Free Republic

With the recent face-plant of Todd Akin in Missouri, Democrats think they have hit on a winning theme for their convention in Charlotte. Agenda changes show that Democrats will make Akin the poster boy of the GOP and focus the three-day affair on abortion and contraception policy, Paul Bedard reports: Just as the Akin crisis was reaching a crescendo, the Democrats on Wednesday announced that three starlets of the pro-choice movement will be featured at the convention, an event that will now drive the liberal charge that the Republicans are anti-women.Democrats said that they will feature Cecile Richards, president of...

OTTAWA, 16 August, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The largest association of doctors in Canada, in an attempt to stonewall a looming abortion debate from being unleashed, voted yesterday to support the wording of the country’s Criminal Code which states that a baby becomes a “human being” only after being born. Pro-life doctors and leaders have condemned the move as ‘shameful’, ‘unethical’, and ‘defying parody’. Delegates to the Canadian Medical Association’s annual general council voted on the motion so as to prevent what they called a “backdoor” attempt to reopen the abortion debate. They voted to pass, says a CMA report on...

Tenn. Democrat Party urges voters to vote against their own nominee - works for pro-life group NASHVILLE, August 7, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Democratic Party of Tennessee is taking the unusual step of urging citizens to vote against its own nominee for U.S. Senate, because he works for a pro-life organization it deems a “hate group.” Mark Clayton won the party’s primary by a two-to-one margin over his next closest competitor, Gary Gene Davis. Former NBC Empty Nest star Park Overall came in third. Clayton has long been active with Public Advocate, a national pro-life, pro-family organization. “Mark Clayton is...

ROUND ROCK — Workers from Planned Parenthood have taken to Central Texas streets to drum up support in the wake of what officials from the organization say has been a tough year. Staffers seeking donations for the group, which has been tussling with state leaders over participation in a Medicaid program, have descended upon cities across the region, from downtown Austin to conservative-leaning Williamson County — where support would theoretically be harder to find — including downtown Round Rock. [snip] So far the group's presence has avoided controversy at least in Round Rock, where two staffers work corners on Main...

Warning: Vulgarity ahead. I wrote last week that a Newsweek article favorable to the personhood movement and personhood leaders Keith and Jennifer Mason had “riled abortion proponents.” Little did I know how much. Someone posted Mason’s home address in a comment to the Newsweek article. Newsweek closed down comments, but it was too late. At 1:30a on June 27, Mason “was in the basement, catching a movie and having a beer, to just chill,” according to a follow-up Newsweek piece, when he heard a loud noise: “[I] thought one of our kids had fallen down the stairs.” Mason says he...

SAN FRANCISCO, April 19, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) –  Although a legal loophole has long allowed the process, a California legislator has proposed a bill to formally allow non-physicians – including midwives – to perform abortions. Now a state pro-life group wants to know who has been anonymously paying for and conducting an existing training program. State Senator Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego, introduced a bill allowing non-physicians, such as midwives and nurse practitioners, to perform suction abortions after receiving training through a state project. “I think it endangers women’s health,” Dana Cody, president and executive director of Life Legal Defense Foundation (LLDF),...

LifeSiteNews.com reported some time ago about Planned Parenthood’s latest, most bizarre effort to drum up support for its indefensible industry: holding a 40-day prayer campaign in favor of abortion. Kathleen Gilbert reported the 40 Days of Prayer material “lists 40 different prayers for those involved in the ‘sacred care’ of abortions to continue protecting, providing, and embracing the procedure - including mothers, escorts, abortionists, and everyone involved except the unborn children.” However, most of the national reporting has failed to convey the full breadth and diversity of the undertaking. The campaign is modeled on the more successful 40 Days of...

Wow. Sometimes Satan indulges in jaw-dropping capers. I’m looking at a brochure from Six Rivers Planned Parenthood in Eureka, Calif. On it is an announcement from Humboldt County Clergy for Choice: “We are religious leaders who value all human life.” The flyer, for “40 Days of Prayer,” lists prayers such as: “Day 34: Today we give thanks for abortion escorts who guide women safely through the hostile gauntlets of protesters.” And “Day 38: Today we pray for a cloud of gentleness to surround every abortion facility.” This is not a sick April Fools’ Day joke. The campaign continues through April...

EUREKA, California, April 11, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Although Planned Parenthood has frequently complained of pro-life prayer vigils - particularly the biannual 40 Days for Life Campaign - one California Planned Parenthood affiliate seems to have chosen an unusually direct way of countering such efforts. Last month, Six Rivers Planned Parenthood (SRPP) of Eureka, California, launched a campaign called the 40 Days of Prayer: Supporting Women Everywhere. The campaign, as noticed by Liberty Counsel, lists 40 different prayers for those involved in the “sacred care” of abortions to continue protecting, providing, and embracing the procedure - including mothers, escorts, abortionists, and...

Parents should be allowed to have their newborn babies killed because they are “morally irrelevant” and ending their lives is no different to abortion, a group of medical ethicists linked to Oxford University has argued. The article, published in the Journal of Medical Ethics, says newborn babies are not “actual persons” and do not have a “moral right to life”. -snip- The journal’s editor, Prof Julian Savulescu, director of the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, said the article's authors had received death threats since publishing the article. He said those who made abusive and threatening posts about the study...

NOTRE DAME, Indiana, March 30, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The University of Notre Dame has stood by its decision to publish a list of “internship opportunities” on its website that includes pro-abortion and leftist organizations, while one professor at the school has lashed out at members of the conservative group petitioning against the listing, calling them “monsters.” TFP Student Action, the conservative watchdog group that is leading a 10,000-strong petition against the school’s inclusion of pro-abortion groups on an internship web page, reported Friday that not only had Notre Dame kept the listings, but that the school was found to have...

The Lubbock Planned Parenthood CEO arrested Monday for indecent exposure at a local park has apologized for his actions and announced his leave of absence. “I deeply regret creating a situation in my personal life that potentially creates a distraction from these goals, and I apologize to the people in the Lubbock community for the incident,” Tony Thornton said in a Wednesday statement. “I will work with my attorney through the appropriate court process to correct any misinformation and take responsibility for errors,” he added.

Dr. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale, president and dean of the Episcopal Divinity Church, testified at a House hearing on March 8, 2012 against a bill that would make it a federal crime to transport minor girls without parental consent across state lines to get an abortion. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr) (CNSNews.com) – Were Congress to outlaw the transporting of a minor without her parents’ permission across state lines to get an abortion, an abortion- and gay-rights activist testifying on Capitol Hill Thursday she would break the law to continue to help girls end their pregnancies.Appearing as a Democratic Party witness at a...

If there is one word that captures the Orwellian nature of contemporary feminism, it is "choice." It's not just the word's wide use as a euphemism for abortion. You can understand why people on that side of the abortion issue prefer to frame their position in abstract terms, as a defense of liberty, rather than concretely discussing the specific freedom they are defending. Some of them are no doubt sincere in saying that they favor "the right to choose" in general and have no brief for abortion in particular. But not all. People who claim to favor "reproductive choice" are...

Democratic Lawmaker: Nurses and Midwives to perform Abortions? A Democratic state senator wants to allow Nurses and midwives to perform early abortions. Senator Christine Kehoe says 'non-doctors' should be allowed to perform some abortions in the first trimester. Right now only doctors and surgeons are allowed to carry out the procedure.

Parents should be allowed to have their newborn babies killed because they are “morally irrelevant” and ending their lives is no different to abortion, a group of medical ethicists linked to Oxford University has argued. The article, published in the Journal of Medical Ethics, says newborn babies are not “actual persons” and do not have a “moral right to life”. The academics also argue that parents should be able to have their baby killed if it turns out to be disabled when it is born. The journal’s editor, Prof Julian Savulescu, director of the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics,...

A family court judge who ruled that a pregnant woman with schizophrenia should undergo an abortion and be sterilized sharply defended her decision yesterday, while denouncing Boston University for withdrawing what she said was a job offer amid the controversy. In a rare personal defense of the reasoning behind a court ruling, Christina Harms, who retired from the bench last month after 23 years, said she concluded that the woman, a 31-year-old who suffered from delusions, would choose to terminate her pregnancy if she were mentally competent, chiefly so that she could resume antipsychotic medication that would have harmed the...

NARAL Launches $250,000 Radio Ad Applauding Obama Mandateby Steven Ertelt | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 2/13/12 11:59 AM One of the biggest pro-abortion groups in the nation is delighted pro-abortion President Barack Obama put a revised mandate in place that forces insurance companies to provide women with free birth control and drugs that may cause abortions. NARAL is so happy that it has purchased $250,000 worth of radio advertising supporting the new mandate. The ads are slated to air in Denver, Colorado; Orlando, Florida; Madison, Wisconsin and the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. All of the locations are...

Well, that didn’t take long. A major Susan G. Komen for the Cure donor has called for the breast cancer foundation to “clean house” including Komen founder and chief executive Nancy Brinker. In a letter to friends and family, published by The UK Guardian Wednesday, Eve Ellis, who spent six years on Komen NYC’s Board and raised over $250,000 for the group, explained that she does not believe Brinker’s claims that the decision to cut grants to Planned Parenthood were not politically motivated. Ellis wrote, in the letter sent Monday, that in order to restore her trust Komen must replace...

... The graphic on the Komen page, which Mediaite reports is actually a fake site to which hackers re-directed visitors the Komen.org URL, had replaced its original text with “Help us run over poor women on our way to the bank.” As of Thursday morning, the Komen website appears still to be forwarding to the address identified as fake, ww5.komen.org instead of www.komen.org, although the graphic appears to have returned to normal. ...