues and suspended its use." The American Center for Law and Justice today called on the Obama Administration to permanently rescind the guide because it is "devaluing human life and promoting euthanasia." "This pamphlet represents a troubling attempt to devalue human life," said Jay Sekulow the lead attorney and director of the ACLJ. Full story at LifeNews.com

Pro-Abortion Group to Issue Bogus Global Report Saying Abortion Helps Women
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) --
A pro-abortion group regarded as a nonpartisan analytical group is expected to issue a new report by the end of the year saying that abortion helps women worldwide. The Alan Guttmacher Institute report will likely make the false claim that legalizing abortions reduces maternal mortality. In a recent fundraising letter for the former Planned Parenthood affiliate, AGI president Sharon L. Camp requests contributions to complete "Abortion Worldwide: A Decade of Uneven Progress."
Scott Fischbach, who heads up Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life and its global outreach program, tells LifeNews.com the report will be issued in the coming months "with the sole purpose of promoting abortion globally." "This document is going to be presented to policy experts and the general public as a legitimate report on the status of abortion and maternal mortality around the world," he says. "In reality it is just more pro-abortion propaganda funded by pro-abortion donors." Full story at LifeNews.com

Recalling Notre Dame: Catholic Bishop Explains Decision to Boycott Obama
South Bend, IN (LifeNews.com) --
Notre Dame University's decision to allow pro-abortion President Barack Obama to give its commencement address and to give him an honorary degree was one of the most controversial developments in the pro-life Catholic community in recent years. Now, the Catholic bishop, John M. D'Arcy, who led the fight against the decision by boycotting the event and helping pro-life students lead the response. In a new editorial in the Catholic publication America, which is seen as a liberal one that didn't have much of a problem with Obama's speech and award, D'Arcy lays out the case for the boycott and what pro-life Catholics should do now. "In its decision to give its highest honor to a president who has repeatedly opposed even the smallest legal protection of the child in the womb, did Notre Dame surrender the responsibility that Pope Benedict believes Catholic universities have to give public witness to the truths revealed by God and taught by the church?" D'Arcy asks.
Full story at LifeNews.com

Hillary Clinton Opposes Sex-Selection Abortions, Other Abortion Advocates Silent
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) --
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently told the New York Times that she opposes sex-selection abortions and is working to do more the combat them. One pro-life advocate is inviting her to support legislation in Congress to accomplish that and notes how her colleagues aren't as vocal. In an interview with the New York Times published on Sunday, Clinton acknowledges the problems of sex-selection abortions in some Asian nations. "Obviously, there's work to be done in both India and China, because the infanticide rate of girl babies is still overwhelmingly high," she says. "Unfortunately, with technology, parents are able to use sonograms to determine the sex of a baby, and to abort girl children simply because they'd rather have a boy. And those are deeply set attitudes," Clinton continues. She adds she is seeing "openness and commitment" by the governments of India and China in confronting these practices. Marie Smith, the director of the Parliamentary Network for Critical Issues, points out the contradiction between Clinton's comments and those of other abortion advocates. "Tragically, many pro-abortionists cling to the mantra 'Every child a wanted child' and cannot even condemn abortion based on sex selection," she told LifeNews.com last week.
Full story at LifeNews.com

Abortion Advocates Now Defend Late-Term Abortion Practitioner LeRoy Carhart
Omaha, NE (LifeNews.com) --
In the aftermath of the shooting of late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller by a vigilante extremist, pro-life groups that worked to stop Tiller by legal, peaceful means have turned their attention to LeRoy Carhart. Abortion advocates are doing the same and making wild-eyed claims in the process. Hoping to stop Carhart from opening a new late-term abortion business in Kansas, and to get him to comply with state law in his stomping grounds of Nebraska, pro-life advocates have called for attention on Carhart. They have filed complaints with officials in Nebraska and Kansas about his involvement in a botched abortion that killed a mentally disabled teenage girl, and they want state officials to make sure he follows state laws limiting abortions. Pro-life groups in both states are also asking pro-life advocates to head to Omaha this coming weekend for a protest and outreach. Leading abortion advocate groups are responding with vitriol and incendiary language that is causing concerns for those in the pro-life community. Full story at LifeNews.com

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