The 2nd International Symposium on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide entitled "Never Again" will be held at the National Conference Center in Landsdowne, VA on May 29 - 30, 2009 (near Dulles airport) and is possibly the most important conference ever on assisted suicide.

Register now for this event before the deadline closes on May 11!...

by Bernadette P.

by JivinJ

The Obama effect? A Pew Poll released today showed a steep decline in abortion support:

The proportion saying that abortion should be legal in all or most cases has declined to 46% from 54% last August.

By his radical support of abortion, Obama has been giving the pro-life movement so many opportunities to raise important points. And the American people are apparently listening.

Click all to enlarge:

by Carder

Hot Air reports a thwarted attempt at artist Michael D'Antuono's unveiling of his painting "The Truth," in honor of President Obama's 100th day in office.

A PR Newswire press release claims...

by Bethany Kerr, to give us a break from the daily grind...

Email Bethany with your Lunch Break suggestions!

Democrat pro-abortion Catholic state Rep. Jessica Ferrar has quite a resumé. There she is pictured right holding a Planned Parenthood Public Affairs Award she received last year "for her work on reproductive health issues," according to her website.

Ferrar opposes a bill currently before the legislature that would mandate abortionists offer mothers the option of viewing an ultrasound of their baby. She currently is sponsoring a bill that would force Catholic hospitals to dispense the morning-after pill. And Ferrar maintains a 100% approval rating from NARAL.

But disregard for prenatal life isn't enough for Ferrar, who is also sponsoring the first legislation of its kind in the nation, known as "The Infanticide Bill," HB 3318....

UPDATE, 10:33a: American Papist has posted a close-up of the shield:

_______________

Per CNSNews.com, April 28:

President Barack Obama is expected to wear the traditional doctoral robe featuring the cross and prayer of the Virgin Mary when he speaks at... Notre Dame next month, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told CNSNews.com White House Correspondent Fred Lucas on Monday....

Last night the only question President Abortion took on the issue was a well-crafted one by CNN White House correspondent Ed Henry that combined current events with a call to accountability on a campaign promise and a dig couched with humor:

In a couple of weeks, you're going to be giving the commencement at Notre Dame. And, as you know, this has caused a lot of controversy among Catholics who are opposed to your position on abortion.

As a candidate, you vowed that one of the very things you wanted to do was sign the Freedom of Choice Act, which, as you know, would eliminate federal, state and local restrictions on abortion. And at that it was above - quote, "above my pay grade."

Now that you've been president for 100 days, obviously, your pay grade is a little higher than when you were a senator.

Do you still hope that Congress quickly sends you the Freedom of Choice Act so you can sign it?

Obama's answer surely riled abortion activists, because he came close, as he has done before, to saying what they abhor and deny: Abortion kills children....

UDPATE, 7:35a: Friend Patte S. tells me these clips are from the movie Lake of Fire. Ah, ok.
_______________

The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform Southwest posted this rather incredible video April 11.

I don't know how CBRSW got permission to film or got hold of this film, taken inside the Madison Abortion Clinic in WI and showing a 20-week abortion by abortionist Dennis Christensen. Christensen is at the center of controvery involving the University of WI Madison starting to commit late-term abortions, about which I previously wrote.

I'd never seen how abortionists actually prepare baby parts to piece back together, and I didn't know they measure chopped fetal extremities like a foot with a ruler to determine age. You see all that beginning at 1:22 on the video.

The mothers' stories are also tragic: abandoned, foolish, selfish.

People need to see this stuff to know what we're talking about behind the ambiguous word "choice."

[HT: Facebook friend Drac]

I'm not touching the theology on this one (although a liberal is happy to, read on). I'm simply glad to read the student has almost recovered. But pragmatically speaking, this may give both Fr. John Jenkins and President Abortion an out that saves face. Orrr it could make them dig in their heels. Who knows? From WSBT.com today:

State and local health officials are working to contain a confirmed case of swine flu on the campus of Notre Dame. A student who became sick last week tested positive for the flu strain Tuesday. The question now: has the virus spread?

It is the only confirmed case in IN so far. University administrators say the student is nearly fully recovered, and is now resting in "voluntary isolation" at home on campus after coming to the health center with flu-like symptoms 6 days ago....

Notre Dame Health Services Medical Director Dr. Rebecca Moswinski... and Notre Dame VP for News and Information Dennis Brown declined to identify the student's gender, age or home state, and wouldn't comment on whether the student lived on campus or off, citing an ongoing investigation into who the student might have come into contact with while carrying the virus....

I reported 2 days ago the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform was launching its Truth Tour about Barack Obama at, around, and over the Notre Dame campus. (And unlike Obama, CBR gave notice of its plans.)

Well I just received some stupendous first photos from CBR (click to enlarge)....

See more on page 2...

by intern Heather B.

The Webby Award, according to the official website, is the "leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet." This year marks the website's 13th Annual Webby Awards Commencement Gala, to be held June 8 in NYC.

Nominated websites will be judged in categories ranging from "Billpaying" and "Beauty" to more prestigious superlatives, dubbing some lucky recipients with the "Best Home/Welcome Page" and "Best Use of Animation/Motion Graphics" titles. The awards attract an audience exceeding 10k.

This year's "Health" category nominee? Planned Parenthood's graphic "Take Care Down There" sex-education website, brought to light on this blog in the past....

by Kelli

American Life League has expanded its National Pro-Life T-Shirt Day to National Pro-Life T-Shirt WEEK beginning yesterday through May 4.

ALL's plan:

... to increase awareness of abortion and the reality of how many innocent babies are murdered every day.

Primarily, we are concerned with getting people to think of the child as a person from the moment of creation. It is much harder to murder a person than it is to "remove a lump of tissues," and it is only when we finally get the nation thinking in those terms that we will be able to make abortion a crime, as it should be.

Just by wearing the T-shirt and being out there in public, you will help to accomplish that goal.

ALL is also hosting a "Yo! Where's the shirt?" photo contest. Registrants can win pro-life gear, music, and iTunes gift cards.

And you say you don't own a pro-life t-shirt? ALL is selling those shown in the graphic for a mere $6.50 each.

The Paul Stefan Foundation operates 2 homes for expectant mothers in central VA, caring for moms in need and babies during and after their pregnancies.

In just 2 years, PSF has housed 36 women and babies.

PSF was formed through the spiritual guidance of Fr Stefan Starzynski, parish priest of the James family, whose unborn son was diagnosed with a birth defect of the lungs and died 1 hour after birth.

Now, PSF is asking our help, launching an online baby bottle campaign to raise money for the homeless and abused pregnant women they support.

Randy James, CEO of PSF, states...

On Jan. 20, 2009, Barack Obama began his death march as the most anti-life president in U.S. history.

Today marks Obama's 100th day in office. This list substantiates Obama's personnel and policies to that end. He actually started way before Day 1:

Day -75: Names pro-abortion Rahm Emmanuel as chief of staff, who earned a 100 percent approval rating from NARAL while congressman.

Day -59: Appoints executive director of EMILY's List, Ellen Moran, as White House communications director.

Day -56: Names Melody Barnes, who previously served on the boards of EMILY's List and Planned Parenthood Action Fund, as his director of the Domestic Policy Council....

by Bethany Kerr and Kelli, to give us a break from the daily grind...

Email Bethany with your Lunch Break suggestions!

Don't know the details, but Sarah Jessica Parker , who successfully carried her 6-year-old son James to term, and husband Matthew Broderick have hired a surrogate to carry their twin daughters. According to the Associated Press yesterday:

Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick will be taking on new roles: parents of twin girls.

The Sex and the City star and her actor-husband are expecting twins through a surrogate pregnancy, representatives for the couple said Tuesday.

Parker, 44, and Broderick, 47, "are happily anticipating the birth of their twin daughters later this summer with the generous help of a surrogate. The entire family is overjoyed," said a statement from the publicists....

Details about the surrogate or her pregnancy were unavailable, the publicists said.

Added EOnline...

Yesterday afternoon the US Senate confirmed radical pro-abort KS Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as Secretary of the HHS by a vote of 65-31.

Breaking it down, every no vote came from Republicans (31 of 39 Republicans voting and counting Spector as a Democrat). Both Independents, Lieberman (CT) and Sanders (VT) voted yes. Every Democrat voted party line.

Republicans voting for Sebelius:

1. Bond, MO
2. Brownback, KS
3. Collins, ME
4. Gregg, NH
5. Lugar, IN
6. Roberts, KS
7. Snow, ME
8. Voinovich, OH

Not voting :

1. Kennedy, D-MA
2. Rockefeller, D-WV
3. Sessions, R-AL

The oh-brother-give-me-a-break statement of the day? Sam Brownback...

Recent news headlines on Life issues by Bill Beckman of the IL Right to Life Committee

April 24

According to CQ Today last night:

As the Obama administration prepares to greatly expand the government's investments in embryonic stem cell research, the next big biomedical research debate in Congress is shaping up: whether to allow government funding of experiments using cloned human embryos.

Two House members who were the chief backers of legislation to expand embryonic stem cell research are working on a new bill that would codify President Obama's recent executive order allowing greater federal funding for the research. Their legislation will also contain language allowing the National Institutes of Health to invest in other kinds of research into human cell biology, perhaps including what is known as "therapeutic cloning."

The 2 pro-death legislators, Reps. Diana DeGette (D-CO) and Michael Castle, R-DE) previously introduced clone-and-kill legislation (HR 2560, 109th) that banned implanting clones in uteruses but allowed them to be grown for research until 14 days old.

I've previously explained the success of embryonic stem cell research hinges on human cloning. Human embryos as distinct human beings, will be difficult to match donor to recipient. CQ Today concurs:

Experts in the field believe that therapeutic cloning could one day lead to advances such as tissue transplants that carry no threat of rejection by a patient's immune system.

According to a source on the Hill, the new legislation will likely include the same provisions "and even encourage the creation of cloned embryos" for experimentation and death.

Meanwhile, Reps. Bart Stupak (D-MI) and Zach Wamp (R-TN) have reintroduced a comprehensive ban on all forms of human cloning (HR 1050). Similar versions of this bill have passed the House in the 107th and 108th Congresses but stalled in the Senate.

See the current list of 57 sponsors and co-sponsors on page 2.

[Graphic courtesy of LifeNews.com]

by Bethany Kerr and Kelli, to give us a break from the daily grind...

Email Bethany with your Lunch Break suggestions!

Several news outlets are reporting Sen. Arlen Specter of PA is leaving the GOP for the Democratic Party.

Read the article in USA Today.

Sen. Specter has also made a statement regarding the switch, claiming:

...the Republican Party has moved far to the right. Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats.

I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans.

Lynn Vincent at World magazine has written a moving piece detailing the events leading up to pro-life Pastor Walter Hoye's imprisonment and the testimony of his 3 weeks in jail:

For 19 days in March and April, Walter Hoye was locked in a cell with 29 other prisoners at the Santa Rita jail near Oakland, CA. There were times when he wished he could have stayed longer.

When the metal door first clanged shut behind him on March 20, Hoye, 52, decided the space was really more of a cage than a cell. A metal grid penning in prisoners. 15 bunks lining two walls. 2 toilets and a urinal for all 30 men, and a shower that inmates had gradually transformed into a pornographic shrine.

As Hoye made his way to an empty bunk, a few prisoners, mostly black and Latino, dogged his path. "You smuggle in any drugs, man?" one of them asked.

"No," Hoye said quietly.

Then the veteran inmates left him alone, he told me, except for "one of the brothers who was kind enough to help me make up my bed."

A few minutes later, another man walked over to Hoye's bunk and jabbed his finger at a newspaper he was holding. "This you?" he said, eyeing Hoye skeptically.

Hoye peered at the Oakland Tribune headline: "Anti-abortion pastor chooses jail."

"Yeah, that's me," he said.

In the next moment, the inmate was striding up and down the length of the cell, announcing, "Hey, he don't have to be here! He turned down probation! He doing straight time for what he believed in!"...

Through a special arrangement with World magazine, Stanek readers can finish reading this subscription only article here.

[HT: KC; photo courtesy of World]

I've said several times Obama has the ability to make everyone think he agrees with them by reflective listening (repeating back what they say) or expressing sympathy.

With that in mind, CNS.com covered a fascinating speech by Cardinal Francis George of Chicago (and USCCB prez) at the Louisiana Priests Convention April 21:

In a question-and-answer session that followed his keynote speech... Cardinal George offered a candid assessment of his 30-minute meeting with the president at the White House March 18.

"I think on the life issue he's on the wrong side of history," the cardinal said. "I think he has his political debts to pay, and so he's paying them."

Cardinal George said his conversation with the president was polite but substantive.

"It's hard to disagree with him because he'll always tell you he agrees with you," he said. "Maybe that's political. I think he sincerely wants to agree with you. You have to say, again and again, 'No, Mr. President, we don't agree (on abortion).'..."

Cardinal George said he told the president he was concerned about his decision to rescind the Mexico City policy, which resulted in providing taxpayer money to fund abortion overseas.

"He said we weren't exporting abortion," the cardinal said. "I said, 'Yes we are.' He would say, 'I know I have to do certain things here. ... But be patient and you'll see the pattern will change.' I said, 'Mr. President, you've given us nothing but the wrong signals on this issue.' So, we'll see, but I'm not as hopeful now as I was when he was first elected."...

Cardinal George said on the issue of abortion, "I think we're up against something a little bit like slavery.... It's a society-dividing issue, and on this issue, we're with Abraham Lincoln and he's with Stephen Douglas, and he doesn't like to hear that, but that's where he is."

The cardinal was referring to the 7 debates held in 1858 between Lincoln and his opponent for an IL seat in the U.S. Senate. Slavery was the main issue discussed in all of the debates.

If even the incremental restrictions on abortion -- such as the ban on partial-birth abortion or parental notification laws -- are rolled back, Cardinal George said pro-life advocates could feel desperate because they fear "abortion will be a human right, and of course, if it's a human right, it can't be qualified."

"But you can't go on indefinitely. For 80 years we were a slave republic, and it took a terrible war to end that. And now for 40 years we're in an abortion regime, and I'm not sure how that's going to end," [the cardinal said].

I love how Cardinal George did not let Obama get away with saying they agreed on components of abortion.

And it sounds as if Cardinal George compared to his face Obama's position on abortion compared to Douglas's position on slavery. Bravo.

Nevertheless, I'm quite sure Obama doesn't actually hear charges like this. He's an interesting psych case, able to compartmentalize to a frightening degree.

I also thought Cardinal George's statements about pro-lifers "feeling desperate" and "I'm not sure how this is going to end," were cryptic.

[Photo of George courtesy of Fair Immigration; photo of Obama courtesy of Digital Journal

Kelli reported last week that illegal alien Roohi Tabassum, who fled to Canada in 2001, was scheduled to be deported to Pakistan today to almost certain death at the hand of her husband.

I received word last night from several sources that Tabassum was given a stay of deportation yesterday. This buys her time but is not the final result desired. WorldNetDaily.com has the complete story. Thanks to all who made calls or wrote emails to help Roohi. This isn't over, but it's a start.

[HT: A-J, Leslie Hanks, Andrew Longman; photo courtesy of WND.com]

Recall the Obama team's philosophy of never letting a crisis go to waste. In this case they're likely exascerbating one.

From the Family Research Council yesterday:

What do sick pigs have to do with widespread, taxpayer-funded abortion? More than you might think. This week, as panic spreads over a potential swine flu pandemic, liberals are already scheming how they can use the health scare to win the confirmation of pro-abortion extremist Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D-KS) as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

No doubt the empty seat at HHS was keenly felt this weekend, as Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Homeland Security, stepped into the void at HHS and declared the swine flu a "health emergency." Although the Senate leadership will use the urgency of the flu to try to force Sebelius through the chamber, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the government's response to the outbreak "has not been hindered by the lack of a secretary at HHS."...

US News & World Report editor and syndicated columnist Bonnie Erbe is tired of Lila Rose.

In an April 27 US News blog post Erbe was not mad at the numerous Planned Parenthoods Lila has caught on tape as having a soft spot for pedophiles.

No, Bonnie the pro-abort was mad at Lila, wanting prosecutors now investigating PP for child rape cover-up to turn their dogs on Lila and investigate her for 'trespassing, fraud... [and] violating state privacy laws."

(In fact, Lila only conducted her PP stings in states allowing video/audiotaping by 1 party without the other's consent.)

Erbe closed by saying that since pro-lifers "will never succeed in banning abortion... why don't they just go away?"

Matthew Balan at NewsBusters.org does a great job dissecting the rest of Bonnie's post chock full of half truths, untruths, and disinformation.

[Photo courtesy of NewsBusters.org]

Many if not all TN state legislators received an email from Planned Parenthood Memphis Region on April 24 attempting to respond to the release of Lila Rose's undercover video showing a PPMR employee perfectly willing to help who she thought was a 14-year-old girl cover up her rape and pregnancy by her 31-year-old "boyfriend."

In its email PPMR blamed the misinformation on these points:

by JivinJ

by Kelli

Glenn Beck is set to air his show at 5pm EST today on Fox News, covering the topic of Hillary Clinton and her acceptance of the Margaret Sanger Award.

Sanger was the founder of Planned Parenthood and a strong proponent of eugenics.

For more information on Glenn Beck, see his page at Fox News.

[HT: Commenters Joanne and Janet; image courtesy of NY Daily News.]

Bernadette P.

Bernadette has been working with us for 5 weeks already, doing a wonderful job with (Prolifer)ations . We're glad to have her on board! About herself, Bernadette writes:

I have 2 awesome beagles: JoJo and Ella. They are my life! Everyone calls me the beagle mommy.

I am studying psychology and sociology. I work as a volunteer for the Animal Defense League, Compassion International, and the National Runaway Switchboard. I am also addicted to Christian music: Hillsong United, BarlowGirl and Brooke Fraser are some of my faves!

Andy M....

by Bethany Kerr and Kelli, to give us a break from the daily grind...

Email Bethany with your Lunch Break suggestions!

I wrote last week the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform Midwest was launching an air, truck, and ground (picket) campaign to educate Notre Dame students and faculty about the truth of President Barack Obama's abortion beliefs and policies.

Well, CBR just announced it has launched its campaign 1 week early: "As you read this note, CBR's Reproductive 'Choice' Trucks are making the rounds in South Bend, IN."

In addition to the signs I posted last week, CBR is unveiling 3 more. Click to enlarge:

UPDATE, 2:20p: CBNNews.com's David Brody has posted the White House's response to the news fellow award recipient Mary Ann Glendon will be a no-show at Notre Dame's commencement because of Obama:

President Obama is disappointed by former Ambassador Mary Glendon's decision, but he looks forward to delivering an inclusive and respectful speech at the Notre Dame graduation, a school with a rich history of fostering the exchange of ideas. While he is honored to have the support of millions of people of all faiths, he does not govern with the expectation that everyone sees eye to eye with him on every position, and the spirit of debate and healthy disagreement on important issues is part of what he loves about this country.

[HT: American Papist]
_______________

UPDATE, 9:57a: From David Brody at CBNNews.com:

You know the famous saying, "Houston. We have a problem." Well, how about a new slogan: "Notre Dame. We have a problem." The speech by pro-choice President Obama at the Catholic Notre Dame has caused all sorts of trouble.

It now turns out that Mary Ann Glendon, the former U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican [pictured right with Pope Benedict in February 2008], will NOT speak at the Notre dame Graduation because of the controversy.

The pro-life, Harvard professor was set to receive the Laetare Medal which is the annual award given in recognition of outstanding service to the Roman Catholic church and society. She was to speak to the students on the same day as President Obama. But President Obama's appearance was just too much. She just posted the following letter to the university here.

[HT: Arina and Kristina; photo courtesy of Vatican's L'Osservatore Romano newspaper ]
_______________

Email from Joe Carter at First Things:

Mary Ann Glendon has declined the Laetare Medal, the annual award from Notre Dame, which she was to receive this spring at the university's graduation ceremonies.

At 9:30 this morning, April 27, 2009, Mary Ann Glendon faxed to the university's president, the Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., and published online at First Things a letter explaining her decision to refuse the medal.

Mary Ann Glendon is Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. A member of the editorial and advisory board of First Things, she served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican from 2007 to 2009.

I received word too late Friday to let you know Lila Rose of LiveActionFilms was appearing on Fox News' Glenn Beck show to discuss its 6th Mona Lisa Project undercover video released.

All videos have been shot at Planned Parenthoods across the country, this one in Memphis, showing the organization institutionally covers up child rape.

Lila is just excellent in this interview! One of her best quotes: "These little girls aren't being looked at holistically, they're being looked at as plumbing problems."

Note Lila consistently calls these young victims "little girls," which is savvy use of terminology.

Note Lila also states PP gets "a third of a billion dollars in tax money," which is much more descriptive than "335 million."

On April 26, The Los Angeles Times also published a combination feature story about Lila and expose of PP's cover-up of child rape. It is surprisgingly fair. PP comes out looking bad, as it should...

No cartoons of any substance on our issue this week, but here were a few others I thought were clever...

by Dan Wasserman of The Boston Globe...

by Jim Morin of The New York Times...

The nomination of Kathleen Sebelius for HHS Secretary is growing more tenuous by the minute.

Thursday GOP Minority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to allow Democrat Majority Leader Harry Reid go the easy route, so Sebelius now has to get 60 votes instead of simple majority to win Senate approval, with a vote scheduled Tuesday, after 8 hours of debate to begin at 10a EST....

by Carder

Add these schools to the growing "Catholic-institutions-who-forfeit-their-souls-in-order-to-gain-the-whole-world" list:

by Kelli

From Students for Life of America:

On Wednesday, the FDA announced it would allow 17 year olds to purchase the "morning-after" birth control pill without a doctor's prescription or parental knowledge. As proved in the SFLA Oct. 2008 undercover video from Charlotte, NC, this announcement will only help Planned Parenthood and their abortion allies to continue to cover up cases of rape...

by Andy M. (our newest intern, from New Zealand!)

This is the question many pro-choicers are asking, as revelations surface of Al Gore - former US VP and Nobel Peace Prize recipient - aligning himself with an adult stem cell research company.

Andy Coghlan at New Scientist writes:

Gore's venture capital company, Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers is putting $20 million into a joint venture between iZumi Bio, a company in San Francisco, and the University of Kyoto where researcher Shinya Yamanaka discovered how to make [adult] iPS [induced pluripotent stem] cells in 2006.

The aim is to produce treatments for degenerative conditions including Parkinson's Disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis [Lou Gehrig's disease, which Stephen Hawking has].

By the same token, many pro-lifers are rethinking their relationship with Gore, viewing him as a potential new ally for the pro-life cause. However this is an unfounded conclusion. [JLS note: At the beginning of his political career, Gore was considered pro-life.]...

by Bethany Kerr and Kelli, to give us a break from the daily grind...

Email Bethany with your Lunch Break suggestions!

UPDATE, 10:20a: Susan B. Anthony List just released a statement, based on Sebelius' veto yesterday of "woman-centered legislation" further regulating late-term abortionists:

"If there was any doubt about how a pro-life Senator ought to vote on the Sebelius nomination, there should be no doubt now," said SBA President Marjorie Dannenfelser [pictured right]....

SBA spearheaded a coalition letter to RNC Chairman Michael Steele, signed by 33 pro-life organizational and opinion leaders, asking him to oppose the Sebelius nomination. Susan B. Anthony List activists have sent over 42,000 letters of opposition to their Senators.

"The pro-life movement is grateful to Chairman Steele for his leadership. Additionally, Senator McConnell's recent decision to delay Governor Sebelius' final confirmation vote was crucial and praiseworthy. With every day that goes by, more opposition mounts to Sebelius and her support for the abortion agenda. We're grateful for the articulate and vocal leadership on the part of the pro-life House leadership. All of this mounting evidence should persuade more pro-life Senators to oppose the Sebelius nomination."

Politicians are loathe to be accused of "flip-flopping."

Rather, it shows intelligence and guts to be willing to change one's mind when given new information or pause to reconsider by good counsel.

And the opposite is true. It shows stupidity and cowardice not to.

2 months ago KS Sens. Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts openly endorsed their colleague, KS Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, as President Abortion's pick to head the Dept. of Health and Human Services.

Brownback, as the Senate titular pro-life leader as head of the Values Action Team (a post he should resign), has since been the focus. Both sides consider him the bridge to Sebelius' confirmation.

Think of all that has transpired since Brownback's endorsement of Sebelius...

UPDATE, 6:30p: Want to know exactly what Sebelius vetoed? Kansans for Life spelled out the bill:

HB218 increased physician accountability. It:

1) clarified late-term abortion medical diagnoses be reported instead of phony answers

by JivinJ

by Kelli

On Wednesday, Apple yanked an iPhone application called "Baby Shaker," which encouraged users to silence a virtual screaming infant by shaking their phones.

With applications typically targeted toward young, male iPhone users - future fathers - the implications are disturbing and dangerous.

According to the NY Daily News...

by Bernadette P.

by PrettyInPink

See introduction and Part 1 here.
See Part 2 here.

About part 3:

We finish looking into pregnancy options with ThriVe St. Louis, a pregnancy care center near the St. Louis University campus - what it offers and how it helps women.

Then we are introduced to my project! I quickly outline my experience of portraying myself as 8 months pregnant for 2 weeks on campus. Then the SLU community tells us what they thought about my "pregnancy."

Don't pay attention to the messy hair in my interview. I had to wear a hat earlier and didn't even notice my hair being messed up! ;)

More thoughts...

by Bethany Kerr and Kelli, to give us a break from the daily grind...

Email Bethany with your Lunch Break suggestions!

by Kelli

Stan Musil of CA has signed papers to "adopt" and give his last name to wife Lisa's 2 aborted children to help her heal from her post-abortion distress.

Fox News reports:

Musil, now 45, had her first abortion at 19 because she was too frightened to admit her pregnancy to anyone - including her then live-in boyfriend....

UPDATE, 4/23, 1:20p:
Lila Rose will be on the Ed Morrissey Show today at 3pm EST.

[HT: Moderator Carder]
___________

Yesterday afternoon TN Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey (speaking in photo), who is also the Senate President and thus extremely powerful, held a press conference with 3 other pro-life legislators calling on colleagues to support a bill streaming the $1.1 million currently going Planned Parenthood's way elsewhere. From the TN Right to Life press release...

UPDATE, 4/23, 7a: Per American Papist, Notre Dame's plane flew back to South Bend last night, according to FlightAware:

Aircraft Cessna 560 Citation 5
Origin Washington Dulles Intl
Destination South Bend Rgnl
Date Wednesday, Apr 22, 2009
Duration 1 hours 24 minutes
Scheduled Actual/Estimated
Departure 09:58PM EDT 09:58PM EDT
Arrival 11:22PM EDT 11:22PM EDT

An AmP reader wondered if the prodigal son were returning home. The prodigal son in Jesus' parable only realized he was a prodigal when he ran out of money. So we shall see, because while speculation was Jenkins flew to DC to meet with President Abortion, AmP reported yesterday:

Now an informed source tells me that Fr. Jenkins is in town for a multi-day seminar/symposium for high level Notre Dame donors, which has been planned for some time now and involves several speakers and events. Because the activities are private, they were not "advertised" to the wider public.

What timing. Hopefully some of those donors closed their checkbooks.
_______________

UPDATE, 4/22, 8:20a: The Notre Dame Observer News is denying on Twitter that Fr. Jenkins met with Barack Obama at the White House yesterday:

Fabulous reporting and corroboration, Observer.

[HT: American Papist]
_______________

UPDATE, 4:25p: From Joseph Lawler (Phil's son) at the American Spectator:

... This is still merely a rumor, but indeed FlightAware shows the ND jet flying to Dulles this morning....

That Fr. Jenkins would rescind the invitation seems unlikely given that on Saturday Fr. Jenkins reaffirmed his invitation to a crowd celebrating black student-athletes at Notre Dame that "shook down the thunder" with applause. But then what could they be talking about? If there is any change in the status of Obama's invitation, it's big news.

From Phil Lawler at Catholic Culture an hour ago...

Developing story...

[HT: Arina]

For the abortion industry, it's all about the money. Read Planned Parenthood's Cecile Richards' email alert sent last night (click to enlarge)...

PP et al believe (with good reason) Kathleen Sebelius as HHS Secretary would stream abortion funding their way as part of universal health care.

Meanwhile, Family Research Council president Tony Perkins held a press conference outside infamous late-term abortionist George Tiller's Wichita mill Sunday to spotlight Tiller's association with the KS governor. Then Perkins filmed a 2:45 explanation of the ties...

Recent news headlines on Life issues by Bill Beckman of the IL Right to Life Committee

April 17

by PrettyInPink

See introduction and Part I here.

About Part 2:

We learn more from the girls about the "lowest lows and highest highs," and about the accommodations they received. I ask different people in the St. Louis University community if they know what resources are available on campus and/or where to get it, and get some interesting answers.

Then we are introduced to the 1st of 2 big pregnancy centers close by that cater to the students - Planned Parenthood. The representative explains PP's programs, agenda, and what happens when students or women come in the door with a positive pregnancy test.

From Fox News, today:

The Food and Drug Administration, reversing field, will now let 17-year-olds get the 'morning-after' birth control pill without a doctor's prescription....

[An] official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the agency will announce that it is complying with a federal judge's order that overturns a Bush administration policy. The official was not authorized to speak publicly before the FDA announcement, expected later Wednesday....

UPDATE, 3:15p: Here's video of Congressman Smith's condemnation of Margaret Sanger and SOS Clinton's love of her:

[HT: SuzyB.org]
_______________

Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) fabulously called out Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing:

First, the stellar Congressman Smith:

In receiving Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger's award in Houston on March 27th, you said that you were in "awe" of Margaret Sanger; you said that Sanger's "life and leadership" was "one of the most transformational in the entire history of the human race" and that Sanger's work both here and abroad was "not done".

With all due respect, Madam Secretary, transformational yes; but not for the better if one happens to be poor, disenfranchised, weak, disabled, a person of color, an unborn child, or among the many so-called undesirables Sanger would exclude and exterminate from the human race. Sanger's prolific writings drip with contempt for those she considers to be unfit to live....

by JivinJ

by Bethany Kerr, to give us a break from the daily grind...

Enjoy!

Email Bethany with your Lunch Break suggestions!

[HT: commenter Fed Up]

I was shocked the other day to read the father of Slumdog Millionaire child star Rubina Ali had been caught in an undercover sting by News of the World offering to sell his daughter to a Middle Eastern sheikh poser, which Ali later denied. Here's the video report...

Then Rubina's mother and stepmother were caught on video pathetically fighting over the claims...

I wrote yesterday a full page color ad placed by Citizens for a Pro-Life Society was scheduled to run in today's Notre Dame school newspaper, The Observer. Late yesterday CPLC's president, Dr. Monica Miller, received word the ad wasn't going to run, even though it had already been approved and the required check for $1,570 sent. Someone got cold feet:

At issue were these photos of an aborted baby's severed hand and foot, taken from MI late-term abortionist Dr. Alberto Hodari's dumpster 13 months ago (click to enlarge):

View the entire ad here.

This is atrocious. Notre Dame is censoring the truth about abortion, while welcoming and honoring our President of the United States who approves every part of it, including partial birth abortion and infanticide of abortion survivors.

Well, it ain't over. Stay tuned. Dr. Miller's response...

Today the US Senate Finance Committee gave KS Gov. Kathleen Sebelius a weak pass, voting 11-8 to let her move forward for full Senate confirmation as Obama's pick for HHS Secretary. This despite revelations Sebelius underpaid taxes and lied about her financial relationship with infamous late-term abortionist George Tiller.

But a new qualm was revealed, as Matt Lewis of Political Machine reported late this afternoon...

One of our dear long-term commenters, a college student going by the moniker here of PrettyInPink, put together a documentary as she outlines below. Each of 5 parts is between 9-10 minutes long, and I've had trouble finding time this week to watch them all so I could post them knowing what was in them. (Not that I distrust PiP; I just feel responsible to vet all videos before posting.)

I thought this afternoon, as yet another day went by and I hadn't gotten past watching Part 2, that perhaps others would have the same trouble sitting through all 5 parts at once and hit on the idea to post 1 part for viewing and discussion each day. Part I is great. I love the intro song and the authenticity of the young moms being interviewed. PiP is very talented! Now, for PiP's intro...

by PrettyInPink

I came up with the idea to do a movie about pregnancy when I was in need of a quick Halloween costume and sacrificed my scarf collection temporarily to fashion a quick belly with duct tape and a large t-shirt.

I thought some of the reactions to me were a bit interesting - I'm sure a few people were wondering whether it was a costume or not - so I thought it would be interesting to do a larger belly for a longer period of time.

The topic evolved into exploring the real basis of pregnancy in a college setting on St. Louis University's campus, which has unique qualities that are worth investigating. [JLS note: SLU is a Catholic university.]...

I spoke at the excellent NJ Right to Life annual banquet Friday night along with Gov. Mike Huckabee and Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life.

Gov. Huckabee and I had an opportunity to get to know one another a bit at a pre-dinner reception when people had their picture taken with us. Between shots we chatted, having never met. What a personable man!

So when Gov. Huckabee asked if I had seen the segment on his April 12 Fox cable show with Kathy Ireland I thought, Rats! I didn't get a chance to put that clip up! even though I'd heard about it.

Gov. Huckabee said Ireland made the best concise case for the pro-life issue he had ever heard.

So here I am, finally posting Kathy Ireland's interview from Gov. Huckabee's show. First, the most relevant clips as shown and reported on by Josh Brahm of CA Right to Life and Science Matters....

by JivinJ

by Bethany Kerr, to give us a break from the daily grind...

Email Bethany with your Lunch Break suggestions!

I think what's going on here is actress Janeane Garofalo is so tired of being called a hypocrite for taking money to appear on the popular conservative tv show, 24, she's now overreacting to prove her liberal bonafides.

You've seen clips on the news, which were bad enough. Here is video of Garofalo's entire interview on Keith Olbermann's MSNBC show on April 16. She comes in at 2:53....

By now I'm used to mindless charges of "racism!" to my dissent against Barack Obama's radical liberalness. But it seems to me Garofalo was trying a little too hard. Whatever. The RIght Scoop reveals another layer of hypocrisy, Garofalo's views of dissent then and now...

Click to enlarge these specially made Obama Truth signs the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform Midwest will begin showing around the Notre Dame campus beginning May 4, overhead by airplane tow banners and on the ground by moving paneled truth trucks and street protests....

(See more banners and signs on page 2.)

Tarrant County College is TX's 6th largest college or university, located in Ft. Worth.

I was previously unaware of Dada Day , aka Day de Dada, but from what I can gather it is usually held April 1 and is a performance art gathering where "poets, painters, filmmakers, and performers join[ ] forces to challenge conventions of society and art," according to La Pittura.

That helps me better understand the nature of Professor Eduardo Aguilar Dada Day interactive art performance, according to the Tarrant school newspaper, The Collegian:

[He] began inflating balloons early that morning and... attached labels identifying which balloons represented which [endangered] wildflower....

Aguilar explained his interactive performance.

"The next step is to liberate the air from the balloons. This will be done to the tune of... Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture."

When all 500 balloons were inflated, the students, faculty and staff present were handed toothpicks....

On April 22 Notre Dame's student newspaper, The Observer, will feature a full page color ad placed by Citizens for a Pro-Life Society (click to enlarge).

The powerful ad includes photos taken of the severed hand and foot of an aborted baby found in late-term MI abortionist Alberto Hodari's dumpster 13 months ago....

UPDATE, 7:30p: I just spoke with Andy Schlafly, who started Conservapedia to counter the liberal spin at Wikipedia. He explained how and why "Culture of Death" was offed:

Wikipedia is run by a mobocracy of liberals who tend pro-abortion, pro-atheism, and pro-socialism. That liberal mob distorts entries and deletes what they don't like. "Culture of Death" is something liberals don't want to admit to.

Someone will nominate an entry for deletion. It will go into a discussion period on a discussion page. The liberal mob will dominate the discussion, unrestrained by any meaningful principles. Then someone who has special status on Wiki, an administator, will delete the entry, and that is how they censor the truth. It is difficult to find a trace of how it happened, and the person who deleted does not have to explain his or her reasoning. The deletion battle has raged again and again with truth telling entries.

Conservapedia has an entry with 156 examples of Wiki bias.
_______________

Astute reader Tom R. noticed Wikipedia deleted "Culture of Death" April 17 (click to enlarge):

At this point "Culture of Life" is still up on Wiki, and "Culture of Death" is still available on Wiktionary. Here's what "Culture of Death" looked like on Wikipedia when it was created in April 2005 (click to enlarge)...

Pro-Life Action League has purchased 2 billboards (above) on IN tollroad I80/90 within 20 miles of Notre Dame to the east and west. The world will begin seeing them April 27 for 1 month. They were expensive, so PLAL would appreciate donations.

Also, PLAL is renting 3 buses, leaving to picket ND early May 17th, 1 from the South Side, 1 from Aurora, and 1 from the PLAL office on Chicago's north side. Call to reserve your spot now at 773-777-2900. There will be a charge, but PLAL doesn't know how much yet.

PLAL plans to picket for 1 mile beginning at the I80/90 exit and also at the intersection of Angela Blvd, as highlighted below. Click to enlarge...

by Kelli

The Toronto Sun reported this month on the case of Roohi Tabassum (pictured right), a 44-year-old Pakistani woman living in Canada, set to be deported April 28.

Many have rallied and contacted the Canadian government to allow Tabassum to remain in the country, claiming if she is deported she will become the victim of an honor killing.

Her husband, Faisal Javed, a Sunni, has written her, according to the TS...

by Bethany Kerr, to give us a break from the daily grind...

Email Bethany with your Lunch Break suggestions!

UPDATE 4/21, 9:20a: I've been informed by someone at TN Right to Life of the irony of the following photo I posted yesterday. This was taken April 7, 2009, during Planned Parenthood's lobby day and posted on PP Greater Memphis Region's myspace page. The legislator at the desk is state Sen. Ophelia Ford (who was appointed to replace her brother John after he was indicted for accepting bribes and thrown in the slammer). The flowers on Ford's desk? TNRTL gave them to Ford, urging her to defend life. There they stand as silent witnesses...

_______________

UPDATE, 4/21, 8:50p: Planned Parenthood Greater Memphis Region has responded with PP's now typical we-want-to-see-unedited-video-and-are-unsure-of-real-facts-but-will-conduct-staff-training-anyway response to Live Actions undercover videos.
_______________

UPDATE, 12:50p: TN Right to Life has released a visual demonstration of the ridiculosity of the supposedly pro-life controlled TN legislature twice now refusing to pull $1.1 million in funding to rape-protecting PP while other important programs languish during TN's budget crisis. Click to enlarge...

Will the 3rd try be the charm? State Sen. Jack Johnson and state Rep. Dr. Joey Hensley have introduced PP defunding bills this session.

PP just gave them more ammo.
_______________

Lila Rose and Live Action have just released video #5 in their Mona Lisa series of undercover investigative sting videos of Planned Parenthoods across America....

Sorry this is late. (If you were my Facebook or Twitter friend, you'd know what I've been up to this weekend!)

This is so true! By Glenn Foden on CNSNnews.com...

On April 16 the Thomas More Law Center filed a lawsuit against Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano for violating the civil liberties of pro-lifers among others by targeting them as potential domestic terrorists simply for their beliefs in an April 7 a report.

One of the 3 plaintiffs is Gregg Cunningham of the pro-life activist group Center for Bioethical Reform.

Another plaintiff, radio talk show host Michael Savage, announced on his April 16 show the lawsuit also demands the classified list of names on the watch list.

Will it be good or bad if the Department of Homeland Security has not identified you as a pro-life activist?

Attention college students!

If you have a passion for the pro-life movement, here may be the opportunity for you! (And we promise our work environment is not mean!)

There is no better way to become an expert on our topic than to research and write about it.

JillStanek.com is looking for 1 or 2 reliable students with good writing skills, in addition to our wonderful Bernadette P., to assist with online research and blog compilation.

Plan to allot 2-4 hours a week. Weekly projects will be determined jointly and under the supervision of administrative assistant Kelli and Jill Stanek.

Make a difference in the exploding realm of pro-life education and activism: the new media! Official internship credit is available for this position.

Email resumes and questions to kelli@jillstanek.com.

by Kelli

by JivinJ

Pro-lifers argue aborted babies might have been the next Einstein, or the curer of cancer, etc. And there's that great ad about the unlikely rise of Barack Obama given the circumstances of his conception.

Now the other side is spinning the argument their way. A German condom company called Doc Morris Pharmacies has released 3 condom ads implying condom use could prevent the birth of the next world terrorist.

The ads may be too witty for their own good. The Chinese are now mad their dear leader, Mao Zedong, is swimming with Hitler and Osama. Whoops.

Nor are the ads scoring well in test marketing. It makes sense people dream their progeny would paint like Michelangelo or lead like Reagan but not kill like Stalin.

by Bethany Kerr, to give us a break from the daily grind...

Email Bethany with your Lunch Break suggestions!

[HT: commenter Mary]

by Carder

Doug Kmiec, rejected along with Caroline Kennedy as ambassador to the Vatican for being anti-life, has written two articles in defense of the Obama administration.

Regarding Dawn "fetal containers" Johnsen at the Legal Times:

She understands the fundamental difference between academic commentary and giving legal opinion on behalf of the US. That she has sharply criticized some conservative policy is no more relevant to her ability than if she liked outré modern art and displayed it in her living room...

The word "abortion" is nowhere to be found in the article....

I previously wrote a column saying not to give to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation because it supports human embryo experimentation. I don't know that I've ever outted the American Diabetes Association, but it presented the opportunity yesterday. Read this email, wherein the ADA pushes taxpayer funded embryonic stem cell research.

BTW, DeLaGarza was outright LYING when she stated the ADA "strongly oppos[es] human cloning." From the ADA's website...

By now most have seen the spurious interview conducted by CNN reporter Susan Roesgen at Chicago's Tea Party April 15, merely a sample of MSM's disdain for mainstream America. But there's more. First watch the segment and then see what happened after CNN stopped rolling the tape.

Also at CNN, homosexual Anderson Cooper led me to learn more way more than I wanted about the insidious world in which he lives. First, look up "teabagging" on an online urban dictionary (WARNING, explicit) and then watch this...

Hey, Department of Homeland Security, I was on a rightwing conference call today to discuss your April 7 report slandering us as potential domestic terror threats. Were you listening in?...

by JivinJ

by Bernadette P.

According to the April 14 Houston Chronicle, 4 San Antonio PP clinics began dispensing the RU-486 abortion bill regime in 2004 without a license. The CEO of PP San Antonio, Jeffrey Hons, now says a state official he contacted by phone said no license was necessary since these aren't surgical abortions....

by Bethany Kerr, to give us a break from the daily grind...

Email Bethany with your Lunch Break suggestions!

[HT: Andy, Laura Loo]

Recall KS Gov. and HHS Secretary nominee Kathleen Sebelius greatly misunderestimated the amount of $ late-term abortionist George Tiller contributed to her. From the New American, April 15 (click to enlarge):

("Familiar"? C'mon, Kathleen. Don't you remember the party you threw Tiller at the mansion in 2007?)

Despite this news, pro-life turncoat Sam Brownback is still standing by his endorsement of Sebelius, but there may be a crack developing: Reported the Associated Press yesterday:

... Brownback... said recent questions about Tiller's past political support for her are "very troubling." But he told the AP at an anti-tax rally in Wichita that he's not backing away from his endorsement of Sebelius' appointment....

by Carder

Is the religious right throwing in the towel in the fight against immorality? At first glance, a recent article in the UK Telegraph would certainly lead a reader to that conclusion:

America's religious Right has conceded that the election of US President Barack Obama has sealed its defeat in the cultural war with permissiveness and secularism.

Leading evangelicals have admitted that their association with George W. Bush has not only hurt the cause of social conservatives but contributed to the failure of the key objectives of their 30-year struggle....

by Bethany Kerr, to give us a break from the daily grind...

Email Bethany with your Lunch Break suggestions!

[HT: Dan McConchie]

Just in time for prom season, the Concerned Parents Report has released a sexual health quiz for teens. I scored 93%, getting 14 of 15 right. Here are the first 2 (click to enlarge)...

CPR includes other informative charts, like these (click to enlarge)...

In 2005, Jay Leno's wife, Mavis, told the Detroit Free Press:

"Our current conservative, religious government is obsessed with women on life support and with fetuses because they are imaginary people," as opposed to acknowledging the rights of everyday women, she said.

It is making increasingly less sense to me that liberal feminists like Mavis Leno so totally disregard female "imaginary people," particularly since on ultrasound they must look real enough to be killed in the worst display of sexism possible, as they now comprise well over half of preborns aborted.

And to clarify, that "wom[a]n on life support," Terri Schiavo, was not on life support at all and was not even close to being as brain dead as liberal feminists like Leno who abandoned their supposed sister to starvation and dehydration after her seedy husband suddenly recalled, years after winning a sealed amount of money in a malpractice lawsuit and fathering two children with another woman, that Terri preferred death by torture to living as a disabled person in the care of her loving parents and siblings.

So Leno can spare me her words of concern for the plight of oppressed women in Afghanistan, which is why she says she is hosting a Hollywood fundraiser for the Feminist Majority Foundation on April 29 with her soon-to-be NBC prime-time player husband, Jay. One right they want is for Afghan women to be free to abort. Crazy....

Continue reading my column, "How the Lenos' 'help' actually harms women," on WorldNetDaily.com.

Is NARAL worried about the Senate confirmations of Dawn Johnsen and Kathleen Sebelius?

Clearly, yes, since NARAL is recruiting supporters to do phone banking in support of nominees who "are having a tough time being confirmed by the Senate" on April 15, 16, 20, and 21. Listen to NARAL's voicemail here.

President Abortion nominated Johnsen to head the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, but Fox News reported April 7 Republicans are chattering about filibustering Johnsen due to her radical comparison of pregnancy to "slavery" when a NARAL attorney.

And we all know the trouble Sebelius is in, first for revelations she underpaid taxes and then that she underreported the amount of donations late-term abortionists George Tiller has given her or her PAC. Here's Laura Ingraham on Fox & Friends this morning discussing Sebelius' trouble....

Recent news headlines on Life issues by Bill Beckman of the IL Right to Life Committee

April 8

by JivinJ

by Carder

Tomorrow, April 15, over 600 cities in all 50 states will participate in the National Tax Day Tea Party, a grassroots movement dedicated to sending the message that we the people demand that Congress and the Obama administration stop the reckless spending, bailouts, and burdensome taxes.

This will mark my third tea party in central FL, as Orlando hosted one each in February and March, attracting over 5,000 patriots.

I didn't expect a pro-life connection....

by Bethany Kerr, to give us a break from the daily grind...

Email Bethany with your Lunch Break suggestions!

[HT: Tim Stanek]

For backdrop, read my previous post on Jay and Mavis Leno's support of the Feminist Majority Foundation.

FRC Action has made it easy.

Fill in your name and zip code, click "send," and NBC's CEO Jeff Zucker will get an email from you protesting the Lenos' planned April 29 fundraiser for FMF, "a radical pro-abortion group that not only advocates for abortion on demand, but also for the closing of pro-life pregnancy centers," aptly explained FRC.

UPDATE, 10:10a: A Senate source has emailed, "Looking into this. Confirmed not a perjury issue as questions for the record are not answered under oath."
_______________

Tom McClusky of the Family Research Council's blog The Cloakroom reported April 6:

I personally talked to at least 3 Senators and 1 Senate office, including a pro-life Democrat, and all of them cited Sen. Sam Brownback's (R-KS) early and strong support for Governor Sebelius as reasons not to "rock the boat" on the Governor's nomination. This was also an explanation for her receiving no questions at her hearing on the life issue or her close ties to late term abortionist George Tiller.

So pro-lifers are fighting an uphill battle thanks to 1 of our supposed own to defeat Katheen Sebelius as President Abortion's nominee for Health and Human Services Secretary.

But Sebelius just helped, by lying about her relationship with infamous KS late-term abortionist George Tiller.

The AP headline was too kind. "Lowballed"? In actuality, Sebelius lied. Sen. Kyl specifically asked her about any $ Tiller gave to her PAC.

Furthermore, even the AP didn't fully explain the story (on page 2)....

by Kelli and Jill

Yesterday in the Politico, Carrie Budoff Brown wrote on the increase in "anti-abortion recruitment" since Barack Obama became President:

The first hint of a stir came just after Election Day, when the computer servers at Americans United for Life crashed. People were swamping the Web site to sign a petition urging... Obama to stand firm against abortion.

"I got a call from one of our guys, 'We have a problem,' " said Charmaine Yoest, the group's president and CEO....

by JivinJ

by Bethany Kerr, to give us a break from the daily grind...

Email Bethany with your Lunch Break suggestions!

[HT: administrative assistant Kelli]

by Kelli

On Sunday, April 19, Alabama Students for Life will hold its first statewide collegiate conference at 8 am at the Bryant Conference Center in Tuscaloosa (near the U of A campus).

All pro-lifers from the southeast are invited to attend.

Many nationally acclaimed speakers will be presenting, including:

Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention, Angela Lanfranchi of the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute, Rebecca Kiessling of Feminists for Life, Becky Banks of Students for Life of America, UA Professor Michael New, and syndicated columnist Don Feder

To register, please see the website.

This weekend, we remember the greatest sacrifice ever made for mankind.

We invite you to view the following video clips from The Passion of the Christ, set to music, in remembrance:

My Immortal by Evanescence (presented from the perspective of the Virgin Mary)...

The Reason by Hoobastank...

by JivinJ

by Kelli

From the blogs:

Here's another one that got away from me while I was on vacation, good news! The IL Freedom of Choice Act, which I previously discussed, failed to make it out of the IL House by the April 3 deadline, and so it sank....

by Bethany Kerr, to give us a break from the daily grind...

Email Bethany with your Lunch Break suggestions!

BBC News reported April 6:

Such a tragedy. Where are the feminists? Here's a BBC sidenote...

UPDATE, 8:50p: Ok, I'm totally going off topic now. I mentioned at the bottom of this original post what 1st impressed me about Josh was his ability to play piano and talk to me at the same time. So I've just been made aware of this new video of Josh playing piano and drums at the same time. Yeah, my friend Josh...

4:30p: Josh Brahm of CA RTL has just posted his 2nd Science Matters report on YouTube....

Read my previous posts on this story here.

I'm guessing posts on this blog and my WorldNetDailycom columns were included as reasons by the defense to keep evidence and photos secret. Of course the Miami Herald attorney would label these as "fairly obscure websites." Sniff, sniff. From the Miami Herald, today:

The public has the right to view evidence in the case of a woman accused of illegally providing healthcare during a botched abortion at a Hialeah clinic, a judge ruled Thursday.

Lawyers for Belkis Gonzalez, 44, citing extensive media coverage and harsh commentary in Internet postings on anti-abortion websites, had asked that evidence be kept secret to ``assure a fair trial.''

Gonzalez fears ''physical and mental harm after receiving anonymous threats,'' said her lawyers, who also asked that prosecutors be barred from speaking to reporters about the case....

At midnight tonight the comments period ends to protest Obama's plan to stop enforcing laws already in place to protect health care workers' right of conscience.

Many good organizations have established online clearinghouses to help you properly write your comment to the Dept. of Health and Human Services so it will be accepted.

Here's a great one: Send your comment (be you patient or professional) through Freedom2Care.org, and know it will get where it is supposed to go. F2C has already forwarded 45k emails.

F2C sponsored a press conference yesterday that got lots of press, which is good.

Unfortunately, the coverage mostly got the issue wrong, indicating this is about something new, when all President Bush did, which Obama will likely rescind, is add enforcement measures to conscience laws already in place. Here's the regulation Obama is planning to overturn, according to F2C...

by Bethany Kerr, to give us a break from the daily grind...

Email Bethany with your Lunch Break suggestions!

[HT: John Jansen]

According to the Associated Press, March 8:

A judge has granted a mother's request to have someone harvest sperm from her dead son's body, so she can have the option of carrying out his wish to have children.

Nikolas Colton Evans, 21, died Sunday at a Brackenridge hospital after being punched and falling outside an Austin [TX] bar March 27.

His mother, Marissa Evans, [said]... he wanted to have 3 sons someday and had even picked out their names: Hunter, Tod and Van.

"I want him to live on. I want to keep a piece of him," she [said]....

Judge Guy Herman ruled Monday in an emergency hearing requested by the mother, because of the urgency of collecting the sperm intact....

UPDATE, 1:05p: Here's another good chart, received from the same friend. PPFA stands for Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Click to enlarge:

_______________

UPDATE, 1p: I heard a good proverb yesterday: "If you want more of something, you subsidize; if you want less, you tax."

Here's an example of the former. I received the following chart from a government friend on PP's funding as it correlates to the number of abortions it commits. Click to enlarge...

by Bernadette P.

From the blogs and elsewhere:

by JivinJ

I haven't seen either version of Alfie, so I had no idea...

Filling in the blanks, from LifeIssues.net...

On April 5, Palm Sunday, the pro-life student group NDResponse.com sponsored a rally at Notre Dame with over 400 participants - during spring break - to prayerfully protest its invitation to President Barack Obama to speak at its May 17 commencement.

The following WSBT.com video spotlighted the event but added in the intro, "But... supporters of the president also showed up." I noted the 2 Obama fans WSBT interviewed were both black, recalling this president who decries racism got 95% of the black vote.

Then I spotted an April 6 Fox28.com news piece, "Notre Dame students rally in support of Obama"...

by Bethany Kerr, to give us a break from the daily grind...

Email Bethany with your Lunch Break suggestions!

[HT: commenter Rachael]

We come back to asking why an abortion proponent would want abortion to be rare, a dangerously moralesque view first expressed by Bill Clinton.

The Obama administration is trying to build on this. According to abortion advocate Christina Page in the Huffington Post April 7:

Some historic moments are short and sweet. That was the case last Friday with a call the White House organized on common ground in the abortion conflict. In a never before attempted event, the Obama administration merged dozens of leaders from the pro-choice and pro-life movements onto one conference call line and, wisely, muted us. ...

[T]he intent is to focus on the areas in which, theoretically, both sides share a common interest. And there are many: preventing unintended pregnancy (including teen pregnancy), reducing the need for abortion, strengthening supports for struggling families with wanted pregnancies, making adoption an option as accessible as any other, and saving lives by improving maternal and child health.

Actually, not to nitpick, but as far as I know only two pro-life groups were invited on the call, Concerned Women for America and Democrats for Life.

Whatever - the dicey (pardon the pun) question for the other side is why care about "reducing the need for abortion"?...

Recognize this is a concession. If America is as pro-abortion as the other side likes to say, there is absolutely no reason to "reduce the need for abortion."...

Continue reading my column, "Abortion: Sunshine on a rainy day or not?" at WorldNetDaily.com.

[Bumper sticker courtesy of Cafe Press]

I've received an email from American Right to Life that Bill O'Reilly will play its "The Ann Coulter hang-ups" video tonight and allow Coulter an opportunity to rebut. Adds the email:

Fox News producer Dan Bank turned down ARTL's offer to provide an opposing guest preferring to let Ann Coulter defend herself unopposed. ARTL's president Brian Rohrbough: "We're looking forward to a fair and balanced report tonight as though there could be any such thing as fair or balanced when it comes to defending those who intentionally kill unborn children."

The video is almost 10 minutes long, so obviously, if O'Reilly does what ARTL says he is going to do, he'll only show a clip. Here 'tis:

The email goes on to narcisstically claim, "ARTL's... video... and its associated website AnnCoulterApology.com, document the growing rift between the right-wing pundit and popular Christian pro-family leaders."

In fact, the lnk between all in the video is ARTL, a group I gave up on as off the deep end last year when it picketed James Dobson at Focus on the Family.

ARTL continues to engage in friendly fire. So many real enemies to fight - Barack Obama anyone? - and it picks on Ann Coulter and Mitt Romney. How I wish Mitt Romney were in the White House at this moment.

A reminder that 1-1/2 years ago the ARTL board gave itself 12 years to stop abortion in the U.S. It failed to hold its 1st annual conference last year.

Recent news headlines on Life issues by Bill Beckman of the IL Right to Life Committee...

April 3

by Bethany Kerr, to give us a break from the daily grind...

Email Bethany with your Lunch Break suggestions!

[HT: administrative assistant Kelli]

Jivin J touched on this last week while I was on vacation, but I wanted to expound.

Oprah spotlighted Parkinson's Disease on her March 30 show, featuring her own doctor, Mehmet Oz, author of the best-selling YOU book series, and actor and PD sufferer Michael J. Fox.

Fox is well-known as a self-serving proponent of human embryo experimentation. One of my columns getting the most feedback was, "Michael J. Fox is a cannibal."

I can't imagine what Fox must have thought when Dr. Oz actually gave a visual demonstration with Fox's inadvertent help to show why embryonic stem cells wouldn't ever work as a PD treatment and, in fact, the fight over the stem cell issue likely ate up valid research time.

Dr. Oz went on to say he thought important PD treatment would be seen within the decade. The sad fact is Fox has thwarted his own help.

Josh Brahm has issued a Life Report on this Oprah segment, including the show clip:

The person writing Oprah's highlights was obviously either a Fox fan or escr proponent or both, dismissing the debate as only moral, thus ignoring Dr. Oz's scientific explanation why escr is bad and adult stem research is good....

Here's one I missed last week while on vacation. From the Boston Globe, April 4:

Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge... the Rev. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale will be its new president...

Ragsdale... is best known as an abortion rights activist who has sat on the boards of NARAL... and the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice....

She is also openly gay....

Ragsdale... recalled that 3 women, spying her collar, once tried to keep her out of a meeting room for NARAL - even though she was a member of the league's board.

"I've experienced far more resistance and discrimination in the progressive community for being a Christian than I do in the Christian community for being a lesbian," she said....

But conservative bloggers are furiously criticizing the appointment, citing some of Ragsdale's remarks about abortion rights.

Interesting that the Globe didn't post those remarks, from a NARAL speech Ragsdale gave in 2007...

On April 2, former IL Gov. Rod Blagojevich was indicted on 16 federal felony charges.

On April 3, an IL judge issued a temporary restraining order against the state on behalf of 2 pharmacists to stop enforcing a 2005 executive order by the abortion industry's former go-to guv forcing pharmacists to fill prescriptions for the morning-after pill whether they had moral qualms or not.

The MAP may cause abortions.

According to an American Center for Law and Justice press statement today:

In issuing the Order, Judge John Belz found that... Luke VanderBleek and Glenn Kosirog - 2 pharmacists who own 5 pharmacies between them - were "likely to succeed" on the merits of their claim that the regulation violates the IL Health Care Right of Conscience Act. A hearing on the pharmacists' request for a permanent injunction will be held sometime in June.

[HT: LifeSiteNews.com]

I previously reported that on March 27, immediately after a jury found KS late-term abortionist George Tiller not guilty of 19 misdemeanor charges, the KS Board of Healing Arts issued a statement it was proceeding with more serious charges, including fraud.

Operation Rescue reported today it has been made aware KSBHA has notified 2 women who previously levied charges against Tiller that their cases "remain open and are progressing through the system," according to OR.

One complaint by a woman identified as Shaye is Tiller's office lowered the gestational age of her baby after 1st arriving at an age by ultrasound too advanced for TIller to abort without getting a 2nd opinion and breaking the law.

Compelling details of Shaye's case are in this OR video:

The 2nd mother hearing from KSBHA, known as Patient S., apparently suffered cardiac arrest during her abortion but was taken to the hospital after being revived by TIller in his personal car and told to keep her IV bag out of sight.

Read more of her story here.

[Photo of Patient S. courtesy of OR]

by JivinJ

by Bethany Kerr, to give us a break from the daily grind...

Email Bethany with your Lunch Break suggestions!

[HT: Proofreader Laura Loo]

by Kelli

I've been asked to make a presentation on pro-life movies or movies with abortion as a theme or storyline.

I can think of Juno, Waitress, Knocked Up, Finding Nemo (the embryo scene in the beginning), 22Weeks, and Killing Girls.

Do you know of others? Someone, for instance, told me of a new release with a pro-life theme, but I can't remember it.

Thanks!

by Glenn McCoy of Townhall.com...

[HT: reader WMO]

And this one just for laughs, by Glenn Foden at CNSNews.com...

Incredibly, radical pro-abort KS Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, President Abortion's nominee for US Dept. of Health and Human Services Secretary, skated through 2 Senate hearings - Health Committee and Finance Committee - with nary a question asked of her that included the word "abortion."

Numerous pro-lifers are members of those committees (click on committee links for names), including Sen. Bob Casey and Sen. Pat Roberts, although the latter's silence should come as no surprise since he has already endorsed her as a colleague from his home state.

Only Sen. Tom Coburn ventured close, asking Sebelius her position on health care providers' conscience protections and whether she agreed RU-486 should be reclassified as an emergency contraceptive. Sebelius snaked in both her responses.

Two questions: Why do you think senators ignored the abortion elephant in the room, and what questions do you think Sebelius should have been asked?

Thanks to friend Michael N. for suggesting the new poll question:

Which jury performed worse?

Options are the 1995 O. J. Simpson jury or the 2009 George Tiller jury.

Here are the results of my previous poll. Having no idea whether liberals would take over the question, I'm happy to report 87% of you thought Notre Dame should rescind its invitation to President Abortion to speak at its commencement...

by Kelli

Pro-life organizations such as SFL (Franciscan Chapter), SFL of America, Susan B. Anthony List, Crossroads, Stand True Ministries, Justice for All, Democrats for Life and others will be in attendance.

There will also be many nationally acclaimed speakers coming to the conference, including Steve Wagner, Bryan Kemper, Lynette Hawrot, Fr. Michael Scanlon, Kimberly Hahn, Becky Banks, and many more.

Click the ad above for more information or contact Ohio SFL Conference.

by JivinJ

by Bethany Kerr, to give us a break from the daily grind...

Email Bethany with your Lunch Break suggestions!

[HT: commenter Kay]

by Bernadette P.

Eric Scheidler of Pro-Life Action League sent out this alert yesterday, the first public action being taken by the pro-life Notre Dame student group NDResponse.com, and their first public request for the pro-life community's help. Please attend if you're anywhere close. This debut of pro-life objection to the ND administration's plan to honor Barack Obama at its May 17 commencement must be strong.

Dear Jill,

Ever since word broke that Barack Obama is to give the commencement address at the University of Notre Dame, pro-lifers across the country have been eager to speak out against this scandal.

Notre Dame President Fr. John Jenkins has been flooded with phone calls, e-mails, letters and faxes urging him to rescind the Obama invitation.

NOW comes our first opportunity to publicly demonstrate ON CAMPUS against Barack Obama's appearance there.

Notre Dame Response is hosting a pro-life rally this Sunday, April
5 - Palm Sunday - at 2 p.m. at the Dome, after the Noon Mass at the Basilica....

Wow, this is a first for the Archbishop of DC, Fr. Donald Wuerl, and a very big development.

Wuerl has the distinct problem of being the away-from-home bishop for all pro-abortion Catholic politicians, including Joe Biden, Dick Durbin, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, and Nancy Pelosi, to name some of the more infamous.

The Washington Times first reported March 24 that bishop wagons were beginning to circle, starting with Kathleen Sebelius. Deal Hudson expounded March 30 in a great, informative piece in Inside Catholic:

... Gov. Sebelius got some bad news... something not noticed much in Catholic media or the secular press. The bishops of Washington, DC, and Arlington, VA, confirmed publicly they would uphold the declaration of her ordinary, Archbishop Joseph Naumann of KC, stating that Gov. Sebelius should not present herself for communion.

A spokeswoman... said Archbishop Donald Wuerl [pictured right, next to Sebelius] would expect Sebelius to follow Bishop Naumann's request while in Washington.... [A] spokeswoman... announced that Bishop Paul Loverde would expect the same while she was in Northern VA.

That Archbishop Wuerl and Bishop Loverde would back up Bishop Naumann in regard to the future Secretary of Health and Human Services is a significant development in the effort of some bishops to enforce Canon 915: "Those upon whom the penalty of excommunication or interdict has been imposed or declared, and others who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin, are not to be admitted to holy communion."...

by JivinJ

Hi!

I'll be travelling the next few days and will post sporadically at best until Saturday.

Carry on with comments. The Mod Squad and Kelli will hold down the fort.

You all kept me in my place in January when I took off the month for vacation. I had more unique visitors that month than in December! So I know you'll continue your conversations just fine without me... :)

I'll be updating my status on Facebook and Twitter, so I hope you're my friend at one of those 2 places!