Film producer Jason Jones knows firsthand the value of human life.

When his high school girlfriend told him she was pregnant, the couple came up with a plan: He would drop out of school and join the Army, and she would hide her pregnancy until he got out of basic training. They would take care of the baby together.

But the couple never realized their wish to be a family.

Two weeks before he returned home, she called him crying: Her parents had taken her to get an abortion.

The couple were devastated.

"That's how I found out about legal abortion in America," Jones said. "And I promised my girlfriend that day that even if it took me my whole life, I would end abortion."

"The Freedom of Choice Act is not the highest legislative priority,” Obama told reporters at a prime time news conference marking his 100th day in office. “I believe that women should have the right to choose. But I think that the most important thing we can do to tamp down some of the anger surrounding this issue is to focus on those areas that we can agree on."

Following the release of undercover footage from a Memphis Planned Parenthood clinic, state lawmakers have introduced legislation that could divert taxpayer subsidies from Planned Parenthood in Tennessee. In response to Planned Parenthood of Greater Memphis Region's contesting the veracity of the footage, the group responsible for filming, Live Action, has sent the state Attorney General and Memphis District Attorney an unedited version for review.The full footage is also on YouTube for public viewing at http://youtube.com/watch?v=IvAGwJcs6c8

Lila Rose, 20-year-old president of Live Action, says the unedited video further exposes Planned Parenthood's reckless counseling practices.

The bill would have required doctors who perform abortions in Indiana to have admitting privileges in a nearby hospital. It also would have informed women seeking abortions that a fetus might feel pain.

The House version of the proposal included a cancer screening program for women. The GOP-led Senate was adamant that the $28 million program didn't belong in the bill, but the Democrat-controlled House refused to give it up. The deadlock killed the bill.

McGurn, an alumnus of Notre Dame began his lecture by acknowledging the university's invitation to President Obama to give the commencement address at this year's ceremony. However, McGurn explained, he did not come to Notre Dame to "rally against a speaker, he came "to affirm the sacredness of life."

"In a nation wounded by Roe, in a society that sets mothers against the children they carry in their wombs ... we come here tonight because however much our hearts ache, they tell us this: Our church, our country, and our culture long for the life witness of Notre Dame," McGurn said, launching into his address.

What does being a witness mean? he asked. "To be a witness, an institution must order itself so that all who look upon it see a consonance between its most profound truths and its most public actions." For a Catholic university today, this requires leaders to share in that mission.

We must admit, he said, that there is "no guarantee that the young men and women who come here to learn will assent to her witness – but we must never forget that the university will have failed them if they leave here without at least understanding it."

"This witness is the only real reason for a University of Notre Dame,”" McGurn continued. Catholics believe that there are "self-evident truths about the dignity of each human life, and that this dignity derives from our" creation in the image and likeness of God.

These beliefs make us "countercultural,"he pointed out. However, "One does not need to be a Catholic to appreciate that abortion involves the brutal taking of innocent human life. To argue that this is a Catholic truth, or even a religious truth, is to overlook what science and sonograms tell us – and to insult" non-Catholics and even non-Christians "who appreciate that a civilization which sanctions abortion as a human right is in some essential way writing its death warrant."

Officials at Abilene's Planned Parenthood Perini Center indicate they began dispensing the abortion drug two weeks ago.

"We have had clients access the service in our Abilene center," Carla Holeva, spokeswoman for Odessa-based Planned Parenthood of West Texas, told the Reporter News. "We are pleased to be providing a service that has been requested by our clients in Abilene."

One we found particularly interesting was a take-off on something that happened during the presidential campaign, when people who support legalized abortion were urged to send donations to Planned Parenthood in the name of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a staunch abortion foe.

On Monday, Daily Kos blogger mck suggested that people make donations to Planned Parenthood in the name of Lila Rose.

According to the New York Daily News, about $760,000 flowed to the coffers of Planned Parenthood in the name of the vice presidential nominee, who recently mused to a crowd in Indiana that for a fleeting moment, she contemplated having an abortion when she learned her fifth child, Trig, had Down Syndrome.

The chamber approved the amendment 115-43 Tuesday but delayed a vote on the entire bill. The bill allows certain state boards to hold disciplinary hearings for people who are licensed by the state and are convicted of certain felonies.

The amendment, sponsored by Rep. Ed Emery, R-Lamar, states that a pharmacy can't be sued for not carrying medication and that the state cannot revoke a license if a pharmacy does not carry certain medication. It specifically mentions Plan B, an emergency contraception drug that can prevent pregnancy if taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex, and RU-486, the drug used to induce an abortion.

The "Cemetery of the Innocents" display was designed to remember the 4,000 abortions performed daily, explained Maura Reilly ’10, vice president of Colonials for Life.

"It's more powerful seeing it as a visual representation, like Arlington Cemetery, than just a number," said Reilly.

The display received appreciation, apathy, and sneers from passersby, but Vickie Graf ’10 who serves as president for the group said the response was "positive overall."[..]

When the group members began hammering each cross into the grass area around 8:30 a.m., Graf said they received their first "thank you."

"We could have stopped right there because that was all I wanted...one person," she said.[..]

The pro-life day also featured an evening speaker on the concentrated impact of abortion on the African American community, and both Graf and Reilly described the day as the group's culminating activity, as a new e-board is elected on Tuesday night. Founded in 2003, Colonials for Life’s display was the sixth annual "Cemetery of the Innocents."

"Growing up in a Catholic household, I was pro-life, so it was something I was passionate about, more so when I came to GW, which is interesting," said Reilly, who clarified that she thought students lean toward pro-choice upon coming to college.

Graff added: "At a school like GW, people argue about abortion as an intangible issue...when you see the number of babies killed per day on the way to class…then you can see it."

On Saturday, April 25, three volunteers of the Right to Life organization and a Chilean in the town of El Ferrol were victims a brutal assault by a group of seven young people who attacked them as they were collecting signatures against the law on abortion sponsored by the Socialist government.

Gador Joya, the organization's spokeswoman, is demanding the attack be condemned by federal officials in the province of Galicia and that they bring the assailants to justice.

"Once again we see the lack of arguments of those who defend the most radical positions: intolerance and violence have no place in a state based on the rule of law," she said.

The Center For Bio-Ethical Reform (CBR) has begun displaying large abortion photos on the sides and backs of a fleet of billboard trucks which will operate in the South Bend area between now and the conclusion of graduation ceremonies.

Because the pro-life community at Notre Dame has relentlessly covered-up the horror of abortion, CBR has decided to fly enormous aerial billboards over the campus. If the Secret Service and the Federal Aviation Administration impose Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs) for a longer period than is typical for a presidential appearance, or which restrict more airspace than is typical for a presidential appearance, CBR will also fly its aircraft at Notre Dame during the fall semester, 2009, during an aerial campaign which will last far longer than is typical for a presidential appearance.

A pregnant Wellington woman had her baby wrongly aborted because an ultrasound was misread by a radiologist in Australia.

A follow-up ultrasound at Hutt Hospital nine days later showed the baby was simply in an unusual position and was still alive.

But by then the woman had been given medication to terminate the pregnancy and the baby later died.

An external report into the case also criticised the woman's independent obstetrician for terminating the pregnancy after just one ultrasound, when the scans are known to be inaccurate in such cases.

The report, issued to The Dominion Post under the Official Information Act, found the mother, who had difficulties conceiving and had already had two miscarriages, desperately wanted the baby and should have been told the diagnosis might be wrong and given more time to decide.

Jeremy Stanbary of Epiphany Studio Productions says his play, "The Vitae Monologues," portrays powerful stories of hope and healing from women who have suffered from the psychological and physical effects of abortion.

Stanbary, founder and executive director of the Minneapolis-based Catholic production company, was inspired to write this play a few years ago after hearing women and men speak publicly of their experiences dealing with post-abortion syndrome at a Silent No More event in Minnesota.

Sarah Preissner and Stanbary star in the one-act play designed for performance particularly on college campuses or at high schools.

"These personal and very real testimonies are unfortunately often dismissed by the secular, medical community," said Stanbary in a telephone interview with Catholic News Service.

"The Vitae Monologues" or "The Monologues of Life" opens with a scene in a therapist's office, where several people talk about seemingly unrelated problems they're having in their lives. Each one has experienced trauma in the aftermath of an abortion.

"Oftentimes symptoms don't appear until years later," Stanbary said. "Since Roe v. Wade, women have been repressed and ignored, but we're seeing an influx of women coming forth, telling their stories of post-abortion syndrome -- understanding that they are not alone.

"This play gives women a voice within our culture and their stories need to be told," he added. "The greatest deception is that abortion is good for women and helps women."

Mary Ann Glendon, a pro-life Harvard professor and former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, released a letter today to the president of the University of Notre Dame, explaining that she will not accept the school's prestigious Laetare Medal or speak at the commencement on May 17, where President Barack Obama is also scheduled to speak and receive an honorary degree.

Glendon, in her Apr. 27 letter to Notre Dame President Rev. John Jenkins, said the decision to honor Obama with an honorary degree "was in disregard" to what the U.S. Catholic bishops have specifically taught about Catholic institutions.

To award Obama an honorary degree, Glendon wrote to Jenkins, "as you must know, was in disregard of the U.S. bishops' express request of 2004 that Catholic institutions 'should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles' and that such persons 'should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions.' That request, which in no way seeks to control or interfere with an institution's freedom to invite and engage in serious debate with whomever it wishes, seems to me so reasonable that I am at a loss to understand why a Catholic university should disrespect it."

Glendon further said that "talking points" released by Notre Dame officials to help dampen criticism over Obama giving the commencement speech "included statements implying that my acceptance speech would somehow balance the event."

After posting these videos on YouTube and campaigning with them throughout the netherworld of the antiabortion movement, Lila Rose has succeeded in getting state and local governments to cut of hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding to Planned Parenthood clinics. She has also created a public relations nightmare for the group. NB: The aides who violated rules by telling the "girl" to lie about the father have been fired as they were violating Planned Parenthood rules. She's made herself a heroine in the antiabortion movement.

I have three questions for prosecutors who are now considering investigations into the Planned Parenthood operations in some of the six states where Rose posed as something she was not:

1. Why don't they investigate Rose for trespassing, fraud, and whatever other law she violated by posing as something she was not to make the videos?

2. Why don't state authorities prosecute her for violating state privacy laws by videotaping private counseling sessions? According to the L.A. Times:

In May 2007, Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles accused Rose of breaking state privacy laws when she secretly taped her interactions. It demanded she remove the videos from her website, which she did, though they are still easily found on YouTube. (Arizona, Indiana, and Tennessee, where she went next, have less restrictive privacy laws.)

3. Since antiabortion foes will never succeed in banning abortion (they got as close as they will ever get with eight years of George Bush in the White House, and he left office as the worst president in American history) why don't they just go away?

Rep. Patti Fritz (DFL-Faribault) offered an amendment during debate on the omnibus health and human services budget bill that would have no longer allowed state-sponsored health programs to pay for abortions. The DFL-controlled House narrowly defeated the amendment 66-66.

Sen. Claire Robling (R-Jordan) offered a similar amendment during debate on the Senate's own omnibus health and human services bill. Robling's amendment was defeated 39-26.

Rep. Tina Liebling (DFL-Rochester) said the amendment would set up a legal confrontation concerning the 1995 Minnesota Supreme Court decision Doe v. Gomez. The Gomez case required state health programs for poor Minnesotans to pay for abortions.

"This is anything but a simple amendment," Liebling said.

Rep. Steve Gottwalt (R-St. Cloud) supported the amendment by saying Minnesotans "don't want their tax dollars" to pay for abortions.

Five Senate Democrats voted for Robling's amendment. Sen. Geoff Michel (R-Edina) was the lone Republican senator who voted against it.

A standoff over women's health screenings could kill the legislation, which would require doctors who perform abortions in Indiana to have admitting privileges in a nearby hospital. The bill would also inform women seeking abortions that a fetus might feel pain.

The House version of the proposal included a screening program for breast and cervical cancer. Members of the GOP-led Senate are adamant that the program doesn’t belong in the bill, and worry about its cost of more than $25 million.

But House Democrats say there’s no way they would agree to take out the screening program.

Salma Akhter Aduri, 19, a garment worker, went to Khan Doctor's Chamber at Rupnagar to terminate her five-and-a-half-month pregnancy on Saturday night.

But after a few hours, she expired as the doctors failed to stop bleeding during the surgical procedure, said police and the victim's family.

According to medical rules, practitioners must not perform abortion on anyone pregnant for over eight weeks.

Pallabi police sent the body to the Dhaka Medical College (DMC) Morgue for an autopsy.

Talking to reporters at the DMC Hospital, Aduri's father Sattar Sarkar said her daughter went to Khan Doctor's Chamber to have an abortion on April 24.

He also said Aduri had opted to end the pregnancy as her husband Mohammad Shahin, also a garment worker, wanted a divorce to marry another woman.

Doctors at the clinic agreed to carry out the abortion knowing that she had been carrying for more than five months.

Sustainable Population Australia (SPA) said this week that Australia's 22 million people must be reduced to 7 million and that restricting each couple to one baby, as China does, is "one way of assisting to reduce the population" and avoiding "environmental suicide."

Speaking on the eve of Earth Day, the group's national president, Sandra Kanck, a former Democrat politician, said a one-child policy is "something we need to throw into the mix."

Population increase, she said, means, "more cars on the road, more coal-fired electricity generated. It entails more houses and other consumer products. It uses more cement, energy and water which all results in more greenhouse gas emissions."

"Increasing the population is basically suicide, it's environmental suicide, it's utterly irresponsible," Kanck said. "We are eating away at the planet, we are eating into all the resources, be it petrol, be it superphosphate, be it clear air."

A San Diego County Superior Court judge on Friday ordered Bertha Bugarin to serve the sentence concurrently with a three-year term handed down by a Los Angeles court for similar charges.

Bugarin pleaded guilty in December to nine counts of practicing medicine without a license and one count of grand theft.

One of Bugarin's patients suffered severe complications, had to be hospitalized three times and eventually gave birth prematurely.

The Young Advocates' event is a fundraiser for Charlotte's Planned Parenthood, a privately funded, nonprofit family planning agency that offers reduced-price clinical and sex education services. Locally, the agency does not provide abortion services, although some affiliates do.

More than 100 items will be on sale at Center of the Earth Gallery in the North Davidson Street arts district.

Up to 50 percent of the sale price will go to Planned Parenthood's prevention and treatment services in Charlotte.

"Our fear is people that weren't formerly low-income but now are (will be) making decisions to cut spending in areas like health care and birth control," said Lauren Hartney, chair of Planned Parenthood Young Advocates. "We want to make sure that birth control and other clinic services continue to be affordable."

"Significant questions remain about Gov. Kathleen Sebelius' evolving relationship with a late-term abortion doctor as well as about her position on the practice of late-term abortions," said Steele in a press release today. "The Senate should not vote, nor should Gov. Sebelius be confirmed, until these questions are answered fully and completely."

Steele pointed out that Gov. Sebelius "has not been forthcoming" about her financial relationship with Kansas late-term abortionist George Tiller.

"She [Sebelius] admitted the full extent of the political contributions she received from Dr. Tiller only after press reports contradicted her previous financial statements," Steele pointed out.

The GOP Chairman also challenged Sebelius to publicly reveal her position on "the extremist and heinous practice of late-term abortions."

"The vast majority of Americans do not support the concept of late-term abortions," said Steele. "They deserve to know whether President Obama's choice to be the nation's top health official supports these indefensible procedures."

Steele said that until Gov. Sebelius provides "clear and complete answers to these questions," the Senate should not vote on her confirmation.

If Sebelius and the Obama administration refuse to give answers, he concluded, "President Obama should withdraw her nomination."

"While I agree that we should try to reduce the number of abortions, it cannot be at the increased risk to the life or health of women," Sebelius wrote in a statement announcing the veto.

The vetoed bill would have required late-term abortion providers to report the specific diagnoses used to justify the procedure. Abortions after the 22nd week of pregnancy are illegal in Kansas unless necessary to prevent serious health threats to the woman.

The bill also would have allowed a woman or her husband — or the parents of a girl under 18 — to sue the provider if they suspect the abortion violated the law. And it would have given prosecutors greater power to file charges against abortion providers.

Sebelius argued that the bill would not have reduced abortions and would likely be ruled unconstitutional. She said the bill, if signed into law, would have intimidated abortion providers and potentially limited women’s access to abortion services.

Archbishop Alfred Hughes wrote a letter to the president of Louisiana's Xavier University expressing his disappointment, according to The Times-Picayune.

"Her public statements on the abortion issue are not in keeping with Catholic moral teaching," he wrote.

Stan Musil said he filed the posthumous "adoption" on Monday as a way to support his wife, Lisa, and help her heal from the pain of having those abortions, Lisa Musil told FOXNews.com.

"He told me 'I love you and you are a part of me. Your babies are a part of you, and so that makes them a part of me also,'" she said.

Musil, now 45, had her first abortion at 19 because she was too frightened to admit her pregnancy to anyone — including her then live-in boyfriend, the Assist News Service reported.

But terminating the pregnancy caused her so much pain that she tried to cover it with "drugs, alcohol, partying and a promiscuous lifestyle," she told radio host Rich Buhler in an interview with KBRT AM-740.

That lifestyle led to her second pregnancy — and subsequent abortion — just before she was due to serve a jail sentence for a drunken driving conviction, ANS reported.

"The world tells me that it was only a blob of tissue, but my heart tells me otherwise," Musil told FOXNews.com by e-mail. "The grief often times was more than I could bear."

Raymond Martin Scott, 32, pleaded no contest to charges of solicitation to murder Nakeisha Holliday and solicitation to kill an unborn child.

Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Tracy Thorne-Begland said Scott and Holliday worked together and that she was reportedly pregnant with his child. Scott wanted Holliday to get an abortion because he was also seeing another woman.

When Holliday refused to get an abortion, Scott offered an unnamed man $1,300 to kill Holliday and her baby.

Instead, the man contacted authorities and Holliday eventually gave birth to a baby boy in January.

"He's a hit man with a conscience," Thorne-Begland told the Richmond Times Dispatch newspaper.

The Food and Drug Administration, reversing field, will allow 17-year-olds get the 'morning-after' birth control pill without a doctor's prescription, a government health official said Wednesday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the agency will comply with a federal judge's order overturning a Bush administration policy that restricted access.

The official was not authorized to speak publicly before the FDA announcement, expected later Wednesday.

A judge has upheld the summary prepared by Secretary of State Robin Carnahan for a potential ballot measure barring public funding for abortions and certain kinds of stem cell research.

Carnahan's wording had been challenged both by the sponsors of the proposed constitutional amendment and its opponents.

But Cole County Judge Patricia Joyce shot down all their arguments. Joyce ruled that Carnahan's wording is sufficient and fair and informs people of the probable effect of the initiative.

The measure is sponsored by the Missouri Roundtable for Life and is intended for the 2010 ballot. The group said it is considering an appeal.

The controversial measure by Rep. Frank Corte, R-San Antonio, requires the doctor to do the ultrasound at least two hours before the abortion to make sure the woman "understands the nature and consequences of an abortion."

HB36, referred to as the "informed consent" or the "ultrasound bill," is expected to trigger the biggest abortion debate in the Texas Legislature since lawmakers passed parental consent in 2005.

Supporters say this is the top priority for abortion opponents this year.

"It's patronizing to assume people don't need or want this information," said Kyleen Wright, president of the Arlington-based Texans for Life Coalition. "Planned Parenthood wants it to be easy, breezy and dehumanized. We owe the women who have to live with this decision."[..]

A similar bill in the Senate has been approved by committee but has yet to be considered by the full Senate.

The House version would require doctors to do the ultrasound, show the woman the image, let her hear the heartbeat and explain the fetus's development.

Lawmakers in the National Assembly voted 167-to-32 on Tuesday for a bill that says "the right to life is inviolable from conception until death." The measure is included in a constitutional reform bill submitted by President Leonel Fernandez.

Abortion is prohibited in all cases in the Dominican Republic, and even those who help women locate providers are subject to fines and arrest.

Some people who use wheelchairs now can walk or live independently again, thanks to a drug that stimulates their own stem cells and helps their broken bones heal.

Preliminary results presented at the Orthopaedic Research Society meeting found that 93 percent of those with an unhealed bone fracture had significant healing and pain control after 8 to 12 weeks of treatment.

Dr. J. Edward Puzas at the University of Rochester Medical Center discovered teriparatide, which is approved for treatment of osteoporosis, can boost the body's bone stem-cell production.

"We believe we've found a way to turn back the clock on fracture healing through a simple, in-body stem-cell therapy," Puzas said in a statement

Janet Onthank King will now be tried on Nov. 2. The 61-year-old's trial on two counts of performing an abortion by a non-physician and one count of falsifying medical records was originally set for January 2008.

Circuit Judge Gloria Bahakel ruled King's lawyers could present evidence she was acting under authorization from the clinic's physician, which state law allowed at the time.

Each misdemeanor charge is punishable by up to six months in prison for a first offense.

Summit Medical Center was shut down in May 2006 after a woman delivered a near-term stillborn baby six days after she was given an abortion drug.

The Finance Committee voted 15 to 8 to send the Sebelius nomination to the full Senate for a final vote.

Approved 6-1 Tuesday by the Health and Human Services Committee, the bill now goes to full Senate for a vote. A similar measure is pending in the House.

The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) today announced it is launching a national campaign demanding that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) retract a warning it included in a recent report on domestic terrorism that labels pro-life supporters as 'extremists.'

At the same time, the ACLJ is notifying all 50 states that the report - and the offensive warning - should not be used to curtail the First Amendment rights of pro-life supporters. Further, the ACLJ is supporting a call for Congressional hearings on the DHS report.

"The report creates a very troubling climate for those who want to exercise their constitutional rights to speak out about protecting the life of the unborn," said Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel of the ACLJ.

"It's now clear the DHS ignored its own internal concerns about this outrageous and inflammatory warning. We're very concerned that this disturbing report not be used by law enforcement agencies around the country to silence the legitimate First Amendment rights of pro-life supporters.

"The fact is that the DHS must retract this offensive reference. We also support the call for Congressional hearings to get to the bottom of this. The DHS report represents at the very least - bad judgment - and at worst - an Administration-backed effort to intimidate and silence pro-life supporters."

Tegan Simone Leach, 19, is believed to be the first woman charged in Queensland in nearly 50 years for organising her own miscarriage and is facing up to 14 years in jail.

Pro-abortion lobbyists are rallying in Brisbane today against the landmark test case saying it "sets an ugly precedent for the rights of women".

Ms Leach's partner Sergie Brennan, 21, who lives with his girlfriend at their Mt Sheridan home, in Cairns south, also has been charged with attempting to procure and supply drugs to procure an abortion.

The two are due to face Cairns Magistrate's Court again on June 11 after they allegedly decided to terminate the pregnancy because they were too young to have a child.

Police allege a family member obtained the abortion pill misoprostol from a doctor in the Ukraine and smuggled it into Australia on a flight to Cairns on December 25.

"Abortion may play a vital role in understanding the aetiology [cause] of relationship problems," the authors stated. The study said that abortion within a current relationship causes 116% more arguing when discussing future children, and 196% more domestic violence.

The researchers found that abortion affected future relationships as well.

"For both men and women the experience of an abortion in a previous relationship was related to negative outcomes in the current relationship," they wrote.

"Men whose current partners had an abortion were more likely to report jealousy (96% greater risk) and conflict about drugs (385% greater risk).

"These results suggest that abortion may play a vital role in understanding the aetiology of some relationship problems," the study's authors wrote.

Dr. Priscilla Coleman, a professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Bowling Green State University headed up the study with Vincent Rue of the Florida-based Institute for Pregnancy Loss and post-abortion researcher Catherine Coyle.

The study's findings support previous research that has found higher rates of substance abuse, serious depression and suicide after abortion.

Representatives from Human Life International (HLI) presented Brazilian Archbishop Dom Jose Cardoso Sobrinho with the Cardinal von Galen Award in acknowledgement of his heroic defense of Catholic Church teaching and human life. The ceremony took place at the Damas College Auditorium in Recife, Brazil on April 16.

A counselor at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Memphis, TN was caught on hidden camera coaching a 14-year-old girl to lie to a judge so he would not find out about her 31-year-old boyfriend and the girl could obtain a waiver for an abortion without her parents' knowledge. This is the sixth Planned Parenthood clinic implicated in a developing multi-state child abuse scandal involving the deliberate suppression of evidence of statutory rape.

Lila Rose, 20-year-old UCLA student and president of the nonprofit Live Action, entered Planned Parenthood's Memphis Health Center undercover and told a counselor that she was 14 years old, pregnant by her 31-year-old "boyfriend", and needed a secret abortion so her parents would not find out about her sexual relationship with the older man. Tennessee Code 37-1-605 requires health professionals to report suspected cases of sexual abuse of minors to law enforcement immediately.

The Planned Parenthood counselor tells Rose on camera, "Look, if we keep this conversation I'm gonna have to talk to my manager and yeah, [your boyfriend]'s gonna get in trouble," but promises, "I'm not gonna tell anybody, ok?" She adds, "And please don't say that I told you this." When Rose tells the counselor she thinks her boyfriend will get in trouble if her parents find out, the counselor advises Rose to lie about the man's age when speaking to a judge in order to obtain a bypass of Tennessee's parental consent law for abortion: "Don't mention it. Just say you have a boyfriend 17 years old...whatever."

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last year that authorities in Arizona were not allowed to censor a "Choose Life" message from a program that allows special interest groups to obtain license plates with their slogans.

But a ruling from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed, the Thomas More Society noted.

"We expected that this issue would have to be resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court," said Tom Brejcha, president of the Thomas More Society and chief counsel for the case.

"The right of Arizona citizens to purchase 'Choose Life' specialty plates was recently upheld by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that denial of the plates constituted 'viewpoint discrimination.' The 7th Circuit held the contrary, yet the First Amendment must mean the same thing throughout the entire United States."

The 7th Circuit, in its decision late last year, rejected Choose Life Illinois's contention that the state's refusal to permit a "Choose Life" plate violated the First Amendment.

Brejcha said he has hopes that the high court will hear the case.

"If anything, our clients' claim against Illinois is overripe for review," he said. "Our petition for review highlights the fact that litigation concerning the 'Choose Life' plates over the last 10 years has created a patchwork of conflicting decisions. We will be greatly surprised, as well as disappointed, if the court fails to grant review."

The Oklahoma Senate voted 34-10 on Wednesday for House Bill 1595, dubbed the Statistical Reporting of Abortion Act."

Sponsored in the Senate by Republican Sen. Todd Lamb, the bill also would prohibit abortions based on the gender of the fetus.

The bill would require abortion doctors to provide information on their female patients, including age, race, marital status, number of previous pregnancies and the reasons given for seeking an abortion.

Adriene Johnson is facing kidnapping charges, accused of trying to walk out of Metro General Hospital with newborn Maia Warmack.

In testimony Wednesday, Johnson told the court the New Year's Eve incident happened because she was trying to cover up an abortion and fool an abusive boyfriend. A relative told her what would happen if she didn't.

"He said, 'She better produce some kind of baby, or I'm going to kill her,' and he had a gun," said Johnson.

The legislation, Senate Bill 89, also would require doctors who perform abortions to inform a patient before the procedure that the fetus might feel pain.

After a heated and passionate debate, the House voted 73-20 to pass the legislation.

According to the ruling, which the Portuguese Socialist government said it would not appeal, Portugal must pay $2,660 to each of the three organizations that manage the Dutch ship "Borndiep," known as the "Ship of Death”" because abortions are performed on deck in international waters near countries where the procedure is illegal.

The Court said Portugal violated article 10 of the Convention, which deals with freedom of expression, even though at the time abortion was not legal in the country and the "Ship of Death" was not engaged in an act of "expression" but in the performing of abortions in violation of Portuguese law.

Every Good Friday, Pro-Life Action Ministries of the Twin Cities hosts a protest outside a Planned Parenthood clinic on Ford Parkway in St. Paul. This year was the first time that someone the stature of the archbishop participated in the demonstration.

Pro-life protester Megan Noll told Minnesota Public Radio that Archbishop Nienstedt (Archbishop of St. Paul-Minneapolis John Nienstedt) made a "huge difference" and brought perhaps the biggest crowd she had seen.

Seeking to put a dent in the pro-life protest, Planned Parenthood set up a "pledge a protester" system that allowed its supporters to donate a set dollar amount for each protester. The abortion clinic raised $14,000 on Friday through their protestor campaign.

The Department of State Health Services on April 2 ordered four clinics in San Antonio to stop providing unlicensed abortion services, according to a letter from the department to the 10 members of the Texas Conservative Coalition in the state House of Representatives.

"That potentially carries criminal violation which should be investigated by the Bexar County Attorney's Office," said Rep. Phil King, R-Weathorford.

The coalition had asked the health department in March to look into whether Planned Parenthood clinics were performing abortion procedures without licenses.

"We had heard concerns ... that some clinics were operating illegally and not properly using state funds, which was our first concern," King said.

Planned Parenthood said it had fully complied with the state's cease and desist order. Planned Parenthood officials said the clinics had followed the instructions of a state licensing official in October 2004 and thought they were in compliance.

"The feeling of the press conference is there's something hidden that's going on, and it's not. We've been upfront from the beginning," said Jeffrey Hons, CEO of Planned Parenthood in San Antonio.[..]

Hons said the four clinics applied for licenses in January preemptively because new abortion regulations were being discussed then. He said they are waiting for the licenses to be processed.

The conservative coalition and the Texas Alliance for Life said Planned Parenthood endangered the lives of women by performing illegal, unregulated abortions.

Planned Parenthood representatives said anti-abortion advocates were using the incident as an excuse to attack them and cut their funding.

"They always do this and I hope they fail, because if they win, it's not the Planned Parenthood that gets hurt. Individual women who rely on these clinics for their birth control and their pap tests and their cervical cancer screenings — that's who gets hurt," Hons said.

Michelle Armesto-Berge issued her plea at a Tuesday afternoon press conference in Topeka. She urged Sebelius to sign Senate Bill 218, which the Legislature passed last week.

Armesto-Berge said she was manipulated by her parents to have an abortion at George Tiller's Wichita clinic when she was 25 weeks pregnant.[..]

The legislation would amend the late-term abortion law so abortion providers are more likely to be held accountable for their actions, and to follow the law. The legislation would amend current partial-birth abortion law so that it matches federal statute, and allow for civil-action suits to be brought against physicians performing an abortion believed to be illegal.

The bill would also require that 24 hours prior to an abortion the woman would be informed that the abortion would "terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being."

In a response to questions from the Senate Finance Committee made public last week, Sebelius wrote that she received $12,450 between 1994-2001 from Dr. George Tiller, one of the nation's few late-term abortion providers.

But in addition to those campaign donations, records reviewed by The Associated Press show that Tiller gave at least $23,000 more from 2000-2002 to a political action committee Sebelius established while insurance commissioner to raise money for fellow Democrats.

Sebelius did not tell senators about that additional money, although Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., asked specifically about any Tiller donations to her PAC.

"There was an oversight in the initial answer provided to the committee," HHS spokesman Nick Papas said Monday. "Obviously donations to the PAC are a matter of public record. The governor is updating the answer to this question and will resubmit it to the committee."

Women seeking abortions would have to be told that a fetus might feel pain under legislation approved by the Indiana House.

The House voted 62-27 on Monday to attach the provision to a bill that would require any doctors who perform abortions in Indiana to have admitting privileges at a hospital either in the county where the abortion is to be performed or in a neighboring county. The House expanded that requirement to include anyone who performs surgical procedures, but the provision did not define what those procedures are.

The amendment on fetal pain would be added to other information that women seeking abortions must be told about 18 hours before the procedure. That information includes the risks and alternatives to abortion.

Milan-based daily Il Giornale, owned by the family of Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, said that the Vatican has rejected three possible choices by the Obama government for the post of US ambassador, including that of Caroline Kennedy, daughter of John F Kennedy.

Il Giornale claims that the appointment of a new US ambassador to succeed Mary Ann Glendon has proved difficult because of the "strained" relations between the White House and the Holy See, which has been less than enamoured of Barack Obama's public support for both abortion and stem cell research.

US media reports suggested that Ms Kennedy had originally been proposed to Mr Obama for the job by Democratic senator John Kerry by way of reward for her support for the president during last year's election campaign.

However, one former US ambassador to the Vatican, Ray Flynn, speaking to the Boston Herald last week, argued that Ms Kennedy's support for abortion made her an unsuitable choice.

"It's imperative, it's essential that the person who represents us to the Holy See be a person who has pro-life values," he said.

"She said she was pro-choice. I don't assume she's going to change that, which is problematic."

Casey Washer, who is Jewish and a junior in Spanish and Russian, said he first saw GAP's photos of aborted babies and genocide victims on his way to class.

"My stomach just got so upset when I walked by," Washer said. So he went home and made a sign that read, "Don't Exploit Genocide!" then went back to let his concerns be known.

"I am sick of the Holocaust being used for other people's advantages," Washer said. "I shouldn't have to see pictures of somebody who could be my cousin, just to promote [GAP's] point."

Washer was joined by friend James Browning, who shared Washer's belief that the GAP display falsely compares abortion to the Holocaust, simply for the effect of "shock and awe."

But the GAP supporters see a solid connection between the Holocaust and the abortion of human fetuses.

"If the unborn are not human, then we are exploiting the Holocaust," said Mark Harrington, the executive director of the Midwest Region of the CBR. "But if the unborn are human, then the comparison has merit."

Doctors, nurses, and other health care professionals wearing white coats and green scrubs said that President Barack Obama should not rescind the Health and Human Services (HHS) regulation to prevent non-governmental groups that receive federal funding from discriminating against medical workers who morally oppose performing certain procedures and prescribing certain drugs – including abortion and the "morning after" pill.

The health care professionals spoke at the National Press Club on Wednesday. The event came on the eve of the end to the 30-day public comment period – midnight Apr. 9 – when the Obama administration could remove the "Right to Conscience" rule from HHS regulations, which was put into place on the last day of the Bush administration.

"If anyone should understand the ugliness of discrimination it is our first African American president," Dr. David Stevens, CEO of the Christian Medical Association, told CNSNews.com. "My prayer is that he will wake up to what is really going on and let these regulations stand."

"Abortion providers have failed to connect women to the help they need and want," FFL President Serrin Foster wrote to supporters. "We mourn with these women, and for the children they will never meet."

Foster said abortion doesn't solve any real problems.

"These women still face the same economic strife," she said. "They (go) back to work for the same employers who didn't accommodate their needs. They (go) home to the same husbands or partners who wouldn't or couldn't provide the support they needed and deserved."

Foster said abortionists talk about women who are poor and in need of prenatal care, but life advocates can provide real help.

"You and I can tell women in need that pregnancy resource centers help lead women through the maze of available resources," she said.

Live Action, the youth-led movement dedicated to advancing the right to life, and California Students for Life, with affiliates at eight universities in the state, have joined together to sponsor "Exposing Abortion – the 8th Annual Celebrate Life Conference" on Saturday, April 25, at the University of California at Berkeley.

"We are dedicated to exposing the corruption in the abortion industry and showing abortion for what it really is -- an act of violence against our pre-born brothers and sisters," says a flier announcing the conference. The event "will feature student activist training, interactive break-out sessions, and a chance to hear from some of the most dedicated advocates for life rights in our time," said the announcement.

Among those scheduled to speak at the daylong conference are Lila Rose, president of Live Action, who has exposed Planned Parenthood cover-ups of statutory rape in several states; the Rev. Walter Hoye of Issues4Life, who is currently serving a 30-day jail sentence for violating Oakland's 'bubble ordinance' outside an abortion clinic; Kristan Hawkins, executive director of Students for Life of America; Dr. William Hurlbut of the President's Council on Bioethics; Dr. Linda Halderman, policy advisor to state Sen. Sam Aanestad; Gregg Cunningham, executive director of the Center for Bioethical Reform; and Gianna Jessen, an abortion survivor.

The House Public Policy Committee passed the bill 8-4 and sent it to the full, Democrat-led House. The bill already has cleared the Republican-ruled Senate.

Supporters say the proposal would provide better care to patients who might experience problems after abortions.

If abortion providers have hospital admitting privileges, they are subject to peer reviews that look closely at post-procedure complications and remove privileges if necessary, some supporters have said.

Planned Parenthood representatives and their supporters urged the Orange County Board of Supervisors today to reverse a decision to suspend a contract with the nonprofit group to provide health education for thousands of teens and preteens.

About 40 members of local chapters of Planned Parenthood and other women's groups and concerned citizens criticized supervisors for citing their own beliefs about abortion as a reason for pulling the $291,788 health education contract.

Planned Parenthood opponent Planned Parenthood supportersSupervisors voted unanimously last month to suspend the contract because, they said, they did not want to provide funding to an organization that performs abortions.

Legislation that would allow voters to strip the Tennessee constitution of any language protecting the right to an abortion has passed the state Health and Human Resources Committee.

Senate joint resolution 127 passed on 20-7 vote.[..]

Earlier, an amendment to the resolution that would’ve provided exceptions for abortions in cases of rape, incest and to save the life of a mother were tabled on a 16-11 vote by the same committee.

This is the first time the resolution has cleared the Health and Human Resources Committee. It seeks to reverse a 2000 Tennessee Supreme Court decision that said language in the state constitution allows the right to an abortion, setting up higher standards for lawmakers seeking to impose restrictions.

The resolution also would allow the Legislature to act broadly if the landmark Roe v. Wade case were ever reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

"It was an amazing 40 days," said spring campaign director Shawn Carney. "Courageous people stood and prayed in rain, cold weather and snowstorms. Abortion workers tried to smear this effort with accusations that 40 Days for Life volunteers' prayers 'intimidated' their clients. But none of this could dissuade peaceful, determined people who know their efforts touch hearts and impact communities."

According to the campaign, participants’ efforts helped save 389 babies from abortion. Activities reportedly were held in 135 cities in the U.S., Canada, Australia and Northern Ireland.

"There are undoubtedly others that we don't know about," said Carney. "We're aware that many appointments were canceled when several clinics closed unexpectedly on days when abortions are normally scheduled."

A central Illinois judge has ruled that the state can't force two pharmacists with religious objections to abortion to dispense emergency contraception.

Sangamon County Circuit Judge John Belz issued a temporary restraining order Friday until he can hear arguments against the rule from druggists who object on religious grounds.

The pill reduces the chance of pregnancy if taken within 72 hours of sex. The pharmacists believe it's tantamount to abortion.

Belz is the same judge who sided with the state and dismissed the lawsuit filed in 2005 by Luke VanderBleek and Glenn Kosirog, who own five northern Illinois pharmacies between them.

The restraining order applies only to VanderBleek's and Kosirog's pharmacies. But Francis Manion of the American Center for Law and Justice, which is representing the pharmacists, doubts the state would enforce the rule elsewhere before the case is decided.

Manion expects a hearing Belz's court in June.

Yesterday, a majority of Catholic Senators rejected a conscience protection law proposed by Senator Tom Colburn that would protect health care workers who object to abortions from participating in the procedure.

Conscience protection has become a topic of debate after President Obama announced that he was reviewing the law and could possible eliminate it. Colburn’s amendment states, "To protect the freedom of conscience for patients and the right of health care providers to serve patients without violating their moral and religious convictions."

The amendment was voted down by a margin of 41-56, in which a majority of Catholic Senators voted against the amendment 9-16. The failure to pass this legislation now leaves the door open for the Obama Administration to rescind the law by executive order and force health workers to compromise their moral convictions.

Yesterday, the Alaska State House passed House Bill 35 by a vote of 22 to 14. HB 35 requires parental consent or judicial bypass in order for a minor to obtain an abortion in Alaska. The bill was authored by Representative John Coghill, a Republican from North Pole. This bill attempts to correct the previous state law that was considered unconstitutional by the Alaska Supreme Court. The previous law was ruled to be too restrictive. Representative Coghill feels his bill is less restrictive. HB 35 provides four exemptions from parental consent. The exemptions include married minors, legally emancipated minors, minors in the armed services, and minors who have become employed and self-subsisting. The bill also provides for a bypass of the judicial approval for victims of physical, sexual or emotional abuse. The bill now moves to the Alaska State Senate for consideration.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment released its preliminary report of abortion statistics for 2008 today.

The report indicates late-term abortions, done after 22 weeks into pregnancy, went up approximately 10% from 2007 to 2008 with an increase from 293 to 323 abortions.

In addition, abortions on viable babies increased 10% from 168 to 192 abortions last year.

The data also revealed that abortions on minors under the age of 15 increased 5% from 55 to 58 abortions in 2008.

The number of abortions using the dangerous mifepristone (RU 486) abortion drug also increased, according to the new report from the state health department. It found the use of the drug, which has killed more than a dozen women worldwide and injured thousands in the United States, rising from 1,795 to 1,900 last year.

The proposal requires doctors performing late-term abortions to provide more detailed explanations for why the procedures were necessary on forms that are sent to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

Abortion opponents have said that doctors currently state the pregnancy could cause "sustainable and irreversible harm" to a woman's major bodily function. Doctors are simply repeating the law and not explaining why the procedure was necessary, they say.

"The primary point of this bill is to deal with lack of information in KDHE reports that justify late-term abortions," said Rep. Lance Kinzer, R-Olathe, the bill's sponsor.

House substitute for Senate Bill 218 also would require that the written information a woman is supposed to receive at least 24 hours before an abortion include the phrase "the abortion will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique living human being."

It would allow a woman or certain members of her family to file civil lawsuits against an abortion provider they suspected had violated the state's abortion law. The law would apply to the woman's husband or to her parents if she is under 18 when the suspected violations occurred.

And the measure would change the state's language on so-called partial-birth abortions to reflect language used at the federal level.

Twenty-year-old Gülsüm S. died after her brother strangled her with a clothes line and then bludgeoned her with sticks because she had "sullied the family honour."

The young woman was to have been married against her will, but when her family discovered she was no longer a virgin and had had an abortion, her brother abducted her from their Rees home and killed her in a remote field on March 2, taking her wallet to simulate a robbery, police said.

Police in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia have also arrested her father, but he has denied being involved in the murder.

Erica Denise Kelly, of Waxhaw, asked a Superior Court judge in Monroe to be released on bond, saying she needed to care for her 2-year-old son and adding that she was not a flight risk. But the judge refused.

During the hearing, Kelly pleaded not guilty, telling the court, "I didn't do it."[..]

Erica Kelly was arrested at her job Thursday afternoon, a little more than a month after the baby girl was discovered by a family returning to their mobile home Feb. 26.

The baby girl, a full-term pregnancy, was born alive, according to the Union County Medical Examiner. Investigators believe Kelly abandoned the infant shortly after she was born.

The Senate Medical Affairs Committee approved the bill Thursday, sending it to the Senate floor for debate. The House passed the measure in February.

The bill increases the wait time from one hour to one day and ties the clock to an ultrasound.

Supporters say it gives women more time to reflect on the decision. They hope it leads to fewer abortions.

"The conscience protections contained in federal law are a civil right for all hospitals and health care workers," said William J. Cox, president of the Sacramento-based Alliance of Catholic Health Care in a statement issued yesterday. “The regulation that the Administration seeks to repeal is necessary for preserving those rights and making sure that health care workers can perform their duties without fear or intimidation." [..]

"Our members provide health care services in accordance with the religious and moral tenets of the Catholic faith," said Cox. "Central to these beliefs is a firm commitment to the dignity of the human person from conception to natural death and a deep concern for the health care needs of the poor and for those in spiritual need. We do not impose our religious or moral beliefs on the people and families we serve, but we do hold ourselves accountable, as health care providers, to Catholic ethical and moral standards."

A Senate committee has unanimously recommended the Senate defeat the controversial personhood bill, House Bill 1572.

The bill declares that according to North Dakota law and its constitution, a person or human being "includes any organism with the genome of homo sapiens."

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 5-0 for a do-not-pass motion Wednesday morning, the first day the Legislature was back at work after a week-long flood-related recess. Sen. Tom Fiebiger, D-Fargo, was absent.

"I guess I wasn't surprised," bill sponsor Rep. Dan Ruby, R-Minot, said. "I didn't perceive any of them voting for the bill."

An abortion center employee has been talking to the 40 Days for Life prayer volunteers outside of her workplace - and she wants out!

Her message was simple - she just couldn't take it any longer. It was time to look for a new job.

She asked the vigil participants to pray for her. She said she couldn't simply quit her job, because she needs the income. Her prayer request was that she be able to find a suitable position elsewhere so she could give her notice at the clinic.

She also said the prayers of the vigil participants have a definite impact at the clinic. "When there are prayers happening outside, she said the tone of what happens inside changes," the local campaign coordinator told me. "Everyone is aware of their presence, and she for one, can no longer pretend that what is happening is OK."

There are women in Carson City, Nevada who "can't take it any longer" either. Because of 40 Days for Life, they've learned the shocking truth that the ob/gyn practice they go to for routine health care also does abortions.

In its statement, Solidarity said, "We are socialists and we oppose abortion and its legalization. We oppose all attacks on life: the death penalty, torture, hunger, the arms race, war, slavery."

The group called abortion "an odious act of violence carried out against the unborn and against mothers."

The statement later indicated that "the womb of the mother should be the most protected place in nature. Society must also protect children and mothers before and after birth."

The May 2-9 flower festival marks its 80th year this year in the western Michigan community.

Festival Director Tamra Bouman says Tulip Time long has had a policy against issue-oriented parade entries but didn't enforce it.

The Grand Rapids Press says the festival board decided to enforce the rule because it received a nonprofit tax status in December.

Right to Life Holland-area Director Carol Brower says her group is "confused and totally shocked" after having a float in the parade for 25 years. Its float has a sign with the words, "Life is a Precious Gift."