by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

• The Washington Post has one of those columns from one of those professors who write some of those books which attempt to study pro-life people or Christians like we’re exotic animals. It has some hilarious assertions, like claiming that pro-life legislation on the state level “largely went unnoticed, and thus popularly unopposed, until Texas State Sen. Wendy Davis’ filibuster brought attention to the strategy.”
• Joshua Wilson is writing about Massachusetts’ 35-foot buffer zone law, comparing sidewalk counseling and clinic blockades, but never mentioning the FACE Act (which has a much greater effect on clinic blockades than any buffer zone law).
• At National Review, Ed Whelan points out that the primary evidence Massachusetts’ lawyer cites for why the 35-foot buffer zone was needed is “pro choice advocates swearing and screaming at pro life advocates” in the smaller buffer zone.
• Local media outlets are taking notice of the closure of Planned Parenthood in Birmingham:
  

  [Planned Parenthood vice president of external affairs Nora] Spencer did not comment beyond her statement.

  “Planned Parenthood in Birmingham prioritizes patient care, and provides essential reproductive health care to over 1,600 women, men and teens each year,” she said. “We are slowing down our services in Birmingham temporarily in order to upgrade our operations.

  “Planned Parenthood Southeast is committed to excellence, and the effort we are taking is to verify that we are doing everything we can to ensure patients have a safe, positive experience while in our care.”

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.

• Wesley J. Smith adeptly points out that a “die-and-get-out-of-the-way” rationing campaign has already begun in the U.S.

  Liberal New York Times writer Bill Keller recently demeaned popular blogger Linda Bonchek Adams and her fight against cancer. Keller’s advice? Stop trying to give “false hope” to people and enter hospice already. Smith says everyone should be appalled by this attitude:
  

  Here is what I believe is going on behind the curtains: There is a great effort underway at the highest level of the ruling and intellectual classes to devalue the struggle to stay alive. Part of it is utilitarian ideology – the idea that society can define a life not worth living. Indeed, we have seen open advocacy in bioethics for a “duty to die.”

• Reggie Littlejohn of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers tells us that a suspended death sentence has been given to Chinese doctor Zhang Shuxia who tricked her patients into relinquishing their healthy babies for adoption by claiming the children had incurable diseases:
  

  According to a Voice of America report, the court papers state that Zhang sold seven babies to traffickers. She received more than twice as much for a baby boy ($7,700) as she did for a baby girl ($3,300).

  Littlejohn says that China’s One-Child Policy and the resulting gender imbalance is the driving force behind this trafficking. One has to wonder why this doctor would receive a death sentence and an abortionist receives no penalty.

• Secular Pro-Life speculates on the callous nature of a comment made by South Bronx Planned Parenthood director Irving S. Rust in 1993, who claimed many doctors don’t do abortions because they are “like swimming… sort of boring and kind of monotonous.” Even in the first trimester, this “boring” procedure can cause complications, as Rust admits. Apparently, committing atrocities can make you hardened. Who would have guessed?
• At National Review, Michael New exposes several flaws in the latest ultrasound study which purportedly showed little impact on the abortion decisions of women:
  

  a closer look at this study reveals some important limitations with the research. Most important, these ultrasounds were performed by a Planned Parenthood who had a vested financial interest in seeing that the women chose abortion….

  Furthermore, the study did show that among women who were conflicted about how to proceed with their pregnancy, the ultrasound image made them statistically less likely to submit to an abortion. This finding held even when a variety of demographic and economic variables were held constant. As such, this study provides good evidence that for a significant subset of abortion-minded women, ultrasound images steer them toward life-affirming choices.

• Real Choice has some great ideas for March for Life visuals (pictured right).
• Pro-life Action League says Planned Parenthood is, naturally, celebrating “affordable birth control” on the taxpayers’ dime as one of their top accomplishments of 2013.
• Right to Life of Michigan says Planned Parenthood Advocates of MI “has now updated [its] web site and quietly removed the plagiarized stories….” Congratulations to Michigan for its recent passage of the Abortion Insurance Opt-Out Act.
• John Smeaton calls upon the UK government to step up to the problem of sex-selection abortion with a clear cut policy of action:
  

  Last year the NHS and NHS Scotland funded the abortion of an estimated 100,000 girl babies in Britain….

  The department is adopting a contradictory position by saying that a doctor who agrees to abort a girl-fetus because her mother doesn’t want a daughter is a criminal, when in other cases a doctor who refuses to abort a woman because there are no medical grounds, is regarded by the department as guilty of unprofessional conduct. The Department of Health repeatedly insists that doctors who refuse to arrange an abortion must refer the woman to a colleague who is known to have no objection. This is an immoral and legally unfounded demand.

[Top photo via Voice of America]

by LauraLoo

From the birth of Roe v. Wade in 1973, this video reflects on national decisions regarding abortion. It also shows how the pro-life movement has had victories along the way, affecting generations of women, babies and families:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylD7ajPflqo&list=UUFx_SAQ2UNDQII_C8HC1jnQ&feature=c4-overview[/youtube]

Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.

[HT: Jill]

From the Family Research Council comes the annual ProLifeCon on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, January 22, from 8:30-11:30a:

ProLifeCon… is a gathering for pro-life internet activists. Come and join us, as we hear from experts and legislators, who will inform you about the cutting edge of the pro-life movement and give you ways to make an impact on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the rest of the online world.

I’ll be stepping out of the emcee role to speak about pro-life blogging. Speakers this year will include:

• Ryan Bomberger, Chief Creative Officer, The Radiance Foundation
• Joe Carter, Director of Communications, Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention
• Michelle Duggar, Star of TLC’s “19 Kids & Counting”
• Brian Fisher, Co-Founder and President, Online for Life
• Jane Fuller, Executive Director, Assist Pregnancy Center of Virginia
• Bethany Goodman, Assistant Director, March for Life Education and Defense Fund
• Arina Grossu, Director, Center for Human Dignity, Family Research Council
• Anna Higgins, Senior Fellow for Life Studies, Family Research Council
• Tony Perkins, President, Family Research Council
• Henry Potrykus, Senior Fellow, FRC’s Marriage and Religion Research Institute (MARRI)
• Sen. Rick Santorum, Founder, Patriot Voices
• Jill Stanek, Blogger, JillStanek.com

And more!

Register for ProLifeCon 2014 and invite your friends. You can also join in on the conversation on Twitter by using #ProLifeCon.

by Carder

It was hard at first, to think, “Who am I?'”… I thought I was this person (of) my mom and my dad. Now, my dad is not my biological father.

Who am I?

~  Annie Branum, whose parents (pictured with her above), “recently discovered a genetic mismatch in their daughter, and were able to trace her lineage with help from relatives of the now-deceased fertility clinic worker, Thomas Ray Lippert,” Fox 5 NY, January 13

[HT: Laura Loo; photo credit: CBS News]

by Hans Johnson

If you don’t believe in love at first sight, just watch Dennis and Carita Chen when they met their son Jacob, whose adoption they believe parallels their faith.

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

Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.

[HT: Susie Allen]

by Kelli

Wendy Davis, running for Texas governor on the strength of her stand in favor of late-term abortion, raised nearly $3.80 million in the second half of 2013. Nearly $1.07 million – 28 percent – of that money came from outside of Texas, according to my analysis of her campaign finance filing….

Fully a quarter of Davis’s out-of-state money, then, is directly attributable to the cause of legal abortion.

~ Timothy P. Carney, reporting on self-proclaimed “pro-life” Wendy Davis’ (pictured above with Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards) pro-abortion campaign financial resources, Washington Examiner, January 15

[Photo via saynsumthn.wordpress.com]

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

• Slate’s William Saletan refutes the mindset of pro-choice people who think pro-lifers are misogynists who don’t really care about abortion:
  

  The assertion that pro-lifers don’t really care about abortion — that what really motivates them is misogyny, controlling other people’s bodies, and forcing anyone who has sex to have a baby — is morally comforting to a lot of pro-choice people. It reassures us that we’re on side of compassion, justice, and progress, and that there’s no reason to feel ambivalent about this issue. We have nothing to heed or learn from our enemies. Our only challenge is to defeat them.

  This is one of those echo-chamber beliefs that won’t survive a reality test.

• Julia Herrington writes about how she changed her mind on abortion and the framework of the abortion debate:
  

  But with an awareness of the framework we’re dealing with, we have the opportunity to start a new dialogue. Actually, I think it is incumbent upon us to change the conversation, addressing the topic from new and varied points of view. The conversation need not be first and foremost political. And the friction enshrouding abortion needs to be diminished. This requires that we really examine the nuts and bolts of the issue, turn it on its head and find new angles as entry points for discussion.

• At the Boston Herald, radio host Margery Eagan (pictured left) shares her discomfort with how abortions are mostly performed at abortion clinics:
  

  Abortion clinics should be closed and women seeking them should be able to get them where they get the rest of their medical care: their physician’s office. Outpatient clinics that also treat asthma, diabetes, broken bones or aching backs. Secure clinics within big hospitals.

  Do you think Mass. General, Brigham and Women’s, Beth Israel — or their influential patients and patrons — would put up with screaming protesters outside their front doors? No, they wouldn’t. Not for one minute.

  So why then are women, in 2014, still being farmed off like pariahs?

  Because hospitals don’t want the hassle of abortion. Most doctors don’t, either. Insurance companies don’t want to pay more than they’re already paying.

  And pro-choice women let everybody get away with this disgrace.

  Ladies, we are fighting the wrong fight, accepting crumbs from the table, and being played for fools. When will we wake up?