Abortion

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Archbishop scolds pro-choice Biden

The Washington Times

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. arrived at the Democratic National Convention on Monday amid rumblings over whether his pro-choice Catholicism would help or hurt the Democratic ticket. An Irish-Catholic from a working-class upbringing, Mr. Biden won the nod as presumptive presidential nominee Barack Obama's running mate in part because of his appeal to blue-collar Catholics, the same voters who swung during the primary for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. Although he represents Delaware in the Senate, Mr. Biden grew up in Pennsylvania, a must-win state for Democrats in November.

Obama risking pro-life backlash

The Washington Times

Barack Obama's pursuit of evangelical voters has pushed the abortion issue to the fore of the campaign debate and risks mobilizing pro-life voters - who so far have been apathetic about Republican John McCain - to oppose the Democrat. "Obama might think he´s making inroads by bringing up the reduction of abortion, but putting the issue on the table makes it fair game to explore how extreme he really is," said Justin Taylor, a book editor and evangelical blogger. Mr. Obama has talked about reducing the number of "unwanted pregnancies" and is trying to appeal to pro-life voters with a platform aimed at reducing factors that lead to abortions, such as poverty and lack of sex education for young people. But the Illinois Democrat remains unapologetically pro-choice, and his voting record on the issue has come under increased scrutiny in recent weeks. Pro-life groups point to Mr. Obama's opposition in the Illinois legislature to the Born Alive Infant Protection Act and to his 2007 statement to Planned Parenthood that he hopes one of his first acts as president would be to sign a bill that would eliminate state and local government restrictions on abortion.

Obama: Mental distress can't justify late abortion

My Way News

WASHINGTON (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama says "mental distress" should not qualify as a health exception for late term-abortions, a key distinction not embraced by many supporters of abortion rights. In an interview this week with "Relevant," a Christian magazine, Obama said prohibitions on late-term abortions must contain "a strict, well defined exception for the health of the mother." Obama then added: "Now, I don't think that 'mental distress' qualifies as the health of the mother. I think it has to be a serious physical issue that arises in pregnancy, where there are real, significant problems to the mother carrying that child to term."

China's one-child policy has exemptions for quake victims' parents

International Herald Tribune

CHENGDU, China: In response to inquiries from grieving relatives, local officials announced Monday that parents whose only child was killed or grievously injured in the May 12 earthquake would be exempt from the country's one-child policy. The exception, issued by the Chengdu Population and Family Planning Committee in Sichuan Province, said qualified parents could apply for legal permission to have another child, according to The Associated Press.

South Dakota to hold abortion referendum

Breitbart.Com

Voters in the midwestern US state of South Dakota will vote in a November referendum on abortion, reviving the country's already polarized debate on the issue, state officials said Monday. Voters in the conservative state narrowly rejected a total ban on pregnancy termination in 2006, with 56 percent voting no, but exit polls showed a majority would have backed a ban if it had been less strict. The 2006 text allowed for exceptions only if the life of the mother were in immediate danger. The 2008 version takes into account cases of rape, incest, or risk of grave health effects for the mother.

For senior, abortion a medium for art, political discourse

Yale News

Art major Aliza Shvarts '08 wants to make a statement. Beginning next Tuesday, Shvarts will be displaying her senior art project, a documentation of a nine-month process during which she artificially inseminated herself "as often as possible" while periodically taking abortifacient drugs to induce miscarriages. Her exhibition will feature video recordings of these forced miscarriages as well as preserved collections of the blood from the process. The goal in creating the art exhibition, Shvarts said, was to spark conversation and debate on the relationship between art and the human body. But her project has already provoked more than just debate, inciting, for instance, outcry at a forum for fellow senior art majors held last week. And when told about Shvarts' project, students on both ends of the abortion debate have expressed shock . saying the project does everything from violate moral code to trivialize abortion.

Divorce, abortion an offence to God, pope says

Breitbart.com

Divorce and abortion are offences in the sight of God, Pope Benedict XVI charged Saturday, while calling on the Catholic Church to be merciful to those who had experienced such events. "The ethical judgement of the Church on divorce and abortion is clear and well-known," he told participants in a Catholic congress on marriage and the family. "They are serious offences... which violate human dignity, inflict deep injustice on human and social relations and offend God himself, guarantor of conjugal peace and origin of life," he said. However he added that there were people who had committed such "errors" but "suffered from wounds to the soul" and "sought peace." "The Church has the duty to be close to these people with love and delicacy," the pope added. "Divorce and abortion are choices... which sometimes develop in difficult and dramatic circumstances... and are a source of profound suffering for those who take such decisions. "They also affect innocent victims, the barely-conceived and unborn infant, the children caught up in divorces."

Bullet 333Karin Agness, Founder and President, Network of enlightened Women (NeW)
Bullet 333Phil Burress, President, Citizens for Community Values
Bullet 333Alan Chambers, President, Exodus International
Bullet 333Rev. Clenard Childress, Jr., Assistant Director, Life Education and Resource Network
Bullet 333Ward Connerly, Author/Founder and Chairman, American Civil Rights Institute
Bullet 333Scott Davis, Director of Student Ministries, Exodus International
Bullet 333Len Deo, President, New Jersey Family Policy Council
Bullet 333William Devlin, National President, Redeem The Vote
Bullet 333Jessica Echard, Executive Director, Eagle Forum
Bullet 333Tim G. Echols, President/Founder, TeenPact
Bullet 333Joseph Farah, CEO, Founder, WorldNetDaily
Bullet 333Georgette Forney, Co-Founder, Silent No More
Bullet 333Todd Friel, Radio Host, Way of the Master
Bullet 333Rick Green, President, Torch of Freedom Foundation
Bullet 333Lowman Henry, Chairman & CEO, Lincoln Institute of Public Opinion Research, Inc.
Bullet 333Dr. Janice Hollis, Bishop, Progressive Believers Ministries
Bullet 333Bishop Harry R. Jackson, Senior Pastor, Hope Christian Church
Bullet 333Peter Lillback, President, Westminster Theological Seminary
Bullet 333Gary Marx, Executive Director, Judicial Confirmation Network
Bullet 333Joe Murray, Columnist, The Bulletin
Bullet 333Jesse Lee Peterson, Founder and President, Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny
Bullet 333Elizabeth Racine, Founder, Moralert.com
Bullet 333Phyllis Schlafly, President and Founder, Eagle Forum
Bullet 333Christopher Slattery, Founder and President, EMC Frontline Pregnancy Centers
Bullet 333David Smith, Executive Director, Illinois Family Institute
Bullet 333Randy Thomas, Executive Vice President, Exodus International
Bullet 333Lorianne Updike, President & Executive Director, The Constitutional Sources Project

Clinton Rally at Catholic University Sparks Controversy

1200 WOAI San Antonio, TX

As Senator Hillary Clinton brings her struggling Presidential campaign to Texas, her visit is sparking controversy ahead of four rallies in the largely Hispanic southern portion of the state today, 1200 WOAI news reports. Clinton is set to hold a campaign rally at Greehey Auditorium of St. Mary's University, a Catholic institution, prompting San Antonio Archbishop Jose H. Gomez to respond to Catholics who have expressed concerns about Clinton's pro choice political stance. "It is clear that the records of Senator Clinton and some of the other candidates for President on important life issues are not consistent with the teaching of the Catholic Church," Gomez said. "Our Catholic institutions must promote the clear understanding of our deep moral convictions on an issue like abortion, an act that the Church calls 'an unspeakable crime' and a non negotiable issue."

Pope says some science shatters human dignity

Reuters

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict said on Thursday that embryonic stem cell research, artificial insemination and the prospect of human cloning had "shattered" human dignity. In an address to members of the Vatican department on doctrinal matters, Benedict said the Church had a duty to defend the "great values at stake" in the field of bioethics. The speech was the latest in a series in which the conservative Pope has told his listeners that scientific progress should not be accepted uncritically. Benedict, who headed the same department for years before his election in 2005, said the Church was not against scientific progress but wanted it based on "ethical-moral principles". He said this included total respect for the human being as a person "from conception until natural death," and respect for the natural transmission of life through sexual intercourse. Practices like freezing embryos, suppression of embryos in multiple pregnancies, embryonic stem cell research, the prospect of human cloning and artificial insemination outside the body had "shattered the barriers meant to protect human dignity", he said. "When human beings in the weakest and most defenseless state of their existence are selected, abandoned, killed or used as pure 'biological material,' how can one deny that they are being treated not as 'someone' but as 'something,'" he said.

Bullet 333Karin Agness, Founder and President, Network of enlightened Women (NeW)
Bullet 333Phil Burress, President, Citizens for Community Values
Bullet 333Alan Chambers, President, Exodus International
Bullet 333Rev. Clenard Childress, Jr., Assistant Director, Life Education and Resource Network
Bullet 333Ward Connerly, Author/Founder and Chairman, American Civil Rights Institute
Bullet 333Scott Davis, Director of Student Ministries, Exodus International
Bullet 333Len Deo, President, New Jersey Family Policy Council
Bullet 333William Devlin, National President, Redeem The Vote
Bullet 333Jessica Echard, Executive Director, Eagle Forum
Bullet 333Tim G. Echols, President/Founder, TeenPact
Bullet 333Joseph Farah, CEO, Founder, WorldNetDaily
Bullet 333Georgette Forney, Co-Founder, Silent No More
Bullet 333Todd Friel, Radio Host, Way of the Master
Bullet 333Rick Green, President, Torch of Freedom Foundation
Bullet 333Colin Hanna, Colin Hanna, President, Let Freedom Ring
Bullet 333Lowman Henry, Chairman & CEO, Lincoln Institute of Public Opinion Research, Inc.
Bullet 333Dr. Janice Hollis, Bishop, Progressive Believers Ministries
Bullet 333Bishop Harry R. Jackson, Senior Pastor, Hope Christian Church
Bullet 333Peter Lillback, President, Westminster Theological Seminary
Bullet 333Gary Marx, Executive Director, Judicial Confirmation Network
Bullet 333Joe Murray, Columnist, The Bulletin
Bullet 333Dr. David Prentice, Senior Fellow, Family Research Council
Bullet 333Elizabeth Racine, Founder, Moralert.com
Bullet 333Phyllis Schlafly, President and Founder, Eagle Forum
Bullet 333Christopher Slattery, Founder and President, EMC Frontline Pregnancy Centers
Bullet 333David Smith, Executive Director, Illinois Family Institute
Bullet 333Randy Thomas, Executive Vice President, Exodus International

ECHARD RECIPIENT OF SUSAN B. ANTHONY YOUNG LEADER AWARD

Eagle Forum

Washington, D.C.—Wednesday night before a full crowd at the historic Willard InterContinental Hotel in downtown Washington, D.C., Eagle Forum Executive Director Jessica Echard received the Susan B. Anthony Young Leader Award for pro-life leadership. Presented by the Susan B. Anthony List at their inaugural Campaign for Life Gala, the award recognizes young women making a difference for the lives of the unborn. The SBA List educates and mobilizes pro-life women to become involved in the political process by voting, running for public office, and funding pro-life campaigns. The organization is named after the suffragette Susan B. Anthony because she was an outspoken critic of abortion. Although she is known for helping women win the right to vote, it is often untold in history that she was strongly pro-life. “I am honored to receive this award named after Susan B. Anthony,” Echard stated. “As a woman, standing up against the feminists and the pro-abortion crowd is a privilege. But the cause of the unborn child is really a fight for all of us. When the government sanctions the taking of innocent life, what security have we in any other freedom?”

Huckabee Gains Black Support

Associated Press

ATLANTA (AP) — Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee paid tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. at a lengthy memorial service Monday at King's old church and was endorsed by several black religious leaders. After leaving the King ceremony, Huckabee was endorsed by three dozen African-Americans, most of them connected to conservative religious organizations. Huckabee's strong opposition to abortion and gay marriage matches the "high moral values" of many black Americans, said William Owens, founder of a group called the Coalition of African American Pastors.

Number of abortions lowest in decades

Boston.Com

WASHINGTON - The number of abortions being performed in the United States has dropped to 1.2 million a year - the lowest level since 1976, according to a new report. more stories like thisThe drop was driven by a decline in the overall rate at which women of childbearing age are getting abortions, which fell about 9 percent between 2000 and 2005, according to a nationwide survey. At the same time, the long decline in the number of abortion providers appears to be stabilizing, at least in part because of the availability of the controversial abortion pill RU 486, the report found. The report did not identify reasons for the drop in abortions, but the researchers said it could be a combination of factors. "It could be more women using contraception and not having as many unintended pregnancies. It could be more restrictions on abortions, making it more difficult for women to obtain abortion services. It could be a combination of these and other dynamics," said Rachel Jones of the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive-health research organization publishing the report in the March issue of the journal Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health. Whatever the reasons, the trend was welcomed by both antiabortion and abortion rights advocates.

Designer baby fear over heart gene test

The Times Online

A British couple have won the right to test embryos for a gene that leads to high cholesterol levels and an increased risk of heart attacks, The Times has learnt. The decision by the fertility watchdog will reopen controversy over the ethics of designer babies, as it allows doctors to screen embryos for a condition that is treatable with drugs and can be influenced by lifestyle as well as genes. While the procedure is designed to detect a rare version of a disease called familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH), which often kills children before puberty, it will also identify a milder form that can be controlled by drugs and diet. Critics argue that the test will allow couples to destroy embryos that would have had a good chance of becoming children with fulfilling and reasonably healthy lives.

National Right to Life Committee Endorses Thompson

Fox News

Fred Thompson on Tuesday fielded the endorsement of the largest anti-abortion group in the country, giving the GOP candidate a boost in his quest to appeal to conservative voters. The National Right to Life Committee announced the endorsement in Washington, D.C., while Thompson was campaigning in South Carolina. “Our endorsement is a testament to Sen. Thompson's longstanding pro-life record, his commitment to protecting unborn children and our belief in his ability to win,” said Wanda Franz, president of the committee.

World should ban human cloning, except medical: U.N.

Reuters

OSLO (Reuters) - The world should quickly ban cloning of humans and only allow exceptions for strictly controlled research to help treat diseases such as diabetes or Alzheimer's, a U.N. study said on Sunday. Without a ban, experts at the U.N. University's Institute of Advanced Studies said that governments would have to prepare legal measures to protect clones from "potential abuse, prejudice and discrimination". "A legally-binding global ban on work to create a human clone, coupled with freedom for nations to permit strictly controlled therapeutic research, has the greatest political viability of options available," the study said. "Whichever path the international community chooses it will have to act soon -- either to prevent reproductive cloning or to defend the human rights of cloned individuals," said A.H. Zakri, head of the Institute, which is based in Yokohama,

Bullet 333Karin Agness, Founder and President, Network of enlightened Women (NeW)
Bullet 333Phil Burress, President, Citizens for Community Values
Bullet 333Alan Chambers, President, Exodus International
Bullet 333Rev. Clenard Childress, Jr., Assistant Director, Life Education and Resource Network
Bullet 333Ward Connerly, Author/Founder and Chairman, American Civil Rights Institute
Bullet 333Scott Davis, Director of Student Ministries, Exodus International
Bullet 333Tom DeLay, Former House Majority Leader, United States House of Representatives
Bullet 333Len Deo, President, New Jersey Family Policy Council
Bullet 333William Devlin, National President, Redeem The Vote
Bullet 333Jessica Echard, Executive Director, Eagle Forum
Bullet 333Tim G. Echols, President/Founder, TeenPact
Bullet 333Joseph Farah, CEO, Founder, WorldNetDaily
Bullet 333Georgette Forney, Co-Founder, Silent No More
Bullet 333Todd Friel, Radio Host, Way of the Master
Bullet 333Paul "Dave" Gaubatz, Owner-Director, Wahhabi CT Publications
Bullet 333Rick Green, President, Torch of Freedom Foundation
Bullet 333Colin Hanna, Colin Hanna, President, Let Freedom Ring
Bullet 333Lowman Henry, Chairman & CEO, Lincoln Institute of Public Opinion Research, Inc.
Bullet 333Dr. Janice Hollis, Bishop, Progressive Believers Ministries
Bullet 333Bishop Harry R. Jackson, Senior Pastor, Hope Christian Church
Bullet 333Cliff Kincaid, President, America's Survival, Inc.
Bullet 333Peter Lillback, President, Westminster Theological Seminary
Bullet 333Gary Marx, Executive Director, Judicial Confirmation Network
Bullet 333Joe Murray, Columnist, The Bulletin
Bullet 333Dr. David Prentice, Senior Fellow, Family Research Council
Bullet 333Elizabeth Racine, Founder, Moralert.com
Bullet 333Phyllis Schlafly, President and Founder, Eagle Forum
Bullet 333Christopher Slattery, Founder and President, EMC Frontline Pregnancy Centers
Bullet 333David Smith, Executive Director, Illinois Family Institute
Bullet 333Randy Thomas, Executive Vice President, Exodus International

Fred Thompson a Threat to the Pro-Life Plank in the Republican National Platform

RNCLife

Pro-life Republican voters who had hopes that Fred Thompson might be their man to support for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination had their hopes dashed yesterday when Mr. Thompson appeared on “Meet the Press.” The Republican Party Platform has supported a Human Life Amendment to the U.S. Constitution since 1976. Pro-life Americans want legal protection restored to innocent human beings from the moment of conception. That protection will not be restored simply by overturning Roe v. Wade, which is all Mr. Thompson supports. If the issue were slavery rather than abortion, his approach would be to allow states to be either slave or free, regardless of the fact that black people are human beings not to be treated as property. Thompson admits that he knows a human being exists at the moment of conception and abortion is the taking of a human life. The fact that he opposes protecting those lives at the federal level is shocking and reveals a mindset that, contrary to his rhetoric, considers the unborn child nothing more than the mother’s property and unworthy of protection under the law.

Could One Man Influence Abortion Law?

ABC News

Depending on whom you ask, Johnson County, Kan., District Attorney Phill Kline is either an agenda-driven prosecutor operating outside the law or one of the best friends the anti-abortion rights movement has ever had. And there's no lack of witnesses in his home state willing to testify about their opinion. "He's a person who is incredibly principled to the point where he sacrificed his own political career to pursue justice and uphold the constitution and the laws of the state of Kansas," said Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue, an anti-abortion rights organization that organizes protests outside many Kansas clinics. Newman's Operation Rescue named Kline "Man of the Year" in 2006. But just one year earlier, Planned Parenthood – the nation's leading provider of sexual and reproductive health care (including abortions) – placed Kline on its list of "Seven Politicians You Don't Want in Your Bedroom."

Abortion Debate Rages in Chicago Suburb

ABC News

The name of the company applying for the building permits sounded like just another firm. On paper, the brick structure looked much like any other medical complex. Then it was revealed that the company, Gemini Office Development, is a subsidiary of Planned Parenthood and that the building would include space where abortions would be performed. Now, the 22,000-square foot, $7.5 million building in this suburb 35 miles west of Chicago stands finished but empty while the city investigates whether any building permit laws were broken. A federal judge could decide as soon as Thursday to order local officials to allow the clinic to open. That prospect has drawn round-the-clock protests to the site by anti-abortion activists.

Judge Blocks New Missouri Abortion Law

CR Daily

(AP) A federal judge temporarily blocked a new Missouri abortion law Monday after Planned Parenthood said the law would harm women by dramatically reducing the clinics available to provide the procedure. The law, which was scheduled to take effect on Tuesday, would put more abortion clinics under state supervision by categorizing them as outpatient surgery centers, requiring them to meet specific state building, staffing and health standards. The law would apply to any facility that performs more than five first-trimester abortions a month, or any second- or third-trimester abortions. Planned Parenthood argued the organization would have to halt abortions at its Columbia and Kansas City offices - either permanently or while expensive and "medically unnecessary" renovations were made.

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