A new state abortion law that has yet to take effect is being challenged in court.

The law would force every woman wanting to get an abortion to look at an ultrasound and listen to a doctor describe the picture.

However, a group called the Center for Reproductive Rights has been hired to fight the law, calling it unconstitutional.

A baby girl found dead outside a mobile home in Waxhaw this week was born less than 48 hours before her death, the Union County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday.

Authorities don't know how the baby died. She was found with her umbilical cord still attached around 12:15 p.m. Tuesday next to a pile of burned trash.

Investigators said Wednesday she was delivered alive. Deputies are looking for the baby's mother or for additional information about how she died.

Congressman Chris Smith was prevented from offering two pro-life amendments to the $410 billion Fiscal Year 2009 Omnibus spending bill being considered on the House floor. His proposed amendments would have restored both the Mexico City Policy and the Kemp-Kasten policy.

After hearing Smith testify on his intended amendments last night, the Democrat House Rules Committee issued a closed rule that prohibited his propositions from consideration on the House floor, explained a statement from the congressman's office.

Montana lawmakers passed a parental notification law in 1995, but a state District Court ruled in 1999 that it violates a minor's right to privacy.

Senate Bill 374, introduced by Sen. Gary Perry, aims to change that law’s language to allow for a new constitutionality test.

The Republican from Manhattan said its absurd that parental consent is currently required for medicines, tattoos and body piercings, but not for abortions.

"If you believe this bill is unconstitutional, then why have you not declared the unconstitutionality of parental authority for all medical procedures," Perry asked fellow lawmakers.

Nearly 200 lawmakers — led by Reps. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, Heath Shuler, D-N.C., Bart Stupak, D-Mich., and Chris Smith, R-N.J. — have signed on to a letter calling on the House Appropriations Committee to include pro-life "riders" in the omnibus spending bill.

Pro-life measures, called "riders," typically are added to spending bills and cover issues like taxpayer-funded abortions and abortions for federal prisoners.

As the letter states, "If this Congress intends to rescind these riders, at a minimum, the American people deserve a full debate with an up-or-down vote."

Shuler told Fox News recently that both parties need to do more to protect life.

"We would be doing a disservice to those unborn children if we make this a political issue," he said. "It's time to work together instead of playing politics."

The House Health and Human Services Committee on Wednesday endorsed the Republican-sponsored bill on a 5-0 vote, with Democratic opponents boycotting the hearing and not voting on the measure. The bill now goes to the full House after what is usually a routine legal review.

The legislation would require a pre-abortion waiting period and mandatory disclosures to women seeking abortions. It also would allow pharmacists and health care providers to refuse to participate in abortion or emergency contraception on moral grounds. Other provisions toughen the existing law on parental rights.

Republican legislators powered the bill through the House over the opposition of Democrats by a 83-28 vote.[..]

House Republicans said they hoped the bill will encourage more women to continue their pregnancies.

"If this bill will save one life, if this bill will save one unborn child, how can we say no to a 24-hour waiting period?" asked Rep. Phil Owens, R-Pickens. "It's only important if you consider God's creations important."

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Greg Delleney, R-Chester, said the bill is a minor change but brings South Carolina into alignment with about half the states, which have longer waiting periods.

"This is a very simple bill. It changes law very little," Delleney said. "All this does is give a patient an opportunity of reflection for 24 hours."

Leon Boulton was found hanging from a bannister at his home in Westcott Street, Hull.

An inquest in Hull was told the 18-year-old and his girlfriend, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had an on-off relationship and she had been shocked when she discovered last September that she was pregnant.

In a statement read to the court she said: "Leon said we should keep the baby but I wasn't sure."

Tests revealed it could be an ectopic pregnancy and she decided to have an abortion.

The Saturday before he died she was told Leon had threatened to kill himself, but was reassured that it wasn't serious.

His friend Christopher Conway said the former Malet Lambert student was "gutted" when he found out she'd had an abortion.

Leon - described as quite and shy - had rung him to say he'd tried to kill himself and when asked why said he was "sick of everything."

"As long as I am governor of the great state of Texas, I will oppose our taxpayers' dollars from being spent on research that ends human life," he said.

The League has published a free, pocket-sized, 96-page handbook, "Sharing the Pro-Life Message," that arms pro-lifers with facts, figures and reasoned arguments they need to share the truth about abortion with compassion and conviction.

"If you've ever had to explain or defend the pro-life message to a friend, family member, co-worker or even a complete stranger, you need this handbook," League communications director Eric Scheidler says. "We're giving it away for free because we're convinced it will help save lives."

Pat Drury, who works with the pro-life group Thrive St. Louis, testified in favor of the bill before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

She told committee members that in most cases, a woman chooses abortion because she's being pressured into it by someone in her life.

"Either the father of the baby, (or) a parent is threatening to kick them out...(or) they're going to lose their job," Drury said.

In a draft proposal of its Standards of Practice, the Alberta College of Physicians and Surgeons suggests doctors who refuse to perform abortions must refer the patient to someone who will - even if the doctor is personally or religiously opposed to the procedure.

But some doctors say that would force them to set aside their own moral, ethical and religious beliefs.

Dr. Joan Johnston strongly opposes the proposal.

"If this was passed the way it stood, then a physician is no longer entitled to practise according to their conscience. That's a very dangerous situation," she said.

She has written to the college about her concerns.

"As physicians, if we buy into that, it means we have to do something to numb out our conscience," Johnston said.

"How do I live with a guilty conscience? I'm going to have to do something to numb out my conscience if I'm acting in ways in my office that are against my conscience. My patients are going to be in trouble if I'm numbing out my conscience.

The proposed amendment would remove abortion protections from the state constitution, though it would remain legal under federal court rulings.

The proposal has passed the Senate four times since 2001, but has always failed in a House subcommittee typically controlled by Democrats.

That subcommittee is now split 4-4 between Democrats and Republicans, and Williams has said he would use his tie-breaking vote to pass the anti-abortion resolution if it is introduced.

That subcommittee will take up two similar resolutions, both introduced by Democrats.

One is nearly the same as the original proposed amendment; the other would provide exceptions for cases involving rape, incest or health of the mother.

Jordan Brown was charged as an adult in the shooting death of Kenzie Marie Houk, who was 8 months pregnant, Lawrence County District Attorney John Bongivengo said at a news conference.

Brown, the son of Houk's live-in boyfriend, was charged with criminal homicide and criminal homicide of an unborn child, Bongivengo said.

During a press conference at the conclusion of the bishops' plenary meeting, Bishop Martinez asked, "How is it possible that the right to life is not recognized" for the unborn while other rights for them are? "The less this right is protected by law, the more unjust and illegitimate will the law be," he warned.

Likewise, he called abortion "an intrinsically evil act" that "gravely violates the dignity of an innocent human being, taking his or her life." "A society that does not ensure the lives of the unborn is a society that is experiencing serious internal violence," he said.

Bishop Martinez called for the rejection of "propaganda that deceptively presents abortion as a just another surgical or medical intervention that is hygienic and safe." Abortion "gravely wounds the dignity of those who commit it, leaving profound psychological and moral trauma."

Yesterday Rev. Walter Hoye of Berkeley, California was sentenced to serve 30-days in county jail after being found guilty on January 15, 2009, of unlawfully approaching a person entering an abortion facility in Oakland.

The court is allowing Hoye to serve his time by an alternative method such as community service. Hoye was also fined a total of $1,130 and ordered to stay away from the abortion facility.

"It is absolutely incredible that in America an individual can be sentenced to jail for engaging in peaceful free speech activity on a public sidewalk," remarked Allison Aranda, Staff Counsel for Life Legal Defense Foundation, which is representing Hoye. "We will appeal."

The African-American pastor is the founder of the Issues4Life Foundation and an outspoken opponent of the genocide of unborn African Americans. He had been accustomed since early 2007 to picket alone or with two other women on the public sidewalk in front of Oakland's abortion clinic and counsel incoming patients, holding a sign reading, "Jesus loves you and your baby. Let us help."

Last spring, however, Oakland city council members passed an ordinance concerning "Access to Reproductive Health Care Facilities." The law prohibits anyone from approaching within eight feet of women entering an abortion facility, without their consent. The maximum penalty was established as one year in jail and/or a $2000 fine.

Hoye was arrested in May 2008 and charged with intimidating the abortuary staff, in addition to violating the distance rule, and was issued a restraining order. The intimidation order was later dropped after video evidence showed that abotuary staff had lied about Hoye's behavior in front of the facility.

Prosecuting Attorney Brian Hurley told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) that the Planned Parenthood employees "played ostrich" when the girl told them she was being raped.

"We believe that they ignored Denise's cry for help ... and as a result she was sexually abused three times a week for a year and a half because they didn't meet their duties to report," said Hurley.[..]

Denise, who is now 21, suffered sexual abuse by her father between the ages of 13 and 17. In 2004, when she was 16, Hurley says Denise's father took her to the Mount Auburn facility of Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio to seek an abortion after he had impregnated her.

When questioned by Planned Parenthood, the girl allegedly said "that she had been forced to do things that she did not want to do."

The abuse ended when Denise's father was arrested eighteen months after the Planned Parenthood visit, thanks to the intervention of the girl's basketball coach. He was sentenced to five years in prison in 2006.

In a 30-3 vote, senators passed the bill by Representative Dawn Creekmore, a Democrat from Hensley. The bill would ban procedures when a fetus is partially delivered "for the purpose of performing an overt act that the person knows will kill the partially delivered living human fetus." As does the federal law, the state legislation makes an exception for instances to save the life of the mother.

Democratic Senators David Johnson of Little Rock, Sue Madison of Fayetteville and Mary Anne Salmon of North Little Rock voted against the measure.

The measure now heads to Governor Beebe, who has said he will sign it into law.

The state Senate voted 45-1 to approve a bill that would require the notice to be posted at abortion clinics. The measure now goes to the House.

The state's only abortion clinic is in Fargo.

The sign would read: "Notice: No one can force you to have an abortion. It is against the law for a spouse, a boyfriend, a parent, a friend, a medical care provider, or any other person to in any way force you to have an abortion."


The bill is SB2265.

George Hendricks, 41, of Brooksville, faces 35 rape charges after multiple incidents of sexually abusing the young girl.

Hendricks was preparing to leave the state of Florida when authorities apprehended him last Wednesday in Jacksonville.

The victim has already spoken with police detectives and Hendricks' confession matched her stories about the repeated abuse and trauma she faced from him.

The Hernando Today newspaper indicated the teenager lived with Hendricks when the alleged rapes began in November.

After getting the teenager pregnant, Hendricks reportedly took the teenager to Jacksonville for an abortion, and she signed his name on the parental consent form for the abortion.

The Florida House of Representatives has issued a letter to State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle calling for criminal charges to be filed against all involved in the death of a viable baby that was born alive at a Hialeah abortion clinic in 2007.

The baby, Shanice Denise Osbourne, was delivered by unlicensed abortion worker Belkis Gonzalez, who cut the baby's umbilical cord with a pair of office scissors, then, while she was moving and struggling to breathe, shoved her into a plastic bag and tossed her in the trash. Gonzalez later stashed the baby's body on the abortion clinic roof to hide it from authorities.[..]

In a letter dated February 17, 2009, House Speaker Ray Sansom told Rundle, "The undersigned Members of the Florida Legislature from both sides of the debate on this issue strongly urge you to take appropriate action against the individuals involved in these morally reprehensible acts."

Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero must now spell out the details of a new law legalising abortion.

The reform would do away with the legal insecurity for women seeking an abortion, said Carmen Monton, a socialist deputy on the parliamentary committee.[..]

The current law in Spain, which was passed in 1985, only permits abortion for rape victims in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy; for women carrying deformed foetuses (22 weeks); and in cases where the mother is in physical or psychological danger.

There is no time limit for this last category, which can sometimes lead to abortions being performed more than six months into a pregnancy.

The government proposes to change the law to make abortion unconditionally available, but only up to a fixed stage of the pregnancy, as is the case in most European countries, which generally settle on a 12-week limit.

CLC President Jim Hughes noted that Obama, "the first black President" has a unique opportunity to "help save the lives of 1400 African American babies who die by abortion every day in the United States."

"Every day Mr. President, people with your ethnic background die in astounding numbers," said Mr. Hughes. "Abortion is the number one killer of African Americans in the U.S."

Citing abortion statistics, Hughes said: "African Americans make up about 13% of the U.S. population but about 37% of all babies killed by abortion are black. In the last 36 years over 17 million African American babies have died by abortion alone."

Rep. Dan Ruby, R-Minot, sponsored the anti-abortion legislation, which passed 51-41, arguing that life begins at the moment of conception. The bill now moves on to the Senate for consideration.

Daniel Woodward of the North Dakota Life League, said if the bill ultimately becomes law it would make it easier to challenge the U.S. Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade.

The bill also says the Legislature will appoint one of its members to defend the law if it faces any legal challenge.

The legislation, passed 20-2 by the House Public Health Committee, also creates the Statistical Reporting of Abortion Act, which requires physicians who perform abortions to report certain information to the state Department of Health.[..]

The author of the latest bill, Rep. Dan Sullivan, R-Tulsa, said it is designed to stop couples from using the gender of a fetus as a reason to get an abortion. Sullivan said a doctor would be prohibited from performing an abortion if the mother specifically said the fetus' sex was the reason.

"As designer babies become more prevalent, we must do all we can to ensure unborn children are not killed simply because a dad always dreamed of having a son," Sullivan said.

Senate Bill 79, sponsored by Sen. Elizabeth Tori, R-Radcliff, Sen. Jack Westwood, R-Crestview Hills, and Senate President Pro Tempore Katie Kratz Stine, R-Southgate, would require any abortion provider to provide face-to-face counseling and show the patient an ultrasound of the fetus. The woman would be allowed to look away, but the clinic would be required to provide the images for review. Failure to provide the ultrasound for review would result in a fine of up to $100,000 in the first case or $250,000 in subsequent cases, in addition to action by the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's 18-year-old daughter, an unwed mother, says teenagers should avoid having sex.

However, Bristol Palin acknowledges that abstinence is "not realistic at all."

She commented during a two-part interview recorded for Fox News Channel's "On the Record."

Just days after the governor was named John McCain's running mate on the Republican presidential ticket, she announced her daughter was pregnant. Bristol Palin gave birth Dec. 27 to a boy named Tripp.

Bristol Palin said her son brings her so much joy that she doesn't regret having him at all. She's engaged to the baby's father, Levi Johnston, and said her fiance sees their son every day.

"He's a really hands-on dad," she said. "He's just in love with him as much as I am."

Bristol said telling her parents she was pregnant was "harder than labor." Levi and her best friend went with her to break the news.

"I was just so sick to my stomach. And so finally, my best friend just, like, blurted it out," she said. Bristol also said it bothered her to hear that many people thought her mother was making her have the baby, when it was her own choice.

The governor also appeared in the interview, recorded Saturday in Fairbanks.

She said she was proud of her daughter, "wanting to take on an advocacy role and, you know, just let other girls know that this is — it's not the most ideal situation, but certainly, make the most of it," Sarah Palin said. "And Bristol is a strong and bold young woman and she is an amazing mom. And this little baby is very lucky to have her as a mama. He's going to be just fine."

"This bill is written to help reduce the attendant harm that could come to the mother and her children through the creation and implantation of more embryos than is medically recommended by industry watchdog groups like the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology" says Daniel Becker, President of Georgia Right to Life.

"This bill would limit the number of embryos transferred in any given cycle to the same number that are fertilized, up to a maximum of three. This bill is similar to the same common-sense regulations passed in other countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy" said Becker.

Georgia Right to Life supports Sen. Hudgens in this legislation and wants to see strong protections in place to stop the dangerous practice of implanting more embryos than is medically recommended, so as to prevent the high risk of multiple gestations, premature births and babies with low birth weight for their gestational age.

In 1976, my mother was 21 and trying to keep a struggling marriage from falling apart. During that time, she became pregnant. The decision was made, she recalled, to terminate the pregnancy.

My father -- with whom I have a somewhat distant relationship -- drove my mother to a clinic. My mother said she could not stop crying during the entire trip. She knew that having a baby would not save the marriage, but her desire to have a child was too strong.

Sitting in the parking lot of the clinic, my parents decided not to go through with the abortion.

In March of 1977, I was born. Just a few days later, my parents were divorced.

For the better part of my first six years, she did her best as a struggling single mother to raise me. When I was 4 years old, she again had to choose between having a second child or terminating the pregnancy.

She chose abortion.

Her circumstances forced her to make a decision that she said only recently has she come to terms with. Growing up in a Baptist church-going home, she knew that abortion was wrong. But she said she made the only decision that seemed right at the time.

In the years that followed, my mother recalled becoming very sad and depressed around the date she had the abortion.

When I was 6, God blessed my mother with a new husband, and me with siblings and a stepfather who took an interest in me and loved me as his own. My mother even had another child, my younger sister, Jamie.

The Lord also moved in my mother's life a few years later and brought her back to a closer relationship with God, with me in tow. Since then, she has dedicated her life to sharing Christ's love with everyone, especially children.

Despite her faith, she said she still struggled with the guilt of her abortion more than 27 years ago. She noted that most women who are "post-abortion" do not feel that they can be forgiven for that act. They often feel that a mother's highest calling is to protect her child, and when she chooses to end its life, that is unforgivable.

My mother's response profoundly struck me: "To say that God cannot forgive an abortion is to tell Him that His blood is not enough."

The vote on House Bill 1445 was 61-31.

It came from the House Human Services Committee with a do-pass recommendation that had passed 8-5.

The sponsor, Rep. Chuck Damschen, R-Hampden, said the bill keeps the woman considering an abortion "totally informed." It also defines human life as beginning with fertilization.

"What they really need is to talk with a compassionate person who has dealt with such problems, and a non-judgmental group to talk it out," says Sr. Nancy Bouchey, a soft-spoken religious sister at a retreat center at the Benedictine Monastery of the Good Shepherd in south Texas who runs retreats for those affected by abortion. "We have seen so much healing over the past, and it is a joy to see how God works," she said.

The retreat, called "Raphael's Way: A Journey into Healing and Reconciliation," is held for men and women who suffer from post-abortion syndrome and for others who have been carrying this loss. The next retreat is March 6 - 8, 2009.

The quiet surroundings of the monastery, located in a wilderness area just north of Rio Grande City, offer the kind of atmosphere needed for deep personal reflection, said Sr. Nancy, who has offered therapy for such men and women for many years.

Katie was taking nearly 200 tablets a week for gynaecological problems and by the time a routine GP test picked up the fact she was pregnant, it was too late.

The 24-year-old says she would have stopped taking the tablets immediately and dealt with any pain cause by her illness another way if she had known she was carrying her 'beautiful' son.

Instead she had to give birth to her him on a commode and he died in her arms just four minutes later.

About a week ago the Worle mum had been told it was too late for a straight-forward termination. So, on Friday she took a tablet to stop her baby's heartbeat so she could deliver her dead child on Monday.

But the tablet did not work and Katie then had no choice but to deliver the 17-week-old foetus alive.

Katie, who has a nine, seven and four-year-old said: "They took him away from me to clean him up and then they put him in my arms and I said goodbye.

"I gave him a kiss and a cuddle and called him Cane-Philip.

On February 12, nine members of the Campus Life Tour team were arrested while handing out literature on the public sidewalk outside of Parker High School in Birmingham. They were held overnight in Birmingham City Jail and charged with trespassing. At the time of the arrests, a member of the Campus Life Tour overheard police officers saying, "we need to wipe the cameras", because of the evidence contained on the video - the Survivors were not trespassing on school property at any time during their literature distribution, as the video footage will clearly show.

Pastor Walter Hoye ran into trouble with an abortion clinic while doing an informational picket. Dennis Howard, leader of The Movement for a Better America, believes Hoye is innocent.

"His approach was simply to carry a sign that said 'Jesus Loves You. Can We Help?' and offering those who wanted it some information about alternatives to abortion," Howard explains.

A complaint was filed and Hoye was found guilty in spite of proof to the contrary. "There was a video taken of him doing this, and it shows that he was not harassing anybody," Howard points out. "In fact, he was being harassed by escorts from the abortion clinic."

Times Watch's Clay Waters reports today: "When it comes to advancing a liberal agenda, the New York Times not only gives at the office through slanted reporting, but also through the New York Times Company Foundation, according to the Foundation's 2007 annual report, released in May 2008."

Waters adds: "Matching the liberal advocacy carried out every day in the pages of the Times, the New York Times Co. handed over a $5,000 grant to an abortion group, Planned Parenthood of New York City, for 'educational outreach in schools and the community,' the second of two installments."

Senate Bill 46, sponsored by Sen. Dan McGee, R-Laurel, would amend the constitutional provision for the right of privacy to say the state has compelling interest in unborn human life.

Current privacy law states, "the right of individual privacy is essential to the well-being of a free society and shall not be infringed without a showing of compelling state interest."

This means the state can only legally violate citizens' privacy if there is compelling state interest - in this case, the lives of the unborn.

McGee said Montanans deserve the right to vote on the issue.

"It's important to note it is the people of Montana that establishes our government," McGee said, adding that people have the exclusive right to govern themselves.

McGee asserted his bill was not a ban on abortion. However, he went on to say the state judicial system has found all attempts at anti-abortion legislation unconstitutional because of privacy rights. If this amendment were voted into law, McGee said, future anti-abortion legislation would have a better chance at being upheld.

Part of the reason the abortion debate is so polarized is that the pro-choice faction wants to do just that -- look away from the medical truth of what abortion does to an unborn baby.

Maybe they should meet Denise Mountenay. Or would they rather look away from her too, because she represents a different unpleasant truth--what abortion does to women?

"I was 16 when I had my first abortion,"Mountenay says in an interview from her Morinville home. "My mother said, 'Denise, you have your whole life ahead of you. Have that operation.' I thought, I'll just be unpregnant."

But there was something troubling about becoming "unpregnant," and after the abortion, Mountenay drank, took drugs and partied. She got pregnant again in her 20s, and under pressure from her boyfriend and mother, had another abortion.

"I asked the doctor how much the baby had developed. He put a dot on a piece of paper and showed it to me. I was eight or nine weeks pregnant. He totally lied to me," she says.

After her second abortion, she fell into a deep depression and went back to drinking and drugs to numb out. "You have the procedure and you try to forget about it," she says.

"You're denying it's a baby. You're trying to justify it." It wasn't until after her third abortion that she came across information on fetal development, and "I was like, 'oh, my God'. It was a revelation. I was absolutely devastated. I read that at three weeks it has a beating heart. This is not a clump of tissue, it's a little person."

"The girl admitted that it was her child," said Caraway, "that she gave birth to the child; that the child was moving when she gave birth, the legs were moving, she felt a heartbeat. As she prepared to throw the child into the water, or place the child in the water as she said, she had her hand on the baby's chest and could feel the heartbeating at that time. That's why she's been charged with first-degree."

Craig told police that she had received counseling about the pregnancy.

"She had spoke with some health care officials at some point before, during her pregnancy to see what options she (had)," Caraway said. "She actually considered abortion, (but) she was too far along, I believe is what she said. And when that wasn't an option, she tried to conceal the pregnancy from her family.”

Caraway said more publicity could be placed on the state’s Safe Haven Law, which allows babies to be given up anonymously from birth up to 31 days at certain locations, like health care facilities or police stations, without prosecution

"Here you are with someone who didn't want a child," he said. "She didn’t want the responsibility, and you have people out there that would love to have kids that can't. I think people need to be reminded that there is a safe haven law, and that there are other options besides discarding, in this case, killing a child."

Dr. Manfred Voigt and his German colleagues evaluated over two million pregnancies between 1995 and 2000, making the 2008 study the most massive AVP (Abortion Very Preterm Birth) study in the last 30 years. (Abstract)

The control group of women in the study had no history of induced abortion, miscarriage or stillbirths. The rate of premature births in the control group was compared to that of three separate groups: women with abortions in their medical history (but no miscarriages or stillbirths), women with only miscarriages in their history, and women with only stillbirths in their history.

According to a press release by the Reduce Preterm Risk Coalition, the study found that for a woman with one prior abortion, VPB (under 32-34 weeks' gestation) risk is boosted by 30%, while more than one prior abortion increases relative VPB risk by 90%.

Over the years, Congress has built in many protections to make sure taxpayers don't fund abortion here or abroad. Now, those pro-life policies are in jeopardy.

Pro-life measures, called "riders," are added to spending bills and cover issues like taxpayer-funded abortions and abortions for federal prisoners. When Democrats took the majority in Congress in 2006, the battle over these riders escalated.

As Congress begins discussing spending bills, Reps. Heath Shuler, D-N.C., and Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, are leading the charge to keep the pro-life provisions in place. Almost 100 of their colleagues will be asking Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the House Appropriations Committee to leave the riders alone.

"It's a moral issue for so many of us here in Congress," Shuler told CitizenLink recently. "We want to ensure that we secure the sanctity of life and the importance of an unborn child."

The most well-known pro-life rider is the Hyde Amendment, which prevents federal funding of domestic abortions except in rare cases.

The letter from Shuler and Jordan reads, in part: "Members of both parties have expressed strong support for these measures, which reflect the moral concerns of many Americans who do not wish to see their tax dollars used for any organization that provides abortion services."

Outraged by what she considers a meaningless sentence and remarks by an attorney, that she says are insulting and untrue, a former patient of Womancare has come forward to tell of her horrific abortion experience with owner, abortionist Alberto Hodari.

Jennifer McCoy's hair-raising account of a forced abortion and the non-reporting of child sexual abuse that allowed her rapist to continue abusing her is part of an investigative report about Hodari's legal problems released today by Operation Rescue.

Womancare, Inc., a Detroit area abortion clinic chain owned by Alberto Hodari, was given six months probation on one count of illegally disposing of abortion records last week. Eleven other counts have been dismissed. Womancare was charged after Citizen's for a Pro-Life Society discovered abortion records along with the remains of aborted babies that had been illegally dumped in the clinic's trash. The Health Department chose not to pursue charges for the illegal disposal of human remains.

After the sentencing, Hodari's attorney, Victor Norris, told the press that Hodari had "never had any licensing violations or criminal allegations."

Operation Rescue's report tells a very different story. It reveals that Hodari has a record of a whopping 49 documented lawsuits, including four abortion-related deaths.

McCoy has told her story hoping that Hodari will be exposed and that his reign of terror over women will come to an end.

More than half believe offering the service in primary care will increase the overall abortion rate.

Nearly half of GPs also wish to see the current 24-week limit for abortion lowered, with one in ten calling for it to be cut to 15 weeks or less.

The findings of a poll of 480 UK GPs highlights unease in general practice over its growing role in abortion care and may jeopardise DoH plans to offer early medical abortions (EMAs) in primary care.[..]

Dr Sarah Jarvis, RCGP spokeswoman for women's health, warned that abortions would be 'trivialised' by availability in primary care.

'I have already seen an increase in the number of women coming forward for abortions. Many are now using it as a method of contraception. I certainly would not want to offer my patients medical abortions.'

Dr Trevor Stammers, chairman of the Christian Medical Fellowship and a GP in south London, said: ‘Medical abortions are not a harmless procedure. Uterine rupture and bleeding, though rare, will occur and GPs should rightly be reluctant to take on the risk.

'I will play no part in brutalising women in such a way and will do all I can to try and help women to see that abortion may not be the best way out in the long run.'

"Komen's Dark Side," exposes the irregular relationship between the breast cancer organization, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and Planned Parenthood and reports on the cover-up of the abortion-breast cancer (ABC) link. It is expected to reach more than 100 million North American households.

The television program, "Facing Life Head-On," features the video online at: http://www.facinglife.tv/. It will be aired on selected cable television stations during the week of March 8, 2009.

Missouri Roundtable for Life has filed a lawsuit against Secretary of State Robin Carnahan seeking a change in the wording of a 2010 ballot initiative.

The lawsuit was filed Friday in Cole County Circuit Court. The initiative petition, which wouldn't appear on the ballot until 2010, would prevent public funds from being used for certain stem cell research currently allowed under Missouri law and "abortion services," including those necessary to save the life of the mother, according to a news release from Carnahan's office.

Ed Martin, president of Missouri Roundtable for Life, called the wording of the ballot by the secretary of state "utterly offensive" and said that it is "certainly not the intention" of the petition.

Martin said the language was "screwed-up" from the group's original petition's language and filing a lawsuit is "the only thing you can do." The group was in Columbia on Feb. 5 to talk with voters about the petition.

The not-for-profit group says that the language of Constitutional Amendment 2, passed by voters in 2006, leaves gaps to fund cloning and abortion with taxpayer dollars. The amendment marginally passed statewide.

.. the study, involving patients at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, puts to rest some earlier studies suggesting maternity makes cancer situations worse.

Dr. Beth Beadle, who works at the prestigious medical center and is the lead author of the study, told AP that both mother and baby can be cared for during treatment.

"If we can get them early, we can treat them aggressively and have good and promising outcomes for both woman and child," she said.

The new study, published today in the medical journal Cancer, included 652 women under the age of 35 who were treated for breast cancer at the center over 36 years.

The group included 104 women who were diagnosed with cancer either during their pregnancy or one year following. The research found the rates of cancer recurrence, spread, and survival were approximately the same for the pregnant women as with non-pregnant women.

Beadle, an oncologist, told AP that there was no evidence that tumors grew faster in pregnant women than other women who dealt with a cancer diagnosis.

Ruth O'Regan, an associate professor at Emory University's Winship Cancer Institute in Atlanta, also told AP that cancer doctors can treat both mother and child without the need for an abortion.

"It's quite complicated, but all of us have been able to treat pregnant women successfully," O'Regan said.

The Porter County Right to Life, which is responsible for the billboard and four others around the county carrying other anti-abortion messages, stands behind the claim.

But the American Cancer Society says, "the scientific evidence does not support the notion that induced abortion raises the risk of breast cancer."

The cancer society backs up its conclusion on its Web site by citing experts in the field and explaining the difficulties in studying the link.

"The public is not well-served by false alarms," the group said.

A state senator in California is planning to start asking some hard questions after his staff uncovered a "pilot project" concealed within a gerontology program originally launched in 1973 that is being used to train nurse midwives and physicians assistants to perform "suction aspiration" surgical abortion procedures.

According to State Sen. Sam Annestad, a Republican from Grass Valley, the goal of the abortion program that carefully was concealed behind the description "expanding early pregnancy care" apparently is to train medical assistants to do abortions.

In a website commentary about his discoveries, Aanestad said it apparently was begun in 2006 without legislative oversight and involves the state and several foundations contributing financially to the "pilot program" at Planned Parenthood abortion businesses in three cities.

He said not only has the abortion-training program been concealed behind a "pregnancy care" label, state regulations have been suspended in order to allow "Nurse Midwives, Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants" to do procedures for which they would not ordinarily be considered qualified.

The abortion was performed yesterday in the Regional Hospital of Santiago de Estero on a young woman who doctors claim is mentally retarded and was raped by a yet unknown assailant. [..] The deadly procedure was carried out despite the offer of 38 year old Dr. Lucian Pavo, a lawyer living in the province, to adopt and raise the child.

"The child condemned to death is completely innocent, isn't guilty of anything, and no one pleads for it," wrote Pavo in an open letter to El Liberal, a local daily newspaper. "To the contrary, those who carry out her legal representation are asking for its death, with the silence of prosecutors, of the district attorney, and of the priests."[..]

Pavo was joined by a young woman who was conceived by the rape of her mentally-disabled mother. The woman, who wrote anonymously to protect her family, noted that her mother "thought of giving us up for adoption, but she never considered having an abortion. She never thought about taking the possibility of life away from us, even though she was mentally ill, she never thought of killing us, despite not wanting us."

The Board of Medicine revoked the license of a Florida doctor accused of medical malpractice in a botched abortion case in which a live baby was delivered, but ended up dead in a cardboard box.

The board on Friday found Dr. Pierre Jean-Jacque Renelique in violation of Florida statutes by committing medical malpractice, delegating responsibility to unlicensed personnel, and failing to keep an accurate medical record.

State Rep. Dan Ruby introduced "The Personhood of Children Act" into the North Dakota Legislature earlier this month.

The act reads, in part, "The state shall afford the equality and inherent rights guaranteed to individuals in section 1 of article 1 of the Constitution of North Dakota to all human beings from the beginning of their biological development, including the pre-born, partially born... ." Entire act text

House Resolution 1572 was crafted with the help of Personhood USA, a grassroots Christian group that is working to enact "personhood" legislation across the country as a way to combat proposed pro-abortion laws supported by Obama, including the Freedom of Choice Act, which would legalize abortion on demand in all 50 states.

"We want to focus on [personhood legislation] now, as we see the battle shaping up in the years to come," Keith Mason, co-founder with Cal Zastrow of Personhood USA, told CNSNews.com.

A 21 year-old Argentinean woman, whose mother is mentally ill and was raped in 1987, has written a moving letter pleading for the life of an unborn child of a 22 year-old woman from Santiago del Estero who is also mentally handicapped and was raped. The child's maternal grandparents are asking permission to have the baby aborted.

"My twin sister and I are today almost 22 years-old and despite all of the misfortunes (as my grandmother says) that we have experienced, we are two warriors of life who are anxious to do something good with our lives, and I think this three month-old unborn baby hopes for the same," the woman wrote in her letter published by Tucuman Noticias.

The woman, who preferred to remain anonymous, said she identified with the situation in Santiago del Estero, but not from the point of view of the law or the woman who was raped, but rather "from the point of view of the baby."

In her letter, she explained that both she and her sister were raised by their grandmother and that her mother is "like a big sister." She recalled that her mother suffered "a lot in her life" and that although she had experienced a lot of problems, she had a happy childhood.

She acknowledged that at different times she wondered why she didn't have a father, until after much insistence as a teenager her mother finally told her the truth: "You don't have a father. I was raped. I didn't tell you before because I couldn't tell a 12 year-old girl that she was the result of a rape and that I was willing to give you both away or give you up for adoption."

"She thought about giving us up for adoption but she never considered abortion. She never considered taking away our chance to live, even though she was mentally ill, she never considered killing us, even though she didn't want us," the woman recalled, saying she loves her mother "because she is my mother" and because "she had the courage to tell me what happened and I can share her pain with her."

The vote was 11-3 Wednesday to provide abortions for women who are 19-22 weeks pregnant.[..]

Board chairman David Walsh called the second-trimester abortions "the worst kind of service" among those who believe life starts at conception.

But he said women have a constitutional right to those abortions – and a great, full-service institution should do it if no one else will.

Rep. Kenneth Sumsion, R-American Fork, said Wednesday in presenting his HB114 to a committee that the cost would come in somewhere between $1 million and $3 million. Health and Human Services Committee Chairmam Paul Ray, who backs the measure, also put the tab at up to $3 million.

The Utah Attorney General's Office, though, puts the figure about $5 million.

Missy Bird, executive director of the Planned Parenthood Action Council, said $5 million would be a bare minimum for the fight.

But the disagreements over the price tag didn't slow down HB114, which Sumsion says would save taxpayers money by having anti-abortion advocates pick up the costs. The committee unanimously passed the bill, sending it to the full House for debate.

The Senate Health Committee voted 5-4 for the bill, which now moves to the full Senate for consideration. The Indiana General Assembly has considered similar legislation in previous years, but the bills have never passed both the Republican-controlled Senate and the Democrat-ruled House.

The bill would require a doctor performing an abortion in Indiana to have admitting privileges at a hospital in the county where the abortion was performed or a county next to it. Supporters say the proposal would provide better care to patients who might experience problems after abortions.

"I am moved by the necessity of being honest with ourselves about life," said Dr. Lucian Pavo, 38, to a local newspaper. "I want to prevent someone from being killed. We cannot use contradictory language and say that we defend life and human rights, while simultaneously denying life and its rights to a new living person."

"I am capable of taking care of the baby regardless of the circumstances and the physical and mental state this baby might be in after birth," said Pavo, who is married with two children of his own. "We must not discriminate against someone because they are born with a handicap. We must accept them as they come. Its condition doesn't matter to me."

"This act is an infringement on states' rights. Abortion is not a right guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution but states' rights are guaranteed by the Tenth Amendment," Kern, R-Oklahoma City, said. "The Freedom of Choice Act would nullify our laws regarding abortion."

Representing Concerned Women for America, America's largest women's advocacy group and four other groups of pro-life medical professionals, attorneys with Advocates International filed a motion to intervene yesterday in three lawsuits commenced on January 15 that seek to invalidate a federal law protecting medical professionals from discrimination because they refuse to participate in abortions. Advocates International is seeking to defend the law against challenges by some state officials, Planned Parenthood, and the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union.

"As we face the most pro-abortion Congress and administration in American history, medical professionals can no longer depend on government to protect their rights not to be forced to perform abortions against their conscience. Despite the well-established laws protecting the health care right of conscience, Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and their pro-abortion allies are now hoping for the cooperation of the Obama administration as they again seek to punish pro-life medical professionals for their beliefs," said Samuel B. Casey, General Counsel of Advocates International's Law of Life Project. "Our clients are opposing these lawsuits because they wrongfully seek to compel health care workers to perform abortions against their ethical and professional judgment or face dire consequences."

"For over three decades, federal law has prohibited recipients of federal grants from forcing medical professionals to participate in abortions. The arguments in the lawsuits themselves demonstrate lack of compliance with these laws and the necessity of the fair non-discrimination Health and Human Services (HHS) regulations these pro-abortion groups are challenging," said attorney Howard Wood, of Manchester who is assisting as Advocates International's lead local counsel in the case.

Concerned Woman for America (CWA), Christian Pharmacists Fellowship International, Care Net, Heartbeat International and the New Jersey Physicians Resource Council, Advocates International attorneys, are asking to be allowed to intervene and defend the law, 45 CFR Part 88, enacted in December 2008 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

New hidden-camera footage from Tucson, AZ, implicates a third Planned Parenthood clinic in a multi-state child abuse scandal. In the video, UCLA student Lila Rose and her friend Jackie Stollar enter a Tucson Planned Parenthood clinic where Rose tells the nurse that Stollar, posing as a 15-year-old, is pregnant by her 27-year-old boyfriend. The nurse disregards the age difference and even cautions Stollar not to bring her "boyfriend" before the judicial hearing required in Arizona to waive parental consent for an abortion. This negligence is punishable under Arizona law.

"Is he not a minor?" the Planned Parenthood nurse, who identifies herself as Araceli, asks. When Rose says, "He's 27," the nurse urges the girls not to bring him to the hearing: "I wouldn't take him with me, no. I mean: don't take him."

I'm going to say it. I'm going to say what millions know in the front of their brains, and many, many more millions know in the depths of their hearts ... but won't allow themselves to think it, much less feel it. And believe me, I know I'll be hated for saying it, I'll be hated by people who don't know me, have never worked with me, have never golfed with me, had a drink with me, shot the shit with me. They've never met me, don't want to meet me ... but they will hate me. I'm going to say it anyway: Abortion is murder. [..]

I have been on all sides of this issue for most of my life, and I can simply not escape the logic. That fetus a pregnant woman is carrying inside of her, regardless of the gestation stage, is a living, breathing human being. [..]It's not an 'unviable tissue mass.' Not a wart, a mole, a skin outcropping, a boil, or a bundle of uncoordinated cells. It's not just a 'fetus'.

It's a baby. Not fully developed, true. Like an infant is not a fully developed and mature adult. But it's a baby.

And the first time I got a girl pregnant, I would have wrestled you to the ground for saying that. [..]You don't know what you're talking about! You piece of crap, you don't know!

Well I do know. And I stand condemned. I've paid for three of them and was responsible for probably several more, I'm not really sure. But it breaks my heart. Because I've been convicted in my soul. It took years after the fact, but I was shown the Truth. And not to get mumbo-jumbo, oogly-boogly on you, but it was a spiritual awakening that did it. It happened unexpectedly, and it threw me to my knees in sudden tearful epiphany of what it meant for a man to be with a woman, what sex was really designed for by our Creator and... what abortion is.

Two months after exhibiting the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) the pro-life students received, privately in their homes, summons to court. They must enter a plea by the end of this month, with a trial to be set for later in the year.

The students, who are members of the Campus Pro-Life (CPL) club, set up the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) on November 26th and 27th of 2008.

Leah Hallman, president of CPL, stated today in an interview with LifeSiteNews that the students were "shocked" when they received the court summons, but added that "we did have an idea that it was coming."

"We're disappointed in the university," she said. Hallman said that CPS expects that six students in total will receive the summons, but that the summons have only been gradually coming in over the past week and a half.

Holy Angels Academy in Richfield, Minnesota had considered alumnus State Rep. Paul Thissen as a nominee for its Activities Hall of Fame, which recognizes those who "through their citizenship and achievements, have brought honor to themselves, their school and the community."

Thissen, a 1985 graduate of the school, was to accept the honor at a January ceremony, the Star Tribune reports.

However, the school's president called Thissen days before the ceremony and asked him to withdraw his name from consideration. He refused and was told the day before the ceremony he would be stripped of the award because of his support for abortion as a state legislator of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.

According to the school, an alumnus' record at the academy constitutes the primary criteria for the award but the nominating committee also considers activities and professional life afterward. Thissen’s legislative actions contradicted Catholic teaching.

"Mr. Thissen had an outstanding activities career at Holy Angels and has had much success beyond," the school's president, Jill Reilly said in a statement.

However, she reported that the nominating committee was not aware of his voting record regarding "right-to-life issues."

"As a result of Mr. Thissen's public and professional position to actively support pro-choice issues, with regret, AHA has chosen not to include Mr. Thissen among this year's inductees," Reilly said, according to the Star Tribune.