Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Pro-Life Victory - Governor Christie Issues Absolute Vetoes!

Vetoes on Gestational Surrogacy bill and two bills that would have funded Abortion Giant, Planned Parenthood



Marie Tasy, Executive Director
New Jersey Right to Life


Last evening, our pro-life Governor, Chris Christie, issued absolute vetoes of the following bills:
  • S866/A2648, The Gestational Carrier Bill
  • A3672/S3103, Makes FY 2015 supplemental appropriation to DOH for $7,453,000 for family planning services
  • A4604/S3104, Provides Medicaid coverage for family planning services to individuals with incomes up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level
With regard to Bill S866/A2648, the Governor noted he vetoed the identical bill three years ago. ““In 2012, I vetoed this identical bill. I did so because of the significant ethical and moral concerns raised by a government-enforced system of agreements to procreate. I have repeatedly stated that every life is precious, and every human deserving of protection. I take seriously the need to guard against any societal deprecation of the miracle of life,” said Governor Christie.

As you may recall, Governor Christie eliminated funding in the budget for Planned Parenthood when he first became Governor and has vetoed every obsessive attempt by pro-abortion legislators to use taxpayer money to fund them since then.

In vetoing both A3672 and A4604 this evening, the Governor said, ”Unfortunately, accompanying the bipartisan achievement of another balanced budget is another annual ritual of attempting to pass additional unbudgeted spending for selected interests. In what has sadly become a predictable routine, once again, the sponsors of this bill and its companion bill seek to circumvent the budget process and pass legislation that would bestow bonuses to certain family planning clinics and establish a costly new Medicaid program within the Department of Human Services.

 Because of the new financial burden these bills will levy on New Jersey’s taxpayers outside of the budget process, I am returning these bills without my approval.” Governor Christie noted his Fiscal Year 2016 budget already provides funds, as have his past budgets, to important preventative health measures such as the New Jersey Cancer Education and Early Detection Program which funds mammograms, pap smears, and prostate exams. 

The budget he signed last Friday also continues funding for the State’s Federally Qualified Health Centers that provide vital health care services to thousands of low-income New Jerseyans. In addition, the budget funds significant commitments to our state’s future health including cancer education and early detection, ovarian cancer research, breast cancer awareness, and maternal, child, and chronic health services.


                       


Please call and email the Governor to thank him for vetoing these bills.


  • Governor Christie: 609 292 6000
  • Email the Governor here



Thank you for taking action on our alerts!


March for Life in the News



From Jeanne F. Mancini
President, March for Life


Outside our March for Life office in Washington, D.C. we have beautiful red roses that bloom every June. They are a distinct reminder to our staff of the symbol and logo of the March. For those who are not aware of the rich history behind the March for Life logo, be sure to read more here: Check it out HERE.


Meet Our Staff
We are excited to introduce to you the final new member of our staff, Laura Demangone! Laura recently joined our staff as Administrative Assistant giving support to accounting, fundraising, and other administrative responsibilities.



Previously, Laura worked with the Catholic Student Center (CSC) at the University of Florida where she helped with retreats, vocations ministry, and other student events as a Campus Minister. Prior to working with the CSC, she was a missionary in Miami, Florida and Thibodaux, Louisiana serving the Catholic Church.

During the past two years of service, she fully enjoyed forming relationships and encountering new places.

Laura earned her bachelor’s degree in Family, Youth and Community Sciences with a minor in Educational Studies at the University of Florida. She enjoys being outdoors, riding the metro, and reading a good book. Please join us in welcoming her to our staff!

I also wanted to draw your attention to a couple of op-eds and blog posts I and my staff had the opportunity to write over the last few weeks on the latest pro-life news:


Next month you will start to see more details about March for Life 2016, when we hit the six month countdown to January 22, 2016. Stay tuned!

If you aren’t already, please be sure to follow the March for Life on Facebook and Twitter so you never miss another blog post!

Zombie Charities Push Population Control

These creatures of government funding now attack the living

CARE Hands Groping for Cash Illustration by Greg Groesch/The Washington Times 

By Steve Mosher
Population Research Institute

Originally published in the Washington Times on June 22, 2015.

As a conservative, I don’t have much use for foreign aid, preferring to support private charitable efforts overseas. But when Washington politicians began to dole out huge sums of money several decades ago, existing nonprofits lined up for their share of the take.

Groups like CARE, Population Services International (PSI), and Catholic Relief Services (CRS) are still thought of as charities, but have less and less in common with America’s vibrant voluntary tradition. They are too busy administering population control programs for USAID.

Take CARE, for instance. Today’s CARE bears little resemblance to the food relief organization that was set up by Christians in the wake of World War II. CARE packages full of canned goods have been succeeded by “Sexual and Reproductive Health” (SRH) manuals and programs, which in practice means abortion, sterilization and contraception.

But don’t take my word for it. Listen to CARE itself: “Effective programming in sexual and reproductive health (SRH) is a vital component of CARE’s work to reduce poverty and social injustice. and must be addressed to achieve sustainable reductions in poverty.”

Well, no. It is not at all clear that forcing birth rates down is the road to riches. The opposite is certainly true — Europe and Japan are dying precisely because higher living standards invariably result in lower birthrates — but CARE’s views reverse cause and effect.

Now you may agree or disagree with its new population control agenda, but it is undeniable that CARE doesn’t care in the same way it used to. Its foreign aid programs have become indistinguishable from those of its largest donor, the U.S. government. In fact, CARE receives about half of its annual budget, or $266 million, from the U.S. and other governments.

However low it has since sunk, CARE at least had an honorable beginning. The same cannot be said of so-called non-governmental organizations like Population Services International (PSI) that were, from the beginning, little more than government subcontractors.

Founded by a purveyor of sex toys, PSI initially received almost all of its funding from the U.S. government. There was, it seems, a natural fit between Phil Harvey’s porn business and USAID’s anti-population bomb agenda: Lots of sex and no babies. And of course there is the necessary back-up when contraception fails: PSI’s patented “Safe Abortion Kits.”

Even today, with revenues of 349 million in 2011, PSI continues to receive the lion’s share of its funding from USAID and European government agencies focused on population control. PSI would scarcely exist but for the vast infusions of government money that it receives on an annual basis.

PSI is, in effect, a mask worn by Western governments to avoid the unpleasantness that would ensue if U.S. officials themselves were to tell Africans or Latinos that they were having too many children. Better to let employees of a government-funded “charity” — possessing an incomprehensible acronym instead of a proper name — give them the bad news.

Finally, there are charities like Catholic Relief Services (CRS) who are still ostensibly trying to maintain their own identity in the face of what is essentially a hostile takeover by the government. At least that’s what organizations like Catholic Relief Services (CRS) would have us believe that it is doing.

But how Catholic can “Catholic” Relief Services be when over half of its funding comes from the federal government? This comes to several hundred million dollars a year.

And not as if this money comes with no strings attached. Say you apply for a grant from the U.S. government as a Catholic organization and thus want to preferentially hire Catholics, serve Catholics, and work through Catholic Church abroad.

“Sorry,” says the Obama administration. “That would be discrimination on the basis of religion. If you want a grant you have to hire all comers — including former Planned Parenthood employees and others who flout the teachings of the Church. Not only that, you can’t work through the Church overseas, you have to work around it.”

CRS‘ senior executives understand who’s paying their salaries, and it isn’t the ordinary pewsitter.

This dual loyalty means that the population control priorities of USAID sometimes win out, as when CRS was caught supervising the distribution of abortifacient contraceptives in Madagascar’s Santenet2 program. Or scandalizing Kenyan Catholics by promoting population control programs. All paid for by the U.S. taxpayer, of course.

I don’t know which is worse: Front organizations that were created by former USAID employees who engaged in the equivalent of insider trading by taking advantage of their knowledge and contacts to get huge new government grants. Or “real” charities, the majority founded by Christians, which have been baited by the lure of all that easy government money into vehicles for delivering population control programs into the bedrooms of the world’s poor.

Truth be told, I am less bothered by the first than the second. The first is a merely a manifestation of greed and opportunism, while the second marks a real perversion of purpose away from the noble intentions of their founders.

Steven W. Mosher is president of the Virginia-based Population Research Institute, a charity that receives no government funding.


Monday, June 29, 2015

Dr. Alveda King to Speak at a Local Parish in Bucks County, PA this October


SAVE THE DATE!




Late summer and early fall are a busy time for pro-life warriors who live in SE Pennsylvania, and especially this coming year. We have Pope Francis coming in late September for the World Meeting of Families, pro-life activities in center city to take place in conjunction with that event, Forty Days for Life, Respect Life Sunday events in many of the parishes, and in Central Bucks County, Dr. Alveda King will be a guest speaker at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church.
 
Introduction of Dr. King will be by JD Mullane. Mr. Mullane, a columnist for the Bucks County Courier Times, The Intelligencer, and the Burlington County (NJ) Times, is best known for his coverage of the 2013 trial of Philadelphia late-term abortionist Kermit Gosnell. Use this link to view article on Mr. Mullane's experiences at this trial. 

Dr. King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King is a strong advocate for human rights, from conception until natural death. To this end, she works toward her purpose in life which is to glorify God.

Dr. King currently serves as a Pastoral Associate and Director of African-American Outreach for Priests for Life and Gospel of Life Ministries. She is also a voice for the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, sharing her testimony of two abortions, God’s forgiveness, and healing.

This event is sponsored by the Bucks County Right to Life. Admission is free; however, a free will offering will be taken.  Ms. King will also be selling her latest book. 




Sunday, June 28, 2015

Peaceful Sidewalk Counseling Tip of the Week



Note: Found this on a pro-life site on Facebook

From Sidewalk Advocates for Life
We need to get these stats in the hands of all of our family, friends, co-workers and acquaintances -- many do not realize that Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion provider in the United States! 

Many times on the sidewalk, you can inform clients going into that facility that they are entering an abortion facility, and they will often take your offer of free / reduced rate help (for whatever healthcare need) at a pregnancy center or health clinic if you have that info readily available! Women deserve better than Planned Parenthood.


The mission of Sidewalk Advocates for life is to train, equip, and support local communities across the United States and the world in “sidewalk advocacy”: to be the hands and feet of Christ, offering loving, life-affirming alternatives to all present at the abortion center, thereby eliminating demand and ending abortion.

Wisconsin’s Proposed Abortion Law to Allow Fathers to Sue Abortionists who Break the Law



by Rebecca Downs
Live Action News

Recently, the Wisconsin Senate passed a 20-week ban on abortion, which Governor Scott Walker has said he will sign.

Notably, the proposed legislation in Wisconsin brings fathers into the mix. The measure states in part:


Any of the following individuals may bring a claim for damages, including damages for personal injury and emotional and psychological distress, against a person who performs, or attempts to perform, an abortion in violation of this section[.]

This includes, along with the mother:

The father of the aborted unborn child or the unborn child that is attempted to be aborted, unless the pregnancy is the result of sexual assault…

Continue reading →

Rebecca Downs currently works as a policy analyst for the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. She graduated from Fordham University in August 2012, where she was a member of the Respect for Life club and College Republicans. She has also written for IRD's Juicy Ecumenism, Secular Pro-Life Perspectives and C-FAM and is now a staff writer for LifeNews.com, as well as a op-ed contributor for The Christian Post and for Catholic365.com. She first became interested in the Live Action campaign at the March for Life in 2010.


Is There a Way Reduce Divorce & Cancer Risk?‏



by Brian Beal
One More Soul


My three sisters and a good friend have decided to lower their cancer risk and strengthen their marriages by not ingesting birth control pills. They learned that the pill (estrogen-progesterone oral contraceptives) is a Group 1 cancer-causing agent, categorized to the World Health Organization. Those on the pill, have an increased probability of divorce, blood clots, strokes, HIV-1 transmission, heart disease, irritability, weight gain, depression, and reduced libido.

The US National Library of Medicine reported that using birth control increases breast cancer and cervical cancer risks, which can be passed from mother to children in utero.

There are currently 1,100 lawsuits pending against Bayer Healthcare Corporation allegedly caused by their popular birth control pills.

Until 1930 every Christian Church taught that contraception was wrong. Shortly after the pill was introduced, divorce rates doubled in 10 years (1965: 25% to 1975: 50%). In 1960, 22% of black babies were born out of wedlock, now it’s 68%. Since the advent of the pill & pornography industries, sexual abuse incidences against women have drastically increased. The pill has led to more adultery. In addition, millions of young people have been misguided to engage in recreational sex. There are now more than 30 sexually transmitted diseases. Some of these diseases are even contracted by skin to skin contact. Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop stated, “When you have sex with someone, you are having sex with everyone they have had sex with for the last ten years, and everyone they and their partners have had sex with for the last ten years.”


Natural Family Planning is the safest, and most effective way for couples to control their fertility. Studies have shown that the divorce rates among NFP couples is less than 3%, compared to the national average above 50%. Unlike birth control, NFP is free, involves no chemicals, and reduces the risk of cancer and failing marriages. My love ones and many others, can testify to the remarkable benefits of NFP.

For more information on switching to NFP, please use this link.  

One More Soul (OMS) is a non-profit organization dedicated to spreading the truth about the blessings of children and the harms of contraception. We carry a wide variety of educational resources, including CDs, DVDs, pamphlets, booklets, books, and more. Please visit our online store and discover some of the wonderful resources available.


Saturday, June 27, 2015

Haskell Denied Variance Request

Ohio Department of Health Provides 30-Day Notice



From Ohio Right to Life

COLUMBUS, Ohio--Today, Ohio Right to Life obtained a notification from the Ohio Department of Health that Women's Med Center of Dayton (WMC) has been denied a variance request and given 30 days to submit a new variance request. The facility, located in Kettering, is run by Martin Haskell, the abortionist who popularized the now-banned partial-birth abortion. The Department of Health attributed its variance denial to the facility's "insufficient" number of back-up physicians. The State of Ohio requires ambulatory surgical facilities to have a written transfer agreement with a local hospital to provide continued care in the event of emergencies. If a facility cannot obtain an agreement, it may request a variance from the law, providing a sufficient number of back-up physicians.

"Ohio Right to Life has been working to see this notorious abortionist shut down for decades," said Mike Gonidakis, president of Ohio Right to Life. "It's absolutely stunning to see the abortion industry bend the rules at the expense of women's health and babies' lives, all for the sake of the bottom dollar. We are hopeful that this could be the last step in finally shuttering one of Ohio's last late-term abortionists."


The mission of Ohio Right to Life is to promote and defend the right to life of all innocent human beings, from the time of fertilization until natural death. For more information or learn how to become involved, please use this link. 


How Many?




by Judy Alciatore

HOW MANY IS THE NUMBER
HOW MANY DID WE KILL
HOW MANY DID WE SLAUGHTER
AGAINST THY HOLY WILL


TOO MANY IS THE NUMBER
TOO MANY HAVE WE KILLED
TOO MANY HAVE WE SLAUGHTERED
HOW MANY MORE WILL STILL

BE MURDERED IN THE WOMB
BE BUTCHERED BY THE KNIFE
BE TOSSED AWAY LIKE GARBAGE
AND DEPRIVED OF ANY LIFE

WHEN WILL WE SEE THE HORROR
THAT'S CLEAR BEFORE OUR EYES
WHEN WILL WE HEAR THE ECHOES
OF THEIR SILENT, HELPLESS CRIES

OH, LORD, CANST THOU FORGIVE US
AS WE BOW OUR HEADS IN SHAME
OH, LORD, HOW CAN WE JUSTIFY
FOR WE ARE FILLED WITH BLAME

HOW MANY IS THE NUMBER
HOW MANY MORE TO COME
HOW MANY WILL BE SACRIFICED
BEFORE THIS DAY IS DONE

THANK YOU, LORD

Judy Alciatore is a life-long cradle Catholic. She joined 40 Days for Life while living in Iowa; and also joined the local RTL group there. Since moving back home to Texas, Judy has continued as a member of 40 Days for Life. She has prayed in front of the local abortion mill, and has written several pro-life poems, which God has freely given her, and which she freely shares. Judy states that if one life is saved by any of these poems, then they have served God's Purpose


Friday, June 26, 2015

“3-Parent Embryos” and “Gene-Edited Babies”


A Visual Aid



From Charlotte Lozier Institute 







The goal of the Charlotte Lozier Institute is to promote deeper public understanding of the value of human life, motherhood, and fatherhood, and to identify policies and practices that will protect life and serve both women’s health and family well-being. Our profound conviction is that the insights available through the best science, sociology and psychology cannot help but demonstrate that each and every human is not only “fearfully and wonderfully made” but blessed to be born at this time in human history.  


Don't put Margaret Sanger on the $20 bill (Your letters)

  


Note: Came across this on Pinterest. Thanks to the Lake County Right to Life, who found it on Syracuse.com, for posting! Letter is from this past March, but since this is still a current issue, thought it was worth re-posting here.  ( You can use the link for $20 bill below to vote for your choice). 
To the Editor:

Before you laud the campaign for Margaret Sanger, the patron saint of birth control, to be featured on the $20 bill, perhaps it would be a good idea to actually read what her purpose was - and whose babies she urged be murdered.

Ms. Sanger, who was praised highly by Adolf Hitler, thought the world would be a better place if the "trash people" were strongly curtailed. By these, she meant, and said plainly, blacks, Irish and Jews. I don't believe she mentioned Muslims or gays, so perhaps she would fit your parameters, though.


letter continues at http://www.syracuse.com/



We Are Winning Even If It Doesn’t Feel That Way



Austin Ruse
Crisis Magazine 

A colleague of mine at Breitbart News said recently in response to some social conservative tactic that disappointed him, “This is why you [social conservatives] are losing.”

He really believes that. He believes we are losing.

Like many conservatives, my colleague cares about the social conservative issues, but cares more deeply about the other two legs of the conservative stool: economics and national security. And he is under the illusion those issues are doing better than ours, that those who work on those issues are somehow better and smarter and more savvy than the religious right.

I contend first that the success of conservative economics and national security are due largely to the reliable foot soldiers of the Christian right. But more than that, working against greater odds than any other part of the coalition, social conservatives have been the most successful part of the conservative coalition. This seems counterintuitive given that abortion is the law of the land still and gay marriage may be imposed any day now. But it is true nonetheless.

Economic conservatives are happy to note that taxes are lower today than they were before Reagan, but they also have to contend with the fact that the US government is bigger now and growing bigger every day. And regulation? Is there any area of our private lives the federal government does not see a role for itself?

While it is arguable that the most successful part of the conservative triad is national security this was due almost completely to the Cold War and after our win there even that issue faded. The U.S. may still have the most powerful economy and most powerful military in the world. But it is also clear that most Americans are happy to allow our world dominance to wither. Even in the age of ISIS it has been a long time since that issue drove a national election.

What about the social issues?

continue reading this article at http://www.crisismagazine.com

Austin Ruse is president of C-FAM (Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute), a New York and Washington DC-based research institute focusing on international legal and social policy. The views expressed here are not necessarily those of C-FAM.


Thursday, June 25, 2015

Indiana Medical Board Rules Revocation Proceedings Will Continue Against Abortionist Klopfer for Thousands of Violations




By Cheryl Sullenger
Operation Rescue


Indianapolis, IN -The Medical Licensing Board of Indiana met this morning and promptly dismissed a motion filed by abortionist Ulrich Klopfer, 73, seeking to dismiss the disciplinary case against him. A full disciplinary hearing will now take place at a later date and could result in the revocation of his medical license.

"In a better world, it would have been great to see a suspension of Klopfer's license pending revocation proceedings, but for now, we are pleased that the disciplinary case against him will proceed," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman.

The Medical Licensing Board of Indiana filed an Administrative Complaint against Klopfer on September 17, 2014, accusing him of committing over 1,800 violations between July 2012, and November 2013. The allegations pertained primarily to intentional omissions on Termination of Pregnancy Reports that protected suspected child sex offenders and hid gestational ages from authorities.

Continue reading this breaking story here!

Operation Rescue is one of the leading pro-life Christian activist organizations in the nation and has become a strong voice for the pro-life movement in America.Operation Rescue is now headquartered in a former abortion clinic that it bought and closed in 2006. From there, Operation Rescue launches its innovative new strategies across the nation, exposing and closing abortion clinics through peaceful, legal means. Its activities are on the cutting edge of the abortion issue, taking direct action to stop abortion and ultimately restore legal personhood to the pre-born in obedience to biblical mandates. Click here to support Operation Rescue. Click here to make a secure donation online.

 

War on India Still an Emergency



By Anne Roback Morse
Population Research Institute

This week marks the 40th anniversary of the beginning of a reign of horror in Indian history. On this day, 40 years ago, India declared a state of emergency and gave the power to rule by decree to the prime minister, Indira Gandhi. During this “emergency period,” the Indian state sterilized eleven million of its citizens. Consent and sanitary conditions were considered superfluous; people were killed, maimed, and violated by the state’s intrusive hand into the most private realm of their lives. Far from bringing the responsible parties to justice and making reparations to those harmed, the Indian state continues to sterilize its own citizens without their informed consent.

During the emergency period, men were the primary victims of the state’s frenzied program to sterilize as many persons as possible. Some districts rounded men up in the middle of the night and sent them to be vasectomized. Some locales withheld employment until men were vasectomized. Other states withheld government aid—food aid and schooling for children—until the father ‘consented’ to undergo a vasectomy. Some districts used group threats to meet sterilization targets: in the state of Madhya Pradesh, the state gave subsidized water prices to villages that met their vasectomy targets.

Throughout the state of emergency, the government sterilized 11 million citizens, men were victimized more often than women. The ratio of vasectomies to female sterilizations was 1:1 in 1975 and 3:1 in 1976.

After the emergency period ended, the Indian people quickly voted Indira Gandhi’s government out of office. The incoming Janata government ceased the sterilization drive but did not dismantle the political machinery responsible for the abuses. The specter of runaway population growth still terrifies India’s elites, and the legacy of the emergency period—population reduction by any means necessary—lives on in modern India.

In India today, the abuses continue, but the focus has shifted to women. The current ratio of male to female sterilizations in India is 1:25.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in India approves and funds sterilization camps. These camps, not necessarily close to these women’s homes, necessarily mean that women must be driven into them. With their set times and locations, sterilization camps nullify the possibility that women seek out sterilization willingly. Instead, the Indian health system pays people to go out into the community to ‘motivate’ people to appear at the sterilization camps. Through such methods, 4 million women are sterilized every year in India.

Inside the sterilization camps, sanitation and informed consent are viewed as dispensable luxuries. The government of India lacks reliable data on sterilization deaths and injuries, but the best estimates available conservatively suggest that three women die every week from sub-human conditions in India’s sterilization camps.

Of the 4 million women sterilized every year in India, 34% say they were not “informed that sterilization was permanent.” The statistics about informed consent improve greatly by educational level and income level. Likewise, women who are educated and have informed consent choose not to be sterilized. In modern India, the people who are funneled into sterilization camps are overwhelmingly female, less educated (often illiterate), and poor.

In 1975 and 1976, the emergency period was rightly called a “war on population”. The abuses during the emergency period resulted in men taking to the streets in “family planning riots” to protest their treatment. The government attacked, and the men fought back. In modern India, the sterilization programs are more like a massacre than a war.


Please take a moment to view the video below:

 


The pro-life Population Research Institute is dedicated to ending human rights abuses committed in the name of "family planning," and to ending counter-productive social and economic paradigms premised on the myth of "overpopulation." Find us at pop.org.

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

NJ Lawmakers in Both Houses Set to Vote Thursday, June 25th on bills to use taxpayer money to fund Planned Parenthood


Take Action to Oppose Immediately!‏


From Marie Tasy, Executive Director
New Jersey Right to Life

Here we go again! The Democrat Leadership in Trenton is once again pushing to fund their favorite core constituency - the abortion industry!

Update

Bills A3672/S3103 and A4604/S3104 were released from the Assembly and Senate Budget Committees today. We have just learned that both the Assembly and Senate have scheduled these bills for a vote Thursday, June 25th. Please read the article below, then take the following action immediately:

1.Call and email your State Senator and two Assembly persons and tell them to Vote No on Bills A3672/S3103 and A4604/S3104, to fund family planning. Call 1-800-792-8630; 1-800-792-8630 FREE to find out the names of your three state legislators. You can also search their names by municipality on this page. You can send an email to them here

2. Call and email Governor Christie to thank him for eliminating these funds in the budget and for his past vetoes of these bills. Please urge him to veto A3672/S3103 and A4604/S3104. Governor's phone: 609 292-6000. Email the Governor here. Use "Health" as topic and "Family Health" as sub-topic. Please take this action immediately.

Christie reversal on why he cut Planned Parenthood funding cuts sparks protest



Legislators and other supporters of family planning services staged a rally in Trenton Monday to announce a Democratic plan to reinstate $7.5 million in funding for women's clinics into the state budget. (Susan K. Livio | NJ Advance Media)

By Susan K. Livio
NJ Advance Media for NJ.com


TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie's boast that he is the only governor in New Jersey history to eliminate state funding for Planned Parenthood may play in conservative states, but it alienates most New Jerseyans who want women to have access to family planning services, protesters said Monday.
Chanting "My health! My life!" about three dozen women and a few men gathered in the Statehouse courtyard with state Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen) and Pamela Lampitt (D-Camden) to draw attention to the governor's remarks last week about cutting $7.5 million in 2010 for women's health centers.

At the time, the governor said the cuts were driven by a budget crisis, adding gynecological services and health screenings could be found at other state-supported facilities. Republicans who supported the money before refused to override the governor's veto based on the financial considerations.

Christie said in 2010 he eliminated the funds as part of a wide array of cuts to close a budget gap. But in speeches to conservative groups in February and again last week, the Republican governor, who is mulling a bid for president, boasted he had "vetoed Planned Parenthood funding five times out of the New Jersey budget."

But now that Christie has dropped "the facade" and explained his motive, Weinberg and Lampitt said they would push to reinstate the money in the budget, and call upon their Republican legislative colleagues to vote their conscience.

"Those of you who voted year after year to uphold the governor's veto because it was a budget issue, you know very well this is not a budget issue," Weinberg said. "This is New Jersey, a progressive state who cares about our families, who cares about our women, who cares about their health care. it is time to restore this money in the budget."

Roslyn Rogers Collins, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan New Jersey, said her center serving Essex, Hudson and Passaic counties, have had to do without $1.2 million a year since that funding cut. It forced them to close a clinic in Passaic County last year, she said.
"This is playing politics with people's lives," Collins said.

A Planned Parenthood Action Fund of New Jersey reported last month said 1.1 million women in 2013 were in need of contraception services because they did not have coverage or could not otherwise afford it.

Kathleen Fisher, president and CEO of the Family Planning Center of Ocean County said the Affordable Care Act expanded insurance coverage for many, "but it does not totally fix the problem."
She said 15 percent of women ages 18 and 54 lack health insurance still lacked consistent coverage because they bounce between Medicaid and employer-sponsored plans.

"If we do not adequately fund family planning services and expand Medicaid to cover family planning services we are hurting those among us who are the most vulnerable. It's time the governor recognize this and get on board," Fisher said.

"I hope the governor will take a good look at the constituents who stand here today. They come from the north and the south, female and male, from all walks of life," Lampitt said. "It's time to look at the real faces of the people of New Jersey and the fact that access to good health care keeps our economy going and keeps our women healthy."

Marie Tasy, executive director for New Jersey Right to Life, praised the governor and offered harsh words for the legislators who intend to revive the issue.

"This is nothing more than a shameful election year maneuver to use taxpayer money to fund the abortion industry, sadly one of the leadership's favorite core constituencies. Thankfully, Governor Christie has sided with the hard working taxpayers of New Jersey and rejected these measures," Tasy said.



Temporary Memorial Set at Gosnell Babies' Unmarked Grave Site

Formal memorial and dedication of permanent marker set for September 25

  


By Cheryl Sullenger
Operation Rescue


Philadelphia, PA - Since the trial of convicted murder Kermit Gosnell in May of 2013, Rev. Patrick Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition has made several attempts to secure the remains for burial of 47 aborted babies discovered at Gosnell's West Philadelphia "House of Horrors" abortion clinic. For months, those remains had languished in storage in the Coroner's office.

Each request to bury the babies was denied.

Last week, Mahoney had again sought the release of the remains for burial when he inadvertently discovered that the babies' bodies had been unceremoniously cremated and buried in an unmarked grave at Laurel Hill Cemetery by the City of Philadelphia on September 12, 2013.

On Wednesday, June 10, Mahoney gathered with about 40 pro-life supporters to place flowers, a temporary marker, and 47 white crosses at the grave site. The group then briefly memorialized the babies that were at the heart of a sensational murder trial that revealed shocking details of shoddy abortions done by untrained, unlicensed staff in squalid conditions at a run-down brick office building located at 3801 Lancaster.


Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Assisted Suicide Bill Fails in Maine Legislature

Despite passage by the House, Senate support falls one vote short





Portland Press Herald

AUGUSTA – Maine lawmakers have defeated a bill that would have allowed doctors to provide lethal doses of medication to terminally ill patients.

Republican Sen. Roger Katz’s bill died Tuesday because the Senate and House failed to agree on the bill.

The Republican-controlled Senate narrowly rejected the bill with an 18-17 vote earlier this week. The Democratic-led House supported it with a 76-70 vote.

Katz and other supporters said that people who don’t have much time left to live should be free to end their life when they are ready. But opponents said lawmakers should focus on expanding access to palliative care. They said they feared it would send the message that the state of Maine condones suicide.

Five states currently allow dying patients to end their lives under a doctor’s care.


WHO: “Sexual Health” Means Governments Must Provide Abortion and Sex Change




By Rebecca Oas, Ph.D and Wendy Wright
Center for Family and Human Rights



NEW YORK, June 19 (C-Fam) The World Health Organization jumped into the culture wars this week and issued a report telling every country to remove restrictions on abortions – including for adolescents – provide sex change surgery, and remove criminal restrictions on sexual conduct such as extramarital sex, prostitution, and homosexual behavior.

WHO’s controversial policy prescriptions, such as sex counseling and advocating cheap and unsafe abortion, have been previously exposed by the Friday Fax. However, this report was hailed as “major and long-awated [sic]” by an Australian intersex advocacy group because it “contains a specific section on intersex people, as well as other stigmatized social groups including lesbians and gay men, and transgender people.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) – which admitted its lack of competence exacerbated the recent Ebola epidemic that cost over 11,000 lives – is spending attention and resources to promote sexual rights. This little-noticed report comes as people are reeling from news of homosexual and transgender activism – including Olympic athlete Bruce Jenner’s announcement that he is a she, and schools allowing gender-confused boys to use girls’ bathrooms.

continue reading at https://c-fam.org


Monday, June 22, 2015

ObamaCare: Funding Abortion at Every Turn‏





Martin Fox, President
National Pro-Life Alliance


Barack Obama’s claim that ObamaCare won’t spend taxpayer dollars on abortion went up in smoke the day he said it.

That’s why members of the National Pro-Life Alliance have been in the forefront of the battle to end ObamaCare.

It’s outrageous that Obama and his pro-abortion allies, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, are insisting not only that ObamaCare be implemented, but that we must borrow more money to kill more babies.

At every turn ObamaCare funds abortions.

Like the $7 billion to Planned Parenthood for so-called “community health centers,” and forcing employers to pay for abortion-inducing drugs.

And you and I know that Obama’s so-called fix on forced distribution of abortion pills like RU-486 is nothing more than an accounting trick.

The fact is, every dollar the government gives abortion insurers supposedly for other purposes frees up another dollar they can put toward abortion.

But ObamaCare not only forces all plans in the exchanges to cover abortion-inducing drugs such as "Ella," the other plans in these exchanges routinely also cover surgical abortions.

The fact is, ObamaCare is so riddled with taxpayer funding of abortion that ultimately, the only way to protect the unborn from it is to repeal the whole thing.

Please sign the petition  to repeal Obamacare Mandates and ALL Taxpayer Funding of Abortion by using this link.  




Abortion Promoter Grimes Brazenly Dishonest about Abortion/pre-term Birth Link

Abortionist David A. Grimes 


By Kathy Ostrowski, Legislative Director
Kansans for Life


Graves is brazenly dishonest.The too-high rate of pre-term births and low birth weight babies continues to plague state health agencies. But veteran pro-abortion apologist Dr. David Grimes assures readers in his recent Huffington post entry that any connection of premature births to abortion is merely an invention of “naive” pro-life enthusiasts.

The research into the effects of induced abortion upon future pre-term births began in 1960 and now there are 147 statistically significant studies showing the connection. Many if not most women contemplating abortion wish to do get pregnant in the future. Is it not the essence of “informed consent” to make them aware of the possible consequences of that abortion for a subsequent pregnancy?

In July 2006, The Institutes of Medicine, which publishes several reports each year, issued a report “Pre-term Birth, Its Causes, Consequences and Prevention.” The IOM cited abortion as an “immutable” factor for pre-term birth.



The Crisis of Unwed Motherhood




MINDSZENTY REPORT
Catholic Journal US

“Liberals blew it,” declared Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times (March 12, 2015), when Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote his now famous 1965 report on the family breakdown among African Americans. Moynihan, then in the Nixon White House before he would go on to become the U.S. Senator from New York, warned that the rise of single-parent households would ensure and accelerate high poverty rates among blacks.

Moynihan focused his report only on African Americans. His report immediately became an issue of race, as black civil rights leaders and many academics attacked him for being a racist. Civil rights leader Floyd McKissick captured critical sentiment in stating, “My major criticism of the report is that it assumes that middle-class American values are correct values for everyone.”

40.7% of U.S. Births

Moynihan was prescient in his warnings fifty years ago. By 2013, 72.2 percent of black children in the U.S. were born out of wedlock. What Moynihan did not realize, however, was how out-of-wedlock births would spread like a virus to other groups. The federal compilation of out-of-wedlock births in 2013 showed a rate of 66.9 percent for Native Americans, 53 percent for Hispanics, and 29.4 percent for non-Hispanic whites. Overall 40.7 percent of U.S. births were reported as out of wedlock.

Feminists like to talk about a new non-patriarchal family structure being born, in which mothers, grandmothers, aunts and others help raise children. Katie Roiphe, a professor of journalism at New York University, typifies this view in her New York Times op-ed on August 18, 2012, “In Defense of Single Motherhood.” She dismisses claims of the destruction caused in single-parent households as conservatives obsessing over “moral decline” and liberals worrying “extravagantly” and “condescendingly” about a problem she feels really does not exist. Those worrying about the breakdown of the family “exhibit a fundamental lack of imagination about what family can be.”

Roiphe notes that she has two children with two different fathers, neither of whom she lives with, and both of whom are “close.” She says that she is not the “typical” single mother, but “then there is no typical single mother any more than there is a typical mother. It is, in fact, our fantasies and crude stereotypes of this ‘typical single mother’ that get in the way of a more rational, open-minded understanding of the variety and richness of different kinds of families.”

She opines further, “The structure of my household is messy, bohemian, warm. If there is anything that currently oppresses the children, it is the idea of the way families are ‘supposed to be,’ an idea pushed . . . on American children at a very early age and with surprising aggressiveness.”



Sunday, June 21, 2015

ACLU Gives Alabama Abortionists Medals for ‘Promotion of Human Rights’




Calvin Freiburger
Live Action News 


The American Civil Liberties Union has awarded three Alabama abortion clinic owners, as well as National Abortion Federation president Vicki Saporta, with the Roger N. Baldwin Medal of Liberty for their commitment to abortion, Alabama Media Group reports.

The Baldwin Medal is the ACLU’s highest honor, named after its primary founder and reserved for “distinguished contribution[s] to the protection and promotion of human rights.”

The abortionists, Dalton Johnson of Alabama Women’s Wellness Center in Huntsville, June Ayers of Reproductive Health Services in Montgomery, and Gloria Grey of the West Alabama’s Women’s Center in Tuscaloosa, were credited as heroes for remaining in business despite intense protests and increasing regulation, such as a bill forbidding abortion clinics within 2,000 feet of a public school (the bill passed the House and pending in the Senate).

continue reading at http://liveactionnews.org/

Calvin Freiburger is a Wisconsin-based conservative writer and 2011 Hillsdale College graduate, dedicated to the principles of the American Founding—individual liberty, limited government, public virtue, and strong defense—though he believes no issue is more important to a free society’s survival than defending the unalienable rights of society’s most vulnerable members.


Urgent Alert: Stop H.B. 1336 from Taking Your Right to Vote for PA Judges


From Terry Noble, Co-chair
Bucks County Christian Coalition

The right to vote for PA judges is under attack. House Bill 1336 is a blatant attack on your right to choose appellate judges. Please see information below from PA Pro-life Federation for details.

Call representatives listed on the judicial committee   to stop this bill in its tracks. Please pass this on.
Note:  The Women’s Law Project, a pro-abortion organization, is also advocating passage of this bill. George Soros has spent over $45 million dollars in an attempt to pass similar legislation across the nation.

From Maria V. Gallagher,Legislative Director
Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation


There’s a new move in the state legislature to take away your right to vote for appellate judges. House Bill 1336, sponsored by Rep. Bryan Cutler, has been introduced and referred to the PA House Judiciary Committee. It would establish a so-called merit selection system of appointing judges, thereby taking away your right to vote for these critical office-holders.




Please call and email the following pro-life members of the House Judiciary Committee with this urgent message: “I urge you to oppose House Bill 1336. I do not want my right to vote for judges to be taken away from me.”

Here is the contact information for the pro-life House Judiciary Committee members you will want to contact:



Thank you for making these critical calls and sending these important emails!


For more information on why Merit Selection of Judges is bad for Pennsylvania, use this link. 


Saturday, June 20, 2015

Celebrate Fatherhood

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!



From the Pro-Life Union of Greater Philadelphia

The Pro-Life Union celebrates the gift of fatherhood and honors the men who courageously live out their vocation to protect the children whom God places in their care. The role of a father has an incredible, long-lasting impact on our lives. Men and fathers are needed in efforts to restore the sanctity of life. No law can take away the role a caring, committed father can play in saving the life of an unborn child.

Guided by a commitment to the sanctity of every life, the Pro-Life Union fosters a cohesive vision and strategy for a Culture of Life across Greater Philadelphia.

Our beliefs are incarnated in the context of the family and through service to those making the choice for life. We work in the four areas of the pro-life movement: outreach, education, public affairs, and alternaatives.

For more information on the Pro-Life Union or to become involved, visit their website at www.prolifeunion.org.



2016 Presidential Candidates on Late Abortion: Do you know where they stand?




By Karen Cross
National Right to Life Political Director


On May 13, 2015, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to approve the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. H.R. 36 will extend federal protections to unborn children 20 weeks and older, who experience excruciating pain during abortion, and those who are born alive during late abortions. The vote was 242-184. Four Democrats voted in favor, and four Republicans voted against the legislation.

In January, President Obama threatened to veto the legislation, despite widespread public opinion in favor of it.

Where do announced and potential 2016 presidential candidates for the Republican nomination stand on late abortions?




A MATTER OF LIFE—AND DEATH



Local Woman with Terminal Disease Fights 
Proposed Assisted-Suicide Law




A broad coalition of concerned citizens, medical associations, and disability rights groups have joined advocates for the terminally ill in opposing California’s End of Life Option Act, SB 128, which was introduced to the state legislature on January 21. Based on Oregon’s successfully enforced assisted-suicide law, the California legislation would permit physician-assisted suicide for terminal patients with 6 months or less to live. These groups and individuals oppose the proposed legislation on religious, moral and ethical grounds.

Watch Stephanie's Journey on the video below:


 


Read Stephanie's story using this link.

Californians Against Assisted Suicide is a coalition of disability rights, healthcare, civil rights and patient advocacy organizations dedicated to preventing legalization of doctor assisted suicide in California.

Use this link for more information on Californians Against Assisted Suicide and to sign the petition. 




Friday, June 19, 2015

Juneteenth Rally and March in Selma Seeks to Close Illegal Abortion Clinic Targeting Blacks


From Operation Rescue

Selma, AL - Project Selma will hold a prayer rally tonight, June 19, 2015, with a march Saturday morning across the historic Edmund Pettus Bridge to protest an illegal abortion clinic currently operated in Selma by Samuel C. Lett. This clinic targets women of the Black community for abortions.

Project Selma is a coalition of leaders includes many prominent members of the black community, including Catherine Davis, Alveda King, Star Parker and others.

Declaring that #blackwomenmatter, these and other pro-life leaders will hold a prayer rally Friday night at 7:00 PM at Christ the King Cathedral, followed by a Saturday morning march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge at 9:00 AM.

All leaders will be available for comment at the 9:30 AM press conference directly after the march.

Operation Rescue's Cheryl Sullenger sent a written statement to be read at tonight's rally that discusses documented evidence of criminal conduct that is rampant throughout the abortion cartel, with Black women bearing the brunt of the abuse.

The timing of the event is significant. June 19 is a holiday known as "Juneteenth," which celebrates the end of slavery in America. Fifty years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a famous Civil Rights march across the Edmund Pettis Bridge where 600 men and women were attacked by police with billy clubs and tear gas and driven back into Selma.

Operation Rescue, CEC for Life, and Life Legal Foundation teamed up to document illegal abortions taking place at Lett's Central Alabama Women's Clinic.


Continue reading and watch video with evidence of illegal abortions.