Happy Independence Day Everyone!

A very happy Independence Day to everyone who follows us on Voices for the Unborn.  

Took the day off to celebrate the birthday of our country and my own birthday as well with my family.  Hope everyone spends their time with family and friends today. 



Voices for the Unborn is an e-publication dedicated to informing and educating the public on pro-life and pro-family issues. To read our Mission Statement, use this link. You can also follow us on Facebook, Google, and Pinterest. Help spread the word by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks.

Coalition Plans Public Events to Raise Awareness on Abortion

Pro-Life Events at RNC Focus on Defunding Planned Parenthood in 2016 Party Platform!

Columbus, OH – July, 1 2016 – Several pro-life organizations are planning major demonstrations just before the Republican National Convention to ensure the pro-life message is heard by the Platform Committee. The coalition is calling for the GOP to include a provision calling for the defunding of Planned Parenthood in the party platform.

Watch our video, #OperationRNC – A Prophetic Witness to America!,  below or on YouTube using this link.

Activists are requesting that $540,000,000 currently given to Planned Parenthood be redirected to 13,000 federally licensed health clinics which provide true comprehensive women's health care. These clinics provide a greater variety of services and choices to women than Planned Parenthood and are not under federal investigation.

Troy Newman of Operation Rescue, Rev. Patrick Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition, Monica Miller of Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, and Mark Harrington of Created Equal will be leading public events which include rallies, prayer vigils, other public outreaches.

Here are the tentative details (more events will be added soon ):

Wednesday, Jul 13:
9:00 AM – 11:00 AM – Rally and outreach at Public Square
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM – Public outreach/prayer vigil at Quicken Loans Arena


Thursday, Jul 14:
7:30 AM – 9:00 AM – Operation Overpass (locations TBA)
10:00 AM – 12:00 PM – Rally and outreach at Cleveland City Hall


Friday, Jul 15:
8:30 AM – 9:30 AM – Outreach/prayer vigil at Bedford Heights Planned Parenthood
10:30 AM – 12:00 PM – Rally and outreach at Public Square

See #OperationRNC Facebook events scheduled for July 13-15 in Cleveland, OH by clicking on this link. 


For more information, contact Jami Beer at 614.269.7808 or jami@createdequal.org.  Stay tuned!

The DNC is calling for a repeal of the Hyde Amendment and instead include funding of abortion on demand in their party platform. Pro-lifers need to counter by demanding that the GOP defund Planned Parenthood. Get involved below ...

Sign the petition to Defund Planned Parenthood in the 2016 GOP Party Platform.


There is still time to register to come to Cleveland July 13-15 for #OperatonRNC. All housing and meals are covered! For more information, write Jami@CreatedEqual.org or call 614.269.7808.

WILL YOU FINANCIALLY SUPPORT #OPERATIONRNC? YOUR GIFT OF $10, $20, $30, OR MORE HELPS US PAY FOR TRAVEL AND HOUSING EXPENSES FOR OUR TEAM.


You can give online HERE or send your check to: Created Equal, PO Box 360502, Columbus, OH 43236. Your gift is tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.

Activist Courts Did Not Block Every Measure in the Dignity for the Unborn Law from Taking Effect on July 1st

Perinatal Hospice, Other Measures in Law, Took Effect on July 1st 

from Indiana Right to Life

INDIANAPOLIS - Friday, July 1, perinatal hospice and other measures in the Dignity for the Unborn law (HEA 1337), not blocked by court ruling, took effect. On Thursday, June 30th, federal judge, Tanya Walton Pratt, granted Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union their injunction request against the law's ban on abortions for the sole reason of the child's gender, race, national origin or a potential disability. The injunction also blocked the requirement that aborted children be buried or cremated.

Going into effect are other measures included in the law. Among them:

• A requirement for a health provider to give a mother information from the Indiana Department of Health (ISDH) about perinatal hospice care if her unborn child has been diagnosed with a lethal fetal anomaly. Perinatal hospice has been shown to lead to better outcomes for families.

• A ban on group counseling before an abortion in favor of one-on-one private counseling. This change will allow a pregnant woman to ask personal questions and discuss intimate details of the upcoming procedure.

• Changes to the "Termination of Pregnancy" form, to include early pre-viability terminations, sex of the child (if known), and the diagnosis code for both mother and baby if an abortion is done for these reasons.

• A clarification on the timing of the mandatory ultrasound, already required by Indiana law. The ultrasound must be done at the 18-hour informed consent visit before an abortion, thus preventing an additional visit to the facility.

• An update to Indiana's admitting privileges law, requiring that the abortion doctor document his or her admitting privileges with the ISDH annually. Also, the ISDH is required to notify all hospitals in the county or contiguous counties to the abortion facility of the abortion doctor's admitting privileges in case of an emergency.Another area of the Dignity for the Unborn Law, the ban on the transporting, selling or acquiring of fetal tissue, for any reason other than disposal, is currently not being enforced due to pending litigation. Indiana University filed a lawsuit to continue using aborted baby body parts for experiments. 

"Until all of the Dignity for the Unborn law is shown as constitutional, we are thankful that some key provisions of the law will still go into effect," said Mike Fichter, President and CEO of Indiana Right to Life. "Perinatal hospice gives parents a compassionate option when faced with an adverse prenatal diagnosis. Perinatal hospice allows families to cherish all moments with their child, instead of choosing abortion immediately after a diagnosis. We also are pleased that the Dignity for the Unborn law will provide women seeking abortions with medical privacy that sadly the abortion industry does not automatically give to women. We urge the state of Indiana to fight for all of the Dignity for the Unborn law to go into effect, against the wishes of Planned Parenthood and Indiana University."


Indiana Right to Life's mission is to protect the right to life, especially of unborn children, through positive education, compassionate advocacy and promotion of healthy alternatives to abortion.  Use this link for more information on Indiana Right to Life.  

Voices for the Unborn is an e-publication dedicated to informing and educating the public on pro-life and pro-family issues. To read our Mission Statement, use this link. You can also follow us on Facebook, Google, and Pinterest. Help spread the word by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks.

Statement from Indiana Right to Life on Terre Haute Planned Parenthood Closing

"Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky 
has never closed a facility that does abortions"

Indiana Right to Life

Terre Haute, Ind. - On Thursday, June 30 Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky announced it is closing its Terre Haute, Ind. location. The Terre Haute location does not do abortions, but refers clients seeking abortions to other Planned Parenthoods. Indiana Right to Life President and CEO Mike Fichter released the following statement upon learning about the closure:

"Undoubtedly, Planned Parenthood's allies will try to claim the abortion giant's Terre Haute closure is the fault of pro-life policymakers, as they have done with previous closures, like the one in Scott County. Not letting a crisis go to waste, Planned Parenthood and the liberal media have perpetuated the lie that the high rate of HIV in Scott County is because Planned Parenthood had to shut its doors due to funding. We won't be surprised if we hear similar tales about the Vigo County closure.

"The truth is, Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky has a sizable annual revenue - to the tune of $15.7 million in their latest annual report. Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky closed their Scott County location, and now their Vigo County location in Terre Haute, due to profit. Their centers that only refer for abortions simply don't generate the profit that Planned Parenthood demands of its affiliates. Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky has never closed a facility that does abortions. Abortions are their money-maker.

"Planned Parenthood's clients are learning they are better off without the abortion giant. Indiana has 3,667 Federally Qualified Health Centers, Rural Health Clinics, Medicaid providers and Title V clinics, including 81 in Vigo County. Compare 3,667 providers in the state to only 23 Planned Parenthood facilities, including the soon-to-be-closed Terre Haute Planned Parenthood. Women get better preventative care and more comprehensive care at non-Planned Parenthood facilities. Planned Parenthood is an old-school medical model centered on 'family planning' and abortions. The abortion giant has not changed to compete in the modern health care system. The Terre Haute Planned Parenthood closure demonstrates that its clients are taking their business elsewhere.

"In a 2015 column, Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky's Betty Cockrum wrote, 'It is fact that Indiana's public health infrastructure cannot keep pace with current demands.' If that were true, why has Planned Parenthood's Terre Haute location experienced a 62 percent decline in clients in 10 years, according to the Terre Haute Tribune Star? And why does Cockrum predict more Planned Parenthood closures in the near future?

"If Planned Parenthood truly cared about the women they serve they would use their $15.7 annual revenue to keep their doors open in small communities around the state. In reality, Planned Parenthood knows its main profit comes from abortions, when it ends the beating hearts of little boys and girls. When Planned Parenthood announces more closures, we won't see its abortion sites of Indianapolis, Bloomington, Merrillville or Lafayette on the list. Planned Parenthood exists because of abortions."

Indiana Right to Life's mission is to protect the right to life, especially of unborn children, through positive education, compassionate advocacy and promotion of healthy alternatives to abortion.

ACLU Sues to Stop Catholic Groups Helping Refugees Because They Don’t Promote Abortions

By Micaiah Bilger
Life News

For decades, U.S. Catholic agencies have been on the front lines helping to provide young immigrants and refugees with the physical and emotional support they need after they arrive in America.

But a new lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union could put the much-needed aid programs in jeopardy.

The ACLU recently filed a lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), arguing that the government should not give money to the Catholic aid programs because they do not refer or provide abortions or birth control to young, unaccompanied minor refugees and immigrants, the New York Times reports. The ACLU argues in the lawsuit that the agencies are legally required to provide access to contraception and abortion because they receive government funding.

Here is more from the report:  But the lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Francisco, asserts that the social agencies get federal money to offer a full range of health services, including contraception and abortion. And by allowing the agencies to deny any of those services on religious grounds, it argues, the federal government is violating the First Amendment prohibition on establishment of religion

Mark Weber, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, said the agency would not comment on pending litigation.

Drawing on thousands of internal documents and emails, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, the A.C.L.U. complaint provides sketchy details of about two dozen cases over the last five years in which pregnant girls, many of whom said they had been raped, requested abortions. In several cases, according to the complaint, the girls had to be transferred to a different caregiver, eventually obtaining abortions.

Life News story continues here: ACLU lawsuit 

The Court Has Completely Destroyed Its Own Legitimacy

It is a week for mourning certainly

by Austin Ruse
Crisis Magazine

We mourn the loss of an important Supreme Court case that would have protected women in abortion clinics. We mourn the inevitable loss of life that will be the direct result of this decision, the lives of unborn children but also women who would have otherwise had at least a modicum of additional protection from that ghastly enterprise.

But we also mourn the rule of law and a Supreme Court whose credibility has been hanging by the thinnest of threads for some time.

This court has taken upon itself the role of “the country’s ex-officio medical board with powers to approve or disapprove medical and operative practices and standards throughout the United States,” in the memorable words of Justice Byron White.

What’s more, according to the dissents in the case, the Court ignored its own rules of procedure to allow the plaintiffs to win. Plaintiffs are not allowed to bring the same case twice, which these plaintiffs were allowed to do.

The Court also did not require them to make their case that the Texas law—requiring abortionists to get admitting privileges at the local hospital and requiring the facility to meet basic standards for surgery facilities—actually closed abortion clinics. The abortionists said the new laws would force them to close and that was enough for the ideologues on the Court. No need to provide evidence to make your case: we believe you!

Moreover, isn’t it odd that the Supreme Court let a wealthy industry off the hook of state regulations with the claim they couldn’t afford it. I wonder if this is an absolute first in the annals of the Supreme Court.

http://www.crisismagazine.com/2016/court-destroyed-own-legitimacy

Voices for the Unborn is an e-publication dedicated to informing and educating the public on pro-life and pro-family issues. To read our Mission Statement, use this link. You can also follow us on Facebook, Google, and Pinterest. Help spread the word by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks.

UN Honors Planned Parenthood Abortion Activist with Population Award

By Stefano Gennarini, J.D.

Center for Family and Human Rights (C-Fam)

NEW YORK, July 1 (C-Fam) The United Nations awarded longtime Planned Parenthood executive Carmen Barroso for her work promoting “sexual and reproductive health and rights” at a ceremony at UN headquarters last week. 

The iconic abortion advocate dedicated the award to doctors and health providers who perform illegal abortions and explained how the motivation for her life’s work was personal. Dancing to a Brazilian tune as she received the UN Population Award, Barroso called these doctors “unsung heroes.” 

The head of the UN Population Fund Babtunde Osotimehin praised Barroso for 40 years of advocacy for “sexual and reproductive health and rights, including the right of adolescents to comprehensive sexuality education and sexual and reproductive health services.”

Read more >>

David Daleiden: Planned Parenthood Sold Baby Body Parts Before the Baby Was Even Aborted

L

By Micaiah Bilger
Life News

Piles upon piles of documents have been coming out of a Congressional investigation of the abortion industry and its trafficking of aborted babies’ body parts.  As journalists and pro-lifer sift through the evidence released by the Congressional Select Panel on Infant Lives, they are uncovering more shocking details about how callously the abortion industry treats human life.

David Daleiden, the founder of the Center for Medical Progress, which exposed Planned Parenthood selling aborted babies’ body parts in a series of undercover videos, pointed to evidence this week that some abortion clinics made plans to sell the aborted babies’ parts while the babies were still alive.

In an article for The Hill, Daleiden explained how the relationship worked between StemExpress, a tissue procurement company, and Planned Parenthood facilities in California.

He said evidence uncovered by the Congressional panel indicates that the abortion giant did make money from aborted babies’ body parts. Despite Planned Parenthood’s claims that the money it received was merely for reimbursement costs, Daleiden said StemExpress worked it out so that Planned Parenthood did not have any costs.

He wrote:  Inside the clinics, StemExpress technicians did all of the work, from start to finish, of harvesting tiny body parts from abortions, including “consenting” pregnant women to “donate” their “fetal tissue.” Planned Parenthood provided StemExpress with access to patients’ private medical charts in order to identify patients whose pregnancies could fulfill StemExpress’ body parts orders. 

The panel concludes: “Each time that an abortion clinic employee shared a medical chart with a StemExpress employee, both violated the HIPAA privacy rule.” After successfully targeting and enrolling the patient using her confidential HIPAA information, StemExpress paid Planned Parenthood $55 per fetal body part “determined in the clinic to be usable” after the abortion.

One shocking series of emails obtained by the Select Panel shows StemExpress selling aborted babies’ skulls and limbs as the abortion is taking place. In January 2015, a customer inquired about aborted baby tissue in an email to the company. A StemExpress employee quickly replied, “There is one case currently in the room, I will let you know how the limbs and calvarium [skull] look to see if you are able to take them in about fifteen minutes.”  

News article continues: lifenews.com

Kermit Gosnell Sues Prosecutor Who Convicted Him, Claiming Defamation

By Cassy Fiano
Live Action News
Kermit Gosnell’s name is now forever linked with some of the most despicable murders ever committed in our country’s history. Decades of abuses were covered up. His clinic operated under filthy, disgusting conditions. Women claimed they were forced into abortions. 

Babies were born alive, and then cruelly murdered. Women died. It was horrific by anyone’s standards. And after a trial, he was convicted, and is now serving three life sentences in a Pennsylvania prison. Yet strangely, he is suing the Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams, along with the Philadelphia Daily News.

Gosnell is claiming that his rights to due process and a fair trial were hindered by “falsities, slander, libel, and defamation” on the part of Williams, and two Daily News reporters. He filed the lawsuit with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and is representing himself.

Regarding Williams, Gosnell took issue with the repeated use of the words “baby” or “babies” during the trial, saying that it was an attempt to inflame public opinion, and used his pro-life beliefs to to garner public support. 

He wrote, “A woman seeking an abortion is plainly not seeking to give birth.” He also claimed that Williams made false statements about his abortion methodology, misrepresenting it as “delivering a live birth and killing the baby.”

Considering that this is exactly what Gosnell did — deliver live babies and then snipped their necks using scissors — it’s difficult to see how Gosnell could take issue with that representation.

Article continues here

The Life Center To Install Baby Boxes To Make Safe Haven Law Available To Mothers

From the offices of . . .
SHAWN F. SULLIVAN ATTORNEY AT LAW, LTD

(South Bend – June 29, 2016) - Two Indiana non-profit corporations, Safe Haven Baby Boxes, Inc., and The Life Center (a.k.a. TLC), are partnering to lead the charge to save abandoned babies in South Bend and beyond, and they are taking Indiana regulators–sometimes kicking and screaming – along with them. In addition to partnering with Safe Haven Baby Boxes to promote the Safe Haven Law, The Life Center in South Bend, which announced in April that it was conducting due diligence on the placement of a baby box at The Life Center (see  5/10/16 article in LifeSiteNews.com), announced today that The Life Center would be one of several sites for a Safe Haven Baby Box in St. Joseph County notwithstanding the grumblings by the Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) and the Department of Child Services (DCS) that the boxes may not be safe. The baby box to be installed at The Life Center is in production and is all but complete. 

Safe Haven Baby Boxes were founded by Monica Kelsey who was abandoned when she was an infant. She, and The Life Center, have learned from crisis pregnancy mothers that anonymity is what the mother needs to provide a safe method of abandonment. Mrs. Kelsey’s Safe Haven Baby Boxes allow a mother to place her infant in a baby box located at a church, charity, or emergency service provider. The boxes are equipped with a heating and cooling feature and are equipped with ADT trips so emergency service providers are notified instantaneously that an infant has been placed in the box, and, once retrieived, the child is placed with DCS. “With baby boxes,” states Mrs. Kelsey, “no mother ever has to abandon her child again, and so we hope to proliferate Indiana as well as the rest of the country with them.” “The need for these boxes is compelling, says Mrs. Kelsey. “The hotline for Safe Haven Baby Boxes has handled 700 calls in the past 10 months, the fruit of which is over 100 referrals to crisis pregnancy centers, four adoption referrals and a four women were assisted in surrendering their newborns under the Safe Haven Law. 

But all is not so simple in Indiana when it comes to the welfare of women and children. The ISDH and the DCS refuse to endorse the Safe Haven Baby Boxes, and it is unclear how they will respond to the announcement of the third baby box being installed. Nonetheless, Mrs. Kelsey and The Life Center are undeterred because The Life Center is such an obvious location for a baby box. According to attorney Shawn Sullivan, “the baby box is one more tool to equip the TLC Advocates in assisting mothers in distress.” The Life Center describes itself as the “emergency room for crisis pregnancies” with ministries providing financial, legal, and medical assistance, a domestic violence shelter, and an adoption agency. The Life Center is also located next to the Women’s Pavilion abortion clinic, which is temporarily closed, but, according to The Life Center, the abortionist still comes in and distressed women still drive by the back of the cul-de-sac where The Life Center and the abortion clinic are located. 

Neither attorney Sullivan nor Mrs. Kelsey were impressed with the ISDH’s and DCS’s veiled threats implying they could prosecute women for abandonment if they utilize the baby boxes. “Not only is the thereat of prosecution a reckless overstep by these agencies, but even if DCS or ISDH had the mandate to make such pronouncements, such a pronouncement would be legally deficient and completely out-of-touch with the crisis pregnancy arena. It wasn’t far from The Life Center where a despairing Purvi Patel abandoned her child in a dumpster. That well known case demonstrates the disastrous outcomes for the child and the mother alike. An available baby box in that situation would have been a win-win. To instead have ISDH and DCS resorting to intimidation to deter solutions from those with first-hand experience with the issue – those working in the streets with the crisis pregnancy mothers – is and unfortunate development. Here is a chance for Indiana to improve it’s reputation for helping mothers and children, and right now Indiana is failing again.” 

To off-set the threats of ISDH and DCS – what Monica Kelsey refers to as “bullying mothers” – Safe Haven Baby Box formed a defense fund to fight-for any mother who utilizes the baby boxes. “Our attorneys have looked this over a number of times since ISDH came in December [2015] with its decision not to endorse the baby boxes,” stated Kelsey, and the attorneys have found that the baby boxes are an extension of the parent leaving their child with an emergency service provider. By leaving the child in a baby box, the call instantaneously goes out to emergency service providers so the parent is handing the child off to emergency providers while retaining their anonymity.” Attorney Sullivan added: “The intent 2 of every parent who places an infant in a baby box is to avail his-or herself of the Safe Haven Law and anonymously place the infant with emergency service responders. Because the parent’s intent, and because every baby box is linked to emergency service providers, leaving an infant in a baby box satisfies Indiana Code 31-34-2.5-1(c) that protects a “person who in good faith voluntarily leaves a child with an emergency medical services provider.” In sum, no parent utilizing a Safe Haven Baby Box has the mens rea to be culpable for any criminal act.” 

The situation with ISDH and DCS is especially ironic to attorney Sullivan given The Life Center’s previous confrontations with ISDH on issues of women and children’s health. According to Sullivan, ISDH, refused to process over 40 complaints regarding the Women’s Pavilion conducting abortions without providing mothers with informed consent. Sullivan represented the TLC Advocates who offered assistance and protection to mothers being forced to have abortions, only to find that the abortions had already occurred. Under Indiana law, an abortionist must wait 18 hours after the initial consultation with a pregnant mother before performing the abortion so the pregnant mother can consider her choices. According to Sullivan, mothers were victimized by being denied theirinformed consent. “It is a matter of public record, and the basis for the Women’s Pavilion’s temporary revocation of its clinic license, that the abortionist at the Women’s Pavilion admitted that he was performing abortions without adherence to informed consent laws, particularly the 18 hour time period. The ISDH found 10 out of 10 violations when reviewing the abortionist’s files, and a violation of the informed consent law is a criminal violation. Sullivan is disturbed by this irony – that “on one hand the ISDH is wading in unknown legal territory and threatening mothers with criminal prosecution for utilizing baby boxes, while on the other hand the ISDH refused to process complaints where there were blatant violations of the informed consent laws and mothers were victimized as a result.” 

Mrs. Kelsey, when asked whether or not she would continue to work with state regulators on the issue, she stated that “Safe Haven Baby Boxes has to move forward and save lives. Desperate mothers need our help and there are people on the ground that want to help them. We don’t have time to pontificate any longer with regulators. We are hopeful, however, that the legislature will clear the path of any encumbering regulators so that baby boxes can expand throughout Indiana and beyond.” When asked whether she would improve the baby boxes to appease the regulators, said she would definitely consider any reasonable improvements but that “as of right now, no improvements have been suggested. And let’s face it, whether or not they are perfect, they beat the alternative hands down.” South Benders would likely agree given the recent Purvi Patel case.

If you'd like to make a donation to help Monica and her Safe Haven Baby Boxes, please click on the image below.

                           

 

Voices for the Unborn is an e-publication dedicated to informing and educating the public on pro-life and pro-family issues. To read our Mission Statement, use this link. You can also follow us on Facebook, Google, and Pinterest. Help spread the word by sharing our articles on your favorite social networks.