August 2007 Archives

Here's one you'll never see in the American Mainstream Media:

Vatican ire over botched twin abortion

Herald Sun, Australia, August 30, 2007

A BOTCHED abortion of a fetus instead of its Down syndrome twin has prompted the Vatican to compare abortion to the Nazis' selective breeding practices.

Italy was embroiled in a bitter ethical dispute yesterday after it emerged that a surgeon had accidentally terminated the wrong fetus while trying to abort its Down syndrome twin.

The operation on a 38-year-old woman 18 weeks into her pregnancy was performed at the San Paolo hospital in Milan in June but has only just come to light.

The fetus who had Down syndrome was also subsequently aborted.

Weighing into the controversy, the Vatican said aborting a Down syndrome child was the result of a culture of perfection resembling Nazi eugenics.

Read the entire story here.

This story was first carried in the Philipines on 8/27. And on Spero News (a Christian site 8/28) .That's it on Google News so far.

And this from Lifesite:

160 Healthy Babies Lost for Every 50 Down's Cases Detected with Amniocentesis

By Hilary White

LONDON, August 21, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The risks of amniocentesis to the unborn child have long been known but now a new analysis by a British doctor has shown that using the tests in seek-and-destroy missions for Down's syndrome and other genetic abnormalities results in the deaths of hundreds of healthy babies every year in Britain.

Dr. Hylton Meire, the retired physician and author of texts on ultrasound, calculates that for every 50 children with Down's Syndrome successfully identified and killed by abortion, 160 non-affected babies are lost by miscarriage after the test. His paper, published in the Journal of the British Medical Ultrasound Society, mainly emphasizes that the non-invasive test, called the foetal 'nuchal thickness' measurement, is not as useful as is widely thought because of the high incidents of false positives it gives.

Read entire story here.

All I can say is there's a lot of fear out there over something that shouldn't be feared. And yes, it is definitely eugenics. And it is definitely murder.

How sad that parents are willing to risk losing a "perfect" child to avoid an "imperfect" one.

I am working on an article on Evangelicals who've given up birth control in order to surrender their family size to God (as my husband and I did in 1985).

Please visit MommyLife if you would like to share your thoughts and have them included.

Thank you!
Barbara Curtis

NOTE: WorldNetDaily.com is running a companion news article to my column today, entitled, "Deception built super-secret abortion clinic."

I'm not involved in municipal politics, but it would seem to me bad form for a business to sneak its way into a community by falsifying documents and submitting false testimony in planning meetings.

Yet that's exactly how Planned Parenthood came to build its largest abortion mill in the country in Aurora, IL, soon to be known as the "Auschwitz of America."

Six weeks ago, a pro-life construction worker at the 22,000 sq. ft. site became suspicious of the bulletproof glass and surgical suites, an abnormal mix for what a company called Gemini Office Development was touting as a generic medical center with no tenant yet.

The worker alerted Pro-Life Action League, and by July 27, the story was out. According to the Chicago Tribune:

"Frankly, I'm surprised we were able to keep it a secret for so long," said Steve Trombley, president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood/Chicago Area. "We didn't want anything to interfere with the opening."

That the clinic was kept hush-hush for so long was no accident. Planned Parenthood adopted the strategy after a 2004 boycott by contractors stalled work for two months on a clinic in Austin, TX.

It turns out Gemini was a front company for Planned Parenthood....

But Gemini withheld that information from the City of Aurora. On each of four construction permit applications throughout 2006 it listed itself as the owner and itself as the tenant.

Then five months ago, on its March 22, 2007, permit application for signage, Gemini stated the tenant was "unknown at this time," which was clearly untrue....

Continue reading my column today, "Planned Parenthood driven underground," on WorldNetDaily.com.

Pro-choicers are triumphantly holding up the papers of a recent study that shows that more women have been dying from childbirth in the United States--higher than they have been in decades.

Pro-choicers now think that somehow they have more ammo in their quest to slaughter the unborn. Firstly, they assume that, in the 13 out of 100,000 cases of pregnancy that end in the death of the mother in the United States (an extremely low number, by the way, compared to 679 out of every 100,000 births 90 years ago, according to the study), getting an abortion will automatically save the mother's life.

But this isn't always the case. For women with health problems during the pregnancy, it is often too late by the time they realize their life is in danger to get an abortion that actually would save their life. This is why many doctors say that abortion is never necessary to save the woman's life. Some doctors don't believe that however, suggest that the woman get an abortion, and months later have a perfectly healthy mother and baby because she refuses. So just because your doctor is willing to abort your baby doesn't mean that you will die if you don't. Second opinions, people.

Pro-choicers are also ignoring the fact that the study shows the reasons more women have been dying from childbirth is because of obesity during pregnancy and a rise in hysterical C-Sections by parents who think their child will have cerebral palsy by having a vaginal birth. (Thanks John Edwards!) They aren't always dying from pregnancy complications caused by the baby and, again, these complications, if even known by the time childbirth arises, cannot always be cured by an abortion.

Let's give the pro-choicers the benefit of the doubt and grant that 10 women out of 100,000 do not fall into the obesity/C-section catagory. Let's also give them the benefit of the doubt that, perhaps, 7 of the women will have to have an abortion in order to save their life.

So what? What pro-lifer (or, more importantly, what piece of pro-life legislation) says that a woman must be forced to die for her child? If someone wants to be delusional and believe that women are dying in droves because of their birthing experiences and pregnancy health problems--all of which could have been prevented by an abortion!--fine. Go ahead and believe it. We'll gladly write in (and have been writing in) your life-of-the-mother exceptions in virtually every piece of legislation.

But pro-choicers hate the word "life" in terms of discussing the woman. They want to frame any "danger" of the women in terms of "health". "Health", according to them, means not having enough money to care for a child or making their boyfriends mad. (See Doe vs. Bolton.)

But any normal person, when they hear a pro-choice advocate sneakily say, "Abortion is needed in cases of the health of the mother being in jeopardy," automatically processes "life" in place of "health" in their minds, so the pro-choicers sound reasonable until you actually pick apart what they are saying. "Oh, health, not life." Then you find out what they even mean by "health" and you simply think they are insane psychopaths.

So congratulations pro-choicers: you have a study showing a slight increase of women dying in childbirth. What does it add to the debate about aborting children? Absolutely nothing.

My commentary "Women Speak Out On Hillary" was published today in Philadelphia's Family Newspaper, The Bulletin. You will find a link to the complete story here. It begins:

A recent poll indicated that women have issues with Hillary.

Americans might be on a first name-recognition basis with the former first lady and Democratic presidential hopeful, but 600 registered female voters who participated in a nationwide telephone survey "American Women and Hillary Clinton" express mixed feelings for her.

Democrats made up the majority of women who gabbed about Hillary with pollsters from the non-profit, politically active and pro-life Susan B. Anthony List. Poll participants identified themselves as 45 percent Democrat, 36 percent Republican and 13 percent independent, among others.

One Thursday night in June, I placed our two year old, Abby, in her bed, kissed her forehead and settled in for a much needed slumber next to my husband, Larry. Life was good. Our family would be welcoming a new member in late November and my belly was getting round. Just a little over a year ago, we packed up our house, the kids and my mom (who needs full time care due to stroke) and replanted in a small town in Ohio in order for Larry to go to seminary and follow his lifelong dream of becoming a pastor. We deliberated on names for our new baby for weeks and despite Larry's love for New Testament Greek names like Mathias, we had finally agreed on two: Lily Claire or Eli Owen. Our little sweet pea was busy swimming around and causing great fits of giggles from me while we read books to Abby about welcoming siblings earlier that afternoon. Life was so very good.

Backdrop....

From the Chicago Tribune, July 27, 2007:

Neighbors who drive by the bustling construction site in Aurora think they are seeing the completion of the "Gemini Health Center," just as the sign says....

But in a few weeks the sign will be changed to reflect the true owners of the building: Planned Parenthood....

"Frankly, I'm surprised we were able to keep it a secret for so long," said Steve Trombley, president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood/Chicago Area.... "We didn't want anything to interfere with the opening...."

That the clinic was kept hush-hush for so long was no accident. Planned Parenthood adopted the strategy after a 2004 boycott by contractors stalled work for two months on a clinic in Austin, Texas....

From the Aurora Beacon News, July 29, 2007:

Aurora's Planning and Development Committee approved the final plan for the medical complex on Nov. 16, 2006.... The owner was listed as Gemini Office Development LLC, a subsidiary of Planned Parenthood....

It's one thing to play cards close to the vest; it's another to intentionally conceal information in legal documents and in legal city hearings.

On City of Aurora permit applications, Gemini never stated it was part of PP. On each of its construction applications dated March 23, 2006, July 27, 2006, November 22, 2006, and December 4, 2006, it listed "Gemini Office Development" as owner and "Gemini Office Development" as tenant.

Then on its March 22, 2007, application for signage, Gemini stated the tenant was "UNKNOWN AT THIS TIME," which was clearly untrue:

(Click to enlarge)

Additionally, in a November 16, 2006, City of Aurora Planning & Development Committee meeting, the Gemini representative purposefully concealed the tenant when asked directly. He even allowed Alderman Lynda Elmore, a member of the committee and in whose ward PP was being built, to speculate that townhouse occupants across the street "should be very happy."

Speaking of that meeting and all those city officials, is it possible not one of them, nor the mayor nor any aldermen, knew the truth? None were in cahoots with PP?

(Click to enlarge)

(Click to enlarge)

At a minimum, the City of Aurora should launch an official and legal investigation, questioning the applicant and tenant under oath about statements on applications and in meetings.

If the City does not, is something more going on, a cover-up? Did some officials know that the public documents filed and statements made by the applicant were false? Did some officials know the tenant was to be an abortion provider, but then conspired with Gemini to keep it quiet to avoid politically unfavorable publicity?

If Aurora sweeps this under the proverbial rug, is it not sending a signal that applicants for licensure may lie with impunity? Is it saying it doesn't matter that this applicant was untruthful when it is obvious to the rest of the world it knew full well who would be the tenant?

Would the lesson then be that the current municipal government overlooks blatant misrepresentations of the truth? If citizens may lie to occupancy permit officials, may they also lie to police officers? Or at city council meetings? Where will Aurora draw the line between permissible and impermissible lies?

Or is it that lying is permitted for political purposes? That is, lying is okay in politics so long as it protects incumbents and keeps voters in the dark about potentially embarrassing decisions?

[HT: CitizenLink.com]

Why It Isn't Just The "Lady Justice Statue" That's Blindfolded

The liberal media is just faint with breathless overexcitement today, oh, my: Human embryonic stem cells heal the hearts of rats.

Pardon my Noo Yawk bluntness, but-- big freakin' whoop.

Four years ago, this was already done, with human hearts, and by adult stem cells (ASCs):

Four out of a group of five seriously ill Brazilian heart-failure patients no longer needed a heart transplant after being treated with their own stem cells.

Here is a classic case of how a headline can misinform, even mislead the reader who doesn't carefully read the story itself.

The headline emblazons this amazing breakthrough, "Embryonic Stem Cells Repair Human Heart," but the story itself proves the headline a clear lie for the experiments in question have not involved humans at all. Indeed, one of the lead researchers himself explains that he harbors some doubts that the procedure will ever be effective...with any "patients" besides rats, that is.

Let's take a closer look.

The research is being conducted by Drs. Catherine Coyle, Vincent Rue, and Priscilla Coleman. Through this new website, they hope to increase our understanding of how abortion affects individuals. In addition, the exploratory nature of this research may help to more clearly define future studies and to direct clinical practice involving those affected by abortion. Those who have questions or would like further information about the study may contact Catherine Coyle at ctcoyle@abortionresearch.net.

by Jill Stanek

On Saturday, September 15 young people across the nation will arm themselves with scrub brushes, soap suds, and hoses and do battle for the pro-life cause. The second annual Wash for Life recruits young people to hold car washes around the country. The funds raised from the car washes will go to local crisis pregnancy centers which do such great work lovingly supporting pregnant women contemplating an abortion and helping them make the choice for life. Help activate the next generation of pro-lifers and show your support for pregnancy centers by getting your car washed at a Wash for Life car wash on September 15 or by organizing a Wash for Life in your area.

For more information check the Wash for Life website. If you would like help organizing a car wash near you, contact the Wash for Life staff at info@washforlife.org or you can call (703) 405-5783 or (704) 241-7171.

Please participate in this important pro-life endeavor! With a small investment of time or money you can help activate the next generation of pro-lifers and help stop abortion one life at a time by providing pregnant mothers with the resources and encouragement to choose life.

What you can do:

1. Get your car washed by a Wash for Life car wash team.
2. Help organize a Wash for Life car wash in your neighborhood.
3. Recruit young people to wash cars on September 15.

Despite his commitment to legalized abortion, Rudy Giuliani is desperately trying to woo pro-life Republicans by talking loud and long about his promise to appoint only strict constructionists to the Supreme Court.

But, as Daniel Allott , a senior writer and policy analyst at American Values, points out in this Washington Times article, there is an awful lot more a President can do to oppose abortion and promote pro-life values.

Allott's is a very good piece and an effective reminder that Giuliani's promise just isn't enough to earn a pro-lifer's vote.

"Inspections of N.J. licensed abortion clinics are rare" reported New Jersey's Press of Atlantic City in something equally rare -- an investigative news report on abortion facilities.

"Health officials inspected only one of the state's six licensed abortion clinics in the past two years -- despite a requirement that they be investigated every other year -- before complaints eventually brought inspectors to two of the clinic," Press reporter Michael Clark wrote.

As Clark reports, and I've written on "Mother May I ... Be Born?" here and here, these inspections led to the closings of the Metropolitan Medical Associates clinic in Englewood and the Alternatives clinic in Atlantic City.

Everytime I dial in, AOL offers me several news articles to tap into at my leisure. Today one caught my eye and click, click I learned Ms. Magazine will be publishing 1,016 names of women who are unashamed of the decision they made to have an abortion. They are sending a petition to Washington hoping to influence Congress, the White House and state legislators.

Nicholas is now seven weeks old. His chubby little cheeks never cease to make me smile. He loves to snuggle, listen to music, sleep and eat. He is just starting to focus with his eyes, and occasionally he will give a glimmer of a smile. I find myself wondering many times throughout the day what God's plans are for this little one.

Sweet baby. There are not words to describe the depths of the love I have for him. I am so thankful for this gift from God and would hate to imagine my life without him.

I had other plans. I loved college and always intended to pursue higher education. Though I started a masters program, I never finished it . . . other things kept taking precedence.

Cole will be going to a full day K-4 class next fall. Because I love to be way out in front on being prepared, I had already made plans to go back to school when Cole started this program . . . once again my plans have been changed.

I have learned in life that God's plans are far superior to mine. I wouldn't trade Nicholas for all the doctorates in the world. All of my kids are the joy of my life. Without hesitation I would gladly give my life for them.

In one of those miraculous moments of stark honesty with a stranger, a lovely mother and grandmother shared a deeply personal and painful family secret with a mutual friend and me.

We were the remnants of a pleasant gathering at our pal's home.

Not long after introductions, the topic of abortion rose because of my writings. My new acquaintance lowered her voice and whispered that her daughter, now happily married with children, had an abortion years ago.

This faith-filled lady, who had long worked with children, was embarrassed as if she had somehow been responsible for this tragedy in her family. In fact, she did not even know about the abortion until it was part of her daughter's history.

Then we really talked about a subject that most people avoid.

Noting that 24 percent of all pregnancies end in abortion in the United States, I assured this grieving grandmother that she was not the only one who had been dealt this low, life-ending blow.

Sadly, this sweet woman's broken heart was just a small fraction of the extensive damage done by legal abortion to humanity.

(c) 2007 Marybeth T. Hagan

...Plan B As "Loss Leader" for Planned Parenthood
and
The Rich Get Richer (But It Ain't Who You Think)

Point One: Check back here on this blog in oh, about, August 2027, when there will have been enough longitudinal evidence and studies showing the harm that this "morning-after pill" will have done to us women, just as has been the case for HRT.

The word misogyny means "hatred of, or hostility toward, women," and in case you haven't noticed, liberals consider it the grooviest word to hit the planet since groovy.

Just this past week liberal bloggers used misogyny, misogynic, misogynist or misogynists 524 times, according to Google, always to denounce conservatives or liberals they accuse of behaving like conservatives.

This count doesn't include various ways the potheads have misspelled it, including misoginy, mysogyny, missoginist, misogenist, mysogynic, misogenetic, or the French derivatives mysoginie and mysogyne, because the French love the word, too.

Liberal bloggers love misogyny because they think sticking it the middle of a sentence about "right wingnut wackjob f--ers" makes them sound smart, or at least that they have an aristocratic strain of Tourette syndrome.

Recent provocative liberal blog titles on the topic include....

And last week, actor Matt Damon sent liberal bloggers into cut-and-paste ecstasy when invoking the work misogynist to address comparisons made betweens spies Bond and Bourne....

Continue reading my column today, "Liberal misogynitis,"on WorldNetDaily.com.

Sense Field - "Save Yourself"

h/t Dawn Eden

Recently while traveling on a bus to Coney Island with my son, I overheard a conversation between two men regarding abortion. One of the men was talking about how his girlfriend was pregnant and that he didn't want the baby, didn't want the woman, didn't want the responsibility and was pushing for an abortion. The gist of his conversation was that all he wanted was "relations" and not a "relationship" from this woman.

He explained that his girlfriend wanted to get pregnant, and she saw to it that it happened (I won't go into details as to how how), so he felt trapped. Though he blamed her, he's just as much to blame - she didn't get pregnant by herself.

Now this baby, created for the purpose of testing a relationship, was now destined for a hellish death. While most pregnancies that end in abortion are unplanned, some, like this one, are. This man can't force this mother to have an abortion, but she did agree to abort and had scheduled an appointment.

Essentially, this woman saw some benefits to being pregnant, and when these benefits didn't materialize, she turned to abortion. (For more information on this subject, see "Contraceptive Risk taking and Abortion: Results and Implications of a San Francisco Bay Area Study" by Kristin Lurker.)

My son in tow, I approached the man and spoke with him for a few minutes regarding his situation, and then exited the bus at our stop. I'm not sure what the final outcome was, but hopefully he took our conversation to heart and allowed his child to live despite the circumstances.

Later that day I heard a song which summed up the attitudes of many men towards sex. The line that stood out was "But they just want relations, they don't want relationships." Unfortunately for this woman, and this unborn child, this is all the man wanted. And if she and the unborn child suffer the tragedy of abortion, this man will simply move on, leaving her scarred, hurt, used, and abandoned.

Here is the music video for the song, and below are the lyrics.

S.E.X. - Lyfe Jennings
(Man)
Hey yo you,
You see most cats would take advantage of you right now
But I ain't gon do that, you heard
Imma give you the game, right
Imma give it to you because
I dont want somebody to give my little girl the game
So she could find her s.e.x.

(Man)
Life's a trip
Heard you just turn 17 and finally got some hips
Hustlers on the block go crazy when you lick your lips
But they just want relations, they don't want relationships
(Welcome to the real world)
It ain't the same
Fellas old enough to be your daddy know your name
Everybody's talkin bout how much that girl dun changed
Cant quite put your finger on it but you feel it's strange
Like's it's fire in your vains

(Chorus)
Girl it's just your s.e.x.
Momma's secret
And daddy gon go crazy when he finds out that his baby's found her
S.e.x., take a deep breath
And think before you let it go

(Man)
The block is packed
Baby got an attitude and proud to holla back
Momma's giving advice but she ain't tryna hear that
Not because its wrong, just her delivery is wack
(Shay, get your butt in this house, if I see you with another boy, I swear..)
Life is rough
You say that your not ready for sex but you're in love
He says if you really loved him, you would give it up
Momma says that's just a line guys use to get your stuff
Which one will you trust?

(Chorus)
Girl it's just your s.e.x.
Momma's secret
And daddy gon go crazy when he finds out that his baby's found her
S.e.x., take a deep breath
And think before you let it go

(Woman)
Hey yo Lyfe,
She might take it better coming from a woman (get 'em girl)
See, he'll tell you all kind of things to get in your pants, yeah
Baby, it's a fact that once it's gone, you'll never get it back (never get it back)
Hold on to your innocence
Use your common sense (your worth waiting for)
Be strong
Honey, don't give in, blessings come with patience
Till we meet again, i'm praying for you

(Chorus)
Girl it's just your s.e.x.
Momma's secret
And daddy gon go crazy when he finds out that his baby's found her
S.e.x., take a deep breath
And think before you let it go

Another "Tiny 'Miracle' Baby Finally Goes Home," reported the Associated Press. Tamara Dixon was born in Trenton, N.J.

Congratulations to Andrea Haws and her husband Terry Dixon on the homecoming of Tamara, the answer to her mother's prayers.

"Doctors gave Tamera Dixon a 10 to 15 percent chance of survival before she was born on April 25, about three months before her due date," according to the AP. Tamara weighed a little over 11 ounces and measured 10 inches at birth. She is believed to be one of the most petite babies born in New Jersey.

Just six months ago the nation's tiniest preemie, Amillia Sonja Taylor of Homestead, Fl., went home with her mom and dad. (See my post "Special Delivery" here.) Amillia weighed just 10 ounces and measured 9 1/2 inches on her birth date, October 24, 2006.

Both Tamara and Amillia have been described by their families as fighters for their lives. Each was considered a "miracle."

Thank heaven for these littlest girls who awe us with their dignity.

(c) 2007 Marybeth T. Hagan
Cross-posting with http://www.mothermayibeborn.com

I blogged last week that I was impacted by an article stating liberal bloggers do a much better job of linking and cooperating with one another than do conservatives.

So in an effort to build community, I launched a new post I'm calling (Prolifer)ations to spotlight good information gleaned from other pro-life blogs. I haven't finalized how often I'll do this. At present it's every other day.

View my list of bloggers at www.jillstanek.com. These blogs are what I peruse for (Prolifer)ations posts. If you have any recommendations to add to the list, please email me.

Feel free to post (Prolifer)ations on your blog. If you would like me to send you a reminder when I post, let me know. Better yet, peruse your own list of favorite pro-life blogs and post your own spotlight.

And here we go. In pro-life cyberspace over the past two days...

In 2003, 9-year-old pregnant "Rosita" was used in Nicaragua to promote lealized abortion. A movie was even made and shown on Cinemax. Now the shocking truth has come out. (I know. I sound like Fox... :) Read about it at 2SecondsFaster.

The other day I saw part of a Frontline documentary, linked to here by my new friend Jill Stanek. It was about abortion, made in 1983. On Jill's post, there is an explanation as well as two large photo links to the movie clips which show the woman while she is getting an abortion.

I clicked the second one, where Jill noted the woman, Helen, had more problems and apprehension about the abortion. I watched as she was led into the room where she was to kill her baby--and she was led by a very nice looking woman. A woman whom I'd gladly converse with under any normal circumstance.

The look on the Helen's face as she got ready for the abortion was one of obvious nervousness. She smiled and giggled the way we all do when we are embarrassed about being embarrassed. She lay on the table alone while the nurse fetched the "doctor". They prepped Helen and got ready to give her the abortion.

Birmingham, AL (July 17, 2007) - Counterterrorism expert, author and candidate for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, Dr. Hugh Cort, participated in the signing of Operation Save America's Emancipation Proclamation in Birmingham, Alabama yesterday.

Operation Save America's Emancipation Proclamation gives unborn children their right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, the unalienable rights set forth in the Declaration of Independence.

Read Arthur Miller had Part One first.

I had many more comments I wanted to make on this article, but I wanted to make sure you read it first because I so appreciated the skill with which the author took us on the journey and I wanted to leave you in her capable hands.

Following are my extended thoughts after a few readers commented on the piece:

Holly, I agree with you that this is a sin I wouldn't/couldn't commit - but that's because I have become a believer and being a believer has made me a more authentic person. Miller's rejection of his son even while allowing himself to be put on a pedestal as some kind of great emphathiser /defender of those with lesser gifts - as in his appearance on behalf of the mentally-challenged convict - to me is just so emblematic of the left and their Do-As-I-Say-And-Not-As-I-Do political position.

We never knew that did we?

We only knew what we learned of Arthur Miller in high school and college or our further pursuit of theater. He was touted by many as America's greatest playwright. And his life didn't lack for fascination: the intellectual who married Marilyn Monroe.

His greatest works were written early in his career - before the marriage to Marilyn.

But it wasn't the marriage to Marilyn which became the hinge of the door separating two acts of his life. It may actually have been the birth in 1966 of a son with Down syndrome whom Miller immediately had placed in an institution and whom he never acknowledged throughout his life. Even Miller's obituaries when he died in 2004 mentioned only three children.

There are many comments I'd like to make, but I want you to experience Arthur Miller's Missing Act, which appears in this month's Vanity Fair with all the emotional twists and turns I did as I read it.

At the end, I couldn't help but sob out loud at the sad choices we humans make in our lifetimes. None of us is immune. I don't hold myself up as any better than Miller because of the unfortunate choice he made. I think that is the bittersweet part of growing old as a believer in God: you see the sadness and destruction so much more clearly, but if you have a true relationship with God, no matter how hard you've worked to make something worthy of your life you can't help but be aware of how short you've fallen yourself.

There's no pride in my heart that I made a different choice than Arthur Miller about whether to accept my own child with Down syndrome, only sadness that in all the choices which lie before us throughout life not one of us can escape falling short in some area or other.

I'm beginning to understand that the path to understanding the heart of God means allowing him to lead you through places of the deepest grieving - where judgmentalism is completely cast off as you begin to realize that it's not just a Christian slogan that "we're sinners saved by grace" and we really can't afford to hold ourselves in higher esteem just because we did some things right.

Yes, as you will read in the article - which is so well written and with a perfect "Just the Facts" approach - Miller could be accused of hypocrisy. But when I think how he must have felt as he prepared for his death perhaps finally understanding the gravity of his choice, I can't help but feel compassion.

There but for the grace of God. . . .
(posted at MommyLife)

Dear Barbara (MommyLife)

I am the mother of 11 children, the last has trisomy 18. Peter is 21/2 and a great joy and blessing to his family. After my experience I felt called by the Lord to help others who receive an adverse diagnosis choose life. I run a 5013c non profit, non-denominational, pro-life support group called Prenatal Partners for Life.

Knowing the horrible statistics of abortion for children prenatally diagnosed with Downs and the other trisomy's, I am co-sponsoring a nation-wide billboard campaign with Prolife Across America.

Would you be interested in helping spread the word about this? These are very expensive to produce and we are desperately trying to raise enough money to have 1000 of these all over the U.S.

People can send donations to PPFL, P.O. Box 2225, Maple Grove, MN 55311. 100% of the money goes to this important campaign. I know you have 4 beautiful children with Downs, in addition to your other precious children. Please help me spread the message of how these children are a great gift and that there is a place in the world for them.

I am also looking for pro-life mentors who would be willing to share how their stories with newly diagnosed families to help take away that fear which is often the cause of abortion.

I have a woman in Germany who may be pregnant with a child who has Downs and is very frightened. You don't know anyone who speaks German by any chance who would be willing to talk with her?

Thanks so much and God bless,
Mary Kellett
Prenatal Partners for Life

Please visit Prenatal Partners for Life and bookmark it as a place you can refer parents who need it.

Current statistics indicate that 90% of babies diagnosed with Down syndrome prior to birth are terminated (more accurate to say that babies are terminated rather than pregnancies are terminated). Anyone who feels called to support this ministry of raising public awareness of the right of Babies with Down syndrome to have a chance at life, please consider making a donation and/or spreading the word.

While this video isn't about abortion, it's still about saving babies...

Amazingly, babies can be taught to roll over if they fall into a swimming pool. Of course parents should never take their eyes off of their babies, but it doesn't hurt to ensure they don't drown either....

Amazing Swimming Babies - Watch more funny videos here

Brought to you by the No Room for Contraception Campaign. Visit the campaign's website at http://www.noroomforcontraception.com

Click here to find out more about the potential dangers of "the patch"

Note: There are more than 1000 claimants who have filed lawsuits or made claims against the manufacturer of Ortho Evra. Over 23 deaths are alleged to have been caused by use of the patch. Read the story above for more info..

New York City's Manhattan Mini Storage company, known for its edgy advertising, unintentionally aided the pro-life movement with its most recent ad campaign.

The company's new billboards feature a huge coat hanger and the message "Your closet space is shrinking as fast as her right to choose," reports the Big Apple's WCBS-TV.

Rather than decry those behind this obnoxiousness, pro-lifers should thank the brain-storming creators of the ad and Manhattan Mini Storage's cutting edge owners. For in letting their pro-abortion message all hang out, these people expose the extreme callousness that is at the core of pro-choicity.

Plus, folks other than pro-lifers are noticing.

Those responding to WCBS-TV's online poll find the "NYC Pro-Abortion Billboards" to be "Truly Tasteless" by a wide majority. As of this writing, here's the breakdown on responses to the hanger/pro-choice ad:

Smart Advertising - 23 percent

Truly Tasteless - 74 percent

Huh? - 2 percent

(c) 2007 Marybeth T. Hagan
Cross-posting with http://www.mothermayibeborn.com

Law-abiding friends and acquaintances who had abortions back in the late 1970s and early 1980s would probably not have made that lamentable choice if abortion was illegal, I've often thought.

Economist John R. Lott, Jr., offers evidence that my instincts about legality creating an abortion-friendly culture among the unlikely were on the mark in his new book Freedomnomics: Why the Free Market Works and Other Half-Baked Theories Don't.

Here is Lott's explanation :

"Remember the fundamental principle of economics: if something becomes more costly, people do less of it. If abortion is illegal, the 'cost' of sex is relatively high due to the possibility of pregnancy. No method of birth control is 100 percent effective, and without the option to have an abortion as a last-ditch safeguard, having sex carries a risk. When contemplating having premarital sex, women know that they might have to bear and raise a child, possibly on their own. Likewise, men know that they might end up having to support a child, and both know that having a baby could create pressures on them to marry even if they don't want to do so. Consequently, both men and women tend to be more reluctant to engage in casual sex, especially unprotected sex, when abortion is illegal."

Pro-lifers, please take note.

(c) 2007 Marybeth T. Hagan
Cross-posting with http://www.mothermayibeborn.com

William Wilberforce is one of my few heroes. He was a British Parliamentarian, and the leader in the abolition of the slave trade in Europe. I also consider him to be, though less recognized as, a hero of the fruits of the Reformation and the ideals of the Reformers. (Yet that is a digression I will not continue at this present moment).

Wilberforce began his career as a very young member of parliament and quickly rose to the prestigious seat for the county of Yorkshire. He was considered one of the most eloquent and passionate members of parliament, and one of the most promising of the youngest members.

At a sudden turning point in Wilberforce's life, he committed himself to Christ and began to consider himself an evangelical. It is my understanding of his story that in that time, his passion for his faith led him to inner turmoil about the future course his life should take. He was tormented as a victim of the prevalent neo-platonism that plagued the Church in that day (and has crept into the church again), an attitude that serving the Lord only truly comes through "higher callings" such as pastorship or mission work. His mentor John Newton (who wrote the hymn, "Amazing Grace") encouraged him to remain in politics, and proposed that God may have put him in politics for a reason.

Wilberforce, under the encouragement of other abolitionists, soon became the leading member of the Abolitionist movement. For twelve years he worked to pass legislation to outlaw slavery. He faced much adversity and many obstacles, but finally, his bill passed. The ball was then rolling to end slavery worldwide.

The abortion industry cannot let the Partial Birth Abortion Ban go, for three reasons....

So the industry has embarked on an interesting public relations campaign.

Although it maintained for 15 years during PBA Ban court battles that the number committed was infinitesimally small, now it says the ban has created havoc in the industry.

And while it has always claimed legalized abortion is the safest surgical procedure in the history of the world, now it says the ban has forced "dangerous" abortions on mothers and abortionists.

It launched its PR campaign on July 30 with the help of United Press International, in one of the most egregious displays of journalistic deception I
have ever read....

The "more dangerous... medical procedure"?

Visualizing a preborn baby's internal organs by ultrasound and injecting the heart medication
Digoxin in an FDA-unapproved use through the mother's abdomen and into the heart of her thrashing baby (no one likes needles) to cause an instant, deadly heart attack....

Pay attention. Since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the PBA ban this past April, paranoia has apparently struck the entire late-term abortion industry, forcing these specialized deed-doers out in the open. And there are apparently quite a few, with lots of spectators....

But despite the media's best help, the pro-PBA campaign is ill-conceived, availing itself to an array of pro-life inquiries and talking points. These are....

Continue reading my column today, "Killer cupid abortionists,"on WorldNetDaily.com.

Barbara Curtis is an award-winning author, pro-life advocate, and mother of 12 - including four sons with Down syndrome, three of whom are adopted. Her two oldest daughters have also blessed her with 10 grandchildren - so far!

Coming of age during the 1960's as a Washington D.C. anti-war organizer / radical feminist / abortion rights activist, Barbara migrated to San Francisco in 1972 to explore the more "recreational" side of the counterculture through drugs and promiscuity. The story of how God rescued her - and how experiencing His love taught her that every life matters - is one she never grows tired of telling.

Barbara's background as a Montessori teacher has provided material for many books and articles as well as a popular blog: www.mommylife.net. Her radical political shift has resulted in hundreds of newspaper columns and a book - Reaching the Left from the Right: Talking About Social Issues with People Who Don't Think Like You. Copies will be available at the event.

Posted on the No Room for Contraception Blog by Ruben

In an opinion piece published today on the Huffington Post, author Christina Page asserts that it is the "Pro-choice" movement which "takes responsibility for finding effective solutions" to the problems of unintended pregnancy and abortion.

Ms. Page claims that it's an unacknowledged fact that "pro-choice policies that result in dramatic declines in the need for abortion" and that the "pro-choice movement is the only side working on prevention of unintended pregnancy."

I'm not sure what planet she lives on, but it doesn't sound like this one. "Pro-choice" policies have not resulted in dramatic declines in abortion - either Ms. Page hasn't done her homework, or she is ignoring decades worth of data.

During the 1970s, the percentage of women aged 15-19 who ever engaged in premarital sex rose from 30.4% in 1971 to 43.4% in 1976, and rose again to 49.8% in 1979. Not only did the number of those who had sex before marriage increase, but the pregnancy rates of both married and unmarried women in this age group increased as well: 95.1 in 1972, 101.1 in 1976, and 109.4 in 1979. [2] Abortion also increased - for this same group, the abortion rate rose from...

Click to continue reading "Christina Page's Spin..."

Forensic psychologist Geoff McKee provided an informative explanation of the mindset of women who commit neonaticide in his opinion piece published in yesterday's Los Angeles Times.

McKee notes the difficulty of prosecuting cases like the one in Maryland where four dead fetuses were found in a woman's home. For "investigators have to prove an infant wasn't stillborn or didn't die of natural causes associated with premature delivery or accidental suffocation," he wrote.

Denial and the hiding of pregnancies are common in neonaticide cases, McKee explained, before offering an array of suggestions to prevent such deaths of infants or their abandonment.

All of this was well worth reading.

Still, it was one phrase applied by the psychologist to describe a case that he evaluated which remained with me. "'Edna,' a college freshman, was so indecisive about ending her pregnancy," wrote McKee, "that she suffocated her minutes-old baby in an act of delayed abortion." (Hattip: Best of the Web Today)

Did "Edna" reason that since she could have aborted her preborn baby anyway, she might as well kill the unwanted infant at birth?

It sure looks that way.

The deceptive mindset that rationalizes legal abortion confuses many of us -- some far more tragically than others.

(c) 2007 Marybeth T. Hagan
Cross-posting with http://www.mothermayibeborn.com

The Associated Press reported August 9 that the Thomas More Law Center in Ann Arbor is suing MI Democrat Gov. Jennifer Granholm for discrimination:

Granholm, who wants to lift Michigan's restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, has a link on her state [taxpayer funded] Web site that encourages citizens to sign a petition asking the state Legislature to pass bills that would lift restrictions on such research.

The law center says Granholm refused requests from its clients to place their own petition on the Web site opposing embryonic stem cell research....

Granholm spokeswoman Liz Boyd said the lawsuit is being reviewed.

"Under no circumstances will the governor abandon her fight to lift the restrictions on stem cell research in Michigan," Boyd said.

Apparently Granholm's people did a quick review, and apparently the governor is abandoning this part of her fight.

A check today showed the link Granholm previously promoted, www.michigan.gov/stemcell, is gone.

So is her taxpayer funded webpage promoting the petition.

But sorry, Guv, it's cached. (Click to enlarge.)

Granholm is a pro-abort Catholic who is so bad on the life issue she vetoed a partial-birth abortion ban in 2003, although her veto was promptly overruled by a citizen petition drive.

Granholm doesn't have much luck with citizen petitions.

In this case, Granholm must not really want to know whether the majority of MI citizens support taxpayer funded human embryo experimentation.

From NathanSheets.com:

On the Portland State University campus I am considered more radical than the socialists who have no qualms in declaring their hatred of free speech--they actually say that groups like the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) should not be allowed to have displays on public property. No, not because they have grotesque pictures of abortion, but because of the pro-life message that they convey.

Consider this sampling of headlines from the Saturday and Sunday editions of one of my local newspapers, The Philadelphia Inquirer.

"As suspect surrenders, a family gives up on city"because Lu Jiaxing, 49, was murdered by that suspect during a robbery attempt in the Jiaxing family's Northeast Philadelphia grocery store.

While checking on two suspicious cars behind a Walgreen's store, "Fla. deputy shot, second in week."

"Va. killer may have tried a test run" it seems. "Investigators said Seung-Hui Cho may have chained doors shut two days before the [Virginia] Tech slayings."

"Resolve as victims buried," three victims who were solid-citizen, college-age men brutally murdered execution style during a robbery attempt in Newark, N.J.

"Man held in parents' killing" after slaying his father, 60, mother, 56, and 36-year-old brother with a shotgun in their Towanda, Pa., home.

"Man held in salon hammer attack" after he "stormed a beauty salon and bludgeoned four grandmothers with a hammer" during a "daytime robbery" in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

Living in a culture of death -- even in summertime -- is not easy.

(c) 2007 Marybeth T. Hagan
Crossposting with http://www.mothermayibeborn.com

The Family Planning Association (FPA) have a plan to introduce abortion into Ireland North and South, whether we like it or not.

In The North of Ireland the FPA calls itself the fpa(NI) in the Republic there is a sister group called the Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) which along with the fpa(NI) is a member of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), the largest abortion promoter in the world.

The problem that the FPA has always faced in Ireland is its complete failure to convince people that abortion is not murder of a child. Time and time again the popular voice in Ireland, North and South, Catholic and Protestant, has been NO to abortion.

Strategic Litigation

The FPA, determined not to let democracy stand in the way of their vision, has employed various strategic means of accomplishing their aim. In the North of Ireland in 2001 the fpa(NI) took a Judicial Review against the Department of Health (NI) to force them to produce "Guidelines on Abortion". This was to be seen as "morally neutral" but in reality was part of ongoing strategic court litigation employed by the FPA to secure abortion rights.

At a conference held at Queens in 2001 on Abortion Law in Ireland feminist lawyers Dr Eileen Fegan and Rachel Rebouche stated;

"The decision to challenge Northern Ireland abortion law through the courts, beginning earlier this year, mirrors the successful use of legal strategies (litigation) in other jurisdictions. In USA and Canada prohibitive abortion laws were struck down through contesting their application in specific cases."

Mark Pickup comments:

Here is an Objective truth: Abortion is wicked. It is murder of the weakest and most defenseless.

Any politician who defends abortion is unfit for public office. They do not support the first universal human right which is the right to life for all. And that right extends to every member of the Human Family from conception to natural death.

By his actions and positions, Rudy Giuliani tells us he believes in qualified or selective human rights, not universal human rights. His behavior defies the believe in Objective truths that are self-evident.

How are abortion clinics protecting themselves against charges under the partial-birth abortion ban?

By ensuring unborn babies are dead by injecting them first with lethal drugs before aborting them.

Yesterday, Rush Limbaugh had a caller on who spotlighted Christ Hospital, its involvement in the hideous practice of aborting babies alive and letting them die, and the connection to Barack Obama, who as state senator spoke and voted against IL's Born Alive Infant Protection Act.

The fired nurse mentioned in the call was, as most know, me.

Rush is currently showcasing the call on his home page. (Click to enlarge.)

You can read or listen to a transcript of the call here, or read the relevant portion on page 2 of PLB.

Until Christ Hospital stops aborting, its reputation will continue to be dragged through the mud, of couse, rightfully so.

As for Obama, there is no way he can explain this one away, although he has tried - giving four different answers by my count.

The question is whether or not MSM will force him to address his support of aborting babies alive and letting them die.

Rush is optimistic, telling the caller, "This stuff will all come out. I'm going to tell you something. Aside from the most-informed audience in media, which is you and everybody else listening to this program, most people really start paying attention to this stuff after Thanksgiving, when the primaries start."

A national effort of prayer at abortion mills will begin this fall. 40 Days for Life is a project that has been in the works for over 3 years around the country at various abortion mills.

From the 40 Days for Life website:

"After 3 years of prayer, planning, and preparation, it's FINALLY time...

40 Days For Life: The Groundbreaking Pro-Life Campaign That GETS RESULTS!

Save Lives From Abortion... Protect Women and Men... Provide Healing to the Wounded... Mobilize the Body of Christ in Your Town... IN JUST 40 DAYS!

Dear Pro-Life Friend,

If you, and others in your community, are ready to...

Heed God's call to "speak up for those that cannot speak for themselves"...

Take courageous action to save the lives of innocent children in the womb...

Protect women -- and men -- from making a terrible decision that they'll regret for a lifetime...

Help those who have been hurt by abortion to find healing and forgiveness...

Turn the tide against abortion right where you live...

...Then this could be the most important letter you've ever read."

Click here to read the rest at the 40daysforlife.com website

Planned Parenthood's online store was scheduled to reopen today. But the "Reopening August 8th" sign still sits on the webpage door.

I'm bummed. I was so looking forward to window-shopping.

The folks at PPFA must be too busy selling abortions.

(c) 2007 Marybeth T. Hagan

On Aug. 4, White House journalist Helen Thomas celebrated her 87th birthday.

I'm 51 and already worried about someday being a burden, dependent on others to care for me.

Thomas apparently is not. That or she hasn't connected the prenatal-to-octogenarian dots.

At a recent Planned Parenthood of Greater Iowa fundraiser, Thomas said:

"Let's return to the true ideals of the Bill of Rights. The issue is not the right to live. The issue is the kind of life. The issue is freedom without government or outside interference."...

Helen's phraseology is interesting. "Kind of life" refers to "quality of life," the primary reason mothers abort....

Thomas' "kind of life" standard is perplexing, given her age. Because in that circle of life, Thomas is daily edging closer to a time when she will be as mentally and/or physically helpless as a fetus....

Continue reading my column today, "Helen Thomas' kind of life,"on WorldNetDaily.com.

According to a recent LifeNews article, China is changing its slogans for its family-planning programs, which include a one-child-per-family policy enforced by compulsory abortions and sterilizations. The slogans are part of an ongoing effort to improve China's image as a brutal, repressive, Communist regime as it prepares to host the 2008 Summer Olympics. Somehow the emperor's new clothes don't hide the truth any better.

In the interest of multi-culturalism and saving the planet through recycling, I'd like to offer some of the discarded Chinese slogans to the "pro-choice" protesters who are always looking for a new slogan to make abortion look less like killing babies. As China is no longer using these slogans, I'm sure it wouldn't sue for copyright violation. Isn't copyright violation China's national sport anyway? Maybe they will add that to the Olympics next year.

The testy exchange between Republican presidential candidates Sam Brownback and Mitt Romney about their pro-life credentials during the Des Moines debate reeked of pro-life pettiness.

Brownback won 1st Pettiness Prize from my perspective as a convert to the cause after years of ambivalence about abortion.

The Star Tribune of Minneapolis-St. Paul, courtesy of the Washington Post, sums up the candidates' quibble here:

Brownback vs. Romney

The sharpest exchange was sparked by the first question, when Stephanopoulos played a recording of an automated phone call by Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback attacking Romney's abortion-opposing credentials.

The call said, in part, that Romney's wife had contributed to Planned Parenthood. Asked whether he stands by the call, Brownback said, "I certainly do. There's one word that describes [the call], and it's 'truthful.' " A clearly agitated Romney said that "virtually nothing in that ad is true."

While I have the utmost admiration and gratitude for politicians and citizens who have long been pro-life, I cannot tolerate one-upsman(or woman)ship about who has the best pro-life credentials from either. For those who engage in such pettiness damage the movement by hurting it from within.

Anti-abortion types must fight for children's rights, not act like them claiming "Nah, nah, na, nah, nah, I'm more pro-life than you."

(c) 2007 Marybeth T. Hagan
Crossposting with http://www.mothermayibeborn.com

John Pacheco of the SoCon or Bust blog has uploaded part 3 of 12 of the series onto YouTube.

In these informative video, Dr. Maria Kraw, an endocrinologist at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, Canada, uses slides and medical facts to explain the medical consequences of contraceptive use.

Medical Consequences of Contraception - Part 3

Share these informative videos with your friends, and don't forget to tell them about
www.contraceptionisharmful.com while you are at it!

Every once in a while I take a web walk on the other side to learn what the pro-choice chattering set has on its mind.

Yesterday's stroll led me to a doozy of an abortion-friendly commentary, courtesy of RH Reality Check, an "online community and publication serving individuals and organizations committed to advancing sexual and reproductive health."

RH Reality Check features writer and author Anna Quindlen as one of its "Leading Voices," along with her August 6th Newsweek column "How Much Jail Time?" Quindlen wants to know what pro-life types think the penalty in jail time should be for women who have abortions if abortion becomes illegal.

Aside from her smug summary of non-answers that a guy with a video camera received from anti-abortion protesters outside of a Liberty, Ill., abortion clinic, Quindlen touts the efforts of the National Institute for Reproductive Health to make this question the "centerpiece of a national conversation, along with a slogan that stops people in their tracks: how much time should she do?"

Quindlen never mentioned that the National Institute for Reproductive Health, which sounds as if it might be a government agency, is actually an offshoot of the abortion advocacy group NARAL Pro-Choice New York. This columnist's and her NIRH pals' question about jail time is just as disingenuous.

Last week I wrote about how even pro-lifers discriminate against the unborn when saying that women should not be punished for having abortions if and when abortion should become illegal. Silent No More, the nation's leading post-abortion group, has just given a press release giving the usual pro-life thoughts on the subject. That is, that women shouldn't be punished.

This drives me insane. Firstly, I realize that this issue is hypothetical and inapplicable to our nation's current legal situation. Right now you can get a late-term abortion, for Pete's sake. But to me this is about so much more: the discrimination of the unborn by all sides of the issue.

The first two paragraphs of the July 30 UPI article likely duped the vast unwashed:

Several U.S. health officials argued that the passage of the Partial Birth Abortion Act is forcing more dangerous procedures to occur.

Health officials through agencies like Michigan's WomanCare have pointed out that since the U.S. Supreme Court passed the act, they have been forced to use medical procedures that make abortions increasingly risky and painful....

Let's translate.

The "U.S. health officials"? Only one was identified: Alberto Hodari, a late-term abortionist.

The "agencies"? A group of six MI late-term abortion mills (seven in August!) named WomanCare.

Whoops. Hodari is WomanCare's "medical director," i.e., lead abortionist.

(A July 30 Detroit News article from which this piece was spawned named other "U.S. health officials" and "agencies": Renee Chelian, executive director of Northland Family Planning Centers, another group of late-term MI abortion mills; Kate Palmer, "a health care advocate at a local abortion clinic"; Janet Crepps, an attorney with the Center for Reproductive Rights; and Vicki Saporta, president of the National Abortion Federation. All unbiased, and none with self-interests, to be sure.)

The "medical procedures that make abortions increasingly risky and painful"? Injecting the heart medication Digoxin into a preborn baby's heart to cause an instant heart attack and death, which is off-label use according to the FDA.

The journalistic deception here is staggering. Not only is MSM clearly attempting to portray the PBA Ban as dangerous to the health and safety of women according to many health authorities, but also that it's all our fault.

[Photo of Hodari courtesy of Detroit News.]

From Political Mavens [HT from DWT at DL]

A study by the Coma Science Group of the University of Liège, Belgium, finds that up to half of patients in an acute vegetative state regain some level of consciousness.

In the study, which analyzed data collected over a five-year period, researchers assessed and classified comatose patients according to the Coma Recovery Scale. The researchers determined that some 40 percent had been incorrectly diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state, when they were in fact in a minimally conscious state. And 10 percent of those diagnosed as being minimally conscious were communicating functionally.

Patients who are minimally conscious shows periodic signs of awareness himself and his surroundings but is usually cannot communicate with others, whereas a patient who is in a persistent vegetative state is awake but lacks such awareness.

The Coma Science Group's Dr. Steven Laureys presented the study findings at the European Neurological Society congress in June:

"Our data show that acute vegetative state is certainly not rare among patients admitted to intensive care ... What is important to note is that it may be transient and that the prognosis for patients with impaired consciousness depends to a great extent on the nature of the brain damage. ... The study underlines the importance of extreme caution in any decision to limit the life chances of patients during the acute phase of a vegetative state." ...

Take the case of Jesse Ramirez, who suffered major brain injuries after his car flipped over and he was thrown from the vehicle on May 30th. Doctors predicted that the 36-year old Arizonan could remain in a permanent vegetative state. Less than two weeks after the accident, his wife, Rebecca, 33, asked doctors to remove his food and water tubes. But Jesse's family challenged her decision in court, and a Maricopa County Superior Court judge ordered the tubes reconnected.

And then, Ramirez regained consciousness. The Arizona Republic reports:

[H]e can hug and kiss, nod his head, answer yes and no questions, give a thumbs-up sign and sit in a chair. ...

Jesse is now ready to move from a hospice to a rehabilitation facility.

"We have had a lot of miracles," said Betty Valenzuela, Ramirez's aunt. "He would have been gone."

"All of the family is absolutely thrilled that he has now become conscious and is able to go through rehab," Judge Paul Katz said. ...

The Arizona Republic notes that this same Judge Katz had previously scolded the family for not acting in Jesse's best interest

"Legal, forensic obstacles abound in case of Maryland infants" is the headline on a recent Associated Press/CNN report about the four dead fetuses found in the home of Christy Freeman.

You read that correctly. It says "infants."

The story notes that Freeman "has been charged in the death of one of the pre-term infants, a 26-week-old fetus discovered under her bathroom sink last week."

In order to try to solve this bizarre case, investigators must first determine if these four pre-term infants were Freeman's offspring.

Next, they must establish the ages of the other three pre-term infants in order to see if any of them were at the age of viability and might have survived outside of the womb. "And if they were old enough to live outside the womb, but died before Maryland passed its 2005 fetal homicide law, it may not be a crime even if Freeman caused their deaths," the AP reports.

Not only that, investigators must figure out whether Freeman or someone else was responsible for the deaths of these pre-term infants before birth.

This raises another larger question.

Whose to blame for the deaths of the pre-term infants lost to the more than 48 million abortions that have been performed since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to legalize abortion in 1973?

If four dead fetuses found in a house are infants, then the millions of dead fetuses found in abortion clinics are infants, too.

(c) 2007 Marybeth T. Hagan

Cross-posting with http://www.mothermayibeborn.com

Click hereto go to ProLifeNews.tv and watch live video of the Maryland Face the Truth Tour 2007

You say you believe it when reporters, United Nations spokespersons and Democrat politicians assure you that CEDAW (the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women treaty) isn't about abortion?

Then how do you explain the following?

John Pacheco of the SoCon or Bust blog has uploaded two videos to YouTube of a presentation given by Dr. Maria Kraw, an endocrinologist at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, Canada.

In these informative videos, Dr. Kraw uses slides and medical facts to explain the medical consequences of contraceptive use.

Medical Consequences of Contraception - Part 1
Medical Consequences of Contraception - Part 2

Share these informative videos with your friends, and don't forget to tell them about
www.contraceptionisharmful.com while you are at it!

This is a communication from the National Right to Life Committee's Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics sent on Tuesday, July 31, 2007, at 5:00 PM EDT. For further information click here.

RE: Medicare Rationing in CHAMP Act

Dear Representative:

This week the House is expected to vote on the Children's Health and Medicare Protection Act (CHAMP Act) incorporating Medicare provisions that prevent older Americans from protecting themselves from rationing.

Title IV effectively ends the ability of older Americans, if they choose, to add their own money on top of what the government will pay in order to get Medicare health insurance less likely to ration life-saving medical treatment -- by ending the "private fee-for-service" alternative that gives them this legal option. We urge your "no" vote on the CHAMP Act. The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) will publish the floor vote on the bill as a key pro-life vote.

Price controls are imposed by Sections 401(c) (specified in the bill) and 425(b) (subject to CMS discretion). Hidden in language that on its face appears merely to foster quality controls, section 421 indirectly but effectively eliminates all indemnity private fee-for-service plans as of 2009 and all private fee-for-service plans, including PPOs, as of 2010. Other objectionable, if redundant, provisions would make such plans infeasible in practice. (See full explanation in "NRLC Analysis of House CHAMP Act" at www.nrlc.org/Medicare/index.html )

It is critical to understand that Title IV goes beyond the question of what the government contribution in tax dollars will be to such plans; it actually authorizes limits on what senior citizens themselves are permitted to spend to save their own lives.

"If the Healthy Wisconsin state health insurance plan is adopted by the budget conference committee, 30 years of protecting Wisconsin taxpayers from paying for most abortions will be wiped out and Wisconsin taxpayers could be put in the terrible position of paying for the abortions of any Wisconsin woman...for any reason...at any time during pregnancy!" said Susan Armacost, Legislative Director for Wisconsin Right to Life.

Armacost said that Wisconsin Right to Life had originally asked the State Senate to add language to Healthy Wisconsin to clarify that Wisconsin's current law (s. 20.927), that prohibits tax dollars to pay for most abortions, would apply to the Healthy Wisconsin plan. That effort was unsuccessful and the organization's attention has now turned to the conference committee on this issue. And instead of asking for the inclusion of clarifying language, Wisconsin Right to Life is now asking the conference committee to oppose the Healthy Wisconsin proposal.

We're shocked and appalled when we read that "Police Find Four Fetuses in Mom's Home," as reported by the Associated Press.

No wonder.

The first of the four dead babies, a boy described by authorities as a "viable fetus/infant," was found "wrapped in a white towel with a blue stripe in the cabinet below the bathroom sink" of the home that Christy Freeman shared with her boyfriend Raymond W. Godman, Jr. The fetus appeared to be in his 26th week, according to the medical examiner's report and the AP.

Police, FBI personnel and cadaver-sniffing dogs discovered two of the other fetuses bagged separately in a bedroom trunk. The fourth fetus, also bagged, was found in a small recreational vehicle in Freeman's driveway. The babies' causes of death, ages and relationship to Freeman are still under investigation.

Still these numbers are nothing compared to all of the dead fetuses and embryos laying in the back rooms of abortion clinics; some 3,500 abortions are performed every day in the U.S.A.

Here's an idea for news outlets that really want to give their readers sensational stories which shock and appall. Editors should cast political correctness to the wind and send their reporters searching for tiny corpses stored in refrigerators and tossed into disposal units within their local abortion clinics and Planned Parenthood centers.

If only the mainstream media had the guts to report this story.

(c) 2007 Marybeth T. Hagan

Cross-posting with http://www.mothermayibeborn.com

From NathanSheets.com

United Press International recently wrote a report about the supposed increased risks that are coming following the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban.

"Health officials through agencies like Michigan's WomanCare have pointed out that since the U.S. Supreme Court passed the act, they have been forced to use medical procedures that make abortions increasingly risky and painful, The Detroit News said Monday."