A March 6 New York Times article, “Abortion law pushes Texas clinics to close doors,” included a slide show, “Last day for last abortion clinic in the Rio Grande,” referring to one of two Texas abortion mills that closed that day. Above and below are a few of those pictures. Click all photos and graphics to enlarge…

According to Think Progress, the number of abortion clinics is Texas is down to 19, from 44 as recently as 2011. By September 1 there could be as few as six abortion clinics in the state that meet the new ambulatory surgical center guidelines, hence a “state of emergency” for the lack of access to murder babies.

But the phenomenon of shuttering abortion clinics isn’t confined to the Lone Star State. As I wrote in a previous post,  abortion clinics have been dropping like flies everywhere. Ninety-three clinics closed in 2013 alone, bringing the total number down to 759 from a high in 1991 of 2,176. According to Operation Rescue, an additional eight abortion clinics in four states have announced they are closing thus far in 2014.

A March 5 American Prospect article lamenting another recent pro-life tactic – stacking state boards of health with like-minded believers – included a rather amazing chart…

Disregard the fact that Guttmacher blames “anti-choice insurgents” for frightening abortionists out of the business. As even left-leaning Bloomberg News admitted, there are a number of factors – some self-imposed – but none of them fear.

Look instead at the changing abortion landscape. It’s quite something.

Pro-lifers and the rest of the world are slowly seeing the reverse of a perverse social experiment in likely the most watched, influential, and volatile pro-abortion country on the planet. Nowhere else is legalized abortion fought as much as it is here. What happens here on abortion is not only critical here but has a ripple effect.

Particularly in the last three years, pro-lifers have made significant gains throughout the states. See this Guttmacher chart, the title of which says it all: “More abortion restrictions were enacted in 2011-2013 than in the entire previous decade.”

The sudden “clinic crash” in Texas  serves as a reminder that pro-lifers must stand ready to meet the need. Fortunately, there are four times as many pregnancy care centers in the U.S. as there are abortion clinics, and there is also a church in almost every neighborhood.

If it’s true that “nobody likes abortion, dammit,” which I hear all the time, this becomes the time for abortion supporters to join forces with pro-lifers to truly help pregnant mothers in crisis, rather than merely direct them to a place that does what they say they don’t like – because there are fewer and fewer of them.

Rather than complain that the drive to kill one’s child is becoming impossibly long and increasingly expensive, or is shifting to a scary place like Mexico, pro-choicers could work with pro-lifers to stop crisis pregnancies before they start.

We pretty much know exactly who stumbles into a crisis pregnancy. According to About.com, “The majority of women with unplanned pregnancies do not live with their partners or have committed relationships. These women realize that in all likelihood they will be raising their child as a single mother.”

Abortion proponents should join pro-lifers in encouraging single women to respect themselves more than to have sex if they are not ready to parent a baby, particularly with a creep who will abandon them if they get pregnant.

That’s how they could do the most good, expend meaningful, productive energy.

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.

• Secular Pro-Life has a well-written article delving into the art of analyzing polling data with a critical eye. Can pollsters manipulate emotions, and therefore results, by wording questions in a certain manner? The short answer is yes:
  

  By name? Roe v. Wade is popular. By effect? It’s toxic. The key is to make defenders own the toxicity. (Related: It’s also important to help Americans realize how many of them already oppose abortion, because media bias causes us to significantly over-estimate the popularity of the pro-choice movement.)

  And that’s really all you need to know about American opinion on abortion. When they see the facts, Americans still make the right choice.

• Right to Life of Michigan reports that one of President Obama’s supporters and one of the world’s wealthiest men, Warren Buffett (pictured left, receiving the Medal of Freedom from the President in 2010), recently gave $40 million to Planned Parenthood. This should come as no great surprise, however, as Buffett has been a longtime supporter of numerous population control efforts worldwide:
  

  The Buffett Foundation’s 990 for 2012 wasn’t available. But in 2011, it gave or pledged more than $40 million to Planned Parenthood, which provides abortions as part of its range of services. It gave more than $1 million to the Abortion Access Project and many other pro-abortion groups.

• ProLife NZ has an interesting post looking at the abortion views of the three largest world religions – Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism.
• Reflections of a Paralytic links to a radio podcast on the issue of three-parent embryos and genetic engineering.

• Pro-Life Action League suggests that a good way pro-lifers might spend season of Lent is by praying and fasting for three specific abortion supporters: abortionist Cheryl Chastine, journalist Robin Marty, and clinic escort Katie Klabusich:
  

  We’re asking you to pray every day and offer the sacrifice of one meal a week for them during the season of Lent….

• ProLifeBlogs links to a happy announcement from 40 Days for Life: a Columbia, Missouri, abortion facility – the site of many prayer vigils – has closed. This leaves one licensed abortuary in Missouri, Planned Parenthood in St. Louis. Be encouraged!
• At Eternal Perspective Ministries, Randy Alcorn links to a blog by Rachel Lewis on the importance of being consistent in our response to prenatal loss. Lewis makes the case that among pro-lifers, losing a child to miscarriage is often downplayed and seen as “part of life”, whereas abortion is viewed as the opposite. But the end result is the same: a real child has died, and his parents have a right to their grief:
  

  To be perfectly honest, before my losses, I didn’t quite understand that the way we pro-lifers treat miscarriage is important.

  And yet after we lost Olivia, it didn’t take long for me to realize that in this Christian microcosm of ours, somehow an aborted baby had so much more to offer the world than a miscarried one.

  Both babies may have died at the same gestation—one by choice, the other by chance. But the value attached to each child completely depended on how that child died.

[Photos via money.cnn.com and Pro-Life Action League]

by LauraLoo

US Paralympic swimmer Jessica “Tatiana” Long recently met her biological mother, Natalya Valtysheva, in Siberia. They had not seen each other since Jessica was adopted in 1993 by Beth and Steve Long of the United States:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXakLVkSa4g[/youtube]

Jessica Long was born Tatiana Kirillova in Bratsk and was adopted at 13 months old.  Shortly thereafter, due to a medical condition called fibular hemimelia, Jessica’s lower legs were amputated.  Jessica has become a true overcomer, learning to walk and swim with prostheses, and holds world records in 13 Paralympic events.

Jessica also traveled to Irkutsk where she visited the orphanage she lived in before her adoption to the Longs.  Jessica said, “To me, a negative attitude is a disability.  And even though I’m missing my legs, I don’t see it as a handicap.  I see it as an advantage to inspire people”:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqJL7xjH_4U[/youtube]

Russia’s abortion rate has been extremely high for decades (the country’s Minister of Health and Social Development has stated that Russia’s “abortion statistics are basically comparable to birth statistics”), so it’s encouraging to read a story of life and hope from there.

Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.

[HT: ABC7, Chicago]

The last thing I wanna do is rip on a pregnant woman, but it’s a horrible dress on her.

It doesn’t look like a baby bump, it looks like a beer belly.

~ George Kotsiopoulos of E!’s Fashion Police commenting on Chris Hemsworth’s wife, who is pregnant with twins, and the maternity evening gown she wore to the Oscars, via The Daily Mail, March 4

[HT: Laura Loo; photo via Disney Dreaming.com]

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

• A woman seeking to replace Alabama State Rep. Alvin Holmes responded to his comments in which he said white people would encourage abortion if their daughters were impregnated by black men:
  

  “He said that being pro life was for white people, that’s not true. Pro life is loving babies whether they’re inside the womb or outside of the womb. Whether you’re black or white – it doesn’t have a color,” said Tijuanna Adetunji.

• An accidental break room fire at Martin Haskell’s Indianapolis abortion clinic caused $30,000 worth of damage. While all patients had left, five clinics staffers were there at the time.

• The University of Georgia paper, the Red & Black, has a number of pictures showing pro-choice students attempting to cover up a recent pro-life display by Justice for All, which included images of abortion victims. One pro-choice student’s sign indicates she thinks legal abortion brought an end to women dying from unsafe abortions (pictured left; click to enlarge).
• Whole Woman’s Health is closing 2 clinics in Texas:
  

  Whole Woman’s Health in Beaumont and McAllen will close after providing abortions in the areas for a decade. Amy Hagstrom Miller, president of Whole Woman’s Health, which operated five abortion clinics before the law went into effect, said the provision requiring physicians to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic was proving the most problematic.

  Miller said hospitals near her McAllen clinic refused to grant her physicians’ applications for privileges. Some hospitals in the area require their privileged physicians to live nearby. Others require a current physician to co-sign applications for privileges, which many are unwilling to do for fear of being targeted or stigmatized.

  In Beaumont, one 75-year-old physician secured privileges, but a second one could not, Miller said.

On January 31, pro-life hero Cal Zastrow was standing vigil in the biting Michigan winter cold at the Women’s Center of Saginaw abortion clinic when an SUV bearing the insignia, “Holy Cross Children’s Services” pulled into the parking lot. According to Cal in an email update:

The passenger was clearly a minor, appearing perhaps 15-years-old. The driver was an African-American woman, about 5′ 2″, wearing pants, jacket, and a name badge. The woman scurried in while the girl walked slowly, looking very sad and frightened to go in. She stared at us while we offered help. Neither of them spoke.

Abortionist Roumell arrived after noon, hacked loudly, spat on the ground in our direction, and went in to commit multiple murders. There were a total of two moms that turned away without murdering, but five stayed in long enough to kill, including the woman and girl from this vehicle.

This was a heartrending tragedy, but what happened next was a noteworthy display of Christian leadership and humility on the part of Holy Cross, a large nonprofit Catholic network of children’s homes and services in Michigan.

Both the Diocese of Saginaw and Holy Cross Executive Director Br. Francis Boylan were chagrined when presented with Zastrow’s photos, and an investigation was immediately launched. Discovered, according to a February 19 follow-up letter from Br. Boylan to Most Reverend Allen Vigneron, Archbishop of Detroit-Metropolitan:

The person who transported our student to the clinic violated at least four established rules which would have brought the question of pregnancy termination to the attention of various supervisors. While it cannot be proven that the co-worker involved did so intentionally, all indications are that her actions were purposeful. Upon learning of her activity, she was immediately suspended without pay and has since been fired….

[W]e determined that not only had she acted contrary to the clear directives contained within our procedures, but that her values, as a person, were in serious conflict with our Mission, which is completely consistent with the Church. In addition, the investigation confirmed that this co-worker acted unilaterally without any corroboration with any other HCCS co-worker.

I received more of the backstory from Dr. Monica Miller, director of Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, who was involved in the discussions.

The girl was apparently already a mother of a young child, and both were residents at a Holy Cross facility for parenting teen moms who come from troubled or abusive homes.

At a court date with her mother, the girl acknowledged she was pregnant again. The judge asked if she wanted an abortion, she said yes, and her mother agreed. The Holy Cross employee drove the girl directly from court to the abortion clinic. More on that from a February 7 follow-up letter from the Saginaw Diocese, quoting another Holy Cross statement:

[A]s a citizen of the State of Michigan a Holy Cross coworker felt obligated to follow a court order and be incompliance [sic] with Federal laws regarding the care of minors therefore she felt she did not have to consult with leadership at Holy Cross to implement this court order.

Back to the Holy Cross letter:

In the future, if we are ordered by the Department of Human Services to deliver a student for abortion consultation outside of the Agency, we will only deliver our student to an Agency approved by the Church to give such counseling.

In addition, we will refuse to participate in anyway directly or indirectly with any direction by the Department of Human Services, or a Court for that matter, in the delivery of a student to a hospital, medical facility or clinic for pregnancy termination.  We will demand that the student be reassigned to another Agency.

It should be noted that, particularly in our women and baby programs, we deal with this issue on a regular basis. To our knowledge, in our entire history, there has been no instance where we have participated directly in the procurement of a pregnancy termination.

On the other hand, we have literally counseled hundreds of young women to keep their babies.  Our programs supply real time support and refuge to young women who finds themselves to be or soon to be young mothers. We provide a facility where they can live and nurture their child through and after their pregnancy.

We believe that our record of success in this area is unparalleled. Literally, because of our program and the continuing care we offer, hundreds of young women have found a refuge and learning center for the raising of their children and a place for continuing counseling after they leave our residential programs….

We now know a child’s life was taken.  While the individual responsible may have been acting within the law, it is apparent that she acted on her own, fully knowing that HCCS believes that taking someone’s life, under any circumstance, is an immoral and appalling act that cannot be tolerated in a Catholic Agency, regardless of civil law.  If anything good can come out of this terrible tragedy, what is clear is that everyone at HCCS is devastated that it happened to one of our own, and we are better prepared that it will not happen again.

It is because we recognize that, in spite of our long history when no such event has ever occurred before, a child has had its life terminated while in our care that we immediately developed the most stringent protocols we could to assure that this will not happen to any of our children again.

Closing thoughts from Zastrow (pictured right):

The Diocese conducted an investigation, had the responsible person fired, admitted wrong, took steps to fix it, and has a more stringent policy they require all of the employees of HCCS to support.

All big organizations/churches are going to have people that err from time to time. Good leadership doesn’t go nutso, throw the baby out with the bathwater, cover up internal hypocrisy, pretend that all of the good that they do neutralizes some bad, or is apathetic.

Also, cameras are so important to have while doing street-ministry.

Indeed, had Zastrow not been at the mill that day, and had he not had a camera, no one would have ever known about this tragedy.

Now, HCCS has gotten rid of a bad apple and is able to offer this young mother post-abortion counseling.

Nevertheless, the evil that is abortion has claimed the life of another innocent victim.

by Hans Johnson

MSNBC’S Ronan Farrow, fresh off receiving the Cronkite Award for Excellence in Exploration and Journalism (after a career legacy of three episodes) didn’t seem to consider the need for a follow-up question when Cecile Richards claimed Planned Parenthood was a non-partisan organization – one that has sent 100% of its contributions to the Democratic Party and 99% in the previous two years.

And, of course, there was Richards’ stint at the 2012 Democratic National Convention.

Since Richards doesn’t even consider the question of when life begins to be relevant to the abortion debate, one expects her to wander from the truth.

But perhaps Mr. Farrow could begin to qualify for that award by challenging  the guest. From Newsbusters:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_j36hyMJ_M[/youtube]

Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.

by Kelli

Ninety-nine percent of the all of the white people in here are going to raise their hand that they are against abortion.

They’re not going to let that happen. You know that and I know that. You will never admit it. You know that and I know that.

~ Alabama State Rep. Alvin Holmes (D–Montgomery), speaking Tuesday during a debate on Alabama’s pro-life “heartbeat” bill, as quoted by The Raw Story, March 5

According to the article, Holmes “made news last month when he called U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas an ‘Uncle Tom’….”

Audio at link.

[Photo via blog.al.com]