Free Republic

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Poor women and children need food, health care and education, but the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program is coming under fire for giving them abortions instead. The program's web site features a link to Planned Parenthood, the business that does about 25 percent of U.S. abortions. Pro-life blogger Dawn Eden, author of The Thrill of the Chaste, found the link at the USDA's WIC Learning Center, the official web site for the federal government's program."That's because a hefty chunk of the $5 billion in taxpayer funds for the program designed to help feed and...

Fresno, CA (LifeNews.com) -- Disability rights advocates and pro-life groups are speaking up in the case of Janet Rivera, an incapacitated California woman who had her food and water restored yesterday. They say Rivera's guardian was wrong to override her family and deny her the right to sustenance.Rivera, 46, had a heart attack on February 2006 and she never regained consciousness. She has been on life support for two years.As LifeNews.com has reported, on July 14 a court-appointed guardian removed her feeding tube despite her family's wishes.After obtaining help from pro-life attorneys, the Rivera family won a court order to...

July 25, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Campaign Life Coalition Canada (CLC) is hosting and co-sponsoring the International Pro-Life Conference, "Creating a Culture of Life Around the Globe," in Toronto October 2-4 with Life Canada and the International Right to Life Federation (IRTLF). Among the many notable speakers at this major conference will be Father Gerard Wilberforce, the great, great grandson of slavery abolitionist William Wilberforce. Jim Hughes, International Right to Life vice-president and president of Campaign Life Coalition Canada told LifeSiteNews that the conference is expected to be as exciting as the 2002 International conference with speakers from around the world....

In two previous campaigns by Christians to disrupt America's abortion industry with continuous prayer, officials with the 40 Days for Life campaign say 35,000 have participated in vigils, 514 babies have been saved and five abortion industry workers have lost their jobs. Now a third campaign is on the calendar, with a signup deadline of July 29 for cities to take part in the outreach. Most locations will have prayer warriors on the sidewalks outside abortion clinics 24 hours a day from Sept. 24 through Nov. 2. Spokesman David Bereit said the first campaigns have seen 150,000 people praying and...

Abortion's Aftershocks Interview With Author Michaelene Fredenburg By Karna Swanson SAN DIEGO, California, JULY 24, 2008 (Zenit.org).- When a woman decides to abort, she mistakenly believes the procedure will erase the pregnancy and that life will return to normal, says the founder of a forum for those affected by abortion. Michaelene Fredenburg is the author of "Changed: Making Sense of Your Own or a Loved One's Abortion Experience," and founder of AbortionChangesYou.com, an Internet site that seeks to help those who have been affected by abortion to face the tragic truth of their actions. In this interview with ZENIT, Fredenburg...

Washington, DC -- There is no woman in the world who grows up thinking she will have an abortion one day. Whatever the reason for the abortion -- feeling they have no other option or pressure from a partner or others -- many women feel significant guilt and shame. Sheila Harper learned the hard way when she chose abortion as a teenager, carrying around debilitating emotions that led to drugs, alcohol and even a suicide attempt. For seven years, author Harper carried with her the shame and humiliation of her abortion. Eventually she found deliverance through God’s abundant grace and...

He does not include these little persons in his claims to care about the poor and his concern for the immigrants. Yet, they are, in the words of a great treasure of our age, the late “Mother” now “Blessed” Teresa of Calcutta, the “poorest of the poor”. These little boys and girls are being evicted from their first home every day by the thousands. No, they are actually being killed, burned, and dismembered, in a war on the womb being waged with surgical strikes and chemical weapons. And, he supports it all, calling this evil a “right”. Frankly, I can...

July 24, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - "My God is a Goddess with golden breasts, dripping milk and honey. A suckling baby am I, nursing at the golden breast." So writes Dr. Henry Morgentaler, Canada's father of abortion, in one of the poems found in his self-published book of poetry, "Freedom is my Passion."With Morgentaler having burst once again onto the public stage in recent weeks, after being awarded Canada's highest civilian honor, the Order of Canada, many people are questioning who exactly Henry Morgentaler is, and what his legacy has been.While news coverage of the abortion doctor over the years...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A leading pro-life group that monitors international issues says the problem of sex-selection abortions could be lessened if pro-abortion activists got involved. But the Population Research Institute says the blather of protecting women and their health appears to stop at the border's edge.In a new YouTube video the group has released, PRI president Steven Mosher decries the practice, common in East and South Asian countries, of sex-selective abortion."In China, India, and other Asian countries, there is a strong preference for boys," Mosher told LifeNews.com. "This combination of a preference for boys and modern technology--the ultrasound...

Fresno, CA (LifeNews.com) -- Twelve days after she was initially denied food and water, a California court ruled that Janet Rivera is entitled to the nutrition and hydration that a guardian revoked. Rivera is the latest disabled patient like Terri Schiavo to draw the attention of pro-life advocates because of her plight. Rivera lost her right to food and water on July 14 when a court-appointed guardian removed her feeding tube despite her family's wishes. The 46-year-old had a heart attack on February 2006 and she never regained consciousness. She has been on life support for two years. Fresno County...

The Risk of Love July 23rd, 2008 by Mark Shea Recently a reader wrote me to say, “I read a story on the Internet about a Catholic couple whose new baby was diagnosed with spina bifida and anencephaly (no brain). They chose to abort it. How on earth would you deal pastorally with such a horrible situation?” Such questions involve several parts. What does God think? What would I do? What should I make of those people over there? We feel torn between obeying God’s commands “Don’t kill” and “Don’t judge.” And in our culture, “Don’t judge” has much the...

WASHINGTON, D.C., JULY 23, 2008 (Zenit.org).- The chairman of the U.S. bishops pro-life committee says an issue is being discussed by members of Congress that should be a matter of agreement between "pro-lifers" and "pro-choicers": respect of conscience. Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, chairman of the bishops' Committee for Pro-Life Activities, affirmed this in a letter Friday to members of Congress. The cardinal's letter responded to a debate that arose when the New York Times reported on July 15 that it had a draft of proposed federal regulations on the conscience rights of health care providers. According to the Times...

Hollywood, CA (LifeNews.com) -- Sherri Shepherd, a co-host of the popular women's television program "The View," said in a recent interview that she's had numerous abortions. She says that she didn't began to change her promiscuous behavior until she became a Christian.In the interview with Precious Times, a magazine for black Christian women, Shepherd, who is 41, said she was "sleeping with a lot of guys and had more abortions than I would like to count.""I felt if someone killed me, it wouldn't even make a difference," she said, talking about how the abortions and other problems caused a...

Fresno, CA (LifeNews.com) -- A California court is scheduled to hold a hearing today in a case of a disabled woman like Terri Schiavo who has been deprived of food and water for nine days. Janet Rivera lost her right to food and water on July 14 when a court-appointed guardian removed her feeding tube despite her family's wishes. Rivera, 46, had a heart attack on February 2006 and she never regained consciousness. She has been on life support for two years Jesus Rivera, her husband, had been his wife's conservator until June 17, when he was replaced for unknown...

Thank you for inviting me to address the 2008 National Right to Life Convention, I'm sorry I'm not able to be there in person to address you. More than two-hundred years ago our nation's founders declared, that we are endowed by our Creator, with certain and unalienable rights, and that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It was no accident, that they cited life as the first, and most basic right. For without recognition of the right to life, we are not guaranteed any other rights. Sometimes all wisdom asks of us, is that we recognize...

Green, OH (LifeNews.com) -- Local pro-life advocates in this city near Akron successfully got local officials to evict an abortion business that set up shop near a legitimate medical center. Formerly known as Ohio Women's Center, G&H Healthcare served as an abortion business in the city of Green in Summit County.G&H was located in an office complex and, according to Judith Hoyt, an officer with Summit County Right to Life, the neighboring medical center received constant questions about whether it did abortions."The Fresenius Medical Care Center located next door to the G&H Healthcare clinic became offended when several people...

More than 100 members of Congress wrote President Bush today, urging him to "halt all action" on a proposal they argue would change the definition of abortion, and drastically limit women's access to birth control. The Department of Health and Human Services draft proposal, which began circulating around Capitol Hill last week, would require hospitals receiving federal funds to certify that, in their hiring, they do not discriminate against people who refuse to provide forms of contraception, such as birth control pills, due to personal religious beliefs. The proposal immediately incited an uproar among Democratic lawmakers led by Sen. Hillary...

Sioux Falls, SD -- Monday was the first day that Planned Parenthood, which operates the only abortion business in South Dakota, had to comply with a new state law telling women the truth about abortion. Rather than tell women abortion kills children and has numerous risks, Planned Parenthood closed its doors. The state law, which the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld last week, required abortion practitioners to inform every woman that she is terminating the life of a human being. It requires giving her information about the mental health complications such as a high risk of depression and suicide...

Columbus, OH (LifeNews.com) -- Several states have dealt with the problem of judges routinely approving requests for a judicial bypass so teens can get abortions without their parents' knowledge or consent. Now, an Ohio judge has admitted she's never denied a single request from a teen to get around the parental involvement law.The National Right to Life Committee indicates 37 states have parental consent or notification laws and 29 are currently in effect, including Ohio. Most have a Supreme Court-mandated judicial bypass for the rare instances where girls may be victimized by their parents.Hundreds of hearings take place before...

GLASGOW, Scotland, July 21, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The work of the Church to protect the unborn, to assist "frightened young" pregnant women and to help to "secure a better standard of living and greater opportunities for the poor," far from being mutually exclusive, are closely interrelated works that cannot be separated from each other, according to the Catholic bishop of Motherwell.Joseph Devine, the fourth bishop of the diocese that encompasses parts of Glasgow in Scotland, said, "Indeed, a nation that condemns to abortion our beautiful and blameless unborn babies betrays itself as morally, ethically and politically untrustworthy and disinclined...

In a ruling that surprised some observers, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the right of a pro-life group to display photos showing the bodies of babies dismembered during abortions. The conservative Thomas More Law Center in Ann Arbor, Mich., had brought suit on behalf of the Center for Bioethical Reform (CBR), a California pro-life group. The case involved police detention for 75 minutes of two CBR pro-life activists who in March circled Rancho Palos Verdes Middle School in Los Angeles, driving a large truck displaying on three sides photos of aborted babies. School...

I have been asked to be involved in a new website that we named adoptnotabort.org. The plan is to create a wealth of information in addition to a place where married couples (man and woman) can create a profile and reach out to a woman to allow them to adopt, rather than killing her baby. A friend of mine named Vanessa is a very active Catholic in the pro-life movement. Here is an email from her that warmed my heart. We also discussed, when the website gets up and running, that the woman tell her story. Vanessa promised that the...

Father, we come before You thanking You for every time You use us, another being, an event or occurance to stop even one child from being aborted. Father we praise Your name and rejoice when the TRUTH is told and Your LIGHT shines forth in the darkness! Lord, thank You for bringing the voices of the post-abortives forth to speak Your TRUTH. Bless Dan and Julie Zanoza for sharing their story and their truth with those who will listen or read it. Give them and others the courage to stand up and be heard. May those words go forth to...

Security guards block Truth Truck from leaving parking lot, help abortion-bound women see the horrific truth about abortionContact: Troy Newman, President, 316-841-1700; Cheryl Sullenger, Senior Policy Advisor, 316-516-3034; both with Operation Rescue, info@operationrescue.orgST. LOUIS, MO., July 20 /Christian Newswire/ -- Operation Rescue's Truth Truck, driven by Mark Gietzen, caused a stir the St. Louis Planned Parenthood abortion mill on Saturday, July 19, 2008, when he drove onto their parking lot and parked near the front door as abortion-bound women entered the facility.Security guards for Planned Parenthood immediately rushed to close the parking lot's iron gates to prevent the Truth Truck from leaving while...

ONE in three doctors believes the law should be changed to allow euthanasia for the terminally ill. A snapshot survey of doctors has found 35% in favour of assisted suicide compared to 60% against the controversial move. The remainder said they were unsure. The survey was carried out by Doctors.net.uk, an online discussion forum and professional network for medics which represents 95% of doctors in the UK. Medics were asked: "In your opinion should legislation be changed to allow euthanasia?" A total of 58 said no, 34 said yes and five said they did not know. The poll result suggests...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (BP)--Abortion may not be the leading national issue according to the polls but it is a top one to many social conservatives, and Republican John McCain increasingly is going out of his way to make his pro-life views known, even saying at one town hall forum that pro-lifers could count on him being an "active" advocate for the unborn. In at least two town hall forums in recent days, McCain has turned questions not directly related to abortion into answers about his pro-life views. Each time, his answers were one of his biggest applause lines, with many...

Contact: Rev. Fr. John Trigilio, Confraternity of Catholic Clergy, 717-957-2662 BALTIMORE, Maryland, July 19 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Confraternity of Catholic Clergy celebrated the 40th anniversary of Humanae Vitae, the encyclical from Paul VI, by asking every deacon, priest and bishop to reread and re-educate their flock with this prophetic document. The organization also pledged support for all bishops who confront and deny Holy Communion to unrepentant Catholic politicians that support abortion, if prior attempts to enlighten their consciences fail. A national association of 600 priests and deacons, the CCC met in Baltimore, MD, July 14-17 for its 33rd annual convocation....

"Cities across America are applying to participate in the fall 2008 nationally coordinated 40 Days for Life campaign – a focused initiative that promises to be the largest and longest coordinated pro-life mobilization in history," said David Bereit, national campaign director of 40 Days for Life. "Abortion claims more than 1.2 million innocent lives in the United States each year," he added, "and in 2008, the stakes for our nation are higher than ever. People of faith and conscience are approaching this challenge with a heightened sense of urgency." 40 Days for Life is a community-based campaign that features 40...

A Minnesota conservative is calling for an end to the tax-exempt status and public financing of the country’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood. According to Planned Parenthood's latest annual report, the organization received more than $1 billion from revenues -- nearly one-third of that figure came from "government grants and contracts." In light of that report, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota) became outraged when she learned of Planned Parenthood's new branding effort in her Minnesota district. She says the new strategy is a move away from helping poor women with family planning, and instead involves targeting latte-drinking, affluent women across America....

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A leading pro-life women's group told members of Congress and their staff this week that women across the country lack pregnancy helps and resources. Feminists for Life of America says the need is particularly acute for college students without good campus resources.The organization held a special workshop on Tuesday to help Congressional staff understand the problem and encourage more support in upcoming legislation.While many college students who become pregnant might prefer to keep their baby and parent while they complete their education, Serrin Foster, the head of the group, says most universities make that task...

New York, Jul 18, 2008 / 02:50 pm (CNA).- A group of Catholic dissenters plans to publish an open letter to Pope Benedict XVI in a major U.S. and a major Italian newspaper criticizing Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae on the fortieth anniversary of its promulgation, July 25. The group Catholics for Choice (CFC) claims that the encyclical’s teaching against contraception has been an “utter failure” that endangers women’s lives and leaves millions at risk of HIV. However, a major pro-life leader said the group’s accusations were hard to take seriously.According to the version of the open letter...

Wichita, Jul 18, 2008 / 05:55 pm (CNA).- A sixteen-year-old Kansas girl was allegedly forced by her mother to undergo an abortion on Wednesday at an abortion clinic run by the notorious late-term abortionist George Tiller. Reportedly both the teenage girl and the baby’s father, who was also sixteen, objected to the abortion. The young father arrived at the clinic too late to stop the abortion, a pro-life group says. According to an incident report from the Kansas Coalition for Life (KCFL) the sixteen-year-old girl was two months pregnant. Her mother brought her to the Women’s Health Care Services...

LifeNews.com Note: Dan and Julie Zanoza reside in Illinois, where Dan is the executive director of Republicans for Fair Media. A version of the following column first appeared in the Christian Coalition magazine and has also appeared in the Illinois Leader.Nearly thirty years ago, my wife and I aborted a child. That decision will haunt us for the rest of our lives. Since that time, I've developed deep feelings on the subject of abortion.There are two primary reasons why I'm pro-life. Besides taking a human life, aborting a child robs society.Since the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, some say...

Phoenix, AZ (LifeNews.com) -- Jesse Ramirez was badly injured in an automobile accident in May 2007 and nearly became a victim of euthanasia when his wife made the decision to have his feeding tube removed. Now, Ramirez has recovered to the point that he is enjoying life and waking and running.Ramirez suffered traumatic brain injury in the accident and had been in a minimally conscious state for just over a week when doctors told his family he may never recover.A legal battle ensued over the man's life and he almost became a victim of euthanasia in the same way Terri...

The first time I learned about the practice I was horrified. It was the mid-1990s. The source was Sharon Dunsmore, a nurse in a hospital NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) who wrote a small booklet about the experience. One day on the job she had been summoned “stat” to the delivery room to deal with an “oops abortion”—a failed abortion in which the baby unexpectedly survived, or, as Dunsmore quoted the pediatrician on the scene, “had the audacity to survive.” The team struggled as to whether to continue intubating the child—now a little boy, not a “fetus”—who clearly was not...

If someone wiped out the entire African-American population in Oakland, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C., the number still wouldn't equal the number of black babies lost to abortion in one year: 683,294. According to the Allan Guttmacher Institute, African-American women are nearly five times more likely than non-Hispanic white women to have an abortion. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost one in every two African-American pregnancies ends in abortion. These are facts, say pro-life blacks, that the NAACP can't afford to ignore. On July 14, the pro-lifers—including Alveda King (niece of Martin Luther King Jr.) and Clenard...

Sydney, Australia (LifeNews.com) -- At the welcoming ceremony for the opening of World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia, the pope told tens of thousands of young people that they have a responsibility to protect human life. Pope Benedict XVI told cheering throngs of students and young adults that they need to stand up against abortion. Addressing a crowd estimated at 150,000 people, the Catholic leader said that newfound enthusiasm for protecting the environment must be match by an equal vigor to protect human life. "At the heart of the marvel of creation are you and I, the human family, 'crowned...

Billings, MT (LifeNews.com) -- Girls Inc. is back in the news over abortion and now the group for young women is teaming up with Planned Parenthood. The organization, which has come under fire for adopting a pro-abortion position, is conducting workshops in Montana with the nation's largest abortion business. The girls group came under fire in 2005 for adopting a statement saying it backs abortion and supports the Roe v. Wade decision that ushered in an era of approximately 50 million abortions.At the time, pro-life groups called for a boycott of the American Girl doll because the company making...

In the end, Pope Benedict offered a summary statement, which cuts to the heart of the liberal vs. faithful Catholic debate. While left-leaning Catholics do concern themselves with important 'social justice' issues, they eschew or minimize fighting for the right to life of the unborn, equating abortion with unemployment, poverty or environmentally damaging mining practices. Faithful Catholics, however, while recognizing the importance of caring for the poor, the environment and peace, understand that the right to life is preeminent. "The concerns for non-violence, sustainable development, justice and peace, and care for our environment are of vital importance for humanity. They...

Washington, Jul. 17, 2008 (CWNews.com) - Under a policy proposed by the Bush White House, the US government would require all recipients of federal health-care payments to certify that they do not discriminate against doctors or nurses who refuse to be involved in abortions. New White House policies, circulated for comment this week, would ask all institutions receiving federal health-care grants to provide written assurance that they will not fire-- or refuse to hire-- health-care personnel who express moral objections to abortion. The proposed guidelines extend to some abortifacient drugs that are commonly identified simply as contraceptives. They regulation circulated...

Pro-life black leaders recently held a press conference in Cincinnati, Ohio and admonished the NAACP's support for pro-abortion candidates and pre-natal murder. ProLifeNews.tv was there to cover all the action. Video

A woman has settled her lawsuit against Los Angeles County involving the disposal of her infant daughter as "bio-waste" after she had an abortion. 36-year-old Yolanda Garnett filed the negligence lawsuit September 25, 2007 in Los Angeles Superior Court. The lawsuit stated Garnett had asked the Coroner's office to return her daughter's body for burial after an autopsy was performed but was told the aborted fetus was deemed bio-waste and thrown out.

CNN reported July 11 that according to the National Institutes of Health, U.S. teen pregnancies in 2006 rose for the first time since 1991. Translation: "One-third of girls in the U.S. got pregnant before age 20." In the same article, CNN reported a "striking decrease" in the percentage of eighth graders smoking, down from 10 percent in 1996 to 3 percent in 2007. While federal health experts were at a loss to explain the spike in teen pregnancies, a Centers for Disease Control official said smoking abated due to "efforts convincing kids and adults not to smoke," according to CNN....

WASHINGTON, DC, July 16, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - David Bereit, the national campaign director for the the 40 Days for Life campaign, has indicated that cities across the country are applying to participate in the upcoming, fall 2008 campaign. Bereit said that the fall campaign "promises to be the largest and longest coordinated pro-life mobilization in history.""Abortion claims more than 1.2 million innocent lives in the United States each year," he added, "and in 2008, the stakes for our nation are higher than ever. People of faith and conscience are approaching this challenge with a heightened sense of urgency."40 Days...

Hyannis, MA (LifeNews.com) -- Abortion practitioner Rapin Osathanondh has been charged with manslaughter after killing one of his patients in a botched legal abortion. Osathanondh did the abortion on 22-year-old Laura Smith, who died in September at his Women's Health Center abortion business. Osathanondh has been indicted by a grand jury after an investigation by local police, state police and the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine. Read the complete story at: http://www.LifeNews.com/state3384.html

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A leading pro-life group that monitors the use of fetal cells from abortions in vaccinations is warning doctors and patients about a new polio vaccine. Children of God for Life is calling on both to "just say no" to the newly-licensed vaccine Pentacel made by Sanofi Pasteur. On June 26, the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended the vaccine as part of the immunization schedule for children. That's despite the fact that vaccines that were not derived with the controversial fetal cells have been on the market and in use for years. "We find it...

Cincinnati, OH (LifeNews.com) -- Yesterday, African-Americans kicked off the 99th annual conference for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Though Barack Obama was on-hand as the first black presidential candidate, black pro-life advocates there said he doesn't represent them. Several pastors and dozens of black pro-life people, including NAACP members, said the organization shouldn't turn a blind eye to how abortion disproportionately hurts black women. The protestors included Dr. Alveda King, a niece of the Rev. Martin Luther King who told the Wall Street Journal she knows what abortion does to women -- having had two abortions...

LONDON, July 15, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The solution to global warming, says a UK charity, is to implement laws that would result in people having fewer children. Governments should put slow pressure on people to limit their offspring to one or two children to save social and environmental resources. "There is no unlimited right to have children," said the Optimum Population Trust (OPT), the group known to be one of the most militantly anti-life organisations in the world. There is a limit, the Trust said, "on the number of children to which people are 'entitled'." "A voluntary population policy should...

July 15, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - More than half of people in the US would rather be dead than disabled says a new survey. A US website for disabled people ran the survey which asked, "Which would you choose: Living with a severe disability that forever alters your ability to live an independent life, or death?" 52 per cent of the respondents chose death.The survey, run by the online community and website Disaboom, found that differences in attitude toward disability were based on age, income, geographic location, and level of education. 63 percent of younger Americans chose death over disability,...

As new figures reveal the massive increase in multiple abortions, a mother tells of their devastating legacyAmong the throng of women who gather outside the school gates each day, Angela Simmons is every inch the archetypal middle-class mother, fussing over her seven-year-old son Ben and ferrying him between after-school clubs and play dates. Certainly nobody would guess that the 39-year-old former estate agent is one of around 50 women each year in the UK to have notched up her seventh abortion. Government statistics released this week show that record numbers of women are having two or more abortions - and...