Scottish NHS is introducing controversial "lunchtime" abortions under local anaesthetic in a move it claims will make the procedure safer and quicker for thousands of women each year.

Doctors will begin a pilot next year in which women undergo terminations while fully conscious in outpatient treatment rooms, rather than operating theatres. Health chiefs believe the move could boost abortion safety by reducing the need for general anaesthetics or powerful drugs. It would also free up operating theatres for other patients and save money.

An emaciated infant has been placed on a do-not-resuscitate list days after medics removed her from the litter-filled sport utility vehicle she was living in with her mother, grandmother and brother.

Seven-week-old Angelina continued to cling to life Thursday after suffering bleeding to the brain, according to Child Protective Services.

Authorities found the infant, along with her 15-month-old brother Brandon, at a San Antonio day labor site on Monday. Angelina weighed 4 pounds, which was 2 pounds less than when she was born.

The children's mother, Heather Evink, 18, and grandmother Sheila Evink, 40, each were charged with injury to a child and endangering a child. Both remained jailed on Thursday.

In a jailhouse interview with the San Antonio-Express News, Heather Evink said she had been asked to put her daughter on the do-not-resuscitate list but had not sign aany forms to remove her from life support.

The ultrasound destroys the abortion argument because it creates a bond between parent and child instinctively and immediately. You can talk about fetuses and zygotes all you want, when that woman sees the ultrasound, she sees her BABY.

I've just spoken with Andrea's sisters, Melanie Childers and Lanore Dixon, today, as well as Andrea's lawyer, Jerri Ward.

Unfortunately, St. Luke's has reneged on the deal. Lanore told me that about 20 minutes before Andrea was supposed to be moved to the Illinois facility, St. Luke's told the family the move was off. It seems that St. Luke's decided at the last minute that Glenshire Nursing & Rehab Centre in Illinois isn't equipped to care for Andrea, which is a bit puzzling, since Lanore told me they helped set up the transfer in the first place.

Just got a letter from Andrea Clark's other sister, Lanore Dixon:

"This afternoon, twenty minutes before Andrea was due to be transported by ambulance to the airport, her doctor (or rather, the one filling in for her doctor who has gone on vacation this week-how VERY convenient!) came into her room and informed me she would not be transferred to the Chicago facility after all. After questioning the doctor I learned that someone messed up-I don't know which end the foul up occurred, but this all goes to show the danger of being forced to choose a healthcare facility due to pressure of an ethics committee ruling... This so called LTAC was nothing more than a nursing home with dialysis machine in the basement. They had no ability to administer the medications Andrea requires."

...While we're grateful that St. Luke's halted the transfer before Andrea was moved, I cannot tell you the stress this has put on our family. We are exhausted from this effort, but we will continue to fight for our sister.

St. Luke's has agreed not to pull Andrea's life support at least until Tuesday. On Tuesday, a committee of doctors from St. Luke's will meet to discuss how to proceed with Andrea's case. Andrea's new doctor-a doctor who shares our values about the sacredness of life-will take over her care on Tuesday and will fight for her right to live. Let us all hope and pray that the committee meeting on Tuesday is chaired by doctors who have a reverence for life and not a former abortionist like the St. Luke's ethics committee chair."

According to the Austin-American Statesman newspaper, NAMC officials say they were relying on a 1999 Texas law that allows doctors to stop giving a patient care in supposedly futile cases and give the family 10 days notice.

NAMC officials told Vo's family and their attorney, Jerri Ward, that it found a hospice in Illinois that would accept her transfer, but her family worries she is too weak to make such a long trip and that having her so far from home would pose problems.

"That would be a last resort," LoAnn Trinh, Vo's daughter, told the Austin newspaper.

Ward filed a petition in a local court Thursday asking for more time for the family to find a medical facility closer to Austin, but a hearing on the request was canceled when NAMC stepped in and agreed to allow the family until June to do that.

The bill from Rep. Laura Brod, R-New Prague, passed 81-50. It aims to make the state's high court re-examine its 1995 ruling in Doe v. Gomez, which required public health programs to cover abortions and also said that women have the right to abortions.

"I know many taxpayers in my district and throughout Minnesota would be very concerned that their hard-earned tax dollars are being used to fund abortions in this state," Brod said.

Supporters and opponents both expect the bill, if enacted, to lead to a legal challenge, and the bill would send the matter straight to the state Supreme Court. Five of the court's seven justices have turned over in the 101/2 years since the Doe v. Gomez decision.

Abortion rights advocates said the bill lays the groundwork for a total ban on abortion.

"This is the most sweeping and momentous anti-abortion bill in the history of the state," said Tim Stanley, senior director of government and public affairs for Planned Parenthood.

My family has made the decision to move our sister to the hospital in Chicago. Thank God there is someone willing to take her. And, really, it is best to get her out of Texas, because of the futile care law here.

St. Luke's played hardball with us on this issue. We were told that we could make the decision today and they would pay the entire amount of $14 thousand to move her, but if we made the decision tomorrow, they would only pay half of it, and if it were the day after tomorrow, they would pay nothing.

As you know, I'm a Democrat, but one that is against abortion. I agree with the Republicans on that issue, at least. After this experience, though, I have to tell you: I am in absolute awe of the power that the right to life people generate. I, of course, first posted on Democratic Underground, and I have to give them some credit: they let my post stand against the rules about posting something like this under the wrong topic. They also let it stand, even though it had people's (my sister's and mine) personal numbers in it. And, of course, some people there forwarded it to other blogs. And everyone there was very supportive in their comments, as well.

But the pro-life people stepped forward and just absolutely ground St. Luke's into submission on this issue. You have, without a doubt, saved my sister's life. I want you to know that. Without the pro-life/right to life people stepping in from the very first of this fight for Andrea, we would have lost. I have never in my life seen such a centered, focused and energized group of people.

Sadly, abortion has made it easier for irresponsible men to turn their backs on women and the children they conceive. Ironically, though, most unmarried women are living with the man who fathered their child. Nevertheless, they do not even consider marriage and never consider releasing the child for adoption to a couple on the long lists of those desperate to have a child. Many women would not consider marrying because they "have to," and they think that giving a child up for adoption is "cruel." Yet, it is not considered cruel to abort an "unwanted" child that the man is unwilling to support.

We've just received breaking news from a representative of the family of Andrea Clark about incredible and reprehensible actions underway by St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital in Houston, Texas.

The family learned of a facility in Illinois that is willing to accept Andrea and offer her the opportunity to live, an expensive move that would require Andrea to be far removed from her family.

Sally Jacobsen of the literature and language department, has been charged with criminal mischief, theft by unlawful taking and criminal solicitation. The third charge relates to evidence that she encouraged students to participate in the destruction, County Attorney Justin Verst said.

The six students, who range in age from 21 to 27, were charged with criminal mischief and theft by unlawful taking.

Sen. Ben Nevers, a Democrat who is the sponsor, said he opposed adding any exceptions to the measure, saying his heart goes out to victims of rape but an abortion compounds the problem.

"Lord knows I would never want to hurt a mother, in any way. Lord knows I would never want to hurt a victim of rape or incest," he said. "A crime committed by a rapist should not result in the death of an unborn child."

But Sen. Joel Chaisson, also a Democrat, warned that he didn't think the state House would approve the measure if the exceptions were not added, according to an AP report.

"Unless there's a rape and incest exception, this law may never go into effect," he said.

Chaisson's amendment to add the exceptions failed on a 20-17 vote and then lawmakers approved the abortion ban 31-6.

Where once there was a unified goal of ending the killing and doing so with a firm desire to make sure that everybody realized why not a single abortion should ever be tolerated, there is now a mushy mixture of cautious warnings, carefully crafted evasive comments and politically correct legislative proposals designed to persuade the public that pro-lifers are reasonable people who understand that abortion is a difficult "issue."

Apparently, far too many in the pro-life movement have lost sight of the goal. There seems to be an increasingly strong desire to make nuanced comments based on polling data instead of principle. Many appear to be in complete agreement with our foes that the battle would be best waged in every state legislature, and that the people of each state should actually decide whether or not they wish to live in a state that either welcomes the abortion trade, bans it or falls somewhere in between. We can imagine a map that is not simply red states and blue states, but pink states too. There would be states where mass murder of preborn children was sanctioned; some where limitations on the slaughter were in place, and others still where aborting a child would be a crime punishable by law.

While that scenario may bring comfort to some and job security to others, it evokes deep sorrow for me. Rather than claiming that the culture is not yet ready to deal with this issue in a substantive way, why not help the culture along, one person at a time, by returning to the facts of the matter while setting aside the deluded language that is designed to obfuscate reality.

Truth be told, abortion is a dastardly act; it is not an issue. The result of the act is a dead human being whose value is in fact no different than yours and mine. The mother of that dead child will suffer; how could she not? The law should reflect respect for human dignity rather than disrespect for the sanctity of life. Murder is what it is, even when the vast majority of us prefer to define it as nothing more than an issue.

Urgent help is needed from bloggers and blog readers. Please, immediately contact the hospital by telephone and email, and advise them of your horror that a faith-based hospital that supposedly respects life would act so irresponsibly as to put dollars before a patients life, etc.... :

St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, 6720 Bertner Ave., Houston, TX 77030
Main hospital telephone number - 832-355-1000
Email (more to be updated later)

Msgr. Sgreccia said the "union of the feminine chromosome and the masculine chromosome contains in itself two pro-nuclei, and it is a fertilized ovum in which the process of fertilization has already begun." This fusion of the nuclei in the cytoplasm of the ovum, he continued, is what results in creation of a new individual or individuals, in the case of twins.

"This beginning," Msgr. Sgreccia pointed out, in contrast to statements by Cardinal Martini, is "precisely the beginning of an individual life and leads to an irreversible process towards successive development, containing already at that point a unique [genetic] patrimony."

A life or death struggle is taking place at St. Luke's Hospital, where doctors are planning to remove a woman from life support.

The patient is not brain dead, and according to her family, she wants to live.

Andrea Clark has been at St. Luke's since November.

They may be small in number, but the protesters said the bigger picture is the gravity of their message.

"They just say, 'well she's miserable.' Well, to me that's a quality of life decision that is up to her and her family," Lanore Dixon said. "That is not a medical decision."

Dixon is protesting on behalf of her sister Andrea Clark, a patient at St. Luke's Hospital since November.

In January, the 54-year-old underwent open-heart surgery. The next month she developed bleeding on the brain.

Now an ethics committee has recommended removing her ventilator and taking her off life support.

But her family is fighting to stop that despite not having the law on their side.

"If their ethics committee makes a decision, it doesn't matter what the patient wants," Dixon said. "It doesn't even apparently matter what the patient's condition is, because our sister is not in a coma, she's not brain dead," Dixon said.

In fact, family members said even though their sister cannot speak, they know she wants to live. They said she communicates by moving her lips and blinking her eyes.

St. Luke's has been in a similar position before.

Last spring its ethics committee made the same recommendation concerning Spiro Nikolozous, 68-year-old man in a persistent vegetative state.

His family moved him to San Antonio where he later died.

In an e-mailed statement, the hospital referred to it is confidentiality policy regarding patient privacy, saying it is precluded from commenting on Clark's case unless the family provides written consent.

The family hasn't done that, saying they are now fighting time and St. Luke's Hospital. "She's sick, but she's been sick before and she's proven doctors wrong lots of times," Dixon said.

It was a 1999 state law that gave hospitals the authority to remove patients from life support.

The only requirement is that the hospital must give a family 10 days notice to find another facility that would care for their loved one.

Andrea Clark's family is trying to that, but if they are unsuccessful, Clark will be taken off life support April 30.

Michigan Citizens for Life is petitioning to put a constitutional amendment on the November ballot which would define a person as existing from the moment of conception, as reported earlier in Central Michigan Life.

The amendment would give full rights to fetuses and define life as beginning at conception, thereby making abortions the equivalent of homicide or manslaughter.

The initiative recently received a boost after the Michigan Republican State Committee passed a resolution supporting the petition drive.

"In conjunction with the Republican National Committee Platform passed in 2004, the Michigan Republican Party expresses support for the concept that life begins at conception and we encourage our members to consider supporting the Michigan Citizens for Life petition initiative," the resolution reads.

The worse part of the abortions came only many years later. It is in the fall of 1996 (so 6 years after the first one and 3 years after the second one) that I went through a phase of decompensation. I was having nightmares in which I saw myself in baby parts cemetery and holding a dead baby in my arms and crying for the ones I lost. I was seeing myself naked in this cemetery (much like an holocaust image) and holding a dead baby trying to bring him back to life.

Dr. Zarko Alfirevic and Dr. Andrew Weeks, both obstetricians at England's University of Liverpool, completed a study of more than 8,600 women using the drug but said "much more data are needed before we can be confident" that there are no adverse effects from using the drug.

"Due to the limited evidence about the safety, oral misoprostol should be used with caution for the induction of labor," they said.

They indicated safety concerns make use of misoprostol problematic "because of a relatively high rate of uterine hyperstimulation and the lack of appropriate dose ranging studies."

When using the drug off label, they warn "clinicians should use as low a dose as possible and report serious adverse outcomes."

They suggest a maximum dose of 50 mcg. Higher doses could lead to tearing of the uterus, which could be life-threatening for the mother.

The maker of Cytotec has said before that the medication, intended for treating ulcers, should not be used in abortion.

The poll, which was carried out in four Spanish regions, reveals that 97% of Spaniards believe abortion has negative consequences for at least one of parties involved in the act and that 78% believe the government's campaign to prevent unwanted pregnancies has been a failure. 42% believe abortion has negative consequences for all the parties involved.

82% of those polled said an increase in government assistance to pregnant women would help diminish the number of abortions in the country.

90% of respondents said preventive policies should include, above all, the promotion of alternatives to abortion, as well as information about its consequences for women. Most said women who obtain abortions do so without sufficient knowledge of the physical and psychological consequences.

On euthanasia, he says "We can never approve of it," but he adds we shouldn't "condemn persons that carries out such an act on the demand of persons reduced and by pure altruistic feelings."

"One of the responsibilities of my office is to defend the constitutionality of state laws," said Cox. "Mr. Dubay chose to sue only the Saginaw County Prosecutor and not the State of Michigan to avoid my participation in defense of the law. This approach will not work."

"Additionally, the issues of child support and parental responsibility cut to the very core of our social fabric. Will Michigan become the State where parents can opt out of support if they don't want a child? Not on my watch. We need to foster our sense of familial and personal responsibility, not make it easier to avoid. We must also protect Michigan's taxpayers, who too often end up footing the bill for parents who choose not to be responsible for the children they bring into this world."

A ministry that protests there 6 days a week reported on their site a woman was taken by limo to the clinic and then escorted back to the airport in St. Louis via the Limo so she could get on a plane and no one would know what she did and she could go back to her town & friends like business as usual! Then the day Nedd and I go there I saw a young woman dressed to the nines with high heels, skirt and glittery purse go into the clinic! I started asking, "Does she think she's going to a disco?" It was absolutely appalling! Dressed up like it's cocktail hour to get an abortion, or birth control pills. Does anybody even possess a modicum of decency anymore? I guess decency doesn't even exist anymore after witnessing that!

The next thing I knew I was lying down on a bed in the recovery room with all the other girls I had previously seen. My eyes weren't even open all the way when I muttered "Did it go okay?", to which someone replied "it went great!" I saw a girl being wheeled over while still asleep and then put onto a bed. I asked the silly question "was I wheeled out too?" and the nurse joked "No, you were break dancing down the hallway of course!" It seemed like the funniest joke in the world and I laughed like crazy. I felt VERY calm and relaxed, not to mention relieved and happy, when I regained my senses. I looked at the clock and it said 9:40am. The 4-6 hours I was told when I originally made the appointment turned out to be 3 hours on the dot! A nurse came by twice and asked how I would rate my pain on a scale of 1 to 10, compared to normal menstrual cramping. The first time I said 2 and then second time I said 4. It was uncomfortable around my cervix, but completely bearable. I asked the nurse if I'd be able to take pain medication later on and she said yes, but no Tylenol. She checked my pad for blood a couple times, which I didn't even acknowledge was between my legs, and it was clean both times. I was put into a reclined position, more like a normal chair. I listened to the music playing on the radio and felt really happy and giggly.

The teacher, who works in the Canon-McMillan School District, allegedly spoke to her students about abortion, while also voicing her opinion of abortion and describing the procedure to them.[..]

A letter was sent out by the district to Hills-Hendersonville Elementary parents on April 6.

"The school district has taken immediate action said Dr. Nick Bayat, Canon-McMillan superintendent. The district did not have prior knowledge of the subject matter. The teacher is now longer in the class room, pending completion of an investigation with interviews of parents and children."[..]

The teacher is accused of having the students vote on whether or not they would have an abortion or have a baby and put it up for adoption after she said that she is opposed to abortion.

In yesterday's decision, Judge Marten said Mr. Kline's opinion improperly conflated illegal sexual activity - intercourse, oral sex and lewd touching by anyone under 16 are prohibited in Kansas - with abuse.

"The opinion wrongly redefines the common understanding of both state agencies and mandatory reporters by denoting all sexual activity to be 'inherently injurious,' " wrote Judge Marten, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton. "The attorney general's overexpansive interpretation of the reporting statute not only fails to serve the public interest, it actually serves to undermine it."

In order to connect as many youth as possible with reproductive health services and information, PPGG has designed an outreach campaign that includes advertising on MySpace.com, KMEL radio and MTV. It is PPGG's goal to help teens and young adults make educated, responsible decisions when it comes to their sexuality and reproductive health.

Yu Dejun, the baby's father... indicated that last September is family began to notice the baby had medical problems resulting from the mistreatment at the hospital.[..]

Qiqi later experienced breathing problems but his parents couldn't get any hospital works to come and check on the infant. They transferred the Qiqi to another hospital and also ran into problems of hospital staff refusing to care for the child.

Yu said Children's hospital eventually persuaded he and his wife to take the baby off of life support -- saying Qiqi would die soon.

He said the hospital talked him into it saying it would help the family save money on medical bills. Reluctantly, the couple signed the formand Qiqi's life support was removed.

They left the hospital and were told Qiqi would die within 20 minutes. But they received a phone call the next morning saying their baby was alive. They didn't realize the harm that had been done to Qiqi until only recently.

There's a man, after all, behind each of those tragic cases in El Salvador as well as every one of the 1.4 million abortions performed every year in America. What Shostak wants isn't to coddle these guys but to make them face responsibility. It's a central tenet of sociology, he said, that human behavior is changeable. If we concentrate on making men less callous and less callow about sex, he thinks, there could be fewer abortions.

Chris Cole, a spokesman for NKU president James Votruba has said more than 100 emails have been received from faculty and staff concerned about the implications of the vandalism and denying the free speech rights of the campus Right to Life group.

"The tenor has been, 'We don't approve of or condone this.' They don't want that conduct to reflect on NKU faculty," Cole told the Cincinnati Enquirer newspaper.

He indicated that the university will definitely take action against Jacobson and the students involved once the police investigation has concluded.

"I think it will be telling our campus community that NKU doesn't condone what took place Wednesday night, and there is an investigation going on, and action will be taken," he told the Cincinnati paper.[..]

The Enquirer reports that Jacobson is set to retire in a few weeks but did not elaborate as to whether the retirement was planned or is a result of her involvement in the vandalism.

"I did, outside of class during the break, invite students to express their freedom of speech rights to destroy the display if they wished to," Jacobsen said last week after the incident.

Responding to her comments, Votruba, the NKU president, said, "I don't know if she was pulling up the crosses, but I think she was out there with the students. If so, as far as I'm concerned, she went outside the conditions of her employment."

Nora Balderas treats each and every child at the Home for the Angels as if they were her own.

"Knowing that these children don't have anybody to love them back, sometimes I feel that I tend to love them even more than my own children," said Balderas, who has been working as a volunteer at the Home since it was put up 10 years ago.

A project of Mayor Lito Atienza and his wife, Evelina, the Home is a crisis center in San Andres, Manila which has looking after neglected or abandoned babies.

"The Home aims to give these kids the gift of life and a chance for a bright future," the 50-year-old widow said.

She added that she felt a strong desire to serve at the center after she attended one of the prolife seminars sponsored by the city government.[..]

But she had another more compelling reason. "More than the love and affection I could offer to these children, I see in them the child I lost through abortion," the mother of two confessed, her eyes filled with tears. "It was supposed to be my third baby but we could not afford to have another child because my husband was then jobless."

Balderas said that the incident she was referring to happened in 1993. She was two months pregnant but she decided that she didn't want to keep the baby. "A very close relative" who had gone through an abortion then referred her to a hilot (midwife).

"I couldn't forget that day. I was bleeding profusely and it was too painful, I thought I would die," Balderas said. "I thought that it was not yet a person, that it was just blood, so it was okay," she added.

The experience proved to be painful, not only physically, but also emotionally, as it ruined her relationship with her husband.

He did not even know that she was pregnant, and when he found out what she had done, he was enraged. Even worse, the abortion affected her ability to bear a child.

"My abortion could have rendered me infertile because the doctor said my uterus had been infected," she said. "This prompted my husband to look for another woman with whom he sired a child."

Even her own kids treated her coldly when they found out.

"I decided to tell them one All Souls' Day as I lighted a candle for my aborted baby. They asked for whom the candle was, so I explained everything to them," Balderas said. "But, of course, they were shocked, they didn't even know I got pregnant."

"I was full of regrets. If I could only turn back the hands of time, I wouldn't do it," she added, saying she realized that abortion was not only a sin against God but man as well.

Even now, there are still times when she would feel guilty but she has found comfort not only in the company of the children staying at the Home for the Angels, but more importantly, in God.

"Being a volunteer was like a healing process for me," Balderas said. "I have learned to forgive myself and turn to God for help. And I know that I have been forgiven because I feel that He covered my sins with blessings."

Ludwig Minelli, a Swiss lawyer, told the London Sunday Times he has already opened an associated Dignitas office in Germany and he intends to lift the "taboo" against suicide by lobbying other countries to set up clinics to offer information on effective methods of suicide and to alert people to the risks of doing it incompetently. Denying people the right and the information necessary to take their own lives, Minelli, said, exposes them to "huge collateral damage" – the costs of emergency services, police, medical treatment and possibly living with further impairment.

"Many people who attempt suicide don't know how to do it," he said, while pointing to his forehead. "They don't even know how to shoot themselves. They aim here and just blow the front of the head off, and live on as a vegetable.

"We need to set up advisory centers where people can openly discuss problems and seek advice about methods and risks, without the fear of losing their freedom and being put in an institution," he said. "These centers can only be credible if they can offer assisted suicide."

Planned Parenthood adamantly denies that the war it is waging in the wombs of mothers across this country is far more gruesome than nightly news videos of tragic situations in Iraq and elsewhere in our world.

No, Planned Parenthood is all about denial, deceit and delivery of the bucks into the bank account. When a woman dies from one of these "safe, effective" medical abortions, Planned Parenthood offers the media crocodile tears while insisting that an infection here or there does not a bad abortion make. By the same token, we are told, a few deaths are bound to happen.

The Food and Drug Administration plays along in the "deceit unto death" game. During the planning for an upcoming workshop to discuss the bacteria that has already killed four women who used the mifepristone abortion method, the argument enunciated to the media is that "pregnancy, childbirth or abortion could predispose a small number of women to acquire the bacteria." Why does the FDA make such statements?

Could it be because of Planned Parenthood Federation of America's size, wealth and influence? Does its power derive from who Planned Parenthood is or from what others have given this organization? Planned Parenthood operates more than 800 facilities in our country. It is a non-profit corporation that receives more than $200 million in tax dollars annually.

Planned Parenthood has become the largest abortion provider in the United States by consistently calling pregnancy a "condition," by consistently denying that abortion kills a person, by consistently arguing that pregnancy does not begin until one week after the baby's life begins, by consistently placing misleading information into the hands of school children as young as six, by consistently receiving higher and higher amounts of tax dollars from the U.S. government (regardless of who controls Congress or the White House), by consistently promoting the concept that a right to privacy trumps the right to life, the right to know, the rights of parents and the right to truth.

Sally Jacobsen, a longtime professor in NKU's literature and language department, said the display was dismantled by about nine students in one of her graduate-level classes.

"I did, outside of class during the break, invite students to express their freedom-of-speech rights to destroy the display if they wished to," Jacobsen said.

Asked whether she participated in pulling up the crosses, the professor said, "I have no comment."

She said she was infuriated by the display, which she saw as intimidating and a "slap in the face" to women who might be making "the agonizing and very private decision to have an abortion.'"

What is brutal and exploitative is a culture of easy and cheap sex, callous regard for each other's feelings, and a glib assumption that, 'what the hell, when things go wrong, she can always get an abortion'.

It is this coarsening of how we treat each other that leads to misery and wretchedness.

Americans United for Life released a new comprehensive guide called "Defending Life 2006" that presents an overview of state laws on pro-life issues in all 50 states.

AUL pointed out that the Supreme Court is still at least one more vote away from overturning Roe and currently has a 5-4 pro-abortion majority. The 5-4 figure also assumes that new Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito will vote to overturn Roe, though pro-lifegroups say they expect the judges to take that position.

Should the high court reverse Roe at some point, AUL President Peter Samuelson says there "is almost no chance they will create a national right to life."

Unable to reopen the legislative debate over Terri Schiavo, Gov. Jeb Bush is giving up on his effort to change Florida law to allow patients to reject or withdraw a feeding tube only if they put that wish in writing.

The governor had directed his staff to develop a policy that would draw a distinction between the use of a medically implanted feeding tube and other life-prolonging medical interventions, such as respirators.

Under current law, there is no distinction; both kinds of interventions can be withdrawn or rejected by patients, or their surrogates, under specific circumstances and based on the patient's oral or written wishes.

But still troubled by the severely brain-damaged woman's death last year, the governor hoped to change that.

He was unable, however, to find willing legislative sponsors for his recommendations, forcing him to retreat on one of his priorities as he nears the end of his second and final term.

"At this point, it doesn't appear to be moving forward," Bush spokeswoman Kristy Campbell said. "The governor continues to support providing clarity to end-of-life issues, but he's no longer pursuing these recommendations."

On Tuesday, April 11, 2006 at 7:43am, the Toronto television station "City TV" broadcast a very pro-life video of ultrasonic imaging of a baby in the womb.

What's so special about that? Everything.

It infuriates me that people who want to "heal" me after I've gone through an abortion insist on my belief that I've done something wrong.

I didn't do anything wrong. I made the right choice for myself and my child, to end it's suffering early. That doesn't mean there isn't guilt and regret and sorrow and pain. Why does admitting that I'm experiencing negative emotions make anyone assume that I regret my decision? I regret having to make the decision, not the decision itself.

Calling dehydration an "enlightened western form of population control," Anderson said it is not a painless process and, that Terri, like her brother Bobby Schindler pointed out as she was dying, was struggling to live and did not look beautiful."

"In many ways, it's the other end of the abortion debate, frankly," Anderson said, admitting she has completely changed her mind on the issue of abortion, despite having defended the practice since she was a young woman.

"Once you really examine the evidence and take a cold, hard look at it, it's almost inescapable that killing a baby is not a solution," Anderson said. "Killing babies is not the way out of social problems or personal problems. Killing off your elderly or disabled is not the way to keep your healthcare budget in balance."

Comparing Terri to an unborn child who cannot speak for him or her-self, Anderson said in many ways Terri, who left no advanced health care directive or no written living will, had no voice, though she tried to speak.

"And yet, on the basis of the word of her faithless husband, the court was persuaded that Terri wanted to die," Anderson said. The decision she said, "will stand, frankly, as one of the hallmarks in American jurisprudence, sort of the high water mark of a manifest injustice. In my judgment, right up there with the Dred Scott opinion."

As a professing Christian, Anderson said she would be hard put to "overstate" the effect the case had on her.

Recalling times when she would go to sleep and wake up with a new approach to a problem, Anderson said she has no doubt that God began to give her signs that He was at work despite the glaring fact record and record of adverse rulings she had inherited.

"Here she was still alive ... [despite several attempts to end her life]," Anderson said. "I attribute that really to God’s desire to keep her alive. It was His plan to keep her alive."

In comments to Human Rights in China (HRIC) Mao explained "I was kept confined to one of two rooms, and even had to ask permission to go to the bathroom. Apart from the psychological torment, they also physically abused me. They beat me on several occasions, and a police officer surnamed Bai with badge number 039351 knelt on my chest and grabbed me around the neck, saying he would cause the blood to flood my brain so that cause of death could not be determined."

Mao's husband, concerned for her health, asked Mao's lawyer, Wu Guoce, to visit her in detention on February 20. Wu was reportedly refused access to Mao on 'state secrets' grounds.[..]

HRIC is deeply concerned over the allegations of physical abuse of and other violations committed against Mao Hengfeng in custody, which include her being denied access to legal counsel. "Mao's ill-treatment is especially egregious given that her case is identified in the report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture following his inspection visit to China late last year," said HRIC.

The Amnesty International 2005 report said of Hengfeng that she "was sent to a labour camp for 18 months' 'Re-education through Labour' in April for persistently petitioning the authorities over a forced abortion 15 years earlier when she became pregnant in violation of China's family planning policy. She was reportedly tied up, suspended from the ceiling and severely beaten in the labour camp. She had been detained several times in the past in psychiatric units where she had been forced to undergo shock therapy."

Has life really become so cheap in America that we would rather just be tired of confronting the truth about what happens to the innocent who are taken before their time? There are some who claim that the Declaration of Independence or the U.S. Constitution are inappropriate places to establish a right to hydration or nutrition - in other words food or water.

There are others who claim that the Constitution is a "living document" and therefore should accommodate new rights, chief among those the right to life and therefore once born the right to live. In each case they are human lives; Americans, examples of our own family members that have been taken from their families literally ripped from their loved one's arms and silenced for eternity.

[..]America cannot and must not put to rest so easily the loss of innocent life because life is not to be tossed aside so cheaply. The forward-looking new launch of the Schindler's Foundation is to give all of us the opportunity through "living wills" or powers of attorney or whatever the legal instrument is used in each state that provides clarity of each American's intention on what their end of life should be and what medical means should be undertaken.

I have to go back to the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence because if it is not stated as a basic right for every American to know with clarity that the final destination of their life travel is protected, then our life is expendable. We should not feel as if our life could be interrupted through familial disputes, misunderstandings, cover-ups, etc and is truly determined by whomever either shouts the loudest, has the deepest financial pockets, or is able to get to the courtroom first and finally by the luck of the draw either a life is preserved or ends prematurely.

In an email to their activists, NARAL said Friday that it wanted abortion advocates to contact Congress and support the bill.

"President Bush and other anti-choice leaders are working to reverse Roe v. Wade," NARAL said. "But we have a trump card and we're ready to use it."

Douglas Johnson, the legislative director of National Right to Life, told LifeNews.com that the bill goes much further than making Roe v. Wadethe law of the land. It would nullify virtually every pro-life limit on abortion the pro-life community has fought so hard to enact in the 33 years since Roe.

"Life is sacred - the winged, two-legged, four-legged. You hear constant references to respect for life," Lee said. "Its the tribal law."

Lee told the Journal that Fire Thunder could press to change tribal law to allow for the abortion business but he indicated that the Native American tradition of respecting life would make it extraordinarily difficult.

Lee pointed to a specific portion of tribal law code about juveniles that indicates the right to life of babies before birth is respected.

The code says, "a child conceived, but not born, is to be deemed an existing person so far as may be necessary for its interests and welfare to be protected in the event of its subsequent birth."

Heidi found herself pregnant, scared and alone. An abortion seemed the only way out.

Then she found the Optionline website. Heidi realized she wasn't alone, that she had life-saving options and there was someone out there who cared. Heidi made an appointment and chose life for her baby!

In this new movement toward criminalization, El Salvador is in the vanguard. The array of exceptions that tend to exist even in countries where abortion is circumscribed - rape, incest, fetal malformation, life of the mother - don't apply in El Salvador. They were rejected in the late 1990's, in a period after the country's long civil war ended. The country's penal system was revamped and its constitution was amended. Abortion is now absolutely forbidden in every possible circumstance. No exceptions.

There are other countries in the world that, like El Salvador, completely ban abortion, including Malta, Chile and Colombia. El Salvador, however, has not only a total ban on abortion but also an active law-enforcement apparatus - the police, investigators, medical spies, forensic vagina inspectors and a special division of the prosecutor's office responsible for Crimes Against Minors and Women, a unit charged with capturing, trying and incarcerating an unusual kind of criminal. Like the woman I was waiting to meet.

For decades now, numerous politicians have told pro-lifers: "Hey, we're on your side, and we'd love to help you out. But darn it all, the Supreme Court has spoken, and we all have no choice but to abide by their ruling." Their legal argument is dead wrong: The Constitution does not mean whatever the Court says it means, and legislators are not bound to follow rulings the Court has no authority to make. But since few Americans know their Constitution, politicians can get away with this. They can pass a few popular limits on abortion (parental notice, waiting periods, etc.) without touching the core "right"; they can appease pro-lifers without ticking off many other people.

The message from South Dakota is: No longer. Abortion is a hugely important moral issue, the lawmakers insist, central to the moral foundation of our society. So there'll be no more ducking and dodging it, no more deferring it to some distant future day when we have a "culture of life" that makes it safe for politicians to touch the fundamental issue without getting burned. We need to deal with it, they say - starting now.

Some will say they're being wildly impractical. I think they're being refreshingly realistic. If we're ever going to get a culture of life, it'll never come from stealthy advances into the centers of governmental power: It will only come from public, persistent fighting for principle. Nor will it come from by people who are afraid to proclaim the sanctity of human life as a binding truth (not a mere "personal" belief) recognized by the law. It will only come from people who aren't afraid to risk taking heat and losing elections for the sake of what's right.