What a tough situation. Be sure to vote your thoughts in the poll at the bottom of this post.

From nola.com, July 3:

The Bill Cassidy Senate campaign announced Thursday that the candidate’s unmarried 17-year-old daughter is pregnant as she prepares for her senior year at a Baton Rouge high school.

Cassidy [is] a Republican congressman from Baton Rouge…. The baby is expected later this summer.

Much like Sarah Palin, who announced that her own unmarried 17-year-old daughter was expecting just before she addressed the Republican National Convention as John McCain’s surprise 2008 vice presidential selection, the Cassidy campaign chose to pre-emptively disclose the information about their daughter’s pregnancy.

The Cassidy campaign provided this statement:

“Earlier this year, Laura and I learned we will become grandparents this summer. Our children have been the greatest blessing of our lives and we welcome our grandchild as a joyous addition to our family. Our daughter now faces a more challenging future than her peers. She has our unconditional love and support.”

The Cassidy campaign didn’t provide additional information.

Palin, the former Alaska governor received mostly praise for the disclosure about her daughter, both from conservative Christian advocacy groups like the Family Research Council and Democrats. Some abortion opponents praised the daughter for not terminating her pregnancy.

It’s likely the information would have come out eventually because of Palin’s high-profile, though ultimately unsuccessful campaign, to be the first woman vice president.

It’s not as certain that word about the Cassidy daughter’s pregnancy would have been disclosed without Thursday’s announcement. But by disclosing the information, the Cassidy campaign can avoid somebody perhaps using social media to reveal the news in a gossipy way.

Both Bill Cassidy and his wife, Laura, are physicians….

Do you agree with how this father (pictured above) handled his daughter’s pregnancy news, given his high profile? Or should he just have remained mum for as long as possible, until word was leaked by another source?

On a personal note, I’d like to congratulate the Cassidy family on their new addition and their brave daughter. Cassidy’s campaign website states he “works to promote the culture of life and protect the unborn.” He and his family are showing they walk the walk.

Two weeks after the Supreme Court ruled that Massachusetts’ protective buffer zone around abortion clinics violates the free speech rights of protesters, four other buffer zones around the country have already disappeared or been challenged in court.

The City Council of Portland, Maine, repealed its 39-foot buffer zone around a women’s health clinic this week, and the cities of Burlington, Vermont, and Madison, Wisconsin, have stopped enforcing their buffer zones. In Burlington, people had been legally prohibited from protesting within 35 feet of the clinic, and Madison had a “floating” buffer zone that prohibited protesters from coming within eight feet of a patient entering or exiting an abortion clinic.

On Tuesday, the anti-abortion group Alliance Defending Freedom sued to challenge New Hampshire’s new buffer zone law, which allows individual clinics to set up their own buffer zones up to 25 feet around the premises.

~ Huffingon Post, July 9

[Photo (click to enlarge), via PressHerald.com,  is of pro-life activists standing outside a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Portland, Maine, on July 11 after its buffer zone ordinance was repealed]

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

• At ProLife365, Kevin Kukla shows how the redefinition of “pregnancy” and “conception” have changed over the years, by a deliberate choice on the part of contraception proponents. Kukla writes, “Did you know that the moment your life began depends on which decade you were born in?”

• Pro-Life in TN discusses the left’s newest hero, rising Democrat star Lucy Flores, who is running for lieutenant governor of Nevada. A young Hispanic, raised in poverty as one of 13 children, Flores reached her newfound fame by disclosing that she once had an abortion and has no regrets. But Slate, reports:
  

  Her eyes welled up and her voice caught as she described how she’d convinced her father to pay the $200 cost for the procedure.

Sounds like Flores might need to work on her “I’m not sorry” demeanor.

• Suzy B unearths two decades-old videos in which NFL players boldly encourage women to choose life for their babies instead of abortion. Wow, how things have changed!
• ProLife NZ cross posts an article from Christian Answers, responding to the claim that pro-lifers are unjustly trying to impose their morality on others:
  

  Although it does not seriously damage their entire position, it is interesting to note that many abortion-rights advocates do not hesitate to impose their moral perspective on others when they call for the use of other people’s tax dollars (many of whom do not approve of this use of funds) to help pay for the abortions of poor women.

• With the increased use of surrogacy and IVF, children seem to have become another commodity. Wesley J. Smith discusses how The View host Sherri Shepherd (pictured right, with estranged husband Lamar Sally) has decided she wants nothing to do with the preborn child who was conceived using a donor egg and her husband’s sperm – because her marriage is falling apart. She has appealed to the judge to release her from the contract, as she has no biological connection to the baby. Smith writes:
  

  This is the culture we are allowing to emerge. If she wanted the baby, it’s hers by right of contract.

She doesn’t want the baby? Well, it’s only a purchased product anyway.

Per an article in the Daily Mail, Shepherd has booked herself for a gospel festival on the due date. She has also admitted to having “a lot of abortions” in her past.

• Stand True shares the heartwarming story of pro-life activist Brice Griffin, who kept the secret of her past abortion from her children. With the help and encouragement of pro-life leaders, she was able to release the secret and share her testimony with her children.
• On their YouTube page, CitizenLink shares a video in which they counter the liberal “Does this look like a person?” meme against the Supreme Court’s decision in favor of Hobby Lobby:

[youtube]http://youtu.be/XLvKNG-8Pko[/youtube]

[Photos via Lucy Flores Democrat for Lt. Governor/Facebook; Daily Mail]

by Hans Johnson

Six weeks into her pregnancy, Michelle Hui suffered a miscarriage. Five scans and two doctors confirmed it at a Dublin, Ireland hospital. She was given two abortion pills to clear out the uterus of any remains that could lead to infection. Released the next day, she was instructed to take a pregnancy test – which gave a positive reading.

So ten days after her miscarriage she was admitted for a D&C. But on the scan a heartbeat was detected! Apparently Megan is a surviving twin.

Said Michelle:

Now Megan is fine, she’s healthy and she is just a big healthy pudding of a baby. The doctors said it was a blessing. They have never heard of anything like it. Someone had been looking over us.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/wOs8Qfwq-3U[/youtube]

Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.

[HT: TheBlaze]

by Carder

You know, if you happen to be in a crisis pregnancy right now, you’re probably thinking, “what right do these highly paid athletes have to preach to me,” and you’d be partly right.

~ Former Buffalo Bills football player Mark Kelso in a recently unearthed 1992 pro-life PSA video featuring other Washington Redskins and Buffalo Bills players encouraging women to choose life, SB Nation via Salon, July 9

by Kelli

Yesterday, Created Equal’s Seth Drayer was attacked both physically and verbally while doing a pro-life outreach in downtown Columbus, Ohio. In an email, Created Equal’s Executive Director Mark Harrington responded:

Violent attacks on pro-lifers are becoming more common. Pro-lifers need to be winsome and be willing to take verbal and physical abuse if necessary in order to remain faithful to our pledge to be non-violent. We also should take precautions to reduce the likelihood of these attacks, be prepared to film them and prosecute the perpetrators (if necessary) to the fullest extent of the law. We understand the risk we take each time we go into the marketplace of ideas with a message as counter-cultural as showing the victims of abortion. However, despite the threat we will not shrink back from representing the victims.

WARNING: Profanity –

[youtube]http://youtu.be/g67z_xBe07Q[/youtube]

Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.

[HT: Jill]

by Kelli

I must admit my emotions and thinking on this are conflicted.

However, this is the most humanly this pre-born child was ever treated in his short life and reflecting back on it I do not hold the funeral home accountable for his murder, but appreciate that they will, by their services provide him a little dignity.

~ Pro-lifer Toby Harmon, who witnessed a funeral home worker arriving at Southwestern Women’s Options late-term abortion facility to “pick up a fetus” for a proper cremation as requested by the aborting mother, as quoted by Saynsumthn’s Blog, July 8

Video of Harmon’s conversation with the worker here.

by Hans Johnson

Soccer player Nico Calabria, who was born with one leg, exemplifies the best of the human spirit in this Powerade commercial. According to Men’s Fitness, Nico “was born with no right hip or leg, yet he plays soccer, wrestled in high school, grew up practicing gymnastics, and at age 13 raised more than $100,000 for charity by climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.”

Nico’s story is a great example of how his parents made all the difference in affirming his abilities and value, despite his disabilities:

[youtube]http://youtu.be/10GD9inHQbI[/youtube]

Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.

[HT: Susie Allen]