August 2011 Archives

MEDIA ADVISORY, Aug. 31, 2011/Christian Newswire --

Blind forced abortion opponent Chen Guangcheng and his wife, Yuan Weijing, will be transferred to a small prison built specifically for them, according to a Radio Free Asia report. Activist He Peirong stated that the couple will be forcibly removed from their home and transferred to a building "which basically amounts to a jail" so that authorities can "keep tighter controls on them." They will be separated from their 5-year-old daughter in the move. Their young son, living with relatives, was reportedly strip-searched leaving the family home.

Reggie Littlejohn, President of Women's Rights Without Frontiers, decried this action. "The Chinese Communist Party has already beaten and tortured Chen and his wife, denied them medical treatment, stolen their television, phone, computer and books, and appears to be slowly starving them to death. The couple is constantly surrounded by 66 guards and multiple surveillance cameras tracking their every move inside and outside their home. Why is the CCP so threatened by a blind, sick, penniless man that they have to build a personal prison for him? They seek to make an example of Chen, to demonstrate how they will punish anyone who challenges their forced abortion policies. But they are really making an example of their own, shameful brutality."

Bob Fu, President of China Aid, said "The treatment of Chen Guangcheng and the torture and disappearance of human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, are unconscionable. These are not the acts of a government that respects the rule of law. Since the beginning of this year, the CCP has launched an offensive against human rights lawyers and activists, religious leaders, house church Christians and even dissident artists. We urge the release of those unjustly imprisoned, tortured and disappeared."

Chen was arrested in 2006 for exposing evidence that 130,000 forced abortions and involuntary sterilizations were performed on women in Linyi County, Shandong Province in a single year. Time Magazine named him one of "2006's Top 100 People Who Shape Our World." Chen spent four years in prison. Since his release, he continues under house arrest. He and his wife have been beaten repeatedly and denied medical treatment.

To watch "Free Chen Guangcheng!" (three minutes), click here.

To sign a petition to free Chen, click here.

Women's Rights Without Frontiers and China Aid are spearheading a campaign to free Chen Guangcheng. The Jubilee Campaign and World Youth Alliance are partners in this effort.

August 30, 2011/Hays, KS/Operation Rescue --

A Planned Parenthood referral clinic in Hays, Kansas, that sees just over 900 people annually is slated to close on September 2, 2011, unless Planned Parenthood received a guarantee that Title X tax money will be restored.

Earlier this year, Kansas passed a law that allowed the state to reprioritize the distribution of Title X family planning funds to legitimate clinics and hospitals.

Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri had been receiving $330,000 in public funds annually. This year those funds were disbursed to other clinics and hospitals that can supply family planning services without any ties to abortion. Planned Parenthood is now trying to use the courts to get that money back.

Last month, Federal Judge Thomas Marten ordered that the tax dollars be restored to Planned Parenthood even though the state had no existing contract with the state's largest supplier of abortions. Planned Parenthood had argued that losing the public funds would cause "irreparable harm" and argued that all the money was used to keep non-abortion clinics open in Hays and Wichita. That ruling is on appeal.

"Planned Parenthood sees Title X money as their private entitlement program. Planned Parenthood has no right to demand that the people fork over their hard-earned tax money to keep their failing abortion business afloat," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. "If Planned Parenthood has to close clinics because business cannot support them, that is their problem, not the tax-payers'."

Hays and Wichita clinics act as "feeder clinics" for the abortion clinic located in Overland Park. They solicit customers, sell them abortions, and schedule the clients for the procedure. These feeder clinics are integral components to Planned Parenthood's abortion business. Without their abortion marketing programs and referrals, abortions done in Overland Park would decline. It is disingenuous to claim the "feeder clinics" have nothing to do with Planned Parenthood's abortion business.

"Because of their important role of Planned Parenthood's abortion business, these clinics should not qualify for Federal Funding through Title X," said Newman. "The truth is that other medical facilities are perfectly qualified to provide legitimate family planning services to communities, and are now doing so, but Planned Parenthood is wrongly trying to scare the public with the false claim that people will be without needed medical care if they don't get our tax money. That simply is not true."

Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri has struggled since being charged with 107 criminal counts in 2007. That case is scheduled for a preliminary hearing in October.

Aug. 29, 2011/WI Right to Life/Barbara Lyons/ --

The Susan G. Komen Foundation, dedicated to finding a cure for breast cancer, is everywhere raising millions of dollars worldwide for its cause. Komen has gotten a black eye in recent years when it became public that Komen gives some of its funds to Planned Parenthood. In 2010 gifts to PP totaled $569,000, down from the $731,000 donated in 2009.

When asked, Komen states that gifts to Planned Parenthood are justified because PP does mammograms. The black eye got even darker when it was revealed that PP actually does not do mammograms, but routine breast exams that a woman can do on herself.

The biggest problem with the PP donation is that a legitimate abortion-breast cancer link has been documented in studies. So, Komen gives funds raised to cure breast cancer to an organization that is increasing breast cancer risk as the nation's largest abortion provider.

This fall, Komen will have a "Race for the Cure" in Milwaukee. Every year, I am asked by friends to be on a team. Every year, I decline. There are better ways to fight breast cancer than to feed the abortion trough that is Planned Parenthood.

DANA POINT, CA, Aug. 25, 2011/Christian Newswire --

The Center For Bio-Ethical Reform (CBR) and it's project partner, Life Decisions International (LDI), announce an abortion-related boycott and picket of the St. Regis Monarch Beach Hotel, located at the intersection of One Monarch Beach Resort and Niguel Road in Dana Point, CA, 92629, beginning Friday, Saturday and Sunday, August 26-28, 2011, from 2:00PM until 7:00PM each day.

The picketing of this property will continue until Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc., the corporation responsible for the general management of this hotel, enforces its franchise agreements to bar Starwood licensees from providing philanthropic support to Planned Parenthood, America's largest abortion provider.

This particular St. Regis property is owned by Washington Real Estate Holdings LLC, whose investors we urge to enforce their management contract with Starwood in terms which forbid Starwood's corporate sponsorship of Planned Parenthood.

This weekend's picketing will involve the display of handheld abortion photo signs at the entrances to the St. Regis property. Billboard trucks displaying larger versions of related abortion photo signs will circle the hotel each day. Aircraft will tow 50'X100' aerial billboards displaying still larger abortion photos in tight orbits directly above the St. Regis Hotel and golf course.

In the coming months, CBR will begin concentrated picketing of St. Regis special events, such as wedding receptions, using abortion photos which are progressively more graphic. Prior to each of these specially targeted pickets, CBR will issue notice sufficient to permit the St. Regis to provide its clients with adequate opportunities to book alternative arrangements elsewhere.

We believe that Starwood has at least an ethical duty to disclose our picketing intentions to current and prospective customers. Knowingly concealing this information could arguably obligate the St. Regis to refund fees and or expose the hotel to a broad range of civil liabilities.

CBR believes that the targeted hotel is similarly obligated to notify clients with whom it contracts to provide off-site catering, that their events could be picketed by CBR activists who lawfully follow St. Regis catering trucks to their destinations.

We will videotape all of our St. Regis picketing activities and post serialized video vignettes on popular social networking websites. We have also contracted with a private security firm to deploy armed, uniformed officers for all pickets.

In addition to the St. Regis, Starwood hotel trademarks include the Sheraton, Westin, Four Points, Meridian, W and other hotel brands. CBR picketing of additional St. Regis properties and Starwood brands is currently being planned and organized.

Starwood is only the first of 70 corporations, many of which are Fortune 500 companies, whose retail establishments CBR and LDI will picket with abortion photo signs. This group includes such brands as Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants, Levi Strauss clothing, Estee Lauder cosmetics, Microsoft computer products, Nike sports gear, Ralph Lauren clothing, Southwest Airlines, Staples office products, Walt Disney entertainment and Whole Foods Markets. A select sub-group of these 70 businesses will be targeted for intensified picketing between the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays in the Fall and Winter of 2011.

News organizations may request access to a CBR FTP website at which they can download picket-related still photos of publishable quality and picket-related video of broadcast quality. For more detailed information on this project, please visit abortionNO.org.

MEDIA ADVISORY, Aug. 25, 2011/Christian Newswire --

Clobbered by criticism, the Obama Administration has newly declared that it "strongly opposes all aspects of China's coercive birth limitation policies, including forced abortion and forced sterilization." Vice President Biden has called these practices "repugnant." These proclamations were made in an effort to backtrack from Biden's most recent gaffe, stating that he "fully understands" China's One Child Policy and does not "second-guess" it.

By making these statements, the Obama administration has now publicly admitted it knows that forced abortion and forced sterilization are official "policies" of the Chinese Communist Party, not random acts carried out by overzealous officials, as contended by the CCP. This is progress.

Should we believe that this administration "strongly opposes" these practices?

Actions speak louder than words. If the Obama administration "strongly opposes" forced abortion in China, then why did they restore funding to UNFPA (United Nations Family Planning Fund), an "abortion provider" in China?

In 2001, the U.S. cut funding to UNFPA because an investigation, headed by then Secretary of State Colin Powell, found that UNFPA was complicit in the coercive implementation of China's One Child Policy. In 2008, the U.S. State Department reaffirmed that determination, and yet the Obama administration resumed funding in 2009. President Obama's FY 2012 budget requests $47 million for UNFPA.

The current administration also funds the International Planned Parenthood Federation. The IPPF works hand in hand with the coercive Chinese Communist population control machine. Their website declares, "The China Family Planning Association (CFPA) plays a very important role in China's family planning programme. It supports the present family planning policy of the government...."

In China, a woman's body is not her own. It is the domain of the State. To fund organizations that work hand in glove with China's "womb police" does not constitute "strong opposition" to forced abortion and forced sterilization. Rather it constitutes complicity.

If the Obama administration is sincere in saying it "strongly opposes... forced abortion and sterilization," then it will either insist that UNFPA and IPPF cease operation in China, or it will defund these organizations.

Watch a four-minute video, "Stop Forced Abortion, China's War on Women!"

Sign a petition against forced abortion in China.

August 24, 2011/Austin, TX --

Operation Rescue has been notified that a tenth abortionist will face a disciplinary hearing this fall before the Texas Medical Board based on a complaint filed by Troy Newman the group's president.

Franz C. Theard will face an Informal Settlement Conference/Show of Compliance (ISC) hearing on October 28, 2011, at 1:00 PM.

Theard is an El Paso abortionist who also runs an abortion clinic just over the state border in New Mexico. Operation Rescue recorded one of Theard's employees coaching a caller who claimed to be a minor seeking an abortion, to cross state lines to avoid having to comply with the Texas parental notification law.

Aborted baby remains were also discovered by pro-life activists in a parking lot outside Theard's El Paso abortion clinic earlier this year. That incident was also reported to the Medical Board by Operation Rescue.

"Theard and the other abortionists have played fast and loose with the law for far too long. Their actions have endangered women, created public health hazards, and misled young women into having preventable abortions. We look forward to seeing them held accountable to the law," said Newman.

Operation Rescue, with the aid of the Survivors, conducted a three-month investigation into Texas abortion clinics and discovered a wide range of violations from the illegal dumping of human remains to abuses of the 24-hour informed consent law. Operation Rescue reported the violations to three Texas agencies.

The results have shaken the abortion cartel in Texas. So far, two abortion clinics, Whole Women's Health in Austin and McAllen have been cited for illegal dumping of aborted baby remains and a total of ten abortionists must face ISC hearings to determine what discipline, if any, they should face for violations that have not been made public by the Board. Hearings for all ten abortionist will take place on the save day and are scheduled a half hour apart.

"This will be a day of reckoning for abortionists in Texas and will send the strong message that they are not above the law," said Newman.

Other abortionists facing possible discipline for abortion abuses are William Watkins West, Jr., Robert E. Hanson, Jr., Pedro J. Kowalyszyn, Sherwood C. Lynn, Margaret Kini, Alan Molson, Robert L. Prince, Douglas Karpen, and H. Brook Randal.

Read letter from Texas Medical Board
Read OR's Special Report: Widespread Abortion Abuses in Texas Exposed

MEDIA ADVISORY, Aug. 23, 2011/Christian Newswire--

The following is an open letter written by Reggie Littlejohn, President of Women's Rights Without Frontiers and advocate for human rights in China:

Dear Vice President Biden:

I write concerning the remark you made Sunday during your official visit to China: "Your policy has been one which I fully understand -- I'm not second-guessing -- of one child per family."

By your own admission, then, you "fully understand":

• That China's One Child Policy is enforced through forced abortion and involuntary sterilization
• That, because of the traditional preference for boys, girls are disproportionately subject to abortion, abandonment and infanticide
• That because of this gendercide, there are an estimated 37 million more males than females living in China today
• That this severe gender imbalance is a powerful, driving force behind human trafficking and sexual slavery from nations surrounding China
• That according to the World Health Organization, China has the highest female suicide rate of any country in the world. Approximately 500 Chinese women kill themselves each day. Could this extraordinary suicide rate be related to the trauma of enduring a forced abortion or forced sterilization?

Since you "fully understand" this, how can you then state that you do not "second-guess" this policy, which causes more violence to women and girls than any other official policy on earth?

I understand that you have several children. Would you "second-guess" this policy if it were the law of the United States? Can you imagine the devastation if it were your own wife being dragged away to forcibly abort your children? Families in China endure this every day. Is such a policy acceptable so long as it does not affect U.S. families, but only Chinese families?

Or do you agree with CNN's Ted Turner, and with Norman Fleishman, the former Planned Parenthood executive, both of whom have stated that the United States should adopt the One Child Policy?

To say that you "fully understand" and yet do not "second-guess" the One Child Policy is to turn a blind eye to the incalculable suffering caused by this policy. If you disagree, please issue a statement clarifying your remarks. Otherwise, why should we not conclude that for you, forced abortion, forced sterilization, infanticide and gendercide are acceptable forms of population control?

If you truly wish to "fully understand" forced abortion in China, watch this four minute video.

I, too, "fully understand" the coercive enforcement of China's One Child Policy. It is an atrocity that must be abolished from the face of the earth.

Friday, August 19, 2011/Lawrenceville, GA/Alliance Defense Fund --

by David Cortman and Jeremy Tedesco

The Alliance Defense Fund has sent letters to 7 public school districts across the country that urge them to reject the American Civil Liberties Union's demand that they deactivate various Web filters that block student access to websites with sexually explicit material just because some of the sites blocked belong to homosexual activist groups. ADF assured the districts that they are well within their legal rights to retain their filters. The letters provide the districts with a list of sites that display pornographic images and sexual advice that would be accessible to students if the districts give in to the ACLU's demands.

ADF sent a similar letter to Gwinnett County Public Schools in Georgia earlier this month after the ACLU threatened that district over its Web filter as part of the ACLU's "Don't Filter Me Initiative."

"School districts shouldn't be bullied into exposing students to sexually explicit materials," said ADF Senior Counsel David Cortman. "The 'Don't Filter Me Initiative' would be better named the 'Public School Porn Initiative.' That's because the ACLU is pushing its radical sexual agenda for children by intimidating school districts with a long string of scare tactics disguised as a concern over censorship. In truth, these school districts have no obligation to cave to the ACLU's unwarranted demands. Our children come first."

The ACLU is threatening the seven districts and has already sued one of them in Missouri. The ACLU claims that not allowing children to access sites currently blocked by certain Web filters violates the students' constitutionally protected rights and the federal Equal Access Act.

In response, ADF attorneys sent letters to Camdenton R-III School District (Mo.), Hurst-Euless-Bedford Independent School District (Texas), Oroville Union High School District (Calif.), Little Rock School District (Ark.), Prince William County Public Schools (Va.), Vineland Public School District (N.J.), and Aldine Independent School District (Texas), arguing that the ACLU's arguments are irresponsible and lack legal merit. The letters explain that districts have broad authority over what materials students may access on the Internet. ADF also explains that the ACLU's demands could result in the districts violating state laws that prohibit distributing harmful sexual materials to minors.

In the case of Prince William County Public Schools, ADF attempted to e-mail its letter to district officials, but the district's e-mail filter rejected the transmission as containing "offensive content" because the letter references the sexually explicit content of websites that the ACLU wants students at the school to be able to access.

"The materials that the ACLU wants children exposed to is sexually explicit enough that just mentioning them in an e-mail to adult district officials triggers an 'offensive content' filter," said ADF Legal Counsel Jeremy Tedesco. "The ACLU cannot mask its attempts to turn school computers into porn portals for children with a supposed concern for censorship. Parents expect schools to be places where their children learn--not places where they access pornography."

CHICAGO, Aug. 18, 2011/Christian Newswire --

Planned Parenthood provides over 330,000 abortions every year and brings in about a billion dollars annually, but is still fighting to protect its government subsidies -- amounting to hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars sent to its clinics every year.

If today's current crop of the super wealthy can't find anything better to do with their money than support organizations that are being heavily funded by taxpayers, maybe President Obama is right when he says billionaires need to pay more taxes. Or perhaps organizations that receive 5-figure and even 7-figure private donations shouldn't be demanding handouts from taxpayers.

America's largest abortion provider has been crying "foul" ever since the movement to defund Planned Parenthood began sweeping the country. Voter-approved measures have stripped Planned Parenthood of state taxpayer monies in Kansas, Indiana, Wisconsin, Texas, New Hampshire, and most recently, North Carolina. In Washington, DC, when the House of Representatives voted to slash funding to Planned Parenthood via a measure in the federal budget bill, the initiative did not pass in the Democrat-controlled Senate.

An August 8, 2011, Crain's Chicago Business feature titled, "The women keeping threats to Planned Parenthood at bay," profiled the group's support by three big donors. Helen Zell, labeled by Crain's along with her husband Sam as a "billionaire philanthropist," advocates publicly funded abortion, birth control and sex education. The 69-year-old has pledged $600,000 over three years to Planned Parenthood's near north side operation, and she has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Chicago's ACLU to promote abortion. Crain's quotes her as saying, "I want to get the most bang for my buck." Along with Zell, Illinois Planned Parenthood is receiving big money from Democratic fundraiser Laura Tucker and also from one of Planned Parenthood's pro bono lawyers, Fay Clayton, who has given $50,000 to the Aurora abortion site.

"With this kind of support from private donors," mused Eric Scheidler, executive director of the Pro-Life Action League, "One must ask why Planned Parenthood insists they deserve taxpayer funding as well. If donors are ready to step up and fill the gap, why are they fighting tooth and claw for every dollar, claiming that their centers will close down without this funding?"

Scheidler, who has long been involved in countering Planned Parenthood's promotion of abortion, pointed out, "Even people on the 'pro-choice' side have got to be wondering why an organization that can hit up the likes of Helen Zell for a million bucks needs any taxpayer funding."

For interviews with Eric Scheidler, please contact Tom Ciesielka at 312-422-1333 or tc@tcpr.net. For more information on the Pro-Life Action League, visit www.prolifeaction.org.

Inevitably when a discussion comes up between pro-life and pro-choice advocates about late term abortions pro-choice advocates will argue that abortion in the second half of pregnancy is a rare occurrence and only take place in the most dire of situations including the life of the mother and cases of severe fetal abnormalities. Their arguments will normally include heart wrenching stories of women who had planned pregnancies and wanted their babies and with great sadness decided to abort it because of situations that they believe gave them no choice.

While this does happen pro-choice advocates would have us to believe that these cases are the only reasons for late term abortions. This is not the truth. Viable babies and those nearing viability are killed in this country everyday for a variety of reasons, many of which are neither life threatening nor include fetal abnormalities.

According to eye witness accounts from people who have worked in abortion clinics that do late term abortions, including the abortionists themselves, these abortions are not only relatively common but are done for reasons of convenience in many cases. According to the Guttmacher institute, there are an average of 20,000 abortions per year on babies over 21 weeks gestation (not to mention another 55,000 on babies between 16-20 weeks gestation). These 20,000 babies aborted at 21 weeks gestation and beyond were fully formed and in many cases the mothers could feel them moving inside their wombs when they aborted them.

The reasons for abortion at this stage of pregnancy are many and varied. However, according to one survey that included 18 abortion clinics that provide late term abortions, 90% of these abortions were for "non-medical" reasons. An article about the survey further quotes one clinic worker as saying that most of these abortions are done on 10-18 year olds who were in total denial of the pregnancy....

Read entire article here.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., Aug. 15, 2011/Christian Newswire --

Operation Rescue has obtained eight new 911 recordings that reveal a scandalous pattern of botched abortions at two Albuquerque abortion clinics. Together with five 911 calls released last month, the 13 calls show that life-threatening abortion complications requiring emergency assistance occur at the rate of one every 10 weeks.

The eight newly obtained calls were placed between November, 2008 and December, 2009, with six originating from Southwestern Women's Options, owned by Curtis Boyd, and the UNM Center for Reproductive Health, an abortion clinic that acts as an abortion training grounds for the University of New Mexico.

"As disturbing as the critical nature of these life-threatening emergencies are, perhaps more disturbing are the callous attitudes of some of the abortion workers and their willingness to cover up for the abortionists," said Operation Rescue Senior Policy Advisor Cheryl Sullenger. "The clinic workers are careful about how much information they revealed to the emergency dispatchers, and in many cases, even attempt to shift the blame for the complications onto the woman. Their general actions and attitudes toward the woman they just injured are despicable."

One clinic worker from Southwestern Women's Options expressed concern over the questions the 911 dispatcher was asking. While she thought she was on hold, this exchange took place:

SWO Employee:[Whispering] I don't know - I don't know what information he's asking me.

Background Voice: Just talk to him - act dumb.

SWO Employee: [Whispering] Okay. Exactly. Yeah.

The latest tapes obtained under an open records act request made by Tara Shaver of Project Defending Life, who forwarded the recordings to Operation Rescue. They show women ranging in ages from 18 to 34 who were between 8 weeks and approximately 24 weeks pregnant.

Complications included:

• Uterine rupture with heavy bleeding.
• A panic-stricken 18-year old patient with chest pains, numbness, and a severe headache after a late-term abortion.
• Cervical laceration with hemorrhaging.
• Uncontrolled bleeding after first and second trimester abortions.
• Multiple seizures.
• Abortion on a woman with an undiagnosed ectopic (tubal) pregnancy.

"It's just wrong for paramedics to have to clean up after these abortion quacks every ten weeks. We demand the immediate closure of the two Albuquerque clinics involved for the protection of the public," said Sullenger.

Operation Rescue is preparing new complaints against the abortionists involved. Three abortionists from Southwestern Women's Options, Curtis Boyd, Shelley Sella, and Susan Robinson are already under investigation by the New Mexico Medical Board.

A video containing excerpts of the call has been released on YouTube.com. The full recordings, written transcripts, and the Computer Aided Dispatch transcripts have also been released and are available at OperationRescue.org.

Right to Life Michigan/Aug. 11, 2011 --

In June of 2011, the Third Wave Foundation released a report detail regarding the 2010 actions of their Emergency Abortion Fund which provides money to women who can't afford abortion. The report gives "snapshots" into some of the cases in which they provided funding for abortion.

One of the cases involved a 14-year-old girl from Detroit who traveled to Colorado for an abortion after raising funds and keeping her pregnancy a secret from her mother, whom she claimed was suicidal. They claim this case was severe yet there was no physical reason given for the girl's abortion....

Read entire article here.

AUSTIN, TX, Aug. 10, 2011/Christian Newswire --

Four Texas abortionists associated with the Whole Women's Health, Inc. abortion chain are facing disciplinary action based on complaints filed by Operation Rescue.

The Texas Medical Board notified Operation Rescue President Troy Newman that William Watkins West, Jr., Robert E. Hanson, Jr., Pedro J. Kowalyszyn, and Sherwood C. Lynn will appear before an Informal Settlement Conference/Show Compliance (ISC) hearing on October 28, 2011, to determine what, if any, disciplinary action should be taken against them.

They join five other Texas abortionists who are also facing disciplinary action based on Operation Rescue complaints.

"We now have seen stunning results from our Texas abortion clinic investigation. A total of nine abortionists are facing discipline, and we expect more to join them," said Newman. Operation Rescue filed complaints against fourteen Texas abortionists.

"We discovered abortion abuses at every clinic that we investigated. What we found in Texas is just a microcosm of the appalling conditions and horrific abortion practices that exist at abortion clinics in every state that endanger the health and safety of women each day. It's standard operating procedure in the abortion cartel to cut corners on patient safety in order to increase abortion profits. Our investigation and the resulting state actions against the Texas offenders confirm that."

The Board actions against all nine abortionists are the result of a 3-month investigation spearheaded by Operation Rescue, with the help of the Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust. Operation Rescue published the findings of the investigation and filed complaints with three Texas oversight agencies, reporting violations that had been documented by two teams of undercover investigators.

As a further result of the Operation Rescue investigation, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) verified health code violations - including the illegal disposal of the remains of aborted babies - at Whole Women's Health clinics in McAllen and Austin and has cited the clinics for them.

Whole Women's Health is affiliated with the National Abortion Federation, a scandal-plagued national association of abortion clinics that have been found to be among the worst in the nation in complying with even the most basic health and safety standards.

View letters from the Texas Medical Board

Read Operation Rescue's Investigative Report: "Widespread Abortion Abuses in Texas Exposed"

FRONT ROYAL, Va., August 8, 2011/Christian Newswire--

Patricia Pitkus Bainbridge, Chairman of the Board of Human Life International (HLI), issued the following statement announcing HLI's new leadership team: Father Shenan Boquet as president, and Father Peter West as vice president for missions.

"After an extensive search in the US and abroad, and much prayerful discernment, the board of directors is very pleased to announce that they have selected the team of Fr. Shenan Boquet and Fr. Peter West to carry on the legacy of HLI's founder, the late Fr. Paul Marx. Fr. Boquet brings a great breadth of leadership and pastoral experience and passion for the defense of life and family to the position as president. Fr. West has a long and distinguished record of advocacy for life and family both in parish life and with Priests for Life, and was uniquely suited to head up HLI's missionary work as vice president for missions.

"Both Fr. Boquet and Fr. West come to HLI with the full support of their respective bishops, and we are grateful to both bishops for allowing them to serve HLI. We are confident that under the leadership of Fr. Boquet and the strategic guidance of Fr. West, HLI will continue to be the leading international pro-life organization.

"Further, HLI is truly blessed to have had Monsignor Ignacio Barreiro-Carámbula at the helm during a year of transition. We are deeply grateful for all Monsignor was able to accomplish in his short time as interim president, and while he'll be missed at HLI headquarters, we are pleased that he will continue to serve HLI's mission as he resumes leadership of the Rome office."

Both Fr. Boquet and Fr. West will assume their new responsibilities on September 1, 2011. To learn more about Fr. Boquet, click here; and for more about Fr. West, click here.

CHICAGO, Aug. 5, 2011 /Christian Newswire --

This week, the Thomas More Society filed a "friend of the court" brief in the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on behalf of more than 60 members of the Indiana General Assembly, in opposition to Planned Parenthood's assertion that defunding abortion providers imposes an "unconstitutional condition" on physicians' alleged right to perform abortions.

The brief states that "abortion providers have no constitutionally recognized Fourteenth Amendment right to perform abortions" and that funding restrictions would not "interfere with the ability of pregnant women to obtain abortions. Accordingly, because the constitutional rights of women seeking abortions have not been violated, neither has the asserted right of their providers."

In the trial court, the Thomas More Society scored a partial victory when U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt denied Planned Parenthood's request to block a provision of an Indiana law that requires doctors to tell women who are seeking abortions that "human physical life begins when a human ovum is fertilized by a human sperm" (previous media release here).

Society attorneys had also filed a "friend of the court" brief in the trial court on behalf of the Indiana legislators, defending both this provision and the provision of the law defunding Planned Parenthood.

"We're proud to represent the members of the Indiana General Assembly in doing the will of the people, both in preventing tax dollars from being used to support abortion providers and in ensuring that women considering abortion are fully informed about the nature of the procedure," said Peter Breen, executive director and legal counsel of Chicago's Thomas More Society.

For more information or comments, please contact Tom Ciesielka at 312-422-1333 or tc@tcpr.net.

by Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director, Priests for Life

On Saturday night, July 30, I was privileged to deliver the keynote address at the kick-off rally of the "Summer of Mercy 2.0." (Click here to listen to the talk) This nine-day event in Germantown, MD focuses on stopping the child-killing business of LeRoy Carhart, late-term abortionist. He does abortions through the second and into the third trimester.

Carhart flies into Maryland each week from Nebraska, because some smart state legislative efforts there drove him out. In 2010, the state of Nebraska passed a law protecting children in the womb who are capable of feeling pain. Based on scientific evidence, the lawmakers drew the line at 20 weeks into pregnancy, and prohibited abortion beyond that point. Other states to enact similar legislation are Idaho, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Alabama. The measure is under consideration in various other states as well.

The Alan Guttmacher Institute, which is the best source for abortion statistics in the United States, reports, "64% of [abortion] providers offer at least some 2nd-trimester abortion services (13 weeks or later), and 23% offer abortion after 20 weeks. ...11% of all abortion providers offer abortions at 24 weeks." The institute also indicates that of the approximately 1.2 million abortions in the United States each year, some 18,150 are performed at 21 weeks or more. Of the 40 states that reported in 2005 to the Centers for Disease Control, 32 states reported abortions of babies 21 weeks or older.

This means that every day in America, 50 babies the size of a large banana are dismembered and decapitated - and these include healthy babies of healthy mothers... and it's happening legally.

These are babies that the mother can already feel moving. According to MedlinePlus, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health, these babies are storing fat on their bodies, their heartbeat can be heard with a stethoscope, they can hear, they have eyebrows, eyelashes, fingernails and toenails. Incidentally, MedlinePlus calls them "babies."

Many people wonder how they can get some traction in the seemingly intractable abortion debate. How can they get people to listen, or make pro-choice people believe that pro-life people have good reason to be against abortion? As I shared at the rally, let's start by discussing the facts above.

It's morally legitimate to focus on late-term abortion; that doesn't deny that all abortion is wrong; it's simply a way to get the ball rolling, to move from the most obvious to the less obvious. Most Americans oppose second and third trimester abortions, and we have to mobilize those people who, even if they self-identify as "pro-choice" and do not want to see Roe vs. Wade reversed, will nevertheless work with us to stop late-term abortions.

Both in Nebraska and Maryland, Carhart has been under investigation for breaking various laws and guidelines that govern the medical profession. Along with shining a spotlight on this misconduct, the pro-life movement has a key opportunity to focus the public's attention on late-term abortion, and to bring it to an end.

This column can be found online here.

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KANSAS CITY, KS/Aug. 2, 2011 /Christian Newswire --

The American Association of Pro-life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) yesterday filed an appeal of a Federal Court ruling that blocked a new Kansas abortion clinic licensing law (SB 36) from taking effect.

"The court's ruling blocking the law places women at unnecessary risk and places the profit margins of abortionists over the lives and safety of women. It became clear that the Attorney General's office had no intention of filing the appeal, so AAPLOG stepped up to the plate in the interest of protecting women from abortion clinics that do not meet minimum safety standards and have no intention cleaning up," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman, who worked for years in Kansas in support of clinic licensing legislation.

Yesterday's filings state, "AAPLOG has members in Kansas who will be directly affected by the disposition of this lawsuit. Specifically, the reduced safety, less-than-ideal sanitary conditions, poorer accommodations and lack of follow-up care at abortion facilities in the absence of SB 36 inevitably exacerbates complications among post-abortive women, and shifts costs of abortions onto AAPLOG members who treat post-abortive women. In addition, AAPLOG members are put at a competitive disadvantage by the enjoining of SB 36: AAPLOG members provide costly follow-up care for their services while Plaintiffs often do not unless required by SB 36."

Attorneys representing AAPLOG are Andrew L. Schlafly of Far Hills, New Jersey, and Thomas M. Dawson of Leavenworth, Kansas. Schlafly is a nationally respected attorney who is also the son of pro-life pioneer Phyllis Schlafly.

Abortionists Herbert Hodes and Traci Nauser sued to block the clinic licensing law from taking effect. They were joined by the troubled Aid For Women abortion clinic, which failed to pass the inspection required for licensing under the new law. Hodes and Nauser refused to submit to an inspection.

"Right now in Kansas, dangerous abortion clinics operating under substandard conditions continue to endanger women," said Newman. "There are parts of the new law that have already been found to be Constitutional, like the requirement that abortionists maintain privileges with a hospital within 30 miles of their clinics. These portions of the law should not be enjoined while other parts of the law are challenged. Women deserve the legal protections of the law now."

Documents:

• AAPLOG Notice of Appeal

• AAPLOG Motion to Intervene

• AAPLOG Memorandum to Intervene

WASHINGTON, D.C. (08-01-11) --

Americans will pay for abortion-inducing drugs and will find their conscience rights trampled by the new Obama Administration guidelines for health care coverage adopted today, said Americans United for Life Action President and CEO Dr. Charmaine Yoest.

As part of the health care reform process, AULA's attorneys testified about the guidelines during hearings held by the Institute of Medicine. However, among the groups chosen to effectively help write the health care plan for all Americans was Planned Parenthood.

"Ideologically-driven recommendations became policy," Dr. Yoest noted, "when the Obama Administration adopted the Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommendations. Nearly every American will be forced to pay for the abortion-inducing drug ella in the name of 'preventive care.' In addition, the conscience rights of Americans who choose not to distribute life-ending prescriptions may be trampled."

AULA attorneys noted that the Obama Administration has offered an exceedingly narrow conscience protection that leaves the majority of pro-life Americans vulnerable by so narrowly defining the concept of "religious employer," that most religious schools, hospitals, and charitable organizations would be excluded from its protection. Moreover, an organization such as AULA and its sister organization, Americans United for Life - with pro-life missions, but no religious affiliation- are unquestionably unprotected by the Administration's fig-leaf conscience protection.

"The preventive care provision of the health care law was intended to prevent diseases, not to end pregnancies," said Yoest. "Americans United Life Action urges Congress to pass the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act, H.R. 1179, to address today's unconscionable mandate."

To read more about the IOM guidelines, click here.