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 says Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California has sent a letter to California legislators stating their opposition to a ban on sex-selective abortion. The war on women is being waged in the womb with the support of Planned Parenthood.
• Live Action highlights Planned Parenthood’s outrageous statements on sex selection abortion and infanticide. It’s all in a day’s work for this organization, which enjoys exorbitant amounts of our tax dollars and great favor in Washington, D.C.

• Pro-Life Action League recently hosted a “Face the Truth” day at two sites in Chicago where abortionist Mandy Gittler does business. Gittler is the abortionist responsible for the death of Tonya Reaves at Planned Parenthood. Armed with informational flyers and signs about the bubble zone, Reaves’ death, and the lack of inspection by the Illinois Department of Health, PLAL educated many people.
• Pro-Life in TN comments on the story of a Nashville woman who rented her womb as a gestational surrogate, only to stumble upon a couple who insisted upon sex selection and selective reduction:
  

  The third time was not a charm for the surrogate who finds “pregnancy an easy process.” This time she entertained renting her womb to a famous and mega rich heterosexual couple who must be unnamed due a non disclosure agreement.

  She started to get bad vibes when they said they wanted a boy and would use gender determining tests on five day old embryos to accomplish this…. The final straw was after they finally settled on two female embryos, but wanted to assure a singleton was born. This meant that [Jessica] Szalacinski had to agree to abort one of the babies if they both “took”… [which made] her feel like her a commodity and she backed out of this intended lucrative arrangement.

• ProLife365.com spotlights David Bereit, National Director of 40 Days for Life, who was once passively pro-life, but now devotes himself to a full time pro-life ministry. The organization has had amazing results, with 8,900+ babies’ lives saved, 50 abortion mills closed, and 100+ abortion clinic workers leaving the industry.
• Saynsumthn’s Blog notes that New York Planned Parenthood employees are unionizing – an idea Jill Stanek actually encouraged last year. A previous post by Saynsumthn points out that Planned Parenthood contracted with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) to do their telemarketing to the tune of $1,067,934. (Recall that PP CEO Cecile Richards’ husband, Kirk Adams, is an executive vice president of the SEIU.)
• The Leading Edge and thirtyone8 take exception to Rev. Francis “Frank” Ritchie’s blog post on the New Zealand Green Party’s new abortion policy.

• ProWomanProLife links to LifeSiteNews’ announcement that Canadian sidewalk counselor Mary Wagner (pictured right) has been freed after nearly two years in prison for counseling abortion-bound women. Wagner believes her time in jail was not wasted:
  

  She said she saw the time as “an opportunity for the Holy Spirit really to be at work in hearts that are broken, seeking and are open to God. So quite easily, prayer groups formed and people asked why I was there, why I was in jail. Immediately, I had the chance to share the truth about the wound of abortion.”

  She estimated some 80 percent of the women she met in the Vanier Centre for Women in Milton had undergone an abortion and of those, 90 percent said they regretted it. “I would love to see more of a connection between the outside world and the inside world for women who are hurting,” she said. “Maybe just by penpals or visits and that, because a lot of them don’t have connections with somebody in their lives anymore.”

• At National Review, Michael J. New questions whether contraception truly plays a role in reducing the abortion rate:
  

  … [E]ven though contraceptive use has gone up, the fertility rate and unintended pregnancy rate have both actually increased slightly since the mid-1990s. All in all, pro-life efforts to change the hearts and minds of women facing crisis pregnancies might be more effective than commonly realized.

  New’s statements have generated a great deal of feedback. In a poorly-researched post at Mother Jones, Kevin Drum took issue with New’s conclusions, “doubting that public opinion, contraceptives, or legislation are playing a substantial role in the recent abortion decline” and stating that both sides of this debate should “stand down.” New responds by saying that looking at the actual evidence is a better strategy. After going into some must-read detail, he concludes:
  

  Overall, since the early 1990s there have been gains in pro-life sentiment, pro-life legislation, and decreases in teen sexual activity. These factors may not completely explain the decline in the abortion rate. However, they seem like far more compelling explanations than increases in contraception use.

  Also responding to New’s article – with absolutely no data or arguments to the contrary – Slate’s Katie McDonough asserts that New is “delusional”. New writes:
  

  I have a simple question for McDonough and others who think that contraception is responsible for America’s long-term abortion decline: If contraceptives are effective and contraceptive use has increased, why has the unintended-pregnancy rate gone up? Again, statistics from both Guttmacher and the National Center for Health Statistics… both show the unintended-pregnancy rate has increased since the mid 1990s. Honestly, I am not expecting much of a response. It is unfortunate that instead of thoughtfully engaging the arguments that I put forward, McDonough and others simply choose to engage in childish name calling.

[Photos via Pro-Life Action League and LifeSiteNews]