by LauraLoo

As posted by The Drudge Report, Belgium is considering an unprecedented law.

Since 2002, Belgians have been euthanized for blindness, depression and, most recently, a botched sex change.  Now, they want to allow euthanasia for children.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEnsgALaMp8[/youtube]

Should children ever have the right to ask for their own deaths?  If so, do they need to be declared terminally ill by the medical profession?  Can their parents ask for death without the child’s consent?

What are your thoughts on this from a religious as well as a secular perspective?

Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.

In a move that took both sides of the abortion divide by surprise, the 5th District Court of Appeals yesterday reversed most of a lower court’s decision to block an impactful portion of Texas’ new anti-abortion law. From  USA Today:

A federal appeals court reinstated most of Texas’ tough new restrictions on abortions Thursday in a ruling that means as many as a dozen clinics around the state will not be able to continue performing procedures.

The restrictions could take effect Friday, stopping abortion procedures in at least one-third of the state’s licensed health centers, according to opponents of the law.

The ruling from a panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals came just three days after a federal district judge set aside part of the law, a requirement that doctors who perform abortions have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. That ruling by Judge Lee Yeakel said the provision served no medical purpose….

The panel left in place a portion of Yeakel’s order that prevents the state from enforcing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration protocol for abortion-inducing drugs in cases where the woman is between 50 and 63 days into her pregnancy. Doctors testifying before the court had said such women would be harmed if the protocol were enforced.

The court’s order is temporary until it can hold a complete hearing, likely in January.

The court decision means that beginning as early as today any abortion mill whose abortionist on call does not have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the chop shop will have to STOP committing abortions.

The fallout for the abortion industry appears real.

Per Daily Kos, Amy Hagstrom Miller (pictured right), the owner of five Texas abortion clinics, told Rachel Maddow last night that three of her clinics will shut down immediately.” Miller tweeted that she was “devastated.”

Miller told Maddow one of her shuttered clinics is on the border, in McAllen, and aborts mothers from Mexico as well as the U.S. ”Most of the women we serve there are mothers,” noted Miller, meaning the contraceptive/comprehensive sex ed movement has failed them by giving them a false sense of security.

More on the court decision from The New York Times:

The requirement is likely to be unconstitutional, [Yeakel] declared, because it is “without a rational basis and places a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion.”

But the appeals panel found just the opposite: that the rule is likely to be constitutional because it serves a legitimate state interest in regulating doctors and does not impose an “undue burden” on the right to abortion.

The appeals court said that the admitting privilege rule might “increase the cost of accessing an abortion provider and decrease the number of physicians available to perform abortions.”

But it cited a Supreme Court statement in an earlier abortion case that if a regulation serves a valid purpose, the fact that it has “the incidental effect of making it more difficult or more expensive to procure an abortion cannot be enough to invalidate it.”

The appeals court’s move is by no means permanent, so it is premature to declare victory for babies, mothers, and their families, but undoubtedly there will be lives saved because of yesterday’s decision.

[Top photo via RH Reality Check; bottom screen shot via Daily Kos]

The last straw, he says, was Georgetown’s invitation of Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, to be a commencement speaker in May of last year. Sebelius has a record of supporting abortion rights, and abortion is the issue that really sets Blatty’s nerves on fire.

He describes, his voice trembling, a particular abortion procedure in graphic detail.

He pauses. His voice is nearly a whisper.

“That’s demonic.”

~ William Peter Blatty, author of The Exorcist, describing his dismay with his alma mater, Georgetown University, over the invitation of pro-abortion Kathleen Sebelius, in an interview with the Washington Post, October 30

[HT: Greg Forman]

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

• Pro-lifers in Tennessee are beginning a year-long campaign to overturn a 2008 Tennessee Supreme Court ruling which prevents them from passing certain pro-life laws.
• 12 News Now covers the inspection of a Beaumont, Texas, abortion clinic and its 13 violations:
  The October 3 inspection at Whole Woman’s Health of Beaumont turned up potential health issues.

  The report says the facility failed to provide a safe environment for patients and staff. The suction machines which were used on patients had numerous rusty spots which, “had the likelihood to cause infection.”The report also says, “the facility failed to have the EKG monitoring equipment ready if an emergency situation occurred….”

• The Planned Parenthood in Midland, Texas, will remain closed as Texas’ recently passed abortion regulations had nothing to do with their closing:
  In fact, the bill passed by the Texas Legislature during their second special session this year had nothing to do with the location’s closure in September, board member Carl Moore said….

  While there was an abortion clinic in Midland under Planned Parenthood, Moore said he was on the board over the woman’s health clinic. The abortion clinic, he added, was run by different board members.Moore said he hopes the offices in Odessa and Midland would open soon, but said if it did, it would be in new buildings.

  “If by any chance we’re able to open, it would be a brand new Planned Parenthood with a different board,” Moore said. “This one has been officially closed.”

• During a Project Truth display at Butte College, in Oroville, California, two pro-choice students were arrested:
  A group of pro-choice supporters gathered nearby with signs in opposition on Oct. 22, the first day of the protest. The demonstration by each side continued well into the afternoon of the next day, until a student identified by Butte College Police as Sophia G.L. Green apparently took offense and reportedly grabbed a poster to take it down.

  Witnesses said another student, whom campus police identified as David Boone, interceded to prevent members of the anti-abortion group from physically stopping Green. Someone associated with Project Truth called the police, who responded and cited Green for vandalism and arrested Boone on a charge of assault.

[Photo via newsreview.com by Jose Olivar]

You wouldn’t know it by the following Washington Post headline and photo, but the ban in Texas on abortions after 20 weeks, signed into law by Governor Rick Perry on July 18, went into effect on October 29…

The 20-week ban was but one part of a powerful package of four anti-abortion provisions infamously filibustered by state Sen. Wendy Davis.

The measure additionally includes a requirement that abortionists have admitting privileges at hospitals within 30 miles from where they slaughter babies, that abortion clinics follow FDA guidelines when administering the medical abortion pill RU486, and that abortion clinics raise their physical standards to those of ambulatory surgical centers. The first three were designated to take effect on October 29; the asc mandate will launch on October 2014.

Although Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards claimed the sum total of the new law would ensure “abortion would be virtually banned in the state of Texas,” abortion backers didn’t sue to block the entire package.

They backed away from what would seem to be the two most consequential components of the law – the 20-week ban and the asc requirement. After all, abortion pushers declared that forcing abortion clinics to come up to code would ensure closure of all but five of 67 abortion providers in Texas.

Instead, abortion proponents targeted the admitting privileges and RU486 mandates. In that regard, they won… temporarily. From NBC News:

U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel decided Monday that the regulations requiring abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital impeded on the rights of physicians to do what they judge is best for their patients and would unreasonably limit a woman’s access to state abortion clinics.

“The admitting-privileges provision of House Bill 2 does not bear a rational relationship to the legitimate right of the state in preserving and promoting fetal life or a woman’s health and, in any event, places a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion of a nonviable fetus and is thus an undue burden to her,” Yeakel wrote in his decision.

Although Yeakel ruled that Texas could regulate how a doctor prescribes an abortion-inducing pill, he said the law did not allow for a doctor to alter treatment taken in order to best safeguard the health of the woman taking it….

He wrote: “The medication abortion provision may not be enforced against any physician who determines, in appropriate medical judgment, to perform the medication-abortion using off-label protocol for the preservation of the life or health of the mother.”

Yes, it is irrational to want an abortionist to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital in case of botches.

More from WashPo:

Yeakel indicated during court proceedings that he believes his decision will be appealed to the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which has recently upheld numerous laws that restrict abortion. He said it could eventually make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

WashPo was right. Pro-life Attorney General Greg Abbott – who is running against Davis for governor – immediately appealed the decision. From Star-Telegram:

Before filing his appeal, Abbott… said he expected the case to reach the U.S. Supreme Court. Federal judges have issued temporary injunctions against similar laws requiring admitting privileges in Alabama, Kansas, Mississippi and Alabama [sic], but this is the first case to get a final written decision from a district court….

In court papers, Abbott and his legal team argued that… Yeakel overstepped his authority and misapplied the law.

“The district court took that extraordinary step without citing – much less purporting to satisfy – the constitutional standard” for making its decision, the Texas court filing said.

Abbott asked the 5th Circuit to expedite the appeals process, but the soonest the court could consider the case is January.

by Hans Johnson

During yesterday morning’s testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee by HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) began to ask whether federal exchanges for Obamacare will clearly spell out if policies will include abortion coverage. No sooner did he use the word “pro-life” than a female voice was clearly heard to blurt out: “Oh, here we go!”

A likely candidate was Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA). She was close to Shimkus and, being the previous questioner, may not have turned off her microphone.

Here is the question and answer:

[youtube]http://youtu.be/YMfWVXK-bfE[/youtube]

Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.

[HT: Mike Gallagher]

In reality, the abortion fee is a dollar or more a month. Doesn’t seem like much, right? Well, those pennies add up. Alliance Defending Freedom does the math.

It gets better, yet. Planned Parenthood – the largest abortion provider in the country – helped write all these mandates.

~ Cortney O’Brien, Townhall.com, October 30

[Photo via saynsumthn.wordpress.com]

by LauraLoo

On a recent Ellen show, adorable children paraded clever Halloween costumes to get their scoopful of treats.

The costume references to controversial pop culture or political issues were something I found very funny.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ttvVSHVmlQ[/youtube]

My favorite?  Mt. Rushmore, with a clever spin at the end. :D

Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.