A high school chapter of the pro-life group Students for Life is claiming that it was censored by the administration and given less freedom than a gay rights group.

They're clearly showing a double standard here," Kristan Hawkins,president of Students for Life of America, told The Christian Post last week. Hawkins accused the staff of Wilson High School in Washington State of showing favoritism to the local Gay-Straight Alliance group over the high school's SFL chapter, especially regarding flyers.

History of the Controversy

Asberg outlined the school's alleged censorship since the SFL chapter started in November 2013.

"In late November, early December, we submitted the flyers. The same week later we realized they were not approved," he recalled. The denied leaflets featured a quote from the late President Ronald Reagan – "I've noticed that everyone who is for abortion is already born." – and a milk carton showing a baby with the word "missing" and the caption "Since Roe v. Wade 1/3 of our generation has been aborted."

The school did, however, allow GSA posters with three equations symbolizing acceptance for three types of sexual relationships (♂+♂=♥ ♂+♀=♥ ♀+♀= ♥).

"Three weeks later, a representative from the school district, some administrators, and the ASB (Associated Student Body) teacher adviser told us that the candlelight vigil would not be allowed during school hours, because it would disrupt education," Asberg reported. He found the multitude of advisers patronizing and unsettling. "They were trying to be nice and help us, but we did feel that there was at least a veiled attack on our rights."

Asberg concluded with the most recent denial – a day of silence for those who lost their lives in abortion. When the SFL chapter asked permission for this, the president explained, "We were discouraged from doing that, but the Gay-Straight Alliance was encouraged to do that because they said theirs was less political than ours would have been."

A National Struggle?

Hawkins connected this struggle in Washington State to a brief tussle with the University of Alabama earlier this month. The university delivered an apology to Bama Students for Life after removing a pro-life poster from a campus facility.

Like the poster at the University of Alabama, the flyers in Washington State "are pretty simple flyers – there are no graphic images on them, they're not extremely hard-hitting," Hawkins argued. The national SFL president argued that the posters are far from controversial. "They make you think about the issue of abortion. For them to say that they're offensive is clearly showing their bias."

"They would never try to silence a Gay-Straight Alliance group because they know the gay lobby would be all over that school," Hawkins conjectured, pointing to an alleged bias in the general culture.

She told CP that the national organization teaches local chapters to assert their rights, and reminds them that they hold a majority opinion in the United States. When students start a pro-life group, she explained, they think most people disagree because "the people who are pro-choice are going to be hateful."

Nevertheless, Hawkins was optimistic that the issue would be resolved in SFL's favor, as it was at the University of Alabama.

The Legal Position

Peter Breen, vice president and senior counsel at The Thomas More Society, argued that the case was very clear-cut and decidedly in SFL's favor, if it should come to court. "Both the First Amendment and the Federal Equal Access Act ensure equal treatment" in cases like this, Breen told CP. He explained that the Federal Equal Access Act, passed in 1984, requires federal-funded secondary schools to allow all student groups the ability to have the same privileges.

"Our position is that all the student groups should be allowed to express themselves in a robust manner," Breen explained. He argued that the activities and posters Wilson High School permits for the Gay-Straight Alliance serve as a good example of what should be allowed, and that Students for Life should have the same freedoms.

"We're ready to spring into litigation mode now if that's necessary," Breen stated, but "we hope to resolve these situations without needing to go to court."

A high school chapter of the pro-life group Students for Life is claiming that it was censored by the administration and given less freedom than a gay rights group.

They're clearly showing a double standard here," Kristan Hawkins,president of Students for Life of America, told The Christian Post last week. Hawkins accused the staff of Wilson High School in Washington State of showing favoritism to the local Gay-Straight Alliance group over the high school's SFL chapter, especially regarding flyers.

History of the Controversy

Asberg outlined the school's alleged censorship since the SFL chapter started in November 2013.

"In late November, early December, we submitted the flyers. The same week later we realized they were not approved," he recalled. The denied leaflets featured a quote from the late President Ronald Reagan – "I've noticed that everyone who is for abortion is already born." – and a milk carton showing a baby with the word "missing" and the caption "Since Roe v. Wade 1/3 of our generation has been aborted."

The school did, however, allow GSA posters with three equations symbolizing acceptance for three types of sexual relationships (♂+♂=♥ ♂+♀=♥ ♀+♀= ♥).

"Three weeks later, a representative from the school district, some administrators, and the ASB (Associated Student Body) teacher adviser told us that the candlelight vigil would not be allowed during school hours, because it would disrupt education," Asberg reported. He found the multitude of advisers patronizing and unsettling. "They were trying to be nice and help us, but we did feel that there was at least a veiled attack on our rights."

Asberg concluded with the most recent denial – a day of silence for those who lost their lives in abortion. When the SFL chapter asked permission for this, the president explained, "We were discouraged from doing that, but the Gay-Straight Alliance was encouraged to do that because they said theirs was less political than ours would have been."

A National Struggle?

Hawkins connected this struggle in Washington State to a brief tussle with the University of Alabama earlier this month. The university delivered an apology to Bama Students for Life after removing a pro-life poster from a campus facility.

Like the poster at the University of Alabama, the flyers in Washington State "are pretty simple flyers – there are no graphic images on them, they're not extremely hard-hitting," Hawkins argued. The national SFL president argued that the posters are far from controversial. "They make you think about the issue of abortion. For them to say that they're offensive is clearly showing their bias."

"They would never try to silence a Gay-Straight Alliance group because they know the gay lobby would be all over that school," Hawkins conjectured, pointing to an alleged bias in the general culture.

She told CP that the national organization teaches local chapters to assert their rights, and reminds them that they hold a majority opinion in the United States. When students start a pro-life group, she explained, they think most people disagree because "the people who are pro-choice are going to be hateful."

Nevertheless, Hawkins was optimistic that the issue would be resolved in SFL's favor, as it was at the University of Alabama.

The Legal Position

Peter Breen, vice president and senior counsel at The Thomas More Society, argued that the case was very clear-cut and decidedly in SFL's favor, if it should come to court. "Both the First Amendment and the Federal Equal Access Act ensure equal treatment" in cases like this, Breen told CP. He explained that the Federal Equal Access Act, passed in 1984, requires federal-funded secondary schools to allow all student groups the ability to have the same privileges.

"Our position is that all the student groups should be allowed to express themselves in a robust manner," Breen explained. He argued that the activities and posters Wilson High School permits for the Gay-Straight Alliance serve as a good example of what should be allowed, and that Students for Life should have the same freedoms.

"We're ready to spring into litigation mode now if that's necessary," Breen stated, but "we hope to resolve these situations without needing to go to court."

by Kristina Garza | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 2/21/14 12:11 PM

The aggressive words — “Is this the f***ing pro-life stuff!?” —  is how the best conversation of last week began.

An abrasive young woman was shouting those words at our newest team member Josh, he was caught a little off guard and wasn’t quite sure how to respond.  No need to worry, the girl strutted right on by and straight up to Lauren, a veteran team member and quipped: “Why you guys gotta be at a college!?”

Lauren calmly pointed out that most women who have abortions are college students.  Janie*, the young lady, responded, “I know!  I’m two months. I was gonna have an abortion. But thanks to y’all, I ain’t.”

And that was it!!!  With a hand wave and a head waggle, this young mom chose life!

Janie continued to share that she already had a daughter who was a year old. In fact, 4 years earlier, she’d also been pregnant, and chose to abort that baby. She swore to herself she wouldn’t abort again, but here she was, a full-time college student, with a one year old, rent, and a car payment.  It seemed like too much, enough even to consider another abortion… until she saw the images.

She made it sound like she resented us… but she was happy. Despite her tone, she was all smiles. “The doctor told me it was just like a peanut! That’s not a peanut!” she said when Lauren showed her our 8-week fetal model.

She made it sound like she resented us… but she was happy. Despite her tone, she was all smiles. “The doctor told me it was just like a peanut! That’s not a peanut!” she said when Lauren showed her our 8-week fetal model.

Janie left us with local resources, information about healing after abortion, and our promise to pray for her and her babies.

We see a lot of girls like Janie.  Some are angry and confrontational but we know that inside they are crying out for help and for someone to point them in the right direction.

Janie was ultimately grateful that we were at her college that day to show her what abortion is and therefore what she was thinking about doing to her baby. It changed Janie’s mind and she is one of many pregnant college students who need to see the truth.

Won’t you help Survivors be on college campuses in the weeks ahead by giving a special donation today?  To make a contribution to get us to our next college where we will meet more young women just like Janie please click here now.

While God doesn’t always show us when babies are saved as a result of our college outreaches, we know they are.  Please pray with us for Janie, and all of the other mothers that we reached in Los Angeles and Riverside, as well as the students who we will encounter this week in San Diego and Twentynine Palms.

by Mariola O'Brien | Stockholm, Sweden | LifeNews.com | 2/20/14 1:55 PM

In 2011, the European Council adopted a resolution that protects healthcare workers’ right to freedom of conscience regarding abortion and euthanasia. Sweden has signed this agreement. But reality paints a different picture. Out of the 47 member states in the European Council, Finland and Sweden are the only two which do not uphold freedom of conscience in practice.

Ellinor Grimmark, 37, is the first midwife in Sweden to report a hospital to the Discrimination Ombudsman (DO) concerning abortion. She claims to have been discriminated against on the basis of her religious beliefs and moral convictions. Newly-graduated, she was fired from her position last summer because she refused to assist abortions. Even though there is a shortage of midwives at the moment, and even though she is willing to take on double shifts, she has been denied a job ever since. One employer had first agreed to hire her in spite of the “complication”, but withdrew the offer when her story began to spread in media.

Grimmark is being represented by attorney Ruth Nordström, CEO of Pro Vita, a foundation promoting human rights and dignity. Nordström confirmsthat this is a human rights issue and says they have reported Sweden to the European Council for breaking the law on nine counts. She believes Grimmark has a good chance of winning her case in the European Court of Human Rights.

Ellinor Grimmark says in a statementto the newspaper Aftonbladet: ”As a midwife, I want to exercise a profession which defends life and saves lives at all cost. Are healthcare practitioners in Sweden to be forced to take part in procedures that extinguish life, at its beginning or final stages? Somebody has to take the little children’s side, somebody has to fight for their right to life. A midwife described to me how she had held an aborted baby in her arms, still alive, and cried desperately for an hour while the baby struggled to breathe. These children do not even have a right to pain relief. I cannot take part in this.”

A hot debate has followed this incident and a Facebook page has been created to support Grimmark. In interviews with Swedish national radio and mainstream newspapers she points out that many other countries solve this problem in the work place satisfactorily.

A televised debate made it clear that there is strong resistance to adopting a conscience clause. The public’s general reaction was to question why Grimmark chose this profession in the first place. Her lawyer Ruth Nordström clarified that a midwife’s primary task is to deliver babies, not to perform abortions. She also pointed out that it is a biological fact that we are dealing with two individuals in the case of abortion: the mother and the child. There is a hierarchy of values to consider in this case; an abortion cannot be compared to other operations, such as removing an appendix. To talk about a woman’s right to her own body is to over-simplify the issue. Twenty-three days after conception there is another heart beating in the womb.

Paulina Neuding, the editor-in-chief of a magazine, drew attention to the fact that the Swedish abortion law, which allows free abortion up to week 18 and in some cases week 22, is arbitrary. The fact that there are people whose conscience cannot accept this slack restriction has to be respected. ”It is a question about life or not life, and we all think differently about this.”

Both Nordström and Neuding agreed that some pregnant women would prefer to have access to a midwife who does not also perform abortions, particularly if they are Christians. This idea was extremely hard for the moderator to grasp, and she asked them to explain what they meant. Catharina Zätterström, board member of the Association of Midwives, who was participating in the debate through video conferencing, actually laughed when she heard them voice this concern. I can relate to such women, because I am one of them. During my first pregnancy, I regularly took the train to another city to see a midwife who runs her own clinic. I felt better knowing that she didn’t have aborted fetuses in her waste bin!

The reaction of Zätterström and others goes to show that the Swedish people have a poor understanding of what conscience essentially is. It is not a question of opinion or preferences. It is something much deeper than that. Member of Parliament Mats Selander, one of the participants in the debate, commented on this: ”In our culture we have superficialised the question of ethics and think that it is legitimate that the State overrides people’s consciences. This is a matter of life and death and the individual must be respected.” He reminded his listeners that Sweden grants exemptions for those who wish to do military service but object to using weapons for reasons of conscience.

Norway, a country comparable to Sweden in many ways, was brought up several times in the debate. There, the right to freedom of conscience for healthcare practitioners is upheld in fact and not just in theory.

The common argument against freedom of conscience in the case of abortion in Sweden is, Who will then perform abortions, if nobody wants to? What if all midwives refuse? Gunilla Gomér, chairman of the Swedish pro-life organisation Ja till Livet, answers this concern in a recent interview: “What kind of medical care is this, if nobody wants to give it? It is high time we drew attention to this.”

The silence that normally surrounds the question of abortion in Sweden is thick and powerful. Many people now hope that Grimmark’s case will clear the air and set a precedent for future cases. This way, midwifery will be opened up to women who feel called to the profession, but whose conscience does not allow them to terminate a life.

LifeNews Note: Mariola O’Brien writes from Stockholm where she lives with her Canadian husband and their children. This article was first published on her blog, Continuum Mama. Reprinted with permission from MercatorNet.

by Sarah Terzo | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 2/17/14 7:29 PM

Washington, DC (LiveActionNews) — In a recent article in The Criterion, Natalie Hoefer interviewed a nurse who worked at Planned Parenthood but left the abortion business with the help of clinic-worker-turned-activist Abby Johnson and local pro-lifers. The nurse, Marianne Anderson, bravely decided to come forward with her story because, as she says, she wanted to “right a wrong.” She credits the sidewalk counselors that helped her leave with giving her the courage to speak out about her experiences.

I felt so much love and acceptance in that room [when I first spoke publicly, at Right to Life of Indianapolis’ "Celebrate Life" dinner]. I wandered around there looking at how happy the people were, how much they’re really trying to help other people. I thought, “I want to be a part of that.” I thought I could start by telling my story, then maybe later I could be a sidewalk counselor.

A sidewalk counselor is a pro-life person who approaches women entering abortion clinics and offers them alternatives. Sometime sidewalk counselors hand pamphlets to the women as they enter the abortion clinic. These pamphlets usually contain information about abortion’s risks and the development of the unborn baby. Often, abortion clinics hire escorts in order to ensure that women do not speak to sidewalk counselors as they are herded into the clinic. Sidewalk counselors also reach out to the abortion clinic workers, and have been instrumental in helping some clinic workers quit. Kristin Breedlove, a former clinic administrator, attributes her conversion to sidewalk counselorswho persistently prayed for her.  Similarly, Abby Johnson went to the sidewalk counselors outside her facility for help and support when she had her conversion.

Anderson was hired by the clinic in 2010. Her job was to provide patients with “conscious sedation,” which consisted of providing intravenous sedatives and anesthesia to women who were about to have their abortions.

She reveals that the Planned Parenthood clinic injured a number of women while she worked there:

Several times, there were difficulties with abortions while I worked there, where they had to call the hospital to come pick the woman up. … A lot of the cases we had were from excessive bleeding or reactions to the sedation.

One was particularly serious:

One girl almost bled out. She was passing clots, [and] her blood pressure was dropping.

The clinic workers were instructed not to mention the word “abortion” when they called for an ambulance.

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.

They were trying to hide their abortion complications from pro-lifers in this manner, because pro-lifers often make use of 911 calls in order to document cases of malpractice in the abortion industry. For example, you can hear several 911 calls from Planned Parenthood clinicson the Operation Rescue website.

It is not unusual for clinics to try to hide abortion injuries and deaths from pro-lifers. One abortion clinic worker was documented on tape telling an ambulance driver to come to the back of the clinic without lights and sirens in order to avoid attracting attention.

In another case, clinic workers were instructed to transport injured women to the hospital in their cars instead of calling for an ambulance. Obviously, this seriously endangered women’s lives. Carol Everett, former administrator of four clinics and owner of two, described doing this in her testimonyon clinicquotes:

And he [the abortionist] went in one time, and he pulled out placenta, and he went in the second time and he went through the back of her uterus and pulled her bowel out through her vagina. We put her in the car because we didn’t want an ambulance in front of the abortion clinic and we took her to the hospital.

So abortion clinics attempting to cover-up complications is nothing new.

Anderson summed up her former workplace as follows:

It was a money-grubbing, evil, very sad, sad place to work.

Planned Parenthood claims that abortions are only three percent of what they do, but Anderson describes how clinic workers were given quotas and encouraged to sell as many abortions as they could:

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.”

Anderson would try to give women good counseling, but got in trouble for taking too much time:

I was always getting in trouble for talking too long to the girls, asking if they were sure they wanted to do this.

They also performed late-term abortions illegally:

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 [of them] to make money.

Asked which experiences stick with her, Anderson mentions several patients in particular.  One was a young girl who was being coerced and deceived into an abortion by her mother:

One young girl came in with her mom. She was about 16. Her mom had made the appointment. That’s not supposed to be how it works. It’s supposed to only be the patient who makes the appointment. I checked her in, and she thought she was there for a prenatal checkup. The mom was pushing it. She blindsided her own daughter.

It is sad that a mother would attempt to deceive her own daughter into killing her grandchild, but it is not very unusual for parents to pressure and even force their children to have abortions. In one case, in Florida, a teenage girl was driven to the clinic by her mother, who brought a gun in order to threaten her into going through with the abortion.

Anderson also talked about a possible case of sex trafficking:

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.”

Perhaps wanting to avoid controversy or unnecessary trouble, the Planned Parenthood clinic let this woman go back to her horrible situation. Planned Parenthood has been caught on tape by Live Action being willing to cover up sex trafficking and even giving instructions to a man they thought was a pimp on how to run his sex business.

Anderson also commented on the insensitivity of one of the clinic’s abortionists:

These girls would start crying on the table, and Dr. [Michael] King [the abortion doctor for whom Anderson worked] would say, “Now you chose to be here. Sit still. I don’t have time for this.

The clinic was performing upwards of 30 abortions a day. It is not surprising that women were being rushed through their abortions.

Marianne also described how the abortionist went through the remains of suction abortions to make sure that every body part was accounted for. This is a common thing that abortionists and clinic workers have to do – if an arm or leg is left behind in the woman’s womb, or any other part of the baby or placenta, the woman can developed a severe infection. So the baby must be reconstructed after each abortion to verify that all the parts are there. Former abortionist Doctor Beverly McMillandescribes doing this in another article at Live Action.

One doctor, when he was in the POC [products of conception] room, would talk to the aborted baby while looking for all the parts. ‘Come on, little arm, I know you’re here! Now you stop hiding from me!’ It just made me sick to my stomach.

Anderson was so unhappy working at the clinic that she tried to reach out to a sidewalk counselor for help. Not surprisingly, however, the clinic workers were being watched carefully to prevent them from communicating with the pro-lifers:

One day I was coming in, and I’d written out a note to one of the [sidewalk counselors] that said, “I’ve worked here for a little over two years. I’m actively looking for something else. Please pray for me. I don’t want to be here.” All I could do was hand it to her. She tried to give me a pamphlet, but I told her no, I had to go because there are cameras that watch the drive.

Anderson eventually ordered Unplanned by former Planned Parenthood director Abby Johnson.Unplanned describes how Abby left the abortion business after seeing an unborn baby torn apart on the ultrasound screen and realizing, all at once, the horror of what she had been involved in. Anderson was inspired to contact Johnson, who put her in touch with a local contact in the pro-life movement, who began helping her look for another job.

Anderson said she never felt judged by the pro-lifers:

I never for one second felt judged or put down by anybody. I felt so much criticism from inside that building versus the love I felt [from those] on the outside.

She found a new job.

I was fired in July 2012. I was mad because I wanted to quit! I was planning on quitting just two days later.

As I was being fired, my phone was vibrating in my pocket. It was Community North [Hospital] calling about the job, to say it was looking good. They called again the next Monday and said the job was mine if I wanted it! I love my job now. I work with wonderful, Christian people. I just love it.

by Steven Ertelt | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 2/14/14 11:26 AM

Planned Parenthood’s president has already told the women of America that they need abortions on Valentine’s Day rather than flowers or a fancy dinner.

Now, the Maryland affiliate of the nation’s biggest abortion company is telling women they need condoms instead of a wedding ring. In the days leading up to Valentine’s Day today, Planned Parenthood Maryland tweeted out a picture of a box that would normally contain a wedding ring, replaced with a condom.

The picture contains the message, “Will you be my birth control?”

That’s typical for Planned Parenthood: all sex, no relationship.

by Steven Ertelt | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 2/10/14 1:42 PM

A box of chocolates? No. A nice date to a fancy restaurant? No. Flowers? No. How about a massage, doing the dishes or taking the kids for the day? Nope, not that either.

If you’re a husband or boyfriend looking for what to get for or do for your special someone for Valentine’s Day, Planned Parenthood has the answer: abortion.

In a new video featuring Cecile Richards, the CEO of the Planned Parenthood abortion business, abortion is apparently what women want for Valentine’s Day. The following is a Vine video the abortion activist is promoting on Facebook and Twitter today.

The promotion of abortion for Valentine’s Day is not surprising considering that’s jut about all it offers pregnant women. Some 92 percent of pregnant women going to Planned Parenthood get abortions.

In 2011, abortions made up 92% of Planned Parenthood’s pregnancy services, while prenatal care and adoption referrals accounted for only 7% (28,674) and 0.6% (2,300), respectively. For every adoption referral, Planned Parenthood performed 145 abortions.

“Planned Parenthood has spent much of the last few years demanding that taxpayers add millions more to their coffers, citing their non-profit status and so-called focus on women’s health,” said SBA List president Marjorie Dannenfelser. “What have we received for our money? While government subsidies to Planned Parenthood have reached an all time high, so too has the number of lives ended by this profit-driven abortion business. Destroying nearly one million children in three years is not health care and does not reflect a concern for vulnerable women and girls. As Planned Parenthood’s funding goes up, abortions increase and real health services for women go down.”

“As if these numbers weren’t already horrifying, Planned Parenthood has upped the ante even further by mandating that all affiliates provide abortions beginning this year. Americans are sick and tired of underwriting the nation’s largest abortion business. We call on Congress to immediately investigate and defund Planned Parenthood,” she added.