Free Republic

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 21, 2013 (LifeSiteNews) – Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) has introduced a bill aimed at marginalizing Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs), which serve women facing unexpected pregnancies with counseling and factual information about parenthood, adoption and abortion. CPCs also offer practical support for women who choose to parent, such as baby equipment, formula, diapers and clothing. H.R. 2030, which Maloney named the “Stop Deceptive Advertising for Women's Services Act,” orders the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to create regulations restricting CPCs’ advertising practices. The wording of the bill is minimal, leaving the details to be hammered out by the bureaucracy...

Writing for The Atlantic in September of 2012, Hanna Rosin argued that the “hookup culture” so prevalent on college campuses and in the lives of young adults is “an engine of female progress—one being harnessed and driven by women themselves.” She wrote: To put it crudely, feminist progress right now largely depends on the existence of the hookup culture. And to a surprising degree, it is women—not men—who are perpetuating the culture, especially in school, cannily manipulating it to make space for their success, always keeping their own ends in mind. For college girls these days, an overly serious suitor...

(Xinyi, Jiangsu–May 18, 2013) A farmer in Jiangsu province was set upon on Wednesday by more than 20 family planning officials who beat him to near death because he and his wife have three children, violating China's strict one-child policy. Zhang Futao, of Group Five, Nangou Village, in the town of Beigou, in Xinyi city, is now hospitalized in critical condition and fighting for his life after suffering severe head injuries from the beating by the family planning officials who burst into his home at about 8 p.m. on Wednesday (May 15). They then kidnapped Zhang to Tashan Brigade and...

EVERSON, WA, May 20, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A 31-year-old illegal immigrant raped a preteen girl in Washington State last June, then took her to Planned Parenthood two months later to cover his crime. According to reports, last June, Luis Gonzalez-Jose approached the young girl as her mother was taking a shower and asked "if it was OK to have a baby with him." After she said no, he stripped the girl and raped her on the spot. In August, he took the pregnant girl to a Planned Parenthood and forced her to abort their child. She told employees she had...

The outspoken conservative Republican has won the state GOP nomination also accuses Democrats of ‘saturating the black community with ridiculous lies.’ E. W. Jackson delivers his acceptance speech for the Republican nomination for Lt. Gov. at the Virginia Republican convention in Richmond, Va., Saturday, May 18. He calls the Democratic party “anti-God.” The conservative Republican candidate for lieutenant governor in Virginia once compared Planned Parenthood to the Ku Klux Klan and has made several other inflammatory statements that are likely to play into the state’s competitive race for governor. E.W. Jackson, a black pastor and attorney with a reputation for...

AUGUSTA, ME, May 20, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The number of deaths in Maine now exceeds the number of births, according to a new report released by the Governor's Office of Policy and Management (OPM). Last year, there were 103 more deaths than new babies. The state's birth rate has steadily fallen over the last 23 years, from 14.1 live births per 1,000 women in 1990 to 10.2 per 1,000 women today. The state's analysis of census data found the state has the nation's highest median age, 43, and is tied with Vermont for the lowest percentage of minors. Only 20.7...

A new Washington Post poll finds Americans believe the targeting of pro-life groups and conservatives by the International Revenue service was a deliberate act. “As you may know it’s been disclosed that the IRS singled out some conservative political groups for extra questions about their tax status. Do you think it was appropriate or inappropriate for the IRS to do this?” the poll asked. Some 74 percent of respondents say it was inappropriate compared to just 20 percent who say it was appropriate. Another 51 percent said they thought the IRS actions were illegal while 44 percent said they were...

Two leading pro-life groups are urging pro-life advocates to contact members of Congress to support a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy nationwide because unborn children can feel pain. The National Right to Life Committee says the bill has its “strong backing.” “Pro-life members of Congress, led by Congressman Trent Franks (R-Az.) and Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah), with strong backing from the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), have proposed legislation to protect unborn children capable of feeling pain — defined in the legislation as those who have reached 20 weeks fetal age — from abortion,”...

BROOKLYN, NY, May 20, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A 20-year-old man has confessed to smothering a 14-year-old girl, keeping her body in a suitcase, and trying to set her remains on fire because she would not have an abortion, police say. Shaneisha Forbes Shaneisha Forbes Christian Ferdinand smothered Shaniesha Forbes with a pillow inside his cousin's Brooklyn apartment after she told him she was carrying his baby and refused to abort, according to charges lodged against the Jamaican-born man. Police say he stuffed her body inside a suitcase and left it in his cousin's building for two days before unsuccessfully attempting...

Just how extreme is the pro-abortion group NARAL? The organization is now on record opposing a new bill in Congress that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy because scientific evidence shows unborn babies feel pain by at least 20 weeks. Why does NARAL oppose a modest ban on late-term abortions? Its president Ilyse Hogue wraps the opposition in language about women’s rights and claims banning late-term abortions will drive up illegal abortions that hurt women. (Never mind that Kermit Gosnell went from the back alley to main street and killed and injured women in legal late-term abortions). “We...

The Maryland Board of Physicians has permanently revoked the license of abortionist Nicola I. Riley in a scathing 24-page order issued May 6, 2013, that prohibits her from ever again applying for licensure or reinstatement of her license. “In view of the fraudulent and deceptive nature of Dr. Riley’s criminal conduct, her demonstrated lack of candor and integrity on her application to the Board and to Utah and Wyoming, and her demonstrated propensity for dishonesty and misrepresentation, Dr. Riley’s unprofessional conduct is not remediable,” stated the Board. “In light of the unprofessional manner in which she treated this critically damaged...

A man in Washington state took a 12-year-old girl to a Planned Parenthood clinic for an abortion to cover up his sexual assault on the teenage girl. The abortion business apparently did the abortion without hesitation. According to the Bellingham Herald: A Washington State man who impregnated a preteen girl and forced her to have an abortion must serve a six-year prison sentence, then leave the country Luis Gonzalez-Jose, 31, raped the girl at a home in rural Whatcom County while her mother was in the shower, according to charging documents filed in Whatcom County Superior Court. He brought the...

The similarities between convicted abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell and Houston-based abortion practitioner Douglas Karpen are striking. Not only does Karpen kill babies born alive following abortions in a similar procedure that more closely resembles infanticide than abortion, but Karpen also killed a patient in a botched abortion. Gosnell was convicted of murder for severing the necks of just-born babies but he also found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of patient Karnamaya Mongar, who died after a botched abortion. LifeNews exposed Douglas Karpen — who, like the Philadelphia-based abortion practitioner, is also killing babies born alive after botched abortions....

Democrats in the House and Senate are looking to stop what they say are deceptive advertising practices by anti-abortion health clinics that imply they offer abortion services, but instead encourage birth and promote adoption. The legislation is aimed at crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), which are clinics often set up by a church or other anti-abortion groups. Democrats in Congress and other pro-abortion groups say these clinics are known to indicate they can perform abortions in order to attract pregnant women patients, and then try to convince them to carry their babies to term. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), the House sponsor...

BROOKLYN, NY, May 20, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A 20-year-old man has confessed to smothering a 14-year-old girl, keeping her body in a suitcase, and trying to set her remains on fire because she would not have an abortion, police say. Christian Ferdinand smothered Shaniesha Forbes with a pillow inside his cousin's Brooklyn apartment after she told him she was carrying his baby and refused to abort, according to charges lodged against the Jamaican-born man.

With the convictions in the case against abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell – three counts of murdering live babies and one count of involuntary manslaughter – abortion is back in the national discussion. It’s pretty clear from the Grand Jury report that, during Gosnell’s thirty plus year career, he likely murdered hundreds, if not thousands of babies. But because of the difficulty in documenting it all, he was just convicted of three. Reports now are coming in from around the nation indicating that more Gosnells are out there. The abortion lobby claims that as long as we have tight regulations on...

BALTIMORE, May 20, 2013 (Operation Rescue) - The Maryland Board of Physicians has permanently revoked the license of abortionist Nicola I. Riley in a scathing 24-page order issued on May 6, which prohibits her from ever again applying for licensure or reinstatement of her license. “In view of the fraudulent and deceptive nature of Dr. Riley’s criminal conduct, her demonstrated lack of candor and integrity on her application to the Board and to Utah and Wyoming, and her demonstrated propensity for dishonesty and misrepresentation, Dr. Riley’s unprofessional conduct is not remediable,” stated the Board. “In light of the unprofessional manner...

SB 962 Fetal deaths; when occurs without medical attendance, mother, etc., must report within 24 hours. Requires that when a fetal death occurs without medical attendance upon the mother at or after the delivery or abortion, the mother or someone acting on her behalf, within 24 hours, report the fetal death, location of the remains, and identity of the mother to the local or state police or sheriff's department of the city or county where the fetal death occurred. The bill also specifies that no one shall remove, destroy, or otherwise dispose of any remains without the express authorization of...

Sources:http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2580894/postshttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/03/health/03parenthood.html?_r=0http://truthaboutplannedparenthoodgoldengate.blogspot.com/http://www.operationrescue.org/archives/former-planned-parenthood-of-golden-gate-is-%E2%80%98coyote-ugly%E2%80%99/http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/archive//ldn/2010/aug/10081010http://www.lifenews.com/2011/09/28/probe-may-find-more-medicaid-fraud-at-planned-parenthood/http://saynsumthn.wordpress.com/2010/09/03/irs-investigates-planned-parenthood-clinic-stripped-of-national-affiliation/http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/archive//ldn/2010/aug/10083104Less than 3 years ago, Planned Parenthood Golden Gate was exploding! So what was done? What criminals who defrauded the state of California on Medicaid went to jail? Or is it a case that Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, and Diane Feinstein, as well as others in the Obama Administration and the State of California -- engaged in a coverup. The IRS was investigating this organization. So how can someone just go POOF! and make it disappear. No one has gone to jail. No money recovered by the Federal/State governments. Another Obama coverup with the aid of Nancy Pelosi/Diane Feinstein/Barbara Boxer....

A Swedish-American team of researchers claims that babies begin learning their native tongue when they are still in the womb. "We showed that the foetus during the last ten weeks of the pregnancy not only listens to but remembers and learns languages," Patricia Kuhl at the Washington University Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences told the BBC. It was already known that babies during their last weeks in the womb could recognize their mother's voice and vocal melody. After studying newborns, however, a Swedish-American team of scientists proved that the babies had learned a lot more than that. The scientists...

In early May, the trial of Kermit Gosnell was drawing to a close. Our nation was gripped by the revelations of how for years, this notorious abortionist had enjoyed free reign to do his bloody work in horrifically unsanitary, effectively unregulated conditions, resulting in the murder of a number of newly born-alive babies and one mother, along with the countless human beings similarly killed inside the womb. Serious questions were being raised about what our legal regime and social culture of abortion-on-demand had unleashed, and the moral inconsistency being horrified by Gosnell’s crimes while supporting pre-birth abortion. And the Religious...

This weekend’s question comes from good friend Josh Brahm, Director of Education and Public Relations, Right to Life of Central California: What are the most frustrating or annoying things that pro-choice people do that shuts down good dialogue? Stories are welcome.

26-year-old Remee Lee says she was “elated” when she discovered she was pregnant with her first child. She and her boyfriend, John Andrew Welden, had broken up once already, but reunited in February. She knew she loved Andrew and wanted to keep the baby. But when she told him, he didn’t take the news very well—and “pleaded” with her to abort. John Andrew Welden John Andrew Welden “I was never going to do anything but go full term with it, and he didn’t want me to,” Remee told a Tampa TV station. When it became clear he wasn’t getting his...

KINGSTON, Jamaica, May 17, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Jamaican Minister of Education, the Hon. Rev. Ronald Thwaites, has given a resounding "No" to a proposal to have condoms freely distributed in schools. The suggestion was made by the chairman of the country's National Family Planning Board, Dr Sandra Knight. Ronald Thwaites Ronald Thwaites Thwaites made it clear that Jamaican schools were not "romping shops" during the 2013/14 Sectoral Debate held at Gordon House in Kingston on May 15. “This government, lead by this Prime Minister, lifts up to our children, the ideal of faithful love and marriage between a man and...

Mark Crutcher of Life Dynamics, Inc. appeared on “Focal Point” with Bryan Fischer on the AFR Talk Radio Network Friday afternoon to say the nightmarish testimony of the last few months is only the tip of the iceberg. Assistants and employees at abortion clinics who “have been involved in these things are starting to panic,” Crutcher said. “I know you're going to see more and more of these people coming forward and...trying to make deals with prosecutors like some of those people in Pennsylvania probably wish they had.” “One of the things that has gotten glossed over in the Gosnell...

A young mum-of-two who went to see her doctor to ask for antibiotics for tonsillitis claimed yesterday she left in tears after being advised to stop having children. Travel agent Charlotte Comer, 21, claims after writing out the prescription the GP told her it was “irresponsible” to have more than two children and Britain should be more like China where couples are allowed one child. Charlotte said Dr Justin Landen, 43, later phoned to apologise but she has made a formal complaint. The mum and partner Lee Hook, 28, a courier, have sons Harrison-Lee, two, and 11-week-old Freddie. She said:...

By now, most people have heard about the allegations that came out about Dr. Douglas Karpen. Four former clinic workers are alleging that he killed babies that were born alive as often as several times a day. What you may not know is that this is not the first time former clinic workers have come forth with accusations of infanticide. In taped testimony for the Pro-Life Action League, which can be read in its entirety here, former clinic worker Joy Davis tells a harrowing story of working with former abortionist Dr. Tommy Tucker. Tommy Tucker lost his license after an...

(CNSNews.com) – An abortion fundraising group held its annual “Bowl-a-Thon” in April, raising more than $500,000 to “help women and girls pay for abortions they couldn’t otherwise afford.” The fourth annual “National Abortion Access Bowl-a-Thon” broke fundraising records with a total of $552,498 raised.“THANK YOU for making the Fourth Annual National Abortion Access Bowl-a-Thon such a success!” the National Network of Abortion Funds (NNAF), which sponsors the event, wrote on its website. “Together, you raised over a HALF A MILLION DOLLARS for abortion access—nearly $50,000 more than the initial goal”As CNSNews.com previously reported, the group raised $466,014 from the Bowl-a-Thon...

For several weeks now, LiveAction has been publishing a series of articles revealing the secret horror taking place inside abortion clinics – the deliberate murder of infants born alive following a failed abortion. (LifeSiteNews has reprinted and cataloged this series here.) Gruesome testimonies of nurses forced to ignore infants gasping for breath, or covered in horrific wounds. Undeniable reports of doctors strangling, drowning and suffocating infants who just “won’t die”. Photos of tiny, still children, with skin the undeniable pink of a human being who had shortly before had a heartbeat. Most of these stories occurred prior to the passage...

California abortionist Dr. Gordon Sean Goei of Centre Medico Planning Clinic had a long history of disciplinary action against him when he botched an abortion on 42-year-old Doloras Sandoval. She was taken to the Northridge Hospital Medical Center, where doctors treated her for heavy bleeding and performed emergency surgery to save her life. Police arrived at Centre Medico Planning Clinic after learning that Goei’s license was suspended and that he was operating illegally. The conditions in the clinic horrified investigators. “We found a lot of things [at the abortion facility] that were very disturbing” said Det. Stephen Fiske. One of...

[ . . .] Perhaps because the Obama speech to Planned Parenthood coincided with Gosnell’s homicide trial, the president did not utter the word “abortion” once. But the timing notwithstanding, that omission was hardly surprising in an address that may have set a new standard for deliberate misrepresentation of reality. For it requires willful moral blindness about reality to say that “what Planned Parenthood is about” is helping “a woman from Chicago named Courtney” make sure she could start a family, by providing “access to affordable contraceptive care to keep her healthy” in the face of a fertility-threatening disease. Today,...

Via the Examiner and NRO, a few more credible, confidence-inspiring breadcrumbs from this morning’s Ways and Means hearing. It’s starting to make sense now why protesting Planned Parenthood might present a risk to your tax-exempt status, isn’t it?The second clip is of Miller saying that he did indeed ask his underlings who was targeting conservative groups, and they told him, but now he can’t remember the answer. Really. The disdain this guy harbors for the proceedings is palpable, but that’s probably in his best interest: The more antagonistic he is, the more liberal support he’ll have when the administration inevitably...

By now workers at every late-term abortion clinic in America (and there are way more than four) are buzzing about Kermit Gosnell’s conviction this week of murdering three abortion survivors. Clinic staff have also likely noticed that four of Gosnell’s employees were swept up into his junk and have pleaded guilty of murder, and four others to lesser charges. Then yesterday came revelations of another hack who allegedly murdered living babies he had just aborted. Three former employees of late-term abortionist Douglas Karpen of Houston, Texas, have come forward, with photographic and video evidence that he murdered born babies in...

The last three late-term abortion clinics of what was once was a chain of six in Northern California is closing this week, reports Wynette Sills of 40 Days for Life Sacramento. Choice Medical Group once committed abortions in Concord, Fremont, Sacramento, Salinas, San Francisco, and San Jose. The Salinas clinic closed a few years ago, Concord followed last year, and San Francisco this past March. image image image When a member of Wynette’s group called the Sacramento office last week, they got a pleasant surprise. A receptionist told her that clinic and the Fremont and San Jose clinics were all...

Following the national outrage over Kermit Gosnell and his late-term abortions that were essentially infanticide, a pro-life Republican member of Congress is pushing legislation that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy nationwide. Congressman Trent Franks informed LifeNews today that he will advance legislation to provide protection nationwide for unborn children who have the capacity to experience pain while being aborted, a capacity defined in the bill as existing by 20 weeks fetal age. Franks is the prime sponsor of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. The current version of the bill, which garnered a majority vote in the...

“Their question, specifically asked from the IRS to the Coalition for Life of Iowa, ‘Please detail the content of the members of your organization’s prayers,’" Schock declared.

TAMPA, FL, May 16, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A 28-year-old Florida man faces life in prison after he tricked his pregnant girlfriend into taking medication that killed their child, police say. Remee Jo Lee with Andrew Welden Remee Jo Lee with Andrew Welden Andrew Welden told her that a doctor's visit revealed that she had an infection and gave her a bottle of Cytotec (misoprostol) that he had falsely labeled as “Amoxicillin.” Remee Jo Lee, 26, was just shy of seven weeks pregnant with a child she wanted to carry. She says John Andrew Welden, who goes by his middle name,...

I woke up this Mother’s Day morning to a cry for help. Mother’s Day, for me, is a bit hard right now. I have a great mother, and a great mother-in-law. So that part is good. But I’m not a mother, and I’m trying pretty hard to be. My husband and I are trying to conceive and having some difficulty. So to be frank, I wasn’t looking forward to this particular holiday. But literally the first thing I read upon waking up, before I even got out of bed, was an e-mail from a stranger that made me forget my...

Today, the Thomas More Society offered over 150 pages of analysis and evidence to the House Ways and Means Committee about repeated IRS harassment of pro-life organizations. At the request of Congressman Aaron Schock (R-IL), Thomas More Society President Thomas Brejcha, Executive Director Peter Breen, and Special Counsel Sally Wagenmaker, prepared the legal memorandum with solid evidence of IRS harassment of pro-life organizations dating back to 2009. Shock asked the IRS commissioner today if this discrimination is appropriate and he was unable to say yes or no. The memo details the history of IRS misconduct in the cases of three...

For nearly three years, Philadelphia Police crime scene investigator John Taggart has remained silent about what he saw after stepping inside Dr. Kermit Gosnell’s two homes and West Philadelphia clinic -- nicknamed the “House of Horrors.” Now that the former Philadelphia abortion doctor has been sentenced to life in prison and the case's gag order lifted, Taggart is speaking out about what he found. Taggart and his team began searching Gosnell’s properties for fetal remains in February 2010 following an FBI raid of the doctor’s West Philadelphia clinic, the Women’s Medical Society. Inside Gosnell’s West Philadelphia home, the doctor spared...

A leading pro-life group has put together a web site to expose Douglas Karpen. Like Kermit Gosnell, this Texas-based abortion practitioner kills unborn children who are born alive in a gruesome abortion-infanticide process. This week, LifeNews exposed Douglas Karpen — who, like the Philadelphia-based abortion practitioner, is also killing babies born alive after botched abortions. Unlike Gosnell, who killed babies by jamming medical scissors into their necks, at his Houston abortion clinic former employees of Karpen testify he goes one shocking step further, he kills the babies wit his bare hands by twisting their necks execution style. A new video...

BOSTON, May 16, 2013 /Christian Newswire/ -- On Monday, May 20th, Students for Life of America (SFLA) and other local and national pro-life organizations will host a prayer vigil and public witness (notatbc.com/?page_id=172) outside the Boston College graduation ceremony to protest Ireland's 1st pro-abortion Prime Minister giving the commencement address and receiving an honorary degree at the Catholic institution. SFLA will gather together to stand up for women, show the value and worth of children in the womb, and voice support for keeping Ireland abortion-free. Event Details: When: Monday, May 20th
 8am - Prayer Vigil and Public Witness
 9am -...

Madison, WI (LifeNews.com) – The Department of Homeland Security admitted today that it improperly conducted a threat assessment on pro-life and pro-abortion groups in Wisconsin. The assessment came before an expected rally last year in response to the University of Wisconsin Hospital board decided to allow abortions. In February 2009, pro-life advocates planned to protest the hospital’s decision to open up a new Madison Surgery Center doing abortions. The Associated Press reported today that the department said in a memo that it "destroyed all of the copies of the assessment after an internal review found it violated intelligence gathering guidelines...

The problems with the IRS extend beyond playing politics with conservative groups seeking a tax-exempt status. I have never made this public before, but given the heightened interest in the way the IRS has conducted itself, the time has come to disclose what happened. Just weeks after Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, I was notified by the IRS that the Catholic League was under investigation for violating the IRS Code on political activities as it relates to 501(c)(3) organizations. What the IRS did not know was that I had proof who contacted them to launch the investigation: Catholics...

New video footage of the interviews with the jurors in the murder trial of abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell shows one juror talking about how difficult it was to view pictures of the babies Gosnell killed. Jury Foreman David Misko says: “It was definitely hard to see the photos. There was cases where the photos of the babies were blown up and they were right in front of your face and you had to stare–it was definitely hard seeing that.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSVzLrWeDXM&feature=player_embedded

he other day, I was in the middle of doing research online when I stumbled across a Planned Parenthood ad. Planned Parenthood, over the years, has run some pretty shocking ad campaigns. Without a doubt, this one is the worst I’ve ever seen: Planned Parenthood ad, baby This ad proves that insanity can indeed reach new heights. Planned Parenthood recently coined its “Care. No matter what.” slogan, around the same time the abortion giant decided that claiming to be “pro-choice” wasn’t the best way to win people to their side. Now, it’s insane to claim to “care” when your work...

Authorities in Houston, Texas are responding to calls for an investigation of Douglas Karpen, who is being considered the second Kermit Gosnell for killing babies born alive after abortion. Yesterday, the Lt. Governor of Texas demanded an investigation of an abortion practitioner who is considered the second Kermit Gosnell. A new video expose’ of Douglas Karpen has three former abortion clinic employees of abortion practitioner Douglas Karpen exposing horrific practices that took place at his abortion clinic. That a second Kermit Gosnell would be operating in Texas is so revolting that Lt. Governor David Dewhurst is demanding an investigation. Local...

Former acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller had originally said that a couple of lower level employees went “rogue” and “off the reservation” by targeting conservative organizations for extra scrutiny. With that in mind, there’s this from FOX19 in Cincinnati: One of FOX19′s two sources went on say that these four IRS workers claim “they simply did what their bosses ordered.” FOX19 reported on Tuesday that the report by the Office of Inspector General states that senior IRS officials knew agents were targeting Tea Party groups as early as 2011. In fact, according to that report, Lois Lerner, who heads the...

US researchers have reported a breakthrough in stem cell research, describing how they have turned human skin cells into embyronic stem cells for the first time. The method described Wednesday by Oregon State University scientists in the journal Cell, would not likely be able to create human clones, said Shoukhrat Mitalipov, senior scientist at the Oregon National Primate Research Center. But it is an important step in research because it does not require the use of embryos in creating the type of stem cell capable of transforming into any other type of cell in the body.

The Inspector General of the Treasury reported this week that the IRS began applying extra scrutiny and conducting harassment of Obama administration opponents as early as March 2010. However, for at least two pro-life groups, that scrutiny appears to have started a year earlier. Joel Gehrke reports that one group was told its tax-exempt application depended not on promising to stay out of electoral politics, but on pledging not to protest Planned Parenthood — a prominent supporter of Barack Obama: IRS officials refused to grant tax exempt status two pro-life organizations because of their position on the abortion issue, according...