"Sarah Palin is the whole package. There couldn't be a better vice presidential pick," said Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser. "Women voters are electrified, and Sarah is someone who is truly in sync with the way real American women think. She is a reform-minded woman who will give all Americans, born and unborn, the authentic leadership they deserve."

"The majority of American women support commonsense restrictions on abortion. Adding Palin to the GOP ticket will resonate with independent women voters nationwide. By choosing the boldly pro-life Sarah Palin as his running mate, John McCain has taken his stand as the one true, authentic pro-life ticket."

Pro-lifers' saving grace has been a president who threatened to veto any legislation that undermined his pro-life policies. Repeatedly, Democrats have tried to destroy the pro-life riders, but Bush's answer has been firm: I will not sign legislation that promotes abortion. Which means this is the last year we are sure the riders will stay put.

So, the importance of this presidential election cannot be overstated - not only in the makeup of Congress, but in who will sit in the Oval Office and how he will use his power to protect or destroy life.

Fighting the anti-family forces in Congress has been an uphill battle for life advocates, but their work will grow only more difficult without a pro-life president to back them up.

Faithful to the first guarantee of the Declaration of Independence, we assert the inherent dignity and sanctity of all human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed. We support a human life amendment to the Constitution, and we endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment's protections apply to unborn children. We oppose using public revenues to promote or perform abortion and will not fund organizations which advocate it. We support the appointment of judges who respect traditional family values and the sanctity and dignity of innocent human life.

We have made progress. The Supreme Court has upheld prohibitions against the barbaric practice of partial-birth abortion. States are now permitted to extend health-care coverage to children before birth. And the Born Alive Infants Protection Act has become law; this law ensures that infants who are born alive during an abortion receive all treatment and care that is provided to all newborn infants and are not neglected and left to die. We must protect girls from exploitation and statutory rape through a parental notification requirement. We all have a moral obligation to assist, not to penalize, women struggling with the challenges of an unplanned pregnancy. At its core, abortion is a fundamental assault on the sanctity of innocent human life. Women deserve better than abortion. Every effort should be made to work with women considering abortion to enable and empower them to choose life. We salute those who provide them alternatives, including pregnancy care centers, and we take pride in the tremendous increase in adoptions that has followed Republican legislative initiatives.

Respect for life requires efforts to include persons with disabilities in education, employment, the justice system, and civic participation. In keeping with that commitment, we oppose the non-consensual withholding of care or treatment from people with disabilities, as well as the elderly and infirm, just as we oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide, which endanger especially those on the margins of society....

"Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a man of God, a man of great compassion, and a man of non-violence, once said, 'The Negro cannot win as long as he is willing to sacrifice the lives of his children for comfort and safety.' I know in my heart that if Uncle Martin were alive today, he would join with me in the greatest civil rights struggle of this generation – the recognition of the unborn child's basic right to life.

"My uncle Martin would agree that we cannot end poverty, hunger, or suffering by killing those who might suffer. We cannot claim to guarantee equal rights if we deny the rights of the helpless. And we cannot feign ignorance of the fact that those who are torn apart, crushed, or left to die on an abortionist's table are just as human as we are.

"My uncle said that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. There is injustice in our land. We have turned being unwanted into a crime penalized by death. Today, I echo the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – let freedom ring. From every mountain top, let freedom ring for all Americans, wanted and unwanted, born and unborn."

At a press conference yesterday on the Capitol steps in Sacramento, Planned Parenthood was among a group of about two dozen organizations pleading with the legislature not to make additional cuts to state health spending in order to balance the budget. For more than a year, Planned Parenthood has been pleading poverty – but the abortion provider doesn't seem short on cash when it comes to waging a political campaign against Proposition 4. [..]

In the last year, Planned Parenthood has successfully lobbied for several measures to protect its share of state health dollars, including a cost-cutting law relaxing licensing requirements for its satellite clinics. Its political advocacy arm – Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California – has repeatedly sent out alarms to its supporters warning that clinics were in danger of closing because the legislature had not increased Medi-Cal reimbursement rates, and claiming that affiliates across the state were turning away as many as 10,000 patients a month for lack of money.

But when it comes to Sarah's Law, the federal "non-profits" seem to have loads of cash. According to the web site of the California Secretary of State, affiliates of Planned Parenthood have kicked in $1,970,000 so far – and some press reports have indicated there is likely to be more where that came from.

Dr Mark Schulberg has been accused of terminating the pregnancy of a woman with an intellectual disability, allegedly without obtaining the necessary legal consents.

The Queensland doctor, who also practises in Victoria, faces a formal hearing of the Medical Practitioners Board today and could be suspended for serious professional misconduct.

A fight over abortion between Mexico's federal government and the capital's leftist lawmakers goes to the Supreme Court next week, with the attorney general urging judges to reinstate a ban on women terminating pregnancies on demand.

The Catholic Church, a powerful force in the world's second-biggest Catholic country, backs the federal government's call to overturn a 2007 law allowing abortions in Mexico City.

But the capital's administration, headed by Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, says women have a right to safe abortions rather than risking their lives in unhygienic back-street clinics.

One of the court's 11 judges, Salvador Aguirre, has already submitted a ruling which says the Mexico City law is unconstitutional.

"The right to life recognized by the constitution remains protected from the moment of conception," Aguirre wrote.

We were both seventeen years of age. She wanted to get married and have the baby. Not me, I was a goodtime Charlie. There were parties to attend, beers to drink, drunken choruses to sing. The prospect of fatherhood would have put a damper on the good times and so I began pressuring my girlfriend to have an abortion.

It worked to my advantage that there were many clairvoyants and crystal ball gazers who predicted a life of dire poverty, welfare and lost opportunities, if my girlfriend made the mistake of having the baby. They told us that if we married at seventeen, I would be relegated to low paying and dead-end jobs forever and a day. I would never reach my potential! That was the conventional wisdom. I remember it well. [..]

My pressure on my girlfriend to abort our baby was intensified until, with nobody affirming the life she carried, she submitted to the hands of an abortionist at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton in December of 1971.

On the surface I was glad to have our "problem" solved and cracked another beer to celebrate the occasion. But something deep inside me did not sit right with what was done to solve our problem. The abortion did not solve "our problem" - it created new ones.

Phrases like 'blobs of tissue' grated against my conscience. Even at seventeen years of age, I knew they were lies. Unfortunately for this Good-time Charlie, I knew better.[..]

My strategy to cope with advocating my own child's death was simple: Deny, deny, deny. This approach worked for most of the next decade.

The Bush administration on Thursday proposed stronger job protections for doctors and other health care workers who refuse to participate in abortions because of religious or moral objections.

Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said that health care professionals should not face retaliation from employers or from medical societies because they object to abortion.

"Freedom of conscience is not to be surrendered upon issuance of a medical degree," said Leavitt. "This nation was built on a foundation of free speech. The first principle of free speech is protected conscience."

The proposed rule, which applies to institutions receiving government money, would require as many as 584,000 employers ranging from major hospitals to doctors' offices and nursing homes to certify in writing that they are complying with several federal laws that protect the conscience rights of health care workers. Violations could lead to a loss of government funding and legal action to recoup federal money already paid.

"22weeks", made by a young, Puerto Rican filmmaker, Ángel Manuel Soto Vázquez, will soon be released in private screenings in select cities as it ramps up for hopeful showings at the Toronto and Cannes Film Festivals.

The film, with promotional pages on MySpace and Facebook, describes the movie on its homepage as follows:

A young woman is locked in the bathroom of an abortion clinic after her aborted baby was born alive.

A film about decisions, their effects and the echos [sic] they leave behind. Based on the shocking World Net Daily article by Ron Strom, on victim's testimonies, and real 911 calls about one of the most controversial subjects of our time, "22weeks" achieves to confront both sides of the spectrum and their perspective to the on going [sic] question: "what would you do?"

The mother in the true story, identified only as Angele, since she has asked her last name not be used, was scheduled to have her 22-week pregnancy ended at the EPOC Clinic of Orlando Women's Center in Orlando, Fla. Instead, Angele told WND, she delivered the baby alive in a restroom at the clinic and said her cries for help went unheeded by the medical staff, even when an employee saw that the tiny boy was moving.

Angele said she ran to a phone outside the clinic to call a friend for help, then curled up with her son for the full 11 minutes of his short life after birth. She bathed the baby, whom she named Rowan, and cut his umbilical cord. After medical staff demanded she surrender her son's body, she blocked the door to keep them away and stayed trapped in the bathroom, praying and weeping, until the police arrived, she said.

In the most recent developments, Senator Obama himself, in a videorecorded interview Saturday night with David Brody of CBN News (subsequently broadcast on both CBN and CNN), said three times that National Right to Life was "lying" in asserting that he had voted against a state bill virtually identical to the federal Born-Alive Infants Protection Act. He did not directly address newly uncovered documents that had been released by NRLC on August 11 -- documents that proved that he had done exactly that, contradicting four years of the Obama cover story.

In response, on Sunday, August 17th, we issued a challenge to Obama to either declare the newly discovered documents to be forgeries and call for an investigation of the forgery, or admit that he had misrepresented his record on the live-born infants legislation (not just once, but for four years), and apologize to those he's called liars.

We don't have an apology yet. But now there is this, in a news story posted on the New York Sun website on the evening of August 17th: "Mr. Obama appeared to misstate his position in the CBN interview on Saturday . . . [Obama's] campaign yesterday acknowledged that he had voted against an identical bill in the state Senate . . ."

The online survey of 1050 Australians (including 526 Victorians), by Crosby/Textor, evaluated support for legal abortion after the 24-week cut-off. This was strongest for legal late abortions when continuing the pregnancy would put the life of the mother at risk, or when the baby had severe abnormalities that would lead to a short life.

There was also majority support for decriminalising late abortions when: the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest, the baby might be physically or mentally impaired, the mother had a major drug addiction, or she was aged 15 or under.

One-third of Victorians believed a late abortion should be allowed when the woman for any reason decided she did not wish to have the child, the woman or family could not afford to raise the child, or if the woman's partner died or left her during pregnancy.

The Archdiocese of Denver announced it will hold a prayer vigil and peaceful protest outside the Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains Abortion Clinic. Speaking at the event will be Dr. Alveda King, and Most Rev. Charles J. Chaput, Archbishop of Denver.

The archdiocesan Respect Life Office, in partnership with the archdiocesan Office of Black Catholics will hold the "Light in the Darkness" rally against abortion on Monday, August 25.

David Cameron, who most analysts predict will be the next Prime Minister of Britain, is holding "Cameron Direct" question and answer sessions with voters. He responded at length at a session in Barrow-in-Furness on Wednesday, saying that MPs should have free votes on "conscience issues" and that he supported the reduction in the gestational age limit for abortion from 24 weeks to 20. But he said he could not tell parents they could not abort a severely disabled child.

In cases where parents have been told by physicians they "may have a very disabled child, I would not want to change that," he said. Referring to his own six year-old son, Ivan, who suffers from cerebral palsy and is a quadriplegic, Cameron said, "he's a sweet boy, he's a lovely boy, Ivan," but, Cameron said, he would not want to "put myself in the position" of telling parents they cannot abort such a child.

Donnette Sanz, 33, a traffic agent for the city police department, was pronounced dead Thursday, shortly after her baby's birth by an emergency Caesarean section. The 3-pound, 6-ounce boy was in critical condition.

Sanz was walking across a Bronx street around lunchtime Thursday when she was struck by a van that pushed her in front of the bus.

Barack Obama side-stepped a pointed query about abortion on Saturday by "mega-pastor" Rick Warren during a televised forum.

Asked at what point a baby gets "human rights", Obama, who strongly supports abortion rights, said: "... whether you're looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity ... is above my pay grade."

He went on to reiterate his view that it was important to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies.

Then the vacuum machine started. This was the longest time of my entire life. I felt like I was being violently shaken off of the table. The nurse yelled at me to be still.

Tears streamed down my face. I knew then that I was making the biggest mistake of my life, but it was too late. The only compassion I received was from the assistant who patted my head and said for me to go ahead and cry - that it was good to cry. It seemed like an eternity. When was the machine going to stop? I really thought I was going to die.

Following the abortion, I heard the clanking of the metal instruments, the snap of the abortionist's gloves, he slapped me on the thigh, saying, "Good luck to you" and walked out without ever looking at me. I was relieved because I was ashamed, but now I realize how cold and disrespectful he was and that there was no doctor-patient relationship.

I was taken to a room with recliners where girls were curled up in fetal positions, crying and in pain. When released, I was given a prescription for antibiotics and told I had to return for a follow-up. I remember thinking, "I will never come here again."

Vanderburgh County becomes first county in Indiana to put the basic requirement in place.

Last week, Vanderburgh County commissioners approved the new requirement and Indiana Right to Life president tells LifeNews.com the commission voted unanimously with both Republicans and Democrats agreeing to the requirement.

Under the new ordinance, any doctor doing abortions must disclose to patients the name of the hospital with which admitting privileges are maintained so as to facilitate better follow-up care in the event of post-abortion complications.

Hospital admitting privileges assure better care for mothers who may experience significant medical complications immediately following or during an abortion.

The University of Maryland agreed to modify its speech-code and speech-zone policies after moving a pro-life group to a less visible location.

The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) sued the university after it forced Rock for Life students to move their pro-life display because of its "intimidating, hostile or offensive" speech.

"Pro-life students at the University of Maryland shouldn't suffer discrimination for their beliefs," ADF Senior Counsel Steven H. Aden said. "We are encouraged by the university's decision to change its speech policies so the constitutional rights of its students will be respected."

"Let's not kid ourselves," Nancy Keenan, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice America, told reporters at a press conference in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday. "The people behind this effort (want) to make South Dakota the first step in a long-term campaign to mount a legal challenge to Roe (vs. Wade)."

"The American Psychological Association's so-called study is nothing more than a conclusion supported by opinions screened to match that predetermined outcome," said Georgette Forney, co-founder of SNMAC. "The APA ignored or downplayed large, peer-reviewed studies showing a clear link between abortion and subsequent problems such as depression. Professionalism and intellectual honesty are not concepts I would associate with this report."

"It's a classic case of the abortion lobby's political and financial interests trumping the truth," added Janet Morana, also a co-founder of SNMAC. "Over 600 post-abortive women asked to meet with the APA about their experiences with abortion and depression. The APA brushed them off, just like it dismissed any scientific study that didn't agree with its agenda."

The figures have been published in two new papers stemming from a survey of about 1400 women aged 18 to 64 in Auckland and a similar number in rural Waikato in 2002, which was focused on finding the rates of domestic violence and associated factors.

The new papers show, not surprisingly, that domestic violence is associated with higher rates of both intentional abortions and accidental miscarriages, as well as with higher rates of drinking, smoking and unwanted pregnancies.[...]

The study found that 6% of the Auckland women who had been pregnant, and 9% of the rural Waikato women, had been beaten or physically assaulted by a partner while they were pregnant. For three-quarters of them, the violence started before they became pregnant.

Maori women were much more likely to have suffered violence during pregnancy (22%) than Pacific women (7%), Europeans (6%) or Asians (1%).

"Every time I look at Phoebe, I know I made the right decision. I never wanted to end my baby's life just because of how she came to be," she told the Daily Mail this weekend.

In the Mail's extensive human interest piece on Saturday, Cameron, now 19, talks about her hopes to marry and her plans to attend university. So great was the pressure on Elizabeth, a regular churchgoer, to have an abortion, the Mail's Angela Carless wrote, "That Phoebe exists at all almost defies belief." Only Elizabeth's mother, Sarah, suggested the alternative to abortion.

"Everyone, save for mum, thought I should have an abortion," she said. "My dad even made an appointment at the clinic, and they showed me the little blob on the scan, I presume, to convince me that it was just a mass of cells and the whole thing would be over quickly."

Elizabeth confided that none of her friends at school could understand why "anyone my age would want to have a baby rather than an abortion." She said that the few she told of the rape were "even more horrified" that she would refuse an abortion.

"But," she said, "I did. And I don't regret it for a moment."

The California Secretary of State qualified Sarah's Law for the November ballot after backers submitted enough signatures for it and named it Proposition 4.

But California Planned Parenthood advocates have sued state officials saying Sarah was in a common-law marriage with a man from Texas at the time of her death and wouldn't need to tell her parents about her potential abortion decision.

On Friday, Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael P. Kenny ruled the story about Sarah can stay on the ballot.

"The courts have recognized that in ballot arguments, proponents are allowed to engage in hyperbole," he said in the ruling, according to a Sacramento Bee report.

Three-year-old Bethanie Thomson from Scotland was diagnosed with leukemia when she was 6 months old. She relapsed when she was 2 - just weeks before her brother, Joshua, was born.

Joshua's cord-blood stem cells were a perfect match for Bethanie. Now, weeks later, she is making vast improvements.

On May 13, Hoye was arrested and cited outside the Family Planning Specialists Medical Group clinic on Webster Street after being accused of coming within 8 feet of patients and patient escorts. The ordinance prohibits approaching anyone closer than 8 feet for the purposes of "counseling, harassing or interfering" with someone without the person's consent.

Hoye was arrested after a clinic staff member called police. He was carrying a 40-inch sign that read, "Jesus Loves You & Your Baby. Let Us Help You," and attempting to hand out pro-life literature. His signs and literature were confiscated and he was charged with a total of four misdemeanor counts after complaints of similar behavior on April 29 were filed.[..]

Even though the case has yet to go to trial, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Sandra Beane granted a restraining order against Hoye following a pre-trial hearing. The order requires Hoye to stay away from the clinic. The judge’s decision came even after his accusers admitted under oath that he had never threatened or harmed them in any way.

Hoye insists that he obeyed the bubble law, and was aggressively contained by two clinic escorts, who sandwiched him between them and tried to hide his sign. "We got testimony from the two escorts who claimed that I was intimidating them to the extent that they were afraid for their lives," Hoye said. "Once they were on the stand, they testified that I never physically or verbally harmed them or used force in any way against them or anyone else. One escort even said that I was nice -- although he said it was nice in a 'passive-aggressive way.' Whenever I would walk left or right holding my sign, they would surround and block me, so while I was walking, I would say, 'I'm going to move right now' or 'I'm moving left now' or 'don't trip on the curb.' They're going to follow me anyway, so I try to stay calm and be polite and make sure they don't hurt themselves while trying to cover me."

"My attorney even asked the judge what I was supposed to do when the escorts come up to me, and she said told him that I had to back away!" Hoye continued.

"After hearing the escort say that I was 'nice', I thought for sure that the restraining order would be lifted," he said. "How could you keep a restraining order on a guy who is guilty of trying to be cooperative and nice? The escorts testified that they were not afraid of me. But after hearing all the testimony, the judge ruled that the restraining order would stay in place."

Massachusetts Citizens for Life has been pressing for a Woman's Right to Know bill that would make sure abortion practitioner counsel women about the kinds of medical risks associated with an abortion -- like those that led to Smith's death.

Responding to a request from Smith's mother Eileen, MCFL told LifeNews.com it has renamed the legislation "Laura's Law" in her honor.

Eileen Smith said that, following her daughter's death, she is now a strong supporter of informed consent laws regarding abortion.

"First and foremost it would be the honor of having Laura remembered in such a noble cause," Smith told MCFL in a letter to the group.

"I think Laura's death epitomizes the need for such a law. I truly believe that Laura would be with us today had this bill been passed prior to September 2007," she added.

In one of the recent incidents of intimidation, Medina received a shoebox in the mail containing a dead rat and the message "death to prolifers" and also had a long letter containing death threats nailed to the door of her home.

The letter contained the message, "Remember that accidents exist, remember that accidental deaths happen daily in our country. Do not continue your anti-woman ... campaign ... death to traitors, death to those who oppose the nation."

In another incident, Catholic officials found the severed head of a dog with a communion wafer in its mouth in a Catholic chapel as a warning to clergy who dare to speak out against the constitution.

"I have spoken clearly and candidly and consistently with China's leaders about our deep concerns over religious freedom and human rights," he said. "I have met repeatedly with Chinese dissidents and religious believers."

"The United States believes the people of China deserve the fundamental liberty that is the natural right of all human beings. So America stands in firm opposition to China's detention of political dissidents and human rights advocates and religious activists," he explained.

According to Brazilian media, Marcela died of cardiac arrest from complications due to pneumonia. Hundreds attended her funeral, and her parents decided to carry her casket to its final resting place. Prayers and songs of joy accompanied the procession, as friends and family members took turns respectfully carrying her casket to the cemetery.

Casilda said she tried to be the best mother she could. "God came to get her. It was her time. I am happy because she didn't suffer much and she lived surrounded by love," she said before saying her final goodbyes to little Marcela.

Niketa, 25 weeks pregnant, meanwhile shunned the NGO offer with a firm "no". Her husband Haresh supported her stand, saying, "We don't want the baby." He told TOI , "We got a call from an NGO offering to place the baby elsewhere. But how can we? Hum apna dukh doosro ke saath kaise baate? (How can we share our sadness with someone else?) Even if they have the money to look after the baby, the child will always be compared with other normal children."

On the Thursday edition of the television program, the conversation gravitated towards politics and the hosts debated which candidate changes his position more -- McCain or pro-abortion candidate Barack Obama.

Justin McCarthy writes on the Media Research Center blog Newsbusters that, 'Goldberg claimed McCain flipped on abortion, or as Whoopi calls it, 'a woman's right to choose.'"

Goldberg said, referring to McCain: "He did believe that a woman's right to choose was on. He did not feel that, that was something that should have gone away. And now he has changed his mind."

McCarthy says "Whoopi asserted McCain once supported abortion rights but no longer does not," but she needs to do a little research.

"Perhaps Whoopi should check her own facts for, according to one of Whoopi's favorite organizations, the National Abortion Rights Action League, NARAL, McCain was very hostile to their agenda," he explained.