by Kelli

Students for Life of America has released a video at www.ExposePlanB.com showing how, according to SFLA president Kristan Hawkins, “statutory rapists can use this powerful drug to easily get away with their crimes by casually purchasing it for their underage victims with no one none the wiser, including the parents…. This is illegal and could be prevented with common sense restrictions on the sale of the Plan B.�

In this undercover series, SFLA went to “30 Walgreens, Rite-Aid, and CVS stores across the nation in August and September of 2013 and filmed these interactions. While the situation may seem extreme, real instances of this and worse have taken place with a similar drug, Ella….”

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

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From the Burlington Free Press, November 19:

The Vermont Office of the Attorney General has settled another campaign finance complaint from the 2010 election. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England has agreed to pay a $30,000 penalty to settle a complaint filed by group known as Let Vermont Vote. The group said Planned Parenthood failed to register its Action Fund�as a political action committee and file contribution reports. The complaint also said the PAC had accepted contributions bigger than the $2,000 per donor limit. The Planned Parenthood Action Fund spent $119,437 on advertising that criticized Brian Dubie, the Republican candidate for governor in 2010…. Craig Bensen of Cambridge, executive director of Let Vermont Vote, filed his complaint about Planned Parenthood in February of 2012.

In August 2012 Planned Parenthood of Northern New England was one of three Planned Parenthoods�to whom�HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius awarded�grants to serve as Obamacare�”navigators” to help people enroll in Obamacare. PPNNE was given�$145,161 from a total of $655,000 awarded to the three. The Obama administration had to know PPNNE was under investigation when it awarded PPNNE the grant. Or perhaps PPNNE didn’t acknowledge the investigation when applying for the grant? Either way, something smells. More odorous info: At the time of �PPNNE’s grant award, Steve Trombley was the CEO. Trombley was formerly CEO of Planned Parenthood of Chicago, and then Planned Parenthood of Illinois, when Obama was state senator and U.S. senator. The two men were close allies. Obama even gave Trombley a shout out to during his infamous speech to Planned Parenthood in 2008 (:41 on the video). Earlier this month�New Hampshire Right to Life sued PPNNE for prescribing the RU486 abortion pill too late in the pregnancy, contrary to FDA protocol. This means PPNNE is violating state law.

The Supreme Court is expected to decide in the next week or so whether to take up the question of whether a for-profit company can deny its female employees contraception coverage in employer-provided health plans because the company owner has a religious objection.

We�re not talking about religious institutions here. We�re talking about a secular national retailer, in this case the Hobby Lobby crafts store chain, whose owner thinks he should be able to dictate the terms of his employees� insurance coverage because of his religious convictions.

Back in the mid-1960s, a popular South Carolina barbecue franchise called Piggie Park was sued after it refused to serve black customers for religious reasons. Its owner claimed that God taught him the races should be separate.

A federal district court wholeheartedly embraced the man’s right to practice the religion of his choice. But it said he could not use those beliefs to deny the constitutional rights of others. The Supreme Court agreed.

Will the court stand up for fairness again? At this point, that�s anyone’s guess.

~ Robin Abcarian, Los Angeles Times, November 20

[Photo via blacksnob.com]

by Kelli

Today, Created Equal issued this press release:

On November 19, 2013, Created Equal Executive Director Mark Harrington was arrested outside of an Albuquerque election polling location for lawfully expressing his free speech rights. As video of the arrest reveals, Harrington abided by the state law that allows campaigning 100 feet outside of a polling location. Though he did not cross the line, he was arrested for allegedly trespassing.

�I just want the facts,� Harrington says in appeal to law enforcement in the video. He was never asked to leave by property owners prior to the arrival of the police. Instead, the 100 feet free speech boundary was marked out for campaign efforts.

In spite of his compliance, Harrington was arrested and detained for the remaining duration of Albuquerque�s late-term abortion ban vote. He was released earlier this morning.

Mark Harrington said, �This is a cut-and-dried violation of the Constitutional rights of pro-life advocates to help get the vote out in ABQ. I was simply following New Mexico state law that permits �campaigning� outside the 100 foot buffer.�

[youtube]http://youtu.be/s9qazuqC8fo[/youtube]

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I was frankly shocked to see Albuquerque’s 20-week abortion ban initiative go down. In early September the ban got overwhelming public support, according to an Albuquerque Journal poll, right.

But the initiative did go down, losing by 9,144 votes: 55%-45%, 48,042 to 38,898.

Early voting is where our side lost. There were 50,000 early and absentee ballots cast, and they went 56% against and 44% for.

Objectively speaking, how barbaric is a society that votes in favor of murdering preborn babies five months old and up, particularly who are known to feel the pain of it all? How barbaric are people to jump, clap, and shout for joy when that happens (photo above)?

Pretty barbaric.

Yet I don’t believe the vote in ABQ accurately represents societal thought. I think what it reflects is a well-oiled political machine, which included Obama’s Organizing for Action, which knows how and where to get out the vote. When I saw NARAL president Ilyse Hogue retweet this – before the final vote was known – I knew one area in which the other side focused was registering their people to vote…

There were more registered voters today than there was a month ago. Turnout was 24% compared to 20% for the Mayorial race. #abq2013

— KRQE News 13 (@krqe) November 20, 2013

I think the vote also reflects the ability of money to talk. As SBA List’s Billy Valentine noted, the other side outspent us 4:1…

No matter what happens in ABQ tonight, the prolife movement is on offense & has big abortion on the run – had to spend $1 mil + on home turf

— Billy Valentine (@valentinebilly) November 20, 2013

This is true. While the abortion industry called yesterday’s defeat of the ban “a great victory,” as an email from�NARAL�put it, in actuality all they really did was manage to fend off a bold offensive attack against one of their fortresses – where “Democrats [have] a sizable registration advantage,” and where Obama won by 15 points in�2012.�That’s not anything great.

Operation Rescue�Senior Policy Advisor Cheryl Sullenger also�noted there was “widespread” voter confusion because the measure itself was “lengthy and technical,” adding, “this is an issue that can be easily corrected next time around,” meaning yes, a next time is planned.

I will say the failure of the 20-week ban exposes the impotence of our churches. We are all aware of pastors who are weak-kneed on the topic of abortion, but banning abortions at 20 weeks is something even the biggest cowards should have had no trouble getting behind. Churches were places of low-hanging fruit, where grand registration drives could have and should have been orchestrated, along with massive GOTV campaigns. There were certainly 9,000 more votes in the pews had congregants been more strongly urged, and had they received proper teaching on the sanctity of human to begin with.

But back to the positives. As Students for Life of America�president Kristan Hawkins noted on MSNBC yesterday, “The fact that we’re on national t.v. debating about having abortions on children who can feel pain… we’re discussing the humanity of preborn children.”

Created Equal�further noted in an email alert:

Although the ban did not pass, public education efforts leading up to the vote not only raised widespread discussion but also created opportunities for the victims to be seen. While late-term abortion may remain legal for now in ABQ, it has already become unthinkable to countless citizens who themselves witnessed faces of butchered children on our mobile billboards, handheld signs, or postcards.

As for the future of anti-abortion initiatives on the local level, pro-lifers have apparently stumbled on to something. Quoting NextCity.org:

[Floyd]Feeney�[professor of election law at the�University of California-Davis] said, �going at it at the local level would be good strategy. It�s cheaper. It�s expensive and complicated to get something on statewide ballot even in smaller states. Why spend half a million dollars when you can do it for less than that?�

… while forcing the other side to spend a million.

Kudos to Tara and Bud Shaver for launching a promising new pro-life strategy.

[Top photo via ABQJournal.com]

Guess all that “practice” paid off!�Kelly Clarkson�is pregnant and expecting her first child with husband�Brandon Blackstock, she announced via�Twitter�on Tuesday, Nov. 19.

I'm pregnant!!! Brandon and I are so excited! Best early Christmas present ever :)

— Kelly Clarkson 🍷💔☀️ (@kellyclarkson) November 19, 2013

~ Allison Takeda, US Magazine, November 19

[HT: Laura Loo]

by Kelli

We welcome your suggestions for additions to our Top Blogs (see tab on right side of home page)! Email Susie@jillstanek.com.

• At Coming Home, Dr. Gerard Nadal shares some thoughts on the abortion industry’s opposition to admitting privileges and certification for abortionists:
  

  … [D]o we see the surgeons militating for lower standards of care, less accountability, no admitting privileges? These are the truly essential, not optional, lifesaving surgeries.And what of the cosmetic surgeons, whose procedures are elective? Do we see them militating for lower standards of accountability?

  Why is it that the abortion lobby consistently militates for lower standards of care, of accountability?…

  Wasn�t this supposed to be about taking abortions out of the hands of butchers and providing the highest standard of care for women?

• American Life League’s Judie Brown has an excellent piece exposing the “charity” of billionaires like Bill and Melinda Gates, who attach their charitable giving to population control efforts throughout the world:
  

  Astounding though this may sound, the truth is that, for the Gates Foundation, like so many others in the population control business, the theory that it is charitable to make sure that poor families do not have babies is a primary incentive. Not only that, but such attitudes extend to the concept that if a needy woman does experience a pregnancy, the baby should not live to be born….

  If indeed Bill and Melinda Gates are driving the billionaire club�s bus, just exactly what is the agenda going to be in the future? A scenario that could involve population control as the world has never seen it before is not beyond imagination.

• Fletcher Armstrong shares a comment he posted recently, declaring that pro-lifers will stop comparing abortion to the Holocaust “if the abortion industry and their apologists would quit saying and doing things that remind us so much of the Nazi era….”
• Big Blue Wave compares Canadian abortion restrictions with those of China and North Korea.
• Josh Brahm shares a great quote from pro-life apologist Scott Klusendorf:
  

  Christian pro-life advocates aren�t �imposing� their views any more than abolitionist Christians were imposing theirs or the Reverend King was imposing his. Rather, they�re �proposing� them in hopes their fellow citizens will vote them into law. That�s how a constitutional republic like ours works. We�re not looking to establish a theocracy that we impose on non-Christians, only a more just society for the weakest members of the human family.

• At A Culture of Life, Frank J. Fischer discusses the AIDS/HIV epidemic and condom use:
  

  … [I]n 2011 (the last year we have records for) the number of people newly diagnosed with HIV was higher than for any year during the 1990?s…. So why isn�t condom promotion stopping the epidemic in New Zealand and around the world?

• Speaking of HIV/AIDS, Down on the Pharm shares an interesting PBS graphic which compares the HIV rates of various locations in Africa to the rate in Washington, D.C., which has recently been touted as “the gayest place in America” (click to enlarge graphic):

[Gates photo via shaungroves.com]

Albuquerque voters will today decide the fate of an initiative that would ban abortions past 20 weeks in their city.

Should the ban pass, a lawsuit to block it is certain. What happens after that is anything but. New ground in the fight to stop abortion is being broken.

What sets ABQ’s 20-week abortion ban apart, of course, is it’s a local, not state ban. Thirteen states have now passed similar bans. Three are currently enjoined as they work their way through the courts.

ABQ’s ban could certainly be sued on constitutional grounds, since critics claim 20-week abortion bans violate Roe/Doe principals of unrestricted abortion access before viability and “health” exceptions after.

But as to ABQ’s legal right to enact a ban as a local municipality, the picture looks rosier, at least according to, of all places, The American Prospect, a liberal journal. The last paragraph is particularly interesting:

[I]n most states, municipalities don�t have the power to enact such sweeping laws. New Mexico is an outlier in this regard…. [I]n most places, state law supersedes local law; if a state permits abortion before a certain point in pregnancy, cities can�t meddle with that standard….

But the quirks of New Mexico law make it harder to argue that Albuquerque lacks the authority to prohibit abortion after 20 weeks. That�s bad news for the women of New Mexico, not to mention the future of late-term abortion, because it means the law would be less likely to be thrown out on a technicality….

Most states wouldn�t have allowed municipalities this kind of leeway in the first place. But New Mexico has a provision in its state constitution that allows for �home rule,� giving populous cities like Albuquerque and Santa Fe an unusual level of self-governance. �The only other limitation � apart from geography � is that cities cannot pass an ordinance where the state has exclusively claimed jurisdiction and they are not allowed to enact ordinances that are inconsistent with state law,� says Dave Pederson, general counsel for the New Mexico Attorney General. The state legislature has not claimed exclusive jurisdiction over abortion; in fact, according to Pederson, it only has one limitation on abortion on the books, a law banning a particular procedure called partial-birth abortion.

Until a few months ago, the New Mexico legislature�s laissez-faire attitude toward abortion was a good thing for pro-choice advocates. But now the state�s obvious lack of interest in legislating abortion policy could undercut the argument that its cities can�t legislate on a subject as broad as abortion. It�s hard to contend that an Albuquerque ordinance is stepping on the state of New Mexico�s toes when state law on the subject is almost completely nonexistent.

Given enough time, the plans of abortion zealots always seem to boomerang. Then again, this is guaranteed. Quoting a wiser person than me: “That�s what happens: mischief backfires; violence boomerangs.” His son agreed: “What a bad person plots against the good, boomerangs; the plotter gets it in the end.”

But I digress. NextCity.org agrees with The American Prospect’s assessment:

In New Mexico, courts have broadly interpreted cities� powers and the Albuquerque initiative seems destined to stand or fall on constitutional grounds.

Meanwhile, The American Prospects rebuffs the idea that the ABQ effort might spark a wave of attempts to enact abortion restrictions in communities across the country. TAP thinks the situation in New Mexico is rare. This remains to be seen.

But already the other side’s fears of a spark are being realized. ABQJournal.com reported November 18 that a countywide 20-week abortion ban may next be attempted a little south of Albuquerque:

Jackie Farnsworth, representing the Valencia County Right to Life Chapter, presented a multipage petition she said contained more than 1,000 signatures of county residents in support of the ban.

The discussion item for the consideration of a �pain capable unborn child protection ordinance� was placed on the agenda by Valencia County Commissioner Lawrence Romero….

Assuming the Albuquerque ban will pass, Farnsworth said that �huge business� will be looking to relocate to the next closest place to the airport � Valencia County, to the south….

In theory, at least in New Mexico, citizens could city by city, county by county, enact pro-life restrictions around liberal state legislators. How cool that would be – government by the people, of the people, and for the people. Such a novel concept.