Word came yesterday morning that the American Family Planning abortion clinic in Dearborn, Michigan, is shutting its doors as of this Friday.

This makes the sixth abortion mill to close since last September. The others were in Detroit, Livonia (2), Muskegon, and Niles.

The clinic’s manager confirmed this to pro-life activist Chris Coatney, who has been praying at this mill for 11 years and developed a civil relationship with her. Chris observed no abortions had been committed since the start of last week.

Pro-life activist Lynn Mills got additional corroboration by calling. Lynn was told the clinic had stopped committing abortions, was in the process of tying up loose ends, and would shut its doors as of April 12.

Abortionist-owner Joon-Nahm Ann is now 73 years old and said to be retiring.

Chris has observed business hours dwindle over the past six years from 29 to 20 per week.  “The number of abortions has declined from 25 per week to 10,” Chris told me via phone.

According to the Michigan Department of Community Health the number of abortions in the state has taken a dive:

A total of 23,366 induced abortions were reported in Michigan in 2011… a 52.4% decrease since 1987 (the year with the largest number of induced abortions).

On December 28, 2012, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder signed HB5711 into law, an “omnibus anti-abortion ‘super bill’,” as abortion opponents called it, which required abortion clinics to be licensed as surgical outpatient facilities, banned RU486 from being dispensed over the Internet, banned dumping aborted babies into the trash, and sought to protect mothers from coerced abortions.

Loss of clientele coupled with increased regulations has apparently stirred a mass exodus of baby killers from the Great Lake State.

I spoke this morning with Right to Life of Michigan’s Pam Sherstad, Director of Public Information. There are now 27 surgical abortion clinics left in the state and two medical, for a total of 29 – under 30! – from a high of 72.

I think that people will look at that and think that’s a step too far…. I find it really abhorrent to see the sort of campaign that’s been raised now on a really sensitive issue.

I’m concerned to see young kids involved in a debate like this.

There was a good point made in some of the commentary that I saw, that these young people are at an age that they haven’t actually lived long in the life to experience the competing issues that adults have to confront in their lifetime.

~ Pro-abortion Tasmanian Premier Lara Giddings (pictured above right; click to enlarge), commenting on silent protests at the Parliament involving “more than 200 people… [including] young children – some in school uniform… rall[ying] against proposed changes to the state’s laws to allow abortions up to 24 weeks into a pregnancy,” as quoted by ABC News, April 10

Video at link.

Guest post by Jacqueline Halbig, principal at Sovereign Global Solutions and former senior policy adviser for the Dept. of Health and Human Services

If Obamacare is supposed to increase health care access and affordability, why does it seem to punish those most in need? Consider minority babies, both unborn and born.

Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that an administration which redefines abortion as health care continues to expand funding to Planned Parenthood, which operates the nation’s largest abortion chain.

Planned Parenthood is underwritten by taxpayer dollars to the tune of $480 million ($365 million from federal funds and the rest from state and local funds). Now, under Obamacare, Medicaid expansion will further fill its coffers.

This type of funding is even more disturbing given that Planned Parenthood appears to be targeting minority populations with its abortion “services.” A 2011 study called “Racial Targeting and Population Control” by Life Dynamics Incorporated revealed that Planned Parenthood clinics are 2-1/2 times more likely to be in neighborhoods with a disproportionately high Black and Hispanic population.

But it is equally troubling that if they survive life in the womb, these babies, especially those born prematurely, now face an even greater uphill battle – receiving needed health care.

Every year between November and March, there are outbreaks of Respiratory Syncytial Virus, an illness similar to the flu.

RSV is the leading cause of pneumonia and bronchiolitis, and hospitalization for children under the age of one; premature infants and children before the age of two with congenital heart or chronic lung disease are considered to be at highest risk.

Each year RSV causes two million hospitalizations and 14,000 deaths. In addition, RSV disproportionately affects minority and especially African American babies, who, according to the Centers for Disease Control, are 59% percent more likely to be born prematurely than white infants.

While there is no vaccine for RSV, there is an FDA-approved treatment available. When it became available in 1997, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued evidence-based guidelines for its use, recommending that the treatment be administered once per month during outbreak season (an average of five months total).

But in 2009, with no clear medical evidence for doing so, the AAP both shrunk the pool of eligible infants and reduced the number of RSV treatments that would be made available – for some babies down to 3 doses, while for others as low as 1 dose. The only clear reason given was cost.

Unfortunately, the AAP’s guidelines are widely implemented by Medicaid and insurance providers, who in turn followed suit and greatly reduced coverage.

In response, concerned groups of parents, prenatal advocates, and medical providers such as the National Perinatal Association, the National Medical Association, and the National Black Nurses Association have pointed out that there is no definitive research to support these changes (indeed, these are not FDA-approved doses) and are urging the AAP to reconsider their recommendations.

If cost is the issue, let’s consider the cost of non-treatment. A 2010 study by the NMA and NBNA showed the rate of hospitalization and emergency room visits without proper treatment for RSV is astronomical.

For example, a child not properly treated for RSV is five times more likely to be hospitalized and more than twice as likely to visit an emergency room visit than with the flu.

But for those premature infants who received treatment, hospitalization decreased by 55-80%. Furthermore, infants who received the recommended treatment had decreased emergency room and physician office visits. As a result, there are cost savings associated with proper treatment.

Since RSV disproportionately affects African American, Hispanic and premature babies, there is great concern that this rationing policy will further increase health disparities in these communities.

So what’s the real benefit of limiting this treatment? If Obamacare’s objective is to make health care more accessible and affordable, an honest cost benefit analysis would respect the bottom line and acknowledge that an ounce of RSV prevention is cheaper than a pound of emergency room cure – unless their bottom line equates death as the cheapest option.

To support the children and families affected by this rationing decision, please sign this petition at Change.org.

Featured on Drudge now…

Planned Parenthood of Delaware has suspended surgical abortions (although not medical) at the two of its three clinics that commit them, in Dover and Wilmington, following a spate of five emergency calls since January 4….

Kudos to 6ABC.com for breaking this story, which reported the Delaware Department of Health and the Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline are now investigating.

Two former PP employees, both nurses, are blowing the whistle. Kudos to them as well:

Jayne Mitchell-Werbrich, former employee said, “It was just unsafe. I couldn’t tell you how ridiculously unsafe it was.”

Werbrich alleges conditions inside the facility were unsanitary.

“He didn’t wear gloves,” said Werbrich.

Another former employee, Joyce Vasikonis told Action News, “They were using instruments on patients that were not sterile.”

The former nurses claim that a rush to get patients in and out left operating tables soiled and unclean.

Werbrich said “It’s not washed down, it’s not even cleaned off. It has bloody drainage on it.”

“They could be at risk of getting hepatitis, even AIDS,” added Vasikonis.

Both of these nurses said, they quit to protect their own medical licenses, stunned by what they called a meat-market style of assembly-line abortions.

Vasikonis said, “I felt I could be held liable if a patient was harmed.”

Who “he” was isn’t named in the story, although ABC reported, “during our investigation… one doctor and two more nurses at the clinic have mysteriously left.”

We do know Planned Parenthood of Delaware’s medical director is – or was – Eric Schaff, pictured right. Schaff is a former chairman of the National Abortion Federation, perfect (HT: JivinJ). Saynsumthn’s Blog found this quote by Schaff:

In 1997, Dr. Schaff was trained by Planned Parenthood of New York City in surgical abortion. “I felt inadequate because I had to rely on other physicians for medication abortion complications. Since I learned these surgical skills, I feel empowered as a clinician because I can provide complete reproductive healthcare.”

As an aside, note Schaff’s admission that he encountered enough complications from RU486 abortions he needed to learn how to commit surgical abortion mop-ups.

Saynsumthn also found this PP of DE ad hawking for medical students – including first year… including foreign…. Desperate much?

BTW, the Wilmington clinic is where a woman assaulted a pro-life grandma when she was filming one of those five ambulance calls on March 13.  When I taped Life Talk a week later, Mark Crutcher interviewed that stalwart pro-lifer.

[HT for Schaff photo: Operation Rescue]

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

• As Jill reported, Johns Hopkins has agreed to fully recognize a pro-life student group. According to the Baltimore Sun, Voice for Life, a pro-life group at the university, will be fully recognized by the campus after a student judiciary unanimously overturned a decision by student legislators which would have prevented the group from doing certain activities:
  

  The Judiciary Committee called for its decision to be effective immediately. As a sanctioned club, Voice for Life will be listed in all university publications and websites, be able to raise money on campus and publicize its events, among other privileges. The decision to recognize the group as a club does not guarantee that Voice for Life will receive university funding, which is approved in a separate process.

• A Louisiana man named Jeffery Reynolds who cut open his wife’s abdomen and removed her unborn child has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity after being charged with killing the child and attempting to kill his wife. Paula Reynolds survived the attack:
  

  Reynolds is charged with first-degree homicide, attempted second-degree homicide and battery on a police officer.Police allege he stabbed his pregnant wife, Paula, in October, cut the fetus from her, called 911 and fought officers when they arrived.

• The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit upheld a school’s decision to prevent a pro-life student group from distributing rubber fetal models inside the school because of the disruption following the distribution. Sounds like the students at the school have some issues:
  

  At Goddard High, court documents say, some 300 dolls were given to students before administrators shut down the distribution. Meanwhile, some students tore the small heads off the dolls and bounced them around classrooms like rubber balls. Some students used the dolls to plug toilets, while a few of the dolls were covered in hand sanitizer and lighted on fire. And other students found lewd uses for the rubber dolls.

Teachers complained of the substantial disruption caused by the items themselves, while at least one class was disrupted, with a scheduled test requiring postponement, because students became embroiled in name-calling over abortion, court papers say.

[Image via Heritage House ’76]

The Thomas More Law Center has announced that the Student Government Association Judiciary Committee of Johns Hopkins University issued a unanimous decision last night overturning an SGA ruling of March 24 that denied recognition to Voice for Life as an official student club of the school.

Background, via World magazine:

Voice for Life, an official pro-life student group from 1995 to 2010, sought re-recognition from the Johns Hopkins SGA.

According to the SGA meeting’s minutes, VFL seeks to “inform people about pro-life [options] and help women in Baltimore, [and] also [conduct] sidewalk counseling,” which includes “advocates, signs, literature, etc., outside abortion clinics.”

GA denied the group’s request because it was concerned that sidewalk counseling made people “feel uncomfortable” about killing unborn babies. The SGA said VFL is “anti-abortion,” not pro-life.

According to LifeNews.com, SGA leaders objected to VFL because of links on its webpage to Center for Bio-Ethical Reform photos depicting abortion, because CBR brought graphic pictures to a campus near JHU last year, and because of VFL’s plan to protest at a local abortion clinic amounted to “harrassment.”

An SGA executive member went further, according to LN, by equating VFL with a white supremacist group.

TMLC sent a letter to JHU and SGA officials on April 4 “laying out the legal basis requiring recognition of VFL,” adding:

Richard Thompson, TMLC’s President and Chief Counsel, commented: “This is a great example of courageous students facing tremendous opposition, sticking to their deeply held pro-life principles and advancing those principles based on their right to free speech so deeply engrained in our culture, enshrined in our constitution, and fostered at Johns Hopkins University.”

Hear hear. Pictured right (click to enlarge) are VFL leaders Andrew Guernsey, an JHU freshman, and Chris Fernandez, a senior. Kudos to both.

Here’s Students for Life of America’s press statement on the great news.

[Photo via Baltimore Sun]

by LauraLoo

Abortion abolitionist Todd Bullis demonstrates how to mount vinyl signs to a coroplast substrate.  These are probably the most commonly used and easy-to-deploy signs on the market.

Most local printers in your area can print on vinyl that will stick to a substrate.  Coroplast has been found to be the most affordable, versatile and weather-resistant material to use for these types of applications:

[youtube]http://youtu.be/iLnSimA99Go[/youtube]

Todd was also featured in January about spreading the anti-abortion message “anywhere and everywhere” with drop cards.

Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.

[HT: Jill]

Following the Bird Supreme Court’s decisive 7-2 ruling to overturn the avian world’s longstanding anti-abortion law, millions of birds across the nation were granted reproductive rights Thursday, prompting thousands to forego parenthood by fatally pushing eggs from their nests….

The landmark ruling, avian law experts confirmed, ends the long-established ban on procedures that involve the removal or expulsion of an egg from a nest. Bird abortion is commonly facilitated by a variety of methods that can include rolling an egg over the side of a nest or thrusting a developing embryo from the roost with the aid of a small stick, feet, or beak.

~ Satire website The Onion reporting on the aftermath of the legalization of bird abortions, April 5

[Photo via Denim and Tweed]