Free Republic

President Barack Obama’s right hand man said over the weekend that the revised mandate the administration put into place requiring insurance companies to distribute birth control and abortion-causing drugs to women at no cost is here to stay.The Obama administration has revised its controversial mandate that had forced religious employers to pay for health insurance coverage that includes birth control and drugs like Plan B, the morning after pill, and ella that can cause abortions. The revised Obama mandate will make religious groups contract with insurers to offer birth control and the potentially abortion-causing drugs to women at no cost....

HANCEVILLE, Alabama, February 9, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Lawyers for the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) say that the broadcasting network has taken the Obama administration to court over a mandate forcing Catholic employers to pay for birth control, sterilization, and abortifacient drugs. The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty announced that it had filed suit Thursday morning on behalf of EWTN, considered the largest religious media network in the world. “The federal government cannot force people to violate their religion like this,” said Mark Rienzi, Senior Counsel at the Becket Fund and a constitutional law professor at the Catholic University of...

President Barack Obama has not yet decided whether to go forward with a proposed regulation under the health care law he signed last year that would force Catholic individuals and institutions to act against the teachings of the Catholic church. In August, Health and Human Service Secretary Kathleen Sebelius proposed a regulation--that would take affect next fall--that would require all health care plans to cover sterilizations and all FDA-approved contraceptives, including abortifacients. The proposed regulation includes a very narrow religious exemption that does not cover individual Catholics, or Catholic universities, hospitals or charitable institutions.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has hired a prominent pro-abortion activist to lead the religious outreach program as it prepares to support the re-election campaign of pro-abortion President Barack Obama. The Demcoratic Party has hried Rev. Dr. Derrick Harkins, the senior pastor of the prestigious Nineteenth Street Baptist Church, one of the largest historic black congregations in Washington, DC. In addition to serving on the board of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), Harkins serves on an advisory board for the pro-abortion Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. He also serves on the board of the liberal advocacy group Faith and...

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky, May 18, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A pro-life lawyers group is accusing President Obama’s administration of prosecuting a pro-life sidewalk counselor who they say was the victim, and not the perpetrator, of an assault outside an abortion clinic. The Life Legal Defense Foundation (LLDF) filed a motion to dismiss Tuesday in the U.S. District Court of the Western District of Kentucky, in a case brought by Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder against Kentucky pro-lifer David Hamilton. In January 2010, LLDF says David Hamilton was peacefully and lawfully handing literature to women entering EMW Surgical Center, an abortion clinic in...

Obama Schmoozes With Planned Parenthood President at Fundraiser After his speech in El Paso, Texas, President Barack Obama made his way to Austin for a campaign rally where he asked hundreds of supporters to help him with his re-election bid. In a more private affair, he curried favor with the head of Planned Parenthood. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/05/11/obama-dines-with-planned-parenthood-president-at-fundraiser/

The Obama administration is facing accusations today from a conservative web site that alleged the Centers for Disease Control is purposefully spiking annual data it normally publishes concerning the latest abortion stats and figures.Erick Erickson of Red State says it has “uncovered evidence – confirmed by the CDC’s own press office” that the Obama administration is “deliberately” concealing the abortion numbers. Erickson noticed that the CDC did not put out the annual information it normally publishes in November, called the “Abortion Surveillance Report,” and said press officers for the agency said there were “no plans” to do so.The report, which...

Obama Celebrates Abortion on 38th Roe Anniversary On the 38th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton Supreme Court decisions that allowed virtually unlimited abortion, President Barack Obama released a statement celebrating them, despite the 53 million abortions taking place since then. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/01/23/obama-celebrates-abortion-on-38th-roe-anniversary/

Obama Admin Working to Rescind Conscience Rights on Abortion Hartford, CT -- The Obama administration is still working to overturn conscience rights for medical professionals on abortion that were put in place at the tail end of the Bush administration. http://LifeNews.com/nat-6929

Albuquerque, NM (LifeNews.com) -- President Barack Obama borrowed a page from pro-abortion ex-President Bill Clinton at a forum in New Mexico today, when he answered a question about abortion by saying it should be "safe, legal and rare." That's the catchphrase Clinton used to try to moderate the appearance of his pro-abortion views. Obama said today he thinks abortion should be "safe, legal and rare" in America and he said families, not the government, "should be the ones making the decision." "Now, with respect to the abortion issue, I actually think -- I mean, there are laws both federal,...

SOUTH BEND, Indiana, September 2, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A top pro-life professor at the University of Notre Dame is calling into question the motives of the university after Bill Kirk, a long-time member of the Notre Dame community and the only administration member to join a protest against President Obama's appearance on campus, was abruptly terminated.In May 2009, Kirk boycotted the official graduation ceremony at which President Obama was giving the commencement address and receiving an honorary law degree, and instead attended an alternate graduation ceremony held by pro-life graduates protesting Obama. Bishop John D'Arcy of Fort Wayne-South Bend,...

Judge Forces Obama Admin to Stop Funding Embryonic Stem Cell Research Washington, DC -- A federal judge on Monday issued a decision forcing the Obama administration to stop funding embryonic stem cell research with taxpayer funds. The judge ruled the executive order Obama issued allowing such funding contravened a federal law prohibiting taxpayer funding of the destruction of human embryos. http://LifeNews.com/bio3145.html

The morning after pill, available at your local pharmacy without a prescription, wasn’t enough for the liberators. I mean, what if a sister has unprotected sex, can’t get to the pharmacy for three or four days and then it’s too late. Well, not to worry. The Food and Drug Administration, headed by Chicago-born Dr. Margaret Hamburg, Ted Turner’s top scientist at his Nuclear Threat Initiative and board member at Sasha and Malia Obama’s school, ably guided the 5 day-after drug known as ‘ella’ through the approval process. Officials from the agency announced the decision today, Friday the 13th. The debate...

Editor's Note: Joseph Meaney is director of international coordination for Human Life International, the world’s largest pro-life organization with affiliates and associates in over 100 countries worldwide. July 28, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The people of Kenya will vote on August 4, 2010 on a new constitution that includes sweeping provisions allowing abortion. A pro-abortion and unelected international “Committee of Experts on Constitutional Review” added several significant lines to article 26 of the proposed constitution in the final drafting process. It begins well with: “Every person has the right to life. The life of a person begins at conception.” The added...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- When it comes to taxpayer funding of abortions from the federal government, pro-life advocates have to wage a set of battles annually to ensure abortion funding isn't present in various funding bills -- from HHS and USAID to health care and the District of Columbia. What if all of the provisions against abortion funding could be rolled into one piece of legislation ensuring the federal government is not funding elective abortions?That was the question Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, the chairman of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, asked himself.He's answered it with a new bill...

SNIPPET: "(CNSNews.com) - Maryland will join Pennsylvania as the second state to use federal tax dollars to pay for abortions under the new health care law signed by President Barack Obama in March, according to information released by Maryland’s State Health Insurance Plan. Maryland will receive $85 million in federal funds for its federally mandated high-risk insurance pool, which will cover abortions. As CNSNews.com reported on July 14, Pennsylvania will receive $160 million in federal funds for its high-risk insurance pool, which will also cover abortions."

NAIROBI, Kenya, June 18, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden travelled to Kenya to personally urge the country to pass a new constitution that would legalize abortion - and to assure Kenyans that such a change would "allow money to flow" from foreign aid treasuries. At the same time, a federal probe is attempting to determine whether the Obama Administration is violating federal law by using taxpayer money to lobby for the constitution, deeply controversial in Kenya in large part because of its abortion provisions."We are hopeful, Barack Obama is hopeful, I am hopeful that you will carry out these reforms...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- New polls show Americans have not come around to support the pro-abortion health care law President Barack Obama signed. With the mid-term Congressional elections looming on the horizon, White House officials are putting together a concerted effort to boost support for it before voters head to the polls. Yesterday, the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey showed 56% favor repeal of the law, while 39% are opposed. Support for repeal is unchanged from a week ago and from other polls since Congress passed and Obama signed into law the bill that forces taxpayers to fund abortions....

In college Elena Kagan wrote an essay lamenting Republican gains in the 1980 election and referring to candidates backed by the Moral Majority as "avengers of 'innocent life' and the B-1 bomber." Now that Kagan stands as a nominee to join the Supreme Court, some conservatives believe the 30-year-old remark may reveal a personal animosity toward their side of the abortion rights cause. But liberal activists also wonder about Kagan's position. They point to memos she wrote as a policy staffer in the Clinton White House urging President Clinton to take a compromise position on some late-term abortions.

Memo Misread: Elena Kagan Did Not Tell Clinton to Back Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Washington, DC -- To hear mainstream media outlets like the Associated Press and Washington Post tell the story, Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan once urged President Bill Clinton to back a ban on partial-birth or late-term abortions. The take from the stories is that Kagan's rock solid pro-abortion views aren't that strong. http://LifeNews.com/nat6323.html

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new bill filed by pro-life members of Congress would apply the historic Hyde amendment language to the new health care bill President Barack Obama signed into law that calls for massive abortion funding. The legislation would afford the same pro-life protections that were approved with bipartisan support in the House last year via the Stupak amendment that didn't make the final bill.Stupak, the author of the previous amendment, eventually joined with other pro-life Democrats in voting for the pro-abortion health care bill in exchange for an Obama executive order that pro-life groups say won't...

Pro-Life Groups Condemn Obama Abortion Litmus Test for Supreme Court Pick Washington, DC -- Leading pro-life organizations are awaiting the upcoming Supreme Court battle and fully expect President Barack Obama to name a pro-abortion replacement for retiring pro-abortion Justice John Paul Stevens. They say Obama, despite his protests to the contrary, issued an abortion litmus test this week. http://LifeNews.com/nat6277.html

LifeNews.com Note: Maria Vitale is an opinion columnist for LifeNews.com. She is the Public Relations Director for the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation and Vitale has written and reported for various broadcast and print media outlets, including National Public Radio, CBS Radio, and AP Radio.Reports of the death of the pro-life movement have been greatly exaggerated. Following the election of President Barack Obama, some observers had openly questioned whether the pro-life movement was still viable. After all, Obama had the direst pro-abortion record of any candidate ever elected to the White House. He had stubbornly opposed such common sense measures as...

"President Barack Obama wasted little time after his election in promoting abortion abroad by overturning the Mexico City Policy and forcing Americans to pay for abortions and abortion promotion in other nations," notes LifeNews.com editor Steven Ertelt in an April 7 online report. "Now the Obama administration is attempting to get Kenya to legalize abortion," reports Ertelt. The LifeNews.com article notes that the African nation of Kenya recently saw its parliament approve a draft Constitution that would overturn its historic prohibition on abortion. Although the draft contains language advocating the right to life for unborn children, it contains a section...

Obama Approval Drops 5 Percent to New Low Since Pro-Abortion Health Care Law Washington, DC -- A new CBS News poll shows President Barack Obama's approval rating dropped 5 percent since he signed the pro-abortion health care bill into law. The CBS poll has him at a new low of 44 percent and a news Rasmussen poll has Obama down to a 46 percent approval rating. http://LifeNews.com/nat6216.html

Cecile Richards head of Planned Parenthood. Washington D.C., Mar 27, 2010 / 07:28 am (CNA).- Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards has praised the Catholic religious sisters who endorsed the Senate health care bill, claiming they deserve gratitude for making “a critical demonstration of support” for a bill that significantly increased coverage of “reproductive health care.”Writing for the Huffington Post Wednesday in her capacity as president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, Richards claimed that it was Catholic nuns who “most importantly broke with the bishops and the Vatican to announce their support for health care reform.”“This brave and important...

I seldom post a vanity, but with the left now trying to put obamacare at the feet of the GOP, I thought this image might help dispel such rumors, if, Freepers were to copy it and make it "viral" in your email to everyone you know.

There was plenty of hoopla in the East Room of the White House on Tuesday when President Obama signed his health care bill into law. But when Mr. Obama signs an executive order that secured the votes of anti-abortion Democrats, he will do so in private. The White House announced Tuesday evening that Mr. Obama would sign the order — which it said reaffirms the health bill’s “consistency with longstanding restrictions on the use of federal funds for abortion” — in the Oval Office on Wednesday afternoon. The order, negotiated Sunday afternoon as the House was entering the final stages...

"When 94 percent of Catholic House Democrats vote to kill children with your tax dollars .. then something has gone horribly wrong" --Michael Voris.

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 23, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards has issued a statement declaring victory after the Senate health care bill's passage Sunday, noting that the abortion-related executive order Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) agreed to in exchange for pro-life Democrats' votes was merely a "symbolic gesture." Stupak had argued after the vote that, contrary to the affirmations of virtually every top pro-life organization in the U.S., Obama's promised executive order "is worth more than the paper it is written on." "The only option you had was leave the Senate language or strengthen it to prevent abortions under an...

I have had some time to recover from what occurred on Sunday evening, but I still feel sick to my stomach. I always knew there was a chance that Bart Stupak would change his vote for some reason other than securing his amendment, but I honestly thought he would hold his ground and not waver in his defense of unborn children. Senator Nelson's betrayal last year was very upsetting, but this... this is just so painful. The trouble is, we citizens have no choice but to believe in our politicians. We must risk trusting them to be true to their...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Planned Parenthood called the pro-abortion health care bill the House approved late Sunday night a victory and applauded the financial windfall is expected to reap as a result. The abortion business also dismissed the executive order President Barack Obama promised Congressman Bart Stupak as harmless. “For more than a year, Planned Parenthood has worked tirelessly for a health care" bill, its president Cecile Richards said in a statement today. "It's a huge victory for women's health, but our work isn't over yet."With passage of the legislation, "monumental progress was made toward achieving these goals."Richard dismissed the...

WASHINGTON -- A last-minute compromise yesterday that swung a half-dozen anti-abortion Democrats behind President Obama's health-care bill -- virtually ensuring its passage -- failed to placate outside activists on either side of the issue, and drew derision from Republicans. Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), leader of the anti-abortion bloc, said he was satisfied with an executive order issued by Obama affirming prohibitions in current law and in the health legislation against taxpayer money going to abortions. "Make no doubt about it. There will be no public funds for abortion," Stupak said in announcing the agreement yesterday ahead of a vote on...

Congressman Sensenbrenner on the House floor blasting the Executive Order from President Obama, and telling Stupak "I'm sorry, but the gentleman from Michigan has misstated the law" (Video)

The Washington Post's Ezra Klein has some doubts about those who oppose abortion on moral, religious or ethical grounds. Apparently to him, it's just an anti-class issue in which the poor are locked out of abortion. Klein appeared on MSNBC's March 21 special coverage of the House's debate about health care reform which was prelude to the body's final vote on the legislation. According to Klein, despite the language in this bill with so-called "family planning" provisions and its questions about a presidential executive order restricting them, abortions will actually go down with ObamaCare. ...more (w/video)...

President Obama Breaks Faith with Women Statement of NOW President Terry O'Neill March 21, 2010 The National Organization for Women is incensed that President Barack Obama agreed today to issue an executive order designed to appease a handful of anti-choice Democrats who have held up health care reform in an effort to restrict women's access to abortion. Through this order, the president has announced he will lend the weight of his office and the entire executive branch to the anti-abortion measures included in the Senate bill, which the House is now prepared to pass. President Obama campaigned as a pro-choice...

Abortion Pact Paves Way for Health Bill House Votes to Begin Debate on $940 Billion Health-Care Overhaul JANET ADAMY And GREG HITT WASHINGTON -- The U.S. House voted Sunday to allow debate to begin on a sweeping $940 billion health-care measure, just hours after an agreement was reached on abortion language that is expected to result in the bill's passage. In a procedural vote that was a key test for whether the bill will pass, the House voted 224-206 to approve the "rule" on the health-care bill's debate. A final vote on the bill likely will come late Sunday night....

Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz admits an executive order can't change law.

Earlier today Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., explained the consequences of Rep. Bart Stupak’s, D-Mich., decision to support health care reform — even with President Barack Obama’s so-called executive order that will restrict federal abortion funding. Bachmann said at a press conference earlier on March 21 this health care reform legislation “will for the first time in the history of our nation create federally funded abortion.” She also cited the Guttmacher Institute and said abortions will in crease 30 percent under ObamaCare. ...more (w/video)...

Michigan Rep. Bart Stupak, a leader of House Democrats opposed to abortion rights, announced Sunday that he had reached a deal with the White House that will allow him to back the health care reform bill. He also said the deal will give Democratic leaders more than enough votes to pass the bill. "We're well past" the 216 votes needed for passage, Stupak said. "This bill is going to go through." President Barack Obama will issue an executive order "after the passage of the health insurance reform law that will reaffirm its consistency with long-standing restrictions on the use of...

Per Fox legal analyst -- Obozo's executive order to get Stupak's vote unlawful; anything added to this vote changes the Senate bill and thus invalidates today's House vote.

Executive Order Hijinks [Andy McCarthy] I know we tire of the hypocrisy, but I really think this is remarkable. We spent the eight years through January 19, 2009, listening to Democrats complain that President Bush had purportedly caused a constitutional crisis by issuing signing statements when he signed bills into law. Democrats and Arlen Specter (now a Democrat) complained that these unenforceable, non-binding expressions of the executive's interpretation of the laws Bush was signing were a usurpation Congress's power to enact legislation. But now Democrats are going to abide not a mere signing statement but an executive order that purports...

The Order [Yuval Levin] Upon first hearing there was talk of an executive order yesterday, I wondered how the administration’s lawyers thought such an order could go beyond the letter of the law in restricting abortion funding. This was a question the Bush administration examined quite extensively on several occasions, and the lawyers involved always agreed that the legal precedents from the time between the Roe decision and passage of the Hyde amendment, as well as some after the Hyde amendment, are extremely clear in stating that federal funds cannot be denied to the provision of abortion except by explicit...

Today, the President announced that he will be issuing an executive order after the passage of the health insurance reform law that will reaffirm its consistency with longstanding restrictions on the use of federal funds for abortion. While the legislation as written maintains current law, the executive order provides additional safeguards to ensure that the status quo is upheld and enforced, and that the health care legislation's restrictions against the public funding of abortions cannot be circumvented. The President has said from the start that this health insurance reform should not be the forum to upset longstanding precedent. The health...

The White House just released this statement: STATEMENT FROM COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR DAN PFEIFFER Today, the President announced that he will be issuing an executive order after the passage of the health insurance reform law that will reaffirm its consistency with longstanding restrictions on the use of federal funds for abortion. While the legislation as written maintains current law, the executive order provides additional safeguards to ensure that the status quo is upheld and enforced, and that the health care legislation’s restrictions against the public funding of abortions cannot be circumvented. The President has said from the start that this health...

It the Stupak Health Care Bill

Driehaus confirms: Eight or nine pro-lifers are having a press conference at 4, with Stupak.

The White House and anti-abortion Democrats have reached an agreement to defusethe controversy over abortion in the health reform bill – planning a series of steps that will secure the support of Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) and other Democrats to give party leaders the votes they need to pass reform, sources tell POLITICO. Under the agreement, President Barack Obama would sign an executive order ensuring that no federal funding will go to pay for abortion under the health reform plans. In addition, Stupak will get to state his concerns about abortion funding in the bill during a colloquy on the...

In their final-hour appeal to pro-life legislators to block this health care power grab in Washington, the bishops of the Catholic Church are coming out thousands of days late and millions of dollars short. In essence, they now need the forces of heaven to counteract their own past negligence. It’s no secret that the Catholic Church hierarchy in the United States have been the happy bedfellows of the Democratic Party since waves of Catholic emigrants flooded American port cities a century ago. Not until the infamous Roe vs. Wade decision in 1973 and the Democrats’ hardy embrace of the pro-abortion...

One proposal to address the serious problem in the Senate health care bill on abortion funding, specifically the direct appropriating of new funds that bypass the Hyde amendment, is to have the President issue an executive order against using these funds for abortion. Unfortunately, this proposal does not begin to address the problem, which arises from decades of federal appellate rulings that apply the principles of Roe v. Wade to federal health legislation. According to these rulings, such health legislation creates a statutory requirement for abortion funding, unless Congress clearly forbids such funding. That is why the Hyde amendment was...