Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, whose amendment lost 13 to 10, argued before the panel that tightening is needed to prevent federal funds from being used to pay for abortion.

"I want assurances that taxpayer dollars will not be used to fund abortions," said Hatch. "Let's put specific language from my amendment into the bill." The senator argued that women should be required to purchase abortion coverage through unsubsidized, supplemental plans called "riders."

Hatch said he is only looking to "codify" the Hyde amendment, which already prohibits federal funding of abortions, but must be renewed each year.

But a host of Democratic senators were quick to blast Hatch's amendment, calling it "offensive" to women and claiming the proposal seeks to change current law.

Democratic Chairman Max Baucus of Montana said his health care bill before the Senate committee already reflects federal law, which bars funding for abortions except in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother.

"This is a health care bill. This is not an abortion bill. We are not changing current law," he said.

The preliminary injunction issued by Judge Donald Daughton of Maricopa County Superior Court allows a 24-hour waiting period to take affect, but he blocked requirements that a woman see a doctor in person for advance disclosures before getting an abortion.

The so-called "informed consent" consultation can be by telephone and by a qualified staff member, Daughton said in his ruling on a request by Planned Parenthood, the state's major abortion provider.

He also blocked provisions prohibiting nurse practitioners from performing surgical abortions, requiring the notarizing of parental consent forms for a minor's abortion and expanding the state's existing law that now permits health-care workers to refuse to participate in abortions.

The expansion would cover any involvement, not just active participation, as well as emergency contraception.

Many pregnant women make the hasty decision to have an abortion because of medication they were taking when they became pregnant.

The practice is often based on unfounded fears that the medicine could lead to fetal deformities, says Dr. Kim Tae-yoon, head of the gynecological department of Miz Medi Hospital.

"Though doctors assure them that most of the drugs are okay and recommend them to keep the baby, they just ask for the procedure," he said.

Kim's remarks came in response to the Korea Food and Drug Administration's report that about 96,000 women, 10 percent of pregnant women, were having abortions for drug-related reasons each year.

These women say they were unaware of their pregnancy when they were medicated and want to err on the side of caution by having the procedure.

Most had taken weight-loss pills, painkillers, antibiotics, cough drops and anti-histamines.

The lawsuit alleges that House Bill 1595, by Sen. Todd Lamb, R-Edmond, and Rep. Dan Sullivan, R-Tulsa, covers more than one subject and thus violates the Oklahoma Constitution.

The measure requires physicians to provide detailed information to the Oklahoma State Department of Health about the abortions they perform.

Information to be reported by the physician performing an abortion includes age, marital status and education level of the woman; number of prior pregnancies; reason for the abortion; method of the abortion and payment; type of medical health insurance coverage; cost of the abortion; whether an ultrasound was given; and nature of the mother's relationship with the father.

The suit alleges the bill covers four subjects, including redefining a number of abortion-related terms used in state law; banning sex-selective abortion; reporting requirements; and new duties for the Oklahoma State Department of Health, State Board of Medical Licensure and Supervision, and State Board of Osteopathic Examiners.

"We will be reviewing the lawsuit over the coming days and will respond to the claims appropriately," said Charlie Price, a spokesman for Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson.

Former state Rep. Wanda Jo Stapleton, D-Oklahoma City, and Shawnee resident Lora Joyce Davis filed the suit.

Sheriff's Deputies in Mufreesboro, Tennessee, caught the man they believe is responsible for murdering the woman. Tarence Nelson, 26, is being brought to the Shelby County jail to face double murder charges.

It's an experience neighbor John Ingram says he'll never be able to erase from his memory.

"There was a bullet wound in the side of her stomach, one in her chest, one it looked to be in the back of her head. There was so much blood you couldn't tell," he said.

In an exclusive interview, Ingram told Action News 5 that the harrowing night began around 10:00 p.m. Friday when he noticed a man leave the home of his neighbor, Tonya Johnson.

Johnson's garage door was open, something Ingram said was out of the ordinary for the 35-year-old school teacher.

Ingram and his wife decided to check on Johnson, who was eights months pregnant.
"My wife looked through the front glass of the door and said, 'she's on the floor,' " he said.
Ingram says he called 911 and went inside Johnson's house.

"911 said 'Roll her over and start CPR.' We rolled her over and she was bleeding out of her mouth, just everywhere. My son-in-law and another neighbor started CPR."

Shelby County Sheriff's deputies quickly arrived, along with a helicopter.

"They worked on her trying to keep the baby alive, but it was too late," Ingram said.

Witnesses told detectives that Nelson was the father of Johnson's child, and that he wanted her to have an abortion, but she refused.

The proposal was passed at a cabinet meeting despite strong opposition from the Roman Catholic Church, the conservative opposition Popular Party and even many supporters of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialist Party.

The measure now will to go to parliament for approval, Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega told a news conference.

Under the proposed reforms, abortions would be allowed for women of 16 and over on demand up to the 14th week of pregnancy, and up to 22 weeks if there is a risk to the mother's health or if the foetus is deformed.

Women can also undergo the procedure after 22 weeks if the foetus has a serious or incurable illness.

"We want to offer minors as much protection as possible and the most respect for their basic rights," said de la Vega.

Section 35. Person defined. As used in sections 2, 10, and 14 of Article I of the state constitution, the term "person" shall apply to every human being from the beginning of the biological development of that human being.

A group of black church leaders who oppose abortion is set to endorse the president's health plan.

The clergy -- led by Bishop Charles E. Blake Sr., a Los Angeles minister who heads the massive Church of God in Christ -- are scheduled to announce their support for the legislation at a news conference this morning. And they will offer a full embrace of the government-run insurance option that white evangelical leaders and many Republicans have said opens the door to taxpayer-funded abortions.

Legislation proposed by House Democrats would require public healthcare money to be segregated into separate accounts so that only private funds could be used for abortions. Conservatives call that an "accounting scheme."

The black leaders are expected to use careful language -- echoing Obama's abortion funding pledge while cautioning the White House against breaking its promise.

"In accord with our commitment to Christian teaching, we wholeheartedly affirm the president's position that medical costs related to the abortion of fetuses shall not be covered by healthcare plans funded by this initiative," Blake will say today, according to an advance copy of his remarks.

The publication, an insert for newspapers from Human Life Alliance, is an educational ad placed by Pro-Life Wisconsin. Papers at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and Stevens Point have refused the advertising supplements.

Pro-Life Wisconsin's Peggy Hamill tells OneNewsNow the school newspapers are demonstrating they are not always the bastions of free speech they pride themselves to be. "They said [they] have a policy against advertising topics which have a tendency to cause conflict, shame, or controversy among the student body," she explains.

Peggy Hamill (Wisconsin pro life)Hamill argues college campuses are supposed to be a marketplace for the free exchange of ideas. She believes the inserts are tastefully done -- and usually get very positive results, she adds.

"Both of us -- on our websites, through our e-mails, which are posted on our websites -- get very, very positive reaction every time we fire up this program in the spring and the fall," Hamill points out.

Seven years prior to her father wrote the opinion in Roe v. Wade that ushered in an era of more than 50 million abortions, the daughter of the late Supreme Court Justice harry Blackmun experienced a crisis pregnancy. Sally Blackmun told her story to a political meeting of women in Minnesota.

According to Blackmun, she became pregnant in 1966 at the age of 19 while she attended college in New York.

Justice Blackmun was a federal judge at the time and she worried her pregnancy as an unmarried mother would tarnish his legal career.

Although one of her sisters mentioned the possibility of getting an abortion, which was legal in only a few states at the time, she dismissed the idea and ultimately married.

"The fact that my father was a sitting federal judge made (an abortion's) illicit nature not only a risk to my health but a potential embarrassment to my family and Dad's career," she said, according to the Post Bulletin newspaper.

The resolution, H. Res. 759, was introduced by Reps. Dave Camp (R-MI) and Dale Kildee (D-MI).

It states that whereas "Jim Pouillon is mourned by his family, friends, community, and fellow defenders of the First Amendment and the unborn," the House of Representatives "offers its condolences to Jim Pouillon's family" and "commits to the American principle that the suppression of thought by any means and by either government or individuals must always yield to the right of free speech and that violence is never an appropriate response to a difference in beliefs."

In a letter to fellow legislators, Camp and Kildee urged the House to pass the resolution. "Jim was a fixture in the Owosso community and many knew him for his public displays opposing abortion," wrote the pair. "As the House of Representatives has made clear many times before, the use of deadly violence is never an appropriate response to a difference in beliefs."

(c)"The term "person" applies to all living human beings from the beginning of their biological development -- regardless of the means by which they were procreated, method of reproduction, age, race, sex, gender, physical well-being, function, or condition of physical or mental dependency and/or disability.

The Citizens for a Pro-Life Society (CPLS) say that their video depicting the Catholic funeral and burial ceremonies of abortion victims has been censored by the video-sharing site YouTube - which now has an established reputation for removing pro-life videos and issuing "warning strikes" against their owners' accounts.

CPLS reports that YouTube pulled the original five-minute film "Requiem for the Disappeared" on August 29. The film shows the remains of 23 unborn children whose bodies were buried after being salvaged last year from trash dumpsters behind abortionist Alberto Hodari's Womancare abortion clinic in Lathrup Village, MI., and abortionist Reginald Sharpe's Women's Advisory abortion clinic in Livonia, MI. The video is accompanied by the song "Tell Me Who I Am," which was crafted for the video and produced by Mediatrix Records.

"Requiem for the Disappeared" is the third CPLS video removed by YouTube, who also issued a warning strike against the group's account. YouTube indicated that the video was removed for violating the site's prohibition against images "intended to be shocking, sensational or disrespectful."

In an interview with the National Review Tuesday, Nelson said the legislation's opposition to Catholic pro-life values would have serious implications for Catholic and non-Catholic Americans alike, who face a seismic shift from "a sanctity-of-life ethic in favor of a quality-of-life ethic."

"Catholic hospitals are the primary alternative to government-owned and for-profit hospitals in the United States," said the law professor. "At their best, Catholic hospitals offer a distinctive product by combining traditional health-care services with a commitment to serving the poor and promoting the sanctity of life.

"If Catholic hospitals disappear, there will be even a greater likelihood that health care in the United States will become a unitary governmental system.

"This would lead to a vast increase in the power of the federal government and a concomitant decline in the role of intermediate groups that enhance social cohesion and humanize health care."

When asked by CNSNews.com whether he agreed with Cardinal Rigali that the bill funds abortion and should be amended to explicitly prohibit abortion funding, Cardindal Mahony said: "This is way beyond my field. My field is immigration. I really haven't kept up on that, and I spend all my time on this other. You have to get somebody who spends time on that."

When asked whether he believed abortion should be funded under the health care bill, Cardinal Mahony said: "No, but that's what the president said, too, so."

A western Pennsylvania teenager accused of trying to kill his girlfriend's unborn child by putting a cow hormone in her drink has pleaded guilty in juvenile court to attempted third-degree murder and aggravated assault.

Blair County District Attorney Richard Consiglio calls it "a terrible, terrible crime" and says he wants the 17-year-old Williamsburg-area teen under court supervision until he reaches the age of 21.

Defense attorney Theodore Krol says his client was a scared 16-year-old who found out that his girlfriend was pregnant and went to a friend and adult for advice. Prosecutors say the three decided to put the cow hormone ProstaMate in the girl's drink in March 2008. The child was born without incident and is now a year old and healthy.

The other teenager pleaded guilty to aggravated assault. Forty-seven year old Jonathan Imler Sr., of Williamsburg, is awaiting trial on charges of attempted criminal homicide and other counts.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, is expected to introduce an amendment to the Senate health care reform bill to reinstate Title V Abstinence Education funding for 2010.

Valerie Huber, executive director of the National Abstinence Education Association, said: "Recent research analysis demonstrates that school-based abstinence education is more successful in positive behavior change than so-called 'comprehensive' sex education."

The amendment is expected to be introduced this week in the Senate Finance Committee and could receive a vote as early as Wednesday.

A federal judge agreed Tuesday to decide by a week from Wednesday whether to allow the state to start requiring a 24-hour waiting period before a woman can terminate her pregnancy.

Judge David Campbell said he will hear arguments next week from attorneys for the Center for Reproductive Rights that the requirement, part of a more comprehensive law restricting abortion, should be precluded from taking effect until a full-blown trial on the constitutionality of the statute.

Suzanne Novak, who is representing the Tucson Women's Center, said allowing any delay, for any period of time, will endanger the health of patients. She said there is evidence that some women won't be able to make a second trip to a clinic, meaning they will be denied their constitutional rights.

But Deborah Sheasby, attorney for the Center for Arizona Policy, said her organization and others who oppose abortion want the new law to take effect as scheduled on Wednesday, the same day Campbell is set to rule.

"These are common-sense protections for women," she said. "They deserve a chance to have full and accurate information before they have this abortion procedure and 24 hours to consider that information."

Pro-life activist Johnny Wallace, 69, was attacked on Friday by two women as he stood holding two signs in front of City Hall in Flagstaff, Arizona. The women, both 48, yelled profanities at him, attempted to take his signs and wrestled him to the ground.

On the day of the attack, Wallace, who daily protests in front of City Hall, held two text-only signs. According to Operation Rescue, the signs said, "Abortion kills more black Americans in four days than the Klan killed in 150 years," and the other, "Life begins at conception and ends at Planned Parenthood."

The two women who accosted Wallace were identified as Denise Redsteer and Laura Chapman. According to Northern Arizona Today, Wallace was knocked to the ground as he attempted to protect his signs from one of the women. The other woman then joined in the struggle.

Wallace was treated for minor injuries after the incident by medics called to the scene. Redsteer and Chapman were cited and released on misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and criminal damage.

Vilar's pregnancies became compulsively self-destructive: After her 9th and 10th abortions, she "needed another self-injury to get the high."

"In the beginning I was taking pills and I'd skip a day or two or give up one month," she said. "I'd think I'll be better next time. But slowly, my days took on a balancing act and there was a specific high. I would get my period and be sad, then discover I was pregnant, being afraid, yet also so excited."

Attorney General Marty Jackley is appealing a judge's ruling which struck down portions of South Dakota's law on informed consent for abortion.

U.S. District Judge Karen Schreier last month said doctors should not have to tell pregnant women that abortion increases the risk of suicide and suicidal thoughts or that they enjoy a legally protected relationship with their unborn children. She found suicide is not a known risk.

Jackley wants those issues heard on appeal and by the full court of appeals rather than a three-judge panel, according to a news release.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 48% believe any government-subsidized health care plan should be prohibited from covering abortion procedures. Thirteen percent (13%) believe such plans should be required to cover abortions, and 32% favor a more neutral approach with no requirements in either direction.

Among those who currently support passage of the legislation, 22% want a prohibition banning abortion coverage and 22% want a mandate requiring such coverage. Forty-seven percent (47%) of the plan’s supporters prefer the neutral approach, and nine percent (9%) are not sure.

Among those who oppose the plan, 72% favor a prohibition against coverage of abortions while five percent (5%) hold the opposite view.

The Rev. John Jenkins says in an e-mail to students and others that he will go to the annual March for Life "to witness to the sanctity of life." He invited others from Notre Dame to attend the Jan. 22 protest on the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision establishing a nationwide right to abortion.

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has released a proposal for health-care reform. It specifically allows for taxpayer funded abortions.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Baucus said it was a unique moment in history.

"The Finance Committee has carefully worked through the details of health-care reform," he said, "to ensure this package works for patients, for health-care providers and for our economy."

However, under the Baucus bill:

• $6 billion would go for health insurance cooperatives, which would be permitted to cover abortion.
• Abortions permitted under the Hyde Amendment would be mandated under the minimum benefits package. The Hyde Amendment taxpayer-funded abortions in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother.
• Tax credits and cost-sharing credits could be re-labeled to pay for abortion under private premiums.

Ashley Horne, federal policy analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said despite the White House's stance that there will be no abortion funding in any health-care bill, both the House and Senate versions mandate such funding.

"We don't care about rhetoric when it comes to protecting innocent, preborn lives," she said. "We care about results."

Republican lawmakers and even a few Democrats are saying they will not back the Baucus proposal. They maintain the only acceptable solution is to specifically exclude any public funding for abortion.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police knew for more than seven weeks that 15-year-old Tiffany Wright might have been the victim of statutory rape, but they didn't charge her alleged assailant until the pregnant teen was shot dead Monday.

Social workers reported to police on July 27 that Royce Mitchell might have sexually assaulted Tiffany, but police said they waited nearly four weeks to make any contact with Mitchell. A police official says a detective called Mitchell Aug. 20 and asked him to come in for an interview, but Mitchell declined.

Investigators never visited Mitchell or picked him up for questioning, but phoned him "multiple times," said Capt. Pete Davis, who heads the sexual assault unit.

Mitchell, 36, was charged Monday with statutory rape and taking indecent liberties with a child, and police said Tiffany was the victim of those crimes. Mitchell is also being questioned as a "person of interest" in Tiffany's homicide, police said.

The study found that women who had an abortion in the first or second trimester had a 35% increased risk of a low birth weight baby and a 36% raised risk of a pre-term baby in later pregnancies.

Dr Prakesh Shah, author of the review, published today in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, said there was a need for better methods of terminating pregnancy and women needed better information. "When a woman comes for induced termination of pregnancy, she should be counselled about that risk. At least she will be able to make an informed choice," he said.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, says Americans should be skeptical of Sebelius' claim, especially given the President's 2007 promise to Planned Parenthood that his healthcare plan would provide "reproductive care."

"It's almost gotten to the point of laughable if the consequences weren't so dire -- the president repeating over and over that there is no abortion coverage in healthcare reform currently. I mean, it's simply a lie. It is simply not true," she contends. "I simply don't believe that he is that ignorant of what the plans are out there. I think what he knows is that Americans have rejected the idea. Our poll showed last week that it rejects the idea."

A Charlotte man accused of raping his adopted teenage sister turned himself in Monday and was being questioned in connection with her shooting death at a school bus stop, police said.

Royce Anthony Mitchell, 36, is a "person of interest" in the slaying of Tiffany Wright, 15, in north Charlotte, according to a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police spokesman.

Tiffany, who was eight months pregnant and living in a foster home, was shot about 6 a.m. Monday while waiting to catch the bus to Hawthorne High School.

Medics rushed her to Carolinas Medical Center, where doctors were able to deliver her baby girl. Tiffany died at the hospital, and the baby was listed in critical condition.

Police issued warrants Monday against Mitchell for statutory rape and indecent liberties with a minor, based on their investigation into Tiffany's death. A police spokesman said Tiffany had been adopted into the Mitchell family, and was the victim of the alleged sex crimes.

Planned Parenthood of Arizona announced today that it intends to sue the state over the constitutionality of a bill signed by Governor Jan Brewer back in July, which is set to go into effect September 31st.[..]

Planned Parenthood claims that certain provisions of the bill violate the constitutional rights of women, including a measure that requires a 24-hour waiting period between the time she goes to the doctor seeking an abortion and the time she has the procedure.

Officials at Planned Parenthood told New Times in July that the provision is designed to invoke fear in women before they have the procedure, with the hope that they will reconsider.

The White House on Sunday released a statement from the president on the shooting of James Pouillon. Obama says that "whichever side of a public debate you're on, violence is never the right answer."

The two-sentence statement comes after a Friday shooting spree that left Pouillon and business owner Mike Fuoss dead in the small Michigan city of Owosso. Pouillon was shot while standing across the street from a school, holding a sign that pictured the image of an aborted fetus.

Tegan Leach, 19, from the north Queensland city of Cairns, was committed to trial today in Cairns District Court. Her boyfriend, Sergie Brennan, 21, who has been charged with supplying drugs to procure an abortion, faces three years in jail.

Dr. Christopher Levan, a minister in the United Church of Canada, serving at Wilmot United Church, holds a lectureship at STU. According to the university's course list, he will be teaching two sections of Introduction to Religious Studies in both the fall and winter semesters.

LifeSiteNews.com learned about Levan's activities with the Morgentaler facility after a woman who regularly stands in vigil at the Morgentaler facility sent around an e-mail claiming that she witnessed Dr. Levan acting as an escort. She said last Tuesday was the first time she had seen him, and that she discovered his identity because the director of the abortion center introduced him to the other escorts.

Dr. Levan told LifeSiteNews.com in an interview today that he has only done escorting once so far, but plans on continuing. He's doing it, he says, because he has a problem with the "harassment of women going into the abortion clinic," referring to activities of the regular pro-life protestors who stand outside.

"Not that they're in any way vindictive or mean," he said, "but their signs are sometimes. And these are women who have a legal right to this particular medical procedure and there is enough distress without having to run the gauntlet of [people] who want to change their mind."

"It's currently a legal medical procedure, is it not?" he asked. "And in a society that is pluralistic, that allows people to make those kind of choices, they're allowed to make that choice, aren't they?"

"So what I'm doing," he said, "is I'm making sure that the women who make that choice, who make it with, I assume, whatever sincerity they are capable of making it, are allowed to make that choice without the recrimination of those who have not been party to the difficulty they have gone through in making that decision."

Dr. Levan insisted that he personally disagrees with abortion. Commenting on the "I Regret My Abortion" pro-life sign carried by a woman outside the abortuary, he said, "I want to say to her 'I regret them too.' Absolutely. I'm not standing there because I agree with abortion, but people having made that choice deserve the dignity of being able to go and get the procedure without having to be guilted or in some way told that they are guilty of a heinous crime. Because they are not."

"Abortion is a regrettable, regrettable procedure that women are legally allowed to choose in this province," he emphasized.

The Washington Post says not only the stigma keeps doctors away from the procedure, but fear that they will fall victim to assassination or other violence. Dr. John Pierce, who heads the obstetrics and gynecology residency program of the Virginia Commonwealth University, believes that is not the case.

"It is a significant moral or conscience decision that physicians in training or medical students have to make when they look at how they want to practice," he contends. "So when medical students or residents are faced with a decision, sometimes they come in prepared and sometimes they don't really and don't understand what they really believe, and therefore what they're going to do in training or in practice thereafter."

Pierce points out that some students with a pro-life view struggle over whether to become a doctor of obstetrics and gynecology.

"I think there's a lot of tension that comes about because the tension, when you're sitting at a table and thinking about doing an abortion, the gravity of the situation is often significant -- and it causes people to think about it a little differently," he adds.

23 year-old Sarah Capewell told media that her son Jayden, born at 21 weeks and five days gestation, was refused intensive care because he was two days under the limit set by the British government's National Health Service (NHS) rationing guidelines.

Capewell said that her son Jayden cried and lived for two hours before dying in her arms. During that time, his mother took photos of him and pleaded with doctors that he be admitted to the special baby unit at James Paget University Hospital (JPH). Staff at the hospital, in Gorleston, Norfolk, told her that had Jayden been born two days later they would have helped him.

Since her son's death, Capewell has launched an internet campaign to change the guidelines and says that she has received messages of support from around the world.

Health care rationing guidelines set down by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics in 2006 say that intensive care should never be given to babies below 22 weeks gestation, and rarely to those below 23 weeks. In secular bioethics, this is called Futile Care Theory, which holds that in cases where there is no hope for improvement of an incapacitating condition, such as extreme prematurity, no treatment should be offered.

In the case of Sarah Capewell' son, the Nuffeld Council guidance that staff reportedly cited was backed up by advice published by the British Association of Perinatal Medicine (BAPM) last year. The BAPM paper itself, however, does not mandate the refusal of treatment, saying only, "This is not a set of instructions, but a framework to highlight the range of evidence and opinion that needs to be considered by staff and parents."

"The care of the mother, her fetus and the baby, will always need to be individualized and should be led by senior staff in all disciplines. The parents' hopes and expectations need to be explored with honesty and compassion in a realistic way, drawing upon the available evidence."

The BAPM paper says that in cases where children are born before 23 weeks gestation, "it would be considered in the best interests of the baby, and standard practice, for resuscitation not to be carried out." It continues, however, "If the parents wish they should have the opportunity to discuss outcomes with a second senior member of the perinatal team."

But Capewell reports that her wishes were ignored by hospital staff. "When I asked about my baby's human rights," she said, "the attitude of the doctors seemed to be that he did not have any. They said before 22 weeks he was just a fetus."

Dr. Alveda King, Director of African American Outreach for Priests for Life, asked the Department of Justice to investigate Planned Parenthood citing a large number of black children who are lost to abortion. Because abortion providers, such as Planned Parenthood, accept federal tax dollars, Dr. King argues an investigation should be conducted to make sure racist policies are not being advanced.

Black Americans, who represent one-eighth of the U.S. population, constitute 37 percent of America's 1.2 million annual abortions. In other words, of the 45 million abortions conducted between 1973 and 2005, 17 million black children were terminated.

"I would say wiping out one-quarter of the African American population qualifies as a negative impact on a minority group," said Dr. King. "There is no greater violator of civil rights than the abortion industry and if the Obama Justice Department is serious about investigating discrimination perpetrated by recipients of federal money, it should start with the billion dollar abortion giant, Planned Parenthood."

The group filed language with Secretary of State Robin Carnahan on Friday to put a citizen initiative on the November 2010 ballot.

The initiative, called the Missouri Taxpayer Protection Amendment, "protects Missourian's hard-earned tax dollars" from being used for abortions not medically necessary to save the life of the mother, abortion services, human cloning and other controversial human research.

Missouri Roundtable For Life director Todd Jones told LifeNews.com about the latest effort.

"This amendment, which is a modified version of the Taxpayer Protection Amendment we filed late last year and litigated with Secretary of State Robin Carnahan over her highly prejudicial ballot language," he said. "[It] would simply clarify what Missourians already believe to be true: that tax dollars should never be spent for [those practices]."

"During these tough economic times, Missourians have every right to protect their hard-earned tax dollars from being diverted to controversial research instead of legitimate medical research and essential state services," Jones continued.

"The Missouri Taxpayer Protection Amendment has the added bonus of protecting Missouri's majority passed pro-life laws from any changes in federal law during the current debates on nationalized healthcare," he told LifeNews.com on Tuesday.

Pro-life and pro-abortion demonstrations have continued to take place at the clinic. During one of them, a pro-life counselor convinced a woman entering the clinic to get an abortion to instead give her baby life. Operation Rescue's Troy Newman was a witness.

"She said that she felt like she was lied to. The abortion clinic told her that it was just a clump of cells, and when she saw a sonogram picture of her baby, she broke down in tears and said, 'I've been lied to.' And then she said she wanted to have all these [sonogram] pictures printed out and handed out to all these clinic escorts," he recalls.

Behind Newman were two trucks with large pictures of aborted babies on the side.

"This baby was the same age as the babies depicted on these trucks. The result of abortion is on those trucks. That's what they are offering," he notes. "Our offer is the same as Jesus Christ. It's of life, and it to the fullest."

Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) represented Concerned Women for America, the Christian Medical & Dental Associations, and Christian Pharmacists Fellowship International in the case. Steve Aden is an ADF attorney.

"The judge said that the plaintiffs didn't have the legal right to bring a lawsuit to challenge the over-the-counter switch for Plan B, even though they were comprised of doctors' groups, pharmacists, and parents whose interests were directly tied to the availability of Plan B over the counter," he explains.

The lawsuit was filed because Aden's clients believed that a female's life and health are worth more than Planned Parenthood's bottom line or the political agenda of pro-abortion groups.

"And that a drug that can be dangerous if not used properly, or if indications of labeling are disregarded, as they could very well be by minors who are not mature in judgment, could be dangerous to the young woman," he notes. "But all this didn't matter to the court."

With 14 pregnancy help centers operating throughout northern Indiana, lower Michigan and in Ohio, the office located just down the street from where the very first Care Center opened 25 years ago has expanded with Bishop John M. D'Arcy's blessing.

He was on hand recently for the dedication ceremony. A supporter since the beginning, Bishop D'Arcy prayed especially for the Women's Care Center and all who come there.

"This will be a place where you will give counseling and advice to women in need, to save the unborn," said Bishop D'Arcy to a room full of care center supporters and staff — "a place, which respects the dignity of the human person. By this great work, for the most defenseless among us, you will help all of us continue in the journey where Jesus Christ will become closer to his people."

Located at the corner of LaSalle and Notre Dame Avenue, this Women's Care Center office will do more than house the corporate offices and provide central storage for all the donated baby items. It will allow counselors to continue serving those in need by offering pregnancy tests and helping women choose life for their babies.

Archbishop George J. Lucas says Saturday's service in Bellevue was a reminder to women facing unplanned pregnancies that there is help available.

The vigil began at St. Cecilia's Catholic Church. Participants walked down the street in prayer to Carhart's clinic.

Prosecutors say Tegan Leach, 19, and Sergie Brennan, 21, used drugs from overseas to terminate a pregnancy earlier this year.

Leach is charged with procuring a miscarriage, while Brennan is charged with supplying drugs to procure an abortion.

A committal hearing in the Cairns Magistrates Court today heard police found blister packets labelled as abortion drugs at their home in February, and that Leach admitted using them.

Prosecutors told the court police were searching the couple's Cairns home in February when officers found two empty packets believed to have held a version of the medical abortion drug ru486.

The Queretaro State Congress in Mexico reformed its constitution Tuesday with a 21-0 vote guaranteeing protection for human life from conception to natural death. The decision makes it the fifteenth Mexican state to enact such legislation.

The new law, which was supported by some 60,000 signatures from Queretaro voters, establishes the right to life as "the first of all fundamental rights" and declares that the State has the duty protect human life from all attacks.

State representatives said the reform was in accord with the Mexican Constitution and with the international treaties ratified by Mexico.

Twenty years ago a young resident physician was called in to save the life of an aborted baby boy. The memories of the child's fight for his life stirred Ron Bryce, M.D., and his wife Lydia, to join the pro-life movement in earnest with financial and political support.

"Abortion became deeply personal to me after that experience," Bryce recalls. "My little patient gave it a human face." Now the Bryce's are taking their war to the streets by helping individuals directly fight the abortion industry. "It's very frustrating for regular citizens who are repulsed by abortion to watch what's going on in Washington," said Bryce. "We decided to create a service that would empower them to save babies' lives, one property at a time."

That is when Pro-Life Properties of Texas, LLC, was born. It is an online document preparation service to help individuals prepare, and file, pro-life deed restrictions on their properties.

Pro-Life Properties is available to all property owners in Texas, and is a simple, cost-effective means of restricting abortion-related activities on any property, in perpetuity. Individuals can deed-restrict residences, stand-alone buildings, shopping centers or raw land.

In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, a group of experts who care for the terminally ill claim that some patients are being wrongly judged as close to death.

Under NHS guidance introduced across England to help doctors and medical staff deal with dying patients, they can then have fluid and drugs withdrawn and many are put on continuous sedation until they pass away.

But this approach can also mask the signs that their condition is improving, the experts warn.

As a result the scheme is causing a "national crisis" in patient care, the letter states. It has been signed palliative care experts including Professor Peter Millard, Emeritus Professor of Geriatrics, University of London, Dr Peter Hargreaves, a consultant in Palliative Medicine at St Luke’s cancer centre in Guildford, and four others.

"Forecasting death is an inexact science," they say. Patients are being diagnosed as being close to death "without regard to the fact that the diagnosis could be wrong.

"As a result a national wave of discontent is building up, as family and friends witness the denial of fluids and food to patients."

After his release, prosecutors hauled Hoye back into court, asking for an injunction to keep him away from the Family Planning Specialists abortion clinic in Oakland -- permanently. Attorney Catie Short of the Life Legal Defense Foundation tells OneNewsNow the judge ruled against the motion, making it clear the real reason for the additional action was because Hoye has been effective in saving the lives of unborn babies.

"What all they're preventing him from doing -- he has no record of harming anyone or anything like that -- so really what they're preventing him from doing is offering help to women seeking abortions," Short contends.

The attorney filed suit in federal court to have the ordinance issued against Hoye declared unconstitutional, but that failed. Now the case is being appealed to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Waterleaf Women's Center was dedicated on Sunday afternoon by Catholic clergy and about 75 supporters. It plans to open for business in several weeks, the Naperville Sun says.

Three local women began searching for office space and raising funds for the project in January.

Waterleaf board president Kelly Gorsky told the Naperville Sun that the center’s core mission is to urge pregnant women not to have abortions. It has set a goal of preventing one abortion per week.

Gorsky said fundraising for the project has gone well. The center will offer pregnancy tests and free counseling services.

The center’s clients will speak to professional or volunteer counselors who can refer them to services such as adoption agencies or financial assistance programs.

"We want women to know that there's a whole network of people that can help," Gorsky continued, adding that the center will work closely with Project Gabriel, a Catholic-run program that provides needy mothers with anything from cash assistance to free babysitting.

Waterleaf board member Maura Marcotte, a trained counselor, said financial hardship is a significant reason women consider abortions. Providing post-pregnancy support will be a key task.

Cyndi Crane, a Waterleaf board member who will work as a full time counselor, said the center will give clients information about the risks of abortion but will never try to frighten or intimidate clients.

"We're a resource center that's here just to present the facts and let (clients) know what kind of help is available," she told the Naperville Sun.

Crane added that the center will also offer counseling to women who have had abortions, pledging that she would not abandon a client "no matter what choice they make."

Adrienne Freeman received a letter from the Medical Board of Queensland warning her that she would be putting the life of the pregnant woman at risk if she went through with the drug-based abortion.

According to a Courier Mail report, Dr. Mary Cohn, the chair of the board, authored the letter telling Freeman that she would also breach the conditions of her medical license by going through with the abortion.

"A woman being treated as an outpatient is unlikely to fully understand the implications of the procedure and would be unable to properly assess whether they required further treatment," Cohn said. "This type of procedure should only be performed in a facility where patients have the required level of professional support and post-procedure care."

This isn't the first time the abortion practitioner has run afoul of the medical board

"While the deep concern of a woman bearing an unwanted child merits consideration and sympathy, it is my personal feeling that the legalization of abortion on demand is not in accordance with the value which our civilization places on human life," Kennedy wrote on Aug. 3, 1971 in response to a letter sent to him by Thomas E. Dennelly, who asked the senator about his stand on abortion.

"Wanted or unwanted, I believe that human life, even at its earliest stages, has certain rights which much be recognized--the right to be born, the right to love, the right to grow old," wrote Kennedy.

The letter, written two years before the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion, was given to the Catholic League by Dennelly, a New York resident and a member of the league, a Catholic civil rights organization.

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, confirmed to CNSNews.com the authenticity of the letter, which he said offers proof that Kennedy, regularly lauded for his pro-abortion stance by pro-abortion groups liked Planned Parenthood and NARAL, was pro-life in his early days as a Massachusetts senator.

"Senator Kennedy's letter, which I have right here in front of me, is striking in that he doesn't see this as a difficult issue," Donohue told CNSNews.com. "He says, clearly, 'When history looks back to this era it should recognize this generation as one which cared about human beings enough to halt the practice of war, to provide a decent living for every family, and to fulfill its responsibility to its children from the very moment of conception.'"

"That's an unequivocal condemnation of abortion," Donohue said.