Free Republic

Bill O'Reilly only thought he opened up a hornet's nest when he coined the term "death mill" for late-term abortion clinics. But now public figures are blaming Mr. O'Reilly and pro-life advocates for the death of Dr. George Tiller, the famous abortion doctor who performed abortions up to the time of a baby's birth. There has been almost universal condemnation of the killing of Dr. Tiller; the vast majority of pro-life people -- those who defend life and respect life from conception to natural death -- find it abhorrent that anyone would kill another person, including those who perform abortions....

LeRoy Carhart wants to continue providing third-term abortions after the slaying of his friend George Tiller, but the Nebraska doctor doesn’t have anywhere to perform them — and he’s one of only a handful of providers who will. Tiller’s Wichita, Kan., clinic was shuttered Sunday after the 67-year-old was gunned down at church. His family said Tuesday they were unsure when it would reopen, posing a problem for Carhart, who wants to carry on his friend’s mission. Carhart, 67, is one of a handful of remaining doctors in the United States who perform third-trimester abortions, and it is uncertain if...

Fish don't make noises or contort their faces to show that it hurts when hooks are pulled from their mouths, but a Purdue University researcher believes they feel that pain all the same. Joseph Garner, an assistant professor of animal sciences, helped develop a test that found goldfish do feel pain, and their reactions to it are much like that of humans. "There has been an effort by some to argue that a fish's response to a noxious stimuli is merely a reflexive action, but that it didn't really feel pain," Garner said. "We wanted to see if fish responded...

After a day of uncertainty, Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas said Tuesday he would vote to confirm Gov. Kathleen Sebelius for secretary of health and human services. “The president won the election and has nominated a Kansan to the Cabinet,” Brownback said in a statement. “Despite our profound policy differences, I will support my fellow Kansan.” Brownback joined Sen. Pat Roberts, who also made his intentions known Tuesday. Earlier Tuesday, Brownback had deferred. “He doesn’t plan to say anything either way at this point,” said a spokesman. Some questioned how Brownback would decide, considering how abortion opponents — who have...

How does one properly describe another who would -- for purely selfish political reasons and with deliberation -- intentionally refuse a thirsty child water or a hungry child food?  More specifically, what does one call a lawmaker who would condemn to death the child survivor of a botched abortion by permitting doctors to refuse that child, once born alive, potentially life-saving medical treatment and nutrition?     A number of things come to mind.  Mr. President isn't one of them.     Based on National Journal's vote ratings -- an objectively tallied assessment of congressional voting records -- Barack Obama has properly...

A well-connected authority in the evangelical world said in an interview this week that Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama could get up to 40 percent of the evangelical vote.

A Virginia law banning a type of late-term abortion is still unconstitutional, even though a similar federal ban was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. The 2-1 decision by a panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirms the same court’s 2005 ruling striking down the law. The Supreme Court had ordered the appeals court to take another look at Virginia’s statute after the ruling on the federal ban. The appeals court cited a key difference between the federal and state bans on the procedure that abortion opponents call “partial-birth abortion.” The...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- April 18 marked the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court's ruling in Gonzales v. Carhart, in which it rejected legal challenges to the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003. While opponents of the ban claimed numerous lawsuits would be brought forth to challenge the Supreme Court's ruling, thus far no challenges have been filed. One of the four justices who dissented in the Gonzales ruling to uphold the ban, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, expressed her expectation of challenges. She claimed they would "be mounted swiftly, to ward off serious, sometimes remediable harm, to women whose...

To vomit, or not to vomit: That is the question: Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to dispose of one’s supper, or to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous equivocation, and take arms against a sea of fellows and colleagues, and by writing in opposition, reveal thoughts conceived in fraudulence. Perhaps that sounds like so much gobbledygook to you, and no doubt, Shakespeare is flopping about in his coffin like a grounded catfish. Therefore, you may have some sense of my pent-up irritation, having endured as a witness to the systematic programming of my fellow citizens. Conscientious, moral people...

WASHINGTON DC, February 15, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The American Public Health Association (APHA) yesterday announced a range of policies that were approved by the Association's Governing Council during last year's annual meeting in Washington, DC.Among a long list of generally positive health policy initiatives is a call for the removal of all restrictions that limit access to abortion in the US, including the repeal of parental consent laws and partial birth abortion bans.The APHA promotes itself as the largest association of "public health professionals" in the world. It's declared aim is to "protect all Americans and their communities from preventable,...

NEW YORK, January 10, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Cleverly marketing legal abortion as a boon to women's emancipation has been the most important task of the abortion industry and lobby for thirty years. In this month's edition, the gruesome procedure of partial birth abortion has been given a style makeover by the world's most influential fashion magazine, Vogue. The magazine offers the article's description: "When Lori Campbell's second pregnancy developed complications, she was faced with a painful decision.  But she was thankful it was hers to make." What follows is a paean to legalized late-term abortion and a series of long...

COLUMBIA, SC (AP) - The South Carolina affiliate of the National Right to Life Committee has endorsed Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson. South Carolina Citizens for Life on Wednesday praised the former Tennessee senator's voting record on abortion issues. In a news release, the group cited Thompson's vote against so-called partial-birth abortion and his stance for adult stem cell research but not embryonic stem cell research. Thompson has touted his anti-abortion voting record during his campaign. He has already been endorsed by the committee's national group.

Make no mistake about it - when the nation's largest pro-life group endorsed Fred Thompson on Tuesday its goal was to shake up the Republican contest for the presidency. The National Right to Life's endorsement is the gold standard coveted by those Republicans seeking the White House because it bestows a legitimacy and authenticity on the candidate who receives it as the standard-bearer for those who want to end abortion on demand. The Thompson endorsement not only signals how the organization representing 3,000 pro-life groups has grown up, but it shows just how close the country is to seeing Roe...

Liberals wouldn't lift a finger to stop the torturing -- to the point of destroying -- unborn human life. But put a terrorist [or a baby seal, for that matter] in the block and watch them spring into sensitive-soul mode. Rosa Brooks epitomizes the mindset in her current LA Times column, "Torture: the new abortion." Her notion is that among Republicans, the new litmus test for presidential candidates is not opposition to abortion but support for U.S. officials who order the "torture of prisoners."

Most pro-life people are outraged when they realize that Planned Parenthood, the number one abortion provider in the United States, is a tax exempt organization receiving hundreds of millions of our tax dollars. But everyone, pro-life or not, should be outraged over the criminal allegations Planned Parenthood faces in Overland Park, Kansas. According to the 107-count indictment filed in Johnson County District Court yesterday, Planned Parenthood purposefully performed illegal late term abortions in violation of Kansas State law and unlawfully falsified documents in order to conceal that fact. They are also accused of failing to comply with the required...

by Steven ErteltLifeNews.com EditorOctober 8, 2007Des Moines, IA (LifeNews.com) -- Campaigning in Iowa over the weekend, pro-abortion presidential candidate Barack Obama attempted to moderate his views on abortion and abstinence education. However, he made it clear he has no interest in limiting or reducing abortions and his pro-abstinence stance is tempered by his backing of sexual education.Speaking in the northeast town of New Hampton late Friday, Obama responded to a question in a forum from a Denver resident in the first primary state for a family reunion.The questioner asked Obama to reconcile how society gets upset at someone like Michael...

by Steven ErteltLifeNews.com EditorOctober 2, 2007Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Rudy Giuliani has tried every trick in the book in order to persuade pro-life voters to consider him for the Republican nomination for president. Now a congressman with a long record of opposing abortion has labeled the former mayor pro-life and said he would have voted mostly pro-life if he had been a congressman as well.Rep. Pete Sessions, a Texas Republican, says that if Giuliani were a member of Congress today, he'd be considered pro-life."In a hypothetical comparison of congressional votes, Mayor Giuliani's voting record would mirror the voting record of...

Four months ago the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. As I said at the time, banning this unspeakably barbaric form of abortion was a victory—albeit a small one—for the pro-life cause. It represented another step toward the end of abortion-on-demand in this country. Certainly the nation’s pro-abortion forces saw it that way as well. The near-hysterical reaction of the Center for Reproductive Rights was typical: “The U.S. Supreme Court,” it said, “effectively overturned 30 years of precedent and announced that women’s health is no longer a paramount concern . . . the Court’s decision paves...

Doctors Avoid Prosecution by Killing One of Their Patients Contact: Phil Magnan, Director, Biblical Family Advocates, 619-962-0659, phil@bfamilyadvocates.com SAN DIEGO, August 13 /Christian Newswire/ -- Most will hail the ban on Partial Birth abortion which could potentially save thousands of pre-born children from having their brains sucked out and their skulls crushed; but sadly the weakness in the law is revealing itself in glaring brutality. In a startling article in the Boston Globe entitled, 'Shots assist in aborting fetuses' it explains how "In response to the Supreme Court decision upholding the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, many abortion providers in Boston...

Wichita, KS (LifeNews.com) -- Infamous late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller was supposed to be arraigned this week on 19 criminal misdemeanor changes of allegedly illegal late-term abortions. However, in a surprise and hushed move, Tiller plead not guilty on Friday to the charges in an effort to avoid the media and pro-life protests. Tiller appeared in the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office for processing and was released on his own recognizance, which is common for misdemeanor cases. His attorney, Lee Thompson, would not tell the Associated Press why Tiller secretly went in five days early to enter his plea. “The law...