by Brad Mattes | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 8/22/14 6:34 PM

Any time there’s a pro-life law, you can be sure pro-abortion activists will be on-hand to protest with vile and obnoxious signs; dramatic chanting of “abortion-on-demand without apology;” and their go-to symbol, a bloody clothes hanger. I witnessed this behavior firsthand when debates raged over pro-life legislation in Texas last summer.

It’s all a deplorable display. They’re willing to brazenly fight common-sense protections that ensure women’s health and safety. And they fiercely oppose any attempt to give women informed consent and true choice. Make no mistake; these individuals want absolutely nothing to stand in the way of abortion. And pro-life laws are proving to be their number one adversary.

How effective are pro-life laws at lowering the incidence of abortion? A study by Michael New, assistant professor at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, provides a meta-analysis of 20 years of abortion data compiled by the Guttmacher Institute and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. His research reveals that pro-life laws are reducing abortion rates. Here’s how:

• Public Funding Restrictions – Some states provide public funding for abortions. In 15 out of 18 cases, abortion rates fell after Medicaid funding was reduced. Specifically in the state of North Carolina, there was not only a decrease in the abortion rate, but an increase in the birthrate was observed months later. The findings concluded that 37% of the women who would have otherwise had an abortion carried their child to term when funding was not available.
• Parental Involvement Laws – Pro-abortion activists have denounced laws involving parents, saying you can’t legislate good family communication. Yet in 16 peer-reviewed studies there was a statistical decline in the number of abortions of minors in states where these laws were enacted. The difference ranged from 13% to as high as 42%.
• Informed Consent Laws – There are variations in how these laws are enacted. Some require a counseling visit prior to an abortion; others specify how information about development in the womb is communicated. It’s estimated that viewing color photos of the unborn baby’s development results in a 3% to 7% reduction in the abortion rate. In-person counseling can reduce rates by as much as 12%.

The full article published by State Politics & Policy Quarterly is available at this link.

Pro-life laws are proving that abortion-on-demand is NOT the solution women want or need. By offering women life-affirming alternatives, more mothers are realizing that they can choose life for their babies. And the exciting part is we’re at the cusp of seeing more fruit from our efforts. Over 220 pro-life laws have been passed at the state level since 2011. Imagine the lives we’ll see saved in the next 5 to 10 years.

This celebration comes with a caution however. The pro-aborts fight us tooth and nail every step of the way. One recent example is US Senate bill 1696 with the misleading name, “Women’s Health Protection Act.” This is radical pro-abortion legislation that’ll wipe out all pro-life laws ever passed by both the federal and state levels of government. This will leave women completely vulnerable to the abortion industry, without any protections or regulations. They’re determined to make abortion-on-demand the law of the land. Obviously, it’s our responsibility to make sure that doesn’t happen. Take a stand by contacting your senators today and ask them to oppose Senate bill 1696. Let them know that pro-life laws are making a difference and saving lives.

by Sarah Zagorski | Indianapolis, IN | LifeNews.com | 8/20/14 6:08 PM

In 2010, Marianne Anderson worked at a Planned Parenthood facility in Indianapolis, Indiana. She started working there because the job was very close to her house, and she was hired to start up their conscious sedation program, which allowed clients to purchase mild to moderate sedatives to be given intravenously before an abortion.

Anderson, who is a mother of two and a grandmother of one, said when she started at the facility she was on the fence about abortion. This was because when she was on staff at Wishard Hospital in Indianapolis she had seen girls that had attempted abortions on themselves and ended up with hysterectomies, or boyfriends beating them because they were pregnant. She said: “My thought was, ‘Well, you need a safe place for an abortion. People shouldn’t be doing it on their own. And people are going to be doing it anyway, so why not provide them a safe place to do it?’ ”

Now, Anderson has a very different opinion about Planned Parenthood. She said the following in an interview with The Criterion:

“It was a money-grubbing, evil, very sad, sad place to work. We would get yelled at if we didn’t answer the phone by the third ring. They would tell us we’d be fired [if we didn’t] because they needed the money.

They would remind us in our weekly staff meeting that we need to tell everyone who called to schedule an appointment to avoid ‘those people’ [the sidewalk counselors] because we need the money. We were to tell them, ‘Don’t make eye contact with them, and don’t stop in the driveway. If you make eye contact with them or if you stop and roll down your window, they’re going to try their darnedest to talk you out of it.’

You have to have so many abortions a month to stay open. In our meetings they’d tell us, ‘If abortions are down, you could get sent home early and not get as many hours.’

They would allow girls to have ultrasounds that were obviously way too far along [the legal limit for having an abortion in Indiana is 13 weeks and six days. They said, ‘If they want to be seen, you just put them through, no problem,’ just taking advantage to make money.”

Additionally, Anderson reported on some of the other horrible incidents that took place at Planned Parenthood. Six months after she started, employees from the national office came to train her, and would chant, “Abortion all the time!” They believed abortion was a rite of passage and should be free to anyone who wants it.

Anderson also observed girls being pressured to have abortions against their will. A 16-year old girl was forced to have an abortion by her mother and another incident involved sex trafficking. Anderson explained, “This guy brought in a Korean girl. I had no doubt in my mind this girl was a sex slave. This guy would not leave her side. They could barely communicate. He wanted to make all the arrangements.

During the ultrasound, she told one of the nurses that there were lots of girls in the house, and that the man hits them. She never came back for the abortion. I always wondered what happened to her. One of my co-workers said, ‘You’re better off to just let it go’.”

The abortionist that Anderson worked for, Dr. Michael King, would complain when girls would start crying on the table. He would say, “Now you chose to be here. Sit still. I don’t have time for this.” But what was even more sickening to Anderson was the doctor who would talk to the aborted baby while collecting all the body parts. He would say, “Come on, little arm, I know you’re here! Now you stop hiding from me!”

The Georgetown Planned Parenthood performed approximately 20-30 abortions twice a week, and several times there were complications and a local hospital would come pick the women up. Anderson said, “One girl almost bled out. She was passing clots, her blood pressure was dropping. When we had to call 911 for an ambulance, we were told never to say the word ‘abortion’ because they don’t want that broadcast. They knew that the calls were recorded, and could be made public.”

These incidents only confirm what we already know about the largest abortion business in America. Planned Parenthood will do anything to pull in their annual abortion income.   Thankfully, in 2012, Anderson reached out to Abby Johnson who connected her with Eileen, a sidewalk counselor in Indianapolis. Eileen helped her search for a new job and didn’t judge her in the process. Now, Anderson works at Community North Hospital and shares her story publically.

by Steven Ertelt | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 8/20/14 12:52 PM

Once again proving you don’t need an abortion ban to stop abortions, a pro-life law in Ohio has successfully stopped surgical abortions at a late-term abortion clinic that couldn’t comply with the health and safety measure to protect women and unborn children.

Today, the Lebanon Road Surgery Center announced an end to its court battle to continue surgical abortions. The abortion center in question is owned and operated by Martin Haskell, the late-term abortion practitioner who popularized the partial-birth abortion method that Congress eventually banned.

Last week, Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas Judge Jerry Metz, a Democrat, upheld two previous orders to close the late-term abortion facility. The center, ran by late-term abortionist Martin Haskell, stated it will not appeal the decision but will now act as only a referral site for his second abortion facility in the Dayton area.

“This appears to be the end of a long battle to protect life in Greater Cincinnati,” said Mike Gonidakis, president of Ohio Right to Life. “Ohio Right to Life just achieved a victory it has been seeking for the last 30 years. The closing of an illegally operating abortion facility is good public policy for Ohio.”

“Today is a life-saving day for the women and children of Southwest Ohio,” said Gonidakis. “If a facility fails to ensure that they are operating at the legally required health and safety standards to protect women then certainly they should close. Ohio law affords no loopholes for abortion facilities. We thank Democrat Judge Metz for affirming the order from the Ohio Department of Health.”

Although initial indications were that the abortion facility may close, Haskell has told the media that he will not close down but may perform the first steps of late term abortions (it is a two-day procedure) and then send women to his other abortion facility in Dayton to complete it. Haskell is also reportedly considering doing abortions with the dangerous RU 486 abortion drug that has killed at least a dozen women and injured thousands more.

Previously, Ohio passed a law requiring that all ambulatory surgical centers must be licensed by the state and, in 1999, it came to the attention of the Ohio Health Department that abortion clinics were not in compliance with the law, having never applied for licensing. The OHD began the process of insuring that all abortion clinics came into compliance.

Haskell (pictured right), a nationally-known late-term abortionist who helped develop the now outlawed Partial-Birth Abortion procedure, has fought with the state for years and he sued the Ohio Department of Health this month for ordering his Sharonville abortion facility to close because it does not meet the minimum medical safety standards in Ohio law.

In July, Magistrate Michael Bachman ruled that the ODH had the authority to close abortion businesses andordered Haskell to shut down his Sharonville abortion business by July 10. Judge Jerome Metz intervened and issued a stay on Bachman’s order until he had time to consider the issues involved in the case.

Judge Metz concurred with Magistrate Michael Bachman and upheld the Ohio Department of Health’s January 2014 order to close the Sharonville, Ohio Lebanon Road Surgery Center (aka Women’s Med Center), for failing to have a written transfer agreement with a local hospital or a variance, i.e., exception, to cover patient emergencies.

In January, the Ohio Department of Health affirmed its order to shut down the facility for failure to have a written transfer agreement with a local hospital or a proper variance. At the end of June, Magistrate Michael Bachman upheld this decision. Last Friday, Judge Metz indicated that the Lebanon Road Surgery Center had five days to appeal the stay.

by Steven Ertelt | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 8/19/14 12:34 PM

A judge has upheld a pro-life Iowa law that banned the dangerous practice of telemed abortions. A telemedicine abortion is when a woman is prescribed medication that induces an abortion without seeing a doctor in person.

The bill would require that women seeking an abortion be in the presence of a physician when receiving the pills. It also outlines disciplinary procedures to be taken should a physician violate the terms of the bill, which can include the revocation of a doctor’s license.

The legislation was necessary because the Planned Parenthood abortion business was putting women’s lives and health at risk by denying them an opportunity to visit with a physician in-person, as recommended by the FDA. The abortion drug has killed over a dozen women world wide and inured thousands more.

Polk County District Judge Jeffrey Farrell ruled today that the Iowa Board of Medicine was acting within its proper authority when it banned the use of Planned Parenthood’s experimental “Webcam” abortion pill distribution process. This ruling will allow the implementation and enforcement of the webcam abortion ban in 30 days.

Planned Parenthood has said it will appeal today’s ruling but pro-life groups hailed the ruling.

“Over the last six years, we have worked tirelessly to educate Iowans about this dangerous practice that risks the health of women all over Iowa.  We welcome today’s ruling by Judge Farrell in which he rules in favor of the Iowa Board of Medicine’s decision to ban the dangerous practice of webcam abortion in the State of Iowa,” stated Jenifer Bowen, Executive Director of Iowa Right to Life. “While the plaintiffs have vowed to appeal this common-sense decision, we know having reviewed the Iowa Board of Medicine’s rationale behind the rule at question in the case and after hearing from women who have suffered complications and negative effects of the procedure, a ban on the practice was the only logical outcome in this case.”

“A special thank you to the Iowa Board of Medicine who voted a year ago to end this practice and to each of the 30,0000+ Iowans that signed our petition to END webcam abortions in Iowa,” concluded Bowen.

“Operation Rescue has worked with other state and national pro-life groups since 2010 to bring an end to this dangerous abortion pill distribution racket that puts Planned Parenthood profits above the lives and health of women,” said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue. “Today represents a long awaited victory for women and their babies.”

“In recent months, Planned Parenthood has voluntarily shut down webcam abortions in ten facilities. Nine offices still employ the now-banned pill distribution process,” he said. “Since Planned Parenthood’s plans became public, 14 states have passed restrictions that require a licensed physician be present when abortion pills are dispensed, effectively banning the process of webcam abortion process. The planned national expansion of the webcam system has since been scuttled in the wake of the new state laws.”

Newman told LifeNews.com that webcam abortions enable an abortionist to remotely dispense abortion pills to patients in other cities without leaving a central office. The abortionist visits briefly for a short time with a patient via an internet video conferencing system then clicks a button on his computer that remotely opens a drawer in front of the patient containing the abortion pills.

The Board found that the lack of a physical examination by the dispensing abortionist fell well below patient care standards.

On August 30, the Iowa Board of Medicine voted 8-2 in favor of new rules requiring that abortionists prescribing the abortion pill conduct a physical examination of the woman, be physically present when the drug is provided, and schedule a follow up to confirm completion of the abortion and evaluate the woman’s medical condition.

Polls found 66 percent of Iowa residents supported the ban.

Rep. Matt Windschitl, R-Missouri Valley, who sponsored the bill, said if women don’t have immediate access to an abortion-inducing drug, he hopes more might consider carrying a pregnancy to term.

“If that mother is now unable to go and get a webcam abortion, maybe it’ll give her a little bit more time to think about it,” Windschitl said. “That would be my hope.”

Polls indicate that the number of Iowans supporting increased restrictions on abortions is rising. Furthermore a 2011 straw poll indicated that voters in Iowa care about the pro-life stance of candidates. The source for June’s polls was not cited. At the time of publication, the writer could not locate a poll with results mentioned by June.

In Iowa, medically induced abortions were almost as numerous as surgically induced abortions in 2012, according to Iowa Department of Public Health statistics.

In 2012, 2,314 medically induced abortions were performed and 2,324 surgically induced abortions were performed in the same year. The previous year saw 2,522 medically induced abortions in Iowa and 2,871 surgical.

by Steven Ertelt | Seoul, South Korea | LifeNews.com | 8/18/14 10:08 AM

Over the weekend, Pope Francis visited a memorial in South Korea dedicated to remembering babies who have been victimized by abortions.

The leader of the Catholic Church is inspired by something done in and around The Vatican shortly after the death of Jesus Christ.

Dug into the walls of the ancient Christian catacombs in the outskirts of Rome are countless small tombs, only a foot or two across. These are the burial places of infants cast out of their pagan homes and left to die of starvation and exposure—a common practice of that time. Members of the Early Church, charged by Christ to love all their neighbors, offered these tiny victims of Roman cruelty the only act of love they could: to bury their little bodies and mourn for them in prayer.

The abortion memorial, located at the Kkottongnae home for the sick about 120 miles from Seoul, is a field dotted with white crosses and statues of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus as a child. Francis paused briefly at the site, bowed his head and folded his hand in prayer, the Boston Globe reports.

Jung Kwang-ryul of the Kkottongnae community, described the site as a “one-of-a-kind memorial,” saying the Pope’s stop is “a clear testimony of his defense of life.”

“It is necessary to reiterate the strongest opposition to any direct attack on life, especially innocent and defenseless, and her unborn child in the womb is the innocent par excellence,” the pope said in April.

The Kkttongnae Home, located in the Diocese of Cheongju, was created in 1976 by Father John Oh, the founder of the Kkottongnae Brothers and Sisters of Jesus. The priest was inspired by a beggar named Choi Gwi Dong to feed 18 other sick beggars despite his own physical handicaps.

It offers assistance to the homeless, disabled individuals and alcohol addicts. Currently it can serve around 5,000 people.

The Cemetery for Aborted Children is located behind the home and includes a statue of the Holy Family surrounded by cross representing the unborn.

During the National Day of Remembrance for Aborted Children next month in the United States, mourners across the country will visit the gravesites of aborted children, whose broken bodies were recovered from trash dumpsters and pathology labs and solemnly buried over the four decades of legal abortion in the United States.

by Brad Mattes | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 8/15/14 6:02 PM

We used to call my dear friend, mentor and colleague, Dr. Jack Willke, the father of the pro-life movement. These days, as he nears 90 years old, we call him the grandfather of the pro-life movement. I’ve had the distinct honor and privilege to learn much from Jack over the years.

For decades, he’s been saying we’ll end abortion if not for the simple reason that pro-lifers are the ones having babies and the pro-abortion people aren’t. Eventually, we’ll outnumber them. Although that seemed a compelling theory, I wondered if we’d ever have tangible evidence to support it. Now, we do. A study from the Social Science Research Network proves he’s right.

Historically, public support of abortion rights increased following Roe v. Wade in large part due to the mistaken notion that just because it’s legal it’s okay. Since that time, public support for abortion has remained relatively flat and recent years are showing a reversal toward greater support for the pro-life position. This is significant because the percentage of opposition to abortion among young adults is particularly strong. And this trend is occurring while society is growing more liberal on other issues, such as homosexual marriage. Why is the abortion issue different?

Researchers J. Alex Kevern and Jeremy Freese of the Department of Sociology at Northwestern University assert that there’s a connection between fertility and abortion attitudes. The basis of their research is 34 years of data compiled in the General Social Survey by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago between the years of 1977-2010. In-person surveys were conducted with over 55,000 respondents to collect both demographic information and opinions on issues varying from political to religious and social concerns.

The premise is that opinion on the abortion issue is largely determined from parent to child. When factoring in the issue of fertility, those who have more children are therefore more likely to shape the cultural opinions of future generations. It should come as no surprise thatpro-lifers have had, on average, 27% more children than those who are pro-abortion. Estimates show pro-lifers have roughly 3 children (2.82) for every 2 children of those who support abortion. As those children come of age and have children of their own, the gap between pro-abortion and pro-life is widening in our favor.

The difference is seen generationally. When surveyed at ages 23-34, those born in 1950-1955, were 44.7% in favor of abortion. One generation removed, those born in 1975-1980 were surveyed at the same age and found that only 38.8% were “pro-choice.” It’s reasonable to expect that the next generation’s results will be even lower.

How can we help to ensure that this downward trend continues? We must invest in this nation’s most precious, renewable resource—our children. Start young, even as young as toddlers, help them to understand that babies grow inside their mother’s tummies. As they get older, use educational tools, such as books and the media to reinforce pro-life beliefs. Continue to affirm your values with teens, empowering them to be proactive and take a stand for life. You have the power to plant seeds of life that will grow for generations to come.

Furthermore, I found it interesting that their analysis revealed if there were no difference in the number of children between pro-life and pro-abortion individuals, the population would be about five percentage points more pro-abortion. Our families are making a difference. This shows that as parents, when we invest in our children and share our pro-life beliefs,we’re not just shaping our sons and daughters; we’re shaping the future of the world.

We’re winning the battle on many fronts. And I think it’s fitting that by actually giving life, we’re strengthening the pro-life cause even more. I’m going to forward this email to my married son.

by Tom Ciesielka | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 8/14/14 3:47 PM

Yesterday, the Thomas More Society filed an amicus brief urging the United States Supreme Court to hear a case involving “Choose Life” license plates, in order to resolve disputes among lower courts over how to treat specialty license plates.

The brief is brought on behalf of Choose Life America, Choose Life Wisconsin, and Illinois Choose Life, and urges the Justices to hear the case and uphold broad free speech rights for license plates.

“Every American should have the opportunity to purchase a ‘Choose Life’ license plate,” said Peter Breen, Thomas More Society vice president and senior counsel. “While most states allow a broad range of messages on specialty license plates, the ACLU and its allies have diminished free speech by preventing Americans from obtaining ‘Choose Life’ plates in many states. Because some lower courts have agreed with the ACLU and silenced free speech, we urge the Supreme Court to reaffirm the broad free speech rights of citizens to have the message of their choice on their license plates.”

“Choose Life” license plates are available in 29 states and the District of Columbia, and the revenue they generate benefits adoption-related organizations, including pregnancy care centers that serve mothers in need. North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Illinois are among the states where “Choose Life” plates are not available, either due to inaction by the legislature or court action to suppress the plates.

“It makes no sense that the ‘Choose Life’ specialty plate is upheld by some courts and condemned by others,” added Steve Crampton, Thomas More Society special counsel. “Thousands of drivers wish to purchase ‘Choose Life’ specialty plates in order to express their personal views in favor of an important societal issue, but they are not able to do so because of confusing contradictions in the lower courts. It’s high time that this conflict is resolved once and for all–the forum of specialty plates should include all speech.”

by Steven Ertelt | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 8/12/14 11:53 AM

A pro-life group is demanding more information about a deal the IRS has struck with an atheist groupto monitor the content of sermons.

The next time your pastor delivers a pro-life sermon or urges the congregation to stand up for pro-life values in the political or public arena, he could be taken to task by the IRS.

Last month, the pro-life legal group Alliance Defending Freedom asked the Internal Revenue Service Tuesday to release all documents related to its recent decision to settle a lawsuit with an atheist group that claims the IRS has adopted new protocols and procedures for the investigation of churches.

ADF submitted the Freedom of Information Act request after learning of the IRS’s agreement with Freedom From Religion Foundation in a press release the group issued on July 17 concerning its lawsuit Freedom From Religion Foundation v. Koskinen, which accused the agency of failing to investigate churches the way the atheist group would like.

The IRS claims it is temporarily withholding investigations of all tax-exempt entities because of congressional scrutiny of its recent scandals, but no one knows when it will decide to restart investigations based on any new or modified rules that it develops.

Now, the pro-life group Faith and Freedom Coalition is demanding release of a secret legal agreement between the IRS and an atheist group about censoring the content of  sermons and other messages heard in houses of worship by challenging their tax-exempt status.

As the Daily Signal reports:

The agreement followed the voluntary dismissal of a 2012 lawsuit filed in federal court by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a nonprofit atheist organization that advocates strict separation of church and state.

The suit attempted to force the Internal Revenue Service to question the tax-exempt status of churches and other houses of worship when priests, pastors, rabbis and other clergy preach in a way that has “political implications.

The agreement reached July 17 between the atheist group and the IRS has not been made public. Nor has the IRS stated what new protocols or provisions it agreed to follow in enforcing the tax code.

Causing alarm among Christian organizations such as the Faith and Freedom Coalitionwas a statement released by Freedom From Religion Foundation’s president, Annie Laurie Gaylor, calling the group’s settlement with the IRS a “victory.” Gaylor wrote:

This is a victory, and we’re pleased with this development in which the IRS has proved to our satisfaction that it now has in place a protocol to enforce its own anti-electioneering provisions.

Adding teeth to the agreement, Gaylor added, her group “could refile the suit if anti-electioneering provisions are not enforced in the future against rogue political churches.”

Ralph Reed, chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, said:

Given the history of the IRS in harassing, persecuting and infringing on the First Amendment rights of Christians and other people of faith, this is a deeply disturbing development. For the Christian community to be targeted for increased enforcement power and the threat of loss of tax-exempt status by this scandal-plagued agency defies logic, common sense, and any sound legal basis.

“Secrecy breeds mistrust, and the IRS should know this in light of its recent scandals involving the investigation of conservative groups,” said ADF Litigation Counsel Christiana Holcomb. “We are asking the IRS to disclose the new protocols and procedures it apparently adopted for determining whether to investigate churches. What it intends to do to churches must be brought into the light of day.”