Pro Life Campaign commissioned a survey of 1,025 people over 18 and found that 68 percent support constitutional protection for the unborn, 26 percent oppose it and 5 percent don't know or have no opinion.

Pro Life Campaign said, "The new poll findings confirm the existence of widespread public support for an approach to protecting the unborn child based on the important distinction between ensuring women receive all necessary medical treatments in pregnancy and prohibiting abortion, where the life of the baby is deliberately targeted."

The congressional body voted 240-185 in favor of the amendment, introduced by Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), to the 2011 Federal Spending Bill.

Immediately after the vote Rep. Pence released a statement saying: "This afternoon's vote is a victory for taxpayers and a victory for life. By banning federal funding to Planned Parenthood, Congress has taken a stand for millions of Americans who believe their tax dollars should not be used to subsidize the largest abortion provider in America.

"I commend my colleagues in both parties for taking a stand for taxpayers and a stand for life."

The amendment will now go before the Senate.

The bill, sponsored by Republican House Majority Leader Tim Jones, received a 9-1 vote in the committee.

The legislation requires abortion practitioners to determine if the unborn child is past 20 weeks using various tests and to determine if the baby is viable. The bill also changes the Missouri definition of viability to include human life that can be "sustained" outside of the womb with or without life support as opposed to life that can be "continued indefinitely." According to an AP report, if the baby is determined to not be viable the abortion practitioner would have to issue a report to the state health department indicating so and explaining why.

A second licensed physician would have to sign off on the abortion to ensure state law was followed at the time of the abortion. Any abortion practitioner violating the law could face a year in prison and a three year suspension of his medical license.

The bill's sponsor, state Republican Rep. Phil Jensen, had said that the language allowing an exception in the law to those who kill "in the lawful defense of ... his or her husband, wife, parent, child, master, mistress, or servant, or the unborn child of any such enumerated person," was meant to help protect unborn victims of domestic violence. However, pro-abortion forces had said that the bill would allow for the murder of abortionists who legally kill unborn children.

Although Jensen responded to the uproar by offering new language restricting the law's scope to "unlawful" harm against unborn babies, consideration of the bill was postponed indefinitely on Wednesday.

One-year-old Joseph Maraachli of Windsor, Ontario will have his life support removed Monday at 10 am. after the Ontario Superior Court today rejected an appeal by the parents to bring him home where he can die under their care. [...]

"Monday at 10 am they will kill my baby," Moe Maraachli, Joseph's father, told LifeSiteNews shortly after the ruling. "There's no more humanity. There's no more chance. I've tried everything for him. No more appeals, nothing."

"I asked them: why not send him to Windsor and let him die at home?" he continued. "They said they will give him injection, but I don't want to."

"I ask God, and maybe he breathe," he added.

UPDATE: 2/17/10 – Rolling Stone has issued a "correction" after initially publishing the quote from Bieber. The initial reading of the exchange with the Rolling Stone reporter read:

"I really don't believe in abortion," Bieber says. "It's like killing a baby?" How about in cases of rape? "Um. Well, I think that's really sad, but everything happens for a reason. I guess I haven't been in that position, so I wouldn't be able to judge that."

The correcton adds a phrase that somwhat clarifies what Bieber believes about whether abortion is alright in cases of rape or incest.

"Um. Well, I think that's really sad, but everything happens for a reason. I don't know how that would be a reason. I guess I haven't been in that position, so I wouldn't be able to judge that."