Abortion 'explicitly' covered under ObamaCare

Pete Chagnon - OneNewsNow -

FactCheck.org says the National Right to Life Committee is correct concerning abortion provisions in ObamaCare.

According to FactCheck.org, President Barack Obama was right to a "limited extent" when he stated that his healthcare reform plan does not allow for "government-funded abortion." Although FactCheck.org states that under H.R. 3200 federal money is not used to fund abortion, under the public insurance option there is a provision for abortion coverage -- as well as provisions for government-subsidized public and private insurance plans that cover what are described as "reproductive services."

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=657860

District Attorney Seeks Life Time Ban For Walter Hoye

Union City, CA (ISSUES4LIFE FOUNDATION) Thursday, July 30th, 2009 – At a hearing Monday before Alameda County Superior Court Judge Stuart Hing, deputy district attorney Masanao Morimoto revealed that the District Attorney is seeking to ban Walter Hoye from ever returning to the Family Planning Specialists clinic in Oakland, California. Hoye was arrested last year for violating Oakland's "Mother May I" law. Following his conviction, he was sentenced to 30 days in jail and an $1100 fine, plus three years' probation during which time he was ordered to stay 100 yards from the clinic. Hoye exercised his right to turn down probation, but the judge proceeded to fill out a probation order anyway. Hoye served his time in jail, and the fine was paid. Both the conviction and the probation order are on appeal.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/search/ci_12939639?nclick_check=1

Pope’s letter calls for openness to human life

Carolyn Moynihan
Pope Benedict XVI’s new encyclical letter, “On Integral Human Development in Charity and Truth”, discusses a wide spectrum of social realities, among them the need for openness to new human life, which, he says, “is at the centre of true development”, and protection of the family founded on “marriage between a man and a woman, the primary vital cell of society”.

http://www.mercatornet.com/family_edge/view/popes_letter_calls_for_openness_to_human_life/

'Personhood' pushers at it again in Colorado

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow -
Two Colorado organizations have launched another petition drive to put a personhood amendment on the 2010 ballot.

Colorado Right to Life and Personhood Colorado are joining forces to gather the signatures for the 2010 Colorado Personhood Initiative. Right to Life spokeswoman Leslie Hanks says they are energized for the campaign.
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=589262

Teachers' union to consider abortion issue

Pete Chagnon - OneNewsNow -
Conservative teachers within the NEA will call for the union to drop its support of abortion.

The National Education Association will convene for their national meeting in San Diego July 1-6. Jeralee Smith, one of the co-founders of the NEA Conservative Educators Caucus, says one of the items her group has placed on the agenda is abortion. "The union contributes to candidates who will maintain the current Roe v. Wade decision and make sure that the abortion industry is alive and well," she explains. "And this supposedly is done with the portion of union dues that...is optional. But a lot of times we found sneaky ways that the union supports things that we don't believe in."

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Education/Default.aspx?id=585014

Catholic hospital halts merger with pro-abortion group

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow -

A Catholic hospital chain in Massachusetts has bowed to public pressure.

Jim Sedlak of American Life League (ALL) points out a pending merger between the hospital and a pro-abortion healthcare network sparked an outrage among pro-life supporters. "The Catholic hospital system in Boston, known as Caritas Christi, had already signed papers to enter into an agreement with a secular organization to provide a healthcare network that would cover abortions, contraception, and other things that are against Catholic teaching," he notes. The contract with pro-abortion Centene Corp would have gone into effect July 1, according to an ALL press release. ALL members and others around the country urged Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley to halt the contract.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=584754

Another late-term abortionist revives Tiller's mission

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow -

A late-term abortionist has said he will perform limited late-term abortions in Nebraska and plans to open a Kansas facility, too. His announcement comes on the heels of the murder of Wichita abortionist George Tiller.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=567674

ND Prez Jenkins Has "No Interest" in Asking for Leniency for ND Protesters Despite Calls for “Dialogue”

By Kathleen Gilbert
SOUTH BEND, Indiana, June 10, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The president of the University of Notre Dame has "no interest" in interfering with the fates of over 80 peaceful pro-life protesters arrested on campus while protesting President Obama's May 17 commencement speech, says the pro-lifers' attorney. One of the arrestees, Lambs of Christ founder Fr. Norman Weslin, issued a statement Monday calling on University president Fr. John Jenkins to heed the arrested group's requests to meet, which Weslin says Fr. Jenkins has ignored.

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jun/09061007.html

Closing of Tiller's clinic was on the horizon

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

The family of murdered late-term abortionist George Tiller has announced that the Wichita clinic where he practiced will close permanently.

On Tuesday, Tiller's family said in a statement that Women's Health Care Services, Inc. -- the abortuary operated by the slain abortionist -- will be "permanently closed." While the clinic was operational, literally tens of thousands of unborn children were killed under Tiller's guidance and participation. Headquarters for the pro-life group Operation Rescue are located next door to the clinic. OR president Troy Newman labels the announcement a "bittersweet moment," pointing out that his group is always jubilant when a notorious abortion facility closes its doors.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=560808

"Stop Funding Pro-Abortion Groups in Our Country": Peru Bishops to Canadian Bishops

By John-Henry Westen
LIMA, June 9, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a May 28 letter, the Bishops Conference of Peru has “formally” requested that the bishops of Canada cease funding pro-abortion groups in Peru via the Canadian Catholic Organization of Development & Peace (D&P). “It is very disturbing to have groups which work against the Bishops of Peru by attempting to undermine legal protection for the right to life of unborn children, be funded by our brother bishops in Canada,” says the letter.

The letter marks a major breakthrough in the D&P scandal that was first exposed by LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) in March with revelations of $140,000 in D&P funding for five Mexican groups that promote abortion.
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jun/09060911.html

Nebraska passes strong pro-life ultrasound law

Nebraska has passed one of the strongest ultrasound laws in the country.

Many abortion clinics perform ultrasounds of a woman seeking an abortion to determine the age of the child she is carrying. However, seeing the ultrasound is optional, if it is offered at all. Julie Schmit-Albin, executive director of Nebraska Right to Life, tells OneNewsNow what the new law will do. "The woman will now know that she truly has an ability to view her unborn child on the ultrasound screen at least one hour before going through with what is an irreversible decision," she explains. "The burden will no longer be on the mother in a crisis situation to have to ask to view the screen."



Under the new law, the ultrasound screen is displayed and turned toward the patient, although she can decline to view it.



http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=551676

What "Church" Does Notre Dame belong to?

By George Weigel

Of all the commentary I’ve read on Notre Dame’s decision to invite President Obama to receive an honorary doctorate of laws as the university’s 2009 commencement speaker, the most disturbing came from Father Kenneth Himes of the Boston College theology department. In a Boston Globe story about Professor Mary Ann Glendon’s courageous (and correct) decision to decline Notre Dame’s Laetare Medal because the university had defied the U.S. bishops’s policy barring honors for pro-abortion politicians at Catholic events, Father Himes said this:

"There are some well-meaning people who think Notre Dame has given away its Catholic identity, because they have been caught up in the gamesmanship of American higher education, bringing in a star commencement speaker even if that means sacrificing their values, and that accounts for some of this...But one also has to say that there is a political game going on here, and part of that is that you demonize the people who disagree with you, you question their integrity, you challenge their character, and you brand these people as moral poison. Some people have simply reduced Catholicism to the abortion issue, and, consequently, they have simply launched a crusade to bar anything from Catholic institutions that smacks of any sort of open conversation."

http://www.eppc.org/publications/pubID.3836/pub_detail.asp

The murderer-martyr syndrome

Allie Martin - OneNewsNow

...Scott Roeder has been charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Tiller in a Wichita, Kansas, church Sunday morning. The 51-year-old Roeder was charged Tuesday and appeared in court via video from jail. He is accused of killing Tiller as the doctor served as an usher at Reformation Lutheran church.

The president of the Kansas Coalition for Life, Mark Gietzen, says Roeder was "incredibly stupid" if he thought killing Tiller would be "a pro-life act." Geitzen says the slaying has instead turned Tiller "into a martyr" while doing nothing to stop abortion.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=552806

Like abortion, Tiller's murder 'senseless act of violence'

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

The pro-life community continues to reject any reason as legitimate for the slaying of late-term abortionist George Tiller on Sunday morning in Wichita, Kansas.

Tiller's family calls his slaying "particularly heart-wrenching" because he was "shot down in his house of worship." The 67-year-old abortionist, one of the few U.S. doctors to perform late-term abortions, was killed as he served as an usher during Sunday morning services at Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita. (See earlier article)

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=549886

Pro-Lifers Condemn Tiller Killing

Posted by Tom Hoopes
Pro-lifers rushed to the transom to condemn the killing of abortionist George Tiller by a gunman at his Kansas church.
UPDATED with more comment.

Statements from: U.S. bishops, Priests for Life, American Life League, Kansas Bishops, CatholicVote.org and Susan B. Anthony List.

Speaking on behalf of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, chairman of the bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, expressed profound regret upon learning of the shooting death of abortion doctor George Tiller.

http://www.ncregister.com/daily/pro-lifers_condemn_tiller_killer/

Pro-Life Group Condemns Recent Secret Meeting of Pro-Abortion Billionaires Club

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor

New York, NY (LifeNews.com) -- A top pro-life group that focuses on international issues is condemning a recent meeting of some of the richest people in the world. The groups of billionaires met secretly in New York and agreed to promote population control as their collective charitable cause in the coming years.

http://www.lifenews.com/int1209.html

World’s Most Powerful Population Lobby Targets Dominican Pro-Life Reforms

The Dominican Republic is a sovereign nation. They are entitled to make their own domestic policy without the interference of foreign countries and international busybody organizations.

By Susan Yoshihara, Ph.D.
(NEW YORK – C-FAM) The Dominican Republic has come under fire from some of the world’s most powerful abortion advocates, aiming to block a proposed constitutional amendment that would enshrine legal protection of the country’s unborn.

The International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC), backed by European nations, major foundations and the UN Population Fund, has launched an aggressive campaign to thwart proposed Article 30, which would protect human life “from conception.” The country’s national assembly approved the amendment in a first reading by an overwhelming majority of 167-32 on April 21st, but it must go through a second reading before final promulgation by the President.

http://www.c-fam.org/publications/id.1173/pub_detail.asp

Posted by Jennifer

For the first time the majority of Americans consider themselves pro-life

Elijah Friedeman, the Millennial Perspective

With respect to the abortion issue, would you consider yourself to be pro-choice or pro-life? That was the question that was posed to more than a thousand adults in a recent Gallup poll. The results are encouraging. For the first time since Gallup started asking this question in 1995, more adults responded that they were pro-life rather than pro-choice.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Blog/Default.aspx?id=530708

One small ceremony for a Midwest town

Sheila Liaugminas

One major leap for universal human dignity. Participants in this ceremony to honor Baby Theresa probably thought it would go unnoticed. Found dead in a garbage bag April 29 near the Theresa Marsh in northeastern Dodge County, the newborn was buried here Monday in a 24-inch-long white casket, dressed in a pink, one-piece outfit and a white sweater. In such degradation, they redeemed this child’s humanity.

http://www.mercatornet.com/sheila_liaugminas/view/one_small_ceremony_for_a_midwest_town/

Archbishop Burke's Keynote Address

So much of Archbishop Burke's address at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast was fantastic, but here is just a piece of it:

"6. Over the past several months, our nation has chosen a path which more completely denies any legal guarantee of the most fundamental human right, the right to life, to the innocent and defenseless unborn. Our nation, which had its beginning in the commitment to safeguard and promote the inalienable right to “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” for all, without boundary, is more and more setting arbitrary limits to her commitment (cf. The Declaration of Independence: Action of Second Continental Congress, 4 July 1776, in The Constitution of the United States with the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation, New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 2002, p. 81). Those in power now determine who will or will not be accorded the legal protection of the most fundamental right to life. First the legal protection of the right to life is denied to the unborn and, then, to those whose lives have become burdened by advanced years, special needs or serious illness, or whose lives are somehow judged to be unprofitable or unworthy.

7. What is more, those in power propose to force physicians and other healthcare professionals, in other words, those with a particular responsibility to protect and foster human life, to participate, contrary to what their conscience requires, in the destruction of unborn human lives, from the first or embryonic stage of development to the moment of birth. Our laws may soon force those who have dedicated themselves to the care of the sick and the promotion of good health to give up their noble life work, in order to be true to the most sacred dictate of their consciences. What is more, if our nation continues down the path it has taken, healthcare institutions operating in accord with the natural moral law, which teaches us that innocent human life is to be protected and fostered at all times and that it is always and everywhere evil to destroy an innocent human life, will be forced to close their doors.

8. At the same time, the fundamental society, that is, the family, upon which the life of our nation is founded and depends, is under attack by legislation which redefines marriage to include a relationship between two persons of the same sex and permits them to adopt children. In the same line, it is proposed to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. At the root of the confusion and error about marriage is the contraceptive mentality – which would have us believe that the inherently procreative nature of the conjugal union can, in practice, be mechanically or chemically eliminated, while the marital act remains unitive. It cannot be so. With unparalleled arrogance, our nation is choosing to renounce its foundation upon the faithful, indissoluble, and inherently procreative love of a man and a woman in marriage, and, in violation of what nature itself teaches us, to replace it with a so-called marital relationship, according to the definition of those who exercise the greatest power in our society."

Sorry that's a lot, but it lays out the major crises to the Culture of Life we are facing now.
Read the full speech here. (Click the banner near the top.)