by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

• I would suggest women stay far away from Jessy Jordan Holtzkamp if he ever gets out of prison:
  

  Holtzkamp, a second-year high school senior, told an officer he was too young to be a father and wanted the unborn child to be aborted or not be born alive, according to the complaint.

  When the officer told Holtzkamp his situation would be worsened if [Krystal] Alters-Meulemans suffered a miscarriage, he replied, “Why I wanted that to happen; I would love for that to happen,” according to the complaint.

  After he was advised he was being booked into jail on suspicion of attempted first-degree homicide of an unborn child, Holtzkamp “started making himself out to be a celebrity, stating, ‘We got a murderer up in here,'” and then started singing a song about killing the baby, the complaint states.

  When an officer asked him if he felt any remorse for trying to kill the fetus, he replied, “Hell naw,” according to the complaint.

• Former rock singer and bass player Suzi Quatro (“Leather Tuscadero” on the popular sitcom Happy Days) still thinks about her abortion after more than 40 years:
  

  The former rocker fell pregnant shortly after striking up an affair with a married man at the age of 18, and she decided not to keep the baby….

  “I would have loved to have had that baby. Not a year goes by when I don’t think about it – what that child would be like, how old they would be,” she told Britain’s Daily Mail.

• Mary Kate Cary on legislation to regulate abortion clinics like surgical facilities:
  

  What does having a doorway 32 inches wide have to do with having a safe abortion? Not a thing, say abortion rights advocates. In fact, they argue that state restrictions on abortion clinics are arbitrary, cosmetic and aimed at ending women’s access to reproductive health care services.

  But that 32-inch rule isn’t from out of the blue: it is in the Life Safety Code (LSC), which is now part of the U.S. Code and was originally written by the National Fire Protection Association. The LSC regulates everything from exit signs to sprinklers to revolving doors to elevators – you name it – in day care centers, health clinics, hotels, schools, prisons, businesses and homes across America. Alabama’s latest abortion law, for example, doesn’t mention 32-inch doors anywhere; it simply says abortion clinics must abide by the LSC.

  And so when I read that several states have required abortion clinics to meet the same standards as ambulatory surgical centers – with doorways wide enough for ambulance gurneys, in case things go wrong – that didn’t strike me as “extremist” or a “war on women.” It struck me as common sense. I’ve been in a situation where a gurney couldn’t fit through a door to help save someone who was dying, and it was horrendous. It’s also common sense to have nurses on duty, a safe blood supply, and a hospital within 30 miles. Having a doctor with hospital admitting privileges, so there won’t be an hours long wait in the emergency room, seems like a good idea too.

[Photo via tvacres.com]

by Hans Johnson

With the passage of the bill banning abortions after 20 weeks in Texas, some see a boom in the black market sale of Cytoec, which is meant for the prevention of stomach ulcers but is also used to induce abortion (i.e., these are abortion pills). One customer was interviewed by Bloomberg:

“You’d be amazed at how many people, young people, are taking those pills,” said Erlinda Dasquez, a 29-year-old mother of four who has done so herself. “I probably know 12 to 20 people who have done this. My cousin just went to the flea market a few months ago.”

Andrea Ferrigno, a vice president of Whole Woman’s Health, which runs a network of abortion facilities, told the New York Times: “The women see it as a ‘pill to make my period come’. Often, in their minds it’s not abortion.”

From BuzzFeed:

Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.

So, evidently, no one is ever allowed to offer someone who is even considering having an abortion any other options whatsoever. Because hello, that’s coercion, or something. Of course, back on planet Earth, giving someone another option, which they then agree to, is not coercion. These are the people who call themselves “pro-choice.” But when someone is given another choice besides abortion, they’re outraged. But don’t you dare accuse them of being pro-abortion!

This is an example of a “pro-choicer” who is angry that a pregnant woman didn’t make the “right” choice, all because a priest had the gall to tell them they had another option. Baker and her ilk like to use that word a lot – “choice” – but the reality clearly is that they only support choice if that choice is abortion.

~ Cassy Fiano, reacting to Jezebel writer Katie Baker’s rage against a Catholic priest who helped a couple considering abortion to instead find an adoptive family for their child with Down syndrome, Live Action News, July 11

[Photo of Facebook appeal (click to enlarge) via CNN]

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

• Governor Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island vetoed a Choose Life license plate bill because he claims it violates the separation of church and state:
  

  Chafee wrote to lawmakers in his veto message that the function of a license plate is “to register and identify a motor vehicle.”

  “It is my belief that state participation in the transmission of funds to this organization would violate the separation of church and state, one of the fundamental principles upon which our state was founded,” he wrote.

• A man in Ireland is trying to prevent his girlfriend from going to Great Britain for an abortion. He claims she is being pressured by her family:
  

  He says his girlfriend’s family is of the view she will be ruined if she has a child with a non-white man. The couple are both foreign nationals.

  The man sought court orders to stop his girlfriend leaving Ireland until it can be established she is acting from her own free will.

  The orders were not granted but his girlfriend did come to court this afternoon.

• A woman in Texas is making and selling voodoo dolls of Governor Rick Perry and donating the proceeds to Planned Parenthood:
  

  “I was inspired to make them because I wanted to figure out something I could make that would send a message and raise money for Planned Parenthood,” said [Michelle] Sinched. “What’s better than sticking pins in Gov. Goodhair or burning him at your own doll sized stake? I would probably best describe myself as pro-choice and pro-life. No one ever wants to face the abortion choice but it happens. I believe no one has the right to make that choice but the woman it affects.

• Texas Senator Wendy Davis should really provide some evidence for this claim about post 20 week abortions:
  

  In nearly all of these cases, a family in tragic circumstances has had to make the difficult and private decision to let go of a much-wanted pregnancy because of a major medical concern.

  Also, notice how Davis brushes off the 20-week ban because post-20 week abortions are only 1% of abortions but then says the lack of a rape exception is “no small matter.” Rape is typically given as a reason for around 1% of all abortions and in all likelihood an even smaller percentage for women who have abortions after 20 weeks. Logic fail.

by LauraLoo

Warning: Vulgarity at the end of the video.

Do pro-choice men really support abortion “on-demand” because their sex life is at stake?  The answer is yes, if you’re part of the Bro-Choice movement.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/cXuVC_5ns8A[/youtube]

Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.

[HT: Kelli]

If we can enhance foetal growth and delay delivery, we will improve babies’ survival rates and reduce the many complications that can lead to life-long disability or disease.

~ Dr. Kate Groom, one of the leaders of s study using Viagra on pregnant women in an attempt to “boost survival in babies that are not growing properly in the womb”, Daily Mail, July 15

[HT: Laura Loo]

Guest post by Michael Cahill, Vista Health Solutions

Within the voluminous Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) legislation, if you look closely enough, you can find some interesting things that have been glossed over by the mainstream media. Things like secret abortion surcharges and assisted suicide, just to name a couple.

The controversy over federally endorsed abortion and its hidden surcharges has been well documented in conservative media. But there hasn’t been much coverage of late about the legislation’s covert support for physician-assisted suicide.

Currently, only four states in the country legally allow assisted suicide. Vermont, Washington, and Oregon have unrestricted laws, meaning that the administration of life ending drugs is up to the discretion of the patient and his doctor (also it’s covered by insurance). In Montana, assisted suicide is legal through a court order. In the other 46 states, the practice is illegal and has been for most of the last century.

Section 1553

The piece of legislation in question is Section 1553 of the Affordable Care Act, which reads as follows:

(a) In General – The Federal Government, and any State or local government or health care provider that receives Federal financial assistance under this Act (or under an amendment made by this Act) or any health plan created under this Act (or under an amendment made by this Act), may not subject an individual or institutional health care entity to discrimination on the basis that the entity does not provide any health care item or service furnished for the purpose of causing, or for the purpose of assisting in causing, the death of any individual, such as by assisted suicide, euthanasia, or mercy killing.

To break it down, if a terminally ill patient requests that his doctor help him end his life, and the doctor refuses for moral reasons or whatever the case may be, that doctor is protected by federal law against discrimination. This can be a saving grace for doctors who may subsequently be targeted by insurance companies because of their refusal to help patients end their lives.

While this section is likely a relief to many opposed to assisted suicide, at the same time it’s also disturbing. The section essentially accepts that the norm is for doctors to prescribe lethal doses of a medication for a patient if he asks for it. This flies in the face of the more logical option which might be working with the patient to fight the disease or encouraging him to seek a second or third opinion before considering killing himself.

So what does this mean for the future?

The language of section 1553 seems to be intentionally vague. It’s not much of a jump to conclude that it was written with the intention of providing some cover to physicians performing assisted suicides in the states where it’s illegal.

A case arguing as such could very well be taken all the way to the Supreme Court, leading to a Roe v. Wade-type ruling in favor of assisted suicide. Could that be the Obama administration’s goal in including this section? Likely not, but it could still be an unintended outcome of it.

On a different level, it’s also discouraging that the administration chose not to definitively weigh in on the assisted suicide debate at a federal level. Their decision goes against the clear will of the nation, with assisted suicide considered a felony in most states.

Maybe this is because of the president’s personal stance on the issue. In a March 2008 interview, then presidential candidate Barack Obama said that Oregon “did a service” to the country in passing assisted suicide legislation.

He went on to say that while he would be hesitant to legalize assisted suicide nationwide, the United States has to think about these “end of life issues” because of our rising elderly population. Toward the end of the interview he ultimately voiced his support for terminally ill assisted suicide.

In less than six months, the major provisions of the Affordable Care Act will kick in. What the legislation will mean for pro-life Americans has already been reported on extensively. But the question remains, will the worst of those predictions come true? It’s sad to say, but right now things don’t look too hopeful.

Michael Cahill is Editor of the Vista Health Solutions blog. He has a degree in Journalism from SUNY New Paltz and previously worked as a reporter for the Poughkeepsie Journal and an editor for the Rockland County Times. Follow him on Twitter at @VistaHealth and @ElectronicMike

[Images via sodahead.com, saschina.org]

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.

• Live Action’s Lila Rose has been named one of the 25 Most Influential Washington Women under 35. In fact, she’s the youngest. Congratulations!
• 40 Days for Life reports four more abortion center closings in Virginia, California, Washington and Ohio. The group is also gearing up for their fall campaign and will host a webcast tonight (July 16) on what they’re doing to prepare.
• Euthanasia Prevention Coalition reveals that multimillionaire physician Dr. Chai Patel, “who oversees 230 nursing homes in Britain, is calling for establishment of suicide clinics” – purely for humanitarian reasons, of course.

• Culture Campaign says the abortion-supporting Democratic Party will attempt to turn Texas blue by winning the votes of Hispanics. But in doing so, they are asking pro-life Latinos to align themselves with the party that supports the killing of a large number of Hispanic preborn children:
  

  Of those 77,152 babies aborted in Texas, 24,457 (or 31.7 percent) were non-Hispanic white babies, 19,152 (or 24.8 percent) were non-Hispanic black babies, 29,576 (or 38.3 percent) were Hispanic babies, and 3,967 (or 5.1 percent) were babies of other races or ethnicities.

• At National Review, Michael J. New says that 2013 isn’t far behind 2011-2012 in terms of record-setting pro-life gains at the state level.
• At Catholic Sistas, Martina has a detailed personal account and great photos of the events taking place during the vote on SB 1 at the Texas Capitol. She also points out media error, where a pro-choice protestor was incorrectly identified in a photo as “anti-abortion” during his arrest.
• Americans United for Life was featured in two recent Bloomberg Business Week articles.
• The Guiding Star Project features a post from a Natural Family Planning advocate who explains how she copes with society’s views on welcoming the possibility of having a large family.

• At Coming Home, Dr. Gerard Nadal grieves Ireland’s decision to legalize abortion in some cases – including when the woman threatens suicide – and examines the role of the Church as the debate and vote unfolded:
  

  Central to this debate has been the assertion that abortion has become possible only because the Catholic Church has lost its hold on the people of Ireland. It is a point of agreement between both sides in this debate, albeit for different reasons.

  Dr. Nadal sees the significant drop in church attendance and the secularization of society as contributors.

• Judie Brown details the issues raised by American Life League regarding Catholic Relief Services’ questionable connections and financial donations to organizations that remain “at odds” with Catholic teaching – including those involved in training of abortionists in Cambodia.
• Josh Brahm posts a video on how to communicate with excellence on the issue of abortion, with “6 Tips for Arguing with Analogies Clearly”:

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

  [Photos via ketknbc.com and Huffington Post]