Well he knows I have to blog this. So, hi Steve.

Yes, you'll never guess who I sat next to on a plane to Dallas today.

Steve Trombley! You know, CEO of Planned Parenthood Chicago and Aurora Steve Trombley.

What a major hoot. I neared my seat and saw him and couldn't believe it. He had a window exit seat and I had the aisle, with no one between us. I caught his eye, and I think he recognized me as someone, just not sure who.

So I said, "Steve Trombley?" And he said, "Yes?" And I said, "Jill Stanek." And he's like, "Ohh." And that was the end of that conversation. He donned earphones after we took off and watched a movie on a handheld device the entire trip....

You are a bunch of troublemakers... :)

You may have noticed a site slowdown at various times this week. My server tells me all the traffic and comments this site receives have created havoc for its entire system.

(This month, we will experience another personal best - over 70,000 unique visitors and 2.5 million hits.)

Tonight after 9p EST my server is transferring me to an isolated server. I don't understand much (any?) of this but want to give you a heads up. You may experience a few snags here tonight.

BTW, I've been watching the comment accumulation. We're nearing 95,000 total comments for the past 2.5 years. When we get close to 100k, I'll let you know. I'll give a prize and accolades to the 100,000th commenter!

Thank you all so much for reading and commenting on this blog. Special thanks to our moderators, Bethany, Jacque, Jasper, Lauren (currently "on leave"), MK, and Valerie, and proofreader Angela. These dear people devote untold hours here helping things run smoothly.

... Personhood, that is.

So you think you have a handle on how the brain works? You're sure, absolutely sure, the Terri Schiavos of the world are incapable of thought or feelings? Do you think you even know your own mind?

We've discussed babies with no brains, people with "vegetables" for brains, and preborns who experts (at spin) say can't possibly think.

Well from her fingertips to your ears, here is yet another voice.

Makes you wonder who is really lacking in grey matter. Or it should.

About this video and its author, Amanda Bagg, Wired.com reported February 25....

Blogger Impeach yesterday mocked "Lil Ricky" Santorum for castigating Barack Obama in a February 28 Philadelphia Inquirer op ed for his indefensible opposition to IL's Born Alive Infant Protection Act Santorum was the U.S. Senate sponsor of the federal version.

Impeach wrote:

I also want to direct your attention to the text of the Illinois bill. Here it is. You're free, of course, to peruse what Senator Santorum has declared in his column to be "identical." Of course, it's not.

No, it's not. Because Impeach linked to the wrong bill, SB 1093 instead of SB 1095.

Impeach also linked to an amusing piece by left wing Media Matters, supposedly "deconstructing" a February 1 Washington Times editorial taking Obama to task for his opposition to Born Alive. It would appear MM was momentarily disturbed by a brain fart, because it argued our position...

I previously reported a UCLA pro-life student group named The Advocate had posted their Condom Man exposé on YouTube. It showed UCLA "health center" faculty enabling a planned boat orgy by stocking a student with enough condoms to raise the craft if it were sinking.

John Jansen of Pro-Life Action League alerted me a little while ago that the video has been disabled.

Sure enough, yes, which The Advocate's website confirmed.

I called Lila Rose, The Advocate's leader, who explained, "We handed copies of our winter issue directly to the vice chancellor and other officials under the chancellor's office. My suspicion is they contacted YouTube because our video reflected very poorly on them."

Lila said she wasn't sure yet how The Advocate would respond.

But I know our young upstarts will. Stay tuned.

Due to a system problem at WorldNetDaily, my column wasn't posted early yesterday as usual. WND ran it later and again today, which hey, I'll take with no complaints.

This column is an extension of a post I wrote last week. I kept thinking of more to add.

You will recall those not understanding the satirical nature of that post became incensed. Well multiply that by a worldwide audience. Emails received yesterday and today have been crazy. I'll post them as comments.

Well, I just watched an undercover video filmed by the Humane Society at a California beef plant where cows were supposedly tortured and killed, and I must say I'm disgusted.

Prime-time news shows aired clips of this video last week with no warning of its graphic nature. I'm glad my 7-year-old grandson wasn't around, or I might have had to explain where hamburger comes from.

What's wrong with these Humane Society people? Don't they have better things to do with their time? Perhaps they could alleviate this problem, if there really is a problem, by pasturing their own cow herds if they really cared.

Anyway, I'm quite sure this video is a fake.

And even if not, I don't believe cows feel pain when being plowed by forklifts. No one can prove to me that they do. Flinching when prodded with pokers is a visceral response. Struggling when dragged by cow hooks is a primal reaction, certainly not related to pain. Cows can't talk; therefore cows can't feel pain. That's just a fact....

Continue reading my column today, "The slaughterhouse rules," on WorldNetDaily.com.

WorldNetDaily.com is currently featuring as its headline story UCLA The Advocate's revelation of the willingness by various Planned Parenthoods to take money to abort blacks, which I reported February 26. From WND...

From Reuters, today:

China, worried about an ageing population, is studying scrapping its controversial one-child policy but will not do away with family-planning policies altogether, a senior official said on Thursday....

Moderator Bethany just forwarded me these Planned Parenthood slogans she found on the Victoria Taft blog.

Bethany wondered if these were jokes. I quickly responded, "Oh, yeah," but on 2nd glance I wondered.

These are jokes, right?

UPDATE, 9:20a: Per The Dawn Patrol via Michelle Malkin, these are real! They have got to be kidding. Dawn posts more PP ads from around the world.

Pastor Bob Enyart of American Right to Life has responded to my post yesterday in part lamenting ARTL's corporate - seemingly sole - strategy of denegrating fellow pro-lifers.

I welcome the opportunity this forum presents to dialogue. Here is Pastor Enyart's response in its entirety. I have only broken up paragraphs for easier reading.

American RTL Reply to Jill Stanek, re: Judging Motives

Jill, in yesterday's blog your comments are critical of American RTL but thank you for writing them. We all need to ask God to search our hearts, and we appreciate you giving us a reminder to do so, and we will.

Let me start by...

During last night's Democrat presidential debate, Barack Obama for the 2nd time said his biggest legislative regret thus far was voting to try to stop Terri Schindler Schiavo's husband from starving and dehydrating her to death.

According to today's Miami Herald:

He said he wished he had spoken out when Republican lawmakers tried to stop the severely brain-damaged woman's husband from removing her feeding tube in 2005.

"It wasn't something I was comfortable with, but it was not something that I stood on the floor and stopped, and I think that was a mistake.''

That vote was unanimous. This means Obama would be the sole opponent could he turn back the clock. He has earned the ranking of most liberal senator of 2007 and must lament having only ranked 16th most liberal in 2005. A vote to kill Terri would have catapaulted him.

It's really too bad Terri wasn't a horse....

To the consternation of campus liberals, Portland State Students for Life in OR - spearheaded by our own commenter Nathan Sheets - last year displayed the poster above (click to enlarge) to commemorate the African-American community's aborted dead during Black History Month.

The comments stirred by my post yesterday, "Planned Parenthood takes bucks to abort blacks," resulted in an interesting find.

Pro-abort FetusFascist linked to a Centers for Disease Control stat she thought scored a point for her side....

Blogger Huckabeespot picked up yesterday on a same day CBS News article portraying Obama as a "midrange issues" politician. Wrote Huckabeespot:

Among many other pieces of evidence that [article author Brian] Montopoli presents for his position is the following:

Obama has been criticized for not taking a stand early in his career on some hot-button issues, including abortion: He voted "present" on abortion questions seven out of 14 times in the state Senate, including once when the issue was a statewide ban on so-called partial-birth abortion.

This makes it appear that Obama's record on abortion is centrist and that he did not try to stop the law banning partial birth abortions....

[But] Obama's record on abortion is much much worse than this would suggest....

American Right to Life issued a press release while I was on vacation, reprinted in full on page 2, upon the demise of Mitt Romney's presidential candidacy....

I said yesterday there may be rats scurrying about the grand jury investigating Planned Parenthood of KS and MO for multiple accusations of illegal activity.

Those rats would be Democrat judge Kevin Moriarty and his appointed special counsel supposedly helping the grand jury, Larry McClain, hereafter known as Slowhand and Crackbrain.

I said PP's game plan is to run out the grand jury's 90-day clock, which expires March 9, by stalling. Slowhand and Crackbrain have been enabling PP to that end. It took Slowhand 40 days, for instance, to respond to PP's complaint about an issued subpoena....

I said earlier today UCLA pro-lifers would be releasing a blockbuster issue of their student newspaper, The Advocate. Lila Rose just called to say its live, and here 'tis. Click cover, right, to enlarge.

Here's the story:

Over the summer, The Advocate... [had] an actor call [Planned Parenthood] clinics across the country and pose as a donor. The actor... communicated... a very racist agenda, the one Margaret Sanger, PP's founder, envisioned.

He... asked to donate money specifically for the abortions of African-American babies... to "lower the number of blacks in America." Despite his bigoted requests, no PP employee (or director of development, in one case) declined the tainted money.... In fact, some even went as far as agreeing with the antiblack agenda....

Earlier this month NARAL Pro-Choice Washington breathlessly reported 10% of Washington state pharmacies don't stock or refuse to dispense the morning-after pill, thereby creating a crisis.

It is irrelevant but fun to note that, according to the Abortion in Washington blog, the Washington State Pharmacy Association, although pro-MAP, promptly released a statement that it was "appalled by [NARAL's] sloppy data collection process and inaccurate conclusions... littered with errors, out-of-date information and inaccuracies." These included marking 30 pharmacies as both stocking and not stocking the MAP, etc.

But what could NARAL do about it anyway, even if the number was truly scary, say 12%? In November a district court judge enjoined a new rule that would have forced pharmacists to stock and dispense the MAP, in violation of their 1st Amendment rights.

I said all that to get to this....

About this year's Academy Awards Moviefone reported, "Baby-on-board is the new black in Hollywood," a pretty funny line.

Enjoying Tinsel Town's swell of pregnancy pride while it lasts, here were the baby bumps spotted at the Oscars:

Jessica Alba (left) and Cate Blanchett (right)...

Nicole Kidman...

This morning the US Senate voted 52-42 to ban Indian Health Service funds from being used for abortions except to save a mother's life, or for rape or incest of a minor.

This has been long-standing US policy since 1982, when President Reagan closed a loophole and Congress later agreed, in conjunction with the Hyde Amendment for Medicaid funding.

But the fix has never been permanent. The House must also pass the measure, although a DC insider noted, "I doubt the House will take up this measure anytime soon."

Democrats voting yes...

Later today UCLA campus pro-lifers will release the winter issue of their student newspaper, The Advocate. It will be a blockbuster.

Readers may recall Lila Rose, who spearheads The Advocate. Last spring The Advocate broke the story and released video secretly filmed inside CA Planned Parenthoods showing PPs would have helped Lila, posing as a 15-year-old girl statutorily raped by her 23-year-old boyfriend, sidestep laws and abort. Lila even appeared on The O'Reilly Factor, and PP threatened to sue.

Well, hold on, because this issue of The Advocate will knell PP another - perhaps worse - body blow. When Lila lifts the embargo I will post.

Meanwhile, Lila has okd going with this story from The Advocate, about the UCLA Ashe Center and the Center for Women and Men helping a student prepare for his orgy. Here's another secretly filmed video:

Reported The Advocate....

Oh, please.

Pro-abort, pro-gay Drury University professor Teresa Hornsby has been handed a grant by the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion to develop a "historic" college teaching program on abortion "that takes into consideration many different viewpoints."

Hornsby is an expert on the pro-abort viewpoint, that's for sure.

She sits on the board of the Abortion Conversation Project, where they "envision a world in which abortion is affirmed as a moral decision without stigma."...

Tough love works. And another evidence doctors aren't God.

From the the Daily Telegraph, February 23:

A mother who fell into a coma after losing her baby son during a difficult labour came back from the brink of death after her husband gave her "a bloody good rollicking".

Yvonne Sullivan, 28, lost consciousness suffering from severe blood poisoning moments after being told that baby Clinton had died....

You may have read a February 23 Associated Press story about Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Missouri's epiphany....

Even liberals are suspicious of an infusion of female steroids that blocks all but 1 period a year. Here's a spoof from SNL this past weekend.

WARNING: PG-13 for language and simply being SNL gross:

[HT: natb33]

The Political Voices of Women blog has amassed a list of ~350 women blogging on politics, and I'm happy to be included.

This is something to me, especially considering Technorati counted 112 million blogs worldwide as of December.

The women listed cover the political spectrum, from Feminist Fire, Citizen Jane Politics, and Washington Woman, to Mary Katherine Ham, Michelle Malkin, and... me!

PVW accumulated the growing list in response to New York Times columnist Katharine Seelye's question, "Are more men engaged in politics online than women?" She said....

I need a new poll question.

Suggestions?

by Lisa Benson for Townhall.com...

Obama's fainted ladies...

Living is hell for me. I should never have had an abortion. I see now I would have been a good mum. I told everyone I didn't want to do it, even at the hospital. I was frightened, now it is too late. I died when my babies died. I want to be with my babies - they need me, no one else does.

So read the suicide note Emma Beck left in February 2007, the night before her 31st birthday when she hanged herself in her UK home, according to the Daily Mail.

My guess is this was near the date her twins would have been born, had she not aborted them in September, 2006.

Emma's live-in rejected his offspring. When she met with her soon-to-be-abortionist, the pre-abort counselor was on vacation, so he gave her the number for a call-in "pregnancy counselling service." Glad to read there's an inquest at least. That wouldn't happen in the U.S.

Pro-aborts acknowledge post-partum depression but say post-abortion depression is nonsense.

[Portrait is by John Millais, 1850, Ophelia drowning in a river (click to enlarge); HT: LifeNews.com;

On one side we have Alliance Defense Fund, American Family Association, Georgia Christian Alliance, Georgia Right to Life, Mike Huckabee, Liberty Counsel, Liberty Univeristy School of Law, ProlifeUnity.com, and Thomas More Law Center.

On the other side we have the Archdiocese of Atlanta, Americans United for Life, Catholic Bishops of Georgia, Georgians for Choice, National Right to Life Committee, and Planned Parenthood of Georgia.

The two sides are fighting over a proposed Georgia Human Life Amendment, and both sent big guns to Atlanta last week to argue for and against the HLA in a subcommittee.

The Archdiocese went so far as to send a letter to Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life asking him not to come in support as planned. He complied.

The subcommittee chairman, hand-picked by the only GA Republican endorsed by PP the last election, tabled the HLA February 20, citing reasons given by the Archdiocese, AUL, and NRLC....

Britain's public health minister Dawn Primarolo announced a new teen anti-pregnancy campaign February 6 that will in part fund "long-acting reversible contraceptives," according to the Daily Mail. The options will be, according to DM:

Progesterone injection, effective up to 3 months Intrauterine device (IUD), effective 5+ years Progesterone implant, effective to 3 years Intrauterine system (IUS), effective 5 years

For those unfamiliar with the IUS, it's a cylinder implanted in the uterus containing timed-release progesterone.

Noted UK feminist Fay Weldon thinks this is a good idea. Writing in the DM February 15:

Last week, an intriguing proposition was mooted by Government minister Dawn Primarolo.

Teenage girls, she said, could be steered towards what is described as "long-term contraception."...

In other words, there is a way of effectively sterilising girls for a lengthy period of time.

At what age? Well, doesn't 12 until 17 sound rather sensible?...

TMZ wondered February 20 whether Tori Spelling's 2nd pregnancy was a "ploy" to get a repeat contract from NutriSystem:

Tori Spelling probably made a ton of money from NutriSystem. After all, what a great ad - someone famous losing her baby weight.

So what does Tori do? She gets knocked up again and gains it all back. We're thinkin' it's one of the great ploys of 2008.

Here's the scenario. Tori has the kid and then resigns with NutriSystem, which pays her even more money to advertise how women with two kids can dump the weight.

We're guessing Tori could end up in a mansion again, with her own money and more kids than Mia Farrow....

Students for Life of America has released a YouTube video from the February 9 CPAC wrap-up in DC.

Incredibly, the Conservative Political Action Conference is trying to squeeze social conservatives out. CPAC is sponsored by the American Conservative Union and presents itself as the largest annual gathering of American conservatives....

A KS House hearing on late-term abortion legislation yesterday went as I would have it go. Bravo to House members who took on this paternal psychopath. Gloves off. From the Topeka Capital-Journal, today:

The abortion hearing began matter-of-factly. A man testified Wednesday about how he and his wife came to the decision to have her undergo the procedure.

But anti-abortion legislators, taken aback by the man's explanation, minced few words in their response.

Speaking to members of the House Federal and State Affairs Committee, Tim Mosher recounted how he and his wife came to Wichita from metropolitan St. Louis to abort their 19-week-old fetus after learning the fetus had a severe case of spina bifida.... Mosher described the fetus' lemon-shaped brain "pushed so far back in her skull she would not have survived."

Tensions quickly rose when legislators began their questioning.

Rep. Steve Brunk (left), R-Bel Aire, whose own 30-year-old daughter has spina bifida, asked how Mosher had determined what sort of quality of life the child would have. Mosher replied that his family's decision was based on the medical diagnosis they received.

"What if the doctors might have been wrong about that?" Brunk asked.

"Then that's between God and myself," Mosher answered....

Rep. Forrest Knox (right), R-Altoona, said many people live with pain and suffering.

"If your daughter had been born and faced a life surrounded by pain and suffering with a conclusion that leads to death, would you have killed your daughter?" Knox asked.

Mosher, with hands fidgeting behind his back, paused for 10 seconds before answering.

"What one person may see as horrific and demonic, I view what I did to my daughter as out of love and respect," he said.

"What I did to my daughter," very telling.

Loved the question on postnatal abortion for pain and suffering.

Last month I spoke at a pro-life conference in OR and mentioned that a large west coast Catholic health care system, Providence Health & Services, was committing induced labor abortion.

I received the following letter via email while on vacation and didn't spot it until yesterday (click to enlarge):

This issue goes back to 2004 when I received a call from Catholic news reporter Tom Szyszkiewicz, who had published an article in Our Sunday Visitor in March 2004. There he wrote....

A few years ago I visited Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun's grave at Arlington National Cemetery and seriously got chills. He's credited with twisting the law and Constitution into a pretzel (a statement scholars on both sides of the abortion debate agree upon) to legalize abortion in 1973.

I expect to get the same chills if someday walking past the grave of Sarah Weddington, the attorney who successfully argued Roe v. Wade before the Supremes, unless she recants.

She may see that future:

Weddington told The Vancouver Sun in an interview in advance of her visit here that such a big win so early in life posed a bit of a personal dilemma.

"There were some years when I thought, 'How will I trump Roe vs. Wade?' I have finally made peace with the fact that I will never trump it."

She knows exactly how the first line of her obituary will read... "Sarah Weddington, the woman who won Roe vs. Wade.... "

Obviously, at least to the world, Weddington considers Roe the high point of her life. Now in her mid-60s, she also considers it her earthly legacy. I can't imagine the load of her thoughts, if she ever examines all facets.

Supreme death watch

Weddington can credit herself with pronouncing 50 million people dead. Ironically, there is one or two she doesn't want to die....

So far I am keeping up with my New Year's resolution to read the Bible in a year. I'm now in Leviticus and read relevant commentary to our topic this morning. Specifically, I was reading Leviticus 11, about which animals, marine life, fowl, and insects God considered clean and unclean for eating. From the Baker Commentary:

While hygiene was important for a people dedicated to God, the primary reason for dietary regulations in Leviticus was theological.

The only flesh of animals Israelites could eat was of those which fed on various kinds of grasses. They could not eat carnivorous predators. Blood and life are synonymous (Lev. 17:11), and the Israelite had to be very careful of what he ate so he exercised respect for life. Even acceptable animals had to be slaughtered in a specific manner so their blood could be drained out in the proper way....

On February 8 ABC News and 20/20 ran the story of 2'9" Christianne Ray, 6'4" Jeremy Bowden, and their baby Krysten Elise. According to ABC, Christianne is likely the shortest mother in the world. Here's a video clip taken when Christianne was pregnant:

According to ABC, Christianne considered abortion and was counseled strongly to abort:

Do voters take a candidate's spouse into consideration when electing a president? Some say not, but I think so, even subliminally. Swift boater John Kerry sank on his own, for instance, but did Teresa add weight? And on Monday Michelle Obama certainly didn't help Barack with her "for the first time I'm proud of my country" gaffe.

I think Hillary Clinton's candidacy legitimizes the discussion. And so I ask it in a round-about way in my new poll:

Which presidential candidate's spouse do you think would make the best First Lady or First Gentleman?

My last poll question was for conservatives, but tsk tsk, liberals couldn't help but add their opinion....

This just in from the mother of Laura Hope Smith, who was killed by abortionist Rapin Osathanondh at Women's Health Center in Hyannis, MA, on September 13, 2007, as I previously reported....

Eileen Smith is reporting in an email that she just received a call from the Boston Medical Board of Registration telling her it pulled Osathanondh's medical license today, "because they view him as a risk to public safety."...

In response to my Down trodding post, about the controversy stirred earlier this week when University of North Carolina professor Albert Harris told his embryology class that babies with Down syndrome should be aborted, documentary film maker Bonnie Burt emailed him an offer:

I have recently completed a film about a couple, both born with Down syndrome... [and] would like to offer your university a free screening of.... Strong Love....

Please let me know if you are interested in previewing this film. I think it will help along the discussion that Professor Harris started. It might be of interest to your students.

Synopsis of the movie, from its website:

Strong Love is the story of world-class weight lifter Jon Shapiro and his childhood sweetheart Holly James, both of whom were born with Down syndrome. This documentary follows the couple over the course of three years, starting with their decision to get married. Their challenges, their triumphs, and their complex, sometimes surprising relationships with family and friends are at the heart of this inspiring film.

Bonnie has just posted an excerpt from Strong Love on YouTube. I just watched it a second time and cried a second time. I pity people who view those with Down syndrome as a liability on this earth rather than a much needed ambassadors of pure and unconditional love.

It's interesting to watch pro-aborts fight. They confine themselves to a war of words when picking on someone their own size. No dismembering, no decapitating, how refreshing.

Right now they're engaged in a rarely seen public snarl over which Democrat presidential candidate to support. This will likely stop after they pick a nominee, so the pack can resume attacking the Republican.

Meanwhile, the rift is revealing....

The grumpy old feminists, who for half a century have been decrying sexism, are herding around Hillary because she's a woman, the epitome of chauvinism.

There are reports lesbians are also flocking to Hillary, but I've thought for some time grumpy old feminists and lesbians were one and the same. The president and vice president of NOW in my state are live-in lesbian lovers, for instance. So that may not be news.

On Obama's side we have....

Continue reading my column today, "Divine secrets of the political yo-yo sisterhood," on WorldNetDaily.com.

Below is a listing of then-state Senator Barack Obama's votes and state senate floor speeches on IL's Born Alive Infant Protection Act.

(At right is a political cartoon by Jack Higgins, printed in the Chicago Sun-Times on August 25, 2004, during his U.S. Senate campaign.)

A package of Born Alive bills was introduced three times during Obama's tenure.

The cornerstone bill was the Born Alive Infants Protection Act, aka "Born Alive Infant Defined," which defined legal personhood to include born alive infants any time the words "person," "human being," "child," or "individual" was stated in IL law.

This definition was identical to the federal BAIPA which was drafted from the definition of "live birth" created by the World Health Organization in 1950 and adopted by the United Nations in 1955.

Following are Obama's actions and votes on Born Alive. The bill number changed every year it was reintroduced.

2001

Senate Bill 1095, Born Alive Infant Protection Act

Obama's "no" vote in the IL Senate Judiciary Committeehere, March 28, 2001

Transcript of Obama's verbal opposition to Born Alive on the IL Senate floor, March 30, 2001, pages 84-90

Obama's "present" vote on the IL Senate floor, March 30, 2001

2002

Senate Bill 1662, Born Alive Infant Protection Act

Obama's "no" vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee, March 6, 2002

Transcript of Obama's verbal opposition to Born Alive on the IL Senate floor, April 4, 2002, pages 28-35

Obama's "no" vote on the IL Senate floor, April 4, 2002

Listen to audio from Obama's 2002 IL Senate floor debate wherein he argued that while babies might be aborted alive, it would be a "burden" to a mother's "original decision" to assess and treat them.

Meanwhile, the federal Born Alive Infants Protection Act with a "neutrality clause" added passed the U.S. Senate 98-0, the U.S. House overwhelmingly, and was signed into law August 5, 2002. The pro-abortion group NARAL expressed neutrality on the bill.

2003

Senate Bill 1082, Born Alive Infant Protection Act

Democrats took control of the IL Senate with the 2002 elections. This year Born Alive was sent to the Health & Human Services Committee, chaired by Barack Obama.

As can be seen on the vote docket, Obama first voted to amend SB1082 to add the "neutrality clause" from the federal version of Born Alive to the IL version to make them absolutely identical. (DP#1 means "Do Pass Amendment #1.)

Then Obama voted against the identical version. (DPA means, "Do Pass as Amended.)

Additional corroboration of Obama's vote: IL State Senate Republican Staff Analysis of SB 1082, March 12-13, 2003, bottom of page 2

For 4 years following his 2003 vote Obama misrepresented it, stating the wording of the IL version of Born Alive was not the same as the federal version, and he would have voted for it if so. As recently as August 16, 2008 Obama made this false assertion.

But when evidence presented was irrefutable, Obama's campaign on August 18, 2008, admitted the truth to the New York Sun.

The nonpartison group FactCheck.org has since corroborated Obama voted against identical legislation as passed overwhelmingly on the federal level and then misrepresented his vote.

I didn't originally intend to post about Gianna Jessen, below. I just spotted her picture and was reminded of her story when looking up something Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life wrote January 28, "Will women go to jail for abortions?"

Bill Clinton has made this topic more timely than ever. Fr. Pavone has good thoughts:

Question: "When abortion becomes illegal again, are we going to start throwing all the women who have abortions into jail?"

Answer: No. The people who should go to jail in that case are the abortionists.

This particular question will be raised more and more as we to come closer to restoring protection to the unborn. The question is actually part of the well-planned public relations attack that abortion advocates always try to make on us in the pro-life movement. We are anti-woman, after all. Isn't that the only logical reason why we would oppose abortion in the first place? That's what they want the public to believe....

The photo, right, is of Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life and Gianna Jessen at the West Coast Walk for Life in CA on January 19.

Ever heard of Gianna? She was aborted alive. Her story in brief:

Gianna's biological mother was 17 when she had a saline abortion in her third trimester....After being burned alive for ~18 hours in the womb from the saline solution, Gianna was delivered alive in a Los Angeles County abortion clinic. Her medical records state, "born during saline abortion"... caus[ing] her Cerebral Palsy.... She weighed a mere 2 lbs. at birth.

Gianna was transferred by ambulance to a hospital, grew into a beautiful young woman with an excellent singing voice who now travels the world singing and telling her story.

I met Gianna in 2000. She testified with me at the Born Alive Infant Protection Act hearings. We both were invited to witness President Bush sign BAIPA into law in August 2001. Here's a photo, with Gianna standing next to me....

The news yesterday was all about Bill Clinton's outburst against pro-lifers at a campaign stop in Steubenville, OH, February 18.

I agree with Tom at American Papist that...

Most of the attention, I'm sure, has to do with the ongoing prurient interest that folks have in watching Bill Clinton embarrass himself, but I'm sure the subject matter is also gaining a share of the attention.

... if only by osmosis.

Our message went out on every video clip.

Thank goodness David Vogel and friend had the wherewithal to turn their signs toward the audience - and camera.

Also, terminology "choice" or "pro-choice" was never used. Clinton called us "pro-life" twice and said the words "murder" and "abortion" in context together.

Even some newscasters called us "pro-life." View just one example here....

I had to ponder the double negative in the first sentence of this blog post on Juno by pro-abort Revolution Newspaper. "[N]ot anti-choice"? What, they don't even want to be called pro-choice anymore?

How is it that audiences who are not anti-choice are walking out of a movie like Juno without even realizing what hit them?

For many years now, Christian fascists have been hammering a message that what America needs is a return to the oppressive values of the 1950s (and in many ways, the 1850s), including a return to traditional woman's role as mother. They have been setting terms very broadly, to the point that any Democrat who wants to run for president has to declare that abortion is morally wrong and tragic, while the movement to ban all abortion grows and shuts down clinics....

Well I just watched an undercover video shot by the Humane Society of a California beef plant where cows were supposedly tortured and killed, and I must say I'm disgusted.

The 5 o'clock news last night showed clips of the video - with no warning of its graphic nature. I'm glad my seven-year-old grandson wasn't around, or I might have had to explain where hamburger comes from.

What's wrong with these Humane Society people? Don't they have better things to do with their time? They would adopt their own cow herd if they really cared.

At any rate, this video is a fake, I'm sure.

And even if not, I don't believe cows feel pain when being plowed by forklifts. No one can prove to me that they do.

Many cows in the video were maimed anyway. Slaughtering them was best for all. What else would we do with them? No one wants them. We're just putting them out of their misery. I'm sure this is what they would tell us they want if they could talk.

These Humane Society people are obsessed. They should get a life. They may not like how meat plants slaughter cows, but that's their choice. If we regulate cattle-killing, the next thing you know there will be no more steaks. Or slaughter houses may resort to underground illegal cattle killing.

I'm thrilled this incident created flak and made the news, indicating more sensitivity to the issue of eugenic abortions. From the Associated Press, today:

Comments by a University of North Carolina professor about Down syndrome has angered several students in his class.

Albert Harris told his embryology class on Monday he thinks fetuses with Down syndrome should be aborted. He says he's made the comment many times before.

But senior Lara Frame of Charlotte said the classroom was no place for Harris to express his opinion. Frame's brother has Down syndrome and she said Harris' comments made her physically ill....

AFP reports the French Supreme Court has ruled that parents have the right to name their miscarried or stillborn baby no matter what gestational age.

Before 3 mothers of earlier-term babies filed the winning lawsuit, French officials "insisted," according to the story, that preborns be 22-weeks-old or 1.1 pounds to merit a name.

The ruling will also allow mothers to bury their babies rather than be forced to let hospitals incinerate them and let moms take maternity leave....

Everyone agrees we have a right to our own feelings. It is well documented that Bill Clinton thinks he has a right to his own facts, which he attempted to spout last night during his temper tantrum against a pro-lifer in Steubenville, OH. I posted that video here. Clinton's misinformation was this:

I reduced abortion... [Y]ou can't name me anybody presently in politics that did more to introduce policies that reduce the number of real abortions....

The number of U. S. abortions may have gone down during Clinton's presidency, but it was certainly not for his lack of trying to raise them. In fact, Bill Clinton availed the worldwide abortion industry and mothers greater access to abort during his tenure. I've chronicled Clinton's actions as president in a powerpoint presentation, to make it easier on the eye. Click on any slide to enlarge. I begin with Clinton's alleged but credible personal history with abortion, his flip flop, and then his actions as president:

See remaining slides on page 2.

This :50 commercial, made for a class project and just posted on YouTube, indicates accidental pregnancies result in jerk men abandoning women. The pregnancies culminate in abusive mothers who raise criminals. All this makes abortion "a good thing."

So women who abort are stupid for having ok'd sex with pigs and are preempted child abusers. That's the message I get.

WARNING:Video contains sexual content and adult language.

At a Steubenville, OH, campaign stop for his wife earlier this afternoon, Bill Clinton "snapped hard" at a pro-lifer in the audience, according to MSNBC.

I just spoke with another pro-lifer who attended the event, Billy Valentine, a student at Franciscan University in Steubenville. Here's the backdrop.

Over 100 pro-lifers, mostly university students, were awaiting Clinton's arrival with a protest before he spoke at Steubenville High School. They were on Clinton's side of the car when he stepped out, so he saw them. Organizers wouldn't let the protesters in, saying the event was full. But a few hid their signs and were allowed in. That's when the fun began.

See transcript on page 2.

UPDATE, 2/18, 10:45a: Quoting ABC News about Clinton's tirade: "He was so angry, we, in the press, couldn't keep up with what he was saying."

UPDATE, 2/18, 12:45p: The pro-lifer having the exchange with Clinton last night, David Vogel, has emailed me with further details:

I... confronted Bill Clinton last night... after he misled people... about child protection laws, child health care and no child left behind. The question I asked Bill Clinton that he never did answer, was this:

What about abortion? What about the 4000+ children scheduled for abortion today in America, what about their lives, what about their right to life?...

While he pointed his finger at me... I... point[ed] to the sign,"ABORTION KILLS CHILDREN."

UPDATE, 2/18, 1:40p: Drudge is carrying this story near the top of the page [HT: American Papist, which links to additional media coverage, and reader Phil]. News coverage is slanted against Clinton for losing his temper, not the protester. Fox News brought up a good point, that Clinton's response was all about his administration, which is "off-message" and creating a "distraction" to his wife's campaign.

by Bob Gorrell for the Creator's Syndidate...

by Steve Kelley for the Times Biscayne...

The new poll question is up:

This question is for conservatives. There is widespread talk among our tribe that "we're not gonna take it anymore," re: likely GOP presidential nominee John McCain, whom many consider a RINO (Republican in Name Only). If McCain's name appears on the November ballot, what will you do?

Answers to the previous poll question intrigued me....

Granny Grump at the Real Choice blog has listed "The Top Ten Signs Your Boyfriend is an Abortionist." Witty:

10. You've seen him run medical instruments through the dishwasher.

9. The top three numbers on his speed-dial are a lawyer, a bookie, and a bail bondsman....

On the heels of its victory over YouTube censorship, American Life League today released a new video, "Planned Parenthood kills for profit." PP has energized its streamlined enterprise to become a more lean, mean, killing machine.

A month ago I posted American Life League's new video, which it had posted on YouTube, spotlighting Planned Parenthood's new "Mile High" ad as well as other PP best of's.

On February 11, ALL got notice YouTube had yanked its video for its "inappropriate nature."

But get this. YouTube did not yank PP's original "Mile High" ad.

Now, thanks to the pro-life community's outrage about YouTube's obvious viewpoint discrimination, it reinstated ALL's video yesterday, apologizing in an email there had been a "technical malfunction."

Not true. YouTube's guidelines state, "If we remove your video after reviewing it, you can assume that we removed it purposefully, and you should take our warning notification seriously."

So YouTube was unfairly censoring and just got caught.

And now, back by demands for fairness, ALL's Planned Parenthood Sells Sex video:

"Mahalo" means "thank you" in Hawaiian. And that's what I'd like to say to my moderators for ably filling in the gap while Rich and I vacationed there.

I enjoyed great peace of mind knowing Bethany, Jacque, Jasper, MK, and Valerie were at the blog helm.

I'd like to particularly thank Bethany and MK for being the glue and primary contributors.

Site stats didn't suffer in the least during the past 1.5 weeks, meaning everyone still tuned in during my absence for pro-life news and commentary. Mahalo to you readers and commenters for that as well.

Whoops.

Yesterday was supposed to celebrate V-Day, devised 10 years ago by activist Eve Ensler to combat violence against women.

In that decade V-Day has raised over $50 million, according to Fundraising Success magazine, largely by allowing groups to produce Ensler's play, The Vagina Monologues, as a benefit. Groups must apply, and V-Day must approve donation plans as well as receive 10% of proceeds.

Sometimes star power helps sell VM tickets. Enter Jane Fonda, who has performed the play and yesterday appeared with Ensler on The Today Show to promote V-Day.

The ever judgment-challenged Fonda decided to utter a word on morning network television from the VM that will never be ready for prime time and is, in fact, the most despicably sexist word in the English language: the c-word....

by Mary Kay Hastings

Last month the City of Aurora dismissed motions pro-life attorneys filed to reverse permit decisions allowing Planned Parenthood to build.

Now, pro-life advocates have filed suit against officials for the City's inexplicable contention that PP's permit approvals did not violate City zoning rules.

The plaintiffs, including residents and Fox Valley Families Against Planned Parenthood, say the clinic misrepresented itself to the city and to the public, using a fictitious name, the Gemini Office Development corporation, to hide behind during the zoning approval process....

by Mary Kay Hastings and Bethany Kerr

Skip the candy, skip the flowers, and skip the card. Give 'em what they really want. Condoms!...

by Mary Kay Hastings

Thirty years ago today, the Chicago Sun-Times conducted an undercover investigative report on abortion clinics with horrifying findings.

Today the paper reprinted it.

You've got to ask, what has changed?

by Bethany and Mary Kay

And now for something completely different....

Fetal Scooby-Doo?

There is a message in this cartoon somewhere....

by Jill Stanek

Rich and I are returning home from our Hawaiian vacation today, which has sensitized me more than ever to the devastation of population decline.

One elderly half-Hawaiian told me she thinks there are no pure blooded Hawaiians left; Encyclopedia Britannica puts the number at less than 10,000.

It is politically correct to blame Westerners for the Hawaiian demise. Numbering anywhere from 300k-500k or more when Captain James Cook arrived in 1778, it is true their numbers spiraled downward due to the introduction of our diseases, like chicken pox, measles, and STDs.

But omitted from discussion is the ancient Hawaiian penchant for human sacrifice, numbering in the tens to hundreds of thousands to angry gods, as well as a strict penal code with capital punishment for breaking numerous taboos that included crossing one's shadow over a chief's shadow.

Speaking of chiefs, also omitted from popular discussion is the ancient Hawaiian class system with the belief that inbreeding between siblings and other immediate family members was good, certainly also weakening the Hawaiian strain.

How many millions of their progeny did Hawaiians themselves snuff?

All of that was actually an aside. Troy Newman of Operation Rescue alerted me to this trailer about the soon-to-be-released documentary, Demographic Winter. Click on this image to watch it at its link....

by Jacqueline Harvey

As a pro-life activist, I've heard my fair share of the mantra, "How many unwanted children are you going to adopt?" As a woman who desires to adopt and knows countless families created or supplemented by adoption, this is easy to retort: "As many as I can."

But at my most recent trip to the pound, I had a thought that has made me think of this a different way.

Walking through the cages of the animals doomed to death in 72 hours if no one claimed them, my heart shattered. I wished I could save them all, but was fettered by the reality that I am simply not equipped to care for dozens upon dozens of dogs.

Then, I became angry. There was nothing wrong with those dogs that condemned them, but their owners. Irresponsible owners who failed to spay/neuter, failed to feed their animals, failed to properly restrain them, just flat failed them. Even the aggressive dogs were only such because of abuse or neglect.

The bottom line was that I can't force people to spay/neuter. I can't force them to properly vaccinate or feed their dependent animals- but moreover, I can't do this for them. As much as I would LOVE to save and adopt the innocent animals who face the consequences of their irresponsibility, I can not....

By: Mary Kay Hastings

I found this quote and thought it was rather interesting, considering the posts that we have put up over the last week and a half.

Not only have I continued to follow your work with loving admiration and expect ever greater results from your beneficence, I have also known of Nehru's statesmanlike interest in birth-control, and now I behold you and him and Lady Rama Rau working together -- a triple Hercules -- for the deliverance of a land long-cursed with excess of population. I cannot imagine anything more blessed happening on earth. As you teach, mankind has, through ignorance, often destroyed the sweet joy of childhood. Now a tide of enlightenment, slow but sure, shall lift its healing waves from one end of the world to the other until every child has a chance to be well born, well fed and fairly started in life -- and that is woman's natural work as the creator of the human race. Affectionately I salute you, Margaret Sanger, as the prophet and the woman Prometheus of humanity's highest physical and mental welfare....

by Mary Kay Hastings

Short people got no reason to live?

Sure, everybody make mistakes sometimes. But we ain't talkin' spilled milk here! From Operation Rescue, "Healthy baby narrowly escapes late abortion at Tiller's clinic," February 12:

Last September, a 22-year old woman and her mother arrived at George Tiller's Women's Health Care Services in Wichita, Kansas, for an abortion. She had been told by her Reno doctor that her baby suffered from dwarfism, water on the brain, and a number of other fetal abnormalities. He also told her that if she attempted to deliver the baby at term, she could die. Fearful for her life, the woman made the trip to Wichita, KS.

CPC volunteer, Judi Weldy, convinced her to get another ultrasound....

Abortion-Survivor Finds a Home: John XXIII Community Welcomes Baby Girl

Rome, February 8, Zenit.org: A 15-month-old girl whose parents tried to abort her because she is blind, but survived the procedure, has been adopted by a John XXIII Community household in Rome.

The community announced in a Feb. 2 press conference that the baby was diagnosed with an eye condition that blinded her, and her parents opted for abortion. But the pregnancy was already in the 22nd week, and the baby was born alive. Doctors, following Italian law, thus tried to save her and succeeded....

By: Valerie Ryan

magine that.  According to a January Guttmatcher Institute report for
2006 Public Funding for Family Planning, Sterilization and abortion
services, the term "family planning" does not include having a family.

It does include, however:

[C]lient counseling and education, contraceptive drugs and devices, related diagnostic tests (e.g., pregnancy, Pap, HIV, other STIs) and treatment after diagnosis (e.g., urinary tract infections and STIs other than HIV). Whenever possible, we separated out services that are not part of the standard package provided to clients seeking contraceptives, such as outreach and education activities, sterilization services (both of which we report separately), and administrative expenses....

by Mary Kay Hastings

From the New York Times, February 10:

... [W]hen Kanwaljeet Anand was a medical resident in a neonatal intensive care unit, his tiny patients, many of them preterm infants, were often wheeled out of the ward and into an operating room. He soon learned what to expect on their return. The babies came back in terrible shape: their skin was gray, their breathing shallow, their pulses weak.

That is when I discovered that the babies were not getting anesthesia, he recalled recently.

Doctors were convinced that newborns nervous systems were too immature to sense pain, and that the dangers of anesthesia exceeded any potential benefits.

In a series of clinical trials, Anand demonstrated that operations performed under minimal or no anesthesia produced a massive stress response in newborn babies, releasing a flood of fight-or-flight hormones like adrenaline and cortisol....

by Jill Stanek

I have watched the videos Mary Kay posted of John McCain's views of the sanctity of life in his own words, and they made my blood boil.

Then this morning Bobby Schindler emailed me an Esquire article from 2006, wherein he stated, on the isse of Bobby's sister Terri Schiavo:

I understand the frustrations a lot of Republicans feel. We're not representing their hopes and dreams and aspirations. We worry about Ms. Schiavo before we worry about balancing the budget. We're going to take up this Family Marriage Amendment again. Why?.... It's pointless...

I urge my friends who complain about the influence of the religious Right, get out there and get busy. That's what they do! Now, if we believe in the Republican party of Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt, the big-tent party, then we have to get out there and show that. The fact is, some of us have sat idly by while those very active people have basically set the agenda for our party....

As I recall, Abraham Lincoln did not subscribe to the big-tent on slavery, but that's an aside.

By his own words, from the videos Mary Kay posted:

by Bethany Kerr

I never am more disgusted than when I read an article like this.

Katherine Mobey, 38, explains in great detail her eugenic reasoning behind her decision to kill her first child, who through no fault of his/her own, was imperfect, having Down's Syndrome, and exomphalos, which can much of the time be corrected with surgery.

From You Magazine:

Neil and I had been married less than a year when, in 2001, I discovered I was expecting. We were so ecstatic, we immediately went out and bought three more tests - just to be sure. The routine 12-week scan gave us the first sight of our baby and all appeared to be well.

By: Mary Kay Hastings

Just a few quotes from y'all about assisted suicide...you know, if the husband/wife/mother/father said their spouse/child/parent didn't want to live, who are we to question it?

Back to your hatefilled fantasies about everyone else - you have to invent the worst and pretend the only reason someone might have is because they are 'terrible' people. I believe people who are suffering and have no hope of recovery should have the right to end their lives. I believe if someone is comatose with no hope of recovery the family should be able to do what they think is best. You imagine youre an authority on everyone elses life and imagine you should have some 'right' to stuff your face into the private lives of strangers and tell them how they 'should' live and what they 'should' do without knowing them or anything about them - ignorance never keeps YOU from being an 'authority' on 'everything'. Texas Red

Her mother is only trying to carry out her wishes. She stated that she didn't want to be kept alive like this. She saw what happened to Terri Schiavo and said it was "gross." She wouldn't want this.
Posted by: reality at February 6, 2008 1:44 PM

By Mary Kay Hastings

I could have sworn I read somewhere that John McCain was Pro-Life!

By Valerie Ryan

We have many people from both sides of the abortion debate who consider themselves a feminist. I wonder which group knows more about Womens' history?

I have a short Pop Quiz for us all to take to find out.

Now, I’m sure most of these can be found on a google search so we are going to go by the honor system. We will trust that there will be no cheating.

(these are not necessarily 1st American women to . . . )

1. Who was the first woman U.S. presidential candidate?

2. Who were the the co-founders of the womans suffrage movement?

3 . Who was the first person to be a U.S. flagmaker?

By Mary Kay Hastings

Our very own Jill Stanek was presented the Henry Hyde Life Leadership Award at the The 2008 Speak Out Illinois Conference —on February 2 of this year.

Previous winners include Fr. Frank Pavone, Founder and National Director of Priests for Life (2006), The Pro-Life Action League's Joe and Ann Scheidler (2004) and Sandy Rios, Fox News Contributor (2005).

"When the time comes as it surely will, when we face that awesome moment, the final judgment, I've often thought, as Fulton Sheen wrote, that it is a terrible moment of loneliness. You have no advocates, you are there alone standing before God and a terror will rip through your soul like nothing you can imagine. But I really think that those in the pro-life movement will not be alone. I think there will be a chorus of voices that have never been heard in this world but are heard beautifully and clearly in the next world and they will plead for everyone who has been in this movement. They will say to God, "Spare him because he loved us," and God will look at you and say not, "Did you succeed?" but "Did you try?"

Henry Hyde

By Bethany Kerr

I've been thinking a lot about Lauren Richardson's story, and about the comments thrown around about her by people supporting her starvation and death. Comments such as:

"Lauren CAN'T think. Nothin' up there anymore. Lauren has left the building. Breathing doesn't mean life- brain means life. If the right circuits aren't firing, she's got no capacity to think."

"I do think it's selfish of the father to prolong everyone's suffering because he can't handle the fact his daughter has passed on."

One study, among many others, has shown that at least 40 percent of patients diagnosed as PVS were actually conscious of their surroundings.

What makes this even more disturbing is that researchers are unable to identify any predictors of recovery, which would help doctors to determine who might- and who might not- wake up.

By Mary Kay Hastings

I am an Obama supporter. I am also pro-life.

So says Frank Schaeffer, New York Times best selling author of the book Crazy for God: How I Grew Up As One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back.

He is the son of former Evangelical Missionary, Francis Schaeffer, but turned his back on the Evangelicals, saying "I abandoned Protestant Christian fundamentalism many years ago for Greek Orthodoxy. I converted because the Orthodox tradition embraces paradox and mystery. For someone raised in a strict Calvinist home, relief from absolutist certainty was most welcome. "

Sounds like he's abandoning the prolife movement as well.

"Today when I listen to Obama speak (and to his remarkable wife, Michelle) what I hear is a world view that actually nurtures life. Obama is trying to lead this country to a place where the intrinsic worth of each individual is celebrated. A leader who believes in hope, the future, trying to save our planet and providing a just and good life for everyone is someone who is actually pro-life."

Which Obama is he listening to?

by Mary Kay Hastings and Bethany Kerr

It was just about a year ago this month that Bethany and I stumbled upon Jill Stanek's blog.

So much has happened since, with so many great posts.

Many of you are new and missed them, so we thought you might like to take a trip with us down memory lane.

Here are 6 of our favorite posts from the past year:

by Mary Kay Hastings

Brent Rooney makes the case that since no studies were ever done of abortions on animals, performing them on people is a clear cut case of "human experimentation." Coincidentally, these "experiments" are being done primarily on black and Hispanic women:

"Suction" abortion (VAA, Vacuum Aspiration Abortion) performed on Black American women and Hispanic-American women is EXPERIMENTAL UNPROVEN surgery, since there are zero published animal studies demonstrating safety from risks of future premature births, mammary (breast) cancer, etc.

On 16 January 2008, Dr. Sharon Camp, President of the research arm of Planned Parenthood (AGI, Alan Guttmacher Institute) admitted in an email to me that AGI could find no published animal 'suction' abortion study.

It is an ethical scandal that "suction" abortions were performed on humans before safety
validation via published animal studies.

Margaret Sanger would be proud. Reading on:

by Bethany Kerr

You'd think abortion proponents would stop claiming that abortionist "quacks" are the exception and not the rule by now. It seems every month we hear of a new abortionist being caught practicing abortions without a license, butchering women, raping women, falsifying records, etc. The ratio of "bad" abortionists to abortion clinics seems to become closer each time an abortion clinic is investigated.

From Operation Rescue:

The Los Angeles Times is reporting today horrific new details about a chain of Southern California abortion clinics, owned by Bertha Bugarin, that were raided last summer by a special task force of the Los Angeles Police Department. Bugarin was charged with practicing medicine without a license.

Bertha Bugarin's abortion mills are not an anomaly. The only difference between her mills and other deplorable clinics across the nation is that she was caught.

According to the LA Times:

By the time paramedics arrived, the patient was lying in a pool of her own blood, her pulse racing and her blood pressure dangerously low....

by Jill Stanek

Planned Parenthood Chicago Area recently announced it closed its Naperville PP Express due to the opening of its nearby mega-abortion mill in Aurora.

And IL Family Institute linked to a January 1 State Journal-Register article reporting the PP family planning clinic in Logan, IL, has closed due to "flat" government funding of many years.

Citizen reported yesterday PP also "recently closed four sites in Michigan and merged several in Ohio."

Shortage of funding is a ruse, since PP is almost a $1 billion annual operation with $400 MILLION sitting in the bank, according to Life Decisions International.

PP has also increased its market share of abortions from 5% to 20% over the last decade, reported of IL Right to Life, incidentally made easier by the fact it gets government funding so it can undercut the competition.

I have previously reported it appears PP launched a new marketing plan in the early 2000's to increase its share even more. Part of that plan is obviously to create new regional box stores, such as Aurora (22k sq ft) and Denver (50k sq ft). Graphic design of the latter mill below (sans security fence) is courtesy of PP Rocky Mountains:

This all leads to some great questions posed by reader Eileen in an email, which I'll paraphrase.

Why is PP merging and building bigger regional box mills? If they complain about the shortage of abortion clinics around the country, and that close access is imperative to garnering abortions, what is the benefit to women by merging and building bigger? Wouldn't they want to market smaller stores in more places?

by Jill Stanek

From BBC News, February 5:

Scientists believe they have made a potential breakthrough in the treatment of serious disease by creating a human embryo with three separate parents.

The Newcastle University team believe the technique could help to eradicate a whole class of hereditary diseases, including some forms of epilepsy.

The embryos have been created using DNA from a man and two women in lab tests.

Obviously pro-lifers will have a problem with this on many levels. But supporters of human embryo experimentation shouldn't. Right? The goal is human perfection, after all. Let not the means interfere. Question for supporters, though: What exactly is human perfection?

[Photo courtesy of BBC News]

By Jasper

Tim Graham from NewsBusters summarized the poor news coverage of the March for Life, which drew well over 100,000 people:

ABC, CBS, and NBC had absolutely nothing on the March, and absolutely nothing on the 35th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade. By contrast, Fox News Channel at least had a fair-and-balanced report on the March on Tuesday night's Special Report with Brit Hume....

by Mary Kay Hastings

The exhibition was that of a human being in a monkey cage. The human being happened to be a Bushman, one of a race that scientists do not rate high in the human scale, but to the average nonscientific person in the crowd of sightseers, there was something about the display that was unpleasant.... It is probably a good thing that Benga doesn't think very deeply. If he did, it isn't likely that he was very proud of himself when he woke in the morning and found himself under the same roof with the orangutans [sic] and monkeys, for that is where he really is.'

Hmmmmmm . . .if it looks like a guinea pig,...?

Aborted embryos have been compared to pomegranates, blueberries, crotch goo, fingernails, skin cells, products of conception...all because they don't "look" like tiny human beings...but things aren't always as they appear to be.

Ota Benga was a man, yet he was believed to be a monkey, based solely on his looks.

Embryos, whether humans or guinea pigs, tend to look alike. But as with Ota Benga, looks can be deceiving. Do you really trust your own perceptions that much? Are you willing to put a life on the line, based on what you do or do not "see"?

by Jasper

With Mitt Romney dropping out of the race, John McCain will most likely be the Republican nominee. Reliable pro-lifer Rick Santorum had some interesting takes on McCain:

And then on social conservative issues, you point to me one time John McCain ever took the floor of the United States Senate to talk about a social conservative issue. It never happened....

by Mary Kay Hastings

1:08pm EST, Reuters:

Republican candidate Mitt Romney dropped out of the U.S. presidential race on Thursday, a decision that makes Sen. John McCain the all-but-certain nominee of his party.

"I feel I have to now stand aside, for our party and for our country," he said in a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference.

Romney lost 14 of 21 states on Super Tuesday, the biggest day of U.S. presidential voting ahead of November's election, while Arizona Sen. McCain savored coast-to-coast wins and cemented his position as front-runner....

by Mary Kay Hastings

From Catholic News Agency, January 31:

The owner of a California abortion clinic chain faces trial on charges of practicing medicine without a license....

In addition, the accused womans clinics are now directed by a doctor accused of repeated negligence, including causing the death of a child during birth.

Read entire article here.

Americans United for Life has posted the Supreme Court White Papers. See what your state will do after Roe is overturned....

by Jill Stanek

Americans held thousands of Super Bowl parties last Sunday to watch the New York Giants spoil the New England Patriots' perfect record.

But I'll bet none were quite like this one.

Fifty pro-life activists enjoyed the Super Bowl while picketing in front of the home of Lakewood, CO, resident Gary Meggison, senior executive of The Weitz Company, general contractor of Planned Parenthood's new Denver mega-mill....

by Bethany Kerr

Mary Kay's post below (about the man who killed his wife because she had Lou Gehrig's disease) reminded me about this incredible video that I saw a few months ago. I think that it should touch every person here.

Click on the picture below to go to the video:

by Mary Kay Hastings

From LifeNews.com:

An Oregon man has killed his disabled wife in a test of the one-of-a-kind state law that allows assisted suicide there. John Roberts says his wife Virginia was afflicted with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's Disease and he took her life to see if the state would allow him to get away with voluntary euthanasia, or so-called mercy killing.

Roberts' family says John's killing his wife was an act of compassion because she didn't yet qualify for an assisted suicide under the state's guidelines.

"And part of the reason why they chose this method rather than going down the assisted suicide route was that she was so proud that she didn't want to let herself get into the condition she would need to be in before they'd be allowed," Greg Roberts added.

Smith predicted that Oregon wouldn't allow Roberts to get off scott free and turn its assisted suicide law into one allowing euthanasia. At the same time, he said Roberts wouldn't be punished severely.

Don't you just love it? Assisted suicide? Here honey, let me help you with that gun!

by Steven Ertelt

From LifeNews.com, February 4:

A report from Britain shows that 66 babies were born alive on one year alone after abortions done with public money under the nation's health care system

The British National Health Service says women were given drugs to soften their cervix and had labor induced to birth the child so prematurely that there is no way to provide enough care for the child to live.

After birth, the babies received no medical care or attention, the report indicated....

We're on Day 3 of our Hawaiian vacation, and I thought I'd say aloha and show some photos.

If you don't watch Lost, you won't understand our photo montage. You may not understand it anyway.

It has been overcast and even rainy, but this development has merely spared us from having to make the tortured decision between bumming on the beach or seeing the sites. We've now travelled from top to bottom of the Big Island and today are scouting its interior. Tomorrow we head to the east side....

Photo 1: Help! We got on the wrong airline, Oceanic, and our plane crashed on a strange island! (Actually this is Jill on the edge of the Kilauea Caldera ("big crater"....)

While the pro-life themed movie Juno soared past the $100 million earnings milestone last weekend, its critically acclaimed anti-life counterpart, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, opened in just two theaters nationwide.

4 Months is not a "gripping portrayal of life" as review website Rotten Tomatoes described it. It is the blatant promotion of death, in this case a late-term baby in 1987 Romania, when front alley abortions there were illegal.

Four months, three weeks and two days refers to the length of time a promiscuous college student waited after conceiving before deciding to abort, in other words, the gestational age of her baby when killed.

Baby had no lines but merits commendation for giving a dead-on performance on that bathroom floor.

Mainstream media critics all loved 4 Months - giving it 70 positive reviews to three negative - and have been promoting its American opening hard, also pushing for an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.

Both efforts failed. Reviews indicated critics braced for the former, since American moviegoers so lack appreciation for great movies.

But they were completely unprepared for the Academy snub....

Continue reading my column today, "4 months, 3 weeks, and 2 theaters," on WorldNetDaily.com.

by Jill Stanek

I reported last week about a young disabled mother, Lauren Richardson, whose own mother, Edith Towers, is seeking court permission to starve and dehydrate Lauren to death.

I said Towers' attorney was trying to get a video made by Lauren's father, Randy Richardson, taken off the Internet. Randy does not want Lauren killed. He wants to care for her. All she needs is food and water to survive, no machines.

The video showed Lauren responding to family and a pet, proving she is not in a coma or brain dead, as the abused "persistent vegetative state" would have one believe.

Now up on Lauren's website is this:

Due to an Injunction against Lauren's father, by the court appointed lawyer ad litem (allegedly representing the interests of Lauren), we may no longer link to the video which showed Lauren responding to family members. This order, which was signed by Master Samuel Glasscock, asserts the right to privacy of Lauren by the same lawyer who consented to terminating her life.

Fortunately, mlbalan74 captured the video before Randy was forced to remove it and has reposted it on YouTube. Pro-lifers should download and save it asap, as I have on an mpg file here. Then show this video far and wide.

Also see the February 2 Hannity interview with Randy:

Lauren's senior high school photo, above, was prophetic. She's still there inside, behind her reflection.

by Bethany Kerr

Rachel's Park Memorial in Waco, TX, was dedicated in 2000 to help post-abortive families grieve their losses.

On February 1 or 2, Rachel's Park Memorial was vandalized last Friday or Saturday.

Of the 4,000 crosses which stand in memorial to the same number of children aborted each day in the U.S., 200 to 300 were destroyed by a vehicle, most likely a Jeep or an SUV .

Park founder Rev. Rusty Thomas reported, "The crosses were planted into the ground with steel rebar," so the vehicle doing the damage likely sustained its own damage.

Waco Police are investigating whether this was a hate crime or mischief.

See more photos of the damage on page 2.

[HT: Thomas]

by Mary Kay Hastings

From the the Buffalo News, by Jerry Zremski:

On the 35th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that started a national political battle over abortion, opponents Tuesday declared partial victory. And the head of the nation's main abortion rights group agreed that her side has been losing.

Nancy Keenan, president of the nation's largest abortion rights group, said the declining abortion rate was tied to changes nationwide that made abortions more difficult to obtain.

"Yes, we won 35 years ago --- but women have been losing ground, losing rights, losing options, losing access, losing availability and just plain losing nearly every day since," Keenan, who heads NARAL Pro-Choice America, said in a recent speech....

by Bethany Kerr

[Source: Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott]

by Jacqueline Harvey and Valerie Ryan

President Bush's proposed 2009 budget includes an initial $550 million to Title X funding for "family planning," most of which goes to Planned Parenthood.

But the plan also includes a cumulative $3.3 billion cut to Title X over the next 3 years, while increasing funding earmarked for abstinence education.

Meanwhile, the Guttmacher Institute, Planned Parenthood's research arm, says abstinence education has been successful. Yes, you heard that right....

by Bethany Kerr

I'm sure some of you will remember Sandi, who I posted about in December.

Sandi was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma when she was about 10 weeks pregnant.

A specialist recommended Sandy abort, since she would have to undergo chemo treatments, but she refused.

Sandy delivered a beautiful, healthy baby girl on November 17, 2007, and is now cancer free!

Sandi made a beautifully touching video about her miracle baby, Gabriella, which I want to share with you. Be sure to get a tissue ready:

by Bethany Kerr

I found this op ed in the Student Newspaper at the University of Alberta today by student Jennifer Jones:

I'm writing this in response to the piece of paper taped to the back of my bathroom stall on 28 January. Normally, I'm immune and uncaring to the various forms of propaganda and advertising that grace bathroom walls; however, I was rather incensed at the sight of this particular piece of paper, which was an advertisement for the U of A Pro-Life organization (or so the stamp on the paper reads at the bottom)....

by Mary Kay Hastings

From Fox News, February 4:

Many mothers cherish the first kicks they feel from their unborn babies.

But unknown to one U.K. mother, the kicking she felt from the twins growing inside her actually saved her life, according to a report from Fox News.

Michelle Stepney, 35, said her twins Alice and Harriet, now age 13 months, were a lively pair in the womb.

At the time, however, she had no idea that constant kicking she felt actually dislodged a tumor that had formed on her cervix and, according to doctors, saved her life....

by Bethany Kerr

From Guardian Unlimited, February 1:

Survival rates fuel abortion debate

The row over the 24-week abortion limit has intensified after it emerged survival rates for very premature babies have more than doubled at a top hospital.

A study from University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH) found survival rates for babies born alive between 22 and 25 weeks of gestation rose from 32% in 1981 to 71% in 2000....

by Bethany Kerr

Planned Parenthood of Arizona is issuing discounts for their services, according to an article at The Wildcat Online.

A coupon for $10.00 off of any purchase $25.00 or more is being issued in the Spring 2008 coupon bonanza, to any new patients.

I'm assuming this coupon includes abortion services, something which Planned Parenthood supposedly wants to be "safe, legal, and rare", as it does not exclude it from the coupon.

The Wildcat Online makes some good points about this story....

by Mary Kay Hastings

Johnny and Mary sittin' in a tree
K-I-S-S-I-N-G
First comes love,
Then comes marriage,
Then comes a new technology which will allow you to manufacture a baby without ever having to touch each other....

U.K., February 1, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com):

"'Female sperm', 'male eggs' and 'same-sex reproduction' - whether these terms fill you with hope or disgust, a reproductive revolution is already in progress," begins a recent New Scientist report on some of the most bizarre and disturbing scientific research being conducted by stem cell scientists.

Used to be boy meets girl, they fall in love, get married, consummate the marriage, start a family....

by Bethany Kerr

It's about time.Abortionist Malachy DeHenre was found guilty by a grand jury, for killing his wife, Dr. Mysha Rose DeHenre, 10 years ago.

A Jones County Circuit Court deliberated for only 45 minutes before unanimously convicting DeHenre of manslaughter. Sentencing is set for March 13.

DeHenre had claimed that the gun had been accidentally set off after wrestling the gun away from his wife after returning from a trip to Zimbabwe. The autopsy was reviewed, however, and it was confirmed that the death was not accidental or a suicide. According to the autopsy results, it was shown that DeHenre had fired the pistol from more than 24 inches away from the head of his wife while she was lying down....

Aloha from Hawaii! My husband Rich and I (pictured right at the annual IL pro-life conference this past Sunday) are celebrating our 25th anniversary 2 years late (i.e., 27th... :)

We'll be gone until February 14. Meanwhile, the moderators will write posts. Bethany, bless her heart, will bear the brunt of my absence by taking over administrative responsibilities.

I'll check in every day, unless we decide to become beach bums and live here forever.

Meanwhile, I can't part without passing along this one, courtesy of Fran at Illinois Review, who also took our picture:

Just why did Rudy Giuliani lose in his bid to become the Republican presidential nominee? San Francisco Chronicle columnist Debra Saunders suggested his equivocation on the abortion issue made him look weak:

I have to wonder if Giuliani's biggest mistake was not touting himself as the only supporter of abortion rights in the Republican primary....

This sad story is all over the British press.

It appears the Muslim family of 22-year-old Sabia Walla forced her to get a late-term abortion in Pakistan at 5 months gestation after learning she was pregnant by British national Usman Gulzar, 24 and pictured right, who she married in secret on December 27 in Scotland, where both families live.

Walla died January 23 following a botched abortion. She was apparently pregnant when married.

Here's a story snip, from The Daily Record, January 30:

Usman Gulzar was last night dealing with the shocking revelation that his pregnant wife died after a botched abortion....

Here we go again, Terri II.

This information comes from Bess McAneny of the Delaware Pro-Life Coalition, who I spoke with this morning.

I'm told Hannity & Colmes will tonight feature the story of Lauren Richardson of Delaware, a now 23-year-old who overdosed on heroin in August 2006 while 3-4 months pregnant.

Lauren was kept on life support until she delivered a healthy baby girl in February 2007, and then the fight began to euthanize Lauren.

Lauren's mother, Edith Towers, is fighting to dehydrate and starve her to death, while her father, Randy Richardson, is fighting to keep Lauren alive and assume responsibility for her care.

So far Edith is winning. Last week a court awarded her guardianship of Lauren, but any actions to kill Lauren are being staved pending appeals....

UPDATE, 2/2, 4:50a: Lauren's family has put her video up on YouTube. I've switched links to the video on page 2. And Hannity & Colmes did feature Lauren's story last night. No video available yet.

The Family Research Council blog has linked to most of the speeches given at the Blogs 4 Life conference in DC on January 22.

Unfortunately, FRC didn't capture the first few speeches, including mine. But I have posted the test of my speech on page 2 along with powerpoint slides for those interested.