In the wake of the huge pro-life victory in Texas, Think Progress has posted five ways abortion proponents are “fighting back.”

Most were all predictable: Challenge pro-life laws in court, continue protests in Texas and spread them to other states, and register pro-abortion voters.

But one was not: “Challeng[e] ideas about what it means to be ‘pro-life.'” Examples given were to push comprehensive sex ed and promote opposition to the death penalty as a pro-life issue.

Now, I know the other side has been attempting to muddy the lines between the “pro-life” and “pro-choice” terminology, in part to explain away the strengthening pro-life polls.

But this as a strategy struck me as playing into pro-life hands. It is the equivalent of our side trying to widen the definition of “pro-choice,” which in theory would seem to me to potentially bring more into the “pro-choice” fold.

But perhaps I’m not getting it? Your thoughts?

[Graphic via abortionisprolife.com]

All of this is making abortion rights advocates nervous, because the restriction was struck down, and to revisit it brings into question what might be permissible around medication abortion restrictions.

~ Elizabeth Nash of the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute on the US Supreme Court’s decision to review an Oklahoma Supreme Court’s decision striking down a 2011 law (abortion pill law) requiring abortion clinics and abortionists to follow FDA guidelines for administering the abortion pill, otherwise known as mifepristone or RU486, as quoted by Mother Jones, July 19

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

• It’s funny how Reuters decided to investigate the absurd claim which was repeated non-stop that only 5 clinics in Texas would stay open after pro-life legislation passed. Why they didn’t investigate these claims while the legislation was being debated and making national news is anyone’s guess:
  

  Twenty-six states have laws that require abortion clinics to meet varying levels of hospital standards, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights. Pennsylvania, Virginia and Missouri passed strict health and safety rules similar to Texas, it said.In those three states, however, most clinics were able to stay open after the laws passed, some by reallocating dollars to comply with building upgrades, according to abortion providers and state health department officials interviewed by Reuters….

  Elizabeth Nash, state issues manager for the Guttmacher Institute, which favors abortion rights but does research cited by both sides, said the new law will have an impact in Texas but maybe less than the worst fears.

  “Clinics will close,” she said. “But I can’t say we are going to go down to six.”

  Only one clinic has closed in Virginia since a new law was implemented there earlier this year, the state health department said. No clinics have closed in Missouri because of a tough law passed there in 2007, abortion provider Planned Parenthood of Kansas and mid-Missouri said.

• In Indiana, a woman named Purvi Patel (pictured left) has been charged with felony neglect of a dependent – not feticide, as originally expected – after putting her premature newborn child into a dumpster to die:
  

  
  The affidavit alleges Patel took drugs she ordered from Hong Kong to induce an abortion, but gave birth to a live baby that a forensic pathologist determined was born at least 7 months from conception….

Last Saturday, hospital staff called police when Patel went to an emergency room bleeding, with the umbilical cord still protruding, but had no baby with her.

Patel told doctors she had never been pregnant but later told them she miscarried and put the body in the dumpster behind the Mishawaka restaurant that she manages.

The affidavit says a forensic pathologist concluded the infant could have survived outside of the womb and did take a breath after it was born.

RH Reality Check’s Robin Marty repeatedly describes the dead newborn child in the case as a “fetus.”

• Sharon Grigsby, the editor of the Dallas News, writes about how her position on abortion has changed over the years and how she didn’t find HB2 in Texas to be unreasonable:
  

  Fast forward to House Bill 2, the sweeping and controversial abortion regulations bill. While my thinking hasn’t moved to the place that I’m ready to lead a board revolt to change our pro-choice stand and call for the overturn of Roe v. Wade, neither do I think the provisions of House Bill 2 are unreasonable.

When our board debated the restrictions in this bill, I couldn’t really find a lot of fault in the rules. I certainly think the 20-week limit is reasonable. And I don’t think the surgical center rules — even being able to get a gurney through the door — are unreasonable. I recognize that almost never does something go wrong in an abortion procedure, but it can. The “admitting privileges” at a nearby hospital is troublesome, but not so much that I think it was cause to oppose the bill.

• Abortionist James Pendergraft has reopened his Orlando clinic which closed after debt collectors removed equipment.WFTV.com has video:

[HT for WFTV.com video: Life Talk’s Facebook page]

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.

• ProLifeBlogs links to an article by Dr. Miriam Grossman discussing how “today’s sex ed curricula are based on the widely-accepted teachings of depraved human beings”:
  

  [I]n 1964 Dr. Mary Calderone founded the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS)… with seed money provided by Hugh Hefner….

  She told parents, “Children are sexual and think sexual thoughts and do sexual things… parents must accept and honor their child’s erotic potential.”…

  Once I understood who the founders were — [Alfred] Kinsey, [Mary] Calderone, [Wardell] Pomeroy, [John] Money, and others — I understood how we got to today’s “comprehensive sexuality education.”…

  These men were pedophiles. It was in their interest to see children as miniature adults who enjoyed sexual contact, and had the right to consent to it, without other adults, or the law, interfering.

• Secular Pro-Life shares a wonderful graphic exposing the fallacy of the pro-“choice” position:

• ProLifeBlogs also links to Operation Rescue’s information about the real reasons behind the closing of Nova Healthcare (abortion mill) in Fairfax, Virginia. It was not because of new state regulations, as touted by the media, but because of the facility’s failure to pay rent and their “shoddy treatment” of women:
  

  In reality, the Nova abortion business was a shoddy operation that left women vomiting in common areas on a daily basis according to court records, and having to be carried out unconscious, rushed to emergency rooms, and even landing one woman in the morgue.

  To compound the troubles, Nova was a deadbeat tenant that created a nuisance, endangered women, ran off other tenants then refused to pay their rent.

• Christina at RealChoice takes issue with the Huffington Post’s claim that the now-closed Nova Healthcare gave “exemplary care” to women:
  

  Is this “exemplary medical care”? To be treated by a doctor who doesn’t examine you or take your history before performing surgery? To have your records screwed up so that nobody can be sure exactly what happened? To be discharged from the facility when you’re still too weak to even walk?

• ProWomanProLife features a Maclean’s article in which controversial British columnist Barbara Amiel (pictured left) writes about the late-term abortion she had in 1965. She refers to it as murder and wishes she had been informed of fetal development, but stops short of saying she regrets her decision:
  

  And until I looked at fetal development charts for this column, I never understood what was inside me: a tiny being with limbs and fingernails that might have felt discomfort as the doctor’s instruments murdered it. I couldn’t wait another four months and have the child adopted, let alone climb up a tall tree to find a safe home for it. Though I fully support legal abortion (as a dark necessity not as some precious human right) I rue our need for it.

• At Reproductive Research Audit, Rebecca G. Oas gives details on a study which “found a ‘strong independent relationship’ between a history of abortion and the risk of a subsequent preterm birth,” vindicating “many years of work to draw attention to the link, despite a lack of attention from the medical community and outright denial from pro-abortion advocates.”

  But not to worry! In light of this, abortion advocates believe new and better methods of aborting will take care of the risk factors which they denied existed in the first place.

• My Drop in the Ocean contrasts the demeanor of late-term abortion fans and pro-lifers seen in Texas last week during the Senate debate on a pro-life bill.
• Right to Life of Michigan is seeking 350k registered voters to sign a petition to be submitted within 100 days to the Legislature to opt out of taxpayers funding of abortion under Obamacare. The petition is necessary because the governor originally vetoed the bill passed by legislators. RTL MI’s rallying cry is, “Abortion is not healthcare, and we are not going to pay for it”:

[youtube]http://youtu.be/D-XtMAbPPVM[/youtube]

[Amiel photo via backseatstylers.com]

As desperate abortion proponents employ the “run around the country like chickens with their heads cut off” strategy to try to stop unprecedented pro-life legislative advances in the states, they should know those advances are on the cusp of exponentially exploding to local municipalities.

Last week, Virginia’s busiest abortion clinic closed, blaming, in part, a new city ordinance that made it harder for it to relocate (and blaming the need to relocate, in part, on new state regulations).

NOVA Women’s Healthcare, based in Fairfax, killed 3,500 preborn babies in 2011, according to the Virginia Department of Health. And although it is more likely the clinic’s demise was due to patients “lying down in corridors… and, in some instances, even vomiting,” plus the fact the mill was $95,000 behind in rent, city leaders became pro-active in their resolve to mitigate this blight on their community. According to the Washington Post, July 14:

The Fairfax City Council then became aware of the clinic’s attempt to relocate. On Tuesday, the council amended its zoning ordinance to require that all clinics, henceforward to be called medical care facilities, obtain a special-use permit and approval from the council. Previously, clinics were treated the same as doctor’s offices and were not required to go through the city council.

Meanwhile, pro-lifers in Albuquerque, New Mexico, are becoming assertive in an attempt to rid their community of a long-term blight, Southwest Women’s Options, where a mother can abort her baby throughout all nine months of pregnancy.

If New Mexico, which has not passed one single pro-life measure since abortion was legalized 40 years ago, is known as the “wild, wild West of abortion,” then Albuquerque is Dodge City, where mothers come from all over the globe for late-term abortions, according to pro-lifers on the scene.

Now pro-life/pro-family groups and the churches of the Land of Enchantment’s largest city are banding together to put a stop to the carnage. The groups are gathering petition signatures for an initiative to be placed on the October 8 municipal ballot to approve the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Ordinance, tailored after Texas’s recently enacted 20 week ban.

I spoke yesterday with Chris Donnelly of Traditional Values Advocacy of New Mexico and Tara Shaver or DefendingLife.org, leaders of two groups – which also include the Catholic Coalition of New Mexico and the Right to Life Committee of New Mexico (state affiliate of National Right to Life) – that are spearheading the effort.

Chris and Tara reported the groups have already collected 11,000 of the 12,000 signatures required by the July 26 filing deadline to get on the ballot. They are shooting for 15,000. Go to prolifewitness.org for more info on where to sign the petition and how to help the drive.

“Because we are the first U.S. city pushing this ban, we expect pro-abortion groups from around the country to fight this,” Chris told me. “They won’t want other cities to follow our lead.”

Too late. Dana Cody, president of Life Legal Defense Foundation, told me this morning she was approached only last week by a city council member of a major Florida city, who is also interested in introducing a 20-week ban.

“Our research shows that as long as municipalities aren’t doing anything to violate state law, they can introduce anything they want at the local level,” Dana explained. “We know they will be sued, but in that case we have a nationwide network of attorneys who will defend the legislation pro bono.

“In the Casey decision the Supreme Court said a state can regulate abortion when there’s viability,” Dana continued. “By ‘state,’ SCOTUS doesn’t mean one of the 50 states, it means government entities.”

The line of viability keeps moving down, currently at 21 weeks, 5 days and counting.

“We know there would be a huge legal battle with a 20-week ban,” Dana added. “But look at the battle over partial birth abortion and what that exposed. Furthermore, these are also educational endeavors.”

As for clinic regulations, Paul Linton, attorney with the Thomas More Society told me yesterday Illinois municipalities can add additional regulations to ambulatory surgical centers if they are already regulated by the state.

Linton’s point was that each state has its own regulatory requirements that pro-lifers may or may not be able to massage.

Linton suggested another idea to explore, “requiring clinics and doctors to have minimal malpractice insurance – the key is you just cannot specifically target abortion clinics and doctors.”

Linton noted that municipalities are by and large deathly afraid of litigation but reiterated Cody’s point that pro-life attorneys willing to provide pro bono help abound.

This new avenue for stopping abortion is exciting. It will not only save mothers and babies but will keep abortion proponents occupied and on the defensive.

[Top photo of pro-lifers in front of the closed NOVA abortion clinic via World Magazine]

by LauraLoo

14-month-old Sorella Stoute’s fingers did the walking on her dad’s smartphone when she bid on and won for herself a $225 classic 1962 Austin Healey Sprite.  Paul, her daddy, got wind of the purchase when an email confirmation showed up in his inbox from eBay.

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

But all is well.  Since the car only set him back $225, Paul decided to keep the car with the intended goal of restoring it by her 16th birthday or high school graduation.

It’s amazing how quickly young children learn to use technological devices like smartphones. When I was very young, I was afraid to even have a 5-minute conversation on the phone! Would you keep this car if your baby or toddler did something like this?

Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.

[HT: WLS/ABC7 Chicago]

What is at risk is the discretion of a woman to make judgments about the size and time, timing of her family….

I don’t know if my colleagues need a lesson on the birds and the bees. I really don’t get it.

~ House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi criticizing Republican attempts to restrict abortion “rights”, The Hill, July 18

[HT: Laura Loo]

Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast took the occasion of Texas Governor Rick Perry’s signing of a new omnibus pro-life law today to announce it was closing three of its 12 clinics. The reason, per Huffington Post:

The three clinics are located in Bryan, Huntsville and Lufkin, Texas. They are closing in response to a new package of  a new package of abortion restrictions signed into law on Thursday and funding cuts to Texas’ Women’s Health Program that were passed by the Texas state legislature in 2011. Out of the three Planned Parenthood clinics that are closing, only the Bryan clinic performs abortions.

Planned Parenthood timed its notice to steal media attention away from pro-lifers, while also trying to put Texas legislators on the defensive. But was this really an attempt to erase dots between the shutdowns and PPGC’s problem with Medicaid fraud?

Most interesting is the former employees who have accused PPGC of Medicaid fraud worked at two of the closing clinics.

Karen Reynolds, who filed a lawsuit in 2011, worked at the Lufkin facility; and Abby Johnson, who filed a lawsuit in 2012, worked at the Bryan clinic.

The charges may or may not lead to prosecutions, but my first thought today was that subsequent attempts by PPGC to clean up its books resulted in such a noticeable loss of profits it had to shutter the doors at 1/4 of its centers, two of which were surely under added scrutiny.

I spoke with Abby Johnson this afternoon, who agreed the Medicaid fraud charges had something to do with the closures.

“I think a lot of things went into account,” Abby added. “The loss of income from the State of Texas and the new regulations played a part. Then there was the constant presence of pro-lifers in Bryan that took away the bulk of its income from surgical abortions. Plus, all three facilities were 40 Days for Life sites. And, yes, PPGC also knows the state is watching their books, so they can no longer get away with charging for services they don’t provide.

“What’s makes this even more hilarious is PPGC just spent so much money on the Lufkin facility, which was abortion ready but not asc (ambulatory surgical center) ready,” Abby said. “With the passage of HB2, they knew they could never perform abortions there.”

Indeed, less than six years ago PPGC opened its 6,700 sq ft, $1.5 million Lufkin clinic….

Major donors to the Lufkin clinic included Buddy and Ellen Temple and David and Jean Dolben, now had.

Not one to let poor planning stop it, PPGC broke ground in May for a new $4.2 million, 7,000 sq ft abortion clinic in New Orleans, Louisiana, to open in late 2014/early 2015.

This action prompted the Louisiana legislature to open its own investigation of the PP affiliate in June.