UDPATE, 1:09p: This is rich. NARAL has decided it had better speak up for Kagan, meaning the hoopla must be getting pretty serious, since pro-aborts detest talking anywhere near the subject of partial-birth abortion....

The Associated Press posted an article on June 27 speculating that pro-aborts may not challenge NE's fetal pain law. (Read background here.) This would be interesting, a sign of weakness, although if I were a betting woman I'd say the other side will decide it must sue. But here is the other side of the argument, per the AP:

... [E]xperts say attempts by abortion-rights groups to block [the fetal pain law]... from going on the books could backfire.

A ban on abortions starting at 20 weeks - set to go into effect this fall - is based on assertions from some doctors that fetuses feel pain by that stage of development. But it might be allowed to stand over fears that a losing challenge to the law would change the legal landscape for abortion, say lawyers on both sides of the debate....

To give us a break from the daily grind...

A video from CatholicVote.org:

Email LauraLoo with your Lunch Break suggestions.

[HT: carder]

UPDATE, 9:25a: A high up source tells me GOP senators plan to bring up today Kagan's collusion with ACOG to rewrite its medical opinion of partial-birth abortion.

The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology is well-known in pro-life circles to be radically pro-abortion.

For instance, ACOG supports the most heinous of all abortion practices, partial-birth abortion. When in 2007 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the partial-birth abortion ban of 2003, ACOG released an indignant statement, which read, in part:

"Today's decision... is shameful and incomprehensible to those of us who have dedicated our lives to caring for women," said Douglas W. Laube, MD, MEd, ACOG president. "It leaves no doubt that women's health in America is perceived as being of little consequence.

"... The Supreme Court's action today, though stunning, in many ways isn't surprising given the current culture in which scientific knowledge frequently takes a back seat to subjective opinion," he added.

How admirable of ACOG to stand on the principle of "scientific knowledge" in the face of "subjective opinion," which overwhelmingly thought sucking out the brains and collapsing the skulls of almost-delivered late-term babies was gross.

But as it turns out, ACOG is the grandest of frauds.

It has just come to light through the process of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan's confirmation hearing that in 1996 ACOG let the Clinton White House, via then-associate counsel Elena Kagan, write its medical opinion of the partial-birth abortion procedure....

Continue reading my column today, "Exposed! Kagan's partial-birth abortion scheme," at WorldNetDaily.com.

[Photo via UPI]

by Susie Allen, host of the blog, Pro-Life in TN

NBC reported June 28:

A woman who sought help from a prominent CT fertility center last year received embryos, but they belonged to another woman with the same last name.

The mistake happened in April 2009 at the Center for Advanced Reproductive Services at the University of CT Health Center, which will pay a $3k fine.

A lab technician only checked the last name on the container with the embryos and pulled the wrong ones from frozen storage, according to the state Dept. of Public Health. Procedure is to check the medical record number and last 4 digits of the Social Security number.

That patient who received the embryos was informed of the error within an hour and decided to take the "morning after" pill to prevent the pregnancy, according to state records....

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

At week 24, the fetus is a fully formed baby, weighing over a pound and measuring nearly a foot long. The mother has felt it kicking and seen it in lifelike detail on a screen; were she to go into labor, it would perhaps survive.

The procedure to end her pregnancy at that stage takes days, not minutes, and its risks are much higher. Abortion providers who are willing to do it - indeed, who have the stomach for it - are quite rare....

Well, hooyah. It's about time we stopped letting pro-life political candidates get away with saying they have a "rape/incest exception." That's simply code for saying they support killing an innocent child whose father is a sexual criminal.

In the State of WA, all 3 Republicans facing off in the August 17 primary - businessman Paul Akers, former pro football player Clint Didier, and former state senator Dino Rossi (pictured right) - claim to be pro-life.

Sarah Palin and the WA State Tea Party have both endorsed Didier.

Although Rossi is currently the front-runner, he appears to be the weakest of the 3 on abortion. He doesn't even mention the A-word in the "Issues" section of his website. And according to NewsTribune.com on June 11...

To give us a break from the daily grind...

Email LauraLoo with your Lunch Break suggestions.

I've written several times about the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform's Genocide Awareness Project, which it describes in a nutshell...

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

Ironically, the article concedes the evidence that by 20 weeks pain receptors are present throughout the unborn child's skin, that these are linked by nerves to the thalamus and the subcortal plate, and that these children have coordinated aversive reactions to painful stimuli, and experience increased stress hormones from it....

Somewhere between 7p on June 14 and 7p on June 15, vandals sprayed the following graffiti on the home of Dubuque, IA, pro-lifer Allen Troupe (click to enlarge):

They were most likely incited by this sign in a window of Troupe's home...

To give us a break from the daily grind...

Joe Simon's bio: "Wedding cinematography company based in Austin, TX. Shooting weddings worldwide on both HD and super 8mm film." Gorgeous stuff....

Filmed in Xcaret, Mexico, unknown date...

April + Adam's Wedding Trailer - Xcaret, Mexico from Joe Simon Films on Vimeo.

Filmed in Austin, TX, December 19, 2009...

Backdrop: On March 9, 2009, President Barack Obama issued an executive order lifting President Bush's August 9, 2001, statement banning federal funding of new human embryo stem cell lines.

As an important aside, Obama's last action in his EO was (click to enlarge)...

Couldn't find any political cartoons on our issue this week, so here were my top 5 favs otherwise...

by Jack Ohman at GoComics.com...

by Ken Catalino at Townhall.com...

I have a new poll question up (bottom right side of home page):

Two part question: Do you think Republicans will filibuster the nomination of Elena Kagan to the US Supreme Court? Either way, do you think she'll ultimately be confirmed?

Regarding last week's question, the overwhelming majority of you are excited about the upcoming 2010 elections!...

NARAL Pro-Choice VA has removed a blog post identifying 1 state senator and 5 state representatives who it met with in April for a "legislative debriefing" (although the post is cached here, and I saved a screen shot just for fun). Here was an interesting quote (underline/italics theirs):

In the last part of the evening, we had an enlightening impromptu discussion about ceding battles of language to anti-choicers. Although we know that they are not "pro-life" (as one attendee said, we are pro-life, we are the ones who care about saving lives), we often use other anti-choice word choices without realizing it or considering the consequences....

by Susie Allen, host of the blog, Pro-Life in TN

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

The assumptions used to calculate the 70k are debatable and the methodology isn't up to scientific standards. In the end, 70k is nothing more than a stab in the dark by the WHO's own admission....

To give us a break from the daily grind...

From HolyKaw.alltop.com:

Strong summer thunderstorms rolled through Chicago Wednesday [June 23], towering up to 63k feet and unleashing 80 mph wind gusts in the Windy City. The powerful weather system also doled out 15k lightning strikes per hour at its peak. A camera stationed west of the Chicago loop area captured an incredible moment when lightning struck the city's 3 tallest buildings at the same moment. Mother Nature doesn't mess around....

Lightning strikes three of the tallest buildings in Chicago at the same time! from Craig Shimala on Vimeo.

Email LauraLoo with your Lunch Break suggestions.

A couple updates on my June 23 post about the Provincetown, MA, Public School System's decision to give kids as young as 5 or 6 condoms upon request, at the same time disallowing parental approval.

I heard on WLS radio's Don and Roma Show this morning that the seaside town of Provincetown is also a homosexual harbor. Sure enough, according to Wikipedia...

I read this on Twitter earlier today and did a double take...

Did you read that as I did? 99% of pregnant mothers in developing countries die? I checked the source, a UN article, which stated:

Hundreds of thousands of women - 99% of them in the developing world - die annually as a result of pregnancy or childbirth.

That made more sense....

I've said before the British press is much more honest about abortion than the American press. Here's another example, a story in the June 24 Daily Mail that I could find reported by no US mainstream news outlet...

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

Houston police said no adults were present - only another 14-year-old and two 11-year-olds - when the girl gave birth April 16, and the group learned about child birth from the Internet. The newborn was placed on a mattress and was "alive for some time," but died after his head was covered with the amniotic sac, Senior Officer C.P. Abbey said....

To give us a break from the daily grind...

Mommy Rhapsody from Church on the Move on Vimeo.

Email LauraLoo with your Lunch Break suggestions.

[HT: Bernadine S.]

10% of all U.S. abortions are committed in the State of New York. (Guttmacher's latest figures have the US at 1.21 million abortions annually, and the NY Dept. of Health's latest figures have it at 118.381 abortions annually.)

But that's not enough. Even though pro-aborts consistently downplay the number of late-term abortions, NY pro-aborts want the gateway opened for more.

Although the US Supreme Court in 1973 basically ordained abortion on demand throughout all 9 months of pregnancy by writing a health exception through which a Mack truck could drive, preexisting NY State law only allows abortion after 24 weeks to save a pregnant mother's life. Plus, abortions after 24 weeks must be attended by a 2nd physician to care for the potentially viable child.

The Reproductive Health Act take NY law even beyond the loose confines of Roe v. Wade by making it a "fundamental right, and therefore completely unregulatable....

In a world gone mad the solution to our 50-year grossly failed social experiment of comprehensive sex and widespread contraception distribution is to up the ante.

So we see the Provincetown, MA, public school system launching a program next year to distribute condoms to kids as young as 6, specifically overriding parental involvement. According to NYDailyNews.com on June 22:

[T]he school committee has unanimously adopted a condom distribution policy beginning as early as first grade....

The committee also directed school leaders not to honor demands from parents who object to their kids receiving protection....

In March, pro-life activist group Operation Rescue secretly taped a phone conversation between a Planned Parenthood of the Heartland receptionist in IA and a member of its team in Wichita posing as a prospective abortion client.

It was then that we first learned of telemed RU-486 abortions....

Think of clinical practice via Skype....

And while PP claims telemed abortions are confined at present to IA, expansion has been in the works for some time....

I did a little digging and found that PP of the Great Northwest, which operates in AK, ID and western WA, has been trialing telemedicine in AK since 2009, with "plans to expand."...

Federal funding appears to be part of the plan. Pro-Life Wisconsin found this revealing July 10, 2009, article in the Business Journal of Milwaukee....

Read my article today, "Taxpayer cash funds Skype-type abortions," in its entirety at WorldNetDaily.com.

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

To give us a break from the daily grind... Reported by KCRA in Sacramento, September 12, 2008...

Due to the birth of her newest bundle of joy, moderator Bethany will no longer be doing Lunch Breaks for the blog. We want to say a HUGE thank you to her for all the work she's done!

We also want to welcome proofreader LauraLoo, who will be taking over in the Lunch Break department. Thank you, LL, for your willingness to help!

Email LauraLoo with your Lunch Break suggestions.

[HT: Willow]

NARAL will likely be scratching Walter Dellinger off its speakers list, as will Planned Parenthood....

Last week AR Right to Life joined forces with the Radiance Foundation, as has GA Right to Life, to erect 6 "Black and Unwanted" pro-life billboards in high traffic locations in the Little Rock area.

And just as in GA, the billboards are causing a stir, yeah. Here's a June 22 Fox16.com news report...

Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health held its 2010 Abortion Provider awards ceremony on May 24. I always find pro-abort events creepily intriguing.

Winner of this year's William K. Rashbaum, MD, Abortion Provider Award (which "honors a physician who provides outstanding abortion services and serves as an inspirational leader for colleagues, residents, and medical students") was abortionist Carolyn Westhoff, presented by late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart...

I concur Westhoff was well-deserving of this award, and partial birth abortion bud Carhart was just the guy to give it to her. Both were plaintiffs against the ban. Westhoff testified there was "usually a heartbeat" when she started suctioning a baby's brain out and on the topic of fetal pain acknowledged, "I certainly know based on my experience that the fetus will withdraw in response to a painful stimulus."...

At the Vancouver Winter Olympics earlier this year, 100k male condoms were distributed.

But at the South African World Cup soccer games this week, 30k condoms of a different type are being dispersed: They're for women, and they have teeth. Their purpose is to cut rapes short while meting immediate jaws of justice. According to CNN on June 21:

The woman inserts the latex condom like a tampon. Jagged rows of teeth-like hooks line its inside and attach on a man's penis during penetration, [creator South African Dr. Sonnet] Ehlers said.

Once it lodges, only a doctor can remove it - a procedure Ehlers hopes will be done with authorities on standby to make an arrest....

by Susie Allen, host of the blog, Pro-Life in TN

Just spotted this announcement on Twitter by Planned Parenthood St. Louis Region:

The link takes you to PPSLR's Facebook page, and the announcement is this...

As far as I can tell - after checking PP Federation's site and then PP Golden Gate, which would seem the 1st logical PP to offer stud services - this is the only PP nationwide offering this service so far.

Lovely. PP now specializes in aborting natural pregnancies and inseminating unnatural pregnancies - breaking up natural families and bonding unnatural families.

The word "ichthus" is Koine Greek (the language in which the New Testament books were written) for "fish." It was used by ancient persecuted Christians as a secret symbol so they would know one other.

The Greek letters spelling ichthus - ΙΧΘΥΣ - formed an acrostic for Jesus, Anointed, God, Son, and Savior, meaning "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior." Today you'll see the ichthus fish symbol all over the place in Christian art, bumper stickers, etc.

So it is ironic that this year's 40th annual Ichthus Music Festival, which ran June 17-20, would force pro-lifers to go underground with their message....

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

To give us a break from the daily grind...

Many of you know my (Jill's) daughter Daena worked as a writer for President Bush at the White House. When President Bush retired from office, Daena followed him to Dallas and is now working on the development team for his Presidential Center. President Bush described his plans for the Center on a video debuting his presence on Facebook on June 2:

Lori Ziganto at RedState.com wrote a post yesterday about President Bush's video...

Currently up on Drudge is a link to a Washington Times op ed by Rita Diller, national director of American Life League's Stop Planned Parenthood. Excerpt...

We've always said "pro-choice" is code for "pro-abortion," because the other side only pushes that 1 of the 3 choices of mothers in crisis pregnancies.

On June 18 the New York Times reported on a major concession made by the other side, the "emergence of a generation of women's advocates who want to remedy" the pro-abort adoption gap....

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

Also, the Cardinal seems to have forgotten developmental biology - an embryo is at least 21 days post-fertilization. Before that, you have a blastocyst or a zygote....

To give us a break from the daily grind...

Email Bethany with your Lunch Break suggestions.

This week we saw political cartoonists on the Left as well as the Right piling on Obama. Here are my top 5 favorites, starting with 2 from Michael Ramirez at Townhall.com...

We're showing this classic America's Funniest Videos montage at church this weekend, and it cracks me up every time.

We love you, Dads!

Catherine Palmer at Ethika Politika made great points in a post yesterday:

So abortion is unpopular. Most people don't like it. Or wouldn't choose it themselves. Or think there are better alternatives. Or all of the above. But the problem is this: while abortion is unpopular, it is not unthinkable. While it is seen as a tragedy, it is not seen as a crime. While it is grappled with considerably, tossed back and forth between one's hands as he inspects it from multiple angles, he does not ultimately see it for what it is and hurl it across the room; he rather sets it down gently and walks away, deeming it tricky and intimidating and weighty and not wanting to examine it any longer....

by Susie Allen, host of the blog, Pro-Life in TN

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

The AK Dept. of Health and Social Services said today that 664 abortions were funded last year through Denali KidCare.

Gov. Sean Parnell (pictured below left) recently vetoed money to expand Denali KidCare, the health care program for low income kids and pregnant women, because some of the money funds abortions. Parnell said at the time that the program funded "hundreds" of abortions. Anchorage Democratic Sen. Bettye Davis had disputed that, saying a "very small number" of abortions are funded....

UPDATE, 6/19, 6:51a: 2 blog commenters made points worth posting about the tidbit in FMF's alert, "Our legal team is now working to retain legal council."

Praxedes wrote, "So they need more money to pay lawyers to advise the lawyers they already have?" And Mary added, "Shouldn't that be counsel?"

Both excellent.

6/18, 7:44a: I don't know if Mississippi's last standing abortion mill really is in financial trouble of if the Feminist Majority Foundation has simply stumbled on a good fundraising tactic.

Whatever, yesterday came FMF's 3rd "urgent" and "emergency" appeal in 3-1/2 weeks to save the Jackson Women's Health Organization (pictured right). See previous 2 here and here. This alert included a new tidbit, "Our legal team is now working to retain legal council."

As I reported last week, there has been no mention of an "anti-abortion extremist" intruder in the press, but had such an "invas[ion]" actually taken place we can rest assured MSM would have been all over it. Click to enlarge...

Specific telemedicine spending in final stimulus bill: The recently passed $787 billion economic stimulation bill includes $19 billion for health information technology. Specific for telemedicine, it will provide... $1.5 billion for HRSA [Health Resources and Services Administration] to use to build or repair health centers and/or to purchase equipment, and $85 million for health IT and telehealth technologies within the Indian Health Service. In addition ot this, much of the other HIT money will most likely have telehealth applications....

I've previously said I think Planned Parenthood's plans to commit RU-486 telemed abortions nationwide are much farther along than they're letting on....

To give us a break from the daily grind...

This tongue-in-cheek video has received almost 3 million views since January...

Email Bethany with your Lunch Break suggestions.

I wrote a couple weeks ago that pro-abort Democrat US Sen. Roland Burris had introduced an amendment to the defense authorization bill that would force all military medical facilities to make privately financed abortions available.

The amendment passed in the Senate Armed Services Committee along party lines (except Ben Nelson) and is now headed toward a showdown on the Senate floor.

The defense authorization bill passed without any such amendment in the House, meaning if the abortion amendment remains intact, a House/Senate conference committee will decide its fate....

Yesterday TX pro-life Republican Congressman Pete Olson (pictured at podium, right) held a press conference flanked by pro-life Congress stalwarts [Reps. Chris Smith (NJ), Paul Broun, M.D. (GA), Mary Fallin (OK), John Fleming, M.D. (LA), Trent Franks (AZ), Walter Jones (NC), Jim Jordan (OH), Joe Pitts (PA), Steve Scalise (LA), and Jean Schmidt (OH)], Lila Rose of Live Action; Ken Blackwell of Family Research Council, and Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America to announce the results of a Government Accountability Office audit detailing federal taxpayer dollars given to groups that advocate and/or commit abortions.

The audit was requested by 31 Republican lawmakers.

There is some discrepancy whether the final figure over the course of 7 years was "almost $1 billion in taxpayer dollars," as even Olsen wrote in his press statement, or over $1 billion. It's over. Here is the exact tally...

To give us a break from the daily grind...

Bella star Eduardo Verastegui shares the story of a very personal, life-changing event:

Email Bethany with your Lunch Break suggestions.

The University of WI Madison has been embroiled in controversy for over a year, since pro-lifers learned of its plans to begin committing late-term abortions.

Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin's Associate Medical Director, abortionist Caryn Dutton, was central in attempting to bring abortion to UWM in her simultaneous capacity as doctor and assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at UWM.

Ironically, it was only because PP Federation of America's "confidence in our ab service provision was very LOW," according to an email from Dutton (retrieved via the Freedom of Information Act from the Alliance Defense Fund), that the idea to commit abortions past 18 weeks at UWM rather than PP was even conceived....

The New York Times reported on June 8:

So far only Planned Parenthood clinics in IA use this [RU-486 telemed abortion] method, but around the country, abortion providers have begun asking how they might replicate the concept.

I don't necessarily believe it's true that RU-486 telemed abortions are confined to IA at this point. Adding fuel to my fire is the article below that Pro-Life WI has dug up, posted by The Business Journal of Milwaukee on July 10, 2009....

... Robin Marty at RH Reality Check promoted telemed abortions as a welcome alternative to "forc[ing] [women] to travel hours or set aside days in order to obtain the drug."

The ACLU promotes RU-486 abortions because they provide "abortion options for women who live far from a surgical abortion provider. ... In 86 percent of counties in the country, there is no abortion provider ... [sometimes] leaving women to travel hundreds of miles for care."

On the flip side this means women taking RU-486 for abortions are "far from" the abortion provider's help, sometimes "hours," sometimes "hundreds of miles."...

The title of NARAL president Nancy Keenan's email this afternoon piqued my interest, "An ad no woman should see."

What would that be? Egad!...

by Susie Allen, host of the blog, Pro-Life in TN

Earlier this month the Los Angeles NAACP engaged in utter foolishness and time wastage, claiming a Hallmark graduation card that had been on the shelves for 3 years was racist because of "black holes" verbiage, when the theme of the card was clearly about the solar system, not "black whores"...

I'm sorry, but what idiots.

Meanwhile, the NAACP issued nary a peep when Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg made a shockingly racist remark to the New York Times in 2009. Ginsburg's statement will be featured at the upcoming 4th Annual Protest Against Abortion at the NAACP Convention. Click to enlarge....

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

Because the right to privacy is deemed fundamental, any statute that threatens that right is subject to "strict scrutiny" by the courts. It is difficult to see how the individual mandate would survive such scrutiny. After all, if the right to privacy guarantees our liberty to make "intimate," "personal" decisions relating to "health," "dignity," and "autonomy," does it not also protect our right not to buy health insurance?...

Wenches at the Everysaturdaymorning blog dedicated a post yesterday to her concern for the children of pro-life abortion mill sidewalk counselors and prayerful protesters....

To give us a break from the daily grind...

This one is for the Protestants in the room, particularly those who attend mega-churches. Ew, snap!

"Sunday's Coming" Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.

Email Bethany with your Lunch Break suggestions.

Click to enlarge...

Today Silent No More Minnesota, whose mission is to reach out to those
wounded by abortion, unveiled a new billboard, scheduled for launch July 1 for 3 months on I94 in Albertville, MN....

6/14, 4:25p: Coming soon to FL via Truth Trucks on the highways and byways and aerial displays along coastal beaches (click to enlarge):

Donations to Center for Bio-Ethical Reform for this project will increase CBR's ability to make a greater impact around the state.

6/11, 5:10p: As expected, flip-flopping pro-abortion-to-pro-life-to-pro-abortion again FL Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed the ultrasound bill today. According to USA Today...

While at the show to watch Splice over the weekend we saw the trailer for The Kids Are All Right, about a lesbian couple whose children conceived via sperm donation become inquisitive to find their father. FYI, the trailer should be rated PG-13...

About the movie and topic Slate reports today...

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

I've written before about allegations made against the Church of Scientology for forcing its workers to get abortions.

On June 13 the St. Petersburg Times published findings of a significant investigation it conducted.

The exposé includes information about a federal lawsuit filed in January 2009 by former Scientology member Claire Headley, who alleges church leaders forced her to undergo 2 abortions and also violated human trafficking laws.

Clearwater, FL, is home to one of the church's "2 most important operations, its spiritual headquarters," according to The Times, the other being its "500-acre international management base in the desert 80 miles east of Los Angeles."...

To give us a break from the daily grind, a tip of the hat to Sweet Home Chicago's Blackhawks, 2010 Stanley Cup winners after a 49 year dry spell, to their theme song, Chelsea Dagger...

Email Bethany with your Lunch Break suggestions.

The movie Splice is about 2 brilliant but rogue scientists who, after successfully splicing the DNA of various animals to create a new creature, violate ethical boundaries to splice human DNA with that of animal(s), amphibian(s), and bird(s) to create a new creature.

Splice opened on June 4.

Rich and I saw it over the weekend because its premise is quite real. We know, as Splice's trailer indicates, "At this very moment in labs across the country boundaries are being pushed, risks are being taken, and a line is about to be crossed"...

Good timing.

In conjunction with our weekend question and a previous post on the same general topic comes an op ed by Ramesh Ponnuru in the June 11 New York Times entitled, "The year of the (pro-life) woman."

The entire piece is excellent. Here's an excerpt...

Here are my top 5 favorite political cartoons this week.

There was nothing in particular on our issue - I don't think... except this 1st one by Chan Lowe at GoComics.com may pertain. But I don't quite get it, because it seems to send a mixed message. Thoughts?

This next one by Tom Toles at GoComics.com also stymied me. It appears he's ultimately blaming God for the Gulf oil spill?

I wrote June 4 about a battle that has emerged over the meaning of what it means to be a feminist.

This is due in large part to wife, mother of 5, and former AK Gov. Sarah Palin, who calls herself a feminist but rejects the modern liberal pro-abort understanding of the term for the originalist, suffragette, pro-life, "mama grizzly" definition.

The new issue of Newsweek features a cover story about "Saint Sarah" by religion editor Lisa Miller (who 3 weeks ago called the excommunication and reassignment of a Catholic nun for authorizing an abortion in a Catholic hospital "authoritarian meddling").

Clearly the sticking point is abortion. Wrote Miller...

by Kelli

Operation Rescue is reporting this afternoon that Beacon's Women Center in Montgomery, AL, has closed.

An AL Dept. of Public Health source informed OR that Beacon, one of Summit Medical Center's chain of 7 mills, decided to shutter its doors rather than face a revocation hearing after being placed on probation in 2007 for numerous violations.

OR reports this leaves only 6 abortion mills in AL, which is great news.

Meanwhile, recall I reported May 30 that the Feminist Majority Foundation had issued a strange email requesting donations for the last standing abortion mill in MS, Jackson Women's Health Organization, claiming "Extremists are trying to shut down this vital women's clinic," and that half of any donations received would "go directly to the clinic to help pay for enhanced security measures."...

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

To clarify whether Daniels simply wants to de-emphasize these issues or actually not act on them, I asked if, as president, he would issue an executive order to reinstate Reagan's "Mexico City Policy" his first week in office. (Obama revoked the policy during his first week in office.) Daniels replied, "I don't know."...

To give us a break from the daily grind...

Email Bethany with your Lunch Break suggestions.

I am not an environmentalist, as the term is understood today, but I am certainly an environmental steward, in keeping with Genesis 1:28:

God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."

There's a lot more to this, but on the point of today's topic I believe if humans have a good use for the body or skin of animals, then God has given us the right to kill them, along with the responsibility to kill them humanely and not deplete a species.

Actor and environmentalist Pierce Brosnan has taken the cause of whales to heart. He does not want humans to kill them, period....

On the Abortion Gang blog today activist Serena Freewomyn (pictured right) wrote a post entitled, "An appeal to the silent majority."

At 1st I was confused. We're not so silent. And what in the world could Serena want from us?

Oh, wait, Serena was speaking to her own peeps? She must not have gotten 2 years worth of memos showing more Americans are pro-life than pro-abortion. Actually, Serena got it half right. Abortion advocates may not comprise the majority, but since 1973 at least 1/3 have indeed been silenced.

But I'll let that slide since Serena's post was otherwise insightful...

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

UPDATE, 6/11, 12:50p: Not really a surprise, at least one pro-abort group is attacking the ChurchAds.net ad campaign as subliminally pro-life, claiming it will backfire.

Interestingly, the group is the "U.K. atheist-rights group National Secular Society," according to the National Post.

So what do they care?

[HT: Cliff and Nicole]

6/10, 1p: Love it. From UKs' The Telegraph, today:

The ChurchAds.net image, with the words ''He's on his way'' is the latest in a series of Christian Christmas advertising campaigns and follows an image last year of the nativity as a bus stop....

To give us a break from the daily grind...

Email Bethany with your Lunch Break suggestions.

Tuesday's primary election results made it a banner day for pro-life female candidates.

Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser went so far as to call the wins "the greatest affirmation of our mission in the history of the organization." and "proof that Americans are responding to authentic, pro-life feminism."...

Three weeks ago 47-yr-old actress Kelly Preston and 56-yr-old actor husband John Travolta announced they were expecting a baby. (Twins denied.)

Then a week ago 42-yr-old singer Céline Dion announced she and 68-yr-old husband René Angélil were expecting twins.

Both pregnancies were reportedly conceived via in vitro fertilization.

(And if these things do come in 3s, keep an eye on 40-yr-old singer Mariah Carey, whose 29-yr-old husband singer Nick Cannon didn't exactly quash rumors a few days ago that she's pregnant as well.)

Congrats to all. We're praying for healthy babies.

Even though we recently observed in 4443-yr-old Michelle Duggar that women over 40 do conceive naturally, pregnancy past 40 isn't the norm.

On May 31 OB/Gyn Dr. Jennifer Ashton described on CBS's The Early Show the staggering preborn death toll to achieve a successful 40+ pregnancy...

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

Opening arguments were heard yesterday in the federal corruption trial of former IL Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Blagojevich stands accused of attempting to sell President Barack Obama's vacated US Senate seat.

Blagojevich and wife Patti have recently portrayed themselves as sympathetic figures on reality television, he on Celebrity Apprentice and she on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!

Both attempts have worked to a degree. About Patti's on-air stint in a Costan Rican jungle Huffington Post noted:

It was image changing, too, for Blagojevich, who came off as a down-to-earth, well-liked mom. Before the show, Blagojevich was mostly known for being a foul-mouthed political spouse caught on federal wiretaps prosecutors had made of her husband.

Rod even managed to win over Donald Trump. When Trump fired Rod in episode 4 because he didn't know how to use modern communication methods (texting, e-mail) to communicate with his team, the Chicago Sun-Times reported:

Donald Trump was hesitant to fire Blagojevich, saying he thought the impeached ex-governor was afraid to offend potential jurors while competing.

"I think Rod is being overly nice because he has some pretty big things to do when we're finished with this," Trump said. "I think he's in a very tough position. I think you're a guy with great courage."

Oh, please. As governor of IL, Rod Blagojevich was anything but courageous, taking inordinate pleasure in picking on people way smaller than himself. On the life issue in particular, Blagojevich was a bully for death.

In 2005...

Continue reading my column today, "Blagojevich's crimes against the sanctity of life," at WorldNetDaily.com.

[Photos via Access Hollywood]

To give us a break from the daily grind...

The cyber rumor is this hilarious commercial featuring Jennifer Aniston, made in 2005, was banned for some reason, because no one has seen it on U.S. television. Yet people in the Netherlands, Singapore, and Australia, etc., report having viewed it.

The more likely scenario is Aniston contracted to air the ad only in foreign countries, as stars often do.

Email Bethany with your Lunch Break suggestions.

I wrote last week that Rev. Pat Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition was planning to challenge the constitutionality of a fence Planned Parenthood located 4 blocks from the White House in Washington, DC, had erected around what is thought to be public property.

The City denied Mahoney a permit to protest and pray in front of the mill today, but he went anyway...

Next, according to Congress.org this afternoon...

Read the backstory here.

On May 21 IA Public Radio reported:

... Clinics around the country have been inquiring about the [abortion telemed] system, and already Planned Parenthood of East Central IA will also be signing on, making abortion available for the first time at their clinics in Cedar Rapids and Dubuque, which lack full-time physicians on staff.

[PPECI] Dir. of Patient Services Barbara Chadwick says it's the goal of PP to expand abortion services at its clinics nationwide over the next 5 years....

by Kelli

Read backstory here.

Todd Bullis and his merry band of pro-lifers have prayerfully protested in front of the Ventura First Assembly of God Church in Ventura, CA, from 7:30a-11a for 12 of the last 14 Sundays.

They are protesting because while the church says it is pro-life, it has no works demonstrating it is pro-life - no support of pregnancy care centers or preaching against abortion, for instance.

Around the corner from First Assembly are 2 other churches, Ventura Missionary Church and the Church of the Foothills. And in between First Assembly and the corner is a Jewish synagogue, Temple Beth Torah....

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

To give us a break from the daily grind...

Singer Lin Yu Chun sings "Amazing Grace" in the Taiwanese show Super Star:

Email Bethany with your Lunch Break suggestions.

Horrible. From the Pocono Record, June 8:

A 30-year-old Polk Township man is accused of raping a teen and burying the girl's fetus after she performed a home abortion on herself, police said.

Michael James Lisk told police that he had had sex with the 13-year-old girl "too many times to count," according to court records. He's been charged with rape of a child and concealing the death of a child, among other counts.

The girl, who attempted an abortion Wednesday, became increasingly ill and began having contractions over the following 3 days. When the pain worsened early Saturday morning, she phoned Lisk.

Lisk told her to "push hard" when she got a strong contraction. She did, and eventually gave birth to a baby in the toilet of her home. She told police the baby was stillborn....

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

It's no surprise that the initiative's proponents made big promises: They had something to sell. But instant miracles are uncommon in science, and journalists should do a better job making that clear....

I had not heard of FL late-term abortionist Randall Whitney before today but I am horrified by what I've read about him. He's like the Jeffrey Dahmer of preborns. Don't read this post if you can't handle serial killer type info....

UPDATE, 6/8, 7:05a: Rabbi Nessenoff has posted his much anticipated complete interview with Helen Thomas... "I'm of Arab background"...

UPDATE, 6/7, 12:05p: From the Associated Press, moments ago...

To give us a break from the daily grind...

Stephanie can't always express herself in conversation, but she has found her voice through opera:

Email Bethany with your Lunch Break suggestions.

Jivin J reported May 31 that 22 mothers who aborted their babies at an Australian abortion clinic have contracted Hepatitis C.

That number is now up to 44, and it's looking more as if the infections were intentional, linked to an anesthesiologist with a criminal record. According to PerthNow.com on June 1:

Patients of a late-term abortion clinic in Victoria may have been deliberately infected with hepatitis C after a further 32 women tested positive to the virus, bringing to 44 the total number of infections....

In June 2009 the Ted Turner funded pro-abortion website RH Reality Check launched "On Common Ground," an attempt to bridge the abortion divide.

Its impetus, penned by then editor Scott Swenson, speaks of a naive time that seems so long ago and far away, although it was only last year:

In so many ways, the election of President Obama is viewed through a lens of its healing potential....

President Obama is asking Americans to seek common ground on one of the most controversial issues of our time, abortion....

Is it possible that in President Obama's election, Americans have a chance to heal the body politic from the divisiveness the abortion issue has caused for a generation or more?...

My top 5 favorite political cartoons this week...

I thought this 1st one, by Mike Luckovich at GoComics.com, was astute...

We've been discussing political correctness this weekend, and I winced when viewing this next cartoon, immediately thinking of a tar baby. Perhaps I'm the only one. Or perhaps I'm not and this foreign cartoonist simply didn't realize the racist implications. Or perhaps he thought, Screw it....

I am one of American Life League's The Pill Kills Day proud cosponsors, which is today.

So I've been watching with interest the reaction of liberals and feminists to ALL's theme this year, "The Pill Kills the Environment." Here is an excerpt from a post I have up at BigJournalism.com on this...

I have a special Memorial Day poll question up (bottom right side of home page):

How would you describe your attitude toward the 2010 elections?

Regarding last week's question, by a 3:1 margin you thought President Obama should have commemorated our fallen soldiers on Memorial Day by attending services at Arlington National Cemetery...

I read an interesting post by KushielsMoon, who comments here sometimes, on the Abortion Gang blog. Her June 2 piece was entitled, "The things I can't say":

As a vocal prochoicer, I am not able to always speak my mind.

Every single time I tweet, blog, email or post a comment somewhere, I have to carefully look over each and every word, to ensure that I haven't said something I "shouldn't."...

The Susan B. Anthony List announced today that über mom Michelle Duggar (pictured right) has recorded a robo call for its endorsed AR congressional candidate Cecile Bledsoe (pictured below left).

Bledsoe is a Republican underdog running in an open seat primary runoff next Tuesday, June 8, in a "ruby red district," according to The Hill, against Rogers Mayor Steve Womack. 8 candidates vied in last month's primary, with Womack getting 31% of the vote and Bledsoe 13%.

Michelle's recorded message is precious. (Hear it here). The Hill quipped Michelle's intro "might be the best robo-call opening line this election cycle"....

by Kelli

In April I wrote that it may be aborted fetal cells in childhood vaccines causing autism, not the commonly conjectured mercury. (Read here and here.)

Yesterday the Sound Choice Pharmaceutical Institute, the organization proposing that hypothesis, issued a press release stating its founder and lead scientist, Dr Theresa Deisher, had presented her organization's initial findings at the International Meeting for Autism Research in Philadelphia May 20-22....

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

To give us a break from the daily grind...

Email Bethany with your Lunch Break suggestions.

[HT: Chrislink]

For the gazillionth time, Terri Schiavo was not brain dead when a FL judge ordered her dehydrated and starved to death in 2005.

Oxygen deprivation left Terri mentally disabled, but she was responsive, particularly to family. There was no correlation between Terri's condition and actor Gary Coleman's apparently unresponsive condition, although even that is unclear.

What's this about?...

UPDATE, 8:20p: What a coincidence. Little did I know when I was posting an update on baby Josie earlier today that she was being released from the hospital. According to People magazine this evening:

Josie Brooklyn Duggar, the youngest child born to Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar of TLC's 19 Kids and Counting, returned to her AR home Thursday after her 2nd hospitalization in her brief life....

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

Compared with women who had 1st trimester abortions, those who had 2nd-trimester abortions were 40% more likely to have had a 2nd abortion by the end of 2006, the researchers found, while they were nearly 4 times as likely to have a 2nd late abortion, and 5 times as likely to have an abortion after 16 weeks' gestation.....

To give us a break from the daily grind, the PS22 Chorus sings "Eye of the Tiger"...

According to Wikipedia, the PS22 chorus is...

Just posted on YouTube on June 1 is a video of famed Italian (and blind) tenor Andrea Bocelli telling a "little story" about a mother to whom doctors recommended abortion after she was treated for appendicitis.

Of course, this was Bocelli's own mother, and he says in the video he is sharing his story to encourage mothers in difficult pregnancies....

Bocelli's video is a project of IAmWholeLife.com (and .org), which is sponsored by pro-life stalwarts Eduardo Verastegui, Jason Jones, and former Miss America Angela Perez Baraquio.

I've emailed video producers asking for the backstory on this video, and if I hear anything back, I'll post an update.

[HT: Pietro]

Larry King interviewed pop singing sensation Lady Gaga on June 1, and she appeared conflicted over the presence of children in wombs. Near the beginning of the interview came this exchange...

How do you spend your holidays? Members of an IN pro-life activist group called Intercessors for Life spend theirs picketing the Noblesville, IN, home of abortionist Michael S. King, who slices and dices at 3 Planned Parenthood mills in Indianapolis. View video here of their July 4, 2009, picket and here of their November 26, 2009 picket.

Word to the wise: a lawnmower can function as a postborn abortion machine. In the following video, taken 2 days ago on Memorial Day, King's wife Shelley gave pro-lifers the finger before trying to shoo them off with her mean blades. But Shelley quickly remembered pro-aborts can't pick on people their own size and walked off in a tiff....

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

Now, let's concede the critics their strongest point: It's true that most Americans want abortion to remain legal. Not only that, the numbers suggest that at least some of those who describe themselves as pro-life nonetheless do not support making abortion completely illegal....

To give us a break from the daily grind...

Email Bethany with your Lunch Break suggestions.

[HT: friend Connie]

I saw this clip by Nancy Pelosi on The O'Reilly Factor last night and couldn't believe what I was hearing...

According to CNSNews.com...

Pro-lifers often say pro-aborts are on the wrong side of history and will someday be viewed with as much disdain as those who 150 years ago supported slavery.

Someday descendants of Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards will be ashamed she is part of their family tree.

And already, even though she was majorly responsible for legalizing abortion, which is still popular in avant-gard American circles, PP founder Margaret Sanger is sinking in public opinion as her eugenic view of blacks becomes more widely known.

So I read a June 1 story at AOL News this morning and thought this is how it will be for Sanger et al someday, 50 or 100 years from now. Their pasts will haunt them from the grave and sully any other good they did, just as does William Stewart Simkins's past...

In 1954, the University of Texas named a dorm after William Stewart Simkins, who taught law there for 3 decades. Simkins has been dead for more than 80 years but now his past - as a leader of the Ku Klux Klan - has come back to haunt the school....

by Kelli

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

To give us a break from the daily grind...

Motivational speaker Tamara Lowe speaks at Christ Fellowship on Valentine's Weekend 2010:

Email Bethany with your Lunch Break suggestions.

[HT: Joyce H., Angela S.]

UDPATE, 6/3, 4:15p: Operation Rescue has an update on this case. The June 1 hearing was merely before a MD Board of Physicians subcommittee. "[T]his matter is far from final resolution," reported OR's Cheryl Sullenger.

OR also found Ferrer has been disciplined for other infractions over the years, including "an incident where he knowingly sewed a metal surgical instrument into a patient," according to OR.

6/1, 9:53a: He's flown under the radar for decades, but tomorrow MD late-term abortionist Romeo Ferrer will get his day in court, so to speak.

For 3 long years the MD State Board of Physicians has allowed the 70-year-old Ferrer to continue slicing and dicing at his Gynecare Center at 877 Baltimore-Annapolis Blvd. in Severna Park after knowing a claim of malpractice had been filed against him by a dead mother's estate....