by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

• Longtime abortion advocate and abortionist David Grimes tries to intentionally deceive Washington Post readers with this quote:
  

  David Grimes, former head of the CDC’s abortion surveillance branch, said clinics like Gosnell’s were commonplace before Roe v. Wade, the court case that legalized abortion. Today, the problem of substandard clinics is so small that the branch, which investigated problem clinics, no longer exists, he said.“The legalization of abortion stands out as a public health triumph,” he said. “Over 1,000 women died every year from illegal abortion in the 1940s. Now it’s less than a handful a year. That’s the story, not one aberrant doctor in Philadelphia.”

  Wait. 1,000 women died every year in the 1940’s? Wasn’t abortion legalized in the 1970’s? Why is Grimes using statistics from 30 years before abortion was legalized to make his case?

  Oh yeah, that’s right – because in 1972, 39 women (as opposed to over a thousand) died from illegal abortion. An additional 24 women died from legal abortion in 1972.

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

• Another Philadelphia abortionist testified for the prosecution today in Kermit Gosnell’s murder trial. While pro-choice bloggers are crowing about access to abortion in Philadelphia, today’s witness notes that he is one of 4 abortionists left in the city:
  

  Dr. Charles Benjamin is one of about four abortion providers left in Philadelphia in the wake of Dr. Kermit Gosnell’s arrest two years ago. His testimony was received by “an influx of reporters.”

  Benjamin, by his own count, has performed 40,000 abortions over a 30-year career. He doesn’t do them after 21 weeks, or three weeks shy of the 24-week limit in Pennsylvania, he said.

  Gosnell is accused of performing illegal, late-term abortions and running a dangerously outdated clinic staffed by untrained workers. Benjamin said that he has registered nurses on staff to monitor patients, and that only he or a nurse anesthetist give anesthesia, unlike Gosnell’s clinic, where workers hired to clean instruments or handle paperwork have testified that Gosnell trained them to administer potent intravenous drugs….

  An influx of reporters attended the trial Monday, spurred by criticism that some broadcasters were not covering the trial. A gag order prevents lawyers from speaking outside and no cameras are allowed inside the courtroom.

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

• San Francisco Supervisor David Campos is hoping to expand the city’s buffer-zone around abortion clinics:
  

  A city law passed in 1993 created an 8-foot “bubble zone” around anyone who is within 100 feet of a health care facility, but Campos said that has been ineffective. Demonstrators, he said, get around the law by staying in one spot and not approaching clinic visitors.

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

• In an attempt to further abortion worldwide, the United States and the European Union joined forces at the UN Commission on the Status of Women to ask for the deletion of “a reaffirmation that every human being has the inherent right to life, liberty and security of persons.”
• Authorities in Minnesota have charged a man with two counts of murder for killing his wife and his unborn child:
  

  The Dakota County attorney’s office charged Roger Earl Holland, 36, with two counts of second-degree intentional murder – one count in his wife’s death and one in her unborn child’s death. Bail was set at $1 million, or $750,000 with conditions….

  Holland called 911 last Thursday to report finding his wife, Margorie Ann Holland, in cardiac arrest at the foot of a staircase in their Apple Valley apartment, prosecutor James Backstrom said in a news release. Margorie Holland, who was nearly four months pregnant, and her unborn child died at a hospital later that morning.

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

• The National Day of Appreciation for Abortion Providers was March 10. From the various pro-choice sources I read, it seems like it was less celebrated than usual.
• The Wichita Eagle interviewed one of the physicians who has signed up to provide abortions at the South Wind Women’s Center abortion clinic when it opens. South Wind is operating at the same location where George Tiller provided abortions in Wichita. The new physician says she’s never performed an elective abortion:
  

  She has been a board-certified OB/GYN for about 10 years but has never performed elective abortions. The doctor says abortion is probably not a choice she would make for herself.

  But she believes that women have the right to that option and she said she felt a calling to step up to provide that option. The doctor asked to not be named in this story…. The OB/GYN wants to remain anonymous for as long as she can.

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

• A Wisconsin man has been charged with stalking after he allegedly threatened to kill his lover if she didn’t have an abortion.
  

  True Xiong, 46, demanded she undergo the procedure when she learned she was pregnant with his child in July, according to the complaint filed Monday in La Crosse County Circuit Court.

  She refused, and Xiong continued with his threats to kill her and the child, sometimes calling her two or three times a day. Xiong said he

  tampered with her car and rotated her bed, an action in Hmong culture meant to bring bad luck to the woman and her child, according to the complaint.

  Xiong, who is married, threatened the woman in person when he could no longer reach her by phone.

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat The Arkansas Legislature has overridden Gov. Beebe’s veto of the state’s 20-week abortion ban. An Alabama health committee heard testimony on legislation to regulate abortion clinics. One ob/gyn noted some of the problems created by circuit-riding abortionists: Matt Phillips, an obstetrician and gynecologist in Montgomery, spoke in favor […]

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

• TIME provides more information on the teenage couple in Texas who sued to prevent the young woman’s parents from forcing her to have an abortion:
  

  The baby is due Sept. 16. According to [the baby’s father] Evan, he and R.E.K. — they began dating last summer — knew right away they would have the baby. “We’ve always been against abortion,” says Evan, who wants to become a welder (R.E.K. wants to attend nursing school). “As soon as we found out she was pregnant, we knew we wanted to keep it.”

  … It remains to be seen just how involved the girl’s parents will be with their new grandchild. While Burnside and her husband, who is not Evan’s biological father, are being supportive, the girl’s parents may find it harder to play a role: days after the judge’s ruling, Evan, a high school sophomore, married his pregnant girlfriend, a junior, in what Burnside calls a “shotgun” wedding.