Pro-Life Page

by Dave Andrusko | LifeNews.com | 10/20/14 5:47 PM

What is the three-legged stool on which abortionists and their apologists rest their case?

That abortion is free of complications—emotional and physical; any research that demonstrates otherwise is, by definition, “junk science.” That abortion is not only free of aftershocks, it is for many women a rite of passage on their way to adulthood; in other words, killing your unborn children is a positive.

And that the American public is in the pro-abortionist’s corner, ready, willing, and eager to make sure that there is no “restriction” on access, here or anywhere else in the world; in other words, they agree there can never, ever be enough abortions. None of them is true, as we have patiently demonstrated on a few hundred occasions.

Today I would like to take a few minutes of your time to talk about the first of these by discussing a piece written by Priscilla Coleman, Ph.D., who has compiled some of the best research proving how detrimental having an abortion is to women.

The title of her analysis which appeared today is, “They’re Still Trying to Disprove Post-Abortion Trauma Syndrome: And still resorting to junk science to do so.”

This is a long, in-depth critique which you can read at your leisure. So let me touch on just a few of the highlights.

Dr. Coleman uses as a starting point an essay by Zawn Villines titled “Is So-Called Post-Abortion Trauma Syndrome a Myth?”

What is the Villines strategy? On the one hand, choose not to “focus on the large international body of peer-reviewed scientific evidence indicating that abortion increases women’s risk of experiencing mental health problems.” On the other hand “exclusively describe results of the flawed ‘Turnaway Study,’ led by Diana Greene Foster.”

The study was a “failed attempt to prove that women really are better off economically, physically, emotionally having an abortion, even if those happen to be late abortions, than they would be if they gave birth,” to quote NRLC’s own Dr. Randall K. O’Bannon. Dr. O’Bannon takes the systematically flawed study apart, finding it does not substantiate any of these claims [1]

Coleman explores the serious—and I do mean serious—methodological problems, which include that fewer than a third of the women agreed to participate in the study and that “Villines neglected to mention that 60% of the women in the Turnaway group who continued their pregnancies expressed happiness about their pregnancies.” Not exactly an incidental finding, wouldn’t you say?

Two other important considerations. Villines and others who share her views are determined to marginalize the findings that have been replicated around the world. But as Coleman explains

“The results of hundreds of studies published in leading peer-reviewed journals over the past 4 decades indicate abortion is a substantial contributing factor in women’s mental health problems, including depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and death from suicide.”

In 2012 Coleman published what is called a “meta-analysis”–a study of the studies–which “has much more credibility than the results of individual empirical studies or narrative reviews.”

So what did “Abortion and Mental Health: A Quantitative Synthesis and Analysis of Research Published from 1995-2009” reveal? According to Coleman, that

“women who aborted experienced an 81% increased risk for mental health problems. When compared specifically to unintended pregnancy delivered, women were found to have a 55% increased risk of experiencing mental health problem. This review offers the largest quantitative estimate of mental health risks associated with abortion available in the world.”

There is much, much to read.  It is very much worth your time because Dr. Coleman’s article (and all the other work she is doing) clearly document that abortion has a lasting impact on the mental health of a significant percentage of women.

[1] Dr. O’Bannon published an exhaustive five-part series detailing the “Turnaway Study’s” numerous inadequacies. The final segment, with links back the first four parts, can be read here.

by Shawn Carney | LifeNews.com | 10/17/14 9:42 AM

As we get into the second half of the campaign, two groups of people are being challenged — those who have thought about praying at a vigil but haven’t done so yet … and abortion workers who have — for the first time — begun to question their jobs.

We’ve seen 104 abortion workers have a change of heart and resign during 40 Days for Life campaigns … and most of them do so in the last half of the campaign. They may brush off or even mock the peaceful vigil outside their workplace at first, but over time they begin to turn their attention to the work going on inside their building.

God uses your peaceful presence to save lives … and touch the hearts of those who work in the abortion industry. If you have considered going out to pray but haven’t done so, there is still time … and that time can have a huge impact on abortion in your community!

Find the 40 Days for Life location nearest you. God answers prayers! Here are a few examples.

LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS

“We had a save today!” said Rita in Little Rock.

A young girl came with her boyfriend to have an ultrasound. She went inside while he went to park the car. As he walked to the building, the volunteers told him about the pregnancy resource center.

“He said he would go in and tell her about it,” she said. The woman came out a few minutes later. “We told her that we could get her a free ultrasound and we walked her to the pregnancy resource center.”

She later got back in touch with the vigil participants and told them she is keeping her baby.

Rita said later that same day, there was more good news. “Another lady changed her mind … she said she couldn’t go through with it.” She left the abortion center and did not return.

COLUMBIA, MISSOURI

Planned Parenthood in Columbia is no longer doing abortions – but they’re certainly referring women to other locations that perform them. So there’s still a reason to pray on the sidewalk outside.

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“It appeared that several women were there for abortion counseling,” said Kathy, the Columbia leader. “Please pray for these women, especially the ones who refused our information and rushed out of the driveway.”

Prayer volunteers did succeed in convincing a couple of women to visit the local pregnancy help center for life-affirming assistance.

Kathy said there was one busy day at Planned Parenthood recently, but on many days, business is off. “And only three workers were there – down from six. One has to wonder, what is going on?”

An empty parking lot is always good news. “Keep praying for this clinic to close,” she said. “When clinics close, babies are saved.”

CINCINNATI, OHIO

A determined group of volunteers stood outside Planned Parenthood on a very rainy night in Cincinnati, as Archbishop Dennis Schnurr led them in prayer. “The archbishop commented on how we are witnesses for life … and making a difference,” said Theresa in Cincinnati.

With so much rain in the forecast, the Cincinnati team said it was uncertain whether anyone would actually go out that night – but the leaders really appreciated their perseverance.

“Let us continue during these 40 Days for Life with prayer, fasting and community outreach to end abortion,” Theresa said.

LifeNews.com Note: Shawn Carney is the campaign director for the 40 Days for Life pro-life prayer campaign against abortion.

by Carole Novielli | LifeNews.com | 10/14/14 10:01 AM

Two children were raped several times resulting in several pregnancies that ended in abortion. Each time the young victims were sent back into the hands of their abuser because the clinic or clinics where they were taken by their mother failed to report the possibility of abuse.

The story begins in 2008, when a 16-year-old teen gave birth and her boyfriend’s parents realized that the baby did not look like their son, but rather like an adult male acquaintance of the teen’s mother.

A DNA test proved the boyfriend was not the baby’s father, and that’s when the girl admitted that 44 year-old Ricky Jackson was the father. At that point, the boy’s parents reported the information to Ashland Police.

“(The girl) had confided in their son that the Jackson had raped her when she was 11 years old and that he was very jealous of their son’s relationship with” the girl, Middlesex Assistant District Attorney Katharine Folger said in a court document.

Police arrested Jackson on March 23 of that same year.

The victim also had a sister and the girls, fearful for their safety after Jackson was released from jail, later admitted to police that Jackson had been raping both of them for years. According to their statements, the sexual abuse began in October of 2002, after Jackson and their mother became involved.

The girls told police that after their mother would go to sleep, Jackson would go to their room and rape them. According to their testimony, Jackson impregnated the older sister twice twice when she was 13 and 14 years old, and impregnated the younger girl when she was 12.

The girls’ mother took them to have abortions each time she learned they were pregnant.

According to prosecutors, the mother of the raped children did not know they had been impregnated by Jackson. The girls told police they never reported the sexual assaults because Jackson had threatened to kill them if they did.

In August 2008, Jackson was charged with two counts of child rape, violating a restraining order, intimidation of a witness, and one count of rape and indecent assault and battery on a child younger than 14.

Life Dynamics, a Denton, Texas organization which has been exposing how child rapists use abortion to cover their crimes, summarized this case in a report they titled, The Cover-Up of Child Sexual Abuse.

Mark Crutcher, president of Life Dynamics makes it clear that the failure of abortion facilities to report suspected child abuse is causing children to be repeatedly raped, sometimes for years after their abortions, “In almost every case of adult men having sex with minor girls, the perpetrators are aware that the relationship is illegal and could land them in prison,” Crutcher says, “They also know that one of the most likely ways for them to get caught is for their victims to become pregnant. When that happens, their back up plan is inevitably going to involve abortion. As a result, there is no place within the medical community where underage victims of sexual abuse are more likely to be found than at abortion clinics. The question is: how are these girls dealt with when they show up at those clinics?”

Crutcher continues, “It is important to understand that mandatory reporters are neither obligated nor authorized to investigate these incidents. Whatever conclusions they might reach about the legality or illegality of a child’s sexual activity has no bearing on their obligations as mandatory reporters. If they are presented with evidence of sexual activity by a patient who, by reason of her age, cannot legally consent to sexual activity, their only duty is to report to the authorities. The responsibility for determining whether a criminal act has or has not occurred belongs only to the state.”

According to a summary of the case published by Life Dynamics,”three pregnancies resulted from these assaults and, in each case, their mother took them for abortions. Since there were multiple abortions and the sexual activity continued after each one, it is certain that none of the abortion clinics involved made a report. The rapes did not end until the parents of a boy who knew the girls learned of the situation and called police.”

Life Dynamics has published 60 examples of cases where child sexual abuse was covered up with an abortion and the clinics where the victims were taken failed to report the possibility of abuse.

In a press released issued at the time the group published their report, Crutcher states, “ it is almost universally accepted that sexual predators who target children almost never stop on their own. Instead, they continue until they are stopped by someone else. In reading the cases you will see incident after incident in which girls continued to be raped and sexually abused – sometimes for years – after the abortion clinic where they were taken ignored the state’s mandatory reporting law. But once the situation was eventually revealed to the authorities, the perpetrator was arrested and the abuse ended immediately. This illustrates why compliance with these laws is such an indispensable tool for dealing with our national epidemic of older males sexually exploiting underage girls.”

You can read the entire report here.

by Steven Ertelt | LifeNews.com | 10/9/14 10:14 AM

A notorious abortion practitioner who infamously stored the bodies of more than 30 aborted babies in his freezer as keepsakes has lost his medical license following a lengthy New Jersey medical board hearing yesterday. After Kermit Gosnell, he’s been called the “worst abortionist in America.”

Brigham has been accused of practicing medicine without a license in Maryland during a bi-state late-term abortion scheme he ran to avoid abortion limits in his home state of New Jersey. His nefarious practices were discovered in 2010 when he and his associate, abortionist Nicola Riley, severely botched a late-term abortion on an 18-year old patient, rupturing her uterus and pulling out part of her bowel. The majority of the baby’s body was thrust into the patient’s abdominal cavity. Brigham drove the injured patient to a nearby hospital emergency room, where his suspicious behavior prompted hospital staff to call the police.

The patient was air-lifted to a Baltimore hospital where emergency surgery was required to save her life.

Police raided Brigham’s clandestine Elkton, Maryland, abortion facility and discovered the remains of over 30 late-term babies stored in a bloody freezer. (See file photo below right of aborted babies Kermit Gosnell stored in a freezer).

In December, 2010, Brigham and Riley were arrested and charged with murder in the deaths of 11 babies who were killed during illegal abortions. Those charges were later dropped after an expert witness for the prosecution withdrew from the case.

“After a hearing that lasted approximately nine hours, the New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners unanimously agreed to revoke the license of Steven C. Brigham,” Marie Tasy of New Jersey Right to Life told LifeNews.

Tasy attended the hearing and has attended several other hearings over the years involving Brigham and she said Brigham tried to blame his misfortunes on pro-lifers who he referred to as the “forces of hate.”

“The New Jersey Attorney General pointed out that this tactic was nothing more than his attempt to deflect attention away from his own misconduct and dishonesty,” Tasy said. “It has been reported in earlier press accounts that Brigham would no longer be allowed to operate clinics if his license is revoked under New Jersey law.  We certainly hope that is the case, but given Brigham’s penchant for flouting the law, it is a situation that will have to be monitored closely.”

Other leading pro-life activists had hoped the medical board would revoke his license.

“Given this man’s horrific track record, anything less than revocation is unthinkable, and would only continue to put the lives of women in jeopardy,” said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue.

Here’s more on what happened:

Finding several counts of gross negligence, deception and official misconduct against him, the state Board of Medical Examiners also ordered Brigham to pay $140,000 in penalties. At a future hearing, the board will decide how much of the state’s court costs he will be ordered to pay; the tab is expected to exceed $500,000.

The board suspended Brigham’s license in 2010 after the Attorney General’s Office argued he used the two-state process to evade New Jersey’s requirement that terminating pregnancies must take place in a hospital or licensed health care facility after 14 weeks. Brigham did not have hospital privileges at the time and is not an obstetrician or a gynecologist.

Writing at LifeNews, Cheryl Sullenger of Operation Rescue provided more background on Brigham:

Brigham has battled legal issues throughout his entire career, having had his licenses revoked in New York and Florida. He surrendered this Pennsylvania license under pressure and was ordered to never hold ownership of an abortion facility in that state again – an order he violated last year by opening an abortion facility in Philadelphia, which was soon closed by the state after pro-life activists complained.

Brigham’s abortion facilities in Maryland were also closed by the state after dangerous practices were repeatedly found, including a patient death at one of his offices he ran out of a residential condominium complex.

Despite the orders, Brigham continues to troll for abortion customers in those states. The phones for his defunct clinics still ring into his American Women’s Services central appointment line.

According to New Jersey law, unlicensed practitioners are not allowed to hold ownership in medical facilities in that state, so if Brigham’s license is finally revoked, he should be ordered to shut down his eight abortion offices in New Jersey.

It is believed that Brigham currently operates 17 abortion facilities in at least four states. Because he has been run out of one state after another, he has taken to the practice of attempting to conceal his ownership of abortion centers, five of which are so far under the radar that their whereabouts are currently unknown.

Whatever the New Jersey Board decides, it is not expected to affect the remaining abortion facilities he continues to own in Virginia, Delaware, and Florida.

“Steven Brigham is the kind of man that is not affected by traditional discipline. We strongly believe that jailing him is the only way to stop him from operating illegally and secretly, as he has done his entire career,” said Newman. “However, license revocation will ensure that he cannot ever practice again, and if he does, his old jail cell awaits him.”