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• Secular Pro-Life notes some items of interest on the international abortion front in Russia and Australia.
• John Smeaton reports on the eugenic screening of eggs, currently being implemented in a Scotland IVF clinic.

• ProLife NZ sees history repeating itself in different ways – with the extermination of disabled children under the guise of “quality of life”:

  Berlin’s “Topography of Terror,” museum, which features exhibits on the murderous crimes of German police forces during the Nazi era, has begun a temporary display on the thousands of children euthanized during the same period as “life unworthy of life.”

  The exhibition, entitled, “In memory of the children. Pediatricians and crimes against children in the Nazi period,” displays photos and documents related to various Nazi projects concerning the murder and torture of children, such as Action T4 and Lebensborn.”

• Reflections of a Paralytic has thoughts on Newt Gingrich’s strong statement against the use of embryonic stem cell research, which he formerly supported.
• Pro-Life Wisconsin discusses the “Roe effect” and contrasts photos of Roe supporters in Wisconsin with March for Life participants in DC.
• Pro-Life With Christ posts two links where readers can view the annual March for Life in DC, as mainstream media barely covered this half-a-million participant event.
• ProWomanProLife shares video of the Android app, Iris (similiar to Apple’s Siri), when asked a question about abortion. Surprising!

Click here to view the embedded video.

On January 28 pro-lifers gathered to pray at the New Woman All Women abortion mill in Birmingham, Alabama, one week after there had been two botched abortions committed in the span of 30 minutes there.

During that week the clinic, apparently stressed for business, had prepared a huge “Call for Abortions” sign, which you’ll see in the following little video clip.

Apparently angry about all the pro-life attention to their botches the week before, the clinic had also prepared another more ominous sign, photo above. You’ll also it in the video to the left of and a little behind the larger one. Warning: vulgarity…

Click here to view the embedded video.

According to Fr. Terry Gensemer, the man reaching out to the deathscorts in the video, pro-lifers rightfully considered the sign provocative and and threatening and are consulting with a pro-life legal organization about their options.

1) My source inside Komen has dried up. Don’t know for how long. Maybe forever. I’m now winging it.

2) Because we do not yet know whether Komen actually did or didn’t capitulate to Planned Parenthood, pro-lifers should again withhold donations, IMO. I might even try to get my money back. It may be a year before we find out – when Komen issues new grants or reissues old ones – although it may be sooner. I’ve read of one Komen affiliate offering a grant to a local Planned Parenthood that never even got one before. That’s how crazy this situation has gotten.

Nevertheless, the initial exhilaration on the Left of a win over the evil breast cancer foundation is subsiding. Suspicious minds are having second thoughts, coming to the same conclusion I did.

At least one Komen board member agrees Komen did not say what the Left thought it said. From the Washington Post, which got a quote from John Raffaelli:

I just got off the phone with a Komen board member, and he confirmed that the announcement does not mean that Planned Parenthood is guaranteed future grants – a demand he said would be “unfair” to impose on Komen.

From Mother Jones:

Given what Komen officials have said about their new standards requiring direct services, Friday’s letter leaves one big question—whether Planned Parenthood meets Komen’s criteria for future grants—still unresolved.

From Will Neville at RH Reality Check:

The Komen Foundation’s statement says that it “will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants, while maintaining the ability of our affiliates to make funding decisions that meet the needs of their communities.” And that’s where we hit the real problem. From the beginning, the Foundation has been clear that no current grants will be affected. As such, this is NOT a reversal of any kind.

Planned Parenthood will remain “eligible” for future grants, but the Komen Foundation has made no commitment to continue funding or to preserve its relationship with Planned Parenthood in years to come….

Whether the Komen Foundation’s statement dos in fact signal a reversal of its policy towards Planned Parenthood remains to be seen. It is entirely possible that they intend to fund Planned Parenthood cancer screening services in the future, and we hope they do. It is equally possible that this is simply a public relations move designed to diffuse a lucrative brand from spiraling out of control – and the Komen Foundation will quietly reject future grant proposals from Planned Parenthood once they are out of the media spotlight.

From the Huffington Post:

To be clear, Komen’s apology is not a promise to renew Planned Parenthood grants. It’s a promise to “continue to fund existing grants” to the organization – which it was already planning on doing – and to make it eligible for future grants. At no point in the press release does Brinker promise that Komen will renew grants to Planned Parenthood.

• Mitt Romney writes on the Obama administration attack on religious liberty:

  Liberals and conservatives have made common cause to defend the rights of religious minorities in the past. But somehow, today, when it comes to the agenda of the left-wing of the Democratic Party—those who brought us abortion on demand and who fight against the teaching of abstinence education in our children’s schools—their devotion to religious freedom goes out the window. They would force Catholics and others who have beliefs rooted in their faith to sacrifice the teachings of their faith to the mandate of federal bureaucrats.

• A Missouri couple discovered the bodies of 2 children (one 20 weeks gestation, another 28 weeks) which were persevered in jars for around 70 years.
• What else would you expect from the mayor of the abortion capital of the United States?

  New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is pledging up to $250,000 to Planned Parenthood to offset funds that were cut by the Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast cancer foundation.

  Mayoral spokeswoman Samantha Levine said Thursday the billionaire mayor has promised to match future donations to Planned Parenthood up to $250,000.

12:13p: Ezra Klein at the Washington Post:

But what does this mea culpa mean? Brinker goes on to make clear that they will amend their guidelines so only “criminal and conclusive” investigations affect their funding decisions. They will ensure that “politics has no place in our grant process,” and they will “continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants, while maintaining the ability of our affiliates to make funding decisions that meet the needs of their communities.”

So they are, perhaps, backing down. Or perhaps not. Yesterday, the Komen Foundation said the investigation was not the cause of their reduced support for Planned Parenthood, and that the real issue was that Planned Parenthood did not directly provide mammograms. This statement doesn’t address that concern at all. So it would appear to leave open the possibility that the foundation intends to reject Planned Parenthood’s future grant applications — albeit on less overtly political grounds.

I posed these questions to Leslie Aun, vice president for communications at the Komen Foundation. “I think our statement speaks for itself,” she replied.

12:05p: This is all breaking news, so bear with me. I’ll tell you what I know. News organizations like the  Associated Press are reporting:

After three days of controversy, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast-cancer charity says it is reversing its decision to cut breast-screening grants to Planned Parenthood.

Read Komen’s full statement here. Key excerpts:

Our original desire was to fulfill our fiduciary duty to our donors by not funding grant applications made by organizations under investigation. We will amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political. That is what is right and fair.

Our only goal for our granting process is to support women and families in the fight against breast cancer. Amending our criteria will ensure that politics has no place in our grant process. We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants, while maintaining the ability of our affiliates to make funding decisions that meet the needs of their communities.

It is our hope and we believe it is time for everyone involved to pause, slow down and reflect on how grants can most effectively and directly be administered without controversies that hurt the cause of women.

This statement represents nothing new. Komen and CEO Nancy Brinker had already stated they would continue to fund Planned Parenthood’s existing grants through 2012 (one through 2013). Brinker told Andrew Mitchell that number was three. Other reports and my source say the number is five.

If Planned Parenthood is found guilty of criminal investigations, several of which are ongoing around the states (Medicaid fraud in Texas and California; fraudulent reporting and illegal abortions in Kansas, and yes, the federal Congressional investigation, etc.), Komen’s criteria will still disqualify Planned Parenthood from receiving grants, as it should.

This is Komen’s attempt to get the abortion mafia off their backs. Planned Parenthood and its thugs have engaged in typical shakedown: Give us money or we will destroy you.

Be savvy. Nothing has changed. Komen is merely trying to to get some breathing room.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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When I consider trying to write about my job and the experiences I have in providing abortion care I just want to scream and curse out everyone.

~ Sparky, The Abortioneers, January 31

The fools don’t realize what is happening. Every Komen exec who quits over the Planned Parenthood flak is good news for our side, one less pro-abort with clout in the United States’ most influential breast cancer foundation. Komen is undergoing a cleansing of its liberal bastion.

Perhaps now Komen will acknowledge the link between abortion and breast cancer, which, thanks to the Planned Parenthood flak, is getting renewed attention.

CEO Nancy Brinker’s (pictured left) eyes have certainly been opened these past couple days. I’m sure the former friend of Planned Parenthood is reevaluating a lot of things. She needs our prayers.

My source inside Komen tells me its email system crashed several times today due to the volume of emails. (Yes, my site has crashed several times today, too, due to a combination of invading bots and high traffic.)

At last count emails in support of Komen were at 20,000 and those in opposition straggled behind at 10,000. Keep the emails coming (although be warned the link may be down).

Meanwhile, Brinker said on a conference call today donations are up 100% since Komen announced it was severing its financial relationship with Planned Parenthood.

Since it is well known that conservatives are more generous givers than liberals (aside from grandstanders, something conservative givers are not), I’m betting all those pro-aborts huffing and puffing that they are going to stop giving to Komen never gave in the first place. Meanwhile, conservatives who have been withholding funds from Komen are loosening their purse strings.

There is also now an interesting battle of congressional letters emerging.

ABC has posted a letter signed by 26 senators asking Komen to restore funding to the United States’ largest abortion provider. No surprise, the signers are all Democrat pro-aborts, save one Independent/Socialist pro-abort.

But never fear, I’m told a pro-Komen letter is now circulating in Congress. The final count of legislators supporting Komen vs. opposing Komen should go our way, although I doubt the media will be interested in reporting that.

Brinker released a video last night, saying in it what she said to reporters today, that “the charity was trying to refocus grants on providers that are able to perform mammography services rather than just breast screenings,” just as my source indicated yesterday was Komen’s fallback plan for breaking up with Planned Parenthood.

Pro-lifers Bryan Kemper and Andy Moore have launched an “I Stand with Komen” petition drive.

They have made the icon, right, to post on your Facebook page as your profile photo.

One final note, our tolerant friends on the left hacked into Komen’s site last night.

[Photo of Brinker via the Associated Press; photo of the pink White House, from Breast Cancer Awareness Month, October 2011, via National Journal]

• The Weekly Standard’s John McCormack makes a good point:

  [W]hy does Planned Parenthood feel entitled to a private charity’s donations, especially considering the fact that Planned Parenthood’s president falsely claims on national television that the group provides mammograms? Isn’t Komen free to give its money to organizations that do more than provide mammogram “referrals” and breast cancer screenings?

Here is Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards caught stretching the truth about mammograms…

Click here to view the embedded video.

• Who says pro-life grassroots boycott efforts don’t work? Not people talking to The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg:

  [Former Komen senior communications adviser John] Hammarley explained that the Planned Parenthood issue had vexed Komen for some time. “About a year ago, a small group of people got together inside the organization to talk about what the options were, what would be the ramifications of staying the course, or of telling our affiliates they can’t fund Planned Parenthood, or something in-between.” …

  He called the controversy over Planned Parenthood funding “a burr in the saddle of Komen, but it withstood the issue for years and years.”

• Mollie Hemingway notes how the media finally noticed the connection between Planned Parenthood and Komen after Komen cut off grants:

  Turn itself into? Turn itself into? Help me out here. Funding a group that terminates 330,000 pregnancies a year is not controversial but deciding not to fund that same group is? In what world? It’s important to note that Planned Parenthood doesn’t just do abortions. But many of the other things they do — teaching kids about sex through a text-chat program, receiving hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, spending high sums on fundraising and public policy to fight political opponents, selling or otherwise distributing contraception and abortifacients — are also controversial. Giving a woman a slip of paper to get a mammogram somewhere else is not controversial, unless by the standard that it’s not sufficient work for scarce breast cancer dollars, but you have to put the controversy in context.

[Photo via salon.com]

It is beyond me why people who make their living from children would support abortion, but here’s another one.

Chris Van Allsburg, author of beloved children’s books Polar Express and Jumanji, , is donating art to Planned Parenthood of Southern New England’s “Choice Art” fundraiser, to be held February 24.

© 2012 T.J. Hamilton / The Grand Rapids Press | SoloFolio

Van Allsburg is giving money to an organization that will purposefully help deplete his target audience by 22% (4.2 mil live birth in US in 2008; 1.2 mil abortions).

Storyteller Len Cabral will also be a PP art contributor.

Sometimes the blindness is appalling.

[HT: Joanne C.]