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Alternate headline: “Rabidly pro-choice president sides with pro-choicers.” TAPPER: Here’s a question a lot of Senate Democrats want to know. You said, when you gave your joint address to Congress, that under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions. This amendment passed Saturday night which not only prohibits abortion coverage in the public option, but also prohibits women who receive subsidies from taking out plans that — that provide abortion coverage. Does that meet the promise that you set out or does it over reach, does it go too far? OBAMA: You know, I laid out...

President Obama to Keynote Pro-Abortion Group's Fundraising Dinner Washington, DC -- President Barack Obama will keynote a dinner for an organization known for its pro-gay activities but which has also promoted abortion. in addressing the Human Rights Campaign, Obama is making the second overture to the pro-abortion group after putting a top HRC official on his faith task force. http://www.lifenews.com/nat5541.html

Wednesday July 15, 2009 White House: New Catholic Surgeon General Supports Obama Abortion Agenda By Kathleen GilbertWASHINGTON, D.C., July 15, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A White House spokesman appears to have settled confusion on the position of Surgeon General nominee Dr. Regina Benjamin by saying that the doctor, though widely considered a devout Roman Catholic, supports President Obama's agenda on abortion.White House spokesman Reid Cherlin said in a Miami Herald report yesterday that Benjamin "supports the president's position on reproductive health issues." Earlier this year Secretary of State Hillary Clinton explicitly confirmed that for the Obama administration the term "reproductive health" includes abortion....

... For my first trip out and about since learning I was pregnant, I went to meet with the director of an adoption agency. He was so supportive and sweet that I walked away choked up but not in tears — it was the first day I didn’t cry. Even though the adoption agency can pay my medical costs and set me up with adoptive parents for maternity shopping, grocery shopping, birthing classes and all kinds of programs, it didn’t feel like enough. I told the director how scared and lonely I’ve been and he just said, “I know. I...

Wednesday June 10, 2009 ND Prez Jenkins Has "No Interest" in Asking for Leniency for ND Protesters Despite Calls for “Dialogue” By Kathleen GilbertSOUTH BEND, Indiana, June 10, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The president of the University of Notre Dame has "no interest" in interfering with the fates of over 80 peaceful pro-life protesters arrested on campus while protesting President Obama's May 17 commencement speech, says the pro-lifers' attorney. One of the arrestees, Lambs of Christ founder Fr. Norman Weslin, issued a statement Monday calling on University president Fr. John Jenkins to heed the arrested group's requests to meet, which Weslin...

Boston Vigil for Dr. Tiller Join the Boston community in sharing our grief and celebrating the life of Dr. George Tiller, a true hero for women across the country. Monday, June 1st 6pm St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral 138 Tremont St., Boston Across from the Park St. T stop Please help us spread the word via email, Facebook, Twitter, and texts. Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=88629078374&ref=nf Twitter hashtag: #BostonVigil and #Tiller (this one is attracting some unpleasant tweets, however) Dr. Tiller was shot and killed Sunday morning while serving as an usher at his church in Witchita, Kansas. Since the 1970s, Dr. Tiller...

George Tiller - the infamous late-term abortionist and medical director of Women's Health Care Services in Wichita, Kansas – was killed on May 31, 2009. Tiller was one of only three nationwide abortionists that make a living injecting digoxin into the beating hearts of small infants from the 21st week of pregnancy to birth. This man put Kansas on the map as the "abortion state" with his entrepreneurial spirit in capitalizing on abortion services. In addition to being a hit man for hire, Tiller also offered funerary services to mothers that paid him to off their kids. While most clinics...

A candlelight vigil has been scheduled for 8 p.m. today at Old Town Square to show support for George Tiller's family and to oppose violence. Dustin Deckard, 20, organized the vigil and is hoping it will be "a quiet show of support for Dr. Tiller and a moment to remember his medical and political triumphs." Deckard, who supports abortion rights, called today's shooting of Tiller "akin to the murder of Harvey Milk," an openly gay California politician who was shot to death in 1978. "With the situation today, I think that what side people are on is the last thing...

A prominent doctor and abortion rights activist, George Tiller, was shot dead on his way to church in Wichita this morning. ...The murder may be a reminder of the limits of President Obama's attempt to find common ground on the issue.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - Media outlets are reporting that late-term abortion doctor George Tiller has been shot and killed at his church in Wichita, Kan. Anonymous police sources told The Wichita Eagle other media that the 67-year-old doctor was killed Sunday morning at Reformation Lutheran Church. Police spokesman Gordon Bassham would not confirm the victim's identity pending notification of relatives but said a 67-year-old "high-profile individual in the community" was shot and killed. Tiller has been among the few U.S. physicians performing late-term abortions. His clinic has repeatedly been the site of protests for about two decades and he was...

Late-term abortion doctor George Tiller, a prominent advocate for abortion rights wounded by a protester more than a decade ago, was shot and killed Sunday at his church in Wichita, a city official said. A City Hall official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak about the case told The Associated Press that the 67-year-old doctor was killed Sunday morning at Reformation Lutheran Church. Police spokesman Gordon Bassham would not confirm the victim's identity pending notification of relatives. He said the shooting occurred at 10:03 a.m. and the gunman fled the scene in a 1993...

WICHITA, Kan. -- Dr. George Tiller, a Kansas man who became one of the most famous figures in the national debate over abortion, was shot and killed at his church Sunday morning, KAKE-TV reported. Tiller was walking into Reformation Lutheran Church at 10:03 a.m., when he was shot. Tiller was pronounced dead when emergency crews arrived, the station reported. Police were looking for a blue Ford Taurus with a K-State vanity plate, license number 225 BAB. Police described him as a white male in his 50's or 60's, 6'1," 220 lbs, wearing a white shirt and dark pants.

Kansas Abortionist George Tiller was shot today as he was going to Church.

“It’s beyond our capacity as human beings to know with certainty what God has planned for us or what he asks of us. And those of us who believe must trust that his wisdom is greater than our own,” said Obama.... It was hard not to connect this pronouncement with the renewed abortion debates that followed Notre Dame’s decision to grant Obama an honorary doctor of laws degree. In the end, 80-plus bishops publicly criticized this action, arguing that it violated the 2004 U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops policy that stated: “Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in...

SOUTH BEND, Indiana (Reuters) - President Barack Obama urged both sides in the abortion debate on Sunday to pursue a "fair-minded" discussion as he sought to quell a firestorm over his invitation to speak at Notre Dame, a premier U.S. Catholic university. Notre Dame's decision to confer an honorary degree on Obama and invite him to be the keynote speaker for the commencement sparked petitions and several days of protests. Some students vowed to boycott the commencement. But the speech itself drew mostly cheers, applause, standing ovations. Critics who said Obama's support for abortion rights violated Catholic Church doctrine had...

SOUTH BEND, Ind.—President Barack Obama confronted the issue of abortion head on Sunday at Notre Dame, acknowledging that differences over the issue are largely irreconcilable but issuing a plea to those on both sides to tone down harsh rhetoric and search for “common ground” he believes is possible. “I do not suggest that the debate surrounding abortion can or should go away,” Obama said. “No matter how much we may want to fudge it – indeed, while we know that the views of most Americans on the subject are complex and even contradictory – the fact is that at some...

SOUTH BEND, Ind. – President Barack Obama strode head-on Sunday into the stormy abortion debate and told graduates at America's leading Roman Catholic university that both sides must stop demonizing one another. Obama acknowledged that "no matter how much we want to fudge it ... the fact is that at some level, the views of the two camps are irreconcilable." But he still implored the University of Notre Dame's graduating class and all in the U.S. to stop "reducing those with differing views to caricature. Open hearts. Open minds. Fair-minded words. It's a way of life that always has been...

In May 1995, his first year as Pennsylvania governor, Tom Ridge was invited by Gannon University, a Catholic college in Erie, Pa., to give the commencement address and receive an honorary degree. But the distinguished Republican and native son had a problem: he was a pro-choice Catholic. Erie Bishop Donald Trautman expressed his "concerns." Governor Ridge declined the degree. "The last thing I would want is for those differences to distract in any way from this wonderful day of recognition for Gannon's class of 1995," said Ridge. His spokesman explained that the decision "came from the governor." Ridge did the...

It seems somewhat unfathomable given the circumstances surrounding Obama’s own parentage and birth (his own autobiography described the circumstances surrounding his parents’ marital relationship as “murky”) that Obama is such an ardent supporter of unrestricted abortion upon demand. Given the fact that his parents were a white woman in her late teens, not yet an adult by the standards of the era, and a black foreign exchange student with a personal history of alcoholism and bigamy, had abortion been legal in 1961, it seems likely that Stanley Ann Dunham would have counseled by some people to terminate her pregnancy. According...

President Barack Obama Washington D.C., May 14, 2009 / 05:12 am (CNA).- The White House has responded to opposition to President Obama’s appearance at the University of Notre Dame, claiming that only "one group" is organizing a boycott and pointing to other groups who support the president’s commencement speech and reception of an honorary degree."I think there's one group organizing a boycott and, as best I can understand it, there are 23 groups that have formed in support of the president's invitation," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said, according to ABC.The "one group," ND Response, is a coalition...

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - President Obama's budget recommendations unveiled yesterday are being criticized by the National Right to Life Committee for recommending the re-introduction of taxpayer-funded abortion in Washington, D.C. The White House submission urges the House and Senate to repeal a law known as the Dornan Amendment that prevents tax-funded abortion, except for cases of rape, incest, or threat to the mother's life, in the District of Columbia for several years. Because Congress holds legislative authority over the District of Columbia, the district's budget must be appropriated by Congress through an annual appropriations bill. The White...

It sounds like a great idea: Pro- and anti-choice activists both (ostensibly) care about women's health, pregnancy and the rights of mothers. So why not bring them together to seek common ground, despite their obvious disagreements? In a series of meetings that, as the Wall Street Journal reports, began about a month ago and should continue for the next six to eight weeks, President Obama is attempting to do just that. And while I respect his intentions, appreciate that he's trying to make good on that promise to "reach across the aisle," and would love to be optimistic about these...

Having spent this morning catching up on my weekend reading, I came across this Page 4 article from Friday's New York Times. Here's the lead paragraph: "BAGHDAD — At least 80 people died and 120 others were injured Thursday in three bombings, one by a female suicide bomber in Baghdad who, Iraqi officials said, held a young child’s hand as she set off her explosives among a group of women and children receiving emergency food aid." Even putting aside our baseline revulsion at terrorism, there are three especially hideous things that jumo out from this: 1) A mother deliberately taking...

Monday April 27, 2009 Illegal Abortionist Bertha Bugarin Sentenced to 6 Years, 9 Months Prison SAN DIEGO, April 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Abortionist Bertha Bugarin was sentenced in San Diego County on Friday to 6 years, 8 months on nine felony counts of committing abortions without a medical license. Judge Charles Gill ordered that Bugarin's sentence run concurrently with a sentence she is currently serving on similar charges in Los Angeles. Bugarin once ran the second largest abortion chain in California, operating eleven abortion mills in the 1990s. She was known to hire abortionists who were sex offenders, substance...

First, as a longtime consultant to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, I could not help but be dismayed by the news that Notre Dame also planned to award the president an honorary degree. This, as you must know, was in disregard of the U.S. bishops’ express request of 2004 that Catholic institutions “should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles” and that such persons “should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions.” That request, which in no way seeks to control or interfere with an institution’s freedom...

This year's anti-abortion bill sent to her by the GOP-dominated Legislature had the same problems as a similar measure that Sebelius vetoed last year. The only thing different was the red-hot spotlight on Sebelius as she awaits U.S. Senate confirmation as health and human services secretary. With the heat on and anti-abortion groups calling for her head, she did the right thing and vetoed this year's flawed bill. The proposed legislation presented a clear threat to women's privacy by enabling family members to sue if they believed an abortion provider had violated the law. How could you prove a claim...

Rep. Chris Smith / Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Washington D.C., Apr 22, 2009 / 04:33 pm (CNA).- During a House Foreign Affairs Committee Hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) questioned Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about whether the Obama administration is seeking to weaken or overturn pro-life laws and policies in other countries. Secretary Clinton responded to his questions, affirming that the U.S. government’s definition of reproductive health includes access to abortion. Rep. Smith began his comments by criticizing Secretary Clinton’s reception of the Margaret Sanger Award from Planned Parenthood in Houston in March. Secretary Clinton said...

The Food and Drug Administration, reversing field, will now let 17-year-olds get the 'morning-after' birth control pill without a doctor's prescription, a government health official said Wednesday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the agency will announce that it is complying with a federal judge's order that overturns a Bush administration policy. The official was not authorized to speak publicly before the FDA announcement, expected later Wednesday....

The Senate Finance Committee plans to vote April 21 on the nomination of Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to lead the Health and Human Services Department, despite concerns voiced Friday by ranking Republican Charles E. Grassley of Iowa. Grassley called it a “bombshell” that Sebelius initially understated campaign contributions she had received years ago from a doctor who performs abortions. He said the contributions have “raised a lot of concern among pro-life people,” and added that he has not decided how he will vote on her nomination.

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A pro-life women's group says Americans have another reason to be upset today other than having to spend countless hours and money making sure their tax returns are properly completed. The Susan B. Anthony List says President Barack Obama is sending more of Americans' hard-earned tax dollars to promote the abortion agenda than ever before. "Despite his promises to find 'common ground' on abortion, President Obama's policy decisions are already impacting and alienating American taxpayers," SBA List president Marjorie Dannenfelser told LifeNews.com on Wednesday. "What a difference a year makes," Dannenfelser added and pointed to Obama's...

South Bend, Ind., Apr 14, 2009 / 06:36 pm (CNA).- Fr. John Jenkins, the President of the University of Notre Dame, has written a letter to the school's board of trustees, defending the university’s invitation of President Obama to the school’s May commencement ceremony. Fr. Jenkins argues in his letter that while many have criticized the school’s move, canon lawyers and the USCCB document, “Catholics in Political Life,” both support his action. In the letter, posted in full on LifeSiteNews, Fr. Jenkins recalls the June 2004 USCCB statement on Catholics in political life and cites “two key sentences” that “have...

Scott Peterson – is now spending 19-hours a day in his 4-by-9 foot death row prison cell in San Quentin. In 2003 he was convicted of killing his wife and unborn child, Laci and Conner. He maintains – he’s the victim. More...

U.S. President Barack Obama sees the Canadian seal hunt as "inhumane" and vowed to express his "outrage" during his days as a senator, it was revealed today. Obama, who has not spoken publicly about the seal hunt since becoming President, vowed in a 2006 letter to animal-rights activists to work with colleagues "to ensure that we take all the necessary steps to express our outrage" with the Canadian government. "I share your concerns about the Canadian seal hunt," Obama wrote to a member of People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, in the letter, dated April 13, 2006....

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- President Barack Obama has put more abortion advocates on his White House advisory council for faith-based issues. The new pro-abortion activists join the abortion advocates the president already placed on the panel, which is supposed to help lead the way in reducing abortions.On Monday, Obama also announced that Bishop Charles E. Blake and Harry Knox will fill out the roster of 25 people on the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.Knox is the director of the religion and faith program at Human Rights Campaign, a Washington gay rights group that also strongly supports abortion.Frances...

BAT AYIN, West Bank (AP) — An ax-wielding Palestinian militant went on a rampage Thursday in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, killing an Israeli 13-year-old and wounding a 7-year-old boy before fleeing the area. The attack posed an important test for Israel's new prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who has promised a firm hand against militants and expressed skepticism about prospects for peace. Government spokesman Mark Regev called it a "senseless act of brutality against innocents." Police and military units were searching for the attacker, according to police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld and army officials. Army forces were operating in...

If you have not heard yet, President Barack Obama has accepted an invitation from the University of Notre Dame—not only to address its graduates at its May 17 commencement exercises but also to have bestowed upon him at this event an honorary doctorate of laws. The University of Notre Dame is a Catholic university, which means that it affirms the truth of Catholic moral theology and all that it entails about liberty, community, and the dignity of the human person. According to Catholic moral theology, a regime whose laws sequester a group of human beings from its protections for reasons...

A day before receiving the Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s highest honor – the “Margaret Sanger Award” – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton paid a visit to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, leaving a bouquet of white flowers “on behalf of the American people,” and asking the basilica’s rector, “Who painted it?” In response to Clinton’s question, basilica rector Msgr. Diego Monroy responded, “God!” The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was miraculously imprinted by Mary on the cloak of St. Juan Diego in 1531. According to a report from Catholic News Agency, Msgr....

It takes courage to be a Catholic educator. In America's culture wars, abortion is the trump card of every moral discussion. Or so the righteous right requires us to believe. At Notre Dame, the most Catho- lic of Catholic universities, a national protest is building over the decision by the school's president, the Rev. John I. Jenkins, to invite President Obama to give the commencement address on May 17. Petitions are being gathered. Graphic posters of aborted fetuses are being prepared. Protesters plan to line the road into South Bend on graduation day.

Wichita, KS -- Infamous late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller has been found not guilty of violating Kansas laws requiring a second physician to independently verify that the abortions are supposedly medically necessary. Tiller had relied on an employee to justify the late-term abortions.

President Obama, who has made massive strides to expand abortion rights in his first few weeks in office, is looking forward to a "dialogue" with Catholics, who by church law are pro-life, when he speaks at the school's commencement this spring. The confirmation came at a news briefing today from presidential press secretary Robert Gibbs to Les Kinsolving, WND's correspondent at the White House. "What is the president's reaction to the 50,000 people already who've signed petitions joining the Catholic bishop of Fort Wayne, South Bend in objecting to his addressing the graduation and receiving an honorary degree from Notre...

The White House issued a statement Tuesday saying Obama welcomes the “spirit of debate and healthy disagreement on important issues.” “While he is honored to have the support of millions of people of all faiths, including Catholics with their rich tradition of recognizing the dignity of people, he does not govern with the expectation that everyone sees eye to eye with him on every position,” the statement said.

South Bend, IN -- That the University of Notre Dame has extended an invitation to pro-abortion President Barack Obama to give its commencement address to and to receive an honorary degree has sparked outrage. Obama is slated to speak at Notre Dame's commencement on May 17. Hundreds of thousands of pro-life advocates have contacted Notre Dame officials expressing their disappointment and pro-life groups have condemned its decision, but one group is going further. The National Right to Life Committee has asked the Catholic college to rescind the invitation.

The University of Notre Dame is sticking with its invitation to President Obama to speak at its May 17 commencement despite criticism from some Roman Catholics that his views on abortion and stem cell research run counter to Catholic teachings. "I don't foresee a circumstance in which we would rescind the invitation," Notre Dame spokesman Dennis Brown told The Associated Press in an e-mail message Monday. The Cardinal Newman Society, an advocacy group for greater orthodoxy on Catholic college and university campuses, has set up a protest Web page, notredamescandal.com, that includes the phone number, e-mail and mailing addresses of...

Now that the abortion president will be honored and feted and listened to at Notre Dame’s commencement, the question becomes, who will say the commencement Mass? The University of Notre Dame has officially and with much self-satisfaction invited President Barack Obama to address its 2009 graduates and to receive an honorary law degree. Not to put too fine a point on it, this is a deliberate thumbing of the collective nose at the Roman Catholic Church to which Notre Dame purports to be faithful. Faithful? Tell it to Julian the Apostate. That someone who procures or advocates abortion thereby excludes...

Jon Opsahl said he doesn't think domestic terrorist-turned-housewife Sara Jane Olson served nearly enough time for his mother's murder, but he's relieved the saga ended with Olson's Tuesday release from prison. Sara Jane Olson was released from a California prison Tuesday after serving seven years. Sara Jane Olson was released from a California prison Olson, a member of the self-styled revolutionary Symbionese Liberation Army -- perhaps best known for kidnapping Patricia Hearst -- was released from a California prison after serving seven years, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said. She was released to her husband just after midnight...

Imagine that last fall before being elected, Barack Obama had outlined the positions he has embraced since being inaugurated as president. An honest campaign speech could have gone something like this: "As we approach Election Day, the American people should not waste the crisis we find ourselves in. "Consequently, if elected, I promise to get us over the Bush financial meltdown with a stimulus program that will borrow $787 billion -- which, of course, will add to the already sizable budget deficit (nearly $500 billion) projected in the Bush administration's last budget. "By March of next year, my new $3.6...

Wednesday March 11, 2009 Bishop: "President Obama is forcing all American taxpayers to pay for this homicidal research" By John-Henry WestenPHOENIX, March 11, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Bishop of Phoenix in Arizona has written a straight-talking column responding to President Barack Obama's executive order providing federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.  "This means that American taxpayers will now be paying for the killing of human beings at a very early stage in their lives (as embryos), so that scientific research can make use of them for experiments that may or may not yield positive results," writes Bishop Thomas...

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's lifting of restrictions on federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research puts him at odds with Pope Benedict and the American Roman Catholic Church. After Obama signed the order on Monday, the Vatican and U.S. Church leaders condemned the move. One commentator said the test of "a real democracy" was its defense of the most defenseless. Obama's executive order reversed and repudiated restrictions placed on the research by his predecessor, George W. Bush, freeing labs across the country to start working with the cells, which can give rise to any kind of...

Monday, March 9th, 2009 at 12:09 pm “A debt of gratitude to so many tireless advocates” Moments ago President Obama marked a monumental moment for hope with an audience of Nobel Laureates, leaders of the faith community, and patient advocates. Today, with the Executive Order I am about to sign, we will bring the change that so many scientists and researchers; doctors and innovators; patients and loved ones have hoped for, and fought for, these past eight years: we will lift the ban on federal funding for promising embryonic stem cell research.  We will vigorously support scientists who pursue this research.  And we will aim...

Obama to Sign Executive Order Monday Opening Public Funding of Embryonic Stem Cell Research http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/mar/09030611.html By John-Henry Westen WASHINGTON, March 6, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - President Barack Obama plans to rescind the Bush policy limiting federal funding for embryo destructive research on Monday. The Bush policy had allowed federal funding for experiments on already existing lines of embryos, but forbade the funds from being used to create new embryos for experimentation. According to news reports, a signing ceremony will take place on Monday at 11 am. Details about the Executive Order are not available, but according to the Washington Post, "proponents...