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PLANO, Texas — Standing in front of a massive crowd at a rally in Plano, Texas, Rick Santorum unleashed criticism of Barack Obama and threw out some campaign red meat to supporters hungry for it, telling them the president has an “overt hostility to faith.”“(He’s) trying to weaken them, churches, trying to say that anybody who believes in the values of the Judeo Christian policies,” Santorum said to about 2,000 people in a converted barn, one of his largest audiences of the campaign. He told the audience at the raucous rally that Obama is restricting religious freedoms in this country,...

SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. (CNN/Ewa Roman, WHP) — Vending machines at one university don’t just dispense soda and snacks, they sell the morning-after pill. Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania is providing its students easy access to the pill. Students there can simply walk into a room inside the health center and get Plan B emergency contraception from a vending machine.

Herman Cain, the insurgent populist whose candidacy has been ensnared by allegations of sexual impropriety, said Saturday that he is leaving the race for the Republican presidential nomination, saying that the allegations have cast a "cloud of doubt over me and this campaign." "As of today, with a lot of prayer and soul searching, I am suspending my presidential campaign," he said at an event in Atlanta. "I am suspending my presidential campaign because of the continued distraction, the continued hurt . . . on me, on my family, not because we are not fighters, not because I am not...

By suspending his campaign instead of quitting his campaign, Herman can still get federal matching funds in 2012. But the campaign is over. Even had it continued, it was over. I had thought and expected that Cain would continue until Iowa. He had enough money. Dropping out after losing in Iowa would have distracted from the present issues. Dropping out now will be viewed by a great many as an admission against interests that Herman Cain did have a 13 year affair.

Herman Cain is expected to make a "major announcement" today, anytime between 11am and 1pm EST in Atlanta. The media is assuming he will quit the race. Politico is positively glowing with anticipation of this. Will he fold, or FIGHT? He is also opening a new Atlanta HQ. Twitter reports that people are jamming in early to show their support. We simply don't know what will happen, or when it will happen. What are your thoughts? Do you think he should quit? Or do you think Cain should stay in the race and deny the State-Run Media yet another GOP...

WASHINGTON, D.C., February 17, 2011 (Lifesitenews.com) - Girls of any age could obtain the Plan B morning after pill without a prescription, if a request filed by Teva Pharmaceuticals with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is approved. Teva manufactures Plan B One-Step, a form of the drug that the company claims will prevent pregnancy with a single pill if taken within 72 hours of intercourse. Pro-life opponents of the pill have long pointed out that, like other forms of emergency contraception, Plan B can also act as an abortificient by preventing a fertilized ovum from implanting in the uterus....

NOTTINGHAM, UK, January 31. 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A new study on the impact of the UK government’s scheme to hand out free emergency contraception to teenagers as young as sixteen has found that the plan not only has not reduced teen pregnancy rates, but has led to a rise in sexually transmitted diseases.The study of the government’s Teenage Pregnancy Strategy, titled “The Impact of Emergency Birth Control on Teen Pregnancy and STIs,” compared areas of England where the morning-after pill was available to teens free of charge at pharmacies, with areas where the plan had not yet been introduced.The...

We previously reported that on August 13th the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new prescription abortion drug called "ella" allowing Watson Pharmaceuticals to market this drug in the U.S. as an "emergency contraceptive" (EC). While proponents of ella claim that it is more effective than the so-called "morning-after-pill," Plan B, ella can also function as an abortion drug more like RU-486. On December 1st, Watson Pharmaceuticals began to aggressively promote ella over the internet and in pharmacies. Because ella is similar in its chemical make-up to the abortion drug RU-486, it therefore can destroy an implanted embryo, in...

The concern about the ella abortion drug the FDA recently approved is so great that a collection of pro-life groups has put together an informative webcast. The event is planned for Tuesday evening to explain how the so-called expanded morning after pill causes abortions.The new drug ella has been sold to the public as an expanded and improved version of the Plan B drug and one that can be used to prevent pregnancy days after sexual intercourse.But, at that point, conception has already occurred and the drug will destroy the life of a unique human being — a conception the...

FDA Calls New Abortion Drug Ella, Billed as a Plan B, Safe for Women Washington, DC -- The Food and Drug Administration today declared a new abortion drug called ella (also known as ellaOne and ulipristal) safe and effective for women. The ella pill is billed as a new morning after pill that can work longer after intercourse than the traditional morning after pill but it mostly acts as an abortion drug. http://LifeNews.com/nat6418.html

Senate Democrats may go into the bipartisan health care reform summit later this month holding a legislative gun to Republicans' heads. Some Democrats are readying a health care reform "Plan B" in case negotiations at the half-day televised forum on Feb. 25 go nowhere.

For the first time ever, the Pentagon is requiring military bases worldwide to offer the so-called morning-after pill. WASHINGTON - The Pentagon for the first time will require military bases worldwide to offer emergency contraception or the so-called morning-after pill, a military spokesman told Fox News Friday. The decision follows a recommendation by an independent panel of doctors and pharmacists in November, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. The panel determined that emergency contraception should be added to the military's list of medications that must be stocked at each military facility. The decision represents a policy shift from the Bush administration...

Obama Admin Forces Military Hospitals to Stock Morning After Pill Washington, DC -- Late Thursday, the Obama administration issued a new order for the U.S. military requiring all military hospitals and health centers to stock the morning after pill. The Department of Defense will soon begin having military medical facilities stock the Plan B drug, which can sometimes cause an abortion. http://www.lifenews.com/nat5967.html

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Pentagon for the first time will require military bases worldwide to offer emergency contraception or the so-called morning-after pill, a military spokeswoman said Thursday. The decision follows a recommendation by an independent panel of doctors and pharmacists in November, said Defense Department spokeswoman Cynthia Smith. The panel determined that emergency contraception should be added to the military's list of medications that must be stocked at each military facility.

This is absolutely brutal: Massachusetts Dems have dropped a mail piece accusing GOP Senate candidate Scott Brown of wanting hospitals to turn away “all” rape victims. The mail piece — sent over by the Brown campaign — shows pictures of women who are supposed to have been raped, one of them in a wheelchair bent over with her head in her hands. It says: “1,736 WOMEN WERE RAPED IN MASSACHUSETTS IN 2008. SCOTT BROWN WANTS HOSPITALS TO TURN THEM ALL AWAY.” The mailer — paid for by the Massachusetts Democratic Party — says the claim is based on “a law...

Rome, Italy (LifeNews.com) -- The world may never know how many thousands of women have been injured, or even killed, by the dangerous RU 486 abortion drug. The best worldwide guess is that 13 women have been killed as a result of the mifepristone abortion pill, but the maker of the drug in Europe is saying 29 women have died. If the information given to the Italian Pharmaceuticals Agency (AIFA) by European abortion drug maker Exelgyn is correct, then twice as many women have died from the abortion drug globally than the pro-life community has thought. Currently, eight women have...

The most overturned appellate court has teed up another case for the Supreme Court to consider — and likely soon. The 9th Circuit overturned an injunction in a district court case, allowing the state of Washington to force a pharmacy to stock and dispense morning-after pills, which causes the abortion of an embryo in the early days of a pregnancy. The pharmacy owners had objected, claiming that the law violated their religious practice:

The L.A. Times reports that "pharmacists are obliged to dispense the Plan B pill, even if they are personally opposed to the 'morning after' contraceptive on religious grounds, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. In a case that could affect policy across the western U.S., a supermarket pharmacy owner in Olympia, Wash., failed in a bid to block 2007 regulations that required all Washington pharmacies to stock and dispense the pills. Family-owned Ralph's Thriftway and two pharmacists employed elsewhere sued Washington state officials over the requirement. The plaintiffs asserted that their Christian beliefs prevented them from dispensing the pills, which...

A federal case involving a pharmacy refusing to dispense Plan B–aka the “morning after pill”–based on religious objection also has disturbing implications for assisted suicide in that state. A three panel Court of Appeals panel reversed an injunction and sent the case back to the trial court for further consideration. But in finding that Washington regulations requiring pharmacists to carry and dispense all legal drugs and medications is a rule of general applicability–thus precluding religious conscience-based exemptions–it also means that all pharmacists in the state must dispense death to terminally ill patients in Washington who receive lethal prescriptions. From...

Late word this evening that will get everyone's attention: Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has informed legislative leaders that if three of the six budget-related ballot measures fail next Tuesday, the state faces a $21.3 billion deficit between now and next July. In a letter to the four legislators this afternoon, Schwarzenegger actually offered two new assessments from his budget team of what lies in store for California: a $15.4 billion shortfall if Propositions 1C, 1D, and 1E pass, and the aforementioned $21.3 billion if they fail. This comes after Schwarzenegger told reporters in Culver City today that he intends to release...

The 'Plan B' scenarios if the special election measures are defeated continue to trickle out of the administration of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. This afternoon, a new one: the governor is prepared to propose a $2 billion suspension of the 2004 constitutional initiative protecting city and county revenues. Talk of suspending 2004's Proposition 1A comes on the heels of a meeting yesterday where Schwarzenegger aides told the firefighting community that voters rejecting the measures on the ballot in two weeks time would result in as many as 1,700 firefighting positions. One local government official on this afternoon's call said the plan...

Prospects are rapidly diminishing for the five ballot measures that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders say they need to keep the state budget from drowning in red ink. So, one might ask, what's Plan B? Rejection of three measures (Propositions 1C, 1D and 1E) would have a direct impact totaling nearly $6 billion on the 2009-10 budget, which was supposedly balanced by Schwarzenegger and legislators in February. Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor has already proclaimed that the 2009-10 plan is $8 billion out of whack, so rejection of those three measures would create a $14 billion hole. But wait, there's...

The decision by U.S. District Court Judge Edward Korman of New York to order the FDA to make Plan B, post-intercourse contraceptives available to 17-year-old girls without a prescription from their doctor is one more example of the government believing it has the right to interpose itself between parents and their children. It is shameful that the Obama administration has decided it will not appeal this terrible federal court decision. Allowing drugs with such powerful physiological and emotional effects to be sold over the counter to adults without a prescription, as has been the case since 2005, has no doubt...

Medical evidence disputes the claim that this pill is always “contraceptive” in preventing fertilization. Even the FDA’s own Question and Answers admitted this with these words: “Plan B works like other birth control pills to prevent pregnancy. Plan B acts primarily by stopping the release of an egg from the ovary (ovulation). It may prevent the union of sperm and egg (fertilization). If fertilization does occur, Plan B may prevent a fertilized egg from attaching to the womb (implantation).” More accurate was the Pontifical Academy for Life’s Statement released on October 31, 2000: “The morning-after pill is a hormone-based preparation...

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....

A federal judge on Monday ordered the Food and Drug Administration to make the Plan B morning-after birth control pill available without prescription to women as young as 17. The judge ruled the agency had improperly bowed to political pressure from the Bush Administration when it set 18 as the age limit in 2006. The F.D.A. has 30 days to comply with the order, in which the judge also urged the agency to consider removing all restrictions on over-the-counter sales of Plan B. The drug consists of two pills that prevent conception if taken within 72 hours of sexual intercourse....

U.S. court tells FDA to rethink Plan B contraceptive Mon Mar 23, 2009 3:06pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. court on Monday ordered the Food and Drug Administration to reconsider its decisions on the sale of the Plan B emergency contraceptive and ordered its producer to make the pills available to 17-year-olds without a prescription. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, in a 52-page ruling, said its order to make Plan B available to 17-year-olds under the same conditions it is currently available to older women must be complied with within 30 days....

I've been here a while now, put a hundred into the kitty to keep the site up so I'm posting a vanity asking for some advice. My family are all liberals I don't dare ask them their opinion. So here goes. My bride and I both see bad things coming. We are buying 5 acres in rural south central Tennessee on contract from a friend. No house, just partially wooded land. We've been saving our money and investing in heirloom seeds, long term food supply that we eat and rotate, and camping gear. I weld and am a jack of...

WASHINGTON – General Motors Corp. said Tuesday it needs $12 billion in government loans to keep operating, telling Congress in a bluntly worded report that its collapse could have "severe, long-term consequences to the U.S. economy." GM said it would seek up to $18 billion from the government: $12 billion in loans, including $4 billion by the end of December, and a separate $6 billion line of credit in case market conditions worsen. "Absent such assistance, the company will default in the near term, very likely precipitating a total collapse of the domestic industry," GM said, contending its collapse would...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new national survey shows the Plan B drug, as known as the morning after pill, is more available across the United States following a 2006 FDA decision to sell it to adults over the counter. However, anecdotal stats from other places where it is readily available show it not reducing abortions.Dr. Rebekah Gee of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine conducted the study, which involved surveys of pharmacies in Atlanta, Boston, and Philadelphia in 2005 and again in 2007.Some 1,087 pharmacies participated in the first round of surveys while 795 were involved in the...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Thursday left in place a lower court's ruling that allowed Washington state pharmacists to refuse to sell emergency contraceptive "morning after" pills on religious grounds. A federal judge in Seattle suspended state rules that required pharmacies to dispense "Plan B" and other emergency contraceptives that prevent fertilized eggs from implanting, which some people believe is the same as abortion.The case was brought by Stormans Inc, doing business as Ralph's Thriftway, and pharmacists Rhonda Mesler and Margo Thelen.

BOSTON, December 9, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a shocking turn-around, Massachusetts’s governor Mitt Romney announced yesterday that Roman Catholic and other private hospitals in the state will be forced to offer emergency contraception to sexual assault victims under new state legislation, regardless of the hospitals’ moral position on the issue. The Republican governor had earlier defended the right of hospitals to avoid dispensing the “morning-after pill” on the grounds of moral dissent. The Boston Globe reported that Romney’s flip on the issue came after his legal counsel, Mark D. Nielsen, concluded Wednesday that the new law supersedes a preexisting statute...

WASHINGTON, DC, October 22, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In what is likely the most significant contribution to date in the debate over the use of the so-called "emergency contraception" pills at Catholic hospitals, renowned theologian Fr. Peter Damian Fehlner has written on the subject. The Doctor of Sacred Theology who has been teaching theology in Franciscan universities and seminaries in the US and Italy for forty years, has questioned the basis on which the whole issue is based - namely whether it is permitted for Catholics to administer Plan B even if it acted as a contraceptive rather than causing abortions....

Discussion at the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee resulting in the report “Scientific developments relating to the Abortion Act 1967” and Pope Benedict XVI’s advice to Roman Catholic pharmacists to avoid any involvement, whether direct or indirect, in the supply of medicines used for abortions or euthanasia have raised the profile of issues surrounding abortion once again. Whether we class ourselves as “pro-life” or “pro-choice”, the extremely high number of abortions carried out in England and Wales — 193,700 in 2006, an average of 3,725 per week — is a sad reflection of our society’s attempts to educate...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 14, 2007 – The U.S. military is examining different contingencies for supplying American troops in Afghanistan if supplies can no longer be shipped through Pakistan, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said today. Morrell hastened to add that the unrest in Pakistan following President Pervez Musharraf instituting a state of emergency has not impinged on U.S. supply lines through or over Pakistan. Morrell said at a Pentagon news conference that the supply line issue “is a very real area of concern for our commanders in Afghanistan, because 75 percent of all of our supplies for our troops in Afghanistan...

ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: November 8th, 2007 01:07 PM A federal judge has suspended Washington’s requirement that pharmacists sell “morning-after” birth control pills. The injunction says pharmacists can refuse to sell the morning-after pill, referring a customer instead to a nearby source. It’s part of a lawsuit by two pharmacists and a drugstore owner, who claim in a lawsuit that the state’s birth-control sales rules violated their civil rights. The morning-after pill, sold as “Plan B,” can dramatically lower the risk of pregnancy if taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex. Some critics consider the pill tantamount to abortion, although it...

VATICAN CITY, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Politicians and pharmacists in Italy responded angrily on Tuesday to an appeal by Pope Benedict for pharmacists to refuse to dispense drugs such as the "morning after pill" if they object on moral grounds. The Pope told an international conference on Monday that pharmacists should be guaranteed the right to conscientious objection in cases where medicines they distribute can block pregnancy, provoke abortion or assist euthanasia. Health Minister Livia Turco said that while the Pope had the right to urge young people to be sexually responsible, he could not tell professionals such as pharmacists...

The story is on top and the poll is on the bottom

American Life League Urges Connecticut Bishops to Rethink Plan B at Catholic Hospitals WASHINGTON, October 5, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - "The actions of the Connecticut Catholic Conference are an outrage and a crime," said Judie Brown, president of American Life League (ALL) reacting to the news that the Connecticut Bishops have given permission for the use of the so-called "emergency contraceptive" Plan B for rape victims at Catholic hospitals. "It's bad enough to allow so-called emergency contraception in Catholic hospitals, but to claim that the Church has never officially ruled on such matters is completely untrue," added Brown. The Connecticut Catholic...

U.S. Catholic Health Association Giving Flawed Advice on Morning After Pill to Catholic Hospitals Commentary republished with permission by Matt Bowman of Alliance Defense FundExcerpted from http://www.constitutionallycorrect.com/archive/2007/10/03/553.aspx WASHINGTON, DC, October 3, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Connecticut Catholic hospitals' spokesman Barry Feldman, in statements discussing the new policy allowing emergency contraception for rape victims even though embryos might not implant as a result, listed the Catholic Health Association as support for the new policy. The position of the Catholic Health Association on "emergency contraception" is well known and seriously flawed.  It basically presents "emergency contraception" as permissible even after a positive ovulation...

Point Man for Connecticut Bishops on Plan B 'Emergency Contraception' Totally Confused on Issue By John-Henry Westen HARTFORD, October 2, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Barry Feldman is general counsel for St. Francis Hospital the lead spokesman for the Connecticut Catholic Bishops conference regarding their newly announced permission to administer the morning after pill Plan B to rape victims in Catholic hospitals in the state. In seeking comment on the decision LifeSiteNews.com spoke with the pro-life office of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) but was directed to the executive director of the Connecticut Catholic Conference (CCC). Deacon David Reynold, acting...

Commentary by Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, President, Human Life International On September 28th the Connecticut bishops issued an unfortunate statement allowing the Plan B abortion-causing drug to be used in cases of rape in Catholic hospitals. I have written respectfully and urgently to the Connecticut Catholic Conference (CCC) and to each bishop individually to ask them to withdraw this potentially precedent-setting statement, and I pray that they do so. I am extremely concerned that this statement will begin to have a domino effect on other Catholic hospitals and healthcare institutions, and I write to you today to ask your...

Connecticut's Roman Catholic bishops owe a detailed explanation of their newly abortion-tolerant position, not only to their flock but to residents of all denominations who value constitutional principles. Rather than continuing to resist the legislature's unseemly quest to force Catholic hospitals to dispense a pregnancy-prevention drug called Plan B, the bishops caved completely last week by withdrawing their opposition to a bill that forces the hospitals to perform a sinful act, by their lights: killing the unborn. Plan B prevents fertilized eggs from attaching to the womb if taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex. The drug's manufacturer, Barr Pharmaceuticals,...

And he chose to use his blog as the medium for his thoughts (underlining is mine, bolding is his): Plan B, an issue previously discussed in this blog (“Sad State of the Constitution State”, April 24th—see “Archive”) is back in the news. Many of you posted comments about those media reports, so I’d like to offer a number of clarifications and some additional perspective.Last spring, the Connecticut Bishops worked hard to defeat the so-called “Plan B” legislation. It’s not that the Church opposes administering Plan B to victims of rape; these women have suffered a gravely unjust assault. Last...

Connecticut Bishops Allow Plan B in Catholic Hospitals for Rape - Catholic Medical Association Opposed Vatican stated in 2000 "the absolute unlawfulness of abortifacient procedures also applies to distributing, prescribing and taking the morning-after pill" By John-Henry Westen HARTFORD, September 28, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A statement issued by the Connecticut Catholic Bishops yesterday, which is posted on the Catholic Conference's web page, notes that the Bishops have approved the administration of the morning after pill Plan B for rape victims at the four Catholic hospitals in the state.  While the Bishops claim to be in accord with Church teaching on...

HARTFORD, September 28, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A statement issued by the Connecticut Catholic Bishops yesterday, which is posted on the Catholic Conference's web page, notes that the Bishops have approved the administration of the morning after pill Plan B for rape victims at the four Catholic hospitals in the state.  While the Bishops claim to be in accord with Church teaching on the matter, the only statement from the Vatican on the measure opposed it since the pill can cause abortions. "In accordance with Catholic moral teaching, these hospitals provide emergency contraception after appropriate testing," says the letter from the...

In a major softening of their position, the state's Catholic bishops announced today that Catholic hospitals would comply with a new law that takes effect Monday that requires them to dispense emergency contraceptive pills to rape victims. The Catholic church had lobbied strongly against the proposal at the state Capitol for more than one year, and some insiders believed the Church might file a lawsuit to block the law. Church officials, though, had said only that they were considering their options and never said that they would file a suit. "The Bishops and other Catholic health care leaders believe that...

Seattle, Jul 27, 2007 / 08:47 am (CNA).- Pharmacists have sued Washington state over a new regulation that requires them to sell emergency contraception, also known as the "morning-after pill,” because it contains no exception for those who object on the basis of belief or conscience. In a lawsuit filed in federal court Wednesday, pharmacists Rhonda Mesler and Margo Thelen, and Stormans Inc., said the rule that took effect Thursday violates their civil rights by forcing them into choosing between "their livelihoods and their deeply held religious and moral beliefs." "The stakes really couldn't be much higher," plaintiffs' attorney Kristen...

THE morning-after pill is being given to Suffolk schoolgirls - with pupils as young as 13 able to access the emergency contraception without the knowledge of their parents. In the 11 months between April last year and February this year, 68 morning-after pills were handed out to girls in the county's schools. The news emerged amid national concerns that thousands of girls - some as young as 11 - could be given the emergency contraception at school without parental knowledge. But last night Suffolk Primary Care Trust stressed health professionals in the county were sticking to national Government guidelines. These...

The popularity of the morning-after pill Plan B has surged in the year since the federal government approved the sale of the controversial emergency contraceptive without a prescription. Plan B sales have doubled since the Food and Drug Administration authorized the switch for women 18 and older last August, rising from about $40 million a year to what will probably be close to $80 million for 2007, according to Barr Pharmaceuticals, which makes Plan B. The sharp rise was hailed by women's health and family-planning advocates, who say it illustrates the value of easing access to birth control to help...