I read a Scripture passage this week with fresh eyes. It explains one reason for trafficking of women and children: a supply shortage.

Today’s shortage of women, and the overriding reason for the worldwide pandemic of sex trafficking,  is not due to war, as it was then. It is due to abortion.

And the elders of the assembly said, “With the women of Benjamin destroyed, how shall we provide wives for the men who are left? The Benjamite survivors must have heirs,” they said, “so that a tribe of Israel will not be wiped out….

“But look, there is the annual festival of the LORD in Shiloh….”

So they instructed the Benjamites, saying, “Go and hide in the vineyards and watch. When the young women of Shiloh come out to join in the dancing, rush from the vineyards and each of you seize one of them to be your wife….”

So that is what the Benjamites did. While the young women were dancing, each man caught one and carried her off to be his wife. Then they returned to their inheritance and rebuilt the towns and settled in them.

~ Judges 21:16-24, New International Version

I reported earlier this week that Planned Parenthood had rejected a $500,000 donation from bestselling author Tucker Max because his writings are misogynistic toward women.

The plan was for Planned Parenthood to name one of its clinics after Max. But according to his publicist in a Forbes piece, Planned Parenthood became concerned about the “perception” of Max’s writing, which could be “perceived in a certain negative manner,” rendering his donation inappropriate, “given Planned Parenthood’s mission.”

The same could be said if in a wild, perhaps retaliatory, turn of events Max decided to give his donation to a pregnancy care organization to build the Tucker Max Women’s Resource Center.

Or to a group of pro-life activists to launch a local Tucker Max Right to Life Committee, perhaps to picket the local Planned Parenthood.

Would you take Max’s money?

[Graphic via MuscleWeek.com]

The campaign our group, The Student Response to the Genocide Awareness Project, promoted was one of taking a different path – both emotionally and physically – than one normally would when faced with such violence. We asked people to disengage, to ignore the provocations of the GAP staff, and to walk a different way across campus if at all possible and avoid the GAP exhibit all together….

We had a carnival on the other side of campus to provide students with a fun, safe space to find community and distraction from the GAP display.

[W]hile our opinions about abortion are varied, we agree that the GAP’s tactics of exploiting others’ experiences and causing undue emotional trauma are unacceptable.

We live in a community where many people from many different areas of the world have relocated as refugees and asylum seekers from places where they expericed [sic] the effects of genocide. We feel that it is amoral, unethical and extremely distasteful for the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform… to co-opt and capitalize on the painful experiences of so many people for their own gain….

~ University of Southern Maine student Mea Tavares, explaining why she organized an avoidance protest against a graphic display of aborted babies. as quoted by The Portland Daily Sun, April 13. The group also hung a painted sheet [click to enlarge] with the words, “Try Compassion and Civility,” to obstruct the view.

[Photo via The Portland Daily Sun]

2011 was a banner year for the passage of pro-life legislation in the states. According to the pro-abortion research group Guttmacher Institute:

By almost any measure, 2011 saw unprecedented attention to issues related to reproductive health and rights at the state level…. The 92 new abortion restrictions shattered the previous record of 34 abortion restrictions adopted in 2005.

Although I was braced for a dip in 2012, since it’s an election year, I’m happy to report the number of pro-life legislation being enacted into law in 2012 remains strong.

By the end of March, the number stood at 16 for the first quarter. That number for the same time period in 2011 was 19.

Today I spoke with Elizabeth Nash, State Issues Manager at Guttmacher, who acknowledged her side was not seeing “the decrease we would have expected.”

The bulk of pro-life legislation in 2011 was passed in April (34) and May (39), so it is still unknown whether the pace can stay strong.

But significant pieces of pro-life legislation have been signed into law in April or are awaiting signature at the desk of pro-life governors.

Even if the number of pro-life laws drops, the impact of a couple of these laws will be huge. One will likely shut down the last standing abortion mill in its state, and another will stop late-term abortions in a state with the second highest number of reported abortions past 20 weeks in the country.
 

• In Mississippi, Republican Gov. Phil Bryant “is poised” to sign a bill into law that would require abortionists to have admitting privileges at local hospitals.  This would likely result in the closure of Jackson Women’s Health Center, the state’s sole abortion mill, where only one of its abortionists would fit that common sense criteria.
• Georgia Republican Gov. Nathan Deal “is expected” to sign a fetal bill that would ban abortions past 20 weeks. According to the latest statistics from the Centers for Disease Control, Georgia ranked second (1,208) only to New York (2,708) as having the most abortions committed past 20 weeks in 2008. While six other states have passed similar fetal pain bans (Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma), their late-term abortion statistics were negligible by comparison. A fetal pain ban in Georgia will more likely trigger a challenge to Roe v. Wade than the others.
• Last week Republican Gov. Jan Brewer signed a fetal pain ban on abortions past 20 weeks in Arizona.
• Also last week Republican Gov. Scott Walker signed two pro-life bills in Wisconsin – a webcam abortion ban and a ban on insurance coverage in the Obamacare exchange plan.
• Also last week Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Haslam signed a bill into law bumping up the effective date of the state’s ban on telemed abortions from January 1, 2013, to July 1, 2012.

What a difference pro-life majorities make. These legislative successes are linked in large part back to our sweeping political victories  in 2010.

Pro-lifers who may grow tired of the political grind should be encouraged.

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

We welcome your suggestions for additions to our Top Blogs (see tab on right side of home page)! Email Susie@jillstanek.com.

• Right to Life of Michigan reports that the University of Michigan is now admitting the importance of adult stem cell research, calling it, the “holy grail of personalized medicine.”

• Moral Outcry discusses the latest pro-choice attempt – 40 Days of prayer for abortion, of all things – to counter the pro-life 40 Days for Life vigils:
  

  Six Rivers Planned Parenthood in Humboldt, CA has decided to hold a literal 40 day prayer period for reproductive rights and abortion. Mixing faith in God with sacrificing babies at the altar of a suction machine, the site says:

  “We trust you to decide about your sexuality, having your children, and planning your family.”

  Here’s the inherent and obvious problem with this statement: “We trust you.” What does faith have to do with trusting me? If I trusted myself to do everything right, my faith would be in the god of my intellectual stimulation and humanistic idolatry. We have sacrificed faith in God for faith in ourselves and called ourselves god.

  Please read their statement carefully. If you read it in context with the call to prayer for abortion and to trust women, it actually implies we have godlike powers to know when we should reproduce, create and live. We have taken the power of creation from the Creator.

  The first thing that comes to mind is Galatians 6:7, which states, “Do not be deceived. God will not be mocked.”

• Wesley J. Smith says PETA is attacking The Hunger Games for its depiction of people hunting animals to stay alive. Smith points out how the group’s president, Ingrid Newkirk, once wrote a letter to Yasser Arafat in protest of a terrorist attack – not because it risked the lives of humans, but because the bomb took the life of a donkey.
• John Smeaton notices The Guardian’s Katie Guthrie, as she employs what we might consider “Orwellian newspeak” when referring to abortion “care.”
• Stand for Life believes the number one reason abortion continues is because of fear of controversy.

• ProLife NZ reports it is difficult even under the freedom of information act in NZ to find accurate statistics on abortion complications causing hospital admissions. They feel that deliberate under-reporting is meant to give the impression that the procedure is safe:
  

  A total of 877 women were admitted to hospital in New Zealand between 2009 and 2011 for the treatment of complications following abortions. The total number of bed-days totaled 1047. These important statistics reveal that abortions not only kill an unborn child but can result in damage to a woman’s health….

  It is noted that a number of the 877 women admitted for treatment for complications would have been admitted to hospital immediately following the abortion, however their hospitalisation is not required to be advised to the Committee. The remainder of the women would have been discharged from the abortion facility after their abortion and then subsequently readmitted to hospital.

[Top photo via The Blaze; bottom photo of Auckland hospital via ProLife NZ]

by LauraLoo

Opera meets pop when 17-year-old Jonathan and 16-year-old Charlotte sing as a duo. 

Not since Britain’s Susan Boyle have I been wowed with awe and goosies.  Encore!  

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsNlcr4frs4[/youtube]

Email LauraLoo with your Lunch Break suggestions.

[HT: Jill]

by Andy Moore of AbortionWiki.org

Planned Parenthood’s bread and butter is death. The helpless, the disabled, and ethnic minorities are their prey.

But believe it or not, Planned Parenthood has even employed a way to profit from the death of its own members. This from the Fall 2008 newsletter of Six Rivers Planned Parenthood in California, discovered while researching for AbortionWiki:

Gisela and Jerry Rohde

Gisela and Jerry Rohde have been Planned Parenthood supporters for many years. Recently, the Rohdes became the 87th and 88th members of our Heritage Society because they believe in the SRPP mission of creating a world of wanted children…. By leaving part of their estate to Six Rivers Planned Parenthood, they ensure their legacy and their commitment to SRPP services…. As a thank you for their support, Heritage Society members receive a complimentary ticket to the annual Choices Breakfast every year.

The fundraising method outlined above is frequently carried out by groups from across the spectrum. However it is particularly ironic that Planned Parenthood of all organizations has the gall to line the pockets of its leaders with money obtained from the silent death of helpless, innocent preborn children – and willingly – from the death of its own members.

Not convinced that Planned Parenthood’s chief money-spinner is death? WhyProlife.com fills us in:

In 2006, Planned Parenthood performed 289,750 abortions, or approximately 23% of all abortions, making them the largest abortion provider in the United States. Even as the overall national abortion rate goes down, Planned Parenthood continues to perform more abortions every year.

By 2009, that tally of dead children for the year was 332,278. That’s one every 95 seconds, reported CNS News; about as many as the 333,012 people who lived in the city of Cincinnati.

Another of Planned Parenthood’s niche markets is preventing or even destroying very early human life, through various forms of birth control. Students for Life of America has the lowdown on Planned Parenthood’s birth control scam:

[They provide] poor quality, faulty birth control that ensures their abortion profits. Planned Parenthood condoms have the lowest possible ranking by Consumer Reports and it is a well-known fact that contraception does NOT lower abortion rates. According to the Guttmacher Institute, 54% of women who have abortions used contraception during the month they became pregnant.

Within seconds, Rosen’s statement that Ann Romney has “never worked a day in her life” began to burn up Twitter. Mrs. Romney, after all, had raised five children, as well as dealt with MS and cancer.

That was work, no matter how much money her husband made.

~ Washington Examiner’s Byron York on events surrounding Democratic operative Hilary Rosen’s criticism of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s wife, April 12

[HT: Laura Loo; photo via makemyfamilytree.com]