Friday, Feb 27, 2009  --  How brazenly they lie to cover their support for abortion!

Politicians who support abortion use a litany of slogans to cover themselves: "personally opposed," "safe, legal, and rare," "woman's right to choose," "pro-choice," "cannot impose my morality," etc.  None of these slogans demonstrate any logical reasoning. 

Is anyone personally opposed to stealing, but thinks its OK anyway?   If abortion is safe and legal, why does it need to be rare?  Why should a woman have the right to choose to kill her own child?  Why is there never any concern about imposing one's morality when opposing the death penalty?

Recently, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius commented on the abortion issue, saying, “While my beliefs teach me that abortion is morally unacceptable, as a public official, I have worked hard to ensure that abortions are rare, safe and within the bounds of the law.”

Operation Rescue is based in Kansas and knows the history of the actions Gov. Sebelius has taken on abortion.  Sebelius vetoed a bill that addressed the all-too-common problem of coerced abortion, so she failed to help make them rare.  She vetoed bills that would have specified safety regulations for abortion clinics, so she failed to help make them safer.  

Sebelius even hosted a party honoring late-term abortionist George Tiller and his entire staff while Tiller was under investigation by the Attorney General and Kansas Board of Healing Arts, with criminal charges coming two months later.  How might that close association by Sebelius help ensure abortions are within the bounds of the law?

In fact, the only connection that can be drawn between the actions of Sebelius and her words are brazen deception.  If you follow the money, records show how much campaign funding she receives from Tiller and the abortion industry.  To continue receiving that money, she has proven she will take no action to "ensure that abortions are rare, safe and within the bounds of the law."

What are the chances this same pattern occurs with most pro-abortion politicians?  Well, it is certainly much greater than the chance they are actually committed to making abortion "safe, legal and rare" (as phrased by former President Clinton).  Each new slogan is just another brazen lie!

Thursday, Feb 26, 2009  --  Testing for "brain death" can be fatal

"Diagnostic protocols for brain death (called the apnea test) actually induce death in patients who could recover to normal life by receiving timely and scientifically based therapies," Dr. Coimbra, head of the Neurology and Neurosurgery Department at the Federal University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, told the participants at the "Signs of Life" conference on "brain death."

This conference was held in Rome last week.  Some of the testimony was chilling, to say the least. Dr. Coimbra told about a 15 year-old girl with a severe brain trauma.  She was declared "brain dead" but he treated her with thyroid hormones and she began to recover.

The physician who declared her "brain death" wrote the following statement, a photocopy of which was shown at the conference: "If the diagnostic criteria for a brain death are fulfilled at a certain time, the person is legally dead no matter whether those criteria become no longer fulfilled later on."  This incident showed, he said, that medical professionals attending patients officially declared "brain dead" "feel at risk" of legal action from families.

The controversy about "brain death" continues at the Vatican.   There is some optimism that last wek's conference may have an impact in generating a more thorough consideration of the evidence against using "brain death" as a legitimate means to declare death.  Such a result would be a relief, but not soon enough for one bereaved mother.   How many more have had a similar experience?

Wednesday, Feb 25, 2009  --  Guttmacher campaigns for more Planned Parenthood funding

Alan Guttmacher was once the leader of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.  The Guttmacher Institute is named after him.  It is an affiliate of Planned Parenthood.  Are you surprised that Guttmacher issued a study that claims Planned Parenthood's program is effective and should be expanded?  How about the timing of this report, coming just at the time that Congress is considering funding bills that include provisions that will benefit Planned Parenthood.

Of course, Guttmacher Institute is a research organization so their reports are unbiased and would not be slanted in favor of Planned Parenthood.  This report shows how effective government funding of birth control for poor women works to prevent pregnancy and abortion.  Really?  How does this result square with their past research which showed that 54% of women seeking abortions were using contraception when they became pregnant?

Yes, this new report, proclaimed by co-author Rachel Benson Gold, claims that taxpayer-funded family planing programs, involving the distribution of contraception and birth control, prevent nearly 2 million unintended pregnancies and more than 800,000 abortions in the U.S. annually.  Of course, it is not possible to track things that are prevented, because they cannot be counted since they do not exist.  That means using formulas and assumptions to calculate how many pregnancies and abortions were "prevented."

Let's check how other recent projections offered by Planned Parenthood have turned out.  They said making the morning-after pill available over-the-counter would cut unwanted pregnancies and abortions in half.  Some other nations tried this before it was implemented in the USA.  Out of 10 nations, the pregnancy and abortion rates fell in none of them.  For example, last year officials in Sweden reported that the number of abortions increased 17% from 2000 to 2007 despite sales of the morning after pill increasing during the same time period.  The same pattern, opposite of the predicted result, is happening in Scotland.

Might this represent a familiar pattern.  Wasn't the availability of birth control and abortion pushed in the 1970's supposed to eliminate unwanted pregnancies, child abuse, and poverty?  Did it work? The claims are always wrong, but the solution is always more of the same.  More access to birth control will not work as advertised, and this study will not change that result.  Tell Congress not to provide the money!

Tuesday, Feb 24, 2009  --  Why do teenagers need protection from Planned Parenthood?

Recently a question was raised about why the prayer vigil and witness at Plannned Parenthood Express emphasizes the need to protect teenagers, given that the largest number of abortions occurs in the 20-24 age group.

Statistics are important, but they do not always tell the whole story. Based on national statistics for all age groups, approximately 22.6% of pregnancies end in abortion in recent years.  Based on Illinois statistics for abortions and births in the adolescent age groups, here are the percentages of pregnancies that end in abortion:   ages 10-14 = 50.6% ages 15-17 = 32.0% ages 18-19 = 25.4%

In other words, the abortion rate is much higher among Illinois teenagers than the national average for all abortions.  Why might that be?  Don't you agree that they are much more vulnerable to pressure from authority figures and other so-called experts than young adults?  Might that explain why they have significantly higher rates of abortion?      More...

Monday, Feb 23, 2009  --  More cases of morphine overdose under hospice care

Two people contacted me today regarding suspected morphine overdoses under hospice care.  The first person's father died in Tennessee.  The second person lost his mother in Iowa.  Both are convinced by the facts that a morphine overdose caused the death of their parent. 

Serious questions are immediately raised when the morphine is given based on a presumption of pain even though no evidence of pain exists.   Aggressive insistance on continuing the morphine over the objections of a relative who is staying with the patient almost continuous, and recognizes the negative impact the morphine is having on potential recovery, is a severe warning sign of an overdose agenda.

Placement under hospice care when no terminal illness has been diagnosed becomes a warning sign that cannot be ignored.  Criteria for hospice care is diagnosis of a terminal condition that is reasonably estimated to leave less than six months to live.  Get the hospice checklist.

Death from a morphine overdose occurs rather quickly, most often within four days as the morphine doses are continued.  Ultimately, the patient stops breathing.  If you encounter a situation like this, you must act quickly and definitively, or it will be too late.  For more information, check here.

Friday, Feb 20, 2009  --  A planted seed beginning to grow?

Anti-life advocates celebrated the rejection of the Colorado personhood amendment in November 2008.  Its a new year and personhood initiatives are springing up around the nation.  This personhood movement is being tracked by Personhood USA. 

The following five states have now introduced bills affirming the personhood rights of pre-born humans from the moment of fertilization: Maryland, North Dakota, Montana, South Carolina, and Alabama.  Oregon has begun a personhood amendment petition drive, and Mississippi's personhood amendment petition drive is expected to launch within weeks.

Progress has already been made in North Dakota.   Even though there is not even full agreement on this strategy among Pro-Life advocates (probably fatal to the 2008 Colorado vote), this mission to protect children from the moment of conception is taking hold.

Thursday, Feb 19, 2009  --  Defending life becoming a hate crime?

At least five years ago, Planned Parenthood Chicago Area (PPCA) organized a press conference with their contingent of pro-abortion ministers.  These ministers accused the Archdiocese of Chicago with "harassment" of PPCA's customers by holding a prayer vigil with hundreds of people in front of PPCA's abortion clinic at 1200 N. LaSalle in Chicago.

At the same time a bill was being considered in Springfield (called the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act) to outlaw "harassment" of women entering abortion clinics.  The bill did not define harassment, but that press conference made it clear what they intended.  The bill did not pass and has not been re-introduced so far.  Maybe the extra insight provided at the press conference helped stop this bad bill.

Apparently, California was not so fortunate.  California's 2004 "hate crimes" law (SB 1234) led to new training for police in California.   They now receive hate crimes training called "multi-mission criminal extremism."  A new category has been added called "anti-reproductive-rights crimes."  Pro-lifers are automatically suspect.

This perspective of automatic suspicion is seen as a factor in the mid-January conviction of  Rev. Walter Hoye in Oakland.  He was convicted of "harassment" of both employees and patients of an abortion clinic there.  What was Hoye's real offense?  He was effective at reducing the abortionist's business by holding a sign with the message "Jesus loves you and your baby" and offering assistance to women who responded to his sign.

Last week, young people passing out Pro-Life literature to high school students on the public sidewalk in Birmingham, AL were arrested and accused of "criminal trespass."  I suppose their literature was not consistent with the agenda conveyed in the "comprehensive sex ed" these students were getting in class, so this "inaccurate and unscientific" literature could not be tolerated.

"Hate crimes" bills will soon be considered in the U.S. Congress.  All Americans who value freedom of speech should oppose these "hate crimes" bills (H.R. 256 and H.R. 262).  As shown above, Pro-Lifers may be especially at risk of arrest and censorship under such "hate crimes" provisions, making these bills a serious threat to our freedom of speech.  If they became law, they would hinder our ability to save babies from abortion, or even to share Pro-Life information in public.

Sharing information that reflects negatively on any "legal" action (e.g. abortion, morning-after pill, etc.) is seen as "hate speech" because it effectively criticizes those who exercise these legal rights.  Such criticism might also stimulate others to act with hate and violence.  This "hate speech" is deemed to be criminal, as in the "anti-reproductive-rights crime" of discouraging women from getting abortions.  That is how defending life can become a hate crime.  Do not stay silent now, or it may become illegal to say anything later.

Wednesday, Feb 18, 2009  --  Damage to Women by Abortion is Scientifically Proven

Abortion advocates are always quick to claim that pregnancy care centers mislead women with medically inaccurate and unscientific information.  They consider concerns such as: adverse impact of abortion on the woman's mental and physical health, prematurity of future pregnancies with increased risk of cerebral palsy, and increased risk of breast cancer as inaccurate and unscientific claims by "agenda-driven" zealots.

Is science practiced differently in Spain than in the United States?   Spanish biologist and bioethicist Lopez Moratalla recently gave an interview in Guatemala stating that science has proven the damaging effects of abortion on the victim's mother.  I am sure abortion advocates have their own so-called scientists who would completely reject such science, if they did not just ignore it.   However, that rejection of the facts is evidence of who is really misleading women with inaccurate and unscientific information. 

As reported by LifeSiteNews, Lopez Moratalla stated unequivocally that she is against all abortion, "because scientifically it has been demonstrated that human life begins with conception.  Pregnancy develops a bond of attachment to the baby in the brain of the mother.  Nature prepares her for that.   There is scientific documentation of the damage that women suffer because of abortion."

Among the damages caused by abortion are "drug addiction and suicide," said Lopez Moratalla, who also listed "brain damage, like that suffered by war veterans or those who have had a dramatic accident.  Emotional memory is blocked."  She went on to explain, "This doesn't happen to all women, but those who suffer from it tend to have another abortion because they must return to the scene again and again."  She also said that in some cases, "They end up committing suicide."

Tuesday, Feb 17, 2009  --  Denying reality until it is too late

There is an obvious connection between the politically correct hype I discussed yesterday and young people denying reality until it is too late.  Two examples currently in the news are Sycloria Williams and Bristol Palin.  Both now regret decisions they made and admit they had misconceptions about the implications of their actions. 

Sycloria now regrets her decision to abort her baby.  She now knows that it was a baby, not a blob of tissue.  Bristol is happy with her decision not to have an abortion, but regrets getting pregnant as a teenager.  She suggested that abstinence does not work for some teenagers because they will not heed the message.

I would speculate that Bristol still has not resolved the results of her decisions since she admits she chose life over abortion, but regrets having a baby at her young age.  Maybe she thinks birth control would have allowed her to have her cake and eat it too.  The failure rates of birth control offer another reality check if she does think that way.  The abstinence message that she failed to heed is the only solution that works.

The mixed messages on abstinence she gave in her interview led to a news story with the headline "Abstinence? 'Not realistic'".  Is that what she intended to tell her peers when she also said, "Everyone should wait 10 years."   If abstinence is not realistic, how can she or anyone else make it those 10 years without having either a baby or an abortion?  Don't count on birth control!

Monday, Feb 16, 2009  --  Politically correct hype not consistent with reality

I have previously commented on the barrage of attacks on abstinence education as ineffective and medically inaccurate, etc.  The politically correct solution hyped to replace abstinence is so-called comprehensive sex education.

Well, they must have results to demonstrate the effectiveness of comprehensive sex education -- right?  A careful evaluation of 112 peer-reviewed studies on comprehensive sex ed covering 20 years revealed that no comprehensive sex ed program produced a decrease in teen pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases over any period of time.

The real world results prove the unchallenged claims that comprehensive sex ed will reduce unplanned pregnancies and abortions are nothing but marketing hype.  Will the media ask the tough questions here?  No, they just continue to focus on any evidence that even a small percentage of teens who take abstinence education later engage in premarital sex as proof of absolute failure.  Don't let the facts get in the way of their social agenda of casual sex everywhere.

Friday, Feb 13, 2009  --  Blatant denial and attempted denial of free speech rights

Standing on a public sidewalk passing out Pro-Life literature is a First Amendment right.  That does not stop opponents of the Pro-Life message from violating those rights.  An especially blatant case surprisingly just occurred in Birmingham, AL.

Once the nine college-aged participants in the Survivors Campus Life Tour finished distributing their literature to high school students and were loading their van in preparation to leave, officers handcuffed and arrested all nine of them without warning.  The team members were not told why they were being arrested, but they heard one officer questioning his superiors, "What are we arresting them for again?"

Ultimately, after a night in jail, the team members were informed the pending charge was "criminal trespass" at an early morning hearing.   Remember, they were on a public sidewalk, but it appears the police are trying to falsely accuse them of trespassing onto school property. 

An employee of notorious late-term abortionist George Tiller tried a new political strategy this week.  Tiller opposes a Kansas bill that would require abortionists to allow women to see their ultrasounds at least 30 minutes before having an abortion.  Operation Rescue was scheduled to testify in favor of the bill.

During the hearing, Julie Burkhart, Tiller's lobbyist, made a false report to Kansas Capitol Security that Operation Rescue President Troy Newman had made a death threat against her.  Security removed Newman from the hearing room and detained him briefly, but released him after deciding the accusation was not credible.

Burkhart's strategy failed because Newman was not the person scheduled to give testimony.  Newman observed, "This incident shows how low Tiller's people will go to prevent the truth about their unscrupulous abortion business from getting out.   When things like this happen, we know we are making an impact."

Can you imagine the media frenzy if such actions were taken against abortion rights advocates?  As usual, the media have no interest when the rights of Pro-Life citizens are violated based on false accusations.  They just move on to some more politically correct story.

Wednesday, Feb 11, 2009  --  Exactly who is being described here?

Warning: These places "have a history of scaring women" and "often don't give women all their options."  "Absolutely no one should pressure you or trick you into making a decision you're not comfortable with."   They "mislead women by giving them inaccurate medical information, including using untrained staff to perform ultrasounds."

Might this be a warning about abortion clinics?   They also "may tell you that you are not pregnant even if you are."   Oops!  No, that can't be right.  Abortion clinics have been accused of telling women they are pregnant when they are not.  So they are accusing pregnancy care centers of the revesre?  How outrageous!

Who has untrained staff performing medical functions?  Abortionists have lost their medical licenses for allowing employees without medical training to perform such tasks, even including abortions.  When did you ever hear of a pregnancy care center being charged with having unqualified staff perform ultrasounds?  Since they use medical professionals to conduct ultrasounds, it has not happened.

Abortionists have been accused of performing forced abortions so they certainly have "pressured or tricked women into making decisions they are not comfortable with."  Apparently, they can invent these outlandish charges against pregnancy care centers because they know these tactics well from experience.

Monday, Feb 9, 2009  --  Why did Eluana Englaro die so suddenly?

The Itlaian government was still trying to find a means to stop the starvation/dehydration death of Eluana Englaro when they learned she had died suddenly.   Since all of the medical tests conducted prior to the February 6th stoppage of food and water reveal a healthy patient, what caused her sudden death?  [Released medical log gives some answers, including the sedative that was used.]

A February 9th LifeSiteNews report from Rome stated, "Although no cause of death has been announced, earlier news reports indicated that Englaro's intake of nutrients was being replaced with a heavy dose of sedatives. Palliative medication in high doses can cause a patient to die prematurely."

Hospice Patients Alliance provides documentation on some known cases that demonstrate how Eluana might have died from such an overdose: Elderly Veteran, Family's Mother, Parkinson's Patient.   As these examples show, overdoses of morphine can readily be used to speed death.   Will there be an investigation to determine the cause of death in Eluana's case?

Friday, Feb 6, 2009  --  Hope to preserve these lives has been dashed

Today was a trying one for defending life.  It appears very likely that a woman's death in a New Jersey Catholic hospital was related to withdrawal of her food and water by feeding tube, but it is possible there were other factors, given the timing of her death. 

What may be the last attempt to prevent the euthanasia death of Eluana Englaro has been blocked because the Italian President refuses to sign the emergency decree that would prevent withdrawal of her food and water by tube.  That excruciating process may have been started today.

In Argentina a baby was aborted because his raped mother is mentally retarded.  Few abortions are legal there, but abortion is allowed in that case.  Pleas from a woman who could have been aborted in the same circumstances and from a lawyer who offered to adopt the baby were both ignored.

In a private meeting with Congressional Democrats, President Obama assured them he would sign an executive order to allow Federal government funding of embryonic stem cell research that requires killing human embryos.   Such an action ignores both this serious eithical issue and the great successes achieved using ethical sources of stem cells.

Death to provide for the convenience of others is clearly a worldwide problem.  Pray and witness that true respect for human life and human rights will be restored.

Thursday, Feb 5, 2009  --  Are animal rights activists always pro-abortion?

There are so many needs for defending human life that I must say I do not pay much attention to animal rights activists, but today I received an email from Sharon, stating: I would like to comment on Ashley Judd's war she has aimed at Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.  Fortunately for Ms. Judd, her mom, Naomi, was a country mom who was, obviously, pro-life.  Too bad she doesn't wish for the same protection of the unborn as she does for the wild wolves up in Alaska. 

So I decided to check this issue out.  I found that actress Ashley Judd made an Internet video for the group Defenders of Wildlife.  She criticizes Sarah Palin for supporting a program that allows killing wolves and bears from airplanes. Palin said it's scientifically based, calling it an important tool to sustain moose and caribou populations for Alaska subsistence hunters.

In other words, native Alaskans might have a food shortage if wolf and bear populations were not controlled.  But that probably does not bother Ashley Judd.   In 2004, she became the "poster child" for the "March for Women's Lives" that proclaimed abortion as criteral for "reproductive rights." 

Ashley's mother, Naomi Judd, has spoken eloquently for years about how she firmly rejected abortion as an unwed teen and repeatedly witnessed the miracle of life as a labor and delivery nurse.  Apparently, none of that conviction rubbed off onto Ashley who would probably consider it better that native Alaskans abort their children so more wolves and bears can feast on moose and caribou.  Or can we give her the benefit of the doubt that she does not really understand the issue?

I was not previously aware of this overpopulation of humans in Alaska!   No wonder Sarah Palin is so popular in her home state.  She acts for the welfare of Alaska's citizens, rather than throw their children to the wolves (e.g. Planned Parenthood).  But Planned Parenthood is ready to pounce.

Wednesday, Feb 4, 2009  --  A strategy for deception on FOCA?

Concern about the threat to virtually all abortion regulations posed by the so-called Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) have generated online petitions, postcard campaigns, statements from Catholic bishops, letters to Congress, and other opposition throughout the Pro-Life community. 

Has this risk been overblown?  Is there really no risk at all?   It seems "abortion rights" proponents are trying to challenge the credibility of their opposition by claiming they were never serious about FOCA in the first place.   They might have a bridge to sell you too; in Brooklyn perhaps?  More...

Tuesday, Feb 3, 2009  --  True choice and human rights under attack

Choice and human rights sound like something worth promoting and protecting.  We have the right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, as well as freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion, just to name a few.  Disguised under the name of these rights, we continue to witness blatant examples of insistence on new "rights" that violate these true rights with which we have been endowed by our Creator.

The "right" to abortion trumps the right to life.  Sexual license and casual sex overwhelm the rights to liberty and pursuit of happiness through pornography, date rape, rampant STDs, etc.  Freedom of ... somehow becomes freedom from speech, freedom from assembly, and freedom from religion.

Obama rescinded the Mexico City policy to promote abortions worldwide, including pressuring nations with laws against abortion to repeal them.  A British Environmental Advisor Backs Population Control that would place a limit of two children per family.  A United Nations Population Fund representative says Family Breakdown is a Triumph for Human Rights.  Is it now a human right to be liberated from any responsibility for children and family, with strict limits on anyone silly enough to actually have a family?

A British nurse was suspended for offering to pray for an elderly patient.  Note that she actually asked the patient, "Would you like me to pray for you?"  At least in England, freedom from religion apparently now means you cannot even ask if someone might want spiritual assistance.  [2/6/09 update:  After efforts of legal counsel, the nurse will be reinstated.]  Will praying for the conversion of Barack Obama soon be outlawed as hate speech?

Back on January 16th a jury found Rev. Hoye guilty based on lies that he had threatened and harassed both employees and patients of an abortion clinic.  Even a videotape that refuted all of these accusations was not sufficient for acquittal. What was Hoye's real offense?  He was effective at reducing the abortionist's business by holding a sign with the message "Jesus loves you and your baby" and offering assistance to women who responded to his sign.

In Italy, even though government officials have been resisting the court ordered starvation and dehydration of Eluana Englaro, she has now been transferred to a hospital that has agreed to participate in her killing by removal of her food and hydration tube. Unless a new strategy can be found to stop this painful euthanasia, Eluana's father will get his wish for her "right to die."  Of course, this same tragic act already occurred in Florida in 2005 when Terri Schiavo was killed.

It seems that death, atheism, and irresponsible sex are now rights while life, family, God, and responsible behavior are unacceptable.  How long will such insanity be allowed to continue?

Monday, Feb 2, 2009  --  Speak Out Illinois a great success

Speak Out Illinois was held on Saturday, January 31st.  Attendance was up nearly 40% for adults,  and TeenSpeak had three times last year's attendance.   Concern about the radical abortion agenda of the new administration in Washington, D.C. seems to be motivating citizens to get more involved in defending innocent human life.

Fr. Tom Euteneuer of Human Life International revealed the worldwide scope of the battle to end abortion.  The only areas of the world that still protect babies in the womb by law are most of the African and South American nations.  On all other continents unlimited abortion is pervasive.  The result of the constant push of both birth control and abortion has caused a catastrophic drop in fertility worldwide.   Almost every developed nation is seriously under replacement level, with population already falling in some nations.

Dr. Alveda King was very straightforward -- abortion is genocide.   She emphasized the need to see ourselves as the human race, not as separate races.   She pointed out that black and white do not accurately describe the color of our skin.  She encouraged the audience to pray and work for the conversion of Barack Obama so he will end the genocide of abortion.

Phyllis Schlafly received the Henry Hyde Life Leadership Award.  She encouraged the audience to stand firm against the many threats to life posed by the new administration.  Her untiring efforts have given many examples of what can be accomplished even against almost overwhelming odds.

Overall, participants were inspired to continue, and even increase, their efforts to obtain justice, defend true human rights, and protect the lives of all citizens from conception to natural death.